We're live today at beer Bar right downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. Great Sausages and Burgers, about one hundred and thirty beers on tap, another forty to fifty Canon bottled.
Beers non alcoholic options for those of you who don't drink. It's oddly crowded on this Wednesday.
I think people are either celebrating or drowning their sorrows. We have tailgate passes for the Utah BYU tailgate coming up on Saturday.
Let's do some more college football.
Always enjoy my time with my next guest, the Great Josh Pate from Josh Pat's College Football Show on a Wednesday afternoon. Josh, Happy Wednesday, buddy, how are we doing?
I'm good. I assume that there are a multitude of reasons for people to be on edge out there and gearing up for this weekend if I'm.
Not mistaken, Yes, certainly, and obviously, Josh. Last night, we're all sitting in front of our TVs. We're nervous about the results that are going to roll in. We see state by state by state by state, and then it's revealed that BYU comes in at nine. See, you thought I was doing an election thing, and I wasn't doing an election thing. I was doing a CFP ranking thing.
So a lot of people around here wondering BYU at nine with a resume that you could argue is better than Indiana at eight, and maybe even Penn States at six. I mean, BYU is undefeated. They have two top twenty wins. There are number four in strength of schedule. What's the Josh Pate take on BYU coming in at nine last night?
I thought they'd be higher. Honestly, I think they should be higher. I mean, I mean as much as as much as I personally like the traffic in the way I stack teams based on a more pure power rating model. That's not what the playoff committee supposed to be doing, right. The Playoff Committee is supposed to be judging purely off merit. And you notice how after all these years, we never have a static list of criteria put out, And that's very purposeful. So they can move the goalpost as much
as they need to. And I'm not normally the one that's banging that drum, but I will bang it here. I'll bang it for both of them. Actually, i'd make that case for Indiana if they were wearing a Michigan helmet. I'd make that case for Brigham Young. If they were wearing a different helmet, they would be treated differently. I don't think there's any doubt about that. Now. What aggravates me to no ends with all these people who want to tell you, Bro, relax, it doesn't matter. It's just
the first version of the rankings. Well, they're lying to you. It does matter. And here's where it matters. It doesn't matter if Brigham Young wins out of course they'll be in. They were always going to be in if they won the conference. But where it matters, where rubber meets road, is they are building a giant trap door under your feet and under Indiana's feet to where they can reasonably pat themselves on the back for having ranked you top ten.
But you know, full well, just like I do, as soon as either one of those teams incurs one lass, they're gone. Trapdoor opens and they disappear from the horizon, and that committee says, well, you know, we gave them a shot. They didn't take care of business. Meanwhile, I got Penn State sitting at six after losing to Ohio State at home last weekend, which is just amazing to me.
Yeah, no, I'm with you outside of BYU, outside of Indiana. You kind of gave us your take on on Penn State any other Josh Paid reactions either good or bad from the rest of the rankings, which aren't the seeding for the bracket, but not one of the rankings. What are your other thoughts away from the dynamics we've already discussed.
I thought I thought it was interesting that seven of the top sixteen teams in that thing or SEC, but a lot of them are tend to sixteen range, Like you got your Alabamas and your LSUS and they'll play this weekend. A and m and Ole miss are in there, so there's going to be probably some elimination blows dealt, which is fine, that's the way it's supposed to work.
But we're also in the situation where I mean, we are looking at a situation rapidly approaching where the SEC is going to kind of judge themselves and judge how their future they want to pan out based on a committee handles them cycle. And what I mean, by the way, if they don't get as many team in as they want or they think they deserve big ten, you could
fill in the blank same way here. They've got that look in provision in that playoff contract in two years, and they may very well want to take their ball and go home or go elsewhere. And I'm paying close attention to that right now.
So ultimately, it does feel like the other message that has been sent. And I don't even know if this is the wrong message, because we do a Big twelve power rankings every week. You know, anybody who covers the conference does something like it. You have your your JP poll, And this week I told my producer, we're not doing it because it sounds like BYU at one then everyone else two through sixteen, And I don't know if they're good or bad. I mean, the problem is the conference
is chaotic. So is this a message sent with BYU at nine that the Big twelve period end of story is a one big league and that's going to go to the conference champ no matter what.
Uh, that's a big question.
I have.
I heard them say last night or I thought it reported that they're trying to trying to crystallize the notion that you won't get punished for playing in a conference title game, which is great. That's the way it should be okay. I don't doubt that for the Big Ten. I don't doubt that for the SEC. I don't think their conference title loser will fall very far. I want
to see what happens. We kind of need the case study here of Brigham Young goes undefeated all the way to Dallas and then they lose in the conference title game. They would almost assuredly, I mean, they would absolutely be a top ten team going into that Saturday if they lose in a game that they're only in because they earn the right to be in. Are you going to
drop them out of the rankings? Because if you don't, then they go as well as the Big twelve champ going And that means two Big twelve teams just crash the party. And I know that this is not the way it's supposed to work, but this is the way it will work. The folks in the SEC portion of the room will scream about the boats in the Big ten portion of the room will scream about that that is not why they expanded this thing now, That is not why they built more seats at the table. Those
seats are not for everyone else. Those seats are for more of who's already been there.
One more thing on this Boise State comes in and look, Boise State's good. I mean we're kind of in that footprint because Utah State a mounda West Conference team. Is there any way Boise State in your estimation, and of course there's no way of knowing for sure because ultimately the football needs to be played, but there are only a few.
Spots behind BYU.
Is there any way Boise State could catapult past the Big twelve champ and get a top four seed, and therefore that Boise gets the buy and the Big twelve champ is there at five.
I think it's possible. It just you'd probably need a little chaos here down the stretch, and then one of the teams that emerges from the chaos ends up being the winner of the Big Twelve championship game. So maybe like a two conference chant there, then I could see it. If it's just bringing young going on a run, no, I think that enjoy the higher seeds.
I've got one more BYU question for it.
Then we'll move on and obviously want to talk about the big game coming up on Saturday night.
But you reference something.
Early on in the interview about you know, the Michigan helmet or the Penn State brand, And certainly there's going to be brand biased and they're television executives that simply want the biggest and best brand on their TV show. And I understand that what from a national standpoint and not necessarily you because you cover and understand every team in college football, which makes you, you know, good at
what you do. But how would you articulate as a national college football guy what BYU's brand is nationwide?
I think the brand is tucked away and isolated, hard to get to, really hard nosed team, hard nos program. They embody the mentality of their head coach to kind of always been that way. There. There are echoes from the past of big time teams. You hear from your dad. If you're my age, you've heard from your dad growing up about Brigham Young teams that did big things in the eighties, and you know of a few big time
names will come through there. As for today, I think that people are still getting used to by being in the Big twelve. First off, like a lot of people have put two and two together there, and then when they do, they probably lumped them in with every other Big twelve team and that you've got to earn benefit of the doubt. In their minds, thought position is you're lesser than because you don't have an SEC or a
big ten helmet sticker on. And I think that's the way the average college football fan to use Brigham Young right now.
So we have a little football game here in the market coming up on Saturday night.
I made a plea early on to.
Get a Josh paid appearance out here for Utah BYU, but that was dependent upon both teams doing their jobs. BYU has Utah has not. We can be simply as reductive as saying Cameron Rising's not under center and he's been hurt.
Therefore everything is different.
But nobody saw four and four for Utah and no one saw eight no for BYU. Everything I thought Utah would be BYU has been. How surprised are you, Josh on that dynamic.
I'm very surprised. I mean, if you told me I wasn't coming out there, I would have thought it was because one of these teams dropped the ball. I would just have the wrong team servile, right, And so as it turns out, I mean, it's it kind of. It surprises me only because Cam Rising not being available is not the biggest shock to anyone in the world. I just thought the program may be it had bit more
equipped to deal with it. And maybe I was wrong, or maybe I was just overestimating how difficult that is to continue to prepare for. But you know, I wanted to be out there now. We had it circled internally, I had it on the grease board in the office internally, But plans plans change as the season.
Of Yes, indeed, I can't argue with it as much as we would have lowed to host you once again like we did last year against Florida.
One more big twelve question. Then we'll do some other stuff with the.
Remaining few minutes, and then I'll set you loose outside of Brigham on who do you think is good in the conference? Because I really can't figure it out week to week.
I think Colorado is the biggest wild card out there. I mean, Colorado has improved defensively, fairly significantly. They run the ball much better than they did, so they are I mean, they're a complimentary improving football team. And last week I thought they were the biggest winner out there, even though they didn't play because Iowa State Kansas State went down. I don't trust Iowa State, or I don't
trust Kansas State away from home at all. Right now, Iowa State, I thought they had been skating on thin ice with hot blades for a few weeks and got a lost dealt to him by another team that's pretty bog walk card in Texas Tech. I kind of think that may end up being good for them, just in that it allows you to hit the reset button a little bit longer, dealing with the pressure of undefeated and do you just go play? Every one of your goals is still in front of you, Just go play. I'm
still pretty high on the Higway State's capability. I think they've got the highest end capability of any of the teams out there. But Colorado is the one that I circle because Colorado's one I don't really know. They haven't peaked yet, and I don't know what they look like when they do.
As as disappointing as Utah football has been, and how difficult that is for a fan base around here with different expectations, how do you articulate owen six Oklahoma State in conference?
I think I think Gandhi did a pretty poor job of putting his coordinators together. I don't think this is a very strong staff he had. It was one of my biggest concerns coming end of the year, and it is. It has really manifested itself into a poor result. I give him credit. They went and played BYU hard in the game they played against him a few weeks back. Still lost, But I expected that team to kind of roll over and they didn't. But they're just it's not
a good team this year. And it's a shame because they had a lot of returning pieces that look like it may be otherwise, but that they have not even getten. This alls the chance.
Yeah, you know you.
Reference Colorado and I'm not sure that I've really ever seen a talent like Travis Hunter.
Shouldn't he win the Heisman Trophy? Josh? And if not, who do you think does?
I think it's I think it's gonna come down through is he active on conference championship Saturday. It's gonna be him and cam Ward, I believe, and Dylan Gabriel may be in that equation. But the thing about those other guys is Gabriel will be playing in the Big Ten title game. I think I think cam Ward certainly will be playing in the ACC title game. If Hunter is just playing on that last Saturday, I think that's gonna make a big difference, because otherwise I think the voters
are going to be willing. I think a lot of voters are looking for a reason to vote him, and it may come down to that. It may be as simple as that.
All right, moving off the big twelve, now, just simple question, how good do you think Miami is? It's another team when you're looking at the resume and their number four, and of course the bottom line is staying clean, which they've done. But do you think their record where they're at right now actually.
Reflects simply how good they are?
And if they have the opportunity to go against another one of those teams that live in that cul de sac, do they stack up in your mind.
Talent wise? They do. I don't think the product they've put on the field measures quite yet, but we can't be sure because they you know, they haven't been pushed to the brink against quality competition. They've been pushed to the brink, but it's almost one of those situations where they've played with their food a little too long and then took it serious in the end if I put them on the field of Texas for Georgia, I don't really know what I should expect from them in that scenario.
I think we'll end up seeing it because I think they'll be in the postseason. But the other thing I wonder with them is I remember kind of two different versions of LSU, the twenty nineteen and twenty twenty three EU teams. They both had Heisman quarterback. One of them got it backed together enough defensively to become a superpower
team in twenty nineteen, wasn't always that way. Last year's LSU team heis mcquarterback, but couldn't stop molasses in December defensively, so they wasted that Heisman season and never accomplished anything of note in the postseason. Miami's gonna go one of those two directions here. I'm just waiting to see which one.
Do you think We were discussing this earlier, because we were talking about Byu and Kolonie Satake and whether or not they were going to actually step up and pay him. It's a private institution, but they're known for not paying their coaches very much. And look, I have no inside information or knowledge at all about where Southern Cal's head is with Lincoln, but ultimately Kilanie's a Southern California guy, and if that job came open, I think he would answer the phone if they called.
I don't know what they would.
I don't know if they would, but that's a long way to me asking you do you think Southern cal Is looking around wondering if they have the right guy after this really really rough first season of the Big Ten.
I think they may look around and ask the questions. I don't think they're looking around in the form of let's do our due diligence because we may make a move. I think they're a long way from that. I did a segment on the show last night, just did job approval ratings, and Lincoln Riley's approval rating would be a little low right now, but that's kind of detached from his hot seat rating. I don't think it's hot seat ratings anywhere. I'd say the same thing about Hugh Freeze
at Auburn after that mattered. But I will say this, They've got five losses and they've led in the fourth quarter of all five of those games. I mean, they're half a dozen plays if you change in their season they're undefeated, which means nothing other than to say they're not a long way away. It's not Florida State, where they're just dead on arrival and there's so many problems you don't even know where to start. He started, he replaced his defensive staff. They look a lot better this year.
I mean, it's probably as simple as you don't have Caleb Williams anymore and you need to go find the next version of him.
Where's the Josh Paid Tour taking place coming up this weekend?
Where are you going to be?
We are headed down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for Alabama at LSU on a Saturday night.
You know, I've never experienced that game.
I have experienced LSU, but I've heard that's the spot. Man, that's the place to be with that game. What I would imagine you've been there before. So what's that atmosphere going to be like as Bama is down in Baton Rouge to take on LSU.
The best way I can describe it is if you're standing on a runway at a major airport and you just hear jet engines around you. That's kind of the way it sounds on the field there in big third down moments and especially at night double especially if Alabama or Florida someone like that in there. I mean, especially if LSU show some life early and they get up on someone early. It feels it feels like you weigh one hundred and fifty or one hundred and fifty percent
of your body weight. You just press it down on you. It is really, really difficult to operate in that environment.
We do like to keep track of our former Pac twelve buddies. What's the hulla balloo, like.
The conversation like down and down there with Alabama and our old buddy Klein de Bor who's a great coach, but he's not Nick Saban, because nobody is.
Yeah, there's a lot of attention on that this week, just people and myself included, wondering how they'll handle this moment because they did not handle Tennessee well for many different reasons, but one of them was Bama under Nick Saban was a big game program, and I ironically used to feel more confident in them when they were on the road than I did when they were at home.
I just thought they handled that stuff so well. And it's really early with the boor we have like a one game sample size, but I didn't like the way they handled the trip to Tennessee. I think it was a learning experience for him. This will be another one. Both of them are coming out of the buy really interested to see how Jaylen Milroe performs, how healthy he looks. They'll tell you he's healthy now I don't believe him. So huge wildcard. Both teams are huge wild cards right now.
Last thing is Oregon firmly entrenched themselves as the best team in the country, and if not, who else is in that kind of just in that area.
As of now, they're the best I've seen. I think Texas has higher end potential. I think Ohio State has high end potential. Oregon's the best I've seen. I've seen them all in person, some of them a couple of times. At this point, they are so multifaceted. They have got an assassinate quarterback right now. They can run the ball on you, they can stop the run. They're very multiple and athletic. Defensively, I think they're going to get Test
Johnson back before the end of the year. So that's the one I'd like to be if I could pick any team to be right now.
Josh, thanks man for the time. Keep up the great work, and enjoy the games this weekend.
All right, all right, appreciate it.
Josh Pate, host of The Josh Pate's College Football Show. It's one of my favorite college football podcasts. Josh is a very talented guy. Find him on social media on Twitter, it's at Josh Pate CFB or X or whatever the hell we're calling it. The Day after what happened yesterday at Josh Pate CFB is where you find him.