Mike, thank you for the time.
Really appreciate it. Hey, thanks for having me on, man. I'm excited. What a weekend of football.
It's starting out actually with some Friday Night Lights in Colorado. I'm calling it the altitude high school sports game of the week. So I'm actually getting ready to do that here about an hour.
Well, let me tell you, I appreciate the time. Let's get into this first. So let's talk about the team where you used to throw the rock around. Let's talk about Boise State. I mean, you look at someone like Ashton Jentsy and what he's been able to do. We'll see him in action tonight against UNLV. What are your thoughts on what he's been able to do? And for running back, do you think he's going to hold on to that Heisman? Well, right now it looks like there's nothing stopping him. You know, you could say that the young man didn't do it against good competition.
Wrong answer. He did it against Oregon at Oregon, the number one team in the country, and single-handedly took Oregon to the very end of that fourth quarter. Boise State had a chance to win that game, and Ashton Jentsy had just shy of 200 yards rushing, three touchdowns. He looks unstoppable, but I'd be remiss if I didn't say I was a little nervous for tonight's game.
It just feels like one of those types of games where UNLV is going to have a great plan defensively. Barry Odom has coached against running backs in the SEC in his time at both Missouri and at Arkansas. He's seen some of the best NFL running backs at the college level when they were playing in the SEC.
And so I think it's going to be a really unique matchup. I am going to be DVRing it and I will get to it after I call this high school game tonight. And Mike Sanford Jr. is here with us coast to coast, the JR sport reshow. You talk about what Jentsy did against Oregon and we know that Dylan Gabriel and you think he's in the Heisman space. You can also say the same thing about Cam Ward.
Are those guys, is there anybody else outside of those two that have really impressed you this year at the quarterback position? Shidoor Sanders. Shidoor Sanders is somebody I'm front and center to see. I mean, I was the interim head coach at CU before Coach Prime got there. I actually had a chance to spend a week around Coach Prime before he made the decision to bring in his own people.
And I got to know Shidoor even in that week. I've been so impressed with what he's able to do. He is, without a question, and I have no doubt about it, he will be the first quarterback drafted. And I think if he does continue to have the success where CU's fortunes are because of his arm, his capability, and his willingness to take on any challenge in the fourth quarter and find a way to win football games, I think he re-enters the Heisman Trophy conversation.
Travis Hunter's the talk of the town here in Boulder and rightfully so, but coming off of two games in a row where injuries kind of hampered his production, I think Shidoor Sanders could very easily re-emerge in the Heisman conversation. Well, let me ask you this, Mike. We all see the physical talents. We see how the team has developed from last year to this year in regards to certain protections for him. So much gets said about his behavior and how he responds. What are your thoughts? You've been around him. What do you say about that?
Well, I just think this. I think he's extremely confident. He sees it. He sees the field at a level that I don't think many NFL starting quarterbacks do. Certainly does hold onto the football at times. And that's the downside.
That's the knock. But I also think he has to because of the protection that he doesn't always get. And also, this is the team that's had to piecemeal a bunch of transfers together in back-to-back years. So you don't have that synergy of perfection of offensive execution because you have so many different people coming in and out of that program. And yet, he extends the play and makes the types of plays and creates the type of yardage that give the CU boss the chance to win football games. So I think he is uber-talented, uber-confident, has the kind of legend mode at the end of games.
He calls it the Brady mode. But I also think that he's going to be in the NFL with a team that fits everything that he brings to the table. And I think a Las Vegas Raiders, or if the two are talking about the lowest situation, doesn't get better after this weekend. And I think it's like the Miami Dolphins.
I think that there are some great fits for him and his skill and what he does. Mike Sanford Jr. is joining us here on the JR Sportbreeze show. And we see the Buffaloes right now. They got that 5-2 record. They're getting ready to take on Cincinnati. We got quite a few games that might be college football playoff eliminators when you think about who's going to get in at that top 12. We got Notre Dame getting ready to take on Navy, LSU, Texas A&M. Are there any games that really capture your attention for this weekend?
Well, I think you named it. And that's Notre Dame-Navy. It feels like at times, Notre Dame doesn't seem like the kind of team, because of their schedule, because of the loss against Northern Illinois, who's truly proven to be a average to below average Mid-America Conference team, that they got to not only show up, they got to be ready.
And they got to buckle up because they got two extremely competent and very high functioning service academies coming next three, you know, next three, four weeks. The first one against Navy, I think that Notre Dame wins this game. The one for Notre Dame that I'm a little bit more concerned with, I think Army's is the better of those two. They are playing so well right now.
But tomorrow, that's the one I'm watching. And I think that Notre Dame-Navy game, if you watch that game, you'll know within the middle of the second quarter whether this is going to be a game or not. And if it goes to deep waters, I do think that Navy can win that football game. Well, Mike, when you think about some of the big dogs who sit at the top, the Georges, the Ohio States, we just saw what happened last week with Texas. What are your thoughts on all the conference realignment and all these new teams that have entered into the SEC world? Well, all these programs, all these, you know, the SEC and Big Ten programs, they all wanted to have a bigger share of the financial, you know, piece of the pie that they've been looking for.
Well, they got it. Well, as a result, you're seeing a lot of cannibalization happening in those conferences. And I think we're just seeing the beginning of it. You know, Alabama might be coming up on their third loss. Georgia already got beat by an Alabama team that's licking their wounds.
Texas gets destroyed by Georgia. And then in the Big Ten side of things, you want it out of Oregon, Ohio State, you got shot with a UG, pick on the Ducks, you take the L. You're probably, you know, you're one loss away from being out of the college football playoff discussion. There is no perfect college football team this year. There is no, I think, superpower of college football this season. And that's why me as a Boise State alum, somebody who coached there and played there, I actually think that a group of five Cinderella's story could make some noise in the 12-team playoffs because I don't think that there are the untouchables because of the transfer portal. The rosters are getting better.
It's created more parity. And that's the thing that I'm going to keep my eye on as we see the cannibalization of the SEC and Big Ten. Well, Mike, as we start to wrap things up, you talk about the school where you went and threw that rock around at Boise State. Is there another school that's kind of on that line of the top 12 that you think doesn't get the attention that it deserves?
You know, one that's been just a solid model of consistency and made it really get higher. They do have two losses right now and that's two lane. Their losses are quality losses. And if they run the table and there's some chaos between, you know, the service academies losing to Notre Dame and, you know, obviously Boise State loses tonight to UNLV, I think UNLV could very easily pick up its second loss. I think that Tulane could re-emerge as a team. I really like Summerall. I think he's a really good coach. He came over from Troy. You see how Troy's dipped a lot as a program since his departure to Tulane. I think that Tulane is a team that's still very much in the picture. The green wave is already on a four game wave of wins.
Let's see what they can win on the rest of the way. Hey, Mike, I appreciate the time, especially as you get ready to call one game and cover everything over the weekend. Where can we keep up with you? Yeah, so look me up.
I'm at coach Sanford underscore two and that's on the X machine. And, you know, if you're looking for a really entertaining college football game, I'm on I'm on the call tomorrow for CSU in New Mexico. Devin Dampier, the quarterback in New Mexico, can spin it and can run.
It's going to be a really interesting game and it has some implications in the Mountain West race. Hey, Mike, you're such a busy guy. Is there any chance that we see you back on the sidelines in any point into the future? I think I like talking about football rather than people talking about me not coach the game too well.
I'm not too much fun doing it. Yeah, I want to keep my family in one place. You know, my family's moved 14 times in 18 years.
So you can imagine it a place like Colorado somewhere that we want to call home and call it home for a long time. I can certainly understand that. Well, Mike, thank you again for the time. Such a busy guy. We look forward to chatting with you on down the line, OK? No, looking forward to it anytime.
