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Speaker: Welcome in, everybody, to our second half of the Bowl edition of Warm Weather Fans, the Sunbelt Podcast.
Speaker: I'm your host, Brian Stone, joined once again this week by Matt Miguez and Zeke Palermo.
Speaker: Guys, we had a couple of good bowl games in the Sunbelt, some hard-fought contests.
Speaker: My team just didn't care to show up, wasn't interested.
Speaker: Maybe had a little bit too much fun at Myrtle Beach.
Speaker: We've got a lot to talk about.
Speaker: We've got some coaching news.
Speaker: We've got games that have already happened we can talk about.
Speaker: We've got games upcoming we can talk about.
Speaker: But first, just want to check in on everybody.
Speaker: Matt, you first.
Speaker: How you doing?
Speaker: Hope you can figure out the mic thing because the mic thing's been kicking your ass every week.
Speaker: How's it going?
Speaker: The mic thing has been kicking my ass.
Speaker: I would like to say that I'm doing well, but it is a sad, sad time in Lafayette, Louisiana right now.
Speaker: Obviously, we'll get into the bowl game later, but...
Speaker: You lose your bowl game on Saturday, and then you travel west down I-10 and lose to McNeese in basketball.
Speaker: Granted, they're led by Will Wade now, but they're still...
Speaker: it's McNeese.
Speaker: That's just one of those schools that you don't lose to.
Speaker: It is what it is.
Speaker: I have a feeling that brighter days are ahead, but right now, the animated films where the cloud just kind of sits over you and pisses down on you, that's kind of what's happening right now.
Speaker: Well, and you don't know how many of those guys Will Wade's paying under the table either because he's got a history of doing that.
Speaker: That's people now.
Speaker: Yeah, well, you can't give a guy a cheeseburger.
Speaker: We do know that.
Speaker: Zeke, checking in with you, how are you doing?
Speaker: I'm doing all right.
Speaker: My bowl game misery doesn't get to start until this Saturday.
Speaker: Georgia State obviously not playing in these first wave of bowl games, but I'm preparing myself to endure the pain that both of you guys had to deal with this past weekend.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I'm trying to be festive and enjoy the holiday spirit before Georgia State just kind of crinkles it all up and throws it in the trash two days before Christmas.
Speaker: So let's start off here before we talk about the games that have already happened with the only coaching news of the week.
Speaker: Troy has picked its new head coach to follow up the John Sumrall era.
Speaker: He has gone to Tulane now.
Speaker: They have selected Gerard Parker, former offensive coordinator slash tight ends coach at Notre Dame.
Speaker: An interesting hire, to say the least.
Speaker: The Troy AD is obviously one for one in picking head coaches, having plucked Summerall.
Speaker: But... I don't know about this hire because I'm always very wary when fans of a team lose a coach and they actively celebrate, which I saw a lot of Notre Dame fans doing.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: What are your thoughts on this hire?
Speaker: I personally kind of... Maybe it works out, but I'm pretty underwhelmed by it.
Speaker: I watched Notre Dame play a lot this year just because they would be involved in a lot of primetime games like Clemson, Louisville, those types of things.
Speaker: Duke.
Speaker: Their offense, man, guys...
Speaker: Not all that impressive, despite getting Sam Hartman from the transfer portal.
Speaker: They had Audrick Estime, who was at one point averaging like six and a half yards a carry or something crazy like that.
Speaker: And still, it felt like everything with them was so difficult.
Speaker: Like, there was a real lack of explosiveness.
Speaker: They had trouble scoring points.
Speaker: I remember I think the Duke game they played, they were 14 to 9 was like the final score.
Speaker: They got blown out by Louisville in the fourth quarter of that game.
Speaker: Do you guys have any thoughts on this hire?
Speaker: Like any general, you know, sentiment regarding this hire?
Speaker: I mean, outside of the fact that Troy had success the last time they poached a P5 coordinator, but the thing that's concerning is that he was only the offensive coordinator at Notre Dame for a year.
Speaker: Because he didn't take the offensive coordinator spot until Tommy Reese went to Alabama.
Speaker: Um...
Speaker: So it's interesting.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: Their offense wasn't, you know, fantastic in South Bend this season.
Speaker: I don't think it was bad, but it was just kind of like kind of kind of that middling point.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So, look, it'll be interesting to see.
Speaker: He hasn't had a head coaching opportunity outside of being the interim at Purdue back in 2016.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: was Neil Brown's offensive coordinator for a couple of years at West Virginia.
Speaker: So that's kind of something to note.
Speaker: Former Troy coach.
Speaker: Now the new Troy coach previously worked together.
Speaker: But look, you know, this is one of those things where you kind of got to wait and see how it plays out.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I remember four years ago when the university of Louisiana hired an offensive coordinator at Arizona state and everybody said, who the hell is that guy?
Speaker: And four years later, he won the school their first outright Sunbelt Conference Championship.
Speaker: So it's just one of those things where maybe it works, maybe it doesn't.
Speaker: But it's one of those risks that you have to be willing to take.
Speaker: So get this about Gerard Parker.
Speaker: Obviously worked with Neil Brown.
Speaker: Also, interestingly, played football with outgoing head coach John Sumrall at Kentucky.
Speaker: They were teammates.
Speaker: I think this is a...
Speaker: choice for sure because this trademark of the Troy team the past couple years has been the defense and I know we've been talking about we spoke last week about was this Sumrall's defense or was it Gasparado the DC's defense and this leads me to believe that it was Gasparado's defense more so than it was Sumrall's you know someone with
Speaker: more insight to the program than I would probably know that better.
Speaker: But I think this could be interesting because keeping with keeping Gasparato at the DC rule,
Speaker: makes me think that there's this idea that the defense is going to be just as good from a schematic-wise.
Speaker: You know, probably lose some guys, and losing some role is going to hurt, but schematically it's going to be roughly equivalent.
Speaker: So bringing in an offensive guy, Gerard Parker, who Neil Brown and Chip Lindsey were both offensive guys.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I don't love the pickup.
Speaker: I don't know if it was the sexiest name available, but...
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Troy's in a really, really good position.
Speaker: And I think Parker probably has the best job, you know, picked up the best available job in the conference.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Yeah, it is interesting.
Speaker: You know, Zeke, you mentioned the mixed results Troy has had with offensive head coaches.
Speaker: You know, you get Neil Brown, who's, you know, was a great Sunbelt hire, conference championship coach.
Speaker: And then you get Chip Lindsey, who is a complete dud.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: And seem to be holding back, you know, a pretty talented Troy roster overall for a couple of years.
Speaker: But it is interesting that they don't go back to the defensive side of the ball when they go hire a new head coach, considering how well it just worked out.
Speaker: But like you said, maybe maybe Gasparato was the the brains behind the operation and they just sort of lost the figurehead, but they're keeping the.
Speaker: They're keeping the actual, you know, cog in the machine.
Speaker: So we'll have to see how that all pans out.
Speaker: One of the other last things that I wanted to point out, Matt said that Parker was the interim head coach at Purdue in 2016.
Speaker: He went 0-6 in the six games he coached as the interim head coach.
Speaker: Obviously, he was not full-time coach.
Speaker: But I always find it, you know, Zeke, honestly, one of the reasons I was pretty whelmed, I guess, by the, you know, the Sean Elliott hire was because when he took over for Steve Spurrier, the year that Spurrier just resigned, they lost to the Citadel.
Speaker: And I was like, if you've got a guy losing to the Citadel with a P5,
Speaker: I don't know that that's the bet.
Speaker: That's the one you want to hang your hat on.
Speaker: But I guess you can't totally lay the blame on his feet because he didn't build the team as a whole in 2016.
Speaker: But we'll have to see how it pans out.
Speaker: It's certainly a name out of left field that none of us expected for sure.
Speaker: So with all that said, let's get into this previous weekend plus of games.
Speaker: We actually have UTSA and Marshall kicking off as we're recording this.
Speaker: So we'll have results, you know, probably next time we record.
Speaker: But let's start off with Saturday morning, 11 a.m., you know, kegs and eggs kickoff.
Speaker: Georgia Southern took on Ohio.
Speaker: And you cannot find a less motivated Georgia Southern team to play in a bowl game than the one that you saw on Saturday.
Speaker: Last year when they lost to Buffalo, there were a couple of inherent excuses built in.
Speaker: Number one, all of their receivers were hurt when they had Van Treese, who was a head and shoulders better quarterback than Bryn.
Speaker: This year...
Speaker: They pretty much had the full complement of players.
Speaker: Unfortunately, that means they also had Davis Brin to play.
Speaker: He threw three interceptions, which is something that I had kind of made an offhand comment, like, oh, this seems like a three interception special from Davis Brin.
Speaker: I don't know if you guys saw the one that he threw, the second one he threw,
Speaker: It was like an RPO style play, and he threw it like there was going to be a slant, and there was just nobody in the middle of the field.
Speaker: He hit the DB between the numbers with the ball.
Speaker: I mean, it was like one of the craziest things I've ever seen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: good riddance.
Speaker: I mean, I don't, I don't really know how to put it.
Speaker: Like Ohio rolled out their second string offense for this game and just absolutely ran it down.
Speaker: George, Georgia Southern's throat.
Speaker: With that said, again, when you have a quarterback who has thrown 19 picks, when it's all said and done at the end of this year, there's only so much you can do.
Speaker: With that said, I tweeted this at the end of the game on Saturday.
Speaker: I think I'm out on Clay Helton.
Speaker: I think they're going to sort of meander through next year.
Speaker: It's going to look a lot like, I think like Lunsford's last season where they were just kind of floating along and then he got fired and then they just kind of tanked the rest of the year.
Speaker: I think that's what next year is going to look like because they have no, no real quarterback on the roster as of today.
Speaker: defensively still a mess, a 92nd in the country in total yardage.
Speaker: They had guys throwing the football to the other team, giving the football away.
Speaker: I think there are some nice little pieces on this team, but there's not a coherent idea of what they want this team to be.
Speaker: So I, I think what it's all said and done, I think he's going to be looking for work in, in short order.
Speaker: Yeah, go ahead, Matt.
Speaker: I didn't even know you could do that.
Speaker: Yeah, there's a little soundboard feature down in the bottom left corner.
Speaker: I figured that out just now on the fly.
Speaker: But anyways, look, I hate to say that I agree with you, but I kind of do.
Speaker: Because the last two years I've had the opportunity to interview Clay Hilton at Sunbelt Conference Media Day, and he has just been a weird class dude.
Speaker: Like just a great guy.
Speaker: And, you know, as a human being, you want to root for the great guys, right?
Speaker: You want those guys to have success.
Speaker: You want those guys to be, you know, the ones that work out.
Speaker: And I just don't know that he's going to.
Speaker: I mean, Brian, you'd be better to answer this, but what?
Speaker: Eight wins?
Speaker: Or like what's the mark that Georgia Southern has to hit for you to be like, okay, he can stay around for another year?
Speaker: Eight.
Speaker: I think you have to have eight wins.
Speaker: And I think you need to be with the amount of top tier premium coaches that are leaving this year.
Speaker: You've got, you know, Summerall, Signetti, like all of these guys heading out.
Speaker: Really, I mean, in theory, your only competition is app, right?
Speaker: Like Sean Clark isn't going anywhere.
Speaker: They were the East representative this year.
Speaker: I think you need to have eight wins and you need to be in contention, at least in contention when it's all said and done for the East.
Speaker: When the season wraps up, you can't do this thing where you go six and two like you did this year and then just tank the rest of your games and finish below 500.
Speaker: Like that's that's just not going to work.
Speaker: But again, I think what's going to happen is they're just going to roll some guy out at quarterback like they did this year.
Speaker: And it's not going to work again because they throw the ball at way too high of a clip and they do not have.
Speaker: I don't think the play calling is also there for it to work.
Speaker: So you have two things working against you.
Speaker: I think by the time that it's all said and done next year...
Speaker: that they're going to have to let him go that there's going to be like a fan revolt if they go six and seven or worse next year and if if the ad jared binko tries to say that clay helton's back in 25 with a losing record after three seasons i just don't i don't think that's going to fly i think you're going to lose the few donors that you really have
Speaker: Alright, you gotta quit with the soundboard, dog.
Speaker: This is insane.
Speaker: The sounds don't even make sense anymore.
Speaker: The first one was great.
Speaker: That one was like... It wasn't quite... My finger slipped.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: It wasn't supposed to play.
Speaker: Brian, how long does Brian Ellis have?
Speaker: And does he get cut loose before Helton?
Speaker: Or are they going at the same time?
Speaker: Okay, so I have an interesting thing about Ellis.
Speaker: I think you guys will actually get a kick out of this.
Speaker: So I don't know if you know what Ellis' career has been like thus far.
Speaker: He's basically followed Clay or his brother Tyson Hilton at Western Kentucky from job to job.
Speaker: Started out on the USC staff, was quarterbacks coach, things like that.
Speaker: Clay Hilton gets fired.
Speaker: He goes over to Western Kentucky, coaches with Tyson Hilton, and
Speaker: And now he's over.
Speaker: He's like, I likened it to like, you know how Batman has Robin and Robin's like his ward.
Speaker: Brian Ellis is like the Hilton's ward.
Speaker: Like he lives in their house and they like support him and all of that sort of stuff.
Speaker: But it's, it's like,
Speaker: There's no reason for him to have this job other than we like the guy.
Speaker: So the other thing too, and I'll get this pulled up and I'll read it.
Speaker: But basically they also today just hired...
Speaker: another Western Kentucky coach, Western Kentucky's co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.
Speaker: So with all of that said, I have no idea who's calling plays next year.
Speaker: Both of these guys have called plays at Western Kentucky.
Speaker: And I think both of them were probably going to be out of a job if, if Clay Helton doesn't come take them off of his brother's hands.
Speaker: So to be totally honest, I couldn't tell you as we sit today,
Speaker: The whole thing is a friggin' mystery to me.
Speaker: I don't care who's calling the plays.
Speaker: I just simply don't think it's going to work.
Speaker: I think this is going to be the Titanic heading into 2024, and they're just waiting to run into an iceberg.
Speaker: What's your over-under today for Georgia Southern wins next season?
Speaker: Five and a half.
Speaker: I mean, they've won six each of the last two years.
Speaker: Last year, they had really competent, good quarterback play and a terrible defense.
Speaker: They won six games.
Speaker: This year, the defense improved a little bit.
Speaker: The quarterback play took a huge setback.
Speaker: They won six games.
Speaker: So basically, they'll either win five or six games, I think, next year, unless they really nail the quarterback transfer or...
Speaker: whoever coming in really lights it up.
Speaker: Like, I just don't... I don't see a path for it to make sense moving forward.
Speaker: So... I think at the end of 2024, we're going to be sitting here in December going, who's Georgia Southern going to hire next?
Speaker: Because this hire hasn't worked.
Speaker: They're 12-14 over the last two years under Clay Hilton.
Speaker: So... I mean, it is what it is.
Speaker: But...
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Speaker: There's a lot more drama than that going on at the moment within the program, and I don't want to bore you guys with that, but there's just a lot happening right now.
Speaker: Nobody's happy.
Speaker: Everybody's sort of sniping at each other from the AD to fans on Twitter sniping at him.
Speaker: He's blocking people who are like donors left and right.
Speaker: Like, it's a mess right now.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: We'll see how that all pans out.
Speaker: I'm just so glad I get nine months of peace until this football team comes back and I don't have to watch them anymore.
Speaker: With that, Georgia Southern finishes the year 6-7 and Ohio finishes the year 10-3.
Speaker: Matt, getting into your game here, you guys fall to Jacksonville State in overtime.
Speaker: I watched my team get squashed like a bug.
Speaker: You can talk about your three-point overtime loss.
Speaker: So the floor is yours.
Speaker: The one question that I have to pose to you when discussing this.
Speaker: In your football-watching lives, tell me a time that you have seen a team score three defensive touchdowns
Speaker: And lose the game.
Speaker: The answer is probably never.
Speaker: I haven't sat down and actually like... No good?
Speaker: I'm sure the Rex Ryan Jets probably did it.
Speaker: But that's the only thing I can think of.
Speaker: It was just one of those games where...
Speaker: You know, the Cajuns took the momentum incredibly early, right?
Speaker: The first defensive touchdown was a minute and 40 seconds into the game.
Speaker: And you're sitting there going, okay, well, maybe this game's going to go differently than we thought.
Speaker: And then Jacksonville State gets the ball back.
Speaker: They throw another pick.
Speaker: So four minutes into the game, your defense already has two turnovers.
Speaker: And then you don't do anything with the second turnover because your offense just kind of meandered its way through the game, whether it be poor execution, bad play calling, a combination of the two, whatever it may be.
Speaker: And you just kind of play that way for four quarters outside of the other two defensive touchdowns that you score, right?
Speaker: You never really get into a rhythm offensively.
Speaker: Again, poor execution, poor play calling.
Speaker: There were some penalties that killed some drives.
Speaker: And then in overtime, you get the ball first.
Speaker: Not by choice, of course, because in college, you're almost always going to choose defense first.
Speaker: And on first down, what do the Cajuns run?
Speaker: A double reverse wide receiver pass.
Speaker: Cat, Peter LeBlanc has never thrown a pass in his life.
Speaker: In his life.
Speaker: I mean, that's probably an over-exaggeration.
Speaker: He probably played quarterback in like Pop Warner, but like the dude has never thrown a pass at UL.
Speaker: why in a bowl game are we listening to Dan Fouts in the water boy when he tells Brent Musburger, it's the last game of the year.
Speaker: Brent can't hold anything back now.
Speaker: Like, what are we doing?
Speaker: And so what that does is then on second down, you try to get cute again and get nothing.
Speaker: Then on third down, you're like, oh man, now we got to throw it.
Speaker: It's third and 10.
Speaker: And again, you get nothing.
Speaker: And so then your kicker, who has been Mr. Automatic all season long, I can't even be mad at him that he missed because he's come up clutch so many times this season.
Speaker: He misses.
Speaker: He proves that he's human.
Speaker: And I mean, then you hand them the football at the 25 and say, hey, bud, all you need is a field goal.
Speaker: I just... I can't wrap my head around scoring three defensive touchdowns, being plus four in the turnover margin, losing.
Speaker: You didn't turn the football over.
Speaker: Not once.
Speaker: And I just...
Speaker: This game, even 72 hours later as we're recording this, I am still baffled by what has been Saturday afternoon.
Speaker: Can I give an idea as to how this happened?
Speaker: Go ahead.
Speaker: 247 yards of total offense in a 60-plus minute college football game, I think was the reason.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean...
Speaker: And, you know, everybody wants to sit there and say, oh, well, you were on your third string quarterback.
Speaker: This is a guy that won the starting job a year ago.
Speaker: Chandler Fields is not your typical third string quarterback.
Speaker: Like, I don't think Chandler Fields was the problem.
Speaker: Because two weeks before or three weeks before he set a school record completing 90% of his passes for 260 yards and three touchdowns.
Speaker: Like the guy's capable of running the offense.
Speaker: I think that it was a horribly executed job by the coaching staff.
Speaker: I think that the Cajuns offense just was not prepared to play.
Speaker: And when you finally found something in the fourth quarter with your true freshman running back gashing Jacksonville State's defense for five yards of carry, you come up with a second and one at the 30.
Speaker: They're 30, not your own 30.
Speaker: And you know what you do?
Speaker: Ryan, what do you do?
Speaker: You throw it.
Speaker: You throw it.
Speaker: And you don't get it.
Speaker: You complete pass.
Speaker: So now it's third and one.
Speaker: God, one of our running backs can get a yard, right?
Speaker: Nope, let's throw it again.
Speaker: Let's throw it again.
Speaker: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different outcome.
Speaker: I had this conversation last year about Dennis Allen.
Speaker: As much as I love the guy, here we are in 2023.
Speaker: I think I have to have the same conversation about Michael Desreboe.
Speaker: What are we doing?
Speaker: Can I Zeke, if you have something, you can jump in right after this.
Speaker: I will say.
Speaker: If you guys are in the same boat as as Georgia Southern heading into after year three.
Speaker: I think Billy Napier is going to be in line for getting a different job.
Speaker: So you can just hire the guy right back.
Speaker: You think I'm kidding.
Speaker: I'm not.
Speaker: Like, I'm saying, like, if honestly, the two names that I was looking at the other day, I was going, if they fire Helton, like, who could they hire?
Speaker: Two guys that have had success in the Sun Belt that will potentially be out of work this time next year are Billy Napier, one, and Neil Brown, two.
Speaker: because they're not happy with Neil Brown at West Virginia either.
Speaker: I would take either of those guys in a heartbeat.
Speaker: But Zeke, do you have anything for Matt?
Speaker: I'm just curious about Jacob Cabote.
Speaker: Didn't dress for this one.
Speaker: Is that an injury thing?
Speaker: Is that a draft thing?
Speaker: Is that a transfer thing?
Speaker: That's another baffling thing.
Speaker: I'm so glad you brought it up.
Speaker: No one knows.
Speaker: No one will say anything.
Speaker: Literally, I'm standing on the Superdome turf getting video of the team warming up.
Speaker: Posted onto social media.
Speaker: And I look over to my left and I say, oh, there's Jacob Cabote.
Speaker: Oh, why is he in a sweatsuit?
Speaker: Why is he not playing?
Speaker: So I go up to...
Speaker: one of the equipment guys that I know and I said, hey, what happened to Jacob Cabote?
Speaker: Because he was listed on the depth chart like Wednesday.
Speaker: When the team released the depth chart for the bowl game, he was listed as the starting running back.
Speaker: So like what happened between Wednesday and today?
Speaker: He goes, oh man, I really, I don't know.
Speaker: Like no one knows.
Speaker: And we were all so baffled by the performance on the field that we kind of forgot to ask about it at the post-game press conference.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Like, ask about Cabote.
Speaker: Yeah, I probably should have.
Speaker: But hey, tomorrow is early signing day and we're meeting with Michael Desermo.
Speaker: So I'll ask him tomorrow.
Speaker: Hey, I know it's four days too late, but why didn't Jacob Cabote play in the bowl game?
Speaker: Well, Matt, you were the first one to report that he was not dressed.
Speaker: I did my research.
Speaker: You were the first one on all of Twitter.
Speaker: So congratulations.
Speaker: Well done.
Speaker: Some incredible.
Speaker: I appreciate that.
Speaker: Mr. Coach Desermo.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Why wasn't Jacob Cabote dressed?
Speaker: We're on to early signing day.
Speaker: We're not talking about the past.
Speaker: That's probably what I'll get.
Speaker: Okay, so I'll say this.
Speaker: This is sort of how I want to wrap it up.
Speaker: But a couple things I wanted to mention about what you were saying earlier.
Speaker: I don't want to totally throw cold water on the Chandler Field set, the completion percentage record.
Speaker: I will say, number one, he did play ULM, a two-win ULM team.
Speaker: It wasn't like, you know, Jacksonville State –
Speaker: was 8-4 going into this game.
Speaker: They were not ULM, so they were a little bit better.
Speaker: Number two, you were like, yeah, he won the starting job last year.
Speaker: Yeah, but was he any good?
Speaker: I remember us having discussions being like, I don't think Fields is the answer at quarterback for UL.
Speaker: Well, yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Both of those things are true.
Speaker: But my thing is this.
Speaker: In the quarterback room that you have, because the quarterback room that you had this year is the exact same quarterback room you had last year.
Speaker: Chandler Fields, Ben Wardridge, and Deion Chris.
Speaker: That coaching staff believed that Chandler Fields was the best one of the three.
Speaker: He had to have something.
Speaker: They had to see something that worked with this offense.
Speaker: The only reason he lost the starting job last year was because he got hurt.
Speaker: It would be the first time a coach has ever been wrong before, I will say.
Speaker: Again, very factual as well.
Speaker: But I can almost guarantee you that had Chairman Fields never gotten hurt, he probably would have started all 12 games last year.
Speaker: I don't disagree with that, but I will say like I was pretty underwhelmed by the performances he turned in and it makes sense that he was third on the depth chart this year.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So let's go ahead and wrap this up.
Speaker: Let's move on to the next one.
Speaker: But Jacksonville State finishes 9-4 this season.
Speaker: Louisiana finishes 6-7.
Speaker: Getting into this next one here, this game was wild.
Speaker: Ab State plays Miami of Ohio in the middle of a monsoon.
Speaker: I think I saw a stat.
Speaker: There were eight combined fumbles between the two teams in this game.
Speaker: Now, only six of them were lost.
Speaker: So you'll only see three turnovers by each team.
Speaker: But this was closer to like a rugby game than it was or a rugby match.
Speaker: I don't know what they call it.
Speaker: Test, whatever they call it.
Speaker: But App State ends up gutting this one out 13 to nine.
Speaker: Um, you know, again, neither team threw the ball all that successfully.
Speaker: Miami's leading passer had 28 yards, 13 combined fumbles on ESPN.
Speaker: Good call, Zeke.
Speaker: That is insane.
Speaker: And the leading passer for Miami of Ohio was one of two for 28 yards in this game.
Speaker: Um...
Speaker: Anderson Castle did most of the damage, obviously, on the ground for the Mountaineers.
Speaker: 20 carries, 119 yards.
Speaker: Joey Aguilar scores the game's only touchdown.
Speaker: Rashad Amos scored a touchdown for Miami of Ohio, but Joey Aguilar scores the only rushing score for App in this one.
Speaker: What do you guys kind of take away from this?
Speaker: This game was an absolute gross mess of a game.
Speaker: It was insane.
Speaker: This is football as God intended it to be.
Speaker: 83 combined carries between the two teams, both teams with a 100-yard rusher.
Speaker: This is how football was meant to be played.
Speaker: I loved it.
Speaker: Put the old leather helmets on and just go knock their heads.
Speaker: If this is the way God intended, let's do it the way God intended.
Speaker: This is incredible, man.
Speaker: I mean, I'll be honest, due to finishing up some postgame work, I didn't see a whole lot of this game.
Speaker: All I saw was videos on Twitter that it was absolutely flooding in Orlando.
Speaker: But look, man, you got to give credit to app because in games like this, you just kind of one of those things where the game plan goes out the window.
Speaker: And you're just like, OK,
Speaker: Clark won out, and they did.
Speaker: And that's a lot of credit to Sean Clark.
Speaker: That's a lot of credit to Joey Aguilar.
Speaker: I mean, what a performance he had, 211 yards in the rain, is insanely impressive.
Speaker: And look, Anderson Castle had a great game as well, over 100 yards on the ground.
Speaker: This was a big win for App because I think...
Speaker: I think this game now you can take one game with, with, with a grain of salt, but I think the run that app went on to close the season shows you that Sean Clark can still bring you something.
Speaker: Maybe Sean Clark's not on the hot seat.
Speaker: Maybe he has the opportunity to do something in boom.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And I think the way that he's closed this out gives them a lot of momentum heading into the offseason, into the signing period and all that stuff.
Speaker: And look, I think the future is incredibly bright in Boone, as it should be.
Speaker: And this was a big win for the Mountaineers program.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely great win for them.
Speaker: I mean, as it sits today, let's talk about it since this was a 1930s NFL game.
Speaker: Is App the de facto favorite for the Sun Belt next year?
Speaker: I would say so.
Speaker: Troy loses their coach.
Speaker: We don't know.
Speaker: I'm always hesitant to give any team that was good that lost their coach the benefit of the doubt because I've watched so many good teams hire a dud and just squander all the goodwill.
Speaker: Troy hires a new head coach.
Speaker: JMU loses a ton to the portal and has a new head coach.
Speaker: You know, we talked about Georgia Southern's issues.
Speaker: Georgia State, we talked about every week about
Speaker: are they ever going to be consistent in, in, in doing anything?
Speaker: And this year kind of proved like, not, not really.
Speaker: Uh, so, you know, unless Kane Womack gets some things together in South and, in mobile, uh,
Speaker: I think they have to be the de facto favorite at this stage unless Tim Beck, like Ethan Vasco or somebody really steps up for Tim Beck and Conway.
Speaker: It's going to be a real interesting conference race next year because you've got...
Speaker: A lot of these unknown quantities.
Speaker: And then you've got App, who is good, and I will definitely give them their credit.
Speaker: They are a good football team.
Speaker: They also have a propensity to shoot themselves in the foot in games where they have no business losing.
Speaker: So it's not like last year.
Speaker: It's not like last year when you went into this year going, okay, JMU and Troy and probably South Alabama are like your top three.
Speaker: This year, it's like, put some names in a hat, pull some names out.
Speaker: Who's going to be better?
Speaker: We don't know.
Speaker: There's a lot of opportunity.
Speaker: There's a lot of opportunity.
Speaker: I'm worried next year is going to be really ugly for this conference.
Speaker: And we're probably getting ahead of ourselves, but I think next year is going to be, especially what it's been the past two, three years.
Speaker: This conference, this could be a very ugly conference next season.
Speaker: And at a very untimely, you know, timing as well with, um,
Speaker: You know, you just want to be as good as you can so you can align yourself with the SEC or the Big Ten as quick as possible.
Speaker: So it's kind of scary.
Speaker: It's scary to think about.
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Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We'll see.
Speaker: I mean, you know, like I said, there's a... It is a wide open field.
Speaker: Anybody can kind of make a move and kind of stake their claim in the Sun Belt next year.
Speaker: So we'll see how it goes.
Speaker: App ends their season 9-5.
Speaker: Miami ends their season 11-3.
Speaker: Getting to the last of the games that have already happened...
Speaker: I had to double check where Old Dominion's located because I thought they were located in Atlanta, Georgia, the way that they blew this game.
Speaker: It was 27-0.
Speaker: Sorry, 28-0.
Speaker: They blew a 28-0 lead.
Speaker: First of all, there's so many layers to this that I want to break down.
Speaker: Number one...
Speaker: Tyson Helton rolls his nephew, Clay Helton's son, out at quarterback to start the game.
Speaker: He turns the ball over twice immediately.
Speaker: They yank him.
Speaker: And then they put Caden Veltkamp in the game, who I think is already in the portal.
Speaker: I think he came back just for depth because they were like...
Speaker: Nobody knows what Austin Reed's deal was.
Speaker: This was a Jacob Cabote situation.
Speaker: Like, going up to the game, I remember reading a report being like, one day before the game, they were like, he's not going to be there.
Speaker: But he wasn't in the portal at the time.
Speaker: So it was like, what's the consensus here?
Speaker: Caden Veltkamp comes out and throws 40 of 52 with 383 yards and five touchdowns
Speaker: I think they were down 21 to nothing when he came in.
Speaker: And they come back and rally and win 38-35 over the Monarchs.
Speaker: This has got to be such a gut-wrenching loss for them.
Speaker: To have 28 points in the second quarter and to score 7 points the rest of the way for the remainder of 30 minutes is just an absolute heartbreaking loss.
Speaker: And this is one of those that Ricky Ronnie is going to feel for a long time to come.
Speaker: This was ugly.
Speaker: And I think it gets even worse when you look at the box score and realize Old Dominion didn't get any offense from anybody.
Speaker: The leading rusher was Grant Wilson, and that was because he ripped one off for 79 yards.
Speaker: I mean, Old Dominion had no business playing a bowl game this year.
Speaker: I have not minced words about that all season.
Speaker: This has been a very poor Old Dominion team.
Speaker: And I think they're very lucky to even be in this game.
Speaker: And it's a very bad look of a conference.
Speaker: It's a very bad look for Old Dominion that such a thing could happen to a team.
Speaker: You know, they've had quarterback issues all season.
Speaker: They've been fragile defensively all season.
Speaker: They have no player on either side of the ball that you can point to and say, this is our superstar.
Speaker: This is the face of the program.
Speaker: Well, their linebacker Henderson is good, but other than that, yeah.
Speaker: I said this a lot about Georgia State.
Speaker: This could just be a really twisted way of telling Old Dominion that six wins is your ceiling.
Speaker: Because they didn't have business being here in the first place.
Speaker: I really don't think so.
Speaker: I agree with both of you.
Speaker: Because look, here's the thing.
Speaker: And obviously, we are a very pro Sunbelt podcast, right?
Speaker: But the whole leading into this bowl season, oh, the Sunbelt put 12 of 14 teams in bowl games.
Speaker: Yeah, well, seven of them were at six and six.
Speaker: So let's pump the brakes just a little bit.
Speaker: 60% of those teams backslid into a bowl game and all three of our teams being included in that.
Speaker: Like you, you all had to beat ULM on senior day to get into a bowl game.
Speaker: Like, like let's not, let's not sugarcoat that.
Speaker: Um, um,
Speaker: And so look, old dominion, they pulled in Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker: Um, they, they jumped out to a massive lead and I, even I was shocked and I've been high on old dominion ever since they beat the Cajuns in week two, they, they jump out to this massive lead.
Speaker: And I'm like, oh man, you know, all right.
Speaker: You know, old dominions finally going to win one for the sunbelt or win another one for the sunbelt, I should say.
Speaker: And no, no,
Speaker: No, a freshman quarterback who literally only hung around because the team said, pretty please, we need you to stand in the corner in case somebody gets hurt.
Speaker: Like, that's why he was there.
Speaker: And he ends up winning MVP of the game.
Speaker: And now he'll probably pull his name from the transfer portal and be the starting quarterback at Western Kentucky in September.
Speaker: Like after that performance, how do you not go?
Speaker: Oh man, I could do well in this offense.
Speaker: Oh man, some, some bowling green donors might throw some NIL money at me.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Like let's, let's do this.
Speaker: And it's such a bad look for the conference.
Speaker: The way that the Sunbelt has shown up in bowl games so far, it's bad.
Speaker: It's so bad.
Speaker: The Cajuns, if it's not for three defensive touchdowns, they get their doors blown off.
Speaker: Georgia Southern doesn't show up for three quarters and then finally decides, oh, maybe we should try to play just a little bit.
Speaker: But by then it was way too late.
Speaker: Um, let's see, who am I forgetting?
Speaker: App State's the only redeemer in this right now.
Speaker: Um, and God, that was just because it was a shit show of a football game.
Speaker: And then there's, there's ODU.
Speaker: Um, so hopefully Marshall can, can get a dub for the Sunbelt.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Tonight, as we're recording this, currently leading UTSA 14 to nothing early in the second quarter.
Speaker: So things are going well so far.
Speaker: But I just hope that the second half of Sunbelt games is better than the first half has been because it has not been fun.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Also, last note on this game.
Speaker: Well, two things.
Speaker: Number one, Zeke, you talked about the box score.
Speaker: Them not having anybody that can make plays on the offensive side of the ball has been a recurring theme all year.
Speaker: And the fact that Grant Wilson had 126 yards rushing, and you love to play that if you take the longest play away, he had a 79-yard run.
Speaker: If you take it away, basically their leading rusher had seven carries for 50 yards, which isn't terrible, but also like...
Speaker: You would rather it be someone better than Grant Wilson, who has not really been known for his athleticism.
Speaker: His 126 is the second highest rushing performance from an Old Dominion player all season.
Speaker: See, you can't get by with that.
Speaker: Like, last year when you had Blake Watson, you had, like, a real power back type.
Speaker: This year, they lost... We talked about it, but they lost Ollie Jennings to the portal.
Speaker: Blake Watson went elsewhere.
Speaker: where's the offense going to come from?
Speaker: And you saw it in this one.
Speaker: They jumped out big because Tyson Helton's nephew is just giving away turnovers like he runs a bakery.
Speaker: And then all of a sudden, guess what?
Speaker: You yank him from the game and put somebody in.
Speaker: And voila, you put the Jolly Green Giant in at 6'6", 235, who's a freshman, by the way.
Speaker: And the guy throws 383 yards and five touchdowns.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: You're like five minutes late.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: It took him forever.
Speaker: But yeah, so I will say if Caden Velkamp wants to stay in the portal, come follow your offensive line slash co-OC to George Southern because we would very gladly take you at the quarterback spot.
Speaker: But if you want to stay in Bowling Green, totally respect the decision.
Speaker: Yeah, what an absolute gut punch for Old Dominion in that one.
Speaker: So let's get to the upcoming games starting this Saturday.
Speaker: We're going to start previewing the rest of the slate.
Speaker: Let's start noon, ABC...
Speaker: At the 76 Birmingham Bowl, is that like a reference to the gas company?
Speaker: 76, I guess?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Troy is taking on Duke.
Speaker: Troy is actually a 7.5 point favorite.
Speaker: Over-under is 44.5.
Speaker: I think I'm going to take the under in this one of 44.5.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Duke doesn't have their head coach.
Speaker: Troy doesn't have their head coach.
Speaker: Troy plays good defense.
Speaker: Duke has had a good defense up to this point in the season.
Speaker: Troy has played good offense with Gutter Watson and Kamani Vidal, but I don't think they're going to hang like
Speaker: 28-30 on Duke.
Speaker: I think this is going to be a real low-scoring, like, grind-it-out type game with two good defenses that have had two defensive head coaches in charge up to this point.
Speaker: So I think it's going to be under 44-and-a-half.
Speaker: What do you guys think?
Speaker: You're spot-on.
Speaker: I'm excited for this game, though, assuming we don't get another Sunbelt stinker.
Speaker: This will be big for Troy and kind of re-up the
Speaker: the rep, if you will, for the conference beating a P5 school.
Speaker: So I'm excited for this one, but I like the under as well.
Speaker: I am going to actually take – I'm believing in Troy here.
Speaker: I'm going to take Troy minus 7.5.
Speaker: Duke without Mike Elko and without Riley Leonard.
Speaker: doesn't bode well for the Blue Devils.
Speaker: Troy is only without John Summerall.
Speaker: Now, don't get me wrong.
Speaker: That's a huge blow.
Speaker: But as of now, I haven't heard otherwise.
Speaker: You still have Gunnar Watson.
Speaker: You still have Kamani Vidal.
Speaker: You've still got your skill players at wide receiver as well.
Speaker: And I think that that gives you a distinct advantage.
Speaker: Also, playing fairly close to home.
Speaker: That gives you an advantage as well.
Speaker: So I'll take the Trojans minus seven and a half.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Another noon kick on Saturday.
Speaker: This one on ESPN.
Speaker: Arkansas State is traveling to Montgomery for the Crampton Bowl slash Camellia Bowl.
Speaker: We spoke glowingly of the Camellia Bowl last week and how Zeke is an absolute sicko for going to the Camellia Bowl two years in a row.
Speaker: Arkansas State is a three-point favorite.
Speaker: Over-under is 53.5.
Speaker: I'm taking Arkansas State.
Speaker: I went back last week and looked up Northern Illinois' schedule.
Speaker: Again, not anything to write home about.
Speaker: You're 6-6 in the MAAC.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I mean, like it does.
Speaker: You do have to have a little bit of context.
Speaker: I say that knowing that Arkansas state is also six and six, but think about everything that they had to go through to get six wins.
Speaker: Like we never expected that they were going to win six games.
Speaker: They have to pull, they have to uncover Jalen Rayner under like from under a rock and go, Oh look, we found a diamond.
Speaker: So like that, all of that stuff had to happen.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: No, you know what?
Speaker: I'm changing it.
Speaker: I'm going to go over 53.5.
Speaker: I think both of these teams score points.
Speaker: Arkansas State does this weird Jekyll and Hyde thing, so I'm going to take the over.
Speaker: I think there's going to be a lot of points in this one.
Speaker: What about y'all?
Speaker: I'm going to do the same.
Speaker: I think Arkansas State puts on a scoring clinic.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't like three point lines.
Speaker: Um, those are, those never feel good to try to, to guesstimate on that.
Speaker: Um, so I'm going to take the safe pick here.
Speaker: 53 and a half does not feel like a lot of points in this game.
Speaker: Also gave me the over.
Speaker: I like Northern Illinois here.
Speaker: Uh, I'm still not bought in on, um, the, the kind of recovery job, butch Jones may be doing at Arkansas state.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: I dunked all over the Mac last week, and I'm not going to make that same mistake again.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Just one thing that I didn't know going into this one.
Speaker: Northern Illinois, assuming this guy didn't opt out or enter the portal, has a running back that went for 1,100 yards and 10 touchdowns this year.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: If they want to grind it out, Arkansas State defensively is pretty much made of paper, like wet paper.
Speaker: So both of these teams are going to be able to score some points, I think.
Speaker: 3.30 on ABC, we've got the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl.
Speaker: James Madison...
Speaker: Listen, we gave James Madison a ton of praises here.
Speaker: They are not the same James Madison team that played a couple weeks ago.
Speaker: They are severely depleted all over the place.
Speaker: James Madison is a two-point favorite over Air Force.
Speaker: Over-unders 41.5.
Speaker: I think I'm going to take Air Force.
Speaker: Air Force had some good games this year.
Speaker: James Madison, if they didn't have their entire roster and coaching staffs gutted,
Speaker: I would take them no questions asked.
Speaker: Even if they had, like, one big contributor still there.
Speaker: Like, I saw the other day, like, Elijah Surratt just got into the portal.
Speaker: He was, like, their only remaining piece that, like, I knew off the top of my head.
Speaker: I just think Air Force, they also run this interesting version of the triple option where they throw it a lot, but they still run a lot of the same type of concepts.
Speaker: I just, I like James Madison.
Speaker: Credit to everything they did this year.
Speaker: I don't think your backup defense is going to be ready for what Air Force is going to throw at you.
Speaker: So I'm taking Air Force plus two.
Speaker: Zeke, you going to me?
Speaker: You got it.
Speaker: I will take Air Force plus two as well.
Speaker: Look, again, James Madison going 11-1 is incredibly impressive.
Speaker: But when you look at everything that they're now dealing with, I mean, who's going to coach the bowl game?
Speaker: Do we even know?
Speaker: Have they even announced who the interim coach is while Bob Chesney figures out where he's living in Harrisonburg?
Speaker: And there's just there's so much change happening overnight when a new coach steps in that it's almost impossible for you to focus on even playing a football game, much less winning it.
Speaker: And for that reason, I think James Madison's just behind the eight ball here.
Speaker: And then you factor in all of the pieces that they don't have.
Speaker: like we talked about just now.
Speaker: I think Air Force has been a really good team this year that played a really underrated conference and an underrated schedule, and I think they come out ahead in this game.
Speaker: Yeah, you guys swayed me.
Speaker: I was looking at the list of the JMU opt-outs and the JMU transfers, and it's just too great to overcome, which kind of like the...
Speaker: The Duke-Troy game, I thought this could have been a really good one for the Sunbelt rep because Air Force, for a lot of the early season, was kind of the P5 darling, or the G5 darling.
Speaker: Reached 17th in the AP, 25th in the CFP.
Speaker: But JMU, I mean...
Speaker: They're on their second string quarterback.
Speaker: They're on their third string running back.
Speaker: I mean, they had one of the best receivers in the conference in Elijah Surratt, and we saw that in the game against App State, and he's not going to be there.
Speaker: It's got to be Air Force as much as it pains me.
Speaker: Alright.
Speaker: Another 3.30 kick.
Speaker: This one on ESPN.
Speaker: Georgia State is traveling out west, Zeke, to the land of potatoes.
Speaker: Boise, Idaho, for the famous Idaho potato bowl.
Speaker: This is a meme that predates any of y'all that you probably have never heard before, but boil them, mash them, stick them in a stew.
Speaker: Potato.
Speaker: Potato.
Speaker: You guys have no idea what I'm talking about.
Speaker: Utah State is a two and a half.
Speaker: Utah, that's not a rim shot.
Speaker: That was a meme.
Speaker: I just copied something I heard off the internet.
Speaker: Utah State is a two and a half point favorite over under 59 and a half.
Speaker: Zeke, other than Marcus Carroll, who do you guys have opting out of this one?
Speaker: Or in the portal or whatnot.
Speaker: I'll tell you it doesn't matter.
Speaker: I can run down the list of names.
Speaker: It doesn't matter.
Speaker: Must be at least 18 years old.
Speaker: Promo code, location, and other restrictions apply.
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Speaker: I think we're seeing a little bit of movement at linebacker.
Speaker: I think a good bit of the offensive line that's been a very good offensive line group for the past couple years is opting out.
Speaker: Um, we still have Darren Granger, the quarterback, um, should still have most of the receiving core intact, uh, from what I'm gathering, but not having Marcus Carroll or Casey Adams, the backup, both opting out.
Speaker: Um, the three guys lift listed at running back on the depth chart have a combined seven carries in their FBS careers.
Speaker: Uh, all seven of those coming this year, uh,
Speaker: It doesn't matter anywhere else because this is an offense that is reliant on its superstar running back.
Speaker: Whether it's Marcus Carroll or Tucker Gregg before him or Destin Coates before him, this offense is going to be without a guy that can rush for 120 yards other than Darren Granger.
Speaker: There's no chance Georgia State wins this game.
Speaker: Zero chance.
Speaker: Is that Mr. Palermo dropping hot takes about the Georgia State Panthers?
Speaker: I don't think it's a terribly hot take.
Speaker: If they were at full strength, I think there's certainly a conversation to be had.
Speaker: And considering how hot and cold this team can be, they could have won this game by 28 points and it wouldn't have been anything spectacular.
Speaker: That's just what Georgia State does, is play really weird games sometimes.
Speaker: But without Marcus Carroll, I mean, and this is, I don't want to say it's anybody's fault, but that, I mean, that's what you get when you only run Marcus Carroll.
Speaker: I mean, there were games where he was the only running back with a touch.
Speaker: KZ Adams is transferring out.
Speaker: Even though, I mean, he was, he set some stupid rushing records when he was in a high school in South Carolina.
Speaker: The dude just didn't touch the field ever.
Speaker: And he's transferring out.
Speaker: And that's just because of how hyper-focused this offense is on whoever their Hollywood back is.
Speaker: It's not really a hot take.
Speaker: It's just seven touches for 30 yards, these three guys on the depth chart combined for over their careers in the FBS.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: You've Matt, you got to chill out with the soundboard dog.
Speaker: You got to, uh, I'll take Utah state plus, uh, minus two and a half.
Speaker: Uh, that's, that's my pick.
Speaker: So I'm going to take, yeah, I'm gonna take Utah state minus two and a half as well.
Speaker: Um, and look,
Speaker: Georgia State finds a way to probably blend into the Smurf turf unless they wear all white, which we'll see what they decide to do on Saturday.
Speaker: But yeah, the loss of Marcus Carroll is just so big.
Speaker: I don't even know that you can quantify it.
Speaker: So Blake Anderson picks up a bowl win.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Seven o'clock on ESPN.
Speaker: We've got South Alabama taking on Eastern Michigan in the 68 Ventures Bowl.
Speaker: A bowl that sounds fake, I will say.
Speaker: But this game is a home game.
Speaker: It's in Mobile.
Speaker: They don't really have to travel, you know, if at all.
Speaker: I think I will take the over because it is really low of 46 and a half.
Speaker: South Alabama can score some points.
Speaker: I do not trust them to lay 17 points against the sisters of the poor.
Speaker: We've watched them underperform in games where they had no business even being close in and watching them lose.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: I think over 46.5 is my pick for this one.
Speaker: I have no idea what to expect from Eastern Michigan.
Speaker: I don't either.
Speaker: The spread as we see it today is minus 17, which feels ridiculously high.
Speaker: I don't know if there's some opt-out from Eastern Michigan that's going to really turn the tides.
Speaker: I know Colin Lacey is opting out of this game or is in the portal, which is a huge miss for South Al, considering he practically doubles the next closest guy in terms of both receptions and yards.
Speaker: I'll take Eastern Michigan to cover, just because for all the reasons you said about South Al, I don't know what it is that
Speaker: is creating the 17 point spread.
Speaker: Maybe I'm being naive, naive here and, or, you know, writing my own fate by being uneducated about Eastern Michigan, but I don't like South Al with the 17 point spread at all.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Matt.
Speaker: Yeah, that, that's a lot.
Speaker: Um, um,
Speaker: I get that they're playing in their home stadium and that may count for something, but oddly enough, they're playing in their home stadium, right?
Speaker: They're the visiting team.
Speaker: Which means that in their home stadium, they're not even going to use their own locker room.
Speaker: That's just a little odd to me.
Speaker: Um, but anyways, back to the on field part, 46 and a half seems like a good number.
Speaker: Um, I think combined these two teams can hit that.
Speaker: Uh, so I'm going to stay away from the line altogether.
Speaker: Just give me the over.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Uh, the last game on Saturday night is at 10 30 in Hawaii.
Speaker: Uh, so, so, you know, Matt just sent me like what looks like a calendar shoot with, uh, the, the coastal cheerleaders and coach Tim Beck, who's weirdly ripped like to like a really odd amount of ripped.
Speaker: Um, I don't understand that.
Speaker: Uh, uh,
Speaker: So this game, again, in Hawaii, Coastal Carolina taking on San Jose State.
Speaker: Obviously, no Grayson McCall with him being gone up the road to Raleigh.
Speaker: San Jose State is a 10.5 point favorite.
Speaker: Over under is 52.5.
Speaker: Listen, I'm going to take Coastal plus 10.5, and here's why.
Speaker: They basically played the second half of the season without Grace McCall.
Speaker: Like, he would be very nice to have in this game.
Speaker: But it's not like, oh boy, you know, it's not like what JMU is dealing with.
Speaker: Or, you know, one of these teams where they're like, we don't have our starting quarterback.
Speaker: And another guy really hasn't taken snaps all year.
Speaker: Ethan Vasco's taken snaps.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: I think they keep this one closer than 10 and a half.
Speaker: I don't ultimately think they win because they have been another team that has been so, so up and down second half of the season, but it's again, it's not like their backup has no experience.
Speaker: Like he's, he's played a good bit.
Speaker: So I'm going to take them plus 10 and a half in this one.
Speaker: I like the over here at 52 and a half.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: McCall obviously gone.
Speaker: Also in the portal and probably not playing is Jarrett Guest, which leaves us Ethan Vasco.
Speaker: And Brian, I think when McCall left and we saw some early efficiencies from Jarrett Guest and Ethan Vasco, you and I didn't really see eye to eye on this.
Speaker: I don't think either of those guys are very good.
Speaker: because when we saw them get a regular workload as a quarterback for this Coastal team, they floundered.
Speaker: When it was a simplified playbook, when it was those first two games with a dumbed-down scheme and you're keeping him safe, they both did well.
Speaker: But neither of those guys excelled actually running the offense and against good teams, mind you.
Speaker: I mean, those first two wins from Vasco,
Speaker: came from a very poor Old Dominion and a Texas State team that slid in the back half of the season.
Speaker: They lost to Army and James Madison.
Speaker: Obviously, James Madison you're not going to be upset about, but Army, I thought that was a super winnable game.
Speaker: And I don't know.
Speaker: For those reasons, I like the over because I think San Jose State can put up the points and Coastal will put up the 14-21 kind of requisite to cover their half of it.
Speaker: but I don't think Coastal keeps this one as close as you might think.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm going to go with San Jose State as well.
Speaker: They're very similar teams, in my opinion, and I think that Coastal Carolina was able to hide some issues down the back half of their schedule without Grayson McCall, but now that you officially don't have him,
Speaker: And now you don't have Jared guest either.
Speaker: I think a very similar team like San Diego state or San Jose state is going to expose you even more than the sunbelt did.
Speaker: So I think San Jose state wins this game.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Last game of bowl season for the Sun Belt, Tuesday, December 26th, day after Christmas.
Speaker: Texas State also doesn't have to travel that far for this game.
Speaker: They're going to Dallas to take on Rice.
Speaker: Well, this is kind of like an in-state, you know, nice little game.
Speaker: or both of these teams, the surf pro first responder bowl, Texas state is a five and a half point favorite over under 59 and a half.
Speaker: I'm taking Texas state.
Speaker: They really backslid in the second half of the season.
Speaker: And I still don't know what happened in some of these games.
Speaker: Like, the Coastal game where they pulled TJ Finley after a half of football and said he wasn't hurt and it wasn't performance-related, and then they give up 77 to Arkansas State.
Speaker: Couldn't tell you what happened with this team.
Speaker: However, they close out with a shootout win over South Alabama.
Speaker: I think South Alabama is a better team than Rice.
Speaker: So I'm going to take Texas State minus five and a half here in the final bowl game.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm going to do the same.
Speaker: I think Texas State's just far and away the better team compared to Rice.
Speaker: I think outside of Luke McCaffrey, Rice is just kind of eh.
Speaker: Um, and I don't know that Luke McCaffrey can do enough on his own to cover up what the Bobcats are going to be able to do.
Speaker: Uh, first bowl game in program history.
Speaker: Uh, they're gonna, they're gonna be up for this.
Speaker: So give me the Bobcats and GJ Kenny.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I like Texas state here too.
Speaker: They're not getting plundered.
Speaker: It feels like this is the first good Sunbelt team that isn't getting plundered, uh, by the portal.
Speaker: They're, they're keeping everybody together.
Speaker: JT Daniels, I'm looking at it.
Speaker: I don't know how he's only 23.
Speaker: I feel like that guy's been around forever.
Speaker: But, you know, he's a good quarterback for Rice.
Speaker: I think he retired from football.
Speaker: He did.
Speaker: Is he going to play this game out?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: He medically retired.
Speaker: I think he retired, like, effective immediately.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Texas State.
Speaker: They beat Baylor earlier in the year, and I think I said week one that Texas State, these games mean more.
Speaker: Obviously, the next week they went out and lost to UTSA.
Speaker: I like Texas State here.
Speaker: All right, boys.
Speaker: With that, we'll close out here.
Speaker: UTSA actually has, speaking of, just tied it up with Marshall.
Speaker: It's 14-14 in the Scooter's Coffee Frisco Bowl.
Speaker: We'll be back next week, obviously, to talk about how those games go.
Speaker: One last thing I wanted to ask you guys about.
Speaker: If you're a Luke McCaffrey and you're in a very athletic family with a brother that is the best running back in the NFL,
Speaker: you gotta be a little bummed out, right?
Speaker: Like, you kind of got a raw deal as far as genes go.
Speaker: And I feel the same way about the third, like, this isn't even football, I feel the same way about the third Hemsworth brother, when you got Liam and Chris, and then you've got Luke Hemsworth, who's like 5'11 on a good day, if he's wearing lifts in his shoes.
Speaker: Just a real bummer.
Speaker: Well, hell, look at the Watt brothers.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, Derek.
Speaker: Yeah, but at least they're all in the NFL.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Derek's in the NFL, but there's levels to it, right?
Speaker: JJ and TJ are up here, and then Derek's kind of like hanging out down here.
Speaker: Maybe Christian could bring his brother in a Thanasis on Tenekumpo type role, you know, just 53rd man on the roster.
Speaker: Be there to give you your high fives and hold your helmet.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Wash my jockstrap, little bro.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They would 100% do that instead of holding a seventh receiver on the roster.
Speaker: Of course.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Why not?
Speaker: Keeps them happy.
Speaker: Those stories write themselves.
Speaker: Just one minor thing on that, too.
Speaker: And we can start doing outros here.
Speaker: Did you guys know that Willie Sneed is on the 49ers roster?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Willie Sneed is still playing professional football and plays for the 49ers.
Speaker: Willie Sneed?
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Is on the San Francisco 49ers roster.
Speaker: Man, I thought that dude went away after he played for the Saints and then went to Baltimore.
Speaker: That's how I feel about hearing Jimmy Graham catch touchdowns these days.
Speaker: Yo!
Speaker: So, I was in the Super Bowl Sunday.
Speaker: You should have heard that place erupt when Jimmy caught that touchdown pass.
Speaker: That was wild.
Speaker: It was so cool.
Speaker: So cool.
Speaker: So that will do it for the Sunbelt game slate.
Speaker: Obviously, we'll be back next week.
Speaker: We can talk...
Speaker: We can recap these games after they happen.
Speaker: If you guys want to throw in any recruiting talk, you can too, but I hate talking about G5 recruiting because it's all whose dad is keeping up with the board.
Speaker: on your respective recruiting site, whether it be 24-7 or ESPN.
Speaker: And honestly, back in the day when Underdog was really popping and we had a bunch of writers, I was trying to
Speaker: stick my head in the sand and say, no, please nobody recognize the fact that I'm not writing any of these.
Speaker: The two articles I hated writing most recruiting and spring game, because the recruiting stuff is impossible to keep up with at the G5 level.
Speaker: And the spring game is like, wow, we beat ourselves.
Speaker: So do we have a really good offense or a terrible defense?
Speaker: We don't know.
Speaker: So those are the two things that I think is the absolute, like, means nothing in G5 college football.
Speaker: Closing out, Matt, tell the folks where they can find you on social media.
Speaker: You can plug all your stuff.
Speaker: Zeke, you go after him, and then I'll close out here.
Speaker: You can find me on social media at Miga.
Speaker: Unlike Tommy DeVito, Danny DeVito's illegitimate son, I do not get sacked seven times in a game.
Speaker: Um, so my, my, my Twitter page tends to be a little bit on the, on the calmer side.
Speaker: Uh, tweet a lot about the Louisiana Asian Cajuns, uh, tweet a lot about the new Orleans saints.
Speaker: Um, I will be posting a tweet in a moment about how disappointing it is to be a Pelicans fan tonight.
Speaker: Uh, how do you lead by 28 and find a way to lose in the NBA?
Speaker: It just doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, you can follow me on all social medias at me as Matt.
Speaker: I am on Twitter at Zeke Palermo, Z-E-K-E-P-A-L-E-R-M-O.
Speaker: I will be talking more about the Georgia State game and post my story there for the website that we, some of us, write for formerly.
Speaker: You know, that'll be a little more in-depth than, hey, they have no running backs, it's going to be a floor wipe, although that really is all you need to know.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm also on Twitter, and that's where you can find me.
Speaker: Yeah, Saturday I hung my jersey up for Underdog Dynasty.
Speaker: I'm done after this past Saturday.
Speaker: You can follow the show on Twitter at Warm Weather Fans on Twitter.
Speaker: x whatever you can email us warmotherfans at gmail.com you can follow me personally on x twitter at watch the stone we will be back next week to recap these bowl games that we just discussed and made picks on on warm weather fans
