Colin Cowherd on Expectations for Ohio State, Texas & USC plus the Big Ten vs SEC Power Shift

- I can't think of anything right now about college football I'm not happy with. Let's just do the NFL model. Regular season decides the playoffs. They'll be the Texas of last year. - The downside to being dominant is you kind of become a little delusional. LSU is running through coaches and you're like, they're winning 10 games every year. - With an out-forther ado, here he is. The legend himself, Colin Coward. What's up, my friend? How you doing? - I'm ready to talk some college football. - I love that. Listen, you know, I'm always rare to go. And this season I think has the potential to be as interesting a season as we've seen in a long time. Let me start with this. And we'll get into some of the teams that we love to discuss certainly during the course of this conversation, but I wanted to start with this. And it's not even a big 10 SEC type of conversation. Colin, I have argued and you and I have had this conversation. I think college football is better than it's ever been. And one of the reasons why is the idea of what I would call hope and optimism. I think for the first time in a long time, there are a number of fan bases with legitimate hope and optimism. And the reason for that, although not just singularly, but is the idea of the current structure creating more parity. The structure as it relates to NIL, the freedom of movement through the transfer portal, kids not having to go to the NFL. So they stick around become more experienced. The idea that you can build your roster, the cream is rising to the top. You don't have to stay in the Mac. You know, if you're a great player, you can go play for Miami or Texas Tech or Ohio State or Georgia. And for all of those reasons, what we're seeing right now is more quality teams and more parity. And because of that, more fan bases have hope and optimism. What are your thoughts on that? Well, college football like baseball has always been steeped in tradition and lore. But truth is, college football started becoming very regional and very repetitive. If you go look at the top five preseason teams 10 years ago, it was Alabama and LSU and Georgia and Clemson and Florida State. The top five now, we get West Coast Oregon, Southern Georgia, academic independent, slightly Notre Dame, Ohio State, and the Texas Longhorns. More diverse, three time zones. Well, I talked about this on the show today. I had a friend that was a therapist and we talked about this. It was a fascinating day I spent with him, a very emotional day about 20 years ago. And I wanted to break some cycles in my life. And he said, you know, he literally grabbed a whiteboard. I spent all day with him. By four o'clock I was exhausted. I'd been crying, talking about my child. It was one of these kind of depocked choper days where I bought a session with him. You unpacked it all right there on the whiteboard. And I went back to my childhood. There were just some things I had that cycles I had to break. And what I really discovered during that six hour, seven hour day was that we tend to embellish both the good and the bad times in our life. That little tiny moments in our childhood that we made ourself into a victim was just falling off a swing or getting picked on 'cause yeah, big ears like every kid in the world gets picked on in the fifth grade. Or the great moments, the great vacation, wasn't really that great at rain most of it, but you remembered something fun with your dad that we embellish stuff. - And I think college football fans are embellishing how much they loved the save in era because Alabama was struggling to sell out home games on their own schedule out of conference. They're embellishing. - I remember that. - Do you remember he would get mad at the fan base in the post game press conference for leaving early and they were uninterested at times? - It was a one sport conference. We are embellishing how much we loved attendance and ratings were down. Now, you took the cream of the crop out west, threw it in the Big 10. So you have a super conference. You took the cream of the crop in the Big 12, jammed it in to the SEC. So you create these almost AFC and FC super conferences. That does not mean Notre Dame Miami or Texas Tech can't win and compete for a net. What it means is, go look at Texas' schedule. Before they even get to the playoffs, there's six premier games. Go to the USC schedule. If they don't get, don't get to the playoffs, they still play Oregon, Washington, Ohio State, Indiana, Penn State. These teams now, especially if they get to the playoffs, are playing like eight must watch games. It wasn't that long ago that Ohio State, you waited for the, if they had a week out of conference schedule, the Youngstown State, nor the Illinois. You waited for the Roan Penn State game and the home Michigan game. And that was it. You crossed your fingers. If you're a Buckeye fan at Hope, you'll be Michigan and get to the nanny. There were like, it was a two game season. You just have more games, you get, you get, I mean, I'm fascinated to watch Penn State go to USC. USC go to Penn State. My eyes haven't seen that. I've seen enough cow Oregon State for six lifetimes. I love all these new games. And I think we've just talked to ourselves in the loving the tradition. And most tradition is not as good as we remember it to be. How about this? The NFL is not draining college football of its talent. In fact, NIL has created the opposite of the top 10 teams in the eight people, all 10 quarterbacks, have at least one year of starting experience with an average column, listen to this, of 19 starts in their career. That's average in the top 10. They'll all be over 30 by the end of the season. Some of the quarterbacks in the past, likely would have been gone. Don't take more would have been gone. Barchmaning probably gone. Trinidad Shameless probably going to get my ava. Probably gone back Darian Minza probably gone. All of these got, and now they're back in college football. Yeah, Carson back to Carson back. Now he's, you know, he's gone. He was an experienced guy. I mean, you can, you can make the argument that we're getting the best quarterback play. And I think that this year, let's just bring it to this year. We might have one of the best core of quarterback groups that I've seen in a long time, specifically out of the big 10, but really all over the country. And I think that could make for one of the best college football seasons that we've seen in a long time. Well, there are things when you pay young people, administrators and older people, they bristle. Like when anytime you raise the minimum wage, a friend of mine owns a restaurant in LA. And years ago, I said, what's a little secret to your business? And he said, well, I pay my dishwasher three dollars more an hour than everybody else in town. And everybody else in town gets mad at me. And they come to me and say, why do you pay your dishwasher that? And he said, because I don't want to have to replace a dishwasher every six months because he goes to another place that gives him $0.50. So I overpay him. So I keep him. I have to sell one more pizza a week, and I've made my money. And the point is there was all this stuff about all the NIL. You pay the players, they'll be an imbalance. But no, the most important position in the sport is quarterback. And now the NFL gets a much more prepared experience quarterback. And again, the NFL now says, well, he's more beat up. OK, time out. If you go look at draft picks, the percentage of NFL draft picks that are still with a team that drafted in five years into the league, it's under 20%. So spare me on this whole league is about getting the most you can out of draft picks for like three to four years, and then you just recycle through your other draft picks. So even the criticisms of NIL, which is this kid comes in, he's made money. My take is you don't have to teach him about money. They're more mature, more education, more snaps. I think it's benefited not only the college game, which is more sophisticated. I mean, Indiana Miami last year, the national championship was the closest thing I'd ever seen to a pro game in college. The motion, the sets, the man and zone coverage by Miami, the pro athletes. It looked like, I mean, it looked like highly sophisticated, I mean, it almost looked like pro football. It was just really impressive. Well, the pace of the game, both of those teams played at a very slow pace. You know, they're snapping the ball every 30 or 32 seconds versus, remember, we had gotten down to team snapping at every 19 seconds, trying to run 95 plays. That just wasn't the case in the, in the style of game that you saw last year in the national championship between those two clubs. And because of it, it comes down to what quarterback play and Mendoza made the plays and Beck made the mistake. Yeah, I, listen, I understand that grievance sells, but I can't think of anything right now about college football. I'm not happy with. there's nothing about the sport, the fact that I get Notre Dame. Now, even, even free agency every year for every player, I think here, first of all, transfer port aims wilder than it is. Now, for college basketball, it's a sur, I mean, you're replacing almost your whole roster. But like, let's take USC. Well, Jayden Mayava is his third year quarterbacking. They're offensive line, all guys that have been there two to three years. They're defensive line. I think I had one interior line transfer. Their wide receivers are freshmen. They replace guys Kobe Lane, Jacoby Lane, and Mackay Lemon, who had been there for years. I'm looking at USC, which is, you know, it's LA, it's flashy. The offense is a lot of high school recruits or guys that transfer years ago. I think primarily the guys that transfer out are like people that leave jobs that think they deserve more pay or more opportunity. Is the core, I mean, go look at this this year. They're Ed Drusher, Arch Manning, they're left tackle. They did get a star receiver from Auburn, who's a hell of a player. You know, like it fills a knee, but I start told me today, he said, I would only take about six transfers. He goes, my problem is when nine of my guys leave. Now it's 15. He goes, I'm mostly replacing my guys who leave. He goes, but we're not looking to fill a lot of spots. You know, every, every program is you know, Joel, it's hard to find good corners. It's hard to find good interior alignment. Yeah, anybody would take those players. Yeah, but I think yeah, I think it feels like it feels like everybody's just transferring. And the really the core players at Notre Dame aren't the core players that USC aren't at Ohio state. Now the SEC is getting outbid for players there. It's a little bit more of a turn style down there. But I think of the Northern powers and Miami and Notre Dame. I think they're core, I mean, like Notre Dame's defense this year. I don't have the depth chart in front of me, but it's the guys that are returning were there last year. They'll have a top three defense. It's a lot of returning guys from Notre Dame, including Leonard Moore. I think might be a top two pick in the NFL draft at corner. Your reaction to the top 25, I want to go back there. Ohio State was number one. They got 41st place votes. Oregon was number two. Georgia comes in at three Notre Dame four, Texas five, Indiana six, Miami seven. Now it goes on from there, including, you know, teams that you and I talk a lot about Alabama's at 13. USC is tied with BYU at 14 Michigan at 16. Did you have any, any specific thoughts about the AP top 25, any problems with. I think the Indiana is the most fascinating. Once again, they have a very easy out of conference schedule. They get USC at home. Josh Hoover, who I probably watched five to six times at TCU, you know, he's not as big as Mendoza. He's about six two. His arm is okay. I don't think he pushes the ball down field quite as well as Mendoza does. He's a good solid quarterback. I've seen him. He's been starting for years. I just don't think he says, good is Mendoza. And my argument has been, I love Signetty, but let's not forget the year before Mendoza. We were complaining because he was punning at midfield late in the game down to scores, but he was kind of conservative. And then Mendoza arrives and even Signetty submits like, hey, that's, I've never thrown the ball down the field that much. I mean, we were throwing post pattern six times a game. Signetty acknowledges, yeah, that Mendoza guy kind of changed the way I coached. So now you go back to a experienced good prospect. I don't think any college kid's going to be as smart as Mendoza. I mean, he's like Andrew Luxemar got into accepted the Yale. I don't, I don't, I think Hoover's very good. He has an incredibly quick release. That's what I remember about him. He get, he snaps the ball out very quick. He's very pretty to watch. Mostly a pocket guy like Mendoza can run, but, but he's mostly a pocket guy, but they're not going to be as good a quarterback. So I'm fascinated to see what Indiana does this year. Yeah. And, and, and six seems like just more motivation for him. Speaking of Signetty, because as a man, I don't know if I have loved any coach more at the podium than Kurt Signetty. I mean, Sabin was very good. There's no doubt. Brissley, but this guy, like once he feels like he's got a chip on his shoulder. Yeah. And I cannot tell you how much I love it. I mean, I love meeting with him. I love what he says. If you were to just go back to when he was hired and, you know, hey, produce sucks. And so does Michigan and Ohio. Staying two years later, the guy's wearing a national championship, never seen anything quite like it. And I don't think it's going to stop anytime soon. By the way, just last thing on the top seven, Georgia and Texas three and five. I know problems there, but it is the first time since 2015 column that we have not had an SEC team. Garner a first place vote in the AP top 25. Well, I think Georgia's offense is kind of pedestrian. I like their defense. LSU's got 41 transfers. I like Sam Levitt. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes. But 41 transfers is I've seen that with USC Brian Kelly at LSU, Deon Sanders. It's just too many transfers. You can't build a culture with 401 players from taking different exits to your stadium. Like it's just too much chaos. So I think they'll be really fun to watch. And I think lanes are really good coach, but it's just, I mean, new staff, 41 new players. It's just a lot of movement and their schedule is not easy. So I think Texas has the right positions filled experienced offensive coach quarterback left tackle, excellent edge rusher. They, oh, and they have the one really great receiver from Auburn. So they have them right, but they only return 11 starters. It doesn't bother me because they're their best players are all in key spots and have been there. And also the culture is set with the Texas has the culture. So even though guys didn't start, they've been in the program before. They'll step up and play so I don't worry about that. But I, but I do think there's a lot of pressure on Texas to beat Ohio State in that first game. I was going to ask you about Texas in terms of expectation. You know, because obviously we can talk about that first game Ohio State column. There's no doubt that one's going to be, you know, ratchet it up. No doubt. Okay. But then they still have to travel to Tennessee, September 26th. Oh, yeah. Red River against Oklahoma on October 10th. They're going to have to host Ole Miss. They're in the top 10 at least right now. They've got to go to Missouri. They're in the top 25. They got to go to LSU. They're number 11. They've got to go to Texas A&M. That's all in the month of November. Those three road. Listen, look at the court. Julian Sain, Trinidad, Chandler, Sam Levitt. They are facing a gauntlet of quarter months started in the playoff last year, Kellan Monde for A&M. So I just think that's, I mean, listen, when you start playing, what do you think they have to do? What does Sark have to do? I think they have to be to Ohio State. They will. Oh, you think they're winning that game? Well, they're 21 since Sark got there at home. And you know, in college football, home's a big deal. You always get one great call. And the truth is teams tend to play better at home. These are young men. So I think it's going to be, you know, you're, it's going to be 24, 23 or 28, 27. And it's going to be like that Oregon Ohio State game at odds in a couple years ago. It's going to come down. Oh, that was a great game. Yes. I remember it very well. Last possession game. I think it's going to look like that. I would probably take Texas close. But I said it then with Oregon Ohio State and I'll say it again with Ohio State Texas. I think Ohio State at the end of the year will be with the better team. But in, but in week two, down in Austin, I would take Texas. It's a fascinating game for both of those teams. And the reason being, I already outlined, we just talked about, you know, the Texas difficulty after that game. If you lose at home, all the sudden, the schedule becomes daunting. And you're like, okay, how do we get to nine and three? And let's hope nine and three is enough at that point to get into the playoff, which by the way, they were in that boat last year after losing that, that game in week one of the regular season. But Colin, then you look at Ohio State schedule and you think to yourself, oh my goodness, it's worse than Texas schedule. So they have that game. Let's start with they have to travel to Texas week two, which, you know, is is a lot of people think a top two or three roster in the sport. They've got to go to Iowa. And I understand a lot of Southern people just like roll their eyes at that. But look at what Iowa does in the bowl game. Look at what Iowa does at home every single year. It took Dan landing and Dante more everything they had last year to beat Iowa and Kenik Stadium. So they've got to go to Iowa. That's October third. They've got to go to Indiana. Kurt Signetti has not lost at home. They have to go to USC last year Lincoln Riley and the Trojans undefeated in the Coliseum. Then Colin, they've got a host Oregon and host Nebraska in the month of November. That schedule is crazy tough and let's say they do lose to Texas. How do we expect them to go through that and still make the playoff? Well, I think there are two lost team that makes the playoff. I think Texas is going to be a three lost team. I think USC is a three lost team. What's going to be interesting is Penn State doesn't have to play. I mean, Penn State got the luckiest break of all time. I don't think they have to play Oregon. I think they miss Oregon. Um, they've got to play USC at home and they've got to go to Michigan of the contending type teams, ranked type teams, they don't have to play Indiana. So those are their two toughest games. So I think the argument at the end of the year because they bring their quarterback from Iowa State. So they have a nice coach quarterback. So and I think he had a very good transfer portal. I think Penn State's probably going to be the underrated team in the big 10 might take the schedule. Just they're going to be able to build confidence. If they stumble and play poorly, they can still win a lot of games. What's going to happen when Ohio State, you know, and Penn State at the end of the year, Penn State has the better record Ohio State's clearly the better team. Sure. That'll be it. That's going to be an interesting argument. I also think, and I'm going to give Signity a pass for one more year. But Indiana is out of conference schedule has been pretty anemic now. He inherited schedules and they get built years in advance. But I do think we're going to have to start holding because Ohio State now out of conference is playing big boys. I think we're about a year away. Michigan has scheduled big obviously with Oklahoma this year and last. I think I think we'll get Oregon tends to be willing to play big out of conference games. I think we're about a year away from holding Indiana a little more accountable out of conference. At least in September, I'm not asking for supplement in October, but I think it really is an advantage. I mean, USC got rid of Notre Dame. One of the reasons why they wanted to start for an own play home games. And they wanted to be healthy going into the big 10 conference schedule like it is a strategic move. Yeah, it definitely is. I don't know. Let me just put on like a forward, you know, looking hat and we'll get back to this season in a moment. I do think that the playoff is going to expand. Yeah. And I think part of the expansion is going to be actually like built into the cake. Not just like, oh, we've got to do this as well is going to be a schedule agreement between the big boys. So I do, I do believe that this is going to be fixed in the upcoming years. I think that playoff is going to expand and part of that expansion will be an agreement and they'll, you know, generate revenue off of this that each conference plays nine conference games. And then they have an automatic 10th game against the other conference. Interesting. Do you think that that's going to be coming? I think it's great. And I don't like the conference championships going forward. I don't think there's any, I mean, let's just do the NFL model regular season decides the playoff. Let's not, let's not have an intermediate game where some, by the way, where somebody could get hurt going into the playoff, what's the point of that? I mean, if you're Alabama playing George at the end or whoever you're playing and you're running back, gets a knee ripped up in the SEC championship game, then we've got an argument on, well, where do you see them? Remember when Kenyan Martin got hurt since an ad he, he like breaks the leg before the tournament. It's like, well, they're not a number one seed. He's the dominating player on the team. Didn't that happen to Marcus can be, am I remembering that correctly in Martin? It may have been can be or, or maybe both. I don't know. I've gone really quickly, USC, I'm big on USC this year. I know your bullish on USC this year, the offensive line, obviously losing the center is not great. Although, I think you would agree with me, they've recruited at a very high level and they should have depth enough to recover from that. Don't love that it's the center position, but with the backs back that they have the quarterback that they have and the support that they have through recruiting at O line, they should be very good. The reason I bring up USC, seven of the 12 playoff teams a year ago call in 2025 were outside of the top 15 in the preseason pole and in 2024, there were four unranked teams in the preseason pole that ended up going to the college football playoff. Here's USC sitting at 14 right now in the preseason. Is this a team under Lincoln Riley that can finally take the next step and compete at the top end of the big 10 because they have not quite been there right now. As of, you know, the last couple of years, do they take that step this year? They have yet to prove that they can play a complete beginning to end winning football game against good competition on the road. I mean, how they lost a Maryland on the road a couple of years ago, they're a different, they're a different team on the road Illinois last year, a game I called a great game, by the way. Fantastic game. Um, yeah, I mean, I, I, I'll believe it when I see it, um, I think they have the best O line D line combination, not a ton of depth. I mean, they have, their starters on the O line D line are the best they've had since Pete Carroll, uh, they're a young at receiver, a Mark Bowman, a five star tight end will probably start Trent Mosley, a five star receiver will. So they're, they're kind of young at the skill positions, but it's the best one, two running back punch Lincoln's had and he likes to run the football. I don't think they have a ton of depth, um, what would worry me if I'm USC, I'm playing Dante Moore, Julian Saiyan, Josh Hoover, a three year starter, now at Penn State, from Iowa state, a lot of good quarterbacks and USC had two NFL safeties, both are gone. They're okay at corner, not special. I don't think their secondary has a ton of playmakers, both safeties last year, Bishop and Kamari Ramsey were physical playmakers, um, I don't think there was good on the back end, defensively. And this is not a year to have questions on the big pen on your back end. I mean, that's true. He's got good quarterbacks too. So I worry about them late in games holding onto a lead, not a ton of defensive line past rushing depth starters are good, but they played 65 snaps. They're on the road, your delines tired, Julian Saiyan, Josh Hoover are lighting up and you're not great on the back end. It's again, smart teams take leads, tough teams finish. They're smart. They're not necessarily tough. And I just worry about, I worry about the back end of that defense in a conference with NFL quarterbacks all through the schedule. So is USC in your estimation after that going to the playoff? They'll lose to Oregon, Indiana and Ohio State. They'll have three losses. It's a good schedule. My guess is they'll be like the 13th team and a 12 team playoff. They'll be the they'll be the Texas of last year. Is that enough for, you know, we, you used to live in LA. I'm in LA now. We know USC fans. We know how they feel. You've heard the scuttle butt over the last couple of years. Is that enough for Lincoln? I think it is NIL actually saves coaches. Okay. When Pete Carol was in LA, there were no NFL teams. Now there's two. The passion. They're not the NFL team in town. You got Harbonne or McVey and Stafford like pro football is a bigger deal in LA. Coach football just matters less than it did. And I think people look at Lincoln. They don't cheat. He's smart. They're fun to watch. The stadium has been upgraded. It's a good environment. Games. They got great games of the Coliseum. I mean, Notre Dame a couple of times, a Penn State game a couple of years ago, Michigan's been there. Like the big 10 has really good games. It's entertaining. I don't think you're running out. If, you know, in the NIL, you're building facilities, you're paying your roster. Oh, you want to pay him 65 million or 70 million dollars to buy him out and then 75 million to the next guy. Were you getting the money? Yeah. Especially after they just built their facility, you know, to your point about that, I think that the financial burden of changing a coach now versus even five or six years ago is significant. It's significant. It's not just his buyout. Now it's his staff bias, the buyout of the next coach that you're getting. It's then building and buying a roster, which at this point, I think it's probably 30 to 35 million dollars, you know, just on the roster side. So just to your to your point, you know, I think just outside of the playoff would certainly be enough for Lincoln. And I agree with you. I think they're going to be right there. I think it would be huge for them to get one of those wins against a big boy to show that they can. Remember, this is why James Franklin ultimately is no longer the head coach at Penn State is because he got to that level and there was a ceiling over him. And he's got at home, speaking of Lincoln, Riley Oregon, September 26th and Ohio State October 31st, both in the Coliseum, can you win one of those, if you win one, if you win one, then I think you, but again, now you got to go win at Indiana at Penn State again, the Penn State game. Look at the date. Look at the Indiana date. That's cold weather for an L 18. That's right. They also have to host Washington. You didn't bring up their quarterback, Demand Williams, who's a very good player with an offense over oriented head coach and in jetfish. And then the last thing that I wanted to kind of gauge you on is where do you think we are in? I don't think anybody can get away with or away from, I should say, if you're talking about college football, if you're covering college football, because of what you stated earlier, where we took the powerful teams in the West Coast and we jammed them into the big 10. We took the two best brands in the big 12 and we jammed them into the SEC. And now we have this AFC NFC Esk style of of environment, if you will. And so because of that, it's just comparison comparison comparison. The SEC ruled college football for over a decade. They were the preeminent superior conference by every single measure and all the sudden in the last three years, almost every single measure has flipped head to head has flipped. Big 10, four, no in the last four matchups in the playoff. Also a better bull record head to head against the SEC. You've got the last three national champions, all three different schools, obviously Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana. You've got no SEC teams garnering a first place vote in the preseason AP poll for the first time since 2015. And for the first time in well over a decade, we saw an NFL draft in which the conference that had the most first round draft picks was actually the big 10 and not the SEC. Where do you think we stand? Where do you think we're going in this rivalry of the two conferences? Well, the SEC is still has big money. It's just the two Texas schools. It's not it's not Georgia, Alabama. Like like Georgia, Alabama were the ones that were well healed and well capitalized and beautiful facilities and tradition. And then the NIL came in and they're good. But it's Texas A&M and Texas and oil money. So I've said this, Texas saves the SEC. If you take those two schools out, SEC, the gap between the big 10 and the SEC is ugly. Now it's flipped to the advantage is the big 10. And that's all because of their and more metropolitan areas. You know, I mean Penn State can get money from Philadelphia, USC UCLA LA, Seattle, Phil Knight money, the Indiana money from their business school. You know, Ohio, you know, you got Cleveland Cincinnati. You got all Columbus is actually a pretty big city. So and Michigan's got Detroit money. And by the way, one of the biggest endowments in the country. You do have money in the SEC, but it's just Texas and Texas A&M. That's where the real money is. So I think they'll, I think there'll be a national champion eventually out of the conference. My guess is Texas is one of these years going to get a little bit of a favor. We'll schedule not this year. They're going to get into the playoff and just attrition of more good athletes they'll win a championship. But I think one thing that is inarguable, not only has the big 1013 straight titles, the SEC hasn't played that's right. Any of those games. So the gap isn't, oh, we just, we just, we just got knocked out. It's like, no, the SEC in the playoff and the balls is only beating second tier conferences and other SEC teams. Yes. Like they're getting, they're getting pushed around. I mean, when I saw Illinois and you can say, well, the SEC teams don't care. When I watched Illinois win a ball game against an SEC team and the physicality out front, I was like, this is a new day. Man, they're pushing around an SEC team. You're like, okay, this is different. This is four years ago. Then we'll get anything Illinois would have been bolt-raised would have been dominated up front. I mean, I hear that argument about like, well, maybe they're not and, you know, invested or they don't care in those situations. You know, Vandy seemed to care a decent amount and still got handled by Iowa in that game. I think there's just a reluctance. I don't know what it is. The SEC fan and those that prop them up on on television networks have a reluctance to even acknowledge that there's a possibility that it's like, well, yeah, they could be really good. You know, like, they can't even comprehend what Indiana did with Kurt Signetti. It's breaking their brains. They can't comprehend that a guy like Kirk fairness could just roll down with Iowa and it's like, oh, actually, he is fundamentally that good and that team is difficult to beat. It's an, it's an interesting dynamic that that goes on and right now it's clearly resting in the big 10. Well, here's the other thing that's difficult for the SEC is when you've been as dominant as they have been for 20 years and then the NIL changes roster composition. You is a fan and media have to be more realistic about it. So we all know that Kalan debores a top eight coach in college football. He may be top five and yet people are like, well, he doesn't know what he's doing. No, no, no, he doesn't have the players. He doesn't have nicks, rosters were 11, 12, 13 NFL players. Alabama's losing the Caleb Downs. They're, they're getting poached. So what you have to do because I do think the way to win in the SEC now is continuity. When Sabin was there, I think 33 coaches were fired. Alabama fan has to come to terms with, listen, man, we don't have Ohio State players. So don't get into a really vicious cycle where you keep firing coaches because you're not winning. Sure. You have to alter. You know, it's almost like, it's like a budget. You know, let's say you have wife and a husband both work corporate jobs. And they make good money. And all of a sudden, they have twins. And the wife says, you know what? I'm going to stay home or the husband does. Okay. Now the budget's different. Well, you've got to, you've got to alter your vacation schedule. Now you have to have a reality. You just have to live in a different world. You can't have two range rovers. Now you don't have one use car. So you can, you can have a divorce and blame each other, but your, your budget changed. So the reality is you have to be if you're a Bama fan or a Georgia fan. I mean, I watched Georgia's offense last year. It was just, yeah, it's just okay. It's like, there was no Brock Bauer's Ladmin. It's just kind of gunner stock that it was just kind of okay. So don't blame Kirby smart. Kirby is a very good coach. But, but I think the key for the SEC is now will the big 10 become the SEC. And if you can't beat Ryan Day, you're running through coaches. So, so now the downside to being dominant is you kind of, you can become a little delusional and think you can win all the games. And it's like, no, that's not that's, I mean, LSU was running through coaches and you're like, they're winning 10 games every year. So I think SEC fans just realize the world's changed. Lean into continuity. Don't be ridiculous. These Northern schools have a lot of money. And if you can win 10 games a year and get into that playoff every other year, you're going to have a season where remember what happens in playoffs, Joe, is that a lot of the teams that you don't want to play? You don't have to. They get beat. You get lucky in some of that. Some of that stuff is just seating and luck of the draw. Sure. That's true. I can't wait for this year. I can't overstate the importance of that week too. You've got Ohio State, Texas. You've got Michigan, Oklahoma, everything that we just talked about that could change the entire narrative right there. If Oklahoma and Texas were to win both of those games, that changes the entire narrative. That quarterback for Oklahoma, John Matier, nobody's talking about that dude. That guy can spin it, man. He is good. And if he's healthy, remember when he was healthy, he was the front runner for the Heisman trophy after they beat Michigan last year. People kind of forget that that's how good he was playing early in that season. If they can protect him with a run game, then they certainly could be a very formidable team this year. Yeah. He is a he is the one quarterback that is just under the right, even 11 at LSU from Arizona States getting all this love. Yeah. And it was like guys. Go watch Oklahoma. Oklahoma's probably going to beat Michigan because of that kid. Okay. So you've called on this show that you think it Texas beat Ohio State and Oklahoma beats Michigan. What do you expect from Michigan? And in particular, maybe they're their quarterback position. I like Underwood. I think actually, and this is the history of Jim Harbott is it's funny in the NFL in San Francisco with the chargers with Michigan. He never had great receivers. It's the one position he never had great receivers. This Michigan team, I really like the guys on the outside. I think Underwood's got a sensational arm. Again, they were a mess last year. So everybody's just dumped it on Underwood. Eyes overrated. I don't know. Looks pretty talented to me. I think he's really good. I got to be very careful when the coach is going through personal chaos, which we now know what Michigan was happening. That stuff bleeds through the program. Sure. It's very easy to dump on Michigan's talent. I think Michigan, Wittingham is nothing else if not predictable and compartmentalized. I mean, his special teams at Utah were great. His teams may not have been great at quarterback, but they ran the ball. They were physical up front. You knew a great tackling teams. He is going to put a fence around it. They're going to be a little more boring, maybe a little predictable. I think people are blaming the players for what happened at Michigan and they were massively under coach last year. I would fully support that and they were young. There were times they had six freshmen on the field offensively, in particular late in that season. I can't wait to call that game. Gus Ginny and I will be their big noon Saturday. It's going to be their week two in and Arbor as Michigan takes on Oklahoma. So that'll be a phenomenal game. And my friend, we will begin our weekly appearances. I believe here soon. I cannot wait to start coming on your program and I can't thank you enough for coming on my program right here. I can't wait for the season for sure, but thank you for joining me, my friend. Listen, it's a payback. I mean, all the years you have popped my ratings and I've probably hit on a dozen massive bonuses and not giving you a penny for it. My whole goal is to treat you better on my show than you treat me. I think you did it. Oh, man, thanks for your time, my friend. We'll talk to you soon. All right. Thanks, buddy. Oh, big thanks to Colin here for being on the program. That was a lot of fun. And I got to tell you every time that I talk at length about this season, I get more excited for it. And I hope you're feeling that at home as you are going through this month of August, getting all set for the season here in 2026 and all of our shows. And remember, if you want to be aware when our shows drop, what's going on, you got to subscribe. So subscribe to the YouTube channel. If you could, you can leave a comment down below. What did you like? What did you not like from what we talked about here today? If you're listening, wherever you get your podcast, go ahead and review us. That would be awesome. And then on social wherever you're wherever you like to social media, so basically whatever your age, wherever you like to social media, we're there at Joel Clash Show. You can get all of our content and more shorter form out there. We will be with you with more Joel Clash Show as we get you ready for the season. And I got to tell you, thanks to Colin Coward. Hope you enjoyed it.