Thank goodness TCU didn't know North Carolina's depth chart or they might have given them trouble
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Thank goodness TCU didn't know North Carolina's depth chart or they might have given them trouble
Most excited people about this result: 1. Mack Brown 2. Bob Kraft big gap 3. Tom Brady medium gap 4. NY Post headline writers
Stepped out for a bit but it looks like things are going well
We spent a lot of time saying things like "how's Bill gonna respond to having a South Alabama transfer instead of a legit NFL guy at QB?" but probably a better thing to focus on would have been not having genius defensive backs
I get what you're saying, but I don't think you can hire Bill Belichick and not act like a conference title within his tenure is a goal
wouldn't guess without knowing more about the NFL variable
I don't think the Bill thing at UNC will "work" (they won't win the ACC and he will be gone in 1-3 years) but it does look like it's "working" in the other way (sell tickets, get some donations in the door, juice the biz a bit)
I am currently drafting the team of a lifetime
hope you and erin enjoyed the heck out of it
I think the context of the comparison, which I just explained, is important. But I respect your right to be mad about this and to talk any degree of shit given the results of the weekend and I appreciate you
Losing games as a two-touchdown favorite is something Alabama never did under Saban and has done like four times in the last 10 months, is more what we were discussing
Obviously FSU is going to turn out to be a much better team than a fringe bowl NMSU team but (as discussed at more length in the show) it's still a game as two-TD favorites vs. a team coming off one of the most disastrous seasons ever. Plus the Vandy/OU/bowl games and an offseason of "we fixed it"
Bama's greatest indignity right now: losing the kind of game that their fans used to be able to make fun of Hugh Freeze for losing. @mattstahl97.bsky.social joins our latest www.splitzoneduo.com/p/covering-a...
priest holmes
worse now though with the SOS tilt toward the P2. i am fine with a mulligan, even two in select circumstances. three is a lot
It doesn't really matter but I don't find it appealing that Ohio State would literally have to go 7-4 to miss the dance now. There will not be anything even resembling a "playing for their season" spot for them until mid-December
6/10 of them played each other which means 6/10 of them had a pretty hard task for week 1
fuck off man
4. Miami There shouldn't be more than two losses there, but FSU is no longer an auto-win, so we'll see. 5. Notre Dame 6. Clemson But the unsatisfying thing is that I'd have all six of these teams better than even money to still make it.
Interesting thought exercise: Of the six teams that played in top-10 games this weekend, how do you rank them by likelihood to make the playoff? I'd probably go: 1. Ohio State (shoo-in already lol) 2. Texas (yeah) 3. LSU But it gets hard enough between ND, Clemson, and Miami that I have to 🤔
absolutely
Not knocking this out of hand but A&M gave up a million rushing yards to UTSA mere hours ago and Notre Dame just ran the ball fine (sack-adjusted, anyway) against a pretty nasty defensive front. Carr also likely to get better, not worse, or be replaced. Notre Dame should win that game at home
Meant to type "until tonight" before No. 1, but alas
Interesting Week 1 of CFB in these ways: 1. There wasn't a single classic P4 game that came down to a coin flip. A few last-gasp drives got stopped well short or with a bad INT, like Cincinnati vs. Nebraska. 2. Of the 10 P4-vs.-P4 games, only one (Utah over UCLA) was a blowout. Parity-ish.
The throw by Beck is so bad that the safety goes for the interception, which allows the receiver to make an incredible catch instead of possibly having his life ended
I feel like Beck would be facing civil liability for lifelong injuries to his WR if the safety decided to go for the big hit instead of the pick
Appreciate Miami losing all those wide receivers including an All-American and just being like "we are Miami, we're gonna go get some more good wide receivers"
Notre Dame and Miami should each get to nominate one set of podcasters to engage in full on Catholics v. Convicts culture war stuff without fear of social sanction
Also I love the idea that if they amended the SBA and the TV deals were suddenly a lot more valuable (let's say true, if the NFL is any indication), the excess funds would go to supporting Olympic sports. C'mon man
agree. you know the play and he doesn't!
This is a Never Played The Game thing for me, and I know that, but I look at run-blocking like this and I don't understand how anyone ever stops any gap run in which someone doesn't make a huge mistake
This QB counter for South Carolina's TD is football ASMR. The way every blocker clicks into his assignment like a magnet, and then the way the safety in the orange shirt flies past Sellers like a comet but doesn't actually hit him
Mario Cristobal making a good fourth-down decision in the first quarter of the first game of the year. Week 1 is full of possibility
the best podcast in the game is back
I bet he's not even affiliated with the financial services firm
We have to have laws about this
Just don't think Kyron Drones is really IT, unfortunately. That is an unhinged throw, and not in the cool gunslingin' way
*tequila water, Mr. Bologna!
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Did South Carolina's coach have some kind of connection to Virginia Tech?
Is Arch Manning good? I don't know. I don't care. Arch Manning is entertaining. @alexkirshner.com has the State Of Alabama Coaches Hot Seats Roundup, Puddles' head fell off, and more in your email inbox
yeah it's getting late
Utah defensive players (while playing offense) have more touchdowns this season than UCLA's whole team by a factor of infinity
Cade Klubnik with a Kenny Pickett-like exodus from the pocket there. I'm not sure if he had a real shot at the guy in the middle of the field but he definitely didn't when he vacated
that's so mean
The Clemson fans booing the refs right now are just not being honorable
Bookmarking this ridiculous overturn for narrative purposes if Brian Kelly gets fired in 10 weeks
Boy that is a bit of light robbery against LSU
i don't see that as a bad loss. sometimes you're on the business end of an all-time performance
It's unfair and sad that Brian Kelly's subordinates continue to look procedurally unprepared in season openers
i like the cut of your jib
I have also come around on how their fans go on the field after (get this) every win
Private equity will force Clemson to walk from the locker room to the hill btw
I'm actually an Ohio State fan
nah
ULM, the one A&M game with Calzada at QB, and maybe the South Carolina game. Just top of head.
Stephen Garcia, ULM, Zach Calzada?
Oklahoma was terrible
How many of Bama's 10 worst losses of the last 20 years have Kalen DeBoer accounted for in 1.1 seasons? Three, I think. Maybe three of the worst six.
also fact error
objection, relevance
we'll never know
A man who does not recognize the PHA's authority to regulate off-campus house parties
Bama stole FSU's rightful playoff spot in 2023, which probably pushed Saban's retirement to later in the winter, which probably contributed to Kalen DeBoer being the replacement,
a gorsuch worldview
nobody ordered from the columbia road popeyes at the rate we did
Did he get sawed off by this and somehow hit it on top of the monster to dead center?
I'm in the blogpound today w/ @jasonkirk.fyi, working on Until Saturday for @theathletic.com while I prep the SZD Hurry-Up. I love this. The sheer posting of it all. The uncovering of facts, things of that sort. We have not written together in many years www.nytimes.com/athletic/new...
Happy to have them! And you listening!
It does. And Arch is on the other side of that line, but I don't think Simpson really is. I mean Bama didn't have a sincere battle *last* year but certainly did in '23 (his second year in the building)
The thing about starting a QB who has gotten beaten out for the job multiple times is that it's awesome for the soft-focus preseason feature story mill ("the guy who stuck around!") but there is also, you know, a reason he didn't win the job before
not in week 2 but i would never tempt the gods by saying "no alabama will not run a guy out of there"
Talkin cash shit and backing it up is my favorite song.
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The playoff system is not fair to Alabama
Bama offense today is gonna be teach-tape for the concept of scripted drive vs. unscripted drive efficiency
The way to understand Cody Campbell is: 1) He is a billionaire trying to influence public policy to his own selfish ends (bad) 2) He is a billionaire using a chunk of his fortune to try to buy a conference championship and playoff berth for his favorite team (good) It's a duality-of-man deal
The greatest lede in sportswriting history, the NYT story that referred to his "date with a stripper named Destiny"
One thing I hope to see in my career covering college football is Alabama attempting to fire a coach by Jeremy Pruitt or Bryan Harsin-style means. We could see things planted in newspapers the likes of which we've never seen before
never enough, but more than most
I am totally onboard the Gus Bus in a job where 1) his team has money and 2) he doesn't have to spend a lot of time in living rooms and 3) can just call ball plays
picked them in this game too. i think an ohio state stepback year means "11-1 and they prob don't win the natty"
absolutely, just held texas to seven points
Nice subject-verb agreement, Alex
I would not victory lap these particular thing yet
Happy for Ohio State fans to see their team get back to No. 1 in the polls. Been a long time coming
Agree with this (but in the most progressive, not-ignoring-the-significance-of-this-moment way possible) bsky.app/profile/mnew...
you were doing this after eight minutes, bad process
Probably the only player in the country whose dad was briefly a college wide receiver. That's the family tie we're all talking about here
Arch will probably be great but you won't catch me scolding anyone for making a huge deal about this game. Nobody likes the kid in the corner of the classroom telling everyone else not to make a big deal out of the biggest Week 1 matchup ever
Really one of the most overplayed bits in media the past few years. "No, no, you don't understand, Cooper was a GREAT player. He's as much a football influence as Eli and Peyton" Stop that. You don't believe what you're saying
OK we finally see what all those commentators were getting at when they were like, "Arch really learned the game from Cooper, not his Hall of Fame uncles"
Arch is going to be such a great Steeler. This young man was bred in a lab to scratch out 16-10 wins in Baltimore
Also not really a tush push, as @rodger.bsky.social says. Just a sneak that didn't work
Texas really blew that with the tush push. Arch had a walk-in if he just went over right guard
Not necessarily. Count how many legit good QBs went into the portal after last season from P4 schools. You won't get to a high number
Kentucky is gonna have to hang on for its life to avoid losing a MAC game this month. Maybe as soon as a few hours from now
Not a good first half for Arch, but I think there's still hope for him. Probably transfers to Maryland next year, redshirts behind Malik Washington, and then leads the Terps to the playoff in '27 before the Steelers take him 9th overall in '28
luke fickell is currently doing that and i wish him luck
That back shoulder throw was delightful