Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: WVUA FM Tuscaloosa.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Welcome back to the Game Day show live here on WVUA FM 90.7 the Capstone. I'm Nazario Pengal here with Peyton Davis. We just got done talking about the Alabama versus Texas A M game. We're going to jump right into the game that is starting in just under 3 hours. Alabama facing the Arkansas Razorbacks. Arkansas comes in on a four game losing streak. They've lost to BYU, LSU A M, and know looking at this know they've had some troubles the past four weeks. I'm not sure how high our expectations really were for this team coming into the season, but they did return Rocket Sanders and KJ Jefferson. And I think for a lot of people, a lot of Arkansas fans, they've not really lived up to the expectations of what they thought they were going to.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Well no, like that's when you look at those two, of the two like that one of the best quarterback running back duos you thought coming into this year and I certainly thought that. And then Ty Washington also and a few other receivers that are pretty talented as well. The thing about this Arkansas team, they've lost four straight games obviously starting with BYU losing at home. But then after that you go to LSU in Death Valley, hostile environment always and you make it a very close game. It's a game that comes down the very end and it's what, 35, 31, I believe it was 534 31. And that's a game that comes down to a field goal against a really talented offense like LSU. They're able to keep up with them and how we know LSU can't really stop anyone. But then last week, well, they've had three pretty much road games in a row. They went to Dallas or Jerry World I guess at and T Stadium two weeks ago against Texas A M and I think they got kind of rolled in that one. That's where their offensive line, defensive line issues kind of came to show, reared their ugly head. But then last week against Ole Miss, which is we see how well Ole Miss has been playing lately, pretty much winning that shootout with LSU. But Arkansas, they again keep it close. So that's what we see from this team. A lot of road though, it's a lot of traveling for them. They're going to be on the road again today in another hostile environment. However, in a 11:00 a.m. Game, no question to me, plays into Arkansas's favor. I mean this is a game where you could easily see a flat start from an Alabama offense that's coming off an emotional win last week. And if there's anything you really want to see, to me it's dominance in the running game early. I think this is a game that you have a chance of really running up the number big numbers on the ground similar to Mississippi State where maybe Jalen Miller only has to really throw 1520 times, and that's a possible outcome for today. But defensively, I think if this defensive front played the way it did last week, I think that they really can be had.
They're not strong up front. You know, when Rocket Sanders and KJ, they're both struggling to run the ball, you know, something's up and it's not on them because we've seen over both of their careers how, I mean, prolific, they can be on the ground. However, just offensive line this year, they just don't really have it. So that's something you got to take advantage of early and not let them get a few first downs. That kind of keeps your offense off the sidelines and then maybe you come back and you can't get a first down. You punt it back. Status of James Burnham, he's up in the air. That could be an underrated part of this game. We always love field position. Will Rikerd, however, did a great job last week, I believe, punting the ball. I mean, how impressive is he really? Just 50 points away, I believe, from being the all time leadering points in NCAA history. Besides the point, though, this is a game that could come down to some special teams issues, but you want to see dominance early. And this is a game where 19 and a half points seems like a lot. But I really do think if they come out and play the way that I believe, how well they played last week, they come out playing hungry, playing still, playing disciplined and all that. I believe this is another game where you can go out and dominate a team that's really, really weak up front on both sides.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: Yeah, we saw last week, Arkansas held Jackson Dart to only 153 yards through the air. That's pretty impressive. That dude's been throwing for over 300 a game. But they did allow 196 rushing yards, 4.4 per carry. So, yeah, I agree with you. Get the running game going. Rocket Sanders right now has not even reached 100 rushing yards throughout this season. Last year he was over 1000.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: He's been hurt a little bit.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Yes, AJ. Green has their other running back, has almost the same amount of carries as Rocket Sanders so far this season. But Jaheem Thomas, they're one of their linebackers. He's been a fantastic player for them on defense. Leads the team in tackles and sacks. He will have to get after our offensive line to slow our offense down. As know looking no Malachi Moore in the secondary today. He's not going to be playing.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: I believe it's game time decision, but they're probably going to play.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: But defense has been playing fantastic. I think one of the things is not allowing KJ Jefferson to get out of the pocket because that's where he's made a lot of plays throughout his career, outside the know, buying time for his wide receivers to get open. I think this Alabama team has had a lot of success containing quarterbacks like that. We haven't seen Jackson Dart really get out of the pocket when we played them or he was getting lit up when he went out of the pocket and he didn't want to get out anymore. So that's going to be a big key to the game.
Obviously there's going to be making adjustments in this game as well as we did in the past. That's what we've seen in the past few games this season making second half.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: Adjustments have been very impressive and like KJ Jefferson at some point, even with his six 5240 pound frame, if he keeps getting hit the way he's getting hit, then he's going to start breaking down. But he's definitely to me when I watch him, he's improved so much as a pocket passer. This is year like five for so you know, he's, he's really come one. He's always going to be one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in the SEC as long as he's playing know college football. But it's just a situation that they have right now. Last week against ole Miss, a team that's really not strong up front. We know that. We saw that against when they came into Brian Denny, couldn't really stop the run, couldn't really run the ball, especially in the second half. Last week, Rocket Sanders eight for 15, katie Jefferson 17 for eleven, and Rashawn Duboinian four for ten. That is something that they can't get done today. But Alabama if they come out flat and guys like they're always going to mix in that quarterback power game where you're going to have to worry about on that mesh point exchange between him and Rocket Sanders, which one is going to come out with the ball.
There's always going to be a threat of Jefferson pulling the ball and he's a guy who he can also lay the boom as well. So if you let him get on the perimeter and make these cornerbacks have to tackle him, he's going to start getting a little momentum, falling forward, getting extra yards early down success is what a game like this comes down to for Arkansas. If they're playing in third and twelve s all day, then it's going to be a long day for them. However, if they're in third and three and less then that's always something you see where it's a difference in the game. However in particular when you want to keep Alabama, what they're going to want to do offensively is keep your offense off the field. If you're able to win that time of possession battle, that's where things can get a little tight for Alabama throughout the first half and into the second half even if you don't make the proper adjustments at half. But this is a game where I think I want to see Alabama from Rip dominate it's 11:00 a.m. Kind of a snooze that's homecoming. But you want to see Alabama right from the first snap get after it in the run game and also get after the quarterback. If you see that kind of statement being made early, it's going to be a long day for Arkansas. However, there is not exactly I mean, eleven, eight Ms are always tough. It's going to be a cool day. It's not like 100 degrees like you see some of these early on in the year. But stop the run early, run the ball early, and the keys to victory. It's an obvious lane to if you're watching the game, it's an obvious way that Alabama can come out and win this game and dominate.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm going to compare this to Notre Dame. We saw last week against Louisville. They were out of juice. They had that's because they played Ohio State and then a tough game against Duke as well. And then they had to go to.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Louisville and now they're USC.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll get to that eventually. But we played Texas A M emotional game last week. Ole missed the week before that and.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: We got, well, Mississippi State the week before that.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: But yes, and then we have Tennessee next week. What you don't want to do is play another emotional football game, this know, ground and pound, grind it out and then be tough in the fourth quarter and then have to go play Tennessee next week and get up to that. You want to be able to get a know, not rest your guys, but not have to play them as hard.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: You want a relaxing second half. You don't want really an intense one. You're right in the middle of this SEC schedule. It's been some ole Miss first half was seven to six, I believe that's a game that went into the second half. It was emotional. It was a statement victory for this team, but still an emotional one. Then Mississippi State, things are a little that's what kind of the pace you want to see today at Mississippi State? That's a game you can compare it to. I think it's a similar matchup, but also against Texas A M last know. That's another game that's emotional and you got to come back late and stuff like that. So you're exactly right. You want to see this team dominate and play a first half where you're getting out to a 15 plus point lead and then be able to keep the ground game going, keep your guys confident and energetic and stuff like that and get out of here with an easy victory. There's a lane to do that. However, Arkansas, even though they're off of probably, you could really say three straight road games, this will be their fourth straight road game and their second straight or their third straight true road game against a team that's they however, they've made things really close. So that's something that you want to see Alabama kind of take care of early and separate themselves and show themselves to be a stronger team than both Ole Miss and LSU and Texas A M, obviously, but both Ole Miss and LSU prove that you are a stronger team. Prove that you're in that higher tier of the SEC. It's time to start dominating a little bit as this schedule heats up, but it's going to be home schedule, so that's what you want to see.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: That's a testament to Sam Pittman. The Arkansas staff, though, the fact that they've had this amount of difficult games, been able to keep it close. If they're able to keep this one close, I mean, that's just fantastic work by them because they've played tough games week after week and being able to get their guys up for this one. I mean, obviously it's Alabama, but still you're sitting there like, well, you're all.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: Four straight losses, too.
Are they out of there? Is their energy in their locker room kind of soured a little bit and they're tired of playing these close games. You don't know, but KJ Jefferson, so experienced, rocket center, so talented, ty Washington, also impressive.
These are still talented players on both sides. And then defensively they can get after you a little bit, but I think it's the defensive line. Jaheem Thomas, you're right, he's a very impressive player. However, their defense as a whole, that's one that if you're Jalen Miller, you got to be licking your chops a little bit. And Jace McClellan, this is a game that's like last week you go 26 carries for 23 yards. This week this is the one where you can go 40 carries for over 200.
It's a similar style to the Mississippi State game, and you want to see Tommy Reese take advantage of that early on. Not just I think the thing where things could get tight is if say, Tommy Reese is just coming out and we're like, all right, let's keep it simple today.
Let's do zone plays up the middle from the shotgun with Jason McClellan. Let's just do hand dive, punch, stuff like that, where maybe you get a pulling guard. But it's kind of just simple running concepts. If you do those early on and you start to get kind of stalled a little bit, you're going to start I hope Greece comes out with a game script that isn't simple.
I don't want to see that. I know you can probably dominate this game on the ground, but I want to see Jalen Milrow get on the edge and I want to see you again get the ball out to Bond and Burton. We know how solid they can be. Amari NYBlack as well in the like, that's something where you want to establish that early on where you're able to not only are you just running the ball straight up behind Seth McLaughlin, but you're also getting your guys in the perimeter. Show that versatility as a play caller don't just be simple and vanilla. And even though you can maybe do that in a game like this, you want to see them be a little like, I think energy from offenses start with play calling. And if you see that energy and that flow offensively that we've seen in the last two weeks, you can see this starting to come together a little bit. And the way they were able to run the ball two weeks ago, three weeks ago, and pass the ball last week. This is an offense that has a high upside with Jalen Millrow, obviously the X factor, but he's the engine that gets this team going to me, not only in the locker room, his presence as a leader, but also in the locker room as just a guy who they're like, we're going to play for you. And if you're coming out and him, when I say he's easy to root for because it doesn't seem like the moment's too big for him. It did against Texas. It seems like he's growing up. But this is a moment where this is not a national stage game. It's an SEC network 11:00 a.m game. It's not a national stage game. However, it could become a national stage game if you make things tight and don't come out with your best stuff. So I want to see Jalen Monroe again, a statement performance for him today.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: I mean, if you look ahead, you got Tennessee, LSU, Kentucky and Auburn, and you're like, oh, Arkansas is coming in here, what all do we have to play for? But I think it's a great opportunity to really shore up everything because you're looking at Tennessee, LSU, and even at Auburn, because it's at Auburn, you can't make a lot of mistakes in those games. So you can't know, try out everything. You're going to be sticking more consistent today's where you can, if you need to try out some more stuff, see what you got everywhere.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: It's a tune up game. You're exactly right. I mean, it's one of those things where LSU, we know how weak LSU is up front, but can you take advantage of that? LSU can come in here and probably put up points even though Alabama's defense has an argument for one of the best in the country. It's talent everywhere. And it'll be in Brian Denny Stadium. You saw the way Quinn Ewers played and things like that. I think this is kind of a different team. But KJ Jefferson or not KJ Jefferson, jaden Daniels for LSU is of that level on that kind of top tier quarterback across the country. And Brian Thomas and Malik Neighbors is one of the best duos, if not the best in the entire country, the most prolific, obviously. So when you look at that's, that's a game where even though LSU hasn't been able to stop anyone this year, they can come out and put up big numbers. So you gotta be able to take advantage of all that. And it's a tune up game. Exactly. You're exactly right. In both the run and passing.
[00:14:33] Speaker B: You.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: Want to see things start to be uniform and flowing and see the identity. You've seen it kind of come in complimentary. But yeah, you want to see a complementary game rather than just run or pass him, you want to see both kind of be in unison going ahead as the schedule gets it heats up. And is this a trap game? You're in between the tough parts of your schedule right now. Like Arkansas, this is kind of one of the weak links with the SEC right now. So you want to beat up on a team like that and not make things close as they have been obviously in their last two true road games.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Yeah. And you're talking about Mississippi State basically only run, only threw the ball twelve times. And then last week our whole entire offense was basically the passing game. And that's one thing with Tommy Reese coming in here, we wanted to expand on the run game so that we could be a more complementary offense because the past two years it's been a.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: Lot of and it makes it and it makes it so much more impressive from Jalen Noura's perspective. But you're exactly right. It's got to be balanced.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: And I think that's one way that you can have success because Tennessee comes in, they're going to come in with a fantastic pass rush. But if you're able to run the football, you take just that's just the way football works. You got to be able to do that. And Arkansas does not have a great defense. We've talked about it multiple times. So it's definitely a way to sure it up. We are going to take a quick break. Thank you all for listening and we will be right back.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: It WVUA FM tuscaloosa.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: We are back live here on the campus of the University of Alabama on 90.7 the Capstone. This is the game day show. I am Nazario Pangalo here with Peyton Davis talking about the Arkansas Alabama game, but also looking back at the A and M Alabama game from last week, looking at that game, we saw A and M come in with some fantastic wide receivers in Ania Smith and Evan Stewart held them to only 239 yards through the air. Evan Stewart, only three catches, aniah Smith only four, their lowest of this season. For both of them, just a fantastic performance by Cooley Mckinstri and Terryon Arnold.
[00:16:49] Speaker A: Who continue are just so consistent this year.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: I mean, they have made strides through this year. We've seen Terryon Arnold, he's one of the best corners probably in the country, in the country now because he gets.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: The target of every game plan. Kool Aid takes away a side of the field. He's the he's been, he's responded so.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Well, been fantastic to see and just helps out the defense. So know defense is so complimentary as well. We talked about it on offense, but we obviously have great defensive line and pass rush. We've seen from Chris Brazil.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: It's gotten so much better.
[00:17:16] Speaker B: Turner but you have to have secondary guys holding it down. We saw that for A and M, they have a fantastic defensive line, but their secondary did not play as well. Jermaine Burton's running by most of their guys on double moves, whatever he wanted to do, basically. But you don't have that for Alabama. You have a very solid secondary match with a very solid defensive front seven. And that's what makes this defense so well and plays so well together. And I just think that's an amazing part of it. And that one thing that we've seen grow so much over the season, because Terryon Arnold and the whole secondary as well did not basically, the whole defense didn't play great against Texas and the.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: Fourth quarter, it's the fourth.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: But as they've grown, as they've gotten better, second half have been fantastic. So just going forward through the season, we want to see them really shut down Arkansas and on them. They can take this game away completely. If they don't allow their offense to get going, they can just take them out of the game, let the offense play simple, do their thing and run away with this game.
You wanted to go back into the.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: Offense a little, was what I would say about the defense is like when you talk about how well the secondary's played, what has the Alabama identity been? So Nick Saban, for those who don't know, generally it's a secondary coach. He's a secondary player back at Kent State way back in the day.
His style of coaching the secondary would be bump and run man coverage, which you got Kool Aid, McKinsey, Terry Arnold, who are so physical themselves with that star player, which would be malachi more generally. And then you've had guys like Jalen Key, guys like Caleb Downs in the back end, and they've been so impressive. But what is the main difference now between how they've been the last few weeks than what they were against Texas? And it's the pass rush, pass rush without blitzing, and that's when rushing for has been something where you need to get home. And guys like Chris Braswell and Dallas Turner are that's amongst the best edge rushing duo in the country, and you just didn't see them show up in the beginning parts of the season. We talked about it at length on this show, how well Dallas Turner has been one of the best defensive players in the country the last month and half. So when you see that, that's really encouraging. And then Chris Braswell, I mean, how strong he is and both the run and pass against the run, and then as a pass rusher, he's just so strong where he can long arm you and get under your shoulder pads. I think he plays leverage really well. And Dallas Turner is so athletic. But then we know how talented those guys are, the interior of it and I got into it a little bit earlier, guys like Tim Keeman, guys like Jahim Otis, Justice Aboigby, like that. Jahim Otis is a really talented player, but besides that, I'm not discrediting them in any way, but that's just not where the strength is for this defense. It would be at linebacker, it would be in the secondary and then off the edge. Those guys are where you can be had. And how well they played last week against a team in Texas A and M. That has been has been. I mean, against an Arkansas defense last week, that has been they've held teams, not to say LSU scoring 34, holding them in check by any means. But LSU is one of the best offenses in the country. Ole miss as well. And they hold those two teams to under 40 points. It's not like not to say that's an extremely impressive feat. I mean, they got 38 put on them against BYU just a few weeks back at home. But this defense, they controlled A and M a little bit going in the later parts of that game to where they were able to hang around a little bit.
Now you got to be able to defensively the way we're going to want to play defensively for the rest of the year is being strong in the back end and also on the defensive line and rushing forward. You got to be able to get interior push. That's the difference for this team right now because against Texas, again, talked about at length the pockets Quinn Ewers had and he was throwing from that's something where you're going to lose games with a guy as talented as him. And KJ Jefferson is also a very good quarterback in his own right, but the way you're able to get push on the interior on both sides of the ball has been the main difference for this team going forward.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: And another thing about that is what we didn't see against Texas was no turnovers. And one thing we talked about on the show is we needed turnovers and we've seen that the past couple of weeks. The ability to rattle a quarterback and make them make quicker decisions, that's something.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: That'S been non existent rushing for like Pete Coling's offense, really, no turnovers are created and we're not getting pressure without blitzing. And that's something that's so important for this defense and more. The style that Nick Saban has been generally throughout his know as Alabama coach.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you have really a game changing defensive turnover by Caleb Downs in that game and then also they.
[00:21:35] Speaker A: Didn'T get those by the way, sorry to cut you off, but they didn't get those last year. Those timely turnovers, they did not get those last year. So that's just the difference that you love seeing from this team.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Exactly. You're down a touchdown. You throw a pick and you're like, oh, shoot, like Texas can go two possessions up and then Caleb Downs comes back with a great play and also because of the pass rush, max Johnson had to get that ball out quicker and then Caleb Downs was able to make the play. And then also special teams coming up with the blocked field goal as well and not allowing Texas to get even, that's another time.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: That's a know, that's a turnover and a defensive touchdown.
[00:22:05] Speaker B: But force a safety as force that's.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: Like three turnovers there where maybe it shows up as one on the game, but a blocked field goal for sure is a turnover and it's a touchdown, but a phantom kind of blindside blocking play. And where I was going with that whole comparing Arkansas defense here is like A and M's offensive line to me is solid and it's not as good as Texas's, but it's not as bad as Mississippi State or Ole Misses to me. And the way that they were able to run the ball on Arkansas and to see Alabama kind of take advantage of that to me, that's the clear difference here for Alabama from the rest of these SEC teams, even the stronger ones like LSU, who even though they have two losses so dangerous, keep talking about them. But up front, it's really where it's the differences, because offensive line, we've talked, I mean, going into the season that was feudus'strength for this team, how talented they are. They've played a lot better and six sacks last week. But I'd say a few of those on Jalen mirror and all coming in the first half. You don't want to see timely sacks come in the second half, and that's the key. Well, now it's going to go back to this offense. That's the key for this offense. You can see it take shape, run the ball and get the short intermediate passing game going off that what does that tell you? RPOs. That's what like the modern game of football is RPO centric and I know Tommy Reese is not a huge fan of RPOs, but getting guys, getting your guys out on the perimeter and staying ahead of the chains and know, that's where the pre snap penalties will hurt you. But that's what they did last week. They had a lot of third and shorts and a lot of know, second and long plays that went. Know, you get play action and you throw that, they're giving you a cushion on the outside, take advantage of it. We know Jalen Miller's got the arm strength and all the talent to make those throws.
Even if you're on the other hash mark and you're making a longer throw, we know he has plenty of arm strength to do that. So the short passing game and how you can run the ball and get and open up space on the perimeter is the key for this offense. Going forward and you can see it start to take shape as the schedule gets harder.
[00:24:02] Speaker B: I think one thing added to the offensive line, but also on Jalen Mullro, is the ability to make adjustments when you see pressure coming and you see a pre snap because I feel like a lot of their sacks were off of pressure, extra blitzers. And that's one thing the offensive line has to communicate, know which guys are coming, which way they're sliding and everything like that. But also quarterbacks got to see that as well. And one thing is when you see a blitzer or even two blitzers come from one side, well, then usually you're going to look to that side of the field in the passing throw where.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: The blitz is coming from. That's another game. Just an aspect of general basic football throw where the blitz is coming from.
[00:24:34] Speaker B: So they got to work on that for sure. That's one thing we saw against Texas and we saw against A and M was when they brought pressure offensively, had some troubles.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's where the difference is for me when I watch Texas, texas A and M's defense is as good as Texas's defense, I think it's pretty safe to say.
The difference that I saw is that things looked easier. Things just look, I know 26 points isn't a million, but like 26 points, how many in the second half? 19. I guess it would be 19. Yeah, that's past well, Texas 16. Okay, so you got two touchdowns and a safety. But it just looked easier to me. And it looks so hard against Texas. It looks so hard for Jalen Millro to kind of go through his progressions. It looks so kind of weird. It's like Jalen Miller is being put in an offense for Bryce Young and that's not the case anymore. Getting the ball out on those first reads, that pre snap recognition where they're playing. If they're playing a cover four, cover three, you got a little cushion on the outside, take advantage of it. And if they're playing, they're playing. You're going to stack the box and blitz and kind of rattle Jalen Millero. He showed a lot. It was the mental game that he showed major growth in in strides in last week because he made a few really impressive throws. I'd say that touchdown, a few whole shots down the sideline. That touchdown to Jermaine Burton on that short crosser on third and twelve. What a timely play. But it was more the mental stuff where he was getting the ball out quick. You will neutralize any pass rush, no matter how good they are. If you can get the ball out quick and get a really talented receiving core space to play with and you'll run the ball off of that, you know, the run game will be fine. But you need to be able to show as a player, jalen mirror when you're held in the pocket. Can you make these snap decisions quickly? And the night and day different. I know Jalen, he's still a little behind sometimes, but he was way behind against Texas. Both interceptions against Texas were just terrible. I mean, Cardinal sins of quarterbacking. So behind on both of those throws, outbreaking routes towards the sideline and you're throwing those late, it's going to be a pick six. I mean, that's how you get in those troubling issues.
Even on that interception last week, it was still the right decision to be. But he's a little behind, but he's making the right decisions right now. And he's showing that the poise that it takes to be a successful quarterback at this level.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: And we saw how the deep game really opened up the short game last week. But also the short game can open up the deep. Yes. If you see a corner, it was.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: Every level of the field last week. That's another encouraging thing. Yeah.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: Another thing for secondaries. They're going to get frustrated. You keep dumping it off, dumping it off, dumping off. And they have to make open field tackles, corners, safeties. A lot of them don't like making tackles. They like playing in cover. They don't like making those open field tackles. Isaiah Bond and Jermaine Burton, we saw them fantastic in the open field last week as well.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: Yeah. And they're both I think Bond's a little slider. He's more like Devontae Smith sort of build. Jermaine Burton's kind of a bigger and like when you get him in space. We saw that on his second touchdown.
Yeah. Broke three tackles. And that's the thing that's frustrating for a defensive coordinator as well. In the first half, you're sending these blitzes and they're getting home. You're like, now you're being like, everyone's getting into it, the crowd's getting involved. And that's a little demoralizing for you. You get the short passing game going. That's how you get the crowd. That's how you take away the crowd and you up the tempo a little bit, and I'm stabbed my finger. But that's what Texas did to Alabama and Brian Denny. They got the short passing game going. It opened up the deep game, but they were going so fast to run three plays every 90 seconds. That's how you get the crowd out of it. And in a hostile environment like that where Jalen Muro, that was like the first big time road test for him. I know he played at Arkansas last year and had to come in for Bryce Young, but a team game planning him for him the entire week, big time road game. A game where you're like a slight favorite in it's. A game where the score, even though the first half, it was 17 to ten, I believe the Texas A and M played a really strong first half. But the way they played the second half, it showed Alabama was a much stronger team than Texas A and M. And mentally and physically. And when you see that against a team that has so much talent everywhere, we talk about Evan Stewart and I smith you talk about all this talent that they have on the defensive front.
When you see that the way they were able to control the game in the second half and play in a dominant style game was, I think, closer than it should have been, obviously, with that touchdown being taken away. Besides the point, the way they were able to dominate that second half that's an encouraging thing going forward because you're able to win in multiple different ways. And then defensively, that's where the juice came from, the pass rush. And everyone's going to get into it now, and everyone's going to be energized and hype. And when your offense I think one of the more underrated things is the way offenses, if you're able to control the clock and move the ball, and that will make your defense want to play for you more obviously. They're off the field more. But if your offense is punting four times in a row, even for the best defenses, they're going to start to get a little tired and roll their eyes a little bit. If you're able to move the change, show consistency and get the defense, or get A and M in really bad field position, that's what it kind of came down to. And then they were going to have to go the whole field. If you're going to win this game right now, max Johnson, you're going to have to go 80, 90 yards. That's what you want to see field position battle. It's another thing that we talked about last week with how good the special teams are for Alabama, and James Burnham obviously was hurt. Will Whacker, great job punting, but that's the field position game. If this team is able to take control of field position, get short fields from themselves, have long fields for the opposing teams, that's where you can see this team start to become more of rather than like a dangerous team, an elite Know. That's the difference right now. Right now they're kind of dangerous. We want to see them ascend to elite steps.
[00:30:07] Speaker B: I think also the growth of the interior offensive line as well. We saw last week Jalen Miller be able to sit in the pocket and be able to step into his throws a lot more. In Texas, he wasn't able to do that. And he got a rhythm, scramble, get around. But yeah, you're exactly the rhythm and get the ball out quick if he has to, or launch it deep. And so now let's make our predictions for the game today against Know. What do you think coming out? What's your prediction for this game, score wise? And just who do you think will be the most successful players?
[00:30:36] Speaker A: Well, so this is a game where to me, it's an obvious fact in my head that there's going to be a little bit of sleepwalking at first, and hopefully this team can prove that they're ready for this tough schedule going forward with a dominant performance today. And if they come out with that mentality, then they can easily dominate this game. But I think it's more like a 13 to three halftime score. And then it ends up being like, I think I'm going to go 34 to ten or 34. I'm going to say 38 to 14.
It's one where they get a few. I think Tyler Bookner and Ty Simpson will get a few drives at the end, maybe one or two, and they'll get a late touchdown. But again, this isn't a team Alabama. It's not a team where you're going to come out and you're going to put up 50, 60 points. But if they can control the ball and if they control the ball, you're going to have more juice and you're going to have fresher legs. On defense, your pass rush will be able to get after a weak offensive line. But controlling the ball, it starts with a run game, but like we said, a short pass off of that the way that you can open up space for your guys outside, that's a strength for this team. The receiving core is a strength for this team. That's confirmed by now. So hand the ball off to Jason McClellan, rodell Williams early, hopefully get Justice Hayes a few. This could be a good game for him to break out a little bit and get some confidence. But Jalen Murrow, I think he should have a design pole on most any run play.
More complicated, brought in concepts. Get some pre snap motion in, throw the ball off of that, control the ball, and you will come out and dominate this game. And if you can keep Arkansas offense off the field, get him in third and longs. Get after KJ Jefferson a little bit and stall Rocket centers. The way he has been up front, I think he's averaging like 2.7 yards per carry. Similar thing to Quinchon Judkins. It's like a similar they're kind of a blend between Ole Miss and Mississippi State to me. They're weaker in the same sort of areas. They're stronger and maybe not as strong. Definitely not as strong as Ole Miss at receiver or on defense in the front seven. But it's a similar like it's like KJ Jefferson is one of the better quarterbacks. Rocket centers run better running backs. It's still a tough team. If you can come out and dominate this game, your confidence going forward, it's going to be so much better for your team going forward, not having to be playing in close games every single week. So I'm going to go 30 814.
[00:32:54] Speaker B: I think early on it's going to be a little bit close, but I think the defense forces a couple of turnovers, sets the offense up perfectly, and I think that's when they really start getting going, I think they're going to win this game 30 414.
I think jalen miller is going to probably throw around 200 yards. I'm not seeing a crazy big game.
[00:33:08] Speaker A: But an efficient, efficient 213 to 15, 200 yard like that. If you see that, then you feel even more encouraged. And the poise, the stats got to be good, but when you watch them, the poise has to be clear and get better going forward because we keep talking about it. But that auburn going to Auburn. It's always tough for any team that's you think a m's environment was going to they hate you there. They hate you there. So hopefully the poise, the composure can continue to be strong for.
[00:33:41] Speaker B: And hopefully we're both predicting alabama victories. We will see that game starts in 2 hours from now. This know the end of our first hour of our segment of the show. In just a couple minutes we will be jumping into all of college football, talking about last week and getting into previews of this week. Thank you all for listening.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: We will be right back.
Um w v uafm tuscaloosa.
[00:34:28] Speaker B: Welcome back everybody. This is WVU FM 90.7 the caps and this is the game day show. I am nazario pengal here with peyton davis. We just got done talking about the alabama versus Texas a and m game and then going into the arkansas game as well. And now we will be jumping into all of college football taking a look back at all the great games from last week. Obviously biggest game of last week was the red river rivalry, oklahoma versus Texas. And wow, what an absolutely fantastic game.
[00:34:59] Speaker A: To just like I think in terms of the red river showdown in my entire life when I've been watching it, this was the most visually appealing game to me in terms of just strong offensive, defensive line play, really solid defense being played, but better offensive times. And the way dylan gabriel composed himself in that environment, that was something that I did not think he had in him. I think last week I had Texas in a close one like 26 24 type of game, but I didn't see 34 coming from Oklahoma. And the way that they were able to come out and kind of just control, get big turnovers early. Obviously, the first play is an interception and then you walk in for a touchdown and then respond after maybe a punt or a punt block. In some cases. They responded well to that. And the way that they were able to get after Quinn years and I think Bret Venerables is one of the best play callers in terms of disguising coverages and scheming up a defense. And he had Quinn years confused in a lot of this game. Yours made a lot of nice throws, 31 to 37, 346 in a touchdown, two picks, but 346 and a touchdown. He played really well down the stretch of this game, but early on it was just Oklahoma kind of controlled the game and dominated early, but then was able to just stay composed, stay within themselves even when Texas was responding. So really impressive performance by Oklahoma, but two really, really good teams here.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: Dylan Gabriel, 398 total yards. He was basically the entire team. Yeah, he led the team in rushing.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: We talked about last week, they can't run the ball, really, but the way that Dylan Gabriel was able to get those design run games as well as some scramble drill games, he was just so within himself and composed in this one.
[00:36:43] Speaker B: Yeah, they lost 49 to zero last year. Dylan Gabriel didn't play and he was upset about that and a lot of people didn't know he was a 49 point difference, literally him changing this game. But also you have to talk about the defensive line for Oklahoma. I mean, fantastic five sacks. They forced a fumble as well. Ten tackles for loss. Late in this game, though, I thought Texas was getting rolling. I was like, oh, they're about to do what they did to Alabama late in that game.
[00:37:05] Speaker A: But then you put it together, they were game winning drive.
[00:37:07] Speaker B: But that goal line stand as well by the Oklahoma defense was fantastic. And then I think being able to hold them to a field goal, I thought late in that game, I thought Sark was going to go for it. I really thought he wasn't going to kick that field goal because you can ice the game, you can run the clock. If you get that.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: I'm sure he regrets it, but hindsight.
[00:37:23] Speaker B: That fantastic last drive, he didn't think.
[00:37:27] Speaker A: That he had it in him and he proved him wrong.
[00:37:29] Speaker B: Fantastic game. And if you look forward the rest of the season, Oklahoma doesn't. Both of them don't really have a lot of tough games left in the season. I would guess they would rematch in the big.
If Oklahoma is undefeated and Texas is still with one loss, if Texas beats them in a very close game, do you believe that both of them should be in the playoff?
[00:37:49] Speaker A: That's a great it's just that's all context. We'll see what the situation looks like across the country. But like you talk about sometimes where these group of five teams are able to sneak in the playoffs and stuff like that, that's not the case this year. I think the power five is way too strong. I think a Pac Twelve team is getting in. I think a Big Twelve teams getting in. I think a Big Ten team is getting in. ACC, SEC, there's going to be an OD man out there. And if you take a loss, if Oklahoma takes a close loss, because man, that's going to be a really tough decision for the committee, you can see that coming.
[00:38:21] Speaker B: This might be the worst year for the four year playoff because if you look at it, Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State you could all say are national championship contenders. They could contend with any team.
[00:38:30] Speaker A: The entire oklahoma, texas.
[00:38:31] Speaker B: Oklahoma, texas. And you have ACC.
[00:38:33] Speaker A: We don't know.
They already have a big win on their schedule, on their resume. They're at Clemson as well. They're really impressive. We don't really know how the rest of them we don't know. Yeah, Louisville is kind of a team that is emulating TCU of last year. The way they're able to over achieve at this point. The games will get tougher, but we'll see. But from them Pac Twelve, you have all those oh my God.
Well, you can map them out. USC, Washington, Oregon, UCLA.
They're solid. But you know those three solid teams at the top, two solid teams at the top of the Big Ten or Big Twelve, three at the top of the Big Ten and then Alabama, Georgia, obviously, but Alabama, Georgia, there's going to be an OD man out here. That's inevitable. But you're exactly right.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: If we throw us together a random scenario, you could have Alabama wins the SEC championship. They're probably in. I mean, they win the SEC, you.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: Have to be in.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: But Georgia, if that's their only loss and they've dominated the rest of the.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: Season, then dominated a weaker schedule, that could be a factor. It could be a factor for them.
[00:39:33] Speaker B: You have a Pac Twelve, I don't see an undefeated team, but if you have a one, they're probably going to be in. And then what? What happens in the Big Ten if they all beat each other and they're all sitting there with one loss at the end of the year?
[00:39:43] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great ten is just crazy. The Big Ten, the depth of the Big Ten has always been weak, or it's not always been weak, but it is weak this year, no question. Your teams like Iowa and Wisconsin aren't very impressive, but Penn State talked about here, I think they talent across the board. Ohio State, Michigan has probably been the best team this year so far. Ohio State's gotten by a little bit. You could see them picking up a loss at some point. When Michigan goes to Happy Valley, what happens there? I think Penn State could get after them a little bit. There's going to be a few games here in the next four or five weeks that will make this decision for the playoff committee coming down to four teams, it's going to make it nearly impossible and there's going to be an OD man out. There really is, and I think you're exactly right. A twelve team format, you could argue like eight or nine, maybe ten national championship contenders that are obvious. And Alabama, you can make an argument that's like on the outside looking into that right now, we'll see how the rest of the season plays out. The SEC is not as strong, but I think there's no way a Pac Twelve team comes out undefeated. That conference is way too strong. I'd be shocked. It would be extremely impressive. They'd probably be the one seed, I agree. But Oklahoma, if they're undefeated, are they the one seed?
[00:40:56] Speaker B: Georgia's undefeated.
[00:40:57] Speaker A: I mean, Georgia is undefeated.
[00:40:58] Speaker B: Looking at Georgia, though, they played by far their best game of the season. Absolutely. Rolled Kentucky 51 to 13. Good Segue, Carson Beck, 389 yards, four.
[00:41:06] Speaker A: Touchdowns, best game by far. I mean, not close.
[00:41:09] Speaker B: I mean, they outgained Kentucky 608 to 183. Ray Davis, shot him to 55 yards. Basically, they looked like they basically did what they've done the past two years, slow starts and then they play one game and then they look fantastic. Then they remind everybody that they are Georgia and they are the two time defending national champions.
Looking at the rest of their schedule does not look very solid. We would assume that they would be twelve and going into maybe you got.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: Ole Miss, no, Ole Miss is in Stanford, but at Tennessee. Ole Miss, Tennessee, and then they play like three straight ranked Ish teams. However, besides the point, last week, by far their best performance against a Kentucky team, that kind of looked like a pretender going in and kind of reared their ugly head as a pretender. Devin Leary, ten of 26, another inefficient game for him. And then Ray Davis, like we said last week, they're going to have to lean on him again, they have to lean on him. And it's such an obvious identity. And Georgia just stalled it the entire game, and Georgia really couldn't run the ball well. Actually they ran it really efficiently and effectively, but to me, Kentucky, they can really be had in the secondary. Their secondary is a very big weakness. And Carson Beck, give him credit, played really well.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: He has looked very solid in that Auburn game. He was basically their whole offense. They didn't have a run.
[00:42:28] Speaker A: They didn't have a run.
[00:42:29] Speaker B: Looked fantastic last week as well.
[00:42:31] Speaker A: And that's what's going to have to I mean, he's like their whole offense at times. But Marcus, Rosemary, Rah, RA Thomas, those are two guys that transferred and those are guys that you wanted to see make a difference on the perimeter for them. And they played both of them. They combined for 150, 60 yards and two touchdowns. So that's what you want to see from those guys. You know, Brock Barriers is fantastic, I mean, everyone knows that, but yeah, no, Carson Beck is within these first year starters across the country on these power teams. He's been as solid as they come and he has been improving week to week. So the schedule again isn't tough. This was their toughest game, quote, unquote. I don't believe that, really. I think going to Auburn is a lot tougher than this.
I really did see a blowout coming here, but give him credit from mean.
[00:43:20] Speaker B: This game shows how hard it is to go on the road. I mean, you're looking at Georgia going to Auburn and Auburn's, not even a great team and still being close and then coming home. Kentucky has to go on the road and they just, I mean, demolish well.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: To me it was like these kentucky and Auburn are kind of similar in terms of they got to lean on the run game. They were passing offenses, even though I think Devin Leary is a really solid player, but Devin Leary not really a threat to run the ball ever. So that was the difference for Auburn in making that game close is because of Peyton Thorne ran for 100 yards.
Georgia obviously can be had a little bit on the ground, but when you can't lean on it entirely, you have to come out and control the ball and control the clock and come out and play a lot better than 34 to seven and a half.
[00:44:03] Speaker B: Georgia has they have eight home games this year, only four on the road. They play well. Florida is neutral site game, but they play Missouri, Florida, Missouri, Ole Miss, Tennessee, all back to back. That'll be four weeks in a row for them. That will be interesting to see if any of those teams can keep that game close against the game you got.
[00:44:21] Speaker A: To look at is Missouri. I think Missouri they've proven themselves to be a very strong I mean, look, do I think Missouri is going to beat Georgia? No, I don't. But Missouri's been consistent and strong offensively this entire year and that's what you need to be against Georgia. You can't let them roll you early. You have to keep things a little tight and make Carson Beck beat you and try to take away Brock Barrett at least. But you got to have like three guys on him and see, I think that I saw something that Brock Barrett is like a toddler. You got to have three eyes on him at all times.
I think that's just I mean, it's the nature of what he is as a player. But that's the thing coming out early. That's what you saw against South Carolina. They were able to keep things close because they came out early and took advantage of Georgia not taking them seriously at first. If you're going to give Georgia trouble, you have to come out and play.
You can't get behind 14 at the end of first quarter. It was an obvious blowout after that and Kentucky give them credit. Five and one now. But I think this is a team I think we might have said it last year. This is a team that could finish like six and six, seven and five.
[00:45:28] Speaker B: You could see that going into the next game. A little bit of a difficult topic for me, but Louisville at home upsets Notre Dame.
Some people, Josh Pate specifically thought Louisville should have been favored in this game and it looked like they should have been favored because they absolutely dominated. Notre Dame outrushed them 185 to 44. Also forced five turnovers by Sam Hartman. I mean, it was an ugly game. I was sitting on my couch late that night and just basically in tears because it was absolutely awful to watch that game. I mean, Louisville's defensive front, absolutely dominated pass rush, getting after Sam Hartman and shutting down Audrick estimate, the number one rusher in college football before that game. And he was held to basically nothing. No success as well. They were up three scores before Notre Dame scored a late garbage time touchdown, to be honest. And then they forced another turnover.
Volvo, are they a contender in the Accord?
[00:46:24] Speaker A: I think ran out of steam and like everything that they do well, they did poorly efficient offense. They were the three turnovers for Sam Hartman. Audrick estimated you just talked that ten for 20 yards. Not going to get it done. Louisville, they've been strong in the front seven. I think Maya, Ohio State got after him a little bit on the ground, but not much. And up front, they just got pushed around and bullied this entire game. And give Louisville credit. I mean, Jack Plummer, who's been.
[00:46:52] Speaker B: At Purdue Cal and now right, exactly third.
[00:46:55] Speaker A: School he's played against Notre Dame with yeah, that's crazy. But 17 and 24, 145 yards, one touchdown, no picks. That's not the most visually appealing stat line or impressive, but no turnovers controlled the game. And Jawar Johnson or Jordan? Sorry. This is another team that's kind of built off the transfer portal a little bit in Louisville.
[00:47:16] Speaker B: Jeff Brom's, first year.
[00:47:17] Speaker A: Yes. And that's what you do. That's what you see these first year coaches do. They bring in a lot of transfers and you can contend a lot earlier as a first year coach and you're seeing it at Louisville. It's a game, a team that's emulating a little bit of what TCU was doing last year. We'll see what happens. ACC is probably the weakest Power Five team this year or power Five group this year, maybe. I'd say they are I would say that they are squarely the weakest Power Five conference this year. This is a team that can be a factor in this one. And are they really going to be in the ACC Championship against Florida State? Are they really going to be the team?
[00:47:54] Speaker B: Their ACC schedule is probably the weakest there is. They play Pitt, Virginia Tech, Virginia, probably the three worst teams in the ACC right there. They get Duke at home and then they have to go to so go to Miami.
[00:48:05] Speaker A: That's the one that you circle.
[00:48:06] Speaker B: Yeah, but Riley Leonard, if he is playing or not playing next week or two weeks from now against Louisville, big projection as well. But they have a path.
[00:48:16] Speaker A: There is a clear path, serious reason.
[00:48:19] Speaker B: You could say that Louisville could. Be twelve and a going into the ACC Championship.
[00:48:23] Speaker A: When I watch this Louisville team, nothing about them to me shows me that they're like a top ten team, top 20, maybe top 15. But at this point, the overachieving allegations of sorts, maybe they've cool a little bit. I mean, Notre Dame is a team that they've been through the gauntlet right now, and we'll talk about it later. They go to USC today.
It's a grueling schedule for them. We knew this coming in, but we liked this Notre Dame team because of the things that they do well, and they did none of them well. Sam Hartwin was inefficient and turned the ball over, couldn't run the ball, and they couldn't stop any of the run on defense. The front seven, that's been really strong this year and a really solid defense got exposed last week and pushed around. And that was an embarrassing one, but one that you could kind of see coming. But I was like, they're going to come out and dominate a little bit because I thought Louisville was a little weaker. But give them credit. They're staying in there. They're six and now playing for Jack Harlow.
[00:49:22] Speaker B: You saw him at the game last week.
[00:49:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess so.
[00:49:25] Speaker B: We talked about them earlier. We talked about Ohio State as well in the Big Ten. They were 17 against Maryland in that late in that game, and then they finally pulled away to make it 37 to 20, or sorry, 37 to 17. But we've seen them have some slow starts against some lower competition. Obviously the Notre Dame game, emotional, low scoring as well. Do you believe that this team has a shot against Penn State and Michigan? Do you think that they can compete with those two teams in the Big Ten?
[00:49:49] Speaker A: Well, they could get I mean, you can say all they want. I mean, this has just been a common theme for Ohio State, just coming out slow and sleepwalking. But for Maryland, just late in that one, I mean, it's 17 fourth quarter points. Maryland just started turning the ball over and got out of their game plan, really, and Ohio State opened it up. Give them credit, I guess. But I really think this was more about Ohio State being slower and sleepwalking through a week Big Ten, and we'll see what happens. But they'll have Penn State in the.
[00:50:23] Speaker B: Horseshoe next week, I believe.
[00:50:24] Speaker A: Next week? Yes, I believe. And that's a big advantage for them because I don't think they want to go to Happy Valley at night. I don't think Michigan does either. But Ohio State, you got to start to pick it up a little bit. Kyle McCord, he's gotten better throughout the week. I think that's pretty obvious. He's gotten a lot better, and he started to understand that. Marvin Harrison Jr. He exists and he is there, and he will bail you out in like, what was it, third and 28 or something like that. And he over the shoulder. It's a great throw, but this is the most talented receiver I've seen in college in a long time.
And it's not only him, it's Cade Stover. It's Julian Fleming. It's Amika Buga. It's Xavier Johnson. And then, on the ground, Chip Tranum, mayan Williams. This is a team with talent everywhere, and we know that about Ohio State. They always have talent everywhere. But can Ryan Day. I think that's where the seat gets a little hot for him because we see these performances throughout, no matter how much talent they're going to struggle with some of these weaker big ten teams. We've seen it throughout the years, but especially under Ryan Day. To me, I just think that they don't get up sometimes for these teams, but they're able to outmuscle and out talent people. You're not going to be able to do that against Penn State or Michigan. Or Michigan especially up front.
[00:51:38] Speaker B: I think that Penn State's defense is fantastic.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: It's fantastic. It's one of the best in the country. And for Kyle McCord, that's a game that you're going to have to win kind of on your own.
Maryland was in a brawl with Virginia for three quarters. Like, Maryland is eight five, and they were a five and O team, but they weren't ranked for a reason.
They go like 30 carries for like, 40 yards or something, most of them.
They got sacked four times. But you got to be able to run the ball effectively versus teams like Penn State versus teams like Michigan because they're going to run the football effectively on you, I believe. And Penn State's been a little underwhelming on the ground, I think, so far, in terms of their running back room. To me, underwhelming, I thought it was one of the best in the country coming in, and I still may think that. But as this Big Ten schedule heats up for all three of these teams, there's going to be one that is the OD man out. And I think it's very possible. Ohio State, it could end the season with two losses. That's an extreme possibility. And then Michigan goes back to the Big Ten championship and faces Iowa or someone iowa.
[00:52:44] Speaker B: Wisconsin. They play this week, actually.
[00:52:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, interesting game, I guess.
[00:52:48] Speaker B: All right, moving ahead, USC Saturday night. I'm not sure how many people actually stayed up for this game, but it was an absolute thriller. USC survives against Arizona 43 41 and double OT. Arizona, their backup quarterback, throws for third and third string. Third string throws for 300 yards, five touchdowns. They also ran for 203 yards, 4.8 per carry. They outgained USC 506 to 365. Looking at this game, I don't know how USC won the game in the first place, but I guess credit to them for finding a way to win the game.
[00:53:20] Speaker A: But yeah, Arizona is one of the weaker teams, but so is Arizona. State and USC struggled with both USC, that in terms of you talk about OD man out. The pac twelve is way too stacked for them to play like this. And you saw them against Colorado as well. Colorado got blew a 29 point lead last and we'll talk about it later. And I'm going to victory lap a little bit. You can talk about it. I'm not going to talk about it right now. I'll victory lap. I'll save a segment for that. But, yeah, USC, the way that they play defense and the that they just take their foot off the gas. It's not going to work against oregon.
[00:53:53] Speaker B: It might not even work against notre dame tonight.
[00:53:55] Speaker A: It might not. It might not. Will notre dame get up for this game? I hope so. I think it'll be a good one. Yeah, we want to see notre dame bounce back a little bit for Nazario's sake. But yeah, I mean, come just it's one where it's just like you look.
[00:54:09] Speaker B: At their schedule and they haven't played they haven't played anyone.
They're at the weakest sleepwalk.
[00:54:15] Speaker A: Yeah, they're sleepwalking. A team a few weeks back, I think probably before the Colorado game where you're like, all right, they slept walk against Arizona state or this is one of the best teams in the country. Still, the Lincoln Riley thing, it just always rears its ugly head in the worst times and the talent that they have offensively, caleb williams, what more can you say about him? But even on the outside and they don't have Zachariah branch right now, and I think they need him back for.
[00:54:40] Speaker B: I don't believe he's playing tonight.
[00:54:41] Speaker A: No, I don't think he is either, and I think he might miss next week, too. But brendan rice, tod Washington, mario Williams, this is a solid group of weapons, a really good running back room, and Caleb williams is the best player in the country. So you have that going for you. But defensively, it just seems to always be about turnovers for them. It's like if they don't get turnovers, then teams are going to stay close with them. It doesn't matter really who's playing who they're playing. And give Noah fafita a lot of credit because he played an absolute monster game. And Jonah coleman on the ground, 22 for 143.
They played a monster game and hung around late in a hostile environment. But USC, man, in overtime, I think.
[00:55:22] Speaker B: Arizona, they scored the touchdown, they got the ball second, right?
[00:55:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:25] Speaker B: They could have gone for two to win that game. Instead, they.
[00:55:30] Speaker A: But the point is they were in that situation in the first place and now for USC, you got notre dame and Utah. Next two weeks, you could come out with the loss against either one of those teams. Those are strong teams. They can both run the ball. And cam rising will probably be back. We don't really know. I think he might play today. I'm not sure. But then they got California, then they got Washington, then they got Oregon, then they got UCLA. Could USC have three losses? I think so. I really do see them losing every.
[00:55:55] Speaker B: Single one of those.
[00:55:56] Speaker A: You could see them losing every single one, all five of them.
This kind of has colossal failure written all over it. And to me, it's obvious right now that Oregon and Washington are better teams than them. Obvious. And that's going to be a fantastic game later on. But USC, man, it can't be just the Caleb Williams show. We saw it last week. It goes like 1425, 219 yards. We didn't see that prolific game. We saw him three touchdowns on the ground. Of course he's going to find a way to play really good games and not turn the ball over and keep you in games. Obviously, you know, you can win any game with that guy. But if you're going to get down, I mean, if you're just going to let teams run all over you and walk all over you, walk you back, doesn't matter if it's the are they stronger in the secondary or up front seven? I don't know. They're pretty weak at both to me. And teams are averaging like eight, nine yards per play against them. It's just not going to work against Oregon, UCLA, Washington, Utah, Notre Dame. The hard part is coming up, and you got five games of your next six against strong ranked opponents. And if you come out at the end of that with one loss, you're still in the playoff mix, obviously. And they know that. They're like, oh, even as badly as we've played, we're still finding ways to win, and stuff like that. Well, we'll see it if it works against Notre Dame's Day, because you could easily see it not. And I'm pretty sure Notre Dame is a favorite in that game. 2.2 and a half in South Bend. Yeah. Tough place to play.
[00:57:14] Speaker B: Talking about another coaching we talked about the Arizona coach maybe making a bad decision, maybe not. One bad decision for sure was in Miami last weekend.
[00:57:22] Speaker A: Mario Crystal ball wasn't that fun.
[00:57:24] Speaker B: Has the ball under a minute left. Georgia Tech has no timeouts, decides not to knee the ball. They run it.
[00:57:30] Speaker A: Why did they do that?
[00:57:31] Speaker B: They fumble. Georgia Tech gets the ball. They still have to go 75 yards and 30 seconds with Hangs King, who.
[00:57:39] Speaker A: We know him in the SEC. He doesn't have any arm strength, but he made big plays. Good for him for a game winning touchdown.
[00:57:45] Speaker B: George Tech pulled off a stunning upset, obviously, on Mario Crystal ball. Terrible decision. What did you think of that when you first saw that? Probably nobody was watching this.
[00:57:58] Speaker A: I'm not going to be banging the table like I was watching the game and I was like, oh, in real time. Need the ball, knee the ball. I mean, that's just one of those ones where it's like they asked Mario Cristo in the press conference after they're like, what was the decision? What was behind that decision not to knee the ball? And the answer that generally it was word salad, but it was like, I don't know, pretty much, and that's a bad mistake for a coach that is revered or I respect Mario. Chris Paul is a really strong coach around the and Miami's had a really strong season coming in. And this is a game where they were like, you have like, this is one where like, all right, we're going to get this one. The ACC schedule is going to start to heat up.
They got UNC today.
How much more nationally talked about would that game be if Miami had just need the ball last week. Then you got Clemson, then you got Virginia NC state, then you got Florida State, and then you got Louisville. Like, this is a schedule that was heating up, and you were like, we're playing good football right now. We're finding ways to win. But they were playing great before this. They beat the absolute brakes off of Texas A and M. They scored 48 points in that game against one of the best defenses in the country. And then they handled themselves against both Thu and Kubrick and Temple the last two weeks. And this is another game they were 20 point favorite in. You were like, all right, well, Georgia Tech is a little better than those two teams before. For sure. Definitely better. They played Louisville close at the beginning of the season, but they threw three picks. They slept, walked a lot. They weren't really ready to play that game early. It was three nothing at halftime. And then you tried to take control, but then got down going in the fourth quarter. But that's a game where you're like, all right, we got out of it. Take a knee. And he might have been down. The running back might have been down for I believe I think it was Donald Cheney Jr. That they handed the ball off to. I think he might have been down. There was speculation of that. But who cares? Don't put yourself in that situation. I don't care if he wasn't down. That was the football gods making a decision for you. And give credit to Haynes King. Twelve of 25, a Buck 51, one touchdown, two picks before that drive, had like, 80 yards passing. But give him credit, put together a drive, and man, was that just a thrill. I mean, that's just one of those ones where you're just going to look back in 20 years watching best moments of all time in college football and be like, what the hell happened?
[01:00:13] Speaker B: All right, that's it for our Week Six recap. We're going to take a quick break and we right back talking about some Week Seven previews. Obviously going to talk about the game that's happening in washington between Oregon and Washington, the top two teams in the past both. Thank you all for listening. Read that.
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to WVUA FM 90.7, the Capstone. This is the game day show live on the University of Alabama here in Tuscaloosa. I am nazario Pangalo here with Peyton Davis. We just got done talking about week six. Let's get into week seven. First I'm going to give you the stage, Peyton, to talk about the Colorado Buffaloes last night.
[01:01:18] Speaker A: Like not to victory lap too hard and be too hard on, but this is just saying, this Colorado team, they have talent. We know that. They have players on the outside, but when the going gets tough and it wasn't even on the ground.
Stafford's leading carry rusher was Ashton Daniels, 16 for 39 yards. It was their quarterback, Ashton Daniels. And this was one where it's just like I'm watching the game back and it's 29 nothing at half and it's like, okay, well, obviously Colorado is going to win by 45 to 50. Obviously Stanford is a one in four team going into Colorado, which has had to give them credit. Really impressive. I mean, obviously the hype's all there, we know that. And Travis Hunter's first game back, 13 a, buck 42 touchdowns, I think that kind of played into the fact that I'm pretty sure he didn't play as much defensively for me. If I were coaching Colorado, if I were Coach Prime, I would have Travis Hunter more on defense than on offense. But I guess that he's so impressive on offense, you want to use him in every way you can. And Xavier Weaver is also really good. I think Xavier Weaver is their number one receiver. But Travis Hunter last week 13 a buck 42 touchdowns in his first came back and then Xavier Weaver goes seven for 124 and two touchdowns. They still can't run the ball. We know that they can't. Shader Sanders is their leading carrier with 37 yards rushing, but he goes 405 touchdowns. And when I say all those stats, what scenario, what is the percent chance in your head that Stanford won this game and that it felt like one of those games elique Ayomanor 13 294 and three touchdowns? This guy is going to go to the league and be drafted strictly off this game. I know that and I've watched enough football to know that. And Ashton Daniels. Give them all credit. I mean, truly a miraculous comeback. They go 19 nothing in the third quarter and then 17 seven in the fourth quarter. And the tying touchdown is a mossing of Travis Hunter, who is not the best cornerback. He's not better than Koolaid McKinsey. I don't know why people think that. It's just the hype, I guess. But I'm not going to say this was all his fault. And it wasn't. He wasn't on Alika Manor the entire game. I mean, there was like a rotation of guys and no one could hold them.
Their second leading receiver was Tiger, backmire with three catches for 38 yards. I believe that's your tight end. But besides that, it was a one man wrecking crew for Alique Au Manor. And it was one of the more miraculous comebacks that I can remember in watching football against a team in Colorado that's got talent, but they're not ready yet. And anyone who was saying when they were what were they, four and three, and then they lost to Oregon and then they beat USC and then they beat Arizona last week, right?
When you see that and people are like, oh, well, they're only like three, four loseable games, they're going to have eight wins. No, they're not. There was a reason why they're over under for wins before the season was five and a half or four and a half, two and a half. Really? Well, whatever it was against TCU. They win that game against TCU. And everyone's like, oh, this is a team. No, TCU. Is just not very good. Neither is Arizona. Neither is Arizona State. Neither is Nebraska. Nebraska and USC lets everyone stay in the game against them. So that looks a little less impressive than it did last week, even though they came back. And that's impressive. Shader Sanders, again, still super impressive. He's very accurate, but man, does that guy just stand in the pocket and holds onto the ball for one, two, three? When you talk about guys going to the league and I think Shadir Sanders, to me, I was like, oh, he's going to the league. He could be a first round pick. I think this is a guy who needs another year of seasoning under his dad's coaching. I think he needs another year and could really make himself a lot of money doing so. And when next year you're looking forward to next year, that's where you could see Colorado become more of a player in the Big Twelve or Big Twelve next year. And that's a team that's losing a conference, that's losing Oklahoma and Texas. So could you see Colorado win that conference next year? Sure, they could bring back a lot of they're going to be a really attractive destination always for recruiting and transfers. But this year's team, you can't run the ball, you can't stop the run. Maybe you can't stop the run, you can't stop the pass. Which one is it? Their defense is bad. Their offensive line is bad. It's a losing formula for a football team. It's a losing mix for a football team. I don't care whose Travis Hunter is. I don't care who Shader Sanders is. So impressive athletes, but again, not a complete football team. And that's been obvious the last three weeks. It's just been obvious. I'm four, I guess, and this is going to start heating up on them big time. Let's looking forward at their got next week. They got UCLA loss, probably Oregon state, probably a loss. Arizona, they've been playing. I mean, Noah Fafita is setting the world on fire right now. We'll see how far that lasts then. Washington State and Utah for their last five games are against ranked teams. And we knew this going in, but this is going to get a lot harder for them. And this game could be the one that you remember where it started to unravel. The Hype train started to unravel. They have like five wins at the end of the year and you're like, it's a fine first season, but they're always going to be an attractive destination. Like I said, for recruits and transfers, it was never going to be this year. And people were like, oh, I'll take over eight and a half wins, nine wins. It's just reckless kind of analysis. And I've been proven right yet again.
[01:06:47] Speaker B: And he is off his soapbox. Now we move on to week seven previews. All right. First one is at 02:30 P.m Central Time. Oregon, number seven or number eight, oregon heading to number seven, Washington. Absolutely fantastic matchup here.
[01:07:01] Speaker A: Awesome.
[01:07:02] Speaker B: Top two teams in the Pac Twelve.
[01:07:03] Speaker A: Two of the best in the country.
[01:07:04] Speaker B: Two of the best teams in the country maybe should be ranked higher.
[01:07:07] Speaker A: I don't know, maybe.
[01:07:08] Speaker B: But either one of one of them is going to get their first big win of the season here. Who do you think and why is going to win this game?
[01:07:15] Speaker A: I'm going to say Oregon. Oregon to me when I look at complete teams around the country and like, Texas, Oklahoma comes to, you know, some of these power teams like Michigan and Georgia. But I think Oregon's in that conversation this year. And that's something that you could not say about Oregon really five, six years ago. And give Dan Landing a lot of credit because that's a Georgia defensive coordinator that they bring in as their head coach. And the culture just seems like it's changed. And Bo Nicks has been in college for like 20 years now, but he's playing his best football of his career right now and their biggest win is Colorado so far. And Colorado kept things close with USC and they dominated Colorado from me. It was not close. It was not a game.
[01:07:54] Speaker B: 35 nothing, 35 nothing and a half.
[01:07:57] Speaker A: Or something like that. But yeah, it wasn't a game. People weren't really watching it. But there are actually millions of people were watching Colorado.
[01:08:02] Speaker B: It was the number one ranked game.
[01:08:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it was 42 always. But this is a game where Oregon is an underdog here and it's at Washington. It's in that stadium environment, which is over the years has been really like in the Jake Browning days. That was a team that people place, that people did not like to play.
[01:08:20] Speaker B: That is the only Pac Twelve team that has made the playoff was Jake Brown, Washington.
[01:08:23] Speaker A: Yes. And you're going to see that change. This year and I think it's going to be Oregon. And I think Oregon comes in here and the composure of Bo Nicks having that big game experience, being on the road, I don't think that phases him. All that got, even though I think Oregon offensively is really strong and Washington's got a really strong pass rush.
But this is a game where there's a lot of NFL talent on both offenses. And Washington, you could argue, has three pro level receivers. And even with Marvin Harrison in the country, the best receiver this year so far might be Roma Dunze. And that's a name that people will know by the end of the day. And I think this is a game that goes like that's really close throughout and Washington hasn't really played much. People and they kind of slept walked through Arizona last week and I think that was probably more because they were looking forward to this game. This is the game where the Pac Twelve, the team on top of the Pac Twelve, starts to ascend into that top five range. The winner of this game will be a top five team by the end of the weekend. I think it's Oregon, and I think it's because they're more of a complimentary team, a team that has even though they're less talented at the receiving group, but they just make up for their offensive, defensive line, linebacker group. Everyone. It feels like a complete football team. I think Washington's a little weaker in the back end in that linebacker. They can get after the quarterback. And Michael Penix Jr. Is one of the best quarterbacks in the country and in the squarely. I think he's the Heisman favorite right now. I believe at like, plus maybe Jaden Daniels, maybe Janiel Daniel, pretty close. Well, I mean, if you have two losses, you can't really be a Heisman. We'll see, whatever. But Michael Pennix is amongst the best quarterbacks in the country. We know that. It's an NFL.
As far as Pac Twelve goes, throughout my time watching college football in the past decade, plus the Pac Twelve, this is like to me, maybe the most complete game of team wise. This isn't going to be 48 to 45.
Well, maybe it will be, but that's because the talent is so obvious there up at playmaking groups, at position groups, and it's more so than it's ever been in the Pac Twelve.
This is the strongest year for them. These are the two strongest teams, and I think Oregon wins a 35 to 28 ball game against with a late touchdown by Bo Nicks. I think the composure of hostile environments from Bo Nicks because of he's so seasoned and he's playing his best football ever, like I just said, but it's going to be a really fun one. I'm looking forward that's. Maybe if there's a silver lining to Alabama being an 11:00 a.m. Game, I'm looking forward to watching that right after.
[01:10:50] Speaker B: I agree. One thing about this game is you look back at the Arizona Washington game. Why was that game close? The game was close because Arizona drained clock and limited.
[01:11:01] Speaker A: That's what you got to do.
[01:11:01] Speaker B: Oregon is a fantastic team and they are equal, if not better than Washington. But they still need to look at the Arizona game plan of draining clock, limiting possessions as a way to win this football game. You see this explosive passing attack. They can strike quickly. You've got to keep them off the field and limit their possessions because it doesn't matter how many times if you play three fantastic defensive series against them, it doesn't matter one play, they might.
[01:11:26] Speaker A: One play, 80 yards.
[01:11:27] Speaker B: Yeah, you got to limit the possessions. I think that's how they win the game. And they've got a fantastic running attack as well. As you talked about, number one in the country with over seven yards of carry. And Bo Nick's, number one in the country, 80, 80% completion percent.
[01:11:39] Speaker A: That's shockingly great.
[01:11:40] Speaker B: 15 touchdowns, one pick right now. Fantastic football. And their defense has been fantastic as well. Number five in past defense yards allowed, six touchdowns, four picks. That's all they've allowed all year. They've also have 18 sacks. But I'm still taking Washington. Yeah, I'm taking them because they're at home. I think they get a little bit of a run game. They don't have to play fantastic run game. They just have to be able to have it in the minds of the Oregon defensive coordinator that they can run the ball a little bit. Because Michael Pennix, I think, will have.
[01:12:06] Speaker A: Success stack that box a little bit, open up.
[01:12:08] Speaker B: Exactly. If you have one on ones with these wide, they're going to win. The wide receivers are going to win the game. And I think just because it's at home that Washington's defense will step it up. Because they have the home crowd behind them, they'll be more fired up.
[01:12:21] Speaker A: I mean, one of the biggest games in their program's history, no question about it.
[01:12:24] Speaker B: And just because I think if this game's at Oregon, I think they for sure win the game. I think they might even be able to make it a little bit of.
[01:12:32] Speaker A: A domination, a little bit.
[01:12:33] Speaker B: But being at Washington, I'm taking Washington, but I wouldn't be surprised if these teams match up in the Pac Twelve Championship again. I would love to see them play, and it'd be fantastic. But I got Washington 31 28 late field goal to win the game. It's going to be a thriller. I hope so, at least. I would be absolutely shocked that this game is not.
[01:12:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And the quick strikeability of Washington is the big factor here, because if Washington comes out, if Oregon, say Oregon punts their first possession and Washington scores like a 50 yard touchdown, that's where things can get dangerous for Oregon.
[01:13:00] Speaker B: Crowd gets going.
[01:13:00] Speaker A: Crowd gets into it.
Man, oregon is going. To have to be able to run the ball and keep them off the field. Limit possessions. I think it's the biggest factor when you play a team as skilled and talented on the outside as Washington.
[01:13:12] Speaker B: All right, moving ahead, we have a game that really, I feel like should be talked about a little bit more, but A m heading to Tennessee. A m's coming off a emotional loss to Alabama last week. Tennessee, you know what they did last week? They sat on their, you know, waited for this game.
You know, what do you think about this game? Tennessee, I believe, is three point favorites heading into this game. It's at Tennessee as well.
[01:13:34] Speaker A: Well, it's at Tennessee. It's a big factor there, obviously, because we know how great Nealand Stadium can get in environments like this. This is a game that can boost a team for the rest of the season. And being a factor, I think A m that loss last week hurts your chances a lot in the SEC West. With Ole Miss being ahead of you, with Alabama being ahead of you, obviously. So LSU as well, a better two loss team than you, you're going to get a chance to play those teams. But this is where it starts for A m if they want to bounce back. But this is actually where it starts for Tennessee more than anything, because Tennessee has been underwhelming, to say the least, this year. They have beaten Virginia. They beat Virginia really soundly at the first game. That's really impressive, for sure. But Austin, p Florida, they lose UTSA. Their best game was before the bye week. It goes against South Carolina, but they haven't played, know, two weeks. So we'll see the way they come out. Think I think Tennessee starts to figure it out a little. Know Josh hypel. They spread you out and they try to take the top off the defense. It's all going to come down to Joe Milton, how accurate he can be in the short intermediate, because we know Texas A M can be had in the they can be had in the secondary. But how do you I think this has been the thing for Tennessee this season. There is a formula to beat them. It's pressure on the interior of the offensive line. If you get it in the face of Hendon Hooker, if you get it in the face of Joe Milton, that's where they start to be inaccurate. And when you're making these long to there's two sides of the coin of spreading out a defense. You get more space for yourself, but you got to make those throws s and those are tough throws to make. They're not relying on bunch formations. They're not relying on tight formations. You see these like the stack formations outside the numbers.
Joe Milton can make those. We know he can throw the ball a million yards, but can he throw it accurately 15 yards? We don't know that really. And Joe Milton is someone who had so much hype around him before this year, and rightfully so. He's an imposing polarizing quarterback. So it's such a six five rocket arm, bazooka Joe Arm, but he played another shaky game. Even in their best performance against South Carolina, he played a shaky game against a weak defense. And had they win that game, they were able to run the ball really effectively against a weak defensive front. We know that Texas A M will not let you run the ball. They won't be able to run the ball.
There might be a better chance that they have negative yards rushing in this game than they have a hundred yards rushing. I think that's because of the sack factorization. So I think Joe Milton, this is where he grows up as a quarterback. This is where he shows that poise that Jalen Millro showed last week, because A and M can be had in the secondary. Their defense is elite. They can be had in the secondary. We know that. Can they take advantage of it? We don't know that. So it's going to come out with to Joe Milton and Squirrel White. Squirrel White had his first nice game of the season last week, nine for or two weeks ago, nine for 104.
He's a specimen in terms of a guy who can get after the ball, get after it after the catch. So can you get him space to move? You can get him space. Can you deliver to those throws and hit him in stride? We'll see. I think he makes a few splash plays, joe Milton makes a few splash plays, but A and M wins a close 127 24 upset.
[01:16:37] Speaker B: I think one important thing about this game is the Tennessee defense has played pretty solid.
[01:16:42] Speaker A: They have so far this season, talk.
[01:16:43] Speaker B: About enough, but yeah, they get after the quarterback very well, tackles for loss. They're fourth in the country with 22 sacks. I think they're going to do exactly what Alabama did last week against Texas A and M get after the quarterback. I think they play fantastic and I think Joe Milton hits a couple of those big plays. I think they got to be able to run the ball. If they can't run the ball and it's purely on Joe Milton, that's where I can see A and M winning the game. But I think that Joe Milton makes a couple of big plays. He finally gets it down the field because obviously Texas A and M secondary, they let up lot of big plays and that's what Tennessee loves to do. Josh Hyper loves to do that. I think they hit a couple, I think they win 27 21. And I think at Nealand Stadium.
[01:17:19] Speaker A: It's an underrated game. Like you said, it's going to be a great game. It's going to be a fantastic game. And this is where Tennessee, if they win this game, and Joe Milton doesn't turn the ball over and start to be efficient, then they could become dangerous. They have one loss, that's fine. SEC east, the third best team in the SEC East is probably Kentucky. Kentucky is not very good.
[01:17:39] Speaker B: I would say Missouri. Missouri this week, so we will see.
[01:17:42] Speaker A: Yeah, they play this week, we will see. But it's probably as mean Kentucky's ranked. I don't know how, but Tennessee, if they win this game and know you got next week, you got the third Saturday of October against Alabama and Brian Denny. So momentum, momentum, momentum. And this is where they can start to make things better for themselves and maybe host Georgia with two losses which a game to play spoiler, I guess, to Georgia. I don't be this is a tough outlook for the rest of their season because they go to Missouri. They go to Alabama, they host Georgia. They go to Kentucky. Like all these games. I mean, they host Georgia. That's a tough game for them no matter where they play it. But all these tough games after this one, besides Georgia are on the road and this is where is Tennessee eight and four is Tennessee seven and five. I think they're a little better than that. They have the talent to be nine and 310 and two. Like they have the talent to win the SEC East. But can they take advantage of it? Can they start to show that consistency? I don't believe so. But this is a game I want to see them win, start to excel themselves. Coming to Brian Denny with a little bit of hype around.
[01:18:46] Speaker B: That game is at 230 as well. So you can have Oregon, Washington on one TV, A and M. Tennessee the other game. Later tonight, 06:30 p.m. Central time, USC and Caleb Williams head to Notre Dame Stadium to face the Irish. Irish are coming. This is their fourth straight ranked opponent, fourth straight team. That's pretty darn solid. And Notre Dame has to turn it around. They did not play very well last week. Do they have anything left in the tank? Are they going to be able to get up for this one? I think they will.
[01:19:13] Speaker A: I think they will.
[01:19:13] Speaker B: Home crowd helps them a lot. And also, it's supposed to be rainy and cold. That does not help Caleb Williams and USC at all on either side of the ball. That makes Notre Dame that gives him a clear advantage, to be honest.
[01:19:24] Speaker A: Clear advantage in Audrey GME. This is where he comes back and he's like, all right, reassert myself over 200 yards.
[01:19:30] Speaker B: Put it on the team on the back.
[01:19:31] Speaker A: Because Sam Hardman has been I think Sam Harden is a really good quarterback. But do I view him in a lesser light now than I did three weeks ago? Yes, I do. No question. Because Ohio State, that's a winnable game. Duke, give him credit.
[01:19:43] Speaker B: Great final drive.
[01:19:44] Speaker A: Great final drive, but overall shaky. And then notre dame or louisville last week, really tough.
The one thing we know about notre dame now is that they are battle tested. They are battle tested. They have seasoning. They've been tested a lot more than USC has. So that's where the advantage comes in. They'll be able to score points today, and I think that should give them confidence. They should run the ball early. They definitely should get the run game established. That's where the advantage is. And man, cold and rainy south bend. That does not bode well for Caleb wounds who still will have a good game. There's no question about it. Can he carry the defense through just getting walked back on the field? He's on the sidelines pacing around, trying to stay loose in a cold environment. He's going to have to sit on the sideline for a lot of the game. That does not bode well for USC. However, I do think USC wins a very tight one today. I think they win it.
I'm going to go 34 31. USC finds a way to win in the end and starts to show.
I think they get two big turnovers in the second half. Sam hartman and then maybe a fumble, maybe two picks. I don't know. I think two big turnovers in the second half. I think USC starts to they're down ten points. They start to come back. Caleb williams reasserts himself as the best quarterback or best player in the country, which no one's questioning that in my opinion.
But I think USC wins a really tight one here as their schedule heats up and we'll see how far they can survive. But we just talked about it. USC, the gauntlet is coming. This is their first test.
The advantages are clear for notre dame, but I think it's a tight game and USC wins, I mean, for marcus.
[01:21:18] Speaker B: Freeman and this is they got to win this one. They've gone one and two in the past three games. If they go one and three in their big four stretch, notre dame fans expect more than that. To be honest. We really thought this year, this team is a great national championship contender.
[01:21:32] Speaker A: We thought according to the season I'm not going to act like I didn't think that.
[01:21:35] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. They got to win this football game for everything, really. They get a bye week after this. They can look at the rest of their season, but I think they give it everything they've got and I think they're going to find a way to win this game that's also being a biased fan. I just really hope it happens. I think it's going to happen. I'm going to go 28 24.
I'm not sure that they force caleb blooms into mistakes, but I think that they secondary wise, will play solid and get incompletions.
[01:22:03] Speaker A: Get some punts. Yeah, if you get a punt, then if USC punts, like multiple times, then things get really murky, really, really looking.
[01:22:10] Speaker B: To see offensive line and Audrey estimate, really get back to it, and then Sam Hartman just take care of the football.
[01:22:16] Speaker A: We know we can do that. Really?
[01:22:17] Speaker B: Last week, what we saw was the defense just got worn out.
All the turnovers couldn't stop the run.
[01:22:23] Speaker A: Field, and then they had to make big plays for Notre Dame. And they couldn't do them. Yes, couldn't do it.
[01:22:26] Speaker B: Moving ahead, we got another great game in the Pac Twelve. UCLA heads to Oregon State. If you look at their schedule, UCLA, they actually have a pretty easy schedule in the Pac Twelve. If they can win this game, they have a path to the Pac Twelve championship. Then they are absolutely fantastic on defense. One of the best defenses in the country. Number one in yards per play allowed and lead the power five in takeaways as well, only allowing 64 rushing yards per game. They're fantastic to me.
[01:22:54] Speaker A: How impressive have they been the last two weeks? Defensively, I mean, the way that they were able. Cameron Ward was riding the absolute highest of highs going into that game. He was playing immaculately great football coming off a 38 35 win against Oregon State. Who has a good defense in their own right? And I think UCLA asserted themselves back into that second tier of the Pac Twelve and I think that they can be dangerous for any of these teams going forward. Oregon State today.
DJ. Uyong Gale is a polarizing player as well. He's had some really five touchdowns last week. Five touchdowns last week. But he's had some bad moments. And even in a five touchdown this is the first game in the five touchdown performance he's 19 to 25 275 and five touchdowns. I think the 19 to 25 number is even more important than the five touchdowns numbers because he has to be efficient because we've seen times where the completion percentage gets really, really bad. And if you do that against UCLA, you punt a lot early. I think Dante Moore is probably a year away from being a year away or two years away from being the player that he can be. But the athletic profile and the accuracy that he's shown at times is pretty impressive. And I think that this is a game that is going to be decided on that side of the ball. And for UCLA, if they can come out and score a few touchdowns, they can put this game away. I think they win. I think they go I'm going to say 27 to 17. I'm going to say UCLA wins and a tight one. I'm going to say 20 417.
[01:24:20] Speaker B: After this game. They play? Stanford, Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, cal. Those are the five worst teams in the Pac Twelve.
[01:24:26] Speaker A: They are. So you got really lucky. You got a big schedule break so you can take advantage of it. This is where it starts, though. And for UCLA, I mean, what a fantastic year that would be. If they were able to come out of that with one or two losses.
[01:24:37] Speaker B: Ten and two would be fantastic.
[01:24:38] Speaker A: Fantastic.
[01:24:39] Speaker B: A huge what about Chip Kelly having a defense?
[01:24:42] Speaker A: Yeah, what happened?
[01:24:42] Speaker B: Lincoln Riley, maybe look over there.
[01:24:45] Speaker A: This is the way college football is in 2023. Everything's weird. Chip Kelly is a defense like what happened, but it's a great unit and they've proven it time and again. And I think this is one of those ones where sometimes you have like Utah over the years that had these really strong defenses in the Pac Twelve and been able to win the Pac Twelve sometimes with it even flying under the radar. Why do they do that? Because they're strong up front and the other team isn't. That's not the case this year. I think it's been a legitimate impressive effort for UCLA in the way they're able to play defense. Cameron Ward had been playing the best quarterback maybe of anyone in the country. He was 19 to 39 for under 200 yards and two picks. Dante Moore. Take care of the ball, be efficient, and you can win this game. You have to play with the confidence that you know that you can win this game with your defense. You can win this game on the backs of your defense. Just play complementary football offensively, get the run game going early and maybe a few big plays down the field, I think, for UCLA today. And they pull away.
[01:25:42] Speaker B: This game is at Oregon State. Big factor as well, we've seen on the road. But they shut down the run game and they make DGU Young try to beat you.
[01:25:50] Speaker A: It's an obvious formula to winning. Obvious formula to winning.
[01:25:52] Speaker B: And I believe UCLA will do that. I have them 27 to 14. Unfortunately, we are out of time for today. We thank you all for listening to it and we will be back next week. The Tide face Arkansas at 11:00, just an hour from now. We hope you all be tuning into that game and tune in next week to the Show back 08:00 a.m. Once again next week. And as always, Roll Tide.
