Week 9 Reactions + Mike Norvell Fired & Judgment Week Arrives

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Texas customers who switch to Kin report annual savings of $1,160 on average. Based on Kin Customer Savings Survey conducted August 2025 through August 2016. This football season, it's game on with RYOBI. Whether you're getting the yard ready for kickoff, clearing leaves before guests arrive, or powering your tailgate, RYOBI's 40-volt outdoor lineup has you covered. With over 85 products powered by the same 40-volt battery, you'll get peak performance across leaf blowers, chainsaws, trimmers, and more. When it's time to take the party beyond the yard, RYOBI's portable power solutions keep your tailgate running strong. RYOBI, the number one cordless outdoor power brand. Visit ryobitools.com slash football. RYOBI. Only at The Home Depot. Dude, this week right here, I mean, this entire time of the year, you've got firings happening. Mike Norvell's been fired at Florida State today. We've got the Saturday of the century of the year coming up. So much for that. So that we've altered tonight's show. Normally, Sunday night's just pure reaction. We don't even start to look ahead until Tuesday. We're looking ahead tonight. It is a big, big week. We are jam-packed high atop a darker downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The dreaded time change is upon us on this Sunday, November 1st, the year of our Lord, 2026. I've got some week nine reaction, but I told you guys Thursday night, I dropped an entire emergency reaction podcast in the podcast feeds. There were. There were a few reaction videos on the YouTube channel, because tonight's going to be a little bit of reaction and a whole lot of looking ahead. That's how big this week 10 is. I don't remember seeing a slate like this in a long time. You need to talk to all your casual cousins and friends and moms and dads and aunts and uncles. You need to find any excuse possible to get out of whatever commitments you have been drug into against your will for this Saturday. This is the one not to miss. We've got AP poll reaction. Some of you have really been out of shape by Notre Dame. I know that's a shock, but some people across the country don't feel like Notre Dame should be as high as they are. Nor Indiana, I'm finding out, Jesse. People are. Just any team from the general state of Indiana, people are pushing back on right now. I told you Mike Norvell's been fired. We got a lot of reaction. We're jam-packed. We are being watched amongst several other places. In Norfolk, Virginia, Valdosta, Georgia, Dallas, Texas, Lincoln, Nebraska. Thank you so much. We are nearing 595,000 subscribers. We're this close. We're close to 600K. That's what we are. We're that close to 600K. So go ahead and subscribe if you have not already. This is a great week to do it. I was reminded by a close personal friend of the program the other night that knows me and has known me my whole life but just subscribed to the channel. They said, you know, it does help notify me when stuff happens on here once I'm subscribed. I didn't realize that. It's like I've been trying to tell people, Jesse, how many different languages, language, plural of languages, can I say it in? So anyway, thank you for subscribing. If you haven't already. Okay. Several takeaways from yesterday. Number one, it turns out Ohio State was in real danger after all. We watched them beat Indiana and we watched Julian say and go down. And I watched that and I said, man, I don't know if they're going to make the playoffs. And I was asked a couple of times throughout two weeks ago, what do you think about Ohio State? And I said, man, I don't know. I don't think they may lose a couple of games. I don't know if they're going to make the playoffs. And I was like kind of on the fence about it. Still was going into last week. They may make it. They may not make it. But the point was, it was not a sure thing. And anytime you even merely suggested it, you had a lot of folks from the Ohio State corner come at you like you were just, it was heretical to even fathom that Ohio State couldn't make the playoffs. Well, they got owned by Lincoln Riley last night. And it's not so much that they got beat. Like you talk to Ohio State people. I've got a whole Ohio State group chat. It's not. It's not Jesse that they lost. It's that Lincoln Riley beat them. And Lincoln Riley kind of worked them. And that is a tough pill to swallow. If you're Ohio State and you stand for what you stand for and you pride yourself on what you pride yourself on and you just watched Luke Fickle throw them in a wood chipper the week before and then they do it to you, not to that degree, but they do it to you, that's tough. So Ohio State's not out of anything. But now the odds to make the playoff. Ohio State minus 165. And it was overwhelming just 48 hours ago. So Ohio State's right there. Like Ohio State's not on a different level. They're right there in the mess. They've been drugged down into the mud. They're right there with everyone else. In fact, the entire Big Ten is just like a deck of cards that your uncle has tried to shuffle, but they went all over the place. That's what it's like watching the Big Ten. First off, this conference is a shell of what it felt like the last couple of years in terms of quality. And it still has time. A couple of them still have time to hit the gas. I don't know at max speed what some of these teams have. And that's a conversation for November as the playoff rankings start coming out and as we start seeing this kind of sort itself out. But right now, Jesse, if you were to have envisioned the Big Ten picture kind of going into the season, you never would have envisioned this. First off, you never would have envisioned Oregon already being out of it. Maybe you would have envisioned Michigan. Maybe you would have envisioned Michigan being out of it. Maybe you would have envisioned Oregon already being out of it. But the totality of like your Michigans and Penn States and Washingtons, you know, all of your periphery semi-dark horse teams, them all being out of it, and then Nebraska finding every heartbreaking way possible to lose games, it's like you would think if those teams aren't making it, it's because some other team has surged to the front. And really that team is UCLA. That's who surged to the front. But UCLA hasn't played a lot of these teams. So it hasn't been like tit for tat. And then Indiana is winning one possession games. So they're not flexing on anyone. We just talked about Ohio State. USC is totally bipolar. USC is a competitively bipolar team. There's no way you can watch the last two weeks of USC football and say, oh, I got them figured out. No, you don't. Lincoln Riley doesn't even have them figured out. Should I read a prepared statement on the show tonight to end the show? I think I should do it. That's the thing. And then. And then you know what you do after you finish your prepared statement? Adios. You chirp at someone in the tunnel. So many of those kids tore their ACLs trying to storm the field last night, by the way. That was a tough video to watch. So anyway, who knows what to make of the Big Ten right now? I do know this. I have about as much respect for Utah now as any human could have for any football team. I will admit I had my doubts about Utah. As of two weeks ago. And I still doubted that after they did what they did two weeks ago, that they could do what they did yesterday. And over this two-week stretch, man, Utah went from having a really good profile on paper, but having not really played much of anyone, to playing a couple of teams now. And man, yesterday, that's a spot. You know, South Carolina, Shane Beamer was giving his own team a lot of credit for not folding in what should be a letdown spot. I don't know what Morgan Scali said in his post-game press conference, because it didn't grab headlines, but man, this was a spot where you would have understood if Utah came out a little flat. And instead, it was just boom. What was this like? It was 42-3 or 6-something like that at the half. It was a blowout. So I think they're the best team in the Big 12. Now, they're playing Brigham Young this Saturday. The Holy War is this Saturday morning. Like, McDonald's is still serving breakfast when they kick that ball. Ball off, local time. I don't have control over it. Sorry, that is neither here nor there. It is there. It's not here. That's going to be incredible. And we're going to talk about the game a little bit later. But Utah, so anyone who wants me to atone, I was wrong. Utah was right. They're pretty. I'm not good looking. They're smart. I'm stupid. All of the stuff that I need to say about Utah, I'm in on Utah. Wake Forest, we were there Friday. I don't have much of a chance. I don't have much of a voice right now. Because we did more yelling than I thought we were going to do at Wake Forest, Jesse. You think to yourself, historically, Wake Forest, nice sleepy little campus, much smaller enrollment. It's over there in Winston-Salem. It's off the beaten path a little bit. Not a traditional blue blood. Dude, it was a fired up crowd Friday. Fired up crowd. And Jake Dickard, I was talking to him in his office before the show, and it was nice and calm. But then he's on set with us. And that place is going crazy. I mean, I think we had 50%. of the student body out there. It was a really, really good scene. And then they proceed to do unspeakable things to Virginia. Luckily, it was on a football field. Otherwise, that stuff would be illegal. Otherwise, you go to jail for doing what Wake Forest did to Virginia. So that was the splattering of the day in the ACC. And now they have gone on this run over the past four weeks in conference play of just running it up on teams. We're going to talk about the AP poll later. And Wake Forest is not getting the love they should get because it's not just that they're beating teams. They're doing what teams in elevation mode would do. They're getting margin on inferior competition. And you take that for granted until you look around the rest of the country and realize, well, most people aren't doing that. So they look incredible. You know, I guess what I'm trying to say is they may be closer to being able to compete against Miami than you think. If they're the ones that go on to the ACC title game, it looks like they will. And they're the ones who play Miami. I know they already played once. I know that. And yes, it very well could be last year's Texas Tech-Brigham Young 2.0, where Brigham Young ran into Texas Tech one time, got beat. Ran into them again, got beat. Yes, that could be what this is. Yes, that's probably what it will be. All I'm saying is I'm looking at what they're doing with Gio Lopez. He came out of that game yesterday. Think he's going to be okay? Man, look, if North Carolina is going to be okay, they're going to be okay. They're going to give Miami a game. Wake Forest can absolutely give Miami a game. The difference is we don't know if we're seeing Miami's fastball yet. That, again, is something we'll go a long way in determining this Saturday night in South Bend. This was the last quiet week in the SEC. Like, yeah, Georgia-Florida, I mean, Florida just took every single disaster scenario imaginable and just hit all those buttons in the first quarter. And at Curb, they're going to be okay. They're going to really? Like, that's it? Okay. All right. I mean, Gunner, just get your hundred yards passing. We'll be good. The offensive stats will be nothing to write home about. But who cares? How does Kirby say it? Dogs not beating dogs. If your opponent is screwing up, just shut up and get out of their way. And that was essentially that game. But other than that, there was not a whole lot that happened around the SEC yesterday. Texas looked bad and won by four touchdowns. And no one probably paid attention to that because they won by four touchdowns. Texas did not look great yesterday. But that gets ignored because they won big. Drink went into Arkansas and then beat him and then made fun of everything about Arkansas. And then he went home. South Carolina, buddy. We're going to talk more about that game in a second. But this is the last sleepy week in the SEC. Because from here on out, it is demolition derby every week in this league. This upcoming Saturday, the top eight teams in that league play each other. Unbelievable cinema ahead for us all. And then the last takeaway is more a question. As we're watching this stuff start to unfold and we're watching the realization that there are no elite teams right now, people are hearkening back to 2007. You know how rarely I use that word, Jesse, but they are hearkening. They are hearkening back to 2007. Children, for those of you who are new around here, 2007 is the stuff of legend. 2007 was so insane that when they describe it to you, you'll think it's fictional. But it really happened. However, what they don't tell you about 2007 is the ending could have been even more insane than the entire rest of the year was combined. Because we were this close not to having LSU versus Ohio State in the national title game, but to having, what was it, Jesse, West Virginia versus Missouri in the national title game. So here's what I want to know. As we go through this, I want to know, what do you think I guess we're through turn three and we can see turn four, but it's still up ahead. We got a straightaway and then turn four and then we're on the home stretch. That's kind of where we are in the season right now. I want to know how 2007-ish are we about to get? Because here's what could happen. What could happen is as we approach turn four, UCLA can't stand the spotlight. Maybe the air gets too thin for Utah or Kentucky or someone like that. And the teams that are big stories right now, Wake Forest, they kind of start to filter out and you just get a bunch of three loss LSU backfilling, three loss Texas, 10-2 Ohio State, but just big brands end up being the majority of the playoff picture. That could happen. Or UCLA could put their foot on the gas. Kentucky could just keep doing what Kentucky's doing. Wake Forest could do something that shocks everyone and you could look at that playoff field and three or four of the spots, could be occupied by teams that you would have been laughed out of the building for predicting in July. So how 2007-ish are we going to get? It was a week that was not insane by any stretch, but it was the precursor to what will be an all-time week this upcoming Saturday. More on yesterday, by the way. Someone just said I haven't watched any of UCLA. Like I wasn't glued to a shutout of Nevada yesterday. The audacity of this live chat sometimes. Truly, I think they're just testing to make sure we're live, which we are at 7.13 PM. As I said, Georgia beat Florida pretty handedly yesterday. I already did a reaction video. It's been up for like 24 hours or so on the channel. But just quickly here, when your enemy is making mistakes, you just keep letting them go, man. That's what Georgia is great at. They just continued to let Florida do whatever it was Florida was trying to do. As a result, we have a bad luck stat here. Gunnar Stockton, if we showed you Friday that he was barely going to top 100 passing yards, 13 of 23, probably would have been a little concerned. Or you would have said, oh man, they must have run for like 300. Well, no, they had a good day running the ball, but they didn't run for 300. It's just you didn't need to. You didn't need to be dominant offensively. When Florida's turning the ball over, I think they were minus three, and they got eight penalties for 78 yards. I mean, Florida didn't do that. They didn't do that. They didn't do that. Everything that you would expect an undisciplined team to do. Coming out of the bye week, all messed up. And so Jaden Baugh, 17 carries, 38 yards. So that's really all you need to know. Florida can't run the ball. Florida is going to be mistake prone and heavily penalized. You're going to lose to lesser teams than Georgia if you do that. You got no shot against Georgia. And so 27-8 the final. There you go. Indiana and Minnesota, complete and utter insanity. Some of you I know, if you have to maybe you took yesterday off. And I would say we're not here to judge. No, I do judge you. I forgive you, but I do judge you. But if you took yesterday off, maybe you scanned final scores. You know, maybe, you know, something crazy happened here, but maybe you didn't live it live with the rest of us. So you can go your whole life without watching your college football team hit a 60-yard field goal. We've all gone our entire lives without seeing two teams hit 60-yarders. Jesse, I think I saw that's never even happened in the NFL. And all of a sudden yesterday, we get in the final minute of this game. We get in the final 30 seconds of this game and Minnesota hits a 60-yarder to go up. And Grant Wilson has been put in for Josh Hoover, who has been benched in this game. And because Charlie Becker's on the field, you're never dead. I feel like I could be down 30. And as long as I got Becker on the field, I got a shot and boom, I got 30 yards. We are dark to him. You're in field goal range. Oh, but maybe you're not because this is going to be a 60-yarder too. No problem. Indiana hits a 60-yarder. So we have two 60-yard field goals in the span of like 15 or 20 seconds of game time. And Indiana goes to overtime and Indiana does what Indiana does. They find a way to win. Crazy. And by the way, when Wilson came in, four of their final drives were scoring drives. So they're in a bye week right now. And then they play Southern Cal. Not to think Indiana's going with Grant Wilson. I don't know that for sure. Maybe Josh Hoover has something that's ailing him that they feel like through the bye week can get right. I don't know, but I saw that throw he made. I don't want to be fooled by one or two throws, but I felt okay with him in. So bye week and then USC. I'm still wondering about Indiana. Is this kind of it? Is this the maximum potential of this team? Are they a team that just has to get themselves into the fourth quarter? And, and, and win one possession games. They're good at it. You can clearly see they're good at it. There's a lot of skill to being able to do that. You don't just stumble your way into consecutive, you know, one score type wins, but if they are that they're not going to win a national title or compete for one is what I'm trying to say. If they're capable of a little bit more than that, I'm not writing them off yet. Now elsewhere in the country, there was a game in Norman, in Norman, Oklahoma, you know, yesterday was still Cocktober after all. And there is a big, big argument in the, um, Gamecock sphere right now about, do we call November something? If we do call November something, what should we call it? I'm partial to crow Vember. Jesse likes cock Vember. Some others say we don't need a nickname. We're good now. It's like, we're taking the training wheels off. We don't need fancy nicknames anymore. We're just in the thick of this thing. But to me, it's a good thing. I'm To be in the thick of it, you know what they needed to do? had to beat Oklahoma yesterday. This brings me no joy, it never does, but your Sarah McLachlan special for week nine, courtesy of Courtyard, the Oklahoma Sooners. The scoreboard says 17-point loss. The reality was so much worse. Through three quarters of this game, South Carolina had outgained Oklahoma 423 to 118. Oklahoma had 10 points and that included defensive scores, pick six. Oklahoma was plus two turnovers and they were still losing by 25. And it's not all on the offense this time. Defense gave up 300 through the air. They gave up 200 on the ground. I would say come NFL draft time, two to three minutes of the Lenora Sellers B-roll, you'll end up seeing, will probably have come from this game because he was a circus freak in this game last night. Oklahoma is now four and four. When it comes to rushing, scoring, third down offense, giveaways, explosive plays, they are all 95th or worse. Also sacks allowed. I have on my index finger the unfortunate Oklahoma drive chart from yesterday. Three and out, punt, three and out, three and out, field goal, halftime. Three and out, punt. At this point, the game is essentially over and we get touchdown, field goal, touchdown, turnover on downs. There were only two drives in this game longer than 20 yards through the first three quarters. It is another lost season in Norman. Your Sarah McLachlan special for week nine, the Oklahoma Sooners. Jesse, do you realize they've alternated wins and losses in the last three quarters? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not the entire year. They have gone win-loss, win-loss the entire year. And I was doing a quick cursory glance of their remaining schedule. They go to Florida this week. They need to win that one to keep the pattern alive. And then if they can do that, it sets up where they may very well just go win-loss the whole year. We need to check and see if anyone's ever done that. Wisconsin better thank their lucky stars that Oklahoma exists because you people were very close to being the Sarah McLachlan special because that's what happens when you go to Iowa and get your eyes beat out 30 to nothing. There's no breakdown of this game. What do you even say? What did Jim Ross say? Bowling shoe ugly. This is bowling shoe ugly. Iowa's loss to Minnesota is really going to sting because if Iowa does not lose, uh, Bradley take camera two for a second. This guy back here, if Iowa doesn't lose Floyd of Rosedale, Iowa is in the thick of the playoff race. They're still in it to be clear, but they're on the fringes of it. If they don't lose to Minnesota, they're seven and one right now. And they're like a prime contender all of a sudden. Instead, they settled for this because, because after this, look at the schedule at Northwestern, Purdue at Illinois, Nebraska, you know, Nebraska is going to find a way to lose that game. And so elsewhere, can you run through those, those other three, three, you know, I think you can, uh, their last four games against Wisconsin. This is in a, this is as insane a stat as I will read to you all night, paper popper to end all paper poppers. So they've played Wisconsin the last four years. Luke Fickle has been there four years, right? Jesse. Okay. So in Luke Fickle's time at Wisconsin, he has played Iowa four times. The combined score in those games is 124 to 16. You heard me right. Luke Fickle has taken, four cracks at Iowa and scored a combined 16 points. How is it possible? I found myself yesterday when this game was 30 to nothing asking how long would they need to play for Wisconsin to score 30? And I started thinking in terms of weeks, maybe months, just, just play the game. It's like a telethon. It never ends. It was sad to watch, man. Sad to watch. Also sad. The ending of the Washington, Nebraska game, I know not all of you know, Will Compton, but you may know someone like Will Compton. And I would just encourage you to check in on your friends. Cause I checked in on mine and it's not good. Jesse, if I, I can't, I can't lie. It's not good right now. Uh, this game ripped their soul out. The ways Nebraska has found to lose games this year is the most soul sucking method of losing games imaginable. You'd rather be blown out of the game. You'd rather be blown out than lose games like this. They were up 17 to six on Indiana in the fourth quarter lose. They led Oregon the entire game until they didn't at the very end. And that was from Dylan Raiola victimizing them. And then last night I'm in my basement, I'm watching this it's seven to three. And I'm thinking, man, this is, this is an ugly offensive game, but they're about to close it out. And I had some food. I had to go upstairs to heat it up. Jesse, I heated that I had some food. And I had some food. How do you ever feel courage having any kind of hope and optimism? And then you could say Matt rules in trouble. And I would counter with $12 million a year salary and a $71 million buyout and say, nah, he ain't in trouble unless he just decides out of the goodness of his heart. Yeah, I've had enough, which coaches aren't prone to do. He is 24 and 22 there. He is 12 and 20 in the big 10 and he is making more than the GDP of some countries. So That's Nebraska football right now. We were not there. I'll tell you where we will be this week. You cannot go wrong. You can close your eyes and just point to the map and you'd end up at a big time game this week. We're going to South Bend, Indiana, though. We will be at Notre Dame Stadium Saturday night for Miami at Notre Dame, one of the games of the year that we circled in the preseason. This is going to be incredible. We'll also be there Friday for busing and paid on campus. So it's going to be an incredible 48 or so hours at Notre Dame. I commissioned Alex earlier today when we put the Notre Dame version of the Don't Tread on Saturday t-shirt in the store because I got hit up by so many Miami people and they said, we're going to this game. We want to commemorate this game. Put a Miami themed t-shirt in the store. She said, okay, we will. So we got Miami t-shirts in the store as well. I know a lot of you are going up there, dude. I'm telling you, I know it's an expensive trip and if you can't swing it, you can't swing it. But if you guys can swing it, this is the kind of trip and this is the kind of game that you're talking about 30 years later. Like you listen to your dad or your grandpa talk about going up there in those classic Miami Notre Dame games back in the day and you watch like the old grainy footage. I don't know what footage will look like another 30 years from now and I don't know what would make our footage look antiquated. But imagine saying you were there. We're going to be there. Unbelievably blessed to do this for a living. Maybe another note on that visit in a few minutes. So just stay tuned on that front. It's your money. And the savings don't have to stop at your house. With Kin, you could bundle home and auto insurance in Texas and save up to 20% on auto. Plus, you'll have one dedicated team taking care of your two biggest investments. So when a storm hits your house and your car, you only have to make one call. Kin.com slash iHeart. Kin. Texas size savings. Texas customers who switch to Kin report annual savings of $1,160. Based on Kin customer savings survey conducted August 2025 through August 2026. Kin Interinsurance Nexus Exchange. Phoenix, Arizona. Savings apply when you bundle home and auto based on filed rates. Savings vary and are not guaranteed. When it's time to take the party beyond the yard, RYOBI's portable power solutions keep your. tailgate running strong. RYOBI, only at the Home Depot. How is this $47? Learn more at B of A dot com slash simple banking. With ChatGPT, you can do more than get answers. you can get things done whether you're leading a big project planning an elaborate trip or trying to balance work and life chat gpt can help give it a goal plus things like files notes or project plans develop a trip itinerary with daily updates or create a prioritized schedule so you can spend less energy sorting out the details and more on bringing your biggest ideas to life get started at chat gpt.com several thoughts on several of these games this week as i just said we're going to be at notre dame saturday night miami at notre dame is an incredible matchup theatrical it's a game that you bring in friends of yours that aren't even fans of college football to watch this is how you bring someone in 7 30 kickoff eastern time nbc it's the first major test for miami it's the you second leg of a back-to-back road stretch for them and they got pushed against north carolina last night it's i'll tell you what it is a big moment for miami's offensive line and also it's a big moment for notre dame's defense because i know they're dealing with some injuries right now let's just wait let's get into the week a little bit but linebacker like defensive tackle not necessarily hearing the best of things but i'm not a doctor and i'm not a beat writer so i don't want to get ahead of myself you remember cj carr's first career start it was last year in this game down in miami and he gets another shot here and and he gets another shot remember coming off that brigham young game one of the criticisms that i think is kind of valid of the way they just handled cj carr i think i heard orlovsky talking about this i'm not 100 sure but i'm some percentage sure that i heard dan talking about this the other day and he was saying like cj carr strikes me as a guy who's capable of more than they ask him to do and i wish they'd ask him to do what he's capable of and i wish they'd ask him to do what he's capable of doing that's a great way to summarize how it kind of feels watching him so i say that because miami's got a pass defense in the 120s the plays are there you you got to think the plays will be there um so i'm just interested to see like how much they ask him to do because billy edwards last night one of the reasons that game was closer than i thought it was going to be is edwards went 28 of 34 for north carolina for 341 and four total touchdowns i will i will say a few truths in an uncertain world cj car is capable of what billy edwards is capable of and probably a little bit more jesse i think it's time for miami's passing attack to answer the bell which sounds weird because their numbers are great but it's a secondary like this an environment like this a defense like this this is where you find out how hollow or how legit that number four is next to that total scoring offense because notre dame's passing offense is number six in the country miami right now they face four passing defenses in the 100s so this is not one of those situations sometimes where other people fall into the trap of saying oh look there's no way they're legit because they faced inferior competition no there's absolutely a way they're legit there's also a way they're overhyped this is the kind of game you find out is the whole point now i don't think that darian mentz is overhyped i know malachi tony's not overhyped but the totality of the operation that includes offensive line this is where it gets tested because notre dame on the other side hadn't faced very many high octane passing attacks tony had a six for 82 and one in this game last year was a true freshman it was his first game that he was playing where's notre dame with a loss by the way so they're seven and one right now if they win this game and they went out ignore what i'm saying yesterday was kind of weird though because yesterday as i said all week i thought the notre dame game was the third most important game for notre dame in the noon window because they were playing navy you assume as a 30-point favorite they'll take care of business they eventually did but wisconsin was playing and smu was playing and that's one team notre dame's already beaten that they need to still play good because of resume boosting and then smu is still on notre dame schedule they need smu to be ranked when they play them because in the scenario where notre dame potentially loses this saturday some people think oh notre dame two losses they're out of the playoff you don't know that you do not know that but it becomes far less certain the softer and softer that resume gets the softer and softer that strength of schedule gets now that's out of their control but i think we all know that's kind of how this game works this is going to be a special atmosphere uh my favorite place i have answered this question before my favorite place in the entire country to go is notre dame my favorite stadium in the entire country is notre dame stadium i have been up there for a few big games i don't think there's anything like it in college football i'm very romantic about this sport i will grant you that so that plays a big factor but also you're not going up there to visit stadium at the expense of quality product on the field this is also one of the best teams in the country and they will be playing with the posture of their back against the wall i can't wait to be there we'll be there friday for our show in the but i can exclusively tell you as of right now you go to pate state material.com we're going to do a live show in south bend friday night it's our second live show of the year we did one in knoxville that thing sold out like this i'm telling you tickets are on sale as of this moment at pate state material.com those tickets are going to go very very quickly will probably be sold out by the end of this show we're doing it at momentum there in south bend you guys who live there know where that is friday night at seven o'clock this will not be televised we will not broadcast it anywhere this is strictly live audience only we have a lot of fun with these we'll have special guests come by but those tickets are on sale now i know a lot of our miami folks are going up there too but our notre dame folks we've never been able to do a show in that part of the country so we're doing one friday night tickets are on sale now that is the benefit of watching the show live moving on got more games to talk about man what i'm kind of doing tonight is i'm doing like a first look like an early look at some of these games and then obviously we'll do the full breakdown tuesday night also got some stuff about the ap later and i got a whole bunch of thoughts about mike norvell getting fired today so we're jam-packed alabama lsu is not a night game it is a full-blown national crisis i'm told that this game kicks off at 2 30 central saturday but it does kick off at 2 30 that's my favorite time window because i am a big fan of sunlight to start the game and then darkness to end the game to each his own though both teams arrested both teams coming off the bye both teams with two losses already and here's the important part both of them seem to be getting healthy at the right time lsu jesse you're five and a half point favorite right now is that right so lsu about a five and a half point favorite that number's ticked up i think it opened three and a half four and a half depending on when you looked at it so early money jesse maybe even your money coming in and out of the game so i'm going to give you a little bit of a look at the on lsu how real was what we saw out of lsu going into their bye week because your mind kind of works in highlights and snapshots most people's mind works that way it's just how god made us and so the last thing you remember is all right they played mississippi state that was a shutout and then they go on the road to auburn and 38 17 that was another dominant performance and then they go in the bye week and you're thinking oh man lsu's red hot which they are i don't want to look past the fact that they got they got red hot against two of the three worst teams in the league right now so what is the rule around here we do not use that to dismiss performance we use that to caution ourselves against buying in too much to a performance that was kind of baked against inferior competition so i want to know because we don't have inferior competition this week we got alabama coming to town i have strong suspect that lsu's got a gear that if they can hit it can be as good as anyone in the country so were those the first kind of inclinations that they're about to hit that because they've got to for the final stretch of the season because you're just rattling off bama texas at tennessee back to back to back here and lsu probably has room to lose one more game jesse wouldn't you say 90 of the public thinks a three loss lsu would be in i would think they'd be in yeah so so it's not like this is total do or die but if you lose this game and you still got texas and at tennessee that's tough i think they have it in them to be among the best teams in the country so question number one is this them hitting that gear number two this is where it gets really tough like if you're looking for reasons to lean alabama i could find you some but i could find you a lot of reasons not to lean alabama too and the most glaring is you remember the last time this team went on the road you remember what it looked like in neyland stadium you remember when bama played tennessee and it was a good game and it was a good looks like someone walked up to him right before the game and put a cattle prod right on their neck and just went and then you watch the game start and immediately it's like just an avalanche of bad is raining down on alabama and they're contributing to it because they're not helping out keelan russell at all they got to put him in better spots here because lsu is going to do him no favors and that crowd's going to do them no favors just like neyland didn't and the run game was there earlier in the season now they've had some injuries i think they'll probably get their center back this week uh e.j crowe Well, time will tell there. So they've kind of had a lot of guys that are working on the same timetable. So hopefully they're a healthy version of themselves here. Ryan Williams, Coleman Williams, probably back this week too. But the LSU pass rush is number two in sacks per game in the country. So the level with which Tennessee got after Alabama, LSU has every bit the same capability. So number one, do they put Keelan Russell in better positions? Does that offensive line give him a chance? And two, is there any kind of complementary ground game here? It feels like we ask the same questions about a Ryan Grubb, Alabama offensive approach every week. But Tennessee got to him consistently. And if LSU does, it's going to be a long day for Alabama. But on the other side of the ball, Bama's really good at forcing turnovers. And does that secondary end up acting as a strength or a liability? Because they've given up big plays and LSU can pop you. LSU also, as Sam Leavitt has had that hamstring issue and he's been forced to stay in the pocket, he's thrown the ball incredibly well. And so does that continue? It feels like it is imperative for Alabama to have not a hot start, but at least not an immediate off-the-rails type start. You can't be down 10-0 early and that crowd's fully juiced and you're having to play with the same game script you did against Tennessee. I'm not even saying you've got to jump out to some 10-0 lead. But zero to zero at the end of the first quarter is not the worst thing in the world for Alabama, is what I'm saying. A 3-0 LSU in the first quarter. It's not the worst thing in the world. You grab a lead, wonderful. But those are some things I'm thinking about with this one. That one's going to be, ooh man, that atmosphere. Because that's the last time they're going to play this game until when? 2030? Was that what I saw? They're not playing it next year. God forbid that we maintain traditional rivalries and whatnot in this sport. We've got to get rid of that so we can watch Wisconsin and Minnesota battle for a 23 seed. We've got to get rid of all that. That's great, man. It's progress. It's growth. And TV ratings are good, so that means that everything's fine. Everything's good. Don't complain. Lovable cannot, at the moment, design me a machine to shrink the playoff. I don't think they can do that. But what they can do is pretty much everything else we ask them to do. So we partnered with Lovable, which leads a lot of people to ask, what is Lovable? Well, Lovable is who you go to. Well, Lovable.com is who you go to. Lovable.com is who you go to. You have good ideas, but you yourself can't build them. We've got interactive depth charts. Like a lot of our tools are behind-the-curtain tools. Maybe not for long. But our interactive depth charts, our predictive modeling, we go to Lovable for it all. And we just give them the ideas, and they build it. Plans, design, builds. And then when they launch it, they give back-end infrastructure so that it's shockingly easy for you to run. We're doing it. We're doing it, and we don't even have a background in this sort of thing. So if you've ever thought, man, someone should do this, or someone should make this. No, someone shouldn't. You should. And you should go to Lovable to help you do it. Lovable.com. Start building today. Did you know Texans who switch to KIN say they saved around $1,100 a year on home insurance? That's a lot of cash. Here are some ways you could spend it. You could finally take that weekend getaway. You know the one we're talking about. You could fix that fence post. That's been leaning since last summer. It's out there right now just waiting for you. Or, hear me out, $1,100 worth of brisket. You'd be a legend at the neighborhood cookout. Get a quote at KIN.com. KIN. Texas-sized savings. Phoenix, Arizona. 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But I just can't imagine, knowing how much I love the sport, how fragmented my mind would be if I had to be elsewhere on Saturday night. So, Georgia at Ole Miss kicks off at 7.30 on ABC. And that's happening at the same time as Miami Notre Dame is happening. It's just an unbelievable night. So, this game happened two times last year. In the first one, Trinidad Chambliss, I believe that was his first SEC road start. He was 19 of 36 for 263. Three total touchdowns. And I remember so vividly watching the game saying, man, there were moments, like, there were flashes. It wasn't consistent enough, but there were flashes where you can tell that dude's going to be good. Then he got them again in the playoff. And he was 30 of 46 for 362. Against Kirby Smart and Glenn Schumann. So, Georgia's in the meat of their schedule right now. They had Florida yesterday, which didn't seem very meaty, immunity. But they are in the meat of their schedule. And they got at Ole Miss, then Missouri, then at South Carolina, which all of a sudden looks like a very big game again. So, same basic question as last year. I went back and looked at our preview notes for the, it was the Sugar Bowl, right? Yeah, the Sugar Bowl playoff game. And it's the same thing. It's like, to what? To what degree does Ole Miss force Georgia's offense to turn it on? Case in point, Florida didn't force them to do it at all yesterday. And so, as a result, Georgia's just totally comfortable getting by and getting out. And if Ole Miss can't run the ball Saturday, and that pressure actually gets to Trinidad-Chamberlain. In other words, if Georgia makes the first half of that game look the way Texas made the first half look, Georgia's probably not giving up a big lead. Then Georgia's offense doesn't have to do a whole lot. Now, I tend to believe that Trinidad-Chamberlain and that offense can force the issue here. But it doesn't matter if they're limiting the run and they're forcing turnovers. Like, it doesn't really matter. Georgia will have a really, really good day in Oxford. Also, Georgia, the run game, they had 217 versus Florida. The thing, if Georgia is forced to rev it up a little bit offensively, things don't seem quite right there. Gunnar Stockton's play doesn't seem quite right. The run game, I'm not saying it's bad. These are not pedestrian numbers. There's just stuff that feels off. And if you didn't watch him yesterday, I don't blame you. But if you did watch him, Texas, same way. They both had convincing wins where the offense feels really iffy. And you're really glad that no one's lining up across from you that can make you force the issue offensively. So, with no Kiwan Lacy for Ole Miss, it's a thread-the-needle first half type situation. And it can go one of two different ways radically. Like, the inverse of the Texas game. It's what they need. Where they start hot. And then Georgia's looking across the field saying, great. It's going to be one of those days. Kind of like the Sugar Bowl. We're going to need 35 or more to win. You've got to have Georgia feeling that way early. Now, Georgia's capable of it. In fact, it's crazy how if you look at the relative stat profiles offensively of these teams, if I asked you, who do you think's been more reliable? If you need a cap buster play offensively, who do you think's been more reliable? It's actually Georgia. It's actually Stockton. It's actually Stockton and Georgia, who have been way more reliable there. However, stats are very good at predicting the past. Not always the future. You know what that Ole Miss offense is capable of. And the other thing you know is, even if Georgia is a very good pressure team, which they've shown the ability to be, the ultimate kryptonite for that is someone like Trinidad Chambliss. And if he's on, if it's one of those games where he's eluding pressure and he's making those broken play, kind of off-script throws, like you're in for a fight. fight and you're going to need 35 because if he's in, if he's on rather, it does not matter how good you are defensively. He's going to score on you. You just got to trade him. This would, by the way, be either a huge trigger moment in the SEC that throws the entire league into chaos, or it would be the moment where there's finally some order established. Right now, most people think Georgia is the best team in this league. And if Georgia wins this game, they certainly are validated in believing that, but imagine if the other were to happen and Georgia suffers their second loss. Cause I feel like a lot of America is kind of forgetting that Auburn loss happened. People keep talking about Georgia, like they're undefeated and they're not. So you can excuse the Auburn game away all you want to, but it happened. And so for record keeping per pi plural of purpose, if Georgia loses this game, they're all of a sudden a two loss team who is playing for their own lives at that point. But think about the SEC picture. Cause at that point you would have had Ole Miss and Georgia with two losses. Uh, someone's going to lose between LSU and Bama, uh, Kentucky, Tennessee. If Tennessee beats Kentucky, both of those teams have two losses. You, you could have an utter disaster on your hands, trying to sift through the, the mid season wreckage that is the SEC league standings. I can't wait. They're watching us in Kingstree, South Carolina, St. George, Utah, and Anniston, Alabama. So before, uh, before I get to the AP poll and we're going to talk about Mike Norvell in a second, just all encompassing. If you pick one Saturday to just lock yourself in a room and don't talk to anyone, this right here is it. It's the Saturday of the century of the year. That's what I'm calling it at least. So I cannot emphasize enough how consequential this lineup of games is. I have never talked, about this on a Sunday. I've never looked ahead this thoroughly on a Sunday, but your early window on Saturday, just your early window, I would say easily features two games that are bigger than any game that happened yesterday. The Holy war kicks off at 10 AM local time out in Salt Lake city, BYU and Utah is seven versus three. And that thing's happening at noon, Eastern time, 10 AM local time on ABC. And congruent to that, we've got Texas versus Missouri happening on ESPN. So in your, just in your noon window, you got two top ranked matchups and then UCLA at the same time is going on the road to Minnesota and UCLA will be, they're going to be somewhere between a five and a seven point favorite. By the time that game kicks off, this is the time of year where these teams that aren't familiar with November, find out how long the month of November is going to be. And that's November is we always say for new contending teams, November feels like it's nine weeks long. So it's the longest month of the year for contending teams. So that's just in your early window. Okay. Then you flip the switch to your mid afternoon games. And that's when you got Bama at LSU. And that is someone's third loss of the season. And then you've also got A&M South Carolina, which did not look like it was going to be a big game until South Carolina just started having the audacity. To win. And there are three loss team right now. They certainly have no margin for error, but people are starting to side eye South Carolina schedule a little bit. And they're realizing, Oh, wait, wait, they, they should beat A&M should beat A&M. And, and they got Georgia coming in there in a couple of weeks in there. What if South Carolina is actually still a playoff contender? They are. I don't know what we're calling this month yet, but they are. And by the way, if I were to have looked ahead to this week in August, Jesse, we would have thought Oregon, Ohio state was going to be the premier game. And it's not even the premier game. Oregon's not ranked right now, but I still think that game bears close watching because we don't know what the quarterback situation really is at Ohio state. We watched them get handled pretty thoroughly by USC last night. And so that line seven and a half right now, Oregon at Ohio state, seven and a half in Ohio state's already got two losses now. So I mean, Oregon, Oregon was down 20 to six to Northwestern and they, they got it right. Like Dylan Raiola made probably two or three of the best throws of his career yesterday. Did you see how backlogged his touchdown celebrations were? You could tell he's been sitting on those celebrations for weeks and he finally had a reason to break multiples of them out. Imagine that in Columbus, Ohio, imagine that scene. So all that's going on. Mid-afternoon window, Cincinnati's at Houston in the mid-afternoon. Let's not sleep on Merrimack against Wake Forest. Let down spot for Wake, probably only going to be favorable by like 40. So let's be careful there. But you know how this is. If you lock yourself in a wall-to-wall Saturday situation, you know, that, that anticipation you get in the pit of your stomach, knowing, man, we're in, we're right in the mix. Like that Bama LSU game happening is going to have a very memorable second half. And then you're going to be thinking, wow. So I've already watched the Holy war today. And I've already watched Texas, Missouri. I'm right in the middle of LSU Bama right now. We still got Notre Dame Miami tonight. And we've still got Georgia Ole Miss tonight. And we've still got Kentucky, Tennessee tonight. It's unbelievable. It's, it's one of the more unbelievable slates that you will have ever seen. The top eight in the SEC, all play each other this weekend. Notre Dame may be in a do or die spot. I still think there's some debate there, but I think you could call this a do or die spot for Notre Dame because a lot of people, maybe me looks and says, if they lose the two biggest games of their year, they can't complain if they're left out. But then again, that's all contingent on what the rest of the country looks like, or Notre Dame could just beat Miami and shut everyone up. UCLA is in thin air November mode. So they're at Minnesota. And if UCLA falls, that just makes the big 10 picture, even muddier Kentucky, same way, Jesse, like everyone just keeps assuming, Oh, UCLA is eventually going to lose. Oh, Kentucky is eventually going to lose. Cause when you look at, especially in the SEC, when you look at a lot of the projections for the SEC title game, a lot of them still don't have Kentucky. And you're like, wait, Kentucky still has to lose games for that to come true. You're assuming they will. Okay. Well, they got a shot this Saturday. It's Tennessee to further cement their status as a legit playoff contender. Oregon, Ohio state being off the radar is crazy to me because we saw this weekend coming in August, but one of the cornerstones of the premise that this weekend was going to be the biggest weekend of the year is Oregon and Ohio state are both preseason top five teams. And they're playing at the same time, Miami and Notre Dame are playing at the same time, Bama LSU were playing. So like it, all made sense. We didn't know that Kentucky, Tennessee was going to be more high profile than Oregon, Ohio state. How would anyone have known that? This is going to be an amazing Saturday guys, an amazing Saturday. And, uh, I know a lot of you across the country are looking for tickets to these games. Seat geek is where you need to go depending on where you're going. Like if you're going to wake forest for Merrimack coming in town, you can get a pretty good rate. You can get a pretty good deal over there. If you're going to Miami, Notre Dame, I'm just warning you, you're going to have to pay. I can just make sure you have to pay a little bit less. If you use seat geek for these tickets, uh, you can look all across that stadium, Jesse. Oh my goodness. Every time I look at a seating chart like this, I remember it was really crazy. We get to go stand on the field for these games because I grew up having to look at this right here, having to scalp tickets and all that stuff. So I never, ever, ever lose. Thanks for this. Anyway, if you purchase from seat geek parking tickets, whatever, make sure at checkout, you enter promo code, paint 10, P A T E one zero. That'll get you 20% off any order up to $200. It'll get you $20 off any order above $200. So you got to buy tickets anyway. If you're going to these games, make sure you use seat geek at paint 10 at checkout. If you do so $1,100, that's what you could be saving on Texas home insurance every year. 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Whether you're leading a big project, planning an elaborate trip, or trying to balance work and life, ChatGPT can help. Give it a goal, plus things like files, notes, or project plans, develop a trip itinerary with daily updates, or create a prioritized schedule so you can spend less energy sorting out the details and more on bringing your biggest ideas to life. All right, so FSU has fired Mike Norvell in his seventh season. I mean, the numbers, I can't justify these numbers. He was 10-22 in his last three years. That means 4-17, by the way, in conference play. So, yeah, it was time. Tony White, the defensive coordinator, has also been fired. So I don't think anyone's shocked by this. I think the only thing we were waiting on was how seriously do you want to make this move? Because if you're serious enough to be paying tens and tens of millions of dollars in buyout money, then make the move. We were here a year ago with a bunch of guys. You know, James Franklin at Penn State was one where I vividly remember everyone. Everyone talked about in the immediate aftermath of Penn State parting ways with James Franklin how big the buyout was. Well, you kind of learn over and over again. There's like mitigation structure and clauses in these contracts where that number with Norvell, for instance, maybe around 50 million that you're going to owe him right now. But if he gets another job, there's offset language. Sometimes it turns out bad. Sometimes it turns out not as bad. So as far as the football piece here, the football piece was not debatable. It was not. It was not up for dispute whether or not Florida State was going anywhere. They were trending down and down and down. And, you know, Mike Norvell's a great dude. I really love him. So I kept hoping for the nose to pull up. And I hoped that everything would work itself out, as you often hope, about good people. But it's not a business where just being a good guy is enough to get the job done. You got to win. And Mike Norvell wasn't winning. And Florida State was not a feared entity under Mike Norvell. And I don't even. I mean, just on the football field, guys. I mean, let's call it what it is. They weren't acquiring talent at a good enough clip. And it didn't feel like they had their act together in terms of a plan. I know there was like front office shakeup down there recently. So I had someone who kind of passively watches college football text me as soon as this news broke today. Is this the right move? If you can bear stroking the check, of course it's the right move. If money wasn't an issue here, the move would have been made a long time ago. So to me, the big thought that immediately entered my mind is, all right, they're going to do it. Okay, here we go. Here we go, meaning it's time for Florida State to find out how serious they are about football. When I say Florida State, I mean fans. I don't mean the people who are actually making the decision. So if you're a Florida State fan, you're about to find out how seriously Florida State is taking football right now. Because the worst thing you could be is pretty serious about football. Pretty serious means, okay. We're serious enough where we don't like losing, but everybody's that serious. And we're so serious we don't like losing that we're going to pay a guy not to coach here anymore. Eh, people have done that before. But are you serious enough to go attract the right candidate, to know who the right candidate is, and to then pay what it takes to get said candidate to Tallahassee and to have the proper infrastructure around him? And part B of why I'm very interested in this is because I get to find that out too. From both ends, we get to find out how serious Florida State is about football. You know what else we get to find out? How seriously people view the Florida State job. Because I grew up as a kid thinking this was one of the best jobs in the country. And I still have a default mechanism in my mind that when you say Florida State job, I think elite. Okay, but I'm not up for this job. And there are a lot of other circumstances and there are a lot of other external factors in play here that matter a lot. So I always am amazed sometimes when I take my worldview of jobs, which was largely built when I was a kid. I haven't really changed it much, but then it gets tested against the market. And like some jobs are very much in demand, that surprised me. And then other jobs aren't as in demand, that also surprised me. But I keep going back to the same feeling with Mike Norvell. When they had that 2023 season, remember, that was the first real glaring example of a program that leaned hard into the portal. And they struck gold. They leaned hard into the portal. They landed the right guys. And they won big. And had Jordan Travis not gotten hurt, they would have gone to the playoff. And who knows what they would have done in the playoff. So, I mean, remember, Jesse, that's four teams, right? That's still the four-team era. Who knows? They needed two wins with a stellar roster and a really good quarterback to win a national title. Mike Norvell may very well have won a national title had Jordan Travis not gotten hurt. So here was the catch-22 of that. That reinforced the belief that this is a sustainable strategy. And now it's so easy to look back and say, "Oh, that's stupid to think that way." Yeah. Yeah, it was very misguided. But remember, it was new. Do you not remember back in 2023 how Florida State kind of slapped everyone in the face and made you rethink everything you thought you knew? Because we had been brought up on this world where you go recruit from the high school ranks. And if you take a transfer, it's few and far between. But you're largely building 90-plus percent on high school talent that you sign. After you recruited them, you sign them. You develop them. And that's how you build a program. And then Florida State was like, "Now we're going to go get a bunch of guys in the portal." This new thing called the transfer portal. It scared some people. You may not admit this, but for a little while, a lot of people were scared into thinking, "Oh, they cracked the code. They cracked the portal code." No. No, what they did is they did for one year. And then the next year, they leaned into it because it's this vicious cycle when you lean into the portal. That means disproportionately your roster churns, which means disproportionately you need more backfills, which aren't there naturally from high school recruiting on your roster. And therefore, you've got to go more in the portal, more in the portal. It felt like they turned down a road that was never going to work out well for them every year. And it just kind of dovetailed. I don't know. It got to the point where once we figured out what did and didn't work, once it kind of became understood, this is the proper proportion through which you need to go portal versus high school. It was too late for Mike Norvell. And I'm still a believer of this. I'll never have to test this theory out. I'm a believer if Mike Norvell could take all the knowledge he has right now and package it up, and then he gets hired at Florida State today, of course, he wouldn't do it the same way. I don't think Luke Fickle would hire offensively the way he did at Wisconsin early on if he had the benefit of hindsight. I doubt Lincoln Riley brings Alex Grinch along with him as his defensive coordinator with the benefit of hindsight. You don't get that. It's a shame. You don't get it. They pay you a lot of money. They want you to win. And you don't get to continue to experiment on Florida State's dime, which is fair. But that's a harsh reality. And they couldn't turn back. Once they got down that road, they couldn't turn back. And after that year, they went 2-10, and then they went 5-7, and they were 3-5 this year. It was going nowhere. So here's the big multimillion-dollar question right now. What kind of job is Florida State? Pete Nekos, who is -- Jesse, I don't think he's sat down. We're in the same building as Pete as I speak. And he's got three monitors pulled up. And he's got like two phones in his hand, just working the phones out there. Pete's working the phones. Should we post Pete's number in the live chat? No, we won't do that. Not for this job. We'll see what else opens up, and we may share Pete's number publicly. I was looking at some of these names that he had floated out there on his hot board. This is the Nekos 1.0 hot board. We'll see what 2.0 and 3.0 brings. Eli Drinkwitz is on there, but you see that name at the top. Jimbo Fisher is on there. Again, I know a lot of people want him. I mean, there are a lot of people -- I know some Florida State folks who really believe in the Jimbo 2.0 plan. That is, if you get Jimbo, we don't have to pay him as much. He's learned all these valuable lessons out there in the world. You know, it's kind of like Prodigal Coach. He went out there, and you kind of went your separate ways, but now it comes full circle. He comes back with a plan, and it all works out. There are a lot of Florida State folks who believe in that. Maybe it'll work. I don't know. I have no idea. But Jimbo is one radically different route. And then if you went the more traditional route, you would have your Eli Drinkwitz's, your Manny Diaz's. How many different candidates' names can end in Z's? We got Willie Fritz on here, too. Kenny Dillingham's. He just needs to put a Z on the end of his name. P.J. Fleck's. So I think Fleck would take this job. I don't know if Kenny would take this job. I think he would listen. Manny Diaz, I would imagine, would take this job. Jimbo, I imagine, would take the job if it were there. I think Eli Drinkwitz would strongly listen to a pitch from Florida State about this job. That guy right there. Jake Dickert. It may just be because I spent the day with him Friday. I would hire that guy tomorrow at Pate State if we had a job opening. He is a stud. I fully believe that guy's going to win anywhere he is. But you know what? I don't think he's necessarily in a hurry to get on the first thing smoking out of Winston-Salem. And so it better be a definitive upgrade. That's how a lot of these guys are. A lot of these guys have their names on this list because they've had varying degrees of success. And these days, it is not the old school where you're kind of living like a mercenary and every rung up the ladder you can climb, you climb. It's got to be a definitive upgrade. And so, you know, there's some guys on this list that you know you could get that it may not be your first, second, or third call. But the ones, whether they're on this hot board or not, that you really want, I know what the answer would have been 20 years ago. Is the answer still the same as it would have been 20 years ago when Florida State offers you their job? That, to me, very much remains to be seen. And that's going to be a really, really interesting thing to watch here. The FanDuel, the pick-em went great this last weekend. It's been there. It's been the most rewarding season ever. Now, as far as this past weekend went, Ramen Noodle Express went 6-3. So, it was a rewarding weekend for us. But also, over at FanDuel, man, there's a lot going on over there. You've got our pick-em contest, which you can enter every Wednesday. You've got all kind of profit boosts. You've got a stretch run here in November that's going to be incredible. We've got, Jesse, I think like 70 big games this Saturday. Maybe a little bit of a stretch. That may be more like a metric system number, 70. But, you know, it's going to be a lot of fun. But, it really is fun, even if you don't intend to go over there and bet. Just looking at what these numbers are. I mean, Baylor went into UCF favored last weekend. After they had fired Dave Aranda and UCF had beat Brigham Young. And everyone was like, how is this? And then, what, they win by like half a hundred? I mean, Baylor tossed UCF into the wood chipper. So, FanDuel, the exclusive odds provider of our show and our university here at Pate State. And we appreciate them. Must be 21+. And present in select states. For Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. 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. 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. The AP poll has dropped. It is not lacking for controversy again this week. Presented by Ram. Hit it, Bradley. Where's my boy? There's my boy. There he goes right there. Again, if you're listening on podcast, ignore all of this. I just have fun with the animation. Indiana's still at six. And people have a lot of fun. And people have a problem with it. Your one through fives, Miami, Georgia, Utah. Sometimes you just got to pause and appreciate the words that are coming out of your mouth. Notre Dame, four. UCLA, five. The U's are the only ones still undefeated. The U, the original, the University of Utah, and UCLA. So some feedback that we got on this today. Indiana, a salty rain hit me. I've said, Indiana's staying number six after the last two weeks' performances truly boggles the mind. I got some problems with the AP. I don't think Indiana being number six is one of them. You said the last two weeks. You mean wins? The last two weeks winning? If this were a power rating conversation and you're having to eke out one possession wins over Michigan and Minnesota, I'll acknowledge that, or at least I'll entertain that. Guys and girls, no discrimination here. Anyone saying this deserves to be called out. This is about winning games. This is the AP poll. This is the AP poll. This is not the most advanced methodology known to mankind. And at the end of the day, there's a big difference in whether you measure up to the expectation of the point spreads on your games versus if you just won. This right here, a merit-based ranking, should be about you winning games. Now, you could in the same breath say, okay, Josh, well, UCLA's undefeated, and they're behind teams that have losses. Yes, they are. And frankly, if you want to have a problem with that, you can have a problem with that. But at least we have some context. Yes, they're behind Georgia with a loss, but Georgia also has wins way better than UCLA. But if you have problems with not that they're winning games, but how they're winning games, well, by theory, that means they're a weaker team, right? If they are, they'll be exposed eventually. They'll lose games eventually. And at that point, they'll pay the price. But they shouldn't be paying it right now. Another team that's paying a price, I don't know why, Ryan brought up. He said, They deserve to be over the two loss teams, in my opinion. They deserve to be higher. I do agree that Wake Forest deserves to be higher. We have another prisoner of logo here. We should make t-shirts. Born in the dark? They already got that, so now they're a prisoner of the logo. Are they the prisoner of darkness? Is that what Jake Dickard and his team are right now? They did stuff yesterday to Virginia that should be illegal in North Carolina, but apparently it's not. Just non-competitive. Just toyed with Virginia. And that's not the only one in conference play they've done that to lately. They are winners in the last four weeks by a combined score of 187-31. And I know they play something called Merrimack this weekend, but they have played conference opposition the past four weeks and done that to them. I know their resume is not loaded up with high-caliber top 15 wins. But what it is loaded up with is blowout wins. So it's one thing, like, you know, if you're wanting to make the argument against Indiana, your argument is they're just barely squeaking by inferior competition. Buddy, Wake Forest is not squeaking past anything. Wake Forest is like showing up to the stadium with a three-touchdown lead on these folks. So this is one of a few examples, as we're 48 hours away from the first playoff rankings dropping, where I really want to know if the AP ranks Wake Forest 14th, how close is that to reflecting what the playoffs are going to be? What does the playoffs committee is going to say? I could say that about Notre Dame. I could say that about a couple other teams. I will in a second. But, you know, if we see Tuesday night that Wake Forest is number nine, all right, well, we got a big detachment there in the ways of thinking. But if they're down here in the mid-teens, like they are in the AP poll, what is that telling me? That's telling me unless there's a ton of stuff that happens elsewhere, they probably got to win the ACC to get in. What do you hope? Well, sorry. You can just say it, Jesse. It's okay. You wanted me to push the mic because he's anti-Wake Forest. You don't like the words coming out of my mouth, and so you want me to push the mic away. Well, you know what? Jesse, you're a hater, and so are the AP voters that put him 14th. Where would you have Wake Forest? Ten? You would have him ten? That's a lie. Next up, John noticed that USC and Ohio State actually played last night. Very lightly watched game. Apparently, most of America didn't notice. But John noticed, sarcasm included, that he said, USC and Ohio State have the same record. USC beat Ohio State. Ohio State is seven places higher. How is this? Well, John, this is not me endorsing the rankings, but I will say that I think USC is just getting judged for that Wisconsin loss. I think if people are saying USC in their mind, that Wisconsin loss was so egregious, especially emotionally, in light of yesterday's results, that even though yesterday's results include USC literally beating Ohio State, I still think the voters are holding that Wisconsin loss against them because Wisconsin proceeded to go get splattered by 30 against Iowa. And they only gave up 30, which means they got shut out by Iowa. I think the voters are looking, and they're kind of holding their nose, and they're saying, I know we've got a head-to-head result here, but we think Ohio State, the remainder of their resume is so definitively better than USC's, we're not even going to let, head-to-head become the differentiator here. Because one of them's ranked 18th, and the other one's ranked 11th. It's not like they're 11-12 or 10-11, something like that. This is the, I think it's the AP saying, even with the head-to-head, we don't even think these teams are close enough to warrant head-to-head being the deciding factor. I don't have a massive issue with that way of thinking. Here's a couple of questions I would have for an AP voter. How much are you factoring in the quarterback situation? How much are you factoring in the quarterback situation at Ohio State? Because if you're giving them credit for going on the road and beating Indiana, or you're giving Ohio State credit for a really close loss to Texas, basically beating Iowa on the road, anything about their resume you're giving them credit for was with Julian Sayen. But Julian Sayen's not with them anymore, so do you not maybe judge Ohio State with a little different scale? And then the other part would just be, well, okay, at what point do you just apply that broadly, across the board, that head-to-head logic? When do you apply that broadly? Because it feels like it's very selective. When head-to-head results get applied versus when they don't. You know what time of the week it is, Jesse? We should get Ram to just make a custom, fully custom-painted Notre Dame-colored truck so we could have it specifically for this, because it's going to happen every week. Brian hit me, but it might as well have been 100 others hit me and said, Notre Dame ahead of Brigham Young with identical, records is insane. And then other people just don't think Notre Dame should be in the top 10. Some people said top 25. I don't think that's serious, but the top 10, they're serious people with normal nine to five jobs and a wife and kids and responsibilities and active in the local church, et cetera, that do not believe Notre Dame should be top 10 because they haven't played anyone. So the gripe fest really comes to a head this weekend. South Bend, Indiana, we're going to be there. The whole world's going to be watching. Miami is going to come to Notre Dame and one way or another, we're going to get some finality on this. Now, here's what I want to know. If Notre Dame beats Miami, oh, of course they vault to number one. No questions asked. If they lose to Miami, do we have a trap door situation, Jesse? Do we have one of those situations where a team is being a little bit propped up just based on how good the voters think they are, even though everyone kind of acknowledges the resume is not really there at the moment. However, those voters thinking that way are counting on Notre Dame to validate their way of thinking. And if Notre Dame doesn't follow through on their end, and they lose, I could see a lot of voters taking it personal. And you want to know what happens then? They fall to like 15, something like that. Because at that point, there's no game to look forward to anymore, saying I'm going to rank Notre Dame high and they'll back me up when they do this. Well, the this, that whole this in that equation is beating Miami. If you don't beat Miami, I think they could fall. This is the other team, by the way, as we sit here on Sunday that I wonder about on Tuesday. Because if that playoff committee has Notre Dame at four or five, somewhere around there, then they are telegraphing to you, there is a world where they lose to Miami and still make the playoffs. That took a hit this past weekend to me, because Notre Dame's resume outside of the Miami game significantly got weakened. And that's not even to mention, by the way, that Brigham Young has also lost since they played Notre Dame and could lose again. Holy war is this Saturday. Brigham Young could incur a second loss. And at that point, if Miami also beats Notre Dame, what are we talking about? Like, what is there? SMU lost to Syracuse? Wisconsin is no longer a top 25 team? The Notre Dame gripe fest is not going anywhere, Jesse. It is not going anywhere. Because even if they beat Miami, the people who don't want them anywhere near the top 10 are going to say, man, how nice must it be to have to gear up for one game a year? I may just write the tweet so you guys don't have to. Honestly, Everett just kind of zoomed out 50,000 feet and said, can you imagine seeing this AP poll at the start of the season? No. That's the fun of it. No, you really could not have imagined this. There is no world where anyone would have said, you know what I think week 10 is going to look like? I think Penn State and Oregon and Oklahoma and Texas A&M, they're all going to be out because we got to make room for UCLA and Utah to be in the top five. Oh, by the way, we also need room for Kentucky to be in the top 10 ahead of Texas and Alabama and LSU and Ole Miss. And that's just in the first 13. I haven't even mentioned that Wake Forest is going to be number 14 and also dot, dot, dot the entire big 10 will be knocked on its ear. You could never have seen this coming. This is why Mima always told me never laugh at predictions, never dismiss someone's prediction. Because every given college football season, but especially the crazy college football seasons, if anyone gave what came to be an accurate prediction in July about what is to come, they would be laughed out of a room. So you can't acknowledge how chaotic this sport is, but then dismiss any prediction over the summer that doesn't fall right in line with the other clapping seals. That is why I really don't feel like I got it wrong when I predicted DJ Lagway to be the number one quarterback in the SEC last year. Ask Central Florida about DJ Lagway. Just don't ask the University of Florida about DJ Lagway. It's a very important distinction there. So yeah, I mean, the AP is not without its faults here. It's, but it's, it's rubber meets road time. Ram reference. It's rubber meets road time here on how similar the college football playoff committee rankings look Tuesday night to the AP. I have one final bit of information to share with you here. And that is that the Romano Express had a great week last week, and we are going to start the next week. We're going to start the next week with a strong here. You know, Maction is upon us. November is upon us. Maction is upon us. And Press, didn't we say this game is on a Wednesday? Yes. So we are adding our first best bet here. Eastern Michigan minus one and a half against Central. We love that rivalry. Okay. We like to build our entire year's programming around that rivalry. And here we are. It's going to be on a random Wednesday, but nevertheless, we are going Eastern Michigan minus one and a half. We have got such a big week ahead of us. We're going to start strong here. I don't care if you're a passive listener, if you're a very casual listener or viewer, you got to be locked in this week. You got to be subscribed to the channel. If you've messed around with it, flirted with it, but you hadn't done it. I have no idea why, because it doesn't change your life in any way. It just helps us. And it's free. Please do it. Click subscribe to the channel. It also helps to let you know when we go live, when you're subscribed versus when you're not. So I guess it does make a difference for the better. We will be back Tuesday. There's a lot going on right now. Make sure you're strapped in with us this week. For Director Bradley, Producer Jesse, I'm Josh Pate. Take care. Have a great start to your week and God bless. which expires seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. Gambling problem? 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 to 877-8HOPE-NY. HOPE NY in New York. OK, name member FDIC. Someone once said everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the mouth. I did. Mike Tyson. Oh, well, Mike Tyson and Boost are here to tell you that your mobile plan is punching you in the mouth with prices that can knock you out. That's a low blow. Totally. But you can do something about it. You have to punch back. No, Mike. You've got to switch to Boost with a plan that's $25 a month forever. Oh, that's a great plan. Maybe you can do both. Boost Mobile. What's your plan? $700. Based on KIN Customer Savings Survey conducted August 2025 through August 2026.