BIG GAME BREAKDOWN: Ohio State-Texas, Oklahoma-Michigan & MORE | SMU-FSU REACTION!

[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome back to the Cover Three Podcast with your host, Chip Patterson, Tom Fernelli, Danny Cannell, and Bob Elliott. It's your call for the best college football coverage from National Signing Day to the National Championship and everything in between. CBS Sports presents the Cover Three Podcast. And welcome back to the Cover Three Podcast. Here on CBS Sports, that's Tom Fernelli, that's Bud Elliott. I'm Chip Patterson, coming to you live, youtube.com/coverthree. And every get your podcast on the man. Thanks for hanging out. Smash that subscribe, smash that like and come and join us in the chat, aka the Cover Three Tailgate, where they're trying to ship all Florida State's best players to Indiana. And that's disrespectful. All right, we cannot be already deciding transfer portal destinations for some of the best and brightest, and frankly, some of them are probably going to be going to the NFL. Hey, 27 to 24 is your final score Monday night. We got a quick word on that. If the power is able to stay on from Bud Tom and myself, then quickly with haste, we're going to give you that reward because you see that one of the biggest games of the whole dagum season, it's coming up this Saturday. And it is going to be Ohio State's visit to Austin to take on Texas. A big time battle between national title contenders. So we'll be giving you the big game breakdown, like we do on Tuesdays here at 11 a.m. Also Oklahoma Michigan, more of the biggest headlines will have our upset alert of the week. And also get very, very excited. A special Cover Three partnership that will be celebrating weekly, some of the best performances of the given weekend. So now that week ones in the books, we'll be able to tell you what team we'll be having a nice, nice special hot breakfast honor. That's all the, that's the only thing for right now. Okay, but the ups and downs, are we playing? I thought we might be playing on Monday at one point. All things considered, all the context applied. Grade Florida State's performance in the ACC opener, a three point loss to an SMU team. It's ranked inside, that is ranked in the AP top 25 poll and that is considered among the best teams in the ACC. So measuring stick game for the Knowles, is there any positivity to be taken from the way they played SMU? - I mean, I guess Chroma was good, so I'm not gonna give him a flat out F. But as far as like, as far as like the stuff, they actually controlled, it's probably like a deer, a demoness, you know, you look at it like, Ashton Daniels is a terrible quarterback. I mean, he is, he's horrid. So like, that's a real problem. You have a four or five million dollar receiver room and they have like five catches total, can't get the ball to him. You know, we knew the offensive line stuff was gonna be a problem and it was. You know, defensively, we talked a lot of week about how the defensive linemen are not impact players and how they have a lot of communication errors in the secondary and that continued. Now they were helped out quite a bit, right? Like SMU dropped a punt. SMU ran the wrong route on the goal line and that was an interception. And I mean, I thought my database was glitching or broken because I was trying to figure out like, when was the last team that was plus four in turn overs had the, you know, also month to punt and missed a field goal and still won a conference game and it couldn't return any results. But actually, was it SMU at Duke? No, there wasn't one actually. Okay, 'cause SMU was minus six in a win against Duke. Where Harvey blocked the field goal at the very end, maybe two years ago. - So I don't think I had the punt thing, I was trying to query it, you know, specifically there. But on a down to down basis, they got absolutely dominated and, you know, like that's just, they were just not competitive snapped a snap. They were competitive on the scoreboard because SMU kept giving them the ball. But most of that was not stuff that you controlled. The stuff that you controlled, you were awful. I mean, SMU was a 57% success rate. Like you're putting up like 90 and 95% of outcomes in conference play, right? Like you, they had like what, almost 600 yards? And that was with slowing down at the end. So yeah, pretty terrible, right? You know, like if you could bet that again on, like after watching this week. - Oh no, I'm not betting, I don't want any part of that. That game's done. We don't need to review it. - Like for locks, like minus three or minus two and a half would have been an even better banger than the Clemson bet. Just watching like the disparity there. That was crazy. - Tom, thoughts? - In Florida state, didn't look good. SMU didn't look great. I do wonder like, but not only real takeaway that I can have from that game is I'm not sure how much of a takeaway I can have about anything because of the weird kind of, you know, there was no play clock. They had to wait, there was the delay, there was no helmet communication. And you think like you go through your entire offseason preparing, you know, for helmet communication and gonna be playing that way. And then all of a sudden, 20 minutes before the game starts, you find out you're not gonna have any of that. So you have to adjust your game plans. And I think like you look at some of those breakdowns that SMU had that led to turnovers, you wonder if, if not for all those problems do those breakdowns happen and maybe this game's blowout. But I will say the bigger problem for Florida state to me than anything is the offensive line is bad. And I don't know how you can overcome that. I don't care who your quarterback or your running backs or your receivers are. If you have a bad offensive line, nothing's going to work. - Yeah, they're definitely not good. I think Daniels is worse than the O-line. Like the ball needs to be out to some guys who are open and it's just not. Like he's not real athletic, inaccurate, doesn't see the field well. But he is old. So he's very experienced. You know, I was thinking during that game like man, if they had actually just done what they said they were gonna do what they tried to message to some media who believed in the off season and now feel kind of betrayed by it. I didn't really buy into it. That they were gonna spend big money on a quarterback. After what happened last year with Castelanos. You know, if they had paid up, like paid up for lagway who leads the nation in big time throws right now on PFF. If they had paid up to get Calandria or three or four of the other guys that they either brought in or were deep in talks to and just gave low ball offers to and the agents were like, why are they wasting our time? Like this is a non-serious operation here. Like they win that game with any of those guys. Now granted, if SMU doesn't just give for after them for turnovers, like big ones, then that game's still probably not super competitive. But when you have a non-playable quarterback right now, I think, and Tom, exactly right, you can pound it. I was kind of impressed with a couple of parts of SMU though, right? Like Jalen Cooper taking the next step, I think is pretty big for them. On a down and down basis, I thought Jennings played pretty well. 94, they're like fifth year detackle. He was a real horse inside. I liked him a lot. And then Singleton, the transfer they took from USF, I think is everything they hoped he would be. Like he, he's a freak. And so that team's probably gonna have a lead a lot. They're gonna be like advantageous situations where they could rush the passer. I think that's a pretty good, that they can hold on to the ball. You're like, they weren't like watching them and Louisville on back to back nights, what was interesting. Louisville felt like sloppy on a down and down basis and then they would hit explosive. SMU felt like pretty good on a down and down basis until they just, you know, stopped holding on to the football. - Not to pile on just one more thing I'd like to say. - Is it about, is it about this year's crossover? - No, no, no, no. Duce Robinson, you are 66 and 230 pounds, play like it. - Yeah, I mean, I think he needs to do a better job of high pointing it, that's also a bad ball. - You got a long strider with a step and a half. He has to slow down and then try to out jump for it. - Like don't, when you've got a 5-11 guy on you and you're 66, don't pull it down. Just hold it up. - Yeah, I mean, he didn't high point it and then as soon as he had his hands out, he starts trying to pull it into his body. So it's like, okay, you're giving the midget a chance to knock it out of your hands. - Look, agreed. I think that play is more on Daniels throwing a bad ball, but I do, you would hope he would catch that. The bigger issue is like, how are you not targeting him more than three, four times? - Also like on the ball of the Danzee, the dig route over the middle of play action, there's nobody around Daniels. Like he can step into the throw, fire it. It's so bad, like Danzee has to like slow down and catch it back shoulder. And like, that's the fastest player in the country if you look at the NCAA track stuff, right? Like if you hit him in stride, he may be out the gate and gone. And instead, it turns into like a 21-yard gain. Like that was, I think they're most exposed to the past play of the night, other than like the little dump off to singlet it. - Was that unfair that the Diceeer clip of him doing the imaginary basketball dribbling before the pass rush on, by the way, a 20 yard SMU gain? Is it unfair that that one clip is become so popular in the wake of the game and here on Tuesday morning because when you say unserious, it looks like a fine display to be able to back up a large commentary of the way that things are operating around the football program right now. - Probably a little bit unfair. - Funny, funny. - I don't think they're a serious football operation. I think what they're doing there in that clip, is everybody's going to stand up stands and they're just trying to create like can I get it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Lime and Guard, look over here. Don't think about your assignments. Like I understand it basically. That's why I wanted to at least give the symbolism there for sure. But there is some symbolism because when everybody retweets it is like if you ain't correcting it, you're teaching it, right? You know, like in a lot of a lot of commentary that sort of ties back to the coaching staff and the operation. But I understand why in that moment you were being a little dramatic and trying to get some attention. But yeah, like that this years are okay. Decent players, you know, like they had hoped that they would take another step and be real, you know, real impact guys. And I was like, we talked big. Our audience probably tired of this. Like I was like, I think Darrell Jackson was far in a way the best player on the D line last year. And that this years were the beneficiary of all the attention given to Darrell Jackson. And now he's on the jets or I think the jets. And you know, now those guys are getting more attention and they're not stepping up. Coming up on the other side, time to go inside the biggest matchups of week two and we begin with that battle between Ohio State, Texas in Austin and more. Next. Back here on the cover three podcasts, Tuesdays 11 a.m. Eastern time is when we start setting the stage and breaking down the week ahead. We call it big game breakdown. Oh, that's right. Ohio State and Texas two teams that we detail extensively all through the preseason, all through the instant reaction show. And all of it has been with the idea that we will get to see them measure up against each other. Now this game was in week one last year. And that was just sort of a whoa kind of moment. I think for everyone was including both of our starting quarterbacks, archmaning and Julian saying it. Now I'm expecting that the readiness for both of these quarterbacks will be different. Tom Fernelli, do you think that the six the game will be led by the defenses again? Probably. Okay. I mean, that's fair. Like two two really, really good defenses. So to think that might be the way that this tips is not crazy. Maybe not 14 to seven, though, right? Like maybe a little more. I hope not. I genuinely hope somebody gets to at least 20 points in this game. Um, you know, you think about both of these teams last year and and where things went wrong for them. Like there was a lot of talk in the offseason where you know, like Julian saying struggled at the end of the year for Ohio State, you know, against Miami, against Indiana. He struggled obviously early against Texas first game of the year, his first career start. I believe what often gets overlooked in that discussion because we're so cubie focused is how terrible the offensive line played in those games. Like it is very hard for a quarterback to play well when you are under pressure constantly and almost immediately. And I feel like in those games, particularly, you know, he was under pressure and he did not play well. And it's hard. So for me, the first thing is, if Julian Saiyans going to play well in this game, the offensive line has to give him a chance to. They have to give him some time to, you know, to drop back and see the field instead of just panicking and running and throwing the ball away, which he was doing a lot against Indiana against Miami. And I could say the same thing for Texas. If you look at when Texas struggled last year and when archmaning struggled, it was their offensive line, not doing a very good job, you know, in games against Ohio State, Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia. So I believe both of these teams need to show me a little bit more along the offensive line compared to where they were last year in this game. Now, they both looked pretty good last week, but they were playing Texas state and ball state, respectively. So I'm not really taking anything away from that. So that to me is where it's going to begin. Obviously, the focus will be on sand and manning, but I believe they will go as their offensive lines allow them to go. Yeah, I tend to agree with Tom here. I think the offensive lines can be really important this game. Like there's so many angles to this matchup. You know, like Texas really kind of lived in diet against Texas state on their explosive place and that they had like 11 big ones and those count. And to be honest, against the defense, the quality you're facing here on both sides, the explosive plays in the red zone probably decides this, but like if you take out those explosives, Texas on their like just regular plays, they had like negative EPA in that game against Texas state. I didn't see like domination from them up front against the sunbelt front that I think you would probably expect to see. I liked Melvin Ciani quite a bit the right tackle. They got from Wake Forest, but like the interior like I went back and watched this in preppin for this because obviously it's like probably the game of the year, right? They weren't like getting a ton of movement, you know? And so I'm getting a Ohio State's watch and it's like, oh, we might be able to win up front against these guys. And to be honest, on the flip side, I didn't think Ohio State's run game looked incredibly crisp either against the ball state team, which is I think meaningfully worse than Texas state is. So to me, like Texas, the running backs in space are going to play really big here, especially smothers. I mean that guy, like he has like touched down potential. Texas has a couple guys. Like any any time that the ball is going to them, you got to kind of hold your breath. And Ohio State has that too with Jeremiah. I thought McEwen was actually really good. To me, that's a really positive sign for the buck eyes. Like if he's emerging as your legit two and you get to kick in as to your three, like I think in this is like a nice college player, but a guy who kind of like, you know, sort of maxed out in high school early. Like we knew this kid was since eighth grade, but just didn't keep developing physically. He's like, he's not a freak, but he's a really nice three to have a college if McEwen can be a legitimate two. So like to me, that's going to be really important again. Like how does Texas get its backs to the ball in space if they're not able to, you know, consistently run the ball. I think you're going to have a lot more of Arches legs in this one. I mean, this is one of Texas. You don't have to have it. You can go to the playoff without it, the same for Ohio State, but if you got a weapon like Arches legs, I think that's you probably need five, six, maybe seven designed runs here and certainly some scrambling as well from Arches Manning. You know, on the Ohio State side, I'm interested to see like how involved they get their tight ends. You know, Colin Simmons, he rips off the edge for Texas and, you know, does the Ohio State go with a little bit more heavy personnel? I know Buckeye fans hated that last year, but Arthas Smith is pretty good at that. And I'm curious to see, you know, how much heavy personnel Texas is going to use. Now I've been talking forever, so I'm going to let somebody else respond to some of that. Those are just notes that I've had here from watching like my offseason notes and like watching what these teams did in their first games. Wouldn't you rather try to bring people to the lines of scrimmage, provide the extra protection and then maybe get the Jeremiah, like match up where he can't get the double team, you know, like just sort of figure out different ways to move Jeremiah around because in a game that's this tight, where the explosives are going to matter. I mean, I mean, Michael Felder has a the criticism was really more from two years ago. I don't want to put words in Felder's mouth now, but he used to always call him perfect play Ryan Day. I get so mad at Ryan Day because it seemed it was always just trying to hit that one. Everything was scheming and building towards the one perfect play and perfect play Ryan Day with Jeremiah Smith. In this game, you might just need like two of them, right? And then all of a sudden, those can be enough to change the game. So I would, I think I understand you'd rather have the protection against Texas's linebackers and ed rushers than you would necessarily trying to spread everybody out because if Colin Simmons goes unchecked on block, that might be a strip sack. You know, like that could be that could be a turnover type situation. Which like you know a must-champ defense is going to be hunting that for sure. Yeah, I think Ohio State will come out and try to run the ball against Texas to see like you could run on Texas some last year. Texas State did it in some sort of unconventional ways because that offense is very different than what Ohio State runs, but I think they're going to test them early. And the answer maybe, like you know what, Texas has a lot more beef on the inside this year and those guys hold up just fine. And then you're going to like do a lot more dropback stuff. You know, it was saying being as accurate as he is is huge here. When he's affected in the pocket, I do think you saw in the playoff game, he's been a good bit worse. And so I think if you're Texas, like you probably got to live and die within you, you have to get him off his spot. Like if he's, if he feels comfortable back there in the pocket, you're, you're kind of dead. You know, like he's just so accurate, he's going to find the completions. Yeah, like I don't know if being, you know, running the ball will win you this game, but I definitely think the team that's able to run the ball will have a much better chance. Of winning this game because it will also take some of the pressure off of your quarterback, as far as that pass rush is concerned. And it will be interesting to see which one of these teams is able to do it because yeah, like you mentioned, but even against ball state, like it wasn't bad, but there wasn't like it didn't look that cohesive in the run game. Overall, I guess, is one way to put it, but it get first game. Maybe they were just being very, you know, new offense first game, or maybe they're just being very vanilla with their script. And you don't want to put anything on paper, but or film. So who knows if that's the case, or if there was just genuine problems there. Another thing to look for in this game for me and it's something I've hammered always when it comes to a Sark team. And Texas finish drives because that is the biggest bugaboo for the long horns under Sark, especially in these games. And I looked it up. Since Sark took over, Texas has averaged 4.44 points per red zone possession. That ranks 53rd nationally and when you think of the talent that he's had on his team for them to rank 53rd nationally in that time that's that's underperforming even if it's above the national average what's worse is when they play P4 teams it drops to 4.26 and they're facing an Ohio State defense that in that same time is allowed only 3.9 per and ranked 7th like in last year they were just insane in the red zone they were giving up touchdowns at all for the most part until late in the season so if Texas is settling for field goals that's going to be a problem. The good news is their defense is pretty good to so I have more confidence in Ohio State in that department that is something that's just it seems to haunt Texas every time you see them in one of these games and they lose close you look at how they do in the red zone and it feels like they've settled for at least one or two but field goals every single time. That's got to be archers legs remember day one arch when we used to see him come out it'd be a lot of the red zone stuff this is this is where I think you you hope that you set up a situation where you're so concerned about some others or leak brown or you've got to make sure that Cam Coleman's not getting one on one for a back shoulder and then boom you've got a little space archmaning can just go and run that thing in with this athleticism. Agreed I think if you're Arthur Smith you are hunting a turnover from manning miss reading something with which you did in the text state game Patricia yes sorry yes if you're a map treasurer you're hunting like an archmaning turnover miss reading something. And you're trying to deny the explosive place and I think you're going to kind of dare Texas to run the football on you consistently you know be patient execute on a down-to-down basis. And you'll take your chances in the red zone and like Texas is really good and super talented so they may be in the red zone but I think they'll be kicking themselves if it's like oh shoot we got beat over the top much times on it on explosives especially seeing how Texas played against Texas state like the explosives did it for him and explosives are awesome if you can get him fantastic but I think you want to prove like make this Texas team prove if they can be consistent on a down-to-down and then at Tom's point execute in the red zone. I I mean they did get a lot of their work done in the first half with those explosives though to know they looked awesome for the most part they got out there they did a test drive of all their Lamborghinis and then came out after half time in the day car you know I do like that arch has trust in Coleman yes like it's a very like NFL approach like okay doesn't have to be skeamed open if he's 101 we're just going to throw it out and good things are going to happen most of the time. I mean after arch made that terrible throw in practice and cam came down with it with the one hand that's when arch was like oh I could just throw the ball anywhere near this guy I'll be fine I trust him. I got I got one last I think that I know on my notepad is Napertrisha had the advantage of a very experienced and talented group last year. I think that the group is very talented this year but there are a lot of new pieces that just showed up in January and they didn't have a spring portal so they've been able to work on stuff but I wonder if we're going to be able to have as much of a complicated complex defensive approach. Great note here also saw striker drop this in the tailgate. We'll have our locks obviously on Thursday and who knows what could happen in terms of the way this thing will dance around but how about number one ranks teams when they are an underdog we've had it a couple times since 2017 and when the number one team is a betting underdog they have not won the game is there anything to this or is this just I mean they're all. There's a reason that you're an underdogs because it's a top top six matchup I would say there's nothing to it is a six game sample and I was also think is coin flippy matchups yeah for most but yeah for most of them there. The Georgia Tennessee game also was like the rain came down remember kind of a kind of a different kind of game there but something to keep it on yes time. I've got other little fun factoites here along the lines this is the first time Ohio State has been an underdog since 2023 against Michigan but my favorite one here is if Ohio State wins this game it will be the third straight season they have beaten Texas going back to the playoff game two years ago and then obviously last year's opener that would make them the first team to beat Texas in three straight years. It was the 2019 to 21 seasons it was two teams one of them was Oklahoma right which is probably be easy to guess. Do you guys know who the second team was that beat Texas three straight years was it Baylor no. Oklahoma State no. I just mentioned the two teams that played for the 21 12 title. They're their cup of it was Iowa State just oh yeah you're probably never going to guess it yeah you wouldn't think of Iowa State beating Texas for three straight years but they did that so. Listen and and surprisingly enough that happened in 2019 to 2021 and then Sarc was hired I don't know why I can't figure out why Texas was in the market for a new coach. Yeah remember when Tom Herman was good until he wasn't they said Tom Herman was good and then Sarc let the smoke signal after Bama semifinal game was like yeah I'm good. In Texas like sorry Tom yeah Sarc said he's good thanks I coming up on the other side turning our attention to Ann Arbor. Michigan you don't have a lot of days to get your affairs in order here comes a mean boomer sooner scooter all that and more next. The weight is over football is here and so is draft Kings draft Kings is now live in all 50 states one app every sport nation wide and new draft Kings customers sign up with the code. 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Back here on the cover three podcasts keeping our big game breakdowns going with a look at Oklahoma at Michigan now this is a very significant game one year ago perhaps even the game that might have put the sooners into the college football playoff now we went into this year with a similar idea however after Michigan had its. It finished with more points on the scoreboard I don't know if I want to call it a win it finished with more points on the scoreboard then western Michigan and then Oklahoma with the complete you dismantling of you tap by the vibes are different. But is it are we letting vibes cloud our judgment should we not over react because this is Michigan's offense against this defense let's just take that in particular Michigan's offense with Bryce underwood as QB1 which Kyle Whittingham did indicate he is still the starting quarterback but that is not infinite. For now he's a starting quarterback for now this Michigan offense against this Oklahoma defense how is there any like what is the path to success for the Wolverines. Yeah I think there's a path I mean I I don't know how likely you are I mean you know when when you're trying to forward the river right on Oregon trail right like that was a path a lot of times. I think the path is this you do have some really nice targets on the outside you do have Bryce underwood's legs and offensive line I think played maybe a little better than I thought they did I guess like they weren't awful at all times and you have some really good backs. So can Bryce underwood orchestrate this enough to where he avoids the critical mistakes against a Brent Venables defense. It's kind of unlikely I think but also the question is like what what number do you need to get to right like if you gave Venables 21 is he taking it. Because I don't think Oklahoma is going to score very much on them either like I that in Washington against you to have they don't look better on offense like all this always yoked up now he's been doing this VR goggle training and all this nonsense like everybody that's good in the offseason bro everybody right like I. Wait DJ lagway did record VR numbers yeah. I'd rather have 24 to be safe. - Yeah, I was gonna say, he'd-- - Yeah, okay. - Yeah, so of course, you'd rather have 24, but like, do you think I don't think it's the same? - I think 21 can, I don't, yeah. - Probably at home, yeah, yeah. I, if you get Michigan 21, they're taking it. - Yeah, I've done what we saw against this defense. I mean, this is bleak. I'm ready to be surprised. That's where I'm at right now. I am ready to be surprised because the, well, while Michigan fans are plentiful, I mean, Tom, there are Michigan fans who are mad. Have you heard of Michigan fan with the We Deserve to lose? - No. - They're all taking it. - They're all, they're not all celebrating it. Well, I know one that's kind of happy about it, but more in a trolley manner. Like, he's not, they're not celebrating it. Like, we feel great about it, but they're certainly not apologizing for it. - Well, as a North Carolina alum, I think I at least have some relation to that sort of position. - Yeah, I don't think confidence is that high. I'm among my Michigan confidants that they're gonna have a very good weekend against Oklahoma. And I think that's generally the consensus at large. Like, I saw people running the poll in the chat. I think it was like 89% of our tailgators are picking Oklahoma to win this game. I do wonder if we are in for a kind of week two thing that we've seen plenty of times where we overreact what we saw in week one and that it's, you know, oh, okay, maybe they aren't that bad. And now, my concern there if I'm Michigan is, but you could tell yourself that we were very, very vanilla and limited in what we were doing against Western Michigan, but you still have to sit there and be like, yeah, we still couldn't really block 'em. We still couldn't really get a ton of pressure on the other team. Although, defensively, I wasn't that concerned with anything I saw from the Wolverines, but I do think that this will be different against this Oklahoma team because one of the things, I said this on Twitter and I caught a lot of heat from Michigan fans like when Bruce Feldman's freaks list came out and I said it half jokingly, but there was truth to it in that should we be concerned that compared to where things have been in the last few years, Feldman releases his freaks list and the only Michigan Wolverine on it was like their long snap. Like that feels like to me, 'cause they used to have freaks all over that defense, how they don't have any. So I watched that game against Western Michigan and I kind of wondered that. I was like, where is the dominant player on this defense? Where is the guy that is going to take over a game and make that play for you to help you win a game when you need it late? I don't know if they have that. Hopefully they do. Hopefully one will emerge. They're going to need it offensively. It's hard to be confident in Bryce Underwood based on what we saw last week, based on what we saw against him last season. But like if Kyle Wittingham is saying that Bryce is our quarterback for now, maybe he's not talking about a competition. Maybe it's because they plan to run him 40 times. - Make him running back. - Yeah, maybe that's what it's like. Hey, he could get dinged up with what our game plan is this week. He might have to come up for a little bit. So maybe the emphasis was on the wrong word. If you could say Bryce is our quarterback for now, which sounds for voting about a benching. But if you said Bryce is our quarterback for now, that's for voting about a position change, Tom. - Yeah. - He's our quarterback as long as he can still run. - We might move into running back. We don't know. - If David Stone sits on his thigh, we might not be able to run him anymore, but as long as we can run him, he's our starter. - Like to me, this whole game comes down to Kenoko Homo run the football. Like if they can't, Mattir is suspect enough as a passer and as a processor that I can see a path where he throws a couple of interceptions and does some dumb stuff like he's done throughout his entire career that offsets the good stuff that he does and Michigan has a chance to win the game. If Oklahoma can actually run the ball in like a traditional fashion or just run Mattir, then I think they can get to 21 and win the ball game, you know? It's five and a half stealing on the number. I mean, it's already moved like a full touchdown. - Oh, from like the game of the year, like a summer time? - From a week ago, yeah. - Wait, before Michigan played, this was Michigan minus one and a half? - So I scrape these every week 'cause they have a lot of the like the future lines posted just to see how much stuff is moved. - Right. - Interesting. - I did, to the run game comment, like I do believe if Oklahoma just runs the crap out of Mattir in this game, like they did last year, they can win this game, but I'm more interested in seeing what their run game looks like with their running backs because I do think that their ceiling ultimately will be dependent on the run game not being entirely dependent on the quarterback. And if you look back to like last week against UTEP, I will say they did not do a whole heck of a lot with their quarterbacks in the game as far as running. I mean, even Mathieu, I think had three carries, but even the backups that came in, they weren't really using. And I was, the running backs, I thought looked pretty good. Like, is it guys UTEP, though? So of course, you have to take that into consideration. But if we see signs of Oklahoma run game being effective with the backs and not with the QBs, I think that raises the ceiling of this team considerably going forward. 'Cause we know the defense is gonna be very good. And on the other side, can Michigan block Oklahoma? Which, how many times have we said that about Oklahoma last year? Can you block them? That's the question for Michigan offensively. Can you block them? I don't know if they can't. - Yeah, like that Oklahoma defense, I think is far and away the best unit in this game. The question is like, is Michigan's defense better than Oklahoma's offense? I think so. But I mean, there's a lot of questions on both sides there. A lot to prove. And I think we're pretty much in agreement that Michigan's offense of the four units is the worst in this game. - Yes. - That both defenses. Oklahoma defense, Michigan offense, and then in between who wins the battle on the other side. - Correct, yeah. - Michigan, I can't go ahead, sorry. - I can't get over watching the game. And I think I might have been sort of stuck on this 'cause it was what stood out to me. But their inability to get those stops and the long sustained drives felt more concerning than when I gave the game a relook and really dug into it. 'Cause bud, you said it on the reaction show, you said you played them to a draw. It felt like they were on their heels, but they really weren't. It's just these tiny little nicks. Like it wasn't even like Western Michigan even got the hit the artery, like in the day in landing, a thousand cuts. They never hit anything explosive. It's still a major concern though, that you are playing like on a down-to-down basis that you're playing Western Michigan to a draw. - Correct. - Like you should have a lot more easy plays against a team like Western, which is a good Mac team. Like no shade, but you're. - But that makes me think that Oklahoma should be able to have success sustaining drives as long as Matier doesn't shoot his toe off, you know? - Yeah. And some of his explosives against UTEP were the kind of off-script running around stuff. Some of them were on schedule. I think we want to see more on schedule from Matier. You know, back foot hits, balls out. He knows where the ball should be going. He gets off number one quickly. He doesn't just stare at it and then like miss the window to throw to a wide open two and then force it to the two or have to eat it. Like just more quality quarterback play that's designed. 'Cause I think our buckles are an awesome off its coordinator. - I agree. And I do think they've got better person Nell this year than what they had last year. - And the last year that injuries, which left them with some stripped down options. - Side end is better. I think the offensive line is better. You know, it's just is Matier better up here. - Yep. - And here. - Anything else, Oklahoma, Michigan, then we'll get to upset alert in our new regular weekly segment. - I mean, implied team totals are like 25 and 19. Right? Which one feels more incorrect? - 19. - Oh. - 'Cause you see it as 17-13? - I just, I'm gonna say 19 'cause it's harder to score 19 points in a game. - Okay. All right. - It's just hard to have a college team total when the spread is six of, unless you're like a service academy type thing going on like of less than 17. - So what do you think? - I think it's, I think it's the 19 too, but man, like that's like one okay drive and one turnover and basically a field goal and you're close. - I do not trust this Michigan offense when the field gets short. I don't think they'll win enough one on one battles. - Yeah. Like if you find one of those field goal props on this game, the field goal over under four and a half field goals. - Combined, let's go. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Five and a half? - That's how we get to 19, Tom. - Right, here we go. - Yeah. - Tom. - Be out there kicking one tight, one special-- - That's out of four. - Yeah, one special team's touchdown and four field goals. That's how we get it done. - Let's do it. - And now it's time for the upset alert. Brought to you by Draft King. The Draft King Sports App is live in all 50 states and this September, Draft King's is giving customers the opportunity to get boosted every football game day. New Draft King's customers can sign up with the code Cover 3, spell out 3, THRE, Cover 3 with the code for new Draft King's customers. You spend five bucks and you get 200 in total rewards within 21 days, including all markets. Code Cover 3, C-O-V-E-R-T-H-R-E-E in partnership with Draft King's, the crown is yours. And while we spit a good part of Saturday evening, praising the play of Killin' Russell and Alabama, sorry Crimson Tide, the tailgate has sounded off. Tailgate wants to put the Alabama Crimson Tide on up saddle art. They are hitting the road for their SEC opener heading to Lexington to go and take on Will Stein and Kentucky. Now, given the opener for Kentucky, there's only pieces that we can really take away. The tailgate's charging with an upset alert call for Kentucky and for Alabama. Tom, I just heard you say, wow, what's underneath this? Tell this out, does this pass the smell test for you? Why Alabama could be on up saddle art, I think it's a very easy explanation. Killin' Russell's first road starred against an SEC opponent. I mean, he looked good last week at home against East Carolina, a team that they were able to overwhelm, but you know, Alabama was not perfect in that game that they had some problems and maybe going on the road to face a Kentucky team that you know with Will Stein as the new head coach is Amt. Let's try to come out and send a message, that'd be a great quote-unquote "signature win" to begin your tenure in Lexington after coming out and saying that you can win the SEC because you believe you can get there. I think this team will have confidence. How long it lasts after the snap will find out, but there is definitely a path for Kentucky to pull this off. Because Alabama, as good as I think it is, it's far from a perfect football team. Out of good time there, I think if you look at this one, I didn't watch a Kentucky live. I just watched the relevant clips, and like the offense looks pretty good. You know, now it's Youngstown, right? And like that's a pretty good FCS team, so they're better than probably like the bottom three or four FBS teams depending on what rating system you look at. I thought the offense looked good defensively, I'm not so old on Kentucky, we'll see, like Vegas implied score here is 30 to 20, I think I would lean over there, like I don't know if it's going to make the card for locks, but I think what Keylon's on the field points are going to happen for somebody, right? Not in like a Calandria whoopsie-daisy way to that extent, but he's pushing the ball, like he's taking chances, there's not a lot of conservatism on Keylon Russell. And Menchi I think is, like after watching them, I'd rather have Menchi than like a Byron Brown. You know, I think I'd rather have Menchi than maybe like a Marcel Reed, you know, probably a couple of other ones in this league, so I think he's at least like a decent to Jag Plus. Oh, Menchi or Filo? Oh, man, Filo made some good throws. But is Filo, is it, is it, if you put Filo on another team or is that Filo plus Faulkner? They're in the, like very confident these guys don't suck category, right? Can they, when you, like an SC game is sort of like open for question for me, but it's a nice fit with the play collar, they both seem to like, or understand the system they're running, that makes a lot of sense for Filo because he's been in Buster's system. Menchi looked very comfortable in that system against Youngstown, so I, yeah, I think this game could be pointy for sure. Well, I will say going to Menchi last week, you know, he averaged 11.1 yards per attempt, but it needs to be pointed out that her completion, Kentucky had 13.7 yards after the catch last week. Yeah, that, that was the second highest in the, in the nation. And the first, the highest was 15.4, which was Cutter Bowley at Arizona State. So there's all sorts of connections there in that, hey, Cutter Bowley transferred to Arizona State from Kentucky and B, both teams happened to be coached by guys who were offensive coordinators where? And Oregon. And Oregon. And Oregon. So there's a lot of bubble screen and going on and breaking tackles. So. We'll see if they can break all those same tackles against Alabama that they were able to do against Youngstown. Yeah. Okay. That's fair. And Bama's secondary is nice. Yeah, deep Alabama defense, I think, is the best group of the four in that one. And they need to travel. Yeah. Oh, pushback. No offense might be better than the defense. We just don't, like I haven't seen enough yet, but I think it's within the realm of possibility to the Bama's offense is better than Bama's defense. Sure. I think it's close. Yeah. I'm skeptical of this Kenerger defense. We'll see if they can show up tailgates calling for it. It's the upset alert of the week. And that was the upset alert brought to you by draft Kings. Once again, customers can use the code cover three, C O V E R T H R E E on sign up, spend five bucks and get 200 in total rewards within 21 days. Remember, the draft King sports app is now live in all 50 states. That means from Texas to California to Florida, every fan is in on the excitement in partnership with draft Kings. The crown is yours. Well, tailgate, we are very, very excited because the football riders association of America and the cover three podcasts are going to be very proud to present here on the show every single week, the FWA's national team of the week, specifically the Pop Tarts Bowl national team of the week. And here's a funny thing, but they've been doing this honor for a while now. Okay. It's the 25th season that they've been giving out this honor 107 different FPS teams have received this honor. But today, today, new ground, baby, because the 108th team, ladies and gentlemen, for week one, the Pop Tarts Bowl, FWA, a national team of the week, it's the UMass Minutemen. For the very first time, UMass gets honored as the national team of the week. Of course, this comes after their 37 to 21 road win at Rutgers, snapping a 16 game losing streak, and really rewriting not only our expectations for UMass, our expectations for Rutgers, our understanding of what the Mac is going to look like. And really, Tom, what were some of the things that stood out to you in terms of the way that they were able to bring the fight to the Scarlet Knights? I mean, they were the better team, period. This was not a fluke upset where you see a lot of times, you know, the big dog, the power conference team just kind of messes around and makes a bunch of mistakes in the underdog capitalizes. From the opening kickoff, UMass looked like the better football team on that field for 60 minutes. There was no fluke about this. The Minutemen just dominated a big 10 team in their stadium to start the season of very, very impressive performance from the Minutemen. Yeah, I like what Max Warner, the office coordinator for UMass did, kept them off like they were better physically, but also really kept Rutgers defense off balance, you know, set up some easy throws for pop Watson to hit him, in stride, creating run after catch and to create some coverage bus, just like outcoached, out physical, outplay, UMass. You know, you've got a, you had some, some good options. And that's the other thing about this, this honor is that it's voted on by the Football Writers Association of America, all American, the same, all America body that selects the all American team. They're the ones that select this. They break down a lot of data to be able to take a look at who really got the edge I mean, think about this, UMass got the edge over LSU as the team of the week. I mean, that's what happens when you've got 0.23 EPA per play 56.6% success rate. And do you know how many three in outs UMass had against Rutgers? None. Zero three in outs in 12 drives and four for four on the red zone there. The Football Writers Association of America providing all kinds of great statistical celebrations of what we saw with our eyes. And that is why the Pop Tarts bowl team of the week brought to you by the Football Writers Association and presented here on the cover three podcast is the UMass minute, minute, everybody give it up for it. And coming up on the other side, we continue with our big game breakdowns with matchups to watch storylines and more nukes back here on the cover three podcast tailgate. Great, great question rocking and rolling us e Tom's already jumped in. Just let us know your favorite Pop Tarts flavor. You know, just this is a nice little way to get yourself set for your mid morning snack, your lunch while we take a big old bite of these breakdowns. All right. Okay. So, are we going to answer our own questions? Yeah. Well, Tom are you did. He said, "Brown Sugar and Cinnamon, what's your word?" "Brown Sugar and Cinnamon, the goat." Oh, man. I think like classic strawberry with the frosted is like that pretty much always slaps. The s'mores though, if you're really in a dessert mood, that is also pretty good. I don't have a wildberry in the chat. What is it? Wildberry comes out, look at that. It's berry, but she's been drinking. Madeleine, come join us on Saturday nights. I might be a psychopath. I still have a soft spot in my heart for OG strawberry. Like without the frosty? No frosting. Do you put butter on it? Some, I mean, different ways that it could be prepared certainly, but it's nostalgia. I mean, are you putting the toast for clearly? Right. So that it melts on and gets a nice little glaze on top. It's a fire risk, yeah. I'm seventh grade just putting butter into the toaster up. Match key kids stand up. We didn't have as many flavor options when I was a child, so good old-fashioned pop tart still hit with me. Okay. Somebody blocked Garrett. Why? What do you say? Pop Tarts with ranch. This is why Garrett. This is why people say Aggie fans are in a cult because of stuff like that. Yeah, I'm gonna text my Aggie buddy about the confirm if this is an Aggie thing or a Garrett thing. It sounds like a Garrett thing. Will we see Oklahoma State be able to get up off the mat? I mean, you want to talk about some weird vibes. Oregon has a lot to fix. Oklahoma State is kind of shell shocked. First road game for the ducks, first home game for the pokes. What do we make of Oregon and Oklahoma State? Well, go ahead, Tom. I mean, Oklahoma State probably can't feel great about the timing. Considering Oregon just looked, you know, Oregon was in a close game last week. You wonder if they're gonna want to come out and, you know, play a little better than they did against Boise State. And here's poor little Oklahoma State coming off of road lost at Tulsa, who just did not look very good. It looked, I mean, honestly, I didn't watch the game from start to finish, but I did go back and watch a little bit. And, you know, the concern with Oklahoma State, or at least the question was, if you're bringing North Texas to the big 12, are you just kind of bringing an American athletic conference team to a P4 conference and playing against Tulsa, they look like an American athletic, American conference, playing an American conference team. And now you're playing with supposed to be a national title contender. I just, there's a reason this was not on the upset alert of the week for me. Let's leave it at that. Yeah, if you look at the component game score that our friend Bill Connelly puts out, it was like what, a 98% win expectancy for Oregon and expected margin of like 20.2, which is like, Oregon did not execute critical situations all that well. I'm not really sure how many critical situations Oregon's going to face against Oklahoma State, Oklahoma State, especially when they lost the left tackle. I mean, let me pull up the grade on his kid, but like it was not, it was not pretty for them at all. Like the backup is a true freshman and that was, that was problem. Like he just played as a chem East, I think, or the backup, who's? Yeah. PFF grade in the 50s. I never thought that the Oklahoma State defense was going to be good. I did think that in that league with that quarterback, they could score enough on people to really crush and do well. And if that offense is not like elite, they're in big trouble because I don't think this defense is very good. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Because we're going to USC on deck. We're going to have a buy. I think they've got some FCS or not FCS, but somebody between. Yeah, they've got their other non-con. I think they're stacking them up. One, two, three before big 10 play starts. Yeah, Portland State. Okay. Yeah. And that's a Friday because they get the extra day before USC. Yeah. Beware of the Vikings. Um, Vikings, right? Yes. Well, let's let thematically. So let's play the, you just mentioned the win expectancy then. Do you, are you anticipating that Boise State can copy and paste some of the situational excellence as they prepare to host a 2-0 Memphis team? Not to that level, like I don't think anybody is so good situation that you're going to convert into your four downs at a crazy rate and just be, you know, perfect in one-on-one tackling situations against an elite team for, for so long. Um, I think it's a really good game though. Like Boise looks very buttoned up, very prepared. I know their head coach Spencer, Spencer Danielson said that like, basically they had had a super physical, you know, we could or practice and camp because they had to get ready, you know, for the physicality of Oregon. I thought they matched it, honestly, in that ballgame and they tackled extremely well. You know, with Memphis, it's, I mean, Memphis will make some mistakes and they also have do's and they're probably going to scheme open some stuff. Mats and played pretty well against Oregon. Like I, he had not played well against a good team. Really that I can recall and I'm probably missing one and I'm sure Boise fans will point that out. It will. But if you get, if you get that level of play for Mats and again, I think you have to feel excellent about Boise, you know, if you get the Mats and that we've seen through 20 games of football, then I think you have to think Memphis has a real shot to go in there when it's this game. Memphis has a lot of guys on the D-line who can definitely affect you and they also are probably going to scheme up some points. I think that's an excellent OC they have who they took from Old Dom and Stoke seems to have a lot of comfort in that offense. Now, he does some wild stuff by the way. I don't know what is Boise Day's E-Rate is going to be. But like, Adam Dunn offense is certainly still on the fact and that they put it on Arkansas State late and we're going to keep firing and they're not going to stop us eventually. I can look it up real quick. If I look up I'll stall by saying that, you know, we obviously talked about the other two games as our big game breakdowns. But I think there's an argument we made, this is the biggest game of the weekend, at least from a playoff perspective because it's hard to imagine the loser as a great chance of getting in because this could very much be a data point that's used to separate them. Should both of them go on to win their leagues. But Marcus Stokes' current whoopsie day's E-Rate is at 1.68% which ranks 82nd nationally among 132. So interesting. I do think it's lowering implies a more whoopsie day's E, right? Yeah, I'm sorry. I looked at it. So, yeah, overall on the flip side, if we flip it, he is ranked. Where'd you go Stokes' E? Come here in those Stokes' E. There is, he's 50 first. The 50 first highest of a qualifying, so. But yeah, as for this game, like, okay, I am a little, I don't know, I have to look closer at it. I can't say I've completely broken it down. I am a little surprised by that one of Boise being such a big favor against Memphis. I know it's at Boise and that's an advantage for them. Like, they do have a legitimate home field advantage. But I don't know, it's going to be interesting because from what I have seen from both of these teams, I think they both have good defensive one. I think Memphis's might be better, but I was also impressed by what I saw from Boise against that Oregon offensive line. And I wonder how that's going to play going forward because that could be a significant advantage for them in the past 12, I keep forgetting. And it also makes me wonder if maybe both of these offences won't have a little difficulty playing. Oh, preview for Thursday. Yeah. Possibly. Well, Tom, where would you like to? What are the game? Arizona, BYU, Minnesota, Mississippi State. Lots of fun, I pit UCF. Lots of fun sort of cross-conference battles in this one. Which, where would you like to go for our next, our next little, I don't even want to call it mid game breakdown. Okay. We have best of the rest. What's our good? That's a good name for this little portion of BGB. I like what's the good name for it? Yeah. I've got one. Mid game breakdown. I've got one. Just a game plus, Jack plus. No, the quad box. Ooh, the quad box. Like what other games are going in with? It's like, hey, what should you pop your quad box with? The quad box. Fill up the quad box. I like it. Good idea, bud. All right. Okay. So what's next on the quad box? BYU Arizona will be in my quad box. Yeah. It's a very interesting game in that, you know, we obviously BYU has looked at as one of the two teams in the big 12 that is supposed to be one of the best teams in that league. Arizona is a team that had a good season last year and has looked at as somebody who could also be in, you know, in the running for that big 12 championship game to get there. So we're going to learn a lot about both these teams who didn't really play anybody last week, but I want to see like, there's been so much talk about BYU as like the actual competition to Texas Tech. But we saw like when they played Texas Tech twice last season, how limited they were when they got to that level. I'm going to be interested to see what steps bear box. Meyer has taken in the off season against Arizona. Now, this is not a true litmus test of having to face Texas Tech, but just overall, I don't want to see Bearbock Meyer as just a running back who sometimes hits explosive plays in the passing game when defenses start cheating forward to stop him in the run game. I want to see Bearbock Meyer take actual legitimate kind of strides as a passer. I want to see him in a more of a dropback game, see if that is in the bag at all. And not saying this game will decide that for the entire season, but I would love to see hints of it if they've got him available already. Yeah, I want to see this rebuilt Arizona secondary against him, right? Arizona might be better up front than they are in the back end. I guess we'll see. That might just be who Bock Meyer is at this point in his career. I'll always allow for a guy to improve as he matures in the last year. I think it's well documented. He was a freshman who didn't have spring ball and got over and managed games pretty well. And certain a guy who's a good athlete and he's tough. This is the first of many really tough games in this league now for Arizona. So if a feed is going to need to be on his game, if I lay to, I think it's still out for BYU, by the way, with the injury. That's their stud, kind of like their coin perch, basically. And that probably matters to like to meet to my, he's like a real difference maker for BYU. And every time you watch them when he's on the field, it's like, oh, shoot. Okay. But I think he's still out. So I mean, what spread is seven. Like seven and a half seven and a half. I mean, this game should at least get to the third quarter, you know, and maybe Arizona's got a real shot to witness thing. Yeah, they are Arizona very good situationally last season, you know, and so they've got to be able to be on their peace and cues, making that trip up to Provo. We were singing Camario Taylor's praises on Saturday night. And now we have to ask the question, is he prepared to sink the boat? He's going to be going into a stadium where the Minnesota Golden Goafers were seven and oh, last season, Mississippi State at Minnesota. What are the, what are the pressure points here as Minnesota's defense ready to provide some resistance that clearly, look, Mississippi State was the, they were more, they had an advantage last week that they're not going to have this week without a doubt. And they're going up against some of the best past, one of the best past rushing tandems, maybe in the entire country, defense is solid. And what happens there with that clash of Mississippi State's offense and the Goafers defense? I'm like really excited to watch this, just because it's like the styles are so different. And Minnesota is going to go slow as possible like on your lawnmower, right? You got the rabbit and you get turtle or more happily the tortoise, you know, and the hair. And I mean, the Mississippi State wants to go, you know, right? And you know, they like Minnesota wants to be a robot as far as tempo goes. So like, who can dictate terms with, with tempo? I'm glad you mentioned those past rushers. Mississippi State offense, the tackles are, are one of the major questions I have about that team because I didn't find out. Car has got a chance to be awesome. Um, those guys did not grade well against Lewis and Monroe relative to all of the other players on the team. Let's say they sucked, but like they, they were not standouts. And, and that was a, a real question going into the season. So we'll see how those guys go. Play on the road. I think whoever can run the ball here, um, you know, it is going to, to win the game, right? If, if Mississippi State can stay balanced and not ask, not ask Camario to be, you know, super Camario and drop back 40 times, then I think they're going to hit the explosives that they get off the play action here and, and the balance. I think they got to get shot to win. If Minnesota can stop the run and, and, and get them in negative love situations, I don't really trust him as a pure dropback guy quite yet. Despite the fact, I like his talent a whole lot. Now, I think on the flip side, Mississippi State, super aggressive on defense, loading the box, a lot of pressure. I think they're like, Hey, we, I've got to go down swinging. We cannot allow Minnesota to stay ahead of the chains to run the clock, et cetera. So this is the game. Drake, Lindsey can make a lot of money in, right? I think they're going to give him favorable looks to throw the ball. And we're going to see how, how open to throwing the ball on early downs when they have those good looks to throw it when Mississippi State is loading up the box and they're bringing all that run pressure. Like, how much do they trust, Drake, Lindsey to do that? Because if it's just third down and long, I mean, that's, that's tough for anybody. Yeah, it's, I, obviously, I'm really big on Camario Taylor, but I'm also big on Drake, Lindsey. So that's my key interest in this game is they're going to be that quarterback battle. And I also mentioned, like, Minnesota has been very good at home. The last couple of years. Like, they are tough to beat there. So this is a tough test for Mississippi State. I think if you are the bulldogs and you go on the road and you win this game and they're, they're favored in it by one and a half, which, okay? So like, if, if you actually go on the road and win this game, I don't think that means you're like, you know, going to be winning a bunch of SEC games. But man, you're feeling pretty damn good about where you stand going into the rest of the season because you've got some nice little proof of concept there, but it will be tough because this Minnesota defense is good. And as Bud has mentioned, you know, the offense that they run, you can really exploit teams that don't have the athletes that you do with it. Minnesota doesn't have, you know, LSU or Georgia athletes on the defensive side of the ball. They don't have Oregon athletes on the defensive side of the ball, but they've got much better dudes in what you saw last week and guys were much better equipped to kind of contain it. So if they're able to take away what your best at as Bud was talking earlier, can you, do you have a counter? That's what we need to find. And with Camario Taylor and any team with a young quarterback without a ton of experience, that counter is not always there. The Minnesota run game disappointed me last season for how good I thought it could have been, this is going to be a good test of that. Are they going to be able to run the football on early downs against this Mississippi State defense? Big, big prove it spot for a Minnesota offensive line that I think was targeted as a group where they could really improve to be able to level up the entire offense that's around Drake Lindsay to top three round quarterbacks in this game. Eventually, maybe yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, not definite NFL starters, but definite NFL players on both sides at quarterback. Definitely draft picks. Yeah, like both these guys are talented enough. They're going to get picked. Yep. What about Cutter Bowley and Marcel Reed, Bud? How many, I mean, NFL draft picks we got right there. I mean, a couple and dude, some of these Arizona state receivers. Okay. So Reed, he's a Marion Miller. Like, I mean, they're out there. They've got a they got something cooking for sure. I mean, it's they're not going to ask Cutter Bowley to go out there and be Sam Levitt and he's not, but I think they've done a good job of putting skill around Cutter Bowley so that he can be successful. You mentioned Miller head, a Marion Miller head, eight catches 102 yards, Reed Harris had six catches for 137. What about Grayson and Rigden, the running back chip? Two catches for 110 yards. Explosives, baby. Explosives. Let's go. I am worried, not worried concerned about the defensive depth for this Arizona state team. Something that probably was not going to get revealed in that season opening win against Morgan state. They had a couple of injuries there that were on my notepad where again, I don't know if the game against Morgan state is going to reveal those and defensive depth when you're playing against Texas A&M in college station. Colin Klein might be gone. Casey Concepcion might be gone, but I don't know, man, that's still a so a college football playoff contending team should be a should be a little interesting to see what happens down there. Let's get let's get your attention about the sun devils and the Aggies on on Saturday. What what time zone is Arizona right this time of year? Oh, I don't know. They might know because it's an 11 a.m. Central start. So is it 10 a.m. or 9 a.m. Arizona time? Body clocks. It's nine. According to some guy in cover three. So they're in Pacific right now. Yeah, that's that's something I think that is worth, you know, mentioning going into this one. It's a weird clock game for them. Slow start live over. Okay. So I mean, of course, it's a body clock, but we've been we've been practicing at 5 a.m. Just because it's a hundred degrees outside. I mean, they probably have been practicing at 5 a.m. actually. They have an indoor, right? No, that's what he's been running around with his little like pan out for their facility. Like they're their practice facility looks cool, but it's it's like that the at the indoor, right? I mean, I think this matchup is like one of the very best matches as far as personnel the weekend. Like you get those Arizona State receivers. I think these tech say name defensive backs are pretty awesome, right? How good are these new tech say name defensive lineman is going to probably dictate this game. Like if they can win up front without having to rely on all the fun blitz stuff that Oko does, then I think they got a great chance to win the game and obviously the spread is 14. So, you know, pretty high implied chance to win there for the Aggies. Like the way that Arizona State pulls this is those guys just go off on the outside, bully plays to like plays like that's the reason why you know, the guy went and got him. So I think like, you know, critical kind of clutch runs. And then miss or sorry, tech say name offensive line doesn't really gel. You know, And they're just not consistent enough yet and they make mistakes and you get some free runners and some chaos Couple of streaks here to be wary of oh Annem has 118 straight at home against unranked teams last loss was in 2022 against Florida Arizona State has lost five straight and 15 of their last 16 road games against top 10 schools Having won once since 2015 at number seven UCLA Interests it if the SEC sweeps these four this weekend. I think you're honestly sank you holding up a five. Oh, yeah, for sure Like and I think it reserved by the way, like if they did sweep like like no doubt But like if they sweep these I'm definitely like I'm just changing my model to like the SC gets five in yeah 86 I mean look the implied on I wanted the big game excites out there. It was like 13% they get six or more Yeah, I think it's very much in the realm of possibility Yeah, I do too like not super likely, but it's not No, no, no Notre Dame has to be out of the picture No, no, the big 10 can only get three the ACC and big 12 get one. So there's five teams I'm doing I'm doing reverse math G six ACC G six ACC big 12 Notre Dame that leaves you right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it would be too big 10 Mm-hmm right six into I don't think that I don't think we go six it's not likely, but I'm saying it's it's not zero It's more feasible than most probably think and if for some reason Notre Dame does crash out then yes I think that the whoever is I mean just think about it in your mind the way that the rankings seem to be shaking out Who's more likely to have like a 10 11 12 ranked team if you need to go grab that one extra team? It is likely going to be one of those SEC squads Very interesting. What else? What else has your attention is Tennessee Georgia Tech do anything for you? I'm so down on the beast. Yeah, and how do Georgia Tech looks like it did against Colorado won't do a whole lot for anybody I mean that defense suck out loud honestly and if If Julian Lewis could throw at all like Colorado kills them I think face on Brandon's gonna put up another stupid number ball placement was on point with phase on Brandon By the way, I know it's yes team, but those were like law. It was like 40 yard handoff, dude So that looked really good. I think that the unknown here is What was their plan to run Mendoza and how much did the ankle injury impact that plan? Because he is pretty mobile and they did not really run him much and Cubie run game was an important part of what they did with Faulkner and obviously they had you know Haynes King who was an awesome runner But I I can't imagine you wouldn't got that guy like yeah, you're just a peer drop back Are like just you know read the RPO and throw a type guy for us. So what is his health like? What is their actual plan now that they realize? Hey, like I know key it made those comments in the offseason and Tech fans took it to me like I were better on the offensive line this year like no you ain't like it That's not whoa. So they've got a few players who are yeah the high of a high high cow Corny right the guard. Yeah, like high carny. He's a good player for sure. I Think Tennessee runs them, but the Mendoza factor is is the unknown for me Think Terry Terry in the tailgate saying might get a little bit crooked might get a little bit sideways Let's see. We got Alabama Kentucky. We got Arizona BYU Minnesota Arkansas Utah Salt Lake City for Ryan Silverfield's bunch Arkansas looks pretty shaky last week against the team. They should have dominated We'll see how that carries over in the week two Utah look great, but They're playing what should be a better team than what they faced last week So we'll see there that that's a big one that's I mean that could be the SEC's first power for Unconference loss this season. So you're going on the road and even though chip hates him the must the must will be electric Yeah, I think you tell wins that game too. That's uh, I don't know. Yeah Spreads 12 and a half. I think it says something that that game is more of a toss up or slightly more in doubt than Tennessee Georgia Tech is Friday night border war and we also El Aseco El Aseco although I don't man I'm sad because a the games in prime time and I just feel like El Aseco needs to be in 11 a.m. Local time start That is just heritage to me, but just I was I What I saw if Iowa State I just don't I know that that game can be weird no matter what but man I don't think it's gonna be a very good game this year Yeah border war on Friday night. You mentioned Missouri in Kansas. This game's gonna be in Lawrence Ooh rock chalk got to have it. Mm-hmm Gotta have it. Spreads five and a half. Yeah Which implies like either Kansas is way better than we thought preseason or Missouri is sort of in that like worst team in the SEC outside of Arkansas conversation Or just that home field atmosphere for the J. Hawks is Unbeatable in the booth. Are you kidding me? You don't just walk into the booth. Yeah, they spent $60 million changing out the urinals. You think that those fans aren't gonna be there rip-roar and rock chalk in their team all the way to a victory Finally won't have wet feet Yes, I don't know what the bathrooms were like before. I just know they just did some renovations. I hope you this it feels like Nothing to lose game for Kansas Yes, like everybody expects Missouri to go in there and walk them, but at the same time It's like hold on like This is interesting. It spread is not that big. I think that the I think that the spread not being large is acknowledging the college football of it all and that Missouri is not so overwhelmingly better to escape the college football factor That just asking these dudes to go out there and play this game in this environment that Missouri might not have the screws tight The I will I will give Kansas credit Isaiah Marshall the quarterback a key operator that offense pretty well Defensively, I'm not sure I'm sold on Kansas Shout out to Ryan in the chat. You know what we got to deal with Kansas and Missouri get together. Tell me tell me Tom Throw a lot of the books. Oh out there record puck Come on. You gotta take that record. You throw it out Get that regular here. You throw it. I think it's again exciting game also Rutgers Boston College Not that will not make my quad box. I mean it will make mine just because it's on Friday, but that would that would not make a quad box over quad box Which is 16 on a Friday though When you only got five options at the same time. I'll tell you this vote one off. All right, so tell me I watch I'm gonna get Rutgers BC on the Buds quad box. Are you right? Would you rather have Richmond in C state? Would you rather have Louis Villanova definitely would you rather have Virginia Norfolk? What what's the big game on Friday night? Is that the one we have in the pool or Kansas? Yeah, yeah, all right So give me in T. State to see how they bounce back and they'd give me Fire country and Boston blue I'm not watching boss called drivers that that's that's a no Game doesn't do it for you It's Red Bandana - it is on September 11th. Yeah, so yeah, we'll see obviously BC Moneyline is Have to absolutely have to absolutely have to Okay, any other Do you want to see Is there anything to make from this SEC statement? Okay, so reading this I think this is just the SEC trying to assert in court their ability to govern themselves That's what I was thinking. I haven't heard anybody tell me that they are at all serious about kicking LSU out of the league I don't think that's a real serious thing. I think they just want to kind of be like and by the way We are allowed to do this know that right like to add a little leverage to their suit against the SEC against LSU which is ongoing, but also to kind of like Kind of extend the idea of self-governance. So they would like the court to You know be able to say like yeah, that that that's allowed like when he gets back from his hunting trip He might be real slow on packing his guns just so that everybody can see what we got here Mm-hmm. Hey guys just remember because then the big 12 do that like we want you to certify that we can enforce our own rules That was another one of these legal steps and the source be issued. Do I remember that correctly? The thing the big 12 had was that Ken Paxton gave them an opening to sue because they had the looming threat from Paxton Mm-hmm But so this is just hey LSU remember we're gearing this thing up. Yeah Yeah, I don't I don't foresee this happening but Story won't end. I think there's like a 0% chance this happening Potentially a meeting on Thursday. Okay All right It's feels you know like this this also feels like all the different ups and downs of the Michigan sign stealing remember the last month We're back The big 10 presidents are having an emergency conference call at Friday night at 10 p.m. To decide whether Jim Harbaugh will be allowed to put on his khakis tomorrow. Right. Yeah. And we are on every little development. Every development seems like the biggest deal in the world. Three seasons has passed and kind of feels like this is just more of the dragging out at the story, right? What's like we talked about with the LSU thing like, is it really worth it to roster these players? Even if you don't think the penalties will be applied to you, right? Because you were under, you know, protection from the TRO when you did the move. Is it really worth it to you to kick out LSU? Hell no. No. Just let this pass and LSU doesn't need any more players. The players they got are good enough to go compete for a national championship. Are they going to have to figure out something with basketball? For the basketball team? Yeah. Like, is the league going to have to figure out some kind of way, like, to allow them to feel a basketball team that has people who are somewhat deserving of a scholarship? Um, still think they have like four players? No, they've got more than that at this point, but they had some, they had a couple key players like the RJ Lewis piece of this that got, you know, taken off by the ongoing battle. You know, the guy who played for the Boston Celtics. Right. Yeah. Yeah. In a real game or in a preseason game? Let's see, RJ Lewis with the Boston Celtics because he was a whole year. Do you remember Tom? No. Okay. Sorry. I was busy creating something that I'm going to, yeah, I think I've solved a lot of issues for everybody. Stryker, I don't know if you have it. I sent it to you. The ACC offers the SEC Florida State and gets LSU in return. The ACC now has two powerful teams that can win national titles again. All right. The SEC gets rid of that evil lane, Kiffin, and his shenanigans. And Florida State can pay its electric bills. Who says no to this deal? Man, can you imagine it like LSU going to Charlottesville? Yes. Yes. I could. Yeah. I mean, they got to go. I mean, they go. Never mind. No, no shot. They go to some fancy places on their on their path through the South Eastern Conference. Um, see, this is that you know, Tom did not use AI to make this. Uh-huh. You need AI. That's right. I got a website that makes it for me. That's not AI. What's that? Tom. I'm telling you. Tom. Jeff. Yes. Yeah. Tom Dutch. Yeah. LSU in Blacksburg would be great. LSU at Stanford. Odd. Very. LSU at Cal. LSU at Cal. LSU at Cal. Cal has got a good little tailgate scene. It's small. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I will. LSU would be fun. Yeah. It caliber them in LSU would be fun. Yeah. LSU fans unleashed in Berkeley proper. I think a social experiment, right? Yes. A little bit. LSU in Chestnut Hill. All right. Jim Tony. I know Jim Phillips PhD MD and Tony Petiti. Big fans of the cover three podcast. Tom is very much put together an option that could solve everybody's problems. Florida State to the South Eastern Conference. LSU to the ACC. We await to hear y'all's decision. All right. Any other matchup notes you want to get? Nope. Nope. I think it's pretty good. Yeah. I agree. I agree. We're one of this. One of the reasons we're so excited about doing big game breakdown about a day early, a little bit more time to stretch our legs and be able to give you the thoughts on the weeks ahead that we have. We are going to be back on Thursday 11 a.m. Eastern time with our best bets for week two. Come and hang out for the cover three locks. And you can follow him on Twitter. Tom Fonelli. He follow him. He follow me at Chip underscore Patterson. Gentlemen. Thank you very much. Thank you to you.