CFB’s Team To Beat In 2026 + Florida & Miami Behind The Scenes

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We're jam packed.

We're high atop a sunburned downtown Nashville, Tennessee

on this Thursday night, March 26th.

The year of our Lord in 2026, is there a team to beat in college football this year?

I asked this question last year.

And as it turns out, there wasn't because no one said Indiana,

and they ended up winning the national title.

Is there a definitive slam dunk number one,

circle them in Red Sharpie team to beat this year?

There are differing schools of thought.

We'll talk about it tonight.

Whisper's an intel from Spring Ball.

We've got a good old-fashioned chaos scenario to throw into your chin tonight.

I got some behind-the-scenes stuff from our trip to Gainesville

and Coral Gables over the last 48-72 hours.

It's a jam packed show.

It's a Thursday night.

It's March.

It doesn't matter.

There is no offseason.

They're watching us in a lot in Oklahoma.

Atlanta, GA, Ocala, Florida, Greensboro, North Carolina.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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So, I was looking around this time last year.

What were we talking about?

And we did a video this time last year

about the team to beat in College Football.

And my whole viewpoint was,

I don't really think there's a team to beat.

And John hit us from Toledo.

He said, well, I appreciate all you do,

especially during the offseason.

But I want to know from your vantage point,

who's the team to beat in 2026?

And when John asked that, I went back and looked last year,

there really wasn't one.

It was kind of wide open.

Is it wide open this year?

Sure, if you go to Fandall,

you'll see that Notre Dame's the favorite

to win the national title right now.

But is it a slam dunk favorite?

So, I would say, as of now,

it's March 26th.

As of now, I'm going to say,

I don't have a definitive team to beat.

So, in a way,

we're kind of where we were a year ago.

That's a good thing, it's not a bad thing.

I am happy to start with Notre Dame,

because as you know, Jesse,

they entered spring practice ranked number one in the country.

Dot, dot, dot,

in the paid state pre-spring rankings.

And we all know how much weight that carries.

I'm worried about complacency

when Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame

because they were ranked number one

in the paid state pre-spring rankings.

But nevertheless,

they are number one in the country

in returning production,

which does matter

when it's the kind of returning production

that Notre Dame has on its roster.

They should be excellent at quarterback.

You know about the workable schedule.

And if you don't,

pay attention over the next few months

because people will beat it to death.

Notre Dame, soft schedule.

And they'll try and affirm this lie they tell

every other year about Notre Dame.

Because most people say every year

Notre Dame has a soft schedule.

They don't.

This year, they do have a soft schedule.

So, it is true this year.

There's not really a glaring weakness on this team.

Well, at least as far as this is concerned.

At least as far as paper.

It's concerned.

We all know games are not played

on this material.

In our perfect world,

they're played on grass.

This is not always a fairy tale world.

But on paper,

I don't know where the glaring weakness is.

They're just varying degrees

of good to great potential

with Notre Dame.

Top linebacker room in the country.

Maybe, maybe they got the best corner in the room.

And it's a hungry organization.

So, they haven't really accomplished

any of their major goals.

Well, at least when it comes to winning a national title.

I got no problem if you tell me

Notre Dame is the team to beat.

But then if you do,

all right, then I'll hit you with Oregon.

Because at Oregon,

this is kind of a circle year for Oregon.

This is kind of one of those years

like Ohio State had a couple of years ago.

Should be elite along the defensive line.

Really, really good,

especially in the secondary.

I think they trust their offensive line personnel.

This is going to be the big question with them externally.

Maybe internally too,

but they didn't go

and do what they did last year,

which is look for salvation through the portal.

You can only find temporary salvation through the portal.

We all know that.

And they did not try and do that this cycle.

So they trusted the guys that they had recruited

that they had developed.

That's the fun part.

Because like,

they have a better idea of what they have

than we do right now.

But I feel like they must feel good enough there.

Dante Moore,

another year starting under his belt at quarterback

to an elite skill group,

wide receivers and running backs.

And they're just positioned really well.

I feel like some of these teams

can theoretically be in the national title hunt every year.

But even with your organs or your Texas's

Georgia's Ohio States,

Indiana's now.

There are some years where they're better positioned than others.

Oregon's very well positioned this year.

So if you wanted to sell me on them,

I would buy it.

But then if you threw Oregon at me,

I'd say,

well, what about Texas?

You know, Texas is all in this year.

This is one of those years like Ohio State 2024.

But for Texas,

they're pushing all the chips to the middle of the table.

It is arch manning,

plus a completely overhauled tailback room.

They didn't run the ball very well last year.

They have the horses to run the ball very,

very well to great this year

if the offensive line comes together.

And it looks like with some eligibility issues out of the way.

It looks like the starting five are probably set.

I'm not going to speak for SART there,

but I could pretty well guess without injury

who they're starting five are going to be.

And then they went and got Cam Coleman out of the portal.

And they've got Talon all at Collins Simmons.

Like they got Talon all over the place.

It's just an Ohio State 2024 vibe to me.

Ironically, they played the buck guys in week two.

So I would say if you want to circle Texas as the team to beat.

Okay, that's fine.

But then I'm going to throw Ohio State at you.

This is the fun when you have several teams in the mix

to be the team to beat.

Ohio State loaded staff.

I mean, Ryan Day is collecting NFL caliber coaches left

and right, author Smith now on the staff there

had Matt Patricia come in there a year ago

and do what very few people outside of Columbus expected,

which was take a unit that lost a lot of really,

really veteran NFL caliber personnel and improve it.

Well, now it'd be a real chore to improve this year's defense over last year.

But even if they fall off just a smidge,

the floor for Ohio State defense is really, really good.

So I've got that.

I've got Julian Sayon now who is a multiple year starter,

a quarterback and look, I'll just speak personally.

That's a Heisman caliber quarterback.

I still feel like he's got a whole lot to prove.

I still feel like that staff probably looks at him and says

there's a level up that's needed from your game.

We've got the Talon around you.

They may end up having the best ground game in the country this year.

Certainly it won't be for lack of trying

and they'll have the personnel there.

They trust the defensive identity

and they know how to manage a season organizationally.

They know how to manage a season.

They know how to peek at the right time.

I understand the jokes and the comments will be,

boy, they didn't peek against Miami.

Did they?

Okay, well, if we rewind one year further,

how did it look the second time around when they played Oregon

in the playoffs, for example.

So I trust Ohio State.

And if you want to tell me Ohio State's the team to be,

that's fine.

But then I would whisper in your ear, what about Georgia?

What about Kirby Smart in Georgia?

What about the two-time defending scratch that you don't defend anything?

What about the back-to-back SEC champs down there?

I'm told that the SEC is just a garbage conference now,

but it still does mean a little something

to have won the crown back-to-back years.

Top 10 in returning production.

And again, we always talk about returning production on this show

with a little bit of a caveat.

Because if you return bad players, you're just bad again.

But at Georgia, much like Notre Dame,

a bunch of your players returning is a little bit different

because Georgia doesn't have bad players.

Therefore, a lot of good players, a lot of experienced players now

are returning.

And I think that if Gunnar Stockton continues to elevate

and they answer to me by 10 miles the biggest question,

which is, are you dynamic enough

at the wide receiver position?

If they can do that, Georgia just seems to always find an answer.

They seem to always find a way.

You've had back-to-back years now where they won the league title,

but then they get bounced in the playoff.

You got the same offensive coordinator,

you got the same defensive coordinator,

you got the same head coach, you got the same QB.

And history shows us that these high-level programs,

when you not those four boxes now tend to be in the mix.

So if you want to tell me, Georgia's the team to be.

That's fine.

I throw another one at you.

I just watched Miami play for a national title last year.

What about Miami?

Well, Josh Miami's losing a lot of talent to the draft.

Yet, they got a lot of talent, too.

I think Miami's reached that level that maybe,

at any given point, half a dozen programs are at,

maybe less in college football,

historically, where they kind of transcend the tradition,

meaning the returning starter's number,

the returning production number.

It's not irrelevant, but it's way less relevant for Miami,

just because you learn to blindly trust that they've got

athletes of equal to or better caliber collectively,

than the ones that are going out the door.

I was just down there yesterday.

So, granted, there's a lot of recency bias on being up close

and watching them practice and knowing that staff,

but Dairy and Mensa at quarterback is, I think,

everything that they hoped he would be,

and I think he will solve a lot of issues,

not that they'd have a lot offensively,

because they got a really good running back room.

They could have one of, if not the best wide receiver rooms

in the country, if everyone fulfills on their potential,

an offensive line.

I think much like Oregon,

they trust the guys they have in the building.

Head coach OCDC, again, you've got that trio that returns there,

and that defensive line's still going to be nasty,

and they got very close.

It's like, it's like when your mom,

you remember when you were one-years-old Jesse?

I know I do, and they would play the helicopter,

they would play the airplane game with the applesauce,

organic, of course, organic applesauce on the spoon,

and then they pull it out of your mouth.

Miami almost got the applesauce last year,

and then they yanked it.

College football yanked it out of Miami's mouth, and they won it.

Yes, that's right.

Clip it out of context.

They won it now.

So, after all that, you know what I didn't do, Jesse?

I didn't mention the team that just won the national championship.

I didn't even mention Indiana.

Is that irresponsible?

Will I end up wearing a clown nose months later

for not having done that?

No, because I'm building it in, even though I didn't write my AME on the sheet.

I'm building it in right now.

You're hearing me mention Indiana right now.

Look, Josh Hoover, according to sources in Fort Worth,

turned the ball over a lot,

passed few years, that source being Sonny Dykes.

I turned the ball over a lot less few years,

but you know what, Indiana is not really in the business

of turning the ball over.

So, maybe he rectifies those issues,

and maybe these wide receivers they brought in,

they more than make up for the departures to the NFL,

and maybe the culture is such there

that they almost transcend attrition.

It's still so early that we haven't really gotten a full grip

on what Indiana is as a program

over like a five-year period,

but you could throw any of these at me.

And I would say, okay, and I didn't mention ANM.

I didn't mention Michigan, Alabama.

Who else, Jesse?

I mean, there's going to be teams on the fringes,

Arizona State.

Yeah, naturally.

You know, your Texas is your Arizona States.

Absolutely.

This translates to really, really fun,

first month of the season,

because that means you got to write your opinions

and really, really light pencil,

and you got to be willing to come off of them,

because we'll start to learn,

and then there's going to be a time

where you think you figured it out,

and then college football will do what it always does,

and it will completely rip up everything you thought you knew,

probably around Halloween,

and that just translates to F-U-N for me.

Let's move along.

We had a question about quarterbacks,

and I figured, since it's late March,

we could take a swing at this.

Danny from Knoxville, Tennessee said,

I'm curious to know which quarterbacks you're buying,

and selling in the SEC this year.

There are some easy ones to knock down.

I think about this more Danny like on a confident scale,

like it Texas.

This is pretty easy.

I got high confidence in archmaning.

I've got high confidence that his game will evolve

or continue to level up as the roster continues to level up.

I really don't know,

in what world does Texas improve their offensive line,

improve their tailback room,

improve their wide receiver room,

and archmaning doesn't improve.

I guess it's technically possible,

but I don't expect that to happen.

I think you'll be a great quarterback this year.

I got high confidence there at Georgia.

Gunner Stockton returns.

I would say medium to high confidence

in Gunner Stockton's situation.

I would love to see elements of his game level up,

but the difference with maybe Texas's situation in Georgia's

is I worry about the weapons that Gunner Stockton has around him.

Archmaning, while capable of doing a lot by himself,

will not have to.

They're going to be moments this year where Gunner Stockton's

just flat out got to bail Georgia out.

No, it's convenient because he has done that before.

He could do it again, but I don't really know

if we want to see a situation where he has to turn

into a battering ram as quarterback

to win games for Georgia because it's Georgia.

So your talent roster should never dictate

that that has to happen, but if it does,

maybe half a dozen times in key moments this year,

I trust him to do it.

The toughness is not in question.

The attitude, the mental fortitude, not in question,

the surrounding, the supporting cast,

specifically at receiver is why I would go medium to high.

Alabama doesn't even have a starter named yet.

So this is kind of abnormal,

but Keelan Russell and Austin Mack,

whoever wins that job, obviously will have beaten the other,

which means they were good enough to take the job.

And no matter who it is, I've got medium to high confidence

on Alabama's quarterback situation,

regardless of who ends up starting,

and it's the only one out of all of the ones

we're going to mention here,

where we don't have one name to talk about,

but like I said with Georgia,

but just in a different way,

what about the supporting cast?

What about the surroundings?

What about the climate that quarterbacks play in them?

They have totally overhauled their offensive line there.

They have hired a new offensive line coach there.

They have tried to overhaul their running game.

It's spring.

It's halfway through spring practice,

or maybe even less than, so we don't really know.

I haven't even been down there.

I haven't seen them practice.

I don't know what it's looked like.

I know it pretty literally can't look worse

than it did last year,

but how improved is it?

I go back to Georgia.

I just mentioned Georgia.

Georgia is a really good model for this.

Georgia was very, very subpar run in the ball in 2024,

and then they pulled the nose up,

and they were really good.

Top 30 or so, roughly,

maybe better than that run game last year.

Does Alabama improve by that length of a leap in a bound?

If they do, then you can get really, really high level production.

Because outside of that,

receivers should be good enough for them there.

Granted, you need a bounce back year from Ryan Williams.

But I just think the overall talent level at quarterback

is enough where whoever wins that's gonna give me

medium confidence, at least, maybe high confidence.

What about Oklahoma?

There's no guesswork here.

I mean, Oklahoma's gonna have John Mateer back at quarterback.

John Mateer started the year last year,

as did Oklahoma really strong.

Then you remember he got hurt.

Then he came back and was kind of a shell production-wise

from what he had been.

And there were some people who said,

ah, he just really hadn't fully gotten over the injury.

There were other people who said,

no, it's not the injury.

It's just the league figured him out

or the competition level increased.

I would say my confidence level's medium in him.

Because I don't know that you could fully determine

which is which.

Like, can we fully know the truth there?

Also, I feel like there's a lot of variance down to down

in potential outcome when you just have the release he has.

I'm not knocking it.

I knew his release last year

when I bet him to win the Heisman,

which I feel like I get unfairly criticized for

cause the injury derailed the season.

But I'm not making excuses, obviously, for me and John Mateer.

But I think because of that low release point,

look defensive line and know how to get hands up in any league.

The SEC included.

And so at any given point,

you just have three or four battered balls up in the air

that can turn games based on where they fall.

Quarterbacks with normal releases, deal with that.

So you got that,

you got the whole post injury thing

cause remember he is coming back from injury.

Now not a lower extremity injury.

We're not rehabbing knees or ankles or whatnot.

But was the second half of the season

was that the norm for him?

Was that an anomaly?

And do they figure out their ground game?

Cause Oklahoma was terrible running the ball last year.

So there are a lot of variables in the equation.

That's why I couldn't go higher than medium with Mateer.

What about LSU?

LSU went and got Lane Kiffin.

Lane Kiffin went and got Sam Levit.

Two years ago at Arizona State,

Sam Levit sort of lit the world on fire.

And then last year, statistically, there was regression

and there was also injury,

which you're coming back from.

And of course, you transfer in and you're playing

in a new system and all that.

But I've almost learned not to even care about that.

Cause so many guys transfer successfully every year.

This is not 1993.

I don't really talk about a kid getting used to a new dorm

or wherever Sam Levit's living down there

or getting used to a new town.

This is just normalized now.

But the adjustment from maybe playing the caliber of defenses

that you faced in the big 12 versus that of,

which you'll face in the SEC.

Maybe that's not overblown.

Maybe there's some seriousness to that.

Also, the LSU receiver room got potential.

Needs to come together.

And there's just, there's a lot of moving parts down there.

And so at some point this year, I expect it to click.

Does it click out of the gate?

Does it click in week six?

LSU's got a couple of games, really three games

in the first four that they play that are very loosable.

They're gonna be favored by 11 and a half or so

against Clemson at home.

But technically, they could lose that game.

They could go to Ole Miss, that's loosable,

A&M at home, that's loosable, they're also all winnable.

So, the run game, yet again, much like Oklahoma,

much like Alabama.

Does he have a complimentary ground game?

I gotta imagine it'll be there much better

than it was last year.

I would say medium confidence in Sam Levit right now

with high end potential.

South Carolina is a little different boat.

Lenora Sellers, as much as I respect him as a player,

because of his surroundings,

I gotta go low to medium confidence on him.

Offensive lines, just a massive question mark there.

Especially with the tackles out for spring,

not gonna get one back, hope to get the other one back

by fall camp.

The depth of the receiver room, beyond harbor,

I don't know, I don't know that they know.

It's a new system, they brought in Kendall Briles,

as offensive coordinator, who knows,

that could be a revelation, for all we know.

I just don't have a ton of confidence in it yet.

And I am gonna choose to be pleasantly surprised

by tempering my expectations,

more so than I'm ready to be let down

by having high expectations,

with South Carolina this particular year.

Now Auburn, with Golisch coming in,

and Auburn bringing in Byron Brown,

I would put them at medium confidence,

and there's just a lot of translation that has to happen.

From playing a certain level of football,

to leveling up, that's not just Byron Brown.

There are a lot of guys that Golisch and his staff

brought up players, that they brought up.

And at USF last year, you're talking about a 3,000, 1,000 guy.

You're talking about 28 passing touchdowns,

14 rushing touchdowns.

So Byron Brown put up a ton of production,

he's played a lot of football, he's a senior.

It's just, do those receivers that they brought in,

as guys like Cam Coleman were walking out the door,

Eric Singleton walking out the door,

do they pan out?

What do we look at, a second week,

third week of October?

What do we look at and say about Auburn's supporting cast

around Byron Brown?

I'd say medium, I trust the guys played a lot of ball,

but what's Auburn, it's year one, it's new staff.

So there's gonna be a lot of questions, period.

And lastly, Texas A&M, Marcell Reed,

it's the only guy I'm gonna classify like this.

My confidence level in Marcell Reed

is somewhere between low and high.

This could apply any given season,

any given week, any given quarter.

For those of us who witnessed and maybe even survived,

the South Carolina A&M game last year,

from a betting perspective, especially.

You know good and well, what I mean.

There were times last year where he was electric.

There were times where he was electric,

and that was two quarters after he had been

a complete disaster.

Four of his final six games,

included multiple interceptions.

So at Marcell Reed's best, I got high confidence,

he can get the job done.

How often do I get his best?

I don't need his best.

How often do I get dependable, pretty good Marcell Reed?

This is a well-built team, it's a well-constructed roster,

it's a good receiver room, he doesn't have to do it all by himself.

They promoted from within at offensive coordinator.

Let's see how it pans out.

I don't know where to peg Marcell Reed.

So that's a look around the quarterback position,

confidence-wise in the SEC.

I would look around the paid state store,

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that there's something in there that you would like.

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Now, Jesse tells me that there is no question

in the inbox that specifically asked

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but that doesn't mean I can't give an answer.

His chances are, no one has bigger audiences,

somewhere, someone out there is driving around,

and what our confident he is,

but those shirts over there,

those hats over there, I'm very confident.

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This is Julian Edelman from dudes on dudes

with grunken jewels.

All right, real quick, take a look at yourself right now.

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Nothing's wrong.

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Okay, yeah, I'm tired, kind of cranky and very thirsty.

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Oh, could this vintage store be any cuter?

Right.

And the best part, they accept discover.

Accept discover?

In a little place like this?

I don't think so, Jennifer.

Oh yeah, huh.

Discover's accepted where I'd like to shop.

Come on, baby, get with the times.

Right, so we shouldn't get the parachute pants?

These are making a comeback.

I think.

Discover's accepted at 99% of places

that take credit cards nationwide.

Based on the February 2025 Nilsen report.

Speaking of spring,

more and more teams,

open it up spring ball.

Penn State has started per Jesse.

And the offense is littered with injury.

I want to see all kinds of names specifically at quarterback

and I'm not getting what I want.

Rocco Becht, obviously recovering from surgery.

So he's just doing individual stuff,

probably getting some good reps on the bike over there

and whatnot, working with the rubber bands.

He'll be ready by fall,

but I'd love him to be ready now.

But that's okay.

We'll just get reps for the back up.

Alex Mansky, no we won't.

No we won't because he's out too.

So outside of that,

at least I can watch the receivers get some work.

No, I can't.

Two of their top guys are out.

So we probably got to check it down at the tight ends,

but two of their top tight ends are out.

Let's take a look at the offensive line, Jesse.

What's that?

You tell me the top offensive tackle is out.

Okay, well, we're still gonna go through

with spring ball up there.

Matt Campbell talking about rotations on the offensive line.

Probably as many as 10 guys competing

for those five starting spots.

All right, the pronunciation, Jesse.

Hit me with it.

We practice this.

Hit me with it.

Yvonne Kamaziu.

I have the name written down in circle.

So it is true that we have his name circled.

It is true that he's an edge player.

It is true that while Chas Coleman got a lot of the headlines,

deservedly so last year.

This guy was very, very quietly forming

into what some around the building

believed could be a future all Big 10 caliber player.

Three down guy.

Okay, not a liability against the run.

At least it doesn't feel like that.

So that's just a name.

If you wanna be keeping an eye

and scanning the Big 10 landscape of spring practice,

we're circling that name.

I wanted to go to LSU for just a second.

So Sam Levitt, we just talked about him a second ago,

he was transferring in and he was recovering from injury.

And there was some thought when he first got there

he's probably gonna have to take it easy in spring ball.

And we may get to see some of him.

And that doesn't feel like it's gonna be the case.

I was looking at some of Shade Dixon's reporting,

the esteemed Shade Dixon.

Covering LSU spring ball.

Sam Levitt is pretty much good to go.

So if that's the case and we haven't been told otherwise,

then that's good.

That's refreshing.

Wish we had that everywhere.

Jordan Seaton, the transfer from Colorado,

looks locked in at left tackle.

That's not a surprise.

I don't think you invest that kind of money

and then say, all right, but battle it out

with three other folks.

That's just the way of the college football world nowadays.

Transfers at both offensive guard spots.

That was pretty much to be expected.

Richard Anderson is a name I don't need to explain

to many Louisiana folks.

But if you live in, oh, I don't know,

Kernie, Nebraska, you probably don't know a whole lot

about Richard Anderson.

Six, three, about three, 40, five star true freshman

defense of tackle.

This is a guy who around the state of Louisiana,

they've made like general or generational comparisons to.

A lot of names like if you I always use Tibido.

It's my favorite in town in Louisiana.

If you live in Tibido and you really, really love

high school ball down there, maybe you're all the way

like in Monroe or up in Shreveport,

which they consider another state.

But you know some of the legendary names

from around that state from decades gone by.

They've thrown Richard Anderson's name around

in those conversations.

Now he hasn't done anything in college yet.

But when I tell you that early in spring ball,

a true freshman is running with the ones at defensive tackle,

it should always grab your attention

because you know the body type that it takes to do that.

He's got that body type.

So that is something to keep an eye on.

First off, just is he there week one against Clemson?

And then with any true freshman in any position,

especially specifically along the offensive

or defensive lines, are they there week 11, week 12?

Can they go the distance?

Malik Blokton is another name that probably

would get less headlines.

That's a guy we talked about the moment he transferred

from Auburn as this next wave of several layers

of the LSU portal class.

Blokton is a guy that if he's healthy,

has immense potential at defensive tackle.

It's just for whatever reason,

and there are a few guys in LSU's class like this,

they haven't fulfilled on that

for whatever varying degrees of reasons.

He's another guy that, again, there's so much variance here,

could on the high end make LSU's front

really, really high level?

And they lost a lot on the front,

but this is one of those situations

where because of the names, because of the talent,

because of the potential, you do run the possibility

of having very little returning production

and yet the unit upgrades.

And if American hero Blake Baker,

defensive coordinator at LSU, gets that,

and he's got that cornerback room that he's got,

they can win games defensively,

if they need to buy time at the beginning of the year.

Notre Dame, I said, boldly, a few weeks ago,

that if there was a sneaky contender

for one of the top wide receiver rooms in the country,

it would be Notre Dame.

Immediately, someone took to the internet,

the old world wide web,

and claimed that I said Notre Dame

had the best receiver room in the country.

I don't even know why I bother anymore.

I didn't say that.

I said, they're a sneaky contender.

If you want a dark horse for it, they are still a dark horse.

We are still watching.

We are monitoring closely the Notre Dame wide receiver room,

Jaden Greathouse, dealing with a hamstring issue.

So we are not getting to experience him fully in the spring.

Also, I just, and this may be nothing,

I haven't heard a whole lot about that unit.

Not good, not bad.

Just haven't heard a whole lot so far.

Make of that what you will, what I want is,

I want every other person who's covering Notre Dame,

every other sentence to be whispering

about the wide receiver room.

Boy, this is about to be a surprise

for the rest of the country.

No one's used to this.

They're used to us running the ball.

They're used to offensive line play.

Well, now we're gonna, we're gonna bust

a couple of thousand yard receivers on them and voila.

We're in the national championship game again.

Hmm, Anthony Natt, left tackle last two years,

kicking to guard.

There is a high belief amongst Notre Dame circles

that will black, who was a five star

in last year's recruiting cycle,

per on three, per rivals, will be the left tackle there.

They're really, really high on him.

I don't want to do the comparison game

because it's not fair to young William,

but they're making some pretty lofty comparisons.

The folks who covered Notre Dame for a living.

If that offensive line is not the strength of this team,

it's gonna be linebacker.

I think that's gonna end up being

the best linebacker room in the country.

And then where else would we go?

We go to Morgantown, West Virginia.

Last year, Rich Rod takes the job at West Virginia

a year ago and the roster stuff was insane.

They added 80 new kids total last year

when you combine portal and recruiting class, right?

And we thought it was wild cause it is.

But they were number 62 in portal rankings, per on three.

And they were number 48 in recruiting ranking, per rivals.

So fast forward a year.

What if I told you that Rich Rodríguez

and West Virginia have again added 80 kids?

It's a new football team.

They basically imported a new football team two years in a row.

However, this time around, different caliber athlete,

different class of cat as Mimol would say,

number 20 overall portal class,

number 20 overall recruiting class.

So on paper, it looks the same,

but it's not the same numerically.

It's the same ratings wise caliber of player.

It's not the same at quarterback got a battle up there.

Michael Hawkins remember that he was a name that you briefly saw.

You've seen him play at Oklahoma a time or two.

He transferred Scottie Fox is there.

And I'll tell you, those aren't the names I'm focused on.

I know quarterback battles get most of the attention.

Cam Cook is a name that's very interesting to me.

He comes there from Jacksonville State.

He was 1,600 yard rusher last year, over 1,600 yards.

And I know people, for whatever reason,

when they think Rich Rodriguez, they think West Virginia,

you tend to think like a generation ago, pinball offense,

they're going to run the ball this year.

I don't know if that Fandall wants to extend us

an over under rushing statistics number on West Virginia.

That would be a little dangerous this time of year.

This is the kind of situation where I would blindly bet the over.

We never encourage that, not smart.

But there's just a few times where I have such a good feeling

about something that I'll just blindly bet the over

on something or the under.

And Southern Conference basketball first half

totals back in the day.

That was one of them.

The other one is West Virginia rushing number over this year.

Feel good about it.

Hmm, no stitches.

Let's move on.

Who we've been busy?

So the past couple of days we were in

Gainesville, Florida two days ago,

for the Speaker Series with John Somerall.

We were in Coral Gables yesterday,

sat down with Mario Cristobal,

love making that swing through Florida any time of year.

But especially this time of year,

do you know in Miami yesterday,

it was in the low 80s with dew points in the 50s.

Just insane.

The iguanas aren't even out yet.

It's a very, very special time down there.

And no complaints about the weather in Gainesville either.

Let me start with Florida because we were there

before we were at Miami.

The energy level at Florida.

I know this sounds anecdotal.

I know everyone says this stuff.

So I'm not saying this is going to correlate to wins.

They may go for an eight this year.

They may go nine and three.

All I'm saying is I've been around Florida for several years.

So I was there several years when Billy was there.

I've seen Somerall at Tulane.

And now I saw him practice a little bit yesterday.

Dude, it's so noticeable.

The level up of energy there.

And I always am fascinated by that

because I get to go to a lot of places.

But I always think about it like this.

If you're at a place, you're just there every day.

So you actually don't get to compare your environment

to other environments a whole lot.

You get new staffers that come in

and they'll tell you how your place compares to places

they've been.

Players may transfer in and they say that,

but you yourself don't get to experience it.

So in a weird sort of way,

I kind of have a really good read on that.

Man, there's a lot of juice down there right now.

Now that's to be expected cause everything's new.

Not lost a game yet.

Everything's new.

I feel really good about what we've been saying on this show

about the wide receiver position at Florida.

Feel really good about that.

I think they feel really good about that room.

Talked to a lot of new additions there.

Dave Codwell, for example,

came in as the general manager.

Nick Polk still down there.

They've really, really overhauled their front office approach.

Not on the high school recruiting side.

I'll play a sound for that in a second.

They didn't need to do a whole lot on the high school recruiting side,

but the portal side and understanding how that works.

And it's still kind of a work in progress monetarily,

but I think they'll get there.

And kind of if Florida is ever rolling,

they don't have to pay top dollar for kids.

You get a discount.

You can get 70 cents on the dollar for a portal kid

cause truth be told, a lot of guys want to play in Florida at Florida.

So that'll be a work in progress.

But man, there's some really, really good people

in the personnel department down there.

But the people in the building period,

you remember when Billy was there

and for two years he was on the hot seat.

The last two years he was there.

So we go down there at least once every year,

sometimes multiple times every year.

And I'd always come back and I wouldn't deny

there's pressure there.

I wouldn't deny Napier's on the hot seat.

I don't think it's unfair to have the expectation

level Florida fans have, but I always said

whatever happens there.

It's not going to be cause they don't have the right people

in the building and it's not going to be

because the infrastructure is not in place.

Cause Florida is elite and elite in both of those categories.

And when he got fired, I came on the show

and I said, whoever gets that job,

I know the instinct is to wipe the slate clean

and just flush the entire thing and start from scratch.

That is not what you should do at Florida.

Florida's a very unique example of maybe head coach

didn't get the job done for whatever number of circumstances.

But there are a lot of things that work there.

Okay, so some are all gets the job.

And fast forward a few months, we're down there

and I'm walking around and I see Jake Sankel,

who was the nutrition guy in the last regime.

Oh, he's still there.

Skylar Wise walks up at practice,

Katie Decker-Turner, who is pregnant right now.

It's about to have a child, but she's still in the building.

I breathe way, he's still in the building,

working a little more on another side of the fence there,

but still in the building.

And I look around and I say, whoa, I notice a lot of these people.

So I asked some were all about it.

When we sat down with them on the speaker series,

I'll have Bradley play a clip in just a second.

This full video is really good.

We do these where, if you're a Florida fan,

of course you want to see this,

but if you're a Washington fan,

the way we do these sit downs is where

this would be of interest to you

if you're just a college football fan.

Anyway, here's John Someral talking about

what was already in place once he got to Florida.

The results on the field weren't always there,

but I remember always, every time I would leave here,

I would say they got so,

it feels like they got so many of the right people

in the building.

So then when the coaching transition happened,

I didn't know you were gonna get the job necessarily,

but whoever was gonna get the job,

I was really curious how many of the off field,

off camera support staff types

is that person gonna retain.

And so you came in and I've seen a number of the faces

around here that I saw the last couple of years.

How much of what you saw here,

whether it be administratively or facilities,

whatever, did you walk in and say,

I like this fight, there's no reason to change this.

That's significant amount.

I think the most important thing you do

is you evaluate and you listen.

It's not talk.

I wanted to hear from some of the players,

I met with the leaders here and I met with several of them

and I wanted to say, hey,

give me a couple of things that you've liked

that have been going on here

and going back to drawing upon past experiences.

When I walked in at Troy and they had only one five games

a year for three straight years,

I kept half the staff and we flipped it fast.

Well, were there some things here

that I felt I needed to be recalibrated and adjusted?

Yes.

Were there a lot of things going right here

that I think could create some synergy

and help us have success?

Also, yes.

Jake Sanko works in nutrition here.

Jake's an absolute rock star.

I didn't hire Jake Sanko, he was here.

Jake is a strength coach by trade

who went back and became an nutritionist.

So we have a head nutrition guy who also is a strength coach.

Just do as I talk into an astronaut, basically.

He is very crazy, he's a rock star.

And so I got to meet with him and learn who he was

and what he was about.

I'm like, oh, you're not a lot of leaf.

You gotta say, there were a ton of examples like that

in recruiting.

I think our high school recruiting side here

had been run at a really high level.

I think we needed to change some things

maybe on the other side of the portal

and be a little bit more aggressive

in certain areas to flip this thing quicker.

But there were a lot of people in-house already here

that I felt like, man, they may fit.

They doubted me, Jesse.

I told you all, I'm not just saying it to say,

there were a lot of high level people down there.

There's a lot of high level infrastructure down there.

They didn't win with it.

There's no guarantee that some were all a win with it.

But just like I said, with the previous regime,

if they lose, it won't be because they lacked

in those departments.

By the way, as Bradley has shown you there,

Florida's over under win total,

seven and a half this upcoming year.

So then we're off to Miami.

Got in at a reasonable hour and hit the sack

and then got over for a walk through the next morning

over at Miami.

Look, here's one very quick observation

I'll give you.

I'm gonna place some sound in a second.

I'm gonna say something, but I'm gonna say

what I'm not saying.

I have to do this a lot.

Miami leans into advancement.

Miami leans into technology, analytics.

They do all that.

They've got the same systems and processes

that a lot of programs have with their own spin on it.

So I'm not saying they don't lean into that.

What I am saying is being around a lot of places

on the whole Miami has about as old school

a philosophical approach to this game,

to this sport as any of the major programs out there.

And I think probably you saw that bear itself out

in just the way they played last year,

specifically last few games of the season.

That's all rooted in the fundamental belief system

that they have.

There's really no secret formula

or magic ingredients or anything like that.

It's just really, really violent at practice.

I got in trouble on the show last year

cause I said that.

I got in trouble in the comments cause I went down there,

we'll go down there a few times a year,

we'll go to practice.

Practice is just a blood bath at Miami.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays specifically.

Maybe not in spring as much on Tuesdays and Wednesdays

as one of those days is not gonna be a practice day.

But the point I made was,

they looked different than any team in the country.

A lot of folks took exception to that.

They thought I was carrying water,

specifically Ohio State folks thought that.

And I wasn't.

I, cause I had never,

I had not said that before this past year,

specifically cause Miami hadn't looked

like they looked last year until last year.

And so I said it and I meant it.

Ironically those two teams met up in the playoffs

and physically you saw what happened.

Now it's up to Ohio State to answer the bell,

this upcoming year.

But you think to yourself, boy man,

I wonder what they're doing down there.

The same stuff you would have done in 1984

in a lot of cases.

They kind of lean into that more than,

I think some other places where maybe there's

a little overthinking of the room,

or maybe you're a little nervous to still live that way.

They're not, just kind of punches you in the face

when you're in the building.

But I wanted to specifically talk to them.

Mario included, I'll show you in a second about

why last year was different.

So you remember, there were a couple of years

where Miami's gotten off the fast starts before.

Two years ago they go and they beat the brakes off Florida

to start the year.

Everyone feels like they're off to the races

and then it fell flat.

And last year they start strong.

They beat Notre Dame early in the year, a week one.

But then you lose a game, then you lose that other game

to SMU and you kind of wonder, oh boy.

And that's how I felt in the moment.

Now we know how it turned out.

I wanted to know why here's a little bit of Mario

from yesterday.

To an extent, the last couple of years was

no problem starting fast as a team.

But then there was this point a couple of times

in the season where I don't know if it was a little off.

I'd watch you and that looked like what it looked like

in week one or week two.

And last year there was this point.

I was at the game, I was at the SMU game.

And it doesn't go your way and you're wondering,

is that about to happen again?

Is that in the process I happen again?

And then you end up playing boom, boom, boom, boom,

your best ball four weeks in a row.

I'm on the outside looking and wondering, what changed?

What's the difference?

So what changed?

Why aren't you able to do that last year?

Oh, I mean, I think that team meeting

after the SMU game really kind of changed things.

We just weren't playing like we play.

We were playing hard.

Our effort, our care factor, everything was through the roof.

But we weren't, it didn't look like us.

And so when we met and talked about those specific things,

all we did was take those first five weeks

and clipped out us playing Miami football,

physical, violent, tough, relentless, finishing plays,

just cut the lights and let it roll.

And in Dead Silence, we watched 10 minutes

of Miami playing Miami football.

And by the time the lights cut back on,

I mean, those, everybody's eyes were this big.

Everybody's, even feel the intensity in the room.

It's like we, it's not remembering who we are.

It's realizing who the heck we are.

And going out and making sure that on the daily,

that that showed up in practice,

every ounce of the standard.

And so that led to a, just a series of high-level,

physical, relentless play, particularly

at the line of scrimmage, but also the dog mentality

of our skill guys, their physicality.

That was, all that stuff was contagious.

And I think that combination led

to ourselves going on and running.

Yeah, just kind of being around them, checking them out.

They've got everything they need to be as good

as they were last year or better than they were last year.

And yet, there's also the potential to fall off

if stuff doesn't pan out.

So a lot of unfinished nature about that team,

maybe a lot of rawness about that team.

They got some really, really good players there.

There's some places where there's going to be a trition.

And I think the general public

will probably expect to fall off, for obvious reasons,

where there could be some surprises.

So that's up to them.

But I think that yesterday, one of the things that stood out

the most, there's just random stuff you see

when you're walking around buildings.

When you play in the cotton bowl, the good-year cotton bowl,

and you win it, like they did over Ohio State last year,

the fine folks at good-year, unbeknownst to me,

tear up a bunch of good-year tires,

and they offer to build your mascot out of good-year tires,

thus recycling.

And Miami did that and then asked,

or they did it from Miami and they said,

do you want this?

And not only did they take it,

Chris Paul just put it outside his office door.

It's got that great rubber mascot smell like you want.

Look at that thing, just sitting outside his door.

And it doesn't sit there as this prop

that never gets used.

They take pictures with that thing.

People fight over being able to take it home.

Some say there are certain members of the staff

that are able to hide inside the good-year rubber mascot there.

I also want to give a great big shout out

to the fine folks at Shadow Wagyu,

Big Island, particular.

Because if I'm left to my own devices,

I just eat the same three or four meals on the road,

mostly from chain restaurants everywhere I go.

It is a sad, sad state of affairs.

Even after my food poisoning mishap

in Jacksonville a couple of years ago,

I still fall victim to it.

But when I go to Miami,

Cam Gorby will not let it happen.

He will not let a wayward soul like myself

fall through the cracks.

And so he'll make sure we wrap up early,

he'll make sure we have some time on the schedule.

We go to Shadow Wagyu yesterday, unbelievable.

I don't think I've eaten since then.

Still kind of full, too.

There's room for about 14, 15 people in there.

So don't y'all go at once, but wow.

That's all I can say, wow.

That's my Yelp review for Shadow Wagyu,

not that they need it, wow.

Those are really good trips.

Both of those sit-downs are available right now

on the channel or the podcast feed, mitch, yeah?

Yeah, they're both on the podcast feed.

So those are really, really good.

And like I said, you may not be a Florida fan

or a Miami fan.

Maybe you hate Florida and or Miami.

This is stuff that we shape to be interesting

to college football fans in general.

In fact, there's a lot of questioning

about stuff that pertains to matters

beyond just those programs.

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Thank you so much.

It is time for some chaos.

We had a chaos scenario that floated around the office today.

And I said, should I?

You know what?

Yes, I should.

I should put this on the show tonight.

We threw one out the other night.

It got good reviews.

How's this one for a little chaos this upcoming year?

So Texas enters the season with the third best odds

to win the national title.

Oklahoma enters the season with the 13th best odds

to win the national title.

Hey, that means they'll both be top 15,

maybe top 10 caliber teams, hoops amongst us knows,

but at the very least, there are high expectations

for both of them.

Now, of course you know, they play every year

in the Red River Shootout,

known by no other name on this show.

You got returning Heisman caliber quarterbacks here

in the mix.

That's not chaotic.

Josh, what's chaotic about that?

Aha, I've got the chaos scenario right here.

Not that this is fortune telling.

We don't believe in that sort of thing around here,

but it's not outside the Rome of Possibility

that the Red River Shootout on, what did we say,

October 10th?

It's not out of the Rome of Possibility if you want chaos

that the Red River Shootout could be a playoff

elimination game this year.

What?

How?

Yeah, yeah, it's chaotic.

I know.

Well, here's how it would happen in theory.

Cause I'm happy and spring to play the glass half full,

three quarters full.

I'm happy to play nice.

Some even say that's my reputation this time of year.

I don't like being negative this time of year.

I don't like throwing people under the buzz

and predicting three and nine.

So if you guys want to believe at Texas

that despite the fact that you were bottom half

of the country and pressure rate allowed last year

and you didn't run it well, past defense was very, very poor.

If you want to believe you got all that fixed

and none of it will be an issue this year,

I'm okay going along with that.

I'm just saying there's a possibility.

It's not all fixed.

Okay.

It's at least a possibility more on that in a second.

And as Oklahoma folks snicker, shut up respectfully.

Because I also want to remind you,

you couldn't run the ball to save your life last year.

You were 113th in the country in rushing offense.

Bama was horrific running the ball

and you guys were so bad you let them come in.

You were building and beat you in a playoff game last year.

That's how bad it was.

What if it's not improved?

If either or both of those weakness profiles,

those vulnerability profiles aren't short up,

then we have to take a look at the schedule.

And the schedule tells me that paper pop,

Ohio State comes to Austin in week two.

Texas goes to Knoxville in week four.

These are games before they play Oklahoma.

Oklahoma got to go to Ann Arbor in week two.

Got to go to Athens in week four.

They will be points spread underdogs

in both of those games right now.

I know that because Fandall is already showing me

that there are two and a half point dog at Michigan.

Did I have that right, Jesse?

I think I did.

Both of those games, by the way,

have two and a half point lines.

I think it was Texas minus two and a half right now

against Ohio State.

And I think it was Michigan minus two and a half against OU.

Thank you, Jesse.

So, is it likely that they go

a combined O and four in these games?

No, it is not.

But this is an evil or it's an ugly,

it's a dirty, it's a chaotic world sometimes.

So all I'm saying is it could happen.

And if it did happen, even for one of you,

this game ends up serving as a de facto

playoff elimination game.

And I don't even want to talk about what would happen

for who loses.

You know what, yes, I do.

For Brent Venables, this would be a very bad deal, okay?

For Brent Venables, this is his fifth year at Oklahoma.

And I don't know what the final record would be,

but here's what it would sound like.

Six and seven to 10 and three, to six and seven,

to 10 and three, two, already three losses

by mid-October and counting.

So it would look like the roller coaster ride

under Brent Venables has continued,

down year up year, down year up year,

en route to another down year.

But that's still not as bad as it would be for Sark.

Because if this isn't all in year for Texas and it is,

if this is a year where it's sort of the national title

or bust attitude, I'm not necessarily sure

that means you literally have to win a title

or it's a bust, but you get what I'm saying

when I say that.

If it is one of those years and it is,

and it should be, and that's a fair expectation

for Texas fan, and you got three losses

by the third week of October.

If there's still pumpkins and people's yards

and you've already got three losses, we can't have that.

We won't have that.

In fact, I am refuting that this was even put in the ship.

Shame on you, Jesse.

Shame on you for suggesting this.

Steve Sarkie just is not gonna let this happen.

I don't think Brent Venables is gonna let it happen.

But I doubly especially know that both guys

are not gonna let it happen.

They're both friends of the program.

They are both speaker series alums.

Could be again, we'll see.

I don't like to give away spoilers

for the speaker series dates.

But surely this is not gonna happen, right?

These are top 15 teams, Jesse.

Surely this is not gonna, no.

No, waste of time.

No, no, no, no.

That may have been a lie,

but we will tell the truth

in this next portion of the program tonight.

Bradley, here's a good end point for you.

We do something in spring called the Truth Teller series.

You know what, ideally we just tell the truth

the entire year, but we especially like to tell the truth

in the spring and we like to pick a topic

or a person or a team or whatnot every single night.

And tonight it is James Franklin's turn

to have the truth told about him.

I think the truth about James Franklin is boring.

I did not say I think James Franklin is boring.

I said the truth about him is boring.

And the truth is just that he's a really good coach.

That's it, that's the truth.

No, it's not.

That's not nearly the end of the story.

You know it's not.

But to me it is.

To me, if my sister who is not exactly

the most die hard Penn State viewer in the world

doesn't know a whole lot about Virginia Tech.

Don't think she checked him out at Vandy back in the day.

If she were to see James Franklin's picture

and say, who's that?

I said football coach and she said,

describe him for me.

What's the truth about that guy?

I'd say he's good football coach.

That's it.

Now she wouldn't push back and say that he's four in 21

and state P top 10 teams, I don't think.

But if she did push back and say that,

I'd say, I didn't say he's great.

I didn't say he's elite.

Yeah, he's dropped several big games.

Sure he has.

He's also won every other game up until about five minutes

ago that he was supposed to win.

That's what made him a really good coach.

Here's the problem, sis.

They went all in last year and they busted.

They strategically, in a very cerebral nature,

decided we got all of our returning production here.

We got Drew Oller here.

We got a really highly paid coaching staff.

This is the year we've been building towards.

This is the year that we're better than just really good.

This is our shot.

And we're coming off recently,

being in the semi-finals of the playoff.

So we tasted it.

We knocked on the door.

Now we're going to kick the door in

and we're not going to be bashful about it.

Remember, I mean, they leaned into it.

James Franklin was not shy about talking about their potential.

He was not shy about talking about their goals.

The problem is when they lost to Oregon,

that tire got wobbly and then he just fell off at UCLA.

And then the rest of them fell off in his northwestern

and the entire thing went up in smoke.

And that was the end of the James Franklin tenure.

At Penn State, more on what happened afterwards in a second.

But to me still, that doesn't take away what I said.

I just think he's a really good coach.

There he's a really good coach

that went championship or bust and busted.

That's what he did.

Okay, if James Franklin were to have made the goal of last year

to be a good solid 10 win team,

and that was the universal expectation in the building,

they probably would have ended up going 10 and 2.

I don't blame him for trying to aim for greatness.

That's just when you, when you lunge for the belt

and you miss it, you fall to the canvas.

They fell to the canvas speaking of canvas.

As boring as my truth is,

producer Jesse walked in earlier today and he pulled up,

what was it, an entire notes document?

There were a lot of paragraphs.

I said, Jesse, we don't have room for that in the show.

He said, all right, well, let me boil it down for you.

James Franklin is Shelton Benjamin.

And I said, former all American wrestler, Shelton Benjamin,

and he said, yeah, well, not the all American version,

not the amateur wrestler, no, no, no, no.

The former intercontinental champion.

I love Shelton Benjamin.

I didn't never think he got enough run.

But anyway, for those of you who don't watch pro wrestling,

Shelton Benjamin was a guy who was an amateur wrestler.

Was he from Minnesota, Jesse?

So he and Brock Lesnar both wrestled at Minnesota.

Then they, since there really is no pro amateur wrestling,

cause those are oxymorons,

but also because there really is no big leagues to go to.

A lot of guys just become pro wrestlers.

They become sports entertainers, you know.

Kurt Angle did as well.

Won the Olympic gold medal with a broken freaking neck.

So anyway, Shelton Benjamin does the same thing.

Shelton Benjamin becomes a pro wrestler.

Had one of the greatest main event matches

on Monday Night Raw in history with Sean Michaels,

cause everyone has their best match with Sean Michaels.

I digress, Shelton Benjamin became famous

for getting close, but never getting to the top.

Or, as Jesse put it,

the perennial intercontinental champ

that can't elevate to the main event level.

And that is how Jesse described metaphorically.

James Franklin.

And that's how you explain,

four in 21 versus AP top 10 teams.

He is Shelton Benjamin and the people

wanted Steve Austin, the people of state college,

wanted Steve Austin.

It's okay to want Steve Austin.

It's hard to get him.

There aren't a lot of those out there, Jesse.

There aren't a lot.

So anyway, I had my feelings like everyone else did

about the way the James Franklin thing went down

at Penn State.

Here is what I think will end up

being the wildest part of all of this.

Somehow in some twisted way

that only college football could provide.

I think five years from now,

who knows, maybe five months from now,

we look back and say,

everyone figured out a way to win in this situation.

Penn State won, despite their best efforts.

Penn State won, cause they tripped backwards

into hiring Matt Campbell and they upgraded themselves.

And then Virginia Tech gets the earliest,

and in some ways latest Christmas present,

I guess depending on where you're on the calendar,

that they could ever get in Blacksburg,

they massively upgrade their situation.

James Franklin, a guy who was knocking on the door

of the national championship game

less than a calendar year earlier

is now our head coach with no scandal in tow.

There's no external factors.

You just got fired?

That's it?

Yeah, we'll take him.

And then James Franklin.

James Franklin gets told he's not good enough.

James Franklin gets fired.

And then James Franklin gets a chance to restart his clock

at a place that's gonna be very overly appreciative

of having him in the building.

You could look up and say,

you know what, everyone's better off for this.

And that's a rare commodity in life

and it's a very rare commodity in sports.

The win, win, win, in that situation we all win.

I still think that last year, the way it turned out,

it kind of creates a fog around recent history.

All right, so it wasn't but about a decade and a half ago.

Penn State is mired and scandal and there are people saying

Penn State football will never be the same.

Penn State athletics will never recover.

No one talks that way anymore.

It's been a long time.

If you're 18 years old watching the show,

there's a chance you don't even know what I'm talking about.

It could have been the exact opposite.

If James Franklin's not there and somebody else takes the job

and they fumble it and then someone else takes the job

and they fumble it, think Tennessee football,

think Florida football for a long time.

And Penn State just keeps slipping further down the slope

and they never recover.

We could be sitting here in 2025 saying,

you know, they really never recovered

from the Sandusky stuff.

They never recovered from it.

And instead, no one even talks about it.

And you know why?

James Franklin's why.

So the further removed you get, especially if he wins

at Virginia Tech and there are no grudges held,

the further down the road we get,

I think the more he'll be remembered that way

instead of right now where it's still fresh

and it's still a little bit raw.

But to me, that's the truth about James Franklin.

In a way, it's really boring if you think the way I think

or it's really spicy if you compare him

to a former Intercontinental champ.

Fandall has over underwent totals for Penn State

or anyone else.

You can go bet the futures right now.

If you think Penn State's gonna win the conference,

you can go bet odds on week one games.

Now, Jesse, you guys don't play anyone

out of conference this year.

So they probably don't have the Penn State Week one game

on the board.

Who knows, maybe they do.

You can bet Heisman odds right now.

You can bet a number of things.

Look, technically it's basketball season.

After my showing on pop a shot out in the newsroom

earlier today, basketball is dead to me as a sport.

I am retiring from basketball.

And I am retiring from talking about basketball.

But you know what, some of you like it.

And if you do, you can go to Fandall right now.

And they got odds on good old fashioned NBA and college

basketball games up as well.

But it is the exclusive odds provider of the show.

All right, lastly, before we get out of here tonight,

the mood tracker continues.

And the mood tracker on this show tonight

is headed to Clemson, South Carolina.

What is the mood tracker?

You ask if you're new around here.

That's just where we try and explain,

try and guess an educated guess,

how the fan base is feeling.

And this one's really interesting because it's Clemson.

And it's a place that this time, a decade ago,

they were 1A right there with Alabama

as the premier program in college football.

Davos Swinney was 1A.

He was right there alongside Nick Sabin.

He was figuring out a way to beat him

in a national title game 10 years ago.

And then eight years ago, he did it again.

Side note, Davos Swinney, very, very strong argument

for him to be the number two head coach

in college football of this millennium.

There's an argument to be made there for that solid argument.

So a decade ago, there is no problem at Clemson.

They are rolling.

They are a rocket ship.

But we're not talking about the mood a decade ago.

The mood at Clemson right now,

I think is sort of a last stand mood.

No one wants it to be that way.

No one's wanting to criticize Davos Swinney.

If you're a Clemson fan, you just wanna pull the nose up.

You wanna be back to the way it used to be.

A lot of people saying that about a lot of things

in college football right now.

But the failure to launch in 2025,

I think was the backbreaker for many Clemson fans

believing it'll ever get back to the way it was.

Now some of the more jaded portions of the fan base,

maybe you had already tapped out a little bit

and you said, I immensely appreciate Davos

for what he did.

You know what, our time came and went

and we'll never be bad under Davos,

but we're not gonna be a lead again.

There were some of you who said that last year.

Most of you didn't.

Most of you looked at the 2025 team,

especially coming off the playoff appearance.

And you said, all right now,

this right here is a very experienced team.

This right here is a really good coaching staff,

so we thought we got Garrett Riley, again,

oh, so we thought we got Garrett Riley,

we got Kade Klubnik multiple years together,

OC quarterback.

And this defense has NFL caliber players

at all three levels.

I don't know how many times we said that last summer

and you know what, we weren't wrong.

This is the year that we'll get the job done.

And then you didn't and you went seven and six.

And at that point, I think not just the jaded portion

of the crowd, but a majority of the crowd

kind of said that, all right, that settles it

because we haven't recruited top 15 caliber

classes here lately.

We've dipped our toe into the portal

and all the players are promptly getting hurt.

But we only recently have dipped our toe into the portal.

We're never going to be what Miami is in the portal

or LSU is in the portal.

The roster's not going to be what it used to be.

So how are the results going to be, what they used to be?

I think a lot of Clemson fans feel that way.

They'd be happy to be proven wrong.

Me too, I'm not pulling against Clemson,

I'm not pulling against Debo Swenney.

I always leave room for an in-season surprise.

There are times where you have high expectations

for a team and they don't fulfill on them

and then you, by default, doubt them the next year

and then that's the year that they pop a surprise on you.

It could happen, yeah.

I don't see it.

They're over under wind total

is seven and a half coming into this year,

which begged the question earlier today

when we were putting the show together.

Well, what if they win eight games?

What if Clemson goes eight and four?

So let's just, Bradley, do me a favor.

Throw Clemson schedule up if you have it right quick.

Cause I would look at this and so LSU, Miami,

let's take Virginia Tech and I don't know, Georgia Tech.

Let's say they lose those four games

and win the rest of them.

That's just a bunch of wins over North Carolina, Cal,

FSU, Syracuse, Duke, South Carolina at the end of the year.

Maybe makes South Carolina one of the losses.

So it ends poorly.

Is that a successful season?

Have we really gotten to the point

where the over could hit for the Clemson win total

and people still be disappointed

to the point where they want change?

I think we have, but I will say this,

you will have to rip this opinion out of my cold dead hands.

I have solidified my feel on Davos 20.

Like there is 95% of my opinion on Davos sealed.

Ements, lifetime respect for the guy,

no matter what happens, they go O and 12 this year.

And my opinion on him this year would be bad,

but my opinion on him overall is set.

He is a first ballot,

Hall of Fame, whatever we do in college football.

He's that forever for me.

And I will also say this,

as much as people want to talk about what he should do,

as much as people want to talk about

the changes he should make.

Or if it's going downhill,

people want to talk about the way that he should go out.

He should retire.

He should do this and he should do that.

Tweeted the quote earlier, Jesse.

This was the context.

It is so easy for people who haven't authored

a single chapter of your book

to tell you how the story should end, Mima.

It's going to happen a lot with Davos.

It already is.

He'll point it out in press conferences.

I wrestle with this.

At what point do you deserve to go out on your own terms

or does no one ever earn that right?

They're varying schools of thought on this.

Perhaps he goes 10 and 2 this year and it's a moot point,

but I'm saying if it goes seven wins or six wins

or something like that,

and it could start off poorly

because they are a double digit dog at LSU week one.

If it starts off poorly,

I think you'll just hear more of the same drum beat.

I think the fan-based mood there's kind of,

it's a last stand moment here.

That's okay.

We got multiple conference titles,

multiple national titles out of this.

If this is it, then it was the most iconic run

in the history of our program

and one of the most iconic runs in the history college football.

They don't make many of those.

That's our show.

We appreciate it so much.

Make sure you go check out the Summer All and Crystal Ball.

Sit downs.

We'll have a couple of more coming up next week.

Can't tell you where quite yet.

But I appreciate you guys so much.

Make sure you subscribe to the channel

if you haven't already for Director Bradley.

Produced Jesse Amgosh Pate.

Take care, have a great start to your weekend and God bless.

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