Week 6 Tape Takes! Unfiltered Thoughts on Florida State–Miami, Vandy-Alabama, Texas-Florida, and More

Summary

The McShay Show – Week 6 Tape Takes!

Podcast: The McShay Show
Host: Todd McShay, co-host Steve
Episode Date: October 2, 2025
Theme: Deep-dive, unfiltered analysis of key college football Week 6 matchups, NFL draft implications, and behind-the-scenes insight including the much-anticipated “Paul Finebaum receipts.”

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Episode Overview

This episode is a thorough exploration of central Week 6 college football storylines, with focused tape analysis on marquee matchups: Florida State–Miami, Vanderbilt–Alabama, Texas–Florida, Texas Tech–Houston, and more. Todd McShay and Steve dissect film, identify NFL draft risers, and deliver candid commentary—including McShay’s long-awaited account of the Paul Finebaum controversy and its aftermath.

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In-Depth Game Tape Analysis

1. Florida State vs. Miami

(Primary Focus: 05:00–36:59)

Carson Beck’s Revival and Miami’s Offensive Progression

• Tape Findings: Carson Beck, now Miami’s QB, is “absolutely reascending.” McShay highlighted improved confidence and mobility:

  "He’s moving around a little bit better. Functional mobility inside the pocket... He’s not afraid to take off and run.” (10:55)

• He's "playing loose," going through progressions, and spreading the ball effectively, but McShay notes limitations:

  “There’s a lack of a vertical passing game... Receivers get open, but he hasn’t connected on those downfield shots.” (13:15, 16:17)

• Notable WRs include freshman Malachi Tony: “Awesome, but that’s not his game.” (14:01)
• NFL Draft Stock: Day 2 pick currently; may have “starter upside, but not a sure-fire franchise guy yet.” (17:14)

Miami’s Offensive Weaknesses and FSU Game Plan

• McShay expects Florida State to aggressively challenge Miami’s receivers, stacking the box to force Beck into uncomfortable throws:

  “I’m taking an aggressive approach... got to stop the run and generate pressure on Beck. Even though he’s more mobile, he ain’t mobile.” (17:14)

Miami’s Defensive Transformation & Run Game Dynamics

• Under new DC Corey Heatherman, Miami’s defense went from a “liability to a major asset,” built in Mario Cristobal’s image:

  “This year’s version is built on the trenches... run the football, win up front, and wear you down.” (20:11)

• Miami’s front 7 is a “great unit”—harder to wear down than most, as shown by their national Top 10 rushing defense. (22:55)
• Florida State offsets defense with a ground-heavy, “body blow” rushing attack:

  “FSU’s second in the nation in rushing. They want 50 carries a game—Malzahn loves to brawl with his run game.” (22:55, 24:00)

• Interesting schematic notes: FSU runs a creative, QB-counter-heavy offense; Miami’s front 7 has the depth to battle back.

Edge Rush Showdown: Rueben Bain, Jr.

• McShay is effusive on Bain’s potential:

  “Bain has been f***ing awesome… If I had to nitpick, it’s his hand usage, but when he improves, he’ll be scary. I’d put him up against any player in the country.” (28:45)

• Not just sack numbers—disruption and double-teams make the whole defense better:

  “Eight different dudes on Miami have at least a sack this year. Bain is freeing up a lot of guys to cook. He’s a Top 10 pick.” (31:00)

Florida State Playmakers & X-Factors

• Steve highlights WR Deuce Robinson (6'6", 223):

  “He’s the ultimate wildcard… wins against zone looks, big target, developing back shoulder chemistry with Castellanos. Dangerous if they let him get going.” (32:56)

Predictions & Mindset

• McShay leans toward Florida State +4.5 (“hard to pick against Miami, but this feels like a close one”), while Steve questions if FSU’s defensive struggles will resurface:

  “You have a better big picture feel; I’m a week-to-week tape guy. But teams have bad games—can’t always read too much.” (35:32)

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2. Vanderbilt vs. Alabama

(40:26–50:45)

Deconstructing the Match-Up

• Vanderbilt’s defense: Excellent statistically—except vs. SEC opposition.
• QB Pavia: Mobile but unsophisticated as a passer; Vandy’s offense built on misdirection and QB run.
• "It’s all jet sweeps, misdirection, quick game stuff—hardly a vertical attack." (44:45)
• Alabama’s defense gashed by Georgia/Florida State on the ground, but "in coverage now, their LBs aggressively match up, don’t just guard grass." (47:57)
• Vandy TE Eli Stowers: “Had 6 for 113 last year—but Bama’s LBs are much better in coverage this year.” (47:57)

Motivational Angles & Picks

• Both hosts agree Alabama is “angry after Vandy’s upset last year,” see no repeat:

  “Alabama -10.5 is my FanDuel pick of the week... It’ll be one of the easiest motivational jobs for an Alabama coach ever.” (49:21)

• Steve: “Vanderbilt is better, but so is Bama. I think they run away with it.” (50:27)

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3. Texas vs. Florida

(74:11–83:41)

Quarterback Focus: Arch Manning Watch

• McShay scouted all dropbacks from Arch’s recent (Sam Houston State) game and was "encouraged":

  “He actually made some big-time throws… His confidence and demeanor looked different.” (74:25)

• Still, he cautions: “It ain’t Florida, it ain’t Ohio State… the real test is whether he can keep that confidence vs. a fierce Florida defense.” (76:59)

Florida’s Defensive Effort and Longevity

• McShay marvels at the Gators’ defense:

  "They’ve been put in one bad situation after another. This unit is the epitome of team and loyalty. How long can they keep this up?" (77:08)

• Steve on Florida’s offensive woes:

  “DJ Lagway has struggled mightily. Texas defense can get out early and force mistakes. The more pressure on him to make plays in the passing game, the better for Texas.” (79:53)

Every-Down Playmaker?

• Steve puzzles over limited touches for Florida WR Vernell Brown III:

  “He’s electric… You have to get this kid the ball more. I couldn’t find a reason why they didn’t." (81:23)

• McShay: Texas favored by 6.5, over/under at 41.5, leans under:

  "I'm almost certainly betting the under in that game.” (82:47)

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4. Louisville vs. Virginia

(83:46–85:19)

• Louisville only -6.5 at home after Virginia's upset of FSU leaves both hosts curious.
• Steve: “That line is correct… Miller Moss is getting comfortable. Louisville’s defense is underrated.” (83:58)
• McShay: "I'd strongly consider the Braum brothers as QB developers; I have Louisville by two scores." (85:29)

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5. Texas Tech at Houston & Other NFL Draft Angles

(85:33–91:41)

NFL Watch List:

• Texas Tech Edges: David Bailey and Romello Height, 6 sacks in 4 games combined.

  McShay: "Legit players, both first-rounders—keep an eye on that D-line." (88:04)

• Houston TE Tanner Koziol: 6'7", 250lbs, Ball State transfer, 23 catches/4 games
• Intrigue: Texas Tech going back to veteran QB Baron Morton, but “Will Hammond is more talented… he kind of bailed them out vs Utah.” (91:03)
• Willie Fritz coaching for Houston—“no stranger to pulling big upsets.” (87:47)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Paul Finebaum Controversy

[52:35–74:09]

• McShay’s blunt, unfiltered breakdown of the Jalen Carter character report, the fallout, Finebaum’s commentary, and the lack of loyalty shown:

  "It pissed me off... when someone in your own team does this... and feels comfortable piling on without even calling, texting, or emailing me. Instead, he just incites more drama. Paul, you knew nothing about this situation." (68:51) “When I say he’s an all-time coward, that’s why I say it. I think the guy’s a rat. He’s perfect to be a politician.” (72:39)

• Steve’s defense and context:

  “He wasn’t the only one, but using your backlash to propel their own careers or get likes—he wasn't alone.” (73:22)

Tape Talk – On Rueben Bain

“Short of running a 4.5 as an end, he’s got all the tools. It would be hard to find many other players, if any, that have been more impactful than Bain has been for this defense… He’s a Top 10 pick.” (29:53)

General Tape Philosophy

“Some of the worst handicappers in the world are coaches and people who are watching the tape. There are two sides of my brain—one is the tape and evaluation side, the other is I've learned over time not to bet against what the numbers say.” (35:53)

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Key Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp (MM:SS) | |-----------------------------------------|----------------------| | Opening banter, show setup | 00:00–05:00 | | FSU–Miami tape breakdown | 05:00–36:59 | | Vandy–Alabama, revenge & matchups | 40:26–50:45 | | Texas–Florida (Arch Manning focus) | 74:11–83:41 | | Louisville–Virginia | 83:46–85:19 | | Texas Tech–Houston & draft talk | 85:33–91:41 | | Paul Finebaum & ESPN “receipts” | 52:35–74:09 |

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Additional Insights

• FanDuel Picks of the Week:

  • McShay: Alabama -10.5 vs. Vanderbilt
  • Steve: Cincinnati Moneyline vs. Iowa State

• Quarterback Development:

  • Praise for emerging QBs like Beck, cautious optimism for Arch Manning’s mechanics/work ethic, sharp criticism for other stagnating passers (e.g., DJ Lagway, Shador Sanders’ maturity).

• Draft Prospect Hot List:

  • Reuben Bain Jr. (Miami EDGE) “Best defensive player in the country, most disruptive.”
  • Texas Tech’s Bailey and Height, Houston TE Koziol, Miami’s Malachi Tony, and FSU’s Deuce Robinson highlighted as key 2026–27 draft names.

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Summary

This episode is essential listening for those who want a combination of granular tape study, draft projection, and personality—a blend of sharp football IQ, passionate grudge-settling (the Finebaum segment is must-hear), and humorous, candid banter. It’s high-level, inside-the-industry analysis with layers: strategy, scouting, game-theory, and personal stakes. Even if you missed the games or headlines, this summary gives you the “why” and “how” of Week 6’s most important match-ups and controversies.

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Podcast MVP Moment:
"When I say he’s an all-time coward, that’s why I say it. When I say he has no loyalty, that’s why I say it. And to be honest with you, I think the guy’s a rat. And so he’s perfect to be a politician. That's a good way to end it." – Todd McShay, [72:39]

Transcript

[A]

It's Thursday. You know what that means. It's time for unfiltered tape takes previewing week six in college football. Speaking of unfiltered, is it October yet? Steve?

[B]

It's actually the second.

[A]

Well, I guess it's time to share my receipts on Paul fine bomb. Just 203 days until the NFL draft. You good men.

[B]

I'm good, man. Can't wait.

[A]

All right, let's roll that. Couple things I love about Steve mentioned.

[B]

That everybody should know.

[A]

First of all, I get myself into some trouble sometimes. I try to get myself out of trouble. It kind of goes up and down, right? But Mitch is always there in the background to laugh when I need someone to laugh at or with me and. And also to, you know, when I need someone to talk to or a shoulder to cry on. Every once in a while, he's there, too. This episode is presented. Duluth Trading Company ready to give rival tailgates the foam finger. Duluth Trading Co. Crafts hall of Fame game day gear to help you grill hotter, cheer louder and tailgate longer. Bibs loaded with pockets, gusseted pants so you can crouch without snuffing out your coals. And free swinging shirts tailor made for cornhole tossing. Stay comfortable from preseason to playoffs in the toughest tailgate attire around. Only at Duluth Trading Company. The second thing I love about Mensch is every once in a while he'll just make me die laughing. And he does it sometimes with a quick text. Today he asks me right before we go on the show, when you, when you ask me, you good men, to start the show, should I just mime my response?

[B]

Fair question.

[A]

I had to remind him politely that. That we're on a podcast, too. It's not just a show. Not just on YouTube and Spotify. We're also on Apple. And thank you everyone for, for, for watching and being a part of this and supporting everything we're doing. So the miming thing probably wouldn't work for the guy or the girl driving in the car listening to it on Apple or Spotify or wherever.

[B]

I'm still great.

[A]

Wherever else you get your podcast, it would be funny and it would only be funny. And we're not going to get into it here. We actually have nothing much to say outside of Shador Sanders once again is kind of showing some of the concerns that the general managers and executives had in terms of maturity and handling the process. We talked about it. Dylan Gabriel announced the starter for the Cleveland Browns. They bench Joe Flacco. He deserved it. I'm excited to see what Gabriel does.

[B]

Good luck. Yeah, I hope he does well.

[A]

And we could get into a whole breakdown on Gabriel and, and fast processing and tempo and getting the ball out quickly and quick. You know, the release and, and the accuracy on certain throws and play action and all those things. But that's not what we're here for. We're here for. This episode is brought to you by Fox 1. Fox 1 is now live stream all your Fox favorites together in one place from major league baseball postseason to NFL on Fox to big noon Saturdays with Fox one. You get it all live. Start your seven day free trial today. Offers are subject to change. Go to Fox one for complete terms and conditions. Fox one streaming now. Week six of the college football season. It's not the week five slate, always going to be transparent, but there's still some really intriguing matchups. None more intriguing than Miami right at Florida State. Miami favored by four and a half in that game. It's a 7:30 prime time game, don't forget. We will break into it just like we did with Penn State, Oregon a week ago and Alabama, Georgia. We'll, we'll be there live on the YouTube channel. It's the McShay Show YouTube channel if you want to come join us. It's a fun hang. You can just. We react to the game as it's finishing up and then we do a kind of re rack it and do a full. It's been almost a two hour show every single Saturday night into Sunday morning and it's been a blast. And it's been the most well received show that we do here. And for obvious reasons, but you're just.

[B]

You'Re just gonna go buy the fine bomb stuff. Are we waiting till the end? Like what's going on here? If I'm listening to this pod, I want to know now.

[A]

I didn't quite know it was gonna have this response. It was like almost, it was past midnight, I think. Almost one in the morning.

[B]

Silly. You know, Silly you.

[A]

And that's what I love about you. You just get to sit back and, and laugh at kind of the, the messes I get myself into. And it's not even a mess. I'm excited to share the story because honestly, why not, right? We'll get to it in a little bit today.

[B]

Let's.

[A]

We will. I promise you this. By the end of the show, I will address the fine bomb situation and the comments that I made and were for good reason. Okay. But I don't want it to overshadow, like what's important and what's important is all the tape study we've done. And that's why we do the unfiltered. Unfiltered tape takes leading up to each week. We do it on Thursdays here in the show. And I look at this Miami Florida State game and there's a lot of story lines, man. There's a lot of story lines I think start with this. I spent a lot of time. Because what happens is the season starts, right? And, and you watch a tape here, you, you, you focus on certain games leading up to and preview and all that stuff. And with the NFL draft prospects, a lot of times it's guys who are merging. You go in and quickly try to like get caught up on them or if someone's really, especially a quarterback. Like what's going on with Nussmeyer? What. What was going on with clubnick coming into the season? The first handful of games. What like arch, so on so forth. You know, we've had so many quarterbacks that have struggled this year. So a lot of our tape focus has gone in that direction and there's a quarterback in this game who has gone the other way. Kind of like Dante Moore, who we spent time on for Oregon. I'm glad we did that prior. You and I both agree right now what's on tape. It's not against great competition prior to Penn State, but what's on tape looks like might be number one overall draft pick. Hopefully it's 2027. But I bet you if you pull GMS right now in the NFL, it probably would be 2026 too. Don't want that for him. Don't want that for Oregon. We see what experience does. But Carson Beck, we've talked a lot about, I feel like we just beat it to death last year coming into the 2024 season. In the last season he was the top 10 pick. He was the number one quarterback. QB1, as everyone likes to say these days, right. And. And then the season happened and the struggles happened and the injury occurred and it felt like every week. We started the show on October 22 last year. I talk about it all the time. Kind of jumped right in and at that point Beck was kind of starting to struggle and there were ups and downs and. But he had some good moments. And then there were other guys like Nussmeyer who were coming on the picture plenty. And. And we were talking nauseam about Cam Ward and. And Shador Sanders. But then Beck leaves Georgia after declaring for the draft. I think people all forget, right?

[B]

We forget that he declared for the Draft.

[A]

And I, I honestly think like when you, when you put in for the, the advisory committee. The NFL is an advisory committee. You can put in a certain number of names per program and, and you can, they will give you a grade back. It's either one of three things. First round grade, second round grade, go back to school. And I think it's a very helpful tool for a lot of you, a lot of people who have agents and advisors and people in their ear that, who have no idea what they're talking about. Right. So. So Beck gets a go back to school. I probably would have had a fourth round grade on him last year somewhere in that range. I don't know you but Pete Thammel, the beginning of last season when he, when he pulled 25 executives, he, he got the most first place votes coming into or you know, in early September. So then all that happens and I've, you know, I've done the whole bit on buying Lamborghinis, having Lamborghini breaking up with the Cavender twins. Just a lot of like ick in the off season. Then the season gets ready to start, all the positive information comes and we see on the field, beat Notre Dame playing better, looks a little letter. So I, and I've, I've watched clips and I've watched some certain plays on tape, but I hadn't gone back and watched the whole thing. So I spent time in the last 48 hours watching both Beck and Bain while also watching the offense and defense for Miami. So.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

Yeah, I know you, you want to go. Let's start with Beck. Okay. In this Miami offense. And then I know you want to transition. You've got some stuff. You spent some time watching the tape with Malazan and Heatherman, the defensive coordinator. And so we can go to that side and then I can interject my thoughts on Bain. Okay. The Miami offense with Beck. Let's just do it back. NFL draft prospect. Absolutely reascending. I'm going to give you the short version. I just. Now's a good time. The McShay Report. Google it. Subscribe. This one's for free. A lot of them have been for free and will continue to be for free. There is a premium section. Eventually you're gonna, I think you, if you, if you have any interest in this stuff, especially NFL draft, you're going to want to be a part of this. So. But the McShay report gives you a detailed breakdown on Beck as a prospect. NFL comp. What round I think he would get drafted if the draft was today. And the same for Bain. Okay, so. But I want to give you just a synopsis as we prepare for this game. Carson Beck looks better to me in terms of his, like, he's not quick, he's not agile, he's not fast. I want to prep, but he's moving around a little bit better. Functional mobility inside the puck. I see him sliding, climbing, not afraid to take off and run. Just see a little bit lighter on his feet, a little bit more aggressive with his feet. That's the first thing. The second thing is I see he's real like he's comfortable in this offense. Man, his, his eyes you can watch from the tight copy, his helmet going bing, bing, bing. He's going through his progressions more, spreading the ball around to his different receivers. He loves Malachi, Tony, who wouldn't? But he's, but he's not locked on to one guy or stuck on a read. His ball placement has, was streaky on tape. And I watched the three games of importance, okay, Notre Dame, I watched South Florida and then watch Florida those three games. The Florida game was the most recent game and that was the hardest one. I don't say it was pouring rain a couple different times during that game. And so I'm trying not to, I'm trying to keep that into perspective. He didn't have any big time throws in my estimation. I know pff does their. I don't even know how, what number if they gave him 0 or 5. But there weren't any big time throws that he connected on. He missed some throws and he hit a lot of like average to above average throws. Okay. That game I kind of gleamed the least out of. If I'm being honest in, in certain regards. South Florida and Notre Dame I thought were a little bit more telling. I think he's really good, like off the play action. I think he's doing a really good job moving his feet inside the pocket. I think he's comfortable, I think he's decisive. I see a guy who's like, I don't know. I always thought everything was a lumbering at Georgia and every, every play felt like the weight of the world on him. Now I see a Carson Beck who's playing loose, making a. He's making some aggressive throws that aren't always the best idea, but he's trusting his receivers and so that works both ways. His receivers have been more reliable. They're catching the balls for the most part. They should catch. That wasn't the case always in Georgia. Right. And so there's this like Give and take. That's happening between him and his receivers, which is really fun to watch. And so I think he's playing with a level of confidence as a runner, as a pocket mover, mostly as a passer, going through his reads and pulling the damn trigger. He's not afraid to rip it. He's not afraid to make a mistake. And that's a beautiful thing for a quarterback, really. And it pays off with the, the one handed catch in the, you know.

[B]

In the Notre Dame game.

[A]

Touchdown. The Notre Dame game. It pays off in certain moments. I'll say this about Beck and Miami offensively, the thing that's missing in my, from what I can see between them, them being a really good team, that's, that's up there in the rankings and all that stuff, but like legitimately being a team that can win a national championship. And I don't know if it's something they can solve. I don't know if it's going to be overnight. I don't know what it is. I don't know like when or if. There's a lack of a vertical passing game. That's obvious in my, for Miami and I, I like I wrote, I wrote down a bunch of throws, right?

[B]

Yeah. Because the freshman Malachi Tony is awesome. But that's not his game.

[A]

It's not his game, right. And I wrote him down here and I. It doesn't matter. I mean, no one listening but, but okay, Notre dame, it was 950, first quarter. 752, first quarter, USF plays. 16, 17, 456, first quarter. 325, first quarter. Even the 39 yard touchdown to his wide receiver, number three. I've got it written down here, Joshua Moore. Thank you, Joshua Moore. It was, that was late in the first quarter. 306 in the first quarter. That was under thrown. Wasn't a terrible ball, but it was under thrown. It allowed, that could have allowed the defensive back to get back in the play. The outlier was like, was this, this other play. It was a play 30.

[B]

Let me stop you right there for a second because you said the ball wasn't great. Is it a, is it a Beck issue or is it the weapons they have aren't really suited to take the Top off?

[A]

Play 33, 19, third quarter. On my clip reel, the plays I clipped out, that was his best throw. That was a third quarter truly like the most positive example from three games where I'm like, that's what it looks like. Beautiful balls down the left side. He throws the receiver the receiver's got a step, but he throws it back over to the shoulder. Brings him to the sideline. Perfectly placed ball to wide receiver 0 Marion, right. It was a stop and go. I don't think they have, I don't think they have. Restrepo obviously ran a 4, 84 or whatever it was.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Not a vertical guy, but average 16.3 yards per catch. Jacoby George averaged 14.2. Isaiah Horton averaged 11 and he was, he's the ex possession receivers we see with Alabama. Elijah Arroyo averaged 17 yards per catch. He was a problem.

[B]

He was a problem.

[A]

Sam Brown, their fifth, fifth receiver if you include Arroyo, average 14.1. And Cam Ward was the trigger.

[B]

Right.

[A]

It's a combination. I don't see a receiver who's this big time like height, weight, speed, vertical guy who's stretching and getting consistently down the field, opening, threatening the defense. I do think I would put a little bit more weight, honestly, in the quarterback because there have been open receivers and he's missed them. So the onus is on Beck now. I don't know that they're ever going to have a great vertical passing game, but I do think, I do think that receivers have gotten open enough down the field. I mean, I know. And he hasn't connected with them.

[B]

Yeah, you would hope that, I mean that play action should create some opportunities for downfield shots. The way they run the ball, that offensive line. Yeah. The jump sets they can use and play action will play to their favor. There should be some chances to strike deep. It'll be interesting to see if that develops.

[A]

So if I'm Florida State in this game, let's, let's bring it back to the game closing on Beck. I, I think right now he's a day two pick. I, I think, I think he's ascending. I think he's put to rest all the questions and concerns, at least to a certain degree about all the other stuff. And I think he found the right home and fit. I think he's a day two pick. I, I don't know that you look at him and say he's a starter lieutenant the keys to our franchise. But I think that there's enough there where you bring him in like he can be a really good backup and maybe we can develop into a starter and let's see how the season ends, you know. But if I'm Florida State, I'm challenging these receivers. Yeah, I'm challenging these receivers, which is going to allow me. I'm going to take an aggressive approach and Tony's the guy I got to worry about and I got to try to get physical with him and I got to have over the top help and I got to have help for after the catch in case. So I'm not saying it's going to be cover zero all out like, but. But I'm, I'm aggressively like with within reason aggressively approaching this Miami offense because I got to stop the run. I gotta generate pressure on Beck and even though he's mobile, more mobile this year, he ain't mobile. He's not a running threat. And so I'm gonna, I'm gonna force Becky similar to what I was saying you should do to Drew Aller for if you're Oregon and they did, I think it's going to be that kind of game plan. What Dan Lanning and the coaching staff for Oregon had ready to go for Penn State last Saturday night.

[B]

I hear you and I think you made a very, you mentioned it briefly, but watching the Virginia upset of Florida State, the thing that jumped out to me was the way that Virginia, Virginia had, I think three drives that were 20 minutes of the game. I mean, that's a third of the game. Clock was taken up on three drives because they were able to really push around the Florida State defensive front at times. And Virginia came into that game banged up up front. It was. That was the most disturbing thing about that game was that Virginia was eight when it mattered. Virginia was able to move the ball and good for them for, you know, they would go for it on fourth down and they weren't like gashing them. They were, they were extending long drives. And to me, you look at this Miami offensive line and you look at their run game, I'm concerned about Florida. They're going to have to get more guys in the box. And if you're going to do that, you might as well be aggressive on, on, in terms of bringing guys after the quarterback. You know what I mean? Like, you already know you got to bring that safety down because if they don't, I think they're in trouble. I think that that's a, A big key for them is bringing. He's getting their safeties involved in the run game. So if that's going to be the case, you might as well heat him up. And I think it's the right approach to get him, forced him to get the ball out quickly, you know, make him uncomfortable. That's, you know, that's. I think that's the key for Florida State in this game.

[A]

Defensively, if I'm honest, I was Based off of watching games on tv. And I was expecting a little bit more out of the offense, not the offensive line, but out of the office, out of the passing game in general. Truly. I think this is a team, and this is what Mario Crystal Ball wants. This is a team built on the trenches. They've got a quarterback who is more than functional, playing at a very high level for college football. Very high. They've got some targets and some playmaker, but they're going to run the football and they're going to win up front and they're going to wear you down. And then there. And he brought in Corey Heatherman, the defensive coordinator, and we've talked about that, and I want to get to that now to go from a defense that was a liability to a major asset. So this, this year's version of Miami, while they won a lot of games and scored a ton of points and they were the national spotlight and, like, all the excitement, that team was hard to trust. Yeah, just think about, like, the Cardiac kids last year. You know, that Virginia Tech game, kind of stole one at the end. The comeback against Cal. Like, they had some. Some brutally hard games that they had to just. They had to put up massive points and rely on Cammore.

[B]

This is, of course, the Cardiac Canes. I mean, they were like, yeah, all year. It was, you know, are they going to be able to pull it out again?

[A]

But this. This is built in the image of Crystal Ball and what he was looking for. And it took a couple years to get the. The foundation right. So I'm curious for your take, because I know, like, I'm just talk to me about the Malzahn vs. Heatherman.

[B]

I was gonna say really quickly. You probably saw me typing away and I was just trying to check because all these weather delays this year has been. Has been wild.

[A]

That's weird, right?

[B]

They had one against South Florida. I thought they might have had one other one. I wonder if that affects the continuity of their offense, whether or not that's had a. You know, it's kind of an excuse, but it's something worth mentioning because it did happen with South Florida. I don't know if it happened any other game. So I was just. I was trying to check real quick to see how many of those they had. But on the flip side, I think that Gus Malzahn, the offense coordinator, versus Florida State, going against Corey Heatherman, the defense coordinator for Miami, is going to be a heavyweight fight. And a way I would describe it, and I sent this to you in a text, is Malzan wants to win with body blows. He wants to go 15 rounds. He wants to wear you out. He wants you to get to start low, you know, start lowing your hands at the end. And then he'll start coming with some head shots. And what I mean by that is Florida State's averaging about 50 carries per game. They're second in the nation in rushing.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Yeah. They're looking to get that number up. I like this Miami defensive front and I'm not sure even with that amount of carries, I think this. They've got better depth than maybe people realize. Not on the edge, but a defensive tackle. They're pretty good. So they're. He's going to try and wear this defensive front out. And by the way, Miami is eighth in rushing yards allowed per game. And have a. I mean, we're going to talk about it, I'm sure. But have studs up front. They are. Yeah, they are a great front seven in my opinion. So now you have this Malzahn wants. And he, Malza won't blink if they come out and they go three and out, three and out. Don't expect Florida State to get rid of the run game. And I'll say this also to get away from the run game, they're going to give. I think they're going to find a way to get 40 no matter what rushing attempts. And I'll say this too, Mulzan does some really interesting things. I'll just say that their quarterback counter is one of my favorite plays to watch. It's really fun with Tommy Castellanos. He's a great runner. You know, he creates numbers by doing quarterback runs. He creates numbers by doing wildcat packages that he'll bring in. He does some motions. He gets Dansey the receiver with some balls on reverses and all. That's really window dressing. Mulan is a. It's a physical downhill run game. He wants to brawl and everywhere he's gone he's had some success doing it. And you look at, look that offensive line for Florida State, maybe not the most talented offensive line in the country, but they, I mean, they got big boys up front. I mean they're, they're. They're. Right tackle Micah Petis, 349 pounds. Left guard Richie Leonard, 329. Gunner Henson is 325. The other guys are all 309 plus. So the other two are 309 plus. They're big. They had tight end Marcus and Douglas, 270 pounds. He will also. And he'll do things, you know, Malta will do things with formations and personnel groups and all that stuff. So you'll see some double, some two tight end looks, some spread looks, all of that right. On the flip side, I think Heatherman saying, I'm okay with all that. You want to get into a brawl. I've got the, I've got the guys up front to take care of this and it's going to be all handle. And I think for Heatherman, he's more of looking for that knockout punch. And what I mean by that is if Florida State gets behind the sticks a lot in this game, they are in a world of. They have a. They have some big time problems because that pass rush is going to tee off and cost. Castellanos has been good, but he's not the most accurate passer. Right. So if they could tee, if that.

[A]

Pass rush can continue off.

[B]

When you got the guys up front with Ruben Bane, who I know you're going to get into in a second, and I want to make sure I say his name right. Messador teeing off and getting at guys, then it's going to be interesting how that goes. Now Lazan will run six band, seven man, eight man protections. But I think Heatherman can con. He can, he can counter that by especially kicking Messador inside. So now you got to block him with the guard. It's harder to chip. It's harder. There's things that he can do. He'll also run a lot of simulated pressures. Well, it looks like eight guys are walking up, but then they drop seven or eight guys. So it looks like you were, you have a lot more defenders that are actually coming. And I know I'm rattling off one more thing I want to say.

[A]

Look. Yeah.

[B]

Is even though they get to. They get to you with four, and what that allows you to do is to drop into these zone looks, which makes it much harder for a mobile quarterback like Tommy Castellanos to scramble for yards because the eyes of the defenders are always facing the quarterback. They're not turning their backs and creating those, those lanes. And this team, this Miami team, we've talked about it. I'm going to talk about it again. They rallied to the football better than any other team I've seen on tape this year. They, they swarm, they. I know Castellanos takes off, he's going to have five, six guys after him right away. So that's one thing that's going to be interesting to me. I think that, that Heatherman is an advantage in terms of personnel.

[A]

He's Going to have to be careful.

[B]

He.

[A]

Will Castellanos. He's like physically holding up this.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Because they're not.

[B]

Will.

[A]

Yeah. Because he's the enemy. The opposing quarterback's always the enemy. But he's, he's wearing a, he's wearing a, A Seminole hat, you know, like.

[B]

And they're gonna have to be using him a lot in this game. He's gonna have to. There's gonna be times where he's gonna have to get down. There's gonna be times he's gonna protect his body because he's going to get a lot of carries too. They're going to use them in the running game. Like Florida State's deep at running back, but they're going to have to get him involved in the running game as well. I know I just rattled on, but.

[A]

To me, no, I love it.

[B]

The malls on that. Just wanting to pound the rock at them as much as possible. And I don't again, I don't think he'll blink if they struggle early. I think he'll stay with it. And then Heatherman, having the guys up front to really get after their quarterback. It's interesting to me.

[A]

I think I watched 70, 76 plays, put together a reel for Bane in the three games. Reuben Bain Jr. The, the Edge rusher, I don't remember. I mean, I'm sure there were, but let's put it this way, I don't, I can't like recall. And I watched the rest of. I started last night, watched the rest this morning. It's fresh in my mind. I don't recall a five man pressure.

[B]

No, it looks like they're bringing them, but they don't.

[A]

But like when, when, as the rush progressed, it was always Bane and his three buddies.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You know, I, so with Beck, I was pleasantly, I was pleased by the progression in his game from what we saw at Georgia when it felt like it was struggling, but I, but there was. There's a ceiling on with which I'm able to. I have to put cap on it in terms of. It's not everything you want to see. Bain has been fucking awesome. I don't know.

[B]

He's got all the tools like, he's got all the tools that like, short.

[A]

Of like running a 4, 5 as an end. He's not a speedster.

[B]

You're right.

[A]

But, but, but you don't need that in the NFL. In fact, go, go and look at any point in time whether it could be week four in the NFL, it could be week 16. Go look at the sack leaders every year. They're. It's a. It's heavily weighted towards the physical, powerful guys who also have become masters with their hands. If I had to nitpick on Bane, it's. Yeah, he's not a burner, fine. But it's. He's improving with his hand usage and his array of pass rush moves, but he's still got room to grow. And that's like a. It's a. It's a negative. But it's also like, if he just. If. When he. Because he will. When he continues to get better, this guy's gonna be scary. I can't. I. I haven't watched every player for every team in the entire country. I don't know how you could. I'd put Bane up against any player in the country. I know there's Arvell Reese and the Ohio State dude. Like I gave a rant on that.

[B]

Careful.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Everyone come out of the.

[A]

If you're yelling. I'm just saying, I. It would be hard to find many other players, if any, that have had been more impactful than Bane has been for this defense. And I'm talking rundowns, powering up guys, getting off blocks, chasing. I'm talking pass rusher, setting guys up with power, then coming back with a flash to hand, dip and rip. I think Bane and go read the McShay report. I go through great detail and have all sorts of plays clipped off, and you can get. Really get the full experience. He's six threes, 270, 275. He's got 22 tackles, three and a half tackles for loss. You say McShay no more impactful. My guy's got six sacks. Yeah, he's only got two sacks. But I want you to really watch. I want you to watch the pressures, the hurries, the way he is affecting the game. And then I also want you to watch how many times he's doubled, chipped, dealt with with multiple blockers. And I also want you to then go look at your other stats and realize there are eight different dudes on Miami with this, at least a sack this year. Bane is freeing up a lot of other guys to go cook. From Akeem Messador with his two and a half to Ahmad Moten, Booker Pickett, Muhammad Torre, Jacoby Thomas, Marquis Lightfoot, Armando Blunt, the. The common denominator with all those names I just ripped off, they all have a sack. At least a sack this year. So, like, when I look at the Keldrick Fox, the TJ Parkers, falk from Auburn, Parker from Clemson. When I look at Over LT Overton from Alabama, Mateo Ungalile, Anto Sacco from Northwestern, Zion Young, Missouri. Danny Donnie, Dennis Sutton from. From Penn State, Tyreek Sapp, Florida. David Bailey, Texas Tech. Gabe Jackets from. From Illinois. A lot of dudes. Lot of dudes. Bane's the best of them. This is a top. Bane's a top 10 pick.

[B]

This is the guy. I agree.

[A]

This is. This is the guy.

[B]

And he. Listen, it's. This isn't new necessarily for him. It's just this last year he was banged up and didn't play quite as well as he did two years ago. Two years ago he was lights out, too. I mean, he's always been a good player.

[A]

Sorry, Jared Verse, man. There's a lot of similarities.

[B]

It's more power. Yeah. Yep. It's a. He's a power rusher, by the way. I don't know if you saw what Jared Verse did to that poor Indianapolis cold center over the weekend, but, oh, my God, he ran right through him. And then almost Superman did into Danny Dimes. It was unreal.

[A]

Miami's minus four and a half. Let's just throw it out there at Florida State night. Yeah.

[B]

Can I throw one thing in here and I'll make it quick? I think you're. I told you I was going to do this. I don't know if you love it, but I'm gonna say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're. If you were scootering around town on Friday night last year as, like last week, like our guy Dan likes to do at times, you might have only caught the highlights of the Virginia Florida State game, and you would have seen that Deuce Robinson, the big receiver for Florida State, dropped a pass in the end zone. They would have tied the game in overtime. I want to remind people that, that. Well, that was a tough play and he should have caught that. That dude also had nine catches for 147 yards and a touchdown in that game. And I think he's developing to a player for them, and I really think he's the ultimate wild card in this game because his ability to win against his own looks. He's a big target, he can settle, but his ability to win 50, 50 balls downfield. And what he's developing with Castellanos on back, shoulders, back, shoulder throws is giving them more of a downfield element. He's not a quick guy, but somehow he's getting dudes to jump on these double moves and getting behind them. And he's a little More. He builds speed as he goes. He's fast enough to get down there. I mean you should see how they handle him. If they don't try to get more physical with the line of scrimmage and make it tough for him to start building up that speed. Miami's got good size at corner, but this kid's 6 foot 6, 223 pounds. That's different. He's built like a tight end. He was, he was recruited to play tight end at USC originally and they moved him wide receiver. So he's a, he's a real wild card this game. If they can start getting some back shoulder stuff going and start to get a vertical element to this offense, it's going to be interesting to see how Miami counters.

[A]

I don't want to pick against Miami, but we, I feel like we've seen this movie before. Team has a. Team has a look ahead game, right? Team was overrated. Team gets a home game against a rival in a big spot Friday night, expects the other team who's ranked really high to come in and like, oh, they're frauds. We found out. And the game is like, whoa, not what we expected. So like the fanduel guy in me is like, I think and the line's only four and a half. You know, I kind of like Florida State in this spot because I just, I have a hard time believing it's not going to be a tight game to the end and you give me the four and a half points but.

[B]

I like it. I like, I just, I'm so. I feel like you have a better big picture feel. I'm just going to admit this. You have a better big picture feel. And I'm such a week to week tape guy that after watching that Florida State defense getting pushed around I'm like, oh, they're going to get pushed around again by Amy. Which does not always happen. It just doesn't work like that. If players have bad games, teams have bad games.

[A]

And again, some of the worst handicappers in the world are coaches and people who are watching the tape. Like so like I always. There are two sides of my brain. One is the tape and evaluation side. The other is I've learned over time like put it wagering on. On. On a side literally has all. Outside of like the Oregon game last week and look at that. That almost was a mess. But outside of like a certain circumstance where you're like oh no, like this is not what people think it is. More often than not it's like it's like the right side of your brain versus the left side of your brain. Like they're two different. Yeah.

[B]

USC at Illinois, I was convinced.

[A]

Oh, me too. Convinced that USC was gonna, Washington was going to keep it tight. It was going to be like, I, I learned that Ohio State's defense, defense might be like generationally good.

[B]

Yeah. So I hear you. Listen, Florida State hasn't had a hard time. Now, this is a different defense, but Florida State hasn't had a hard time moving the ball or putting points on the board. So it's gonna, it's gonna, it's gonna be a good game. I think it's gonna be a battle.

[A]

All right. We purposely went, you know, took a chunk of time to do that because that's, that's the game. This week, the McShay show is brought to you by FanDuel. Ready to fire up your Saturdays, FanDuel's got a boost you don't want to miss. It's called boosting with the boys and it's giving everyone a college football profit boost every single week. So here's how it works. Each week we're giving everyone a profit boost to use on college football. No opt in gymnastics, no invite, only nonsense. Everyone gets the boost. We're talking real games, real teams, real Saturdays with an extra payout on the line. It's easy, it's fun, and it's only on FanDuel. Go to FanDuel.com McShay and to download the app, check out the Boostin with the boys offer and get in on the action. Must be 21 and older and present in select states or 18 and older and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Opt in required bonus issued as non withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply including any token expiration and max wager amount. See [e-mail] gambling problem. Call 1-800-G GAMBLER or visit rg d help.com or call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chatinconnecticut this episode is brought to you by Vuori. As an analyst, I'm a rankings guy. I scope the landscape, look at all the prospects and then make the call. And looking at the Vuori Sunday performance jogger, it's safe to say I found your new favorite jogger. Soft, lightweight, four way performance stretch. The Sunday performance jogger moves with you. No restrictions. And get this. We just landed a deal for friends of our show. They're offering 20% off your first purchase. Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the [e-mail] McShay exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. This episode is brought to you by Duluth Trading Co. Ready to give rival tailgates the foam finger? Duluth Trading Co. Crafts hall of Fame game day gear to help you grill hotter, cheer louder and tailgate longer. Trust me, like I'm a scene at the grill, I know what this is all about. They've got bibs loaded with pockets, gusted pants so you can crouch without snuffing out your coals and free swinging shirts tailor made for beanbag tossing or some like to call it cornhole. Stay comfortable from preseason to playoffs in the toughest tailgate attire around. Only at Duluth Trading Co. But we got a few other games that I want to touch on. Vanderbilt Alabama. It's 330 ABC game. Vanderbilt's plus ten and a half. I'm gonna rip off a few things. I I don't know how much you you watched of this game. I I actually did some tape this morning this after I got done with Bain today. The Vandy's defense on on paper has been excellent and has been excellent. Right. Except for South Carolina and really the team in general. And you look at that South Carolina game, you're like what was the final? 31 to 6.

[B]

31.

[A]

7 7.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And you're like oh they, they dominate. If you just watch some highlights or popped in and out of that game. Oh, they dominated South Carolina. Yeah. But they ran the ball 37 times in that game. Vendor Bill did only 26 passes which is good. You get a lead and you run the ball out. But nearly identical they were with South Carolina in total offense.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Only two more first downs in South Carolina. The reason I'm focusing on South Carolina is it's a fellow SEC opponent. It's the best opponent they faced all year. They played Virginia Tech. But that and the three other games were like, like throw it out.

[B]

And remember Lenora Sellers left that game. He. That was the game that there's a.

[A]

There's two big butts in this and one has and they're tied together. Star quarterback who's carrying that team. And it's become kind of a one man show for, for the Gamecocks. Got injured early and South Carolina turned the ball over five times. Five. Okay.

[B]

Tough to win doing that.

[A]

So when you go back and I watched the tape it's like it wasn't quite the like physical domination that you would expect. Vandy's run game. I'm going to Focus on this side of the ball for a minute because I'm really intrigued against because everyone's saying that Alabama while they had a great performance against Georgia last week, their linebackers are over aggressive. They have holes versus the run game.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

Yeah. I mean and, and, and, and Georgia gashed them on the ground at times.

[B]

They did.

[A]

Florida, Florida State gashed them. Okay, so and Florida State. You know tap me if if this sounds familiar. Mobile quarterback leads the team in rushing misdirection can, can take a defense that has some second level guys that struggle with, with discipline and are get overzealous and can make them look silly at times and can really exploit them. So Vandy's 18th in the country in Russia, 224 rushing yards per game. A lot of misdirection QBs involved similar to Mel Zahn Castellanos. Right. Gave that back seven trouble. Pavia actually leads the team in rushing which surprised me when I looked that up. 294 yards rushing, six yards per pop. Cedric Alexander's been a good back for them, 5.28 per pop. Macklin Young, McKylen Young I guess as just 20 carries was averaging 10 10.5 so and obviously brings a little bit of juice but for it to be enough, I guess this is my point for it to be enough against Alabama that run game Pavi is going to have to hit downfield some throws. He's got to keep them backed off and when they're not backed off he's got to exploit it. I don't know that they have the guys and I know you'll get to Eli Stowers in a second. Trey Richardson Jr. Cheryl, Richie Hoskins, they've all been productive. 18, 17, 10 receptions respectively for those three Cheryl's the has been like the bigger play guy. 13.2 yards per catch, five touchdowns. Stop ripping off numbers. It's not what we do. But I'm just giving, I'm setting this up so you understand like the past game is not overly sophisticated. It is built on jet sweeps, misdirections, play actions, quick game, lot of screens, lot of quick game stuff. Occasionally they'll try to pop one down the field. Occasionally they'll run a crosser. Pavia is not a very sophisticated passer of the football. What he does really well is he. They. They'll move the pocket with him. Sometimes sometimes off of play action he'll boot. Sometimes pressure come but like it's not sustainable and you say well it was last year. McShay Remember 40, 35 at Vandy I'd.

[B]

Like to talk about that game.

[A]

Okay good. I don't see it.

[B]

At all.

[A]

And maybe this is where you and I the tape guys watch Alabama on both sides of the ball and then watch Vanderbilt I think like if Alabama gives Vanderbilt and I and by the way Pavia, I love you. Yeah I love, I love the competitor, I love the guy. I, I'm even I'm here for the nonsense. You know me I secret others other like very official analysts that I'm here for the nonsense. I'm here for your mom dating on and like all of it But I'm not quite here for you saying if we keep this game between the lines. I'm paraphrasing not quoting that that we're going to handle Alabama.

[B]

We're going to like he did not say that.

[A]

Oh yeah. Something like it's going to. We're going to win and win easily. I think is about what he said and so now you've woken up the giant.

[B]

If he's already pissed off.

[A]

If they weren't already pissed off from a year ago.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So go ahead.

[B]

Can I just tell you this is just one thing that these two numbers I know we said I'm going to do a lot of numbers. I'm about to throw a bunch of numbers at this game because that was this is my numbers game this week. But I'll say this. Vanderbilt had the ball for 42 minutes and eight seconds last year and had an interception return for a touchdown in that game. Do you know how hard it is to have the ball for like it's statistically strange. I'll say I'll put it that way rare where you actually have an interest because if you have an interception return for touchdown you basically are giving the ball back to Alabama's offense and here they come again. They should. That should eat up some clock and despite that 42 minutes and 8 seconds and one of the reasons that happened was penalties in Alabama making dumb mistakes and extending drives and they still only won that game by five. Vanderbilt's, Vanderbilt is a better team this year. I do believe that. I also think Alabama's a better team and they may not have. I'm not getting into draft evaluations right now. I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about talent at certain positions. We will get into that at some point. I'm talking about Alabama being a better football team playing with more confidence, having more balance on offense there all of these things I think are true. I think Alabama is a better team and this game's at Alabama. It was at Vanderbilt last year. One of the players, I guess I'll just transition this really quickly. One of the players that I think is interesting to keep an eye on is the Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers because he had 6 for 113 last year. Every one of those catches resulted in a first down and four of them came on third down. Now it's interesting when you look back and you look at the breakdown of those teams of those catches, two of them were shovel passes, another one was a scramble drill. But I'll say this about him. He's an excellent runner after the catch and that shovel pass is a real threat. You got to keep an eye on him. They got a better death to do a better job of staying gap sound in case he gets that ball and you can wrap him up. He's also, he's an excellent route runner for a tight end and they do some things with rub routes that help him get open. But man, I mean, we just watched Alabama go against Georgia and I like Georgia's tight ends. You know how many catches they had last week, those Georgia tight ends?

[A]

How many?

[B]

Zip. Zip. I like. You talk about the. I thought you were gonna get the aggressiveness of Alabama's linebackers. Maybe you could talk about that in the run game. I love how Alabama's linebackers match up once routes are declared. And underneath those zone coverage, they are aggressive about getting a body on a body. They do not sit there and they do not guard grass. Makes it tougher. I think they're doing a really good job in coverage right now under on that, that second level. So to me, you know, he had a great game last year. I think he's, he could get, he could, you know, make some plays in this game. I don't think he's going to hurt Alabama like he did last year. I don't think Alabama is going to only have the ball for 18 minutes in this game. I don't think they're going to make the same kind of mistakes. I, I think this is a different Alabama team. I think this is a pissed off Alabama team. This would have been dangerous if they, this game would have been dangerous if they had beat Vanderbilt last year. So I guess that's the silver lining for Alabama fans about losing to Vanderbilt last year is that if you had gone into Georgia and gotten that win and then you had Vanderbilt the next week, that's a trap game to me. But they're, they're. I, if they're not, I'd Be really surprised about not being pissed off about that loss at all. Everything they heard after that game and it was bad, it was bad after that game about how Alabama was over. All of like it was. It was as bad as it gets. So I can't imagine that team not being fired up to get their revenge.

[A]

This is my fan dual pick of the week.

[B]

It was almost mine.

[A]

It's Alabama -10 and a half, I think. I don't want to say they can choose their number. I think that they can, they can, they can allow Pavia to hang around this game and Pavia will take every bit, every little window of opportunity. But if Alabama plays close to the level that, that we've seen it play most recently, Wisconsin was one thing. Georgia between the hedges is another. I'm not expecting that same level of intensity or even preparation, you know, dialing in the week before. But I think, I think they'll be prepared enough because of last year. I think they'll be prepared enough because of Pavia and the quotes. I think it'll be an easier. This will be one of the easiest Alabama head coaching motivational weeks. It better be in the history of Alabama head coaches having to go up against Vanderbilt. Okay. For a lot of different reasons and I think for. Because of that I could easily see this being a 20 point game.

[B]

Yeah, I, by the way, I mean no disrespect to Vanderbilt. I think they are last year. I think they're a better team than last year. And I like Pavia too, like all of that. I just think this Alabama team, we. After that Florida State loss, we were quick to dismiss it like we did last year. And I think they're. I think they're good, man. I think.

[A]

Give me your. Give me your FanDuel pick of the week.

[B]

I got the Cincinnati moneyline against Iowa State. We talked about Iowa State kind of being a paper towelier all year. And I remember this. It was opening night.

[A]

Saban's favorite team. Man. Careful.

[B]

Oh really? I didn't know that.

[A]

Every week he loves him some Rocco Becton.

[B]

Yeah, they played well.

[A]

But I just.

[B]

Look, I, I got it. I got a text the first game. Nebraska, Cincinnati. A scout texted me and said this is the coming out party for Brendan Sorsby, the quarterback for Cincinnati. And when you look at him over the. Since the second half of the Nebraska game, I mean he's had two. He was 333 yards against Bowling Green, 388 yards last. Last week passing against Kansas. I think he's a very mobile Quarterback who's starting to find his rhythm as a passer and could hurt you with his legs. On top of that, I think Cincinnati, I think Cincinnati gets Iowa State this week. So I'm taking. That's the money line. I think Iowa State's been really good and really solid, but when you look at the teams they've beat, I. I got some questions.

[A]

All right. I think it's a pro and I still want to get. There's some other games. So Texas, Florida, Texas Tech, Houston. A couple thoughts and a couple of updates and. And I know, man, she's got a couple things on his mind, too, as it pertains to week six in college football. But we're coming off of Alabama and Paul F. Fine bomb show is began and continues to go from Alabama. So I made a comment as we touched on in the beginning, I made a comment the other night and I said that, gonna paraphrase my own quote, but something along the lines of that Paul Feinbomb is a. I went beyond coward. I said, he's a something coward.

[B]

I thought that was bad enough. I remember coward. I thought that was bad enough.

[A]

I think an all time coward. And I also, I also said that, that I also alluded to and it was picked up on by, you know, awful announcing Bleacher Report. I didn't even know it was a thing. And I started getting all these texts and I was like, oh, here we go. So let me just address it, okay? It's like the elephant in the room. My contract with ESPN officially ended yesterday, October 1st. And by contract, I mean, obviously I've been with the Ringer and Spotify. Thrilled to be here. Like, we're building something special. My life has changed. It's different than it was before. I'm in the happiest, healthiest place I've ever been in my entire life. And I'm thrilled to be doing it with one of my best friends in the world. And the people that we work with on this show have been phenomenal. And like, I'm at home. I've said that. Right. But I also want to make it perfectly clear, while it was a kind of a. ESPN was so good to me and certain people there that when I decided to come to the Ringer and Spotify, they have, they said you could still stay on. We'll supplement your income, keep you whole as you're building this thing and start putting together certain things. Want to take care of you. You took care of us. And I was, I was a soldier for ESPN.

[B]

It was the right thing.

[A]

For 17 years. They did the right thing by me. And I've always done. I tried to do the best, you know, the right thing by ESPN for a long time. It was a great relationship for the vast majority of it. Like any work worker in a, in a situation in a corporate. Like, you're not going to love everyone you work with and all that stuff. But I do. Like, I want to start this whole thing by saying, just because my. The final tie was snipped on October, October 1st, this is not going to become a Todd McShay scorched earth tour on ESPN. It's just not. It's not my. It was not my experience and it's not who I am. I love Burke Magnus. I started with Burke Magnus. He was in Charlotte when I first learned how to do a little bit of television for espnu. He's been wonderful to me. A lot of executives there, wonderful to me throughout my years, through the thick and the thin. Okay. I have friendships that will be lifelong friendships. I consider a lot of people there, from the Steve Levy's, the Brian Greasy to the Sean McDonough's to the herb Street, Chris Fowler, Des Howard, David Pollock, with people who are still there, who aren't there. Joe Testator, like, inviting me down to his restaurant and letting me have his box to go up to Saratoga. Like, I have so many experience. Jesse Palmer, you know, Schefter, Pete Thamill, still friends, like Stanford Steve, my Stanford Steve, Chris Felica. Like, honestly, I, I feel bad even saying some names because.

[B]

Right. There's just so many.

[A]

If you gave me 30 minutes and a pen and paper and I sat down, there would be over a hundred names of people that I consider to be truly friends. Okay. And they're varying levels of friendships and. But there are many on there that I consider almost extended family. I traveled so much with them and, you know, you just become extended family on the road. So this is not going to be the Todd McShay tour. But there are some things that I didn't like at espn and it was not a corporate thing and it wasn't the top executive within Burke Magnus, but there were some people there that I didn't like, and I think that's common for anyone. Any experience with the corporation, Right.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

I don't want to say none more so, but let me give you the background on, on Paul Feinbaum. I worked with Paul for probably a decade or so right around there. Not, not like intimately, all the time. Like, we. We've had very different roles at espn Came, you know, cross paths here and there. Okay. I want. I want people to understand, like, when. When Paul was brought in, he started showing up at, like, college bowl games and, like, national championships and things like that. Like, there are a circle of people. I hope. Hope everyone realized that, like, oh, he looks different. Oh, he's. He's £100, wearing, you know, wearing boots. He doesn't know ball. He doesn't, you know, it's almost, you know, a little bit of that, like, bullying stuff of like, oh, Paul, he's this, he's that, he's the other thing. I. I never got involved in that. Find me if you can find. If someone wants to say, well, yeah, you did. Come on, say it. I never did. I didn't protect him because I didn't know him, but I never piled on or did anything like that. I. When. When asked to go on his show, there were some shows I didn't want to go on, and sometimes I would say, no, I'm all set. That wasn't one of them. I. I respected what he did, even though it was completely different from what we do. They. They brought him in not because he's one of the guys and one of the. One of the crew. They brought him in because he has an audience down in the south, and people either love him or hate him. And the people who hate him probably listen and watch more. More than the people who love them all. That said, this is not like some petty thing. There were some things over time that happened that rubbed me the wrong way that Paul probably doesn't even know. Some comments, some things. Okay. But it wasn't. It never reached a point where I wouldn't say, yeah, go on. In fact, that last year I was at espn. I was traveling, doing games every other week, and I probably won on his live show. I went on his live show a couple times. I probably was on his show during the fall, close to 10 times. Let's call it seven or eight times. Okay. I never. I never said no, I never. You know, even though some things that happened, I'm like, ah, it's just Paul, right? But the final straw was the Jalen Carter situation. Okay. Ah, yeah. The final call straw was the Jalen Carter situation. I'll never forget. I don't even know why, but it was on in the background, and I. In my living room downstairs, and someone called in about Jalen. I don't know, someone. A caller called in and. And asked about J. Did you hear about Todd McShay with the Jaylen Carter stuff? And, And Paul responded, okay. And I watched him sit there and talk about me like he didn't even know me. Todd McShay had some disparaging comments about his character. He went to, he, he said, I've talked to people in Athens. I've talked to people around college football. I've talked to people who would know. And they not only say there's. They have no idea what he's talking about. It's erroneous. It's, it's. It's. He, he should be reprimanded like, whatever. I'm paraphrasing all of what he said, essentially. Not only does Todd not know what he's talking about, but this guy's a model citizen. This guy's everything that you want in a college football player. This guy's the, the. Should be the face of the Georgia program. Right? And so in a time, remember, I think I said in December of 2022 for the 2023 draft, correct me if I'm wrong here. And, and so there was this. And I said it, and I was kind of preparing people for, yeah, he's the most talented player in this draft. And you see it on the field when he's right. He's one of the most talented players in that entire league. But there's some stuff. And I want people to understand, I, I, and, and Colin Cowherd had my back on this. And later on in the process when, when the arrest happened and he left the combine.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And I'll get to that in a second. And he put it well, he said he had my back, saying, you know, the media does a great job of attacking other people in the media, but we don't do a good job of coming back and apologizing and correcting it when it turns out that that person in the media was right. And I can tell you, I sleep very well at night knowing a. I have never once ever made any mention of anything to do with character or injury or anything where I wasn't 100% certain. Checked and double checked and triple checked and quadruple checked. And I can tell you this, too, about Jaylen Carter. I had. For most players, if there is a character blip, you have about that much of a paragraph. Okay, you gotta. It's whether it's an arrest. It's a. It's a. It's a source. It's whatever. And so I keep play. We. You. We have. You and I have been doing this for 25 years, Steve. We have, like, a little note section on the character Stuff so that we're up to speed, speed on it and we share it with each other. For jalen, I had two full pages like 12 font of incidents, behavioral on the practice field, classroom stuff on campus, off campus, on and on. And. But I have sources that give me this information. Then I go to other sources to double check it. In a case like this, if I'm going to say it, I, I better go get a third and fourth and fifth. Okay. And I did. And so it finally got to a point in December. Going into that process, I think it was like the first mock draft or something. I'm in Bristol was like, if he doesn't go one or two, it's probably. And if there is a slide here, it's going to be because of the character issues that I'm hearing about. There are concerns in the league. So I did that and it blew up. And people in Athens still hate me and people like after the fact and there and from, from big talk shows to Paul Fine bomb show to everywhere else, they're going after me. The problem I had with Paul is I was on your show all, all fall, right? Your producers and, and, and your producers and, and people around your show. Like there's some shows where like you get one call and then it may be a follow up email before the show. Here's the rundown. And are some shows like Paul is like, they, they text or call or email incessantly. They had, they knew how to get me. Paul could have texted me. Paul's producer could have texted me. In fact, I was waiting for someone from that show to call me and say, hey, the show just ended. We realized this is a bigger thing. Can you come on the show tomorrow? And I probably would have gone on and blasted him because what he did in a moment of volatility, I wasn't worried about what I said, but it, it didn't feel good knowing that all of Athens was after me and that people around the media landscape were blasting me. And I was all over message boards and social media and talk shows and everything. This is a. McShay is disparaging the name of Jalen Carter and show us the proof situation. And so my own teammate, a guy who I've worked with, who I didn't pile on him personally, who when called to come on his show to enhance his show, I was there for him. I showed up, I did the segments, I came on me, I brought McDonough over, we went to the set, we did a big like, I did a lot of stuff. I'M not trying to oversell, but I was there. I showed up, supported his show. Didn't have to. Didn't do much for my career to go on the Paul Feinbaum show. I'll be honest with you. It just didn't. But I did because I'm a teammate. You can say that a lot of people can throw a lot of accusations at me, some of them true, some, some I would argue, but, but no one out there would say that McShay's a bad teammate, you know, So I, I, I have a loyalty thing. And so when someone in your own team does this and they have your number, they have your email, and they can reach out or have one of their people reach out, and they don't, and they feel so comfortable sitting there and piling on. Now it's not just people in Athens. Now I get the whole south right.

[B]

Now it's an SEC thing.

[A]

Now it's an SEC thing. So that pissed me off. Then you know what pissed me off more?

[B]

Oh.

[A]

Here'S the timing of the whole situation with Jaylen Carter. The arrest warrant was issued on the first day of the draft, March 1, 2023, for Jaylen Carter. The charges were that Carter was charged with two misdemeanor counts, reckless driving and racing. He turned himself in, booked and released, posted a $4,000 bond, returned to the combine on March 2. Finishes interviews and measurements. As you'll well remember, you know, we were covering the whole thing, the context of the charges, where there's a fatal crash. The charges stem from a fatal crash on January 15th. So this was my comments and everything that happened and the fein bomb response and him, you know, put up pulling, pouring fuel on the fire. All happened before any, Even before this incident on January 15, hours after the national championship game. Okay. The crash killed Georgia offensive lineman Devin Willock and staff member Chandler Lacroix. All of that, all of my, my comments and all of this stuff happened before the incident. Then it goes to the combine. So instead, in this, like, it was bad enough the first time around, and I, I texted and called executives. I was pissed. And I, I can't remember another time where I, like, I, like, went out of my way. It wasn't like we were in a.

[B]

Meeting and I brought executives at espn, right. Okay.

[A]

And they talked me off the ledge. Like, that's just Paul, you know, and he shouldn't have done it, but, like, next play. And so I did, I moved on. And I'm taking, I'm taking a beating, right? You saw it, it pissed you out even more than me at times. And I just. I'm actually good with that stuff. I. I've been through enough wars with all of this, and I know when I'm right, and I know when. And could I have given some more detail? But if I did, then I was giving up sources. And that's what Cowherd said. Of all the. He said, you know, we don't do a good job of coming back and. And. And telling people out there that when we were wrong about other people in the media. But Todd could have given some. Some specifics. The problem is if I give specifics, then I'm. Then the people who gave me that information feel like I'm selling them out. So I keep. Not.

[B]

Not to put words in your mouth, but you're also trying to protect the player. A little bit of. You're gonna. People are gonna ask you why.

[A]

If I read the sheet of stuff that the people told me, it would have been damning, and you don't want to do that. I'm not here for that, man. I just wanted to let people know this could be coming up. And you know what? It did. And you know what? I was privy to the conversation that happened between Howie Rose and the agent, too, on draft night because there was. There were some. Some stipulations that had to be put in place and some promises and some. Some. I don't want to say begging, but, like, there was a whole backstory there. I had all the information. Okay. But instead. Then after this incident, instead of going on and saying, you know what? Oh, first of all, instead of just keeping my name out of your mouth, Paul Fine, bomb. You came on and almost doubled down. And that's what sent me over the edge because he goes on and he referenced the fact. Oh, oh, and by the way, in the very beginning when he did this, when he responded to the person on his show, he said. He insinuated that. Of course, I'm just reading. According to Feinbomb, the negative report could have been a quote, unquote, smoke. Smoke screen floated. Floated to McShay in order to get Jalen Carter. So now I'm. Now I'm complicit in this.

[B]

Naive. Yeah, Right.

[A]

So now here we are. So the incident occurs, and everyone gets their first, you know, public glimpse of, you know, there's some stuff that's going on with Jalen Carter, and this. This is going. This will affect his draft stock. And. And maybe Todd was on to something. Maybe there is information out there that the public doesn't know. So he goes on and says, I'll say this about Jalen Carter. Until yesterday, he had an impeccable reputation. This is the day after that arrest. There was a report that came out earlier this year by Todd McShay. So my name's back in Paul Fine Bomb's mouth. Yeah. That there were some character issues. I went to numerous people in Athens and around college football, and quite frankly, I could not find anyone to contribute to that. To contribute to that report. I mean, my blood's still burning reading this thing. I could. I couldn't find any players who privately would say that. In fact, all I heard was to the contrary about how well he. He has handled himself, how liked he has been by almost everyone in that community. That doesn't mitigate anything that we know now, that we now know. But I think it will be a critical factor moving forward to him to determine whether he goes as high as number one or. Or falls dramatically. If you're a teammate, if you're a coworker, or if you're just a decent person and you added to someone's problem and you piled on or you threw gasoline on a situation and then something happens. You don't come out and do that and then be like, yeah, Todd said it. No one else I talked to was right. No one else I talked to said he was right. But, yeah, this might affect his draft stock a little bit. Hey, Paul Carter had an impeccable record. Carter. Carter had impeccable character. Because you talked to probably one person at Georgia and they're going to protect their guy. Hey, Paul, pick up your phone, call me, shoot me a text, email. That's my whole thing. He didn't call me directly to get background. He didn't call for my comments. He didn't have me on his show. He did nothing but keep my name in coming out of his mouth in a negative regard without doing any work or just asking the person who said the comments, who also works for the same company you do, who also was on your show dozens of times throughout the years, come on set on college campuses with you, and was on your show between five and ten times that fall. And instead of doing what you Instead, you just. Paul, instead of doing the right thing, you just do what you did. What you do. You incite more drama. You just throw shit out there that you know nothing about. Paul knew nothing about this situation. He made a call, maybe two, to people who are going to help protect their guy, and he stirs more up. And so he gets everyone in the south not just Athens after me. Right. And so that's it. So when I say he's an all time coward, that's why I say it. When I say he has no loyalty, that's why I say it. And to be honest with you, I think the guy's a rat. And so he's perfect to be a politician. That's a good way to end it.

[B]

I'll say this.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If there's only one thing in fairness to him, or not really in fairness to him, I think it's worth mentioning he wasn't the only one. And I remember there were, there were others and I, and I will not forget that there were others. And some of it's just making a mistake and learning from it and that's fine. But there were others who wanted to hop on that train and use your, your backlash as a way for them to propel their careers or get likes or whatever. And he wasn't the only one. I will say. You brought up Colin Coward. He is, he doesn't know me from Adam. I've had a couple conversations with him while you were there, you know, in Bristol. He is one of the nicest human beings. He's exactly who he is on air as he is off air.

[A]

So there are a lot of good.

[B]

Ones out there, man. There are a lot of good ones.

[A]

Oh, Colin's great. Colin's great.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You don't always have to agree. This takes. And that's part of the whole thing. Colin is it, right? Colin's Collins, one of the ones. Like, that's how it should be, you know, And I also, I don't want, like, I don't want people to think, like, ESPN just bailed on you. Like, yeah, certain people did and I learned then, but there were a lot of, a lot more in that building that, that had my back and supported me throughout the whole thing. And I honestly, like, I, I, I promise you there were times where you were more upset and, and bothered and pissed off than I was because, like, I'm just. But that's that. All right, Texas, Florida, here we go. Oh, sorry.

[B]

No, it's good, it's good.

[A]

Yeah. How do you transition? I was transit transition with this, I actually this, this afternoon right before we came on the show, I watched all the drop backs for Arch.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

It was, and it was.

[B]

How you feeling?

[A]

It was, it was Sam Houston State. Right? Yep, I think it was. And then another, some other tape versus. No, no, no, I watched all the tape, remember? Okay. I did that whole Arch report. If you want to go back and watch and, and read it. It's on the McShay report. Really detailed breakdown of of all the games leading up to that, that Sam Houston State game. Right. What I hadn't done, because I had written it and we talked about it last week. What I hadn't done is go actually.

[B]

Watch the, oh, the latest game. I got you the latest game.

[A]

Yeah. And, and so I just did that. I literally just did that. Right. And, and I was encouraged, man. And because everyone knows like he stood on top of the defender and ran in the touchdown. So I wanted to see like what actually happened on tape. And like I'm not, excuse me, I'm not kidding myself. It ain't Florida. It ain't, you know, it's certainly not Ohio State. It's a different level and, and you can get comfortable in the pocket and you have wide open receivers. But I was looking for the little things, right. Like is what I saw with Arch is he, he actually made some big time throws in the game. His best Throw was the second or third quarter to DeAndre Moore is like a deep crosser defender, defenders. Yeah that was a nice throw.

[B]

That was a nice ball and he.

[A]

And he had a few good throws. I watched his footwork and I, I, I would be interested to talk, I would be interested to talk to him at some point. It seemed like from the very, like the very first throw it was. And I was just this past Saturday my uncle Cal and I, Cal was on our show, his son Ty and Drew and my son Tay. We went with the quarterback coach Alex McLaughlin and, and but just watching like because, because his son Ty has, is a baseball player right. And so he has that long like think of a crow hop that long delivery and working on tightening it up and it almost felt like he's working on like keep like more narrow base feet like and, and, and it could be misconstrued at times as like happy feet in the pocket and all that. But I think he's working through. I got, I'm a taller long, long lever. I gotta keep my feet tight, you know to keep that base to not over stride. And we saw some over striding on some missed throws, right? Yeah it was encouraging but like what does that mean for Florida? The Florida.

[B]

Yeah, what does that mean for Florida?

[A]

I saw another drop from, from Wingo, but I saw a couple nice like there was good and bad.

[B]

Florida's busy beat up in the pass rush by the way. They're, they're pretty beat up up front.

[A]

There are two things that I'm most. Three things that I'm just gonna throw out at you, and I don't have answers, but they're questions that I can't wait for. 3:30pm on ESPN. My former employer, number nine, Texas at Florida. We all know the storylines. We all know. Three things I'm really fascinated by. First of all, does Texas come out and attack early, like, take some shots, be aggressive? Because the second thing I'm most. I'm really curious about is how long is this Florida defense going to keep playing for this team? How long are those 11 individuals that are on the field wearing a Gators jersey, Gators helmet? How long are they willing to lay it all on the line? Because they have laid it all on the line. Man, I'm. I'd be so damn proud of this defense if I was one of the coaching members of the staff on the defensive side for Florida. This group has been put in one bad situation after another. You talk about loyal, you talk about, like, team. You talk about all those things. This unit is the epitome. Okay, how long will they be able to play with that. That level of effort? And then number three is, do the slight improvements and the footwork and some of the things. And the confidence. He just seemed to have a little bit more, and I hate to say swagger, because everyone's. Oh, great. He stood over Sam Houston State defender in the end zone. I don't mean like that. There was a confidence. His demeanor, the way he was carrying himself was a little bit different, a lot different than Ohio State, a little bit different than some of the other games. Okay, can he keep that talking about arch against this Florida defense when the Bullets are flying fast and something goes wrong and then they bounce back. So those are three things. Like, is Texas on the absolute attack? Knowing that we might have a. A unit that's on the ropes, and if we can get out ahead of them, like, it could just be, like, enough. I'm not saying they're ever going to quit. I'm not saying that. But there's a certain level of, like, vicious attacking that. That they are like, you can only do it so long if the result is not. Not what you're looking for, you know, so I'm looking for those things. And then Arch, you know, is he gonna hang in there and he's. He gonna translate whatever it is that has happened over the last couple of weeks as he's had time to kind of reset and is he going to play at the level? Is he gonna play at a level that we would expect him to play or had expected him to play coming into the season.

[B]

Yeah, just continue to make progress for him, I think. You know, and this is a, this is the next big test. This is the first real big test since we saw him against Ohio State. And there obviously have been a lot of up and down. That's obviously, look, that's obviously the biggest storyline going into this. But it's interesting that on the flip side, D.J. lagway from Florida, who's a super talented player, is just. I mean, if someone's had a worse season than Orange Manning or someone's had more of a disappointing season, and actually, you know, in fairness, there's been a lot of quarterbacks that haven't played this well, played that well this year that we thought were going to be great coming in. And DJ Legway is one of those quarterbacks that is just, I mean, struggled mightily. And if Texas can, I mean, one of the, one of the advantages if you are Texas and you can get out early is you're forcing leg way, you're putting more pressure on him to make plays in the passing game and maybe forcing Florida to get away from the running game. And that also plays into your hand. I mean, you know, I was watching Florida against Miami and they targeted their talented freshman wide receiver, Vernell Brown iii, twice in that game. And I, I just don't get that. I don't get. And it made me think. It made it to this point to where it made me think, is there something else going on? Is he banged up? Didn't look like it.

[A]

He got Brown or Lagway?

[B]

Brown, Brown iii. Is he banged up? Is there some kind of a thing going off the field where they're limiting his things or like, is there some kind of something else going on?

[A]

It didn't line up.

[B]

It did. I couldn't find anything and.

[A]

No, but I mean, it just. It didn't feel. You smelled something there.

[B]

Yeah. So you have to get this kid the ball more. You have to get the ball to him more and you just have to find ways because he's electric in the open field as a punt returner too, by the way.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Or a kickoff return or two. He's electric. You gotta find ways to get him the ball. Texas, he's gonna see a Texas defense, it's really good. And they'll throw some zone looks at him, but they. Florida has a pretty good zone beater with him where they, they run a go route with the outside receiver, release the back of the flat and then they bring, they bring Brown over the top of it almost from the other side on an intermediate crosser. And he's been open on that play. You know, it was like two or three times in the Miami game. And the problem is is he's smaller receiver, he's an undersized receiver and leg ways, his accuracy is not there, the timing accuracy is not there for them to consistently connect on that play. And if people are trying to remember who Vernell Brown III is, you might remember him from the Long island catch early in the season where he just went full on Odell Beckham and made that like reaching behind his body, one handed catch. I mean this kid is a, he's a real, he's the Malachi Tony to that offense 100%. And they got to find ways to get him involved. I mean he's either going to see safety or freshman nickelback and Grayson Littleton who's talented, but he is a freshman. There's, there's got to be ways that they can get this kid the ball and get him to get him more involved in the, in the game plan.

[A]

Who are you liking that one?

[B]

Man, it's tough but I just like Texas's defense against that struggling Florida offense more than I do the question mark of arch against a Florida defense that's playing, you know, with like just a noble effort. I think it's. I don't know what the over is. I don't know what the over is, but I'm almost certainly betting the under in that game.

[A]

Well, I mean every east and west of the Mississippi and north and south of the. The Mason Dixon lines betting the other the under in that game being 41.

[B]

40. Oh, 41 and a half, man.

[A]

41 and a half.

[B]

That's a good line though. They did those back.

[A]

Six and a half. Right. Right now on Fan. It's going over at F. @ FD Sportsbook FanDuel. Give him a little plug here. But my goodness things trusty. Six and a half is a spread and 275 is the money line. Over under is 41 and a half. Yeah.

[B]

Are we done with the Texas Florida game? Because I want to ask you about another spread that really jumped out to me.

[A]

Yeah, we are done.

[B]

Okay. The, the Louisville Virginia spread. Can you pull that up? Because I, I want to make sure I got this right.

[A]

Go ahead. I know you got some stuff on that game. Go, go ahead. I'll pull it up.

[B]

I think.

[A]

Six and a half. Sorry. Louisville minus six and a half. Go ahead.

[B]

So Louisville's favored by six and a half.

[A]

Correct.

[B]

Virginia coming off this win against Florida State, this upset win over Florida State. And now in the AP poll, Louisville's not.

[A]

Somebody knows something. And I'll go.

[B]

They got. They're getting it right, man. I'm telling you right now, that line is correct. Miller Moss is starting to get more comfortable in that offense. He's coming off his best game. They just came back from 17 points down the pit. That Louisville defense is pretty playing super well. People don't realize it. It's it. They, they got guys who can turn the ball over. They're playing well. And then he's got, he's. Miller Moss has got two real weapons and Chris Bell and Colin Lacy at wide receiver. I'm looking at that game and I was. I. Because that's what jumped out to me. I looked at that spray and I.

[A]

Was like Sark and Lane Sarkin, Lane Kiffin are kind of the obvious, like blue blood answers. When the question is where if you had a son who was a quarterback, where would you send him?

[B]

I think going where I thought you were gonna go. Yep.

[A]

There. I would consider strongly, depending on the circumstances and the nil money that would be in daddy's pocket. No, I would consider Will Stein and what he's done at Oregon with Bo Nix, Dylan Gabriel, who's now the starter as we talked about. And now Dante Moore and the Braum brothers in Louisville.

[B]

Yeah. And that game's in Louisville. I like I. That Virginia team better not have any kind of a hangover effort. They're going to need everything they got to win.

[A]

I got, I got Louisville. I got Louisville by two scores. Sorry, Aunt Lisa. I, I, I would. Family.

[B]

I think you're right, man. I think you're onto it. I think you're right.

[A]

Last thing I want to touch on or unless there's more. You could take it wherever you want after this. Texas Tech at Houston. We've already gone way too long on a Thursday show. But both four zero Texas Tech is. This is like this darling that everyone jumped on for a minute. But like I think they had a buy last week. No, they, they put. They played a. An inferior opponent last week. I forget who it was. I think. Or they had a buy. I can't remember. They're foreign.

[B]

I think they had a buy.

[A]

They had a buy. Sorry. They had a buy. The inferior opponent was the Houston schedule. Remember before I was. I was thinking Sam Houston State. I was like. But I wrote down some other. Some initials. Sfa, Stephen F. Austin was Houston.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's why I was getting it twisted in my mind. Rice, Colorado and Oregon State. Oregon State. Game was tight. Right. But there's a couple things I want to mention in this game. Three, actually. One, Willie Fritz's team that he was. He was at Tulane when Tulane in the Cotton bowl beat Caleb Williams. Like, he's no, he's no stranger if you go back in his history to a little, you know. So, like, keep an eye on this game. Ten and a half point spread, 7pm game, ESPN. I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm just saying keep an eye on this being a little bit like nastier and tougher for Texas, for Texas Tech than people might want to think. And I say that because the schedule starts to get harder after this game. Right. Houston's 4 0, but you're still. It's like, ah, it's Houston. We, we can handle this. I think we spent $55 million on our football player budget this year. We got this. Right. So keep an eye on that. More importantly for, for NFL, for fans of the NFL draft and people just who love watch, like, who are the NFL guys in this game? We know about the edges for Texas Tech. Right. That defensive line went back and watched you. Like we're gonna have to. Well, that game is circled when we start talking about those two first rounders.

[B]

Well, I'm telling you, there's a bunch of them in. There is a bunch of them. I told you this earlier. Where there are some offensive tackles that haven't lived up to expectations.

[A]

Well, it's only appropriate. I came in and called the golden era, the golden age of college quarterbacks.

[B]

And I love the offensive tackles.

[A]

And you were bragging on the offensive tackles. And now here we are and we Week six and it's a mess. David Bailey and Romello height six sacks in four games combined. Between them legit players and. And hopefully just continue to get better and better as the season goes on. So those are two NFL guys that you want to keep an eye on on that side of the ball. Here's someone you know who brought this to my attention today. Bud wasn't on the national list or Blessedo list in the preseason. I haven't talked to any NFL scouts. Our good friend Pete Sousa in the.

[B]

Big 12, he's got the Big 12 on lockdown.

[A]

Yeah, I went on the show today and we Talked about Big 12 NFL draft prospects and he brought up to me, he's like Tanner, Tanner Kozio. Kozio, the tight end at At Houston. You ready for this? Ball State transfer wasn't on any list before. He's six foot seven, he's £250. I put on the tape today, he's not. He's not Darnell Washington. Remember the Georgia guy who was like 6, 6, 6, 7. Who could forget that? But, like, couldn't catch a lot. And you know, Steeler, he. He doesn't have the speed or athleticism. Yeah, Pittsburgh Steeler. But he's catching the ball well. He moves pretty well. Like, he's an intriguing guy to keep an eye. Six, seven. Got you. Ready? Four games, 23 catches. The tight end position, that's good.

[B]

I mean, I love that size, too. We see so many 235 pounders right now that guys in the 250s, 255, that's. That always jumps out to me.

[A]

He's a Ball State transfer. Nobody, really. Yeah, yeah, fine. Have him. Houston Sauce. Willie Fritz and company saw something. So that game's interesting, but the most interest.

[B]

Oh, what were you gonna say?

[A]

The most interesting part of that game. I saved the best for last. Baron Morton is back. He was throwing last night. Well, the two nights ago now. And he is going to be the starter. There's speculation. Quick hook. I don't want to say quick hook, but they're speculation. Nobody knows. I did a lot of digging. Nobody knows for certain and certainly not going to bring their speculation that my guy Will Hammond might, whether it's rotation.

[B]

Or whatever it is, get a series.

[A]

But it's everything I said it was going to be. This guy Will Hammond is more talented. This guy Will Hammond, when he came in the game, that offense took off for Texas Tech. And I would only be talking about Texas Tech if they were one of the 12 best teams in the country. And they are, and the AP poll agrees. They're 11. This is a team that needs to start getting more attention and respect because they're legitimately, like, damn good. Okay. Yeah. Sometimes you buy talent and the talent doesn't gel in a short period of time and it doesn't work. And it's a disaster on the field. Florida State's a good example. One year it was great. The next year it was an unmitigated disaster. It seems like it's working at Texas Tech. Will Hammond's more talented. Will Hammond kind of bailed them in that game against Utah. It was tight. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Two interceptions from the starter, Baron Morton. But Morton's the leader. He's the heartbeat of this, of this program. And so you can't do that. You can't pull him. And it's his fifth year and he's talking about his Day three draft pick and all this stuff. It's a brutal spot that they're in, but they're going with their guy as expected. But I'll be very interested to see. That's why I set the whole picture up. If Willie Fritz is at it again, like the Cotton bowl against Caleb and things start to get tight, what happens? So it's a reason to watch. 7pm Eastern, ESPN.

[B]

Love it. That's all I would go. I would have gone with Hammond. You, you had convinced me that I'd just go with him. Coach McGuire's got a pretty good problem, though.

[A]

He's got a pretty good problem until it's just a problem. But we'll see. Oh, this is a fun one.

[B]

I'm interested to see the views on this one. This should be interesting.

[A]

Yeah, and I didn't do it for the views. I did it because.

[B]

No, no, no, no. That's not what I was suggesting. I just, yeah, I, I, after the show ended, not that night, but the, the day after on Sunday, my phone started blowing up because everyone thinks I know all of the background information on, on McShay. What was, what's that fine Bob stuff about? You know, so. Yeah, I get it.

[A]

Well, there it is.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I never really talked in full about the whole situation, so it was an opportunity to kind of get it all off my chest. And there we are. Hey, this is a fun one. Five stars must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 + and present in D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com, call 1-888-78-9-7777 or visit ccpg.org chatincenetic or visit mdgambling help.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline ma.org or call 1-800-327-5050 for 247 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text HOPE NY in New SA.