Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
2024 Sun Belt Football: Week 10 Recap, Week 11 Preview
75 Plays5 months ago
Brian and Zeke are back to talk about all of the week 10 action in the Sun Belt, including Louisiana's win over Texas State and Appalachian State knocking off a red hot Old Dominion team in Boone.
Then, the two jump into the week 11 slate and make picks for the week ahead.
All of our episodes are now available in video form on YouTube!
Email the show at warmweatherfans@gmail.com
Follow us on X:
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Goals
00:00:16
Speaker
Welcome, everybody, into a new edition of Warm Weather Fans, the Sun Belt Podcast. My name is Brian Stone. Joined this week by Zeke Palermo. Zeke, we are here to talk about all the happenings from Week 10 in the conference as well as looking ahead at Week 11. How are you doing today? I'm doing well. ah We are wrapping up high school football here in Georgia, or at least the regular season, starting to get in the playoffs. So I'm amped up for that. We are basketball season. Finally, I'm excited about that. And um I don't know where we're recording this Monday. Tomorrow's the election. I'm ready for that to be concluded. You know, whichever way it may land, it's just like, ah let's get over it with it, man. I'm done getting the text. I'm done getting the emails, the voicemails, the ads. I'm done with it. Yeah, i'm i'm I'm sick of it as well, especially because I'm not i'm not registered to vote.
Election Fatigue and Transition to Football
00:01:18
Speaker
And so I still get bombarded, even though... You're not registered to vote? I've never voted in a presidential election. That's crazy. i just I've never felt passionate enough to do it. so Understood. That's that's just the way I see it. Let's get off of that and get to a more ah intense topic, which is Sunbelt football. um Let's start with Tuesday night's game. so How much of this
Louisiana vs. Texas State Game Analysis
00:01:46
Speaker
did you catch? Because I watched a lot of it. ah Louisiana, Texas State. How much how much of this did you see? Cursory. I watched the big cut-up afterwards on YouTube. I didn't catch much of this one. Okay. so My number one takeaway... Actually, I have a question for you, but I want to give you my number one takeaway and then I want to ask you this question. My number one takeaway is, I guess it's another question, is Jordan McLeod just bad now, like at football? Or is it like a scheme issue? And I'm not even i'm not even like putting, you know, trying to to put the heat on you I know you right you were supporting them earlier in the year I'm asking strictly from someone who watched and put the eye test on it he was missing like crossing routes I mean it it was it was like very normal type throws he just seemed off like all night, and and you know, Louisiana did a good job keeping him kind of off balance. Louisiana's tackling still to me leaves a lot to be desired. um It hasn't come back to bite them yet, but I feel like there could be a key point down the road where that's the decider is that they just decide again, what you know, whatever we, we, we don't tackle around here. Like we just, we kind of let guys bounce off of us. um But you know, Louisiana did a, did a great job kind of keeping their distance. And I'm going to be honest with you in this game specifically. I don't know if this is going to be the case for the rest of the season. I thought Martinez, the backup for Texas State, actually looked better than Jordan McLeod in the in the bits that he played. McLeod just seems off offb balance like the whole time. the The question that I had for you that I want to start to pose is, should we maybe start having the same type of talk about G.J. Kinney and his late season performances as we do about Clay Hilton or have been about the last couple of years? Because think about these last two seasons.
Texas State's Mid-Season Challenges
00:03:55
Speaker
They start really hot. ah Offense looks great. Everything's humming. You get a little bit of a bump in the road. And then it just feels like late in the season, the wheels just kind of fall off. And, you know, last year they had obviously the loss to Arkansas state, which was huge, but this year it's just been kind of one thing after another. And it feels like the Sam Houston game exposed them a little bit. And now, you know, ODU picked them apart, Louisiana beats them in this game. And now it just kind of feels like, I don't know, like, should we start having that conversation? Yeah. So to the first part about Jordan McLeod, ah I think a lot of this has to go back to Kurt Signetti because I mean, the story, one of the stories of the year is just how well his Indiana team has performed. no no And he is, I mean, he has just been all talk and has done nothing but back it up. And you look at the the numbers and the play from Curtis Rourke, his quarterback there, it's the level of stuff that we came to expect from Jordan McLeod. ah So I'm not going to say that like Jordan McLeod is a system quarterback or that he's struggling because he is outside of the Cignetti system. But with that said, I think that, you know, that's just an offense that amplifies guys. And so I don't want to say that Jordan McLeod is washed. I i still think he's from a pure talent perspective, ah which again, doesn't mean much if you're not performing on it. But from a raw pure talent perspective is one of, if not the best quarterbacks in the conference. ah But you look at what Signetti's done with the offense at Indiana and with Curtis Rourke, who was a guy I think last year was at Ohio. ah Not Ohio State, Ohio. And it's turning him into like one of the best, again, one of the most efficient passers in the the country. It comes to Signetti. As to the G.J. Kinney conversation, the first episode of the year that I missed when Texas State lost their first game of the year, or no, they played the FCS team ah real close. Who was that? I'm looking at their schedule now. ah I think it was Lamar. I really do think it was Lamar or after the era Arizona State game. ah When I wrote in my notes to you, I wrote, you know, either never again, or you're a Georgia Southern type soft. Uh, I don't think it's ah unreasonable to start having those questions that we have about Georgia Southern and about Chad Lunsford about these teams crumbling, uh, because Texas state's issue all year has been defense. Uh, and that defense is, if anything has performed better from a statistical perspective in recent weeks than it started. Uh, but ah again, like against Louisiana, they look tired. Uh, they looked unable to get a stop at times, unable to stop the run. Uh, I don't think you're too far off base and drawing that comparison from Ludensford to Kinney. Do I think it's time to hit the panic button on G.J. Kinney? No, ah because you consider where this team was two years ago when he took over with Jake Spavadol, the disarray that program was in, and at the very least, they're winning games. They're winning conference games now which uh you know is worth something uh this could be a uh about in a ulm situation where kenny isn't here for long uh you know he gets three or four years tops but he is the one to pull it out of the dredges and then whoever comes in next is able to kind of take them to that next level. i guess I guess the question, and this can be rhetorical, we don't actually have to answer this, is did we put too much expectation-wise on them too early? I did. No, I just mean, you know, meet me too. like i I didn't have them going 12 and 0 but i was like hey best offense in the sun belt um defense is a question but in theory with jordan mcleod replacing tj finley this should be a an improved team from 2023 and that really hasn't bore out and it makes me wonder it makes me wonder if mcleod or finley or whoever there's just something ah about this system that kenny runs that makes it really really difficult on his quarterbacks because think about think back to last year with finley and the struggles that he had and he was benched. He wasn't benched. He was hurt, but no one ever really knew what the deal was.
Georgia State's Quarterback Changes
00:08:53
Speaker
I don't know. I just think like maybe i mean it' certainly tough this just asks too much of the quarterback, I guess. It certainly asks too much. i mean How many times this year has ah Jordan McLeod thrown for over 30 passes? You know, this is a quarterback intensive offense and he's not asked to run a lot, ah but the offensive line isn't great. I think he's taken nine sacks or something like that. And I mean, the guy's got a good pair of legs so this this is a quarterback intensive system uh and at this level of college ball i'm not certain that you can find the quarterbacks like if you look at alabama's system right now with jaylen milro right or when jayden daniels was at lsu obviously those are different tiers of quarterbacks than what we're talking about. Those are, at you know, NFL first rounders, guys that are turning around or will turn around. Jane Milrow will NFL franchises. Jordan McLeod is not that guy. That is not the same conversation. Yeah. But when you watch Texas State's offense, does it not remind you of that? At least in the very least in how they utilize the quarterback in terms of like, it is all you dude. We've got good running. They've got his, my almighty who, who runs a ton for this team, but that is not the, it is extremely efficient at the same time. He's an incredible running back, but that is not the focal point of this offense. And it's very great. So, so yeah, I, I think I, I, again, I don't think you're off base and saying that this is a, a tough system for quarterbacks ah that may not be feasible to, to play unless you have the best available to you. um Well, I think one of two things is true, and I don't know if unless unless you were in the quarterback room when they're doing film study, I don't know that we'll ever know what the answer to this is. Either this system is too intensive on the quarterback and asks too much out of one player, one position. And because even go back to JMU last year when with McLeod, they had contributors all over the place. You got to think like Surratt, who followed Signetti to IU, was like a great receiver. They had multiple options. They could run the football. But I think most importantly was their defense was lights out. And so when your defense is lights out, like Texas State's unfortunately is not, it asks you to make a lot more plays than you would necessarily have to. And I think the problem is either the quarterback system is too, the system is too intensive on the quarterback or they are not making the necessary adjustments to the play calling to the scheme to kind of update that through the year. And I i think what other teams are finding out is what they put on film in week one and week two is the same stuff they're putting on the field in week 10. And so it becomes, and and I, you know, there are other teams that have this problem as well, where it's not a consistent, like we're adding, we're adding, we're adding to the offense or making adjustments or, you know, we changed this route or whatever so that, you know, we we have like tendency breakers. I don't know. It just feels like something is off with how Kenny's two seasons at Texas State have been. and I'm not knocking them because I look at where they came from and where they are now, but it feels like their ceiling should be higher than what they've shown. and so That's more kind of what I'm making a point about. is like date With the talent they've had, it feels like they should be able to accomplish more than they have been. And so, yeah, I just I don't know. I'm not really sure what to expect. You know, again, McLeod had 18 pass attempts and didn't crack 100 yards passing. That's that's kind of my point. Martinez, 11 for 14, 113. I know he threw an interception, but that was kind of just like a desperation. Like, we need a play to get made because, you know, they Louisiana really had cracked down on Joey Hobart, who is primarily their number one receiving option. He only had three catches for 14 yards. Cole Wilson was the main beneficiary of the the passing game. But Louisiana, despite kind of their tackling struggles when Motti or Torrance Burgess Jr. had the ball, they do a good really good job in the pass defense area. They make it really tough ah to to kind of find zones to sit down in, things like that. So ah I do want to give them credit, Louisiana, first and foremost. I mean, they they do this thing, and and it's not great, but you know it hasn't bit bit them so far. Offensively, they kind of play down a little bit, where they're really good at matching, but it doesn't feel like, hey, we're just going to bury this team. Like, we we have, you know, it's like a death by a thousand cuts. Like, we have all of these receivers. We have Lejean. We have Jacob Bernard. We have Terrence Carter. You know, Harvey Broussard. Like, we have all these guys. And we have the running the running back attack of Washington and Perry. But it just kind of feels like they only really strike and get into that mode when they feel like they need to. And I guess what I would want to see is a little bit more kind of urgency from them, you know, in spots where the other team's offense is struggling, you have a chance to bury them early and they just kind of meander around. And then when, you know, Texas State would start to press on them, then they would make a play, but it didn't feel, it felt like it was like one of those, it was almost like dancing. Like they let the other team kind of lead and then they react versus being proactive and being like, we're going to be the first one to put points up. We're going to score at, you know, at every turn. So that's, that's just kind of what I've observed from Louisiana. It's not hurt them yet. So like, you know, the DeSormo and all those guys. Matt has said the past couple of weeks that he's scared of the UL endgame like he hasn't been in several, several years. Well, you maybe not now that's what's gonna
00:15:23
Speaker
with ah matt i know you're not here if you're by any chance listening ah i'm curious what the louisiana perspective is now ah because they are i think over the past two weeks have suddenly burst into the best team in the conference without question don't even think about it uh two weeks ago i put southern in that conversation james not now. madison has been in that conversation until late ulm but now they've lost to south allen marshall in back-to-back weeks so old dominion looked like they so they were finally kind of building towards something and then they get beat at app, uh, last Saturday. So, yeah. So I, again, we, we asked this question every week. What is your power ranking look like? Because ULM has shot up and right now they have no peers in my eyes. What, what, what do you mean as far as like, you want me to power rank like all of the teams or just the West? Yeah, across the whole conference, give me, like, your top three right now. Because, again, I think it's shifted a ton over the past several weeks. Yeah, I think right now, as I sit, it's Louisiana 1. I think I still, this is tough to say, I think Marshall's still the second team in the conference, second best team, as long as the right guys are playing. You know, it if Charles Huff isn't cutting off his nose to spite his face that week and deciding, hey, guess what? AJ Turner, you're out of the game plan. Hey, Braylon Braxton, why don't you go once you go grab ah a cup of Gatorade while Stone Earl gets a few series in? I think top to bottom, they're the second best team in the Sun Belt. And the loss to Southern was so fluky that, like again, if you're not if you're not cutting off your nose to spite your face, you run away with that game when no questions asked. But he outsmarted himself and so i don't know man i think three has got to be like maybe still old dominion like i don't i don't know like the problem is the east is such like a it's like a snake pit like everybody is just getting in shots at everybody else. And there's not like a clear top dog. And my complaints with Helton have been well established and and we'll get to the South Alabama game. And and they they pulled another Marshall out of their butts in that game. But I just, it this is the perfect year for a team like that where there's no clear favorite so you're just kind of rising to the top almost by default a little bit because of how weak kind of the conference is now I think I think with the way that everything shakes out uh schedule wise I think southern could definitely represent the east if they keep their current level of play up but I I just don't, I can't put any faith into Clay Hilton still. Like it feels like any week he could turn in one of those old dominion performances like they did. So I, until he proves it, I just don't, I don't, I don't feel great about it, but let's, let's wrap this up. So again, Ben Woldridge played very well, 18 to28, 252, a touchdown. I mentioned Draylon Washington. He had 10 carries for 94 yards and a score. um Yeah, I mean, it it it was a really good win on the road and on ah on a very, you know, they had a bye week, but it was like a short week in the, you know, it's weird when you're playing on a Tuesday. ah But yeah, great win for Louisiana. I think this really kind of shows what they're made of as a team. So you know ah Matt's not here, but I'm sure he would be you know thrilled that we're we're just kind of showering them with praise. But with that, Louisiana is now 7-1, 4-0 in the conference, still and the only undefeated team in the conference. ah Texas state drops to four and four and is now two and two in the Sunbelt. Let's talk about Friday night's game. ah So Georgia state, I believe they scored a garbage time touchdown, right? Yes, they scored two late touchdowns. Okay. So this is maybe part of a larger question that I have for you, but I'm going to use this game because they they officially have made the move at quarterback from Valera to Zach Gibson. Is this the year of the backup quarterback in the Sun Belt? Because let's let's think about it. Coastal seems to be better when Noah Kim is in the game. Now, again, you want to talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Tim Beck decided Ethan Vasco got the start and you you see, you know, kind of what um what happened there. Georgia Southern has shown that they are more dynamic when Dexter Williams is in the game over J.C. French. Now, they won't let J.C. French leave the game and Dexter Williams come in unless J.C. French is injured in some form or fashion. So you've got that. Zach Gibson steps in and is better than Valeraire. Colton Joseph stepped in for ah wilson Grant Wilson, and he's he's shown what he's been able to do. You got Braylon Braxton at Marshall. um you know Even if you want to talk about Matthew Caldwell at at Troy, he's played better than, you know no offense, Goose Crowder, who's who's now injured and out for the season, but Caldwell has kind of put together better tape and better stats than I think Crowder probably would have. So I guess my question is, is this kind of the year of the backup in the Sunbelt? And we can kind of use this to discuss, you know, Gibson's performance and stuff like that against Georgia against UConn for Georgia State. So I think from a Georgia State perspective, ah well, I'll address your question about the conference wide. Yes. ah But I don't think that is abnormal for college football. And he you may have a differing take on this, but I think college, unlike the pros, there are far less like locked unless you are that Jalen Milrow, unless you are, I mean, shoot, even if you're Carson Beck throwing three touchdown or three interceptions a game, like unless you are the, the guy in college, it's a lot more fluid. So I, while I agree that that is, or, you know, I see the same trend, I don't necessarily think that it's like the story. More so, that's just kind of what's happening. um Within a Georgia State context, I frankly hate this move. i Going away from Volair? Yes, I'm not a huge fan of it. And I'll tell you why I disagree with you on the take that Gibson is playing well beyond what Valer was doing. Uh, I think the only, the only material difference, uh, is that, or I suppose the only material argument against Valer was that he was not winning games. He was consistently passing for over 230 yards. He was consistently keeping them close enough
Del McGee's Impact at Georgia State
00:22:52
Speaker
to win, you know, to compete. This is not a Georgia state team that was going to go to a bowl game. This is not a Georgia state team that was ever going to compete for the Sunbelt this year. Uh, and going to zap Zach Gibson is to subscribe to a greater philosophy that I do not subscribe to. you And that is making a change for the sake of the change. Zach Gibson is a senior. He's not playing for Georgia state next year. Uh, there are guys on this roster, guys that are getting getting snaps. Kyle Lau being really the number one. He's a guy that i I think will be Georgia State's quarterback when they start to re-compete for bowl games. When they start to be in that conversation again, it'll be Kyle Lau. It won't be Zach Gibson. ah And you're still losing games with Zach Gibson. All you're doing is mucking up the offense. ah It's a decision that I don't agree with. I don't think it's a bad decision, but I don't think it's the right one. It doesn't make a ton of sense to me. ah This game, the score closer than the actual game was. Georgia State actually put together, we called it garbage time, actually put together a really nice drive. At the end, they did get bailed out. There was a fourth down. It was like fourth and ten after three Gibson in incompletions. He then scrambles, gains three yards, ah but it was a free play off sides, so it didn't matter. They get bailed out on that for the final ah their final point of the game. ah I don't know. i my What I came here today with the my thought about this game was that there is a discourse that exists around this Georgia State team about this being disappointment, about how Del McGee is failing this team. how And that is something like I don't wrap my head around because, reminder, this guy came in in the middle of spring practice. He was handed a roster that pretty much was stripped down to its bones even before Sean Elliott left yeah due to graduation. And the guys that didn't graduate ah transferred out. So this was going to be like the down year for Georgia State.
00:25:10
Speaker
ah and so i think the the complaints about not winning games a little disingenuous this is a good yukon team
00:25:20
Speaker
in my recollection of their football program, they're doing something funny out there. And, you know, UConn's good at football. Why? I don't Yeah. know. Jim Mora Jr. Something about the name, man. Freddie Brock, only 10 carries. I was disappointed to see them. I will say something I am disappointed in. When this team goes down, they fully abandon their run game. And as I've said before, I believe Georgia State, it's not on the same tier as like Marshall or App in recent years where they are the premier G5 running teams with guys, Nate Noel, Cameron Peoples, Rishi Ali, like we talk about it. But Georgia state has had a very good run offense in past several years. And so to see this team deviate from that, when they start to go down, even by one score, UConn led the, at the end of the first by 10, I believe they had pretty much abandoned. Yeah, they'd abandoned the run by that point in the game, which was disappointing to see and does give me long term worry. But as I said, there are not many things about this team that do because they're not supposed to be good. No. And I mean, you know, when we were doing our preview of them before the season, I believe their over under was like three and a half wins. So that it was, it was around there. It was, it was probably, I think it was the second lowest or the lowest in the conference. I can't remember. But I, I think this is incredibly, i think it's fine like del mcgee this year was always going to be a learning year for everybody del mcgee's never been a full-time head coach before he's coached as to my to my knowledge one game is interim at georgia southern in like the go daddy bowl in like 2015 that he won um But the rest of the time, he's been a position coach. He's been a lead recruiter. From what I can tell, I looked at... I know 24-7 will totally screw your team unless they have somebody running the page. I'm going to be honest. You can't use it for the teams that don't have somebody running the page recruiting wise but from what i've seen mcgee's doing a heck of a job recruiting for the 25 class especially in and around metro atlanta and you've you've said this multiple times elliot was based and his family all lived in south carolina it didn't feel like he was making the effort from what I've read to, to, to really embrace like the guys that kind of maybe not slipped through the cracks, but you know, maybe they were, they were going to take a gray shirt to go play at UGA or something like, or didn't have the grades obviously to get into tech or something like that. So, so to, to that point about like what Dell McGee is doing different than Sean Elliott, I was in Atlanta on Saturday, and I noticed something that I had never seen on Georgia State's campus since I began following and covering and caring about this team. And that was just yard signs about the homecoming game, saying, hey, we have a homecoming football game. We want you there. And it's fairly well documented that Sean Elliott did not campaign for this team. He was going to run through a wall for everyone on his roster, you know, more so than maybe any coach I've ever personally met that, that guy cared about that team and wanted them to succeed and wanted the guys to succeed. I mean, the one thing Sean Elliott is known for nationwide is for being a guy to, you know, for slamming his head into his players. Yeah. Players coach Sean Elliott. But he was not a campaigner for the team. He wasn't – he didn't – I'm sure he wanted to. He wanted this. But to the public eye, he didn't want the brand of Georgia State football to increase beyond what it existed as. And read into that however you want when you consider he took a down, you know, not really, definitely a downward job when he became a positions coach back at South Carolina. So, you know, take that to mean what you want about his real attitude about Georgia State and his job there. But Del McGee wants this football program to be something and to be cared about. And I mean, this is the South. People care about football no matter the size, no matter the level. From middle school to the pros, anywhere in between football is football in this region. And so I'm excited about that for this team. Yeah, I mean, again, you know, this was always going to be a dry run season for him, you know, coming in being a first-time head coach. So, you know, really, I'm not involved with Georgia State's football program, so I can't say this, but there really should be just zero expectations. Like, it should be, if we find a quarterback that we might think could play for us for the next couple seasons, great. But what we're going to work on is, you know, getting the coach, you know, coaches kind of need reps, to too. like learning when to call timeout, you know, situational things, when to kick a field goal, when to go for it, things like that. So I think this is a really good opportunity for him to do that while this roster is kind of bare bones, stripped down to studs and, you know, and he is going to get an opportunity to really put an imprint on this team with his recruiting acumen. And does he want them to be a run heavy scheme? Does he want to be able to throw the ball 50 times a game? Like, we don't really know. He's kind of working around the personnel he has now, but it'll be interesting to see maybe in two, three years, what is aunquote finished product of this team look like what is the what is the the thought process like you know we use ulm as an example we know bryant vincent what he wants to do he wants to run line up run the football play defense like it's a it's a very simple thing but you know mcgee has been around so many different types of teams, especially at UGA, you know, they transitioned from, you know, pro style, we line up in the I formation to, you know, Todd Munkin comes in and is there more of like a spread throw it all over the yard type team. So it'll be interesting to see because he hasn't really had an identity as a position coach, but, you know, good for Georgia state being able to stick around in this game. Like you said, so what, what year we'll wrap up. Cause we're, we're two games in and we've gone for 30 minutes, but, um, uh, what year is Kyle? Wow. Like what, is he a freshman? Like what's his, uh, he he's an underclassman. Uh, I believe he's a fresh, I believe he may be a true freshman, but at the very least he is an underclassman. Okay. So I think what's most important, I think it's
00:32:56
Speaker
and i said this last year about j c frenchett southern when your season is just totally in the toilet you need to take all of the veteran guys that aren't going to be a apart of this team that you're building for two years from now you need to say hey guys appreciate what's done if you can give us practice reps on the scout team that's great you guys need to sit down while we kind of mentor a guya the future get him some ingame you know experience well there's nothing on the line and and so yeah thing. I didn't mind them a good in theory putting Gibson out there because at some point, you just don't want the players to kind of quit on the team because, frankly, Valera was throwing a ton of picks, like a ton of really ugly ones, too. But I didn't realize that they had kind of a guy waiting in the wings that they could put in and be like, let's just get him some game reps and see what we got and see if we need to go recruit heavier at quarterback or not. And maybe they're seeing some of that in practice, but maybe not. You know, we'll see. All right. So UConn is now six and three this season. Georgia state drops to two and six with
App State vs. Old Dominion Recap
00:34:09
Speaker
the loss. So let's get into Saturday's games. I'm taking them as they come here. App state beats old dominion, 28 to 20. Um, so I watched a little bit of this game. I was kind of flipping around. Um think the way this game turned out, obviously App did a great job of winning this football game because they've had a lot of issues recently in just winning games flat out, period, end of story. This has been a really rough year for them, both on and off the field. But I think where this comes down to is, frankly, I just don't think Colton Joseph has the weapons around him. And we've talked about this. Isaiah Page gave him 205 yards and a score. Great. Aaron Young, 110 yards rushing. A+. Outside of that, who do you have as contributors? The defense is pretty good. And, you know, App has struggled offensively this season, but they have the ability to score points in bunches. And so to hold them to 28, you would think, hey, we either need to be in this game or we need to have a lead. And for Colton Joseph to go 27 of 38 for 332 and two touchdowns, and you scored three points in the second half, it kind of screams to me like they just don't have the horses around him to kind of get them back into the conference race almost. I think nothing evidences your point uh better than just looking at i mean he dude was sacked five times in this game uh i mean this and this was probably his best game yet i mean the guy the guy's been ripping off really really good games 100 hundreds he's been, you know, 20 and 70 or 270. He went 330 and 42. I mean, it was his worst rushing performance, but he still gained 42 yards. You know, consider I think they count five of those sacks. So consider that. But that that's your point right there is the guy has no one to get the ball to uh there's no one to relieve that pressure um and as has been old dominion's thing the past several weeks uh they've relied on colton joseph now that teams have some semblance of tape they have some semblance of understanding about what his game is and what he does that the guy is an a freak quarterback the He's incredible in both aspects and does not really turn the ball over that much. Now that they have that knowledge, though, it's just like what we saw. It's like what we're seeing at Arkansas State. Now that you have the tape on the quarterback, on the phenom that came out of nowhere, it's starting to fall apart. Credit to App, they won this game. A little disappointed. They couldn't score more. I felt like they didn't have too many really exceptional drives, but they did enough to win. Yeah, I like it just comes down to how long was the Colton Joseph magic going to last? And I think it depends on the matchups the rest of the way. But after this year, I it's going to be what we're seeing at Arkansas State where the magic wears off. Well, I think App realized the way to kind of not neutralize him because he is a good passer as well, but the way to kind of take it a little bit away is just to make sure he stays in the pocket. Like if he breaks contain, then yeah, you're in trouble because he definitely can run. He's a good passer when he gets outside the pocket. He throws well on the run. I think I might have a nuclear hot take for you, and I don't know if you're going to agree with this or not. Is Colton Joseph the best quarterback in the conference? Yes. He's the best performing quarterback. Well, I just mean like, you know, we've seen McLeod ceiling, but he hasn't played up to that. Aguilar has had really, really shaky games this season. Like the one that he played against Louisiana was frankly pretty bad. It feels like all the guys that we anticipated coming into this season that were going to be kind of the benchmarks for what we think quarterback play is going to be in this conference have not really held up. And it feels like the young guys, the Braylon Braxton's, the Colton Joseph's of the world have kind of stepped up and kind of taken that mantle. So until I see otherwise, you know, the numbers look great. I think Colton Josephs is kind of the best quarterback in the conference. He just doesn't have any of the pieces around him that some of the other better teams do is frankly what it is. I would challenge you. I don't even know if he's the best freshman quarterback. Gio Lopez, I think, has an arm in this conversation. He's not a freshman, though, is he? I thought he was a sophomore. He played last season somewhat. I don't know if he played less games and was able to keep a red shirt, but he played some last season in relief of... I can't think of that quarterback's name from last year with South Alabama. Carter Bradley. At the very least, Gio Lopez has a conversation at this table, though, as does Ben Woldridge, I think. I understand what you're saying about Jordan McLeod. We thought Jalen Rayner was going to be really good this year. He's taken a step back. You know, you mentioned it. Joey Aguilar has been good. He leads the conference and passing yards, but it's not what we anticipated. Like we kind of anticipated him to outshine everyone else by a considerable margin. Frankly, he probably only leads the conference and passing yards because he's been the starter all year and hasn't been pulled or hasn't been played in replacement. I don't necessarily subscribe, but I hear what you're saying. He's probably playing like the best quarterback if you look at the past two, three weeks. But I'm not buying it quite yet. Okay. I just wanted to throw it out there because it feels like he is. And if you put him on a team with more talent, that he would take another step over what he's doing now. But right now, it feels like he's just carrying Old Dominion football on his back. And frankly, for someone like him who has a limited amount of starts, that's just a lot to ask. To be like, hey, guess what? We've got maybe one contributor a week that'll step up and make plays for you. Otherwise, you're going to have to be the leading rusher most weeks and throw for 300 280 yards because we we can't run the ball consistently like we you know without you i don't know i i i'm very cautious because i this is the almost to the dot same playbook we saw out of jaylen rayner last year and right now the dude has a almost uh equal touchdown interception ratio um it's almost one to one so I'm definitely uh pessimistic in that sense because I it's easy to draw those comparisons they're similar types of They're equally electric.
UL Monroe vs. Marshall Game Review
00:42:05
Speaker
They're on equally struggling teams that needed a playmaker desperately. But this offseason, the only thing Arkansas State needed to do was go get Jalen Rayner some guys. And whether you want to say... They needed a defense, too, and they didn't figure that out. That's that's been their Achilles heel the whole time. But that doesn't necessarily impact Jalen Rayner's performance, which has been fine. But it wasn't the Jalen Rayner that we were led to believe that we would get off of last season. Well, I think, too, and we're getting way too into the weeds here and we can move off of this, but, and it was a great win for app, you know, not taking anything away from them. I think we also anticipated that Zeon Chris was going to be in the mix and then he up in transfers to Houston. Weirdly. I know it was for like NIL reasons or whatever, but weirdly transfers to go hold a clipboard for half the season now he's starting now and they just won they beat kansas state with him last saturday uh playing but i i don't i don't know like we thought we thought the main race coming into this season go at the end of last year it was going to be these two freshmen in jalen rayner and Zeon Chris and it's like Rayner has taken a step back for whatever reason and whether it be play calling or weapons or whatever and Chris is gone so you got to find somebody to fill that void and I think Colton Joseph has kind of filled the void for both of them and until I think the thing that impresses me is that he's doing this in spite of not having anything really around him where Jalen Rayner at least you could point to a couple guys last year and go well that guy helped and this guy helped and you know whatever this is just like literally like you know I I'm I promise I'm not making a one-to-, but this is LeBron on the 07 Cavs being like, go win us a game, bud. Like, we got nothing else, so we got to figure it out. All right. So App State, again, Aguilar threw four touchdowns. That was great. He seems to have gotten back on track in this one. You know, Old Dominion's past events was giving a lot of teams pause in the last couple games. They did a great job. Caden Robinson, 78 yards and a touchdown, led the team. Amani Marshall, they established the run finally with one particular rusher. 23 carries, 120. This was a good performance for App. They held, like I said, Old Dominion to three points in the second half. And anytime you can do that with a quarterback of Joseph's caliber, hats off to you guys. There's been a lot of questions, including from myself, about Scott Sloan's defense this year because it's had periods and starts where it just hasn't flat been good. But anyway, app moves to four and four and two and three in the sunbelt old dominion drops to four and five. It is now three and two. Um, we talked about UL Monroe kind of to start the show off a little bit. Um, it feels like they're kind of running out of gas here. So Marshall defeats UL Monroe, uh, 28, 23, um, UL Monroe. Frankly, if you took Colton Joseph off of old dominion and dropped them onto UL Monroe, I think that they've got a hell of a football team, but I have real questions about their quarterback spot. Our Minta, I think has been the thing that's been holding them back. And he is super shaky throwing the football. He multiple times tried to throw that game away when they were beating James Madison earlier this season. So it gave me a lot of pause. And it was more for me being like, hey, what they're doing is great, but they clearly have a ceiling on this team because none of these guys can throw the ball efficiently, whether it be him, Booty, whoever they want to throw in the mix at quarterback. They just frankly aren't doing it consistently enough to scare other teams. Hardy ran for 207 yards and a touchdown, and it didn matter. Like that's, that's insane to me. That's unacceptable. That's, that's not a winning formula. I, I imagine ULM will figure it out. You know, just much like Georgia state, like keep the perspective of what we anticipated out of this team. But shoot, man, a loss to Marshall. I don't necessarily buy your take that Marshall's up in the top. Even with Charles Huff coaching at the best of his ability, I don't think it's they're that team. This is not too dissimilar from what Troy has had in recent years where Troy had the run game and they had the defense and they probably would have won more than they did. And mind you, they won a Sunbelt championship. They won a Sunbelt title. They would have probably won more if they had figured out the quarterback situation. So this is like the dwarf or the dwarf star, the precursor to that problem where you get an offense. I mean, Ahmad Harvey's been great this year. Not just this game. He's been great this year. He's going to finish the year with over 200 carries. The guy's a legit running back for them. And the defense, 28 toall's not spectacular but this has been a but this has been a very good defense um well i'm gonna say this i'm not gonna let you besmirch the name of gunner watson like you just did i'm not letting you slide on that one gunner watson was very good for what they needed out of the quarterback spot. They didn't need a Grayson McCall who was going to come in and or Colton Joseph. They didn't need a guy to run for put up 370 total yards every game. They were well balanced. They played defense. It was a little bit like James Madison with Jordan McLeod last year where it like, Texas state's probably asking him to do way too much because they have no defense on a, usually on a given week. Like they, they have up and up and down real performances, but you never know when, you know, they're going to give up 45 to Sam Houston. So like, maybe you're asking him to do a little bit too much.
Troy vs. Coastal Carolina Analysis
00:49:02
Speaker
My, argument I mean, my for Marshall is they are five minutes and a backup quarterback for Georgia Southern away from being undefeated in the conference right now. I think it was as fluky as it got. And again, Charles Huff made the incredibly stupid decision to take out the guy in that game that scored 17 of their 23 points and put in a guy who generated two field goals in like four court for three and a half quarters of action so i'm i'm just like if he doesn't do that and braylon braxton plays a full 60 minutes i don't think georgia southern even is able to come back but they kept stalling out because they put the wrong guy in. And then, you know, like you said, Marshall scores 28 against ULM. They've had a good defense. I think what it is is ULM is now having trouble, despite having a guy run for 200 yards, sustaining drives on offense. And I think it's leaving their defense kind of out of dry because they can't throw the football consistently. Armento was 9 of 13. They threw 13 passes in this game. Again, Hardy had 25 carries, like you said. They don't have balance, and I think that that's the problem, and their defense is getting tired because it's either Hardy carries the entire offense or they go like three and out because if they get into a third and long nine times out of 10, they're not getting it. And so that's putting the defense back on the field, back on the field, back on the field. And, you know, I don't really understand the usage with AJ Turner. One week it feels like, hey, we found, we've got a bell cow at the running back spot and then the next week it's like this is a Houston game let him you know we're only gonna run the ball a handful of times overall even though it's definitely working so like I truly can't tell what it what it is that Charles Huff wants to accomplish but again they're five minutes in a flute comeback away in my opinion from being 4-0 right now in the conference. So I have to default them. I think you hit the nail on the head with the third down problem. That was the issue here. Obviously, when you're only throwing 13 times, you're just not going to convert third downs. Third and longs are a non... They don't throw unless they absolutely have to to that is not sustainable unless Gerard Gerard Parker has this weird fantasy of reinstituting the triple option do does he see did I say Gerard Parker yeah Bryant Vincent. Vincent King The field goal king, Gerard Gerard Parker Parker. you You know know, that that's that's what what they're they're looking looking like like. unless Unless Bryant Bryant Vincent, rather, is looking at the success of Army and Navy this year, that's not sustainable. I wanted to bring up, because you mentioned the third down conversions, and I wanted to check on that. ULM ranks second worst in the conference on third down. Better only than Southern Miss. The conference average hangs in about, I'm eyeballing this, I don't have the average, but I'm looking at all of them. 42% or so. They're sitting at 33, along with the likes of Southern Miss. Piss poor offense. Coastal Carolina, can't find a quarterback, Georgia State, two wins on the year. So I think you hit the nail on the head there. And it's only going to get worse as we hit these final couple weeks. I'm kind of surprised with the limitations that ULM's had so far that teams aren't just sticking nine guys in the box and being like, if you want Armenta to throw over our head, we'd love to see it because he hasn't really done it this year. So it's kind of shocked me that they haven't just totally loaded up the line of scrimmage and been like, again, we're going to run a 4-3, we're going to drop a box safety down, and if Hardy runs past all nine of our guys, then we'll live with that. But otherwise, if we're a decent tackling team, let's see Armenta throw it over our head. So it's really going to be an interesting kind of style clash when ULM does play Louisiana at the end of the season because ULM is very good at running the football, obviously, with Hardy. And Louisiana is reticent. I'm going to put this nicely, reticent to tackle guys in the open field. But they do a good job of shutting down the pass, but that's not ULM's game. So that's going to be a real interesting kind of push-pull when we get to the end of the season. Obviously, kind of the implications for who's going to represent the West are out the window at this point. ULM's kind of, you know, they kind of cashed their chips in early in the season, and now it's kind of coming back to bite them. But yeah, Braylon Braxton was efficient. Once again, 10 of six, 10 of 19, one 66 and a touchdown. Um, no turnovers as a team. Like this is how you beat ULM. You, you cut off the amount of opportunities they get. You force them in the third and long, uh, if you can. And our mint is not going to beat you with his arm. So that's, that's just kind of been the story as of late with Old Dominion and Marshall at this stage. So Marshall improves to 5-3 this season and is now 3-1 in the conference. ULM is now 5-3 and 3-2 in the Sun Belt. Yeah, looking ahead here. So Troy has a huge second quarter bump and outscores Coastal Carolina 21-0. They go up 28-7 at half. And that was kind of the game. Like Ethan Vasco, for some reason, I kept looking up. It was Noah Kim Hurt. Like what was the deal? I thought he played fairly well against Louisiana, and I felt like the defense was the reason they lost that that game. game I did not feel like hey you need to yank this guy and get Vasco back in based on what we've seen from Vasco they didn't play well dude I looked at it at halftime I believe Coastal had like 88 yards of total offense at the half in this game like it was essentially over by halftime so all of the the compiling stats that they've got I felt like we're in garbage time and it it's interesting you know again Troy may have really found something with Caldwell um he's gotten better and better and better um you know early in the season this this offense was not good uh I I I've game. That was ugly. And I knew Memphis was a better team than them, but they've had some really, really ugly performances. It seems like they might be kind of figuring some things out. I was disappointed by Troy because, frankly, they let Coastal back into this game. Obviously, with seven lead, you start, you don't put your foot on the break quite yet, but you start to let off the gas. You start to run it. You see that in the box score. I mean, they ran the ball like 55 times and unlike ULM, it was by choice and not by necessity. But, but if not for a 41 yard touchdown, uh, in about halfway through the second half, this is a 24 to 31 game. This is a seven point game. And you look at, I mean, coastal, cause I, I, I watched, I was watching this game and coastal came out in the second half, first drive, ultimately ended in a field goal. You kind of wanted more because they went, like, probably 10 plays or more on that drive into a field goal. Kicked it off. Troy fumbles the kickoff. They get the ball back. Coastal scores a touchdown. I mean, that's a 10-point swing right. Troy then ripped off the 41 yarder, but did nothing really the rest of the game. I thought Troy's defense floundered in the third quarter when it needed to just get like one or two more stops, get one or two more stops in the third. Then you can just hand it off seven, eight times a drive, kill the clock. Um, I don't know if it was a matter of, uh, defensive incompetence. Obviously coastal had incredible field position on the fumble kickoff. You know, you get the ball in the red zone, like they're going to score field goal or otherwise touchdown or, you know, whatever. Um, I was disappointed by Troy because shoot, I mean, this is one of the few wins they're going to have this year. And it looked like at points that they wanted to hand it away in that second half. Well, I think that goes back to Parker's conservative mindset. You know, I'm not saying every team would do this because I certainly know that there are coaches that wouldn't, but there are a lot of coaches that would just put their foot on the throat of the opponent. They go up three scores at half and it's like, let's just keep doing what was working. Parker has this tendency, you even see it when they're down. It's like hey it's fourth and two at the at the opponent 20 we're down 17 points you want to just go for it nah kick a field goal make it a two score game and it's like all right man and then and then they just are never in the game again so maybe they found kind of a little bit of a spark offensively because their team had been horrible as a, as a whole unit, frankly, like the defense wasn't getting stops. They were a far cry from what they had done the past couple of years under John Summerall defensively, but offensively it was just like boring. They don't do anything that really, they don't have any talent that really jumps off the page. You know, when you're looking at it or even like when you're watching it. But, you know, Georgia Southern, former Georgia Southern running back, Gerald Green, really contributed here with an 83 yard touchdown catch. And, you know, and he cashed in to start the game from one yard out. So I think maybe they are finding a little bit of a rhythm, but we'll see because they're going to go into a bye after this week. And so is Georgia Southern. And then there's a matchup probably going to be at night in two weeks where they come to Statesboro and, you know, Georgia Southern typically plays better at home. So we'll, we'll see where Troy, well, that'll be a good barometer for where Troy's kind of at at this point in the season. But I don't know, like even his, his kind of drive to drive decisions leave a lot to be desired for Gerard Parker. For me, I don't know about, you know, I don't know how you, how you kind of stand on being aggressive versus conservative in those spots, but I just am like, he he definitely has like an nfl mindset in that regard uh as opposed to a college one in call in college coaches tend to be riskier uh tend to be more less risk averse um so he his decisions at times going for for it, clock management, play call when you're behind the sticks, appears to me a little more pro-oriented than college-oriented. Don't know if that means anything. For Troy, they've got one win left on the schedule, and it's disappointing because it comes in the final week of the season against Southern Miss. That is going to be, you called the Southern game a barometer. I think that will also be a barometer because at that point, when you, here's the thing, when you play Southern Miss, Troy, when you play Southern Miss, you're going to tell the world whether you are crap or whether you are a good team that needs a couple years. Whether you're a good team that's in the process or if you are also Southern Miss. So it's disappointing that that game comes so late in the season where both of these teams are going to be playing for junk. And, you know, by the third quarter, both teams are going to have the walk on third string center, long snapper senior playing in his final game. And we're going to see all the seniors that have like four special team snaps over the course of their career. They're going to come out for like opening kickoff or something like that. So it's a poor timing, but like that's the barometer for me is if Troy should, as any college football team should handle Southern Miss, but if they don't, they should. Here's the thing. If they don't, you have to wonder is Troy, are they not a good team that's going to get better? Are they instead just a bad team? I don't know if you saw that. There are all these companies. I promise this comes back to Troy. There are all these companies that are launching streaming services that aren't necessarily in the content entertainment business. And one of them is Chick-fil-A. Did you see this tweet a couple weeks ago that was like, the Troy Southern Miss game is going to be streamed exclusively on the Chick-fil-A mobile app. That one is going to be... Are you familiar with the Sickos committee? Oh, yeah. That's going to be their Super Bowl. I don't know if there's going to be a game that the Sickos are up for like Troy Southern Miss this year. That's going to be like sicko morphine. It's just going to be straight to the vein. Just pure uncut sicko. If you're watching that game and you have no rooting interest in either one of those teams, you need help. You need to go find somebody to talk to. Because you better literally have nothing else better to do But again Wrapping this up I truly don't understand what Tim Beck is doing At the quarterback spot Like Noah Kim looked good In the times that he's played and there hasn't been At least when I was looking During the game there wasn't a reported injury So that means it was the coach's decision To put vasco back in and if he's doing that then i'm just like yeah he he doesn't he doesn't know ball um at that point because vasco i mean be be real like vasco's not it like he he's just he's shown to be incredibly volatile on the field and frankly you can't win with, especially when you don't have superior talent to everybody else. He pegs me as a Derek Carr type in that the dude is going to put up any number of yardage. You say, hey, Ethan, I need you to throw for 240 today. He can go do it. He'll do it on 56% completion. He'll need 45, 50 passes. Like, shoot, he'll get you the yards. He's not going to win you games, but the dude is going to be, you know, he's going to win accolades for his yardage numbers. Stuffing the stat sheet. Exactly. That's the type of quarterback Vasco strikes me as. And for some, our co-host included, that might be enough. A Derek Carr type might be enough. But for me, that doesn't fly. No, I want somebody with a higher ceiling than that. So anyway, Troy improves to two and seven this season and is now one and four in the conference. Coastal drops to four and four and is now one and three in the Sun
Georgia Southern's Comeback Win
01:05:11
Speaker
Belt. Getting to the last game of the night, Georgia Southern, South Alabama. This was a wild one. I don't know how much you kept up with this. So basically what happens is Georgia Southern and South Alabama, they go into half. It's 14 to 13. It's back and forth. Teams are kind of trading drives. Georgia Southern did this thing that you saw when you watched the JMU Georgia Southern game in person where they just fall asleep after halftime. I don't know what they do at the half, but they always come out in the third quarter just flat. They came out flat. South Alabama outscores them 17-0. I just rolled my eyes and I'm like, all right, here we go. This is just a continuation from the ODU game a week ago. They're just going to pack it in. Then Georgia Southern outscores South Alabama 20- nothing in the fourth quarter. There was a series of events that really felt like it was breaking the Jaguars' backs. And it was like, so J.C. French finally throws the ball longer than five yards down the field. Crazy, I know, but bear with me. He hits Josh Dallas for a long touchdown. It really cut into South Alabama's lead. Then, on the ensuing kickoff, I think it was Pritchett for South Alabama. I can't remember exactly who the kick returner was. Bumbles the ensuing kickoff. Then, Georgia Southern recovers it, goes down, scores again, and then it was just like kind of the floodgates open. But what I will say is, and this goes back to my point, Dexter Williams was actually the one that threw the game-winning touchdown to Daylon Cobb. Yeah, Daylon Cobb catches what ultimately was the game-winning touchdown with 8.14 to go because J.C. French tried a quarterback sneak and apparently someone jammed their thumb into his eye. And so he had to come out of the game. And people said later that he just had a huge black eye from being down in the pile. I don't know. I didn't see it because he literally disappeared into the pile and then he came back out and was just like doing this and ran off and didn't come back. But yeah, the offense hums when Dexter Williams is in the game. I'm sorry. Like you're in you're not in the Georgia State vein of like we just need to get this young guy reps like you were in the driver's seat like you need to put the best players on the field. Like, I'm sorry, this spoon feeding JC French, the offense and like letting him throw just check down after check down and play really, really conservative. It's not, it's not, it's not making the best use of this team's ability. And so if they drop a game because JC French is not hurt and Dexter Williams is still just hanging out on the sideline drinking Gatorade and they fall to like Coastal or Troy or whoever, it's going to be totally on the shoulders of Helton. And it's one of the big reasons why I still don't believe in Helton is it's going to take an act of God for him to kind of see like, okay, we finally need to switch out the quarterbacks here. So I have, uh, been a JC French defender for a couple of weeks. Uh, but I had an epiphany this past weekend, uh, and something that hit me, uh, because the conversation that I've had with my brother, who is a Georgia Southern student, he he's adamant that you cannot build a program on transfer quarterback after transfer quarterback. And for most of this season, I've agreed with him that Dexter Williams was not the choice because you need to build some longevity into this team. And I subscribed to that for pretty much up until this past weekend when it hit me that that is true for Georgia State. But it's not true for Georgia Southern. Why? Because Georgia Southern should be winning football games right now. They are at the very least in a position where that is the expectation, where even if they weren't winning games, they should be. Whereas when you're Georgia State State it doesn't matter where we're trying to move forward right so I I've flipped my script on this and I agree with you that Dexter Williams you could argue and I I would have probably up until I even would argue still now that they're roughly comparable French and Williams, although Williams is a little more polished, older, obviously more experienced. So he has a bit more refinement and therefore has an edge. Yeah. Georgia Southern is still pushing for a conference title. And yeah, it's correct that you can't build a program around a new senior from the mac every year that that's not how this works but you can win games by doing that granted southern really hasn't the past few years uh you look at van treese davis brenn uh guys they only won six games with uh but this is the best position
01:10:32
Speaker
ah certainly since clee helton got there so for sure i i that that was just something that I'm definitely late to this Dexter Williams party. ah We had ah last week when it was Matt and I are the one chat we had from the the audience was we need to start Dexter Williams right now. five You know, we should have done it three weeks ago. Yeah. And I'm late to this party, but I understand what you guys are saying. and I agree with you. I yeah, that that's the one thing that pushes it over the edge to me because I it it's situational
01:11:10
Speaker
um like i agreed wait so your your brother was on the side of you can't build through transfer portor was that you
01:11:22
Speaker
him. And I think, again, for a rebuilding team, I believe that's true. Well, and that's the mindset with that I had last year when Davis Brin had already nuked their season. Like after, you know, throwing 1,000 interceptions, I was like, yeah, just get French in because if that's the guy you're planning on going with and he's got years left and the season's basically already over, who cares? I mean, no offense, who cares if you make the Montgomery Bowl or the Camellia Bowl or whatever and you guys get to play a Mac school in late December? Who cares at that point? You need to start building for next year now. Again, it took an act of God. Davis-Bryn had to be so bad in that App State game last year for them to give French a shot. And French came in and threw a touchdown against App, and then he broke his arm. So it was just all for naught at that point. Zeke, I have a question for you, and I'm going to put this forth in the audience, you know, whoever. Would you like to take a guess at how many wins Clay Helton has in the month of November as the Georgia Southern coach from 2022 till now? Now, I believe you either tweeted this or texted this to Matt and I, so I am spoiling the game. It's a big fat goose egg, isn't it? No. So he had up until this weekend, he had one win in three seasons in November as Georgia Southern's head coach. It was the only win he had had was in 2022 when they played and beat App State at home and like that triple overtime 55 48 game he just doubled his win total in november by winning the south alabama game and people people are still in my mentions on twitter being like are you uh you still down on helton yeah yeah dude i am am. like Again, it would take the act of God for him to be like, I guess Dexter Williams has got to play. JC French is going to have to get hurt in order to put this team in the best position to win, and for that reason alone, on Shark Tank, I'm out. I can't do it with him, man. I want to be kind of loyal to the guy that you anointed the starter. But how many times does you know, it's like that parable about, you know, a person wants God to send him a sign and they're like, he keeps being like, hey, I sent you a helicopter. I sent you this, sent you that. And you just didn't get it. This is what's happening right now. How many times does he have to lead a comeback in a conference game to keep your hopes alive for you to finally get it? Is he going to literally have to slap you in the face? That's just what I don't get. How dumb is this guy to not get these signs that are all playing out? About Helton, let's put you in a world where southern makes the conference championship out of the east um does does that change it for you because your your complaints are i would argue or uh i've gathered i've observed are not necessarily about like wins losses. And that's because that's something that I mean, shoot, that that's what a coach is measured on. But that's not necessarily your concern. Would I be right in saying that? Yeah, my my thing is, this is a down year for the conference. and this is why the Eagles are rising to the top. If this had been a normal year like last year where you had JMU and Troy and App was in the mix and all these teams are hanging around at the top, that would be one thing. But again, the East is just a pit of vipers. It's just a bunch of teams that one beats the other and then it's like rock, paper, scissors all the way through. My issue is this game and Marshall are like smoke and mirrors. The old Dominion game, I think, is proof that things can fall apart very, very quickly. And if they make the title game and let's say they lose to Louisiana and let's say Helton decides, hey, I'm taking a job elsewhere, I'm fine with it. And I would not have said that about any other coach that led us to a conference title. But if you don't look at the context of the whole situation, you, you will look at it and go, well, why are you cool with him leaving? And I'm like, I, did you not watch the games? Do you not watch the season unfold? Like, look at how many crazy things that all have to happen. You have to have a 21.5 minute comeback against Marshall to put you in the lead. You drop a game against Old Dominion. You were literally in that game for no minutes and no seconds. The game was over basically on the first snap. You beat JMU, who was inconsistent. Again, all of these dominoes have to fall perfectly into place. And I still think at the end of the day, he's going to find a way to blow it. So that's my complaint. And now Jared Benko, the AD is gone, who hired Helton and they promoted their assistant AD. And I, I would hope that this person is smart enough. His name's Chris Davis. I'm hoping this guy is smart enough to kind of see through the veil a little bit and be like, now, wait a minute. Like this isn't making 20 point comebacks every other weekend is not sustainable. We can't make a living off of that. So I would hope that that person can see like, hey, it's great that we've got here, but you have to have the context of how we got here. You can't just blindly be like, it's one thing if they're Troy and they're just blowing everybody off the field and we're not, we have no concerns. If we had John Summerall last year, you don't hear a peep from me on this. But you have to watch how it happens and take that into account. Major Applewhite threw them out of this game, like the head coach for South Alabama. They were moving the ball so well in the third quarter. They were just kind of moving the ball down the field, intermediate passes, short passes. They'd throw an occasional deep shot. And then when they got into trouble, it was like, Gio Lopez needs to scramble for a first down or we need to throw a 60-yard bomb. And it's like, you aren't going to run into a coach that does that for you every single week. week so So that's that's sort sort of of been been my my complaint complaint, is is all all of of these these coaches coaches are are short like short-circuiting-circuiting mentally, mentally and and you you can't can't just just bank bank on on that that every every single single week like i'm sorry like it's just again you got to take you got to take advanced stats and and context and situation into into account you can't just blindly be like well they won so no complaints here it's like i guess i I you know i don't feel that way. I can't. I can't do it. Again, two wins in the month of November in three seasons. They were winless in November last year. They lost already to Old Dominion. I guess that didn't count toward November, but it was like the end of October. And then, you know, one in three in November in 2022. And I understand that he was rebuilding a team from scratch. But again, you can't just not win every year late in the season and expect like, I need to be employed. It's like, that's not how it works.
Week 11 Sun Belt Predictions
01:19:05
Speaker
So anyway, Georgia Southern moves to six and three with the wind four and one in the Sunbelt. South Alabama is now four and five and is three and two in the conference. So let's get to week 11 here. We've got picks to make. I am in the process of getting this pulled up. I do love every time I go to ESPN, it resets my page, so I have to pull it back up for the next week. Thursday, the night that people will be hearing the audio version of this, we've got App State traveling to Coastal. Coastal is a one-point home favorite. Does that seem right? Over-under is 62.5. If Ethan Vasco starts this game, as I imagine he will, I will take App State plus one on the road all day and twice on Sunday. I like that as well. I also really like the under here. I don't know where the 62 points are coming from. Again, especially if Vasco is starting, but even with Noah Kim, that feels rich give me app i think they outclass coastal by a fair margin even on the road yeah i i think it would be a lot closer if kim was to play but i i don't really understand the obsession with ethan vasco like i just don't i don't really get it um noon on saturday we've got texas state traveling to monroe to take on the warhawks uh it's on espnu texas state is a seven point road favorite over under is 49 and a half um i'm gonna take the under under 49 and a half. Yep. I like that as well. Two teams running out of gas, two teams that started out the year, uh, really hot, uh, ULM surpassing expectations, Texas state, not meeting my expectations. Uh, give me the under, I think these are two very good teams or I think ULM's a very good team, and I think Texas State is a good team, maybe. But they're both running out of gas. The offense won't be there. ULM's going to run the ball 50 times again. Give me the under. All right. 3 o'clock on ESPN+. We've got Marshall traveling to Southern Miss. Marshall is a 13.5 point road favorite over-unders 54.5. I'm taking Marshall. I don't even really have to think about it. Nope. The non-Will Hall coached Southern Miss team, you would think maybe they'll get a little bit of a bump. I just want to put in perspective, Ethan Crawford for Southern Miss has not thrown a touchdown this season. He has four picks and zero touchdowns. That should put in, that should put into context how bad they are. And I think Marshall, again, I think Marshall things considers the second best team in the conference until if Georgia Southern starts playing up to snuff with their right quarterback, like I'll believe them. But this whole, we'll just mount a double-digit comeback every week. It's just not going to work. Another 3.30 kick, ESPN+. Georgia State's traveling to Harrisonburg to take on James Madison. James Madison is a 16.5 point favorite over under and a half. I like Georgia state plus 16 and a half. It's no, but I'm, I'm, I'm just telling you it's a lot of points. That's, that's number one for me. Number two, Alonzo Barnett can play poorly independently of how the other team is. Like we have, we have seen him just struggle for like seemingly no reason and i took georgia state to cover in that yukon game and they were getting blown out and they found a way to cover so it's less it's not so much of a i think they're gonna win it's just i think it's a lot of points for a real shaky jmu team at this point in the season. I hear you. Georgia State has found its way into games, especially late. I don't know their cover percentage or anything like that. But I do know that Valair's not throwing a ton of picks, which is
01:23:52
Speaker
when they win they put teams away ah and i don't think they shaky enough that georgia state wins therefore i think jamie puts them away. Sure. um So you have JMU minus 16.5? It's rich, but I don't usually like lines that big, but yes. Okay. 5 o'clock ESPN+. plus Arkansas State is traveling to Cajun Field to take on Louisiana. Louisiana, again, also is a 16.5 point favorite over under 16.5. I'm going to take Arkansas State plus 16.5. Solely for this reason, Louisiana plays to their competition, and they have not shown a penchant for blowing teams out that they are better than. You go back and look at the Miss game. They outclassed app and it was still close, even though Aguilar threw like three or four interceptions in that game. And then even, even on um last Tuesday, it was like, they're clearly better than Texas state. And they still at Texas state, hang around with the backup quarterback and McLeod, not playing that well. So, you know, all things considered, I'm just goingnna i'm just going to sit and cross my fingers and hope that a Arkansas State covers. ah The over-under is juicy. I don't think 60.5 points get scored here, ah but I do believe Louisiana, more so, I believe Louisiana does cover. um i'm I'm sorry. I believe Louisiana does not cover. ah they They certainly are going to win, and I don't think this is going to be one of those covers where, oh or one of those games where Arkansas State is always in it. I think Louisiana leads by 10 or 14 for most of the game, but I I haven't seen that second gear from them like just like you just said i haven't seen that second gear from them ah that I spoke about where with JMU. They're very good, but they're not the JMU Troy app teams of the past where they're just crushing bad teams like they they win and it's it's comfortable ish but it's always like 10 points max so yeah it's almost like a it's a sneaky good like if you looked at just the record you'd be like oh shoot this Louisiana team is very very good but then if you went a level deeper and you looked at just the scores and obviously the result, you're like, maybe they're not. You start to have questions about it. Think it's a shaky. Right. But then if you sit down and watch the games, you understand this Louisiana team is legit. They just don't finish the job until the game's over. Right. Yeah, that that's that's sort of my beef with with taking them, especially with a huge spread. I mean, it's just it just doesn't seem, it doesn't add up. They haven't done it yet this year. um So right now we have 74 people watching according to the platform that we are streaming on. Thank you everybody that listened. Thank you everybody that watched. Please think about subscribing to us on our YouTube page. Zeke, could you prompt them with the little thing? Yeah. We do these episodes once a week. ah We would love to have interaction with people ah who are
Closing Remarks and Social Media Highlights
01:27:20
Speaker
watching. ah you know If you have comments, questions for us, anything, feel free to join us down at this link below youtube dot.com slash at warm weather fans you can follow us on twitter at warm weather fans we tweet games we we make picks you know you you've if you've been listening you see all that um and then you can subscribe if you want the audio version of this on all of our platforms apple spotify what have you zeke tell people where they can find you personally and then I will do the same and then we'll get out of here. Yeah, I'm on Twitter at Zeke Palermo. You can find me there. I'm getting verified. I pulled the trigger today. I decided I have to do it. um Frankly, I'm doing it for work. I realized I wasn't getting the pull I need to for my job. Just trying to engage local audiences. It's hard to unless you're getting that engagement boost. ah But in other Twitter news, very exciting. This has actually been maybe the best news I've had all week. They approved me to do community notes. I've been trying for months to get approved to do community notes. Every time I see one, I rate it. Yes or no. Is it good? ah So now I am going to be, ah they're going to let me start writing them. And I am, this is unironically the best news I've received in like two weeks. That's dangerous that they're letting you do that. I i shudder at the, who who are you going to be community noting is is going to be crazy to me. Anyone talking crap on Texas State. ah Including my myself. You're going to be community noting our own Twitter account? That's wild. um As always, you can find me on X and I guess Instagram. I don't i don't really post that much. At Watch watch the stone. We will be back next week. Again, guys, please subscribe to our channel, you know, comment, like all of that stuff. We would love to have a ton of interaction with the people that watch our stuff. ah This has been another episode of warm weather fans.
01:29:48
Speaker
you