Is The Big 10 Even Good? + 1 on 1 with Eli Drinkwitz & Joey McGuire | The BFW Show 11.02.26

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Additional terms at dkng.co slash audio. Nationwide-based sportsbook predictions and or free-to-play sports contest availability. Varies by state. Limited time only. The course is calling, and your Chevy Equinox can take on whatever the day throws at you. Stylish and ready for anything, Equinox handles your commute, weekend trips, and even those last-minute tee times. Easily load up your clubs and gear with plenty of cargo space, plus hidden storage under the rear floor to keep things neat. And with a big standout touchscreen. The Equinox puts all your tech right where you need it. Bold and confident, Equinox looks just as good on the road as it does down the backroads. From the first drive to the final putt, Equinox is built to do more so you can focus on the game. We'll see you next time on the Equinox. Here we go. Brandon Walker, live. Is it good? Are we good? Give me a thumbs up. Thumbs up, Lewim. All right, Lewim. Thank you, Lewim Blutman, for being here. Good to see everybody. Welcome to the Brandon Walker College Football Show on a Monday night. I am back in familiar territory. I'm back in the Brandon Walker studio. My camera is off center. I might fix that a little bit. That went the wrong way. There's the right way. Right there. Yeah, let's do it right there. That didn't fix it a lick. Anyway, welcome into the show. I want to say something off the top, off the very, very top. Number one, thank you for watching. I want you to get in here and listen and download the podcast. And please like and subscribe to the YouTube. It really helps. Lewim probably won't be able to go on scholarship. Until we get a hundred thousand subscribers at a hundred thousand subscribers. I think Liam will go from a walk-on to scholarship, but I can't do it yet. I just can't do it. Liam. I'm sorry, but I, I don't think we got the money at 85,000 subscribers. We need to be over a hundred. Yeah. I mean, our, our challenge for October is expired and done. There's no date with a woman. Is that what it was? Yeah. They, what the woman or the ball watching with a fella and nobody got to a hundred K. Yeah. Uh, I want to say, I want to address another topic right off the top here. Let me, uh, let me, let me pin this, um, pin the Chicago feed so I can see what you guys are looking at Saturday night show sucked. I just need to say Saturday night show sucked for my own, uh, for my own edification, for my own feelings. Um, Saturday was a mess for me. Liam was also sick. Saturday night. Wasn't as good as I want it to be. Uh, we still, the numbers were fine. We did everything and the day itself wasn't great, but I, uh, I flew to Nashville to do a thing yesterday. I got a migraine. As soon as I landed, I had a migraine. I can't see straight when I get a migraine. I said some dumb things Saturday night. Um, I just was off. The internet was bad. It was just an off show all the way around. That's why, um, I commit to doing every single show from here on out from this studio right here or from barstool. I just wasn't very good. So I want to apologize for that. I traveled when I should have traveled. I got a migraine. When that happens, I am not good. Uh, I get them way too much. Uh, Liam was sick. Saturday sucked. Apologize. We move forward. Thoughts. Yeah, man. Uh, your connection was straight doodoo. It was pretty difficult, but you and I are in the no excuses business. We play the cards were dealt and we thrive as best as we can. Well, the boosters are talking about getting me out and I, I don't think I listen. I, I believe in what we're doing here. I think the program's headed in the right direction. I can't control the boosters. I can't control, uh, what anybody says. All I can do is worry about the product on the field. And right now the product on the field, uh, wasn't good enough. And, and that's what I'm going to do. So you have my promise for the rest of the season. You won't see a podcast work harder. You won't see them try harder. You won't, you won't see anybody bust their ass more than this podcast right here. I promise you that. You want to know what the worst part about Saturday was Brandon, the migraine headache. Yeah, no, it was when I was walking. Out on Sunday, I got people coming up to me and they're, they're yelling at my 13 year old daughter. They're telling her things that shouldn't be said to any kid. I had people put for sale signs in my yard. Um, just, it, it's not good enough. It's not good enough. My own family was wearing paperbacks over their heads and I, I just can't do it. Um, so it's bold take Monday folks. It's bold take Monday. We'll have my top 25. We'll have voicemails. We'll have our games draft. It's back. We didn't do it last week. Cause last week kind of sucked, but this week we have 10 games. Uh, so, um, so we got that. And then at the end of the show, two interviews, one from the sec coach, Eli drink wits. I've never interviewed him on camera. Uh, I like him. I, he's one of my favorites. He's, he's just a, a goofy dude that doesn't take himself all that seriously, but he's a hell of a coach. Uh, I like that. And then Joey McGuire, another, just a, just, just a dude's dude that doesn't take himself too seriously, but does a hell of a job. Joe McGuire from Texas tech and Eli drink wits. Missouri at the end of the show. I think we go, I think we go drink first. And then Joey's second, I believe that's the order that we ended up shooting them. So, uh, so, so check that out. It's going to be great. Now, Liam Blutman, are you ready for bold take Monday? I was so ready before I get to bold take Monday. I was looking at the slate and we're going to do the games draft. Isn't it incredible that we have two teams that are still playoff caliber. And Alabama and LSU. And it's almost an afterthought on this weekend. Like if you look at this weekend, I wouldn't put it as number one game. I wouldn't put it as a number two game. I wouldn't put it as a number three game. And it's Alabama LSU basically for the right to stay in the playoff hunt. It's that good. It's that good of a slate. It is that crazy of a slate that we have this week. Now it is bold. Take Monday, Liam. Would you like to go first on bold? Take Monday. I'll go first. Brad Walker. Let's go. Let's stay in the sec. All right. All right, play. You want to stay in the sec. I'd love to stay in the sec. Cause we're an sec show. You and I are sec guys to our core. We bleed sec. Every home team in the sec wins this Saturday, November 7th home team sweep the day. Every home team. So let's see. Ole miss is at home against Georgia. Ole miss gets the win. LSU is at home against Alabama. LSU gets the win. Missouri is at home against Texas. Mizzou gets the win. It's bold. Take Monday. Every home team wins in the sec. On Saturday, Tennessee's home against Kentucky. Tennessee would get the win. Mississippi state's home against Vanderbilt. Mississippi state gets the win. It's bold. Take Monday. Hold on. I'm working through the schedule. Texas. A and M is host. It is. Where's that? I'd say South Carolina, South Carolina. Okay. Uh, and then Arkansas is playing whom I'm trying to just help me out. Where? I was saying me, Golish, Auburn. Ah, okay. They're playing at Auburn. Okay. So what you're really telling me and Oklahoma at Florida. So Florida beats Oklahoma every single, so you're calling for Georgia to get beat. You're calling for Texas to get beat and you're calling for Alabama to get beat. Now that is a playoff shakeup that, uh, would be quite the shakeup in the, uh, now all of a sudden, if that happens, Ole miss is probably the favorite to, to win the sec. I don't know. Wow. It's it's bold. It's bold. Take Monday play. It's bold. Take Monday. It is bold. Take Monday. I, I have a take. I don't know if I've, if I, if I've got the guts to say it at the end, but I, I'm going to save that for third and we'll just see if I can work up the courage to just go through it with it. Bold. Take Monday. My bold. My first bold take is that Florida state has not just created one job opening in the ACC. They have in fact created two job. Openings in the ACC because when they fill their coaching spot, the Virginia tech Hokies will have a coaching vacancy as Florida state will hire James Franklin as its next head Seminole in Tallahassee. He has showed enough life in, in, uh, Blacksburg. He has shown enough life in, uh, Virginia tech where he is good enough to get that Florida state job. He desperately, desperately, desperately wanted it last year. They didn't have the nuts. They didn't have the nuts to fire Norvell then he's a year in at Virginia tech. Convinced Florida state shakes up the coaching cycle and the carousel by hiring James Franklin and Florida state fans might say, no, no, no, no. We want somebody bigger and better. Don't give a fuck. You're not Florida state of 1995. Virginia tech fans will get mad. Don't give a fuck. It is what it is. James Franklin becomes Florida state's new head coach thoughts. I agree with it. I think he's in the thick of that, uh, coaching carousel, that contention. There's definite. I got to go back and find a clip from last year after he took the Virginia tech job. See if I said this exactly, but I mean, I think it's key that Florida state fans realize Mike Norvell was an issue. He was one of a million issues is an absolute cluster of a mess in Tallahassee right now that goes from the top down. It's not as intriguing as, as a job. As it once was, as it should be. Also, why are people saying Deon Sanders for his show? That's the lowest IQ take I've ever heard. Why would this, how? Because people are stupid. Oh, that is the worst. That is the worst thing I have ever heard about. He's just, I don't know if he'll be at Colorado next year. I mean, he, that's the point. I don't know if he's going to be coaching period next year. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's, uh, but they're also saying names like Jimbo Fisher. They're saying, uh, I mean, Jimbo. Jimbo's expressed interest in the job. I mean, I'm sure Deon has too, I guess. Well, Deon, didn't Deon at one point say he would never go back to Florida State? Did he say that? It doesn't. Yeah. I think at some point he disavowed Florida State. Was it when he was at Jackson State? I don't, maybe I'm misremembering it, but I feel like he and, and Florida State had kind of a public breaking up and then a public, um, you know, whatever. Uh, what's your bold take number two? I think that this one could have started as recess yesterday and two weeks ago after they lost the West Virginia, but they made some other firings instead. I'll TCU is going to fire. So I, I, I brought this up with you before you and I don't get it. Why are mediocre? Why are coaches who are doing a mediocre job getting extended in the spring just for them to fail? Like this guy signed Dykes was on the hot seat. Yeah. Yeah. He was on the hot seat last year. He won enough games to keep his job. They extend them. He's on the hot seat again. If they lost the Kansas, he was good as God. They're at Arizona this, uh, this week on Friday night, they've got Kansas stay in Utah home. And then they're at Texas tech. This is a four and eight or a five and seven team. Sonny Dykes is out. I think Lincoln Riley is going to be one of, if not the top candidates for this job. Lincoln Riley, the Southern Cal head coach will consider going to. Yeah, I, I, I got to keep bringing it up. It's been an unhealthy relationship from Lincoln and his higher ups at USC and the higher ups in Lincoln Riley. I mean, does that statement after a win, not raise your eyebrows just a little bit. That's a bizarre prepared statement. It's interesting. It's interesting to me. I just, uh, you know, the, the whirlwind and rollercoaster of Lincoln Riley up and down and he's fired and he's not fired. And all of a sudden they're back in the playoff. Are they in the playoff? I don't know. I don't know. I like it. It's a, it's a whole lot, but to think that he would seek the sanctity or the safety of TCU would, I don't know. It's a bold take. It's bold. Take Monday. I'll take Monday play. It's bold. Take Monday. Uh, I got something bold for you. How about draft Kings? Football has a way of turning one game into a full week of conversation. Draft Kings keeps you close to all of it. The drafting sports app is now live in all 50 States. That means from Texas to California, Florida, Liam, name a state, uh, Texas. Name a state. I didn't already mention New Hampshire. Good Lord. 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Availability varies predictions offer void in New York bet to get bonus bets that expire in seven days, trade to get predictions dollars that expire in one year, $50 in rewards issued every seven days via click to claim for 21 days, one non-withdrawable reward, redeemable terms at DK and G.co slash offer limited time offer nationwide based on sports book predictions and free to play sports contest availability varies by state. My bold take number two, this isn't the boldest thing I've ever said, but I think the opportunity is there to make a little money coming off the DraftKings ad. Both of these guys, I believe as of this morning, we're plus 1150 to win the Heisman trophy, uh, this fall. And that bold take is this the winner, the winning quarterback of Notre Dame, Miami Saturday night will win the Heisman Memorial. Trophy for the best player in college football. Darian Mensah is almost easier. He's all, if he goes on the road and beats Notre Dame, he's an easier sell. It almost, it would be his, uh, his award to lose at that point. CJ car. Meanwhile, does have a loss on his resume, but if he beats Miami, it gets to 11 and one and the one game they lost wasn't exactly on him. He played very well. I think at plus 1150 with Jeremiah Smith, having quarterback and team issues with Trinidad Chambliss facing Georgia. With all the things going around everything, this is a marquee game in a marquee spot. If one of those quarterbacks starts for 325 yards, three touchdowns and wins, he is the new favorite for the Heisman trophy. And because their schedules are both so easy coming down the stretch of the season, they will do nothing to lose it. Is this the boldest thing in the world? No, but they're plus 1150. They're plus 1150. So they're not exactly favorites right now. What do you think about that? I, it is the most seismic game of all on this Saturday night. It's one of the best games of the season going into it. I don't, I don't agree. I can't get behind CJ car though. I don't think he's done enough up to this point. It'd be a one game. It's bold. Take Monday. I am speaking with a bit of logic here. It'd be a one game resume and he'd win the Heisman off. That would be pretty, uh, asinine. But what if that's all that's needed in a year that Jeremiah Smith runs into a quarterback wall in a year that, uh, Trinidad Chambliss is kind of up and down. And if he were to lose to Georgia, Gunnar Stockton hasn't exactly been lights out. Like you might look around after Saturday. If the games and fall a certain way, we might be looking around for a candidate. We might be looking around and say, where, where is Travis Hunter? Where's Ashton Gentry? There's a world this week where none of the Heisman trophy favorites are, you know, leaders come through. For their teams. And they're sitting on the outside looking in. I mean, and then you go back to something that you and I have brought up is that, that scary shark in the water that nobody's really paying mind to is LSU. And that quarterback has been a roller coaster himself is that's becoming more level. Well, I think Lenore sellers down there at like 75 to one's a great flyer too. Cause he's been the best quarterback in America for a month. Um, what's your bold take number three. Bold take number three. Bold take. Number three is this Wisconsin is going to go in four, nine, three. That's not, I say it wrong. I said there was two 11 fifties. Did I say Mensa? You said Mensa Mensa's plus one 50. I might've been wrong. Hold on. I might've, I had two 11 fifties coming out of that game. Maybe it was Tony that I should have said. Maybe I should have said, Tony, I apologize. So I apologize. What I meant was there's two 11 plus 11 fifties in that game. And the winner could very well win the Heisman trophy being CJ car or Malachi. Tony, let me make sure. I don't need 305. 305. What did I say? That's even the area code. Trinidad is 1150. Is that what I wrote down? You know what? Still, I believe, even though, uh, Darian Mensa, that is what I believe. I believe the winning quarterback of this game is going to win it. I just had the odds wrong. So, uh, very well. Yep. I'll take that one. What's your bold take number three. All right. Starting not bold. Wisconsin is going to go in four, nine, three. That's straight to the punch. They've done enough. Fickle is not enough to keep his job. Even if I think they need changed, my opinion does not matter. What matters here is the same old, same old thing is happening in Lincoln, Nebraska. They're finding ways to lose games that are so winnable that the bear tweeted this out. They trailed for a total of eight minutes and 41 seconds and it's three game losing streak. They led in 116 minutes and 10 seconds. It's unprecedented. It's unprecedented. What Matt rule is able to do to lose these games. I think at some point the marriage expires and you have to part ways. Thank him for keeping you steady level at six and six, seven and five. It's time to go where the bold take comes in. Is there beating Wisconsin to the Jason neck race and Jason neck will be the next head coach in Nebraska corner Oscars. And that would be a terrific hire for them. And then Matt rule I'll send to the, uh, Baylor too. We'll double down. Wow. The Baylor. Wow. Back to Baylor. Um, I don't, I don't make, I don't mind that one. I liked that one. Both two of you. yours are in coaching circles. Yeah, I love the coaching game. It's fun. My third bold take. The following take has nothing to do with the Southeastern Conference. It has nothing to do with the Big 12. It has nothing to do with the ACC. It has nothing to do with Notre Dame. It has nothing to do with Miami. It has nothing to do with any preconceived biases towards any of those conferences. It has nothing to do with those conferences at all. It is simply about the Big 10. And this is the bold take. The Big 10 in 2026 fucking sucks. It sucks. It stinks out loud. There's nothing there. There's not a national title contender in there. Indiana's half a national title contender. They have a national title defense. Ohio State is the worst Ohio State in years. They don't have their quarterback now. UCLA is undefeated in that conference right now. They're 8-0. Are they a very good team? I'm not really sure that they are. Indiana has begged and pleaded and tried to get beat by some of these shitty teams in the Big 10. Michigan fucking stinks. Iowa stinks. There's nothing in that conference. There's nobody in that conference that is at the top end of the sport. The last three years, the Big 10 has been on top of the sport and they've had elite teams. Where is that team this year? Where is that team? Again, don't say, well, they lose in the SEC too. They lose in the Big 12 too. This ain't about them. Across the country, it has flattened out and there is no true elite team, but where is even the team that can pretend to be elite in the Big 10? Is it UCLA with their backup quarterback? Is it Iowa with the same old Iowa problems ever? Who is it? Is it Indiana with a bad offense? Is Ohio State with a bad offense all of a sudden? Who is it? Who is the team that is going to take the Big 10 to the top of the mountain and have the fourth straight national title? Oregon's gone. Michigan's gone. Who is it? This is a bad league in 2020. 26. Thoughts? I don't know. I've been speaking on Ohio State and Indiana's lackluster teams the last month. Liam, I watched my team go to Minnesota and win 38-13 and it wasn't close. It was us against a high school team. And then I've seen Minnesota go to Indiana and barely lose. I've seen Minnesota do these things in the conference. What is the best Big 10 win this year? Michigan over 4-4 Oklahoma? It's a bad fucking league this year. Yeah, it's a joke. Ohio State choked that game against Texas too. I agree. I do think it is a bad league. I don't have anything to combat this. If people want me to speak on my team, I'm trying to figure out if we're good or not too. I think we're a fringe top 10 team speaking about the UCLA football Bruins. Now, I will say, you were saying like, oh, they got back up quarterback. We have a better quarterback now. Let's be, let's be very honest about that. UCLA upgraded at the quarterback position. The defense is phenomenal. Brown Walker, how many other teams in the country are great? That is the issue. Indiana, their defense is rock solid. The quarterback place stinks. Josh Hoover's clearly hurt. They probably got to turn to Wilson. They could still steal a game or two in the playoff because of that defense. Yeah. Yeah. Like India, Indiana's the Big 10's best shot. I don't think there's any doubt about that. With the two receivers plus the defense, they've got more than most Big 10 teams. I, Ohio State's going to be doing something just to get there. If USC gets to the playoff, are you confident in that team? I don't know. The truth of the matter is for three years, the Big 10 has been the best quarterback. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And I think that period is over. That's all. I, I, I agree with that for this year. Um, I think another thing to look at, I think Lukey actually pointed this out. Look at the top spending teams and NIL and stuff. And then look, this isn't just the Big 10 thing, but it is with Iowa State. Oh, I guess it is too with Oregon. Look what happens when they took their first punch in the mouth. A lot of guys quit. A lot of guys start playing for themselves. Yeah. Um, I want to do an update from Saturday. I don't remember the commercial. What's going to have to, what's going to have to happen is I'm going to have to watch a full day of college football. I'm going to have to be not locked into what's happening on the screen. I'm going to be looking around and then the commercial is going to come on and I'm going to go, Oh my God, is this? So as of right now, this might be a running thing on the show because as of right now, I don't know the commercial that I was talking about the other day. I just don't chat GPT maybe with a three old woman. I don't know what that is. I don't even know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're fucking talking about. So like go on the boat. Uh, Indiana Buckeyes has so many games left. Brando SEC doesn't play defense and y'all love to see people score points. If you think that that's fine. If you can watch LSU recently, if you can watch Georgia and say they don't play defense, then you don't need to be watching this show. Cause you're just not very bright. I don't know if the SEC is the best conference in the country. I know this is a bad version of the big 10. If you can, if you can say that the big 10 is bad without saying the words, SEC, feel free to do that. If you can refute my saying that the big 10 is bad this year without using the words, Notre Dame or ACC or big 12, feel free to do that. You can't fucking do it. You just can't do it. This is a bad version of Ohio state. It's a soft version of USC. It's the worst version of Oregon. We've seen in a while. It's the worst version of Indiana since it got there. It's a bad version of Michigan. It's a very good UCLA for who UCLA is, but is it a great team? It's the same Iowa. It is every single year. So where is it? Where is it? Don't, don't think about the SEC. The SEC doesn't exist. Where's the strength of the big 10. You don't have an answer. Nobody has an answer. The strength of the big 10s in the middle is in the crux of it. And everyone's in the middle. That's what it is. Dude. I think the one thing here to look at is what's going on. So while this is all true, when that playoff picture comes out Tuesday night on that college football playoff show, and we're seeing what that committee's thinking and where team a is lined up with team B, the, I think you're going to start tricking yourself to do well. Yeah. Big 10 team might be able to da da da da. So Jeremy 1724 says it's just a super competitive conference. Doesn't mean it's bad. I get competitive. I know what competitive football looks like. What most of the big 10 is putting out offensively is not competitive. It's just, that's, it's just not, I'm sorry. It just isn't. Um, anyway, I'll change this Saturday when the Bruins copy Mississippi state's Camario game plan. Do you have Camario Taylor? No, we got the difference. The what? The difference. That's the worst thing I've ever heard in my entire life. Speaker 2 : No way. You think Bryson's better? The difference. I, I, I, by the way, I saw you getting in the mobile UCLA fans today. Don't give them a point for that. I saw you getting in the mud today about fans. I've said for like three, four weeks, I've been doing the stadium thing and the show up. Cause I, I don't want to lose Bob Chesney, man. I know I'll probably get inked, but like, yeah, I, I, I agreed with everything that you said on mostly sports today. And this is a further point that goes back and there's so many variables with it, but at the end of the day, keeping this with the UCLA, yes, you know, they played Nevada. Who cares? I get it. They play Illinois next Friday night. They're bad breed, a lot of butts and seats. It feels possible. I'd be at every single game. I can't do that. Speaker 1 : Sometimes upgrading your routine doesn't mean changing everything. It's just about finding one thing you can do a little better. If hair health is something you've been meaning to pay more attention to. 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When you visit Nutrafol.com enter promo code Walker, that's Nutrafol.com N U T R A F O L.com promo code Walker for $15 off. Speaker 1 : Oh, uh, trays cause ammo. Read your comment. Cause you put it 38 times and it's fucking stupid for a grown man to put spam comments. So I'm going to read it. So you shut up. And he says, uh, Mississippi state loses to Vanderbilt. The boosters push levy out and Camario enters transfer portal there. I read it. Speaker 2 : Stop ruining everybody else's experience to try to get my attention. You got my attention. Now go fuck yourself. Just, just, you can put it in there one time. If I see it, I'll read it. If I don't see it, whatever, but just stop spamming it. You're a grown fucking man. Whew. Anyway, I believe we have my top 25, my top 25, uh, coming out of the weekend. My top 25, uh, Lukey Bloodman put that up on the screen. Let's go through it. Speaker 1 : We have the number one, Miami Hurricanes, number two, the Georgia Bulldogs, number three, a UCL. LA Bruins. Number four, Utah is up in the top five. Number five is Indiana, which I believe Indiana is just stuck at number five. They're just, everything changes around them and they keep winning games and they keep, you know, technically surviving, but they don't impress you. So they just kind of stick where they've been the whole time. That's where Indiana is. Not like five's a bad place. Five's an incredible place. It's so amazing. Number six is Notre Dame. Seven is Kentucky. This is not for Bold Tape Monday, but I think, I think Kentucky might lose the next one. Number eight is BYU. Number nine is Texas Tech. Ten, LSU. And that's kind of like forward, that's projection a little bit, because I think they're about to wreck shit in November. Eleven, Wake Forest. Twelve, Texas. Thirteen, Alabama. Fourteen, Ohio State. Fifteen, Ole Miss. Sixteen, Tennessee. Seventeen, Houston Cougars. Eighteen, the USC Trojans. Nineteen, the USC Gamecocks. Twenty, the Iowa Hawkeyes. Twenty-one, Missouri. Twenty-two, Arizona. Twenty-three, New Mexico. Twenty-four, Florida Gators. And twenty-five, Boise State hanging on there in the top twenty-five after surviving the other day. Thoughts when you look at that, Liam? Thoughts when I look at this is, again, it's so wide open. Like we talk about that with the Big Ten, what we just talked about on Bold Tape Monday eight minutes ago, and then you throw up your rankings. And it's like, well, the number one, team in the country had to survive a second half. That's right. Scare and rush at Wake Forest. And then they had to hold off UNC and they had to hold off Florida State. And then it's like Georgia. Well, Georgia better with themselves in the shape, right? Like that. Yeah. I still think they're the best team in the country. I think you do still think they're the best team in the country, but they have the loss of Miami's got to go ahead of them. Notre Dame, like it's a whole bunch of meat. Yeah, it is. It is. Uh, it, it might just be who becomes the best version of themselves in November. It might just be comes who's who comes up with the best version of themselves in January and December. Like right now you got about 18 teams. All they care about is just get in, just get in the 12. We'll worry about it later. Like Indiana. Is there any, any doubt there's a world where Indiana gets in and suddenly Hoover or whoever's playing quarterback gets it and, and they lock in and, and they start playing pretty good, if they played average to above average offensive football, they could, they might be the best team in the country that can happen. Yeah. Like someone Notre Dame could find someone gets Miami that can happen. If Indiana could average 23 game the rest of the way out, they're the best team in the country. I can, can we do this real quick? Bring up the top 25 again. I want you to rank teams just based on the head coach. I think head coach matters more than anything else right now. Go with that. I'm just ranking the head coaches. Yes. I think I go Indiana and signet. He won. I go Kirby too. I think I go crystal ball three. Uh, who's my fourth. Um, using these teams, just trying to figure this out and just working through it. I might go, I might go lane at four Ryan day at five. Who am I missing here? Yep. Five. So now I got a backfill and make, you know, Will Stein may be up there in the top 10. So I don't know if you've gotten enough out of this exercise. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I would definitely go. I would go Indiana with SIG one. I would go Kirby smart too. I go crystal ball three and then maybe a, just a trickle down crap shoot after that. All right. Fair. Yeah. All right. That's my top 25. Let's go. Let me give you one more and then we'll, uh, we'll move on to our next thing, which I guess will be, uh, voicemails in just a second. Um, after I say new sponsor alert, new sponsor alert, um, it's McDonald's McDonald's sponsoring the show. 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Uh, all right. Where do we go next? All right, Brandon, if I'm going to come on your show after beating Kent state and after beating Illinois and after beating Iowa and beating Indiana and absolutely suck Ryan day's dick and tell you to put some respect on his name, then after what happened to him, I'm going to come on your show after beating Kent state and after beating Illinois and after beating Iowa and beating Indiana and absolutely suck Ryan day's dick and tell you to put some respect on his name. Then after what happened to him, I'm going to come on your show after beating Kent state and after beating Illinois and after beating Iowa and beating Indiana and absolutely suck Ryan day's dick and tell you to put some respect on his name. I need to come in here on your show and eat some crow and admit where I was wrong. Here is the problem with Ryan Day. He. And yes, Ryan Day is 88 and 14 as a head coach. And yes, he does have a national championship. But the thing about Ryan Day is he. And look, I get it. Ryan Day is an incredible person. And he has donated over a million dollars to Children's Mental Health Foundations. But on the field in big games, Ryan Day. So there you have it, Brandon. You wanted me to say it. I fucking said it. You know, some guys just got it. Some guys know what they're doing. Some guys are really fucking good at this. tates all three of those things that was really well done when i texted him and i said this morning hey man what you got for me he said i'm finally going to tell the truth about ryan day and he really did everything he said there uh everything he said there was spot on i didn't know he was going to go there i didn't know he was going to talk as badly or use the language that he did i mean he's a former teacher i don't know if the signal came through for you guys but It was pretty shocking what he said about Ryan Day there. I always thought the nipple ring was a joke. I always thought it was a myth. But he really exposed some things there. And, Tate, I just didn't know you had that in you. And congratulations for possibly risking your affiliation with Ohio State for really saying the truth about Ryan Day. Thank you very much, sir. Could you believe that, Liam? I didn't think he'd start talking about the undergarments. The fact that he went there did shock me. It was a lot, right? So much. Did he call Jim Harbaugh daddy? What did he? I think he did. I think it was more of a whisper. Okay. All right. Well, thank you very much, Tate. We appreciate it very well. We've got voicemails now going from one very talented, fun-to-listen-to guy to God knows what we're about to fucking get from these voicemails. 3-1-2-6-8-5-18-89. Hey, Lukey, how many we got? Hey, Brandon, we got five. We have five. Well, you can play voicemail number one right now. I have a dedication to tape. Somewhere beyond the sea It's there waiting for you You're going to be swimming today, because Ohio State, they did lose somewhere beyond the sea. It's there waiting for you. Have a swimming good time, Tate. Well, if only for one week, and maybe forever, we've got Happy Frank back. I, for one, welcome Happy Frank back to the Brandon Walker College Football Show. He is welcome whenever he would like to be here. Lukey, voicemail number two, please. Can we stop pretending that Indiana is a great football team this year? I swear, everyone knows they're not, but they're scared to say it just because they won the national championship last year. This is not the number six team in the nation. They are almost unwatchable offensively at times. They have played nobody all year. They're struggling to beat these three lost teams. They barely beat Nebraska, barely beat Michigan, barely beat Minnesota. They're all three lost teams. None of those teams are good teams, and Indiana is struggling to beat them. They've played one team all year. That was Ohio State. Yeah, they played them close, but they didn't win the game. They don't have a good win on their resume this year. They are a great defense, and that's it. They are half a football team. Can we please start calling a spade a spade, Brandon? Indiana this year, not a serious contender. They're just not. Thank you, Brandon. I love the show. You're the best. Keep doing what you do. Indiana this year, let's call it like we see it, please. I am willing to accept part of your premise there. Some of what you said was true. Their offense is hard to watch. They're not nearly as good as they were last year. Where you lose me is when you say they are unequivocally not a title contender and they're not the number six team in the country. There's problems all over this sport. There's problems all over this country. You can't really name me five teams that are for sure definitely better than Indiana. Are they as good as they were last year? No, for sure not. But can you definitely tell me Notre Dame's better than Indiana? I don't think you can. Can you definitely tell me Miami's definitely better than Indiana? Can you definitely tell me all these teams around there are definitely better than Indiana? Look behind them. Can I say that Alabama's better? I can't say that. So while they are half a team, that half is at least elite, and they do have pieces offensively that are elite in themselves. The receivers are both elite. Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh are elite. So while they aren't going to be the right team all year probably, while their resume's not going to be that strong, their defense is great, and they will have a puncher's chance in every single playoff game that they play. So I agree with you. They're half a team. That might be enough if you add in the other third. Offense, defense, coaching. Now it's two-thirds of an elite team, and that's more than a lot of teams. That was well said, Brennan. Thank you. I appreciate that. Lukey, voicemail number three, please. Yep. Dawson from Nebraska here. Love your show. What the fuck is wrong with Nebraska? How do we do this? How? How? How? Three straight fucking weeks we did this shit, man. Like, coaches, players, what happened? It's been crucial for so many years. Like, why does this keep happening to us? Are we ever going to see the light of day? Is it a new coach? Is it? We just signed, just signed Quangia for 5-0 for next year, and he comes out and then first two drives picks, and we just continue to struggle on offense. What? Why is there hope? Why do I keep having hope every week? Love your show, Brennan. Have a good one. Well, I'll just tell you the truth because you came here to get it. This keeps happening because you're a dead football program. This isn't the 90s anymore. You're never getting it back. Back then, Tom Osborne knew the way to national title. It was big, gigantic dudes in the middle and go down to Florida and get the best athletes in the country that everybody was overlooking. Well, nobody's overlooking that talent anymore. You don't have the pull to get them out of there. There's other teams. If they decide they want somebody out of Florida, they get them. If they want a player out of the South, they get them. You'll never have that stroke in recruiting. You'll never have the advantage of Tom Osborne's mind. You'll never have the advantage of Tom Osborne's system again, and you'll never have a country that is willing to let you run roughshod over them. That's over. You're dead. You're a mediocre Midwest. Middle of the pack team, and that's all you'll ever hope to be now. And it sucks. I'm a fan of middle of the pack, mediocre team, too. It fucking sucks. I get it. And I know your dads and grandpas told you how great it was when Nebraska was steamrolling everybody and winning titles. Those guys are dead or will be dead soon, and so is your program. I don't know what to tell you. Like, it just sucks. It fucking sucks. But Matt Rule isn't the answer. Bo Pelini wasn't the answer. Scott Frost wasn't the answer. The answer doesn't exist anymore. Because you had a smart coach who built something that is not buildable anymore. Voicemail number four, please. Big Buckeyes fan, what the fuck is this season? Like, it's completely unbelievable. Like, he didn't even play that bad. But why do we have all this fucking money in this roster? Why do we not have a kicker? Why do we not have a backup fucking quarterback? Why do we have so many false starts on the fucking goal line? Like, it's absolutely ridiculous. Why are you taking so long in the two-minute warning to get a kicker? They're taking so long to get your first points there. It's just fucking ridiculous. I've had enough of this team. This whole season has been so depressing. Like, saying it's just, he's digressed from last year. It's just absolutely ridiculous. And I really appreciate something that we can fucking do to get this thing working out. Because this is just absolutely ridiculous. Love you, boys. Well, thank you for listening. Love you, too. But let me go back to it. Poor Ohio State fans. Quarterback gets hurt. Now you're not very good. It sucks. And I know you win 11 games. You win 11 games a year. And you're always winning a national title. And things are fun and great. And you get all the recruits. But now you've lost two games. It's sad. Poor little me. Sorry. Sorry. Sucks out here. Shut the fuck up. Try to live our lives once in a goddamn while. Fuck. Voicemail number five. Hey, Brandon. Big fan. Also a big Utah Utes fan. The disbelief in the Utes was understandable. Obviously. I don't know who they had played. But after today's performance in the letdown look-ahead spot, do you think they will make the playoff? And do you think they could win a game in the playoffs? Thanks. Let me just answer as a can, not a will. Because they got some tough things coming up. They got a trip to Arizona. They got BYU coming up. So he said it right. An asshole Twitter fan would say, you never believed in us. Now look at us. Look at us. And they have their right to do that. But Utah didn't play anybody the first six weeks of the season. And then Utah did beat Houston by one score at home. But then they made a fucking statement. And they went on the road. And they went to a place Texas Tech lost at. And they fucking hammered, dick-whipped Cincinnati. And it was unbelievable. And that was one of those eye-opening like, oh. Oh, fuck. I had Utah wrong. Damn. I had Utah wrong. So if I look at the speed, the quarterback, the coaching, can that team win a playoff game? Yeah, 100%. Can that team make the playoff? Yeah, 100%. Yes to both. Is that all the voicemails, Lukey? Yep. All right. Let's get to our games draft. And then we will do, I'm going to do our games draft so I can have a little bit of break from talking. I'll do the last ad. We'll get to drink. And we'll get to Coach Joey McGuire. Liam, talk for a second. Hey, Brandon Walker. Liam Blumman here. I'm going to talk about you get some sweet tea or some water in your mouth and scream at Tommy Walker. I'm going to talk to the chat real quick and make sure that they like the stream. Please do that. Subscribe as well if you're watching on the YouTubes and leave a comment of who you want Brandon to interview next. Second boy. Second boy, he screams for. Second boy. The guy got a lot of good football this week. Brandon Walker and I are about to do the games draft. We forgot to do it last week. Are you asleep? What do you mean? It's seven o'clock. 6:46. Oh, okay. Can you go get me some tea, please? I'm I'm my voice is going out. No, here, take the glass. I'm sorry to wake you son, but I just need some tea. Oh, boy, let's say it's tough out around here. You know, this don't pay for itself. You know, sometimes, sometimes a man needs to get some tea. Um, all right. Games draft. Uh, who goes first? Lookie, tell me who goes first. Oh, shoot. Liam, Liam. Oh, shoot. We have all the games available. Who is your pick for game of the week? Number one pick, man. We'll draft them quickly. We're drafting 10 games. You go first. Go. Ah, you have to take Miami, Notre Dame. We got to see if Notre Dame is worthy of that second. Or worthy of being in the playoff. We got to see if Miami is true. National championship contender and Notre Dame too. It'll be fun. Great quarterbacks, great coaches, fun times. All right. You took that. Give me, uh, I'm going to double dip in the sec. As I take Georgia at Ole miss on Saturday night, uh, Georgia goes in there and wins that game. They kind of, I think they make their statement as the best team in the country. Oh, miss wins that game. Look the fuck out. It's wide ass open in the sec and, and, and everybody hold on for dear life going through November. Uh, and then, um, you know what? I'm not going to double up in the sec. I messed that up. I apologize. In fact, I should have taken this number, number two, but that's all right. I got Georgia Ole miss. I got a top 10 matchup and I'll take another top 10 matchup. BYU at Utah. I almost let the holy war slip right through my fingers there. Liam Blumman. That would have been embarrassing. BYU, Utah, holy war. One's already beaten, uh, Notre Dame one, uh, killed Cincinnati the other day. They're both in the top 10. Huge, huge, huge game. Holy war being my third. Pick my. My jaw dropped when you said two sec games, I was going to be thrilled to get the game. took number one i almost almost messed that up but i didn't almost almost but that's okay so then i'll take the sec game you were gonna take texas at mizzou hey man mizzou oh oh you weren't gonna oh i i think this texas mizzou game is fantastic a very good game that's why i got drink on in just a second that yeah i i wait what that's why i got drink on that's why i got drink on yep that's right exactly what the coach for missouri yeah that's why i said watch the drink interview sure i was plugging it all right you're welcome texas mizzou very good game and then i'm going to take kentucky tennessee as well another big game in the sec it's a great sec slate this week cry and you left alabama lsu on the on the cutting board for me those games do more for my juices right texas missouri does more than bama lsu it does uh there's something about the alabama offense that really makes me a bit depressed i mean it does with texas to be fair i don't know i can i be an honest man right now yeah please i've seen so many big time alabama lsu games that right now i'm a bit more intrigued by hold on liam hold on what do you no i'm on i'm on live don't say your sister's name but what did she what come on sorry liam tommy was talking to me as if i'm not i don't have headphones and and whatever uh go ahead liam you you continue i apologize it's okay no i'm just super excited for those i'm excited to see some other teams in big time games and like it's very cool to see kentucky playing a big time premier level game that could help them like keep afloat in the college football playoff race if mizzou pulls off a win there was like a one point underdog and then they'd be in the thick of the race like that is super cool to see and that's what's so fun and exciting about the expand playoff all right so i i'm now so so your picks were texas missouri and kentucky tennessee yes so i now pick alabama at lsu i get one of the great rivalries of last 20 years in lsu i get that um well it's back to the big 10 that's for sure it's back to the big 10 you know what i'm gonna do it no i'm not i'm gonna do it no i'm not give me oregon ohio state yeah yeah give me oregon ohio state still you know if oregon beats them holy fuck and if if ohio state figures something out with that quarterback it's it's all gonna be it's all gonna be good so so um yeah those are my two picks so you have two picks left to finish out your board texas texas state oregon state texas state coming off the heels of such a fun chaotic thrilling near comeback win at boise state oregon state coming off the worst performance of their season jesse legree held under 100 yards for first time you're gonna have 80 plus points in this one after dark will be very fun to watch what refresh me on what you picked you picked so i have at lsu i have oregon ohio state i have uh georgia ole miss and i have the holy war come on come on just which okay i'll take i'll take ucla minnesota which low scoring big team shit fest do you want us between this and the iowa one but give me ucla minnesota a lot of people are saying hey it's a 9 a.m game ucla won't be able to handle that or 9 a.m local time well ucla practices at 9 a.m every day so they'll be whipped into shape big opportunity can't wait gotta make sure pj flack can't crowd surf i'll lose i'll leave virginia tech uh and smu undrafted i'll leave west virginia texas tech undrafted and i'll close out with the um gross 12 to 10 shitty game that iowa wins and stays in the playoff conversation actually i think they win by more i think they win like 19 to 7 i think they go into northwestern like i said last week i think northwestern is a little fake and phony uh and iowa is not so iowa comes out of there and they really come out of there smelling like a playoff team that's what i think about iowa so i think northwestern's offense is going to surprise you a little bit pop i also like virginia tech outright smu did you call me pop yeah i did why did you call me pop felt like the right opportunity do you think it landed with the chat yes with you i'm sensing no i don't know the chat's going exactly crazy for for pop nobody's spamming pop pop pop nobody's like going crazy uh by chanting pop right now uh so it was like endearing though like the community character that's what i was going for pop walker would be a great defensive player says call it cali young yeah brand recruit them is 2093 recruiting class pop walker that's a great name and here come the pop chants yeah exactly they love it this episode this this episode is brought to you by bowling branch with bowling branches breathable bedding you can layer up on colder nights without feeling trapped under heavy heat holding layers their sheets are 100 organic cotton woven specifically for airflow not just softness unlike synthetic cooling technology on or chemically treated fabrics the cooling is 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before we get out of here i'm excited for you guys to come back and see you next time on bowling branch with brooklyn brinkwood for wednesday and i'm excited to watch these two interviews drinks a goofy guy bird and mcguire's apparently a great troll let me tell you something you don't talk about great trolls what eli drinkwits drops at the end of this interview solidifies him as my favorite coach in america so if you don't watch anything else i'm telling you stick around for the next 15 minutes and when we close this interview with drink i want all my chat people i want all my fans i want all everybody listens to this to go ahead and proclaim your undying respect to coach eli drinkwits that's how good this is coming up let's go to the interview looky all right thank you brandon before we get to uh coach drinkwits uh he'll be here just a second i gotta tell you about rocket money rocket money can track subscriptions has the ability to cancel unwanted ones within the app with a few taps giving users an easy way to stop paying for things they don't use i've already told you guys i had three subscribers and i'm going to tell you three serious satellite subscriptions had no idea i had them uh rocket money flagged that and i only have one and that's about the amount you should have if you're one person you should have one account for everything just check let rocket money give give it a check and make sure that you're paying for things you're getting and not paying for things you don't need automatic transaction categorization across accounts plus customizable categories and tags to reveal spending patterns you can set budgets and goals get personalized insights and regular reports receive real-time alerts for large transactions upcoming bills refunds and low balances the app consolidates checking savings loans and investments into a single dashboard to give users a clear view of their financial picture rocket money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel unwanted subscriptions monitors your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings let rocket money help you reach your financial goals faster join at rocketmoney.com slash brandon that's rocketmoney.com slash brandon all right listen this is a team that every time i think i can bury them and say well their season's done well this is that now all of a sudden you look up they're six and two and they're about to enter one of the biggest stretches of football in the entire country they have number they have number 10 texas this week uh but missouri's just a team that uh the quarterback the coach the the everything around the program is just uh it they lost to mississippi state and i put them here then they lost old miss i put them here and here they are again they've got life and they're they're they're cruising and things are good right now for coach eli drinkwits and the missouri tigers coach how you doing doing good we don't have any more games in the state of mississippi so we're going to go ahead and get started with rocket money so hopefully we can keep things rolling well i was uh kind of joking with you off the air but just an absolute bad break that you got mississippi state pre-camario injury and not post-camario injury it's a totally different animal but that's uh that's something i'll have to drink to later on myself uh why can't i bury you guys man why can't i why won't you stay buried i think we're a tough gritty team i think we have um a really good defense which in this league gives you a chance we've gotten healthy obviously our quarterback uh can keep us in any game with just his arm talent uh and we got a running game you know and i think getting a mod back and him being able to take some of the load off of Jamal will just again create a one-two punch there that I think is going to be important for us as we finish these last four. Yeah you mentioned a couple of guys I got to ask about I feel like one of my favorite Sunday activities is going on Twitter and all the film guys the all 22 guys will have a new throw from Austin Simmons like look at this NFL throw oh my god look at this uh do you guys when you're looking at the tape on Sunday see him and be like oh my god he did it again? Yeah I mean that throw he made to to Caden Lee was pretty spectacular the frustrating part was that play was open maybe two plays earlier that's why we came right back to it he missed he tried to throw the corner so I think the the thing with Austin is he rarely makes the same mistake twice and that's what's been so good about his growth is he's really coachable he's just getting more and more experience and I think that's the thing that he continues to need is just more and more reps I think you know you didn't really ask me this question but I think that's the thing that he but the reality of why there's so much up and down in college football as you think about it a lot of these quarterbacks or skill players just don't have that many reps with this with their groups whether it's the scheme whether it's the players you know you're trying to microwave everything um the more you can give these guys reps the more um success they're going to have and rhythm they'll find. Yeah it's one of the harder things right uh you know some some teams are programs and some teams are teams where it's a different guy every year and a guy who transfers and he's not getting to learn his receivers and everything but you know what I guess when you get somebody as talented as Austin Simmons that kind of helps right? Yeah I mean at the end of the day you can't stop talent you know um and these guys you know we were he's got a special arm talent but he's got a special mind too like he's a really intelligent highly intelligent individual which was part of the thing when we were doing the research about him was we knew there was arm talent but you have to assess the intelligence factor um how quickly can they pick up a system you know how quickly will they learn and you know for him obviously graduating two years early um it can be a negative because he missed out on a ton of reps but when you start thinking about the the IQ space it kind of helps you. Yeah he's way smarter than us well he's way smarter than me I don't know about you uh you mentioned Ahmad Hardy the the process listen I two carries five yards the other day he's he's back on the football field you guys have been fighting this all year long just just talk about the process of of getting them back and how how how arduous it was and how rewarding it is that now he's he's trying to see uh trying to come back you know what's it been like yeah I mean it's been honestly very difficult and I think the now that we're kind of past this part we can talk more about it you know that he suffers a gunshot wound um it it fractures the tip of the fibula they have to put a steel rod in there they have to wrap a wire around it um they leave the bullet inside the body and so you know yes he was healed from the the muscular and the bullet entry wound at the end of spring and the bone was healed but now you're talking about a body having to readjust to what's the difference in a weight structure and how you run how do you you know how do you carry how does that affect I think it's called kinematics of your running style and so all of those things have been you know hard to work through and the reality of it is there's there's not literature on hey how does the best running back in college football come back and you know how does the best running back in college football come back from a femur injury that needed a steel rod inserted so you know we've been trying to do the best we can without getting frustrated and I think just getting him back on the field was awesome he needed it it was a big boost to our football team um the energy that he provides when one of your best players is back on the field that's a good thing for everybody he's going to get more reps this week um now he knows what it feels like to get hit again he knows he can do it he had a big 30 yard or third down conversion force so we're actually trying to get him back going in the fourth quarter but we'd gone too long between putting him in that he wasn't really warm so we we decided that we needed just to hold him out but I think this week there'll be a more um a specific plan for him and there'll be more carries I don't think I realize the details of what you just you know walk me through there with the bullets staying in there is he just the toughest man alive or what he's pretty tough dude I mean yeah he's pretty tough dude man and and uh you know I obviously you can't go back in time and I think that's the biggest thing is you can't go back in time and change it you everybody would he would we all would if we could you can't you got to take what happened and move forward and he's doing the very best he can to move forward and we're doing the very best we can to support him um while helping him you know chase his dream of being the best running back in college football and and um you know the good news is we got our arms around him and and uh you know we can keep developing and making him better you know us Mississippi guys were built different you know we're just that's that's what they say me at Brandon Walker Ahmad Hardy pretty much pretty much the same guys that's what I've always heard yeah yeah you I mean John Wayne had a bullet bullets in him and he kept on going now Ahmad Hardy's got one he he's running them I mean you get hit by him not only are you trying to tackle him you're trying to tackle a bullet now yeah um you're six and two right now your reward coach uh for going through the early part of your schedule and the two uh ranked uh trips to Mississippi now you get number 10 Texas number two Georgia and number eight Kentucky I don't know if there's a team in the country that has three top 10 teams the next three weeks this is going to be a hell of a November going to be a hell of a test uh you know what's your mindset going into it big game honey I mean it is what it is now man it's like we're on an African Safari and we gotta go try to tackle some big team big time teams and and uh that's that's what it is we we feel pretty good about who we are as a team we kind of know who we are um and now it's our opportunity to to play with great techniques fundamentals and effort uh the bye week came at a great time we got out of that Arkansas game uh healthy and so you know let's just go do it uh three of those four at home which is good news for us we play pretty good here at furrow field and none of those games are in Mississippi so you know we'll see how it plays out after that is it is this one of the strangest SEC seasons you can remember well obviously at nine games that changes everything but like it feels like every week we're on another new team like Florida beats Ole Miss we put them up here then you guys beat Florida and then Ole Miss beats LSU so we put them up here it's like as soon as you get high here comes the humble but then you get a chance to go right back up there yeah we call it the circle of death in the SEC uh I think I think the closest thing I think 20 uh 2020 was strange right because of the circumstances of covet and the canceling of games but the reality of it was there was really only one dominant team and that was Alabama the rest of us were all just fighting on fighting for our lives jump Florida was kind of there for a little bit um but the reality of it is there just wasn't that much depth to the to the uh conference now holy cow I mean it's yeah it's uh I saw a deal on Twitter where there's still a chance that the SEC champion could be five and four so I mean like who the hell knows how it's going to play out I I do think you know we're all one um we're all one real injury staff to suffer through with your program like no kidding you're just one bad hit from this whole thing being kind of done and that that's the unfortunate thing uh right now is is you know I think Mississippi State we've played a lot of really good teams they were as good as anybody when we played them and that quarterback is an unbelievable player he's got the best accuracy deep ball that I've seen this year live um he was better in the pocket than I anticipated those wide outs were unbelievable and I think Zach Arnett's done a heck of a job on that defensive side of the ball too so that's just kind of an unfortunate deal well I appreciate it I'm going to cry myself to sleep uh later about what you just said uh somebody watched the SEC Wars in 2020 and said you know what they need they need Texas and Oklahoma and a ninth conference game have fun boys and that's that's kind of where you are are you a 2014 playoff guy what what are your thoughts on that yeah I am a 2014 playoff guy I think you had to do that uh just save all these colleges universities monies from firing coaches it was going to get way too expensive um you have to provide more access for fan bases I I do think is um you're starting to see the remnants of the issues that we've been talking about in college football with attendance for some of these universities that aren't having the seasons that they want um and that's going to have a ripple effect on everything and so you know creating more access uh to the 2014 playoff I'm not sure if the number was right uh I I actually preferred where each conference had playing games on championship Saturday where eight teams played and the top four for each conference got into a playoff I thought that was a great idea but irregardless however you get there you get there and and uh it'll be exciting I don't know if you noticed um I just had some new light bulbs put in the studio uh do you do you like them do you think they shine pretty good yeah I think anything that helps the ambient the ambiance of the studio and game day atmosphere we have fun around here uh I don't know I got a couple I know you do that's why that's why you're one of my favorites you don't you don't you know you take everything with a grain of salt and you don't take yourself too seriously and I think that's very important uh two last questions I know your time is very valuable uh number one I don't know if you get the portal credit you deserve uh you know your quarterback's a portal guy you got some great players you had great players you go out every season and you are able to um kind of attack your roster and figure out come on Hardy's a portal guy you're you attack your roster and you you fill it in and you fill it in very well what's your approach in the portal because I know everybody's a little bit different yeah um honestly it's kind of changed every year based off of what the amount of money that we had to go shopping and then what are the needs that we had to have, right? You know, last year I just felt like with the run game and the offensive line that we had, it was very important to get a quarterback that we knew could really help us, and so we were able to spend more there. I knew on that end it was going to cost me. I was going to have to, on defense, be willing to assign some guys that needed to develop. And I think we do a great job of blending both. I mean, you look at some of our best players on defense, like Dagan Hopkins and Nick Rodriguez. Those guys are, you know, true blue here. Same thing with Jalen Marshall, Marquise Graciel. Same thing, you know, on the offensive side, Jamal Roberts, Brett Norfleet, Donovan Alubaday. Those guys, Tristan Wilson, Curtis Pigler, those guys have been here with us. So we do a good combination of developing the guys that we have on our roster and then attacking the needs that we have, and then we get lucky. I mean, at the end of the day, we get lucky. We're entering November. Like I said, you have three top ten teams coming up, and you also have Oklahoma at the end. That's no walk in the park. But this is the time of year, and I feel like you're one of the guys, and this is respect to you and the program that you've built. I feel like you're one of the guys that every single year, somebody's going to ask you in November, what do you think about this job opening? What do you think about that job opening? At this point in your career, are you just immune to it, and you just know you're going to get it, or what? Yeah, I'm honestly just immune to it. I think I've demonstrated my commitment to this university, and I think it's just the tip of the cap. I think it's just the tip of the cap to the job that we've done. I agree. I think the CFP is going to come out tomorrow, and I think I'm going on my seventh season here, and I think in five of the seven seasons we've been ranked in the CFP the first time it's come out. So, I mean, that talks about what the program's doing and how successful we've been. So, it is what it is. It's recognition for the job that we've done, but you've got to take all that with a grain of salt because at the end of the day, anybody can do it. Anybody can get on Twitter and throw out names, and what they like to do is, in all honesty, what they're trying to do is take a shot at Mizzou, and that's the thing that bothers me the most. It's like you're really just saying that you think that job's better than the job that I currently have at Mizzou, and part of the reason I chose Mizzou is because I wanted the opportunity to build something that's kind of like the last frontier. You could accomplish things here that haven't been accomplished anywhere else before, and us building the North, the North End Zone at $250 million, us building the indoor facility, and adding the things here, I think, are things that I'm going to be proud of long after I'm done coaching here in a few years. Yeah, it's been an amazing job, and I wouldn't recommend reading Twitter, Coach. There's a lot of jackasses out there like me that will just say anything. Yeah, I know. I mean, look, you'll fire me after a loss, you'll write us off after Alabama, and that's okay. I don't get caught up in it, man. That's good. It's the entertainment part of the job. I've never fired you. I'm a drink guy. Yeah. Have I fired you? I don't know. I don't have enough time to pay attention to it. You know what I learned? Here's what I've learned, okay? I don't care enough about y'all's opinion to let it affect my identity, and the people who get on Twitter and let the opinions of people on Twitter affect you personally mean you don't really know what you're about on the inside anyway, right? And so at the end of the day, you're not going to be able to do that. You're not going to be able to do that. At the end of the day, man, I can't control the outcomes. And I've been texting some coaches who are struggling right now, like, brother, you can't control outcomes. All you can control is the process that you work on every week, and you can control what you believe about yourself. If you let outside noise affect what you believe about you, that's a bad way to live life, man. Wow, you spoke to me right there because I take Twitter way too seriously. Anyway, number 10, Texas at Missouri this weekend, and then just the gauntlet of November. We're going to see them on the other side. One of my favorite coaches, in the country, it's Eli Drinkwist. Thank you, coach, for being here. Man, I appreciate it. I thank you for all the work you do for football because I do think you're a great avenue for college football, and you create excitement amongst the fan bases. So there's not all negatives about it. I think you do highlight some really good schools, but you do need to ignore Josh Pate's opinion because his opinions about being commissioner and stuff, if you go back to the first of the year and you look at his quarterback list and you look at his rankings, not quite sure he's as smart as he thinks. I think she is. That boy's preaching. Okay, coach, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. We'll see you next time. Josh is mad I said that. M-I-Z. All right. We go from one SEC coach. Now we go to the Big 12 with Joey McGuire of Texas Tech before we get to him. Hey, Texas Tech's got a little spice to them. You know what else has a little spice to it? Tony's Cajun Kick from Tony Chassery's. This episode is sponsored by Tony's famous Cajun Kick. Less salt, more garlic. A clean hit of heat. It's a new blend based on the Tony's tradition used in place of salt and pepper, comes from Tony's Chassery's, but has more attitude, not replacing the original Tony's. Look forward to your local H-E-B, your Rouse's, Kroger, and Associated Grocers, and Walmart, Associated Wholesale Grocers, and Amazon. Cajun Kick is currently only available in select stores. Use the product locator on the website to find a location near you. Meet the all-new Tony's Cajun Kick. Turn up the heat. Turn up the flavor. Cajun Kick brings bold spice, zesty garlic, and just the right burn to wake up anything on your plate. Shop now at cajunkick.com slash barstool. All right, so my Saturdays are usually filled with talking, crap on Twitter, and saying his team's going to lose and that team's going to lose. But sometimes you just say it and it goes away forever and you don't worry about it and you just let it go away. Well, sometimes, though, the coach of said team that you picked to lose will text you and send a picture of him smoking a cigar with the guns up and saying, basically, without saying it, hey, Brandon Walker, you're an idiot, and I welcome that coach in right now. It's Joey McGuire of Texas Tech. Coach, how much did you enjoy sending that picture? Well, first, thanks for having me, man. But it was, it was my media team that did it and they sent it to me and, you know, you're one of my favorite people. I love what you guys do. I love what you do. And so I couldn't help sending that picture of that victory cigar and there might have been a little something to drink along with that cigar and, you know, enjoying watching football. Well, I didn't, I wasn't going to say that, but I did notice there was a little bit of a twinkle in the eye on that celebratory picture. But that's what I love. You know, I talk, I talk, I talk a bunch of crap and when the social media team snaps back at you and coaches, you know, show that they don't take themselves too seriously and they'll laugh at you and point at you, I think that's fantastic and great and you're one of the best at handling the media and everything. Let me ask about your team, okay? Yeah. Because you lose to Cincinnati last week and, you know, I know that Monday wasn't great, but week to week, you go from that to now the big win against Arizona the other day. You go from the low to the high. Is that just what college football is these days? I know last year you cruised through the regular season undefeated, but now you can be this far down and it just takes one game and you're right back up here. Is that what you feel? Yeah, I do, man. I think you see it all around the country. You know, there's as much parity as there's ever been. And, man, I love it. And I think, you know, a couple weeks ago, I mean, we got beat, but there were, you know, teams losing left and right. There is a, this Saturday is a huge Saturday. I mean, you know, I, of course, we've got to go take care of business and win, but, man, I'm a college football fan. Whenever I'm, as soon as we're done, I have three TVs going when I get home. And, man, we've got a bunch of people over at the house and, you know, celebrating the victory, but I'm watching every game, you know, all the way. I was watching Boise State, Texas State on Saturday night, you know, and, man, what a crazy game that was. So, I mean, I love this sport. I coach it, but I am also, I'm a huge college football fan. And this Saturday is a huge Saturday to kind of tell you where everybody's going to be. Does the Big 12 not get enough credit for its week-to-week grind? Because you go to Cincinnati and then you come back and you have a very good Arizona team where the senior quarterback has been around the block. You've got West Virginia coming in. You've got Oklahoma State trip next week. Like, I know a lot of people will point SEC and Big 10, but the week-to-week grind of the Big 12 is pretty tough. Yeah, I agree. You know, the thing is, I mean, I've been in this conference now for 10 years as an assistant and a head coach. And then, you know, I grew up, I'm a Texan, so I grew up in the Southwest Conference days and the Big 12 days. And, you know, forever we've been talking about how competitive this conference is and anybody can beat anybody. And now all of a sudden I'm seeing SEC coaches say the same thing and they haven't said that ever in the history of their conference. They talk about how tough their conference is, but they, you know, they've never sit there and stood in front of a podium and said, man, you know, this carnage week in and week out to where everybody can beat everybody. And I think college football is like that right now. And I definitely think the Big 12 has been that way. It is a tough conference and, you know, there's, you know, I felt like BYU should have had a shot to get in the playoffs last year. There's, it's going to be really interesting this year if we can get two teams out of the Big 12, you know, into, into the playoffs. That was actually my next question. Do you, is there a part of you that really just wants it to be a two-bit league for the, for the exposure and for everything for the Big 12? Or are you just focused on making sure Texas Tech gets a bid and then you worry about the rest later? I worry about the rest later, man. My main focus is Texas Tech. You know, we got to take care of our business and, you know, now it's a four, four-game season. Last week, it was a five-game season. Whenever you, when you lose a game, you, you start losing a little bit of control and, so you just got to focus, on, you know, what you got in front of you and, It's almost like we're in the playoffs right now. We've got to win. Just because we haven't had as much respect, one, as a program, and two, as a conference, we know we have to win to stay in the mix of all of this. I watch you guys on a week-to-week basis, and one week Will Hammond is having a game, and he's awesome, and he's winning you the football game, and he's great. And the next weekend, Castellanos is coming in, and he's stepping up, and he's rushing for 100-and-whatever yards, and he's doing it. It seems like you guys have had multiple quarterbacks at multiple times this year step up when the time called for it. How special is that? I know you didn't just luck into it. I mean, you got them both on the roster, but it's such a blessing to have those two guys that can do that in certain moments. Yeah, it's huge because right now, if you look across college football, the 1-2 or 1-A and 1-B, you don't have a lot of that, and so you've got teams that are getting – their starter hurt, and then all of a sudden they lose a game and have a chance to lose another game this weekend, and now they're out of the mix. And so we're really fortunate to have Will and Tommy. I'll tell you, man, this is my 32nd year coaching, and this has been the biggest rollercoaster I've ever been on. It started back in April right before our spring game, and all of a sudden this quarterback's eligible, and then he's not eligible, and then you come into this year, and we've got to go get Tommy. And we're walking off the bus against Colorado – or walking off the plane against Colorado, and now all of a sudden he's ineligible and he's not eligible again until the Friday before the Arizona State game. It's been a rollercoaster, but our guys, man, they believe in what we do, and they fight their tails off. Man, I've got a bunch of grown men that really care about this university and each other, and they're fighting their tails off. I don't want to say last year was easy, but last year, at least record-wise, it had little adversity. You were kind of steamrolling a lot of teams. You had the big game at Utah where you pulled away at the end. This year it has been more of a fight and more of a kind of get in the boxing ring and have to fight your way out of things. As you go into November, is that a strength or a weakness for you guys? No, it's definitely a strength. Number one, November has been a strong month since we've been here as a staff and program-wise. We played really well late. In the year, and part of that is just, you know, guys, we don't deviate from what we do. We don't panic. We believe in what we do. And then I really – I said it to our team, you know, going into the Arizona game. You know, last year we really weren't – we didn't have a lot of adversity. You know, we got beat by Arizona State, and that – we had some adversity there. We got better from it. But that was really the only game until we got into that Oregon game. This team, man, every single week we've done something. We've done something. We've done something to put ourselves in a dang dogfight and, you know, beat a really good Houston team, went out to Oregon State. And I don't think people thought a lot of them. And it shows how good they are. That dadgum receiver is a freak. The quarterback's playing at a high level. And so we've played some really good teams. I'm a big Arizona fan. I do believe that they're a really good football team. And so we've been tested for sure. Well, that's that week-to-week grind of the Big 12, right? I think Arizona just got a little bit of the – the bad schedule this year. They had to go to BYU and they had to go to you guys. And it's just kind of a tough break when that happens. Forgive me if I get some of this wrong, but I'm just going to go off the top of my dome. When you got there, I remember you canvassing the state of Texas and kind of like starting a campaign like we want the best in Texas to come to Texas Tech. And then it kind of evolved in NIL and Transfer Portal, and you guys got aggressive in going out and making sure that you invested in your program and went out and got some of the best players. What's the next evolution of Texas Tech? How do you keep building? Doing the building blocks with this thing? Well, you know, one of the biggest things is developing the guys that we have that came from high school, whether it's in the state of Texas. We have some kids outside of the state, but the high school guys that we recruit, majority the state of Texas. And then continually build the O-line and D-line. I mean, I've never been on a team that if your O-line and D-line is not one of the strongest. points of your team, it's going to be hard to be successful. And then, man, I'm telling you, you know, like we were really unfortunate what happened, you know, in April out of the portal, but you got to do a good job evaluating the right guys and you got to hit on those guys. I heard Saban say it, man. You know, like you got to, if you're going to pay these players, you better be paying the right guys. And to me, it's the big boys up front, you know, and just like the NFL, guys off the edges, guys that can hit the quarterback, guys that can protect the quarterback. And then you back them up. You better have a really good quarterback. That's what's tough. You know, your guy is one of my favorite humans in the world, Coach Levy, man. And I love watching that quarterback. I hate that he got hurt because I thought they were on the verge of doing really, really something really special. I thought that too, Coach. I thought that too. Yeah, he's pretty dang good. He is. Let me ask you a question since you made me sad real quick. No, when you win a game, a big game like you beat Arizona the other day, what's the party looking like at the McGuire household? You mentioned the cigars and, you know, what's it look like? You mentioned watching football. You get the coaches over there. Y'all kick back and watch a little or what? Well, there's usually somewhere between 75 to 100 people at the house. We load up. We've already – when we win, the first thing, one of our really good friends does a big order from, you know, a pizza spot and roses and all kinds of stuff. And then the great thing is, though, we have that many people over and they really don't mess with me. They let me sit in my chair and turn on the TV because they want to watch football too. We'll talk about the game. I got a big, big donor. His name is Gordon Davis, one of the great American stories. And he lives right around the corner from me. So he always comes over after a win. People will get up because he's got his seat, you know, that's pretty close to me, and he's going to smoke a cigar. And I really – that was 11 a.m. kick, and I didn't go to bed until, you know, 1 o'clock probably because I was watching – I mean, I literally – I mean, I have a huge – I love college football, so I'm watching every game I can watch. You making sure Cody Campbell's staying off Twitter during those parties or what? I don't say – that's my buddy, man. You know, I don't say a whole lot to him, and everybody asks me about him, and I say, well, I'd rather be with him than against him, and I'd rather have him than not have him. I'd much rather be at a place where I can be with him than a place like Texas Tech to where you have Cody and John and Dusty and Mike and Gary. I call them – they're the Fab Five. I'd rather have guys like that, you know, that, you know, have your back and really put their money where their mouth is. You know, whatever you say, you're going to keep writing those checks, man. I'm all in. I see that putter leaning against the wall. Is that how you blow off a little steam in the office, just work on the old short game? Some of the players come in. I got, like, one of those. A lot of putting deals. Players come in, and you go, there's three balls in here. They kind of compete a little bit. Well, hey, you know, you're a good friend of mine. I appreciate you. You've always supported me, so I appreciate that. A lot of coaches don't take themselves too seriously, or a lot of coaches take themselves too seriously, I think, sometimes. You are not one of those guys. So you still owe me a steak in Lubbock. I don't remember the name of the steakhouse, but I'm going to – I got you. All right. Good deal. And I got a helmet coming, man. It should be there tomorrow. Or Wednesday. All right. Well, there's a spoiler alert from Coach Joey McGuire. I was going to do a big reveal, but I guess he just told the whole world. It's an entertainment business, Coach. No, anyway, one of the best coaches in America. Watch out for Texas Tech as we go through November. Thank you very much, Coach, for being here. Thank you, brother. Reckon.