2024 College Football PREDICTIONS 2.0: Georgia misses the SEC Championship | CBS Sports

Welcome to CBS sports HQ alongside Jeremy Saint Louis. I'm Tommy Tran with you on this Monday week zero Jeremy. Done and dusted in college football. You know, I'm a betting man. I know you are. Yeah Dogs were barking on Saturday. Underdogs four and zero against the spread. Are you going to baby on the way? So you got to make some money. You got to get that college fund. Get that good base started. I'm not even thinking that far. I'm just trying to get the nursery done. Crib and dresser, that kind of thing. You know, survive all of that? Yes. It is a season of change for college football. As we enter this new playoff era. Of course, we have a dozen teams that are going to be playing for a national championship after this regular season ends. And, you know, we love to do predictions and we love to, you know, hypothesize about what could possibly happen. And a guy who's on top of all of that is Josh Pate. And so we're going to go through some some predictions here with Josh in a second. But let's walk you through who he's got as conference champions starting with Texas in the SEC Ohio State in the Big Ten, Oklahoma State taking the big 12 Miami to take the ACC and Memphis taking the American Liberty Conference USA. Memphis highlighted because they make the playoff as a 12 seed. So Pate's got some predictions for us. You know, you're big time, Tommy, when you get on the curve wall. I like that promos all even dressed up. He put on a collared shirt. So pate's all in pate's all in for this one as his his college football predictions for this coming season. And as mentioned, I mean you look at the bracket, you can pick the teams out, but then you got to put them through the bracket. And that's where things really kind of get interesting. And here's what Josh has for his bracket. You look at that title game Ohio State versus Texas. And he's going to tell us who he has as a champion momentarily. But for now, let's welcome in Josh Pate the host of Late Kick with Josh Pate. Josh we know that conference champions because we just saw that on the graphic. So we want to start by talking about your at large teams. Obviously we saw some of them that were there on the bracket maybe making their way through. Walk us through who you have as your at large as outside of your conference champions. This is tough Jeremy. You try and nail me down every Saturday. Give me a definitive answer and this is tough to do. Four months out. So my thinking the first thing we have to address is my thinking on these at large is, is I think don't quote me on this. I think the committee is going to have to prioritize making the conference title game. So, for instance, when you look at an Oregon at number five, will that just signifies they lost the Big Ten title game. But I still think they're put in above, let's say a Georgia, you know, because I will talk about this a little bit later. I don't know that Georgia's going to be in Atlanta. I've got Alabama playing Texas in the SEC title game. Bama loses that game. I still think the committee says we're not going to punish you and drop you down further than you already were. Just because you went and played in the conference title game. Now, that seventh seed there, I wish we would have done this segment or maybe revised this segment. But you know, for the sake of integrity, I'm going to stick Florida State there as the ACC title game loser at number seven. And then we start to get into the true at large, the at large teams that sat at home during conference title Saturday. Your Georgia, your Penn State Ole Miss Notre Dame at 11 Jeremy. That to me is a two loss Notre Dame team. That's where a two loss Notre Dame would be a one loss or certainly undefeated is a much different conversation. And that's when we start asking could the Irish, who don't play in the conference, be seeded ahead of someone who didn't make the conference title game? And then, of course, Memphis as the G5 auto bid? I have right now at 12, I don't have Memphis going undefeated. I have Liberty going undefeated. I think the committee is also going to try and make a statement about how important strength of schedule is. Liberty does not play a power four opponent the entire year. And hey Josh, Florida could still finish as a one loss team if they run the table from here on out. And there's obviously a lot of people think there's a couple of losses that are still to come for them. But I mean, it's not out of the realm of possibility in terms of the playoff bracket itself. You're big on Texas to go on a run. Walk us through your thinking here with the Longhorns making that run to the title game. Yeah, they suffered a couple of injuries at the tailback position in fall camp, and that's dissuaded a few people away from Texas. And while I am concerned about it, I think Jaydon Blue could have a really big year. Spotlights on him now at tailback. This is Texas now. So not only have they recruited very well, but anytime Jeremy anytime you say oh Texas is recruited. Well that's why I'm picking them to win someone comes in from the back corner and says, oh, well, Texas is always recruited. Well, well, that's true and false. They've always had highly ranked classes. They haven't always recruited proportionally. This is basically like a piece of toast. And Sark has taken that recruiting class and he's spread it. It's very evenly distributed. We have a line of scrimmage talent. We have depth here. They went in backfield, I think, as well as they possibly could to replace guys like you. Just saw in Xavier Worthy and Jordan Whittington. So I think that if you get the requisite, you know, bump up in production from Quinn Ewers this year, I think they'll be right there. And defensively, I think in the aggregate they may not have the run stuffers like they had on the interior last year, but I think they'll be there. And thirdly, Jeremy, the schedule is very workable. They get you in Dallas like they do every year. Georgia comes to Austin. I'm not sure from a schedule makers perspective, how much better they could have asked for, especially when you consider what Oklahoma has to face this year in comparison. So I've got them going to Atlanta. I've got them winning it, and then you and I could probably sit here for the entire month of December and take calls from SEC fans who said it would never happen. Right. And so you've got your bracket all laid out. You've got you've got Texas getting to the national title game alongside Ohio State, the second ranked team in the nation. As the season gets set to begin. So Josh, give us your pick to win the National championship this year. As we sit here now at the end of August, with week one about to come, I went with Ohio State to win the national championship. It is in every responsible sense of the phrase, sort of a do or die year. I hesitate to say it. You heard the hesitation in the voice because I mean, no one actually dies. No one loses their job. I don't think if Ryan Day were to get to the title game and not win it, then they just burn it down and start from scratch. But I was up there this spring, met with Ryan Day, met with a majority of that coaching staff, and ops people and recruiting folks and everyone to a man and woman circled 2024. It was kind of like Michigan last year. Jeremy, I remember you and I would talk several times throughout the season last year on Saturdays about that Michigan team. And I would say, well, despite this looming NCAA cloud, it seems like they are so all in on this year. Whatever's beyond that doesn't exist. It feels that way at Ohio State right now for different reasons. But they are. So all in all, these guys who could have gone to the NFL come back. They go get Caleb Downs, they go get Quinshon Judkins out of the transfer portal market. They've got Will Howard at quarterback. They've got the most talented roster they've had. They may have the best defense in the country as usual. They have a very workable schedule. Big Ten championship game has to go through Indy, where they'd be favored against anyone in that conference. One tough game, at least on the road, and that's in Eugene. And then you got the Penn State game on the road a few weeks later, and then you got Michigan. Feels like a three game season to me. And then when they get in the playoffs, if they've made it that far, they vanquished a lot of those demons that have haunted them. And I think that's a team that if they get rolling, is going to be really tough to stop. I would pick them neutral field against anyone in the country to start the season. Therefore, that's how I would project the national title game to play out. And to your point, Josh, you're really well said there. That this 2024 is just circled for Ohio State. It seems like this has to be the year for them. All right. Let's get into some other predictions from you in terms of Heisman winner. Let's start with that. Dillon Gabriel, Carson Beck, Quinn Ewers are the three favorites today. You're all in on Texas making it to the title game. Are you all in on Ewers to being there when they hand out the Heisman? No, I don't think he's going to win the Heisman. I think if Texas does what I think they're going to, he will have had a really good year. And you know what he has Jeremy, even though he's not my pick to win it, he's like top 15 ish in a lot of those key metrics. And so it's not that he's bad. He's very good. You just need him to be a great player and he's got the same coordinator. Third year in a row Sark. He's got the same program third year in a row. The guy I'm picking does not have that. The guy I'm picking though is Dillon Gabriel who transferred from Oklahoma by way of UCF to Oregon. I think he fell into such a custom made position for him. Will Stein most of the viewers probably won't know that name, but you will. That is one of the biggest up and coming names in the coordinator world. That's the OC up at Oregon. And when they lost Kenny Dillingham to Arizona State, Lanning made a very crucial hire to go and get him. And not a lot of people lauded it, but they should have. So you've got that. You've got probably the best one two combo out wide at wide receiver. You've got an all conference caliber tight end. Oregon's always going to have you a really good offensive line and run the ball. And they'll play pretty good defense as well. I think Dillon Gabriel got put in a perfect position. You're looking at the odds right there. Courtesy of FanDuel. He and Carson Beck right there is a one and two. And neither one would surprise me. But I roll with Dillon Gabriel right now. And the total wild card would be a guy like Noah Fifita. You know, down at Arizona, a guy that could just Avery Johnson as well at Kansas State, could just come out of nowhere and light the world on fire in the big 12 and make a run. But give me Dillon Gabriel at Oregon. Lastly, you have a bold prediction for us. And Josh, I got to tell you this. This is bold and brave. I'll say this. You may get some some hate mail for this one. Give us your bold prediction for this coming season. You know, my home address is in the state of Georgia too, so it makes it doubly dangerous. What I'm about to say. So, Jeremy, it's going to sound hypocritical. If I were to give you my power ratings right now, I'd have Georgia as the number one team in the country. I'd have Georgia, therefore, as the number one team in the SEC. But my bold prediction is actually they don't even go to the SEC Championship game. So someone would listen to that and say, well, you're lying one way or another. You either don't believe that prediction or you don't believe they're the number one team in the SEC. Well, no, I believe both of those things. Here's the difference. There are some people who look at Georgia and think it's Georgia. Then there's a gap between them in the field in the SEC. I don't believe that. I believe those teams Georgia, Texas, Alabama, even Ole Miss. I think there's a lot of bottlenecking at the very, very top of the SEC. And so Georgia is the one that has to go to Alabama. Georgia is the one who has to go to Texas. Georgia is the one who has to go to Ole Miss. They play five of my 621 or better teams in the country, and five of the six are away from Athens. So Clemson's part of that, by the way. They're favored by two touchdowns. They'll play Florida in Jacksonville. They'll be heavily favored. It's not any one game here Tennessee at home. They'll be favored against Tennessee. It's the totality of this schedule that leads me to believe they end up losing two games. And I think they'll be two teams with better records than them that will meet in Atlanta. So having said that, Jeremy, that still puts him as an at large seed in the playoff and may still have them favored against everyone in the country for all I know. Okay so Josh, we'll just keep the tape. All right. And then later on during the season, we may have to roll it back for you just to remind you of some of the predictions. But great stuff as always. Josh Pate with his College Football Playoff predictions for this season here on HQ. And if you haven't already, you got to get dialed into late kick with Josh Pate. They go Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 8 p.m. live on YouTube. You can also get the podcast on Apple, Spotify and Audible as well. And look at this. They're giving away free tanks of gas all season long. Not not not gas cards, tanks, whatever tank you have, whatever your tank is. He said he had a 74 gallon tank that they filled. The guy didn't pay a cent giving awayree tanks of