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Chip Patterson
This episode of the COVID 3 podcast is presented by Cash App. For a limited time only, new Cash App users can use our show's code when they sign up for a reward. Just download Cash App, use our code cover 3 and send $5 to a friend. Within 14 days, you'll get $10 right in your account. Terms apply. That's money. That's Cash App.
Danny Cannell
Welcome Back to the COVID 3 podcast.
Tom Fornelli
With your host, Chip Patter, Tom Fernelli.
Danny Cannell
Danny Cannell and Bud Elliott, it's your.
Tom Fornelli
Call for the best college football coverage.
Danny Cannell
From national signing day to the national championship and everything in between. CBS Sports presents the COVID 3 podcast.
Chip Patterson
And welcome back to the COVID 3 podcast here on CBS Sports. That's Tom Frenelli. That's Danny Cannell. I'm Chip Patterson. Cover coming to you live@YouTube.com cover3 and everywhere. Get your podcast on demand. Thanks for hanging out. Smash that subscribe, smash that like and come and join us in the chat, aka the COVID 3 tailgate, where they're trying to talk about college football playoff scenarios. That was for last night. No, today we are getting into the games. It is a Wednesday. That means we're getting into big game breakdowns. We'll be going inside the matchup for USC at Oregon. Oklahoma playing host to Mizzou. Pitt going to play the rambling wreck of Georgia Tech. And BYU trying to hold on to its spot in the Big 12 title race. Of course, we got to get our market report. You know, you got, you guys are buzzing about, you know, whatever the future of AI valuations are. What about the future valuations of these Heisman Trophy candidates, huh? What about the future valuations of these teams trying to play for conference titles and national titles? Day trading, Danny, will give us that and so much more. Let's not wait any longer. We love taking this time to talk about these games with you. We call it Big game Breakdown. Let's begin. Big game, biggest game of the week. It's going to be on CBS 3:30pm Eastern time from out at Austin Stadium in Eugene. You, you could see it on America's most watched network, the network of Stars, cbs. You can stream it on Paramount, plus a mountain of entertainment, USC at Oregon. Fun game. I mean, just on its face, Fun game. I would be excited about this regardless of their rankings, but we do have real stakes here. Danny, when we're starting to peel this apart, where do you want to start? Because I think that we've got, we've got a couple layers to this in terms of a lot of injury Issues to address that are going to be very important in this one. Two really fun quarterbacks with high ceilings, offenses that have. That don't mirror each other at all. In fact, it's more of like an inverse in terms of what they want to do. What. What stands out to you as some of the most important parts in this matchup.
Danny Cannell
So I think this is a battle of former PAC12 foes who is going to look like a battle of Big Ten opponents. And that's what Oregon wants to do because, you know, you would think when you look at the Big Ten who leads the conference in rushing, it'd be Michigan or Iowa. No, it's the Oregon Ducks.
Chip Patterson
They.
Danny Cannell
That's what Dan Lanning. And I think this is a direct byproduct of his physical nature. I mean, I heard you guys talking about. I think it wasn't the reaction show after they had all those injuries going into the Iowa game was like, what did they do on the bye week? I think they are. They want to have a physical mentality and they want to run the football. And I think that's what. And you know, Lincoln Riley has made it known after they beat Michigan. Hey, we're in the Big Ten. People said we couldn't win in the Big Ten. This will be the biggest test yet that USC has faced since Notre Dame on the road. I think this is going to be a physical, physical matchup. And I think that's the biggest question mark for me because USC has passed a couple tests against them. Iowa coming back from down 14, that was impressive. But this one on the road against physical team, how do they stack up against that run game? Some of that's due to injuries that Oregon is having with Corian Moore and others. Some of their weapons on the outside. But that to me, is the kind of the. The focal point of this game.
Tom Fornelli
I think, you know, you mentioned these are two former Pac12 teams. Just some fun little history between them. Because, you know, for a lot of these games in the Big Ten now with these west coast teams, there's no history between them. But these two have played. USC has not won at Austin Stadium since 2011, but that's only a span of three games.
Chip Patterson
So it's not like it's that six out of seven. Do I have that right?
Tom Fornelli
Six out of seven and seven of the last nine, Oregon has won.
Danny Cannell
All right, now we can officially retire it now that we have old men. It's done.
Chip Patterson
The joy in your eyes on that one.
Tom Fornelli
I don't really want to do this segment anymore after that. Anyways, I do think one of the key things we have to talk about here are the injuries. Like we don't know the status of Decoran Moore. We don't know the status of Gary Bryant. We know that Oregon got Kenyon Siddiq and Alex Harkey back for the Minnesota game last week. As for usc, I mean the thing about playing Big Ten football and being physical is physical football leads to injuries. And Last week in USC's win over Iowa, Come on. Mari Ramsey was in the injury tent. Defensive tackle Kishan Silver was in the injury tent. Elijah Page, who had missed time during the season, already was in the injury tent. We don't know what the full status of those three will be for this game and we won't know until Saturday because the Big Ten doesn't, you know, put out injury reports until Saturday morning. So it'll be interesting to see because I do think health will matter, especially for usc. When you're missing two of those guys on defense and you're starting left tackle, if they're not at full go and you're going on the road to play, play this game against a good Oregon team, that kind of puts you in a tough spot. And we have seen like USC did not have Kamari Ramsey in the Illinois game and Illinois just picked on his replacement the entire day and it was very, very effective for him. So that's going to be a key thing. I mean, if you get Kenyan Sadiq on on USC's backup safety, it's going to be a long damn day for the USC Trojans defense. So I think that matters a lot. And as you mentioned, Danny, like, output wise, these two offenses are very similar. Just USC does it more in the passing game, Oregon does it more on the ground. And I am worried because if I'm usc, there's been a common theme for my team all season. It's not we're a Big Ten tough football team. It's just we're a lot better at home than we are on the road like they had. They beat Purdue by 16. But if you've seen how Purdue has fared against everybody else, beating them by 16 is not that impressive. They lost to Illinois, they lost to Notre Dame, they beat Nebraska, but that was after Dylan Raiola broke his leg and missed pretty much the entire second half of that game. And they were losing before that injury happened. They were able to come back afterwards. So they have not looked good on the road at all. I mentioned they have not been very good at Austin Stadium in recent years. And if you look at Jaden Mayava's home road splits, like, he has not been fantastic the last few weeks, period. But if you look at him on the home and road, like he has been so much better at home. Like his, his completion rate drops from 74 and a half percent at home to 57.4 on the road. His yards per attempt goes from 10.7 to 8.2. His touchdown rate goes like it, it shrinks like three times what it is at home. And his interception rate more than doubles like it is not good. So this is a tough place for them to play. If they're able to go on there on the road in Austin, they're going to have to play good, clean football. They're going to have to take care of the football. And Jade Mava has shown an inability to do that in a lot of key spots this year. So it's, it's a really difficult test. But I think what we're going to need to see is whether or not the USC run defense can hold up against this Oregon rushing offense. Because as Danny mentioned, it's, it's not just the best in the Big Ten, it is quite literally one of the best in the country.
Chip Patterson
18 touchdowns to six interceptions on the season, 9.5 yards per attempt, completion percentage of 66.8. Tom just gave you the home road splits. What about the season as a whole? Because Jaden Maeva has not been a main character in the quarterback discussion. He has not been bad. You know, we haven't vilified him either. Is it. Has it been a success?
Tom Fornelli
I. He's been better than Miller Moss. It's hard to say it's been a failure, but like he has not been it. The problem is he's getting compared to like Lincoln's past quarterbacks were all winning Heismans. He's not that guy. He's been perfectly good. He's been one of the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten. He's just not playing at an elite level that you typically expect from a Lincoln Riley quarterback. But we haven't seen that in the last few years. Like there's, there's a reason he replaced Miller Moss and there's a reason I don't think USC is upset to have him over Miller Moss.
Danny Cannell
Yeah, I think, I want to say Jag plus. I think he's good top 10 and.
Chip Patterson
Passer rating nationally, you know, but like he hasn't been Fernando Mendoza, he hasn't been Julian saying C.J. carr's late season surge has changed it, you know, he doesn't have the. The wow factor of a demand. Williams or Diego Pavia. But he's got two good wide receivers, and he does a pretty good job, especially at home, of being able to find them in the right spots.
Danny Cannell
He doesn't have the big win on the road, which he could hear, you know, like, this would be a good separator for him. Cause I thought he played pretty good against Notre Dame for a few quarters, you know, and then just kind of couldn't get it closed out at the end, you know? So I. I think. I think he. I think if you ask Lincoln Ryle, I think he's pleased. I mean, sure. I'm sure there's always, like, he's not a number one overall pick and a Heisman Trophy winner, but I think very clearly he's an upgrade from Miller Moss.
Tom Fornelli
We'll say, though, like, it's not as if Dante Moore's lighting the world on fire, right? I mean, there's a reason Oregon's kind of been leaning into the run game lately. And it's not just the injuries to the receivers. Like, if you. If you look at Dante Moore, he made, like, going back to the Penn State game, he wasn't spectacular, but he was pretty damn good considering the environment, considering the opponent he was playing. But since then, it's been very up and down. He was bad against Indiana. He was bad against Wisconsin. He was bad against Iowa.
Danny Cannell
Until the last drive.
Tom Fornelli
Till the last drive. And then he was great last week against Minnesota. So which dude do we see this week? Because Dante. Like, for me, when I watched Dante Moore, when he rolls out of the pocket, he's very good, he's very dangerous. But when you keep him in the pocket, his accuracy kind of just goes way off. Like, he misses guys when he's standing in the pocket. So if you're usc, you have to keep him in the pocket and make him. Force him to make those throws down the field. So I don't really look at either of these quarterbacks as being somebody that I fully trust right now. So for a huge game like this, it could come down to which one of these guys doesn't make the mistake. The.
Chip Patterson
Danny, we were. One of the things that Tom and I were discussion was the. The way that Oregon's defense has been successful because it is, you know, statistically a very good pass defense. It is a group that has done a little bit of a. Not totally bend, but don't break. That might not be fair, but obviously extremely effective for being able to Play complimentary football to that run game. How do you think Oregon is built to be able to sustain, you know, what USC is going to provide on paper, but then also what they might provide in practice in terms of an offensive threat.
Danny Cannell
So I think for Oregon, I think this is, and I think this is what they're missing with the Corian more out is, you know, they kind of have to do it the hard way. You know, they don't have the. Now Sadiq is a threat. He can be the big playmaker without question. But I do. That's where I think they're lacking somewhat, is getting that big play so that it becomes more harder, puts more pressure on Dante Moore, you know, to do, to, to really come up with a consistent play that you're asking a first year starting quarterback to do.
Chip Patterson
Yeah.
Danny Cannell
What was the question again? Was it about.
Chip Patterson
It was about Oregon's past defense. Like, you're going to be dealing with two really, really good wide receivers.
Danny Cannell
Yeah.
Chip Patterson
And Oregon's past defense has not gotten carved up, though Fernando Mendoza probably did the closest thing to it. Right.
Tom Fornelli
Throw it.
Chip Patterson
Some of those throws and some of those catches, you still had Elijah Surratt back there. No, they, they, they had some statement drives in the first half of that game, I think.
Danny Cannell
But this is, but I do think this is where your defensive front seven needs to help out your secondary, you know, like, because, I mean, if Jade Maeva does have time, he's proven capable of being able to carve you up. And with those two wide receivers, you can get burned. So I think this is one where you'll see them, you know, dial up some pressures, try to confuse him, and they're going to have to take some risks at some point by putting your, your corners in an island, and you're going to have to pick and choose those and just kind of hope you don't give up the massive play. You know, you have to come up, make a tackle on a, on a crossing route, whatever it is, and maybe defend one. So I think that's, that's where. So I don't think anybody stacks up great against these wide receivers.
Tom Fornelli
You know what this is for, for Oregon's defense on Saturday, Chip?
Chip Patterson
What is it?
Tom Fornelli
Oh, gut check Saturday. Because here's the thing, like the key differentiator between these teams I mentioned, they're very similar outputs on offense. They're two of the most explosive offenses in the country. It's just defensively, Oregon is the best defense in the country as far as limiting explosive plays. But the caveat on that is when you go back to watch the game against Indiana, which was the best quarterback and the best set of receivers that Oregon has faced. They were able to put the ball down the field vertically and get some explosive plays in that game. So that, that tells me that Jaden Mayava, Jacoby Lane, Makai Lemon will probably be able to hit some of the bigger plays that, you know, Minnesota and Iowa and those teams haven't. So it will be very interesting to see. We will find out this weekend if Oregon is as good as those numbers suggest or if those numbers have been more of a byproduct of the offenses and the limited offenses that they have faced.
Chip Patterson
God love a good chuck.
Danny Cannell
Saturday today, 3:30 HQ a little sit down with Makai Lemon. Okay what he thinks about Oregon secondary. See if we get any bulletin board material for Dan Lanning and company.
Chip Patterson
Lincoln pass.
Tom Fornelli
He just comes out be like, these guys suck.
Danny Cannell
I've interviewed Lincoln earlier in the season, so maybe they were just like, all right, we'll give you a player this time. Which is always a little bit dicey. Well, I always say nervous talking to players because you don't know three word answers. Yes. No. Oh, crap, we're done after three questions. Because I like to try to listen and then, like have more of a conversation. But if there's no conversation, then it can end really quickly.
Chip Patterson
I don't know if anybody has ever mistaken Lincoln for somebody who tries to butter up the media, you know, so when the, when the Ice King does show a little bit of warmth, I take note. I think Lincoln likes you. Yeah. Conversation conversations. Yeah. Look for. I look forward to seeing, I guess the Makai Lemon interview will also be part of college football pregame.
Danny Cannell
I think so. I think that's the plan.
Chip Patterson
We'll.
Tom Fornelli
We'll.
Chip Patterson
We'll be sure to keep our eyes peeled for that. Danny, are you surprised at the spread here? We're gonna do obviously best bets for Thursday, 11am Eastern time when we do our week. Thirteen locks, but not nine and a half for a game.
Danny Cannell
It feels big.
Chip Patterson
Feels big.
Danny Cannell
Especially for a team that lost at home to Indiana. But I do think USC struggles on the road that Tom documented have a lot to do with this.
Tom Fornelli
Yeah, yeah.
Danny Cannell
Anything we'll find out. Like the Decori and Moore injury. I mean, there was all kind of stuff swirling that he was done for the year. Do we know anything about what it is?
Chip Patterson
Even I have seen photos of him walking out to practice. That could be lies about when that photo was taken. You know, like it's, hey, look, it's Dak coming out to practice. Oh, look at this, like Instagram photo. And I just, I'm choosing, I'm choosing not to go down that rabbit hole right now. I told, as I said earlier, I'm still working on my timeline cleanse from Virginia Tech, quote, unquote insiders. You know, now that that's done, I can flush out all of the attorneys and, you know, business big wigs, self proclaimed business bigwigs from the Hokie community. Congratulations. James Franklin had his press conference today. It, It'll, it'll be a, it'll be an interesting one to see if USC is going to be able to, to get back in here. I understand. To me. Do you know why I understand the injuries. The. Excuse me, the spread makes sense because not of Oregon's injuries, but because of USC's injuries. Because I'm just like, oh, gosh, lot of players on defense into the injury tent. As you mentioned, I went to look at Lincoln Riley's Tuesday availability is going to shock you. He didn't have any updates. I know this is extremely surprising, but a lot of names there on defense that are going to be playing a little bit hobbled. The only certainty he gave us is Wayman Jordan is not back yet.
Tom Fornelli
So, yeah, I expect those guys are going to play. But my concern is particularly with Ramsey and Paige. Like, they've been banged up all year, so it's like even if they're playing, you know that they're not at 100%, which could be a problem. And a matchup against a team with this much talent.
Chip Patterson
Yep, I agree with that. Anything else on this matchup? All right, let's turn again. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Danny Cannell
I mean, I, I know we do a lot of playoff conversation. Oregon loses this game, they're very much in trouble.
Tom Fornelli
Right?
Chip Patterson
They are in trouble. They are not out.
Tom Fornelli
They're not out.
Danny Cannell
Right.
Tom Fornelli
But they are in trouble.
Chip Patterson
They are in trouble. I've. The crew that I've got that I've been using to help my mind understand the playoff race is Oregon, Alabama, Notre Dame, Oklahoma. Those four teams right there have it all. Oh, Tom had this on his heroes on Monday. It's all in front of them. You, those four teams, you're. You're sort of sitting in the nice position. So if you can take care of business. We're not going to slide you over to the locks. We're not going to slide you over to safe. You're very much in jeopardy. So obviously win out to give yourself the best chance to be able to make it.
Tom Fornelli
Can I answer Garrett's question real quick?
Chip Patterson
Sure.
Tom Fornelli
Let me go find Jordan Davison, Dier Hill and Noah Whittington. Not Jordan Hudson. All right. Because that's what happened on yesterday's show.
Chip Patterson
On CBS Sports Network.
Tom Fornelli
I nearly called him Jordan Hudson on CBS Sports Network and it completely threw me off because they both spelled it with the.
Danny Cannell
Oh yeah, they were both competing this past weekend too.
Tom Fornelli
Exactly, exactly. I mean, you really see Jordan Davidson cheerleading for his team on the sideline when he's not on the field.
Danny Cannell
That's right.
Chip Patterson
The city of Raleigh has got a lifelong city of Raleigh resident. The city of Raleigh has grown a lot and I know it's grown too big and I don't know the whole city because I did not know that there was an adult co ed cheerleading competition. If I, if, if I had known that the head coach at the University of North Carolina football team was going to be somewhere near my house at an adult co ed cheerleading competition, I might have dropped in, you know, city than what I grew up in.
Tom Fornelli
I am not going to knock any adults who are doing recreational cheerleading because that stuff is hard. That is, you got to be a hell of an athlete to be doing it. The funny part is that Bill Belichick is there watching it because it's his girlfriend did it. That's the funny part.
Chip Patterson
He looked like me at the three to five year old taekwondo. You know, like when I'm there with punt and pooch at taekwondo and I'm just sitting in the corner of the room and the mats are out there watching them work on their body focus and their eye focus. So good, so good. Okay. That a game of course you can watch it on CBS 3:30pm Eastern Time. We will have Brad and Gary and Jenny on the call. Lots of coverage on CBS Sports HQ all through the day as well. Elsewhere in college football, we will be seeing if the Sooners can back up another impressive road win with a victory against Missouri. I just mentioned Oklahoma as one of those teams that if they can just take care of business and land the plane. Here's the issue though. Missouri's a not dead team. We'll see what LSU has for the end of the season, but they certainly showed some fight in a win against Arkansas last week. Tom, we're looking on the screen YouTube.com cover three of Missouri's rushing offense against Oklahoma's run defense. Clearly the downfield passing attack is not part of the repertoire for the Tigers this year. Do you think that Missouri is going to be able to move the football on Oklahoma.
Tom Fornelli
No.
Chip Patterson
Okay.
Tom Fornelli
No, I, I listen, like, Missouri's rushing offense kind of hit. You know, they've had a couple good games in the last couple weeks, but I think, like, Mississippi State's a terrible defense, which kind of papers over some of it. I think that if you look at how Missouri's been this year, when they've played the better teams in the SEC or at least the better defenses in the sec, I don't. I don't want to throw Auburn out by calling him a better team, but, like, they're. The rushing attack has struggled. Like, if you look at Ahmad Hardy's overall numbers, a lot of those have come in very, like, half of Mizzou's games. He's also had a lot of bad games. So I, I don't think going into this one, especially with the uncertainty at quarterback. Is Bo Pribula playing? Do we know. Is he coming back? I don't know, but I. I just don't feel like anybody can run against Oklahoma because Oklahoma has faced good offenses and Oklahoma has stopped all of those rushing offenses. So I think that just matchup wise, I have to give Oklahoma's defense the edge here, which then turns this into a situation of, do you believe Missouri can throw the ball well enough against Oklahoma to put points on the board? And I don't because we saw the Oklahoma defense struggle against Tennessee and Ole Miss in the passing game. The secondary was getting picked apart pretty good by those two offense. But the problems that I saw in those games weren't there last week. They figured it out. They fixed whatever it was against Alabama. That was Alabama's worst passing offense, like, performance as far as EPA is concerned since the Florida State loss. So Oklahoma seems to have figured that out and now Mizzou's got to deal with them. And they're coming off a huge win. So maybe you hope for the letdown, but I feel like Missouri's truest path to winning this game is John Matiere doing John Mattier things. And not in the good way, like, getting to him, pressuring him, forcing him into making throws that he shouldn't be making and just kind of putting the ball in danger. Getting turnovers, getting short fields. You know, kind of like what they did to Alabama, Oklahoma did to Alabama last week.
Danny Cannell
I would. I would say this would be my bud voice who are the best rushing attacks they face. Like, let's spitball this here. They did struggle to stop the run against Michigan, 7, 8.
Chip Patterson
But I was looking at that.
Tom Fornelli
That was on one run, though.
Chip Patterson
75 yards on one Justice Haynes touchdown run. So that.
Danny Cannell
Okay, now let's do Texas. What about Texas?
Tom Fornelli
That was a bad run game though.
Danny Cannell
Okay. But I do like. So I, I'm fascinated by this matchup because, and I, I do think it does matter if Bo Pribs plays because Zollers has struggled. But I don't know, like, it's not like you're getting back Ty Simpson or Gunnar Stockton. Like he's, he's still a little bit dicey. He has not played great against the better defenses he's played. But at least you have to defend the path. Like you have to worry about it somewhat because if it's dollars, I think you're going to see them just sell out and be like, go ahead, beat us in there. And then I don't think they'll be able to run the football where I think it'll get back a little bit to like the Michigan game where you do run the risk of one big play like and that's where I think Mizzou, it'll be a really good test for them. How committed are they to the run where you mod Hardy's best back in the sec? You keep hammering it up there and you're really. But you're like, no, we're going to keep hammering it and then all it takes is that one big play. And Oklahoma's offense, it is a liability. It has not been very good. So I think this game is intriguing. If it was in Columbia, I think it would be way more intriguing. Like, ooh, Oklahoma could bet get beat. Like I don't think Oklahoma will get beat, but I think they could get scared. You know, it could be a nerve wracking game that like for them you'll take an ugly win all day long.
Tom Fornelli
And the other side of this too is like as far as Oklahoma's offense is concerned, you would think that if you want to avoid mater making those mistakes, you want to lean on your run game. And Oklahoma had been struggling to run the ball all year, but then we'd kind of seen in recent weeks they weren't elite, they weren't great at it, but they were figuring things out in the run game. And then last week came and they couldn't do anything in the ground game like Alabama was going to take it away. And while Missouri does not have the same level of run defense that Oklahoma has put up this year, it's still one of the better run defenses in the country. Like It's a top 25 unit in most of those stats. So if Oklahoma is unable to establish the run in this game, and they have to put it all on the tier, whether that's with his arm and his legs and just letting him be, you know, Mr. Do It All. Carry the offense on my back. I don't think that's great for Oklahoma. Like, I. I think it's very important for the Sooners to be able to run the ball in this game. And I also think Satania at receiver has kind of emerged in recent weeks, which is nice, because I think that gives him another weapon in the passing game. So it's. It's going to be. I. I think it's going to be low scoring, put it that way. I think this is going to be very like the totals. What, 42 and a half. I think that that is going to be very much how this game plays out.
Chip Patterson
Yeah. Justin in the tailgate says if Mizzou is so woeful, shouldn't the line be bigger than seven and a half? But here's the thing. So seven and a half and a 42 and a half total is, you know, 24 to.
Tom Fornelli
Yeah, it's 24 to 17.
Chip Patterson
Yeah.
Danny Cannell
Correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't it at nine and a half or was it never that high?
Chip Patterson
I thought nine and a half was usc, Oregon.
Danny Cannell
Okay. Remember, I saw this one bigger, but, yeah, this. This line feels tight. Like, this is where I would expect it to be.
Chip Patterson
Big game for Kirby Moore. You know, we go into this season. He joined the Mizzou staff back in 2023. You know, you hear people be like, oh, yeah, Kirby Moore. He's like, good offensive mind. Kirby Moore, good offensive mind. I. I mean, I'm sorry if I've just been under a rock. I don't think we've mentioned it here. That's Kellen's brother.
Danny Cannell
Yeah.
Chip Patterson
Yeah. Come on, Kirby. I'm gonna say, are you gonna be a Garrett Riley? Okay. Or are you gonna be. You know, like, we've got a lot of first families of play callers out here, and it doesn't always work out. Huh.
Danny Cannell
You know, he doesn't have Marcel Reed, though. You know, like, that's. That's where I do. I wonder whoever plays quarterback. It's going to be a long afternoon, and you just have. And I think for both. So I think it could be long from a tier two. And the thing that he did against Alabama is he was patient. He didn't get antsy. He didn't try to make the big play. And I just. I wonder if they've Been talking to him, coaching him up, saying, hey, I know you're used to putting up big numbers, you know, getting big touchdown plays. It is okay to just get back to the line of scrimmage and line it up for second down because I, I do think he's done better. But that still does concern me for Oklahoma.
Chip Patterson
Yep. Will that one in Norman should be, should be a very, very interesting one. Also from the vibes off field department, what we make of Eli Drinkwitz prepared statements at the the podium earlier this week. We like them feeling antsy. We're shopping. Is drink waiting on Lane? Mizzou fans didn't love it?
Tom Fornelli
No, I, no, they didn't. I just. Yeah. I mean, I think if you're a fan, you want your coach to make the choice. But I think for the coach, it doesn't make a ton of sense to say one thing definitively one way or the other because maybe he's interested in another job, maybe he has no interest in another job, but he might be interested in a raise.
Danny Cannell
Don't you think? All of them, if they don't sign it. After a month of rumors that they are shopping around.
Chip Patterson
Yes.
Tom Fornelli
Oh, for sure.
Danny Cannell
Yeah. Yeah. I mean they're like, yeah, like you don't have to say anything. Your actions speak louder than anything.
Tom Fornelli
Yeah, yeah. The same thing is it's like I wasn't like when they stay, I wasn't looking around. And whenever you do hire a coach, he was the top target on our board. He was the only one we made an offer to. It's, it's, it's happening all the time. Like all these coaches are represented by like five or six different agents. And these agents are talking to the ads and they're like, well, I've got this guy, I've got this guy, I've got this guy. Like the agent is doing their job, he's shopping them all around. That's literally what he's paid to do.
Chip Patterson
Agents also sometimes represent the athletic directors too.
Tom Fornelli
Yes.
Chip Patterson
So in the players.
Danny Cannell
Yes, all of them.
Chip Patterson
Amazing. Amazing. All right, coming up on the other side, you know it's Wednesday. We gotta check in with the market. What's the latest? We check in with day trading Danny. Plus more game breakdowns, storylines to watch and more.
Tom Fornelli
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Chip Patterson
So good, so good. So good. New markdowns are on at your Nordstrom Rack store.
Tom Fornelli
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Chip Patterson
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Chip Patterson
All right. What back here on the COVID 3 podcast on Wednesday. Don't you want your, don't you want your intro animation?
Danny Cannell
Yeah, that's right.
Chip Patterson
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tom Fornelli
I know, I know.
Chip Patterson
The big time gets you fired up. Let's let it roll. Mikey Day trading Danny.
Danny Cannell
All right, Appreciate that. John in the chat said the Cutter Bowley buy a few weeks ago was wonderful. All right, trying to make you guys some money out here.
Tom Fornelli
One for 50.
Danny Cannell
Watch out. I'll go back and go through the list from the beginning of the year if you really want. I only had a couple plays today on actual players, but I do have some stories kind of that I was gonna buy or sell my first player that I want to buy. Bird Ficklin, Utah's backup quarterback, makes Utah a team that nobody should want to see. Nobody should want to play. Utah's kind of lurking around that area where they need some help. We've all focused on Miami as a two loss team. I think Utah's one that is kind of similar where they're in the conversation. And Bird Ficklin in his two games with meaningful playing time. He had the start against Colorado where he rushed 20 times for 151. And then this past week coming off the bench and you know, kind of as an added weapon, six rushes for 166. So Devin Dampierre, you might have a two headed monster there playing quarterback for Utah. So I'm buying up some Bird flick fickling stock and I saw somebody else in the chat earlier say bird is the word. Didn't even see that.
Chip Patterson
But that was earlier. Listen, I, I don't Know about many people, but at least one person is wondering if Bird Ficklin is the Tim Tebow of this season. If that two headed monster at quarterback, you know it's right. Tim Tebow, you know, you bring it in there, it's just a difference maker.
Danny Cannell
And I think people, you know, people have said, you know, I heard you guys saying it on the reaction pot like George is the team nobody wants to play right now. I think that is Utah. I think nobody's. Utah is a team that nobody is certainly in the Big 12 doesn't want to face and don't want to see them in the Big 12 championship game. But they obviously need some help. The Heisman race, I'm selling everybody except the top three. It's a three man race between Julian Saying, Fernando Mendoza and Marcel Reed. I think Gunner Stockton has been awesome. I think statistically he just has too far to go. Diego Pavia is out there doing the dance on Tick Tock, but I think that's just almost a play for desperation to like keep his relevance out there. Sure, if he beats Tennessee, he'll be invited, which I think is a really cool story. But I think it's a three man race. I'm buying it's only a three man race. Selling everybody else. You guys down with that?
Chip Patterson
No, not really. But I think that you're probably. I think the winner probably is one of the two quarterbacks in the Big ten.
Danny Cannell
Same. That's what I kind of went with a couple weeks ago as a buy.
Chip Patterson
Yeah.
Danny Cannell
The door for Marcel Reed. I do think the comeback was kind of his Heisman moment. As bad as his first half was, he was phenomenal in the second, which was super impressive to come back.
Chip Patterson
The list of contenders to be a finalist is a lot larger.
Danny Cannell
Yes.
Chip Patterson
I think Marcel. Marcel reads closer to other names that'll all get little nibbles here and there.
Danny Cannell
Yeah.
Chip Patterson
But yeah.
Danny Cannell
Coming back from 27 and a half is awesome. It's not quite as good as 28 and 11 minutes, but that's another story for another day. All right, I will. All right, so I got a couple stories that I'm gonna buy or sell. Like stuff that's been in the conversation in college football. Big news yesterday, Sam Levitt shopping around his team, his camp. His brother was out there denying it. So I am buying that Sam Levitt is very much shopping around, but I also think it's probably more that he is being offered by other teams. So I don't even know if it's them dangling them out there. It's just they've been approached by everybody. And So I am 100% buying that Sam Levitt is very much in play for. For a lot of teams across the country, the season shut down. Kenny Dillingham, you know, his odds to potentially be the LSU coach are pretty sky high. I. Kenny Dillingham has been out there asking for local restaurants for money for nil. Do you guys see that? He's saying, put, put our guys make a sandwich after our players. I mean, who wouldn't want a little Jordan Tyson tuna sandwich? You know, I mean, do you know.
Chip Patterson
What that sounds like to me?
Danny Cannell
It sounds like somebody who's frustrated with the NIL landscape and he wants to go somewhere where he doesn't have to beg for money or.
Chip Patterson
Or with a. This. Let me make sure. I think that as we have had a discussion on here before, there are different approaches to the clearinghouse and the NIL regulations. And if you are having to beg local businesses for a Jordan Tyson sandwich, it sounds like you were being held to following the letter of the law.
Danny Cannell
Yeah.
Chip Patterson
And you can probably pay players a lot easier if you're not following the letter of the law with this NIL stuff.
Danny Cannell
Yeah.
Chip Patterson
So that's.
Danny Cannell
That was one. So the bottom report there, I don't know if you can read that. Selling the College Sports Commission, because remember that was supposed to be the policeman. It was coming in and they had the executive from Major League Baseball and they were going to police anybody. Has anybody in the last couple months, or I would say since it started, there was maybe one report that said Nil GO had turned down so many. But then there was a bunch of others that were being protested that they were going to try to resubmit them. The whole thing is a joke. Like that thing has disappeared. So I think the schools that are being more aggressive, I'm buying all those schools because until they get in trouble for going over the cap or creating NIL deals or having them that are above the money, why would you Listen.
Tom Fornelli
Here'S the thing about, like the CSC and the NIL Go. People care about that crap in March because we don't have anything else to talk about once the game starts, nobody gives a shit. Nobody's bringing it up. Nobody cares.
Danny Cannell
They haven't policed anything like you haven't.
Chip Patterson
Nobody cares.
Tom Fornelli
Nobody's asking them to.
Danny Cannell
Right.
Chip Patterson
I don't know. I could see them. This, this is where it depends. As an athletic director, you have to make a decision based on your coach, based on your boosters, based on what you are trying to win. Like, how much is your university president going to be mad if in March 2026, the College Sports commission's like, well, guess what? They were ineligible, you know, and try to like, retroactively do this now again, at certain programs, the message from your university president, off the record and your boosters, anytime they pick up the phone is, we don't care. You do what you need to get the roster together to go win those football games. And I, I just. How about this? According to our own Chris Hummer, Arizona State as an athletic department is not spending the full rev share allotment this year.
Tom Fornelli
They're paying off. Did they do work on the stadium recently?
Danny Cannell
Yes, they've been dying a bunch.
Tom Fornelli
Yeah, exactly.
Chip Patterson
And the expected market for Sam Levitt is expected to be 3 million plus.
Danny Cannell
Oh, I think it'll be more than that. I think that's a pretty good deal.
Tom Fornelli
You're paying 11 in 2025.
Chip Patterson
Let me, let me, let me, let me,.
Tom Fornelli
2024.
Danny Cannell
He's shown you more though, than Lenore Sellers did last year in a smaller body of work.
Tom Fornelli
But like, go look at his numbers in 2024 and compare them to his numbers this season.
Danny Cannell
Agree.
Tom Fornelli
That's a lot of money for a Jaguar.
Danny Cannell
I think he's better than a Jag.
Tom Fornelli
He hasn't been this year when he played.
Danny Cannell
He hasn't been this year. He's been banged up though. You know, he's got one good wide receiver who's great, but he's been without that receiver. Yeah, they're.
Tom Fornelli
How is he without the running back that they had?
Danny Cannell
Well, that's why.
Tom Fornelli
Showing up at WWE events.
Danny Cannell
But I think that's why you'll see Sam Levitt leave to a place where he has better talent and I think that will help him tremendously.
Tom Fornelli
I just don't know that I would be paying that price for him. That's a lot of money for. In my.
Danny Cannell
I think that's. I think that's probably on the low end of like a starting quarterback at the top 40 school in the country. I think 4 million is kind of a good quarterback.
Chip Patterson
And just because college football insiders, our friends, our colleagues here at CBS Sports, Chris, I'm a part of that as well, so. So I give him a shout out, point to the passer, Dean Smith style. It is. A salary for a quarterback of Levitt's caliber will be 3 million plus next season.
Tom Fornelli
Yeah, then give me the $2 million quarterback and I'll put that money that I saved on him. Into my defense and offensive lines.
Danny Cannell
See, I kind of think there will be some teams that might wake up and realize, like, that's the whole NFL win with a rookie quarterback who. You're not paying much. Pay everybody else. I do think that's a good idea because there's some good quarterbacks.
Tom Fornelli
Yeah. Unless I have a true difference maker at that position, I am not paying that much in my allotment. No way in hell.
Chip Patterson
So in Duke got Darian Mensah for four per year over, like, over two years.
Danny Cannell
Yep.
Chip Patterson
That means that the four was super expensive this year and then on market value for next year.
Danny Cannell
Correct. Yes. A lot of these, by the way. What's that?
Tom Fornelli
How's that working out for him, by the way?
Danny Cannell
He's been great, but what about the.
Tom Fornelli
Rest of the team?
Chip Patterson
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Danny Cannell
Also struggle. He struggled against Illinois and struggled against Yukon with a couple picks.
Chip Patterson
Yeah.
Danny Cannell
No.
Chip Patterson
Darian Mintz is one of the friendliest quarterbacks in the acc. That guy likes to share the ball with his teammates, with defensive backs, with. I mean, he's just. He is an extremely. I mean, generosity. I know the holiday season's coming up. Darian Menz is ringing the bell outside of the grocery store. You know, that guy is.
Danny Cannell
That is. I mean, that would be the case. The Tom says where if you paid him too, you probably could have got some other real difference maker on the offensive line or running back and bought a lot of good players. So I do think if that was a gm, that would be my models. You can find a good quality quarterback for 2 million out there. So better make sure you put them in good supporting U.S. staff. All right. Another story that I'm selling, this story. Lane Kiffin's ultimatum, or actually Ole Miss's ultimatum to Lane Kiffin. So I'm. So Lane Kiffin was on Pat McAfee yesterday. He said there is no truth to it. That is not what has happened. There is no ultimatum from Ole Miss. Here's why I believe Lane Kiffin. Because all the stuff, the gossip that we've been hearing is very similar to what I had heard over the weekend. And all of it kind of is in the same bucket of just gossip that's out there was the same stuff that Desmond Howard, we even talked a little bit about on Monday. I was like, hey, you know, keep. And then Desmond's out there with a big smile on his face, feeling like he's breaking big, juicy news. Like, hey, this Texas job. The same bucket of information was that Ole Miss was going to Give Lane Kiffin an ultimatum. Like that was in the same bucket of gossip. So I do, I do believe Lane Kiffin, that there's not an actual you have to sign this. I think they would like to say that, but I think when push comes to shove, it's a negotiating tactic and they're trying to force his hand. But I don't think Ole Miss will actually get to the point where they tell Lane Kiffin to walk.
Tom Fornelli
Agreed.
Danny Cannell
Which is why I'm selling analysts trying to break news and try to run with gossip. Now, Stuart Mandel is not an analyst. I think he probably had some sources, maybe the same one that the players are getting it from, that are feeding him this information. But don't ever take anything from me as a report. Don't ever take anything from Desmond Howard. Don't take anything from any analyst that says based on what they're hearing or they've talked to people, because, man, we've seen. We've seen. So even Kirk Herbstreet has been burned by it. He's talked about it. He said he would never break news again. I forget what specific story it was.
Tom Fornelli
He had Rich Rod going to Alabama, remember?
Danny Cannell
And he report. He was like, I. He reported it and then he said, I'll never do it again after he got burned.
Tom Fornelli
I mean, that's like, not to get all journalism 101 here. But like, you used to have to actually confirm things with somebody before you report it them. And now people are just going on their Tick tock or their Instagram lives and be like, my friend texted me this. I don't know whether he knows or not, but this is what I'm hearing sources indicate to me.
Chip Patterson
Yeah, yeah.
Tom Fornelli
Read it on a message board.
Chip Patterson
I. Insiders getting played and analysts getting worked to control the message or stir up the pot. It's always very, very tricky around this time.
Tom Fornelli
Right. You're being used. Yeah. You know what? And the other problem is there are plenty of people who are insiders who have no problem being used and understand they're being used and they'll still put it out there because that's what they're paid to do.
Chip Patterson
The information trade. Like, I'm going to give. I'm going to. I'm going to put this out because you're telling me this even though I'm not positive about it, but because I'm doing this favor for you, that means when I come to you later and I need confirmation on this other thing I'm working on, it's when we get back into the the agent discussion. Right. If one agent is representing nine different coaches and I am sitting here and you're telling me something about one of the coaches, I might. I might go with that report because I know it'll get me in your good graces for when I need the big scoop for the other guy that's in your Rolodex.
Tom Fornelli
And it's not just with the agents, Chip. Some people work for places where there's letters in their name, but none of them stand for news. But one of them does stand for entertainment.
Danny Cannell
True. It's true. Very true.
Chip Patterson
I mean, former players can get manipulated, Danny. You know?
Danny Cannell
Yes, absolutely. You know, that's why. That's why I'm saying, don't like.
Tom Fornelli
And I.
Danny Cannell
That's why I'm giving people, like. If you hear me say something, do not take it as a report. It is not me reporting anything. It's me telling you the stuff I'm. It is basically mid. It's reality television. It's Survivor. It's basically. It's Love island is what it is. It's just.
Chip Patterson
I. I'm reading you what the streets are saying. This is coming from the group chat, you know.
Danny Cannell
Right, right. I mean, that's basically what everybody's talking about.
Chip Patterson
Yeah.
Danny Cannell
The only. The only thing I would say with Lane Kiffin and I, again, the reports are that, like, are the reports accurate that his family was in Gainesville and in Baton Rouge? You know, it's hard to deny that. I mean, Kim Mulkey, the head coach at lsu, was saying, oh, y' all didn't see his family was in Gainesville, too? Is that what we're going with? Like, is that what people are running with? Do people have the tail numbers? I mean, this stuff is not. It's. It's off the charts, Danny.
Chip Patterson
The. Based on my understanding of following this insanity, it looked like somebody had. Somebody was in a bushes with camo at the Baton Rouge airport trying to get a photo of Bigfoot.
Tom Fornelli
Forget. Forget the on field results. This is the primary difference between the SEC and the Big Ten. You do not see this in the Big Ten.
Chip Patterson
I was. I was talking about that with. With my friend Joe Obvious yesterday. You know, like, you guys don't understand what levels it gets to with this.
Tom Fornelli
And.
Chip Patterson
And you know what, Danny? The thing that. The place I am in, the fan fiction. Alert, alert. Fan fiction. The place where I am in this is LSU fans and Florida fans each thinking that now they're just negotiating against each other, that they're out here being like, okay, so we first said he can coach the playoff, but then LSU said, no, he cannot coach the playoffs. He needs to get to work right away. So now we're getting up our offer to 15 million per year over 10 years so that then he will not coach the play. I mean, amazing, amazing levels here. I have no idea where we're going to land. And I'll go back to something I said I think during the. Maybe it was the James Franklin side. I mean, if Knox, who is a quarterback prospect in the 2028 class, if his family, which, you know, he has talked a lot about how, you know, getting his family all back on the same page has been a big part of his own, like, mental, spiritual, sort of return to self. If you're not at least going and checking out schools and stuff like that, sure. You know, right. This year, off week, it's a sensible time to do it.
Tom Fornelli
I mean, that's another factor you have to consider too. Like, we always compare jobs. Like, is this a better job? But if you're Lane Kiffin and your son is in high school and he's a quarterback prospect, you also have to wait, do I want to uproot him and move him to a new school?
Danny Cannell
Right.
Tom Fornelli
It's going pretty well for him at this school. Do I want to change things? So, right. All of this stuff goes in that most people don't consider.
Danny Cannell
Right. We never consider. Consider the personal aspect to it. I mean, there's. I got asked by this radio station in LA if Jed Fish's wife hates Seattle, and maybe she does. Maybe she would much rather be. And I do think that factors into decisions. Brett Lashley said one of the reasons he stayed in Dallas was because his wife and his four children were happy at the school they were in and he didn't want to move them, like a lot of that does. When I moved to Connecticut for espn, I had to talk to my wife about that. She had to be okay with that. That was a hard move, you know, like, you have to consider those things. There's also. This is all setting up too, for just the troll of all trades from trolls. From Lane Kiffin, who is the master troller of the college football universe. Like, wherever he goes, like, could you imagine him saying, we didn't like them? We didn't like the neighborhoods in Gainesville or Baton Rouge?
Chip Patterson
Like, yeah, whoever it is. Whoever it is. Like, whatever happens here, Lane Kiffin has made himself the main character in the Southeastern Conference for the next five years.
Danny Cannell
Yeah.
Chip Patterson
No matter what happens, all I will.
Danny Cannell
Say is if if you really wanted to troll or if there's something happens and there's a private jet that goes from Oxford to Austin, Texas. The Internet may break this weekend.
Tom Fornelli
He should just take the flight to go visit Stark.
Danny Cannell
He should. He should be like, oh, get lunch. Oh, my goodness.
Chip Patterson
So good.
Danny Cannell
Oh, that's a wrap for the market. That was a little bit of gossip today.
Tom Fornelli
Hey, listen, markets have moved for less.
Chip Patterson
Markets have moved on gossip before. Why stop now? All right, coming up on the other side, more of our games to watch, matchups, X Factor storylines and more next.
Tom Fornelli
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Chip Patterson
Back here on the COVID 3 podcast. As much as Tom Fornelli might hate it, we got to turn our attention to the Atlantic Coast Conference. He's trying to wipe them off the map. He's trying to relegate them outside of the fbs. But we have a game of significance stakes and honestly kind of interest. Could be a fun game. Pit going down to Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech's defensive issues have not been fixed. Ah, yeah. Boston College running up the score, nearly knocking off Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets lucky to esc with a win in that one. Obviously CJ Bailey and NC State tore him up the week before. Now here comes Mason Heinshul and a pit offense that was especially early in that game just put in the sleeper hold by Notre Dame. So Danny, do you are you seeing a pit bounce back or a response where they're going to be able to not let one loss become to try to catch their rhythm and maybe Go in and take advantage of a. A weakness for George Tech that I don't. I don't know if there's an easy fix there.
Danny Cannell
No. Brent Key talked to him on Monday. He came on a radio show and we were asking like, what'd you say at halftime? And he's like, I may have thrown some things. And so we're like, what'd you throw? And he's like. He's like, I don't know. He's like, I was throwing everything I get my hands on. He's like, there was a.
Tom Fornelli
He said.
Danny Cannell
He said there's lucky there wasn't a little DB right there. I might have thrown a little TB back across the room. And I mean, we see his press conference was going viral after where he was like, ah, we just won. All year long he has said this team, but I think he's specifically talking about his defense is going to give him a heart attack. Like, I think he just goes into every game. He did tell us, he said he thinks it's all assignments. You know, he said like the, the team isn't lining up in the right place. I think there's something to that.
Chip Patterson
But there's also.
Danny Cannell
I do think the personnel is not great either. So I think it's a combination of both. So then it puts a lot of stress on the offense who's been awesome. Haynes King has put this team on his back time and time again. And I remember watching the Boston College game being like, is he going to get the chance? Because at some point you're like, can they even get off the field? And Boston College could not close it out. And he was given that opportunity. I. Do you guys think I'm crazy?
Tom Fornelli
Yes.
Danny Cannell
Yes. Do you guys anything? I'm crazy to say that Pitts defense actually played pretty good against Notre Dame.
Tom Fornelli
No, I don't think that's crazy at all.
Danny Cannell
Because that was like, that's. To me, what's the thing to watch out for? Because like the point totals high at 61 and a half and you know, Dusty's calling the game and he said, oh, man, I think it's gonna be a shootout. I don't know if Georgia Tech's gonna move the ball like the way they've been moving against this pit defense. So that becomes an interesting scenario. Like, I, I don't. That's what. That's kind of something I'm keeping on because I think Pitts defense is pretty good. And then to your question about Mason Heitchel, he had. And I was talking to AJ McCarron about this, you know, while we were reacting to the game as it was unfolding, sometimes you don't have to look at the stat line. And I thought the pick six, like Mason Hychel was kind of done. Like it was the knockout blow not only to the game but to his confidence and then he was just off all day. That to me is can he regain it against this Georgia Tech golf defense, which is really bad. So that's kind of a storyline to keep an eye out for. But I think Pitt's defense is the thing that probably concerns me if I'm a Georgia Tech fan. You know you're going to give up points like but can you get in a shootout?
Chip Patterson
Jeremiah Love hit that one pit defender with the spin move that kind of, you know, opened the field up for the long run. I don't anecdote, I don't have their success rate pulled up, but anecdotally it did not feel as though Notre Dame was shredding.
Danny Cannell
Right.
Tom Fornelli
It was more efficient than it was destroying. Yeah.
Chip Patterson
What do you think Tom?
Tom Fornelli
First of all, to answer your slanderous allegations at the start of this segment, I have I'm a Virginia Tech fan now, so I love the acc. I think it's a tremendous league and I can't wait until my Hokies win it for the next year decade. As for this game in particular, both these teams are lucky not to be facing my Hokies. But I do think one of the interesting aspects, and we've touched on it already, is like I, I don't trust the Georgia Tech defense. I don't think it's God awful either. Like obviously the last two games it has been single ply toilet paper tough, like it's just been getting run through and it wasn't exactly like they were playing the cream of the crop. Like I'm not going to make excuses for getting destroyed by NC State in Boston College, but the fact of the matter is while it hasn't been good, Georgia Tech's defense has been pretty much average at home in these last two games around the road. So returning to home for this game, I think we will probably see a better performance from this defense just based on what we've seen from it at home all year. I also think we will see a better performance from the pit offense this year. But my concern with Pitt is still the same concern I had going into last week and why I was not very high on them in last week's game. They have very good numbers statistically, but they've also been playing a lot of dog doo doo teams which inflates those numbers and we saw like they didn't give up a ton of big plays to Notre Dame and they did a decent job. Like I don't think Pitt's a bad defense at all. I just don't know if it's as good as its numbers. I think it's more of an above average defense. So going up against this Georgia Tech offense which has shown an ability to move the ball, put points on the board, the interesting aspect to me is nobody runs zone coverage more often than Pitt. They are the highest zone rate in coverage than any other team in the country. Which going up against Haynes King has an impact because if you look at his numbers against zone, they're good but they're also more dinky and dunkey and they don't really, you know, he, I think he's thrown like two touchdowns all year against zone despite having, you know, seeing it two thirds of the time, whereas most of his touchdowns have come against man. So we're going to see that it's going to limit him as a passer. But at the same time, Pitts pass rush like to get pressure on a quarterback. They do a lot of zone blitzing. If you blitz Haynes King and he gets away, that's going to be a problem for you because he's shown the ability. I mean obviously he's very good on designed runs, but when things break down and lanes open up, he's also very good at just picking up 15, 20 yards on you and getting the first down and keeping the drive going. So to me, if I'm pit, my focus in this game will be to play zone to make sure Haynes King has to dink and dunk and then also just keep him in the pocket. Don't really go after him so much. Just keep him in the pocket and force him to read it, go through it and make the throws. Because if you make Georgia Tech have to go 8, 9, 10 plays and then get him in the red zone, they might not be nearly as effective. So I, I, I don't think Pitt's offense is going to be great in this game. I do think their defense can do enough to limit Georgia Tech. So I don't know if this is going to be the shootout, maybe that everybod to be is.
Chip Patterson
I'm not going to act like, I'm not going to act like I'm up on the chalkboard, you know, like, you know, drawing this all out. But with the athleticism of Pitts linebackers. Is that a spy situation or is that just like maybe you, like, change your aggressiveness just so that you're at least giving Haynes King the pause where if he doesn't see that first read or if he's not seeing the field, you're not giving him the open space. That might happen if you were sending the linebackers more aggressively.
Tom Fornelli
I'm not spying him on every snap because that makes it very easy for an offense if they know what one guy's assignment is going to be, every single step, you can exploit the hell out of it. I do think you'll see him spied a bit, but I don't think it's going to be a spy situation as much as it's going to be for my pass rushers. Don't get too far up the field. Don't cut inside. Just maintain like treat your pass rush like it's run defense. Maintain your gaps. Don't give him the space to go through. Force him to run around and give my linebackers time to chase him towards the sideline so he can't get huge chunks.
Chip Patterson
All right. After a long winning streak, the Cincinnati Bearcats have lost two in a row. First came an absolute drubbing on the road at Utah, 45 to 14. Then tough tight game against Arizona. Bearcats defense let them down just a little bit, 30 to 24. Now they're playing coast to BYU. Final home game of the season for the Bearcats. Can. Can our guy. Can our guy get back? I thought we were Brendan Sourceby podcast.
Danny Cannell
It was a big buy. He was a big buy earlier.
Chip Patterson
I loved his, I mean, vibes, vibes department. I loved his competitiveness. At the close of this game, Cincinnati did not come up with the winning plays. But Sourceby was out there. He was barking his teammates. He's trying to get everybody lined up. He's trying to make it happen. This is not somebody who has who is anything other than 10 toes down, 100 in on, trying to finish this season strong. Thought that was awesome, but man, this is a tough challenge going up against BYU's defense. How do we think that the Bearcats fare in a bounce back spot?
Tom Fornelli
First of all, we have seen Notre Dame and Miami fans going back and forth at each other for three weeks now over these rankings. But if there is one thing that could bring both of those fan bases together and unite them is this game. And all of them putting on their Cincinnati Bearcats uniforms and rooting like hell for the Bearcats to take BYU down and get them out the Paint in all likelihood. Now can Cincinnati do that? The defense has like you touched on. They the last three games has been awful. From this Cincinnati defense they're allowing 2.93 points per drive and it's primarily because what had been a good run defense all year, like you could throw the ball on Cincinnati if you were good enough, like that was their weak spot. But they were able to overcome that by taking away your run game. Not the case lately. Like they got run over by Utah, they got run over by Arizona and even to a lesser degree, they got run over by Baylor. So this is a BYU offense that comes into the country 12th in EPA per rush and 19th and explosive rushing rate. It's a big, big question mark for this game and it really will be the determining factor. If the Bearcats can limit Bear Bachmeyer, his haunches and his running backs from getting chunk yards on the ground. They're going to be in this game because I do think that their rushing offense itself is quite good. It's one of the better in the country and BYU's rush defense is kind of average. So I think that that is something they can exploit at home. So that will be the key factor in this game and then obviously taking care of the football and offense. But stop the run and run the ball yourself.
Danny Cannell
In the words of Bud Elliott, as we're talking about Brendan Sorsby, who are the better defenses? He's played the last two games. He's played against the best defenses and he has struggled. Now one of them was on the road in a really tough environment. But last week was not against Arizona. Yeah, two picks and he struggled. So I think this is a big game for him to bounce back. I do, I do like BYU here physically to be able to get out of this with a win.
Chip Patterson
8Pm Kickoff at the Nip.
Danny Cannell
Yeah, it's a great play. They should be fired up I think after back to back losses.
Chip Patterson
I'll tell you what, this one ain't making my locks card. I mean it might be a sprinkle but it's, it is one where I feel like I am in the poisonous position of just kind of wish casting a great environment on Saturday night because BYU could go in there, turn a couple of, turn a couple of Source B turnovers into touchdowns. And BYU has had this situation this season where I don't know if their margin of victory even matches the margin of competition.
Danny Cannell
Right.
Chip Patterson
Like the, the game against Utah. They were up by 10. Right. I mean they had a double digit lead late in that game. Utah maybe does a little bit of some aesthetics closing it late. BYU is so physical, they don't blow teams out necessarily. But it can be. You can watch some of these BYU games and just tell that the opponent's not going to be able to get back into it. So Cincinnati might still be in the game, but it could be a situation where you can just tell they're not getting what they want offensively and they're not getting off the field defensively. Like, oh, it's only a 10 point game, but it could feel like a lot bigger if, if it goes BYU's.
Tom Fornelli
Way back to the Sourceby point. I, I think that's like he has played poorly, but I think part of that is because like Brandon Sorsby has never been the quarterback you want dropping back to throw a bunch of times anyway. Like, his strength has always been his legs.
Danny Cannell
Right.
Tom Fornelli
And we have seen like against Utah because they lost by 31, he had to drop back. He had 35 drop backs in that game. It's the second he's had in a game all year. Against Arizona he had 30 drop backs. That's the third most he's had in a game this year. Like it's no coincidence that the five games in which you know he's had the most drop backs have been three of Cincinnati's losses, game script wise. Run the damn ball. Run the damn ball. Run the damn ball. Stop the run. Keep yourself in a situation where you can run the damn ball and not have your quarterback drop back. Because when you have swords be dropping back. That's not what you ideally want him doing.
Danny Cannell
Who would you rather have in the portal market, Sam Levitt or Brendan Sorsby?
Tom Fornelli
Sam Levitt.
Chip Patterson
Oh, fast answer.
Danny Cannell
I know.
Tom Fornelli
I think, I think Brendan Sorsby is a very good player. I also think that he's tied to a certain kind of offense. Like, I don't think you have to fear Cincinnati's passing attack with Brandon Swordsby back there. I think with Sam Levitt there is more of a dual threat nature because Sam can run, but you also have to worry about him from the pocket.
Chip Patterson
You also have to worry about Sam Levitt winding up on that injury report.
Tom Fornelli
Yeah, yeah. That's something worth considering too, when you're about to pay those prices because you still got to pay him whether he's on the sideline or the field.
Chip Patterson
I mean, you're going to be paying for someone who just had a season shut down for Liz Frank.
Tom Fornelli
Yep.
Chip Patterson
What were you about to say? Something about feet?
Tom Fornelli
Yeah, I was Gonna make a, you know. Yeah. Rex Ryan. There you go.
Chip Patterson
Okay. Other. Some other just sort of highlight storylines to watch. Do we think Tennessee snaps the losing streak in the swamp?
Danny Cannell
Think so.
Chip Patterson
I know. Ah.
Tom Fornelli
If I'm a Tennessee fan, I sure as hell hope so because once they hire Lane Kiffin, you're never going to have the chance to do it again.
Danny Cannell
Florida's been a hard team to figure out which Florida team is going to show up because they laid the egg against Kentucky, competitive against Ole Miss. It's like coming back home. I don't know.
Chip Patterson
It is.
Danny Cannell
I will say this like Tennessee is, I would say fraudulent but they really haven't beat any teams of consequence.
Chip Patterson
And do you know who's taking notice of that? Tennessee fans. This is a sneaky and this is not again like let's, let's be very clear about the journalistic standards of the COVID 3 podcast. We are just sitting here talk talking especially from the fan side of things. But the frustrations that came out of Tennessee losing those games to Oklahoma and Alabama included. How good actually is Josh Hyple? And it has been positioned that in the eyes and emotions of Tennessee fans losing to a coachless Florida team and where you had all of the opportunity to snap the losing streak would only add to the pressure. Not hot seat but the real pressure on Josh Hypo to deliver big time results. So it's kind of a sneaky, gotta have it game for Josh.
Tom Fornelli
We forget how quickly we forget what where we were a few years ago.
Danny Cannell
Yeah, we're even a year ago in the playoffs.
Tom Fornelli
Oh my God. We're making, we're making a one year. We lose our quarterback really late to the portal. Have to bring in somebody who wasn't with us all offseason and we missed the playoffs. This coach has to go. He clearly doesn't know how to win in the sec.
Chip Patterson
Is Texas on upset alert against Arkansas?
Tom Fornelli
I mean I feel like everybody's on upset alert against Arkansas. Just because Arkansas can score points and you get caught in the wrong situation against them, you're going to be in a deep spot. You got to dig yourself out of. That said, I also think Texas can beat them by 40.
Chip Patterson
LSU and Arkansas played a low scoring game. But LSU's offense comes with all of its surgeons general warning, you know, like you don't need that. That's going to go. That's going to make you sick for. For a long time. That's not exactly the case that we've got with Texas. Even as they have their own issues. They've got more explosive players. They've got more ways to be able to generate. I. Come on, dog. LSU and Texas. LSU and Texas has the same offense.
Danny Cannell
No, no, no. I was saying Arkansas when you brought up Arkansas. Arkansas has an interesting game this weekend against Texas. Oh, for Arkansas purposes, yes, for Arkansas purposes. Coming off a rough loss, you got A and M next week. It is a sandwich game.
Tom Fornelli
Lost your top target to Virginia Tech.
Danny Cannell
Now I, I, Taylor Green, mobile quarterback. Texas better be ready to play this weekend.
Chip Patterson
Got my eyes on that one. What about the fighting? James Franklin's playing. Host of Miami.
Tom Fornelli
Do they get the James Franklin bump?
Chip Patterson
Yeah.
Danny Cannell
Is he gonna give the pregame speech?
Tom Fornelli
I hope so.
Danny Cannell
I mean, he's got to be on the broadcast, right? They got to bring him up in the booth. Give a little sales pitch.
Chip Patterson
Dude, you have to. Yeah, absolutely.
Tom Fornelli
Listen, me and my hokies were on to 20, 26. I mean, we'll be happy if we're going to give it Miami everything we got. But we are focused on the future.
Danny Cannell
Didn't they already say they've got three times the amount of recruits come into the game since before?
Tom Fornelli
Gonna have the best recruiting class in the acc. Sorry, Florida State. Maybe you guys should check out a high school once in a while. Our coach does.
Chip Patterson
If Miami loses this game. Boy.
Danny Cannell
Oh, my gosh.
Tom Fornelli
I mean, the content though, will be fantastic. But I, again, I talked about it after Miami lost to Louisville. I'm never just assuming Miami's ever winning a football game ever again. They could very easily lose.
Chip Patterson
What about the Knowles? They'll be here in Raleigh, over in West Raleigh at Carter Finley Stadium on Friday night.
Danny Cannell
Four and a half point favorite.
Tom Fornelli
Just. We just running through the ACC schedule now.
Danny Cannell
Bottom of the barrel for games of the weekend.
Tom Fornelli
I got, I got a question for you guys. Like, what about Minnesota, Northwestern? Northwestern needs another win to get to a bowl game.
Danny Cannell
Listen, do you know what is an interesting game? James Madison, Washington State. Common opponent or. Common. Yeah, it would be a common opponent. North Texas took Washington State to the woodshed, but Washington State took Ole Miss.
Chip Patterson
Ole Miss.
Danny Cannell
But I do think, I do think this is one for James Madison. If they want to. If they. Because they could be in a scenario where they're comparing to North Texas. They need to at least put up big numbers. I don't think they have to have the same score, but they better win.
Chip Patterson
And Tom, the. The Florida State on the road in Raleigh is not just running through the ACC schedule. It's identifying a. Another potential piece of this coaching carousel because I just, the other thing that.
Danny Cannell
I think guys, I'm sorry, I don't.
Tom Fornelli
I think you're going to have them next year.
Danny Cannell
I do. The only thing I will say and this is very unique situation but James Franklin negotiating down to a nine million dollar buyout does have Florida State fans I think kind of hopeful that they could do something similar. The problem is I don't know if Mike Norvell is going to be that sought after in the open market.
Tom Fornelli
James had a job waiting for him.
Danny Cannell
That's, that's the problem. But I don't, I do think the, whatever his number is, he does have an offset as well.
Chip Patterson
None of the numbers are real, right. We, we come. A record $245 million has been spent on buyouts. There are no real numbers. Like there are some lump sums out there. But my understanding of the Norvell situation is it was always going to be can be spread out, you know, can be a line item. The problem is you just built a football only facility and renovated your stadium.
Danny Cannell
Correct.
Tom Fornelli
Far more important game on Friday night than NC State, Florida State, Hawaii, unlv.
Chip Patterson
Ooh, for the Mountain West Tide race. A little bit of an eliminator game.
Tom Fornelli
Yeah, that's the one I'll be watching the first half of.
Chip Patterson
And then going to sleep because we've got a long ass, long ass Saturday ahead of us. All right, well if you want to find out our best bets for Saturday, well then come and hang out Thursday 11am Eastern Time. We will be giving you our week 13 locks and you can follow him on Twitter at Tom Fidelity. You can follow him at Danny Canelo. You can follow me at Chip Underscore Patterson. Gentlemen, thank you very much.
Tom Fornelli
Sources tell me thank you.
Chip Patterson
Hey, Ryan Reynolds here wishing you a.
Danny Cannell
Very happy half off holiday because right.
Tom Fornelli
Now Mint Mobile is offering you the.
Chip Patterson
Gift of 50% off unlimited.
Danny Cannell
To be clear, that's half the price, not half the service.
Chip Patterson
Mint is still premium unlimited wireless for a great price.
Tom Fornelli
So that means a half day. Yeah.
Danny Cannell
Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment.
Tom Fornelli
Of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month. Required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow 135 gigabytes of network fizzy taxes and fees extra. See mint mobile.com.
This episode dives into the week's biggest college football matchups with in-depth analysis, X-factors, and key storylines. The hosts—Chip Patterson, Tom Fornelli, and Danny Kanell—focus on the upcoming showdowns: USC at Oregon, Missouri at Oklahoma, Pitt vs. Georgia Tech, BYU at Cincinnati, and offer updates on playoff implications, coaching rumors, and the evolving NIL market.
Main Theme:
A high-stakes matchup between two physical, former Pac-12 teams now in the Big Ten, with major playoff implications and contrasting offensive philosophies.
Physicality and Run Game (03:09):
Injuries as a Deciding Factor (05:08):
Quarterback Play Analysis (08:12):
Oregon Pass Defense vs. USC Receivers (11:11):
Spread and Stakes Talk (15:35):
Timestamps:
Missouri’s Run Game vs. Oklahoma Defense (21:24):
Oklahoma’s Offense Needing Balance (25:05):
Game Flow, Line, Low-Scoring Expectation (26:14):
Coaching Storylines:
Timestamps:
Tennessee at Florida:
Texas at Arkansas/LSU at Arkansas:
Miami at Penn State (James Franklin’s new job):
Florida State at NC State:
Mountain West shoutout:
The episode is energetic, irreverent, and well-informed—the hosts balance high-level schematic debates and deep-dive stats with light banter, inside jokes, and a healthy skepticism toward rumors and leaks.
This action-packed episode sets the table for an exciting Saturday, spotlighting physical matchups, key absences, evolving quarterback play, and program-shaping stakes. With data-driven breakdowns layered over real-world drama—rumor swirling, NIL money flying, and playoff hopes hanging in the balance—Cover 3 arms listeners with everything they need (and more) to be the smartest fan at the tailgate.
For best bets and picks, catch their Locks episode Thursday at 11am ET.