The Joe Quarterback Podcast

Just a regular guy talking football with people who love football

recent posts

  • So close…

    The college football regular season is complete. Conference champions have been crowned. The bowl games begin on Saturday, December 13 with the Celebration Bowl (also, Army-Navy is that afternoon!). And, the first round of the playoffs begin on December 19.

    The College Football Playoff (CFP) committee announced its final group of 12 who will compete for this year’s national championship. Given the outcomes of the conference championships, there weren’t very many surprises. Indiana moved to the #1 seed after beating Ohio State to become Big Ten champs. Bama’s in, Georgia’s in – with a possibility of giving them a third contest this season in the National Championship game. Everyone’s date with destiny is set.

    I was excited for an expanded playoff. Four teams just never felt like enough. So, when we moved to twelve, it just felt right…almost. Before I proceed, let’s be clear on two things:

    1. The CFP selection committee has a difficult job.
    2. Unless we’re going to design a 136-team bracket and play football through March (wait a second…), someone will always be “left out,” and people will debate it until next year’s CFP.

    That being said. We’re not quite there. Giving the five highest ranked conference champions an automatic bid is eliminating teams who have earned (not deserve…EARNED) an opportunity to compete for a natty.

    For example, let’s talk about Notre Dame (10-2) who finished the regular season 11th in the CFP rankings and played in the National Championship last year. They were the “first team out” this year in favor of American Conference Champion, Tulane (11-2, 20th), and Sun Belt Conference Champion, James Madison (12-1, 24th). Say what you like about winning a conference championship – the competition in those conferences doesn’t match up with the opponents the Irish faced in 2025 as an independent. Notre Dame finished the season with 24th most challenging schedule of 2024. Tulane: 72nd, JMU: 118th. Acknowledging that the schedule is set months (sometimes more) in advance, the reality is Notre Dame had a tougher road to their 10-2 record.

    Another argument I’ve heard in the last 2 years is “the smaller conferences need to have a better shot at getting in.” My only response to that would be “why?” The previous argument about strength of schedule differences aside, let’s talk about how the lines of conferences continue to get blurred. For example, 18 schools play football in the Big…10? The Big 12 has 16. I’m no mathematician, but a certain Princess Bride quote comes to mind (“You keep using that word…”). The SEC has grown 33% since 2020 and now includes areas I wouldn’t consider southeast, geographically speaking. I’m not certain the conference structure means as much as it used to unless you are a college football purist. Schools are chasing the TV contract money, and I don’t fault them for that. But with the constant shifting, I’m not sure there’s a conference argument to be made, especially when the schools in the smaller conferences aspire to move up.

    At work, when I bring a problem to the table, I try to bring a solution as well. So, who do I think should make the CFP? I vote that we use the results of the AFCA Coaches Poll with seeding determined by the ranking in this poll. No automatic bids for a conference championship – pure positioning the poll. In my opinion, it’s the current coaches who know these teams better than any athletic director, analyst, or former player. And if we want to give the Tulanes and James Madisons of the world a title shot, expand the field. After all, I don’t think any of us would complain about more football….

  • Iron Bowl Blues

    If you’re an Auburn University football fan (like me), there hasn’t been much to celebrate. There was the 2010 National Championship win. There was the almost National Championship in 2013 (a heartbreaking loss). But for the most part, it’s been a little rough.

    The couple of seasons following the 2010 ‘ship showed promise. Between 2010-2019, the Tigers posted 9 winning seasons. However, between 2020-2025, Auburn has amassed a 34-39 (.466) record. The Gus Malzahn era ended in 2020, and the Bryan Harsin and Hugh Freeze experiments were relatively short-lived. There really hasn’t been much to celebrate.

    But regardless of what happened every season, Auburn fans lived for one possibility: beating Bama in the Iron Bowl. I went to high school in the Yellowhammer State, and if you had asked fans of either team, “Would you rather have a season where you won a national championship but lost the Iron Bowl, or lost a national championship, but won the Iron Bowl?” there are many people who would need time to think about it…others would not – they’d pick the Iron Bowl.

    And so, for years, we have lived for the possibility of beating Bama. Alas, it has not been the case, not even achieving a .500 mark, going 5-11 between 2010 and this most recent iteration of the annual spectacle that I believe is in the top 3 best college football rivalries in NCAA history (Ohio State-Michigan has to be in the conversation; and, I love watching Army-Navy every year…).

    I had high hopes this past weekend (frankly, I always do). And it was a good game; perhaps one of the best Iron Bowls in recent memory. At the end of the day, it was the same old story – not just for the rivalry, but for the season as well. To use a collegiate metaphor, Auburn majored in one score losses this season. Of the 7 losses in the Tigers’ 2025 season, six were by 7 points or less. In contrast, 50% of the Tide’s victories were by 7 points or less. So, perhaps, this game ended exactly the way it was supposed to.

    So, Auburn fans head optimistically into the offseason. As a current resident of Tampa, I’ve seen what our new head coach, Alex Golesh, has done at the University of South Florida. Over three seasons, he led the Bulls to a 23-15 (.605) record. Could this be our time? There’s always next year…

  • Common Denominators

    Wide receivers have been some of the most prolific personalities in the NFL over the years. Players like Rice, Fitzgerald, Moss, Bruce, Owens (ok, some more prolific than others…). And then you have the modern players working to etch their names into history – Evans, Hopkins, Adams, Allen (say what you like about his current season, Keenan ranks 34th in career receiving yards and is 39 yards away from passing 3x Super Bowl Champion Michael Irvin).

    But without the right quarterback, the wide receiver doesn’t get the ball. Rice had Montana, then Young. Irvin had Aikman. Fitzgerald and Bruce split time on Warner. It’s no exaggeration to say that the NFL quarterback may be the most critical position in sports. And there’s a quarterback out there who spent the formative years of his career on a lackluster team who’s been quietly building a resume that’s sure to make him a first ballot hall of famer.

    I didn’t care for math in school; I do like patterns. And I like it when I see a patterns (which I guess means I like statistics which means I like part of math – fine…). How’s this for a pattern:

    • Calvin Johnson (hail, Megatron!) holds the single-season record for receiving yards with 1,964 in 2012
    • Cooper Kupp is second on that list with 1,947 receiving yards in 2021, the same year he achieved the receiving trip crown (145 receptions, 16 touchdowns being the other two legs of that stool).
    • Finally, current statistical models indicate Puka Nacua is on pace to achieve 1,999 receiving yards this season.

    Class: what is the common denominator in this little math problem? Anyone? Anyone?

    If you said Matthew Stafford – you’re correct. After being drafted #1 overall in the 2009 NFL Draft, Stafford spent the first 12 season of his career in the doldrums of Detroit. Slowly building the resume and reputation for being a gritty player, willing to do what was needed for his team (if you need receipts, who can forget this game against the Browns?).

    We’re talking about a guy who is ninth in career passing yards at 62,639 (the only other active player in the top 10 is Aaron Rodgers at #5). If he hits his projected pace of 4,298 passing yards by the end of the 2025 season, he’d move into sixth place, passing Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers, and Ben Roethlisberger. With a Super Bowl ring already on this finger, if he successfully completes an MVP campaign this season (and, who knows – another Super Bowl?), go ahead and start carving the bust, because he’ll be in Canton.

  • Justin Herbert: Player or Fader?

    My morning starts by listening to some of the faceless voices on sports talk radio. It’s standard part of my morning ritual as I feed the dogs and sip my Celsius (Cosmic Vibe is the preferred flavor). It’s part of my process that gets my day moving and kick starts my brain.

    A topic of conversation on yesterday morning’s program was the Los Angeles Chargers and what we’re seeing out of their starting quarterback, Justin Herbert. The general sentiment seemed to be that if the Chargers don’t make the playoffs, or if they make the playoffs but get bounced in the first round by an upstart like New England or Indianapolis, both of which are in some stage of a rebuild process, it might mean that Herbert is not the quarterback we thought he was.

    I, for one, am not ready to call it a day on the University of Oregon product. Let’s look at some numbers…

    Through the first eleven weeks of the NFL season, Herbert ranks:

    • 2nd in total completions (250/376, 66%)
    • 2nd in total passing yards (2,691)
    • 6th in passing touchdowns (19)
    • 3rd in rushing yards among QBs (345 on 54 attempts with a rushing touchdown)

    That all looks pretty good…but there’s another side to the story. Herbert ranks:

    • 31st in interceptions (9)
    • 17th in Passer Rating (94.2)
    • 12th in Time-to-Throw (2.86)
    • Sacked the 3rd most times (35) and the most QB pressures (189) of any quarterback this season

    When I look at these numbers, I don’t see an inept quarterback; I see an offensive line that’s been decimated by injury in 2025. Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, first-round draft pick offensive tackles are both out. Trey Pipkins III, Jamaree Salyer, and Mekhi Becton have all missed time for injury. Their backups are getting injured, their backups’ backups are getting injured. And to quote the great Vince Lombardi, “Football is fundamentally a game of blocking and tackling, the team that does that best, usually wins!” And when the players who are supposed to block for you aren’t there, the players who are supposed to tackle you have a field day.

    And this is not to say that there aren’t better quarterbacks in the league. I think there are. But maybe we don’t write the kid off just yet…