We have statements. We have statements flying around. Tim Buckley, the NCAA Senior vice president for External Affairs, just to release the statement for the nc DOUBLEA basically saying there's nothing we can do. The collective at UNLV has released a statement as well regarding the decision by Matthew Sluca to well essentially leave the program.
He's gonna utilize his red shirt.
We'll get to these statements, but our next guests, I'm gonna take a little sip here.
I'm gonna do a little paper pop.
I do not have immunity, but we welcome him in the great Josh Pate from Josh Pate's College Football Show, Back on the Drive, Josh, Happy Wednesday.
Man, how we doing.
I guess I'm doing good. I thought we were gonna wake up this morning. I thought I was gonna come on the show a little bit later today, and I thought, man, we got a big week of college football coming up. And then loga, hold, we get the old UNLV bomb dropping our lap, and now we're talking about everything but football. I'm not saying us, but in general, that's been the talk.
All day, and certainly I want to get to the games more than anything else. But I do view this, Josh, to be a pretty big deal because it's.
Never happened before.
Now we've been talking about it all day, and I've been talking about this for years. I'm sure you have been too, about a product that is so incredible. Despite the inability of leadership to direct the product appropriately, it's still consumed at an incredibly high level where it's the second most popular sport in America, only to Pro football. But what is the Josh Payton take on Matthew Sluka leaving UNLV three and zero start Vegas favorite as the G five team to make the CFP.
What's your take on the decision that came down today?
There's probably blame to go on both sides on the immediate front, but larger it's so appropriate. The NCAA steps up and says, yeah, nothing we can do. In totality, this is absolutely on them. It's always been on them. It's just been year after year after year, a chronic indecision, lack of a spine. No one's stepping up in a leadership position, and so then you get to I mean,
I had an NIO. I had a guy who runs an NIL operation for a major program reach out today and say, hey, all this is probably true, but just an fyi. Our legal counsel came to us last year and said, we do not advise you to enter into any contractual agreements with players, just let it be verbals, not to mislead them, but because we don't even know what's legal and what's not, so we're not even totally sure how to advise you. He said, We've got similar
agreements with guys right now. We've got coaches that promised stuff. We've got we try and track it, but we don't even know. Everyone's flying by the seat of their fans. Rules are never the same over a twelve month period, and that's the result of people not taking action years ago.
Yeah, and that's the bottom line.
I mean, when you kick the count can down the road long enough and you procrastinate long enough, it's a tidal wave and you're not prepared for it.
And man, I don't know.
It's a sport that we all love, it's a sport that we all consume, but the lack of leadership and oversight for years has been just ridiculous. But let's been the rest of our conversation talking about actual college football and let's start out in our footprint, Josh, where we have both Utah and Surprise Surprise BYU at four and oh and one and zer on conference play, we'll start with the Utes. They go to Stillwater, no Cameron Rising, they get it done. Okay, State comes back a bit
at the end. It was never really that close. Number ten team in the country, Josh. What do you make of the Utah uta right now?
Yeah, that was a game where I saw the final before I was able to watch the replay of the game because I was at the Oklahoma Tennessee game. So I see the final and I think, oh, wow, dogfight man. Good for Utah. I go back and watch it and I realize, oh, that's the real story on this game. It's a big indicator. Man, win it without Cam Rising too, is a big indicator of basically what Kyle Winningham said saying,
of course we won our starting quarterback. But you know, reading between the lines, we're not a quarterback centric team. We are a program that is best when it has its starting quarterback. But don't think for a second we can't get the job done without him. And you can say that a lot of programs say that or less of them can actually put it in practice, and they did so. Now I'm interested because I mean that was
test one in the Big Twelve. And now I'm really interested to see you because it may very well be that we just see separation between Utah and the rest of the field. I still think it's too early to say that, but it was a It's not a game that stood out on the national radar, but I think in many ways it was a statement win because they had how they had to go about getting.
It sure, and also Mike Counny doesn't lose in Stowwater, you know, he just does not lose there very much. So I think it was a really good win for a team right now that is still in a pretty ambiguous space about who will be under center coming up this weekend.
My question for you, Josh is.
I think I still believe for you Todd to win the Big Twelve, the Cameron Rising has to be under center for most of the year. But I also think I've seen enough from Isaac and the defense. Look, it's just a classic coach with a team. It's just the way Kyle's built this thing where it's about the you and the helmet, not the name.
On the back of the.
Jersey, and they find ways to win games even if it doesn't feel like they're going to be able to base off the talent or skill set. But if Cameron Rising is compromised and unable to play very much this year, do you still think Utah can win the Big Twelve?
Can? Yeah? Wouldn't be my pick, but can. Yeah, they absolutely can. I agree with you. Your take is basically my tape in the interim. They can get by. They obviously just prove that. I think they need him long term to fulfill, you know, on their potential. But I'm not about to sit here having watched what I just watched them do, and having known the profile of that program for a long time, I'm not about to sit
here and say they can't do anything. I mean, if they were playing in the SEC, I may be more defenditive, but that's a conference that it's winnable for Utah just less than your percentage chances. But that's common sense. Everyone knows that, So yeah, they can absolutely still do it.
Any I don't really have a lot of anxiety for Utah coming up on Saturday night with Arizona in town.
K State didn't just beat them, they bullied them.
Case State played Arizona the way that Utah will play Arizona. I'm going to go off the premise that Isaac Wilson is under center just until I see cam because we went through this crazy charade a year ago every single week, so I'm just kind of landing on Isaac until I see Cameron, which I believe means they're going to just run it down Arizona's throat. Arizona great quarterback wide receiver duo, one of the best in the country, but I just don't think they have the dogs in the trenches to
keep up with Utah. What do you think of Utah Arizona coming up on Saturday night here in Salt Lake?
I'd agree with you. I do an upset pool with one of the stations I do a weekly hit on, and you always want to get the dog that's big enough, but also the one that you think got a shot, and I think some people are going to be tempted into looking at Arizona there. I think it's terrible matchup, And like you, I don't have to go too far back in the memory bank to remember what Handas State did to them, And so yeah, it wouldn't crazy things have happened. It would very much surprise me in lieu
of like three turnovers or something like that. It would surprise me if that things really nip and touch in the Foyt supporter.
All right, let's move over to BYU, who welcomed in k State to Provo and just curb stomped him. It was the biggest margin of victory for a BYU football team in the history of that program over a top fifteen team. So Josh, for me, it was a combination and just kind of a confluence of a bunch of different factors, and a lot of it was good fortune. A lot of it was prepared, pared, skill, and they called the kill shots in the red zone when they
needed to to score touchdowns. And that defense is ten times better than it was a year ago year two under j hell Hill. Obviously, Colonnie cut his teeth under coach wit here in sal Lake as a defensive coordinator. But my question for you is, you know a lot of folks around here excited. You know, do we have two big twelve contenders in the state.
I'm not there yet with BYU. We'll see what they do.
They're at Baylor this week ten am Mountain Time kick. What is Josh Pate willing to say on this Wednesday about BYU's four and oh start?
Well, first off, I have profited off of it. I will tell you that I've ridden them every single week. I think that you have to when you're talking about a conference title contender, you have to scrutinize the statement a little bit more than if we're just trying to talk a team into Bowl eligibility. So if we're just trying to talk about getting six good wins, Brigham youngslip that point, okay, If we're trying to talk about them in more lofty conversation, that's when you run the fine
tooth comb through them. So what I'm about to say is not exclusionary. What I'm about to say is more conditional. When you go back, for example, on the Kansas State game, it is very rare that you beat someone by four scores and they outgain you by one hundred yards. But it was just the way the game played out. So that means nothing more than what I just said. It
counts as a win, it's a conference win. If we're talking about future predictability, a lot of times what you learn is those kind of results you throw them out, not because they don't count, you throw them out as it relates to trying to figure out what you're gonna do down the road. That is why, For example, in odds Making World, Brigham Young is a three and a half point dog at Baylor this weekend. That would otherwise make no sense. Kansas State wouldn't be a dog against Baylor.
But yet Brigham Young is why is that? Well, that's an odds Maker world telling you. We saw the results, we just don't necessarily think it bakes them very well in a predictive model. So all that means, all that jargon means is Brigham Young just has to keep proving people wrong. I haven't bought into him as a Big twelve title contender yet. Okay, but I've been wrong before. So all that means is you just go keep proving people wrong. You just keep playing.
Yeah, well, well said, well said, all right, one more Big twelve question? Then, of course, there are some massive games this weekend. Your pod that you released earlier was really really good, So I did want to do a little Georgia Bama. How many teams, Josh, it's you know we're coming up now on five weeks of college football, how many teams do.
You really think legitimately can win the Big Twelve?
Oh, buddy, half a dozen or more. If you just started rattling them all, there aren't There still aren't a ton of no's. Ironically, I'm gonna tell you this now, I've got serious doubts about Oklahoma State. Mathematically they're still in it, but I've got serious doubts.
Souse.
Everything I thought would be a strinth about that team is not. Utah's obviously there, Kansas State's still there. My Iowa State Cyclones are in there. Iowa faced one of the most interesting teams to me because they've got good pieces, they're veteran. It's kind of a Spike Yer for Matt Campbell. So Kansas out of it, I think, not mathematically, but realistically, want to see what TCU is able to do. I want to see if they're able to turn it on.
So we shortened the list a little bit, but there's still quite a few of them that I would say are contenders for sure.
All right, moving off the Big twelve, let's talk some big picture.
College football here. Last year it was tough.
I kept hearing a lot of really smart football people who I respected saying that Michigan was among, if not the best team in the country, but the first month of the season they just beat up on dog teams, and so it was hard to really cooperate that statement.
Are we dealing with the same situation.
With the Buckeyes with Ohio State who a lot of people think potentially the best team in the country, but we just don't over the first month have a great matchup test. Is that kind of a similar thing that we're dealing with Michigan a year ago Ohio State this year?
It could be. Yeah. I try and figure out as much as I can about a team in the preseason, and if I think you're good, you're gonna get benefit of the doubt with me until you play quality competition. Same way, if I don't think you're good, you go beat a bunch of teams. You haven't proven anything to me until you beat quality competition. So is that bias? Is that fair? I don't know. It doesn't matter, but I'm there with Ohio State right now. I've watched them some.
I think it's a really good defense. It may be one of, if not the best defenses in the country. I think people are painting it to be this impenetrable force and not quite that. Just a bunch of really good players, so someone will score on them eventually. I also don't know that the verticality is there in their past game with Will Howard, which is not a shot because it wasn't there when he was at Kansas State. So they're I mean, they're gonna have flaws, just like
any other team does. They're a really good team. I haven't necessarily changed my opinion defaulting off what I thought about in preseason. But if someone does think that, I could understand why.
All right, you were at Memorial in Norman, Oklahoma, and it feels like most everybody now is on this Tennessee hype train. I've heard a few people, maybe hot take artists, say that they can win the national championship.
You've seen it up close. What's what are you the same question?
What are you willing Josh to see today about Tennessee after seeing them up close?
Well, they're in that conversation. I mean, I'm gonna obviously stop well short of saying they're my pick, but they are in the conversation. They have not been there before. This is the first time they will have been there. Big difference in this team in the twenty twenty two team is obviously defensively they're a different level, but I just want to point out to people athletically they're a different caliber. They had the number one scoring offense in
twenty twenty two. They had to win against Bama. Everyone forgets they went down to Georgia a couple of weeks later as the number one team in the country and they were not competitive physically. So they are this year. And it's ironic because they get Bama and neland again this year, and they go to Athens to face Georgia again this year. That trip to Georgia is the one
I have circled. That's the one I am most intrigued by, because I think the athletic and physical profile and death profile of that team matches Georgia a whole lot more readily than it did two years ago. I have seen Texas in person. I'll see Bama Georgia this weekend. I've seen Tennessee. The Tennessee's not really taken a back seat
to those teams. They may they may not wuite be you know, shot for shot recruiting wise, what Georgia and Alabama have been, but they are They are not miles away at all, and they can absolutely compete with them, and it would not shot me at all to see them in that final four national title game kind of conversation.
All right, as you reference, you'll be in Tuscaloosa first time since O seven. Dama is an underdog at home. George's a two point favorite. The eyes of the college football world are gonna be on this game. Man, It's gonna be massive five thirty times. So what's the take? How does this play out and kind of set the scene? What do you think it's going to be like down there at Brian Denny Stadium.
It's going to be one of the best environments of the year. Keep keep I got I got a buddy who's more a pro football fan, have gotten into college football, and I try and tell people like that this setting, this kind of game is bigger in its scale than the college football playoff games and national title games, which is not the way it is in the NFL. You won't mind a better environment than this kind of game in the regular season. I don't care what the playoff
or national title game does for you. I am really interested to see what Bama can do running the ball. I think they'll have a fair amount of success running against Georgia. Georgia is getting some guys back in their defensive front, but even getting those guys back, they are not that vintage elite run stopping unit. They're just pretty good by Georgia's standards, which is still great by normal standards, but you ad the Jalen Milroe mobility effect in there
as well. I think they'll be able to do some business on the ground. They've got one of the best young receivers in the country and Ryan Williams scores virtually every time he touches the ball. But I want to know where does the explosivity come from in Georgia's offense. Because you haven't seen it so far this year, that doesn't mean it's not there. It's a big, big point to make. It's week four, it's week five, it's weak six.
Like that point in the season, every single year you see some guys start to pop. Didn't necessarily show up right out of the gate. And I don't know who it's going to be, maybe for either one of these teams, but I think someone or a couple of someone step up in this game that aren't on the marquee pregame that end up deciding it.
All right, Josh, before I say you loose, we got to revisit a conversation we had maybe two months ago, I think it was prior to the season starting, because I asked you, as your star rises, you know you're gonna be able to go around to all these places, see a lot of great robbery games. And I asked you if you were overly familiar with Utah BYU in the Holy War that takes place out here. And we talked about if things fall into place, could we see a Josh Pate siding here in Salt Lake City on
November the ninth. So I'm going to hold your feet to the fire and say that if over the next four weeks, because they both are gonna have a buye as well, both Utah and BYU intern November the ninth at A and O and Utah will they're already a top ten team. If they win their next four games, it might be top six or seven BYUS creeping up towards that top ten.
If they handle their business.
Can I get a at least a loose option of considering the Josh Paiate show rolling into Salt Lake for Utah BYU November the ninth, if both teams are undefeated.
Yes, yes, I'm ready to commit verbally that that is on the radar I'm looking for right now. Yeah, that's on the radar.
I feel like I need this in writing based off the news that happened in UNLB today. Oh man, All good, buddy, Hey, thanks for the time. Keep up the great working with Chatzoom.
Appreciate it, guys.
All right, the great Josh Pate.
Get him on Twitter at Josh Pate CFB, host of the Josh pay College Football Show.
I always appreciate his time on this Wednesday