
CFB Week 0 REACTION Big 12 Statement: Iowa State vs. Kansas State Numbers Don't Lie CFP Eliminators Victory Formation: Who Won the Weekend?
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Steve Gorman
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David Pollack
What's up, everybody? David Pollack here of C Ball Get Ball podcast. I hope you like it, man. Be sure to follow the show Wherever you subscribe, YouTube or any of your other platforms. Welcome, everybody in. I know the excitement level has now grown because everybody got to see real football. I did not. I'm going to be honest, Brent. To start the show, Brent Rollins joins me. As always, I'm David Pollock. I'm supposed to introduce him. I'm really bad at that, bad at introducing myself. That's not my strength. But we had real football and I made a comment last week about week zero, you made a comment about the weather. I'm like, first of all, what makes a man look up the weather? Why are you looking up the weather in a football game? That's weird. And just I'm not surprised because Brent's one of the most analytical people you'll ever meet in your life. Like, literally thinks about things in a perspective that most people don't, which makes it really unique. But I will say this. I was legitimately, I Was upset in the first half. Like, I was a little bit. I was perturbed because I waited all this time to get football and I was so excited and I was jacked up and I was ready to rock and roll. And I felt like it was really sloppy because the weather sucked.
Brent Rollins
Like, oh, it was.
David Pollack
I was not excited to start the game. I'm not gonna lie.
Brent Rollins
No, it was. I mean, and I could see the frustrations there. But it's one of the things where never. I'm never going to take football for granted. Seeing actual football, that counts and that matters. Like, never going to take it for granted. Especially when you think about how the day started. So you're talking about the weather, which, by the way, I thought was hilarious.
David Pollack
That. Oh, I'm sure you did.
Brent Rollins
It becomes a thing. Weatherman at the beginning, but. And then you end the day in, like, sunny and the most perfect weather on the planet in Hawaii.
David Pollack
Oh, yeah.
Brent Rollins
So like that. That's just a perfect encapsulation of week zero football. But hey, no matter what, Iowa State should feel really good about themselves as they travel back. First.
David Pollack
First thing I was. I was ticked off. I'm like, all right, why are these good teams playing these conference games on the road with very little atmosphere and terrible weather? Like, that's my first thought. But it's the Big 12, so guess what happens? It delivers like always. It always finds a way to deliver. I think we learned a couple of things. Both sides were sloppy early. Like, both sides were, you know, f. A lot of fumbles, a lot of mistakes. The passing game was non existent for the first quarter. Brent, the left tackle, was the leading receiver for Kansas State, which I thought was absolutely comical because he was the only one who caught a football off of a batted pass. But. But to me, what did you think swung it and made the difference? Because there's. There's a couple things to me that really stuck out late in the game that. That I thought gave Iowa State the advantage over Kansas State and it's the reason they won.
Brent Rollins
Coach Donen always refers to this and he always says, hey, be like Socrates. Know thyself and Iowa State knows thyself. And we were talking all, you know, when we talked about them. How do you handle the loss of two high draft picks, like the highest draft picks of your entire school's history? Well, you played all kind. You play all kinds of tight ends, and you play them as many as possible on every snap. And in the biggest of moments, that's who you throw it to.
David Pollack
Yeah.
Brent Rollins
So well, that was a big thing for me.
David Pollack
That was good. And knowing thyself, obviously is critically important. I think those weapons will continue to develop. I think when the weather's better, will continue to develop. But. But here's the thing that impressed me. Iowa State ran the football. Iowa State was more physical on both lines of scrimmage. Iowa State was 3 for 3 on fourth down. 3 for 3. Like, that was the pivotal things when they needed to make plays. And late in the games, I don't. Late in the game, I don't know what analytics tells you up 3 in plus territory. Like going in, you kick a field goal and you make them go score seven to beat you. And you probably feel pretty good about that. But I was stating Matt Campbell like Nabra, that's not what we do. My best player is Rocco Beck. I'm going to give him the ball, put it in his hands, and he absolutely makes a play. On fourth down. Kansas State didn't make those plays. And I would love more than anything, Brent, if we had time to do, like to do breakdowns in here and just show people all the time, like the film, go look at Avery Johnson run the football on that fourth and short. He makes a couple of critical errors, man, he makes a cut and he balls up like, listen, this is late in the game. You're not a quarterback anymore. Like, you are a running back that needs to lower your shoulder, take all your momentum and keep falling forward. And if you watch, man, he slows his feet down, he kind of turns his shoulder. And that was a big part of this game because Iowa State gets the ball on their own. Kansas State went for it on their own 30. Something like, yep, own 30. Own 30. Like that's, that's a big deal. And they fail because I'm a firm believer he could have stuck that thing in there. Brenton could have been more physical and he would have got it. He absolutely would have got that first down. But they were 1 for 1 for 4 and Iowa State was 3 for 3. Like in critical moments in the big. When you needed a big play. Rocco Beck, Iowa State ran the football, were more physical, stopped the run better. And that. I feel like we're going back to little league football. But that's exactly what they did in the critical moments.
Brent Rollins
Let's, let's go back to the, the fourth down with. With Avery Johnson because I'm, I'm probably going to say it and not be nice about it, but the decision itself. So that decision eight night, I think it was 819 to go in the game on your own 34th and one, you're down 17 to 14. That was one where like, I'm normally a go for it all the time. That's probably one where I would have been just like, okay, let me try to play the field position game here a little bit at least. But the, the only way I've, I've looked at this and I rewatched the play a ton. The only thing that I can possibly think of is that he thought he already had the first down because of the way the screwed up field was and the no lines and because the paint was gone, which is weird.
David Pollack
It's different. It's a different look, man.
Brent Rollins
And I didn't see any comments from him. I didn't look to see if he had said, hey, I thought I got it, that I didn't think he got it. I. I don't. I mean, maybe, who knows? But in the end, no matter what it is, that was soft as Charmin. That was unreal. Like, that might. If you look at their team and you're just like the entirety of your team and the quarterback kind of does that and doesn't just. Doesn't just show the guts by the way that the other quarterback did the entire game. Yeah, that's just that. That's one.
David Pollack
The blocking was for them. The blocking was there. They did the math, which is really. But they tried to go up the middle early in the game and had very little success. They did a good job pulling guys using your quarterback in the run game. Your quarterback got to make that play like he's too good of a player, he's too good of an athlete to lose momentum and to ball up. But, but credit to, to Iowa State, like, it was sloppy. A bunch of turnovers. They had more fumbles, Iowa State in that game than they had all of last year. Like, literally more fumbles than all of last year because it was kind of sloppy. But here's what you found out if you watched football this week, which, welcome, you should be watching football. So now we know right now Iowa State's the best team in the country. Right? Right. I mean, can we all say that out loud?
Brent Rollins
Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
David Pollack
Okay. Iowa State, the most impressive win, the best team in the country. But let me tell you something. I also watched Kansas and I was just reminded about how good of a coach Leipold is. Like, yeah, so good, man. And I'm not saying Kansas is going to win the Big 12, but if you watched Kansas and I'm not saying they were tested by Fresno State, but we'll have something more in Fresno State later. But just the offensive design. Brent, you're an offensive play caller like you understand it, you understand the game. They're as good as anybody in the country, man at understanding how to use their guys, how to use pre snaps, motion shifts, post play. Guys going across the formation, just making your eyes go slanted and cross eyed like because they're going to make you think so much. And as much as I was impressed with Iowa State, which I was Kansas, Jalen Daniels there again, like that was a fun watch too, man.
Brent Rollins
88.7 overall PFF grades for Jalen Daniels. And the biggest thing watching them that my mind went to was especially with them in like the split back look where there was two running backs on either side of Daniels. It, it felt very rich Rod, like West Virginia with Pat White where that the cr. The sort of cross buck action, misdirection out the wazoo. Like that was so good. And if you do that and if he stays healthy, he stays healthy, they're a different team. And by the way, shout out to David Booth who you know, just dropped 300 million dollar check and you know they got the, they got the new stadium. The look like they like how excited packed it out fan base to see their team on their home field. That was a good opening win for them which you know in terms of the Big 12 is going to be one score galore. We know that already, but it's fun to see and fun, fun moment for Kansas. Fun.
David Pollack
I got to say this, Brent, and I hate saying this, I absolutely hate saying this. If game one was an indicator for Jalen Daniels, absolutely zero percent chance of making it through the season. And I don't take pride in saying that. And I'm not wishing injury on him. I'm just telling you the guy is exciting. He's one of the most exciting players in all of college football. He's got slipperiness, he's got wiggle. He can sling it, but he holds on to it to the last minute because he's tough. He takes shots because he's tough. We talked about another guy. We're not mentioning toughness with this guy. Like Jalen's been banged up throughout his career. He's, he's throwing slot fades down the field, but he's hanging on to the last second, getting destroyed by two guys and he's always dancing and moving and kind of looking around and he gets pulled down from behind a lot. And so I mean I saw the weapons though. High, Shaw, Williams, the guys that we talked about on this show, we talked about Emmanuel Henderson Jr. Who came from Alabama and gives him the first Bam guy. Like the first guy, first play they throw to him right now. They give him a now route because they're like, this dude can fly. So the offense is going to be exciting. It's going to be a roller coaster ride. It's going to be hard to stop. But man, Jalen has to protect himself, not take that many hits. If he does, it will be impossible to survive a season, man. Just he's not big and strong like some of those other guys. He's a smaller build, a little bit slighter. But you talk about exciting, man. Very few are as exciting as him.
Brent Rollins
Yeah, and we saw it at the end of last year. I mean they got on a run. They kept Colorado out of the, out of the Big 12 championship. They beat, what was it, BYU late. That they had everybody late. Yeah.
David Pollack
First unranked team to beat three ranked teams in a row. Right? Three or four ranked teams in a row.
Brent Rollins
So we saw that. I think one of the cool things about Kansas is the transfer portal in general. You see guys and granted this is one game. It's one game against Fresno State. It's not like the, you know, we're not talking like it's the greatest thing ever, but Lashawn Williams, who had I think 64 yards and a touchdown, was Iowa's leading rusher two years ago. Not like. So it's a name that you likely don't hear about a lot because he was hurt last year and then transferred. And then Bengali Kamara.
David Pollack
Well, and they had one of the best running backs in the country at Iowa too.
Brent Rollins
Right.
David Pollack
So.
Brent Rollins
Right. Like but it's. And then Kamara off the edge, you know, three QB pressures, strip sack, who was a four year guy at Pitt, goes to South Carolina and like, oh, they've got all kinds of dudes here and you know, new guys like Dylan Stewart, like I'm not going to play a lot and, and sort of put himself re in the portal after a few games in South Carolina and then becomes a force there and makes plays for Kansas.
David Pollack
So finding guys, defensive tackle, another guy.
Brent Rollins
That made a lot of plays, 97.
David Pollack
Like he was in there over and over again. So I mean I don't know how much they'll stop people consistently. And again watching Fresno's offensive line, we weren't putting together any clinic tapes. Like it was hard zone and Kansas just stunted and they literally ran things down left and right. But, but it was, it was an impressive debut for Rock Talk Jayhawk. You had to be impressed. Brett Taylor said. He just got here and the like button was smashed. We like that Brett Taylor, so thank you for, for smashing the like button like that.
Brent Rollins
Very much so. But you know, in terms of the Big 12, because obviously the days, those were the teams that played and that we got to watch actual football, like Iowa State, they're not very explosive. They're going to be every, every game they're going to be in to me, for the most part is going to, outside of maybe, you know, a few games they should take care of, like South Dakota next week. But I tr. Do you trust Rocco Beckt, trust Matt Campbell in those close games? Because they're going to be like, they're just not, not very explosive and specifically not yet. Like, the two transfer receivers didn't have a reception. Like the guys, the receivers that actually had receptions were guys they already had on the roster. So that's one thing. And then it's just, it's always going to be a coin flip because like Kansas State, from a yardage to per play perspective, they kind of outplayed them in a way, but didn't make the plays when it counted. And they're going to beat some teams, but they're also going to do some of the things that we saw this weekend. So it's, it's going to be, we've talked about it before. It's going to be an insanely fun league to watch. It's going to be one that, you know, week to week upsets are going to happen and somebody there. So. All right, the next thing that's on here.
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Scott Jackson
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Brent Rollins
To pause Is this numbers numbers piece.
David Pollack
Everybody hear that? By the way, did everybody hear Brent go hold on a minute, pause. So just for y', all, we want to be very clear and transparent here. We want to always tell that like that we're supposed to pause sometimes when they add in advertising. But. But we're not supposed to say Paul's Brent, but continue. I digress.
Brent Rollins
Yeah, should be talking here, not here.
David Pollack
That was fantastic. I love when people get to hear that behind the curtain. We're not trying to be well, well produced all the time. Okay. We're going to mess up. We promise.
Brent Rollins
And before we forget, by the way, speaking before we move on from the Big 12, we got to show that, that that's like you're. You were looking for helmets for, for the, for the wall there and Coach Dillingham delivered in a big way.
David Pollack
I mean here's the. Here's the bottom line.
Brent Rollins
Well, the fact that it fits you is even more amazing.
David Pollack
Here's the bottom line. Only one can be first. And we're going to put a bunch of helmets on this wall back Here behind us. And if you're me talking funny, it's because I got a chin strap on. We got the Arizona State lid on. Only one can be first, and they sent it to us first. And so we're gonna put all these behind us. The studio is a work in progress. We're gonna continue to add and then we'll have people here and do all that fun stuff and all that jazz. But Arizona State is first. They deserve to be first. They deserve props. Kenny Dillingham. Appreciate it. It's a good looking lid. It will be going on the wall. The Pat Tillman on the back is really awesome right there, the shout out. But yeah, we wanted to give credit where credit's due to Kenny Dillingham. We appreciate that, brother.
Brent Rollins
Who's, by the way, doing the hanging?
Wes Blanket Ship
David, who's going to hang the shelves up?
David Pollack
Not me. Was that Wes? Was that the beautiful sounds. Was that the silky smooth sounds of Wes? Did you hear that, everybody?
Brent Rollins
Yes.
David Pollack
West Blanket Ship. He's here all the time and he's going to be chiming in because he's utterly fantastic. We will get him a McConaughey out of him at some point because there's no one better in the country. But who said fantastic.
Brent Rollins
I will say the irony, by the.
David Pollack
Way, you in a minute.
Brent Rollins
I figured Norm Pollock will be on that. On that job in a heartbeat, by the way.
David Pollack
Yeah, why not?
Brent Rollins
That's. That sounds like a Norm Pollock. But we got to give him a few weeks to get that done, so I know he's listening too. So sorry about that.
David Pollack
All right, give me some numbers, Brent. Give me some numbers. That popped out. That makes me go, wow, that. That's crazy because you. You. This is what you've done for a number of years with. Pff. You find these numbers, you know how to look them up, man. I think it's. I think it's letting people behind the curtain. This is what coaches look at. Like, coaches study the numbers of the guys and they want to understand what. What they do well, what they don't do well. So that's a big part of football nowadays.
Brent Rollins
And I'm going to stick with the main game with the Iowa State. Kansas State game. First thing, from a negative standpoint for Kansas State, we talked about Avery because it's just. It was a thing. We talked about it how Avery Johnson from a drop percentage standpoint, like Georgia was. Everybody talked about Georgia receivers dropping passes last year, but Avery Johnson actually on a percentage basis. Highest drop rate a season ago at 11.9 number one in the power four in that game. Better in that game. It was 12.5. They had three drops, including one on.
David Pollack
The fourth drop on fourth down.
Brent Rollins
That was fourth down play Bradley five.
David Pollack
Hey, you know what they have not learned at Kansas State and I guess at Georgia either. We don't drop passes, we drop classes. That's what you do in college. Come on now. You can't drop the passes. You just got. You gotta catch those, man. You drop the classes. But go ahead. I digress.
Brent Rollins
That, that's, that's funny. Which by the way, another aside the thing. Avery Johnson looked like he struggled mightily with the rain.
David Pollack
He did. The ball looked like, he didn't look like he could get a hold of the ball before he threw it. It looked like it was a small hand sock or something.
Brent Rollins
Right?
David Pollack
Commercial. Small hands like.
Brent Rollins
Does he have small hands?
David Pollack
Like.
Brent Rollins
Yeah, because it looked like a thing. It looked like it was really bothering him early.
David Pollack
Anyway, I don't know if this is in your numbers. When I watch Avery Johnson and I watch the Kansas State Wildcats, I still see the same Avery Johnson from a year ago where he's going to miss things, he's going to miss some of the wide open guys. So be it. That's all right. He's really good outside the numbers. Do you have numbers on that? Because every time he spit the ball out wide I was like, good throw. On target in rhythm. Even the one that was dropped on fourth down, it was a good throw. Like it felt like he did his best damage out wide. Did the numbers support that to the left?
Brent Rollins
Not necessarily to the right. Okay, there you go. So he was five of six to the left with the TD and a drop. Take it back. Six of seven and the drop, the.
David Pollack
Drop, the drop down to the left. Yep.
Brent Rollins
And then one of four to the right outside the numbers. So more so his left there and the other number was looking at the victor. And we talked about it and I just wanted to give some context to those numbers. Iowa State played five tight ends in the game and those five tight ends combined for 174 snaps. There were, there were, there were 75 like snaps total. But all of those guys like Burkle 84 played every snap of the game but one. Brahmer 1861 of the 75 snaps and then three other guys each had double digit snaps. I mean they just tight ends galore. Wide receivers only had 128 snaps for Iowa State. So like they, they're, they're going to work in progress and they hey, we got these guys. Let's, let's play them. And by the way, the third and one call, the delay to the tight end was dirty. Beautiful.
David Pollack
Absolutely dirty. And again. And you want to see well coached teams, by the way, I love when I see well coached teams because watch the tight end engage block. The outside linebacker first is covering a man to man, make it look like run. And it's so hard not to. Now be physical and peep your head in the gap. And then you throw into a 6 foot 7 target. Like throw the ball high. Let him, let him go up and catch it. And listen, if you. I told you last year, Brent and I caught flak for this on the show. Like I'm a Rocco Beck fan. Like, I just love the way he, I love the way he games and he balls short yardage situation when they need it. Spread it out wide. They're running him like he's the guy. They're going to get the football. Like he's got enough gamer to him and enough slipperiness. He's not like a, he's not a freak. He doesn't run like Avery Johnson, but he's got enough wiggle to make you miss. And he's got enough. And they've got enough creativity. Even the touchdown pass was a slant and go, you know, like they're, they're smart enough to manufacture offense. Great. Just great. Great game. It was a fun game to watch, especially in the second half because I did also, if you looked at the game, the, the first half had what, like 21 points through three quarters and then you go bananas in the fourth quarter and finish with a rage of, you know what, 24 straight points. Which was, which was fun to watch.
Brent Rollins
Yep, very much so. So that's what we got in terms of, in terms of numbers this week.
David Pollack
That's our numbers.
Brent Rollins
That's, that's, that's what we got. The other fun thing we're going to try to do on a weekly basis is eliminate teams from the College Football Playoff. By the way, do you know how many little trivia for you? How many FBS teams are there total?
David Pollack
Oh, gosh. 131. 6.
Brent Rollins
136 FBS teams.
David Pollack
Trivia questions for the night. Dang it.
Brent Rollins
We need to, we need to keep that hold on pause.
David Pollack
Oh, wait, that was yours.
Brent Rollins
All right, so who gets eliminated after week zero from the College Football Playoff? Because there is one. There was one clear, definitive one, and there was almost a one that I was about to say, how are you going to lose this Game, opening game, Coach Dan Mullen at uno.
David Pollack
I knew you were going to Dan, but he pulled it out of the fire, baby. He made it happen. Okay, that's optional.
Brent Rollins
And they've scored the most points.
David Pollack
I got two that I feel extremely confident. Fresno State, man. I just.
Brent Rollins
Sorry.
David Pollack
I appreciate your effort. I love seeing Kurt Warner on the broadcast a bunch. E.J. warner, I think, is a kid that is easy to cheer for. Like, you watch him, and he knows.
Brent Rollins
The anticipates very well.
David Pollack
Oh, anticipates. Great offensive line around him, players around him. Defense. Fresno State is. They're. They're. They're eliminated. They're officially eliminated in week zero. They're the first one. You agree on the West?
Brent Rollins
Yes, very much so.
David Pollack
Do we have any, like, West. Do we have any fun, like, like noises yet? Like, like the. I want to do like the Family Feud, like, eliminated. He gone.
Wes Blanket Ship
Yeah.
David Pollack
I need.
Wes Blanket Ship
I need to get like the soundboard, like some booze and maybe give you like a studio audience.
David Pollack
Kind of sound like that.
Wes Blanket Ship
Work on that.
David Pollack
I like that.
Brent Rollins
Yeah.
Wes Blanket Ship
You took mine with Fresno State.
David Pollack
Okay.
Wes Blanket Ship
That was tough to watch.
David Pollack
That was.
Brent Rollins
For sure.
David Pollack
That was. That was ungood. That was good. That's the way you're supposed to say when you're on television. When you're a television person, you say ungood because that's a nice way of saying. They. They weren't. They were not very good. I got another one for you, though, I think. I think there's another one. Brent. I'm. And I know they're not mathematically, but Stanford, like, I think they've already eliminated themselves. I feel like the way they did that and the way they lost that football game, like, I've seen it. Listen, they could still win the acc. They could still be in this mix. And I'm sure there's some way that Fresno could be in this. Actually, I don't think so. I think they're gone. But. But either way, Stanford, I'm ready to eliminate them. I'm ready to say that I'm pretty sure they're. They're not going to make it.
Brent Rollins
I don't know that they'll win a game. They might not win a singular game.
David Pollack
That's even worse this season. You just, you just said, like, not only did we eliminate from the National Champion, you just said like, you're the worst in. In college football. Like one of the worst. Period.
Brent Rollins
I mean, I.
David Pollack
You know what, though they're small.
Brent Rollins
You look at their schedules, they're not players.
David Pollack
Okay.
Brent Rollins
Yes. That was the one on their. There's. Yeah, it's going to be tough for them and which is, you know, hard when you think back to Andrew Luck and all the success they had with Harbaugh and some of the really good teams they had for a while there. But yeah, yeah, I agree. They're done.
David Pollack
So that's two.
Brent Rollins
Very much so.
David Pollack
That's two. On the elimination. We'll start. We'll keep a tally. We'll keep a running tally of who's and we, we can even call it like he gone. But that's definitely the, the first part of the, of the season. That's unfortunate.
Wes Blanket Ship
What are we going to do if they come back though?
David Pollack
Huh?
Wes Blanket Ship
What are we going to do if they make it back in?
David Pollack
They're not going to. I, I don't think you eliminate them until you're for sure that they're gone. And I, I'm, I've seen enough evidence already like they're gone. I'm 100% certain that both of those teams are out of the mix.
Wes Blanket Ship
Oh, fantastic. All right, another new segment this week is going to be the weekend W's. So our weekend winners who won the whole weekend and I'm going to go with the Big Ten. We kind of missed the SEC 9 game schedule news late in the week. I, I've gone on record Georgia's every year rivals need to be Florida, Auburn and Tennessee. I know a lot of Georgia fans got fired up about that. They think South Carolina, Kentucky should be considered above Tennessee. But you know, man, you played in Neyland. They hate the dogs. That's a rivalry. So I think a person that won the weekend for sure is the Big Ten and all the SEC haters that have been saying for years, y' all get it easy. You get to play UMass, you get to play Marshall. Now you got to play nine.
Brent Rollins
Hey, don't hate on Marshall. Sorry, Brent.
Wes Blanket Ship
Just, just an example. They're also on CFP elimination. Watch this game week. Who won the weekend for me? Big Ten and SEC haters.
David Pollack
Okay. All right. Well, I think, I think we were going to get there at some point with the, with the Big Ten or with the SEC and with uniformity in the schedule. I think we should. By the way, I'm for that. I think we should have a uniform schedule across college football. But now let's go ahead and fix it. Like I've been saying for years too. Let's make the cross rivalries now. Let's make the SEC versus the Big Ten. Everybody plays somebody from the Big Ten. Everybody in that league plays somebody from that league. Everybody in the SEC plays somebody from the ACC. Everybody in the SEC plays somebody from the Big 12. Like let's make those crossovers, man. So we got more data and more points at the end of this. We got more and it's going to lead to better games, man. Like you'll just see some, some really good football games and some cross matchups and you get to go see different stadiums, different atmosphere, different conferences. I think all of that's really good.
Brent Rollins
So let's, let's think of the, talk about the why of this a little bit. Do you think this was just first money driven? Because obviously you play more conference games, you're gonna, each team you're gonna get more money, you're gonna have bigger games to sell advertisers all the stuff that goes with it. Or, or was there a sort of strategy to this long term play? What do you think?
David Pollack
Such a great word by the way, the people that don't understand that word. Did you hear the greatness of what he. It's just like, it's like when people say amphibious. Like it's just great. You know, you can use the left hand and the right hand the same that it's amphibious. It's, it's wonderful strategically. Such a great word. I think there's strategy in everything. I don't know that any commissioner in this, especially Greg Zanki, does anything without thinking, thinking again. And there's, there's the schedule that was floated with, with the, with the 28 teams. Like that was floated. Obviously you can, you can fall in however you want to fall in on that. It should be burned and never be sealed, never be looked at again. Like that's where I fall into that. I just want to make sure I'm clear, Brett. Like it should be burned, ripped up, put in a fight, whatever you want to say. It's, it's very ungood. Like it needs to go away. I want no part of that. But there's always strategy in the Big Ten and the SEC are going to be working together and this is, this is going to be a long term relationship and there's going to be a lot of difference between everyone else and it's either going to be everyone jump on board with those two squads for the long haul or you're going to be looking for a spot to, to fish. Right. Like you're going to have to find that.
Brent Rollins
It's interesting how, how the Big Ten responds, especially when they put the, the second Carat of the high quality is that was that. I think that was the term that he used. High quality.
David Pollack
That was Bobby Boucher.
Brent Rollins
Yes, but like just in general, I think. Whoa. If. Because you think about Indiana with, you know, Signetti and him saying, hey, we're taking a page.
David Pollack
He's pretty.
Brent Rollins
From the sec. And now look at their non conference schedule compared to what this is now with the SEC with nine plus the one that's, that's there. I, I do think the biggest winner in all of this though is fans. Because like, especially if, especially fans that go to games. Because if you go to games, why would you want to go watch your team play someone that they're favored by 40 and, and you, and you know, it's over. The starters are out at halftime. Like you want to go watch big games and when the SEC goes to nine, you're gonna see more big games. And maybe especially if you're a fan of the team local to us, if you're a Georgia fan, maybe finally you'll actually go play at Texas A and M with the way this is because you still haven't done that since they've been in the league. Amazingly how many years it is now that Texas A M has existed in the SEC. Georgia is yet to play there.
Wes Blanket Ship
13. So.
David Pollack
13, 13.
Brent Rollins
There you go. A lot of time for, for them to not play those teams.
Wes Blanket Ship
This one's hot.
David Pollack
Okay, sir. I never know. I can hear you right here too. So it's really weird. It's kind of like a, you know, we're really close. I can like reach out and touch you.
Wes Blanket Ship
Please don't.
David Pollack
And Brent. And by the way, this is the best proximity show ever because Brent's my, our neighbor right across.
Brent Rollins
So, you know, these days I'm just going to walk across the street and wait over there.
Wes Blanket Ship
How did I beat you here, Brent?
David Pollack
Yeah.
Wes Blanket Ship
How did that happen?
Brent Rollins
That's. That's a great question for, for the person sitting beside you. I don't know.
David Pollack
That's.
Brent Rollins
I think that's a really good question. One of these days we've got to. We can ma. By the way, there's a lot of big games this weekend. I don't know if you've looked at this. I don't know if you're excited at all.
David Pollack
I'm not.
Brent Rollins
These sort of kind of big games that are happening this weekend, I mean, it doesn't get any better than this weekend. I was trying to look. I don't think you've had this many top 10 matchups, any sort of research I showed maybe 2016 was a year where you had a lot of high profile games in an opening weekend. Like Alabama played usc, Jalen Hurts, first start kind of game. But Alabama killed them.
Wes Blanket Ship
You know, USC did the dog walk celebration.
David Pollack
The leash. Yeah, they were on the leash. Like they were. They're like holding them back and yeah, hold me. That's one of those. When you're going to get in a fight with like the world's strongest man or a big 6 foot 7, 300 pound guy, it's like, hold me back. Hold me back. Please don't let me go. Please don't let me. Okay, I'm going to get dumped.
Brent Rollins
Like the amount of just ginormous games this weekend is.
David Pollack
Yeah.
Brent Rollins
All right, so which, speaking of that, which one?
David Pollack
Real quick, real quick. There's a bunch I'm excited for Sean Walker. Have y' all seen the game day tribute to Corso? Yes, it's fantastic. And also we're going to have Chris Fowler on Wednesday and he'll be able to tell us some great Corso stories. Man, he was there so long with Lee and one of the, one of the most, like, first of all, one of the most, one of the fittest play by play guys you'll ever see. Like Fowlers in every weight room that we go to. He's got the shirt on, he's doing bench press now we got to confirm he skipped some leg days. Not excited about the Chris, you got to do more leg day. But so many stories and we'll get to preview all the games obviously with him. And he's obviously going to be calling one of the big ones too. It's hard to beat one in three. It's hard to say any game is more exciting than Texas and Ohio State, but I think I'm looking more forward to LSU and Clemson. Like Battle of the Tigers, Battle of Death Valley. A lot of people on LSU hating on Brian Kelly. A lot of people on Clemson now all in with Clemson. But still, there's absolutely still doubter, doubters with Clemson. Clemson. So like, I think everybody knows kind of Ohio State and Texas are going to be there in the end. They're going to have a chance in the playoff. I think all of us feel that way. This first game though, with LSU and Clemson, like, man, they get to catapult. They get to start their season with something just freaking huge. Like huge feather in the cat for both of those programs moving forward.
Brent Rollins
And you got, I don't know if you saw this, but Garrett Nuss Meyer is going to wear 18, which is the first QB that. That's wearing that since Matt Mock. And that. That was. That was a pretty big season, I think.
David Pollack
Yeah.
Brent Rollins
For LSU that year with him. Him at qb, which I. The interesting. You mentioned Texas and Ohio State. Did you see. You probably didn't see this, but YouTube TV and Fox Sports kind of. Or Fox kind of in a little bit of a dispute. I saw maybe like Wednesdays, what's going on Date to reach an agreement that basically everybody went in. You better not let this happen. And Fox not be on YouTube. You'd have to go find somewhere to.
Wes Blanket Ship
See how this always happens right before football.
David Pollack
First of all, that's called great business is what that's called. That's smart. That is absolutely smart. Like, if I'm running a business and I know this is your biggest time and I have a chance to use that against you, and you have to do something about it. That's brilliant business. Like not hating, but. But we do. We all have to get that. I don't know. I don't know what everybody's TV service is, but, like, I have the. I have the hacked fire stick, and it's absolutely fantastic. Yes. Should I say that out loud? I probably shouldn't share that out loud, but I get every game in boxes and I just start slapping more screens on there and more games, and you just scroll over to the box, to the one that has the volume, and you listen and it's just, hey, I get every UFC fight. I get every pay per view. I get every movie channel. It's crazy. I mean, I got a guy. I can't tell you his name. Who.
Brent Rollins
You sound like right now. You sound like my father, who is very much like. I think he's spent half his late life over the last decade figuring out ways to not pay for TV and get as much TV as possible without paying for it.
David Pollack
Man, we've talked about it. I'm notoriously cheap. I use. I can't tell you how many people's subscriptions I used to Netflix to all the Amazon.
Brent Rollins
Mine was directly used my DirecTV for. For the longest time.
David Pollack
For a long time. Yeah.
Brent Rollins
Other one other news, by the way.
Wes Blanket Ship
News, Brent. Who's your winner?
Brent Rollins
Okay. Oh, wait. Before we. Before we get one last news thing. My weekend W is the Hawaii Kicker, and I'm gonna try to pronounce his name correctly.
David Pollack
Oh, geez.
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Brent Rollins
Kansei Matsuzawa God bless you but I.
Wes Blanket Ship
Think you nailed it Brent.
David Pollack
You did.
Brent Rollins
I think, I think that was close enough but I mean the first power conference win for Hawaii since 2019. Alijado was the QB that was like trying his best with the Byron Leftwich impersonation and then he would actually run really fast even though he was limping in between plays. But like the story with the kicker and you know he played high school soccer in Japan. Moved moved to the U S because he saw watched football, learned how to kick on YouTube.
David Pollack
That's crazy.
Brent Rollins
And he went to so he went to. He convinced a junior college hocking college which is in Nelsonville, Ohio and is near my like probably about 40 minutes from my hometown near Athens Athens, Ohio on the way to Columbus. And I didn't even realize they had football. It the only thing I know of that town is the like this boot factory that's there but goes there kicks and then ends up at Hawaii. Like he was Hawaii's kicker last year but obviously when you make a winning kick and get that, that, that big of a win, you win the weekend. Timmy Chain and head coach Hawaii big for them. Like just happy for them.
David Pollack
They needed some, they needed some positivity. They needed something to go well what about I I think we got time man. What about that article? You want to hit that article real quick that I that we talked about, because I thought it was the fourth.
Brent Rollins
Down or the under center versus shotgun.
David Pollack
I thought that was very, I thought it was very interesting. Like by the numbers.
Brent Rollins
All right, we got it. We gotta credit it, by the way. Let me, let me.
David Pollack
Okay, well, that's your job. I'm gonna talk about it. You talk, set that up. But it's, it's, it's interesting because for a lot, For a lot. First of all, it took me a while. I, I can say this. I remember, I thought that the spread formation was soft. Like, I'm just telling you, with my football background and my DNA and 21 personnel, 22 personnel, like two running backs, two tight ends, like you hit people in the mouth. That's what you do. Like you're physical. That's what it means to be physical. And then I think I was convinced as I started covering the game and going all over the place and Urban Meyer in the sec, bringing Tebow, and then you see with Cam, like you can still have that sense of physicality. And that's where we developed our offense, me and Brent with, with youth league football when we started back in the day. Because a bunch of our buddies, they're like, no, no, no, we're not doing that. That's, that's. We're not tough, we're not physical. Like, no, no, no, no. You can still be physical, but it's a spread offense. But people think taking the shotgun at the one yard line, like, why do you do that? And so what was the article? It was kind of cool.
Brent Rollins
Just hearing some of the Tuscaloosa news. Chase, Good bread, sort of went back and looked, I think it was 15 teams that he looked at and some success rates, whether they were under center or in the shotgun. And then at the 1 yard line, specifically at the 1 yard line. And then backed it out a little bit. To me, the day that, like in and of itself, it's one of those things where it's still kind of a coin flip when you look at it. And there's so many other variables to me that, that come into play with this. It's just a matter of. And I think Cutcliffe, in the article he talked about David Cutcliffe, former Duke COACH he's like, hey, practice what you know and teach what you know. And if you, if you know the gun and you can do those things and still be physical and be successful out of it, you do it. If you want to be an under center team, you do it like it's just a matter of do what, you know, do what you're good at kind of thing. For me, I didn't really look at it and think one way or the other.
David Pollack
Okay. But. But here's what I'll say. I. I got a couple opinions on the numbers of it. One, it's a fact, Brent. When you back up and you catch the ball, I have more time as a defense.
Brent Rollins
Yeah.
David Pollack
Like you want to say, we can debate all the numbers and all the different things. When you back up, I have more time for guys to get a full head of steam to come downhill because the ball goes backwards for a little bit before I can go forward. So that's a fact. Another thing to me that. That I worry about the most. I worry about. If you wanted to flip the numbers, Brent. It always made me nervous coming out, like, when I'm on my own one or my own two minus one, and I'm in the shotgun, I'm like, crap, like, one bad snap one bobble snap one missed timing. Somebody shoots in. I'm like, son of a gun, man. I'm dead. And I'm giving up two points like that. That was scarier to me than. Than when you had the ball inside the five going forward or on fourth and short. And listen, Kansas State, Iowa State, both of them, Shotgun. Like, short yarded situation they were in. Shotgun. But you know what else it does? It also allows you to attack wide quicker. Like, you can't attack wide under center. You can bring more people into the box. And so there's give and take to every system, man. Like, it's just. It's how you attack it, how you choose to attack it. But. All right, winners of the weekend.
Brent Rollins
Iowa State, though, by the way. First Iowa State, they went under center and then they tossed it and fumbled after the muff punt.
David Pollack
So, yeah, it wasn't good. Very. That wasn't. That wasn't good. But, like, so Iowa State, huge winner of the weekend. Take a big stack in the Big 12. You know what's crazy? They've been playing that game 100 years in a row, which I think is nuts, that people don't understand. This game always matters. Rocco Beck three and oh. Iowa State, three wins in the last three years. Like, it's. It's incredible. Tip of the cap. Iowa State, way to start the season off. The best win in the country. Already number one team in the country right now in the power rankings. I mean, that's pretty fantastic.
Brent Rollins
Nice DP Power rankings.
David Pollack
I mean, you get. You got to give it to them. Who else are you Going to give it to so. And then Kansas, you know, obviously coming out the way they did, looking the way they did offensively was big excited to preview the games, man. Like, we're going to get into all the nitty gritty over the next couple of days. And we got two more this week that we'll, we'll jump into. You know, jump on this podcast with us. Continue to listen. Chris Fowler, like we said, we got to get a Corso story. And then more importantly too, man, talk about the big games coming up. Which one are you most excited for? Because you didn't, you didn't answer that question for me.
Brent Rollins
Notre Dame, Miami, I think is probably the one. I mean, lsu like, for the reasons. And plus you said lsu Clemson, so I want to be a little bit contrarian there. But Notre Dame Miami for me is one that I, I'm curious to see what C.J. carr is.
David Pollack
Yeah.
Brent Rollins
And then also very curious to see do we. What does Carson Beck look like in a completely different uniform.
Wes Blanket Ship
You curious?
Brent Rollins
And, and the elbow and the. All that sort of thing. So I want to see that because if he looks the part, then it. Miami ceiling is very different. If CJ Carr looks the part. Like I said, I think 11 and 1 is their floor if, if they're, if they get good quarterback play. So that's one for me because I.
David Pollack
Think you feel the same way I feel. Notre Dame's receivers are going to get better. Like they're going to be a step above where they were a year ago. And so if the line is the line and you got the best back in the country, I mean, you just, like now you have good passing game that because Riley Leonard alleviated the run game with his run game and a little bit of throwing, not a lot, but if you can throw the football and have a little bit more balance at Notre Dame and then you just hand it to that monster Jeremiah Love and just let him do work and then let price dot your eyeballs just run straight downhill and hit people in the mouth.
Brent Rollins
The Friday night games are going to be awesome with Auburn and Baylor, Georgia Tech, Colorado, like those. Those are just going to be great college football games.
David Pollack
It's so much good.
Brent Rollins
It's an opening weekend unlike any other. And we're obviously going to be, I mean, borderline working every day this week. You know, in terms of Friday night, we'll be live after those games. No high school football Friday night.
David Pollack
We're watching. I got to work all weekend, baby.
Brent Rollins
I know we have no high school.
David Pollack
Game, but I Gotta watch, I gotta work. I gotta work all weekend. Like this is a working weekend. Like Friday night, I gotta watch Saturday, I gotta watch Sunday, I gotta watch, I gotta watch Monday too. Like this. This is. This is heaven. That's where you are right now. You're in heaven. You're at the pearly gates. Like it doesn't get any better for a college football fan with what we about to get go through this weekend.
Wes Blanket Ship
Sneaky game here. That Mexican medic has pointed out he wants to see how good Tech money is this weekend. Do you know who Texas Tech is playing this weekend?
David Pollack
I got no.
Wes Blanket Ship
I don't know what Mexican medic is going to learn against Arkansas. Pine Bluff. As far as the Texas Tech money goes. Mexican medic, I know there's a lot of money on the line. You might need to wait until after week one. That's 7:30 on Saturday, by the way.
David Pollack
Let's see how good Tech money is this weekend. I don't think we're judging Texas Tech's money and what they spent this weekend. But it will be fun to watch. And I gave, I gave Coach McGuire Brent on the show when we interviewed him. Like, I gave him the perfect marketing ploy. Like instead of the Jordan, I gave him the Mahone silhouette, the sidearm silhouette. I want to see that come to fruition, man. I might shoot him a text, man. I want some.
Brent Rollins
Remind him. A general reminder.
David Pollack
Yeah. Come on. All right. And then anybody else out there who's watching, man, just, you know, just know we will.
Brent Rollins
We will find a way to get him behind you.
David Pollack
Yeah, we'll get it up there, man. I found this thing on Amazon like where it just drills into the wall and you just kind of. You'll drill on one side and you just put it in like this. And then I mean just, just we go. But hit the, like, hit the subscribe. Do all that fun stuff. We'll have. We'll have Fowler with us next time to preview everything, tell Corso stories and then let's get weird. We'll make some picks the next day and just see what we got. We'll. We'll pick a ton of games and then we'll start to keep a running tally to see how stupid we are. Because that is the most important part. Hey, you got to keep track of that.
Brent Rollins
By the way. I'm usually not good at that.
David Pollack
Picks.
Brent Rollins
Yes, I'm usually quite.
David Pollack
Why? You know why? I can tell you too much?
Brent Rollins
Because I think too much.
David Pollack
Because you're checking the weather in Dublin, Ireland for some stupid reason. Like, that's how much Brent is going to overthink this. But the good thing is he'll have all the numbers, we'll have all the angles. Keep joining us. Man on C. Ball. Get ball. And we'll keep pumping out content this college football season because it's going to be fantastic and an unbelievable start to week one this weekend.
Date: August 26, 2025
Hosts: David Pollack & Brent Rollins
Guest/Contributor: Wes Blankenship (occasional chiming in)
In this Week 0 recap, David Pollack and analyst Brent Rollins break down the opening weekend of the 2025 college football season. They offer authentic, impassioned, and numbers-backed reflections on early games—especially Iowa State vs. Kansas State—highlighting key moments of physicality, coaching decisions, and clutch execution. The duo also weighs in on the Big 12’s always-chaotic landscape, the impact of transfers, and early College Football Playoff eliminations. The conversation concludes with a look at upcoming heavyweight matchups, some fun behind-the-scenes show banter, and pointed takes on the latest in conference expansion and scheduling.
[01:31-03:19]
[03:31-11:03]
[04:26-07:02]
[09:10-12:32]
[12:32-14:26]
[20:06-24:49]
[24:50-28:41]
[28:41-34:35]
[34:35-48:13]
Humorous and memorable exchanges throughout:
[46:10-50:40]
On Iowa State’s physicality:
“Iowa State was more physical on both lines of scrimmage. Iowa State was 3 for 3 on fourth down.”
(David Pollack, 05:04)
On Big 12 chaos:
“It’s always going to be a coin flip ... It’s going to be an insanely fun league to watch.”
(Brent Rollins, 14:26)
On Kansas’ offense:
"They’re as good as anybody in the country ... just making your eyes go slanted and cross-eyed."
(David Pollack, 09:42)
On Jalen Daniels’ durability:
"Absolutely zero percent chance of making it through the season ... If he does, it will be impossible to survive a season, man."
(David Pollack, 11:03)
On CFP eliminators:
"Fresno State ... they’re eliminated. They’re officially eliminated in Week Zero."
(David Pollack, 26:01)
"Stanford ... I’ve seen enough evidence already. They’re gone."
(David Pollack, 27:38)
On the new era of scheduling:
“Let's make those crossovers, man. So we got more data ... and it's going to lead to better games.”
(David Pollack, 30:04)
On the fan experience:
“...the biggest winner in all of this though is fans. Because ... why would you want to go watch your team play someone that they're favored by 40?”
(Brent Rollins, 32:55)
High-energy, honest, authentic, and fun — Pollack and Rollins blend deep knowledge with natural banter, making for a highly engaging and accessible breakdown for die-hard and casual college football fans alike. They emphasize the importance of physicality, identity, and adaptation in CFB, deliver predictions with humor, and invite the audience back for next-level analysis and stories week-to-week.