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TABLE TALK: Reflecting On The Expanded College Football Playoff · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up everybody. Hope you're doing well. We wanted to
0:02
Speaker 1: let you know. We recorded this Table Talk interview podcast
0:05
Speaker 1: on Tuesday, January fourteenth, twenty twenty five. By the time
0:10
Speaker 1: you hear this, some things may have changed here there,
0:12
Speaker 1: but we hope you enjoy the show. Welcome to Table
0:35
Speaker 1: Talk here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the
0:38
Speaker 1: longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world,
0:40
Speaker 1: that's right over eleven and a half years strong. We've
0:43
Speaker 1: got a great discussion coming your way here on Table
0:45
Speaker 1: Talk this week. The college football playoffs have been so
0:49
Speaker 1: very interesting, at least for me, it's been interesting a
0:52
Speaker 1: lot of other folks out there, if you're reading stuff
0:54
Speaker 1: on social if you're reading articles, it has been a
0:58
Speaker 1: very interesting first year with an expanded bracket. We wanted
1:02
Speaker 1: to get into that here on our Table Talk show
1:05
Speaker 1: this week. We have got a great guest we're gonna
1:08
Speaker 1: be diving into with the expectations we're for certain teams.
1:11
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about Penn State, We're gonna get into Texas,
1:14
Speaker 1: and finally where the Ohio State and Notre Dame National
1:18
Speaker 1: championship game what that actually may look like. So let's
1:21
Speaker 1: get to it joining us this week. It is great
1:24
Speaker 1: to have him back on the podcast to not only
1:26
Speaker 1: get into some college football talk, but to again get
1:29
Speaker 1: into the national title game that's coming up. We're going
1:33
Speaker 1: to talk about the college football playoff, the bracket, what
1:37
Speaker 1: we have seen thus far this season. Can't wait to
1:41
Speaker 1: get into this discussion we have from A to Z Sports.
1:45
Speaker 1: He is one of their analysts over there A to
1:47
Speaker 1: Z Sports NFL. You can follow them on the Twitter
1:50
Speaker 1: slash x. You can follow him on Twitter slash x.
1:53
Speaker 1: At Rise and Draft. We've got Ryan Roberts, Ryan, Buddy,
1:56
Speaker 1: thanks for jumping on this week.
1:58
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Jeff, I appreciate for having on. Man, it's a crazy,
2:01
Speaker 2: obviously chaotic time of the year, National Championship, NFL playoffs,
2:04
Speaker 2: but thank you as always for taking the time in.
2:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, Budd, it's great talking to you. And look, we've
2:09
Speaker 1: talked a number of times about the college football playoff
2:11
Speaker 1: when I've had you on the show and what this
2:13
Speaker 1: expanded postseason may look like, and it really has been
2:17
Speaker 1: very interesting, I mean from a pure college football viewing perspective.
2:22
Speaker 1: As someone you know that's kind of on the outside.
2:24
Speaker 1: I'm sitting at home on my Couch. I really have
2:27
Speaker 1: enjoyed what this expanded playoff has really brought to the
2:29
Speaker 1: college football product. I know we've talked about this before
2:32
Speaker 1: in the past, what we think or thought that it
2:35
Speaker 1: might look like, but I wanted to ask first specifically
2:40
Speaker 1: about the seating. There were a lot of complaints that
2:42
Speaker 1: we saw about what the seating was the teams that
2:46
Speaker 1: made it in. We saw teams like SMU, Indiana and
2:50
Speaker 1: Clemson getting into the playoff over teams like Alabama and Miami.
2:56
Speaker 1: So I wanted to first like, get your thoughts on
2:59
Speaker 1: how affected the seating was during this first expanded college
3:03
Speaker 1: football playoff. What are your thoughts?
3:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was okay with every team that made the
3:08
Speaker 2: playoffs personally, I was okay with as far as I
3:11
Speaker 2: think that they got the twelve. What I would phrase
3:13
Speaker 2: is the most deserving teams based upon the sleep that
3:16
Speaker 2: they had in front of them and trials and tribulations
3:19
Speaker 2: and all those types of things. And I think winning
3:21
Speaker 2: a conference is an important thing, right, Like we're just
3:23
Speaker 2: going to kind of skate over because it's the SEC
3:27
Speaker 2: homerism that's going to say, you know, a three loss
3:29
Speaker 2: SEC team is better than a one loss you know,
3:32
Speaker 2: pick any other conference for the most part, but it's
3:34
Speaker 2: it's really funny when you kind of take a step
3:36
Speaker 2: back and look at it. For all the SEC propagandas
3:39
Speaker 2: out there the last two years now, the four teams
3:42
Speaker 2: that have played for a national championship, the most southern
3:46
Speaker 2: team of those four is Ohio States, you know what
3:49
Speaker 2: I mean. Like, it's a very interesting conversation, right, like
3:53
Speaker 2: the changing landscape. So I think that they got the
3:56
Speaker 2: twelve right. The only difference that I think I would
3:59
Speaker 2: like to see in the future is if you want
4:01
Speaker 2: to kind of talk about just kind of the seeding overall,
4:03
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that I'm totally on board with like
4:06
Speaker 2: Boise States as the you know, the one loss G
4:11
Speaker 2: five representative having the number three seed, right, I'm not
4:14
Speaker 2: the number four seed for Arizona State is the appropriate one.
4:17
Speaker 2: I think that what those teams deserve to be in
4:19
Speaker 2: the playoffs. I just think that it should more come
4:21
Speaker 2: down to they have an automatic seed, but it should
4:24
Speaker 2: come down ultimately to where they are ranked in the
4:27
Speaker 2: greater landscape of like a top twenty five ranking or
4:30
Speaker 2: a college football playoff ranking. Right. So I think I
4:33
Speaker 2: think the twelve teams were right. I think the seating
4:36
Speaker 2: was a little bit off. But at the end of
4:38
Speaker 2: the day, everyone wants to go play in the first round.
4:40
Speaker 2: About a couple of blowouts and everything. But if even
4:42
Speaker 2: if you look at the traditional four team playoff, most
4:46
Speaker 2: of the time, there's been some blowouts in there too, right,
4:49
Speaker 2: So we're not going to be able to ridden the
4:52
Speaker 2: blowout conversation. But I do think reseeding would be an
4:55
Speaker 2: interesting conversation. But I do think they got the twelve
4:58
Speaker 2: teams right. It's just where maybe maybe where they were
5:01
Speaker 2: potentially seated, and the bracket might be a little bit
5:03
Speaker 2: of a change. In the future.
5:04
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna see some tweaking, right, I mean,
5:06
Speaker 1: it's not just gonna be like this completely forever. You
5:09
Speaker 1: know that the NC Double A and you know a
5:12
Speaker 1: lot of these college football programs are gonna get together
5:14
Speaker 1: in the off season, maybe not just this offseason, but
5:16
Speaker 1: in future off seasons. We're gonna get together. Folks are
5:18
Speaker 1: gonna have conversations, and things are gonna be tweaked here
5:21
Speaker 1: in there. I mean we can expect that, right.
5:24
Speaker 2: I think. I mean, look like anything you can write
5:28
Speaker 2: about it on paper, you could talk about it on
5:31
Speaker 2: a podcast. You can theorize all this type stuff until
5:33
Speaker 2: you actually see it and experience it, you don't one
5:36
Speaker 2: hundred percent know what it's gonna look like.
5:38
Speaker 1: Right.
5:38
Speaker 2: That's been my whole thing because people have talked about,
5:41
Speaker 2: you know, is twelve teams too much? And should they
5:42
Speaker 2: expand further in conferenceory line and all that type of stuff.
5:45
Speaker 2: I'm like, guys, I want to see what a twelve
5:47
Speaker 2: team playoff looks like before I theorize it, Like what
5:50
Speaker 2: the next step is? Right, So, now we have a
5:53
Speaker 2: data set. Now we have it's not just a theory anymore.
5:58
Speaker 2: It's actualized. We've now seen it. So now that we
6:00
Speaker 2: have a clear understanding of what it looks like. Now
6:04
Speaker 2: that's where the tweaks come in. Right. So, with anything,
6:07
Speaker 2: we want to rush to the best possible welcome. But
6:11
Speaker 2: in order to get to the best possible welcome, you
6:12
Speaker 2: need to be able to have a little bit of
6:14
Speaker 2: trial by fire at times. You need to experience things
6:16
Speaker 2: you need to fail. Ultimately, that's the biggest thing about
6:19
Speaker 2: this whole conversation is that people need to know what
6:22
Speaker 2: worked and what didn't, and the only way to do
6:24
Speaker 2: that is for experience, well.
6:25
Speaker 1: To piggyback off the last topic, Ryan, I think a
6:28
Speaker 1: lot of folks said prior to this college football season,
6:31
Speaker 1: and we've even had some on this podcast, you know
6:33
Speaker 1: we're likely going to be seeing in the number one
6:35
Speaker 1: and the number two seeds playing for the national title.
6:38
Speaker 1: You know, the expanded playoff, it's really not going to
6:40
Speaker 1: make that much of a difference, or or that we're
6:42
Speaker 1: just going to see a combination of teams in the
6:44
Speaker 1: top four facing off in the national championship game against
6:48
Speaker 1: each other. And this is one of those moments in
6:50
Speaker 1: sports where I really wish that we could go back
6:53
Speaker 1: to those folks at times and say, hey, listen, you
6:56
Speaker 1: know what you were wrong. Okay, you are wrong in
6:59
Speaker 1: your opinion and stunk at the time. It still stinks
7:02
Speaker 1: now because guess what, we're not seeing that now. We
7:05
Speaker 1: are seeing the number seven team in Notre Dame, the
7:08
Speaker 1: number seven seed team facing off in the national title
7:13
Speaker 1: game against the number eight seed team in Ohio State.
7:16
Speaker 1: I mean, it's safe to say I think regardless of
7:20
Speaker 1: the seed, Ryan, every team really does have that opportunity
7:24
Speaker 1: to get through the bracket, get through the national title game.
7:27
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what I'm thinking at this point, yes,
7:30
Speaker 1: Ohio State Notre Dame. They are two extremely talented football programs,
7:34
Speaker 1: probably more talented than SMU, probably more talented than Indiana
7:39
Speaker 1: who are in the bracket. But still, the folks that
7:42
Speaker 1: were saying, you know what's gonna be number one and
7:44
Speaker 1: number two seed team just facing each other, those folks
7:47
Speaker 1: were wrong, and there were a decent amount of them
7:48
Speaker 1: out there. So I don't know what are your thoughts
7:50
Speaker 1: on this, because I love that we're actually seeing, like
7:52
Speaker 1: from an objective standpoint, yes, some sad penn states not
7:55
Speaker 1: going to be going to the national championship game, But
7:58
Speaker 1: from an objective standpoint, I like the fact that we
8:00
Speaker 1: see a number seven and a number eight seed team
8:02
Speaker 1: face at each other in the national championship game. I
8:04
Speaker 1: don't know what are your thoughts here.
8:06
Speaker 2: Well, I think when you watch the entirety of the
8:08
Speaker 2: college football regular season, I think most people could have
8:11
Speaker 2: came to the conclusion that this was probably the most
8:13
Speaker 2: wide open, wide open field that we've had in several years.
8:18
Speaker 2: I mean, it wasn't easy. I mean because like if
8:20
Speaker 2: you would have told me before the playoffs started that
8:22
Speaker 2: Oregon ran the table, they won the championship, I would
8:26
Speaker 2: have like I would have. I don't know. I wouldn't
8:29
Speaker 2: have predicted it necessarily, but I would have believed you,
8:31
Speaker 2: right like if you would have told me. If you
8:33
Speaker 2: would have told me Georgia caught fire and they figured
8:36
Speaker 2: out offensively how Gunner Stockton could do the best version
8:39
Speaker 2: of himself and they play really good defense and they
8:42
Speaker 2: made it to the championship, I would believe you. Ohio
8:44
Speaker 2: State was the same way. Funny enough, Notre Dame was
8:47
Speaker 2: a team that I probably wouldn't have predicted, even though
8:50
Speaker 2: I have an allegiance and a fandom there. I probably
8:52
Speaker 2: would not have preted predicted them to make the national
8:54
Speaker 2: championship before. I would have predicted them to win a
8:56
Speaker 2: game or two in the playoff. But I don't know
8:58
Speaker 2: necessarily that I would have to make it to the dance.
9:00
Speaker 2: But there are several teams this year that could have
9:04
Speaker 2: made a championship run. I do think so, I wholeheartedly
9:08
Speaker 2: believe that. I mean, Texas, if they, you know, the
9:11
Speaker 2: end of that game, if if they you know, don't
9:13
Speaker 2: have that strip sack fumble and they score there, and
9:15
Speaker 2: then who knows what happens down the stretch? I mean,
9:17
Speaker 2: who knows Texas is that team that that makes a
9:20
Speaker 2: long run here and we're gonna get We're gonna get
9:23
Speaker 2: into But it was, it was it's a wide open field,
9:28
Speaker 2: and I think that for me, this was never going
9:31
Speaker 2: to be a team. And it took only a couple
9:32
Speaker 2: of games into the year. I mean literally Ohio States
9:35
Speaker 2: and I know they're further into the season, but like
9:37
Speaker 2: Ohio States loses it to a bad Michigan team, Notre
9:41
Speaker 2: Dame lost to Northern Illinois. Like there's been so many
9:45
Speaker 2: weird games this year that I quickly understood that, like
9:48
Speaker 2: this is probably gonna be about who's the hottest at
9:50
Speaker 2: the right time, which is usually the case in the
9:52
Speaker 2: NFL side of things. Right, it's never the Chiefs are
9:56
Speaker 2: always the Chiefs, but like in years past, it's been
9:59
Speaker 2: like who is the hot team at the right time?
10:02
Speaker 2: I look at Yeah, yes, the Rams are a great,
10:06
Speaker 2: great example. So I think it was about who was
10:08
Speaker 2: going to peak at the right time, Who's gonna trend
10:12
Speaker 2: downward in the wrong time, Like all those conversations were
10:14
Speaker 2: a part of it. But I do think this is
10:16
Speaker 2: a wide open field, and yes, we are looking at
10:18
Speaker 2: a couple of teams that on paper, I guess weren't
10:21
Speaker 2: supposed to make the National Championship, But now that they're here,
10:23
Speaker 2: we now understand that it was just because this was
10:26
Speaker 2: a wide open college football season and it was about
10:28
Speaker 2: who was hot at the right time.
10:29
Speaker 1: Absolutely, look our listeners here at the PSD podcast show,
10:33
Speaker 1: over the over eleven and a half years we've been
10:35
Speaker 1: doing this podcast, they know that I'm a huge Penn
10:37
Speaker 1: State fan. I'm a Penn State alum. Have been to
10:40
Speaker 1: so many football games over the years. The program has
10:43
Speaker 1: been through so many ups and downs over the past
10:45
Speaker 1: few decades, and if the offensive coaching and play calling
10:51
Speaker 1: had I'm sorry, I'm getting off the klemped here, if
10:55
Speaker 1: it had reflected a strong run game in the second
10:59
Speaker 1: half of that penns State Notre Dame game, I think
11:01
Speaker 1: there's a good chance Penn State would have actually won
11:04
Speaker 1: that game instead of relying on the passing game when
11:07
Speaker 1: Drew Aller was having a ton of trouble. So I
11:11
Speaker 1: wanted to get into some Penn State talk with you
11:13
Speaker 1: here real quick. A lot of us feel that Penn
11:16
Speaker 1: State had their best shot to advance to the finals
11:20
Speaker 1: this year because other teams in the Big ten, and
11:22
Speaker 1: just college football in general. Going back to what you
11:25
Speaker 1: were just saying, Ryan, you know, it was just it
11:28
Speaker 1: was kind of a bizarre season where you saw certain
11:31
Speaker 1: teams losing to other football programs, some surprises, some teams
11:36
Speaker 1: that weren't just as strong from week to week. We
11:39
Speaker 1: saw somewhat teams taking a step back at times. So
11:43
Speaker 1: I was really disappointed, of course, that Penn State didn't
11:47
Speaker 1: move on to the national title game. I'm wondering what
11:50
Speaker 1: your thoughts were, if you have some objective thoughts on
11:53
Speaker 1: how Penn State performed during the college football playoffs and
11:56
Speaker 1: even specifically against Notre Dame. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
12:01
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, the first two rounds, they got the
12:03
Speaker 2: easiest obviously field of it, right, you know, being able
12:06
Speaker 2: to play against SMU, being able to play against Boise
12:09
Speaker 2: State like and Boise State, you know, battled with them
12:12
Speaker 2: and all that type of stuff. But then Penn State
12:14
Speaker 2: was just a much more talented football team down the
12:16
Speaker 2: stretch of that football game. Obviously, I would phrase it
12:19
Speaker 2: like this, Penn State actually surprised me against Notre Dame,
12:22
Speaker 2: a good bits. I actually had picked Notre Dame to
12:24
Speaker 2: win that one. By I think ten was I landed
12:28
Speaker 2: on a gonna win by two scores just because I look.
12:32
Speaker 2: I think that Penn State on paper was more talented
12:34
Speaker 2: than Notre Dame, but I just thought Notre Dame had
12:36
Speaker 2: a little bit more of a soft demeanor, a lot
12:40
Speaker 2: of a better word. They just felt like a team
12:44
Speaker 2: that was just taking everything super personal personally, right, And
12:48
Speaker 2: so I think that that is a team that is
12:49
Speaker 2: a little bit dangerous at times. So I thought that
12:51
Speaker 2: they were gonna actually decisively win that and then Penn
12:55
Speaker 2: State give them all the credit in the world. They
12:58
Speaker 2: came out and they punched Notre Dame in the mouth
13:00
Speaker 2: in the first half man like they they now, and
13:03
Speaker 2: they gave their best shot there. And I think that
13:06
Speaker 2: there's a lot to be excited about for Penn State football.
13:09
Speaker 2: That defense, even coming back next year with like denied
13:12
Speaker 2: Dennis Sutton returning, maybe Zane Durant k back, who knows,
13:16
Speaker 2: Like there is so much talent even with that Abdul
13:19
Speaker 2: Carter moving forward, that run game with Singleton coming back
13:22
Speaker 2: and K Tron Allen, like, there's a lot to love.
13:25
Speaker 2: The offensive line I thought played really well against Notre
13:27
Speaker 2: Dame for the most part as well. I just think
13:32
Speaker 2: I think that every team this year has deficiencies even
13:35
Speaker 2: more than most years, Like every team that has a
13:38
Speaker 2: potential for making a run here, they have a part
13:41
Speaker 2: or two about them that is a little bit of
13:44
Speaker 2: a hindering point. And I think that Penn State was
13:46
Speaker 2: pretty obvious. The wide receivers were not good enough this year.
13:49
Speaker 2: They just weren't. Outside of outside of Tyler Warren, who
13:54
Speaker 2: is probably gonna be a top twenty pick, if not
13:56
Speaker 2: a top ten pick, like he is a fantastic tight end. Yep,
14:00
Speaker 2: but you had no catch. The wide receivers had zero
14:02
Speaker 2: catches against Notre Dame. Like that is one of the
14:04
Speaker 2: most absurd set lines I've seen.
14:06
Speaker 1: It's preposterous. I'm still enraged by that. When you just
14:09
Speaker 1: said that right now. It went back to my enraged
14:13
Speaker 1: emotional state right after the game when I actually was
14:16
Speaker 1: like I was actually looking at the box score and
14:17
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the hell is this? Like, what the
14:19
Speaker 1: hell is going on here? Nope, Nope, completion STI a
14:22
Speaker 1: wide receiver? What the hell's going on?
14:24
Speaker 2: Oh God, Jeff, And and it was it was me.
14:28
Speaker 2: I was talking to a couple of people at eighties
14:30
Speaker 2: Sports and someone had said this, and I was like
14:33
Speaker 2: flabbergastaver second because I was like, they're right. Someone had
14:36
Speaker 2: said Jeremiah Smith had won catch for three yards and
14:39
Speaker 2: he still had a more productive day than all the
14:41
Speaker 2: Penn State receivers combined. And I was like, wow, what
14:44
Speaker 2: that is a eight man? I'm like, wow, that's insane.
14:48
Speaker 1: It is crazy, it's crazy. But you're right, Penn State.
14:51
Speaker 1: They're gonna have a lot of great talent coming back
14:53
Speaker 1: next year. It's gonna be interesting to see how they
14:55
Speaker 1: performed the twenty twenty five twenty twenty six season. But
14:58
Speaker 1: I wanted to dive into another t with you. You mentioned
15:01
Speaker 1: them earlier, and that's Texas, because I actually did think,
15:04
Speaker 1: you know, halfway through this college football season, that Texas
15:08
Speaker 1: was gonna be that one team that was gonna make
15:10
Speaker 1: it to the national championship and possibly play for that
15:14
Speaker 1: national title. It's interesting how Texas got knocked out again.
15:19
Speaker 1: I truly thought they were gonna be a team to
15:20
Speaker 1: be reckoned with. How do you assess Texas season and
15:24
Speaker 1: how they performed here in this expanded college football playoff?
15:29
Speaker 2: I think if they would have made the switch to
15:31
Speaker 2: Arch Manning in the middle of the season, they may
15:33
Speaker 2: have may have won a national championship. I'm just not
15:37
Speaker 2: a quinn Youers guy. I've never been a quinn Ewers guy.
15:40
Speaker 2: And I thought, I think that when there's gonna be
15:43
Speaker 2: moments in a football game where you're like, Wow, Okay,
15:45
Speaker 2: there's Quinn, there's the former you know, number one overall
15:49
Speaker 2: high school recruits, like you see it there. But then
15:52
Speaker 2: there's a lot of times where it's just it's two
15:54
Speaker 2: feast or famine. Man, Like there's some miss Reids, there's
15:58
Speaker 2: bad pocket management at times, and like Texas's offensive line
16:02
Speaker 2: did not play great against Ohio State at all. So
16:04
Speaker 2: I'm not like putting all the blame on Quinn, but
16:07
Speaker 2: I just think that this is a team that the
16:10
Speaker 2: style of play because Steves Arkishian is a great offensive mind,
16:14
Speaker 2: like and a great play caller, but he is a
16:18
Speaker 2: little finesse by nature, right, Like he likes to operate
16:21
Speaker 2: in space. He likes to you know run, you know,
16:25
Speaker 2: run a lot of things that are are a little
16:27
Speaker 2: bit creative and like to be able to use movement
16:31
Speaker 2: to create hidden leverage and run game and like that
16:35
Speaker 2: type of stuff. So he's not a physical run the
16:38
Speaker 2: football at a high volume and be, you know, that
16:41
Speaker 2: type of team. So when you're that type of team,
16:44
Speaker 2: I think that you need to make less mistakes, right Like,
16:46
Speaker 2: you need to be a little bit more mistake free.
16:48
Speaker 2: You need to be a good decision maker. And I
16:50
Speaker 2: just think that this is a team that lacks that
16:52
Speaker 2: physicality and unfortunately, if you're going to be that team,
16:56
Speaker 2: you can't make you can't hurt yourself. And I think
16:58
Speaker 2: that that's what Texas was this year. They were a
17:00
Speaker 2: great defense, fantastic defense, They have a lot of playmakers,
17:04
Speaker 2: but the fact that Isaiah Bonds was nowhere to be found.
17:08
Speaker 2: Down the course of the season, the run started being
17:11
Speaker 2: less effective. I think when you had to put everything
17:13
Speaker 2: on Quinn, you were shoulders. Eventually it was going to
17:16
Speaker 2: falter a little bit. So I like a lot of Texas,
17:19
Speaker 2: but ken into twenty twenty five, now Texas is going
17:22
Speaker 2: to have a lot of question marks, man like, because
17:24
Speaker 2: Steve Sarkisian is a really good coach, but is he
17:26
Speaker 2: a championship level coach. That's still a question that has
17:29
Speaker 2: not been answered yet.
17:30
Speaker 1: Absolutely Well again, folks, we are talking to Ryan Roberts
17:33
Speaker 1: from a to Z Sports one of their analysts over
17:36
Speaker 1: there does great great work at rise and draft. You
17:40
Speaker 1: can follow him on the Twitter slash x buddy. Are
17:42
Speaker 1: you on any other social platforms? I've been over on
17:44
Speaker 1: Blue Sky and I've really been enjoying it. I wasn't
17:47
Speaker 1: sure if you were over there at all, and honestly,
17:49
Speaker 1: if you are, I'm sorry, I forget it. We're following
17:51
Speaker 1: each other because I'm just getting into it. Are you
17:53
Speaker 1: on any other social platforms or out there in the interwebs.
17:58
Speaker 2: I started in it on Blue Sky a couple of
18:00
Speaker 2: months ago because people told me that eventually Twitter was
18:02
Speaker 2: going to die and I needed to be on Blue Sky,
18:04
Speaker 2: so I got on there. I don't really engage, though,
18:07
Speaker 2: to be honest, like, I just kind of content dump
18:09
Speaker 2: and run. I got on their Instagram barely, not too much.
18:16
Speaker 2: I just posted like some scouting clips on there, and
18:19
Speaker 2: then I think I have a TikTok, but don't quote
18:22
Speaker 2: me on that. I don't know. Yeah, oh yeah, I guess.
18:26
Speaker 2: I guess. I guess Blue Sky is the main one
18:28
Speaker 2: outside of the Twitter.
18:29
Speaker 1: I guess I've been enjoying it. I've been doing my
18:31
Speaker 1: content dumps basically just on Twitter now and I've been
18:34
Speaker 1: doing more on Blue Sky and like even Threads to
18:37
Speaker 1: be honest with even though Threads is kind of pathetic anyway.
18:39
Speaker 2: Blue skuys. Blue Sky's a lot nicer, it seems than Twitter,
18:43
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. There's a lot more vibes
18:46
Speaker 2: over there.
18:46
Speaker 1: I've only had I'm not kidding, in the months here
18:49
Speaker 1: that I have been on Blue Sky and the I'm
18:51
Speaker 1: talking months, I've had only like one person try to
18:54
Speaker 1: like dunk on me from a sports perspective, and that's
18:57
Speaker 1: saying something over months a period of time. You know,
19:00
Speaker 1: I'm like, Wow, I've only had one person try to
19:03
Speaker 1: dunk on me.
19:03
Speaker 2: Wow.
19:06
Speaker 1: Oh well, Roan, let's get into this National Championship game
19:09
Speaker 1: and what we may be seeing from Notre Dame and
19:11
Speaker 1: from Ohio State, hoping to get your assessments of both
19:15
Speaker 1: teams here pro and con what they're gonna need to
19:18
Speaker 1: do to win the national title. Let's start off with
19:21
Speaker 1: you mentioned before you are a fan of Notre Dame.
19:24
Speaker 1: Notre Dame has an incredibly talented team. They've got a
19:27
Speaker 1: lot of fire on them right now, and they've certainly
19:29
Speaker 1: hit this win streak in a level of success when
19:34
Speaker 1: they've needed to They've gotten hot for sure. Let's start
19:37
Speaker 1: with Notre Dame, maybe some pros and cons. What are
19:39
Speaker 1: they gonna need to do to win the title? What
19:40
Speaker 1: are your thoughts?
19:42
Speaker 2: Well, Notre Dame has been a tremendous team this year
19:45
Speaker 2: of forcing turnovers and being pretty careful with the football offensively.
19:49
Speaker 2: I think they have thirty two takeaways defensively, which is
19:52
Speaker 2: the most in college football this year. And I mean
19:55
Speaker 2: against Penn State. Penn State had a pretty clean game
19:58
Speaker 2: throughout the entirety of the game, but then obviously the
20:00
Speaker 2: interception down the course in a stretch like that was
20:03
Speaker 2: the decider. And it was like kind of poetic on
20:06
Speaker 2: the Notre Dame side because it had to be a
20:08
Speaker 2: turnover that was going to be the difference to the
20:10
Speaker 2: football game, like it had to be ultimately, And I
20:12
Speaker 2: think it's the same against Ohio State. Like Notre Dame
20:15
Speaker 2: was not careful with the football against Penn State, Riley
20:17
Speaker 2: Leonard through two interceptions, you cannot lose the turnover battle
20:20
Speaker 2: against Ohio State and win. I don't think. I just don't.
20:23
Speaker 2: So if Notre Dame is going to win the game,
20:26
Speaker 2: they need defensively, they need to be what they've been
20:29
Speaker 2: all year. They need to force Will Howard into a
20:31
Speaker 2: couple bad decisions. They need to force turnovers. They need
20:34
Speaker 2: to set this offense up on short fields because Ohio
20:36
Speaker 2: State has a great defense, very good in the red zone.
20:39
Speaker 2: So if Notre Dame is going to be able to
20:41
Speaker 2: come out and pull off this upsets against Ohio State
20:44
Speaker 2: on Monday nights, they are going to have to turn
20:47
Speaker 2: the football over and be careful with the ball, not
20:50
Speaker 2: passive with the ball. You could still be aggressive and
20:53
Speaker 2: not be reckless ultimately, right, So Notre Dame needs to
20:56
Speaker 2: win the turnover battle. They have a very good running
20:59
Speaker 2: back do with Jeremiah Love, Judarian Price, save Riley Leonard
21:02
Speaker 2: who's a very good running quarterback as well. And they
21:05
Speaker 2: have what I think is maybe the most schematically diverse
21:11
Speaker 2: defensive college football. Like they run a lot of man coverage,
21:13
Speaker 2: but I imagine they're gonna mix in a lot of zone.
21:17
Speaker 2: Defensive coordinator Al Goldon is very good on mixing and
21:20
Speaker 2: matching things from a pressure look. He's gonna bring second
21:22
Speaker 2: level pressures. He's going to create movement up front. So
21:25
Speaker 2: if Notre Dame is able to turn the football over
21:27
Speaker 2: against able to force a double turnovers against Ohio State
21:29
Speaker 2: and be safe with the football. I think they'll be
21:31
Speaker 2: in it in the end, and then it's gonna come
21:33
Speaker 2: down to who makes that one or two big plays
21:35
Speaker 2: in the biggest moments of the game.
21:37
Speaker 1: I think you're right for sure. Let's flip the coin
21:40
Speaker 1: over talk about Ohio State, but pro and con what
21:44
Speaker 1: are they gonna need to do? Do you think to
21:46
Speaker 1: win the title in terms of this very prolific Notre
21:50
Speaker 1: Dame team that they're gonna be facing.
21:52
Speaker 2: Well defensively, I think for Ohio State comes down stopping
21:55
Speaker 2: the run and Jeremiah Love is now going to have
21:58
Speaker 2: ten days of rest. That needs the best possible outcome
22:02
Speaker 2: it can be. You're me facing a mobile quarterback and
22:04
Speaker 2: Riley Leonard Riley has had good moments passing the football,
22:08
Speaker 2: but his good moments are usually complementary off of the
22:12
Speaker 2: ability for their team to run the ball like that
22:14
Speaker 2: is kind of how he best utilizes his skill set. So,
22:18
Speaker 2: Ohio State, stopping the run, if you're able to stop
22:20
Speaker 2: the run, I think you have a good chance of
22:23
Speaker 2: at least well at least of slowing down this Notre
22:26
Speaker 2: Dame offense and being outscore them because I think offensively,
22:30
Speaker 2: Ohio State I think just needs to I think they
22:33
Speaker 2: need to lean into the run game a little bit.
22:35
Speaker 2: And it's no name, No Dame has wor No Dame
22:37
Speaker 2: has one of the best passed defense in college football.
22:39
Speaker 2: Jeff Like, they barely let up a fifth cleation percentage.
22:42
Speaker 2: I think the only let up one hundred and seventy
22:44
Speaker 2: yards passing a game. They force a ton of interceptions.
22:46
Speaker 2: I think they have like nineteen interceptions to like eleven
22:49
Speaker 2: touchdown passes on the year. So this is a great
22:51
Speaker 2: passing offense. Where Ryan Day and this Ohio State team
22:55
Speaker 2: have fallen short the last couple of years, it's when
22:58
Speaker 2: they lean into finesse and they want to throw the
23:00
Speaker 2: football a ton. But you are built to run the ball.
23:03
Speaker 2: You have a physical offensive line. Even with the injuries,
23:08
Speaker 2: you have Quinshaw Judkins, you have Trayvon Henderson. Even Will
23:11
Speaker 2: Howard can contribute to the run game at some points.
23:13
Speaker 2: I think that if Ohio goes in and they say
23:16
Speaker 2: we are going to be physical, We're going to run
23:18
Speaker 2: the football, and we are going to stop the run
23:20
Speaker 2: on the other side of the ball, I think that's
23:22
Speaker 2: how they potentially decisively beat Notre Dames. So I think
23:27
Speaker 2: that that's the physicality is what they need to lean into.
23:29
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that that's what I'm going to say,
23:32
Speaker 2: because again I've had a lot of I've had a
23:35
Speaker 2: lot of back and forth with like the people on
23:37
Speaker 2: Ryan Day over the years, and I just think that
23:39
Speaker 2: he has a mental block. Sometimes he tries to get
23:40
Speaker 2: a little bit too cute as a head coach just
23:42
Speaker 2: in general. But if he decides to just say I'm
23:45
Speaker 2: going to bludge in this Notre Dame team and I'm
23:48
Speaker 2: going to be out physical them, I think that Ohio
23:50
Speaker 2: State has the horses and the talents out physical them.
23:53
Speaker 2: I just think that they need to lean into that
23:55
Speaker 2: in this game.
23:56
Speaker 1: Well before I let you go, Ryan, you know, we
23:58
Speaker 1: like to give out some great every now and again
24:01
Speaker 1: here on the PSD podcast show. When we look at
24:04
Speaker 1: this past college football season, as we're looking towards this
24:06
Speaker 1: national championship game, I'm wondering what grade would you give
24:10
Speaker 1: the season overall and why.
24:14
Speaker 2: I mean, if you Notre Dame wins, it's an A
24:15
Speaker 2: plus of course. No, man, I think that's been a
24:22
Speaker 2: really successful year though. I mean, we've had everything you
24:25
Speaker 2: want you've had a couple dominant teams, You've had a
24:28
Speaker 2: wider scope of good teams. You've had a lot of
24:31
Speaker 2: up dets, You've had a lot of crazy moments, a
24:33
Speaker 2: lot of ups and downs, and a lot of competitive
24:35
Speaker 2: football games. So it's an a like I'm more of
24:39
Speaker 2: a I'm more of a college football fan an NFL
24:42
Speaker 2: fan just in general, because I still think that there's
24:44
Speaker 2: the rivalry aspect of it, right, It's the back and forth,
24:48
Speaker 2: it's the hatred that some schools had for one another.
24:50
Speaker 2: I think that it was a really successful year. It
24:52
Speaker 2: would be an A. But yes, if Ering wins, it'll
24:55
Speaker 2: be an a plus for me.
24:56
Speaker 1: Sounds good, sounds good. My friend again, Folks, Ryan Roberts
25:00
Speaker 1: A to Z Sports catch everything they're doing over there. Great,
25:05
Speaker 1: great content always at a to Z on A to
25:09
Speaker 1: Z Sports, NFL. Great great follow at Rise and Draft.
25:13
Speaker 1: Give Ryan a follow over on the Twitter slash x Buddy.
25:16
Speaker 1: It was great talking to you, Thanks so much for
25:17
Speaker 1: jumping on the Table Talk interview show this week. Looking
25:20
Speaker 1: forward to talking to you at some point down the road.
25:22
Speaker 2: My friend, absolutely, Jeff, thank you as always, my friend that's.
25:26
Speaker 1: Going to do it for us here on table Talk
25:29
Speaker 1: this week. Please share our podcast with your friends and
25:31
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25:35
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25:39
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25:42
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25:45
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25:49
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25:57
Speaker 1: Take care and well, catch you next that