It's time for coffee and company, Fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety Holy crap, I don't know who the hell we think when we.
Are get off our show, idiots, The kids are crying or turn a live cry.
The countries are screwing it up.
Gold Play Inner Murals, Brother, gold Play Inner Murals.
They're supposed to be mature adults, but they're really not. Who's the kid here?
Who's the kid here?
Are you kidding me? Now? Here's nick coffee?
All right, let's get it started.
Welcome in another beautiful day here in the wonderful city of Louisville, Kentucky, as we come to you live from downtown Louisville. Here at four Street live, our beautiful Fourth Street Live Studios. John, where's everybody at? I'm not sure I've ever seen the garage where we like, we're all of our iHeart employ coworkers, our colleagues, where we park, there's no like, there's nobody here.
Yeah, I don't know what it is.
Do you notice it?
Do?
Yeah?
I feel like this normally happens on Fridays, But I don't really know what the case is too.
So we've we had we have. I think he's still here. We've got a visitor here in in town. He is he's I mean, he's the higher up, he's he's the he's the brass, or at least part of the brass here at iHeart so yesterday there was a lot of people here. In fact, I got to meet him, good conversation. But I don't know, maybe they're out doing some kind of event, because it is unusual to see this place this empty.
Now.
I hope I didn't just make a mistake here, because you know, it could be that because we've got one of the the big wigs in town that you know, the bosses, those who do in fact oversee a lot of us rather it be programming, sales, whatever, promote. Like, maybe they're all out having like a big meeting meeting the bosses, and everybody else realized that, so they just got out of here. That's the case thing I just told on them. I just I just tattled, which is
not good. But anyways, there's something weird about being here when it doesn't feel like anybody else is here. I mean, we're not empty. Obviously, You've got the one and only Terry Miners down the hall. I'm not going to tell you what station he's on. You'll have to find it for yourself. Not that that would be hard to do, but you know, I'm not inviting you to go elsewhere. You need to stay here with us on Sports Talk
seven ninety. But outside of Terry and you know, his team that helps him put on his show, obviously Ian and our news team, Paul Miles, those guys, and then it's us, And I think that's about it.
The one the weirdest thing about working here sometimes is you never know what day of the week how many people are going to be in this building, and they can throw off the rhythm just because things can just like yesterday and today can be night and day. You'll have eight hundred people apparently like it seemed like yesterday to where you have maybe six or seven today.
And what's weird is that we don't during the show interact with anybody. No yet for some reason, like it does have somewhat of an impact on like the vibe around here, and you know, we make it work regardless. But and it's not that I don't enjoy being in an office where you know, there's a lot of people and it's lively and you know, you're doing the office thing right, small talk, you know, getting to know your coworkers, socializing, that kind of stuff, while also getting work done and
being productive. But when we're here and it's kind of empty, I kind of.
Like it that way.
There's no easy way to say that, because it sounds like I want everybody to never come in, But that's not what I mean.
I became full time here kind of in the midst of all the COVID stuff. Still, I was furloughed when I was part time that I came back full time, and it was at the time where a lot of people still weren't back in the office, who were still in the old building, and I just got used to nobody being around. And so that's really kind of all I've ever known.
True, And that makes me sad because it used to be a different world. I mean, and I'm sure most jobs are like this now, especially those that have like an office setting that kind of stuff. We used to have at least I don't know, fifty people at our building every day. Maybe that's a little bit of an exement. At one point it was that, but over the years it shifted a little bit. And then, of course with
the pandemic. It kind of just led to us abandoning that office and we've got a new office now, and you know, there's people that come into work, but it's more of a hybrid situation for really everybody involved. So anyways, it's beautiful. So for wherever my colleagues are, I hope they're enjoying themselves. I'm sure they're working hard and enjoying this beautiful, beautiful day that we have here in this
wonderful city of Louisville, Kentucky. It doesn't feel like it's late October because that warm weather's here, but it's certainly nice outside, and it looks as if the rain chances for tomorrow, I mean they're still there. But I checked the app that I have on my phone. That's the only as that's as interested as I am and really knowing what the forecast is going to be. I'm not tuning in. I'm not looking at all kinds of different options.
I'm just gonna pull out my phone and look at the app and it says now forty five percent, which I think two days ago was like eighty, So it's improving.
Hopefully.
Nobody's trying to scare families into not Trigg or treating tomorrow.
Well, I'm glad you said that, because you know, the internet's a wild place right now with this election coming up in less than a week, and it kind of blows my mind as far as what you see on different social media platforms and really how and again I don't follow politics closely. I'm not even sharing like a political comment here at least I don't think I am.
I'm sure people can take it whatever where they want and you know, react however they want, make whatever opinion you wanted me out of this, but I can't think of there ever being an election where we were this divided. But also, like I think the levels of being biased on both sides is alarming, but also nowhere it's insanely
higher than it's ever been. And what I mean is that like even you know, the left and the right, like I see both sides people that I know, people who you know, have millions of followers that clearly are you know, in that game, in that space, meaning they cover politics like it's so one sided on their side and it's just and I know that's always been there for the most part, but like we've never been this divided and Unfortunately, whoever wins, I don't think it's going to bring.
Us all together. I think it's just going to lead to you know, who knows what.
But something I'm more worried about the days after the election than actual election day.
Yeah, oh yeah, I mean, I mean, I think a lot of people are thinking, like, hey, cause again, what do I know? But there are some and I'm kind of in this group. I don't know how what percentage of the population this group represents, but they're going to vote. They have an opinion, but they realize that, like the grand scheme of things, their vote really isn't gonna change it.
They're one person. So it's more about like, hey, I know what I'm gonna do, but we'll sit back and see what happens and man from there, once we know who won, it's gonna be you know, because I mean, anyways, I didn't want to go there today, But what brought me there was you mentioning trying to scare people off from Halloween and trick or treating tomorrow, which isn't anything political.
However, yesterday I just.
Put the kids to bed, I'm sitting on the recliner and apparently one of the communities in Southern Indiana. I don't know which one it is. I guess put out some kind of a you know, the official Facebook page for I don't know, one of the southern Indiana communities. Maybe it's Clarksville, maybe it's New Albany, Jeffersonville. I really don't know, and I probably, I probably should have looked this up before I just started, you know, talking about it,
but I didn't plan to. But there were people like they're telling people to move, you know, to move their tricker treating time in that community. That's that that area from Thursday to Friday, from like six to eight pm. And you know, it was outrage. They're trying to control us. Sorry, my family trick or treats on Halloween.
Damn it.
I mean, like that's where we are. Like somebody saw that it's gonna rain, and you don't want kids to to be out in the rain, and it would be miserable for anybody to be trick or treating in the rain.
So somebody who has, you know, say so within this community, this area, they decided, well, let's let's move it back a day to encourage to let people know that we are gonna you know, observe time when it's nicer outside and you may not be able to hit as many houses, but like this will give us you know, this is encouraging people to put out candy when it's not wet outside. And it led to people just thinking, well, uh, now they're trying to control us again. Now they're trying to
change Halloween. I'll be damned if I'm gonna let them have any can like no, no matter what happens, rather
it be news, you know, a big event. There's a level of like thinking that somebody's trying to control you that I find fascinating, Like I actually I think it's entertaining, like not that that that, you know, because I don't really think people are trying to control you in a way that you know that others do, but like to see the reaction from some and as soon as like I know, as soon as I say, well, I'm not
really sure that they're worried about me. It's like the thing with the vaccine, like the chip, you know, like I would lean into that and like make fun of it because yeah, yeah I got my chip, I got my booster chip. Like just because people would think that they're planning a chip inside of you, and I just think that's funny that that's that's what people think. But even if they were, I mean, anyway.
We all have a chip in our hands into our cell phone. Yeah, like it's.
What's the different?
Well said, that's a good point. But anyways, we are six days away, is that right? It's next Tuesday?
Isn't it?
Tuesday?
The election?
So Chris glad we have plenty of alternatives that night too, though, instead of elections.
Oh yeah, absolutely, You've got obviously, the the Champions Classic.
You've got the.
First look at the college football playoff rankings, and I can tell you this, that's where I will be spending my time. I'm going to be watching the rankings and watching some good college basketball matchups, and I'll be keeping up. I mean, I'm not gonna lie and I act like you know, I'll wake up the next day and just then then I'll find out, Like I mean, it's gonna be. It's got to be one of the most anticipated elections ever, right, I mean it's always last.
Two or three have progressively gotten more and more contentious, but.
This one's next level, right. I don't know.
For me personally, I feel like I've done a really good job at tuning out a lot of the nonsense this time around. That wasn't the case with the previous two elections. I just I'm just fed up with the people who can't control, whether you're talking about earlier, people who just don't act like human beings on whether it be in real life or social media, any of that stuff. It's just not worth taking the time to look at it.
I feel well, And I mean, we've never been in a period where I don't know what to believe, Like I mean, I don't know what's real, what's not. I don't know what video clip that is shared as doctored, Like I saw two different clips of what Biden said about Trump's supporters being trash, and like I wouldn't mean, I don't know if it's AI, I don't know if
it's just edited. I don't know what it is, but like it looked real to me, And I watched two different versions of it, and I would have easily believed that both were legit, and clearly there's not. It wasn't as if it was. I mean one of them was. Doctor not sure which one it was, you know what I mean, Like it's just where we are. So it's a good time, though, because when you've got college football going on, the NFL's going on, obviously, the NBA has
already started. College basketball actually starts right as the election day. It actually strets the day before election day, next next Monday. Yeah, so you know, that's a nice distraction. But I will be more interested to see what happens, not only on election Day, election night, what happens after the fact. I'm more interested in that than I've ever been. And it's not because you know, I'm a concerned American citizen about our future.
I mean, I would like to lie.
I could lie to you and tell you that that's why, But I mean, I feel like I have no real control over it. So I'm just gonna sit back and watch and what happened. Yeah, Now, I do feel like you know, I mean I have, I have probably stronger opinions on who I'm voting for than I've ever had, but I'm not going to share them here because what good would that do?
What? You know what?
Uh, the only thing that could do is hurt me. So anyways, twelve minutes in, let's let's let's move on from the election. Maybe maybe we'll get back in it later. I know John's really itching to share his thoughts on uh on what's gonna happen next Tuesday?
A kid, I mean, he might be, but we don't.
Well, show on Tuesday is actually going to be debating.
You and me.
Yeah, we were gonna we were gonna let you guys know that yesterday, but we forgot, as you know, but six days out.
Just be ready from three to.
Six pm next Tuesday, it'll be nothing but wall to wall election coverage analysis. Call in, tell us how much you hate Kamala Harris, tell us how much you hate Trump and wet we only we don't want you talking about why you're gonna vote for this person and why it's a good thing. We just want to hear how much you hate the other side that because that's what we want. That's what we make good radios. So you know that's what we'll do. Looking forward to it next
next Tuesday. All right, it's coffee and company. That's us, fueled by Thornton's.
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com and you can also just download the app. That's the easiest way to do it, all right, Coming up here at three fifteen, we are gonna be joined by mister David Hale of ESPN. He's going to join us to talk about the matchup on Saturday night, Louisville and Clemson. And this team's done it again, they have they've never lost me. But it's been a wild ride. And again, I still think the best word to use here when
describing Louisville football in twenty twenty four. From a fans' perspective, it's frustrating because you know, there's a reason the computers, the analytics love this team. Well I shouldn't say love them, but they like them a lot better than you know the record does. And you are what your record indicates. The computers don't matter. The computers can't win for you.
But this team is actually shown to be you know, I hate to say it because it's what losers say, but I'll say it better than their record indicates, because they've been in games with some good teams. Remember all that nonsense everybody was yelling about before the season started, Well, a little of it doesn't play anybody. Their schedules weak. I mean, they'll probably walk into the playoff with that schedule,
all that loud mouth nonsense. Louill's schedule is stronger than most people realize, at least as of right now.
That could change.
But like Louisville has three losses, and all of their losses are against teams that are ranked that will probably end up being ranked for you know, I mean easily SMU could fall if they dropped a pit which that's who they're playing this weekend, which is actually a sneaky
good acc game. So, you know, Louisville, I still have always believed this team has the ability to be better than they've been, but you're getting late in the year to where you really don't know, you know, you really don't know if they're ever going to turn it on. And what I don't know is this desperation for me. Am I desperate here to you know, just try to find something to grasp onto as a positive and carry
it into the game Saturday. So I'm at least excited about it because I'm excited, and it's not that I've got a ton of confidence. It's more just about seeing all right, gut check time. Man, these guys came back from twenty nothing. Twenty to nothing was the score in the first half. They came back and won dominated the rest of the way. And it wasn't just the fact
that they were able to overcome that adversity. It's also that they I mean, they started carrying themselves a little bit different and the defense probably looked better than it did at any point this year as far as consistently. Right after Boston College scored in the third quarter, from then on, they were dominant and I'm hoping that that can carry over to Clemson. Obviously a big jump up
in competition from Boston College to Clemson. But again, for me, it's never been about does Louisville have the ability do they have good enough players? It's more so just been about can they put it all together? And look, they may put it all together and still come up short because they are playing Clemson at their place. But I'm as excited for this game as I have been for really any game this year. I mean that because what we sough at the end of Boston College like that
was something like that was. I mean again, you can claim, well, hey, Nick, you're you're an idiot. That doesn't mean anything. Look who they played, and maybe you're right, like maybe they'll get humbled in a major way and get beat down at Death Valley, like that's a real possibility. But it was inspiring football. They weren't, you know, they looked sure of themselves for the first time really since they played the
lousy teams earlier this year. So again, I'm sure it sounds like some desperation on my end, just because I want to be excited and pumped up for a big game. It is a chance to knock off a really good team at their play, something you've never done before winning at Clemson. So we'll talk about the matchup coming up here in about ten minutes or so. When we were joined by David Hale of ESPN, Looking forward to to catching up with him also some of the things we'll
get into today. If you're a Kentucky fan listening and you you know you were a little worried early on last night, maybe you feel a little differently about this team compared to what you know, compared to what you felt last time around. I mean, I mean when I say last time around, obviously they had an exhibition game where they won by a billion in their first game against Westland, and last night they won pretty big. But you know I could, I could. I could sense it
from just the time line on Twitter. Some Kentucky fans that I know, like you're seeing one or two plays where Minnesota State gets an offensive rebound and scores on you, or they're out rebounding you with like four minutes left in the first half, and like it puts you in panic mode because you're thinking, like, oh, what's gonna happen. When we'd play Duke and I'm here to tell you take my advice. And this is me being nice. This is me putting the rivalry aside and being nice and
giving I think, valuable advice to Kentucky fans. Don't don't don't get too high too low about anything that happens in these games, because I did the same thing, like I didn't bring it to the airwaves because it you know, I quickly realized like there's no way to really know if this means anything or not good or bad that's
going on in these exhibition games. But you know, I kind of felt like at times whenever I would watch Spalding get an offensive rebound or Spalding go on a five zero run, and again, it doesn't mean it's it's impossible to know if that really means anything at all.
But because you know that you have expectations for your team and you know the opponent you're playing is not good and clearly Minnesota State's a good D two team, but like if a D two, if a D two team can can be competitive with you in segments of a game, you start to worry, like, geez, what's Cooper Flagg gonna do? So you know, it was nice to see him sweat a little bit last night. But we'll find out where Kentucky is in six days because that and again, they could get blown out and still be
good because Duke may just be that special. But I know there's many of them watching last night that you know, realize, Hey, this team could be good. There could be They're gonna be fun to watch. I'm sure if you're a Kentucky fan and they're gonna be good enough to probably make the tournament, I would assume that'd be a real surprise
if they If they aren't, at least from my perspective. However, this is not a team that has a ceiling that you can rely on like you did for a over a decade with Cal.
Cal could have.
Teams that were not very good, underwhelming, had some bad losses, but you always knew in any moment they could turn it on because they had dudes, they're gonna play in the NBA. I don't know if there's an NBA guy on this Kentucky team. I mean, I'm sure there's somebody or maybe two guys, maybe three that'll end up playing in the NBA, but not to the point where you're gonna be drafted, where Reed Shepherd was, where Rob Dillingham was, because that's just not how Pope's gonna build the roster.
And to be fair, ninety eight percent of college basketball coaches are not gonna build the rosters the way John Caliperry does. It's just a big difference. So anyways, we can talk a little bit about that. Also some other things. We need to get into that ACC tiebreaker because there's a real chance that you could see three is it
three unbeaten teams? Yeah, because Clemson and Florida State don't play each other, SMU Clemson and SMU Clemson in Miami, and I say Florida State, they could all be unbeaten at the end of the year. In fact, that may be the expected outcome. And if that or Pitt, because Pitt's unbeaten too, Pitt and SMU play each other. So let's say, you know what it's going to come down to is how good your opponents did, which I've got
one big takeaway. If that plays out to where you decide who gets to go to the ACC Championship game based off of the opponents you played in league play, how well they were, how good they were, that's a flawed way to do it.
I mean, that.
Sucks if you get left out on that type of technicality. So we're loaded the rest of the way. Hopefully you guys will stick with us. We're gonna take you up till six o'clock again. On the other side, we'll talk to David Halo ESPN to preview this Louisville Clemson matchup on Saturday.
Stick with us, it's coffee and company.
Feel about Thorton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. I've gone from being annoyed by the correction police to really needing the correction police. And what I mean by the correction police. You know it used to be phone lines lit. Because I mentioned so and so had eighteen points last night. What's this dumb ass talking about? He had seventeen points? You know, that's the correction police when they're annoying. But then sometimes they correct me and I'm like, wow,
I'm glad you told me. I've been on the impression that next Tuesday was the Champions Classic, the big tip off of him for college hoops, and it's not. It's actually a week from Tuesday, which makes sense. I mean, that's a TV event. It usually doesn't fill up those NBA arenas where it takes place, so it makes total sense to move it on a non election I'd see you get a lot more viewers.
But thank you those that corrected.
Us on that. You know, I think I might have just turned on ESPN whenever when everybody else is watching election coverage and realize where's the basketball game?
So I thought the same thing too, because it's always corresponds with the playoff rankings that we talk about.
Yeah, and that's typically what they've done is it's been the same thing. You get your first look at the playoff rankings and then they play, you know, some big time matchups in college hoops at the earliest point of the season. So anyways, it's not next week, it's the week after that. So I assume many of you knew that, and you know I'm the dumb ass here, But if you were a dumb ass because of me, now we are informed and we now know the schedule. So sorry
about that. All right, it's Coffee and Company, that's us fuel. Beuth Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety. Let's bring him in to join us. Mister David Hale of ESPN, we're talking some college football, Louisville and Clemson, a big matchup. Well, I'll ask you this is this the second biggest matchup of the weekend in the ACC. I would imagine SMU and Pitt. I mean not big brands by any means, but two teams that are off
to good starts. Are we second place here between the Cards and the Tigers?
First off, let me go back to your correction here, because I just want to point out, isn't it fascinating that somebody in college sports said, hey, maybe we shouldn't go head to head with the election, but yet the.
Rankings reveal they didn't care about that. They said, I what election, Let's let's go ahead and put that out there.
Oh college football. College football moves the needle man. They just I mean, in fact, I'm surprised they didn't just move the election back knowing that they're going to give us the college football playoff rankings.
That's a great point. That's a great point. There's gonna be so much outrage one Tuesday night. It just it's hard to believe it. Uh.
To the answer your ladder question, Uh yeah, I mean I.
Sm Pitt is probably just because of the way that that things have shaken out the bigger game, I guess uh and in some respects that it might be a little bit of an elimination game from ACC Championship.
Given sort of where we're at in the standings, I would.
Argue the two more talented teams are gonna be the ones playing at Clemson at Death Valley. And I know Louisville's got three losses, but that's still to me a really good football team. I mean, those three losses are all to very good teams by a touchdown or less. You know, Louisville has has traditionally played Clemson very close in Death Valley. They haven't won a lot of them, have won any of them, but they've been good games.
I still have some real questions about this Clemson team, not because I don't think that they're markedly better than they were last year.
They they pretty clearly are.
But you know, their schedule as opposed to Louisville has been a breeze. I think if you flip flop their schedules, I'm not sure how much different things would be for Clemson than they are for Louisville right now, and vice versa. So you know to me, I it's maybe the more intriguing matchup between two genuinely good teams.
I think, yeah, you might have actually just answered my next question, which was is Louisville the best team Clemson's played since Georgia? I mean, I think it certainly looks like that, and that speaks more so too. I think just their schedule as of now more so than than Louisville. But again, louis has been a weird team this year. Man, Like, I still think they're pretty damn good, but their record
doesn't really indicate that. And your record really is how people are going to evaluate if you're good, if you're bad. But you know, with Clemson, what's made them better than they were a year ago?
Is it?
You know, a variety of things? Is it Kate Klubnick taking a big step forward? Because I was actually asking myself this yesterday looking at what they've done this year. However many games in they are compared to last year. I mean, I think they're better too, but I'm starting
to think, like, Okay, how much better are they? Is this more of just a product than taking advantage of that slate in the schedule, or are they really, like I mean, I guess to wrap it up, I mean, isn't this a big chance for Clemson to maybe show that they are a lot better than a year ago. It sounds like I'm giving Love a little little too
much credit. They're playing a team with three losses that's unranked, But I kind of feel like this is a this is a measuring stick game for for both teams at this point.
No, I think you're entirely right.
And you know, talking to Dabo Sweeney this week, I mean, he said, hands down, this is the best challenge they've had since Georgia, and particularly with the first playoff rankings coming a couple of days after this game, I think it is a really important moment for Clemson to make a statement against a better team.
And look, at the end of the day, I think.
Everybody, you are who you are, you are who your record says you are.
That that is I believe that wholeheartedly.
But the committee and probably a lot of us now do spend a lot more time on the advanced metrics and dig into some of the nitty gritty details beyond just your win loss record. And Clemson has not played. Take this metric for what you will, but at ESPN's FBI ranking. Clemson has not played since Georgia a team that is ranked better than seventieth. Louisville, for better or worse,
is still ranked nineteenth in that metric right now. So this is a real you know, if you're diving into the dirty details, this is a really big game for Clemson before these first rankings to say that no, this isn't just a product of the schedule, that we're good, We're actually good, and to answer why you know again, I think there is probably a lot of different reasons. Matt Luke and a new look offensive line has been a big part of that.
The offensive line is playing much much better football.
But you also have to ask, like, are they better because they haven't played a great pass rush yet. To me, the key for Louisville is making kid Club to come uncomfortable in the pocket.
The receivers are better Clemson this year, without question.
They've got two freshmen that they've used a little more sparingly than maybe some of us have thought, but they've used them wisely. Antonio Williams is healthy.
It was not last year. There's just weapons for Kate Klebnick to throw to, and he has gotten better too.
I mean, I'm kind of working on a story now. I just talked to Kate today for a while about just how rare it is for quarterbacks at high profile schools to be given an opportunity to develop like that first year is a starter as a whirlwind. And he had his moments last year, but he had some really bad ones too that he needed time to learn from.
And you kind of you look at Tennessee and what Nico I am?
I am male Lea, I'll get it. Never mind Nico at Sennessee, Jackson at Jackson, Arnold at Oklahoma, Like, these guys are not without talent, but they're going through growing pains.
And we really, in this era of the transfer portal do not allow quarterbacks to go through growing pains very often anymore.
And Kate is probably one of the few that I think has come out the other side a better, better quarterback and better place for it.
David hal VESPN is our guest joining us here talking about the subcoming matchup between Clemson and Louisville, obviously a big game for both programs. Davila Sweeney talked very highly of Louisville earlier this week in his press conference. You mentioned you chatted with him as well of and I'm sure there's many things he's really going to be focusing on as far as scheme and trying to take some things away from Louisville, things that he's going to try
to exploit. What would you say could be the real danger for Clemson if anything? I mean, what about Louisville? Do you think could it like if we if it ends up being Louisville's first ever victory and death Valley again, there'll be a multiple factors that led them there. But what would you think would be the big takeaway as can you kind of to predict the future here? Something that could really potentially give them some problems?
Yeah, I think there's two things. One is just Jeff Brahm as a play caller and an offensive mind, Like they will they do so much in terms of movements and pre snap and then getting Tyler Schuck out of the pocket and footing him and then moving in the other running the play in the other in direction, Like there's so much eye candy with what they want to do off defensively, and Clemson's defense has been good this year, but as several other guys said, this week, they've been
a little boom or bust. They've given up I think twenty more explosives this year at this time than they had last year at this time. And so that's just because the backups have played more than they did last year. But their their eye discipline has not always been great this year and Louisville is a team that will absolutely take advantage of that. And then on the flip side, you look at at at Kate Klubnick. Again, he's had a lot of success, but he's had a very comfortable
pocket more often than not. And the and the I think the knock on Cade particularly last year was that when you sped up the game and you sped up his decision making, he was prone to make mistakes. Well, I think Louisville is the team that is willing to go, you know, cover zero and put their their corners on an island and really try to get after the quarterback,
probably as much as anybody they've played since Georgia. And so I think a lot of the pressure is going to be on that Louisville defensive line to make stuff happened when they're they're not blitzing. But I do think that that Louisville could afford to be aggressive and see what will happen. Like if you can make kid club Nick uncomfortable and push him into a mistake, I think
that's how you beat them. So to me, it's it's you know, a little bit of the misdirection and eye candy on offense, and without question, I think the defensive line has to play their best game of the year.
Do you think Louisville is not capitalizing on a really good quarterback they only have for one year. I'm not hearing anybody say that Tyler Schuck isn't good, but you know, Louisville not being a real contender at this point in the ACC race I think has kind of led to him. And it actually I feel like I was about to tell a fib and say that like he's flying under the radar. But it's not like people are saying he's not any good. But you know, around here, I feel
like he's the best. I mean, I think a lot of fans agree he's the best quarterback louis has had since Lamar Jackson, and you know that that's probably saying more about who they've had since then. But I think fans around here feel like they've got a really good offense with some really good weapons, and to have three losses at the point, again, they are they're all the good they're all the good teams. It's just, you know,
if Louisville doesn't have a special season. And I guess how you define special really is in the eye of the beholder, but I don't know. That's what's been so frustrating from the Louisville side of things is that they've made some real critical mistakes, in fact, a lot of critical mistakes at terrible times in these games. And you know, that's that's part of your identity at this point, you played in a football to where you got to look
in the mirror. But again, this team should be better than they are.
Yeah, it's been frustrating because there are I mean, even in the losses against you know, Notre Dame is a great example of like, there were so many opportunities there that that were not taken advantage of. And to me, this is a really good football team that has at this point not played four quarters of complimentary football at
any real point. You know, the loss to Miami, you know, I thought Miami was probably the better team, but Louisville hung with a really good football team and a really good offense by playing some great offense too, Tyler Shuck has been terrific to your point, I, you know, and and I think you have to look no further than another team in the ACC in Florida State to realize, like, you don't get great transfer quarterbacks all the time, and even when you think you went out and got a
decent one, it doesn't always work. So like this has been a home run for Louisville in terms of the quarterback, and then you're pairing him with a freshman running back who is probably as good as almost anybody in the country right now, and you've lost those opportunities. And it's funny, you know. I've talked to a couple of coaches like, just you know, how good are some of these teams that are playing well in the ACC right now. SMU is to me a really good sort of counterpoint to Louisville,
and that there's good offensive weapons. I would argue Louisville's had better quarterback play, but the breaks have largely gone SMU's way. They've gotten takeaways when they've needed them, they've made the big play when they needed to, they've converted the third or fourth down that they needed to to
win a game, and Louisville has it. And so the difference between Louisville and SMU right now is a full of very very small plays over the course of a season, or you'd be talking about the reverse of the standings that they're in right now. So to me, I think they are a very good team, but they are a very good team who has not come up big when they need to do the most.
Is it fair to say that maybe SMU is Louisville from a year ago. I think you kind of just kind of talked me through that. I feel like that's kind of the because Louisville obviously had a lot of breaks go their way, and clearly there's some luck involved. But you know, I think you can also develop a skill as a team how to win close games make big plays late at the end, and SMU certainly doing that.
But SMU, I mean, they could end up being undefeated in league play, and I don't know if you'd really consider it that big of a shot considering what they've shown at this point and considering the rest of their schedule.
Right Yeah, and a little bit of done the same way too. I mean, I read lastly did a tremendous job, not really in building his team through the portal, but in buffering the team through the portal this year. So that is an SMU team that, you know, the bones of it were there probably before this year, but he added some very nice pieces to compliment what was already there to prep that team for the road that they had this year, which was going to be much tougher
than anything they had in the AAC last year. So yeah, I mean I see a lot of a lot of sort of similarities between what Jeff Brohm did to get Louisville into a position to be good last year and then take advantage of those opportunities. It's been a similar story for SMU.
So I think this is a year where the ACC, David has shown, you know, in non conference play nothing substantial. Obviously Clemson's big loss to Georgia stands out, but you know, I saw that, you know, your resume comparison between Penn State and pitt and you know, I don't know, I just feel like the ACC is never going to get the benefit of the doubt in the way that the
SEC does and I should probably just accept that. And to be fair, I'm not even really sure that the Big ten gets it the same way the SEC does. But like right now, I think you can look around and if you're just basing it off of results from this year, I think it's safe to say the ACC has improved as a league.
It's a pretty good league.
Not to say that it's the best, but I just feel like perception of it is still nowhere near where you'd want it to be. As somebody who you know wants the ACC to do well.
Yeah, no, I think you're one hundred percent right. And part of this is the exact same dynamic that the ACC has always faced, that the SEC gets the benefit of the doubt. You know, if Mississippi State or this very good example this year is Vanderbilt has a good season, it's like, oh, man, look at how deep the SEC is. Look at that those teams that sort of have sprung up from the bottom of the SEC when Pitt or
Smme was good, must be the ACC is terrible. And I agree, I think on the whole look, I genuinely would probably put the SEC a class above everybody else at this point.
I would too, But my whole argument is that the gap is never as big as they make it out to be.
Absolutely absolutely not. You're one hundred percent right. I try to tell people this, and I think it is sort of the dirtiest secret of college football is that, like in any there are probably two to three, maybe four teams that are genuinely like, I can win a national championship level great, then maybe like four to eight more that are like, if things go right in the right moments,
we can win a national championship level great. And then from like number twelve to like number thirty five, there's really not that much of a difference. And so we're talking about do you have one of those top ten to twelve teams? And then after that, how many are you kind of in the mix of that like pretty good but not great. To me, they profile very similarly
to the Big ten, You know, I don't. I wouldn't have any issue with saying that they're on a similar comparison point, like, is Ohio State more talented than anybody in the ACC That maybe the case, but you know, I'd put Miami up against Ohio State and wouldn't feel like Miami's about to get blown out by this, and again a lot of the head to head records would
showcase that too, So you know, I'm with you. I think it is a function of a lot of preconceptions and kind of going back to what we talked about earlier, that people like to dive into the analytics and the you know, Bill Connolly stats, which are great, but they're also a big sort of what we think should happen is the truth whether it happens or not, Like we have really, I think, as a group of fans and evaluators gotten way too far away from like who actually won the.
Real real results. Yeah, it's all about perception. It's all about Yeah. I mean you literally just laid out sort of what's been a growing frustration for me is just a college football fan in general, is that we don't analytics are great.
I enjoy them, They're interesting to me. I think they're valuable.
But we have certainly at least you know, a portion of those that cover not just college football college basketball. Throw that in there too, like we don't really factor in who actually won the games as much like you could look at a team that's six and two and go ahead.
You mentioned that the Pitt and Penn State comparison that I put out today. So one of the things that I didn't add in there, which would certainly help Penn State's cause, is Penn State has the best win on there against I think it was the number sixteen FBI team, And so you think, well, beating the number sixteen team an FBI or ST plus whatever you're using, that's pretty good.
You know who that team is. Though, USC, like, I don't know why USC is ranked that highly in these advanced metrics because I've watched them play and they're not very good, exactly, Like I look, I've watched Syracuse play and I've watched USC play, and USC might be a little bit better. But to me, I do not see
a massive distinction between those two. But the rankings are going to put them as a massive distinction, And so it looks way better for Penn State that it does for pitt to be to beat Syracuse the way that
they did. And and and to me, like I just I have such a hard time with the fact that, like the whole point is to win the games, and if we're constantly like reverse engineering what the actual final score was, to say, well, no, no, no, no, this team is still better because the math says that, like you know, I don't.
I don't like I went.
I went to grade school and was picked on in grade school because I liked math and was bad at sports. Why are we listening to.
People like me now?
Not the math?
It worked out, it worked out the wrong way for you, if that's the case. But David, we appreciate you making time for us, my man. Always a great conversation. Enjoy another great week into college football. We'll talk soon, brother, all right, good duck, take care. That's David HALVESPN. Really good stuff there. Really appreciated making time for us.
We got to run.
We'll have a really quick segment on the other end here to to wrap at three o'clock our right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. I mean, when I say it,
I am. I'm as excited for this game on Saturday than I have been all year, because you know, I'm not gonna be I mean, I could be let down if they get blown out, obviously, but we've already been let down kind of enough this year to where I'm just anxious and eager to see if they're if they're gonna be ready to play, and they could put four they could put four quarters together and come out come up short.
Still, I mean, I'm well aware of that, but I would take that.
I mean, again, losing four games, but you know by early November is not ideal. But again, seeing this team put a full game together, you know, even if they end up not having a great record, which they're not going to probably, it's still something I'm just wanting to see.
All right.
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