Williams & Blum: Is West Virginia a Good Matchup for Iowa State?

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1:00Your support and power cyclones, student athletes on and off the field, in positions Iowa State to compete and thrive. When you give to the WiiWall Fund, you're directly supporting Iowa State Student Athletes providing critical resources and driving recruiting and retention. A future of Iowa State Athletics starts with you, Cyclone Nation. Make a gift to the WiiWall Fund today at ISU.Foundation slash WiiWall Fund. Most leaders across Iowa need graduates who can contribute from day one. That's what sets the Iowa State University, Ivy College of Business apart. Our students are directly admitted to the college and their major on day one. That gives them immediate access to hands-on learning, career support, and industry connections.

2:02The result? Job-ready talent for Iowa companies, communities, and the economy. Explore Ivy today. Chris Williams. Brent Bloom. From the Northwest Bank Studios, its Williams in Bloom presented by Mechdine on the Cyclone Fanatic Podcast Network. All right, what is up? Welcome to the show. It is the 30th of September, 2026. Williams in Bloom were presented by Mechdine, where the Northwest Bank Studios could be here in Aikini. Bloom is at a farm bureau thing. That in Kansas City, in himself. That in Kylton South. Hilton South. So Brent is sitting in for him today. We are, as always, presented by our friends at Mechdine in the Northwest Bank Studio. I've got my wonderful Northwest Bank coffee mug here. Our friends gave to us.

3:03Mixed it tastes better. Oh, yeah. Again, if you in the insurance market, Bloom will take care of you down there. He's learning how to do better job for you, which God bless him. He missing out on the show to sit there and learn about regulations and insurance. Hey, he's a better man than me. I just have to sit here and talk football. That's what we're going to do. That's terrible. That's what we're going to do today. Iowa State and West Virginia coming up. A little homecoming on Saturday. Look at this. I don't. What? Pence is watching. He's on his honeymoon. I love it. So, Pence, I always tell Pence. That he reminds me so much of me because stuff like this. God's honest truth. My wife will back up every when I was on my honeymoon. I was it. I was our only employee. Right. Like we had a... Royce White Kness. Yeah, I'm sitting there interviewing Chris Bab on the beach.

4:08And Pence is sending us like snaps of him dreaming about the battle for Atlantis. He sent me his game... So, he always puts together our game picks. And I told him, you know, man, I'll take it off your plate this week. You're going to be busy. You're going to be on your honeymoon. He sent me his this morning. It was four paragraphs. Sick man. He's a disgusting human. But I actually... I respect it. In this game's freaking great. This... I will state what's Virginia game is super fun. And I watched... I went back and watched their game against Virginia last night. And they'll come and stay game last night. So I feel like I have a pretty good read on this team. Elise was not pleased. She was wanting to watch other things on the TV last night. But nonetheless, we did a little scouting together. We do have other things that we'll get to our Wittles Hybrids big 12 segment. We'll do our buy, sell, hold segment with our buddies over at the Nittuzel financial services.

5:11And just to... Fun. Is this like the first full big 12 weekend? I feel like we've gotten like an entire slate. He had a good slate. Yeah, really, really good. And the good news is for us, there's no 230 games. So we just get to like get our work done. And then six o'clock it's on. I think there's two six o'clock games, two nine o'clock games. Hey, for what it's worth, I don't think the fans really care. It'll probably be better. Get me. I'm doing the homecoming festivities this weekend. Oh yeah, you're not working. I am going to go to a vet med reunion. Are you going to the game still? I'm going to go to the game. I don't know where I'm sitting yet. I don't do well in the stands. So I will be at the game. Again, I generally really like sitting with Aden. Aden and I have our own little thing. Yeah, what's Aden going to do? Well, you think you're not going. I'm not going. I'm going. United. I don't I don't I don't do well in the stands.

6:12And but I also I'm not going to go up to the press box. If I have had a few beers, I don't know what this vet med reunions going to be like. I heard those. Like that's get crazy. Yeah, I don't know. So like if I'm in if I'm in shape, I'll go to the press box. If not, I might just float around Jack. If anybody has an extra. I help in the suit up in zone club and wants to invite me in there. You would go to the suit and zone club. Well, wait, you can just get a beer anywhere now. Yeah, I don't even need to worry about that. This is exactly what Paul was talking about. Now I don't need the premium ticket. By the way, it sounds like based off of the coach's corner that the beer sales are doing better than expected. What does that mean? I don't know. I'm guessing that they had a projection. Well, I'm guessing that whoever projected it like was very conservative. I have state fans very often. Yeah, I've been very conservative. I mean, I do think there's an element. It's what $12 for an 18 ounce, I think. Something like that. Yeah, it's expensive.

7:13But that's reasonable for a sporting event. Yeah, it's what I'm saying. Yeah, go to a major league baseball game. When I saw the prices, so I wonder if that's helped a little bit. Like, it's reasonably priced compared to other sporting events. I'm going to get three instead of two. I don't know. Yeah, $12.83 for a 25 ounce beer. That's nothing. That's like, I don't know. I don't really know. I do know, so when you go to a NASCAR race in general, you can bring in a cooler full beer. And that's really the only sporting event that I paid a go to. I mean, that is my... I don't go to Vikings games really hardly at all anymore. Yeah, all I'm saying is that I'm guessing if you go to a Viking game and try and get a 25 ounce or it's going to be $20. So if someone sees $12.83, like, I'll just... I can't afford to. I'm glad that we're living up to our reputation. Yeah, that's good reputation. That's a good thing.

8:14Yeah, I just... I'm really interested in this game. West Virginia's fun team. They're fascinating. And the matchup with this particular Iowa State defense is super interesting as well. Because it's kind of like hat on hat with Iowa State's linebackers are going to be immensely challenged by this two-headed monster in the back field. That is West Virginia's quarterback running back conversation. It's Hawkins. It Bell bells his last name, man. Cook, cook, cook, cook, cook, come from Jacksonville State. So he was at Jacksonville State with Richrod. And then he didn't follow Richrod last year from what I understand. Maybe they didn't think he was ready to go to that level. He runs wild for Jack State. And now I think he's the best running back in the big 12. I said that coming into the year. He's really good. I know that LJ Martin was the preseason player of the year. The guy last week we saw Wayshawn Parker would certainly have a conversation.

9:14I think those are the best three. And Iowa State gets them back to back to back weeks, which is kind of crazy to think about. But he's legit. Hawkins... That's the thing about him though, like that he has Hawkins. So you have to pay attention to him both. And Hawkins is not a quarterback that can run. He is a running quarterback. There is a big difference between that. Hawkins is third in the big 12 in rushing. Did you watch the Richrod press conference? I've not yet. I was going to focus the daily clone on that today. So watch it. And I'm watching the wonderful from after the Oklahoma State game too. Because I almost got them. So they ran the ball. Those two combined for 59 carries. Hawkins goes 10 up 22 through the air. Because they got down. That's the key. Yeah, we'll get to that because we both completely agree there. The... Richrod was almost, in my opinion, reading into what he was saying,

10:17pissed it himself for throwing too much. He was all like... I was getting the vibe where he was like, yeah, I screwed this up. We should have just kept it on the ground more. Yeah. But we both agree. Boy, a huge key to this game is kind of what the key was for Iowa State last week. And they crapped the bed. Yeah. So last week, I still feel this. And I know Iowa State somewhat proved this wrong by making it a game in the fourth quarter. But I felt the talent gap between Utah and Iowa State was so big to the point that you cannot get down 10 in any circumstance and expect to win the game. And that proved to be right. I think that is true to an extent with West Virginia. But I don't think it's because the talent, I think it's because the playstyle. Both of these teams want to run the ball. They want to not really run clock. And that's the other element of this game. When the total came out at 53 and a half, I was like, that's criminally high.

11:17But you look into it. I know. West Virginia plays the seventh highest temple in the country. They're running about 78 plays a game. So not only are they running it a lot, they're running hurry up offense. And that takes away Iowa State's ability to sub defensively, which is what they do a lot. They'll run the line changes on the defensive line. So in a way, they're like a service academy with how much they're running the ball. And how heavily they rely upon it. But they're the exact opposite in the sense of the tempo that they run. Army is running the ball every play. But then they're also running the play clock down to five. You will not see West Virginia be doing that. So I don't know what that means for this game. Like initially, I would have thought this was going to be like a 17-13 game. But I really could see this being in the 20s. We're on the exact same page because we are sitting after the game, after the bowling green game, and we were watching Virginia, West Virginia.

12:19And I remember having this conversation about how well the total for this thing is going to be in like the upper 30s. And the more I've looked into it, the more I'm like, man, I don't think I want anything to do with that total. No. Because I could easily, the way Iowa State's linebackers over pursued last week in the abundance of mistackles. And then when I watched that back seven of West Virginia against Oklahoma State, holy crap. Like now, the good thing here that I like for Iowa State is the tackling thing. And the over-pursuit thing, I think, is a lot more coachable than the problems West Virginia is having. So this feel, that felt a little bit to me because I was a different animal. Like it's just a weird, I don't want to put too much, we never can put too much stock into the CYHAC game. And you all know why. We've talked about it for 20 years. But I thought, I think there could be that week one to week two jump for the Iowa State

13:23defense this week. Usually week one is your worst tackling week of the year. Right. But that was the first time they had really, really been tested in like a unique looks. All these different things. Mind is moving a million miles a minute. Give me Iowa State's defense. If they had 28 mistackles last week, I would like them to have 10 or fewer. Yeah. And Jimmy talked about this pretty in depth yesterday. And he put a lot of the tackling issues on him and Bob it. Essentially he said we did not make it clear enough what their job was. So when you're running the triple option or the modern day triple option, what Utah's doing, you essentially have three players that have to be accounted for. And if one player makes one misstep, then it throws everybody off. And it sounds like as much as anything like sure there was a couple tackles where they maybe let it there had a little too much and didn't wrap up.

14:23But it's unlike from Jimmy's perspective, more of it was based in just not not being certain and being hesitant in a way, which we haven't really seen Iowa State's defense do that this year where the over aggression maybe played against them. And I think that stuff will be cleaned up because while it is another unique offense, I don't think it's as unique or as tough to prepare for as Utah was from at least a scheme standpoint, but from a personnel standpoint like Hawkins and Cook are just like Hawkins is extremely fast. He might be the fastest player they see all year and Cook is a guy who can put his head down, get extra yards while also being super dynamic in the open field. So this to me comes down to a fundamental, how do you make your guy be better than their guy? And that's a challenge, but I think based off of their pedigree, they're up to it. It's just a matter of doing it.

15:24Good to Iowa State's offensive match up here in a minute. I want to thank our friends, the good doctors, doctors, Warmey and Leland from the McFarland Clinic. Of course, they are the doctors who are on the sideline with the cyclones. And we say it every week. Cheers to an easy week for those guys. Was a little bit scary a few weeks ago, obviously in that bowling green game, but James Singletary, we've not got our first injury report, by the way, which starting to really wonder about these injury reports in general. Do you hear what Jimmy said yesterday? Which part? When you asked about injuries, Rob asked him about injuries, and he said, yeah, another one, we're sending out these injury deals on Wednesdays. I don't know if I'm going to be talking injuries too much on Tuesdays. Oh, well, at least he's being honest. Yeah. So we'll see. I mean, he said that Drew Sergees was out there, and we just didn't see it. I don't, I think maybe he meant he was out in uniform.

16:30Okay, well, I didn't see him on the field either. I don't think he was credited with the snap, but maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. Regardless, well, thanks, thanks coach Rodgers for just being upfront about that. Yeah. I mean, if I was a coach, I would never talk about injuries, but I understand why I like fans and people want to know about them. You know, it's just got to look perspective. Just put yourself on someone else's shoes. Thank you, Jake. You're growing up on me, buddy. Thanks. Finally. No, doctors wore me and Leo and do a great job. And that brought me up to the Nagoya and Sergius thing. Again, Benny was out there, but he looked bad. He looked completely out of position on one snap, which I think was like a subbing error or something. Somebody didn't do something right. That might have resulted in the one like 2070 or touchdown pass that Johnson

17:33got burned on either. It may have been the same play. Well, I think it was the same drive. It was a third and long. And there was a little chair route or maybe it was a deep crossing route. There was nobody within 12 yards of the guy. So I for what it's worth, I'm going to pick I was to win on Saturday. So I'm feeling relatively optimist, very cautiously optimistic about this game. But there is. So let's do our buy cell hold segment with our friends from the Natoosal financial services. By the way, I'm using them now. Nice. Helping me and Ashley. Yeah, they're awesome. Clay Chase, the big time, big time, dude. So Natoosal financial services. Great cyclones. All right. So where I'm going to hold right now. Now on the team in general, because I'm a little concerned about how thin they're getting in the back ends of the secondary and also just pass catchers in general.

18:39I'm, you know, I papsed is a guy who we're kind of now like waiting on. Would you say that's urgent? Yeah, we didn't hear from it yesterday. I don't know. I didn't look good. And anytime a guy puts out an Instagram post with a bunch of pictures from the season and just a heart. I didn't usually not a great sign. Okay. So you see my point. Like I'm just again, I'm not selling. Yeah. But they are pretty thin. It's weird how this has happened. I was state for three, four years in a row now where the same positions are continuing to get hit. And I just, I want to see Benny back there specifically. The surges one I obviously would love to see him was told in fall camp that he was having as good of a camp as anybody on the defensive. And he looked awesome against Iowa. Yeah. Like obviously I want him back to the lockdown corner type thing is vitally important. They're just getting thin. And I'm probably more concerned about the defensive end because we

19:43thought that's where Iowa state was going to have to hang its hat. And they still can. But we start talking Miss Tackles and this particular team angles and all these different things feel a lot better if I knew those two guys were going to be out there. Yeah. So I'm reading a transcript. We thought Benny was going to be able to give us more than we got. I believe that too. And that's the like there's, I don't think he's lying about that. You can have a guy that's progressing. If you're looking for him to play Saturday, you can see him progress from Monday through Friday. And then you wake up and something's not feeling right or maybe maybe you were feeling up to practice speed. You weren't feeling up to game speed and that that comes out on Saturday. So I do think that. Give him another week. Negoi should be. I would think he would be looking more healthy this Saturday. I don't really know on surges. That's a, that's not situation.

20:45Kaden Crawford doesn't sound good, by the way. Max Balloon said they're like, oh, we're all praying for him and said, usually you don't like to hear that. You don't pray for a guy is probable. I mean, I do. Yeah, well, you're a good godfair and young man. Yeah. So that would be my hold because I just, I want to see more of these guys get back out there. With me, the wider see everything is it's hard because Hayes, Boyd, Paps, we haven't really seen any of these guys. We don't really know exactly what they are. I need to see more from Cody Jax and he's really done nothing. Aiden and I are both fans of of Mari Hayes. We think he can, we talk about him every game. Just find a way to get that guy the ball. My thing with Hayes, but the reason I brought that up is because Jimmy talked in his press conference extensively about how it's not all J.L. and Rainer. Right. And that's I'm going to buy just a, we're going to make a purchase.

21:53Buy a buy a Mari Hayes. Okay. And my I don't know if this is absolutely going to happen, but if I were the offensive coordinator, quarterback's coach right now, and I know that I've that Tyler Roll and Keith Hackendorf have forgotten more about football than all I've ever known. You've played more in C.A. football. Probably. My my pitch to Rainer, my my coaching would be yes, you probably don't want to focus too much on one guy, but at the same time, sometimes you have to focus too much on one guy because you are missing Hayes a lot throughout the game. When you watch the all 22, he's the guy who's always getting there. He's he's getting open. If they're passing the ball 25 times in a game, he's getting open like 15 to 20 those times. And we have seen a young Rocco back over you could absolutely say that he relied way too

22:53much on Jaden Higgins and J.L. and I think that ended up being good for the off. Kind of a nice crutch. Hunter Decker's relied way too much on Xavier Hutchinson. That pro that team's problem was not getting the ball down the field. It was scoring the ball throwing the ball way too much. And I don't know of Hayes as those guys, but he is always open and he's proven to be reliable. I think you just have to over throw him the ball. I don't think you can do it too much at this point because nobody else in that room has proven anything. The tight ends haven't proven a ton. I think if you're dropping back to pass, the ball should be going to Hayes, Flora and Petaway like 90% of the time at this point until someone else proves that they can emerge to be that go-to guy. And at that point, if you continue to get it to Hayes, you wait for teams to correct and then you hope, okay now, oh sorry, I forgot about Overbee. Overbee, he impressed me last week. So he's another guy, but

23:55that's more of a home run hitter. If you're like Overbee, if I had to make projection on Dominic Overbee, it would be a less successful version of Jay when Noel hear me out. Noel at the beginning of his career was kind of, he's going to be better than the guy that went to Texas, what was his name? Treek Milton. Treek Milton. But he won't be as successful as Noel, but both of those dudes, if you remember early on that we were told really real, and it took forever for that light to come on. Noel was like, he was good, but you kept like going, no, there's got to be more, there's got to be more, there's got eventually, I think that's going to hit with Dom Overbee and we're going to be like, wow, Iowa State's got a really good play. Do you want to hear a funny story about Jay and Noel? And it's more so about one of the morons in the Cyclone Phenatic after Dark Group Chat. I don't remember which one. Tell me which moron.

24:56I don't remember who it was. Flip of coin. Probably Matthias, but we were in full meltdown mode after the 2023 loss to Ohio as everyone was. And I remember somewhat of day. It was probably Levi, because Levi's always like the voice of logical reason. And he said, well, just remember, we didn't have Jaylen Noel. And someone said, who cares? Jaylen Noel sucks, he would have not fixed this offense. And to be fair, he hadn't done a ton to that point. And then Noel comes back the next week and he he puts together one of the best 16 game stretches in Iowa State football history after that. But the point is I'm buying Overbee. That's what I'll buy. We can buy Overbee and Hayes as a combination. Those have to be the two guys. They have to be. So are we selling the fact that the quarterback can actually get him the ball? I mean, I think we've got to hold it. I'm not throwing the under the bus, Jaylen, but man,

25:59it's a real thing. Like because when it was pretty, that passed, that touchdown passed, Overbee. And I hope Utah was chef's kiss. That was perfect. Great route. Great throw. Be more of that. I hope that second half was enough. Yeah. And I hope that they'll pick up some tempo a little bit more. See how that worked. It did feel like it does feel like Jimmy is, he's got this TJ Ozzelberger in him in my mind, where he's going to move his philosophy around to the team a little bit. Oh, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Not granted. None of us want Jaylen Raynor throwing it 40 times ever again. I don't want to ever see that again. But I also don't think that Jimmy is probably the type who's just going to keep pounding his head against this centering stone wall. No, he won't. Behind us if it's just not

27:00going to work. And that's another reason why, as we talk about this quarterback thing, I just, I really don't think they're interested in making a change. And I also think if they thought making a change would help the team win that they absolutely would. I think both of those things are true. There's a lot of elements that go into it. Yeah. Besides quarterback playing a lot of that is wider receiver play. We can talk about how often a Murray Hayes has been getting open. Not a lot of other guys have been getting open is the problem. And other guys have struggled to bring in the ball in critical moments. And that's why Hayes is the best one as far as getting open. Oh, no doubt. And that's why I think sure the overbe touchdown was cool. But I think it was a great route. I think overbe making the play on fourth down before that probably gave Raynor more confidence knowing, okay, I can throw it to this guy. He'll catch it. He'll make a play. So we're there's seeds here. The seeds have been planted. We've seen some sprouts. Can we have a full

28:04grown blade of grass on Saturday against West Virginia? That is the question. What else am I? What else do I want to sell? Well, you can think about it for a minute because I want to thank our friends at Central States roofing. Big time friends of ours here at Cycle and Finatic. These dagum roofs have been taken abiding. If your business has like a leaky roof, call our friends at Central States roofing. They're die hard. They're bad ass dudes. They're completely locally owned. They've been doing this for decades. Local ownership. They did Hilton call a CM for God's sake. You think they can handle your business? I think they can. I think they do a great job for you. CS roofing.com. While you're at it, you should also get some life insurance through Bloom and then get a will through Hope Wood, HopewoodJD.com. She gets your will done in a day.

29:06She's done probably hundreds of cyclone fans by now. I did it. Guess how long it took? A day. Do the guy could get one done before the Cubs game tonight? I don't know. Probably. I mean, you're a pretty young guy. What the hell is if you die? Pitching staff is going to kill me. If you die, what are we getting? My Xbox. You don't own any property. This coffee mug. I don't even know if it's mine. When you do it though, you go to the gravitate co-working down there in Windsor Heights. That's what I did. gravitate co-working.com. What are you selling? You got to sell something. Oh, buy that hoodie or that quarter zip. Jeff Dubrov just texted me. He said, Cedar Elite Quarter Zip. So I'd thank you. Shout that out. We love Dubrov. This is brand new for time. It's cool. I have it in my Braves wardrobe. I'll sell the Cubs. I'll sell enjoying sports. It's been like the worst sports week. I've had him quite some time. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and

30:10Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block or finally break down that long article you've had opened for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online makes sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability in a very 16-plus. Hey, it's Kelly Rowland. You may not know this, but I have Exama. So I get how it can still your time. But why let Exama take over when you can talk to your doctor about Epglis? Epglis, Lebrichizmab, LBKZ. A 250-mg per 2-mg leader injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older, who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kgs, with moderate to severe Exama. Also called a topic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin, or topicals, or who cannot use topical therapies, Epglis can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you are allergic to Epglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. I-problems can occur. Tell your doctor

31:11if you have newer, worsening eye problems, you should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglis. Before starting Epglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Paid partnership with Lily. Respect your time. Ask your doctor about Epglis and visit Epglis.com or call 1-800-LilyRX or 1-800-545-5979. Levi Stevenson, this is good. Think about selling my stock on a natural grass field. The grounds crew can only do so much in the field deteriorates so quickly. It is an interesting conversation. Well, and I'm selling Levi selling that. So we're selling CF after dark. Are we sending him back to corporate media? Go back to Vox. I don't know. For what it's worth, I completely understand his point. But we'll never get another September like this ever. This is so- I actually got bitchy with some soccer parents last night who were bitching at the league about all these. Sounds like soccer

32:12parents. I'm like, guys, this is insane. Every youth sport in Iowa is dealing with the same thing right now. How many freaking cross country meets have probably been rained out in high school? Golf? Come on, guys. But to Levi's point, the field has deteriorated a little bit more. And normally does. I would agree with that. But I would challenge everybody to think this way. It, I think, it's unique to Iowa State. I think that it is very Iowa State. And I think we should instead of taking the easy way out. I actually think we should dig in and invest more into it. That's what I would. Whatever that means and I'm not an expert, I do know those guys are working their ass off. There's nothing they can do about all this rain. Three home games in a row is brutal. Now you're having all these concerts. It's tough. It's tough deal. Yeah. And you look at it from a

33:20competitive advantage standpoint. I think, and I'll take the credit for the, or I'll take the downfall for this. I think I probably overplayed the field thing too much last week. And I was looking at it more from a how can it be a neutralizer? And I didn't necessarily think about it from the perspective that Utah has more speed. And Iowa State's not really used to this anyways. Like so many of these guys are new and haven't played on a field like that at game speed. Great point. The more you, the more you play on it, the more you have Rogers here and his guys here, they'll get used to it. By the way, I did ask about the Squib Kick. It wasn't a Squib Kick. Miss hit. He lost his footing. That's what I was told by somebody on the coaching side. That's good to know. Yeah. So like they were trying to do a cross. I'm trying to say this correctly, but they were trying to kick it to the one guy and not the other. Yeah. They have one guy who's better than the other. And can already just

34:21slipped. Yeah, which is yeah. So if you're wondering about that, I was told that very matter effectively, that was not a Squib Kick. The special teams coordinator did not make it. Yeah. Yeah. Really. We're talking about the grass and like that's a yeah. That's good to know. For the big 12, I think I'm going to bio call the state, which doesn't freaking time. What? I talk shit about them all off season. When? Oh, well, there's too much hype around Oklahoma. No, everybody's getting to an Oklahoma state. No, I didn't. You were targeting me the whole time because I was hype at Oklahoma state and like everywhere. No, no, no. No. I was making fun of people who were buying Oklahoma state and making it seem like they were the first person to realize this. I was in on Oklahoma state, but then Hassel comes on two guys one night. And after like three months of me talking about Oklahoma state on bigger than 12, he's like, I don't, I haven't really

35:24seen anyone talk about that. I think Oklahoma state's going to be pretty good this year. And then Andrew Harrington does the same thing in Monday, Musics. He's like, this is targeting all of our co-workers. I love it. I love it. Yeah. It was driving me insane. But I'm still buying them because I think they're really good because I think I had like an eight and four kind of that was my ballpark for them. I think they're better than that. And I I'm making the choice because a lot of our friends in the southeastern conference can ignore losses. I'm the Tulsa loss didn't happen. I didn't see it didn't I if I'm on the playoff committee. It doesn't matter because they weren't probably going to get in that large anyways. But they could. And I'm if I'm on the committee, I'm ignoring now. But my to me they are five and over it or four and over right now or three and no we can say it's a no contest. What are you talking about? Are you making fun of Nicole our box? No. Did you say stupid tweet? She put out. I did. Can you read it to me? Hayden put it

36:25up on the screen. It's one of the stupidest and she's really smart and she's like my thing is I actually really like her. I've hung out with her. I would love to argue with her about this though. I'm not saying she's stupid. I'm saying it was a stupid tweet. Like I just I cannot wrap my mind around this type of conversation. And I think I might use this for my going long segment tonight on on. Do as well. It's one of the most ridiculous things and this is why we we love this sport so much. And this is why we hate this sport. Hey, no, I'm going to let you read it. Okay. So for some context, she has an AP poll vote. Which the AP poll is hot garbage anymore. Yeah. Well, she put out her poll and she had Oregon at 14th Oklahoma state at 18th. So a lot of people were coming after. She responds says for those head to head truthers to me, the Tulsa loss is so bad it should drag down Oklahoma states overall resume to a point where I don't directly compare them to Oregon right

37:26now. Not after the ducks big win this weekend boosting their resume with two top 25 wins. I'm not about this head to head propaganda. I don't know who's I don't know who started valuing head to head. A bunch of morons. Let's get us a commit. Like it is a bad loss. Like I don't disagree with her. But like to be like, oh, I'm just going to ignore that these two teams just played two weeks ago. Well, so it is, but like it's just the whole if that was a big 10 team that you know what I mean, right? It's we all know it's how much bullshit this is. Um, this kind of goes, I don't know if we're going to talk any any basketball, but I'm kind of in this mindset right now of there's been so much that has gone against the big 12 in every narrative. And if there's a time where I can have any sort of power, which I don't, where I can be like, you know what? I'm just going to ignore that that loss ever happened. Like, oh,

38:29like they did with Ohio State against Virginia Tech a decade ago, or like they did with name the SEC game. I'm just going to ignore it. I'm in the same thing with Tame Lipsy. It's like, okay, I know I can be a hypocrite and say that I don't like when this happens, but it's about time. I'm kind of just like, you know what? If you can get the opportunity to take advantage of that stuff, go for it. I'm sick of the stacked decks. So when you get those opportunities, I'm going to do it. And I, I've been doing a top 25 myself. And I understand what Nicole is saying to an extent. Yeah, to an extent. If once you get later in the season, let's say, okay, I've got Georgia number three right now. And I've got Tennessee 15. If Tennessee beats Georgia, I'm not automatically putting Tennessee above Georgia because there's been nine games that have been played. It's the data points. Those Bob Bullsbees that we have all these data points. But if I have Georgia 13 and I have

39:33Tennessee 15 and the 15th team beats the 13th team and you, they're that close, you have to use head to head as a, as a data point. It has to be the tiebreaker. And I don't understand how at this point in the season, you could have organ above Oklahoma state. What offends me about her tweet, well, like personally, but you know what I mean is the fact that they just played. Yeah, we all watched it. Right. Like this wasn't like a year ago. It was somebody in the chat goes, if Oregon and Oklahoma state played 10 times Oregon wins nine, I mean, maybe Vegas agrees. Yeah, maybe, but Vegas doesn't make the eight people. But like we just saw it. Yeah. And I happened to think Oklahoma state's pretty damn good. That's another thing where I'm like, I'm watching this West Virginia defense. I'm telling you, Iowa state don't got those dudes. No, the Oklahoma

40:36state. Mastemaker looked like a top five pick in that game. I mean, the difference right now in the way Mastemaker's playing compared to Jalen Rainer, we're talking, I mean, it's a massive difference. So like it's hard for me to just go, well, the West Virginia defense sucks. Oh, we thought that about Oregon too after they played that West Virginia team and right, like so it's, I don't know. I'm selling these, I'm glad I'm selling Levi's take on the grass field. I'm holding out beyond on injuries and I'm buying Tom over B. I'm buying and selling stuff. I honestly don't remember what though. Yeah, it's fine. This has been over blonde by so hold. Let's do our waffles, Iberts, big 12 segment, shall we? Plant your independence. Plant waffles. Okay. Decent little slate of big 12 games here. I'm just pulling through my notes.

41:41I love it. Central Florida goes to Houston. Houston, they're gonna I will have Houston that spot. Aiden, I don't have point spreads on my notes here because you got them. You got them. Okay. That's an 11 a.m. kick on ESPN too. 12 and a half for the cubes. 51 and a half is the total. Probably a stay away from me, but I would probably, probably an under. If I had to, I would take the points. Okay. I don't see central Florida scoring more than I don't, I don't like the scene in this game. I wouldn't bet this game with Blooms money. But if you're a central Florida fan, this is a fun game. Like this is like a real opportunity for you. I like Houston getting central Florida off a win. Yeah. Middle Tennessee is at Kansas.

42:4318 and a half nobody cares. BYU at TCU. 6 p.m. ESPN. I thought this line would move. It's still at 6.5. I think I fell for the bait and I'm just I'm not I'm not jumping off the hook. I'm gonna stay on the hook. So yeah, I would agree with you. It feels just feels like a trap. It feels like a trap, but I also don't think anyone nationwide still respects BYU. We do this every year. And I know that they've got the 10 next to their name. I still don't think that there is a respect for how good BYU is. And it usually doesn't come until November. So I'm I'm getting ahead of the curve and I might say that this they trapped the other way. I think that BYU is gonna murder them. I would I would I would lay the 6.5 as well. I would also lay the 13 Texas Texas Colorado. No doubt. This just it's time,

43:48Joey. Make a statement. And aren't Joey and Prime like supposed to be buddies or something. Oh, are they? They are. But the reason I the one reason I point that out is sometimes you gotta keep your buddy in check. You know, right. Sometimes you gotta put all the L or down. You don't want to do it. Well, no, the other's made a quarterback change. Feel like Prime is just we're just scrapping over. It's all over. But it tech hasn't been good. And this is a they haven't they've been bad. This is a code red if they look bad to me. Like if if they can't figure it out this game, then I really will take them down a tier in the conference. Right now I've still got them on the BYU you taught tier. Because I can make plenty of excuses and I thought they're win over Houston, although they didn't play well. I thought it was impressive

44:49to bounce back. They haven't looked impressive in any of their other three games. And if they don't look impressive against Colorado, then I will be I will be mildly worried. But they also get Arizona State at home Cincinnati on the road Arizona at home before playing West Virginia local in the States. So they're they're schedule isn't hard. Really at all. It is turned the damn ball over too much. And I don't think that that good upfront defensively like they were here. So last year at least they had an identity even with the quarterback injuries. Right. Well, you're not scoring 14 on these guys. And now it's not as good. No. It's still a good front seven, but it's not a top three in the country like they were last year. I mean, arguably are they the best in the big 12? I don't know. Like which is shocking that we don't know. I wouldn't say they are right now. No, I don't I don't either. I think you town BYU are better up front. What a day for Iowa State to have an 11 a.m. kick though because there's so many good games at night.

45:50930 kick. We're going after dark. We're going to Tempey. We're going Baylor at Arizona State. And again, you want to talk about a game that feels like a total trap. I would hammer Arizona State. I think it's at four now. It was at three and a half Baylor late kick for them. So a 1030 kick their time. And but Arizona State is coming back from England. They had a week off though. Yeah. That game was like what a stupid game. Horrible. They gave us like 14 days ago. I this line of all the lines. I do this every Sunday night. I printed off and I circle. This one is the most egregious line of the week. Why? Well, we're not supposed to be talking about this ahead of our pool. But like why? We're supposed to make our picks. And why is this game so egregiously low?

46:50I don't I could see the analytics not loving Arizona State. So I get it. But I mean, they were right there with A&M, man. But if you're giving me, well, A&M might suck. They might suck. You're right. If you're giving me essentially a pick on is what you're looking because you're giving Arizona State three points for home field. If you were giving me Kenny Dillingham at home, all they need to do is be Baylor by four. A night game in the desert with the team traveling west against Dave Aranda. It what am I missing? However, I've been doing this long enough. This is a trap. Like this one scares the Bidikins out of me. Is that a real word? I don't know. I just made it up. Did you guys hear the word that Kenny Dillingham said the other day? You don't talk about let me see if I can find it. I don't know if I can pronounce it. I don't know what I'll stop my head. You speak in Lama, Jammer or something. You speak in Cam Skatabuse language. I love Dillingham. I still think he's the best coach in the

47:52big 12 for when it's worth. Then you have Cincinnati at Arizona 10 p.m. Give me the cats. Yeah. Give me the wild cat. That's like a seven point line. I like too many favorites this week in this league. Four time zones. Now for what it's worth, Iowa State is now a three and a half point favorite over West Virginia after opening as one and a half point dog. So serious action on the cyclones there. Don't think I would want to touch this thing. That's usually though when a line goes that far for one team, it's a good thing. When you have the reverse one team to dog. Now they're favorite. Generally that is what the professionals will bet on. So that's likely what has happened with Iowa State. And now they are trying to get it over the hook and three and they're trying to get the public money to come back to even this thing out with West Virginia. That's likely what's happening. Now that you said, I hate how many favorites I like this week. I like all the,

48:56you and me just think too much alike in this league. It's a problem. Is it though when your elite football minds like we are? I don't know. Don't want to think our can't pump ourselves up too much. A couple of other great sponsors here before we move on. Keen Project Solutions go to keenps.com. And I would encourage you to go to their careers page. I just did so in my iPad. They are employee owned now, which is really awesome. And I know the ownership here and these are great people. Keen Project Solutions. I love their headquarters in Ankini. They're now in Kansas City as well. Shout out to Carl Chevrolet and Ankini. They had their big one day sale last week, which was a roaring success. I love my new Silverado. Absolutely. You've ridden in that thing. You like it? Oh yeah. It's good ride, isn't it? Yeah. Nice ride. Can't miss it on the highway.

49:58Yeah. It's a cycle on phonetic Silverado. How do you like the new rap? It's cool. It makes it more cycle and stuff on it. Well, there could always be more. I actually have, I want to get one of the five bar put in the back. Big fan of the Pirates or them. Oh yeah. The nod to Mike Leach in the back. Yeah. Where's your cow logo? Stop it. We're going against cow this week. You and I'll be in Vegas. We are not supposed to be talking about this stuff before Wednesday evening. Group think is bad. Group think is very, very, very bad. Yeah. I mean, we're going to do our preview show tomorrow. Yeah. We really break this game down and we'll go more X's and O's. But I just, to me, not giving too much away. We're just formulating thoughts still on Wednesday. Nothing's official. But knowing what we know now,

51:08Iowa State wasn't ready for that Utah team. That team was just really good. And they may be a top 12 team in the entire country. Iowa State has, you know, always to go to get there from physical standpoint where, you know, in that Utah program, I know they have a first year coach, but it's not a first year program. The rich rod thing is super interesting because they basically did what Jimmy is doing this year last year. And then they did it all over again. Yeah. But what I see with these two teams, there's not as big of a physical difference between Iowa State and West Virginia as there was with Utah. So that I'm, I am in a pick Iowa State, the win. I'm not like crazy confident about it. But I think, I think that, um, I think this matches up better. And I think Jesse Bob it'll have that group ready. Yeah. I, I like the spot for Iowa State. I don't love it.

52:10Yeah. I like the 11am kick. I think that that probably plays a little bit in Iowa State's favor. I know you that goes against my philosophy where I think you'd rather be the 11am kick on the road. I think this, there's something about this team where you think slow starts 11am. They've kind of already started slow anyways. So if you can use that kick time to your advantage and force West Virginia into a slow start, then I, I really like whoever gets up first in this game. Huge key. The, the whole weather thing should be pretty nice too. I think this will be the first game for Iowa State where you're not having like crazy ass weather one way or not. Last I saw was 70. It's sunny. Zero percent chance of rain. I'll believe that when I see it. There's a zero percent chance of rain for the first game. Yep. Unbelievable. It has been a, it's been a slog at Jack Trice this year. And

53:12that's been awful. It should get good crowd. I hope hope so. Homecoming that. Aiden, how's the, like we come to you for the ag report every week. What is the planting or the combine situation right now? I haven't heard anything from my dad this week, but I'm guessing that no one is in the field. That's what I'm saying. Like it, it may be another week where guys can just get to the game and then you, it does not stop raining. Well, and right now, there's a whole other system that's like entering central Iowa right now, which sucks. And my heart goes out to those guys because then you don't want, you don't want that this time of year. Everything gets all moldy and diseased. Yeah. I mean, there's some people that are going to take their chances and they're going to end up with a calm mind getting stuck. That's happened at our farm before. Not good. Well, if anything good can come from it. Maybe these guys can get out and go enjoy homecoming and go to the game just a little bit. We'll see. I don't know. I like Jimmy Rogers playing to the crowd. Should we play that

54:17clip? Yeah, we'll do it. I think real quick Iowa clinic in the Iowa Clinic Men's Center. I told you guys last week. I just got my physical. And I do that now every year. My doctor encouraged me to do this to have it set same time every year. So I always do it in September, right when football's going. Start of my big big start of my year. I'm gonna make sure the blood works all good. Ready to go. Do it at the Iowa Clinic. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web. Like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online makes sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability. Very 16 plus. All right, let's go. Jimmy Rogers on the Iowa State crowd. This was a fun little quote. I do appreciate the fans that came out were a part of for one staying through a

55:18rough half football and honestly probably wanting to pull their hair out. But if we want to be the program we want to be and have the success that we want to be I can tell you first hand that everybody including Utah felt the momentum shift inside of that and the fans are a big part of that. Our players fed off that energy for that really probably 18 minute stretch where we were starting to get in rhythm. That's pivotal. Okay, so although you might want to rip your hair out with this football team at some times like we can be bald together but you still got to show up and stick with us and work through the hard times because I could promise you it will only get better and better the more we learn and grow as a football team. That's good stuff resonates with the crowd and I think that it is important like he he laid it all out there and like that third quarter man you mean you were down in the field you have a better rock and yeah and I thought the atmosphere in the first half was still good. You just get when you get down 21 it sucks the

56:21air out of the pool and I think crowds take on the personality of their coaches often we've seen that happen at Hilton Coliseum where Hilton has always been great I think it is elevated to a different level on the defensive end under TJ Altsberg because of the emphasis that puts on physicality and toughness and defense and I think and as our friends out in state college are going through right now Penn State fans are starting to feel kind of the not passiveness but we know how Matt Campbell would try and win football games that you get a lead and let's let's not beat ourselves essentially and I think the crowd over the decade maybe started to feel that when you're playing Ben but don't break defense it's not a very aggressive crowd like this Iowa State crowd has to get to the point where they are just as loud on first down as they are third because that's what

57:26big time college football programs do and I think that is what Rogers is getting at here and it'll take time but when you're a defensive first program that is an essential key to that and I think maybe next year or two years from now the people that are in the stands even if it's not a complete sellout I think they already are adopting that and will adopt that because there's nothing stopping the crowd from being like it was in the second half against Utah and Saturday of doing that in the first quarter nothing you're there get up cheer and I know I get it I'm I'm not in the crowd I'm working but people are capable of that and I would imagine I'm not calling out the people in our comments are watching this because those are the people that are getting on their feet and they're getting yelled at by someone to say hey sit down it's not there down so I think over time I hope

58:26that personality gets through the crowd yeah and I think it's a this is part of the building process yeah like I think it's an insanely fair thing to point out that probably the first two games at home a lot of us were holding programs and while we know who the guys are maybe you don't know exactly what number they are yet or you're starting to get to know them a little bit now like you we yeah favorite players and you know I like I like that slimgan guy you know what I mean like these types of things have developed and then you get more embedded into it and and and as Jimmy said with the team it keeps building and I think the crowd's relationship with the team will keep doing that as well I think it's all fair I think it's all natural it's just we've never really had to go through it here in this era of college football but we're we're there and I think that everybody can kind of see it's gonna be pretty good and I think there's an element of trust as well like when I walk into Hilton Coliseum and when the majority of that crowd walks into Hilton Coliseum

59:33there is a feeling and I know it's it's called Hilton Magic and that can that can mean a lot of different things but the the baseline of that is everybody in that building believes because of that building that there is no game that is loosable and that's why crowds at Hilton have willed that team to wins before we've seen it we've heard it Jack Tristadium is capable of that because it's not really the building sure the concrete roof at Hilton helps but it it's the trust and I was state for the most part of history until Matt Campbell had gotten there before Dan McCarny had gotten there everyone in that building had a reason to think that the team was going to find a way to lose we've got 25 years now of proving that that's not true and Jimmy Rogers adopts that philosophy better than anybody that they expect to win every game and I I think the end goal with Rogers here is that that entire fan base the 62,000 people in Jack Tristadium adopt that

1:00:36philosophy to have I don't care that it's number 15 Utah we're gonna win this game and I think the crowd can play a better part in that well we'll see well again pregame Jake and I record that on Thursdays and that'll be out for you where we'll go farther into the X's and O's of this thing and we have halftime and post game as well on game day we have another beat reporters which is coming back Jake has the day with clone every day other than Fridays on cycle and fanatic am I missing anything I don't think so I don't like so Ben Hutchins is coming on the beat reporters this week oh nice he pancés on his honeymoon so I had to forcefully tell him he cannot do the show and Hutchins covers since is so coddled with his you know yeah so 2026 oh enjoy your honeymoon Hutchins he covers Oklahoma state so he just had a first-hand look at West Virginia so we're gonna pick his brain on that that'll be awesome to get Ben back yeah very cool we miss him a lot thank you for

1:01:40filling in for bloom blooms out there saving lives learning the insurance game god bless him over at farm bureau aid Wyatt producing the show as always again beat reporters coming up stay tuned like subscribe follow all that good stuff cycle and fanatic and we'll be back on Thursday later