← Josh Pate's College Football Show
Josh Pate's College Football Show
Brendan Sorsby Reaction + Post-Spring Thoughts & Kirby Smart Sounds Off
01:08:33
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Josh Pate
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Show Host/Analyst
A lot of you have asked how did storm chasing go the other day? It brings me no joy to inform you. We drove over a thousand miles and saw nothing. Nothing. So disappointed. Prez was in tow. His first experience was a total bust. But that's okay. It's the busts that make you appreciate the high points. Immunity. We're jam packed. We're high atop a radiant and slightly cool Downtown Nashville, Tennessee on this Thursday, April 30th, the year of our Lord 2026. We don't have a post spring portal window in this sport anymore and that greatly impacts your LSU's of the world, your Texas Techs of the world. So I'm going to talk about some post spring stuff tonight. I'm going to talk about the Brendan Sorsby stuff tonight. We got Bold predict. We've just got the truth about Kurt Signetti, at least according to me, the truth, in my opinion, about Kurt Signetti. We got a lot to get to. We got a jam packed show, A surprisingly jam packed show. Well, surprising to those who don't frequent the show. They're watching us in Jefferson City, Missouri, Charleston, South Carolina, Littleton, Colorado, Ocala, Florida. Paper popper for emphasis. Please subscribe to the channel if you have not already. You may be listening saying, well, I can listen whether I'm subscribed or not. That's true. Here's me just blindly crossing my fingers and hoping you'll subscribe because it helps us. Okay, let's move on. A lot to get to in the show. I had a lot of final thoughts that I noticed we'd accumulated about spring football and we hadn't put it all out on tape. So just a couple of thoughts on several teams here. Alabama post spring I know everyone's focused on the quarterback battle. I am too. But I'm actually more confident in how that quarterback battle will turn out than I am right now. The offensive line situation, I'm not going as far as to say I think it's going to be a weakness or anything. It's just a bigger question mark to me because I think both of those quarterbacks are guys they can win with. I don't know what to expect from them on offensive line now. What they are not void of is talent. So they're really, really talented players there. There's just lack of experience. They're replacing nearly the entire thing. They replace their offensive line coach. So you're starting basically from scratch there. And then you add in that, oh, we're trying to figure out how to run the ball there. And then you add in that you're going to have a new quarterback no matter who it is start for them. So that's on the offensive side. I also think Ryan Williams, Ryan Coleman Williams now added a name. I think you'll have a good year this year. I don't have any, any question about him mentally. Work ethic. In fact, that's never been a question with Ryan Williams. He just dipped last year, had problems with drops. So I think he'll be good this year based on Everything that I picked up out of spring linebacker is one of the bigger questions on that team. Now, if you talk to their staff, they thought linebacker would be a question last year, but due to injury the previous year, a lot of guys came back for 2025 that they didn't expect to have. And so you just kind of deferred the questions a year. Caleb Woodson walked in there from Virginia Tech and is immediately penciled in. He earned it, but penciled in as a starter. And outside of that, got a lot of guys that could be. There's a lot of could be there. I think probably what was happening there in the spring is you've inevitably got some guys in your room that you hope take the next step, but in the moment, in time, they're not the highest performers. At their best, they would be better than anyone in the room. But sometimes, you know, your. Your position group, in this case Bama's linebacker group, maybe you got some guys who have lower ceilings who are putting better practice tape out there than the guys with the higher ceilings. That's what God invented spring for. I think they dealt with that a little bit. And therefore that linebacker group still kind of a work in progress. They got the longest secondary, I think, in the league. One of the best secondaries in the country. I think potential wise this year, but certainly lengthwise. I don't think there's another DB group that looks like Alabama. That's where I am on them. Move it to Coral Gables. Move it to South Florida. Move it not. The University of Miami coming out of spring has me convinced that at their high end, this can be a better team than last year. Miami's got that 20 teens, Bama vibe to them. Kirby, Georgia, Ryan Day, Ohio State. The kind of vibe where, you know, they've become an exception to the rule. The rule in college football is when you have a really good team and then there's a ton of lost production off that team. It's going to be a steep climb to recreate what that previous team created. But Sabins, Alabama, Kirby's, Georgia, Ryan Day's, Ohio State, those are outfits that have just defied conventional wisdom. And you learn that the guys that are waiting in the wings there are sometimes better than seasoned veterans on other rosters. Miami, at least this year, I think could be in position to be that. Not the least of which reasoning is tied to the quarterback position. I expect them to upgrade at quarterback. I expect Darion Mensah to be an upgrade at the quarterback position relative to what Carson Beck gave them last year and I get to tie that to what could be an extremely high level wide receiver group. They are going to be very good running the ball and offensive line. While there's a lot of departing experience, really both sides up front, they have entered into that territory where it may take a few weeks to find its groove. But just the question marks could become strengths. Miami has question marks that could become strengths. I also don't want to overlook that Shannon Dawson and Corey Heatherman are one of the best OC DC combos in college football right now, and they're both there. I don't think they thought Shannon Dawson would be around this long down there. I thought they believed he'd already get at least like a G5 level head coaching spot. And he was in the mix for him last year, but he's back another year and truth be told, he has a quarterback that much more perfectly complements his offensive style. Ohio State coming off another playoff appearance Ohio State coming off Ohio State at various points last year was thought to be the runaway best team in the country. They ended up not winning the Big Ten championship game. They ended up being one and done in the playoffs. And it kind of makes you forget how you felt about them. As late as mid November, as late as mid November, they were looked at as the slam dunk, number one team in the country and they're going to face Indiana. Yeah, we know that game's coming. Well, the game did happen and it was what it was. I don't want to make any excuses. So as far as this year, they're going to be right back in the mix. They're going to be one of the favorites to win it all. I think the biggest question or one of the biggest questions I'd have about them coming out of spring is how good is Julian saying at his best and his best is not going to show up, all due respect, against Purdue or Minnesota. I need to see him on the road against Texas, you know, I need to see him when they play Indiana. I need to see him maybe against like an Oregon Big Ten championship game or in a playoff situation against A and M or Miami or someone like that. And I need to see him be the reason they win a game. Now maybe, just maybe, Matt Patricia's defense is good enough or maybe their run game is good enough where they can, for lack of a better term, hide him in big games. That's not realistic in postseason college football. That's not realistic. So I'm not saying he can't do it. That's why? It's a question, not a weakness. But I still think there's a leveling up to his game that has to happen in those big moments. The wide receiver room will be good enough there. They got the best in college football, probably the best player in college football. Not just wide receiver, but even behind them, like you got Chris Henry there, you got a lot of players. Brandon Ennis is there. You got a lot of players. The offensive line returns 80% of its starters. Translation, 4 out of 5. So they'll be good running back, will be good defensive tackle. I'd circle as a little bit of a question, maybe an unknown for them. But that schedule is rough. That schedule is no joke. And so you'll find out early on because you get to see him at Texas in week two. But the beauty of that is you got a trip to Texas in week two and then they'll be off the radar for a week and then they'll play Illinois at home and then they'll go to Iowa. But eventually you've got this team playing Indiana, you got this team playing usc, you got this team playing Oregon at Nebraska, Michigan. Not an easy draw. Alright, what about Georgia? We're going to hear from Kirby Smart later in the show. He's not joining the show, at least not this week. But we will hear sound from him later in the show. Kirby Smart and Georgia entering 2026. Same kinds of questions that I feel like I've had about him for a few years at wide receiver. How dynamic can that position group be at its best? I don't need it to be top five in the country. That's unrealistic. But I do need game changing, game breaking potential. That's what these teams that end up making it deep in the playoffs have. I don't know that they have that. I don't know, maybe that the dominant pass rusher is there on this team. Maybe it will be, maybe it won't be. Those are questions I have coming out of spring. Now the defense overall will be legit. Defensively, overall, this will be one of the best outfits in the country. KJ Bolden, maybe the best safety in the country, but the quarterback position here is a known commodity. Gunner Stockton is a known commodity. But remember we were talking to Pollock the other day about this very thing because his opinion was for Georgia to win a national championship, Gunnar Stockton has to be better than he's been. They can't win a national championship with him merely performing at the level he did last year. All right, so let's say that's true. Let's say that argument's true. I think a lot of people would agree with that. How much better does he need to be A and then B? How realistic is it to expect significant improvement in Gunnar Stockton's game? Because I'm telling you how he strikes me. He strikes me as a player who's very good but kind of a known commodity. Now it's weird because normally it's like your third year starting when people are talking about you like that. Well, Gunnar Stockton's not a three year starter. Last year was his first year starting. So I've kind of got this internal battle just in my own mind of do I leave room in my expectation bucket at least do I leave room for this significant scaling up of output or do I want to choose to be pleasantly surprised if that happens and make my expectation for him just a little bit more of what we had last year? And by the way, what we had last year wasn't bad. It was very good. It was good enough for him to win the SEC championship. So we're talking about the difference here splitting hairs a little bit. The difference in what kind of upgrade they would need to win the whole thing to compete to win the whole thing. Flip the paper over Texas University of Some more questions here. Coming out of spring football, Texas, I would say my impression of them coming out of spring is that team has the highest ceiling of any team in college football this upcoming year with a great big asterisk on that. And it's tied to the offensive line. Offensive line holds the key. It always does in this sport. It does. Especially at Texas. Because outside of that there aren't a ton of major questions. There are no weaknesses. There are very few like major questions relative to the rest of college football. So Cam Coleman coming in there, I expect an all American caliber year from him. In the words of Steve Sarkeesian. Ryan Wingo still here, which is a really, really good, just noteworthy point about Texas football. But outside of that, the overhaul they did to that running back room with Relique Brown, Hollywood Smothers, also Rasheed Biles coming in there at linebacker just like an immediate captain type player. Defensively for them, they're good to great pretty much everywhere. From from a potential standpoint, the offensive line holds the key because you can visualize just as easily as I could Arch having a really good year, tailbacks having a really good year, wide receivers making some wow plays. But then they go up against a Miami or the equivalent of last year's Miami. If there is that this year and they just get caved or they just go up against Georgia again and they finish second best physically on the field against Georgia and you're looking and you're saying, man, all those portal moves, all that hype, and the balloon gets popped in our face again by the same meat and potatoes approach that has beat us, it seems like, for a long time. Those are the questions. Because if those questions are answered in the affirmative, Texas will win the national championship. That's pretty cut and dry to me. Lsu Lane Kiffin. I don't know if you've heard Lane Kiffin entering his first year as head coach at lsu. So trade as Green is going to be a monster for them physically and literally and could very well be their leading pass catcher this year. In fact, look, I don't know if we necessarily want to go down the prop bet odds road on that, but I'd bet on it. But outside of him, a lot of questions on this team, same deal with lsu. Question doesn't mean weakness. Question means question. So Sam Levitt, the injury kept him out most of spring. I think right at the end he, he got some reps. But that plus an entire offensive overhaul to me means even if I'm Lane Kiffin, even if I'm Charlie Weiss Jr. I'm coming out of spring and there's no way even I have a firm grip on who we're going to be. So there's certainly no way some guy sitting behind a microphone in Nashville could know that. I was listening to Kiffin talk the other day. He was like, yeah, I mean, we've had a quarterback out most of spring. We got a bunch of new pieces we've barely tackled. How in the world can you know what kind of football team you have? You can't. But since it's impossible to have a great feel, that's not a bad thing. It makes it fun because there's this whole range of outcomes here. Now, my younger self would base my expectations on their high end potential, which means 10 and 2, 11 and 1. I'm feeling it. The not older but the more seasoned version of me. Yeah, I'm going to say, all right, let's go into summer thinking 8 and 4. Let's see if we can talk ourselves up to 9 and 3. Maybe post media days when fall camp starting, maybe we get crazy like we did with Nebraska last year, and we roll a 10 and 2 out there and the world burns down. So I was looking at Shea Dixon's work and Shay Dixon tends to believe Jesse. They're going to start a couple of true freshmen on the interior of the defensive line. Now these are not normal true freshmen. Gerald's and Anderson, the latter of whomst is one of the biggest names to come out of high school in Louisiana in a long time. They're both top 10 defensive linemen from this past year's class. But both of them are they starting on the interior of the defensive line for lsu and does that make it a weakness or does it just make it a fun note? Let's keep an eye on that. Oregon coming out of spring. My lasting thoughts on Oregon. This team has excellent high end talent. This team is poised to make a run at a national championship. They may very well have the best quarterback in the country. They may have the best and certainly deepest defensive line in the country. You could make the argument that they could challenge for having the number one wide receiver room in the country. I think conservatively it's a top five secondary potentially. And don't believe the lack of hype around special teams coming out of the spring game. They'll be okay there too. They did not go to the Portal on offensive line. Notice that. It's something we pointed out going into spring and something I feel needs to be restated coming out of spring. They're replacing three of five on the offensive line and if Oregon wanted to, Oregon could have gone to the Portal to backfill there. They didn't. Why is that? It's not cause they're broke. It's because obviously they trust their pieces internally. Now, that's no guarantee that they're right, but it is a guarantee. That's how they feel. New offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator there. Just keep that in mind. Not new to the building, but new in those roles. So just keep that in mind. Bradley, you got their schedule? Yeah. There you go. No, those are the odds. My bad. It was so close. So close. They open with Boise, they go to Oklahoma State, Portland State. So the first time, I would guess the first time the world will be watching them is week four at usc. Okay. And they don't play someone that you would consider their physical equal until the first week of November when they go to Columbus, Ohio. And they got Michigan the very next week. That's a nice little one, two punch. I didn't remember that. They got Ohio State, Michigan back to back. No bye week there. So I think Oregon win the national title this year. However, that is sort of a backloaded schedule there, which is good news, especially when it comes to things like the offensive line because you can get your act together. Texas A and M just lost. Oh, sorry, Bradley. I'll give you time to change the assets there. Texas A and m just lost 10 players to the draft, which would mean in the modern age of college football, boy, you're going to have to take a step back this year. And look, I need to see Marcel Reed's floor rise a little bit, meaning him at his worst needs to be way more consistent than it was last year. But if I get that, they don't have to take a step back at all. Texas A and M does not have to take a step back. I'm going to give you an example. I think that offensive line situation is a perfect sort of microcosm for the team. So the offensive line loses four or five. Conventional wisdom in college football tells us, boy, you lose four or five on your offensive line, you're in trouble. They may be better than they were last year there. They may be. They have the potential to be that. Because while there may be a bunch of question marks on the offensive line, you don't have a bunch of weaknesses. You're not with a lack of option. In fact, they probably got eight or nine guys that they could throw out there and play right now. It's just that it's unsettled and it may still be a little bit unsettled in the latter portion of fall camp. Do the schedule thing again, Bradley. It may be that it takes a few weeks, but I think once they settle into their rhythm this year, once they go to lsu, let's say in week four, there's a chance that you're looking at offensive line at Texas A and M going, dude, they replaced four or five on the offensive line. This doesn't look like a weakness on a team. This kind of looks like a strength of a team. It obviously all comes back to quarterback, but offensive line is going to be fun to watch with them because I kind of think of it as this microcosm of Mike Elkos, Texas A and M as a whole, where they're going to pump out draft picks. This is not an anomaly. This last year, them having 10 deep and the draft, that's not an anomaly. That'll continue happening. Maybe not quite at that clip every year, but it'll continue happening. But then what you'll also condition yourself to be ready to do is watch them put a bunch of guys in the draft and then go ahead and look over at spring football and say, wow, they're going to be good again this year, aren't they? Yeah, that's them. As long as they're acquiring talent like they are and developing it, that's them for the foreseeable future. We move on. Lot to get to. Thank you guys so much for watching or listening. We do not discriminate against the podcast only crowd. In fact, if you didn't exist, Mitch wouldn't have a job. So we certainly don't discriminate against you. I just always say watch instead of listen. It doesn't come first alphabetically. There's really no explanation for we make more money off YouTube than podcasts. That's why that's probably what it is. Except for the past 48 hours. The algorithm's been haywire over the last 48 hours. It's no one's fault. Not even our fault.
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Josh Pate
There's no denying it. Moms make the world go Round. Celebrate mom with a gift that really pops. A personalized Funko Pop where you'll select hair, clothing and skin tone options to match her go to Look. Don't forget to show off her special talents, hobbies and interests with accessories to match. You can even add her favorite furry friend. Show mom the love this year. Start Creating now@funko.com Be unique, not anyone else.
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Express it now. Just pop yourself.
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All right, the Brendan Sorsby Texas Tech stuff has broken since the last time we had a show. So to get everyone up to speed, which you probably already are, there is an NCAA investigation underway into gambling related matters with Brendan Sorsby. Brendan Soaresby was the starting quarterback at Cincinnati last year. He transferred to Texas Tech, Huge nil deal, several million dollars. And now this is from Pete nakos over at on3.com and you can I'll read it. You know what? I'll read part of it. With the NCAA investigation Underway, sources told On3 that Sourcebe is expected to write a letter to the NCAA in the near future explaining this situation. NCAA rules state that if a player bets on their own sport at another school, the player could lose 50% of one season of eligibility. The player also may receive education on sports wagering and rules and prevention. In that case, it goes on to basically talk about what he did. And allegedly what he did was when he was in Indiana way back in the day, 2022, he was on the team and bet on Indiana games, at least in one instance, if not more. I haven't seen his account information personally. Also, I question how that happens, but I digress. So if that's happening, obviously it's going to be a big problem. My feel on this, and I have no information above and beyond what Pete's talked about here. I've listened to Thamil talk about it. I've listened to, you know, a couple of people who cover this stuff and who cover NCAA related matters pretty closely. Their feel is that he's unlikely to play this year. I'm going to agree with them. My feel is that he's unlikely to play this year. Now I'm going to take a very pessimistic approach on that and kind of hope I'm wrong. But my feel is I'm getting ready to watch Texas Tech without Brendan Sorsby this year. And then what does he do? Does he go in the supplemental draft? Does he sit out a year and then get ready for next year's draft which is loaded at the quarterback position? But that's down the road. Okay, so there are really two matters in play here. Let me address the less serious matter first. And that's the on the field part for Texas Tech this year. There is no backup option here. There's a literal backup. His name is Will Hammond, who has started before, who is not a bad player. They had to use him last year. He was pressed into duty last year. He's 6 3, he's 205, he's a redshirt sophomore. He was a top 200 prospect in a couple of cycles ago in recruiting. So he's not a bad player. It's just that I think most people's feel on Texas Tech's top end potential with Will Hammond is beneath that of winning a national championship. Now they may very well still be the best team in the Big 12. If I had to pick the Big 12 today, like I would still probably pick Texas Tech to win it. Even if Will Hammond has to be my wire to wire quarterback. It's bigger than that though. You, I think the number 6 million or so, Jesse, I mean you invested about $6 million into Brendan Sorsby being the guy that could take you further than you went last year. And where you went last year is in a. You drove into a brick wall basically in the playoffs because Baron Morton and what you had offensively last year was not good enough to get past an Oregon good enough to win the Big 12, not good enough to do anything beyond that. And they knew that and they thought they had addressed it, they had addressed it at quarterback and then this pops up. Okay, there's no spring portal window now. There is no get done with spring ball. And then this kind of story pops up. And okay, we can go bail ourselves out. We can go offer like Austin Mack at Alabama, we can go offer a backup somewhere or maybe like a G5 level starter to bail us out. There is none of that. So unless people are wrong and the ghost portal theory is in play, and that's the thing where you get a guy to just unenroll somewhere and enroll on your campus and dare the NCAA to enforce their rules, short of that happening and short of us being wrong about Brendan Sorsby, here and he's just cleared short of one of those things happening. It's Will Hammond this year, which makes Texas Tech still a good team, but probably beneath that of a national championship contender. So we'll await more word on that. Then there's the other part. This is the more serious part. I've noticed people trying to create a lot of gray area here. You know, people talking about, well, is it really that bad? Well, you know, a lot of times out there I'm watching a college football game and they're gambling related advertising all over the place. And these leagues are making money off of gambling related deals with these sports books. And is it so wrong for a player to bet on the gift? Absolutely it is. There's no gray area here at all. It's very, very cut and dry. It's black and white. They're not shades of gray here. There's shades of gray in other areas I'll talk about in a second. But if you bet on the sport you're playing specifically, if you bet on games that you are playing in, you're done. That's it. Case closed on that. It's not hypocritical one iota for the league you play in or even the team you play for to be accepting advertising dollars. But especially if your games are being broadcast on ESPN or folks Fox and they're accepting money in advertising dollars from sports books, but yet you're being asked not to bet on the games. No, it's not hypocritical. That's fortune cookie logic. Does it create a bad vibe? Do you not love the optics of it? That's fine. That's fine. I'll agree with you there. The stuff's plastered all over the place in games and yet at the first whiff of any impropriety, you want to toss a kid on the scrap heap. I could word it just as unfavorably as you can. So yeah, the optics don't feel great. But I'm not really about the optics or feelings. I'm about the, you know, the reality of the matter. The reality of the matter is no, you can't do this stuff. And if you do it, you're done. You're ineligible. You should be ineligible. You can't mess around with that stuff. Now for the broader conversation that for some reason people thought I'd shy away from. I couldn't care less about talking about this. Fanduel is the presenting odds partner of this show. We infuse FanDuel all throughout this show. I've Left it out of this segment for obvious reasons. But I want to be fully, fully transparent here. We have a significant partnership with FanDuel. They are a significant partner of this show. So the broader conversation happening out there is around sports betting as a whole as an entity. You've got a very extreme group that would say, well, we just think sports betting should be illegal. Okay, well, obviously it's not. Then you've got another group that says, we know sports betting exists, we just wish that it wasn't so synonymous with the coverage and the games. In other words, that's the kind of person who says, I wish I could watch games without having it constantly thrown in my face. Totally fair. Take totally fair. That's your preference. Now, so just let's acknowledge there's a big difference in one's preference versus what you feel should be legal or illegal. Like, I'm not the biggest fan of hip hop. I'm not going to call for it to be illegal, you know, so my preference versus what I think should and shouldn't be allowed. Two different things. Okay, so here was what was going to happen when sports betting was legalized across the country. A lot of people said, boy, it's an inevitability that eventually someone's going to get caught up in a scandal. And you know what? They were right. And then you know what my follow up is? Okay, okay. Freedom of choice, freedom in general, it's just not going to be clean. Doesn't mean something should be outlawed. Now, if you want to take a personal stance on things, that's fine. You'll notice as an example, we practice that around here. There has never been a dime of alcohol based advertising accepted on this show. We leave millions of dollars on the table per year from alcohol companies, beer companies, because I don't want it on our show. It's not the lifestyle I live, it's personal preference. I don't hop up on a high horse and talk about it. In fact, I don't think I've ever talked about it on air until right now. And that's merely to make a point. That's my personal preference. I'm not going to take the added step of shaming anyone else if they do accept alcohol related advertising dollars. And I'm not going to say that alcohol related advertising should be outlawed even though I personally don't like it. And so when it comes to sports betting, I understand that there is a little different tone there because what you're talking about is subject matter and advertising dollars tied to something that's directly related to the play on the field and therefore you. It could compromise integrity of game. Well, here's what you do. Here's what you do. It's very simple. You go overboard in educating participants, both coaches, players and staffers in that world about the consequences of sacrificing the integrity of the game. And then you punish them if they do it. And you leave no gray area. You do not mince words. You speak really, really in a threatening tone because it is that. And you let them know there is zero tolerance for this. This is the trade off to be a college athlete. This is the trade off to be a pro athlete. This is the trade off to be a coach here. This is the trade off. If you want to work in the recruiting staff or the marketing staff, if you have access to this program, there's going to be a zero tolerance policy on betting on this stuff. You cannot do it. If that's a problem for you, then move along. There's no place for you here. That's it. And that's all. Was it an inevitability that a player was eventually going to get caught up in this? Yes. Just law of mathematics? Yes. That was always going to be part of the territory that was always going to come with the territory of legalizing sports betting. That doesn't mean it was wrong to do it, is my point. That doesn't mean it's wrong for it to exist. Even as you and I can have differences of opinions in how much it should be proliferated throughout the industry of game broadcasts, throughout the industry of commentary, including mine. FanDuel is a partner of mine. They've been a wonderful partner of mine. I don't apologize for any of that. And at the same time I'm fully capable of looking at the situation and saying, all right, so he did something allegedly he shouldn't have done. He's going to be punished for it. If the allegations are true, he should be punished for it. I don't feel great about it. I do feel it's the right decision. I also don't feel that it's cause to take the edge a sketch button and wipe the entire slate clean because someone did something that they weren't supposed to do that they knew they weren't supposed to do. Then we should upturn the entire ecosystem here. No, no, I don't think that's the answer. I don't think that's the road we should go down. Next up. Take that. You know what? Nevermind. Let's talk about something a lot more Fun. Children, babies. Everyone's having them this time of year. Great time to have children. We highly, highly advocate. We are very pro child and pro wedding, especially in the spring. It's not that we're anti child in the fall. We kind of are anti wedding in the fall. I understand. You know, sometimes things happen. Okay, so I am not anti child in the fall, but I am very, very pro child in the spring. And just a related note here, so is patestatematerial.com all of our little freights gear is. It's not actually marked down. It's the same price it always is. But you know what? It's not that expensive to begin with. So there's the onesie. This is where you really miss out. If you're listening on podcast, this is where Mitch's people miss out a little bit because you don't get to see the proof of concept. You don't get to see the product up there. Those things move. Those things move to the point where I'm not going to go as far as to say that the existence of Pate State Lowell Freights merchandise has motivated couples to have children. I'm not the one saying that. I'm saying people have said it to me. And I'm also saying that, you know, for instance, right after, you know, you do your business, there's the stick. Oh my goodness. Two lines instead of one. We got to call mom. We got to call dad. And then I got a DM Pate and let him know we're going to have a kid and we're going to buy little, little freights merchandise. That's normally the order of things. So if you want to be a part of that, it's a wonderful thing. It's a great feeling and we welcome it. And we'll be here waiting. Call the parents first. But then after that we'll be here waiting.
- [38:39]
Josh Pate
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Show Host/Analyst
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- [41:16]
Show Host/Analyst
Let's move along. What a variety of shows so far tonight we've been doing job approval ratings for SEC coaches. I did four of them the other day. We'll just back it down to three tonight. One of them is the easiest one in the world, but it's not the one I'm going to start with. The one I'm going to start with is a man by the name of Brent Venables. He is entering his fifth year at the University of Oklahoma and he has gone 6 and 7, 10 and 3. 6 and 7, 10 and 3. Some would say a pattern is Emerging. I'm going to have to see a 6 and 7 this year as evidence. They are hoping for something way better than six and seven. Obviously they made the College Football Playoff last year. That's awesome. I think that gets Brent Venables a B. I leaned B plus somewhere between B and B plus. That's where I am. That's where I think Oklahoma fans are on Brent Venables now. It's not because they made the playoff last year. That's. That's amazing. That's awesome. They hosted a home playoff game. They also gave up a 17 oh lead. Which just goes to show you, no lead safe in the playoff. As Memo always said. Where was the run game is the question. You would think there are two things you could take for granted when you hire Brent Venables. One of them it turns out you can. Defense is going to be good normally right there along with that arm in arm with a good defense is normally a good solid, dependable ground game at least. Doesn't have to be top 10 but man, they were outside the top 115 or 110 last year. 1 13th exactly in rush yards per game last year. Abysmal. And as a result they couldn't control games and they got beat by a team that also couldn't run the ball. And then they themselves got splattered in the next round. But you're thinking a 17 point lead at home at night in the playoffs. It just leaves a bad taste in the mouth. And so yes, defense has gone from being non existent there under Lincoln to being a strength. And that's great. And that's a welcome return of one of the bedrock pillars of the identity of Oklahoma football over the years. Now can they put a string of seasons together? Last year's a good start. Very good start. 10 win seasons. Great. Can you win nine or 10 again this year? Does it have to dip back down? Doesn't have to. It's a tough schedule. Really tough schedule. There. There are several scenarios this year where Oklahoma is one of the 12 best teams in the country and they go eight and four because they just lose some close games that really could happen. So I think Brent Venables is sitting at a B right now. Now that team they played in the playoffs last year was Alabama. That's Next up Caitlin DeBoer. Caitlin DeBoer at Alabama I would say would grayed out right at a B in the job approval market right now. And I think that there is something happening that would make some of the public think that he's Lower than that. That's not real. So you have a fringe minority, a vocal minority, if you will, in any fan base. The Alabama fan base is a little different. Not because they're actually different, although they are, I'll grant you that. That's been a fan base that's been through a unique run and it's got a unique history. It's a one of one. It's the best history in all of college football. So, yes, they view the world a little bit differently, but I'm not even talking about that. I'm talking about the way the Alabama fan base is covered. The way Alabama fans are covered is the national media was really excited when Saban left to illustrate that these people are insane. Nothing that the next guy does will ever be good enough. Okay, maybe even some of you believed that. Then Calen DeBoer comes in there, and there was a lot of excitement after he missed the playoff in year one, and even he made the playoff last year. But still they couldn't run the ball. They got smoked by Indiana. There's a lot of excitement to reinforce the theory a lot of people had that Nick Saban's predecessor was not going to be good enough. And so what it looks like is there's not actually a chorus of doubt amongst the Alabama fan base about that guy. There is a fringe minority of doubters, and every national microphone in this country is put in front of their face to amplify that, to make it appear as if there's this huge chunk of the Alabama fan base that's ready to run Kaylin DeBoer out of town, despite the fact that they went to the playoffs last year. That's not real. It can be real down the road if he doesn't win enough. But that's not real right now. That's. That's more, you know, like that. That's more the work version of college football than the shoot version, to use wrestling terminology. The shoot version is they're actually relieved that the program didn't fall off a cliff post Saban. They're relieved that recruiting has still been very good. They are especially relieved that quarterback position now and in the future looks really, really bright. They're relieved that they made the playoff last year, two years removed from Nick Saban. Those things are good. Not being able to run the ball sucks. And it's inexcusable at any point if you're the head coach at Alabama, especially several years in now as the head coach at Alabama. So that's got to improve. But that doesn't mean he grades out at a C, that grades out at a B. You cannot lose emphatically in any situation like you did against Indiana last year, even if it is in the playoffs, in the second round, that can't be allowed to happen. And for those reasons, not running the ball and just getting splattered, getting body bagged at the end of the year, I'd say it draws his grade down to a B, but it's no lower than that. It may even be B plus. It's no lower than that. And you know what else? It's fully his team coming into this year. It's been his team the first two years. What I mean is, this is the first year you'll watch and there aren't any Saban players there. Like Bray Hubbard, I guess, would be one of the only ones that had been there. But I don't really think of him as a Saban player. I mean, I think of him as one of Kalyn DeBoer's players. So, I mean, pretty much everyone in the building, everyone on the staff, everyone on the roster, it's all Calen DeBoer guys now. So year three and beyond, there's no lingering, like, residual Saban effect on that team is my point. Be fun to watch. I'd put him at a B right now. Here's the easiest one in the entire league. Clark Lee. Clark Lee at Vanderbilt, if I could give an A plus plus, but we can't, but if I could, he would get an A plus plus. Vanderbilt went from being the break in everyone's schedule to begging to play a 13th game last year because they were beaten on the door of the playoff. They were 10 and 2 last year. They just embarrassed Tennessee in Neyland Stadium. And they're sitting there now having had a Heisman finalist at quarterback, and he leaves and oh, man, things are going to fall off the cliff, right? No, they got one of, if not the top quarterbacks in the country this cycle. He may have to start as a true freshman. That's the way it is sometimes. In the words of Bruce Hornsby. Clark Lee at Vanderbilt, I mean, like, what a revelation. And it wasn't his first year last year. It's not like Kurt Signetti who comes in and just out of nowhere turns a perennial loser upside down. No, it took a couple of years and they felt their way through it. And now they are 10 and 3 last year with the bowl loss, 102 regular season, doing things the program's quite literally never done before. Last year was the best season in the history of the program that was a program that had had only 1, 2, 3, only 4, 9 win seasons since the turn of the previous century. Like 1900, not 2000. And now they're a double digit game winner and we get to see sort of what the follow up act is here from Diego Pavia. But A plus. I don't even what would Clark Lee had to have done after last year to lower himself? Like he could cut a promo, a heel promo on the city of Nashville and it'd still be a plus. They cheer heels all the time and they would cheer Clark Lee. Not a heel though. They're watching us in Atlanta, Georgia. Reno, Nevada is tuned in as is beautiful Spartanburg, South Carolina. Bold prediction season rolls on on the show here. These are allegedly the things that you guys say you believe enough that theoretically you would bet your own money on and not have a problem with. And sometimes I'm skeptical and sometimes I'm not. The rule is anyone whose bold prediction rates 9.5 or higher and it hits at the end of the year gets a chalice of supremacy. Let's dive in. First up out of Mason, Ohio, John Sumrall in Florida win 10 games and make the national championship. So let's say at least 10 games because I'm not going to doc you if they win 11 games so they won more than 10. Okay, so Summerall wins 10 and they make the College Football Playoff title game. How crazy would this be? Just to give you an idea, their over under win total at FanDuel 7 1/2 to start the year. They're plus 360 odds to just make the playoff, plus 4,500 to win it all. So yes, this would be a significant upset in the odds market. Do we believe in Aaron Filo or Tramell Jones that much? Not just to have a good solid nine win year, but to win double digit games and make the College Football Playoff title game. Now the roster is not bad. Roster's not bad at all. Is the line of scrimmage play there? That's the second question after the quarterback question. And can they get to the playoff and win at least two, if not three playoff games? I'm skeptical. So I will put a 9.75 boldness rating on this one. It qualifies for a chalice if it hits. Next up, this one's interesting. Trent from Birmingham, Alabama. The Big Ten wins a fourth straight national championship. Wait for it, wait for it. The Big Ten wins a fourth straight national title with a fourth different school. So Ohio State is Out. Michigan's out. Indiana is out. Big Ten's got to win it and it's got to be Oregon, usc, Penn State, Washington. This is presumably the pool of teams. Michigan, Oregon's got the fourth best odds to win the whole thing. You would think if a team out of that group is going to win the national title, it would be Oregon. Oregon's primed now. Quarterback primed, defensive line, wide receiver prime. We already talked about them earlier in the show. They're primed. And so there is a very, very easy path here. That's why I'm only going to make it a nine now. To me, it has to be Oregon. All due respect to usc, I think they're a fringe playoff team this year. I don't think USC is winning the national title. Penn State, mainly schedule based, but I think they could be a fringe playoff team this year. Their ceiling is beneath that of a national title this year. Ditto for Washington. Oregon could win it all. But that's the thing we're essentially predicting Oregon wins the national title here. That's really what we're having to do. And even though they do have top five odds for it to be them specifically, that still gets a nine. Next up, my favorite prediction out of bold prediction season so far. Granted, it's early Brady from Nashville, Tennessee, Drew Mestemaker will be a Heisman finalist and lead Oklahoma State to a Big 12 title game appearance. This is a veteran of bold prediction season. This is not a first time submission guy. He's been around the block. He has watched bold predictions. He understands how the game's played. Notice the subtleties here. He didn't say Messemaker wins the Heisman. He just said he's going to be a finalist. Notice also, he didn't say Oklahoma State wins the Big 12. He said they make the Big 12 championship game much more doable on both fronts and they're very heavily correlated. Because if Messamaker makes a Heisman run, if he's going to New York City, very, very obviously Oklahoma State has pulled the nose up from a 1 in 11 campaign last year. Very obviously the new coaching staff and the infusion of a chunk of that roster from North Texas has paid off. Also, very, very clearly a guy in Drew mestemaker who had 4,300 passing yards last year, 6, 4, 2, 15. Very clearly he has translated his game to the power four level. And if all that happens, they don't have to go win the conference, they just have to be in the title game. I'm giving this a 9.5. I actually, in a very, very twisted way, kind of want to endorse the prediction. But that's not what this is about. This is about boldness. This is a 9.5. I would be so happy to ship a chalice of supremacy. Plus, we could just have press drive it. We don't even have to ship it. The guy's from Nashville, so we don't have to ship it. So I'm really, really pulling for this to happen. Next up, Joe from Fredericksburg, Virginia. Notre Dame fan. Don't know why it was relevant. Oh, wait, I do listen to the prediction. Joe predicts neither the SEC nor the Big Ten make the national title game. I struggled with this. I struggled with it because there is a path. There is a very clear path if we just think about our favorites to win the national title. If you look at fanduel odds to win a national title, Notre Dame has among the best odds to win it all. They have the second best odds to win it all. Miami has the seventh best odds to win it all. If we get Miami vs. Notre Dame in the national championship, then this prediction hits. Here's the problem. Potentially, outside of those two teams, do I see any other team that I think that can make the national title game? If Brendan Sorsby is not playing for Texas Tech, I don't think they're making the national title game. And respectfully, I don't think there's anyone else on that list that can make the national title game. So I think it has to be Notre Dame, Miami. Those are number two and number seven in the FanDuel odds to win it all. But because that has to be the exact matchup, so much has to go right. It's tough to nail an exact matchup. Also, the bracket has to fall right. Like, theoretically, they can end up really, really well set to make a run, but they're just on the same side of the bracket, which means they eventually play each other before the title game and it ends up mathematically, there's no way to have a non SEC and non Big Ten matchup in the national title game. So I'm going to make that a 9.5 on the boldness scale. And if you're keeping track at home, 3 out of 4 there qualify if they hit for chow. Eye of supremacy. Chow I, of course, for those who are new to the show, is the plural of the word chalice. Don't look it up. Next up, those were opinions, those were predictions. This is truth. The Truth Teller series continues on the show and I would like to talk about Kurt Signetti, head coach of your Indiana Hoosiers. The truth about Kurt Signetti is I think he is the face of the most improbable story of my college football life. I've been around the college football block a few times. I've watched it since I was old enough to say football. And I don't know that anything has been more improbable as a big story than Kurt Signetti winning the national championship at Indiana. Just the wildest thing I've ever seen to give you kids some context, because I know someone out there is 14 years old and you cannot appreciate how insane this is. From the year 1995 to 2018, how many winning seasons do you think Indiana football had? That is 23 years, Jesse. 23, 24 years. How many winning seasons? How many times did they find a way to win seven games? How many times did it happen? Zero. You can't appreciate how bad Indiana sucked and for how long. They sucked over two decades. Not a single winning season. They were 3 and 9 the year before he got there. And he's walked in and all he's done is gone. 27. 2. Two playoff appearances, a Big Ten championship, a national championship. They added a Heisman Trophy winner for good measure. And it's not even a new concept. That's the other truth about it. It's not a new concept. Oh, it is in Indiana. It's a new concept for Indiana to be a winner. It's not a new concept for Kurt Signetti to be a winner. Everyone laughed when he dropped the Google me line. And then people started Googling him and they found out. Wow. Well, come to find out, iup. He won. You googled Elon. You found out they had a football team and you found out he won there. And then you remembered, oh, wait, he was the guy at James Madison and he won there. And yet still, when he started to win in Indiana, everybody kept overlooking the explanation. They kept on overlooking the how because he kept telling you. And it just. It didn't pass the smell test to most people. Because what Kurt Signetti talked about as the keys to their success were boring to most people. Process oriented, over result oriented. Treat every play as if it has a history in life of its own. Focus on doing your job. Define everyone's role and then focus on that role. This is boring. This is. To most people, it's boring. Now, in reality, these are key tenets. These are principles of success. He has worked under the best. So all he really did was he parroted the core principles of the best organizations that he had been a part of. He added some of his own flavor. Voila. It turns out it really works. You don't have to reinvent the wheel and it wasn't good enough for people. And so then I've noticed some folks trying to explain it away. And I just think people should stop attempting, trying to explain away how Kurt Signetti's done what he's done in Indiana. He's done what he's done because his process works. Well, Josh, you know, all that can be true. But, you know, the portals played a big role here. Yeah, it has. Go on. Because I've been challenged with this several times. I'm singing the praises of Kurt Signetti and they're like, oh, yeah, it's a good story, but this isn't the same as him doing it 15 years ago in Indiana. Because now Indiana's got the portal, Indiana's got nil. And I'm like, is that exclusively available to Indiana? Jesse, does Ohio State get to use the portal? They do. They can pay the players too. Yeah, Alabama, Miami can. Okay, so you're telling me that every one of these programs that have had a significant leg up on Indiana for, oh, I don't know, the entire history of this sport have access to the same mechanisms that Indiana has access to, but all of a sudden it was this disproportionate advantage to Indiana? No, no, you call BS on that because that is faulty explanation. The real explanation is they're just better than you. That's been the real explanation. Now we get to have the fun together of seeing whether they're going to rattle off a string of this for half a decade. Was it a two year flash in the pan? I highly doubt that. But we'll have fun with that together. But I'm not talking about predicting the future right now. I'm talking about the truth in the here and now. The truth is Kurt Signetti has become in many ways the face of the sport. I would, I don't, wouldn't know this. It's not necessarily my wheelhouse. But you know how sometimes, like you guys will be watching the show, maybe you'll be listening to the show, or maybe you're watching college football related programming and your wife or your girlfriend or your sister or mom or whoever, they know nothing about college football, but they know who Arch Manning is. Those same people kind of know who Kurt Signitty is. They know he's the Indiana coach who does the weird mannerisms on the sideline and he's the one who took the perennial loser and turned it into a national champ. He. He transcended college football last year. You don't realize this when you're in the bubble. He's going to be front page news for me and you no matter what. He transcended the sport last year. Indiana transcended the sport last year in a way that hardcore fans, me included, sometimes have trouble wrapping our minds around because we're never on the outside of the bubble. But he's a different cap. And the other thing that I immensely appreciate is when they started winning, what happened? Other jobs started opening up. Penn State famously opens up, and before they can even let the ink dry and get an offer put in front of him, what does he do? He re ups with Indiana and shuts it all down and slams the door in everyone's face and says, I'm where I want to be. I'm good, I'm fine. You guys can move on. Crazy. Just a different guy. Glad we got him. Glad we got him. Don't want the NFL rumors anytime soon. Glad we got him. Jesse, you're big in the horses. You play the horses, right?
- [63:02]
Kirby Smart
No.
- [63:02]
Show Host/Analyst
You didn't even come to the Broyles Award with me. It's a great day. Great. Oh, you wanted to and didn't get invited. Is that what you said? I can't read sign language, Jesse. Here's what I can read. The Kentucky Derby is this Saturday. Not that I specifically have a good feel for it, but maybe you do. And our friends at FanDuel just want to remind you, new users, especially if you go through FanDuel.com Josh Pate new signups over there. Bet $5, get $25 in racing bonus bets. Whether you win or lose. It's a beautiful thing. I did a deep dive. Wolkin did an article on Yahoo.com earlier today. Yahoosports.com earlier today. You can put it down, Bradley. This has nothing to do with FanDuel. For those of you who are into horse racing, this is not going to be a segment. I got something to talk about here with Kirby Smart, but I was doing some reading on the computer assisted wagering syndicates that are out there. Fascinating. Fascinating piece. Wolk and wrote it. It's over on Yahoo. Sports right now. I learned a lot. And you know, Jesse, former management that we used to work with, management's heavily into horse racing. Whole family and management's dad especially will enlighten you as the day is long about horse racing and this sort of thing. So I was kind of given a peek into this world before, but I didn't understand what you guys were up against as the average horse. Better when it comes to the computer assisted syndicates out there. It's wild stuff. Wild stuff. So yeah, I spent the first 30 minutes of my waking moments this morning reading that screen time. As soon as you wake up, that's the key. That's the key to health.
- [64:44]
FanDuel/Grainger/NHTSA Advertisement Voice
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- [65:28]
Show Host/Analyst
All right, last question here and then we'll get out for the for the evening. Patrick's in Sacramento. He said, was Kirby smart excuse making when he was talking about the big ten success or are you buying his theories? True story. I was on Next round live this morning which emanates out of Birmingham, Alabama, good friends of the program there hosting that program and I was doing a pre scheduled live hit with them and they said, what are your thoughts on what Kirby said on this show earlier today? And I said, what did he say? So I was in the unenviable position of reacting to sound bites in real time. You may be wondering, okay, well what did he say? Good news for you. We have gotten access to the footage because I told them on the show we're going to play it later tonight on my show. So Kirby is being asked by Jim Dunaway and Ryan Brown there at a golf tournament, I think in Birmingham about the Big ten and how it surpassed the sec. And everybody's got a theory, everybody's got an explanation. Is it just one thing? Is it a bunch of different things? So Kirby said two different things that I thought were really interesting. And the thing about Kirby is when you get him in these settings and we've done it with him several times, when you get Kirby smart in these settings, in these long form interviews, he is brutally Honest, he's got nothing to lose. He is very forthright in opinion. It's always well thought out. You can tell that he's not really thinking on the fly, which makes this unique because it was almost like a stream of consciousness for him. It was almost like someone had presented a question or a topic and you got to watch him thinking stuff through just the way a normal person would. All right, so this is from next round live earlier this morning. The first bit is when he was asked about the Big Ten and how they've done what they've done. Roll it, Bradley.
- [67:19]
Kirby Smart
I can't figure out what it is. I just think they have a more competitive conference, like the top of their conference. There's more good teams. It used to be Ohio State was good. Yeah, you know, Michigan was really good. Harbaugh had a great team. Indiana's good. Like now they got Oregon, they got a draw. They, they have an ability to attract good players. Now Nil has a factor too, for sure, but, but so does Miami. I mean, so does Florida. People have money, more people have money.
- [67:44]
Show Host/Analyst
Right?
- [67:45]
Kirby Smart
So I think that the talent is spread out thin. Where before in the SEC it was a magnet to talent.
- [67:51]
Show Host/Analyst
Okay, so the thing he's pointing out there is what everyone goes to. Pretty much everyone goes to Nil, pretty much everyone's working theory always centers around. It used to be that just the SEC paid a bunch of money under the table for players. Now that it's legal for everyone to pay it, there is an area like the Big Ten which probably has more cash rich institutions than the SEC does on average. So now the games, the sports in their wheelhouse. Okay, so just in theory, from 50,000ft, it makes perfect sense that NIL and the Portal were going to disproportionately affect the most talent rich conference and that was the sec. It really still is the SEC top to bottom, just not nearly as much as it used to be. He was talking, I'm not going to play it for you, but he was talking about like the Alabama teams he was on as a coordinator, the Georgia teams that he had just five years ago and how they would completely, you know, like they would be able to practice totally differently. They'd be able to live total different lives from a, from a depth standpoint than they can now. So. Yeah, I, I don't question that at all. I'm fine with what Kirby, what Kirby said. There's reality. Nil in the Portal has impacted the depth situation in the sec. It spread out the talent more. It's Spread out talent around the sec. Not just taking talent from the sec, because as many players as are being taken from the SEC, they're robbing the G5 ranks blind. So the SEC is doing it too. It's not just being done to them. My question when everyone talks about the redistribution of talent is, is that all? Is that the only thing? Is that the only edge that the Big Ten has? Because my opinion has been no. I've shared this with you for a while now. For a long time, the landscape of the SEC was that they did have talented and deeper rosters. And. And what that allowed them to do, for lack of a better term, is hire lazily. It's not that they weren't working hard, but they hired lazily. They hired with a significant slant towards value and talent acquisition above and beyond X's and O's. And it was also really incestuous, as it still is in some cases to this day. And what I mean is not so much you getting hired based on merit, but you getting hired at various places around this league based on who represents you. I'm not talking about head coaches. I'm talking about the hiring practices of head coaches. Because I think you guys would be surprised and in many cases extremely disappointed at how your tight ends coach got hired, at how your staff is being filled out. And you like to think there are these true nationwide searches going on blind resumes and we're pitting one candidate against the other. And it's a pure meritocracy and it should be that way. And in the Big Ten it largely is that way. And in the SEC it has not been that way. And it sounds like a really stupid approach. It is, but it never got exposed in the previous generation because the rosters were so deep. It didn't matter. You had better coaching staffs, maybe elsewhere, and the SEC running laps around them anyway, because the players ultimately, when you have that many of them, erase a lot of inefficiency in your hiring. So that's the first thing that I think should be added on. And then the second thing to go back to what Kirby said. This is a really, really good sound bite. The whole interview's available if you want to go listen to it. They kept pressing him and he didn't have to be pressed because he had a lot to say. Here's something else he said that I want to touch on on the other side.
- [71:25]
Kirby Smart
Now, the other theory is, and this is what nobody likes to hear is it's a lot of SEC coaches say this in my meetings they say they don't have the grind we do. There's no way they play. Three of their nine games are hard. Their bottom four games are not our bottom four games. I'm going to play at Startville and Vanderbilts in my bottom four and I'm going to hold on to my butt.
- [71:45]
Show Host/Analyst
Yeah.
- [71:45]
Kirby Smart
To be able to play at noon on Saturday at Startville and playing a good team who beat Arizona State, who goes and plays these other teams? So there is a theory that we're beating each other up and it's like the intensity and it wears you down.
- [71:59]
Show Host/Analyst
There's a lot of validity to that. There's zero question there's validity to that. The schedules are harder in the sec. The average SEC schedule is significantly harder than the average Big Ten schedule. Just to me, it's a fact. And if you want to argue that that's okay. I'm not really even going there. Here's really the question there. Let's, even if you disagree with that, let's just accept it as truth for a second for sake of argument. The follow up there and really the only key question is, is the cumulative effect of playing a harder schedule, shaving off the top end of your potential as a team? Georgia, for example, is the schedule they play relative to maybe like the schedule in Oregon would play, is it really beaten down the top end of your potential via injury and, you know, just overall wear and tear to the point where you're not able to perform at as high a level in December as you otherwise would have been able to? The answer may be yes. The answer may very well be yes. What I'm saying is that's all that matters. Otherwise you're just really good teams instead of great teams and you're using your strength of schedule as a cop out. So if the former is a reality and, and the latter is just something a lot of haters say, well, so be it. But it's hard to quantify it. You know, it's hard to know how Texas would perform with Purdue's schedule versus how Texas will perform with Texas's schedule. It's always been the great unknown in college football and college athletics, but especially college football, because for some reason true strength of schedule metrics, people fight incorporating them into the playoff selection process. So the thing about Georgia and Kirby Smart, regardless of where you stand on all that, you have to acknowledge the landscape has shifted right under their feet and they're still right there. It's a testament to that program that the perception around them around the country is oh They've fallen off a bit. They've won the SEC back to back years. They got put out two years ago with their backup quarterback in a playoff game which has been totally whitewashed from history. It's like people don't even acknowledge it. It's just, oh, you lost to Notre Dame. Yes, they did, with their backup quarterback. Not that Notre Dame couldn't have beat him with Carson Beck. I just want it noted they did have to play their backup QB there. That was really his, like, first start. And then last year they ran into Trinidad. Chambliss played a classic against them down in New Orleans. Really the biggest takeaway and the only thing Kirby needs to be focused on is how do I avoid New Orleans for a playoff game. If they can just do that this year, you know, maybe figure out wide receiver and just do that, they'll be fine. They'll be okay. We need to go see him, Jesse, make some calls. We need to go see Kirby. Let's do it next week. You want to do it? Yeah, let's just do it next week. We'll go visit him next week. We'll go knock on the door. If they open, they open and we'll ask him what he thinks about that. All right. That's our show. We appreciate it so much. We'll be back Sunday night. There's no draft this weekend, so let's just, let's just have fun. Let's be responsible. We'll reconvene here because we do have Sunday night classes at Pate State. Until then, for director Bradley, producer Jesse, I'm Josh Pate. We'll see you Sunday. God bless.
- [75:35]
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