MASSIVE Upset STUNS Notre Dame! Will The Irish MISS The Playoff? | OutKick The Show w/ Clay Travis

Welcome welcome in to outkick the show I am your fearless leader clay Travis I hope all of you are having fantastic Mondays wherever you may be across this great nation I am happy on the one hand because I have Nico Amala whose name I just uh mispronounced but that's why I call him Nico on my team and I believe the University of Tennessee is headed to the college football playoff on the other hand I've got will Levis as the back of my NFL team and I think we are headed for a top five pick all that and more let's Dive Right In as we always do let me give you a little road map of where outkick is going all college football season almost exclusively Monday is going to be a reaction to what happened in football show that is whatever happened in the world of college football and the NFL we will talk about on this show on Mondays occasionally if there is just absolutely monster election news between now and November we may talk the election a bit but almost exclusively I'm going to talk college football and the NFL on this show also every Thursday we're going to do the fade with Kelly Stewart which will be a gambling exclusively focused show so I do know some of you are out there and you are like man I hate current events I have no interest in politics all I care about is college football and the NFL it is my escape from the serious things in my life if you are in that camp I totally get it I understand every Monday and Thursday I pledge to you you will get a half hour or so of straight football on Monday and on Thursday straight gambling that's all you're going to get but if you're out there and you're watching me right now and you're like I don't care at all about football clay you the nation as at stake why do I care who wins a stupid college football game or an NFL game all I care about is the election we will have plenty of election stuff all throughout this fall as well including Tuesday the minute the debate between kamla Harris and Donald Trump ends I will be live with all of you right here the same place that you are watching this YouTube Facebook Twitter uh I don't know uh do we have the ability to go live on Instagram and on uh on Tik Tok I'm not I can't keep up with all the different platforms we're on now but you will be able to watch me react 100% live I will have my handy uh yellow legal pad that I will be working on all throughout the course of Tuesday's debate I will come and break down for you everything going on in the world of Politics the minute that the debate is over but with all that in mind let me go ahead and dive straight into the college football weekend that was I want to remind you as well I am doing my starting 11 column as I always will and always have for the last decade plus it will be up unless there's some sort of travel mess it will be up every single Sunday for all of you to be able to check out I get up early in the morning on Sunday or I stay up late on Saturday night cranking out thousands of words analyzing what we saw in college football so you can go read my analysis of college football as well uh but I want to start right here with NIU Stuns Notre Dame the biggest shocking result of the college football season so far Northern Illinois pulls off the road upset at Notre Dame a week after Notre Dame went on the road and one what we thought was a huge win that might well propel them into the playoffs in College Station what happened well this wasn't a fluke NIU was the better team they outgained Notre Dame by roughly a 100 yards uh you had Notre Dame transfer quarterback Riley Leonard throwing two different uh interceptions uh that were both pretty awful threw for less than 150 yards and I think at this point you have to start to question whether this is going to be a trend with Marcus Freeman he's recruited well this is back-to-back years he has brought in a transfer quarterback who was well established from the ACC last year they went from uh Wake Forest Sam Hartman to Notre Dame this year they go Riley Leonard from uh from uh Duke to go and play at Notre Dame I would say neither one of those transfer quarterbacks have really played at an incredibly Elite level and this is the kind of alarming loss that sets off all sorts of questions 28 and a half Point home favorite this wasn't some sort of flukish unbelievable outcome where you end up with a couple of uh a couple of kind of crazy outcomes uh this wasn't some sort you know where you get a punt return I'll talk about that in the Titans game for instance against the Bears wasn't something where you get a punt return touchdown kick return touchdown couple of pick sixes Northern Illinois lined up against Notre Dame all day long and they were the better team I give tremendous credit to Notre Dame to their head coach this is why in many ways we watch college football as I watched the interview uh after the game I'm not going to lie it may have gotten a little bit Dusty in my home as uh as I watched that interview of Thomas hammock the head coach who had previously played running back for NIU as he exalted in that win I want to implore we got a lot of sports media people who watch our Clips who watch our shows I don't know how many of you had the same complaint that I did as you watch that incredible post game interview of uh Thomas hammock the head coach of NIU don't cut away from the profundity of the interview in front of you they cut away a couple of different times they should fire the producer who made that call to show some random Notre Dame players on the field to show some random NIU players on the field the Cutaway to show the uh sort of experience the Ambi of the moment is sometimes appropriate not when you have one of the most compelling coach interviews on the field that we're going to have all season I just thought it was a failure not to stay focused on him as he was breaking down and crying this is why I love college football this is a guy who's put his heart and soul into coaching at his Alma Moder and he just pulled off the biggest win in the history of NIU football and every American was out there rooting for him unless you happen to be in a Notre Dame fan down the stretch I don't know how many of you have noticed this I watch a ton of college football I watch basically 14 hours of college football all day long there are a lot of play reviews where it seems to me the wrong decision has been made and they don't overturn it now the final kick that Notre Dame attempted ended up getting blocked but NIU got a first down on that third down run I don't understand how they went back and looked at it and said hey we've looked at this and uh and we're going to stick with the ruling on the field that he didn't get a first down I thought that was wrong I'll give you another example Oklahoma Houston late that wasn't a safety uh you could clearly tell that the running back got out of the end zone I don't understand what they're seeing on these instant replays it appears to me that they are getting a lot wrong also and I haven't seen it explained they didn't restart the clock appropriately after the instant replay review which meant Notre Dame at least based on the way we were told on air appeared to still have an extra timeout left it felt like Notre Dame was getting some home cooking advantages now NIU wins a lot of people are already saying okay what does this mean for Notre Dame's playoff chances I'll confess to you this is something I already got wrong I looked at Notre Dame's schedule and I said there's no way they're going to lose two games on this schedule barring tremendous upsets I just didn't see it I think Notre Dame's out of the playoff now I don't think based on the performance we saw from Notre Dame in week two that this team is going to win the next 10 games on their schedule which is what would be required I think Notre Dame's goingon to lose I think the Fighting Irish Marcus Freeman not making the college football postseason I'm flip-flopping on this completely based on last year to this year I don't think they're going to make it I don't think they're going to be a playoff team uh I think Notre Dame went from Penthouse to ouse as we often see happen in college football props to NIU most unexpected biggest upset of the year so far in college football we're early but I would question whether anybody's going to pull off a bigger upset all season long uh The Top 4 Games biggest win uh of the season so far in terms of a dominant Road neutral performance butt kicking was Texas over Michigan Quinn ERS moved in the pocket phenomenally well early in this game the only time they got stopped was on a holding call that negated a touchdown followed by a missed field goal I think there are two big takeaways from this game one Texas to me is the best team in college football through two weeks if you value on field performance they went on the road against Michigan and they didn't just win they thoroughly dominated the Wolverines on both sides of the ball at both points of line line of scrimmage Quinn ERS was masterful the play calling was phenomenal Michigan didn't look like a top 25 team and Texas looked like the best team in college football this felt like two ships passing in the night I don't want to pick on him but Michigan doesn't have a very good quarterback and I said to me ultimately what you're being asked is do you have a quarterback that can win multiple games in the postseason Davis Warren's not the guy we'll see what happens with Chiron Moore going forward but right now first year head coach at Michigan this feels like an 8-4 caliber Michigan team and if Ryan Day can't win in Columbus against this Michigan team he ain't ever beating him but I think you would have to make based on how Oregon's played based on how uh Michigan looks I think you have to make Ohio State a precipitous favorite right now in the Big 10 even Penn State and I'll talk about that a little bit was very fortunate to get past Bowling Green uh I'll come back and break that one down but Texas completely obliterates Michigan game wasn't very close Texas my number one team in college football I'll come back with the out KCK top 10 shortly Tennessee there was only two top 25 matchups that is both teams in the top 25 this past weekend Tennessee beat NC State 51-10 to me the biggest storyline of the Tennessee season not actually nicoo so far it's the defense that defensive line hounded NC State NC State got three first downs on the first drive on third down they went 0 for 12 on third down after that and 0 for two on fourth down both of which were relatively short runs Tennessee held them below 150 total yards only TouchDown for NC State came on a hit hit elbow as Nico was throwing that they turned into a pick six this was absolute destruction of Tennessee by NC State Vegas told us coming into this game it was my blood bank guarantee so we had a winning week in college football gambling Blood Bank guarantee hit I thought Tennessee would win comfortably Vegas before the season started said that NC State was going to be the fourth toughest game for Tennessee if that's true in two weeks Tennessee is going on the road against Oklahoma I told you before the season started if Tennessee could go two and two in NC State Oklahoma Alabama and Georgia I felt good about Tennessee going 10-2 overall and advancing to the college football playoff I feel like Tennessee is going to at least beat one of Oklahoma uh Georgia or Alabama if the vs do Arkansas might be tough somebody else might throw a bit of a challenge out there but if I'm right then Tennessee is going to be a postseason team what do I think about Nico lot of questions about Nico he's been surging up the Heisman Trophy board the best analogy for what Nico can be to me if Tennessee is going to be a championship caliber team either in the secc or the playoff is can Nico be Tennessee's Cam Newton what do I mean by that analogy if you go back and you watch as I did all of Auburn's 2010 games and you think about what you saw during that National Championship Perfect Season the Cam Newton that started the season for Auburn got impressively better by the end of the year and the Cam Newton that went on the road and brought Alabama sorry Auburn back from a 24 to nothing Road deficit in Bryant Denny Stadium one of the most impressive wins out there imaginable was a very different quarterback than the one who started the season cam got progressively better with a great at the time offensive mind in Gus malan leading the way this this is why Gus Milan ended up Auburn's head coach because even though Jean chisik was the head coach there over the course of the season the growth of Cam Newton convinced Auburn fans that Gus malan could do the same with other quarterbacks and later he nearly did it right Auburn nearly won a national championship a few years later with Gus malan uh going up against jamus Winston in Florida State my point on breaking all of this and kind of analyzing it from a larger perspective is Tennessee's defense is the best it may have been in 20 years and I believe the best freshman quarterback to play for Tennessee since pton Manning is Nico if they can keep him healthy and if they can evolve him with Josh hyle then I think Nico can be Cam Newton and the analogy I made in pop culture was Nico feels to me like Neo was in the first Matrix that came out in 1999 do you remember this uh the clip where and maybe we can clip this for the short version guys and include it do you remember the clip where everybody comes running in and they're like Neo knows Kung Fu now and he's just they're constantly inputting new data for him in the Matrix I feel like Josh hyp is Morpheus and Nico is Neo and if they can keep him healthy they have the ability to completely remake um uh the Tennessee offense on the fly during the season I also think they're saving to a large degree Nico running the football and converting on some third and fourth Downs for the big games where he's going to have to take big hits whether it's Oklahoma Alabama uh Georgia and uh and and potentially out there um uh we'll see maybe Arkansas on the road one of these other games that ends up close that you maybe don't anticipate I think they're going to try to limit Nico's hits during the regular season because he's not a huge guy but you saw in the NC State game a couple of times they called his number in the Run game I think they're going to be doing that more going forward other big win congrats to Corn Husker fans Nebraska takes down Colorado and they did so in a really really beat Downes fashion came out got up 28 nothing and I mentioned this in the starting 11 but I do think there's a storyline to pay attention to here it's Matt Ry Matt Ryan Matt rule at Nebraska and how he's kind of stayed under the radar hasn't drawn a lot of attention to himself compared to Dion Sanders at Colorado last year Nebraska went on the road about this time in the year lost at Colorado Dion was the the straw that stirs the drink every body was paying attention to him this year Colorado goes on the road at Nebraska and the game's never particularly close Nebraska came out and handed it to them Nebraska now in the top 25 at the bottom of the top 25 Colorado is floundering Trey uh Wallace was out covering this game in Nebraska saw that shador Sanders left the field with two minutes left to me the analogy I made in the starting 11 is it's felt to me like Colorado is a team trying to drive full speed with a flat tire and at some point in time that flat tire gets to the rim and things really come unraveled in a hurry to me that's Colorado this year I'm not sure that they're going to improve on last year's uh uh overall record it would not stun me if they lost to Colorado State this weekend I think Dion does not have the horses he needs on the offensive and defensive lines I think shador Sanders is about himself I think that you are unlikely to see uh a Colorado team that looks much better this year than last year and the real question is going to be how much commitment is Dion going to show to Colorado once shador and Shiloh his sons are no longer on this team and once Travis Hunter is gone as well ominous lights flashing if you are a Colorado Buffalo fan because Dion has not gone out and recruited he has not gone out and tried to build this roster by putting in the time to bring in four and five-star athletes he's basically gone into the transfer portal every uh off seon trying to get a quick fix and I don't think it's working out so far and it feels to me like Colorado is becoming unraveled okay those are what I would say the four biggest games in the world of college football that stood out to me in general as we break everything down having uh to go there now what did I see elsewhere More On College Football another big game that I did not anticipate I mentioned NIU taking it to Notre aim maybe the most shocking result that I saw that I did not anticipate in a conference matchup South Carolina went on the road and absolutely dominated against Kentucky 31-6 every time Kentucky dropped back to pass it was like they didn't have an offensive line at all just a blitz C rush to the quarterback situation um I'm not sure that I've seen blocking that bad in the passing game in a very very long time credit to South Carolina they got a lot of young Playmakers on the defensive line it appears to me but I'm not sure Mark Stoops has much juice left in uh in Kentucky he flirted with Texas A&M in the off season ended up coming back there have been a lot of discussion points about whether or not uh Kentucky is committed where they need to be in the nil but the performance they put forward uh against South Carolina is one that to me again to me looks like they may not win more than one sec game if that all season long so South Carolina Credit to you guys to get to 2 and 0 after not looking very good in week one against Old Dominion uh the Gamecocks especially on the defensive line looked fantastic to get the road win against Kentucky but my goodness what in the world is going on if you look at what happened uh in that performance you got to be concerned now other game that has out I mentioned Oregon Oregon doesn't look like a top 25 team so far they were very fortunate to beat Boise State 3734 after a lot of us went to bed they were very fortunate to meet Ida beat Idaho in week one after a lot of us were going to bed I'm going to dive into the AP poll here in a moment but to me there is no way to justify uh pudding uh in any way Oregon even in the top 25 to say nothing of the top 10 also Auburn five turnovers losing at home to Cal given how tough your schedule is that was a really tough performance Alabama Penn State I'm going to keep saying it I've been saying it for some time in a 12 team playoff it's like the NCAA tournament your team is not going to be great sometimes you just have to survive and Advance against inferior competition Alabama did it against South Florida Penn State did it against Bowling Green guess what Notre Dame would have loved to have survived and advanced in some way against Northern Illinois they could not do it um all The OK Top 10 & SEC Power Rankings right let's go into the outkick top 10 a reminder we are going to be doing a top 12 for the playoff lots of different voters it's going to debut soon that will be everybody weighing in with what we think the 12 best teams in college football are if college football were going to be selecting their playoff after every single week's action I do an outkick top 10 every single Sunday what I do with that top 10 is try to reward onfield results over actual expectations that is I do something somewhat radical I actually just judge teams based on their on field performance with that in mind my top 10 I give a lot of value to Road neutral wins against Power conference opponents therefore the best win to me all season long so far Texas on the road over Michigan I've got Texas as my number one overall team in college football in my outkick top 10 Georgia has the second best win with what they did to Clint in week one neutral sight Atlanta Georgia performance I have got the Bulldogs as my number two team third best win to me Miami on the road against a Florida team they may or may not be very good the Gators but to put up the Beatdown 24-point win Miami had over Florida on the road I've got the Hurricanes as my number three team in the four spot how about southern cal uh with their win over LSU even though LSU didn't look very good against Nicholls State uh still SC getting the neutral site win Allegiance stadium in Las Vegas over uh LSU I've got the Trojans number four overall number five Tennessee neutral sight beat down over NC State a top 25 team 51-10 the game was never close after the will Brooks 85 yard interception return I got Tennessee as my top uh as my fifth best team five best wins Road neutral site power five Conference teams Texas 1 Georgia 2 Miami 3 USC 4 Tennessee five all right Northern Illinois on the road against Notre Dame I've got northern northern Illinois right now as the number six out kick top 10 seven Iowa State credit for uh what Iowa state was able to pull off the Cyclones in the S Hawk trophy game came back to beat Iowa in a huge rivalry game in that state I've got Iowa number seven eighth spot they're two and0 undefeated in the SEC I don't think they're actually a top 10 team but Vanderbilt's win over Virginia Tech one of the best power comp wins so far I've got the Vanderbilt commodor at eight Nebraska big win over Colorado I've got them at nine uh and I screwed up I've got Northern Illinois in here twice somebody should have caught that in the editing we're going to have to go back and fix it uh as I'm reading from it right now um I would probably say sliding into the 10 spot Illinois would be the next team up to me Illinois got a big win over Kansas uh Brett bel's Illinois team I probably would slide in at number 10 overall uh SEC Power Rankings you just heard the top of the list Texas Georgia Tennessee then I've got Vanderbilt miss two low conference opponent teams big win over MTSU Missouri again not really challenged they play Boston College this weekend Alabama Tide got a little bit hot late against South Florida but not very good earlier um I've got uh South Carolina at 8 big road win over Kentucky I would have had them higher but they really didn't look very good at home against Old Dominion in the first week Oklahoma at nine didn't look great against Houston offense has kind of vanished we'll see how they do I believe they play two lane this week and then Tennessee next week uh lsu1 this is the start of the teams that have already lost a game and M 11 Arkansas 12 Razorbacks had that game in control choked it away on the road against Oklahoma State Oklahoma state would also be a borderline top 10 team but they won that game against I don't think Arkansas is going to be very good even with Bobby patrino 350 plus yards uh they lost that one in double overtime both teams missed field goals in the first overtime by the way Florida Gators 13 uh new quarterback Back DJ lagway came in and played well against Samford but I don't think the Gators are very good we'll see what happens I believe they play Texas A&M this weekend uh Mississippi State 14 lost against uh Arizona State 15 spot I got Auburn tough lost to Cal and in the 16 spot Kentucky losing 31-6 not an ideal performance from uh the Wildcats uh we will uh continue to uh to break all that down now I said I'm Will Levis Blows It going to do a lot of NFL you know what I'm going to push a bunch of my NFL analysis to tomorrow but if we can just clip this guys will Levis if we can share it the game was on Fox I think we can through the single worst interception that I have seen a quarterback throw maybe in Forever particularly when you consider his team was winning and that pick six basically decided the game the other way um I have said this for some time you go back and look I would love to be wrong because I'm a season ticket holder I watched will Levis play at Kentucky every game that mattered during his two-year career there he couldn't start and beat out Shawn Clifford at Penn State he's inconsistent and always has been he doesn't see the field well every game will Levis will make a couple of plays that you look at at and you say wow he's got such a big arm he has a lot of potential and some people are going to point they're going to say well there was a block punt that is truly indefensible will Levis had nothing to do with it but what I would point to is in that game against the Bears the Bears had under 150 yards of offense Titans had a 17 to nothing po uh lead didn't ever allow an offensive touchdown in the time that that has happened I think I flagged this it's virtually unheard of uh to have this happen let me grab the data point teams trailing by two or more scores at halftime who failed to score an offensive touchdown all game had been 2 and 306 since 2000 so in nearly 25 years of football the Bears get the win this is from Bill Barnwell to make it three and 306 will Levis made that happened and again we'll clip that awful interception for those of you who didn't see it but what I would point to is a lot of people are going to point to uh the blocked punt that the Titans gave up on the play prior to that Calvin Ridley got wide open on a deep ball will Levis air mailed it out of bounds if he hits him in stride the game's over the Titans are up 24-3 will Levis supposed to have a big arm and be able to stretch the field he missed his primary big- time Target receiver cuz DeAndre Hopkins was not healthy on two deep balls and on both of those deep balls uh he was not very accurate at all but the second one they had him wide open Callahan had schemed it Ridley ran the route he was wide open streaking down the field and will Levis airmed out of bounds if he just under throws it he probably gets a pass interference call even if he throws an interception that's better than what ended up happening with the block punt will Levis had an opportunity Midway through the third quarter to basically end that game give the Titans a three touchdown lead and he failed got hit and fumbled through the awful interception through an interception as I predicted he would to end the game we'll react to the NFL slate on top because there's so many games that happen uh I'm sorry Brown's fans I got a bunch of takes on DeShaun Watson but we'll wait till we see what happens 49ers going up against the Jets this uh final game Monday night football tonight I'll be watching I'm also going to see Matt walshes am I racist uh to see that game Premiere all that uh discussion and more on the NFL tomorrow I am Klay Travis dbap unless you need to sbap I will see all you guys tomorrow