College Football Playoff Contender Red Flags: Biggest Question Mark For 16 Teams 🚩

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While my friends are busy I just open up the Reddit app And head over to r slash fantasy football right away I'm connected with thousands of passionate fans Breaking down snap counts, injury reports, and target shares That you just can't find anywhere else That's the beauty of Reddit during the season It fits into my week whenever I need it Whether I'm looking for deep scheme breakdowns Or just want to scroll through memes after a tough loss Beyond weekly matchups it's also where I go to catch local fans Sharing tailgate food recommendations And stadium secrets before heading out to a road game Having access to that kind of genuine perspective and community Makes every Sunday infinitely more entertaining Proving that people are the best part of being a fan Reddit is where the real fans are Get the reactions, details, and game day knowledge Real fans share around every matchup Download the Reddit app today With the way that the Cover 3 podcast has grown It really has become its own small business And there are a lot of people out there There's nothing better than watching our brand for Cover 3 Step out from behind the microphone And that's why Vistaprint is such an incredible partner for us I was scrolling through the Vistaprint site recently While planning out our next live meetup And I was genuinely blown away At how easy it was to customize everything we needed I ended up ordering eye-catching vinyl banners for our venue Premium embroidered polos for our podcast team And custom branded drink wear At the end of the day As giveaways for our listeners Walking into an event with completely cohesive High quality products Gives you that polished, established look That builds instant trust with your audience As a true custom print expert Vistaprint gives you so much more than what you paid for Helping you look like a top tier business Without stretching your budget With intuitive tools and trusted service Supporting you at every step It is no surprise that over seven years Over 17 million small businesses rely on them Vistaprint, print your possible Right now, new customers get 20% off With the code NEW20 at Vistaprint.com That's 20% off at Vistaprint.com Using code NEW20 And welcome back to the Cover 3 Podcast Here on CBS Sports That's Tom Finnelli That's Bud Elliott That's Danny Canale I'm Chip Patterson Coming to you live on CBS Sports Network Fired up to spend the next hour with you Taking a look at the college football world The only way Cover 3 can We're doing in-depth breakdowns Of the bigger topics with a unique angle And today, it's about concerns Yes, today we're going to be critical Today we are identifying red flags So here was the homework assignment Just to bring you all up to date Now every one of us has been assigned A college football playoff contender We're going to start with some of the National title contenders And work our way down And what we're looking for Is for one, at least one Red flag for every single National title contender We're going to begin with The Georgia Bulldogs And Tom, we're coming to you first What is the Georgia Bulldogs red flag Moving forward as a title contender? First of all, I just want to say What I love the most About this idea that we're doing today Is it guarantees every fan base In the country is going to be mad at us About something Because we're saying that their team Is bad at something And the one thing that I think Georgia's not necessarily bad at But is a concern for me With them going forward Both in the SEC And in the college football playoffs Should they get there Is the lack of a dude At the receiver position Or the tight end position If you look at what they have Nobody on the team has caught More than 19 passes this year Nobody on the team has more than 310 receiving yards And nobody on the team Is averaging more than 44.3 yards receiving per game To put that in perspective Jeremiah Smith hasn't finished a game With fewer than 68 on his own That is 23 more yards Than anybody on Georgia is averaging And you look at this team From the offense and defense They're really good They're one of the best teams In the country But when you go back To when they were winning National titles The focus was on their defense And they had a ton of NFL studs On those defenses It was what led the team But they also had Brock Bauer Who was somebody who When the offense got bogged down Could get them out of a tight spot Just by being Brock Bauer And getting the first down I don't know that this team has that And it could end up costing them In a playoff game down the line I think that makes a lot of sense I do want to see Which of these young guys On Georgia's receiving court They have some pivotal games coming up Obviously the trip to Oxford But Dandridge was pretty good Against Alabama Somebody probably emerges And I guess the other question is Do they actually need it? Can this defense just carry If they're going to score in the 20s? They need something They need some big Think about Even the receivers Ladd-McConkie Or if Zachariah Branch They did have more big play capabilities Gunnar Stockton We know his limitations As far as Is he that dynamic playmaker? Probably not But if you're a game manager You need guys To be able to distribute the ball to You need some dudes on the outside To the point that Tom made So I do agree It'll be interesting to see If somebody emerges From that group As sort of the alpha Or the best guy And clear cut above the rest Georgia already with one loss Yet still near the top of that list Of national title picks Another team that's already Taken a loss Yet still very much Has a great path To be able to make the CFP And contend for a national championship Is the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Bud, we're coming to you on this one What is the red flag For the blue and gold? Yeah, Chip I think it's Can they get off the field Against decent competition, right? Notre Dame has really played One decent offense So far this year And that was the game Two weeks ago At BYU And BYU just repeatedly You know, stayed on the field They converted third downs Now granted They had a tremendous play calling In that game But still It's not like BYU Is an elite offense Notre Dame When they make the playoff They will face Better offenses, right? Assuming they get there, obviously And they're going to face one In about a month here When Notre Dame comes to town And SMU Is not too bad either So I want to see If the Irish Can get off the field Can really get to the QB When they face somebody on Offense Who has a pulse They really kind of failed Their first and only test Of the year so far In that game in Provo Totally agree I think You know I was just going to say They also They had some Some spots too I mean, Billy Edwards From North Carolina Did throw Three touchdown passes In that game against him He had two interceptions too And you mentioned Darian Mensah Which I totally agree with But don't sleep on SMU Later this season Kevin Jennings So I think that's going to be A huge factor for them We know they have Leonard Moore At the lockdown corner On the outside But the totality Of the defense Are they going to be able To get they stops the need And when they're facing Some of those opponents That are able to put up points We saw them come up short Against BYU They haven't had many Sort of shootout type games What if that's the type Of game script that unfolds? Yeah, it's always A concern to me With like teams like Notre Dame or Miami Or anybody who has What we consider To be an easier schedule Yeah, it helps you Get to the college Football playoff And it helps you Get in the field But it doesn't really Do a whole lot To prepare you For what you're going to see When you get there Whereas every other team Is going to be kind of Tested and proven And kind of understands What they have to do When they're in trouble Or in with their backs Against the wall Like Notre Dame Hasn't really had to Figure that out And we saw On the road against BYU When they had their back Against the wall They didn't really Have a great response The Ohio State Buckeyes Are going to be without Julian Sagan for a little bit And the quarterback outlook Is murky Danny, is that a red flag? Is it that obvious? Did we give you The easiest one here? What's the red flag For the Buckeyes? I mean, if you guys Read the rundown And said, duh Like, of course It's the quarterback Conundrum that they're in Right now And as Julian's saying I think, you know I had my question marks About what he would do Against the best competition And could he elevate And take them To a national championship But he was still Really, really good For 80, 90% of the time And he almost completed 80% of his passes last year He's got a really firm Grasp of the system And yes, he has Jeremiah Smith But what are we going to get from Luke Fahy? What are we going to get if it's Tavian St. Claire as well? because we've seen pretty dramatic drop-offs from teams that struggle to find a quarterback, championship contenders that they can't find anybody to play quarterback. So very curious to see what the offense looks like, what do defenses do to even put more stress on Jeremiah Smith, and can these quarterbacks continue to get to him? And can the other supporting castmates, can they elevate their game to take some of that pressure off? Because, I mean, you could see a situation where you need a fourth-quarter drive, and that's going to be a tough task for somebody very inexperienced, whether it's Fahey or St. Clair. Yeah, it really does change what the ceiling of Ohio State is with so many question marks now at the quarterback position. And I would say the other red flag this team has, which kind of got pushed to the side after Sane went down because that immediately became emergency number one, but they also have such a lack of a pass rush that now this is a team that seems to have a whole lot more kind of concerns than it just had a week ago. All right, so if we're going to find even more red flags, here about Ohio State, which I still think is a damn good football team, are these backs special? Are any of these backs getting picked in the top 100 right now? Maybe some of the young guys will emerge, but I'm not sure Jackson is like your classic Ohio State difference maker where you're like, all right, cool, hey, just give him the ball 20 times, he's going to do something for us. He kind of just seems to be not a jag like college football at large, but by Ohio State standards, kind of a bit of just an average Ohio State back. Yeah. I think it's going to take our attention to the Miami Hurricanes, which on one side of the ball are just absolutely overwhelming with the combination of Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney, but if this Miami team does get caught in a shootout, my red flag is going to be looking at the pass defense, and I think this hits on a couple levels. So the production indicates that we've already seen three different teams throw for 300 yards against this Hurricanes pass defense, and that doesn't even include the Clemson Tigers, which got up to 295 there in garbage time. At the end of that primetime game. So we've clearly got a lot of yards given up, and you're going to say, hey, Chip, but they're blowing everybody out of the water. What does it matter? Well, that could matter by the time you get to a college football playoff game. That could matter that if you're giving up 300 yards to the likes of Florida State and Pitt, that maybe, just maybe, you're going to deal with a slight step up in competition when you're trying to win multiple playoff games in pursuit of a national championship. I think it hits a little bit with the personnel on the back end, but guys, Danny, I don't know what you think about this. The absence of. Reuben Bain and Akeem Mesidor is just such a big difference in the way this team looks up front compared to last year. They can get development. We know they have dudes, but that's one thing I'm looking at as a potential red flag moving forward. What do you think, DK? Totally agree. When you have a pass rush that they had last year, it takes so much of the pressure off of your secondary because you don't have to cover as long, right? I mean, that quarterback doesn't have as much time, and when he is, he's probably under duress, so it impacts his accuracy, where if you do see quarterbacks with more time, more stress for the secondary, have to cover them longer, and we really haven't seen those type of game wreckers coming off the edge at opposing quarterbacks, and we did see some schools, Florida State had some success against them, Wake had a little bit of success throwing the football. What do they do when they face some of these more high-powered offenses, maybe even if it's Notre Dame, if it's somebody else on their schedule, but most importantly, when you're talking about a national championship contender, that's where I would start to be a little bit concerned, too. Danny, I'm right there with you. If you look at it, they have some guys who may or may not come back this season who really matter, and I think if you watch this pass rush, they know they have to blitz at a higher rate than they had to blitz last year, especially if you control for the quality of competition. Look at the Florida State game. It's not like they dropped back a ton and just diced these guys. They had over 100 yards in screen passes because Mike Morvell correctly schemed up and guessed that Miami was going to have to send the pressure, and they were able to throw the blitz or throw the screen pass over top of it, so I'm sure other opponents are taking notice. If there's any, good news here. It's like while it has been a concern and it has been a problem, I do think they had some injuries earlier in the year that they're starting to get a little healthier, so maybe now with Notre Dame coming up and down the back half of this schedule, we see that defense start to ramp it up a little bit. Yeah, it was a group last year that was playing its best football, the Miami defense, at the end of the season. They were a little bit leaky at times. They got their best football when they needed it the most, so at least that's there for pedigree for the U. Well, coming up on the other side, we turn our attention to the reigning national champion, Indiana Hoosiers. What are the red flags about the Hoosiers moving forward? And more, next. Hitting your weekly protein goals comes down to whether or not you have good ingredients ready to go in the kitchen. That's why ButcherBox has become an essential part of my routine. Instead of making last-minute groceries, grocery runs, or overthinking meal prep, I know I always have incredible options waiting for me. I'm a huge fan of their ground beef and pork chops, and having them on hand makes Sunday meal planning completely stress-free. It's such a relief knowing I can grill up something for friends without even leaving the house. 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So just a reminder, and Tom, I'm kind of glad that you were able to get us started on this. If you're even included in this show, it's a good thing about your team. It means you are a college football playoff contender, but we are trying to get critical and look for some red flags. Danny, you're up next. You are bringing us red flags for the reigning national champion, Indiana Hoosiers. What stands out the most about Kurt Cignetti's group? What is the ceiling? What is the true ceiling with Josh Hoover? When we came in there, we thought he'd be in the middle of Fernando Mendoza and Curtis Rourke, but unfortunately, he's been closer to Curtis Rourke, than he has to Fernando Mendoza. Statistically, you look at him, 18 touchdowns, one interception. That looks pretty good, but when you consider 14 of those 18 touchdowns came against North Texas, Howard, West Kentucky, and Rutgers, and you see him the last two weeks under 50% passing, struggling to get any interceptions on the board versus Michigan. And when I looked at the tape, was missing some open receivers, so much so that Kurt Cignetti was thinking about benching him for Grant Wilson at halftime. That, to me, has me a little bit concerned about the Hoosers. Now, I do think he could be streaky, he'd get that back, but right now, cause for concern, how far can this team go with Josh Hoover as the quarterback? Yeah, and you touched on it a little bit. It is not just, hey, they're not playing great, he's missing some throws. It's the throws that he is trying to make, he's just missing them, too. Usually, he's been very high on these throws these last few weeks, and a couple weeks ago against Nebraska, it was a very windy game, and we thought maybe it was just dealing with the wind, but it is, it has persisted in the week since, so we've seen him wincing, we've seen him kind of banged up, you kind of start to wonder if he's not 100% with the way the performance is looking. Yeah, Tom, you can be injured to where it affects your play, but not injured enough to be on injury report, like if it's actually going to affect your status as far as availability to play, and that's my guess with what's going on with Hoover. We all have TV, right? We see him wincing there after throws. Clearly, he's not 100%. Yeah, Kurt Cignetti still had him in the middle of that locker room trying to pump his guy up, gave him, you know, the quarterback run to be able to get that touchdown at the end of the game. They're working on seeing if they can make sure that he can get as close as possible to that ceiling, Danny, that you were talking about. Tom, what about the Crimson Tide? Alabama has a wild, wild talent at the quarterback position with Keelan Russell. They have also had trouble always unlocking that in part due to injury and other offensive issues. What stands out as a potential red flag about the Crimson Tide? They can't run the dang ball. The problem was last year it was an issue and this year it has still been an issue. You mentioned Keelan Russell. If you look at this team statistically, coming into the weekend, Alabama is second nationally in amount of scramble yards as a team with 328. Only South Carolina has more. That has been a lot of Keelan Russell when the plays break down, taking off, picking up first downs, and it's great. It's just when your scramble yards make up 27% of your total rushing yards as a team, not as great because they're not Because when it comes to the just standard let's turn around and hand the ball off and run it kind of offense, they have not been effective at all. They're 61st nationally in success rate. They're 98th in EPA per rush and they're 70th in yards per carry. They just have not been able to get things going and that's a difficult spot when you have a very talented quarterback in Keelan Russell, but he's also a very young quarterback in Keelan Russell. So when you get to these big games, when you're playing Georgia, when you're possibly getting to the SEC championship or college football playoff, You would love to have a reliable run game to kind of take the load off of your young quarterback's shoulders and help ease the offense down the field. Right now, it seems like everything is relying on Keelan Russell, and that's not a great spot to be in with an inexperienced QB. Tom, I agree with you. I think a lot of this is going to come down to, do they get healthy on the offensive line? It was not a good time to deluge your center and then have to go to Knoxville and play Xavier Gillum, who might be the best defensive tackle in all of college football this year. He pretty much wrecked them on his own. And then you had to go play an A&M team, which still is a pretty solid defense. Offense is an absolute disaster area. But if they get healthy, when they were healthy, they actually ran it at times against Georgia. They ran it on FSU, which is certainly not a really difficult proposition this year. But I do think that if they get healthy, they might see a bit of an uptick there. Agreed. And that's one thing, when you lose your starting center, that is the quarterback along your offensive line. Not only is a good player seeing a drop-off with that, but it is the communicator up front directing traffic with some of those blocking schemes. But I do think you hit on something. Like, they were running the ball earlier this season against a little bit lesser competition. It's not getting any easier down the home stretch. So are they able to kind of ramp things back up and go right where they left off? And I do, you know, I've been impressed the way Keelan Russell bounced back, but I have seen think teams have kind of figured out, all right, let's try to keep him in the pockets. Let's not let him beat us with his legs. And that's just a tough proposition for a first-year starter to be sitting in their pocket, putting a lot of stress on them if you can't run the football. So clearly, same question that was there for the last year for the Tide is still looming there to finish this season. Can they run the football more effectively? Yeah, if you want an answer to that absolute X factor of a question, then you're going to have to wait at least another week. The Crimson Tide are off this week in advance of their just sort of annual early November showcase game against the LSU Tigers. Now, LSU, you might be able to pick out some red flags. After all, they're six and two, and in those two losses, there have been some concerns. But these teams with two losses that we start talking about, the red flags might be easier to identify, but even more important for these teams to address. So, Bud, when Lane Kiffin and his staff are getting together, and they're having their off-week meetings, what are they addressing internally to say, we got to get better at this because this could be a red flag for us moving forward? Yeah, Chip, and these two SEC teams, they're six and one against the other P4 competition, and the average margin is 16 points, right? So, they're really just the SEC for the most part beating each other up here. They killed the other league. So, I do think all these teams we're talking about today that have two losses from the SEC are actually really good. And I think that league is really good this year. But when I look at LSU specifically, how are they going to be against the better defenses? Like, who are the best defense that LSU has seen so far this year? Like, you might argue Clemson, but that whole team looked like they were a total mess in that ballgame, especially after we saw, you know, the offense kind of self-destruct. Ole Miss, like, they've been very up and down so far. Auburn is not a good defense. Like, Kentucky's kind of okay on defense. You know, A&M kind of held them in check a little bit until, obviously, the A&M QB just started turning the ball over like he does pretty much every week. But now, now comes Alabama, now comes Texas, now comes Tennessee in back-to-back-to-back weeks. Like, how does your rebuilt transfer offensive line hold up against that? How does Sam Levitt hold up against that? Like, the competition defensively for LSU is about to get a lot harder, and I'm just curious to see how they look when the pressure rises. I can't, too. I think it's going to be a ton of fun. Sam Levitt looks more comfortable in the system. You know, kind of his injury has kind of helped that process. I texted Tom during the last game. I'm like, he kind of looks gimpy, which he does at times. But then you look up, and he, like, runs around and makes a play when he has to. So I'm curious to see if he ramps up his level of carries as they place these better defenses. And one of the other things, with Trades Green, when he was out, Jackson Harris kind of emerged as the number-one wide receiver. So I think this roster's trying. They're starting to come together at the right time. But they will be much bigger tests against some of the better defenses in the conference coming up. Yeah, it is a huge question mark to see how they're going to perform in these games. But I will say, if there's reason to be optimistic, because I was looking at some stats this morning. Over the last three, four weeks, pretty much the month of October, few teams have been playing better than LSU. Now, as you went over, Bud, the schedule, not exactly compared to what they have coming their way, has been overly impressive. But they are seeming to figure things out. They are getting better at receiver spots. As you mentioned, I think the return of Trades Green at tight end has been huge for them and will be huge for them going forward. But yeah, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, a little bit of a different animal. Oh, I am excited. I am giddy to overrate LSU over the course of these next couple weeks based on what's happened. I mean, this is like all the optimism of the Lane Kiffin experience, right? We had it at the beginning of the season, kind of lost it for a little bit. And now we're coming back into that home stretch, absolutely believing the team can win a national title. But yeah, quality of competition, we will find out here in the next couple of weeks. Going to keep it in the SEC with another one of those teams with a thin margin for error. Now, I'm going to look at the Texas Longhorns here. And unfortunately, the red flag is trust issues. It is something that cannot be addressed with a scheme change. It is something that cannot be addressed even with a personnel change because right now, Steve Sarkeesian and Arch Manning have shown a wide, wide gulf between the ceiling and the floor of the performance, both in terms of play calling and performance on the field. And that understanding that if we're taking Texas seriously as a national championship contender, that means being able to win multiple games against other college football playoff teams with a consistency that isn't going to have them get got. And unfortunately, it has been really hard to find over the course of the last two seasons, three game, four game runs where you're just getting the kind of consistency that would back that up. Curious to hear, there might be something more personnel related that you want to turn the attention to. Tom, is there anything that could be shown that would bring you back to the table feeling like you could trust this coach quarterback duo across an entire CFP run? No. To be blunt, it's not really a Sark question for me. I don't trust Arch and I just, it's reached the point for me where like, even, you know, they had the huge win last week against Ole Miss. He made some couple really nice plays. Cam Coleman dropped, which should have been in the easiest touchdown of his life. But you can't get through a game without Arch turning the ball over, without Arch making some really kind of head-scratching decisions. And now, yeah, they've beaten a lot of really good teams so far this year. They have some of the best wins in the country and they deserve tons of credit for it. And their defense has played a huge role in that. But can you do that three weeks in a row? Can you get to the college football playoff and play a top 10 team for three straight games and continue to win if your quarterback keeps giving the other team the ball? I don't think you can. I don't trust Arch. That is my biggest problem with the Longhorns. That's really a concern for me as well, especially with Trevor Goosby, your start-left tackle now being out. I will say, down the stretch against Ole Miss, when Arch got a little squirrely, they just turned and handed the ball off and it worked. Like those backs they have are really good. And maybe if that run game, a little more downhill, a little more trusting of the backs, maybe they just kind of stick to it. Maybe they can be there because guys like the defense is nails. We don't need Texas to score 30 every game. There may be a game where they need two to score 30, but they don't have to get 30 every game, even in the playoff. If the defense keeps playing like this, they might be able to overcome these very justified worries. Same. Agree with everything. The conversation I thought, when you see Texas' offense start to operate with efficiency, it's usually because Arch is hitting the passes he's supposed to. When they start to struggle, he's either missing guys, taking sacks, or he's throwing an interception. So you tell me, is it on the offensive play caller or is it on the quarterback? Executing it. I've always thought all along. It's been more Arch centered than it's Sark's fault calling the plays, but to get the trust like they need to continue to go more like I don't want to see a quarter. I want to see four quarters of consistent football because they're way too much of a roller coaster ride for me on offense. Yeah, I think the fact that it's even a question, the fact it's even a debate is why it's a red flag that we just we shouldn't be talking about this when we're talking about the Texas Longhorns in their pursuit of a national championship, but we are and that's why it's the red flag coming up on the other side. We continue the conversation with the team and hasn't even lost yet, but there are red flags. Yeah, we'll take a look at the UCLA Bruins the Florida Gators and more next. Delivered by Little Caesars the official pizza sponsor of the NFL right now mix and match two or more of your large favorites for just 599 each the pizzas are large and you are in charge. Maybe match a large pepperoni pizza with a large pretzel crust pizza or match a large slices and sticks and a large pineapple pizza. Maybe even mix in some Caesar wings. Hey, you just can't go wrong. The pizzas are large. The possibilities are endless. 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It's the difference between giving away those cookies you just made for free and running your cookie Empire a beautifully designed Squarespace is the difference between having a movie reviewing hobby and a movie reviewing career squarespace because no matter what you're into a website makes it real use offer code difference for 50 off select plans terms and conditions apply back here on the cover three podcast looking at some red flags some real concerns for some of the best teams in the country now we turn our attention to the Ole Miss Rebels but you've been doing the deep dive what are the red flags what's standing out about Pete Golding's team that could be a concern moving forward yeah Chip I think it's defensive consistency like you see this team play wildly inconsistent on defense not only from game to game but man from like quarter to quarter and I know there's a little bit of like paper rock scissors in the game of football with what you call and what they call but man like they're overall stuff and I know the schedule's been hard like your non-con game was it was a healthy Jeff Braum team where they're really running and throwing the ball really well and they've also played you know what Texas and and Florida and LSU and a couple other difficult opponents so far but these defensive numbers are just not good enough if you expect Ole Miss to be able to get in the playoff and then also do something in the playoff they need to get about one or two more stops a game which is easier said than done and a lot of it is like does the d-line show up on that day when Will Eccles shows up and dominates the game and then he's going to be able to do something and then he's going to be able to do something and then he's going to be able to the defense kind of follows when it doesn't they kind of fall apart yeah you've seen this thing way up and down the roller coaster ride for them has been on the defensive side of the ball the shootout with Louisville when we're all looking at Lincoln Keenholz being like this Heisman contender and then you realize oh maybe it was just because he was facing Ole Miss's defense then they get run all over by Florida's you know offense and it's Duke Clark and Jaden Ball both going for over 100 yards and then it was like at the point of a season where like okay it was Vanderbilt but they played pretty good then they hold on to it and they're like oh my god I'm going to be able to do something Missouri to three points and you're thinking okay this is going to be they're going to be like just fine they're just rounding out into form and then they don't look great and they get run all over and you know some pretty good pass plays they gave up to Arch Manning in Texas last week so I totally agree with you why is it is that the competition they should be able to get back on track because it's pretty one-dimensional against Auburn keep Byron Brown in check but down the stretch they're going to have Georgia you know they're going to have to stop that team so they're going to be facing much better uh you know offenses they're going to have to slow down yeah you mentioned it but Will Echols is a very good player and when he is on he is able to kind of you know completely disrupt an offense's game plan and we saw that in that Mizzou game in that Arkansas game it's just he's the only real player that you know like if you ask a casual fan about anybody on Ole Miss's defense there really isn't a stud that stands out and I think that that is what probably costs them and that's probably why they are so inconsistent because if you're relying on one guy to be a game wrecker and you don't have anybody else who can step up when he's not being it 's really hard to be a good defense from week to week let alone from drive to drive and bud you mentioned the play calling side of it it's it's hard for all of your play calls to work when you don't have the true game wrecking players the the ones who can be able to be erasers out there if something does go slightly wrong or if you're caught a little bit out of position all right Danny at one time Utah had two quarterbacks even on the field at the same time very dynamic very versatile um is is this offense something that's going to be a little bit different than what you think it's sustainable for some of the biggest games of the year what's your red flag for the youths moving forward they're a little too run heavy which is a good thing right you want to be able to run the football but if they have to throw the football and if they're not running the ball successfully that concerns me in the last two games against Colorado even Devin D'Ampierre his legs were held in check he had two interceptions and then this past weekend he had another two interceptions now he was able to run all over him this past weekend so like if you can run the ball fine you don't need that consistency but if you stop way Sean Parker Devin D'Ampierre and Bird Ficklin can Devin D'Ampierre do it through the air I remember last year the Texas Tech game they took away the run he struggled in the air there their pass offense is something that concerns me something they have to get more consistent because they're going to be off weeks or you're going to be a team that loads up and is actually able to stop the run like maybe a BYU in the holy war that's where they need to step up to me and get better in the pass game yeah I'm 100% million percent with you on that when you look at Utah they are essentially a team that needs the game to stay on script because they do play a very certain way or you mentioned it like they like to run the ball and they like to play defense and they like to you know just stick to that and then win games just kind of kind of man balling you I guess is the way to put it but they are not a team that can afford to get behind like if they're only down a score and they could stick to what they want to do fine but if you put them down multiple scores it is very difficult for them to come back because of what you just touched on Danny they just are not reliable and they're not going to be reliable in the passing attack and Devin damp here for what his strengths are they don't really involve his ability to drop back and throw the ball down the field he is a rusher he's a running back at QB who you're just asking to make short quick throws when you need it to keep defenses honest but you do not want them to be playing you know the drop back game consistently and look this is probably a concern that is more of if they make the playoff because I I think that's where the real challenge would come for this team there are some good teams in the big 12 this year quite a few in fact I'm not really sure there's a whole lot of teams that have like a whole lot of elite players on them in the big 12 they can really challenge them and take them away from that run game I guess we'll see down the stretch but like their schedule also this year within the big 12 is incredibly light compared to like your average big 12 schedule so like they may not really have to answer these questions until they get to the playoff we have an absolutely stellar production team you know not only do they provide us with uh so much support something they tie these things together thematically we got to talk about LSU and Alabama in advance of their showdown that everyone's looking forward to and now we go from Utah to BYU who have their own showdown which could expose whether these red flags are going to end up derailing any hopes for a big 12 title or a college football playoff so Tom uh you gave a hard look at Kalani Sataki's group what are the red flags for the Cougars yeah you know we just discussed what Utah's problem was with the passing offense and how that could be a problem for them well BYU's red flag they don't need to be concerned about Utah because BYU's red flag is past defense they are not you know if you look at them statistically so far this season they have not been great against the past they're 54th in success rate 61st in epa per drop back which is more just slightly above average than bad where things really kind of start to fall off the cliff though is when it comes to getting after the quarterback they are 85th in pressure rate 113th in sack rate and 123rd in pressure to sack ratio so it's just a little bit of a stretch for them so they don't get pressure on opposing quarterbacks they don't bring them down and if they have to get pressure they have to bring extra rushers to get there which typically leads their secondary and a lot of man coverage which frankly they're not that great at you know executing and you look at their schedule and this is where things get a little scarier because it's like who's the passing offense that they have faced that might skew those numbers a little bit there isn't one they haven't really faced any great passing attacks outside of the Notre Dame game and I don't know if I consider Notre Dame to be a really great passing offense so I don't know if I consider Notre Dame to be a really great passing offense so it's just a little bit of a stretch but it's a little bit of a stretch I don't know if I consider Notre Dame to be a really great passing offense so I don't know if I consider great passing offense so you look at the rest of their schedule like I touched on Utah probably don't need to worry about it a lot of the teams that are left on the schedule in the big 12 probably won't be a big problem to me this is a BYU in the playoff problem because when you get to the college football playoff that's where the Jeremiah Smiths and all these great quarterbacks of the world will be congregated together and you're going to have to get through three of them at a minimum to win a national title and frankly from what we have seen from this BYU defense I don't like their odds of being able to do it yes I'm right there with you like I don't think BYU is a team that's very likely to win a national title I I'm not really sure how many elite passing attacks we have out there this year especially if saying is out for the year for Ohio State like like Georgia and we previously like two segments ago talked about how you know they still need a playmaker to emerge that receiver it may be that Notre Dame which has a probably good but not amazing passing attack it will be one of the best ones in the playoff this year I think passing is just kind of down across the sport this year it's a very valid concern because like you said they're going to have to win three in a row if they want to go ahead and win this thing and somebody's probably going to get hot like what if you face a Trinidad when Trinidad is really on like is BYU going to be able to score 30 if Ole Miss is able to score in in the 30s I don't know or what do you face the Keone Jenkins who gets hot and he almost throws three right three touchdowns zero interceptions or and they really kind of I don't say lucky because they did win the game but CJ Carr missed a couple wide open touchdown passes never was open and then he missed them so you know if if CJ Carr hits a couple of those we you know we're probably talking about BYU as a two laws team we're not talking about them in this conversation so clearly some areas they need to improve if they want to reach you know the postseason and further okay so I get that passing's down so we shouldn't necessarily overreact to not seeing the same kind of numbers but when the Tennessee Volunteers led by Josh Heupel or last place in the SEC in passing offense like that's a problem that is a huge problem because while they do have one of the best running backs in the country and Deshaun Bishop and while their defense led by that nasty defensive front has done a great job against even some of the best competition if this team has to go out and throw for a boatload of yards and find the end zone through the air it could be tough now Faison Brandon obviously his injury and his absence has put George McIntyre into into the starting role enough from Brandon against top competition that you would say that this is a difference making group uh Danny Tom Budd I'd love to hear from all three of you like DK is there an answer here or is already hit its offensive ceiling as being a run heavy team the and they're a run heavy team and the thing about Josh Heupel systems is they always have been they've always been more physical than they get credit for but like when they're at their best they have a Hendon Hooker back there who is a high completion percentage guy who takes those shot plays and is able to hit them at the right times you can't have a Faison Brandon back there taking 10 sacks holding all the ball too long or you can't have a George McIntyre who's just looked a little bit overwhelmed so like the only answer really is to get one of those two quarterbacks up to speed in a hurry but that's really tough to ask to do at this point in the season you would like to feel more comfortable there so barring a surprising kind of breakout breakthrough game for one of those two young quarterbacks I think this is the limit for Tennessee yeah Chip I mean this is not good the difference to me Danny like you're right like historically Josh Heupel's offenses have had like that power run element to him and it has always been a core of what they are the biggest difference and I think this year's offense has scored points and this year's offense is not scoring points and I think Josh Heupel deserves a lot of credit because when you think about his history as a head coach he is just somebody you always thought of as an offensive mind and a guy who's able to score points and even in a season where his offense is really struggling look who's still in the playoff conversation yeah and I I think their formula is their formula this year the passing offense is more than a red flag it's like a flashing light you know flares we got the helicopter up like this is a well-known thing at this point you know and yet like because the defense is so strong because the run game is so strong they're still in the playoff hunt now do we think Tennessee can win a playoff game make probably not unless they got the five seed they were able to play Boise and then it's just like whose run game and defense is better right but you know like can they win two that's where I really have my doubts for a team like Tennessee with this passing offense I think they win the game at home I think that's like because their defense with crowd noise like that's where I could see him winning a game but I don't see them traveling yep coming up on the other side we continue a little bit further down the board some teams with multiple losses what are the red flags that they've got to address right now if they want to stay in this college football playoff conversation all that and more next from kickoff to the final whistle trade 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values and available markets may differ from those mentioned for more information see call sheet dot com slash regulatory back here on the cover three podcast live on cbs sports network we continue to roll through our our red flags for the college football playoff contenders a little bit short on time so we're going rapid fire with this last one so Tom you've got the Florida Gators uh who or what is your red flag for John Summerall's team yeah you know when our producers handed us our homework it's going to be our homework assignments for the show today as soon as I saw it was Florida I was like great I got the easy question I've got the two plus two equals four because it is not difficult to figure out what the red flag for the Florida Gators is it's their defense in short it stinks if you look at them statistically they've been like below average against the run and that is the absolute best thing you could say about this Florida defense so far this season you look at their approach like they're trying to limit explosive plays and force you to put together long drives to go down the field and for the most part they've been pretty good at limiting explosive plays the parts they're not good at are getting off the field stopping you if you do get to the red zone and forcing turnovers they really don't do any of that so they're just kind of forcing you to put together long drives and then they're letting you score points at the end of the day anyway which is then forcing their offense to have to go down and answer so they find themselves in shootouts if they want to win the game which is great when you're playing inferior competition when you're trying to win the sec you're trying to win some playoff games it typically doesn't work that way typically doesn't work well unless you have a truly elite offense but oh wait oh yeah they've got a quarterback controversy right now so I don't think they have an elite offense either Tom we call that the bend and break defense all right bud what you got all right so we're gonna UCLA like I really think comes down to this like they have not played a real hard schedule so far they I think outplayed expectations even against that that schedule to this point but if it comes down to a game where they really have to throw it can they do it we would Nico being out for the year the backup is played like admirably operating the system but they really have not asked him to drop back and throw it when you kind of had to have it they really have not faced those critical you know third and eight type situations in the red zone where you got to go ahead and get seven and you know I like to me I think that's kind of the major question here for UCLA but the rest of the formula has worked great I'll take a look at Texas Tech the Red Raiders last year one of the best defenses in the country across the board this year their secondary is something that has caught my eye as a concern for them where I saw last week JC French lights him up for tour four touchdown passes through the air but it really did start early in the season when we saw Braden Atkinson and a Jesse LaGre lighten them up for 400 yards through the air three touchdown passes for Braden Atkinson Arizona State through for almost 400 against them before that Colorado had almost 300 now they were able to get the turnovers against Colorado but and I would say even this weekend we'll find out just how good or bad they are Noah Fafita coming to town I think this is a secondary he could light up and potentially anybody else they're facing down the stretch so that is what needs to get corrected for me for the Red Raiders I had the assignment of looking at the Kentucky Wildcats and it was difficult because they've done a lot really well they're good at a lot of things but are they elite and specifically what about the Red Raiders I don't know I don't know I don't know that resume because you've got the loss to Alabama and you've got the awesome win against LSU but for the rest of it looking at a lot of good wins I don't know how many great wins well the good news about this red flag Kentucky is big blue nation you're going to know right away because you've got Tennessee Florida Missouri Louisville that is your final four opponents so any resume concerns they'll be answered one way or another on the field this fall well coming up on the other side we turn our attention to the week nine slate with a couple players to watch and more next whenever I throw on my takovas there's this instant shift in how I feel when I walk into a room it's an easy effortless confidence that just feels right they're hands down the most comfortable boots I've ever owned and they felt that way the very first time I put them on I didn't even have to break them in now I wear them everywhere whether I'm dressing them up to go out or if I'm keeping it casual on the weekend and I've received more compliments on these boots than any other boot or shoe I have 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dog and burger chili sauce truly nothing compares and we wrapped up the weekend with a great meal and we're going to take a quick break and then we'll be right back with more of our show. at airbnb.com slash host back here on the cover 3 podcast one of the things we love to do is leave you with a player to watch in the week ahead let's go tom bud danny tom who's your player to watch week nine yeah i'm gonna go with arizona quarterback noah fafita he is at the head of an arizona team that has been playing well all season long but has been kind of flying under the radar which is kind of odd even in a year where we are talking about the big 12 having multiple playoff hopefuls arizona seemingly never gets anybody's attention and it's mostly because they haven't put it together like a big spotlight resume win this week against the texas tech defense whose past defense has been kind of prone to giving up yards noah fafita is going to get a chance to announce the wildcats to the country tom that's a great pick i'm going to go with florida defensive lineman lj mccray all right when i take a look at this guy former five star freak of an athlete great frame he finally broke out against texas and had some real impact plays in that game if florida wants to have a chance to upset georgia they're going to need some impact plays from that defensive line get off the field maybe cause some turnover so i want to see if lj mccray can step up here and wreck georgia's day i'm going to go with what appears to be a game of eeny meeny miny moe who is playing quarterback for the iowa hawkeyes this week it is hank brown after losing the job to jeremy heklinski last week who went in through a couple interceptions it goes back to hank brown had one of the greatest throws in michigan in iowa history with the game winner against uh michigan at the big house can they settle things down it's not going to get any easier without kamari molten now in the backfield and going against a very tough wisconsin uh defense that probably explains the point total which is at 36 and a half points but can he step forward and erase any doubts about the qb at iowa who's still in the playoff conversation at five and two i'm going to take your attention to smu quarterback kevin jennings and i understand why you're going to be thinking chip smu's playing against syracuse why is this a spot well because all the things that smu wants to accomplish this season are in front of it there's a game against notre dame there's a game against wake forest that's an elimination game but those five interceptions that we see on the schedule represent the real fear here represent why kevin jennings is a player to watch because he is able to create a lot of points but he has also had some issues this season holding on to the football and smu's offense in general has had some issues holding on to the football so it's a little bit of a trappy spot as kevin jennings goes to play syracuse at syracuse team which remember did just beat north carolina down in chapel hill you know you've got the wake forest game you know you've got the notre dame game you've got those opportunities where college football playoff acc championship implications are going to be on the line just take care of the football you don't need 400 yards probably to beat this syracuse team but you do need to be able to beat the syracuse team to be a turnover free game well if you liked hanging out with us and discussing some of these red flags i invite you to come and join us on the cover three podcast we are live on youtube at youtube.com slash covering three every monday tuesday thursday and saturday nights saturday nights 11 30 p.m eastern time we want you to come and hang out with our instant reaction shows youtube.com slash cover three or you can scan that qr code to download and follow the cover three podcast wherever you get your fine podcasts college football season is modello season there's nothing quite like a 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