College Football Week 9 Picks: Arizona-Texas Tech, Atlanta Cocktail Party & Plumbing the Depths

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So enjoy a bourbon that's filled with character and bold flavor this football season Wild turkey go bold go home Copyright 2026. Comparture America in New York, New York never compromise drink responsibly Did you know Texans who switched to kin say they saved around $1,100 a year on home insurance? That's a lot of cash. Here are some ways you could spend it You could finally take that weekend getaway. You know the one we're talking about You could fix that fence post that's been leading since last summer. It's out there right now Just waiting for you or hear me out $1,100 worth of brisket You'd be a legend that the neighborhood cook up point is it's your money Can just help to keep more of it and the savings don't have to stop at your house with kin You could bundle home and auto insurance in Texas and save up to 20% on auto Plus you'll have one dedicated team taking care of your two biggest investments So when a storm hits your house and your car you only have to make one call get a quote at kin dot com slash i-harm k-i-n dot com slash i-harm kin Texas-sized savings Home insurance refers to the kin house and property HD 3 policy with an owner occupied endorsement were applicable Texas customers who switched the kin report annual savings of $1,160 on average based on kin customer saving survey conducted August 2025 through August 2026 kin insurance next a six-change Phoenix Arizona savings Applied with you bundle home and auto based on file rates savings vary and are not guaranteed Welcome to the solid verbal Solid verbal Home after me I'm a man I'm 40 I've heard so many players say why I want to be happy you want to be happy for a date Eat a state it's that wool wool and down and tie Dan Rubens see welcome back to the podcast my great and good friend big Weekend here big weekend Halloween week nine Potentially youth flag football playoffs out there in the Chicago burbs. I'm sure you can speak to that over the next 45 minutes or so Before we get to the college football. Yeah, welcome back Thank you for having me once again This is going to be I don't know if it's the preamble to an enormous week because they're all enormous at this point We have so many questions yet to be answered in the sport But very excited for this coming week very excited to suss it all out of use the word suss a couple times recently And I kind of like it. I'm kind of digging it. So I'm here. I'm ready and let's let's go You know what word people don't like? Moist well people hate moist well, they no no they they strongly dislike the word moist They really don't like it when you say it like Well, no they hate that I hate that if I'm being honest. Yeah, we got a comment out there on the interwebs that Proof of concept is being overused on this show. That's three words, but yeah, well the phrase. Let's say a term Yeah, proof of concept sometimes it's just proof sometimes I'm gonna try to stop using it now. What I might actually I'm either gonna use it never again or all the time One or the other what about using in like an Irish accent and sculling proof of concept see I can't do accents And that might have been more Scottish that was more Scottish either way not that good in any case It's still better than Nick Cage's John Madden impression, which I'm not sure if you heard that full disagree Classic cinema. I'm so glad we made this movie as a people Well with that As your starter welcome back to the show. I'm Thai. He's Dan We're gonna go through week nine here in just a little bit Gonna put a little bit of a different spin on it as we get to our Quads your afternoon watch situation will get to that in a little bit We also have a fabulous prize that will be part of our run the board pick-up game You can sign up at verbolars.com to compete for that Which I will unveil in just a hot minute if you're new here Please rate review or subscribe and do check us out at verbolars.com I think you're right It does feel to me like this is a bit of a calm Before the week 10 storm We put our documents together before we do these shows we put the biggest games or what we think are the most interesting games at the top of the list and then we Arrange our quads accordingly Didn't have as many of those quote-unquote biggies Certainly as we went through and as we go through here We've got plenty that we can talk about that. I'm interested in that. I know you're interested in but um I suspect this presented any a unique challenge for you when it came to Putting your week name together Yes, and no this is always the best part of my week truly because I really get to explore the the emotional mental and physical space in some cases As I pace around the neighborhood and the house thinking about what couldn't encapsulate the week's theme and I was looking at the matchups I was looking at potential upsets. I was looking at themes for a lot of these teams heading into this week seasons thus far Sort of the the highs of the year Some of the struggles of the year and I kept coming back to two themes and that was Huge plays in the passing game as we sit with like both of our Heisman front runners or Arguably two of our top three or four Heisman front runners as dominant receivers in Malachitone and Jeremiah Smith I think that's fair to say Looking at some close calls looking at some struggles Receiver play has been a big deal to me teams Desperate to get receiver play teams utilizing terrific catches huge catches to their advantage in big moments You know look at the end of Florida State Miami thought we had huge catches a couple different instances Maybe not You look around the sport in terms of like who Needs to pull off an upset and how can they achieve that upset this week? Look all around the sport. It's a lot of teams that if they get something from their receivers Something in the way of a killer catch a deadly catch something Did you see what I did there? Yeah, we go and deadly is catch theme with this And then I looked at another theme of the season team struggling teams hoping for the best this week What's going to be tested tie? Do you have a clue? When I say what's gonna be generally but not not something that starts with this no No, it's not with us again. It's another one. Oh depth. Okay. Okay. We have injuries all over the place look as a an Oregon human As somebody who watched his team both have be depth challenged at quarterback the last few weeks and play without four of their top five Receivers last week against Illinois. It is all too familiar. So Yes, I go back to the deadliest catch tie because the day we're looking for deadly catches across this great land If Minnesota is going to pull something off against Indiana, it's probably not going to be on the ground No, no, it's probably not happening Ground and pound so I welcome you to snow crab Saturday colon Plumbing the depths Snow crab Saturday snow crab Saturday colon Plumbing the depths And especially with you co-hosting and truly being the face of the show Who has caught crabs more often than tie hildenbrands? We've asked that a thousand times in various contexts Do you ever go crabbing in real life like no, I'd love to sell I love crabs I did that down in Ocean City, Maryland back in the day fun didn't catch a damn thing But it was see put you put chicken on a string and you throw it in the water Mm-hmm, but do you like eating crab? Uh the pants I like crab cakes. Yeah I love love crab. Okay, where we going That was a wonderful preamble Dan Rubenstein. Thank you. I approve of snow crab Saturday I encourage over baller hood to go out and play in our game Which I will intro here in just a moment, but we got to play the sound of the week Dan Time to help any picks of the week This week you are playing for a $500 gift card to Dicks sporty goods Brought to you by our good friends out at new egg You probably know new egg for the computers and the tech that's how I knew them, but yes They've got a huge selection beyond that electronics home products gaming gear AI hardware even gift cards for a bunch of other brands and retailers Other than Dicks sporty goods, whatever you're into there is a great chance that new egg can hook you up This week they're hooking us up going out to verbolars.com pick 10 games against the spread But you got to sign up to be a certified or premium verbolar and compete if you're not afraid to compete That's true. They do not sell crustaceans To our knowledge to our knowledge. We can we can write the fine people at new egg. They look wonderful Start at high noon On ESPN, Dan, Arizona, on the road at Texas Tech, Texas Tech, favored by three and one half points, I'll tell you what struck me looking this one over. Yeah. What struck me and caught me a bit by surprise. And I'm almost afraid to admit that because I saw it and knew it, but the closer I looked at Arizona, it is clear as day. Arizona has the more trustworthy quarterback, trope passing attack, and on top of it a defense that continues to improve. And on top of all of that, they've got momentum. Yeah. They've got real momentum. If you have paid any attention at all to this team this year, there is a sense that they are picking up steam, which I think makes this a very dangerous spot for Texas Tech. Coming back home after their first loss of the year against Cincinnati, there are questions about Texas Tech. I've got two angles in particular that I'm interested in, but I'm wondering, were you also getting that vibe? You know, we're, we're curators of the vibe here. Sure. So as you're going through this gamer, you picking up that vibe as well, or am I overdue? Oh, absolutely. Right? That what they've been able to do has been super impressive and look, it hasn't been a great, you look at what they were able to do last week against Iowa State has not been a great stretch for Iowa State offensively. And they've, they're sort of beat up all over the place and Arizona has their own injuries. We've talked about some of the receiver injuries this season, but no if a feat it keeps on keeping on the defense keeps on improving. And they they're very confusing defense at times to play against, which I don't love for Texas Tech in this specific scenario. They're very tough at home, though they have traveled well enough. They gave up what 30 plus at West Virginia. Right. The good news is they scored over 50 in that one. So I really do like where Arizona is and if you're talking about vibes, you're talking about the arguable face of Texas Tech football trying to get a local radio producer fired. Right? You're talking about Texas Tech performing like they did against Cincinnati on the road last week. It's obviously much more difficult to beat the red raiders at home. But the vibes are in two very different places for these programs at the moment. And as we know, vibes can shift on a dime. Here are the two angles that I'm interested in, angle one. I think if Texas Tech is going to win this game, Dan, they need to find a way to upset the rhythm of this Arizona offense. So you mentioned the injury, but the Arizona passing attack, the Arizona offense as a whole big step back when trace five, you went down sort of their best receiver. Since then, we've seen two trends emerge. The first is that Isaiah Myzel, the other receiver has stepped up in a pretty big way. The second is that Arizona, at least in terms of throwing the football, has relied increasingly on tempo, on the quick game, on yards after the catch, which should not come as any great surprise given that their offensive coordinator is Seth Deggy, who played quarterback under Mike Leach. And this is a very erady type of thing. Yeah. They're using quick game to negate that pressure. So if you're Texas Tech, you got to figure out a way to upset that rhythm. BYU back in week two was able to upset that rhythm. But that was way back in week two, a lot changed since then. At altitude. At altitude. Tech can absolutely do it given the nature of their defense, which is good enough to get in the face, which is good enough to upset balance, good enough to upset rhythm without having to over commit without blitzing like crazy. They don't blitz as much as nearly every team in college football. They're fine. Just sort of letting their front four do the work. Yes. But the Arizona offense has evolved. The Arizona offense has gotten better. Since week two, they've also started spreading the rock around in terms of who is running it. And they've developed that side of the offense as well. Their offense isn't 2019 Alice, you did. But they have a ton of juice right now. And I think the tech defense is going to have to step it up. They're going to have to step it up. And if nothing more, they're going to need to carry the burden for the offense, which is going through its own bit of instability right now, given what we saw last week and what I think is a recurring theme under Wilhamon. That's the first thing. Sure. Agreed, disagree. Anything else? That's all reasonable. The second thing to me, this is a bad matchup for the Texas tech offense. Bad matchup for the Texas tech offense. I do know. I think it is. Okay. Wilhamon struggled in Cincinnati a week ago, especially in the second quarter where things kind of got out of hand. Our friend Chris level just yesterday was talking about it on his podcast, how coaches are maybe looking at ways to simplify things for Wilhamon. It's just me, that's not a great sign of confidence in week nine. It's fine in week two, but in week nine, if that's what we're talking about, that's, that does not scream progression to me. And Cincinnati, not an incredible defense. Not an incredible defense, yeah. So that's what concerns me in this matchup, especially now layered on top of the fact, Arizona has one of the highest blitz rates in the country. I believe it is the highest blitz rate, okay, in the country. So they are going to try to force that issue. The tech lines been fine, they'll hold up okay. But I just think Arizona is going to bear down see what I did there. Ah, they're going to go after Wilhamon, they're going to pin their ears back as it were and make his life difficult. That matchup to me seems scary. Okay. Here's my question that I've been asking increasingly as I channel my inner message board member, Ty, with regard to Arizona, the first thing full stop is, I believe they're very good. I believe Arizona is a quality program. I believe in no Fafita. I believe in their ability to adjust on offense. I believe in their ability to be super productive on defense. But the question, that's period. The question I have for Arizona and a question I have for a number of these teams. I brought it up with Wake Forest last week. Who you played, Arizona defensively? BYU, definitely yes. But then look at the defenses that Arizona has played. I don't think they're inflated fully and cartoonishly by who they've played. I think Texas Tech on the road, defensively, even though they're not where they were last season. I think they offer something in a manner that Arizona infrequently has faced this season. And that does give me a good deal of pause. But is Arizona really good? Maybe. Are they definitely good enough to beat Texas Tech on the road and have they proven that they are capable? I'm not there. I'm actually going Texas Tech. I am not going to fall trap to the vibe fluency that you're putting out there. Because I do think the vibes are not going in the same direction for these teams as we record this. I just am also a believer in, it's never quite as good as you think. And I believe in Joey McGuire as a good coach, I believe in these coordinators. I believe that they are proactive in terms of trying to fix, you know, not getting the ball to play makers enough, perhaps on offense, you know, not getting off the field in the way that they should be. I feel like they can diagnose these things. And I feel like it's going to be easier to do at home. I don't love the early start. I wish that we're happening later in the day. But I'm actually going with Texas Tech to cover here. And when it's something like 27, 23, 28, 23, somewhere 28, 21, it's going to be a tighter game that they pull out. Arizona wins outright 28, 24. Okay. It doesn't bother you. The opponents faced and you know, they do give up points and of course, it's on the road. Of course it goes. But it also feels to be like they're getting better. And that I'm okay with that. You know, the coaching staff is figuring out how best to utilize what they've got, especially on offense. The defense has been solid again. Yes. You know, we talked about that on the Monday episode with Bill. Despite the fact that questions coming into the year were around defense and what, what looked like and they got to reboot parts of it and what it be is good. It's actually been a little bit better about the same. As a year ago in the offense, I think has steadily improved now. So the difference by these out, but you know, they've been able to manage. The difference, I think from last year's to this year, I don't have the exact numbers in front of me. They have not forced a lot of turnovers, which is what I kind of want to see if you're going to pull off a road upset against a top 15, 20 team. So that just gives me a little bit of pause. All right. We'll see. We do disagree. Let's move on. 330 ABC, Florida, squaring off against Georgia, Georgia is an 11 and a half point favorite Dan city of Jacksonville, Florida doesn't want you calling this the world's largest outdoor cocktail party anymore, which is good because for the first time since 1995, this one won't be in Jacksonville, Florida. It won't be back until the year of our Lord, 2028 because the stadium down there is going under renovations. Yeah. So this year, it's going to be in Atlanta next year. It's going to be in Tampa. I can't imagine Tampa's got a problem with the world's largest outdoor cocktail party. Definitely not either way, either way, we've got a big rivalry game, Dan, and I ask you one more time. What are we doing? A big rivalry game. God, throw that. Throw it out. Big rivalry, big number, 11 and a half points. I know you've thought about it. I know you've meditated about it. Of course. How does it make you feel as a college football fan just as a man in general? As a man, I've been to the cocktail party but I went in Jacksonville. So I always have warm tingles. How did that rank compared to other games that you went to? Other rivalries, whatever. Oh, it's high up there. There was a high chaos factor. There were ladies that kissed me on the cheek out of nowhere. Well, that was fun. At a great time, I ate super well. I remember eating grilled oysters and lovin' 'em. So, ate super well, had a great time at the game and I'm excited for this years. How does 11 and a half make you feel as a man? As a man, the 11 and a half pointer? Yeah. That's a big number for this game. It's a big number for a game that always feels like and recently it's been floored up but in the spirit of Snowcrab Saturday, always clawing their way close. Yeah. So Crab's have claws and no, okay. It's a big number. I don't feel great about where Florida has been recently, even with the Texas win. That was a combination of Florida getting its act together and playing strong and adjusting on defense but also Texas looking out of sorts. And you know, you do what you gotta do for the wins but Florida has not looked the part recently. And getting this Georgia team and in both, obviously, are coming off of a buy. But getting this Georgia team that Bill mentioned this, if they can stop dropping the ball, right. They will be killer. This is a Georgia team that has needed health on offense and hopefully the buy week has aided with that. It's a Florida team that's looking for answers on offense and playing a couple different quarterbacks recently. I do look at like Buster Fockner has called good games against these Georgia defenses these past few years at Georgia Tech. That's something I'm looking for here. To see what can he do in terms of painting the corners and game planning to make life kind of halacious for Georgia. I like Florida to keep it close enough as they get healthier themselves. I think they keep it close to that 11 and a half point number. I don't think they have the juice of the pop right now to get it done. But I think it's back and forth. I think it's fun. I think it's something like 24/20. 27/17, but in doubt for three quarters plus. - I like Georgia by two scores. Okay. Yeah, I got it at like 38/24 somewhere in that neighborhood. I don't want to oversimplify it here because this is a game between two solid sides. - Mm-hmm. - I think it comes down in Jaden Ball. I really do. Like, sure, Georgia's coming off probably it's worst tackling performance of the season two weeks ago in that Auburn game. And if it comes to the point in this one where Jaden Ball is out there and breaking tackles and getting hard yards after contact and that sort of thing, that makes it easier for Florida to shorten the game to make it less about their own quarterback play, which is in flux than I can speak to in a second. Now there's a conversation about how this game unfolds if suddenly Jaden Ball gets going. I think there's also a conversation about how Florida might try to attack the Georgia Secondary, which has some of its own uncertainty with KJ Bolden and they also had some trouble against Auburn with coverage and penalties and that sort of thing. It was sloppy, everybody knows it was sloppy. - Yeah. - But I would much rather be able to rely on Jaden Ball as the first line of attack than turning it over to Aaron Filo who's coming off a shoulder injury or Tremel Jones Jr., who did lead to come back against Texas but was averaging like four and a half per attempt. - Right. - That still feels like that side of things is far less certain than Jaden Ball who's been really good. So I'm curious to see just what that matchup looks like. I'm not confident that Jaden Ball is going to have the same level of success against Georgia as he's had against many others this season. I'll tell you the under the radar matchup that I'm also interested in is the Florida defensive front against the Georgia line. - Okay, because you may recall Florida sacked archmaning five times. They had 11 tackles for loss. I grant you the Texas offensive line conversation is very complicated. That is not so much the case on the Georgia side because the line's been very, very solid. They've only been up something like eight sacks all year. But if we see the version of the Florida front that we saw against Texas, that could I think drastically change how I'm viewing this game? I'm not counting on that. - I mean, it's almost mandatory if Florida can get off the field because corner play has been disastrous. The past defense has been disastrous this season for Florida most of the year. So that's mandatory on Florida side. - So I just like, I don't think we're going to get the version of Jaden Ball that they need. I don't think we're going to get the version of the Florida defensive front that they need. - Sure. - I also don't think we're going to get the same version of Gunner Stockton. That Florida also probably needs in the version I'm talking about is the one we saw against Auburn where they were a mess. - I mean, what you're describing is a blowout though. - If you're saying, I don't see this. I don't see that. - I'm not saying it's a blowout and I still think they'll keep it reasonably close. I could see this being like 31, 24 late in the game and then a garbage time touchdown is what covers the point spread. I just, I feel like there will be points on the Florida side. I'm not sure that it's ever going to be so close that it feels like the game is in doubt. - Right. - So I've got it at 38, 24 as I wrote down here. - Yeah, 38, 24 Georgia covering a large spread, which I don't feel great about because it's a rivalry and it's just a weird gear and the game's going to be on Halloween, which shouldn't be under appreciated, but. - Yeah. - No, I'm on Georgia here. - The case for Georgia covering is also when Florida isn't up to the task this season. They're really not up for the task. They're not scoring 20 points. They're losing by 21, 28 points. Teams like South Carolina and Mizzou, not like them, those two specific teams. So I say, you say with your chest a little bit more. That's all I'm saying. - 38, 24, what more do you want from me? - 38, 16. - No, 38. - 38, 13. - If I felt 38, 13 in my narrow, I would tell you that. I feel 38, 24 final answer. - Okay. - We disagree, but it'll be fun. - 7, 30, NBC, Ohio State minus six and a half points on the road at USC. How many games in a row has this been now for NBC covering USC? - It's like five or six. It's a lot. Everybody wants to dog Notre Dame for having their own network. It feels like USC has their own network as well. - This is true. USC and Notre Dame just playing footsie on the peacock tie. Proxy wars via Noah Eagle, I don't know. So, what would a loss here mean for USC? - It's less damaging, I suppose, than last week's loss. A loss that Lincoln Riley reacted to this week by saying that they did some good things in the run game when they didn't run the ball. Like, look, I can appreciate that there were two or three runs that Lincoln Riley watched the tape from and said, "Okay, the blocking was really good there. "I really like the cut. "I really like the balance from the running back." But it's not great thing to say when, if you include sacs, it was like negative 15, 17 yards rushing. - It was only negative 17, yeah. - It was only negative 17 yards rushing. So, what would a loss here do? I think USC fans are already pretty depressed. I think USC fans are already pretty beleaguered about another defensive coordinator hire that has not worked out that offensively, they weren't able to figure out how to score 18 points against Wisconsin, strong Wisconsin defense. But 18 points is what was needed. This USC team was built to score 18 plus. And with how some of the younger players have looked this season, I just think the season is already pre-Halloween, a huge disappointment and they've only lost twice. So now they get Ohio State. I'm not gonna say it's a winnable moment, but if you're gonna compare Ohio State with or without they're starting quarterbacks. - It's more winnable. - And playing at home, this almost feels like a gotta have it game for just Lincoln, Riley, and vibes in LA. You absolutely have to win this game. You're a home dog. You get possibly Luke Fahey, possibly Tavy and St. Clair. But this is, I say mandatory in our previous game. This is a mandatory win situation for Lincoln, Riley. He talked about this week how he thinks LA is the best place to coach a college football team and he's so thrilled with everything that's happened and he went out of his way to include the AD in his statements, Jen Cohen, that like sure she didn't hire him, but like she's been instrumental. Like he is trying everything to turn around the vibes shift in or the vibes ship in LA. I don't know how you evaluate this Ohio State team without starting quarterback. - Well, that's more complicated. - I think at least we have a sense for where the vibe is at with USC. You know, we've been watching this team. We've been covering this team all year at this point. And some recurring trends that we've seen. The defense with the Gary Patterson higher has not really been fixed. Some of it's better, actually. But it's still not anywhere close to where it needs to be. And offensively, as we saw a week ago, there are probably limits to what this offense can do against really good defense. So this is to me also a must win game. It's a must win game. The loss here is your third big 10 loss, possibly the death blow for any sort of playoff aspirations. I don't know what this does to the vibes. There have been rumors about Lincoln Riley maybe going elsewhere. I don't know how real any of that stuff is, but it wouldn't be a surprise to me given the way it feels like parts of that fan base have already turned on the guy. But we'll see. This is a big game at home. The opportunity to redeem themselves, obviously the dominant storyline here is Julian Sainte out for the year, going to be the first career start for either Luke Fahey on the road, maybe Tavy and St. Clair. I think the actual storyline for me though is not even that. The actual storyline for me is Ohio State's defensive front against USC's line. Because if you go back, you'll look at that game from a week ago. He gained just 241 yards. They gave up five sacks. They had absolute fits against any kind of disguise pressure. JD Mayava was not good under pressure. I saw PFF had a stat that he went just two of 10 passing for eight yards in 13 pressure dropbacks. So was constant knew how to apply the pressure. That was by the way, after a buy, after a buy, yes, they knew how to apply the pressure. JD Mayava was rendered relatively toothless here. Ohio State is not going to be afraid of this USC offense. It is a potent USC offense. I don't think Ohio State cares. I don't. They are not going to be afraid of any of the offenses left on their schedule for what that's worth. If they're going to win, it is going to be some combination of defense, giving the offense enough short fields, putting the offense in enough position that they can feed the ball of the Jeremiah Smith. It's going to be a very simple formula moving forward. I don't think they're as efficient as they need to be running the football, especially not given their limitations at quarterback, presumably with other teams knowing it's coming. It's going to be defense and it's going to be finding those moments where you can get a mismatch or get Jeremiah Smith in space. Cole agree. There's no reason to like USC football in this moment. You can talk yourself into Ohio State coming off of a buy, getting a game plan in place for whichever quarterback is starting, and now I haven't been running the ball that well this season. There's still questions about the offense of line, but in terms of the athletes that play for Ohio State on offense and the performances they've had thus far on defense, there's kind of an easy case for Ohio State here. Basically you need to make the case that Ohio State's quarterback position will be non-disastrous with time to repair, time to game plan, time to work around limitations. If it is non-disastrous, if it's fine, if it's efficient, if it's serviceable, you're probably already ahead of where Colton Joseph is through the air last week. In terms of both the minds calling this offense, knowing your quarterback, knowing what the receivers on this roster can do, knowing what you can do in certain situations, they're already ahead of last week's passing game. I don't feel like a compelling reason to pick USC, even though this game is at home and Ohio State has a back of quarterback. They're just not offering up that reason. I kind of looked at this as relatively easy and I'm taking Ohio State minus the points. Yeah. I mean, the other question, too, on the Jeremiah Smith front is, can Ohio State actually get in the ball given the new situation? There's an assumption that they will and look, he's been targeted three times more than the next closest guy on the roster. But that was the case even before the injury. Everybody knew he was going to Jeremiah Smith, Julian Sain was good enough to get it to him. They were good enough to scheme ways to get him the football. But now with it even more obvious that he's going to be the main target on that offense, I'm just curious to see what that looks like. I think my point of contention, if anything, oh, you're wondering if Gary Patterson can solve this riddle. No, I'm not worried. Okay. I'm not worried about that because I haven't seen them solve a whole lot of riddles so far on defense. But I think it's a fair question both in this game with it being the first start on the road and moving forward because there are some teams on this schedule that I think could present some fits defensively. My concern is that Ryan Day does what he did a couple of years ago against Michigan. And that he gets super conservative and that he tries to make fetch happen with the run, which is not been as efficient. And then he got teams like Oregon and Michigan who just can bottle up the run and they could dare Luke Fahey to throw it 30 times to win. Yeah. Like I'm worried about Ohio State kind of like sulking in a corner and trying to go that route. Whereas they don't need to. They're probably good enough with what they've got to just sort of run their game plan with some minor tweaks and they'll still be fine. I think I'm with you. I've got it at 2717 and I think the only thing that keeps this potentially within reach for USC given the points bread is what that game plan looks like. But otherwise I think Ohio State's got still all the same advantages. I think defensively they'll be able to eat up USC's front and they will find some way to get Jeremiah Smith involved. It's just what they do. It's got to be who they are. I have 30 to 14 Ohio State. So we're close. We're relatively close. I think there's maybe an early shot of confidence for Ohio State and they settle in nicely and they're totally fine. They have they still have the season in front of them. Obviously without your starting quarterback, you know, the the complexion of things and what your your high end is like on offense is different. I just don't think it is against SC. Yeah. I agree. Did you know Texans who switched to Ken say they saved around $1100 a year on home insurance? Here are some ways you could spend it. 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Ken insurance and excess exchange. Phoenix, Arizona. Savings apply when you bundle home and auto based on file rates. Savings vary and are not guaranteed. You hear that? Football season is here. And if you're looking for the boldest bourbon on the roster, make it Wild Turkey bourbon. Old Tucky Bourbon with 100 years of know-how Wild Turkey bourbon never compromises. His age long never watered down for the bold pre-prohibition flavor. So whether you're hosting it home, find up the drill at a tailgate or head it to your favorite local spot. Enjoy a bourbon that's filled with character bold flavor because when it lose, it's always a win with Wild Turkey bourbon. Wild Turkey bourbon. Go bolder. Go home. Copyright 2026, Compara America, New York, New York, never compromises, drink the sponsor. This football season, it's game on with Ryobi, whether you're getting the yard ready for kickoff clearing leaves before guest arrive or powering your tailgate, Ryobi's 40-volt outdoor line-up has you covered. With over 85 products powered by the same 40-volt battery, you'll get peak performance across leafflowers, chainsaws, trimmers, and more. When it's time to take the party beyond the yard, Ryobi's portable power solutions keep your tailgate running strong. Ryobi, the number one courtless outdoor power brand. Visit RyobiTools.com/football. Ryobi, only at the home depot. All right, again, get it on the board for ballers.com is where you go to sign up to be a certified or premium for baller. You get access to that. The game, Pete, for the prize, you also could vote in our top 12 poll, which opens three A.M. Eastern time every Sunday morning. We close it up around 11 on Mondays and then we talk about it on the episode. We talk about it on our social media, all that fun stuff we'd love to have you in our community. Here's what we did, because as I said, there weren't as many big games here on Snowcrab Saturday. Perseved big games. Perseved big games. It's always the quiet ones, as you know. Yes, of course. Hopefully, I'll play the Quad sound. You'll hear something from Tom Plats. Welcome to the Bainsomes where we live, where we live, where we live, we go through block by block, pick out four games for you to watch, give you our picks, move on with their lives. This time around though, we're doing something of a quad draft Dan Rubenstein. You pick a game, I pick a game, you pick a game, I pick a game, we're going to go through the early, the afternoon, and the evening quads here, and then I'm going to give you an opportunity for a wild card too if you're interested in a wild card game. So each pick seven, we're going to go through, we're going to do these rapid fire, we're We're going to give you our picks and some of the games that we're most. interested in. Let's start in that early block Dan Rubenstein. The first pick goes to you. Heartland Trophy, the Biela Mabel, even though he's not associated with either one of these teams anymore, Wisconsin, Iowa, Iowa favored by three, three and a half. Yeah, man. Against the up vibes, Wisconsin, who's now ranked number 25, Iowa disappointing week against Minnesota last week. Wisconsin, of course, the vibes coming off of that win against USC. So speaking of USC Ohio State, Wisconsin, Iowa. Here's where Iowa is right now. Oh no, both of our quarterbacks might be bad. How's that any different than usual, though? Usually they just have one quarterback. They're sure as bad. Okay. Now they are worried about the badness of two different quarterbacks. It looks like it's probably Hank Brown starting this one against Wisconsin, who has their own passing attack issues, but does have the defense and the way that Iowa has the defense. I'm going to very like sheepishly and meekly choose Iowa because they're playing this game at home. And the loser of this game always scores between one and four and a half points. So I exaggerated for effect there, but not that much. I'm going Iowa to win this game, 1713. I have 1713 Iowa here. We don't compare notes here. No, we do not. 1313. I think Iowa can drag Wisconsin into a game where they have to throw. And that's exactly what you don't want. If you're a Wisconsin fan at this point, Colton Joseph has thrown for 124 combined yards over his last two games. Two games now. That is not great. And Iowa, we know about the Iowa defense. So I think as long as Iowa protects the ball, I think their defense is good enough. Go 1713. I agree with you. The wild card here is that Kamari molten out for the year. So it's a Xavier Williams game who also has been good for Iowa, but the Iowa offense, not catastrophic, but not incredible. It's kind of average below average, which obviously given recent history. You'll take if you're an Iowa fan, but after the big performance, I think it was at Washington. I think Iowa fans were like, oh, maybe something. And it's come crashing down to earth a little bit. My pick here in the early block is ESPN two number 19 SMU minus nine and a half points on the road at Syracuse. By the way, did you see the helmets that Syracuse is going to be dawning in this game? Oh, I didn't. Let me look them up right now. What are they? They're called the auto the orange helmets. It's a white helmet with auto on it. I think oh, here they are. I think it looks awesome. I showed it to Kate. She sort of furred a brow. Like, what is that? That is clean. I wonder if they should be like leaning into the more big red of it all. And actually, like, if you're having an auto the orange helmet below the face up and put why is it not orange? I mean, I like a white helmet. Don't get me wrong. But like, we should have kind of a fuzzy looking orange helmet with the googly eyes and the striped cap there. I don't know. It could sort of be like the enemy to Liberty Biberty. I suppose, yes. We got Steve Angelli back. Or boy, by out of necessity. Mario Odom is out for the year, right? Yes. Steve Angelli came back last week led Syracuse and that overtime went over North Carolina. Yeah. Good rushing effort from a mod miller. Calvin Russell looks healthy again. The freshman. Yeah. SMU has been slow out of the gate and consecutive games down. And I think Syracuse with their rushing attack with the general weirdness of the JMA wireless stone, whatever we're calling it these days on Halloween. Yep. SMU has got more firepower. But I'm going to go cues with the points, man. This is my mindless upset of the week. I don't hate it. Mindless upset. Now, did it give me pause that SMU scored touchdowns on seven straight drives last week yet that it really did when I was thinking about this in their game last week against Cal. But I still think the line should be higher. I still believe in the magic of Steve Angelli. I believe in the mystique of the out of the orange helmet. So I think Syracuse wins with a bizarre set of circumstances on Halloween 3834. I kind of love this pick too. Thank you. This is is just ahead of SMU's most difficult stretch of the season. I want to say it's wake is in there. Notre Dame's obviously in there. I think Virginia Tech as well. Yep. Two of those at home, I believe in the SMU Notre Dame game at Notre Dame. If I'm correct, I apologize if I'm not. I like Syracuse here. Do we want to make it a joint home dog of the week? Let's make it a joint dog. The Yakuose home dog of the week. That said Syracuse is very bad against the run. They give up a ton of explosive plays. They are god awful in the red zone on defense. Offensively, they've been all over the place, but that's what happens with weird and injured quarterback play. But the North Carolina win on the road, that's something I guess. I don't know. It's been a weird year. I think they can do something interesting against SMU and a look ahead spot. Perhaps for the Mustangs. You're pick. Who you got next? I'm looking at the sheet right now. I am taking. We're going to stay ACC BC and Duke, a resurgent BC. Yeah, buddy. Move in the ball, having fun playing football. Duke seems to have righted some wrongs. Both of these teams have issues finishing drives. So I think the threes versus sevens are going to be super interesting here. Walker Eget has a busted finger of some kind. He's still playing, but I wonder what that looks like because a lot of what they're looking to do is goes through Walker Eget. And then with BC, just turning the ball over, playing clean, a concern still in this moment, I'm going Duke. I'm going Duke here. I think they're stronger overall. I think they're more complete. And there is just something to me about. I like where BC is right now, but the games at home, the games early, I think Duke wins this one by 13. I think something like 3421. Okay. Yeah. I mean, this should be a nice test for future Oregon quarterback Mason McKenzie. Oh, Mason McKenzie. Sure. Do you want Mason McKenzie next year? I do. I'm happy for Boston College of Mason McKenzie. I wish them all the success in the world. That's a no. Okay. I don't think that is a match. Well, BC is better than expected. Yes. And for all my jokes about Ted Roof and the defense, the defense has actually gotten a lot better. So kudos to him, kudos to them. Yeah. Offensively, they put up like what? 500 yards last week. Ran it really well. I think Duke wins too. I'm with you, but I do subscribe to the idea that Boston College is not only better, but not really a fluke. So I'm going to say 2421 Duke wins, but BC covers. Okay. So we slightly disagree. Final pick of that early block, 1245, because the SEC loves to be different. Auburn on the road at number 12, Ole Miss Ole Miss favored by 13 points. This, okay. This should be a bounce back game for Trinidad Chambles. Agreed. Should be made some mistakes against Texas. If you're looking for proof and a proof of concept, whatever you're into, just take a gander at what Sam Levitt did a week ago against Auburn, both in the short passing, medium passing, and long passing games. That is your proof. Yeah, we trade as greenback. That's the difference maker. That is your proof that this should be a bounce back situation for Trinidad Chambles. Love what Auburn did a couple weeks ago against Georgia. I think that was proof it had of itself that they can compete physically with just about anybody. But I am not feeling this as another upset situation here. I think we're going to see points. I could definitely see Auburn taking some advantage of an Ole Miss defense, which I still don't have a ton of trust in. I think there are 41-27 vibes coming off this one. I might circle back and make this my lock of the week. Yeah, I have like 38-14 vibes. When you look at how Auburn has played against excellent teams this year, or good teams, or pretty good teams, whatever, it looks more and more like Georgia was right place, right time, maybe an aberration as to what Auburn truly is this year. They could not follow that performance up with a competitive one last week against LSU, who I believe is also trending towards excellence. Agreed. I think Auburn is much more deliberate with what it needs and that sort of Byron Brown on the ground controlling things. I think Ole Miss can do enough on defense, even though the defense has been somewhat disappointing this year. We'll see on their offensive line, but Auburn has its own offensive line questions. The only thing that would get in the way of me thinking that this is like a clean flash fry or whatever is Ole Miss has started a little bit slowly in games this year, but I don't know. I still think they're too well-coached. They have too good a quarterback in a letdown spot, of course, but it coming at home, I think they cover this one. I'm just going to do it right now. - Oh, here he is. - Lock of the week. - Yeah, I'm going to go all miss minus the 13. By the way, everyone, that's your cute at Bed Auburn plus 13. - There you go. - Make it easy. - My locks have been bad again this year. - All right, afternoon slate, where's my sound? I already lost it. First pick of the afternoon slate for me, 330 peacock number 20 Northwestern on the road edge. - Your next game. - Next game. Oregon favor by three and a half. - Like you're on a game show. All right, I don't know religious scripture to pass. Next, three and a half, that's where it is right now. - Three and a half. All right, you are betting on, if you like Oregon in this game, games at home, Northwestern hasn't played the most incredible array of opponents, the array of Northwestern word, or Northwestern caliber. You are betting on eight in childs reverting to some kind of older eight in childs in the state of Oregon form. You are believing that Oregon's defense will probably force a couple turnovers because it is with Indiana going to be the best defense that Northwestern has faced thus far, and that you'll get more receivers in the lineup for Oregon, a different voice running this offense, and Dylan Raola is merely good enough to not screw this one up. Northwestern's a little beat up up front on defense. Oregon found an offensive line combination and found a lot of success on the ground against Illinois. That's what you're betting on, a whole host of bullet points there for you. If you're betting on Northwestern, you're betting on more of the same from Oregon and more of the same from Northwestern. What are you betting on? So, I was gonna go down to campus and sort of hold up a giant cardboard sign that's just like, take it easy on us please. But as a Northwestern fan now. Oh yeah, sure. As a valued member of the Northwestern community, what am I thinking is who's gonna win here? I'm thinking there's Northwestern. It's gonna win this game. Oregon has become too skilled at losing in too many different ways against quality teams. Chip Kelly is gonna find players on this Oregon defense who pick on perhaps the safeties who are a combination of struggling and beat up. So, I think Chip Kelly gets it done with Northwestern. And while the Northwestern defense is nothing I'm counting on as being excellent this year, they're playing against the Oregon offense who have found week after week ways to screw this with. So, let me play devil's advocate. I'm going Northwestern as well. Okay. I'm not arguing for Oregon here in this moment. But Rutgers did run for over 260 yards against Northwestern. They did. And to your point Northwestern is dinged up, especially on the interior line. So, is there a path to victory for Oregon, which is crazy that it would even talk about? Of course there is. Of course there is. In this kind of manner. But just by lining up and running the football, like forget about Dylan Raiola. Right. Why not just build the whole damn plane out of Jordan, Davidson and D.R. Hill, both of whom Brandon Smith, yeah. Yeah, like they did run the ball. They didn't do enough running. I think, well, you need an compensation. You need an offensive line. And hopefully it continues to grow. They've seemed to have found a converse a combination. Because they can, one of these running backs can bust a 44 yard run and then have the following play have an issue with the snap, have Dylan Raiola miss a wide open receiver. Like he did with Decorian Moore wide open, crossing the middle of the fields. That would have been a, you know, a crawl in touchdown. It was so open that quarterback play has been bad enough to take away any gains you have on the ground. Quarterbacks most important position on the field. I am taking Northwestern here. I think they win the game outright. So I'm just not going to bet against or bet for an organ team at this point that just feels like the vibes are at an all-time blow. I'm telling you, there will be a random week. And if you're an organ person, you probably hope it's against Washington that like, we're bad, but we're not that bad. You're hoping there will be a random week where the ball is just out quickly and these receivers and running backs and Jamari Johnson go wild. I don't, maybe it's Michigan State, maybe it's Northwestern, maybe it's Washington. There will be one week where you'll say, "Oh, that was fun for me." It's so high on savings next week. Kind of doubt it, but you know, those big games get everybody on the same page. Fives are down in Eugene right now, man. Fives are real, real bad. All right, so we agree with that one. Give me another one in 3-30. 3-30, my pick is going to be Kansas TCU. This is just interesting to me because I think TCU made an offensive line coach change. And so they're hoping that helps to open things up in the run game. I don't know, man. There are another team that has issues finishing drives. The good news is the Kansas defense, the second area's all beat up. Isaiah Marshall is a complete wild card in terms of turnovers. I think he's fumbled the ball four times and thrown seven picks. So TCU just needs to not screw this up, but there are already conversations about like, "Oh, coaching hotboard, 1.0." And you're like, "Sunny Dykes is still employed, guys." He's still there. So the line here is TCU minus five and a half against Kansas. Yeah. To the point of being unable to finish drives, I have a mind-blowing stat from last week for TCU. Okay, I'm ready. All 10s, they played West Virginia. Who doesn't play defense? Or they just don't play defense well as West Virginia put ball pointed out. They played winning defense last week. They didn't play winning defense. Yeah. All 10 of TCU's possessions reached West Virginia territory a week ago. All 10 of them. Oh, no. Only four of them produced points. And that I think not touchdowns every time. No, because they didn't score as many points as needed to score touchdowns every time. To further your point about finishing drives, yes. TCU should win this game. They should win this game. Kansas has struggled against the run. They've got a bunch of injuries in the secondary, like you said. I don't know. I'm on TCU, I'm going to give it another go here. I don't think Kansas is consistent enough. I'd like to see them get another week out of Dylan Edwards like they did. He was pretty successful on the ground. They obviously came from behind in the view Baylor, but I'm sticking TCU. I'm going TCU as well. Obviously, a letdown spot after Kansas gets the literal Baylor bear off their back and won that game late and got the coach fired. I think TCU can use defense. And I don't think they're going to need to score a ton of ton of points with this defense to win this game. I think they get it done. My pick 345 ESPN number six, Utah minus six and a half on the road at Cincinnati Dan Rubenstein. Oh, look at that sandwich. I'm so hungry. I'm so hungry. Oh, boy. Big home win for Utah last weekend over Ranked Houston. We got a top 10 holy war staring us in the face. And week 10, they're going back home playing that one in Salt Lake. Nestled in between. Nestled in between. We've got this road trip to Ohio. Yeah. Ohio, Ohio. Again, Cincinnati, a Cincinnati team that just knocked off Texas Tech. Excuse you. Cincinnati after what they were pulling off last week, yeah? I do have that domain. Didn't we buy that? I think we bought that. I hope so. Damn it. I think you looked it up. And you're like, it appears to be an escort service. No, I think I bought it. I bought one of them. Oh, OK. And somebody uses that name for something related to adult entertainment. Correct. And no one has asked me to buy it yet, but-- But on this Snowcrab Saturday. Operators are standing by if you're interested in that domain. I'm interested in a specific matchup, which is the Cincinnati offensive line against the Utah front. OK. It's the whole game, truly. The whole game here, Coltab, the running back, got to go in for Cincinnati last week against Texas Tech. That, frankly, was the kind of performance we thought was possible at the start of the year. When we were talking up Cincinnati offensive line, it might be the best in the conference. I know you remember those conversations. Now they're up against the Utah run defense. That's allowing something like 88 yards a game, somewhere in that neighborhood. They're really stingy a week ago against Houston. I don't think Cincinnati's got a good enough defense to win the game. And it certainly is a different equation on defense, trying to solve for Devon Dampeer. But the letdown look ahead, man. They have been a thing this year. So I don't want to rule anything out. I am going to side on points here. I'm going to say Cincinnati plus the points, but Utah, all right. Yeah, I went back and forth on this one. Utah got, I mean, to their credit, produced that strip sack at the end of the game. Offensively against a Houston defense that hasn't been incredible this year. Until that strip sack, I don't think that they score until the fourth quarter until late third quarter. It was a late, they were not rolling on offense. They were not finishing drives on offense against Houston. No, no. That strip sack, I think, had them start out on like the nine or 10 yard line, right? So they had scored like 14 points until that moment. So it was not an overwhelming offensive performance, even though individually, Devon Tambeer. was magnificent. I were a little bit about the Utah offensive line as well. The right side of that line has not been incredible and technical. Devendamp here is a wizard and can overcome, but I think I like Cincinnati here as well, Cincinnati. In the specific letdown look ahead spot, Utah has not been incredible on the road this year in terms of four full quarters of terrific play. I think Cincinnati is able to control this game enough to keep it close enough. I'm taking the points. I'm not taking, I think Nipper is a tough place to play as Texas Tech found out last week, but I don't think they can fully pull it out. I think Utah finds a way, but I'm happy to take the points. It doesn't look like I bought Cincinnati. There you go. I'm looking through. I did buy Eckheads dot org because we were all in on New Mexico and I still, I just renewed cocktailber.com, which operators are standing by for that one, too, if you want that for whatever purposes, but are you worried? Are you worried if you're a Cincinnati fan of falling victim to the absolutely ruthless viciousness of the University of Utah social media feed? Are you worried that that's going to play a role here? The absolute inappropriate nature of the Utah, the University of Utah social media feed. Is that something that is in the back of the Cincinnati mind? I don't know. Can the Cincinnati mind even comprehend just absolute treachery? Close things out for 15 days and you got one more pick here in this afternoon block. Yeah. With the fourth pick in the afternoon block, I am selecting Yeah. Ooh, South Carolina, Oklahoma. How about that? There you go. Yep. Four 15 Eastern South Carolina coming off of a big emotional win against Tennessee, Oklahoma coming off of a big emotional win against Mississippi state team without Camaro Taylor scored multiple points in the same game. Oklahoma seemed to be getting into a better place along the offensive line. They're now they're dealing with center issues. South Carolina needing to worry about playing four full quarters of football. They're great at game planning. It's that next step for South Carolina. That's new and interesting. I think I like Oklahoma at home here. I just I like a defense at home. I know this defense is also beat up. I think it's the cheetah position. Yep. That is is nicked up for Oklahoma and whether or not South Carolina can take advantage remains to be seen. Yeah. But I think there is some about Oklahoma at home with this defense South Carolina away from home even though they've they've looked good at times away from home and look like they did against Alabama as well. I think Oklahoma is able to inflict its will enough that they can win this game ugly 16 13 something like that. Yeah. I'm I'm interested in the injury status on defense. It's Reggie Powers and Cole Sullivan. Okay. You guys both of whom came out of the Mississippi state game with injuries. They would play a leading role in trying to contain the Norris the creator. Okay. And so we'll see what that looks like out there on Saturday. I just I don't trust Oklahoma's offense. Even though they did look better. John Matier through 283 to touchdowns. No picks. Satanya played well. They ran the ball pretty well as they did top of it. They have gotten healthier. Just in general. Mm-hmm. I think it's a bit of a mirage though because I don't think Mississippi states that good on defense. So I'm a hundred percent on the points here. I guess 16 13. That would be South Carolina covering. That would be South Carolina. Yeah. Yeah. I neutral site. I'd have it at a pick them. If it's in South Carolina, I think they'd be favored to win. So I've got it at something like 20. Oh God. 23 20 South Carolina. Doesn't it feel like Oklahoma's the exact wrong defense for the Norris sellers to have his three and a half moments of don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. What is he doing? What is he doing? It does. It does. But I do worry a little bit that he's gone like full super Saiyan now after that move. I know the goal line a week ago. Yeah. Between him impacting the game the way he did, Dylan Stewart coming up in a big way. That team has had some issues behind the scenes this year. But for them to get a win like they did a week ago, maybe that's something they can build on. And now as they're on the road against Oklahoma, it's not going to be easy against his defense. But I'm going to roll with it, man. I'm going to roll with it. All right. We disagree. I'm going to take points though. 20 to 17 Oklahoma. 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His age long never watered down. Full of bold pre-prohibition flavor. So whether you're hosting at home, find up the grill at a tailgate or head it to your favorite local spot. Enjoy a bourbon that's filled with character bold flavor. Because when it lose, it's always a win with wild turkey bourbon. Wild turkey bourbon. Go bold to go home. Copyright 2026, Compara America, New York, New York, never compromise drink the sponsor. This football season, it's game on with Ryobi. Whether you're getting the yard ready for kickoff, clearing leaves before a guest arrives or powering your tailgate, Ryobi's 40-volt outdoor line-up has you covered. Ryobi, the number one cordless outdoor power brand. Let's go to the nightcap. Let's see. First, I had first pick last blog. You took Northwestern Oregon. Yeah, who you got? Oklahoma State. I guess we're staying in the state in terms of teams, but they're on the road against Iowa State, who is reeling on offense especially, but it looks like they're going to start Jalen Rainer once again. Even after his benching last week against Arizona, I just enjoy watching this Oklahoma State offense. Now that they don't play Oregon again this year, Oklahoma State, they have issues. This is not a perfect team. Their defense has a ways to go. They start out too slow, but Iowa State is so injured and they make mistakes on offense. They have their own slow starts. Secondary is a mess. I don't know. You get to watch Highlight Worthy play after Highlight Worthy play when this Oklahoma State offense gets going, so I think they're worthwhile. By the way, have you taken a look at Oklahoma State schedule in November? No, but let's at Kansas State next week. Hold on, are we talking about what did we sit November? We haven't decided yet. We haven't talked yet. We have to figure out who we want to bring on on Monday. We got a couple days to figure this out now. Here is what it looks like. Starting next week, week 10. They're at Kansas State. We go 11. Big one at home against Texas Tech. Then they close out the year at ASU and home against Kansas. We can save the crazy talk for another day. You know I've got that in me. But to be at this point, in Eric Morris' first season, Eric, November. Pokevember? Pokevember is actually not bad. It's not bad. But we can't do a full month of Monday episodes talking about the Pokevember. It would have to be after the fact we would have to declare it, like offering like the mayor offering a key of the city. Right. If they go 5.0, we like that was definitely Pokevember. Or we could bring somebody on who's an instigator. And every Monday, we're poking the proverbial bear, you know? Oh, that's not bad. Think about it. See how it sits when you sleep on it. Okay. 83% chance for Oklahoma State to finish with at least eight wins, which is incredible. Yeah, I don't know how you don't consider. You have to consider Eric Morris, a coach of the year. 100% situation. Yeah, I'm on Oklahoma state here minus the number. I'm with you. Yeah. huge. Seven PM on the ACC network. Here we go. Clemson on the road at Florida state, Florida state favored by six points. Stat of the week brought to you by Dan's dad. We posted this to our Twitter feed. You sent it to me, the screen grabbed to me beforehand. Yeah. A mind blowing stat. We are now going into college football week nine army. Army officially has more touchdown passes at three. Then Clemson does all season at two. And that's on 144 fewer attempts. I'm wondering how the offensive renovations are going. That's a pretty good clue. Okay. So right now, if this trend holds Chad Morris, who is making something like $1.3 million this year, as Clemson's new offensive coordinator, will be paid. You can fact check me on the math. $650,000 per touchdown pass. Right. Is that what $1.3 million divided by two is? Yes. Oh, man. I do a lot of math with my seven and five year olds. So doing 13 divided by two comes as just a nightmare. Now Florida state speed up and what they do best is run the ball and both those running backs are out. They rush the passer as well as basically anybody in the ACC right now. Yeah. But that's kind of it with what they do on defense. I just don't know the case for picking Clemson to do anything successfully and to pick it confidently is kind of a fool's errand right now. So I'm just taking Florida state blind here. I'm taking points, man. I don't know. I have no idea what to expect here. It's at home. It is at home, but I don't have the utmost confidence at Florida state either. I'll tell you what I'm most confident in. Okay. I'm most confident that there will be one coaching change between these two teams before next season. Okay. I mean, you're talking about future organ offensive coordinator, Mike Norvell. I think I am. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's interesting. That'll be an interesting name. Should he not be the coach anymore? There was a statement issued by Florida state apologizing for the slow process and hiring a new A.D. Like we know it's taken forever. There's like, oh, man, things are not going all that well still in Tallahassee. I watched this Clemson team play too much to feel confident about anything about this team. They also rushed the passer. Well, they have good defensive line, but not more Florida state. They got to get rid of Davo too, man. Florida state at least flirts with moments of fun. Clemson doesn't flirt. No, they got someone's got to have to talk with Davo. And I don't know what that looks like. This is not a small budget operation at Clemson. They got to move on. It's time. It'd be different if Tate Reynolds was very clearly going to be a phenom and was ascendant. Right. This offense is 97th in SP+. They're a mess. I'll take the points here. I don't, I don't really have faith in either of these teams. I could see it being close, but yeah, I don't know what I'm hitching my wagon to. I'm going to go, uh, let me go. Oh, no, you're up to pick. Excuse me. Go ahead. What do you got? All right. We're going to go Washington, Nebraska, because both of these teams are still a little bit interesting to me because the Washington offense, when they made that quarterback switch when switch when demon Williams, I think heard his ribs, um, they've looked like they've had some life and they've got a little bit healthier on the offensive line. They have dudes on this defense. And Nebraska still very much. I think I said that like Christopher walk in Nebraska. Nebraska, Nebraska. Um, they have their own injury questions on defense and at running back and offense in general against a quality team, but games in Lincoln, right? Yeah. I think good defense at home. I think there's something entertaining about the potential in this game. Hopefully, Washington is able to have like a second half of the season finding life, especially on the ground, if possible. Um, but I think that it's, it's an interesting enough game right now. I think that number is too big. I think Nebraska wins tight at home at night. Well, it's an interesting matchup between future Oregon quarterback Anthony Kalandria. Nope. Not going to happen here. Oregon quarterback Elijah Brown. Not neither one of those things is going to happen. I think Nebraska's pretty good. I'm going to say they win and cover 3121. Okay. I was going to make it lock the week, but I'm not going to do that to my Nebraska fans out there. Final game. Final game. What are you taking? 730 ABC number one Miami on the road at North Carolina. To what end Dan Rubinstein do you believe in the aforementioned power of the look ahead? Got a big look ahead spot here for Miami Notre Dame's on deck. Yeah. Look, I'm a believer on a certain level that if there were a moment for Miami to have a moment like they've had in the past against clearly inferior, a clearly inferior team, making mistakes, solo dairy events, it does not make mistakes. Malakai Tony's been beat up. Obviously their secondary is kind of wrecked and has been wrecked for a chunk of this season in terms of health and the defense in general has had some health issues. Offensive liners had some health issues for Miami. They've just placed nobody that has had the capability or the talent to take advantage. North Carolina. I don't know. There's pieces here. They're almost as good as Syracuse. They don't have enough juice on offense. I don't think they do. They don't have enough. They like their past rush. And we have seen the Miami one struggle a little bit here. But maybe that's a data point that we can use next week in advance of the Miami Notre Dame game. See how this line holds up against what I think is a pretty good front for North Carolina. But I'm not getting the vapors from future Oregon quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. Nope. I don't think he can play next year unless he suits somebody. But 42-21 is my final. Miami wins the covers. Terry Mance's name came up last year. There were a lot of big names that came up last year with Oregon. If Dante Moore were going to declare. No. They went after Drew Mestermaker. I just don't think anybody was really engaging with Oregon with having clarity over Dante Moore. And if he's healthy, you know, I mean, I'm not crazy about it in retrospect that you're marrying her higher. But if Dante stays healthy is probably a bit of a different story. You know, it's not as catastrophic a quarterback. Yeah, of course. I'm just talking about last year. Terry Mance. I think he has a connection. He's from the West Coast and has a connection to Oregon family-wise, I think. Anyway, there is something about North Carolina. I don't know what it is. And I don't know if it's a look ahead spot for Miami. There is something about North Carolina this season that I don't know. The offense just isn't. I don't know what the word I'm looking for is. The offense isn't varied enough. Obviously, North Carolina hasn't been able to control things on the ground. They have talents, but no. They're just too all over the place for me to feel good against this Miami team. So I'm taking Miami comfortably. I do have a wild card. Okay. I'll give you the option for one as well, but I wanted to make sure I called out Oregon State at Fresno State. Oregon State, a five and a half point road favorite. They're kicking this one off at 11 p.m. Eastern on the USA family of networks. Oregon State leads the nation in plays of 40 or more yards. Oh, man. Bonkers. They are a murder machine on offense. Fresno gives up a ton of huge plays. So bear that in mind if you're going to stay up to watch this game. Also, by the way, on that point though, the Fresno giving up huge plays. The following are the SP plus offensive ranks of the team's Fresno has played and given up big plays against. So they play USC who still ranked pretty high on offense for okay reason. 138, 126, 111, 127, 104 and Boise State at 18. So they've played five legit very, very bad offenses and given up huge plays and now they play against Oregon State. And the points for it is only five and a half in fear of Oregon State. So now are you leaning into the weird? I'm not. I mean, it's at Fresno and Fresno to their credits been a pretty good second half team. So it's not hard to envision a game where Oregon State hits like a 95 yard touchdown to Jesse LeGree in the first quarter and then quietly throughout the remainder of the game. Fresno finds way to call their way back on snowcrap Saturday, of course. Right. But I'm on Oregon State here. I think I'm on Oregon State as well. I think they just keep it up. Yeah. I think that's the responsible choice. Dan Rubas did you have nobody's kept it within single digits since they played those two big 12 powers? Do you got a wild card for this week's games? Michigan Rutgers. Okay. Why? Michigan's favorite by two touchdowns. Right. And how they score two touchdowns confidently. This is just a vibe game. This is in New Jersey, right? Yes. This is in Piscataway. If Michigan is going to be anything this season, anything, you'll see it this week against the Rutgers defense. If it's kind of like, oh, they won 1710. They're like, oh my god. This is this is heading to such a bleak dark place that we are not already in yeah on this beautiful snow crab Saturday That's a squall man the squall is gonna grow and grow yeah, okay Yeah, that's all I got a couple under the radar games, please You can make a pick you don't need to make a pick just want to call these games out Notre Dame plays Navy this weekend Notre Dame's favor by 30 points are playing this one up in the greater New England area I don't really see a reason why Notre Dame should be at all or Notre Dame fans should be at all concerned There might be a little bit of a body blow conversation next week when Miami comes to town But just wanted to call that one out there. I know Notre Dame fans be like why don't you mention Notre Dame Navy Notre Dame plays Navy this week There you go. Yeah, also 330 CBS. We've got Minnesota at number four Indiana Indiana favored by three touchdowns Why I yes Exactly I call this one out Because Indiana has scored 32 combined points against Ohio State and Michigan. Yeah, Josh Hoover has been fighting through an injury Say what you want about Minnesota on offense, but they can create pressure. I do think it's possible. They can frustrate the Indiana offense I don't think they can score But I'm not totally convinced that Indiana is going to pull the doors off a minute soda What in what if unless you believe Minnesota is truly bad and Look Minnesota has you know been a victim of the let down situation after they beat Michigan They lost to Purdue handily I believe yeah, so maybe there's something that with Minnesota winning Floyd, but Indiana has they barely beat Northwestern barely beat Nebraska lost to Ohio State Barely beat Michigan their defense is great. Yeah, they're gonna shut down a number of teams this year They do not have the offense to run away from these teams If you believe Minnesota is at least decent and they have not run away from decent. I do I think they win this game by 10 points but Two three touchdowns 20 and a half. Yeah time of recording Fernando Mendoza is now walking through that door 330 or no 345 Excuse me ACC on ESPN 2 Virginia at number 14 wake forest wake forest with a big point spread favored by 12 and a half points Virginia's winless away from home. They played two true road games. They lost at Florida State They lost at SMU. They lost the neutral site game against West Virginia I'm just calling this one out there because wake forest is up to number 14 in the polls a Lot of good vibes around wake forest Lot of bad vibes around Virginia. This is the type of game That we have seen time and again in the ACC when it just feels sort of counter to all logic Where are the underdog wins? So I just want to call this out there because I looked at the point spread and I was like well Virginia's kind of been a mess It feels like wake forest given where their act should be favored by a little bit more Curious line to me throwing it out there If you were to take out and then you got to include it, but if you were to take out Virginia's performance against NC State to start the year. Yeah, they'd be an NC State team that has now fired its coach before Halloween And you were just like okay, that was a weak zero thing. Let's eliminate a good chunk of that from our consciousness Let's see turnl sunshine that moment of the season because after that moment You're like who Virginia could be scary in the ACC Bo Purbula in this offense and his legs Virginia's been terrible defensively and horrible now it'll be I think by far the best defense that wake has played since the Miami game Yeah, for whatever that's worth But I think to beat wake you got a scored 25 to 30 points with how this offense which by the way fully did not connect Robbie's L their offensive coordinator with the kid who did the Nick Sabin impression You know 15 years ago or whatever. Yeah, yeah in the Alabama locker room. Yeah Crazy. I I just I cannot find Virginia has been so quietly one of the most disappointing teams nationally I it would be too disrespectful to what wake has accomplished even with that schedule to pick against them I'm going to wake future Oregon offensive coordinator Robbie's L Could be on the short list wouldn't hate if you were on the short list geolope is getting both Don't know about that, but Short list I believe it's I sell I have to go back and look at my my eyes out anyway, okay for 15 Big 10 network Perdue at Penn State Penn State favorite by seven and a half points. I did see that Kobe Howard has returned to practice. Oh, that is notable I don't know if he's gonna play Penn State has not won a big 10 games since Kobe Howard went down So if he gets back whatever that is he obviously gives them a little bit more of a deep threat, which I think they've desperately missed Purdue's been a nice story though. They've been a really nice story. They're playing hard Penn State should win They should cover, but who knows honestly why? How many games in a row is Penn State going to have to lose before you're like, I don't know man Oh, I would take the points here. Okay, I'm not saying that they will win and will cover I'm saying they should because they still have more talent, but Purdue's been the better team as of late I don't I have Purdue's coming off a buy they've won two or three. It's all coming up boiler for me. Give me Purdue six 30 SPM plus App State against Georgia Southern Georgia Southern favorite by five points I put this on the list because I know we got a lot of people who ride in there like What game should I watch? I need a group of five game watch group of six years is quality. This is a fierce fierce rivalry going back to their days in the FCS You've heard of clean old fashioned hate the game between Georgia and Georgia Tech. They call this one Deeper than hate Dan Rubenstein great. I mean look what did we call it? Snow crab Saturday plumbing the depth That's right. We're plumbing the depth of hatred here. And also it is a battle between Henry Hasselbeck and Max Johnson Two sons of former NFL quarterbacks. There you go Let's go and the final one here on my under the radar list eight PM ESPNU We got army on the road at Memphis Memphis favorite by five and a half I just a fun game with contrasting styles Okay, probably a prime opportunity for future Oregon quarterback Marcus Stokes To eat against a very bad Army past defense. I don't know. I mean, it's the ODU coordinator from last year Who's coordinating this Memphis team, right? Yes. So maybe maybe he's a name. I don't know I don't have lots of thoughts on this one. I would add to the under the radar Arizona State BYU If you're gonna talk about let down look ahead. Okay ahead of the holy war with Utah. Yeah Not a let down after a win But a deflating moment for BYU on the road especially without crazy that ending was An ASU team who via card a Mac leaning on its youth leaning on some changes on offense. It's with Jake Fettie hold on some changes Good amount of change some changes. They're still playing quarterback bingo here. Good amount of shuffling. Yeah The Cutterbully experiment does did you see that Kenny Dillingham quote this week? I'd somebody asked him something like what what is the Mindset or how how are the emotions working with cutter bully after he was benched and it Hasn't been really working out for him in the offense, which is it it's a reasonable question It's a tough spot for a quarterback getting benched and everything and Kenny Dillingham I guess could have said something like you know he's a competitor and he's obviously disappointed and you know We're trying to figure things out to to give ASU the best chance to win. Kenny Dillingham just dropped a no comment Oh not Probably probably not great behind the scenes, but that's an interesting one at least to me in a letdown look ahead spot with ASU having at least some life Last week taking down Kansas State without Avery Johnson if you want a deep deep sleeper. Okay A really deep sleeper Nevada at UCLA And improve Nevada team this year for sure UCLA favorite by 22 and a half points. I think Nevada could keep that close. They got a pretty good defense Yeah, that's all I have to say about that. Um, okay So window of opportunity this week I think it's dealer's choice I think you got to get the window of opportunity in this week if you're gonna do it at all. Okay Do not put this off until week 10 Do not pigeonhole yourself into that uncomfortable situation of having to figure it out next Saturday, right? So I will forgive you for baller Wherever you may be whatever it is you need to do provided it's legal Go out be amongst the people go see cats go apple picking go for a hay ride whatever you're into It's Halloween. So take the kids out for trick or treating Maybe you don't have kids and you just want to go trick or treating sure to say whatever you're into on this Halloween don't do that Maybe don't do. Yeah, I'm 44. I am Indiana Jones. So I wear the mask. I guess I think people would be able to tell but yeah Please Please take it from me Window of opportunity is week nine. This is a good time to go out. Do we got to do Build up enough capital say you can stay in front of the couch next weekend or say do you anticipate do you anticipate foot traffic this year It's a full conversation Dan. I'm not gonna lie to you. All right. Will you be prepared? Will you have a pumpkin full of like three musketeers and Snickers and jelly beans or something? The neighborhood goes all out for Halloween, right? All out. Decorations, a lot of people instead of having the trick or treaters come up to the door will put like the fire pit in the driveway and then set up a little station out there. Yeah, I've seen that. Right. I would love to do that. But there are there are active conversations as to whether or not we will. Well, you got to be watching games on a certain level, right? My Halloween, as we've discussed here in the past, yeah, trick or treat night here in Eastern PA is actually on Friday night. It's not on a Halloween. Oh, is it always Friday night, no matter when Halloween falls? Not always, but if it falls on a Saturday, more often than not, yeah, it's on a Friday night. I've got I've got a decision to make. I can either run real quick with trick or treating kids after the 230 central window ends. So like after the cocktail party window ends, like, all right, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. But I think I have to pass out candy while watching games on an iPad as well. I think I have that duty. So I think that's my lot in life. Friday, we've got the Halloween parade at school. Okay. We have Niger Turtle, Raphael and Roma Dunesay or two costumes this year. You know that classic Halloween combo. Sure. So that's, I don't know, that's the situation. So I'll probably be watching games on an iPad and be like, just take, take a couple, take a couple, take not a full handful, take a couple. Yeah. And there we are until you can drop that big, stanky, flitting, drum and five. Oh, baby, oh, baby, baby, baby, we got what we got. High noon. Bucknell on the road at Lehigh. Lehigh needs to win. They got a win. You can't, you can't lose two in a row. They lost last week. Don't want to lose again this week. Can't lose your share of first place in the Pat League. Bucknell, by the way, is still looking for their first lead win. Give me the Mount Hawks. I'm going to Mount Hawks big as well. 1230 Villanova on the road at the Yetis. Your Lafayette leaps. We got Villanova who just beat Lehigh last week. They gave Lehigh their only loss. Right. Lafayette on a little bit of a hot streak here. They won two in a row. We got, I'm going Lafayette here. This is part of, we talked about this a lot with Bill C, the meaty middle of the Pat League. So give me Lafayette here to make a move. I'm going over. Come on. Come on. 1 p.m. Bill and Mary on the road at Colgate. Colgate trying to revive the offense. They scored six points here. It says at Richland, they got to halt their three game skid against William and Mary, who is also struggling who you got. I'm going to go Colgate here. Yeah, I'm going to go to the home team big. Yeah, I'll go Colgate as well. And last but not least, 1 p.m. This is the show piece of the weekend. Bring the music down. Get the Richmond spiders tied for the league lead. 4 and 1. They can't lose either. If they lose, if Lehigh loses, throws the whole thing into a tailspin. Yep. Holy cross, if they win, can pull level with Richmond. They would both be 4 and 2. They would win the head to head advantage in the tiebreaker. It's a big game. Who you got? I am actually going to go holy cross here. They've won three of four and they have absolutely, that mean not have, but they absolutely leveled Bucknell. They lost a Harvard a couple of weeks ago. Everybody lose to Harvard. Come on. Yeah. I'm going across the haters here. Do you have a lock this week? Oh, good question. What did I seem the most confident in? You seem to like Georgia a lot over Auburn. Georgia's not playing Auburn. You see, yeah, you seem to like Ole Miss a lot over Auburn. I mean, I locked up Ole Miss, but I'm going to go Oklahoma State minus that eight and a half on the road against Iowa State. They're just two beat up. Lock of the lead. I can't suggest Pope Vember. No. And then not lean into the final game before Pope Vember. Can I give you a bonus lock? Please. Lock of the lead. Early on Saturday. This is a vibes only lock. 2 p.m. TNT Kansas State minus one on the road at Colorado. Okay. I think vibes are horrible at Colorado. What do you think the vibes are in the little apple right now? I think they're slightly better, maybe by two points better. Okay. In the little apple. I don't know why that you would be confident in this, though. Yeah vibes only vibes only good luck. That's what I got for you today on this snow crab Saturday. Yeah, snow crab Saturday. All right. Thank you. One and all for downloading for listening for playing along at home. Don't forget for ballers.com is where you can go if you want to get in on our run the board pick them game. This week a $500 gift card to Dick's sporting goods up for grabs to the winner, V-E-R-B-A-L-L-E-R-S.com. Just sign up as a certified or premium for baller to get access. You can do some damage. Yeah. $500. Dicks. Buy it for new. Buy a kayak. Snow shoes. Whatever you're into. Skies. That's a great idea. Winter is coming up. Why not? Why not do it? Set yourself up. Support the show for ballers.com. You also get access to ad free episodes. Bonus content. Discord access. Portal access. The whole nine yards. All right. Stop on back here on Saturday night. We will be doing our midnight live stream as we are want to do. We will see what week nine has in store. Snow crab Saturday looks a little quiet on the surface, but wants to get below the surface of the water who knows what will transpire. For that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubenstein from myself over here Ty, hold a breath. Thank you as always for downloading this video. Talk y'all soon. Peace! Lorraine Coe is better for you chewing gum that uses the same mineral your teeth are made of to support daily and animal health. I'm a huge fan. The taste is good. 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