Toughest Places to play in CFB, Vols Take Omaha, Colorado Win Total Prediction & Big 12 Preview Part 1

The show opens with a debate over the Top 25 Toughest Places to play in CFB based off the new EA Sports rankings released early Tuesday. The guys go through the Top 25 and tell you who’s too high, who’s too low, and how they were flat out wrong about Auburn and Tennessee. Next the guys do a quick recap of the 2024 college World Series and congratulate Tennessee on their first baseball national championship. Plus, the HUGE drama and breaking news of Texas stealing Texas A&M’s HC less than 24 hours after leaving Omaha. 

Next the guys do a quick whiparound the latest news in recruiting and breakdown a ton of movement in the team rankings and new commits after official visits. Then, Marler & T Huck weigh in on the Brent Venables contract extension and whether or not it made sense for the Sooners.

Lastly, the guys continue their countdown to kickoff preview series with Part 1 of their Big 12 Conference Preview. The guys give season previews for Colorado: Utah, Arizona, Kansas & Kansas State, and they tell you if each team goes over or under their Vegas Season win total as well. 

Make sure to subscribe to the pod on Spotify & Apple, AND like and subscribe to the YouTube page where you can catch the daily show of the pod Monday-Thursday at 8 EST and Friday at 11 AM EST too! Enjoy!

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:44

What's up? Dude Outro Music. Hey everybody, welcome back to Forth and Wrong, episode 20. Today is June 25th. Today we have a lot to discuss. We will take some time to preview our thoughts on the win totals in the Big 12, talk a little EA Sports and their most recent ranking of the toughest stadiums to play in the country. We'll talk about what I think is a puzzling decision, with Brent Venables being extended at Oklahoma, and we've got a lot to talk about today. It's going to be a good juicy episode. Chris, how are things? Are you back in South Carolina? Are you still in Atlanta?

Speaker 1: 1:38

Still in Atlanta. Look at that, look at me go. Yeah, still in Atlanta. I'm probably going to head back this weekend.

Speaker 2: 1:49

Cool. Well, let's get into the show. If we don't want to talk personal stuff here. Ea Sports comes out with the list.

Speaker 1: 2:03

Strong start by me, my bad. No, I'm excited to still be in atlanta, whatever how. But, by the way, what were you up to all weekend? I saw some pics on instagram.

Speaker 2: 2:13

I saw some yeah, not so subtle stories being shared yeah, I mean it is what it is, dog, maybe dating a little young Philly.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Why are we starting the show like this? Celsius has human feces in it. How did you spell? Feces right and Celsius wrong?

Speaker 2: 2:35

Evan and Steve, Celsius is kind of a tough word to spell.

Speaker 1: 2:39

That's fair. Also, it's always good to have F to Steve here, and Evan always staples a bunch of people in the chat.

Speaker 2: 2:52

So there we go. Uh, you want to start about the ea sports game which I'm fired up coming out less than a month now. We got about three weeks yeah, I pre-ordered it you did yeah, so I think I get it two days early maybe I'll just stay in Atlanta until then. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:06

There's not really reason to go home. That's true. We'll see. Yeah, I'm pretty pumped about it too. I'm trying to think about now that college baseball is over, hockey is over. There's Major League Baseball, of course, but we're in the thick of countdown to football season, so I was trying to figure out the things I'm excited about that are coming up. I don't know how many days until the game comes out. Evan, do a quick math on that and tell us what that is. I do know that I am 29 days away from St Creed.

Speaker 2: 3:39

Here or somewhere else.

Speaker 1: 3:41

In South Carolina.

Speaker 2: 3:42

Okay, I know they're coming here to play in Alpharetta, which I got tickets to. Uh well, yellow card and oh god, what's?

Speaker 1: 3:55

oh, they're not blind yeah, it's chastain right I believe it's in alpharetta wow, okay yeah I saw third eye blind and jimmy world and chest saying like two or three years ago um, third eye blind is a very underrated band oh, they're great.

Speaker 2: 4:15

No, I mean that's, that's like the 90s. If if you wanted to put it into a song, yeah, pick any one of them.

Speaker 1: 4:23

He said 59 days. That's not right 59 days Until the game comes out. It's less than three weeks.

Speaker 2: 4:30

Anyway, whatever, we'll get into it, yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:34

That makes more sense. 59 days is the start of the season. I think they're like 66 days until the start of SEC football, which is nice.

Speaker 2: 4:41

It's like two weeks until Big 12 media days. Really, yeah, they're nice, but anyway, it's like two weeks until big 12 media days. Really, yeah, they're the earliest one. I think they're july 9th.

Speaker 1: 4:50

Okay, so, um, well, like this is like a thing now they're gonna roll out, um, I think it's like daily for the next, I think, like five or six days, ea sports is rolling out a ranking or something. It's a component of the game, but it's like here's the top 25 toughest places to play, here's the I don't even know what the other ones are. I'll feel, look it up, um, but that's the main part of it, and so they released the top 25 places like the toughest places to play. Yeah, and it was based off of multiple things, so it wasn't just like hey, this is like the loudest place, this is the you know whatever. Um, so I think, and either way, people lost their minds, but of, course yeah as they always do.

Speaker 2: 5:35

Yeah, um, I, I think I I watched a youtube video of you know how they invited a bunch of, like college football writers to play the game in Orlando I think it was maybe Andy Staples that basically that home field actually played a pretty big part in the game and especially if you have like a freshman quarterback coming in on the road in one of these environments, like the game takes away pieces you would have if it was like a senior that's been on the team for four years. So it's like super realistic like that, which I think is really cool, and something that I don't think you're really getting Madden as much. Yeah, but yeah, so the rankings came out for the toughest environments to play. Oh, there you go, there you go.

Speaker 1: 6:21

I mean this. This is the top 10. We'll go through the entire top 25. I know it's just difficult to to see um or like zoom in on it, but like, so going through it. 25 I think was um mississippi state. But, by the way, here's the criteria. It's factoring historical stats such as home winning percentage, home game attendance, active home winning streaks, team prestige and more.

Speaker 2: 6:48

Okay so Mississippi State a lot of team prestige, tons, tons, yeah, cowbell.

Speaker 1: 6:54

People love the cowbell.

Speaker 2: 6:55

I've heard they're going to have the cowbell in the game Boise State 24. Okay, yeah fine Arkansas 23. Have you ever been to Arkansas? Have you ever played, or have you ever not played? But have you?

Speaker 1: 7:09

ever been to a game there? Um, I have not. I feel like it's a place I want to get to, not specifically because of the stadium, but because of the fact that, like it seems like it's one of the most beautiful I think it was voted like fourth most beautiful campus in the country not that long ago. I will say the stadium does not get enough love because it's a very big stadium okay, how many seats do you remember off the? Top.

Speaker 2: 7:31

I want to say it's like 80 or something like that yeah, um, I think that would be a cool game to go to. Michigan state 22, notre dame 21, iowa 20. I've heard they're putting the waving at the kids in the game. That's pretty sick which is awesome 19 Texas, 18 Utah I personally think Utah should be higher, considering yeah, they're Virginia's tech. 17. I doubt they're gonna have the Metallica intro just because they probably have to pay for that.

Speaker 2: 8:01

I didn't think about that yeah, but that that'd be cool if they did michigan at 16 pretty soft for having 110 000 fans or whatever they nailed that one, they got that one, absolutely right uh, south carolina at 15, auburn at 14 saw some consternation on the twitter sphere today about that um 13, tennessee, 12, clemson, 11, oregon, and then we'll. We'll put up the top 10 here in a minute.

Speaker 1: 8:28

So yeah, all right, so let's go through 11, through 25. What like the things that stood out to me most? I, I again, I think they nailed michigan and it would have been easy to be like, well, they win a bunch of their games there. It's you know, look at the logo on the helmet, it's a, it's the big house, it's like 110 000 people, blah, blah. That is the way that place is built. Is not that tough of a place. It's not that loud of a place. Like they get a ton of 11 am games there. It's not like a bunch of night games.

Speaker 1: 8:57

Um, I mean, they have a good record there. But at the same time it's like I, I don't think that it's. It's that stadium is not built in a way like like lsu, for instance, is really loud for one reason because they built dorms into the side of it and then built the stadium on top of it. So just the angle of like where the acoustics hit in that stadium make it super loud. The way some of those other stadiums are built it just like the crowd in general. It's hard to get that up for an 11 am game. That's like every big game they have. I thought they nailed that one. I thought South Carolina 15 through 13 felt wrong.

Speaker 2: 9:37

I would throw Clemson in there too. I think Clemson should be higher. That's fair. Here's the thing they factored in historical stats, home winning percentage, home game attendance, active home winning streaks, team prestige and more so. They really didn't factor in like crowd size or like people's experience of how loud it gets.

Speaker 1: 9:59

It's really just based on like records and how well you've done there, essentially which I think a lot of auburn fans are frustrated about, because it's like being behind georgia had a lot of people upset, or be behind bama it had a lot of people upset, like from like, from the auburn camp. Um, you look at the records, like auburn has lost like 10 straight in athens. I think they've only scored over 13 points twice in that span. Um, I mean, it's been. They've gotten their brains beat in every time they've gone to athens.

Speaker 1: 10:28

You look what they've done in tuscaloosa like, besides 2010, they've lost every game there since 2008. Um, they also have lost every game there, seems like almost in a blowout, like the only close ones are in end up being injured in here. That being said, like both those teams are just really good, they're tough to beat anywhere. So I get the frustration. I will say from an from the best environment standpoint. I went to auburn. I posted a video of today. They were three and six. They were facing a three and six uh, texas a&m team one of the best environments I've ever been in for college football. To be fair, though, this is that a cadillacs last game, itac's last game.

Speaker 1: 11:03

It was his first game as head coach.

Speaker 2: 11:05

First game as head coach yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1: 11:08

But to be fair, that's not the hardest places to play like the best environments. It's just the toughest place to play with all these factors. And one of the factors they have in there is the records and winning at home. I mean Auburn's 9-10 at home against FBS teams in the last like three years.

Speaker 2: 11:27

Yeah, there you go. Let me ask you this out of this top 25 list what places have you been to a game at?

Speaker 1: 11:37

Bay on LSU, georgia, florida, clemson, auburn, south Carolina, that's it.

Speaker 2: 11:48

Okay.

Speaker 1: 11:49

How about you?

Speaker 2: 11:50

Alabama, georgia, florida, state Florida, clemson, tennessee, auburn, and that's it Nice.

Speaker 1: 12:03

Well, either way, just looking back at this top 25, or like 11 through 25, or like maybe you're right 11 through 15, all could make a case of being in the top. Like, if you switch to 11 through 15 with 6 through 10, I wouldn't argue with you Outside of, maybe, penn State, like I would not argue with you outside of maybe Penn State, I would not argue with you.

Speaker 2: 12:29

Yeah, and I also think that this can vary. I'll totally admit that when Florida State isn't playing well, their crowds kind of suck. They're not one of those fan bases that's like Nebraska that shows up 100,000 to a spring game every year, no matter what Kind of a fair weather, because it's a harder town to get to, um. But when it's going well, I mean I've been in games in there that are just incredible, yeah, um, and. But like I could say, like I've been, I just went, happened to go to a terrible game against when it was auburn against tennessee at auburn and it was like the worst environment I'd been to. But it just depends on the games you go to, right? Yeah, I mean, had I gone to a Auburn Georgia game at night there when Auburn was peaked, um, I'm sure it would have been way different experience.

Speaker 1: 13:15

I mean I will say that, like, what I went to at Auburn was like a like you know, not lightning in a bottle, but it was just like what's the first, like a perfect storm of of like you got rid of. Harsin Cadillac is going to be your head coach. That entrance onto the field was insane. You were in a in a game against team you probably should not have beaten, and then you you do. But yeah, I don't know. I think, like the ones that I I was surprised there was as much issue with like Georgia at five. I think that, like I saw a lot of people that, like I've been a bunch of Georgia games, it's never been crazy or loud Like I mean yeah, depending on who you're playing Like.

Speaker 1: 13:56

when I think of Georgia and Sanford stadium, I think of what I saw. I think of like the 2007 blackout against Auburn. I think of like the 2007 blackout against.

Speaker 1: 14:05

Auburn. I think of you know, the Notre Dame game. I think of the, the what do you call it? The 2021 game against Arkansas was a 12, a 12 noon kick and they got to like 134 decibels and like they I mean they were they could not have been louder from start to finish. I definitely think of the 2022 Tennessee Georgia game. That being said, also, again, I think Tennessee should easily be in the top 10.

Speaker 1: 14:29

But that 2022 Tennessee-Georgia game, like and Arkansas, they both had like records for, like, how loud it was in that stadium and environment-wise, like it was absolutely elite for both of them. So that one I was kind of confused about because it's like, yeah, sure you can say like, well, it's not that loud every time, yeah, it's not loud when they're going to beat so-and-so by 40. But you know, the night game against Ole Miss last year, night game against Kentucky, that 3.30 game against Mizzou, like when Georgia specifically when Kirby Smart has called on Georgia fans to get loud over the last couple of years, they've absolutely responded. Now that team is number two, that's.

Speaker 1: 15:07

I mean, I would definitely lsu above alabama a thousand percent, a thousand percent I've never been to ohio state, it does seem loud. I would have bama behind geez, I mean, I would probably have them outside the top five for sure yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 2: 15:24

So. I've been to a couple bama games. One was when I was in high school and it was like 2003, so I don't think that they were great. I think those are the brody croyle years, if I remember correctly, and they're playing like mississippi state. But then I went to a game. I think you were there the same weekend uh, it was urban myers last year at florida night game 2010,. Yeah, yeah, yeah, did we run into each other that night.

Speaker 1: 15:48

No, that was a night game. Yeah, no, we did not. You were on the field. I was up in like I think I got to go, me and Jeff went and we got to go as like with like the families we sat in like that section.

Speaker 2: 16:02

It was a blast the families we sat in that section. It was a blast. That was a great game. I think just the fact that we're getting little pellets given to us by EA like this every couple days it's just hyping the game up so much. God bless the wives and girlfriends. Over the next couple months it's going to be a run for them All right. What do you want to get to next?

Speaker 1: 16:30

Well, we don't have to talk about the College World Series. Tyler, I know that was tough.

Speaker 2: 16:34

Actually it wasn't tough. I mean, after that first game I was like anything else from here is gravy and they had a nice run back to try to get revenge against Tennessee. Obviously, Tennessee's the best team this year. Number one seed Ended up winning first title in their school history, which is cool. Yeah, they've been playing baseball since the late 1800s, I think, at Tennessee.

Speaker 1: 16:59

Is that real?

Speaker 2: 17:00

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 17:01

Hold on, who could they have been playing?

Speaker 2: 17:07

God, I hope I'm right.

Speaker 1: 17:09

The late 1800s. I feel like that would be Like 1894, I feel like is what I saw 1902.

Speaker 2: 17:15

What? Okay, so pretty close.

Speaker 1: 17:16

They went 8-4, brother. Yeah, I would love to see. Oh no, you're right, this is 1897.

Speaker 2: 17:24

There, you go?

Speaker 1: 17:24

Yeah, no. So I thought it was. I thought it was like a really fun college world series, like the start of it. You know your first three games, I'll go to extras or come down like the last at bat or last inning. I thought it was like from, like a.

Speaker 1: 17:40

From a parody standpoint and talent standpoint it was the most talented like group of teams we've seen in a while. From a parody standpoint and talent standpoint it was the most talented like group of teams we've seen in a while. There wasn't like a wild card, like an oral Roberts, there wasn't. You know I'm trying to get some other examples like like I know coastal Carolina won it, but there wasn't like some kind of like off the beaten path team that that shocked everyone to get there. I mean there were some elite teams like and you look at like just from, like the rankings one through four for the national seeds all made it. I forgot who else, but there were some very highly ranked teams. Florida State was a really good team. They had one of my I can't tell if he's my favorite or least favorite player, but their left fielder who was out of his fucking mind.

Speaker 1: 18:18

That guy. Every time he hit a ball he was just fucking pussy, just screaming at the pitcher, the, uh, the pitcher I thought that was a lot of fun, like tennessee was was the best team in the country the entire season and it is.

Speaker 1: 18:34

It was. I thought I enjoyed watching them win. I'm not a tennessee fan. I will not pull for them to win a national championship, necessarily in football, but I enjoyed watching that series for one like the look against am and then also just that team, the one like the look you can say in them and also just that team the entire, like like latter half of the season. A lot like they were not like the 2022 tennessee team at all. A lot of likable guys played really, really hard, played like the right way a lot of times.

Speaker 2: 18:57

Like they were, they were legit yeah, I think the most unlikable person on the team is the coach and I don't dislike him. Yeah, I do, but I didn't have any problems with the players that Christian, who's the leadoff kid, cam Scott, what was his name? Cimo? Yeah, dude that kid. He had a freaking cycle against us.

Speaker 1: 19:17

The ball he hit the center field against y'all was one of the hardest hit balls I've ever seen in my life. Yeah, I've ever seen in my life. Yeah, that was wild. Congrats on the balls.

Speaker 2: 19:24

And then A&M just gets the double slap to the face with the. You know, you know where I'm going with this.

Speaker 1: 19:31

Yeah, well, talk about it Because that's what I was going to ask you. I just now saw that it happened.

Speaker 2: 19:37

Yeah. So the A&M coach, after they lost last night, like in his press conference, was like, basically, like I'm never leaving, I'm fucking never leaving here, brother, I'm an aggie for life. He was pissed at the question. It wasn't even 12 hours later. My man is just out the gate to austin texas I mean to be, so it's my mayor get a pr firm dog, like if you know that there's even a slight chance you're going to Texas. You can't be saying that.

Speaker 1: 20:09

We've seen enough coaches be in this situation at this point where there's got to be some sort of very simple coach speak that you can throw out there. His opening response to it was how disrespectful it was for that guy to ask the question.

Speaker 2: 20:29

Just insane response to it was how disrespectful it was for that guy to ask the question um, like just insane, if you get on your high horse like that and then right, well then you find out this is what happens, like what it's like so.

Speaker 1: 20:36

So he leaves. They haven't said anything about what he's going to pay him. I think like it kind of makes sense if you think about it, because, like texas, we don't know a ton about college baseball, so we're not gonna pretend to. Um, but I will say it kind of makes sense if you think about it, because, texas, we don't know a ton about college baseball, so we're not going to pretend to. But I will say it kind of makes sense because I'm pretty sure that the AD at Texas is who hired him at TCU and Texas is going to throw a shit ton of money at him.

Speaker 1: 21:00

I did think it was like just from a theatrical standpoint. I thought it was hilarious that those two teams are playing in a game three winner take all like very last game of the season for the national championship in Omaha and Texas shows up the day of between their arch rival A&M and in Tennessee and whoever, like they were going to make an offer for both coaches regardless. They did Listen. I'm not a huge fan of how Texas fans I feel like in the administration usually handle themselves, but this is a pretty big laid-on-the-table moment for Texas in terms of less than 24 hours. You said less than 12 hours. That's insane.

Speaker 2: 21:44

Well, last last night he was having his press conference and then I saw at some point so maybe more than 12, but less than 24. So yeah, just crazy. Um. But yeah, good for tennessee. Um, I'm sure that it's going to be interesting. I was reading an article. You know that this is the final class of all the COVID seniors that have been around for six years on all these teams, and so they said there was a huge percentage of juniors and seniors that were taking basically all the playing time across the country and they're all moving on and so there could be a total shift next year and who's good and whatnot. So it should be interesting to follow. Um, I did see that the the ratings were like through the roof this year for the series, which is good because it was a good tournament um, all right, before we get to the big 12 preview, do you want to talk about?

Speaker 1: 22:42

I know you had a big win today oh yeah, so a little recruiting yeah so people thought bama recruiting was dead.

Speaker 2: 22:51

I kind of was feeling like florida state recruiting was dead. Um, I hesitate to get excited about this one because this kid will probably flip to georgia on signing day, if I know my history correctly. Um, but yeah, florida state landed the I think it's the number six overall composite receiver. Cj Wiley out of my alma mater from high school, milton, georgia, love it. I saw a lot of Georgia people on Twitter saying it was like one of the more shocking commitments they'd ever seen, which we saw this last year with KJ Bolton. So I'm not going to get too excited about it, but it is pretty cool. Six-four receiver I'm not going to get too excited about it, but it is pretty cool. 6'4 receiver I think he led the state in receiving yards. Pretty good get. We'll see if they can hold on to him, though.

Speaker 1: 23:37

Looking it up right now on 247 Sports, I don't see where he's at. He's a top 100.

Speaker 2: 23:45

I think he's a little lower there On 3, he's a 94. I think he's a little lower there On three he's a 94. I think he's a 90 or 92 on 247.

Speaker 1: 23:53

Either way. Yeah, I saw that was a pretty big hit Georgia has. I found it funny because Georgia A ton of commits this weekend, a lot of action going on in the SEC and obviously around the country. Ohio State continues to build just crazy, crazy good classes. Did you see their pictures, by the way?

Speaker 2: 24:14

Ohio state's, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:17

I was like the wood panel basement. Yeah, I don't like Ohio state. I don't, I don't, I hate wood panel. That was so, so good, like that struck me right in the nostalgia. That was, that was perfect. But Georgia, I think one of the things that I've been hearing we talked to Graham Coffey last week on his show and I think Justice Terry, who recently or maybe it was Isaiah Gibson, who recently decommitted from USC and then committed to Georgia made a comment about how there's only one school that all these other schools continue to talk bad about, and it's Georgia. And Lincoln Riley got a couple of wins over UGA and Kirby early in this cycle. You got a couple of guys from Georgia and then and then also obviously has Juju Lewis and he tweeted something out about like that was either a play on words or something like digging at Georgia, like, like you know cause in rubbing it in, I guess.

Speaker 2: 25:12

Oh, Lincoln rally did, when they yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:14

And then you compile that with the fact that, like USC and a lot of other schools are negatively recruiting against Georgia.

Speaker 1: 25:24

I think Kirby took that personally and I think Kirby is going to close with a vengeance in this class.

Speaker 1: 25:29

Um, because this is again, this is where I said this last year like the scary thing about georgia is like they will get whoever they want.

Speaker 1: 25:35

Like they will get whoever they want for the most part, especially in the sec and especially in the southeast, but like, what should scare you is like they can go out and get a bunch of five stars if they wanted to, but when they start getting like three star physical freaks because at this point, like they're getting depth and they're getting like three-star physical freaks, because at this point, like they're getting depth and they're getting like elite players, but they're getting players that are just absolute physical specimen, and that's what like everyone should be worried about, because it's like it's great to sign a five-star, but when you've already got several on the roster and you can just start, like you know, playing around like Dr Frankenstein with some of these fucking kids, it's insane.

Speaker 1: 26:09

Man, yeah, um, yeah, bam. We got a couple guys. I saw that I think auburn flipped a kid from from penn state, the, the current rankings. Um, let me see here and I mean we're about to hit july like this is like when, like everything now is, this is like the normal time period for like the cycle things are gonna start really heating up with commits.

Speaker 2: 26:30

A lot of kids took their final officials through June. A lot of these kids just don't take it until signing day anymore.

Speaker 1: 26:40

No, They've got on 247, they've got Ohio State, then Bama, notre Dame, georgia, oklahoma, auburn, clemson, a&m, pennm, penn state and then lsu. The thing that I have a hard time with on this is lsu is 10th on here. Lsu is, like, I think, second or their third on on three, which is a composite of the entire of, like, I think, like every single site. So I don't know which site you guys tend to go to, regardless a lot of SEC teams.

Speaker 2: 27:13

I do on three composite because it takes into effect, which I know this does as well, but they weight on three and two, four, sevens higher than rivals in ESPN because they aren't as good, especially ESPN. Their rankings aren't as good, so they don't give them as much rating or ranking or weighting in the full ranking. So I like their composite the best, I think.

Speaker 1: 27:38

Well that one has Ohio State, then Georgia, lsu, bama, clemson, notre Dame, auburn, oregon, a&m, oklahoma, so kind of similar list. Right outside that you still see USC, you see Tennessee. All of this will change in a matter of hours to days. I'm sure I hate to be negative about it. I still have a hard time getting super pumped about it because so much changes constantly with recruiting and especially in this day and age you need to wait until the very end Just in case if there is some kind of like shocking flip on signing day or right before or whatever. So it's hard for me to still get into it. But I will say I'm pretty pumped that that uh, deborah is doing such a good job yeah, yeah, that was kind of your one.

Speaker 2: 28:26

If you had to worry about hiring him, everyone said that because he's not from the area he's not going to be able to recruit. Thus far, he's doing a great job. One other SEC team to touch on real quick Brent Venables gets an extension from Oklahoma. I didn't get this. What has he really done? I'm not saying that he should be fired by any means, but to sign a huge extension just seemed a little weird to me. What did you think?

Speaker 1: 28:57

Yeah, I didn't really understand. I just pulled up the article on On3 about it and Jesse Simonson says that what they're basically doing is investing in stability. Okay, you know like.

Speaker 2: 29:13

Where was he?

Speaker 1: 29:13

going to go I mean, I don't know Back to whatever fucking planet he spawned from what's up? Wesley? How about the Bulls? Yeah, you know Venables is. I don't think he's a bad coach. I thought the year one overreaction was just that an overreaction. I think they went like six and seven that year, including the bowl game. But last year, you know, they win 10 games and they were a better team and have a big win against Texas and all that. It'll be interesting to see what they have this year because you know Jackson Arnold is going to be in his first year as a starting quarterback and he's going into a new league. The schedule is brutal, but it says that. So venables is 16 and 10 and as the head coach at ou he was rewarded with a contract extension with a raise of roughly nine or sorry, 925 000 annually. That part is what's very confusing. It was only a two-year extension for a little over $900,000 a year.

Speaker 2: 30:19

Someday these ADs are going to come together and they're going to say we cannot let this happen anymore or we just have to continue giving these coaches raises every single year, even though they lost four games, five games, because we need stability and these guys are just going to get poached. They can't let these agents keep playing them like this. It's just insane.

Speaker 1: 30:41

I mean they've gotten better at it. But I'll give you another example. We were talking about the baseball thing earlier with Texas. Tom Hart said this today the last time the Texasxas job came open, nine different uh head coaches got a raise. I mean, how many times do we see that with, like jimmy sexton and around the sec, especially when there's, like you know, when there's um, some sort of um like position possibly open, so I might bolt for somewhere.

Speaker 1: 31:11

Still, I don't want to say the worst one, but it feels like it's the worst one. Correct me if I'm wrong. This is the only one that stands out to me right now. But the Gus Malzahn getting almost $50 million a year for flirting with Arkansas in 2017. Here's the thing you just said they're going to have to stop doing. You just said they're gonna have to stop doing this. 80s are going to stop doing this and put a stop to it at some point. That's that specific school has done it again. Right after that, they hired another person and, like doubled down on, gave him like way too much money more than they should have.

Speaker 2: 31:49

I mean, I don't know, Maybe when the players start all getting paid their employees or something like that, maybe the funds don't go as far for the coaches. It wouldn't be a bad thing. All right, you want to get into the Big 12 preview.

Speaker 1: 32:05

Let's do it. It's part one.

Speaker 2: 32:07

It's only half the teams.

Speaker 1: 32:08

I know we have a lot of SEC fans who might lose. We're going to talk about Colorado. We're going to talk about Utah, kansas, kansas State and Arizona for this one right? Yep, by the way, you said part one. I didn't realize this until afterwards. You know the Big 12 has 16 teams now.

Speaker 2: 32:24

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:25

Good Lord.

Speaker 2: 32:26

Well, it's going to be called the All-State Conference anyway.

Speaker 2: 32:28

Yeah fair you want to start. So the highest win total in the conference is Utah. Brand new member. Yeah, their win total is 9.5, minus 125 to the over. Utah won the Pac-12 2021. They won it in 2022.

Speaker 2: 32:50

Last year they were going to be another favorite and Cam Rising went down at the beginning of the year and, despite them pretty much every week being like, yeah, he might play, he never actually played. So they kind of took a step back. Last year they lost road games. I mean, these aren't bad losses. They lost road games to oregon state, oregon, washington and arizona. Okay, I believe arizona won 10 games last year, if not nine.

Speaker 2: 33:20

Washington was in the championship. Oregon was a strong team. Oregon state was a strong team, all on the road. Then they lost in the bowl game to northwestern, which was kind of a shitty. But cam rising for somehow, for somehow, some miracle is back. It's got to be his eighth season. It's unreal. Along with 15 other starters, they should have an easier schedule than they had last year in the Pac-12. They've got better depth. They've got better depth at running back receiver quarterback even I really like the over here. On Utah, their road games are Utah State, which they've won 14 of the last 15 games against Utah State. They go to Stillwater for the first time ever.

Speaker 1: 34:02

That's true, yeah, early on too.

Speaker 2: 34:04

Yeah, they go on the road to Arizona State, which they beat them six of the last eight. They beat them last year 34-13, so I don't think that's a tough road game. Houston, worst team in the Big 12, at least win total-wise. Go to Colorado. We'll see what Colorado looks like and we'll preview them here in a minute. You talk about physicality and strength for Utah and what Colorado was last year, especially on the O-line. I don't know. That's a tough one. And then UCF first time they've ever played UCF.

Speaker 1: 34:34

That's their rivalry weekend. Last game of the regular season.

Speaker 2: 34:38

Yeah, so they won't have the brutal heat of Orlando in August. True, it'll be closer to December by that time. So I really like Utah, and of course we know how they play at home. I mean, they rarely ever lose there. I think I love the over on Utah. In their first year in the Big 12, I think they rightly should be the favorite to win the conference.

Speaker 1: 35:00

It's them, then Kansas State, oklahoma State, ucf and Kansas with the best odds to win. Utah at plus 320, is still the front runner there. What's interesting is, like I said, oklahoma State's plus 800. You look at Lindy's and the preseason mag, they have Oklahoma State ranked 12th, which is the only team in this conference ranked ahead of. Thanks, wesley Williams, that's the only team ranked ahead of Utah. Like you brought up the fact they returned like a ton of starters. They're gonna. They're gonna not be as good in the run game. They're gonna, like they're gonna have a little bit of um. They have to turn over there and then have to replace some some production there. But what I love about them is they only have four out of their 22 starters are underclassmen. Right like utah just feels like it's never placed. Like hey, we got a huge recruit, he's going to come in as a freshman and just dominate. Like 18 of their 22 starters are upperclassmen. 12 of the 22 are seniors. You return, I think, at least seven starters on defense so, and I believe what's that?

Speaker 2: 36:08

They return nine starters on defense Nine.

Speaker 1: 36:11

Thanks a lot, lindy, you're fucking me up. And that's a defense that was ranked in the top 20 in rush defense, where they actually ranked fourth total defense and also scoring defense. That's another mainstay. It feels like they're like Utah's always going to be well-coached and it feels like they're always going to be very fundamentally sound and it sends you on defense. We saw them play last year.

Speaker 1: 36:37

The schedule is kind of tough in terms of the number of games they play against Power 5 opponents because they have 10 games against Power 5 opponents. I think they're playing 10 games against the Big 12 because they played Baylor last year and they just kept it and they have them at home this year. To start At Oklahoma State state is huge. You get Arizona at home.

Speaker 1: 36:53

Like you said, byu could be tricky, but that's. That's a rivalry game. You have a week off beforehand, but I love the fact that they don't get Kansas state, love the fact they don't get Kansas, like that's. That's really. That's very, very beneficial for them. I'm going to take Utah to cover the 9.5. I think they're easily a 10-win team and I don't see anybody on this schedule that's going to necessarily jump up and shock them. I think you could say they lose Oklahoma State, right, that might even just be a chalk game that they would be expected to lose, but outside of that, maybe at UC, maybe at ucf like I don't know where it falls on their schedule, last game of the year, um.

Speaker 2: 37:35

So you, you take away ucf's benefit of having, like, extreme humidity, extremely um, like when utah played florida last year, two years ago, I guess it was um, you know ut Utah coming down to the swamp in August. It's disgusting.

Speaker 1: 37:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 37:55

I mean, you're just sweating through your shorts like just standing around, it's disgusting.

Speaker 1: 38:00

yeah. Also, Utah is a one-point favorite in that Oklahoma State game. Yeah, which would lead me to believe they might be favored in every game they play yeah, so I like the nine and a half.

Speaker 2: 38:15

Yeah, agreed, uh, let's go kansas state that's. They're the other team with nine and a half, but the juice is to the under on them. They're plus 125 for the over on. Kansas State Took a step back last year after winning the Big 12 in 2022 against TCU, the team that ultimately played in the championship game. They were 9-4 last year. Four road losses by 3-8, 3-7.

Speaker 1: 38:46

That's crazy.

Speaker 2: 38:47

So they were pretty close to being over this win total last year. Um, they do lose will howard. He's going to be. He's a projected starter at ohio state. Um, I actually think avery johnson, their quarterback that came in last year for will howard when he got hurt, is. He definitely has more upside um and I think he actually could be better there. And phil steals magazine said that avery johnson would have won the job even if Howard stayed, so that's why he left. They get the running back, dj Giddens, back. He had 1,200 yards last year, 10 touchdowns. On the flip side, their top two receivers are gone and they lose four of their starting O-line. So that's going to be a work in progress, but love their coach Kleiman.

Speaker 2: 39:30

I think he's one of the most underrated coaches in the sport. They get five of their top six tacklers back on defense. Defense should be solid. They actually had a rare down year in special teams last year. That should be improved. I feel like every year Kansas State is doubted and then they end up being a solid double-digit win team under Klyman at least. I mean, he's been there for six years, returned eight on defense. I like the continuity. I think he'll go over on Kansas State too.

Speaker 1: 40:02

I also love the fact that from a betting standpoint against the spread listen to this They've got in their last five years they have been in the black every single year, um, by a lot. Last year they were eight, three and one, six and four. I'm sorry, sorry. Last year they were eight and four, eight and five. The year before that, then seven, four, six and four, eight, three and one like they. That just speaks to your point about how they are like consistently doubted. I love the fact that Avery Johnson, I like what he can do a quarterback, you know, like not a ton of experience. They're also breaking in a new offensive coordinator, but they are a good physical football team. I, I hate that they lose for the four stars on the O line.

Speaker 1: 40:48

What's up Like right, real quick, wesley Williams. Is Greg McIlroy a hater or not? Yes, absolutely he is. But I think that, like you break down the schedule at Tulane eh, we'll see. At BYU, at Colorado, at West Virginia, I think will be tougher than people think At Iowa State, at Houston, there's some tough games in there. And then you get at home, you get Arizona, uh, week three. That'll be very interesting just in terms of like style of play like because they are going to go up against a very, very elite set of like skill position players there, especially quarterback and receiver um Friday night too.

Speaker 1: 41:26

It's an interesting twist yeah, and you have oklahoma state, uh, which is again like that's at home, kansas at home, in the middle of uh, or like the last weekend of october, and you close with like a pretty easy schedule with houston on the road, arizona state, cincinnati at home and at iowa state I mean 10 sounds right, that sounds about where they'll be. There's also you're breaking in a new quarterback, you're breaking in um. There's also you're breaking in a new quarterback, you're breaking in four new offensive linemen, you're breaking in a new offensive coordinator and early in the season I look at two of those games. I think you lose Oklahoma State. I think you probably lose one of those games to West Virginia or Kansas. I'm going to take the under.

Speaker 2: 42:08

Yeah, I think the toss-up games Arizona, even though it's at home, I I like arizona and I will see we're going to preview them here as well, but they do have a new coach, so we'll see how he implements those to the quarterback and receiver. Oklahoma state, I think is gonna be one of the top teams in the conference at west virginia could be a sneaky, tough game. And then at iowa state. I actually think in our preview number two we're going to do Iowa State. I actually think that they could be a really good team this year. Hope so Well comparatively to Iowa State standards. But yeah, I'd say I'm going to go over for Kansas State here. I'll take the plus 125.

Speaker 1: 42:49

All right, where are we going next?

Speaker 2: 42:51

Let's go to Kansas. Love their coach, lance Leopold. He's quickly got things turned around at one of the worst programs in the nation, went from 2-10 his first year to 5-7 and then went 9-4 last year, despite Jalen Daniels, who everyone's familiar with only starting three games.

Speaker 2: 43:12

They got their first win against Oklahoma last year since 1997. They returned 13 starters. I guess they must have renovations going on because they're playing four games at Arrowhead Stadium and two at a soccer stadium, so they won't have a true home like on campus games this year, which could play into that a little bit. I hate that. Um, I don't know, man, I look at the schedule and I don't trust that jalen daniels is going to stay healthy and last year when he got injured, jason bean was a really good fill-in. Um, their backup right now, if he goes down, is a walk-on, true sophomore, cole Ballard, and I just think that Jalen Daniels, if he's kind of the key to getting things going, especially on the ground with his legs, I think the risk of injury is high with him and I just don't trust the backups enough for them to be able to overcome it again this year.

Speaker 2: 44:11

So yeah, we've got some tough games at Illinois. I think Illinois is kind of one of those like annoyingly like good enough teams, especially if you go on the road to beat you.

Speaker 1: 44:22

Yeah, and also contrasting styles too, because they're going to be playing like they'll be very physical up front.

Speaker 2: 44:26

Yeah, at West Virginia TCU, at Kansas State Kansas State coming off a bye and Iowa State, so the total is eight minus 125 to the over. I think I like the under on Kansas this year.

Speaker 1: 44:42

So I feel like it's weird because I hate Kansas basketball so much, but football, lance Labrador is a fun coach to pull for. I think like we saw him a couple of years ago and PFF put out their top 50 coaches or whatever and he was number nine and we were like what the hell is this? And then now it becomes a kind of like a universal agreement about him, like how good of a coach he is. I'd say what's interesting is like you talk about the returning starters and this stupid magazine for Lindy's. They don't even have Jalen Daniels as a returning starter because of how much time he missed last year.

Speaker 1: 45:14

Ton of talent at receiver. In the skill positions. You return two of your three starting receivers. You have a really good tight end and Jared Casey coming back as well. Devin Neal running back he was kind of the glue, I think. A lot of times last year they had to hold the whole thing together. But 16, yeah. But you go to the schedule and look at their offense too. So their offense was in the top six in the country in scoring offense, passing offense and total offense.

Speaker 1: 45:46

That's a tough out like you're, they're put up points regardless. Now their defense was ranked in the bottom half of the country in almost every single statistical category. Passing, I think, was their highest. They were 56. Are they going to be improved at all on defense? You hate to look at this and be like is this an early Josh Heupel type team where it's like you're going to put up a ton of points and you better hope that Jalen Daniels does stay healthy? I mean, I think we all want to watch that kid play for a full season, but you better hope that he is healthy for the entire season because there's not a lot of depth behind him. I will also say that the schedule you said at Illinois and then skipped over UNLV, they were a 9-1 team last year. Right, that's right. At West Virginia.

Speaker 1: 46:38

What I really don't like is that there's not any sort of continuity or streak that they're going to get to go on during the season. Most teams you get to start out at home and have a couple good games in front of the home crowd and play somebody like they're playing like Lindenwood to start like play someone shooting the FCS or play a couple like you know group of five schools or whatever and get, get a couple wins under your belt and then get into the meat of the schedule. But when you look at their schedule, they have they have zero back to back home games. They go home away, home away the entire season. They're already not playing home games On the road.

Speaker 1: 47:15

They're at Illinois, at West Virginia, at Arizona State, at Kansas State, at BYU, at Baylor. So if the total is eight and you're trying to tell me you're going to beat Lindenwood, you probably beat UNLV. I don't know about TC, or you'll probably be Houston. You get Iowa state at home. I'm having a hard time coming to Colorado, that's so you're. You're halfway there with, at four, arizona state's going to be a win, that's five At BYU is probably a win, maybe.

Speaker 1: 47:44

I mean, you never know BYU, you know they're like super seniors, they have like I mean they could have an entire fucking team of Moana out there and just destroy everyone. Those are some grown men out there. But I don't see enough on the schedule where it's like if you said best case scenario and you went, started out 3-0, beat TCU 4-0 or, sorry, 4-1, arizona State 5-1, 6-1 after the Houston game. I think they push more than anything, but I hate the way that schedule is set up. I would take the under. But if there was a way to bet on them pushing if it's 8 or under which is probably why Vegas has it at 8, not 8.5, I would take the under on this.

Speaker 2: 48:26

I agree there. All right, let's move to Arizona. Arizona is also a win total of eight plus 105 to the over. So Vegas thinks that closer to seven and a half potentially the big news here they lose Jed Fish, who really turned the program around significantly. They somehow, after he left, were able to keep Nofafita and McMillan at receiver. I don't know how in this day and age of NIL and transfer portal, but they finished 10-3 last year after starting 3-3. They beat four ranked teams.

Speaker 2: 49:05

What I'm struggling with is they get this new guy, brent Brent Brennan, in from San Jose State. Terrible name, terrible name. I don't know anything about San Jose State so I don't know if this is a good hire. Doesn't seem like it was anything. That was like those college football nerds were like this is a great hire. So I don't know.

Speaker 2: 49:26

They have a favorable Big 12 schedule. They avoid oklahoma state, they avoid kansas or they, so they put. This is weird and I must have been from a prior schedule. They play kansas state, but does it doesn't count as a big 12 game, so, um, so it counts as a non-conference game this year. And then they also avoid iowa state, which I think will be one of the better teams in the league, so they do have a favorable schedule. I just don't know enough yet about the type of offense that Brennan runs and if it's going to maximize what Jed Fish was able to do with Fafita and McMillan last year. I'd probably stay away from this because there's too much unknown. But if I had to make a guess I'd probably go under just because it's a first-year coach.

Speaker 1: 50:11

Yeah, I mean, they had a ton of success last year with what do you call it? Obviously with Fafita as a freshman, and you have the McMillan at receiver. The fact that you were able to keep both those guys is you cannot say how good of a job they did there. Brett Brennan at San Jose State, by the way, was there for seven years. They went 34-48. He did lead them to a winning season in three of his last four years. They were actually ranked in 2020, which is impressive. They went like 7-1 that year, 7-6, 7-5, 5-7, 7-1.

Speaker 1: 50:55

I think that, like, this was going to be an uphill battle from a hiring standpoint, no matter what, because of the issues you have as an administration at Arizona, like, no wonder Jed Fish left One Washington's a better opportunity. Like, no wonder jet fish left one Washington's a better opportunity. And then two, like you know, you're talking about a 240 plus million dollar like issue that that athletic department is having because they somehow lost. They lost $240 million, just have no idea where it went because of, like an accounting error. So, a lot of uphill battles this year. They're going to be fun to watch because they're going to have one of the best players in the country at quarterback. Maybe it'll be like that one half season where they had who was it.

Speaker 1: 51:37

Khalil Tate. Khalil Tate at quarterback that we all thought was going to be like a Heisman finalist like the next year. So but you look at the schedule, man. I don't like the schedule. I hate the fact that out of the one team that you get that doesn't count as a conference game, it's Kansas State, which is one of the best teams in the conference. New Mexico, northern Arizona at Kansas State, at Utah, you're coming out of the gates at 2-2. You better hope that you can beat Texas Tech, which is not a bad football team at BYU. Colorado should be a fun game that should be a really fun game.

Speaker 1: 52:17

And listen, they're ranked in the top 25 in several preseason rankings. West Virginia at home the back half of the schedule does seem to get easier at UCF. Then you have Houston at TCU, Arizona State I just don't see where you have eight wins on there. I can tell you five losses, because you're going to get two in September with Kansas State and Utah. Here's the other thing too, From a leadership standpoint, what do you have on this team?

Speaker 1: 52:43

Again, love the quarterback, love the receiver, but this isn't NBA jam. You're going to have to have like an entire fucking team go out there and you know, in what is probably I don't know if it's a step up from the Pac-12. I mean, it's not a step up from the Pac-12. But it will be difficult because you don't have this like the same head coach or the continuity from that. So I think they're going to go under, but they are going to be one of the most exciting teams to watch in the country.

Speaker 1: 53:14

And again, we cannot say enough about how great of a job they did last year, because they have a two-point loss to USC on the road. Last year, in double overtime or something like that, they had a double overtime loss to Mississippi State and that's the second loss and I think the third loss who was the third loss? To Tyler Washington? Yeah, they lost by a touchdown Right. They lost a double overtime at Mississippi State in week two which if they played that team again from week three to week 14, they would have beaten them. They lost the UFC in triple overtime.

Speaker 2: 53:47

Right, which is, if they played that team again from week three to week 14, they would have beaten them.

Speaker 1: 53:50

You can see in triple overtime Right and then Washington at home by seven. And you, like I said it repeatedly last year like you take away that like unlucky break they had against USC or even just the one against Mississippi state. Like you're talking about a team that at 11 and one could have been we could have been talking about, like talking about a potential playoff team if they would have had a tiebreaker or whatever, getting to the Pac-12 championship, any of that, they were a good football team.

Speaker 2: 54:17

Dude. So after that USC loss they were 3-3. The next week they went on the road to no 19, washington State, and won 44 to 6. Yep, then they went, they played Oregon state number 11, oregon state at home, won that game. Then they played number 20, ucla at home, won that game 27 to 10. Then they went on the road to Colorado and won. Then they played Utah 16, utah home and won 42-18. That's nuts. And then they beat the shit out of.

Speaker 1: 54:52

Arizona State 59-23 at the end of the year and finished the season by beating Oklahoma by double digits.

Speaker 2: 54:55

So yeah, but again with Fish gone, I just don't know what to do there. So all right, last team here, probably one that people would tune in to talk about Colorado Buffaloes total 5.5, minus 130 to the over, so more likely 6 than 5, according to Vegas. You remember when Colorado that TCU game? Remember how crazy that was that first game.

Speaker 1: 55:24

Yeah, it was awesome.

Speaker 2: 55:25

Started 3-0. The hype train was just out of control. Colorado went one and eight in their last nine games last year. Um really signified the lack of depth that they had. Obviously the big name, shador sanders, is back at quarterback 27 touchdowns, three picks. Last year, um, they lost their top 4 running backs. They did add Dallin Hayden from Ohio State. They actually lost their top receiver. So, even though Travis Hunter is their best receiver as far as production last year, because Hunter was out, xavier Weaver is gone they brought on a ton of talent on the D-line through the transfer portal. All that being said, man five and a half, so they got to get to six. I look at the schedule. I see five and seven at the very best.

Speaker 1: 56:23

Yeah, I thought their win total was at four and a half On DraftKings today. It was five and a half. Oh no, I checked it definitely wasn't. I'm just like. Also, they are the most most bet on team in the country, um, to win the national championship or win the cultural playoff. Like four percent of total money that is currently out is on Colorado to win the national championship, which I'm pretty sure is just all Keyshawn Johnson and RJ Young.

Speaker 2: 56:53

Dude, did you know that the most bet on person to be the number one pick in the NBA draft for our night is Bronny Jr?

Speaker 1: 57:00

Why.

Speaker 2: 57:02

He's literally throwing away money. Yeah, although I can see the Hawks doing something really dumb like that, being like listen, we're going to draft Brawny and then LeBron's going to come.

Speaker 1: 57:11

I'd be down for that.

Speaker 2: 57:13

But then the Hawks would draft Brawny and LeBron will extend with the Lakers and they'll just be stuck with a kid who probably shouldn't have even been drafted. I would still be down for that.

Speaker 1: 57:22

All right, back to Colorado. We just did the ESPN thing 1,000% which was like we'll do a quick step or a quick break from talking about Colorado and Deion Sanders talking about LeBron James Afterwards. Make sure you tune in, we're going to be talking about Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys. All right, colorado obviously you have two of the best players in the country according to a lot of people. I think you got one of them. I think you have one player who's maybe one of the best players in the country with travis hunter.

Speaker 2: 57:54

um sure, sanders put up really good numbers last year, in year one um a lot of sacks which, like I don't feel like that's on him I well, I wouldn't normally either, but I did listen to a pod like a real nerdy college football pod that they like track when the sack is on the quarterback versus on the o-line and he tends to take a lot of sacks that he shouldn't I mean, either way, 56 total sacks.

Speaker 1: 58:21

56 total sacks, uh, which is the second most in the entire country. Somehow old dominion had 62 that they allowed.

Speaker 2: 58:29

That's insane to me um, he had negative 77 total rushing yards last year. That's crazy. So he had 400 rushing yards, like if it was like the nfl and they weren't stupid and counting sacks as like rushing losses.

Speaker 1: 58:43

Um, he had 394 rushing yards going forward but lost 471 yards through sacks and other things so one of the issues I have with colorado is remember, like I told you this, in 2022 they weren't like. They were 1 and 11 in 2022, right the year before dion got there and they had I'm trying to think they gave up less than 40 points twice that entire season. They finished the year their last six games of the year giving up 42, 42, 49, 55, 54, and 63. They gave up over 50 points per game. That's insane to me. And then you look at 2023, it's like you bring in your D coordinator. I forgot who it was. It was a pretty recognizable name, was it?

Speaker 2: 59:31

charles kelly, or is he just yes?

Speaker 1: 59:34

yeah, well, I think so either way he's an honor hold on.

Speaker 1: 59:38

Where's it? Where'd it go? You have robert livingston coming in who was uh with the cincinnati bangles, so I had there's nothing really for me. I don't really know if they're gonna have have an improvement or not, but I will tell you this from the numbers I set a year ago. Then you see what they gave up last year. Now, in the first half of the season they gave up 42-35, 42-48, 46-56. They improved, but they still gave up a lot of points. And then you look at the last half of the season. Your bread and butter of this team is supposed to be Shitter Sanders and the offense. They didn't score over 20 points in four of their last five games which is inexcusable to me.

Speaker 1: 1:00:19

They also lost to Stanford, who was one of the worst teams in the entire country, especially in Power 5, and blew a massive lead against them, lost 43-46. It was all one player, especially in power five, um, and blew like a massive lead against them, lost 43 to 46 and it was and it was all one player, it was all one player like.

Speaker 2: 1:00:32

So the receiver was just dominating them yeah, the whole time, the whole time.

Speaker 1: 1:00:36

So I I think that this is going to be when I look at, when I look at colorado and I expect to see, like this year, you have north dakota state, which is going to be a good, that's going to be a good game.

Speaker 2: 1:00:47

That's what I'm saying. Take a look at the schedule and tell me any game on the schedule that you feel like is a sure win for them, because North Dakota State has won nine national titles since 2010.

Speaker 1: 1:01:05

And then you have at Nebraska. Colorado State should be a win win, but it's on the road and that game was like somewhat tight last year. Um baylor at home at ucf should win the should win the baylor game, but like?

Speaker 2: 1:01:18

is that a guarantee?

Speaker 1: 1:01:22

no, I think better this year at ucf, yeah and like, and they still have Dave Aranda as the head coach at Baylor. Baylor was awful last year, especially that defense. I don't understand how, because they have Dave Aranda. Remember when they won the Big 12 in 2021?.

Speaker 2: 1:01:39

What was that Remember when they won the Big 12 in 2021? Yeah, with Dave Aranda as the head coach, how'd they get so bad so fast?

Speaker 1: 1:01:46

No clue. They get Kansas State at home at Arizona, cincinnati at home at Texas Tech, utah at home at Kansas and then Oklahoma State. That is a tough schedule. That's a very tough schedule. Say they beat Baylor and they beat North Dakota State and they beat Colorado State, so you're 3-1. At UCF, don't love it but say you win that game, you're 4-1. You've got to figure out how to get two wins against Kansas State, arizona State, which I think they'll beat Texas Tech, utah, kansas and Oklahoma State. I think what Colorado will be is pretty close to what they were last year. I think that they're going to. If I'm being honest, I think they lose to Nebraska, I think they probably lose to UCF, they lose to Kansas State, they will lose to Arizona, they will lose to Texas Tech on the road, utah at home, kansas on the road and Oklahoma State I think they go 4-8 again.

Speaker 1: 1:02:45

Listen, this is a massive uphill battle for for Deon Sanders and we do see the most improvement year over year for a new coach from year one to year two. So maybe they will be better. And like again Cheddar Sanders, he had 40 touchdowns and six interceptions His last season at Jackson state. Last year he was 27 touchdowns at three interceptions um six, over 3000 yards, passing 69 completion percentage.

Speaker 2: 1:03:10

I mean like those are really good numbers and something about that makes me feel like, okay, you're not a big enough risk taker. If you're, if you throw three picks and you complete 70, like to me you're taking the easy pat, you're taking easy passes the yards per attempt was only 7.5 yards per attempt.

Speaker 1: 1:03:29

And I will also tell you that, like when you look at the second half of the year, like besides the Stanford game, when he, like you know, balled out, he finished the season with, like Arizona State had 5.7 yards per attempt, five yards per attempt against UCLA. Both those games were on the road. He really struggled on the road, minus the TCU game. I think he's a good quarterback. I think that he has taken on probably more than he should have given himself because of his own arrogance. Look at the schedule. I don't see them over five and a half at all. What we see with Colorado is this Colorado will be must-see TV every time they're on and they're not opposed to a bigger game. I would love to have Colorado after dark every single week, like we did at the start of last season. I will tune in, it'll be great.

Speaker 1: 1:04:26

They are a very polarizing team with a lot of polarizing players, but travis hunter is one of the best players in the country. They should have some other talented guys coming in, um, so they should. Like you would assume they would be better. But then you look at the other metrics, man, like they ranked 107th or worse in every defensive category that they were, that they were like for rushing defense, scoring defense, passing defense, total defense they're actually 120th or worse than three out of the four. And then you look at like some of the stuff that like how do you replicate this? They were? They were plus nine in turnover margin last year, which ranked in like in the top 12 nationally. Are you going to replicate that this year, like you know, versus last year? Probably not. So I I just I think we know what colorado is and I think that like there hasn't been enough change to their approach to like beat legitimate programs and teams to where I would take them seriously and cover five and a half I hope they do.

Speaker 1: 1:05:22

I hope I hope we have a story, because I think dion's great for college football, but I cannot see them getting over 5.5. And it does feel like that Vegas ticked that line up to 5.5 strictly because of how dumb the public money has been.

Speaker 2: 1:05:39

I agree. I think it's a great time to get in on the 5.5 gamble responsibly though. Yeah, all right. So that is the first half of our big 12 preview. Obviously, next week we'll get into part two or we'll cover the rest of the teams in the conference. Anything before we head out? Chris, I don't think so, all right, well, thanks for tuning in, guys. There's currently over 600 of you here tuned in live, so we really appreciate it, and we will be back next Monday for round.