Upon Further Review: Texas NEW No. 1 | Week 2 Overreactions | AP Poll Takeaways & MORE!
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The Cover 3 podcast discusses the sudden resignation of Mike Alfred as Florida State’s athletic director, with Bruce Warwick stepping in as interim. The move follows mounting criticism over strategic missteps, including the controversial $20 million rev-share deal and overspending on stadium renovations while neglecting player investments. Analysts suggest that Alfred’s downfall stemmed from a flawed understanding of NIL regulations and shifting college sports dynamics, particularly the lack of enforcement during a period when other programs openly exploited similar rules. The timing of the change—just before a key conference game—is seen by some as coincidental, though a power outage preceding the SMU matchup may have intensified scrutiny. Despite the controversy, the podcast acknowledges Florida State’s athletic staff successfully managed the crisis, ensuring the game proceeded. The hosts also highlight the broader implications for head coach Mike Norville, suggesting a potential change in leadership could follow an upset loss to Alabama. Meanwhile, the AP Top 25 rankings see Texas surge to No. 1 after a dominant win over Ohio State, shifting the landscape with significant realignment. Oregon’s shocking loss to Portland State is viewed as a temporary setback, not a long-term decline, due to the team’s deep talent pool and strong roster. BYU earns recognition for its disciplined, resilient performance against Arizona, showcasing a solid defensive and cultural identity. The podcast concludes with a focus on Ohio State’s overreliance on quarterback Jeremiah Smith, raising concerns about balanced offensive distribution despite the team’s overall strength. Overall, the episode blends leadership drama, competitive shifts, and tactical analysis to offer a comprehensive look at the evolving college football landscape.
[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome back to the Cover 3 podcast with your host, Chip Patterson, Tom Fernelli, Danny Cannell, and Bob Elliott. It's your call for the best college football coverage from National Signing Day to the National Championship and everything in between. CBS Sports presents the Cover 3 podcast. And welcome back to the Cover 3 podcast here on CBS Sports. That's Tom Fernelli. That's Danny Cannell. I'm Chip Patterson, coming to you live at youtube.com/cover3. And everywhere you get your podcasts on the man, thanks for hanging out. Smash that subscribe. Smash that like and come and join us in the chat, aka the Cover 3 tailgate, where there is a robust conversation. And look, the tailgate is divided. And we try to be unifiers here. But we've got a camp that wants Danny Cannell to be the new Florida State Athletic Director. And we've got a camp that wants Bud Elliott to be the new Florida State Athletic Director. We've got a suggestion in the tailgate where they've got their snapples open here on a Monday for the upon-for-the-review episode, where they have even suggested that we could have co-athletic directors, because as we join you here on a Monday morning, it comes with the news that Florida State has a change in athletics leadership. - Yes, Mike Alfred is out, effective immediately as Florida State Athletic Director, senior associates athletic director Bruce Warwick, to serve as the interim AD, Alfred has been in charge of the program since 2022. He is a loyal listener of Danny Cannell's radio show, among other things. Probably a big fan of the Cover 3 podcast. - Who isn't? - I know that there's been some criticism also about the way that everything's been handled, whether it's in terms of the resources that are given to the team, maybe investment at the stadium at a time when we started going from investing to stadium, to investing in players, the a murky future moving ahead, lots of what this means for Mike Norville, but I want to know what this means for the Cover 3 podcast, DK. - I think I'll be able to make it through the football season. I hope we'll see. I am going to tell As in a couple weeks what it's for. We'll find out. - Oh! - There you go. - This is hard for me to discuss. Full disclosure, I'm pretty good friends with Michael Alfred. I was just sitting with his wife, Laura at the SMU game. Like was in the athletic director suite. He's been great to me. He's been great to former players. So it's hard for me to just lay into it. I am not surprised by this move. This had been, there'd been a lot of rumblings that this would happen. There's obviously some people think it should have happened a little while ago. I think this is clearly the result of somebody who misread a couple things. Most important, I think the way he misread the changing landscape of college football as it pertains to NIL, but even more importantly to college sports commission. Florida State was all in with the $20 million rev share. We're not going to go over it. We're going to follow, we're going to follow the rules. Which, call me crazy, be like, is that such a bad thing that you thought the rules were going to be fired? And then because you didn't, I know Tom's not in his head, yes. Because everybody else out there was just flaunting it, saying there's no way this is enforceable. They tried to do it. Book and unfortunately, I think that kind of caught them in a bad spot. He brought an unbelievably gorgeous football stadium renovation to Dope Campbell. He brought a beautifully renovated and brand new players only football facility, which was the trend. All these schools were going to football only players facilities. The only problem with it is that they came at an extremely expensive price tag. And it has, again, kind of misreading where the money was going. If we had some of that money to go to the players, that would have been helpful. We couldn't do both. And so a couple of things I think he misread that probably led to his ultimate demise. - So are the rules back? Is this fix everything is the football team that we fixed out of the athletic records? - It's fine. - It's it. They're gonna rally around it right here. Here we go. I had the only thing that didn't make a lot of sense was the timing of this. And this is a pretty big surprise that had happened right now. I do think there was some relationships that were strained between Michael Alford and some of the board of trustees and maybe even the school president. So maybe it was just time to rip the bandaid off, but we'll see where they go. What direction they head? But I do think the thought now is, what is next for Mike Norville? When does that happen? And if they rip this bandaid off this quickly, would they do it after what you would think would be an ugly loss to Alabama? Wouldn't surprise me. - The timing of it, if I'm to be very clear that I'm not being serious before I start this. This has got to be about the power outage, right? I mean, it goes to the very top. I mean, you just somewhat, we gotta have accountability. If we're, if, listen, if you ain't correcting it, you're coaching it, okay? And if you're not paying your power bill and then all of the sudden the stadium lights go out, you know, we gotta have somebody come in and answer for this. - I will say, Chip, like, it's not because of it in any way, but I don't know that the timing is that coincidental where if you're already mad at everything that's been going on in this athletic department, you were one of the bigger donors. And then that happens ahead of the SMU game. It might be like, well, geez, you know, like that's it. You know, somebody might have just been really pissed off. - Well, no, listen, let me, Danny can maybe speak, Danny, you might be able to speak to this more, but David Hale, who was also at the game, did say that even getting the game off was a little bit of a monumental exercise because there was a push, like, hey, listen, let's just play this tomorrow. And then of course, there are television partners and the commissioner is there and everyone understands that like, this ain't exactly a game that we just want to be a flat dud. And I think that David explained it, if I remember correctly, is like, it wasn't exactly running into an extension court across the street, but it wasn't not running an extension court across the street. So I do want to give credit to all the Florida State athletic department employees and everybody who helped that game get off because the way the story was told, Danny, as I understand it, it was actually not a all-heros-where-cape situation, but like some real, like, strong work was done in a pinch to be able to make sure that game happened. - Yes, I would agree with that. It was, and it's easy, Florida State has become the butt of a lot of college football jokes, like since the fan didn't eat the poop and you just go back since we got left out of the playoffs and we were gonna show everybody what's up the next year and you come out and you lose to Georgia Tech and then see, like, there's been the guy reading the book in the stands while I was by themselves. And I get it, it is an easy fan-based kick while it's down. And that was, again, the butt of the joke was, oh, Florida State didn't play their bills and blah, blah, blah. I do think that was just a fluke situation that unfolded and I thought the narrative after that was that both athletic director for SMU and Florida State and the people that were there on the ground did a good job, like you said, by making sure everybody was up to speed, what is gonna happen? We're not gonna have communication early, but we're all okay with this. Yes, we wanna play tonight and getting it on the field. So I actually thought that was one that Alfred handled pretty well to get the game off. - Yeah, we have offered to be a college head coaching. We will undercut all the search firms. We will be your search firm here at the Cover 3 podcast. I'm not gonna try to venture into what's next for the Florida State Athletic Director. I think it is unquestionably a good job even if it comes with challenges because if you get to be, if you fancy yourself in this industry as somebody who wants to make a name for themselves, bringing Florida State Athletics back to the forefront, that is something that could absolutely be something you build your career off of. But lots of time to figure that out. And as Danny mentioned, that Alabama game is this week, and so there's gonna be the Mike Norvell conversation now starts immediately in terms of, how about this? Danny, do you think they're gonna wait for a new athletic director full-time hire before they make a decision about Mike Norvell? - No. - I don't think so either. Okay. No. - Now it's just open, and we'll see, they team, listen, teams out there on the field. My team's on the field. Let's see how they perform. - I thought they were gonna wait till after Miami the rivalry game, you know, you have a bi-week, then you have Clemson at home, try to reinvigorate the fan base, maybe get some ticket sales up there. But if it's ugly against Pam, they still need people to fill the seats against Virginia too, you know, like at home. So, I don't know, at this point, nothing would survive me. And like, if it gets ugly, which you probably would expect it to do to be against Alabama, it would not shock me if there's a change made after that game. - Don't fill up the Florida State Coaching candidates just yet tailgate. We've got, we've got a long season, okay? I don't wanna start squeezing that olive yet, okay? We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna let that baby soak for a little bit. All right, every single Monday here in the regular season, one of the things that we get to do as a way to see how all the chips have fallen since Saturday night is to take a look at the new AP Top 25 rankings. We like to call it a little sassin. (upbeat music) - Wormed my heart to see how many people tagged us and, you know, the, just getting to see that monkey again.
And his little Texas, his little Texas underwear is Texas diaper. I mean, it's just getting kisses. They just getting kisses. I mean, just to know that it's still there and they had a big time. Because yes, the Texas long horns, the entire Texas family enjoyed a weekend that saw in the process of about, I don't know, 30 to 40 minutes in real time. You know, this whole wave, all this frustration. No, can sark when the big one is archmaning the guy, all of it flips. And of course, that kind of motivation and momentum does go over to the AP poll where the Texas long horns take over as the new number one team in the country. Ohio State, terms of their fall drops down to number six. Georgia, Notre Dame, Indian and Miami rounding out that top five. Not a ton of shifting elsewhere. It's just a lot of teams are moving up. Geez, why what opened up everything for them to move up? Oh, by Oregon, the ducks take a big tumble all the way outside of the top 20 down to number 21, other movements of note. We get to see BYU, make a nice jump up me. She can make its return to the top 25 poll. I know that we've got some, some interesting discussions on the way these teams have been ranked that I do want to get into in today's edition of Policassin. But Tom, I'll let you get first word here. What stands out about the way the rankings have been reshuffled after week two? I think the biggest change and it's one that was expected was we have seen. And there's still a lot of teams getting first place votes. But we have seen a much more kind of democratic fair equal sharing of votes among some teams. But now Texas has kind of taken the overwhelming majority of first place votes by getting 56 of them, which makes sense because they do have a win over the team that had been ranked number one. And when you're looking for best wins in the country this season, it's hard to argue. Anybody has a better win than Texas's win over Ohio State. So I think that was one clear thing. But one thing that also stands out that I don't get, like I just said, they're still let's see one, two, three, four, five, six, six teams getting first place votes. I think Texas should have gotten most of them. I'm not going to argue with some people who maybe put the other ones first, but there is one that I'm just kind of wondering how they got a first place vote at this point. It's LSU. It's Josh furlong from Salt Lake City who gave LSU a first place vote. Now, if you just, if you just want to stand out there and say, I think LSU is the best team in the country, cool, go for it. I, I proclaimed them a national title contender after they beat Clemson on the opening week. But still, their resume is Clemson and Louisiana Tech and Clemson struggled to beat Georgia Southern on Saturday night. It's not like that's going to be a win that looks really good in the long run. So I don't understand of all the options that I would willingly accept a first place vote for. LSU was not one of them and he was the only one who gave him one. So shout out Josh furlong. Danny, what's stays out first on the first place votes thing. Danny, it's hard to cut in, but I do think that this was a, this is sort of the next step of my off-season conversation that I, if I could put everybody at number two, I'd put everybody at number two. And I was waiting for someone to make a number one statement. Texas is the first team this season to make a number one statement. And there will be other teams that will have opportunities in the coming weeks. I mean, shoot LSU has a chance going to Ole Miss to make a number one style statement to have the best win of their season. There will be opportunities ahead in the coming weeks as well for some of these other teams. But that's like Texas consolidating. As you mentioned, 56 of the 69 first place votes. That sort of from what we had preseason where they were divvied out amongst six different teams. That feels fair because Texas has been the first team to have a, even if the aesthetics, the look of it wasn't an overwhelming number one team in the country. If we are going to judge by what you did on the field, beating Ohio State is the first number one style statement that I think we've seen from those contenders. I think so. I also, I push back a little bit on LSU, like the, I'm totally okay. If you think LSU's win over Clemson was as, as close to impressive as what Texas did over Ohio State. Or what about like, hold, hold that, hold on, hold on, I got complete annihilation. Like you saw my power for school completely annihilated. And then if you want to look at the next week against Louisiana Tech, we're quarter back through three interceptions. And you still won 41 to 14 like, I'm okay. Hey, I won a game with my quarterback throwing three interceptions. I'm the best team in the country. I got along those along that point, Daniel. I have a Nick save and ask a question for you. Okay. What's more impressive, a 41 point win over Clemson or a one point road lost to Texas? Oh, so you're saying for Ohio State. Yeah. So here's what, here's why here's one thing that I have a problem with. And this we saw ourselves, ourselves, the AP voters getting trouble with this last year. They're so enamored with close losses, which I understand. If it's after this, like, if it gets toward the end of the season and we have eight or nine games to go forward with, we're wrong all the time on what we think last year Penn State had a close loss to Oregon. So guess what, we're close lost to Oregon. So we don't want to drop them too far. They only dropped four spots. They were not ranked number seventh. I think after they lost to Oregon, what is the, what is wrong with letting teams go out there and kind of prove that we thought they were as good as we, as we thought they were in the preseason? Like, and making big jumps when they actually beat teams, I am totally okay with that. That's why I like, and I, because in mine, I try to do, that's why I like, I got a lot of pushback. Because the people don't understand what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to do strictly a resume based, what have you done up to this point? Who has been the most impressive wins of the season? And when you've only played two games, to me, it does come down to just the wins. You need to show me that you can go out and beat some of those teams that are out there. The same thing with Notre Dame last year. Oh, and two, and they're still ranked because they had close losses. Now that proved out. It actually got the committee in trouble by keeping them ranked where they were with the Miami Notre Dame debate. But we're wrong all the time. And if we do want to do the close losses, why isn't Boise State ranked? Like, because Oregon wasn't that good this past week or why isn't Western Michigan ranked? They were close to Michigan, who's a top 25 team. Like, if we're going to keep those close losses and we're going to really reward teams for those, let's really stick with it as opposed to just doing it to the teams that we think are going to be good in the preseason. AP voters are in absolute knots right now about this Oregon Oklahoma state Tulsa Boise situation. I mean, this and by the way, those teams that I just mentioned are occupying the 26 28 29 30 31 32. They're all in a row. It's very clear that everyone's like, oh, Oklahoma state beat Oregon. Oh, but Oregon beat Boise State. Oh, but the only reason Oregon is ranked right now is because we thought. And my, I thought they're there. My national champion pick and they still could be, but let's let them prove it first. Like, let's let them go out there and actually show that they've corrected some of their mistakes instead of looking completely underwhelming in two weeks in a row. You know, do you know what LSU strength of schedule is right now? Oh, I don't know, but 75th. All right. Well, where's Miami's? Because this is my, I was going to, when, when you were bringing out, I think, I think an LSU argument for saying, I think they're the best team in the country carries as much like resume weight as Miami's does, where you could just say like, I don't know, looks like they could beat the brains out of anybody. You know, they just look really, really good. And if that's your argument, that's fine for me for you to say, I am one of 69 ballots. And this is the way I'm going to throw it. I don't think Miami should have a first place vote either. Okay. We're beating Stanford and Florida and I'm, I mean, that's, this is a different discussion. But like, I see all the Heisman polls were like, Dary and Mensa and Malachi Tony are like at the top of everybody's ballot right now. It's like, why? I mean, I think they're great, but they haven't played a real team yet. Anyways, yeah, no, I don't know what I've tried to do. This early in the season, I try to look at power four. Like just look at power four wins, regardless of logo and a power four win on the road. The way that Miami did, I think is a, is a great win. Now I'm not making the case for Miami to be number one. I had Texas number one. I think that was the most impressive win of anybody of the year, but I would be okay. If somebody stayed up and say, you know what? I'm not going to forget what I saw LSU against Clemson. Like that was a dominant, dominant performance. Go ahead, Tom. No. Any, what else, anything else from the rankings stand out? Yes. Yes. Our old friend, our enemy. Ralph. Listen, Ralph. Ralph has, and this is not the problem. Ralph ranked salsa. He ranked Oklahoma State. He ranked noisy. He ranked Western. And he ranked Michigan. And he ranked him in that order. Yep. Yeah. I told you, he's in knots. He, I just, I can just see him. That's fine. That's fine. But what I don't understand is he has Louisville 12th. Louis one and one. But they have a close loss. Close loss. They have a close loss. I don't know. It's just. It's not going to do it. I don't understand what to be. Yeah. Okay. So the best thing is, I mean, I guess maybe he does subscribe to the Nick Saban kind of thought process. There were their, their close loss is worth more. But like they beat Villanova and they lost closely to Ole Miss. They're the 12th best team in the country all of a sudden. I, I don't understand that. Nobody else had that.
Louisville higher than, let's see, Javine Edmunds had them 14th, a couple of people have them 15th. Yeah, he's way out there with them at 12th. And to the point earlier about Oregon, Oregon was left off of ballots. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Good. I think, what was it? 20 or something? I mean, it was in the teens or 20s as I was looking and the thing is 19 voters left them off. 19 voters left them out entirely and their 21 is kind of being anchored by two things. I think they're still as high as 12th on some ballots, which is going to be worth a lot of voting points. And then also just not having a consensus of other teams to jump ahead of them. And I think that's where you just get down to as a voter saying, like, "Kah, Lee, am I really putting Washington in front of Oregon right now?" You know, like you just, you think to yourself just the way that that looks on your ballot. Like am I really going to put Tulsa ahead of Oregon right now because the transitive property says Tulsa should be ahead of Oregon, but at the same time, I don't know if that sits right with me. You give them, give them another, we talked about the Mulligans with the Bryce Underwood Hail Mary. All right. Okay. Fine. Dan, you can tee it up one more time. I know you pumped your first one in the woods to the left and your second one in the woods to the right, but this is like a double breakfast ball for Dan landing in the Oregon ducts. You get one more chance before people are going to start considering you at the Penn State and Clemson of 2026 real fast. People beating Portland State this week alleviate everybody's concern. No. Damn. Well, you asked me a question because we were talking about LSU receiving a first place vote. What's more impressive beating Ohio State by one at home or blowing out an FCS team and a Mac team or whatever Western Kentucky's in? I don't know what conference they are. I don't know about Georgia. Like Georgia has been super impressive, but they haven't played anybody. Same thing with Indiana. They've been impressive, but they haven't played anybody. And yet they're still receiving number one votes. Like, I get why they're doing it. Like I get they think they're really good and they've they've done nothing but look good against crappy opponents. Like to me, like those should they shouldn't even be considered yet. The number one conversation until they at least play a power for opponent. That's why my top two teams are Texas and Notre Dame. Okay. I had no problem with that. Notre Dame's went over Wisconsin to that was mine because I have Notre Dame pretty high and be like, well, who'd they be? I'm like, that's a power for opponent with pseudo on the road, whatever you want to call it at Lambo. I think that was a great win. I think it was one of the more impressive wins of the season so far. And they did it without weapons. Yeah. That's true. It did. Coming up on the other side, we have our announcement of the FWA Pop Tarts, Pop Tarts Bowl crazy good team of the week. Very fired up to turn a spotlight on that group, plus who made the most practical plays of the week and more next. This episode is brought to you by PNC Bank. If you've ever watched a football game with someone who doesn't normally, you might have been asked, like, what's the point of running the ball up the middle? In short, to the uninformed eye, these plays are boring, but they result in a lot of short reliable gains while managing the clock. It's just like why PNC uses a boring methodical approach because reliable gains while keeping an eye on the time are just as important for your money as they are in football. PNC Bank brilliantly boring since 1865 brilliantly boring since 1865 is a registered mark of the PNC Financial Services Group Inc. PNC Bank National Association member FDIC. 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Try for yourself today, and if you are unsatisfied, they will refund your entire order. No questions asked. Head to zbiotics.com/cover, code cover for 15% off your first order. Back here on the Cover 3 podcast, we are very, very excited to be partnering with the Football Writers Association of America for their weekly announcement of the Pop Tarts Bowl Crazy Good team of the week. And this week we have gotten it in from the FWA. We are pleased to make the announcement here on the Cover 3 podcast that with all the teams to select and this team selection happens by the same body that puts together the All American team. They've got a great data packet to go through, but look, I don't know how many numbers you needed to identify a team that had a louder, more crazy good victory than the Oklahoma state cowboys. They snapped a 12 game losing streak for the program. They took down a top 10 opponent and they did it for Eric Morris's home opener. Morris, of course, saying after the game, I guess we got to get some new goal posts as he was very happy to be able to task his athletic director with having to get that done. Of course, we saw Drew Mesta maker step up in the clutch moments as Oregon came roaring back 426 yards of total offense, 317 passing career high 109 rushing yards. And then that big time clutch game ceiling drive to be able to get cowboys where they needed to be to secure the win. And the thing, Danny about Oklahoma states win and Dan landing said as much after the game, that was not as close as the score suggested, Oklahoma state totally dominant against the top 10 opponent. What stood out to you the most about the cowboys win two things, the physicality. They were the more physical team and I know you guys touch on that in the reaction show. The intensity level, they were the more intense team like they looked like a team that was backs against the wall that needed that to salvage their season. And I'm sure coming in, they were just thinking, let's keep it close against one of the better teams in the country. Instead, they looked like the better team and it was not close throughout four quarters of the game. Even when Oregon was able to make it close, they responded credit to Eric Morris, credit to Drew Mesta maker because after throwing two picks in their opener against Tulsa and not having a great game in Eric Morris. I'm sure there was a lot of criticism they heard locally like, oh, they're in over their head. You know, what are we doing? We're just going to be back to where we were to respond the way they did was absolutely phenomenal. And now it does. And as you're looking at them completely differently, like it's amazing how one week can change things. We have to make sure we don't overreact one way or another. But now all of a sudden you look at the big 12 schedule and they're like, why not? Why couldn't they be a team that contends in the big 12? They can do that to Oregon. Why can't they do that to everybody else? It was phenomenal. Tom, as we've had some time to digest, I know a lot of our Saturday night instant reaction show was Oregon focused. And so I was truly pleased when I got the news before the show started that Oklahoma state had been selected as the Pop Tarts Bowl crazy good team of the week from the Cowboys side of thing. So we spin this forward. How do you see them fitting into the landscape of the big 12 because there's number one, the adjustment of where they were last season, you know, losing 11 game losing 10 games in a row to close the year or 11 games in a row to close the year. Then we've got a whole new influx of players. We've got a data point that's incredibly misleading in terms of the total loss to get things started. Now as you're trying to reposition them in terms of where they go moving forward, what do you think is the potential here as Oklahoma state eyes the rest of its schedule? I mean, genuinely, it's an incredible win. They looked fantastic. But the same way with week two is you don't want to overreact to week two the same way week one. It's just, you know, you've got a little more data to work with. So we've seen two very different versions of Oklahoma state. We saw the version that lost to Tulsa and we saw the version that completely outplayed Oregon at home for 60 minutes. Odds are there somewhere in between. And I think once you go into the big 12, based on what we have seen from the big 12 so far this season, like early in the year when we were doing like our big 12 win totals are off season projections, we were talking about the Cowboys as a team that on this show at least we expected to be in contention to get to a ball and to be a much better team than they looked last year. Some people were touting them as the next Indiana. I still think that is a little, you know, a little lofty of a projection to put on them. But I believe ultimately in the big 12, they are still very much a team that is in very much looking like they're going to get to a ball based on what we've seen if they play a closer to what they did last week. But I don't know if I consider them an immediate contender in the league, but as we've also discussed on Saturday night, Texas Tech doesn't look quite as good as we thought it was going to look. This league might be more open than we thought. So when you get into conference play, this is a team that if things keep going their way
And you must make your keeps playing as well as he's played. They could be in a hunt for like a big 12 championship game appearance, but I still think they're probably in that third to seventh place range. - Two years ago, we had four teams tie for first place in the big 12. And I don't think that you can throw a net and say like, all right, if we think it's gonna be jumbled and every big 12 teams gonna take a loss or two here and there, I think Oklahoma State starts November with what they've been able to do. And I'm glad you mentioned the Indiana thing because we've been trying for so long because, what's the next Indiana? What's the next Indiana? I put it to bed personally because I was like, I think it's a Kurt Sigmetti thing and I think it's an Indiana university thing. I think that there's a lot more that you can't just copy and paste. But a couple things do make this a fun Indiana comp because where was Caleb Hawkins last year? - North Texas. - Where was North Texas? - Where was white young last year? - A lot of players were North Texas. Where was Drew Mestemaker last year? Your three offensive stars on a day when you were cooking on offense against a defense that I thought was gonna be one of the 10 best defenses in the entire country, a lot to be said there. But the Indiana vibes are a lot stronger after those North Texas stars were these stars of one of the biggest wins for Oklahoma State that they might have had in the last five to 10 years. Like they beat Oklahoma back in 2023 in that Bedlam game. That was a big one. But this is a massive, massive win for Eric Morris and yet the Iowa State and Happy Valley, the JMU in Bloomington. I mean, this is Denton in Stillwater and it pays off in a really big way. Very, very cool for them and a congratulations. Once again to the Oklahoma State Cowboys for being named the Pop Tarts Bowl crazy good team to the week, excited to be partnering with the Football Writers Association of America to make that announcement every Monday here on Cover Three. The Oklahoma State Cowboys will be receiving a special delivery of assorted Pop Tarts. Enjoy them, prepare them. However, don't put the butter on them before you put them in the toaster of it. That is always going to be our, our, you know, go ahead and offer that up to you at home. And coming up on the other side, we turn our attention to what we saw. Actually one more thing. No, hold on, one more thing, one more thing here. I'm going to do an early UFR, okay? Before we do it, don't hit the music yet. Should we, just 'cause it makes sense, what do we do with Oregon? Like what is an, what is an honest way to look at this? 'Cause Tom mentioned it with the Portland State side of this. Is there a way out here? I mean, does it, do you foresee it clicking? We've watched a lot of college football, we've covered a lot of college football. Tom, you like padded yourself on the back at some point during the game day on Saturday for having sort of like seen the way that a game played out. I mean, we know that history is often able to inform our predictions and projections. What is the, what is the path forward for the Oregon Ducks? I think they're going to be fine. I mean, there's far too much talent on the roster for them to be bad long term. But no talented rosters win eight games all the time. Yeah, I understand, but I think that this is one of the still most talented rosters in the country. And I don't think that, you know, if you look at their schedule, there are some tough games left on it, but this is like, I didn't want to get into this conversation but I'll get into it, but is there no part of either of you who was a little saddened by the fact that this game happened and this shocking result happened? And in years prior, it might have sunk Oregon season. There might have been real consequences for it. But now we live in an era where, oh, wow, that's a shocking loss. Oh, well, they've still got a perfectly reasonable chance to get to the playoff and do everything that they hope to do and accomplish everything that they hope to accomplish because this could just be a bad start to the season for a team with two new coordinators who are clearly still learning on the job, how to do their jobs. Portland State, I bet you if they had started with Portland State instead of Boise and then going on the road to Oklahoma State, they would have looked better in both games against Boise and Oklahoma State. Doesn't mean they would have won, but I bet you they would have looked cleaner. So maybe now they go to play Portland State, they figure some stuff out, things click, and they go on to be the Oregon they were. Like, I don't think Dante more sucks all of a sudden. I don't think their receivers are bad. I don't think their running backs are bad. I do have legitimate concerns about the defensive line and the offensive line, but I still think long term, they're very talented, it will work out. Will they win a national title? It's hard to say that with confidence right now. Will they win the big 10? Hard to say that with confidence right now. But I'm not gonna take what I saw on Saturday against Oklahoma State and just be like, "Oh, Oregon sucks now, just because it happened to Penn State." 'Cause there were so many more problems at Penn State last year that people were willingly ignoring going into the season that made themselves evident once the season began. I mean, as I talked about last year, everybody was like, "Penn State's gonna be great 'cause they have so much coming back while completely ignoring that their best player on offense and their best player on defense had left." That was not the case here at Oregon. So I think they're going to be fine. That's my answer. - It's a lot of, I mean, there were, well, how many players at Clemson were drafted? Nine? - Nine. - And there were seven win team last year? - Yeah. - 'Cause I hear what you're saying. And I said the same thing. So my question was, could they be last year, 2025, Penn State or Clemson, or could they more likely be 2024 Notre Dame? Do you remember the conversation? They lose to Northern Illinois. - They lost the Northern freaking Illinois. - Everybody's like, and I was one, it was like, I thought that should, even with 12 teams, I was like, that should be a playoff eliminating loss. Like when you lose a game that bad to a, you know, a Mac team like that was bad. They playing their way all the way the national championship came. Truth is, they're probably somewhere in the between. Like, I don't know if they're going to go to the natty now and makes me, they still could, absolutely. They have the talent to do it. I don't think the wheels come off the way they did at Penn State or Clemson, but boy, it is gut check time there. And this is where, and see, I feel fine about them. If they lose to USC, then I start worrying about the rails coming off. 'Cause I think in the new era of college football, when players are paid and all of a sudden, you come short of your goals and then they still, they clearly could still get to the national championship game. Even if they lose to USC, but the players mindset, when they start, oh, man, we're not going to be as good as we thought, they start showing up for the paycheck, they start going through the motions. And everybody still sees you as the team that was predicted to be champions and predicted to be really good. You're going to get everybody's best swing. They need to bounce back quick or else I do worry. That's the recipe for how things come off the rails. I don't think they do. They, to me, almost look nonchalant. And I think at some of it starts with Dante Moore, like he looks so cool and composed, which can be a really good thing. But he also looks kind of like, "Ah, what's the big deal if we go three and out?" What's the big deal if I don't get this one? I'll get it the next one. And you have to have more urgency on the field. And I think some of that stems from the offense, maybe their quarterbacks mentality. Again, can be a really good thing. They've got to play with more urgency. - I do think one thing that they could do at offense is get more easy access place to kind of get into a rhythm. - Yeah. - 'Cause I think that's one thing Will Stein was really good at and remains really good at is getting his quarterback comfortable quickly and just letting him feel good. And I think that maybe Oregon has, I think some of it was gamescript-wise. Like the way that that game started, where they were in a hole quickly, I feel like maybe they'd started trying to do a little too much too quickly instead of just saying, all right, we're down, we got plenty of time left, let's go. But again, that, to me, comes with the inexperience of a first-time play call or not a first-time, but in a new offense like this. - Yeah. Tell me something or nothing on this one for Oregon. Wait, what are you about to do? - Are you getting into stances? - Uh-huh. - Yeah, give it to us. - Okay. Senior linebacker, Tate Romney, for Oklahoma State after the game, quote, "We were noticing earlier in the week that Oregon's offensive line had tendencies that helped us key into run or pass in a couple of areas that we could take advantage of." And obviously, our defensive line was keyed into that. That was one big thing that gave us a big advantage. So it was questioned. What were the tendencies? Just their offensive line had a few stance indicators that most of the time told us run or pass. We thought, just go with their gameplay and going into it. We could, oh, sorry, that's a little bit later with more from the story. So I asked Danny, you played the game at the highest level. Is this a self-scout issue? Like, is this a, like you should have been tipped up? Like you should have been tipped in to knowing that they were going to be tipped onto it because to have your offense get so shut down, to have your quarterback, your NFL draft bound quarterback have one of the worst games as a starter and to have the whole offense and the offensive line just ripped up by this Oklahoma State defensive front. And then the linebacker comes back and is like, yeah, that was Mickey Mouse stuff over there. We had it all figured out and they didn't change it. - Did you see the photo and it was talking about this and it had Dan landing with a staff meeting. And it's this huge, beautiful board room where he does his press conferences. And there's like 50 coaches crammed into the room and he's like holding court with his staff and they're like, you're telling me that this program didn't, wasn't aware with the self-scouting that they were tipped into it.
in stances. I think this is something that defensive lineman look for all the time. I think it is something that happens. It's very common to see this. And yes, if you do, and they do have some young freshmen that are playing quite a bit for Oregon's offensive line that they need to be coached up on. Yeah, I think it matters. But at the same time, man, if you're Oregon and you're supposed to be as good as we think you are, you should almost be able to say we're running the ball here and be able to run it. You know, and same thing on the past, but it definitely gives you an advantage. Mentally, if you think you know what's coming. And I think it's something that they'll go back in there. The offensive line coach will work with them and be like, Hey, you heard it. We got to start working on it. I think it's just kind of human nature to kind of work on some of those things. But yeah, something they look for all the time. I'll bring up another side to this. Like there's a Oregon side. Maybe you lost a Tulsa because you were so keyed on everything Oregon does. Oh, oh, good point. And they might have had that game. Maybe you should have studied Tulsa a little closer, too. Right. You know what? That's, that's definitely something that is totally fair. The BYU Cougars, Danny were caught in a little bit of a dogfight Arizona showed up the Provo. They brought it to him early. And then to me, when we think about the practical plays, when we think about the ways that games can be taken control, I think about being a tone setter. So trailing at halftime, at home, they get the opening kick off in the third quarter. And that's when BYU puts together a nine play 75 yard drive, five minutes and 23 seconds off off the clock, multiple third down conversions and ultimately a strike of a touchdown from Bear Bachmire to Casper. So when you're looking at BYU and the way they were able to handle their business, it was, it was one touchdown every single quarter. It was a good run in the football. It was generating some explosive plays with Bear Bachmire down the field. What stood out to you by the way, BYU handled its business in its big 12 opener against Arizona? Like you said, handling the adversity, being able to look up at the scoreboard, see that all of a sudden you're in a dogfight against a really good quarterback and Noah Fafita. And he's having some success and buckling in and getting down to work. I do think BYU, this is why I had them. I thought, now, bud, let's see what bud says when he goes back and watch the tips. I don't think he's a big believer in Bear Bachmire. But you mentioned Casper six, six on the outside, Glasgow's, but they got some tall wide receivers. And if you can run the ball, you're going to get a lot of man-to-man matchups on the outside where there's going to be some smaller DBs in some tough positions. I think BYU is absolutely a team that's very much in play for the big 12 title and therefore very much a college football playoff team. But I think the response that you saw with them getting a little bit of a gut check was huge for BYU. Tom, defensively, that group lost Jay Hill as its defensive coordinator. When he left to go to Michigan, they go in, they put in a couple of adjustments and all of a sudden we've got some turnover, a turnover in the second half. And we've also got, obviously, I think the turnover was after half time, but it was a second half shut out. But that group went in, they came out, they put in the practical plays they needed. What do you think about BYU's performance against Arizona? I think it was solid in the second half. I mean, it wasn't even really bad in the first half. Arizona was just making some plays and putting points on the board. But I think what you see with BYU, we throw the word "culture" around. Every program throws the word "culture" around. And it's kind of mysterious into what it can mean. But for me, part of your culture is knowing your identity and sticking to your identity. And I believe that's what BYU did against Arizona. Even when they're training at halftime, they get in the locker room. They're like, "Hey, this is who we are. This is what we're going to do." You mentioned that drive when they come out for the third quarter on offense. That was just a BYU drive. They stuck to what they're good at and they marched down the field and they scored defensively. J-Hill may be gone, but they still know who they were and what they try to do on defense and what their goals are. So they go out there and they get back to basics, get back to what we do well. And it works. And I think that's one of the, like, you see it with the good programs, the consistent programs. They know who they are, they stick to who they are. Coming up on the other side under the hood, we're spilling out the notebook upon further review. 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Terms at dkng.co/offer. Limited time offer nationwide based on sportsbook, predictions, and free-to-play sports contest availability varies by state. Back here on the cover3 podcast, Monday's is a chance for one last time to go back and look at the week that was, we go under the hood and call it. A pulling for the review. We're terrible calls, do you want to go ahead and jump in after further review? Back here on the cover3 podcast where the cover3 tailgate is always, always providing some entertainment. Tom, you've started to stumble on something during your Sunday recap during your Sunday research. Always enjoy some of the nuggets you find in your extra time to review the week that was. You're talking about that Ohio State team. We were talking about at the top of the show. Would you learn about the buck guys with a second look? Yeah, I don't know if I've stumbled on anything that matters, but I've stumbled onto something that's interesting to me. What the show is for. It's interesting. Matters is a very flexible term when we're a college football podcast, but I think Ohio State quarterback wide receivers. These are things that generally move to Needle. I think you're good here. On Saturday night against Texas, Jeremiah Smith was targeted on 53.3% of the routes he ran total in the game. So anytime Jeremiah Smith ran a route, odds where the ball was going to his way. There's only been one other time in Jeremiah Smith's career when he was targeted on at least 50% of his routes run. That was week one last year against Texas. The third highest rate of him being targeted in his career was in week one of this year at 48.9% against ball state. If you look at the total numbers in Striker, I sent you a little graph earlier yet. This is a amount of target percentage. How many routes do you run? How many times do you target it per route run? What you see on this list, I'm sorry, but it's a lot of guys who are clearly the primary option on their offense, but they're not on great offenses. They are volume hawks. But in second place is Jeremiah Smith, who is supposedly on a team that is supposed to be packed with weapons all over the place. We talked about Chris Henry Brandon and his back. Going back to last season, even comparing it to this year, Jeremiah has been targeted 25 times. No other book has been targeted in more than 10 times. Evan McCune or Queen, I'm not sure how to pronounce the name. The UTSA transfer is second on the team of the targets. McCune it. Yeah, just imagine like he's Irish, I guess. Like last year, this team spread the ball around. They had Carnell take. They had Innis. They had Max Claire. Julian sanded a much better job of sharing the load, which makes it much harder to defend Jeremiah Smith when you can't just focus on Jeremiah Smith. This year, I feel like Julian is force feeding the ball to Jeremiah Smith. Now there has been a change in offensive coordinator. This might be an Arthur Smith decision, who is saying, why waste our time throwing to these other guys when we have this dude, which defendable completely understandable. But I do think if you saw in the second half of this game, Ohio State's offense was not very good. And I believe Will Mustchamp was able to get into the locker room at halftime and say, listen, if this is the only guy they're going to, let's just focus on taking this guy away. And it was effective. So I don't know if it's an actual problem. If it will be something that is a long term deal, but just early tendencies, I do wonder if as great as he is, maybe Ohio State and Julian saying in the passing game are being too reliant on Jeremiah Smith. I was going to say much to what you just pointed out. Is it Arthur Smith needs to figure out how this offense works and how much talent you do have spread it around? Do you guys remember was it?
But Jeremiah or was it Julian when we asked him out the difference and it was like, oh, we're going to see more big plays, remember that? Was it Jeremiah? I can't remember if it was Jeremiah or if it was Julian, but I just remember that them thinking, and I bet Arthur Smith is having a field day all off season thinking, scheme it up. Hey, how can I do this because I think Julian saying is going through his progressions. I don't like, I don't think he's like making that many bad decisions. I think they're dialing up big plays for Jeremiah Smith and they've been able to hit on some of them. We did have a huge game, but you do. You cannot rely on that. And I totally agree with you that the other pieces should have great opportunities than because he's going to get so much attention from coverages and safety help over the top and that the other guys can be huge producers, much like we've seen last year and years, every year that Ohio State has a true number one because they always have somebody who's an absolute beast back there. I think that'll work itself out with other Smith kind of figuring out the other pieces. But I think it's, I would say it's probably more Arthur Smith than it is Julian saying. You saw in that graphic there how he also had big days against Indiana Miami differences. I looked it up and I think it was in the Miami game. He was target on 31% of his routes and in Indiana, it was 28%. So he had those huge days while also that was him, yeah, that was him making it happen. Yeah, it's the Ohio's, I hadn't connected all the way, all the dots back and Tom, you had your complaint earlier about fall out from the Oregon game and people talking about like, I'm so in the season right now that I'm not really thinking playoff. I'm kind of just sort of taking this one step out of time. I hadn't expanded it to last year to think about the Ohio State fan that saying, holy crap, we've lost three of our last four games, our last three FBS opponents. That is, it's so striking because they were 12 and 0. They spent 13 weeks as the number one team in the country last year, almost the entire season. But yeah, if you want to just small sample size this thing, the last three times that Ohio State has been asked to pass the test, they failed. And it is kind of safe in Alabama ask in that if you look at all of Ohio State's losses recently, not just the last three, pretty much all of them include a missed field goal. Tiny margins when you're really good, playing really good teams. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, they're, they are not going to face those tiny margins a lot. No. But for Ohio State, this is the game that you play. I mean, this is the expectations. What were you guys, um, I caught some of it. What was the vote? If you had the vote on whether Ohio State should have let him score was shipped. The only one that said he was good with them defending. Yes. Yes. I got the only one of us who was wrong. I'm a chipped. Oh, I'm with you. I'm with you. I go, but I'm, this to me is like such though, and this has been such the trend is to follow the analytics, to look at the numbers. What statistically is going to give the best chance. I played on some teams that had some unbelievable goal line stands, you know, like that. We're able to do that. Um, at the end of the game. So I thought this was really interesting, because the Sark quote, when he was asked about going forward on 4,000 and he said, you know, we don't play to keep it close. We played a win. Winners win. Like if they had gotten the stop and Ryan Day was asked about that, if like, why didn't you let him score? If they had one, I would have pictured him saying the same thing. Like that's a loser's mentality to let him score winners win. We're going to trust our guys. I think that's the mindset. The other thing I did want to ask you guys, and you can just trigger me because I was thinking about this while you guys were talking about it. Do you think the fact that kicker missed the field goal came into play? Like that was the last time that you saw him out there and like, hey, not only do we have to get it back and drive the length of getting the field goal range, but our kicker just missed a pretty makeable field goal. I don't know if that got to Ryan Day and they were having that long pause when they were kind of thinking about it, but I totally understand the philosophy. I get it. And if he would have decided to let him score and they didn't win, I wouldn't have crushed him, but I don't feel like it's this horrible coaching, you know, egregious mismanagement by trying to get the stop. I will concede to you that it is possible to miss field goal play the role. Maybe Ryan Day did not have a lot of confidence in his kicker and thought, if I let him score and I need to go down and get the field goal, I don't know that my kicker can get it. Still, I'd rather have a chance to make it because a 50% chance of making the field goal is better than a 0% chance of making having a chance to kick the field goal. My other counter to that would be Texas had spent the last 20 minutes of game time handing off and getting about four or five, six yards of pop. And you suddenly think that you're going to stop him four times from the one-yard line? That was, it was bad decision making period, it was the wrong call and it cost him. Bad process deserved result. I don't know, Danny. The offensive lineman jumps, now all the sudden, there's a line of balls. So that's what you're relying on. You're hoping that the ball, there's a ball start that's your game plan. Hollywood's mother sticks the ball out because he's trying to do a hero ball and all the sudden you get in there and you punch it out. I just, it's college football, man. Right. Like people make bad decisions. Yeah. One percent of the time somebody makes a dumb play. Well, you had the, you've got Jalen, Jalen Milo gets the play with Jack Sawyer, took it back. You got the strip sack. You can get that. I mean, Jack's oriented on the field, obviously. But I don't have a problem with trusting your players to make plays. It's pushing them down or asking them, right? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that that's where I'm at. Like, and Dan, yeah, I was, it was me against the calculators on Saturday night, Danny and the calculators were beeping and booping pretty well. It's not just that's the thing you guys are, it's not calculators, it's logic, it's common sense. This isn't about math. Hmm. I just, I don't, I don't like that. Your defense is not football. Your defense wasn't good. It's not that bad. Yeah. It's about getting a stop. If you look, if you look at Ohio State's defensive number so far this season. Pretty mediocre. I mean, that is skewed by the fact you played a real team in most of the country hasn't. But your defense has not looked nearly as good this year as it was last year. Your offense has looked good for the most. Pretty good in the first half. Yeah. I've got Jeremiah Smith, I've got Julian Sand. I'm trusting my guys to move down the field and we also see two defenses in those situations playing incredibly soft because they're scared they're going to make that mistake. They allow you to move the ball down the field. They don't want to give up the big play. So bad decision. You guys can say what you want. You're both wrong. Hey, and you know what? We don't make excuses, all right? We live with the results here in the big 10, all right, you're one and one and be living with those results. Shout out to Ken Young Barnars, been part of the CBS Sports HQ family and he was doing the big 10 network late night reaction show which came on at the end of the USC game and they led off the show with it, you know, not being a great day. Like they just jumped right into it. This is a rough day, it was like, they said very interesting day for the big 10, right, Ken Young? And he goes, very interesting, former Oregon, you know, like former Oregon style. Yeah. It's like very interesting day for the big 10. He and Ryan Carrigan were on the desk for that late night shows. It was a fun watch as I was wrapping up my work once USC went final. But yeah, the, this is a tough scene that you get up out there at the microphone at big 10 media days, you're talking big about how you accept results and we don't complain. We don't talk stuff away. Well, now is the time for you to be able to just take the results because the losses were public, the losses were obvious and the defeats Ohio State against Texas, Oregon against Oklahoma State, Purdue and double overtime at home against Wake Forest, Minnesota, never even competitive. I mean, Mississippi State scored touchdowns on his first four drives and we're up by 20 by half time. And then of course, Illinois, not being able to get the stops, offense, sort of turtling up a little bit late. So just five spotlight opportunities for the big 10 all end up going the other way. First of all, thanks, striker for making it look like Illinois lost on the road when they lost at home. And two, I guess strikers, a Rutgers fan because that's not on the graphic for some reason. Come on now Boston College deserves love too. That's right. That's another one that I don't think it kills the big like I don't, the perception of the league has changed, but like I don't think it was devastating yet to Oregon. I don't think it was clearly it wasn't devastating to Ohio State. You picked up a good win against for Michigan, which kind of kept them in there. Like I don't think anything really has changed as far as how many teams we think you're going to get in. Makes the margins tighter. It makes it tougher. But I think you could just, you could just do a general like again, like let's forget about the bracket and just say Iowa has not looked as good as we thought Iowa could look Washington is not good as we thought Washington could look USC might have a lack of institutional control with these backdoor covers. I mean, what the world is going on the backups at the Trojans, we need to open an investigation. There are a lot of teams up and down the line of that top eight that you might have stacked up in the big 10 where it just it feels and feelings lie all the time. But like it feels like they're just not quite on the other side of meeting or even coming close to exceeding expectations. And if the narrative was going to be look at these three national championships, we're the big dog on the block that like now I think it's got to be a little bit more of like no, you have to prove it. Because pointing to the trophies doesn't work anymore because there are two weeks. Some of those teams that were supposed to represent the strength of this conference [BLANK_AUDIO]
are not quite looking like they're all that strong. - Also, I do think that it has an enormous impact on this league at the end of the year when it comes to at large conversations when it comes to comparing resumes because of the big 10 is losing a lot of games to power for opponents right now. The big 10 has the worst record among the power for against the power for. And when it comes to comparing resumes, that's going to matter. I don't know that wake beating Purdue or BC beating Rutgers will mean anything when it comes to these conversations, but Duke, the Minnesota, and Mississippi being the hell out of Minnesota, that's going to mean something. - Yep, 100%. Danny, anything else we didn't get to hit in the reaction show? - I had two little things upon further, we all do them quickly under the same thing because it's under the same vein that I like being lied to. I don't like being lied to. And I feel like I was lied to by a couple coaches this off season. - Oh, yes. - And now the one may, he may not be a liar just yet, but when Kyle woulding him looked us in the eye and he said, Bryce Underwood is going to play a great quarterback for us. I felt a little bit duped after we know we've seen it. Now he played better, he can still improve. But the coach that really got me, and this was on my radio show, Joey McGuire. Joey McGuire looked me straight in the zoom, looked me right in the eyes, and he made two bold proclamations because he told me they were not going to sign a quarterback had Will Hammond not torn his ACL. They were that confident that he was the guy and the only reason they went and got Brennan source of it because they didn't know when he was going to come back, he also told me that the defense was going to be better than last year's defense. And I feel like I've been lied to it. And I say it in just because these coaches are all selling their players. But thinking about this now, I think it makes complete sense. Now this is two games with the Will Hammond experience 'cause I texted you guys during the Stabbling Christian game. I'm like, now it's making sense. Why Texas Tech was willing to take on the college football world to see if Brennan source could be ready for the back six, back half of the season. It makes way more sense now. I think you could see a quarterback controversy brewing with Thomas Costanlano, whose package is growing bigger. I think we're going to need a quote card for social media. I don't know how you recover from that one. Thomas Castillato is just back in just getting bigger. Any package of plays is getting bigger. He did throw for a touchdown. Yeah, he did, you're right. I think that's confidence. Okay, that's confidence. I thought Thomas Costanlano was signed to be a gadget player who's going to be a weapon on offense receiver. I think there's a very real possibility he could take over the starting quarterback position for Texas Tech. And that makes me lean BYU, honestly. Like if, because BYU and Texas Tech don't play each other. And if we end up where we were at the end of last season, and they're playing in Dallas. And by the way, the kid, Braden Akison, the Mercer transfer lit their defense up for 400 yards. This two weeks in a row. Yeah, he's the first week against Houston. He is, he is a playmaker. He is a fun to watch. But the green, the wide receiver for Oregon State, too, is a big play guy is a fun. Listen, man, all right, we really love college football. And when you've got these stories of like a program, we're like, oh gosh, it might be a really ugly, long year. And they come out and they've hit on some transfers. And it looks like they're playing with some pop. It's a lot of fun. It enthuses me of the many storylines we have throughout the season. Okay, anything else? Then we'll tell the people about. Yes, I'll be quick. The clandery of fit, my priors are being confirmed. It's only been Ohio and Bowling green. So you know, a lot of season left, much tougher games to play. But if you have watched Nebraska through these first two games, it is hard to argue that this offense does not look cleaner. It does not look more efficient. Like the sack rate, you remember how terrible this offensive line was last year? Oh my god, it's so bad. Turns out when you get a quarterback in there who doesn't just stand there and can move, the sack rate drops in half. The run game, when you have a quarterback who can move and defenses have to account for in the run game, is suddenly much more efficient and much more explosive. They just look better across the board. As I said all along, Clandrea is not a more talented quarterback than Dylan Raiola, but he is a much better fit for what Dana Holgerson has always done with his offenses than Raiola ever could have been. And we're seeing it very quickly. And Nebraska offense through two games has been pretty damn impressive. Do you do you think that Nebraska is part of a crew? Gary Parish coined this a long time ago, but the computer trickers, I picked it up, I bring it from time to time. Nebraska's efficiency in big wins, Houston's efficiency in some big wins. I know they weren't great against Oregon State to begin with, but as Oregon States played better, those things. And then Virginia Tech just to kind of obliterating their first two opponents. There's like three teams that I'm watching right now where it's either something or nothing, right? They're either truly or exceeding what the expectations were coming into the year or they're just really good at beating up on bad teams. So we get to put those things to the test once they, once they finally get there. And it does look like the tailgate is on to the, when did you suggest that Dylan, the Dylan Raiola? That I didn't like them? No, that, no, you suggested Dylan Raiola shows up to Oregon and then everything goes down. Dylan Raiola leaves Nebraska and then everything shoots up. I'm not. I mean, the evidence is overwhelming. Yeah, just can you can only say, or is it an Anthony Kalandria? Anthony Kalandria is at UNLV. They are there you know, I prefer this one. Yeah, look what happens when Anthony Kalandria leaves. Let's do it as an Anthony, Anthony Kalandria positive more than a Dylan negative. That's, that's what we'll leave it at here. Okay, where you can come meet us is on Tuesday 11 a.m. Eastern time for another edition of big game breakdown where there's a, there's just a little meetup going on in Oxford, Mississippi that some people might want to be interested in. But listen, Ole Miss LSU is far from the only big game that we're going to be breaking down this week. So come and join us. We'll get going with the big game breakdowns right off the rip at 11 a.m. Of course, hitting some of the biggest news of the day as well. And you can follow him on Twitter at Tom Ferdell. You can follow him @dannykennag, you can follow me @chip_patterson, gentlemen. Thank you very much. Thank you. See you. It was his package of plays. On September 24th from Executive Producer Tim Kardashian and the producers of Love Island's USA, baseball and Scottsdale go hand in hand. Games are intense, parents can also be very intense. What was that? A new, unscripted series about the parents behind Elite Youth Baseball. This is going to stop, let the games begin. I will drop you right here. What do I do? You don't even know what's about to come. Team Mom's Baseball, streaming September 24th only on Paramount Plus.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Florida State has replaced Mike Alfred as athletic director with Bruce Warwick serving as interim, following widespread criticism over mismanagement of resources, NIL policies, and stadium investments.
The leadership change comes amid controversy over Florida State’s $20 million rev-share agreement and a lack of alignment with evolving NCAA rules, particularly in relation to NIL, leading to internal board tensions.
The timing of the change coincides with a major power outage before the SMU game, though the hosts note this was likely a contributing factor to the decision rather than the sole cause, with the athletic department's handling of the game being praised for its resilience.
Summary:
The Cover 3 podcast discusses the sudden resignation of Mike Alfred as Florida State’s athletic director, with Bruce Warwick stepping in as interim. The move follows mounting criticism over strategic missteps, including the controversial $20 million rev-share deal and overspending on stadium renovations while neglecting player investments. Analysts suggest that Alfred’s downfall stemmed from a flawed understanding of NIL regulations and shifting college sports dynamics, particularly the lack of enforcement during a period when other programs openly exploited similar rules.
The timing of the change—just before a key conference game—is seen by some as coincidental, though a power outage preceding the SMU matchup may have intensified scrutiny. Despite the controversy, the podcast acknowledges Florida State’s athletic staff successfully managed the crisis, ensuring the game proceeded. The hosts also highlight the broader implications for head coach Mike Norville, suggesting a potential change in leadership could follow an upset loss to Alabama.
Meanwhile, the AP Top 25 rankings see Texas surge to No. 1 after a dominant win over Ohio State, shifting the landscape with significant realignment. Oregon’s shocking loss to Portland State is viewed as a temporary setback, not a long-term decline, due to the team’s deep talent pool and strong roster.
BYU earns recognition for its disciplined, resilient performance against Arizona, showcasing a solid defensive and cultural identity. The podcast concludes with a focus on Ohio State’s overreliance on quarterback Jeremiah Smith, raising concerns about balanced offensive distribution despite the team’s overall strength. Overall, the episode blends leadership drama, competitive shifts, and tactical analysis to offer a comprehensive look at the evolving college football landscape.
FAQs
Mike Alfred stepped down as Florida State's Athletic Director, effective immediately. His departure is attributed to misjudging key trends in college football, including the NIL landscape and the college sports commission rules. Florida State’s heavy investment in stadium renovations and player facilities, combined with a lack of balanced financial planning, also contributed to the situation.
Bruce Warwick, the senior associate athletic director, has been appointed as the interim Athletic Director following Mike Alfred's departure.
The power outage before the SMU game was noted as a timing factor in the department's leadership change. While not the direct cause, it may have intensified existing tensions and contributed to a decision to replace the Athletic Director amid mounting criticism.
Yes, the leadership change is linked to financial missteps, such as over-investing in stadium renovations at the expense of player development. These decisions were seen as misaligned with evolving college football priorities, especially regarding NIL and player investment.
There is no official announcement yet, but speculation suggests a potential change after a loss to Alabama. The podcast notes that Florida State may act quickly if the team performs poorly, though the decision is still being evaluated.
Texas moved to No. 1 after defeating Ohio State, gaining 56 first-place votes. The rankings show a more democratic distribution of votes, though some teams like LSU and Miami received votes despite questionable resumes. The shift highlights the impact of strong wins over top-ranked opponents.
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