Murschel: Arch Manning Is Placeholder For Quinn Ewers

Matt, how are you, man? I'm doing well. How are you doing tonight? I'm very well.

Happy to have you here. I guess my first question is, outside of Miami, what's going on with them schools in Florida? Tell me about FSU.

Why do they stink? Tell me about the Gators. What's going on? Well, in the system he wanted to run, things worked out well. I got to be honest, I think this past year, I think he really kind of missed on some things. One of the areas where they have some concerns are the offensive line. The offensive line hasn't been very good. They're not running the football, which is something that Mike Novell wants to do.

And their quarterback, D.J. O'Golay, I mean, he's struggling. He's struggling kind of getting the offense.

He's basically one-dimensional. He's had to put a lot of the load on the shoulders. And because they're struggling, that means their defense has had to step up.

And that's been a huge issue for them as well. And Matt Merchell is joining us. You talk about Mike Novell. I see his buyout is $65 million. Contract ends in 2031. Is there a possibility that we got enough donors out in Tallahassee that are going to raise this money to give him the boot? Or is that kind of a fantasy land?

No, I think that's fantasy land. I mean, I think Mike Novell's job is going to be safe. I mean, they're coming off a year where they went undefeated. They won the ACC. They were just basically left out of the college football playoff.

Yes, expectations were high this year. But I think, you know, the fan base will probably be more receptive to the idea of if this is a bad year, kind of brush this off and go into next year. And let's not forget, Florida State's trying to get out of the ACC. They're in the middle of a lawsuit.

If they have to get out of that, they don't win the lawsuit, more than likely they have to pay to get out of that. You're talking anywhere around, you know, $150 million to do that. So there's no way that Florida State can come up with that kind of money and a $66 million buyout to make those kind of changes. So I think, you know, I think Mike Novell is safe at Florida State.

Now, Billy Nadir at Florida, probably not so much so anymore. Yeah, he's only owed $26 million. Hey, Matt, if I should be so lucky to get fired and just take that money, you know? It's very profitable to be a college football coach, let me tell you that, Wayne. And Billy Napier's situation, it looks like he's probably more likely going to get up getting fired.

You know, reports over the last couple of days are that, you know, a lot of the boosters have sat down and have actually scraped together the $28 million already, really, if they want you to pull the trigger and get rid of them. But, you know, the school's in a situation where they've got an interim president who really likes Billy. He's been, you know, wants to see if he can keep this thing and make it work. They've got an athletic director in Scott Strickland who's been there a long time. If they end up firing Billy, you've got to wonder how long, if Scott's going to still be there because he's the one that hired him and he's the one that hired Jim McElwain and Dan Noll before him, two guys that were also fired.

So you've got to wonder how that's going to go. And, you know, again, I think if anything's going to happen, it's probably going to, it would probably maybe possibly happen at the end of this weekend if Florida goes to Mississippi State and loses that game. I think you could see a move being made because next week would be a bye week for them so they'd have time to do that.

But also I could also see them maybe holding off because, again, they've got to wait to see who they think might be the next guy to take over the program. And Matt Marchelle is joining us here from the Orlando Sentinel and Tribune covers all things college football. There's a guy and a team that doesn't have to worry about any of that right now.

And it's Texas. I've been waiting for this for a long time to see Arch Manning run around and throw the ball. Didn't expect for him to run like that. Knowing that Quinn Ewers is dealing with a little bit of an abdominal issue, Arch Manning is on borrowed time as a starter, right? There's no possibility that he just excites everybody so much that he continues on. Is there?

No, I don't think so. I think this is borrowed time. I think Arch is going to get a chance to play, obviously, as Quinn kind of gets a little healthier. And I think that will give us opportunity for Texas fans and for Steve Sartese and kind of see what they have there. They know how talented Arch Manning is, but now they're starting to see, okay, what can he do in this offense?

This is really kind of tantalizing people for possibly next year. I think Quinn Ewers, when he comes back from being healthy, I think he goes back out there. I thought Quinn's played really well so far. He's looked really good. If he continues to play like that, I think he'll be out there as well. And then I think Arch comes in next year and assumes that mantle and takes over as the number one guy and leaves that offense.

So it's great to see. I think if you're a Texas fan, this is the future and you're seeing him get a chance to play right now. But I think when it's all said and done, if Quinn comes back healthy enough, I think he's out there playing. Because I think Steve Sartese knows, listen, I've got a guy who's really playing well in Quinn. I've got a guy in Arch who's going to be playing, who's obviously playing well. We'll let Quinn got to go see what happens.

If Quinn struggles because of the injury, then don't be surprised to see Arch get more playing time. And Matt, when you think about quarterbacks, Michigan just decided to go with Alex Orji to go ahead and start a little bit more athleticism, hopefully less turnovers. What will you expect when they take on USC and Miller Moss? Well, I think they're going to try to, again, what they need is maybe some explosive plays. I think Michigan has really just kind of struggled getting the ball downfield. And I think that's why they decided to make this move. They really felt like, okay, we need a little more explosiveness. We need someone to take care of the ball a little bit better. They know that USC can put up some points.

I think that's going to be something that they're going to have to be careful of. And so that's why they made this move and finding Alex. I mean, obviously, he's got talent. He's able to run the football. That's a little bit different than what Davis Warren was.

Davis also has, what, two touchdowns and six interceptions. Just kind of a little bit not as steady as they thought. So they've got to play perfect ball. USC comes in this game. There's a little bit of a thought 10 years ago that USC and Michigan would be a Big Ten game.

But here we are. And, you know, USC has got an opportunity to really kind of make a case for themselves. If they can beat Michigan, you know, that really kind of sets them up really well in the Big Ten moving forward.

And Matt Marchell is joining us. You mentioned the conferences and it just triggers my brain. The advancement of what are we going to have now? A Pac-6? It's not a Pac-12, but give us about a year or two. We're going to have a Pac-6. What else can we expect here? Are they snatching schools from the Mountain West?

What can we look forward to? Yeah, I mean, this is just kind of what the way things have gone. As you know, conference realignment, you know, they're obviously the Pac-12 was able to go out and grab a few more teams. They grabbed some programs from the Mountain West and Boise State and San Diego State and Fresno State. Programs that had actually been really good, solid programs over the last few years and a group of five conferences.

So they grabbed those. I think you'll see the Pac-12 try to get more. I think they'll try to add some more schools. They'd like to get to 12 teams again. Obviously, that's kind of what the NCAA would like to have them do. So look for them to look for schools like Memphis and Tulane and maybe some programs that have been, you know, at the top echelon of some of the other group of five conferences and try to bring those along.

You know what I mean? You know, that's it's amazing to me how much conference realignment has changed the way the landscape looks over the last few years. I mean, you've got the American Athletic Conference talking about trying to add Air Force possibly so they can get all the service academies under their conference umbrella. So we're not done with conference realignment just yet.

It's just not the big boys going on right now. Matt, you mentioned Tulane in Louisiana. I know the Big Ten is snatching up everybody from coast to coast. You're suggesting that Tulane could move where now? To the Pac-12. Oh my goodness.

You can see them. Oh my goodness. I know. The idea of conferences based on geography is gone. That has failed.

That ship has failed a long time ago. And now basically it's just looking for where can you add value? If you're the Pac-12, you're looking for a new television deal.

You want to make sure you add some value. Memphis has got a lot of TVIs there. Big, major city. They've got a school that has major donors and has some money. Tulane is now in that really kind of great area in New Orleans.

They can add some things. They won the American Athletic Conference title a few years ago. This is really a good mix for if you're the Pac-12. Hey, come along. Come aboard. Join Oregon State and Washington State and all those things. And I mean, yes.

So when you look at that geography there, it's going to be something to keep a hold of. Matt Marshall is here with us breaking down everything going on in college football. You talk about going on. I don't know if they're going up. I don't know if they're going down one week. Notre Dame is getting smacked by Northern Illinois the next week. They're smacking around Purdue.

What is what is Notre Dame? It's somewhere in the middle. They can't be trusted. I think they're kind of somewhere in the middle right now. You know, I think that it's taken us some time to adjust a little bit. I know they've had some injuries. They just lost two of their offensive linemen last week. Their offense is nowhere near what I think they would like it to be. I mean, obviously losing to Northern Illinois.

It's not ideal for anybody. And I think it just showed where they had some deficiencies. Riley Leonard is as comfortable in the offense as I think they thought he'd be at this point.

It takes a little time to get adjusted. They were able to obviously get explosive plays against Purdue last week. They get Miami this week, Miami, Ohio this week.

So I think that should hopefully offer them an opportunity maybe to continue to see what they can do. But then they're going to play a good ranked Louisville team in the week after. So this is a Notre Dame team now that really kind of had its way. Could have walked really kind of into the college football playoffs based on how easy their schedule was. But now that lost Northern Illinois, you know, they're going to have to find a way to finish strong to win all their games if they want a chance to have that happen.

Matt Marchelle is joining us from the Orlando Sentinel and Tribune, coast to coast here on the Infinity Sports Network. Is there a team that that isn't getting the attention that it deserves so far this season? It's still early. You know, a team that's not getting the attention early. I mean, I would say, you know, Tennessee's getting a little bit attention. You know, they're going to get a big test this weekend going to Oklahoma. Josh Hypel, Tennessee coach, is coming back to where he played and starred at, won a Heisman. And now he's going to have an opportunity to play against Oklahoma. I think Tennessee is a team right now that no one's talking about so much so.

I mean, everyone's talking Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss. I think Tennessee is a team to think about. I think, you know, Kansas State, which played really well last Friday against Arizona, really kind of dominated their team right now.

They're 3-0. I think they can find if they can get things and keep going the way they're going. I think they have an opportunity to make a big push as well. You know, Miami has been kind of quietly doing what they're doing. Miami's problem is their big game has kind of already gone through. They played Florida. They have a pressing against Florida. Really, they get Louisville down the road.

And that's kind of it. You know, they don't really have another big game going on. But I think Cam Ward is going to do enough to make his case to be a solid contender for the Heisman.

So those right now are my modern teams that can really make a solid push and push themselves in the top echelon. Yeah, Cam Ward is out here trying to hit records. What is it, 14, 15 something thousand yards passing already? He's hitting records out here, man. For sure.

For sure. And I think he can continue to do that. I mean, he's going to do it against some maybe some subpar opponents. But again, he's got an opportunity. And this is what Miami in a lot of ways wanted. You know, Miami wanted the opportunity to go out there and really kind of showcase itself and have a good season. Mario Cristobal knows this can help with his recruiting. And if they can get Miami back on the national landscape and we're talking about them, I think that's good for them.

Well, listen, if I could put up 40, 50 and 60 and 70 points against somebody and blow them out, I think I would go out there and do it, too. Pretty, pretty wild stuff. Hey, Matt, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. Where can people follow you, read your work and all your good stuff with your coverage? Yeah, they can go to Orlando Settle dot com to read all the latest or follow me on social media at OS Matt Michelle.

Hey, Matt, I appreciate you. We'll talk to you on down the line, OK? All right. Sounds good. Take care.