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College Football Week 8 Wrap Up | The Curse of the AP Poll · Run After Cast: The College Football Podcast

• Aaron: Howdy, howdy, and welcome back to Run After Cast, the college football podcast. I am your crestfallen host, Aaron, joined by my two football pals here, Ryan Ryan: Yeah. Aaron: and Chandler. Chandler: What's going on, gentlemen? Aaron: Well, we're here. Week eight. It's in the bag. Things are crazy, wild, unpredictable. My guesses for every game has gotten worse each each week that's gone on. But we're gonna get into it. We're gonna break it down. We're gonna see who's on top. Do we agree with who's on top and who has fallen hard? We normally cut over to Raction News. No big news this week. Really just outcomes of the games. We've lost some coaches already. The the carousel has started. We have Maryland dropping their head coach. we have NC State and now We have Dave Aranda at Baylor now out. So we'll keep an eye on, see now with shakeups happening, where things start moving around. But let's get in to the new week eight AP25 poll. Last week we tried to go through it item by item. Easily ran out of steam and time at 10. So this week we're just going to kind of go through them and go through more open forum style talk. So let's hop straight into it. We got number one, we have Miami, number two, Ohio State, number three, Georgia, four, Indiana, five, Notre Dame, six, Utah, seven, UCLA, eight, BYU, nine, Kentucky, ten, Alabama, eleven, Texas, twelve Ole Miss, thirteen, Texas Tech, fourteen Wake Forest. 15 LSU, 16 Tennessee, 17 Florida, 18 Houston, 19 SMU, 20, Oisey State, 21, Northwestern, 22, Arizona, 23, Missouri, 24, Oklahoma State, and 25, Wisconsin. So some big shakeups this week. Mainly we're seeing that. six to fifteen realm just changing so much week to week. So let's start off. What are y'all's biggest agrees with movements here this week? Chandler: I think after last night with Utah and Houston, if Utah would have lost, it would it was some crazy stat they said. It was like in the in a three week span the shake up between the top fifteen teams was like the most it's ever been since like nineteen forty or something crazy. A Aaron: Mm-hmm. Chandler: crazy long time. So I mean we had a little bit of a discussion about it before we started the show, but I mean The twenty fourteen playoff would be great this year. We've I've been hating on it and I I didn't think it was good, but after seeing everybody beat everybody this year, I mean, this would be an electric start to it. And I also want to point out that ESPN has a typo and it's there's two number twenties. So I guess Boise State and Northwestern are both Aaron: Well, it they're tied. So we give the top twenty-five, but I think they tied in boats. So they're both twentieth. Chandler: Perfect. We can't just swing that one way. We can't Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: can't have one person change it. We're just gonna have two twenties. So if if Boise Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: Yeah, they don't know. They're too similar, I guess. Chandler: State Northwestern played this week it'd be twenty versus twenty. Sick. Ryan: The tie. Chandler: Yeah, I don't know. It's it's a crazy world we live in. NIL is Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: doing what we thought it would do. It's taken a little longer than I thought it would take to get to this point, but I mean there's talent everywhere and everybody's beating up everybody. So it's it's a weird Weird landscape. Ryan: think it's an everyone beats everyone. it's weird Miami's number one, but they're gonna lose to Florida State. I hate they almost lost to Florida State. I hate to beat the dead horse though. But it's like you look at this top ten, Miami, Indiana, Notre Dame and BYU probably loses to every other team in the top ten. But they're sprinkled through there, you know what I'm saying? But it's weird. I know that's a weird opinion. Aaron: Well it no, I Ryan: But everything else I kinda like ten and back, I agree with them this week. Especially they actually have a head to head with Texas and Ole Miss, right behind each other. But you haven't really been able to do that until this week 'cause it's been so bundled up. Which is weird. But the top ten is very weird to me. you almost ha you have Indiana almost lose a team up north. You kept BYU up there after they lose to UCF and Notre Dame's ahead of And they're not actually really good because they lost to B it's just weird. I don't know. I hate to beat a dead horse. I keep naming the same teams every week. Aaron: I know. It well, to me, I would say the standout is we can say Georgia's number three again. we can look at it and say there's still Georgia. It was a flop week, bad game against Auburn. But we we briefly talked about this before the show. There's no way without playing a game to make up for it in a bye week to sit up to number three. like when you have Utah, which We could talk about strength of schedule. We can mention that, but Utah did go against Houston Ryan: Utah looks good. Aaron: and absolutely pummeled. So it's like Utah to me deserves to be up there. Like I I don't I I feel Utah's a little robbed this week with not being in the top five, especially below Notre Dame, which lost to a team which is now shifting way down. So everything else, I think when it comes to like Georgia. Notre Dame, BYU, I think those should probably be out of the top ten right now. Chandler: Absolutely pummeled is interesting verbiage. Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: Pretty sure that game was pretty Ryan: Or Chandler: close for a long time. Ryan: For their thing, they're pretty much you can have the closest game you want, play as bad as you want. If you win, you're not moving. The what seven teams in the last two weeks in the top ten have lost. This Aaron: Mm. Ryan: you just gotta not lose and they'll move you up. That's Georgia and Ohio State, just move up. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: I don't mind it. And Miami Miami ha Chandler: That's that's I I I understand they're Georgia. Ryan: is undefeated. So like Aaron: Yep. Ryan: I don't think they should Aaron: To me Ryan: be up there but they're only undefeated team. So it's like, what are you gonna do? I it. Chandler: But see, I understand Georgia being Georgia, and like of course, like they could they're gonna be able to compete with anybody, but you can't set a precedent of saying, we don't project into the future, we don't forward look into things, we don't position people, and then you have Georgia lose to an unranked team, go on a bye week, and then now all of a sudden they're a three again. So they got almost rewarded for their bye week and erased their loss against Auburn and now they're back at number three. So I understand of course they're probably gonna be able to compete with everybody, but you have to have the same precedent across the board in top twenty five and you're gonna now say that they're a top three team again with one loss to an unranked team. Ryan: Yeah. But all they do is project. They do like we watched the US C Chandler: Yeah, it does it's it's stupid. Ryan: game last night and we're like they put at sixteen 'cause just in case they won right there, so if they win they can just put in and they lost to Wisconsin. We called it. We called it. Chandler: That's another crazy thing. I understand USC looked horrible. But USC lost to a team that's now ranked twenty fifth and they dropped from sixteenth to thirty second. They dropped sixteen slots to now a ranked team. But then like a BYU loses to UCF and they're still in the top ten. So like the it the droppings aren't the same throughout the whole list. And that's the what's kinda frustrating. I understand you can't get it perfect, but that's what's kinda frustrating is like there's no rhyme or reason to these dropping. It's almost like they're just in this room of people and it's like, we caught everybody on a good day. Let's only drop them six points. w we all thought the same, so I I don't know. Ryan: Look at this though. Miami. Of course, the ACC as a whole is really terrible right now. So they're the only team in there from the ACC. But then you have Ohio State, Indiana. Chandler: Mm-wake forest. Ryan: What? They're not in the top twelve. I was talking about for a playoff for playoffs. I guess Chandler: Fourteen. I didn't hear twelve. Okay, yeah, yeah. Ryan: it's really top ten. Aaron: for p yeah, yeah, yeah. Ryan: Top ten, twelve. You look at Miami. They're the only team in there. And then for the big ten, you have Ohio State one, Indiana, two, UCLA three. And then you look at the SEC. You got Alabama, Kentucky, and Georgia. And then I guess you could throw you could say Utah BYU and then since Notre Dame's the same level talent of them, but they're not conference, throw in. Three of them each. We've been talking about this all year. DEI, they they wanna have this little bit of Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: representation from everybody. They're they had to have left BYU in. They had to leave Notre Dame in. They want a little bit of everywhere to make a i act like all the conferences are exactly the same. They purple set it up. it's perfectly even right now. Except for the ACC, 'cause they are super much worse. Chandler: actually is cra c crazy to look at. I can I can I can f I can Aaron: It it is crazy. I am gonna say I'm falling on the line that's coincidental. then it is more calculated. Ryan: It's not it's not. We talk about it all the time. Chandler: No, I like this is too many this is too many weeks in a row where all these shenanigans are happening, and you know what? Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. Chandler: I'm I'm backing Ryan's statement here. Aaron: Okay, I'll stand alone. Chandler: I'm endorsing it. Aaron: y'all y'all have the lone gunman on the grassy knoll of the Big Twelve. Chandler: Because like it it doesn't make any sense. It there should be some they were talking about last night when we were sitting watching the game and Ryan can explain it better than I can, but they were working on some algorithm to take every single game that's played and throughout the season, if a top ranked team loses to an unranked team, that loss not only affects them, but the previous people that beat them, like that win looks a little less good because they actually lost to an unranked team. And it factors in throughout the whole entire year. And they have to have something that's the same across the board because you can't have brand recognition affect how well you drop, even if they say Aaron: Yep. Chandler: it doesn't. Ryan: Yeah, and it's essentially sorry. Aaron: Well, and that's something I I want to say we're heading towards the 2014 playoff. Like it or not, this season unfortunately is a great representation of how this could play out in a way that is electric because this season is electric. This is one of my favorite seasons we've gotten to watch because I truly don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what next week even brings. And to me as a fan, that's awesome. But I think when we get to this, when we get to the 24 teams, the AP poll becomes so critically important at this point because we don't have, eight and below doesn't really matter anymore. And like that goes away. Every spot on here matters. And if the AP poll is just vibes, then we're we're running into an issue. And I think what you mentioned, Chandler, how finding an algorithm, it's not. An impossible task. And it could be something where it's like, hey, we need to look back at a team's performance for the year that's heavily weighted. We look at the team's performance over the last five years. That's an alternate weight that we're gonna have as something where we can calculate, we can put in this matchup and give it how much movement should be done. It should assign a point value based off of performance in-game, both teams' performances throughout the year. And then tertiary, if needed, teams performances for the last three to five years, somewhere in there. Chandler: I don't know, I feel like they shouldn't be negatively or positively impacted by a previous year's performance. Aaron: And that's why it would only be tertiary. if you're in a tie situation where you need to go to a tiebreaker. Yeah, yeah. Mascots. Chandler: We should just have like fight or something. Or like tug a w like tug like tug a war or something. Ryan: 'Cause this year Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: Well, this year they already Chandler: Hot dog eating contest. Ryan: give the benefit for the name. Georgia benefit for their name, Miami benefit for their name, Chandler: Alabama. Ryan: Indiana benefit from last Aaron: yeah. Ryan: year, yeah, Alabama benefit from last year. Aaron: I'll I'll even say Texas this year is riding it. Ryan: Like they're all like all those teams are benefited. even Texas got dropped out last year. Aaron: But I think that's something where we need to look at it objectively at that point. And we need to sit here and say, like, okay, the just how we feel rankings based off of, you know, a handful of press representatives. who which I I mean when you look at the actual voting, you know, they take into account bias. They show you their alumni and what they're voting on, and there's outliers. But I think we need to get a either just A system, or instead of doing the five years, if that becomes like hey, previous performances, then we have the voting that's the tiebreaker, whatever it is. But I do think we're gonna need some kind of a little more clinical, a little more sterile system to be able to judge these things because we have a lot of momentum shift, and a lot of this week eight is still being impacted by how we felt preseason. Like some of these rankings still exist. Miami is still is number one. Because where they started this season. It is not based off of what we've seen out of them this season, because they we haven't seen them play anybody at this point. And they played FSU and almost lost. And they're number one team in the country. And I think if we're if we're looking at these, we could have a very different argument breaking all that down. But right now, the way the system works. Miami is the number one slot because it is like, did they win last week? Did they lose last week? How do we feel about that? How much talent have we heard about on that team? And that's what's swaying the votes. Ryan: And her and you actually said that perfectly because my biggest gripe with all this is the preseason AP. They never did preseason rankings with the BCS system. So now, we have this NIL era where there's the most flip rosters ever, and we're just gonna guess what your preseason ranking is. Cause yeah, we even talked about when we were guessing the preseason ranking in that video. I think they're gonna put them here. They're trying to just leave them out to give them potential. They were already projecting giving teams potential to do good. Or yeah, Indiana super good last year. I'm gonna put them up there. Where I think even if you had an algorithm, or even if the AP could still work, but you have to look like maybe the first four or five weeks, these teams play like the same level. They're down here. But if they win all their games against these kind of teams, they're still three or something, if you're like up there. So it's It's really weird. I think the preseason does throw it off really bad. Chandler: So we talk Georgia. We talk about how they now back up two slots back to the number three spot. After Auburn goes in and beats them. Comes back. LSU now is ranked fifteenth. So Ryan, the we'll we'll we'll let you run through your game here since we have a a slot for the for the fifteenth slot of LSU. What you what'd you see? What happened? Ryan: in the entire LC game? Chandler: Yeah. But what was your what was your what what went down in that L S U game? Ryan: it was okay. Chandler: Also, hold on, one one thing to set the stage for you. we've been talking about how Alex Golish had all these open promises and didn't fulfill through all these. And I will say, him going to the press conference and blatantly saying that it was horrible and there's no silver lining and nothing was good, I appreciated. It's b it's owning owning what's happening. Now you want to see some adjustments after that, but at least he, wasn't like, yeah, I just don't know why it didn't work out. The scheme we put in we thought was good, whatever. So it was it was good for him to at least own up to Aaron: Yeah. Or that Chandler: it. Aaron: that hey, we're three Ryan: Mm-hmm. Aaron: plays away from winning that Chandler: Yeah. Aaron: game. And it's like, no. I that's that's my least favorite response a coach can give. I like when a coach goes out there and says, This was a disaster from start to finish for us. So Ryan: Yeah. I was glad he did that. I should right after the game that if I was him I would just be so distraught and bad that I would have to go off the grid somewhere and isolate myself 'cause it's just so terrible I couldn't be seen in public anymore. 'Cause it was so bad. you think about last week, how unbelievably good that win was, how unexpectedly good. This was like that unexpectedly bad as a loss. It was really 38 to 10. We scored one more touchdown because they had to go over on the overunder in the last last two seconds of the game. So it was really 38 to 10. But it it was 31 to 10 at halftime. So we just couldn't stop Sam Levitt. Couldn't stop their offense. We came out, we always talk about they we give up a lot of downfield explosive plays, broken coverage, that kind of stuff. I guess we decided we weren't gonna do that. We thought Lane Kiffin was gonna outsmart us. So they were just taking the under. They were throwing drags and curls, getting six yards, eight yards, ten yards, just boom, boom, boom. The second drive, Sam Levit was six for six. They were just going down. he's getting tackled. Doesn't even get all the way out. They hit his arm. Perfect throw in the end, zone touchdown. He was in supple. He faked a hamstring injury. They said his hamstring was hurt. He was running out of bounds. He walked. Pretty much for fifteen yards because the play was actually so shut down that he just scrambled for fifteen yards. And he was holding his hamstring hobbling. And then when he actually had to run, he would just spin around and he even did like a like a through the legs dunk on their basketball goal. And so he missed though. But it was just yeah. Chandler: Daddy missed. Yeah. Aaron: Yes, yeah. Ryan: They're taking all the underneath stuff. So it forced us to go into man coverage. And then so, okay, you think of LSU. Who are the great receivers? Winston Watkins Jr., you think of Trey Des Green, even though he's a tight end? You think of Jace Brown. You ever heard of Jackson Harris? He had five targets the first three games. This game, whenever we went to man coverage, could not guard him. I think he had 10 targets for 180 something yards and two or three touchdowns. Literally couldn't guard him. Just throw the ball, catch it, slant, run for a touchdown. It was actually ridiculous. We couldn't stop him. Our safeties, corners, not good enough. On offense, we had nothing going for us. The second drive, we had a few plays, but we ran a pick play where we set a screen on a corner. Byram ran for one. We got another lucky Byram just happened to scramble out, almost got a touchdown, and we scored off that drive. We just didn't have a flow to our offense. Our defense was awful. It was a complete one eighty from the Georgia game. And I was telling you I was scared about that. That that was exactly what I was scared about was this happening. It was that bad. Sam Levitt looked Chandler: Well the Ryan: incredible. Chandler: the one of the only two notes I wrote in this game was both about the commentators. And Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: Dude, it was Greg. It was Greg. Chandler: no matter but what I'm saying, like if you're calling a game, I understand you can like in postgame breakdowns or like if you go on a podcast or you go do whatever, you can have more direct opinions But when you're calling a game, especially an in conference game like the at the SEC, y you shouldn't say, this team clearly doesn't have the amount of talent that the other team has. Or Ryan: We don't. Chandler: they just aren't as good. Like there's no like i Yeah, and then he went out there Ryan: He called us U USF. He called us USF. Chandler: and was like, USF has the ball at the thirty five and he's like, I mean Auburn has the ball at the thirty five. like what what are we doing? Like you you gotta have some kind of professionalism to where you can't just shit on Both teams. Ryan: No, and I don't know how Greg McElroy Aaron: Disagree. I actually like when when they get a little bit feisty Chandler: I don't know. Aaron: in the booth because the commentation's not like as long as they're telling me what down it is, what ball yard the ball's on, and who got the penalty. That's that's all that really matters. It honestly, to me, football commentary has gotten so boring that how many times do we cut away in the third quarter to talk about brisket? or something in an SEC game because it's whatever they ate the night before. you know what? If they're gonna have a little shade throw in, I don't mind it because then they have to eat crow if the game turns around. And I do love that. Yeah. Chandler: Yeah, maybe it was just the fact that it was Greg McElroy that said it. Like you Ryan: No, it's Greg McElroy He hates us. For some reason Chandler: Yeah. Ryan: he gets all of our games. And he does this all the time because Aaron, I don't know if you know this. He was the quarterback in 2010 and they were beating us twenty eight to three. And then Cam Newton came back, we beat them. We called it the cam back. And we actually hurt him as well that game and beat him. So we hurt his feelings. And ever since then, he hates us. Aaron: So he's the rivalry Auburn has with commentary, then it's a rivalry match every time he's on the game. No. Yeah. Ryan: Mm. Mm. And somehow he got our LSU rivalry game and he But even like last year in the Georgia game, he was commentating and every single thing, every single time we have a close call, or like Eric Winters almost intercepted a ball, he's like, that's clearly like I can't even believe they're not reviewing this. That's they need to review this. good, yeah, he totally dropped that. Just every single thing possible. It's bad. Aaron: I I just think they can make it more entertaining if you're gonna have somebody talking, make it fun, make it funny. Ryan: I yeah. I just don't want to listen to Greg. Aaron: I a I get it. There's certain commentators that I tune into, and and I'm not gonna throw shade at them by naming them here, where I'm like, I don't need the volume up for this game. Like because it's boring and I'd Chandler: Yeah. Aaron: rather talk to people while I'm watching the game and enjoy it there. But there are some commentators that I do feel like bring that extra energy to it. But Ryan: Like Gus Johnson. Aaron: yeah, I think it Chandler: Yeah, that's what I was about to say. Yeah. Aaron: yeah. When we try to be too professional in football, it's it it's a mismatch. It's a fun game for passionate people. It needs to have a representation of fun and passion. But that's a sidetrack from what happened to your guys's absolute just complete meltdown. and no I've taken all these shots at Opron all season. I'm the Greg McElroy of this podcast, I guess. Ryan: This is, this is Aaron: but it is something watching this game. It's like I do feel like it'd be really easy to turn and be like, there's just nothing. It's like, yeah, this season might be a wash for you guys. But watching the play calling and stuff that we're seeing on the goalish side of things, could it be better? Sure. Could we have better results? A lot of things like drop passes and stuff are really what kills you guys. And it's a lot of stall out mistakes. I think if Golish learns his lesson this season, if he takes a lot of this, internalizes it and says okay, some of my initial impression was wrong. Can I put together a different core to this and get results? I think he could. I I think there is. a much better auburn on the other side of this than what Hugh Freeze showed you guys because that looked the Hugh Freeze era looked lame right out the gate. Like it just felt bad. Ryan: Aaron, this is worse. way worse. Aaron: Th statistically, this is worse, but watching it Ryan: No no no. Like watching the game, it's significantly worse. Sid statistically this is better. we were in every game. We actually dominated Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: the Georgia game. We beat Oklahoma and they cheated. I I know this sounds far Aaron: Auburn sheets. Yeah. Ryan: fetched. No, no, no. they literally had a play that they said isn't a real play that you can't do it was illegal, that they gave them a touchdown, and the drive before that, we picked up a fumble and ran it for a touchdown. And then they actually said no it wasn't a fumble. They ended up kicking a field goal. So it was a it was a seventeen point swing. You can't beat a team when w you know what I'm saying? Like we were in every game and we had the worst offense ever because our talent was that good. If he just kept all our players, I actually think his play calling wasn't that bad. I don't like they always say we need to come out really fast. Aaron: see, I'm I'm gonna come in with a strong disagree. I think Ryan: With Gaulish? Aaron: or no, no, with with freeze, y'all's play calling. It would that's Ryan: his was terrible. I was saying goalish is play calling. Aaron: yeah, and that's kind of what I mean. Is like right now, I Ryan: Yeah. Aaron: think you have a talent disparity with like Ryan: Mm-hmm. Aaron: Greg McElroy says, maybe this team, but Chandler: But not necessarily a scheme disparity. Ryan: That's what I was saying. Yeah. Aaron: yeah, the play calling is more exciting. There's a lot of hope for me when I'm watching that, where when I watch two freeze pass, run, pass, punt every drive. Until it was like, Jackson Arnold did connect with somebody. it's like that to me was like, this is hopeless. I don't know what Auburn sees in this that keeps this rolling. Where goalish, I'm like, okay, let's see what he can do in the upcoming seasons. It's just this one. This one's we're in the same spot. Mississippi State, this season didn't work out for us. And I'm sure we'll talk here in just a moment about the Mississippi State game. And, you know. how morose I have to be watching games the rest of this season. But to me it's like it it's not over because there's hope for next year. Ryan: Yeah, it's just unfortunate because he said he was gonna come in and bring everyone to win now. But yeah, you watched last year, the play calling's terrible. Our players are so good, it keeps us in games. That's what I was saying. Our talent was so much better. But this year, you see the po play calling is more dynamic. But we can't block. We'll have delete mistakes, we'll drop balls, by rum will put the ball in in danger. it's all this stuff that i that's a skill issue. If we have the same Aaron: Mm-hmm. Ryan: exact players with his play calling, I see potential as play calling. Not getting out to fast starts is bad because that's all he says he wants to do. But other than that, we have things working. We just can't the players aren't good enough to do it, is what I'm saying. But he had the option to keep them and decided that these players were actually better and that they would win now and the other team wouldn't. So that's disappointing. But yeah. Yeah, in the future, Aaron: Yeah. It was a it was a bad gamble and it did not pay out. Ryan: I see p I see a lot of potential in the future. I just he said he doesn't want to make us wait. We weren't gonna wait. I don't know what we're gonna do next year because we have a like we have a pretty good class coming in our freshman. I don't know he's gonna do the transfer portal. We didn't do good last year, but these guys aren't gonna be able to really stay, so I don't know what we're gonna do for the next year or two, but in two, three years, I think we could be really good. But that's just Aaron: I agree. Ryan: a long time to wait, Chandler: Yeah. Yeah. it's sad. And I mean Ryan: It was bad. Chandler: I don't have like emotional tie to it other than like that I married into the biggest Auburn family ever. And it's just sucks that like every weekend, like for the most part, you go over there and it's like what happened to the Auburn in the you know pre COVID era where like every game they came out to And they like it was it could be a coin flip against Georgia, Alabama, LSU, all these guys. It's like a coin flip game. They either win, they could lose, but they're not gonna get blown out. And now it's like, mmm, Arkansas, I don't know. Baylor, I don't know. Like Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: it's just like it sucks to be like a p associated with that kind of thing because like it's not how it's supposed to be. And I I Aaron: Yeah, I agree. Chandler: feel for And I mean Auburn it's the traditions at Auburn are are pretty close to second to none. I mean, there's a there's a lot going on there that has a lot more appeal than just football and it's it it sucks to see that kind of program suffer and have the coaching Aaron: It does. Chandler: turmoil and the player turmoil and all the just stuff that that's been going on the past six years now. And I I feel for and I feel for Ryan and all all them because it's it's it's not good. And they're always the the Aaron: I do. I I will I will still. Chandler: the the butt of all jokes. Like in all the comment sections of everything, it's it's all just bashing Auburn. So it's I don't know. It's bad. Aaron: And I'm I'm one of the perpetrators. but no, I I I will still stand by. Like, cause I I agree. Auburn, I think, is one of the absolute passionate fan bases. I'm not gonna say it's the most. There's some crazy ones out there. But if I think of ones that it's like, they're so committed, they're loyal fans, they tend to be positive fans, maybe delusional. I'm gonna give you all that, but at the Ryan: No, there are a lot, yeah. Aaron: Yeah, I will still say where it is right now is on Auburn's decision making. It was just gamble after gamble for too many years. It didn't pay off. It lost a little bit of that excitement. It lost some of this in a chase. It was kind of chasing a high that didn't pay out for them. And that's hopefully lesson learned. And that's kind of where like seeing goalish bring a little bit more fire and Being a little bit more charismatic as a coach, maybe not turning the results. I want to see those results for him because I do think he could be a good fit. He could be somebody that matches the passion that Auburn brings to it. But we'll just have to see. I mean, we we've got a lot of seasons of football before I think he goes anywhere. I just think this one is gonna be a bruise and we have to see how he responds to it. And at this point, I think you're fighting for showing you have it. You have grit in you, you have some of that ability to say we can be down, but we're not out. because you're like us, the season is probably not long lived. Chandler: Well, to kinda switch gears, it's funny, like when we talked about the commentators and the energy in them being boring, the two of my favorite commentators to watch, or one of my favorite commentators to watch are Gus Johnson and Joel Collat. The energy they bring together is usually great. And the energy they brought to the Indiana Michigan game, even though it was six to six going into overtime, you would think that you were watching a game that was like thirty five to thirty five going into like triple overtime. it was the their energy was great the whole time. Yeah. And that's what I l I love to see. Aaron: They they treated it like a playoff game. Yeah. With Yeah. Chandler: But there was a point in the second half where they had gone twenty-three consecutive plays combined as Indiana and Michigan where there was no completed pass. I mean, that is unbelievably bad. And but then but then we then we talk about Aaron: Yes. It's atrocious. Yeah. Ryan: Name something more Big Ten though. Like that's incredible. Chandler: like this AP stuff, and then Indiana goes up two slots. How d how does that work? so it it doesn't make any sense. Ryan: It doesn't make sense. Chandler: And I'm not saying that Indiana couldn't win games by more or whatever, but they shouldn't be number four now because they went to overtime against a Michigan team that doesn't have an offense and had to bench their multi their ten plus million dollar quarterback. So I don't know. Aaron: Yeah. it wasn't quite what was it the Auburn Mississippi State game that was two three? I can't remember. It was years ago. Mississippi State had a two three game. so it wasn't quite that bad. that yeah, that's yeah, yeah. Chandler: It's impressive. It's a world seri and it and they were doing it in honor of the World Series, I think. Ryan: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Aaron: We're keeping it, you know, in honor of respecting Jaden Daniels, we didn't want to score above five. but it was it but it is still something There is nothing exciting about a six six game at Chandler: No, Aaron: full time. At halftime, sure. But full time, it was something where you're like, nothing happened. Chandler: I will say though, going if you were there in person, it wa you were not sitting down the whole time. Yeah, the whole time Aaron: No, you were holding your breath. Like Ryan: no. Chandler: the whole entire time you were stressed out. Aaron: Yep. So Ryan: The Houston Utah game was super low scoring at halftime. Was it like three to nothing or three to six or something? And then Chandler: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Aaron: Yeah. Yep. Yep. It was quiet for the first half and then it picked up. Ryan: Devin Dampier and Wade Sean Parker just start putting on Chandler: But see, like Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: this Indiana Michigan game, I'm not saying it it justifies Indiana going up 'cause it doesn't at all. But Indiana's first possession in overtime, when it was just two plays touchdown, and then they just they stopped Michigan and the game was over. that's what I expected to see the whole game. And I don't understand how all of a sudden in overtime when it means the most, it's like they just gave up and they're like, we got to overtime. We almost beat we shouldn't beat Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: him anyways, but it It doesn't make any sense and that kinda encompasses all of this year in j in general, of just like you can't predict what's gonna happen. Aaron: It it's yeah, it's it's like that same energy of a two minute drive where a defense instead of doing the thing that stopped the offense from producing all game, Chandler: For sixty minutes. Aaron: they're like, What if we put our safeties back 35 yards? Like, and then you're like, Don't do that. Like you you're literally changing up a scheme that was working, yeah. Chandler: Yeah, it's like we're gonna play chess on them. We're gonna fix it. Aaron: And then like it it doesn't work and it happens every time. And it's still to me very exciting overtime because it did like when you watched a six six game, you had very low expectation. I was like, this Chandler: Yeah. Aaron: might go on forever because they can't score. Like, I'll be whoever makes the first pass in overtime will win. kind of energy, which was the opposite of like the b the BYU UCF Chandler: Mm-hmm. Aaron: game where overtime was electric and yeah. Chandler: Yeah. There's been a lot of overtime this year. Ryan: That was incredible. But that shouldn't even gone to overtime. They ripped the guy's helmet off. They ripped his helmet off. And then just but BYU Aaron: No, it yeah. Which Ryan: could not afford to lose to UCF. So they had to say, no, no. Aaron: And they still did. Ryan: You have to go to overtime and earn it. Aaron: No, I will say that was on the officiating that there would there shouldn't have been a runoff because it was a failed kick play. So the clock should have stopped. Like there's a rule, subsection rule, subsection of that rule that if you go down that tree, the clock should have stopped at two seconds and they should have had a chance to kick. Chandler: Well, I think didn't they st didn't they have the runoff because they picked up the flag that wasn't actually a face mask? Aaron: Yes, but it's still like there was so many there were so many Ryan: They said it wasn't a face mask, so the clock just ran down. But it was. Aaron: amendums on that that Chandler: But it yeah, your helmet doesn't fall off with no face mask. Ryan: They they you Aaron: Well I I Yeah. Ryan: can't grab an opening of the helmet. He grabbed like the chin area of your jaw and ripped it off. But they were the number two team in the country. They Aaron: Yeah. It's still something, yeah. Ryan: couldn't afford to just let someone kick a field goal that would have been even closer and allowed them to win after they just blocked it. So they had to say no. Aaron: No, I I think I think it just turned into it turned into a mess. I think they got confused because I think they focused really heavily on the penalty. They forgot about the kick attempt that the kick attempt preceded everything else that happened. So the clock went off. I think they started going down the checklist. They pulled the flag. They said, Okay, we pulled the flag. The helmet's off. The player has to leave the field. There's a 10 second runoff for that because there's no timeouts. And they forgot to go back to step one, which was failed kick attempt. Which stops the clock. And it it was crazy. It was crazy. I do think they should have gotten the chance to kick. They got the officiating, made the choice, like I always stand on. Chandler: How crazy would that have been though with a backup kicker coming in to win the game? That would have been insane. Well he ha he had to. Because the 'cause the helmet came off. Yeah. Aaron: Which was also an insane choice. Absolutely crazy. Yeah. Because of the helmet came off. Yeah. And it was just like it was just insanity. So honestly, Chandler: That would have been nuts. Aaron: it came out. UCF then showed up in overtime. It was great. I really enjoyed it. Chandler: Well maybe see, Ryan's on to something though, because if that would've happened, if they would have lost to their backup kicker who has not probably attempted a PAT or extra point or field goal this Ryan: It looked really bad. Chandler: whole year, then it would have looked even worse and they would have dropped him to like sixteen or something. And then that would've been really bad. Ryan: Mm-hmm. I know, they can't afford that. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: They need two or Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: three teams from each in there. DEI. Speaking of the kick. Speaking of the kick. They should Chandler: I like it. Ryan's onto something. Aaron: I thought Yeah. Ryan: have had that girl from game day kick the kick. It's really it's really I feel bad. Chandler: That was so bad. And then she wa she was she she was like, the last guy got to kick for three million dollars. Why don't Ryan: Yeah. Chandler: I get to kick for three million dollars? And Pat McPhee said, Well there was two billionaires in this in the crowd that also donated a million. Ryan: Yeah. Chandler: Ugh. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: I feel bad. I might get a lot of hate for this. They need to make a separate role for when girls get chosen. Because unless you're a D1 soccer player, which they're probably not gonna be at game day and get picked. That's probably a point one percent person. they're not gonna be able to kick at thirty-three yards. And they even moved this girl up and she couldn't make it. But that's what I'm saying. So like Chandler: I mean, normal people can't kick at thirty three yards. The only kickers Aaron: Yeah, we watch it Chandler: that are actually getting the ball off the Aaron: all the time. Chandler: ground are like people that have actually kicked a ball before most of the time. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: That's what I'm saying. So even a guy, it's like if you don't make it it's not as cool, but I feel like the girls are at a disadvantage. They need to make some Chandler: punt it. Ryan: something. It's not fair. It's not fair. They're not gonna make it. Chandler: No, I agree. I agree. 'Cause imagine my mom is not gonna come off the side and drill a thirty three yard field goal if Jaden Fielding can't. Like Ryan: No, I probably can't kick a thirty-three yards. Chandler: No. Yeah, I agree. Hannah's not gonna go out there and be like, yeah, I got this. Ryan: No, my mom, Hannah, all the girls we can think of that aren't like D one soccer players physically cannot kick up all thirty three yards. Chandler: I can't even name a D one soccer player. Aaron: Well, I also think game day shows us that most people can't. But most of the time we watch a guy Chandler: Yeah. Ryan: Yeah. Aaron: go up there. The difference is all three of us go up there and think we can make that kick. And we go out there Chandler: Of course. Aaron: and kick it. I think everybody else has a very healthy sense of Chandler: I'm probably not making this. Aaron: yeah, I like this is a weird skill. Like this is a thing people practice for all their life to be good at. and I'm somebody who hasn't done that thing before. We go out there and we're like, we're gonna boot it. this thing's gonna this thing's gonna be good from sixty-six yards. Like yeah. Yeah. So Chandler: Yeah. Ryan: When I try it. Dude, she also almost kicked Kurt Herbstree. She ran straight at him. It's so funny. I don't know. No, I get yeah. I get it. Aaron: So I will say it it's fine, but like 33 for anyone, it's a lot. And then every once in a while they'll get a guy who'll be like, Yeah, I played soccer, or I was a kicker, and then he just boots it straight through. but how many fret boys do we see go up there and they're like, Pat, I got this? No doubt about it. And then and it like hits a kid in a crowd in a wheelchair or something like. Yeah. Ryan: Yeah, like at the Alabama game. Those those Alabama fan ever. Chandler: Honestly, this Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: is this is exactly what was going through my mind whenever that kick attempt happened. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: That's good. We should all try like we should have to go try it, us three. Aaron: You you know what? We'll do it. We'll do a rack field goal day. and we'll just go out and try to boot it. And we'll play ho Yeah, we'll play horse. I think we have to play Chandler: We can't leave the field 'til we make a hundred field goals. Ryan: I don't think I can do it. Aaron: until two people are out on horse, which could take all day for us to make field Chandler: I I like it. Aaron: goals. So Ryan: I Chandler: Good. See, this is what Aaron just said. Everybody thinks I can go out there and make a field call. Ryan: don't think I can make a field goal. I wasn't gifted the kicking. I I wasn't more always throwing. That's what I'm saying. And I have Aaron: Yeah. See, no, he's saying he can't he doesn't yeah. He's saying he he doesn't. Ryan: a torn quad. And I have a torn quad. Aaron: I in my head think I'm gonna make every single one of those. I think I can absolutely boot it. There is no reason I believe that in my head. There is I've Ryan: Skip Aaron: I can't kick anything. I've never done any. But if we go out there, I'm gonna win. Like there's no chance. Yeah. Chandler: this is definitely gonna be cut into a video of Aaron's saying, I am gonna make every single one. Wide left, wide Ryan: Clip it, we're doing this. We're doing this. Aaron: Yeah. Just Chandler: right, in the car dealership parking lot. Aaron: Yep. So keep an eye out for that 'cause that does sound fun. I've always wanted to go Chandler: That would that'd be a lot of fun. Aaron: out and kick field goals. because it's a dumb thing I think would be a lot of fun. Chandler: So speaking of things that haven't been good all year long, John Mateer. hasn't been the greatest quarterback. Aaron: No. No, he hasn't. but still produces some wins somehow. Chandler: but he was but but he was getting things done this past weekend, so I wanna go over to Ryan: He looks pretty good. Chandler: our Mississippi State fan here. And how how did we let John Mateer throw sub sandwiches all over the field and win? Aaron: Well, Mississippi's folk love to eat. So when Chandler: Ha ha ha. Aaron: somebody's handing out free meatball subs, we're not gonna stop So no, I wanna come in here and just straight off the bat open up with as a Mississippi State fan, I'm not upset with this season. This is a tragic season for us. There are things I wish would be different, but you know, primarily Camario Taylor be healthy. But for the most part, we at our core are not a top SEC team. We never have been. What Jeff Levy has done is do what middling SEC teams most of the time need to do. He went all in on one game plan because we had a talent worth putting all the chips on the table for. Is that guy? I still think if he was healthy, he'd still be in talks for Heisman right now. We he built Levy has built an entire game plan. All our receivers are speed based guys that go deep in the field and make great catches deep in the field. They beat with speed, which buys them the time to make the catch. Evans is a fantastic receiver deep. Where Evans isn't as surehanded is in a slot in a gadget type play. And when we're playing with our backup, who is not Kamario Taylor, you're having to make that adjustment. It's what I said last week where I was like, I wish we'd make some adjustments to play. Well, I realized why we didn't. Because those guys aren't built for that. It's not the game plan. It's not where the talent is. So now it's very similar to when Zach Arnett took over after Leach's passing. Leech was the best at running the air raid. And now you've got a guy who isn't Mike Leech running. An air raid trying to transition out of that because he can't run the air raid as good as Mike Leach did. Makes sense. The air raid players aren't built to be an NFL style scheme. It didn't turn out. And I think we're seeing that Kamario getting hurt was something that you had to risk in this bet. It happened. I think putting him out there was unfortunate. I I was hoping he wouldn't play today because I didn't want to see him get hurt. Seeing him limp off to the side was very concerning to me. I'm hoping we get to see him for this season. I'm hoping they don't keep trying to get him out there and the injury getting agitated over and over again. I don't know how well that'll work. In terms of what do I think is our recovery for this, I don't see one after Oklahoma. I didn't see a lot of opportunity. I still see The desire, the player showing up, I still see us not quitting. I just don't see right now where we're at what the solution is. And I think that's okay. Like I I think Levy's still gonna be working at it. We're still gonna be coming up with options. I just don't know if you can take a team geared for a very specific type of play, flip that within a few weeks and have results, especially because the next few weeks are. Brutal. Like we still we're in the midst of that chaos march that we're gonna go through and just keep adding some numbers to our L side of the board that were questionable even with Camario at full health. So we'll see. But like I said, I I'm still not upset with what I saw at a Billy Puckett. I'm still not upset with the attempts from Fluff Bothwell. I I would have liked to see more, but I still saw a very physical run game. Just Oklahoma's defense has been very good. We have seen it. They're very good at squashing the run game. And they did. Like they really shut us down at the line. And we didn't have any throw threat to pull off any pressure there for Fluff to come out and kind of make a big impact. So it was a loss. It was sad. You know, we kind of got to the after when we got to the half, I was like, I think. I think it's time that we could say, you know, show us mercy, put the towel out. Let's just keep playing, see if we can get something clicking. And it didn't. Chandler: Yeah, it's one of those things where you get a taste of like what it can be like when it's clicking in the beginning of season. And even myself and I know Ryan, like when we were watching, it was just fun to watch. They looked like they were having Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: fun out there, they looked like they were playing for each other. all the offense looked great, it was very dynamic. Camario brought a great run threat ability to an offense that is I mean, it looked great and for lack of better word, and it to see just to get picked apart by the injury bug and it's inevitable. It's football. It happens. You don't Aaron: Mm-hmm. Chandler: wish it upon anybody, but you expect it throughout the season and you're kind of just shocked when it doesn't happen if it does. And to have them get picked apart in those kind of key positions, it just is unfortunate. And it's just the way the dice rolls sometimes and you hope that he can come back next year and they can continue to add people in the portal in the off season, get some of the younger guys groomed up and hope it can be clicking again next year and and compounds and become better the next year. Aaron: Well, and I think that's an important topic, too, is like this year was our first year of having Zach Arnett back as the defensive coordinator. Our biggest slip-ups in the last two years have been defensively. Seeing the defense kind of clicking, firing, seeing the Arnett confusing style schemes come back into the game, help us. But we're not there yet. And so I think you give Zach Arnett another year with the transfer portal to put some of these things together to get some talent that he needs. I think we'll see some very credible threats show up on the defensive side of the ball, which is where Mississippi State has been strongest forever. with Camario at the helm, with Levy still out there. I mean, that second play of the game, what was it, like a 40, 60 yard attempt downfield? I love to see that's one of my favorite things about him that he'll just go out there, first or second play of the game, throw a deep ball, just Chandler: Let it let it rip. Aaron: let it go and just say, we're here to ball. And like I I appreciate that we just need a few more pieces. We're never gonna have the depth. We're not like other SEC teams that can throw 10 million dollars and go eight and four. We don't have that kind of resources at an individual player. Like we will make it work with what we got. And I think right now there's a lot to work with. It's just not there yet. Ryan: The air raid is kind of an aggressive Aaron: But we lost and I think we'll lost. Ryan: It's it's kind of an aggressive playstyle, if you know what I'm saying. Aaron: Mm-hmm. Ryan: It's very reliant on the player talent. That's why we're not so successful here at Auburn. Because it's like, yeah, I'm putting a lot of my faith like on one guy to make a play this time. I'm gonna kinda run the ball even though they have numbers. And if your players are better, it's like super great. But I think they kind of put The eggs in the Camario basket. And then with Fluff there, opens the run game. They're really relying on an Evans. So when you're taking these bits and pieces, it makes it pretty one-dimensional. You're putting all this stress and not even aggressiveness, just stress. You're stressing certain pieces at a time rather than making it easy on everyone. But like you're also having the upside for higher explosive plays that now you're just putting a bunch of stress on Pickett, you're putting more stress on Evans. That he has to catch it from Pickett and the Both will still kinda banged up and it makes it hard. It was the Camario basket, you know? And with him there and this working, it was so good that I actually like see like you're on the up friending still in years to come, is what I'm saying. So I think that's a good thing to come out of this. Even though he's hurt right now, I still see the upswing. Chandler: I agree. Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if I had to pick between the next two seasons that we have in the future of where does the season crashing injury happen for Camario, I'm glad it was this season. Because I think I think we have some good years ahead of us. I hope he gets healthy. I hope it's not a lingering just aggravating injury for the rest of his career. I hope it heals up and we take the time to let it heal up properly. Because now we know it's gotta be a semi-severe case of turf toe. like like I said, they need to change that name. because it just sounds like he got an infection from like dirty shower water. but it's like that seems to be something that's gonna take a little bit more time. It's been three weeks, four weeks now since the a Mizzou game. So if it's still going on, it's probably a pretty severe strain on that tendon. Chandler: twenty fourteen playoff. If you continue to uptrend, you don't have to be perfect all Aaron: Yeah. Yeah, we could Chandler: season. Aaron: we don't we only have to be twenty third. Chandler: Exactly. Aaron: So Ryan: Mm-hmm. Chandler: Do you don't want to be twenty fifth though? Aaron: No, that's Mazoo's responsibility. Chandler: Well, do we have anything else? Aaron: Not in terms of Ryan: someone says they're on Jaden Daniels earlier and Luke Fehey went to the same coach as him. Chandler: He did. Ryan: As the Jaden Daniels one hit wonder coach. But Luke Fehey's gonna tear it up against USC this week. But that's for Thursday's episode, and we'll continue to make some wrong picks. Unless you're Chandler: Well but that's for the yeah. We will. Ryan: picking Minnesota or Wisconsin. They're gonna win again. Chandler: Or if you're picking the over in the Tennessee South Carolina game. Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: By one point. Ryan: We need bits and pieces. We can't get them all right. Chandler: Exactly. Aaron: Yep. I didn't get many right at all. I think I got like Chandler: You pick South Carolina. Aaron: I did. I did. I think I got like Ryan: We did. Aaron: one or two. the rest of them I was like, ooh. Chandler: And Ryan picked Minnesota and Wisconsin. Aaron: shoutouts to Kanan. he listened to the episode, sent me the notes on Saturday of like where I stood on all the games. And Chandler: Yeah. Aaron: then I was like, Ooh, don't look at anything beyond this. So I think it was like the Indiana game and the South Carolina game, everything else I was just absolutely clueless on. So are we good for Ryan: We have good intuition about the games though. We just don't always guess the outcome. Like even the Timo North Indiana game, we were all kind of like it's gonna be a close, like low scoring game, Chandler: Low scoring game. Yeah. Ryan: Tennessee game, where like they're gonna be really physical. Like if Lenore shows up he could do good. Like that kind of stuff. We're in the right ballpark. So Chandler: We are. Aaron: I'll say I I would say my favorite one we've done so far this season has has to be Miami FSU. Because we called that a week out saying like FSU's gonna show up. Like this is a chance for FSU to be really, really strong in this game. And it did. It they showed up, but they didn't win. Chandler: Mm-hmm. Ryan: We need to do like a fails and successes of the week. Like every week. Just post Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. That's something that Ryan: a clip with like the top five worst picks we had that week and the five best picks we had that Aaron: Yep. Ryan: week. Aaron: So something we can definitely add to the workload as we go on. but in the meantime, we still keep up with our normal programs. We have our Thursday and as you're hearing this, Monday episode. So thank you all that are listening, following, engaging, keeping up with social media. Y'all have been wonderful. Show still growing each week, which is great. Everybody tuning in for the Long form, y'all are amazing. Definitely something that gives us a chance to really get a lot more of our thoughts out there outside the short form. But if you haven't already, please go follow us on all the social media platforms. If you can, like, comment, engage with the short forms when they come out. For everything else, thank you. We'll see you Thursday as we come back to try to pick. Winners and losers from this absolutely chaotic and insane season. We'll see you there. Ryan: Bye bye.