Welcome to the solid verbal.

I'll ah for me.

I'm a man, I'm forty.

I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy.

You want to be happy for a day at a steak?

Is that?

Whoo whoo?

And no, Dan and tie Dan Rubinstein, welcome back.

If you can believe it, it is already week four, my good friend, welcome back.

How are you?

How you feeling?

Are you amped or you psyched?

Are you ready to go for this year preview episode?

All of those things?

I know it's weak four.

I believe it's week four because I'm down on sleep.

I'm constantly down in my basement.

I can't recover from an illness.

So yes, actually yeah, I can believe it's week four in the best possible way because I've had so much football in my life and I'm very excited for the next ten eleven weeks to cherish everything in front of us.

But this specific week is fascinating, is ridiculous.

I can't wait.

Obviously, there are going to be headline weeks where we see top five matchups, top ten matchups all over the place across this great land, but this week provides us with something very specific, and that specific thing is bruising, is a fat lip is a black eye, is scrape and knees is whatever you want to call it.

Because when I look at the possibility of some of these favorites, some of these untested favorites across the country to go down early ten, nothing, seven to three, fourteen nothing, seventeen six, something like that, and try to recalibrate what makes them successful.

I'm calling this sock them in the mouth Saturday.

Oh okay, well, can we play the old body blow sound?

Will that work?

Please do?

Yeah?

Yeah?

Oh oh oh.

Punch them in the mouth man, Yeah, what happens if sock him in the mouth?

Saturday?

Sock him in the mouth?

What happens if you get punched in the mouth?

The old Mike Tyson quote.

Right, everyone's got the plan until you get punched in the mouth.

Yeah.

We had a slow start from Utah before, but I don't think they knew that that was a true threat.

Texas Tech is a very real threat.

Oklahoma got out of the game against Auburn last year sort of miraculously, but even though Michigan was somewhat of a test in the second half, it wasn't And what do they look like if they're down twenty to seven something like that.

That's the fascinating.

Indiana hasn't been tested this year.

Illinois a little bit.

You know, they were a slow starting team last week, but not terribly concerned against Western Michigan.

The duke game certainly went their way.

Arizona State's been tested, Baylor's been tested.

Like, what if Miami's down against.

Flea Man, Okay, sock them in the mouth.

Maybe so them lock them in the mouth.

Saturday.

Oh can't wait.

It looks like an awesome week of college football games.

We're so thrilled to be talking about it today.

I did warn people in advance of week four to get your affairs in order, because there's going to be awesome games throughout the course of the day.

I will try to provide something of a window a little bit later on in this episode if you do need to get out there and be amongst the people.

Our window of opportunity will be later on in the episode.

Hello, welcome back, I'm Ty.

He is Dan.

Head on out to verballers dot com.

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Week four, Dan, Yes, absolutely, Where are you at in advance?

Week four?

Is there anything you did not sufficiently get off your chest?

And two or we or on the Tuesday episode?

Excuse me sure that we should address here before we go any further.

Well, I didn't have anything more to say about Clemson, and then Dabo Sweeney gave a press conference, and it sort of seems like seems like an annual right of the fall for Dabo to get stuff off of his chest.

And you were more sold than most on Clemson this season.

I'm not putting their struggles on you.

Not completely, no, but there was something pretty funny.

There were truths involved in Dabbo up there saying, you know, I thought what we've been doing is pretty good, winning the ACC eight out of ten years and going to the playoffs so and so years and winning national championships.

It's early in the season.

We got a lot of football left to play.

If Clemson doesn't want little old Dabo, they can find somebody else.

I got plenty of good coaching years left to me.

I'm only fifty five, but I guess it's not good enough.

What was what was the Matts Galasi tweet that you pulled out?

Oh that I was big, Like, I guess I'm just the worst mom ever.

Energy to Dabbos.

It's very early for this.

I would have expected this, you know, more into October.

But I was thinking about how I felt about a coach doing this, and it was also not a great week for coaching emotion with Brian Kelly after the LSU game, which he since walked back and said that he's had a conversation with the reporter and sort of tried to frame what he was thinking, but understands where the reporter was coming from and asking a question about, you know, the different aspects of the LSU Florida game.

Sure, so at least that's an adult type thing.

But I just kind of felt bad, not bad, but sad watching somebody up there and you understand why Dabo is coming from where he's coming from.

It sort of when you watch an older act, say, you know, you watch like Paul Simon or something, or the Rolling Stones or somebody sing on like the Emmys or Grammys or whatever, and you're like, man, this is a this is a legend.

But they don't sound the same.

Their voice is a little bit off, they're you know, they're not really I don't know if that guitar is plugged in.

And Dabo's trying to be twenty eighteen Dabbo every day of every year.

And I understand where he's coming from because he has been so successful.

But this team isn't all that different from where it's been lately.

They seem pretty good and then they're just assigned this role of national title contender by Jabbroni's like you, and then they don't live up to it, and you're just like, this is who Kate Klebnick was last year too.

This is just who he is, and that's okay.

He's decent.

He's not great against good teams.

But we keep assigning Clemson this title of contender, and every year, myself included to some extent, you just sort of fall for it.

And you're just like, they've struggled on the offensive line, they've struggled developing receivers, they've struggled with offensive scheme, they've struggled stopping the run.

Aren't new elements to this Clemson program.

But dabble up there trying to distract people with what he accomplished in twenty sixteen or something like that.

You're like, oh, man, I feel bad for this guy.

This is what he has to lean on to justify a full on disappointing September, and I it's early on in the season.

Things can improve.

But you're just like, same coordinators, Yeah, okay, same guys MO, Like all the the returning production, it's same guys.

Yeah yeah, same quarterback, Okay, same coach, Like there is a through line when the same guy is hiring the coordinators, like having the same stance about recruiting and transfers, and they were a little bit more active this year.

But you're just like the through line is you dude, and like it's okay if you're running a nine to three program, but also like you're gonna be told that you're not you know, all that encouraging when you look like you do against LSU, who's had nothing on offense, when you look like how you start out against Troy, who, by the way, this is not John Sumral Troy, this is not Neil Brown Troy, this is tis guy, Jared Parker Troy.

Yeah, my guy.

Yeah, love him.

He's not a great Troy team so far.

Was thrilled to see him go and.

Then looking like they did last week against Georgia Tech, We're You're just like, they're scoring seventeen twenty points against George Okay, that's like they're they're yelling at us that this is who they are and they'll maybe they'll rattle off a bunch of wins this year against so so ACC teams.

But I don't know.

I was watching him up there, and I was like, he's not wrong about his accomplishments.

He's not wrong that he's been crazy successful and he built Clemson into something.

But he's he's losing it, man, he is just he's losing the room.

He's losing it with expectations and the kinds of loyalty that he's employing.

It's admirable from a human standpoint, but also this is just who they've been.

I don't know, man, was it was sort of sad to watch on a certain level.

I have some thoughts on the Notre Dame situation, but I will wait and I will bring that up when we talk about the Notre Dame Perdue game in Passing a little bit later.

The other thing that I wanted to get to because I think you and I are both on the same page regarding USC.

We haven't talked a whole lot about USC, and I'm going to make some jokes about USC when we get to their game, their late cap, late night, late cap whatever nightcap game against Michigan State, which apparently is going to be eleven Eastern time East.

Lansing is in the Eastern time zone, so their body clock will be eleven PM, not ten PM as I watched that.

But we each have geographic corrections, by the way, because I mentioned Texas Tech might struggle with the Salt Lake City altitude, Lubbock's way up there.

Man, the thirty three hundred feet.

Yeah, it's not that bad.

It was a weak geography episode for you and I on the last go round here.

But you and I have I think aligned our thinking on USC, even though we haven't talked a whole lot about them because SC hasn't really played anybody of merit, But I know you did some digging with respect to stats and just how they've been performing thus far, and I think we both came down on the same side of this thing, which is like basically watch out for USC at this point.

Right what I feel is that USC right now is the number one college football wild card of the twenty twenty five season.

That whether it's playoff, whether it's affecting the Big Ten race at the top by winning the Big Ten, by beating teams who are contending to win the Big Ten, by making it to the Big Ten championship.

However, that exists in your mind USC right now with Lincoln Riley heading into the season.

During the offseason, they were sort of considered to be a joke, right that, like they've gotten progressively worse.

That yes, while the defense got better last year, the way that they finished games last season was embarrassing against teams like Minnesota, or Maryland or Washington or take your pick, and that they're spending all this money but they can't figure out how to translate that into consistent wins.

And then when they do beat a team like Alice you to start the season, they blow it by losing and looking like they did on the road.

And you know, Lincoln Riley says funny things to us, like, you know, we're like seven points away from being like nine to oh like okay, man, But there is something about usc this year when I look at who they have left, the obvious flaws on a lot of these teams that they have left at least flaws as of mid to late September.

What they're able to do in terms of generating pop on offense as a complete offense, both through the air and on the ground.

I like both of these backs.

I like both of these receivers.

They're promising a tight end.

Jade Mayova has been the most explosive passing quarterback in America against you know, Georgia, Southern Purdue and whoever.

I understand all of that.

I'm not in love with their offense of line, but they've generated those plays in spite of that.

We'll see what happens against better defenses.

The key here is who are those better teams on their schedule right now?

After watching Notre Dame put forth their defensive effort against Texas A and M don't know if you dvrd that Michigan I think has still has answers to address or questions to address on offense.

With what Bryce Underwood's ceiling is Oregon's better than USC and that games in Eugene that's going to be tough.

Iowa may not be able to continue to move the ball against okay teams, let alone USC.

They're on their schedule, Michigan State has a ways to go.

So what I'm saying is USC could vary quietly without a lot of people paying attention, end up like number eight in the country by the time that Oregon game comes around.

Yeah, like there's a lot winnable on this schedule.

I think their run defense needs to get better, and if they're not a complete team after the start of their schedule featuring who they've played, there's a question about USC.

They can go in a number of directions, But if we're talking about a team that can win a bunch of games solely based on an explosive offense and maybe a pass rush that's been nice.

USC fits that bill and it's tumultuous season and I think that's interesting well, and they're flying under the radar because they haven't really played anybody yet, right totally.

But I came down the same side, man, I gotta be honest with you.

I was looking through with some of the stats, and like we've been hearing from USC people, you're not talking about USC.

You're not talking what's there been to talk about?

Their ranked twenty fifth right now.

They'ven't played anybody so far, but that has been the case for a number of teams, and when we look across the country and we compare some of those teams to what we've seen out of USC, you know, totally independent of the schedule, just how have they performed against the opponents put in front of them.

USC has kind of gone above and beyond on a number of different fronts.

Are not perfect by any stretch, And I think you gave voice to that, but it jumped out to me as well, and looking through and trying to prepare for this episode, that there's a lot in front of USC that maybe isn't apparent to the college football public right now, and I know they've been kind of a fun punch line from time to time, and I'll maybe they'll buy out Lincoln Riley.

They're not going to buy out like a Riley.

It costs too much.

But this is a really good team and they're just starting to become, I think, more of a thing that people are aware of in twenty twenty five.

Not that USC ever really truly flies under the radar.

It's a blue blood, but given where they started now, given their competition, it's been easy for them to very quietly eke up into the top twenty five.

And my hunch is that after this weekend, after a couple of the games have got coming up, they're not going to be a team you can ignore much longer.

So USC has Illinois on the road a week after Illinois has Indiana, Okay, USC has Michigan sandwich between Wisconsin and Washington.

Obviously Michigan is going to pay close attention to US see, but that game's on the road for USC.

Notre Dame is USC a week after NC State, and Iowa has USC a week after Oregon, and obviously UCLA is not an issue as they're careering downward.

But Oregon has after Iowa and Minnesota potentially to you know, defenses that could wear down Oregon physically, they get sc so situationally, it's not bad.

I'm just okay, just I'm not sleeping on the Trojans right now as somebody who is going to affect things the closer we get to Halloween and beyond.

Fair enough, fair enough, you want to pick some games?

I would love to.

Time to help.

It is week four.

We made three picks already for the Texas Tech Utah game, the Auburn Oklahoma game, and the Illinois Indiana game.

Go back to the Tuesday episode if you want the full deep dive on all of those.

Dan and I we we disagreed a little bit on the Illinois Indiana game.

I think we were in broad agreement over the result of Auburn Oklahoma.

We both like Oklahoma in that one and Texas Tech Utah.

I think you probably feel a little bit better about Utah.

I probably feel a little bit better about Texas Tech.

But all told, the point spread is three and a half at time of recording, and both of us came down on the side of the points there just because we could see it.

Being a close game.

Has your thinking changed at all in the forty eight hours since we hit stop.

I don't think so.

I think I feel good about all of those games in this moment.

I think Texas Tech's going to have a really good season.

I feel good about Texas Tech.

But I also go back to how much better Baron Morton is at home and against average teams, right, and he's away against a strong defense, And hopefully he's healthy, because maybe those stats from past years are informed by lingering injuries.

So hopefully this is a turner, a corner he turns against the Utes on the road.

But not a lot of quarterbacks do that in Salt Lake.

No.

And I'm curious to see this matchup in particular because I think it's a really interesting stress test for Utah.

Utah hasn't really played the stiffest of competition either.

I mean, the same is true for Texas Tech, right, but Utah on that front, I mean this huge win in Week one against UCLA forty three to ten, that was like, Wow, this is maybe this new offense that they've installed is going to be the real deal.

And we've come to know a lot more about UCLA and the weeks that have followed, so I think this will be a really interesting bell weather for both sides of this one.

Two big twelve teams that have a lot to play for the Oklahoma game, I think that line is ticked up a little bit.

It was six and a half when we recorded, it's now up at seven and a half.

So that tells me that other people are feeling what we're feeling.

That Oklahoma's probably the real deal.

Auburn has a ton of talent.

This is a really interesting matchup of two schools that went out and kind of went crazy in the portal in the off season to try and retool and reboot as best they could and very short notice.

So I think we're both kind of still on the same side of Oklahoma feeling the same way.

And the Illinois Indiana game is just crazy interesting to me.

The line has moved a little bit in the direction of Indiana.

Right now it's five and a half.

It was four and a half when we recorded on Tuesday.

Again, I don't really know why.

I like Illinois a lot in this matchup.

I still think it's going to be a relatively close affair, but I like their veteran leadership I like the fact that they feel like they're more complete at this point in time.

Indiana has been very good, but we have far less data on Indiana against better competition, and so I called out some stats about how they perform against the run, the yards before contact, things like that.

Again, numbers are wonky three weeks into the year.

You never really know how much you can trust anything that you're seeing on the spreadsheet.

So I put my trust a little bit more in the spreadsheet than I typically would because I feel like this is just a fair I'm looking for angles, I'm looking for margins, and right now I think that favor is Illinois.

But we'll see.

You know, I've been wrong like seventy times already, so we'll see if I'm right about this one with Illinois.

But I tend to come down on the side of the ALIONI.

Yeah.

Loug Goltmeyer another one of those quarterbacks not as dramatically underwhelming as Kid Klebnik against you know, Baron Morton whatever, against decent teams or good teams, but was sort of squarely average last season against games with the winning record last season.

Yeah, let's go to high Noon on ESPN.

No, it's a rivalry game, Dan, Yes, we've got the SMU Mustangs.

The ponies are squaring off against the TCU Horned Frogs TCUs about a six and one half point favorite.

Notably, this is the battle, yes for the Iron Skillet.

One of the great rivalry trophies.

I know it's one of the greats because all the great rivalry trophies have let's say, conflicting stories as to how they started.

You can go, you can read up on this if you want.

But SMU tells one story, TCU tells another.

How they arrived on the iron Skillet?

Is the trophy?

Again?

This is the telltale sign of a great rivalry when nobody can agree on how the trophy got started.

Will you be making your noteworthy breakfast potatoes on Saturday to honor that it is skill it Saturday?

I absolutely will.

I'll take a picture of it, I'll post it on social media.

Time makes real good breakfast potatoes.

They're very good, and they've only gotten better by the way.

Little sidebar here, I'm not a big believer in gluten free stuff because unless you have celiac, of course, unless it's a true medical thing.

But I saw that people are putting like they're smashing a baked potato and putting it in a cast iron skillet, spreading it around the bottom of a cast iron skillet, and then putting sauce and cheese and baking it atop there to get it super crispy.

And it's technically a gluten free pizza using a smashed baked potato with sauce and cheese and a skillet.

You know what, I bought a potato.

I'm sure, I'm real curious.

That sounds That sounds pretty good.

It combines pizza and chrispy potatoes.

What more can you saying?

No, As for the football part of this, last year, sm won sixty six to forty two.

TCU had five turnovers in that game, which obviously played a bit of a factor.

Any reason to think Dan that this won't also devolve into a shootout this year?

No.

I have questions about both of these defenses, especially TCU's pass defense.

I think, ultimately, oh man, it's too good.

Quiz like, one of the best quarterback matchups of the week, based on what we've seen so far, should be.

I'm gonna take points.

I think TCU ekes it out at home early kick.

Obviously, these the places are close by and have the sunny Dyke's connective tissue here.

I think TCU at home is able to eke it forty four forty something like that, so they don't come.

But I'm I'm in on the entertainment factor for sure.

My general rule is to take the points in a shootout and if the line is a touchdown or more, which is exactly what I'm gonna do here.

When I think at TCU, the first thought that comes to mind is that they're Baylor with like ten percent fewer calories.

I don't even know who that's insulting to.

I don't either, but they're kind of identical cousins.

We've seen TCU play twice.

I went back, I did the rewatch this morning.

It seems to me, at a minimum that they're tackling is better.

They're tackling is more consistent, which is something you will take that given where the defense has been obviously those this is going to be a much better test than North Carolina was in Week one than who they played last week.

Yeah right, SMU is going to be different from those teams.

To me, it's whoever as the ball last wins.

Like I'm with would you say forty four to forty Yeah, I'll say forty five forty just to be different.

Sure, I like TCU.

I think they win this game, but I expect zero defense.

And at the end of the day, I think I trust Josh Hoover a little bit more than Kevin Jennings.

Really I do.

I love Kevin Jennings.

I like Kevin Jennings.

I was all on Kevin Jennings a year ago, but in this affair, I'm gonna go Josh Hoover.

I'm gonna say TCU wins forty five to forty.

Yeah.

I think we're gonna play Kevin Jennings in a losing effort this week, Like like he just completed seventy percent of his passes for four hundred and forty nine yards and lost.

Yeah.

How I need to get that sound back on the board.

We need to bring that out of retirement because there have been already a bunch of opportunities to play it, and I've been dropping the ball.

So that's on me for ballerhood.

I will get it back on the board this week.

We will make sure we play that on Saturday night.

YEP, three point thirty CBS.

This is a really big game that we probably should have talked about on Tuesday.

It is your Michigan Wolverines.

Yeah, it is America's Nebraska corn Huskers.

Nebraska is a two and one half point home underdog in this affair day in.

Yeah, so let's talk about Nebraska.

Okay, Week one a slug in Kansas City.

They played the game in Arrowhead against Cincinnati.

Other than that game, Nebraska has beaten Akron and Houston Christian by one hundred and twenty seven to seven margin.

Yes, what a story.

Michigan has definitely played a tougher schedule through three weeks.

I don't think that's even debatable being New Mexico.

They lost on the road to Oklahoma, and then they won by sixty last week against Central Michigan.

So now there's that we I think know a little bit more about Michigan.

Should also point out that Michigan will be without Sharon Moore in this game.

Correct still suspended due to the sign stealing thing.

It's going to be Biff Poge filling in as the interim coach.

As I said on the recap episode last week, we had a handful of people right in and say, hey, uh, Michigan looked better without him.

We're cool with that.

I don't know if that's going to hold up against a team like a Nebraska or not.

But they did win by six day.

They did look pretty good.

If you're a Michigan fan, you feel pretty good about that.

Yes.

We often frame up these previews in terms of which team has more pressure on them, especially in September.

I don't think there is any question about this one.

The weight of the world is on Nebraska in the spot.

Is it not agree?

Agree for one?

It's Matt rule, It's Matt role year three, which comes with the expectations.

Have you looked at this schedule for Nebraska beyond this game?

Uh, it's not that bad, right, Like I have a really bad habit for putting the cart before the horse and pumping a little too much sunshine into what's possible for some of these teams.

But after Michigan and after the bye week for Nebraska home against Michigan, State on the road at Maryland, on the road at Minnesota, home against Northwestern.

You beat Michigan here, there's a very good chance you're going eight to zero headed into a big game first day of November at home against USC the aforementioned USC Trojans.

Yeah, there's a lot riding on this one from the Nebraska Huskers.

Dan, who you got?

I'm gonna take Michigan?

Why come on?

It actually goes against one of my central picking tenants, right, what we think is a good defense at home as an underdog in a tough place to play.

I've just seen it from Nebraska before that they can lose this game the way that they lost, like the Illinois game last year.

Last year's team is not this year's team.

Of course, I don't trust Nebraska's offense.

I just don't.

I have to see it perform against a good team before I can say yes, I am a believer in this team's ability to score thirty points against a quality defense.

Have we seen that?

No?

But what have we seen from the Michigan offense against better teams, better defenses that you feeling reassured that they can do anything against Nebraska here on the road.

I agree.

My problem is we've seen Nebraska.

This is third year of Matt Ruhle, and we've kind of understood the rhythms of this team that they'll put a bunch of points on flawed teams and still haven't been able.

Maybe it's this week, right, Maybe it's this week where they figure it all out.

I just think we have more data and disappointing data about the Nebraska offense that has me worried about Nebraska in this specific spot.

That we know what Michigan's going to try to do, that they're going to try to run to set up play action.

We know Michigan doesn't have game changing receivers week in week out, but there is something to me about like picking against Dylan Rayola against what should be a good defense, especially upfront.

You saw that they were showing heavier stuff that they were getting ready to employ against Nebraska last week and it was Central Michigan whatever.

But I don't know, man, I just I'm not on a trusting plane with Nebraska's offense right now.

And part of what has me a little bit encouraged about Michigan is the quotes after Oklahoma and after Central Michigan from Biff Pogee were sort of like we were trying to shorten the Oklahoma game.

We didn't want Bryce Underwood to run.

We wanted him to get that experience and not put too much on his plate.

And now that we've been through that, we realize we need to.

Just let it rip.

Well, and there's something that has me a little bit maybe, look, I'm gullible, maybe I'm buying in too early on Michigan, but that has me going a little bit, Well, what.

I saw kind of in retrospect now, and I think I talked about it at the time as well.

I think what we saw a little bit in that Oklahoma game is what we saw a lot of in say, the Notre Dame Miami game.

Yeah, new quarterback coaching staff, unsure how much they can put on his plate, unsure how we would respond in hostile terry.

And I think in both cases now obviously not to Dame loss, and so did Michigan, but with respect to CJ.

Carr, with respect to Bryce Underwood, in neither case was the guy rattled by the situation.

You know, it seemed as though, even though the stats on the stat line for Bryce Underwood didn't really work out against Oklahoma just nine for twenty four, it didn't seem like the moment was too big for him.

It didn't seem overwhelmed being there.

It seemed as though, even though he was in hostile territory, he looked fine, he could handle it.

They need to get better around him, and clearly it was a pretty good defense.

But all being said, I thought it quitted himself fairly well, just composure wise, being that QB one right.

So that I think is an interesting wrinkle that's obviously very very hard to gain plan for, and in our case here hard to preview because we just don't know what version of the Michigan offense we're going to see.

I think the formula for Nebraska is going to be a lot of what we saw against Oklahoma, and what we saw Oklahoma do against Michigan was they basically sat on him.

Right.

We had one long run from Justice Haynes, we had one long pass to Donovan McCully, but otherwise there was no real pop.

Now Michigan can try to change that, and if they do change that, obviously this all goes out the window.

But I think you try to stop the run.

I think you try to put this one more on the arm of Bryce Underwood.

Eventually he could be a first round quarterback.

We didn't really see that against Oklahoma, but I think if they try to make a little bit more hay through the air, Michigan will be better for it.

How that works out against another good defense on the road remains to be seen, but at least based on what we have seen so far, take the runaway, sit on him, try to force you know, everything to go through Bryce Underwood.

That's probably the cleanest path through to victory.

By the way, speaking of runaway, you are threatening to run away from it all and move to the south of France with one particular run defense pet stat correct, you picked Illinois Indiana based specifically on this one run defense before contact?

What is Nebraska's I don't have it?

What is their rank?

Do you have ready for it?

One hundred and twenty second?

Wow?

So look, maybe that Cincinnati game, it's Game one, it's in an NFL stadium.

It was just a different kind of feeling on an NFL field, and they weren't ready to fill gaps and fit runs like fine, not great, Well, it's not great early on that this run defense if that's what is you know, job number one against this Michigan offense, it hasn't been incredible in the limited data set that we have.

Yeah, and the catches.

Can Nebraska do that right?

Can they do it as effectively as Oklahoma?

Did, and to your point, I'm not sure.

Like my question coming into this season was whether or not the Nebraska defense would take a step back with a new coordinator with a line to me that looked a little bit worse.

And yeah, some of those early stats kind of back up that concern.

Yep.

So I don't know, but that's kind of my thinking at the moment.

One way or another.

I think we're headed for a rock fight with this one, and I think it's something in the neighborhood of like twenty three twenty.

I like Nebraska, I like the quarterback and defense combo a little bit better.

So let's go to Nebraska plus the points.

Let's say Nebraska home dog of the week.

Wow, the yakos home dog of the week.

Okay, I'm gonna go Nebraska outright here twenty three to twenty.

But I think it's close, and honestly, the way that I am presenting this is assuming a lot.

I am not convinced that Nebraska can go out there and stop the run as effectively as Oklahoma.

And I am also not convinced we're going to see the same version of Michigan that we did against Oklahoma.

Maybe they do open it up a little bit more.

There's a lot of assumption going on here on this side of the show show that could definitely come back to bite me.

But I'm going to say Nebraska, right.

Michigan twenty seven to twenty.

Three, seven point thirty ABC Florida Gators on the road at the Miami Hurricanes.

Miami is a seven and one half point favorite.

They are all the way up to number four in the polls so far.

Outside of that last let's say a quarter and a half against Notre Dame, everything else on the Miami side has been incredible.

Yeah, they have looked really good.

Bill Connolly has Miami so far with the top offense in America per his sp plus as they were a year ago.

Clearly, we are still waiting for Florida to live up to their promise in advance of this season.

The game against USF was a disaster.

The game last week might have been worse.

If I could, for a second quote the wise profit Yogi bearra place with respect to Billy Napier, it is getting late early.

They desperately need this win here on the road again hostile territory and in state rival.

It would build real goodwill with the Florida fan base.

If they were able to pull the upset here.

My kids would be super impressive.

I could start throwing down Tomahawk dunks tonight.

Is there any reason to think that Florida can turn it around, can snap their fingers, can correct some of what has ailed them on the road against arrival In the Miami Hurricanes, who are playing really, really well right now, I guess if they could poison Carson Beck or something, if they have the wherewithal No, to me, there is not.

You're not defined by who you are necessarily by your worst day, but now this is the worst days after throwing five picks against LSU last week and losing to USF in the manner in which they did.

I just think when you go back to back with that kind of disappointing performances, with those kinds of disappointing performances, it's harder to dig yourself out.

I saw a quote, I'm going to get this quote wrong.

I'm paraphrasing here that Mario Chris Ball wanted Miami fans to turn and it's something maybe a little bit hopeful, but to turn hard rock into some kind of asylum, right to some kind of mad house to some kind of crazy house where people are just losing their absolute minds in the stadium, which obviously they should be.

It's an in state rival in Florida.

I just think there's a certain amount of aggression that Miami plays with that Florida is not built to withstand.

They're two mistake prona offense, They're not savvy enough on the sideline that there's talent on this Florida team on both sides of the ball.

But when you watch the game against LSU, there was no vision from the sideline there.

The game plan was terrible in trying to combat with this LSUD was doing.

And Miami's playing with a chip that's the size of Biscayne Bay on its shoulder right now.

I just I don't see a way for Florida to dig themselves out on the road, specifically because they weren't in this kind of pit last year at home against Miami, right and now Miami's defense appears to be way better and communicates way better, is on the same page more often, and their defensive line is healthy, and Florida's gonna find a way in this spot.

I don't buy it.

I think Miami's winning by seventeen to twenty four.

What troubles me the most about Florida in this moment is that it's not just one thing.

You know, the offensive line right now is the second most penalized in all of FBS, and when they're not getting penalized, they're missing blocks in the run game, which is not helpful to DJ Lagway.

It puts more pressure on DJ Lagway.

DJ's actually had good pass protection, but if he doesn't have a complimentary run game, that puts a lot more on his arm.

I think Jayden good, absolutely, but look at what happened last week.

What happened last week was five interceptions yeap, what happened the week before for DJ Lagway.

DJ Lagway got worse as that USF game went on.

I could probably build a case that DJ Lagway's got a bit of the yips right now and defensively, like they're not blitzing at all, they're not getting pressure at all.

We've been doing this for a long time, Dan, like between the two of us, we got a lot more gray now.

We got two more wives, we got two more dogs and two more kids than we did when we first started this whole endeavor.

That's true.

I think by now I can look at these numbers and have a pretty good sense for how they fit together to tell a story.

And to me, the story is that it's time to fire Billy Napier.

The story is that to have all this talent and look this bad against those opponents, there's no excuse for that.

And so what stranger things happen every week in this sport?

Every week?

Could Florida snap its fingers and suddenly turn into a different team and be fired up to play an in state rival?

Yeah, sure, absolutely, I don't even think it's far fetched.

Let's not pretend that Mario crystal Ball is mister clutch here.

Okay, but if the starting point for the Keynes is that they've got a big advantage along both lines, and they've got a veteran quarterback who can probably pick anybody apart if they can't get pressure on them, I don't know why you bet Florida here, which is I think what you're saying too.

I don't have it quite by as much, but I've got it thirty four to twenty four.

I think Miami wins is one by ten.

I think they win going away, and I don't know if it's particularly stressful because I look at this, I look at how mistake prone Florida has been, and I see a big advantage for Miami team that again has been pretty rock solid outside of a quarter and a half.

By the way, it's never a good sign if you're a team like Florida and the story after the game is like, what's wrong with this LSU offense?

Yeah, yeah, exactly getting at that many turnovers and not being able to turn it into anything.

Yeah, seven point thirty on Fox.

It's Arizona State.

It is the Baylor Bears.

Dan Baylor favored by two and a half points, both teams two and one.

I have not been encouraged by Baylor's defense.

Stop me if you've heard that one before.

Yeah.

I've also not been impressed by Sam Levitt in the early going.

I looked on Tuesday night and seventy three percent of the bets were on Baylor minus two and a half points, which seems really high to me.

That seemed high to you.

Yes, I get the logic.

I do.

I think it's because we probably know more about Baylor at this point at least that we can lean on.

Yeah, the offense is undeniable.

I think Baylor could score twenty eight against a literal brick wall right now.

My problem is that almost anybody can score twenty eight against them too.

Now.

It's early, I can't emphasize that enough, but I'm not really seeing the growth from the Baylor defense that we were hoping for, and this is the kind of game where it could bite them.

Yeah.

So, even though ASU hasn't looked great so far, they have been able to do two things pretty consistently.

That's run the ball with ray Leak Brown and Kanye Yudo, and also plays slowly.

Pop open the spreadsheet for a second, take a look at take a look at Baylor's numbers efficiency numbers against the run.

That whole column is frigging beat red.

Yep.

So I think ASU is gonna be able to run it.

I think they're gonna be able to slow it down.

I think they're gonna be able to pick their spots through the air and not lean as much on Sam Levitt, who I do think is struggling a little bit in the early going here.

Yep.

Give your quarterbacks some good looks as a result of running game which should be there in this matchup, and limit the number of possessions that Baylor has.

We say this all the time, but styles make fights, right, these are two very different teams.

My thought in this game, are you ready for it?

I'm ready love it or leve it.

Love it or love it.

Either love Baylor's ability to out score anybody who walks through the door, or you go the other direction and go with Sam Levin.

I don't love it.

I'm going levit.

ASU wins this one out right, thirty four to twenty eight.

Yeah, I mean, what is Baylor's defense is allowed?

What against Power conference opponents?

Forty forty one points a game?

Yeah, against Auburn at SMU.

Yeah, when the worst thing in this game is a team's rush defense and it's a tight line, I'm just going to go with the team I trust a little bit more to get off the field or stay on the field.

And right now, that's Asu.

ASU was taking a step back.

You're right from where they were last year.

But I'm going to extend the grace that if if your defense is ahead of the other team's defense in a tight game, in a game that I think we're going to see points, I think as you just has a better shot to get off the field, I'm going to go with the sun Devils here by five or six.

If you are listening to this anywhere where you can leave a comment, if you're watching this anywhere where you can leave a comment.

We would encourage your predictions down in the comments.

Let us know where we're right, let us know where we're wrong.

Of course, you can always ranch a flag.

Yeah, you can always send us a note sOliver bloodmail dot com or across social media.

But yeah, plant the flag in the comments.

Let us know your thoughts.

Yes, some quick hitters, all right, Four o'clock ESPN two, NC State at Duke.

I love this game.

I am I thrilled about this game.

I know you did some digging on this one.

What was the defensive stat that you pulled out about these guys.

I think both of these teams, I'm verifying this right now, but I think both of these teams are among the nation's worst and giving up big plays great.

That makes for a fun game, does it, not correct?

I think so.

I am going points here in NC State because I really like what I've seen out of NC State so far this season.

They are not, by any stretch a perfect finished product, but I really like what I'm seeing from Hollywood Smothers.

He's been out standing so far.

I think NC State goes on the road.

I think they win this one outright, but at a minimum, give me those points.

I went back and forth on this one.

NC State hasn't been super impressive.

They got socked in the mouth by wake Forest early, and they came back and they did a good job.

And Hollywood's Mothers has been very good.

It's tough to get CJ.

Bailey down.

I guess you gotta buy low on Duke, and in this moment, after what they look like against Tulane and Illinois, I don't know.

The line confuses me a little bit because NC State has turned its performances into wins and Duke hasn't.

But I think they ascend to the meme.

I think there's still too much there.

I'm gonna go Duke here to win this one by five or six because I am not fully willing to give up on this Duke team.

And I just I'm with you where NC State is not a finished product.

There are lots of things to like about NC State, but I just don't think Duke is disastrous.

So I think they can win a game like this at.

Home seven PMSPN South Carolina at number twenty three Miszoo Miszoo right now ten and a half point favorite.

We are recording this on midday Wednesday.

There will be an SEC injury report out later today after we hit stop.

At that point, we should get a little bit more clarity on Lenora's sellers.

So Lenora's took a helmet the helmet shot.

He left the game a week ago.

Whether or not he is back in time for this one remains to be seen.

I did see that Shane Beemer expressed a little bit of optimism, but he also was playing a bitcoy in saying that, yep, you can get the injury report with everybody else.

So yeah, we can't really judge this one on the point spread because I think it's gonna change whether or not he ends up playing.

It could jump if he doesn't.

Obviously, where are you at?

What is your thinking with regard to this game.

Let's assume that he does play, because if he doesn't, it's a different story altogether.

I think it would be a big advantage in favor of Maszoo.

But assuming Lenoris does play, how does that change your thinking here?

I think Lenoris is great.

We call him the creator for a reason.

I just think what's around him right now.

He has played a lot this season, and this offense has been horrible.

He did not play for a large chunk of that Vanderbilt game.

Excuse me almost cough there.

But I am a little bit more confident with this game being at Missoo and at best, if he is questionable as we record this, at best, he's gonna be questionable during the game.

He's not going to be fully himself.

Just because he's playing, obviously, does not mean he's feeling one hundred percent or anywhere near it.

So you need him to be physically at his best.

He's not somebody who's just gonna sit in the pocket and pick you apart that offensive line.

I think Missoo wins this game by I don't know.

I think they cover this game whether or not he's in there.

Wow.

Yeah, I think there are a couple of touchdowns better.

What I'm most interested in is how Missouri holds up against this South Carolina defensive front.

I'm curious to see what they do.

I'm curious to see if they're putting Bouprabula a little bit more on the move.

I'm curious to see Hallamaud Hardy fares against this defensive front.

I really like where Missoo is at right now.

Miszoo has been one of those teams that I know we talked a lot about in the preseason because they've got an interesting schedule.

If they can get it going, if everything clicks.

I mean, look, it's really early, and again I don't want to put the cart before the horse, but there's a lot of reason to feel pretty excited about Miszoo if they look this good the full way through.

And so this is a really good opportunity to see what they're made of against what I think is a pretty good defensive front.

Maybe it isn't quite as good as it was a year ago, but there's still plenty of talent up front, and certainly in the line backing core in the South Carolina side as well that defensively, this will be a different test for the Tigers.

I'm gonna go Miszoo as well.

I don't like them covering that point spread though, and I sort of don't like it regardless of who's playing quarterback.

To me, it just seems like too many points in an sec matchup that we know a little bit more about South Carolina at this point.

Missoo's look good, but South Carolina has played better teams, and I'm curious to see what missoo looks like.

That's true, that's a big line for somebody who has not proven it against somebody as complete as South.

Well, South Carolina doesn't appear to be as complete, but Kansas is not complete, so who knows.

And of course the nightcap, it's a real nightcap.

This one's at eleven pm Eastern time on Fox.

It is Michigan State making the trip out west, squaring off against usc usc now at eighteen and a half point favorite.

Let me reiterate what I said at the very top.

I sort of stumbled through it, but I stumbled through it the first time I brought it up a week ago.

I am told that East Lansing, based on our YouTube comments, is in the Eastern time zone.

You can also just look it up and go back.

I could look it up.

I didn't, Okay, I didn't.

I'm taking the verballer Hood's word for it.

Right.

My body clock math was incorrect.

This is going to feel like eleven pm for me.

It will feel like eleven PM for them.

We will be doing a live stream.

They might be through the first quarter, right, Okay, we have caught some flak additionally, and I talked about this at the top as well, for not talking enough about USC.

But now on this episode, on this episode, I think we've talked a lot about USC.

I think they've given them their flowers?

Have we?

Not sure?

The good news is this USC fans, finally, at long last, you get to play a real team, and that team is Michigan State.

Sparty has not played past defense since the Year of Our Lord twenty twenty one.

Dan.

Yeah, So if everything holds true that you mentioned at the top, all the reasons why we should feel good about the Trojans, yep, Jade Mayava should have a pretty nice day, like three hundred and fifty yards and four touchdowns nice against this Spartan secondary.

Does that seem like it computes for you?

Yes, I am going to lock up USC bluck of the week.

I am gonna do this as an offering of goodwill to our USC brethren out there that feels we have slided the Trojans, to which I would say, there is no further act of appreciation.

There is no more active appreciation here in the verballer hood than me locking up your Trojans.

What could go wrong?

What could go could go wrong?

Just take this big old wooden horse and wheel it inside the gates my lock of the week.

I can assure you nothing ever, ever could be wrong with Ty's lock of the week.

Look, USC beat Perdue by sixteen?

What's beating Michigan?

And stay by seventeen?

Right?

Absolutely eighteen.

You got to get to nineteen if you want to cover this points bayh sorry stops.

Yeah, yeah, I'm taking sc here.

Situationally, it's a good spot.

I think last week was a good moment to wake them up a little bit against Purdue, who fought hard, ultimately couldn't get it done and couldn't really touch the Trojans late.

So yeah, I'm Michigan State.

It's just that the defense is still too concerning because I think I think offensively they can make plays, but I just I think the defense is going to take them out, especially across the country, especially this late.

I just I'm out.

I am one in three of my locks of the year or loschool so far on the year.

Nothing to worry about here, though, guys, Okay, just take it as my token of appreciation.

I think us he wins this game.

But the point spread.

Who knows one other one that I wanted to mention very quickly here Friday night, Iowa at Rutgers.

We mentioned this in passing.

I am one thousand percent taking the points in this game.

I'm I'm not sure, actually, but I have been damn impressed with the Rutgers passing offense so far.

It's actually been quite good.

The whole offense has been quite good, which is weird because the defense hasn't and usually it's the other way around for Rutgers.

I don't trust that they're going to be able to beat Iowa's defense, but I don't trust Iowa's offense at all.

So give me the points.

This could be sixteen to fourteen in favor of somebody.

I will take Rutgers plus the points.

Iowa also has Indiana next week, so a bit of a look ahead spot on the road in New Jersey going to that.

You can fact check me on this Eastern time zone.

Western time zone, Eastern times on.

Yeah, yeah, I think I'm gonna go Rutgers as well.

We saw it, you know, it was traveling across the country last year with Washington going down to Rutgers.

I'm will Rutgers here home dog.

Couple under the radar games for all y'all.

High noon.

Arkansas at Memphis, Memphis favored by or Memphis.

Is Arkansas favor seven and a half point do yep.

We've also got Maryland at Wisconsin, Wisconsin favored by ten and a half points.

This is actually my lock of the Weekluck of the week.

You can mark me down for two of them this week.

I'll take s Seve and I'm loving Wisconsin here.

Okay, I'm not buying Maryland at this point in time.

Exciting young talent and milik Washington, but not feeling it.

I think this is where Wisconsin gets off the schneid here and gets a big home win.

Memphis lock of the week by the way, for me, really yes.

Luck of the week.

You think maybe a letdown scenari.

I think it's a letdown moment for Arkansas and it's on the road against what appears to be a good defense for Memphis.

We'll see against this schedule what that actually means.

They've played Chattanooga and then Georgia State and Troy, but they've been on the road two weeks in a row and played good defense, and to me, that's something encouraging.

So I think Arkansas pulls this out, but I think Memphis loses it real close, and so I'm going to take the points.

A couple other ones that could be interesting.

Clemson is at home.

They are favored by seventeen and a half against Syracuse.

I believe Steve Angeli leads the nation in passing yardage so far this season.

I do not think much of Syracuse's ability to stop Clemson's offense.

But Clemson's offense has also done a really good job, most recently, of stopping itself.

So if we find out on Sunday morning, after we wake up bleary eye talking about a million games on the Saturday night stream that Syracuse lost this game but was plucky and it ended up being thirty to twenty in favor of Clemson, that is an entirely believable outcome to me.

Yeah, what is Clemson's twenty twenty five team done to earn a seventeen point spread?

Syracuse will be up for this game.

I'm taking the points.

This is fran Brah I'll take the points too.

What the hell three point thirty ESPN Twulane on the road at ole Miss, ole Miss favored by eleven and one half points.

Austin Simmons coming back.

I believe, I believe so.

But Toulne a lot to play for.

Yeah, Toulene a lot to play for if you do the thing where you do way too early playoff projections.

Tulane, I think, is the team that everyone favors right now to get in out of the non Power four conferences and perhaps have a run at this playoff.

They need to at least keep this one close if they want to remain I think the leader in the clubhouse in that conversation eleven and a half points feels like a weird number to me.

I like ole missing this one, but would not surprise me if they win by seven.

So I'm gonna go points again.

I'm one points here as well.

It's also I think a letdown look ahead spot.

Not that Tulane does not have ole Miss's attention, but I believe ole Miss as LSU next week, a week after a fun back and forth against Arkansas with the back quarterback.

So I just think situationally, Tulane's in a good spot.

I'm gonna take the.

Points seven ESPN two BYU on the road at ECU.

E SU is a six and one half point home dog.

I am taking ECU outright, Wow, Okay, give me the Pirates outright, cross country travel for BYU.

ECU can put up points BYU.

I like Kilanie Sataki a lot.

I feel like I always underestimate BYU.

This is not a dig at BYU, but they are, of course still trying to figure out what all their pieces look like on the offensive side of the ball.

I feel like ECU is actually a fairly veteran team that knows how to score points.

Defense might be in short supply here, but at a minimum, give me those points.

I kind of like them outright.

Yeah, I'm taking BYU here actually coming off of by The defense has been lights out against nobody obviously, but I think situationally BYU will not be like sandwich between anything.

So I'm going Cougar's here to win it.

Any reason to think that either Oregon State or Washington State can pull an upset.

So we've got Oregon State on the road at your Oregon Ducks.

Oregon's favored by about thirty five, Platypus Cup and then the night cap seven thirty on CBS, Washington Does travel to Pullman to square off against the Washington State Cougars.

Washington State is about a three touchdown touchdown dog at home.

No, there's no reason to believe in either one of these teams.

I actually think Washington might be my lock of the week here.

Oh again, okay, yes, two double.

Barrel of the week.

Yeah, not double barrel, but yeah, double lock.

You think they're gonna pound him.

I think Washington State is just not good at all.

And Washington they've played well after the first half against Colorado State, it was like what you see, Davis, But I just think there's too much firepower there.

I think they're gonna win this game, especially since it's a revenge spot.

I think they win this game by twenty eight.

Three or four.

Other notable games here, Okay, Oregon big by the way as well.

Yeah, I tend to agree with that.

Yeah.

North Texas on the road at Army Man.

It was a weird game last year.

It was weird game last year.

But North Texas with Drew west mestermaker, excuse me, Yeah, it's been very solid.

Give me the mean green here minus the number on the road at Army.

Army savored by two and a half points at home.

I'm taking Army here.

You know why?

You how many points North Texas scored last season against Army three three points, three points.

They lost this game eteen three fourteen three.

Yes, it is a revenge spot.

I just don't like the actual spot that this game is being played in.

Four North Texas traveling across the country, so Army is the home dog.

They made the quarterback change after Charleton State and worked out against Kansas State.

I'm going with Army here at home as a.

Dog UNLV on the road at Miami Ohio, Miami ohioway two and a half point home underdog.

I am on UNLV as of my fighting.

Dan Mullens YEP three point thirty ESPN plus it is JMU the Dukes on the road at a Liberty.

This line has come down.

Actually, I'm not sure why.

I like James Madison.

I'm not quite sure what's going on with Liberty right now.

I expected a lot more from them, So give me JMU, give me the Dukes.

I like them winning on the road at Liberty.

It's not quite as big a game now as we thought it was going to be in the preseason, but nonetheless JMU still has a ton of play.

For give me the Dukes.

Yeah, it's not really a crazy road game about an hour and a half apart in Virginia.

I'm going JMU big here.

Didn't like how sloppy Liberty was against I want to say, Bowling Green with all the turnovers last week, So I'm going JMU by a couple of touchdowns.

And three point thirty.

On the Peacock Network, Purdue making the trip up to South Bend.

Notre Dame is favored by about twenty five twenty six points.

I was disheartened this week reading the number of tweets that were sent to many of our friends.

Pete Sampson, I thought jess Smetana got a couple of these, a bunch of the Notre Dame personalities that we know and love.

People riding in and asking is Marcus Freeman's still the guy to lead this program?

Is he the guy you want to talk about?

An over friggin reaction to a loss?

Two losses now, oh and two start for Notre Dame.

Marcus Freeman got this team to a national championship a year ago basically by running the quarterback, and by running with Jeremiah Love and Jadarian Price, and by throwing a lot to tight ends, and by sort of feeling their way through the playoffs with virtually no passing game.

Okay, this was a pickleball offense.

They won with defense.

They did a hell of a job.

They deserve to be there.

I think they absolutely have their guy and Marcus Freeman, no two ways about it.

Okay.

The question that with Marcus Freeman is around the coordinator hires at this point, and I think you're right to bring up, as I know you have, as I have, is this guy good when it comes to actually hiring coordinators that can help support the broader mission.

I'm not sure of that answer right now with respect to their defense and Chris ash because what it looks like to me is a defense is a team that has a ton of talent on that side of the ball, but they're committing too many penalties.

They're getting pushed around against the run, They're not getting any pressure on quarterbacks.

It's a secondary that seems like it is not communicating as well as it did a year ago.

There is a lot that needs to be tied it up on that side of the ball.

I am not here to say that Perdue is going to push that envelope.

I think Notre Dame will win this one going away.

I think they're going to run the ever loving crap out of the ball and they will start to work in some new concepts for CJ.

Carr, we will see perhaps a little bit more down the field.

To guys like Jane Greathhouse, Okay, I think they'll be fine in this matchup.

But to the people out there who are asking about Marcus Freeman, my response is you're asking the wrong question.

We should be asking about Chris ash.

Perhaps if the offense doesn't go nuclear at some point this season, we can ask some questions about Mike Denbrock.

The question surrounding Marcus Freeman is not about whether he's the guy.

It's about whether or not he can solve some of these issues in real time with the coordinators that he has brought on to the staff.

Okay, and that's going to remain the question until we see otherwise.

They've got a really big five week stretch here now, they still have a lot to play for.

I know it's a popular talking point to write Notre Dame completely out of this playoff, Chase.

I'm going to be honest with you here, it's still going to be a rather slim margin for them if they want to get back in.

But it is only week four.

There is a lot that is going to break between now and the end of the season, so it's there for Notre Dame.

But they got to fix things quickly, and they've got about five weeks to do it, because these next five weeks are going to be everything.

The remainder of the schedule, after you get past that USC game in the middle of October, they should be able to win most of those games pretty easily, all right, famous last words.

I suppose they could always drop one, but at time of recording, it looks like those games are very, very, very winnable for Notre Dame.

It is what they do over these next five weeks I think that determine everything and whether or not they can turn this defense around in very short order, to me, is going to be the biggest telltale.

And if they lose, if they lose to Purdue, if.

They lose, obviously over at that point from Mark Freeman, not for Marcus Freeman, but for any playoff chances.

Now I know that I don't think they're going to lose the Purdue.

I think they're gonna win this game going away.

But what they do against teams like Boise State, team like an Arkansas, certainly a team like an NC State who they've got coming up USC These are some big matchups that are in front of them, and I think Notre Dame needs to take them seriously.

Notre Dame needs to go with purpose, and they need to figure out this defense first and foremost.

The offense will sort itself out in my opinion, But defensively, I don't like anything of what we have seen so far.

It feels like all the goodwill they built up over the course of the last couple of years has evaporated overnight.

Chris Ash may not be the guy.

And if he isn't the guy, I hope Marcus Freeman takes matters into his own hands and either turns it over to Mike Mickens or starts Colin plays himself.

But the Chris Ash thing, if it doesn't work this week, if it doesn't work, let's say in the next two weeks, they've got to figure something out relatively quickly.

Because I do not think in all honesty they are fully out of this thing yet.

But they have to show that they understand the assignment and they can get better in a hurry, and that Marcus Freeman has answers.

And that all rides on getting their first win on September.

Twentieth against Purdue Perdue.

I like where Purdue's at.

I think they have showed some encouraging signs here, but they are very very new under Bary otom.

Yeah, showed a little bit of fight against USC, so kudos to them, but Notre Dame going away at home.

They need this one now more than ever.

All right, looking for an optimal quad this week.

By the way, my.

Question to you is how bad you really want place.

It's dawn on me that this is sort of the opposite of the window of opportunity.

You know, if you're going to be in front of the TV and if you want to get the maximum dosage of college football in week four, your optimal slate is in the afternoon.

Okay, if you can build the quad either through your streaming service or manually of many people who do it manually and send us pictures all the time, whatever floats your boat.

At three point thirty, you've got Auburn on the road at Oklahoma, You've got Michigan on the road at Nebraska, You've got Tulane on the road at Old miss which I think could be damn interesting.

And then if you give it a half hour, you've got NC State on the road at Duke, which is going to be a crazy interesting acc matchup.

I had many options here.

I don't think you have as many options early.

You definitely have some interesting options late.

But for me, if you want to really capture the flavor of the week, and if you want to make sure that as many conferences as possible are represented, look in the afternoon that makes sense to you.

It does.

With that being said, if you do need to be out, if you do need to be amongst the people, if you do not have a way that you can be in front of your TV, but you have to find some way to get out there and do something on Saturday.

It may go without saying based on what I just said, but do it anytime before four pm Eastern time.

That's your window.

Okay, okay, that's your window to go out, be amongst people, catch the community showing of cats, go to a movie.

I don't even know what movies are in.

Now, man, I might move my window to night time.

Really, yeah, we can't take the window at night.

We got to do a mid ice stream.

I know we can't.

I don't know.

I think the afternoon ones are pretty spicy to me.

I just want to watch Illinois Indiana.

I want to make sure that you watch Illinois Indiana.

I think that game is very quietly one of the big ones.

Florida versus Miami is probably more of a narrative game, but there is so much intrigue with respect to that.

Baylor Arizona State's going to be fun as hell.

There gonna be a lot of points, yeah, I would expect in that game.

And then you've got some other ones in the night that are also interesting.

Again from a narrative perspective, South Carolina MISSOO could be really interesting.

You look at some of our under the radar games, right, maybe you just like watching rivalries.

Why not watch Washington against Washington State Dan's lock of the week.

Let's see what happens there.

I think there are a lot of reasons to be excited about that nightcap, but earlier for me looks like the window if you need to get out.

By the way, Also notable UCF, Scott Frost and Bill Belichick playing a football game against each other, setting up for in a couple of weeks.

It's the Chapel Thrill series with Chris Ludacris Bridges.

I believe that UCF is favored by about a touchdown in that game.

UCF is favored here.

Troy Buffalo seemed a lot more interesting before the season started.

But Buffalo had a competitive game against Minnesota to start out the year, but then not so competitive.

I want to say it's Kent State last week that they almost lost.

Are unfortunately competitive against Kent State, so that game is interesting to me.

Kansas West Virginia was bonkers in West Virginia in a huge letdown spot.

Now against what could be a really fun Kansas offense in Lawrence.

Air Force Boise is always kind of interesting to me.

Boise.

I think coming off of a bye, they've only played two games, whatever it is, and air Force is a dog at home.

That's just interesting to me.

Ken point home dog I've got written down here.

Yes, Utsa, Colorado State is interesting to me because Colorado State has been not good this year.

As the kids say, cheeks Utsa one of the weirder schedules and more difficult schedules, but I think UTSA is able to take this one on the road at Colorado State.

Also of note, Tennessee is going to try to exercise some of those Georgia demons against UAB, who is awful, and Tennessee might win that game seventy seven to three.

I mean, we should probably make a game here on this show, just because we've seen it a lot in the early going.

We should probably have some sort of like seventy Survivor pool where we get to pick one team each week we think is going to get to seventy.

I like that.

I looked at Tennessee.

I think there's a really good chance that they get to seventy.

I looked at Washington against Wazoo.

I think we're about Florida State getting Kent State a.

Really good chance.

Florida State is probably going to try to get to eighty if at all possible.

Those would probably be my three selections if I'm being honest here.

There's definitely a game to be had there.

Maybe it's something we could talk about on the next episode.

My key number here is fifty.

Will arch Manning complete fifty percent of his passes against Sam Houston better favored by forty and a half.

The other one that's interesting to me just from a narrative and lion standpoint, Louisville's favored by nearly what twenty seven twenty eight points against Bowling Green, who just be liberty.

Bowling Green hasn't been amazing, but they generate a bunch of turnovers.

They need to get way better penalty wise.

But Eddie George now has a cat that is the unofficial mascot of the program, and he's allergic to cats, love it, but he still pets the cat.

Love it.

I don't know, throwing Miller mass into that equation.

Bowling Green covers that score, covers that spread.

Spread right now twenty six and a half points.

One final favorite tie.

Can you drop that big, stanky, luscious, creamy tempting sat rum in five?

Baby oh baby, oh baby, oh baby, O baby baby.

I believe we've got Patriot League versus IVY League this week, Dan, do we not?

True?

We do in a bunch of cases.

It is Patriot League, it is IVY League.

None of these IVY League teams have played any games very difficult perhaps some week four yips I don't know.

Yeah, Friday night, six pm, Columbia.

Oh and O on the road at your Lafayette fighting Leopards, Dan, who you got?

Columbia doesn't stand a chance, not in that environment.

Give me Lafia pick.

I am with you.

When you go to Fisher Stadium.

You never know if you will emerge unscathed.

Gimme the Yeties.

Yes, Saturday High noon, Georgetown on the road versus Brown.

You're not gonna believe it.

Brown undefeated but also winless zero and zero.

Give me the Hoyas on the road.

What the hell?

It's too difficult a place to go to Rhode Islands.

We'd give me Brown.

Really, yes, I need to take the music down.

Are you sure?

Yes?

Absolutely positive?

Holy Cross?

Oh and three on the road at the Yalies, also winless but have not played a game.

Oh and O it's week four, guys, what are we doing?

Gimme holy Cross?

Give me Yale better.

Pizza town?

Is it?

It's new Haven?

Yeah?

Of course I had no idea.

Okay, you don't know New Haven Pizza.

I know Mystic Pizza.

I know that's in the Great.

Marie High but b Haven is just like it's an international pizza Capital Saturday.

At one Fordham oh and three, Colgate oh and three.

Somebody's gotta win, Dan, this is Patriot League on Patriot League crime.

Who do we got?

I'm going Gators slowly, they play that very slow.

I have no idea.

I'm talking about Colgate's gonna win by three.

Give me Hammies.

Let's go Hanmies.

Wow foredam Yeah.

Saturday two pm vm I one and two, Richmond one and two.

Who do we got?

I'm going Spiders.

Give me the Spiders.

Yeah, my Spider Census Tingling.

Give me a regimend here.

And last, but not least, this is the big Saturday primetime game in the Patriot League six pm Eastern Time.

It is Lehigh three and zero.

It is the Bucknell Bison at two and one.

Dan, I gotta go Mountain Hawks, even though even though they're away from Goodman Stadium.

Yeah, give me the Mountain Hawks.

Yeah.

I'm going Lee High wone Engineers by third team.

There you have it, folks again, get in on the game by going to forballers dot com.

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Viory not a sponsor, absolutely could be twelve games on the slate.

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But over the short term, if you sign up for any tier, certified or premium, any paid tier, I should say at verbowlers dot com, you are eligible for prizes.

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If nothing more, you have the peace of mind and knowing that you're helping Dan and I keep the lights on, agree that it is where we're at.

Oh, one other thing here, I did want to mention this.

Oh, okay, we have two longtime listeners, Scott and Katrina.

Okay, they wanted me to do a dramatic announcement.

Oh God, apparently we wish their in laws a happy anniversary seven years ago.

Now did they pay you for this.

It did not pay me for this.

Oh my god, ty, your time is valuable.

It is valuable.

I want to congratulate Scott and Katrina, who are expecting a baby.

Dan, Wait, how did they make it?

We can't talk about that here.

How do they make it?

How do you make a baby?

Tye thing?

Here?

Where is it?

Hold on?

Not talking about this?

Wait?

Hold on?

How did they get to this point physically?

What did they do?

Not talking about this?

Ty?

The suspense here.

We're all adults here.

Congratulations to Scott and Katrina expecting a baby, and yes it is a girl.

Congratulations whoa Congratulations Scott, Congratulations Katrina.

Oh however you made it?

Congrats?

Congrats.

There you go, all right, Dan Ruberts Week four the preview episode in the Books Week four, though for sure there will be drama in store.

If you are interested, please do stop by the YouTube channel live midnight Eastern on Saturday night.

Dan and I do the full recap last week.

I could barely keep my eyes open.

It was an emotional roller coaster after that A and M game, But I've managed to do so admirably, Thank you very much.

Hopefully I will have a little bit more energy this week, being so Notre Dame does not have an emotional ringer to put me through, at least I hope they don't.

With Perdue coming to town.

If Notre Dame loses to Purdue, can we go live right after the game.

If Notre Dame loses to Perdue, I'm quitting the show.

Ooh, I'm it's it's a career.

Like who should I bring in as the new co ho that's up to you.

That's up to you.

I'll produce, you know, I'll edit, I'll cut, I'll help you with video or whatever.

But if yeah, if there's any sort of Rex out there for who Dan can replace me?

Man McConaughey has been texting me NonStop.

Okay, whoever listen, that's on you.

I will just serve as the quiet producer, Yeah, hanging out in the background.

But I'm done.

I'm done with college football.

If they lose the Purdue, okay, fair enough.

Give people out there something.

Show is really going to take off.

How horrible would that be?

If Notre Dame were to lose to Purdue.

You drop off of Mike and then the show just explodes in popularity.

That's probably the moment.

Oh my God, just the delta.

The growth of the show is astronomical.

To the moon people just waiting.

Okay, eight five five verbal three is the reaver blind.

I am cutting them again this week.

She is still out of town.

So if you got anything to say, do it before like nine thirty pm Eastern time.

I need a bit more.

That's reasonable.

Eight five five verbal three.

That's that's the number, Okay, Dan Rubinstein.

It's always a pleasure to speak with you, Always pleasure to be here in the verballerhood talking through all of the games that we have in store.

We will be back again on Saturday night.

Make sure you tune into that live stream, hit file, hit subscribe if you have yet to do so, leave us a star rating or review.

All of that stuff helps.

Thank you one, thank you all.

For supporting what we do.

We'll catch you all on Saturday and Sunday.

Stay safe, peace,