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2025 Sun Belt Football: Week 5 Recap
86 Plays24 days ago
Brian and Zeke are here to talk about Lunch Time, as Louisiana defeated Marshall 54-51 in the game of the week! Elsewhere, it was a week of blowouts in the Sun Belt, with some coaches on thin ice.
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Transcript
Sunbelt Recap: Blowouts and Highlights
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome everybody into another edition of Warm Weather Fans, the Sunbelt Podcast. As always, I am Brian Stone, your host. Joined this week again by Zeke Palermo. ah Zeke, we had a...
00:00:27
Speaker
I'm going to say anticlimactic kind of week in the Sunbelt. um When I was going back through and reviewing a lot of these games, there really were only like one or two competitive ones. There were a lot of blowouts and just totally like lopsided contests, which we'll get into. But it was kind of an underwhelming week outside of the last game of the night, which I was all over. And I was like...
00:00:51
Speaker
I had my, you know, I was gripping the seat. I was like, who's going to who's going to come out ahead but in this ah Marshall Louisiana matchup. But everything else was just kind of meh. But how are you doing? I'm good. Yeah, it was an underwhelming slate to some degree, not a ton
Team Insights: Old Dominion to Arkansas State
00:01:07
Speaker
of excitement. I think we learned a fair bit about teams that we had questions about, um especially now that we're actually playing conference games and you can feel fully confident in that you're getting ah representative sample of what you're seeing.
00:01:22
Speaker
um There's still teams with outstanding questions that we'll get to, um Old Dominion being that kind of the big one that, like, They keep winning. They keep winning. um But I feel like there's a lot of meat left on that bone still that that I i would didn't get to see.
00:01:37
Speaker
um But we had and questions answered. we you know James Madison answered questions. Georgia Southern answered questions, both good and bad. Same thing, ULM, Arkansas State. Both teams in that game answered questions that we had, um good and bad. So it was an insightful week in the conference, albeit, yeah, perhaps a little anticlimactic and disinteresting to a non-Sunbelt audience.
00:02:00
Speaker
save for the nightcap, of course. Yeah, for sure. um So I guess we should go ahead and start with our, you know, each of our good, I guess, takeaways. ah Do you want to go first do you want me to take it first? um I will...
Louisiana vs. Marshall: Quarterback Performances
00:02:17
Speaker
I mean, i'm I think we should just go ahead and talk about it. The one that we're going to talk about, and it's a lunch Winfield, right? The guy shows up after Louisiana had trotted out Daniel Beal, who um to no fault of his own really floundered in the Sunbelt championship game last year.
00:02:34
Speaker
And we were willing to give him a break, but never recovered. um And, yeah. whether that's just because he never had it or because just, again, the way that Marshall clobbered him in that game, you know, those types of games can really set back the development of young quarterbacks.
00:02:51
Speaker
We see this in the NFL all the time with teams sending out their rookie quarterbacks like week two, week three, when there's just absolutely no need for that. So um they they finally look to launch Winfield ah and, you know,
00:03:04
Speaker
The guy comes up in the biggest moments of this game, 54-51 in a rematch of last year's Sunbelt championship game. Louisiana wins in double overtime with lunch just making some huge plays late.
00:03:18
Speaker
um He ties the game with a 35-yard pass. I'm sorry, a 45-yard pass, 35 yards in the air as he's getting hit. He ah Marshall then goes up again, 23 seconds left with a collapsing pocket.
00:03:31
Speaker
He throws 20 yards into the end zone again. ah And then in the second round of overtime, after his team makes a huge, huge stop forces the field goal. um He scrambles right hurdles, a guy into the end zone and wins the game.
00:03:47
Speaker
He really showed up, and this could be that like Jalen Rayner identification moment for Louisiana, um where this is a team that didn't have a lot else going for it this year.
00:04:00
Speaker
um But as we've seen with Old Dominion, we've seen with Arkansas State, a guy that is Superman quarterback level can really – I mean, he can win you four or five games on his own.
Defensive Struggles: Louisiana and Marshall
00:04:13
Speaker
yeah Throughout the course of the season, especially as we look across the conference this year and how weak it is, how weak it is offensively, um where, shoot, if you score four touchdowns, you've got a good shot of winning the football game.
00:04:24
Speaker
um It's, you know, is lunch Superman? It's early. But the man, he showed up, man. And Louisiana, I can't imagine how over the moon they are Yeah. um i I do get what you mean about Daniel Beal.
00:04:40
Speaker
um i I don't know if down the road he's going to be a good quarterback, but as it stands in 2025, it doesn't look great for the future. This looks like a future a guy that ends up, you know, again, having his job taken by lunch and transferring out or, are you know, basically being told like, hey, man,
00:05:04
Speaker
I don't know how much eligibility lunch has left, but I could see desert mode going to him and being like, listen, you're only going to be in the game. If
ULM's Victory Over Arkansas State
00:05:12
Speaker
somebody gets hurt, like you're not like we gave you an ample, ample opportunity after Walker Howard got hurt against rice to win the job and keep the job. And frankly, he, he hasn't done it.
00:05:24
Speaker
um I had a couple of takeaways from this game ah to piggyback off of the lunch take. Uh, he was the highest graded quarterback in the, in the conference this week. He had an 86.5 passing grade and an rushing grade.
00:05:40
Speaker
um 125 yards and two touchdowns through the air, 129 yards on the ground and three touchdowns. Didn't really play until like late second quarter.
00:05:52
Speaker
They had him in on like short yardage, like goal line packages. And we're kind of doing the JMU thing from weeks back with like Sluka and Barnett, where it was like Beal took the majority of the snaps, but then in a running situation, they would put lunch in and eventually they just kind of gave way and,
00:06:09
Speaker
and gave it over to, to Winfield to kind of take them home and win the game. Um, couple of takeaways. Number one, I don't understand what took so long. Um, this, this reeks of last year, speaking of another Marshall team, uh, Charles Huff trying to stick with stone Earl to the very end and deny what he had in Braylon Braxton for some reason, still don't understand why that took so long, but it turned itself around.
00:06:35
Speaker
um, The the key play for me, and I'm sure Marshall fans are agree and are just kind of like shaking their head that play in double overtime when Carlos Del Rio Wilson has DeMarcus Lacey open for a touchdown and he just misses him and they end up having to settle for three ultimately decided the game.
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah. It's just one of those Del Rio Wilson was pretty solid through the air. I mean, he, he was good. ah And it's just, it comes down to plays like that sometimes where it's like you overthrow a guy once and and that's just the ball game. That's the way it goes.
00:07:12
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, this is back to back, very efficient games. I've got the numbers here. In the past two games, because in the first two games of the year, he was getting like nine throws a game, but he's he' played a full work we workload the past two weeks.
00:07:26
Speaker
He's only thrown 11 incompletions, which is incredibly, incredibly efficient. He's done that with seven touchdowns. um I'm worried, though. I'm really worried that this is a check down merchant type thing.
00:07:37
Speaker
um 11 of his 24 completions this year ah this week were behind the line of scrimmage. If you take out 11, those 11, you know, what what what is he doing? So there's there's a concern there about – I mean, the depth his depth of target is like four yards because they just check it down or look to the screen so often. um And so I'm not certain how much of a talent that has.
00:08:07
Speaker
And that when we talked last week, we talked about Marshall doing a lot of things good, but nothing great. And I think this furthers that point in that. Carlos, you're listening. He's going to get the job done, but he's not pushing the ball downfield and he's not making those plays. And as you just said, in that big moment where he needs to make a play was incapable of doing so.
00:08:27
Speaker
I mean, part of what I took away from this game that I haven't touched on yet is frankly, I just don't think either of these defenses are very good. So it was like, it was like the perfect recipe for like a total and utter shootout where it's like,
00:08:42
Speaker
two quarterbacks that you know you got delrea wilson who is maybe a little too risk averse to where they're going to play a team down the road where he has to throw the ball down the field and doesn't really have an option and he's either going to meet that challenge or he's just going to look like sunbelt alex smith and keep doing like what you said where it's just check down check down check down um And then you got Winfield, who you know was more of a threat kind of with his legs than his arm in this one, but he still made some some good throws.
00:09:14
Speaker
I think... Again, i don't think both defenses are very good. And for Marshall, I know that this is year one ah for Gibson, but I don't think he's got the personnel to run this 3-3-5 defense yet.
00:09:31
Speaker
I mean, i know i know it's year one and and all that kind of stuff, and they've dealt with a ton of transfers both in and out. I just don't think he's got the the horses on the defensive side of the ball to make – to do whatever it is that they're planning on doing, make it a bowl game, I guess would be the the ultimate goal at this stage. Cause they don't, a team that allows 54 points is not going to win ah conference title unless you're going to, you know, score 55 every game. But um I just don't think that either of the defenses are very good. And I think that that is,
00:10:02
Speaker
That's going to be, I guess, Louisiana's ultimate undoing. Like they might be lucky to make a bowl game. And also Marshall's kind of in the same boat. So that's just
App State vs. Boise: A Critical Look
00:10:11
Speaker
kind of where I'm at with it. Yeah, I mean, with that all said, this was a great game, a lot of fun.
00:10:18
Speaker
um oh yeah. The type of game, I wish we had this instead of what we did get out of the conference championship game last year. Yeah, like, this this was the Sunbelt equivalent of that 2017, like, Rams-Chiefs game, where it was, like, almost the exact same score, and there's, like...
00:10:36
Speaker
13 iconic plays that you could take away from that game that you're like oh I remember when you know Chris Jones strip sack Jared Goff in the end zone and recovered it or you know whatever whatever you want to say uh that that was just a a total barn burner and that's that's what we got out of Louisiana Marshall albeit out of two teams that I think have a very kind of limited ceiling based on how this game went but encouraging signs at the quarterback spot, which is something we couldn't have necessarily said after like week one of the season.
00:11:07
Speaker
ah What else impressed you or what other games did you see that ah you liked? Well, ah I liked Monroe defeating Arkansas State.
00:11:20
Speaker
um It was nice of Corey Rucker to join the party um and decide that, again, i don't know whether it had been a health thing um or he had just been blanketed, ah but he hadn't really done all that much this year.
00:11:36
Speaker
And um let me see here. Corey Rucker, 120 yards receiving. Arkansas state does not have a running game. Jaquez cross is out for the season with an ACL injury.
00:11:48
Speaker
ah So they're stuck with Spencer and clay as their primary ball carriers. This team was already sort of limited ceiling wise. Again, another team with a really bad defense that, you know, one week they'll show up and look fine. And then the next week it'll just be an absolute sieve.
00:12:05
Speaker
And That's that's that's what we got in this one. I mean, you know, all credit to ULM, but they're not exactly like, you know, must see TV on offense and they made, you know, working through Arkansas State's defense look pretty easy.
00:12:20
Speaker
um I got a couple notes here. ah So Arkansas State scored 10 points in the first quarter and then didn't score more than six scored six the rest of the game. ah arkans This was a bad style matchup. ah Arkansas State is allowing 197.6 yards per game on the ground so far.
00:12:40
Speaker
ah It's ninth in the conference. They've got ninth ranked run D on PFF in the conference at 66.9. ULM ran for yards on the ground. So, I mean, it's a pretty simple formula. I thought Armenta played pretty well.
00:12:57
Speaker
um His receivers kind of did help him out today, but Zach Palmer Smith, 84 yards and a score, McReynolds, 73 yards and a touchdown. They just, and then, ah ULM's defense had six sacks of Jalen Rayner in this one, including Dylan Howell with two.
00:13:13
Speaker
So, I mean, it it was ah um um the most complete game I think you could have seen out of a ULM team that does also have a limited ceiling, kind of just due to the passing offense.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, this has to be one of the fewest, um like lowest yards to... point ratio in all of college football this week. rightn good i And it comes back to this inability to run the ball. And what appears to me...
00:13:46
Speaker
to be in a refusal to utilize Jalen Rayner, like old dominion uses Colton Joseph or, um or lunch Winfield, how Louisiana was using lunch Winfield where, i mean, he got like, you know, he scrambles, but he also got like six to design carries and he only played half the dang game. Right.
00:14:05
Speaker
Right. um For a more national and example, it's like Haynes King, obviously it at Georgia tech. And so yeah, be Especially with Jaquez Cross, who who was really good. And yeah with with him out of this run game, it's going to fall so much more on Jalen Rayner than it already does.
00:14:25
Speaker
They asked the guy to throw the ball 40 times a game. They're already asking so much of him, and it's going to keep piling on on him. um he has more support than a guy like colton joseph right um and that's been the narrative around that we've had around colton joseph is just this guy's electric but what is around him is not going to let him succeed the problem with arkansas state is you've got the receiving you i mean you've got cory rucker who who's been a baller you've got chauncey cobb who's showing up for 120 yards you know he he's had big games um but
00:14:56
Speaker
But when you're taking six sacks, when you're not using him in the run game, this is your ceiling. I'm pretty sure – let me check again, but Arkansas State didn't have an offensive touchdown.
00:15:07
Speaker
Their only touchdown was on a pick six yeah in like the first two minutes of the game. yeah It's like what – Zeke's right again. Butch Jones, what's going on, buddy? – i I think the problem the problem is, and I think this goes for Southern too, because now I'm starting to see the the parallels between teams like Georgia Southern, Texas State, Arkansas State.
00:15:33
Speaker
They are, to use, I think it's a D&D term, a glass cannon, where it's like they score a ton of points. And that's about it. Like, you know, that that's the hope is that we just outscore our opponents every single week because we are praying to get stops on defense. i I think that Arkansas State and Georgia Southern are a lot closer than...
00:15:59
Speaker
I don't want to say anybody wants to admit, but I don't think anybody sat down and kind of thought about the parallels here. You've got two coaches who underachieved for years that overachieved last year and won eight games and win the bowl games.
00:16:13
Speaker
Terrible defenses. You've signed these these coaches now to extensions that now sort of don't look like the best decisions you could have made as far as how to how to handle the head coaching spot.
00:16:27
Speaker
But the way that last year kind of went kind of hamstrung, I guess the, the ADs in that case, although Georgia Southern's was a a totally different situation. Like it it was six wins, six wins, eight wins.
00:16:43
Speaker
And now this year you're looking like you might be lucky to win six. Whereas Arkansas state, if you really sat down and kind of looked at the numbers, you saw that what happened last year wasn't sustainable and wasn't going to keep contributing to like a winning culture.
00:16:58
Speaker
Yeah, ah that want and or brings me to another team that I feel like just doesn't have anything right now, um and that's App State, and they got trounced by Boise. 47-14
South Alabama's Tactical Failings
00:17:12
Speaker
in Boise.
00:17:13
Speaker
um It only clicked on me today that Dow Loggins looks like Matt Rule. I don't know why this took so long, but they are a splitting image of one another, and that's probably not a good thing.
00:17:25
Speaker
No. For more reasons than one. um Billy Wiles, welcome back. We're back. You know, he had a solid week recently. ah Goes one for two with an interception.
00:17:38
Speaker
So love that we're back on the Billy Wiles experience. ah App State's got nothing, man. They've got... They've got Rashad DeBinion. End of list. that i That's it, man. I mean, the quarterback, AJ Swan, looked good. He he was really good. i He was great against Charlotte. I'll go as far as a j Swan was great against Charlotte.
00:17:57
Speaker
um He was really good against Lindenwood. And in the past two weeks, he's just done nothing. This offensive line is not good. they they so They allow so much pressure. The defense is not good.
00:18:09
Speaker
in the run game or the pass game. Granted, you're playing a Boise team that, I mean, is offensively stocked, especially from a G5 perspective. I mean, they've got an incredible quarterback, and they've got like three guys that at any point are like, all right, he's going to run for 110 yards.
00:18:24
Speaker
um But App State is in such a state of disarray. it's like, this is...
00:18:34
Speaker
ah Sometimes you just get to teams that are just like so... devoid of talent this is like to what southern miss was three years ago where it was frank gore jr and wouldn't you know billy wiles actually yeah yep yep uh and so i don't know this is a disappointing turn because i remember feeling very very optimistic about app after those first couple weeks I did too.
00:19:02
Speaker
um Can I point out something that now have you ever seen you? You've seen stepbrothers, right? Yeah. You know, the part where they're interviewing with Seth Rogen and they're wearing tuxedos and then he goes, all right, now the tuxedos seem a little effed up.
00:19:16
Speaker
That to me is Dow Longins not having an offensive coordinator. I know he was like, I know he was like, no, I've got it. I've got an offensive coordinator background. It doesn't matter.
00:19:27
Speaker
Like, you know, let's give a recent example. Billy Napier at Louisiana. Good offensive play caller probably was either it was either him or desert Mo were the guys that were in charge, but they also had one another to kind of bounce off of.
00:19:43
Speaker
He doesn't have anybody else. So here's the problem when the offense is bad like it is now. You have nobody to defer to. You don't have, you can't do the I'm giving up play calling thing or I'm taking play calling over.
00:19:56
Speaker
You have no moves to make. I don't know what they spent that money on ultimately that would have went to an offensive coordinator. But now it seems a little effed up because now you're like,
00:20:08
Speaker
well, wait a minute, couldn't you have used help in game planning or film study or, you know, anything like that? Personnel packages, like, interesting things to do with this team, and it's kind of like...
00:20:21
Speaker
I had voiced some of these concerns like early, but I, when, when they beat Charlotte and Lindenwood, I was kind of like, Oh, might've been off, but it was like, how does he replicate what they ran at South Carolina last year with Lenora sellers at app with a quarterback that doesn't run to the extent that sellers does. And the answer is they don't, I guess it's AJ swans, not the answer.
00:20:46
Speaker
I don't know if they have the answer to the quarterback spot on the roster. We still haven't seen JJ Cole really play at all. And. DeBinion again, again, is the whole offense.
00:20:58
Speaker
um I made this joke on Twitter. The Georgia Southern app game this year is going to be streamed on TVs at gas pumps. Like no one's going to want to watch that game. It's going be two totally ineffectual teams that can't get out of their own way.
00:21:13
Speaker
You've got an an app team that all they can do is run the ball and throwing the ball is like an automatic game over for them. And then you've got a ah Georgia Southern team on the other side that can't stop the run. So they might just trade possessions all day.
00:21:26
Speaker
But it's like Maddox Madsen for Boise carved them up through four touchdowns. App gave up five sacks. Brandon Feeley, Feli, I don't know how that's pronounced, for Boise had two of them.
00:21:39
Speaker
They can't protect the quarterback. They don't have a guy that makes great decisions. I think they do have a couple of good pass catchers, but nobody that is like, wow. like I think Dalton Stroman's good, yeah but he doesn't have anybody that can get him the football on a consistent basis.
00:21:55
Speaker
And when you have that, then it's just like leading to a lot of frustration offensively. Yeah. um Gosh, another team that... When you were talking about, well, this looks effed up when in reference to Dowell Loggins, kind of like...
00:22:11
Speaker
Who does he turn to? How about Major Applewhite saying you can't fall asleep and get stagnant like that on offense? Talking about North Texas's win over South Alabama.
00:22:25
Speaker
How about you look at the quarterback, man? i Bishop Davenport, much like A.J. Swan, had some pretty good weeks where he was fairly efficient. um The dude cannot complete a pass over the middle.
00:22:37
Speaker
He can't complete a pass that's between the hashes beyond like seven yards. um This team also cannot play defense. ah PFF has South Alabama missing 21 tackles throughout the game.
00:22:51
Speaker
The average is like 10. And the biggest blowout in college foot in FBS this week was Notre Dame over Arkansas. ah Notre Dame wins 56 to 13. Arkansas missed only 10 tackles.
00:23:03
Speaker
Yeah. South Al missed 21. Well, in Arkansas's defense, I watched some of that game. They were mostly not missing tackles because they were nowhere near the guy with the ball. But yeah, but yeah that that makes sense.
00:23:15
Speaker
But I was hearing this or reading this from Major Applewhite in talking about how South Al had a little bit momentum and then just fell asleep at the wheel.
00:23:28
Speaker
What are we doing? i mean, you've got a got you have other guys on the roster. It doesn't have to be Bishop Davenport when he's struggling. It's this is not, you know, even if you're paying him NIL, this is not, but you know, pros where you've got your next three generations worth of wealth tied up in this guy.
00:23:47
Speaker
Look somewhere else. Look at Zach Pirate. i He's a name that we've been calling for for weeks. Apparently from, I don't know if this is 100%, because again, the ah reporting on these teams sometimes is just shoddy.
00:24:00
Speaker
Apparently from what I've seen, he's been a scratch due to a coach's decision the last couple weeks. So he's not even, i guess he's not even active on game days.
00:24:11
Speaker
ah Even in this game, when Bishop Davenport got pulled, they put in a guy named Jared Hollins, who I've never heard of up until ah Saturday. um Again, South Al,
00:24:24
Speaker
Through four games is the second worst graded run run defense in the Sun Belt on PFF. It's 54.9. They're allowing 196 yards per game on the ground this year.
00:24:35
Speaker
There's a lot of really crappy run defenses in this conference, and I don't really get why all this is hitting it like right at the same time. I don't know if it's like... all the COVID guys are starting to like filter out and like, we're losing a bunch of like six, seventh year seniors that would have hung around. Otherwise, I don't know that that's the answer, but okay. Caleb Hawkins for North Texas went 140 yards rushing and two touchdowns on the ground, 78 yards and a touchdown receiving through the air.
00:25:06
Speaker
He basically was the entire game. you know for both teams because it's like South Al can't score and they can't stop the run. and And North Texas' is quarterback outside of throwing the ball to Hawkins didn't do very much.
00:25:19
Speaker
So everybody just sort of stepped back and was like, Caleb Hawkins, go for it. It's your game, bud. Yeah, it is really disappointing from South Alabama. um And we've been talking about for years, like when are they going to turn? When are they going to turn? When are they going to turn?
00:25:33
Speaker
ah Not this year. That ship sailed. i i don't know that I don't know that Major Applewhite's the guy, honestly. certainly not. Well, he the problem is when you you know when you quote when you quoted him, right, what he said, it's like food coming out of a kitchen, and you take a bite, and you're like, wow, this sucks. And the guy's next you is like, oh, yeah, it sucks. And you turn around, chef is standing there.
00:25:59
Speaker
And you're like, you made this. And he's like, yeah, it's bad. I mean, it's like... Applewhite, what are we doing, brother? you you You're the one that is like in charge of the offense. You're the head coach.
00:26:11
Speaker
Figure it out. like Don't come to the thing and be like, oh, we shouldn't be stagnant. That's your job to figure that out, to fix that. I mean, yeah, he got this job after being the offensive coordinator here. Here's the full quote.
00:26:24
Speaker
ah They fought hard and we had opportunities, but you cannot fall asleep and get stagnant like that on offense when the defense is playing their butts off against a good offense. We didn't do anything in the first half. We got a couple scores in the second half.
00:26:37
Speaker
It started to get interesting and our defense got confidence. Then we had some penalties that killed us. And then that last drive there on defense, the water just broke. ah Yeah, man, like you, you are the offensive guy.
00:26:47
Speaker
You, you were at Alabama. You were at Texas. You again, got the internal promotion here. Who are we pointing to? wasn't he the Wasn't he the head coach or OC at Houston with um Tom Herman?
00:27:04
Speaker
I don't know about that that timeline, but yeah, he was ah the OC at Houston and spent a couple years there as the ah head coach as well. I think he took over after Herman left for Texas, I think was what it was.
00:27:17
Speaker
don't know. He was bad there too. So, I mean, i guess I was more confused when he got hired because I'm like, South Al, you've seen this guy be a head coach at the G5 level because Houston was G5 at the time when he took over.
00:27:33
Speaker
What did you see at Houston that you love so much after they fired him? You know, it's one thing when he gets hired as the OC at South Al and he's under Kane Womack and you're like, okay, but really the head coach is a defensive guy. He's probably just deferring, but he ultimately runs the team Womack.
00:27:52
Speaker
I think they just were worried about losing Applewhite potentially to another team, but I don't, i don't think he's had some good offenses. I mean, some of those Houston teams could really sling it. um Right. I'm looking at his bio. Like, I think he's a good offensive coordinator. I don't think he's a good head coach.
00:28:09
Speaker
Right. I think is the problem. And there's a, there's a very, there's very much a difference in like personality that you need to have. And like being able to motivate guys, there's a long list of guys that have been good offensive coordinators that can't be a head coach at every level of football.
00:28:25
Speaker
And I think that's kind of where we're slotting into where it's like, he needs to be an OC somewhere. And that needs to be the extent of his responsibilities. Cause he's not getting it done right now at South Al.
00:28:36
Speaker
Sure. South Alabama. Sorry. We had somebody yell at us that we we called them South out south Alabama. um What do you have good to say about Southern Miss? We've been dogging on a lot of teams. They pick up a big win, 42-25 over Jacksonville State.
Southern Miss Triumphs Over Jacksonville State
00:28:53
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, Braylon Braxton's still that dude. um I think this was, I do want to give them credit because you know they did go out and win the game.
00:29:03
Speaker
um They were able to run the ball a little bit more efficiently ah with Jeffrey Pittman. They still don't have a 100-yard rusher this year, um but it's always nice when Braylon Braxton doesn't have to be the the leading passer and runner of the football for them.
00:29:18
Speaker
ah So it's nice to see other guys chip in and contribute. um I just don't think Jacksonville State's defense is good. i mean, I watched Southern put up 41 on them.
00:29:29
Speaker
You've got, ah you know, I think Southern Miss, ah if I'm not mistaken, had a pick six in this game to kind of close it out. Yeah. um Yeah, basically, Jacksonville State is not a threat through the air.
00:29:45
Speaker
they They cannot throw the football. the All they can do is run it. They ran it with Caden Creel, the quarterback, and Cam Cook. um They did give Southern Miss ah some trouble on the ground. That might be something to kind of put a pin in for later um when they when we start getting into, like, who's going to represent the West ah if that comes back to bite them.
00:30:05
Speaker
Jameer Lewis had two sacks in this game ah for Southern Miss, so that that was good. um But yeah, I mean, I want to give them credit because I thought they played well and they bounced back from the loss to Louisiana Tech.
00:30:18
Speaker
But ultimately, I've seen Jacksonville State twice twice this year. Haven't really been super impressed either time. Sure. um I want to follow up on the conversation we had about Charles Huff last week.
00:30:31
Speaker
um I'm not done with the film. Surprisingly hard to really get good cut-ups of ah Marshall and Southern Miss. um So I'm relying on a lot on just broadcast old ESPN plus replays, which is tough because, I mean, you can't see downfield.
00:30:49
Speaker
ah But that's just the nature of it. um He might be a listener of the show, though, because this week they go to the red zone five times and they score five touchdowns. um A teaser, I we talk or i you know chatted with this with you about this ah mid mid-time last week.
00:31:07
Speaker
I think the issue is third-down decision-making. um Because it in the little phil bit of film that I watched and then play-by-plays just that I was reading through… a real, real habit of throwing the ball um when you're really ahead of or on ahead of the chains or on schedule on third downs in or near the red zone.
00:31:33
Speaker
And what i anecdotally observed was a lot of empty, um a lot of empty protections, teams sending six guys, five guys, and all five guys going out for a route.
00:31:46
Speaker
and the quarterback getting under pressure, having to throw it away, having to make a bad throw, incompletion. And then there's the second half of this. in is Is Charles Huff then going forward on fourth and four on the 24, or is he taking the field goal?
00:32:00
Speaker
um So I think I've identified where that kind of big issue was in this idea that, as we talked about last week, Southern Miss or Charles Huff coach teams are – is historically among the worst in the country.
00:32:15
Speaker
um yeah Over the past five years, the teams that he has coached have been in the bottom seven or eight in red zone efficiency across the country. And so to follow up on that, because i really think there's something here that – Again, as Charles Huff, as we look at ah his resume as a coach and consider that a full-strength Louisiana team doesn't get blown out in last week last year's championship game, ah this is something to keep an eye on.
00:32:47
Speaker
Yeah, i again, I think there are two biggest things that need to really be monitored, especially like when you have games like last week against Louisiana Tech. It's their inability to run the football and their inability to stop the run.
00:33:01
Speaker
I think ultimately those two things are going to be what kill them, especially when you pair that with, like you said, you're... weirdly conservative on fourth down ah to where you're, you're very, very inclined to just kick the field goal and take the three rather than try to go for it.
00:33:20
Speaker
But you're also super, super pass heavy because, and I don't know if it's a chicken or egg thing, but it's like, right you either decided like we have to throw the football because we can't run the football or we're not even trying. Like once we get down in the red zone, because like a lot of those ah series that we read off last week are like,
00:33:39
Speaker
it They literally go run, pass, pass. and And like every single time it follows the exact same pattern where it's like it's either Braylon Braxton or it's Matt Jones or Pittman or whoever run on first down, pass, incomplete, pass, incomplete or short completion.
00:33:58
Speaker
No first down, no score, kick. So again, I don't know that j Jacksonville state was the right team to say, Oh, all their, their problems are fixed. Cause frankly, Jacksonville state's got a bad defense. Yeah. They only faced a red zone third down twice in this game, actually only once. And then they had a third down that was on like the 25. And they converted both of those, ah one of them into a touchdown, the other for a first down. So there's no insight into that decision there. But yeah,
00:34:29
Speaker
but
00:34:32
Speaker
um We're still on this. We're two two gumshoe detectives on the case beating the sidewalk ah trying to find and trying to find the next clue as to what the problem is.
00:34:46
Speaker
i think I think truly it is like they're just so predictable. When they get in the red zone, it's just so predictable. Like, you know, ok they're going to run the ball in first down, and then when they don't, when we stop them, they get one or two yards. Then all of a sudden they're behind the sticks, and they don't operate well when they're behind the sticks, especially
Old Dominion's Narrow Win Over Liberty
00:35:04
Speaker
in the red zone.
00:35:05
Speaker
ah Another team that we can say good things about, and then we'll close. We got two games left here. ah Old Dominion beats Liberty 21-7. ah First of all, you have to give Old Dominion in their flowers for beating Liberty. This is a one-win Liberty team.
00:35:23
Speaker
ah But 21 points to seven. ah They get the win. Am I crazy to feel like there's still meat on this bone? No.
00:35:33
Speaker
I mean, so so only beat a bad Liberty team 21-7, who their um who ah their quarterback threw for 77 yards, it feels like this should have... It is weird that you beat Virginia Tech more thoroughly than you beat a one-win Liberty team that doesn't have a quarterback that can complete a pass or throw for more than 100 yards in a game.
00:35:59
Speaker
Uh, I agree. It's nice to see the other skill players step up. Like you said, kind of in the opening, um, Trey Kwan Jones had 89 yards rushing Ja'Cory Thomas, 114 and two scores. Trey Brown had 81 yards.
00:36:13
Speaker
Yeah. It's nice to see other guys kind of continue to be a factor. Um, But yeah, I mean, it doesn't matter who started for Liberty this year. they've The quarterback position there has been ah train wreck with Ethan Vasco, Ryan Berger, this Merdinger guy that threw for 77 yards on Saturday. Like, if if you're facing a team and they can't throw the ball, well, guess what?
00:36:38
Speaker
Half the equation's already solved before we walk out on the field. All we got to do stop the run at that point. Right. Yeah.
00:36:47
Speaker
Old Dominion. i i guess my question is then, does margin of victory, like how how much does that really matter? They're 3-1. They're winning games, right?
00:36:58
Speaker
Granted, again, that these are not the most resume-building three wins. They're over FCS. um ah An FCS opponent, Virginia Tech, you got their coach fired. And then Liberty, which is kind of you know among the basement dwellers across college football this year.
00:37:14
Speaker
um But does how much does that matter? I think it does, but i i I have trouble quantifying or convincing myself that it really, really does. I just... Like your schedule is not getting any easier. You get coastal, which is probably, you know, in the same atmosphere as Louisiana or as Liberty, but then you get Marshall and Marshall's winning games.
00:37:35
Speaker
Then you get James Madison. James Madison is going to walk you. You get app. You're playing at, i you know, yeah that's another team that's in that same stratosphere, maybe a little level below coastal, but in that same stratosphere, but then you get ULM, then you get Troy, then you get Southern that can just win games at kind of, you know, at the flip of a coin.
00:37:57
Speaker
I want to give Old Dominion the respect that they were demanding from me in the preseason. I want to, but I'm not seeing it yet. I mean, I think that's the key. You just have to you have to wait for conference you know play to to really open up, and then and then we can make that call.
00:38:15
Speaker
um Yeah, i I do agree with you. theres There's something here that seems to not be fully like clicked into place where it feels like, even though they're winning these games, that they're not playing up to their full potential.
00:38:31
Speaker
And maybe... Maybe they just felt like on Saturday, hey, we're facing this Liberty team. They're not very good. they can't They can't throw the football. like Let's just do whatever we want and kind of work some things out, and we're still probably going to win this game. But yeah, like you said, it it is going to get conference play time, and it's going to tighten up, and it's going to be like, hey – we really need to be clicking like on all cylinders because at any given week, there are a ton of teams that can score points and can't play any defense.
00:39:00
Speaker
And if you're offensively like not fully on somebody, you know, Marshall could show up and score 31 points. And then all of a sudden you're like, Whoa.
00:39:10
Speaker
Like, you know, and like you said about JMU, they're, I think, a more complete team than Old Dominion, but they are the team that's standing in the way of Old Dominion going to the Sunbelt title game.
00:39:22
Speaker
And they're beating that, I mean, that James Madison team is beating Liberty right? Right. Why can't, why, why can't you do that? If you, I, I don't know.
00:39:36
Speaker
I don't know, but when, when we get to to conference play time, we'll really be able to kind of dig our hands into this and and be like, what, what do we actually have that ODU, you know, it's all, it's all sunshine and rainbows right now.
00:39:50
Speaker
um But I'm going to be interested to see you like what what it turns into when we're two, three weeks into conference play. And it's like every week we're going out there and either you know having to grind out a win or or something like that. like can Can this be sustained every single week? I don't know.
Georgia Southern vs. James Madison: Fan Reactions
00:40:08
Speaker
Sure. ah Last game of the week ah was a game that I know you and from what I was reading on Twitter, a lot of Georgia Southern fans, it's becoming like hitting that breaking point that you've talked about for several years with Clay Helton of that point of like, hey, man, at some point I'm just going to stop tuning in.
00:40:26
Speaker
be Because you're not putting a competitive team out there and you're not giving me anything to watch. ah Again, granted, this is against what is by a good mile, the best team in the conference in James Madison.
00:40:38
Speaker
um Georgia Southern loses 35 to 10. They score three points in the first half, seven in the second. um What did you see of this? And what's kind of, I mean, what's what's your outlook? How do you feel?
00:40:53
Speaker
Well, I want to start off by saying i was so confident in Georgia Southern that I actually bet on JMU, but not only did I bet on JMU, i actually moved the line three points.
00:41:05
Speaker
ah So JMU was getting like 17 and a half. I actually moved it to 20 and a half, got better odds, and they still covered the spread, which good job, JMU. I was like, if if Georgia Southern is going to eat crap in this game, I might as well profit off of it in some way.
00:41:18
Speaker
And that this game played out exactly the way that I thought it was. ah there's a full team spectacular failure on clay Helton's part. And every, every git time after the game, they're interviewing him.
00:41:31
Speaker
He's just standing up there smiling from ear to ear. Everything's, you know, sunshine and rainbows. And it's like, you would never thought this guy had just ah lost a game by 25 points. Like everything is hunky Dory and Helton land. um Yeah. I think the breaking point is this.
00:41:54
Speaker
this goes This honestly goes beyond football into kind of like administration stuff. Our previous AD who hired Helton, Jared Binko, already bounced and is now working at, I think, Auburn.
00:42:06
Speaker
if he's not If it's not Auburn, frankly, who cares? It's an SEC school, Ole Miss, whatever. He basically kind of washed his hands of the situation because I think he saw the way that it was heading, especially at the end of last year.
00:42:18
Speaker
And the new AD came in and apparently he is like in Clay Helton's back pocket as far as like personality wise, like they are like inseparable. So he signed Helton to this giant extension But I think what makes a lot of Georgia Southern fans mad is he's totally inaccessible.
00:42:37
Speaker
Like, no one has heard him say anything since the preseason. And he was all, rah, rah, Clay Hilton's great, and he's going to fix all the problems we had, and I believe in this guy.
00:42:48
Speaker
And through five games, we're two and three. ah The worst defense, ah run defense in the conference, ah I believe we are, let me see...
00:43:01
Speaker
Second worst in the country, 262 yards per game allowed per game on the ground. JMU ran for six yards a carry. So every single time, if they ran the ball twice, they got a first down.
00:43:15
Speaker
um JC French got sacked seven times. can't they they can't run the ball uh pishon wimbley got blown up twice uh gave up two sacks and he's supposed to be this upperclassman guard that we have uh johnny brown is the the tackle he also played poorly um I think the other thing, too, it it's it's not just... it's the It's the personality stuff with Helton.
00:43:42
Speaker
it's It's never seeming upset, even when they get absolutely rocked. Like, when they lost to Fresno ah in week one, his sort of take was, wow, wasn't it great that our players got to come out to California and see the coast and and go to In-N-Out Burger and all this other stuff. and People are like...
00:44:02
Speaker
you guys just got beat by like 100 points. Like, what are you talking about? That was, it was just all positive spin. And it's like, I almost feel like we are as, ah as like a fan base, like collectively losing our mind because there's one thing happening on the field and we're being told something totally different is happening once the game is over and you hear from the coach.
00:44:22
Speaker
And I think that that, is what's reaching a breaking point because it also feels like these concerns that people have had for years now, including myself, there's other more prominent people, donors, things like that, um are just frankly not being heard by the administration. And it feels like the administration does not care either.
00:44:42
Speaker
So last point I'll make, I know I've been rambling for a while. yeah I want to say the thing I think that breaks a lot of people's backs is he is not aggressive in spots where you'd go, okay, now's the time to be aggressive. So let me give you an example.
00:45:00
Speaker
Down 28-3 at one point, they went for it on fourth and one, ran the ball with Weston Bryan, got stuffed. And for the rest of the game on fourth and shorts, they punted.
00:45:13
Speaker
So on a fourth and two, down with 11 minutes to punted. punt On a fourth and four down 35 to 10 with two minutes left in the game. They punted.
00:45:25
Speaker
i don't know where, so if we got a college surrender index, um they need to start tracking Clay Hilton's punting decisions in the third and fourth quarters combined. Georgia Southern had four possessions.
00:45:41
Speaker
I mean, what what can you do? Like everybody who has had concerns has screamed until they're blue in the face and everybody from other fans to the administration, they're just like, go away. You're bad fans. We don't want to hear it.
00:45:54
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Well, now the chickens are coming home to roost. So what what are we doing now? Yeah. i Something that you were talking about with ah Benko and then is the new AD, what is it? Chris Davis? Chris Davis.
00:46:10
Speaker
Yeah. That is a similar um frustration that I see with Georgia State fans as well, with Charlie Cobb, at least as it pertains to football, because Southern and State both have successful non-football athletics.
00:46:29
Speaker
um But, I mean, you to some degree, I mean, but you... Southern really doesn't, to be totally honest. Like, their best sports outside of... I used to say football. Their best sports are like non-revenue sports, like air rifle and stuff.
00:46:45
Speaker
But I mean, with like at Georgia State, it it's ah it feels like a similar ah apathy towards the the shortcomings of like, again, Del McGee, this is only a year two, but this is clearly not working.
00:46:58
Speaker
um You know, I... They see the real attendance numbers because Georgia State you know famously inflates them. Mind you, they sold as many tickets for last year's game versus Vanderbilt as they did to this year's game versus Murray State. So, you know...
00:47:15
Speaker
They know the real numbers, and they're not showing them. ah you know Just flip on a game, and you'll see no one is in Old Turner to watch this team. And there's an apathy. It feels like there's an apathy from the administration. So um just as you were talking about that, that reminded me a lot of ah my plight.
Georgia Southern Administrative Concerns
00:47:33
Speaker
ah Yeah. I think the main difference, though, is –
00:47:39
Speaker
Georgia state. And this is not to slander Georgia state. I'm just calling it like I see it because even you were like, there's just not fans there. I think the thing that has really killed like a lot of longtime Southern fans.
00:47:52
Speaker
And I guess I'm including myself in that. Like I, I attended beginning in 2010, So this is we're going on like 15 years now. I know I'm not even near as long as some of the people. I mean, some guys that are posting on the message board were there when like the football team got restarted like in 1980.
00:48:07
Speaker
So like, I'm not saying I've seen the history of Georgia Southern football. It just feels like the program has been infiltrated by these yes, glad handing yes men that are just happy to.
00:48:20
Speaker
Like if Clay Helton told the AD to lay down in a puddle so that he could walk over his back, I think the AD would do it. Like that's the level of like, yes, sir, whatever you want, sir, right away, sir. And it's like, this guy's a below 500 coach at the school. Like, why are we treating him like he's Nick Saban in his prime?
00:48:40
Speaker
Like, I think that's what, I think that's what, but here's the difference. Georgia state never really had, all that much interest in the football program so i think people are less cognizant of that whereas it feels like georgia southern has been infiltrated by these people who and either are incompetent or just are out to destroy the interest in the football program but i would i would argue that the reason that like even without georgia state georgia state does not have a football history this is a team that is less than 20 years old right um
00:49:17
Speaker
So we're dissimilar in that way, but where we are similar is that There is opportunity, right? And the frustration is not that we are underperforming. It's we are not meeting the expectations of the resources that you're provided, right?
00:49:31
Speaker
With Georgia Southern, you have a rich football history where you are a – mean you've got an Irk Russell who who's wrongfully been evicted from the College Football Hall of Fame, like one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, right? That that georgia Georgia Southern is truly a blue blood within the real history of college football.
00:49:50
Speaker
And again, and at Georgia State is not in that case, but what they are they're in Atlanta. They're in a recruiting hotbed, one of the best places in the country for call ah high school football talent. It's like California, Texas, Florida, Atlanta.
00:50:03
Speaker
Atlanta, South Georgia, right? yeah And you have the opportunity to catch the Georgia Tech scraps. You say, hey, man, we play 10 minutes from their stadium. You won't even have to move when you transfer in.
00:50:17
Speaker
but But you fall short on that. you You have this student body that, again, largely a commuter school, but is one of the biggest in all of college football. And you can't – so many of those people still live in and around Atlanta, and you can't get them into the into the stadium.
00:50:34
Speaker
So it's – again, comes from a different place, but it is this frustration that, like, they're – We're not Kennesaw State, right? Where you are in North Metro Atlanta in a very well-to-do area where it is just a school that happens to play football.
00:50:51
Speaker
There's opportunity here, man. And that's my frustration with Georgia State is it could be something, and it's not. I agree. I, the, the crazy thing about our team. And I don't know if, if Georgia state fans feel the same way is if Clay Helton was just in charge of recruiting. And then we had a full coaching staff outside of him.
00:51:13
Speaker
I think this would be a heck of a team because I think he's done a good job getting pieces in there. It's just, whether it's he or Ryan Applin or definitely Brandon Bailey has no clue what he's doing as the defensive coordinator.
00:51:26
Speaker
Yeah. you put these clowns on the, on the, the coaching staff, they're going to ruin anybody that has any talent. And it's like, you know The one thing they like to puff out their chest about at the end of last year was their retention rate and how high it was. and you know We kept all these guys from last year.
00:51:44
Speaker
you know X amount of players. I think even Phil Steele brought that up. He was like, X amount of players an average school have left and you've got so much fewer at Georgia Southern. I think the answer is a lot of teams probably looked at these guys and went,
00:51:58
Speaker
Don't have any interest. and they And then they were like, well, would I rather stay on scholarship here or go into the portal and potentially lose my spot and my scholarship? And then I'm out or I'm playing at Southwest Missouri University. And it's like, who cares?
00:52:15
Speaker
I think that's the that's what that's what it has been, especially on the defensive side the ball. Anybody in the front seven, if they left tomorrow, I don't know that we would notice, to be totally honest.
00:52:27
Speaker
Yeah, i mean maybe, I mean, that might be the case where we're at with Del McGee, but it's, I mean, he's had a recruiting class and a half, so it's still early to tell, but from a coaching production standpoint, it's clearly not working out.
00:52:42
Speaker
um
00:52:44
Speaker
That was the slate though. I mean, we you and I talked before the show. It's so much easier to really sink our teeth into all of these games. When two teams, we are here to talk about are playing each other.
00:52:56
Speaker
Any outstanding thoughts from the week before we sign off?
00:53:01
Speaker
Uh, we are going on 25 plus years of, uh, the, the Georgia Southern JMU game, not being within a touchdown of the final margin. Uh, it hasn't been that way since 1991. So whoever plays at home has the ultimate advantage. Um, and it just keeps, it just keeps going that way. It happened last year, happened the year before that happened the year before that.
00:53:26
Speaker
So it's just, I don't know. ah Anyway, I'll go ahead and sign off here and then you can do yours. ah You can email the show warmweatherfans at gmail.com.
00:53:37
Speaker
ah You can follow the show on X at warmweatherfans. You can follow me on X at watchthestone. ah If this season goes the way I think for Southern, the last game of the season, I will read...
00:53:51
Speaker
on the air, our only negative Apple podcast review that we've ever had. And it was all about some guy putting on the cape for Clay Hilton, which I thought was absolutely hilarious now because it's like,
00:54:07
Speaker
I wasn't wrong. I was just early on him. And I think a lot of other people were kind of the same way, especially if you go to the Georgia Southern GSU fans.com. It's like, there are threads going back years from like 20, 2023 with Davis Bryn that were like, we're going to fire Clay Hilton. It's just a matter of time.
00:54:27
Speaker
And like, everybody tried to poo poo it last year. And now it's like, all right, well, we win four games. I don't want to hear anything out of anybody. Well, if you end up having to fire him, that might cost you an arm and a leg and three years tuition. um because Would you rather have that or not have a fan base?
00:54:49
Speaker
i Here's the thing. I don't disagree. um You can find me on Twitter at Zeke Palermo, Z-E-K-E-P-A-L-E-R-M-O. As b Brian said, you can find the show there as well at Warm Weather Fans. Email us as well, warmweatherfans at gmail.com.
00:55:05
Speaker
um We're on TikTok. We are on YouTube. We're on Xformerly Twitter. Like and subscribe on YouTube. Like and subscribe.
00:55:17
Speaker
Guys, be sure to hit that subscribe button and ring that bell. but Guys, it's actually illegal to hit that subscribe button with your left toe. So prove the haters wrong and subscribe to Warm Weather Fans.
00:55:29
Speaker
Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you soon.