2022 Wrap-Up Episode (E7)

The hosts discuss the college football bowl season and the performance of different teams. Georgia is praised for their dominance and winning the national championship. The SEC is highlighted as the top-performing conference, while the Pac-12 and Big 12 are seen as the biggest losers. The hosts also discuss their rankings of the top teams, with Georgia, Ohio State, and Alabama among the top contenders. They speculate on what changes Alabama and Clemson need to make for the upcoming season. The hosts also mention the unpredictability of bowl games due to various factors like coaching changes and player transfers. All right, well, here we are again with our final wrap-up episode of both sides of the coin. We took a little bit of a break, hope everyone had a great Christmas and a happy New Year. But here we are going to talk about, well, Georgia's just the reigning champions of college football yet again. Can't say I'm too happy about it, but they left no doubt, that is for sure. The good news is, Scott, you got to go to bed early on Monday night. You could go to bed in the middle of the second quarter, I guess, because Georgia ended up dominating the national championship game. Yeah, I guess you could say the real national championship game was that playoff with Georgia and Ohio State. Ohio State actually looked like they may pull that one out for a little while, and then when TCU beat Michigan, as expected, as most people believe, that TCU would get hammered by Georgia. Although, Den, I didn't think it would be that bad. Yeah, I don't think anyone did. I think everyone knew in the back of their mind that TCU wasn't really a top four team, and I kind of said that earlier, but then all of a sudden they beat Michigan, and people started believing in this underdog story, but really the only dogs that survived that were the Georgia Bulldogs, and they dominated every facet of that game. I mean, TCU definitely made mistakes, and they didn't play their best football, but there is no way that team was going to beat Georgia. There was just no way. But some of the things that we can talk about from bowl season other than utter domination in that national championship is the fact that I think we can take away some winners and some losers from this bowl season. Well, first of all, the first winner is me. I won the bowl picks in our little poll, and I kind of dominated Scott. I'm not going to brag too much about that, but he picked a few too many ACC teams, I think, this year, like NC State, who I told everyone, don't trust NC State, and there we go. They lost to Maryland. That's all I'm going to say about that. But anyway, I think the big winners of this season are the top half of the SEC. The SEC went 4-0 in New Year's 6 bowl games, and the bottom half of the ACC, which kind of surprised people, the fact that Duke was able to beat Central Florida in dominating fashion, and then you had Pitt beat a ranked UCLA team, and then you had Louisville dominating Cincinnati. Those teams surprised everyone, and the top half of the ACC didn't perform really well, with Florida State being the only ranked team that won. But I think it's interesting to point out that the SEC played the Big 12 champion, the Big 12 runner-up, the Big 10 runner-up, and the ACC champion, and went 4-0 and outscored them 204-48. So that's when I talk about the SEC top half kind of had the biggest win out of the bowl season. The biggest losers, the Pac-12 and the Big 12. The Big 12 went 2-7 during bowl season, and the Pac-12 champion and the Pac-12 runner-up both lost their New Year's 6 bowl games. Utah got blown out by Penn State, and Southern Cal lost a two-lane, which is not a great look for the Trojans. Yeah, and the bowl season's really kind of interesting, because unlike a regular season game where you might be able to predict this team is better than this team, they should win unless something crazy happens. In the bowl season, with head coaches leaving, with people getting ready to go to the draft, with holdouts for transfer reasons, you just get a lot of uncertainty when it comes to who's going to win these games, and it becomes very unpredictable. Right, yeah, this was definitely an interesting bowl season, and I think we can definitely take some different things away from it, but let's wrap up with our final top six from this season. I'm ending, of course, with number one being Georgia. I mean, you can't really say anything else other than that. Number two, I'm going to go Ohio State. It's kind of like Scott mentioned, the real national championship took place in Atlanta, and I think, honestly, the biggest fluke of the year might have been Michigan beating Ohio State at their home place. I think that might have been the fluke of the season, and those two teams were probably the best two teams in college football this year. Number three, I've got Alabama. I think you saw in the Sugar Bowl, you saw sporadically throughout this year that Alabama was the most talented team in the country. It's just very frustrating that they couldn't put it together and pick up these two road wins that haunted the Crimson Tide this year, but make no mistake, they dominated the Big 12 champion, a team that really had TCU on the ropes twice this year and actually beat them once, and they dominated them in that bowl game. Number four, I'm going to put Tennessee at number four. I think that the Orange Bowl proved that Tennessee was a really good team, and we knew that. They had a flukey loss against South Carolina, and that's why I have them outside of Alabama, and even though they beat them, you don't lose by 28 to a South Carolina team. That's the difference between the two teams, but they had great wins, and they had a really tough schedule, but I've got Tennessee at four. Five, I have TCU. You have to respect what they've done, but you just got to look at that national championship game. They were not a top four team. They had a great year, and it was very unprecedented, but I think the fact that they got to play Michigan instead of like an Ohio State in that first game is why they ended up in the national championship. Number six, I'm going to finish off with Michigan. They're still a very solid football team, but you can see when they played a team like TCU that could stretch the field on them and really put pressure on that offense that Michigan kind of fell apart. I'm telling you, fluke of the year, them beating Ohio State. Still a great win, but I do not think that they were one of the four best teams after we saw what happened in the Fiesta Bowl. My final six is a little bit different, but it's fairly similar. Starting at number one, obviously, it's Georgia. Again, no need to say anything else more about that. Number two, Ohio State, as we just mentioned, that was the championship game that should have been played. Those are the two best teams, and they played really, really well, and they definitely look like the second best team. Number two, they did beat Michigan, and they went the whole season without a loss until the very last game. If their quarterback would have just had a little bit more energy left in him and did a quarterback sneak, they would have won that game and have been undefeated going into the playoffs beating a Michigan team who was undefeated and has beaten Ohio State, who I have at number two. I'm going to go with TCU at three just because they beat Michigan, and Michigan is who I'm putting at number four. They did have the undefeated streak all the way throughout the season and did beat Ohio State. Number five, I have Bama, and six, I have Tennessee. I think Bama finished the season a little bit better on the very end than Tennessee did, especially because Tennessee's quarterback was out, and they had to play a backup quarterback. Tennessee's quarterback did have more experience, Milton, that is, than Kaye Klubnick for Clemson in that Orange Bowl game, and Clemson won every single stat category pretty much in that game except for the score. I would say that Bama probably finished stronger than Tennessee did, so that's why I have Bama at five and Tennessee at six. The Orange Bowl was a very interesting game because, like Scott said, it felt like Clemson was dominating the game, but Tennessee was dominating the score. It was just a fact of the matter that Clemson could not punch the ball in the end zone when they got it into plus territory, and I think it's crazy that they only scored one touchdown in that game. Now, they did miss three field goals and, for some reason, ran a speed option with Dabo's son to try to fake a field goal, but that's a completely different issue. We're not going to talk about that. We will talk about our outlook for 2023. What needs to change for Clemson and Alabama? They used to be the kings of college football, and now they were both left out of the playoffs for the first time ever, first on the Alabama side, which is probably what less of you want to hear about. I definitely think it has to start with coordinator changes. I think that Alabama needs a new defensive coordinator, obviously, because Pete Golding has left for Ole Miss for the same position. I think it was a mutual agreement between both Alabama and Pete Golding. I think we just need to move on from that. The good news for Alabama fans is this is the best class Alabama has ever had in recruiting this year, which is probably not what you want to hear if you're not an Alabama fan, but it's a breath of fresh air for the program. We're getting a lot of talent coming in. Eight five-stars are in this class, which is phenomenal. I just think the development needs to ramp it up a little bit. We've lacked a lot of discipline, and we've lacked a lot of key plays that are going to keep us in games and extend leads that we need to, especially on the road. We have not played well on the road the past couple of years. I think getting a new defensive coordinator and possibly a new offensive coordinator could be what Alabama needs. I think Clemson probably needs something similar, and they actually are getting something similar on the offensive side of the ball. Scott, if you want to talk about that looking into next year. Yeah, when it comes to Bama, like you said, Alabama is still coming out in crimson and white, and they do have Nick Saban coming back as coach last time I checked. So it's kind of hard to say that. I know a lot of people are trying to say that their dynasty is over and this is the end for Alabama. They're still there, and they're racking in recruits. They're more in recruiting class. So I think Bama is going to be up there trying to compete with Georgia to come out of the SEC for the next few years at least. As far as Clemson goes, I'll mention that in just a second, but I wanted to introduce a guest speaker who's going to be joining us today, my brother, Kyle Perry. He's going to be talking a little bit about his thoughts on Clemson coming out in 2023 and how they look. Hey, nice to join you all today. Yeah, just talking about Clemson, they did have a better year than last year, still not the year that we were accustomed to for a few years there, but still had a better season than last year. I'm looking forward to next year. We are losing several key defensive players, Myles Murphy, Brian Brzee, Henry Simpson, all going to the draft most likely. But we are still coming through with a top 10 recruiting class, so we'll still reload and be the typical Clemson once again. Looking at the offensive side of the ball, losing D.J. to Oak State and then getting Kate Klubnick. That's going to be really key to see how that transition goes with him as a starter throughout the whole entire season. I'm just excited to see how that goes. Obviously don't have the same ace or receiving core like we have in the past, but still looking forward to just some returning starters coming back and seeing if they can improve on their season from last year. Yeah, that's a good analysis, Kyle. I think Clemson is in good shape. We still recruit pretty well. Dabo Swinney is still the head coach and we've still got this culture here at Clemson that keeps people wanting to come back instead of coming to the draft often times. Want to get better, coming out with a lot of good men, not just good players. Not to say other schools don't do that, but Clemson is known for that. Dabo Swinney takes pride in that. I think that gives a little bit extra boost toward our team when we look and say we're not just playing for just our team or just as an individual, but we're really trying to build on the, as a player, we're trying to help build on the culture here at Clemson and what other people have, foundation they've laid. Of course, Clemson struggles this year were largely offensive and secondary. Part of the secondary issues that we had toward the beginning of the season, especially, were because of a lot of injuries. We had Makuba moving down to cornerbacks because of injuries and trying to fill in a different role instead of safety. I think we'll be better next year in the secondary. Our offense, I think we'll improve. We have a different offensive coordinator. I think the two main parts of our offense that struggle were offensive coordinator and receivers. Then, as far as quarterback, it was not really a talent issue with DJ, I think, but it was more of a mental issue. Kae Klubnick, I think, does not have any mental block whatsoever. We saw that with the ACC championship game and also in the bowl game. I thought he played with a lot of heart. I expect our offense to be a lot better with Garrett Riley coming from TCU. A couple stats I wanted to mention real quick, a comparison of Clemson's offense to TCU's offense just to show that not necessarily these stats will flip, but just looking at Garrett Riley's success in TCU, total offense for Clemson was 48, TCU was 27. Passing offense, Clemson 66, TCU 39. Here's a telling stat, passing yards per catch, or yards, and there's 111 versus 22. Red zone, fifth for Clemson and 68 for TCU, so that's something Clemson's always been good at, and the Dallas-Winnie era is red zone, so that's a little of a concern, but we still have the Clemson Tigers playing. Passing 47th Clemson, 31 TCU. Passing efficiency, 73 Clemson, 15 for TCU. Turnovers, 103 in Clemson, 45th for TCU. Scoring 30 for Clemson, 9th for TCU. Yards per, we have 49 and 14, and touchdowns, 28th versus 5th, so just a big improvement in the TCU offense compared to Clemson, and I think we're going to expect that to start showing dividends pretty soon, 2023. I think the biggest plus for Clemson, too, when you're getting a new offensive coordinator, like Mr. Riley, that's already in Tigertown, actually, is the fact that he was able to develop Max Duggan in the quarterback position. I think that's one thing that's been lacking, and especially during DJ's development, and like Scott said, it wasn't a talent issue, it was a development issue. He was not getting developed like he should have been at Clemson. I do wish DJ the best as he goes to be a beaver at Oregon State. I do think that could be a really good fit for the new quarterback, but I think that the biggest issue that has plagued Clemson has been the development at the quarterback position, so I think that Kate Klubnick could thrive under a new offensive system. I do think wide receiver is still the biggest question mark, though, which is what they said, because they're still not bringing in a lot of talent. I think a transfer could really help, Dabo. Transfer portal could really help bring in an elite level receiver if he wants to dabble a little bit into there. Now let's give our way too early top six looking into this next year. I'm going to go ahead and project what we think now, looking to 2023. I've got number one. I'm going to put Georgia there until they lose at this point, because, you know, might as well. Winning back-to-back national championships hasn't been done in the playoff era before. Georgia's now done it. I'm going to leave them at number one. Looking at their schedule as well, it is probably one of the easiest schedules I have seen from a defending national champion. I think their only game that might be a question mark is at Tennessee. But number two, I'm going to put Ohio State there. They've still got Marvin Harrison, Jr., and he is probably one of the best receivers that I've ever seen play. Very elusive. He was open that entire peach bowl until he was knocked out. I do think quarterback is the biggest question mark. So we'll see, losing C.J. Stroud to the draft, can Ohio State keep the intensity and still have that explosive offense? Number three, I've got Alabama. For the same reason as Ohio State, I've got a question mark at the quarterback position. Who replaces the best quarterback to ever play at the University of Alabama in Bryce Young? And it's either going to be Jalen Milrow or it's going to be Ty Simpson. Both are very high-level recruits, but both have zero experience other than Jalen Milrow's start against Texas A&M. We all remember how that went, because Alabama almost lost that game. So let's see how that works out during spring practice, and I can get a better feel for how good Alabama will be next year. They still will be good, don't get me wrong. Number four, I've got the Florida State Seminoles at number four. This is a dark horse team to win the ACC and go to the playoff. Jordan Travis, one of the most elusive players in football, I'm telling you, he's coming back. That defense is not losing a lot of players, and Florida State's coming off a 10-win season. Number five, I think I'm going to put LSU at number five. They are also returning a very elusive quarterback. They are also returning a lot of defensive starters, and let us not forget, they won their division, they won the West division last year. Their only issue is they've got to play Alabama at Alabama this year, and that's something that hasn't been done since 2019 LSU with Joe Burrow walking in. So we'll see about that. Number six, I've got Southern Cal, and they're returning the Heisman Trophy winner, and they're also returning a high-level quarterback with a high-level offense and a high-level offensive mind in Lincoln-Riley. So we'll see how they can turn things around, and I project them to probably win the Pac-12. But I've got them at number six because I still do not trust that defense. I don't trust the Lincoln-Riley defense. They just lost the two-lane. Let us not forget that either. So Scott, give me your way-too-early top six. Yeah, this is, again, way too early, so it's not, you know, it's definitely going to change next year. I have number one, Georgia, of course. They're playing dominant right now, and they do look like the best team, and I expect them to be the best team next year until they get knocked off that pedestal. Number two, I'm going to differ from Denton here a little bit, Michigan. And I have Michigan at two because they have come up against multiple back-to-back wins against Ohio State, and they returned their starting quarterback. Ohio State's going to be playing with a different quarterback next year. So being that this is the beginning of the season poll, I'm going to go ahead and start out with Michigan on top, and again, throughout the first few weeks, if Michigan just looks really terrible and Ohio State is already in stride, then you can, those might swap. But I do have Ohio State at number three. Similar from what Denton said, they, receiving core is just ridiculous. Even with, I don't, I personally don't think C.J. Stroud is just an amazing quarterback, but put that whole team together, they looked really good, and they played Georgia really hard. So whoever they put back there at quarterback is going to have some weapons to play with. And also, the Big Ten, as I said before, I don't think they're super strong. So I think they're going to look good, Ohio State and Michigan, against whoever they play in the Big Ten. Bama, I do have at number four. You know, Bama's proven with Jalen Hurts, Tua, Bryce Young, they don't rebuild, they just reload when it comes to quarterbacks, and they haven't struck out in a while. So I'm going to go with Bama at number four to keep that momentum going, as I mentioned earlier. I think three might be a little bit too early for FSU. I hear a lot of people, I really don't want to put them on top five, but just looking at who else would I put there? I think, really, Georgia is that much ahead of everybody else. So at five, I've got to put somebody there of a whole group of people who could be at five. I'm going to put Florida State. They are coming off of a really great ending of the season, that second half of the season. They looked really good. However, I understand that they played, they came close against a Florida team that they probably wasn't that good, but they have a lot of confidence is the big deal. If you have good confidence and swagger going into the next season, that can go a long way. So Florida State at five. And I really wanted to put USC at six, but I think I'm going to go Washington, because I think Washington's an overall more complete team than Southern Cal is on defense, if you take that into account. And they are returning Pennix, who I expect to be a probably top three Heisman candidate for next year. So I'm going to go Washington at number six. Yeah, I agree. I think the Pac-12 is going to be very interesting to watch next year, especially since Bo Nix is coming back to Oregon as well. So Oregon, Washington, Southern Cal, and you know Utah is always going to be in the mix. So the Pac-12 is going to be an interesting division to watch next year in football. Well, we're going to change gears just a little bit. Talk a little NFL football, which is something we never do. We're going to protect our Super Bowl and our Super Bowl champion. I'm going to go first. I'm going to think that it's going to be the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles, the two teams that actually won on Saturday during the divisional round. I think both of these teams are going to carry the most weight from being balanced on both sides of the ball. I think the fact that Kansas City could play some defense against Jacksonville, forcing those turnovers, and against the Jaguars team that have played its best football late in the year, and the fact that Mahomes wasn't 100% and they still pulled out the win, I just think they're going to have it in them to beat the winner of the Bills and the Bengals. Now the Eagles, on the other hand, that offensive line is probably the best I've ever seen play assembled, because they are dominating the line of scrimmage against great pass rushers like Thibodeau and others throughout the year. I think that the Eagles will probably beat the 49ers. They could play the Cowboys. We're not entirely sure yet. This is being recorded before the Sunday playoff games, but I think it will be the Chiefs and the Eagles. Now, against that game, I think the Eagles might surprise people and pull out the Super Bowl. I don't think it's a popular pick, but I'm going to go Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl champion. I'm going a totally different route. I've got Cincinnati going against the 49ers. If you look at Joe Burrow throwing to Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, that's an unstoppable duo. Then on top of that, having Joe Mixon as a running back, that offensive core is just phenomenal. Then, the 49ers adding Christian McCaffrey was just a huge pickup this year, and I think that really changed the trajectory of their ceiling. I just really see the Bengals and 49ers pairing up together in the Super Bowl and Joe Burrow doing Joe Burrow things and coming through and winning the Super Bowl. I'm going to mix a little bit of y'all's two picks here. I'm going to go with the 49ers as well from the NFC. I think that their team in general is just really, really strong and playing really well. Their Mr. Irrelevant, Brock Purdy, that quarterback is just ... Nobody's figured him out yet. I think this is probably the best thing for him is that he comes in very late in the season, gets in a rhythm, and teams haven't got a chance to really understand and figure out his ... Have a whole season to watch film on him yet. I think that's to their benefit, and he's playing with a lot of confidence. Their team is strong. This is probably some of the best football Christian McCaffrey's played in his career in his first season in San Francisco, so I'm going to say San Francisco gets there on the NFC side. On the AFC, I'm going to go a little bit different from both of them. I don't think it'll be the Bengals or the Chiefs. I'm going to go with Buffalo. All year, I've thought Buffalo is the strongest team in the league, and I think Josh Allen last year missing out on that Super Bowl where they played every ... They deserved every bit as much as the other team to get to the Super Bowl. I think that's going to be in their mind, and they're going to push through and beat ... They're going to go ahead and win in the AFC, and it'll be the AFC versus the NFC. It'll be the Bills versus the 49ers in the Super Bowl. I'm going to go with the Bills to win it all, Josh Allen taking home his first Super Bowl ring. Well, there you have it, three different predictions. What could go wrong? Hopefully, none of us are upset, I guess. That is possible. One of the other teams could win. The Cowboys, I guess, could win the Super Bowl. I'm sure half of America would be happy about that, but it should be a great end of the season to watch this post-season play in the NFL, and at least gives us some football to watch. Then, we've got March Madness coming up. I don't want to say this, but Alabama might be a basketball school now. We're in the top four for the first time since 06. That wraps up our season. Special thanks to Kyle for joining us and talking some football. We're definitely looking forward to next year. I'm hoping for a better year. I know Scott is as well. Closing out one final time, heading into 2023, Roll Tide. Go Tigers!