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This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Voila. Tuesday, August 11th, year of our Lord 2026. I did a heartfelt intro to the show that may or may not have gone out live. And if I repeated it, it would seem manufactured. So I'm not gonna do that. Cause it's just previewing what's in tonight's show anyway. But yeah, we're gonna do the schedule draft tonight. Tons of Camp Intel. Some people have said some very, very not wrong things about me, but mean things about me. I've finally taken exception to it. Had enough. And I will lash out as only I can in tonight's show. And I basically am gonna do all of that to put off the fact that we've got to do SEC quarterback rankings. My goal tonight, if I accomplish nothing else, is to stall SEC quarterback rankings 2026 as long as I can. They are watching us in Denton, Texas. They're in Alexander City, Alabama. They're in Chicago, Illinois. Carlsbad, California. We will be in State College, Pennsylvania tomorrow. Going to see Matt Campbell. And the guys want to see Rocco Beck. Then the guys and we will tell you all about it Thursday. Probably have Matt Campbell on the show Thursday. That's what I'm told. That's what sources close to Penn State are telling me. So let's dive into the show tonight. Cause we're really, really, really jam packed. Hey, we're just, we're just happy to be on air at this point. The schedule this year is loaded. Some weeks more than others. And it's around this time every year that I try and look at the college football schedule and I try and say, forget about trying to map out our tour. Forget about trying to predict scores. Let's just find what we think is the most big time game every week. And if we had to draft this sch and you had to basically bring a buddy along and introduce them to College Football 2026 style, where would we want them each week? I think week one is sort of easy. I'm disappointed that college football allowed its calendar to set up week one the way it set it up.
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Look, we're. We're die hards, man. We're P1. We're ride or die. So all of this matters to us. But I would love to see Week 1 more loaded than it is. Having said that, that game right there, Clemson at lsu, that seems pretty clear to me. I believe that's where game day's going. I believe that's the ABC primetime game. There's some neutral site games in week One, which I am against just as a default position in life, unless it's the Red River Shootout and maybe Georgia, Florida. Except this year they don't play that in Jacksonville. So, yeah, I mean, it looks cool that Wisconsin is going to play in Notre Dame. I don't think we should have it in Green Bay. That's not anything against the fine people of Green Bay. I just, I know both of those programs have really, really fine on campus venues that will be dark that day. So I'm going, if I have to pick one, to Clemson, lsu. Week one, Week two is a little bit different. Week two, that's the week where we have two of these really, really big time Big Ten versus SEC matchups. You've got OU at Michigan, Ohio State's at Texas. There's some other games. It's kind of weird. Dan Landing is going to spend an afternoon in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Words I don't think have come out of his mouth or at least will not have until that point. But I think this has got to be Ohio State, Texas. But I'm not going to fault you, certainly if you circle Oklahoma, Michigan, personal preference on the table. I think a lot of people may prefer Oklahoma, Michigan. We'll see where we go personally. But I think you've got to circle Ohio State, Texas there. That is, that's possible. One versus two. Like that's got all, as Meemaw would say, the hoopla around it. Week three, another layup probably. If I were to pull 95% of the country that land on Vaught Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi, I think you got to go LSU at Ole Miss. And I'm not sure if I told people you can't go to Ole Miss, where would they go? I think most people would land on maybe Lubbock, Texas on a Friday night. That's that game that a lot of the folks there pushed back on, I think Fox with because they didn't want to be playing Friday night college games in Texas. And as a guy that's rewatching Friday Night Lights right now, I understand that. But maybe Houston at Texas Tech, maybe you want to go Florida at Auburn. But this is LSU at Ole Miss. That's a, that's an overwhelming favorite for week three. Week four is just straight up unbelievable in the sec. Week four. I want you to listen to this. You could go Ole Miss at Florida. And especially if Florida wins at Auburn in week three, you're probably looking at an undefeated Florida. And this is Ole Miss coming off the LSU game. Whether they won or they lost it's going to be a really, really big deal. So you got Ole Miss at Florida, you got Oklahoma at Georgia, Texas A and M at lsu, Texas at Tennessee. Bang, bang, bang, bang. All those games happen same day. Jesse, correct me if I'm wrong, is this South Carolina, Alabama day and we just can't fit it on the graphic?
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Okay, so then also in the Big Ten, you've got Oregon at usc. On this day, I'm soft circling Oklahoma at Georgia. I think they should both be undefeated. But again, if you want to, there are four, there are three real prime candidates here in the sec. There's a big time prime candidate out west. I would tentatively say Oklahoma at Georgia right now. Man, that the style of that game could be one of the most physical we see all year, any week. So give me Oklahoma, Georgia. That one is written in pencil right now. Week five, Week five is not nearly as loaded. You got Vandy, Georgia, you got Auburn, Tennessee. Miami goes to Clemson. I don't know how you would forecast this, but if you could guarantee Me Clemson upsets LSU in week one, I'd 1000% be in Clemson, South Carolina when Miami comes in there. But you cannot guarantee me that. So I think we got to go Big Ten. And the only question is, is it Ohio State at Iowa or is it Washington at usc? And I don't believe that we went to usc. Oregon, we did not. And so I think we got to go out to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. We got to be able to see Jed Fish and company early in the year. It's not to say we can't see them later in the year, but just everything's more viable this time of year. I'm going to pick Washington at usc. I was reminded the last time Ohio State played in Kennett, it was 55 to 24 or something like that. I don't expect Iowa to hang the double nickel on Ryan Day and company this year. You can't go wrong with that one either. But I think you got to go Big Ten here. We're going Washington at usc, Week six. What has been the most entertaining regular season game the past couple of years is right there on top. It's Georgia at Alabama. Now, I'm going to quickly tell you that's the one we're picking. It's not easy, though, because this is Red River Shootout day. This is Texas versus Oklahoma. This is USC at Penn State, possibly Whiteout. Maybe we'll see Iowa plays Washington this day. There are a lot of games that measure up. Georgia at Alabama, though, that's We've been at that game the last two years. Unbelievable. Just fireworks. Instant classics. And I would expect nothing less this year. Week seven this is loaded. So on the graphic on our screen, we have five games. Third Saturday in October. Bama at Tennessee. We've got Florida at Texas. Again, Florida has to be monitored because Florida could be in a position where they've got a record that you never expected them to have this late in the year. Tbd. This is Notre Dame at Brigham Young day. This is Arizona State at Texas Tech. Ohio State at Indiana is the game I'm going to pick because that could be 1, 2. It could be the two best teams in the Big Ten. It's the biggest home game I think Indiana has ever played. I don't even know why I said I think it's just the biggest game they've ever played. Here's how loaded this day is. Penn State plays at Michigan this day. Right, Jesse? We couldn't even fit it on the graphic. This is the one thing, if you're commissioner that you wish you could change. Their college football's schedule is like a slice of bread, really big slice of bread. And you would love to have the peanut butter spread pretty evenly, but that is not the way scheduling works. We've just got chunks of peanut butter here and there and completely open patches of toast elsewhere. And we can't spread it. We can't do it, at least not yet, because no one wants to work together for more dynamic scheduling answers in this sport. So give me Ohio State at Indiana, Week seven, Week eight. This is another big week in the sec. Because the thing about it is when you've got eight or nine pretty viable teams, even if none of them end up being elite, you got several big matchups every week. So A and M's at Alabama, LSU at Auburn, don't know, have no idea how relevant or not relevant Auburn could be by that point. Ole Miss at Texas figures to be pretty good. Houston's at Utah on this day could be a really sneaky Big 12 game. Indiana's at Michigan on this day. I ended up taking Ole Miss Texas because I think based on most people's rankings, maybe mine included, those are the number one and number two quarterbacks in the sec. And if they're going to play, if they're going to be on the same field, maybe not at the same time, but if they're going to be on the same field, I want to be there for that. So I'm going to take Ole Miss Texas on that day. Week Nine. Pretty good one here. Florida, Georgia had the opportunity, as Jacksonville's under renovation, to play a home. And home, naturally, we don't believe in actually playing major college football games inside college football stadiums. So they're going to play in Atlanta this year. That's not the one I'm going to go to this day. Auburn's at Ole Miss, South Carolina at Oklahoma. We got Clemson, Florida State. Boy, I think 10 years ago, about the profile of that game, I think it was right at 10 years ago. I went down there. That was Deshaun Watson going in there. I think like 35, 31, come from behind, win. Don't think this year's game will have quite the profile that that game had. But I'll tell you the one that will, and that's Ohio State at usc. Now, Jesse, I think that's our second trip to Los Angeles. If Lincoln can come through for us, though, like if they've beaten Oregon or Penn State, give me one of those. And they took care of Washington. Think about what this game could mean not only in the Big Ten standings, but in the playoff standings. I mean, it is week nine, after all. It's not too early to be talking like that. Ohio State at usc. That's the one I'm circling for. Week nine, Week ten. Unbelievable. In fact, if one of your buddies says, I'm not giving you a whole season, but if you want to circle one week, I'll watch college football one week this year. Week 10. That's the one. Can you believe? Inevitably, some people will be locked into Saturday weddings. On this Saturday. Imagine two o' clock in the afternoon in Dallas, Texas, or in Charlotte, North Carolina. You're sitting there watching people you may talk to once or twice a year exchange vows, and you may or may not have good cell phone reception. And Bama's at lsu. George is at Ole Miss. Holy War. Brigham Young at Utah, Miami at Notre Dame, Oregon at Ohio State. Second graphic. We can't even fit it all on the first one. We've got so many more big games on this day that it's really hard to go wrong. I picked Miami at Notre Dame, but you could go Oklahoma, Florida, you could go Penn State, Washington, Virginia Tech, smu. I know may not catch a lot of people's attention right now. There is a world. We may not go there tonight, but there is a world where that game all of a sudden is a really, really big game on this day. Miami, Notre Dame. There are plenty of big games here. None of them, I think, are bigger than Miami. Notre Dame, although the one right beneath them, Oregon at Ohio State. Again, there are. Here's how big this weekend is. There are multiple games that could be number one versus number two. That's how big this weekend is. I went Miami, Notre Dame, because I think that's the only trip we make to Notre Dame in this draft. Man, what a Saturday. And then the next week, week 11, I went Texas at LSU. I just think about the spectacle of Steve Sarkeesian in Texas going into Death Valley. I don't think they've played there yet. They haven't been in the SEC that long. But USC's at Indiana on this day, Michigan's at Oregon. Either of those games could end up profiling bigger. But I mean, if, if lsu, if they survive early, I mean, if they thrive, no brainer. But even if they just survive early, LSU is eventually going to be a really good team at some point this year. You've got to imagine by week 11 they are, that Texas is going to be a good team this year. You never know. Could be a couple of teams that have some wiggle room. One team could be in wounded animal mode, survival mode. Both of them could give me Texas, LSU, week 11, week 12, finally, we are coming back to Seattle, Washington. We went up there a few years ago. People had always said, hey, until you've been to Husky Stadium up there for a big game, you haven't really fully experienced all the great college football venues. Now, being from the rural South, I didn't believe them, or maybe I believed them, but I didn't think it could measure up. And we went up there for the Oregon game. That was DeBoer's last year. That was the national title run they made, and it was incredible. So I've been wanting to get back up there ever since. And I figure Kurt Signetti and last year's national champs coming in there, that's as good a time as any. And I don't know that a lot of people who do the schedule breakdowns will have this game as one of the huge hurdles for Indiana. But I think it could be really tough for them. So give me Indiana at Washington, some other good ones that day. A and M and Oklahoma could be huge. LSU at Tennessee, SMU at Notre Dame could be a really big one. Really, really big game. But I'm going to take Indiana at Washington and then rivalry week. You will never go wrong going to the game. Michigan at Ohio State. I don't know if Michigan's going to be in it at the end. You could never go wrong with the Iron Bowl, I don't know if Auburn's in it. I think maybe Bama's in it, but there's some questions there, too. Egg bowl always toxic and wonderful. Washington, Oregon could sneak up on us and be really big. But the one that has the best chance of being the premier game of that weekend, I think, is Texas at Texas A and M. So I'll take that one. I think it's on a Friday this year, so I'll take that one. And I look at that lineup of games, man, we got a really, really good couple of weeks. A couple of weeks it's impossible to choose from. Couple of weeks were a little more barren. If I had my way, we'd spread it out a little bit more. But that's where I'm landing on the schedule. Draft tonight. Appreciate you guys being in. I have to refresh some stuff over here. It's, it's, it's the kind of night here. It's always a happy night. All right. It's always a fun time when we're talking college football. But there are some nights where I'm excited to get to every topic. This is not necessarily one of those nights. There is something that I'm trying to avoid. Like we were supposed to do SEC quarterback rankings right now. I don't want to do that yet if that's okay. So let's. It's, it's fine. We'll get to it before we get off the air. But I don't want to do them right now. What I do want to do, by the way, is remind you I've been meaning to do this like past three shows here. Here's a good screen grab for old Brett, Brett and company there. Pick six Previews. I am so proud of this. I have nothing to do with it other than I get a free copy every year, which is the best flex you can have during preview season, by the way. But Brett and Pick six Previews, I think have cornered the market now on the preview magazine culture. And look, you grow up and you love your certain publications, but Brett Ciancia and the guys at Pick six Previews do a phenomenal job. I highly recommend that product. I'm not being paid a dime to say it other than the free preview magazine that he sends us every year. That thing's loaded with information. He's getting a ton of publicity right now, a ton of free marketing. He deserves every bit of it. That's a really, really in depth product. I think it's the best one on the market right now got a lot of camp intel to get to, so let's motor through this. Ohio State right now. Some interesting things going on at Ohio State. This is going to be one of the best teams in the country. Several ways to beat you and yet one of the things you would have said, one of the things you would have been pretty confident saying in spring is among other facets of the offense, Bo Jackson. Man, they got Bo Jackson at running back. Well, they do have him at running back, but he hasn't been taking first team reps. That's a thousand yard rushing guy as a true freshman last year and he hasn't been taking one reps. Now I know that there are some theories up there as to why and it doesn't really matter. The season will play out the way it'll play out. But Isaiah west is a pretty good player too, and apparently Ryan Day and his staff think so. Just kind of interesting. Again, first week of camp, they kind of enter the second week of camp. Sometimes we get misled in the first week of camp. Sometimes messages are being sent in the first week of camp. We'll see, we'll see what comes of this. But a wide receiver, remember, ever since the spring, one of our points of interest with Ohio State was how does that room work downstream of Jeremiah Smith and you know, you got Brandon Ennis there. It could be a situation maybe where you kind of know what you have with Brandon Ennis and you want to find out with Chris Henry coming on board. Brock Boyd was a lesser profiled recruit. He was a three star Henry stud five star and he will absolutely live up to that. But it's kind of interesting to watch the evolution of that wide receiver room round into form because I think if you look at it and you're used to Ohio State returning, you know, seemingly like three or four sure fire future first rounders because it's felt that way for a long time. And now you know you got one alien in Jeremiah Smith. But behind that, maybe from a public perception perspective, it's the least certain that people have been about that wide receiver room. I think that's fair to say. That's another position group I've got full confidence in. But I think it's still rounding into form. But also this is the second consecutive season that they're having to replace eight starters on defense. And so what that does is a lot of times you find out in Ohio State's case, man, they had a really solid depth this whole time, it turns out. But when you overturn that layer of Topsoil twice in two years. You're going to need some young guys to step up. So like Jay Timmons as an example, as they have to move some guys around in the secondary. I know they've moved little around a little bit, taking reps with the ones at nickel. It's just the kind of stuff you start to listen about, because a true freshman at Ohio State is not equal to a true freshman. Most other places they don't take guys in many cases that aren't going to end up being stars. And if you have that potential eventually, sometimes you have that potential immediately. And it always happens. And it'll happen more and more as you have roster turn like they do. So just some things we're keeping an eye on there. Lsu. Here's the beautiful thing about lsu. There was always like an asterisk or a caveat anytime you talked about LSU in the spring. Why? Well, there was a bunch of newness. There still is. But with quarterback, it was what it was. They got Sam Levitt. That's great. Now we got to make sure he's healthy. I mean, you probably said that a hundred times when you were talking about LSU in the spring and in the summer, you still say, well, Levitt's got to be healthy. Sounds like he may be okay. Got to be healthy. Well, then the beautiful thing is you get to fall camp and you get the first. You get the first glimpses of him and you get the first reactions from fall camp and you find out he's good to go. Health is not an issue. He's fine. All right, so we could finally put a bow on that. Now we move on to how the rest of these new pieces are falling into place, because there's a big, what I would call a question at wide receiver, but not a weakness at wide receiver. See, they've got a lot of guys that can play there. It's just not a room that's utterly loaded with proven production. Trade as Green at tight end is a freak show, but the wide receiver room itself. You got Jace Brown, Jackson Harris, Winnie Watkins. Like, these are guys if you're an LSU fan, you think, you know, you can count on, you probably can. But it's the rest of the world kind of us from outside the snow globe kind of sitting here, ready to trust in it. But we want verification of it. And then I think one of the more fascinating aspects of the LSU fall camp is American hero Blake Baker. We thought from the spring, and you're kind of getting it confirmed right now, may have a couple of guys. Now they're studs, but a couple of really young guys, freshmen running maybe with the ones at least rotating with ones on the interior of that defensive line. And Deuce Gerald's and Richard Anderson. Sure enough, there it is. Jesse, start listening to Shea and the guys down there at lsu and that's happening now. Same thing I said about Ohio State. Just cause a. Just cause a true freshman steps on the field at some places and it's always a perceived weakness. Doesn't mean that's what it is at these kinds of places. At these kinds of places, they could have true freshmen better than your fifth year seniors. Even at this position. It's rare, but it can happen. I understand if people meet this with skepticism because by and large, if I tell you you got multiple true freshmen rotating on lines of scrimmage in the sec, historically, it's not spelled out good things. These could be exceptions to the rule kinds of guys. And they're not alone. They got decent depth there, but on the edge. Prince Williamelin and Jordan Ross and then looking at depth start to form there like Lamar Brown's another true freshman at edge. When you start to have those kinds of guys start to pop more, you start to realize and start to learn how much depth Blake Baker may be working with. And the reason I'm telling you all this is there's a lot of if here. That's what fall camp's for, especially with the kind of newness they have down there. But you start to sort of get a vision in your mind of the best case scenario. The best case scenario with LSU is like a national championship contender. That's the best case with them tons of if. So it's like the biggest conditional contender. Good T shirt idea. One of the biggest conditional contenders. I'll grant you that there is extremely high upside with this LSU team. Oregon, same thing. It's just the floor is a lot higher for Oregon over under. There's ten and a half wins for a reason. So there's big time buzz around Evan Stewart. I mean, Evan Stewart last year, we expected a big year from him last year and it was injury that kept him out.
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And it.
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You remember the practice reports were always, we may get Stewart back in two weeks, may get him back next week. And it just never kind of happened. Well, they got him back now and there's an extreme amount of buzz around him and they love all three levels of that defense or. So if you're trying to poke holes in Oregon, you're probably coming back to offensive line. I Mean, that defensive line is about as sure a bet as there is in the country. That wide receiver room, ditto. Quarterback, ditto. But that offensive line, from the sounds of things, kind of hard to judge because they're going up against one of the best units across from them in the country. So it stands to reason that's making life tough on that Oregon offensive line. But I think when you look at rotations and you kind of look at some of the newness there, I could still see them going into the regular season figuring things out. I could still see some rotation there. Don't know that, but I could see that. But the running back depth kind of interesting because Jordan Davidson is going to be your RB1. He'll be on the front of all your depth charts. Dier Hill little different skill set. You know, if you find out Oregon just had a guy take a take a screen pass in the flat and tack on 50 yards after catch touchdown, Oregon just went up 14 to 3. It was probably him. If you find out a running back had 78 yards receiving and two touchdowns along with 50 yards on the ground, it's probably Deer Hill. It's a good player. Probably a player that would be a lot more in line to be like a feature part of other teams. Oregon just has a different caliber of depth than most teams. And then there's fsu. I'm going to try and be respectful here, okay? But the offensive line sounds extremely unsettled down there. The guys at Warchant had a pretty big update today. I saw Nikos talk about some things just over on the on3national site. But outside of Xavier Chaplin, who's pretty penciled in there, left tackle, it sounds like there's a lot of mixing. It sounds like there's a lot of matching. Now, Herb Hand normally puts a competent product on the field, so if you're trying to go glass half full here, then you know you have that. All right. There's proof of concept in his past, but you're only as good as what you have to work with. And so that kind of concerns me. Chroma at RB1 really interesting because I think when Trey Wisner transferred there, I don't have the FSU predictions memorized from the spring. I would imagine a lot of people thought he would be the guy, but he just hasn't become the guy. He's kind of dealing with injury that's been a part of his past. And so the running back situation may be a little different than you expected in the spring. Maybe not if you were A hardcore Florida State fan, but outside of there. But Jabril Rawls. Okay. If we want to talk about some positives here, good corner player, couple of transfers at linebacker look to be panning out. Okay. I'm just. I'm just telling you when I hear offensive line talked about like that. You got their schedule by chance in there. Jesse. I know we weren't going to call for that, but when. I know you got to play SMU early and you got to play Alabama pretty early. I think a couple of weeks after that. And I know, you know, it's not like Penn State. Penn State is. Got some newness, but they got plenty of time to figure it out. Florida State doesn't have that. They got four or five losable games before Halloween and so don't love what necessarily we're hearing on offensive lineman. There's still a ways to go. Oh, let's move on. Let's just. Let's just roll it merrily along here. This may not concern you at all, so I'm only going to spend like 30 seconds on it. I have never seen our store on fire like it is right now the past three or four days since we announced the tour name for this year, which is the Don't Tread on Saturday tour. Told you at the time that, yeah, that's a tour name. And, yeah, that makes sense to our audience. But, man, that concept, Don't Tread on Saturday, the snake coiled around the football, that transcends our tour. That really even transcends our show. Like, you got a college football fan out there who's never watched this show. Why. But be that as it may, you could. You could give him that shirt, that hat. You could buy that mug for your dad who doesn't even know how to log on to the Internet. It would make perfect sense to him. And I thought that. And apparently you guys have, too. Cause the traffic over@patamaterial.com has been bonkers. The flags, Jesse. The Don't Tread on Saturday flags, which should not be a surprise to me, but it still was the flat. We can't keep them in stock, and we got a lot of them, but we moved a ton of those flags, and it's not even late August yet. I think 75% of the country may own a Don't Tread on Saturday flag by the time we kick off the season. That's what I'm saying. Let's move along, Jesse. I don't want to do the SEC quarterbacks yet. I don't. I don't want to do that yet. Okay, so we will get to it. You know, I have last year's rankings here. This is motivation. I have last year's rankings next to me. Oh, a dark time. I appreciate a lot of you who have come along in the past few months. We've had thousands and thousands and thousands of new subs, and they're going to be saying some stuff about me in the way I rank quarterbacks and what happened last year. Don't listen to it. Don't listen to it. Just don't let it cloud your judgment. Okay? I think we do pretty good work around here. No one's perfect. No one's perfect anyway. We'll talk about that later.
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With the American Express Platinum card, you can access over $3,500 in annual value with benefits and eligible purchases across travel, entertainment and more. There's nothing like Platinum. Learn more@american express.com Explore Platinum enrollment requirements, monthly and other limits in terms of
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I have in my hand two chaos scenarios for this season that may be unlikely but not impossible. And they really they're two of them, but they merge into one. Sometimes you guys ask, hey, what's the craziest thing that could happen this year? Mind you, this is not a prediction, but let's just walk this through for a second. So the Big Ten, I think we all agree, has a really, really deep stable of quarterbacks. Yes. The Big Ten, at the very least at the top, has some of the best teams in the country. Yes, I think we mostly agree on that. It wouldn't be chaotic if Indiana and Oregon and Ohio State just separated themselves from the pack. That'd be nice and neat and easy to figure out come playoff time. But what if it doesn't happen that way? Because here's the thing to know about the Big Ten. If you look at a strength of schedule model, Rhett Lashley Memorial Strength of Schedule models he loves them. Rhett Lashley loves a preseason strength of schedule rating. If you look at them, try and do your own in the Big Ten, Ohio State plays the toughest schedule out of any Big Ten team. USC is way up there. Oregon's way up there. Conversely, if you look at the weakest strength of schedules, preseason, of course, in the Big Ten, Penn State, Iowa, I think they're both there. So here's what I want to float to you. Let's say it's not all nice and neat this year in the Big Ten. Let's say they all hurt each other at the top because Ohio State plays Texas and Iowa and Indiana and USC And Oregon. Oregon plays usc, Ohio State, Michigan and Washington. Indiana's got Michigan, Indiana's got Washington, they've got Ohio State. USC has to play virtually everyone. So. So what if there's just shrapnel everywhere? And in the meantime, over in the corner, you have Penn State and Iowa, each with, oh, let's call it one loss in conference play, and somehow, some way, they end up in Indianapolis. It could happen is all I'm saying. And so you got Penn State and Iowa, even at that point, I would imagine readily identified as, I don't know, third, fourth, fifth best in the league. It just so happened that schedule fell their way and they're in Indy. And then we've got just utter carnage. Ohio State and Oregon and Indiana just took turns taking shots at each other and they're just nine and three teams. It'd be hard to imagine, but not impossible to imagine. Okay, hit pause on that. Then you go down to the SEC and something way different happens. Texas just goes utter scorched earth in the SEC and Texas goes 13. Oh, they win the league. They're the slam dunk, number one overall seed in the country. And they would be because they got a tough schedule, too. But what if nobody else in the SEC is better than 9 and 3?
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What if.
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What if it's Texas and then just a bunch of above average. Combine that with what I just said. But also hold on and think about what that means for the playoff picture, because I have a hard time not seeing Notre Dame in the playoff. So that's a spot. The G6 gets a spot. The ACC gets a spot. The Big 12 gets a spot. I got to take the SEC champ, Texas, in this case, in there. I got to take the Big Ten champ. Penn State or Iowa. They're in. I just took up half the playoff, Jesse. And then imagine there's just this huge pile of three loss teams. There's Georgia over there, and there's lsu. Oh, and there's Indiana and there's Ohio State and there's Oregon. That's not even to mention, what if SMU just barely misses out in the ACC, but they're like 11 and 1 or something like that. What if Brigham Young made a real deep run in the Big 12? Think about how chaotic that could look now. Here's what would happen. I'll go ahead and spoil the ending for you. Well, the ending's probably. It won't work out like this, but let's say it did work out like this. You know what would happen? And fall camp's all about reps. We're taking mental reps tonight. Here's what would happen. The phone would ring, I would pick it up. It would be, you know, Canal and his ilk and they would say, we could fix this so easily. All we need to do is expand the playoff. We could fix it. Nope, nope. No three loss team that gets left out in that scenario, slash scenario deserves to be in the playoff. You long since let your fate get wrestled out of your hands. So if you're, if Indiana's on the outside looking in, if Georgia's on the outside looking in, if you're a three loss team, man, that's the breaks. It happened last year to Notre Dame, it happened last year to Texas and it should have, at least to Texas. You could debate Notre Dame. That's the way it goes. I want to be on record as saying that now in August when I'm thinking clearly, because then it gets really hazy and everyone gets emotional. But no matter what, if this comes to be, the answer is not, well, let's expand the playoff. That's the fix. Maybe nothing needs to be fixed. If you've got a log jam of three lost teams and someone gets left out, that is a function of a sound playoff. That's not a bug, that's not a problem, man. It's August 11th, Jesse. Can you believe that? I got big news. Got really big news. You see this poster over my shoulder? If you just listen on podcast, we have a very eclectically decorated studio. Some things may not make sense to you, but it's okay because they make sense to me. Twister changed my life. Changed my life. And Twister was a star studded film, one of the highest grossing films of 1996. And Bill Paxton's in there. Helen Hunt's in there. Philip Seymour Hoffman, the dude from Succession, a whole bunch of people in there. Jamie Gertz goes on to own the Hawks, basically. So it's a loaded cast. One of my favorite movies. I could smoke anyone in Twister trivia. But that's not what I'm here to talk to you about tonight. I am here to remind you that long before I had a driver's license, I was exposed hundreds of times to Bill Paxton, also named Bill in the movie, driving that red Dodge Ram, Jesse. And guess what? That led me to. To grow up wanting to drive and romanticize. I romanticized that red Dodge Ram. I knew some buddies who drove them, but I didn't. I had to settle for my 94 Sierra. And then imagine all these years later, we get A call. And guess who was on the other line, Jesse? It was Dodge. And Dodge said, look at that.
- [36:46]
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Look at that.
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We love college football. Do you have any interest in a partnership with us? Oh, yes, I do. In the words of Stanley to Michael Scott, oh, yes, I do. We have never had an official automotive partner. Now we do. Dodge Ram has come on board. And I'm going to try and keep the Twister references to a minimum. But Dodge Ram has come on board and I am extremely happy. And I'm trying to bottle my excitement right now, but I'm extremely happy about this. So you're going to be seeing a lot more Dodge on the show. And this is one that. This is one that I hopped in the driver's seat, so to speak, on and sort of took personal. And we got it done. And I'm very happy about it. Welcome aboard, Dodge. You will not regret this. Let's move on. No, Jesse, I'm still not doing it. I have now pushed SEC quarterback rankings back three times with good reason. I don't think I'm ready yet. I don't think I'm ready yet. If you know anything about me, you know I love preseason rankings. I got no problem with them. With conditions, you have to be flexible on them. So I saw a headline earlier today. I was really disappointed because a good, close friend of the program, Scott Van Pelt, allegedly, according to the Internet, had gone on this insane rant on his show about how preseason polls should be abolished. This is how it was presented to me and I thought to myself, no way, man. No, not Scott Van Pelt. Surely I haven't lost him to the no fun crowd. So I did an investigation and it turns out that as best our team can tell, Scott Van Pelt did not call for preseason polls to be abolished, although he and Stanford Steve over on SV Pod did have some thoughts. So I want to present the results and the findings of our investigation for just a second. And then I've got some things to say and I've got some other people to address right after this. But I really feel like people
- [38:58]
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are
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so interested to see what their team
- [39:00]
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brings to the table because, you know,
- [39:02]
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everybody's going crazy about the coaches poll and, you know, Clemson being ranked.
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And it's like, this is really a
- [39:10]
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lot harder to prognosticate now of what teams are going to be, because you don't know. Well, look at last year as an example of where teams began the season in rankings. And it'll happen again because there'll be teams that you just presume are going to be good based on the pedigree of their past. Some of the people that you know looking at the portal acquisitions and thinking that, that, that should work, but you don't know. And then there'll be some teams. Look, we both liked Clemson this time last year, and Penn State both liked him. Why? Because they had continuity at the quarterback position. They had a bunch of guys that we knew liked and trusted. Clemson and Penn State both. And the wheels fall off so early. I don't know that. Let's just say this. No one knows anything and start from there. And it's not an affront to admit that.
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Okay, if that's the policy of the SV pod, no one knows anything. And let's start from there, I'm fine with that. That doesn't mean we still can't have fun and predict. If we don't have predictions, what in the world did God even invent summer for? That's what we're here for this time of year. So, as it turns out, Scott Van Pelt, to this point, on August 11, 2026, to my knowledge, has not called for the abolishment of preseason rankings. So, as the future commissioner of this sport, I want you to listen to me and I want you to listen to me very clearly. Preseason rankings then, Preseason rankings now, and dare I say, preseason rankings forever, pal. Yeah, I love them, but I'm not married to them. Enter Adam Rittenberg. Again, immense respect for everyone that we're going to mention here. Adam Rittenberg writes for espn. See him all the time throughout the year, and he said, and I quote, the nation's second most popular sport no longer needs these. And they can set damaging narratives while often looking really stupid by October. Adam, Adam, Adam. The issue is not the rankings. The issue is not even people looking stupid. The issue is looking stupid by marrying yourself to your rankings. So, for example, last year, most of us had Penn State top 10, many of us had them top five. Ditto with LSU, ditto with Clemson.
- [41:41]
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That's.
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That's not the worst thing in the world. As long as the narrative gets erased by the reality of the games being played, that's the danger. Okay? Looking stupid is not dangerous. And take it from me, you want to talk about looking stupid? Where was I, Jesse? The morning after the national championship game, where was I? I was sitting here with a clown nose on. This, yes, it hurt my pride, but this is not damaging. You throw on the clown nose, you admit defeat, you congratulate Kurt Signetti even though you went.05. Picking against them. Some say 06. But that's disputed. And we move on. I ask this. By the time the playoff rankings were coming out last year, what damaging narratives were still wafting over the rankings process like we had. We had long since flushed Penn State out of there. We had long since flushed Clemson and LSU out of there. And Indiana. Not that they started way, way low, but they had long since vaulted themselves up into a premium spot. So you could tell me they don't matter anymore. Well, matter is relative. They matter to me because they're fun to me. Hopefully, they don't matter at all to the playoff rankings committee. Yeah, okay. But that's.
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That's.
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That's not the big crisis, okay? And I would encourage Adam Rittenberg and anyone else who writes about this sport for a living focus on the big crisis. You know what the big crisis facing our beloved sport is? It is casuals weaponizing predictions from six months ago. It is people waiting until December and January to find out how the season plays out and then taking shots at those of us. The few, the proud, the. I don't know because I can't copy the army verbatim that actually put our necks on the line in June and July and August and said some stuff. It happens too much, Jesse. I've dealt with it. This very day, this very day, someone came at me and said, what an idiot. This guy knows nothing. And then when they need some ammo behind their argument, they say, look at his predictions from last year. And I'm like, chad, could you show me your preseason predictions? Where you had Clemson and LSU and Penn State unranked. Could you show me your preseason Fernando Mendoza, Heisman ticket from last year? Chad? No, you cannot. But you expect it from your enemies. Where you don't expect those shots to come from is the corner of the room where your friends reside, because that's when it really hurts. Enter Will Compton. Will Compton took it personal that I didn't have Anthony Calandria, who's the dude who's only in Lincoln because Kenny Minchie spurned them as a top 10 preseason Big Ten quarterback. That was my crime. And because of that, he trafficked in the lowest form of insult possible. And he brought my preseason SEC quarterback rankings from last year to the forefront. Did I have Lagway ranked number one in the league? Yes, I did. I own it. Did I have Jackson Arnold, number seven? Regrettably, yes. So I made some wrong predictions, huh? Well, I may have been one who did. But, friends, I was not the Only one who did this brings me no joy. Roll it, Bradley.
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Michigan. I got us taken down. Michigan. To me, that's the. That's the game where it's like, who the are we going to be this year?
- [45:10]
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Yeah, no, I agree with you.
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And I think in Lincoln, Nebraska. Nebraska beats Michigan. I like Iowa State here because you boys know I love wounded animals. They've only lost one home game since the start of last year. I love Iowa State in this spot minus two and a half. I just think Texas has too much. I have no clue how Florida is going to win this game outside of a hope and a prayer. So I like Texas here. I like Texas covering as a favorite. Was it six and a half on the road in Florida? I think Oregon beats their again. This is another team traveling out to the west coast and I'm saying Oregon's gonna whoop this Indiana this weekend. Seven and a half. I love this P. You'll notice his
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hair grew a little bit more every week there. I believe it's because he had to shave it early in the year because one of his predictions did not come true. Or in the words of Taylor Lawan, he was bald because of his beliefs. So I just don't think it's responsible for any of us to. To be taking shots at any other one of us, friend or foe, based on predictions in the most unpredictable era in college football. That's my stance on preseason rankings. And if anyone got caught in the crossfire there, I apologize. Jesse, you know what I did the other day? I was talking to Alex and she said, hey, have you looked at these design contest submissions? And I said, no, I was going to wait until the very end and look at all of them at once. She said, you may want to look at some of these. So if you have not been aware of this over@patestatematerial.com not only can you buy amazing products over there right now, you can enter the design contest. I'm giving away my money to the winners. And apparently we've had a ton of submissions. So I go and start scanning through some of them the other day. Now, I'm not going to say I always have low expectations. I'm saying in this kind of contest, I choose to come in with low expectations so that I'm not disappointed. And I was really, really surprised at how many designs were in there. There were some slogans we had never thought of, some designs we had never thought of. So we got some. We got some competition in the design contest. Now, it's not over yet there are a few days left for you to enter. You can go to patestatematerial.com right now. One word of warning, make sure you follow the exact instructions because not all of you sent the files you need to send and I would hate for you to be eliminated on a technicality. But that's how Jesse rolls. He is a stickler for the rules and I've put him in charge of this because I want no responsibility for hurt feelings. I just want to be part of the happy ending for some of you. Immunity so paintstatematerial.com enter right now. There is still time. Sleep Number's new collections are designed to adapt to the changing nature of your life and your sleep needs. Whether it's the personalized comfort of the Comfort Mode mattress, the targeted pressure relief of the Comfort Next mattress, or the Climate collection that actively cools or warms to help you fall asleep and stay asleep. And now get early access to our biggest sale of the year. Save 25% on the new Comfort Next Luxe for a limited time only at a Sleep number store or sleepnumber.com. I'm not doing it yet. I'm not doing SEC quarterback rankings yet. This is an example of a clear A level segment that I am trying to bury to the end of the show. However, this is going to backfire on me horribly because live viewership has only gone up. Yeah, what was I thinking? All right, Notre Dame Hunter from Dallas says you can't possibly believe the crap you spewed about Notre Dame on the Herd yesterday. And many of you may not have seen Collins show yesterday where I appeared and talked about many things, college football. One of them was Notre Dame. Bradley, do me a favor. Put the question back. Well, I guess it wasn't a question. Put the statement back up. Put the shot at me back up, if you will. If you didn't watch the Herd yesterday and you just read Hunter's statement here, you can't possibly believe the crap you spewed about Notre Dame on the Herd yesterday. What would you think I said about Notre Dame? Like, what kind of egregious propagandist nonsense have I allegedly spewed about Notre Dame? I want you to gather those thoughts in your mind and all right, that's about enough time for that. And then I'm going to have Bradley, because, you know, we do have receipts around here. I'm going to have Bradley cue up the actual sound and video from the Herd yesterday.
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I am honestly surprised that they're noticeably better than the Brian Kelly Notre Dame. And I thought that was kind of. That was going to be the ceiling. Oh, no, they look. They look much more, in my opinion. They look. I mean, could they win the Natty Neck this year? Could they win it?
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I'll put it to you this way. If they played in the sec, I think I'd pick them to win the SEC this year. And I say that because. Well, I say that because it'll stir some people up where I'm from. But I also say it because people are going to mistakenly look at their schedule and discount them.
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Right.
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This is a team that could stand up against any schedule in the country this year. That's no guarantee, but this is an extremely good team. You said something that I think we were in alignment with, and that is you didn't think it could get much better than where Brian Kelly had him.
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No, I thought he topped out when.
- [50:44]
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When Brian Kelly left. I was fooled, man. I was of the opinion that Brian Kelly was a heck of a coach, which he was. The resume doesn't lie. And I looked and I said, man, it feels like he squeezed every last drop of potential out of that place. And he's someone who realizes you got to go to LSU if you want to win the biggest prize in the industry. And then not only were they able to level up, they leveled up with someone that was already in their building. They didn't even have to run this national coaching search. And I'm going to give Notre Dame credit for something now. Marcus Freeman's a heck of a coach. So you deserve credit for looking inside your building and realizing your guy's already there. But also, institutionally, you're right. They're never going to totally reinvent who they are, nor should they. There are certain aspects that make Notre Dame very attractive to the right kind of player and very unique. But when it comes to at least bending a little bit, when it comes to the academic calendar, when it comes to what they're willing to give up on admissions, they've done enough to where Marcus Freeman can look at it and say, man, this is more than I could have ever dreamed for. I'm in a perfect position. I'm going to get NFL attention, but I got plenty of unfinished business here. I don't know, certainly in my lifetime, I don't know when you would have ever looked over a coming five year period and felt better about the future of Notre Dame football than you do. 2026 through 2031. And I never thought I'd say that.
- [52:06]
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Yep, I'm in total Agreement. And I think we both admit that they're just. It's fun to have an academic power and an old school big brand in the sport. It's awesome
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that it. That can't possibly be it because everything that was said there is just reality. So that can't possibly. Well, I'm told. Okay, Bradley shaking his head. That's it. How is that controversial? I got a surprising amount of pushback. That's why we're actually talking about this, because I just picked one out of a number. Are people really this in the dark? Maybe I've overestimated people's opinion of Notre Dame. Who knows? Maybe I'm overrating them. I don't think I am. I mean they're over under 11 and a half wins. So me and Las Vegas, me and Fanduel have overrated them, I guess. But you know what? Odds have been wrong before. Teams have been overrated before. So I'm just trying to ask because I think most people took exception with me saying that I'd pick them to win the SEC right now. Do people really not think this team measures up to Texas? Do they really not think this team measures up to Georgia? I'm quite literally asking because that's the way it seems. And I think a lot of folks are looking at that schedule the same way. You remember back 10 years ago, they'd look at Clemson. I was in the south at the time, I still live in the South. But I remember SEC fans looking at Clemson saying they don't play a gauntlet of a schedule. They're not playing the same week in, week out grind that Alabama is. Well, guess what? You were right. And then guess what happened? It didn't matter because Clemson got to the national title game and faced Bama three times and beat him two out of three. So did that really matter? In other words, did the schedule make the team or was the schedule just something the team played? The answer is B. Just like this year, Notre Dame plays an extremely soft schedule. Maybe not quite as soft as some people are making it out to be, but soft. I will grant you that that has nothing to do with the fact that they may have the best team in the country. That has nothing to do with the fact that they may play for a national championship and win it this year. But if you don't believe about how they stack up with the sec. Like if you think it's so insane that I sit here and say, hey, if they played in the sec, I'd probably pick them to win the league right now, why do you think that? Which team is it down there you think they don't measure up against? Some of you may say Georgia. I think most of you, if you take exception to it, say Texas. So here's all I can do. All I can do is call up Fanduel Mike and ask him, fanduel Mike, Texas, Notre Dame, neutral field, Week one. What's the number? I know that's not a perfect solution, but it at least gives you an idea of what professionals who do this stuff for a living and who set numbers and markets for a living, think about the teams comparably. And before I tell you what the answer is, because I have it right here. Texas versus Notre Dame. If Fanduel had to make the number public today, what would it be? What do you think it is? I'm giving you a second. What do you think it is? Texas minus seven, Texas minus four. What if I told you Notre Dame, Texas pick them if they played today, they're viewed as dead even teams right now. Would that shock you? If your answer is yes, you're shocked. My question is, why are you shocked? It's going to be a really good team this year. Really good team. And I think that, like I said with Colin and like, I'll reiterate, I've lived not as long as some of you, longer than others of you, but in my lifetime, my coherent adult lifetime, I have never seen a coming five year period where I will have felt better about the future of Notre Dame football than I do right now in 2026. And that's just, it's something I didn't think we'd say. I didn't think that's the direction the program was going. I didn't think that that's the direction the sport was going. And so for those of us who, you know, love traditional powers, it's a very good thing they're watching us in Nazareth, Texas. Oxford, Mississippi. Appleton, Wisconsin. Thank you guys so much. I have a lot of fun doing this show most of the time. This is not one of those times, Bradley. I don't want you to put that in the YouTube cut. But those of you who are watching live or listening to the full show, this is going to sound a little bit more like a therapy session maybe, than a segment on a college football show. It is time for us to rank the SEC quarterbacks going into 2026. And I have here, as a reminder, last year's memorial rankings, the D.J. lagway memorial rankings, wherein your boy here ranked D.J. lagway of Baylor fame. Now the preseason number one quarterback in the SEC. And I have to wake up and live with this every morning. I have to wake up and live with the fact that I had Jackson Arnold, number seven in the SEC last year. I have to live with that. I know all of you have made some degree of terrible decision in your past. This is in my past. I can't erase it. All I can try and do is be better moving forward. I've known this day was coming. I've dreaded it. There is no win for me here. There are only degrees of losses. So I apologize in advance for what I'm about to do, that it's time to rank these quarterbacks. Jesse. Trinidad Chambliss is the best quarterback in the SEC. He takes the D.J. lagway memorial pole position for SEC quarterbacks in 2026. I actually don't think I'll get a lot of pushback on this. He's the most dangerous player in college football to me. He had eight games last year of 300 plus passing yards. Obviously a really dynamic run element and theoretically his best could still be ahead of him because there's a lot of transition there. You also have the league maybe adjusting to him, but it's Trinidad Chambliss. All right, that's an easy number one for me. I think number two is pretty easy. At least I think it is. Arch Manning, I would put his number two in the sec. And I'm enjoying the last moments of agreement from the masses before we just descend into utter chaos. 3 through 10. It's been building to this for Arch Manning. Combination of weapons, obviously, the knowledge of the offense, his natural progression as a player, it's all led to this year. He should have a great year. 3026. Last year he ran for 10 touchdowns. Loved him in the Michigan bowl game. It's hard not to imagine him maxing out his potential this year. Okay, so Trinidad chambliss, Arch Manning, 1, 2. I'm not going to apologize for anything I'm about to say. Actually, I take the apologies back. I have to do this. I know what I have to do. Number three quarterback in the SEC coming into 2026 is John Mattier. I believe in John Mattier. I'm at the party. I'm not leaving. You could bar the door behind me. So I'm here. Come what may. I'm here. Oklahoma's run game has to improve. Okay. If I can keep him healthy. That's part one. Part two is offensive lines. Got to do the job or a better Job running back position. Got to do the job or a better job. He had 270 plus passing every game pre injury last year and I just believe in my heart of hearts that a more balanced offense in Norman, Oklahoma. Not to mention the fact that he doesn't have to be a superhero because the defense they have will all come together to spell a really big year for him. Now I don't think I have to explained too much more thoroughly that if John Matiere is the number three quarterback in this league, Oklahoma is a playoff team this year so we'll do playoff predictions before the season starts. Version 2.0 Number 4 in the SEC this is where I place Gunner Stockton, Georgia quarterback. Ironically, I feel as safe putting him here as I do any quarterback because I know that even if you don't think he has the ceiling of being the best quarterback in this league, certainly the floor is very high and he's good in big spots too. Remember when he had to step up against Tennessee last year against Ole Miss, last year against Texas he stepped up and so he's back. I mean you don't get worse the more you play. And so I just need his wide receiver room to step up. That's what I really need. I need some guys to emerge there where it doesn't just fall on him to scramble and put his face in the fan, which he absolutely will. But I would love for maybe just some of the workload to be taken off his shoulders. But I love Gunner Stockton. I'm putting him at number four. The number five position in the SEC preseason quarterback rankings goes to Sam Levitt at Ole Miss. Lane went and got Sam Levitt. He had a fight for him. The health concerns that were there in the spring and summer, they're quieted now. We've seen him some in fall camp and if he's healthy, I feel good putting him at number five. Legit dual threat athleticism. I look more towards 2024 than 2025 to try and somewhat figure out what to expect this year, but he's good throwing on the move too. And when you got trade as green down there and you've got a lot of wide receivers that may not be household names yet, but certainly one of two of whom will emerge at some point this year. I think it all bleeds into a high functioning offense. There's the index finger. If the worst rushing outfit in the SEC last year can become a lot better. And they've tried. LSU has made strides. They've made a huge investment and effort into trying to do that so you kind of say this with Oklahoma. You could say it with Bama, you could say it with lsu. You could say it with a number of these teams. Hey, if you just run the ball decently, that's all we need there. But I think you, you get some wide ranging opinions on Sam Levitt. So I'm putting him in number five. That's where I'm comfortable. That's as high as I'm comfortable putting him in the preseason. Number six. Very weird situation here. This is where I put the Alabama quarterbacks. Number six. I am a believer Keelan Russell will ultimately win this job, but ultimately may mean sometime into the season. But I think that even if it's Austin Mack, Calen DeBoer will max out his quarterback's potential. He always has and he will continue to do that. And either one of them I trust to play at a high level. I don't even think quarterback's the big question in Alabama right now. I think they could probably win with either one of them. Unless they can't run the ball, in which case copy paste from what I said about Oklahoma and lsu, because then you start asking a guy with very, very little starting experience to do too much. So if they set him up to fail, that's different. But if they can run the ball decently, then the physical skill set, especially with Keelan Russell long term, is off the charts. So either one of these guys, it's kind of weird to have them ranked sixth even though the job hasn't been decided. Either one of them. I feel good about pegging in this spot if I can get the other complimentary aspects of that offense to pan out. Number seven. Oh, wait, number seven. This would be the Jackson Arnold Memorial number seven spot in the preseason SEC quarterback rankings. This is where I'm putting Lenora Sellers. I debated this all day. There may have been some misleading propaganda put out earlier on Social. We weren't necessarily suggesting number one for Lenora Sellers. Lenora Sellers at number seven. It's where I'm going to go. I'm leaning more 2024 than 2025 with him, too. I am a big believer in pairing him with Kendall Briles. You listen to Shane Beamer talk about the process of hiring Kendall Briles and how involved Lenora Sellers input was on that. I'm a believer in it. I'm a believer that this year that could yield a lot of production, maybe above and beyond what people expect. The short passes along with just reeds. If I can get some moderate improvement, there and then I can get the supporting cast, specifically that offensive line, to step up a notch. Lenora Sellers is an incredible athlete. It's a phenomenal athlete. We don't need to sell people on that. We just need to sell people on the idea that it's not going to be you turning on a South Carolina game and saying, well, he's got to throw his cape on again. That's their only shot. It shouldn't be like that. Number eight. I'm going to have to answer for this. I know I am number eight. That's where I'm putting Marcel Reed. This was the hardest guy out of all of the rankings we did here. I had the hardest time with Marcel Reed because I could put him as high as four. I put him at eight because I don't have a problem buying the highs. I really, really need the consistency piece. But here's the problem. I will admit it's very possible that I'm making too much out of the Texas game and the Miami game. It's very possible that I'm doing that because he's got the wide receivers this year. And you know what? If I'm. If I'm making too much of those games, we'll know by the first half of the season because Marcel Reed will be playing at a level much higher than just number eight in the SEC. He made a good jump from 24 to 25. If he does that again this year, yeah, he'll probably be better than the 8th best quarterback in the SEC. Offensive line will be good. It'll be good enough. Wide receiver, plenty good enough. The consistency piece is what falls on him. And if he can do that again, this is the guy with the widest sort of range here. I put him at eight. That one, that one's kind of like Damon Williams. And in the Big Ten, I'm kind of worried about it. Kind of had them similarly placed. I put Byron Brown at 9. So the transition to higher level college football is really the only thing that you could question here. Because Byron Brown, 6, 3, 235, he's played several games at South Florida against P4 competition. And he scaled his game, he scaled his production pretty well. Huge numbers at USF. A 3,000, 1,000 guy last year, 42 touchdowns, seven overall interceptions. He's familiar with the system. This is not a transfer portal situation in that he's just leaving. USF head coach, center, offensive coordinator like this in the entire system came with him. So he may have to acclimate to new restaurants and dorm rooms and Stuff like that. But he's not acclimating to a new system. So I put Byron Brown at 9, but I wouldn't have a problem with people putting him higher than that. The number 10 spot. Only got one left. We're only doing top 10. It goes to Austin Simmons. And I gotta tell you, we debated this pretty heavily. We caps. We debated this pretty heavily. And all I want to say to Austin Simmons and Eli Drinkwitz and company is don't let me down. I'm putting a lot of faith in you. Okay? I could have inserted Kenny Minchie here, Jesse, but we didn't. We went with Austin Simmons. We got to trust Lane Kiffin a year ago, naming him as his starting quarterback because we all trust Lane's QB evals, right? So Austin Simmons was good enough for him at one point. The tools are there. The tools are there. I, I will say this too. I wasn't shocked to see him struggle a little bit early last year. Not everyone is fired out of a cannon at this position. Some guys, Arch Manning is one of them. It takes some time. So now he's another year in. I love that he's playing under drink. I love that the running back, O line wide receiver combo should be good there. I don't know if you would call this a defensive oriented team this year. So he's going to have to, he's going to have to do some work for him. Austin Simmons can still be a really, really high level player in this league, but we're banking more on potential here. And here's what it could look like too. It could be maybe a slow start and then a scaling up. And that's okay because we're not ranking him top three. He's at number 10. So that would be a fair expectation for number 10. Jesse. It's not that I thought the segment would go bad. The segment's fine. It's the aftermath that I worry about. Part one of that aftermath begins tonight when we wrap up the show and we start getting Internet feedback. Part two of the aftermath is eventually the season comes and the games happen. And for anyone who watched Florida last year with DJ Lagway ranked number one, do you know what it was like to watch that LSU game? For me, I mean, it was already done before that. I've, I, oh, it hurts. I've never had a migraine in my life, but maybe that night I thought I was on the precipice. Needless to say, it's a very unpredictable sport. However, if you think you've got an idea on something. FanDuel is the exclusive odds provider of this show. Several markets available over there. If you think you've got an edge, if you think you've got an angle, that's the place to back it up. We got bold predictions coming up in a second. One of you screenshot one of your betting slips already. I respect it. It's an insane prediction, but I respect it. Many more of you can do that. Maybe that's something we ought to do, Jesse. Maybe we ought to require screenshots of betting slips over at FanDuel. That wouldn't be fair. It's not legal in all states. It wouldn't be fair. That would be exclusionary anyway. You can go over there and bet Heisman. You can bet on week one lines. There's some games of the year over there you can bet. Yes. No to make the playoff. So many markets. It's nothing like the old days. So many markets appreciate FanDuel for all they do for us and FanDuel. Mike for picking up the phone today
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must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 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 MDG in Maryland, hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text hopeny in New York.
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Bold prediction time continues. The things that you believe in some cases so much that you're willing to put your own hard earned money on the line. If any of these rank 9.5 or higher on the boldness scale and hit, then you win a chalice of supremacy. First up tonight, Matthew in Karuna, Michigan. Two leg parlay number one. No team enters the CFP undefeated number two. A team with three regular season losses makes the playoff. This is a 9.25 for me. In fact, do me a favor, Bradley. I appreciate that you just put the odds for the sliders there, the slider of odds there. I actually want you to keep up the prediction for a second because since it's a two parter, I have to keep referencing it.
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Okay?
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So the first part of this, no team enters the playoff undefeated. Right off the bat, I think you have a Notre Dame, Miami conundrum because Notre Dame and Miami play. Miami is by far Notre Dame's toughest game. If Notre Dame beats Miami, who beat Notre Dame? And conversely, if Miami beats Notre Dame, who beat Miami, that's part one. Not to mention Texas Tech could just run through the Big 12. You've got the entire G5 landscape and if a G5 team makes it, it's a one loss team, max. It may be an undefeated team. So that's going to be part one of the hurdle here. The second hurdle is a three loss regular season team makes the playoff. Well, is it Ohio State? I think they could because Ohio State's got the strength of schedule, strength of record that they could viably be a three loss team. I guess you could have an sec three loss team come out of this. But it's tough. But both happening at the same time, that's even tougher. But I don't think it's impossible. So I'm only put, I'm only going to put a 9.25 on that. Next up now this one, this one's bold. This is from San Antonio. Texas. Texas A and M beats Alabama, lsu, Tennessee and Texas this year. Individually, none of these are egregious predictions. Collectively, it's tough. Okay, so I'm going to put a 9.75 on that. We hit up FanDuel, Mike, and we got hypothetical lines on all these games. So A and M at LSU if that game happened right now, LSU minus 3. A and M at Bama if it happened right now, Bama minus 3. Tennessee at a and M if it happened right now, A and M minus 7. Texas at Texas A and M if the game happened right now, Texas minus three. So you've got A and M as a touchdown favorite in one of those games and a field goal underdog in the other three. But they got to win all of them. That's tough. So that's a 9.75 in my book. Next up, this is the one. We have the bet slip, right? Okay, so this is from Phoenix, Arizona we've. It's from Chun or Chan. I can't see because it's too small. It is A is a bet slip right here. It's already been placed on FanDuel. Okay, so here's the bet. BYU, Virginia Tech, Penn State and Oklahoma State all win 10 plus games. And then there's some stuff about James Franklin and Matt Campbell. Okay, so Brigham Young, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Oklahoma State, they all win 10 plus in the regular season. This does not count conference title Games. That's a 9.75. So here's how bold that is. The over under win totals for these teams right now. Penn State, nine and a half. Remember, they all got to win 10 or more. Penn State nine and a half. Virginia Tech six and a half. BYU eight and a half. Oklahoma State six and a half. Maybe two of them happen, maybe. But all four of these happening, I don't know. But here's the. Here's the thing you need to know. In our internal model, when we do strength of schedules in the preseason, which is a guess, but when we do that, all of these teams are bottom third in strength of schedule. So, like, Brigham Young plays the 59th, toughest schedule. Penn State 54th, Virginia Tech 50th, Oklahoma State 44th. So if they're better in Penn State's case, if they're just as good as we think they'll be, Brigham Young, same thing. But if they're a little bit better in Blacksburg and Stillwater than we think they'll be, they don't have the most daunting of schedules. I will say Oklahoma State has to go to Houston, to Kansas State, and they play Texas Tech. I will say that. So I'm Gonna put a 9.75 on that one. Last up. Okay. I didn't look at this beforehand, but I can tell you by the first two words, I probably am not going to spend much time on this. D.J. lagway will ball out in 2026. Baylor wins the Big 12 and D.J. lagway wins the Heisman. Okay, well, that's a 10. That's a 10. Probably a fitting way to end the show tonight. Last year's preseason SEC number one quarterback, D.J. lagway. It's not his fault. It's my fault, really, when you think about it, he didn't rank himself. I'm the one who ranked him. So in a strange turn of events, as we conclude the show tonight, and as we wrap up bold predictions, I'm forced to admit that maybe I'm the problem. Jesse, I appreciate you guys watching. Thank you so much. Please make sure you subscribe to the channel. We're headed up to Penn State bright and early in the morning. Looking forward to catching up with Matt Campbell and the crew up there. And we'll be back here Thursday. Show is at the same time Thursday. We'll probably have some content from that Penn State trip. Until then, for director Bradley production producer Jesse I'm Josh Pate. Take care. Have a great mid part of your week and God bless.
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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. First $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See termsportsbook.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 ndgamblinghelp.org In Maryland, Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 7. 8, Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York.
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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.