In the latest episode of Johnny’s intangibles, on Action Network’s Big Bets on Campus podcast, we spoke with the College Football legend about the action of Week 11.
Key Takeaways:
🏉Ashton Jeanty is unbelievable
🏉Miami’s current way of playing is a recipe for disaster
🏉The Virginia Tech viral turkey leg video is just dudes being dudes
Who is your MVP of Week 11?
Johnny Manziel: "I got Ashton Jeanty – another unbelievable week for him.
34 carries, which is just an absolute workload for another game of over 200 yards, 209 yards, and another 3 touchdowns.
That puts him up to 1700 yards, 23 touchdowns for the season. The guy’s just playing unbelievable week in and week out. Every single week that I'm checking the stat book as the game goes on to see what this guy's up to every single week.
So another unbelievable performance by him."
There is a chance that we could go to a 7 way tie in the SEC with everybody finishing with 2 losses. What's the biggest reason for this parity in college football? Is it NIL? Is it the portal? Or is it a factor that none of us are realizing?
JM: "I think more than anything, it is the portal and being able to have guys come in and be able to add a little bit more depth for the season.
I know in the past years, especially whenever I was playing, if you had a big guy go down, you had a walk on maybe coming on, or somebody else.
This gives you a little bit more depth, for this season. Obviously, at the end of the season, it changes because guys are gonna be flying around and going different places.
The parity in college football comes down to the way that it’s set up right now with the transfer portal."
Would you pick Ole Miss defensive line or the Texas A&M defensive line right now?
JM: "If you'd asked me a couple weeks ago coming off of an LSU win, you would probably say Texas A&M.
But I think the performance that Ole Miss had this week was as good as you're gonna see from any defensive line throughout the country, the entirety of this year.
I'd probably give a little bit of an edge to Ole Miss just based on how the D-line for Texas A&M played against South Carolina."
Do you expect the NIL players that built this Ole Miss defensive line to stick around?
JM: "What we've seen over the last couple years, with the guys who are in a position to get ready for the NFL draft, if you're not in the big bowl games or if you're not in the playoffs.
They seem to get ready and to take the meaningless, if you look at it that way, bowl game's off.So these guys who are looking at the NFL draft and looking forward and looking ahead, if you're not in the big ticket, I would expect them to probably do what we've seen in the past."
Jalen Milroe was outstanding against LSU – you can see that Jalen Milroe is attacking the middle of the offensive line, the a and the b gaps. Is there a bit of tentativeness to go through the a and b gap? Do you always wanna pop it outside?
JM: "I think in this case for Alabama here they’ve been having some struggles over the past couple weeks, really trying to get a spark.
How do you do that?
You get the ball to your best player and get him doing what he does best, which is running downhill. We've seen at times, Jalen Milroe getting outside and getting on the edges on some keeps. This is just the awesome game plan for them.
To be able to have a running back on this play -we'll get into the gap a little bit, get some blocks for him. But, for him to be able to have this vision that he has, it's just an unbelievable thing. To be able to have your quarterback being able to run-in between the tackles and get downhill right away and use his speed to put this LSU defense in a bind."
Miami lost to Georgia Tech on a fumble by Cam Ward – is now a good time to buy the Miami Hurricanes to win the ACC? To potentially win some games in the College Football playoffs?
JM: "I think it was a good time to buy them to win the ACC. I think they're still gonna continue to go on and be able to do that.
I just think with this team, you've seen a pattern throughout the season.
It's just how many times are they gonna get away with this in these close games.
It could have happened earlier in the season at Virginia Tech. It could have happened multiple times, and it's a little bit of a pattern, of what they've been as a team.
They're not a team that gets out on you early, who stomps on your throat and puts you down.
It's like they come alive whenever they're down 7 points and have to come back, and that's just a recipe for disaster.
You're gonna run into a team in the college football playoff who's not gonna let up, and you're not gonna be able to come back from the deficit.
They have some things to definitely work on over the next couple weeks. But what they want to do in the ACC, it's still getting themselves into a nice position in the playoff.
It's still all very much in front of them."
Virginia Tech fans in Blacksburg went viral for sharing a turkey leg. Is this typical bro code to share a turkey leg, or is this just dudes being dudes? Is there something in the water in Blacksburg sharing a turkey leg?
JM: "I think this is just anytime you get 10, 12 beers deep, and you're just getting absolutely hungry to the point where you can't help but munch on one of your roast turkey legs a little bit.
So I think this is a little bit of dudes being dudes, but, man, that guy really did bite and hold on to that thing for a while.
If I'm the main turkey leg holder of this thing, I'm probably a little bit upset after that.
But, you know how these college football games are. It's a long time to get into the concession stand. Maybe you don't have the funds to be able to go and get one for each one of the boys, but an interesting look in Virginia Tech here for sure."
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