Week 9 Breakdown: Mike Norvell Fallout, AP Poll Debates, CFP Rankings Predictions & MORE!

[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome back to the Cover 3 podcast with your host, Chip Patterson, Tom Fernelli, Danny Cannell, and Bob Elliott. It's your call for the best college football coverage from national signing day to the national championship and everything in between. CBS Sports presents the Cover 3 podcast. And welcome back to the Cover 3 podcast here on CBS Sports. That's Tom Fernelli, that's Danny Cannell, that's fun Elliott. I'm Chip Patterson. Come to you live at youtube.com/cover3. And everywhere you get your podcasts on a man, thanks for hanging out. Smash that subscribe, smash that like and comment, join us in the chat. Hey, Kate, hey, the Cover 3 tailgate, where Ryan the Lion King says, "major slate of Cover 3 podcast this week. Thank you, boys, for the overtime. Thank you, Ryan, for reminding me to adjust my calendar and to tell you to adjust your calendar because we got extra Cover 3 podcast coming your way." You are, of course, here with us on a Monday, 11 a.m. That means upon further review, no change there. Tuesday, big game breakdown for one of the biggest slates of the season. You know you're gonna be there, too, but how about Tuesday night? The first of a handful of instant reaction, rankings, release, shows, youtube.com/cover3. You come join us live. We're gonna go live when the television show does and just hang out. Then once we have the rankings, we'll do a hard reset, take a break. Then if you get us later, you're listening later, that's what you will be. So if you want to be part of the hang out, come join us right at seven o'clock. Then we'll do a full rankings breakdown once the one through 25 is released. Thursday, lock, Saturday, instant reaction. Woo, wait, Tom, for now, are you ready to go? It's, wait, 10. This, we've been waiting on this one all season long. Happy November. - I could use another 10 minutes. - You could use another 10 minutes, okay? - Yeah. - All right, a little bit of time. Actually, we've got this wonderful animation. So we might as well show it off because we had big news yesterday. So striker, let's take a spin on the carousel. (upbeat music) About, it doesn't, or maybe 16, 17 hours since we were able to officially get the news and join you here at youtube.com/cover3. It's curious, but Danny, if there's been any more, as the conversation changed at all or any inklings in terms of what we can make of the Florida State Coaching search, I thought we did a good job of diagnosing why it had to happen and the path forward, what went wrong and what lessons can be learned, what about the early stages of the Florida State job opening have stood out overnight Sunday and into Monday morning? - Like nothing to me, like seriously, like no new updates. The president spoke, basically just said, like from a business standpoint, like how can we not make this decision? Obviously, you know, I'm pointed, I think, I think there's no amount of like, hey, I've been killing it on the academic side and like Florida State is a much better school than when I went there or when Danny went there, like academically now, you know, obviously then it used to be, I guess now I gotta get involved in athletics. So he's a Harvard guy, but you know, also, I guess, has some business sense. So I think he realized, like Andy Staples says, hey, like if you don't take care of the docs and the jocks then you get fired as a university president. So the docs have been extremely well taken care of and now we gotta make sure we get the jocks right. The only other thing he said was like, kind of a no jerks policy. You know, he's like, like, you know, gotta have somebody who people he'd proud to work with, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, spoke really nice about Norval, basically said, hey, like I told him, if you ever need anything, I'm here for you. You know, it was just a business decision. So, but no, like no, no new updates overnight. - And I need more unhinged. I got like tailed numbers in Blacksburg, but you know, like I wanna know where the private jets are. I wanna know where the chicken farmers are. Where's the avian flu that's gonna lead to a $40 million roster? I mean, this is, come on, man, if we're gonna open this up, we need the spice here. - I mean, everybody was sleeping, I think. - No athletic director, literally anyone can, like Sarah Blakely come on down. This could be your team. Let's go. - You got to think crazy? - I got nothing crazy for you. I do think, first of all, I would like bud to take that back to not solely my degree that I have from. - It looks better now. - Right. - All academic ACC, oh, it does look better now, but that was not easy as a two-sport athlete to maintain that three-point new GPA. I think what's interesting now is, and maybe it's in my feed because I've clicked on a couple of them, but like the debate of how good of a job is Florida State is pretty interesting. Of course, a lot of Miami fans trying to say it's not the same, probably Florida fans, the two. And there's the debate of the own note of the ACC, and then there's the financial issue. So I do think it is, I understand why the debate is there, but I would still maintain the Florida State as a top-tier job in college football. And I thought bud made a great point. Like in the near term, the stability's pretty good where you could go in and you could crush it against the ACC, be the second best team. And if you're good, then you could potentially beat Miami, be the best team, and you're in a great position. And if Florida State doesn't make the leap with the future of college football, you could parlay it into a better job if you need to. The only other thing I think I would push back, I don't have a huge issue with people saying, like some of you just see in big 10 jobs or better net fish use, I think they'll all fall. Well, like Maryland, like that's where I draw the line. Well, I know, right. Yeah, exactly. I got roasted for arguing Maryland over Baylor, which I'll stand by. But you're not taking Maryland over at the issue. The only thing I'd really push back is some of these folks who maybe cover a lot of different sports and are national columnists, they don't really dig in on the actual details. Florida State's debt is an incredibly good rate because it's like actual revenue sources backed by it and it's actually like money making. So I'm not worried about that at all. Like that to me is something, like when I talk to people there, like why do people think this is like bad debt? This is like very friendly rate debt. So we're back, cool. I mean, ours is what, 430, I think 430. And I remember when Penn State's was 550. You know, and people were trying to bury them. They didn't have a problem going to get Matt Campbell. And look, if you're riding about tennis and the NBA in Major League Baseball and like you're for some national outlet and they're like, hey, man, can you swoop in from 10,000 foot and do like a column on it if it's you? You're gonna do a quick Google, you're like, oh, wow, look at how much debt I get it. But like, you're not really seeing this from the college football specific. - Who's this columnist? - Yeah, I was about to say. - Well, Dan Watkin wrote one, but I think I was thinking maybe he was worried about global warming being an issue for games in August. And that was why it made Florida State on Attractives. - That's a banger. - Oh, here we go. We haven't had that one in a while. - I don't think that the financial side, it doesn't, money doesn't feel real in big time. - Money isn't real right now. - It still isn't, I don't think it is an issue, but it's just not as big a deal as they're making it out to be like, oh, they're gonna be screwed. - Right. Also, the buyout is payable through 2032. It's a line item. It's an expensive line item, but it's not a lump sum type thing. - And I think if Charles Huff leaves Memphis, Mike Norville would be a great fit there. And they should pay him handsomely and possibly offset some of that money. - Because there is the offset language. Like if he does get another job, they will offset some of that. - Or maybe he's the OC at Oregon. - That's, I don't know. - That's a million a year, three million a year at Oregon to be OC. - Anything helps. - I mean, they're probably gonna overpay considering what they had to deal with this year at OC just to kind of make sure we got this in order. - After, or like, greater than, motivator Mike, greater than like CEO Mike, greater than recruiting Mike. You're on Dan landing staff. We don't need you to do anything on the motivations they end boy, like all plays. - Yeah. - I mean, listen, after Oregon's offensive struggles drove me to embarrassing and shameful behavior, then I am just all in on Oregon's new offensive coordinator higher. We got to fix Oregon's offense. Make it great again. Let's go, come on. All right, what about the other carousel pieces? Anything else that we're watching? Or at the top of the list as we go into week 10 and as we look at the next couple of weeks in terms of trying to figure out what the carousel is gonna look like. Will TCU open up, right? I mean, like, what are some of those other spots where I think that your attention is gonna drift throughout the next two to three weeks to see what the overall carousel could end up looking like? - The one I don't get is the chatter about Nebraska, right? Like, you knew the upcoming two years of Big 10 scheduling was going to be way harder in 26 and 27 than you faced in 24 and 25. Like, you knew you had a cake walk in 24 and 25 and you wasted it, right? You knew you're gonna have to take the lumps for the next two years because this is how the league rotations work. It's like the opposite of Wisconsin, where Wisconsin just took their lumps. Now, I don't think there are a lot better network last year. The most of it's just the quarterback not getting hurt this year as it had the past couple of years, but they've got the cake walk schedule in the Big 10 this year so their record looks much better. Nebraska full knowledge of what was coming in 26 and 27. So, I think it'd be absolutely insane to think they're gonna like overreact this and fire Matt Rule after giving them that extension. Like, you guys knew what was coming. - When we were talking Florida State last night, you talked about how most fans don't really pay attention. - That's fair. - Yeah, I don't think 97% of Nebraska fans are sitting there saying, well, we knew this was coming 'cause the schedule-- - We know the schedule rotations. - Yeah. - But the guy's cutting the check. we had to. But and we will have more on this later in the show. I think there's a reason why you're hearing it in Nebraska because it's painful, painful stuff coming later in the show. Yeah, thank you. I'm glad you offered that tease. I was going to add it as well coming up in a pun for the review. Before we go under the hood, as always, on Monday, we'll probably end up picking this the speed up on this one because Tuesday nights are just going to be so rankings crazy. But let's see, you know, what the AP voters have done. Let's check in with polls. Miami holds on to its spot at number one. But Georgia, picking up some of the first place votes, Utah getting a first place vote again. And those first place votes are available because the Ohio State buckeyes have fallen down nine spots outside of the top 10. They land at number 11 one spot behind the Texas Longorns, which ended the buckeyes their first defeat of the season back in week two. Utah does make it somewhat of a jump, jumping ahead of Notre Dame to get into that number three spot UCLA Notre Dame shifting up as they continued their winning ways. Had a bunch of teams as we talked about Saturday night that were off this past week. So they just kind of shuffle around. AP voters really just doing a little bit of a copy and paste action here, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, all exactly in the same spot. Number 20, Boise State, which survived one of the games of the year, lost a quarterback. We'll maybe talk a little bit about the outlook for the Broncos moving forward. But that Boise State Texas State game. Boy, I'll tell you what, that's one where I might elege our AP voters just went for the final score and we're happy to see a win, right? Yeah. Not having to figure that one out. New arrivals, USC is back as they take down Ohio State. They reappear in the rankings up at number 18 Iowa, also back and New Mexico, a historic ranking, as they check in at number 22 South Carolina back as well after the third win in a row. Tom, you've got a blind resume. We'll get to that in just a second. But Danny, anything stand out right at the top? First glance of the new AP Top 25. Why is LSU ever Tennessee? You would say that why is LSU what? Why are they ever Tennessee? Because they got more points than the pallets. No, I get what you're saying. I think if you look at their resumes, you could argue pretty easily that Tennessee should be ranked ahead of LSU. Like they both have a close road loss to like what we think is like an upper mid tier SEC team, right? LSU lost at Kentucky, Tennessee lost that South Carolina both close, right? And Tennessee, Thumpdale, Alabama, which is a far better win than anything LSU has on the resume. Yeah. Like I think this one's a narrative driven. LSUs looked good in two weeks in a row, even though the opponents have not been the best, I think it's $50 million roster. It's preseason X, but it's all the stuff we talk about when, yeah, they're sure there's SEC bias, but there's also brand bias and preseason expectation bias. Common opponent, if you want to play that game, but LSU beat Auburn by a larger margin than Tennessee did. But LSU is 100% a quality loss proposition. One that thankfully gets resolved as they play Alabama in Texas over the last of the season. So that'll get sorted itself out more than, and by the way, Tennessee and LSU play each other in late November. So those things should get sorted out along the way, but yeah, good fair point because there's about a hundred voting points between those two teams. That's not the negligible like, oh my gosh, just sometimes I tell people that the teams are closer in the voting points than they are in the ranking, especially the way that we're looking at it. YouTube.com/cover3. Like if we were to put it on one of Tom's awesome beautiful charts, the biggest most beautiful charts around you could see like how they're stacked almost on top of each other, right? 1,116 points ahead of 1,114. That's not the case with the LSU Tennessee. So fair to call that one out. Couple quality loss profiles that need to get some more quality opponents before we can shake it out. DK, anything on your end? I just thought it was interesting. I mean, this I get why Georgia's had a Utah, but they also have a common opponent that Utah did beat more convincingly. It depends on how you blew the floor to win. How much of a significant win was that for the resume? Because they both have wins over top 15s. Georgia was Alabama and I get the logo of Bama is more impressive than Houston, but Utah didn't lose and they didn't lose at home as a three touchdown favor to anybody on their schedule. I think Utah could have a stronger case. I get why Georgia's ahead of them, but I just thought that was interesting and we'll see what the committee does. I did think Houston's closer to Florida than this to Bama as far as ponies. True. Agreed. Actually, Tom, why don't you take us through the blind resume? Okay. Striker, if you could put this up on the screen. I went through three teams. All of them are seven and one. Team A, team B, team C. There's seven and one overall. I compared their records versus Power 4 competition. There's the win percentage versus the Power 4 of their P4 opponents. That is the teams that they have played, but their overall win percentage is against other P4 teams. Each team's average margin of victory in their Power 4 wins. Their record versus the current. They beat top 25. Their FBI strength of record and their FBI strength of schedule. For those who are watching right now, you can see team A and team C are both 2 and 0 against the top 25. Team B is 0 and 1, but team B is 6 and 1 against the Power 4 compared to their 5 and 1, 4 and 1. The record of their common or not their common opponents, but all their P4 opponents is pretty much the same. But team B is winning those games by an average of 27 points per game pretty much. While his team C is at 15 and team A is at 8.6, strength of record, team B just barely edges out team A with 11th. Their 12th and then team C is 17th. Overall strength of schedule. Team B is 43rd just ahead of 45th. That's meaningless. And then 68th for team C, which is not a huge gap, but it's still a pretty decent gap considering. Who do you think these teams are? I don't like I know who they are. That's the problem. Is B Wake? Team B is Wake for us. Yeah, because Wake gets played the 7P4. That to me was the giveaway. Is one of our Kentucky? Nope. No. Are they big 12 schools? They might be. I wasn't trying to guess, Tom. I will tell you that I was looking at it in terms of what would I favor and I would do BAC in that order. Team A is BYU. Team B is Wake Forest. Team C is Texas Tech. And I chose these three A because they're similar. And B because there's a lot of dialogue about the conference thing and the big 12 being better than the ACC. And we have talked about the ACC as a one team league for all of season. And I feel like we need to show Wake Forest a bit more respect because performance wise, schedule wise, it is playing just as good if not better than BYU and Texas Tech have been. And if you want to look at it while they are 0 and 1 against the top 25 whereas BYU and Texas Tech each have wins. Those wins are Arizona and Houston is one and I can't remember the other one or Notre Dame obviously. But Wake Forest is also completely dog walking the teams on its schedule while it is playing a schedule that is literally ranked as more difficult than the ones BYU and Texas Tech have played overall. Now BYU gets to be in the top 10 because of that Notre Dame win. And I'm not going to argue against it. But they also followed that up by losing to a UCF team that got its ass kicked last week at home. And Texas Tech has lost to Cincinnati. So I do feel like I'm not saying that you're wrong to be ranking Texas Tech or BYU where you are ranking them. I am saying I'm asking the AP voters to maybe give a little bit more consideration to Wake Forest when putting together their ballots because the fact that Wake Forest in a week where we saw more people didn't budge in the poll despite winning by 44 or whatever they won by. That tells me you're not paying a damn minute of attention to the Wake Forest even decons and somebody needs to step up for them. Do you remember I think it was Florida State's year 2014 the year after the national championship where game control was something that was really harped on and that used to drive me nuts because I was like winning is all that should matter. It is interesting how we can use that when we want. I haven't heard it really since then but that would be the argument for Wake Forest would be they have controlled and dominated their games more than anybody. Also I think bud makes this point a lot and I do think it's true. Like how much is the difference between because that top 25 is such a magical number of these teams must be huge wins. How much is the difference and sure if you want to go down. But I mean if you go 13 from Texas Tech now LSU I do think it's a different animal that's in there but like if you went 13 to 40 like if it was top 40 wins like what's the best way to do that because I love the way your blind resume takes in the strength of the opponents records like combine them all but it is such a magical number that even the committee will reference top 25 names and yet we see some teams clearly that like a Florida they're top 25 win right now but how much more valuable is that then you know whatever team is ranked just outside the top 25 that might be better and just as impressive but they don't get credit for it. Yeah I mean like if if number 10 is like a 20 on a power rating standpoint and 25 is, let's call it like a 13, so there's like a touchdown gap, right? To go from another touchdown gap down, right? You would need to get down to like the 45th team. Yeah. Like it really, it flattens out pretty quickly yet. If I could push back a little bit on Wake, it would be this. The strength of schedule rating gets a big bump from playing Miami, which basically put the game away and then, you know, Wake had some points. But I don't know, do you think that game was ever endowed? I personally don't, but I think it's open to disagreeing, right? Like Wake had a pretty furious comeback. Like Miami should have put them away more, but it was what? 20 and nothing. Like it was, you know, pretty much like, okay, cool. We got this foot off the gas, which can get you beat for sure. And then I also think that they are getting a pretty good schedule bump from the number of P4 games they played against like the drags P4 teams as opposed to playing an FCS or like a truly bad G6, like they have Merrimack coming up this weekend. So they're strength of schedule, like they haven't played their FCS yet. They're strength of schedule will drop some, you know, based on that, right? Like, you know, you're playing, like, who is their knock on, like Purdue, right? Which is probably like what? Like 70th, roughly, you know, like, if you're a real playoff contender, Purdue is not a game for you. You know, like, like we're not arguing to produce like a top 40, like a real loosable game type thing. And they're playing Purdue, who they barely beat, obviously compared to, I don't know, like, you know, Utah State, right? Is going to give them a big schedule bump. But you, okay, take Miami off of Wake's schedule. Take Notre Dame off of BYU's. Right. Right. Then their schedule, their schedule is Utah Tech, Arizona, Colorado State, TCU, Iowa State, UCF, and Arizona State. That's not exactly any different than what Wake is faced. And Wake has been beaten the crap out of the teams. I think the quality of teams they've beaten at the top, like the actual resume type wins is better than what Wake has, even if you take Notre Dame off. Right. And the thing that-- Like to beat Arizona. Who's the team that Wake has beaten that you think, like, they're really close to being ranked? I guess Louisville. Yeah. I was going to say they-- Louisville. Like, here's a Wake cannot control. Wake cannot control SMU slipping on an orange peel up in Syracuse. They cannot control Louisville totally pooping their pants two times a year. I mean, there's a healthy ACC has a couple of the teams that are not inside the top 25 inside the top 25. Yeah. I think Wake 11 and 2 is going to get the BYU treatment from last year. 100% they are. I think they're screwed. And I think they're correct. Correct. Even by the way. But it is so messed up, though, that in this was Rhett Lashley's point. He started early before they lost to Clemson. He's like, why are we playing this game? If the only thing we risk is elimination, like, we're not going to gain anything from it. You know, if we win, yeah, we're already in the top 12, like, that would be mine. If I'm Jake Dick or-- I'm not sure they already, if they do the COVID thing for that game, as Lashley mentioned. But I could put, if Wake, let's just say they're 11 and 1, and they just, they would be in the top 12, and then they'll just get balanced for playing a game that some, like Notre Dame, doesn't have to play against the quality opponent in that position. And they'd have similar resumes, but they don't have to have another test. If you have an extra test, that you can really only, like, fail. Oh, that's a lot of fish. You know, that's a flaw. That's why I've hated the conference championship games because they don't make any sense where they fall. I agree it's a complicating factor, but, like, I think at 11 and 1, Wake resume is not there. Right. But I agree, but they're better off losing to SMU and beating Miami and getting the Aurobid, and then they're in. They don't have to worry about it. You know, like-- Good luck trying to do that. Miami, either way. For what it's worth, SP Plus has-- is Arizona ahead of Louisville, but, like, Sagger and FBI, and the others, they'll have Louisville ahead of Arizona. What would the committee do if 12 and O Miami opts out of the ACC championship game? And Wake Forest doesn't get a chance to do it, and they've finished with one loss? Miami's still in Wake's out. Wake needs to have A win over somebody else who is at least in the playoff conversation. If you look out this field plays out, everybody's going to make it as beaten somebody else who's at least in or, like, very seriously being considered. Yeah. If you don't have anybody who's, like, even close to the top 12, I don't think you're getting in this year. They need SMU to beat Notre Dame. Yeah. Yes, correct. Yeah. Or just beat Miami. Right. Yeah, hey, hey. That's what we always laugh about. Let's go do that. Yeah. If you all ever heard Pat and our doozy say that, we've laughed about that for a couple of years now. Whenever anybody would talk about Atlantic Coast, so he's like, just beat Clemson. It's not that big a deal. We did it. He can. We beat it in 2016. Come on. Chris blew it. Shout out. Coming up on the other side, but just mentioned, if you look at all of these different college football playoff projections, well, you know who's got a great one. But he'll show it to you and more next. This episode is brought to you by PNC Bank. If you've ever watched a football game with someone who doesn't normally, you might have been asked, like, what's the point of running the ball up the middle? In short, to the uninformed eye, these plays are boring, but they result in a lot of short reliable gains while managing the clock. It's just like why PNC uses a boring, methodical approach because reliable gains while keeping an eye on the time are just as important for your money as they are in football. PNC Bank brilliantly boring since 1865 brilliantly boring since 1865 is a registered mark of the PNC financial services group Inc PNC Bank National Association member FDIC. Back here on the cover three podcast, the the blood bot has updated its token count dude seriously. All right. Let's go. I hoped I was using the correct words there. Okay. Let's do the latest projection. All right. So we have Indiana as the one seat. I have Indiana running the table from here on out so that they get in as the big 10 champion at 12 and 1. I have Georgia at 11 and two and they lose at Ole Miss and win all their other ones as the C champion Georgia at two. I have Utah at three. Utah losing in Arizona, but otherwise winning everything else and they beat BYU twice. So I think in the Utah Notre Dame debate who gets three, who gets four, obviously they have a common opponent who Utah did beat who Notre Dame lost to obviously. Then I have Notre Dame who beat Miami and ran the table under that obviously 11 and 1. They get the four. All right. Five Miami. Right. Just lose it Notre Dame. They win everything else. Number six UCLA. I have them beating Minnesota on the road Illinois and USC but losing at Michigan and losing in the big 10 championship game to Indiana. Number seven I have Ole Miss who beat Georgia obviously beat Georgia in a regular season. They wanted Oklahoma to beat Mississippi State Woffer and they lose in Atlanta in the rematch against UGA. I have LSU running the table except for that game at Tennessee so they're at 9-3. I have Texas running the table except for the game in Baton Rouge. They're at 9-3. I have Alabama running the table except for that game in Baton Rouge so they're at 9-3. I BYU losing at Utah and then again in the rematch. I think they might get in at 10-3 in this scenario, right? Because of the strength of the Notre Dame win. If they prove they beat a team who's not only in the playoff but they're like, you know, getting a buy in the playoff and then Boise in the G6. Now this is interesting because there's some teams on there who in this model run didn't get in. I was like the Ohio State Buckeyes who have a win by 19-15 against Indiana who finishes as a number one C. That would be a that'd be one for that'd be one for consumption but if this offense with Fahey keeps playing like it is, it is not playing like a playoff team. USC's defense is provably terrible, right? They have been ripped up by a bunch of bad offenses and Fahey was what 55% against them which is not really good against USC under seven yards per attempt like just a poor performance and I do think they could drop it. They could lose to Oregon. Obviously I have Mexico losing at Nebraska in this model run so that's kind of interesting there. I don't think they get in. If they keep playing like this on offense. In Turkey, right? So it actually had Kentucky losing at Missouri and Louisville, right? But beating at Tennessee and Florida and then I think you get an interesting head-to-head at least in terms of the committee with Bama and Bama house them at their place. I think that head-to-head will carry. Texas Tech, I have losing at Baylor so that's all she wrote for them. Wake Forest actually had them losing at SMU and then to Miami again so that didn't actually come into play with the 11 win thing there. Arizona have dropping one more on the road. So yeah, dude, there's so many teams alive for this. The one thing I realized is like if you don't have a win over somebody who's in contention or in the field, I think you're a pretty easy cut. So this would be two more losses for Ohio State. No, one more. One more and just looking bad. Correct. Yeah. For the Jordan Travis rule. Yeah, I mean, say he's what 21 of 40 in five quarters against people are competition. Like I know something was in emergency backup role, but like I think you get the Kenyan Martin Jordan Travis treatment here and they're out. Danny Tom. Assuming saying doesn't come back. Now if you're a Ohio State and you know sayings out, he's indefinite. He's indefinite. You're not saying something. You can't say it. You got to lie your butts off if you eternally know exactly. Bye. Jeff, you gotta start, you gotta start bad. Hey, you're like, we're hoping they don't know. You gotta, I was surprised that Ryan Day said we're expecting that he said we're preparing as if he's not here for the post season. I think he even said that, right? But that's, that's just coach speak. That's smart PR on the airport. Right, right. Oh, 100%. I mean, I thought day, botched some of the PR on the offseason when he did not campaign for nine and three in, like Sark was pre campaigning for. You know, I thought that was like an unforced error on Ryan's part. When he got asked about that at the big 10 media day, given the fact they had the big non-conference game against Texas. This is actually some Sark PR from Ohio State. Well, that Ohio State needs to do is I need to start leaking to some, you know, be reporters how Julian was doing some work in practice, and also maybe create an AI video of Julian saying throwing. Or just take a whole video of Julian saying throwing and saying, oh, this is, this was leaked from today's practice. One of the reasons why Ohio State is in all of the, any other notes from the project? No, no, again, there's like so many variations of this that actually makes sense. You just have to make sure it matches up with the wins and losses, you know, and like get the, get the tiebreakers right for the conference games. See, this is what we do on the cover three podcasts. We put math with our minds, okay? A little bit of human element, little arts, little sciences. I'll tell you what science helps. If you keep a team out of the end zone for almost what, 57, 58 minutes, you're gonna give yourself a good chance to win the game, a good chance to have a big time landscape shifting win. And that is exactly what we saw in the Colosseum on Saturday night as USC shell shocked, and stunned the Ohio State Buckeyes with a 30 to 18 win. And that victory has the USC Trojans being honored by the Football Riders Association of America as the pop tarts bowl crazy good team of the week. You wanna talk about USC getting back to where it wants to be. The Football Riders Association of America has been giving out this honor for decades. But this USC program has not been named the team of the week by the FWA since 2013 when then interim coach Ed Oderon led an upset 20 to 17 victory against top five Stanford. So look at it here as Lincoln Riley gets his first top five win as the Trojans head coach. He does so and they do end up getting honored. The dominant's kind of started from the beginning Danny. No, you saw the big play by Mosley. You saw all the red zone failures of Ohio State even when they were moving the football, not being able to cash in. What did you learn about that USC program on Saturday night? - I mean, Lincoln Riley got his signature win. That's what he's been looking for forever, right? He wanted to make sure that he did it. I thought the game script played perfectly for them. The fact that they could play from in front, and I'm gonna do a little breakdown. A Luke Fahey later, I broke down some film of him, but you could tell later in the game, it's like they were just starting to press a little bit 'cause you look up at the scoreboard and I think the game plan would have been much better for Ohio State if he could have played the role of game manager, but they had to press the issue a little bit. But I think USC, I know I wouldn't predict them to get to the college football playoff just now, but I think that was one of those kind of confidence builders for them. We've seen them kind of up and down. Now they've got to back it up just like everybody else. They've got some tricky spots coming, including on the road in Indiana, which their defense can have to step up. - And UCLA, which looks way different of a game than what you thought coming into the season. - Right, but I thought it was a huge confidence boost for them, and you just want to mark Bowman's hurdle, was incredible, like if they do get to the college football playoff, you can look at that play and be like, all right, that's the moment that team woke up. You know, and that the freshmen all around there have been producing, and it was great to see them do that. So congrats. I say good, like, I don't apologize. They didn't have their starter. They still had Jeremiah Smith out there, who you held in check for the most part. Like, so I say kudos to them. - You touched on something there. Like, I'm with you. I would not right now say that I think USC is going to make the college football playoff, but you mentioned the freshmen stepping up, and we talked about all the off-season, but how good this freshman class was. They're not freshmen anymore. It's no vendor. You're set in. You understand what you have to do every single week. So it's not impossible to think that a team with that much young talent is kind of figure things out and might be getting better as we get to November and finish the season, and they were earlier in their year. - The both Bowman and Mosley have missed a gamer too with some injuries too, so they're all getting healthier. So they've had to do that thing as freshmen of enduring a little knick or a little knock and then being able to work your way back, but they all looked very healthy and very, very productive and ready to go. Congratulations to USC, the Pop Tarts Bowl. Crazy good team of the week as always. They are going to be the recipients of, they're going to be the recipients of a special delivery of assorted Pop Tarts and a custom crafted game ball from big game USA. It is our pleasure, along with the Football Writers Association of America, to honor the team of the week, this fine award, every single week here on the cover, three podcasts. Coming up on the other side, under the hood, it's time for a pun for the review and more. - Next. - As soon as the leaves start changing colors, I immediately start craving all those traditional fall orchard flavors, especially a classic caramel dipped apple. And that's why I am so obsessed with the new Caramel Apple Five-Hour Energy Shop. It captures that exact mouth-watering flavor combination by taking the sweet and crisp bite of a ripe autumn apple and blending it with a smooth, buttery, caramel-coded finish. It's kind of like carrying a little piece of the local harvest right in your pocket or bag and really whenever you need to refresh throughout a busy day. Plus, it gives you that cozy, nostalgic, seasonal treat feeling sugar-free. So that means that you don't have to worry about a sudden post-snack crash when you're trying to stay productive. Now look, I've already started stocking up in my pantry because this flavor is easily one of the most delicious seasonal drops that I've tried in a long time. It gives you all the comfort of autumn in one quick, incredible sip. So treat yourself to a crisp, apple bite, smooth, caramel delight with a caramel apple, five-hour energy shot available online for a limited time at fivehourenergy.com or Amazon. - Hi, I'm Tony DeCouple 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 the satisfying answer to, or maybe haven't even heard asked. Follow and listen to Great Question with Tony DeCouple wherever you get your podcasts. - Back here on the cover three podcast, every single Monday, it is very important that we go and we just make sure we cover everything from the week that was. Now this year in 2026, that's included some dynamite film breakdowns from DK. So let's get into all that and more with a pun. - Further. - Review. (upbeat music) - It worked. - Terrible calls. - Do you want to go ahead and jump in? - After further review. - All right, DK, let's let you get started 'cause we were just talking about those USC Trojans. Let's get into the film room and see how it happened. - All right, so I had, these were my notes. There's like, I've probably had 15 plays I could have coached up for Luke Fei. So I did a breakdown of Luke Fei and there was a coach that told me, I don't know if it was my dad or a coach, like I feel like it was Mark Rick or somebody, but it could have been my dad. Like after a game, it's never as good as you thought it was and it's never as bad as you thought it was. I thought it was really good advice 'cause you'll throw four touchdowns, it feel great and then you go ahead and be like, man, I left two on the field. You'll feel like you played awful, which I think is kind of the narrative for Luke Fei. And I watched it and didn't think it was as bad as it, like I think there are some things you could build on. But I'll show you a couple of things that were pretty basic. I think you could tell for Arthur Smith, you could tell he was coaching a true freshman making his first start. So Stryker, let's fire it up with the first play that I had for you. This is the first third down of the game. Now this is one, they are moving the pocket, they're gonna get outside and there essentially, there's a lot of these concepts that I saw unfold. They're basically what you would call across the board a smash concept where you've got an underneath route that's running some version of like a five to six yard hitch or out or something underneath. And then you'll have a corner route behind it on the back end. So they're gonna move the pocket, you take protection out of his mind, you bring in that tight end, try to seal the edge, it does a horrible job, by the way. But then you've got an outside hitch and a corner over the top. And it's a really easy read. You're basically reading the outside corner and you're gonna work a high low concept. So here he is, so this Fei, going outside, this is a pretty good throw. I mean, it's Jeremiah's for how hard could it be? That's a good first down throw. So he's feeling pretty good in the game right here, right? This is what I noticed early. Like get him outside, some confidence builders. That was a solid throw. I think you can build on that. All right, so let's go to the next one, Striker. And just keep an eye on these concepts 'cause these are three in a row that are very similar. This is another, remember, it's called a smash concept. There's a player that's high and there's a player that's low. So this time they're gonna work from the inside slot. He's gonna essentially get to the same spot and he's got Jeremiah. as the player behind it. Now what you're going to do, it's pretty solid protection up front. They don't blitz. It's only a four man rush. There's good protection. Fahey has time. And essentially when you're right here is the QB, you're reading the corner right there. And then I was actually surprised. They didn't give more deference to Jeremiah who's going to catch this ball versus the the shorter route, the underneath route. This is a great throw throws it on rhythm on timing. Again, early in the game, feeling pretty good. Good confidence builder right there for him. And it's wide open. Yeah, it is wide open. And he reads it and like it was good wide open. Again, there's something to notice there. USC's defense. That was a very valuable. So now those are both in the first quarter. I thought he was playing with confidence again. You're looking at the game strip. You're not playing from far as far behind. Now this will move later in the game. This is in the second half. I believe this is in the third quarter. And this is the same concept. Another smash concept where we hear the term throwing receivers open. That's what you do at the next level. Like once you start getting to an area where you're more confident and you can throw things over that you start learning that. So this one, same concept. You're going to see a player come in motion. And then he's basically going to get to that spot, that part. Then you're going to see a deep corner route behind it. And then you're basically going to read the outside. You're going to read it one to two right there. Some coaches teach high to low, some low to high. But the one thing I want you guys to notice is you should know right there you've got man coverage. The way the underneath route is jumped. That corner route is open. So that's covered the underneath. And you have a huge place. You just want to throw it to that point of the field. Trust it. That is a touchdown if you throw it. But the pressure, the protection breaks down just a smidge. So instead of instead of cutting it loose, taking a big hit, trusting the throw, trusting that it's going to be there. You see, if a panic a little bit scrambles you take a sack. It's like the worst case that you could be in. Again, this is later in the game. Things are bumping up a little bit. Just wanted to show you the protection here because I thought he could have cut this one loose. Almost right about now. And you can see the bottom left of your corner. You should know that that's going to be open. You can cut it loose now. You've got a guy barreling on you. It's not an easy throw. But I think saying makes that throw. I think he trusted hangs in there throws it and steady panic sleeves the pocket. But I was interesting. A lot of those smash concepts one one side of the field reads. It's fairly basic. It's a high low. And he felt pretty good throwing them early in the game just later when the protection broke down didn't really trust it from that standpoint. Dave, like, do you think that like if you recognize man on the stop route there, right? Do you think like the ball should be out before he's into his break? Like what with that much? You're about to the corner mount. Correct. Yeah. Like, like, you have for this break open because like, no, go into grass. Right. You've got to throw it almost to that pack, not the back pile on probably just middle of the end zone right there towards the corner route. I mean, that is open. Like that is a big space. You've got receivers. I know it's not Jeremiah, but you've got receivers that can make that play. And that the the the safety or DB whoever's playing man to man on him is completely turned around. Like you should be licking your chops the moment you see it. But this to me is really hard grading on a, you know, freshman making it on the road. Like, yeah, I mean, this is just this would have been next level. Like, oh my gosh, we're talking superstar. But like if he gets up to speed and gets more comfortable, and I'm sure they're talking to him about this play, can we get him up to speed where you can trust them some more? And there's one more play that I wanted to show you that was a little thing that I noticed. This was some of the third downs, like some of the little things in the game. This is a third and three early in the game. I think it's an RPO. And while I say I think it's an RPO because if you watch the action from the receivers and the offensive line, I think Faye, he has the option to pull this ball. And he just doesn't, but he also could have been told at third and three, we're going to run the RPO, but just run it. Like don't read it out. But I'll show you the, show you the mistake that I think he made because RPO, you're basically reading the n-man on the line of scrimmage. So that end right there, you're reading him. If he crashes inside, you're pulling it and you're throwing it outside, which is wide open, third and three. Remember where this is on the field. So you've got a flat, and you've got it in behind it. He gives it here. It gets blown up. They get a big stop. A USC's defense does making sure it's third and three. Let me guys know that. And I just thought this one, like saying, I think either cuts that one loose or waits at bangs the, the in cut there, the slant. And that slant might go for a touchdown. Like if you hit them on the move. And if you hit the slant, I think, or if you hit the flat, I think it's a pretty easy first down. So just a little thing in there like that. I think the freshman, either they didn't trust him to read it out like an RPO, or he read it incorrectly. I don't know what the answer is. Denny, if you roll this back, is the overhang crashing or are they sitting on action? They are. They're watch. So what you're talking about the packer or the overhang at the 33 watch is action. So that's step to me that he makes towards the run is enough of an action. If you're a veteran, like I think you pull that and you rip it outside. Yeah, you know, because he takes, I mean, all you need is a hesitation. You can rip that pull outside. And even more. So once he takes that, he keeps coming downhill to the run and run support. He had no sense. He had three options. Two of them were good. One was bad. He chose bad one. Right. And that's where I think, and it was early of third and three. But like those are the thikes types. So they had to settle for a field goal and said they could have kept the ball, potentially had a chance for a touchdown. So like I watched a lot of it. He made some nice throws. He made some freshman mistakes. They definitely called a few deep balls that they just told him throw it deep. And he missed one wide open. That was a nine route that was wide open. One he deeply under threw. But I think overall, like I think C plus grade for faith. I don't think it was an F. I don't think he looked incompetent. Well, he didn't make the big mistake, which I'm sure was something they were talking to him. Not all we could practice was, hey, our defense is good enough. We'll be in this game. Don't screw it up. He really didn't have any like, there were little things. They were like, oh, man, we could have used that. But he didn't make the crucial pick six or the scrambling around and fumble like overall, I thought there was some things that you could, you could grow with. Let's hear a tailgate. Let's, let's give it up. I know a lot of, that's awesome, awesome stuff from DK. We appreciate. No, not that Chris. Not that. We're talking about driving, driving off the facility with 50 million in the pocket in a Maybach. That's pretty baller stuff. We don't ever want to judge. We want this to be a big tailgate where everyone can feel comfortable asking questions. So, Danny, while we're sort of here in the quarterback mind quarterback analysis conversation, Colin in the tailgate said, non ball, no question. But why is under center so rare and challenging in today's college football? It's a good one. That drives me nuts when you see a fourth and one. And you see the quarterback in the shotgun and they don't take it. I think a lot of this stems from high school, like a lot of these players do never take under center snaps. I think we're seeing a little bit of return to under center, which is a good thing. You know, it just for RPO system. A lot of that was built in the gun. It's easier to read when you're further removed. It's just become, yeah, it's become way more of a trend in college football to be in shotgun. And then if you're in shotgun all the time, you don't trust your guys. And there was a, there was a play earlier season with Oregon. Oregon was in the game versus UCLA. And they actually went under center with I think it was Brock had come in for Dylan Raola. And he actually fumbled the snap on fourth and inches. And they couldn't even get the snap. And that's every coach is worse nightmare. I mean, we used to do to start practice. We'd take 20 snaps with our centers under center, like doing various footwork drills. And it was just became second nature. But it's not as like if you don't do it every day and you don't do it a lot, it is not as easy as people think. Like the centers pretty low. They're going violent, especially in short yardage situations. They're trying to, they've got a guy very like I'm ready to get leverage underneath them. And they've got to get to them or scoop up to the second level. It's way more complicated than just, oh, it's just a snap, especially if you don't do it a lot. So Danny, like on certain plays, like you have to know your centers blocking assignment as well because like you have to ride out like stepping like stepping laterally pretty quick. It's all the sudden the snaps kind of off center. If you don't move with them. Absolutely. Yeah, you definitely have to ride them a little bit more, especially in short yardage and go on situations. I also think too. Part of it is just and this could change. Like you mentioned, Danny, we're seeing a little bit more under center. This could change with the more professionalization of the sport. Because at high school in college, you had a limited amount of time to coach and practice with your players. The way that things have always worked. So the goal for so many coaches has been to simplify everything as much as possible and putting your quarterback in the shotgun just gives him a few less things to think about and a few fewer reads on every single play. And also, like we see these dudes have problems processing when they're staring at the defense the entire time. A lot of coaches don't want their guys turning their backs to the defense at all. Because yeah, they just do not have the processing speed for when they turn around and everything's already moved. They just don't have the reps. That is something that takes reps and reps and reps and reps and they just don't have it. So maybe as we get more to a professional sport with NIL and everything and we start heading in and you're getting more practice time and we don't have to pretend these kids are going to school. Like you'll start seeing a little bit more complicated schemes and stuff at the college level. Shout out to our friend Cardel Jones. No reason. No reason at all. All right. Uh, Danny, that was fantastic. That was big hymn behavior. And now it's time for he's hymn sponsored by hymns. There's the guy that you are right now and there's the guy that you could be whatever's holding you back hymns has a real plan for it. Be confident, be him. And it's hard to question at all the confidence that is coming out of Durham, North Carolina from Duke running back Nate Shepherd, especially in the wake of a school record. Five rushing touchdowns against Boston College. Officially, it wasn't even his most productive day in terms of yards, just 97 yards, just 97 yards on 20 carries, but he continues to keep Duke right there in the hunt in the ACC. They do have two conference losses, so it's uphill sledding. But six and two overall, bowl eligible again under many D.S. and a huge part of it has been the way that Nate Shepherd has been able to rack up a lot of yards and a lot of scores. He also has four receiving touchdowns on the year, the 18 total touchdowns already are a single season school record. Tom, we've been talking about Nate Shepherd a lot this year. We identified him as a real difference maker. What has stood out to you about what he's been able to offer for the Blue Devils offense this year? - The most untackable human alive. Just he bounces off tackles at such an alarming rate. It is very fun to watch, unless he's playing your team, which he was earlier in the season. But just, yeah, he is like, he's the kind of crux of the Duke offense, and it is not a surprise that little few weeks there were Duke was struggling. Nate Shepherd was banged up. Now he's getting healthier again. He's looking better at all of a sudden. Hey, he's scoring five touchdowns in a game, and we are absolutely destroying Boston College. Like we should have been originally. So, yeah, this is just, he's a very, very good running back who plays at a school that probably doesn't get nearly enough national attention. But he has more rushing touchdowns than any other running back in the country. The only people with more rushing touchdowns are quarterbacks. Helms at Army and Hawkins at West Virginia. So, this is somebody who has had a fantastic season. And in most years, or at least not most, but in many years would be getting some Heisman kind of talk. Not saying he would win the award, but he has the kind of numbers that would usually put him in that conversation, but for whatever reason, he hasn't been mentioned as nearly as often. - It kind of feels like he's having an Olly Gordon like season. - Yeah. - Maybe if we weren't-- - It's a great call. You know, maybe if we weren't just so overwhelmed by a few of these other prospects. Obviously, the duo down in Miami, Jeremiah Smith, and more that maybe he'd be there. But if we're talking about the best running backs in the country, Nate Shepherd is signing up and he's ready for that because he is him. And that was, he's him sponsored by Helms. Be prepared, be strong, be confident, be him. Are you ready to be him? Visit hymns.com to get personalized affordable care that's h-i-m-s.com. Coming up on the other side, we continue our look at a pun further review, wrapping up what we've got. Yes, Tom, unfortunately Nebraska fans, we do have to highlight some of the Nebraska pain from the weekend, all that and more. - Next. - There's the guy that you are right now, and there's the guy you know you could be, and Helms is here to help close the gap and get there. There's a specific feeling that comes from actually taking control of your health, not from talking about it, from actually doing it, whatever's been holding you back, hymns has a real plan for it built around you. Confidence isn't an accident. It's what happens when you actually know what's going on in your body, and you've got a plan built for it. That's hymns. That is what's possible once you're actually taking care of yourself and taking control, more energy, more confidence, more you. So be prepared, be strong, be confident, be him. Visit hymns.com to get personalized affordable care. That's hymns.com. hymns.com, prescription required. Restrictions apply, not available in all 50 states. For important safety information and restrictions, visit hymns.com. Back here on the Cover 3 podcast. We got another DK Film Review coming up here in just a second, but Tom, you already hinted and teased that unfortunately for Nebraska fans, there's a lot more to look at in the wake of the weekend's defeat. What stood out to you when looking at the way the corn huskers have performed in these kinds of margins in recent years? First of all, if you are a Nebraska fan, it might be time to turn off the stream and maybe go take a walk or something because this could cut PTSD, trigger warnings, all that kind of stuff coming up here. First of all, we saw them blow it against Washington. We talked about it Saturday night. That is the third straight game in which Nebraska has held a fourth quarter lead and lost. They held a fourth quarter lead against Indiana lost. They held a fourth quarter lead against Oregon lost. They held a fourth quarter lead against Washington lost. Nothing new for this program. I tweeted the stat yesterday like most one score losses in the college football playoff era. Nebraska leads that by a billion. And there we go. 53 next closest is Arkansas at 42. Now it's not just that they're losing close games. It's that they're losing games they've had the lead in. All right, I just mentioned the fourth quarter blown leads. But under Matt rule, Nebraska is 24 and 15 in games in which they held a lead at any point. I like that's not terrible. 24 games very good. That's a 615 win percentage. That ranks 91st nationally compared to everybody else in that time span. They are 22 and seven in which they held a half time lead. That's 759 win percentage ranks 106. Oh, no. Now, hey, maybe maybe they balance it out by coming back when they're losing. No, they are 821 in games in which they've trailed at any point. That 276 win percentage ranks 100 and first when trailing at halftime. Oh, and 12 if you are losing at halftime Nebraska fans and Matt rule is your coach, just turn the game off or leave the stadium and go home because it's not going to get any better than it currently is. And if you think all that's fun, it gets worse because those are numbers that include non-conference games. In big 10 play, Nebraska is 12 and four or 12 and 14 in games in which they lead at any point. So even when they lead, they still lose over half the time. And that 462 win percentage ranks 115th. When they're leading at halftime at a big 10 game, they're only 11 and seven. That win percentage ranks 118th. Now, on average, I'm sorry, it's not over yet. On average, in the Matt rule era, Nebraska has trailed by an average of 27 minutes and 37 seconds in games that they have lost. So less than half the game, that ranks 137th nationally. The only team to trail for less of a game on average in games that ends up losing is James Madison at 2642. Ohio State is third at 28 minutes and 19 seconds. One of those two programs having common, they win. So when they do lose, they're typically playing well and they just lose close. Nebraska is not winning overall and they are still having these most painful losses and it gets worse. - No. - Oh, yeah. - Worse. Do you know how much Nebraska has trailed in their three losses this season? Oh, in total, I'm gonna say eight minutes. - Very good guess. Eight minutes and 41 seconds, they have trailed in their losses. That is two minutes and 53 seconds per game. They have led for an average of 38 minutes and 43 seconds in their losses. For context, if case that number doesn't do it enough, the only, the next closest team with at least three losses is Louisiana, who has trailed for 65 minutes and 20 seconds or an average of 21 minutes and 46. Nebraska's at two, 53 per game. - Just painful. Just can, I mean, you'd kicks in the nuts. - What you're telling me. - And weak out. That is why, bud, when we were discussing it earlier, that is why a lot of people in Lincoln are just like, you know what, we're done. We can't take any more of this. - Do you know what Matt Rules record as a head coach is in single score games? - Oh no. I just know the ranked, I just know the ranked opponents. - I'm pretty sure I did this math right. I think he's 16 and 41. - In one score games? - As a head coach in his career. - You know what's, we had a caller this morning on the radio show. He literally, he's like, I, he was so exasperated. He's like, I hate being in Nebraska fan. I mean, he was so down and out. What's crazy about this? And I think I said this after they lost to Indiana. The first one's the hardest. Like it's such a mental block. Like they're leading 17 to six. And I guarantee you they're like, this is the one. And then you start seeing it slip away and it gets harder and harder. And then all of a sudden you look up and you've got three in a row where if they could close one out, they kind of lift that off and they could be undefeated the way they play. I mean, that's what's crazy about it. You hate it for 'em at first one as the hardest though. They've got to get past. They've got to break through that barrier. So yeah, and I do, I do realize I am tempting fate here because Nebraska is playing at Illinois on Friday night. But I'm not doing this to rub it in. I am just trying to explain to people who might not understand the pain that Nebraska fans have been going through. And again, I only mentioned the rule numbers. Like we showed those one score losses. That goes back through the Scott Frost era. Mike, this is not new. Scott Frost had a lot of these same problems. this is It's like Nebraska has been stuck in a groundhog day situation for like 20 some odd years now where it's the same season over and over again and it is the same loss over and over again and then you start over and you convince yourself this time it is going to be fixed and it's not fixed. It's the same crap no matter who the coach is, no matter who the quarterback is, no matter who the coordinators are, it's the same damn thing every single season. So again, I hope their basketball team is good again this year because that fan based needs something. That to me is why Florida State had to fire Mike Norvell. You can't you can't establish the muscle memory of disappointment, you know, it needs to just be absolute, absolute distaste, you know, unacceptable results. And now obviously Florida State as it undergoes a coaching search is hoping to make sure that they don't become a relic of another era. So it's a, it's interesting, interesting to see it all laid out just like that decay. You've got, we got more film. So this is, this isn't really a breakdown. By the way, if you want to watch, if you're just a podcast listener, you need to make sure you're watching on YouTube, subscribe to YouTube because you can see these breakdowns visually when we do them. This was just an observation that I did notice on TV and I wanted to go back to the film and kind of show you guys. I'm sure you guys even discussed this a little bit because a lot of these teams in the big tent are dealing with quarterback issues, Indiana being one of them. I think Hoover is hurt way worse than they're letting on. You know, when Signetti comes into what was it two weeks ago, the game, and they had zero players on the injury report, that to me is more an indication of Signetti's like screw you guys. Unless my guys out, I'm not telling you guys anything. I think Hoover is pretty banged up. Watch the pick six or it wasn't a pick six. Just the interception where right before the half his last play in the game, I want you to watch this. I don't think this hit was, you can call the flag whatever. I don't think it was violent enough to knock a player out of the game. He falls on his shoulder, his right shoulder and I mean, he gets hit a little bit. It looks a little more violent than it does, but that reaction when he falls down on that shoulder tells me he is hurt way worse than they're letting on and why they ended up taking him out of the game. Watching some of his throws on tape, they looked a little bit awkward and he does fall hard on his right shoulder. Something's wrong with his throwing arm. The buy could not come at a better time for them to get healthy. And I think the Indiana's run is going to be determined by how healthy he can get. And I do worry a little bit about his confidence because there is so much speculation and people are on him. He hasn't played that good. I think he's pretty banged up and that play kind of tells me he might be hurt worse than they're letting on. I don't think that play, he gets shoved to the ground. It's not like decleated, but he gets, you know, he falls pretty hard. I don't know what you guys thought about the hit and whether it was worthy of him being knocked from the game. I thought it was, oh, he's planted a lot of pain. That just aggravated something that's been bothering him a lot. I've also had the unknown of what it was going to look like with Grant Wilson in the game. I mean, I'm not in practice. So I wasn't sure what it was going to look like. So the offense has struggled mightily, week after week after week. So if he's a little bit dinged, I was more curious to see what it was going to be. Just with anything else other than Josh Cooper, which I'll think I yeah, I don't really have any different opinion there. I didn't think it was like a crazy kind of outhead. I think that he was probably already banged up. The only thing I will say is like I have seen some from Indiana fans, but that was a cheap shot. There's nothing cheap about that. Number four. It's a lot. It's a lot of fault. Number four did his job. The way they explained it on the broadcasts were like, well, the quarterbacks protected there. No, he's not. And I don't, not that way, like if you, again, everybody's protected blind shot. Like you're not supposed to go for the kill shot. I thought that was just a block on a return. Like you just find it a guy. I didn't think it was penalty worthy either. And the NFL, there is a role you can't go hunting for the quarterback on turnover returns, right? Like is there? Yeah, they really, there's something. There's something where it's like you, you kick like defenseless player, you know, defense. Right. Yeah. It needs a football player. I thought it was a weak flag too. And I agree, but they're doing everything to protect them like it's not blind side. He's head up. He runs through. Right. Mm hmm. Well, the Texas Tech Red Raiders unveiled a new QB1 for its big game against Arizona. And it was a stripped down playbook for new starter Tommy Castellanis. We became, but just an a read option team and sure enough, when you roll up all those hundreds and hundreds of yards against a very good and stout Arizona defense. It looks like that we don't need to do a whole lot else. It seems like the practical plays are doing a lot. What do you see from Tommy C and the Red Raiders new look offense as they, as they now take that forward in the pursuit of a college football playoff appearance? Yeah. So I thought it was pretty classic Castellanis, right? On some plays, he scrambled around, bought some time, made a good throw and other times like he made like some awesome throws. He was also like 11 of 24 and had some horrendous misses. And that's just kind of what you're going to get from him because he's basically a running back trying to play the QB position. And that matters because he played the running back as a QB role extremely well, obviously 117 on the ground. Also like what it does to the defense, like they really have to respect him as a runner, you know? And I think, given the ineffectiveness that the prior kid had throw in the ball and was basically no run threat or very limited run threat, like it makes sense for them to do this. Like now, if they get a situation where they have to go score 40 against a much better defense than Arizona, the Arizona is a decent defense, right? Then I don't know. Like, I think he's a more high variance outcome guy for them. The defense is probably going to have to step up in a game down the stretch where he throws three, four picks and you know, fumble rate on him has always been pretty high too. But I do think he gives you a chance to win your more like a higher, higher degree of difficulty games because his good is pretty good. I, when they announced this, we were doing in the pre game show and you found out he was starting, I thought it was specifically for the threat with the legs. It's why they wanted Brendan Sores B. He's a runner who can throw better than Costalanos. But when you're a pocket passer, which is what Hammond was, you can't be six touchdowns and six interceptions. You just can't like, you're just going to get benched every single time. And I think now Costalanos, remember, he got there late, you know, he was kind of limited. That's why they had the goal line packages for him. That's why I mean, when he started, he looked, you know, lost and he had some bad throws there. I do think he brings way better upside because of his legs. You can scheme guys more open because they have to defend the legs. But I agree with Bud. Like you do worry is that bone headed, you know, bad throw or missing ribosievers. It's in him. So like, that's going to be what we got to keep him practical, Danny. I'm not trying to be practical. He plays practical. They can win the big 12. And I was thinking that if they do, like, so they play Oklahoma state and still water later in the year, you talked about times where they may have to go play 40, Texas, Texas defense is still really, really good. There's a world where Texas, Texas path to winning is run game and defense. And that's going to be the way that they can try to give themselves a position to win the big 12. So very practical. And it certainly has yielded a big result over the weekend. How's Gunner looking? Not great. The last couple of games. I thought we were going to get a sharper gunner after the Auburn game and then an off week. So would you, would you, what do you see in? I mean, just looking at the numbers, like, but and I talked about it on Saturday night. And I don't know if you've seen it, but we've been getting kind of yelled at by Georgia fans because we're just, we don't have any integrity because we keep attacking Gunner for no reason. And it didn't matter because they were going to win that game either way, but let's go back to the Auburn game. Let's just look like Gunner was great against Alabama. And we gave him credit for it at the time. He hasn't been great since. In fact, he's been bad since he's been below average. If you look at his numbers in the Auburn and Florida games among 114 qualified quarterbacks, 80th and passing efficiency, a nice 69th and completion rate, 82nd in yards per attempt, 83rd in yards per dropback, 72nd in touchdown rate, 87th in interception rate, 79th in Wolfsy Daisy rate. And here's the best 100 and second in EPA per dropback. I shared it on Twitter yesterday among all the quarterback individual performances on that last week. Gunner's negative 0.52 EPA per dropback was the second worst performance by a quarterback in any game this week. And yeah, Georgia had the game wrapped up. It's just every time they asked Gunner to drop back the throw, he actually lowered their chances of winning that game the way that he performed. So you can say that it doesn't matter. And I'm not going to sit in here and say it's how he's played all year and it's how he's going to play the rest of the year. But if you are Georgia and your goal is to win a national title, Gunner has to play better than he did the last two games against Auburn and Florida for you to win the national title. That's just a fact of the matter. It doesn't mean we think he sucks. We're looking at your program from a national title contender perspective. If you want to pretend it's not been bad the last couple of weeks, go ahead, keep your heads in the sand. But unless he starts improving, it's going to be really difficult to get that national title you want. The reason why in the preseason we thought that Georgia to make this a championship game as opposed to win it was a much better bet was Gunner. And this receiving group, right? Like we didn't know who they were going to face in the championship game. But the odds were that you were going to face an NFL guy, playing QB in the yesterday championship game and your guy is not one, right? And I think like most teams would be kind of happy. with Gunner Stockton. I think Georgia he fits what they do which is pretty much defense and run game. But we do need a little bit more out of him and the receiving group. Like we went over the receiving group stats on Saturday night. Like that was pathetic, right? Like backs and tie-ins as your pass catchers for the most part are not going to get it done when you're facing a bunch of elite teams. So yeah, like I miss these responses because I just used the priority tab on Twitter. So we kind of filters them for quality. So I didn't maybe they just weren't deemed quality enough to get through. Hey Bud said your tweet stink. I'll have to switch it over to the all tab to see. But no, like he's not terrible. No. The stats have been playing terrible. He just agreed. You have done so much that we judge you from a national championship conversation and that's a bit concerning. Like if your goal is to be, you know, a good team in the SEC and get the bowl games or just make the playoff gutters been fine. If your goal is to win it all, you need to see more out of your QB. I would do what Tom, what about sharing that as a passing offense responsibility? And you could take that to, you know, pass catchers, you know, like across the board. Just the passing offense has to get better. Yeah. And we talked about that on our red flag show earlier this week on the network. Like I talked about how they don't have the dude. Like it, whether it White receiver or tight end that kind of helps, you know, separate you from other teams. And they could certainly use that. But what you have to work with what you have. And like the receivers have been great, but Gunner hasn't been great either. He's been missing throws. Also, we can retire this best tightening room in the country stuff for Georgia this year. I think you could say now deepest or the most potential. But like it's not the best tightening room in the country. We've played about 10 weeks now. Like you have a lot of good players, a lot of players with potential. Maybe room and theory because room like talks about the whole thing, but you can't play six of them at a time, right? Like does Georgia have a tight end? Who was like, Oh, yeah, like that guy's the best tie down in the country. As much as as much as we are 13 personnel respectors, if you've got six NFL tight ends, you're not actually helping the team but so much. If you can't call yourself the best tight end room in the country when the leading receiver at tight end, you have is what 12 catches for 197 yards. Do you think Georgia would take Giuliani Thurman right now? Yes. Yeah. He's a legit past catching threat. They like anybody get to ball for this team right now, they would take. One last piece. I wanted to help. Hold on. I'm sorry. One more. Put that Reggie comment up. UGA has the best tight end room in the country. Mike Bobo is not creative enough to use them. He certainly seemed creative enough to use Brock Bowers. Like, I mean, that's the same offensive coordinator you had when you had Brock Bowers. Just because these guys had a really high recruiting rankings out of high school does not mean that they are all going to be Brock Bowers guys. Like you could talk about it all off season. When you watch the games, maybe if Lucky was getting open more, he'd be getting more targets. Sorry. It's all right. No, I need, it's okay if you're feeling a little salty because this is going to be something that's going to be hard to diagnose. Do you think that Lincoln Riley prepared his prepared remarks in the idea that Ohio State was going to win the game? Or do you think he had the prepared remarks with confidence that USC was going to win the game? Or why did the prepared remarks get unfolded? Actually, I think we've got it. Let's take a listen. This program's not built on internal joy. It is discusely built on internal joy, not external applause. The swims for all the staff members, the players, the leaders, admin, all the people within the walls. I said before this game that I'm the right person for this job. And as long as all those people know that, that's all I care about. I appreciate being a part of this university. And all it does, I appreciate our kids and our staff. And I'm going to continue to fight on because that's what Demon Trox is all about. Dodios. Dodios. That is a stretch. I think that shows you the human side. Somebody was on the hot seat and get asked about it continuously for a few weeks. That's that's the personal side where he had his feeling. He was in his feelings. He wanted to let people know we want. But that was the hot seat conversation of I'm going to keep fighting, right? I mean, it was I think he they had had a good moment. Everybody all the multiple reporters who were in that room said that the vibes shifted when he went to these prepared remarks that it had been a really good like, oh my goodness. First top five win. Oh my goodness. Look at this is all these things are going well. USC. You finally had your moment of arrival and that when the prepared remarks and then the audio's walkoff hit just kind of left a strange awkward feeling around a game that should have otherwise been overwhelmingly positive. You know what? Like what he could have said is you know, winning games is hard in this league. And I really appreciate all the Trojan fans who packed the Coliseum and helped us have a special environment even through the rain and you know what? It feels a lot better to get wet when you're winning guys and we like this is for all of you. We work hard in the building every week. Winning games is not easy, especially in this league. Like we have real confidence we're building something special. We know progress is not linear, right? We hated last week. I know y'all hurt as a fan base for that. We hurt even more in this building and this did feel good. But you know what? We'll celebrate tonight. We got to turn the page. We got another big one next week in this league. Obviously we love a lot of these freshmen that we work so hard to recruit coming out and ball and forest. You turn this into recruiting pitch a little bit blah blah blah blah. Celebratory. Now I think he had already said a lot of that. That's the thing is everything. It was the very end of the press conference. It was the end. It was the end. No, but it was the whole thing was done and he hit him with a and one more thing and he pulls this paper out where he very clearly had thought about it and the word choice meant something because he stumbled over the Senate's right at the very beginning. I mean, it was just so he did answer questions. I didn't know that. So he like that was the very end. Like the players. It wasn't all he did. Correct. Got you. I wasn't sure of that. Yeah. No, this doesn't. This kind of tracks with a lot of the, you know, thought of their like USC's media relations has gone downhill as well. Like the thing that somebody in the room that could be like Lincoln. No, you can't read this. This is incredibly stupid. They obviously didn't run it by anybody. My my thought was if everything had stopped and they had all said, all right, thank y'all and he had not pulled that paper out. This would have been all positive and now instead it's a little bit like, okay. The thing that bud nailed 100% and I don't know why they don't do this more. You even if you don't believe it, you have to say it's so hard to win in this league. Like that's all you hear from every SEC coach is how hard it is to win in the league. You think this league has three national champion. Like you have to pitch your league. Even if you don't believe it so that the committee hears it. You just have to. I thought he was going to go full costanza and just be like, I got a lot of problems with you people and now you're going to hear about it. Because I mean, that's what he should have done. And where's Ross Bjorkat? That's what he should have said when he was done. Meet me in the, meet me in the tunnel, Ross. That's what he should have said about. I don't know. I'm still trying. I looked at a bunch of different cell phone videos to see what was going on. I don't know if they were upset. They weren't helped off the field. I understand why Lincoln was like clear the path. Take your team. Don't linger anymore. And why you had to hold USC back. But yeah, I don't know what Ross was taking issue with the Ohio State athletic director. Yeah. Again, this should have all been positive. They were the Football Riders Association team of the week. They got the win against Ohio State. They're still alive in the Big 10 title race. They're still alive in the college football playoff race. And then all of a sudden, it just was like a odd. You've still got an X to grind and you're choosing right now to use it. Interesting. Very interesting. You know, whoa. Did you guys see the breaking news? injury stuff. No, Matt Zenitz. Let me just confirm this is 100% Matt Zenitz. Yeah, it is him. Ben Arbuckle and Oklahoma expected to part ways. I mean, look, you ever watched Margin Call? You know how when he sits the guy when he sits the guy in a girl dance, I'm going to need a head. It's going to be you. Like, that's basically this. Like, Benables is going to have a losing record in two of his three SC seasons. It looks like he's going to need somebody to scapegoat. I mean, the extension looks better right now. Venables are rule. I think rule rule is at least that successful head coaching 10 years. There's not a lot of evidence to me right now that Venables is more than a must-champ, which is a defense coordinator who can't allow for a successful offense. There you go. We anything else upon further review, lengthy show, but lots to get to. I was excited. We had multiple breakdowns, you know, so happy to run a little overtime here on an over on the week of overtime. Let's review the schedule this week. Actually, tomorrow 11 a.m. Eastern time, come join us here at youtube.com/cover3 for big game breakdown. Then Tuesday night, college football playoff rankings reaction. First part is just going to be a hangout live on YouTube. We're watching with you hanging out in the tailgate. Then once the one through 25 is set, we'll take a break and then start what will initially be the full rankings reaction show, I mean, which includes, you know, a spotlight of some of the the big games ahead in week 10 that will impact the college football playoff rankings movement. Thursday, we get our week 10 locks and then Saturday night after the monster's week 10, our instant reaction show. So, come and hang out and you can follow him on Twitter at Tom Fidel. You can follow him @dannycanel. You can follow him @bloodelie3. You can follow me @chip_patterson. Gentlemen, thank you very much. Thank you. See you. Now streaming on Paramount Plus. I'm Dexter Morgan. I've been killing killers for half my life. It gets to you. You're having a midlife crisis. I'm not ready for that. He's back. I'm older. I'm wiser. And sharper than ever. Things are gonna get messy. But if I can't believe in myself, I can't believe in anything. 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