Week 1 Reactions: Cam Ward is a Heisman candidate, Big Ten is deep & Florida is cooked

Notre Dame gets the early road win at Texas A&M [Music] all right the clock is ticking week one is behind us and this is the college football Power Hour he is Jason Fitz that is Adam brenaman and I am Caroline Fenton we are here breaking down all of the action from week one the biggest game of the day all eyes were on college station Notre Dame takes down Texas A&M 23-13 at Kyle Field Riley Leonard's debut as a golden Domer Adam we'll start with you your biggest takeaways from this game Riley Leonard took Notre Dame into Texas A&M's territory Kyle Field and got a big win I mean that that that's the story for Notre Dame their transfer quarterback from duke playing against his old head coach Mike Elco who took the Texas A&M job and got the job done I thought Riley Leonard looked like a great passer in the pocket he looked confident he looked poised and also looked mobile he was moving around really well and when Riley Leonard is healthy we saw last year a little bit then he got hurt when he's healthy he's one of the best quarterbacks in the country this Notre Dame defense is Elite they fly around I think they're top two defense in the country and you look at Notre Dame schedule I mean there's a chance they go 12-0 their toughest games remaining Louisville they go to Georgia Tech they play Florida State they got to go to USC I mean those are their toughest games on that schedule and 11-1 12-0 all very likely for Notre Dame right now and they'll be looking at a five seed in the colge ball playoff Marcus Freeman's got a lot of Buy in from his guys at Notre Dame and you could see when he got that job the players were fired up you can see how their players are his players are playing for him right now and Riley Leonard's the epitome of that yeah I think also if we're going to sit here and talk about Riley Leonard let's talk about what was in front of him that was an offensive line that's being rebuilt you've got tackles that are in the NFL obviously injury issues on that offensive line early on it felt like Texas A&M was just getting right through that thing it was like a Civ and they were going through it but Riley's Mobility was big and I thought the play calling was good a lot of screens they were doing L of the running just getting the B out of his hands quickly and it was interesting because Riley never felt overwhelmed even though he had somebody in his face the entire game you mentioned the teams they're going to play they're not going to play a defensive line that has as much weight and as much star power as Texas anms did and they managed to get through that game I won't say that the offensive line was great but they held up enough to really give Riley the opportunity to push the ball and that's everything and this is what Notre Dame has wanted for the last few years as a quarterback that helped get them out of bad situation Riley did a really nice job of that Texas A&M sort of separate conversation that I think there were real problems with their offensive execution their quarterback play was terrible but if we're looking at Notre D you're right like Caroline this looks like a a playoff caliber football team to me because they now have what the committee can Bank on for the rest of the year they have a signature win by going over to Texas STM getting the win it they played like a playoff caliber football team and I think that they have a schedule that bodess very well to find themselves in the college football playoff I look at the schedule and I I don't see a game that I can Circle and say ooh that's going to be a tough one or that's an automatic loss for Notre Dam I think that 12-0 is very much so in the cards for Notre Dam but I think that if we're going to talk about Notre Dame and how they looked I think it's only fair to talk about how this game was close until it wasn't how this game was a a physical how it was a tough defensive battle tied 66 at half and it was tied 13 13 up into the last few minutes of the game so I'll give credit where credit is due to Texas A&M that defensively they made life hard for Riley Leonard and I think the final numbers in the Box Score don't really indicate how difficult it was at times for both teams to run the football both teams over 150 rushing yards but I'll give credit to toex stam's defense I think that is going to be the strength of their team at least until Conor wigman is able to settle down a little bit but H that was really the the issue for me fifth you pointed out I didn't expect Connor wigman to look as rattled as he looked at times two and dumb interceptions they weren't throw up YOLO balls at the end of the game we have to get the ball out and just happens to get intercepted they were bad interceptions thrown right to the Defenders that's a concern for me for Texas A&M moving forward especially when you start talking about how sticky that coverage was because Adam I think you make a really good point that that secondary is great so when you have opportunities especially if they're soft on coverage in a couple of spots and and you've got a guy on an out route like throwing on the outside to the hashes was just impossible right it it wasn't happening and one of those picks was a back foot you know lofted up and it goes straight to the secondary and you just look at it and you think what are you doing man like in a game that was this close Texas A&M in some ways defeated themselves because they couldn't complete the easy passes and you're looking at it thinking man what have you been practicing for the last several months if you can't hit hit the guy when he's just running on green grass man yeah and I think guys one one of the other factors for this game team that gets me excited about them is their offensive coordinator Mike denrock who came from LSU and was the coordinator responsible for kind of Reviving jayen Daniels career at LSU you know I I was with jayen Daniels when he was Arizona State and this was a completely different player when janeel that LSU playing from like Den Brock now Den Brock comes to their Dame and gets to develop Riley Leonard and what Den Brock does from giving quarterback's Confidence from allowing them to play Within the system and Riley lard doesn't need to go out there and put up 50 points every game their defense is that good he needs to go out there manage the game make big throws when the when the opportunities are there and right Leonard's proven that he can be a guy that can do it that do both just like jayen Daniels did he can he can play in the RPO game he can Sprint out he can scramble when a play breaks down he can create with his legs I think Mike demock will be a guy who's up for the BRS Award for best ass assistant coach of the year I think he's going to have this Notre Dame offense humming at a high level uh you know come October November an un likee Jaden Daniels Riley Leonard's not going to have to win games for Notre Dame like Riley Leonard I do think has the capability to win a game when that's warranted but Jaden Daniels had to do that every single game last season every single game it was like all right fine I'll do it myself and Jaden Daniels just picked up the entire team in a little backpack and carried on on his back the entire season because defensively they had zero support whatsoever it was the Jaden Daniel show well Riley Leonard has plenty plenty of talent defensively as we saw on full display in College Station that Riley Leonard doesn't have to win games Mike Den Brock doesn't have to put Riley Leonard in that position and he's got a different skill set than Jaden Daniels nobody's a runner like Jaden Daniels although Riley Leonard does have the ability to make plays with his legs he doesn't have that same playmaking ability that Jaden Daniels had but I think Riley Leonard is set up in a much more complimentary football situation where they can win games they can win 12 games this season and find themselves in the playoff not a situation that l themselves in last season Riley has sneaky Wheels though like because there were several plays where they had two spies on them defensively two guys that were just sitting there trying to stop him and he still managed to get around people to the outside and y'all I think there's a really important point with this playoff Point too because modern college football I know today over the course of this show we're going to talk about a lot of different teams teams of every fan base every single fan base should be watching Notre Dame carefully because if Notre Dame is is locked in with an easy schedule and now the opportunity to be the five seed that means if you're one of these SEC teams or Big 12 Big 10 teams that's going to have to go through the gauntlet there's one less playoff spot open for you unless Notre Dame slips up this was significant not just for Notre Dame it was significant for the entire college football landscape because all of these teams that are looking at maybe being second third fourth in their respective conference that want one of these at llarge bids they may have one less at llarge bid even available to them and I think that's massive early in the season and look Notre Dame evaded disaster today because I went into this game thinking Texas A&M is kind of playing with house money right it's Mike elko's very first game as a head coach Texas A&M has high expectations but just not quite as high as Notre Dame that I think Texas A&M fans at the end of the day can say look we went toe-to-toe with a really good football team for the better part of of four quarters that we can step away from this game really excited about what our football team is moving forward despite the loss Notre Dame's not in that position they're not in the quote unquote moral Victory kind of position it was go on the road in a really tough place to play get a win get a resume boosting win and then go throughout the rest of your fairly manageable let's say cupcake schedule and then continue on our path to the college football playoffs so I think Notre Dame evading disaster taking down Texas A&M 23-13 today not all teams were as lucky Clemson blown out by Georgia, Dabo Swinney needs to adapt Georgia and Clemson my goodness in the second half of Georgia didn't put it on Clemson the Bulldogs take it 34-3 is the sky falling in Clemson South Carolina Adam I'll start with this Caroline I was wrong I told you on I told you last week that Georgia was that the Georgia Clemson game would be closed K kumnick would have a coming out party Clemson would would play well in this game I was completely wrong and after watching this game and seeing how bad this offense looked seeing how Georgia's players and how Georgia built their roster through the transfer portal compared to how Clemson's built their roster via High School recruiting and refusing to use the portal the sky is falling at Clemson and I think this loss against Georgia in week one to get boat raced out of the stadium the way they did is a complete indictment on how dween is building his program and his absolute refusal to adapt to the changeing landscape of college football uh he has been very vocal about being anti- transfer portal about not wanting to build his roster through portal through nil and uh in college football you either adapt or you get left behind and right now Clemson is absolutely left behind their offense looks bad their quarterback's not playing well and they clearly don't have the talent that they had in their last playoff appearance in 2019 it's funny to me the way you say that because the first thing Caroline said is a battle of the heavyweights I'm the old guy I'll remind everybody what it was like when Mike Tyson was a heavyweight in his prime and he went in and all he did was kick the snot out of another heavyweight like that's exactly what we saw we saw like Mike Tyson which is Georgia in this scenario but we saw Kermit the the Frog like going Ah that's what Clemson is right now like it's absolute Mass cha chos dogs and cats living together it's hysteria there's nothing there now for Clemson fans to have hope for I I cannot say that loud enough the season if the expectation is a national championship you just found out in one game that that expectation cannot and will not be met maybe you can win the ACC if the ACC turns itself upside down but does that matter for Clemson they aren't judged by that for years they were judged on their basis of can they win a National Championship and what we learn now in this game very clearly is that Clemson is not Elite Clemson is not even second Dy to Elite Clemson is mid at this point and the only way they get out of mid is changing the way they do business and I don't know Adam if if davo is going to be willing to do that so I think this guy is falling because of the stubbornness you man you mentioned this guy is falling because they don't have the talent this guy is falling because they're not maximizing the talent like there isn't a reason for this guy not to fall based on what we saw here yeah I think Clemson's clearly at a Crossroads in Dabo sween's era either something has to change and Dabo has to adapt to the new era of college football or it's time for him to go there is no in between anymore uh so I think that that's the first takeaway the second for me is this Clemson offense doesn't look like the the Clemson offense I thought it would be when they brought in Garrett riy their new offensive coordinator last season when Garrett riy came in from TCU I was expecting a high-powered offense with a downfield passing attack getting the ball down the field vertically developing K kumnick this looks like an offense that quite frankly dbos Sweeny has his hands on a little bit too much where he may be in influencing too much on what Garrett R's really doing from an offensive standpoint so I think it's frustrating for Clemson fans I do think the sky is falling and it's time to seriously think about dbos Sweeney's future uh but Caroline I know you probably had to be smiling when Georgia started to to blow this game away in the second half yeah you know I think what I would say to that is um I told you so you sucker I told you so I knew I had that coming I I was waiting for this look I was I was ready to swallow my words and kind of tuck my tail between my legs whenever offense and points were very very hard to come by there in the first half but I don't know what kind of performance enhancing drug is in a Kirby Smart halftime speech and what kind of halftime adjustments he can make without fail every single game and we talked about this last week about that that Kirby benefit of the doubt or that that Kirby Smart kind of feeling of inevitable and that's of how it felt at halftime was okay this George offense struggled a little bit Carson Beck was admittedly kind of shaken up and a little bit rattled from that Clemson defense in the first half which looked pretty solid in the first half but then in the second half George's offense just looked completely different credit to Mike Bobo the offensive coordinator but I heard gr Greg mroy who's calling the Clemson Georgia game at the start of the game talk about how you know Clemson's demise has been over exaggerated and look Greg has forgotten more about football than I will ever know this is not an indictment on Greg mroy but that was the messaging that I feel like we got a lot in the offseason was everyone is over exaggerating about the steps back that Clemson has taken and I look at it like what do we know for certain in this sport you adapt or you die that's what made Nick Sabin the goat even when he didn't want to embrace the changes he didn't like the changes in college football he didn't just embrace them he became the best at some of those changes in college football whether it was offensive minds and and and the way that the that college football was really changing into a pass happy aired out kind of offense Nick Sabin embraced that and became an expert at it when it came to the transfer portal when it came to nil you embrace it and you you adapt to it Davos Sweeney hasn't done that and you cannot win in modern-day college football when you don't utilize the transfer portal the the most important thing here guys that we've learned is that I love is that we're not afraid to talk our talk when we're right and eat a little crow when we're wrong look at this like we're all coming together everybody's accepting their role in all of this friendship I I I I had to accept that was wrong and I knew I had that coming I mean I saw that there was some chatter on on on Twitter or now X from Caroline so I knew I was coming into it I I think to wrap this point up I think the the most staggering stat in dbos sween's Era so far is that he has not had one starter via the transfer portal at during his time at Clemson not one of his starters 2018 crazy I mean it's a crazy stat and you look at some of the best rosters in college football look at Ohio State look at Oregon look at Georgia um look at some of these Elite rosters they have used the transfer portal to the best of its ability and brought in I mean look at think about quinan junkins coming from Old Miss to Ohio State using the portal not just to fill gaps but to make your roster the best in the country but but why would you not I mean that's the biggest thing if you have a whole group of players over here that are talented why would you simply say I don't want talented players because I don't want to go into that process yeah but but you don't eliminate half of The Talented players that you can have access to day one like this this is so pigheaded and stubborn by a smart football coach that I can't make it make sense I I agree but in Davos sween's reasoning is the culture saying that he wants to build his roster through High School recruiting Because that's the way he does it at Clemson that's the way he's won uh he won national championships that's the way he made made multiple playoff appearances but as Carolina just said you either adapt or you die in college football and the game has changed there's a lot of coaches who don't like the portal who don't like nil I guarantee you Kirby Smart did not like the transfer portal when it came out James Franklin didn't like it Ryan day didn't like it Ryan day doesn't like nil I bet I bet he complains about it to his wife at home but he's paying his players $20 million a year because he wants to win national championships you adapt in college football DAV Sweeny refuses to do it yeah well what kind of culture do you I just say what kind of culture do you have when you just got your ass kicked by 31 I that's I mean culture is easy when you're winning culture is really difficult when you get your butt whooped on National Television four programs that did not take a single transfer in the 2024 cycle Army Navy Air Force and Clemson the four branches of the US military uh but one transfer that was on Florida loses to Miami, it's going to be a long season for Gator fans full display today that was cam Ward at Miami making his Miami debut after transferring from Washington State Miami put it on Florida in the swamp the spread was only 2 in a half but Miami whooped him 41 to 17 it already felt fits like this guy was falling in Gainesville now adds saltan to the wound because this guy this guy's on the ground this guy has fallen in Gainesville Florida and I don't I don't blame the fans for feeling the way they feel you can't change the fact that you've spent a generation feeling like you're relevant now you're in a new SCC where frankly you're not going to be it doesn't even look like at this point based today solely on one game Vandy looks like a better football team at this point than Florida and I can't believe I just said that statement like I want to cancel myself for saying that but that's real Florida looked absolutely inept they had no game plan they couldn't run the ball if you take away the 171 yard run the rest of their running game was absolutely inept their offense had no flow Billy Napier at this point I don't know how he's holding on to his job and I don't root for coaches to be fired but let's be real when you look at the schedule that's in front of this this isn't isn't even just is Florida going to to be Bowl eligible the answer to that is clearly no the question is is Florida going to win a couple of games this year like this looked so bad Adam I felt bad for Gainesville I felt bad for the swamp I felt I just looked at it and thought man I cannot imagine watching that trash and trying to figure out in my head how that's Florida football Billy Napier is hanging on by by the smallest thread you can possibly imagine uh the they got boat RAC out of the stadium their quarterback didn't look very good their their their offensive line got pushed around the Billy Napier era in at Florida is just about over and and you you you bring up the schedule fits when you look at that schedule it's it's hard to even find two wins on that schedule right now I mean I you you look at maybe the UCF game I mean they they got to play A&M Mississippi State Tennessee LSU Old Miss Florida State Texas I mean it's hard to imagine how how Florida wins more than two to three games and when that happens in a locker room I've been in those lock I've been in locker rooms with really bad teams before when you lose your locker room and your locker room stops believing in your head coach because of decision-making or because of looking at the future it's done you got to move on cut your losses and go find a coach that can just bring some new momentum and new life into that program I've Been Around Billy Napier he is a good football coach players like him uh he's a great offensive mind but his tenure at Florida has not gone well and has really been disastrous from the start constant turmoil constant uh negativity around the program and they can't win football games he he's got a he's got a pretty big buyout on his contract but I think Billy Napier is on the hottest seat in the country right now well and Caroline like you know this being in the thick of SEC country like at some point when you think about the passion that goes into it like you living in Nashville you know what it means when the vs aren't good right you start thinking about what it means for this entire fan base the donors everybody a lot of money we talk about nil all the time what I think we forget sometimes is the consequence of that money that's being spent you got a bunch of guys that are out there like Friday Night Lights you know buddy G with this car dealership that are saying where's my money going right I it just feels like if you just put yourself in SEC country particularly Florida fans have a right to lose their mind right now 100% this is we're talking about Florida we're talking about the University of Florida we are talking about an incredibly Rich tradition kind of program with fans that expect to win 9 10 11 even 12 games a year like that is what the expectation is at Florida because that's what Florida football has been for so long those expectations are warranted and this isn't just a bad day at the office for Florida this is their sixth loss in a row going back to last season and last season a year that they weren't even B eligible and I think for me the most frustrating maybe most disappointing thing about Florida's performance today was everything that I expected to get better from last season frankly didn't last year Florida was a really young team and I think the way that Billy Napier could have sold the message to the fans was look they got 30% of our starting defense are all true freshmen okay so they're not going to look good they're going to make some mistakes but they're going to get that experience and they're going to be that much better in year two I didn't see and drastically improved defense I didn't see a defense that okay those guys have played a lot of football those guys have seen a lot of things Ron Roberts comes in really well-respected defensive mind kind of be a a little bit of a a teacher to a young Austin Armstrong defensive coordinator I didn't see the impact game one we saw Graham Merz I think get better and better and better each game last season Graham merch through three quarters didn't even throw for 100 yards so it just felt like every area where where Florida was showing some warts they they really did they did not improve year-over year that's the biggest indictment I think on Billy Napier so far is they haven't gotten better it's one thing to keep things close in a really tough battle tough fought kind of game it wasn't close from the start and and you make a great point there Caroline on the young players in that Florida program you know Graham merch didn't look good you just said it 91 yards passing uh on the day not going to cut it uh when when you're playing a team like Miami but then five-star quarterback DJ lagway came in at the end of that game and the one thing to give Billy Napier some hope could have been if if lagway comes in and plays really well he's the five-star quarterback the prize recruit that that that Billy Neer landed and if he played well maybe there's some hope there for the future but then likewe came in and went three for six with an interception did not play well look flustered out there uh you mentioned some of the other young players some of the young players on defense didn't play well there really isn't a bright spot to point to in this Flor a program right now I I think the other part of it you know Adam you've talked a lot about culture we've all have but the other thing that you have to see in week zero Week 1 week two to me is identity and if you go out there and you get your butt whooped but I see what you're trying to do and I see who you're trying to be and I figure out the identity throughout that process I can say okay I understand where this team is going I walked away from that Florida game saying I have no idea what they even think their strengths are there wasn't a time where I thought they were dialing into these are the 20 plays that we can just rely these are the 10 plays we can rely on they never had a moment in this game where they're really pocketed into something that I could say that's the future of Florida football if you're going to get your butt kicked at least show us identity because they didn't I have no idea how Florida turns this thing around Caroline I they don't have an opportunity to week two they host Samford so that's a game that you feel like they should win and then they host Texas A&M they go on the road at Mississippi State I don't think Mississippi State any is any sort of world beaters but also Florida doesn't look like that either like that game could absolutely be considered a tossup you host UCF you know that Gus Malon is going to be fired up and ready to prove himself against an SEC opponent they go at Tennessee an incredibly difficult place to play we saw niik yam malava look fantastic today against UT Chattanooga host Kentucky host Georgia at Texas LSU Miss and Florida State I don't see any sort of room for breath there for Billy Napier and the Florida Gators and Fitz I think you make a great point I didn't see an identity I didn't see a team that looked one motivated and two looked like they were trying to figure out who they want to be so a lot of panicking happening in week one and frankly if you're Clemson or Florida panicking is very much so Justified we'll continue the week one reaction break down one thing that we learned in week one we'll get to that after a quick break all right let's get into what we learned in week one a lot of lessons What we learned in Week 1: Big Ten is the deepest, best conference every single week Adam we'll start with you what did you learn this week the Big 10 is the deepest conference in college football Carolina and there's a lot of talk right about the SEC about I I heard Joel clatt say the big 12's the deepest conference in college football this week uh but I think what we saw from not not the top tier teams in the Big 10 we know Oregon Michigan are all going to win a lot of games this season but from these middle tier teams in the Big 10 looked really good and really strong Penn State looked like a playoff caliber team against West Virginia uh Iowa 140 to nothing Nebraska looked really good 140 to7 Dylan Rola their five-star quarterback was electric Maryland won 50 to7 against Yukon uh there's no question that this is the deepest conference in college football you have two of the teams with the best rosters in the country with Ohio State and Oregon and then just deep play week after week and some of those middle middle of the pack teams that I just mentioned showed that they're you know the the top tier of college football rosters and talent uh from how how the how they perform today yeah one of those teams you mentioned this is a tease later on I'm going to tell you why I'm selling I don't I don't buy into it at all but I got to give you credit brenman because you were in on this Nebraska thing and I was curious to see what Rola looked like and frankly that it was a thing of beauty watching that like that Matt rule with a quarterback is a much different beast when you try and figure out how to defend him I was watching Nebraska hoping that I could come in and poke the belly of the Beast with your brother but uh I can't they that was a that was a solid performance by them hey I I I I started getting some some texts and some tweets and it was like the first quarter and the game was pretty close that that Nebraska game people were starting to bring that bring that take my my Nebraska playoff take up to me but uh but yeah and I think too Matt Matt Rand year to he he does such a good job of developing those programs uh in you know what he did at Temple and Baylor you look at the year two jump his teams always make a massive Improvement in that year too uh Caroline Big 10 deepest conference what do you think I saw that uh I saw organ get a little bit of a scare against Idaho saw Michigan keep things a little bit too close for comfort against Fresno State and perennial Big 10 Contender UCLA making things a little bit interesting against Hawaii and I look I understand week one weird things are going to happen when teams are figuring out what they want to do with new quarterbacks new coordinators so on and so forth I don't entirely disagree with you though because Ohio State looked as adverti one of the best teams in the conference Penn State was one team that I had a lot of question marks about of exactly who are you going to be in year one of the new Big 10 are you going to ascend to being one of the contenders or you kind of going to fall back into mediocrity and kind of the middle of the conference we don't know the answer to that quite yet but I liked what I saw and I remember hearing all last season that Penn State fans were just hungry for big plays open up the PlayBook take the Deep shots let Drew Aller kind of take some of those more calculated risks we didn't see that last year which made me think that I didn't think Penn State was going to be all that interesting to watch if they were just going to continue kind of a conservative offense I loved seeing Dal open it up a little bit so I don't know if I'm necessarily buying deepest conference in the country but a very strong point a very very fair point Fitzy what you learn today uh that We need to relax about close games in the first half everybody needs to relax calm down look the funniest thing to me my phone ining us including us we don't need to relax at all no we're doing football like fans and look one of my buddies text me halftime in the Michigan game was like this whole season's a waste I can't believe that we're going through this and I'm like dude it's halftime I knew people that were texting me because Ohio state was struggling early against akan like you you just start to look all the way across the the board and what did we see we saw just awful first halfs of football and a couple of days ago I said on the show I thought we needed preseason well what did we get we got a half a preseason in a bunch of these football games and I think everybody needs to calm down and remember number one it takes a minute when you haven't had joint practices against other schools at the same level you got a bunch of kids that are trying to figure out how to play college football like it's going to take a minute it's going to favor defenses Hammer the unders a lot like that that all makes sense but the other part of it is a win is a win so if you go through all of this ugly and you still come out with the win instead of being despondent about our quarterback can't play like acknowledge that maybe next week's going to look a little different maybe next week's going to get a little better and you still got to win out of a bad situation I I think that there is still value in being challenged week zero week one I think there's value in trying to figure these things out I just think the problem is Adam we have so many eyeballs on it and everybody's ready to freak out after one bad quarter one bad half when realistically these teams are going to take a second to figure out who they are there are so many instances in college football early weeks where a team like in Ohio State like in Oregon one of these teams is down or winning by seven points at halftime and everyone thinks the world's going to fall apart everyone thinks as we call it the sky is falling there's a reason the game is four quarters right so many times we'll see a 10- s game at Halftime end up being a 50 to7 game with these Powerhouse teams playing FCS or group of five opponents happens all the time because what you just said Fitz getting the getting the Jitters out playing against someone that's not that's not uh that's not your own teammate for the first time in a long time but also these group of five and Power in and FCS teams can't hang with the talent and the depth of these big time programs so everyone ignore the bad first half okay that's just part of the game part of part of growing early in the season also there's a lot of coaches in college football who would prefer to have a close call Early in the season as to as opposed to blowing out an FCS team blowing out a group of four team group of five team and then not never having that true test until you get to your conference play a lot of teams would take you know would take that 14o win when you should have won by 40 but it teaches your team a lot of lessons and as a coach you can go in front of your team and say we got the win but we're not as good as you guys thought you were on that field and it's time to it's time to improve this coming week before we get to conference play Nick Sav this morning on Game Day actually talked about the fact that last year the fact that they struggled early helped the team grow to where they were to be a playoff team by the end of the year I just we need to have a little of that context before we decide that some of these teams are just Absolut like especially if you won Caroline that's all I'm saying if you won maybe we could relax and and I think it's there's two sides of the coin of maybe a bad first half or a bad game in week one it's really easy to get all you know your panties all in a w about I also think it's the truth that maybe let's slow down whenever you drop a hundo on Ferman no disrespect to Ferman that that maybe that doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to win the national championship maybe that doesn't necessarily mean that your quarterback is going to be a high in Trophy Contender who whoa who some of us picked told is to make it to the national championship game on this show I need that to mean that and I I chose Ferman just as a random example I'm not necessarily calling miss out by name but that's one of them we saw so so much joyless murder ball today and rightfully so cuz that's why you schedule these games you you pay a you know an FCS opponent or a division 3 School a couple million dollars to come in and get their butts kicked so your Young quarterback can gain some confidence so you can get a dub on the schedule that's the purpose of these games it might teach you something but it doesn't teach you everything if this if this show is not called joyless Murder ball or whatever like if that's not the title of this episode then we are cowards joyless murder ball that's all go go ahead go ahead and sometimes you can find it a little bit of joy in the joyless murder ball when you see the the score bug go up 64 to nothing it's just o it's a nice little sense of nice little sense of dominance I think but uh talking about some lessons that we learned today I always say like I just said you can learn some things in week one but it's not everything we have a lot of football Cam Ward is going to be a top Heisman candidate left to play you know a lot of things can change throughout the course of a season but I am going to go ahead and already transport myself to December in New York City because I know that if I'm there cam Ward will also be there that's what I learned today cam Ward at Miami is a Heisman Trophy contender in full disclosure I talked about this last week I thought Miami was getting a little bit too much hype I wanted to see it from from cam Ward before I truly believed it and I know that you can say well you just called out Florida's defense for not being very good now you're all of a sudden going to say that cim Ward is a Heisman Trophy Contender but everything that everyone was selling me on what cam Ward could be at Miami we saw that on Saturday 385 yards and 26 passes three touchdowns one interception added some yards on the ground and the interception to me was the most telling thing of anything with Cam Ward threw the interception and then got right back out there on the on the next possession like nothing ever happened he wasn't rattled he wasn't overwhelmed Nick Sabin always talks about how what made Bryce young so great was the fact that he was a goldfish he can make a mistake in completely forget about it and be you know as cool Cal and collected as you were before I saw that from cam Ward we didn't see a whole lot of Cam War just in terms of Gody numbers with his legs but he was so smooth with his legs he reminded me a lot of Jaden Daniels just so slippery could find the small holes and could run just made it look so easy so I'm calling it now cam Ward's going to find himself in New York not only because of his ability but also because I think Miami could go undefeated the rest of the season they don't have anyone that really sticks out on their schedule to me f but that's the reason he can't make it to New York because there's not a signature WI left the only ranked opponent right now on the rest of their schedule is Florida State and Florida State may not be ranked by the time he gets there and unfortunately because the Heisman votes before we get to the playoffs I just I agree with you that he's going to put up big numbers but I just don't know how those big numbers translate if he's putting up big numbers against you know Nashville Auto Diesel College like it just 4 yards a game if for a quarterback from an undefeated potentially team like if we find ourselves in that position let's say Miami is 11- one and cam Ward is consistently putting up about four 400 yards and three touchdowns a game you cannot tell me that that guy isn't a Heisman Contender yeah I I I I wouldn't be surprised if if after this weekend cam Ward's a top two top three Heisman odds guy I mean Miami's gonna win the ACC after what we just saw and how cam W performed I I think I think we'll see cam W on the Heisman stage I think it's a great pick Caroline you know cam W you mentioned his legs the best part of his game to me from what we saw on Saturday was not not the Run game but just how he evaded pressure in the pocket only took one sack during that game which is incredibly impressive with all the pressure he was getting um how poised he was in the pocket you called him smooth I think that's a great great description just looks smooth and effortless back there and was able to evade pressure and has great feel in the pocket really that that feel being able to to just understand where guys are even if you can't see them with your eyes is what makes quarterback's really great and what what allows him to evade the pressure and evade sacks Kim ward has that my other favorite part of cam Ward is is just the intangible part he's everything you want in a quarterback and in a leader I watched his postgame press conference and he got he got asked about uh about how he's going to celebrate um you know the big win as as a finally Miami quarterback and he said I'm gonna I'm going to celebrate for 15 20 minutes with my teammates and I'll move on uh to next week like he's a dog and he's the guy that could have been a first round NFL draft pick decided to stay in college go to Miami and uh and help rebuild this program and I I I'm high on Miami right now and a big part is because cam W is their quarterback the one word you guys didn't use that I think also is important for Cam's play today was decisive he knew where he was going with the ball did a really nice job of of getting that ball in accurately even when if we as smooth as he was stepping up in the pocket it felt like his mechanics still stayed with him right he was able to deliver those footballs so well like I I really it was an incredibly impressive performance I would love to see him be on the Heisman stage I still will stand by especially I'm concerned about that offensive line throughout the course of the rest of the year is he just going to get absolutely hammered and then I'm concerned about the strength of schedule for Miami moving forward but you're right inevitably somebody from the ACC has to make the playoffs so why not them and after today which we'll we will get into it's almost like I guess somebody from the ACC has to get in okay fine we'll give you we will give you a playoff spot as as just a little bit of a treat um all right we'll take a quick break here but on the other side G to get into some college football Stock Exchange whose stock is rising whose stock is falling whose stock are we getting in on right now because it could be on a meteoric rise we'll get into all of that after just a quick break all right college football Stock Exchange whose stock is rising whose stock is falling Fitzy put Stock Up: Penn State your NASDAQ cap on get your dollars and cents out of your wallet get ready to invest whose stock are you buying I mean I'm usually investing in my betting apps and that hasn't gone particularly well so far all right here's what we can all agree on I'll go with a quick stock up on this because Caroline you broke it down earlier I know Adam you agree with this stock way up on Penn State for me it was about seeing a new offense for them pushing the ball down the field at him it was impressive to watch Drew all really cook in this and I walked away from it saying wow I think I might be underestimating Penn State yeah I mean this is the season for Penn State we talked about it on on our first episode of the show Penn State needs to make the college football playoff in 2024 there is no other there there's nothing else at stake for James Frankin he has to make the playoff and the first question for me was is the defense as a lead as was last year that's the first thing and the answer was yes defensive Line's great uh there's there's some insane speed on this defense Abdul Carter at at defensive end so check off the defensive box but what you just said Fitz the big question mark has been the offense can the offense get better and it clearly did the explosive plays were a huge issue last season James Franklin made a change at offensive coordinator BR in Andy cotal Nei from Kansas and this looked like a completely different much more confident offense at Penn State I mean Penn State scored touchdowns on four their first seven drives uh the Drew Aller was firing firing on all cylinders the one of the best parts was seeing Drew Aller early in that game miss a couple throws and then come back and be you know even more dialed in made a couple throws made a throw on a play action pass post rout on the middle of the field to Harrison Wallace that was right on his face mask I mean Drew Aller looked like the five-star quarterback the projected top 10 draft pick that everyone thinks he is he looked like that person and that's what I wanted to see Drew have that kind of swagger also Penn State's backup quarterback Bo Pula got to play some in that in that uh you know RPO Zone re game and got to give Aller a breather a couple times I thought pul looked really good this is an offense that I think has a chance to be one of the best in the country and the other position group that's been a question at Penn State has been the wide receiver room and Harrison Wallace Trey Wallace as they call him goes for 100 plus yards and two touchdowns uh answer answering that question at wide receiver and to cap it off West Virginia is a really good team they're going to win eight nine I think maybe 10 games uh this season in the Big 12 you look at their schedule that's a solid West Virginia team that Penn State really dominated from start to finish ended up being a what 6our game uh but with the with the with the lightning delay but Penn State proved that that they are a playoff caliber team and I don't really see when you look at their schedule how they don't make the playoff if their offense plays the way they did today the West Virginia Point's a really important one that I wanted to to drill in on here because I don't think this is an indictment of West Virginia and to do that on the road against the quality West Virginia team this wasn't taking on Ferman right to use the earlier example so I think I know they're getting trash today I mean we're F got paid look you guys can kick the snot out of me for a couple million dollars I I'll just lay down tears with a dollar bill thank you very much but I will that if I'm up on Penn State I'll give you a shocking down okay because I know that you guys will not agree with this but look my stock is way down on Iowa and I know they went out and they won big but here's the thing to me Stock Down: Iowa brenman you know this as well as anybody you can't just watch the box score you can't just look at the way it happened you got to watch the plays right Kade mcam was staggeringly inaccurate in this game he had wideopen guys that he wasn't even close to and some of their touchdowns came on incredible catches made in literally triple coverage if you're doing that against an awful opponent what are you going to do when you actually take on a good opponent I don't think what Iowa accomplished will translate when they're taking on a decent team because if you just watch the way they were playing the eye test as the committee likes to say above and beyond the score the it test showed me that Iowa's offense is still wildly out of sync Adam so I'm I'm I'm out I'm I'm selling Iowa right now I don't care about the score I care about the execution and the execution wasn't good enough I can't believe that Iowa scored 40 points and you're putting him on the stock down report I'm a tough I never thought that Iowa would score 40 points uh some anytime this decade uh I can't I mean I can't remember the last time they scored more than 21 points um someone have to fact check me on that but I I I think when you're Iowa and you have the kind of Defense they and you play the kind of style they play you don't need to score a lot of points but it's Illinois State it's Illinois State it's not even Illinois it's still 40 points it's not even it's still 40 points I think I think I I I I agree with you that K Kade mcnamer was not blowing anybody out of the water today but that's not he doesn't need to be he doesn't need to do that the the Iowa formula is to manage the game at quarterback to a bunch of the clock and play Elite defense all three of those things are still going to happen Kate mcnamar did all three of those things things today oh yeah and he threw for three touchdowns and they put up 40 points I three touchdowns were lucky you know if you were playing college football 25 and you that wrong button wrong button lucky touch Lu if you got a scream go- go gadget arms to get up between three different Defenders and bring the ball down like that's a lucky touchdown I'm just saying Caroline can you help me here can you help me with Fitz here 40 points for Iowa against Illinois State what are we doing 500 total yards of offense I don't know if Iowa had 500 total yards of offense all of last season in every single game combined no I I hear you Fitz that sometimes the numbers don't always tell the full story and that Iowa's offense was so miserable it has been for the past couple of Seasons that you're going to have to see a little bit more of it to believe it I get it I totally understand it but to Adam's Point look into the formula how Iowa wants to win football games they win football games by having a solid offensive line creating room in the Run game and by playing Elite defense it wasn't the passing numbers that stood out to me it was the rushing numbers that stood out to me almost 250 yards rushing if Iowa runs the ball that effectively and plays as good of Defense as we know Iowa can play like that is that's the formula right there all Kade M all Kade mcnamer has to do is not turn the football over but formula for what formula for what like if Iowa wants to be a playoff team then there's no like to my to me you're right the formula to to losing three or four games in being Iowa that frustrates everybody sure if that's the formula that's fine but running the ball against Illinois State doesn't impress me and I'll go back to one seam route everybody find it on YouTube there was a seam route where Kade memir had the guy wi open and instead of putting any air under the ball he throws it to the guy's feet it hit him be like it hit the defender in the feet it wasn't even close to being accurate like an eighth grader could have made a better throw there I I I'm I'm looking at this saying what are we doing like we're supposed to be you you got your coach suspended for a game because that's what they needed to get you in as a quarterback and you can't hit a wideopen guy in the seam route against Illinois State come on I'm selling we're having different conversations if we're going to talk about Iowa through the lens of are they a national championship Contender versus can they make some noise in the Big 10 and potentially you know slay some dragons and take down some giants like I am more so in that head space of Iowa can make things interesting and maybe Iowa football won't be like sticking needles in my eyes watching that offense National Championship contenders that's a completely different look at that that schedule is soft that schedule is charm and soft all they got to do like Iowa has a very real path to the Big 10 championship game by going through a charman schedule but I I still don't trust M hey I'm gonna be completely honest I when when Fitz said he was putting Iowa on stock down I thought he made a mistake and meant to put him on sock up after after this game I thought it was a mistake I mean 40 points for Iowa 500 yards of offense come on but then we're not going to credit Miss for putting 3,000 points up against Ferman all right you don't get a cookie for that but maybe Fitz is a very intelligent Financial mind selling the stock while it's high Buy Low sell High that's what they tell me um speaking of that are you buying or selling stock this week Adam uh I am selling the Stock Down: The ACC ACC just a brutal week one and we Z for the ACC Caroline I think I saw you tweeted is anyone in the ACC good uh the answer is is Miami is very good but no one else is um Florida state had had the bad loss in in week zero Clemson starts 0 and one with an ugly loss that we talked about uh Virginia Tech losing a game they should not lose to vanderbelt uh Vandy played really well but just a bad loss for the ACC there to the worst team in the SEC uh North Carolina barely hung on against Minnesota who's a bottom three big 10 team uh their quarterback Max Johnson was out for the year and and they still barely barely beat him NC State was on upset alert against Western Carolina the entire game on Thursday SMU had to score a last second touchdown at this 27 28 29o favorite uh ACC stock is plummeting and it is pretty clear now the ACC is four out of four in the power four conferences Big 12 is a better conference they're deeper and uh it's time to sell the ACC stock as fast as you can the only the only objection I have to your concept of selling it is who is dumb enough to buy it in the first place I'm just like that's all out on the ACC is a show theme at this point we got this yeah the ACC it's it's been a tough sedding over the last couple of weeks and that was the biggest conversation after Florida State lost to Georgia Tech of okay now who's the favorite Clemson emerged as the betting favorite okay Clemson looked horrendous against Georgia who's going to basically take up the softball and take the ACC it's a it's a very very fair point but in that same breath as I'm trashing on the ACC I'm still going to buy all the stock on a certain ACC quarterback and I'm going to buy the stock on maybe that entire team and really just an overarching conversation on college football in general I'm buying stock in the transfer portal yeah and hear me out here I'm talking about cam Ward we Stock Up: The transfer portal mentioned him earlier had an fantastic performance did everything that you could ask to do against Florida I look at Tyler Baron who transferred into Miami from well Tennessee to Louisville back to Tennessee back to Miami kind of transfer portal Inception there but he was fantastic he was all he was in gr mz's face all game long he had a sack and two tfls I look at Georgia's wide receivers the two receivers that found the end zone for the Bulldogs today London Humphrey a transfer from Vanderbilt and coleby young a transfer from Miami Adam you brought up quinan Judkins running back that transferred into Ohio State from ol Miss we saw what Riley Leonard quarterback at Notre Dame was able to do against Texas A&M a transfer from duke and I I understand that there are so many transfer portal players in college football that it's easy for me to cherry-pick really good performances from certain transfer portal players I get that there's probably several very mundane performances from transfer portal players today and throughout the rest of the season but the reason why I think that this is an appropriate conversation to have today was because we saw on full display dabos Sweeney's approach to the transfer portal really bite him in the face so stock up to the transfer portal and some of the performances that we saw from transfer portal players today yeah I I love that I love that take I I I think too the transfer portal and the opportunities it's given a lot of these players who needed kind of Second Chances in their careers I mean I think I think back to a guy played with in college like a will Levis who was at Penn State wasn't going to play at all transfers like Kentucky ends up being a top NFL draft pick now starting correct in the NFL like those stories don't happen if there's no transfer portal uh and just the opportunity for a guy like cam Ward who obviously we're talking a lot today that everyone here is high on to you know decide not to go to the NFL and stay in college football gives us more stuff to talk about a better product for college football fans and transfer into a premier program and become one of the biggest names in the country you think about a guy like a Dylan Gabriel who is at Oklahoma probably is going to get beat out by by the fivar quarterback they brought in and then you know gets a chance to go to Oregon you think about you know we mentioned Riley Leonard at Notre Dame who who his head coach leaves he gets to go to Notre Dame and play in a premier program the story is like the this is endless in college football yes there's bad in it yes some of the coaches don't like it yes it's tough to deal with when it comes to roster management but the trans portal overall has made the college football product in the game of game of college football much better for fans us as analysts and people who cover it for a living it's been fun to watch because of the portal anytime you can extend somebody's opportunity to play football knowing so many of the kids that play college football won't have the chance to play in the pros it's a beautiful thing I will also add we need to remember that one of the most important positions in an NFL organization and fans rarely think about this is the Pro Player scouting Department it's their job to make sure they know who's out there in the league that can fill holes as the season goes on I think what we're seeing right now from the usage of the transfer portal it's not just about getting guys it's about making sure that you have the right Scouts on your staff that are able to look around the college football landscape and figure out who in the trans portal fits what you're doing instead of burying your head in the sand and saying I don't want to take part in it you need to bring people onto your staff that are simply combing through footage of everybody to try and figure out here's a guy that can help us here's a guy that can help us because in an nil transfer portal world I think Carolina that becomes more and more important so I I I love the point by you it's it's brilliantly done and I think the transfer portal is one of the best things that's happened to college football no doubt and you could find so many examples of how the transfer portal may have hurt this board or may have hurt individual careers there are going to be examples of that one way or another whenever you have just the sheer numbers of players in the transfer portal uh but I think that we've seen it on full display that dav's approach it's not working it's setting the program back now will we see kind of the antithesis to that how will we see that play out Colorado Old Miss teams and and coaches that have had really aggressive approaches to the transfer portal will we see an opposite effect will we see going way too far on one side of the coin isn't a good thing that you need to find that happy medium I think that's going to be one of the fun lessons that we find out this college football season in terms of stock up stock up on the transfer portal Stock Up: Vanderbilt preseason over bettors stock up on a team that I would be remiss if I didn't mention as a proud nashvillian as someone who just lives at a hop and a skip away from this football stadium stock up to the Vanderbilt commodor and more so stock up to whoever took the over on vilt over under win total which was set at three and a half before the season started and looking at the rest of Vanderbilt schedule they got alorn State Ball State and Georgia state with one win on the on the schedule so far assuming that those are three games that Vanderbilt can win that's four right there and you're not even getting into SEC play Shout out to Vanderbilt took down uh Virginia Tech in overtime today dieo pavilla looks like the truth another transfer portal player that showed out today so shout out to all of those betters who plays money on Vanderbilt over under it's looking good it's looking good one game in you know what bu season's worst nightmare I I look I lived in Nashville for more than 20 years bull season worst nightmare is Vandy making a bowl because like there'll be six Vandy fans that are out there giving you the Vu fingers and screaming go doors like it's just that that's yeah it's like that's a nightmare for the Motor City Bowl when they're like great no tourism coming this time like good good on you Vandy it's a huge win I'm really impressed Clark Le congratulations Maybe the program is starting to turn around but as you you may remember Caroline I I lived in Nashville during the height of James Franklin and even during the height of James Franklin the smallest stadium in the SEC couldn't fill up and he used to sit there and he would do radio like when I was hosting radio he would come on our show and be like we need people to come out to the game like I I would love to care about Vandy I'll care about Vandy as soon as Vandy students care about Vandy that's all I'm saying Adam as soon as they care I'll care well it it's I think the fact that Vandy now has a signature win on the resume especially you know they I can't think of the last signature win Vanderbilt's hat uh Tennessee they beat Tennessee there were there were a few years ago that they beat Tennessee pretty regularly that was you to be fair that was like 10 years ago when they beat Tennessee but they beat Florida and Kentucky a couple years ago can can can I say in the Clark Le era of of vanderbelt the last signature win they had uh I think when now that they have that win maybe some of the Nashville people start paying attention Also let's remember Virginia Tech I mean I put Virginia Tech on my my top four playoff sleepers heading into this season I mean Virginia Tech's supposed to be one of the best rosters in college football some of the most Talent returning in the country on that Virginia Tech roster so uh and I think the most encouraging part about the vanderbelt win when you watch that game they were about 8 to 10 plays that vanderbelt had to make to win that game if they don't make one of those plays they lose if they make seven out of the eight it's a Virginia Tech wins that game and they made every single play uh pavilla made made huge plays with his legs uh getting the ball know uh vanderbelt got the ball back with what five minutes left down by seven points put that drive together to go tie the game I thought maybe they're going to go for two to try to win it but ended up kicking it taking it over time ended up being the right choice uh big win for the vanderbel program and and I I certainly hope that Fitz took took vanderbelt win total over uh but it sounds like he didn't by how he reacted no nobody ever takes vander's win I'll say I'm a I have a Vandy helmet hanging in a room in my house like like look I've gone to Vandy games for years and I you and you me the three of us this is the most Vanderbuilt conversation that's happened in Nashville in the last 15 years that's that is probably I'm just such a sucker for the underdog you know the nerdy kid that's sitting by himself in the cafeteria and all the bullies are saying you know give me your lunch money like I want to cheer for that guy that's what Vanderbilt is how how long is that Stadium going to take to finish have they've been renovating that thing for like three years now is that what's going on with that thing it's been a minute uh there are no longer cranes is holding up the scoreboard so that's progress and we will take we will take progress absolutely um week one in the books and if week one was any indication of what's to come for the rest of the college football season buckle up because we are in for a wild ride he is Adam brenaman he is Jason Fitz I am Caroline Fenton you can find him at Adam brenaman 881 you can find him at at Jason Fitz you can find me at Caroline Fenton one that's going to do it for us for the week one reaction edition of the college football Power Hour like rate review subscribe all of that great things appreciate you all for listening and for supporting the podcast tell a friend about us do all of the great things we are back here on Wednesday and of course every Sunday morning with a full reaction to all of the action on Saturday we might also have a fun little surprise Edition week one action is not over we've got LSU and USC in Vegas so check us out our full reaction wherever you get your podcast and on Yahoo sports YouTube for Adam for Fitz I'm Caroline we are out