2022 Episode 4

This week's edition of "Both Sides of the Coin" discusses the unpredictable nature of college football this year. The top teams have been struggling, leading to uncertainty about the playoff picture. Tennessee's loss to South Carolina is a surprise, as is Michigan's close call against Illinois. USC and Oregon survive tough games in the Pac-12. The Heisman race is affected by North Carolina's loss to Georgia Tech. The hosts also share their top six rankings, with Georgia, Ohio State, TCU, Michigan, LSU, and Alabama making the cut. Conference championship outlooks are discussed, including matchups between Georgia and LSU, Clemson and North Carolina, and TCU with either Kansas State or Texas. All right, welcome to this week's edition of both sides of the coin. This is Denny Carter joined again with Scott Perry after a crazy, crazy week of college football. I think the first thing to ask Scott, is everyone in college football bad this year? I personally think that three of the four playoff teams from last year could beat any team in the country this year. This has just been a really a year of parody, which a lot of people are actually wanting to see a season like this where you just don't know who the best team is, you don't know who is going to win the playoffs. Yeah, I think people have often said we're tired of seeing the same four teams. I think this year might be the year for them. This feels a lot like 2007, if you happen to remember that year, where anyone could lose to anyone and it didn't matter who you were, it didn't matter what your ranking was, you were in danger no matter where you played and who you were playing. We saw that this week, all four top teams struggled this week. Georgia only beat Kentucky by 10 and only scored 16 points. Ohio State was on the ropes versus Maryland. Michigan almost lost Illinois and TCU almost lost to Baylor. Again I would just like to ask, we don't know who the top four teams are and it's becoming less and less clear. We haven't even talked about Tennessee yet because Tennessee was almost a shoe in for the playoff. All they needed to do was beat South Carolina and Vanderbilt and if you had asked me that two weeks ago, can Tennessee beat South Carolina and Vanderbilt, I was like, is this a trick question? But Scott, what happened in that game? I don't know. I mean, Spencer Rattler, with the question mark of who's going to win the Heisman, Spencer Rattler thought he had a legitimate chance apparently and said, hey, I want to show out. Maybe he slips into the top 15. He played like a Heisman quarterback against Tennessee, although Tennessee's defense is just so bad. I think it says a lot about maybe Tennessee's opponents and what they've been able to do to them and how much South Carolina was able to move the ball. I think a lot of it has to do with the atmosphere. Williams-Price is a tough place to play at night, especially if you're a highly ranked opponent walking in there at night. I mean, that's a tough place to play. It's one of the hardest venues in college football in that specific situation to play at, but Tennessee did not fulfill their end of the bargain and they're going to pay the price for it. I will say I hate it for Hendon Hooker. He is done for the season. He was a very fun player to watch and I'm definitely going to miss seeing him on the field as Tennessee goes throughout the rest of their season. But the Pac-12 had some pretty important games and we'll talk about that later, how it affects the conference championship outlook, but Southern Cal and Oregon survived late against opponents that were also in the hunt for that Pac-12 championship. If you stayed up and watched that USC-UCLA game, you were in for a treat, especially if you like offense. They just blew that wide open. UCLA's quarterback last time playing against Southern Cal, playing at home, playing with a hand injury, and he played his heart out, but Caleb Williams and that USC offense are just impressive. Then again, just like Tennessee's defense, neither of these teams have any semblance of a defense whatsoever. I think we're going to talk about that and how that could potentially affect their playoff chances, USC's playoff chances. I think it's hard to take those teams seriously like Southern Cal and TCU. Those defenses are not good at all. I will say TCU has shown a little bit of a backbone these past couple of weeks, but still it's very difficult to say that they could really compete in a playoff, especially a four-team format when they're not able to stop anyone and the offense is moving the ball at will. It's just, who has the ball last? Can we run out the clock that last few minutes of the game? It's very confusing to me how we're expected to just accept Southern Cal as a one-loss team and shove them into a four-team playoff. I think when it comes to the CFP committee, not only do they look at the wins and the rankings and strength of record, strength of schedule, that kind of thing. I think they also project what kind of games will we get if we put this team in the Final Four. Is this going to be a blowout? Is this going to be embarrassing or is this going to get fans? Is this going to make an interesting game? Does this team feel like one of the top four teams in the country? With that right there, I think USC just doesn't feel like their defense can hold up. Yeah, I agree. The committee is looking at their first criteria is rank the four best teams in the whole 25. They're ranking the 25 best teams. They can literally say, if we think this team is better than another team, we're just going to rank them ahead of them. It doesn't matter what other statistics back up any agenda you're trying to shove. Like Scott was saying, it's less important for the committee to have a clean record than it is to actually show that you're a good football team on the field. Oregon also beat Utah. Southern Cal might be happy about this so they don't have to face the Utes again in the Pac-12 championship. It was a much different game than the Southern Cal UCLA game because it was very defensive. Bo Nix was not 100 percent, so he only ran the ball one time, which is very unusual for Oregon. It was a really big play because they got a first down and sealed the deal. Oregon pulled out a late win, very late at night. It started at 10.30. I was rubbing my eyes towards the end of that game watching it. Oregon survives. We'll talk about how this affects the Pac-12 overall. Now North Carolina, that is something else we need to talk about too. They've already clinched a spot in the ACC championship. They must have not remembered that they had a game this past weekend because they lost to Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech is not a good football team if you did not know that. They are 5-6. They have to beat Georgia to become bowl eligible, but it's not a great loss for North Carolina. It will definitely affect the Heisman Trophy race as well because Drake May was considered a dark horse candidate for the trophy. Now this loss, especially that he didn't perform well at all, they lost 21-17. Drake May was about six yards in attempt and didn't have a touchdown pass and an interception. I think this really puts a whole wrench in the whole Heisman situation. I couldn't tell you who is the favorite for the Heisman. Me and Scott had to look it up before this. It's technically CJ Stroud, but I really don't know if he deserves the award. Not only does the Heisman race look bad right now for North Carolina, but also for Clemson. If you think about the fact that Clemson was hoping North Carolina would win out, maybe they would become a top 10 team, the CFP. That would look really good to have a top 10 win on their schedule, a team that was in the top 10 the very last game of the season. They do look at things such as whether some team was top 10 earlier in the season and finished the season unranked. They don't give that as much credence as a team that you'd be at the end of the season who was top 10 ranked. That hurts Clemson a little bit. I think Clemson can do nothing but take care of their own business. We're going to talk a little bit in a few minutes, I'm going to give a scenario of how Clemson, I think, gets into the playoffs. It's like Scott said, people want to say, Clemson's already beat a top 10 team. They beat NC State, they were number 10. If you didn't check the calendar, NC State lost again this past week and they will most likely fall completely out of the rankings. The committee is not giving Clemson credit for a top 10 win there. NC State is not a top 10 team anymore. What Scott was talking about is, yeah, if NC wins out, they'd be 11-1 and might have a good argument for being in that top 10 regardless of how they've looked. They've at least beat 11 of their 12 games that they played this year. This definitely does hurt, I think, Clemson's possible resume that they could have, which may matter. It may not, but it may matter talking about playoff arguments. We're going to get into our top six now. I'm going to give mine, Scott's going to give his. We might disagree a little bit here. I'm going to try to back up why I have teams ranked and not just because of personal bias, but of course that's going to come into account in all aspects of a personal ranking system. Number one is still Georgia for me. Even though they didn't look great this weekend against Kentucky, no one else looked good enough to vault ahead of Georgia especially. You can say, well, now their Tennessee win doesn't look as good. I'm saying true, but they still have overall, I think, the most complete team. Like Scott said, there isn't really a number one obvious team right now, but I've got Georgia at one. Number two, I'm vaulting up Ohio State. You're saying, why in the world are you doing that? I think Ohio State, even though they didn't look great, they have shown me that I do believe they're a better team than Michigan. I think the Maryland game proves that. Maryland's a team that Michigan also struggle with. If you go back and look, they only beat them by, I think it was eight points. It might have been seven. Ohio State is able to score and go on the road and get out a gritty win. I will say the score may indicate that it wasn't as close to the game as it actually was, but Ohio State scored on the last play of the game on a scoop and score. Maryland had the ball and was almost going to win if they had scored a touchdown on that last drive. Ohio State at two, Michigan's at three. When Blake Quorum went out of the game, Michigan was in trouble. I think that definitely speaks to who Blake Quorum is and what he means to that team. If a running back is what your team relies on, I think that's not going to be good if you're playing an elite defense or even a good defense. The running game is something that teams can shut down. We've seen that in the past. In the playoffs, Michigan could not run on Georgia at all. They could not run the ball. If you can't run the ball if you're Michigan, you can't score. That's why I'm moving them down to number three. I know I've argued for Michigan over Ohio State in the previous episodes, but now I'm bumping them down to three. At number four, right behind them, is TCU. I'm putting TCU in my top four now. At Baylor is a pretty good win. I don't think they were overly impressive. Really I'm not sure if they're one of the four best teams, but they're undefeated. They're 11-0. There's not much I can really say at this point other than I'm going to put TCU here until they lose. They have come very close week after week to losing, but they just find ways to win. Sometimes that's all teams have to do. TCU comes out with a gritty win against a pretty good Baylor team. You can say they're six and five. I say they're still a strong team. The Big 12 overall is a pretty tough conference to play in. I think it's one of the stronger conferences out there, honestly, this year. Number five, this is where I'm sure people might start throwing things at me if I was sitting there right beside them. I've got LSU at number five. Now you're saying, well, where is Southern Cal? Why is Tennessee not ranked ahead of LSU? Because Tennessee beat them. If you lose to South Carolina by more than 20 points, you have lost my respect as a team. There is no way I can argue that you're a top six team if you can lose in a blowout fashion to a team like South Carolina. South Carolina had a great night, but they are not a good football team. If you can remember, they lost to Florida and only put up six points. Florida just lost to Vanderbilt. Let's not forget that either. South Carolina is not a good football team. I think it's also important to know Hindenhooker is out for the season, and Tennessee is going to be a much different football team from here on out. I know I'm not supposed to project stuff like that, but I think from here on out, Tennessee is a different football team. They're going to have a different mentality because they're officially out of the playoffs. I do not have them in my top six anymore. I've got LSU there. I think they're better than Southern Cal because of the strength of schedule they've played and the wins that they have. You can argue that Southern Cal just picked up a good win, but I would argue that LSU's wins over Alabama and really over Arkansas might be more impressive than Southern Cal's entire resume, especially the fact that the Pac-12, I think, is arguably one of the worst conferences aside from the ACC and the Power Five. Number six, I have Alabama. The reason I have Alabama there is almost the exact same reasons that I mentioned for LSU. They also only lost to LSU by one point on the last play of the game at LSU at night in one of the toughest, if not the toughest, environments to play in college football. I think if you have LSU ranked fifth, you have to have Alabama almost immediately following them. Alabama's two plays from being undefeated. I know they've had some other close games, but statistically, Alabama has the toughest strength of schedule in the top 10 out of anyone in the current AP top 10. That is my top six. This is where Ben and I will differ very much. This is where we have both sides of the coin really coming into play here. My top six, I do have Georgia number one. I don't see a reason to have anybody else above them. This is not because I think Georgia is just this amazing, one of the best teams ever type of team, but I do think they're obviously better than, or more deserving at least, than every other team out there. Number two, this is really strange because I don't see a top four team in the rest of college football. I don't see one, but guess what? There are three spots there behind Georgia. Somebody has to be there. What I hold the most value is record if you're a power five team because I think these power five teams, they do play out of conference with other power five teams. These power five teams themselves are better than group of fives just in general. At least the power fives conferences are better than the group of five conferences. I look at Ohio State. They're undefeated. I've got them at number two. I haven't found a reason to take them out of number two compared to the rest of the country. TCU, I moved them up this year, this week up two spots. I had Tennessee at four, so TCU jumps Tennessee, but TCU also jumps Michigan for me. Not because TCU looked particularly great against Baylor. They did squeak out a tough win there. But that Michigan, I don't think Michigan has played a team with a heartbeat all year. Now they play Illinois, the best team they've played all year, and they look awful. When Michigan comes to play Ohio State next week, that's going to be the only legitimate good win they have if they beat Ohio State, which I don't think they will do. I'm going to have Michigan at number four. Those top four teams are all undefeated. Number five, I actually have Clemson at number five. I think Clemson with one loss, the teams that they've played, and this is where I vastly differ from Denton. I think the Big Ten is the worst power five conference as far as the rest of the teams not named Michigan and Ohio State. There's really nobody to play. As far as the ACC goes, I include Notre Dame in that talk of ACC teams because of the fact that they play several ACC teams. Florida State, you've got to remember, is looking really, really good right now toward the end of the season. You've got to remember NC State, they lost their quarterback. A couple of these losses that Denton was talking about, NC State's playing without their quarterback, and that really changes NC State's offense. Syracuse and Wake Forest were undefeated when we played them midway through the season. When you're undefeated, you're going to play better than you really are because you have confidence and you think you're a better team than you are. That actually vaults your ability to play. I think Clemson at number five. USC hasn't really played a whole lot of teams. They have a ridiculous offense, but their defense is terrible. I think Clemson at least has a good defense and has a fairly good offense. They did put up 40 points against Miami. They do put up 35 points a game-ish around there when they play. I got Clemson above Southern Cal and, of course, Tennessee falling out of the top six. Now we're going to move into our conference championship outlook. Starting with the SEC, we knew this last week, but it's still going to be Georgia and LSU. Next week, we will preview and predict this game, so please listen to us again next week. I think this could be a very interesting matchup. It could have very serious playoff implications if both teams can fend off their rivals. Georgia plays a Georgia Tech team that has actually beaten two ranked opponents this year. LSU will play a Texas A&M team with nothing to lose because they are not going to a bowl game. Technically, both of these teams shouldn't have a problem, but it could be interesting to watch both of these teams play. We're looking forward to that conference championship game. ACC is already locked, as we talked about last week. It's going to be Clemson-North Carolina. This matchup gets a little less interesting since North Carolina lost, at least less interesting from a chance of boosting Clemson's chances. However, if they were to lose North Carolina, now we're talking what are their final ranking. If they don't make the playoff, that's going to make it even worse if they lose to a North Carolina team that's probably in the top 20. I don't even know if they...they're probably past 15. They may be in the top 20. But it's going to be Clemson versus North Carolina. They both have one game left to play. Clemson has to play South Carolina, and after that big victory against Tennessee, didn't I would be a little bit nervous. At least Clemson is playing at home where they have the longest home winning streak in the country. And by the way, I found this was interesting the other day. If not for that loss at home to Pittsburgh in the last second field goal a few years ago, Clemson would already have the all-time longest home winning streak. So pretty impressive. When Clemson is playing at home, it's pretty hard to bet against them. Yeah, I agree. Clemson at home is one of the best advantages in college football. I would say one thing that goes in South Carolina's favor in that game is that the game is played at 12 o'clock. So I think at night, that is a much harder game for South Carolina to possibly pull an upset. At 12 o'clock, I don't know if it's as loud. I mean, it still will be loud. I don't know if it's as loud as it could be. But it'll be a tough game for Clemson, honestly, just because South Carolina is getting some confidence that they didn't have previously. They'll definitely bring some swagger. And they don't have anything to lose. Clemson has everything to lose. Any playoff chances that they have lie on this game and if they can win. But going on to the Big 12 championship, as we said last week, TCU has already clinched their spot, regardless if they beat Iowa State or not next week. But their opponent will depend on this coming result. Kansas State is in the driver's seat right now. If they win against Kansas, then they are in. If they lose and Texas wins, then the Longhorns will face the Horned Frogs in the Big 12 championship. Usually we would say, well, Kansas State's got to play Kansas. They're a lock. But this year, Kansas actually has a pulse. And really, anyone in the Big 12 can beat anyone on any given day. So I wouldn't guarantee a Kansas State win. But I honestly do think Kansas State will win. But I just wouldn't guarantee it. So Big 12, that is their outlook right now. Yeah, and if you're hoping for a TCU loss for any reason whatsoever, it's going to be Kansas State. Because TCU's not going to lose to Texas or to Kansas. Looking in the Big 10, we've got the winner of the game, Ohio State and Michigan. And that winner will be undefeated. The other will have one loss. And will not really have a marquee victory. Maybe a Penn State victory. I don't think Illinois' victory looks really good anymore. And the winner of that will play Iowa if Iowa wins over Nebraska. Or they will play Purdue if Iowa loses and Purdue wins over Indiana. The third possibility is that you would think is Illinois. Because if Illinois were to win and Iowa and Purdue to lose, it would be a three-way tie with Iowa and Purdue and Illinois. But Iowa doesn't really have a path. Illinois doesn't really have a path. Because Iowa wins the three-way tie, tiebreaker. So it looks likely that it's going to be Iowa as the team that Ohio State and Michigan plays. And that's really strange. Because we've been talking about Illinois for a lock pretty much for the last few weeks. And Illinois just found a way to play themselves out of it. I guess nobody really wants to go up against Ohio State and Michigan in that conference. I think it's also funny that Iowa has actually already played both Ohio State and Michigan. And will have to play the winner of the game if they do beat Nebraska this coming week. And Iowa is not that good of a football team. I think we all kind of know that. That whole division is one of the weakest in football. I would say aside from the ACC Coastal. But it is one of the weakest in football for sure. And just remember, when a team plays a team twice in one season, it's really hard to beat the team twice. And Iowa is no pushover. They're not a great team. But if Michigan were to beat Ohio State, I think it would be a little challenging to beat them twice. But I think, of course, we know what's going to happen. Yeah, I think the thing with Iowa, if you score 14 points, you probably beat them. So this is a team that's very uniquely challenged on the offensive side of the ball. So it's very interesting. In the Pac-12, the Conference of Champions, Southern Cal is a lock for the conference championship game. Their opponent will depend on the Civil War. The game is actually no longer called that. It is the battle between Oregon and Oregon State. So if Oregon State can beat the Ducks, then Washington has the door open for them. So if they can beat Wazoo in that game, Washington State, then Washington will play USC. But if Oregon beats Oregon State, then the Ducks will face off against Southern Cal for the conference championship game in the Pac-12. Yeah, just if Bo Nix can get healthy, that Oregon team could be really dangerous for Southern Cal. And if you're a Clemson fan, things are looking pretty good. In just a second, we'll talk about Clemson's scenario. But Southern Cal still has to play Notre Dame this week, who is trending in the right direction. And then they have to play an Oregon, probably an Oregon team or a Washington team that just beat Oregon. I've got to say, and I know Scott's going to talk about this in a second, but if I'm a Clemson fan, I feel pretty good about my chances with Southern Cal losing. Just because not only do they have to play the Pac-12 championship game, but they also have Notre Dame coming up, which Scott's going to talk about here. And I've watched Southern Cal play a couple of times. I am not convinced they're going to win over these next two games. Even if it's Washington, Michael Penix Jr. is a very good quarterback. And he lit up Oregon a few weeks ago, and they actually beat Oregon. That's why they have that tiebreaker. So really, it's going to be a tough road for Southern Cal. So let's talk real quick about Clemson's path to the playoff. First of all, Clemson needs to win out. And that is not just a done deal. So Clemson has to beat South Carolina, who's coming off a huge win, as we've already talked about. Then they have to go and play North Carolina at a neutral site. If they were to do that, then they are taking care of business. They still have to hope for Southern Cal to lose. Southern Cal would need to lose to Notre Dame or to lose to the Oregon-Washington representative in the Conference Championship game. And as we just mentioned, I think that is going to happen. I think Clemson will win out. I think Southern Cal will lose to Notre Dame or Oregon, possibly both, just because their defense is so bad. And then another possibility would be TCU losing to Iowa State. That would be a really, really bad loss. If something like that happened, that would really throw a monkey wrench and probably vault Clemson above TCU. And then they have the Kansas State-Texas matchup. If TCU were to lose that game instead, that would mean they have the same record as Clemson, but they don't have the Conference Championship to their name. So there's that possibility. But I think it's much more likely to hope for Southern Cal to lose the game. Another thing you probably want to cheer for, something that will help, is for the Michigan-Ohio State game to be a blowout one way or the other. I think more likely that Ohio State beats Michigan badly. I don't necessarily think that that is going to be necessary for, you know, if Michigan does not win that game, does not win its division, and then Clemson has the same record but wins its conference. I don't think Michigan has enough good wins on their resume, and they haven't beaten teams bad enough that have a pulse that I think that it gets them above Clemson. So that would help if Michigan loses badly to Ohio State, or at least doesn't look particularly good. I don't think it necessarily had to happen. So what we're probably looking for if you're a Clemson fan is to end up with Georgia, Ohio State, TCU, and Clemson. Yeah, I think the most important thing there is, again, the Georgia win. Because if LSU somehow beats Georgia, that could, again, mess up everything with the playoff there. And then the Ohio State-Michigan game. If Ohio State loses that game, I think 11-1 Ohio State gets in over Clemson. Even if Clemson finishes 12-1 and looks impressive in a game against North Carolina and South Carolina, you may be thinking, well, why is that? Well, Clemson's one loss is to Notre Dame. Ohio State has beaten Notre Dame, and they would have a win over Penn State. And Penn State's a pretty good football team as well. I think Ohio State at 11-1 would get a nod over conference champion Clemson. But Michigan, like Scott said, would not. Because Michigan has not played an out-of-conference team that is not in Group of Five like a Notre Dame or something like that. Michigan played one of the worst out-of-conference schedules I've ever seen. So Michigan needs to win this Ohio State game for sure. So we're going to move into our rankings projections for this week for the College Football Playoff Committee. And we would say number one is going to still be Georgia. No surprise there. Number one, Georgia. Number two, we're going to say Ohio State. Things kind of stay par there. Michigan didn't have a particularly great game against a team that wasn't particularly high-ranked. And so Ohio State stays at number two. Number three should still be Michigan. You can argue that they didn't look great. But neither did TCU, which is right behind them. So Michigan should stay at number three. Yeah, that's exactly right. TCU will be number four. If they would have beaten Baylor soundly, that probably would have vaulted them, I think, over Michigan just because of the quality of wins and turning in the right direction. But TCU just, as long as they win out, it's like the same thing that Clemson hopes for many of the years that we're in the playoff, is it doesn't matter how pretty you look, just get to the playoff by winning out and going undefeated. So at this point, TCU, Michigan, Ohio State, they're just trying to win out. And number five, we both disagree on this one. Number five, I think it will be LSU. You can say they have two losses. For all the reasons that I have them number five in my poll, I think the committee will carry over. It's also a good thing to note that LSU was ranked ahead of Southern Cal last week and the week before that. Southern Cal just now picked up their first ranked win. And even though they won, it didn't look good. They played on the road at UCLA, but still their defense did not look competitive enough, I don't think, to ball ahead of LSU, who has wins over Alabama and wins over Ole Miss. And even Arkansas, who is a good football team, win KJ Jefferson. It's healthy. I think LSU will stay number five, and Scott can kind of defend why USC might be number five. Yeah, I think USC has a chance to actually jump LSU. Just late in the season right now, if LSU beats Georgia, LSU is going to the playoffs. So I think that's going to take care of itself. The rankings committee knows that. But Southern Cal just beat UCLA team at UCLA. And this is where it gets interesting that I think late in the season, specifically late in the season when you're beating a high-ranked team at their home, that gives a lot of credit toward that team, as opposed to doing it earlier in the season, because you just don't know how good that team really is. At this point, UCLA has proven themselves to be a top 10, top 15 team. And so USC beating them at home, this is a rivalry game, this late in the season with the hearts that they showed, I think Southern Cal will jump LSU in the playoffs. But as both sides of the coin pick, we're going to do LSU and then USC sixth. Yeah, one further aspect of the other side is that UCLA was ranked 16th, LSU has beaten two teams that the committee has ranked higher, and Southern Cal hasn't looked great this whole season. LSU does have a few really good wins, especially the Ole Miss win that looks really good. I would say the Florida State loss, which is what a lot of people like to talk about, isn't as bad as people are saying it is now. I think Florida State might be playing the second-best football in the ACC behind Clemson. So I really don't think it's a detriment to say that LSU lost to Florida State, especially since it was the first game of the season with a new coaching staff and a lot of transfer players. So again, it could be LSU or it could be Southern Cal. I think the committee sticks with their guns and still ranks LSU above them because that's what they've been doing the past couple of weeks. Before we leave, we're going to give some quick picks for rivalry week. South Carolina at Clemson, the line right now is Clemson minus 14 and a half. I think Clemson wins. I do not think Clemson covers. I think this could be a pretty interesting game, especially if Spencer Rattler looks like he did this week, but I think Clemson wins. I'm going to pick the Gamecocks to lose to Clemson. You almost had me there. Auburn at Alabama, the Iron Bowl. There are some pretty interesting things about this game, especially that Auburn has an interim coach in Cadillac Williams who has got this team fired up to play some football. Alabama right now is minus 21 and a half. That is a fat number. I'm not sure if Alabama covers, but I do like the tide to come away with a win over the Barn. I think Bama is going to struggle to lose this game. I think there's going to be a blowout. He has got me fooled a couple of times. The game, Michigan at Ohio State. This has all the implications to 11-0 teams. I think Ohio State wins and covers. Right now the spread is minus eight. I think Ohio State might run away with this. You'll remember last year, Michigan beat them and beat them soundly at the Big House. I think Ohio State takes it personal. I think they punched their playoff ticket and they punched their Big Ten championship appearance with a win over Michigan. One of the three teams that Clemson really hates, Ohio State, Georgia, South Carolina. I cannot bear to pull for Ohio State. So I'm just going to pull against Michigan. I think Ohio State is going to win this game. Notre Dame at USC. This could be a really good game. I'm going to pick the Irish to win this game. Again, you may think I'm a USC hater after this episode. I don't hate the Trojans. I just do not think they're a very good football team, especially defensively. That is just the team that Notre Dame needs to beat. If you've been watching Notre Dame play these last couple of weeks, I know Clemson fans have at least watched them recently enough, you know they're a pretty good football team. They just beat the brakes off of Boston College this past week. You may be saying, well, Boston College is terrible. I agree, but they did beat NC State. So it's not a joke to just walk in and play a team that way. If you can dominate your opponents, you're an impressive team. USC has not done that all year. I'm picking Notre Dame to upset USC this weekend. Friends and family who know me know that I like Southern Cal, and because they don't ever play Clemson, I can pull for them and have them as a second favorite team. I've always liked them since Reggie Bush and Matt Leiner were playing. So I hate that I'm pulling against them two weeks in a row. I was pulling for UCLA. It felt so weird in that rivalry game that I watch every year to pull for UCLA. I'm going to have to pull for Notre Dame. Again, just talking about Clemson's playoff chances. They really need to lose to Notre Dame. So I'm going to go with Notre Dame. Well, we all agree on those picks, so that's one side of the coin for those games, I guess. But I'll throw one more game in there. Oregon and Oregon State. We might disagree on this one. I think Oregon State upsets Oregon this week. That is my call of the week. I might be completely wrong about that, but Oregon State's actually playing some pretty good football as of recent. And I think the Beavers upset the Ducks, especially if Bo Nix is not at 100%. I could see the Beavers escaping that one. Come on, Scott, you've got to have something different than I'm saying this time. Yeah, I think Oregon is going to be upset that they don't score more points against Oregon State and blow out win. And there you have it. There's this episode of Both Sides of the Coin. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter if you're not already. I like to talk about scenarios on there a lot. But here's to next week. Roll Tide. Go Tigers!