Ben, how are you? Doing well, doing well. Driving down the highway with several thousand of my other friends on their way to Thanksgiving, trying not to bounce off each other as we drive down the road, man. I hear that. I know a lot of people getting ready to head all out all over the place. So be safe out there, Ben. Be safe.
Now, appreciate the time while you're on the road. I got to ask you this. After a crazy weekend in college football, we saw Indiana lose to Ohio State, not a shock. We saw Penn State barely get by Minnesota. We saw Ole Miss fall to the Gators.
I'm assuming they're going to do a lot of falling in a few minutes. What are your overall thoughts? Who has really screwed themselves over in making a playoff and who was elevated? Yeah, you know, there's a lot of different ways to slice it and it's easy to kind of look past this weekend. It's kind of wild. Of all of the incredible rivalries in college football that are going to take place this year, there's not a lot of ranked on rank. Texas A&M is the one that I think everybody circled. That one's got a bunch of stakes on the line, but the game between my Buckeyes and that team up north is a 20-point favorite. That's not a big number.
That's a massive number. And then the Iron Bowl with Auburn, Alabama. Now, listen, every one of these teams have to show up and you always say with rivalries, you've got to throw the records out so things can get wild.
But there's not a ton of juice. But I kind of get into your question about teams that are in the right position to make the playoff. I was kind of talking about it this way today on our show over on Channel 84, College Sports Radio, was who walks into the postseason, both the conference championship weekend and into the playoff with their chest out and their shoulders back.
Because to me, the story of this season has been the Jekyll and Hyde nature of it. We've seen Georgia. I think Georgia is the biggest example of that.
They have looked like a werewolf at times and then other times they've looked like a puppy dog. And so which team has been most consistent and which team is playing with the most confidence right now? And for me, you can call it a homer bias being a Buckeye, I think Ohio State is walking into this latest part of the season with the most consistent performance and the least amount of questions of, hey, can we get got this weekend? The closest that Ohio State was in a matchup was in Nebraska a month ago and it really wasn't overly close.
It was just a game that wasn't a blowout. So Georgia is going into Georgia Tech this weekend. Georgia Tech is not an easy out and Georgia hasn't looked pedestrian at times. Texas A&M coming off of a head scratcher of a loft. So all across college football, you've got to kind of look at who's got their chest back and their chest out and their shoulders back. And I think it's the Buckeyes leading the way. Ben Hartzock is here with us.
The JR sport re-show coast to coast. You talk about the Bulldogs. Do you trust Carson Beck? You trust him in a big moment? No.
No, I don't. Listen, he got his mojo back the past couple weeks. I mean, obviously, I don't think you can take much in their win over UMass, but the Tennessee game was one that he got back on track. But the reality is, before that win, he's a guy that had thrown 11 interceptions in the previous five games.
And so the same nervousness I have for Georgia, a lot of that lays at his feet. Same way with what Alabama did with Jalen Milro, who has been a very streaky player. It doesn't mean these guys are bums. It doesn't mean these guys don't have NFL talent. It just means that they're still developing as players because that's one of the hallmarks between a college player and a pro player is being able to minimize damage when you're having an off night.
And right now, Carson Beck is a guy you just don't know who you're going to get on any given Saturday. Yeah. Well, Ben, we know this weekend, as you mentioned, we got Georgia, we got Tech, we got all these rivalry games. What are your thoughts on South Carolina?
Is that defense? Have they done enough to kind of drag them up the rankings? What are your thoughts on what will take place when it's them versus Clemson? This is more of a vanity game, but Clemson, they're likely going to walk away with the victory, right?
Well, yeah. I mean, that's a close game when you look at what Vegas thinks about it. And Clemson still has a path to the ACC championship.
So they've got more to be playing for technically. In the rivalry game, obviously, you don't need extra motivation, but it's not a bad thing to have. But for Clemson, all it takes is Miami to lose to Syracuse this weekend. And listen, Miami, another team that has been very streaky and finally got caught in a loss a couple weeks ago. So Clemson can find its way into the ACC championship. And then if you get there, listen, you've got an SMU program that is new to the ACC, was a group of five team a year ago. And that sits there with their strength of schedule ranking. It was Indiana that took a bunch of criticism throughout the late part of the season for being ranked over 100, 103rd, 106th ranked strength of schedule. Meanwhile, SMU sitting there at 70 wasn't really questioned. So Clemson could find its way into the ACC championship and then win that. And then Clemson, who was left for dead after the loss to Georgia in the opening week of the season, could be right back where Dabo likes his team to be.
Former Buckeye Ben Hartsock is joining us here on the JR Sportbreeze show. You think about Indiana and the rankings are slowly but surely coming out now. Colorado now falling into the 25th spot.
You mentioned Indiana. We know after losing to your squad, Indiana is going to take quite a tumble. Notre Dame last week was ranked sixth.
We're going to find out where they move up to. What are your thoughts on on Notre Dame, especially after they put that whooping up on our army over the weekend in the Bronx? Yeah, after Ohio State, I think Notre Dame is the team that Notre Dame owns the most embarrassing loss of the season to losing to Northern Illinois early in the season. But but part of the college football regular season is losses in the early part of the season don't carry the same weight.
They're weighted differently. But since then, they figured out the Riley Leonard riddle. They figured out how to get him comfortable, how much to run him without getting him injured, how much to throw him without putting the ball at risk. And it took a few weeks and they unfortunately took the L and they're playing with a bunch of confidence, really consistent. They've got the run game going with Jeremiah Love. And so they are a potent, dangerous team. I don't know that they have the high end output that a Georgia has or an Oregon has or a Texas has, but they they figured out how to be the best version of what the Fighting Irish can be.
Well, Ben, let me ask you about the team. They don't they don't get talked about really at all. They've been sitting at number one. It's it's the Ducks. They beat Ohio State Beach all by one back in last month. What are your thoughts on Oregon? So Oregon absolutely deserves the number one ranking unquestioned because they have taken care of everybody that's been placed in front of them. But but kind of going back to my previous point of of heat check, of confidence check, of swagger check, last they were on a buy this previous just this past week and the week before that, it was a nail biter against the Wisconsin team that's struggling to get bowl eligible. So they have to be kind of wondering, wait, are we why aren't we boat race and everybody we face because the week before that they played a Michigan team that was the score was not indicative of how competitive that game was. So I don't question Oregon's whether or not they deserve being ranked where they are.
I'm just saying they haven't been as dominant. And we all know this is with college young men that can be temperamental, that you want them playing with a bunch of confidence right now. And I think Oregon, if they haven't had their best foot forward in the past couple of times, they tried it out on the field. Well, Ben, right before you joined us, we talked about their quarterback, Dylan Gabriel. We took a look at some of the other premier quarterbacks who are currently draft eligible.
Your Cam Wards, your Chador Sanders. There are a lot of teams that are going to be looking for a quarterback in the NFL. Are they going to be willing to kind of swing for the fences with some of these quarterbacks after Chador and then also Cam?
I'm not so sure. What do you think things are going to look like in the draft in April when it's time to move some of these QBs from college to the pros, especially for teams who have a chance in the first round at a QB? Yeah, it's a down year. I think that when you talk to the Jim Nagy, CEO of the Senior Bowl and the scouts that are working through the college tape this year, in general, there's not a generational guy. And shoot, even the generational guys like Bryce Young got benched this year.
So it's kind of a crapshoot. So I don't look at teams to say there's going to be a bunch of movement saying we've got to get to a certain position in that first round to get a Chador Sanders or to get a Quinn Ewers or to move on a Cam Ward. It doesn't mean these guys can't be. Honestly, I think the best thing that can happen to a quarterback getting drafted is to be pushed down into the late first round, into the second round. Shoot, look at a guy right now like Tommy DeVito now starting with the Giants. Not being that top 10, top 15 pick comes with an enormous amount of pressure and expectation. And a lot of times that can derail a career.
So I don't look at any of these guys and think that they're no Andrew Lux in this class. They'll get drafted higher. The way that the NFL is structured with the wage scale now, you don't set your team back by missing on a quarterback the way that they did in the pre-2013 or whatever the most recent CBA that put the wage scale into place. And so what happens is you can't afford to miss on a Lamar Jackson. So there's always a bit of a curve up for these quarterbacks that they go higher.
I think that a lot of times their talent or their draft grade should be because there's a giant scarcity of missing on that guy that could be a franchise quarterback. Yeah, we know everybody, they're getting a little bit more of a chance. Looks like we're starting to fill out this college football playoff and the latest rankings. We saw a bunch of teams take a tumble and a fall here, Ben. Alabama falls into the 13th spot. Clemson moves up to 12. Boise State is at 11. Ole Miss 14, South Carolina, the Gamecocks are at 15. Clemson, are you shocked that they have kind of slipped up all the way to 12?
No, I'm not surprised by that. One thing I was waiting to get clarity on, is Duke or any other ACC teams up into the top 25? Did Syracuse make it up into the top 25? There's a few three-loss teams that we were, me and Roddy Jones, who's an ACC guy, we were kind of talking about the ability for the, if you get a couple more depth of conference nods, if you get Duke and Syracuse in there, that helps build the resume to get two teams.
The conference champion winner, obviously, in the ACC, but also the loser in there as well, if you can make the argument that the ACC is giving more credibility as a conference. No, so as of right now, we have Colorado. Colorado falls to 25 here. Kansas State is at 24. We have Illinois at 23. UNLV at 22. Mizzou at 21. A&M is at 20. BYU has fallen to 19th. Iowa State 18th. The Greenway of Tulane is 17. Arizona State is in the 16th spot. The Gamecocks are at 15. Ole Miss is 14.
Alabama 13th. And then as I, oh, we got some more that have just come in here, Ben. We fill you in. I love the live reaction. This is exciting.
Yeah, how about that? We got Clemson at 12, as I just shared with you. We have Boise at 11, Boise State. Indiana, they fall from 5 to 10. SMU moves up to 9. Tennessee is 8. The Bulldogs move up to the 7th spot. And we await, Ben.
It's pretty much the latest of what we have right there so far. So what I find interesting there is A&M and where they sit, obviously, is a three-loss team, but they still have a path to the SEC championship. So I just, I will be so amazed. You think they're going to beat Texas? Well, if they can beat Texas and then get into the SEC championship, then you've got to wonder, is the SEC championship game loser going to be out? Well, with A&M with three losses and if they had the fourth in the championship, I don't think you can make a stance for that.
But if Georgia, a team with three losses right now, loses the SEC championship, it comes back to something that Rich Clark, the executive director of the playoff committee, said before the season. It's best team. It's best team. It's best team.
And best team often is, or sometimes isn't most deserving. And so are you going to penalize a team that Georgia right now that's comfortably in for losing an SEC championship? That is going to be a really fascinating precedent that the committee is going to set here in year one. I know you asked about another ACC team.
The answer is no. The next ACC team that we have to wait is Miami, who moves up from number eight last week. They are number six. Notre Dame moves one spot from six to five. Penn State is six, sits at four.
And I think we can pretty much assume what the rest of things look like. Texas is here at three. Let's see what we got here. It'll be Ohio State and it'll be Oregon. Ohio State at two and then Oregon sits unmoved here undefeated at one. Thoughts, Ben?
Any thoughts on what you've heard? I know I've ran through 25 teams in a year. What are you thinking? No, I think that SMU needs to win the ACC championship to secure its spot and then you've got to see how well, if Clemson gets in there, or obviously if Miami gets in, it'll clean that up. I just think it's interesting to see the teams that maybe were outside looking in through a majority of the season, how quickly or how far they can climb to potentially make its way in. So that Clemson angle is something I'll be really interested to see if they get the win this weekend against a South Carolina team that's easily on the outside looking in, but they're a team nobody wants to deal with right now, a tough draw in the Palmetto Bowl. And as it has stood, we still have the same four teams that stick around with a bye. That being Oregon, Texas, Miami, and then Boise State. I think the Boise State angle, that will solve itself because whomever Boise State plays in their conference championship won't be as high as the Big 12 and the Boise State won't be getting a bye. I think that'll take care of itself in the conference championship. Yeah, we'll see what that Big 12 game looks like. Certainly Arizona State, they've been surging up, up and away. And I know you got the Buckeyes winning it all, right Ben?
Man, that's the easiest bet in Vegas. Hey, he said from a Buckeye, we appreciate it. Ben, so much time that you've given as you're here on the road.
Where can people follow you and listen and keep up with you when they're on the road? Yeah, all my social media is at Ben Hartstock and then you can check us out on College Sports Radio channel 84 and Big Ten Radio channel 372 throughout the week. Hey Ben, thank you so much. You have a wonderful Thanksgiving. All the best to you and your family, okay? Yep, same to you guys.
