So let's uh talk some college football for a few minutes with my good friend. Will Ortner Will, did you know Marvel Levy was still with beyond, did you know Marvel Levy was still with us? It was Marga Levi. Not lady. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he is.
The old Bills coach. Apparently, he's still around.
So, how about that? What about Biff Pogie? You know anything about Biff Pogie? Wasn't that the old Charlotte coach who wore all the horrible, horrible cutoffs? Yeah, that's the guy.
Michigan named him as the interim head coach.
So we'll see if he wears the cutoffs on the sidelines for Michigan. After the first couple of weeks, just big picture, who do you think, based on their actual play, has been the most impressive team? Not what we thought in the preseason, but based on what they've actually done, who's been the best college football team? Oh, look, I might be a little bit biased, but I love my Duckies. I think what they were able to do to Oklahoma State and basically end Gundy's career, basically at this point, we know that he will not be the coach at Oklahoma State next year.
I think that's pretty darn impressive, although you can say they haven't really done anything. USF might beat the team. They go at home and they beat a Boise State team that made the playoff last year. Florida was everybody's darling, myself included. I was falling for the DJ Lagway hype, and frankly, he's underwhelmed for me, honestly.
And for them to go into the swamp and go out and beat them, I think that USF has to be a team you have a conversation for. I mean, shoot, Florida State beat a team by 100 and they called the dogs off at the end of the first quarter.
So I named three teams there as kind of a cheat way of saying there's a lot of good teams still playing college football. And I've been impressed with probably about four or five of them. What's the opposite of that? And feel free to cheat again with a couple of different teams. Who's been the most disappointing?
Clemson's looked terrible. I mean, yeah, they ended up pulling off that game against Troy, but they lost week one at the crib. They were down at halftime. Let's just start there. What the hell is going on?
I thought they were going to win the national championship. I've never been more disappointed in a team that wasn't a team I rooted for than this Clemson team. I told everyone and their mother they were going to win the title. I said that Cade Klubnik was the next version of a great Clemson quarterback. He was going to join the likes of Lawrence and Watson, someone that we talked about as a great quarterback in Davo Sweeney's history.
Davo Sweeney finally went into the portal and grabbed good wide receivers. The offensive line is supposed to be strong. The defense is supposed to be nasty. The D-line is unbelievable. Again, and then when you watch this team offensively, they can't run the football.
Cade Klubnik looks like he's taken two gigantic steps back. You know, the D-line is great, but I wouldn't say that the rest of the defense is fantastic. I think that LSU showed me something week one, and they're a better team. Than I had given them credit for, but now I'm almost thinking: hey, maybe that is the same LSU team that we thought. And this Clemson team is just two steps down on the rung more than we believed.
You know, like I remember last year when USC beat LSU and it was like, oh, USC's back. They had a neutral side game and they beat LSU. And then you get a month and a half into the year, and that USC team is the same USC team that you thought they would be. And they were kind of a letdown because we thought LSU was something greater than they were. And we found out that both USC and LSU last year were men.
Now I'm wondering, are we finding out that both Clemson and LSU are mid-teams again? Or is it maybe LSU slightly a step better and Clemson? really isn't the title contender that we thought they might be. Speaking of USC, former Trojan quarterback Caleb Williams going at it right now on Monday night football. He's six for six on their opening drive with 51 yards as the Bears have worked their way into the red zone against the Vikings on their opening drive.
We'll keep you updated on that. Speaking of quarterback play, Will Ortner, Arch Manning, he looked okay. Obviously, he's got high expectations for himself. He's got the last name. He's got the Heisman favorite, at least the beginning of the year in the number one ranking.
It looks to me, and I'm far from a body language expert, that he feels the pressure. Is that what you're saying? Like, it looks like he understands how big this is. Yeah, I also wonder, and I hate to be the guy who's doing it, but you see all the videos where he's grimacing. Like, is he hurt?
Is this a Quinn Ewer situation like last year, where Quinn came back because he was worried about losing his job to Arch Manning and he didn't let his core heal? And then you could tell anytime he tried to throw the ball with any zip on it. Or if he tried to throw the ball deep, he just couldn't get through it because of how bad his core looked. Arches looked like. I don't want to say he's looked awful because that's not fair, but he hasn't looked like what the Arch Manning we all expected.
And every single time I go on Twitter now, there's a new video dissecting: well, what's hurt? Is it his shoulder? Is it his AC joint? Is it a labrum? Is it the way he throws?
Why is he mechanically off? And I'm wondering, is he hurt? Or is this maybe the arch meaning that we're gonna get? A kid that's a fine college quarterback, but maybe is getting too much love and too much hype because of the last name on the back of the jersey. I definitely think it's more the latter.
Now, I'm not saying that you're wrong and that he's not maybe not a little bit dinged up or even more hurt than he's leading on to. The Bears, by the way, on the board, early touchdown up 6-0 on the Vikings, but I think Arch Manning. Definitely had way too much hype because of his last name, because it's Texas, all those different things. That there's no way that anybody's going to be able to live up to it. And now that we've seen him struggle for the first couple of weeks, that just adds more pressure.
I'm not saying I'm down the line he's not going to turn into the bill of goods that we were sold, but through two weeks, my eyes don't lie to me, bro. I got LASIK. I got 2020. And my eyes tell me he's not the guy that he was supposed to be, at least not right now. There are some good games on the college schedule coming up this Saturday.
Let's start with number six, Georgia, at number 18, Tennessee. A huge matchup in the SEC. Is Georgia still Georgia? And is it time for Tennessee to take the next step?
Well, it's all going to depend on Joey Aguilar. Like, how good is this kid? We saw some flashes against Syracuse, but then we saw Syracuse barely beat a Yukon team.
So, how good is that Syracuse defense? And how good is Joey Aguilar actually? I mean, remember last year, I was a big Nico Imaliava guy singing his praises after what he does to NC State, and then he looks like. He's not good. He's not good at football events in the last two weeks and I've come away with money.
So when I look at this Joey Aguilar situation, is he feasting on lower competition? And so he looks good. What are we going to see when we look at this Georgia team? In my eyes, I don't think this is the strongest Georgia team that we've ever seen. But it's Georgia at this point, you just kind of have to give them the benefit of the doubt.
That I don't think Tennessee is quite earned yet. I think if I'm leaning anyway, I'm going to lean towards Kirby Smart and Georgia. But we're going to truly know just how good this Tennessee team is, and specifically just how good Joey Aguilar is. If Joey Aguilar is going to go out there and be, I don't know, a top. Five quarterback in the SEC.
Tennessee might win this ballgame and then we have to talk about Tennessee in a completely different light. How we talk about South Florida. They were unranked. They were huge underdogs in their first couple of games. They go into the swamp.
They beat Florida. We spent so much time talking about Florida State's good again. Last week, we thought Florida was the U. And now here we go: South Florida undefeated in the polls, ranked number 18, playing number five, Miami. Can the Bulls pull off the upset against the Canes?
I don't think so. The way that that Miami team is built and the way Carson Beck is playing, but the way that this USF team has played this year, I'm not going to tell them no. If you would have told me, hey, Will, they're going to go in and score 18 points against Florida in the swamp, I would have told you they lost by 30 in that game. I just didn't buy into this USF team. I felt like You know, Boise, they got a little bit of extra credit last year because of the success.
And so this year, hey, they're a top 25 team. They're really not that. And then, not only does USF pounce on him and just trounce him, then you go into the swamp and you beat Florida. Here's the thing: after this Miami game, there's no one on that schedule that scares me. I think we have to seriously start talking about South Florida as the group of five team that gets into the playoff.
Because after Miami, there is no one on that schedule. Not even the University of North Texas, the Mean Green, my new neighbors in Denton. Not even them are worrying me right now with the rest of this schedule.
So, whether they beat Miami or not, if they can keep it within two or three scores. USF might be a team that we're talking about being in the playoff at the very end of the year. He is Will Ortner. He is joining us live from Dallas right here on the Infinity Sports Network. Another ranked game coming up this weekend.
Notre Dame versus AM. That game's in South Bend. If I'm a better, that's one of those games, Will. Just who's the home team? Right, right.
In my eyes, what's funny about it though is I don't know that I trust Texas AM. Like, have you looked at a score and been like, wow, Texas AM really dominated them? Wow, trust Marcelo. Not for a decade. No, well, and what's their calling card?
Their calling card is supposed to be: well, they're a good defense because they've got Mike Elko. Their defense hasn't looked good, it hasn't looked strong.
Now, I don't know that I love the spread as I'm pulling it up right now, but you're telling me I get a Notre Dame team that's had two weeks to prepare, a Notre Dame team that knows if they lose this game at home, they're not going to make it in the playoffs. Playoffs are completely gone for them. And I'm getting a Texas AM team that, frankly, I don't buy into. I think Notre Dame wins this game. I wouldn't be shocked if Notre Dame wins it by 10 points.
Will, before I let you go, how about that Sunday Night Football game, man? Lamar Jackson versus Josh Allen, Buffalo and Baltimore. Was that an ASCE Championship preview we saw last night? If it wasn't, then you saw the AFC championship preview on Friday night. That was awesome between your Kansas City Chiefs and the LED Chargers and the homes going back and forth.
Look, I'm not here to poke the bear. I'm not here to twist the knife in your wound. It was a great game. I just think you have four teams in the AFC right now. If Justin Herbert's going to play that way, I mean, Cincinnati will figure it out.
I just don't trust their defense. I think you got four legit teams in the AFC that are. Super Bowl contenders. When you look in the NFC, I might have been wrong about Green Bear after their thumping of Detroit. But in my eyes, there might be two teams that I think can win the Super Bowl in the NFC.
I think we're going to have an AFC title winner again, and I think there's four teams. And honestly, at this point, just flip a coin. I assume the two were Green Bay and Philadelphia in the NFC? Those are my two. I thought Green Bay looked unbelievable, and I am okay eating crow on Micah Parsons.
Micah Parsons did make a big difference on that defense. To have a sack in your first game when you've only been in a town for what, seven days, six days, and to come out and play like that, he's only going to get better. I'll eat crow on that one. I was wrong. Yeah, you deserve it.
And I love how much we make out of one week of football. This is going to change the world, and it's one week. Will, you're the best man. Appreciate your time. Ew, thank you for having me on, your beast.
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