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 1 Recap
90 Plays1 month ago
Brian, Zeke and Matt return to discuss all of the action from week 1 in the Sun Belt, including Coastal Carolina and Troy still on rocky ground, Georgia Southern getting embarrassed by Fresno State, and Appalachian State's impressive debut under new coach Dowell Loggains.
Email questions to the show at warmweatherfans@gmail.com!
Follow us on X:
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
Sunbelt Conference Week One Review
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome everybody into a new edition of Warm Weather Fans of Sunbelt Podcast. My name is Brian Stone. Joined this week, we got the full crew in the house. It's Zeke Palermo and Matt Miguez. We are here to break down what was an interesting week one in the Sunbelt for some schools. For others, it was depressing, and we'll we'll get to all of that.
00:00:37
Speaker
But Matt, we haven't checked in with you in a while. How's it going?
Labor Day Weekend and Personal Stories
00:00:40
Speaker
ah Football aside. Man, life's good. um Labor Day weekend, obviously enjoying the the the quick little mini break.
00:00:50
Speaker
It always comes at the right time as a ah as an educator because you know those first two or three weeks, you're kind of getting your feet wet and then now you get the chance to take a breath and reassess and hit the ground running and again in September.
00:01:04
Speaker
um it was good to have college football back on the TV. Wish the weekend as a whole would have gone better. But all in all, really good to have ah even even bad football but back on the TV.
00:01:19
Speaker
Zeke, what about you? ah Good, yeah, man. A lot of football this weekend. I got to tell you guys about a drive at one of the high schools I cover ah that I saw Friday.
00:01:30
Speaker
ah Team goes into half down a point. I think it's seventeen sixteen They receive the second half kick. go on 20-play, 11-and-2-minute drive. eleven and two minute drive it was It was the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long, long time.
New Approach to Game Recaps
00:01:49
Speaker
that That is what you call methodical football. It was incredible. Team ended up losing, though. ah They were up 10 with like two minutes left. Blocked punt in the end zone and allowed the onside recovery.
00:02:03
Speaker
ah Throw an interception on their chance to go down and win it. um But that... that That fired me up for the weekend, man. um And like Matt, and actually like all three of us, my team got a shellacking this weekend.
00:02:16
Speaker
ah But my other team did some shellacking to a team that we're going to talk about. So um mixed bag for me overall. Zeke, I thought you were going to say that that drive ended in a punt or something after the 11-yard drive.
00:02:29
Speaker
A great three-play, negative seven-yard drive. Well, we're heading along act on third down having a long clock-eating drive end in a punt is like a Kirk Ferentz special. like Oh, yeah. That's Iowa football, baby.
00:02:45
Speaker
And then you, and then you put from your, from the opponent's 30 yard line and you hit a touchback and you get a net put of 10 yards, eight, eight plays for 32 yards resulting in a punt. Yeah. tur parents baby We love it. Goodness. All right.
00:03:00
Speaker
So let's go ahead and get into week one in the conference.
James Madison's Win and QB Speculations
00:03:04
Speaker
Um, So Zeke, Matt, ah we have talked about before the show, we're going to kind of change up the format of how we do the recaps.
00:03:15
Speaker
So each one of us brought a ah positive that we took away from week one in the Sunbelt. We each brought a negative and then we each brought a take of our about our own team.
00:03:27
Speaker
So obviously the the take that we have about our own team does not fall into the first two categories. So Let's start off on a high note. um Zeke, since you were the furthest to the left to on my view, why don't we go Zeke, me, Matt, and then we'll circle back and we'll start doing negatives and we'll kind of put the games down that way.
00:03:49
Speaker
Yeah, I wanted to talk about ah the James Madison win over Weber State. James Madison wins forty five ten um pretty easily, not terribly shocking there.
00:04:01
Speaker
um But the big takeaway that I had was that James Madison... ah They're still trying to figure out the quarterback spot. ah they They went 50-50 on Alonzo Barnett and Matthew Sluka. It wasn't really 50-50.
00:04:13
Speaker
ah Barnett did a lot of the passing, and Sluka came in for a lot of designed runs or option-type stuff. um But no matter which way they go long-term, assuming they don't try to go to the Mark Sanchez-Tim Tebow two-quarterback route— Um, the, I think they're in a good spot.
00:04:32
Speaker
Alonzo Barnett was great. 14 of 22, little inefficient, but 130 yards for a touchdown five for 39 on the ground. Uh, Sluka, he, like I said, he was more of a running option, six carries for 34 yards.
00:04:46
Speaker
but was in for so many more plays that ultimately ended in handoffs. ah He was three for fourth through the air for 15 yards, a touchdown and an interception. um i think that's too small of a sample size for that interception to really, ah you know, he's not going to be throwing an interception on 25% of his plays.
00:05:04
Speaker
um With that said, it was not a very pretty interception. It was well under thrown, kind of trying to go to the end zone, well under thrown and too far inside. ah in a one-on-one situation.
00:05:15
Speaker
ah But regardless, both of these quarterbacks played well. They did. um they They obviously are going to be used different ways. Barnett is going to be your typical quarterback. But if they go Sluka long-term or even continue using him and as like this gadget-type player...
00:05:29
Speaker
um they're They're in a good spot because Saluka ended 3-4 with 15 yards. As I said, six carries for 34 yards. And that that was kind of my big takeaway, my positive from the weekend, ah partially because you guys took the other good positives.
00:05:43
Speaker
um But James Madison, hey, you're you're in a good spot. um You're still in the pole position out of the East. Probably still, I would say, certainly still in the pole position for the overall conference.
00:05:54
Speaker
um And that's what I like this weekend. Okay, so I messaged you guys before we recorded and said I had a question for you about JMU. This this
App State's Positive Performance
00:06:04
Speaker
falls directly into this category.
00:06:06
Speaker
Yeah. so So walk with me through this timeline and then let me know like what the thinking is here. Okay? So last year, Matthew Sluka goes to UNLV.
00:06:17
Speaker
plays has that whole dust up with the NIL, whether they didn't want to pay him or they withheld the payment that they had previously promised him, like whatever happens there, he leaves that school ultimately ends up at JMU We don't know that leading up to this game, if Alonzo Barnett is going to play or not, because sadly, there doesn't exist a an Adam Schefter for the Sunbelt where everybody's checking in on with him on game day, being like, good to go. This person's going to start, blah, blah, blah.
00:06:50
Speaker
So this is the point I want to ask you guys. So Sluka, in theory, leaves UNLV, comes to JMU to play for his old head coach from Holy Cross, and he signed up to be used like Taysom Hill?
00:07:07
Speaker
Like, what... what it What is, if you're, if if you're JMU, yes, he's a huge bonus. He's a big, like extra check X factor that you have last year.
00:07:19
Speaker
Barnett had some games. Zeke, you and I talked about those during the JMU preview. Barnett had some games where he flat, like
ULM's Performance Against St. Francis
00:07:26
Speaker
wasn't good. I don't know if the moment was too big or like whatever, But if you're in the mind of Sluka, are you just like, yeah, man, I'm just happy to be playing for my old head coach. Like, what what is the thinking to go to JMU and compete and not even know if you're start or not?
00:07:42
Speaker
It feels a lot like the Malik Murphy thing, right? Y'all remember Malik Murphy, who was at Texas? Mm-hmm.
00:07:54
Speaker
And, you know, was was competing for the starting job, doesn't get it and ends up going to Duke, starts for a year at Duke, and then Duke goes, gets Darian Mensah out of the transfer portal from Tulane.
00:08:07
Speaker
And now Malik Murphy is just kind of not around. um It's interesting because like you said, is is is he content with just playing for his old head coach?
00:08:21
Speaker
Or, you know, did what was he promised Something that is not being delivered, like that's always the interesting thing to look at when you when you look at these transfer portal guys because what kind of conversations were had leading up to this decision to go from UNLV, where he was likely going to start for Dan Mullen,
00:08:47
Speaker
Being the backup at James Madison. Hold on real quick. let me Let me even expand on what Matt just said. Matt, I think the thing, though, that gets lost a little bit is that Sluka transferred in to a team that already had an incumbent starter on the roster who started every game last year.
00:09:09
Speaker
so In my mind, at least, Matt, to use your example, it's like someone transferring in last year
South Alabama's Turnover Dependency and Drive Issues
00:09:16
Speaker
and being like, I've got one year of eligibility. ah If I don't beat out Ben Woldridge, I'm just going to like run gadget Wildcat stuff at the goal line. And it's like, okay, I'm going to But were you told something else? Like, what was the thinking? Because correct a lot of times a guy is like, not like, hey, I'll just burn my final year of college eligibility just running Wildcat, like on the goal line.
00:09:43
Speaker
So, I mean, this obviously started last September when Salukas said he was going to transfer out after the NIL debacle. um I would imagine that this has to be just a, well, there are two situations, right? And you then decide which is more likely. Either, again, yes, he was promised or was told that Alonzo Barnett was not going to be healthy or that he was going to have a chance to compete with Alonzo Barnett, which looks like he's having a level of competition, but he's still one B. He's not one. A he's Eve. No, that no, one beat no. He's two.
00:10:18
Speaker
He's not getting as many pass opportunities. and Right, right, right. 50, 50. um However, with the usage, there's a world where Barnett, bad week, comes in, right? um or Or there's just no market for this guy.
00:10:34
Speaker
i If he was – I don't know the real story. I don't know if we ever will um because he still says that he was screwed at UNLV. UNLV still says that this was just the agent trying to screw them over. Yeah.
00:10:47
Speaker
How much of a market for a guy is there? ah sure Surely there's an FCS D2 that wants him. But having already moved up to FBS, um I don't want to move back down, ah especially if NIL is this important to you.
00:11:01
Speaker
um So there's a world where there just wasn't a market for this guy that brought a lot of ultimately negative attention to UNLV. um And is, I mean, UNLV is always going to be remembered for having the first player um red shirt and then announced he will transfer um be because of NIL.
00:11:22
Speaker
Yeah. yeah So there's a world,
Coastal Carolina's Struggles and Leadership Concerns
00:11:25
Speaker
I don't know if it's right or wrong, but there's a world where this is just, there's no market for this guy because he's more of a headache than he's worth.
00:11:33
Speaker
I just have a hard time believing that a guy was like, I have so little market and like, I, I won't take hypothetically the step back down to FCS. And I would rather spend my final year of eligibility playing as like a spot player.
00:11:49
Speaker
You know, it's like a, it's like a major league baseball player being like, I'll just be a utility infielder on a minimum salary. And like, I could start somewhere like that's just strange to me. Um,
00:12:01
Speaker
But hey, I mean, it's good work if you can get it for JMU. Obviously, you know you've got a quarterback there who can fill whatever you know the Tim Tebow to Chris Leak role ah from like years and years ago ah and and can actually play like quarterback in a pitch as well.
00:12:17
Speaker
ah We'll see if he gets more reps. But to me, I was number one surprised that Barnett played, period, because everything leading up to the season was like, i don't know if he's going to ready or not.
00:12:29
Speaker
And then he shows up and is just starting week one. ah And that Sluka, in theory, was just like, yeah, I mean, we'll battle it out in camp during the season and then we'll just kind of let the chips fall wherever. and It's like, dude, you might finish this season with like 50 pass attempts and that might be your final college season.
00:12:47
Speaker
Like, that's just crazy. That's just a crazy thought to me. All right. yeah Should we go ahead and move on to the next? Yeah. Brian, what do you have to bring? Yeah. ah App State looked pretty good under Dowell Loggins. i the The one that I brought was of the first-year head coaches, and you can even extend this to first-year head coaches that didn't have a returning quarterback if you want to eliminate Southern Miss from the equation with the Braylon Braxton-Charles Huff thing.
00:13:16
Speaker
of the Of the new coaches that had a brand new quarterback, I thought they looked the best. I mean, obviously, Marshall played Georgia. I understand that. But it seemed like a musical chairs in that game of who was going to play quarterback. I mean, they were flipping it based on the drive.
00:13:32
Speaker
ah I guess you could make Troy. No, Troy's in year two. and i don't I don't know, man. There's just a lot of like things that are kind of up in the air. But I thought A.J. Swan looked good. I watched a good bit of this game. 31 of 46, 368, three touchdowns, no picks.
00:13:50
Speaker
ah They've got a good receiver there in Jaden Barnes, who... unfortunately got ripped ah right before the end zone or and should have had two receiving touchdowns, but finished with 134 yards and a score. ah Rashad DeBinion on the ground, 111 and a touchdown. I mean, they, I know that again, Charlotte
Troy's Game Against Nichols and Future Challenges
00:14:11
Speaker
is one of these that's starting over totally, but so is app and they ran them out of, ah you know, bank of America stadium. So good, good on them. It seems like they've got kind of a good fit, at least through one week, like things you are looking up for app.
00:14:24
Speaker
I mean, you got to look at this through an offensive lens because Dow Loggins is an offensive guy. You said Swan was incredible. 368, three touchdowns. That's incredible. That's an App State record for quarterback's debut.
00:14:38
Speaker
ah You're looking at Dalton Stroman, who was excellent last year. Career high aid catches on 88 yards. App State, most offensive total yard since 2022. ah And highest margin of victory over an FBS team since 2023.
00:14:53
Speaker
These are things they weren't doing under Sean Clark. And it's early. It's one game. It's small sample size. But they're putting pedal to the metal.
00:15:04
Speaker
And that's not something they did against Sean Clark. And that's what held them back when they had excellent quarterbacks and excellent receivers and ah excellent defensive linemen. um This team never kicked it into, like, fifth gear.
00:15:17
Speaker
They always stuck in second and third, and they would win. But they were never kicking it into that extra gear. um I think this... Again, you said against Tony Gibson and Charles Huff at Marshall playing Georgia, then Southern Miss, which we'll get to. There's not a ton of competition, but already Dowell Loggins, best new head coach, best situation ah for a new head coach this year.
00:15:42
Speaker
Yeah, yeah i would I would agree with that. they look They looked really good. AJ Swans, obviously a veteran at this point, spent time at Vanderbilt, spent time at LSU, and is now the the head guy at at App.
00:15:57
Speaker
I really like the way that he played against Charlotte. um I thought that DeBinion was great at the
Georgia State's Expected Loss and QB Issues
00:16:05
Speaker
running back spot. And yeah, I really like what Dow Loggins has put together in a situation where the expectations were kind of maybe a little out of reach.
00:16:18
Speaker
right ah with the history that App has, you know their their fans expect a a certain level of football. And I didn't know that he was going to be able to achieve it right away. I'm not saying that he's going to achieve it. right One game doesn't tell the whole story, but definitely got off to a good start Friday night against Charlotte. mine My positive is ULM.
00:16:39
Speaker
Look, you know there was there was a ton of questions about them this offseason. Obviously, Ahmad Hardy was... The majority of their offense last year, he goes to Missouri. How are you going to be able to replace that?
00:16:52
Speaker
Well, they brought in Braylon McReynolds from South Alabama, and he had a really good night. 113 yards, I believe, on the ground on 11 carries.
00:17:02
Speaker
Aiden Armento looks solid. And now look, take this with a grain of salt. They played against St. Francis. Like, there's levels to this, right? um But for your head coach slash AD to take all of that stress and still win a game 30 to nothing is is pretty impressive. I like the way that their schedule shapes up.
00:17:27
Speaker
So I've actually got ULM being a bowl representative for the Sunbelt Conference in 2025. That's my positive for week one.
00:17:38
Speaker
I thought Braylon McReynolds looked good. my My question is just more with his frame. Like, is he going to... okay Can it keep up? Yeah. I mean, are you going to have to use him in like kind of a ah change of pace scat back role I guess Tony Pollard with the the Cowboys immediately springs to mind where you're like, he's not taking the tough carries between the tackles.
00:18:04
Speaker
Like he's a guy we want to get out into space. Someone's going to catch like a swing pass or, or a a wheel route down the sideline or, or or do something like get him out in space. ah Yeah. I thought they looked pretty good. um i did.
00:18:18
Speaker
I watched this game. I did notice they, they were still keeping the ball out of Aiden Armenta's hands, even in in a game where it was like,
Georgia Southern's Upcoming Challenges and Critiques
00:18:27
Speaker
You know, this is one I would want to air it out a little bit more because this was this one was never in doubt. And their defense looked good against St. Francis, but their defense looked good early last season, too. And then it just kind of all went downhill. So, yeah.
00:18:40
Speaker
Matt, do you know anything about this Landon Graves guy? a really talented guy from the Monroe area. um had a really great high school career. Where he went to high school eludes me. I don't remember.
00:18:54
Speaker
um But I do remember his name from the high school ranks. He had a really good high school career. um He's talented. He's a dual threat guy. ah He can do a lot of a lot of things well.
00:19:06
Speaker
um I think it's one of those situations where it is Aiden Armenta's team. But you know if he gets hurt or something like that, I think they're in decent hands with Landon Graves. Yeah, because, I mean, they they gave him some tick late in the game um after Armento went, as Brian alluded to, 12 for 23 for 95, one-in-one, touchdown interception, took two sacks as well.
00:19:29
Speaker
um i mean, it's just a matter of time until they give, whether it's Graves or, i you know, I don't know what the rest of that room looks like, but before they give someone, yeah, before they give someone a chance, right?
00:19:41
Speaker
so So,
Louisiana's Stadium Debut and Offensive Struggles
00:19:43
Speaker
I don't know. The countdown's already begun. yeah You could have delayed it with a good performance against St. Francis, but yikes.
00:19:53
Speaker
Yeah. um I'll swing it over, ah talk about things we didn't like from the week. And it starts, I'll start at the top here, with South Alabama in their win over Morgan State, thirty eight to twenty one South alabama scored points off of turnovers,
00:20:13
Speaker
17 was their margin of victory. That scares me. That scares me a lot against a Morgan State team. um Those ah turnovers were a strip sack, a fumble, an interception, turned into two touchdowns and a field goal.
00:20:26
Speaker
Southout just couldn't sustain drives. ah Excluding those real short, like half-ending or short ah yardage or short field situations, um we're looking at drives of or drives that were six plays, five plays, three, four, and four.
00:20:42
Speaker
um Those are all the non-scoring and non-half-ending drives. That's bad. Yeah. Even your scoring drives are 13, 45, 4, and 31 yards. This was not a – we talked in the preview about how South Alabama, even under new coach Major Applewhite, needs to turn a corner at some point.
00:21:03
Speaker
And um needing 17 points off of turnovers to beat Morgan State um scares me a lot about the long-term like longevity of any type of success because you're not going to get 17 points off of turnovers against better teams.
00:21:18
Speaker
You might not get any points off turnovers at all. And kind of relying on that to beat Morgan State
West Division Sunbelt Title Contenders
00:21:24
Speaker
is a big red flag to me.
00:21:28
Speaker
i I agree to an extent, but... I think with the amount of of important players that they are replacing, I'm willing to cut them a little bit of slack for week one.
00:21:41
Speaker
ah Just because, again, Bishop Davenport played... a handful of games last year, including the bowl game. Now you looked good in the bowl game. Um, but you're replacing geo Lopez.
00:21:54
Speaker
You don't have a fluff Bothwell at running back any longer. You don't have a Braylon McReynolds who is now at ULM. Like a lot of these pieces, the receiving core is, is still fairly fresh.
00:22:07
Speaker
I mean, there's there's, there's a lot of like moving parts now. Um, I agree. If
Old Dominion and Marshall Game Outcomes
00:22:12
Speaker
a lot of your concerns continue to play out throughout the rest of the season, and it's just the same thing every week, like I agree.
00:22:19
Speaker
But I think at this point, you're just trying to get Bishop Davenport ready for like actual game reps. Whereas like some of these other teams we look at and we're like, what's the ceiling with these guys? Aiden Armento, we just talked about him last last season, started the whole season.
00:22:37
Speaker
Did he progress? that Not really. like It was kind of the same thing from beginning to end. The only difference was the other teams found out like how to kind of contain the running game enough to to beat them.
00:22:51
Speaker
um Yeah, i I don't know. i mean We'll see... got you know Major Applewhite last season had a lot of had his share of brain farts also like in in year one as the South Alabama coach. so um I'm willing to cut them a little bit of slack, but it is one of those that I'm kind of keeping my eye on and being like, I don't know about this.
00:23:12
Speaker
yeah
00:23:14
Speaker
um We can go ahead and get to my ah negative here. Mine's pretty simple. ah We talked about this a lot In their preview, I talked about it with Phil Steele. ah you know he Tim Beck has been going on and on and on and on.
00:23:32
Speaker
We're simplifying the offense. It's getting simpler. It's getting simpler. I'm an offensive guy. Okay. At least through one game, and I know it's Virginia.
00:23:43
Speaker
like I don't know if we can write that off the same way we came with Marshall and UGA, but it's Virginia. It's it's still a P5. MJ Morris did not look good. um I was keeping up with this game. I think through three quarters, they had something like 130 yards of total offense as a team.
Texas State and Arkansas State's Victories
00:24:01
Speaker
ah So a lot of his stats were kind of garbage time stat padding.
00:24:06
Speaker
20 of 36, 163 in a pick for him. They still don't have, at least on the surface through one week, they still don't have the quarterback position figured out. Last year, you had the...
00:24:17
Speaker
ah Noah Kim, Ethan Vasco experience, that was bad. Both of those guys are now gone. And now you get this Maryland transfer in MJ Morris, and it just kind of seems like the same thing over again.
00:24:30
Speaker
So I don't know how much time, if this keeps going, how much more time can Tim Beck be afforded at Coastal? Yeah. And last year you had some rushing options as well. And I don't think we saw that out of Coastal either here. Again, against Virginia where the guys are in mass just going to be larger, bigger, faster, stronger ah by nature of P5 versus P4 or G4, G5.
00:24:56
Speaker
um You don't have a guy other than Jalen John Dillon. that ran the ball often and took more than four yards a carry. Your leading rusher had 27 yards. The guy behind him had 26. It's not like this was a by committee. This was just guys that were inefficient.
00:25:13
Speaker
ah Your longest run of the day was 10 yards. um You're averaging as a team 3.4. So there, it appears again, can weigh this what you will um through this lens of Virginia, but there's no one to take any of that pressure off MJ Morris.
00:25:31
Speaker
ah Should he not be the guy?
00:25:35
Speaker
Matt, what is your, what is your take on what's going on with coastal? Oh, it's so bad. It's, it's so so bad. um You know, I, I try every week to watch at least one possession.
00:25:52
Speaker
of every team, right? Like it's nearly impossible to watch every second of all 14 teams. Right. Yeah. But I try to pay attention enough where, when we come on here on Sunday nights and talk about it, that I, you know, I don't sound like an idiot.
00:26:11
Speaker
They look bad. Like, really like how Tim Beck still has job.
00:26:23
Speaker
I think is a fair question. Honestly, like how he know was yeah fired in the off season is, is really interesting. And now if this continues, look, I'm, I'm willing to say, Oh, you know, week one, they played a P four.
00:26:39
Speaker
a you know, I'm willing to give them a little bit of slack, but you know week three, week four rolls around and they still look this bad, even in wins.
00:26:51
Speaker
If they still look this bad, like there's going to be some problems. um he but The Sun Belt is not going to be kind to them. Keep in mind, to start last season, they blew out the team that eventually won Conference USA, and then they still had the season they had. true.
00:27:08
Speaker
That's true. ah Yeah, it isn't going to be easy for them. Something to keep an eye on. i don't Maybe not keep an eye on, but ah an interesting anecdote from this one, an interesting nugget. Coastal Carolina, 12 different guys with a reception.
00:27:23
Speaker
Everybody played. and I want to keep a pin in that number because I've got a bigger one for you later. All right. So my negative, even in a win, ah learned a lot about Troy.
00:27:40
Speaker
And they're still not very good. They're still not very good because look, they won. Good for them. Starting the season, want to know going into the fourth quarter.
00:27:54
Speaker
You were losing to Nichols. And look, I'm not saying that to downplay Nichols. I currently live 45 minutes from their campus. My mother-in-law is an alum of Matt, you don't have to sugarcoat this, dude. It's fine.
00:28:09
Speaker
like i have respect for Nichols. they They beat the fourth-ranked FCS team in the country last weekend. like I have respect for Nichols. But like Zeke said, bro, it's Nichols.
00:28:24
Speaker
Like the the talent disparity, Troy should have beat them by 30. thirty
00:28:33
Speaker
And that still could have been a bad win.
00:28:37
Speaker
Like the fact that you played three quarters and we're still losing. Guys, if Troy wins four games,
00:28:50
Speaker
I think that that's an accomplishment. like And and here's here's the problem. the The biggest concern that I have is when you look at their roster and you look at who is still playing for them, you would think that they would get better.
00:29:09
Speaker
Goose Crowder has been there for half a decade.
00:29:14
Speaker
He's been there for half a decade. And yet they still needed to score 28 points in the fourth quarter. to come back and win it.
00:29:24
Speaker
If you don't have Tay Meadows run for $1.90, would you have even won the game?
00:29:33
Speaker
don't know. He only scored one touchdown, but if he doesn't run for $1.90, are you in position to score any of the other 31 points? I... Like, I don't know. Matt, you you you you glossed over the lead.
00:29:49
Speaker
They had to rally down 10 points to beat Nichols. I know. I know. I know. I was tweeting it out from our account. I was like, is my score ticker thing broken?
00:30:02
Speaker
Nope. Sure not. Nichols was so obscure of a team, they didn't have individual stats on the app I was looking at it on for the players. Jesus.
00:30:14
Speaker
It would just say Nichols ran for 10 yards on the last play. That's all it said. With 10 minutes left in the game, as little as eight minutes left in the game,
00:30:26
Speaker
Nichols was in the lead. Yeah. And it doesn't get easier for Troy. They take Clemson next week and Memphis yeah's the week after. Good luck.
00:30:38
Speaker
Here's the thing. Good luck. You're going to struggle against Memphis. No, you're going to lose big time against Memphis. What do you mean? You might lose to Buffalo. Yeah, that's the one you might one where it's like the red flag goes up. It's like if we're if we're we're eating L's against Buffalo.
00:30:55
Speaker
No, the red flag has already gone up. We're looking for the white one.
00:31:02
Speaker
Yeah, man. The surrender might come in upstate New York. oh keep in mind hold on last last note last note on Troy keep in mind when Chip Lindsey was sniffing 500 ish every year they were yeah it was problem it was a problem very quickly they won four games last year in year one which you can write off if you see the growth later Jared Parker my guy my dude
00:31:36
Speaker
There's a real chance you start the season like 0-4 if this is what you're bringing to games on Saturday. and what are What are we going to do if they're 4-8 again?
00:31:47
Speaker
like Are they going to keep them for year three just because of the money? like yeah That's my question. Probably. Yeah. oh That swings it around. ah That's through six games of the week. That'll swing it around ah where we each get to talk about our own teams, um which, believe it or not, in a 63-7 loss to Mississippi State, I would say Georgia State played the best game out of the three of our schools.
00:32:15
Speaker
ah Better than mine. Certainly better than yours. And Matt jury's out. um I because here's the thing. could You could convince me because here's the thing.
00:32:28
Speaker
This was the expectation. This was the expectation against Mississippi State. um So all of the judgments are it's really tough to gauge. Yeah. Again, Mississippi State is not Kermit the Crop SEC, but SEC nonetheless, and Georgia State, as we've said before, are probably our bottom feeder of not just the Sun Belt, but of ah FBS this year, ah just as they kind of try to regather under Del McGee.
00:32:55
Speaker
um The passing game was bad. Christian Valera is bad, man. He had an interception to a defensive lineman. I don't... the guy kind of started to rush and then drop back into coverage.
00:33:07
Speaker
I don't know if Valera didn't see the guy drop or if he just ducked the throw, but it was bad. And I don't know which situation I would rather he have made. Um, we saw Cameron Brown, who I think is a red shirt sophomore, um, who played at Texas tech last year and West Georgia the year before. Um, he was marginally better in the little he played.
00:33:30
Speaker
um, We'll kind of see. um And the secondary. Secondary was bad, which is crazy because Georgia State had a solid secondary. was among the best in the conference from a statistic perspective ah last season, but allows Ole Miss, ah it's only its ninth 400-yard passing game under Lane Kiffin.
00:33:50
Speaker
Can you tell I read the game notes this week? um Passing touchdowns from 38, 9, 26, and ah Georgia State, two for 15 on third down. This was bad.
00:34:02
Speaker
um But I am, again, I had the least to lose this week. um So no chip on my shoulder.
00:34:13
Speaker
and That's all there is to say, man. Yeah. yeah That's all there is. I'll go next. ah well mine's pretty Mine's pretty evident. ah Georgia Southern is on the West Coast and will be to play USC in week two.
00:34:28
Speaker
ah I'll go ahead and step on the preview for week two a little bit. Whatever points the bookie lets you have with USC, take them. Take them. They will cover the spread.
00:34:41
Speaker
Georgia Southern, I don't know if they have the best PR team. Oh, don't think they'll be nice old Clay? No, I think they're going to want to beat his brains in because I think, weirdly enough, a lot of USC fans like hate his guts and think that he like did them wrong.
00:34:59
Speaker
To the point where I used to make the joke, I was like, so so if if if Clay Helton did to you guys what Chad Lunsford did to us on the way out, you would be wanting to burn his house down.
00:35:13
Speaker
Like, let's be totally honest. Like the year that y'all, y'all fired him, he was not good, but he wasn't a, he didn't believe you guys two and 10 in shambles and have to rebuild. But USC fans talk about him as if he did.
00:35:27
Speaker
So that's, that's what always gets me. It's like, what are you talking about? You guys were like hovering around 500, which is not, which is not great, but whatever. Uh, this game, they were actively awful.
00:35:39
Speaker
Uh, they had a couple of good scoring drives. Um, I don't know if Ryan Applin is scared to let J.C. French throw the football or if J.C. French himself is scared to throw the football.
00:35:52
Speaker
Whoever in this equation is afraid to throw the football in this air raid offense needs to go find work elsewhere. ah
00:36:03
Speaker
Again, I said this in the priest in the preseason like preview. If J.C. French is scared to throw the ball 10 yards down the field, you need to find a new quarterback. And i I'm going to go ahead and I took the under on the wind total before the, before the season started.
00:36:18
Speaker
I said, there was no way they were going to get to, what was it? Eight, I think was the final number or nine, one of the two. I'm thinking this is like more like a four or five win team. And based on what I saw on Saturday and they just inked Clay Helton to a giant, like five year extension.
00:36:36
Speaker
So I think this is going to be like a rough, uh, next couple of years under Clay Helton, to be totally honest. Like, If you get a big extension and you've got you know you were one game out of the Sunbelt title game last season and you show up in week one of this season and totally stink it up in two games on the West Coast, then you go back home for game three and you play Jacksonville State, which now goes from a game that seems pretty easy on a team that's rebuilding to now ah a game that might be a coin flip, there's a chance you start the season one and three,
00:37:15
Speaker
Like, i don't I don't know, man. I saw zero answers. Their front seven is worse than it was last year. And I don't know if Marquez Watson-Trent was the only thing holding it together.
00:37:30
Speaker
I mean, Fresno ran for 300-something yards on the ground. Like, EJ Warner didn't have to throw the football. Every time they threw the football with EJ Warner, they wasted a down.
00:37:41
Speaker
He threw two picks in like the first half. like it They should not have ever thrown the ball after like the second quarter. like They should have run at every single play, and that was that was what I would have done.
00:37:52
Speaker
Dude, this team is bad. This team is actively bad. The coach is bad. All of the coaches are bad. the The offensive coordinator is scared to let the guys throw it down the field or throw it 10-plus yards.
00:38:07
Speaker
The defensive coordinator clearly has no clue what's going on. zero. He has shown zero answers for what to you do with the front seven. um They were running light boxes and Fresno was just running it right in the middle and everybody was just kind of standing around being like, I don't know, let's keep running nickel and dime personnel and hope it fixes itself. I don't know what this So...
00:38:31
Speaker
so i We joked before the show, this is what we expected out of Georgia Southern, but it just came six, seven weeks too late. These types of stinkers, these types of games where you're actually in it for a bit. I mean, it's not like this was a four-quarter mess. I mean, there were, what, 20 minutes of good football out of Southern. They were up 14 to 13 halftime.
00:38:53
Speaker
um But after that break... As we have said about Clay Helton's teams in the past, do not play full games.
00:39:04
Speaker
Do not play full seasons. No. So. I'm going to be honest with you guys. I know it's just week one. ah If this season continues to go the way that I think, I will watch Georgia Southern for the sake of the podcast.
00:39:21
Speaker
They will not be appointment viewing for me until Clay Helton moves on. Things aren't changing. You're in for a long couple of years. Well, that's fine. But like, you know, Saturday night, it's like Clemson LSU's on. That's actually a good football game.
00:39:38
Speaker
want a rather watch thing Would I rather watch that or watch Clay Hilton farted up in the second half and get outscored 29 to zero? I mean, seriously, like, no offense to some of these teams. It's like, I'll watch them for the podcast, but, like, the games where it really doesn't matter, i might just be like, nah, ill I'll find whatever the game of the week is and watch that instead. Like, life's too short just to watch a team that has no interest in trying to be good or, like, improve or be, you know, competitive.
00:40:09
Speaker
Sure.
00:40:13
Speaker
Matt, that brings us to another team that stunk it up. Oh, stunk it up. Might be putting it generously. um yeah Bro, it's rice. Bro, it it's fucking rice.
00:40:29
Speaker
Should the title of this episode be Put Louisiana in Rice? Like, oh my God. Oh my God.
00:40:43
Speaker
Your quarterback that has spent three years in two highly touted SEC programs can't complete 50% of his passes, can't throw for 100 yards.
00:40:56
Speaker
um But he can run for 55 and a score. You know, um your offensive line couldn't protect, you know, Madea from fish sticks.
00:41:12
Speaker
I don't know. I'm just making, you know, Shelton Sampson.
00:41:19
Speaker
Shelton Sampson. Okay. Let me ask you guys this. You guys know ball. You guys have a general understanding of how football should be played. If you're targeted 12 times in a game, at the minimum, how many catches should you have?
00:41:33
Speaker
You're looking at eight. Yeah. Eight to 10. Eight to 10. Try four. Try four. Right, but is that more on the quarterback or the receiver?
00:41:44
Speaker
I don't give a damn who it's on.
00:41:48
Speaker
Because guess what? If it's on either one of them, it's a problem.
00:41:54
Speaker
A 33% catch rate. This is the most mad ah Matt has ever been at Louisiana from my recollection. Not to mention you let Rice's running game run for 285 yards.
00:42:10
Speaker
Hey, how did Daniel Beal do? He actually didn't look half bad. Yeah, he did. He went 0 for 6. oh He got thrown into the final two minutes game. The spirals were tight, though, Zeke. You don't understand. Yeah, I mean, the the the balls looked nice. But anyways, look, man, and all of this on the night that you opened $65 million thing of beauty.
00:42:37
Speaker
think of ud
00:42:40
Speaker
Agent Field looks great. The atmosphere was there. You had 23,000 people in a stadium that now only holds 30. Like, you had a good environment.
00:42:51
Speaker
you You had a half-time fireworks show. Like, you built this thing up. And the most important part failed to deliver.
00:43:04
Speaker
What happened to all these expectations? where Where was Bill Davis? where Where was the offensive line? Where was the defensive line? Matt, can I say something real quick?
00:43:15
Speaker
Please do. Okay. Please shut me up. Last season, I said this about Tate Rodemacher. I said, and I guess I should have kept the same energy for Walker Howard.
00:43:30
Speaker
I said, a guy that's on the end of the bench at a P5 does not make them a star automatically at the G5 level. And we saw that again last season with Tate Rodemaker, who barely played for a really, really awful Southern Miss school.
00:43:47
Speaker
I think... And this includes everybody. I mean, all the way down to like Zeke, me, Matt, Phil Steele. Like everybody we've talked to has been basically like, yeah, it's Louisiana's division to lose.
00:44:01
Speaker
i I think we really... probably should got a little bit too far out over our skis on well walker howard's gonna be good because he played at these two schools i guess we should have kept like i said the same energy as i had for tate roddemaker which is this guy couldn't play at either of these schools like what's he gonna do at a school with no offense lesser talent than he would have it at lsu or an old miss or something like that brian he's from lafayette the
00:44:32
Speaker
He's coming home. They made the video. His dad holds the SEC record for the most interceptions in a single game. Well, I would say Walker Howard might set the Sunbelt record, but he's got to get them near the defenders. I understand that.
00:44:49
Speaker
Dude, it's so bad. It's so bad. It's all so bad. The coaching decisions were terrible. I don't know what planet Mike was on last night, but it was he was not in Lafayette, Louisiana.
00:45:02
Speaker
Did he come to the postgame and was like, I guess I'm just a hillbilly idiot, like the way that he did last season for that one game? Wasn't it a two-lane game or something?
00:45:14
Speaker
I forgot exactly how he worded it, but that was fantastic. yeah I was at that press conference. I was not there last night. um But no, man, it just was so frustrating to see the way the season ended last year after you had such a great season.
00:45:32
Speaker
And for you to literally pick up where you left off, just couldn't move the football. um Couldn't stop a bad Rice team from running buckshot all over you. I mean, 280 yards on the ground.
00:45:52
Speaker
And Rice was running the option. Yes. Yes. I guess the one the one really, if you're really looking for a silver lining on defense, the one is you won't see another team run that this season. Whereas, like, let me give you... Well, hold on. Let me give you the the the bull case.
00:46:10
Speaker
So you guys won't see another option attack this year. Georgia Southern let that happen against a team that ran. Guess what? The spread. Do you think they'll see another spread offense this season in the Sun Belt? Maybe. Maybe.
00:46:23
Speaker
your offense your offense got outgained by an option team. Yeah. They had more total yards.
00:46:33
Speaker
And if it wasn't for a 20-yard touchdown run from Walker Howard, all you got was two field goals.
00:46:45
Speaker
At home, when you were a double-digit favorite. Yeah. It's pathetic. It's embarrassing.
00:46:57
Speaker
And look, again, I'll say the same thing I said about Coastal. I'm willing to give you a little bit of slack because it was week one. You know, we've seen some crazy things happen in week one and teams turn it around and whatever.
00:47:10
Speaker
I'm willing to give it some slack. But last night was incredibly concerning considering the expectations that not just me being the UL guy, all three of us and many other people have had about what this Cajun team is supposed to be in 2025.
00:47:29
Speaker
Incredibly concerning. Well, okay. Let me, let me ask you a question. Thank you for bringing that up. Cause I actually was going to ask something based on that. Okay, so the negatives we had were on Louisiana, South Alabama.
00:47:45
Speaker
ah Zeke had alluded to the the Southern Miss thing. who who Now that we have a week in the books, if you were to to take a shot, what team out of the West comes out and plays in the Sunbelt title game now that we have seen what we've seen?
00:48:04
Speaker
Texas State.
00:48:08
Speaker
That all 5'7 receiving core can give a lot of teams trouble. I mean,
00:48:15
Speaker
u l m Whoever it is is going to get steamrolled by the team that comes out of the East. I 100% agree. even if it's Even if it's UL, they're going to get steamrolled by whoever comes out of East. It's going to make last year look like child's play. And like I know that the the quarterback was out, ah Matt, for you guys. But, I mean, this might this might approach like Troy coastal levels of Sunbelt's title game. As horrible as this is going to sound.
00:48:44
Speaker
Oh, wait, you're talking about last year? Yeah. When, when Wooldridge went out yeah or when fields went out. yeah Okay. both of themve I thought you were talking about when Walker Howard went out last night. I was about to say it didn't make a difference.
00:48:55
Speaker
No, it wouldn't have made a difference. They weren't good when Walker Howard was in. Yeah. Yeah. All around bad night. Embarrassing. um just Just really disheartening.
00:49:07
Speaker
Again, when, when you talk about the the brand new stadium and then the expectations of the team, just all around bad. Real quick, let's run through the other five games out of the conference from the conference.
00:49:20
Speaker
um You got Mississippi State beat Southern Miss thirty four to seventeen How's that experiment going? How is Marshall 2.0 looking for you guys?
00:49:31
Speaker
Look, so Southern Miss hung in there for a while. Yeah, it was 10-10 at the half. yeah it was I think the SEC depth, even for a bad SEC team in Mississippi State, just just kind of wore Southern Miss down as the game went on. um i mean I'm not going to pass judgment on them until they get a conference play. like I need to see them play equal equal ability teams before I make like a judgment.
00:49:59
Speaker
sure ah Indiana 27, Old Dominion 14. Uh-oh, someone sound the alarm. Zeke was right again.
00:50:08
Speaker
We sound the alarm because it happens so infrequently. ah Colton Joseph is goaded but has no help. oh Oh, yeah, we knew that. We knew that.
00:50:18
Speaker
Well, hold on, Matt. You weren't here bad this one, Matt. You didn't catch all the blowback that we caught about the ODU stuff. ah Oh, i'm ah I must have missed this. Dude, Ricky Ronnie is so high on this team.
00:50:32
Speaker
We were told by ODU fans that we were morons and didn't know anything about the team and shouldn't be speaking on them. But apparently what I shouldn't have said, I guess, was that Colton Joseph was the second best quarterback in the Sun Belt. That was wrong, too, I guess. if If I'm going to be wrong about it, I got guess I've got to be wrong about all of it instead of just a little bit of it.
00:50:53
Speaker
We were told that Ricky Ronnie said this is the best team he's ever fielded at Old Dominion. And listen, I'm going to give them their defense credit. They've got a really, they got a bad-ass linebacking core and ah the best in the Sunbelt.
00:51:09
Speaker
Like, ah no question. Jason Henderson, all those guys. Very, very good. Defensively, I thought they played pretty well against Indiana. Colton Joseph threw for under 100 yards and three interceptions.
00:51:23
Speaker
And we were told that we were morons for doubting their skill position players. by multiple people, told us that we were morons. We were morons because we didn't just read the names off the page and go, everybody's good and move on.
00:51:39
Speaker
Now look, the the statement that this might be the best team Ricky Ronnie has fielded at Old Dominion, that could very well be true. That's like saying i have the best smelling shit I've ever taken. but but but but But past teams haven't been very good either, so like the bar is pretty low.
00:51:59
Speaker
I had people tell me that they were going to challenge JMU for the East Division. Get out of here. but No, i'm i'm dead I'm dead serious when i say it. Zeke and I were catching absolute hell.
00:52:12
Speaker
App has a better chance of contending with JMU for the East than Old Dominion does. Get out of here. That's ridiculous. Okay, and also, let's take this away from it. Zeke, I'm sorry. I know you want to move on. You're good.
00:52:22
Speaker
let's take it Let's take this away, too. Their only two scores were two long rushing touchdowns by Colton Joseph, and we were told that we were stupid for saying that that it is basically a one-man show on offense and that everybody was going to contribute.
00:52:39
Speaker
Last year was a mirage. If you take Colton Joseph off that team, they're 2-10.
00:52:48
Speaker
If you take Colton Joseph off that team, they're 2-10. Yeah, they're back to the Grant Wilson, Hayden, Wolfe, whatever years where they were like struggling to score points.
00:52:59
Speaker
they'll They'll get two FCS wins and then they'll lose every other game.
00:53:05
Speaker
I'm sorry. Like, again, maybe some of these guys get unlocked when when conference play starts and I'm willing to to wait that out. Sure. But to me, this is case in point, at least early is like the fact that your star quarterback threw three picks and didn't have 100 yards passing and had only the only two scores. And they both came off of like 75 yard rushing touchdowns.
00:53:29
Speaker
Let's me know that nobody besides the offensive line is helping him out on the offensive side of the ball. Counterpoint. Ricky Ronnie said this is a really good team. ah Marshall lost 45-7 to UGA.
00:53:43
Speaker
um Not a ton to really talk about here. This was kind of as anticipated. um Anecdotally, as a Georgia alum, ah this feels like the first time in forever UGA has really woken up for a lower-ranked G4 opponent.
00:54:02
Speaker
So go Dawgs, I suppose. Didn't cover the spread. Did not cover the spread. i wait What's that coming down the track? So that's Georgia. And then that brings us to Texas State ah beat Eastern Michigan 52-27. And Arkansas State beat Southeast Missouri 42-24. We talked in the previews that these are two teams in the same mold that are going to throw up 35-plus points a game but also allow 21-plus.
00:54:33
Speaker
Texas State, when you don't play in Eastern Michigan, that can only put up 27 points against you. your Same thing, Arkansas State. When it's not Southeast Missouri, how sustainable is it? ah Do either of you have notes on either of those two games? Zeke, you're glossing over, do you know who started at quarterback for Eastern Michigan?
00:54:51
Speaker
Former Coastal contributor Noah Kim. Shout Noah Kim. Coastal contributor? You know who showed up on my TikTok today? Ethan Vasco. He's back at it now at Liberty.
00:55:03
Speaker
Yeah, he was competing. in masco The last thing I saw, he was competing for the job with app cast off Ryan Berger to try to figure out who was going to start at quarterback for Liberty.
00:55:15
Speaker
Ethan Vasco still dancing on TikTok. ah Any notes about Texas State, Arkansas State? I have one about Georgia Marshall that we went past. If I'm a Marshall fan and I made this call about Braylon Braxton last year, if I'm a Marshall fan and I don't see Zion Turner take snaps, I send it back o like ah like a bad order to restaurant.
00:55:35
Speaker
ye If it's anybody but Zion Turner, not for me. Send it back. oh i do have I do have a statement to make about Eastern Michigan. um I'm really disappointed that Noah Kaniga did not register a tackle.
00:55:50
Speaker
It's still early, man. True freshman. He's got he's got five more years. Don't you worry. I'm really upset about Noah Kanaga, but you know it's it's fine. um Also, when we were talking about Georgia just now, and I did their chant and you didn't answer me, um it made me think of something that happened to me earlier today.
00:56:07
Speaker
I went to a Costco, right? Okay. Love Costco. No free ads. And I saw a gentleman wearing an Ohio State T-shirt. And I figured, you know, he's probably riding the high. They got a big one yesterday.
00:56:21
Speaker
And so as I walked by him, I just gave him a subtle little, oh, man.
00:56:27
Speaker
And I got nothing. So your own man in public. as he can smell He can smell you're not from Ohio on you. As I walked away, i said, and passed i said just i i said, no.
00:56:39
Speaker
Okay, whatever. I'll tell you, um I run into that problem a lot with the Bills. um This is a little non-college football-centric, but um you know you can tell someone's into the Bills Mafia breaking tables hype, but not into the um when it was EJ Manuel running back there with CJ Spiller days.
00:57:01
Speaker
Hey, Bills Mafia, go Bills. No, man. Hey, go Bills. That's all it is. That's all it needs to be. Go Bills. I don't know. Any other notes on the week before we head off for this episode?
00:57:14
Speaker
I'm sad, disappointed, and ready for change.
00:57:19
Speaker
I'm pretty indifferent. um i'm I'm like numb to it at this point. Well, that's all we've got then. Thank you all so much for listening to Warm Weather Fans.
00:57:30
Speaker
ah You can follow the show on Twitter at Warm Weather Fans. You can also email us, warmweatherfans at gmail.com. Let us know what you think. We're playing with things with the format of the show. Let us know if this was a more enjoyable listen um than previous years. We we really and are really interested.
00:57:47
Speaker
um You can find me on Twitter at Zeke Palermo. um Z-E-K-E-P-A-L-E-R-M-O. Guys, where where can they find y'all? um You can find me on Twitter at MiguezMatt.
00:58:00
Speaker
And I love how Zeke just segued because he said, I'm a Georgia State fan. I'm numbered. the dumb All I know is pain. Hey, man, like I said, we got seven exceeded expectations. We got points on the board.
00:58:15
Speaker
That's fair. ah With a can Canadian quarterback. Yeah, that should be worth twice as many points. ah yeah You can find me on X at WatchTheStone.
00:58:26
Speaker
ah We will be back later this week to go over all of the Week 2 games. Like Zeke said, this has been For Motherfans.