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Speaker: Welcome everybody into the final Warm Weather Fans Sunbelt Podcast episode of 2023.
Speaker: We are wrapping up bowl season here and just sort of putting a bow on the season as a whole.
Speaker: Joined this week by Matt Miguez and Zeke Palermo.
Speaker: As always, I want to apologize to the listeners because last week Matt was going crazy on the soundboard and none of it
Speaker: translated to the episode itself so there were multiple times where i went back and re-listened to it while i was editing it and was like we sound like we are insane because we're referring to sound effects that did not happen uh with that said i'm gonna throw it to matt first how's it going how was your holiday and then we throw it over to zeke and then we can get started
Speaker: Holiday was really good.
Speaker: To our listeners, I promise I'll keep my hands away from the soundboard until we figure out how to translate it into the episode.
Speaker: But no, man, holidays were good.
Speaker: It's always good to spend a couple extra days with the fam because when you work in this business, I mean, especially in the fall, time with your family is few and far between.
Speaker: So it was good to get away for a couple of days.
Speaker: About to get away for a couple more days with New Year's.
Speaker: And then, man, January 2nd, we're going to get right back to it again with basketball and baseball.
Speaker: But no, really looking forward to the end of this football season.
Speaker: New Year's weekend is always the best football of the year.
Speaker: Stucks that there's no Sunbelt teams playing this late.
Speaker: But still plenty of good Sunbelt games to talk about.
Speaker: Speak for yourself with the basketball and the baseball.
Speaker: I go into hibernation like a bear.
Speaker: Zeke, how are you doing?
Speaker: I'm doing all right.
Speaker: I spent the holiday at my parents' house.
Speaker: You know, had a good time.
Speaker: My siblings got me this incredible mic.
Speaker: So you can now hear my voice and, you know, some brilliant HD quality.
Speaker: And I got some headphones, too.
Speaker: So I'm hearing you two fellas better than I ever have before.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Very exciting time over here for me.
Speaker: Well, good to hear.
Speaker: We've got a lot of games to recap from the past week or so.
Speaker: Let's get into the first one here.
Speaker: This was going on while we recorded our last episode, but...
Speaker: UTSA defeats Marshall 35-17 in the matchup of the Children of Former NFL Quarterbacks Bowl.
Speaker: We had Owen McCown against Cole Pennington.
Speaker: Marshall got on the board early.
Speaker: It was 14-0, I think, when we signed off last week.
Speaker: And then UTSA basically just put the brakes on that and said,
Speaker: No more.
Speaker: We're done with this.
Speaker: And outscored Marshall the rest of the game 35-3.
Speaker: Dominated the rest of the game.
Speaker: Owen McCown played pretty well.
Speaker: Two touchdowns, two picks, 251 yards.
Speaker: Cole Pennington kind of turned in a...
Speaker: regular Cole Pennington performance, you know, below 50% completion percentage, uh, had 258 yards, but you know, with it all said and done, uh, UTSA walks out the winners, uh,
Speaker: I want to throw this to Matt to start off with.
Speaker: This game is the ultimate encapsulation of Marshall's problems this year, which is, A, you can't decide on a quarterback.
Speaker: And we've talked about the issues with Cam Fancher.
Speaker: We've talked about Cole Pennington on and off throughout the season.
Speaker: Rasheen Ali runs for 92 yards, averages 10 yards a carry, and has a touchdown.
Speaker: And they lose this game by 18 points.
Speaker: Like, what is it going to take for them to finally get a quarterback in here and say, hey, you know what?
Speaker: We need to take some heat off of the running game because this has been ridiculous this season with what both we talk about Frank Gore with Southern Miss.
Speaker: We talk about Rasheen Ali with Marshall.
Speaker: The running game has just been absolutely taken a beating this season as a whole.
Speaker: What Charles Huff should do is he should see if the Marshall University biology department can reincarnate Chad Pennington and let him play quarterback.
Speaker: Because, I mean, golly, he's got to be better than his kid, right?
Speaker: Also, let me say, speaking of kids of former players, Owen McCown looks just like his daddy.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: I mean, that is, I took one look at his headshot, and I was like, yep, that's a McCown.
Speaker: That fits.
Speaker: But no, man, look, this was one of those games where Marshall jumps out to a big lead and started to feel good about themselves.
Speaker: And UTSA answered back quickly.
Speaker: They scored 14 points in about three minutes.
Speaker: And then Marshall kind of sat there and said, oh, crap.
Speaker: What do we do now?
Speaker: marched down the field and got a field goal, made it 17-14, and then again didn't have an answer for what UTSA did right there at the end of the half, scored a touchdown with less than a minute to take the lead at the break, and in the second half it was really all UTSA.
Speaker: And that's kind of been Marshall's issue a lot of the season, right?
Speaker: They've jumped out to leads and they've looked good for a quarter or so, and then they kind of get complacent and panic on themselves.
Speaker: the opponent's able to come back and run away with it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Marshall's biggest problem, no doubt about it as a quarterback.
Speaker: Look, everybody bashed on Grant Wells when, when he was playing at Marshall.
Speaker: I don't think the kid was that bad.
Speaker: To be honest, I think he was a better quarterback than any of the ones we've seen since he's departed.
Speaker: Um, so look, they're, they're going to have to address that this off season, whether it be the transfer portal or they believe highly in a kid that, that is behind, um,
Speaker: who was Cam Fancher.
Speaker: We'll see how that plays out over in the spring.
Speaker: But look, they have other issues, no question about it, but their running back room is solid with Rajin Ali unless he enters the transfer portal, which he should.
Speaker: But for Marshall's quarterback situation, that's priority 1A.
Speaker: They got to go figure that out.
Speaker: Zeke, it wasn't a banner day either for Marshall's past defense.
Speaker: Again, you've got a guy in Owen McCown who has been playing behind Frank Harris all year, and he throws for 251 and two touchdowns.
Speaker: He did throw two interceptions as well, but that kind of goes with the territory.
Speaker: I mean, I know that they've made changes to their coaching staff with the end of this season, but
Speaker: But where does Marshall even go from here other than trying to find a quarterback in the transfer portal?
Speaker: Because it seems like Owen Porter was the one player on the defense that you could kind of hang your hat on, but that's not enough to build an entire defensive strategy on.
Speaker: So where does Marshall sort of...
Speaker: build from here?
Speaker: Are we looking at a potential Charles Huff exit next year?
Speaker: I'm very interested to see with this program what expectations are and where they think they should be versus where they have been this year.
Speaker: I think we are rapidly approaching Charles Huff's the end of his tenure.
Speaker: And I think what's really telling is, and we saw this from a couple different
Speaker: Sunbelt schools at the end of the regular season was like a tweet or a public statement from the athletic department, from the football team that this year was not up to our standards.
Speaker: This is not the Marshall way.
Speaker: This is, you know, unacceptable for how we operate here, but we're going to continue to trust coach up was the, uh, the narrative or, you know, what we heard out of, uh,
Speaker: marshals camp following the end of the regular season that vote of confidence as it tends to be for struggling football coaches at any level is a death wish you know it's kind of the kiss of death because now it's public knowledge that they're unhappy with how he's done over his tenure um
Speaker: you know, Marshall has not granted.
Speaker: This is only year two for them in the conference.
Speaker: This is not, I'm certain they had higher hopes when they moved over to the sun.
Speaker: So I think the biggest thing to watch really is whoever, whoever comes in to play the edge role that Owen Porter did, whoever's, you know, ends up as quarterback next season, but it's,
Speaker: How thin is the ice for Charles Hough is the story going forward for Marshall?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, we'll certainly need to see.
Speaker: Like I said, you know, I do feel like being outscored 35-3 after going up 14-0 is pretty unforgivable.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: disregarding even the quarterback situation, but then you also have to take into account that UTSA was in the exact same boat as Marshall was with having to put a new quarterback in the game and then saying...
Speaker: you know, we're going to figure it out from here.
Speaker: So we'll have to see where this team goes in 2024, but Marshall ends their year six and seven, uh, UTSA ends their year nine and four.
Speaker: Um, let's get into the next game here.
Speaker: Uh, Duke defeats Troy 17 to 10.
Speaker: Um, I, I'm going to be honest.
Speaker: I,
Speaker: I'm definitely not making excuses for Troy because other than neither team had their head coach right on the sideline.
Speaker: Like both head coaches have moved on.
Speaker: However, I did I did read that Troy apparently contracted a stomach bug leading up to this game and caused a lot of their players to sort of be under the weather going in.
Speaker: This was a game, I was flipping back between this one and the Arkansas State-Utah State game.
Speaker: This was a game of Troy just not being able to kind of get out of their own way.
Speaker: So I'm going to give a perfect example of the first couple drives of the way that this played out, and then I'll throw it over to Zeke.
Speaker: But Troy punts to start the game.
Speaker: They get the first drive, they punt.
Speaker: They force a Duke turnover.
Speaker: Then they get the ball on the Duke 37 and they score a rushing touchdown, except there's a holding call on the same play.
Speaker: So then a couple of plays later, they settle for a field goal attempt and they missed the field goal.
Speaker: Those were the type of things that sort of encapsulated what Saturday looked like for Troy.
Speaker: It was...
Speaker: Duke's defense making it very difficult on them.
Speaker: And honestly, you know, Gunnar Watson didn't play all that well.
Speaker: Kamani Vidal was good, but not his super explosive efficient self.
Speaker: And, you know, again, I can't make excuses because Duke also didn't have their starting quarterback in Riley Leonard.
Speaker: So it's kind of is what it is, but I,
Speaker: It was one of those where you could tell pretty early on the way that this was going to go.
Speaker: You were going, you watch the first couple of drives, you know, like I did and tune back in accordingly and say, oh, no, Troy's in some real trouble.
Speaker: They they're not going to be able to get out of this one, you know, scot free.
Speaker: So, Zeke, what did you sort of see out of this game, you know, and kind of compare it to the Troy team that we had seen, you know, all year?
Speaker: I mean, first and foremost, the defense is as good as it was in the regular season, which I think bodes very well for this team moving forward as we try to figure out what the new identity of Troy is going to be.
Speaker: Post-John Sumrall, I think the fact that the defense performed, you know, held Duke to only 17 points in this game is a very big challenge
Speaker: green flag, but you know, you're not certain if it'll translate into next season success, but the fact that they didn't get walked over, I think has to be something that you're very excited about.
Speaker: You mentioned Kimani Vidal's
Speaker: underperformance.
Speaker: I mean, he, he was shy of, you know, a little shy of five yards for carry.
Speaker: So you can't say he performed note, you know, terribly, but this is a guy that in the semifinal championship game ran for nine yards of carry with five touchdowns.
Speaker: So the, the difference in yardage there and, and no ground touchdowns for no touchdowns at all for Vidal was a noticeable difference, but I,
Speaker: I didn't really like what I saw from Gunnar Watson.
Speaker: And you mentioned that he, he was one of the players that was experiencing some symptoms of this stomach bug that was going around.
Speaker: But I mean, he had completed under 60% of his passes.
Speaker: This is the first time all season.
Speaker: He didn't throw a passing touchdown all year.
Speaker: I mean, he finished the season with six picks.
Speaker: So the one interception he throws was a real anomaly.
Speaker: I, I,
Speaker: I think Troy can't be terribly upset with this result if we're talking about mindset of the program because he lost by only seven, which, you know, he didn't get walked by a P5 school without your head coach, without your quarterback fully healthy and without your star running back performing to his standards.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: You know, Troy, I think Troy's in a really good spot.
Speaker: We talked about this last week and the week prior is we've kind of figured out where Troy moves as Summerall goes to Tulane and they, you know, a new era begins here very quickly.
Speaker: I think Troy's in a really good spot.
Speaker: And I think they really, they showed that against Duke.
Speaker: Matt, what do you think Troy should kind of take away from this?
Speaker: You know, you,
Speaker: You're obviously playing a game with two missing head coaches.
Speaker: Duke's also missing their quarterback.
Speaker: What do you think they should take away from this?
Speaker: Should they be encouraged that they can hang with a P5?
Speaker: What should be the message after the game?
Speaker: Defensively, you should absolutely be encouraged.
Speaker: Outside of that first quarter touchdown and two-point conversion, you held them to field goals the rest of the way.
Speaker: So defensively, you absolutely should be encouraged.
Speaker: I mean, the defense was incredible.
Speaker: Offensively, I mean, again, you left a lot to be desired.
Speaker: Gunnar Watson looked a little sluggish.
Speaker: It's crazy that we're talking about Kamani Vidal averaging over four yards a carry.
Speaker: Like, oh, man, that guy didn't play well.
Speaker: Like, that just goes to show you how good he's been throughout the year.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Look, I mean, at the end of the day, it is what it is.
Speaker: Bowls are kind of hard to predict and to look at because Troy's situation was a little different because of the conference championship game, but they hadn't played in three weeks.
Speaker: And you hadn't played in three weeks.
Speaker: You lose your head coach.
Speaker: So that just completely changes the way practices are run and, you know, things of that nature.
Speaker: There's obviously distractions.
Speaker: So bowls are incredibly difficult to try to figure out in that instance.
Speaker: So for me, you know, you look at it and go, okay, yeah, we lost by seven to a P5 school, but we still finished 11-3.
Speaker: We still won the conference.
Speaker: Um, we've still got great pieces coming back next year and we've got great players coming in.
Speaker: Um, and you've got to feel good about your head coaching hire, uh, coming from Notre Dame.
Speaker: Granted their offense wasn't great.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But clearly, you know, they see something in Jared Parker, and, you know, we'll see how that works out.
Speaker: Some of his hires over the next couple weeks are going to be crucial to how he builds this program.
Speaker: But no, if you're Troy, you're very encouraged by what you saw last Saturday and just hope to keep building on it as you go into the spring.
Speaker: So Troy ends their season 11-3.
Speaker: Duke is 8-5 to close things out.
Speaker: Just taking these games in order as they appear on ESPN.com, we've got Arkansas State playing Northern Illinois.
Speaker: Northern Illinois edges out the Red Wolves for the 21-19 win.
Speaker: The final score, I feel like, is... What?
Speaker: I'm sorry, but that onside kick call was awful.
Speaker: Awful.
Speaker: Once again, and look, I am the guy that says you should never leave a game up to the refs.
Speaker: And believe me, there's opportunities where Arkansas State could have been ahead to where, you know, whatever.
Speaker: Awful.
Speaker: Once again, a horrible officiating decision has completely flipped a game.
Speaker: Completely flipped a game.
Speaker: I watched the replay of this onside kick in 15 times.
Speaker: Never once did I think he was offside.
Speaker: Never once.
Speaker: It's awful.
Speaker: And again, I've never been an advocate for computerized referees and umpires or whatever, but we're getting close because despicable.
Speaker: Anyways, go ahead.
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Speaker: Well, this was an interesting game because you had...
Speaker: a bunch of weird things all happened.
Speaker: You had Northern Illinois owns the time of possession.
Speaker: They have the ball for 40 minutes of this game.
Speaker: We're just content running the ball with Ontario Brown.
Speaker: He goes for 132.
Speaker: You had a kicker run for a touchdown on a trick play for Northern Illinois.
Speaker: And honestly, this one, you know...
Speaker: I like the fact that Arkansas State fought to kind of get back into it, but this game was kind of over midway through the second quarter.
Speaker: As soon as, you know, you had the trick play happen, it's 21-7, and then Arkansas State doesn't touch the ball very much throughout this game, so then you've got...
Speaker: a team that doesn't have a lot of possessions needs to play catch up in a game where it's a two possession game.
Speaker: And, and it just comes back to end up biting them.
Speaker: You know, they, they get a Corey Rucker touchdown pass with a minute 14 left.
Speaker: They don't get the two point conversion.
Speaker: You know, Matt, Matt talked about the onside kick, like everything that could have gone wrong for Arkansas state in this game.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Did, um,
Speaker: Just a weird game overall.
Speaker: I mean, it was one of those where clearly Northern Illinois, the game plan was, we just need to take the ball out of, you know, Jalen Rayner and all these other guys that Arkansas State has hands and then kind of formulate, you know, what we're going to do offensively from there.
Speaker: But, you know, Zeke Matt kind of talked about the onside kick and all of that sort of stuff.
Speaker: This was very much not a game that Arkansas State, I feel like, is in very often in the Sun Belt, where you are playing a very ball-controlled opponent who wants to hold the ball and just milk clock and eat minutes and things like that.
Speaker: Do you think they were sort of, I don't want to say shell-shocked, but do you think they were sort of thrown off by the game plan of, okay, we're not going out trying to score 100 points.
Speaker: Like, we're trying to score a couple of touchdowns, and then we're just going to, like, milk clock.
Speaker: Do you think they were kind of thrown off by that?
Speaker: I think it's certainly a different style of game than they're used to, especially when you consider that they play in the West and kind of dodge...
Speaker: uh two of the other two of the teams I think in the conference that run the ball the best this season obviously Troy who is in the west but in the east of Georgia State and then uh App State have just ran the ball incredibly incredibly well this season uh and for for that reason I think it I think you're right there there is a level of
Speaker: being unexpected, but it's been no secret that I'm not exceptionally high on Butch Jones in Arkansas State.
Speaker: I don't know if they won the six games requisite to be here.
Speaker: I don't know if they necessarily deserve to be in a bowl game this season, so I wasn't totally shocked.
Speaker: I'll disagree with you, Matt.
Speaker: I thought as ticky-tack and as unfortunate as the offsides call on the onside kick was,
Speaker: It was clear as day that they had two players, when you watch it back, they're at the top of the screen, kind of break the plane of where the ball is, so they're clearly offsides.
Speaker: And I thought the two-point conversion that even put themselves in that position was an utter disaster.
Speaker: It felt like Jalen Rayner just threw the ball away on a two-point conversion to tie the game.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: they weren't even putting themselves in a position to not need the onside kick.
Speaker: And then I'm not certain how many timeouts they had after the onside kick, but Butcher Jones goes right into calling a timeout.
Speaker: I don't know if he wanted that reviewed or what, but that, again, felt like poor clock management on that end because, but why are you wasting it?
Speaker: The clock's not moving, dude.
Speaker: They're starting to drive here.
Speaker: So I understand this idea that they,
Speaker: could feel robbed, but I, the offsides was clear as day.
Speaker: They put themselves in a very poor position with a very poor, I thought Jalen Rayner really did just throw the ball away to avoid a sack on that, on the two point conversion.
Speaker: So I don't know if I have much empathy for them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I've, I've never been the biggest Butch Jones proponent.
Speaker: So, um,
Speaker: all of the things with time management concerns, all of that is very much resonant of sort of how I feel about him.
Speaker: Matt, do you have any sort of last-minute thoughts on this game?
Speaker: I mean, we talked about the onside kick, but do you have any other... The thing that I've noticed is, and we'll get to some other games, but it has felt very much like the Sun Belt has prepared...
Speaker: these teams for one very much style of play where it's points, points, points.
Speaker: It's all the time.
Speaker: It's we need to score as many points as we can possibly get our hands on.
Speaker: And then when they go play these MAAC teams, it's very much like, let's slow it down.
Speaker: We're not interested in scoring all of that.
Speaker: We're going to run the football.
Speaker: We're going to establish it.
Speaker: We're going to run play action stuff.
Speaker: Like, we're going to own the clock.
Speaker: And it just seems like at least this bowl season, like the Sunbelt teams have not been...
Speaker: I mean, Georgia Southern included, Arkansas State included, they just haven't really been prepared for that style of play.
Speaker: Do you agree with that?
Speaker: God.
Speaker: The mute button again, man.
Speaker: And I even pressed it, so I don't understand.
Speaker: But anyways.
Speaker: Um.
Speaker: I was on a podcast a couple hours ago, and it happened to me on there also.
Speaker: But I completely agree.
Speaker: You could just tell the way Arkansas State was playing defensively.
Speaker: And even to an extent, UL, with Jacksonville State and Conference USA, again, kind of the same thing.
Speaker: Run the football.
Speaker: Now, granted, Jacksonville State was very much up-tempo, but they wanted to play that smash-mouth, run-the-football type of offense that
Speaker: And you really just were unprepared for it because the Sun Belt has become a pretty pass-heavy league.
Speaker: But, you know, look, I will say this in closing about Arkansas State.
Speaker: I know you lost and it was on questionable, you know, two-point plays and a questionable onside kick call, no matter which side of the coin you see it as.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: You have to feel positive if you're Arkansas State after this one because the way the Butch Jones tenure has gone so far, for you to even be in a bowl game, was a major success with a freshman quarterback.
Speaker: So you've got to feel good about this one.
Speaker: Take it into the offseason.
Speaker: Take it into the future.
Speaker: And hopefully Butch Jones can build on this because he's bought himself another year, maybe even two, in Jonesboro with this one.
Speaker: Yeah, obviously closing out this game, but when I was coming up with the getting people inside baseball, when I was coming up with the memes to post for our Twitter account, and when I was looking at the different quarterback play, I was like, Louisiana and Arkansas State are very similar in that they have found these kind of
Speaker: electric freshmen that have mobility and things like that.
Speaker: And I was like, we need to sort of communicate that that is the case.
Speaker: The fact that he has found Jalen Rayner,
Speaker: is will like what Matt just said, will extend his coaching career at Arkansas state another couple of years because the AD will look at him and go, okay, well, Jalen Rainer is only a freshman.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, Jalen Rainer is only a sophomore.
Speaker: And, and when those kinds of things happen, unless their defense is an absolute, you know, mess next season, like,
Speaker: He'll get another year in 2025 probably because he's identified something in the quarterback position that you can't sort of quantify as, as like, this is a guy we need to go find.
Speaker: Like they have found it.
Speaker: It is established.
Speaker: Like if you can keep him in Jonesboro,
Speaker: moving forward into the future.
Speaker: I think that he's got a real bright future ahead of him.
Speaker: But regardless of that, Arkansas State ends their season six and seven.
Speaker: Northern Illinois ends their season seven and six.
Speaker: You know, I talked about it a little bit ago, but if you want to talk about establishing the run,
Speaker: Air Force did just that against James Madison.
Speaker: I personally was surprised that Jordan McLeod even suited up for this one.
Speaker: I think in hindsight, maybe wanted to sit this one out and just sort of preserve that mystique about him of being Sunbelt Player of the Year because he played well.
Speaker: But other than Surratt, his receiver, he was really deprived of players all over the field.
Speaker: And they were not ready for what Air Force was getting ready to throw at him.
Speaker: Was Emmanuel Michel going for 203 yards and two touchdowns and just totally throwing James Madison or...
Speaker: I guess what was left of James Madison post transfer portal, totally off their game.
Speaker: They, they were not ready for the style of offense at all.
Speaker: Um, and, and you want, you want to talk about owning time of possession?
Speaker: Air Force had the ball for 36 minutes of this game.
Speaker: So, um,
Speaker: Matt, we talk about this all the time when we talk about Sunbelt teams playing triple option teams, whether it be Army, Navy, Air Force, pretty much just the service academies, and even the incoming Kennesaw States moving up here in a little bit, and they run the triple option.
Speaker: But talk about how James Madison got caught off of guard in this game, because, again, you've got...
Speaker: a great football team.
Speaker: I know they're missing a ton of coaches who have moved on to IU by now, but you've got Jordan McLeod, you've got Surratt.
Speaker: You had, I think, one of their defensive linemen, and I can't remember exactly who it was, got it done.
Speaker: So talk a little bit about how did Air Force kind of catch them off guard, you know, being that they were such a good defense.
Speaker: Well, I think the biggest thing is you brought up the amount of people that went into the transfer portal.
Speaker: I think the game became a mismatch.
Speaker: Because, look, Air Force was 8-0.
Speaker: at one point this year before losing their final four games of the year.
Speaker: And in that 8-0 run, they relied heavily on their offense.
Speaker: They were one of the better offenses in the country statistically.
Speaker: So I think you mix that with the fact that James Madison lost so many players, especially on the defensive side, to the transfer portal, you were at a mismatch.
Speaker: The fact that Jordan McLeod came back and Elijah Surratt came back was able for them to keep it a little bit closer.
Speaker: But at the end of the day, I mean, you talk about Emmanuel Michel, 35 carries, 203 yards.
Speaker: I mean, you're not beating that.
Speaker: And look, credit to Air Force.
Speaker: They understood the cliche, what the kids say.
Speaker: They understood the assignment.
Speaker: And it was, look, it was ground and pound.
Speaker: It was, you know, wear their defense down or what was left of their defense and just kind of keep it, you know, in...
Speaker: Keep the game the way you wanted it to be played.
Speaker: And Air Force did a nice job of doing that, and they came away with the win.
Speaker: But look, if you're James Madison, it's hard.
Speaker: Again, I'm going to go back to Troy.
Speaker: It's hard to look at this as a failure.
Speaker: Obviously, you came up short in your bowl game, and that's going to happen.
Speaker: But I mean, man, 11-1, you were ranked in the top 25.
Speaker: College game day came to your school.
Speaker: You're you had such a good year.
Speaker: Your coach got poached by a big 10 school.
Speaker: Like for the Sunbelt.
Speaker: I mean, that's you had a hell of a year like that.
Speaker: That's incredible.
Speaker: People will write books about this year at James Madison, you know, in 15 years from now, more than likely.
Speaker: And so you've got a lot of positives to build on now with your new coaching staff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It'd be nice if you could hold on to Jordan McLeod.
Speaker: We'll see if Bob Chesney is able to do that or not.
Speaker: But again, credit to Air Force.
Speaker: They were able to get it done.
Speaker: They knew what they had to do, and they went out and did it.
Speaker: So, I mean, not much more else to say than that.
Speaker: Yeah, and I mean, to kind of add on to the...
Speaker: accolades or whatnot that Matt was just sort of cycling through.
Speaker: You were also a hair away from not even making a bowl game.
Speaker: I mean, I'm fairly sure you had to root for what, seven of 12 teams to lose the last week of the regular season in order to secure, you know, even being in a bowl game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, and I mean,
Speaker: It's crazy that you even got to this stage of the season because honestly, in a normal college season, you're not even in a bowl game at this stage.
Speaker: But Zeke, was there anything else that you sort of took away from this?
Speaker: I mean, we talked about Air Force owning the time of possession.
Speaker: You know, we talked about...
Speaker: we don't know what James Madison's future holds, right?
Speaker: Because McCloud's technically in the portal.
Speaker: Uh, Surratt's in the portal, even though they played these games.
Speaker: I think Kalon Black is even in the portal, the running back who played for them.
Speaker: Um...
Speaker: And so, you know, Bob Chesney on paper looks like a great hire, but he might not be having a ton of pieces from that team come back.
Speaker: But as it sort of stands today, you know, looking forward, James Madison's got to have a fairly bright future, right?
Speaker: Okay, round two.
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Speaker: I was shocked that they let Jordan McCloud play and didn't try to, you know, fish someone up on the depth chart and see how he looks.
Speaker: But yeah, it's...
Speaker: Going to come down to how well does Bob Chesney recruit to replace the holes that they're going to have and how well do his replacements for the swaths of James Madison coaches that are being plundered by Indiana.
Speaker: And, you know, likely as we go through this offseason, we'll probably see a couple more leave, if not for Indiana, for other probably P5 positions.
Speaker: James Madison, man, Brian, you'll remember, it might have been the first podcast you and I did together last year, last season, as we previewed the East.
Speaker: I thought James Madison was going to be a two-win school last year.
Speaker: And I'm absolutely shocked in the best possible way at how well this team has transitioned.
Speaker: And I think it says a lot about the leadership, not just Signetti, but, you know, from the athletic department.
Speaker: I think it says a lot about their, you know, their support from the, you know, the school side of it, from their fans.
Speaker: James Madison is now the poster child of FCS transitions.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And in the Sunbelt, we've seen a lot of really good transitions.
Speaker: Southern, App, hell, even Georgia State transitioned interestingly well.
Speaker: So you mentioned when Kennesaw State comes up, I think Delaware might be coming up to the FBS in the coming years.
Speaker: This is now the litmus test.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: if you're joining one of a G five conference in your first, I can't imagine you're moving up to FBS and immediately joining a P five.
Speaker: But as you join the FBS, this is now the blueprint, what James Madison has done.
Speaker: These, I mean, flirting with conference championships, double digit win seasons.
Speaker: And I'm sure I think that might in the long run hurt,
Speaker: teams making the transition because now you're being held to such a high standard, but it certainly is an enticing offer for a team as Kennesaw State joins Conference USA next season.
Speaker: They could be an interesting team to watch, and this is a story that I think three years ago you could not have convinced anybody to look out for.
Speaker: So, I mean, James Madison's in a great place, and they've done a lot of really good things for this conference and for teams moving up from FCS.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely agree there.
Speaker: So to close it out, James Madison ends their season 11-2.
Speaker: Air Force ends 9-4.
Speaker: Let's get into this next game here.
Speaker: Zeke, this was your game, the Idaho Potato Bowl.
Speaker: Georgia State runs away with this one 45-22.
Speaker: You were pretty down on the Panthers coming into this one, and they just...
Speaker: They dominated.
Speaker: I mean, I watched the early part of this game.
Speaker: I mean, I watched most of the first quarter, but it felt like Utah State just sort of threw the towel in after the first quarter of this game.
Speaker: Kind of take us through what happened here and how Georgia State was almost able to roll up, you know, like 700 yards of offense, I think, when it was all said in
Speaker: So the reason that I was so doom and gloom about this last week was based on two facts, Marcus Carroll and the offensive line, but not playing in this game, Marcus Carroll, um, I think finished second in the sunbelt for rushing yards, certainly top 10 in the country.
Speaker: Uh, and this offensive line, I said it last week, um,
Speaker: And I've said it before, I think Georgia State had the best offensive line this season.
Speaker: Marcus Carroll transferring to Missouri did not play.
Speaker: Casey Adams, his backup also transferring out, did not play.
Speaker: Four of five offensive line starters did not play in this game.
Speaker: And Georgia State is a team that is incredibly reliant on the rush.
Speaker: I'd say more so than any team in the Sun Belt.
Speaker: Um, and then here comes this guy, Freddie Brock, who did a couple of years at Maine and FCS school.
Speaker: Didn't do a ton for them.
Speaker: He had one year where he, you know, he was a primary back for them, but he had six carries going into this game, six carries at the FBS level.
Speaker: And he ran for 276, which I'm certain I'm like, I,
Speaker: I'm 99% sure is a school record.
Speaker: This guy ran the hell out of the ball.
Speaker: And Darren Granger showed up.
Speaker: I mean, he can't say enough about his performances.
Speaker: Three incompletions all game and then 111 rushing yards on the green.
Speaker: I think this is what Coach Sean Elliott does best.
Speaker: is prepare his guys for games like these.
Speaker: It is no secret that he is best at being a motivator, at getting his guys fired up.
Speaker: Again, I've said it before.
Speaker: What is he known for across the country?
Speaker: If you know anything about him, it's the video of him getting in his guys' faces and running linemen drills with them because that's just what he does.
Speaker: He gets these guys going.
Speaker: He gets them up for these bowl games.
Speaker: I was wrong.
Speaker: I could have never foreseen this.
Speaker: I don't know if Freddie Brock has any eligibility left.
Speaker: I don't know how it works.
Speaker: He played three years at Maine.
Speaker: He played one year here.
Speaker: I don't know how it works.
Speaker: But I don't want to say my tune has shifted on Sean Elliott because I think there are still a lot of concerns.
Speaker: But oh my goodness.
Speaker: What I saw...
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Maybe I'm being a homer here.
Speaker: But I really do think this was, I mean, this was certainly the best ballgame performance we got out of any of the Sunbelt teams.
Speaker: And I really don't know what to say.
Speaker: I was shocked, and I'm incredibly, I'm now back to lukewarm on Sean Elliott, which is a resoundingly positive result.
Speaker: to come out of this game.
Speaker: So I want to ask this to sort of wrap it up.
Speaker: Does Darren Granger have another year of eligibility?
Speaker: Like, is he back in 24?
Speaker: He is done.
Speaker: And there is no error apparent.
Speaker: It's Mikhail Colasurdo appeared, I think when they played Louisiana, it might have been.
Speaker: And did fine, but there's nobody immediately in the pipeline.
Speaker: Granger's done.
Speaker: He did two or three years at Furman, and he's actually the first three-year starter in Georgia State history.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Matt, do you have anything to add on this game?
Speaker: I mean, Georgia State just sort of ran away with it.
Speaker: I mean, it was, you know, 31-14 at half.
Speaker: You know, Zeke touched upon Freddie Brock.
Speaker: We got good Darren Granger this week.
Speaker: You know, Zeke had equated him to two-face in the past, depending on, you know, what side of the coin everything lands on.
Speaker: Do you have anything to sort of wrap this game up, or did you have a takeaway from this?
Speaker: I mean, it was an impressive performance from Georgia State.
Speaker: This looked like the 6-1 Georgia State team that you were like, okay, if James Madison never gets eligible, Georgia State might be the team that plays for a conference championship.
Speaker: Um, and so it was nice to see that, uh, Darren Granger goes out with a really good performance.
Speaker: Brock was incredible.
Speaker: Um, I mean, God, two 76 and a touchdown.
Speaker: I don't know how you can,
Speaker: can really complain with that.
Speaker: And look, you know, you started out scoring early and you kept your foot on the gas.
Speaker: You scored double digits in the second quarter.
Speaker: You got a touchdown a piece in the third and fourth, which was really important.
Speaker: You start off early and often you keep that intensity and you run away with it.
Speaker: And that's exactly what Georgia state did.
Speaker: Really impressive end to their season after struggling in the second half.
Speaker: And, uh, uh,
Speaker: great step in the right direction as they head into the offseason.
Speaker: Yeah, also shows that, you know, just because you struggle in the second half of the season doesn't mean you need to necessarily throw the towel in for the bowl game, which is a lesson that I would like the team that I root for to learn at some point.
Speaker: But Georgia State ends their season at 7-6.
Speaker: Utah State ends their season 6-7.
Speaker: Let's get into this next one here.
Speaker: This one's almost more notable about the drama that happened afterward rather than the game itself.
Speaker: So South Alabama absolutely took Eastern Michigan to the woodshed.
Speaker: It was 59-10.
Speaker: Um, they had Gio Lopez come in and play in place of Carter Bradley Lopez through three touchdowns.
Speaker: He also ran for 80, 88 yards and a score himself.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: They just absolutely dominated the... What are they, the Eagles?
Speaker: For some reason, as soon as I see EMU, I'm like, they're the Emus.
Speaker: But they're not.
Speaker: Like, they're the Eagles.
Speaker: But after the game, Eastern Michigan's player, who I think didn't even play, runs onto the field and tries to sucker punch a Jaguars player, wearing a helmet, no less, after the game is over, and starts a giant brawl, which was...
Speaker: interesting but this was on the field wise this was as close to a an absolute domination as we're gonna see probably this entire bowl season eastern michigan finishes with 150 yards of total offense uh south alabama has 627 when it's all said and done they force three eastern michigan turnovers and
Speaker: Do either of you guys have anything to add on this?
Speaker: I mean, this was, like I said, as close to a complete domination as is going to happen this bowl season as a whole.
Speaker: I don't even know that there has been a bowl game that was more lopsided than this one or is going to be.
Speaker: Maybe if you really feel a way about Florida State-Georgia, maybe that game is going to go down and be like this.
Speaker: But we...
Speaker: we don't know but do either of you have anything to add on this because it was it it was ugly pretty early and it was very apparent south alabama's gonna run away with it uh south alabama has a guy in geo lopez he he balled out and didn't even get the start it was desmond trotter they kind of co-backed up bradley this year um
Speaker: G.L.
Speaker: Lopez, you know, is South Alabama.
Speaker: We've talked at length about how they've underperformed and, you know, what's next for them.
Speaker: Where do they go?
Speaker: They fired four positional coaches.
Speaker: We kind of chatted about before the episode started, they fired four position coaches after this game.
Speaker: So they're in a precarious position in terms of was last season a fluke or is this year the fluke?
Speaker: Chiel Lopez had a great game.
Speaker: And I, for a team that is going to need to, you know, prove their identity moving forward, 14 of 19, 192 yards, three touchdowns.
Speaker: And then I, 88 yards on the ground.
Speaker: He was their leading rusher.
Speaker: So I, South Alabama should be incredibly, incredibly optimistic about what he has to offer.
Speaker: And if I'm right, he's only a freshman.
Speaker: So I thought,
Speaker: Just keep an eye on him as we get into spring, and they might bring in someone to compete.
Speaker: Maybe they still like Trotter, but right now Gio Lopez looks like he could be a very, very good starter for South Al next season.
Speaker: Yeah, Gio's incredible.
Speaker: Only a freshman.
Speaker: You're right about that.
Speaker: So his future looks very bright.
Speaker: Yeah, I could see them bringing in somebody to compete.
Speaker: Maybe they just leave Desmond Trotter there to compete with him, but I think it's Gio Lopez's spot to lose.
Speaker: Trotter, Trotter's out of eligibility.
Speaker: I'm fairly sure he's one of the only players in FPS that has been at the same school for six years.
Speaker: Okay, so he's out of eligibility.
Speaker: Okay, so yeah, then you bring somebody in to compete with him.
Speaker: But again, you know, the point, in my opinion, the point stands.
Speaker: It's Gio Lopez's job to lose.
Speaker: They've been high on him all season long.
Speaker: There's a reason that he came into games over Desmond Trotter.
Speaker: You remember when Carter Bradley had to miss a game for the injury that he suffered against Louisiana.
Speaker: It wasn't Desmond Trotter that played.
Speaker: They went to Gio Lopez.
Speaker: And that told you everything you needed to know.
Speaker: He's the future for their program.
Speaker: So unless some fluky thing happens in the spring, I think Gio Lopez is the starting quarterback.
Speaker: for South Alabama next year, and he should be.
Speaker: He was incredible against Eastern Michigan.
Speaker: He looked good in spurts when he had to fill in for Carter Bradley.
Speaker: So the future is bright there.
Speaker: Kane Womack not afraid to make decisions that needed to be made.
Speaker: And I love the message that that sent, because here's the thing.
Speaker: You never want anybody to get fired.
Speaker: But the message that Kane Womack sent to his team and to the city of Mobile is that 7-6 is no longer good enough.
Speaker: And that's a great message to send.
Speaker: That's a message you want to hear from your head coach at all times.
Speaker: So really big move there by South Alabama.
Speaker: I'm excited to see what they do this spring.
Speaker: Again, must be nice when your coach is able to send a message like that, or willing to, even.
Speaker: South Alabama, as Matt said, ends the season seven and six.
Speaker: Eastern Michigan...
Speaker: I know they were a Mac team.
Speaker: I don't even know how they made it to six and six, to be totally honest, the way that they played this game.
Speaker: Just lucky to be there, I guess.
Speaker: Getting into this penultimate game of bowl season, we had Coastal Carolina defeating San Jose State 24-14 in the Hawaii Bowl.
Speaker: Listen, you guys were down on Ethan Vasco.
Speaker: Ethan Vasco, baby.
Speaker: I was, I was not, it wasn't like I was placing my life in his hands, but I was like, listen, he's better than y'all are giving him credit for.
Speaker: And he goes out and throws, you know, 20 of 33, one 99, three touchdowns added 50 yards on the ground.
Speaker: Zeke, your former boy, Sam Pinckney, 123 yards and a touchdown through the air.
Speaker: It was, you know, it was a big game for him.
Speaker: The Chanticleers come away with a win.
Speaker: They were 10.5-point underdogs coming into this one.
Speaker: You know, Matt, what...
Speaker: Both of you were on San... The craziest thing to me was that both of you were on San Jose State and didn't know a single thing about the Spartans going into this game.
Speaker: So kind of tell me what you guys took away from this.
Speaker: Don't put those words in my mouth.
Speaker: I might have picked San Jose State, but let's not act like I didn't know anything about them.
Speaker: I knew their colors were blue and gold.
Speaker: I know where San Jose is, but no.
Speaker: So in all seriousness, the reason that I went with San Jose State is just because Coastal Carolina was so up and down with Grayson McCall.
Speaker: They continued to be up and down the couple games that he was out.
Speaker: I had no reason to believe that they would show up and play the way that they did.
Speaker: against San Jose State.
Speaker: But look, you know, credit to Tim Beck, credit to Ethan Vasco, and credit to newly entered into the transfer portal, Sam Pinckney.
Speaker: Really strong performance from them over there in Honolulu.
Speaker: And look, while we're on the subject coast of Carolina, people ripping Tim Beck, taking a picture with the dance team, get over yourself.
Speaker: Get over yourself.
Speaker: He's a grown man with grown women.
Speaker: It's not like he was touching them inappropriately or in it.
Speaker: Get over yourself.
Speaker: Just stop.
Speaker: Just stop.
Speaker: But again, you know, it's one of those things where.
Speaker: going back to what I said earlier, bowl games are so hard to figure out, right?
Speaker: Because again, you haven't played in three or four weeks.
Speaker: You're just trying to get to the holidays and get through signing period and get ready for the spring, take a couple more weeks off.
Speaker: And so sometimes it's hard to show up the way Coastal Carolina did, but they were able to do so.
Speaker: Credit to them.
Speaker: And now you get to go in the off season with a W.
Speaker: Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see where this program goes moving forward.
Speaker: I mean, at least on the surface, you have to assume that Ethan Vasco, kind of the same thing as Gio Lopez, is the presumed starter heading into next year.
Speaker: Jarrett Guest, another guy who had started a couple games for Coastal this year, I'm fairly sure is out of eligibility as well.
Speaker: So Vasco is the presumed starter.
Speaker: Huh?
Speaker: Sorry, Guest is in the portal.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: In the portal.
Speaker: Nonetheless, he's not, he's presumably not going to be with the team this time next year.
Speaker: But yeah, Zeke, did you have anything to add on this?
Speaker: I mean, it was, it was one of those, you know, Postal played a very clean game.
Speaker: They forced two San Jose turnovers.
Speaker: You know, they own the time of possession, 37 minutes.
Speaker: It was, it was a, a clinical performance by the Chanticleers.
Speaker: Did you have anything else to add?
Speaker: I'll, I'll own up to, to what I said.
Speaker: You mentioned not knowing a lot about San Jose.
Speaker: Uh, I'll, I'll own up to that.
Speaker: What scared me away was that I still am not certain that I can fully trust Ethan Vasco.
Speaker: He does not turn the ball over.
Speaker: Um, and I guess in that regard, you can trust him because a quarterback that doesn't turn the ball over is invaluable to a football team.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But I've been underwhelmed by his performances this season.
Speaker: I thought his one really good game this season was against James Madison.
Speaker: And admittedly, that's the hardest team in the conference to play.
Speaker: So to have a good game against them is, you know, better than having a good game against any other team in the conference.
Speaker: But I've been underwhelmed by his performances this year.
Speaker: I didn't like what I saw when he was starting from a fall against Texas State or Old Dominion, both games in which
Speaker: Coastal won, but I was concerned by his accuracy, his ability to find guys.
Speaker: He's incredibly mobile, which will benefit him in this coastal offense.
Speaker: But Vasco is going to be a part of a very different coastal offense next season.
Speaker: Jared Brown, I think, is already signed up with South Carolina.
Speaker: Sam Pinckney is going to the draft.
Speaker: there's another receiver that, if I can find this, is also going to the draft.
Speaker: It is, if you'll bear with me, the name I'm not finding, Tyson Mobley.
Speaker: It's Tyson Mobley, who's been a very important part of this offense.
Speaker: He's kind of the third, fourth receiver.
Speaker: They're losing C.J.
Speaker: Beasley two years ago as their top guy.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: My personal opinions on Vasco aside, this is going to be the first time in a handful of years that we've seen a very reworked coastal offense.
Speaker: And so, again, as we kind of figure out the transfer portal and we figure out signing days and we figure out spring ball, that's something really, really interesting to watch.
Speaker: Yeah, so we'll have to see how that all turns out.
Speaker: Coastal ends the season 8-5.
Speaker: San Jose State ends the season 7-6.
Speaker: Getting into the last game of bowl season, um...
Speaker: Texas State played Rice.
Speaker: They ended up coming away with the 45-21 win.
Speaker: This one was close about for the first half.
Speaker: It was 24-21, Texas State heading into half.
Speaker: And then they outscore Rice 21-0 in the second half.
Speaker: Ismail Mahdi, 122 yards, but really it was the defense.
Speaker: I mean, they had two pick sixes in this one, one from Brian Holloway or both from Brian Holloway, actually.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, Jamal Jeter got back into the kind of swing of things with three rushing scores.
Speaker: He was their starter last year, I believe, before, you know, Ismail Mahdi came on the scene and was his hyper-efficient self this year, but...
Speaker: Jamal Jeter came back basically from the dead.
Speaker: I mean, we really hadn't heard of anything that he had done all season.
Speaker: And he shows up with three touchdowns.
Speaker: And Texas State just runs away with this one.
Speaker: I'm not sure what either of you really have in this game.
Speaker: Like, Texas State was about a touchdown favorite, and they just sort of dominated a Rice team that I don't think any of us...
Speaker: picked against Texas state either.
Speaker: No, we didn't.
Speaker: So, you know, this closes a really good season for Texas state.
Speaker: Um, they have lost their defensive coordinator to Duke, uh, and he's going to coach under Manny Diaz.
Speaker: But again, you cannot say enough about the job that G.J.
Speaker: Kinney has done this year.
Speaker: I think they've had more than 70 transfer players over the last two years combined.
Speaker: T.J.
Speaker: Finley comes in and looks like a great quarterback pickup.
Speaker: Mahdi was a revelation for them at running back and just in general as an offensive weapon.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Man, what a season for Texas State.
Speaker: If you thought that Texas State coming into this year was an eight-win team, you are either a homer or a liar because there was no way that you looked at this Texas State team and said, they're going to win eight games, and I have no doubt about that.
Speaker: So, you know, again, all credit to G.J.
Speaker: Kinney on this one.
Speaker: You know, if I can just go really quickly, it's a little what –
Speaker: a coach can do, right?
Speaker: Um, you know, you look at John Summerall at Troy, not to say that Troy was a bad program, but when Chip, when, when Neil Brown left and Chip Lindsey came in, things kind of dipped a little bit for Troy, right?
Speaker: Um, and they needed something to turn it around and John Summerall comes in and back to back years, he goes, I believe he was 24 and four and won a pair of Sunbelt Conference titles.
Speaker: Um, um,
Speaker: And look, you know, G.J.
Speaker: Kenny comes in right off the bat.
Speaker: They beat Baylor.
Speaker: And that win kind of solidified for a lot of people, even early on.
Speaker: Okay, Texas State's not messing around.
Speaker: T.J.
Speaker: Finley is obviously a talented quarterback.
Speaker: He's finally found a place where he can, you know, he can shine.
Speaker: Ishmael Mahdi, like you mentioned, a great find for them.
Speaker: Brian Holloway's been a fantastic player defensively for them all season long.
Speaker: he continued that in this bowl game, a huge, huge first ever bowl win for Texas state.
Speaker: They, they finish eight and five.
Speaker: I know they're probably very upset about losing their defensive coordinator, but they'll look when you have a season like this, you're going to have people knocking at your door to, to come, to come work for you.
Speaker: The Texas Hill country is a great part of the country to work in.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Texas State has proven that they're willing to put the money into the football program, and that's important as well.
Speaker: So a lot of things happening the right way in San Marcos.
Speaker: The future is bright for the Bobcats, no question.
Speaker: I'm not saying it's not bright, but I think we need to be careful.
Speaker: Hear me out, hear me out, hear me out.
Speaker: I may have started this poorly.
Speaker: Let's think about how Kane Womack's South Al has started, right?
Speaker: Look, look, look.
Speaker: You guys are giving me faces.
Speaker: I need you to hear me out here.
Speaker: South Al went from five and seven to 10 and three and then dropped back down.
Speaker: And I think we're all of the consensus that last season was a fluke for South Alabama and not the standard.
Speaker: We need to be cautious of the same thing happening here at Texas state, because I, the inertia, right?
Speaker: The inertia to turn a football program from a, a historically bad and historically crumbled program from a recruiting standpoint, Texas state to now at around mid season was a contender for
Speaker: the championship game.
Speaker: If they had beaten Troy, they very well may have finished top of the conference.
Speaker: This is something I want to be weary of.
Speaker: And again, this is a part of my longstanding effort to be less reactionary and give less hot takes.
Speaker: I'm working on myself and putting a lot of effort into that.
Speaker: But I'm really scared to give Texas State a vote of confidence of much more than 7-5 for next season.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: Look at how they performed in the back half of the season, I think, is really the fact.
Speaker: I think the losses to Coastal, getting absolutely embarrassed by Arkansas State, look at Texas State's schedule and point to a win that really impresses you.
Speaker: Other than Baylor, who really impresses you on that schedule?
Speaker: You beat ULM by one.
Speaker: Nevada was a fine win.
Speaker: You beat ULM by one.
Speaker: You beat ULM by southern.
Speaker: Like, okay, and I see your point, but you could also look at Troy's schedule, the two-time defending conference champion,
Speaker: And, you know, look at those, oh, well, you know, you look at, okay, the James Madison game, they lost by two.
Speaker: Then you, Louisiana, you only won by seven.
Speaker: And that was post-Zeon Chris getting hurt.
Speaker: What scares me is if you go back to last season with South Alabama and you look at their schedule up and down, it's the same thing.
Speaker: Point to me a win that really impresses you from South Alabama in 2022.
Speaker: Man has no faith in the flat bill rope hats.
Speaker: I don't know what that means.
Speaker: G.J.
Speaker: Kinney wears the flat bill hat with the little rope across it.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, I love those.
Speaker: Those look great.
Speaker: The man has no faith in the flat-bill rope hat.
Speaker: I'm not saying no faith.
Speaker: I think what he's done is spectacular, right?
Speaker: Because last season we're talking about Texas State losing these games, losing to Monroe, right?
Speaker: Losing to Southern.
Speaker: That's the conversation last year about Texas State.
Speaker: And I don't want that to be misconstrued here.
Speaker: But Texas State, in hindsight, Texas State did not win any game outside of Baylor that you can point to and say, yeah, they overperformed in that.
Speaker: They really, really shined Baylor.
Speaker: Well, I mean, okay, so I think that's a couple of things, right?
Speaker: Like, number one, I'm sort of in the middle on your South Alabama over the last two years take.
Speaker: Like, I think that they really, I think that it's a thing of extremes.
Speaker: I think they really overachieved in 2022.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I think this year they really underachieved to be where they are.
Speaker: So I think it's just sort of a leveling thing of, they were probably an 8-9 win team both seasons, and it's just one of those things where it's, how do we perform in one-score games?
Speaker: What happens when the turnover differential doesn't go our way?
Speaker: Things like that.
Speaker: With the Texas State thing, I think it's a little different because
Speaker: You have two different coaching staffs.
Speaker: You go from...
Speaker: I'm blanking.
Speaker: Who was even their coach before Kenny?
Speaker: Jake Spavadol.
Speaker: Spavadol, who couldn't figure out what he wanted to do with his roster.
Speaker: Did he want to recruit guys from high school?
Speaker: Did he want to take just transfers?
Speaker: Like, he was throwing everything at the wall and just hoping he kept his job.
Speaker: And obviously it didn't work, but he couldn't figure out.
Speaker: He had no coherent plan of this is what we're going to do.
Speaker: I think Kenny has a coherent plan.
Speaker: I also think that there is a chance that they are a seven and five, eight and four team again next year.
Speaker: I, I agree with what you say, Zeke, but again, it's,
Speaker: when it comes to conference play, you can only play who's on your schedule.
Speaker: Like, you can't... It's not one of those things where you can go, oh, we'd like to play... We really want to test ourselves, so this year we'll play Troy and James Madison and App and, you know, whoever else.
Speaker: Like, and the other thing, too, was...
Speaker: I mean, look at all the six and six teams that made the bowl games this year.
Speaker: Like, this conference is incredibly top-heavy.
Speaker: Again, it was James Madison, App State, Troy, and then everybody else was sort of hovering around 500.
Speaker: That's what happens when you have, you know, 12 of 14 teams make a bowl game is everybody's sort of average.
Speaker: Like, I would have very much liked to have had...
Speaker: As an outside observer, I would have liked to have had fewer teams make bowl games and have better performances than what we got from this bowl season, which is, I mean, I think all said and done, the Sun Belt went five and seven in bowls, but there were some where they were just getting absolutely run off the field, and I would have much rather had...
Speaker: you know, eight teams turn in really strong performances, then 12 teams kind of go, eh, you know, you've got Georgia State and South Alabama and those teams running these teams off the field, and then you've got, you know, the Georgia Southerns and Arkansas States who are just kind of like,
Speaker: We're just kind of happy to be out of our hometown and be playing in December.
Speaker: Like, we didn't really expect a whole lot.
Speaker: So I think it kind of goes, I think I'm kind of in the middle on both of you guys.
Speaker: But to sort of wrap this up, Texas State finishes 8-5.
Speaker: Rice is 6-7.
Speaker: That does it for the 2023 season.
Speaker: We are done.
Speaker: No more football to speak of.
Speaker: It's been a long road, boys.
Speaker: Not that anybody else outside of us cares.
Speaker: I'd like to read off our betting records and then we'll throw it over to you guys to sort of sign us out.
Speaker: I finished the season 57-49-2.
Speaker: Zeke finishes the season 55-51-2.
Speaker: Matt, you finished the season 39-43-2.
Speaker: So that does it for the season as a whole.
Speaker: Oh my god!
Speaker: I mean, I know I missed a couple weeks, but Jesus!
Speaker: I will say, the weeks that you missed, I feel like Zeke and I crushed.
Speaker: And it was one of those things where I feel like if you had been tailing the weeks that you were off, if you had been sort of on board with us, you would have just been cruising.
Speaker: And then the week you signed off, it was just tough.
Speaker: Lesson learned for next year, even if something comes up to where I can't record the podcast, still submit my picks.
Speaker: I mean, or, you know, Aikman came on in your stead, and I feel like I didn't write down his picks because he was...
Speaker: not really a member of the show every week, but I feel like if you had adopted his picks, I feel like you would have done pretty well that week.
Speaker: But again, I didn't write him down, so I have no idea.
Speaker: But I don't know what... Sorry, Zeke keeps hopping in and out.
Speaker: It's screwing me up.
Speaker: But anyway, to sign off, Matt, if you want to go ahead...
Speaker: Plug whatever you want.
Speaker: It's the last show of 2023.
Speaker: We'll be back next season in 2024 to start with previews in the summer.
Speaker: If we have episodes or ideas to go in the offseason, we'll be putting those out as well, but we don't have anything set in stone at this point.
Speaker: Matt, if you want to close out, go ahead.
Speaker: As always, you can find me on social media at MiguezMatt.
Speaker: I'm talking about how
Speaker: Part of a time it is to be a new Orleans saints fan.
Speaker: Um, the Louisiana rage of Cajuns, I tweet about them a lot.
Speaker: Uh, the new Orleans Pelicans blowing double digit leads.
Speaker: You know, that's always fun.
Speaker: Uh, great time in the state of Louisiana right now.
Speaker: Um, so if you want a whole lot of that content, uh, you can find me at me, guys, Matt.
Speaker: Matt, before we throw it over to Zeke, I don't know if you saw the tweet that I sent earlier, and I'll plug my Twitter account, but someone got a hold of Zion's Duke schedule, class schedule for when he was there.
Speaker: I just want to read off some of the classes he was taking.
Speaker: Number one, history of hip-hop.
Speaker: Okay, fine.
Speaker: You know, it's an elective, no problem.
Speaker: Sexual pleasures of the modern world was another class that Zion took at Duke.
Speaker: And then the theater today, he wasn't studying for that one.
Speaker: And then Copy of Writing 101, the Disney version, was another class that Zion apparently took at Duke.
Speaker: So, you know, Duke, the prestigious institution, really teaching Zion how to live his life as it stands today.
Speaker: The prestigious academic institution.
Speaker: Teaching about the history of hip-hop and sex-writers of the world.
Speaker: What?
Speaker: What is happening?
Speaker: Hey, that's my number one overall pick, baby.
Speaker: Zion Williamson.
Speaker: Getting guarantees voided for injury history.
Speaker: Zion Williamson.
Speaker: That's a whole... Oh, dude, that's such a mess.
Speaker: And what's crazy is that now, because those last three years are voided, the Pelicans at the end of the season could just go, we're done.
Speaker: Thanks.
Speaker: Hate you.
Speaker: That's insane.
Speaker: It's a hell of a, it's a hell of a clause to write in.
Speaker: But anyway, uh, Zeke, as we close out, uh, plug, you know, anything you want to, this is the last episode of 2023.
Speaker: Tell them where to find your only fans.
Speaker: No, I'm kidding.
Speaker: Whoa.
Speaker: I'm actually on fans.
Speaker: Lee.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: A distinctly different site.
Speaker: I'm on Twitter at Zeke Palermo, Z-E-K-E-P-A-L-E-R-M-O.
Speaker: It's mostly PG there, but I can't promise anything in this offseason as, you know, budgets get tight without the income of this podcast.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I post obviously about the podcast about Georgia State football as we push towards the NFL playoffs.
Speaker: I will be talking quite a bit about the Buffalo Bills because that is the hell that I have been.
Speaker: You know, I am like Sisyphus in that I am eternally cursed to be a Buffalo Bills fan.
Speaker: You're you're so ready for them to lose in the first round, aren't you?
Speaker: Like, we don't have to get into it.
Speaker: You're so ready for it.
Speaker: It's just like, McDermott's not the guy.
Speaker: He's good enough to win you the divisional round and lose in the AFC Championship.
Speaker: Firing Ken Dorsey saved him a year, so we don't have to get into it right now, but I'm...
Speaker: I'm disappointed by his – frankly, the success of this season, how we turned it around has been disappointing in terms of the long-term success of this franchise.
Speaker: But, yeah, that's where I am.
Speaker: I'm on Twitter.
Speaker: Not a whole lot else going on right now, so –
Speaker: And as always, you can find the show on Twitter at WarmWeatherFans.
Speaker: We will try to come up with some interesting off-season content to tweet out or potentially even podcast about.
Speaker: We've been kicking around a couple of ideas.
Speaker: You can follow me on Twitter at WatchTheStone.
Speaker: Come hell or high water, we will be back in 2024.
Speaker: We don't know when that's going to be exactly, but 2024, we will be back on Warm Weather Fans, the Sunbelt Podcast.
Speaker: Thank you so much to everybody who listened to the show.
Speaker: I think when it was all said and done, we clocked about 4,000 listens this season, which was huge for us.
Speaker: Obviously, we had never done this show beforehand.
Speaker: We didn't have any sort of
Speaker: footprint to go off of other than the fact that we had previously all been on a another podcast feed but yeah thank you so much for everybody that listened we will be back next season and at the very least at the back back in 2024
Speaker: Please tune in next year.
Speaker: Make sure you subscribe so that once that first preview episode hits your feed, we can go into all that sort of stuff.
Speaker: This has been Warm Weather Fans, the Sunbelt Podcast.
