Transcript of Week 5 Picks: Alabama-Georgia, Illinois-Penn State & more games + UNLV's ugly QB situation

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Playoff Base is back. I'm Derek Van Riper, host of the Athletic's Rates & Barrels podcast. Join Eino Sarras. Mr. Stats guy. Richie Roley. How you like them apples? Trevor May and I, as we dig deep into the key matchups and advanced stats driving the critical decisions throughout the postseason. From the first crack of the bat in the wild card round until the last pitch of the World Series, we have you covered. Check out the Rates & Barrels podcast every day during the postseason, wherever you get your podcast. Hello and welcome to Until Saturday, the Thursday Picks Edition. We've got Chris Finini here, Senior writer with The Athletic, and of course, Damian Harris, back with more of Dame's Dogs this week. We got a ton of big games, a lot of dogs out there. A bunch of those are going to be playing in Georgia, Alabama, the biggest game of the week. But we also get a Big Ten showdown when Illinois goes to Penn State. We're going to learn a little bit more about Louisville when they go to Notre Dame. There's a bunch of other good games, too. Wazoo, Boise, maybe jockeying for the G5 playoff spot.

It's going to be fascinating to watch. Either way, before we get to the games, guys, Scandal is afloot in college football. Most likely, you woke up this morning to news that UNLV, who's currently maybe the front runner, certainly in that front group of teams competing for a playoff spot for that G5, they win the Mountain West. Their starting quarterback, Matthew Sluka, entering the transfer portal, leaving the program because his NIL deal was not followed through with. In short, if you haven't caught up on the story, there was a promised $100,000 from UNLV's coaching staff. The Sluca has got about $3,000 for relocation fees. Now, UNLV on Wednesday afternoon, released a statement essentially saying that there was no deal. They don't engage and pay for play. Blueprint Sports, who runs UNLV's collective, said there was no agreed-upon deal. Both sides agreed that there was no written contract, but there is a certain level of trustworthiness here that seems to possibly have been violated. Chris, it's also worth noting that we had some reports very early Wednesday that the NIO obligations had been fulfilled, and Matthew Sluka did ask for more money. It should be noted, I think Chris, that that came from Carl Reid of 247 Sports, who, in addition to working for 247 Sports, also serves as Brenan Marion, who is UNLV's offensive coordinator, his agent and representation.

I think that should inform how you view those things. Chris, there's a bunch of stuff to get to with this. Where do we start here? Where do we start?

It's all morning, all last night, when Antonio Morales, our colleague, threw it to us in a text group chat, I was like, Oh, this is going to be something, isn't it? There's two Two stories here, two sides of the story. One side from the player's side that they were promised something that they never received. There's the other side, which is we never promised that thing. He's asking for more money than we were giving him. So we I don't know exactly yet as we're recording this, how it played out. But it's a really, really messy situation to have a quarterback of a 3-0 team, a top 25 team, just straight up leaving the team a third of the way through the season. It It's impacted the betting line for UNLV Fresno State. That's ticked down a few points. It is worth noting that he won this quarterback job in fall camp. It's not like he was a starting quarterback before or anything like that. There was a three-man race. He transferred from Holy Cross, won the job, was playing like okay. I mean, he's completing 43% of his passes, but he is running the ball pretty well, had a good game against Kansas.

But they do have another FCS transfer who came from Campbell, who they also like, who is now going to be the number one quarterback moving forward this week. Everybody just had their take on it this morning. This is why you got to have contracts. This is players are being lied to. All these kinds of things. I'm not there yet because we don't fully know things, but I think it's pretty clear, get things in writing, first of all, always get it in writing. This is the problem with coaches and and working together and who promised what and who's delivering what. You got to know you have the money if money is going to be offered to a kid. Dame, you're a former player. Obviously, it was before the NIL era. How do you How do you just look at this as a former player?

I think you hit the nail on the head to start. First of all, you got to get this in writing. I mean, these guys want to be treated like professionals. They want to get paid like professionals. Well, professionals have contracts, and that's to eliminate all of this back and forth. He said, she said, heard it through the great vine. None of us really know. The only people that know are the people that are in-house. So my problem with this, and my huge issue with this, is we used to always talk about whenever I played about eliminating external distractions, eliminating things that were off the field that did not help us win games. And all this N-I-L and all it's created in the way that they did it is nothing but distractions. So now here you are. You've got a team that's playing for something, something major this season. Every game to them is helping them get closer and closer to a 12-team playoff birth. And now their starting quarterback who's been playing decent for them is transferring. And it's like in the middle of the season, you have to completely get your team rebuilt around a new guy, get everybody to have faith in this guy.

Why? Because there's some dispute about NIL, how much this kid got paid versus how much he was promised. It's all these external distractions. And it's a tough situation, I guess, to be in because, again, that's the era of college football that we're in. But whether this kid is right or whether he's wrong, whether the coaching staff, UNLV, is right or wrong, again, this just provides to be another distraction.

It's a tough spot for him to be in because he's not going to be a first-run NFL draft pick. Maybe he gets in a camp, something along those lines. But this is his best chance to get paid. It's his last year of college football. People say get it in writing, but in February, you're thinking, I want to I want to trust these guys, and I also want to be a team player. I want to get this deal done. I want to commit. I want to help with Roni. You talk to Brandon Marrient, talk about, Hey, I love this offense. You got Ricky White coming back. You got a lot of good pieces. I'm excited about this. We'll figure out the details later, but this is the agreement. And that happens a lot where you guys are... You're not having a ton of contracts signed before a kid commits. It's not unheard of to have that. But whether you drop the ball on the back end or commit money that you don't necessarily have, that's not unheard of either, but not coming up with it is going to be a black eye on the program. It's messy for everybody.

I don't think anybody comes out of this looking totally clean, even though the kid's in a tough spot. But fair or not, there are going to be people who have reservations about bringing him into their program moving forward. I lean toward that's probably not fair, but that's the reality.

Can let me ask you this, David, because this is something that's on my mind. Because going back to what you said, this is an unfair situation for this kid. But to me, it almost allows these programs, these universities universities, not necessarily to take advantage of kids, but to lead kids along like this. Because I was having a conversation with our producer, Cam, and he had asked me, Well, how much involvement do players have versus their agents and their representation? When I was in the league, my agent handled all of that. He handled everything. These kids at the college level don't have that same representation. Most of these kids don't have any representation. They don't have any agent. They're negotiating these deals through their families, their moms, themselves. These programs know, okay, well... I mean, even look at this situation. Okay, well, we promise a kid 100K. We don't get anything in writing. Let's see how long we can string this out based on how he performs, based on how he plays. Is he really worth it? Then they're not sitting here looking at a situation like, well, shoot, we just paid DJ U however many millions, and he's not performing.

So I wonder how much of that plays a factor. So I guess that was more of a rant than a question, but turned that into a question.

How does this play out if he loses the job in camp? What's that?

That's one of the questions I had because 100K is not hard to come up with if you're a college football program. Especially in Vegas, which apparently it is. Even UNLV, which doesn't have a ton of resources, that's not a lot of money. And so part of my take on the situation is, do they feel like, let this kid bounce, we've got another kid who's just as good or about the same level that we can plug in and not have to deal with that. And there's been some UNLV players on social media, like supporting Williams, the guy who's going to come in and be the quarterback. We're like, all right, we're behind this guy. This is our dude. So this is not the first time a player has left a team in the middle of a season. We are seeing this more and more now with that four-game redshirt rule. We had Dierret King back in the day when he was a quarterback at Houston. Mj Morris at NC State last year also ended up transferring, even though he said that wasn't why he was going to do it. Just this week, Marcus Freeman announced one of their cornerbacks is going to redshirt the rest of the year and transfer.

I think he's like their number three cornerback. So this is happening more and more.

Part of the issue with this whole saga is that there are no rules, nobody's in charge, and it's all very messy. And that has been a factor in player decisions in an NIL. But Chris, we've also seen that, obviously, in realignment. And now we are seeing the aftershocks at the lower levels of realignment. Unlv involved in another big story in their dalliances with the Pac-12. Before we get into the games, Chris, where does that stand with UNLV mulling a move from the Mountain West conference to the Pac-12. Well, again, the Pac-12 with the biggest quotation marks in the history of college sports.

Well, this is the, I don't know, ironic part of all of this is that UNLV, while it has this going on with a player who questions over an agreement and he's bailing early, UNLV is trying to get out of the Mountain West to go to the Pac-12, or at least considering it. They are considering it at a time. Well, that's fine, Chris.

It's different for schools to leave conferences Just for more money. The players cannot. I think that's clear, obviously.

You know, head coach Barry Odom, he's going to be a hot candidate on the coaching commercial at the end of the year to get out of a contract early and that type of stuff. But the state of the Pac-12 Mountain West is that the Pac-12 has now added five Mountain West schools. They added Utah State yesterday. That gives them up to seven members. They need to get to at least eight. But also on Tuesday, the Pac-12 sued the Mountain West because in order to take those Mountain West schools, it has to at this point $55 million in poaching fees due to an agreement that the conference has signed last year. Last year in Oregon State, Washington State were trying to figure out what to do in 2024 and 2025. They signed a short term agreement with the Mountain West to fill out their schedule. They needed games. But the Mountain West, to protect itself, said, All right, you're going to give us $14 million, and we're going to try to merge these conferences. If you take all of our schools, it doesn't cost nothing. If you don't take them all, then there's a level of fees.

And so they didn't take them all. They took four a couple of weeks ago. They took a fifth here. And so now the Pac-12 is trying to say, Hey, we were forced into this agreement when we were at our lowest point. This is anticompetitive, but we shouldn't have to pay these poaching fees. I don't know where that's going to go in court. It's a real mix. But they're hoping maybe even to settle and pay a lower number because right now it's going to cost $150 million just to get these five schools over between the exit fees and the poaching fees. I don't know how it's going to end. It's not looking great for the Mountain West right now, but all our eyes are on UNLV because if UNLV jumps as well, that gets the pack 12 to 8. It really destabilizes the Mountain West and what is leftover. So conference realignment never ends. Now it's in a courtroom. It's a real mess. And if you're wondering why they didn't merge, which is the biggest question, why not just take everybody? It's because they don't want to be with the bottom Mountain West schools, the Nevada's, the San Jose State's, the Hawaii's, the least invested schools.

They wanted to essentially drop the dead weight. But now you're looking at court battles and $150 million and all this bad blood, all just to drop a couple of schools. A lot of people think it's completely unnecessary and weird.

Well, I think the lesson here, Chris, is that any contract you have, you should have a language in it that says, If I change my mind, though, it's cool. I think that's legal language.

Yeah, I mean, that's what Florida State and Sun Center are arguing as well.

Yeah, legitimately. That would fix a lot in college sports. If I change my mind, it's cool clause. I'll have my lawyers draw that up very, very soon. Guys, there's actual football happening this week. This weekend, I don't know if we knew that. All right, let's start. We got plenty of chatter about Bama, Georgia, but let's start in South Bend. Louisville, number 15, a six-point underdog.

We're going to start this off by saying Louisville. It's Louisville versus Notre Dame.

Louisville, six-point underdog at Notre Dame. The overrunner in that game is 45.5. And as always, all of our lines are presented by Bet MGM. Guys, I still don't know what to think about Louisville overall. I do believe in Jeff Brom. He's got such a... Willowville. He's got such a... I'm just going to say Cardinals from here on out so that we can keep that in the best sense.

Or just call it The Bill. Call it The Bill.

Yeah, The Bill. I'll go with that. I believe in Jeff Brom. I think Jacory Brooks has been pretty legit so 17 catches, 297 yards, a couple of scores there. But that tradition that Brom has built of quarterbacks, you've seen Jack Plumber had a nice year. He came over from Purdue with Braum. Aiden O'Connor before that, David Bluff. We've seen him have a really good run. He He's been digging back to Western Kentucky. Tyler Shuck, I don't see a lot of reason that he can't be next if he's healthy. He's had a nice start here. But the flip side of this, to me, is the Notre Dame offense is a fascinating group as well. It seems like the last couple of weeks, They've made a more concerted effort to get Raleigh Leonard and use him as more of a running threat, not really scrambling, a little bit more designed runs. He's hit double-digit rushing. The last two games, 243 yards, five touch downs on the ground. They've let him run. I think you got to keep that going. But you also have to keep him healthy, and you have to balance that. He's already been banged up this year.

But when he got hurt at Duke last year, it was the same thing. When he gets locked into the pocket and his feet are no longer a threat, he's not very effective. We'll see. But Damian, I believe your first Dames dog of the week is our guy. Like you, a former Alabama player, Jacory Brooks, comes over to the ville, and he's been having a great year. What has allowed him to be so much more successful at Louisville compared to his... He had a decent year a couple of years ago at Bama, but was not really a game-breaker, and he seems like they're clear number one this year.

I'm going to preface this by saying for all the people listening, whenever we introduce Dames dogs, There will usually be some barking involved. But this week we got Bama, Georgia, so I'm going to keep that at a minimum. But I think, first of all, I think one thing that helps Jacory Brooke stand out at Louisville is the fact that obviously he's not playing with the same level of talent at the position. He's not playing with Ryan Williams. He's not playing with those level of guys. But he has been incredibly productive for Louisville this year. He's just a big, long, rangey guy that has really, really strong hands. And usually, you don't find a lot of long, big, tall guys with long arms that I still have strong hands. Usually, you get one or the other, like a guy with sure hands or a guy that's got a big catch radius that you can throw it anywhere around him, and there's going to be a chance that he's going to get it. But with Jacory Brooks, he's winning a lot of 50-50 balls. He's catching a lot of balls in traffic, and he's not body catching a lot of things.

He's always with his hands, always with his arms fully extended. He's doing a lot of things well. Like I said, he's a very smooth receiver, and usually you get that with these big, long-rangey guys. He runs well. I've seen him catch a couple of bubble screens and turn them into... Instead of being three, four-yard gains, turn them in about five, 10, 15-yard gains, turn up the sideline. So if they want to have success against Notre Dame, Jacory Books is definitely going to have to show up. He's going to have to be the same guy, somebody they can throw the ball up to. He can go get it. If they give him the ball in space, he can use his speed, get to the sideline, and just make big plays.

Chris, pretty interesting. These two programs. Notre Dame, their offense, seems to have played a little bit better the last couple of weeks. We mentioned getting Raleigh Leonard and using him as a runner. Whether or not that can hold up against Louisville is a fair question. But Louisville, we've only seen them tested once against Georgia Tech, and that's not a great team. Where do you land on this game?

Louisville, they stopped the run against Georgia Tech really well. They allowed 2.6 yards per carry. The leading rusher was Haynes King with 58 yards. I don't trust Notre Dame's passing offense at this point. We haven't really seen that pan out. Yes, they have been running Rael Leonard more, but Louisville's defense is prepared for that, I think. That's That's what it comes down to. Now, Haynes King did pass for 300 yards last week against Louisville, and they did move the ball in the air. I don't know if Notre Dame adjusts by going to that, but with the line is what? Louisville plus 6. Going into Notre Dame, all lines, by the way, presented by Bet MGM. I'm taking Louisville. I could see them winning this game as well. Six is a lot. Louisville won this game last year, too, by the way, and Tyler Shuck has played well, and I like Louisville's defense. I'm I'm picking Louisville to cover. I could easily see them winning this game straight up.

Yeah, I think I'm with you on this. Talking to our Notre Dame writer, Pete Samson, about the Notre Dame offense. The last two teams that they played had no ability to take away Ryan Leonard's legs. I'm with you. I think if you can do that, you don't have to keep them under 20 yards, but you can't let them go for 100. I think if you can do that, you can limit their offense and ugly this up, make this like a 27, 24 game. I will take Louisville in the point I think they can win this game, too, but I will just take them in the points. Dame, where are you at with these guys?

I'm going to take Louisville upset.

All the way? Okay.

Straight away. Straight away, yeah. Straight up. I'm going to take Louisville the upset. Just because, what Chris said, I don't think that Notre Dame is going to adjust their offense. I don't think that they're just going to come out and let Riley Leonard throw the ball. I think they're going to try to continue to hammer away like they have been doing and keep him in the run game. And I don't think that they'll take advantage of, I guess, Louisville's ineptitude in the secondary. I'm going to go Louisville. I'm going to go Louisville. All right.

Well, we're going to go to break here in a second, but it's Thursday, and that means Trivia. It's time for me to defend my title. I feel like I've been getting it done on Trivia.

What makes you think that? I feel like you've been doing just the same as me and Chris.

I've been hanging around. I've been hanging around. We're doing good. We're doing good.

We need to tally this up. See if the score is on the air.

We'll see. Producer Kam is going to join us and give us a trivia question for this week, and we will get the answer later on. Kam, what do you got for us?

So, gentlemen, I was looking at our Bet MGM lines this week on their website, and there are a lot of interesting point spreads this weekend and a lot of interesting totals. There's four or five games of over 62 or 63 points, one of those being one of the games we'll cover later in Washington State, Boising State, and that over under 64.5. So I started thinking, what is their history of combined points in that series? So I wanted to make it easy on you guys because I'm tired of seeing you guys lose. I'm going to give you a multiple choice. So in their six career meetings, has the average total points between Washington State and Boise State been, A, 138 total points, B, 66 total points, or C, 54 total points. You guys can think about that. When we get towards the end of the show, we'll go through some trivia and see if you can get it right and get off the snide.

All right, we're going to ponder. When we come back, we're going to talk Bama, Georgia. We're going to get to that Illinois-Penn State game and talk about plenty of other games as well. So stick with us. We'll be right back.

Hockey is back on ice, and The Athletic Hockey Show has the game covered four days a week, all season long. Hear from The Athletic's NHL Writers and Insiders Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Plus, keep up with the game's future stars on the Friday Prospect series. Whether we're diving deep on one topic discussing the latest news, or breaking down last night's OT winner, you can't miss a single episode. Listen to The Athletic Hockey Show wherever you get your podcasts.

There is so much happening around the Athletic Podcast Network. Check out Tuesday's edition of Scoop City with Diana Rusini and Chase Daniel. They had former Super Bowl champion and current podcasting star Chris Long on to play Red Light, Green Light on all things NFL. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Ten is starting to sort itself out, and Illinois has been one of the surprise teams in the league. Vegas, not buying it just yet. The Illini, despite being 4-0 under Brett Bilema, who's won the Big Ten a handful of times, 17 and a half point underdogss at Penn State going into Happy Valley. Now, Illinois is an interesting team for me. They're plus seven in turnovers this year. That's second nationally. The Kansas game helped. Turnover margin, obviously, has a huge influence. We can debate turnover luck and how much that factors in and how much you can produce that versus how much of that is just playing the right teams or being in the right place at the right spot. But there have been 12 fumbles in Illinois games this year. You know how many they've recovered, Chris? Do you have a guess?

Six.

Four. There's been eight fumbles that they did not get a hold of, and they're still plus seven. We want to talk turnover luck. One could argue that despite being second nationally-I don't sound like luck to me.

They don't count the fumbling. They don't count the fumbling.

Yeah. One could argue that despite being plus seven in turnover margin, the fumbling luck has not really gone their way. Now, on the other side of it, Penn State They've only allowed nine tackles for loss all season. Andy Koldelnicki had a huge impact on them. Receivers are open, Chris. We didn't see an open receiver at Penn State all year, last year. But I think if you can limit the big plays and make this a slog, Illinois can ugly this up. They got to be able to find some offense. Luke Altmaier, no picks this season. He's played really, really well for them, played within himself and found guys that are open. His decision making has been good, but I feel like this is too many points. If Everything goes Illinois' way. I think they can win this game, but ultimately, I think they ugly this up. Run the ball, find some offense, do some... You might see a trick player, too, in here. Penn State's defense is pretty salty. For all the attention on Coldenake, don't undersell the other coordinator, Allen, former Indiana coach. He's done a great job there. They're still top 10 nationally in defense.

They got a lot of pieces. They got a lot of talent to play with, but they're playing really well. But I like this to be really low scoring in Illinois to keep this close. Chris, where do you stand on this ball game?

I think a lot of it comes down to those turnovers. If Illinois just can't get any takeaways, then Penn State's winning this game. Illinois is going to need one or two turnovers to stay in this game because that's what they've been getting all of these games. I was just praising Illinois on a Monday's pod about how hard this team plays. They don't turn the ball over. They get the turnovers. They set themselves up to take advantage of other teams' mistakes. Penn State hasn't been making those mistakes this year like they have in the past. I like Penn State to win this game. 17 and a half is a lot. It is a lot. It is a lot. For a team that's top 20, 4-0. I'm going to take Illinois to cover, but I can see Penn State running away with this if they take care of the ball.

Yeah. Dame, Your dog this week is nick Singleton. Fantastic running back.

Give us some more running back, some love.

One, what separates him? And two, does it separate him enough to let Penn State win this game by at least 18 points?

Well, what I can tell you that separates him from a lot of backs in college football is he might be the best just from tackle to tackle in between the tackles runner in college football. And what I mean is running zone schemes, running man schemes, pin and pull schemes. When I watch his tape, he understands running run schemes incredibly, incredibly well. He's not a guy that's looking to bounce. Honestly, when I turn this tape on, unless it's a designed outside run, he's not bouncing. He's staying between the tackles and the guards, running through the teeth of the defense. And what he does a great job of is anticipating all of his blocks. I remember my running back coach in college, Burton Burns, who coached some of the greatest college runningbacks of all time. He used to say all the time, When you're running between the tackles, you want to make your cut whenever your offensive lineman, whenever your blocker makes the block and sticks on to their defender. And he does that every single time. And that's how you run zone schemes. That's how you run man schemes, where you've got a guard that's pulling up for a linebacker.

As soon as he makes contact with the linebacker, you want to be cut in the opposite way. And nick Singleton does a phenomenal job of that. And once he gets to the second level, he just runs hard as shit. I mean, this guy, I've seen him run through guys who are getting blocked, but just because he was looking for some extra contact on his way to the end zone. Is it enough? I don't know. And the reason why I say that is because I'm interested to see how Brett Bilema and Illinois scheme up blitzes against the run. We always think about how important blitzes are at affecting the quarterback and getting him to make bad throws, getting pressure on him, getting sacks. But a lot of these defensive coordinators in these defensive-minded teams, they like to blitz runners, too, because they know that they can get an extra guy in a gap, they can get an extra guy free to chase somebody down from the backside. Penn State is going to have to do a good job of utilizing their communication. They're going to have to bring receivers in to block some of these down safeties.

They're going to have to be able to identify some of the corner blitzes because you don't want to run into an unblocked guy. That's the worst thing in the world for a running back to see. So Drew Al is going to have to do a great job of identifying pressure coming from the secondary, coming from the safeties, linebackers, corners, wherever it can be coming from, communicating that to his team, his offensive line, his backs, and getting them in a successful play. That way, they don't let these blitzes flip the game upside down in the run game.

Yeah, and one thing, Illinois' defense, they've only allowed three plays of 30 plus yards on the season. They have not allowed the big plays, and Penn State's offense has been getting those big plays, so we'll see.

Guys, let's go to the SEC. Let's do it. Georgia, Bama. Can I start on a hater note? Can I start on a quick hater note? It depends on who you're hating on. I'm not hating on either of these teams, but I do think that these are the games that the 12-team playoff undercuts a little bit because this is going to be a fantastic game. I can't wait to watch this. Saturday is going to be fantastic. The consequences for losing this game will be almost nil for either team, unless you lose by 30. I don't think this affects much what the committee does. It might affect seating. If you want to hate the 12-team playoff, I don't. I personally like it. I like that there's more people in the mix. There's more relevance. Unlv is relevant. All these conferences are relevant. It's great. But these games do feel a little bit less significant because there seems like there's less at stake. That said, everybody still likes watching Chiefs Ravens, whatever, week one, and that's a rat.

We got Ari back on the potty or something like that. I know. Here's the biggest problem. No, the problem is, to me, is not the playoff. The problem is the expansion of the conference is getting rid of divisions because if you still have an SEC, and if you still have an SEC East and West, they'd be separate and they'd still be doing the same things. Instead, these are the teams that will be fighting for first and second place and then meet in the SEC Championship game.

But it's weird though, because it very much does matter who wins the Big 12, who wins the ACC. Especially this year, it doesn't matter who wins the SEC.

Not nearly as much.

Exactly. Best conference in football. Yeah. That said, let's get to the actual game. I was at the last time these two played in Atlanta for the SEC Championship. Chris, the reason why they lost that game was not crazy about the offensive game plan for Mike Bobo. Georgia was a better team last year. Alabama outschemed them, played a little bit harder, made fewer mistakes, won that game. To me, that's where this thing It makes me very nervous if I'm Georgia. The difference with that Mike Bobo issue last year is he's coaching on the opposite side of basically nick Saban. Alabama had a lot of defensive coordinators. Nick Saban was very involved in the defense. Caine Walmer is a good defensive coach. He's not nick Saban. We'll see there in games like these where there's so much talent, there's so much football IQ, there's so many physical players, those little schematic things can have a huge difference. I got to tell you, I like Bama in this game. Chris, what do you in this matchup and what decides this game in your mind?

Do you know how old Ryan Williams was the last time Alabama was a home underdog?

I'm doing my math now.

He was an infant. He was either zero or one. He was born in 2007. It was crazy. That's how long it had been. But look, a lot of... Look, this is the biggest game of the week by far. Top five matchup. All the dignitaries are going to be there, most notably, Kennington Smith III and Seth Emerson, our Alabama and Georgia beat writers. This is going to be a lot of security as they try to get into the game.

You got to watch Kenny.

Who's got connections to the Georgia program? This is a big one for him. That's true. Kirby, I believe, is one in five against Alabama as Georgia's head coach.

Are we holding that against him, Chris? Because I got more here. That narrative bugs me.

Let the man. Wait, wait.

Since 2021, they only have two losses. They are both to Alabama. My question is, it's not about nick Saban not being there or being there. It's when George is playing a team at its talent level, can they scheme it up and win when they don't have that inherent talent advantage they do over everybody else? You mentioned what Mike Bobo did last year. Not only that, they were spying Jalen Millarow a lot on defense, and it wasn't really working. I'm very curious us if George's defense this time around is going to just blitz the hell out of him and come at him and try to make him make decisions and not let him sit back there and do some different things because you were at that game last year and how that went. That's what I'm interested in. Also, by the way, Georgia has got a lot of injuries, and Mono may be going through the team right now. London Humphreys, reportedly, may not be playing. Keep an eye on that as well. Georgia may be down a couple of guys here, some guys that are pretty I mentioned that, Chris.

It's interesting. Bama doesn't play a lot of games against teams. Georgia doesn't play a lot of games against teams that are their physical equal. But you know what bugs me about those last two games against Bama? They were clearly a better team in both of those games and lost both those games. You know the other game that sticks out to me? People forget because they won the game, Ohio State outplayed them in that Beach Bowl. They got outplayed in that game. They were a field goal away from winning. They came back late and Ohio State missed the field goal. Georgia got outplayed in that game and they won it. The entirety of the Kirby Smart era maybe looks different if they lose that game and don't get to go play a very overmatched TCU team.

We haven't gotten to you yet on this. In the Ryan Day era at Ohio State, by the way, because they probably win the National Championship.

Very much. That game is very important for the last three years of college football narrative. Dave, we haven't gotten to you yet on this. When you look at this matchup, these games, as somebody who loves college football, and we don't get to see these two gladiators go at it a ton, what excites you about this matchup? How do you see this this thing playing out?

This isn't about implications. This isn't about the playoff. This isn't anything other than two Titans in College football facing off to see who's the better team on that Saturday. That's really what it is. This is two heavyweight foxers stepping into the ring. Two men walk in, one is going to walk out, and it's as simple as that. So really, what more do you need?

Yeah, goodbye, goodbye, Cinderella. Hello, Pacific Rim. This is going to be some caju on caju violence here. You couldn't limit yourself to this game. You got six dogs in this game.

That's almost as many as dogs I literally have in my house.

You got the entire offensive line for Georgia, and you have Ryan Williams on the Bama side.

Lay out for us where these two fit in the narrative of this kid.

Well, I'm going to start with Ryan Williams just because, man, this kid is, and literally, he is a kid. I can't even call him a grown man yet because he's not 18. This is a kid, and he is special. Nick Saban has said that he was one of the most mature freshmen that he's ever recruited. Do you guys know how many guys nick Saban has recruited? How many all-world players, how many all-world guys he's recruited? For him to say that this kid is one of the most mature that he's ever recruited, not just at Alabama, ever, that speaks volumes to this kid's character. That is why he's able to make the big plays in the big moments. Skill-wise, he's got great hands, he's super explosive, and he's great at rack. What is rack? Run after catch, right? Because in today's game, it's not just about, can you secure the catch? Now it's, can you secure the catch and what can you do with the ball in your hands? Receivers are ball carriers now. They're not just receivers. You're not just out there to catch the ball, possess the ball. No, you're there to get the ball in your hands and then turn into a ball carrier.

And this guy does that with the best of them because like I said, he's so fast, he's so explosive. And that's what you get when you get these smaller guys. They're speedy, they're twitchy, they're hard to bring down. People think that just because they're light, they're easy to tackle. I mean, look at Devante Smith, who won the Heisman a couple of years ago. He's 150 pounds, soaking wet with a couple of rocks in his pocket, but he was hard to tackle. He had a great rack. After the catch, he was always finding his way north and south, getting to the end zone. That's what I see with this kid, Ryan Williams. I mean, he is special.

I don't love Georgia's receivers, but I do like Frazier. I do like ETN. They haven't really gotten Oscar Delt hot yet, but this offensive line can decide this game.Demian, what do you see from that group?Absolutely.

Well, I see one of the biggest dreamiest offensive lines that I could ever imagine. I mean, across the board, these guys are big. These guys look mean. You guys remember the movie Friday Night Lights? You remember when Premier played Dallas Carter and those dudes showed up on the field? That's what I think of when I see these Georgia offensive linemen. They just look big, they look nasty, and they have the ability to just absolutely dominate the line of scrimage. When you've got a guy like Carson Beck standing back in the pocket, and when you've got a guy like Trevor-You like him. Yeah, when you've got a a guy like Trevor Etienne in the backfield who is a great running back, once you get him to the second level, all you can say is, Guys, just create a lane for me. Just create a hole. And they have an unbelievable opportunity to do that with the guys up front. And it starts with Jared Wilson. I mean, the center is, I've said this before on this pod, the center, other than the quarterback, is the most valuable piece in an entire offense because he sets the fronts, he sets the protections, he sets the entire communication for the offense.

And he's a young guy. This is his first year starting. So that's a big job for him. Playing with guys who have a lot of experience, like Dylan Fairchild, Michael Morris, it's not always easy being the young guy coming in and having such a huge responsibility of communication, setting the table, making sure everybody's on the same page. So it starts with him, expands to the guys with more experience, all the way out to the tackles. Because like I said, you got Carson Beck in the pocket, and he has a clean pocket, and he has time to dissect the defense and throw the ball. Trevor Etienne has lanes to open up and for him to be able to run and show what he can do at the second level, that's what makes Georgia's offense super successful. So it's all about their offensive line. Carson Beck, he can't protect himself. Trevor Etienne, these guys, these great running backs, they can't open these holes up for themselves. So their offensive line, if they play well, their offense is going to play well.

Yeah. The stat that jumps out to me is similar to the previous game, but Georgia has not allowed a countdown all season. They have only allowed two plays of 20 yards or more all season. Ryan Williams averages 28 yards per catch.

I was going to say, That'll change. That'll change.

Alabama averages almost seven plays of 20 plus yards per game. This has been an Alabama offense that has been extremely explosive, and a Georgia defense had to stop those. I don't know which way this game could go, honestly. I guess we didn't make the picks. I'm picking Bama to win, but I feel like we haven't seen a ton out of both these I could see one team on either side winning this game going away, honestly.

You already picked Bama. You already picked Bama, Chris. Don't give the, Oh, I can see you picked Bama.

You all make me nervous because we're in agreement on all these games. I also am going to take Bama out right here for a lot of the reasons I hit on. I just think the thing that we've seen from Calin De Boer's teams is when the lights were brightest, that seemed to be when they excelled. We were bagging on Washington last year for playing with their food so often, and then they played Oregon twice, and you're like, Who is this team? We might see something similar from Bama, and especially, schematically, saving some stuff, having some misdirection, and having some things in the... I mean, you can do a lot with Jalen Millrow, and I think they've got some things, I'm sure, that they have had in the bag for months. Damian, we need to ask who you got on this game.

You know what? Come on.

All right, Damian is rolling with his dogs, the tie.

What did my man, Willy, say? We don't give a piss about nothing but the tie, baby. Nothing but the tie.

I think that's That's officially the new slogan of our show now, the Until Saturday feed.

We don't give a piss.

Well, guys, we still got some games to get to for week 5. We're going to get to Wazoo and Boise next, and we're going to hit on a few others, UCF in Colorado, Fresno, and UNLV. Whoever ends up showing up for UNLV, we'll see for them, and Arkansas and Texas A&M as well. So stick with us. We'll be right back to talk about those games and hit our trustful pics, our locks of the week. It's going to be a fun show to finish. We'll be right back. Welcome back, and America's team this year going to Boise State, the Wazoo Couges, seven and a half point underdogs at the Boise State Broncos. This is a fantastic matchup here. These are two teams that are... This is why I love the 12-team playoff because both of these teams have pretty legit playoff hopes at this point. Chris, what do you see in this matchup?

Well, Washington State, I was going to open with that. They basically have to be undefeated to make the playoff because they can only get an out-large. They can't get a group of five spot or anything like that.

But if they win this game- If they're more than one, Chris, and they have a close loss, maybe in this game, I'm telling you, there's going to be a groundswell of support. So at least give them real consideration.

Maybe. But if your best win is Washington or Texas Tech, it depends on what Boise State does. But if they win this game, the rest of the schedule, Fresno State, Hawaii, San Diego State, Utah State, New Mexico, Oregon State, Wyoming. You can do it. It's doable. I know they need to double overtime to be at San Jose State, so maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit. But this should be a lot of fun. This is a 10:00, 9:00 PM, depending on your time zone, game, FS1. Two of the most exciting runners in the country, Aston Genti, who's up there on the Heisman list right now. Obviously, he's averaging a lot of two yards yards per game, 10 yards per carry. Also, John Matier, the Washington State quarterback, he's a lot of fun. I don't necessarily know if he's good, but he's fun. He's just running around doing some crazy stuff, flicking some touch down passes and stuff like that. So make sure you stay up for this game because if you didn't stay up for Boise State, Oregon, you missed a hell of a game that came down at the very end. This could be another one of those as well.

I think I'm going to go- I would like to...

Go ahead, Chris. Go ahead.

I'm going to go Boise State here, but But we'll see.

Yeah, I want to apologize to Washington State for going to bed at halftime of their game last week. I had a big day ahead on Saturday. I got to get some sleep. Couldn't make it. That said, yes, if you didn't see the John Matier a cashdown pass from last week where he was scrambling to the corner of the end zone, ran into a dead end, and then basically, George Gurvan finger rolled it over to a receiver. An insane decision. The guy was double-covered. I couldn't believe he threw it. I was like, This is One of the most ridiculous decisions I've ever seen a quarterback, and it worked out for him. But the defense gives me a lot of issues. Our guy, Ashton Genti, I'm concerned he might go for 300 something yards. Regrettably, I must turn my back on America's team here and go with Boise with you, Chris. I want Wazoo to win this, win this outright, celebrate on the blue turf, paint it red for a Saturday night, but I don't know that that's going to happen.

Washington State's defense is 107th in yards per carry allowed. So, yeah, big day coming for Ashton Genti.

Yeah, Yeah, thank you. Thank you for leading me right into my pick because I'm with you guys. I see Ashton Genti going bananas. Maybe a 200 burger with two Tuz, maybe three. They're not going to be able to slow him down. I like Boise State in this game.

Guys, I'm nervous that we're agreeing on a lot of these pics. I find it hard to believe. Strength the numbers.

We got a few games that we think are interesting, and we want to explain why they're interesting.

We're going to start with one of the more entertaining low-key rivalries in the SEC. I call it a rivalry. They seem to always play games that end in absurd ways. Arkansas, a four-point dog in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, against number 24, Texas A&M. The over-under of that game is 52.5. Arkansas, fresh off of a game that Hugh Fries is challenging the results of, I suppose. But Arkansas did win that game by double digits. Arkansas has been improved this year. The offense, especially, has been a little bit better. But for me, you look at this game for Arkansas, they have A&M on a neutral site here, and that will be a neutral site. Those fan bases pack out that Dallas stadium. They got Tennessee at home, LSU at home, at Mississippi State, and then Texas. That's quite a run. If you win this game, you're looking pretty good for a bowl game despite the issue with Oklahoma State. This game is is screaming another close loss for Arkansas as is tradition. I think for me, the separator here, Marcel Reid, the last couple of games, he gives them another facet of their offense in that run game.

When he's able to do that, his pass rating has been 141 with 7.4 yards per attempt the last couple of games when he's taken over. Connor Wegman, a little bit tougher competition. Was a 101, 5.1 yards per attempt, two touch downs, two picks. If Marcel Reid can do that, make plays with his legs, continue to make good decisions, cement his status as the starting running or starting quarterback, and make some plays with his legs. I think they win this game. They win it close. Give me the Aggies here, but I'll take Arkansas to cover those four points and lose in some hilarious, heartbreaking fashion, probably in my triple overtime.

I've never gone to this game. Is this the last one in 18T Stadium? I know they're moving it back to campus pretty soon.

I don't know. They're constantly fighting about it. All I know is I've covered it a couple of times, and it's usually great. I mean, the Aggies travel really well. I mean, The reality is that Arkansas, outside of the state of Arkansas, their biggest alumni base is the DFW area, and then A&M just is everywhere. I don't know it's fully sold out, but it's a great crowd every time.

I tell you what, though, if you're Notre Dame, you need Texas A&M to win this game, because if they don't, they're probably not going to finish top 25. Then Notre Dames may not have many great wins, so we'll see.

Yeah. Damian, you got a pick on this game?

I've been going back and forth in my mind. Arkansas These heartbreaking losses, man. It's a reoccurring thing. It's a reoccurring thing. It's starting to seem like an identity for them. Whenever you lose a lot of games like that, you usually figure out a way to win those games. But it seems like Arkansas still hasn't done that. They just haven't figured out how to make the play to win. I think that continues. I'm going to go with Texas A&M in this game.

Okay. Colorado. Going from the Rocky Mountains down to Orlando to face the Gus Bus as a 14-point underdog. It was 15 early in the week. It's moved a little bit. They win last week on a Hale Mary. They beat a modest Baylor team. Most interesting to me, Chris, in the college football travel logs, Colorado left for Orlando on Wednesday to beat a storm. In another life, it's easy to roll your eyes and laugh at the higher education implications of this. But a lot of Colorado guys, a lot of college students, a lot of college football players take a lot more online classes, which is a little more functional. So being away from campus for three, four days is a little bit less impactful than it might have been in another time. You can make these things work. That said, going to a Saturday game on Wednesday is pretty wild. That operating budget is going to go up.

Maybe they went to Disney World for a day. That'd be fun.

Maybe. That's another strike to the operating budget. Chris, I don't believe that Colorado's defensive front is going to be able to slow down this running game at all. I think it's going to be hard for them to stay on the field in this game.

Ucf is the number one rushing team in the country. They are at 375 yards per game. I think they're fifth in yards per carry, fourth in yards per carry. They're just going to run, run, run. The a bit less, and they're going to try to keep Shador off the field. Fourteen is a lot, but I think UCF sometimes has some weird performances. They don't play up to what they should be. But I feel like they're starting to... Tcu a couple of weeks ago, they had to make that crazy comeback just to be TCU. But I think the strength of what UCF does, the weaknesses of what they do. By the way, the negative plays, UCF has been getting those as well. I think everything matches up for UCF winning this game big.

Yeah, and I did think it was interesting. Dave Aranda said they sacked Shador eight times last week, and he said, We should have had 16. It was a compliment to Shador and his scrambling ability to be able to get out of pocket and make guys miss. That is not a sustainable strategy. Dame, can the Buffs keep it close?

I think they can keep it close. And I hate to say it because usually after you say something like this about Colorado, they do something to let you down. If you guys remember this statement that I made a long time ago. You pat somebody on the ass and they shit in your hand. So Colorado is known for that, but they just have such special playmakers. Again, 16 sacs that could have been eight. No, that's not sustainable. But when you turn on the tape and whenever the bullets are flying, whenever the game is happening, Shadr is going to do what he has to do. And then who is he looking for? He's looking for Travis Hunter. He's looking for Jimmy Horn. They have the tools and the resources to keep it close. But will they? I'm not sure if they can because of what you guys highlighted, UCF being the best running team in college football. Colorado, obviously, they're not the worst, but if you're that bad, you're one of the worst. And they get a lot of pressure. They create... Excuse me. Ucf creates a lot of negative plays. Obviously, Colorado takes a lot of negative plays.

The matchup really does not favor Colorado, but I think they have the ability to keep the game close. Is Shadr going to be able to play well enough to do that? That's up to Shadr. Is Travis going to get open? That's up to him. Is Jimmy Horn, these other receivers, are they going to make plays? That's up to them. So I say that they have the resources to do it. I'm not going to give you an answer on, Will they actually keep it close or not? I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it.

I found the stat was good. Ucf has one sack all season. Through three games, just one. How does that do against a Colorado offensive line that can't protect a quarterback at all?

We'll see. We'll find out. I do think it's going to be really interesting to me to see Shador. I hope when he gets drafted, he goes to a team behind a somewhat functional offensive line because I do want to see him.

We can really see how good he is. I think every rookie quarterback would like that.

Sure. That's what happens. But a lot of these other guys that go into bad situations, we've seen them Excel. Shador is carrying so much for this team on his back for his own health, but also just for my curiosity. He might be even better than we think because when he does... Like, Deion likes to talk about it, and it's annoying to some degree when he's like, You all know, if we keep two upright, he's going to make plays. But that's more true than not true. It's going to be interesting to see. We got a little G5 four-pack here, Chris, because this playoff race is absolutely wide open. Fresno, a one-and-a-half point dog against UNLV. Tulane USF, another great game. Liberty App State. Liberty was on my most disappointing teams this week, Chris. How did you feel about me tabbing an undefeated Liberty team as one of my most disappointing teams in college football this year?

They have been not as good as maybe I thought, but most disappointing for an undefeated team? I wouldn't go that far.

Well, I went that far. Then Sam Houston State and Texas State also playing in that game. Chris, what's your favorite of this four-pack?

I mean, it's Fresno, UNLV, obviously. That was before the news that came out earlier today. Unlv is the top 25 team. Mount West has some really good teams at the top. We'll see how UNLV looks with the extra quarterback, the backup, playing instead. That's going to be the big story. I think we're all going to be paying a lot more attention to UNLV than we would have at the beginning of the week.

My lock of the week is in this four-pack, Chris. I'm going to take Tulane USF over 64.5. That is my lock of the week. Byron Brown, Sean Atkins, Darian Mensa. I like that USF is going to want to heat up the space.

Is it a lot, Chris? Or are we about to get there? Wait, what was that number again?

Sixty-four and a half.

That's a lot. That's a lot of points to go for another place. We're going to see a lot.

I'm in. Over 64 and a half. That's my lock of the week. Let's get to the other locks. Chris, what is your lock of the week?

My lock of the week is Auburn, Oklahoma, under 47.

Whatever the number is, Dick is.

Under 47.5. I think it's actually dropped since I first wrote this down. This is great.

You could tell it was under 40, and I'd still take it.

Right. That was high, I thought. Clearly, Vegas did as well, and the money went to bring it down. But quarterbacks, you can't stop turning the ball over. Jackson Arnold got benched. Two offenses that just are really, really having trouble moving the ball. So I'm going the under, Auburn, Oklahoma.

Does Michael Hawkins make you nervous at all?

Absolutely. A true freshman in that situation, yeah.

But he It looks better than Jackson Arnold last week. I got to tell you, he was moving him around. He's playing within himself.

When I watched him, it kept feeling like the pick six, the sack, fumble, scoop, and score was like the grim reaper that was hanging over his shoulder against that Tennessee front.

But it never It happens. So credit to him. We'll see.

I think we'll learn a little bit about him. This will be on the road. It is at Auburn. It's on the road for him.

We'll see. Damian, who is your lock of the week?

Lock of the week for me, Ole Miss at minus 17. Well, 17 and a half point favorites against Kentucky. You We know, we've talked about it at Nassium, Lane Kiffin, Jackson Dart, Ole Miss, this is a point factory. Kentucky, I'm interested to see what Vegas knows that I don't know because I don't know how Kentucky keeps this game within 17 points. Even when they played Georgia and they had Georgia up against the ropes, it was still a low scoring affair. It wasn't a shootout by any stretch of the imagination. I don't see Kentucky being able to contain Ole Miss the same way they contain Georgia. I like Ole Miss. Give me all the points. It's definitely going to more than 17.

Damian, riding Ole Miss has been a good strategy for you. They are one of, I don't know, exactly that many.

It has. That's O-reliable for me right now.

Four and O against the spread this year. That's pretty impressive. I don't know how many teams have hit that, but it's been very few. Lock of the week. All right, it's time for the trustful pics. We did well. We fell into each other's arms and we were caught very well last week. Three-null last week. Three-null. Great week for the trustful pics, which means this week is probably going to be a disaster. Chris, you've got your trustful pick for Damian. We're mixing it up this week. What are you going to have to talk Damian into doing?

I'm not going to have to talk him into anything because I didn't put in. We don't put these in the notes. My pick for him was Ole Miss minus 17 and a half against Kentucky.

Okay, wonderful.

Wow, that's beautiful. He's the Kentucky native. He It was Alabama over the Wildcats.

Listen, don't say this too loud on the pod. These Kentucky people, they're still not too happy with me. They're not.

I don't think they're going to be happy with you picking Ole Miss and me picking Ole Miss for you either.

They get an empty bourbon bottle thrown through your window.

Well, listen, Chris, you know me very well. Clearly, it was my lock of the week. That's a great choice. That's a beautiful moment.

I feel privileged to have witnessed that moment between you two. I feel like this is what trustful pics are all about right here.

We really just brought something together on this show.

Damian, what do you got for me? What are you going to try to talk me into? All right, all right, all right.

Listen up.

I was on board last week.

Listen up. My trustful pick for you is... Are you ready?

Are you ready? I hope You taught me to Florida last week, so you've gotten to learn my trust here.

This isn't that bad. This isn't that bad. This isn't bad. For you this week, we got Michigan, nine-point favorites against Minnesota. I say this because Michigan... Kalele Mullen is the number one reason right now. What I saw from him last week, obviously, you're sticking with Alex Orgy as your running quarterback. Running the football is going to be what you do. If you scheme up Alex Orgy to be successful, stop being so vanilla, Jerome, more. Unleash this guy. Give him the range a little bit. Let Kalele Mullings do what he does. Let Donovan Edwards contribute. ' You can beat this Minnesota team by well beyond 10 points, I think. I expected... Minnesota was actually my upset team to watch for last week because I thought they had a really good chance to upset Iowa, and they just did not. They didn't look good at all. They did not look good.Couldn't stop the run. Yeah, they couldn't. And clearly, with Michigan setting their identity on being a team that's going to run the ball moving forward, I think they're going to chew up the ground. I think they're going to run the ball effectively. I think they're going to keep the ball.

They're going to score a lot of points. Even if they end up with a couple of field goals sprinkled in because they don't cap off some of these red zone drives, I think they can get it above a nine-point victory.I.

Do.what do you think? I do. So I'm nervous. I'm nervous about this. I don't think Minnesota can score, but I'm nervous that Michigan will be able to score. But here's why I'm going with you on this. I'm going with you on this. Last night, I played a little bit of CFB 25. I played a guy who played against me. Why did you tell?

You never tell me.

I don't know what I'm able to. I got to make sure the baby's asleep.

David, you got two kids. I only have one, okay? So you have the tighter schedule. So whenever you're free, you got to let me know. Chris just has a thousand dogs and cats. I'm going to eat you. So he's doing his thing.

Last time I played this guy against Michigan. And at one point in the third quarter, Mason Graham pancaped my right guard, and I was terrified. I fled the fuck out of there. I haven't seen that animation, but it can. But shout out to Mason Graham. Maybe that was a sign from above. Good pick, David. I'm with you. I will roll with club only because I think they're just going to run, run, run. This might be a 17 team three type of game. But Minnesota is not going to be able to score in this ball game.

They can't.

Chris.

Yeah.

Here's what we're going to do. We are going to pick another team that's on the road that's a double-digit favorite. If Florida can do it, Nebraska can do it at Purdue, Nebraska, probably a little undervalued. They found ways to lose games. This game will not be close.

Purdue is not good.

What is the number?

Purdue is bad. Minus 10. Purdue is bad.

Nebraska, a 10-point favorite on the road at Purdue. Purdue has broken many, many dreams in that field. Do they still have the railroad tracks on the sideline? I hope they do.

I don't know.

Either way, I think it's going to be Purdue fans whose hearts are broken in this game. Nebraska bounces back from the Illinois game. Illinois is solid. Purdue can't score and can't stop anybody. Nebraska, really good on the lines of scrimmage. Tony White, great scheme, but the defensive line is going to eat them up in this ball game. Nebraska wins this game going away. We get another big game from Dylan Raiola. Damian Daudell has a nice game. It's a big one. It's a big one, Chris. Are you on board.

I'm okay with that, as long as it's not a one-score game.

The fact that it's 10-Yeah, if it's single digits, I'm going to take... If it's 21-14 in the third quarter, I will text you an apology. How about that?

I have Purdue ranked 97th in my 134. They're only ahead of Mississippi State as the worst Power Four team.

Yeah, they're in Mississippi State. We always talk about how the SEC has no bad teams in a lot of years. They do this year, and I think the Big Ten does, too. Purdue and Mississippi State, good picks as the worst P5 teams.

I'll take it. Even though it's on the road and even though Nebraska has been doing Nebraska things, I just produce really bad.

Chris, they gave up 66 points to Notre Dame. 66 points to Notre Dame.

I like it.

All right, let's get the answer to our trivia question. Tim.

Yeah, so let me repeat it real fast. Washington State, Boise State, has one of the largest over-undertotals of the weekend at 64.5. What is their average combined points per game in their first six career meetings? I made this a multiple choice one. I'm tired of seeing you guys lose. We need a morale boost here.

We're not losing that much. We're getting close. What are you talking about?

The closest you've gotten, I think, was two of the three for the quarterback question. Yeah, that counts.

Chris, we We didn't get Nebraska last week. That was tough. Yeah.

Here are your options. Is it A, the combined total average, 138 points across these six meetings? Is it B, 66 points? Or is it C, 54 points? So 138, 66 or 54.

Okay. I'll say the middle one. I'm going to say 66. The 60s. Yeah, I was going to go with that.

I'm going with C.

You're going with C, 54?

54.

You should have gone with David and Chris.

It is 6:06. I literally just wanted to be the-I feel like it was super high.

I was like, I would have remembered some of these games. They would be crazy. I just wanted to stand out. I have these hard memories of a Boise State Wazoo matchup, but I feel like we might this weekend. This might be a really great game. Another week, another Trivia win. I'm feeling good about this, Chris. You know what else? We're going to win our trustful picks. We're going to win our locks. Well, we're either going to be doing really good on picks or bad on picks. We didn't have a lot of dissension in the pod this week. So thank you guys for listening. This has been our Week 5 Picks Show. We'll be back Monday in your feeds and on YouTube with our Week 5 reaction, celebrating all of our correct picks, of course, and this classic George a Alabama game. A lot to digest. And I'm sure there'll be plenty of relevant games that we did not get to that turn out to be classics on Saturday. That's usually how it goes. If you are not subscribed to the podcast, fix that immediately. Apple Podcasts, you can leave us a five-star review there. Let us to hear from you.

Spotify, Overcast, wherever you get your podcast, we are there. And of course, hit us up on the voicemail line after your team plays. 316-462-9852. That is the voicemail line. We use the best on our Monday reaction show. We love to hear what you guys have to say, questions, rants, what we got right, what we got wrong, what you love about the show, what you hate about the show. We love hearing from you guys and interacting with you as part of our Monday reaction show. And of course, subscribe to us on YouTube if you are not already. You can see our smiling faces. You can see Dame's rotating hat collection. And Chris and I classed up the pod today by wearing collars. So listen, these are the things you can't get just on the podcast feed. So subscribe to us on YouTube if you cannot. And also, one of these days, maybe we'll do a guide to the floating shelves behind me and Chris's background as well. Maybe we'll hit that up at some point. Anyway, thank you guys for tuning in. Thank you for subscribing. We will see you on Monday for Chris Vanini, for Damian Harris.

I am David Uben. Talk to you guys soon, and also, bring back the turnover chain.

Continue to bring it back.

Permanently.

It's back.

The real one, Mario. The real one. Bring it back. Thanks, guys.