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It's a podcast you can listen to together with your kids so everyone can benefit. Follow NextPitch on the Odyssey app or wherever you listen to podcasts. It is the JR Sport Reef Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. College football season is underway. We're staring at the beginning of the NFL season.
We had so many games over the weekend on the college side. Things were punctuated last night. Bill Belichick, North Carolina getting smashed. We saw. Arch Manning, not the best-looking performance on Saturday to break down all of the games, the Tigers playing each other, and what we got out of Ohio State to talk about it all.
As a senior writer from Yahoo Sports joining us, covers all things college sports, especially football. Here he is, Dan Wolcan. Dan, how are you, man? I'm excellent. Appreciate the time.
You know, amongst all the things that I I just mentioned from it felt like five days of of college football, what really captured your attention? Yeah, I mean, look, you're going to get some interesting matchups in week one among these top teams, but I don't know how much we really learn, obviously. That uh Arch Manning in Texas did not play well offensively, and that's raised a lot of alarm bells. Um but I do think long term They're probably going to be fine. It's tough to go into a road game at Ohio State week one.
and look good, especially against that defense.
So LSU certainly showed a lot of improvement defensively compared to where they've been the last couple years. I think you. But we're gonna have to take it as was it real? Clemson offensively was a bit of a disaster, but they've not been very good on offense for the last couple seasons.
So. Those are some of the things that Stood out certainly in week one, but as you go through the year and you get more data, how much is it going to hold up? Uh to reality. Uh we'll we'll see.
Well, Dan, you talk about Arch Manning and certainly people are were going to overreact one way or the other regardless of what he looked like. What positives did you take away from what you saw on Saturday? Not a lot. Really? It was not a very good performance.
Um, when you talk about a player like Arch Manning, who yeah, he has not started a lot of games. He hasn't played a lot of meaningful snaps against good competition. But at the same time, it's his third year in the program, and so There are certain throws you would expect him to make that he didn't make, even some of the simple stuff.
Now, Look, I think Steve Sarkeesian didn't do a great job calling plays. Could have helped him out a lot more early in the game, gotten him in a rhythm. But It didn't happen. And I think it is a little bit concerning. Um but again You know, he's a young player in terms of experience.
He's going to have to learn a lot. He's going to have to figure things out on the fly. It's a different game. when you're playing at full speed. And you have to make adjustments and You're playing against a defense that you don't practice against every day.
That's what. Quarterbacks have to do week in and week out. It's not easy.
So, I'm not going to crush him, but I didn't see a lot in that game that was like super positive. Dan Wilkin is here with us from Yahoo Sports. You talk about positives. You mentioned LSU beating Clemson. Is Brian Kelly gonna gonna catch a break, or are people still waiting to hang him the minute that there's a misstep down in Baton Rouge?
Well, we'll just have to see how the season goes. Obviously, for them to win in the opener after three straight losses. Week one was a big step forward, but it's a long season and they've got a tough schedule. And if it's another eight and four type of LSU team, then he's going to continue to get. Criticism, and it's going to be well deserved.
This year, LSU went all in in terms of the roster and how much money they're putting into the roster. Um And I they expect results. They certainly look good in week one. But it's one week. And I think if they're going to have to.
Show the consistency. week in and week out. To sort of change that narrative, and it's a long road ahead.
So for now, everybody's happy, but they got a game in a couple of weeks against Florida that's going to be just as big. Dan, you talk about the continuing on with the season. Alabama is certainly going to hope to try to fix things moving forward, especially after losing to the Seminoles 31. to 17. What are your thoughts?
Is this too big of a loss? Of course, it's early in the season. Yeah, I mean, it's really, really concerning. Not just because they lost the game, but the way they played, the way they looked. didn't show much toughness, didn't look very physical.
Missed a lot of tackles, just sort of an undisciplined. Performance and a sort of quality and style of play that just did not really look very promising if you're talking about Alabama as a national championship contender.
Now, can they save it? Can they turn it around? Um you have to leave open that possibility. But That was not. A good performance on any level.
Uh It's one thing if you go down in week one and you've Just kind of lose on a fluke. You turn the ball over a couple of times. That happens. But that's not the way that game went. That's not why they lost.
They lost because they just straight up got beat. And they got beat in a way. That I thought showed some fundamental weakness in the way they're running that program, the way they're preparing in the offseason. They just weren't ready. And that's on the head coach.
And I do think that the questions about Kaitlyn DeBoer are legitimate. are going to persist. Because uh This wasn't a one-off. It was sort of a continuation of the way they looked in some of those losses last season. Dan, we know that Nick Saban is busy on the media side right now.
It's certainly still a resource. To what involvement is Nick Saban still involved with the program, or is he kind of leaving Kaylin to go ahead and do Moms, Dads? Are you the parent of a student athlete? Do you want to know how to get the most out of youth sports? If so, listen to the Next Pitch podcast to give you the tools to raise an aspiring athlete.
It's not simple, but we talk straight and give you the best insight there is when it comes to youth sports. We'll cover everything from nutrition and training to mental toughness and teamwork. It's a podcast you can listen to together with your kids so everyone can benefit. Follow NextPitch on the Odyssey app or wherever you listen to podcasts. This thing.
I mean, Nick Sabin is not the coach. I mean, yeah, he's a presence in some ways around Alabama still, but. But his job is being on television, and it's Kalen DeBoer's team. Kalen DeBoer's responsible for everything, and it's his system, it's his players. He's got to coach him up.
This isn't. Sabin, and you can't look to Nick Sabin. to be the savior. He's retired. You know, you got a coach.
You're paying $10 million a year. It's his job to get it right. Dan Wokin here with us from Yahoo Sports. He's talking about a coach who's now running the program. We saw that disaster last night.
in North Carolina. There was no big expectation, you know, throughout the course of the season for UNC to kind of have some, you know, big run.
So w what's the big deal? I get it. Belichick got blown out, North Carolina got blown out. I think we can expect more of this throughout the season now. I mean, I don't know that it's going to be that bad every week.
If it is, that would be a huge problem, but there's no question that that was disappointing. after the first uh offensive drive and they get a defensive stop. You're thinking everything's looking good, but uh after that It was pretty remarkably disappointing. They didn't do very much right. They they looked very untalented.
Um 70 new players at North Carolina. A lot of it through the transfer portal.
Okay, you know, you don't expect them to be great right off the bat necessarily. But don't just come in and and Typically In year one, can have the opportunity to sell something, especially now. Let's just hope that they didn't miss that badly on their roster. Because if they did, it's going to be a very bleak End of Bill Belichick's coaching career. Yeah, well, we we certainly hope.
I mean, the the jokes were flowing last night. you know, after the blowout and we got the typical Bill Belichick uh A press conference, so we have to see. Are there any teams that surprised you, any performances that surprised you over the weekend? I mean, I don't think there was anything incredibly. Out of the norm.
I mean, obviously the Florida State Uh performance was interesting just because they were two and ten last year. And you didn't really know i exactly what uh Uh they were gonna look like coming out. With a whole bunch of new players and obviously Tommy Castellanos. A guy who um got benched last year at Boston College.
So What was he going to look like? But it just seemed to work with him and the Gus Melz on offense. Um certainly just kind of seemed to work.
So that was exciting. We'll see what they do going forward. But The turnaround from what we saw of Florida State last year to the way they came out of the gates this year was interesting, surprising and very encouraging, I think, if you're a Seminoles fan. And Dan, we know the team at the top of the AP poll right now, of course, the defending champions with with Ohio State. What are your thoughts on them?
Continuing to kind of run through things here and maybe go back to back?
Well, there's a long way before we can talk about going back to back, but yeah, their defense looked real again. Phenomenal, especially in short yardage goal to go type situations where they were so amazing last year Obviously, they lose their defensive coordinator, Jim Knowles. They bring in Matt Patricia. A little bit of a question mark there just because Patricia. In the NFL as a head coach, he did not work out.
He was the coordinator for the Patriots. You know, how much of that was him versus Belichick? But I thought he was rock solid, and that defense looked outstanding. Ohio State's obviously going to be one of the best teams in the country. They're incredibly talented.
Uh offensively, I think you know, how they stack up against Penn State. Um At this point, we'll see, but there's a long way to go before they play them, so plenty of opportunity for Ohio State to to get up uh and running offensively. Make plenty of time. I can't believe what are we two weeks in? And we already have so many storylines that have developed.
Hey, Dan, I appreciate the time. Please tell everybody where they can follow you and all your work with Yahoo!
Well, Yahoo Sports, we're on the app, yahoosports.com. I'll be there plenty. With plenty of frequency in the coming days and weeks. Absolutely. Hey, Dan, appreciate it.
We'll cut you down the line, okay?
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We'll cover everything from nutrition and training to mental toughness and teamwork. It's a podcast you can listen to together with your kids so everyone can benefit. Follow Next Pitch on the Odyssey app or wherever you listen to podcasts.
