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Tony Kihl: All right. Welcome back everyone. This is the latest episode In the Flat podcast. I'm your host, Tony Kihl. Join as always by Jess and Jordan. So this week we wrap up our conference previews. We're going to do the ACC and a group of five, and then we actually have We're going to give you a couple quick picks on the week zero that I would say they left a lot to be desired as far as games, but I think we're just hungry for any game, so we'll take what we can get.
Tony Kihl: So yeah, we'll jump right into it. Not a huge, not a lot of news or updates out there this week. So I'm just going to jump right into the ACC conference preview. As always, we'll start off with who's new to the conference. For the ACC, it's SMU and Stanford. So I'm not sure any one of those are world breakers, but What do you guys think as far as, do you think any one of these will have impact this season as far as Stanford or SMU goes, so start you, Jordan.
Jordan Shultz: Out of the two, I think SMU I think we'll talk about it more down the way, a little bit too, is more, there's not really a dominant force team in this conference they're kind of, it's a lot of, switch up this year and this conference, it could be someone different than we never expected.
Jordan Shultz: But I think SMU, they're coming off of eighth in scoring offense last year with 38. 7 points a game. Their defense really picked it up from the year before they were given up 33. 8 points a game, two years, seasons ago, now they're last season. They get up 17. 8. They do have a lot of players coming back.
Jordan Shultz: I think SMU, Stanford's hasn't been good since, Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen him. Yeah, I think SMU is going to have a huge impact on this conference. Early, having that Texas. Recruiting and all that. I think they're going to be able to compete easily with Clemson, Florida state, those top schools early on.
Tony Kihl: Yeah. It's, you look at the conference, the records from 2023, there's only three teams out of this large conference. I had over. 10 wins last year. And that was Louisville, SMU and Florida state. And obviously SMU is coming from AAC. Last year was not a great year for ACC. There was a lot of bad teams in the ACC last year, or maybe they're just all very evenly matched and they beat each other up.
Tony Kihl: I don't know. I look at it positively for ACC, so Jess, what do you think? Any immediate impact here? Do you see any, maybe surprises me? Can SMU do as good as they did last year at AAC? Or do you see them dropping a little bit there?
Jess Sabin: I don't think any any of them, either of them, there's only two that are coming in are going to have a huge effect.
Jess Sabin: Jordan said, I think SMU will be the top, of the two they'll have, they'll be better. Immediately, but I don't see either of them cracking into the I
Tony Kihl: forgot California,
Jess Sabin: by the way
Tony Kihl: I totally forgot California was also added to the ACC. So I think they're gonna have even
Jess Sabin: less of an impact Yeah, that's not true A
Tony Kihl: little more than Stanford.
Jess Sabin: Yeah a little more than Stanford, but I think those Cal Stanford are going to be competing with the likes of hit Wake Forest, Syracuse, more towards the bottom SMU. I think we'll be have a good season
Tony Kihl: every once in a while, but
Jess Sabin: not consistent.
Tony Kihl: Yeah.
Jess Sabin: Yeah. But SMU might be in what I would say is that NC state, Virginia tech, maybe Louisville tier.
Jess Sabin: But I think The top three in the conference are going to separate themselves pretty quickly.
Jordan Shultz: Just so you know, SMU literally, this season is Florida State. They have Florida State [00:04:00] and Louisville. On the schedule? That's it. They got, they play Nevada, Hugh, Christian, BYU, TCU, Florida State, Louisville, Stanford, Duke, Pitt, Boston College, Virginia, and Cal.
Jordan Shultz: So this year I definitely see them, they could repeat what they did last year.
Jess Sabin: Yeah, but I don't think they're really gonna, I think they might be like a Missouri where they might coast a bit off an easier schedule or at least a projected easier schedule, but once like they, they're not gonna, if they make the ACC championship, I have a feeling they're going to get their teeth kicked in.
Jess Sabin: Like I don't see them really competing with the likes of Florida state Clemson, Miami, even if Clemson's passing attack isn't, better than it was last year. I just I think like all of the conference, honestly, conferences really outside of the sec, like when we talked about the big 10, there's levels to it.
Jess Sabin: And while the ACC isn't as loaded as the big 10 or might not be as competitive as like maybe the big 12 ends up being. I think there's a clear three teams at the top of the ACC. And I don't think SME is going to be competing with any of them. They're going to be good. I think if they could
Jordan Shultz: pull those Texas players, do you see how much money they raised?
Jordan Shultz: Their boosters and everybody raised the
Jess Sabin: line, but in terms of immediate this year, I don't think they're a real threat to the powerhouses in the ACC. I think they're going to finish with a very good record, probably nine, 10 wins, get a good bowl, but I don't think anybody's really going to be looking at SMU as a playoff team or, conference championship contender.
Tony Kihl: I don't know. I feel like SMU could surprise it from teams. I think that offense will travel. I think I think it will do well. I, what I'm worried about a little bit is on the defense. I think I liked their defensive and Elijah Roberts. And I like some of their linebackers and safeties that they have, but they lost three defensive tackles.
Tony Kihl: I know they were to. I think I got seven or eight different defensive linemen. And they're all for like power five, power four now conference. So I just don't know how good they are. But they have some size, like I think they got Mike Lockhart from West Virginia and made eight and a half tackles for loss is that 317 pounds.
Tony Kihl: Anthony Booker from Arkansas, 351 pounds, big guys that can log up the ends there. I just, I do wonder like Louisville, I feel like this lost her wide receiver for the year I feel like they might come back down to earth for a little bit. I just wonder if all that, if it's a one game schedule for them, if they could be Florida state, and if they can be forward to say they could be anybody in the conferences, Florida state's top of the conference.
Tony Kihl: So I'll give us, I think offense, they'll be able to score. I think their defense probably give up a lot of points this first year as they build up the depth that they need for the prep power for conference, but I can see it finish on top three or four in the conference for sure.
Jordan Shultz: They're often, I think they're going to have one of the best offenses in the ACC this year.
Tony Kihl: Preston Stone, right? But they're returning
Jordan Shultz: 14 starters.
Tony Kihl: Yeah. They're a team. My worry about is the depth. Whenever you move up conferences like this, do you have the depth to hold up? And look, like you mentioned before, they have the NIL, and they have, they spend money, and they brought in a lot of transfers.
Tony Kihl: So hopefully those transfers can hit. They can, they def pieces. So that's what I got to hope. All right. Looking at the ACC, we talked a lot about who might be the top teams. I think you look at projections right now, Florida state is projected at the top of Clemson, Miami, SMU, Louisville, and North Carolina state, or is like the top six.
Tony Kihl: But if you had to make your call and who has the best shot to make the playoff out of out of the conference Jess, who are you going with? Who you put, who would you, if you had to bet your house, who would you bet the [00:08:00] house on?
Jess Sabin: I want to say Clemson. That defense is once again going to be a top five in the entire country. They're returning a ton of starters. The only question on that Clemson team is the passing game, Kade Klobnik, He was, according to PFF, he was 102nd ranked in his passing grade. He finished with about a 63.
Jess Sabin: 9, 64 if you want to round up. They didn't have any standout wide receivers and their number two just transferred to Notre Dame, Bo Collins. They weren't able to bring in any portal transfers because Debo Sweeney. They don't know
Jordan Shultz: what that is.
Jess Sabin: Yeah. He's got some weird views on the current evolution of college football with NIL and the transfer portal.
Jess Sabin: That, that defense is going to be phenomenal. Miami and Florida state. Are [00:09:00] banking on a lot of transfers. There's not a ton of consistency and they're really hoping that their quarterbacks can either be healthy or be consistent. And I think Clemson, they were able to really bounce back after a rough start.
Jess Sabin: They did not live up to expectations last year, but. I don't know, that, that defense is something else, man. It's loaded. It's a loaded defense. They have stars returning at all three levels. I just, I think they're gonna, I think something's gonna click. And I've got some faith in Klubnick to, to do it.
Jess Sabin: At the very least, take a step. I don't think he's going to ever be what we envisioned him to be when he was coming out and they got they had this loaded quarter. It felt like they were just stacking five stars like Alabama used to. He's not going to be that. But I do think he could take a step forward.
Tony Kihl: All right, Jordan, who you got is your pick?
Jordan Shultz: I got Florida State. I think they brought enough transfers in. I think DJ is going to figure out something. That's the biggest thing. Both these teams, the top teams, their question marks is that quarterback. I have not seen enough out of K club, Nick at all. And.
Jordan Shultz: His, two years now.
Tony Kihl: Yeah. Yeah. These things might this one by default though, right?
Jordan Shultz: Whoever's gonna win the Florida State Clemson game halfway through the season. I think honestly I'm gonna I think Clemson has an easier chance of getting or going Undefeated or losing one game. Florida state has a pretty tough schedule.
Jordan Shultz: Just looking at it, they got Notre Dame, Clemson throughout the season. I think they play like for, I think, but then they got Miami at Miami, so Clemson has, know, a couple [00:11:00] Florida state, they don't, they play with Georgia to start the season. So if you lose that first game, that's okay.
Tony Kihl: I kinda, I don't know, maybe I'm crazy, but I'm looking at Miami and they had a terrible first couple of years of Mario Cristobal, but they got cam ward. potential, star quarterback. They got Damien Martinez, one of the better running backs from Oregon state to transfer. So a couple, and a couple of good defenders after that, I like they have a good let me see a good.
Tony Kihl: Why receiver is Xavier Roe, I think his name is. And then a big play guy and Jacoby George. I do listen. I like where they have an offense. The offensive line has been young the last couple of years, but they have some, like six, eight and above guys all across the line that are top 50 recruits that an offense could be clicking where you obviously you have the worry, I think is.
Tony Kihl: They've only been like a top 50 defensive team since Cristobal took over a couple of years ago. I don't think that's changed her off the bat, even with those transfers. But I think they can outscore and surprise the people. I don't know if they win the conference, but I could see him ending up playing in a championship game.
Tony Kihl: Who knows what happens if they can get there. I just I like the offensive pieces they have.
Jordan Shultz: I like that, they have probably the easiest schedule out of all three of those. They play Florida state, but they have, their first three games are Florida, and ball state for South Florida, Virginia tech, Cal Louisville, Florida state Duke, Georgia tech way for us, Syracuse.
Jordan Shultz: We're losing one game. That's it. Yeah. So I,
Tony Kihl: I, I, Miami is in the conference championship. We're going to call it right now. So that's it. That's
Jess Sabin: a close
Jordan Shultz: one.
Jess Sabin: What
Jordan Shultz: always stops
Tony Kihl: me from picking Miami is I've seen those coaching decisions that Mario Cristobal has made. And it's just If they're in a close game, I definitely don't feel like they're going to win it.
Tony Kihl: They, I hope they can score enough points where they don't have a close game. What stops you from picking Miami is it's Miami. Yes, exactly. All right. No offense, Miami fans. All right. Now, if you had to pick a dark course, like someone we haven't talked about yet to come in and win this conference or make the playoffs out of this conference, who, whoever you pick in Jordan, who start with you?
Jordan Shultz: I have Virginia Tech. Their young quarterback last year, they came out, they won five of their last seven games. They're returning 11 starters on offense, including their star quarterback. Tyron drones. I'll talk about him some more later. Yeah he had an okay passing year last year. You only had 2000 yards, a little bit over 2000 yards, but 750, almost 750 of those came in their last three games that regular season mobile quarterback, dual threat.
Jordan Shultz: He rushes a lot. He rushed 276 yards in the bowl game. They also bring their one of the best running backs, in the league. He rushed over about 1000 yards. I think they're bringing back a lot on offense. And I think that Virginia Tech can be that dark horse that people are like, Oh, who cares?
Jordan Shultz: It's Virginia Tech. And then you go there and drones got a lot better over the, the off season and he just puts up the numbers. That dual threat quarterback is, hard to play against, especially when You know, we saw it last couple of years. They put up, if you have a good, okay.
Jordan Shultz: Defense, you can be good. You had Caleb Williams. Tony's new favorite quarterback in the NFL.
Tony Kihl: I like him. Yeah. If you haven't been following about cast
Jordan Shultz: J Jalen Daniels or Jane Daniels last year, he's a dual threat, put up a bunch of numbers. So I think he could be that next, huge dual threat pass and run all in, one.
Jordan Shultz: So I think Virginia tech is going to be my team that could, somehow pull out the upset.
Tony Kihl: All right, Jess, what do you got? Who's your dark horse?
Jess Sabin: I'm going to go with, if I had to pick a dark horse, I think I'm going to go with Duke. Everybody was so focused on ewers and arch Manning.
Jess Sabin: But Malik Murphy left Texas, transferred to Duke. He's had some struggles, but he's shown tremendous upside. It is going to be a very new roster. But it's one of those rosters with a lot of potential. They've got some pieces in Murphy, Jordan Moore at wide receiver. They've got a pretty good secondary.
Jess Sabin: It's, Chandler Rivers, he looked great. They got Tristan Devins from Rice, good coverage grades across the board, and as things have transferred to be more of a football's evolved to be more of a perimeter oriented game, that's where they have their strengths. They're only gonna have guys that I think played like 300 total snaps together still on the roster, so there's a lot of [00:16:00] work to be done.
Jess Sabin: But if things hit for Duke
Tony Kihl: I
Jess Sabin: got
Tony Kihl: North Carolina state. I think it's an easy one. I think they have a chance to not only be a dark horse to win. They have a chance to win this conference. We haven't talked about it, but they started off so poorly last year, but it turned that around. They were able to beat Clemson last year.
Tony Kihl: They were able to come back and win some other games. And even with bad quarterback play this year, they. Again, if he's healthy, Grayson McCall they were able to bring him in as the quarterback there at North Carolina state, they were able to bring in Jordan Walters from waters from Duke, who was had a nice efficiency back that I think North Carolina state has lacked.
Tony Kihl: They were able to bring in register for a receiver, Noah Rogers from Ohio state, which is a talented receiver. It has got lofts and the stuff out there. They landed center Zeke Corral from Notre Dame. So all these guys are. Good long term players that have played many years that had a veteran squad.
Tony Kihl: And I think if Grace McCall can stay healthy, they could definitely do some things there. And then they also have [00:17:00] a, one of the, I think, one of the better players, why receiver in the country at Kevin Kasepchian, who I think is going to do some good things there for North Carolina state. I really think, they're always going to defense.
Tony Kihl: So I think of that offense can actually. Catch up to that defense. I think they have a shot to be one of the most balanced teams in ACC. It's going to be hard out for anyone. So North Carolina state is my pick. All right. When you talk about game, you're looking forward to the most. If you had to name one game that you have circled on your calendar, what do you got, Jess?
Jess Sabin: I'm going to take the easy out. I'm going to go Florida state at Miami. It's the big rivalry. Teams hate each other. It's been rather streaky with teams going through periods of domination. But, as we were talking about earlier, those are. Two, I think we each pick, one of the top three teams, I think it was to win the conference.
Jess Sabin: And I think that game is going to have it either be a preview of the championship game, or the loser of that game is going to be knocked out of the running and fighting for one of those remaining playoff spots, unless, things go catastrophically wrong for these teams, which As Jordan pointed out earlier, I think the main question mark for all three of the top contenders at Florida State Miami Clemson is quarterback play.
Jess Sabin: So I think, that's, we're gonna, we're gonna get some answers on some of these quarterbacks this this year. And I think that's going to be the game for the ACC. Championship, obviously.
Jordan Shultz: Yeah, Jordan. I don't want to pick an easy one, so I'm going to pick
Jess Sabin: well,
Jordan Shultz: You could, you said, Oh, I want to pick the easy one.
Jordan Shultz: I thought you were to pick the other, the biggest, easy one Clemson at Florida state, but
Jess Sabin: I think that one could be, I'm taking the aspect here.
Jordan Shultz: Clemson at Virginia tech. I think this could be, if. If Drones plays consistently, the beginning of the season, gets to this game, this could be his Heisman moment.
Jordan Shultz: He could drop 300 passing yards and show that, they're the Virginia Tech's back and they're the team. I know they didn't play well last time they had a ranked opponent. At home. But Tony put it in our notes. So they played another game and they lost 45 to 23.
Tony Kihl: I always got for those side notes in whenever I have opportunity,
Jordan Shultz: but if it's a ranked, both ranked, yeah, granted Virginia tech might be ranked a lot higher up on that, in the twenties, but it'd be a big game.
Jordan Shultz: And I think, like I said Drown drones could definitely have his moment in this game. If brilliant tech starts off hot.
Tony Kihl: All right. I think mine is for the state SMU. I just, it's just, I always like seeing these games when a team comes into a conference and it's going to be at SMU. I'm going to interested early games, September 28th.
Tony Kihl: I'm interested as to what Florida state looks like. It gets a pretty decent opponent here. It's a good offense. How's our defense gonna hold up? How's SMU gonna look to, gets a, a step up in competition? Just interesting, the whole environment. Crowd's probably gonna be pretty fired up, ready to go for this first big contest, so I missed to see what that one looks like and what SMU and for say, both do early on in the season.
Tony Kihl: Alright. Last one on a CC. Who do you guys have as a potential. Heisman contender from the ACC. So Jess, start with you.
Jess Sabin: I'm going to go with Amari and Hampton the running back out of North Carolina. He had an insane season last year, 1500 yards, 15 touchdowns, average 6. 2 yards per carry. He also added to a little over 200 yards receiving and an extra touchdown.
Jess Sabin: And he's going to be trying to put his name up there with Jud at the Quinn, Sean Judkins, Ali Gordon, and Ashton G GNT. My God, how do you pronounce that? I'm completely butchering that name. Sorry, those guys are easily the top three running backs, early projections for this upcoming 2025 draft, if he can.
Jess Sabin: Replicate his last season. His name's going to be up there. He's going to be putting himself in that conversation for possibly best running back in the country. And, yeah, UNC, they got they got some big bodies on that offensive line. It's only going to help him. And I think the offense is also just going to run through him.
Jess Sabin: So he's got all of the pieces there to become like the NFL MVP, a quarterback award, but. If a non quarterback is going to win it, I think a running back got the best shot and I think he could easily put himself in that conversation.
Tony Kihl: Alright, Jordan.
Jordan Shultz: I already talked about him a couple times.
Tony Kihl: Chiron Jones.
Jordan Shultz: Yeah, Chiron Jones. I think that he could be another Jaden Daniels and be Put up a lot of passing yards. 11 starters were turning on offense. He pull, he started majority of the games just looking at, they didn't seem like he started the first few games, but starting the rest of the se this whole season, picking it up second half like he did last year, but starting off strong like he finished last year and continuing to put up numbers.
Jordan Shultz: He almost rushed for a thousand rushing yards as well on top of his 2000 plus passing yards. So I think. With the 11 starters coming back on offense, they're going to be more together, more molded, more of a team and he's just can put up those numbers. I just think that they, he definitely can be in that talk later on in the season if he gets consistent.
Jordan Shultz: I think that's a little bit of a problem is not super consistent always, but I think it does help with the 11 returners.
Tony Kihl: I don't think he's going to win it, but I like film off from Clemson and I, if I remember watching him against Notre Dame last year, and he's just one of those big, like Audrey SMA type backs.
Tony Kihl: And it's really hard to tackle and is, gets seven, eight yards. Carry back and now with Will Shipley gone from Clemson, it, he's the number one running back there and I think he can carry that offense and maybe, go back to where Clemson used to be with the dominated run games that kind of opened up the passing game, which is what I think they need to do.
Tony Kihl: So I keep my eye on him as maybe someone that can lead that offense and really put it on his back a bit to help, keep up with defense a bit. So Phil Moffitt is my pick. All right. Let's move on to the group of five, obviously group of five. You have the AAC conference, USA Mac Mount West, and I have other, I guess they're independents, but like Oregon state, why should I stay in the back?
Tony Kihl: 12, but I don't know what to call them. So they're other for now, but I guess you would call them. The five, I don't know what you, aren't they
Jordan Shultz: playing like a conference, but not in that conference.
Tony Kihl: Yeah. But is it really a conference? There's two teams.
Jordan Shultz: No, it's a pack, negative two pack,
Tony Kihl: pack two.
Tony Kihl: They're both guaranteed a championship spot. So that's good. All right. So a lot of teams. So if you're looking at a recap of 2023, just to give you a recap I think AAC had a few, two really good teams from last year, Memphis at Tulane, Memphis 11 and [00:24:00] three, conference USA, you had Liberty at 13 and one New Mexico state at 10 and five, the Mac had three good teams, Toledo 11 and three, Miami and Ohio 11 and three, Ohio 10 and three.
Tony Kihl: Those Ohio teams did pretty good work out here. Mountain West. Uh, they had a season. I don't think anybody had 10 wins and there's a bunch of nine and four, eight and six, those types of seasons at Boise State Frenzel State, Air Force, UNLV and Wyoming were leading the pack there from last year.
Tony Kihl: And then Oregon State had a really good season as far as So all the wheels fall off the coach left and they were eight and five and then Washington state was seven, five and seven. So that's what we're there. And so if you had if you had to put money in your house, sign away your retirement funds Jordan, I didn't know about that.
Tony Kihl: Yeah. It's all happening.
Jordan Shultz: Yeah. You did not tell me about that.
Tony Kihl: Who are you picking as the group of five representative in the playoff? You get one because obviously they have the number 12 seed in the playoff. Who is that [00:25:00] number 12 seat? Who's winning from the group of five? Who do you got?
Jordan Shultz: Okay. I got Boise state
Tony Kihl: also, do you say Boise state today named their quarterback and it wasn't a Malachi Nelson.
Tony Kihl: It's pretty interesting.
Jordan Shultz: Yeah. Yeah. Also you didn't bring up that ECU went two and 10.
Tony Kihl: I'm sorry. I did leave that out. They did go to intent. I was surprised. Is that a double of their wind tunnel from the year before? I can't remember.
Jess Sabin: No, it was a big step back. Thank you very much.
Speaker: Yeah,
Jess Sabin: but We gave Michigan a heck of a fight. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna say that. What, in the first
Jordan Shultz: two minutes of the game when you got the ball first? Was this in the 1920s or?
Jess Sabin: Quarter ish.
Jordan Shultz: Okay.
Jess Sabin: They ran away with it.
Jordan Shultz: So my, Boise State, I think Boise State probably has one of the easier schedules to go to that, get that 10 win season and win their conference day of Oregon State.
Jordan Shultz: But they are returning the, probably one of the best running backs in college football and Aston, John T. Yeah. He rushed for 13 over 1300 yards, had 14 touchdowns. He also had five receiving touchdowns and just over 550 receiving, or, yeah, receiving yards. They have a pretty, like I said, easy schedule.
Jordan Shultz: They play Oregon the second game of the season, and they finished the game at home against Oregon State. So I just think they're the, best bet to win their conference. To be able to, their conference is pretty, pretty anyway right now. So, but yeah, Boise state, I think looking around too.
Jordan Shultz: I think a lot of, analysts and everyone are picking Boise state just cause their schedules kinda. Easing to get that point of 10 wins and winning their conference.
Jess Sabin: I'm going with Liberty. They return a ton of players who got them to near six last year. They returned the quarterback Caden [00:27:00] Salter. He might be the best quarterback in the group of five. He also topped a thousand rushing yards last season. They've got a lot of these pieces, a lot of veterans.
Jess Sabin: If a group of five team has to make it, they got the favorable schedule where they could go undefeated. I think they're going to win their conference and I think it'll just I don't the big issue for them is I don't think they're you know obviously I don't think any of us are expecting this but Boise State stuns Oregon hey
Jordan Shultz: don't forget about don't forget about it man
Jess Sabin: if Boise State does stun Oregon There's not going to be a win like that for Liberty on their schedule, but I think given, what the expected relative competition is, they've got an okay schedule that should get give them a nod if they go undefeated.
Tony Kihl: I I had Liberty as my my pick as well, but if I'm going to have a different pick to make it a little different, I have Memphis and part of the reason for that is I like their the returning quarterback, Seth Hennigan, he threw for 3, 800 yards last year. They also were able to hold on to their, we're seeing me do a rock Taylor and the mirror blocks me.
Tony Kihl: These last name is And then they were able to hold on to basically 19 defenders started a game for them last year. All of them are back with the team. So that defense is experienced. I don't know if that means anything great for them as I don't know if they were that great in defense last year, but yeah, they were 35th.
Tony Kihl: He's at defense. You got to think they get better with experience. I think the offense will be one of the best, I think, Their favorite to win their division. They have a decent, they have a, but I have a harder, I would say they have a harder conference than the other ones, like Liberty mentioned, because they do have to play Tulane, ETSA, South Florida, ECU Army, Rice, the whole lot of yards.
Tony Kihl: So I think there's some good good teams there. So I think they're going to have the hardest time, but if they can get through it, and I think. Even with a loss or two, I think there'll be put ahead of some of these every conferences with really terrible teams at this point. So my pick would be Memphis would be the opportunity to get out of there.
Tony Kihl: If it's not Liberty or Boise state. All right. Now there's a lot of games, obviously across the group of five, any, anyone like sticking out that we need to keep an eye on that you're interested to see, maybe it's a, it's different, a matchup, maybe it's a new matchup, maybe it's a two good teams going at it.
Tony Kihl: Just looking over this, is there anything on the list of actual matchups that you're looking forward to this year from the group of five?
Jess Sabin: Memphis at Tulane, possibly an AAC championship elimination game two teams that have had relative success in recent years. As you said, Memphis is going to be one of the top teams to look at.
Jess Sabin: Possibly, I think Tulane could return a decent team this year. I don't think they're going to be quite what they were. What was it last year, two years ago, where they made Yeah, it was two years ago. Was it
Tony Kihl: because I beat USC in the
Jess Sabin: game? Yeah. Yeah. So it was but so I think that'll be quite interesting.
Jess Sabin: Nothing that's really going to be jumping out at you like Texas, Georgia or whatever kind of game, for a group of five, I think that'll be a big one.
Tony Kihl: All right. Jordan, how about you?
Jordan Shultz: I'm going to stick with my Boise State. I just, the, it's a Friday night game. If you want to watch a Friday night game the Boise State UNLV, I think this game will be, the, whoever wins this game is going to be in the conference championship.
Jordan Shultz: And I think it's, Later down the line it's October 25th. So it's later down the line. So these two teams could be playing for more than just more Boise state could be playing for more than just the conference championship, trying to get that contender of the, their, the last playoff spot. So I think this game has a lot of implications, not just for Boise State but for UNLV being trying to win their conference.
Tony Kihl: All right. I guess what keeps my eyes Miami and Toledo, I fought last year, but I played a couple of really good games. I think Toledo won a four point furler in October and then Miami won. came back and won the match championship against them a little bit of revenge. So really two good games there and I'm interested to see them play again.
Tony Kihl: I like when the Ohio teams play each other. It's always a good, interesting matchup where they're pretty evenly matched and very similar coaches, a lot of crossover players know each other. I would definitely want to check that one out. This from, good old fashioned game to watch in October.
Tony Kihl: Go to the game. I might. It's in Toledo. I might check it out. Yeah. If you guys want to head down to Ohio, watch it, I'll come.
Jess Sabin: I'm right there.
Tony Kihl: All right. Let's go.
Jess Sabin: I might not be able to. Figure it out,
Tony Kihl: Jess. Live on the East Coast. If you can't make it out for this game, I don't know what kind of college football fan you are.
Tony Kihl: All let's wrap this up here with a week zero pick'em. I don't know if these are the best matchups But we got them, we got some football. So we got Florida State and Georgia Tech in Ireland. You got Montana State at New Mexico. You got SMU at Nevada. And you have Delaware at Hawaii.
Tony Kihl: What a thrilling matchup these have. So I'm gonna go around Robin. Let's start first with Delaware State and Hawaii. If you had to pick, Jordan, who are you picking?
Jordan Shultz: Just so you know, that game does play at 11 59 PM.
Tony Kihl: Gets it right in there right before.
Jordan Shultz: Just so you know, if you want to put something on to make you fall asleep.
Jess Sabin: I would also like to point out Hawaii is a 38 point favorite. It's at home, man.
Jordan Shultz: It's not fair.
Tony Kihl: Hey, Delaware state
Speaker: has to fight. All the way to Hawaii.
Tony Kihl: There's worse places to fly, first of all,
Jordan Shultz: yeah, across Rutgers. Yeah, that's horrible.
Tony Kihl: If I was them, I'm flying out for a week just to enjoy my time,
Jordan Shultz: yeah so yeah, I got Hawaii by a hundred. The jet lag is just gonna be horrible.
Tony Kihl: I'm surprised Hawaii is favored by this much. I know they had a rebuild. They've been rebuilding the last couple years. They must feel like they're gonna be plays at 11:59 Yeah, okay, I guess so.
Tony Kihl: All right, I guess I'll pick Hawaii too. All right. Can't go against the spirit like that. All right. SMU and Nevada. I fake what SMU is favored by 27 and a half points here. So Jess, are you going with the favorites or you got a Nevada luck of the Whatever you call them. Nevada people. Nevada.
Tony Kihl: Yes.
Jess Sabin: No, I'm going SMU and I think they'll cover.
Tony Kihl: All right. Jordan,
Jordan Shultz: do you agree or you pick as a huge upset? Stop if it can. SMUI think they're gonna wanna make a statement of this season to start the season, and it's gonna be, they're gonna be the ones dropping that 57 and a half over. So yeah, for the record,
Jess Sabin: this one starts at 8:00 PM It's, it starts at a reasonable hour.
Tony Kihl: Plenty of time. Plenty of time in the evening to watch that one. All right, I'll pick, I guess I'll pick SMU as well. Montana State at New Mexico, and I think Montana State. It's favored by nine and a half. I'll pick the upset. I think New Mexico will come here. Shock Montana state at home.
Tony Kihl: So there you go. That's my upset. I'll pick up the weekend. What say you, Jordan?
Jordan Shultz: Yeah, I could, I'm with you on that, Tony. I think if we had to pick one upset. This week
Tony Kihl: it'll be the lowest spread one. Yes, that's Real risk takers
Jess Sabin: here The nine and a half it's at home too
Jordan Shultz: We're gonna it's at home espn, you don't just come into new mexico and beat them like that.
Jordan Shultz: Yeah matchup predict. It's gonna be hot Montana doesn't know what hot is
Tony Kihl: I mean they might know a little bit about it But
Jordan Shultz: but the espn matchup predictor, gives new mexico a 68. 2 percent chance to win. So
Tony Kihl: that's where they're so often though. They know something that this one's at four, this one's even better.
Tony Kihl: All right. You can watch something every part of the day. Cause that's great. All right. The big game of the week, Florida state at [00:35:00] Georgia tech. I'm interested in this game, Georgia tech. Everybody is saying they're going to have a uptick this year that they have some good players on offense.
Tony Kihl: They've been improving over the last couple of years. I can see them making this a game. I think I like their pieces of offense. They have some decent pieces of defense. I don't think they have enough talent or depth to beat Florida state, but I think they can make this a game. What do you say you Jordan?
Jordan Shultz: Yeah, I think so. I think. It's going to be another jet lag, weird situation. They are playing five hour difference from East coast time. So, they're going to have a weird jet lag kind of thing, but I definitely think it's going to be closer than you, you would think. I think Georgia tech has pieces that they've had several times.
Jordan Shultz: And they just have never clicked. So I think Florida State's, still, they have so many transfers and so much going on that I think they're still, it's still going to be hard for them to get over that not getting the college football playoffs. But [00:36:00] I think Florida State's going to win it. All right.
Jordan Shultz: Jess, what about you?
Jess Sabin: I'm going to go Florida State. Shocker. I think it's going to be real interesting to see how this new core of players that they've brought in, all blend together, but I think talent will be able to just carry them a bit here.
Tony Kihl: I will say I liked what Hayden's cake was able to do last year.
Tony Kihl: Quarterback. I like him. I like Jamal Hayes, the running back. I like the receiver to have Eric Singleton. I just, I feel like they're going to be able to put some points up against teams this year and they're, I don't know if it favors anyone, is it going to be an Ireland? I'm not sure why these two teams are in Ireland.
Tony Kihl: There's no Irish connection that I know of, but I was jealous. Just because they saw Notre Dame do it and they gotta go play Ireland, but
Jess Sabin: no, I It's not the same as Notre Dame getting the Ireland game this year.
Tony Kihl: Yeah, I think you can only go overseas like once every five years.
Tony Kihl: No, I think it's three. Three years? I know it was like a certain time when we could go. I
Jordan Shultz: feel like this should be an exception. I
Tony Kihl: mean, yeah, it's a home game. I think
Jordan Shultz: Notre Dame does it as three.
Tony Kihl: I don't think any, I don't think you can as a school. I don't think you're allowed to travel like that.
Jordan Shultz: Oh, just so you guys know the Notre Dame game had more people in Dublin than St.
Jordan Shultz: Patrick's day does.
Jess Sabin: That's
Tony Kihl: pretty good.
Jess Sabin: Wild.
Tony Kihl: We should have went, we should do the podcast in our next year guys. We'll do the podcast. Next time they go, we'll do the podcast. We'll probably be like 800 years old. I heard it here first folks. Sources tell us they're playing in Ireland next year. Yes.
Tony Kihl: All right, cool. So that's the week zero games. Again, not a lot to watch, but a little something every hour, even at Hawaii game, it sneaks in there for you. Enjoy the games and then we'll come back next week and talk about, some of the major upsets like Hawaii fallen, fallen. Big, at home against the upstart team.
Tony Kihl: I know if I'm gonna
Jordan Shultz: be watching that game, might, we're live tweeting the game. We're gonna watch it. I might be in bed. No,
Tony Kihl: no. We're gonna be watching that game. Maybe we'll live, we live record while while the game is on live
Jordan Shultz: stream.
Jess Sabin: Us
Jordan Shultz: watching, it's gonna, it's gonna go to 13 overtimes.
Jordan Shultz: It's gonna end at eight o'clock in the morning and we're gonna be. Getting up talking about it.
Jess Sabin: Someone's staying up for something like that. Hey
Jordan Shultz: man, my son is at, my son plays at Delaware state. I didn't want to fly to Hawaii.
Jess Sabin: Look, I'm sorry. Doesn't want to fly to Hawaii. My son goes to a school and then they fly off to Hawaii to play a game that starts at midnight.
Jess Sabin: And the game goes to I don't even know if I'd watch that game. Like I just it's six o'clock in
Tony Kihl: Hawaiian time. What is the six hour difference? Isn't it? No, I think
Jordan Shultz: it's. Well,
Tony Kihl: We're checking this live on the podcast for you guys, which you probably already have the answer. You're handy. Google's at home.
Jordan Shultz: It's six hours. Yeah. It's 1245 there.
Tony Kihl: So my global communicator outside of the podcast guys, I know those types of things. It helps. Yep. So six o'clock. That's not early.
Tony Kihl: Oh, I guess they got to do it though. Cause they later it'd be in the [00:39:00] middle of the night. And I don't, yeah, I don't
Jordan Shultz: think they could
Jess Sabin: play smack in the middle of their work day right now.
Jordan Shultz: I don't think they can play on Sunday. Cause it would have been a Sunday game. I don't think they're allowed.
Jordan Shultz: Not
Jess Sabin: like they're competing. There's no regular season football games.
Jordan Shultz: Yeah.
Jess Sabin: No I understand. I don't think any network would be putting them on over. I don't think there's a, it's on tv.
Tony Kihl: I
Jordan Shultz: bet it's on tv. It's gotta be on tv. espn. It's gotta be on e, espn. I bet you it's gonna be on ESPN has Florida State Georgia Tech.
Jordan Shultz: FS1 has Montana State, New Mexico, SMU, Nevada is on CBS Sportsnet, Hawaii, Nevada. At that time, infomercials, man, come on. I need to watch my infomercials. I can't watch this game.
Jess Sabin: I don't know. I'd rather watch Hawaii, Delaware State than infomercials.
Tony Kihl: It's on ESPN Honolulu on the radio. So I don't know if it's on the TV.
Tony Kihl: So it's Spectrum Sports pay per view. So guys, if you're interested, I'm sure this game is on pay per view, go [00:40:00] check it out. I'm not sure we'll be doing that, but we'll I'm gonna go to the bar. Go to
Jess Sabin: the bar
Tony Kihl: and live tweet everybody what's happening. Everybody will follow us and let us see what's going on, okay?
Tony Kihl: I'll let you know when it goes
Jess Sabin: on. I'm probably asleep. Fold or close your Same.
Tony Kihl: You can't First, you can't make it to the lead on it. You can't live tweet a Hawaii game. I don't understand. It's a Saturday night. What am I
Jess Sabin: doing with my
Tony Kihl: life? It's a Saturday night, Jess. What are you doing? Okay. Me and Jeff, me and Jordan should be the ones up.
Tony Kihl: You should be the one up doing stuff, hanging out, having fun.
Jess Sabin: I'll be celebrating my grandmother's 80th birthday.
Tony Kihl: Then you should be up. You should be up. She's going to party all night long. So let's just stay up. Watch the Hawaii game. My
Jess Sabin: grandma. We're going to get lit and watch Hawaii, Delaware state for her 80th.
Jess Sabin: All right. Hey, you're close to Delaware
Jordan Shultz: state, dude. You're really close. I thought you were a fan of the bad teams.
Tony Kihl: I know. No, that's the CCU and that's all. Okay. Guys, thank you for another wild and wacky episode of in [00:41:00] the flat podcast. We will be here again next week to talk about week one, go over some Heisman picks.
Tony Kihl: Maybe talk about some playoff previews. You'll see what happens next week, but we look forward to it. Talk to you, dad.