Speaker 1: From the King of sports Books comes the Key sports
Speaker 1: podcast Unleashed, presented by the MGM. Here's your host, Jerry
Speaker 1: Ferrara and Olivia Harland Decker. Hey, everyone, welcome to Unleashed.
Speaker 1: Olivia Harland Decker here and we've got a little bit
Speaker 1: different of a show for you today. Like the rest
Speaker 1: of the sports world and beyond, our thoughts continue to
Speaker 1: be with Bill's safety Tomorrow Hamlin. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of us are still processing our thoughts from something pretty
Speaker 1: unprecedented we've never seen on a football field. Jerry and
Speaker 1: I spoke and he will be taking this week off,
Speaker 1: So as we continue to send our prayers up for
Speaker 1: Tomorrow and his family, it's a huge reminder that these
Speaker 1: are human beings playing this game that we love so much,
Speaker 1: that we love to talk about every week. Like all
Speaker 1: of you, I'm hoping for a report that Tomorrow will
Speaker 1: be okay. Sounds like some good reports are coming out
Speaker 1: of his camp now, and despite this awful situation, it's
Speaker 1: really been incredible to see some humanity, some generosity, outpouring
Speaker 1: of love from fans and media who have already donated
Speaker 1: millions of dollars to Tomorrow Hamlin's Chasing M's charity. If
Speaker 1: you want to look into that and donate, that'd be
Speaker 1: a really great way to honor him right now. If
Speaker 1: you want to contribute for his local community in Pittsburgh,
Speaker 1: that's really great. There's a go fund me page. And
Speaker 1: with heavy Hearts, We've got a different show this week,
Speaker 1: shorter show this week, all focused on the college football
Speaker 1: National Championship that is coming up. Welcome to twenty three.
Speaker 1: We have a great National Championship preview episode today as
Speaker 1: my George Bulldogs take on the TCU Horned Frogs Monday night,
Speaker 1: Los Angeles So Fi Stadium. It is going to be
Speaker 1: so much fun. Georgia opens as a thirteen and a
Speaker 1: half point favorite. Now it's down to thirteen as I'm
Speaker 1: recording on Tuesday. You can also take Georgia minus fived
Speaker 1: money line if you're interested in that. Look. We saw
Speaker 1: the over hit in both semifinal games, so everyone's amped
Speaker 1: about that bet again at sixty two and a half
Speaker 1: is the point total right now, and of the handle
Speaker 1: is on the over so far, so everyone's like in that.
Speaker 1: You know, with a championship game, so many people don't
Speaker 1: have a dog in the fight. So that's a common bet.
Speaker 1: They just want to see a lot of offense taking
Speaker 1: the over and I'm going to as well. I can't
Speaker 1: wait Monday night to help us out. In preview the
Speaker 1: big game, we're bringing in s I s Pat forty.
Speaker 1: If you're a loyal listener, you'll remember he was on
Speaker 1: earlier in the season. He's fantastic senior writer college football.
Speaker 1: He's also got a podcast. He's all over college football.
Speaker 1: He knows it all. So it'll be fun to hear
Speaker 1: about the Georgia O s U semifinal game because he
Speaker 1: was covering that one, and pick his brain on the
Speaker 1: national championship before we place our bets. I gotta gotta
Speaker 1: do better this time. Unprecedented semifinal games though on New
Speaker 1: Year's Eve, only three of the six team playoff games
Speaker 1: that have ever been played in history of the college
Speaker 1: football playoffs. Obviously it's not long. They had been decided
Speaker 1: by one possession or less. That's only three of them. Look,
Speaker 1: I'm thrilled my Bulldogs got out of there with a
Speaker 1: win over the buck Eyes. But from a sports book perspective,
Speaker 1: it would have been really great to have a team
Speaker 1: the team from Ohio get in the championship because sports
Speaker 1: betting was just legalized in the state. So welcome to
Speaker 1: the party, Ohio, sports obsessed state. I used to live
Speaker 1: in Cleveland when my husband played for the Calves. Those
Speaker 1: fans of their teams, they are so good, So that
Speaker 1: is a beautiful marriage now that sports gambling is in Ohio. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's break down both of the New Year's Eve college
Speaker 1: football semifinal games. First step BSTA Bowl eight point underdog TCU.
Speaker 1: They battle it out. They never trail to a stout
Speaker 1: Michigan game in an absolute shootout horn Frog's wint that's
Speaker 1: nineties six combined points. If you're doing the math, I
Speaker 1: still can't believe it. Forty four points alone were scored
Speaker 1: in the third quarter in Michigan's defense had been so
Speaker 1: good all season. They had held opponents to like fourteen
Speaker 1: points per game thirteen something like that all season. They
Speaker 1: were incredible. But they could not defend Max Duggan, who
Speaker 1: by the way, started the season as the backup to
Speaker 1: a walk on at TCU. Just incredible. All their explosive,
Speaker 1: big chunk plays. They were like unstoppable in Michigan. Offensively,
Speaker 1: they couldn't score in the red zone in quarterback J. J.
Speaker 1: McCarthy through two pick six is you're just not gonna
Speaker 1: win like that. Okay, over to the Peach Bowl for
Speaker 1: Georgia Ohio State. The Bulldogs may have played one of
Speaker 1: their worst games in the past two years. Seriously, I mean,
Speaker 1: stets And Bennett did not look like himself. He looked nervous,
Speaker 1: by the way, something a lot of people don't realize
Speaker 1: about Stetson Bennett. This is gonna blow your mind, just
Speaker 1: like a blew mine. He's the same age as mar Jackson.
Speaker 1: Let that sink in for a minute. We have one
Speaker 1: more game of Stetson Bennett Monday night, So five Stadium.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be so good. Uh. Somehow the Dogs just
Speaker 1: rallied to beat the Buckey's forty two forty one. Stets
Speaker 1: And Bennett really at the end of it, though his
Speaker 1: numbers were good, gutsy coaching all around on both sides,
Speaker 1: there was nothing held back. It was just a joy
Speaker 1: to watch. But Ohio State really had control of the game.
Speaker 1: They were up thirty in the fourth quarter going into
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. Quarterbacks E. J. Stroud was amazing. Um.
Speaker 1: I heard that they did like fifteen hundred reps offensively
Speaker 1: preparing for this game. They were just incredible. They were prepared,
Speaker 1: they were well coached, all these things that we did
Speaker 1: not see a couple of weeks ago. Last time, we
Speaker 1: saw a High State against Michigan. So this was a
Speaker 1: completely different Buckeye team and they lost players throughout the game.
Speaker 1: They still had a shot on the leg of their
Speaker 1: kicker fifty yard field goal, though, guys, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: how fair that is for college kicker with the national
Speaker 1: championship birth on the line. He missed the fifty yard
Speaker 1: kick at the stroke of midnight. I know you've heard
Speaker 1: it because everyone's using this term, but it's so good
Speaker 1: I have to use it too. He kicked the ball in,
Speaker 1: it landed in. Okay, now that we've set the table,
Speaker 1: let's bring in our guest Sports Illustrated senior writer Pat Forty. Okay, Pat,
Speaker 1: before we get into the matchups. For the casual college
Speaker 1: football fan, can you explain how improbable it is for
Speaker 1: TCU with a head coach in year one to make
Speaker 1: it to the national Championship. And I know Larry Coker,
Speaker 1: Gust mills On, they've done it, but those are a
Speaker 1: major programs that were built to go to the distance
Speaker 1: and we're talking about little TCU. Yeah, I think Olivia.
Speaker 1: It's the most unlikely playoff team period and now to
Speaker 1: make the championship game all the more unlikely. TCUs a
Speaker 1: legitimate program in the Big twelve and sitting in a
Speaker 1: hot out of talent and football passion in Dallas Fort Worth.
Speaker 1: But they were five and seven last year. Nobody has
Speaker 1: ever gone from unranked to the playoff. Yes, new coach
Speaker 1: who had had some success at SMU but really hadn't
Speaker 1: shown the chops to maybe compete for a national championship.
Speaker 1: There picked seventh preseason in the Big twelve, and now
Speaker 1: they're one of the last two standing for the national title.
Speaker 1: So it's it's a wildly improbable, very fun story. This
Speaker 1: sport doesn't really allow many cinderellas. If we're gonna call
Speaker 1: TCU a Cinderella, why is that? This sport, as we've seen,
Speaker 1: especially in the playoff era, there's a very small number
Speaker 1: of programs that have even competed for a title. It's
Speaker 1: been Alabama, it's been Clemson, it's been Ohio, State's been Georgia,
Speaker 1: it's been Notre Dame, although Notre Dame hasn't made a
Speaker 1: championship game. So to crack that's very small club is
Speaker 1: hard to do. And it's interesting. Tc has come a
Speaker 1: long way in a pretty quick amount of time. But
Speaker 1: they were in four different conferences in the mid ninety nineties.
Speaker 1: They were kind of a vagabond looking for their place.
Speaker 1: Their facilities weren't very good, and then they invested and
Speaker 1: they started building and you go down there now, I mean,
Speaker 1: their stadium is just a treasure. It's fantastic. It's not huge,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe, but it's beautiful. It's well appointed. The
Speaker 1: suites looked like something out of like the Roman Empire. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're so opulent and all the other facilities that go
Speaker 1: along with it. They have those two and I think
Speaker 1: if you've got that, and you can sell that in
Speaker 1: the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex and surrounding area, you're gonna
Speaker 1: get players because there's a million of them there, and
Speaker 1: so they have the ability to overcome that that underdog
Speaker 1: label that they've carried. So you were in Atlanta, you
Speaker 1: were covering the Georgia Ohio state game. How did you
Speaker 1: watch the Michigan TCU game. I know sometimes they have
Speaker 1: it on the JumboTron, but that had to be consuming
Speaker 1: your thoughts at the time. Yeah, for sure, And yes,
Speaker 1: I was at the stadium and it was kind of
Speaker 1: interesting that Mercedes Been Stadium is a great place and
Speaker 1: they do have like the the ribbon video ribbon basically
Speaker 1: goes around the upper level and so you could see
Speaker 1: it up there and it's huge and bright. But I
Speaker 1: also had on a little screen next to me in
Speaker 1: the press box, and so you're kind of watching in
Speaker 1: both places at the same time. But the interesting thing
Speaker 1: about it was as the Ohio State fans started to
Speaker 1: come in, every time TC you did something big, they
Speaker 1: would roar because they wanted to see Michigan lose. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it was it was an interesting dynamic. And the players
Speaker 1: down on the field, We're starting to warm up and
Speaker 1: at one point, like TC is making big play after
Speaker 1: big play, and the Georgia kickers and sports staff are
Speaker 1: all looking up and Steps and Bennett's just doing nothing
Speaker 1: but warming up, throwing passes and stretching, and like he's
Speaker 1: totally oblivious to what was going on around him, which
Speaker 1: is I think one of the reasons he's been successful. Well.
Speaker 1: Sticking with Steps and Bennett, you've covered him so much
Speaker 1: in fact, the beginning of the season, that's when we
Speaker 1: brought you on to talk about your cover story on him.
Speaker 1: It was a great article. What did you see from him?
Speaker 1: Because he looked nervous, it was uncharacteristic. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I think that that there was some stuff that well,
Speaker 1: i'll Stay threw at him that they were not prepared
Speaker 1: for or comfortable with. You know how Stay changed up
Speaker 1: a lot of their defense from when we last saw
Speaker 1: him against Michigan. They played a little more soft in
Speaker 1: the back on the secondary, covered a little bit more
Speaker 1: there as opposed to just go on hell bent to
Speaker 1: try to rush. And I think that he was expecting
Speaker 1: some open throws that weren't there. And the laundry he
Speaker 1: had to stand in the pocket and hold the ball.
Speaker 1: You could see that stress kind of getting to him.
Speaker 1: And he did not play well. He said afterwards, he said,
Speaker 1: I think I played about thirty minutes of just bad football.
Speaker 1: And I you know, I don't think anybody would necessarily
Speaker 1: disagree with him, But as is always the case with
Speaker 1: Stepson Bennett, about when you're ready to say, oh he
Speaker 1: can't do it, he doesn't, do you know, if there
Speaker 1: was any Pappy Van Winkle consumed after does he wait
Speaker 1: till you after he wins a natty? For that? That's
Speaker 1: definitely gonna be a post natty thing. I think that's
Speaker 1: what it was last year. He had a friend from
Speaker 1: home that brought the pappy and I would imagine there
Speaker 1: will be another bottle of Pappi in l A on
Speaker 1: reserve if they do win. I imagine. So how do
Speaker 1: you think, based on the vibe in the stadium really,
Speaker 1: how the momentum changed after the no targeting call that
Speaker 1: knocked Marvin Harrison Jr. Out of the game? And did
Speaker 1: you agree with the call? I did agree with the call.
Speaker 1: I thought they did a good job. I thought you
Speaker 1: call it in real action, real real, live time. You
Speaker 1: go back and review it. The replay official, the ESPN
Speaker 1: analyst Matt Austin both agreed, and I agreed with them
Speaker 1: that it was close, like a matter of inches, but
Speaker 1: it was not targeting. For one thing, he didn't launch,
Speaker 1: you know, he did not leave his feet to to
Speaker 1: to go attack the head with his head. He hit
Speaker 1: mostly shoulder two shoulder on Marvin Harrison. It was a
Speaker 1: vicious hit, but I think it was a clean hit.
Speaker 1: I think it was the right call. And absolutely could
Speaker 1: helped change the game. For one thing, he prevented Marvin
Speaker 1: Harrison from catching a touchdown. Second, he took their best
Speaker 1: player out of the game, and you hate to see that.
Speaker 1: You hate to see an injury, but it was a
Speaker 1: legal football play. And then thirdly, the fact that it
Speaker 1: was not targeting was huge because it did not give
Speaker 1: them a first down. Then they had to kick the
Speaker 1: field goal. And then after that, Ohio State's offense struggled
Speaker 1: a bit too. They couldn't finish drives and and Georgia
Speaker 1: slowly prepped back into the game. On the note of officiating,
Speaker 1: if you're a Michigan fan, do you have a valid
Speaker 1: argument that officiating kept you out of the championship? I
Speaker 1: don't think so. I mean, you can be really angry,
Speaker 1: first of all about the the overturned touchdown, which I
Speaker 1: think that was a bad call. But you get the
Speaker 1: ball first and goal on the one and you fumble
Speaker 1: it without being hit, that's that's on you. And then
Speaker 1: everything that transpired after that, in terms of not being
Speaker 1: able to stop TCU and throwing other interceptions, that's on you.
Speaker 1: The non targeting call at the end, look, that probably
Speaker 1: could have been called but that doesn't win the game
Speaker 1: for him, and it extends the game and gives them
Speaker 1: a tiny smidgen of chance of a chance, but I
Speaker 1: don't know whether it really helps them that, you know,
Speaker 1: win the game. So look, there there's always controversial calls,
Speaker 1: bad calls, close calls, and if you're Michigan, you can't
Speaker 1: sit there and say that cost us the game. They
Speaker 1: were favored by seven and a half points, They had
Speaker 1: many chances and they couldn't get it done. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's crazy watching it back that TCU never trailed. It
Speaker 1: didn't feel like it watching it. But uh, two great
Speaker 1: games and really unprecedented seeing this on New Year's Eve,
Speaker 1: only three of the six team playoff games in history
Speaker 1: had been decided by a possession or less, and we
Speaker 1: got our money's worth on those two. Now that you've
Speaker 1: kind of sat back and reflected a bit on those
Speaker 1: two games, which outcome seems more unprecedented, more unlikely, I
Speaker 1: think i'd have to say TCU winning. Look, I was surprised.
Speaker 1: I thought Georgia was gonna roll and I thought Michigan
Speaker 1: was gonna roll. Like you said, they were both phenomenal
Speaker 1: games and kind of what we've been waiting for ever
Speaker 1: since the playoff came into being, So that was great,
Speaker 1: But I think the the real surprise to me was
Speaker 1: Michigan screwing up enough to lose and TCU just taking
Speaker 1: advantage of it and taking hold of the game and
Speaker 1: making the big plays, you know, so many of them.
Speaker 1: I mean, the pick sixes were Hujo obviously, and those
Speaker 1: were really nice defensive plays, but their defense made several
Speaker 1: other big plays in the moment where they just were
Speaker 1: not going to get run over by that Michigan running game.
Speaker 1: And then they hit a couple of huge plays of
Speaker 1: their own on offense, and they just rose to the occasion.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of who that team has been. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've loved watching them all year. They you know, they've
Speaker 1: they've hearded with losses so many times, and then they
Speaker 1: finally did losing the Big twelve championship game, and I
Speaker 1: probably like a lot of other people, but well, all right,
Speaker 1: they're out of pixie dust, and you know, they're a
Speaker 1: good team, but they're not good enough, and they're they're
Speaker 1: still really good team. They're really they're excellent, and so
Speaker 1: that was it was very surprising but really cool to
Speaker 1: see them win that game. On that note, what are
Speaker 1: your thoughts on these games being played on New Year's Eve?
Speaker 1: Do you think that's a good scheduling move. I know
Speaker 1: they're talking about changing it. I'm not a fan at all,
Speaker 1: and I remember I was there. Yeah, you know, I
Speaker 1: was at the announcement whenever it was twenty twelve or
Speaker 1: whatever they were going to the playoff and Bill Hancock
Speaker 1: from College Football if So there said we are going
Speaker 1: to remake the paradigm of New Year's Eve and basically
Speaker 1: America watched college football on a night when America parties.
Speaker 1: And look, I'm sorry that was arrogant, because you know
Speaker 1: they were there were how many people, I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: sure you heard from him who literally the Ohio State
Speaker 1: field goal at the end was kicked in, two landed in,
Speaker 1: and people are like, screw that. I want to watch
Speaker 1: the ball drop. I want to celebrate the New Year.
Speaker 1: And so the conflict there, which was created by the
Speaker 1: playoff committee, which was created by ESPN, just I think
Speaker 1: was was a very disservice to a lot of fans,
Speaker 1: especially casual fans that aren't going to build their whole
Speaker 1: life around watching two football games. I heard on your podcast,
Speaker 1: Actually the story of the balloons dropping in a Columbus
Speaker 1: bar and people couldn't see the outcome, and then they
Speaker 1: started stomping balloons once they heard terrible. That's tough time
Speaker 1: to try to celebrate a new year right there in Columbus.
Speaker 1: It is. It is. Yeah, you're not getting your New
Speaker 1: Year's kiss after that one. I don't think. Let's talk
Speaker 1: real quickly about the matchup. Georgia opened as a thirteen
Speaker 1: point favorite. Do you view this as David vers Goliath
Speaker 1: is the Pixie Desk, like you mentioned, gonna run out
Speaker 1: on TCU? Yeah, I think thirteen points too much. Have
Speaker 1: you seen TCU? They're really really good. And again there
Speaker 1: one loss, well, they scrapped and fought to get it
Speaker 1: into overtime. They did get into overtime and came up
Speaker 1: a half a yard short of at least extending the game.
Speaker 1: So I think thirteen is a lot. I do think
Speaker 1: if Georgia plays, it's a game. Georgia is better, and
Speaker 1: Georgia will win and maybe win handing, maybe maybe win
Speaker 1: by fourteen. I don't know. But we also and and
Speaker 1: and the Georgia players like we're unanimous, like kind of
Speaker 1: discussed that They didn't play very well against Olhouse State,
Speaker 1: so they know they can play better. We've all seen
Speaker 1: him play better. But TCU has some abilities to exploit
Speaker 1: what Ohio State did, what l s U did in
Speaker 1: the SEC championship game. I mean, they can throw the ball.
Speaker 1: They they've got a quarterback who can do that. They
Speaker 1: have a mobile quarterback as well. That Georgia defense in
Speaker 1: the secondary particularly doesn't play better, it's gonna look a
Speaker 1: lot like the game against Ohio State, I think, where
Speaker 1: it's like whoever can make one big play at the
Speaker 1: end of the game. We saw so much scoring in
Speaker 1: those semifinal games. Both over is hitting comfortably. Do you
Speaker 1: think we see more defense in the National Championship? The
Speaker 1: over under right now sixty two and a half, sixty
Speaker 1: two and a half, I'd be leaning over. I think.
Speaker 1: I just think Georgie's defense is good. But what we've
Speaker 1: seen against really good offenses here the last couple of
Speaker 1: weeks is they've been able to expose the last couple
Speaker 1: of games expose some of the shortcomings. They did lose
Speaker 1: five first round draft picks off that defense, so to
Speaker 1: ask them to come back and be able to just
Speaker 1: shut teams down against probably too much. They look good
Speaker 1: enough in the regular season that you just think they
Speaker 1: just keep churning them out. But it's not quite the same.
Speaker 1: And so you get up against elite personnel, elite scheme,
Speaker 1: elite quarterback, and it's tough. And so I expect TC
Speaker 1: you be able to move in score. But I also
Speaker 1: expect Georgia to be able to move in score. And
Speaker 1: that's you know, one thing that has sometimes been a
Speaker 1: little bit lost is I mean, George's offense is really good.
Speaker 1: They've got players, three running backs, five wide receivers, two
Speaker 1: tight ends, we'll see whether Darnell Washington's coming back, and
Speaker 1: a really good quarterback. So I think there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a bunch of points. I would say over you know,
Speaker 1: mid sixties in terms of a point total, would would
Speaker 1: probably sound right to me. It's interesting what you were
Speaker 1: just saying about the Georgia defense. When I covered them
Speaker 1: in the SEC Championship. They kept saying, we're competing against
Speaker 1: last year's Georgia's defense. You know, we're not competing against
Speaker 1: other defenses in the country. It's it's interesting. They definitely
Speaker 1: had a chip on their shoulder. It'll be interesting to
Speaker 1: see how they come out Monday night, and so far,
Speaker 1: do you have the final score prediction? I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: Georgia thirty eight, TCU thirty one, and we get a
Speaker 1: reaming for the first time in a decade. Alright, alright,
Speaker 1: Pat forty, thanks so much for joining us. We promised
Speaker 1: would get you on one more time before the Natty
Speaker 1: and this is a lot of fun. Thank you, my pleasure, Olivia,
Speaker 1: thank you. Uh. Pat is so good. We're so glad
Speaker 1: he's a recurring guest. We had him early in the season.
Speaker 1: It's great to have him right before the National Championship.
Speaker 1: Make sure to follow all of his coverage at s
Speaker 1: I and on Twitter. Follow him at by Pat forty.
Speaker 1: He is a fantastic follow and great writer in the
Speaker 1: sports so it's really great to be able to follow
Speaker 1: him and have him on the show. We're really glad
Speaker 1: he joined us. Next week. Jerry Ferrara, my co host,
Speaker 1: he's back. We can't wait to get back into our
Speaker 1: Entourage segment. I have a lot of watching to do.
Speaker 1: I've got to get back. I've been slacking over the holidays,
Speaker 1: not watching my entrage. It's gonna be a lot of
Speaker 1: fun follow bet MGM on all social media and on YouTube.
Speaker 1: We have every episode if you want to watch the episodes,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fun. You can kind of see
Speaker 1: our reactions in real time. But happy New Year to everyone.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining for this college football National Championship preview
Speaker 1: and we will see you next week.