Sports Zone 12-7-23

The SportsZone is discussing various headlines in the world of sports, including coaching changes in college football, players entering the transfer portal, and MLB free agency. They express their opinions on certain players and criticize the transfer portal and the focus on money in sports. They also mention the potential return of college football video games due to NIL deals. And what is going on guys, Michael Mullenix here with the SportsZone along with Carter Welch and Carter. We have got a big week to talk about here in the world of sports and, man, what can you say? I mean, just a great, great week to be a fan, isn't it? Absolutely. Got bowl games coming up soon. Got some college basketball. Got some NBA going on. What? Speaking up on this one really good. Sorry, we're in the process of trying to get stuff reorganized here. Our mics went out today in the regular room, so we're just trying to get everything. We're in the recording studio, so we're actually recording this the day before. So this is not live for the first time ever. But yeah. So what we got going on today is the SportsZone Season Year End Awards. And what that means is we're going to go ahead and vote on who the best of the best was for the SportsZone this year. So we'll get into that here in a minute. But first, we got headlines. Carter, you got the dock pulled up. I'm having to do everything with the recording here. But what's the first headline we got? Manny Diaz is going to Duke University. Duke University. Wow. Was not expecting that one today. He's replacing Riley Leonard. Oh, no. Replacing Mike Elko. He'll have to be replacing Riley Leonard. But that was definitely a big loss for the program today. Was not expecting him to leave Penn State. He's done a great job as a defensive coordinator there. But yeah, he will be leaving Penn State and will be moving on to the Duke University Blue Devils to take over the roles there. Other than that, I'm trying to think who else. Trevor Ekian is in the transfer portal. He was at Florida, I believe. Believe that is correct. And so he entered the portal today. I think it's just the Wi-Fi. Does that have something to do with it? Yeah. The computer's kind of messing up as well. We can't afford great Wi-Fi just for us students yet, but we're working on that as well. But yeah, Danny Diaz, like we said. Manny Diaz. Manny Diaz. Who is Danny Diaz? Danny Diaz, he was in McFarland, USA. Shout out to Danny Diaz. Great movie. But see, other than that, transfer portal is getting big now. Who's probably the biggest one here in the past couple of days that's signed? Biggest one? Biggest one. I mean, you said ETN. I've got to think Kyle McCord. That is huge. We talked about that a little bit on Tuesday. But Kyle McCord led Ohio State 12-1 record. Sorry, 11-1 record. They didn't have a conference championship game. But I mean, he led them to a top, in my opinion, a top six team in the nation. Only lost to the number one seed in Michigan. It was a close game. So him entering the transfer portal is very interesting. Could be a very big asset to whatever team he ends up at. Ohio State is going to have to string some things together to pull together another season after, I think, seven to four stars and two to five stars are in the portal. Yeah, it's definitely big for Ohio State right there. Other than that, I'm trying to think of the other big one that happened here recently. Marvin Harrison Jr. is unsure of the draft. Stocked right now. Well, not stocked, but he's unsure of whether he'll go or he will stay. Yeah. That was the only headline. Oh, I forgot about this one. Brock Vandegrift. Georgia was a five-star coming out of high school. He is now taking his talents to the Bluegrass State in Kentucky. Kentucky will be with Brock Vandegrift. And I don't know if Devin Leary has another year of eligibility or not, but it doesn't sound like he's going to be using that eligibility anymore after Vandegrift gets there. Because Vandegrift, I believe, a much more talented quarterback. Honestly, to me, if it just wasn't for him being a freshman, I think he would have had to start at Georgia over Carson Beck. This was Leary's fifth year. So I don't think he would have another year unless he had something crazy happen. The only other thing with his age now he can get is that COVID year if he had not done that already, which the fifth year means he could have red-shirted that first year, but I don't – I think he started – he started his – well, it looks like it started his every season for NC State. So I don't think he would have another injury eligibility year left. But also all this COVID stuff, I don't know how to keep up with how many people have what year and all that stuff. It's just confusing. Yeah, very true. Let's see. Other than that, that's pretty much all of the big headlines that we've got, I think, other than MLB. Let's talk about MLB for a minute. Juan Soto, he's officially going to the – out of your prime and about to lose a dime career of the New York Yankees. He probably will be one of many that end up going to the Yankees, I feel like, that will be sort of the washed-up prime league players. Candelario – Jameer Candelario, who was the Cubs' replacement there for a little bit for Bellinger when he got hurt last year, was a good pickup from the Nationals. He's officially taking his talents to the division rival Cincinnati Reds. I know Kyle and Clark were both pretty happy about that. Kind of an underrated player, in my opinion. Jameer Candelario, but he will definitely do good for Cincinnati, especially being able to play with Elie Delacruz for the upcoming future. But there hasn't been that many more MLB sign-ins. Reece Hopkins is in talks with the Cubs. Bellinger's still in talks with the Yankees and the Cubs and the Giants? Was that the main three? I believe so, yeah. Shohei Possibly will be going to the Dodgers. He had a two, three, four-hour meeting with the Dodgers the other day. So, of course, they just have so much money, it's not even fair. Craig Kimbrell signed with the Orioles 12, I think. No, not 12 times. He's a nine-time All-Star, I think is what he is, but he can still throw some heat. Not quite in his prime still. He was with the... He was with the White Sox, wasn't he? He was with the White Sox at one time. After he left the Cubs. Yeah, and then he was also with the Dodgers and then the Phillies. I think he was with the Phillies last season. But he can still bring the heat. He was one of my favorite players back when he was with the Braves. Yeah, he was with the Phillies last season, and then he's kind of jumped around since then. He's been five seasons with Atlanta, one in San Diego, and then three with Boston and Chicago, and then White Sox, L.A., Phillies. Has over 400 career saves those first four, five... I mean, his first season save count went 46, 42, 50, 47, 39, 31, 35, 42. So, I mean, in his prime, he was one of the... He was one of the absolute best closers in the game. And he'll go down as one of the best for sure, but he's not quite there. He can still bring the heat, but he's also a little bit out of control. His walk rate has gone up a little bit. His strikeout-to-walk ratio has also gone down. Strikeout-to-walk, but yeah, interesting move there. Juan Soto, I can't outstand. Ever since his first season when he was with the Nationals, I just can't outstand the guy. I feel like he's one of the most overrated players in the game. Everybody talks him up to be an MVP candidate every single year, and time and time again, he just fails expectations. But because he's Juan Soto and everybody expects great things, he's higher in the MVP race than he should be. And now he's going to a team with overrated players. He'll get there. He'll make a buttload of money. And then he will... And then the Yankees will be mediocre and won't get past these additional rounds in the playoffs. And he will just be okay. And then once he leaves, he'll just be a nobody, just like every other Yankee the past 10 years. Yeah, that sounds about right. I'm perfectly fine with that because he doesn't deserve it. He's not good. I think I totally agree with that statement. Maybe not good is a little overstatement. Yeah, but he's not worth what he's asking for. That whole shenanigans that he pulled with the Nationals, yeah, the Nationals wasn't good, but you were the star there. Why wouldn't you keep playing there and just earn your star status? And then after the year is over with, then go to a better team that's going to pay you more money. Real players are going to stick it out, in my opinion, unless there's other circumstances going on, which there have been. I'm not trying to take a shot at any player for that. But a real player is going to stick it out wherever he's at. That's why I don't like the transfer portal. That's why I don't like the in-season trade, all the money, James Harden deals. To me, that is what has ruined a lot of sports in this world. Transfer portal, NIL money, which the only good thing about NIL is it's bringing college football on the video games back. There's just no commitment from people. People want the easy way out. People want the money, so they're going to do whatever it takes. If that means jumping ship to win and make more money in the moment, they're going to do that, and I hate it. If you go pro, yeah, you can get all these sponsorship deals. Say if someone wants to, you know, your hometown Bell's Drive-In wants to sponsor you for being a good athlete, yeah, okay, I agree, maybe you should get some endorsement money for that. But don't go to a place just because you think that you're going to earn more money there, talking scholarship aside and stuff. Don't go to a place just because you think you're going to earn more money there. Go there because you think it's going to make you a better player to prepare you for that next level. I 100% agree. Kids these days, and I can say kid because I'm the age of most college students, if not even older than some of them, they just want money. Everything's about money. They have no dedication, they have no hard work. If they don't get what they want, they're going to jump ship because they're used to getting everything that they asked for. And so if they don't get something, they're not used to that, they don't know how to handle themselves, I think you're exactly right on that. It's just, it is just crazy how we've gone from the NCAA and everything, you know, you're college athletes, you're not going to get paid for it, to now we are in strict NIL deals. So, I don't know, it's weird how the sports world has turned out, so that will, just have to wait and see how everything goes with, especially with recruiting, how big the transfer portal has gotten, and just all of that. But, like we said earlier, it is time, it is that time of the year where we get into the SportsZone end-season awards, and we're going to bring you that here in just a little bit. But Carter, we've got some big ones here, but first off, like we said, Tyler Stapko is not here, he's going to be on a few of them, but it's been a great season, so before we get to the SportsZone season year-end awards, thank you to everyone who has supported the SportsZone podcast this year. It's been a great one, probably one of the best the SportsZone has ever put on. It all started with me, Clay Penson, and Wes Graham, and it has evolutionized now over to Carter Welch and Tyler Stapko. Carter might take SportsZone over next year if he wants to, fingers crossed, but Season 5, that will be premiering here in January, but we'll give you the first date on that hopefully before the show ends, once I can actually look at a calendar and figure out when we're going to come back to school, but we'll have that date to you here hopefully before show closing time. But Carter, it's time for the season year-end awards. Let's go ahead and get the first one off the board. Yeah, so just for y'all first listeners, y'all haven't done these before, have y'all? We have not. This is an inaugural first. Alright, so how this is going to work, we've got a bunch of different categories, and this is just based off of the college football season. So we've got some awards and then we'll name a category. Michael and I will kind of talk about it. We'll have some nominees. Some of those are already predetermined. Some of them we'll kind of talk through. We'll give some stats or whatever to kind of help you think about that, and then at some point in the near future, we will put out a Google form with a link to the episode so that you can listen to this episode and kind of hear things out, and then on the Google form you'll go in and you, the fans, can vote for who you think deserves the award, and then when we come back after break, we will announce the winners and maybe even mail out some certificates. I don't know if that's possible, but... I think it might be possible. I gotta talk to Jerry Clayton about that, but... Yeah, so I'd be down for that, but we'll put it on Facebook and then please share it. You can share the Facebook post even if you have friends who don't listen to the podcast. You can... Even if you have friends that don't listen to the podcast, you can share it. Have them listen to just this episode and then on the form we'll have stats, we'll have things that they can look at, and they can also listen to this episode to get some more insight, and so please just encourage as many people as possible to vote whether they listen or not. So, our first category is the Player of the Year Award and I think the three finalists kind of speak for themselves. So right now, we have Michael Pennix Jr., quarterback from Washington as the first one, Bo Nix, the quarterback from Oregon as our second one, and Jayden Daniels, the quarterback slash running back at LSU as our third finalist there. Three of the top four Heisman candidates. Michael, you got any others to add? I think you gotta you settle with those three candidates right there. I mean yes, we're gonna get into this topic later. I did say at the beginning of the year that Jayden Daniels was a top ten quarterback in the SEC. Not one. He was not one. He was definitely the number ten in my opinion. He has proved me wrong. That hurts a little bit to say. Do I still like him at LSU? Not really, but I think it's just because of him being at LSU, the reason I'm not a big fan of him. He's done really good this year. Michael Pennix Jr. He was the most exciting to watch at the beginning of the year, I feel like. He kind of fell off here in the late part, but I think he was deserving of it especially that first few weeks. Bo Nix, surprising. I'll say that much. Even Kay Thompson said he was gonna be a Heisman finalist and I just thought that was gonna be the worst take ever and he actually got it right. He also went 5-7 and guess picked him. That about narrows that down, but Jaden Daniels I think out of all three of those deserve it based off of the stat category. I think Michael Pennix should give it to him based off of team success and was able to get clutch wins. Bo Nix beat third place in my opinion out of those three. He's a finalist, but he's out the winner. Just some stats real quick. Michael Pennix leads the NCAA in passing yards. He has 4,218. Bo Nix is second with 4,145 and then Jaden Daniels is actually third with 3,812, so they're the top three in passing yards. Bo Nix leads the NCAA in completion percentage and completions. Bo Nix has an over 77% completion rate. Jaden Daniels has 72% and then Michael Pennix has 66%. Bo Nix and Jaden Daniels are also tied for the most touchdowns in the NCAA with 40 and then Michael Pennix has 33 and then interception wise Bo Nix only has 3, Jaden Daniels has 4, but then Michael Pennix has 9 and then Jaden Daniels on the passer rating, Jaden Daniels has 208, Bo Nix has 186 and Michael Pennix 161. Like I said, we will have those stats for you on the forum just so you can compare them in person right there but I think Jaden Daniels should win the Heisman. I think Bo Nix should get second and I think Michael Pennix should get third based off of just individual success. If you add in team success, I'd still go Jaden Daniels first, Michael Pennix second and Bo Nix third even though Washington did have the better season. He just had a lot more value to his team than the other two. Yeah, I agree. Jaden Daniels even though his team was the worst out of the three I don't know I think you still gotta give it to him. I mean, it's hard to be a good passing quarterback with also a good run game so yeah, I think Jaden Daniels deserves to get that. You can go vote on these after the show is over with. That'll be posted live to our SportsZone Facebook page It'll also be posted out to other social media websites but be sure to go vote on those and we will come back and vote on that or actually tell you the final results of all that when we come back for the season 5 premiere but other than that I think we've mentioned that enough. I think it's time for the next category so the next one is the team of the year and so I have five teams down just because we can add more but also take away some We got Michigan, they're number one 13-0, Big 10 champions We got Washington Huskies also 13-0, number two overall Pac-12 champions The Texas Longhorns 12-1, lost to rival Oklahoma at a neutral site Big 12 champions The Alabama Crimson Tide Lost to Texas Longhorns Florida State Seminoles 13-0, ACC champions They were ranked number five We threw in the Georgia Bulldogs They were number one for most of the season They went 12-1, lost to Alabama in the SEC championship game Ended the season at number six I don't know who else we would have added Can't add it in Ohio State When you're voting take bias out of the equation vote for who you think is actually the best Don't be Tate Thompson and bias all of your answers I think you gotta go for me it's gotta be Michigan I don't see any other team that is much deserving of this award I think all the teams with the exception of one deserves it but I think Michigan they're also the biggest story team I feel like this year Jim Harbaugh missed the first three games of the year Michigan took care of business coached the next six and then all of a sudden scandals hit missed the next three games took care of business at Penn State took care of business against Maryland and then at home when no one except for a few of us Michigan took care of business 30-24 against a talented Ohio State team which honestly could make the argument for being a really good second place team I feel like that's how I felt about Ohio State this year they were a really I feel like a much improved team from last year in my opinion it's hard to win at Michigan I feel like with taking Jim Harbaugh out of that scenario though you should have been set up to win that game Michigan fought through adversity basically half of the year Jim Harbaugh has not coached six games this year so he's fought through Michigan has fought through adversity half the year they've got a talented running back in Blake Carrum and Donovan Edwards you've got J.J. McCarthy who was an impressive quarterback this year even though didn't have to throw the ball that much I think it's Roman or Rowan Wilson I think it's Roman a talented receiver they've got a bunch of good defensive sides on that team as well so Michigan in my opinion deserves to vote so yeah that's about all I want to say about that what about you? I mean I agree Michigan was I think by far the best team they dominated teams that they should have with the exception of one or two close games but they handled business whether they were ranked or unranked they handled business I said before the season even began I was outraged every week when the rankings came out and they were never number one until the final week of the season so I just think that proves time and time again week in and week out that they were the best team even despite their head coach buying some Walmart khakis elsewhere yeah but alright so that's two down what's the third voting category here? so the third one is the play of the year and this was hard to find I looked everywhere all over Google best college football plays of the season and all that popped up was each week highlights from like 15 minute videos and I was not trying to watch all of them so right now I've only got two Michael might know a couple more I got Ricky Pearsall wider receiver at Florida made a spectacular one handed catch against Charlotte I mean he was going up had to reach out completely and as soon as he caught it he got rocked and he also secured the catch so that made it even more impressive and then the second one is Jalen Melrose-Hillmary on fourth and goal from the 31 for a last second touchdown against Auburn to secure the win in an almost upset in the Iron Bowl Michael you got any more to add? I can't really think of any big plays that have happened this year but I think all of it was good those two plays are by far the best I think I've seen and I've watched both of them as well it's hard because you gotta go there's one that's flashy you know it's just a flashy play got everyone on their feet even if it was against Charlotte and a guy that as a head coach who doesn't wear but just a cut off t-shirt and then Alabama I mean that's just a clutch play it depends on how you view this category I feel like maybe Tyler will have some more to add and it'll be on the poll and if it does we might be able to put some YouTube links on there so you can watch them we'll see this is also just kind of a test run since this has never happened before hopefully this will happen more in the future and we'll have better insight on how to do this later but yeah just for now alright so what about the next category the next category is the performance of the year so this is one player in one game with the best one and this was hard to narrow down we had like 15 nominees and we just kind of went through one by one we took into consideration stats but we also took into consideration opponents so if you played like a nobody like week one when Michael Penix put up 400 something yards and four touchdowns against Hawaii we took that into consideration since it was Hawaii and we got it narrowed down to four the first one is Jane Daniels quarterback from LSU his performance against Florida in week 11 he had 17 for 26 which for a 65% completion rate averaged over 14 yards per attempt for 272 passing yards he also had 12 carries for 234 yards which turned out to be about 19.5 per carry and then he had 5 total touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 99 so in total he had 606 total yards and 5 touchdowns against a pretty good Florida team SEC opponents kind of a rivalry game a little bit so that was the first one the second one is Bo Nix versus Arizona State week 12 quarterback from Oregon he went 24 for 29 so an 83% completion rate 404 yards, 6 touchdowns, no interceptions and a QBR rating of 99.4 the third one is Ollie Gordon II which is a running back from Oklahoma State in his performance in week 8 against West Virginia he averaged 282 yards so he averaged over 10 yards per carry and he also had 4 touchdowns on top of that and then the fourth one was Mr. Quinn Ewers quarterback from Texas and his performance in the big 12 championship game against Oklahoma State he went 35 for 46 76% completion rate and set a big 12 conference championship game record 452 yards he had 4 touchdowns which tied the record all 4 of those were in the first half he did not play the entire second half because he got hurt a little bit he did throw one interception but his QBR rating was 97 in a big time game this is a tough one right here let's see I don't know I mean I'm also kind of looking at here how good these teams that they played against I think you can take that up Arizona State besides Colorado was the worst team in the Pac-12 this year 6 touchdowns no interception 83% completion rate I mean Quinn Ewers that happened in the big 12 championship that's just impressive no matter how far you put it Florida also was disappointing just all after that game Ollie Gordon the West Virginia team was not bad I feel bad for them they had Dylan Gabriel's 8 touchdowns just rough dude I don't know I think for me oh how did we forget Dylan Gabriel's 8 touchdown game that's definitely the nominee right there November the 11th I think should be 9 or 10 I feel like see I know that they played West Virginia and I think 2 weeks before they lost to Kansas and Oklahoma State alright so here it is Dylan Gabriel week 11 vs West Virginia he had 23 for 36 423 yards which is 12 per attempt and 5 touchdowns and then he also had 50 yards on the ground for 3 touchdowns he had 475 total yards and 8 touchdowns with no interceptions no turnovers so I'll put that on there just because 8 touchdowns is insane yeah I think you gotta go I think you gotta go Jaden Daniels here you know it's hard to throw for 372 and then add on 234 rushing yards that's 606 total yards I think Jaden Daniels has got this by a mile in my opinion I don't know I just don't see anybody else really coming close to that I mean yes people had like a bunch of passing yards Vonix had 404 but he didn't have that many rushing yards Jaden Daniels did he really just did it all that game so I think Jaden Daniels will be my vote what do you got you got Jaden Daniels as well or you got Quinn I'd probably go Jaden Daniels 5 for 5 yeah Quinn was in a bigger game but just getting done dual threat the definition of a dual threat right there it's just insane yeah alright what's next on the dock here the upset of the year we had quite a few of these but we got it narrowed down to 3 shout out to Colorado I think 21 or 23 point underdogs week 1 against TCU we ended up cutting that out just because TCU was very disappointing so the first one is New Mexico State week 12 defeating Auburn they went in as 25.5 underdogs and came away with a win week 1 Texas State as 27.5 point underdogs defeating Baylor and then week 8 Virginia going in as 21.5 point underdogs at the moment 10 rated North Carolina and walked away with a 31 27 win oof this is a tough one here um cause I mean all the 3 teams that lost were both all 3 really really disappointing oof I want to go to New Mexico State well New Mexico State actually wasn't bad they went 10-4 right now I don't have to go with the biggest spread Texas State but Baylor was also 3-9 I was about to ask what their record was they went from big 12 champions to 6-7 to 3-9 Dave Aranda what happened buddy um I think what did Virginia end up like 3-9 but here's why I think I want to go Virginia travesty happened last year where 3 of their players were killed that was their first win I think too or maybe second win of the year they didn't even finish last season so I think I got to go Virginia on this one 21.5 point underdogs to a 10th ranked North Carolina team who yeah ended up dropping out of the rankings they were undefeated at that time so yeah giving them the first loss proving the over hop right there so yeah give me Virginia for this one yeah let's see real quick yeah that was North Carolina's first loss and Virginia's second win they were 1-5 going into the game um I'd probably agree with you on that one but yeah that might be a last second decision change but for now I'll go Virginia yeah alright what we got next here moving on to the next one we have the offensive player of the year and so we got I'm not going to go through all of these again but we got the three player of the year finalists Bo Nix, Jade Daniels and Michael Pettis Jr. but then we also have Ollie Gordon he led the nation in passing and rushing yards he had 1,580 yards on 245 carries so he averaged 6.5 yards per carry on the season which is pretty insane well taking out the conference championship game because he didn't do nothing in that game but he also led the nation in rushing touchdowns with 20 so he was by far the best running back very solid season so we added him in with the three big quarterbacks yeah sorry Marvin Harrison you did deserve it I think I got to go with the same thing here Jade Daniels, if he's the one player of the year he's got offensive in my opinion yeah I agree it's hard to separate those two just because I don't understand in the NFL the MVP is never the offensive player of the year it just doesn't make sense to me it just proves that the MVP has become the most valuable quarterback award or best quarterback or the best team award but I don't think if you're going to win the Heisman you've also got to win the offensive player of the year, I don't think there's a difference there yeah I agree yeah about all I've got to say about that one let's go to the next one so on the opposite side of the spectrum we have the defensive player of the year and this is tough because no one really pays attention to a singular defensive player like they do a quarterback or a run back or a wide receiver on the offense but we got four I just went through the different categories and kind of put down the leader in some of the big categories and then the rest of their stats first one we got he's a linebacker at the University of Iowa best player on possibly the best defense in the country he had 141 tackles including one sack and he also had one interception and then next contestant or nominee is Jalen Green not the basketball player for the Houston Rockets we're talking about the defensive lineman from James Madison University he had led the nation with 10 and a half sacks including two forced fumbles he had one interception and one touchdown third nominee is Xavier Watts a safety from Notre Dame he led the nation with seven interceptions and he also had 47 tackles and one forced fumble and then our last nominee is Billy Bowman Jr defensive back from Oklahoma he had six interceptions 61 tackles and three touchdowns as much as I hate to do it I would give my vote to Billy Bowman tackles and interceptions and touchdowns he kind of did it all I would say three pick sixes there that's impressive off of six interceptions and plus I remember watching a couple of his games this year great defensive back dude I'm telling you this guy has a future in the pros give me Billy Bowman Jr or Xavier Watts or Jay Higgins I think Billy Bowman this year deserves it I honestly think Jaylin Higgins and Xavier Watts I think all three of those guys with Billy Bowman are going to be key players in the NFL especially on the defensive side who knows maybe win defensive player of the year there I think that's about all we got on that one now we're getting into some pretty good ones why don't you give us the next one here I think that's the last one where we're talking about player statistics I think yes so actually Michael Titofan will jump down and get the teams and players out of the way and then we'll go on to some actual sports zone what happened on the sports zone I agree so next we'll do the surprise team of the year so the first one we have the Arizona Wildcats preseason they had no receiving votes, started off kind of slow and then ended with like five, six game win streak and ended the season at number 14 they had a very rough stretch, six game stretch where they played six ranked teams in a row and came away three and three, lost the first three and then won the last three and then went out so yeah preseason they did not have any receiving votes and they ended the season at number 14 the second team is the Louisville Cardinals at the beginning of the season they only had ten receiving votes and they ended this season at number 15 and with a spot in the ACC championship game so good season there for the Louisville Cardinals and then the third one is the Missouri Tigers, they also at the beginning of the season had no receiving votes and they ended the season at ten and two there were two losses to LSU and Georgia preseason like I said they had no receiving votes and they were also predicted to be sixth in the east behind only in front of Vanderbilt so basically they were predicted to be last in the east because Vanderbilt is an obvious shoe-in to be last place in the east I mean I'll agree with you, I mean we can't even get a stadium bill good grief I don't know I think I gotta go oh this is a tough one I'm going to eliminate Louisville they were a surprise team until they gave Florida State the ACC championship I don't know I think my pick is going to be the Wildcats of Arizona I think so Missouri you could have predicted them to almost go Arizona I don't think anyone was having them go I think they had Arizona going four and eight this year Arizona played in the top conference too played what six straight ranked matchups I think those were their only three losses too lost to USC I think lost to Washington I think was one of them no no wrong thing I put I'm going to go with Missouri while we pull this up they were projected to be sixth out of 17 in the SEC east and they ended the season at 10-2 with both of their losses top 15 teams I've just gotta give that to them ok so Arizona's three losses at Mississippi State number seven Washington at home still close game at ninth ranked time USC by two that almost gave me three points on Sabre Dogs then after that they went at 19 Washington State they went against 11 Oregon State they went against 19th ranked UCLA then two weeks later after beating an overrated Colorado Sam's 22nd ranked Utah they beat them handled them one two three four and two against and they're going to play Oklahoma here in a week or so and I think Arizona I don't see why they wouldn't so I think Arizona is my surprise team of the year because I would have never expected them to be playing in the Alamo Bowl against Oklahoma or to be 9-3 so Missouri I wouldn't expect them to be 10-2 either but I think Arizona's surprise for me overranks Missouri's surprise I don't hate on Missouri I don't think no I usually don't but I think Arizona it's hard to dislike Arizona I feel like Missouri it's easier for me to dislike just because they play Vandy more but I think Arizona to me they played as a team a lot they're towards the top 25 matchups a lot so I think I think Arizona to me was the biggest surprise in my opinion so that's going to be my pick Arizona let's see what else we got here next one is the opposite is the disappointing team of the season so you got number first one is USC they were preseason ranked number 6 in the nation and they ended the season unranked at 7-5 number two is TCU reigning national champion runner-up made it to the national championship last year lost a lot of their talent including Heisman finalist Max Duggan they lost to the draft they were preseason ranked number 17 and then ended the season 5-7 after a week 1 loss to Colorado the third one is Texas A&M they were preseason ranked number 23 and they ended up firing their coach Jimbo Fisher paying them $75 million to sit at home on his behind and they also went 7-5 and then the last one is South Carolina preseason ranked number 27 they were second one off of the top 25 ranking and then they also were 5-7 very disappointing considering people projected them to maybe make some chaos happen in the SEC East and then they needed two upset wins at the end of the season to even get to 5 wins very disappointing season for the Gamecocks especially with how they ended last season yeah I agree I don't even know where to begin on this list because there is so much disappointment from all four of these teams A&M I think I'm going to eliminate them because they have been nothing but disappointment since hiring Jimbo Fisher USC, TCU, South Carolina however we expected them to be a lot better this year than what we saw so I don't know, what are you thinking here? I'm going USC to be in preseason ranked number 6 a lot of people's playoff pick and then to barely go bowl eligible I've got to go with them I think I'm going to agree here I think USC it's just you really have to try and be that bad especially with the Randy Heisman winner, Caleb Williams the best player in the country I don't understand I don't understand I think USC is going to be my pick as well so go Trojans man have fun with Kyle McCord next year buddy that's all I've got to say about that alright what have we got next here three quarterbacks first one Cameron Ward from Washington State I don't have their stats up right here but I will here in a minute first one Cameron Ward from Washington State second one Brady Cook from Missouri and then the third one Jalen Bilrow out of Alabama let's see if I can get some stats for them I think Brady Cook is going to be my pick here I would agree I mean Cameron Ward Cameron Ward started out the season 4-0 but after that end of the year 5-7 so I think I don't think I can pick him because of that let's see Cameron Ward his completion percentage 66.6 was 5th in the nation in passing yards he did have 3,735 for 25 touchdowns 7 interceptions so that ratio is not great pass rating of 145.4 and then if we go to the other two out of the SEC we got Brady Cook same completion percentage 66.4 3,200 yards 20 touchdowns 6 interceptions and 158 pass rating and then Jalen Bilrow 65.5 slightly worse completion percentage with a pass rating of 177.5 I think this will be a tough one just because we didn't know coming in how any of these team, any of these quarterbacks would be especially Jalen Bilrow after what we saw last season I was not high on him I thought he would get benched midway through the season he got benched after two games after the Texas loss got benched against South Florida Alabama undefeated into an SEC championship game defeated Georgia so he was very impressive but I never even heard of Brady Cook and then he puts up insane numbers leads Missouri to a number 9 finish in the nation and then Cameron Ward also really didn't know what to expect from him yeah while his team didn't perform well he put up some absolutely insane numbers and did very well for the Cougars yeah the thing here's the only thing I'm going to go about with Jalen Bilrow Bilrow yeah no one was high on him coming in but he plays for Alabama so I think you're going to get more improvement as time goes on we saw that so I think Jalen Bilrow I think I'm going to not discredit him but I think I'm going to take him out of that for that Brady Cook I never heard of this guy until he came in I think that no one was expecting him to be good I think that no one was expecting him to put up the numbers that he did so I think I got to go Missouri quarterback Brady Cook on this one I probably agree with you although I might give me some more time I might switch to Cameron Ward but right now I agree with you on Brady Cook what's next the opposite disappointing player of the year this will be fun so first one Sam Hartman quarterback from Notre Dame in the preseason ESPN analysts he was the 25th ranked player of the year going into the preseason and then just did not perform we'll add in some stats later but I don't have them up right now second one KJ Jefferson quarterback out of Arkansas we've mentioned him quite a bit the past couple weeks he has entered the transfer portal? yes he is currently in this was his junior year and each season he's just gotten worse and worse he had a great freshman year led Arkansas to I believe an 8-4 finish knocked off Texas an old rival, played very well and then each year, last year very disappointing this year even more disappointing he was ranked number 30 in the preseason player of the year poll and then he just kind of stunk it up and then the third one is Joe Milton quarterback from Tennessee Mr. Long Ball himself he was the 76th ranked player going into the season and he also just disappointed Tennessee ended up being ranked 21 I believe and I don't believe they should have been ranked at all but it is what it is he probably overshot his wide receivers by about how much we expected but everything else just did not fall into place for him yeah I think my pick here is going to be KJ Jefferson without a doubt Sam Hartman, 9-3 he didn't ever really have that good of a record at Wake Forest I don't know I think Sam Hartman wasn't as disappointing as he sounded his three losses he lost one game to Louisville who was on a really good run at the time another loss to Ohio State only reason they are not in the playoffs is because of Michigan and their other loss was Clemson one really disappointing loss Clemson always has one or two games like that where they just come in and they play like national championship contenders but then stink it up for us this season and that was one of their national championship games yeah so I think Sam Hartman off of my list for that reason Joe Milton here's why I'm not going to go with Joe Milton as a disappointing player of the year that's what I expected from him I don't know how you can expect Joe Milton to come in and replace Hendon Hooker now if he does good he's probably winning surprise player of the year but I don't know who was expecting Joe Milton to be good this year I had Tennessee going 9-3 8-4 so you lost one more game Florida Alabama I had him lose in Alabama and Georgia I didn't have him lose in Missouri one team that I didn't have you losing to so yeah I don't think you get a disappointing player of the year I think you just were that from the start KJ Jefferson not what I expected I was expecting a 7-5 year from him with losses to Alabama and Ole Miss wasn't expecting losses to BYU wasn't expecting losses to Mississippi State I didn't realize this was his 5th year he does have one more year because I'm trying to think he just didn't start those years he didn't start his freshman year but his sophomore and junior year freshman and sophomore technically he did start for Arkansas so this will be his COVID year this will be his last year of eligibility by far you don't get any more than that bow necks KJ Jefferson I think I got to go with him I was expecting KJ Jefferson to be the SEC player of the year I had KJ Jefferson as the number one quarterback in the SEC and he did not so his sophomore and junior year very similar numbers compared to last year his completion percentage dropped off 4 points through for almost 550 less yards through for 5 less touchdowns through 3 more picks and his passer rating dropped almost 30 points and then rushing wide 200 less yards on more carries 7 less touchdowns what was supposed to be a double threat quarterback only other person I can see adding this is Caleb Williams I thought about that but then looking at it he still performed really well he had a very good year it's just a shame at this point that would be the only other person I might consider putting in there I can't think of anybody else alright what do we got next here last one before we get into sports zone specific picks is the conference of the year and you can go I think this will be split pretty well you got the SEC the Pac-12 and the Big 10 Big 12 didn't really have anybody besides Texas the ACC didn't have anybody besides Florida State maybe even for most of the year SEC you got 3 3 teams in the top 10 Alabama 4, Georgia 6, Missouri 9 and then Ole Miss 11 LSU 12 so you got 5 teams in the top 15 that's pretty crazy Big 10 you got you also have 3 in the top 10 Michigan 1, Ohio State 7 Penn State 10 and then after that Iowa 17 and then the Pac-12 we talked about that for most of the year but then as the season went on it just looked less and less impressive and I don't know if that was because the teams beat up on each other or we were just trying to see some true colors out of the Pac-12 but you got Washington at number 2 13-0 conference champions and then Oregon 11-2 both losses to Washington they're at number 8 and then Arizona 14 Oregon State 19 and yeah so you got 4 teams in the top top 25 my vote would go to the SEC having 5 teams in the top 13 is just absolutely insane and it's just going to get better next year 7 of the top 13 because you'll have Oklahoma and Texas who are both inside that so people were like it'll be a down year for the SEC just proved to be otherwise they continue to take hold of college football and kind of run the sport I agree I'm going to go SEC here as well Pac-12 was surprising this year I feel like you go with them as the surprising conference of the year Washington was good, Oregon was good Oregon State was really good Arizona was really surprising this year that's really all I could think of for the Pac-12 Big Ten you can make a case for the division of the year but the problem is there's only 2 conferences now they're doing divisions in the power 5 so I don't know that's all I can really say about that that's my pick as the SEC I think Big Ten will also be interesting next year you have a very strong likelihood of having Michigan and Ohio State play back-to-back weeks since they are getting rid of divisions but you also won't be getting rid of Penn State automatically they'll have a shot at the conference title if they're able to stay competitive and compete they just have to beat Ohio State or Michigan with Ohio State losing a lot of their players it could be possible to beat Ohio State so that is it for the actual college football categories so now we get into some sports zone specifics to kind of wrap things up we will have after the bowl games which will be over by the time we get back after Christmas break we'll announce our sports zone pick'em winner and our super dog winner between Tyler, myself, and Michael right now I have a one point lead in pick'ems and Tyler has a quite significant lead in super dogs so we'll need some magic to happen in order for things to fall in place there but pick'ems up for grabs, Michael is only four behind me, maybe five I think I'm five behind you no, four behind you, three behind Tyler so yeah, it's really anybody's game in that one, but Tyler looks out a lot on the super dogs first one will be our guest picker of the year, we really only have two nominees it was kind of disappointing, we had three or four guests go five and seven on pick'em but we had the one and only Ethan Thomas who went eleven and one in his predictions and his only loss was Colorado over Oregon so that was a bold take right there I'm sure if he could go back in time he would pick Oregon but we had to make K Thompson get on his nerves he had to go with Colorado it ended up being his only reason for not going 12-0 and then our second choice is Will McFall who led our guest pickers in his super dog he was able to get three points off of two games he was able to get an outright win and a cover for his super dogs eleven and one is just insane, Ethan Thomas got my vote I'm going to go with that as well as Carter was saying those were both the leaders this year Ethan Thomas your sports zone guest picker winner and then Will McFall your sports zone super dog guest picker winner they'll be getting certificates in their offices respective offices Ethan's office being also his dorm room Ethan does work in the same place as McFall does I think he is in CBT they can just share a cubicle together now that's going to be his reward now what else we got here I'm going to say that was the last one that was my favorite the next one we have the quote of the year this also might have some discussion our first one is Tyler Stafko's ex-girlfriend quote which was a little different for me personally but we're moving past that in more than one way Tyler's ex-girlfriend quote he was talking about Colorado he picked Colorado to cover Colorado did not cover the next week he said Colorado is just like that ex-girlfriend you know you shouldn't but you just keep going back to and then proceeded to pick Colorado to cover so that was a pretty legendary quote and then the second one we have I've written down is Clark Inslee his shouting out to the Wave and I actually have this quote it was when Iowa was playing Minnesota he was making his sports zone pick and he said shout out to the Wave and shout out to those kids in the hospital and tower them to victory so he said that about Iowa if you don't know Iowa their stadium is right in front of a children's hospital is it before or after every game? I think it's before before every game the Iowa players lined up and they faced the children's hospital and waved to the kids and the kids waved them back so Clark Inslee giving the shout out there that's my personal vote I would almost cry on air from laughing so hard oh man that's going to be a good one I don't even know which one I'm going to pick that's going to be a game time decision is there any more that you can think of? I can't think of anything none that we have said on air we can't put my bank shot quote in there for those of you who don't know Michael and I were commentating the basketball game Tuesday night we were commentating the free basketball game and one of the 5th University players just threw a shot up and banked it in and um let's see what did he I had it written down I texted it to Cade and he said one of the most outlandish things ever I don't know where this came from I had no intention of saying this whatsoever it's just in faith he threw it up and hit the backboard and completely missed the rim and then Michael on air said tried to bank it in but missed the bank by closing time so probably didn't do something that makes sense just kind of threw that one out there tried to be clever and ended up making me have to take my headset off because I was crying of laughter so yeah but that's not on there since it wasn't on the sports zone but we had to shout that one out we got Clark and Tyler for quote I'll see if I can find Tyler's exact quote and if I can I'll put that on there I'll have to send that I don't know if that is on Spotify just yet let's see what else we got here next one is the argument of the year and so we had quite a few arguments on here so we might add more to this list right now we only have two Tyler and I had an ongoing argument and it is still going on and it's been going on for three weeks about whether Missouri is a top ten football team or not he tried to tell me that Missouri was the worst two loss team in the country behind Oklahoma, Iowa, Ole Miss and Penn State and Oregon State at the time he tried to tell me that they were the worst even though they were ranked number ten in the country and he's just wrong because Kirk Herbstreit said he was wrong Kirk Herbstreit said Missouri deserves their top ten spot they're the best two loss team in the country and despite the geniusness of Kirk Herbstreit on college football takes Tyler still cannot get his Kentucky bias out of the way and he hates Missouri and so he thinks Missouri is not a top ten team and now Missouri is going to go beat Ohio State and I hope they do just to prove him wrong even though he says since Ohio State won't have a lot of their players it doesn't count but that was one argument and then the other one was Michael versus Tyler and myself getting it up on this one after they lost to Texas Alabama lost to Texas and Michael still had them making the playoffs and boy were we wrong but that was a big ol' discussion that week because we said Michael you are dumb Alabama does not have a quarterback Jalen Milrow played like garbage he's going to get benched and they're going to lose three games to LSU and Ole Miss and not even make the conference championship game Michael had them in the playoffs and Alabama is in there so Michael, for the first time in my life I was wrong, congratulations oh man, that feels good alright, let's go ahead and go to the next one because this is a good one here should we come back to that one? actually yeah, let's go to the next one we've got three left so we're going to save the best two for the last two so for this one it is the prediction of the year the first one is Michael saying Alabama is going to make the playoffs after their Texas loss thinking he was the only person in the entire country of the United States of America maybe even on the continent of North America that thought that but what a pull that was, great job Michael second one is Kay Thompson week one he said I'm not buying the USC hype we were going through thinking about what we thought about the rankings and we dropped the USC at number six and Kay Thompson said I'm not buying the USC hype we all jumped on his case for that but for the first time in his life he was right USC was very disappointing went seven to five and then the third one is myself after week one after Texas we dropped two spots we got jumped by Tennessee, Washington and Notre Dame after week one even though no team played anybody and I was absolutely furious Tuesday we came on the air and I said we're going to go on the road we're going to beat the Crimson Tide and we're going to jump up to number four in the rankings what happened we went on the road we beat the Alabama Crimson Tide and the next week we were number four in the rankings kind of pulled that one out of my hat but it ended up happening I was proud of that one oh man that's some good ones right there that's going to be a tough one between you and Cade man I think I'm going to have to vote for you because Alabama looked so bad in that Texas game and then you and your Alabama fandom keep them in the playoffs let's wait for that for the voting man speaking of that let's go ahead and talk about that because that's the next one second to last one this is my personal favorite one it is the fan of the year award so if you listen to the show you know two of these specifically I've been going on all year and then the other one's been going on since he was a wee lad three foot tall at the age of twelve so our fan of the year the first one is Tyler Staffco being a Colorado Buffaloes fan he is hopped on the prime train he's been flying it high ever since week one he got three points on the super dog for picking Colorado to beat TCU and they won as 20 point underdogs and ever since then he was a little turd and picked Colorado every single week and they got him half of his points for super dogs I think he ended up getting seven from Colorado this season so big Colorado guy and then second one Michael Scott he is a fan despite saying he has not won every week he just votes in favor of Alabama and as he quoted if I want to roll the tide I need the tide to roll so he claims to be a Vanderbilt fan and I believe that but he claims to not be an Alabama fan which I just don't believe he's always hopping on the Vanderbilt train voting for them and then the third one is Kay Thompson being an Oregon fan if you listen to the first season premiere you just know that Kay Thompson knows nothing about college football except for Oregon and that is all he ever talks about how Bo Dix is bodacious, Bo Dix is going to win the Heisman Oregon is going to beat Washington Oregon is going to make the playoffs I think that is the only sentences he knows how to talk about in college football big Oregon guy people in college that still wear their college football team's jersey and socks and stuff like that he's a dedicated fan but he's also still living in his middle school years because I wear that stuff in middle school so yeah, fan of the year Thomas Hathcote, Colorado Michael Scott, Alabama, Kay Thompson, Oregon I don't know where I'm voting on this one yet I know where I'm voting only because at least with my supposed fandom at least I was rooting for a team that could make it to the title game enough said I'll vote on that when the time comes but what we got next on the dock here and then our last category which is this is my second favorite besides the fan one and I have some bias towards the fan one because I came up with that one on my own is the hottest take of the year so three of these were preseason so and none of these happened they were quite the opposite of what happened so that's why they're hot first one preseason Michael Scott declared Jayden Daniels was not a top ten quarterback in the SEC that he would take Ole Miss's backup ahead of Jayden Daniels on his team Michael is saying that Jayden Daniels should win the Heisman along with a lot of other people he is a Heisman finalist and had a career year right up there with a Lamar Jackson Heisman year Michael would you like to make an apology video for Jayden Daniels I mean I apologize for absolutely nothing I think everything I did was make Jayden Daniels a better player so yeah so hey Esports podcast world so that's all I'm going to say on that one alright Jayden I'll send that to you on snapchat check your snap in a minute it will be sent to you second one also was declared preseason I said that Penn State was going to beat Ohio State and they got ramsacked they ended up losing by 8 but they honestly should have lost by 15 they kind of went on a last minute drive minute 15 left in the game I was big on the Penn State train this year I thought this was going to be the year that they could possibly make the playoffs and win the Big 12 and what did they do they pulled Penn State and lose to Ohio State and Michigan Drew Allard was just not the man for the job this season so yeah and then the final preseason take was Kay Thompson saying that TCU would win the Big 12 and they went 5-7 what was their final ranking in the Big 12 I think 11th 10th maybe they were they were 10th and went 3-6 in conference wow 5-7 overall so yeah didn't defeat a ranked team they were 0-2 against ranked teams did not even make a bowl despite being in the national championship last year and then our final nominee for the SportsZone end of season awards Colorado went week 1 beat TCU on the road jumped into the rankings at 23 or 24 let's see real quick week 2 they hopped in at number 22 a big Colorado fan decides to come on air and says by week 4 Colorado will be ranked between 12 and 15 and they beat Colorado State in double overtime their fans rushed the field and they proceeded to go 2-8 the rest of the season so that was pretty bad he admitted that but yeah pretty hot right there yeah I will say so I think that's a good candidate I'm going to campaign you should vote that one you should not vote the one I said I think that's a pretty easy choice and that is the one and only Michael Scott oh well I think that's going to do it right there wow so that's the season 4 finale with the SportsZone season year end awards be sure to like this and once we get it put out on Spotify be sure to share it on your social media platforms but that's going to do it for us here at the SportsZone so be sure to be on the look on Facebook for our starting time and our starting time I said I would have that by the end and you know what I'm going to give it to you already times next semester will be Tuesday and Thursday at 1 and that will be starting if my phone would load here let's see we got January we come back to Free Harbin the 15th first show will be January the 23rd January 23rd is the season 5 premiere of the SportsZone so be sure to like and subscribe and go tell your friends about that but that's going to do it for us here at the SportsZone and you've been listening to this this is me and Carter here on WFHU 91.5 The Lion