Week 1 College Football Preview: Notable Trends, CFP Debates, MUST-WATCH Games & More!

- And welcome back to the Cover 3 Podcast. Here on CBS Sports, that's Comfort Nelly. That's Buddy, that's Danny Canal. I'm Chip Patterson, coming to you live, youtube.com/cover3, and everywhere you get your podcasts on demand,

including CBS Sports, that work. That's right, Cover 3 Podcasts is here to get you set for a locked and loaded week one, that is full of matchups that we've been breaking down on the Cover 3 Podcast, and today an in-depth look

at the first big time game of the 2026 season

as the Oregon Ducks top two Oregon Ducks play host at home to Boise State, one of the newest members of the Pac 12. So lots more to get into, but I wanted to start with a little bit of trend setting. Yes, we are actually the most on-trends college football

podcast in the globe, you know, like no one is more trendy than us.

“Danny, what trends are you watching in college football?”

- My favorite thing, and I thought we saw this, you know, there's a bunch of group think that takes place in the off season. We all think certain teams are gonna be good, and we all think certain teams are gonna be bad.

And I thought the biggest surprise out there was North Carolina getting a big win over TCU. Like a Memphis, the win over UNOV, and they were an underdog, and I don't know where everybody picked where their mind was,

but I think the trend of us all off season, thinking we know everything, and then seeing that come collapsing down as we realize every single year, maybe we were a little bit off on certain programs,

I absolutely love that trend. Even if we're on the wrong end of it at times, and see state, I thought NC State had a chance to pull up. They get waxed, all of a sudden it's like, Virginia looks like a playoff team.

So I like the trends of everybody, but we think is right, we find out, oh, maybe we were wrong all off season, but these teams give us a chance to prove them otherwise.

- Always a good opportunity for us to test our priors

when you're looking at the transfer portal movements that are gonna be able to create all kinds of different expectations for the upcoming season, but what do you have your eyes on in terms of trends to watch entering a week one?

- Yeah, Chip, I'm looking at tempo. Right, last year, we heard a lot of coaches talk about how Indiana really wouldn't break the huddle until the new helmet comes for the defense, you know, we're turned off.

So they were not really showing their formation, they were not really giving any hints to the defense as to what they might do. I'm curious, like for some of these teams last year, that were in the middle of the tempo,

like not your super no huddle teams, not your teams already went slow, but are those teams that were sort of in the middle, maybe they go to the line to make some adjustments to what not?

“Are they gonna stay in the huddle for a little longer?”

Are they gonna go from, you know, this many seconds to play to crank it down a little more because they see what Indiana did. So I'm closely watching and so are people in the betting markets, by the way.

So under this week, have been bet at a three to one ratio, as far as the big moves on the Vegas line to the ratio of overs. - You know who else was watching that? Who else was watching that?

Is the slower team's skill of the more chance they could put ads in between place? So I think that is also something to be watching for going forward. - Tom, what do you have your eyes on?

- First of all, Danny,

I have never been wrong about anything in the preseason.

I think everything I say over the summer always proves to be correct once the game start playing. So that's your trend is not really a trend. I believe in a trend, I'm gonna point to you. Like, there's been a lot of talk coming into week one here

that especially compared to recent seasons, it is not the most appealing as far as big time matches. Like if you think back the last year, we had Texas versus Ohio State in the first week of the season, which was a one versus a two matchup,

which is just rare as it always is. So you never really saw that before. But now I think it kind of set a tone to where people are like, well isn't that supposed to be how it works every season.

It's not that way the season. There aren't a ton of matchups between teams that are both ranked, which is interesting because I have noticed over the last few years, week one games where the teams are both ranked,

the favorite in that game has only gone two and six. And I don't meet against the spread. I mean, they have only one, two of the eight games that have come in. So you know what, actually Danny May,

maybe you're right, maybe we don't know anything that we're talking about in the preseason going into the regular season. But the only two teams to have one, were Ohio State last year in that meeting with Texas

and in 2024 when Georgia beat clubs and by like a billion. So when you're looking at those matchups this weekend and you're seeing certain teams that are favored

“over the other ones, maybe you should sit there and wonder,”

should that team be favored? Should they be favored by that much? I don't know, a recent history suggests no, they shouldn't be. All right, quick follow on that. I want to hear from Danny.

The only AP ranked on ranked matchup. We've got is going to be on Sunday

“as Louisville plays Ole Miss in Nashville.”

Do you think that that book's more to the trend of Ohio State in Georgia? Where Ole Miss is actually living up as the favorite or are you going to pull out some trendy upset alerts for what Jeff Brom and the cards could do?

But I want to hear from you too next. - I absolutely think that is a ripe spot for potentially an upset. I mean, have you guys heard about the week three game versus Ole Miss and LSU?

Trinidad Stameless is the best quarterback in the country like just given the Heisman already? Why do they even have to show up to Nashville for this game? Meanwhile, Louisville's got a bunch of question marks. Who's this QB Lincoln keynote?

Susie, is he any good? Jav Brom is one of the best play colors out there. I think that is a ripe spot. They've also had a ton of success recently against some of the more physical teams

that they got against, think clubs and think Miami, some of the bigger body teams in the ACC. They have gone toe to toe with them. I do not think they will be intimidated. And they're not reading all the Ole Miss press clippens.

I think they are in a pretty sweet spot for a potential upset.

“- Yeah, Chiba, I think it's certainly possible, right?”

Everybody's kind of pointing ahead as Danny said to that week and we three match up against LSU.

But like looking at this, Jeff Rawves never really had

a truly mobile quarterback that I can recall. And now he has one Lincoln keynote. It's like a really good athlete. Now I'm very curious to see just how Ole Miss reacts to Louisville utilizing his legs.

I think both these defenses are kind of underrated too, especially when it comes to past rush. - Underdogs winning out right, underdogs in those ranked on ranked games in week one. Ooh, a lot of trends there might be going the cards way,

watch out, Pete Golding. Mine does not apply to Ole Miss or Louisville, but it does, in this case, apply to the likes of USC, Memphis, UNLV, Stanford, and yes, even Florida State. Because in the rest, verse rust debate,

there is a thought that teams that go out in week zero and get a chance to play, get a chance to learn about themselves, that they might have an advantage over week one. But the data does not back that up whatsoever.

In fact, what we've come to learn is that perhaps playing in week zero might put you at a disadvantage if your week one opponent hasn't played yet. Because what if you've gone and put a whole bunch of scrimmage snaps on tape?

And what has the week one team not done? Put anything on tape. And the element of surprise over the last 10 seasons has actually bore out not just in the wins and losses, but even in covering the spread.

Because there have been 265 games over the last 10 seasons

where a week zero team is playing their second game

against a week one team playing their first. And the teams in week one, the fresh teams with no tape are covering at a 58% rate. Not just wins, covering the spread at a 58% rate. Last year, that was Hawaii.

They play in week zero. And then Arizona puts the clamps on them, 40 to six, absolutely dog walks them. UNLV puts them stuff on tape. And it was maybe one of the best games Sam Houston played

all daggum year, because they had that advantage. And then Kansas, yes, they won against FCS Wagner in week one, but they didn't even cover that FCS spread along the way. So look at these following scenarios. USC played in week zero, taking on Fresno State.

Memphis and UNLV are both in action. Memphis against Arkansas State, UNLV against Hawaii. Stanford is hosting Miami and Stanford already put out some pretty good Davis Warren tape. That is going to be advantage Miami.

And then Florida State Seminoles are going up against SMU and Florida State has put some things on tape. You know, varying degrees of how we grade that tape. But I got to give a point to the passer to you on this one. You mentioned this off handedly on the cover three podcasts.

Now that the data has been presented,

“does it line up with the anecdotal evidence that led you in that direction?”

Yeah, chip, because if you think about it, like you'll hear these coaches say, oh, like this is very correctable stuff, blah, blah, blah. It was also correctable in all of your offseason workouts. It was also correctable in spring football, right? It was also correctable in all the player lead practices over the summer.

And in the two scrimmages that you had in fall camp. And in your 15, 20 practices or whatever you had in fall camp.

So if you're still making these type of errors and certainly there are first game

jitters. But like, if you're betting on this, it's like, hold on a second. These guys are making these kind of errors after like they've been together. Remember, there was no spring portal. So these teams have largely been locked in since January, right?

So like that gives the opponent who has not played a real thing to scout on you and a real thing to exploit and see just how correctable that stuff is in seven or eight days, you know, between week zero and week one as opposed to the stuff. You didn't get corrected for the past, you know, 30, 40 weeks. Yeah, I guess the one that does apply, you and Lv and Hawaii both have now the tape on

So that one will be interesting to see who actually gets better from the first game to

the second game as the old, old, adage goes. Well, coming up on the other side, it's time to sit down with the cover three committee because the college football playoff picture could be muddier than ever in 2026 and our own but Elliott has already presented some tricky hypotheticals. The cover three committee will vote and weigh in and more.

Duxt. Back here on the cover three podcast live on CBS Sports Network. Now we are weeks away from our first college football playoff selection committee rankings, but that does not mean that we are unaware of the potential traffic jams and the rankings. They could be coming at the end of the season, the controversies that could pop up along

the way. So one of the things that we're going to have some fun with during the year is to try to identify what those headaches could be for the selection committee and then we're just going to go ahead and make life easy for them with our own cover three committee results. So you have run the bud bot simulations and you've got us one that could get a little

bit hairy, start off, why don't you present us with the situation and then we can start to break it down and maybe even vote on this. Yeah, got got so I ran a simulation here. I tried to find ones that are like not absolutely insane, right that could actually happen to put the committee.

“I think in a real binder or maybe the cover three committee will decide this is not”

a bind at all. We have 11 and two Virginia, right, loser of the conference title game against nine and three Oklahoma, which obviously didn't play in the SEC championship game. Now, you even have the breakdown of who they beat and what those teams records were that they beat or who they lost to.

So we can get into this, right. Virginia, they beat NC State, went six and six, they beat a six and six, went west for the team, a five and seven FSU team of five and seven, a Virginia in tech team, right, five and seven Duke, six and six, Wake Forest, obviously seven and five cowl, five and seven UNC, not too bad.

Now, they lost at SMU who went nine and three and then they lost to Miami 31 to 13 in the conference title game. Oklahoma, on the other hand, they wanted eight for Michigan. They beat four and eight Kentucky, they beat four and eight Mississippi State, they beat six South Carolina, they beat eight in four old miss, they beat eight in four tech, say

to him, six and six Missouri. They lost at Georgia who went 11 and one, they lost a Texas who went 10 and two and they lost at Florida who went eight and four. Who gets in, guys?

“DK, I mean, I think there's a couple things you have going against you.”

If you're Virginia in this situation, one, you're Virginia, right, you're not a blue blood. I think unfortunately, that's a reality of this situation. I think unfortunately, and they want to credit teams for non-conference scheduling big ones and this one we have Oklahoma winning at Michigan, correct? Yes.

So like that's a big, non-conference, marquee matchup that everybody watches. I would try to pound the table for Virginia because this would be the classic situation of 11 and one in the regular season. And if you had that second loss against Miami, even though they just gave the past to

Alabama after getting blown out in SEC title game, I think the reality is they would probably

get treated the way BYU did last year. Now BYU was unique because they lost to the same team twice in Texas Tech, but the committees made it pretty clear, they don't give that sort of favored status to the ACC and Big 12 teams. They did a couple years ago with SMU loss the game, but I do think they would really

want to reward Oklahoma for the non-conference win.

“I think Oklahoma would probably get the nod.”

What's interesting to me about this scenario is if we think back to last season BYU was in a very similar spot to where Virginia is in this hypothetical in that they had the one regular season loss and then they went to the conference championship game and they lost their second game and of course both the losses came to Texas Tech, but they were punished pretty much essentially for playing in a conference championship game and losing

it because Alabama had a third loss and got into the field despite it, but the difference

was Alabama's third loss came in a conference championship game. So clearly the committee said we will punish one team for losing conference championship and not the other and the conference championship, which league it is also clearly played into the equation of what they were thinking. Now the difference here is Oklahoma is not in the ACC championship game, so the question

becomes how much do they punish them for that third loss in the regular season?

I'm putting Oklahoma in over Virginia just because of the quality of their overall wins and

then if you look at the teams that they lost to, like eight and four Florida is their worst loss and you're looking at it like Virginia didn't beat a team that finished eight and four all season. So you could argue that you're punishing them for playing the ACC championship, but

“hey, if we want to go a little tin foil hat here, maybe that's what they want.”

Maybe that the way that they're pushing to expand the playoff, which would then in theory replace conference championship games because they would have to start them earlier to get them done by a certain date, maybe if they just continue to devalue the conference championships a little bit more, they start swaying that public opinion about whether or not we should be expanding to 24 and getting rid of them because obviously if you if you pull fans right

now, there's not a lot of them that seem to be in support of a 2014, they think 12 or 16 is plenty.

So you do need to sway the populist a little bit, maybe that's the way to do it.

But I just think on merit looking at the metrics with the SOS rankings would probably be for both of these teams, I think Oklahoma is the obvious choice here and they are one of the 12 best compared to Virginia, which is a good team, but clearly demonstrated with its regular season or has not demonstrated during the regular season that it's a great team.

Well, look, there is an opportunity here for Virginia to do it on the field. And that is what we all want, right? We don't want all of college football to come down to courtrooms and boardrooms. We wanted to be decided. And Virginia will have an opportunity playing against SMU to get something that budge your

hypothetical doesn't have for Virginia. And that's a single-degum ranked win, you know, like the record versus the top 25 is a statistic that the selection committee has at the very top of their team sheets. And when you've got a zero in the win column for your record against the top 25, that is not going to look great when Oklahoma in this hypothetical would have multiples.

And maybe even like three or four depending on where some of these teams end up landing.

“So there is a, I think any credit that wants to be given to non-conference scheduling, which”

you know, is something that kind of exists even if it's not written down. They go to the big house and get a win. That could be one of the most significant wins of the entire season for both conferences and sort of the ripple effects that could come out from that. So that already is going to give Oklahoma a spot in the driver seat, but it is again, in

addition to that, the conference wins against ranked teams, where the SEC and the big 10 do have an inherent advantage. And it's not in the media rights payouts necessarily. It's just in having more opportunities against ranked teams. Life in the ACC in big 12 cuts two ways that way.

And that yes, you are at a financial gap to those top two conferences, but that also means there's less opportunities for you to prove your worth on the national stage when it comes to the college football playoff in the selection committee. So for Virginia, a really good team, a really, really good team that very much impressed us and had a singing Tony Elliott's praises on the Covet 3 podcast incident reaction

show at the same time in this scenario. But I don't think that the resume is going to have enough meat to it where they're going to be able to overcome what Oklahoma has in terms of quality victories. You all have a lot of faith now in the committee really making it like a step change here. They like to pay a lot of lip service to strengthen schedule all this kind of stuff.

“But like historically, they've just sort of been lost column disorders, right?”

With some head to head and some tiebreaker stuff in there. Like I think historically UVA gets the nod over Oklahoma here. I'm not quite, I think Oklahoma should go in this scenario and I don't think it should be close, which is why I think our committee decided Oklahoma in fairly easily.

But they've never done this before, right?

They have never put a nine and three team, a three lost team that did not make the conference championship game in over somebody who was two wins to the better, like UVA would be in the scenario. I think your point is well made chip that like, hey, Oklahoma, when you're being eight and four-year-old Michigan, you're being eight and four, A&M and you lose two, 11

and one, Georgia, 10 and two Texas and eight and four Florida. You probably played six ranked teams and you went three and three against them. UVA in the scenario would have gone oh and two against ranked teams. I don't think on resume, it's really that close, but like historically this committee, like regardless of who's been on it pretty much, has not really paid that much credence

to the strength of schedule. And so I'm very curious. This is going to be a real step change for them and I do think they're going to be under a lot of pressure from the SEC and the big 10 to say, hey, look, these resumes are not close, y'all have got to divorce yourself from this lost column sorting that you've

been doing over the last, you know, however many years we've had this committee. So I mean, I think that's the way it should go chip, but I'm not, like, convinced that they would actually do it. Like this would be a precedent setting thing.

I do think that for the most part the committee has been win-loss column sorters, but

it's two conferences that get that benefit of the doubt when it comes to the three losses or the two losses, like a two loss big 10 team will be ranked over at three loss SEC team just because of the conference they plan. I don't think the big 12 of the ACC or even if we look back to Notre Dame last year, get that same benefit of the doubt because you could argue, Alabama had three losses.

Notre Dame only had two. The reason Alabama got in was because they're trying to schedule compared to Notre Dame. Danny.

“I think the other, the other nuance, the other nuance to this, what does Virginia look like?”

If they're beating these bad teams, but they're beating like they did NC State and they're rolling and just dominating, I think that matters and how does Oklahoma look, they've been

beat bad by Texas the last two years if they get blown out against Texas, blown out against

Georgia, don't look very competitive into those three losses, how does that impact the committee's view? So I think it's very nuanced. I love the conversation because it's what the committee's going to be judging too. Do you find a word?

No, I mean, Danny's totally right. We don't have 45 minutes to go into exactly what the score margins were on these. It's just like a two loss gap in the wind column is that would be a new thing for them. Yep. That would be a BYU did get dropped after losing theirs because remember, that's what

allowed for the clusters, remember, you got to leave room for BYU, then BYU's out and

“then all of a sudden, you know, it depends on the options.”

I thought we had a great list of contenders.

BYU was great last season, Notre Dame was great last season, Vanderbilt had a good season. I mean, there were a lot of really solid teams that were options for those last at large spots. We'll see if it's the same caliber of field when we get to the end of the season. Well, coming up on the other side, big time sets its sights on Austin Stadium, Eugene

Oregon, where the grass is damn green and the ducks are getting started with national championship aspirations. We'll go inside the matchup for Oregon, Boisey State, and more. Back here on the cover three podcast here on CBS Sports Network, that's time for nearly this buddy.

That's Danny Canal, and I'm Chip Patterson, and now we turn our eyes on big time. Three thirty p.m. Eastern time out in Eugene, Oregon, Austin Stadium, where the duck will be on that motorcycle and the Oregon ducks will be running out of the tunnel as they chase a big 10 championship and a national championship, the latter of which will be hanging in the balance as they welcome a visit from Boisey State.

Now, we saw these two programs play kind of an instant early season, classic a couple years ago, kind of the the Ashden Jinti launching off point for what ended up being a Heisman finalist finish, as we're going inside the matchup time, I want you to take me to where your eyes are going to be thinking about the ways that Boisey State can try to really call some stress for Oregon, or maybe what Oregon can do to impose its will

as the heavy favorite, as the team that's expected to be able to roll here. My eyes will be where my eyes typically are in any matchup, but particularly for this one, because I do have questions on both of these areas for these teams. Like you mentioned Ashden Jinti a few years ago, running all over Oregon, well, obviously Ashden's not there, so that's a problem that Boise is going to have to solve because

he's been gone for a few years now, but the other thing Boise had, they had a good offensive line that season, and they were able to block Oregon for the most part. They were able to block them all game or just completely stymia, but they did a decent job compared to how you would expect a G5, G16 to do in that area. But last year, Jinti left and their offensive line was bad.

Like you may be Jinti was covering up a lot of their problems the year before, but if you look at them last season overall, whether it's just with your eye test, PFF grades, whatever you wanted to look at, that was a bad Boise State offensive line in comparison to where you typically see the Broncos, and they really struggled in games against South Florida, Notre Dame, and Washington.

And what we see in this game right now with Oregon, they might have the best defensive line in the country.

“So can Boise State block those guys well enough to even give their offense a chance?”

On the other side, Oregon's got offensive line questions of its own. There are three new starters on that offensive line, this year, including both of their tackles and their left guard. And the camp, like Dan Lannick has done a good enough job recruiting since he's taking over to Oregon, that you have a reasonable level of confidence that they're going to be able

to replace those guys along the line. Just they've brought in big beefy man, and they've developed them, and they're ready to take their turn. But you've also heard discussion that Oregon might be starting to true freshman on the offensive line by the time the season is over, whether it's Emmanuel Yenachow or Tommy Toffy.

Because you typically don't see true freshman stepping into an offensive line of a national

title contender on their first season in campus, where it's been the competition that

opened that it is allowed to true freshman to really enter the conversation of being possibility. So, you look at boysy state, obviously, they're not going to have one of the best defensive lines at Oregon's going to face this season. But I want to look and see how that unit looks, whether there's cohesiveness problems,

whether they struggle a little bit, because that is going to be the one thing. When you look at Oregon, top to bottom on their roster, we know the quarterback's great, we know the running backs are great, we know the receivers are great, we know the defense is fantastic. The one true question mark you have about this team that hasn't been answered is the offensive

lines. So, if you see struggles there against Boisey, that might come back to hunt to been bigger games down the road. There is a, there's a Boisey state player that I think is going to be a big problem for

the quarterback he's facing on Saturday.

Unfortunately, it's time been a field who played at Boisey state last year, and he's on that list you now, and he's playing against Clebson, four new secondary pieces for Boisey state, I want to see Dante more, he should be fine in this type of game, like you were saying. But I'm kind of curious to see if you can pick apart the secondary, which is replacing all those pieces in it.

Yes, I want to see the offensive line, totally agree with you the match ups here, where I think Boisey state could be overwhelmed.

“And I think the best thing that Dan Landing has going for him is the fact of what happened”

in 2024. Or the fact that it was a three point game that it was close, because I think you, like new or most situation, everyone's predicting Oregon's going to be great this season, maybe get a little complacent, start reading your press clippings, all I had to do was remind of how close that was.

I think this is one of those games where Dan Landing should have an epic pregame speech, ready to roll.

I don't think they overlooked this opponent at all.

I unfortunately, it could be a long night for Boisey state. I think this is one where Oregon bullies them around a little bit, but I'm very curious to see Dante Moore, sort of a kickstart to his Heisman campaign, what type of night does he have? Evan Stewart too, why have you seen her?

We know about decorian Moore. Evan Stewart, Dan Landing, said he's been healthy, has had a phenomenal offseason and spring. What type of role does he play to see, you know, come to the forefront is one of Dante Moore's favorite targets, a couple of the matchups I'm looking for. Mercy.

We have a good career. You guys took almost all my talking points. I agree.

“I think we're going to actually kill Boisey, right?”

I don't think these teams are similar in any way. The spread being 24 and a half by the way, kind of reflects that. Everybody expects Boisey to get wiped here, and I do too. So I'll dig deep in my bag. There's a true freshman at Boisey, named Ray Sean Jones.

He actually, I think, has a lot of juice. I've talked to people that have been up at Boisey and are like, oh yeah, he's different than anything we've ever had here at the receiver position. So if they get killed, I think a lot of targets going Ray Sean's way and we'll see what they can do with the ball on his hands to Tom's point about it, manually, and I'll show.

Yeah, dude. To me, that's a win not if as far as him becoming a starter for that team. We had him down here in Orlando for the underarmor, all American bowl, and that is not a normal looking freshman. That guy's like six, six, three, fifty, he said his wings, like eighty, six inches or something

insane. He had no problem with the other five stars down here at all. So I do think eventually he'll get into the lineup. How much does Dylan where I only get to play here?

“Are they going to allow him to chuck it around in garbage time if we get to garbage time?”

I guess. Yeah, I just take chips talking point though, not much, not much, not much meat left on the bone here for your buddy, but yeah, I think Oregon's the best team in the country, and I think the spread is kind of price like that too. I expect in the role.

Yeah, the play of Maddox Madsen is the one that stands out to me because we saw what happened when he got a little banged up and the Boisey State offense got real bad, right? You know, like things they were very much lost. When you lose your QB1, there's going to be some adjustments that are going to happen along the way, but I think that Maddox Madsen being able to elevate this passing attack

and being able to hang in there against that old experience to lead defensive line with a secondary that just has dudes on dudes on dudes at every position, all throughout the depth chart, he's going to have to make the right decisions under immense pressure all throughout the afternoon and, you know, for new offensive coordinator Drew Maringer, you know, how much do you want to make sure you get Evan Stewart going or how much do you

necessarily hold back for new defensive coordinator Chris Hampton, but I think this is really, really simple. The ducks want to go out and dominate and they want to keep Boisey State from reaching the end zone even once. In terms of the spread, I don't know what to make of this necessarily, but I think that

while Dante Moore is a legitimate candidate for the NFL draft as the top quarterback taken, maybe even the number one overall pick. And while Oregon's wider severs could emerge as the best wider silver room, hello Jeremiah McClull and you're there too, I think Oregon's defense could end up being the story of this game and it could be playing out that way where the game feels even more dominant

an upper hand on Mattix Matson, a lot of pressure on the third year starter for Boise State to be able to get the Broncos going.

“Any DK and he last thoughts here on what you're watching in the matchup?”

Coi Perich, you know, his debut for the ducks transfer from Minnesota, he was one of the, you know, better defensive players, curious what type of impact he has in the game, just another kind of player to watch out for for Oregon. Coi Perich was a phenomenal player two years ago at Minnesota, then kind of didn't quite

settle into the right spot, but there have been incredible reviews coming out of Eugene,

got to hear him meet with the media recently, I think that that's going to be a good spot for him to be able to continue to raise his stock as a player to know in the sport. Well, coming up on the other side, we've got a lot of teams that are big time favorites going into week one. So let's roll through some of the top 10 teams, not necessarily guessing how the matchup

will play out, like we did with Oregon, Boise State, but really what we're looking for. If you're a fan, it's your wish list. If you're the Coi Perich podcast, it's what we need to see what to watch for for top 10 teams in action and more. Next.

Back here on the Coi Perich podcast live on CBS Sports Network, getting you set for week one in college football. Now we do have some games that are going to be right at the top of your billing. Certainly Oregon, Boise State, the game we just did an in-depth breakdown of. It's going to be one of those.

It's going to get mainstream treatment. There will be some other games, though, where we're just, we're just peering in, just kind of trying to see if we can check some boxes here, like, I don't know, number one, the Ohio State book guys who are 50 and a half point favorites in their season opener against Ball State.

I mean, gracious, everybody wants to, everybody who cares about Ohio State does not want this to be a main talking point. But because we are thorough on the Coi Perich podcast, we still have things that we want to see, things that we need to see as we get a better feel for how to talk about these teams moving forward, Tom, let's start with Ohio State.

What is on your list of things that you want to see out of the book guys in their season opener? Uh, get out of there without getting anybody hurt. That is, I mean, we're not on their team. Maybe they'll hurt somebody on Ball State, but they've, they've got a much bigger game

looming in week two against Texas. So my anticipation for what Ohio State is going to be doing in this game is showing up running a few plays overwhelming Ball State with their talents and with their strength scoring points.

And then, hey, let's see how these second and third stringers look in the second half.

This is just not the kind of game like it's, it's a 50 and a half point spread for a reason. Boys, it's, it's not expected to be close. Ball State cannot really hang. It's just you want to get an idea.

Maybe, you know, with Arthur Smith coming in as the new offensive coordinator, maybe you'll get an inkling as to what the new wrinkles will be. But I don't even know if you're going to get that because again, with Texas showing up in week two, you have no go down to Austin. I don't think they're going to want to put a whole heck of a lot on tape for the long

horns to use to get ready for them. So this is probably going to be an extremely vanilla, extremely basic handoff, run up the A-Gap kind of game plan and see how many points we could score before halftime.

“Honestly, I want to see Ball State's new 5 foot 10, 250 pound quarterback, man.”

That's going to be absolutely exciting. So, and like, and seriously, I do want to see how he looks because it will be watching of course, Ball State on Mac Play for Sikomode. But I want to see the Ohio State receiver rotation outside of Jeremiah Smith, obviously, they had Brandon Anis that they have the stud kit that they took from UTSA who actually

has two years left. And they have all these, you know, five star freshmen like Chris Henry Jr. So I want to see the ball get spread around of those guys and see who that group has real juice. I want to see the defense.

I want to see if there's dominant or anywhere close to last year's historic defense. They lost so many pieces, the NFL draft. I expect them to be that dominant in a game like this, but kind of getting used to some

of those new faces that are four and five stars probably eventual first in second round

picks. Kind of curious to see what they look like coming together. Danny, that's kind of where I'm at. James Smith, quite Russo, Christian Allegro, I mean, there's some players that have shown up through the transfer portal.

I don't expect that it will be Matt Patricia, Master Class.

“I think it will be very much, you know, running a lot of base sets.”

But for all our purposes, I think you can still get some good one on one's understanding who's out there dominating who's getting it done. Well, thematically, let's keep it with that week to game in mind, Texas will open against Texas State, Archmany Archmany Archmany Archmany, say it one more time, Archmany for the algorithm.

Danny, maybe even outside of Archmany, what are you looking forward to seeing as the long horns get started with the in-state foes from the now, packed 12 Texas State?

kind of hear some of that coming out.

“I think that's part of what comes with being a Texas long horn and being Archmany.”

Everything is going to be over scrutinized. But remember, even last year, in some games where they were heavy, heavy favorites, it was not the cleanest, crispest start for Archmany in the Texas long horn. So I can't wait to see what the connection looks like with camp, Coleman can't wait to see what Hollywood's mothers and Relieke Brown look like in the backfield offensive line.

I want to see them come together. I don't think they'll have many issues in this game, but kind of what does it look like going into next season also curious to see what Will Mushchamp looks like on the sidelines. He can be absolutely losing his mind that emotional coach that I think the defense could actually use for Texas, curious to see if that defense is his dominant.

They should be, but I would like to see some clean, you know, operation on the offensive

side of the ball. Danny, I'll go ahead and stick with that Will Mushchamp line. Where's the beef? So Mushchamp won a bigger defense of tackles. Texas went out and got two guys who weigh in north of 340.

I want to see how dominant, like we know those guys are big. How good are they? Can they, absolutely, cause tons of problems for Texas state, like with some Texas states

“inside run game out of the spread sets, can they handle those doubles with ease?”

Like, if they dominate, I think that's a pretty nice sign for the long run this year. How many hands full camp Coleman have to use to catch the ball? That's really the only interesting thing about this game. Like, they're going to be one handed grabs or they're going to be on target, he's going to use both.

All right, Tom, what about Indiana, right National Champions? They get things started on that week, one Saturday, big time stage. Here comes North Texas, the team that was competing for the American Athletic Conference, and they're missing 70 players from that team that competed for the American Athletic Conference. Neal Brown, our whole friend Neal with his hands full, a rebuild there with the Mean

Green. But Indiana has a Joshua Hoover. You get to see Nick Marsh and whether he gets to wear gold cleats on a Saturday. What do you want to see from Kurt Signetti's Raining National Championship program? Pray for the Mean Green.

You remember when we had Kurt on at Big 10 Media Days, we had him on the show, but asked him which wins last year, made you the angriest.

First one he said was old Dominion, because you'll remember last season, Indiana's first

game of the year, they struggled against old Dominion and did not really have the most impressed performance kind of made us wonder, like, oh man, maybe Indiana's 2024 is kind of fraudulent. This team doesn't look very good, and then we know how the rest of the season went. I guarantee you, knowing Kurt Signetti that that has been a point that has been pounded

home with his team as they prepare for this game all off season, they're probably going to try to beat North Texas by a thousand, and I don't think they're going to call off the dogs at any point, so I just want to see how many points Indiana wins by because it could be 70. Last year, the last year, they had old Dominion when we were in a little bit of a dogfight

early, so we'll see a lot of new pieces have to come together, continuity, obviously. I want to see Josh Hoover, you want to see him operating in that system. They lost a lot of pieces to NFL too.

“I agree with you, I think they should be able to spot their number, but I would expect some”

domination here, but all my eyes are on Josh Hoover, he's got so much pressure on the Phil Fernando Mendoza's shoes, sunny dykes took some shots at him on the way out, like how does he look, how acclimated to see to the system? I think he'll be fine, but I like to see him go out and have a nice game. I want to see some of the depth, I expect Indiana to come out and just completely destroy

an ortex, ortex already lost like their two best corners, so not a great recipe to go into Bloomington to face this Indiana team, but assuming they can blow them out pretty quick, how long do the starters play, and then how good is the depth on this Indiana team? Last year, they had so many nice depth pieces on the defensive line, they actually had to use that depth down the stretch in the playoff run, how good are those guys this year?

Yep, the level of player has gone up, the depth chart is a little more stocked in Kurt Signetti wants to let you know Indiana ain't going anywhere. We'll come up on the other side, we hope you aren't going anywhere, because we're going to give you the weeknight game to watch Thursday, Friday, Slates, or favorite kickoffs, and more. That's Tom Finale, that's Buddy Elliott, that's Danny Canal, and I'm Chip Fatterson,

we're getting you set for week one ahead, now Saturday, Sunday, Monday, it's an extended holiday weekend, but the football starts on Thursday, Danny Canal, what Thursday or Friday game has your attention? I went and looked at Miami travel and out to Palo Alto to take on Stanford, Stanford just showed a little something with a win against why Davis worn out over 300 yards. The Miami Hurricanes, how dialed in, are they? This is a spot where maybe if you're looking

up, don't get their best, it is their first game. Even more specifically, we mentioned some of

the players that we've talked about throughout the show, Jackson can't well, the young true freshman tackle, how does he go? And then Darian Mesa can't wait to see what he looks like for the Hurricanes.

“I think he's going to be a star, he's got incredible weapons to work with. I want to see the”

Miami Hurricanes, what they do for an encore after coming up just short last season. I'm not looking at just the best game on the weeknight. I'm looking at the biggest game of the weekends, at least in this household. I'm looking at Illinois versus UAB. You've got the line, I come an off of a nine win season. They have a brand new roster, brand new defense brand new quarterback. I want to see how they come out looking against the UAB team that you know,

struggle last year, had to fire their coach the middle of the season, but you know, Alex Mortensen

“came in the head coach. That offense actually looked pretty good down the stretch once Mortensen”

took over and ran things himself. So maybe this is a Blazers team. It's been a little bit slept on. It can give an Illinois team breaking in a new defense, a little bit of a challenge. So we'll

see, I hope not. I hope Illinois wins by a million. Guys, I'm going Fresno State at USC Fresno,

much to for competition for the Trojans, then the San Jose State Spartans were last week. Fresno's pretty good team there in the Pac 12. I want to see if they can give them a little bit of a test or more physicality, obviously, and we'll see how USC holds up, but none of that is a little

“test for the Trojans. I'll get you looking at Thursday night. How about do you believe versus run”

the bow? We got Colorado headed to the flats to take on Georgia Tech. I know that you might not have Bobby Dodd Stadium on your home field advantage list, but I'm telling you, I'm hearing that the crowd's going to be packed out. It's going to be a great environment to get your week one started on Thursday night. Keep your eyes on Mendoza. Yes, that Mendoza Alberto Mendoza, as he steps into the QB1 role there at Georgia Tech. I'm expecting they'll try to run the football and on the Colorado side of things,

you know, Georgia Lewis is going to have a chance with a new offensive coordinator and Brendan Mary into really start to flex what a lot of people saw from him early in his high school career, and that's the opportunity to go out and be a difference maker at the power conference level. Danny Scudero, we think he's healthy. We think he could be out there ready to go. That's a big

difference maker for the buffs. Always tough to know with those player availability updates with

Colorado, but we think he's going to be out there, and we think that that could make this a very exciting matchup between Georgia Tech and Colorado. Now, of course, all of our breakdowns of the games are always available at youtube.com/cover3 where we are live on Mondays and Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11 a.m. Eastern time then on Saturday nights around 11 30 p.m. Eastern time for our instant reaction show, and we want you to come join us in the cover three tailgate. All you got to do

youtube.com/cover3 subscribe, turn on those notifications. You'll know when we go live and, of course, everything here available wherever you get your podcasts. And you can follow him on Twitter at top for no, you can follow him out below. You can follow him at Danny canal. Follow me at Chip underscore Patterson, gentlemen. Thank you very much.