Week 10 College Football Previews & Predictions | BIG GAME BREAKDOWN

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A game of the month, of the year, of the Mac, who knows? But boys, we're not going to even have any pleasantries because we've got too many games. We've got too many angles. This has been the week we've been looking forward to all year. So, Stryker, let's break it down. That's right. Tailgate saying bring your popcorn because there's no time for mid games this week. We are big games only big game hunters. And in terms of the stakes, my heart, it's hard to get much bigger than Miami heading to Notre Dame. It's a game that, that first of all, just in the context of each of the individual seasons for these teams, this is going to be the best chance for both Miami and Notre Dame to make their statement as one of the best teams in the country against another team that would be of the caliber that they would meet in the college football playoff. Very important data point for the college football playoff race. But then there's also the medium, like just recent rivalry. The fact that Miami's win over Notre Dame led to the flip-flop, the bravery of the college football playoff selection committee one year ago to be able to honor that head to head once they got in the same clusters. And so you've got a little bit jangle for Notre Dame and then, oh yeah, decades upon decades of Miami and Notre Dame being one of the rivalries in all of college football. We're connecting generations. Uh, we are bringing college football playoff stakes and oh yeah, these are also two really daggum football teams, two awesome quarterbacks, two great defenses. Um, let's, let's go. Let's, let's, let's pick this apart as only we can. Tom, when you're looking at all the different ways that Miami and Notre Dame have been able to get wins, obviously Miami undefeated Notre Dame with the loss of BYU. When you look at the way that these teams win, how do you think those two things are going to line up against each other on Saturday night in South Bend? Well, it's, it's a complicated situation. I think in that with how they had been winning most of the year, the last few weeks, I don't know. Like I look at this game and I'm trying to figure out which one of these defenses do I trust right now? Because Notre Dame is banged up. They're going to be missing some key guys. We know Drake Bowen is out and we saw like as good as the defense had been early in the year, it didn't look incredible against BYU. BYU was able to move the ball on it pretty well. And now you look at Miami who early in the season was dominating teams, but now they've allowed 93 points over their last three games and they played Florida state pit in North Carolina. It's not like they were playing three incredible offenses and they've been having trouble getting off the field. So I look at this one and I'm just kind of like which one of these defenses can stop the other offense. And I don't know because neither of them are playing all that great right now. I think Tom hit on it, right? The additional injuries to Notre Dame's defense, you know, when you look at them, like the best team they've played by far is BYU. And like when you watch that game, they couldn't get off the field on third down. I do think BYU is do a lot of credit there. They played their butts off. They had some communication issues in that game. Part of it I think was due to the way BYU subbed. But if I'm Miami, I'm like, Hey, I might try to tempo them. I do not want to play a really slow paced defensive game. If I'm the hurricanes, I want to give Mensah as many at bats as I can. So I expect Miami to try to do, to drag this thing into a shootout if possible. Obviously like Miami really good on, on third down on offense, Notre Dame like allows the fewest yards in the country. You know, if I'm the Irish, I'm like, Hey, how much better do we think our red zone defense can get? Because like, that's kind of the only real weakness. They don't allow teams to get to the red zone anyway. So I think we're dealing with like an inherently small sample, despite the fact that this game has been played after Halloween. Like they just haven't faced very many red zone trips this year, but when they have, they've actually not done a very good job of keeping opponents out of the end zone. You know, Miami has been running a little bit better. So if you're the Irish, like how much do you blitz? How much do you come after Mensah? Mensah has typically been really good, like moving in the pocket, playing with dirty pockets. That's one of the things like, like, you know, Duke staff loved when they signed him off Tulane, man, there's like so many things about this matchup that are hard to simulate because like they're in the ACC and they're an independent. So they just haven't played a lot of teams that have athletes so far, you know? So it's like, how, how do they react when, when somebody like, like somebody's kind of similar to them? You know, I, I don't know. Um, I think this has, if Notre Dame's going to win, CJ car has to have the best game he's had as a Notre Dame fighting Irish quarterback. Um, like I trust Aaron Mensah. I think they'll be able to put up some points. I trust his playmaking ability. I trust his playmakers Malachi. Tony's almost uncoverable. I think the run game should be able to get going, but even if it doesn't, like, I think he can get plays through the air, CJ car. I'm not quite as confident in, you know, I think this is a big game for CJ car to kind of show his chops as an NFL caliber quarterback as a national championship, you know, caliber quarterback. When we, we broke down BYU, he missed a couple throws that if they, if he hits those, they win by 10 points, you know, in Provo, but he didn't, it was a little bit off and this is pretty good stack. And I don't think this is not picking on CJ car. There were a lot of quarterbacks this year who put up monster numbers versus lesser competition. And then once the competition bumped up, it was kind of like Julian saying last year, put up monster numbers. Then he faces on it's come way back down to earth. She did car. And here's the thing. This is an opportunity for him because we saw Ashton Daniels have a pretty good day through the air versus this secondary. We just saw Billy air. Let's go torch them. Like, so this should be an opportunity for CJ car to make big inroads to prove that he can do it. Um, so I I'm fascinated by that. What do you think they'll do with Leonard Moore? This is an interesting question because like they traveled their best corner when they played Mackay lemon last year. Right. Right. I, I bet you they do it again, man. I know. I, and that's a matchup. I, if they do that, that'll be like blockbuster matchup to keep an eye on. I have to think like Leonard Moore saying he wants it. I would hope so. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is worth their salt. Want that challenge in the travel, by the way, does not have to do with actual travel. That means that he's defensively the assignment was you stay with, or I guess he's one. Now you stay with one, like the entire way, wherever he is, that's where you go. The rest of the defense will shift around him. And if you're Miami, like if you see they're traveling him on, on a lot of snaps, like how do you go back about attacking that? Right? Like, like there, there are ways you can formation emotion to, to play that to your advantage. Obviously. Yeah. I would love to have Cooper barcade as my two in that situation. When you're able, if you were able to use Tony as a decoy and then just be able to set up some explosive plays going the other way. But the rest of the Notre Dame secondary, he's great too. Right? I mean, this is, this is a phenomenal challenge for what has been in my eyes, the QB one in college football and one of the best passing attacks in college football. They are going to have, um, they're going to have their hands full here, which leads me to my next part of this. Notre Dame fans have been very, very fast. Maybe it's because his name is so short, just not a lot of letters. No, you only need eight letters to get Chris Ash out, right? Like, but boy, they are fast to be able to throw Chris Ash right there into the, the blame pile for why Notre Dame's defense has given up all these yards and these points in recent weeks from what you have seen watching Notre Dame's defense. Is there fair blame to be laid at the defensive coordinator or is this typical football fan behavior when you're looking for somebody to blame? I think if you're Chris Ash, like privately, you'd probably say BYU is doing like a lot of like really sketchy illegal substitution stuff at the refs, let them get away with in that game. Right. Um, if you're Notre Dame fan, you're like, Hey, you're paid pretty handsomely to, to fix that. I think Notre Dame has a lot of really, really good players on their defense, you know, but obviously in that BYU game, they lost their takeover guy to a targeting ejection on the first drive. Right. So I think he's had to be a little more creative as far as the pass rush stuff somewhat. Um, I don't think he's a bad DC. I like, could they do better? I guess, but like, I, if you're Notre Dame fan, you're nitpicking everything because you just don't play anybody for most of the year. Right. Like you, you, we, we talked about this preseason. You were going to draw the absolute worst of the ACC and the big 10 in most weeks. You know, that's just kind of how it shook out. Like they didn't schedule it on purpose. Like they have a schedule. arrangement with the ACC and you get Miami I guess you get SMU but you haven't played him yet like so far you've kind of played middle bottom of the ACC I would ask Notre Dame fans the same question I ask every fan when they're yelling about their coordinators what play should he have called do you know do you have any idea what went wrong did he just did they just get caught in the wrong defense or did the player on the other team just make a play and beat your guy but isn't some of the complaints tied to the idea that uh maybe the players on the field weren't knowing what was being called yeah some of the confusion stuff yeah yeah there's a little bit of that that's you don't want to give BYU freebies right like you you you want to make them earn it and I think the complaints from Notre Dame are well grounded like like BYU had some freebies that some of it they schemed open right and some of that was you didn't look ready but there's like it's I've heard two things though from Notre Dame fans all here is that Chris Ash sucks and our defense is banged up what if it's a mixture of both like what if Chris Ash doesn't suck but he's dealing with a lot of injuries and as you mentioned bud like very first like right away in the in the first game was it was Traore who got ejected yeah yeah yeah so like you lose your most disruptive player on the very first series of the game that kind of impacts everything you're going to be able to do on defense for the rest of that game so I don't know I I wouldn't I I don't I don't I wouldn't say Chris Ash is the greatest defensive coordinator in the country but I don't think he's a like a problem defensive coordinator in any way I just think that you played a team that had a really good game plan for you against BYU and then you lost your most disruptive presence and it impacted you the rest of that game in a very difficult environment against the team that was clearly fired up for you considering the egg it laid the following week against UCF so I don't know I I think there's a based on what we saw from Notre Dame last week against Navy I could see a very BYU fired up performance for Miami feeling like they've been preparing for this game especially since the BYU loss but I I think one thing I think we should mention here this is Miami right yep have you guys seen the forecast for Saturday night 49 45 degrees right now not overly windy but we have seen Miami when they go to colder weather places not be the same kind of team you think 45 is that bad like I I for a Florida guy I hear you guys crying when it's I will say yes yeah I think it is kind of like it's not great it's not the word it could be below 32. but it is definitely a shock to the system I mean it's been you know humid down here I mean it's 80 today like I think it is a big shock you know if you live in it oh it's not bad it's nice football weather but if you travel to it again if it's not windy I mean it probably is a little bit overplayed but yeah just one more kind of thing that I would say is an edge for Notre Dame being comfortable in it oh yeah I mean and and and grass as high as your ankles and wind whipping and just you know like hey all of it all of it's going to be a test and you go back all right so do you remember if it was cold I know it was windy was College Station cold when Miami beat Texas A&M no I mean I think it was probably in the 50s or 60s but it was very windy yeah everything the first round oh do you remember the wind it was like 40 miles an hour it was like in it was crazy but here's what I'm thinking about all those other wins when they were the more physical team and Mario's walking down the roof it controlled environments you know can Miami be the more physical team if Darian Mensah gets you a lead and you've got to put together a long drive and I'm not doubting that they can I just think it is a challenge that I could envision in this game where look I understand we've got a very deep running back room we're not going to ask Mark Fletcher to put on the college football playoff workload especially at this point in the season but if they do need to lean on that ground game if it's Fletcher if it's Mallory if it's the rest of that group can that offensive line which has been pretty effective this year can that offensive line be able to go out there and mash and get hard yards because that is the one thing that I think was so memorable for me about that playoff run was how Miami just out physicaled each of those teams at the line of scrimmage to be able to salt away those wins if they find themselves in the position where Shannon Dawson has set up Darian Mensah and Malachi Tony and Cooper bar Kate and they've been able to pop a couple big plays and get an early lead and stress Notre Dame can you then avoid the the quick possessions can you then have long clock chewing possessions that's going to take running the football and if you're going to talk about conditions then yeah are you ready when it's 45 degrees against Notre Dame in their house to go out there and be the more physical team I think they can be I just think it's the an interesting challenge that we could see play out on the field this is also like the first good drop back team Notre Dame has faced all year right like byu's good off like screens play action you know stuff that have like heavy run game threat elements to it but like as a drop back team byu is nothing special right and now you're facing like maybe the best in the country so like how does byu simulate that how much or sorry how does Notre Dame simulate that in practice like how much good how much good on good have they gone right like we we talked about this in summer school when we had the guys from Irish Illustrated I was like you guys aren't going to face anybody defensively on obvious passing downs until you play Miami like there's just not a QB on your schedule who can do it so how do you have how have you guys rep this like how many weeks have they sprint prepping for Miami like is part of the reason why maybe right like you know do you run like good on good Miami periods for the last six weeks maybe we might say I mean would it surprise you if Notre Dame comes shot out of a cannon looking like they've been preparing for this game all season long and then like win it they should take the first quarter over I think we're gonna see points right off the jump I uh another thing that is worth mentioning here for both of these teams and some of it is due to the schedules that they have played but both of them have been outstanding at forcing turnovers and not turning the ball over themselves we'll see if they're able to continue that or if you know if somebody kind of falters in that aspect clean game but I know it won't happen what happens if if the Irish can block Miami like think about the offensive lines that Miami has faced so far like this is the first real dropback test that Notre Dame has seen all year this is the first good offensive line Miami has seen right I mean you've played Stanford Florida State famu Central Michigan Clemson which has been a disaster up front this year FSU which is like not awful but certainly not good and pit how do you react when you don't get home because they've had they've been having to Blitz a lot more than I think they really want to and I think heatherman's a good Blitz guy but they have not tackled well behind the Blitz at all what happens if your stuff starts getting picked up more what happens if you can't get off the field right that and then that becomes frustrating for Mensah and that offense who are used to you know putting up points getting big plays you know if you're on the sideline can't do anything you think uh note one last note here from me and then uh then we can keep it moving but the game's so awesome I don't mind going a little heavy um yeah do you think that Notre Dame we will see Notre Dame go back to that uh that's that screen game that we talked about with the Florida State and the North Carolina because we saw it with the tight end screen you think that that look at who's the who's on the other end from CJ Carr who are the teams to watch for for the pass catchers that could be set up by Mike Denbrock for some of those explosive plays to test this team on the perimeter and their ability to tackle in open space I I think like the backs and the tight ends on some of that screen stuff like Florida State clearly saw something like they they threw like three or four tight end screens they they hit one of them but and it really wasn't miss tackle it was just wide ass open like I think what North Carolina through two or three like screens to Thurman and the other guy I I'm going to see if Miami can tackle those and read those I think Miami's backers and coverage are exploitable um you know Carr is not afraid to throw the ball over the middle of the field which I think is probably an advantage for the Irish here you know it's just like and like this might be a shootout yeah I want to get Miami still high does it yes we've seen the way that we've seen scoring suppressed anything that gets close to 60 has felt like a high total on the board here in 2026. okay when you get two QBs that are no doubt NFL guys though yeah it's always 56 not a lot of that going on this year right yeah that's the problem this might be the best quarterback on quarterback battle we get all season long so uh let's cherish it because if recent history is going to be anything of a future predictor we're all going to be down to our third quarterback by the time we get to the college football playoff so uh let's cherish it while we still have two quarters for an elite team coming up on the other side we turn our attention to Oxford Mississippi Georgia Bulldogs are coming down the track what's that matchup look like and more next if you have been looking to score unbelievable deals on high-end items without 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search whatnot w-h-a-t-n-o-t in the app store and take a shopping trip live terms apply one of america's top true crime podcasts 48 hours is back with a new season join us every monday for a new episode and tuesdays for a new episode deep dive into that episode with post-mortem he said quote if they're gonna die i'm gonna see them die plus hear episodes from the 48 hours archive wednesdays and thursdays follow and listen to 48 hours wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to 48 hours plus on apple podcast or ad free listening back here on the cover three podcast the georgia bulldogs and the ole miss rebels played a couple of classics last season uh you got to see ole miss get revenge in the college football playoff trinidad chambliss with an outstanding performance to take down the bulldogs in the bracket but it was actually gunner stockton in a passing attack that we were talking about a little bit earlier in the week uh that was the highlight as i remember it from georgia's win against ole miss in the regular season now we're headed to oxford now we've got all the kinds of sec championship college football playoff stakes on this one as well um what kind of advantage is it danny for trinidad chambliss to curby smart glenn schumann and the georgia defense now for a third time since the beginning of last season or the other way if you want to say it's when you said what's the advantage i'm like that's a tough ask like that's one of the tougher matchups in all of college football to go against those defensive minds especially considering you have a new offensive coordinator and john david baker who's been getting up to speed who by the way our boy graham and uh sudo were ready to fire him uh at halftime at the auburn game and then they kind of got a little bit of a chance to get advantage and we didn't hear from them again before they exploded for 45 points um but i do think like the familiarity with the speed you know with the physicality and some of the concepts that you'll see being able to watch your plays because there'll be similar plays against their defenses their coverage that should help because you can go back and watch like you'll watch a lot of film of other teams but it is pretty rare to be able to watch this much of what you've done against them that's a huge advantage it's not a great advantage that you don't have kiwan lacy like that's what they're kind of figuring out what they want to be and i do think that's what we'll probably have trinidad chambliss have to use his legs more they kind of did that a little bit more versus auburn and he's more than capable of doing it and what i love about trinidad is that he's a run threat but he's not looking to run you know he's looking to pass and then if it's not there which is that makes you the most dangerous you know when you can press the button and you can't run that line of scrimmage and you press it you're getting there and then they're like is he gonna run the moment they come up a lot of quarterbacks might still try to make a move he can still throw it down the field he's one of the best at that yeah i mean i i don't think old miss is as good at receiver this year as they were last year like so it's probably gonna have to be even more you know trinidad uh than it was prior you know like looking at this if you're georgia like okay they have our full attention you're not going to get the effort level that you did against auburn right obviously the offense needs to play better defensively though georgia does kind of have the texas template that will must champ use given that must champ was just on their staff like the last three or four years so not only has he faced kirby three times he's also faced kind of a carbon copy of kirby's defense uh you know for for like a fourth time in the last what 14 months and literally just two weeks ago so interrupt like that's part of the interesting chess match here he's seen it recently old miss knows okay if they hit us with this here's our counters and georgia's like hey this is the stuff that texas ran that old miss did not play well we will probably make them show that they can solve some of this before we show them something new i'm just thinking back to last year's games and how awesome gunner and trinidad both were in in those like shootouts and then i'm thinking now about how gunner and trinidad have looked like that we talked about it on yesterday's show gunner the last two weeks since that alabama game has been pretty sub you know below average overall numbers wise but it's not like trinidad was alone because you know you go back to you know the the texas game which was he was just plain old bad like he kind of put some makeup on at the end with the counting stats to make it look better than it was but just overall that was that was a terrible performance by chambliss but it wasn't just that game like if you look at his numbers inside the game you can see that he's been playing a lot of in the month of october he was at 57 at 6.4 per attempt and while the texas game skews that a bit it doesn't do it all because he didn't have a game better than 67 in any of those four as far as completion rates so do we see him bounce back because last week yes danny you're right he did use his legs more but he was still kind of inefficient for a lot of that game before finally finding a rhythm in that second half and going and i do wonder as you mentioned that like byron brown killed georgia with his legs yeah because like auburn wasn't really able to run the ball in that game and brown he hit some passes but it's not like he was doing a whole lot in the passing game he just ran on them and ran on them and ran on them well enough to keep auburn in that game and to put points on the board so i do wonder if we see chambliss used more as a runner in this game since that seems to be one area where georgia's defense has problems and it could be something that they can exploit but i also think that your point the best way to put it is to point you had was just the fact that chambliss can run but he usually doesn't do it unless he absolutely has to like if you think back to the sugar bowl the magic of that game was chambliss keeping plays alive in the pocket and screaming around and escaping pressure but not running just buying his receivers more time to get open and then unleashing like incredible rockets down the field for big plays if he's able to do that again then georgia could be in a whole heck of a lot of trouble if georgia figures out how to keep him hemmed up in the pocket this time and actually get him down when they get to him georgia could win this game by a lot so it's going to be interesting i think really a lot of this game depends and i know this is this is deep thoughtful analysis but which version of the quarterbacks do we get do we get the guys we saw in these games last year or do we get the guys we've seen the last few weeks what about old missus defense yeah i i think that's a big deal here right like georgia is one of the least explosive teams in the country they're 121st in explosiveness like they do not for the most part hit big plays it's very methodical it's very grinded out like old miss has had real real trouble like covering people this year but if there is a contender in the sec that you think you can cover it's probably georgia's pass catchers which are i think probably like the clear weakness of this team so if old miss in the back end can hold up and they can devote you know more bodies to the run game i think georgia is going to be the most explosive team in the country i i think that like they have a real chance to win this it's a big if because they'd look bad against some iffy teams as well certainly you know but some of the teams that ripped them up do have some real dudes and i don't think georgia has that this year at least if they do i mean georgia fans in the comments tell us they're on the roster but i'd like to see it actually on the field at some point georgia's offensive line is pretty damn good though man i think that they're going to be able to move bodies i think they're going to be able to open up some run lanes those backer those running backs have to be able to carry some of the explosive responsibility right and sometimes maybe even because what's our is our explosive run 12 and then pass is 20 are those right for the technical definitions of it statistically yeah i think so everybody has different ones but yeah like 12 is typically for rushes and 15 to 20 for passes yeah give me a nine yard run won't count as an explosive play but buddy that nine yard run could end up being the kind of play that keeps drives alive and feels like an explosive play in the moment i think that i think that georgia's offensive front probably got a little bit of confidence in the way that they were just mashing florida in the second half of that game back in atlanta coming out of the bye week you like to see that kind of edge when you need them to go and win the game even if the offense wasn't hitting explosive plays to be able to blow them out of the water on the scoreboard i'm with you but i think that georgia offensive front in this game might be able to have an advantage that georgia could use to prevent them from winning the game in the second half of that game and i think that georgia's offensive front can protect itself in a difficult road environment game script matters a ton here too like if georgia gets out early i think you feel really really good like obviously teams score first win games we know this but like i think in this one probably more than most uh it does matter like if you actually have to like if old miss is a lead and you have to respect run and pass i think that's a big edge for for uh for chambliss with some of the rpo stuff that they do the other thing that's frustrating to chambliss is you can just do everything right and he can still beat you like we've seen this numerous times and it it's in their stats too like they're the number six offense in the country in passing down success rate like that's typically quarterback play man or like cheat code like jeremiah just defense has the advantage on the leverage and the down and distance and you just beat them like that that's you just don't face any matchups like all year where somebody has a guy like that so if he's on and you have to give old miss a real chance this um speaking of old miss defense i think this is one of the bigger keys of the game like i think it's strength on strength when you think of their front seven is the old miss strength and the strength of georgia is their run game and what they want to do up front with their offensive line and then the weakness of old miss is their secondary and the weaker part of georgia's offense is their pass game so like i'm because because gunner's had a rough patch i know there's been a lot of talk but he has had some big games not this year but going back last year he's played well in some of these types of games yeah so i'm curious to see if he's going to be able to play in some of these types of games see if he can have that type of game when they need it the most danny he's not as like safe of a veteran game manager as people make him out to be right he does he does take risks like like he kind of runs hot and cold like he has some bad misses then he has some wow throws like everybody's like oh you know gunner stockton right you know veteran guy drives a truck like you know just care takes the offense like sometimes they kind of care ticket for him by taking the ball out of his hands like he's not like he's a little more up and down than i think that the narrative out there is and he is capable of special i agree man but like last year the tennessee game on the road he had the great throw and fourth down last year against old miss at home four touchdowns zero intercept played huge in that one against bama and sec title game had a huge game like he just he hasn't had those games this year yet where he's really kind of you know played up and he's kind of played a little bit pedestrian against the better competition i think he needs to have one of those games that he had last year he made a couple big ones against bama you know yeah he also didn't get punished for the bad ones against bama right like the narrative on that game is the ones that were like slipping through defenders hands and like he had two tip balls i think they were caught for first downs you know so but the good was good there's no doubt all this guy's done is love the university of georgia and his teammates okay that's all he's done everybody's out here i was i went back and i re-watched a kirby smart talking to jamie erdahl about jake from and the connection of the vibes of the way that jake from was being trashed by his fan base at the time and then a big win and kirby going to bat for him and jake from talking about i mean it's big big connections there and it ain't just driving a truck but you know this is it sort of feels like we're we're running through the same dance once again with our georgia quarterback anything else on this matchup from the breakdown perspective again our best bets for this game i think it's going to be a big matchup we'll be coming on thursday 11 a.m eastern time in the locks i look forward to watching it i do too 7 30 p.m eastern time uh miami notre dame georgia old miss both be going in prime time as will little little service academy right you see that preposterous total on that service academy time oh goodness gracious we'll get to that later all right let's turn our attention to the afternoon right now baton rouge on full display as lane kiffin welcomes in the alabama crimson tide for this uh what has become now a modern tradition the battle between alabama and lsu here in early november this one doesn't have the same who's going to be number one in the country stakes that we have seen previously but buddy the urgency is high as both of these teams enter the game with a six and two record very much understanding what a win would mean for your postseason future and also what a loss would do to those playoff hopes so let's put the playoff piece to the side again tuesday night at two night 7 p.m eastern time we'll be talking all things playoff and playoff rankings what about the way that these two teams clash against each other dk i'll let you get first word where are your eyes going when you put these two teams down on paper so this one to me it does feel a little bit like you have teams going the opposite direction now i know bama bounced back with a nice win against texan m but and it feels like we kind of forgot about them which we do and teams lose a couple games kind of forget about them and then i see lsu last couple games getting right and i'm starting to buy into lsu but it was mississippi state without camario and it was auburn in a game that there was an early pick that was definitely intercepted they called off the board from sam levitt they overturned it and it was a could have been like a really game changer was early auburn then they kind of just got away from them so i'm very curious to see if this lsu team with sam levitt making better decisions playing within the pocket getting trade as back as a receiving option is that am i buying that what i've seen from them the last couple weeks or is it just fool's gold i'm tending to buy it because i still think this roster is one of the best in the country and then on the flip side i look at alabama and i have no idea if they fix their problems inability to run the football keelan's kind of taking a step back as sort of that first year starter with some you know first first year starter type mistakes that he's made definitely playing playmakers definitely dynamic he could hurt you but big game on the road i get why lsu's favored i guess i'm kind of talking myself around this one but i do think those are sort of the keys that i'm looking for is like i trust lsu a little bit my right here oh wow what words for lane kiffin's lsu tigers but i understand where you're coming from right i mean i i think this game may be decided in the training room i think it's going to be a good game i think it's going to be a good right like your center your bestie tackle maybe your best corner ryan coleman williams like are those guys good to go like those are four probable pro players that if you don't have them in the lineup i think lsu could dog walk you right but we we don't know like that that comes out what tonight i believe so uh tomorrow wednesday okay right so i mean i guess you analyze it like like those guys are going to give it a go but like bama without their center has been like not very good recently you know and they clearly have a really high upside but the floor on this team is also lower which which kind of fits i think with a lot of the stuff that we said in the preseason you know i i think lane with a lot of the rpo stuff would prefer to play a team that plays as much zone as bama does uh but you you got to trust on the qb actually executing him at making the right reads there which i think he does fairly well but it's not always there right um yeah i if bama's healthy i think bama's got a real shot to win this thing um but if not then i i guess you might run away with it i do like you you touched on it danny levitt has been a lot better in the last two games but he did get away with one against auburn but if you just look his whoopsie daisy rate for the first six games of the year was 2.45 percent which is bad the last two games it's been 0.71 percent he has done a much better job of taking care of the football and i think that matters in this game especially because when you look at alabama's defense it's hard to like like if i asked you like what does this defense hang its hat on what is the one thing that it's truly good at there there really isn't anything like it's good but it's not great at anything the only thing that it has genuinely been great at is forcing turnovers i was gonna say that and that's not is it a skill or is that you know i i think that's talent and elite athleticism that they just they they truly have some good play makers on the defensive side of the football i think that is what i feel comfortable hanging my hat on yeah i see a unit that is typically too dependent on it because they don't have a great pass rush they don't do a ton of like incredible stuff they aren't overly disruptive but they do get turnovers and you look in their games that they have won like they're getting the turnovers and they're turning them into points they're averaging thirteen point two points off of turnovers in their wins in the two losses they have seven total between them so it's been pretty clear like if unless the defense is getting the ball back for them it's not really doing a whole lot to help the team and it's going to be important with sam levitt who can be turnover prone who can get panicky can they force him to get those turnovers and on the flip side can you protect keelan and keep him from turning the ball over because like lsu's defense ranks sixth nationally in pressure rate it ranks second in sack rate bama's offense and a lot of this is is due to keelan who will hold on to the ball but for a lot of for good reasons at times and he gets good results out of it but they're 105th in pressure rate allowed protecting him so you can get there if lsu is able to get the keelan and force him into turning the ball over and they're not able to force them on their own like but i don't even know if the health will matter at that point i could see lsu dog walking up if that's a problem going in this one yeah i i do think like bama has been like really good in stuff rate really good in line yards you know they have faced some pretty good offensive lines so far like george is very good kentucky kentucky's pretty good tennessee is good at running the ball um you know i was pretty encouraged by alabama's defense for most of that game in knoxville like the offense was putting them in horrendous spots and they were you know coming up with big stops holding for field goals and not allowing touchdowns you know really kind of until the damn broke late and i i agree with tom i think that they probably have more turnover over reliance than a lot of teams do, but also like how how different is the narrative if they fall on any of the four balls that Georgia put on the ground, if any of those, those tip passes that went for first downs end up, you know, falling incomplete or intercept, or if the one is probably correctly called like a pick or, you know, the other one is just held onto. Like, I think they, they do thrive on confusion, but even at some of their losses, they've created confusion. It's just like, does that confusion end up in the hands of a defender? I do think Levitt's legs factor in really big here, right? I don't know that LSU is capable of just lining up and running the ball on this Bama front, especially not if they get their best D lineman back, right? I also think Jackson Harris is a major factor here. Like LSU all season, we're like, who's their receiver who scares you? And I don't know how scary Harris is, but he was really productive before getting to LSU and he sort of started to emerge as like the guy they can trust in this thing. And I think it took them a while to figure out, okay, who's our guy outside of trade as who we can really depend on. What'd you say, Tom? Dude, tendencies, dude, tendencies. We're not going to declare, you know, not quite, but they needed somebody to show a little bit of those dude tendencies. I think it's a scary, awesome QB matchup. Cause they're both terrifying and awesome. It could just be scary or it could be awesome. Like, I mean, if this is like, you know, 35, 31, is it really shock anybody? No, not, not, not with these two play callers and these two QBs. Do you think Levitt is healthy? I don't think I texted you guys. Like I was watching it. I texted you and I was watching it and like, I saw him look a little gimpy. Like he was, he was easy. Just kind of coasted out of bounds and I thought he was limping, but then the next, like they ran him the next play. It was like, he was fine, but I don't know. He shows it, right? Yeah. There are always guys who will, you know, show it. They want you to know. Yeah. Um, would you take a Kayla and DeBoer at Florida state? Hell yeah. So are you guys rooting for LSU? Like it's not a buyout to pay that kind of buyout, but yeah. You know, I mean, listen, buyouts are all new now. Remember because after the James Franklin chapter, you know, we, we now call it offloading, right? Yeah. You just, you just absorb their salary and the remaining salary. I don't think there's a chance that hell Kayla and DeBoer goes anywhere with Keelan Russell locked in for year two. Keelan package deal. Bring it back. That's the kind of guy you went a national title with. Yeah. I know at Florida state coming up on the other side. Oh man. It is judgment day for the Ohio state. Buckeyes cross roads for Luke Fahey and the Ohio state offense and a Holy war Utah BYU with massive stakes. All that and more. Next. Hi, I'm Tony DeCoppo and as anchor of the CBS evening news, I am filled with endless curiosity about our world and our society. Maybe you are too. My new podcast is called great question. It's an effort to capture that curiosity and to answer the question you haven't heard a satisfying answer to, or maybe haven't even heard asked. Follow and listen to great question. Go to, with Tony DeCoppo, wherever you get your podcasts back here on the cover three podcast. And yes, another important chapter of this massive week 10 slate is the Ohio state. Buckeyes have no time to be able to lick their wounds after losing out in Los Angeles against USC, because now they've got to return home against an Oregon team that might might have at least found a little bit more confidence after a win against Northwestern, a win that included outscoring the wildcats 28 to six after going down by a double digit deficit early in the game. That was the first game since firing offensive coordinator, drew Merringer and the results were, you know, a little bit disjointed as the game flow, as I just described might have indicated, but now the ducks, if they are going to fight to be able to keep their season alive, they've got a, a great, great carrot that they can hang with the opportunity to go up against Ohio state who no matter what the roster, the injury report is looking like, that is still the Ohio state Buckeyes in the shoe. I think you're going to get Oregon's full focused best shot. I don't know if Northwestern was their super bowl Ryan day and the Buckeyes. They've got to find ways to answer because Luke Fahey, as bud described earlier this week through five quarters of competitive football against power conference competition, not it's been more, more than a downgrade from what you were getting with Julian saying, it's starting to become a little bit of a liability for what the Buckeyes want to accomplish this year. But since I just mentioned to you, I'll let you get first word. Now we looked at Ohio state's offense in a vacuum in the wake of the USC loss. Now we're spinning it forward against Oregon's defense. What are the answers? What are the counters? What are the ways that Ohio state can try to find ways to score enough points to win? Well, you're, you're about to see a hell of a lot better defensive front than you saw from USC, right? And then, and USC has got some guys, but Oregon is, is better defensively. Certainly than, than USC is. And your offense looked really limited as Danny had a great film breakdown yesterday. Like Fahey didn't make like a million mistakes, but they are very limited in what they can call for him. Like limited number of concepts. It's pretty clear that they're comfortable calling for him. So if you're Oregon, USC or Ohio state just had to show their hand against USC somewhat of like what this guy can run coming off of my week. Like that's what you, you felt good about running. Okay. Like that, that is really problematic. You know, Ohio state's backs are like not real special. They're kind of like by Ohio state standards are kind of just jags. Right. Um, and Jeremiah remains Jeremiah. He's awesome. But I think if you're Oregon, you're like, man, we, we can hold these guys and something in the teens. Maybe we can find a way to win this ballgame. And I don't have a whole lot of confidence in Oregon's offense still. Like I know they look better last week. I think the coordinator change is probably good. Not convinced. That's like totally fixed. To be honest, I don't think Northwestern is anything special, but an Ohio state's defense is still quite good. They have to tackle better than they did last week. But I mean, if you're Oregon, you want this to be an absolute slog and a dog fight. And I don't know that USC or that Ohio state can play any other type of game here. Shout out to anybody who got Oregon plus 10 and a half when this line first opened, by the way. Um, yeah, that was there. Yeah. That's seven and a half yesterday. It was kind of, kind of wild too. Now it's mostly sevens. Um, it is like, I saw a stat this morning that kind of surprised me. It was, uh, is, is our friend David Hale who, who tweeted that there, there are only eight teams this season who have at least three wins against teams with S like in the SP plus top 40. And the only one with four is Oregon, which is strange when you think of like the narrative surrounding Oregon this year and how disastrous the season has been, they've got a ton of really good and impressive wins. And it's strange to think that despite all that, narrative, like they come into this game and I feel like I'm a little bit more confident in the ducks than I am in Ohio state, just based on how the season has gone all year long. I do agree with you, but I think a lot of what we saw last week with that offense was like Northwestern wasn't really sure what, what it was going to get from a new play caller. And now Ohio state is at least seen a game of tape on, okay, this is what they're going to try to do. We can help prepare for it so that I don't expect that Dylan Riel is going to throw for 300 plus again this week on the road against Ohio state. And also, because if you look at Oregon, what did their three losses all have in common? They came on the road. They lost at Oklahoma or no, they lost, sorry, they lost at home to UCLA, but they lost at Oklahoma state and they lost at Illinois and they lost at Illinois to an Illinois team that was like Ohio state with its backup quarterback. Although he was in his first start in that one. So I'm not overly enthusiastic about Oregon being able to go and try to turn this into a shootout or looking great on offense. I am enthusiastic, enthusiastic about their defense giving this Ohio state offense with Luke Fahey problems because Ohio state's offensive line, they got Searville back last week against USC, but I was not overly impressed by what they were doing as far as in pass pro. They weren't terrible, but they're going to face a much better pass rush this week. And I do worry that there will be problems. And with Fahey's inexperience, will he be able to withstand that kind of pressure in these spots or will he falter and maybe make some mistakes? And I, I know I've joked about him being five, seven, but this is a case where his height, I think could be a very real problem for him. They're going to have to get him out of the pocket a lot, but kind of like what we saw last week, a lot of like level concepts with him rolling out, trying to find the open guy. Can he do it? Can he hit those throws? Can he find Jeremiah for some plays and will they be able to run the ball? Because that was the one thing about the USC game that I was impressed by. I'm impressed might be the wrong word, but they did run the ball probably as well as they have all season long as far as hitting explosives in that game and getting long runs. They didn't break away for long touchdowns, which is something that would be really handy for them right now. If they could just break free for a 50 yard touchdown run, that would go a very long way for this offense these days. I don't know if they can do that here. We'll see if we can, if they can find one in this spot, but it's just, it's this game is nowhere near what we were thinking it was going to be at the start of the year. Like this was supposed to be a top five matchup instead. It is one of these teams is unranked. Both of them have backup quarterbacks. quarterbacks in one of them is at least more experienced in this kind of matter. It's just going to be which one of these backup quarterbacks makes fewer mistakes. And, man, it is weird to say this considering my history, but, hey, I'd rather have Dylan Rayola than Luke Fahey right now. Whoa! Oh, easily. Yeah. He played two full seasons of football. Yeah, but I will say, like, Fahey made mistakes last week. The plays were there. And the plays were there. If maybe getting the kind of first-game jitters out of the way, being on the road, you've been through it before now, you know what to expect in your week of prep for an opponent as the starting quarterback. Now you're coming home. It's going to be a friendlier environment. Maybe those jitters aren't as prevalent because, again, he was also on the road in that Indiana game, thrown into it like a lion's den where he was like, oh, crap, we need to hold on. Go save us, kid. So maybe we see him calm down. Maybe we see him with better command and presence of this offense, and maybe we see him hit some of those throws he wasn't hitting last week. Yeah, and some of the pressure's on him, too. Like, some of the pressure, like, the ball needs to be out against some of those looks, and he held it. Like, that's not all in the offensive line. The offensive line, they did not do a great job. Even in the run game a couple times, that's the one thing I worry a little bit about. Number 58, the right guard. I don't know if you guys remember, there was a handoff early in the game, and I think it was a gun, and he handed it to him, and he was like, oh, my God. And the deep tackle was almost grabbed the ball. He beat the right guard that bad. The play that we drew up where I was like, man, if he would have thrown this earlier, it was interior pressure came in front of him. It was not great. It was good. It wasn't the worst I've ever seen, but it wasn't great. And that's where you have to, everybody has to play better. You have to give a freshman a little bit more time. Other thing that was interesting is USC didn't bring as much pressure as I thought. They blitzed. They had. They brought five a lot. They didn't bring six and seven, and they didn't load up the box that much. And I think that's because you have to be scared of Jeremiah Smith, no matter who's playing quarterback. So you kind of have to keep two guys in coverage. You don't want to sell out because normally if you're playing a true freshman, you're like, we're going to load up the box. We'll send six, seven, eight. You know, go ahead. Beat us through the air. But you have to be a little bit careful with that. And that's where I think Oregon, if USC didn't bring that much pressure, I don't know if Oregon has to either. Then you can kind of mix up coverages. You can confuse them. And if you're able to pressure them as well, that's when it comes really can make it tough on a freshman quarterback. Is it tougher than it already is? They do have to do. I mean, they just have to do a better job running the football. He's got to make the same, you know, like he can make a couple more plays and don't make the big mistake. And I don't know. Raiola, as much as I said, he's played a lot more. He still does have the old whoopsie daisy inside of him trying to do too much. Like if that's the one thing I would be telling, don't forget you're playing against a true freshman. You don't have to make the play. This might be a lower scoring game. You know, let's see how this thing works out. Also, we've seen it this week and I've seen some of it in the chat about how we're talking too much about Fahey and we're not complaining about their defensive performance last week. Your defensive performance wasn't that bad. You gave up two really long plays on the long touchdown and then the ball game kind of this juggernaut play to get him into the first and goal. Overall, you look at a success rate kind of thing. It wasn't your typical what you expect from your Ohio State defense. I know it's not what you're used to seeing, but statistically that was pretty much a middle-of-the-road performance last week. It was not awful. You just gave up two really big plays. Just if they had been touchdowns and not field goals, it was a different game. But that's what and that's offensive execution right there. Not being able to punch those in you mentioned the height. You mentioned interior pressure. You know, who is six foot three with six pass deflections this season. Amari, Washington. Buddy, these hands are going up, you know, like this. This window is going to be closed right here. Also, I know that Dan Lanning is a big fan of the cover three podcast. He'll have the boys dialed in for all the smash concepts. Sorry, Ohio State. DK let the D I know that Dan was not going to watch film at all. He was just going to come for DK's for DK's breakdown. But we got it. We got Ohio State nailed on that one. So you just need to make sure and then the other piece of this. There were some passes that Dylan Raiola had that I do think against a different secondary at Ohio State. You're just not going to have that much space to be able to check it up there. You know, like the windows are going to be a little bit smaller against the Buckeyes. So that's something that Dylan's going to have to make sure with this decision-making that he doesn't, you know, take those some of those same chances. Don't don't do the jump pass. You did the Johnson. And that's that was terrified me because he completed it. I know it's like it's like green light. It's like when you're watching your basketball team and like the one guy who is not a very good shooter, but he makes his first three and you're sitting there like, oh God, he's just going to keep chucking them up the rest of the game now and then shoot 20% and you see Raiola make that throw and not that had that same thought. I'm like, oh no. Yeah. I mean a lot of this is like hold on. We're sure Dylan Raiola against a fire up, Ohio State defense coordinated by Matt Patricia. Like we're feeling good about this. Really? This is 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time in Columbus. Danny going to be there. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, what's up? What's up? Riding Cardell's coattails. I'm just going anywhere. Cardell Jones goes because my man is a legend. You love this back when you could win national titles with your third string quarterback before the transfer portal existed. Is it so you Cardale? Beanie and Emily. Okay. No beanie or yes beanie. I don't think so. I think being in New York, New York or Fort Lauderdale. Yeah. Okay. Well, Emily have dried off after being on the sidelines for the game. It's still raining down here. She might not thank God. It's not a noon game. It didn't it didn't it did it was a little unsettling to to hear our friend Emily call herself a local, you know for somebody who's just like Tennessee through and through but she is she lives there, right? She lives in South Florida. You can see it on the screen. Yes, do hang out. CBS Sports HQ coverage college football pregame live from Columbus, Ohio with special guest Cardale Jones Emily proud Damien Harris DK and Cardale. They're going to get you set all through the day. That'll start at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time on CBS Sports HQ. It will also include extensive pregame coverage beginning around 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time all leading up to kick off and so much more than a CBS Sports HQ on the road from Columbus around Oregon at Ohio State also. We got a double header on CBS America's most watched Network the network of stars Mikey Stadium under the lights 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time Air Force and Army will turn that your attention to that. I'm sure on Thursday as well the total 45 and a half. What are we doing? What are we doing? I'm I cannot wait to celebrate democracy here in the next couple hours and I will also celebrate my own American right to to take the under on that one, you know when we that locks episode comes around on Thursday. All right. Let us now turn our attention to the Big 12, which you know, we had to beg to get this game put on the rundown. You know this you guys don't understand how much pressure we're under from striker and Taft to just not talk about the Big 12, but we fight for you the people by you Utah noon Eastern Time 10 local the Utes are eight. No by you is seven and one that 15 and one record makes this among the most anticipated additions of the Holy War rivalry that we have ever had. So now we're looking at the stakes college football playoff Big 12 title all of the rivalry beef that's always at on the line in this one. How do you how do you end up seeing these two teams match up against each other? Especially let's look at what BYU's done since beating Notre Dame right they lose to UCF and I don't know what kind of grade you give them for the Arizona State game, but I don't know if all of my concerns are necessarily. Smoothed over as we now prepare for one of the biggest games of the year like look at their postgame weight expectancy in the last four games right 66 41 which was Notre Dame 37 and 55. They have not been looking superior in the last month. I mean, I think they're a good football team. I think they play situations really well. I think they're a tough team. I think Bachmeier operates that offense really well, you know to me this comes down to can they hit explosives? Can the menu because Utah defensively on a down-to-down basis is not not bad at all. They are really sketchy when it comes to giving up big plays though. Like when Utah gives up a play it gives up a big play. So if I'm BYU like how do I stay true to myself and run what I want to run but realize that you probably can't like methodically drive the ball on this Utah team for too many drives. Like how do you hunt explosives and exploit their aggressiveness? I mean, I was going to start I was going to play our favorite game. What what's the best defense Utah has seen this year? Houston and Houston ranked 60th and points per drive and 93rd and success rate on defense. It's not like they have faced a murderer or so, but then you get to the other question that Bud kind of touched on are we sure BYU is even that good of a defense because it hasn't been incredible. In fact, statistically, it's mostly ordinary. They just do a really good job of limiting. explosive plays which is somewhat surprising seeing as how they rank 138th nationally in missed tackle rate they do not tackle well yet they somehow figure out a way to keep you from getting explosives they don't have much pass rush to speak of and after allowing 15 points per game in their first four games against fbs opponents as bud touched on the last month they're allowing 27.7 points per game in their last three so i you know utah is favored here by what almost a touchdown they're at home all this i just yeah i i have more confidence in utah right now than i do byu and the fact that like utah going on the road last week and doing what they did to cincinnati in the sandwich spot of all sandwich spots coming off the houston win and with this game looming gave me so much respect for morgan scali and this coaching staff first time head coach like we have seen very experienced head coaches not able to keep their teams focused and ready in spots like this in the past and they came out with their hair on fire and absolutely obliterated cincinnati right out of the jump they weren't caught looking ahead to this one i just i think they're well coached i think that they are have been in some tight spots where even when they're not playing great they have figured out ways to win games and they're not going to be able to be able to win games and i know byu has also done that for the most part but byu we saw what i just touched on with morgan scali and this team being ready what happened to them the week after the notre dame game they got killed by a team that they are much better than or at least supposed to be much better than so i i don't know i've got far more faith in utah right now than i do on the defensive side of the ball i like them a little offensively i i think byu is more dangerous because i think bear is more of a i think bear is better in the passing game than than devon dampier is i think bear is better in the passing game than than devon dampier is i think bear is better in the but i just i don't know if byu defensively right now is in a good spot to where i trust it to get the kind of stops it's going to need uh lj martin is he back i know it's been coy i don't think so i don't think so no so this one i think is you mentioned bear bachmeyer so utah they like to run a lot of man coverage um they're gonna i think they will stack the box and say all right beat us and dare bear to beat them through the air but if they're running man covers like that if they're running man coverage for a running quarterback like you get everybody turn their backs to you they're covering routes down the field that could open up some running opportunities for bear so i'm curious to see if they have a spy for him do they keep somebody who account for him in that man coverage because if they don't i can see bear have a game like he did their first game without lj was when he went off against iowa state iowa state's defense isn't anywhere near as good as utah's um so something to watch out for and then no one's really been able to do it i think byu is probably equipped to do it more so i mentioned this last week against cincinnati can you take away devon dampier and way sean parker on the ground and can you force devon dampier to just beat you from the pocket because i it's a little bit dicey he made some big plays last week in cincinnati again i think this will be the best most physical front seven they've faced so i can feel like i'm repeating myself every time we talked about utah no one's down that run game or at least contain it where it puts a little more pressure on dampier to beat you through his arm did you guys have that missed tackle number tom dropped i didn't have that on my notepad that's because you talk about parker is a slippery player in terms of being able if you don't get him all the way to the ground then he can be able to elude defenders and be able to rip off an explosive play do you think that this is going to be a game that gets a little bit rock fighty or what's what kind of game script would you be anticipating or expecting here i don't think byu wants to get in the shootout at all i i think they want to control it like utah i think is more comfortable playing a little more wide open forcing the issue like if i'm utah i'm not sitting back like i'm making bachmeyer and those receivers beat me one-on-one and coming after you and you can't let them have the same thing they had against notre dame where they got the fast start and then defended it the rest of the way right yeah yeah i like that morgan scally also a big fan of the cover three podcast we got you covered um anything else here with this matchup we want to make sure we spotlight before we uh before we keep it moving if you thought wins this they're they locked into the big 12 championship i would need have they locked to the playoff well i mean the the remaining schedule for the utah youths beyond this game arizona on the road that'll be a challenge but then tcu and west virginia if you've been good enough to be able to get yourself to nine and oh i would hope that you could be able to mostly land the plane to 11 and one at worst if they're able to get the win here and that seemingly this year should be able to set utah up they would need to finish the job though and i'm i'm gonna respect the uh respect the process we get our official rankings i saw the hats being put at the door oh my so uh i wanted to make sure you saw that yeah it was so cool i mean it's just the it really is moving you know the same way that you know the national anthem you know can be you know it's just the the opening ceremony that just makes you remember the institutions that this great country has the college football playoff selection process certainly among them um okay let's turn our attention to the texas longhorns as they go to take on the missouri tigers in columbia tricky little spot for a texas team that seemingly has kind of turned things around back-to-back wins old miss mississippi state uh obviously mississippi state not camario taylor is not going to be the one that changes your mind about this team but the fact that they were able to get that victory against the rebels snapping a two-game skid has certainly kept everything in front of them now there are still monsters left in november including another road trip to lsu coming up next week before they finish out the season with arkansas and texas a and m so this little two game this little texas two-step for the longhorns gallivanting around uh missouri and louisiana it'll kind of tell us everything we need to know about what's going on in the game and what steve sarkeesian arch manning and this texas team is going to end up doing what do they do in this game um dk what do you have your eyes on what version are we gonna get of texas i mean what are we gonna get the version what we saw in the first quarter versus old miss and they come out you know defense looks awesome arch is clean he's crisp he's on you know playing within the system getting the ball out of his hands quick or are we gonna get a team that's a quarter because we haven't seen texas put together four quarters um you know and i think the defense could be very problematic for austin simmons but with ahmad hardy back with jamal roberts they've got two threats now in the backfield you know it's at home i think it's a tricky spot for texas i think this is a really tricky spot i'm just curious to know what eli has like what's his quote after the game like what's he gonna you know i just you know he's got a zinger ready to go if they do pull off the upset did you see him hit arkansas with changing the light bulbs yeah of course that's what i'm saying what's it gonna be for texas yeah if they're all those teams if there's a bunch of nine and three teams and it's gonna be weird because we mentioned the cannibalization of the schedule wait till they have to start looking at each other and say that team's not worthy of playoff they're all gonna take out mizzou right we can all agree on that if the if the sec teams have to campaign against one another they're gonna knock out missouri like that's gonna be the one yeah i i would agree i the injury report for texas is sketch guys so smothers littleton phillips coleman wingo simmons um i didn't see anything on simmons i i like that's a pretty banged up texas team against the missouri team that's better than i thought they're gonna be this year um a lot of this comes down to like what version of austin simmons do you get like if you get like good austin simmons he could be very dangerous and you could be in real trouble if you get bad austin simmons and you score on defense and you know uh that that's kind of all she wrote like texas defense has been really reliable this year we didn't really get a sense though of what they were going to be with those secondary injuries because they were just like mississippi state's offensive line is just like kind of terrible and so the d line just ate him up so much that we didn't get to see mississippi state's backup qb expose or not expose that secondary in austin because the pressure was on him like they sacked him seven times so i think that's a good thing to do so that's kind of a question here like missouri has some decent receivers and simmons can push the ball down the field and texas will kind of dare you and give you opportunities to do so so i i'm curious to see like how much can missouri attack them vertically did you see the throw austin simmons made that was kind of i think aaron murray posted a couple people posted it it was like a it was like a down the field post like maybe a bit of cover to like split the middle maybe it was tampa too there was like a backer trailing and it was like right between three defenders perfectly thrown and it was like a backer trailing and it was like a backer thrown kept the receiver in stride i mean he's got the arm talent his goodness really good man yeah um i like from reading twitter and other stuff people think wingo's gonna go and he's from st louis so like there's some motivation like if if he has any chance to play i bet you he says i'm playing would you rather have donovan aluba day and caden lee or um deuce alexander and choose old miss receiver number two i guess odom if you wanted to say like you know as your second pass catcher probably missouri's group yeah probably yeah i was wondering if they're not going to be able to torment simmons the way that they tormented um yeah add just because you've got a little just a little bit just a little bit of a higher caliber of pass catchers that you're having to deal with on the outside i mean the other the other aspect of this too is it's a early start mizzou has been much better at home than they have been on the road like they got killed by old miss in oxford they lost to mississippi state on the road and the one ranked win they have was at florida or versus florida at home so you're getting texas at home but i don't know man like i i know they beat florida and it was great for them to get that top 10 win at the time but it's not really a top 10 win anymore so we'll see it's yeah it's like a good 32 win so we'll see we'll see um okay let's see i'll go up we've uh we're already pretty heavy on time i'll go open board we're what's in any matchup any matchup angle that we want to make sure that we get on the record before uh we we close up shop here on a tuesday and then start to turn the audience's attention to our very special announcement kentucky tennessee okay what's your matchup angle what are we looking at like the weakness for tennessee is the for kentucky is the past defense the kentucky's past defense is legitimately like their big weakness and it's also like the passing of the football is also tennessee's weakness so who can kind of solve for their weakness a little bit better i i think is the team that will win this game like tennessee could run at some we know kentucky can run at some but like kentucky's defense on obvious passing defense is the one that's going to win this game but like kentucky's defense on obvious passing downs has been really suspect so can they change that can tennessee take advantage of that that that to me like like this is just two kind of very red numbers for the offense and the defense and whoever can kind of get that red into like maybe a shade of pink on the stat sheet is the team that probably wins this game but overall when i wrap kentucky up they end up being pretty good but not great everything all taken into like compiled you're like man they you're like man they do a lot of things really really well what do they do really really well because tennessee's the opposite to me where they run the football really well and they got a great defensive front but their passing game is one of the least effective passing attacks in in the sec and maybe maybe mississippi state without camario now starts to join that conversation as well but tennessee knows exactly what it who it is and it's playing at home kentucky really does feel like it's just been some will stein pixie dust that has made a lot of b pluses look like a minuses and a's in the in in a lot of great situation which is good coaching which is good coaching but it's a that that to me makes something interesting i think kentucky's going to need to be special at something if they're going to be able to get in and out of knoxville with the win their offensive line is really good they're going to get tested big time don't let this game get to ot yeah oh you're screwed better go for two you better win it in regulation do not do not do that um tommy any got ucla minnesota as well that's a little intriguing oklahoma whoa whoa whoa i mean we have a playoff elimination game yeah we do iowa northwestern that's a that's a and which are we going to roll with the hot hand is hank brown keep it rolling yeah is he getting benched mid-game and hecklin comes in and the offense wakes up and then what does phil parker and that iowa defense do with all the bag of tricks that chip kelly's got up his sleeve how many receivers are going to see lined up in a row stacked up on each other what back are we going to see you know twenty yards deep running reverse motion you know to get a pitch out of the backfield that's just thrown differently that game's going to be fun according to fpi there is an eighteen and a half percent chance that one of these two teams will be in the college football playoff this year but the loser of this game will be down to zero yeah that's that game who how what would you say tom what's going to be the the key matchup point there uh i mean games at northwestern and of all places to actually have a home field advantage now northwestern has a home field advantage in that stadium can iowa withstand the atmosphere of ryan field can hank brown deal with it can he move the ball without turning it over we'll see can they stop aiden chiles this is is this the best quarterback matchup of the weekend some are asking in the big ten maybe in the country probably um i i think that iowa's ability to score the football and take advantage of those wisconsin errors just flipped that game on its head so quickly i just i don't know how much of it i'm willing to walk away from and just is hank brown the answer he looked a lot better man in in recent weeks i'm he may be better i thought he was i don't know that he's good but like i he's played not horrendously i think if you're tim larkin you're going to be a good quarterback i think if you're tim larkin you're going to be a good quarterback i think if you're tim larkin you're going to be a good quarterback lester you kind of it's like a pitcher like you have two pitchers i hate two quarterback systems but we've seen them both struggle and then we've seen them both get hot like if they're not if he has a couple picks i wouldn't be surprised if they do go to the bench but he has been playing better yep we are going to be back oh sorry thank you schreger i appreciate that guys we've been asking for something from y'all we have been asking for you to subscribe to the channel because we were told that we're not going to be allowed out of the game we're not going to be allowed out of the right i mean danny danny is it danny's danny gets to go and be the important you know the face you know the poster boy for cbs sports is college football coverage but not us not us unclean unclean hooligans no you've we have to earn our right to get on the road and thanks to you thanks to your passion and thanks to you smashing that subscribe every single time that we are on this show we are going on the road baby let's go the cover three tailgate will be live next week in bloomington indiana now what does that mean it means yes the cover three tailgate will have an opportunity to gather together as we are planning to be there friday in the afternoon we'll let you know a little bit more about the details as well in addition to saturday morning before things get started we'll have some coverage leading up to kickoff as well we'll be around the stadium we'll be around the town and we want to see you so if you would like to come and see us go ahead and make your plans now for next week the cover three podcast the cover three tailgate goes live from bloomington indiana usc at indiana so that means again friday we'll have uh we will have a show that we will have an opportunity to either come see us come hang out with us then on saturday we are going to be doing some pre-game coverage for cbs sports hq as well saturday night we're going to do our live instant reaction show tbd on where but you know we're going to be out there breaking down everything that we saw not only the game in front of us usc indiana but everything from across the country we are very very excited we thank you for subscribing to the cover three podcast as always let's keep it going so we can continue to hit our goals cover threes hitting the road next week more details to come you tell me with ai you couldn't get rid of all those chins i had i mean that was a big smile i'm okay make that jawline look a little more chiseled when they bulk chip for the uh the the small studio band thing the outstanding they both dandy too yeah yeah exactly uh we are going to be back with you on thursday 11 a.m eastern time for the week 10 lock so come and hang out jump in the tailgate early and you can follow him on twitter at time for no you can follow him at danny kiddo follow him at bloody three follow me at chip underscore patterson gentlemen thank you very much thank you see y'all need a break forget it i quit escape to pluto tv this is objectively fantastic watch tommy boy crazy ex-girlfriend wayne's world and more we're not worthy the best things on tv really are free 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