← Josh Pate's College Football Show
Josh Pate's College Football Show
Big CFB Changes Coming + Portal Latest & Cole Cubelic Joins
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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human new year. Same extra value meals at McDonald's.
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So now get two snack wraps plus.
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Fries and a medium soft drink for.
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Just $8 for a limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska and California. And for deliver, I need sunscreen, beach chairs, I need an umbrella, all of which can be bought at the Academy, by the way. I need all of those things because I'm on an island. And the island I'm on is not the island of misfit toys. It's the island basically of misfit predictions. All of us here on the island, we're the ones who are picking Miami to win the national championship game. We're jam packed. We're high atop a frigid downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Cannot wait to get to Miami and get out of this icebox. Looking Forward to low 70s on Sunday and Monday, but right now it's Thursday. It is January 15th, the year of our Lord 2026. Happy to have you with us. Yes, friends, although the national championship game should have been played two weeks ago, we're still four days away. But we are looking forward to it. And yes, I, as I said, kind of on an island here. I'm the one still stupid enough to not doubt Kurt Signetti. I don't want to put that out there in the ecosystem. I'm not doubting him. I'm just choosing to believe in Mario a little bit. Choosing to believe in Carson Beck, who's ever gone wrong doing such things. So we're going to talk about that. Kubelet's going to be on the show later. He's reached his breaking point. He's just yelling out into the clouds and we're going to let you hear him later. Something about the transfer portal in Auburn. Speaking of breaking points, is college football approaching a breaking point? No. Well, I don't know. Maybe. I'm going to talk about it in a second. Got a little Mario Cristobal legacy question on the show tonight. Of course, it's a day that ends in Y in January, so the portal is acting crazy, although that's about to come to an end. So we got a jam packed show as it should be on the Thursday before the national championship game. They're watching us in Cleveland, Ohio, Denton, Texas, Waverly Hall, Georgia, former home of the Waverly Hall Mariners in my day and sunrise, full Florida. Make sure if you do nothing else other than breathe while you're watching the show, make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel. We've had a great year. Look, when we get done and we get into February and we got, you know, less to talk about in terms of immediate on field issues, I'm going to just recap some of the stuff that's happened for us. I like to be as full disclosure as I can without, you know, compromising negotiations and stuff or privacy laws. But what a great year. And a lot of it's because we were able to cross over half a million subscribers. So thank you for everyone who participated and contributed. If you haven't, or even if you think you have, make sure and check that you have, because maybe you haven't. We always appreciate it. It's free. You're not signing up for anything. You're just helping us when you subscribe. All right, I'm going to get into a lot tonight. The first thing that I wanted to do before we talk about Miami, Indiana anymore or we even talk about the portal, I have an article in my hand from Ross Dellinger at Yahoo. And if you did not know, and judging by the fact that most of you have lives to live, you don't, the NCAA Convention has been happening this week. Ross is up there because, you know, it's his job to cover such things. And he has been writing some very, very important literature, very, very important work coming out of the old NCAA convention. It seems like it's every bit as stuffy as it sounds like it would be. Ross Dellinger, though, I very, very strongly encourage you guys to read over at yahoosports.com, what he's written about this thing so far this week. So I got two tweets that are up on the screen right now, if you're listening on podcast. He's got first off on the bottom here, just kind of a capsule of what he's been writing about. And it's about with little national enforcement. There's no federal bill. Some college leaders are calling for change. Gasp. My word, not his. He continues. Can each conference govern itself, enforce rules, and compete only with its members? An exasperated industry searches for answers. And then up top, here is a quote Ross got from Trev Alberts at Texas A and M. He's the ad there. Quote. Lots of people in this league are saying, what's plan B? I'd put a really small group together, put everything on the table. You're saying, if we were to go start over, what would it look like? The longer we wait, the deeper the hole gets. Okay, what is all this about? What is all this about? Well, most of you know now most of you, again, have lives to live. You got a normal job, you got mouths to feed, running around your own house, including your own. You got all kinds of different things going on in your life. You love college football or you wouldn't be watching the show right now. I get that. But let's be real. Most of us aren't tangling ourselves up in all the legalese and the daily goings on in the weeds of federal legislation and what conferences are doing here and what a lawyer's doing over there. You just know what I know. It's a mess. You don't really love the way it feels. You sort of miss the structure, relatively speaking, that we used to have. And in an ideal world, you'd love to have it back. You haven't stopped watching the games. You haven't stopped loving college football. You just detest some of the things orbiting around college football. I've just described 95% of our audience. You don't really particularly care who's on which side. You don't really particularly care about the legalese. As Memo used to say, legalese might as well be Portuguese. All we know is some stuff seems really messed up and they need to fix it. They. They need to fix it. Is that it? Yeah, that's about it. All right, so Ross Dellinger, oneofus, by the way, he's just paid to cover this stuff. Ross Dellinger wrote something this week that caught my attention, and I really think we need to discuss it for just a second before we move on in the show. I don't think the status quo is going to exist much longer. So that's good news. Hey, if you don't like the way things are right now, good news. I don't think it's going to be allowed to continue like this because what you have right now is just a total mess. What you have right now is like a swimming pool in the bed of a pickup truck driving down a gravel road in Harris County, Georgia. The water's just sloshing all over the place. This is not a sustainable model for a swimming pool. The water's all gonna be gone. Speaking of water, actually, this makes perfect sense. Let me go down this road. All the bickering back and forth about how the transfer portal should work, you know, how many times should you be able to transfer? Is there supposed to be a cap on how much you can pay players? Are people cheating? Are they circumventing the cap? Are they leveraging third party deals? Is it just glorified pay for play? Basically, Isn't it a giant money laundering scheme right now where the haves are able to pay and the have nots have to sit there and lose all their players to the haves? All that happening and everybody bickering over it and everybody having an opinion. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of, like, we don't deal with this where I'm from, but I have always read out west about them dealing with, like, water issues, water restrictions, water debates, and that's kind of what college football is right now. And it strikes me every time Ross Dellinger covers a conference, and every time Ross Dellinger gets a quote from a commissioner or an ad or an anonymous administrator, it strikes me the same way. It's like the closer someone is to the issue, the further away they are from understanding the totality of the issue. Sounds counterintuitive, right? These people are in the weeds day to day. Don't they know more than you do about it? Yes, they know more specific details about what's going on in their world than I do. It's their job to. That's not what I said. I didn't say they don't know more details than someone like you or someone like me or someone like your buddies who just watch college football on Saturday. I said the closer someone is to these issues, the further away they seem to be from understanding the issue. So correlate it to, like, a water restriction debate. Out in Nevada, out in the deserts of California, you got towns and you got states, and they're locked in legal battles over water conflicts. What's the most important thing in a water conflict? Some of you live in an area of the country where this happens all the time. So what's the most important thing? It's not a trick question, but it kind of is. Is it reasonable access to the water? Is it environmental impact? Is it irrigation versus electrical? Is it population study? What's the most important thing? The most important thing is the water. Because without the water, none of the rest of the stuff matters. And for a long time now, college football leaders, college football administrative types, the sweater vest crowd, they've debated this stuff back and forth. And you got bad actors on both sides, then you've got good actors on both sides, but everyone's just screaming back and forth. And people like us sit back hoping one day each side realizes everything that you get to debate right now is downstream of one key ingredient, and that is interest. Fan interest. Fans are the most important aspect in this entire equation. Now. They're taken for granted. The Interest is treated as a constant when in the reality it's a variable. It's just that it's taken for granted that you'll always care, that you'll always be there, that you'll always watch. These TV ratings will always look like they do, which I'll get to in a second. But that's not a constant. It very much is a variable that I choose to love college football, that I choose to watch it, and I choose to watch it along with others in the numbers that it takes to make it as profitable a venture as it is. Truthfully, most of these people are only involved because it's so profitable. I mean, if this were a charity over here, I doubt we'd have this many interested parties. We'd have some. There are charities all over the place that operate in good faith. But this right here is a business, and it became an ATM for a lot of people, and it still is. And again, not all those folks are bad. But contingent on all of that is fan interest. And you got to make sure you don't drive people away. Now, I know it is a very, very foreign concept that anyone could ever become disinterested in football in this country, and I'll grant you that it is. But I will say at the very least, you know, because you are out there. I know because I'm right there with you, locked arm in arm. You don't really love where things are right now. And they don't necessarily speak that kind of language at the NCAA convention. They don't really speak that kind of language at conference spring meetings. These people are isolated. These people don't live amongst you. These people largely live amongst themselves. These people largely breathe the same air. They don't breathe the same air you do. And therefore they don't really understand the dynamics in play here. If you get everything straightened out the way you want it, or in your water debates, if you get all of the concessions that you want but there's no water left over, it doesn't really matter which concessions you got. And likewise, if you get everything, if you get a collective bargaining agreement over in this camp, or if you get federal antitrust exemption over in that camp, but in the aggregate, you've shaved 25% of interest off your sport. It lost its value anyway. The money is not there anymore to the degree it was anyway. So my only viewpoint on all this from the seat I sit in, is I don't really care about the legalese. I didn't go to Pate State Law School, so I don't hold that degree that's not on my wall at home. So frankly, I don't really care. I get phone calls all the time from people trying to state their case on this stuff. I'm respectful, I listen to it. But at the end of the day I just say the same three or four things. How are you going to get this thing fixed to where fan interest is maintained and growable, scalable? How's that going to happen? And how does college football look the way it should in order for that to take place? Because right now it doesn't really look the way it should. The games are still great, but by the time the games suffer, by the time the Saturday product really suffers, you've long since lost everyone. That's why you can't trust drive by leadership. That's why you can't trust the group that treats college football like a rental car. You can't trust them because they use things like TV ratings as an argument to bolster their stance. I mean, there are people who will look you dead in the eye right now when I talk the way I do. And their only response will be, well, if college football so broken, why aren't the TV ratings so high? I'm serious. That's something that a bad faith actor, a drive by leader will tell you. They can afford to hold that stance because they won't be here by the time the poison drifts far enough down the river to affect the water supply. A lot of water analogies in the show tonight for some reason, but I've told you this from the beginning, you don't dump poison in St. Louis, Missouri, in the Mississippi and immediately affect New Orleans. It takes it a little while. And likewise, you don't make bad decisions today in college football and kill the sport tomorrow. In fact, it'd be very hard to kill college football. But what we're talking about here is not killing anything. What we're talking about is detrimentally impacting it. And you can't continue with the way things are right now. You can't continue to erode interest in quite literally everything other than the games on the field and not have the collateral damage eventually include viewership of the games on the field. If you don't believe that can happen, you haven't really studied the American entertainment model long enough. There's a limit to what people will tolerate by you taking advantage of their viewership. There's a limit to it. So I just hope, and I think this is not just hope, I think we are very, very close to pretty Radical action taken. That could mean a breakaway from the NCAA and a new subdivision created. I'm not necessarily telling you I'm in favor or against any of this. I'm telling you I think something's about to change that's pretty major. And. And it could be a breakaway. It could be self governance inside conferences where the Big Ten governs itself, the SEC governs itself. For the record, I've said that's probably the most likely path for five years now, and it looks like we're closer to that than ever. Whatever the case may be, you've got to incentivize players remaining on the same roster and being paid to do so and incentivized to do so and revenue sharing and no one's got a problem with it. That's the old caveat. You always got to say it. It's like, oh, I want them to be paid. But it's like anytime you say something about a politician, you've always got a caveat. No, I don't agree with everything he says. I don't agree with everything she says. But no one cares. Just state your opinion. So my opinion is, yeah, I don't care that the players are being paid what I do care about, more so than the players being paid, more so than coaches being paid, more so than anything. I care about the product. That's what I care about. Everything else is downstream of that because if we're not getting a worthwhile product, it doesn't matter how much money anyone else is making, you ruin the product. I'm not here anymore. I'm at Quick Trip. Quick Trip fueling the fall don't lie tour. We're headed to Miami last game of the season. We got to make it count. Last game of the season on Monday night. Quick Trip has fueled the fall don't lie tour all year and they have caffeinated me all year. They have fed me all year. Not just me, anyone rolling with us. And I cannot tell you when I wake up in the morning and I refresh my social feeds. How many times per morning? Couple of dozen. At least. I'm tagged by people who were at a Quick Trip gas pump or at the cold brew on tap station in the Kwik Trip and decided, you know what? I'm going to take a picture. I'm going to tag him. I'm going to tag them. I just want them to know I was at Quik Trip this morning. Hey, I love it. They love it. Obviously you guys love it. Kwiktrip is the presenting partner of this show. I mean they are maximally invested, maximally maxim maximum investment the Highest possible Level 1 could be invested in this show quick trip is and I in turn emotionally at least am invested in them. Let's move on. Got Cubelet coming up in a little while. He's mad what's new but in the meantime Transfer Portal Update Thursday Damon Wilson scheduling some visits. So that's the number five overall player in the portal. The number two edge courtesy of the on three rankings right now. He was at Georgia. He went to Missouri. Had a really good year at Missouri last year. This can be a premier pass rusher for you. And looking at Nacos updated some stuff today. Texas Tech. I think he's out there right now. I think he's visiting out there right now. It looks like Miami's going to get a visit soon. Rumor on the street is Miami is a little preoccupied at the moment with some kind of game they got Monday. But nevertheless those are two big spenders. It's no mystery. It's no mystery what the priority is in Damon Wilson's portal recruitment. Both of those teams are losing premier pass rushers too. So those are puzzle piece fits like it makes perfect sense. That is a big time player. That is a difference making player. Keep an eye on him. LSU is making moves. Not that we are shocked, but lsu Hassan Longstreet has also headed to lsu. Now you remember the last time we talked it wasn't about Longstreet signing there, it was about LSU signing Sam Levitt. This is another example now of a program that's signing multiple quarterbacks and it's great for them because it fills their quarterback room. It like rounds out their quarterback room. I think Longstreet has some kind of family tie in Louisiana as well, so this kind of made sense. But he's got multiple years left to play, so he's not a guy who needed to leave USC and just exclusively go somewhere where he can start. Just like Dylan Raiola didn't need to leave Nebraska and immediately start like Raiola's going to sit behind Dante Moore for a year. Well, maybe Longstreet's about to sit behind Sam Levitt and you're sitting behind Sam Levitt in a really good system to be marinating in as a player. So that fills out their quarterback room. Also, I saw Shay Dixon over on the LSU on three board earlier today talking about a pair of twins redundant. But Zach Grace is an Oregon tight end and Theo Grace is a North Dakota linebacker. They're both visiting. I don't Know if that's a package deal, it makes sense that it would be a package deal. So Lane's not done, nor is Brent Key. Justice Haynes to Georgia Tech. This made perfect sense. As soon as I saw the headline I was like, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Was it Alabama went and had a good year before he got hurt from Michigan. And I think he can do the same thing at Georgia Tech and he better be able to do the same thing. He's the number 22 overall player in the ON3 portal rankings. He fits the style they're going to have to lean on there. Just remember what's happened with Georgia Tech. So Georgia Tech was in the thick of the playoff race, the ACC championship race, had a good year, ultimately fell a little short there at the end. But then Haynes King leaves because he's got to leave. He's done. And then you lose your offensive coordinator and you lose Aaron Filo, who was going to be the quarterback there. He. They both go to Florida and so you're wondering, okay, who's quarterback going to be here? Well, in any event, I mean you're obviously not going to have a ton of star power at the quarterback position. You're going to be a run heavy offense and you're going to need players, especially at least one like Justice Haynes. So it makes a lot of sense that he goes there. He fits the style they're going to have to lean on. What about the style Indiana leans on? Pretty unique style. Pretty unique. And as a result they're in the national title game. But what if I told you they have the number two ranked portal class in the on three portal rankings? I would be telling the truth. They do. In fact, when we were putting the show together, they had number one. So there was like fluctuation even as we were looking at the monitor. But look at these players they've signed. Josh Hoover is going to be a plug and play starter quarterback for them. I'm really high on Nick Marsh. I think probably his potential at Indiana makes him underrated as only the number 32 player in the portal. They got AJ Harris, the corner, the DB from Penn State, Shas Preston, the wide receiver from Tulane. So they've got a lot of good players there. And remember they get a little extended window as opposed to everyone else after the national championship game because they're playing in it. Ohio State's making some moves too. Ohio State strikes me a little differently though. They got Que Russo and James Smith both from Alabama. And those both can be really good players and conditionally or Situationally, they were for Alabama this year. But Ohio State, unlike some of these places, they're not looking in desperation mode at filling starting spots. Like, these guys can play starting minutes for them, starting snaps for them. But it's not like they're making wholesale changes with their starting 22. What they're doing is they're trying to build their roster, they're trying to build their top 40 or top 45, and that's a pretty privileged position to be in. And if you recruit high school and you retain well enough, then, hey, that can be where you find yourself. Ohio State does that at an okay clip. So transfer portal not open for much longer. In fact, this may be the last time we talk about it. Or there could be fireworks right at the end because I mean, these guys are really running up against this deadline now to get in. Now once you're in, you can stay in as long as you want. So the deadline's not. You have to commit by this deadline. The deadline is just you have to be in the portal by the deadline. You can stay in there until. Until April for all they care. I think is the way that works. I'll tell you something that I'm excited about. Not necessarily the portal. I'm excited that if you go to patematerial.com right now we have, I don't know how many Jesse, like four or five brand new shirts. We just, we basically have new university themed shirts now. The one I'm most excited about and the one we've been workshopping and finally can debut is the McLaughlin School of Music. It's going to be a hot seller. I know because I'm already wearing that thing in my mind. I don't have it physically yet. We got the Chalice Cafe T shirt debuting. The Department of Saturday Sciences, basically any kind of concept that they have on the campus of a real life university, we could just create it in our minds here. But that McLaughlin School of Music, we made sure to spell her name right and everything. It's going to be a, it's going to be a great spring at the Pate State Store. I mean, we got some Valentine's concepts coming up too, so there is no shortage. Like I know a lot of you went and you went early in the season last year and you just kind of filled your basket with everything we had to offer in there. And make sure you keep checking because Alex and the team keep updating the store. Remember like we had a version 1.0 of the store where we struggled to keep things in stock. And we had like six options. Now we don't struggle to keep things in stock and we got like 6 million options over there and growing. So I'm betting the McLaughlin School of Music does the best. I'm also tilting the odds in my favor by mentioning it a lot. We got several good offerings there. Patestatematerial.com Move on. We got a question that's very relevant to Monday night. So Trey from Sarasota, Florida said people have bashed Mario Cristobal so much and yet he's 60 minutes away from a national title at his sleeping giant alma mater. How would a playoff title win mold his legacy? Big time. Big time. There's no reason to be a contrarian here. I mean, it would make Mario a legend down there. And Mario walked in and tried to do what a lot of guys have tried to do, and that is resurrect the identity of that program to look like it used to look. The difference is he's just the guy who finally did it, did it in a way different format than they used to do it down there because everyone's got to do that now because college football is totally different. But he's the guy who actually did it. To me thus far, that's his legacy. Now if he wins a title on Monday night, you're talking about an entire entirely different classification. Not just in the lineage of Miami head coaches, but in the lineage of college football head coaches. I mean, there are very, very few active coaches that have national championships. Very like it's a handful of them that have national championships. So last time before he came there that they had back to back double digit win seasons was 02,03. Yes, yes. An entire generation is seeing Miami do something that they haven't seen them do basically in their lifetime. Look at 2022 on this little slider here that Bradley's showing you on the screen. Do you remember that year? It was only three years ago. Do you remember the five and seven year? You remember Middle Tennessee State dog walking Miami in Miami? Do you remember Duke coming in there and just owning Miami in Miami? And do you remember? Because I remember what they said about Mario afterwards because everyone was fooled into thinking he was taking over a pretty good roster. And oh, it's Miami. You know, they got to have good athletes down there. Even in year one. You can't be losing to mtsu. And I remember thinking, what does that mean though? You can't lose to Middleton? Okay, well they did. He just did. So what does that mean? Are you going to fire him? No, no. So obviously you can lose to Middle Tennessee in year one, especially if you understand sometimes your entry point is rock bottom, sometimes your entry point is when things are still going downhill. And sometimes your entry point is such that you need to. A phrase we use around here sometimes is torch the barn and kill the rats, which just means a full startover. That's about as close to what they did down there as you get in major college football. He knew it. We were down there his first year there. He laid it all out. I mean, in graphic, competitive detail. He laid out what it was going to take. He laid out the corners that they were not going to cut because he understood to ultimately get where we go, we're going to have to bite the bullet in 2022, 2023. Like, obviously you want to win every game, but not at the expense of the overall direction of the program. And to his credit, they didn't. They did not. And to his credit, they've continued to grow. I think Mario's continued to grow. A lot of the criticisms of him have been, you know, there's some people who thought he was just a recruiter, he's not a coach. And his in game decision making is questionable. His end of game decision making, there have been times where it's bitten him. No one said that as of late, though. They haven't said that as of late because it really hasn't happened as much. It hasn't happened as much because out of the public spotlight, he really took it personal and made it his mission down there to rectify that. I mean, if your quarterback's got accuracy problems, what does he work on in the spring and summer? Accuracy. So if you've got critical moments in games where situationally and operationally you're not giving your team the best chance to win, that's a reflection on you. So what do you do in the spring and summer? Either you work on that stuff or you delegate that stuff and you hire people who are going to make you better in those moments. They've done that. It doesn't get any attention because it's not a coordinator hire or it's not a quarterback addition out of the portal. But they've done that. So that's growth. And that leads to a potential legacy defining moment Monday night. But I also. Look, here's what I appreciate more so than anything. You can never. You can never really see this unless you just get to be around it. The intensity in that building is off the charts. And I'm not talking about leading up to a National championship game. I'm talking about a random Tuesday in the middle of March when you're in the middle of spring practice. You could go down there because we often do go down there in April after spring ball's over. There's just an off the charts intensity. And it's that way to an extent, no matter where you go. But, man, it's a different volume at Miami and the ability to operate at that level year round, it just boggles the mind. That to me is the. It's not an accomplishment because, like, they would look at that as a prerequisite. Like, why are you even discussing that? These are non negotiables. This is just how it's got to be. That's the impressive part. Because the outside world is not like that. Much of the outside college football world is not like that. And if there's one thing that I wish we could do, like in the way of a field trip, is I wish we could just load up a bus, call them and tell them we're on our way, and just take a bus of civilians, just normal college football civilian types, pull them out of a restaurant, pull them off the job site, just hop in a bus and head down to Coral Gables for a day. Just watch the way that place operates and you would be shocked. It would be like being tossed in the middle of a war zone. Like, you'd be shell shocked and then you'd come back and you'd be laying in your bed at night, eyes wide open, saying, hold up, that's the way it is every day down there. How do normal humans even operate? They don't. They're not normal humans. At least that part of their brain. Not normal. Not normal. And I have enjoyed, speaking of legacy, I have enjoyed during this playoff run, you've seen a little bit more of Mario Cristobal and you've seen, like, him going back and forth with Scott Van Pelt. You've seen him up on the stage accepting the trophy, and you've just seen Guy is a little different from the neck up. Little bit different. Well, that is a small glimpse of how different that guy is. There are stories that coaches tell about him, that player personnel types tell about him, that players tell about him. I love being around it. I love hanging around it. I just tell you, it's not for everybody. That environment's not for everybody. Mario Cristobal is not for everybody. But you know what? Neither is Kirby Smart. Neither is Ryan Day, neither was Nick Saban. Like, there are a lot of places where they win at a high level and yet some people are turned off by it. In my opinion, you're not really fully maximizing your potential and and operating at peak efficiency until you can say that. Because any college football program or high level organization that's operating near a peak efficiency has a climate that's going to be a turn off to an average person because you don't achieve at a high level with average people. So you got to fill your building with high achievers. Now, high achievers look around and this is just a normal Tuesday. An average person in a room full of high achievers looks around and thinks this is unsustainable. But we can't work like this year round. No, you can't work like this year round. That's why this place probably isn't for you. That's how it feels at Miami. That's the legacy. Because it's hard to create that and it hasn't existed down there in a long time. And now you hope that the results just are a byproduct of that because that's usually how the sport works. Academy Sports and Outdoors can get you geared up now. Thankfully, if you guys live in South Florida, you're not stocking up on cold weather gear right now. Some of us are less fortunate and so we are. Fortunately for us, we have Academy Sports and Outdoors. So we got several of them even within a stone's throw of where I sit right now. So I can just pop over there anytime I want to. And I frequently do. And of course we've got spring sports season coming up. Some of you are still playing winter sports no matter what. Gear up at Academy Sports and Outdoors. If you can get there in person. I encourage it. Place always uplifts you. You walk in with a frown, you walk out with a smile. A cheek full of big league chew, maybe always recommend ground ball. Great. But if you can't get there in person, academy.com has your hookup. And we've always loved being in business with Academy. They've been a partner of ours for a long time and we appreciate them. They've always been there for us and they can be there for. We got Kubelik on deck. Let me answer this one more question. I wanted to fit this one in. Isaiah from Fort Worth said, with all the changes in the media space, are you ever going to cover the NFL? I have no plans to cover the NFL. I don't watch a ton of NFL Isaiah. I used to be immersed in the NFL, but Sunday is our busiest work day. So you hop, you hop down to church and then you hop out of church and, and maybe get to the gym, but then it's right into the office and we're wall to wall college football on Sunday. So I just don't really get to watch much of the NFL now. I will tell you this. I watched every playoff game in the last round. So I watched probably more NFL in the past weekend than I had the entire year combined. I just love college football. We're blessed to be able to pick a lane now. Used to be in the sports media world, even 15 years ago, if you were kind of going to get in this game at the highest level, you had to be what they would call a generalist, which is someone who talks everything. When it's basketball season, you're talking college hoops, NBA finals roll around, you're talking NBA finals. I don't talk about any of that. I just do college football year round. That's why I'm so blessed to exist in an era where podcasting and YouTube has come of age, because that's just on demand all the time and you get to dictate what you listen to and what you watch all year. And that means if there's something that really has a year round interest factor, like college football, you really can talk about it year round exclusively, and people will listen and people will watch. That's our show. We just talk about college football all year. I mean, certainly when you get to February and March, we have a little more time to mix in different themes and elements. But no, no NFL for me. I leave that to someone else. I love college football. Like truthfully, if we were to get into different verticals, which is like a fancy industry term for new shows or new themes, it would probably be outside of sports. Like I could easily see if you fast forward two years, we have an entire storm chasing channel or something like that, because I do that in the spring. The only thing that preempts our shows in the spring is if we're out storm chasing. I could see getting into that. But covering another sport aside from college football, I don't really see that for myself. I would challenge FanDuel to put odds on it. Why not? I mean, I'm not against it. Probably would be restricted from betting on it. But what you're not restricted from depending on what state you live in at least is betting on the national championship game. Monday night. Indiana, I believe, at this hour, minus eight and a half. I saw those over under total rushing statistics, Jesse. They fluctuated wildly from the other day. So when here's what you do know. You do know that I took Miami plus eight and a half the other day. What you didn't know is I also took them over 96 and a half rushing yards. It was at 104 this morning. I can't take credit for it because it worked the opposite way when I bet the Oregon rushing totals last week. So I'm like a sparrow in a hurricane right now betting these these over under rushing numbers. But you get a profit boost if you're betting on this game. Go to FanDuel right now. Profit boost on the national championship game. Going to be a fun one. But if you don't really care, like if you're a, I mean if you're a Minnesota fan and you're just totally checked out on this, like you're going to watch the game but you're not interested in betting on it, you know they've got the Heisman odds for next year already posted. So there, there are a number of things that are already available. Not to mention There are 50 different ways, probably more than 50 actually, that you could bet just on this game and get a profit boost while you're at it. FanDuel.com Josh Pate must be 21 plus.
- [36:24]
C
And present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC first online real money wager only $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms@sportsbook.fanduel.com gambling problem call 1-800-gambler or visit fanduel.com rg call 1-888-78977@ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit nd gambling help.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text HOPE NY in New York.
- [37:08]
B
I know him. Some of you love him. Cole Kublick here, Cube Show, SEC Network, Mac and Cube, etc. What did I leave off anything?
- [37:16]
A
Tuesday Date Night podcast. It's okay, I'll tell the wife again. You don't listen. Yeah, it's just a Costco run this week for Tuesday Date Night. It's intriguing. You're going to want to hear that.
- [37:26]
B
I thought, well, she made one. Someone else just stood in the parking lot and filmed like a full on creep. I can't assume who that was, so we'll just leave that Unspoken. You are not famous for that. Well, let me rephrase. You're not only famous for that this week, starring in Tuesday Date night podcast co hosting. I did that thing this week where I was kind of busy. So, you know, you pull up the phone, you're scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Something about Iran. I don't know. We're involved in something over there. All right. In Kurt Signetti vs 2019 LSU. Nope, I'm gonna scroll past that and then I see you and I see a bunch of graphics that other people made about you. Allegedly. I'm gonna use the index finger. I'm gonna wag it. Allegedly. Just besmirching Auburn fans who are worried about losing Cam Coleman, who are worried about losing Deuce Knight, who are look, they're just worried that the program's going to implode in on itself like a dying star over losing those two players. And you had the audacity to push back on that from what I hear. But I didn't have time to watch the clips. So please get me up to speed. Defend yourself. Take as much time as you need, as long as it's not over 30 minutes and walk me up to speed on what's happening.
- [38:36]
A
Defend myself. Okay. I would like to take this time to apologize to absolutely no one. In the words of Conor McGregor. Andy Bertram comes on our show every Tuesday. He does a great job. He we asked him thousand foot view of how things are going under Alex Golish, the new head coach at Auburn and he gave a couple great answers and then the names Cam Coleman induced night came out of his mouth and and I I just kind of lost it. I not his fault. He wasn't doing this. Not directed at him. And I think maybe being in Atlanta over the weekend at the Peach bowl and multiple Auburn fans stopping me asking me specifically about these two players. The amount of texts DM I had DMs from Alabama fans over the weekend asking if they were going to get Cam Coleman. Like I give a rip. Especially if he's going to go there. I don't care where he goes, what he's going to do, it doesn't matter. But this hypersensitivity to those two individuals and this is not on them, this is not an indictment of them. I think they both can be great players. They've both shown flashes of brilliance. I do think it's a fair question to ask how many game Auburn one of them because of last year as Greg McEloy said on our show Mercer that would be the one that he would provide for you. So if, if you want to pump your chest out for that one, good, go for it. But when you're talking about a new coach coming in, rebuilding a program, I don't want to hear about guys that are out for themselves and out for the bag and trying to see if they can go and raise their value to go get more money somewhere else. And I understand this is the time in college football where you can move and go do your own thing and be your own guy and go different places and he'll be TJ Finley for all I care and play at all the schools.
- [40:16]
B
Good luck.
- [40:17]
A
But I don't think any one player, Josh, ever cripples a program. No program has crumbled when individual player or even, let's just say group of players have left. And Cam Newton was the popular response, which, hey, and when I say leave, I'm graduation. NFL draft Portal kicked off team, whatever. He's a good one. They were terrible the next year. They were in the national championship game three years later. So didn't necessarily bring the program to its knees. We've seen this with a lot of different programs, first round draft picks, number one picks, guys that have transferred to go play other places. Guess what? You can get more players out of the Portal to come in and hopefully be better teammates, better students, better guys in the locker room in the facility, and maybe even better football players. And what the Portal has done, I think it's driven our brains to a place where only ceiling and recruiting, recruitability, recruiting stars, like that's what matters. Very rarely and when we, when we're just talking Portal, do we go look at productivity because if we did collectively, there'd be a lot more Indiana's out there right now. And maybe I'm just overblowing what Indiana has done and I'm falling way too in love with how they're building their program and thinking that other people can come close to replicating that and seeing the lack of me guys and the guys that are willing to go out there and sacrifice for the greater good of the play or the scheme or the team or other people having success. And it's kind of ruined me a little bit. But I just, it had been overly repetitive with those two names and nothing was really directed at them. But I'm only going to be fair and say you go out there and wear a pink ski mask to be different than everybody else. You show some clown tendencies on social media when you're on your way out, that guy's carrying your program and the other Part of this is there have been individuals that have carried programs. Cam would be one. There are other guys that have put the program on their back. Like you got your Bo Jacksons and your Herschel Walkers and your guys that carried the program. But you still need guys to allow that to happen. And those are even more so the players I'm referencing. So when you do get said superhero, all the ancillary parts can allow superhero to be superhero. Because Cam Newton had four senior starting offensive linemen, he had multiple defensive linemen that had played three, four, five years of football. He had Josh Barnes, an inside linebacker that had been a three year starter and had probably seen everything that there was going to be to scene. A veteran tight end, a veteran leadership in Emory Blake, another wide receiver, and Cody Burns that had spent time at quarterback so knew all different types of the offense and facets of what things can happen. All of those things allowed him to go be him. Now, is it still the greatest individual season I've ever witnessed? Yes, because there's not another NFL reception or an NFL rushing attempt from that offense in 2010. But it's not a Cam Newton conversation. It's a conversation about how not even he, not even Darren McFadden, not even Derrick Henry, no great player crumbles a program. And that was the frustration level that I was at. It just happened to be that those two individuals were the ones that I was repeatedly being asked about. And I'm just beyond frustrated with the fear from some groups of Auburn fans that don't think it can be overcome. And I'm not, I don't BS you on this show. Some of that was directed at the Auburn administration and the obsession with trying to say what can we do to make sure these two people stay? And I literally got to the problem with I don't give an F what these two people say and if they stay or if they want to stay, because if they don't want to be there, you shouldn't want them there. And that's what's lost in a lot of this. It's like we're tr. That's like we go back to this whole situation at Washington. We're going to file a lawsuit to make a kid play for our team. How is that going over in your locker room? Hey buddy, we know you hate it here and you had more money over there, but if you could come quarterback for us because you're legally binding to get in there and run the play, how is the bench going to be after that first interception? Yeah. Even if it's totally legitimate. Great play by the corner because I know what I'm thinking when my quarterback, especially when you go deep in. I'm not going to go into the details of what happened when it was released on his social media, but y' all can take a look for that yourself and figure it out that on top of it, then coming back with all the shenanigans, you go out there and throw two picks in the first game, third game, probably not going to be super comfortable.
- [44:49]
B
It was funny when we were at the SEC Championship game. Or no, when we were at the Peach bowl, you were down there with Jacob Pester. Who's down there? Roddy Jones. You guys do Alyssa Lange. Yo, they're doing pregame on Sirius xm. It's like two hours before kickoff. So I walked up, producer grabs me. I do a segment with you guys during the break. Before the segment, we're talking about this, and Jacob Hester standing there, and he's like, what do you think that Washington locker room is going to be like? And so, you know, like, our instinct. Both of you played the game. I'm just sitting there having watched it my whole life. But all three of our instincts were the same. And that was, oh, man, it's going to be. It's going to be a disaster. But then he stops and he says, but you know what? All I can really say is it would have been a disaster. All I can really say is how it would have been when I played, which is 20 or so years ago. He said, honestly, case by case, locker room by locker room, I could see a world where guys just kind of get it in today's college football. Now, I don't ever want to even pretend that that world exists. So, like, I'm just. I'm just choosing to think that it's going to be a really, really rocky situation, as it should be, by the way, to try and win guys back after you said goodbye to him. And the only reason you're still there is because on your way out, the door was locked and you turn around and you say, hey, so never mind. Let's go run it back. Question mark. I don't really know. I have no idea.
- [46:10]
A
There is a part of it where if there's that big of a difference between one and two and you. You want to win games. I mean, you can take your brain to a full mercenary lifestyle mindset and just say, bro, help us win. Don't be. I don't need to be around you. I don't need to talk to you. We're not going to hang out, help us win games. Let me know what I can do to assist you in being best at doing that. That's possible, but I think what you say is totally fair. Perfect example. Like Jacob Hester, then me, then the last thing we would ever tweet is when one of our teammates quit on us. Go get your bag, homie. Yeah, big things coming. Good luck. Going to miss my guy.
- [46:50]
B
No, by the way.
- [46:51]
A
Absolute opposite mindset of that, by the way.
- [46:54]
B
So let's. I think you and I have talked about this on the phone. I do not ever think we've talked about this particular thing I'm about to mention on the show. You're aware, as am I, of several instances just in. In a previous portal Portal cycle. Let's take this last one where guy leaves your team, several players on team tweet out in support of said player and trash him behind his back. And you're thinking to yourself, why the performance? Like, why the cosmetics online? What is your best explanation for why when Cole Kublick leaves Pate State, I trash him behind the scenes? But me as a player, I hop on Instagram, I hop on TikTok, I hop on Twitter and say, go get it, man. Good for you.
- [47:37]
A
Good for you.
- [47:38]
B
I love that you're leaving me. Great job.
- [47:41]
A
I don't need a theory, I don't need a hypothesis. I can just give you what it is when, when someone, specifically a younger individual, a younger human puts something on Instagram. What is. What's the goal of that?
- [47:54]
B
To get what traction likes.
- [47:57]
A
Likes to get retweets, to get positive comments. It's plain and simple, Josh. It's the fear of not being liked and the desire to be liked and positive reinforcement. And there's. There's a. I hate being old man yelling at the clouds here. I'm not, but I hear this mainly from coaches. I see some of it with my children. We try to battle it on a daily basis. It's just wanting to be liked and wanting people to say nice things about you. That's it. I. I've given you the example before of last year. Player rolls up on his red shirt and has played in certain said number of games, tells coach he's not going out there anymore. Coach says, well, you've got your nil money. And that was to play, not necessarily to practice. And that was the disagreement. Player walks, multiple players. Same thing as you stated. I asked coach about how did. Why are these guys coming up this next. We had them on TV that week. And the coach said the funny part about that is four of those five were on our leadership council and were in my office the next morning furious about said player not wanting to help in games anymore and going to go on about his day and not just come practice, collect his nil check and not be a part of the team anymore. So it's a, it's a difficult battle that these coaches deal with because it is, it's a struggle. And you have certain coaches like my, when Pittman was at Arkansas, he told us straight up, somebody comes ask me for that, no thank you. Yeah, Shane Beamer has told us not only are you not coming to practice with us, there will be a two hour window in the evenings when you're allowed to use the facilities. You will not be here when my team is here. I don't need you recruiting other guys to leave and tell them where you're going and how cool it is and what your agent's saying. So you're not allowed at this facility from this time to this time. I am going to help you and give you study hall and give you the weight room and give you the indoor. But it's going to be in the evening when we're all gone and then you have Lincoln Riley was very public about it. Lane was public early on about it and I think his change just a little bit over time. Now we need those bodies in practice and he's a very good player and he can help our ones be better. So it's a juggling act that's very difficult. That is just part of the day to day management of this age of being a college football coach.
- [50:11]
B
Look at the calendar. National championship game is, well, depending on when you're watching a day away, two days away, it's coming up. I know a lot of you still need tickets and look, I've seen the screenshots, I've seen how pricey this thing's going to be. There's no way around it, all right? Unless you've got a very, very connected uncle down in South Florida, you're probably not getting in this game for free. And I'm not here to try and get you in for free. What I can do is I can get you a discount on ticket prices, but only if you go to seatgeek and then fill up your little basket. Could be one ticket, could be 10 for all I know. And if you're the kind of guy that's buying 10 tickets to this game, I want to know you. But nevertheless, once you get to checkout, enter promo code PATE100. That is P A T E100. And if you couldn't already tell, that's going to get you $100 off your order. Guys, this is a big time memory. I don't care if you're a Canes fan, Hoosiers fan, big time memory. Enjoy it. Of course. We'll see you down there.
- [51:05]
A
All right.
- [51:05]
B
So when I was watching the Peach Bowl, I thought to myself, I think I may be watching the national championship game now. I was telling myself that pregame. I think the team that wins here is going to win it all. Indiana emphatically wins. And then I left Mercedes Benz Stadium and I was asking myself, are you going to be able to talk yourself into Miami? Are you going to be able to make enough of a case for him by the time you pick the game? Fast forward a week. I made enough of a case for Miami in my head that I ended up picking them to win the game. Part of it's cause I was really vocal about what Miami looked like early in the year. People challenged me on it. I was right, they were wrong. I'm happy about it. I want to plant the flag at the very end. So part of it is just emotion talking. The other part is I think Indiana's been lethally efficient all year. I view them as having cruised at 39,000ft most of the back half of their schedule. I think Mendoza rightfully won the Heisman and now is playing higher caliber ball than he was en route to winning the Heisman. And if you let him get in any kind of rhythm like Oregon did, you're cooked. No matter if you turn the ball over or not. 11 of 14 on third down is pretty insane. Those are video game numbers. What I asked myself is A, do I think Miami's best is good enough to beat Indiana? My answer was yes. B, I don't need them to do it for an entire season. Can I get them to fly at 40,000ft minimum over a four quarter span? And I convince myself with what they can do at the line of scrimmage, how different they can make third down offensively, look for Indiana, how much pressure they can get potentially and just make life a little more difficult on Mendoza. And also how good I saw Carson Beck execute against Ohio State. If I can get that stuff just all in a rubber band ball and you're playing in your own backyard, I think that's good enough to push him over the finish line. So I picked them. I don't know where you Landed on this game yet. But either side, like, do you think close game, do you think Indiana in a route, do you think Miami pulls upset? Where you see this thing going?
- [53:03]
A
Part of me, when you're sitting there explaining that it's like you've just pulled out your little slip for the lottery and you're like, if I can get the first number, if I get the second number, if I get the third number, the fourth number is the one that I really need to focus on. But if I get all five, if I can get seven correct numbers here.
- [53:21]
B
Yeah, I just need, I just need third once third ping pong ball. See, it's downhill momentum after the third ball is downhill momentum and we're good. Just boom, boom, boom.
- [53:30]
A
Now we'll say Miami winning this game is not them winning the lottery. There is absolutely a path. There are some concerns that I have with even their path. Let's go back to Miami Ole Miss. You probably sat there at halftime like I did and if you didn't have a score bug or had not paid attention to the scoreboard or were not watching what the score was, you'd gone, said, I don't know, what is the thing? 31, 10, 34, 5.
- [53:54]
B
Trapdoor theory, my friend, trapdoor theory.
- [53:57]
A
It was a blowout. And what it did to me, it took my brain to a place that I never thought it would go in a game like that because you watch it and you have a full appreciation for what Miami is doing. Essentially dominating the line of scrimmage. Now Pete had to be really active up front. He had to move. It worked against Georgia. Now what happened with Georgia is they had a couple runs that went. They never stuck with it. All of a sudden go back to being a drop back team. Same thing with Ohio State. They had a couple runs that went. Went back to being a drop back team. This has happened four or five times just in this playoff where certain offensive coordinators had found some Shannon Dawson against A and M I I I don't think there was a trick play left in the book in that game and weren't necessarily needed at the time. But I think I know what he was thinking was that anything generic is not going to go. We, we have to pull something out of our rear ends here if we're going to make this happen. And then finally late in the game, didn't have to because they shoved it down their throat. But I sat back thinking, is this style of ball going to be enough? Because you absolutely dominated Ole Miss for a half and they're down 4. Indiana more efficient than Ole Miss. Maybe not as high powered, high potent, maybe doesn't create as many explosives, but they are more efficient. And the problem that I would have with this is, what if you're Miami and you play three and a half quarters of perfect that style football, at least on offense and mostly on defense. What's the best case scenario? Your lead is at that point, close, without any massive mistakes from Indiana. They don't make a lot of them. We're talking about like 17, 10, 21, 14. And you're going to give the ball to Fernando Mendoza in that spot again. So that's the part that I'm very curious of because these other coordinators, it feels like in these moments, have said not good enough, have to create, have to go get. I don't think Shannon will necessarily do that, but I just wonder what the score is going to be if you play a perfect game under that guideline. Now, if you can get Indiana some mistakes, I don't think you have to worry about it. You can play that game all night long and you'll be fine. You'll probably win by two touchdowns. The problem is they don't make mistakes. They're efficient on both sides of the ball. I can't go against this team. I'm. We were sitting on the field and I'm telling Roddy and those guys. I said, I'm thinking like 31:10 and I'm actually, I might be underselling it. I said that to McCoy Friday morning. He's like, whoa, no, not, not like that. Not like that. I picked him to beat Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game. I picked him to win this tournament when it all started. So I'm not going to fade confidence on them now just because another team that they're going to see is going to have a little bit of something that they may not have seen this year. And I will say this about Miami. This will be a. This will be a different style punch that they're going to have to take. And they've taken a lot of them and they've delivered them back. Miami's bringing like a Deontay Wilder right hand. It will be different than what they have felt from other teams because Iowa's run game, it can be north and south. It's a little more east and west with how they stretch things out. It's not as have to be right here. I'll say this. I think they're facing the best running back they've seen all year.
- [57:03]
B
Yeah.
- [57:04]
A
When you're Talking about a hammer that can find little bit decreases and make you pay for that and then get extra yards after contact. And actually Charmar played great last week too. Like he was a hammer. He came in, they had double hammers. So this is going to come down to mistakes, man. Like that's it. The quarterback that makes the most mistakes, the defense that bust the most coverage, the team that puts the ball on the ground the most. Think about how dangerously Miami lived those first few games of this playoff. Multiple fumbles that they did not lose, one against A and M. When you're essentially going down to try and take the lead and then you end up getting the ball back again and then get another stop on defense like they, they have. I don't. I trust Miami and crunch time. I just trust Indiana more. They are the most efficient team that I have watched in a long time. They are the most technically sound team that I've watched in a long time. They have the best understanding of what conceptually the play is asking for each and every time out maybe of any team that I've ever seen. The execution, Josh, is off the charts. Like I told you about one specific play that showed everything I needed to see about Indiana on defense. And it's early in the game. It's a run to the left. They have numbers to the left, There was a tight end to the left. They motioned another tight end over 18 is kind of like your little H back. And it's literally five on three, should be a hundred yards. So they run the inside zone to the left. The thing starts to collapse down inside. You're like, whoa, this is going to be big. You get a little bit of a little bit of a good push on the tight end over there trying to set the edge. The play kind of cuts back. You get a twist inside, which if you were to ask for one thing right there as an offensive coordinator, you would say, man, if that front side defensive end would just slant inside, we would be off to the races. Well, he does. And then your nose guard who is reached keeps fighting through, keeps fighting through. Oh no, the guards climbing up. I'll fight through him too. And then he kind of just barely on the backside of the running back, pulls him down for a two yard gain like that. Strain and awareness and understanding. I know it's one play, but those are the kind of things you see on almost every play that they just give you a little extra and have a little extra understanding of what's being asked. And I think they have just enough physicality to Kind of match. Miami. I don't think they're going to knock Miami out. But let's go back to our superhero theory that we just talked about a minute ago. Who's the superhero on this team for Indiana? Like, who is their Superman, their Batman? Mendoza? How many 300 yard games did he have this year? Did he have any one?
- [59:36]
B
One.
- [59:37]
A
And he just blew out Oregon and he threw the ball 17 times. They don't make him be a superhero. He can be. He shows up at times, but they don't take the field and say, tighten up that cape, buddy, because if you ain't ready, we ain't winning. That's not how they operate. And so therefore, I think they are the better team don't have better players top to bottom, by any stretch of the imagination. And I love Miami's team. I love how they operate. I love Malanoga, I love Mario. I love watching Ruben Bane play football. But I think, I think Indiana is a better football team.
- [60:12]
B
You know, it's funny. We'll wrap it up on this. Indiana made the playoffs last year. So, like, on the surface, if someone doesn't know anything about college football, they would look and say, like, why is everybody so surprised at how they're playing this year? They made the playoff last year. Okay, Natural progression. They make the national title game this year. If I didn't know any better, I'd look at the sport that way. It's not that they made the playoff again. It's what you just talked about. It's the efficiency levels all spiking, 10 of 10 that you just. I don't know, man. It's college football. It's, it's, it's competitive sport. You're not used to seeing that. So I still classify Indiana as a surprise team this year. That's on the plus side. I think that on the minus side, like, if we were to go all the way back to August and I were to ask you what you think then and then what transpired now, looking back, like, who were you way too high on? Who were you way too low on? Who surprised you disappointed you the most? Clemson and Penn State are like universals because most people had Clemson, Penn State easily in their top 10, if not in their top five. And looking back, I know what went wrong now. I don't think there were many ways to just foresee that in August. So I don't even feel bad about that. Like, I've got the Florida stench on me. I chose to buy into Florida. I chose to buy into DJ Lagway that didn't turn out well for me. Are there teams or at least one of them you look at right now and say, either how did I whiff so badly on them? Or, wow, why was I way too high on them?
- [61:33]
A
Clemson's absolutely one. I picked him to win the national championship before the season started. LSU would be another. You, you have what is viewed as a generational quarterback with a plethora of weapons and multiple individuals on defense that are provided a system that is going to allow them to attack on a very consistent basis. Like that recipe usually equals a lot of wins. And you got your head coach fired. There are a lot of people that were at fault for that. I think there are a lot of things that could have been altered with how they went into games and weren't, but it is what it is. It's done. I'll give you one. On the flip side of that, I did not expect Ole Miss to be as good as they were. I didn't think they were falling off the face of the earth. But think about the draft picks that they lost. I mean, you had multiple players across a defensive line that was dominant. Okay? You had wide receivers that were going to move on that were dominant. A tight end that helped you do a lot of different things. You had multiple players in different places. Specifically, quarterback, that was one of the toughest individuals in all of college football. That helps you win a ton of games. I didn't think that thing would be replaced. And if I did, I told you. Austin Simmons probably threw for 5,000 yards, like they may have been at the end of the year better than they were the year before in different ways. And I think part of that is that superhero theory that we just talked about. They weren't as reliant on certain individuals to just go in games. And Lane told us before the season, he said, y' all keep asking about these receivers. Running back is where we're going to be different. That kid we can lean on and he can give us explosive plays, and we haven't had that. So that was one that I look at and say, yeah, ahead of where I thought they were. Even Texas Tech, with all the influx of talent, I always find it difficult to think that that's just going to work. Matter of fact, I usually don't believe that that's just going to work. So for Joey to get it where he did, really impressive. Now, you know me, I told you going into the playoff, a little bit of fool's gold with that. Like, I don't really think that they're going to go on some crazy run because of what I've seen on film doesn't mean they didn't have an outstanding season and still way ahead of where I thought that they would realistically be.
- [63:40]
B
Cube show, where do I find it? Let's just say I don't know who you are. I've never heard of you before. You made some sense today. Where can I get more YouTube?
- [63:49]
A
You can search Cube show, itunes, wherever you get your podcasts. You can go search it there and find it and see more of what we talked about today. We break that play specifically down on the episode this week. You can go watch that and see it for yourself.
- [64:03]
B
It's good stuff. And I wouldn't say it. I mean, I'm motivated not to say it, but unfortunately, it is good stuff and I do love it. No matter how much my name gets maligned by certain people on social, the puppet especially was uncalled for.
- [64:17]
A
I'm just waiting for you to put it by your pig back there in studio.
- [64:20]
B
My pig? That is. That's Floyd. That's not a pig. That's Floyd of Rosedale.
- [64:23]
A
All right, well, the. The puppet of Nashville needs to make an appearance.
- [64:27]
B
Yeah, it's not the Foy sportsmanship trophy. That is Floyd of Rosedale back there. All right, let's finish this thing strong Monday night. Appreciate you as always, sir.
- [64:36]
A
Yeah, man, thanks for having me.
- [64:37]
B
What a guy. What a guy. I always graced when we have his presence on this show. But, hey, seriously, really good channel. I watch it. I listen to them every morning in Birmingham, too. So, Cube show, go subscribe if you haven't already. Make sure you subscribe to our channel if you haven't already. Here's the deal. We are going to be down in Miami Sunday night on the eve of the national championship game. So no show on Sunday night. We will react to the national championship game on Tuesday. We'll be right back up here to Nashville after the game Monday night. We'll have a ton to talk about. It'll be the end of the season. We don't end the show. We do college football year round. So just make sure you're aware of that. If you thought that the curtain was about to drop around here, it's not. But we're looking forward to it. We'll see you guys down in South Florida over the weekend. National championship game Monday night. Until then, let's enjoy our last weekend with college football for a while. Take care. Thank you so much for watching. Director Bradley, producer Jesse I'M Josh Pate. God Bless.
- [65:50]
C
Must be 21 + and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. first online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms@sportsbook.fanduel.com gambling problem call 1-800- gambler or visit fanduel.com rg call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chatincut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org In Maryland, Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelp linema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text HOPE NY in New York.
- [66:34]
A
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.