Games that will redefine our team expectations; Team Superpower vs. Team Field & Ari's adulting adventures cont.
Until Saturday: A show about college football
The Athletic
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 July 2021
⏱️ 85 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In another glamorous Monday podcast with Andy and Ari, the college football pundits pick early-season games that could change their opinions of the teams playing. . Would North Carolina be considered the early-season ACC favorite if they beat Virginia Tech? What if the Hokies were to win, where would they be in the conference's hierarchy? Recognized as the podcast's 'Mascot Game' to start the year, LSU-UCLA will be a telling matchup for both teams. Will Penn State rebound from a forgettable 2020 season to become the most improved team in college football by beating Wisconsin? In a fun reader-recommended exercise, Andy and Ari construct their 'Team Superpower' and 'Team Field' from, respectively, their top-four college football programs and the remaining teams and players in the sport before pitting them against one another. Who would win? Would Team Superpower be the underdog? If so, why? Lastly, more adulting tales from Ari.
Follow Andy on Twitter: @Andy_Staples
Follow Ari on Twitter: @AriWasserman
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Andy Staples show. |
| 0:12.0 | As we promised, we're still just talking about football. |
| 0:15.6 | I know there's other stuff going on. |
| 0:17.2 | There's a bunch of media days coming up. |
| 0:18.6 | You've got the SEC this week. |
| 0:19.8 | You've got the ACC this week. We will cover those this week. But I have Ari Wasserman here, and we want to talk |
| 0:28.2 | about games because we're having fun talking about games. We still don't have stakes for our bet |
| 0:35.2 | on LSU UCLA. Remember, I'm giving already 15 points on that one. So we need |
| 0:41.0 | something somewhat embarrassing for one of us to have to do if we lose that bet. But Ari, |
| 0:46.8 | that game, by the way, spoiler alert, we're going to mention that in this week's topic as well. |
| 0:52.0 | But if you listen to last week's show, I brought this up, and I thought this would be something |
| 0:57.2 | we should explore a little bit more at a later date, and that later date is now. |
| 1:02.4 | And it's games that change our expectations for one or both teams. |
| 1:07.3 | These are early season games. |
| 1:08.9 | We're watching them, and we go, whoa, okay, |
| 1:12.0 | what I thought this team was, it is not. It is something completely different. And the one that |
| 1:17.4 | always jumps out to me that sort of changed everything for both teams involved in the game |
| 1:22.7 | was the 2008 season open in Atlanta between Alabama and Clemson. This was supposed to be Tommy Bowden's best team at Clemson. |
| 1:29.9 | Nick Sabin was going into a second year at Alabama, |
| 1:32.0 | but they had not been particularly great in his first year. |
| 1:35.0 | They'd lost Louisiana in a row. |
| 1:36.4 | They'd just made the Independence Bowl. |
... |
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