← Josh Pate's College Football Show
Josh Pate's College Football Show
CFB’s Team To Beat In 2026 + Florida & Miami Behind The Scenes
01:11:05
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- [00:00]
Josh Pate
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human thy ticket lady Jennifer of Coolidge. Well, many thanks good sir. Here is my Discover card. They accept Discover at Renaissance Fairs? Yeah, they do here. Discover is accepted at the places I love to shop. Get it with the times. With the times. You're playing the lute. Yeah, and it sounds pretty good, right?
- [00:28]
Discover Card Advertiser
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- [00:34]
Podcast Host/Analyst
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Josh Pate
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Jacob Goldstein
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Podcast Host/Analyst
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Jacob Goldstein
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- [02:19]
Podcast Host/Analyst
You know, in that episode of the Office, Andy Bernard said, I wish there was a way to know you're living in the good old days before you've actually left him. And in sports, the parallel to that is I wish there was a way to know you were living in a 30 for 30 as it's happening. And I have no doubt LSU people are living in a real life 30 for 30. Right now you've got Kim Mulkey, women's basketball. You just hired Lane Kiffin. Will Wade is back in town. I know our guy Jay Johnson. And LSU baseball struggling a little bit at the moment. But they'll be back. Like, what a, what a world. Louisiana is its own galaxy. It's its own universe, especially in sports. It's unbelievable. Anyway, I'm not even talking about that on the show tonight. I was just looking at headlines. We're jam packed. We're high atop a sunburn. Downtown Nashville, Tennessee on this Thursday night, March 26th, the year of our Lord 2026. Is there a team to beat in college football this year? I asked this question last year and as it turns out there wasn't because no one said Indiana and they ended up winning the national title. Is there a definitive slam dunk number one, circle them in red. Sharpie team to beat this year? There are differing schools of thought. We'll talk about it tonight. Whispers and intel from spring Ball. We've got a good old fashioned chaos scenario to throw into your chin tonight. I got some behind the scenes stuff from our trip to Gainesville and Coral Gables over the last 48 to 72 hours. It's a jam packed show. It's a Thursday night. It's March. It doesn't matter. There is no off season. They're watching us in Lawton, Oklahoma, Atlanta, Ga, Ocala, Florida, Greensboro, North Carolina. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Wherever you're listening, wherever you're watching, just make sure you are subscribed to the channel. I know Twitter changed their rates today. Again, we're still free. It is still $0.00 and $0.00 to be subbed around here. You may ask, well, why would I sub? Because it helps us. That's it. It's really more selfish as a request than anything, but we appreciate it when you do. So I was looking around this time last year, what were we talking about? And we did a video this time last year about the team to beat in college football. And my whole viewpoint was I don't really think there's a team to beat. And John hit us from Toledo. He said, well, I appreciate all you do, especially during the off season, but I want to know from your vantage point, who's the team to beat in 2026? And when John asked that, I went back and looked last year and there really wasn't one. It was kind of wide open. Is it wide open this year? Sure. If you go to FanDuel, you'll see that Notre Dame's the favorite to win the national title right now. But. But is it a slam dunk favorite? So I would say as of now, it's March 26th. As of now, I'm going to say I don't have a definitive team to beat. So in a way, we're kind of where we were a year ago. That's a good thing. It's not a bad thing. I am happy to start with Notre Dame because, as you know, Jesse, they entered spring practice ranked number one in the country in the Pate State pre spring rankings, and we all know how much weight that carries. I'm worried about complacency with Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame because they were ranked number one in the Pate State pre spring rankings. But nevertheless, they are number one in the country in returning production, which does matter when it's the kind of returning production that Notre Dame has on its roster. They should be excellent at quarterback. You know about the workable schedule and if you don't pay attention over the next few months because people will beat it to death. Notre Dame soft schedule. And they'll try and affirm this lie they tell every other year about Notre Dame because most people say every year Notre Dame has a soft schedule. They don't. This year they do have a soft schedule. So it is true this year there's not really a glaring weakness on this team. Well, at least as far as this is concerned, at least as far as paper is concerned, we all know games are not played on this material. In our perfect world, they're played on grass. This is not always a fairy tale world, but on paper, I don't know where the glaring weakness is. They're just varying degrees of good to great potential. With Notre Dame top linebacker room in the country. Maybe. Maybe they got the best corner in the room and it's a hungry organization. So they haven't really accomplished any of their major goals. Well, at least when it comes to winning a national title, I got no problem if you tell me Notre Dame's the team to beat. But then if you do all right, then I'll hit you with Oregon because at Oregon, this is kind of a circle year for Oregon. This is kind of one of those years like Ohio State had a couple of years ago. Should be elite along the defensive line. Really, really good, especially in the secondary. I think they trust their offensive line personnel. This is going to be the big question with them externally, maybe internally too. But they didn't go and do what they did last year, which is look for salvation through the portal. You can only find temporary salvation through the portal. We all know that. And they did not try and do that this cycle. So they trusted the guys that they had recruited, that they had developed. That's the fun part, because like they have a better idea of what they have than we do right now. But I feel like they must feel good enough there. Dante Moore, another year starting under his belt at quarterback. It's an elite skill group, wide receivers and running backs and they're just positioned really well. I feel like some of these teams can theoretically be in the national title hunt every year. But even with your Oregons or your Texas's, Georgia's, Ohio State's, Indiana's, now there are some years where they're better positioned than others. Oregon's very well positioned this year. So if you wanted to sell me on them, I would buy it. But then if you threw Oregon at me, I'd say, well what about Texas? You know, Texas is all in this year. This is one of those years like Ohio State 2024. But for Texas they're pushing all the chips to the middle of the table. It is Arch Manning plus a completely overhauled tailback room. They didn't run the ball very well last year. They have the horses to run the ball very, very well to great this year. If the offensive line comes together and it looks like with some eligibility issues out of the way, it looks like the starting five are probably set. I'm not going to speak for Sark there, but I could pretty well guess without injury who their starting five are going to be. And then they went and got Cam Coleman out of the portal and they've got talent all Colin Simmons is that like they got talent all over the place. It's just an Ohio State 2024 vibe to me. Ironically, they play the Buckeyes in week two. So I would say if you want to circle Texas as the team to beat, okay, that's fine. But then I'm going to throw Ohio State at you. This is the fun when you have several teams in the mix to be the team to beat. Ohio State loaded staff, I mean Ryan Day is collecting NFL caliber coaches left and right. Arthur Smith now on the staff there. Had Matt Patricia come in there a year ago and do what very few people outside of Columbus expected, which was take a unit that lost a lot of really, really veteran NFL caliber personnel and improve it. Well now it'd be a real chore to improve this year's defense over last year. But even if they fall off just a, just a smidge, the floor for Ohio State defense is really, really good. So I've got that. I've got Julian Saya now who is a multiple year starter, a quarterback and look, I'll just speak personally. That's a Heisman caliber quarterback. I still feel like he's got a whole lot to prove. I still feel like that staff probably looks at him and says there's a level up that's needed from your game. We've got the talent around you. They may have. They may end up having the best ground game in the country this year. Certainly it won't be for lack of trying to and they'll have the personnel there, they trust the defensive identity and they know how to manage a season organizationally, they know how to manage a season. They know how to peak at the right time. I understand the jokes in the comments will be boy, they didn't peak against Miami, did they? Okay, well if we rewind one year further, how did it look the second time around when they played Oregon in the playoffs, for example? So I trust Ohio State and if you want to tell me Ohio State's the team to beat, that's fine. But then I would whisper in your ear, what about Georgia? What about Kirby Smart in Georgia? What about the two time defending scratch that. You don't defend anything. What about the back to back SEC champs down there? I'm told that the SEC is just a garbage conference now, but it still does mean a little something to have won the crown back to back years Top 10 in returning production and again, we always talk about returning production on this show with a little bit of a caveat because if you return bad players, you're just bad again. But at Georgia, much like Notre Dame, a bunch of your players returning is a little bit different because Georgia doesn't have bad players. Therefore a lot of good players, a lot of experienced players now are returning. And I think that if Gunner Stockton continues to elevate and they answer to me by 10 miles, the biggest question, which is are you dynamic enough at the wide receiver position? If they can do that and Georgia just seems to always find an answer. They seem to always find a way. You've had back to back years now where they won the league title, but then they get bounced in the playoff. You got the same offensive coordinator, you got the same defensive coordinator, you got the same head coach, you got the same qb. And history shows us that these high level programs, when you, when you knock those four boxes down, tend to be in the mix. So if you want to tell me Georgia is the team to beat, that's fine. I throw another one at you. I just watched Miami play for a national title last year. What about Miami? Well, Josh, Miami's losing a lot of talent to the draft yeah, they got a lot of talent, too. I think Miami's reached that level that maybe at any given point, half a dozen programs are at maybe less. In college football historically, where they kind of transcend attrition, meaning the returning starters number, the returning production number, it's not irrelevant, but it's way less relevant for Miami just because you learn to blindly trust that they've got athletes of equal to or better caliber collectively than the ones that are going out the door. I was just down there yesterday. So, granted, there's a lot of recency bias on being up close and watching them practice and knowing that staff. But Darien Mensah at quarterback is, I think, everything that they hoped he would be. And I think he will solve a lot of issues. Not that they'd have a lot offensively because they got a really good running back room. They could have one of, if not the best wide receiver rooms in the country if everyone fulfills on their potential and offensive line. I think much like Oregon, they trust the guys they have in the building. Head coach, ocdc, again, you've got that trio that returns there and that defensive line is still going to be nasty. And they got very close. It's like when your mom. You remember when you were one years old, Jesse? I know I do. And they would play the helicopter. They would play the airplane game with the applesauce. Organic, of course, organic applesauce on the spoon. And then they pull it out of your mouth. Miami almost got the applesauce last year and then they yanked it. College football yanked it out of Miami's mouth. And they want it. Yes, that's right. Clip it out of context. They want it now. So after all that, you know what I didn't do, Jesse? I didn't mention the team that just won the national championship. I didn't even mention Indiana. Is that irresponsible? Will I end up wearing a clown nose months later for not having done that? No, because I'm building it in. Even though I didn't write Miami on the sheet, I'm building our Indiana on the sheet. I'm building it in right now. You're hearing me mention Indiana right now. Look, Josh Hoover, according to sources in Fort Worth, turned the ball over a lot past few years. That source being Sonny Dykes turned the ball over the last few years. But you know what? Indiana's not really in the business of turning the ball over. So maybe he rectifies those issues. And maybe these wide receivers they brought in, they more than make up for the departures to the NFL and maybe the culture is such there that they almost transcend attrition. It's still so early that we haven't really gotten a full grip on what Indiana is as a program over like a five year period. But you could throw any of these at me and I would say okay. And I didn't mention A and M. I didn't mention Michigan, Alabama, who else, Jesse? I mean there's, there's going to be, there are going to be teams on the fringes. Arizona State. Yeah, naturally, you know, your Texas's, your Arizona states. Absolutely. This translates to really, really fun first month of the season because that means you got to write your opinions in really, really light pencil and you got to be willing to come off of them because we'll start to learn and then there's going to be a time where you think you figured it out and then college football will do what it always does and it will completely rip up everything you thought you knew probably around Halloween. And that just translates to F U n for me. Let's move along. We had a question about quarterbacks and I figured since it's late March, we could take a swing at this. Danny from Knoxville, Tennessee said, I'm curious to know which quarterbacks you're buying and selling in the SEC this year. There are some easy ones to knock down. I think about this more, Danny. Like on a confidence scale like at Texas, this is pretty easy. I got high confidence in Arch Manning. I've got high confidence that his game will evolve or continue to level up as the roster continues to level up. I really don't know. In what world does Texas improve their offensive line, improve their tailback room, improve their wide receiver room and Arch Manning? I guess it's technically possible, but I don't expect that to happen. So I think he'll be a great quarterback this year. I got high confidence there at Georgia. Gunner Stockton returns, I would say, medium to high confidence in Gunner Stockton's situation. Like, yeah, I would love to see elements of his game level up, but the difference with maybe Texas situation in Georgia's is I worry about the weapons that Gunner Stockton has around him. Arch Manning, while capable of doing a lot by himself, will not have to. There are going to be moments this year where Gunnar Stockton's just flat out got to bail Georgia out. Now it's convenient because he has done that before. He could do it again, but I don't really know if we want to see a situation where he has to turn into a battering ram as Quarterback to win games for Georgia because it's Georgia. So your talent roster should never dictate that that has to happen. But if it does, maybe half a dozen times in key moments this year, I trust him to do it. The toughness is not in question. The attitude, the mental fortitude not in question. The surrounding the supporting cast, specifically at receiver, is why I would go medium to high. Alabama doesn't even have a starter named yet, so this is kind of abnormal. But Keelan, Russell and Austin Mack, whoever wins that job obviously will have beaten the other, which means they were good enough to take the job. And no matter who it is, I've got medium to high confidence on Alabama's quarterback situation regardless of who ends up starting. And it's the only one out of all of the ones we're going to mention here where we don't have one name to talk about. But like I said with Georgia, but just in a different way, what about the supporting cast? What about the surroundings? What about the climate that quarterback's playing in? They have totally overhauled their offensive line there. They have hired a new offensive line coach there. They have tried to overhaul their running game. It's spring, it's halfway through spring practice or maybe even less than. So we don't really know. I haven't even been down there. I haven't seen them practice. I don't know what it's looked like. I know it pretty literally can't look worse than it did last year. But how, how improved is it? I go back to Georgia. I just mentioned Georgia. Georgia is a really good model for this. Georgia was very, very subpar running the ball in 2024 and then they pulled the nose up and they were really good, top 30 or so roughly, maybe better than that run game last year. Does Alabama improve by that length of a leap and a bound? If they do, then you could get really, really high level production because outside of that receivers should be good enough for them there. Granted you need a bounce back year from Ryan Williams, but I just think the overall talent level at quarterback is enough where whoever wins that's going to give me medium confidence at least maybe high confidence. What about Oklahoma? There's no guesswork here. I mean Oklahoma is going to have John Matier back at quarterback. John Matier started the year last year as did Oklahoma, really strong. Then you remember he got hurt. Then he came back and was kind of a shell production wise from what he had been. And there were some people who said ah, he just really hadn't fully gotten over the injury. There were other people who said, no, it's not the injury, it's just the league figured him out or the competition level increased. I would say my confidence level is medium in him because I don't know that you could fully determine which is which. Like, can we fully know the truth there? Also, I feel like there's a lot of variance down to down in potential outcome when you just have the release he has. I'm not knocking it. I knew his release last year when I bet him to win the Heisman, which I feel like I get unfairly criticized for because the injury derailed the season. But I'm not making excuses, obviously, for me and John Mateer. But I think because of that low release point, you. Look, defensive linemen know how to get hands up in any league, the SEC included. And so at any given point, you just have three or four batted balls up in the air that can turn games based on where they fall. Quarterbacks with normal releases deal with that. So you got that. You got the whole post injury thing, because remember, he is coming back from injury now, not a lower extremity injury. We're not rehabbing knees or ankles or whatnot. But was the second half of the season, was that the norm for him? Was that. Was that an anomaly? And do they figure out their ground game? Cause Oklahoma was terrible running the ball last year. So there are a lot of variables in the equation. That's why I couldn't go higher than medium with Mattier. What about lsu? LSU went and got Lane Kiffin. Lane Kiffin went and got Sam Levitt. Two years ago at Arizona State, Sam Levitt sort of lit the world on fire. And then last year, statistically there was regression and there was also injury, which you're coming back from. And of course, you transfer in and you're playing in a new system and all that, but I've almost learned not to even care about that because so many guys transfer successfully every year. This is not 1993. I don't really talk about a kid getting used to a new dorm or wherever Sam Levitt's living down there or getting used to a new town. This is just normalized now. But the adjustment from maybe playing the caliber of defenses that you faced in the Big 12 versus that of which you'll face in the SEC, maybe that's not overblown. Maybe there's some seriousness to that. Also, the LSU receiver room got potential needs to come together, and there's just. There are a lot of moving parts down there. And so if you know, at some point this year, I expect it to click. Does it click out of the gate? Does it click in week six? LSU's got a couple of games, really three games in the first four that they play that are very losable. They're going to be favored by 11 and a half or so against Clemson at home, but technically they could lose that game. They could go to Ole Miss. That's losable. A and M at home, that's losable. They're also all winnable. So the run game yet again, much like Oklahoma, much like Alabama. Does he have a complimentary ground game? I got to imagine it'll be there much better than it was last year. I would say medium confidence in Sam Levitt right now with high end potential. South Carolina is a little different boat. Lenora Sellers, as much as I respect him as a player because of his surroundings, I got to go low to medium confidence on him. Offensive lines, just a massive question mark there, especially with the tackles out for spring. Not going to get one back. Hope to get the other one back by fall camp. The depth of the receiver room beyond Harbor, I don't know. I don't know that they know. It's a new system. They brought in Kendall Briles as offensive coordinator. Who. Who knows? That could be a revelation for all we know. I just don't have a ton of confidence in it yet. And I am going to choose to be pleasantly surprised by tempering my expectations more so than I'm ready to be let down by having high expectations with South Carolina this particular year. Now Auburn, with Goelish coming in and Auburn bringing in Byron Brown, I would put them at medium confidence. And there's just a lot of translation that has to happen from playing a certain level of football to leveling up. That's not just Byron Brown. There are a lot of guys that Goelish and his staff brought up, players that they brought up. And at USF last year, you're talking about a 3,000, 1,000 guy. You're talking about 28 passing touchdowns, 14 rushing touchdowns. So Byron Brown put up a ton of production. He's played a lot of football. He's a senior. It's just do those receivers that they brought in as guys like Cam Coleman were walking out the door, Eric Singleton walking out the door, do they pan out? What do we look at second week, third week of October? What do we look at and say about Auburn's supporting cast around Byron Brown? I'd say medium. I trust the guys played a lot of ball, but What's Auburn? It's year one. It's a new staff, so there's gonna be a lot of questions, period. And lastly, Texas A and M. Marcel Reed is the only guy I'm gonna classify like this. My confidence level on Marcel Reed is somewhere between low and high. This could apply any given season, any given week, any given quarter. For those of us who witnessed and maybe even survived the South Carolina A and M game last year, from a betting perspective, especially, you know, good. Well, what I mean, there were times last year where he was electric. There were times where he was electric, and that was two quarters after he had been a complete disaster. Four of his final six games included multiple interceptions. So at Marcel Reed's best, I got high confidence. He can get the job done. How often do I get his best? I don't need his best. How often do I get dependable? Pretty good Marcel Reed. This is a well built team. It's a well constructed roster. It's a good receiver room. He doesn't have to do it all by himself. They promoted from within at offensive coordinator. Let's see how it pans out. I don't know where to peg Marcel Reed. So that's a. That's a look around the quarterback position, confidence wise. In the sec, I would look around the pate state store. I've got pretty high confidence that there's something in there that you would like. So I would go very high confidence on pacestatematerial.com now, Jesse tells me that there is no question in the inbox that specifically asked about the paid state store. But that doesn't mean I can't give an answer. Chances are, knowing how big our audience is, somewhere someone out there is driving around. I wonder how confident he is about those shirts over there, those hats over there. I'm very confident. Paintstatematerial.com make your spring perch eye plural, of purchase today.
- [25:59]
Jacob Goldstein
Ugh.
- [25:59]
Josh Pate
Could this vintage store be any cuter?
- [26:02]
Podcast Host/Analyst
Right.
- [26:02]
Josh Pate
And the best part, they accept Discover. Except Discover in a little place like this? I don't think so, Jennifer. Oh, yeah, huh? Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on, baby. Get with the times. Right. So we shouldn't get the parachute pants. These are making a comeback, I think.
- [26:22]
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- [27:29]
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- [28:30]
Jacob Goldstein
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- [29:05]
Podcast Host/Analyst
Speaking of spring More and more teams opening up Spring Ball. Penn State has started, per Jesse, and the offense is littered with injury. I want to see all kinds of names, specifically at quarterback, and I'm not getting what I want. Rocco Becht, obviously recovering from surgery, so he's just doing individual stuff. Probably getting some good reps on the bike over there and whatnot, working with the rubber bands. He'll be ready by fall, but I'd love him to be ready now. But that's okay. We'll just get reps for the backup, Alex Mansky. No, we won't. No, we won't, because he's out, too. So outside of that, at least I can watch the receivers get some work. No, I can't. Two of their top guys are out, so we probably got to check it down to the tight ends. But two of their top tight ends are out. Let's take a look at the offensive line, Jesse. What's that? You tell me. The top offensive tackle is out. Okay. Well, we're still going to go through with spring ball up there. Matt Campbell talking about rotations on the offensive line. Probably as many as 10 guys competing for those five starting spots. All right. The pronunciation, Jesse, hit me with it. We practice this. Hit me with it. Yvonne Kamagiu. I have the name written down and circled. So it is true that we have his name circled. It is true that he's an edge player. It is true that while Chaz Coleman got a lot of the headlines, deservedly so, last year, this guy was very, very quietly forming into what some around the building believe could be a future all Big Ten caliber player, three down guy. Okay. Not a liability against the run. At least it doesn't feel like that. So that's just a name. If you want to be keeping an eye and scanning the Big Ten landscape of spring practice, we're circling that name. I wanted to go to LSU for just a second. So Sam Levitt, we just talked about him a second ago. He's transferring in and he was recovering from injury and there was some thought when he first got there that, oh, he's probably going to have to take it easy and spring ball and we may get to see some of him. And that doesn't feel like it's going to be the case. I was looking at some of Shay Dixon's reporting. The esteemed Shay Dixon covering LSU spring ball. Sam Levitt is pretty, pretty much good to go. So if that's the case and we haven't been told otherwise, then that's good. That's refreshing. Wish we had that everywhere. Jordan Seaton the transfer from Colorado looks locked in at left tackle. That's not a surprise. I don't think you invest that kind of money and then say, all right, bud, battle it out with three other folks. That's just the way of the college football world nowadays. Transfers at both offensive guard spots, that was pretty much to be expected. Richard Anderson is a name I don't need to explain to many Louisiana folks. But if you live in, oh, I don't know. Kearney, Nebraska, you probably don't know a whole lot about Richard Anderson. Six three, about 345 star true freshman defensive tackle. This is a guy who, around the state of Louisiana, they've made like, general or generational comparisons to a lot of names. Like if you. I always use Thibodeau. It's my favorite town in Louisiana. If you live in Thibodeau and you really, really love high school ball down there, maybe you're all the way like in Monroe or up in Shreveport, which they consider another state. But you know, some of the legendary names from around that state, from decades gone by, they've thrown Richard Anderson's name around in those conversations. Now, he hasn't done anything in college yet, but when I tell you that early in spring ball a true freshman is running with the ones at defensive tackle, it should always grab your attention because you know the body type that it takes to do that. He's got that body type, so that is something to keep an eye on. First off, just, is he there week one against Clemson, and then with any true freshman at any position, specifically along the offensive or defensive lines, are they there week 11, week 12, can they go the distance? Malik Blockton is another name that probably would get less headlines. That's a guy we talked about the moment he transferred from Auburn as this next wave of several layers of the LSU portal class. Blockton is a guy that, if he's healthy, has immense potential at defensive tackle. It's just for whatever reason, and there are a few guys in LSU's class like this, they haven't fulfilled on that for whatever varying degrees of reasons. He's another guy that, again, is. There's so much variance here. Could on the high end make LSU's front really, really high level. And they lost a lot on the front. But this is one of those situations where because of the names, because of the talent, because of the potential you do run the possibility of having very little returning production and yet the unit upgrades. And if American hero Blake Baker, defensive coordinator at lsu, gets that and he's got that cornerback room that he's got, they can win games defensively if they need to buy time at the beginning of the year. Notre Dame I said boldly a few weeks ago that if there was a sneaky contender for one of the top wide receiver rooms in the country, it would be Notre Dame. Immediately someone took to the Internet, the old World Wide Web, and claimed that I said Notre Dame had the best receiver room in the country. I don't even know why I bother anymore. I didn't say that. I said they're a sneaky contender. If you want a dark horse for it. They are still a dark horse. We are still watching. We are monitoring closely the Notre Dame wide receiver room. Jaden Greathouse, dealing with a hamstring issue. So we are not getting to experience him fully in the spring. Also, I just. This, this may be nothing. I haven't heard a whole lot about that unit. Not good, not bad. Just haven't heard a whole lot so far. Make of that what you will. What I want is, I want every other person who's covering Notre Dame, every other sentence to be whispering about the wide receiver room. Boy, this is about to be a surprise for the rest of the country. No one's used to this. They're used to us running the ball. They're used to offensive line play. Well, now we're going to, we're going to bust a couple of thousand yard receivers on them and voila, we're in the national championship game again. Anthony Knapp, left tackle last two years kicking to guard There is a high belief amongst Notre Dame circles that Will Black, who was a five star in last year's recruiting cycle per on three per rivals will be the left tackle there. They're really, really high on him. I don't want to do the comparison game because it's not fair to young William. But they're making some pretty lofty comparisons, the folks who cover Notre Dame for a living. If that offensive line is not the strength of this team, it's going to be linebacker. I think that's going to end up being the best linebacker room in the country. And then where else would we go? We go to Morgantown, West Virginia last year. Rich Rod takes the job at West Virginia a year ago and the roster stuff was insane. They added 80 new kids total last year. When you combine portal and recruiting class, right? And we thought it was wild. Cause it is. But they were number 62 in portal rankings per on 3 and they were number 48 in recruiting ranking per rival. So fast forward a year. What if I told you that that Rich Rodriguez and West Virginia have again added 80 kids? It's a new football team. They basically imported a new football team two years in a row. However, this time around, different caliber athlete, different class of cat. As meemaw would say, number 20 overall portal class, number 20 overall recruiting class. So on paper it looks the same but it's not the same numerically. It's the same ratings wise caliber of player. It's not the same at quarterback. Got a battle up there. Michael Hawkins. Remember that? He was a name that you briefly saw. You've seen him play at Oklahoma a time or two. He transferred. Scotty Fox is there and I'll tell you those aren't the names I'm focused on. I know quarterback battles get most of the attention. Cam Cook is a name that's very interesting to me. He comes there from Jacksonville State. He was a 1600 yard rusher last year, over 1600 yards. And I know people, for whatever reason, when they think Rich Rodriguez, they think West Virginia. You tend to think like a generation ago, pinball offense. They're going to run the ball this year. I don't know that FanDuel wants to extend us an over under rushing statistics number on West Virginia. That would be a little dangerous this time of year. This is the kind of situation where I would blindly bet the over. We never encourage that. Not smart. But there's just a few times where I have such a good feeling about something that I'll just blindly bet the over on something or the under. And Southern Conference basketball first half totals back in the day. That was one of them. The other one is West Virginia rushing number over this year. Feel good about it. Nose itches. Let's move on.
- [38:47]
Josh Pate
Who?
- [38:47]
Podcast Host/Analyst
We've been busy so the past couple of days. We were in Gainesville, Florida two days ago for the Speaker Series with John Summerall. We were in Coral Gables yesterday. Sat down with Mario Cristobal. Love making that swing through Florida any time of year, but especially this time of year. Did you know in Miami yesterday it was in the low 80s with dewpoints in the 50s. Just insane. The iguanas aren't even out yet. It's a very, very special time down there. And no complaints about the weather in Gainesville either. Let me start with Florida because we were there before we were at Miami. The energy level at Florida. I know this sounds anecdotal. I know everyone says this stuff, so I'm not saying this is going to correlate to wins. They may go 4 and 8 this year, they may go 9 and 3. All I'm saying is I've been around Florida for several years, so I was there several years when Billy was there. I've seen some raw at Tulane and now I saw him practice a little bit yesterday. Dude, it's so noticeable, the level up of energy there. And I always am fascinated by that because I get to go to a lot of places. But like, I always think about it like this. If you're at a place, you're just there every day. So you actually don't get to compare your environment to other environments a whole lot. You get new staffers that come in and they'll tell you how your place compares to places they've been. Players may transfer in and they say that, but you yourself don't get to experience it. So in a weird sort of way, I kind of have a really good read on that. Man, there's a lot of juice down there right now. Now, that's to be expected because everything's new. Hadn't lost a game yet. Everything's new. I feel really good about what we've been saying on this show about the wide receiver position at Florida. Feel really good about that. I think they feel really good about that room. You know, talked to a lot of new additions there. Dave Caldwell, for example, came in as the general manager. Nick Polk, still down there, they've really, really overhauled their front office approach. Not on the high school recruiting side. I'll play a sound for that in a second. They didn't need to do a whole lot on the high school recruiting side, but the portal side and understanding how that works. And it's still kind of a work in progress monetarily, but I think they'll get there and kind of, if Florida is ever rolling, they don't have to pay top dollar for kids. You get a discount. You can get 70 cents on the dollar for a portal kid because truth be told, a lot of guys want to play in Florida, at Florida, so that'll be a work in progress. But, man, there's some really, really good people in the personnel department down there. But the people in the building, period. You remember when Billy was there and for two years he was on the hot seat the last two years he was there. So we go down there at least once every year, sometimes multiple times every year. And I'd always come back. And I wouldn't deny there's pressure there. I wouldn't deny Napier's on the hot seat. I don't think it's Unfair to have the expectation level Florida fans have. But I always said whatever happens there, it's not going to be because they don't have the right people in the building. And it's not going to be because the infrastructure is not in place because Florida is elite and elite in both of those categories. And when he got fired, I came on the show and I said, whoever gets that job, I know the instinct is to wipe the slate clean and just flush the entire thing and start from scratch. That is not what you should do at Florida. Florida is a very unique example of maybe head coach didn't get the job done for whatever number of circumstances, but there are a lot of things that work there. Okay, so Sumrall gets the job and fast forward a few months. We're down there and I'm walking around and I see Jake Sinkel, who was the nutrition guy in the lash regime. Oh, he's still there. Skylar Wise walks up at practice. Katie Decker Turner, who is pregnant right now, is about to have a child, but she's still in the building. Bri Wade is still in the building, working a little more on another side of the fence there, but still in the building. And I look around and I say, whoa, I notice a lot of these people. So I asked Summerall about it when we sat down with him on the speaker series. I'll have Bradley play a clip in just a second. This full video is really good. We do these where if you're a Florida fan, of course you want to see this. But if you're a Washington fan, the way we do these sit downs is where this would be of interest to you if you're just a college football fan. Anyway, here's John Sumrall talking about what was already in place once he got to Florida. The results on the field weren't always there, but I remember always, every time I would leave here I would say they got so it feels like they got so many of the right people in the building. So then when the coaching transition happened, I didn't know you were going to get the job necessarily, but whoever was going to get the job, I was really curious how many of the off field, off camera support staff types is that person going to retain? And so you came in and I've seen a number of the faces around here that I saw the last couple of years. How much of what you saw here, whether it be administratively or facilities, whatever, did you walk in and say, I like this fine, there's no reason to
- [43:46]
John Sumrall
change this a significant amount. I think the Most important thing you do is you evaluate and you listen. It's not talk. I wanted to hear from some of the players. I met with the leaders here, and I met with several of them one on one. And I said, hey, give me a couple things that you've liked that have been going on here and going back to drawing upon past experiences. When I walked in at Troy and they had only won five games a year for three straight years, I kept half the staff and we flipped it fast. Well, were there some things here that I felt like needed to be recalibrated and adjusted? Yes. Were there a lot of things going right here that I think could create some synergy and help us have success also? Yes. Jake Senkel works in nutrition here. Jake's an absolute rock star. I didn't hire Jake Sinkel. He was here. Jake is a strength coach by trade who went back and became a nutritionist. So we have a head nutrition guy who also is a strength coach.
- [44:49]
Podcast Host/Analyst
This dude's like talking to an astronaut, basically.
- [44:50]
John Sumrall
He is pretty crazy. He's a rock star. And so when I got to meet with him and learn who he was and what he was about, I'm like, all right, you're not allowed to leave. Like, you gotta stay. There were a ton of examples like that in recruiting. I think our high school recruiting side here had been run at a really high level. I think we needed to change some things maybe on the other side the portal and be a little bit more aggressive in certain areas to flip this thing quicker. But there were a lot of people in house already here that, that I felt like, man, they may fit.
- [45:26]
Podcast Host/Analyst
They doubted me. Jesse, I told y', all, I'm not just saying it to say it. There are a lot of high level people down there. There's a lot of high level infrastructure down there. They didn't win with it. There's no guarantee that Summer all will win with it. But just like I said with the previous regime, if they lose, it won't be because they lacked in those departments. By the way, as Bradley is showing you there, Florida's over Under win Total 7 1/2 this upcoming year. So then we're off to Miami. Got in at a reasonable hour and hit the sack and then got over for a walk through the next morning over at Miami. Look, here's one very quick observation I'll give you. I'm gonna play you some sound in a second. I'm gonna say something, but I'm gonna say what I'm not saying. I have to do This a lot. Miami leans into advancement. Miami leans into technology, analytics. They do all that. They've got the same systems and processes that a lot of programs have with their own spin on it. So I'm not saying they don't lean into that. What I am saying is being around a lot of places on the whole, Miami has about as old school a philosophical approach to this game, to this sport as any of the major programs out there. And I think probably you saw that bear itself out in just the way they played last year, specifically last few games of the season. That's all rooted in the fundamental belief system that they have. There's really no secret formula or magic ingredients or anything like that. It's just really, really violent at practice. I got in trouble on the show last year because I said that. I got in trouble in the comments because I went down there. We'll go down there a few times a year. We'll go to practice. Practice is just a bloodbath at Miami. Tuesdays and Wednesdays specifically, maybe not in spring as much on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as one of those days is not going to be a practice day. But the point I made was they look different than any team in the country. A lot of folks took exception to that. They thought I was carrying water. Specifically Ohio State folks thought that, and I wasn't because I had never. I had not said that before this past year, specifically because Miami hadn't looked like they looked last year until last year. And so I said it and I meant it ironically. Those two teams met up in the playoffs, and physically, you saw what happened. Now it's up to Ohio State to answer the bell this upcoming year. But you think to yourself, boy, man, I wonder what they're doing down there. The same stuff you would have done in 1984. In a lot of cases, they kind of lean into that more than, I think, some other places where maybe there's a little overthinking of the room or, you know, maybe. Maybe you're a little nervous to still live that way. They're not just kind of punches you in the face when you're in the building. But I wanted to specifically talk to them, Mario included. I'll show you in a second about why last year was different. So you remember there were a couple of years where Miami's gotten off to fast starts before. Two years ago they go and they beat the brakes off Florida to start the year. Everyone feels like they're off to the races. And then it fell flat. And last year they start Strong. They beat Notre Dame early in the year, week one. But then you lose a game, then you lose that other game to smu and you kind of wonder, oh, boy. And that's how I felt in the moment. Now we know how it turned out. I wanted to know why. Here's a little bit of Mario from yesterday. To an extent, the last couple of years was no problem starting fast as a team. But then there was this point a couple of times in the season where you feel. I don't know, it feels a little off. I. I'd watch you, and, man, that looked like what it looked like in week one or week two. And last year there was this point, I was at the game, I was at the SMU game, and it doesn't go your way, and you're wondering, is
- [49:20]
Public Investing Advertiser
that about to happen again?
- [49:21]
Podcast Host/Analyst
Is that in the process of happening again? And then you end up playing, boom, boom, boom, boom. Your best ball four weeks in a row. I'm on the outside looking in, wondering, what changed? What's the difference? So what changed? Why are you able to do that last year?
- [49:35]
Mario Cristobal
Oh, I mean, I think that need. That team meeting after the SMU game really kind of changed things. We just weren't playing like we play. We were playing hard. Our effort, our care factor, everything was through the roof, but we weren't. It didn't look like us. And so, you know, when we met and talked about those specific things, all we did was take those first five weeks and clipped out us playing Miami football. Physical, violent, tough, relentless finishing plays. Just cut the lights and let it roll. And in dead silence, we watched 10 minutes of Miami playing Miami football. And by the time the lights cut back on, I mean, those. Everybody's eyes were this big. Everybody's. You could feel the intensity in the room. It's like we. It's not remembering who we are, it's realizing who the heck we are and going out and making sure that on the daily that that showed up in practice, every ounce of the standard. And so that led to a. Just a series of high level, physical, relentless play, particularly at the line of scrimmage. But also the dog mentality of our skill guys, their physicality, that was. All that stuff was contagious. And I think that combination led to ourselves going on our way.
- [50:54]
Podcast Host/Analyst
Yeah, just kind of being around them, checking them out. They've got everything they need to be as good as they were last year or better than they were last year. And yet there's also the potential to fall off if stuff doesn't Pan out. So a lot of unfinished nature about that team, maybe a lot of rawness about that team. They got some really, really good players there. There's some places where there's going to be attrition, and I think the general public will probably expect a fall off for obvious reasons, where there. There could be some surprises. So that's up to them. But I think that yesterday, one of the things that stood out the most, there's just random stuff you see when you're walking around buildings. When you play in the Cotton bowl, the Goodyear Cotton bowl, and you win it like they did over Ohio State last year, the fine folks at Goodyear, unbeknownst to me, tear up a bunch of Goodyear tires and they offer to build your mascot out of Goodyear tires, thus recycling. And Miami did that and then asked, or they did it for Miami. And they said, do you want this? And not only did they take it, Cristobal just put it outside his office door. It's got that great rubber mascot smell, like you want. Look at that thing just sitting outside his door. And it doesn't sit there as this prop that never gets used. They take pictures with that thing. People fight over being able to take it home. Some say there are certain members of the staff that are able to hide inside the Goodyear rubber mascot there. I also want to give a great big shout out to the fine folks at Shadow Wagyu, Big Al in particular, because if I'm left to my own devices, I just eat the same three or four meals on the road, mostly from chain restaurants, everywhere I go. It is a sad, sad state of affairs. Even after my food poisoning mishap in Jacksonville a couple of years ago, I still fall victim to it. But when I go to Miami, Cam Gorby will not let it happen. He will not let a wayward soul like myself fall through the cracks. And so he'll make sure we wrap up early, he'll make sure we have some time on the schedule. We go to Shadow Wagyu yesterday. Unbelievable. I don't think I've eaten since then. Still kind of full, too. There's room for about 14, 15 people in there, so don't, don't you all go at once. But wow. That's all I can say. Wow. That's my Yelp review for Shadow Wagyu. Not that they need it. Wow, those were really good trips. Both of those sit downs are available right now on the channel or the podcast feed? Mitch? Yeah, yeah, they're both in the podcast feed. So those are really, really good. And like I said, you may not be a Florida fan or a Miami fan. Maybe you hate Florida and or Miami. This is stuff that we shape to be interesting to college football fans in general. In fact, there's a lot of questioning about stuff that pertains to matters beyond just those programs.
- [53:50]
Josh Pate
Oh, could this vintage store be any cuter? Right? And the best part? They accept Discover. Accept Discovery in a little place like this? I don't think so. Jennifer. Oh yeah, huh? Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on baby, get with the times. Right? So we shouldn't get the parachute pants. These are making a comeback, I think.
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Josh Pate
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- [56:27]
Podcast Host/Analyst
I know I say this about a lot of things that really may be my favorite thing that we do outside of actually going to games. They're watching us in Reading, Pennsylvania, Montgomery, Alabama and Henderson, Nevada. Thank you so much. It is time for some chaos. We had a chaos scenario that floated around the office today and I said, should I. You know what? Yes I should. I should put this on the show tonight. We threw one out the other night. It got good reviews. How's this one for a little chaos this upcoming year? So Texas enters the season with the third best odds to win the national title. Oklahoma enters the season with the 13th best odds to win the national title. Stands to reason, hey, that means they'll both be top 15, maybe top 10 caliber teams, whomst amongst us knows. But at the very least there are high expectations for both of them. Now of course, you know they play every year in the Red River Shootout, known by no other name on this show. You got returning Heisman caliber quarterbacks here in the mix. That's not chaotic. Josh was chaotic about that. Aha. I've got the chaos scenario right here. Not that this is fortune telling, we don't believe in that sort of thing around here. But it's not outside the realm of possibility that the Red River Shootout on what did we say, October 10th, it's not out of the realm of possibility if you want chaos that the Red River Shootout could be a playoff elimination game this year. What? How? Yeah, yeah, it's chaotic. I know. Well, here's how it would happen in theory because I'm happy in spring to play the glass half full, three quarters full. I'm happy to play nice. Some even say that's my reputation this time of year. I don't like being negative this time of year. I don't like throwing people under the bus and predicting 3 and 9. So if you guys want to believe at Texas that despite the fact that you were bottom half of the country and pressure rate allowed last year and you didn't run it well past defense was very, very poor. If you want to believe you got all that fixed Then none of it will be an issue this year. I'm okay going along with that. I'm just saying there's a possibility it's not all fixed. Okay. It's at least a possibility. More on that in a second. And as Oklahoma folks snicker. Shut up. Respectfully. Because I also want to remind you, you couldn't run the ball to save your life last year. You were 113th in the country in rushing offense. Bama was horrific running the ball. And you guys were so bad, you let them come in your building and beat you in a playoff game. Last year. That's how bad it was. What if it's not improved? If either or both those weakness profiles, those vulnerability profiles aren't shored up, then we have to take a look at the schedule. And the schedule tells me that paper pop. Ohio State comes to Austin in week two. Texas goes to Knoxville in week four. These are games before they play Oklahoma. Oklahoma gotta go to Ann Arbor in week two. Gotta go to Athens in week four. They will be point spread underdogs in both of those games. Right now I know that because FanDuel is already showing me that they're a two and a half point dog at Michigan. Did I have that right, Jesse? I think I did. Both of those games, by the way, have two and a half point lines. I think it was Texas minus two and a half right now against Ohio State. And I think it was Michigan minus two and a half against ou. Thank you, Jesse. So is it likely that they go a combined 0 and 4 in these games? No, it is not. But this is an evil or it's an ugly. It's a dirty. It's a chaotic world sometimes. So all I'm saying is it could happen. And if it did happen, even for one of you, this game ends up serving as a de facto playoff elimination game. And I don't even want to talk about what would happen for who loses. You know what? Yes, I do. For Brent Venables, this would be a very bad deal. Okay. For Brent Venables, this is his fifth year at Oklahoma and I don't know what the final record would be, but here's what it would sound like. Six and seven to ten and three to six and seven to ten and three to. Already three losses by mid October and counting. So it would look like the roller coaster ride under Brent Venables has continued down year. Up year and down year, up year en route to another down year. But that's still not as bad as it would be for Sark. Because if this is an all in year for Texas, and it is, if this is a year where it's sort of the national title or bust attitude, I'm not necessarily sure that means you literally have to win a title or it's a bust. But you get what I'm saying when I say that if it is one of those years and it is and it should be, and that's a fair expectation for a Texas fan and you got three losses by the third week of October, if there's still pumpkins in people's yards and you've already got three losses, we can't have that. We won't have that. In fact, I am refuting that this was even put in the ship. Shame on you, Jesse. Shame on you for suggesting this. Steve Sarkeesian is not going to let this happen. I don't think Brent Venables is going to let it happen. But I doubly especially know that both guys are not going to let it happen. They're both friends of the program. They are both speaker series alums. Could be again, we'll see. I don't like to give away spoilers for the Speaker Series dates, but surely this is not going to happen, right? These are top 15 teams, Jesse. Surely this is not going to. No, no. Waste of time. No, no, no, no, no. That may have been a lie, but we will tell the truth in this next portion of the program tonight. Bradley, here's a good endpoint for you. We do something in spring called the Truth Teller Series. You know what, ideally we just tell the truth the entire year, but we especially like to tell the truth in the spring and we like to pick a topic or a person or a team or whatnot every single night. And tonight it is James Franklin's turn to have the truth told about him. I think the truth about James Franklin is boring. I did not say I think James Franklin is boring. I said the truth about him. And the truth is just that he's a really good coach. That's it. That's the truth. No, it's not. That's not nearly the end of the story. You know, it's not. But to me it is. To me. If my sister, who is not exactly the most die hard Penn State viewer in the world, doesn't know a whole lot about Virginia Tech, don't think she checked him out at Vandy back in the day. If she were to see James Franklin's picture and say who's that? I said football coach. And she said describe him for me. What's the truth about that guy. I'd say he's a good football coach. That's it. Now, she wouldn't push back and say that he's 4 and 21 against AP top 10 teams, I don't think. But if she did push back and say that, I'd say, oh, I didn't say he's great. I didn't say he's elite. Yeah, yeah, he's dropped several big games. Sure he has. He's also won every other game up until about five minutes ago that he was supposed to win. That's what made him a really good coach. Here's the problem, sis. They went all in last year and they busted. They strategically, in a very cerebral nature, decided we got all of our returning production here. We got Drew Ahler here. We got a really highly paid coaching staff. This is the year we've been building towards. This is the year that we're better than just really good. This is our shot. And we're coming off recently being in the semifinals of the playoff. So we tasted it. We knocked on the door. Now we're going to kick the door in and we're not going to be bashful about it. Remember, I mean, they, they leaned into it. James Franklin was not shy about talking about their potential. He was not shy about talking about their goals. The problem is when they lost to Oregon, that that tire got wobbly and then he just fell off at UCLA and then the rest of them fell off against Northwestern and the entire thing went up in smoke. And that was the end of the James Franklin tenure at Penn State. More on what happened afterwards in a second. But to me, still, that doesn't take away what I said. I just think he's a really good coach. He's a really good coach that went championship or bust and busted. That's what he did. Okay. If James Franklin were to have made the goal of last year to be a good, solid 10 win team, and that was the universal expectation in the building, they probably would have ended up going 10 and 2. I don't blame them for trying to aim for greatness. That's just when you, when you lunge for the belt and you miss it, you fall to the canvas. They fell to the canvas. Speaking of canvas, as boring as my truth is, producer Jesse walked in earlier today and he pulled up, what was it? An entire notes document. There were a lot of paragraphs. I said, jesse, we don't have room for that in the show. He said, all right, well, let me boil it down for you. James Franklin is Shelton Benjamin. And I said, former All American wrestler Shelton Benjamin. He said, yeah, well, not the all American version. Not the amateur wrestler. No, no, no, no. The former intercontinental champion. I love Shelton Benjamin. I didn't ever think he got enough run. But anyway, for those of you who don't watch pro wrestling, Shelton Benjamin was a guy who was an amateur wrestler. Was he from Minnesota, Jesse? So he and Brock Lesnar both wrestled at Minnesota. Then they. Since there really is no, like, pro amateur wrestling, because those are oxymorons, but also because there really is no big leagues to go to. A lot of guys just become pro wrestlers. They become sports entertainers. You know, Kurt Angle did as well. Won the Olympic gold medal with a broken freaking neck. So anyway, Shelton Benjamin does the same thing. Shelton Benjamin becomes a pro wrestler. Had one of the greatest main event matches on Monday Night Raw in history with Shawn Michaels. Because everyone has their best match with Shawn Michaels. I digress. Shelton Benjamin became famous for getting close, but never getting to the top. Or as Jesse put it, the perennial intercontinental champ. That can't elevate to the main event level. And that is how Jesse described, metaphorically, James Franklin. That's how you explain 4 and 21 versus AP top 10 teams. He is Shelton Benjamin. And the people wanted Steve Austin. The people of State College wanted Steve Austin. It's okay to want Steve Austin. It's hard to get them. There aren't a lot of those out there, Jesse. There aren't a lot. So anyway, I had my feelings like everyone else did about the way the James Franklin thing went down at Penn State. Here is what I think will end up being the wildest part of all of this. Somehow, in some twisted way that only college football could provide, I think five years from now, who knows, maybe five months from now, we look back and say everyone figured out a way to win in this situation. Penn State won despite their best efforts. Penn State won because they tripped backwards into hiring Matt Campbell. And they upgraded themselves. And then Virginia Tech gets the earliest and in some ways latest Christmas present, I guess depending on where you're on the calendar that they could ever get in Blacksburg. They massively upgrade their situation. James Franklin, a guy who was knocking on the door of the national championship game less than a calendar a year earlier, is now our head coach with no scandal in tow. There's no external factors. He just got fired. That's it. That's. Yeah, we'll take him. And then James Franklin. James Franklin gets told he's not good enough. James Franklin gets Fired. And then James Franklin gets a chance to restart his clock at a place that's going to be very overly appreciative of having him in the building. You could look up and say, you know what? Everyone's better off for this. That's a rare commodity in life and it's a very rare commodity in sports. The win, win, win. In that situation, we all win. I still think that last year, all right, the way it turned out,
- [69:03]
John Sumrall
it
- [69:03]
Podcast Host/Analyst
kind of creates a fog around recent history. Alright, so it wasn't but about a decade and a half ago, Penn State is mired in scandal. And there are people saying Penn State football will never be the same. Penn State athletics will never recover. No one talks that way anymore. It's been a long time. If you're 18 years old watching the show, there is a chance you don't even know what I'm talking about. It could have been the exact opposite. If James Franklin's not there and somebody else takes the job and they fumble it, and then someone else takes the job and they fumble it. Think Tennessee football, think Florida football for a long time. And Penn State just keeps slipping further down the slope and they never recover. We could be sitting here in 2025 saying, you know, they really never recovered from the Sandusky stuff. They never recovered from it. And instead no one even talks about it. And you know why? James Franklin's why. So the further removed you get, especially if he wins at Virginia Tech and there are no grudges held, the further down the road we get, I think the more he'll be remembered that way instead of right now where it's still fresh and it's still a little bit raw. But to me, that's the truth about James Franklin. In a way. It's really boring if you think the way I think, or it's really spicy if you compare him to a former Intercontinental champ. Vanduul has over under win totals for Penn State or anyone else. You can go bet the futures right now. If you think Penn State's going to win the conference, you can go bet odds on week one games. Now, Jesse, you guys don't play anyone out of conference this year, so they probably don't have the Penn State Week 1 game on the board. Who knows, Maybe they do. You can bet Heisman odds right now. You can bet a number of things. Look, technically it's basketball season. After my showing on Papa shot Out in the out in the newsroom earlier today, basketball is dead to me as a sport. I am retiring from basketball and I am retiring from talking about basketball. But you know what, some of you like it and if you do, you can go to FanDuel right now. And they got odds on good old fashioned NBA and college basketball games up as well. But it is the exclusive odds provider of the show. All right, lastly, before we get out of here tonight, the mood tracker continues. And the mood tracker on this show tonight is headed to Clemson, South Carolina. What is the mood tracker? You ask if you're new around here. That's just where we try and explain, try and guess, an educated guess how the fan base is feeling. And this one's really interesting because it's Clemson and it's a place that this time a decade ago, they were 1A right there with Alabama as the premier program in college football. Dabo Swinney was 1A. He was right there alongside Nick Sam. He was figuring out a way to beat him in a national title game 10 years ago. And then eight years ago, he did it again. Side note, Dabo Swinney, very, very strong argument for him to be the number two head coach in college football this millennium. There's an argument to be made there for that. Solid argument. So a decade ago, there is no problem at Clemson. They are rolling, they are a rocket ship. But we're not talking about the mood a decade ago. The mood at Clemson right now, I think is sort of a last stand mood. No one wants it to be that way. No one's wanting to criticize Dabo Swinney. If you're a Clemson fan, you just want to pull the nose up, you know, you want to be back to the way it used to be. A lot of people saying that about a lot of things in college football right now. But the failure to launch in 2025, I think was the backbreaker for many Clemson fans believing it'll ever get back to the way it was. Now some, some of the more jaded portions of the fan base, maybe you had already tapped out a little bit and you said, I immensely appreciate Dabo for what he did. You know what, our time came and went and we'll never be bad under Dabo, but we're not going to be elite again. There were some of you who said that last year. Most of you didn't. Most of you looked at the 2025 team, especially coming off a playoff appearance, and you said, all right, now this right here is a very experienced team. This right here is a really good coaching staff. So we thought we got Garrett Riley again. So we thought we got Garrett Riley we got Cade Klubnick, multiple years together, OC quarterback. And this defense has NFL caliber players at all three levels. I don't know how many times we said that last summer. And you know what? We weren't wrong. This is the year that we'll get the job done. And then you didn't and you went seven and six. And at that point I think not just the jaded portion of the crowd, but a majority of the crowd kind of said that. That. All right, that settles it. Because we haven't recruited top 15 caliber classes here lately. We've dipped our toe into the portal and all the players are probably getting hurt, but we only recently have dipped our toe into the portal. We're never going to be what Miami is in the portal or LSU is in the portal. The roster is not going to be what it used to be. So how are the results going to be what they used to be? I think a lot of Clemson fans feel that way. They'd be happy to be proven wrong. Me too. I'm not pulling against Clemson. I'm not pulling against Dabo Swinney. I always leave room for an in season surprise. There are times where you have high expectations for a team and they don't fulfill on them and then you by default doubt them the next year and. And then that's the year that they pop a surprise on you. It could happen. Yeah, I don't see it. Their over under win total is seven and a half coming into this year. Which begged the question earlier today when we were putting the show together. Well, what if they win eight games? What if Clemson goes eight and four so they. Let's, let's just. Bradley, do me a favor. Throw Clemson schedule up if you have it right quick because I would look at this and so lsu, Miami, let's take Virginia Tech and I don't know, Georgia Tech. Let's say they lose those four games and win the rest of them. That's just a bunch of wins over North Carolina, Cal, fsu, Syracuse, Duke, South Carolina at the end of the year maybe make South Carolina one of the losses so it ends poorly. Is that a successful season? Have we really gotten to the point where the over could hit for the Clemson win total and people still be disappointed to the point where they want change? I think we have. But I will say this. You will. You will have to rip this opinion out of my cold dead hands. I have solidified my feel on Dabo Swinney. Like there, there's 95% of my opinion on Dabo is sealed. Immense lifetime respect for the guy. No matter what happens, they go 012 this year and my opinion on him this year would be bad. But my opinion on him overall is set. He is a first ballot hall of Fame. Whatever we do in college football, he's that forever for me. And I will also say this. As much as people want to talk about what he should do, as much as people want to talk about the changes he should make or if it's going downhill, people want to talk about the way that he should go out. He should retire, he should do this and he should do that. Tweeted the quote earlier Jesse, this was the context. It is so easy for people who haven't authored a single chapter of your book to tell you how the story should end. Meemaw it's gonna happen a lot with Dabbo. It already is. He'll point it out in press conferences. I wrestle with this. At what point do you deserve to go out on your own terms? Or does no one ever earn that right? There are varying schools of thought on this. Perhaps he goes 10 and 2 this year and it's a moot point. But I'm saying if it goes seven wins or six wins or something like that, and it could start off poorly because they are a double digit dog at LSU Week 1. If it starts off poorly, I think you'll just hear more of the same drum beat. I think the fan base mood. There's kind of it's a last stand moment here. That's okay. We got multiple conference titles, multiple national titles out of this. If this is it, then it was the most iconic run in the history of our program and one of the most iconic runs in the history of college football. They don't make many of those. That's our show. We appreciate it so much. Make sure you go check out the Summerall and Cristobal sit downs. We'll have a couple of more coming up next week. Can't tell you where quite yet, but I appreciate you guys so much. Make sure you're subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. For director Bradley producer Jesse I'm Josh Pate. Take care. Have a great start to your weekend and God bless.
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