Notre Dame vs. Texas A&M preview + Billy Napier’s future with the Gators | College Football Live

that's Riley Leonard who averaged over seven yards on scrambles over the last two seasons only last year's Heisman winner Jaden Daniels who do been referred to topped those numbers the defense that Elco inherits at A&M has been burned on scrambles the last two seasons allowing nearly nine yards per pop with Daniels doing a lot of that damage here's head coach Marcus Freeman on what he has seen from his new starting quarterback he's not afraid to run right he wants to run he wants the ball in his hand so um I think that's an added element to your offense uh I don't want to see our our quarterback running the ball every play and that's not our plan but to have the ability to have design quarterback runs or or truly read uh Defenders with a quarterback that can pull it um is something that's going to help our offense have success Riley Leonard is gritty he is tough what do you expect to see from him in this offense uh first of all just connecting the dots to this game is just nuts you know these two coaches face each other last year we were there at Duke for game day now different schools Riley Leonard was ELO's quarterback last year he's Marcus Freeman's quarterback this year it's awesome but regarding Leonard you know Dez you were on those Packers teams you always heard about Brett farre being too amped up before a game right and you got to home and call plays just to let him thow air it out a little bit exactly I think the temperament of Riley Leonard is really important so again the connecting of the dots going against a familiar guy in Elco how is he could to come out injured last year we didn't get the true Taste of him but knowing what he's up against the strength of Texas A&M is their defensive line and how is he going to adjust how many quarterback designed runs are there going to be how many times going to be get himself out of trouble with scrambling that's what I'm I I'm expecting from him to be really good at decisionmaking it's huge for him yeah I spoke to coach Freeman he said the reason they wanted to get him out of the portal because they knew that he could play in big games they said he's a fierce competitor and they love what he brings to an offense but it's not just about Riley Leonard he has some weapons now too he has a receiver named Chris Mitchell they got him out of FIU average 17 yards per catch he can blow a lid off of a defense and then Jeremiah Love He's listed as a running back but Jeremiah love is like a Swiss army knife he can do so many different things because of his versatility he's going to have to touch the ball tomorrow 15 to 18 times and on the other side of the ball Pete what are you expecting from Mike elco's defense I'm expecting a fun moment to start the game Mike Elco obviously worked here as the defensive coordinator he's never run out of the tunnel he would go right up to the booth so tomorrow night against Notre Dame runs out of the tunnel for the first time what will we see Jen well we're going to see a really solid sound defense his first year at Duke they inherited the worst defense in the country in Total Defense they improved by 70 places Texas s I'm had a pretty good defense last year but with that line Steve mentioned I think they're going to be Stout I think we're going to see a low-scoring game field goals special teams these are two defensive coordinators they're not going to call the game to throw the lid off's what's low scoring like 20 to 17 get in the 20s you think I think 20 points wins the game 20 I really do wow okay not like we saw from some of the teams last night that got blanked we'll talk about that as The Show Goes On You know I was talking to Folks at Notre Dame we talked about Riley Leonard one of the things he did to kind of ingratiate himself with his new team we talk about the transfer port on how you don't have a lot of time to get the Rapport that you need he made flashcards of every one of his teammates and studied it like you would study for the SAT or a test in high school so that just goes to show the effort that he put in to try to be the leader of this squad all right history might be on floor side when it hosts Miami tomorrow at the swamp the Gators have won 34 consecutive home openers that is the longest onfield streak in SEC history but back-to-back losing seasons have generated questions about Billy Napier's future in Gainesville so let's hear from Napier he said I'm not a fool part of leadership is you've got to have some self-awareness and you have to make tough decisions you have to make necessary changes we've done that I have a ton of confidence it is all part of the story Pete what more can you add about Napier and his job security there well to Billy Napier's credit Jen he has contractual self-awareness he signed a seven-year deal when he got the Florida job more than 50 million guaranteed if they were to have another Bad season Billy naer would likely be fired it's pretty clear he would be owed more than $26 million if he's fired on December 1st that would be the second biggest buyout in the history of college football the biggest yeah still paying for it right here and that was three times as much but $6 million to fire a coach is not something to sneeze at there's an interim president at Florida I don't think it's fate to compete for Billy neor and part of that was he knew what he had to rebuild and they prepared for it contractually let's take it to the field Steve what do you expect to see from Florida this week well first of all I love the way Napier's handled this off season with everything going on court cases and all anyone wants to do is talk about the schedule in all this you know chaos what they did do last year as they as they took their lumps they had a ton of freshman play they had freshman scor 14 touchdowns they had seven true freshman start games that's the most in the country so they're not they're not this bad of a team you know but again everybody just keeps talking about the schedule cam Jackson the D tackle up front is an absolute stud but again the way he has not addressed all this stuff off the court off the field and focused on his team and getting ready for this spot the swamp opening up your season against an instate rival I love the way they've gone into this and I expect a good game from them what about Miami Dez the the kanes believe they won the sweep Stakes they got Damen Martinez running back out of Oregon State and they got cam Ward Washington State's quarterback and cam Ward I tell you what guys he's a Difference Maker I spoke to some coaches last week over there at Miami that said Desmond first and foremost we wanted him because he's an alpha male not only does he make the offense better he makes the defense the whole team better secondly his ability to escape I mean this guy has a thick lower body excellent balance and he's always keeping his head up and his eyes down the field when he's scrambling Elite arm Talent he's the type of uh quarterback that they need in this offense one of the weapons for Miami will be featured tomorrow on college game day we've got the story of Cam McCormack who if that name sounds familiar it's because he's been around for a while guys he'll be taking off his nth season North Dakota State at Colorado this one a lot of folks tuning into see what those Buffalo would be able to do this season third and goal Colorado up four you probably heard the name Travis Hunter a lotous insane catch completely insan handling the coverage how does he catching the ball for the touchdown 3126 the final Desmond your biggest takeaway from the Thursday action well the the player we just saw Travis Hunter is a dude I mean the the level of play from him at two skill positions wide receiver and defensive back is just phenomenal and then the number of snaps I mean he has the stamina of a world class like marathon runner the all those sneps so that last catch though that we saw that's cool that's that's all right that's nice but the last one for the touchdown it's harder than any one-handed catch you'll ever see on any level so his concentration his ball skills his confidence he's just a dude man Pete what did you see Thursday night so I saw cam Rising back and I saw Utah's offense go from completely dysfunctional in the throw game to like looking like Oregon Chip Kelly in 2009 he threw 15 passes he completed 10 he had five touchdowns he was out by the end of the second quarter it was like jarring to see the UTS move the ball like that so look Utah had the number 86 passing offense in the country last year really held them back they played quarterback roulette if Cam Rising can be cam Rising again I think Utah is the prohibitive favorite in the Big 12 and I I goed the SEC we showed him earlier Missouri a lot of guys lost on defense but talking to Eli dwit his two words this year our air superiority and you saw that last night I I love what they bring to the table it's almost like they don't care about defense he knows he's got studs on offense and he's going to feed those guys they lost that defensive coordinator to to LSU that's a big loss for them I've got some air superiority happening my my backside here I don't know about you guys I got some air superiority happening on the back side here combating these 90° temperatures here so the Georgia running back situation is going to be the most fascinating thing to watch as we go into the Clemson game on Saturday they are expected to be without star back Trevor ATN Rod Robinson his expected backup is out with an injury so this means we're going to see a lot of Branson Robinson and a lot of true freshman Nate Frasier he's from Los Angeles he's been the buzz of Camp look for number three to give them some explosion tomorrow and speaking of those dogs it is time for our goodye road test the road to the college football playoff begins and ends at mercedesbenz Stadium Clemson taking on Georgia in the afflac kick off game tomorrow that's at noon Eastern on ABC then we'll be right back there on January 20th oh yeah right back it's going to go so fast for the cfp national championship Dez this is an ACC Goliath in Clemson and SEC Goliath in Georgia what will you be watching for in that matchup well look at Clemson's offense right you know Kade kumnick you know he was up and down a year ago now they went out and got him some wide outs they brought in two five-star freshman wide outs one name is Bryant Wesco he's about 6' 2 170 lbs can run like the win and then you have TJ Moore 6'3 190 you put them on on the field with Antonio Williams you got something special and they still got pH mafa 6'1 230lb running back so I want to see this offense now with all this new Talent around Kade kutnick that's what I look at too with mafa and that identity they established when he was in the game last year you know clubm didn't have the experience he got as as the season went on and Shipley they moved him around all over the place didn't have an identity when mafa was in the game the offensive line knew he was getting the ball and there was a mindset the guy is a punishing Runner I expect him to get the ball a bunch of times and we haven't even mentioned Georgia but Clemson needs a jump start to this game they have to start fast if they want to be in this game because we know what Georgia brings to the table with Carson Beck in that offense so I'm going to double down on what Desmond said about the receivers I think that unit has been Clemson's weakest link as they've gone from Elite to just very good so I want to see that whole unit Antonio Williams back from in wco coming in as AAR do they have Mike Williams do they have these they had freak shows at that position they had theit in the country and they had mediocre ACC units they need that unit elevated I think they have the best pieces they've had in the last few years excited to see them against that Georgia secondary a great test George is excited too some fres meat out there the perimeter and that's what I'm wondering guys how much of a chip on their shoulder does Georgia have after what happened last year with them being on the outside looking in I mean just look at who their head coaches he wakes up with it so yeah it's there's I mean Clemson's got to love being the underdog and playing that role you know they don't get to do him often but georg's got plenty to prove as you know they lost out of the playoff you know beat Florida State didn't get any credit for it they're they got to be jacked up for this one ESPN fpi has Georgia with an 82.4% chance to win that game so probably going to go Kirby Smart's way work a lot cting down a good times staring down the CL BR some Hallelujah