Week 3 Upset Alerts & Viewer Guide + Hot Seat Updates

i consider this a really big show i consider every show a big show but especially tonight on this jam-packed uh show high atop a blistering downtown nashville tennessee we've got the returns of two things that the people have cried for it's thursday september 17th year of our lord 2026 upset alerts are on the show tonight some disrespectful curious lines out there but you know what's back jesse the commissioner's poll is back we do so many power ratings around here people are like hey what about your rankings they're back that's the first thing the people have cried for that is back we've got the viewers guide the award-winning pate state viewers guide is back tonight although that's not the second thing the second thing that's back we got a live show coming up next friday next friday and i will reveal the details the location and i will uh go ahead and let you know tickets are about to go on sale as soon as i make this announcement in the next 30 some odd minutes so it pays to watch the thursday show we're jam-packed and they're watching us in roanoke virginia foley alabama chicago illinois laredo texas we will be in auburn alabama later tonight actually but we'll be there live tomorrow two eastern one central right there on campus come find us hang out myself will compton taylor lawan maybe a surprise guest or two you never know what can happen on these live shows on espn beautiful day expected in auburn and beautiful people in auburn jesse will be there too they got a taziki's in auburn jesse did you know that it's a very very inside story that frankly i don't have time to tell on tonight's show what i do have time for upset alerts we got a lot of them i got the scale here in my mind one to ten how concerned are we where is the upset alert concern meter on these games well you remember last year alabama goes to florida state they lose they get down early it's pouring down rain and then it's sunny and that place is going berserk and ty simpson and the offense implode on the road the defense does too well here's the return trip tomorrow afternoon 2 30 central kick bam is an 18 and a half point favorite and i'm throwing not one not two but a three on the upset alert concern meter and i'm going to tell you why jesse would you agree with me florida state's got to be able to run the ball kind of like they did in last year's game to have a shot here and look if it was last year's holdovers i'd give them an outside shot these are not alabama holdovers from last year you really really really haven't proven or no one has proven they can run the ball in alabama so far this year and i don't expect florida state to change that tomorrow or saturday uh keelan russell mistakes maybe if you could sell me that those happen and they're not immune to them they haven't been able to run the ball thus far maybe i would buy the upset alert concern but i'm not so i'm going to put a three on that one there's another game happening saturday in the sec that is kentucky at texas a&m texas a&m is a 16 and a half point favorite i got a phone call earlier today from someone that you would label as in the know that was flabbergasted by this line they're like did people just look at the score for a&m last week but they didn't actually watch the game i don't know i don't know what fan duel is doing in their free time i also agree this number is a little too big the a&m run game has been mediocre they've had very few explosive plays cutter boley had some success against them through the air maybe kenny menchie finds a little success here marcel reed in 13 of his last 17 games against p4 competition has at least one interception if you put all that in the bucket and just blend it all together i could see this being a weird four-quarter game to the point where i'm going to put a six on it like this is not a terrible kentucky team going on the road and i don't quite know what caliber team it is for a&m also who do they play the week after lsu so i don't think many people have their eyes on this one i will though a&m by 16 and a half at fan duel i'm going to put a six on it i have a little bit of concern now i'm going to pull the eye josh out here because the next game that we're going to talk about i don't think belongs on this piece of paper but some people do do you know what rutgers is doing saturday afternoon allegedly they're going to play football and it would be against usc if they decide to show up usc is a 22 and a half point favorite now i am looking at the board and i skipped right over this game i didn't have any interest in talking about it and then jesse said wait a second why are you uh why are you skipping over that game and i said well jesse it's because it's usc rutgers especially rutgers uh they're calling about the rental car oh no uh so i did something that i think is legal in the state of tennessee and i just started recording in our production meeting jesse making his plea for rutgers mind you people not rutgers to cover this is a segment about concerns for an outright upset and jesse i'm gonna put a two and a half on this one you put a what a six you have a six on the upset alert concern meter in your own head that rutgers can pull it off and uh jesse was talking and here's what it sounded like so yes i have usc ruckers on upset alert usc has to travel cross country for this game has ruckers been a disaster so far yes they are over two lost to umass lost to boston okay that's a recap of the season so far let's fast forward a little bit jesse continues so this usc defense hasn't been amazing they have the shutout against fresno but they gave up 26 to san jose state 30 to louisiana next week they play oregon and one of their biggest games of the season is this a travel spot and a look ahead spot all built into one they might be without trent mosley their leading wide receiver and my ob has been playing at a really high level but he's had games in the past with multi-interceptions if you just get that one sort of spot where they can reverse the turnover luck if ruckers can establish the run game with antoine raymond and get the ball to kj duff i think this has the dynamics of a potential upset alert that no one sees coming okay there's a lot of ifs there uh now ruckers ruckers has been terrible at turning the ball over so far this year in fact jesse correct me if i'm wrong worst team in the country right now at turning the ball over so if that changes if jayden maiava reverts back to his old ways his old turnover ways if a trip across the country sort of sneaks up on usc here if they're not going to be able to turn the ball over they're going to if they're looking ahead to oregon and five or six other things happen you you believe that the upset could go down six drugs all right i'm going to put a two and a half on it next up this is one i'm interested in talking about i saw oklahoma in person last week not the oklahoma i thought i would see but the oklahoma i did see and now they go home after the loss against michigan they're playing new mexico a trip to georgia on deck therefore the classic let down look ahead sandwich spot even though you're not letting down because you lost last week but here's what has my attention i don't trust oklahoma to score a whole lot right now and jason eck is a very good coach with a very good staff and a pretty good team at the g6 level and the game's just sitting there and right now the line is 21 and a half now if you were to reverse that just to give you an idea of what we're looking at here point spread wise if this game were taking place in albacore and we're not going to be able to win the game we're going to be able to win the game place in albuquerque and i shift that thing six points seven points you're kind of talking about a spread of around 15 and a half if this thing were in new mexico could be competitive i'm going to put a five and a half on it i'm going to have my eye on this i fully expect it to be weird i fully expect it to be competitive an outright upset or a sweat in the fourth quarter would not shock me at all i do think new mexico possesses the ability to punch up here a little bit now a game that just utterly terrifies me virginia tech is only a two and a half point favorite at maryland and some are saying our east coast sources are saying wrong team favored here maybe model loves maryland the model thinks maryland should be favored so i mean the model's sitting right here next to me it does believe the wrong team is favored but is james franklin really going to allow this to happen like if he suffers his first loss is it really going to be at the some people think so though malik washington i know you probably haven't watched him play this year because they haven't played much of anyone although yukon last week he was 34 of 41 for 347 and two that was actually a really good win i think it got a lot of people's attention to fan duel because that's why this number is where it is this is a nine for me this might as well this is very close to a pick'em game so of course on the upset alert concern meter it wouldn't be a wrong team's favorite to begin with and lastly very intentionally somehow this game's on national television georgia is going to arkansas georgia is a 24 and a half point favorite zero i've never done a zero on the upset alert concern we've had spreads in the upper 30s that i've at least registered a one on i want any arkansas actually arkansas fans are much harder on arkansas than i am right now lisa woof we cannot open the phone lines right now but uh i want anyone to make a case for me here anyone make a case that georgia could lose this game i have no idea if you played it a million times, like statistics, just the law of mathematical averages says somewhere in that million games, there's an Arkansas win. How, how, how? So that's a zero for me. I can't do it. I can't let myself go there. Interesting slate this week though. If Rutgers does beat USC, the Jesse Memorial show hits to be alive on Sunday would be a spectacle. What a sight to behold. Somehow I'm not nervous about it. What I'm excited about as we head into week three, as we head to Auburn for our live show tomorrow, we'll be on the sidelines at Jordan Harris stadium Saturday night for Florida Auburn. The special don't tread on Saturday Auburn themed shirt is in the store at orange and blue popping on that shirt. By the way, it's Navy blue. That's not just regular old garden variety sky blue. I see you nodding your head, Bradley. So that is, is sitting there at pay state material.com. The Michigan shirt still in there too. And, uh, I got reason to believe by the end of this show, you'll probably know where we're going next week. And that's pretty atypical. We normally don't announce our destinations this far in advance, but for a pretty good reason, I'm probably going to let you know that down the road, a couple of minutes. 30 years ago, an Island off Manhattan almost brought down New York city. Who will you trust your friends and neighbors? Or you trust the people five miles overseas. This is a story about neighbors turning on each other and what happens when a forgotten place decides it's had enough. We reached for a feeling that exists in this city, but we're not stopping. I'm Ben that of half rate. And for my new series on revisionist history, I took a deep dive into Staten Island. Attempt to secede from New York city in the 1990s and what it all has to do with the politics of resentment that dominate America today. Listen to revisionist history, the Staten Island problem on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's move on a game. We didn't get to the other night cause the show was a little bit too jammed. Was SMU at Louisville. And this is one of the games of the year in the ACC. It's a Saturday three 30 game Eastern time on ESPN two. These are two top 10 offenses. Last year, this game was in Dallas. It was 38 to six SMU. And yet this year, Louisville, a short one and a half point favorite. I cannot shake the lessons that I learned in week one of this year. So just a couple of weeks ago, I remember watching. Both teams play. They were in pretty high profile matchups. SMU played Florida state on that Monday night, the power outage game. And then Louisville was in Nashville against Ole miss. So what proved more to you? This is that whole Nick Saban paradox of sometimes a win is not as good as a high quality loss in college football. Well, it's close personal cousin is what impresses you more? Does it impress you more? For someone to take Ole miss to the limit 41 to 38 with a new starter at quarterback, or does it impress you more to turn the ball over four or five times, whatever it was, and barely escape don't Campbell stadium against a bad team with a win. What impressed you more? I was more impressed with Louisville. So Lincoln Cainhold, Lincoln Cainhold, especially in the second half of that Florida state game, 11 to 15. It was against Ole miss, not FSU, 11 to 15, 61, two touchdowns. And then we were perusing Kubelik's Twitter account, or when we call these cube stats, all four of Cainhold's touchdown passes are of 50 plus yards. The explosive play is there. The mobility threat is there. I also am very, very surprised three, two games into the season going into the third game. He's their leading rusher. Not because he's not a mobile threat. He very much is. I just thought Isaac Brown would have given them more. Which, which leads me to think there's still a little bit of ways up this team can go, but on the other side, Kevin Jennings, two picks against Florida state. They were minus three in total turnovers and it didn't bite them there because they're that much better of a team than Florida state. That 1000% would bite them here. So I think it's all about which team finds their ground game. SMU's leading rusher, 78 yards, two runs of 20 plus, 107th in rushing. Now they're first in total passing. So it's once again, fallen on the arm of Kevin Jennings. And then on the other side with Louisville, Isaac Brown's averaging 3.3 yards per carry and we've seen him do it before. So it's gotta be there. And I would think this is a huge test for SMU because they rebuilt that entire defensive line via the transfer portal. So I don't think we've seen them tested maybe in a way that they're not going to be able to do it. But I think it's a huge test for SMU because they rebuilt that entire defensive line via the transfer portal. So I going to test them. Louisville's getting their starting left tackle back in this game too. What has college football taught us? College football has taught us, Meemaw taught us, that a wounded animal beats a lucky dog any day of the week. And Louisville's a wounded animal. They already have a loss. They're at home now. And a lucky dog situation is one where you could turn the ball over that many times and still find a way to win a game. So let's take a look at what the model thinks. FanDuel's got Louisville minus one and a half. Model thinks that number's not big enough. It's got Louisville minus three. That's my pick. I'm taking Louisville to win. I'll take Louisville to cover. I think it's going to be a great game in the middle of the day. Don't let me find out that you weren't watching this game. It's got high level, high octane potential all over it. Appreciate you guys being tuned in. Make sure you subscribe to the channel and make sure you like the video. It takes, I wouldn't say no effort, it takes just a little bit of effort to click that little thumbs up button there. We appreciate it. It helps us a lot. Well, it happened. For weeks now, people have said, you keep on bashing the AP poll. You've put out the JP poll, which are your power ratings. Where are your rankings? Where's the commissioner poll? Is the commissioner's poll dormant? Is it gone? No, no. Frankly, I should have done it last week. You're right. I'm wrong. You're good looking. I'm not attractive. Here we go. Here's the commissioner's poll. I put it out earlier today. These are not power ratings. This is literally, if I were filling out an AP poll ballot, I would make it look like this. If you're listening on podcast, you can go find it on my socials at JoshPateCFB. I put this out earlier in the day on Thursday, and we've already gotten a lot of feedback, most of it hateful. I wanted to respond to some of the more popular bits of feedback. I wanted to respond to some of the more popular bits of feedback, and I wanted to respond to some of the more popular bits of feedback, most of it hateful. I wanted to respond to some of the more popular bits of feedback, most of it hateful. I wanted to respond to some of the more popular bits of feedback, but the first thing I wanted to do is there's this piece of really low-hanging fruit. It's almost touching the ground. That's how low this piece of particular feedback fruit is hanging. I hear this a lot. You probably hear this a lot, and it sounds a little something like this. Anytime there's an opinion out there and someone disagrees with it, it can't just be, I disagree. This is engagement bait. This is click bait. This is rage bait. Third read CFB. Sure enough, hit us and said, do you have any idea how not to engagement bait? Hey, bud, first off, there's no specific here. I have no idea what specific part of this is meant to bait engagement. Secondly, it's a fact that we are in the content creation business, so we do want the audience to engage with the content, but that's not what he means. What he means is it can't just be that these rankings are not good. It can't just be that these rankings are not good. It can't just be that these rankings are my authentic opinion. It's got to be that I have an ulterior motive and I'm intentionally listing these teams in some type of way to draw an emotional reaction. It's like that's the internet in 2026. Nobody can state an opinion that makes you unhappy and that person just genuinely thinks something that you disagree with. Nope. You're right. One hundred percent of the time. And anyone who states an opinion that runs counter to your belief system, they just have to be engagement baiting. No way anyone actually believes that. So here were a couple of things that people took exception to. Michigan. I knew this was coming. Like Mike said, let's stop pretending Michigan beat Western Michigan and rank them properly for a one in one team with a loss to Michigan. Mike, I got no problem with that, except there is one small issue. Michigan beat Western Michigan. I saw the ending. I was outraged by the confusion. But we've got clarity on this now. Everyone spoke in their piece. Now, the Big Ten, you know, I do believe what the Big Ten put out about their process. They just sucked in the timing of it. And it sucked that we didn't already have full transparency to their credit since then. They have begun providing full transparency on their games. Was it a close win? Yes. But it's a win. I'm choosing to count it as a win. And so we've got Michigan at 11. Because they're a 2-0 team that won against Oklahoma last week. That's a quality resume two weeks in. Next up, speaking of OU. they're not in this thing. No ranking for Oklahoma seems extreme. It was a tight one-score game on the road to a team playing for pride. Wait, hold on. Jesse, I didn't even see this the first time around. What does he mean, a team playing for pride? What was Oklahoma playing for? How is everyone not playing for pride? Michigan's not a six-loss team. They're not scratching to make a bowl game here. Both teams were 1-0. So that makes no sense to me. But Vicus Reddy, he's saying, no ranking for OU seems extreme. Well, why would I rank them? You've got a two-game resume right now, and one of them is a loss. And I know I shouldn't incorporate point spreads, but if we were to go that route, you were favored and you lost. But that shouldn't matter. You couldn't do anything. You couldn't get out of your own way offensively. You beat UTEP. A lot of teams have run it up on garbage bags so far this year. OU doesn't have a top-25 caliber resume right now. It's as simple as that. So there are some teams in front of them that, sure, if they played Oklahoma tomorrow, maybe I'd pick OU. But that's for the JP poll. That's for the neutral field favorability power rating stuff. This is the commissioner's poll. Next up, I also don't think that this is even an extreme example. 2-6 said, Oregon with the biggest fall-off ever, yo. From two to not ranked. That's correct. That's how it should work. It's a complete and utter joke. I would even say maybe a travesty that the AP poll has Oregon ranked this week. The only thing that has Oregon ranked was where they began the season before games had been played. I've spoken my mind on this. I love preseason rankings. I do preseason rankings. Here's the difference between me and a lot of AP voters. I'll drop you 50 spots after a couple of games. Because at that point, everything. I thought before games were being played has been replaced by literal games. So, so far, I've seen Oregon taken to the limit at home against a G6 team. And I saw them lose. Should have been blown out worse than the final score indicated on the road. What part of this resume warrants top 25 consideration? So, I don't care if I started them at 2, at 1, at 10. Once the games have happened, I don't care where I had you in the preseason. This, by the way, is how. Every voter's mind should think. Next up, Penn State, Duke. Like Jay Ben said, Penn State has the third highest odds of making the playoff and winning the Big Ten Conference, and they're behind Duke. Do you read this as a complaint, Jesse? Or is it merely an observation? If this is a complaint, let's just compare the resumes. Penn State's best win is Temple last week. Didn't cover, but beat Temple. Duke went on the road to a Big Ten opponent in Illinois and won outright. That's more impressive. That's a better resume. Penn State's at 22. Duke's at 18. So, there's not a big gap. And secondly, Penn State's got opportunities coming up. So, if slash when they beat Wisconsin or beat USC, if they go beat Michigan or even lose close to Michigan, whatever, we'll have a more fully fleshed out resume for Penn State. I'm not projecting with this. That's also stupid to do in rankings. If you're doing it in the true nature of how it should be done, you shouldn't be ranking a team based on where you think they're going. It should be a pure reflection of where they've been. Because if they're going where you think they're going, they'll have a chance to validate it in your beliefs to begin with when they go there. And if they don't end up going there, they never should have preemptively gotten the credit for you thinking they'll go there. It's as simple as can be. We need to put that quote in a fortune cookie. Let's move on. Huge announcement. Huge announcement. You guys, we have good viewership on every show, but there's some people out there that watch the Sunday show that don't watch the Thursday show. And I feel sorry for those people because they're going to miss out on the big announcement here. So, last December at the SEC Championship game, the night before it, in Atlanta, we had our first ever pure theatrical live show. And it was like. It was a huge hit. And we were very, very overwhelmed by the amount of demand there was for tickets, but also the demand there was for a live show. This is not televised. We don't show it on the YouTube channel. This is a ticketed event. Some special guests. It's very off the record. And the moment that we finished that show, we started planning doing some shows during the season this year on Camp I, plural of campus. I am pleased to inform you that next Friday, night, the first of those, will take place for this season. And it'll take place in Knoxville, Tennessee. Turns out the rumors were true. Texas at Tennessee Saturday, the night before, Pate State Live at Jackson Terminal, 7 p.m. Eastern Time. And what's more, tickets are on sale as we speak. PateStateMaterial.com. It's a limited amount of tickets. We're not playing Thompson Bowling Arena, people. So, there are. There are a limited amount of tickets. My high suspicion is that we're going to sell this thing out pretty immediately. Go tell your Tennessee family and friends. If you guys are going to be in town, Texas folks, I know a lot of you are making the trip to Jackson Terminal, 7 p.m. Eastern. Limited tickets available now. We'll have a lot of fun at that event. Let's move it on. The Viewer's Guide has become a hit. The Viewer's Guide, a soon-to-be award-winning portion of the Thursday show here at PateState. And what is it? It's basically just us looking at the TV schedule for the next couple of days and mapping it out for ourselves. For instance, Friday night, you need to get ready. Because Friday night, we obviously have Miami going to Wake Forest doing who knows what. But that game's a 7.30 kickoff on ESPN. But 8 o'clock, the Brando special. Guys, this is Houston, Texas Tech. This is one of the games of the week. This is one of the games of the year in the Big 12. And you get. You get it dropped in your lap on a Friday night. Now, all due respect to Big Ten Network, my advice is do not turn on the Oregon-Portland State game. My opinion is Oregon needs some time by themselves to sort themselves out. So I am vowing to Dan Lanning and company, I won't tune in. I'm going to do you a favor. And you guys go drop 70 or 80, and you get right, and then you head to USC. But man, that 8 o'clock game, that's going to be awesome. So that one's easy to figure out. The Saturday early. A little bit more challenging. Now, I'll tell you what my main screen debate is. I know a bunch of you have the setups where you have several screens that you can choose from. On your main screen, though, what would you put on? Because to me, it's a tie. I've got to choose between either North Carolina at Clemson, or I've got to choose between Kenny Dillingham and Arizona State taking on Kansas in Wembley Stadium. But I'm only supposed to. I'm only supposed to call it Wembley, not stadium. But I don't really care, because college football shouldn't be played overseas anyway. So whatever. That's a noon kickoff on FS1. I don't even know what time that is in London. But that's your main screen debate. If you are sadistic enough, also at noon on ABC, they are going to air Georgia-Arkansas. FCC, I'm told, is pushing for a TV14 rating on that game. No word yet. Probably no before kickoff. And I don't want you to lose track. I don't want you to lose track of what's happening on SEC Network at 1245 Eastern. NC State is coming to Nashville to take on Vandy. Jared Curtis getting the start there for Vandy. They're a three-and-a-half point favorite. Vandy has not looked impressive so far this year. NC State got woodshedded in Week 1 against Virginia, and you probably haven't seen them since then. So that's an interesting one. We move to the midday. Main screen, for me, is not a debate. My main screen would be Mississippi State at South Carolina. Now, that's a 4-15 Eastern kick on SEC Network. So you do have a little separation between the 3-30 games and that 4-15 kickoff. Do what you will until then. Also, this is really weird because this is my hierarchy of the mid-afternoon games. I think the number one game is on SEC Network. I think the number two game is on ESPN, too. It's just kind of weird how this shakes out. SMU Louisville starts at 3-30 Eastern. On ESPN, too. And then on your bigger channels, ABC, I think, has FSU-Bama. That's a big point spread game. That's at 3-30 Eastern. Also, Kentucky at A&M is the 3-30 ESPN game. Who knows what those games might entail, but I could just go ahead and tell you what I expect to be happening in this window is as the afternoon kind of gives way to evening, you're probably more likely to be glued to ESPN, too, or SEC Network than you are ESPN, or ABC. What's happening on CBS, Jesse? Could you see Jenny Dell? Could you realistically see Jenny Dell doing a post-game interview with Greg Sciano? You could. Like, on the field, not outside the locker room. Greg, I know it was tough today. Could I get your thoughts? It's not going to be that kind of interview. It's going to be field-storming, kids all, hundreds and thousands of Lance Glenns, our old Rutgers buddy. You think that could be the scene. I think they need to go deep in their bag with Stuffed. talk about in the second half. But yeah, USC Rutgers is 330 on CBS. I don't even remember writing this on this piece of paper, but apparently I wrote, what happens when Rutgers finally wins the turnover battle for once this year? Primetime window. Obviously, LSU at Ole Miss is a 730 kickoff on ABC. I think your second screen, which could be the main screen for some, needs to be on our game, which is Florida at Auburn. That's a 7 o'clock kickoff Eastern time on ESPN. I am going to very, very humbly label the other games as monitor situations. And I think you really need to monitor the situation in Norman. That's where New Mexico will take on Oklahoma. That's a 730 kick on ESPN2. Also on FS1, remember we got that small point spread game, Virginia Tech. Minus two and a half at the moment on the road at Maryland. That's an FS1 game. And then this one's a good one too. West Virginia is playing Virginia at the same time over on ACC Network. And then in the late window, after most of America has gone to bed, not us, not us, will we be home by halftime of Purdue-UCLA? I think we may. I'm on Purdue. The point's not outright. I think Barry and the guys went to like 15 overtimes last week. They're getting closer. They've closed the gap and they go out to Los Angeles. They play in the Rose Bowl against UCLA. That's an 11 o'clock Eastern kick on Big Ten Network. And Prez faces San Diego State. JMU faces San Diego State. San Diego State, very small favorite. And that's 10 p.m. on what channel, Prez? Drum roll, please. The CW. That's the CW Jabama if you're watching in the Columbus, Georgia viewers market. That, ladies and gentlemen, is your viewer's guide. But maybe you want to go to the games. Maybe you don't want to settle for watching on television. That is your constitutional right after all. And Seat Geek is here to sell you tickets just at a lesser price because you know me. And if you know me, you know that I specialize in talking a whole lot, which is what that guy said, about me in the live chat last week. And the other thing I specialize in is getting you discounts on stuff. So go to Seat Geek right now. You can buy tickets for anything over there, but especially football games. And right before you check out, enter the promo code PATE10, P-A-T-E-1-0. That gets you 10% off all orders up to $200. And it gets you $20 off orders above $200. Seat Geek. There you go. Who will you trust? Your friends and neighbors? Or will you trust the people five miles overseas? This is a story about neighbors turning on each other. And what happens when a forgotten place decides it's had enough. We reached for a feeling that exists in this city, but we're not stopping, are we? I'm Ben Natif-Haffrey, and for my new series on revisionist history, I took a deep dive into Staten Island's attempt to secede from New York City in the 1990s, and what it all has to do with the politics of resentment that dominate America today. Listen to Revisionist History, The Staten Island Problem, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's talk about Ole Miss for just a second. This whole LSU-Ole Miss thing has a lot of people asking questions. Steven hit me up and said, Do you think this gamesmanship from LSU with Leavitt being doubtful is real, or are we really going to see a backup quarterback in the biggest game of the season so far? So, Matt Moscona, earlier this afternoon, tweeted out that Sam Leavitt did participate in, practiced today, had some back spasm issues Wednesday, which suck, by the way, if you've never had them. I haven't, but I've seen some people have them. Kind of like a migraine. I've never had one, but I've witnessed people have them. So I'm speaking secondhand. Back spasms don't sound fun. Anyway, Moscona, he did not tweet all that. That was me inserting my own dialogue. He said he participated in practice today. Yes, I expect Sam Leavitt to play Saturday. The whole news that shook everyone to their, core late last night was he was doubtful on the injury report. Well, here in the next hour or so, we'll have another injury report. Wouldn't surprise me at all. It seemed questionable. Maybe even probable by Friday. And this is the natural progression of things. Circle of injury life, so to speak. Now, I don't want to make light of injury, but I will make light of the way Lane Kiffin works an injury report. I don't know that the hammer's ever going to come down on it. But I'll say this. If you watch the Tuesday show, you know I like Ole Miss, no matter who. I like Ole Miss starting for LSU. So my mind just kind of goes further down the rabbit hole of, I hope Sam Leavitt plays, because here's what I don't want. In fact, oh my goodness, I didn't even think about this, Jesse. What happens if Ole Miss wins, but it's like the Texas 09 national title thing of, well, if Leavitt was healthy, well, if Colt didn't get hurt, and they never let you live it down, and you kind of, you beat them, you don't blow them out, but you beat them, but Lane always holds that over your head. That doesn't sound like him. That doesn't sound like something Lane would do, no. He'd absolutely do that. So we got to get Sam Leavitt healthy. We got to get him to start this game. I'm speaking as someone who is picking Ole Miss to win. Sam, if you're listening, get well soon, and I hope to see you suit up, warming up, and starting Saturday night. Here's the whole reason I went with Ole Miss. I am not one who is always huge on external factors mattering in a football game. I do think it's good for us. I think it's good to get the general public interested, but largely once you kick it off, those things don't matter. But every so often, there are external factors so huge, they do bleed over into the game. This is one of those exceptions to the rules. This set of external factors matters enough where it bleeds over into the game. I will say, I'll give both sides credit, so far throughout the week, it's seemed pretty tame. If you can look past Principal Yaman Mielan being served lawsuit papers in the parking lot of a facility, okay, Hoopstamonxtus hasn't seen that happen before. If you can look past that, if you can look past Ole Miss waiting until game week to serve a dude who left them for LSU lawsuit papers, it's been pretty tame. After the game, especially if Ole Miss were to win, I think you would see an outpouring of emotion, the likes of which you rarely see after a regular season game. And I think that if Ole Miss wins, I would be looking and saying, how are they about to go play a game at Florida seven days from now? But that will be neither here nor there if they win the game. And likewise, if LSU loses the game, I could easily see them saying, oh, you know what? Okay. Like, wanted to win it? Really would have loved to have won it. But we'll be fine. We'll go back home. Remember, they get A&M at home. They get Bama at home. They get Texas at home. They got a tough schedule now. I'm not saying it's easy if they lose the game. I'm just saying the impact a loss would have on LSU is far more comparable to what a normal regular season loss would be than Ole Miss. This is, for those of you who don't live down here, for those of you who are not familiar just with Southern culture and specifically with Southern football culture, there's nothing that people take greater collective pride in than college football teams. I know it makes no sense to you if you live in the Dakotas or like the upstate New York, the Finger Lakes, the UP of Michigan. I know this does not make sense. But it makes sense to those of us who are from down here. And for a fan who lives in Grenada, Mississippi or Philadelphia, Mississippi, it's a real place. Tupelo, what have you, who bleeds Ole Miss red and blue. Someone leaving you for what they consider to be a better option in this same conference is much bigger than just a slap in the face. It's a slap in the groin. That's what it is. It's a punch to the groin. But then he's got to come back and face you. And unlike out on the street where you have to settle things diplomatically or maybe you have to settle things diplomatically, you have to settle things in a courtroom sometimes, this is a world where you get to physically put your hands on someone else. That's the beauty of it. Now, if you're buying a ticket to the game, you don't get to. Strongly discouraged. But you get to live vicariously through your guys on the field who do get to put their hands on the other guy. If it doesn't work, it validates everything you know Lane Kiffin believed about what he could do there, that he couldn't do at your place. Right or wrong? It's obvious he believed that. It means a lot. lot. It means a lot. It'll only count as one game in the record books, but it means a lot. And I don't want to see this entire vibe thrown off because a quarterback wasn't able to start. So yeah, I think there's some gamesmanship there for sure. Do you see this face, Jesse? Sorry, let me move the paper. Do you see how proud I am? That's the face of someone who's proud to partner with Quick Trip. That's why we committed to Quick Trip two years ago, which is footage we should probably play again, but we don't have time today. So I know a lot of you are on the road this weekend. You may be on the road right now listening. Just look for that big red square with the Q and the T. That's always a sign that you need to stop. Frankly, I stop at Quick Trip even if my tank is still full because the gas pumps outside are only where the fun begins. You go inside, of course, the cold brew on tap. Of course, a lot of snacks, a lot of goodies, a warm embrace. We don't have enough of that in society these days. You know what else we don't have enough of? Pizza. And? Specifically, if you download the app, you got a slice of pizza and you got a big Q that goes from costing $4 to costing $3. You are completely free to pay $4 for it. But if you download the app, I'm just telling you, it shaves a dollar off. We ran the numbers. It turns out that, hold on, let me make sure. Yes, that is a better deal for you, the customer. So we appreciate Quick Trip. Been with them for a long time. Hope to be with them for a long time. Let's continue. We had a question about coaches and pressure and whatnot. Big Lou, good dude, from Morrisville, Pennsylvania, hit me. He said, is anyone under more pressure than Mike Norvell this weekend? Yeah. Dabo Swinney's under more pressure than Mike Norvell. Jesse came to me and said, there was a question about Mike Norvell. Do you want me to get a lot of FSU B-roll, Mike Norvell B-roll? Do you want the moving truck outside his house? And I said, no, my answer's not Mike Norvell. It's Dabo. So you guys understand what is 48 hours from happening, right? Dabo's at home this weekend. Clemson's at home this weekend. They play Bill Belichick in North Carolina. Clemson's a favorite. They're one of my best bets of the week. Full disclosure, I expect Clemson to look pretty good Saturday. And I expect them to cover a number that I think's way too low, that the model thinks is way too low. But if the model is wrong and the kids, coaches, or officials screw it up in North Carolina, I'm going to have to go to Clemson. I'm going to have to go to Clemson. But especially if they win, pause that moment in time. Mike Norvell is almost a three-touchdown dog this week. No one expects Norvell to win. Everyone expects him to lose. If they lose, it's just more of what people already expected. I was listening to Ross Dellinger talk yesterday, I believe, about the feedback he had heard from Florida State because they just fired the AD down there. The public perception is, oh, it's only a couple of days. It's only a couple of days. It's only a matter of time before Mike Norvell goes as well. That's kind of what I feel. And Ross said, no, no, actually, they're not nearly as upset with him internally as the general public would believe. He's not on nearly as thin a sheet of ice as the public believes. Now, whatever you think about that is whatever you think about that. But the point is, nobody thinks something about Mike Norvell right now, but would radically change their mind if he lost to Alabama this weekend. But I promise you, there are people still in Dabo Swinney's corner that would evaporate. They would be gone if they lost to North Carolina and they started one and two. And by the way, they weren't impressive at all against Georgia Southern last week. We were all over Georgia Southern plus 20 and a half. So I watched a lot of that game. Man, if they lost to Belichick, who himself was supposed to be on the way out the door and may still be for all we know. And then, you know, oh, dude, Miami comes in here in a few weeks. Wow, we still got so many more losable games on this schedule. I guess I would call that pressure. I certainly think if things were to go wrong for Clemson this weekend, the aftermath of that would be 10 times worse than Norvell losing like 38 to 16 to Alabama. Everyone expects one of those things to happen. If the other happened, and I don't know what the future of that be, how would that play out? How do you even talk about hot seat and Dabo Swinney? He's been there forever. He's an institution. He's a legacy. He is Clemson football to multiple generations, including mine now. And I'm not 22 years old. Like there's a huge chunk of the college football public that identifies that Tiger Paul and Dabo Swinney as one with good reason. So yeah, that could be a mess. Let's hope it's avoided. For the sake of the Ramen Noodle Express and for the sake of good friend of the program, Dabo Swinney. Let's hope that's avoided. I placed that wager at FanDuel. And you know at FanDuel, Jesse, I don't know if you're aware of this. It's the most rewarding season ever at FanDuel. That's not just a tagline. It may sound like one, but it's not. So you got several ways that you can win money over here. The classical way, but then you've also got the pick them going on where it's me. I'm going to win money over here. I'm going to win and Will Compton and Taylor LeJuan. We're making our 10 picks against the spread every week. This is free for you. All you have to do is go log in and then pick against us. And hundreds of people last week won over $900 each in bonus bets because they were better than us. They finished number one for the week. Guys, I don't know how else to put this. They're giving away half a million dollars per week, a free prize. I don't know how else to put this. They're giving away half a million dollars prizes and bonus bets. And all you got to do to enter is just make your picks. So that's one way. A second way, 50% profit boost on any one college football bet this weekend. Third way, 100% profit boost token on bets in the LSU Ole Miss game. It's a beautiful time of year. And if you don't want to do any of that and you're just curious what the SMU Louisville total is, you can go look for free. Ask for the Ramen Noodle Express. Remember, firstly, tomorrow night, Friday night, from somewhere in or around Auburn, Alabama, at halftime of the Houston Texas Tech game, we will go live. Friday night lines exclusively on Instagram, at JoshPateCFB. That's the only place it is, okay? It's the way we do it. And I pull up the model and the live chat gets fired up and thousands of you are in there. It's a really great time. It's a fun hangout. And we go for like 15 minutes. We go for halftime, basically. And I got the model pulled up and you guys are throwing games at me. But also, I add a ton of best bets during Friday night lines. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit Fanduel.com slash RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Or visit ndgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts. Or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York. But I'm going to add one more right now before we end the show. So, so far this week, I'm a noodle express. We are up for the year. And so far this week, we're on Clemson minus three and a half. As I just said, we're on Purdue plus 15 and a half Mississippi state plus three and a half. I'm going to add under 53 and a half Florida versus Auburn. That's the game we'll be at. I'm the sick person that goes to the game and roots for no scoring to happen. Those are our four as of Thursday night that we're on. I expect to double that total during Friday night lines. So at Josh Pate CFB, make sure you are tuned in. We're going to have a fun time in Auburn. We're about to head down there later tonight. Make sure you come see us tomorrow afternoon, one o'clock local time. So one o'clock central time, the show will be live there. We'll be live on ESPN and we'll probably throw some free stuff out in the crowd too. So happy to have you guys join us. I know a lot of Florida fans are coming up there. A lot of you haven't been there. It's a fun place. I grew up very, very close to Auburn. It's a really fun place. Appreciate you guys so much. Make sure you subscribe to the channel, like the video. For Director Bradley, Producer Jesse, I'm Josh Pate. Let's have a fun weekend. Enjoy the games and God bless. It's a fun weekend. call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York.