Did Lincoln Riley Save His Job? Hoosiers Win in Overtime Again!

Hi, welcome to the show. Others receiving votes. I'm your host, Pat Forty, joined by my Sports Illustrated colleagues, Brian Fisher and Kevin Sweeney. Catch us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, on SI.com. Thanks for watching and listening. Gentlemen, we've hit November, and I'm not sure how much more we can take, frankly, of the... Just absurd chaos of this season. But I'm willing to try. I think you guys probably are too, to see if we can continue to push the limits of this whole season. See if we can find anybody who can play well two weeks in a row. Seems to be incredibly elusive in this sport. You have a big win. You're almost doomed. You might as well just start preparing your defeat speech for next week. Speaking of prepared speeches, we had one of those in Los Angeles where I was for Ohio State and USC. Let's start with that game, in fact. This one, holy cow. I mean, we went in. Brian, I think you had already fired Lincoln Riley last week. Ohio State was ranked number two in the country, but was the big unknown how they would play with a freshman quarterback who had never started in college before. The freshman quarterback played pretty well. Everyone else on Ohio State pretty well stunk. USC gets the big win. Lincoln Riley goes weirdo after the game. Actually gets into it more with Maurice Clarett. Coming off the field, I'll get to that in a second, and then at the end of his press conference, pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket and reads a strange prepared statement basically on his existential situation there. It was a very meaningful game for both programs. What exactly it means, I think still to be determined. I'm not German, but... Brian, I'll start with you. Your thoughts on watching USC hand Ohio State its worst loss in four years, and then Lincoln Riley kind of defend himself and at the same time almost give a middle finger to the fans. Yeah, it was just a bizarre set of circumstances there at the Coliseum. And, you know, to my earlier point, I don't think necessarily my column from last week when they dropped it there on the road against Wisconsin really changes anything. And it seemed like that statement from Lincoln Riley, you know, it was kind of like a prepared statement just in case he lost, but he wanted to read it anyway. And, man, he's been there in Los Angeles for five years. He should know in the acting community, you've got to remember your lines. You cannot pull out the piece of paper. And you cannot recite something that's, you know, kind of going to be a little bit defiant from the fan base. But I think that almost even reconfirmed, even in this moment of glory for the program, for Lincoln Riley and his tenure there in LA, like this, he's still not the guy, you know, in terms of like really grasping what you have to do as the USC head coach. And I think that kind of reconfirmed as for, as for the game itself. I mean, where was this USC? Um, you know, like, I mean, to, to, to look like that and to have those big plays, you know, Mark Bowman doing the hurdle for, for a big 60 yard gain to have the freshmen coming out. Like, I mean, to have the defense play well, um, really for, for the night, the second week in a row. I mean, this was kind of the USC we expected this season. And, um, you know, it's only shown up in one of these big games did not show up in Wisconsin did not show up. And certainly in the second half against Oregon, uh, where they're all on their heels and they never could get back in the game. And I think that's. That's the problem with USC at this point under Lincoln Riley is they are so tantalizing. You can see the potential breakthrough there for the Trojans. You can see the talent. You can see it all coming together, but very rarely does it. And it did certainly against Ohio State. And, you know, I think for the Buckeyes themselves, I mean, yes, there's going to be a lot of attention on Luke Fahey. And I didn't think he played awful. You know, I don't think he was like, he's the primary reason that they lost this game. This was maybe the worst coached game for Ohio State that I've seen since probably 2024 Michigan, when they just completely, you know, let it go. There and then lost inexplicably on their way to the national title game. Like this was a poorly coached effort for Ohio State and, and USC took advantage of it, like they, they let their playmakers make plays. And as a result, both teams are still in the playoff hunt, but it's a very tenuous, you know, position there in the playoff hunt given, given the other events across the country and given how, where, where their position, I think in the Big 10 would, it would just be fascinating this season. Yeah. I thought Ohio State coached and managed this game like they were playing Maryland in like an old Big Ten East game. Like that was the vibe I got. It was like, OK, our quarterback's hurt. We're going to be ultra vanilla. We're going to run the ball. We're going to get out of here alive. And then they like walked on the field and I was like, Oh, well, yeah, USC has some players now, and we knew that coming in, and I never felt like the urgency from Ohio State was where it needed to be. Thank Again, I want to give their offense some grace in that, number one, you have a backup quarterback on the road, it's first career start, a young quarterback. Quarterback. It was pouring rain. I'm curious, your perspective on it, Pat, from being there, but the TV shots looked like it was absolutely drecking. That is not good conditions to put a quarterback in, you. especially a young one. But, I mean, the inability for Ohio State to finish drives, the lack of urgency that Ohio State played with in the second half, again, I think the latter of those things, the urgency question, is really an illustration of... Where Ryan Day and Arthur Smith's trust level is in Luke Fahey right now. Like, the fact that they didn't let it rip at all when they're down two scores in the fourth quarter and they're content to let Bo Jackson take six yards of carry for a six-minute drive, like, oh boy, right? Because if Ohio State has any aspirations of doing anything this season of note in Ohio State land, which is win multiple playoff games, advance in the playoff, they're going to have to trust Luke Fahey to let it rip at some point. And if they didn't let him here... What does that mean for this season? So, I mean, a very alarming performance overall by Ohio State. I think all the concerns you had coming in about what their offense could look like with Fahey at the helm came to light. You know, like their run game is good. It's not that good. They can only get Jeremiah Smith the ball so many ways. Can they finish drives? I mean, look. I don't think if Ohio State looks like this the rest of the year, this will not be their last loss in the regular season. Let's put it that way. And then we're talking about nine and three or eight and four Ohio State in the playoff conversation, or where does that stand? How do they, how do they get evaluated? If there's a chance saying comes back for the playoff, all those things are fascinating. But to me, this loss said more about Ohio State than the win said about USC. But at some point you have to go take the win. And Lincoln desperately had to go get it. And he did. And I think he deserves credit for that in spite of how How strange the post-game scene was for him, by all accounts. It was strange. It was very strange. And, yeah, a couple of things. It rained pretty much the whole game, but it really wasn't a hard rain. It looked like it in, like, the stadium lights and stuff. It was a soft rain. Now, it's constant rain, so it's a problem, right? And I think we saw at least a couple occasions where the ball was a little slippery. But it was not like they were playing in an actual... downpour, per se. They were just playing in a persistent rain. There were many things that bothered Ohio State Saturday night. Rain probably among them. Getting back to the Riley situation, I love the Coliseum. It's one of my favorite stadiums. The history, it's beautiful, beautiful grass. You're looking at L.A. from the press box. I mean, it's fantastic. I love going to games there. But one problem with it, it's ancient, and there is one way in and one way out. So both teams have to go up the same tunnel. And if you add a field storm into the equation, you suddenly have a whole lot of chaos and a lot of people in the way, and the egress, I guess, was a disaster. Everybody's mad. Nobody can get through. Security doesn't seem to know what they're doing. And it ends up in this pile up there. And I think Lincoln Riley feeling like the King of LA feeling pretty chesty in that moment. It's like, I'm not waiting and seem to get mad at some Ohio State people and ends up having words with Maurice Claret who I was standing by him on the sidelines. Oh, that's Maurice Claret. That's kind of interesting. And then they end up having words and Riley reaches out and like shoves him aside, pushes him aside. He walked past and then has words with Quinn Temple, who's kind of the ops guy at Ohio State. He's the associate athletic director. It was just like, why are you angry in this moment? I don't understand. Secondly, then you go in and you do your press conference, and here's what Riley had to say. This program's built on, and then he fumbled his own line. Talk about knowing your lines. He couldn't even read it right. This program's built on internal joy, not external applause. That's what he meant to say. He got it wrong the first time. He got it right the second time. This wins for all the staff members, the players, the leaders, admin, all the people within the walls. I said before this game that I'm the right person for this job. And as long as all those people know that, that's all I care about. I appreciate being part of this university and all it does. I appreciate our kids and our staff. I'm going to continue to fight on because that's what being a Trojan is all about. Yeah, Brian, to your point, I don't know whether he thought he was going to win or lose, but this was certainly written before the game, and it sounds like something you would deliver if you're trying to convince people to have you keep your job. But it's also the fact that he did not mention the fans at all, and all he cares about are the people inside the building. Kind of a weird look. I think in that moment, that may be what you feel. And I think there's a lot of coaches that think that. But saying that publicly to the paying customers, not a great look. Not a great look. So that kind of, like everybody that's covering the game, like I went to Ohio State. I figure I'm just writing Ohio State. And I get up to the press box and I'm listening to the end of the USC press conference. And all of a sudden he comes out with that and I'm like. What? What the hell is that? I got to write about that. And all the USC people that went to USC press conference all come up with this bewildered look on their face like, well, now we got to we're not going to write about this great win. We're going to write about Lincoln Riley being weird in victory and just totally changed the tenor of the whole thing. But fine, whatever. They win the game. And yeah, I mean, what you guys point like, God, those freshmen are good. Unbelievable. Trent Mosley, Mark Bowman, Luke Wiffle on defense, and they've got others. They've got more. I mean, that is a really talented freshman class. And there's got to be part of you. If you want Lincoln Riley gone, but you're sitting there saying, if he leaves, do we lose all these guys? And maybe is it worth the calculus 70 million plus you lose that freshman class. Oh, that's a lot. Well, a lot of those guys are on multi-year contracts. So it's not like they, it's, it's an easy for them to depart. And it doesn't seem like Lincoln Riley. He understands like he under he's, he's listening to a lot of the external talk that that's that, that statement. And that way he really approached the entire game. It was like, I understand that my job is on the line here. I understand the talk externally to, to the building. You know, and that to me was what smacked me in the face. It's like he understands the pressure that he's under. And it showed up throughout this week. Yeah. Yeah, it did. On the other side, the Ohio State defense was the biggest disappointment of the game. That's a good unit or had been. And the one thing they had excelled at is not giving up big plays. And all of a sudden, they give up a 69-yard touchdown on the second play. And they give up the 70-yarder to Bowman. There's a 44-yard punt return, and there's a 3rd-and-19 draw for 21. Like, that was a give-up down that ended up extending a field goal drive. So, like, that was a raging disappointment for them. Ryan Day, I do think in games there are times when he gets into his own head, thinks too much, and it just doesn't work. And that's where you see, I think, some of what we saw. And the talk beforehand was, oh, they're going to let it rip with Fahey, who throws a great deep ball. Then twice they took first down shots from near midfield, which is kind of your stereotypical shot play. And that's really it. They tried one deep ball to Jeremiah Smith later on in the third quarter that he underthrew, and that was it. There was not a lot of downfield there. Now, my question for you guys, you're on the playoff committee. You're meeting this week. Your first rankings come out Tuesday. Is Ohio State 6-2 or is Ohio State 0-1? Because the team that you are evaluating is the team without Julian Sayen. Kevin, what do you think? I think you're 6-2. But I think if I was Ryan Day right now, I would be starting to politic. Yeah, you know, the outlook for Sayen, it looks a little better now. It doesn't actually have to be. But we've seen this with the basketball tournament. We've obviously seen this. We will continue to see this in football, I'm sure. Like, you have to try to angle in a way where they can't use your injuries against you. And so, unless there is literally 0% chance that Julian Sane plays again this season, you got to put on a brave face. And you got to pretend like he is. Because if this is close, I don't know how you look at, again, we need more data points, but the early data point on Ohio state as an offense is without Julian Sane they're not very good. And if that's, if, if, if they're in debate in the 10, 11, 12 range. Yeah. I don't know how you put them in. If this is what it continues to look like, unless you think there's a chance that Julian's back on it. And I think you look at, at, at really the entire playoff picture. This probably rules them out for a home game, you know? Like, can you really give Ohio State, at the best-case scenario, like win out their 10-2, whatever, maybe they make it to Indianapolis in terms of some of those tiebreakers to make it to the Big Ten title game. Can you give them a home game, knowing that they look like this on the road? Even going back to the Indiana game, it's not like they did a whole lot in that second half after the same injury. In terms of Fahey actually throwing the ball, and he looked like he was a wide-eyed true freshman at that point. It was a little bit better against USC. And that, to me, is really where the evaluation is going to come from. It's going to be against Oregon. It's going to be against Northwestern with this defense. Can you contain Chip Kelly and everything that he's throwing at? Teams on a weekly basis, you know, is it, you know, kind of down the stretch? I mean, even this Michigan defense, you know, look at that Ohio State effort against USC. Do you expect them to put up just a ton of points against a very good Michigan defense? Now, the other side of the equation with the Michigan offense versus the Ohio State defense, we'll set that aside. But, like, you know, these are all very winnable games, certainly for Ohio State down the stretch. They can look like that and can prove themselves to be a playoff team. I think it's going to be tough in terms of being 10-2 and ultimately hosting one of those first-round games against a decent opponent. Man, it is very tenuous at best. And I do think, to your ultimate question, Pat, for the committee, this is going to be the most fascinating question going into Tuesday. Are they in a top 10 contention, or are they on that cut line and kind of very tenuous at best? And yes, you would love to say that they would completely understand and look at the entire picture. And they're going to have that on their screens, right? They're going to have that loss to Texas. They're going to have all the offensive numbers that were put up before the same injury. On their screens and saying, all right, and they're going to have to weigh that. And I just, I think because of recency bias, they're going to look at this Ohio State team and they're probably going to dock them a spot or two compared to what they probably should be in terms of their resume. And I think that's going to be the interesting thing to follow on as we move forward throughout November. Is that going to be much more of an issue for the committee to kind of discern who is Ohio State and what are they moving forward? Yeah, I mean, that's it. That's it. Do you look at Ohio State as a 6-2 team, or do you look at Ohio State as an 0-1-1 team? What factors count in there? It's tough. It's really tough. Again, being on the college football playoff selection committee is a largely thankless, very difficult task. As you said, they can still make the Big Ten championship game. As of right now, UCLA sitting there 5-0. Say that again. UCLA sitting there 5-0. Indiana 5-1, Ohio State 4-1, Ohio State would win a tiebreaker with Indiana if they both end up 8-1, but that seems like four miles down the road, and then you got a bunch of two-loss teams behind them, so... I mean, it's not crazy to think that USC could make the Big Ten title game at this point. It's not, no. I mean... USC is 4-2, and then you've got two loss, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Oregon, Northwestern, and Wisconsin. Let's hit it real quick on the rest of the Big Ten. And this is this league this year, right? Wisconsin beats down USC, and everybody thinks, oh, Luke Fickles, he's fine. He's got it figured out. He's doing a great job. Let's put Wisconsin in the top 25. Oh, they lose 30-0 to Iowa. Northwestern becomes the toast of the conference. Everybody's talking them up. They jump out to a big lead on Oregon. Guess what? Oregon, who everyone has completely buried, comes back and wins the game. Kudos to the Ducks for that because I was ready to bury them some more when they were down like three scores in that game or two. And then, all right, we've got to talk about the show in Bloomington. Let's give it up for them. The, you know, the longtime kind of joke hashtag on Twitter, hashtag college kickers, kind of making fun of them, kind of feeling sorry for them. They've been bad. They miss extra points. They miss short field goals. They're no good. The difference between college kicker and NFL kicker is vast. Well, we got some college kicking that happened. Epic. Epic. College kicking that happened in Minnesota and Indiana. And the Indiana season has just become its own preposterous soap opera, which we can get into. But to recap how regulation ended here, Minnesota drives in the last minute into the edge of field goal range. Kurt Cignetti watches the clock just melt, tick away. Doesn't do anything to stop it, thinking, you know, we might need some time to go back the other way. Minnesota sends out Luke Zrewicki, transfer from New Mexico, puts the holder, kneels down at midfield. They're going to try a 60-yard field goal ostensibly for the win, and he crushes this thing. I mean, it's good. It would have been good from 65. It's down the middle. One of the most impressive kicks I've seen. Indiana is toast, correct? Right? No, no, no. Grant Wilson, backup quarterback, seventh-year guy. Started at Fordham in 2020 in replacing injured-slash-very-ineffective Josh Hoover. Goes back and does what you got to do at Indiana in times of crisis. Just throw it deep to Charlie Becker. He'll make the play, and he does. Charlie Becker with one of his classic kind of twisting back shoulder sideline catches, 33 yards. They try one more pass. It takes a while. There's two seconds on the clock. Signetti, no hesitation. Field goal. Field goal. Sends out the field goal team. Doesn't send out his regular kicker. Sends out his backup kicker, Patty McAteer. Puts the holder, Neals, down there. Midfield. Same thing, other direction. And Patty McAteer has to make a 60-yarder to extend the game and potentially extend their playoff hopes. And he drills it. Never seen anything like it. Unbelievable. The level of clutchness from guys that we've all kind of poked fun at over the years. Ryan, what were your thoughts watching all that unfold? I still reckon with, like, is Indiana good or are they lucky? And last year they were both, you know. I mean, the inches in Penn State to the Iowa game, you know, like, they caught their breaks. But they were a really good football team. And now this year, I don't know. Like, I mean, the thing that's weird to me, too, was the whole SIG at the end of the game. Like, you would have thought, all right, use your timeouts, get some more time on the clock. I don't know if he was maybe afraid of, like, maybe PJ would have gone for it, you know, on that third or fourth down and would have tried to, like, you know, keep going at it instead of kicking the long field goal. You know, potentially, maybe that was kind of the thinking that he would take another, you know, shot kind of down the field to get a little bit closer for a field goal. I just never understood that. And then magically, he just kind of pulls it out of the hat. And I'm going to be very curious to see what he has to say. It's going to be an off week for them. Is Josh Hoover going to get healthy? Is this Grant Wilson show moving forward like that? That plays a lot into how you evaluate Indiana moving forward. Can they get that passing game to go along? Because I think this is a good football team. We know they play clean football, right? You know, they're not going to turn it over for the most part. You know, they're going to take care of the football. They're going to do what they need to do in terms of third downs and making sure that they're moving the chains. But at the same time, they've gone to overtime against Minnesota. They've gone to overtime against Michigan. And part of that is Cignetti, you know, kind of understanding what the task at hand is. You know, he doesn't want them to beat themselves. But like. At the same time, is this really a national title contender? I just don't know yet. I really don't. They have great pieces. They have two awesome wide receivers. I think the run game can even be better than it is, given the personnel that they have. The defense is starting to play a little bit better than they have at the beginning of the season. It took them a while, but they're kind of getting on the same page they were with Brian Haynes. Overall, you think, all right, in the Big Ten especially, I have them penciled in to win the Big Ten at this point. Because they're going to make it to Indianapolis, depending on what happens with UCLA and Ohio State down the stretch. You know what? That's a playoff team if you're making it to Indianapolis. But in terms of the actual threat from this Indiana team, you can see some flaws in this group. And this kind of looks like two years ago with the Hoosiers versus last year in the National Championship run. I mean, I thought Sig got bailed out by good old Patty McAteer because I don't know how you allow... The thing that doesn't seem to be discussed enough is by Sig not calling a timeout, he empowered P.J. to kick that field goal. If you call timeout and there's a minute left, there's a ton of risk in kicking the 60-yard field goal. Because if you miss, you're handing them great field position, it's one completion to Becker, and you lose the game. By letting it run down, you allowed P.J. with no real risk to trot out a 60-yard field goal kicker, and the guy drilled it. And then. Good old Patty McAteer, which I don't know how much you guys have read this guy's Indiana Hoosiers bio. He's from a town in Northern Ireland of 600 people. people. He first kicked an American football in April of 2024. And then two months later was on a plane to Ohio with a kicking coach named Tag Leader. I mean, and then. What, three months later, he was suiting up for Troy as the kickoff specialist? And then two years later, he's kicking a field goal for the tie to save Indiana's season at home. I mean, like, beyond storybook stuff that this guy just pulled out of his head. I believe I saw him say that he had never kicked a 60-yarder before, like in any contest. So, I mean, this is, it's everything you could have dreamed of. But yeah, I mean... Coach Cignetti is in God's good graces with the way that things seem to break for him. And he creates that luck with the way that he leads his team and manages the game. But, man, I think they dodged one in a serious way yesterday. And. I think the offense is close to unfixable at this point. The quarterback play feels really dark right now offensively. I have a hard time believing that in a couple weeks they're just going to be zipping RPOs like it's 2025. I just. It feels like if they're going to find their way to a deep playoff run, it's going to be, man, they won some 10-7s. They won some 13-7s. They won some 17-14s. They're going to have to be a souped-up Iowa to get this thing done. A souped-up Iowa. Good God. Um. Yeah, I said on Twitter after the game that they're one play away from being undefeated. And they're like four plays away from being four and four. There's just paper-thin margins in either direction. And they have gotten lucky. And I do think Sig got bailed out. I think he wanted them to kick the 60-yard field goal. I do. Because I thought there's no way they're going to make it and we'll have field position. But still, just to give yourself so little margin for error, you know, to run the clock down like that was astonishing. It's astonishing. But- I also feel like this is one of those teams. It's maybe a little like Florida State 2014 in basketball terms, you know, a team that wins the championship and is not the same team, but they're just kind of, they're getting by on grit and will and maybe a little good fortune. And all of a sudden they show back up at the final four the next year, you know, and you're not even sure how they got there. But that's kind of what this Indiana team reminds me of. The quarterback situation is serious. I don't know the extent of Hoover's injury. His confidence certainly does not seem good. They can't run consistently enough to just be a ground-and-pound team. They have elite wide receivers. My one problem with their passing game, they seem to want to throw downfield all the time. And I think with quarterbacks who are that inaccurate, you've got to shorten it up and give them some higher percentage throws. So we'll see. I think they will probably go under the hood and tinker a little bit during this off week, especially if Grant Wilson is going to be the guy. But, yeah, kicker from Ireland, seventh-year quarterback who started at Fordham. That's how they're sitting there in the middle of the playoff race. Unbelievable stuff, again, from Indiana. Speaking of the playoff race, I'm going to get this, and then I'm going to ask you guys, outside of Ohio State, what's the biggest question you've got for the committee? But let's hit what you would assume is the 12th seed in the playoff situation. Boise State kind of looked like they were going to be that team. And they're roaring up 28-3 on Texas State. You're like, okay, they're taking care of business. Yeah, that's a playoff team. That's your G6 team. All of a sudden, Texas State scores 36 straight points. And they go up two scores. And you're like, what on earth is happening on the blue turf? And then Boise pulls it back together with its backup quarterback and comes back and pulls the thing out 46-45. Brian, who the heck is the best G6 team? Well, if you, you know, log on to SI.com and check out my latest bowl projections, you'll see that it's UTSA. You know, I think right now the Roadrunners are probably the favorite in the American, given their schedule, given how difficult it is to play there at the Alamo Dome. You know, I think they've, you know, even in that their lone loss earlier in the year against Texas, like, I mean, that was, you know, a bit of a dogfight early in the season. And they were certainly overmatched talent-wise, but Jeff Traylor getting the maximum out of his team. And I think if they were certainly to make it to The American title game or even win the American, I think they might even get the edge over Boise at this point, just because, you know, like we were saying with Indiana and Ohio State, like now they are probably going to have a backup quarterback. I mean, Maddox Madsen, you know, you saw him at the end of the game. He had a wrap. He injured his knee. It was down on the turf for a long time. It had a giant wrap of ice on it. He was on crutches at the end of the game. So, like, all right. Now your veteran senior quarterback is out. What is this, Boise State? I do give credit to the backup. Like, he came in, and he was flinging passes. Now, a lot of that was necessitated by the score, but he was throwing the ball around. And I don't think Colorado State will put up much of a fight. But, like, you're going to have to play Oregon State and that explosive offense. Yes, they... The Beavers ended up losing to Fresno State this year to kind of take some sting out of that matchup. You're going to have some sort of flex game at the end of the year in terms of playing another Pac-12 team that you've already faced. So you're going to end up facing the team twice. You're going to face another team in the championship game. So you talk about the slate there for Boise State is going to be tough sledding. And maybe they can come through that. Maybe Madison Maxson comes back. We'll see what his ultimate injury status is. But this did not look like the clear favorite in the group of six. And like, if you're. If you're James Madison this week, man, you are really kicking yourself. Not only did you take that second loss, but everything kind of opened up for the Dukes to kind of get back into the mix and maybe make it back-to-back playoff appearances. But that's kind of out the window. And I think right now it's going to be kind of whoever wins the American has really gotten some nice wind in their sails. Memphis is looking better. They blew out Army this past week. I think UTSA is the favorite out of that league. North Texas, we saw them go up against Indiana. They were a little bit pesky. Maybe a half, three quarters. So I think if you're Tim Pernetti, the American commissioner, you're feeling really good about your chances at this point. Given the events of what we saw, not only in this Texas State game for Boise State, but kind of the rest of the group of six kind of saying, all right, you guys take this because nobody's really kind of standing up and saying, we're going to grab that playoff by the teeth. Yeah, I mean, JMU and Oregon State, two of the bigger losers of the week because the opportunity was right in front of them and they failed to take it. JMU especially. I mean, the mistakes were just disastrous to watch in the midweek game. I'm glad you mentioned North Texas, Brian. That was a good football team. Yep. Like, that was a... And... I think why I think back to that Indiana game in the opening opening night and they very much were like, how can we control the clock? How can we kind of bleed this thing down? And they managed to like move the football and They have completely changed an identity to now, like, Taven Jackson's slinging the rock. They're scoring 40-plus a night. That is a dynamic, dynamic offense, sort of in the mold of the old-school North Texas team. That is a program where, when they have been good, they have always scored a lot of points. Um, To me, they're the team that passes the eye test for me the most in the American. I mean, it feels very wide open in that league right now. And yeah, I mean, with the exception of Boise, I think you can say that a lot of the big spenders in the group of six have. Not quite met expectations, right? And that's a big part of it, right? South Florida coming into the year, spent a lot of money. They're just okay. You know. You know, Memphis is okay. Memphis is good. They're not great. They're a big spender in that league. You know, obviously Tulane under Will Hall. I mean, they needed some serious luck to make a bowl game at this point. Yeah, I mean, they barely beat Charlotte. That was very concerning. But that is a team that's spending a lot of money. Thank I think Washington State, that's a program you expect to be one of the better G6 teams. They're not very good. JMU has stubbed its toe. UNLV has stubbed its toe a few times. So, yeah, it is wide open for a team like UTSA you, or a team like North Texas to kind of come out of nowhere and steal that last playoff spot. But I do not think this is a year where we can aspire Tony. to a competitive G6 playoff game. Maybe the magic happens, but I don't view there being a... A particularly powerful G6 squad this year, particularly compared to last year's group, which I thought had a couple of strong contenders that just weren't good enough. Lobos, don't forget the Lobos, New Mexico, 7-1. That's true. They really struggled the last couple of weeks. Yeah, they really haven't beaten anybody. Their offense is not that good. They haven't scored more than 21 points in a long time. But, you know, they were probably living on turnovers, but they're still living. How about an Indiana, how about an Indiana, New Mexico playoff game? First to 10. I'm Bring it on. That would be fantastic and is not out of the question. starting But it does speak to the playoff seeding right this year. Like you, you almost do want that number five seat because you're going to get a very overmatched group of 16. to It's going to be a home game. You don't have to worry about the long layover. speak lay off in terms of, you know, spending a month off. You're going to be sharp. You know, you can probably be well-rested. You can rotate a lot of bodies in one of those games. now. Like, that is going to be the path, especially given, you know what, whoever is in that four seed is going to be disadvantaged in terms of geography, in terms of some of the bowls, in terms of the quarterfinals. Like, this is a big, big year if you can end up, like, you know, getting into that number five seed. Yeah, yeah. That's one of the interesting quirks of the playoff is five seed is not a bad way to go. But keep an eye circled on it. We'll watch the Lobos, but also November 14th, North Texas at UTSA. That game could have significance for sure. All right, so the committee is meeting like Sunday, Monday. They spit out the rankings on Tuesday. Outside of Ohio State, your biggest question, what are you most curious about what they're going to do? Kevin? Um, I'm most curious about... And this is probably cheating the question, but I'm most curious about the risers in the big 12 in the ACC, right? The teams that I think talent wise, most would agree they're a step below like the strong Big 10, Big 10 SEC teams. But like, what will they do with Wake Forest with Utah? Um... You know, I think Texas Tech would qualify. They haven't looked great. And then obviously trickling down at like, Where's Houston, and is that a win that people value, right? Like, the committee, this is the opportunity early for the committee to tip their cards a little bit because some of those teams might not lose again. Like, Wake might not lose again. And if you start Wake as a playoff team and they win all their games, it should be hard to take them out. So, to me, Wake is probably the most interesting team, but I think that storyline translates to a couple of the teams in the Big 12 as well and will tell us whether those leagues have a chance at multiple bids or will require some kind of conference championship game payoffs. And I think the question is, you know, that kind of quartet of ACC Big 12 teams versus the one loss or two loss SEC teams. How do they stack up? Because I think there's going to be quite a bit of debate this upcoming month, really, in terms of, all right, where does strength of schedule really come into play? You know what? That was a big talking point amongst the commissioners. I heard it a lot from people externally, especially in the SEC with the move to nine conference games. All right. So is a nine and three team really going to be, you know what? Is that a better team than, say, an 11-1 Wake Forest? That's what we're going to get a glimpse of in terms of the selection committee and how they kind of view that eye test. Because, you know what, where's Kentucky? Where's Alabama? Where's Tennessee, which is going to be a key team, I think, in these rankings? Because, you know what, when you look at the slate and you look at the resume from a lot of these teams, and they will be doing that at the end of the year. You know what? There's going to be a lot more top 25 wins than anything Utah can put on the table, than anything Wake Forest can put on the table. But at the same time, man, Utah looks really good right now. Like, they went into Cincinnati this past weekend. That was a bludgeoning. That was over by halftime, certainly by halftime. You know, they kind of like coasted in the second half, like scored in every possession offensively. They're playing well defensively. No special teams has come to play as well. So, like, they are a complete team. Have they been tested to the level that a Kentucky has, that an Alabama, that some of these other, Ole Miss is a great example. I'm going to be very curious to see how the committee treats Ole Miss in particular, because I think if anybody might have a case out there at 9-3, it might be Ole Miss, because they will have that win over LSU. I think the resume down the stretch could ultimately help them. We're the Tigers, too. Going into this massive game against Alabama. So like those, that pecking order in the SEC in particular, I think that to me is going to give me a good read in terms of ultimately what the committee's eye test is in that league. And then whether the resume will kind of come in and allow them to kind of filter it out by the end of the month. Yeah. I don't know about you guys, but I got my first talking point email from the SEC about our non-conference record. Uh, it's time it's lobbying time. It's campaigning time. And the fact is they did have the best non-conference, but it was such a small sample that it's, you know, a, that's the tricky part of this is how much can you translate, you know, like four good wins in September, early September to teams in November. But that's, that's what the committee's tasked to do. Uh, as for wake forest, I mean, I'm in love with what they're doing. They lost a competitive game to Miami. I wanted to say a quick thing about Miami, too, in a minute here. But they go to Louisville. They beat Louisville. Louisville's talented. And then they beat Stanford by 54. They beat North Carolina State on the road by 24. They beat Cal on the road by 34. And they beat Virginia by 44. They're not just winning. They're crushing teams. Those are not great teams, but they're crushing them. I think that's got to count for something. They're going to play Merrimack. Yeah, no one crushes these teams. Like, you know, my Miami's not crushing these teams. No. So that's my other question. I think we all agree Miami's number one. Good God. Their defense is scary as hell. They can't stop people. They nearly gave it up to Florida State. They nearly gave it up to North Carolina. Is that really the best we've got? I think it is. Which is part and parcel of why this season's been so fun and interesting. But my goodness, it's something out there, man. Thank you, man. I, I. Again, I do not envy the committee. And yes, the figuring out how to order the multi-loss SEC teams as opposed to the Utah, BYU, Wake Forest, Notre Dame group with zero or one losses is going to be... Really interesting, and the debate's going to be loud. And I mean, like, where's, where's UCLA too in this, like, you know, in terms of their resume, it's kind of popped up by one win over Oregon, I guess, against a backup quarterback. Like, and that's it for the Bruins resume. Like this is, this is Indiana of two years ago, right? That's, that's the, that's the conversation we're going to be having about the Bruins is all right. Are they really a good team? Yes. They're undefeated, but like, are, are, are they playoff caliber in terms of hosting a playoff game? Maybe getting one of those top four teams like that to me is going to be the interesting question for, uh, you know, the Bruins and the committee, like it wouldn't surprise me at all. If this ends up being one of those teams, that's like, you know, like the five or six gap in, you know, place gap in terms of where they're at in the AP poll versus where they're in the committee. This might be the one team where everybody's like, what, what? So I'm going to be curious what Tony Petitti and the Big Ten office have to say after that. Can I, can I predict an eight, nine game between UCLA and Wake Forest at the, uh, I mean, God, that's gotta be like the Friday night game of the playoff weekend, right? That one's getting sub-licensed. That's for sure. Yes. Played in front of tens of thousands of people and a TV audience of about 850,000. Yeah, sure. Great playoff game. Can't wait for the 16 versus 17 games. Those will be ratings killers for sure. I'm still sticking up for UCLA. You're in the Big Ten and you win all your games. That team should be a top four at this moment. Can they stay there? I know nothing. None of us know anything, which is part of the joy of this season, part of the fun of it. Another season is starting today. We're taping this Sunday morning. Basketball is being played in Rome. We've got a Pope Leo multi-team event going on. We've got Notre Dame and Villanova playing each other, women and men. Kevin, you have written voluminously previewing the season, so a couple questions for you here. Let's start with the mess. How many unresolved eligibility cases are there, and how much can this still affect the season? It's going to affect the season for sure. There's something like 40 or 50 different lawsuits, but most of the key players are consolidated into like three or four. There's a big one in Kentucky, a big one in Indiana, a big one in California, a big one in Texas. So I'm going to go ahead and get started. So I'm going to go ahead and get started. I have a tracker on SI.com if you want to look for it. 5 for 5 tracker. It's somewhere on the order of 50 or 60 high major players, like key guys, potential starters, potential stars in some cases, and their eligibility could ebb and flow by the week. We shall see. It seems like the Indiana guys are at least clear until the new year. The appeals process is going slow with that one. We have essentially created a large cat and mouse game where Uh, if you are currently eligible, your lawyer is fighting to slow the process down. And if you're current and the NCAA is trying to speed it up. And if you're currently ineligible, uh, you're fighting to speed it up. And the NCAA is like, yeah, we got all the time in the world. So yeah, it's been a, it's been a fun few months. This is the end of the lecture. We always wondered, you know, how, how the, uh, Betty Akko situation was going to affect Alabama seed multiply that by like 15 or 20. You know, that's going to be the case for the committee. You know, luckily they have all those extra spots, so it won't be a problem getting in or out of the bubble, but in terms of where they're actually seated, you know what, this could end up having a big impact there come March. Yeah. It is a 76 team field now. Oh boy. Hooray. Speaking of what the eligibility cases though, I'm sidetracking for a second, Tommy Castellanos. Castellanos. We were talking about him early in the season. They start Tommy C in Lubbock, and he comes through, came through. So that's a court victory. The ultimate emergency quarterback. The ultimate emergency quarterback. Ultimate. Throw him in there. He's just going to freelance you to a big victory. All right, Kevin, who's number one, and who's your final four at this point? Yeah, I've got, I've got Florida. Number one, um, a lot of familiar faces for folks. I mean, Thomas Howick, Alex Condon, uh, Ruben Chenier, the front court that won the national championship two years ago. They're still all there, which is remarkable in this era. Uh, and then they brought David and we'll, we'll see about their guards. They brought back Denzel Aberdeen, who was at Kentucky. He's a lawsuit guy. Uh, one of the many, uh, but he should help their guard play. They're like the safe choice. There's almost no world where Florida isn't elite. It's can somebody catch them? And the three teams I would highlight to catch them would be the rest of my final four. Duke, which has unfathomable amounts of talent like they're they are in like. 2015 Kentucky land of like, I don't know if they'll be as good as that, but like you look at their bench, like, oh yeah, there's like three NBA players coming off the bench for Duke this year. Great. And then I would say UConn and Illinois would be the other two that are most intriguing. Illinois, their offense should be phenomenal, especially once Stevan Merkovic is healthy. And UConn's got the best coach in the sport right now for my money and Dan Hurley. They've got Braylon Mullins back. They've got Demary, their point guard back. And they added some size in the portal that should help. So. Those four look strong. That's a boring Final Four if it is because we've seen a lot of those teams recently, but they all look like powers this year. Yeah, well, it won't work out that way. I mean, no disrespect to your picks, but that stuff doesn't happen. But it's just, I love college basketball, but it is so perplexing the way it just gets swallowed at the start of the season by football, and there's not really a good way to fix it. I try to pay attention, but they're having multi-team events in Vegas and in New York and wherever, and I'm not paying attention because I'm trying to watch football. And all of a sudden, it's Thanksgiving, and you're hoping, wait, let's watch Maui. That's always good. Oh, wait, no, Maui stinks now. So it's just a bit disconcerting. I will try to play catch-up in early December. But Kevin Sweeney, bookmark him on SI.com. He will be on top of all of it. All right, guys, let's close with our standards here. We will hand out the Heisman, the weekly Heisman, and then we will fire some people. Who wants to go first on the Heisman front? I mean, I was going to give it to Tommy C. I mean, that was an unbelievable rushing performance by him. He was flying around, saved Texas Tech's season against a really good Arizona team and a very good Arizona defense. That was impressive. But Tommy Castellano will not be getting any Heisman votes. But for one week, let's pat him on the back. The emergency quarterback strikes again. I'm going to go off the radar here. How about Tate Reynolds there for Clemson? And I would not expect to be saying this of a quarterback that went 18 of 32 for 189 yards. But when it came up big. Uh, 70, I think it was 79 yard run there to kind of close the game. And, uh, you know, his, his legs, uh, was the reason why Clemson was able to beat Florida state, uh, had, had 85 yards on the ground, uh, plus another touchdown. So I will give it to him for keeping Clemson out of the national spotlight for another week. Uh, you know, given the, all that has happened and there was, you know, planes flying over that, that game and at Doak and, uh, talk about Mike Norrell's job status throughout like Dabo was puffing his chest, you know, uh, in terms of that, that one. So, uh, you know, at least he, he was able to back it up, uh, in terms of getting a win there, not, not a whole lot of other, uh, candidates there, but, uh, I'll give it to Tate there for, uh, for at least, uh, pushing out that discourse about Clemson and the job status about Dabo Swinney another week. Yeah, yeah, Dabo went off on the plane, fire, fire Novell. They left the R out of Norvell. That was just a bad look. I mean, if you're going to fire somebody by an airplane, at least get the name right. And, yeah, that was red meat for Dabo. You know, Dabo, what's wrong with our society? He loves a good what's wrong with our society rant, and that gave him one. So we can't fire Mike Norvell, boy. I sure could if I were a Florida State fan or trustee. I would want to, but. Uh, we'll see about that. It's still very expensive to do so. Uh, I'm my Heisman. I'm going a little bit deep track as well. I'm going to, uh, by the way, a Clemson threw touchdown pass. Haven't done that in a long time. Multiple touchdown passes, multiple touchdown passes. They had two for the season and they threw two more. So good for them. I'm going with the quarterback, Max Cutforth the guy that came off the bench for Boise and saved their season. When they're down and Maddox Madsen gets hurt, he had not played this year, had not recorded any stats at least this year. Came in last year when Madsen was hurt, did pretty well, but he comes in cold, has not played. 8 of 13 for 131 and three touchdowns to lead the comeback. So Max Cutforth from Nampa, Idaho, right there by Boise. You get the Heisman for this week from me. All right, who are we firing? Let's see, Brian, who do you got? How about the defensive coordinators in that Oklahoma State-Iowa State game? That was a complete throwback to like a decade ago in the Big 12 where nobody played any defense. It seemed like every – I mean, there was – they showed a graphic on the broadcast. There were like five touchdowns of like more than 60 yards. And then literally they took the graphic down and another one of those plays ended up happening on just like a little straight little, you know, kind of run off to the side and he ends up taking it to the house right along the edge of the sidelines. That was a good old fashioned shootout. So like, and look, you know, Skylar Cassidy, the Oklahoma State coordinator, like, I mean, he's a really good coordinator. He's done a lot of job, good jobs turning around North Texas last year, Oklahoma State this year. But like, that was. Whatever you were throwing out there in terms of the calls and nothing worked. And, and it was just a, almost a comedy of errors. Like nobody was in the right place, took plays or were, were, were being pulled off with ease. Like it was, it was a crazy, crazy game. Like, you know, when, when it's bad, uh, when you can score the game winner, uh, you know, with under a minute left and then end up losing the game. So like, that's, that was, uh, you know, a defense optional, uh, shootout. It was fun to watch, kept getting my attention, even in that primetime window with Ohio State at USC and I. Miami was, you know, threatening to lose. You kind of thought the number one, number two teams, but man, they were just, it was a track meet there in Ames. And once again, Oklahoma State team with playoff hopes, they went to there to when they went there to Ames to die. So I just hope, hopefully everybody, you know, they're there that celebrated and rushed the field for Iowa State was properly hydrated after, you know, a big Halloween victory for them. I mean, I just, I. I can't believe how good Aiden Flora is. I mean, that was an unbelievable performance. He's had a couple of them this year. He is the best player in college football that no one talks about. So, good. Just chucking it out there. Maybe some poor coordinating on the Oklahoma State side, but he's a hard one to stop. My firing, I mean, Brett Venable seems totally lost. I mean, if your offense is going to be broken, that's fine. We'll fix it in the offseason. But we're giving up 42 points now at home. Like that is a team with a lot of quit factor right now at four and four. And with the schedule ahead with at Florida, Ole Miss, A&M, at Missouri, like is Oklahoma playing in a bowl game this year? And if they're not, what type of pressure is Brent Venables under and you're entering next year? Pretty significant. So that was a really bad performance. And I think wholesale changes are going to have to come this off season. It's not going to be as simple as, Oh, well we're getting rid of John Mateer and that's that. Great job giving him that contract extension, Oklahoma, in the offseason. It still boggles my mind. But, yeah, they get punked in South Carolina. The revival there is crazy. But the look for Oklahoma State is so bad. Or Oklahoma is so bad. It is really ugly. Also ugly, Lincoln, Nebraska. Matt Rhule, he's had many fireable offenses without getting fired. But this one, I mean, the ability to just blow games is... Off the friggin' charts at Nebraska right now. This is what happened against Washington there at home. It's a slog, as you might expect. It is 7-3, late fourth quarter, Nebraska leading. Washington goes on a long march. Credit to DeMond Williams, guy who's had a rough season. Leads them down 81 yards. They score to take a 10-7 lead. But, have no fear, there's a minute and a half left. Anthony Calandria, who you've just signed, you've announced, you're telling the world, we've signed him for next year already, a quarterback. Look out, world. Here we come with Anthony Calandria. He immediately throws a pick six. And all of a sudden, the game is over. You're down 10 with a minute 15 left. And you have found another way to lose a one-score game. Just the absolute epitome of everything that's happened under Matt Rule. They've lost three straight by a total of... 13 points, 3 to Indiana, 3 to Oregon, 7 to Washington. That program is going nowhere. So I'm firing Matt Rule. All right, that's it. You guys can fire us if you want, but we'll probably still be back next week. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Enjoy some basketball and enjoy some football before we see you again. Talk to you later.