It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day. Now here's Nick Coffee.
So I was looking at some of these Teddy Bridgewater highlights that are being shared all over social media by the UFL social media accounts because they are honoring Teddy tomorrow.
Just a reminder how special he was.
You know, I don't even know for sure where he ranks when it comes to like the record books and whatnot, but certainly a talented guy, no doubt about that. And there was just and there's other quarterbacks that Louisville has had where you could say the same thing, but with Teddy it was a little bit different. He just felt confident that he was gonna always come through for you, even if he had one leg like he did at times when he was playing injured, would always make it work.
Just a gamer, a guy that isn't the most vocal guy, at least not that I can remember. I mean, it wasn't as if he was, you know, he was silent, but he was a really good leader with the way he carried himself. And it was something to see, you know, a freshman that gets a chance to become your starter early on in the year because of an injury to will Stein, who, of course is now one of the
hottest OC's in college football at Oregon. But you know, Teddy became the leader of this team at an early age of this program and put together a hell of a run, and no doubt he's deserving to be honored here. He retired from the NFL last year. Nice coach in high school football, but it's gonna be nice to have him back there. And it is fitting that it's happening against Miami. You know, Teddy was going to be going
to Miami. He's from Miami, and there was a change made where they got rid of Randy Shannon, and that gave Charlie Strong and Clint Heard the opportunity to really sell what they're doing, what their vision is at Louisville,
and you know, Teddy, Teddy took a chance. I mean, he wasn't the highest rate quarterback in the country that year, but certainly a highly ranked guy, one of the higher ranked guys probably that Louisville had ever landed, especially considering that you know, they were coming off of a terrible stretch when the Crackthorpe era and you know, Charlie was just getting started. So you know, Teddy, he came to Louisville, you know before it was cool like Brom did back day,
and there was an obvious connection there. Why Brom, I mean beating Jeff and Brian came to Louisville because of you know, the the first family of louisvill football. Their father was a quarterback here many many years ago. You know that that's a big factor. And with Teddy, I guess his big factor. You know, the big, big thing for him was that he really did believe in what Charlie Strong and it was was selling it and it
paid off. But you know, you don't land guys like Lamar Jackson without the era that was Louisville football under Charlie Strong. And I have no problem with anybody who doesn't necessarily view it as the Charlie Strong era. Maybe you view it as the Teddy Bridgewater era. But either way, you know, Eddy made such an impact. It's such a
big time for Louisville. And you know, I've been in this space in some former fashion, meaning media coverage and whatnot before I got a chance to do radio, and even before I got a chance to make radio my full time career. You know, I covered the team, had my own website and whatnot, and I feel like, you know, that started around twenty ten. Whenever, whenever I first you know, decided to, you know, take take a leap of faith and try to you know, I never thought of a
turn into what it's turned into. But at that time I remember, you know, Teddy was like the first person that I remember writing about covering to where he was like a celebrity, like not just a good player that played for Louisville. And there's clearly a lot of Louisville fans and it's a passionate fan base, but like Teddy, he kind of had that larger than life feeling about him.
And it wasn't because he was super animated or he was a guy that had this humongous personality that she got to see, but he was a really lovable guy who you know, was a damn good player.
Kept to him.
I mean, he was pretty private, to be honest with you, but definitely a special era when Teddy was here. And it's nice not only that he's going to be here tomorrow to get his jersey honor, but also he's bringing some recruits with him. I mentioned this earlier in the show, but there are two elite recruits that play for Teddy Bridgewater at Miami Northwestern High School where he's now the head coach, that are going to be in tomorrow for the visit. So you know, I'm sure these are guys
that Miami would like to keep in their backyard. But maybe them being here and Teddy's influence, you know, maybe that could could help coach bram out. All right, it is our number three of the five o'clock hour as we get you set for the weekend coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven and nine. He'd been a busy show thus far. Obviously, this matchup with Louisville in Miami tomorrow, we haven't talked a ton
about it. I mean, it's certainly been a talking point here and there, But I'm to the point now where anything I just throw out there is probably something you've heard me say more than once throughout the week, because I think it's pretty clear Louisville, if they are the same team that we've seen all year, that can find themselves making crucial mistakes at the worst time. And to be fair, somebody called me out on this yesterday, and
you're probably right. I didn't go back and do a deep dive to see if you were correct or I was correct. But maybe it's not the amount of mistakes in certain games, it's about when they happen and how critical the timing is. I mean that certainly seemed like that against Virginia, where you'd get a silly penalty even if it's a good, bad call, whatever, if it's a guy reacting to somebody initially, or it's Chris Bell just making a boneheaded mistake and doing something you can't do
with the unsportsmanlike conduct. Those are things you never want to happen, but it seems as if they've been happening at the worst time and you never want to do it. But if you do it in a moment where like it's quite clear, hey, we're about to snap the ball or they're about to snap the ball and this is a big play, like you need to be focused, in disciplined and not do things like that. So the Notre Dame game is the one where I'm not going to
back down as far as the amount of mistakes. They made a ton of huge mistakes that you just can't make not only the players, but like even Jeff with some of his decisions on those fourth down calls. So it's not like I'm telling you this won't happen and that it's impossible. But six games in Louisville has an identity. They've been pretty consistent, if I'm being honest. It's not
like they're inconsistent. No, they're consistent. They show how good their offense can be at times, and their defense still is making timely plays. I mean, SMU got them pretty good, but other than that, the defense has been able to settle in. I wish they could start a little better than they have in these last few weeks. But either way, this team, it's not about ability, it's not about talent. It's about just, you know, being more disciplined and avoiding
critical mistakes that come in terrible times. And those are things that you would think are easy to fix, but they haven't fixed it yet. They didn't crumble enough last week to have a bad loss on the road a Virginia, but let's be real, they easily could have. Like it was right there. It wasn't like they won that game with a whole lot of cushion. So they need to be a different team than they've been all year in my opinion, to win this game against Miami. And yes,
that's possible. It's not like we're asking the bulk of the guys who see most of the reps to go out there and improve their individual ability substantially. I mean, you need the old line to really bring it because they're going to be in for a long day going up against that Miami front. But it's just about, you know,
avoiding the avoidable mistakes. And it's such a cliche, but like, you know, you got to think that the Miami's the kind of team that like, if you have if you lose the turnover battle, that's one of those things where you got to think, like, yeah, you do that against the top six team that's got a guy named Cambard at quarterback who's one of the best in the country, going to be potentially tough to really come back from that.
So it's not just that I you know, I know at times I've sounded as if like I just don't believe and they can't do it. No, it's not that
it's just I haven't seen it yet. Therefore it's hard for me to just tell you that I expect it to happen, it'd be a much different situation and now would be a little more pessimistic if I felt like they didn't have the ability to go do it and it was just based off of personnel and maybe learn that, right, maybe tomorrow is a day where you think, Okay, yeah, we thought we had some really good players, and they are pretty good to us, but this Miami team's just
different when it comes to talent. We'll see and usually one of the reasons why I hesitate to do, like, you know, keys of the Game kind of stuff, just is because you never know what's gonna happen in a game. I mean, sometimes these things play out not only results wise differently than any of us expected, but I mean, like scenarios, you just never know what's gonna happen in a football game. But from what we've seen of both teams, I mean for Louisville, again, avoiding the avoidable mistakes is
going to be crucial. But I think you really need to have some good balance offensively, and that starts up front, right. I mean, I think if Isaac Brown is able to you know, establish the run game pretty early, not maybe take one to the house, but at least you know, put you in second and third and short pretty frequently on your first couple of jobs, and you're moving the ball down the field when you've got good balance. That's
where Jeff can really shine as a play caller. So I getting, you know, the running game going as best you can. Giving Tyler shuck maybe I don't know, just a second more than he's been typically getting in the pocket like that could that could go a long way, And I'm not I don't. I don't worry about Louisville when it comes to the skill position players and their talent.
And to be honest with you, I've been hard on the offensive line because I do think it's safe to say that they probably are the weakness of this team. But it's not to a point where you're like, well, you know what, this offense has so many good players at you know, receiver, running back, tight end with Jamori Johnson. Your quarterback's good, but it doesn't matter because your O line is so bad. It's not that at all. It's just, you know, they're clearly not great, but you can scheme
around it. You can, and I hope that they do now on defense. I would imagine if you start the way you have in the last couple of games, that would be far from ideal because what you want here is to early on really establish that momentum, take advantage of your sold out crowd, do something to get them loud to where you could put Miami on their heels
and kind of see how they spawn. Now, technically, they have responded pretty well in the last two games they've had where they've had their back against the wall, but you got to think of maybe that runs out at some point, right, I mean, maybe maybe maybe they maybe they are eventually just due for a loss when they've
got to climb out of a hole. And if the defense, you know, does anything like they did against SMU, where they've got effortless drives in the first two first two possessions, I mean, that's that's a recipe for a disaster in my opinion, because you don't want to have to play from behind with this team and with the way your defense.
I mean, again, the defense has made some timely plays and they've settled in during games, but we also know that at any moment they could have a goof and give up a huge play and give up a score, So you know, I I think more than anything. And again, there's a lot of factors that are are are I think are important here for Louisville. But a good start,
I feel like is really really crucial. It doesn't mean that if they come out and they've got a bad start and they get down ten nothing that they can't bounce back and find a way to win. You really never know, but I just I would be you know, I think the recipe if there is one to pull off this win, I think a good start, maybe not maybe not a good start where you come out you're up fourteen to nothing or something like that because of
an early score and you capitalized on a turnover. I mean, I would that would be ideal.
That'd be great.
But I'm not saying you have to have that. I just you don't need to start where they come in and they're comfortable right out of the gate and the energy in the in the stadium is not what you want it to be where you can take advantage of a full house. But we've got you covered tomorrow. So again, nude kickoff, meaning our pregame show is going to start at eleven. The Louisville Football pregame show fors in about Pellow Windows and Doors of Central Kentucky and Jefferson Animal Hospital.
We'll go up until noon, rite at kickoff, and then as soon as it ends, we'll go live once again reacting to whatever it is that happens in the Louisville Football postgame show presented by Alex R. Whitelawyer's suit Distracted Driver dot Com. I was about to say Peow Windows and Doors, but no, they're the They're the sponsor for our our pregame show, and we appreciate all our sponsors that have helped make this coverage possible so far this
this season. We also talked about the Tony Bennett decision to retire, and I think, you know, what's happening here is really pretty simple, and it's another opportunity for me to say something I say probably too often. Both things can be true. Not everything has to be right or wrong. You're way off and I'm correct or completely to the left side or the right side, or I'm not even
talking politics, you know whatever, up down, whatever. But you can give him the benefit of the doubt that like, he's not a scumbag, because I think he's probably I mean, I don't think you get the reputation that Tony Binn has and it's all luck or you know, people who just are looking out for you. I think he probably is a pretty good dude, and he's just you know, he doesn't want, he doesn't have his mind's not in the right place anymore to do that job, given how much the job has changed.
So like that that's true.
But also, yeah, he clearly he put a plan in motion to where there was no option for Virginia other than the option that I mean, the only option they had was to give the job for this year to his top assistant. Sanchez. Is that his name?
I think I think that's it.
Maybe Ron Sanchez, Yeah.
Ron Sanchez. So you know a lot of coaches do that. That's not that uncommon. But what I find is that, like there's people who love Tony Bennett so much and think he's such a great guy. They think he's the best thing that ever happened to college basketball as as a dude that they like, they won't acknowledge that both those things are true. Yeah, he doesn't mean he's a terrible human being, and his his legacy, his legacy is going to be tarnished because of the timing of this move.
But yeah, like anybody claiming that this wasn't a timing thing to where he wanted to make sure his guy got an opportunity, you're you're naive, like you're lying to yourself. And I've said this, I feel like for years now, I mean relatively early in this new world of the
nil era in the portal. But I just have I'm losing, you know, I'm losing the ability to even stomach people giving pity to these coaches and being sad for them, as if their life is so hard, and I mean it's it's I mean, I know that what they do is not at all relatable to what most of us do. It's like I know that, but still, how about some awareness.
Not only do those that cover college basketball at the very top that are defending these coaches as if, oh my god, the NCAA's just got to fix it because all these legends they just can't do it anymore.
It's just too hard. I mean, it makes me sick.
I mean, just an ounce of self awareness as far as the over, like these coaches have the best situations in America, seemingly where they can work a job that pays them an insane amount of money and they can be awful at it and it doesn't have any impact on them creating potential generational wealth for themselves.
So like, I don't know about you or what you do.
Maybe you know, maybe you do have a job to where it's been the same thing for fifty years and then you retire. But things evolve over time, like life changes a lot. I mean, this job now, what I do is way different than it was when I first started, as far as just the digital aspect of it. I mean, things change. So yeah, we can acknowledge that, yes, this job. You're still coaching basketball, but it's different, and you're still coaching football, but it's different. These guys are not dudes
that you can, you know, just treat the way. And I don't mean that you were abusing them or that they were victims, but like, yeah, they're employees. They have options. If they don't like working for you, they'll go work for somebody else. And they have the power to do that now. And it makes it to where you've got to adjust. You've got to adapt to this new world. And if coaches don't want to do it, that's fine. But to paint it out there as if like, oh,
they're victims. It's it's hilarious to be honest with you, because it just reminds you that coaches don't realize, like them complaining about anything like is it just to me? It falls flat? I mean last week it was James
Franklin they were traveling. Did they go to UCLA last week or was it yeah, usc, I know they went to to LA And he was, you know, not being like a completely you know, he wouldn't be in a complete whiny you know what, but just really making it a point in his press conference to emphasize that they had to travel. They something about the airport in you know, where Penn State's located. It's obviously just a college town. They had to travel to like a different I don't know. Yeah,
here's what it was. The trip is so far from what they usually travel, meaning Penn State, that they had to go to a different airport to get like a different to get on a different plane than they typically take because of fuel, Like usually they can fly without needing to refuel on their plane, but they had to go to a different airport because now they're going to be making a much further trip, and you know, yeah,
that's probably something that that's different. But you know what, the Big ten has a lot more value from a from a financial standpoint because you are now on the West coast and like the fact that you have to add and you know, you had to go stay at a hotel and like, is Huntington Pennsylvania town? I feel like he said that, but I don't know if that's a real place, but there was somewhere in Pennsylvania they had to go travel to to get on the plane.
And he presented it as if like, you know, we're dealing with it.
I mean, it's it's it's I mean, it's you know, it's just something people need to keep in mind. Maybe we do make some some changes to the airport here in where where's pennsdas can drive me crazy? University Park, it's very town though, State College.
Yeah, it's the same thing.
Yeah.
So again, nobody's telling you that it's not different and that you aren't having to make some adjustments and adapt But man, welcome to the world. That's the world for just about everybody but you. And to present it as if it's some hardship, like with all due respect, go to hell?
Can you say that?
Can you tell somebody to respectfully go to hell? There's a lot of things you can say to people if you put the with respect on the front of it, or you say, hey, no disrespect, but like it's quite clear you're about to say something potentially disrespectful. But to go into hell, I don't even know.
If I can respectfully pushed to hell.
Like I'm in hell now, but but I'm here with somebody sending me down here with respect? Like does that help my does that that? Does that make my situation different? I don't know, yeah, something like that. But anyways, all right, we're going to talk about our picks coming up here in uh in just a couple of minutes. John and I are because there's a lot of really good games.
I will admit earlier this week I was looking at what was out there as far as uh, you know, big matchups, and I started to form some opinions on what I think is going to happen, and obviously that helps me make these wagers. But lately, in the last couple of days, I've just been so geared up for this Miami matchup, and I'm hoping Louisville can pull off a big victory. I'm not even that called that's right,
big game Bro. I'm not even gonna call it like a big upset, because I mean it would be an upset. They are underdogs, but like it's not like they got to go out here and knock off, you know, one of the best teams that we've ever seen in college football. They're knocking off a team that they beat last year. And yes they're different, they're better this year. But you're at home and you said it again, you saying big game, Brom. It gets me going, John, and not to make it weird,
but I'm just being honest with you. Big game Brom. That's what we need tomorrow, and I'm hoping that's what we get. Don't go anywhere. It's coffee and company. We are fuel about Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. I mentioned this earlier, but I would say that one of the reasons why you just don't seem to hear as many Kentucky fans talking about their matchup with Florida tomorrow is a couple of things. One, they're coming off a lost to Andy, so I think they may not
have a whole lot of confidence right now. But also they've got their Blue White game tonight, which it's the first Blue White game of the Mark Pope era, and clearly, just like Louisville fans, they're excited about this new era, and they're probably and I want to act like they've just shifted all their attention to basketball and they don't care about football anymore. Mean maybe that maybe that'll be the case if they whos tomorrow or something like that.
But one thing that I that I'm a little confused on, and I may I may have gotten an answer. You never know what's true on Twitter or whatnot. But the UK official I don't know if it's their IMG account, it's the UK Sports Network. They're reminding people that there will be no there'll be no games shown tonight on TV. So what they're gonna do is they're gonna have a radio broadcast that we'll call the Action and a live stream somewhere, but it's gonna feature guests, and it's gonna
preview this season. It's not actually gonna show anything from their Blue White scrimmage. And you know, just like the Louisville Live event not being televised, people get pissed and sometimes it's because they just choose not to televise these events different schools because they want to make sure that they have enough people that realize, if you want to see it, you got to show up. And the Louisville Live thing, if you remember it was, it was available
to watch after the fact. I don't and I don't. I never got and I don't care it didn't get. I didn't ask anybody U of L, as far as the spokesman, as to why they didn't televise it. But with UK, I just assumed that they were doing this because they weren't allowed to actually show it because of some kind of a rights thing. When I say rights, I mean, you know, the SEC network clearly owns the rights to anything as far as like SEC basketball and football.
But this is an intersquad scrimmage, so like maybe that doesn't count.
I don't know.
But anything that you're gonna put on radio or television that is a UK athletics event, it is owned by JMI. Just like with U of L it's lear field. So I don't I don't really know as to why they're not televising it, but I do know that there's a lot of Kentucky fans that are pissed, and if it's Mark Stoops, it's because again you That's why I said,
you never know what what to to believe. But you know, I'm looking at the responses here to this tweet that came from the UK Sports network that says, again for clarification, they'll be no there'll be no action, no game action shown. And then they mentioned they'll have a radio call in a live stream, but the stream that's live is only going to feature guests that are previewing the season, and you know there's a lot of upset, upset fans. This is a Twitter account that's cats by ninety tone deaf.
No one wants to listen to guests. This says, I'm always interested in the Blue White game. Extremely disappointed you have chosen to not televise it even delayed a lot of interested fans not capable of making the game for various reasons, and we're being left out. This says, imagine tweeting this knowing it was misleading that you'd have to tweet further clarification. Who is making these decisions? Such a bad look on the athletic department. This says, doubt it
was Mark Pope's decision. We all know it was Mitch. Guess the days of watching blue and White games in the past, with tickets being one hundred bucks for a scrimmage. I don't even know what that means. It doesn't even make a whole lot of sense. This is from this is a Twitter account that says, ky lady all in, what happened to this? This is our team? Mitch Barnhardt strikes again.
Lies.
I don't really care all that much about seeing the practice myself, but there seems like a pattern with him.
I'm ready for him to leave.
He ignores the common man, just like the politicians who promise and then lie. I could read all that. I guess it's the nil team, not the colonists.
I don't think Mark Pope could possibly have anything to do with it either, though.
So there was a tweet that said, but Pope didn't want and again it's just a random tweet. Maybe Matt said this on KSR. I don't know, but you know that Pope didn't want to show it because he didn't want to show any of what he's going to do offensively with this team this year, which, you know, whatever, it's his call. But I mean, I can see if that being like, you know, not having a reason as to why they're not going to televise, it is just
going to make people speculate and assume. And it does seem as if from what I've gathered on all these all these comments, everybody, there's many more people just blaming UK and Barnhart not necessarily blaming Mark Mark Pope. But this is an nil event, meaning that any ticket sold which they were expensive, were they really a hundred bucks?
Like that's the case for me.
For for a scrimmage where you're not even playing a different team, that seems insane.
Yeah, but again, like it is Kentucky.
If you tell if you tell them that you know, the reason we're paying this much is because we need to go pay to get good players and mean, like, as silly as it is and as much as it makes super passionate fans of their college team look like suckers, that is one way. Like if you throw up a big price and you and you in some way guilt your fans into thinking, well, we have to do this because if not, we won't be able to get good players. Enough of them will be worried that their team's gonna
snake and they'll pay whatever. Like I hate saying it because you know, clearly we're a college market, and I love college sports and I don't know what my life would be without it because I love it so much and it's clearly a part of what I do covering it.
But like we're suckers.
I mean when it comes to like being asked to pay a donation just to be able to buy season tickets to a game, and then being asked to pay the players whenever the schools, the universities themselves are bringing in boatloads of money every year with these revenue sharing agreements with the SEC and the Big Ten. Like, we love college sports so much, we're so passionate about it.
I don't mean just us here, I mean you know, across the country, they're clearly programs that have huge fan bases that are willing to pay whatever it takes, is whatever they can afford so their team can have, you know, money to go get players. I mean, it's just it's
put it this way. It shouldn't be on fans to do that, in my opinion, but we're in this position because of no real leadership with the NCAA and Congress stepping in to basically give us this big mess that is, Yeah, you know, you got to pay to get players, but technically it can't be paid for play. So we're gonna have this big mirage of collectives and name, image and likeness when it's all you know, it's all nonsense.
I've been doing.
Some extensive Google searching here and I can't seem to find what it would cost to get the tickets here.
All right, so club.
Blueenil dot com.
Let's see here.
Yeah, I mean, nothing that I can see is here you go Blue White basketball event. Let's see.
I'm gonna hit buy now, but I'm not buying.
Now.
What if somebody like did a deep dive on my internet search.
And they said Nick was looking at buying Kentucky basketball tickets, that son of a bitch.
We were right. He's a big blue guy.
He's a big blue guy.
Yeah.
So on ticket Master, the cheapest ticket is one hundred and twenty five dollars. With all due respect, that is insane. Now again, it's gonna make a lot of money even if you fill up the place halfway, But like, that's crazy.
Although I do wish they.
Would have some level of coverage because I would love to see because, to be honest with you, if they get close to filling this thing up to seventy percent capacity, if people are willing to pay that much money to go watch an inner squad scrimmage, that speaks to their fan base. Not that they need it. They are a passionate fan base that you know. There's a ton of them, and they're all over the planet, even on other planets.
I always say, would not be shocked if I end upon Mars or Pluto and I run into a Kentucky fan wearing blue gear and they'll walk up and say, Hey, Nick, big Kentucky fan, Like that's that's my life. It was on the beach in Mexico on my honeymoon, saw two of them, Like what I thought, I was a thought I was on a It was when I hadn't traveled a whole lot as an adult.
I was pretty young.
Now I've traveled all across the world here and there not, you know, all the time, but I've been many places, and I guarantee anywhere I've gone, I've seen a Kentucky fan and they're wearing blue and they want you to know their Kentucky fans. All right, let's start with you, John, what do you hot on for Saturdays slate for college football? We're gonna try our best to have both a good week here. I mean again, I can't control what you bet on. You don't want to control what I'm betting on.
So we'll see. Only time will tell.
But I'm curious to see which games you have some strong opinions on, strong enough to where you're gonna make a wager.
Yeah, so I'm gonna piggyback off a little bit of what Brian talked about. And I didn't mention this earlier in the week, but I'm really high on both of the Service Academy's Navy and Army. I'm gonna take them both to cover and both of them to hit the over in their games.
Okay, I like it.
There's clearly some momentum with the Service academies, and hey, betting on the if they're gonna be in a parlay, which I'm sure they are. Yes, you know you need others to help out, But like betting on the Army or the Navy and you're losing, like you still feel like, well, hey, it's okay, I'll do it again because you know, there are you know, going and playing football isn't exactly like you know, going and defending our country, but technically they are in the service. So it is fun to see
those teams having some success this year. Again, both are ranked for the first time in since nineteen sixty however long.
You know, the Army Navy game probably have a whole lot more juice this year.
Oh, no, doubt more than it's maybe, I mean maybe ever had no doubt. All Right, So I'm actually I'm gonna go and this is one that I it's been my gut pick all week, and I, like I typically do, I almost talk myself out of it, but I'm gonna stick with it. Tennessee has been a little bit of a mess this year when it comes to the you know, they just haven't been a prolific offense like they wanted
to be. They lit up North Carolina State, who sucks out loud, and then really since then, they've been not this high powered offense like you thought you'd have with Josh Heipel and his freshman quarterback who's a star. So you know, I get why they look like they're a little underwhelming despite still being the eleventh ranked team in the eleventh best team in the country. But Neiland's gonna be insane. The atmosphere is going to be unbelievable for Tennessee.
And I also in willing to acknowledge that Alabama is as vulnerable as they've ever been, and that speaks more than to how, you know, unvulnerable they were for a long time under Saban. But this is at Tennessee. Tennessee is three and a half point favorites. I think Tennessee can certainly cover three and a half as a dog, and I wouldn't be shocked if they win because they're gonna have momentum, and like this, this isn't Saban, and that doesn't mean that Bama's going to be terrible under
this new regime. But Bama lost to Vandy and then nearly lost the next week to South Carolina, So like they they got to look in the mirror. You know, you've played six games like everybody else, and yeah, you're still good.
You probably are gonna win.
But I think you know, them meeting Tennessee plus three and a half at home, I like it. I know they seem like a team you wouldn't want to trust a whole lot right now. But I think they're gonna be They're gonna be ready to play. The atmosphere is going to be crazy. And I think you have to say the same thing about Bama, like they're not a team that I think a lot of people would really trust right now.
It's weird.
There's a lot of SEC teams outside of Texas that I feel like are hard to trust, which is.
Yeah, Look, Georgia came back if you remember, and took the lead for one play, right If there's not that miraculous play from Bama to retake the lead and then end it, they would be coming off of. I mean again, you never know if one result would have let you know, if they lose to Bama, if they lose to Georgia, then you know, who knows. Maybe they end up not getting upset by Vandy. But Vandy took them punch for punch. It wasn't anything fluky, and that speaks more to Vandy
than anything else. But I think Tennessee plus three and a half here, I've been pretty solid on it for a while. I'll at least throughout the week, I'm sticking with it. What's your next one?
I like cal to bounce back in a big way against n C State this weekend. I know they've lost two in a row, one to Miami and then a very close one against Pittsburgh last week. But I think n C State, and You've mentioned this before, one of the most disappointing and underwhelming teams, not just in the ACC but college football in general. And I think cow will easily cover minus ten and a half or really, depending on what sportsbook you look at, could be nine
to ten, whatever may be. But I think they'll cover pretty easily.
I'm gonna go with a big ten matchup here, and it's a team that I just I don't think that they're even I mean, they're not terrible, but I don't think they're special in any way.
And that's Michigan.
I think Brett Bielama and Illinois getting also three and a half, just like Tennessee's getting with Bama.
I like this a lot. This one is in.
This one's at Illinois. Illinois under Brett Bilama, they've been a little bit unpredictable at times. They nearly lost to Purdue, and I think that's scared some people because they know they I think they probably put it on Cruise Control after they were just demolishing Purdue early on, and then you know, Purdue made a little bit of a run.
I'm not worry about that.
I think they knew that their big matchup was gonna be the home game against Michigan the following week. They were looking ahead to this one. Now it's here. I think they win this thing out right. I'm not gonna bet it. I'm gonna I'm not gonna parlay that. But as far as my pick with the parlay here, I'm gonna take Illinois plus three and a half.
Well, let me go ahead and take or tell you what I'm doing with Illinois money line because I mentioned that I'm gonna take this earlier this week to you, that's right here. But I'm gonna parlay that with Louisville money line.
With Big Game, Oh, Big Game Brom. He's putting his money where his mouth is. He's not just gassing up Big Game Brom, you know.
To appease me. He's he's believing. I like it.
That makes me feel even better, all right, last one for me before we get to our our last break here. And there's a few games that I'm I'm I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna bet on a lot of games that we're not gonna talk about right now, but as far as ones that I you know, I feel I feel pretty good about. There's I mean, whichever one I was gonna pick here to make my parlay, I'm not as confident in those as I am the first two
that I that I just mentioned. However, you know, oh man, I'm I'm torn because part of me wants to trust Cincinnati minus five and a half. But I can't bet on Sadurdfield because if I lose, I would sit here and think like, yeah, what are you doing, you idiot? So what I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna go You're.
Gonna bet Signetti not Saderfield, or maybe you're not.
No, that's one of them. Yeah, let's do that. Yeah, I'm gonna do that.
I'm gonna I'm gonna bet Signetti to to cover six and a half. That's what they That's what they're favorite, right, Yes, that's what it's favored. As Again, the other ones that I've already put in place were not parlays, just straight bets that I that I was doing earlier this week. I like I like Kansas State to to cover minus two and a half at West Virginia. I'm not touching the Kentucky Florida game.
You know.
I want touch the Louisville game. But again, I'm confident in Louisville. But yeah, I've got one more wacky one too, and maybe it's here.
It's wacky. It's because of the matchup. It's Washington State against Hawaii. They're hosting Hawaii and they're favored by MYUS eighteen and a half. That is a lot of points. But I think Hawaii is dog doodoose.
Those are fun games to bet on. To take care of business, good stuff. All right, speaking of taking care of business, real quick before we get to our next break, let's talk once again real quick. This is going to be your final reminder for me until it happens tomorrow. The Jefferson Animal Hospital of it is tomorrow. It is going to be a good time. It's the pints for palls and people event out there from ten am to
two pm. Bring your pet. They'll show you how they do pet blood pet blood donations where you know, I'm sure it's not something you've seen before. And if it is, then you know all about it and you're good to go. But if you are a little hesitant because you don't know what the process looks like when it comes to how they can draw blood from your pets and you know, make them pet pet blood donors, they'll be happy to show you and educate you on how it works. So again,
it's from ten to two tomorrow. They're going to have food available for everybody. Should be a good time, and it's for a great cause. It's going to help save lives anytime that someone donates blood. Anytime a pet donates blood, it can help save up to four to six lives. They're also going to have the option for you to donate blood with the American Red Cross if you want to. So again, the Jefferson Animal Hospital on outer Loop pints for Pauls and people tomorrow from ten am to two pm.
All right, we'll take our last break, come back here on the other side, wrap this thing up and get out of here for the weekend. That's right, we are wrapping up a Friday edition of Coffee and Company, putting the finishing touches here on another week on Sports Talk seven ninety. Don't forget tomorrow. We've got you covered for pregame and postgame, So I'm hoping that we get the postgame show started with a celebration.
It'd be a big deal.
And you know, I was talking to John during the break just kind of about wanting this game to just like I want it to happen now, so I can, you know, I can see where Louisville stands, see if they do, in fact make improvements and clean it up.
Right. It's not about you know.
Needing to be a new team as far as who you play and really what your strategy is.
I think it's just.
About avoiding some mistakes that I think, in my opinion, maybe I'm wrong, they appear.
To be pretty avoidable.
But here you are six games in and you still haven't really been able to put together a complete game that you can say, yeah, there were some mistakes because nobody's perfect, but overall, you know, we didn't beat ourselves in a major way. And you always have to give credit to your opponent because even if you are making mistakes that are avoidable, they're making you pay for them,
which is why they're beating you. So it's not like I'm saying Louisvells four and two and the teams that they lost to are are terrible and they didn't deserve to win. I mean, SMU came in here and just beat you, and you shouldn't have been that big of a mess off on defense when it comes to communication and whatnot. But either way, like they look good and that was a humbling experience. The Notre Dame one is the one that's like, how are you even in that game?
Given all the things you did to put yourself in that spot. So no better time than now to clean it up, play your best game of the season. If you've got your as you've got probably the best opponent on your schedule coming in and it would really really give you a chance to hit that backstretch of the season, the second half of the schedule, with momentum and with
belief and really a lot to accomplish. I mean, it's tough to think that, you know, I don't I don't know if they're going to end up being a team that really finds themselves with a chance to get to Charlotte. But you never know, right I think, you know, if you beat Miami, maybe that means somebody else can knock them down, and maybe you know, you can maybe Clemson,
maybe you. I mean, I don't know if it's gonna happen, but clearly, if you can beat Miami doesn't mean you're guaranteed to go on the road to Clemson and get it done, but.
You'd have to feel a little bit better about it.
And John, just as we wrap it up, I just want you to know, I don't have any I don't I don't have the copy for that, so I'm just gonna wing it.
That's totally fine.
Yeah, So real quick, before we get out of here, I will remind you about underdog fantasy. If you're not familiar, you should get familiar because it is a really really cool way to experience college football in the NFL. You can get involved in the game and make, you know, make wagers, but it's not necessarily you're you know, you're
not doing spreads or money lines. You're just you're just deciding if a player is going to either go higher or lower on a specific on a specific stat right, like, oh, were in receiving yards over in completions, that kind of stuff.
And you pick a handful of those things. You know, you make your picks, you put them together for a for a play and it's you know, it's like a parlay, right, if you've got this guy getting more than this many receptions and you've got this guy getting lower than this many you know, receiving yards, and you know you got three or four, you put them together and if they all come in, then you're you know, you're making money.
You're making a lot of money. And a lot of people made money last year who got in on the game with Underdog Fantasy. And right now they're going to give you an opportunity to really really cash in here because they're going to give you your first champions pick for free if you sign up and you use my code Nick seven ninety, So again it's code Nick seven ninety Underdog Fantasy. You can download their app or go to underdock Fantasy dot com. And I think you'll be
happy that you did. All right, that'll do it for us. Have a good week end, and you know, maybe a'll maybe you know, hopefully you turn end tomorrow if we're back tomorrow, so join us for pre and postgame coverage and figures crossed. I'm I'm ready, man, I'm excited for this game. And I'm a little nervous too, just because I'm well aware that like we got to see a team we haven't seen yet, and only Tom will tell if that ends up happening.
Have you go one everybody