Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
2025 Sun Belt Football: Week 14 Preview
58 Plays18 days ago
Happy Thanksgiving! It's the final week of the regular season, as Brian and Zeke run down all of the week 14 action, headlined by a Sun Belt West showdown between Troy and Southern Miss to determine which team goes to the championship game and faces James Madison.
Elsewhere, bowl eligibility is on the line for multiple teams sitting at 5-6. Who will emerge and extend their seasons, and who will be suiting up for the final time in 2025?
Tune in and find out!
Check us out on YouTube!
Follow us on X:
Recommended
Transcript
Sunbelt Conference Final Week Preview
00:00:16
Speaker
Welcome everybody back to Warm Weather Fans Sunbelt Podcast. My name is Brian Stone, joined once again by Zeke Palermo. We are here to preview the final regular season week ah in the Sunbelt. We've got, Zeke talked about it on the last ep, we've got like one really impactful game. Although there are a couple where it's like matchups to see who qualifies for bowl and who gets left out and who is sitting home.
NFL Thanksgiving Games to Watch
00:00:42
Speaker
uh come christmas ish time uh but zeke how's going before we jump into all that uh it's good man folks are gonna hear this on thanksgiving probably so happy thanksgiving i guess um i mean thanksgiving I don't know. Are there any good ah NFL games I should be looking for when we get to that?
00:01:04
Speaker
What's the slate look like this year? I think Joe Burrow is going to be back. And I think Bengals Ravens, although Lamar Jackson the last two weeks is totally crapped his pants. So I don't even know if that game is going to be worth watching.
00:01:19
Speaker
ah i think the. Give me one second here. I can edit this for time if I need. oh We got Packers-Lions could be interesting.
00:01:31
Speaker
Chiefs-Cowboys could be fun. Could be fun. Could also just be a stinker, though. Those are two teams that just like are fully capable of crapping the bet as well.
00:01:42
Speaker
Both won today, though, so somebody's got to win. Someone's got to. Of those three, Packers-Lions definitely looks the most interesting. Bengals-Ravens, that's a good rivalry. um but I've been very underwhelmed. going honest with you, man.
00:01:58
Speaker
um If Lamar keeps playing like this, the Bengals are going to smoke them because the last two weeks, he's been awful.
00:02:09
Speaker
He's been legitimately terrible. He looked worse today than Shador Sanders did.
00:02:16
Speaker
Oh, I can't believe they won. That was my hate watch of the day. I did not watch a second of that game and I feel better about myself for it. I watched Eagles Cowboys. um I was like, i'm not spending time on this or Jaguars Cardinals. All right, let's get into the the matchups ah for this upcoming Saturday.
00:02:37
Speaker
ah All Saturday games, no weeknight games, you know, due to the holiday.
Georgia Southern vs. Marshall Preview
00:02:42
Speaker
We've got to start off with one thirty ESPN plus Georgia Southern is traveling to Huntington to take on Marshall. Marshall is a six and a half point favorite. um Take Marshall and the points.
00:02:56
Speaker
um georgia southern as of like last saturday totally threw in the towel like after the second odu possession um i don't anticipate anything's going to change there southern plays worse on the road uh they don't play well against quarterbacks that can scramble and i think turner and del rio wilson can kind of do both and so You know, if Joe Sean, Joe Sean Barbie might run for 200 yards in this game. um The thing that I've noticed about Southern and they haven't won many games. So it's been hard for me to pin this down.
00:03:33
Speaker
If, if they are able to run the ball with OJ Arnold, the offense is night and day. Whereas I don't think a lot of teams have solved this or it hasn't mattered.
00:03:44
Speaker
But if you stuff the run against Southern and you force JC French to be, a hero, it doesn't happen. Like, it never really happens. So, the games where OJ Arnold goes crazy, like the Coastal game, he played pretty well against, like, App State in that win. Like, all the wins, they're able to move the ball on the ground, and all of the losses, it's like 10 carries for 31 yards, and JC French throws two picks and and doesn't go over, like, 210 yards passing.
00:04:16
Speaker
So, yeah they'll i think Marshall can figure it out. i I, I like Marshall here as well. I think, uh, the quarterback situation, we don't know the severity of Carlos Doriel Wilson's injury quite yet and probably won't until game time.
00:04:31
Speaker
Um, but Zion Turner did well in his limited reps. He went eight for nine last week against app state, uh, did kind of fumble in a really critical situation, gave the ball away, and has not played like a ton of football really since 2022 when he was at So I think if you're having to resort to Zion um Turner, you're you're in a tight spot there from Marshall. But as we've seen, world-beating quarterback, which again, Del Rio Wilson himself is not is not a prerequisite to beating Georgia Southern.
00:05:07
Speaker
um I like Marshall pretty comfortably. Yeah, i I don't have any doubts that Marshall's going to be able to like run the ball, control the clock, keep Southern off the field. that The one thing that Marshall does really well on defense is force other teams to make mistakes and and gather turnovers from those teams. And i I don't have any doubt that that's going to happen again on ah on Saturday. like i just I have zero faith that Southern's going to be able to take advantage of any of these opportunities. so
00:05:41
Speaker
Thankfully, this will probably be the last time I watch them play this year. And for that, I'm thankful on Thanksgiving. That's that's the what I'm thankful for. um Two o'clock, again, you you're probably thankful for this as well. ah Georgia State takes on Old Dominion.
Old Dominion vs. Georgia State Analysis
00:05:58
Speaker
Old Dominion in Virginia at home is a 26.5 point favorite.
00:06:04
Speaker
If Cameron Brown doesn't play, give me the 26 and a half. I don't really care between TJ Finley and Valer who takes snaps. Neither one of those guys moved the needle at all for me.
00:06:16
Speaker
And I think this is going to be one of those ones where it's like Quinn Hennigle is going to be taking snaps like midway through the third quarter. Like I think they, I think old dominion gets up big.
00:06:26
Speaker
And the only thing I would be concerned about if Cameron Brown did play is that he scores a couple of garbage time touchdowns and keeps it within the number. But if Valera is playing, he's not going to he's not goingnna do anything with a sub 50% completion percentage.
00:06:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think even with Cameron Brown, ah I like the points with Old Dominion here. um Cameron Brown's, again, been very good for what Georgia State has needed him to be. Only one interception to 13 touchdowns. He's throwing around 60%, 1,200 yards on the year. um um But there's there's just too many other holes And again, we've caught in flack for it, but you know, old dominion has a very high powered offense. It revolves around Colton Joseph um and shocker Georgia state simply ain't going to stop him. ah They couldn't do anything against smart call your several weeks ago, who is a similar, like, I don't want to call him run for smart call your is run first, but I don't know necessarily want to call Colton Joseph a run first quarterback, but he's certainly
00:07:32
Speaker
certainly the best running quarterback in the conference, ah really bar none, and only like drags behind and passing behind like Braylon Braxton. So, um I mean, Old Dominion is going to put up 42, 48 fairly easily.
00:07:47
Speaker
Yeah, i nothing Georgia State does on defense is going to make a difference. And, you know, you pointed it out. It's like Jordan Simmons has come on kind of late. But yeah it when when the score is so far out of the realm of being competitive, like ah he's not going to be able to take any he carries because they're going be down by so much. So they're just going to be throwing with...
00:08:11
Speaker
God forbid, Valera. That's going to get ugly really quick if Valera is in there for the majority of the game. I think this is one of those. It's like if Cameron Brown's hurt and TJ Finley is healthy, TJ Finley needs to play all 60 minutes because the second Valera goes out there, it's going to get really, really ugly, I think.
00:08:31
Speaker
um i mean We saw it last week, yeah. Sure. um All right, 2.30 here. This one... it is a ball is a game for bowl
Arkansas State vs. App State Implications
00:08:40
Speaker
eligibility. It's a fun one at two 30 ESPN plus it's in Boone. Arkansas state is coming to, uh, the rock to take on app state.
00:08:50
Speaker
Uh, app is a two and a half point home favorite. The overrunners 55 and a half. I like the over in this one. I think neither team plays a ton of defense. Um,
00:09:01
Speaker
If J.J. Cole is there, ah is going to be the starter for the Mountaineers, he's going to at least keep you a level of respectability that A.J. Swanson simply was not up until this point and ah ah last week when they when they beat ah Marshall. So I like the over. I think both teams going score. I think this one's final score is going to be similar to the Louisiana-Arkansas State game.
00:09:27
Speaker
I'm really excited for this one. Obviously it's going to fall to the wayside for one of the other games around halftime, but for the first half, I'm really excited to watch this one. i am hopeful, um, not on a personal level, but from a, it fits my agenda level.
00:09:45
Speaker
This could be Butch Jones's last job and or game in Jonesboro or for the Red Wolves. It's not in Jonesboro. Um, he's probably already played that, but I think a loss here, um, Arkansas state kind of reeling two losses in a row to Southern miss, uh, which was a relatively respectable loss, but then, uh, he kind of bungled it against Louisiana last week. Um,
00:10:08
Speaker
I think this might finally be the nail in the coffin. And then an App State, a big win against Marshall. they They've not done a ton in recent weeks, but I think that win over Marshall can propel him past. And ah again, from a Zeke's agenda perspective, I hope this puts in, we can talk about a coaching search for Arkansas State probably this time next week.
00:10:29
Speaker
I don't think that's going to happen. Didn't they just ink him to an extension at the end of last year?
00:10:36
Speaker
I think they did. they they They did an extension around the same time that Clay Hilton signed his with Southern. Because we talked about how similar they were as coaches. You're right. You're right.
00:10:46
Speaker
You're right. this is not going to be his last. They could lose 96-0 and he's it's not going to be his last game. He's going be back for 26. That's awesome. That's awesome. Also, I i feel like from where they were with Blake Anderson as a coach to where they are now, I feel like this has been another team along with like Southern and, and maybe if you want to throw app into this ah bucket as well, coastal is definitely in this bucket, just lowered expectations for like what the program should be and should accomplish. I mean,
00:11:23
Speaker
we're going back to like almost 10 years now, but
Decline in Program Expectations: Why?
00:11:25
Speaker
they were like in the West. They were what Louisiana has been the last couple years where it's like every other year you're in the Sunbelt title game.
00:11:33
Speaker
ah wait, there was no Sunbelt title game. So it was like every other year you're like either winning the conference outright or you're winning a share of it. um And now it's like, you know It was bad when Butch Jones first got there, and it was like two wins, three wins, like all that kind of stuff. And then they spiked last year with eight, ah which was obviously unsustainable at the end of last year. But yeah, I feel like the the they, like a couple other programs in the conference, have just sort of lowered expectations overall. And it's like...
00:12:04
Speaker
if we don't make a ball, it's not the end of the world, I guess. And you're like, 10 years ago, you guys were like running the West. Like, I don't, don't, what happened to you guys other than hiring Butch Jones? Um,
00:12:17
Speaker
I think this this season, for the way that some of these coaches have been, this needs to be a cautionary tale to ADs to not get overly excited about one eight-win season. Because you saw Arkansas State do it, you saw Georgia Southern do it, where these ADs were so happy to win eight games for the first time in a long time that they like almost wet their pants to like go sign an extension. And now it's like...
00:12:44
Speaker
Well, these guys are locked in for the foreseeable future, and the ceiling is not a conference title berth. It's like an eight-win season where you're not really in the race.
00:12:55
Speaker
so You know who know who else is in that ah that same boat? South Carolina with Shane Beamer after nine wins last year. He came up for another five.
00:13:08
Speaker
I sort of understand it a little bit more with Beamer because Sellers was supposed to be a um a Heisman contender this year. And I think i think the Dow Loggins move to App has been negative a net negative for both App State and South Carolina. It's the rare lose-lose, coach moves on, coordinator moves to another school.
00:13:29
Speaker
App could have certainly done better with a hire. ah some of the names that were getting kicked around, like, I think they would rather have, what's his name? Neil Brown at this stage, ah would rather have had Neil Brown, all things considered, than Dowell Loggins at this point. So it's like, both of these schools have just kind of shot themselves in the foot ah by making, like, coaching moves in general.
00:13:54
Speaker
So... i don't know. We'll find out. um Another game. This one's a foregone conclusion, but Louisiana is welcoming in rival, ah a.k.a. whipping post ULM on Saturday.
00:14:08
Speaker
It's in Lafayette. ah UL is an 11 and a half point favorite over under 48 and a half. I like UL. I think they win this game by like 17 points. It's probably going 31 14 final.
00:14:21
Speaker
um I feel like ULM always plays a game where the the final is like 31-14, 38-16, something like that. So it's like they're going to cap out at two touchdowns and they're going to be totally offensively inept as they have been all season. And lunch scored 34 against Arkansas State last Thursday. I don't really see a reason why you can't just do that again.
00:14:47
Speaker
Yeah, interesting note about this rivalry. Both teams have gone through several name changes, formerly Northeast Louisiana State and Southwestern Louisiana. um Then you became ULL, and they've since dropped the Lafayette. Since it's been ULM versus Louisiana, just straight, Louisiana is 6-1. It ain't to stop here.
00:15:12
Speaker
No, not with this offensively challenged Warhawks team. um Better luck next year, ULM, because this year was not it. And if Aiden Arment is still your quarterback one on the depth chart heading into 26, Bryant Vincent, I know you're the AD, my brother.
00:15:30
Speaker
you can go ahead and pack that bag because it could go at any time. um Maybe the governor steps in and makes a move. Who knows? We've seen it before. We've seen it's happened before. ah Okay.
South Alabama vs. Texas State: High-Scoring Game?
00:15:42
Speaker
Another three o'clock kick. South Alabama is traveling to San Marcos to take on Texas state. Texas state is a nine and a half point favorite. Uh, over under is 63 and a half. I think this is going to be points points, points, points, points. I think both teams are going to score.
00:15:59
Speaker
Neither one of them's defense is very good as evidenced by, um Texas state basically every other week other than last week of this season. South Alabama allowed Braylon Braxton to throw for 400 yards, a lot of it in garbage time, but 400 yards regardless.
00:16:16
Speaker
I think Brad Jackson's going to have himself a day. i think the only question is, can South Alabama stay with Texas State on the scoreboard? I think that's the only question I have.
00:16:29
Speaker
Yeah, I... Does that first half against ULM not worry you? I don't know. It's like ULM does this thing. They're so lethargic on ah offense. It almost like lulls the other team to sleep too. Like if they played, if the team they're playing plays down to competition, they play along with ULM, even if the offense on paper is way better because I think there's no, when you play ULM, there are teams where the coaches can get them up and ready and like they start going at it like early
00:17:04
Speaker
when you know the other team isn't going to score, there's almost like no urgency. You know what i mean? So you're kind of sitting there after a quarter at zero, zero. And you're like, even if you LM scored a touchdown, like that might be it for them for the game. Like we might could score.
00:17:20
Speaker
We could play a ah JMU Georgia state game and score two touchdowns. And it's like at totally out of reach, you know, this game's been over for 60 minutes. Basically it's weird.
00:17:33
Speaker
Yeah, I just, I think to that point about urgency with Texas State, um as you look at recent results, going really back to Marshall or Troy, even Arkansas State when they had that like five, six game losing streak, really, um they needed urgency in those games and simply didn't exhibit it. um You know, I'm willing to throw james the James Madison game out, but like,
00:18:00
Speaker
Well, a lot of it, I don't know if you remember this, but a lot of it was their defense could not get a stop at the end of the game. At one point, the teams they were playing had three touchdowns in the last like two minutes of a game.
00:18:15
Speaker
I think the urgency was not with their offense. It was with their defense because a lot of those were shootouts. but playing ULM, I don't know if you remember like if you ever watched the original Pokemon run, but like yeah playing ULM is a little bit like when Jigglypuff would show up and start singing and everybody would fall asleep. That's what they they remind me of. It's like they the Jigglypuff of the conference shows up, starts singing, and everybody just is kind of like, oh, I feel good. I'm taking a nap right now. And then it's just like, oh, ah it's halftime. It's 3-0. Is the game over?
00:18:47
Speaker
Definitely not, because all we have to is score twice. Yeah, I'm trying to overthink a pretty easy layup here.
00:18:56
Speaker
I think Texas State wins. I don't know that they cover the nine and a half just because their defense, like you never know when they're going to allow like a backdoor cover. And you're like, you're like, oh, they won by seven. Why did I think they were going to cover 10 point spread with that defense? Like, I just don't I don't know.
Troy vs. Southern Miss: Offensive Struggles Discussion
00:19:13
Speaker
uh right this is the game that the sole game that basically matters from like a conference title game perspective 330 it's in Hattiesburg Troy's is taking on Southern Miss Southern Miss is a six and a half point home favorite over under is 50 and a half um I think Southern Miss pulls their bootstraps up in this one, and I think they take care of business. I think the two weeks ago when they lost to Texas State, it was bad, but Braylon Braxton didn't play, so you kind of like, me all right, just scratch that one out.
00:19:49
Speaker
Last week was concerning. i have serious I still have serious doubts about Troy's ability to score points in a game where the defense isn't a Georgia State or a Texas State. that's but That would be my concern for Troy.
00:20:05
Speaker
Yeah. ah Even with Goose Crowder's performance last week, you're right. It has to be put in the perspective of being against Georgia State. And... i I feel pretty safe in saying that you're going to need a performance like that where Crowder went, what, like 318 or something, had an incredible game.
00:20:25
Speaker
You're going to need that type of performance against Southern Miss. um I think something that interests me here is that neither of these teams are particularly great at running the ball. Tay Meadows is pretty good. Jeffrey Pittman is, like, pretty good, but they're not guys that are going to consistently get, like, 20 for 110.
00:20:44
Speaker
ah don I don't know. Again, i don't like given like the, the betting angle. It feels irresponsible. Sometimes there's going to be passing yards in this game. Like these two guys combined for 700 and I wouldn't blink an eye.
00:21:00
Speaker
Yeah. um Gosh. Yeah. I think I like Southern Miss here. I think we've seen them get up for games a little better than Troy has, although most recent sample size being their two last games where just one win would have clinched this and made this. and ah That's not true, actually, because a loss, if they had lost this week.
00:21:24
Speaker
um Anyway, they could have given themselves some more breathing room, rather, with wins the past two weeks or past... three weeks with Texas state and South Alabama. Um, I've seen them get up. I saw them. I saw this team get up last week against Louisiana and the conference championship game.
00:21:41
Speaker
Um, and again, who are, you know, this is three parts Marshall, two parts Southern miss. So, uh, I like Southern miss here, but this will be a very, very fun game. And I, I'm very excited for it.
00:21:55
Speaker
I know last week defensively for Southern Miss was not good against South Alabama. My concern for Troy is that Southern Miss's defense shows up and it's more Old Dominion than it is ah Georgia State or Texas State or whatever team they put up like a ton of points against this year.
00:22:14
Speaker
I mean, there's a clear divide, even though we're here in this situation, there's a pretty clear tier divide between these two teams. Um, and so as we talked about, obviously the quarterback position, like goose Crowder is going to have to show up.
00:22:27
Speaker
God forbid he doesn't suffer another major injury and we have to see Tucker Hill crease because then we end up with Daniel Beal and last year's conference championship game. Um,
00:22:40
Speaker
But from a defensive point, ah you're you're exactly right. there's Even there, there's still like ah a discrepancy between the two. And Troy has to be on it its top, top game. And I don't know if they've been their best in both phases for a single game all year.
00:22:56
Speaker
Well, and you talked about it too. What killed ah Southern Miss last week against South Alabama was South Alabama's ability to run the football with, ah you know, those got Bullock and and i Phillips and all that.
00:23:13
Speaker
Troy is not able to run the ball that efficiently. it It almost is like they run the ball kind of like kicking and screaming like they run the ball because they have to because it's a phase of offense.
00:23:28
Speaker
But it's like, i've seen I feel like I've seen more Tay Meadows, like 15 carries, 60 yards. And it's like, that's fine.
00:23:38
Speaker
But is it going to kill? Like, is it going to be a difference between go like beating Southern Miss? Like, are you going run for four touchdowns? Probably not. Are you going to have a guy go for 183 yards? No.
00:23:51
Speaker
here's Here's your leading rushers from Troy over the past three games. Tay Meadows for 35 yards. Jarris Williams for 16. Tay Meadows for 48. That's through the month of November. um You don't have a guy rushing for at least 50 yards. And that'll be Troy's undoing here.
00:24:09
Speaker
Okay, he played in 10 of the 11 games that have taken place so far. he has 591 yards rushing this year.
00:24:21
Speaker
What is he looking for carry, though? Because he's not getting... for when it's for It's four and a half, but i want to I want to read off some of the games that he's had.
00:24:32
Speaker
Memphis, he had five carries for seven yards. ah Texas State, he had 10 carries for 16 yards and an overtime win. that That went five quarters. He had 16 yards rushing. ah Old Dominion, five carries for 10 yards. Last week against Georgia State, 13 carries, 35 yards.
00:24:53
Speaker
It just feels like it's like a combo of like what what is Southern Miss' Achilles heel on defense is Troy's Achilles heel on offense.
00:25:05
Speaker
You know what I mean? Yeah. yeah Okay. So with those numbers, it's like he has run for 100 yards in a game once this season, and it was against Nichols in the opener.
00:25:18
Speaker
He's gone over 80 yards once against Nichols in the opener.
00:25:24
Speaker
and In non-Nichols games, he ran for 79 yards against South Alabama. That's his other high. That's his high against FBS competition.
00:25:37
Speaker
That ain't good. No. So is he going to pull like a Kentrell Bullock and go for almost 200 yards rushing and kill them single-handedly? No, he's not because he hasn't done it other than against Nichols.
00:25:50
Speaker
And Southern Miss is not an FCS school that you can just beat up on. Yeah, you're right. i i want to come to control Bilox's defense because in his defense, he really hadn't either ah until this point.
00:26:04
Speaker
he he's high His FBS high was 113 against Georgia State, which again is like a a far, far shot from what we were just talking about with Tay Meadows, but it's not like he was putting up those 100-plus yard games ah super, super consistently.
00:26:20
Speaker
um And last year was a real turning point. So I think there's... Is there a world? There's like a scheme thing there. Is there a world? I don't know. I think we should just stop being talking about it because we don't know. um no No, I mean, it definitely could be. Like, let's loop in ULM here.
00:26:36
Speaker
What do we know about ULM? They can scheme the run. Can they scheme the pass? No. And it's a chicken or egg thing with Armenta where it's like... we haven't seen a better quarterback in that system. So we can't tell you if it's a coaching deficiency or if it's literally like we just don't have the quarterback in the building.
00:26:56
Speaker
So that's ah that's another thing where it's like, i whether it's Meadows talent-wise or whether it's Troy scheme-wise, I don't think it matters when it's like,
00:27:09
Speaker
I understand what you said about Bullock against ah Georgia state. I'd like to put in perspective that Tay Meadows ran for 35 yards last week against Georgia state. Yeah. No, that's, that that's very fair. That's it. Okay. Yeah.
00:27:22
Speaker
And then the last game, ah last regular season game of the Sunbelt season, three 45 on ESPNU, James Madison's traveling to Conway to take on coastal JMU is a 21 and a half point favorite.
James Madison vs. Coastal Carolina: Playoff Hopes
00:27:37
Speaker
53 and a half is the over under.
00:27:39
Speaker
James Madison's going to win this game. I'll go ahead and throw that out there now. I would not touch the spread because you don't know what Alonzo Barnett you're going to We are, we are in the, in the part of this season where last week it gets Washington state. He kind of obliterated all the goodwill that he had earned coming from George state to Washington state. Like in that span, he was really good.
00:28:03
Speaker
Last week was back to the, the doldrums of whatever goes on in his brain during games. Um, yeah, i I can't trust him with a spread the rest of the season.
00:28:14
Speaker
Like they may play Southern Miss in the Sunbelt title game. They might win 21-14 because he has 50 yards passing on 30% completion percentage. And I'd be like, yeah, that sounds right.
00:28:28
Speaker
I think... And Tad Hudson's not going to be good. So I'll just go ahead and give you that now. But yeah it could be 14-7 JMU at the end of this one. Yeah, I think from a less so like a pick-em perspective, but just like general, JMU needs to turn it on.
00:28:44
Speaker
And i think last last week's result against Washington State was a major, major failure. We talked it talked about it in the episode earlier this week where that App State win was ah really defining, I think, in this last stretch, especially as they pushed for the college football playoffs because that's a win against a you know, very, very much a downturned App State team, but an App State team that is a national brand to some degree, as much as you can be for teams in this conference. And they 58-10 against a Washington State, which again, downturned Washington State that is again, floating in the Pac-12 or whatever they're doing.
00:29:23
Speaker
um That's a national brand. And you need those wins against national brands late in the season because it's well known The committee is only turning it on now. they're They're not going back to the old Dominion game where the only team in the conference that could have touched you, you beat sixty three to twenty seven James Madison has to blow Coastal out because, yeah again, if they don't, if they don't, if this is a 10-point game against what will ultimately be 6-6 Coastal team,
00:29:52
Speaker
It doesn't matter how how well it goes in the conference championship game against Southern Miss and Troy because they're not going to watch. Because they saw you here against Coastal, not knowing that this Sunbelt even has a conference championship game yet because they're that far behind.
00:30:07
Speaker
um And write you off. And so James Madison, if you need the poster, eight like if you need that bulletin board stuff, like this is it. um To your point, we talked about in the episode that came out earlier this week, that might be bad for the conference as a whole because if James Madison, as the 12 seed, gets matched up with a good SEC runner-up at five or something, maybe the Sun Belt never touches the the playoffs again because that's how it works.
00:30:38
Speaker
But this is your chance for those guys right now, and it's got to happen. And we can't see last week, or we can't see – like even Marshall was a disappointing win.
00:30:49
Speaker
We've got to see it. Yeah, you got to you got to pour it on these next two weeks because they they will count like style points and things like that. So yeah, JMU, not that you need like a reality check from two ah podcasters who have never coached football before at any at really any important level.
00:31:10
Speaker
um But it's it's one of those things. It's like. generally you would go out there and go, all right, we just need to win and we're in and blah, blah, blah. And it's like, that's not how this works. You, you need like style points. You need to win in like dominant fashion or else these 75 year old geezers sitting in recliners in a room in Tempe, Arizona are going to look at you and give you the like Commodus from gladiator, like thumbs down and just be like, Nope, get two lane in here. Get, get JMU out.
00:31:44
Speaker
Like we have no interest. Well, look, you talked about our lack of coaching resume. You talked about the fact that we are podcasters, but Dowell Loggins still listens to the show. Yeah.
00:31:55
Speaker
So send that over to your buddy Bob and you know maybe we can make something happen. um I love the idea that we could just invoice Dowell Loggins for like coaching ideas. Because I mean, hell, he's taking coaching pointers from a 10-year-old on the sideline. why not Why not two podcasters at that point? At least I've got life experience. Not that good.
00:32:15
Speaker
Oh, goodness. At least, i yeah, i can tell you tell me the yardage. I can tell you the down and distance without having to count it out on my fingers. Hold on. Let me take my socks off. I need to count. I need more than 10 fingers. ah Yeah. Zeke, let everybody know where they can find you on socials.
00:32:33
Speaker
It's at Zeke Palermo. Z-E-K-E-P-A-L-E-R-M-O. And as always, you can follow the show on Twitter, TikTok, all that so sort of stuff at Warm Weather Fans.
00:32:44
Speaker
ah Email us, warmweatherfans at gmail.com. We are excited for the upcoming Sunbelt title game, and we will be back to discuss that once we have a definitive winner in that Southern Miss Troy matchup. But it'll be JMU versus who. ah This has been another episode of Warm Weather Fans.