Nightcap Hour 1: Johnny Manziel, Shannon Sharpe & Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson react to Alabama beats Vanderbilt at home, the Florida Gators beat Texas in a thriller and Colorado FALLS AGAIN!

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It's good to be right.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us for another episode of Nightcap.

Y'all know who I am.

I'm your favorite unknown, Shannon Sharp, my partner and co-host.

That's Liberty City's own Bingles Ring of Fame honoree.

Pro Bowler, all-pro, he's Chad Ochosinko Johnson.

And joining us every week, our college football analyst breaks it down, lets you know what he's thinking as a guy that played that position extremely well, which is the quarterback, won the Heisman Trophy, really put Texas A ⁇ M back on the map.

And now he has a place called the house that Johnny built.

Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Johnny Manzale.

Johnny, what do you do?

What up?

What's going on?

Good.

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Let's jump into the game that just ended.

The number three Miami Hurricanes improved to 5-0 thanks to a 28-22 victory over the Florida State Seminals.

Miami led 28-3 before holding off Florida State's rally.

The Knowles scored 19 points in the fourth quarter.

Hurricanes quarterback Carson Beck threw four touchdowns.

He was 20 of 27, 240 yards, four touchdowns, clean game.

Didn't turn it over.

This was the kind of Carson Beck the Georgia Bulldogs thought they was going to get, Johnny.

Yeah.

But unfortunately, he didn't play quite as well.

But I think a lot of the pressure is off of him now because the University of Georgia going the back-to-back national championship with Stetson Bennett, being the most outstanding player in the national championship game.

That added a lot of pressure to the guy that was coming in, following the guy.

Not to say he doesn't have pressure following Cam Ward, who was the number one overall pick.

But boy, them national championship.

But Miami are on to something.

Johnny, what did you like?

Because they did a great job.

I mean, you know, Florida State rallies late, 28-22.

But what did you like about what you saw from the U and more importantly, Carson Beck?

Look, I think it's one of those things where sometimes when you go down to Miami and you hit that South Beach, you're around there,

you may get your swagger back a little bit.

You get a program that's been hungry for success.

You get a coach that has a lot of success.

He's a great coach.

You get a new start.

Georgia wasn't for him and what he was doing, but you still saw flashes.

You still saw pieces of what he was as a player.

and now you look seven incompletions we're at 75 damn near on a completion percentage 241 four tds he's only taking one sack that's good efficient ball you look at them right now

top five team in the country and rolling you look at what they have rest of their schedule

this is a miami team that is poised for the playoffs with a quarterback that's playing very well and the rest of the team that is yeah when you look at the end of this game does it look a lot closer than what it actually was?

I'm sitting here watching this game tonight.

It really 28 to 3.

Yeah.

It's really, really what it is.

You can call it what you want at the end and like whatever it may be, but this was a beatdown and a team that's playing really well.

You look, they go to Louisville at home, Stanford at home, on the road to SMU, Syracuse, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, and Pitt.

You telling me we can't

clean that up?

We can't come out here and do what we need to do.

This is a team that's playing well, and the U is hungry for success.

As long as they don't look too far ahead, Ocho, I like what Miami is doing.

They're playing really well on both sides of the football.

They're attacking the quarterback, getting after the quarterback.

And you're right.

At the end of the day, it's going to come down to Carson Beck.

Can he take care of the football?

Can he continue to play as well as he's been playing?

Because as long as they don't look too far ahead, because as Johnny laid out some of their schedule ahead, sometimes you can look too far, like, oh, man, damn.

And somebody nip you at the tape.

Ocho, what did you like?

Let's stay on Miami.

Yeah.

What did you like about what you saw from the Kanes?

Well, listen, obviously, Carson Beck, Carson Beck looking really well.

Everyone talked trash about him getting the NIA money and coming to Miami, you know, saying he wasn't going to be what we think he is, despite what he's being paid.

But obviously, he's lived up to expectations.

Correct.

See, the receiving core, a CJ Daniels, Joseph Trader, Ray Ray Joseph, and the legendary.

Stay with me real quick.

The legendary Day County,

Dayla,

Antonio Brown, his son, Malachi Tony, out there cutting up.

You know,

he got some big shoes to feel, and he's doing it very well.

I'm sure, making pops proud.

It's really good.

And it makes Carson Beck's job absolutely easy because of his supporting cast.

When you have a supporting cast like that, it makes your job easy.

And obviously, they're able to establish the running game as well.

And that allows them to move the ball the way they do.

At one point, the score was 283.

All those garbage points.

I hate when coaches do this, johnny you know they do it in the nfl as well is you get a substantial lead and you take your foot off the gas and i think they do it on the purpose because everybody does the same thing instead of run the goddamn scoreboard up

i i think

i think the thing is um is that Ocho, it's easier to play from behind than it is to play from ahead because you throw caution to the wind when you're behind because what the hell I have to lose, Ocho, I'm down 28-3.

So if I lose 41-3, ain't nobody gonna say nothing and so you do get a little cautious we throw a little run here and there because they like the same thing with atlanta you see they were aggressive just like you want them to be right and now they had the biggest loss in postseason history and it happened to be in the biggest game in postseason history because they were like oh well ocho wanted to stay aggressive and they let a team get back into the ball game you're ahead 28-3 you shouldn't have fewer rush attempts than the team that's down 28-3 but that's what the falcons had and i i understand that but I'm a firm believer, Johnny.

You let me know what you think.

I think it's easier to play from behind than it is ahead.

Because like I said, I can run triple reverse.

I can run a flea flicker.

I can do whatever I want to do because I'm already losing by three scores.

So what?

If I lose by four scores or five scores, it's like Dan Marino used to say all the time.

Hell, if I threw three picks, who cares if I threw five?

I will keep gunning.

Yeah, it gives you that mindset and that attitude to just go out and let it rip and it doesn't really matter.

Like you throw a pick and

we get beat, we get beat.

At the end of the day, it's the win-loss, end-of-the-game decision.

You either come out with the dub or you come out with the nail, one of the two.

But playing ahead and getting ahead and having them kind of crawl back in definitely tightens up your playbook, changes what you're doing.

And when you're behind, you ain't got no choice but to send it to try and get back in this thing.

You're taking your shots.

You know, that middle read you may have that's never really

on the playbook for that play, but it gets a little bit open, you rip it in that situation type of thing.

So, you know, look, overall for this game, super surprising last week after what Florida State did early in the season to go and lose a game like Virginia.

And then you have a chance to try and bounce back and play a good Miami team, and you're really not competitive.

Does the score at the end of it look like you may have been?

Sure.

But in the reality,

you really weren't.

So

it's got to be disappointing for Florida State.

Got to be back to the drawing board.

I still think they have good pieces, but it's not going to be this year.

Yeah, I agree.

And I think the thing is when they beat Atlanta, when they beat Atlanta, beat Alabama in the fact that they beat them, we have very high expectations because you looked at the ACC is down this year.

Clemson is not what Clemson normally is.

And so that's really the only really true test that we think was in the ACC.

But then, as you mentioned, Johnny, they go, I think it was a Thursday night and they go to Virginia and the Cavaliers nip them.

Now they come home.

Now, look, Miami ain't no pushover no but we're looking at them like okay this is gonna be a very interesting game considering but now all of a sudden we looking at them like man they man they went on the road and lost to virginia but virginia might be better than we thought they were because they wanted a close ball game again today guys so virginia might be better than we previously thought but i definitely i definitely agree that florida state i i'm disappointed in what i've seen over the last two weeks miami is what we thought they would be that's the reason why they've been ranked so high coming into the season people had a lot of expectations expectations.

And as you mentioned, Ocho, this is why you give somebody a $4 million.

Like, we're a quarterback away.

We had a quarterback that goes number one in the draft.

And so

we still have pieces coming back.

If we can get another facilitator, I like our chances.

And they pulled the trigger.

But Miami.

This is still in state.

This is still in state.

Yeah, for real.

This is still one of those battles in state.

If we're in Texas and we're playing another Texas team, you want to come out and show some pride and show some love for your state.

So

this is no like, oh, we get a good team coming to town.

It's just a game on the schedule.

You look at their schedule.

For Miami, this is the last ranked team they currently play for the rest of the season.

For Florida State, they're trying to bounce back off a bad loss.

But if they win this game, they're right back into where they want to be for playoff contention.

You beat Bama, who's now rolling, and you beat Miami.

So you're coming into this game with pride, a full week of practice, and you know what you're up against.

And at the end end of the day, they didn't bring their best stuff, but it's still interstate where you're trying to go out and beat somebody that's a neighbor.

Yeah,

when you play these, when you have these kind of teams, you got the U, you got Florida State, and you got Florida in the thing.

You like, it's almost like the commander-in-chief trophy.

I won't brag it right, bro.

You know, you Army, Navy, and the Air Force, bro.

I'm trying to kick both of y'all ass because I want that trophy.

It is one of the other.

Look, we might not be going to no bowl game and we might only win three games or two games.

But as long as those two games it's army and navy if you're in the air force if you're if you're air force if it's against army and navy or if your navy is against air force in the army i don't care but i want that trophy uh and so that's how miami looks at it like look we want to be king because it's a recruiting battle also yeah you know you try to hey y'all think about going to florida y'all saw what we did to them you think about going to florida state you saw what we did to them y'all need to come on down there to the you because ain't nothing popping in gainesville and ain't nothing popping in tallahassee something

popping in Gainesville tonight.

Yeah, your boy DJ Langway played really well tonight.

And he needed to.

Let's talk about the game you were talking about earlier.

Alabama Beats gets their revenge on Vanderbilt.

Unfortunately, Diego Pavia couldn't replicate his performance from last year's historic upset of the Crimson Tide in Nashville.

Pavia's two red zone turnover Saturday helped Alabama avenge its first loss to Vanderbilt in four decades.

Ty Simpson was sensational again.

23 of 31, 340 yards, two touchdowns, and the Crimson Tide comes away with points on each of their first four trips in the red zone.

Johnny, I know the tide we're getting after you today, but

is Bama back?

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If Ty Simpson is going to play at that level of football and they are going to be punishing up front like what I saw live and in person today, the gaps and the holes that they had from an offensive standpoint today were massive.

They were gashing Bandi all day.

And coming into this game, you know, you look at the schedules of both teams.

Bandy had scored 35 plus in every game.

There's a game where they scored 70.

Your offense is rolling, okay?

And the only question was, is Vandi's defense in the trenches good enough to hold up?

And in reality, when you look at it today and you see and you watch the game from the sideline, the answer was no.

And it is a team game.

I think if you look at what Diego Pavia did in the first half of this game, he played great.

I think from an offensive play calling standpoint and what they do offensively, great.

They do a lot of motion.

They did an unbelievable little fake run where the running back comes back and they option it to him and he scored.

They're creative.

And to get back to your question a little bit,

Bama is playing at a level right now where they can compete with anybody in the country.

If Ty Simpson, if Simpson is going to play ball the way that he has played the last two weeks, Alabama has a chance to play with anybody in the country.

I had to go up to him after the game.

I'm on the field.

I'm obviously sitting there in a Diego Pavia jersey.

That is my dog.

And people were asking me in the stadium, I'm like, well, you're wearing that jersey.

I'm like, what do you want me to do?

Walking here in in a Mark Ingram jersey and I can't go back to A ⁇ M in two weeks?

What do you want me to do?

This is my guy, a guy I talk to weekly, and I'm pulling for him.

Now, you look at it overall, and I went up to Diego after the game.

This doesn't change anything for Vandi.

I think they didn't play well in the second half, but they can have a loss in the SEC.

He can have a game like that and still do the things that he wants to do and they want to do as a team.

Do they have a tough schedule?

Sure.

But you lost to a good team on the road and Bryant Denny, which if you go back through history, not a lot of people have won at.

And I, as that game started to get out of hand, those fans started to come down to that field area and started to rip me apart.

You're going to see some clips of me busting out of Heisman and tell people to shine my trophy because I haven't been back there since 2012 in that stadium.

Ain't nothing you can say to me.

I'm sitting here supporting my boy.

And, oh yeah, by the way, I already did what I needed to do in this stadium.

I already got something that's at my grandma's house for the rest of my life.

So I'm good.

Y'all can sit here.

I'm chilling.

And by the way, people in Tuscaloosa, nice.

Look at this house.

People taking care of me.

They love me out here.

Except for you little frat punks.

We good.

And

last thing.

I got all my money back I lost on Bandy tonight.

So

bang.

Yeah, Bama looked good.

Hey, Ocho, you see that 370-pound fullback, the running back?

Yeah, big proctor.

Big proctor touch that thing.

Hey, let me tell you something, huh?

When he makes it to the next level, whatever team takes him needs to keep him in

that same area of

special plays and being a gadget player.

And the one coach or the one team I think he

Lions.

The Lions.

Why was that?

Hey, Dan Campbell.

I was just getting ready to say it.

I was already thinking.

Because you saw him throw a screen pass to Panay Sewell.

You see him throw a back shoulder fade to Decker tackle.

So they know

their offense of Ben Johnson, and I don't know the coordinator now, but they, hey,

they'll try anything

anywhere because it's all about winning.

And they don't, hey,

you playing well.

Hey, son, you ever caught a ball?

You ever caught a pass before?

Not a long time.

Well, we're going to throw your ass one this week, son.

So get ready.

It's so funny when you think about it.

At what point, at what time has it ever all I can think about is refrigerator prairie,

the fridge.

God, yeah, the fridge, yeah.

Getting that dive back in the days.

I had never seen anything like that before.

But now to see a guard or a tackle out there catching screen passes,

running the ball to handing it.

Oh, he was the ocho.

They put him in an offset eye.

He got he came to the quarterback with the pocket and then bounced it.

I had never seen nothing like that.

Hold on, you ain't see his footwork when he caught the

screen.

Oh, last week.

Last week he was Georgia.

Yeah.

You ain't see the footwork on the sideline?

Oh, Joe.

And did he try to drive for the pylon?

He tried to dive for the pylon.

But you know, he had that harness on.

Oh, Joe, you know, you got that harness on.

You can't really raise your arm too high to keep it from going so high.

But it was fun to watch.

But when you look at...

I agree with both of you said about, especially you, Johnny, about Vandy.

When you look at Vandi, their defense is really good because because they got up they got after Ty Simpson in the Alabama offensive line they did pressure him

but they got a quarterback now it's hard to win in today's game at any level if you don't have that guy now there was upon a time if you had an outstanding defense yeah you can have any guy what you could you could run the football and win yeah not anymore those days are long gone hey hey uh you can't and and johnny i'm sure we'll talk about this team most of the time especially in today's game, that you throw the ball so much, you have to throw the ball to win because some of the defenses aren't as good as they used to be back in the day.

The one player that you can't hide and will get exposed is your quarterback.

Yeah.

He is your quarterback.

And I saw it today because the entire world, well, they told me, Johnny, I'm sure you heard it, Nuck, I'm sure you heard it, that

he was the next coming of Jesus Christ.

Or he was supposed to be.

Right.

Well, you know I'm going with that.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

It's

tough.

It's tough to play without a quarterback now because, like you said, Ocho,

that's the only position that you can't hide.

Right.

I can roll coverage.

I can slide the line.

I can chip.

If I'm the running back, you know what I'm saying?

If a guy doesn't have great hands, I bring somebody else in, let him play third downs.

If the guy, you know, I can do a lot of different things to hide a lot of players.

You know, I can slam my offensive line to keep you off off my, excuse me, my defensive line to keep you off my backers.

But the quarterback, how do you hide it?

You can't.

And listen, today in this game,

one thing about college football that's different from the NFL is an NFL cover two defense.

You watched it.

There were teams.

I had Brian Erlach on my podcast.

He like, man, we ran cover two all day long.

Yes.

A cover two in college football, if you were not really...

fundamentally sound in where you're supposed to be and your backers get depth and your corners play it right,

Vandi today stayed in cover two for too long.

And Ty Simpson did what he needed to do with his eyes and threw the hole shot maybe six times.

Yep.

Oh, so

when you got wide open hole shots all day on third down, second down and long, they're getting behind the sticks.

Vandi gets a second and 20.

Bang.

Hole shot for 18 and it's third and two.

Those were plays where they just got.

I'm just sitting there on the sideline screaming like, give me a two-man.

Mix it up.

They ran a simple stick and and go on the outside corner and backer both jump on this on the the low route and he and ty simply just drills the whole shot before the safety can get there and it's like 15 yards 16 yards 22 yards

and you can't have that and they just got eaten away and especially when you're getting gashed in the run game too and you do finally get the casher and you do finally get into long situations and you can't get off the field you're not going to have success i'm going to cover three.

Give me some quarters.

Give me something.

Hey, hey, Johnny, in situations like that, you see a game like today, you got to be able to take away something.

Either you're going to take it to the front or you're going to take away the pass, but you can't allow them to dominate on both sides.

You can't allow them to be successful in the pass and the run.

Then you're at their mercy.

And you look, we know how to get you out of cover too, OJo.

We run your ass out of cover too.

Absolutely.

And because Alabama was running the ball well enough,

the linebackers take one one step forward, now that's an extra couple of steps that you're going to have to take to get back.

And then by that time, Bama receivers are in those gaps.

Too late.

Yep.

And that's what you have to do.

Now, a lot of teams play what we call play cover two and they call it run Tampa two, where they take the mic backer and they run.

But when you do that, yeah.

But here's the thing.

You take off like you're trying to get down the hole and then you just stop.

Or

you run him down the hole and then you take the receiver that's outside the numbers and run him on the dagger route.

And

they did it all night.

They did it all night.

I got it.

It didn't matter what they did.

And then even early in the game, even in cover three, they were just seeming it, making sure, like, it was just a good offensive game plan from Bama.

And to be honest, Vandi coming out in the second half and not being able to score points, having a couple three and outs and giving them the ball so much.

Time of possession for Alabama versus Vandi in the second half was atrocious if you're a Vandi fan.

But listen, this is still a good football team in Vandi.

It's a trending forward Alabama team.

And so many people after last week when we spoke were like, man, you're a bam hater and this and that.

I ain't got to love them.

I ain't go there.

What are we talking about?

I respect the SEC and I love SEC football.

There's a lot of people here that treated me great today in Tuscaloosa that respect what I did and respect the matchups we had.

So you got to look at it the same way with Diego Pavia and what Vandy did last year.

They came and got the better of you out of nowhere.

Now you come back, you get your revenge, and it's a good game, but it's split.

1-1.

They're saying

it is what it is.

And to be honest, these teams may meet again.

Also,

this is not your father and your grandfather's Commodores.

I mean,

when was the last time we saw a Vandy ranked 16?

When do we have last time we saw expectations?

Normally, you go into Vandy, you're going to get a great education.

You go into Alabama, you're trying to go to the NFL.

You go to Georgia, you try to go to the NFL.

I was telling a story today.

I was telling a story today when we played Vandi in 2013.

I had half a shoulder, half an ankle, and went 25 or 26, and the ball barely never touched the ground.

And we were out there toying.

This ain't that Vandi.

Nope.

Props to them, props to their program, props to what they've done.

But sometimes when you take the goalpost out and you run it all the way down Broadway to the river, that doesn't sit well with Alabama fans.

And

they were juiced for that one today.

Oh, man, look,

they lucky.

They lucky they ain't scoop up Alabama buses and take them and throw them in that damn river.

We ain't beat your ass in four decades.

Oh, Joe.

I'll be thinking about it.

Some of their parents wasn't alive with last time they beat Alabama.

And you think I'm not going to do something?

You can find us a million dollars.

The goalpost coming down on both ends.

Not just one, both of them.

I'm taking both.

B-O-F-F, both.

I'm taking both of the Mopo down.

Man, come on.

That's

think about it.

Vanderbilt beating Alabama.

Yeah, man.

Yeah.

Been a long time since.

Yes.

How do we feel about Kellen DeBoer's seat now, two weeks later, than what we were talking about three weeks ago?

He heard all the talk.

They put a little cushion under that thing, huh?

Yeah.

They absolutely did.

they absolutely did look look i think the thing is when you they i think they said his record i think he's like 117 and 17

but you at alabama that ain't alabama that ain't that james franklin record hell no

alabama measures success in sec championships and national championships that's how they measure success you okay you want to be 10 and 3 but if you bring us the sec championship and you go play for the you go play for a national championship we'll forgive that all that 12 and 1 13-1, and you ain't in the SEC championship game, and you're not in

the national champion.

Bam ain't trying to hear all that.

Because what they're going to say, been there, done that.

Those are fans that are spoiled.

You get Coach Bryant for two decades, and then you get another two decades out of Nick Saban.

You win 12 national championships.

How many did you play for?

How many SEC championships did you win?

That's the expectations in Alabama.

As I'm rooting for Vandy today, and people are looking at me like, yo, we're hosting you here, and this and that.

I go, how many times have y'all won or been?

How much success?

There's nothing.

You sprinkle in a loss here and there, but it hasn't been consistent at all.

So, the Vandy and what they're doing with their success, I was pulling for that.

And Javier is a great kid.

He is a great dude.

He's got, I see so much of myself in him that I'm going to continue to be friends with him and try and help him.

That's what I'm going to do.

But you look at it,

you guys both tell me what you think.

The rest of the schedule for Alabama, they play at Mizzou next week.

They play Tennessee at home.

They play South Carolina on the road.

They play LSU at home.

And they play OU at home.

And then in the season, of course, with Auburn.

So this, we're going to see exactly what you're made of.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

You got three ranked two ranked matchups coming up.

South Carolina, who who knows, they can get a little bit better.

And then you got two more ranked matchups.

It's a tough schedule.

It's a tough schedule.

Is he back?

Exactly.

He'll be back.

That's here will be back by 11.15.

Okay.

Well, see, there you go.

It ain't stopping.

It ain't slowing down.

This is SEC football, baby.

Missoula's going to be tough.

Yeah.

South Carolina will be tough on the road.

Tennessee.

Tennessee shouldn't be Georgia.

Yeah.

It doesn't matter what Auburn's record is.

The Iron Bowl is always the bowl.

Always good.

You already know.

I'm trying to wreck your season.

I really am.

I mean, we're not going nowhere.

I like it.

I mean,

we can't go.

You can't either.

The Gators wreaked havoc on Arch Manning

to take down the number nine Texas Longhorns 29-21.

All that preseason hype with the number one ranking and all the excitements surrounding Arch Manning era are long in the rearview mirror.

Arch finished with 263 passing yards, a pair of touchdowns, and a pair of INTs, a defense that had been elite so far this season with Gash for 159 rushing yards by that Gators attack.

There may be an outside chance this team can get back in championship capabilities, but

Texas don't look good, man.

Nah, hey, and

I'm going to go first.

Obviously, if they're to get in back in contention and have any chance at winning, let alone just throughout the season, as opposed to even thinking about getting at the playoffs, they have to have better quarterback play.

They got to have better quarterback play.

You got to see the field a little bit better.

You got to understand what you're seeing, being able to pop this defenses before they happen.

No disrespect.

I'm just saying in general, your quarterback play is one of the reasons why you're in the situation you're in now.

Now, despite what all the analysts say, all the people say, and with the praises and how you're supposed to be, he's going to need a year like this.

He's going to need a year like this with some bumps, some bumps and bruises and grinding and getting familiar with what's going on this year.

And I'm assuming maybe next year he will come back much better having a year under his belt to get familiar with.

the speed of the game, being able to process things a little faster and know what's coming and knowing some of the nuances and what you can and can't do as far as taking chances with the ball.

Sometimes how it just feels to go into these stadiums and into these big games, right?

For him, it's not Arch's fault.

And we have sat here and I've been critical of him and I've said certain things.

And it's not his fault.

It's not his fault.

His last name is what it is.

It's not his fault that people were clamoring for him last year with Quinn Ewers.

And when I saw the score tonight, of course, being an Aggie,

they laugh at our pain every single year.

We're the butt of the joke every single year.

So now it's my turn.

Okay.

I'm laughing.

And I said, man, I bet you boys miss Quinn Ewers.

I bet all that clamoring and all that jawing about Quinn Ewers, Quinn was slinging it.

Quinn got you to between two plays of getting to the natty

the Michigan year that they wanted.

So listen, it's not Arch's fault.

He's a sophomore.

He is a young kid that is developing under a very good coach and a program that has potential.

But this is a Florida team that we have sat here for countless minutes and said,

what the hell are they doing?

Can we get Urban?

Can we get Jimbo?

Can we get something?

But you look, Lagway played great.

That is the Lagway we expected to see.

And when you look at it from a Texas standpoint, Arch Manning being the leading rusher with 37 yards and as a team rushing for 52,

you can't get out your own shadow.

Nah.

Yeah.

Two yards of carry.

Two.

Terrible.

So look, this is a Texas team, too, that has opportunity.

You still got chances.

You go and lose one to Florida.

Guess what?

Guess what next week is?

That one split down the middle in Dallas.

Yeah.

Ranked.

Oh, they play OU?

Ranked top five.

You go win that game.

It's going to get ugly.

You never know.

Is Matir back?

Maybe you catch them this year without their starting quarterback.

All right.

So for Texas, it's not all bad.

They're going to catch some flack for the Aggies and me because we're finally winning.

And you guys take an L versus a team that's been terrible.

But at the end of the day, for Arch, these are growing pains.

A year for him as a sophomore, he can come back two years and be a great quarterback and have a great career and do what he needs to do and be a Texas legend.

But for right now, this team, the preseason number one,

they're not that team that we thought they were.

No, I think the thing is, is that when you look at it, everybody, all Texas fans, put an Arch, put an Arch.

Y'all skewer.

And I was like, I thought you were bad.

I wasn't clamoring for Arch Manning because I had seen enough.

Because I've seen him putting up stats against San Jose State.

I said, bro, that's not SEC competition.

Now, when I see him put up numbers like that against SEC competition, then maybe I'll start clamoring for him.

But the thing that's working against Arch is expectations and that last name because the thing was happening, man, Peyton would have made that throw.

Peyton would have done that.

Eli, he ain't even Eli.

Bro, you do realize, like, those were number one overall draft picks.

Both of them was number one overall draft picks.

Peyton is a top five quarterback, and you might not take him out of the top three.

With all that being said, Eli, just one of the best big game quarterbacks in NFL history.

He beat Tom Brady twice in the most meaningful game that our sport

has to offer.

But

I mean, who's surprised?

Y'all really thought that Arch Manning was going to be Peyton.

Y'all really thought that?

I did.

I thought it was going to be great because most of the time, you know what happens when you come from that type of lineage of great quarterbacks, most of the time it trickles down one after another.

It worked with me.

No, it don't.

There's one thing, Oach.

It's the mental side of things.

It's the how to carry yourself side of things.

It's what you see from the greats that you've been around with access that nobody in the world gets to see.

But where he went to school, when you go watch Arch Manning highlight tape and you see the dudes that are chasing after after him.

Yeah, my grandma in a wheelchair moved faster than some of them boys that were chasing after him.

He ain't play 6A.

Me and my boys were talking about this the other day.

If he, you put him in 6A, Dallas or Houston football,

you're going to see some dogs.

You're going to see some people who can play.

He didn't play that competition.

So this is his first level of playing guys who are real, real dogs.

You play in the SEC and you get an offer and you're a starter, you can play.

You got the size, you got the speed.

You don't see a lot of bums out there.

So

it's going to take some time for him to get used to that.

And it's not his fault.

That's just where he went to high school.

I didn't go to a high school that was 5A, 6A in Texas, but my coaches were so gangster that they wanted to go play those guys in our non-conference.

Because they're like, you know what?

Even if we get smoked, we're going to see stuff that we may not see in the playoffs or we'll be ready for the playoffs.

So it made us better.

So this,

if you handle it the right way, as he's going to have Peyton and Eli and everybody in his ear, listen, failure produces growth.

This stuff produces growth.

If Texas goes eight and four this year after being preseason number one,

that's hungry offseason.

That's growth.

Yeah.

And the funny thing too about it, about it, Johnny, and like the kind of the piggyback on what I was saying about obviously Arch and I mean, I'm talking about Arch, Peyton and Eli being so good.

And why I thought, well, hell, well, maybe he's going to fall right behind because I look at the Bosa brothers, I look at the Ward brothers, I just look at how they both obviously were great at their respective crafts.

So I expected after hearing all the noise about Arch, I'm expecting him because I've never seen him play, I never saw him play, I didn't see him play in high school.

Saw a small sample size of him as a freshman.

So I'm thinking, well, hell, Q N Eric,

Quinn Errors is now gone.

I'm thinking he's going to be all world.

And then come to to find out it's really not

what I thought it would be.

And just growing paints, growing pains.

Ocho, your point is valid when you look at brothers, but their dad wasn't the sons.

Hey, Archie Manning, I remember Archie Manning playing.

He's the number two pick in the draft.

Yeah.

He wasn't paying.

We talked about this, the likelihood.

So you want God to just give you everything.

You know what?

I'm in the hall of fame and I want my son to be great too so magic johnson and all these kids with sons you want them to be the equivalent of what their dad was bobby bonds was an outstanding player right he wasn't barry ken griffey senior was an outstanding major league player he wasn't junior yeah

that ain't happening

so the likelihood of like

really yeah i thought it'd been three i thought and

hey y'all

he got a long way to go now he got He got two full years after this one.

You can look up, he can stay, do the Colt McCoy thing, stay his entire career at Texas.

Oh, I think he would.

I think he was three years.

And you could look up.

He can be the number one pick in the draft in 2028 or whatever it may be.

He can.

He still has that.

But he has to grow.

He needs reps.

He needs time.

He's got the lineage.

He's got everything.

But like you said,

It just takes some time, man.

He's not where he needs to be or where everybody thought he was.

Everybody wants things to move so quick.

Get him out.

He's the first pick in the draft this year and that.

And reality, let the kid be a kid and grow and get an education and have fun and grow into the player that he deserves and needs to be.

Right.

Yeah.

Look at Dale and Steph.

Dale Curry played 16, 17 years in the NBA.

Dale Curry is not his son.

And that's no knock because when you have that kind of longevity, obviously you can play.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

But Steph Curry is a transcendent player.

And so the likelihood, like I said, to be that, like I said, you get brothers.

Look, you get the Watts.

Look at TJ and JJ.

Me and my brother, Rondi and Tiki.

You get Clay Matthews and you get Bruce Matthews.

Yeah.

In that situation, though,

you guys get to grind together.

right yes get to grow together you got to see him and learn from him and follow in that

when it comes decades apart.

Yes.

And you see it from a sideline when you're six years old and Peyton's winning a Super Bowl.

It's not the same as having your older brother two years apart, who is, you're seeing it right in front of your face.

It's different.

Because you're asking yourself,

am I too hard?

Am I hard enough?

And then he has to deal with your dad would have made that play.

Man, your uncle would have completed that pass.

Oh, yeah.

You're not your, because I told you the story, Ocho, that Ken Griffith said he can't wait to see his son.

And And his son struck out.

And the guy sitting next to him said, hey,

he's not you.

And Griffey looked at him and said, name five players who were.

Ooh, that's a good one.

It's a bar.

So

when you think about it, now you get an appreciation because Peyton took over for Hilton, ended up playing baseball, who was a great first baseman for the Colorado Rockies, and he didn't look back.

Eli got in, and he didn't look back.

I don't think anybody was calling for Peyton or Eli to be replaced.

And what he's up against is that legacy.

That's what he's up against.

And you know, Johnny, this, when you play in the SEC, you might get a legacy scholarship to go there.

You damn sure ain't going to get no legacy scholarship to get your ass on the field.

Because they all about winning.

And they're going to put the best of level on offense, the best of level on defense, and the best 11 on special teams will trot out there every single time.

Your last name is not going to save you from them looking in that transfer portal that can somebody that can bring somebody in and beat you out in the spring.

Yeah.

That's just the facts of the college football world we're in now.

You can go slide a million and a half to somebody that played at a smaller school, but has a lot of talent, but hasn't had the opportunity.

And you can have somebody come in in the spring and in February

and

he can play and he can come in and beat you out.

And I don't think that'll be the case, but I definitely think if Texas, depending on how their season goes, they're not going to be accepting what what it is right now and what's going on and this is not a knock to Arch I think if you look at him overall as a player Has he struggled?

Has he hit the things that he needed to hit?

Does he look like himself?

No, but does he have the potential and the tools that he needs most likely but you have to develop and yes, he's with a coach that I believe is a good developer of talent.

But absolutely you have to you have to look at it from a team standpoint too.

Texas lost a lot of pieces last year that made them really, really good from a receiver standpoint, from a defensive standpoint, from a running back standpoint.

I mean, Golden, what's the other guy name they lost?

They lost two receivers, right?

I think so, yeah.

Because one was talking about he was going to run like he was going to go, he was going to break the record.

Matthew, they lost Matthew Golden.

Yeah, he agreed.

They lost another one, too.

I forgot his name.

Didn't he go to college?

Isaiah Bond?

Was it Bond?

Yes, yes.

Isaiah Bond.

Yeah.

The transfer from Alabama because he started at Alabama.

Yep.

But look, I mean, Texas still has a a program that is a lot better shape than they were when you went through the Charlie Strong years and Mac left and they couldn't find a quarterback and they really struggled.

I mean, they have had a lot of success in the last couple of years of getting into the playoff, being close to where they want to be, and they're just not playing their best ball right now.

But

it doesn't slow down.

You got OU this week.

You got more games coming up.

Like this SEC gauntlet, depending on what your draw is throughout the year, is tough, man.

It is.

We were talking about Bama schedule.

We talked about A ⁇ M schedule last week.

Like some teams may have it easier depending on it not being split down the middle and you playing set teams anymore.

Like we don't play Bama this year.

Lucky us.

Normally, two years ago,

we got to play them.

We got to play LSU.

We play every team in our division.

So now with it being this way, it really is luck of the draw and who you play is if they're good enough.

Johnny, you mentioned, talked earlier about DJ Langway Langway because we felt that he hadn't been playing up the par, but he had himself a night tonight, 21 of 28, 298, two touchdowns, had one INT.

They ran the ball 37 times for 159 yards.

Baugh had 27 for 107, and Wilson had six for 111 and two touchdowns.

So they got the balance that they needed to keep Texas off balance because they was running it.

And Lagway had a day throwing the football.

And this is the kind of, this is what we expected of Lagway at at the start of the season.

He was, what, you know, preseason, he and Archie Mannon, like, okay,

obviously, with Nussmeier, they thought those were going to be the guys in the SEC.

But this was the best that he's looked.

And it might have taken Billy Napier off the hot seat, guys, for at least a week, or at least Luther Manjo used to say, if only for one night.

He gets to sleep easy tonight, Johnny.

Well, here's the thing I don't like about this:

I can enjoy it and revel in the Texas unsuccessfulness.

Next Saturday, 10-11,

Florida comes on down to college station.

And that's a nice win for them to build off of, a confidence builder for Lagway.

And us being a six-ring team in the country, you know that you're playing a team that is capable of beating a top 10 team.

And you're going to have your hands full.

So

one week ago, this looked like a game A ⁇ M could check off.

Kind of.

You never want to just check through it, but it was one that you feel like you're going to be confident about winning.

And now you kind of look at it and go, okay, we better tighten up because we're getting our best shot for sure.

For sure.

Dallas Wilson finished with six catches, a buck 11 and two touchdowns.

It was the best debut for a freshman receiver at Florida in program's history.

And we know some of the receivers that's come out of there, the high draft picks that's come out of the University of Florida.

But this young man had the best debut game in Florida history.

But, like, yeah, Napier is off the hot seat because, boy, hey, he lost his game, and now you're talking about one and four.

Oh, he got to get up out of there.

He got to get up out of there, Johnny.

And they still got, if I'm not mistaken, they still got their rivalry with Georgia.

So, oh, yeah, you can't keep losing.

all these games and then lose the Georgia, new

Georgia-Florida rivalry.

AM number six.

They play Mississippi State.

They play Georgia is number 12.

They play Kentucky.

And then they go number four, Old Miss, number 15, Tennessee, number 18, Florida State to finish the year.

Yeah,

it ain't look for, boy.

It ain't looking good for the home team, Mocho.

Yeah.

But at least they showed in the locker room.

At least you can go in the locker room and turn around and look and be like, okay,

we got it.

Like, we can.

We went out and beat a Texas team that's ranked.

Are they as good as we thought they were?

Whatever.

But it's a top-tier SEC team, and we got more of them coming up.

So, as a Florida locker room, this is a positive season-building thing, right?

Yeah,

we were talking about Billy Napier and Kaylin DeBoer being on the hot seat.

James Franklin said, Get y'all ass off that hot seat.

Let me get on there.

And sure enough, last Saturday's lost to Oregon.

They lost to number two, Oregon.

But Lou, this is the 0-14.

They had fired their entire staff.

I don't know, is that Rick Newheisel's son?

Jerry Newheisel?

It is.

Okay.

Okay, so now it's the first loss Penn State in 34 games against an unranked team.

Penn State is the first top 10 team to lose to an 0-4 team or worst opponent in 40 years since Texas El Paso knocked off the defending national champ in 1985, BYU.

It was impossible for a play.

Hey, hey, they ain't going to play off now.

No.

You ain't ain't losing that game.

No.

And going and going to the playoffs.

Nico Amaleva.

Yeah, Malevolent.

Well, he played today.

He didn't leave today.

They probably,

UCLA probably wanted him to go, John, if he had lost that game today.

But he played outstanding today.

He had 17 of 24, 166, two touchdowns, 16 rush attempts, 128 yards, three touchdowns.

He was outstanding.

And again, now everybody laughed.

Hey, last week when we was talking about James Franklin, whoa, but he this, he that.

Okay, now what y'all got?

I'm interested to know what y'all got.

The team fired their entire staff.

I don't even know where they got Jerry Newhausen from.

I don't know if he was on the staff or not.

But all I know is that the number

17 in the country, the seventh ranked team in the country.

And you go on the road,

they might have not won 10 games in the last three years.

And they had you down.

As a matter of fact, they had you down at the half 27-7.

They had you favored.

Hold on.

They had them favored.

They had Penn State favored to win by what?

24, if I'm not mistaken?

Yeah.

UCLA covered plus 24 and a half.

That's nasty.

Hey, that's one of those money lines you're looking for all year.

Like, oh,

that pays.

Well, I hope that wasn't your suicide pick because you know you have a suicide pick, you can pick them, but you can't pick them again.

Right, right.

Hey, here you are, week four, and it's gone.

Drew Allen, 19 to 26, 200 yards, two touchdowns.

But he was your leading rusher with 11 carries for 78 yards.

UCLA ran the ball 53 times, 269 yards.

I can just imagine what that time of possession was.

When you run the ball that many times, you probably had the ball for,

I was going to say you had the ball 40 minutes on your 39 minutes and 17 seconds.

Something like that.

If you got a team that's able to impose their will on you and run the ball at will like that with that amount of yards and have that type of time possession, the chances of you winning a game is slim to none.

Or when you do get the ball, you're going to have to match and score for score.

And Penn State wasn't able to do that on either side of the ball.

I'm not sure what's going on, especially for them to lose to an 0-4 tune like that.

And the moniker that we always hear, especially in in the NFL, any given Sunday, well, hell, any given Saturday.

Any given Saturday.

And that was a perfect example of that definition today and what we saw from UCLA.

Yeah, this is a drawing board.

Back to the drawing board

for Penn State.

This is a backbreaker.

You come out and you play in the game last week where you have real opportunity to go and win and you feel like...

You know what?

We let that one slip, but we can build off it.

And then you come out and you sit in the locker room at halftime and it's 27-7 and you're looking around, you're wide-eyed.

You're like,

what's going on?

And then the game ends the way that it does.

UCLA team has been getting laughed at and then it's been really tough.

And Nico's taking a lot of slack for what happened at Tennessee.

So when you look at it in this game, you have to say respect to UCLA for doing what they needed to do, getting people in there, and coming and getting a good win versus the top end team.

And Penn State has to be sitting there just kicking themselves because this is a season-ending kind of loss.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Penn State only had nine third-downs.

UCLA was 10 of 16.

Damn.

So they converted more third downs than Penn State had gap.

Total.

You go 10 of 16.

Oh, you're going to have the ball a long ass time.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

That's so frustrating.

Yeah.

Because you're hoping, man, let's get the third down.

Let's get the third down.

Then you get to a third and seven, and they get you all the air gone.

Damn.

Come on, D.

Come on, D.

Let's get them off the field.

Come on.

We ain't get them off the field.

We didn't get them off the field.

That was, that was you.

Look, that happened.

Go ahead, Ocho.

Go ahead.

I was going to say, I mean, obviously, Johnny, you would know better than me, coach.

You

understand how college football works as far as entities of this magnitude, especially Penn State, that have a certain standard that they always go by or abide by.

Does Coach Franklin make it through the season, you think?

I don't think they're going to pull up those same stats we were talking about.

I still think they're going to look at it as a guy who's built a good program, a guy that was successful at Vanderbilt.

I still think they look at him as a guy that can get them where where they want to go.

That's just my opinion of the situation.

It's one of those things, too.

You got to go replace him with somebody who can do what you want to do.

And there's not a ton of guys just sitting out there that you can just go pluck.

You are Penn State, which is a prestigious program, but you are not Alabama.

You are not.

Texas,

Ohio State, Oregon.

You are not that.

You are not LSU.

So you are a good program, but you can't just come in and buy somebody out of their contract or this.

So if you get rid of a James Franklin who is a good coach and a program builder,

you don't want to take a step back and maybe taking a shot on somebody else.

So I would think.

he'll get a grace year and you'll have to come back in next year.

And if this continues, then it's something you look at seriously.

But that's just my opinion of the situation and what I see.

I agree.

I don't think they do anything in the middle middle of the season.

This is not a situation like UCLA, Ocho, because they looked at that situation like

there is no light on the horizon.

We've gone through several years of this, and this just isn't going to cut it.

Okay, I got you.

And you started off 0-3 this year.

You lost to a team that you probably weren't supposed to lose to.

They're like, nah, we're done.

We've seen enough.

We've seen enough.

And they pulled a plug on it.

So I agree, Johnny.

I don't think they do anything now.

Maybe next year you go back.

But who's out there?

You're not getting a coach to leave.

Sark is not leaving Texas to go to Penn State.

Now, you might get some coordinator to go to Penn State, but to get a big-time coach to leave a program?

Nah.

Nah.

You're not getting Freeman to leave Notre Dame.

You're not getting Brian Kelly to leave LSU.

Kirby ain't leaving Georgia.

DeBoer is not leaving Alabama.

Day is not leaving Ohio State.

The guy at Michigan is not leaving Michigan.

So Dan Lanning is definitely not leaving Oregon.

So

who are you going to hire?

You go hire a creative up-and-comer, a GJ Kinney type of dude who built a good program, but is in a smaller school.

Or you go to the Fired Football Coaches Association, is what John Gruden calls it.

And you go find somebody who

got bought out for $90 million and try and get him up there and lure him in with another 150 and see how much he likes the bag.

Yeah,

that's your option.

People talking about Lane Kiffin.

I think Lane Kiffin, the only job, Lane Kiffin, he'll leave and go to Alabama.

I think that's the only job.

Because first of all, if Bama calls, everybody's listening.

Yeah.

That's the one school that everybody

is.

You say you...

You the AD for who?

Alabama?

The Alabama?

The elephant?

That one?

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

How you doing?

Yeah, we just wondered if you, okay, you listen.

You listen.

Nick Sabin was at Miami.

Miami, the Dolphins.

Alabama called.

He took that call.

He's like, man, you know what?

This little bit of money y'all paying me ain't worth it.

They don't want to listen.

Let me go somewhere.

And these kids want to get to this level.

Yeah.

And they'll listen to every and they'll hang on and listen to every damn word I say.

I got a little bit more control.

And he built a factory down there.

Johnny, your team, Texas AM, the Aggies, number six, Aggies, 31-9 over Mississippi State.

They remain

undefeated.

Ended up five yards of carry for the game, nearly exceeding 300 yards.

They had 54 carries, 299 yards rushing.

Jesus.

Well, if you got that many yards rushing, you got 40 minutes on your hands.

Maybe, maybe a little more.

38-17.

So 23 first down, 7 of 15.

Mississippi State was one of 10 on third down.

Surprised the score wasn't more lopsided than that.

479 total yards to 219.

13 of 23 for your guy, Marcel Reed.

Didn't ask, he wasn't asked to do a whole lot, but they got the job done

31 to 9.

I don't know how much of this game you saw, Johnny, but what did you like about what you saw?

If you did watch some of it, what did you like about what you saw?

Because I know you're a big Reed fan.

Yeah, no, listen, I watched a little bit of it, but I think you look at the last two weeks for A ⁇ M and you get into SEC play, right?

They've given up 10 points versus Auburn and 9 versus Mississippi State.

That is playing very solid fundamental defense, flying, rallying to the football, not missing tackles, doing the right things.

The cool thing, too, for A ⁇ M that Aggie should be excited about is when you rush for 300 yards, the pressure comes off of Marcel Reed.

So Marcel Reed can now have a 56% completion percentage, throw a pick, only throw for 180 yards, and he only rushed for 30.

But it's not one of those things where you're taking 500 bricks and putting it on his back.

Right?

You got a defense that's getting you back on the field quickly.

You got an offensive line that's helmet to helmet,

moving the line of scrimmage.

And you have a running back that's going for over 100 yards.

It's team complimentary football.

Yep.

And that's what you want to see.

That's the making of a good team, not where you're lopsided and your offense has to carry and take over for your defense or whatever it may be.

But for Texas AM, this is another check of the box of an SEC win in a game that normally, if you don't come out and have your preparation and everything

T's crossed, I's dotted and everything, you can lose a game like this.

But I think Elko has the guys rolling.

I think he has them focused.

And I think you have to look at them and say, they are contenders.

Another check on the box for A ⁇ M.

Man, I watched an A ⁇ M come out of that tunnel.

Boy, they were hype.

Boy, they think they had that thing.

That thing was live, man.

I said, okay, A ⁇ M,

y'all might be ready.

The A ⁇ M defense

held Mississippi State to under 220 yards of total offense.

So when you can run it for 300, hold the opposing team to under 220 in a college game with all the plays that they're going to run.

Yeah.

This was a thorough domination.

I'm surprised they didn't win by, but like you said, when you run it, I mean, you're not going to rush, I mean, score a bunch of touchdowns running the football.

You will keep your defense off the field.

And when they do get on the field, they can go hunting because they're fresh.

But uh, I thought AM played extremely well today.

They, hey, Johnny, I, you know what?

I wouldn't agree with you.

I was like, man, Johnny being a homer.

When it's all said and done, AM might be down there.

They might have something to say.

They might be like the devil going down to Georgia.

What I said last week, which was exactly this, from what we have seen from AM so far, if you give it an honest assessment from a full team football perspective, you have seen the right pieces from an offensive standpoint, from a defensive standpoint, and from a special team standpoint.

You got a receiving core that could be as good as anybody in the country.

You got a ground game that can pop off 300 in your face.

You got a, when you run the ball like that, like you said, Unc,

your defense is fresh.

I want my dogs on the D line who are going to get drafted in that first, second, third round.

If they're fresh and sitting on the sideline over there on the cool benches, having the water, and they get to go pin their ears back for three plays and get off the field, That is a recipe for success.

So, to not jinx my Aggies by hyping them up too much, because

we have a history, but nevertheless,

there's one way to change, and that is to do something different.

And what we're seeing right now, so far, week in and week out, is very impressive.