00:00There's another huge battle taking place Saturday afternoon, coach, in Atlanta, the Mercedes-Benz Dome.
00:06We have two 10-win football teams from last year, Syracuse and Tennessee squaring off two new quarterbacks.
00:13Steve Angeli just got named the starter in Syracuse, taking over for Kyle McCord.
00:19And in Tennessee, Joey Aguilar takes over for Nico.
00:23How do you see this one playing out Saturday at noon?
00:26Well, I mean, I don't see Tennessee losing this game.
00:30To me, if Syracuse has a great game, I think they can keep it close.
00:33It's all going to be about which quarterback performs like they should.
00:37Aguilar at Tennessee, he was at Appalachian State.
00:40He really didn't play at UCLA.
00:42He transferred there, then transferred to Tennessee.
00:45But, you know, I lost 41-40 to him when he was at Appalachian State.
00:49He led them down to a final field goal with no time left.
00:52I think it was a 52-yarder to beat us in the third game of our season.
00:55He can throw that football.
00:57And now, again, Tennessee's going to have a great defense.
01:00And Tennessee's got a quarterback.
01:01If he can be accurate, if he can throw accurately, they're going to run the ball well.
01:06They're going to play great defense.
01:07They had one of the best defenses in the country last year.
01:09So Syracuse has got a – Kyle McCord was a heck of a daggum – you know that he was a heck of a quarterback.
01:15He really read them.
01:16So they've got to break in another quarterback now.
01:18And that's not going to be easy to do with the quarterback from Notre Dame who didn't – he had a great game, one great game, I think, in the playoffs, but didn't play a lot.
01:27And I just – I think Tennessee has got a quarterback I know because I stood on the sideline and watched him play.
01:32He can hit – he can throw that ball.
01:34And I think what Tennessee needs to do, they're going to run it.
01:36They're going to play great defense.
01:38But if they want to be dynamic, the quarterback has to be accurate on deep balls.
01:43That's what even – Emiliano was not as accurate on deep balls as he needed to be.
01:48That's where they were in 22, and that's what will make them a great football team.
01:52But they're going to win this game.
01:53But if the quarterback can be accurate and play well, they can pull away.
01:57I agree with you, and when you look at Tennessee's defense, top-ranked, they only allowed 16 points per game.
02:04They only allowed 102 rushing yards per game.
02:06That was the 10th-ranked rushing defense in all of college football.
02:10They were 10-3 last year, won their nine FBS games by an average margin of victory of 25.8 points per game.
02:18And when you look at the weakness, you could say, of Syracuse last year, we talked about Kyle McCord leading FBS with 4,700-plus passing yards.
02:28They only averaged 3.1 yards per carry.
02:31So if they can't run the football consistently, Angeli and that offense are going to be in long third downs.
02:36And that's where I give the edge to Tennessee in this matchup.
02:40No, there's no question.
02:41You know, at Notre Dame where Angeli was, they ran the ball.
02:45They ran the ball very well, and their quarterback was a part of the offense.
02:49He managed the offense.
02:50He didn't have to go out there and throw it 40, 50 times a game for them to have a chance to win.
02:55Now you've got a situation with Syracuse where they've got a lot of holes to fill.
02:59They lost a lot of good players last year, and I think they're going to have to depend too much on a quarterback to be where they were last year.
03:07So great first year for their new head coach.
03:10Don't think they'll quite have that year.
03:12Tennessee, I really like this quarterback having played against him.
03:15I like this quarterback.
03:17If he is as accurate as I think he can be, they can get back, and they can get back to 22 numbers, 20, 22 numbers on offense.
03:25Look out because they're going to be great on defense, and they're going to run that football.
Comments