Commonwealth Smash

0:30 Music. And welcome back to the Boundary Corner Podcast along with my partners Brian Siegel and Jonathan Talley. And tonight our very special guest from 2D PBI AM Curtis Wilson. And this episode of the Boundary Corner Podcast is brought to you by Doctor Jeremy Counts at the Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg. Your friendly neighborhood Pharmacy, 301 S Main St. Blacksburg, VA and Y'all know what's in Blacksburg, VA right now.

1:15 I believe it's that Commonwealth Cup. Some fucking winners is what the opposite of what's in Charlottesville. There we go, losers. Pete, we appreciate you joining us tonight, man. How are you doing and how? Is the game Saturday? I'm still feeling good, man. You know, I watched at home for the first half. My my wife had to watch me act like a fool for for a good 60 to 90 minutes. And then we went to the bar for a little while and I was I was more calm because the game was in hand. It's nice having a game in hand in the first half. Like, complete second-half. No sweat. Just like, let's see how much we can put up on these fuckers.

1:55 Well, Brian likes that too, because the last time Thursday night Syracuse game, we're playing poker in the basement and we get up like 20. What was it like 20? Or something like that it was. 24 We got this one on 24 I'm going. To play now. Next thing you know, he walked out with like 65 bucks that night. Like whoa. Like he was. Playing loose, I was, I was feeling myself. I was like, let's, let's go, man. Oh my gosh, by the way, Yep, Mr. Drones joining us tonight. Let's go. If y'all haven't seen Mr. Drones. Also got his Boundary Corner water bottle today and is out there on Twitter. But. Y'all. We have a ton to unload. Pete is here for a lot of reasons.

2:36 A We love. Pete, can I can I say something? Go ahead. Can I say something? Because Pete's here Pete Pete is here because that is that's prophet Pete. Prophet Pete from the preview panel, a lot of PS but that's Prophet Pete because when he came on the when he came on the on the panel he told us some things. He talked about some things. And I watched it come to fruition and I said, damn that motherfucker, smart. I've tweeted that video out a couple times from. I was going to do it too, but I say, you know what, I'm going to let him do that. Oh, I'm going to wait until he comes on and we might tweet it out after that. But seriously, if you go back shameless plug, look at the preview panel and listen at what Pete said about this team this year.

3:26 We had a lot of people doubting. We had a lot of people that didn't know swaying one way or the other. And a lot of the things that Pete said in there came came true and I was, I definitely was happy to see it. I mean I was on, I was on board the whole time kind of what where we are. But like I said, the stuff that Pete talked about in that show was was pretty cool to see it come to, I don't know just about the 2019 team and how this team compared. And and while I was talking about that, I said if things aren't going so well, we might see Karen drones and we might get a spark in the team and have a very similar run like we had in 2019. I hoped that it didn't go like that because I was hoping Grant Wells would come in, hit the ground running we we'd be fine.

4:07 But that's not how it went. And it it did turn out a little bit like 2019 and there was some comparisons in there. But I appreciate you bringing that up Tally, because I have thought about that a couple times since. Definitely, man. You know what else I started to to tweet out too? Mike McDaniel and David Y'all came on this show and you told me. You didn't see us making it. You was doubters, man. I love y'all. But guess what? You were fucking wrong. You said five. I told you to go to six with me. You wouldn't move. You wouldn't move. So kind of move. We love y'all. He tried to sell them into coming up to six with him because Tally had a good feeling about to see. Tally was also very happy to see that win because Tally was sitting here last week after we got off. He's like, y'all we got to win this fucking game Because if we don't win this game.

4:53 My whole or of we're going to have. It this season's going to come from my boy. I know they had me. I know they had me. Bookmarked. Yeah, people had you bookmarked. I know they had me bookmarked, man. But you know what boys? Everything went to fruition. Like Pete said, we're going bowling for the first time since 2021. Back in that double up on wins this year. Look who's in the house. There. He is. And we got to do what we normally do, Pete, every Tuesday, whether it's us three or Shelton's able to join us. You're joining us this week. We tell the truth Tuesday. And it's a concept that comes from one of our friends who's in the coaching ranks to concept Pete Carroll sit.

5:36 You sit down every for them. It's Monday and you say what went well. What went bad? What can we do better and what we didn't expect? So y'all, let's just start it right out there and about what went well. And I'm going to say this, it's the edge that this team played on both sides of the ball. They played mean, they played nasty. They wanted to go out and hit people. They found contact. And and that's a that's a that's a thing you got to love to see when it comes to the the sport of football as a team that wants to do that because it's the it's basically putting their will on someone. That team reminded me a little bit of some of those 2000s team that would literally break break teams will with their physicality, and that output on Saturday reminded me some of that getting getting back to that type, that brand of football. That's definitely been missing.

6:36 I thought the O line definitely played physical and I thought the play calling was pretty outstanding, especially while we were still working the formula or so to speak. In terms of setting up the pass with the with the RPO game and having Chiron run a lot early and then that led to the passes late. I thought Tyler Bowen called a great game. Yeah, man. I mean, it comes down to the the brightest stars are going to shine the brightest. You know what I'm saying? Like the the biggest stars shine the brightest. When you get in the in the position to shine, that's what you do. You know what I mean? So we went in there, we had our mindset on what we needed to do. And I feel like every star on our team went out there with a purpose and they did what they were supposed to do.

7:22 You had, you had drones, you had two, you had lane. Even though in the stat sheet it shows he didn't catch a pass, he called a touchdown. There was no holding on that plan. I don't know. D Tackle falling down is not holding. Yeah, and then he let it go and then the the offensive lineman let go. But anyway, I digress. You know Felton and the the Tucker Holloway and he, the coaches from the top to the bottom. We went out there and we beat their ass like we was better than them. We went and showed it. They tried to have some fabricated hatred or something through the week with that quarterback and a couple of their players had some stuff going on.

8:04 Well, I hope that you stopped coughing up blood by now. OK. How about that pressure on Calandria? Tell me. Hey, Brian, real quick before we because we're going to hit the defense first, you'll hold those thoughts in. Brian, you put something on here about the win itself and I want you to explain why you wrote that, because you wrote that in there. I didn't. Which one? The culture win. Yeah, I mean, like I was saying, you know, thinking back back to those 2000, like this looked like a team that was playing with an edge with a type of intensity that I have not seen in a while. Like whether it's APR going out there and honestly getting a couple late hits on the quarterback that rattled his cage, that shook him up.

8:53 And that was the, I mean, they had two first downs in the first half. They were both off of those. But that quarterback was not the same. And that's how we used to set the tone. And I got. To give a little, I got to give a little bit of credit to the quarter, to UVA's quarterback because he kept getting up. You know, people like he he's a warrior, man. I got to give him his props. He kept getting up, but he kept getting hit, man. He got to understand like you you. I'm from Alabama and I'm a Virginia Tech fan. So when I first. Started like, I've been a Virginia Tech fan for a long time, but when I first started, you know, getting involved with Virginia Tech, Twitter or going to the games and things like that, it's certain stuff that you got to know and you got to adapt into.

9:38 One of the things that I did when I went to one of my first games, somebody asked me about Frank Beam and I was like, yeah, it's time for him to go. That was not the right thing to say. I'm going to tell you right quick, like it was some people that was on my ass. Hey man, you can't say that you? We don't talk about Frank like that. I was like, y'all ask me a question. You know, he's a, he's a kid from Florida that came to Virginia. I guess they did a great job recruiting. And he starts talking about this rivalry not really knowing the roots of it, I don't think. Because if you start looking at the kids that had, you know, ties to being pissed off at him, you had pain. You had APR, you know Fuga's in there. You know, and then you had Narelle Pollock, who is from Florida, but he's been at Virginia Tech for 19 years. So I mean, these are people that know what this rivalry is and. Got some shots in at him too.

10:33 I mean, the statements that he made was just. You just don't do that. It's not. It's not good business for him. Because what do you all think? Where do you all think all those things went? Where do you think that? As soon as that, as soon as he said that, it, I mean tweeted it out on Saturday. It was on every screen, it was on every locker. It, it was posted everywhere. And it should be because you think about who we have on our side in our coaching staff, the Pearson Preludes, the Adidas, JC Price. I mean it's endless. And all of those guys have a deep understanding of this rivalry and it's something that I'm sure there's some some UVA guys on that staff over there. It's just not the same. Our head coach was in our building as an as an assistant back in the day.

11:15 He has an understanding. He went to high school in Virginia. It's and we brought in Frank Beamer. I don't know if you guys saw the video. That he put out a couple hours ago, but Frank talked to the team and I can. I can only imagine how much this was emphasized, especially after that NC State game didn't go so well. These guys were mentally ready. They were more mentally prepared for this game. They played like it and our coaches coach like it. 100% and it started up front and you say it started on defense. Y'all are mentioned that the QB pressures. 6 sacks, 7 players, seven players with at least a half a sack or better. Cole Nelson and his motor going crazy, finding Calandri multiple times, slamming him down.

11:58 But it was just the whole game, right? That whole game that D line attacked and Y'all mentioned Fuga, Y'all mentioned APR. It was. They literally just said we're pinning our ears back every play and we're going to attack like. Well, we saw early on they were not going to be effective rushing the football. So bend your ears back, go after his ass. The only way they're winning is if they get the ball down field. If he drops back, hit his ass and it showed up on the stat sheet too, because we had the six sacks in total. There were five on Calandria, but there were eight hurries. We had only had a maximum of four hurries. In any other game we had double that and then we had six sacks on top of that. That's an immense amount of pressure. Crazy amount of pressure.

12:41 And then if you think about it too, and this is my feeling on it, y'all, don't see what you want to say. I almost think JC Price told them on that first drive. I don't give a shit. Hit him. I don't give a fuck. If the ball is released, hit him. And and to your pallet. To your point, just a few minutes ago he kept getting up but he knew it was coming. It was White Day. I know it's him. He was thinking about even the touchdown pass. He threw the deep one. Like he got rocked and. He was slogan. He got rocked. And then it was crazy to me when they reviewed the, when they reviewed the, the hit from one of the hits from pain where he hit him in the shoulder.

13:25 And the commentator's like, that's not a targeting. That's not they. They better not call that a targeting because his his face mask is up and he doesn't even hit his helmet. You know what I'm saying? It's like it. Was hers like who? Always seems to shit. It's like it also said I hate him. But it was like it was controlled aggression, man, you know what I'm saying. Besides, besides APR getting too late hits, but it was like we ain't getting kicked out of the game. We're not going to target when he starts to slide. We'll whatever, we're going to hit him every play. Though that first one wasn't going to be that bad, but Fuga got a piece of calandry at the end and he just fell right into where APR was coming through and and just teed off on it, man.

14:06 The second one, yeah. A little little, little, little, little late. But you know. They should have never threw one on Burgos, though. Burgos was just legitimately there as he was finishing his throw and they were just like, all right, y'all got to stop it. Y'all got to stop hurting it. You're being mean. But then y'all saw it, and we saw it while watching the game. Like when that happened so quick early. You could see he was. He was thrown off his back foot. He short armed a few. He created the errant throws and the lane should have had a pick 6. Oh yeah. Dodge That ball was right there. I. Don't like those hands? Yeah, right. But we eventually get one. But as as we were talking about last week and probably Pete, you talking about as well, it's like we do this, it's he's gonna force it. He's already he's kind of a turnover machine, which, yeah. You know, do you remember the Maryland game? I know it was a little while ago. He threw 3 picks on three straight throws. And they were winning that game when all that was happening, right?

15:03 They had a chance. I mean, the kid, he's shown an ability to make plays and be dynamic in the past game and whatnot, and we really made him, for that first half look God awful. Yeah, yeah, the kid has moxie. Whatever you want to call it, but like. He's still, he's still a true freshman quarterback and he looks the part a lot of times. And we made him look every bit of true freshman quarterback for that first half. Yeah. Now, now something, Brian, you mentioned a few minutes ago and we all saw it and it's always it. It's the worry part. It was our rush defense because we've seen we've sprung leaks at times this year. We come off the game versus NC State where Armstrong has some really good runs and we don't control that and Calandry does have a little wiggle to him, but. You know, at the end of the day, 43 yards net, 29 rushes, like they couldn't run the ball and and that's that made me alleviate because when I saw them like early, like they can't find holes because you know, I hate to say this, we're five and six each year and every game we lost. We always had a big run, strong.

16:09 I mean, that lost the Marshall game, that helped swing the Rutgers game. The Purdue game as well and it's like you're sitting here and and it's just the type of fans I know we all are. It's just like, oh God, they're just like they're going to get like a 45 yard run. Well, you know what? Early in the game, what? You know, when I was texting, y'all, I'm like, we're going to win. There ain't nothing to worry about. You know how Shelton is. He's looking at our analytics all week. No, they don't. They're not good here. We're good here. So he's doing that. But I'm just like, I'm looking at this and they're not going to win. Like we're going to beat them and we're going, we're going. I mean, when did you guys, when did you guys feel that? Though that's what I was going to tell you so during the game. When Pollock tackled, I think his pace from their team and he kind of twisted his ankle up and he had to had to go in the locker room for a minute.

16:55 Just the way that he made the tackle. I didn't want anybody to get hurt but we have been so bad at not wrapping up or not game tackling or not making sure tackles. When he tackled him in the backfield and it was like just a. A good back, good tackle for loss. I was like OK, they're ready to play. So from then on I was like they're not going to run the ball we're we're and that was early in the game that may have been first quarter, was that the one where Hollins got his leg rolled up like was it? Hollins that got rolled up. That's it was, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was Hollins. And I think it might have been hollered that that took him down. But yes, I I remembered that and I was like, OK, that was that was the game. We did look like he got twisted. Yeah, because you got so many of of games that we go back to. That guy doesn't make that tackle and that run goes for 20 yards.

17:42 So that run goes for 15 yards or goes for a first down and extend. When he made that tackle in the backfield and just how he made that tackle, I was like, yeah, it's going to be a rough day for them. Yeah, I I hate to see a kid get hurt. I didn't want him to get rolled up on. I think I was, you know, I think he came back in the game, so that's good. But when we made that tackle I'm like, yeah, it's it's over. Y'all, might as well just go ahead and get your Pinatas out. You were. You were earlier than me because I needed the Gosnell touchdown. As soon as we got that does that 10 point margin and that beautiful call that gave us a ton of momentum. I was like I think we're good. I I really, it felt like at that moment with the with the way the crowd reacted and everything, I was like, I feel pretty good right now, being up 10, nothing.

18:27 Ziegler, if I recall. Have we? Did we get up 10 nothing this entire season and not ultimately blow out or win the game? We got up and it would blow. Out or about 10.10 point advantage. I don't, I don't think we had a got to a 10 point advantage the whole season and didn't ultimately win the game. So I mean that that was one option. The the one that kind of stood out to me from a defensive side was when they first threw that that first like tunnel screen out to Malik Washington and we had like 8 hats to the ball that that was, I was like, OK, we're playing like we need to. I don't think they're going to be able to do a whole lot offensively, and I thought we were going to have have enough juice. I didn't know we were going to score 55 points, but I thought we were going to have enough juice to to to put that one away at that point.

19:16 Yeah, that was reminiscent of the Wake Forest game and the Syracuse game, that gang tackling that swarming. We saw that in those two games. We we didn't really need it as much in the BC game because BC just like really played awful and called a terrible game. But, but in the weight game and the Syracuse game, you saw that gang tackling and having hats near the football and it was there on on Saturday. I'm with Pete. Pete, it was the guys now touchdown A because of where we were in the ballsy call and if you saw that play develop. We were getting the first down regardless if he had handed it to two and we were getting the first. If Kyron decides to run as he's rolling out, we're getting the first. But instead they suck everybody in and he just got just ran right under and it was just gone.

19:59 But, but you see him going to that play and it's like the nerves are on that play. Like if we don't get this, I feel OK because they have done nothing offensively. They got the ball to Washington to try to get a first down and they could not get it. But I'm with you Pete. That touchdown was it like? It was just like. They're not going to be able to score more than two times in a row to get back in this game. Speaking of Washington, if you look at his game stats, Oh my God, he killed us. If you would have told me, just look at the game stats, I would have been like they won this game 14 for 1:15. Oh my God. But then you actually look at the real stats first half. Y'all do y'all know what he did in the first half? It wasn't that.

20:42 It wasn't 100. 50 right under 35 or 26 is all he had in the first half. So he Pats at it like crazy. We'll get to, you know why, where he should have been. But if you told me he went for 1:15, if I was sitting here and y'all were a little bit drunk, y'all didn't know what was happening in the game, Washington's going to have 115 yards. Y'all be like. Yeah, that's not good. Probably not good for us. Probably not a good day especially when you you know think well if he's got 100 and you know 15 yards that means Fields probably has at least 80 or 90 and you know, but I mean that that's why when you look at look at the game it's it's a different story though. I mean they really didn't do anything offensively until like late the third quarter.

21:31 I mean, I. Mean he caught some. Even then, at that point, it's like the game was out of. Reach he caught some passes on somebody #27 I think he. I don't know. I think he was in the stands at the beginning of the game, No disrespect. I think his last name is Childers or something like that. He's a white DB. How many white DBS? You know, that's good. Like he caught some passes on him. So I don't know how many yards he caught on him. I'll go back and look. But by the time they start trying to pass that, I mean we had some stat pad, we had some third stringers and I mean it was four boys in. You know that it was 38 to three. You're gonna you're gonna ease your foot off the gas a little bit on defense.

22:14 I kind of wish we hadn't I kind of wish we had won 55 to 3:00. But it's it's OK. I also, I mean, after they kicked that field goal, there was there was a party apparently. About the light. Show. Yeah, man, the light show came on, man. Light show and fireworks and fireworks. That's just absolutely ridiculous. Yeah, that's that's one you gotta somebody, somebody in the booths got to check out of that. That's what he called audible. You can't. You can't be doing that, man. And I'm going to call an audible because it's a set up right to what we talked about. We're talking about all three phases of the game. Let's talk about the special teams, because after that happens, they do the fireworks, they celebrate their field goal, which you don't look for a field goal down 31 to nothing.

22:56 You can go for the touchdown, tune, runs that ball back. And again, it was Brian you. It kept it. It was. This did feel like an old school Virginia Tech game because we were hitting hard. And then all of a sudden, he found that crease and found the sideline and just turned. That patience, man. God. He waited for everything to set up, hit the hole, broke a tackle up the sideline. Yeah, that kind of felt like, I'm sorry. Brian, no, you go ahead. Go ahead. No, it just felt like a a perfect way for Tootin's regular season to culminate. Because he has had such a fantastic season and to see all of the phases of his game, his burst, his patience and just like the way he is such a playmaker all in one play for a touchdown to basically put the game out of reach, although it was already out of reach, that was amazing. Don't forget, he went up in the He went up in the stands and had the beer.

23:55 Yeah, he did he. Found it too. So definitely was a great time. Well, but it just showed you like that. Like that was joy right there. Like you know, most of those guys when they get near the end of an end zone, they don't think about it. It's find your teammates, celebrate. He saw the plethora and it was a plethora of Virginia Tech fans there and he went to them and you can see the look on his face when he come off. Like I shouldn't have did that. But it felt so good to to do that. Couple other things on special teams. John Love two for 2 from 40 plus by the. Way dude. He's been. He's been money this year. He has been. Money. He's been money this year, man.

24:35 And if you look at him kick those balls, those balls went through midway up that that's 50 yard plus. Shut up John Love on that. And then how about Donta Lovett being Johnny on the spot when they fumble that ball? Like right there and I know. How about Lovett? His mom would love to hit. Somebody on the sideline and murdering them. You think that kid ain't ready to get in there and play? Yes. Golly. Yeah, he's ready, man. He's ready. And I mean special teams overall be just solid solid across the board. I mean I think late late the game we had that that one muff that kind of is what it is but no harm no foul there.

25:15 But overall we were just a really good game from special teams especially love seeing him you know knocking those those deep ones back. I'm like wow. OK, so we we we've got some range here. We've got a guy that if we can get it, you know, around the 30 yard line, we got a guy that can make those kick kicks pretty consistently. That's a big time asset to have. Well, that's a win. That's that that they play deep defense is play different. If you have a guy that's that consistent because it's like, OK, listen, we've got to attack because they're going to get three points. When you're ahead of the game, it's even more like, you know, we were ahead, you know, big on this one. But you get into a tight game and it's like you go up 20 to 17 and it's like, OK, you know what?

25:58 There's a 25. If we don't attack and get a 10 yard loss here, he's going to pipe this one right down the middle. It's not going to be a problem. And now we're going to have to go score a touchdown to be tied in this game. All right, I'm going to flip it now. I'm going to go to the offensive side of the ball. Yeah, when you're just Willy nilly. Exactly. Shout out Andrew there, but let's talk about the offensive inside of the ball. And I can't remember who mentioned it, but Tyler Bone was in his bag on Saturday. Yeah, I I had said that. And you know, I've given and I think everyone gave Tyler a lot of crap last year. I thought this year it was going to be tough to bring him back unless you brought in a Co OC. We didn't do that. We actually promoted him to quarterback coach and the offense looked pretty much the same and pretty much just as anemic through the first three to four games.

26:47 But lo and behold, they switch up the offense. And we saw some more creative playmaking and I wasn't sure earlier in the year who to give credit to because there's been a lot of talk about Brent Davis and his contributions to the RPO game and more of the option looks that we do because he was from Army. But I think we know that the play caller for the games is Tyler Bone. We know that we've been able to schedule some nice play calls at the beginning of games. Well, this one was a master class because the way everything's set up. Like if we don't have that penalty on 3rd and one if you want to talk about things we could have done better. Again, we had a penalty on a third and one that backed us up. We might have scored a touchdown on that first drive.

27:27 You know things things kind of changed after that. But he was, he was absolutely in his bag, he absolutely was. And that the Gosnell one was really beautiful. But there were so many things that he did in that first and second quarter that set things up for later. Yeah. And what I liked is that, yeah, we had the big plays, but we also had a lot of. Just really good drives that culminated in scores that culminated in points. And so, I mean, it was really there wasn't anything that they were throwing at us that that he wasn't ready to have something to counter or in most cases being on the attack and taking the game to the defense and making them have to adjust. He really kept them off balance the whole game. And and the nice thing was like this, we knew this wasn't a ferocious front seven.

28:18 I mean there's there's a linebacker or two that are all right, but they're D line, despite bringing a bunch of guys back, has been a sore spot for them all year. And it was when I was looking at it, and I see that they're 117th in yards per rush allowed going into this thing, I was like, I think we know what we can do in this game. And we did it well, and we did. And we were able to hit them with some different things. You know, the thing that I like the most you were talking about, you know the the front seven there, we, we attacked them early and often. They really had to keep Sanker in the box most of the game to stop that. And I think that's what opened up some of the deep stuff that that kept him in a spot where he was having to kind of play in, in a conflict situation whether I'm going to support the run, support the pass.

29:04 So it really kept them off balance and didn't let let Sanker kind of. Yeah, he he was still out there. He was a tackling machine but he was in a spot where he was in conflict the whole game. He got dragged into the end zone. He did get dragged into, he did get dragged into the end zone. Felton did that to him and that was that 84 yarder and and again I think it's Shelton is a big explosive play guy. P If if you don't know Shelton, I know. I follow your guys stuff. I God, he he follows it so close. But on Saturday, I mean, we think about it, that's 35 points or it's 28 points between the Gosdale 44 yarder. Then you got the Holloway on that little fake trick.

29:44 By the way, they studied that XTB play last week so hard that when they act like they were running to him, the whole defense went to him and Tucker just had a lane. It was just like Kyron got to stand in and try to act like he was blocking. He. Just skipping. He was skipping. He was a little shuffle, little shuffle, just getting loose. I'm so happy for Tucker, for that, that touchdown, man. Wearing the 25 and everything like that was that was very cool. And you're right, man. They they thought they read it. But they read it wrong. They read it completely wrong. But it's it's having those guys like that and that is what what has been missing for years at Virginia Tech is having the multiple explosive guys.

30:27 And and we saw how well that this staff recruited in the portal last year with Tootin, with Felton, with Jalen Lang, where all those guys that at any point in time they can pop a big one on you. And that changes the dynamic of a team. You don't have to plot every time. There is not enough teams in this country good enough to take it and go 10 plays, 75 yards every single time. With eight yard, 12 yard plays, you have to hit home runs. And and not every You can't. You can't be late to late, late 2000s Wisconsin. Every. Damn. Time, especially not us. No, no, we ain't got the. We ain't got the Joe's to do that.

31:09 All right, Well, y'all. What did y'all think about Kyron's performance? I mean, my guy, he's my guy, man. I mean he, he does what he's supposed to do. I think you mentioned it earlier. You know, I got between a couple of different chats and you know, groups and things like that. Somebody said on one of his runs where he had opportunity to go out of bounce. And somebody said, man, he needs to get out. You know, he doesn't need to. He didn't need to try to run people over. He doesn't need. That's how he plays. He's been playing like this. You know what I'm saying? Like as a football player, you can't think this is the play. I'm going to get hurt. You know what I'm saying? I just don't think that's in his DNA.

31:50 You know what? I'm I'm not in his head, but I'm watching him play. He knows when he needs to get down. He knows when he needs to get out of bounds. But like sometimes, man, that mentality that he brings to the offense, it's just. You can't really put it on paper. You know what I mean? You can't really say this is a stat, but it'll be a run because you know in every game you can go to a run where he just wants to punish the defense. And I'm sure he walks back to the to the huddle and say, did you see what I did to these motherfuckers? Like, they ain't. They don't want to smoke for real. They ain't you when you got your quarterback that has that kind of confidence. It exudes through your whole offense, even when you a fucking sucky offensive lineman, when you got a quarterback behind you that's talking like that and then he has that kind of confidence. It does give you a little bit of Nope. It lost you there, Tally.

32:40 Yeah. Well, Brian, you got something on this. Yeah, I was just going to say like, he's smart with it too. The way he attacks, when he, when he decides whether he's going to run through a guy or not, man, Because you see it and. When he does that, he's he knows that he has the leverage. So he he's the guy that's bringing the impact. He's not meeting a guy that's coming at him full speed. He's meeting the guy that's standing there broke down and he's going to run through him and I think so. So it's very selective with how he does that, but it definitely is a a way to have that mental edge against the defense when you do it like that. And there's if there's ever a game to send a message and not go out of bounds.

33:23 It's the last game of the year against your rival. Let it. Let it all hang out, man. Like, unless you're going to knock yourself out of the game, Logan Thomas style. Getting getting a concussion against UCLA. Like, yeah, send a message because it's the last game of the year. Run yourself into the ground because you ain't playing for three weeks. You might not play again if you don't win the game. So I loved it. I thought Carmen played a great game. I don't care that his percentage was what, under 59? Yeah, because. 30% of his completions went for touchdowns and he made the throws he absolutely needed to make and they were perfect. The the throw to Lane that didn't count was perfect. The throw. The throw to Felton that did count was perfect.

34:03 The Gosnell throw was perfect. Like 244 yards on 10 completions like that is absolutely ridiculous. I know the 84 yarder helps, but he had 50 yards rushing too, so we're talking about. Around 300 yards from that guy on basically 7 plays that that did something, that's that's incredible production. He's a gamer, man. He's a gamer. He is a gamer and it's. And by the way, I don't know if y'all mention this. Sorry I had to step offline there for a moment. No UV as quarterback did not outplay him. No. If you want, let's just look at QBR really quick. Oh yeah, well he threw for just as many yards and almost as many touchdowns.

34:43 QBR was 73.2 for Kyron and 21.7 for Anthony Colundry. Yeah, he didn't. Watchers telling us who played better in this game or something like, did you watch the game? No, they didn't. They didn't. They just wanted to try to talk their boy up. Yeah, it's it's always fun when people look at stats and then like, Oh well, the stats actually say that he had a better game too. Like, what do you did you watch the game? Did You're not even looking, You're not even looking at stats correctly? Yeah, exactly. All right. Another couple quick things to play. Run game was awesome Tooting 7 + a carry on top of that 94 touch 94 kickoff return touchdown and then and you know the run game just again why I feel like I'm reminiscing.

35:30 Again we had a run game all year like all year 252 Saturday. So if we even just let's just throw out the 117 and the the 50 from Kyron. We had other guys getting close to 100 yards in numerous and various ways and again, it just when you go almost 7 to KF feels awesome. Yeah, yeah, that's a team. It was like 6.8, correct? I mean, 6.8, we were able to just push them around. And you're right, Curtis, I think about the Purdue game and the Marshall game in particular all year because they were so winnable. And if we had had this offense from the beginning with Kyron, what could have been?

36:14 At the same time, we're not going to a New Year 6 either way and we would have been in a bowl either way. So it's kind of all right, but I'm glad that we got to this point. I wish I had started a little earlier, but it was a thing of beauty for the wins that we had. The run game was working perfectly that in the second-half of the year like for the offensive line that's in front of these guys and and God, God bless these these kids that play a line, but it's not the best unit and we know that. We made the most of it in in these ACC wins, 1000% and and for the offensive line you mentioned earlier, Pete, you know I'm trying to get Brown on here but he had a step off like I did. But that was, in my opinion, that was the best game they played all year in every aspect.

37:01 Run game, pass blocking. They gave up no sack and it just like you said, Pete, we were physical up front. It like got mentally into their heads. Go get these guys, grab them and push them out of the way. Yeah, it was. It was good to see you this kind of what Internet was going in and out there for a minute. But I think I would have heard Pete talking about was when you look back at something like the even the ODU game, I think we had 100 yards rushing as a team. You know, you look at the Purdue game, we had like 30 yards rushing at 18. No, we had, we had like we had like 12 railroad. It was like 11 or 12, Yeah, 1111 I.

37:43 Mean and you think about those teams now at the end of the year, it's like Purdue is not a great. They're not a good team. They finished last and you look at the. Worst. Division and you. Yeah. And you. And then you look at it too. And then you look at what he brings to the to the field and you're like, what were we thinking? What were we doing? You know, and it's just what I don't want to put so much on on on Kyron's shoulders, but it's just little things that he does like his footwork. I never seen us run the play where he where he, like Cupid, shuffles to the sideline and tosses it and we get in two and gets on the edge. Every time we run that play he's get like 10 yards, you know, every now and then instead of Kyron tossing it, he'll just hold it and then he goes for 1012 yards. It's, it's.

38:28 More than his. Physical ability. It's more than the way he plays, it's more than the way he runs. It's the belief that he can get us a win. I I honestly believe that when we started hooker in that 2019 year and we will make the comparison one last time, the team didn't all the sudden get way better. Like the the entire team started playing better because they believed they had a guy who could win. And that is really what happened to this team post Marshall. Is they're like, you know what, I think this this guy might have it and they all play harder because they think they had a chance. Like, there's been so many examples of this in sports, but I'll give you 1 real quick. Steve Carlton back in the day for the Phillies awful year, he won 20 games because every time he pitched the team thought they could win. They might have won 60 games the entire season, but twenty of them were one Carlton pitch.

39:18 That's what Kyron gives us. That's. Crazy Ryan. We were talking about the offensive line here and from our perspective and again, it's my unknowing eye. Tally's kind of knowing eye because he played in tight end. He knew things that have to be best offensive line performance. All year, Yeah, definitely the best all year. I mean, especially when you look at relatively competition, it's kind of hard to, you know, make that judgement, you know, across the board there. But in terms of just raw output, yeah, that was that was the best they played all year. There really wasn't any. Presence of that team in the backfield. We were consistently moving guys off the ball. The run game was working, whether it was going to Tuden, you know a few carries there for for Thomas.

40:03 We had you know obviously drones got involved in the running game there as well. So we were really kind of doing whatever we wanted to for for most of the game. You know, I don't think they really had a tackle for loss until like the late third quarter or something like that. So it was it was a really impressive performance. Like I said, when you look at the overall picture that that wasn't a very good front seven. If if if Sanker wasn't in the box, we could have really gutted that team, he. Was all they had. Man, that guy. And the key is good. Robinson, him and Sanker and Robinson are not going to be there all four years.

40:44 They're not. And Sanker. 'S a very good player. Let's see if we can get the Cam Robinson to come. Yeah, up 64, a little bit down 81. Where he should have been to begin with. All right, real quick. I'm going to start with Pete. Pete, in your eyes, both sides of the ball, what went bad in your eyes? I did mention the false start in the third and one first first drive, and that happened against BC happened in this game both games. We ended up romping later on because we showed an ability to move the ball Despite that penalty. Again, I'd say third down. It wasn't as big of a deal in this game because we were able to just get on top of them and whatever. Third down has been a problem all year. It wasn't a great percentage in this game either.

41:24 I think we were 6 or 15 or maybe whatever it was below 50% I believe, so that could be better. I'm not going to rag on the red zone because we scored so many touchdowns from far away and I don't want to take any anyone else's. What do you guys got in terms of the what we could do better. You know, I I think we probably got a little out of hand with the roughing the passer there, especially on you know one or two drives in a row. But I I think like I said, it was a good tone setter like because I feel like from then on out like they they really knew that. All right it's not our day. It's not our day but you know at some point you don't want to hurt yourself. Really got them into field goal range. Thankfully a bad play by them and a very good play by our defense got them back out of field goal range, so. Yep.

42:13 What about you, Tally? I mean, the only thing you really can point to is penalties. You know, I think we had over 100 yards in penalty. So between jumping offsides or hitting the, hitting the quarterback late or celebrating with the fans, all that stuff's great because you're winning 55 to 17. But as a whole, you know what I mean? Like if you just want to say what went bad like. We don't need 100 yards in penalties. We know a lot of times when we play, teams especially like going into a bowl game, not knowing who we play. We don't need to get that many penalties. Did any of you guys mention the fumble? I was getting ready to say it. Yeah, that's sorry. Goal line again, it's something we have not seen Kyron do a lot this year other than like the first game with Rutgers.

42:57 But I mean we we look at him like this could have been 60 and if we didn't take our foot off the gas pedal it might have been 70 and like. And and again but and sometimes you in a game like this, you hope stuff like that happens because I think someone like Iron Drones watch the next time he runs down at the goal line. I guarantee you that thing will be extra secure because all year we've seen him, if you've made mistakes, the next time you're like, you know what he's cleaned that up a little bit like, it's like he sees it. I'm not going to do that again. That hurts my team and I love seeing that. All righty. So I'm going to let Pete. This is our this is the fun one. Pete, did anything happen you were completely not prepared for? You know, I wasn't I wasn't prepared for A50 Burger. I honestly wasn't like I I did not think we haven't blown out UVA since 2016.

43:54 Before that it was basically since 2011. So I was, I was just not prepared for for the I was expecting and I said it on our podcast. A three and a half hour stomach ache. I was expecting to be stressed out the whole time and so that's what I wasn't prepared. Prepared for. Just like UVA not showing up and us absolutely being ready for the moment. Siegel, I think you've got something similar, right? Yeah. I mean, I was not expecting to shellac their ass for four quarters. I was expecting. I picked us to win. Was it 30 to 20? I think it's what I said. So, I mean, I was expecting us to have it in hand, but it was going to be something where I was kind of sweating the whole way.

44:39 I did not expect us to go out there and beat them 5517. I didn't expect the type of tone setting on both sides of the ball that we saw. I didn't expect them to completely shit in their shoes like they did. So you know, not not even shit the pants. If you're shitting in your shoes, that's a fucking. Thing. Talent. What about you? Because that was a good one. Pretty good. Yeah, I I wasn't expecting. I mean, why don't you not tell him? I knew he had some speed and I knew he had some talent, but I didn't expect. I watched UVA play a couple of times this year and they looked competent against some teams. Even in some losses, they've lost a lot of close games, mainly because they're a young team.

45:21 I didn't. I didn't expect us to look like. So overpowering and so fast. Like when you have a, when you have a your running back that runs a a kickoff back and he starts celebrating and throttles down at the 30 yard line like you are faster than that team. You know 84 yard, 84 yard touchdown with with Felton who is 65. I don't even know how much he weighs. Like he's he he catches the ball kind of in traffic and just pulls away. You know it it is crazy to me to see how much faster we were than them. And I think, I don't think like on paper with that much faster than them. I just think that they didn't.

46:03 They didn't have a will to win like it was gone. I I totally agree, man. You think about those 3 plays that you mentioned in every single one and you actually you didn't mention the lane. Call you back. I mean, he had two or three guys in front of him. And split right through Felton, same thing. And Tootin had some blockers but still like we looked so much more athletic and faster than them and that without, you're right I wasn't totally prepared for that because since they're bye week UVA has played very, very well and knocked off UNC. They almost knocked off Louisville. They they played a really tough game to overtime with Miami. So they beat Duke exactly as Robert has pointed out, like.

46:47 I there was a lot of things in that regard and it's similar to what me and Brian said that we just didn't expect. I'm going to tell you what I what I didn't expect, y'all is and it's on the off defensive line what they did. I can see that happening. I didn't expect the offensive line to play the way they did the off. But Brian you've been Brian's been saying the last couple weeks and some games like that things are clicking they they don't look as slow. Yeah, false starts. But Brian, you've kind of been saying like? Something's happening. Something's happening with the younger guys. It's it's just slowly, it's a slow ground. You get a coach in March, that's the way it's going to happen. But I didn't expect us to dominate the trenches. If you say, hey, we had a good game, we rushed for 200 yards. We, you know, we we, we gave up a couple sacks. We played good.

47:34 No, we dominated. We dominated. And that's, you know, that's when it goes, that's when it goes to. Mentality and I'm going to we got a question here from Derek. Yeah. I'm on this question, man. I'm. Going to put this up and I'm going to Pete because you're our guest. I'm going to let you go last so you can think about it, Brian, what's better, Ryan Williams versus State, Felton against FUVA. You know what? I got to go, Felton, just because it was against UVA, man. Tally. I mean, it's hard to compare those two because Ryan Williams ran somebody over. You know what I'm saying? Like in the middle of the field he he runs somebody over and then you got and then you got Felton drag somebody into the end zone and then hops up and starts dumping on the other player. Like you know what I'm saying?

48:25 And then and then walks up to him and starts talking junk and the guy doesn't even turn around. So I it's hard, man. It's hard to pick. But I I'd have to go Felton. I I you know, I'm going to say a little sweetness, Ryan Williams because. The way he had Earl Wolfe sliding on his butt like that was so embarrassing. That was the guy, right? Earl Wolfe and he. Took him right into the end zone. He was incredible. To Tally's point, he ran him over and then he grabbed the jersey. You usually see that at the like. It was like it wasn't like the three or four. It was like at the 8. And he grabbed him and pulled him and Williams just. I'm I was born and raised in the country it looked like a tractor pull because Williams body went up and it was just like no I'm going to just keep dragging you until I get the touchdown.

49:09 So we're split on that but great question there. I we usually do this because we have things to look forward to. But I mean I'm, I'm going to kind of put a retrospective on this if if you told me, if you told us after Marshall that we would be making a bowl that the only teams that we lost to. Were a combined and I got to do the record in my head real quick. What, 23 or 32 and six? That's the only teams we lost to Y'all. They're combined 32 and five. I do the math right? No, hold on, you got you got a game in there somewhere. Yeah, odd number, so that that's definitely not right.

49:52 We. Lost two We lost zero. Louisville's lost 2. That's two. State lost 331 and five. That's the only three teams. We've lost two after Marshall. Yeah, and you can say, well, you played the bottom of the conference, But you know what? Sheldon sent me this and y'all seen it out there. They're only like 7 teams that beat 5 conference opponents by 17 plus points. We're. Wanting I was arguing with some SEC fans early on Facebook and they was telling me how bad the the ACC sucks and things like that. They was telling me that Florida State wasn't getting in. Over blah, blah, blah. And I was like, you do understand if they go undefeated they're going to get in. But this they have. I say Florida State has as much money as these people that y'all are naming. And on top of that go check the go check the stuff from this year.

50:41 The SEC against the ACC is ACC is 6. The SEC is 4. I think it's like, so you're telling me how bad the ACC substitute that beating the mighty SEC. No disrespect, LSU. Do they be week 13? I argue. With them, I argue with them every, like every time I go to the barbershop, we have the same talk and maybe Florida without their starting quarterback man. And let. Let's also talk about, since we're talking about going bowling, let's talk about the ACC with the most bowl teams this. Year. I think we got 12 teams, right? Of the P5, that is correct. We are 11 bowl teams. Only the Sunbelt has more because. JMU got in on on the on, on.

51:26 The type of card, not. Enough. Not enough teams eligible, but the entire Eastern Division, including our first opponent ODU, is bowl eligible. And is the only what is the only teams not bowl eligible that we played this year. There's a couple. Three, Yeah. The only team we lost to that's not bowl eligible is Perdue. Yes. Yes, it's craziness. Well, let's keep going and talk about a few other things because I think we're going late this night, boys. Let's talk about the All ACC. First of all, there are no Hokies on the first team. I'm sure y'all all saw that and who got OK Where's the bigger robbery? And I'll start with Pete. Here is the bigger robbery. Actually there's three.

52:07 So APR being a second teamer, defensive line basial to be a second teamer all-purpose, even though he's 27th in the country, third in the conference, and he's the only one with all the all-purpose yards. Or is it Dorian Strong Thirteen? We saw Treadmill Horse put some data out there. Other people put the PFF data out there. Where's the bigger robbery? I think APR is the biggest robbery and and the reason why is because you can make the argument that people didn't throw on us enough or at Dorian enough to warrant him getting on first team. I might be able to buy this. I think he should be first team, to be clear. But I think APR, just by putting up 9 1/2 sacks and being at the top of the conference on AD line that was at the top of the conference, he should have got recognized as first team. I think that is BS especially.

53:01 I know there's some, there's some very good pass rushers in the ACC, NC State and FSU and whatnot. But you put up those kind of numbers, you have some of the games that he had and all the pressure that he brought. I feel like APR is the biggest snub, but I'll let you guys make a case for anybody else. Callie Who you got? Who's the biggest snub? It's hard to pick, man. But you know, I I would have to say APR as well. You know, the two thing kind of kind of bothers me because you know, they got Keon Coleman on that, which is the offseason. Great player, but they got him on there like 3 different things. You know what I'm saying? It's just like, oh, just 'cause he's on Florida State, we're going, we're going to suck his Dick and put him on, put him on this, this and this. Like 3 different spots.

53:44 Really. You know what I'm saying? And like, I think he was on there as a return and he had no touchdowns. How do you get on this return? I don't think he had any touchdowns. Tooting tied for the national lead with two return touchdowns. I mean, I know, look, I know it's the difference between 1:00 and 2:00 or zero. It's not very much. It is very much. Those are very hard to score. That's very hard to score. You know what I'm saying? They've changed things so you can't score. They want people to Kick It Out of the back of the end zone. So when you get an opportunity and you go score, you know, like that, That's a big accomplishment. So. He got, he got choked up, he got choked up, I got messed up. Kind of like Robbie said with APR stats alone or just, you know, So I think they should have got in first team. Yep.

54:33 He's AI mean. He's a top ten. He's a top ten in the country, sax top ten in the country. That's great. Is that working on favor though, Curtis with him not getting that first? Oh my. God, yes. Yes. I think it works in our favor. I think it works motivationally, wise in our favor. I do not want to be the quarterback, whoever we play in that bowl game. Siegler, yours. Yeah, I'm going to have to go with Dorian Strong here. When you think about shut down corners and and and Pete brought this up, you know him not getting that many targets. Part of being a very good corner is not letting guys get open where you're going to throw the ball their direction. So if you are locking up guys like that and it's not just the target, so the targets are low, sure, but the targets are are not significantly lower than the two guys on first team.

55:24 Look at the percentage, the the, the, the catch percentage. It's crazy. It's like 28%. It's insane. And that was lower, lower, 4/4 and 1/2 percentage points lower than the one of the other first teamers. And he had three interceptions, 3 interceptions. The other one of the others on first team had five. I think the other one had I think one or two. So interception wise, completion percentage wise, yardage he he's leading in all of those categories. Like I said the interception is the only one where he doesn't have as much as any of the other two first teamers. He he's in second in that case definitely should have been one of the the the two two players on first team. I I.

56:13 You know what? You know what it might be? It might be the the 40. The 44 might be doing it. Man get get that man a single digit. Give him a single digit. Yeah, Tally's hated that 44 all, all, and now it's costing him time. I'm going to go last year and by the way, that is our coach Buddy Robbie Compton out there. So always, always following. He's got great Internet. Now he's going to chime in so much when he's not coaching there. I loved when you guys had him on. What was that over the summer? Maybe that was. That was a great episode. Robbie's great, man. Robbie, I mean, I mean, all I can say is Robbie's got a guy playing in the NFL now. So, I mean, you don't, you don't get to do that. All right, I'm going to go mine.

56:56 And I kind of tipped it off a little bit. What I said to Pete, there is spatial tune. It's the AP is the all-purpose player. Facial Tune is 27th in the country, the throat clear. You know what's getting to. This basial tune is 27th in the country with 14136 all-purpose yards. There are only two ACC players who are ahead of him. Talk to him, Kurt. One is Malachi Washington. Malachi Washington. Did not even break 300 yards on kickoff returns this year. He had very minimal rushing yards. That's not all-purpose. You're a great receiver. Yes. The other one is O'marion Hampton from North Carolina.

57:39 Over 1400 yards rushing, only about 200 yards catching the ball. Basial Tootin Keon Coleman. Let's not even get into that 700 passing yards. Like 150 rushing in. Like 300 punt return yards. Not even close. He's not even on the first page of the data board. Here's our boys 727 rushing yards, 220 receiving yards, 489 kickoff return yards. He did not even have 200 plays to get 1400 yards this year. Crazy. And you know what, Curtis? It's not even does O line not factor in.

58:20 That would be my contention is that you look at those numbers and then take into account the old lines the other guys are playing behind and what Tootin's playing behind. It has to play a factor and our just our roster strength in general. I believe it got significantly better than last year, but to put up all that all-purpose yardage. With a with a roster and swapping quarterbacks a few games into the year, it is absolutely impressive and he should be on that. First, let's let's talk about He pretty much started the season with a hand behind his back in those first two to three outings. Yeah. He was breaking 10 tackles for one yard. He looked like Pacheco out there, man.

59:01 I would love to get that data of how many he broke this year, because he broke a ton and I'd love to do it as. This oh, you got to check out the the Doug Bowman article on 247. Just put one out and it was like we broke a ridiculous amount of tackles and and yards after catch and everything. That that article was really good. Just show you who put it out. Player Doug. It was Doug. Yeah, he said, he said. I think in that article it said two broke like 61 tackles and and last year. I think we were led by Keyshawn King, who broke like 19. You know, it was, it was a crazy different number for what what they did. This is a great point here, probably brought up. Think about that.

59:44 He put those sort of numbers up with drones getting up. There were games where drones were doing a lot of carrying too, so that's even more impressive. Again, they screwed up. They got some right, don't get me wrong, they got some right. But they definitely screwed. I think at least two of our guys out of first team, and I think Dorian at least should have been. What about John Love? Shouldn't he be first team? He's like 9th in the country in field goal percentage. Is love even only hold on? I think I don't know mentioned mention got. I don't mentioned he's like, I think he's second in the ACC. Yeah, he should have been at least second team. So it's a lot of things. All right. I got to turn to a little bit of sad news here and this is going to become a segment from here on out and it is going to be discussion of the portal. We're going to have to give it and to take it away. And unfortunately Brian, sorry, right there I'm.

1:00:28 I'm I'm going to survive, man, because this is Brian's boy day. Quality and the poor went out earlier. Well, yeah. Is that where you went a little bit earlier? Did you go ahead? Because you knew we were going to talk about it? Had it. Given my cat was throwing up on the carpet, oh wow. We had also had issues tonight. My boss, she's now passed out over here on her bed, so she's good. I don't know what was going on, but Daquan right enters the portal third this year in both receptions and receiving yards for Tech. There are some things, and I'm not going to mention what I've heard, but the apparently there's some things going on in other parts of his life that potentially could be affecting this. It seems like this may be an amicable split. I hope it is, but it hurts because I mean that guy he, he's growing.

1:01:15 I mean he got better as a blocker. Brian, you mentioned several times this year he's he's showing better. It stinks and. Well, you know, there's there's the rule that you can only have one Daquan on a team and we already had Felton and like we already broke that rule for one season. So he's got to go, unfortunately. But I, I he was such a good playmaker for us in a spot of need because we lost Gallo before the year and we needed some guys at tight end to step up and him and Benji. Kind of traded off on that role and while at times their blocking was a little subpar, they were very good playmakers and and Daquan Wright will be missed. Definitely. Yeah, I mean, he's that kind of guy that gives you a lot of matchup nightmares.

1:02:00 I know we didn't use them in the red zone a lot, but in the middle of the field, when you can match him up against a linebacker, match him up against the safety, I mean, he was really, he could really eat. On those crossers, those deep crossers, he was doing a lot of good things in, in those areas, just really giving drones a target in the middle of the field. So that's going to be missed big time. I'm really little little torn up about it, but I like what we have in in in in Benji Gosnell. I feel like he's going to be a guy that can step into that role. I just think that when you talk about the the, the things that show up on a stat sheet.

1:02:41 I feel like right ceiling was significantly higher than what we probably will get out of Benji. But in terms of overall what a tight end has to do, probably Benji would be the better player in that just because I think his blocking overall is better and you can use him in line a lot more than you can use Daquan, right, 100%, right. We've been going an hour here and we're still not to the break because we've got to talk about next year. We've got to talk about there's already some guys we know are not coming back, some medical situations, we got some COVID year stuff. This is a huge shout out. David Cunningham from tech sideline, Brian got in touch with him and he was able to provide us with this and there are five guys that they're done. There's no way they can come back. It's Mario Kendricks, Norell Pollard, Darius Payne. That's a lot of defensive tackles right there. Tisdale and Nasir Peoples.

1:03:39 What y'all's feels? I mean, I feel like Tally, you joked earlier, it does feel like Pollard's been here like 19 years, Kendricks, but I mean, I think we we I say that right there. Y'all got to say it. We we've got to go get some guys in the portal for defensive tackle without a doubt. Yeah. I mean the go ahead, Pete, I'll let you run. Go first. I'm sorry Brian I keep I keep talking over my host here the Fuga like do we have to just like make sure he comes back is that someone we're like because at this point it's such a spot of need. I feel like we want to keep as many that are eligible to come back in the house because it is. It's going to be rough with it's it's Payne, Pollard and Kendrick's.

1:04:24 Right. Pollard. And all three. All three, which is, Which leaves just Fuga and Panay as guys who play significant repetitions this year. That's it. A lot of young guys who have, you know, you got like Gunnard Givens, you got Lamar Law. I'm missing one here. Malachi Madison. But they didn't get the reps and you. Yeah. I was going to say you were so pretty deep in that in that defensive tackle spot, you didn't get a lot of young guys reps that were significant, so. I mean, just got to pray that the portal giveth. We got to go get some people out of the portal to fill some of those spots, some older guys that's ready to play. Got to have at least two defensive tackles in the portal that are ready to play and that's if you know Fuga decides to come back.

1:05:14 And I feel like at this point, as Pete alluded to, you got to do as much as you can to get him back because even if he's not your your frontline player. Depending on what you get from the portal, he's certainly somebody that you're going to want to lean on from a leadership standpoint and from a depth standpoint next year. Just from knowing the defense, knowing how to how to handle those situations and also again from a leadership perspective kind of knowing what it means to carry the lunch pail and things of that nature. So having him back I think would be would be clutch. But yeah, definitely got to hit hit the the portal hard on the D tackles. Feel like you also probably need to to grab a Mike linebacker in there with with Tisdale moving on. You know some of the other guys having some up and down points of the season where we really couldn't really find a lot of consistency until kind of the the back half of the year at that position.

1:06:07 So I'm I'm definitely think that's probably going to be one that we are targeting as well and. I guess safety is kind of wait and see. Obviously we had periods of the season where people's wasn't in most of the start of the year also coincided with some of the areas where we were, you know, a little bit more leaky than you like to be on the back end, especially in the run game. So do we see some more guys step up that are younger that got some playing time this year, whether that's a a Jalen Jones or a? Most Phillips you know do they take a step in the offseason where you feel comfortable about that position or you know do you go out there and get another safety as well to kind of fill in there.

1:06:49 So we really got some decisions to make just in those got that you know the the guys here that are done, done. You know all three of those are positions probably of need that you maybe you at least want to consider if not attacked pretty hard in the Portal this offseason. Yeah, 100% on that. With both those groups. Let's talk about the medical situation. Nick, you've got Nick Gallo out there who lost this season, you know, basically never played a down. And then you get Ollie Jennings. I think the Ollie Jennings situation, I believe he's coming back. Full throttle. Hope so. The, the, the, the tweet that went out, I don't know if it was last night or today alluded to that being the case, but we don't have anything that is official, official but.

1:07:35 Based on that, I would say it's a very good chance that we are getting Ollie Jennings back for a a medical red shirt, a final season there. And then you know after we talked about that we got you Nick Gallo as Curtis mentioned and with with right going. Is that something that we try to press to get Gallo back for another year? Is that something that he wants to to kind of move forward with? And if he doesn't, is that another area where we need to at least get a guy? That can be a rotational piece to go alongside Benji Gosnell heading into next year. Tally, I'll let you go on. This, I mean when you think about tight ends, if we're talking tight ends.

1:08:18 We're talking tight ends, Tally. Yeah, Nick, Nick Gallo deserves to to be able to play if he wants to play. But to come off of an injury and then think about, you know, the injury that he's had a significant knee injury in the bend. Taking all these hits these years, I don't know that he brings this offense, what it really needs, You know what I'm saying? I think Benji can bring what Nick Gallo can bring them together. It's just going to be the same player. You know what I'm saying? And what we need is what Wright is. So I don't know how you go out and find that, You know what I'm saying? UVA did it a couple of years ago, which what was his name? Jelani Woods, maybe That fucking beast that they had at tight end like.

1:09:02 You got to go find somebody like that that's going to be kind of a a yin and Yang with with with Benji there but what I really need to see a little off topic pry can you go get your linebackers use the linebackers guy go get just like a white boy that's got blood between his eyes like he can look just like Dax. I just want him to be faster and a little bit taller, like just go get that person because that I don't know, man like. UVA always has like 1 crazy white dude that's like at middle linebacker. That's just all over the field. And I want to say, you know like Peyton, Peyton Wilson. I know there's not many of him in the world, but if there is one, can we go find him?

1:09:45 Like, I just need to see that would that that would drive Virginia Tech fans crazy. Like they love that they look Dax what Dax Hollyfield will be a He probably never pays for anything in Blacksburg just because of what he looks like. Like he was just. The typical linebacker, you know what I'm saying? And he did have a very good senior year and leading up to that you could argue maybe he didn't live up to his recruiting ranking or as as maybe as we put it on him like we expected a lot from Dax when he got to got to Tech. But his senior year was great and I'm with you Tally like and NC States had a couple like they had Drake Thomas, and then they went to Payton Hills and they had them both at the same time. If you could get just one of those guys, I can think of one that's playing in the state right now. And no, I'm not talking about Stone Snyder from last year, which didn't work out so well.

1:10:32 The kid Jason Henderson at ODU I was talking to. Some of the guys on the. Sun Saturday through Could you imagine if we got that guy like you know a Scooby right type to come in here and just make tackles like we? It would change our defense so dramatically and we desperately. Need a Mike linebacker? Like a real like. I'm not sure I see a guy on the roster that is a true Mike right now and so like that. That's an absolute need. But just to double back to Gallo real quick, he is walking that fine line between a thank you for your service card.

1:11:12 And please come back because I can't. I can't quite decide. I love the Gallo brothers. They are, they're true bangers for real from Pennsylvania. Like they I I watched a lot of games with Eric and Philly. I saw him at the Rutgers game when I was up there. Absolutely great guy. Eric Gallo, awesome hokey. And Nick would help us next year. He would help us. But Harrison St. Germain, There was some good talk on him back in, you know, preseason camp or maybe even last year. And then? Obviously we got, you know, Benji is is is going to be a stud at some point. So what do you want to do with the roster spot? I don't know. But I don't think pride is going to. He's never going to tell Nick to walk away. You know he would.

1:11:54 He would take me back in a heartbeat. I don't know much. I don't know much about the kid. I've seen him play his high school stuff, which was crazy to me, kind of how he slid to us. What is it? Zeke Wimbush. Yeah. So he's going to like he. His body size and the things he can do reminds me of what Wright can do. I just haven't seen him do it on the collegiate level, of course. But Wright came right in as a freshman and and was able to be kind of what he is. Zeke has the opportunity to be in the weight room for a year, so who knows what we get out of him? I don't know. I haven't heard a lot of talks about him. I seen a couple of videos on him before the season and I seen him play in high school and Lauren Johnson talked about him.

1:12:38 When they played him. When when Highland Springs played him, and he was, if not the best player on the field, he was one of the best players on the field against Highland Springs, which was the best team in the state. Correct me if I'm wrong, Brian or Curtis, but wasn't Zeke a? Was he originally supposed to be a Gray shirt that they ultimately gave a scholarship to for this season? I think, I think he was more of a lot of upside, but a little bit of a developmental project. And hey, maybe it got started early because he got here earlier. Yeah, he was supposed he wasn't going to be a Gray shirt. He was going to be a preferred walk on. And then he he did good enough where they they gave him the scholarship early and y'all been talking about here. I'm like over here at, you know, on three looking at the transfer portal tight ends and being like, who can we get from here?

1:13:23 Who actually makes sense. But we've got some other guys too. And you know what? I'm going to do this a little different. We're not going to talk because we're an hour and 15 in and we got a lot more to cover with Pete and I I have work tomorrow. Everybody has to work tomorrow. I don't feel like being here till midnight. This ain't stay of the program on a Friday night, which, Pete, we might be sending you a link to come. All right. I'd be honored. Yes or no answers. All. I want to give you the names these guys are eligible for COVID years. Y'all ready Grant Wells, Brian. No, no. OK. We're all a no, I'm a no. Steven Gosnell, Pete. Yes, White, Iverson Tally.

1:14:06 They froze. The man froze. Siglo. I'm a yes. I'm a yes. Tally really likes White Iverson A lot. Yes. And notice Steven Gosnell, White Iverson. Yes. All right. Jay Lane Tally. Yes. Yes, thumbs up. Big thumbs up. Yeah, big thumbs up. Believe it or not, Clayton Frady, the transfer who came from Gardner Webb, is eligible. He only played in one game this year, came really late. Brian, you're the man. You're the offensive lineman. Whether so, I'm going to say tentative yes, but a lot of this is going to depend on how many scholarships we are giving to guys in the transfer portal because if I've already seen us throw like 3 or 4 offers out there to offensive lineman, so if that keeps up, I'm a no. Especially if if those transfer portal players are of a more seasoned caliber than Freddy is.

1:15:10 At this point, the fact that Freddy didn't really come in here and at least crack that that rotational spot in in a weak offensive line room doesn't really inspire confidence. I know he came in late, but, you know, sometimes you just got to, you got to cut your losses and say, all right, well, we tried. We're getting into the portal earlier this cycle on the offensive line train. We are not waiting for the second window to really get aggressive about going after offensive lineman like we did last cycle. So I'm I'm like I said tentative, Yes. But if we start getting some guys committing to Virginia Tech in the portal, I say he's one you got to let walk. Yeah, you put it best when you said cut your losses because this this was a roulette spin. You just see, hey, could we hit, you know, red or black on Clayton Frady and we bet black and hit red like that. That's essentially what happened here. And like if you this, it's all it's up to Crook if Crook thinks he can work with them and get something out of him next year. But this is not a young player and so if he came in here and couldn't get in on this old line, I I think we have our answer.

1:16:14 Yep. Clayton Frady Tally the. Office. No, he said. He done nothing. So no, I'm I'm a no, I think that there are some young guys between what we saw from Garrett what we saw from Brody Meadows. Unless he absolutely turns it on a we get nothing out of the portal. Which I don't think. I think we're going to get some stuff out of the portal. All right, Fuga Tally go. I got to say yes, we got we don't. Yes, yes, you said don't go into it. Yes, we'll just say yes. We don't have the luxury to say no. It's a yes. There you go. It's a. It's a yes. It is a yes and tally.

1:16:56 I know what you're going to say and I'm going to sum it up. We losing 3 bodies. We only got 5 that played this year. You can't go into a defensive tackle room with two, so he has to stay. I'll go to the next one. Here is Kiante Jenkins. We've had Kiante on before and I'm yes, it's. And it's not the Caleb Woodson isn't ready. There's nobody ready behind Caleb Woodson and at that position you've got to have somebody, so bring it back Keonta. I'm a yes. 100%. Yes, I'm a I'm a yes as well. Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to do 2. The kicker Hoeven. Long snapper Pollock. Sorry.

1:17:37 Guys, No, they got. No, I'm good on both of them. Sorry. It it's it's John loves proven what he can. It's like we've got a proven younger long snapper. We got proven kicker, we got a kickoff specialist. Sorry, this is the interesting one because I did not know this Derek Canteen can add an additional year via medical Red Shirt. Yes. Absolutely, please. Absolutely A 100% and I'm going to go back to something, Brian said. Canteen, play some safety this year. We know we're going to be probably less in that room that lessens that blow potentially there big time. Well, we also have got word in the last, you know 24 to 48 hours that our cornerback room is a high priority for other teams throughout the throughout the country. So tampering.

1:18:32 Yeah, it is tampering. So I I would definitely say, you know, you want to keep as many guys in the building as you can, so that's a big yes for canteen. All righty. I'm going to hit these real quick because again, we're running, we're running super with a lot of times here. I think over the last week, I think men's hoops has looked better. Women's has scared me the last. Week because men's hoop got drilled. What? Yeah, but decent team. I mean, FAU was a very good team, but I mean.

1:19:13 So what we saw against Boise and Iowa State is what I hope we would see for most of the year. What we saw against FAU is not what I want to ever see again this year because aside aside, like I knew they were going to score some points. I was very disappointed in our offensive output and I know we live and die by the three, but at some point you got to shoot better than that. Yeah. Have you ever? Seen us get whipped like that. It's like when coached by Mike Young. I don't think we've ever been whipped, no. It was crazy to, I mean. Alabama Internet's getting actress tonight. Yeah, it was a Final Four team from last year. We all understand that and in fact one of the other Final four, Miami was just playing against Kentucky a little bit earlier.

1:20:07 I didn't see how that one ended because that the SECACC challenge, whatever is, is going on right now. I'm not even used to that. But yeah man they they kicked our tail. And I I'm, I'm kind of just, it's one of those things where it's like let's just forget it and move on and see how the rest of the season goes, because that was just a you never see a Mike Young team play like that. It's true. All righty. Well, we have finally got to the break time boys, so we are going to take a quick pause from our digital partners and Main Street Pharmacy. I can probably save you a lot of money and I can take a lot better care of you. That's pretty much it. My name is Jeremy Counts and I'm a pharmacist. I own and operate Main Street Pharmacy here in downtown Blacksburg.

1:20:51 My brother's a pharmacist. I'm a pharmacist. My uncle's a pharmacist. My dad's a pharmacist. I remember he would give me M and Ms. to count in little pill counters. This is something I've always done, and I'm just lucky that what I know so well is something that I can do and feel good about it and get back to people. Pharmacies are your frontline defense. Pharmacy's job is to make sure you're getting optimal care for the lowest price possible. Also, we take the pressure off of emergency rooms. I'll tell people immediately when they need to go to the doctor, or I'll tell them if they just need a cream over the counter. If there's something that isn't commercially available, if it's something that's not available in a certain strength or a certain form or anything like that, we'll make it tailor made medications. Some of those options save people a lot of money. What motivates me?

1:21:33 I get to take care of people and live in Blacksburg. That's all neat. As we take a quick break, we'd like to tell you about getting your free website report from our digital partner, Grassroots Digital Marketing Studio. They'll tell you how your website ranks on Google onsite, SEO and social media. No commitment to buy anything. You can get your free report by visiting grassroots digitalstudio.com/free Dash website Dash Report. Now back to the episode. All righty. So now we get to the second-half of our episode. We don't have no The Enemy this week. I hope next year at this time we are talking about that, but we brought Pete on for a reason. Pete has been basically watching college games all year, as we all do.

1:22:16 But if y'all haven't watched Pete's show comes on, you stream it live. I've seen it, I've occasionally watched it at work, it's occasionally taking me off. Some things I'm doing. You've been following just the season in general and that's why we wanted to bring you on for this because obviously we've got all of the games this week with the Championship games. But one other piece I wanted to discuss with you, Pete, was a lot of the coaching vacancies, hirings and firings. And as of today, I'm going to read them all of what's still open. I might be missing a few since the updates. San Diego State, New Mexico, UTEP, UL, Monroe, Indiana, Houston, Boise and Duke are still open. I don't think anybody else has gotten fired. If I've missed one, Pete, let me know.

1:22:58 But Pete? Obviously we're going to focus on the Duke one, because the other ones, yeah, maybe they compoke somebody that you know was a good coordinator or a good position coach from the ACC, but Duke someone we're going to have to play. What are we hearing on the Duke front of what's going to happen? Because in most in our lifetime, Duke doesn't get back-to-back good head coaches. They had Spurrier in the late 80s. And then it legitimately took to cut Cliff in the mid 2000s before they had another decent coach. Yeah, and you know, Cutcliffe worked himself into a position where he did the Frank Beamer. He became a victim of his own expectations and obviously he got a little longer in the tooth, but he deserved a chance to walk away.

1:23:47 When he wanted to, he more or less did. And they go out and they hire Mike Elko, someone a lot of us hokey fans have talked a lot about over the past two years due to the performance of Duke and how well they've played. Mainly because they've had a fantastic quarterback. Once they lost Riley Leonard. This year that Duke team became very beatable. And so you can see that the power of a starting quarterback. But Elko did a fantastic job there. And it's not just Elko. Duke, over the past two to three years, has made a real investment in football. They had a ton of staffers right up there with us, right up there with Pitt, with all the teams that are starting to staff up in the ACC.

1:24:30 Clemson has obviously been doing it for a long time. They were one of them. And that's why you've seen some of the results you've seen from Duke over the past 2345 and back into 2013 when they really burst on the scene by beating us. But if you go to their coaching candidates and who it could be, it really depends on where they want to go right now, because they just did the OK, we'll hire a guy who might look for greener pastures in a year or two. So now do you do the thing where you go after a Willie Fritz or an older coach where, OK, you get them and you want this to be their retirement spot where like they can win you 6 to 8 to 9 games a year, whatever it might be you, you buck up and you might win 10 once in a while.

1:25:15 But like, you know, the guy's not going anywhere. That's kind of what we did with Mike Young, right? We we, he, he was been at Wofford forever. He's from our region. He's probably not going anywhere, even if he does really, really well. Will they go for something like that or will they go after a Tommy Reese, a young hotshot coordinator type. I think Sean Lewis might have just got hired. Who? San Diego State, like literally just hired someone if you. Want. Oh, OK, Well, I saw Sean Lewis's name. I'll look that up while you keep. Yeah, but that that was a guy who I think he coached at Kent State. He ends up with Dion, Dion, demotes him and whatever. But do they go the young coordinator route or do they go the more, you know, Dave Clawson ish route? Not that they're going to go after Clawson himself, but you know what I'm saying?

1:26:01 I don't know, but I know the investment with Duke football is there and we're never going to know the salary because of FOIA. They don't have to deal with that. So I'm not sure, but those are just a couple of names that come to mind as Fritz and Reese and and maybe a Sean Lewis type, even if it's not going to be him. All righty, Y'all, got any questions or anything I want to say about? And by the way, you are 100% right, It broke with the local San Diego station 22 minutes ago. Sean Lewis is going to be the next head coach of the San Diego State Aztecs. A pretty, pretty solid. That's a good pull for them. And yeah, it is. And that's a good program like they they've been, you know? They've been good for years.

1:26:42 Rocky, long. It's like bringing in bracks. Blurmeister. That's a good yeah. Rocky Long, man. I love Rocky Long, Yeah. All right boys, y'all got any questions on about some of these? Opening ones for Pete right now are y'all pretty good. I've been hearing some, some smoke about Kingsbury going to Houston, going back. I've heard anything about that. Yeah. Yeah, Houston is one of those jobs that, like in the new Big 12, when you get into next year and you're thinking about who could win that conference. Well, with Texas and Oklahoma gone and some of those PAC 12 schools coming in, anyone could win that conference. It depends on. I don't know how well Dana Holgerson has built that program out. Despite his name, I don't think Holgo is the best coach. I don't think he's been recruiting at a super high level.

1:27:31 So Houston, it might take a bit for Houston to get back up, but like once, if they get the right coach, Houston could be in competition to win that conference every year because there is no, there's no blue blood there. Like, TCU is probably the closest thing you have to like a powerhouse in that conference. Yeah, I'm yeah, OK, you're right. And sometimes I forget about the teams that are even coming in. But yes, Utah could run that thing. They could run that thing in over the next 10 years. So. But Houston's got as good a chance as any in that in that conference to compete. I don't think Cliff is the guy to help you compete. I I mean, he, he wasn't good at Texas Tech. He wasn't good in the NFL.

1:28:14 So now he's going to be good. Like I I don't think so. Ron, you got any you want to discuss? You know that that's really the most interesting one in my opinion outside of Duke, which obviously directs us, affects us directly. It's going to be interesting to see what they do at that at that spot because like Pete alluded to like they could really kind of make that that that home for them if they if they do well, they could kind of turn that into a powerhouse in that conference. They've got money they they're in Texas like they there's there's advantages there and I mean of course you know Arizona's had a good year. Arizona State it always seems like a sleeping giant. Like they might be able to to pop up and be good, but like Texas, it's all about football in Texas and and Houston's right there.

1:29:05 Arizona State always seems to get like, get good players, but they. Struggle to put it together for any sustained period of time, but they'll always have that like one year here or there where they'll pop and get like nine or ten wins. They had Jaden Daniels. They did. Hey, here's the question I've got with these openings because obviously there's going to be a significant amount of money attached to the job because they're in the Big 10. Who is going? Who is willing to put their neck out to take Indiana over? Yeah, that Indiana is another one of those really tough spots to win. I would liken it to a Syracuse where there's not a lot of historical success, but you've got a Big 10 paycheck. And if your university decides to make the focus, like they put a lot of money behind Tom Allen that that buyout, it's like one of the highest ever in college football to buy Tom Allen out. And he, he benefited from that COVID season, which was super weird and they had a they had a good year. But Indiana, it's it's a getting rid of the divisions is good for them because they're no longer in the East having to play all three of those powerhouses every year. But you're also adding Oregon and UCLA. So, like, no, Indiana has an uphill battle to be good. Oh, and and UW and Oregon.

1:30:24 Sorry, yes, y'all. Are going to talk, Y'all are going to talk about Colorado. They're they're into the Big 12 and you're right. So we should have mentioned that. We should have been mentioned that when we talked about the Big 12 because just like Houston, Colorado's, if Dion can do what some people think Dion's going to do, they could, they could be competing for titles in that conference too. But as far as the Big 10 goes, Indiana, you'll you'll get paid and you will have opportunity. I mean, Notre Dame, it's Notre Dame. They've got the historical success. It's the same state. You can't recruit like Notre Dame. You got to find someone who can build. So do you turn to a Tommy Reese there? Because that's another name at another position where like maybe you go to him.

1:31:07 He knows the state, he knows he knows offense. Maybe you want to score some points in Indiana, do things a little bit differently. You're probably going to have to do things a little bit differently. Yeah, I mean really in terms of pecking order, they're like they're at least third of the pecking order in their own state. Because I mean Purdue has a whole lot more history of football and success and recruiting successes than than Indiana has ever had. So they they are at least third on the pecking order from a recruiting. It's an uphill battle, man. It's a super uphill battle for for Indiana. What'd you have, Tally? You about to say something. Say Indiana had appendix, right? They did. They did. That was, that was how Tom got Tom Allen got that extension. Oh, man.

1:31:52 All right, let's go to the guys who have already been hired and obviously now we've got Sean Lewis. And you kind of made your point that you'd like that hire out of San Diego State. But the other four guys between Elko going to A&M, Jeff Levy, the Oklahoma OC heading down to Mississippi State, By the way, I've told a lot of people. They're hiring an offensive guy in Mississippi State. It's just what they do. They've done it ever since they fired Sylvester crew in 15 years ago. Jonathan Smith going to Michigan State, sort of the the one that kind of hurt your soul a little bit. And today Fran Brown, the defensive back coats for Georgia. OK, I was going to say Foo going to Utah or New Mexico. But of those four, which one do you like the best, Pete? I love the Elko higher for Texas A and MI kind of ragged on Texas A and MA couple weeks back and just that like they have no historical success like a little bit here and there. Johnny Football though is what created this whole new momentum. Them going to the SEC combined with that gave them a whole new breath of life and investors and all this kind of stuff. But you go back, look at look at a team like Oregon and a team like Indiana or a team like Texas A&M. Sorry, got Indiana the brain.

1:33:10 Oregon's had like 9 top ten finishes since 2000. You'd have to go back to the 50s to get that for A&M. They just have not had the success on the field. They might have more money and nil power than just about anyone else right now. And so with Elko going there, a guy who recruited some of those kids that are still in that building and some of those really good recruiting classes for A and MI think there's a little bit of continuity there. They know what they're getting with Elko. What's weird about the only thing that I find a little bit weird is that Elko is their second choice, right? Like they wanted Stoops. They got Elko and they're probably paying him for like a slight, slight discount of Stoops, but I still think it's a really good hire, so I'm a fan of that. I think Jonathan Smith actually going to Michigan State is perfect for Michigan State.

1:34:02 Michigan State is the A&M of the Big 10. They got to compete with multiple big boys for recruits and in the standings, and this is a guy who can build. He did it at literally one of the four hardest places to win in P5 football. He won at Oregon State. I think he's going to go, he's going to build something special at Michigan State. So I think that's a really good one. The the Georgia one up at Syracuse. It could work out. You know how coaching hires go. We thought Foo was a home run when we hired him. That one's a a little strange because, like, he's known as a recruiter, but, like, are you out recruiting anyone at Syracuse?

1:34:43 Like, like you have to be able to develop and have a system and we don't know what his system would because he's been an assistant. So like it that that one's a that one's a head scratcher for me because I thought like someone like Dan Mullen could have done well up there or something like that. But hey, what do I know? Yeah, Fran, Fran Brown's a big time dice roll for them. That could really, you know, if he puts the pieces together fast. That could go well for them, but I don't I still, I still don't think there's like you're still capping out at like a eight or nine win season at Syracuse, even if you do all the right things and make all the right moves. So you know, I don't know what that looks like and if it's worth that type of dice roll for still such a relatively low ceiling.

1:35:30 I like the Elko higher. I think that's that's just a really good fit overall, you know you talked about. You know Jonathan Smith, I think that's that's a sneaky good one because as you said, they're kind of dealing with a very similar type makeup of being surrounded by two powers and and being able to recruit around that and develop better than those programs in order to have that type of success. So you got to do the Mark Dantonio like you. That's what Dantonio did. He hired good coordinators. It it was a very frank beamer, like good coordinators recruit the the footprint and find the the diamonds in the rough.

1:36:10 That's what Dantonio did, and that's what Jonathan Smith's going to have to do. I'm going to say this, I I'm, I'm with you all that I think the Elko is the best hire. Because Elko also goes back to the roots of what A&M is. If you look at the best coaches they ever had, there's three of them. There's Bear, Brown, obviously in the 50s. There's Jackie. Cheryl, Go look up. Jackie. Cheryl. Jackie. Cheryl was a hell of a coach, hell of a defensive coordinator. At Pitt and then a head coach at Pitt and then RC Slocum in the 90s with the wrecking crew defense. RC Slocum was a 70, was a 700 win percentage got when he was there and it was based on defense. Elko and here's what I think Elko is going into being there as that defensive coordinator for several years.

1:36:53 He knows how fucking crazy they are. He knows it already. I don't think Jimbo knew it. I think Jimbo oh, they're a lot like Florida State. They they they've got some high crazy fans though. He went in there and was like. What the fuck is this like? These people are stupid and I think being there is going to give him that base. But I think also being he is a football coach and sometimes places like that just need a football coach. I'm not trying to come out here and be the greatest on the PA. We're going to go fucking win football games. That's all I care about. And I'm also glad he's not a Duke anymore. Honestly, because because you know what, he ain't going to be looking for the same portal guys we're looking at this year like he did the last few years. So there that is.

1:37:36 Tally, anybody got anything else on any of these coaching, anything Pete you want to add additional to some of the stuff? One comment on that the Duke thing since they're in our conference you said what are the odds they hire two good coaches in a row? They had Cutcliff, They had Elko. What are the odds they hire a third good coach in a row? Minuscule. Let's. Hope it's 0. Let's hope it's low. Let's hope it's very low. And and maybe this move, you know, gives us the very I know we already had the inside track, but a inside track for a certain offensive lineman from Christiansburg, so. That's all I'll say with that. All right, all righty. So we are now going to be flipping to the big Screener segment and but we don't have to pick any games this week because we are going to run through the gamut that is Championship Fridays and Saturday with Pete here.

1:38:26 And it's always the big Screener segment is presented by Prize Picks Daily fantasy app where you make entries based on player projected outcomes. This week, Y'all need to jump on this. They got bow Knicks. The over under is 10 1/2 rushing yards. Book that 10 1/2. He is definitely going to scramble probably for at least 30 to 40. Blake quorum against Iowa, take the under. I think quorum gets to 80. I still think they're going to win it, but that's my two play right there. Prospects will match up any deposit up to 100 bucks. When you sign up using the code BC picks. Bring it up real quick, Brian. The QR code. The QR code right there. Use that.

1:39:09 Let's take that off the screen and. Let's go. Let's go ahead and add this on there this. Just dropped as we were starting. That's right. I mean, that's right. Yeah. Well, does does it surprise you that that Michigan doesn't jump to 1? A little bit, actually. Yeah. I thought they, I thought for sure they would be 1. Well, so they were three last week though, right? They were. But they beat the number 2. And they did and they were undefeated. So I just, I just I I thought since the Ohio State win with all of them over.

1:39:50 But then you look at the, if you look at the rankings, you know you've got Ole Miss at #11 and you've got who's the other one for? For Georgia, Mizzou at #9, like they've got two top eleven wins and so. I guess that's what. And if you go a little bit further too, like they beat Tennessee, was that number 21, which I'm actually surprised, Tennessee? 'S in the range. All right, you you ready for it? Tally's going to tell you why they got this tally. You know the reason why? Look, who's the number 8? What if #8? Yeah, they won't. I mean, they're anticipating them playing Alabama. That gets what it is. So that's why Georgia's at #1, because they're going to play Alabama this weekend. So. And if they lose to Alabama, well, Alabama just beat the number one team in the country.

1:40:33 We have to put them in the playoff. Oh yeah, you know what? That. But this is this is great. But how do you put Alabama in over Texas in Texas, beat Alabama. There you. Go well. Like, that's the thing about this. This Oregon and Texas thing is fascinating because they they are showing you what they're thinking right now because they put Ohio State between Oregon and Texas for a reason. If Oregon wins, they are in. There is no debate. They've been ahead of Texas and every playoff ranking that's come out this year. Oregon wins, they're in, Washington wins, They're in. That is, that is it. The team that loses is out. And the fact that Florida State is still at #4, I think I know they're undefeated, but that means we know that they win and they're in.

1:41:19 Like, I I don't. I don't want to hear any otherwise that's that's just not how it's going to go. The trickiest thing, and I'm sorry, I'm running with this real quick. The trickiest thing that could happen is Bama beating Georgia, because that would set everything into absolute chaos, because you can't put Georgia in if they're not the conference champion in my eye, because you're going to have an undefeated Michigan. Michigan's going undefeated. They're not losing Iowa. No, they're not Florida State loses that. You know they're going to be out there not getting in. And then you'll have the debate. The way you can get two SEC teams in potentially. Is Florida State losing and Alabama winning. But just by Georgia losing alone and Michigan winning and Washington or Oregon winning, it creates a debate of like, do you put Texas in, do you put, you know, undefeated Florida State in?

1:42:10 Do you put Oregon in? You have to decide between those three teams. And I would be so fascinated as to how the committee would go because I think they would put Oregon in over Texas, even if, which which means guys, there would be no SEC team in there. I know I kind of went in a circle, but think about that. If Bama beats Georgia, it threatens the chances of the SEC getting into the playoff. It does. It does. But and and the the big thing there is that you got that like Texas firewall, 'cause if if Texas wins that that really puts. It's hard to make a case to put Bama in over Texas if Texas. Can't do it. You can't. And yes, Billy Ray, you're out there tonight. You cannot put Alabama in because if head to head if a head to head game in the winter has the exact same record as the other team.

1:43:00 You then Then why do we play the games? Yes, we don't need to play the games anymore. We can just. Well, that team's better because they're better on paper and they've had better wins and they've looked different. I don't care that they got on the field. There there's there's too few data points to kenpong this shit. Like at some point the games on the on the field have to matter. Yes, you're right, you in. In basketball, you ignore head to head when going to tournament one because there's so many spots, but two, because there's so many games here, you can't ignore it. And for those that say, OK, Bama beats Georgia, Bama will get in, Texas will get in and you'll have. Michigan.

1:43:40 Yeah, you'll have Michigan. The The problem is Oregon has been in front of Texas. They're going to, if they beat an undefeated team or if that undefeated team wins in Washington, either one of those teams is getting in. They're not going to jump. Texas is not going to jump. Oregon by beating Oklahoma State? It's not going to happen. Their only their only chance was if Oklahoma got in and then they could legitimately say we beat every team on our schedule. And unfortunately, with Oklahoma, Okie State pulling that miracle against BYU because they shouldn't have won that game that first half, I was keeping an eye on it, that they shouldn't have won that game. All right, well, let's get to it. Let's get to all these games. Let's start Friday night.

1:44:22 Let's start Conference USA, New Mexico State versus Liberty. Pete, give us a quick background on this one and then we'll go through the picks. We'll start. Brian's going to start the picks on this one and we'll go left to right. But Pete, quick background on this game and just some Well, we we got a team that's claiming to be the first undefeated regular season team in Virginia and Liberty, you know, which was a bunch of BS and I couldn't believe that that came across my timeline today. But Liberty is 12 and O. They are 10 point favorites against New Mexicans, New Mexico State who is coached by Jerry Kill. A guy we had in our building, a guy we we love and Jamie Chadwell's on the other side, Another fantastic coach. These teams played Liberty's best win, if you go to the Kali matrix on the year is New Mexico State earlier this year, 33 to 17.

1:45:10 And you know why? Because Liberty played literally the easiest schedule in the country #133. So with a 10 point spread, I'm taking the fighting. Jerry Kills. I'm taking New Mexico State because they have played very, very well. Do you know who they just beat last weekend, boys? That's great about. 3 touchdowns it. Would it was unbelievable. I'm taking New Mexico State plus 10. You know what's crazy? I'm going to say this right quick. I know we got to get through this but. Me being here in Alabama and I see the the rivalry games when we talk about the Commonwealth Cup, Commonwealth Cup and Iron Ball and things like that. It is crazy that Auburn brought New Mexico State to their home and got beat by three thirds and then and then played Alabama the next week and should have beat Alabama because that rivalry means that much to them.

1:46:04 It doesn't matter if their records are one in 10 or what. That is a true rivalry. What we do with UVA is is a Big Brother, little brother. That's what I almost said. Let's go back to. That's what it is. Now get Dwight in here and have him talking. All right, Brian, let's roll through. We got Pete's pick already. We'll see it at the end. Brian, who you got on this one? Give me the fight and Jerry kills, man. I'm with you. Give me the points. I think New Mexico State ends their season. I think they win. I think, I think investigate wins and I think because Jerry kills a good enough coach and. You said 3317. That's a that's a two touchdown games are always a little bit funky because you know. It's early in the season, too.

1:46:47 Early in the season, tally who you got. I'm. Going to take liberty. I know it's hard for a team to beat, know it's hard for a team to beat A-Team twice, but I think they're going to do it. All right, who'd Shelton roll on this one? Shelton's going to Mexico State here and obviously we got, he's got New Mexico State as well. All righty. Let's go Friday night. PAC 12 in Las Vegas, by the way. Would y'all be opposed if we pulled the ACC championship to Las Vegas once Stanford and everybody joined? Not for one year. I would love it all. Right, just making sure. All right, Pete, what we got on this one? We got Washington, Oregon, Oregon. A 9 1/2 point favorite against an undefeated Washington. Yeah, the line is wild and and part of that has to be because of the close games Washington has been playing ever since they beat Oregon.

1:47:30 They almost lost to Arizona or Arizona State the very next week and they went to overtime with Arizona I believe. So Pennix doesn't look quite right. They they played a good end of that game against Washington State to survive. But a few weeks back I said Oregon was my best team in the country. Power rankings, my own personal eye test and stat. Looking up I went with Oregon as my best team in the country. I'm not wavering from that. However, that game was super close last time and Washington won on their own turf. I think Washington is good enough to keep it within the 9 1/2. I like Oregon to win. Washington cover. Oregon win. Washington cover. All righty, Sheldon was back.

1:48:14 Sheldon was right there with you. Same mindset. I think looking at at what he was saying earlier he you know, it's it's just the that that 9 1/2 is a little too much even on a neutral field. OK, so. Tell it who you got. I'm going to Oregon, man. I think that the refs in the country wants Bo Dick, Bo, Bo Nicks. Bo who? Bo. Bo Dicks. Yeah, they definitely. They want him to be the Heisman. I mean, they have been raving about Bo Nicks. So if it's an opportunity for Oregon to win and Oregon to win big, this is going to be his Heisman moment and the line stinks and Tally's diving into the stink. Fatally, Fatally.

1:49:06 You see he and I'm not saying that to be mean because Tally said it a bunch of times during the. Course. Oh yeah, No, no, no. You do not put money on what I'm telling you. It does not work out, is it? All righty here. This is not gambling advice. I think 9 1/2 is just too big because like you said Pete, that first game literally was a down to the end. I'll I've watched the end of it here probably. Were you over for that game? Why did I feel like you came over for that game? Maybe. Regardless, maybe you did. But I will say this, Curtis, I know you're going to make your pick, but I will say this. Y'all need to think. They they lost that game because of coaching. They didn't know it's true. There were some court down calls in that game that were. Screwed up, Yeah, there.

1:49:51 Was a lot of calls in that game. So anyway, go ahead. Kurt Well, I don't think Washington wins. I think this is where we start to see a little of the the CFP playoff chaos. I think Washington's good enough, like with UPI think they're good enough to keep it within 9 1/2. It's probably a touchdown win for Oregon, so I'm going Washington. When Spread Oregon Takes it money line Ziegler. I'm right there with everybody here on the panel except for Tally. Wow, pretty. Good. You know what he's doing. What he's supposed to? Do you know when when I look at it, the line is just a little, little, little funky for me, that's a little too much to lay. You know, I think it like Curtis said, it's going to be about a 76 point.

1:50:43 Oregon victory. But that 9 1/2 is just too much for my blood. So much. And this is de facto playoff game because winner is going to the playoff. Yeah, yeah, there's really, there's no drama here in in terms of the playoff. It doesn't really shake anything up, except maybe the seating. The winner of this is is is a playoff team. All righty. Here's what we got next. We've got the Mack matching. I wish they would do. I wish they would do this game on a Wednesday night. Honest to God I wish they would. But we've got Miami of Ohio and Toledo Y'all these are actually two good teams. Miami of Ohio 10 and two. Toledo 11 and one. I didn't realize that as y'all see we got a line of 7 1/2 Toledo favorite Pete. What are we seeing on this game?

1:51:29 And is Jason Candle a candidate anywhere from for for head coaching Guy? You know I feel like Jason Candle has been a candidate for about seven years and and Toledo in the Mack is at resources and facilities advantage. They always seem to be one of the best three teams in the Mack and it's for good reason they they put the investment into football. Toledo 11 straight wins. Their only loss was the first game of the season to Illinois. They both played absolutely terrible schedules. So like Toledo, we talked about Liberty schedule. I think Toledo has like the second easiest schedule in the country. But they did beat San Jose State, who some people think should be in the Mountain West.

1:52:14 We'll get there, but that was a good quality win. They're coming in Hot 7 1/2. I'm going to take Daquan Finn, Pat's brother, and I think they're going to get, they're going to get the win and cover Toledo. I'm taking he. Takes Toledo. Brian, what about you? Yeah, I, I, I'm riding the Toledo Rockets here, baby. Let's go. All righty. I I'm going to. Ride the Toledo Rocket. It's better to ride in the Red Rocket. I won't take Toledo as well. First game was a four point game. I think Toledo is the better team overall and I think they, I think they win the game going away. I think it's going to be not going to be as close, but you know, what do I know, Tally? I'm going to take Toledo on this and you know I want to get on Y'all's team.

1:53:04 Y'all seem to pick a little bit better than me. Toledo has a good running back. I think that running back's got about 1400 yards. He's averaging like 8 yards a carry, maybe like 15 touchdowns. So I'm going to go, I'm going to go with Toledo on this, just because I've watched him play and he looks good. Toledo's across the board, which means Miami's going to win out, right? Did did Shelton go with us? Oh yeah, everybody's riding Toledo. Toledo We were riding the rock. To the moon, baby. To the moon. High noon. All right, let's flip it. Next, let's go to the Big 12. We already hit on this a little bit. Beat Texas laying 14 1/2 in Okie State. And then again, in my opinion, Okie State shouldn't beat BYU. Last week I watched that game. They really shouldn't have. But what are we looking at here Pete? You got a nine and three, OK?

1:53:47 State team that is only lost in the last eight games was that beat down at the hands of UCF in the let down spot after the Oklahoma game. So I'll forgive them a bit for going to Florida after Oklahoma and getting beat in the rain. But as you saw last week against BYU, that team does not give up easily. They Ollie Gordon has been a revelation for them ever since that 19 yard game against South Alabama. I I don't know what got into OK State. Gundy found a way and I'm going to take them to cover that 12 points. All right. He's got them covering. What's Shelton? Got Shelton is riding with OSU as well. Tally, what you got?

1:54:32 I called Pete before the show and I called Shelton before the show and they are very smart, so I just picked what they picked. All righty. So I must be the idiot over here, then, because I think Texas knows it has to make a statement. Pete, you you've said it three or four times. Really. I said that. I thought you did. Did you? Where I got it wrong? Did. I get it wrong. I don't know. Shit. I don't know. What do you like about Texas though, Brian Curtis? Finish your thought. Because no one here and just saying it's more of the spot they're in, I think Texas knows they have to put an ungodly beat down on Okie State because you keep saying they can't jump Oregon. I have a question.

1:55:15 They go out there and beat Okie State by 5 touchdowns 40. 4914 and then you look at their resume. Well, the only team they lost to was A10 win Oklahoma team. They went to Tuscaloosa. They handled Alabama with these. Why shouldn't we put this team in the playoff? Yeah, And. And that's that's a good argument. And you know what? They tried to make that statement last week against Texas Tech. When? They oh, they did make sense. But you know what? It didn't work because they're still six, behind Ohio State and and Oregon. Let me tell you how they're going to get in. If Alabama beats Georgia, they're going to throw Texas in because they need the big name That and that's that's correct. That is Texas's avenue to get into the playoff is they need Bama to win that.

1:56:02 They could beat Oklahoma State by 60 points. They're not getting in unless Bama beats Georgia. There you go. Good point, Brian. I did. Confirm that you sent OS. UI did send OSU, but I don't know that I was trying to do this quickly today. So. You know what? That's all right. I like Texas to win this, but 14 1/2 is a little funky for me, so I'm going to OSU here. All righty, We're going to go out to the Mountain West next again, we're going in subsequential order. So the the, the way you see these games, the way they're coming out, I believe this is on CBS Sports Network and it's going to be like a three, three or 4:00 kick. Pete, you got a little interesting behind this one about maybe one of these teams shouldn't be here. Well, the Mountain West decides when there's a tie in the standings.

1:56:52 They decide who goes to the championship game by computer rankings using one of the computer rankings. I like the best in the Collie matrix and they decided that Boise State and UNLV should should go at it and UNLV just lost to San Jose State. And yet they are. They are the ones that are in because they have a better overall record at 9:00 and 3:00, Boise State at 7:00 and 5:00. A-Team that fired their coach is also in. Think about that. If I hired their coach mid season and they are in the championship game and guess what I like them to win outright. Like, yeah, I'll take them against. I'll. Well, actually they're favored. They're, they're two point favorites, right. So I'll take Boise to lay the points with Boise. But what a season for.

1:57:35 I do want to mention Barry Odom and UNLV because that program has been in the dumps for a long time and Perry Onum as a straight up good coach there was. There's that one point where we thought we might get him as our defensive coordinator. I think it didn't quite happen that way, but UNLV had not won nine games since 1984 and so good, good for UNLV. It's going to be a fun game. I think Boise State gets the win though. All righty, Pete's got Boise State on this one, Brian, who do you got? I'm going to preface this with I think that we should be seeing another team in here as Pete alluded to, but shout out to DJ Harvey out there in San Jose State. Yeah, so, but since that's not what we got, I'm going to UNLV here.

1:58:29 I think. I think Barry Odom is going to get them up for this game. I think they aren't the best team on paper, but I think that they're going to. Play play above their skis a little bit and and and pull off a victory here against Boise. I'm with you. Give me the Give me that little two. I'll take UNLV as well. And all the old food crew out there, and you know Odom and Vance Vice and who else is out there. There's there's a few other ones out there right from the Shotbusters out there. Is he really? Shotbusters. A special teams coordinator out there. So yeah, some of the old, some of the old Tech coaches who you got Tally? Because they got old tech coaches out there. I did not pick them.

1:59:13 Boise State Boise State Later 2 Shelton. Says Shelton, Says Boise. Shelton says Boise. And we got Pete saying Boise. All right, next one. Let's go to Atlanta 430 kick Georgia, Alabama, Georgia. The -6 favorite here. My one of my old bosses saw her today at work. She's a huge Georgia fan. She's heading down to Atlanta to watch the game this weekend. So what do we got here on this one, Pete, That if you know there, there's a couple key things about this. So these teams have obviously been the two best teams in the SEC over the past decade, yet they have not matched up a ton of times in the championship game and in Georgia's recent success. They have yet to beat Alabama in this game. In fact, they've never beaten Alabama in this game. Since the SE CS inception in 1992, Georgia has four titles. It's Arkansas, it's LSU.

2:00:13 It's Auburn, and it's LSU again. Can Georgia beat Bama for the SEC title? I think they should and they will win. But I like the six points. I I think Will Millroe can do enough. I think he's developed enough for them to be competitive and that Bama defense is for real. They're they're going to show Carson Beck some things he hasn't seen this year. Carson Beck has been great down the stretch, really, really good development out of the quarterback from Georgia throughout the year. But I think Bama is going to slow them down a little bit and I think Bama is going to be able to cover. But I think Georgia is going to get the win to finish another season undefeated.

2:00:56 All righty, who's Shelton laying on this one? Riding with Georgia. Riding with Georgia Tally, This is a tough one for you. Hey, can y'all hear me Good. I've got my microphone up so everybody can hear this. Georgia is going to win this game because if they do not win, you may not see ASCC team in the playoffs. They are not going to let that happen. They will not. There will be refs putting on uniforms and playing. Georgia's going to win this game. I'm taking Georgia just because I had to see Georgia's logo up here. But if I if I'm betting, I'm definitely putting money on Georgia money line because Georgia's winning this game because again it gets too funky. If Alabama wins, if Alabama beats Georgia in this game and then you have to go into.

2:01:49 Thinking about a playoff without ASCC team in? They'll burn it down. They don't know what are we going to do. We may not be we there's if if that happens, there's not going to be an NCAA Football game coming out. So all of you gamers, you might as well throw it away. There's going to be people that's going to be petitioning outside of the college playoffs that says Michael Vick was fighting dogs. It's going to be chaos. If that happens, I'm telling you right now, Georgia's going to win because they want to get ASCC team in there. And if Alabama wins, it's going to be too tricky for them to put like if if Alabama wins, they have to put two teams in there and they can't put two teams in there unless everybody loses. That's just my opinion.

2:02:33 I'd say it's a good way to point. I'm I'm with Tally on this one that Georgia has to win this game and I think. Six is the line, right? Funky, funky plays can happen at end of games. We saw that last weekend with the Alabama game, right? Georgia wins by 10 because it ain't gonna be no funky play at the end of the game for Alabama this time. I like a pick based on a conspiracy theory, though. Tally, I appreciate that. Yes. There we go. I'm, I'm riding with. I'm round with Georgia too. Pete you are the the the lone hey look, I mean I think these teams.

2:03:17 I think Georgia's got a little too much love. Both of these teams struggled last week. You wouldn't. I know Georgia SAT they didn't have a couple of their better players but like Georgia Tech by 8. What what are you doing messing around with Georgia Tech by 8. I know Bama almost lost, but that's at least a rivalry like Georgia. Georgia Tech. Like I know is good old fashioned. Hate. Georgia Tech. Sucks. Come on. There you go. Yeah. I mean, at this point, I mean, Georgia, Georgia Tech is very much Virginia Tech, UVA, right? Yeah. It's been it's been dead for 20 plus years. Yeah, they'll they'll, they'll, they'll scrape one here or there. That's competitive. But it's so I'm willing to forgive Bama's performance more than I am Georgia's.

2:03:59 And Georgia has had close calls against Auburn earlier in the year there. They Mizzou. Mizzou was the tight one. South Carolina was a lot tighter than it should have. Been like. I was going to say Georgia's been playing with the food all. All year. So is Bama though. I mean they got, I mean you say what you want, they got smacked by Texas. They got smacked at home And then the USF game, we were sitting up, that was during the Rutgers weekend. One that Brian, when I came up to your house and we were like. What are they doing? Like this is USA. Well, they they had a shadow, they had a shadow ban on Milro that game. They didn't play them and there there was, there was some kind of suspension going on there and I thought that Milro has developed better since since that that game you mentioned.

2:04:44 No, the problem that they had that game is that the boosters and the fans. Were telling Nick Saban how to coach. So he said, well, let me show you that I know more than you guys do. And he put those other quarterbacks in and they suck. They were horrible. And they also were playing in like a hurricane. So it was a lot going on down. Now since then we've seen what they've done. They're still going to lose Saturday all. Right, we got the AAC packs. SM Future ACC member SMU versus Tulane, Tulane Lane 5 1/2 points Another good game. Tulane 11 and one SMU 10 and two. Any back on this one Pete? Yeah, well SMU is 4th nationally in points per game. They have been throwing up points at 69 points a couple weeks ago.

2:05:30 Nice. But the thing, the thing about SMU is their two losses are too TCU and Oklahoma 2P, five teams. TCU is not very good. And so my kind of thing with SMU is that they're like AG5 version of Virginia Tech. Yeah, they will beat the crap out of some bad teams, but when they go up against anybody decent, they lose. And so I think Tulane's going to win the win the ball game. And Tulane, despite struggling against ECU and a couple other guys, I just think Tulane finds a way and I think they're going to be able to win the game by 6 points. So I'm going to take Tulane. All right, Pete's got Tulane.

2:06:13 Brian, who do you got in this one? I'm riding with Tulane as well. I think they're going to put it, put it together in this one. As Pete said, SMU has struggled against quality competition. I would consider Tulane a quality opponent, so I'm going to go with Tulane here. All righty. I'm going to go different than y'all. I think. I think Tulane's going to win the game, but I think 5 1/2, as good as the SMU offense is, they'll get some points. They're going to give up some points and I think it's it's what every time I see a line like this, I think it's like it's a 10 point lead. The great offense scores with six seconds left and they get the back door cover and like, oh, this is a really good game. And like, Nah, they scored with six seconds left. They had no chance to actually win this game tally. I was cutting out.

2:07:06 I missed half of what you said S. MUSMU because they got offense and they going to be able to at least score some points. I'm going to take two lane on this man. I'm going to take two lane because I'm pretty sure that SM US quarterback that threw for like 3200 yards is hurt. So he's out. That's a big bulk of their offense. He threw for like, I don't know, 26 touchdowns and not very many picks, so. I'm going to take Tulane because they're SMU signal callers down. All righty, we got Sheldon Peaks rolling up there. I would. I just want to .1 thing out before we move on to the Sunbelt. It's just that Tulane is having their starting quarterback play against Ole Miss away from being undefeated. Like Pratt did not play against Ole Miss, and if he plays in that game, there's a good shot.

2:07:57 Tulane is undefeated going into this. By the way, it's a good thing. This is, This is why we needed 12, because a team like Tulane deserves to be in the playoff. I mean they've done the last two years and and like this and I was saying something and we're going to go off topic and y'all know I got to pull myself back. But is this not the year it should have been 12 teams. There's no one dominant power. We pulled it up there and you look and say there's legitimately. 11 or 12 teams that if they got hot and they played their game, they could beat every other team that's in front of them. Let's hope that happens next year. All right, Sunbelt Fun Belt. Pete App versus App State versus Troy, even because JMU can't play Troy. 6 1/2 point favorites.

2:08:41 What you got All right so JMU cannot play in the game and they should be in it. However, who went into Harrisonburg and won the game? App state. Did App State They deserve to be in this game just as much as JMU does In my opinion. Troy has been awesome. Their running back is a stud over 1300 yards this year 9 touchdowns. Their QB Watson and their wide receivers are are probably better than Apps. Although Aguilar from from App State has the third most passing touchdowns in the country. This game could be wild. Do you guys remember last year the Troy App State game on the Hail Mary? This was the week after AB had beaten Texas A&M. These teams play crazy games.

2:09:25 I cannot wait to see it. I'm taking App State and the points. They have been hot. I like Joey Aguilar, quarterback. I'm going Mountaineers. All right, he goes Mountaineers. Who's Shelton got? Shelton has App state as well. Tally, what you got? Man, I'm picking with my heart, man. I'm picking the hometown Trojans. Funny story, man. Jacksonville State, which is where I went, Used to be big rivals with with Troy before they made the jump to go to the big boys. And it was the Trojans versus the Cox that was always a very cool rivalry, man.

2:10:05 You know, one of the chance was. They can't beat our cocks while holding. While holding Trojans Trojan columns in your hands. Yeah, that's funny as little man. See that and get the video of that. Oh my God, that's awesome. And so your alma mater's going to a bowl too, there, Tal. Yeah, man, Jacksonville State's looking good. They got some guys that I went to college with that are coaching down there, so I I keep up with them pretty good. They got some good players, man. Rich Rod's down there doing this thing. Yes, that's right. That's right. All right. I'm next on this one. I'm going, I'm going to ride Tally's coattails and I'm going to go Troy as well. Troy has two losses this year, one's to a good Kansas State team and one was to JMU. The JMU loss was by two points, so that is a good Troy team. I think what we saw with App State when they beat JMU, it's like it happens every year.

2:10:57 Somebody gets built up and built up. They don't understand how to play. App State had been there. How many times as Dave has been there has pulled the upsets? Easy. See. Look who you got. I'm rolling with that state for the opposite reason that you just said. I think they are riding some momentum now. They show that they could beat a team that is earlier in the year taking care of Troy. So I feel like they are feeling themselves a little bit. I think they're going to take care of business. Yeah. Five straight for AP9, straight for Troy. This is 2 hot teams coming in. I can't wait to see what happens. All righty All right, we got two more left. We're going to start with the Big 10 championship game where it's the Iowa Hawkeyes and I'm pretty sure still the dead last offense in the country at 131 against the Michigan Wolverines.

2:11:45 Michigan, a 23 point favorite. This is in Brian's home stadium, the Lucas Oil Stadium of his Colts. Pete, what are we seeing on this one? Yeah, I mean, you nailed it, Curtis, Like 133rd in yards per play. How in your I saw pen, Spencer Petrus jumped in the portal today. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. How could any offensive player on Iowa not be jumping in the portal? They have been absolutely putrid on offense for years. I don't know how they won 10 games. I really don't. They scraped by Nebraska by the skin of their teeth to get that tenth win. Their best win of the season was probably against Iowa State who is mid at best. So their strength of schedule is worse than Virginia Tech's. If you look at the Colleen matrix, Michigan will win. Let's not, let's not make any bones about this, It's going to be could.

2:12:37 Could Iowa cover? Sure. But is Iowa going to score a point? Like is Iowa going to score a point? And if they don't score a point, Michigan's getting 24. I'm taking Michigan there. You go. He's taking Michigan, Brian, who are you taking? I just feel like Iowa's defense is going to keep it just close and I think they do get one touchdown against Michigan and that is. Enough. This is true, by the way. They're giving the O underline That was last week because it was 24 last week. Oh my God. And they did the under, hit it, hit it, hit. We we we our our music guy, Jason. Get dabbles a little bit.

2:13:19 We're like, you just got to take the under and watch that game because it's taking an under and watching a game is just an experience. I'm going to take Michigan here, I think Michigan, Pete, I'm with you. Iowa's not going to score a point. They're not. They're not scoring one point, Let's say block a field goal or take one back to the house. And I think Michigan is going to get to about 28 or 31. So also the 35 1/2 over under take the under, take the under. That is the easiest money anybody will make this week. 35 1/2 under on this game, yeah. Man, I got to go with Iowa on this, man. I just think that they're like, Brian said. I don't think they're going to win the game, but. Any any means.

2:14:04 But I mean, that's a lot of points, man. You know what I'm saying? It's just a lot of points in a championship game for us to see crazy stuff happen. So I just think that we're going to get, you know, I don't know not a 24 point win by Michigan and and one thing that you guys got going in your favor is the fact that Michigan did lose their center last game. Like that would that would that's a big loss and I think they are already lost a guard at one point. So there is something that could potentially hold the Michigan offense back here and not having their dudes up front. Nevertheless, I'm going to stick with my Michigan, all right? Shelton. Shelton Rd. With Iowa and obviously Pete's.

2:14:45 Pete's with Michigan here all. Right, last game ACC title game Louisville, FSU, Louisville or FSU at 2 1/2 point. Favorite Pete. What were your impressions to take Rodmaker last week in the Swamp against a solid Florida defense? They weren't good to start off, I'll say that the the guy didn't complete 50% of his passes. 134 yards, got his clock cleaned trying to slide. No, I wasn't impressed. I also wasn't impressed that Florida State gave up 244 yards rushing to the Florida offense. That's something that if Louisville can run the football, that's going to be a huge problem for Florida State in this game. Brahm kind of just got his pants pulled down by Mark Stoops last week.

2:15:35 You know, he's going to scheme something up for this championship game. Brahm's a very good coach. I think Norvell is a good coach. And the line is tight, right? The the 15 yards per run. Like if you look at, yeah, yards per run allowed, Louisville is 15. I know they, they, they didn't have the best game against Kentucky. They've only gave up like 84 rushing yards. If they can slow Benson down, Louisville is going to have a tremendous chance to win this game. And so I went back and forth on this because I think Louisville has a real shot. I I really do. I'm going to take floor state. It's under a field goal as we're picking it.

2:16:15 I'm going to take floor state with a gun in my head, but I do not like it. What's Sheldon got on this one? Sheldon's riding with FSU as well. Tally. I got to go FSU, man. I got to go FSUI don't have any rhyme or reason behind it. I just think they're going to. Win and I I I'm, I'm, I'm riding FSU as well. I think they're going to win this game and get in the playoff. I think they've they've got a well balanced enough team that they can do it. And again I think you talked about I think being in the swamp might have been the best thing for Tate. Rodemaker hostile environment. Loud. Playing a solid defense. Because now, even though Louisville is a good defense, it's the environment. You're going to the Charlotte, you're going to Bank of America Stadium.

2:17:03 You're not going to have people going crazy in your ear. And and I think they make the playoff. I don't know if they do anything in the playoff, but they make it. Curtis, you're absolutely right on that because the The Swamp is such a tough place to play and so that you couldn't have asked for a better because he came out on the winning side and so now they do have the better overall roster. So I'm with you. Yeah, I think this is a bounce. It's a bounce back week for the FSU defense. I think they take care of business. I think they do just enough offensively to outlast the Cardinals there. So give me FSU as well. All righty. So they're all our wonderful lines.

2:17:43 That was a lot of fun to pick these games. We got to Pete. Regardless, you're coming back and doing this next year. Even if Shelton's on, we're still doing this. All righty. We got one more thing. I'll let Brian take that down. And we won't know likely until Sunday afternoon as we're probably watching NFL, seeing if we can make our fantasy playoffs. But I'm going to start with that guest here. Pete, Bowl projections for Virginia Tech. Where do you think we're going to go? Who are we going to play? Overwhelming projections say Military Bowl, that that's where most of the people are projecting us to. Do we have a chance at the Duke's Mayo or the Sun Bowl? Yes, but in the Military Bowl, Memphis I think has been mentioned the most as a potential matchup.

2:18:28 I've seen Rice in there, SMU in there, UTSA, Navy, if I would say it's the Military Bowl against Memphis. But it's probably my first choice too because we, we can get so many Hokies there. It's easy to get to. Do I want to play in El Paso? No, not really. I don't want to go to the Tony the Tiger bowl, but that that's a that's one of the higher possibilities. A lot of the other ones are are probably more remote. All righty. So he's going military. Memphis Tally, What do you think? I keep saying military SMU, so I'm going to go with that Military SMU. Matter of fact, I'm putting up a GoFundMe on my Twitter page. I need y'all to start sending some stuff so I can go to this game wherever it's at.

2:19:24 I think they need me there to win, so y'all start. Start donating. I start donating single. Who you got, man? I'm I'm kind of leaning towards I I want it to be Duke's Mayo. But I'm the more I think about it, it's looking like the military is going to be the pick. You know what, as much as I I I like Memphis. I think that would be a better match up for us. I'm kind of intrigued by the future ACC member SSMU match up, so let let me get that one. Yeah, you see a lot on here because you got, you got the Fenway, you got the pinstripe. We're not going to the pinstripe Bowl. Just write that one off.

2:20:05 They're not going to send us out West. I saw the projection today. Clemson's going out West. Play USC. That would be fun. That's a guarantee right there. They're going to the Holiday Bowl. But I think, Brian, you just said it. I think it's going to be the Military Bowl because they know Hokies in Northern Virginia, Richmond, even peep where you are. It's not that far of a drive for you down to Annapolis, Easy drive. They fill up the stadium and then ESPN gets a narrative when they put SMU in there. This game is going to happen in the future. The SMU versus Virginia Tech. And I think for us it would be a challenge. I do that. It sure as hell would. Now here's what we hope though.

2:20:47 We hope it's a good old Annapolis weather. It's about 36�� and it's a little drizzle. With that high-powered offense, they got to make some decisions. I mean, one of my least favorite projections is the Kentucky Duke's Mayo Bowl. Like, you know, if we had to play that, we do not want any part of Lynn Bowden two point O, We don't. We don't want because Ray Davis, that rushing offense, they would destroy what we got going on in the linebacking core and whatnot like that. That just would not be good. I don't. I do not want either Robbie. Shane didn't make it. Shane didn't make. It. Not this year. Not this year, no Mayo, for shame. This year that's not going to happen. I did think when I saw the Sun Bowl projection for Virginia Tech against USC, like I did kind of perk up like that just sounds wild.

2:21:39 And the fact that, like, we have some corners, could we defend I? Who knows? Well, Caleb Williams wouldn't be playing. He wouldn't. Even play. So I can say half of them wouldn't. Yeah, that's true. That's true. So we might get A, we might get the B team. And still get worked. I don't know. Yeah, I just hope our guys playing the bowl game, that's all I want. Yeah, right, exactly. We already got people declaring for the portal, so we. Got people already not playing. So but again, it's just fun to be back in a bowl. I mean it. It's a little we missed one season. And it's just it's fun to have conversations like this because. It is 1000% fun. It was depressing last year. It was very depressing. Depressing. Yes, it was all right. It is after midnight here on the East Coast, over 2 hours, 23 minutes. It has been a blast.

2:22:23 Pete, we really appreciate you joining us. Has anything broken in the last two hours? I mean, obviously a coach got hired. So has anything else broken? Has anybody else entered the portal or anything like? Pete, that Pete may be entering the portal and coming to Boundary corner. I'm just letting y'all know you're talking behind this thing. You got you got too many people on this podcast already. You. Can never have. You can never have too many good people. I never had too many good. I love hanging out with you guys. I, you know, and you gave me some props earlier for for what I said on your panel. Well go back to the spring when we did the the spring preview spring game preview down in at Sharky's and I asked, I asked Brian like who does he like at wide receiver and he was like Gimme Felton and like we had heard nothing to that point about Daquan Felton and Brian just pulled it right out. I was like, OK, we'll see what happens and look at felt in the last three games. 321 yards, 4 touchdowns, Good call. Buddy Baller.

2:23:21 Putting in the work. Putting in the work, man. Well, boys, that does wrap up this episode of the Boundary Corner podcast, brought to you by Main Street Pharmacy with our esteemed guest Pete B I'm Curtis. Wilson, I'm Brian Siegler. Visit our website boundarycornerbt.com to listen to all of our episodes. Check the merchandise. Shop out. Follow us Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Continue to subscribe to our YouTube. A lot of y'all are there watching tonight. We really appreciate that. All your podcast places, wherever you are subscribe to us, we'll feed you right in the next day. We always let our buddy Jason Long, he plays this in. Play this out Jason Long music.com where you can find all of this stuff. Apple Spotify has YouTube and Facebook accounts.

2:24:04 Boys, it's been a great season. Six and six. Some people say, well, that's nothing. Where we were last year at this time with three wins, it did not look good. But we're getting back. We saw the development and one last time during the regular season. Let's go. Okey. Okey, thank you Lord for covering drones. The.