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2024 Sun Belt Football: Week 2 Recap, Week 3 Preview
97 Plays8 months ago
Brian, Zeke, and Matt return to talk all things Sun Belt. The three break down Texas State's massive win over UTSA, App State getting shellacked by Clemson, and UL Monroe notching an impressive 26-point win over UAB.
Then, the trio discuss the upcoming week's games, headlined by a Thursday night matchup between Texas State and Arizona State.
Email us questions for the show at warmweatherfans@gmail.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Host Chat
00:00:17
Speaker
Welcome everybody into another edition of Warm Weather Fans, The Sunbelt Podcast. I am your host as always, Brian Stone, joined by Matt Mieges as I was last week and returning after having figured out his technical issue, at least temporarily, Zeke Palermo. The podcast that's happy they're not gracing McCall right now ah because he absolutely got his ass handed to him one Saturday.
00:00:49
Speaker
So that's the that's the danger of when you go from being a big fish in a small pond to now, guess what? Pond's the same size for all the other big fish, and you know, sometimes you get eaten.
McCall's Defeat and App State vs. Clemson Discussion
00:01:02
Speaker
ah Matt, how's it going for you? Other than the, yeah.
00:01:08
Speaker
I mean, so far so good. um There's a hurricane about 150 miles away from my house. So, you know, we'll see how that transpires over the next 24 to 36 hours. But ah so far, so good. Zeke, how's it going for you? It's going pretty good. As I was telling you right before we hopped on, I'm going to have to replace my laptop, which is You know, a frustrating situation because I don't know nearly enough about laptops, considering how many options there are. What I said, Matt may have heard this as you jumped in the call. If it runs, it's good enough for me, but I know there's more to it than that. So it's just been frustrating as I try to figure that out.
00:01:55
Speaker
Yeah, so hopefully you get that all figured out. um ah You know, we're here to talk about ah Sunbelt football, so I want to go ahead and start. We've got ah quite a few games to get through, so I just want to jump it right in here. um Starting on Saturday, ah we had no Thursday games this week. ah Starting on Saturday, as these games are presented in order for me here on ESPN dot.com,
00:02:23
Speaker
i I tweeted this from my own personal account and I retweeted it from the Warm Weather Fans account. App State stepped on the tracks. while there was a freight train on the way. And Matt, when you and I were talking about this game last week and we were going in and making our picks and stuff, I said, listen, if Dabo can't get Clemson up for this game after just getting absolutely washed by UGA in week one, it's just not going to happen. And they they've already talked about
00:02:56
Speaker
You know, hey. Maybe maybe this is sort of the end of the line for him. Maybe you know Clemson needs to look elsewhere for a head coach. At least for one week, the the doubters and haters of which there are many with someone as as polarizing as Dabo, they're quiet. ah Clemson runs App State off the field, 66 to 20. It was 56 to 13 at halftime. I think Clemson, I saw a stat, I think Clemson had 500 yards of offense in the first half.
00:03:33
Speaker
or something along those lines, 400, 500 yards of offense in the first half. I mean, again, it was the worst possible spot for App to be in. they there As good as they are for for the conference we talk about, again, I talked about the big fish small pond thing. They're a very big fish in the small pond that is the Sunbelt. You step outside of that. Sometimes you get the Michigan 2007 game, and sometimes you get run over, like a freight train.
00:04:02
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think App just ran into a a perfect storm on Saturday night, right? You have a yeah had a pissed off Clemson team that that was obviously in a bad spot after the game against Georgia opened their season. You talked about the the people starting to question Dabo, home opener.
00:04:24
Speaker
Like there were a lot of reasons for Clemson to get up, right? And they absolutely did. um and And so I don't think that this game was a testament and people go, oh man, maybe app isn't that good. I don't think people should look at this game that way at all. I think it was just a Clemson desperately needed a statement and they sent one. And I think app was just the victim, unfortunately.
00:04:54
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, this was my thesis about the game last week as well is that there was no way Clemson wasn't going to come out here and drop really as many points as they wanted.
00:05:06
Speaker
um I mean, you remember even last year, didn't Clemson lose the opener to Duke and then roll, as I look at their schedule now, they rolled Charleston Southern and Florida Atlantic in back to back weeks. Back when Clemson lost the opener against Georgia back in like 2021, they went out and rolled, you know, whatever FCS team they played the next week.
00:05:26
Speaker
no matter how fraudulent you think Clemson is within, and this is ah an idea I'll come back to later, within like the college football playoff conversation, they're not fraudulent within the Power Five G5 conversation. And this was never in doubt. And I obviously there are things you can improve here from app, I think two interceptions isn't great. I said last week that I wanted, I wrote to you guys last week that I wanted more volume out of each or out of one individual running back. And I didn't get that this week, but I'm not worried. Shoot, this is a Clemson team that what? Within the past couple of years was the best team in the country, so. Zeke, I love that you brought up the the notes that you gave last week, because when we get to specific teams. We're going to have a conversation. Y'all thought I i listened. i heard I heard what you guys had to say, and i I'm ready to go to bat.
00:06:24
Speaker
Well, okay. Yeah, you're ready to go to bat because the team you backed played really well this week. You you yeah absolutely did not have that same energy after after they barely edged out Lamar. you know i think Again, we'll get to it. I think you misinterpreted what I wrote. I did it in 11 words. I kept it condensed. You misinterpreted what I was saying there.
00:06:47
Speaker
Oh yeah, now okay now he tries to wiggle around. But anyways, let's move on. I'm not letting him off the hook. ah so but But yeah, so here here's the issue. And it was wrong place, wrong time for app. Again,
00:07:03
Speaker
sometimes you you are on the right side of a of a 2007 hey we beat Michigan on the road ranked like the whole nine yards everybody still talks about that game sometimes you're on the right side of those games and sometimes you face a pissed off team with a motivated head coach and you are simply overmatched from ah from a talent perspective.
00:07:30
Speaker
and i mean again it's I'm not saying App is a bad team because they lost this game, I'm more saying Clemson had every reason to take all of their frustration out on an app state team that we all like, but was, you know, for better or for worse, was just overmatched by Clemson. I mean,
Memphis vs. Troy Analysis
00:07:51
Speaker
you know, it happens. So, yeah, I mean, you go through and look and it's like Joey Aguilar was very non Joey Aguilar like, was not really efficient. 18 of 41 to 14, one touchdown.
00:08:07
Speaker
um You know, you got the full Billy Wiles experience with one throw, 0 for 1, one interception. I mean, could there be a better encapsulation of what his ah college you know quarterbacking career has been like than that?
00:08:22
Speaker
ah And then you've got, ah you know, Cade Club Nick on the opposite side was almost perfect. 24 of 26, 378 yards, five touchdowns, zero picks. I mean, you know, Clemson just did, just did absolutely whatever they wanted to do and took advantage. And I know, I know we're not an ACC podcast, but I'm going to go ahead and put this out there now.
00:08:51
Speaker
I don't think Clemson is like a fraud. i I just think that Georgia is one of the two best teams in the country, probably next to Texas. And guess what? It's it's tough when you are in the 17 to 25 range, which is realistically where Clemson sits, and you have to play the number one team in the country or the number two team, depending on how you feel about Texas that week. So again, it was just wrong place, wrong time for App. Like they just had all the frustration taken out upon them.
00:09:22
Speaker
um do we have anything else on this game or should we go ahead and move on ah so like I said not a lot to take away I don't think app should you know hang their head or or get you know frustrated by this I mean games like this happen all the time like You know, a couple of them happened for Sunbelt teams this week. You know, personally, Georgia Southern in two weeks plays Ole Miss. I expect a very similar score. So, I mean, I don't think there's there's a lot to be upset about. um With the win, Clemson's one and one this season now, app is now drops to one and one with the loss.
00:09:57
Speaker
um getting into this next game here Memphis defeats Troy 38 17 in a game that wasn't even as close as the final score indicated I watched so I watched the majority of the first half and I kind of just cut it off because I had other stuff to do because frankly Troy wasn't putting up much of a fight um and I have a I have a tweet from the warm weather fans account that Gerard Parker kicked a field goal down 24 in like the early fourth quarter. I mean, you might as well just go ahead and wave the white flag right there. Like I, I hate that. Like that is the most, that is the most cowards way to coach of like we cut a three score lead to a three score lead with a field goal here.
00:10:47
Speaker
and it it It came on like a fourth and one so it wasn't even like a oh man we We we have to do it like it's fourth and 18. I mean they could have just went for it I wasn't fourth and one it was fourth and goal from the four. Oh That's right. Yeah, I say it's a he kicked the 22 yarder with 29 seconds left in the third quarter Which is even worse like what are we doing? Like what is that?
00:11:14
Speaker
I was far too complimentary of Troy the past several. I believed in the infrastructure. I thought the bones of this team ah were' were still there from the John Sumrall.
00:11:28
Speaker
But that's just simply not the case. I was astounded by how how well Memphis ran the ball. Something stupid, like five yards a carry. When in their first game they were looking at like two yards a carry. This is not a Memphis team that is known for running the ball well.
00:11:45
Speaker
ah I was about to say Seth Hinnigan's thrown over 3,000 yards every year he's been there. ah so So this is not a Memphis team that is known to stuff the ball down your throat. But Troy has just flipped in terms of its identity from a team that you you're not going to run against to shoot. I mean, if I've got a fifth grader who's particularly quick, I might be able to get a couple first downs with him against Troy.
00:12:12
Speaker
I mean, you're right. And like i it's funny, but it's also kind of it's sad because it's true. um Yeah, it's it's kind of true. So I checked in on this game. I believe. I want to get the stat right. I believe Troy had 16 yards of offense in the first quarter. um And I think at half, they had like 80, 40 total yards of offense.
00:12:40
Speaker
Like, this again, this game was not as close as it read, like, 21 points. It could have easily been 35 to 3. Goose Crowder in this one? Not good. Dude, I watched him. He was missing th throws left and right. I mean, he he the pass rush for Memphis was getting to him, like, regular on a regular basis.
00:13:03
Speaker
he just i don't I don't know if he's ready for this level of football, to be totally honest with you. like I'm not even trying to be mean about that. like ah what's his name Caldwell, who came in in relief, looked like he had a better grasp and more command of the offense than Goose Crowder did.
00:13:24
Speaker
um So, and I mean, the team had 250 yards of offense. I guarantee you that was in the last quarter because it was just pure garbage time. Like Memphis was just doing whatever they wanted. If Goose Crowder doesn't score, it he led the team to a long 13 place 75 yard drive in the second quarter.
00:13:50
Speaker
And then outside of that, they did absolutely nothing. Yeah. So I don't i don't know. like Zeke, I i agree. like I think we were we gave them a little bit too much of the benefit of the doubt almost. I think i mean that's a trend that I had over across several teams. But yeah, Matt. Yeah, I mean, i'd like like you guys kind of touched on it. ah Troy looks worse than we thought they did.
00:14:18
Speaker
um their Their inability to play defense, which has been kind of their cornerstone under John Summerall. Now granted, it hurts when you don't have a Carlton Marshall or Jevon Solomon or Richard juvenile. I get the the the loss of those guys, right? um But I mean, you have nobody to play defense.
00:14:47
Speaker
um And so that's really concerning for Troy. Obviously, Jared Parker has never been a head coach before. There's going to be, you know, an adjustment curve. I i get all that. um But yeah, I think we might have given Troy a little too much credit in the preseason.
00:15:08
Speaker
Yeah, from what I watched, it just seems like there is This is like taking a house down to the studs or like to the absolute foundation and just starting over. It just seems like there's there's nothing here from previous Troy seasons that that you can grasp onto and say, hey, that's that guy or those group of guys are ah the part of the team that helped lead them to back-to-back Sunbelt titles. like this's just ah They just look totally unrecognizable in the way that they played, especially the last two weeks.
00:15:43
Speaker
So it's going to be a long season. I mean, ah you know, I know I know Phil Steele said that they would take a step back. I don't even know if he anticipated this much of a step back when he said that. So, you know, buckle up Trojan fans like youve you guys have had it really good the last two years. Now you're going to see the total flip side
Texas State vs. UTSA: Surprising Strength?
00:16:05
Speaker
of that. And I know that they saw it when Chip Lindsey was there, but ah it kind of seems like we're back to like Chip Lindsey land, at least for twenty twenty four
00:16:14
Speaker
yeah um You know, Anderson, the running back for Memphis, 17 carries 125 yards, two scores. That would not have happened against the John Summerall coach team. um Yeah, man. I said at the beginning of the season, I said, you know, you guys have gotten used to allowing 14 points a game or whatever crazy number it was.
00:16:36
Speaker
That stuff's out the window. like you you are It's a whole new ball game for you guys. so we'll We'll see if they get it worked out throughout the year, but right now it's like the quarterback position seems shaky with Caldwell and Crowder and whoever else takes snaps for them. The defense isn't good. The offensive line is is kind of collapsing pretty quickly. so i mean I don't know. we'll We'll see how it goes. But Memphis with the win is now 2-0. Troy is now 0-2. Zeke, I'm going to give you the floor for this one because you showed up for the episode to talk about UTSA getting stomped by ah Texas State. I do want to say one thing really quick before I kind of turn you loose. Owen McCown.
00:17:20
Speaker
played like his dad and uncle did in the NFL on Saturday. Just let let that process because they were not good at the pro level. And that was exactly how he played. This was never a doubt. I think we misinterpreted as I listened to ah the episode from last week that I missed.
00:17:44
Speaker
My 11 words or less, and I have it pulled up here, let me read it. it said I said, it got hairy, colon, semicolon, either never again or Southern-esque softness. Meaning in that tight Texas State Lamar game, all of Lamar's points came in the second half. Indicative either of It just kind of got away from them when the second squad was in or as Brian you've talked about ad nauseam, Texas State lacks guts.
00:18:17
Speaker
Texas State does not lack guts. Defensively. Defensively. There was a concern of that last season after they really slipped in the second half of the season. They show up for what I think is probably not their most difficult opponent of the season, but what may, as we look back, be their hardest game when you just consider like UTSA, Texas State rivalry, in addition to the fact that UTSA is a good team,
00:18:46
Speaker
You kind of mesh those together save for what I expected. I expect them to be in the conference championship and then the college football playoffs. This will be their most difficult regular season game. They showed up and they did not exhibit that Southern esque softness. they They got that out against Lamar and it was just one of those shoot man game one. We played in FCS team that caught us a little flat footed in the back half.
00:19:14
Speaker
ah Speaking of the game against Lamar come out absolutely ruled you TSA again you talk about well not defensively Yeah, they only put up 14 in the second half, but that's because they led 42 to 3 or I'm sorry 35 to 3 at halftime You didn't need to put up another 35 14 did the trick they only allowed seven second half points this time This was never a doubt. I thought I thought he was definitely This was a game that I thought the line of UTSA as favorites was absurd. Uh, because Texas state was at home, Texas state will go undefeated in the regular season. And I, and again, this is just confirming my preconceived notions. So I have nothing really to add because it's just confirming what I've already said or what I already believe, say, I believe they showed up and they, they absolutely roll.
00:20:14
Speaker
so So let me make sure that I have this straight. the A team that nearly lost to a Southland school. Some would argue if they watched the game that they maybe should have lost. But I digress.
00:20:44
Speaker
Um, plays a UTSA team that is replacing their quarterback, replacing their running back, and replacing half of their defense.
00:21:02
Speaker
And because you, and a team that struggled to beat an FCS call up, hu Can I read you something? Highest chance to make the college football playoff among G5 teams this was over the off season, according to ESPN FPI. Boise State, 16.4%. Number two, UTSA, 15.6. I'm not worried about the FPI. Can I break in for one second? Yeah. Zeke, I hate to burst your bubble, bro. After watching Boise through the first two games, I think they're getting in.
00:21:42
Speaker
over, I think they could go 11 and one with their one loss being to Oregon. I think they're sneaking in. ahead of you and Who said that in the preseason? Hey, let's see, man. i I'm just saying, if you're trying to discredit the win to UTSA here, saying aye. No, no, i I'm not.
00:22:00
Speaker
I'm not talking to you. Oh, okay. I promised. like i i was very I was very impressed by the way that they went out and handled business in the game. Did they play well? There's no question about that. Yeah. there's There's no question about that. But let's not act like them drubbing UTSA by 40 at home means, oh, man, they're going undefeated. They're going to the playoff. I i said, in my like again, in my very brief notes that I think if they win this game, going undefeated regular season is more likely than not. Point to a schedule like app maybe. We we still haven't really seen app yet, so we don't know. Point to a game on that schedule. Zeke, buddy, I love you. They're home underdogs to Arizona State this weekend. Let's see. They were home underdogs to to ah to UTSA. Let's see it.
00:22:59
Speaker
ah I'm fine letting it all play out. I'll just say this I do think and I have nothing to back this up But feel and and vibes if Texas State was to play Boise State on a neutral field I think Boise State would be a touchdown favorite wow And and look at it this way too say they lose this weekend hypothetical say they lose this weekend to arizona state at home say it's by a field goal sure and they finish 11 and one and win the sun belt
00:23:33
Speaker
Do you think, and and i I have said that I don't have a lot of faith in the playoff committee. they're They're dumb when it comes to anything other than who who won the SEC, who won the big 10. Like that's all they care about. If if Texas state goes into the postseason, 11 and one with their one loss being the Arizona state at home by a field goal,
00:23:59
Speaker
and Boise State is also 11 and one Mountain West Conference champions and their loss is to Oregon by what was it a touchdown for For not even feet three brother But bro boys he's getting in so fast. Yeah It's gonna spin if that's the case But if Texas State wins out which you know will jump the gun I think they beat Arizona State and
00:24:26
Speaker
There I I can't fashion a reason I still think the playoff committee would take the 11 on one Boise State team We'll see I I don't know I I truly would need to see it all play out that way it's it's I know we've we've been doing a lot of like forecasting and and stuff like that but I'm not gonna discount how stupid the playoff committee people are they are. They all look like they are a thousand years old. I don't know if you guys saw that picture of them watching the games at the end of the season last year. I i tweeted this, I said, i everybody in that room saw the 1969 moon landing on TV.
00:25:09
Speaker
That's how old they are. like So I'm telling you, all of these people are old as hell. And all they care about is looking at the Ws and Ls and for any team that isn't in the SEC or the Big Ten. They could not care less.
00:25:25
Speaker
They don't care who wins the Big 12. They don't care who wins the American. no no All of this is irrelevant. All they care about is, do my sweet baby Texas get in? Do my sweet baby Georgia get in? And I say sweet baby mockingly, obviously. like i don't I don't actually feel that way. But I can't under underestimate how stupid those people are. And like the the fact that they kept Florida State out last year, undefeated power four, power five conference champ,
00:25:54
Speaker
Like, I won't put anything past him. Back to the game, though. I mean, Texas State absolutely dominated every facet of the game. Like, I'm not I'm i'm not arguing that at all. Like, ah again, I made the joke. McCown played like Josh and Luke in the NFL, like with his performance on Saturday. It was ugly. ah Hey, Zeke, I'll say this.
00:26:18
Speaker
If their defense keeps up this level of play, dude, yeah, I totally see the path. that my My issue is, are you gonna have one of those games like you did last week against Lamar, against a better team that does have the ability to come back? Is your defense gonna just kind of lack sedasically, gonna go through the motions if you get a three touchdown lead in the second quarter? Is it all of a sudden gonna be time to kind of mail it in and then,
00:26:47
Speaker
i you know whoever comes comes slowly creeping back and then guess what? we're We're tied with two minutes to go in the fourth or something like that. So it does help. I do still believe they have the best quarterback in the conference, and I think that that's going to be a huge edge for them.
00:27:04
Speaker
um But yeah, man, I mean this was super impressive. i Again, if their defense keeps up this level of play, I've never had questions about the offense. If their defense is holding play teams to two scores and they look like Prime Troy on defense every week, yeah.
00:27:23
Speaker
Dude, yeah, they're they're they're for real. So yeah, with that, Texas State is now 2-0 this season. UTSA drops to 1-1. Getting to another just absolutely ugly offensive performance here.
Marshall's Offensive Struggles
00:27:40
Speaker
Marshall loses 31-14 in Blacksburg against Virginia Tech.
00:27:46
Speaker
um
00:27:49
Speaker
I picked Virginia Tech and they should have covered and it was just I mean it was it was like there was a there was a possession where Virginia Tech had the ball late and could have scored and they just absolutely ground the clock down and I was like oh man that's a killer ah but yeah all of Marshall's quarterbacks played like absolute garbage And, you know, I mean, I'm sorry, like the the combo of Stone Earl and Pennington and even Braylon Braxton to some extent, like, I don't know why. You know, Braylon Braxton hasn't kind of been gift wrapped the job. Don't really understand it. He's looked like the best of the three, but they keep running all three of them out there. I don't know. Like, I don't know what to make of this team.
00:28:37
Speaker
Do either of you guys have a thought on Marshall? The inability to find a quarterback is going to cost Charles Huff his job. We talked about it two weeks ago. He's gone because the dude just can't find a quarterback. ye I agree.
00:28:55
Speaker
um that That seems to be the the key part of their problem is that they don't have any consistency from a leadership standpoint on offense. um And they don't have any dudes on defense anymore. All their dudes defensively are are gone. There's no more Owen Porter, there's no more Micah Abraham, you know the those those guys are gone. And you haven't done a good enough job recruiting to kind of just recycle those those guys. um So yeah, no, I agree. I think Charles Huff is going to be looking for a new job at the end of the season.
00:29:35
Speaker
So the craziest thing to me was that Stone Earl was the only quarterback to take snaps for Marshall in this game. ah Can you imagine completing like 30% of your passes and being able to play a full four-quarter game with the head coach never looking to the bench and saying, hey, maybe we get one of those other guys in there? like Matt, you and I talked about it last week. Braylon Braxton,
00:30:03
Speaker
should be. any longer it should just be the braen braxton show and just see what you have because you know from last year's team what you have in Cole Pennington and it's not good and you've seen through two games what you have in stone earl and even though marshall won last week stone earl didn't play over really well so like why why are we still running this guy out there now i will say the the two the only really two impressive players on this team at this point are aj turner
00:30:43
Speaker
Um, the running back who they seem to have, you know, they, they found a, uh, an adequate Rachin Ali replacement six carries one Oh three. I know ah Zeke. I know you love to play the, what if you took as long as runaway game, but if you took as long as runaway, he averaged eight yards a carry. So I mean, that's impressive. And then Christian Fitzpatrick, if you had a quarterback that was worth his salt that could get him the ball, I think he would be good.
00:31:10
Speaker
um But yeah, I mean it's just It's a non-functional offense as it stands today because no team is scared of them throwing the football So some the good take I will say, Matt, you talked about how they lack guys defensively and they still do. This isn't to speak to their star power, but that defense was in the backfield for Virginia Tech a lot. yeah Four sacks against a team that only attempted 21 passes, nine tackles for loss. ah that That's a step that they've not won. They obviously lost the the individual talent, but Marshall has sustained a strong front seven in that regard, which shoot, you know, like 31 points against Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech isn't good by any means, but that that ain't bad. 31 against Virginia Tech, that's passable.
00:32:10
Speaker
Yeah. um Charles Huff, buddy, you and Will Hall might might want to rent like go in on a U-Haul together, maybe split the cost of moving. I don't know how that would work logistically, considering one of you lives in West Virginia and the other one lives in Mississippi. But it's it's inevitable almost at this point. So real quick, and and this is jokingly, you know how people used to say coaches would go to Alabama to resurrect their career?
00:32:39
Speaker
Yeah. Now that Nick Saban's gone, where are they going to go? Like where where's going to who's going to be the UGA? That's already happening in Georgia. yeah Kirby Kirby's going to be the resurrector now. Yeah. Well, again, I know ah I'm sorry to always relate this back to Georgia Southern, but I have I have the most like firsthand accounts. Tyson Summers, the second he got fired at Southern ran and became an analyst at UGA like immediately.
00:33:07
Speaker
So it's sort of already happening, where these failed head coaches are like, hey, I could go to UGA, watch film, and hand notes to Kirby Smart, and this other team has to play pay the rest of my contract out, and I get to make you know another $150,000 or whatever on top of it. yeah So yeah.
James Madison's Narrow Victory and Future Challenges
00:33:27
Speaker
um All right, so with that, Marshall drops to 1-in-1. Virginia Tech improves to 1-in-1.
00:33:35
Speaker
um Yeah, this next game here, I have nothing positive for James Madison to take away. oh ah ah You're down three to nothing to gardener web at half. yeah And you score a grand total of 13 points and you win by a touchdown at home. Yeah, this like this. I didn't even watch this game. I'm strictly going off the box score.
00:34:05
Speaker
I hope to God that their practice following this game was conditioning only because that was horrible.
00:34:17
Speaker
horrible. How, how are you a 10 win team a year ago? And look, I understand you lost your coach, you lost your quarterback. Like there was a lot of turnover at James Madison. I get it. But the talk behind this program coming in into 2024 was, oh, you know, Bob Chesney's a really good coach. He's got some key pieces back from last year's roster. They're going to keep rolling. They might take a small step back, but nothing crazy.
00:34:46
Speaker
The schedule is cake. The schedule is cake. We raved about how easy their schedule is. You beat Gardner Webb by a touchdown.
00:35:03
Speaker
Brutal. Yikes. I think the most frustrating part about this for me is ah kind of unrelated to the game itself. I understand there's 134 teams to keep track of, and especially at this G5 level where there are not many i as many eyes as the Big 10, the SEC, even the Big 12, right? James Madison, and I'm going to be speaking in broad strokes because I don't have an example in front of me.
00:35:35
Speaker
i You'll see James Madison ranking the top G5 programs most likely to make the CFP. And James Madison is still up there because they're 2-0. James Madison is far worse than the team they were last season. We've seen that through two games. Even against Charlotte. I mean, they beat Charlotte 30-7. I didn't think they were particularly impressive against them.
00:36:01
Speaker
But if, again, I'm speaking very hand wavy, which weakens what I'm saying here, but you hop on Twitter and you look at ranking the the top 20 G5 programs from college football updates daily or, you know, some imaginary, whatever Twitter account, James Madison is gonna be right there in the thick of it with Boise, with App, who again, App, Texas texas State,
00:36:27
Speaker
i and Which is a conversation they frankly don't belong in. Yeah, no, I definitely agree. Alonzo Barnett turned back into Mr. Hyde. Last week he was Dr. Jekyll and played fairly well, I mean, against Charlotte and we had no idea what to expect from either James Madison or Charlotte. But in this one, 14 of 22, 135 yards, his leading receiver, 32 yards per receiving.
00:37:00
Speaker
Leading receiver led the team uh, george petaway Was a very solid running back. Uh, you know was also the leading receiver who I just mentioned 10 carries 84 yards Tyler purdy came in scored a touched the lone touchdown, uh 10 carries 58 yards But yeah, you if you're getting this level of production against an no offense an fcs team in gardener web it that cake schedule is going to go out the window very quickly because they're going to play a Sunbelt school who we previously thought. And I'll I'll go ahead and name drop them. I don't know if they actually play them because I don't have James Madison schedule up. But if you have to play like a ULM who might surprise some teams this year by the way that they play and how physical they are, it's going to it's going to look a lot different than it would have last year. They play you three weeks.
00:37:56
Speaker
OK, so take what you saw Saturday from James Madison, and then on the flip side, take what you saw Saturday from ULM and tell me that that's going to be you know the cakewalk win that everybody thought it would be or projected heading into the season. It would be a loss for James Madison. Yeah. They they desperately need to find out finally and once and for all if they believe that Alonzo Barnett is the guy.
00:38:26
Speaker
because they tried it last year and he he got benched for underperforming and then McLeod came in. But the this whole, like, I'm OK, I'm OK at football one week and the next week, like, I can't I can't throw all of a sudden. That's not it's not going to cut it. um All right. So James Madison, even though even though they underperformed are now two and oh, Gardner Webb drops to oh and two ah getting into this next one here.
00:38:57
Speaker
East Carolina edges out, Old Dominion. I say edges out. This was a strange game. ah East Carolina's quarterback threw four interceptions. 25 of 38 for 283, no touchdowns. However, they're running back Harris for East Carolina. 26 carries 131 yards, two touchdowns. Basically anchored the entire offense for the Pirates.
00:39:26
Speaker
Uh, yeah, but so I'm going to go ahead and play Zeke's game here. You take away his 63 yard touchdown run, 25 carries for 68 yards. That's okay.
00:39:47
Speaker
It's OK. It's not great. Well, well, let me put let me put this in the context. I know Zeke loves that game and I'm not I'm not the biggest fan of it and never really have been. But his rushing production made up basically half of Old Dominion's total yard. No doubt. and my my My point, what I was going to bring up when it was my turn to speak about this game was how bad do you have to be offensively?
00:40:14
Speaker
for your defense to have four interceptions and you still lose. Like, come on. And I'm saying that as a as somebody that covers the Cajuns. Do we not remember the Cajuns back in December against Jacksonville State scoring three touchdowns on defense and still losing the game?
00:40:41
Speaker
Like, yeah you can't get four picks and lose. You just can't. no
00:40:47
Speaker
You just can't. So that's my skill. This comes back to my thesis about Old Dominion that its and that I had going into the the season and and held last year as well, is this this offense lacks playmakers. And they just kind of pick points out of thin air. And in this game, they didn't even really pick those points out of thin air.
00:41:10
Speaker
Of the four interceptions they forced, they only scored on one of those drives, one touchdown on on those four interceptions. One of those touchdowns they scored didn't come off of the pick. This offense needs a playmaker. And again, like college football is funky because you can't just add a guy in the middle of the season. You're kind of set. And if you're screwed, you're screwed. If you're not, you're not. Until Old Dominion finds one, a real quarterback.
00:41:39
Speaker
but two, a defensive player that can electrify this offense, they're gonna continue to struggle in games like this, where your defense plays well, more than well enough to win the game, and you provide them no form of support because of this program's either inability or refusal to find anyone with a 40 time that's under four, five.
00:42:09
Speaker
yikes excuse He's not wrong. He's not wrong. I just thought it's just funny to throw it out there and be like ah Zeke's like I want to see these 40 times. Let me see him I'm gonna look through them right now. gay Give me a few I'll look through these 40 times Zeke is such a scout. It's hilarious Well, the the other thing too is like even when you take a look at this the scoring that old Dominion did do One of them was a one play one throw drive from Grant Wilson to Kelby Williams. And, you know, one play drives can be flukes, you know, and there's no it's one thing when it's like, hey, this is a sustained twelve thirteen fifteen play drive where I was just we were just pounding the ball or, you know, doing whatever. This is like.
00:43:00
Speaker
They were lucky to get two touchdowns on the board in this game. This could have been way uglier ah Yeah, I mean it has but hasn't this always been sort of our issue with Old Dominion like as long as we've been talking about Sunbelt football is like they just don't have pieces on the offensive side of the ball outside of you know when they had Ali Jennings the third like What was it two years ago? Was there only receiver who could catch passes? Blake Watson was a running back that was good for like a short stretch and then kind of fell at the face of the earth. So it's just like even when guys play well, it's not sustained. You can't rely on any of that from a week to week basis. So. Like, how do you build off of any of this? We've talked about we talked about when we previewed Old Dominion, though, that honestly,
00:43:54
Speaker
like the bar is so low for a school like Old Dominion without football success that I don't want to say who cares obviously like we care but who cares old Old Dominion appears to be content being a sub 500 team as long as they pick up their four, three, four, five wins over the course of the season. Now, as I look at their schedule, I don't see any of those wins coming at this point after east the game against East Carolina. But like does Old Dominion care that much? what What is the state of that program? I mean, we we talked about it
00:44:42
Speaker
We were like, what what does success look like at Old Dominion? you know there Their peak over the last, I don't know how many years we it was, but was six and six. like They were just happy to back their way into a bowl game and lose, but you know be in a bowl game nonetheless. They haven't really done much of anything.
00:45:06
Speaker
and so you know like you said if if people don't care and you know they don't have like a fan base that's invested in like willing to get Ricky Ronnie out of there and try something else then yeah they're just gonna keep letting them run it back because you know who's gonna say otherwise So, yeah, that I mean, that's that's a tough, it's a tough situation in Norfolk. So East Carolina with the wind moves to 2-0 this season. Old Dominion is now 0-2.
00:45:36
Speaker
getting into this next game here. ah Ohio defeats South Alabama. um South Alabama's tough season continues. Gio Lopez was a scratch very shortly from this before this game due to turf toe. So the I don't know, royally named Bishop Davenport, started at quarterback, 226 a touchdown. he He was fine. Devin Voicem was their leading receiver, five catches, 77 yards.
00:46:11
Speaker
Not being able to beat a Mac school is tough. ah The Mac is like top to bottom, typically one of the worst conferences in the ah country. ah I mean, as evidenced, it was a Akron, I believe, lost to and an FCS school on Saturday.
00:46:32
Speaker
So, like, that's the level of... Oh, no, sorry, it was Kent State. Kent State. and Sorry about that. Sorry, Akron fans, if anybody's listening. Kent State lost to a team called St. Francis, Pennsylvania on Saturday. The only Mac school that anybody gives a damn about at this current moment is the Northern Illinois Huskies. How about them boys?
00:46:54
Speaker
ah red oh would yeah Going into South Bend and answering the prayers of college football fans everywhere. And look, I have no hatred against Notre Dame. I don't. I'm not one of those people that just can't stand Notre Dame. I'm honestly indifferent towards the Irish. Like, cool program, great history, whatever, right? But nobody wanted to see them make the college football play off.
00:47:23
Speaker
No. Nobody wants to see that. but there're But they're still in the mix, technically. I mean, if they win out. Are they though? Yeah. You you underestimate the brand of Notre Dame. I was going to say, I don't know if how the committee has ruled on Notre Dame in the past, but Notre Dame is a team that the committee certainly likes. The committee has always given them the benefit of the doubt.
00:47:51
Speaker
But how do you lose to a Mac school to still get in? Like that's my thing. By not playing a conference schedule? Right. Yeah. so ah well well So here's the thing though. Let's say they go out and they beat like USC. Because you know that's a big rivalry game every year.
00:48:12
Speaker
If they beat USC and that's their best win, and let's say USC is a 10 win, nine win football team, the committee is going to give them the benefit of the doubt because of the brand. They're going to go, oh, Notre Dame's back. That that that loss to the Mac school was just a blip. And then all of a sudden, guess what? Well, then we need Louisville or Georgia Tech or somebody to beat them again, because nobody wants to see Notre Dame. I'm sorry. Just nobody wants to see it.
00:48:39
Speaker
No. um Getting back to this game though, Ohio the last two seasons has now defeated two Sunbelt schools. ah I don't know whether the the green in their jerseys is like kryptonite for football. Um, but they beat Georgia Southern in the bowl game with like a third string squad after everybody had transferred out. And now they've beaten South Alabama who we didn't anticipate to be that good, but I mean, they're beating Sunbelt teams nonetheless. So, well, you know, who beat South out last week was the mean green. So that, that must be it.
00:49:18
Speaker
Yeah. South ah major apple white, just allergic to green. The South Alabama play Marshall this year. Uh, looking right now. Uh, I don't see Marshall on the schedule. No, they're done with the year. They're done with green. They could think they're lucky stars because that would have been a loss as well. They do. They do go to LSU though.
00:49:41
Speaker
the man that think about where this team was two years ago when they had won 10 games they were within one score of beating Troy and you know very well could have been the representative for the West and the Sunbelt title game and just think about
00:50:12
Speaker
the fall from grace from that point to now. ah It's just kind of insane to think about. um yeah But South Alabama is now 0 and 2 with the loss. Ohio moves to 1 and 1. Getting into this next one here, i don't I don't know that we have a lot to take away from this, but Coastal Carolina beat William & Mary 40 to 21. Great job, guys. Cool. You did exactly what you were supposed to do.
00:50:41
Speaker
Yeah, sorry. like that Good job. Yeah. Can we reopen the Ethan Vasco conversation?
00:50:53
Speaker
cause Was it ever closed, really? Well, I was not impressed by his performance. the The conversation that he's overrated? I mean, I thought he played well against Jacksonville State. Think about the opponent, Kat. All right.
00:51:11
Speaker
I mean he played mean, he played really, really bad here. Yes. um He played, he played really well against Jacksonville state. I don't want to discredit that because he did, but also think about how much Jacksonville state lost on defense from last year to this year. And now this performance against Willie memory kind of proves my point. Sure. I mean, he looked and awful.
00:51:39
Speaker
And then on top of everything, to we talked about it last week, Matt, but Jacksonville State probably has one of the worst quarterback situations from top to bottom in the country. All three of those guys that took snaps were absolute garbage ah last Thursday or two Thursdays ago.
00:51:55
Speaker
um But yeah, I mean, you know, they went up, Coastal went up 27 to seven at halftime and then pretty much just, you know, put their foot on the break from there and was just like, Hey, you know, we're we're just going to run the clock out. But, uh, yeah, good win for them. But yeah, Ethan Vasco, maybe spend some more time throwing to your receivers after practice because eight of 23.
00:52:19
Speaker
ain't gonna cut it. I thought that last week was sort of a performance that he could build on. And this is just like a Jenga tower just being knocked over by like a young child. Like this is we're we're back to ground zero with the Ethan Vasco thing. ah But with that, Coastal's now 2-0, William & Mary is now 1-1.
00:52:42
Speaker
zike Georgia State beats Chattanooga 24-21 in what we had kind of said, Pennsylvania is one of their few you know kind of scheduled wins of the season. what did you Was there anything that you could take away from this game that you think would be positive and what was what was most concerning considering you know it was a three-point deficit?
00:53:05
Speaker
So I think the positive takeaway is that when Georgia State could really put together a good drive, they did look really good. I thought Christian and I've got it, it's Vire. Matt, I thought you would have picked up on this. It's a French name. You're down in Louisiana, thought it could have been something. Vire? Vire, it's Vire.
00:53:33
Speaker
I thought it was a pollute. There's no L sound in there at all. That's E-Wix. They've got it on the team on his roster site. It's V-A-Y dash-E-R. vi or vague one of the two anyway i thought he performed well on drives that the team was moving the ball well i think freddie brock like when he's hidden can really run the ball well uh and defensively i I thought they were solid enough. There was no like real guy that got that torched him. Sam Phillips had an 84-yard touchdown. But aside from that, I thought the defense played pretty solidly. The downside, the the negatives of this game is obviously beating FCS school by only three. And it's because on the drives, you know it it was like for every good drive Georgia State put together, it was a three and out.
00:54:31
Speaker
to follow it. They couldn't string two good drives together. They couldn't string, I mean, let alone two plays together. so i um I wasn't on last week. my my my inner My one sentence on this game was, Georgia State will win, but Chattanooga could be feisty. And that's exactly what happened. Georgia State, I think, is worse than a lot of people think. And i that's to say, a lot of people are already pretty low on Georgia State. um I'm still net positive on this team over the next five years. But right now, they're in a really, really tight spot.
00:55:12
Speaker
um i know just go ahead I know you said same Phillips had that one long catch but I did the math and if you take that off the board so basically he was seven for 110 other than that catch I mean the guy almost had 200 yards receiving so i Do you think one that one long catch aside, do you think that their secondary could be a real problem, especially when you get into conference play and some of these teams really want to air it out? Do you think that that could be, I mean, we we don't anticipate them being a good team. So yeah um to say that that's going to be their Achilles heel is sort of overstating it. But do you think that that could be something that's a real issue for them down the road as their inability to cover receivers?
00:55:58
Speaker
ah It certainly could be. I'm going to tell you it's not my greatest concern with that defense. I think there are enough guys on that roster. Gavin Pringle being the real number one ah corner in that defense that I really, really like. Isaiah Guy is a safety that's exceptional. Jiren Gilmore is also exceptional. Kenyatta Watson has played well this year. so i I hear what you're saying, but they only allowed 13 completions, right? So the yardage was great, but it's not like they were getting diced up all day. My real issue with this defense, and again, this game will not show it as you look at the stats, is the second level, the line backing core. I think they're a little flimsy in that area. Their best linebackers are kind of more run stopper, like
00:56:52
Speaker
three, four end type guys, rather than they had a guy, Jordan Vizial, the past several years who, I mean, that guy would just wrap up anyone within 10 yards of him. And I feel like that's what this team lacks right now defensively. It's just a a real strong, like, traditional Mike.
00:57:10
Speaker
um Look, this this game didn't change much on my thoughts for this team. Like, this is a bad team that's in ah in a position where It's just get everyone accustomed to Dell McGee, let him get his own guys in. When I first joined the podcast and we talked, I think it was about Sean Clark at app. You guys just kept telling me like, just wait until he gets his guys, wait until he gets his guys. And and that's how I feel about Dell McGee at Georgia State is wait until he gets his guys and then we can judge because I think his guys are going to be far and away better than any recruits Georgia State has had in the past.
00:57:46
Speaker
He's a he's a dynamite recruiter. Yeah, I mean that absolutely dynamite that's the reason ah Southern wanted him a couple years ago when they made the transition a This is not del McGee's final stop. He's gonna move p5 once he gets this program moving but ah Right now is a wash Take the win when you can All right, so let's move off of this game because we got a lot to get through. We're we're already kind of going along. Georgia State is one and one with the win. Chattanooga is now 0 and 2. Matt, give me give me your thoughts. Louisiana absolutely took Kennesaw to the woodshed and you are worried about this game going into it. And I told you Kennesaw is just they haven't got their feet underneath them as a FBS program yet. I mean, you know, and it's the transition is different for every team, but they truly seem like they are.
00:58:42
Speaker
starting back from scratch. So kind of tell me what you thought about the way that it... Yeah, i was I was nervous because ah I mean, it just had the makings of a trap game. Kennesaw State's first FBS home game. Obviously their crowd was going to be into it. They were going to be loud. ah they They put up a good fight against UTSA. Like there there was a lot of pieces that that felt like maybe Kennesaw State could build off of it. And for the first quarter, it looked that way.
00:59:12
Speaker
um They were able to move the ball on the Cajuns defense. They were able to get into the end zone. They were able to make things happen. But then, I don't know, in the second quarter, it just looked like a flip switch for the Cajuns. The defense was flying all over the place. Zylan Perry and Bill Davis were able to run the football like coach.
00:59:31
Speaker
Ben Wolridge was efficient getting in. His numbers this week don't jump off the page at you, but that's because they were able to find something in the running game. um Really big performance for the Cajuns, dominant win, and now you're 2-0, sitting on a bye week, which with this storm rolling in, bye week couldn't have come in a better time. um But yeah, a big, big win for Michael Desermo and company, and now they get to enjoy it for a little while.
01:00:03
Speaker
So Louisiana with that is now 2-0 this season. Kennesaw State drops to 0-2. Getting into this next one, Georgia Southern edges out Nevada, and when I say edges out, I absolutely mean it with every step of, you know, every fiber of my being.
01:00:19
Speaker
so I'm going to say this, Nevada shot themselves in the foot and took any ability to win this game off the table by insisting to throw the ball as much as they did. If they ran read option every single play, they would have won this game going away. they For some reason, so Georgia Southern's defense started playing better after the midway mark of the second quarter, they finally started to kind of stop the run. um You know, they they seem like they, you know, began to care ah stopping the run, something that they did not do against Boise last week. And, you know, I know Boise is good, but guys don't run for 300 yards unless something's really wrong on the defensive side of the ball. um Now, Zeke, one of the things since Matt
01:01:07
Speaker
Matt stepped away to go get grab a cup of water But one thing I want to tell you about this game is it came very close to Nevada winning it on the final snap ah Nevada threw a Hail Mary on the last play that one of their receivers caught I think it was Bray ham the guy that led them in receiving down at the five-yard line He caught it and this ball was thrown from like the opposite 40 and he caught it at the five and there it it just happened to be that there was three defenders there the second he caught it they just brought him down and that was the end of the game george southern tried their absolute hardest to lose this game and like it's good that they won it's good that they picked up a win against another you know g5 opponent but man the first quarter was ugly they they they went back to the hey
01:01:59
Speaker
not really interested in stopping the run. um And then the defense came to play, ah you know, starting in the second quarter, like I said, um you know, they get A touchdown pass from J.C. French in the first quarter. Gavin Stewart, the Georgia Tech transfer, bangs home a field goal in the second quarter. And then they kept they get the ball late in this right before halftime, go down, eight plays 80 yards in a minute, 48. J.C. French hits a Daelyn Cobb for a 24-yard touchdown with three seconds left in the half.
01:02:32
Speaker
And you know the two teams traded field goals in the second or in the second half because those were the only scores nobody scored in the fourth quarter. um Yeah, I mean, it it was a good win from them. I still don't really know what to take away from this Georgia Southern team. Sometimes they play like they care and sometimes they play like they couldn't care less. So as long as that kind of ebb and flow keeps happening, like I don't I don't really know what to what to expect on a weekly basis. What did you make of J.C. French?
01:03:05
Speaker
I've been impressed with them so far this season. He has he i mean he put up 45 points last week against Boise, or two weeks ago against Boise. He was not the reason they lost that game. i mean you know And that's that's plain and evident and all that.
01:03:22
Speaker
It's tough to win a game. I told the you know i know you listen to the show, but I told this to Matt. Anytime you score 45 points and you lose by double digits, you're not the reason they lost. so People, were on especially on our Georgia Southern fan website, were really bagging on him when he won the starting job and was like, you know this is another sign that Helton doesn't know what he's doing.
01:03:44
Speaker
And like, I kind of was like, hey, I think this guy showed some real promise in the little bits he played over Davis Brynn last year. And he's kind of building building on that. And I like what I've seen from him. east He doesn't turn the football over, which is absolutely first and foremost for them. So I've been very impressed with him so far this season. and Now, if the defense had a pulse,
01:04:10
Speaker
They would probably be in contention with with app for the east but the defense just Flips a coin and decides whether to care or that quarter or not. Like I don't I don't really understand how it works um But yeah a good good win all things considered ah Georgia Southern improves to one-and-one this season Nevada drops to one and two Um, getting into this next one here, Arkansas state edges out Tulsa behind a 21 point third quarter rally. Zeke's hate for the Red Wolves just is is totally unmatched. Like I don't did Butch Jones like key your car or something like what's going on. You've got a young daughter, right?
01:04:56
Speaker
Yeah. i she She's a big big Santa fan, Santa Claus big fan. Sure. Now, which would be more embarrassing? ah An athletic director believing in Santa Claus or in Butch Jones?
01:05:15
Speaker
Good. This is not go is definitely z's definitely not the most. You can't be serious. I'm dead serious. What did they do well? They have one good drive. Their only good drive came on the game-winning drive. Everything else, poor drive. All of their touchdowns, again, save for the one at the end that gave them the lead. All of their scoring drives under five plays.
01:05:41
Speaker
That sounds like efficiency to me. No, that's unsustainable and you know that. That is so far beyond no good, reliable football team that's going to win games is going to do that. You did that against Tulsa. Congrats. Congrats. You scored a 35 yard touchdown against Tulsa. Congrats. You ran a touch. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Texas State dropped 49 on UTSA. Congrats. UTSA was projected to be in the CFP.
01:06:08
Speaker
Hold on, i have a I have a question. I have a question and I want to ask, I want Matt's input before you answer Zeke. Okay. Matt. Do you think any of this has anything to do with the fact that Arkansas State hung 77 on Texas State last year? Do you think this has any any of that animosity plays into this? Because this is like this is way beyond like even the animosity you had for like Southern Miss when you got into it like with their fans on Twitter.
01:06:37
Speaker
so like i think I think you won't admit it, but I think subconsciously that plays into it just ah just a hair. what I'm going to disagree with you because, and i this is on record of course, my Butch Jones distaste predates that game. Okay. When did it start? i mean I don't know. When did I join the podcast?
01:07:07
Speaker
the The underdog one? i mean Yeah, I think as long as I've been a in on the Sun Belt, which was 21, I think, 21 or 22, it was Butch Jones' first year, actually. I've been out on Butch Jones since he got the job.
01:07:27
Speaker
And I'm not the biggest Butch Jones fan in the world, but I think it's kind of, I think you're a little over the top with it. There it is. There's the issue right there. You've been, you've had a thing about Butch Jones since he got the job, meaning that you have never given the man a fair shake. When has he earned a fair shake? When has he earned a fair shake?
01:07:55
Speaker
Oh, I don't know. When he lost to a grad school in the bowl game? When he lost to a quarterback-less Marshall last season? When he beat Willman Rowe by 10 last year, when did he earn a official? Listen, I'm kind of in the middle of y'all. I agree with Zeke on the points that before he found Jalen Raynor, Butch Jones was on his way to the firing line. like he He was the unemployment line, rather.
01:08:24
Speaker
now I will say this, I think it's a little bit of an overreaction Zeke. Just to be frank, I mean, they are, at the end of the day, they're 2-0. I mean, and I know i know Central Arkansas, but you know whatever. you know If the Texas states of the world can slip up against an FCS school, then we need to grant everybody a little bit of grace. Yeah, we can.
01:08:49
Speaker
But, you know, they beat Tulsa, you know, ah again, like you can only play who's on your schedule. Like they schedule these games like three years out. So it's, and you know, it's like, it's like beating up on Matt's Saints for only beating the Panthers on Sunday. It's like, okay, but what were we supposed to do? Like, you know, but if not for a 77 yard punt return touchdown, this Tulsa wins this game.
01:09:16
Speaker
Okay, but I mean those are the plays every Saturday that make the difference in those type of games. Not if you're a team that is deserving of the hype that this team gets on a year-to-year. What hype? I don't remember them getting any real hype. You guys are slobbering on them in the preseason.
01:09:36
Speaker
No, we weren't. I was like, I think Jalen Rayner is very good. And if I basically said the same thing I said about Texas State, about Arkansas State, but to a lesser extent, I said, I like their offense. If the defense improves, I'll believe in them.
01:09:52
Speaker
That's that's all I said. I was never all over. I don't like Butch Jones as a coach. I i don't believe in him like his track record other than the one year at Cincinnati has been smoke and mirrors and and bad, quite frankly. But, you know, I don't believe overly in Butch Jones as a coach, but I think they have a good offense. And if the defense improves, then sure, that's so I was very cautiously optimistic.
01:10:18
Speaker
So so now now Brian has made a comment on Butch Jones. let's let's Let's look at the guy's resume, okay? So his three years at Central Michigan, he has a record of 27 and 13, including 20 and three in the MAC.
01:10:35
Speaker
Goes to Cincinnati has a bad first year, but then goes 10 and three and nine and three finishing tied for first and the big East in both of those years. Playing with Brian Kelly's players. Yes. I agree. Still got to find a way for them to get a win. Sure. And then what, and then he goes to Tennessee and then what happened? Had back to back nine and four seasons. Okay.
01:11:05
Speaker
So it has, you know, Mark Stoops has won nine games at Kentucky. Like, are we are we crowning him? Like, no. he's So. Okay, and Butch Jones doesn't. So I didn't anymore. But the point is, is that Zeke said that Butch Jones doesn't deserve a fair shake. And I just don't think that that's true. I don't want to say he doesn't deserve a fair shake. But if he starts at zero, like, let's say he's hired 2021. He's hired, he starts at zero. He's not given me any reason to lift him above neutral. Only reason to dip him below neutral.
01:11:46
Speaker
So he he did get a fair shake by starting at neutral. I mean, i he was 2017 was the last time he was a head coach. I was 16. I wasn't watching Tennessee football at the time. I started with a very base level knowledge of Butch Jones. I think for me is I've not really ever been impressed with him as a coach. And I think the first couple years of him at Arkansas State validate that at least a little bit.
01:12:12
Speaker
like you can't just hand wave away the first couple years of Arkansas State football under him and be like but but but it's also like he inherited largely a Arkansas State team under Blake Anderson that was in contention for the Sunbelt West and the Sunbelt title every single year so to to take that and basically go back to like the beginning and start all over again and be like, we're going to win three games and we're going to win five games and we're not, you know, and all of that. And we can't find a quarterback until, you know, Jalen Raynor falls in my lap. Like all of that plays into it. ah
01:12:51
Speaker
and um I don't think he's got the best track record as a coach is all I'm saying. And I agree with you. I think he's had some good seasons. I don't think his overall track records, you know, phenomenal. But my point here is he takes over a program. Yes, slow start. I would blame a lot of that on Covid. But, you know, I digress. He goes two and 10 and three and nine. And then last season jumps to six and six.
01:13:23
Speaker
How can you not come into this season feeling like there's some positive momentum with what they've done? I i agree, but if the defense doesn't.
01:13:35
Speaker
um improve like in last week showed that it might not have ah if the defense is still if we're still in shootout mode with Jalen Rayner and it's like I need him and Cory Rucker to put up 30 every week to even give us a like a chance to win then yeah that's that's my beef that's all I'm gonna ask you the opposite question of what Brian asked me is the reason you are again I'm gonna say so high in quotes because I understand you're not putting them in the conference title but higher than I am, and as I understand higher than Brian, is it because this team beat Louisiana last year? No, because Zion Chris broke his ankle in that game. their four Four of those six wins are Stony Brook, Southern mist you Miss, UMass, UO Monroe. Those are an FCS school and three of the worst teams in all of college football. You want me to be impressed by that?
01:14:33
Speaker
I think the only really great win on this schedule is a 77 to 31 win over Texas State. A team that you're obsessed with. A team that I'm obsessed with this year with the best quarterback in the conference that they didn't have last year.
01:14:49
Speaker
but couldn all couldn't you argue we We got to move off. We have to. We're going to we're going to be four hours into a podcast just arguing about Butch Jones. All right. They beat Tulsa. Great job, everybody. Arkansas State's 2-0, Tulsa's 1-1. Jesus. All right. They're going to the playoff, damn it.
01:15:10
Speaker
Next game here, hey, UL Monroe takes Trent Dilfer's UAB Blazers to the absolute woodshed. No, dude, no. i'm not gonna let you I'm not gonna let you yawn, because considering where this team was a year ago, you can't just, you can't be like, no, not impressive. Especially, because, hold on.
01:15:32
Speaker
You were doubting me for picking ULM going into last week. I picked ULM plus 13 and you were like, I don't know about that. Dude, they won by 26. Cool. good Played really well. I'll watch the game. They played really well. ULM also started 2-0 last year and proceeded to lose their final 10.
01:15:57
Speaker
But it's a, it's a, it's a brand new team with a new quarterback and you know, new coach, like they have a new philosophy. Like I'm not, again, you guys jumped to, Oh man, you must say they're a a Sunbelt title contender. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying like, this is already an improvement over what they had. I know you're not saying that, but for me to believe that they could be even better than they were last year, I have to see that third win.
01:16:27
Speaker
Okay, I just I mean don't get me wrong impressive performance they played really well um I just I gotta to see more I Think I think the momentum for them is heading in the right direction. I don't think they're all agree with that i don't i don't I don't think they're gonna win a I don't think they're gonna be in a bowl game I don't think they're gonna win a bowl game, but I think I You know, they played an FCS school week one, whatever. you You can't really take anything away from that. This at least is I took Matt. I told you last week, I was like, I'm not a fan of Trent Dilfer as a coach at UAB. I think he's in over his head. He was a high school coach that they I think they mistakenly um gave him the job over Bryant Vincent, who probably should have rightfully been the UAB coach after Bill Clark left.
01:17:17
Speaker
um And I mean, you know, take a look at the result from Saturday. that kind of They kind of went out and proved that. um But yeah, I don't like any of UAB's play. I don't like Jacob Zino. Georgia Southern played them last year and absolutely smoked them the same way that U.L. Monroe did.
01:17:35
Speaker
so all All I'm saying is the momentum is headed in the right direction. They have something to build off of now. Whereas it seemed like under Bowden, the winds were just totally random. Like you would have, you know, they, they took app down to the absolute wire last year and then inexplicably ran of an RPO out of an I formation on the goal line. Like, yeah. that there was just things like that where you're like, how could you play well for 60 minutes and then just sabotage your team late like that? It doesn't make any sense. So I just think they're headed in the right direction. No, I would agree with that.
01:18:13
Speaker
um And again, it was a really impressive performance. The way that they've been able to run the football in their first two games has been has been really impressive. And we talked about that all preseason, about how that's what Brian Vincent wanted to do. um So yeah, I mean, I agree. I think they are headed in the right direction.
01:18:33
Speaker
I just, I don't know. so there's There's something in me that that still sees them going maybe four and eight.
01:18:42
Speaker
Well, yeah, I mean that that's their talent level. I'm not again, like, yeah, if they won four games in year one, like that's pretty good for them. like I think everybody would be relatively pleased with that. They don't have the expectations that like some of these other teams do. They're at like the the Southern Miss level of, hey, this is what we expect out of our football program. yeah So just the fact that you know they held UAB to 259 yards of offense, they turned them over three times.
01:19:15
Speaker
uh xeno the quarterback you know again ah what i want to see is and i said this last week and we still haven't seen it i want to see what it looks like when general booty has to throw the football because he hasn't been he hasn't had to yet this this point in the season so i want to see if you put the pressure on him and force him to throw the football like What does that look like? Because he came over from Oklahoma, so who knows? um With that, U.M. Monroe is now 2-0 this season. UAB drops to 1-1. This last one, we we we we got to breeze through. Just sorry, Southern Miss fans. You guys beat an FCS school 35 to 10 at home. That's great. Tate Rottamaker threw two touchdowns 180 yards. that That truly deserves like a little like golf clap.
01:20:05
Speaker
um i don't I don't know how much you can extrapolate this over the rest of the season, but, you know, whatever. ah Southern Miss is now one and one. Southeast Louisiana is now 0 and 2. All right. So let's go week three baby let's go ahead and get into week three. Let's let's ah let's take turn the animosity down. Just just a hair. ah So when we're picking these games,
01:20:32
Speaker
um Can somebody call out what the first game is because ESPN site is moving very slowly. It is. which The 2-0 Arizona State Sun Devils going into San Marcos to play a 2-0 Texas State team, 6.30 p.m. Central Time, 7.30 Eastern on ESPN. Arizona State is a one and a half point favorite with an over under of 59 and a half.
01:21:03
Speaker
Uh, I'm taking Texas state.
01:21:09
Speaker
I, I don't, I don't, I've never really thought that highly of any, anybody at Arizona state. What if they, they haven't been good since Jake Plummer was the quarterback there. So the jade and Daniels disrespect, they weren't good with him.
01:21:30
Speaker
They wasted his time. They wasted Brandon Ayuk's time. They were bad, dude.
01:21:39
Speaker
jaded daniels No, you want to know I just met Jayden Daniels was his teammates who threw all his stuff out of his locker in the garbage when he transferred to LSU. That's who the disrespect it is. That's fair. That's fair. All right. Who do you guys have in this one? i Zeke, we don't even need to go to you. We already know who you're taking.
01:22:00
Speaker
Matt, who do you got? I got Arizona State. Okay. Alright, so I've got it up here now. Um, the other Thursday night game South Alabama Hopefully Gio Lopez can come back from his turf toe. If not, I think At the very least we've seen Bishop Davenport has enough juice to overcome Northwestern State if they don't if they don't beat Northwestern State, I mean we're We're in an all-time Valley for a South Alabama football um Okay Saturday
01:22:34
Speaker
Arkansas State travels to the Big House to take on Michigan. Michigan is a 23.5 point favorite over under 48.5. I'm taking Michigan on the exact same like parameters that I took Clemson over ah App State last week.
01:22:54
Speaker
Michigan's coming off of a huge loss to Texas. ah They are going to be pissed off. um Zeke, I don't necessarily agree with you one on one about Arkansas State, but they have shown them the ability to struggle even when they play, again, an FCS school or Tulsa or or whatever. Michigan, I think, is going to run them off the field. So I think Michigan minus 23 and a half is my pick.
01:23:22
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, same reasons. I take the over here over 48 and a half. Michigan's much like Clemson didn't gonna hang 48 on him on their own and you just need a field goal from Arkansas State. Say what I will about Arkansas State. They can score points in bunches, especially once you know, Michigan is going to get lax late, so he gave me the over easily. Yeah, I'm gonna go over to.
01:23:51
Speaker
um I don't know, I'm stuck in the middle on the spread because I feel like this is a game where Arkansas State could play up and keep it interesting. But then at the same time, I agree with both of you that Michigan could just also run away with this. So I'll take the i'll take the over.
01:24:13
Speaker
okay ah Two o'clock on ESPN+, we've got Coastal Carolina traveling to the Eagles Stadium, a Lincoln Financial Field in Pennsylvania, ah Philly, ah to take on Temple. Coastal is an 18.5-point road favorite. Over Onder is 51.5.
01:24:34
Speaker
Um, I'm taking the over here. Uh, I, I don't know. I don't imagine temple is a good team, but 18 and a half is a lot. And I have seen that what happens when you bet coastal unders, uh, in week one, when they scored 55 and basically covered the over under themselves. So I'm going to take the over. Cause I think they're going to absolutely smash temple.
01:24:59
Speaker
I like temple 17 plus seven or I have it in my notes at 17. It's 18 and a half now. I'll still take them on that. I think Coastal wins this by 14 or so. um I just it depends on what Ethan Vasco we get. ah The running game from Coastal has been pretty solid the past couple weeks, which makes me think, you know, obviously running the ball just makes the game go by quicker. Less points get scored. Give me Temple to cover.
01:25:29
Speaker
This might sound like a cop-out answer, but can I just take Coastal on the money line? Yeah. Can I just take it straight up? I mean, you could.
01:25:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i know it's I know it's a cop out, and I apologize. But give just give me coast a coast little wind. OK. 4 o'clock here on Fox Sports 1, Troy is traveling to Kinnick to take on Iowa, who is quietly balling as a football team, a lot better than they have been, especially offensively. ah Iowa's a 22-point home favorite. Over Under is only 38 and 1.5.
01:26:09
Speaker
which would imply what that Troy scores 14 points somewhere around there 20 no anyway uh i'm taking Iowa Troy There's a lot of reasons for concern with Troy. And Iowa, I think is going to, Iowa has a chance to shut them out based on what I saw against Memphis. Turns out the, uh, the awkward Thanksgiving dinners might actually be worth it for Iowa. Um, give me the, give me the Hawkeyes. Yeah. I mean, Troy nearly did not cover this spread against Memphis. Give me Iowa.
01:26:52
Speaker
All right. Next one here. Four o'clock ESPNU app state is traveling to Greenville to take on an East Carolina school cut fresh off of an old Dominion win app is a two and a half point road favor over under 60
Virginia Tech vs. Old Dominion and Other Game Previews
01:27:04
Speaker
and a half. Give me app. I'm windmilling this one in. Yeah. Easy.
01:27:10
Speaker
All right. Another, another one here, a familiar matchup. Two teams that both played, uh, you know, one Sunbelt opponent and one that played a Sunbelt team. Virginia Tech is weirdly going to Norfolk for a home and home to play Old Dominion. Virginia Tech is a 14 point favorite over unders 49 and a half. Um,
01:27:34
Speaker
I'm going to take Old Dominion. I don't think they win the game, but they have shown the ability to keep them close against South Carolina and ah East Carolina um relatively. So I'm going to take Old Dominion. i think I think Virginia Tech wins by like 10.
01:27:50
Speaker
I agree, also because not not to mention the two games you just mentioned, but also the previous times that Old Dominion has played Virginia Tech, it's been close match-ups. So yeah, ODU to cover. Good points, but this game is going to go very similarly to how the Virginia Tech Marshall game went. i Old Dominion, much like Marshall, is just offensively depleted ah Virginia Tech minus 14.
01:28:19
Speaker
um Georgia Southern staking on South Carolina State at home at 6 o'clock on ESPN+. There's no line on this game. It's, you know, it is what it is. um This next one here, 7 o'clock Eastern time on ESPN+, Georgia State somehow tricked Vanderbilt into coming to Center Park where there will be dozens of fans.
01:28:39
Speaker
ah Vanderbilt is a 10 and a half point road favorite over under 46 and a half. I like what I've seen out of Vanderbilt so far this year. I'm taking Vanderbilt Vanderbilt minus 10 and a half. I think this one's easy. Yep. They don't see the chance. Unfortunately, Georgia State just simply cannot compete. I think Vanderbilt's fans considering the. What do you drive from Nashville to to Atlanta? That's like seven hours with traffic like yeah.
01:29:09
Speaker
You could do that. ah Christian, for you. like i read it off I read it off the team site, bro. I'm not trusting Atlanta, Georgia, French. I'm just not. Matt's starting to question Christian's roots. Where in Louisiana are you from again? No, he's from Ontario.
01:29:34
Speaker
Oh, it's Canadian French. Yes, it's French. It's Canadian. That explains it. Yeah, that explains it. It's the incorrect French. Oh, yeah. Yeah. but Give me give me Vandy by 14.
01:29:48
Speaker
I had a friend in college who was French and he one time I asked him about French Canadians and he was like, disgusting, disgusting. that That's the fake French. Yeah, exactly. There's a guy from Louisiana. Hey, we came from France, baby. That is true.
01:30:06
Speaker
That is true. I mean, the the this the state's named after King Louie. I mean, come on. ah Anyway, 7 p.m. last game on the docket here, ESPN+, Southern Miss is taking on South Florida and Hattiesburg. South Florida is a 12-point favorite on the road over unders 57 and a half. I'm taking the under of 57 and a half. um I don't know anything about South Florida, so I don't... I'm sure Southern Miss is gonna find a way to lose this game, but I don't think... even if south florida blows them out i don't think southern missus is going to score enough points to even come close to touching the over of 50 57 and a half it's all gross i'll take the under yeah this is a south florida team that last week was 14 to 13 against alabama in the third quarter uh yeah median
01:30:57
Speaker
All right, so that does it for week three in our picks. Zeke, I don't have the ah the spreadsheet pulled up, but you've been on fire the last two weeks with your picks. Just wanted to give you some credit there. um Yeah, so Zeke, with that, tell folks where they can find you and your extremely hot hand on picking Sunbelt games on X.
01:31:20
Speaker
ah Yeah, i'm I'm on Twitter at Zeke Palermo, Z-E-K-E-P-A-L-E-R-M-O. I'm not going to recommend you follow my betting advice. My my track record, despite the hot hand, doesn't track. um
Podcast Format Changes and Future Episodes
01:31:34
Speaker
um I'm going to suggest ah we have a YouTube. Check it out.
01:31:38
Speaker
Next week or next episode, we're going to have to switch up the format. Brian is going to have to go on top and kind of split Matt and I down the middle because I've realized he is kind of the Kevin Wilds of our show. While Matt and I spit hot takes back at each other, Brian is there as a more neutral ground. Yeah, brian b Brian's of the Chris Wallace of of the the Donald Trump Kamala Harris.
01:32:03
Speaker
conversation. Oh, i I don't know why I brought the president to the paint in on this. But anyways, you can follow me on x at me guys, Matt, occasions are off this week, I'm getting hit by a hurricane. So content might be at a minimum over the next 24 to 48 hours. But we we We press on. There's a really great in-state game happening next Saturday, the Cajuns and Tulane. It is on national television. 11 o'clock kick on ESPNU from Cajun Field, so that should be fun.
01:32:40
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. um As Zeke said, you can always find our content from here on on YouTube. ah You know, just search warm weather fans will pop up at warm weather fans on X ah email questions, comments, whatever to the show at warm weather fans at to warm weather fans at gmail dot com. You can find me on X at Watch the Stone. We will be back next week to run down week three, talk about week four, and hopefully Zeke and Matt don't kill each other on the air. This has been another episode of Warm Weather Fans.