00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid. Get ready for the college football playoffs. How do we do that? We bring in Bill Bender from Sporting News to preview tonight's big game and then tomorrow's and actually Bill Bowl season is underway. I think, you know, to be fair, I think that this bowl season in particular more than any other that I can remember really flying under the radar, unfortunately, even for these lesser games as well, because so many people are fixated on Saturday. So I'm hopeful that the other bowl games will get some attention when these guys take the week off next week. But for now,
00:30we're going to play to that hit. Got to do it. Friday night football, Alabama and Oklahoma at Norman. The Sooners are trying to beat the Crimson Tide twice in a single season, which doesn't happen very often. The total is 40 and a half. Neither team playing particularly well on offense. It was Oklahoma's defense the first time that stopped Alabama. Do they have them in them a second time? I feel like Bill, in my opinion, the coach that comes out of this is going to look real good because they're going to say that that coach either beat the same team
00:59twice or made the adjustments. And then the opposing coach, I think is going to be a little heat after the loser is tonight. I don't know who that's going to be. The focus is going to be entirely on Kalen DeBoer either way, because if they win, they go to the Rose Bowl. And that means they made those adjustments that you just talked about. They turned it over three times last time they played the Sooners. They have not been able to run the football in either one of those losses the last two years. And of course, if they lose, the Michigan question is coming back.
01:29They have a conversation with the Wolverines. You know, one thing to keep in mind with this game from a trend perspective is Kalen DeBoer is six and four straight up in true road games with Alabama. Can they actually go on the road in a hostile environment that ought to be special and win the game? I have them winning the game. This line has flip-flopped a lot in the last two weeks. I do think Alabama, with everybody telling them they don't belong, pull out a gutsy kind of 21-17 type victory tonight.
01:5623-21 first time around. Three turnovers committed all by Alabama. That was really the difference in the game. If you assume they don't turn the ball over three times in that game, they probably do take care of business against John Mateer and company. We'll see what happens tonight. Talk about another line change, Bill. Texas A&M went from five and a half to five. And now they're all the way down to three and a half against the University of Miami tomorrow afternoon. The total is 48 and a half in this one.
02:24Texas A&M schedule among all SEC teams, perhaps not the strongest. You could poke holes at them. You could look at Miami and say there's a team in the college football playoff that lost games, particularly to SMU, which never should happen, playing for a college football playoff or national championship. So you could find fault with both teams, but you would also say that both teams could give other teams trouble even if they win this game tonight. Who wins in College Station tomorrow?
02:51I like Texas A&M to win the game, but I kind of like Miami to cover. And that's a hedge of sorts because it really comes down to the quarterbacks here. Marcel Reed, he only took 10 sacks this season, but he also threw 10 interceptions. So can that Miami pass rush land with all Americans, Reuben Bain and Akeem Mesidor? He made our second team at Sporting News, by the way.
03:11And then on the other end is Carson Beck, ready to play in this environment. He gets his chance. He had 10 touchdowns, one interception since that SMU loss, which was a disastrous game for Miami.
03:23But I kind of like them to hang around here in this game. If they can handle that Kyle Field environment on the road, which I think they will. Feels like a field goal game either way.
03:33I'm giving Texas A&M the advantage at home. I don't love it because I think this will be the tightest and most entertaining game of the weekend.
03:41Yeah, Carson Beck, great regular season, albeit in those losses really struggled. And that's a good point by you, Bill. 25 touchdowns during the regular season, but also did have 10 interceptions.
03:52And remember, college football teams generally not playing 18 games in a season. So the 10 number is a lot, a lot in the losses too.
03:58All right, so now we get to a game here where, you know, this is where college football has their little problem here.
04:05There are several teams in the playoff, naturally, that are double-digit favorites and not just double-digit, but almost three touchdown favorites when we're going to get to the Oregon game.
04:13But this one in Tulane is the Summerall finale here, potentially. They're getting 17 and a half against Ole Miss.
04:20The Rebels should be very fired up, I would imagine, for this game, knowing that this is their best chance that they're probably going to have maybe ever, Bill, to win a national championship.
04:31They're sixth in the country, laying 17 and a half and a total of 56 and a half.
04:37You know, the Gators hired John Summerall for a reason. I'm certainly hopeful that for his team, maybe they don't win, but they go out with a bang here.
04:44You talked about adjustments. Well, they're going to have to adjust from the last meeting when they lost 45 to 10.
04:50Jake Retzlaff incompleted his first nine passes in that game. So can they attack Ole Miss a little bit differently?
04:56And then, of course, on the other side, what does Ole Miss look like without Lane?
05:00I don't know how to measure that. I don't. Not having him on the sideline, will it matter? Will it not matter?
05:06How does Pete Golding do with the play calling?
05:09I think you keep it simple with Kewan Lacy and Trinidad Chambliss. They had huge games on the ground the last time against Tulane.
05:16That said, I think Tulane hangs around a little bit longer this time.
05:20You know, they got outscored 23 to 3 in the first half. Can they make it a little tighter, make it a two, you know, a four-quarter type game?
05:26Probably not, but that number still looks a little high with Lane Kiffin not being there.
05:31I'm going to take the green wave to cover.
05:33Meanwhile, we have James Madison tonight, or tomorrow night, excuse me, taking on Oregon.
05:38Boy, did this team get the short end of the stick. I believe it's the 7.30 p.m. Eastern game up against the NFL.
05:45I mean, the Ducks are 20-and-a-half-point favorites, Bill, and they opened up sort of around this, too.
05:52Dante Moore's been fantastic for them. James Madison has been a surprise team this season,
05:57and I like the fact that the David and Goliath matchup happens in the college football playoff,
06:01but if last year's history tells us anything, JMU doesn't have much of a shot tomorrow night.
06:06I hope they hang around for college football's sake. I don't think it'll be an easy path to do that,
06:12not against that Oregon offensive and defensive front, and not if they can't get a running game
06:16going against the Ducks early because it could spiral out of control. They're not just going up
06:21against the NFL. They're going up against Packers Bears, right? So they have to give us an excuse
06:27to hang around for four quarters. I'm not sure they will. I'm not looking forward to the social media
06:32reaction if Oregon blows them out. I've got it at 38-10 Ducks, and I think Oregon barrels toward that
06:39Texas Tech matchup, which, if the games happen as we think we're going to happen, we'll forget about
06:45the first round because we're going to have an awesome, awesome quarterfinal round.
06:49So ironically, Ohio State favored to win the national championship at the beginning of the season,
06:53and that's who Bill liked at the beginning of the season. The odds were about 4-1. Now they're about 2-1.
06:58You can pivot if you want here, Bill, as we wrap up before the playoff start. We have 30 seconds,
07:03or you could just give me another team you think that has a shot.
07:06I'm going to take the Ohio State-Georgia winner in the semifinals. Right now I have Georgia,
07:10but I could absolutely see Ohio State winning. They've only given up 16 points or less in every
07:14game. Hard to bet against that. All right, we'll follow up on that next week. Thanks,
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