BIG GAME BREAKDOWN: Biggest Storylines + Keys To Win For Clemson-LSU, Louisville-Ole Miss & MORE!

Welcome back to the Cover Three Podcast with your host,

“Chip Patterson, Tom Fernelli, Danny Cannell, and Bob Elliott.”

It's your call for the best college football coverage from National Signing Day to the National Championship and everything in between CBS Sports presents the Cover Three Podcast. And welcome back to the Cover Three Podcast. Here on CBS Sports, that's Spot Elliott.

That's Danny Cannell. I'm Chip Patterson, come to you live, youtube.com/coverthree. And everywhere you get your podcast on the man, thanks for hanging out, smash that subscribe, smash that like and come and join us in the chat.

Hey, hey, the cover three tailgate, where they need to set some reminders. I, yo, you need to get on it, right? Season started.

I, we told you that it was going to be Tuesdays for big game breakdown.

It is something we are doing for you. That's right, on Tuesdays 11 a.m. Eastern time. YouTube.com/coverthree. That's where we are going to be gathering together to go inside the matchup, the X is the O's, the story lines, the stakes,

all of those to be able to give you the context before we give you our lax coming up on Thursday. New big game breakdown day Tuesday 11 a.m. Eastern time. Make sure you've got it adjusted, throw that calendar meeting on.

We are going to be taking a look inside Clemson LSU. Ole Miss Louisville SMU Florida State Notre Dame Wisconsin. We've got an upset alert brought to you by draft Kings. Very excited to tell you about plus at least a word on UCLA Cowboys. He state Oregon, Baylor Auburn Miami, Stanford,

and much, much more tailgate feel free to fill up the chat with the games that you want to hear us discuss. But I wanted to start with a question of the day for the gentleman. And the question of the day is, would you take out a short position on your own head coach

to hedge their performance bonuses? This comes as there are reports that short positions essentially short positions, that individual games and some of the futures markets in the prediction markets. So we're not even talking about our traditional sports books.

The prediction market have been have allowed for a third party reportedly to take out short positions that essentially would provide the payouts that could pay Lane Kiffin. The performance bonuses he is contractually owed should he hit them? Wouldn't that be a long position though?

Aren't you betting on LSU to win the national championship? No, I think that if he wins, it's $3 million you would win. Well, that was not that could be wrong. I just kind of glanced at it. I was like not surprised.

I mean, essentially what these people are doing is becoming mattress mac.

Who is the famous better that always bets on the

Astros and all things Texas, the Houston mattress guy? And he hedges his business by betting because he has the giveaway. He says, if the Astros win the world series, I'm going to give away every piece of furniture that you brought during this month or whatever.

“So he always, that's how he's always hedged his bets.”

I'm kind of that insurance. But I could be totally wrong. It could be the odd. But I thought it was to protect against the $3 million bonus that Lane would get if they won the national championship.

So I thought it was multiple positions. That this is a long term. I'm sure there are multiple positions. Yeah, that it's like we are identifying individual prediction market opportunities to be able to jump in on.

And this is the way that we are going to fund if we have to pay out. This is the same LSU program that has already met with its important boosters and stakeholders to discuss the involvement of private equity. This is clearly a creative bunch when it comes to the way that they're handling their

finances in the new era where, at one hand, we are decrying large payouts. And then also backing up tens of millions of dollars to be able to set up the kind of contract that would have large buyouts.

“Yeah, I think this is a pretty good business for the company offering”

essentially the middle man between the school and the prediction market. Right? What is LSU really get out of this? And LSU is not the only school to do it in this. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of schools that are doing this.

And honestly, there's a lot of schools that do this for player contract bonuses. The way that some of these schools have these goals do this for player contract bonuses, correct, yeah, like a lot of these contracts are written to where, you know, if you play X number of snaps, you get a bonus, right?

So there's essentially like a bonus pool that the school holds back and spreads around a bunch of players who might be eligible for if they do play starter number of snaps or or what have you, you know, that they get the significant more amount of revshare and IL type stuff.

You know, I think the main thing they get is cost certainty, right? From an operational standpoint, okay, like we know this kind of cost is this,

“but we're not going to have to come out of pocket for, you know, if he hits these or not, right?”

Because ultimately, like LSU would eat over the moon to pay these bonuses to Lane Kippen.

Right? Like, there's what it means, because it means the success has gotten there. Right, exactly. So it's not like they can't come up with the money. I think what they're just achieving here is essentially like a form of stability,

you know, insurance, getting some cost certainty as to what their, their books are going to look like in, in short order that that's, that's my read on it. I don't think this is like some huge money maker for the Tigers. Oh, no, I just think it looks gross, you know, I just thought that we were in a world where you sign up for a contract and like, I didn't think we needed these high level financial schemes

to be either.

Okay, I think that's unnecessary.

Yeah, but athletic departments do a lot of stuff that is potentially an essay. True, but also like, like, people do all kinds of things.

“Like, like, there's a lot of people who probably shouldn't take insurance, but do, right?”

Like, people value certainty at a certain cost and there's going to be a provider to provide a net certainty at a cost. The question was, would you, if you are an athletic director, if you are running the operation, would you engage in some of these financial, and I don't mean scheme to necessarily make it seem predatory or nefarious necessarily, but it is a scheme.

You know, it is a, it is a plan. It is an operation. Would you, would you engage in these kinds of financial tools to create that cost certainty for your athletic department? I, I'm certainly looking into any kind of like edge that, like, that potentially, you know,

comes along, right? I, I don't know that I for sure would do it, like, this is kind of a lawyer answer, but like it would depend on the actual details of the contract, like, what fees am I being charged here, right? You know, like, there's certainly a middleman fee here to put this stuff out and execute these

private contracts. It's not like they're like offering, you know, just a ton of liquidity out there on, on poly or calcium, right?

Like, like, ultimately, like these, from reading the article, these were private contracts

executed that then called she, you know, held, right? So it's not like they're just going and offering this to the public. Like, if you're going out on calcium betting, LSU, no, for the Natty, like, you're not, like, taking a position that is directly opposite of the contract, entered into by LSU's athletic department, right?

Like, it doesn't appear so. Okay, so, but there, and there's, is it just the current environment of the prediction markets and their regulation that just allow this to not have any kind of oversight? I don't know the unique oversight for this, really. Like, like, what's there between this and, like, an oil company, you know, engaging in oil

features or private, public university of the state versus a private company? Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's already, like, a separate entity, right?

“But that's what I'm saying is I think they're reorganizing all these athletic departments into LLCs”

for this to be able to engage in these types of corporate hijinks. And I, I think, and again, I might sound like a dinosaur here, I think it's a little weird to have the athletic department of the state to engaging in these types of, um, we're talking about a state where the governor got involved in the head coaching search. Okay, where he said President Trump should do the coaching search

who just set out a statement said, don't hate the player hate the game. Where would think of considered the state they were discussing? I mean, like, okay, let's, let's take another state into the, right, the state of Florida, where we're, we're Denny and I live, like, would you engage in taking essentially, like, hurricane features, because so much your revenue is tourism based, right?

Like, is that what insurance is? In some ways, yeah, but like, what, what asset are you ensuring if you're the state of Florida? You're, you're projected tourism revenue, right? But like, if, if you could do that, on a prediction market sur, I, I think I would look into that. Like, it's just, it's part of your business. A lot of you're just hedging something to risk.

Yeah, that's just, just interesting stuff. And again, now the interesting question becomes when you decide not to take it. You see what I'm saying? When you don't trust the success of your football coach, right? I feel like that happens with the donations. When we talk about cutting off the faucet,

when donor stop right and checks, like UCLA athletic director Martin Germant is out, you know, that happened late on Monday, bringing Marcelo's reporting was like, yeah, they, they had already started to indicate to the university that they were going to be putting the squeeze on on the athletic director. I'm not cutting checks until you get somebody new around there. Tim Harris, longtime executive of the Los Angeles Lakers, former UCLA athlete, he comes in, says

probably could have been helped by donations and by gifts that according to the reporting was

basically ice out based on their current leadership.

“Yeah, I mean, like South Carolina, I think was also also mentioned in the, in the report that I read,”

like, you know, for them, their odds of like I think they were looking into, make the playoff or win more than eight games, right? And those are the Shane Beamer, like big money. I think so, yeah, but also like if you're South Carolina and you win more than eight games, or if you make the playoff, you also have a cost savings of kicking that buyout can down the road. If you think that's a can, you're going to turn over at some point, right? Oh, like if he messes around and makes the buyout

bigger, triggers some automatic extensions that can help you say. And like, like, I don't think Shane Beamer's on the hot seat at all, really, but at the same time, like mess around this year and have it other bad year, go five and seven, right? Last year of sellers, you know, like, are you going to have to hit the reset button? What's it going to cost you? So, but there's all kinds of different things that you could look into potentially ensuring against,

“and a lot of it just depends on what's your internal, internal model they're saying, right?”

I am curious as to whether some of these companies are actually laying this action off, or if they're just taking it themselves. Like, just as their own IOU? Yeah, because those sharks with the universities, I mean, no, like they're essentially like acting as a market maker, as opposed to just the middleman, right? You know, like, I don't think, some of these schools are probably not like dug over at Lambda Kai, is essentially what we've become, right? Yeah, like, I don't think

some of these schools are particularly good at knowing if they're going to be good or not, right? Like, some certainly do, and some know I think when they're going to be bad, but, like, you know, internally, they all seem to kind of run fairly optimistic. Okay, so this is the other back. Yeah, I went and said that for those watching along live, youtube.com/coverthery,

it's, we're starting to get back, functions are back in the tailgate, always, always stressful.

I mean, this, and I know that we've got a great, huge, loyal audience that is still riding with us on the audio side. We, and we appreciate you, but man, it is, it prayers up for the tailgate when they're not able to get that chat roll. And so it does seem like we're back in action. We do love to see it. That's just like one piece of the LSU story right now. We're going to be breaking down LSU clips on the field in a little bit, but we, we're getting real contentious

with the Southeastern Conference after the SEC in the Big 10, and the power conferences are putting in rules to prevent pro players from coming back. Lane Kiffin is putting up signs about being the villain, you know, I don't know, man, Danny, I don't want to get to distract it. It feels like they're trying to get me to walk away from the, the fun of the games with something that I don't think. Like I don't think we're kicking out LSU to bring back Soani. I don't think that. I don't think

that. But it's just, it's getting a little bit, a little bit weird. Are you taking anything away from the way that LSU continues? I mean, this, this other, you know, hedging your performance bonuses, let's set that to the side. What about the makeup of this roster and whether or not we're going to be following the conference's rules? I think this fits right into Lane's wheelhouse for a bunch of reasons. One, I mean, we talked about, think about how the search went down,

the criticism that Lane took, leaving Old Miss, think about the governor the way he got involved, the criticism that they took. So they kind of like this role. They like being this hated person, but I also think Lane, I thought it was very interesting yesterday that he specifically said

I'm always going to be a player friendly coach. I'm always going to take the side of the player.

I think this probably plays well in his locker room that he's defending the players that

“got screwed over and like I'm sure that's what he's telling them. The fact that he let him vote on it.”

I think these are all things to try to ingratiate yourself to the roster that there's a lot of new pieces on, a lot of moving pieces. He's always been the player forward, portal friendly coach that kind of has bucked the trend. I think this fits right into his wheelhouse. I don't, I don't think we, I think a lot of it's safer rattling. I think the rest of the SEC is pissed off because I bet there were some backroom meetings and

channels that like took place that said, hey, if not of a sign, it will be okay. We're not to deal with this. And Lane was like, why do I have to not sign one? You guys might not have the options that I do. And so I think it's just a mess that you're seeing some dirty laundry air out, but I don't think anything comes of it. Hey, he stepped in real quick, but he stepped to that

here? He said, if they can help us, we want them. They do what every guy on that leadership council is,

a transfer. Yeah, you have about that too. You know, like somebody who just showed up a mercenary, we got a team full of mercenaries. And they're like, sure, more mercenaries, bring them on in. I mean, this is a Lanekiff and my PA player friendly coach. And you're right. He was the original portal king. Remember, like Tiger King's coming out and he was getting himself photo shot as the portal king. I just thought that was funny to invoke the leadership council as though the leadership council was a

bunch of four year starters that have been there and been like leading the charge for their brothers

“when those relationships are far more new than that. Yeah, like I think LSU is far less likely to win”

in an appeals court setting or in a federal court setting. And even they do, like, they have to

kind of figure out the risk reward. Like, I talked to another SCI coach about this holiday. Right. And he was like, these guys are good players, but like, our best players in the SEC are not struggling to make an NFL roster when they turn pro. Yeah. Right. So yeah, are we going to go through all this trouble to get guys who are like our 11th or 12th best player. And maybe, but like, it's not an automatic risk reward calculation. You know? So yeah,

the other thing is they're not going to kick LSU out because that would require, I think quite a few votes. And then you got teams like Mississippi State and Arkansas and pick a couple more who might be signing their death for it. Like, you sure you want to sign something that says, yeah, we're going to go and rearrange this conference because there's certain teams in that league that are givers or certainly that are takers, right? And you got quite a few teams that are kind of takers, not real additive.

You know, I, I, I, the way it was reported and like credit the manager for getting the story, but like have discussed. Yeah. Sure. They discussed it. We've discussed a lot of crazy stuff

of the show. We're never going to be on the show. Right. Like, yeah, they discussed it. Cool. Yeah.

“It's the old socializing. They socialized the idea. Socialized it. Yeah. What if we kick him out?”

Yeah. Yeah. What would it be like reporting that the SEC will comply with quarterers? Yeah. Of course. You'll watch any city council meetings recently. I think city councilors are great at listening to the constituents complaint. And then they look down at the city attorney. And they're like, thank you. We hear you. Can we do that? No. No, we cannot do that. You know, and it's like they're going to internalize. They will listen. But no, I don't, I don't see.

I don't see us getting to that nuclear option. But man, it is certainly fitting in to the distracting case. I mean, he Lane held the whole damn sport all through Thanksgiving in the palm of his hand. He had the SEC in the palm of his hand. We weren't even talking about rivalry weekend games.

“We were talking about where Lane Kiffin's going to go and whether or not the private jet had”

to go pick up the dog before they had to go check out high schools in Gainesville. Let's get the football. All right. Coming up on the other side Tuesdays 11 a.m. Eastern time. One more time. Gonna remind you Tuesdays 11 a.m. Eastern time. That's when we break these games down. So coming up on the other side, let's get it started in the battle of Death Valley. LSU Clemson names to no ammo or the weight is over. Football is here and so is draft Kings. draft Kings is now live

in all 50 states. One app every sport nationwide. New draft Kings customers can sign up with the code cover three and spend five bucks to get $200 in rewards within 21 days. That includes all markets and comes when you use code covered three. That's THRE spell it out. Code covered three when you sign up in partnership with draft Kings. The crown is yours gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gambler 1-800-My reset Connecticut call 888-789-7777 visit ccpg.org on behalf of boot hill casino in Kansas.

Bet tax pass through may apply in Illinois. 21 plus void in Canada. Bet with draft King sports boat to get bonus bets that expire in seven days or trade with draft King's predictions to get prediction dollars that expire in one year. Event contract trading involves risk of loss. Predictions offer void in New York. Nonwithdrawable rewards issued as $50 click to claims every seven

predictions and free to play sports contests availability varies by state.

All right. Every single Tuesday 11 a.m. Eastern time this season we are going to be given you our spotlight on some of the biggest and most interesting games of the weekend we call it. Big game breakdown. Clemson makes the trip. Chris vizina will be our starting quarterback.

“I believe that news was official right as we went live. But feel free to take this nitty grit.”

We've talked about these two teams and this game even from a lot of big picture storyline perspective when we get into mid October sometimes we got to remind you the storylines and the stakes. If you've been listening to cover three podcasts you don't need that at this point. What are you watching where on the field are you paying the most attention once we get into the full

swing at things first couple possessions for the tigers and the tigers? Yes. I'm confident that

Clemson has a good defense right like maybe a very good defense and I know it has good receivers. How's this rebuild offensive line? Right. How does that match up against sort of a rebuilt LSU defensive line with a lot of young guys who I think are are really talented. Do's Gerald's make a lot of noise in fall. Camp for LSU. Alexander is another guy like really

“or sorry not Anderson Richard Anderson for for LSU. I think his guy who's going to be like a major”

impact as a run stuff. I think LSU secondary is kind of sneaky loaded so like that's a really fun match up there. Like if Clemson has any shot to win this game they have got to just get to same love it like crazy against the LSU offensive line. Right. Like that that's a bit of a question mark to me like sitting on the left side is rock solid right side of that offensive line maybe kind of suspect. I could see Clemson's defense putting up a real fight here. But I feel like

I still have trust in Lane to get to a certain number right 27. Yeah I dig so. But I do not have trust in Vazena and this Clemson offense at all. Like I I don't have him as like a top half quarterback in the ACC and I have some real questions about the offensive line. I don't know if the OC was an upgrade to be honest and I yeah I'm very suspect of the Clemson offense here and like I just suspect that LSU's defense is going to give Clemson like going to give

it's offense enough chances to get to a number that just don't think that Clemson can hit.

“A couple things reacting kind of agree with a lot the only thing I'll say with Vazena.”

Like I don't know how we grade him like we have a very small body working me maybe based on people you're talking to based on what's coming out of practice maybe it's based on a quarterback competition with tape Reynolds you're like what what does that mean? I think it's pretty small body work though. I think he's probably one of the most unknown commodities of the top 40 programs where you're just not really sure what you're going to get. So I don't know how to slot him.

I'm not certain. The other thing that I totally agree with so going back to when Clemson's like when they're downfall started like to start coming their way. The lot and I saw this note from our our research team. So the last eight game versus ranked SEC opponents. They have their O and eight against the spread. O and seven straight up and the last seven and that goes back to 2019. One of those games in 2019 they were a favorite so they didn't cover as a favorite. But then

mostly they're underdogs and I think the offensive line is a place that even towards the end of their run they were kind of getting dominated by some of there's not been a position that Clemson has

been really strong as producing NFL talent to the next level especially top tier first round

second round offensive line talent. Now you've got to replace a lot of those pieces. That to me is probably the biggest question mark where it doesn't matter if it's Vizina it doesn't matter if it's Reynolds the offensive line cannot get overwhelmed by this you know incredibly expensive defensive line that by the way does have some really good players and a defensive coordinator who's been there last season that already had a pretty good you know feel for how to get teams slow down. So I think

it's the offensive line is the biggest question for Clemson by far. I think Cade Club Nick was a talented college quarterback. I think his performance left something to be desired. I think there was a consistency issue. I think that sometimes it just wasn't all coming together. Sometimes it did not look to my eye like he was either seeing it or the communication might not have been there and that might

head coach to offensive coordinator to quarterback. So maybe those things can get corrected but if

Chris Vizina was not pushing Cade Club Nick for the job what are your expectations how do we

“grade him like I don't know maybe I think he might be another Cade Club Nick why she had about”

doubt like a jack plus you know like okay but that ain't gonna get it done in Baton Rouge. That ain't gonna get you back to a national title. When Cade looked good Cade did look good. He did not look good in this game certainly when LSU came to Clemson to start last season and he did not look good against Georgia in that season opener when he just looked totally overwhelmed by their inability towards at the line to skirmish. I think there are some similarities in Kirby smart and dabble.

I don't think Kirby like he doesn't major in the portal he dabbles in it but he's not he just

didn't wasn't vocally against it but he's in house he doesn't he wants to build culture he wants

to develop with a man. The other thing is I think too I mean could Cade Vizina be a gunner stocked and now I think maybe he could at Georgia with those weapons and that defense on the other side. And that offensive line. And that offensive line yeah so like I don't think I'm not predicting Vizina to be a heisman trophy winner but I would hope they have an adequate quarterback or I'll start going to get waxed. I mean he was a guy who was ranked high early as a recruit got worse as

a senior looked terrible in the spring game three out of four games that he's played at Clemson. Now granted like the three of the four like we're really small sample throws but terrible and then he had a big game against SMU last year. Which has to stay in for something. It does yeah. You know throw us into that starters role against an ACC championship contender and you know he handled himself obviously not necessarily with the result that they

“won. If LSU's for real I think they should smoke them to be honest like like the Clemson has”

not recruited that in lead level in like four years. Those old like Clemson top five top 10 classes are gone. Do you know what's really sad about this from the Clemson's perspective? Is there are still a few and they almost seem like spirits of Clemson evolved like Sammy Brown five star player coming out of high school who's been an impact linebacker from the moment he joined the team. It's like a player used to see at Clemson all the time and they're

used to be more Sammy Brown's Bryant Westgo. We had about a decade of Bryant Westgo's and you know and TJ Moore's and they're still there but we're wondering if they're going to be able to get the quarterback play and we're looking at a young running back room that everyone's been asking and everyone's got their favorite on who's going to be able to emerge and who's going to be the game changer but we're still looking for whoever's going to be that next Travis CTN or Andre

“Elington you know the next player in that line I think will help will help against Jordan Seaton”

could be awesome and I don't know if defensively they try to move health around to take advantage but of what you looked at but there are players on this Clemson team that if they joined the

2020 Clemson Tigers would still be starters but the problem is there's not maybe more than five

yeah I mean Westgo and Moore are legitimately really good at receiver right here's the problem you don't snap the ball or throw the ball from wide receiver yeah so we got to figure out how we're going to be able to get the rest of that you mentioned LSU secondary bud can I ask you to sort of elaborate on the way you see that group coming together because I know they kept PJ and they kept a few players from last year's defense which is kind of adds up you it had a lot to deal with because

the offense was so damn inept last season they got put in a lot of tricky situations but they did still go to the portal during the off season to try to pick some pieces as well how do you see that group coming together what excites you about that group because on my note pad I was like okay I think they're going to be able to get after the passers they've got some really really nasty edge rushers and that could be a lot of problem for Clemson but now I was also trying to think

about defending against Moore and Westgo and I'm just sort of wondering about where LSU is at there something I'm looking forward to learning for sure I feel like they're actually sneakily underrated there that's about the benefit of guy they got from boysy state can really play it's like they they loved him when they got him and like people who have been through there also think he's a stud like that that's that's a that's a name you'll start to see on some his NFL draft boards I

dice respect yeah I can see that anything else matchup was that you want to make sure we highlight here shoot Jackson Harris the receiver for LSU from Hawaii yeah like that's kind of a room like we we know about the tie-in like LSU's got a freak there but at Chase Brown from Kansas State no um the the existing guy the like six foot seven dude um oh no I'm talking about other I was just mentioned another wider see for some of them yeah yeah yeah yeah I I think like that's an open

question we LSU like do they have a one like like who is going to step up there to be like their

yeah I tied in yeah yeah I I think that it is um I've got a trust laying kiff and because I think laying kiff and even if he's got four twos it's still more overall talent than he might have

“had most years at Ole Miss yeah I think so you know and what what will this run game with”

like yeah that's it that's my other question they have not run the ball worth a damn in a while here's candorom again to see if he can yeah it was three straight years of candorom running back one right I mean good and well I'm just like to run the ball like his offense is as much we think about him as a quarterback guru quarterback whisperer offensive playcar he likes to run the football yep that game is going to be Saturday night seven thirty p.m. kick off time down in batten ruse

the debut of the lane kiff and era and maybe dabbo's dynasty trying to get a little death rattle in death valley on sunday one of uh just a couple games on sunday but certainly one of the ones is gonna have the spotlight is some ranked on ranked action Ole Miss taking on Louisville this game will be in Nashville in the sun stadium the home of the Tennessee Titans

Danny first word to you here we've got a lot that we feel like we know about with Ole Miss in terms of

Pete Golding did lead this team to the final four and Trinidad Chamble is his back and Q1 Lacy is on the damn sphere in Las Vegas I mean we're buying highs and stuff all over the country time square Las Vegas I feel like I know the rebels Louisville maybe a little less so what's the what's got your attention trying to break this match up down so I think Jeff Brom is one of the more innovative offensive minds in the game uh I think Lincoln King holds is one of those quarterbacks

that maybe just was really good but wasn't good enough to beat out Julian Sandro, Ohio State I do know he's gonna be more mobile than what Jeff Brom has had probably in his last decade so I'm kind of curious to see how he uses Lincoln King holds I also think maybe it opens things up fries at ground do we have a we have a status update on Isaac Brown I think he's good to go okay

“that's one of like I think he is the most important player in this game because he is a dynamic running back”

first out his freshman year last year banged up it's a draft year coming up this should be a showcase game for him right I don't want to see him limiting reps or I mean if they want to win this game they need to get Isaac Brown going and I do think Lincoln King holds being mobile will help him with that they run some sort of that quarterback run game

that could keep the defense honest somewhat but I think he's probably the most important player

if Louisville's to win this game yeah like I think we know what we haven't trended at we we know we haven't lacy I think LSU or sorry I think Ole Miss has you know done a pretty good job at receiver we'll see on the offensive tackles right I think the offensive continuity should stay pretty similar coaching staff wise like it's not laying calling it but it's very similar concepts to what they were running and I'm sure he's pretty familiar with what trended at Jamble's

you know felt comfortable doing I think honest like both these defenses are are pretty underrated guys like I I think Louisville has some real players on defense I know Miss like I think they have one of the most underrated linebacking course in the SEC I think they're really good up front and they brought him like a lot of veteran experience to help bolster a secondary it was kind of like kind of questionable times last year right and so I I think their defense a little bit underrated

I think I really trust Louisville's defense for the most part you know secondary wise will see like if Ole Miss is way better at receiver than I project that that may be a real problem

“for the cardinal but also um I think Danny hit on something really important here the mobility”

of Lincoln Kindhouse right like there's a Keynals or Kindals what what I'm asking I was just about to ask you he knows sorry I thought I'll get you go ahead I will double check I mean like I'd be a little problem I think they're gonna I think they're gonna have to run him a pretty good bit honestly and like that that's something you know you wouldn't have seen in the spring game stuff but like I bet you if they got a chance at hell the win this game

he's gonna have to really do some stuff with his legs and you know um because I don't know if I really trust him as a passer I like Tray Richardson I think Louay McCoy was kind of an underrated signing in the portal like obviously they paid up a lot for him but at the same time like he did show some nice flashes when healthy last year at FSU you know I wouldn't be surprised at this game's a little bit sluggish yeah you know think about too Louisville I think

is underrated from the physical standpoint I think they're always physically they've pushed around

Clemson the last couple years it's not just let me maybe three years they've gone toe to toe

dominated Kentucky but I get Kentucky was down but how did they physically stand up to Ole Miss?

“I think they'll I think it could be a little bit more of a rock fight with you on that.”

I don't trust that Trinidad's a playmaker too. I don't trust Louisville's defense at all. Ron English steps away the other co coordinator was not retained we're promoting Mark Ivy this is

his first game as a play caller at the college level and you're going up against this offense

and that quarterback I'm I just think it's a little weird you know I just I think it's a little but because on paper the group you know like you've still got Lubin right like you've still got a couple of the great edge rushers in terms of defensive talent in the ACC. I don't know man you got you had a good defense last year and one coordinator just going to step away from football for a year the other coordinator was not retained but we're just going to

promote internally. I don't know man not a this this this one might take this one might be a group that takes a couple games to really find their footing and everybody gets settled into all of

“their new roles and new responsibilities and I think this is a bad opponent to be able to be”

facing in that kind of scenario so the other side of it you know you're talking about Ole Miss defense I that's a great like on paper or reality if they show up and they're awesome and I'm like okay that makes sense because on paper it looks great but it is all like pieces that have been put damn fantasy football roster right and if the fantasy football roster hits and all your draft picks are good congratulations you're competing for a league championship but it's still got to go

out there improve it before I'm ready to go I'm not all I'm not like I'm not tackling the betting side of this necessarily but in the sort of matchups and looking at the way these groups stack up against each other the change in coordinators the change in playcolors has me hesitating to copy and paste defensive expectations from one season to the next when it comes to the little bull cardinals turning our attention elsewhere how about Notre Dame Wisconsin what do you want to see

“from CJ car but well I want to see how he plays without a run game to lean on you know I think”

that that's going to be really really important for them I want to see like do they have a legitimate number one emerge right like like I think you know I look at that that group and I think there are a lot of good players in that group but do they have a guy who come playoff time other defenses are really scared of individually collectively I think it's a really nice group and you know generally I'm not a fan of receiver by committee in college but it can work if you have like sometimes

you have this like legitimate NFL quarterback who can really see it fast distribute the ball most college teams like the vast majority college teams dead doesn't work right at least not at like a high level but maybe car is that good and like so maybe they don't have that guy as a number one who really really scares you but maybe he just distributes the ball extremely well and I think immediately you want to see these running backs right like like how how what are they running

the ball now you know I think probably still pretty good but they just lost two first round

running backs like that hasn't happened in quite a long time I think they'll be fine running it it'll be interesting to see who steps up I'm I mean I think Luke fickle I think Wisconsin is better this year we saw some of those pieces on the defensive side of the ball show up late Colton Joseph his run his legs we were talked about it with keyholtz and some I think Colton Joseph they're gonna like they have struggled to keep quarterback healthy they've struggled to generate

offense they've struggled with offensive identity I'm very curious see if Colton Joseph can orchestrate some points against this Notre Dame defense which I think is really good I think it's going to be a struggle like I think if Wisconsin I think the recipe for a cover not I don't have no if there's one for a win is another ugly game where Wisconsin can kind of extend some drives play slow you know Notre Dame's offense is figuring out some things figuring out who the back

is you know they're not running it as well as you know against Wisconsin defense which I think is better but I just I'm very curious to see what they can do offensively with a with a mobile quarterback I think Colton Joseph was he a thousand yard russure close to it last year last year it all dominion yeah yeah and they they got to figure out how to use him right like the what they ran it all dumb is what you essentially saw Memphis run on Saturday night late like and that's

going to lead to a lot of third and eleven that's not close to what to what Wisconsin has been running

it's in some ways more similar to what Wisconsin was running before they made the coordinator change

fickles says they don't know yet on Emerson Mandale or Kevin Haywood I believe those are

“two starting offensive lineman excuse me did hold on a second I gotta do yeah for their he says”

worthwhile to mention and this is this was some from Zach heel print I saw this who covers them for the who we got here the sports director it's oh Madison worthwhile to mention it fickle said they need to do what's best for the entirety of the season who just Wisconsin have on deck winnable games correct where's my white flag I mean I don't I don't carry myself that way because I have Western Illinois

and then Eastern Michigan coming up I have no idea how banged up those guys are maybe this is all smoke but you know if you're Wisconsin you don't need to win 10 games but you do probably need to win six games to avoid getting fired or at least seven right I don't know but man no comments kind of like like just like chips said that that I thought the message into your fan that it's like hey we're gonna pack it in against Notre Dame to make sure we're healthy

for Western Michigan that's not great to make sure like we don't suffer setbacks and we are healthy for at Penn State Michigan State at UCLA USC which is our October slate oh so it's like we think that these guys we could have them back now but we'd rather wait

“two weeks to bring them back and that way we don't lose them for the whole season that's how I”

read the comments yikes I already thought that Wisconsin was gonna struggle to score 17 points in this game I think he wrote 10 okay well so everybody I think everybody agrees these apparently obviously um I think that this is gonna be a great spot for Notre Dame de Flexus muscles as one of the best defenses in the whole damn country and I think that CJ Carr is gonna give us as much as he needs to give us and I think that it does get a little bit

into you know Graham and Porter come over from Ohio State you know there are a few new additions to be able to see how where do you fit into this mix are you perhaps a candidate to emerge as that alpha I'm not ready to declare that yet I haven't heard anything along those lines but if there's some other pieces around here in addition to the way that you know is a NES Williams just gonna step right into a heavy load or is that end up being more of a snap share I

“I think I'm scouting Notre Dame's offense and I'm expecting Notre Dame's defense to dominate”

in this game against Wisconsin well said I'm curious to see what receiver like you said the two Ohio State transfers which is there a true number one that steps up you know for CJ Carr

I also go back to this is the first time we've seen them since they got left out of the playoffs

what's Freeman's motto to his players well no doubt is that Porter Porter is definitely out okay oh yes yeah so what's what's Freeman's motto it's like leave no doubt like they want this could be like oh we got screwed last year the whole year there's a campaign to you know there may has no decision and like big spotlight games state like I mean this and there's some big statement statement when opportunity there for us yeah like because look

Wisconsin could lose this game and still go on to be a seven and five football team right and like Notre Dame's schedule is weak enough to where they don't have any opportunities they can point to and say hey we have we we smoked a big two conference team that has a winning record this might be the fourth toughest team on their schedule and it could it could very well if

they smoke them it could very well be like their third best resume bullet yeah we'll see

probably fourth but yeah and now it's time for upset alert brought to you by draft kings the draft king sports app is live in all 50 states and this September draft king's is giving customers the opportunity to get boosted every football game day new draft king's customers can sign up with the code cover three spell out three THRE spend five bucks and get 200 in total rewards within 21 days including all markets that's code cover three in partnership with draft

kings the crown is yours scanning the weak one slate for an upset alert opportunity we don't have to go that deep into the weekend no there might be one on Thursday night Danny canal we got coach prime and the buffs and they are headed to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech and as Juju Lewis

do you believe I think this one has a lot of similarities to TCU versus North Carolina and you

gave a couple of them now this one isn't neutral this isn't Georgia Tech's backyard so they'll have that going for them but you mentioned new offensive coordinator Brendan Marion who I think is really good Julian Lewis is super talented as a five star I also think on the flip side Alberto Mendoza taking over like we don't like I think there's a lot of cashier that comes with the last name but if he was that good don't you think Indiana would have kept him you know like and he would have

been the guy there to replace Fernando Mendoza talk to a couple people around Indiana's program they said there is a pretty significant drop-off city wasn't the same level of talent I know Justice Haynes comes in there and they want to run the ball but think about what Haynes came into that program as a dual threat me and watch me he is I thought he was one of the

“more underrated talent in quarterback's in the entire country you have to replace him I'm a little”

bit nervous for Brent key and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets for this game you got same up settler sirens bud yeah I mean Colorado is a way more experienced football team than Georgia Tech is if you look at like all the players they brought in the portal who can legitimately say like I've played a lot of SNAPs I think there are kip them saying this some similarities to Virginia as far as like how experienced they are not quite the same level and I don't think

Colorado is quite as buttoned up up an outfit as UVA is but Prime did say that Skudero the receiver from San Jose is healthy so that's that's that's pretty big obviously four Colorado and you know like I've down I've downgraded door to Tech I'm a pretty good bit on the loss of King and Falkner I think those two guys together at coordinator OC combo with with QB there really won a lot of games for them over the past couple years and to me they're in private mode you know I

“I would serve when total like five and a half I think like yeah I think it's for a reason”

there's a there's an aspect of this too as I'm looking at the potential of this be in an upset by the way here as we're on big game breakdown on Tuesday Colorado currently a six and a half point underdog at draft King sportsbook the crown is yours and that is Georgia Tech put out its depth chart yesterday they had three starting running backs on the depth chart three different starting running backs we got like six running backs on the depth chart if you are going to get

out there and run the ball you're going to suppress scoring you're going to keep the clock running and you know what that means that means it's going to come down to two quarterbacks and a one possession game and who can go and make some plays and if you've got more confidence in Julian Lewis the former blue chip quarterback to be able to go out there and be a difference maker will then certainly I understand that angle there as he takes over again with that new offense

new coordinators new quarterbacks lots of changes that is always right for the unpredictable

“and yes even an upset that's why we have identified Colorado six and a half point underdogs at”

Georgia Tech is your upset alert of the week you do plan at home too coming back home to Georgia right yeah here you go and that was upset alert brought to you by draft Kings once again new customers can get the code cover three on sign up spend five bucks and get 200 in total rewards within 21 days remember the draft King sports app is now live in all 50 states and that means from Texas to California to Florida every fan is in on the excitement in partnership with draft Kings the

crown is yours coming up on the other side rapid fire across the country more of the matchups to watch and more back here on the cover three podcast tailgate once we're refreshing break and don't worry the snapples coming ladies and gentlemen but right now we've got to go around the country make sure we hit on some of the other games that have our attention you see a lake cows what the tailgate was buzzing about it's 10 30 p.m. it is the end of week one it might be the best game

of the whole damn day we might have to first round NFL draft pick quarterbacks in this game and

maybe you can say you we do I don't know jern kiaves sake of poletelli niko eomaliava massive game former pack 12 in state rivals and a game that is the true swing game for both their win totals you know like this is a spot where we could see dreams sort of start to take all dreams season start to take off here or maybe you start a little bit behind the eight ball is it is it just quarterbacks decay or we got even more that we well new head coaches do yeah

oh yeah there's a lot of different story lines in this one first I mean this and both it sets the tone and a game that both your fan bases probably feel like you should win no matter what the

kind of tosh loupois a defensive mind are they you know but they have this incredibly talented

quarterback a more curious to see what their defense looks like looks like against niko and company

“I think there's a lot of intriguing matchups yeah I mean like is there a game it's going to be a better”

watch than this one I was thinking about it I was like NFL arms throw in ropes against questionable defensive backs at 1 a.m. I mean this is kind of college football and like this is this is college why this is exactly in your guard vibes yes for sure yeah I I did think both offensive have been pretty good advantage here if you silly is offensive lines up for the task you know I think Cal may have hit on some of the starting transfers they brought in I do not think they're very

deep defensively at at all just look at my notes back from summer school was like yeah some of the

backups are kind of sketch you know some of the starters might might work out I'm very confident

that Bob Chesene and that that staff's gonna unlock niko and that they're gonna be able to score and I also like just getting getting JKS reliable targets in the portal like guys who are proven good college ball players who can be on the same page with him and catch the ball like he didn't have as many drops last year as say I'm leak Washington at Maryland did but

“he had quite a few drops that he suffered and I think that's kind of one of the reasons I was”

so impressed with him in Washington is like they just they just kind of persevered through it right and they just kept kept chucking I think sometimes I can kind of you know throw a freshman off his game a little bit yeah I'm expecting points here yeah also here is see what niko getting Wayne Knight from James Madison rush for over 13 hundred yards as you have that same type of success in the backfield every quarterback would love to have a run game to benefit him we'll be curious

to see if they can run the balls effectively as they did not get James about it Bob Chesene with

I mean the game's gonna have like a million points right he's not ready he was not ready he was

not ready to commit to forty five forty two even if the rest of the world is very prepared for forty five to forty two all right we've talked a lot about sort of the fallout from Florida state what about the x is an o's what about the matchups but what do you think SMU is going to present in terms of the what where the places where the seminals are going to be tested based on what you saw and what we think we know about the twenty twenty six Mustangs yeah well I think the force that we tested like

do they have a past rush at all like I said just across the board terrible effort from those guys in the opening gaming as the bad newsco state team like everybody's past rush grade 55 56 or worse on pf you know communication between the backers and the secondary uh 20 white defense coordinator cited that on in his Monday press conference I mean got to a pre like just pretty unacceptable bus and and like not not playing good team defense and then offensive line

wise like how much longer are you going to run out uh Jim Day at a right tackle like are you

“you have to move it in tear guy out there and if so what's your solution on the interior I thought”

Daniels was actually pretty bad going back and watching that thing and like just looked like honestly look like the actual Daniels he's been for the entirety of his career and and maybe maybe he was a camp Coleman merchant for seven quarters last year like like and so you know tied in like again I think you probably can't keep running to Sarah Ryals out there because he can't block anybody and he's really more of like like a flex offset guy and you already

have better slot options than him so yeah I don't have super high hopes but again you do have playmakers on offense I mean Kroma looked really good despite poor blocking and you do have these coming along like it's not impossible that they spam those guys like you have to run action with with intention like he's not a good pastor man like he's just not good at playing quarterback so can you use his legs find a way maybe I'd do

any ifs and he was a camp Coleman merchant I wonder I wonder if he becomes more of a dude's Robinson merchant because he did not turn that game you know I think I would if I was him I'd be finding do's Robinson no matter what I mean there was a drop pass and there from do's it was a little tightly defended but I wonder if they'll if they game plan that's the one thing too did they hold back much did they do did they hold back some things I think so too I

hope so but like there's no holding back on the defensive side of the ball for some of those busts and just flat out beats on the defense side of the ball yeah that's probably what I'm more worried about is the defense slowing down Kevin Jennings company last 10 years if you blindly bet all the teams that didn't that that have not played yet against the teams that have played yet you're profitable yeah all the teams that have not yeah because they got a game on they got a game of

isn't better week one week too but the stats say that's not true yeah so that's how you're jumping on the other said well what about the SMU side of this I mean there's there's a lot of commentary in the tailgate oh my god can't believe it's only three and then that's having everyone asked

about Kevin Jennings Fingy and I look I heard Kevin Jennings Fingy is going to be 100 percent okay

what was actually came and told me about his Fingy said he's going to be all right he jammed it in a locker room door they just kind of shut him down for about a week and a half but you know he's back he's good to go and to be fair to Kevin Jennings he is an absolute warrior I saw that man on one leg win games against some of the best teams in the country so I don't want to I don't want to be caught as somebody who questions his toughness what are we going to get

from the SMU side of this is very easy just for our own cover three world and also since we have seen them to be very Florida state coded here what do we think we get out of the Mustangs in this game

“I mean I think Jennings is a really good passer I think this is a nice receiver room they have”

some good corners left side of the offensive line is really damn good you know right side well we'll see I mean like that's probably an area like both right sides the offensive lines are probably spots that the opposing coaching staff wants to it you know try to attack you know I think Duce is better than SMU's best corner but also like I think SMU's better coach they've they've done a nice job of retaining the talent that they do have I think they're probably

much more cohesive and play together more as a team just based on what I've seen out of them so I think they'll just come out and play their game honestly they should be able to get after get after if she's quarterback pretty easy I think like I think they'll get a lot of pressure on him you know like if you're them it's like hey how do we lose this game it's you know like their issues receivers okay and

could be running on us basically like if Daniel's if Daniel's runs

a bunch and there's a bunch of busts and miscommunications in the back half of SMU's defense

“where I think that I think SMU has made some decisions and how we talk about SMU like”

they got all the money in the world but they also choose where they invest and they try to find good fits yes that are not necessarily walking off the bus and into Sunday football but can be very good capable players within the SMU structure and those players might not be able to match up with Dust Robinson right there's players might not be able to catch Danzy if Danzy gets loose and you know shake somebody I think that the reason that the line is smaller is that on paper

Florida State is closer but vibes in coaching have SMU going this way and Florida State going this way SMU does after a place their defense coordinator he left the Dallas Cowboys they got Maurice

Crum call in the place for them I think that's something like again that's where the first game

kind of helps you that Florida State had that kind of warm up preseason game but I mean there's no doubt about it Florida State has to play cleaner if this game is going to be competitive you ask what it

“means for SMU I think if SMU wins this game comfortably you know seven to ten points or more”

then I think it's oh there's the second best team potentially in the ACC if they win it's a little bit of a struggle or they lose then I think that kind of opens up that door to all care comes for Virginia we'll see what Louisville does against Ole Miss kind of just opens things up because I think justifiably so SMU has been picked by a lot of people as the second best team in that ACC you you realize the combination of an Ole Miss blowout win and a Florida State victory is just

devastating for the ACC. Yeah that's your one play off team scenario. Yeah you you you spend all offseason talking about Louisville and SMU as the Virginia still alive Virginia still there you and me will be out I mean you're you're already in our final on viral station on Bob Prebula who I would take uh I would take over Ashton Daniels I would take you think Grunk of Arrow of Ashton Daniels you know like that you just throw him in the ACC I started run that clock in my head and yeah he was one of the

worst quarterbacks in the portal like there's a reason he was the fifth guy they brought in like they didn't the wasn't like they didn't target him he was an emergency panic take for for a staff that misgaged how much quarterbacks we're going to cost. I had a lot of fun for that one HQ hit when I just got to propose what if Ashton Daniels is good I don't think I can propose that anymore I think that you know questions been answered we got to put that one to bed but yeah we'll see

about that oh we got to have one more real quick they learn Auburn speaking of Ashton Daniels what's what do we what do we know I mean look like they swung big in the portal at quarterback because they they need a guy to be a star for them they being bailer yes yeah right like

right if we get him back to what he was in the second half of 2024 then he can carry us and

“we can save our jobs you know I think up front bailers probably a little bit underrated actually”

I think that's a line no defensive line yeah I think they can probably cause a little bit of problems for Auburn up front you know I I like the go-less higher I just don't see Auburn as a

team that is like pushed all the chips in on this year you know yeah I think they're trying to build

towards something I you know like Brown's fine but it was also we have seen that offense put up

“obscene numbers with pretty much anybody playing quarterback in these G6 leagues so I I think”

there's real reason to wonder if some of that translates we think Danny I think Auburn's defense

it's probably gonna be my mid kept DJ dark in to have some pieces a couple pieces coming back

I think that side of the ball was pretty physical I'm all eyes are on DJ lag away for me like which version are you gonna get as but alluded to you know is he gonna be consistent is he gonna be careful with the football or is he gonna try to do too much trying to win the game for them and come up with them some of the mistakes that he made at Florida so I'm very curious to see that

“I think byron Brown I think you'll see him run the football I think you'll try to do the same”

things he was against bailer I think he should be able to do that I think the question for me comes what what is that happen to get the better teams in the SEC yep we are gonna be continuing our conversation looking ahead two week one on our time on CBS Sports Network Wednesday Wednesday new niece from time cover three back on your televisions if you hit that series record on cover three like we told you before our show up in midtown Manhattan well then it's

automatically gonna record but hang out take a lunch break watch us live we'll be breaking down inside big game breakdown inside the matchup of Oregon Boise State the big-time game on CBS for week one three thirty PM Eastern time and so much more from around college football the trends we are tracking a but Elliott play off hypothetical should be a lot of fun again that is Wednesday noon eastern time on CBS Sports Network then Thursday we are back here for week one locks

set that meeting 11 a.m eastern time and come hang out in the tailgate and you can follow him on twitter probably three you follow him at any canal follow me at your fun at school patterns and gentlemen thank you very much to you