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EP#101 CFB Week One Shakeup: Upsets, and Week 2 Picks! · The Blue Creek Outdoors Podcast

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Welcome to the Blue Creek Outdoors podcast, where we're talking faith,
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family, sports, and the great outdoors.
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Welcome back to another episode of Blue Creek Outdoors podcast. I'm Joe Bartlett.
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We're going to resqueeze this episode in here with Les and Austin here by the
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hair of our chinny chin chins this week, which, you know, we've done a few times
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in the past, but this one might, this one might be taking a record here.
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So we're going to get it in before week two officially kicks off of college football.
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And there's going to be some fun facts that I kind of wanted to go through,
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but we're going to limit those too.
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So we get out of here at a decent time. But one thing I did not realize was
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that last episode we did, the Mountain West preseason, was the 100th episode
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of Blue Creek Outdoors podcast. Did you know that?
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Dude, I did not know that. That's awesome. Yeah, so that feels kind of cool. so we did yes we're here.
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101 baby and we're we're all over the world right now yeah yeah austin's in
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the south pacific les is in nevada and i'm home in montana so we're uh we're
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getting after it from across the way here,
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but uh all right so we're gonna go through the nai really quick i'm not gonna
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go through the entire roundup i'm just going to kind of,
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go through the top 20 or the the the and the frontier conference here we got
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was week zero and week one dickinson
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state is oh and two after losing to midland 31 to zero in week zero
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and then they lost at valley city 28 25 last week mayville's one and one after
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beating briar cliff on the road and then losing at oklahoma panhandle state
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montana tech is two and oh after beating ottawa arizona and at and beating carol at home
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Dakota State is 1-1 after beating Dakota Wesleyan at home and then losing at
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Division II Black Hills State.
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Rocky Mountain's 0-2 after losing at Mary 23-10 and then lost at the College of Idaho 63-13.
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MSU Northern is 0-2 after losing to Carroll, 30-14, and losing to Western, 49-35.
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However, 35 points, if I remember reading it correctly, is the most Northern
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has put up on an opponent, I believe, since 2019.
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So we're going to... Right now. Right. Good for them. Child's rights right now.
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Valley City is 0-1 after losing... I'm sorry, they're 1-1 after losing to Southwest Minnesota State.
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Carroll College is 1-1, beating Northern, losing to Tech. Southern Oregon is
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1-1 after beating Simpson, 38-35. Simpson almost pulled that one out,
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and then Southern lost to Western Oregon, 65-35.
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Arizona Christians, 0-1 after losing to Fort Lewis College. College of Idaho
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is 2-0, beating Eastern Oregon, and then Rocky.
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Eastern Oregon is 0-1 after losing to College of Idaho.
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Western is 1-0 after beating Northern. And Simpson is now 1-1,
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losing to Southern Oregon in their opener, and they beat Division III Whittier
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College 56-14 on the road for their first win in program history, which is awesome.
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Yeah, thanks to them. Yeah, it's pretty awesome.
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Frontier is now 4-7 against Frontier
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teams. A few of those are Division II opponents that they lost to.
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But we will go through this week's schedule.
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Dickinson State is 0-2, and they host MSU Northern, who is also 0-2 this week.
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But Dickinson lost to Midland 31-0. Midland, I believe, was a playoff team last year.
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Then they lose to Valley City 28-25.
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Northern lost at Carroll 30-14, and then lost at home to Western 49-35.
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I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm going to... Man, just by what's put
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on paper, I'm wondering if Northern's not going to go beat Dickinson State in
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North Dakota this weekend.
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Yeah, I think Northern has a pretty good shot at doing it.
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And I don't know if there's such a thing as a good 0-2 team,
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but we might be saying that about the lights this week.
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Yeah, and talking to the other Frontier guys, when I popped off something,
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hey, Northern scored 35 points this weekend. And of course, the Western guys,
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well, they were playing against Western's twos and threes. I'll get out of here.
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I said, well, it's still at least they scored, yeah.
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So at the same time, though, As much as I want to go Northern Lights.
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Do you remember that announcer up there listening to that guy? Yeah.
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I don't know if I can say him. I want to say Northern.
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It just doesn't feel right because it's going to be at Dickinson.
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So I'm going to say Dickinson, but I'm going for the Northern Lights.
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There you go. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, I'll be keeping an eye on
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that game. That'll be pretty interesting. But Mayville State's 1-1.
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They host Minnesota Morris this weekend.
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A big game down in Dillon. Montana Tech heads to Western.
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Tech's 2-0. Western is 1-0, which will be a pretty good weekend.
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I don't know much about Minnesota Morris, so I'll just go Mayville on that one.
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But I do think Tech will beat Western. Yeah, I think this is going to be a good football game.
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Obviously, Tech has had a couple of good opponents here to start the season
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out. So hopefully they've had a good film to go off of.
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I still think Western is a good football team. They're hard-nosed as always.
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And with as talented as Tech is, it's hard to pick against them.
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So Ward Digger's got this one.
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Yeah, it's going to be a battle because I think Coach Norris is going to have them up for this game.
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And it's in Dillon. The thing that we will find out now is I think we'll all
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think Tech is a better team. Just because you're a better team doesn't mean you win.
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This will really test the maturity of the Orediggers, I think,
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after coming off of that win and then going to Dillon. Right, right.
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Dakota State hosts Nebraska Wesleyan. I don't know much about them,
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so I'm going to go with the Trojans.
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Rocky's on a bye this week. Valley City's on a bye this week.
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Carroll is on a bye this week.
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Southern Oregon, Arizona Christian, and College of Idaho are all on byes this week.
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Eastern Oregon is 0-1 after getting thumped by CFI 37-7.
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They are at Whitworth this week, a Division III program. And I just,
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I hope they go and get a win.
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I don't know anything about Whitworth. I believe they lost to them last year,
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or they won by one score. I can't remember, but I hope they go get a win there.
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Yeah, same. I think it's the best thing for the Frontier Conferences is winning
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those non-conference games.
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It just gives everybody a little bit more confidence throughout the season and
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keeps things competitive. And, of course, we always want our opponents to do the best.
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Ditto. I'm on their bandwagon this weekend, too.
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Simpson is also on a bye this week, so that rounds out our NAIA project here.
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I won't go through the entire FCS Top 25, either.
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A couple of very interesting games, some big FCS over FBS upsets.
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The Citadel went and beat Charlotte on the road.
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The other one was, oh, geez, I just sent this to you, Austin,
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on Instagram. And usually our Instagram messages this time of year are just
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stuff that I wanted to talk about on the show so I don't forget about it.
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We do do that a lot. Yeah, let me see here.
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Oh, there it is. Okay, so Tarleton State beat Bowling Green.
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I watched the end of that game. That was a pretty good one.
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And then, let's see here.
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Charlotte beat, I mean, sorry, the Citadel beat Charlotte.
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And then Idaho State goes on the road and beat Utah State, which I cannot describe
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to you the amount of joy that that
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brought me to watch. We will be talking about that here as we go along.
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Just a couple notable things in the top 25 world.
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A lot of some lost football games to unranked FCS opponents happened throughout
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the top 25 in Week 0 and Week 1.
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So I'm sure Week 2, after this Week 1, I'm sure we're going to have a bit of
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a shakeup. But when it comes to the big sky, Montana State's 2-0.
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They've beaten Montana Tech and Butler.
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And I'm sorry, Utah Tech.
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Montana State beat Utah Tech and Butler. And then Idaho is 0-2 after losing to Kyle Pauly and Utah.
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Montana is 2-0 after beating Southern Utah and Drake. Southern Utah is 1-1 after
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losing to Montana and then beating Weber State.
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UC Davis is 1-0 after beating Portland State on the road. We'll talk about that
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game a little bit. That game, some big special teams play on Portland State's
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side and they were winning 21-7 or 21-0 at halftime.
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I can't remember which one it was, but I was all pumped up. We put it in the
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group chat. I was like, man, Portland State is going to pull it out.
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And then Les comes in the group chat and says No UC Davis is gonna win.
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Sure enough Sure enough his wisdom prevailed,
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what do you think it was lucky it was lucky so,
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weaver states now one and one they beat northern colorado and they lost at southern
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utah uh eastern washington's one and one after losing to northern arizona and
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then beating northern iowa which is a good win at home,
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utah tech is oh and two after losing to montana state and byu northern arizona
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is one and one after beating eastern washington and then losing to Arizona.
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Portland State is 0-2 after losing to UC Davis and San Diego State.
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Northern Colorado is 0-2 after losing to Weber State 30-29 and then losing to South Dakota 38-23.
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Even though they're 0-2, I think the Bears are not playing bad football at the
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moment, so their corner is there. We'll see if they turn it.
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Cal Poly is 2-0 after beating Idaho in a wild finishing game and then beating Central Washington.
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And Idaho State is now 2-0 after beating the VMI and then winning their money
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game at Utah State on the road.
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And we'll talk about this week's games. Number one most important game in the Big Sky this week.
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Our man Les is on the ground there for this one. Montana State at Nevada.
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And I will say this. We'll talk about Nevada when we move to the Mountain West.
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But their win against Western Kentucky last week was very convincing.
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And now this makes this game much more intriguing in my mind.
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Yeah, I think, what is the deal? There's three times that a FCS team has been,
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has opened with being the favorite over an FBS team. And this is one of them.
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So Montana State is going to
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play, is going to be good. It's going to be a tough game. I am not sure.
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I just would like to get eyes on MSU. I would need to see if they are better than what they were.
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A few years ago, you know what I mean? I know they won the national championship
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last year, but in about four years ago, they had some NFL dudes on there.
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They didn't have an NFL dude on their roster last year. Right.
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Right. So we'll see. Yeah. I'm interested to watch that one's going to be.
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I'm going to be tuned into that game for sure. I'm going to. But they know how to win.
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So. Yes. Yeah. That's the, that's the thing. That mentality is going to be hard to overcome, but, uh,
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but it'll be a lot easier coming off of last week's home opener there in Reno,
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than, uh, if it had gone the other way, which, you know, I, uh,
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I wasn't sure. You know what I mean?
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Yep. Even, even if it had been like a really hard fought game,
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I think maybe it'd be a little bit different but they they sent western kentucky hacking.
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Tail between their legs i think that's important am i am i wrong when it comes into this week,
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yeah i think it was good and the and the thing that was surprising is for the
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most part they're 11 personnel you know and and they ran the ball right,
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now it's not going to be as easy sledding but i was very impressed at how well
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and how often They ran the ball,
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when they're disciples of the leech tree. Right, right.
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Well, we're looking forward to that game. It's going to be a good one.
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Idaho hosts Lamar this weekend.
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They lost at Cal Poly to open the season in dramatic fashion,
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and they lost their money game at Utah. Lamar's a preseason-ranked team.
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As bad as I want the Big Sky to win, I don't know that Idaho beats Lamar.
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Yeah, I don't think so either. I mean, it kind of sucks because we had some
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hopes for a Vandal bounce back this year.
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And I don't know if it was just a rough game for Idaho against Cal Poly or Cal
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Poly took that big of a step forward in the offseason now into the regular season.
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And it's going to be a tough football game. Unfortunately, I don't know if they have what it takes.
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We're not going to go with Idaho. It's going to be Lamar.
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But I do think this. It's in Idaho, isn't it? Yes. Yep. Yeah.
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It's going to be a lot closer than what the paper is going to say.
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And I also wouldn't be surprised if Idaho pulled the upset. But I'm going Lamar. There you go.
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Southern Utah is at Colorado State this week. nothing would bring me more joy,
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than them sneaking out of there with a win, but I don't think it's going to happen.
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Well, I mean, what does that say about Wyoming? Well, let's,
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yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. FCS school.
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I just want them to lose. On top of, I believe, Wyoming is also playing an FCS school this week.
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And so, you know, can Northern Colorado beat Southern Utah?
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Well, we'll get into that here in a second. No, I don't think so.
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But I don't think they're going to be Colorado State. They need to demote themselves
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to the big sky. Maybe that would be a pretty good addition. No.
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Southern Utah won't beat Colorado State. Is that unanimous? Yeah.
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All right. UC Davis is 1-0 after beating Portland State, and then they're coming
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off a bye week. They're at SMU this week.
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I don't think it'll happen. I think the outside chances are very,
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very outside. But, man, that'd be sweet if UC Davis went and even made it a game.
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Yeah, that would be in there. As much as I love UC Davis and the track that
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they're on right now, I don't think they have it. Yeah, SMU.
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Maybe for a quarter. Yep, yep. Weber State is at Colorado. They beat Northern
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Colorado, and then they lost to Southern Utah. They're going to go make some
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money against the Buffs, and I think that's all they're going to walk out of there with is money.
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Yep, drinking the views. That's all you're going to have time for. There you go.
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Yeah, yeah. Eastern Washington is at South Dakota. I'm glad they beat UNI.
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That seems to kind of right the ship from losing to NAU Week 1,
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but I don't think that they're going to go beat South Dakota.
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I think they'll make it a pretty good game, but I don't think they'll win.
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Yeah, South Dakota's a good football team, and if Eastern keeps it close,
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I think that gives them hope as we venture into conference play,
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but I don't think they have the oomph.
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Yeah, this one's a tough, tough one for me because I'm going to pick USD,
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but I don't, I don't think USD is in that upper tier either.
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And so it's kind of a battle. It's seemingly right now is a battle of, of mid tier teams.
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And I, yeah, it's kind of a tough one for me, but I'll, I'll go South Dakota.
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East or Utah tech is at Montana this week. That'll be a nice tune-up game for the Grizzlies, I think.
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Yeah, agreed. And I do have to say, Montana is looking fairly sharp this year.
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So the way Eli Gilman runs the football, man, the amount of yards after contact he has is undeniable.
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Yeah, what I think they're doing is getting everybody involved and not trying
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to run him as much as they could.
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And I don't think there'll be great stats for the Stars this weekend.
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We'll just see how it shines, shakes out. Right.
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Right. Northern Arizona hosts Incarnate Word this week. I'm hoping they kind
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of got their head screwed on straight after almost losing to Eastern Washington.
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But I think they'll beat Incarnate Word, but I don't think it'll be an easy game.
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Agreed. This has kind of turned into a little bit of a rivalry game with Incarnate
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Word over the last handful of seasons.
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I know they've traded shots in the past, but I like Northern Arizona,
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and I think they're going to beat them.
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Yeah, I'm going to go NAU as well. The one thing I would say is Incarnate Word,
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is a good football job, and they have good players.
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They've just, the last couple years, haven't been where they've,
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otherwise I would be picking Incarnate Word if it was a couple,
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three years ago, but I'm going NAU right now. Right, right.
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Portland State is at home against North Dakota this week, as tough as they've
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played the last couple weeks.
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I don't think they're going to beat the green machine out of North Dakota.
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I don't think so either. It is cool seeing the Vikings play tough,
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tough football and in all three facets of the football game too.
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But I don't think they have what it takes.
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Yeah, they're not going to win. The one thing you'd see from a coaching staff
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though is can you continue to play hard and at least keep games close?
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You know, they lost a heartbreaker. Can they come back with it and still come
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back and compete? That'll be kind of a test. Right, right.
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Yeah, I'm interested to see how they compete on that one for sure.
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Northern Colorado is at Wyoming this week. We'll talk about Wyoming here in
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a few minutes, but we still don't have an offense that can walk and chew bubble
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gum and not look dyslexic at times.
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So I'm nervous. I'm nervous about this one because Northern Colorado played
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Weber State 30-29. They lost South Dakota 38-23.
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I, I, they're not playing bad football and Wyoming's not playing good football.
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We'll just put it that way.
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And it's not like they're making a hellacious road trip.
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I don't know. I'm lean. I think, I don't think they, I think logic says they
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don't go beat Wyoming, but logic does not reside in Laramie both in and out
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of the Cowboys favor. So yeah.
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I don't know. This one makes me nervous. So I'm going to talk strictly about
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Northern Colorado right now,
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and then I have a handful of comments about Wyoming when we get to them.
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Yeah. Most of them are positive, actually. There's not much positive in Lambie right now.
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No, I think there are, and I'm going to show you the light, all right?
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Because you are in a deep, dark tunnel, my friend.
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But i do i do like what northern colorado has done in the hand in in the last
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couple of years they now have stadium upgrades so a little bit more a little
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bit more pride is in the program i think they're moving in the right direction
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i don't think they're going to beat the pokes
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but i think it's just it's good experience getting out there with these with
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these upper echelon teams i guess you could call it,
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but i don't i don't think they're going to get it yeah i wish northern colorado had a win there but uh,
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i'm going wyoming as well just don't see it for the,
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for northern colorado right cal poly is at san jose state they're going to go
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down there and make some money and then idaho state is going to host the university
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of san diego and i think i think idaho state's going to be 3-0 after this week,
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dude i am so hyped up on the bangles right now, it's, it's otherworldly,
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not only did, you know, I mean, obviously we, we picked them against VMI and,
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but why I watched the entirety of the Utah state football game and they just played good football.
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It was well coached everybody, you know, for the most part handled their assignments
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and they, I'm not going to say that they're a force to be reckoned with,
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but they are, they are a good football team.
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They pull out the win. Yeah. I'm going to go with them too.
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I'm not quite buying what they're selling, but I think this is a winnable game for them.
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And good for them. You know, I don't know that everybody picked them to be as,
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maybe as good as what they might be. I'm going to pick them.
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And I think I need to get four or five games under my belt before I get on their bandwagon.
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What I would say this though, watching that Utah State game,
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Utah State didn't beat themselves, Idaho State beat them.
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Well, I was going to ask that question is, is Idaho State that good or is Utah State that bad?
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Yeah, that's a good question. And that will probably be yet to be determined
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here for the next couple of weeks because I also was asking myself the same
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question. Utah State made a bowl game last year.
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No Bronco Mendenhall team is typically bad.
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I don't know. I don't know. Well, that's going to be an interesting case to
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be made here over the next couple of weeks.
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But we'll move over to the Mountain West Conference. We won't go through the
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entire Top 25 Roundup, but what we will talk about is whether Michigan is 1-0 or they 0-1.
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Man, here's the deal. By the letter of the law. That's not what I'm asking.
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That's not what I'm asking. Hey,
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I'm playing the devil's advocate by the rulebook with the player stepping out
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of bounds. He is then deemed the out of bounds line. Dude, only a ref would
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talk like that. Get her out of here.
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Now, depending on the camera angle you're looking at, whatever they released
22:44
was not shown during the broadcast.
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But what was broadcasted, the ball was very clearly not in his possession as time ran out.
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So therefore, I will rule what I saw that evening, and I think Western Michigan should be 1-0.
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I am, you know, deep down inside happy that Michigan is no longer in the top 25, even with a win.
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So, you know, that's a little bit of some consolation.
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But it's, you know, six in one hand, half does in the other. That's a tough one.
23:19
Yeah, the one thing that I would say in terms of Michigan being 1-0 now,
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or vice versa, flip it around, is I really like their coach.
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And so I really hope the best for him.
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The one thing that time will tell, though, is he's a good football coach and
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he can coach football and he can have teams overachieved, all of that.
23:44
One thing, though, is we'll have to find out. Maybe this isn't a good fit for
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him. Maybe Michigan's not a fit.
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Right. Right. Well, I'm sure that'll get more light shed on it,
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too, as the next few weeks here play into consideration. and we'll, yeah, I don't know.
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It's one that I'm going to have my eyeball on, that's for sure,
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as I'm sure the rest of the nation is as well.
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Moving over to the Mountain West Conference, North Dakota State's 2-0 after
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beating Jacksonville State and Fordham.
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Air Force is 1-0 after beating Duquesne. UTEP is 0-1 after losing to Oklahoma.
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Northern Illinois is 0-1 after losing to Iowa. Nevada's 1-0 after beating Western
24:24
Kentucky 49-14. Thank you very much.
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New Mexico is 1-0 after beating Central Michigan. UNLV is 1-1 after losing to Memphis and Hawaii.
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I'm sorry, beating Hawaii. San Jose is 1-1 after losing to USC and then beating Eastern Michigan.
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Hawaii is 0-2 after losing to Stanford and UNLV.
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And Wyoming is 0-1 after losing to Colorado State.
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Mountain West is 6-6 against non-Mountain West teams.
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And this week's matchups are pretty interesting. North Dakota State is at Air Force.
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I, that's a big matchup. That's a big week three game. I, I,
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I don't know if I would just like to see North Dakota State win it or if I think they're going to.
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I don't know. But if any team can withstand a hype train, it's a military academy.
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Let me look at here, actually. I didn't even pull this up.
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I'm not back into my weekly habits yet here on ESPN.
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But I'm going to pull up and see what Vegas is saying about this football game here.
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Yeah, I looked that up last week, and I can't remember what they said now.
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Let's see here. It's got to be close to 7.5.
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ESPN has this at, oh, there we go. Let's see here.
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It usually shows the favorite in like the, you usually don't have to click on
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the football game, but I had to click on it this time. It's definitely not.
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It's just showing as NDSU has a 60.6% chance to win the football game,
25:59
but it's not showing me an overrun to money. It's not showing me a point favorite
26:04
differential, but I'm leaning North Dakota State.
26:09
I think this is going to be their first real test of the season.
26:13
Air Force has made some improvements this year.
26:18
And what is boating in the Bison's favor is the coach has experience against
26:24
these Mountain West teams, so that gives them a little bit of a leg up, which is cool.
26:28
But man, I would like to see Air Force win at home. I think that's going to
26:33
play a factor. But I wouldn't be surprised if the Bison pulled one out.
26:37
Yeah, I want Air Force to win. I just don't know if they're a good...
26:42
We know that North Dakota State is a good football team. We know they're a good
26:45
program, all of those kinds of things.
26:48
I just don't, I can't say just because I'm ignorant on the fact if Air Force
26:53
is a good football team or not.
26:56
Just don't know. Well, it's tough to say when you're only wins against Duquesne. Yeah.
27:02
And they were average last year. North Dakota State was on a downhill slide
27:08
last year. They could have been national champs, but they were also not.
27:13
They were not playing good football towards the end of the season.
27:16
And so now you're going to Air Force. I'm going to go North Dakota State,
27:20
but I actually will be pulling for Air Force. There you go. There you go.
27:25
The other game, the next game in the Mountain West is UTEP hosting FCS Texas Southern.
27:30
UTEP is at a 91.8 chance to win, which surprised me, quite frankly.
27:37
I didn't think they wouldn't be favored. I just didn't think they'd be favored by that much.
27:42
But I do think UTEP pulls out the win here. Yep, I'm pulling for the Mount West.
27:50
UTEP. All right, now, another one that gets interesting here.
27:55
Northern Illinois hosts Illinois State, who was in the FCS National Championship last year.
28:02
Illinois State comes into this one with a 59% chance to win, according to ESPN.
28:12
Man, I don't want to bet against FCS over Mountain West, but man, I don't know.
28:22
I don't know the answer. And because I don't know the answer,
28:26
I'm going to lean NIU, but I know that I could be wrong.
28:31
Yeah, I like Illinois State just in general.
28:36
And in my most humble opinion, I don't think Northern Illinois.
28:43
Should belong in the Mountain West. So I'm just going to pick Illinois State.
28:49
Yeah, I'm going to go Illinois State too.
28:52
The difference is they had that magical run and how mature are they coming off
28:58
of that in the offseason and getting ready for this.
29:00
I don't think Northern Illinois is all of that, but they're still FCS,
29:05
but I'm going to go Illinois State. Right, right.
29:08
And then down in Reno this weekend, Nevada has a 58.6% chance to beat the Bobcats.
29:14
And after, like I said, after watching them beat Western Kentucky last week,
29:18
this game made me way more nervous preseason than it did after the final whistle rang last week.
29:27
And I'm leaning, I'm leaning, I'm going with Nevada this week.
29:31
Yeah, I'm picking the Wolfpack mainly because I think it would be a huge confidence
29:37
boost, obviously, to win a defending FCS champ.
29:40
But it also, at the end of the day, won't hurt Montana State as much to lose as it would Nevada.
29:47
So, you know, win-lose either way, I think Nevada comes out on top.
29:52
Yeah, obviously I'm going to go Nevada. It will be interesting tomorrow night.
29:58
When the lights come on, how many Montana State fans are down here. Right.
30:03
I know of a lot of them myself that are down here. We came across a Bobcat pickup,
30:09
as we were going through Winnemucca, and we held up our Nevada Reno cap as we passed him.
30:15
That's funny. And then we saw him at a gas station. Anyway, there's a lot coming down here.
30:22
It's going to be buzzing with excitement. This is what I will say.
30:25
I think Coach Choate played the game...
30:31
Or non-game, the interest versus the non-interest with the University of Montana,
30:36
I think he played that perfectly.
30:39
Yes. All of the focus went there.
30:42
Yep. It endeared Montana State fans and probably the team to him more because
30:49
he took shots at U of M, took,
30:51
all the focus off of him being there, you know, Kane Ione and JT, you know what I mean?
30:57
He just let everybody else talk about that and I think he allowed the focus to be on the game.
31:04
So I think it was brilliant by him.
31:07
Yeah, that was pretty funny. Yeah, looking forward to that one.
31:10
Going to be a good one to tune into.
31:12
New Mexico hosts Mercyhurst this week. I don't know if I've ever actually seen this before.
31:17
It's just probably because I haven't looked at a ton of these matchups outside
31:22
the Mountain West, but New Mexico has a 99% chance to win the football game,
31:28
which I think is what will happen.
31:30
Oh, yeah. Let's go, Lobos. Yeah. Lobos.
31:35
Now, here's where things get interesting. UNLV is at North Texas this week.
31:42
Now, North Texas, the only showing they've had so far is against Indiana,
31:46
the reigning national champion.
31:47
The UNLV has a 67.9% chance to win, and I actually think they will,
31:52
and I think they'll win rather convincingly because they need to,
31:58
yes, they beat Hawaii last week, but in my opinion, they still need to bounce
32:01
back from losing to Memphis.
32:03
Yeah, I think, you know, in the words of Joseph Bartlett, two things are true at the same time.
32:10
I still think UNLV is a good football team, but like you said, they have a little,
32:17
in Hawaii they call them Menehounis, which are like the job site leprechauns,
32:22
and what they do is they come in and they mess everything up, right?
32:25
Well, they got one of those on their back, and so they need to shake it,
32:28
and a win against North Texas on the road will definitely help with that.
32:32
Yeah, this is a game, I'm going to go with UNLV too.
32:36
This is a game in which I think, again, it goes back to the maturity of your team and your program.
32:41
This is Mullins' third year, right? Yeah.
32:46
Right? Yep, yep. Yeah, so...
32:50
If they're going to be true contenders and have a true program,
32:54
then yes, they need to go to North Texas and win by two touchdowns, maybe three.
33:03
San Jose hosts Cal Poly this week for a money game. They've got a 91.3% chance to win.
33:09
I think this one could be a little tight in the first half maybe,
33:11
but I think by the end of it, San Jose is going to make sure it's no doubt.
33:15
Yeah, I mean, what kind of San Jose State team is going to show up?
33:19
You know, is it going to be a blowout or is Kyle Paulie going to keep it close?
33:24
I do think at the end of it, the Spartans are going to pull it out.
33:28
Yeah, San Jose State, it's just you're an average Mountain West team against
33:33
an average Big Sky team. Yep.
33:36
All right, Hawaii hosts New Mexico State. They've got an 80.5% chance to win.
33:41
Now, after being 0-2, losing to Stanford and UNLV, Hawaii needs this one and
33:46
they need to get the ship righted.
33:48
Yeah, let's go Rainbow Warriors, man. I think we expected them to at least have
33:53
one win on their belt at this point.
33:56
And hopefully they get it on this one.
33:58
Yeah, I think from a coaching staff standpoint, there'll be a hammer in the
34:02
film. If you do this, we'll win. If you do this, we'll win.
34:07
So I think, you know, third game in, this is a turning point for the Rainbow
34:12
Warriors, and they need to take care of business. Right, right. Right.
34:17
And down in Lambie, Wyoming this weekend, Wyoming will host Northern Colorado.
34:22
Wyoming has a 86.4% chance to win the football game.
34:27
I very much hope that happens. I hope they don't make Northern Colorado look tougher than they are.
34:33
I'm not saying that they're not a certain amount of tough. I just hope that
34:36
they don't look exponentially so against the Wyoming Cowboys,
34:40
which Wyoming typically lets FCS teams look like that. So I'm going to go with the I don't know.
34:47
I'm not a somebody who throws things and punches hole in my drywall and stuff,
34:52
but that, you know what I mean? You've been close.
34:57
They might drive me to it if this one gets ugly.
35:00
No, I think they pull out the win, but just some shining things.
35:04
Like I said, I was going to point out about the pokes.
35:07
I love their tight end room. They got some big, talented guys. Tight ends are good.
35:11
Yeah, yeah. Their offensive line remains well above average,
35:17
at least in the Mountain West, which is some good consistency.
35:21
Now their defense is obviously struggling a little bit. There have been some
35:25
holes to fill based off of last year's defense, but I think eventually they're
35:30
going to catch their stride a little bit.
35:32
It all just depends on what their offense is going to do and if their offense
35:35
can score more than 21 points a game this year.
35:38
Right. Yeah, and those are things too that you just don't know coming out of
35:42
fall camp, is everybody healthy?
35:45
Or off of a game, is everybody healthy? And the one thing is they might be licking
35:50
their wounds and all of that kind of stuff, but here's a chance to,
35:55
I mean, at the same time, think about the psychology of Northern Colorado.
35:59
Hey, we've been getting beat.
36:01
We've been close. Here's our chance now to right the ship.
36:06
So I think what will be good is if Wyoming wins, and I'm going to pick Wyoming.
36:12
If Wyoming wins and Wyoming wins eventually, let's say by three touchdowns or
36:17
something along those lines, if they can do that, that they will have earned it.
36:23
Because I think you have two teams that are desperate.
36:26
Right. Yeah, that makes sense. Well, Mount West is 6-6 against non-Mountain
36:32
West opponents as of this week, so hopefully we add to that to get that flip-flopped
36:36
into the win column there, bigger than the last column.
36:39
We'll recap Boise State and Fresno here really quick. Boise State's 0-1 after
36:44
losing to Oregon 34-27 in a heck of a football game.
36:48
They host another great team this week in Memphis, and I'm not going to lie
36:53
to you, this is no shade at Boise State, I just,
36:56
Boise has a 75.7% chance to win this game.
37:02
I would see them favored, but I'm just surprised it's that much with what Memphis
37:08
has showed the last couple weeks.
37:10
However, I think that's a big game in Boise, and I think Boise State pulls it out.
37:14
Yeah, this is going to say a lot about both teams. Obviously, Memphis beat UNLV.
37:20
They had a really good showing. I think Boise State's going to win at the end
37:24
of it but unfortunately Boise has a history of playing,
37:29
to their competition so Boise State played up against Oregon you know,
37:34
really really made a statement saying that they are the G6 team to beat they're
37:38
the G6 team getting getting into the playoff but Memphis is doing the same thing
37:43
they're knocking on the door as well,
37:45
but now as long as Boise State plays to that intensity and to that caliber as
37:50
they did to Oregon yeah of course you know they might,
37:53
But they're going to win their next 12 football games.
37:55
But we've got to take it one week at a time and not play to our opponent's skill
38:00
level. What time is that game?
38:03
I don't remember. That game is at 4 p.m. Mountain Time on Saturday, tomorrow.
38:10
That'll help Memphis a little bit. If it was a night game, I would be pulling for Boise Moore.
38:18
Austin makes a good point. you put everything into that game of beating Oregon
38:22
and then you came up short, this will be a test to play another good opponent.
38:29
At least they have them at home.
38:32
But I don't think it's going to be that easy after losing that game and then
38:37
regrouping and coming back with practice this week and getting ready to play
38:41
this Saturday. I think it's going to be a...
38:44
If they find themselves in a dogfight, that might be the same way with an Oregon-Boise
38:48
State now it'll be a memphis boise state scenario right right,
38:54
And Fresno hosts Sacramento State on Saturday as well tomorrow.
38:58
Fresno has a, let's see here, I just had it pulled up.
39:02
They're overwhelmingly favored, 84.7 chance to win the game.
39:06
And I think that's probably what's going to happen, and I hope they hang 100
39:09
points on Sacramento State.
39:11
However, what I think the most likely case scenario is their defense probably
39:16
shuts them out or holds them to one or two scores, and then the offense,
39:20
we'll see if Fresno's offense can get something going this week because that's desperately needed.
39:24
I hope they hang a donut on the Hornets, man. But.
39:30
I think Fresno State has what it takes. Unfortunately, they got trounced by
39:34
the Trojans, but that is what it is when you play a money game like that.
39:38
Yeah, the big thing that everybody's going to talk about is the offense because
39:42
it did not show up against USC, and that's true.
39:45
The one thing I would say in terms of skill guys, in terms of the skill of Fresno
39:50
and the skill of USC, I think that gap is fairly narrow.
39:54
But if you put an offensive line and a defensive line together,
39:57
that gap grew. And then there was some men on that line of USC that I ended
40:05
up being very impressed with.
40:07
And so I think there's going to be some disappointment. There's going to be.
40:13
Scratching your heads and everything along those lines. I just hope they...
40:18
I haven't talked to Tucker much this week, so I just hope they just go back
40:22
into the film room and just, this is who we are. Let's just get better at who we are.
40:28
Don't throw everything away. Just get better at what you want to do. Yep, there you go.
40:34
Perfect, gentlemen. That wraps us up for Week 0 and 1. We'll get back to kind
40:37
of normal episodes on we'll be recording after this weekend wraps up and looking forward to it.
40:42
We talked about this in preseason for every single conference that Week 3 had
40:46
some pretty big matchups.
40:47
So I'm looking forward to it, and I'm excited to watch some football this weekend.
40:52
Oh, yeah. I love it. We're in the heat of it now.
40:55
Yep. It's no longer a new season. Yeah. It's just the early season,
41:00
I guess. So, yep. Yeah. There you go.
41:02
All right, gentlemen, we'll catch you in a couple days, and hope you have a
41:04
good weekend of football.
41:06
All right. Take care, guys. Peace. See you, guys.