It's time for coffee and company fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety. Now here's Nick Coffee.
All right, hour number two Here on a Wednesday afternoon, Coffee and company here on Sports Talk seven ninety. We are fuel about Thornton's as we come to you live from Charlotte, North Carolina. I'm in Charlotte. The company man, mister John Alden, he's back at the seven ninety headquarters. They're at four Street Live and we got two more hours left in a lot to get to Thank you guys once again for hanging out with us. Don't forget you could take us with you wherever you go. You
can listen live on the iHeartRadio app. Listen live at seven ninety Louisville dot com. And if you want to join us on the show, your best bets to get involved in the text line five O two six five three zero seven ninety Again five O two sixty five three zero seven ninety it's the L and N Federal Credit Union text line. We're gonna be joined coming up here in about five minutes by Zach Barnetta footballcoop dot com. He joins this each and every week to talk some
college football. Really looking forward to that conversation. But before we get to that reminder, twenty four hours from now, we'll be talking with Pat Kelsey here in Charlotte as he has his first acc basketball Media Day appearance. He'll have his press conference with all the other coaches, and
then here's what they do. They each coach has a press conference and then they have what's called the breakout rooms, where you know, there's this kind of a station where you know you're not live, but you can and you can video. But you know there's still people who just do.
In fact, I haven't been to a breakout I'll be there tomorrow for it, but it would be a big surprise to me if there are people there that are like transcribing quotes from players and coaches, Like I kind of feel like the old school Capital Jays still do that. You know, I used to sit by Tim Sullivan every every Louisville basketball game, and you know, everything he did would be notes. Now I'm sure he's not, you know, just trying to write word for word what somebody is
saying in an answer. But you know, the players and coaches kind of just sit around and I don't know how long it lasts, but they're kind of there for for a good chunk of of the afternoon seemingly for anybody to come up and ask questions and interview them. And then uh, then there's Radio Row and that really, you know, it really comes down to if you have like you know, and let me ask you this, John, I know you got to you gotta get Zach on the line coming up here soon. But there was at me.
I know one was from Stanford. Let me see if I can find the other one. So because I submitted, you know, my credential and I said I wanted to be at Radio Row, I got emails from three different programs that are bringing a coach and you know obviously basketball players here for it, and you know, they're trying to coordinate and asking if I if I want to have like their players on and I told them no, and I kind of feel bad, but like I shouldn't feel bad, right.
No, I mean, unless it's a specific player, Like I don't know who offered you or what school it might.
Have seen Stanford and I think it might stand might have been Virginia Tech.
Maybe I could see you wanting to do it, if maybe it was Duke and Cooper Flag or something was maybe gonna be talking or something like that, because that's that's somebody who's more than likely going to be a national story the entire year of the college basketball SEASONA who wants to I mean, again, this sounds rude. Maybe you and I are kind of along the same lines of thinking with this, but like nobody at least around here probably cares about who Stanford's players are.
Yeah, and that's and that's kind of when I didn't feel bad doing it. But then again, like I don't you know, I don't think they They came all the way from Stanford, and I'm pretty sure there's not a radio crew that wanted to have them on live. And it's not because you didn't have anything to do with the player. It's just because, you know, a drivetime sports radio show in a Louisville, Kentucky market, if we had a random Stanford basketball player on for you know, a
ten minute segment like that would make no sense. And there's also and I'm probably gonna do this tomorrow, like they'll be you know, probably shouldn't say this, but you would know anyway, there's gonna be people that are gonna be on the show here and there probably over the next two weeks where I'm gonna be recording those conversations here tomorrow, like Jeff Goodman's here, I'm gonna see if I can get Fanto. I'm gonna see what what his
price is. I know his price is going up. The numbers are going up for Fantic because he's he's got the juice right now. But you know, if I did that with a player that plays for you know, Miami, like I would never why would ever play that on the show, Like there would be no re there would be no reason for me to to to play that because it wouldn't be any you know, it would just be you know, hey, this is it sounds so mean, but it would just be a waste of time, you know.
But I mean, obviously I don't say that when I respond to them and say, you know, thanks but no thanks. But you know, kind of makes me feel bad because you know, if you if you come out here and you bring players, I'm not even sure players do the podium anymore. So if you bring players and they do the photo ops and all that, like they'll they'll they'll have they'll they'll be interviewed in some capacity. But you know, these events just aren't what they once were. And that's
you know, it's not really anybody's fault. It's just, you know, like a lot of things, you know, people evolve, like things evolve over time. But I am looking forward tomorrow because again, if you heard the first part of the show today, the first hour, I should say, you know, I'm balancing it. There's two ways to look at it. From my perspective as a Louisville fan, it is alarming that the ACC is a basketball league, is not even
close to what it once was. In fact, if you didn't have the big brands to prop up just because you know, it's Duke, it's Carolina. Like the results specifically, like just you know, aren't great and they haven't been, and they've been getting worse, to be honest with you, over the years. It's not been a gradual slow decline. It's been actually falling off a cliff. So like that's
not ideal. However, if you're Pat Kelsey, take advantage of that, Like you know, you're gonna take your lumps in the non conference, I would assume, because you play so many really good teams, but in ACC play you could obviously loose to anybody if you don't come ready to play. And we don't have a clue how good louis is going to because it's all brand new. But I you know, I can't be the only one looking at the rest of the acc looking at their roster, looking at what
they bring back. Who's now coaching some of these teams, and thinking to myself, you could be a mid team and beat these guys. And yes, I know, trust me, when I talk bad about the a SEC as a basketball league, I'm well aware that you know Louisville has been the bottom of that league for the last two years. But it's because of one guy who's no longer here anymore,
and that's Kenny Payne. Like Pat Kelsey could end up being a guy that doesn't work out here, he'll still be a billion times better than the last guy we had, and I think it will work out. I hope it will work out with him long term. But you know, I know Loolve has been bad the last years. You have to remind me, you know, he's not bad. In fact, is great. It's Zach Barnett, a FootballScoop dot Com who's joining us to talk some college football. Zach, how we doing on a Wednesday afternoon?
Sir?
Doing excellent? How are you?
I'm doing okay, I'm here in Charlotte. Have you ever been to Charlotte, North Carolina?
I have enjoyed it multiple.
Times for what football? You know? Is it a vacation destination. I'm curious. I got the next twenty four hours here? What should I go do?
We had so I went there's a kid because we had family with there at the time. Okay, and then I went back there six years ago is when Gus Maulson was at Auburn. So the AFCA convention was there.
That's why I love you, because you you relate times in life to when coaches were at certain schools because you're a football guy, that's right, you know, Like and you think about certain years. You don't think like, Okay, yeah, this big historical event happened. You think, oh, no, oh, that was the year that Vanderbilt pulled off the upset of a lifetime knocking off Alabama in the fall of twenty twenty four. Speaking of that, where does that rank for you?
Time that that upset?
I mean, I think I think it's an old timer, like I don't know if like there's any analytics that show it, but like as far as me watching an upset take place, really not believing it was going to happen until it did, and really still, you know, took a couple of days for me to actually believe that what I saw did take place, Like, you know, no offense to Andy, but like that's I mean that even though Saban's gone like that, I never thought i'd see Bama lose to Andy.
Yeah, Alabama under Nick Saban became like the default college football program for people that don't even know college football, Like if you go to if you go to a little league baseball field and some parents taking it too seriously, they're gonna say, come on, dude, no one here plays for the Yankees just because they're the default major league
baseball team. Alabama has become ubiquitous in that respect, and so the default like, let me think of the craziest sec upset I could possibly think of, would be the lowest school of Vanderbilt over the best school historically Alabama, and then that it actually happened, And then it happened in such a wild, entertaining way with two fourth and one touchdowns at Diego Pavia, such a singular player making
so many plays. It was you know, historically Stanford over USC is bigger by the point spread Delaware State UNLV years ago, I believe was it was some HBCU as a six touchdown under dog, But those weren't iconic in the way that you know, Northern Illinois being Notre damely No, people who don't know anything about college football understand the
magnitude of Northern Illinois beating Notre Dame. People who know nothing about this sport understand that Vanderbilt over Alabama is gigantic and it was one of the most exciting games we've seen so far.
Can both things be true? Like if they played ten times moving forward, Vandy might not win another one and it might not be close. But in that game, you know, you mentioned those fourth and one touchdowns, But I mean, I feel like they maintained a level of you know, competing with Bama that I feel like, you know, you
wouldn't be shocked if they did ten percent. I mean, Vandy has improved, but they could have lost by four touchdowns and I think you could have still said Clark Lee's doing a pretty good job because it's fandy, but like I would, I just found myself very impressed that, like, throughout the entire game they were you know, they were competing and it wasn't flukey in my opinion, Like I it's not just that they won, and I don't think they'd win many if they played it again, but like,
outside of just getting the victory, like that was a really telling performance I feel like for Clark.
Lee, yeah, I agree, Vanderbilt never trailed. So are they the better team? No? Were they the better team that day?
Obviously they never trailed, And it wasn't you know, if Vanderbilt had had jumped out to some you know, twenty eight nothing lead and then held on to win twenty eight twenty seven and Alabama missed the field goal at the end that would have won it, you'd walked away, say, okay, if that game was five minutes longer, it goes the other way, or it wasn't some crazy comeback where Alabama just you know, so hit the off switch and couldn't
flip the lights back on. This is the game where they went up seven to nothing, got that crazy to go up thirteen, but then Alabama would make a surge and Vanderbilt would spawned, Alabama would get back within two, then Vanderbilt would score. Clearly, Alabama has much better offense athletes on offense than Vanderbilt does on defense, so it felt like, you know, towards the end, Alabama could score well, but Vanderbilt converted it well. They're twelve to eighteen on
third down. They clearly had an offensive system that Alabama was not prepared to defend. And if that game had gone another fifteen minutes, I don't think Alabama would have been any more likely to get stops on Vanderbilt than they were or the first sixty as evidenced by the fact that if Alabama gets the ball back in the final two twenty eight or whatever it is, they probably
go score and win the game. But Vanderbilt got got every first down they needed and was able to sit on the ball, which was just as impressive as any of the points they scored.
I wasn't planning on asking you this question, but now that we're talking about it, I mean, isn't Vandy in a unique spot to where if they end up, you know, finishing with I don't know, five six wins. I mean, and they've done that before, but this year their schedule is really tough, and they already have a loss at Georgia State, a close loss to Missouri that still I think looked impressive, though, even though Missouri is clearly not as good as the rankings indicated. But like, could Vandy
lose him? You know, he's clearly at the worst job in his league, but it's the best league in the country. It's a league that has the ability to pay you a lot of money. They are making some investments in the program, but like, you know, I don't know. Just again, I wasn't even thinking about discussing this, but I think it could be you know, if you're a top tier program in the Big twelve, or I don't know, maybe
in a mid level job in the Big ten. I think you could be very intrigued by this head coach. But like for him, you know, like I don't know what he would do, and I'm sure you don't know either, But just you know, like Vandy losing their coach despite not having a lot of wins just sounds like a head scratcher. But I think you could you could be impressive at Vandy with your record not being any indication of it.
I think the likelihood of that happening is very low for a couple of reasons. One, I mean, Clark Lee is a Vanderbilt alum. He clearly believed dumbass. No. No, I think it's a good question because a lot of people are probably aren't don't pay A whole lot.
Of people are dumbasses like me too.
You're right, Zack, But I mean, he was the defensive coordinator of Notre Dame and doing quite well there, and could have waited longer and and chosen somewhere else, but he he popped on the Vanderbilt job when it opened, and uh, you know, I've heard him speak multiple times about how he has a plan to make Vanderbilt football the premier college football program in the country. And I think he's delusional. But it doesn't matter what I believe.
I believe that he believes it. So I think he's very much in line to be there Pat Fitzgerald without the hazing, hopefully. I also think it'd be unlikely that someone would go get him because they, I mean, they were bad, bad, bad until this season. In that this season, he hired Tim Beck from New Mexico State. They're offensive coordinator. He hired Jerry Kill the head coach in New Mexico State, and he obviously brought in Diego Pavia from New Mexico State.
It was a very much a college basketball, you know, type program acquisition that's become more what I assume you see in college basketball in the AAU world, all that type of stuff that's becoming more common in college football. So obviously, as the head coach, your number one job is to acquire talent, whether it be coaching or playing talent.
So I'm not trying to knock clerk Lee in any way for bringing those guys in, but there's a clear, very clear line of demarcation as to how Vanderbilt got to where it did.
Zach Barnet Football scoop dot Com is our guest joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety talking some college football. So right now in the in the updated eight people, you've got Texas, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, and then George is sitting at number five at four and one of the team. There's a handful of teams here that I've had some close calls but have yet to take in. L Miami's one of them. You know, Penn State's kind of taking care of business. But it's been against bad teams.
Oregon unbeaten, and we actually talked about them last week, but they just haven't really looked like the team that a lot of people thought they'd be earlier this year.
Who do you feel like is a team that is, you know, right now in position for a playoff spot and you you would actually say that as if now, with the way you expected to play out, they could easily get in, but you're just not buying, like you just think, like, man, it'll work out that way just because of the schedule and because of you know who they play. But they're not you know, they're gonna be the They're gonna be the example of oh yeah, we're letting twelve teams in. Now, this is a team that
has no shot of sniffing it. But like, you know, they're not there, they're not threat.
That's a good question. I think, uh. I think Miami, if they end up not winning the ACC and get in as an at large, that's a team that could find themselves in the Final four as a ten seed or something like that. And I think that's also a team that could get blown out in their first game. And we look back and say was this team even really that good? I mean, to struggle at home against Virginia Tech is one thing. Everyone has a game like that.
But then to go on the road, and it's obviously not easy to go on the road at cross country at cal and play at night and all that stuff. But to fall behind and then rally like that again tells me you you there's some some fraudulents there. Penn State. I've a been long on Penn State and Ole Miss or Paper Tiger programs. Either one of them could get in.
Every time I watch them play, I think about you, because I think you you bring that point up, and nobody else really seems to, at least that I hear talk about it. And it's very true. They've not really ever won anything that mattered, but you know, they always stay in that top twelve range.
Yeah, I mean when when Ole Miss I'm not an AP top twenty five voter, but I voted the super sixteen pole and when they lost to Kentucky, I dropped them from like number six all the way out and they stayed it. They went from like six to twelve just because voters are like, well, it's omes and they were number six and usually when you lose, you fall six or seven spot. It's like this team has accomplished nothing.
If they lose on Saturday, they'll still accomplish nothing. Their best win is South Carolina, and what is South Carolina? I have no idea. Same for Penn State. I think they're a good team, but what have they really accomplished? I have no idea.
And with Penn State, they've had over the years opportunities to actually change the mindset of folks like us who realize, yeah, they'll go take care of business against who they're supposed to beat. But when it comes to a big challenge, an opportunity to kind of get a big win, they they never get. They never come through. Doesn't mean they're bad, it's just, you know, they're just they're kind of just
slotted in there. But you know, I don't think anybody even if you know, even if you're not aware of some of the things we've you know that we've discussed, you know, really with it's with James Franklin his entire time there at Penn State, and really it's with Lane Kiffin in this Latin the last few years. But they'll be who they're supposed to be for the most part, but then when it comes time to like, actually, you know, do something of substance, they just they kind of fall short.
But Zach Barnett is our guest. You're joining us on Sports Talk seven nineties. So, Zach, I think it's safe to say the most disappointing team right now in college football is Florida State. I mean, they're just an afterthought at this point, coming off of an undefeated season in the regular season and now they're a joke. But when it comes to the biggest surprise team, I mean it
has to be Indiana. Right. Nobody's saying they're going to make the playoff for sure, and everybody's aware of their schedule and who they've played, But like even Indiana teams that had similar schedules didn't play the way Kurt Signette's got these Hoosiers playing.
Yeah, I've seen talk of people talking themselves into Indiana actually will make the playoffs. I'm not there.
But is it more just because of like the scenario, the odds scheduling. It's not like people think they're like legitimately I don't know. Maybe some people do think they're that good. They're dominating whoever they're playing.
So yeah. I mean, there's three teams in the country that are hitting at least seventy percent of their passes for at least ten yards per attempt with at least fifteen touchdown passes, and it's Miami Texas in Indiana. So
they're as good passing the football as anyone in the country. Now, the best team they've beaten so far is probably at UCLA, but they did beat them by more impressive margin than allis you did, and everyone thinks ELI who is at least decent, so they I believe they have a home game. I gets to Nebraska next week. That will tell us a lot. And I hope. I love to live in a world where Nebraska at Indiana is a college football game.
I mean, I can say this is my producer. He's a big Hoosier and he's he's not just a guy who wears the candy strip pants for Indiana basketball, like he's an Indiana football fan. Believe it or not, they do exist, Zach, and he's I mean, he's been bricked up the entire season. Signetti. I mean, this guy I find him to be so I mean, it's not like he's some wild character. But like I thought it was all a gimmick when he came out when he first got the job talking about how you know, google me,
I win, you know, say another team suck. Like he wasn't joking. You know, who knows what the future holds. I think the future looks good for him at Indiana. But like, is he another example of a guy like, you know, kind of like Kaylen Debor who did have a lot of success. It wasn't at a big time it wasn't at a big time level. But these are coaches that have a formula and they've taken it to a higher level and so far it's worked. Like I think this this you know, is someone who does really
appreciate small level college sports. I play junior college basketball briefly. Like I love the idea of guys getting a chance to climb the ladder and get big opportunities and showing that even though you know they didn't they didn't, they weren't a coordinator for ten years for an elite program, they can still they can still get it done.
Yeah, I mean, I I everyone the I win Google be quote has made the rounds this year, But I personally loved when he went to that basketball game. I'm sure John remembers this when he said Ohio State sucks, Michigan's Ducks go Indiana.
Dar Like who says that?
Yeah, I mean, why not what he literally would exactly.
That's why I thought it was a gimmick, but I think he meant it.
Yeah, And I hope that ads and search firms take notice of this. There's so many good coaches at the lower levels, yep, that they can come up and win. I mean, there's so much of being a head coach that you can't possibly prepare for until you're in the job. And to go get a guy who's done it for a decade or at least close to that and and learned and failed at that level, rather than the hot
shot coordinator that doesn't know what he doesn't know. I mean, if I'm if I'm Baylor and I'm looking for a head coach this year, I'm so much looking for that rather than I'm at least taking a hard look at that, rather than go get the hot young dad.
Yeah. And look, there's so many layers to be in a successful head coach, and everybody you know has their own style of doing it. But at the end of the day. A coach is a leader, and I think if you've been able to lead different programs at different levels and still maintain a high level of success, I mean that's worth something. Again, doesn't mean that everybody that has that on their resume would be able to translate
and get the results at this level. But you know, I think if you're, if you're, Baylor's the perfect kind of program. But you know, maybe they can go get a big name coordinator or a retread higher. But like, I think Signetti is certainly one of the many coaches in recent years that I feel like has given the other guys who were at that lower level now more of a you know, a chance to at least get
a look. You know, college sports is so much you know, pro sports now, but like I don't know something about those guys who clearly, you know, have have not that long ago. We're at the lowest level where not a lot of scholarships to go around, and not on TV every week, and you know, it's kind of wholesome. Our last question for you, Zach, this whole talk to me about this Rudy, the Rudy rule that that this Disney,
these former Disney executives are putting out there. I mean, is this just the desperation attempt to kind of make it seem as if, in fact, the Big ten and the SEC do create their own thing that everybody else is going to be okay.
To be honest with you, I haven't dug super deep into it because it just seems so stupid and such a time. Thank you.
We're on the same page.
Like the is it the ruty one? There's one that's the rudy thing, and then there's the one that's like the college students, right, yeah, one of them, the College Sports Tomorrow one. I remember basically taking crumpling it up, the digital piece of paper it was written on and
throwing it into my digital waste basket. When their plan for the transfer portal was We're going to have one window in February and another in March, and it's like, okay, So if I want to get in the portal, I basically can't be enrolled in college and I can't go through spring football because if I how am I going to transfer from Louisville to Indiana if I'm in If I can't if I'm doing spring practice at Louisville, it just made no sense. It clear they'd put no effort
into it. And then one of them has you know, we're gonna split everyone geographically, so it makes sense. But at the same time, we're gonna force Texas in Oklahoma, Texas back into the Southwest Conference and Alabama and Georgia are gonna be in different divisions or whatever. And it's like, you guys, understand, these schools have to sign off on this. There's no power it's going to force this upon them. Why would the SEC and the Big Ten sign off
on this? And Greg say Key's come out and said, like, we have no interest in that. Like it's a doggy dog world and the SEC in the Big Ten are the top dogs, and you're gonna have to make a pretty compelling pitch to make them give up their their perch in college football and seating you know, five to twelve percent of their money to private equity. It just seems like so much wrong for what payoff. It just it just seems stupid.
Yeah, it's one of those things kind of like the Alliance if you remember with the ACC, the Big Tan, the Pac twelve, like it'll it'll be in the moment. Wow, this is pretty this is, this is somebody thinking big picture, this is this is innovative, and then it's all literally just a waste of our breath talking about it. So I'm with you. It's certainly been a big you know, it's just with with so much chaos and shake up
and college sports, these kind of things. These stories, they do get a lot of attention, but there's been so many of them that really were just again, you know, a big, big waste of time. But that's what people call this show, Zach, waste of time. But we appreciate you giving us your time here on a Wednesday afternoon. Appreciated. Brother. We'll talk to you soon.
All right, sounds good, Thank you? All right?
That Zach Barnett FootballScoop dot Com. Good stuff. We got to run clock management again. You know, it's never great in general, but it's really not good whenever I'm not there with the company man keeping me in line. I'm not blaming it on him at all. It's also had a late guest though. We just started four to ten. That's true, that's true. All right, we got another hour and a half to go, so stick with us right here. It's coffee and company field. Bututh Thornton's right here on
Sports Talk seven ninety. That's right, It's coffee and company fueled by Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Thanks for hanging out with us here on a Wednesday afternoon. I'm coming to you live from Charlotte as we're here for the ACC basketball tip off, the first time. Pat Kelsey's going to be a part of this event. If we can call it an event, it is an event.
It's talking season, as they say. But you know, you don't hear it described as that in basketball because there's not as much of a I don't know, I guess in certain places there is, like if you don't have a basket, if you don't have a football team, or you're just not a football fan, and maybe you are
chomping at the bit ready to get hoops started. But when ACC Media Day's come around for football and SEC and Big Ten and the talking season that you hear about in July, I mean, that's when we have just exhausted all different ways that you can talk about the upcoming season and we just want football with basketball, I feel like it does kind of sneak up on you, which is good because you know, we got football going on,
and that's a good thing. And then basketball literally will be here before you know it, Like Louisville in less than a month will be playing their first real game, which you know, they're going to have a couple of exhibitions before that and a red white scrimmage I think, although now I'm questioning, dude, are they doing a red white event? I don't know. I feel like they are, but.
Now you second, maybe Louisville live. I know they did the three on three. You think that could have potentially Okay.
I mean, and if they don't do one, that's fine, it really is because and the three on three was I mean it was like they mixed members from the men's and the women's team and then Steve Yeah, I mean it was, and it and it you know, it was I want I don't want to say it was uncomfortable or awkward, because you know it's I mean, those those those aren't like real competition. It's not real competition
whenever you're out there at an event like that. But like I just felt like they weren't really trying, and therefore it was like, okay, what are we doing with it again? It's like, well, if they did try and they got hurt it it'd be terrible. So either way, we'll see them before they get to the real game. But even you know, with that said, their first real game against Morehead State is less than a month away,
which is certainly exciting. So we'll talk some more hoops coming up tomorrow as we I'll be there live from from you know, downstairs at Radio Row, and we'll have Coach Kelsey on, Javon Hadley, Chucky Hepburn and talk some basketball and I don't know, again, I've got some I've got some plans to talk with some folks that are here that I know that sometimes you hear on the on the show, you know, via phone, but I'll probably record those and you know, probably need to remind myself though,
after I do that, to play them relatively soon, because it's one of those things that if I don't like, it'll be three weeks old. Then you'll think like, well, hey, why would anybody want to hear from Jeff Goodman from three weeks ago. So anyways, we'll talk coops a little bit later on later today and of course tomorrow, but the text line some football stuff coming in And this actually came in a little bit earlier today. This is Nick, thanks a lot, because I'm still a big believer in Bram.
I hadn't even really processed the thought of a loss at Virginia. But now you have scared me to thinking that Louisville will probably end up losing and it'll make the fan base melt. I mean, I don't think you. I mean, I don't know if you're blaming me. I think you kind of are. I don't know if you're being sarcastric or not, but I mean, I've not said louilv was going to go lose to Virginia. I mean, I'm like you, I still think they're gonna win, and I think you know, I don't want them to test it.
I don't want to be proven right or wrong, but I do believe that they could probably play. I mean, it's hard to say that you can make the kind of mistakes they made against Notre Dame and still win. But then again, like, that's the truth. You made that many mistakes, and if you eliminate maybe one of them, you probably do beat Notre Dame in Notre Dame. And that's maddening. Now again, I think it's partly due to the fact that Notre Dame doesn't really appear to be
that good. I mean, you know, they're probably going to go eleven and one and they'll get in the playoff. I mean, I think that's insane that you can get in the playoff without a conference championship and a loss to NIU, But you know they'll get in probably, which is crazy to me, but that's how it works. So you know, they're not terrible, They're not a bad team.
But like I watched them and the caller I think earlier this week kind of tried to, like, I don't know, troll me or something, but like he was asking me and I'm like, dude, I've literally said it since they left South Bend. That like one of the reasons why that was such a punch to the gut is because you didn't even have to play that much better and you'd beat them at South at South Bend because they're not that special. So again, back to the Virginia game.
I'm not gonna dare them to play like they have the last couple of weeks with some sloppy play and avoidable mistakes and see if they can win. So I can, you know, see if I'm right or wrong, But Virginia is not SMU, They're not Notre Dame even, but you know they're going to be at home. And you know what I really worry about is if you don't come
out sharp and really just come out. I mean, I don't want to say they got to look like an entirely different team than what we've seen this year, because although you know, you could have easily lost to Georgia Tech had some plays not gone your way. Now again, I'm still gonna give them credit for making those kind of plays, but against Notre Dame and against SMU, even in those losses, like, I'm still seeing things here and there that tell me that you've got good players and
you've got a lot of potential as a team. But if you're not winning, and we're just highlighting specific plays and some stats by certain guys, that's that's worth nothing. I mean, good for those guys for balling out, but like, if you ain't winning, I mean overall, it doesn't mean anything.
So you know, I think they'll win, but I'm also willing to acknowledge, and I think that's probably what you're getting at on the Texas, Like I think they'll win, but I'm also willing to acknowledge that if they lose, we can't say we'll be surprised, because you know, and what I worry about is that if they even though these do seem like things that you just like can very easily control, right, Hey, let's make sure we know how many men we have on the field and not
send another one out there. It reminds me one of my closest friends, known him thirty years, my buddy Ronnie. He had He's a really good, smart ass. He had a really good line whenever we were in and I think it was freshman year, maybe eighth grade in basketball, we had a gun on our team named Corey who never got to play. You know, nice kid, just you know, wasn't very good. And you know he would tell you that. And when we got up big or we were getting our ass kicked, he got a chance to get in.
And you know, it was just like a given, like at a certain point in the fourth quarter, John Corey was gonna be ready to go. It was aough time. If we're up big, we're down. If we're up big or we're down big, Corey knows, you go to the scores table. Well, he wasn't actually signaled into the game by the coach, but he thought it was his time and he ran out there, but nobody had been told
to come off the floor. And don't. I don't even I mean, this is probably just poor officiating, but like somehow we're out there playing with six dudes, two possessions and before somebody realized we had six guys on the floor, and I think we got a technical. But you know, my buddy Ronie was like, hey man, yeah, only five guys on the floor like that, that's still a rule. You can't you know, we can't put as many guys
as we went out there. And again it was just a real witty, smart ass line from you know, a you know, probably a thirteen twelve year old. But that's what I was thinking when watching louis over the last two weeks, like do you guys are you aware, like we can't have twelve men on the field. We can't have At one point we had fourteen guys on the field against SMU. I think it was in one play.
Like it reminds me. Also, there was a there was a against Alabama when Louisville played Alabama in Orlando, a few years ago, or I guess it's been longer than a few years ago. And you know, they got their ass kicked like most teams would have against that team, but they just kept committing this. I don't remember what penalty it was, but they kept they kept committing the same penalty over and over and it might have been
twelve men on the field. Actually, now the thing about it, and I think like four times in the first three quarters Louisville got penalized for having twelve men on the field, which again, you know, is it's an easy thing to avoid. But somebody on Twitter, I think, I can't think of who it was. It's a known person. I can't think of who it is. Oh, Jason Jason Riley of WDRB, who's a you know in his you know, in his real world. He's a very great reporter journalists when it
comes to just you know, investigative reporting and whatnot. But he's a big Loisvel fan and he's funny on Twitter. But he was like, you know what, they don't like us having twelve men on the field, but damn it, we're not backing down. We're gonna keep doing it until they until they really tell us, Yeah, you can throw those flags all you want. We're gonna put twelve men
out here, and this is what we're gonna do. Like it's kind of what Louisville's been doing at times on defense, although you know they look like they don't know, like
some guys are out there. I mean the play in the third, late third quarter or fourth quarter, whenever the the cameras show like they're about to snap the ball and there's a dude from the Louisville sideline running on the field behind the play, and like, I don't even remember who it was, but I'm just thinking, like on what planet would he think he needs to be out there right now? Like, you know, he's probably just doing what he's told, but it just points to the disorganization
and how nobody is on the same page. There's such a lack of communication. But he's running out there and you can just tell by his body language and his demeanor he knows that some thing's wrong, but he doesn't know what to do because there's it's such a it's such a bleef show. It's just crazy. So my original point that it took me a long way to get to is this, even though these things seem like very
fixable things. The more you do it, the more you are in your head about it, the more you second guess, like, I don't know, can we put the right amount of players on the field. I mean, yeah, you can, but like you know, it just becomes a mental thing. And you know, a lot of people have said, there's no way they have that. I mean, there's no way they let that happen again after being an issue the last two weeks. And I'm like, Okay, well, you know, we'll see.
I mean, I hope you're right. But I mean, if it was, if it was that easy to fix, they to fix it. I quick break will come back on the other side. Get to the text line, A good text line here today on a Wednesday, it's coffee and company.
Feel about Thorn's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety In all seriousness, those who do work in the field of meteorology, and you know, their knowledge in the knowledge that you know they've gathered from those who came before them in that field, Like you know, without them, we wouldn't maybe be as well prepared for these types of situations.
So I don't say this, you know to you know, at times we have fun with the weather folks being wrong, but at what point do you have to realize, like, yes, it it is a career, and it is a it is a very important field, right Like you are out there to keep people safe and to learn about, you know, these types of situations to again make people aware of what they need to do, and you can you know, study the I mean, I can't even give you like
BS terminology when it comes to like weather meteorology stuff. But you know, like the people who go out and chase tornadoes, like some of those people are meteorologists. Some people just get a get a kick out of it. They did, they love it. But I think you've got to be a real you know, I don't know. I mean, I don't want to insult them because I'm going to choose to believe that they're doing it to hopefully eventually
help people as a positive thing in the world. But there are people right now that are out I mean, let me just make sure I've got to make sure I've got the details here, because there are people that are flying through a Category five hurricane just just to see what it's like, you know, and potentially probably die. But they're doing it to quote unquote collect data to
help improve the forecast and support hurricane research. Like hurricane research clearly is important, but if you're out there just you know, getting some reps in being out in a hurric a category five hurricane, Like and you die and you you know, and you meet the big man upstairs, like you know, he's gonna probably tell you what do you do? Like what are you doing? Pretty funny? Actually, you know what I mean? Like, you know, like what
did you think would happen? Like, yeah, it's you know, you've already done your field itself, and all that you've done in your career clearly shows that you know, not only are doing something you love, but you know it's got a positive purpose. But to be out just you know, gathering data for research to further you know, understand hurricanes, Like it's you know, if it turned into a suicide mission, Like can anybody say they'd be surprised? Like this is nuts?
Now if I'm just a mistaken I think they fly over the hurricane. I don't know if that's the case with what these people you're referring to or do There's a video.
There's a video that I just watched and it is on. It's on the NAA Aircraft Operations Center account. It says bumpy ride into Hurricane Milton on WP three d oreon whatever the hell that is, Miss Piggy. I guess it's at a Is that a plane? Is that a boat? I don't know. The conditions are so bad that I can't tell if they're on water or if they're on an aircraft. But again, it says to collect data to help improve the forecast and support hurricane research. Like, yeah, they're in
a plane. I'm looking at the video now like they're flying through a Category five hurricane to take notes for further research, like you know, at research.
It's not pretty ancient, to be honest.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, well, you know the reason I really dressed it up to the reason I really dressed it up to, like you guys are so great, Like you guys just do this because you love people and you want to keep them safe. It's not about being on TV. It's not about you know, being right and having that control, that power. You saw the forecast. Now everybody's plans are canceled. It's not about that you would never You do it because you just want to keep
people safe. I dressed that up that way so I can say on the back end, like don't take yourself too serious, like don't be such a try hard. That's you know, that was my strategy there, John, And I'm not saying John said it. I said it. But like you draw, you're flying through a Category five hurricane yucking it up for a social media video for clout, Like you know, you play dangerous games, you get dangerous prizes at times, and hopefully they're safe. But like, how idiotic
is that? Like that's not that's not heroic. That's stupid, is what that is. That's freaking stupid. All right, this show's pretty stupid too. But we have fun at least, you know we do. If you don't have fun, you know, let us just have fun. We got another hour to go, so stick around. It's coffee and company. Feel about Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety