ESPN’s Josh Pate on the Impact of Georgia’s & Notre Dame’s WK7 Loses

Josh Pate joined The Rich Eisen Show from the Bussin' With The Boys shop, surrounded by somebody's Pokémon pillows, because he put 12:20 in his calendar instead of 11:20. The setting was chaotic. The takes were not.

The ESPN college football analyst came ready to say the things a lot of people in the sport are only whispering: Texas might bench Arch Manning, Ohio State might miss the playoff, the officials owe everyone an explanation, and a 24-team field would cheapen the best regular season in American sports.

## Could Texas really bench Arch Manning?

Rich opened with the noise around Arch Manning, including Dan Orlovsky's suggestion on X that Manning is staying in college and shouldn't stay at Texas.

"Man, I hate to agree with Dan Orlovsky at any point, but I think he may be right on that," Pate said.

Pate zoomed out to the whole program first. The complaint he keeps hearing around Texas is that this many years in, the team's identity is defense, the exact opposite of what Steve Sarkisian specializes in. "If I've got Steve Sarkisian as my head coach, one thing I always want to count on is we're going to have really, really good quarterback development around here. And it's not happening," Pate said. "It didn't happen with Quinn Ewers really, and it's not happening with Arch Manning."

The numbers from last week did not help. Manning faced a Florida pass defense Pate said ranked "in the 130s," and Texas had five completed passes beyond the line of scrimmage. "It's woeful ineptitude."

Now comes Ole Miss. Lose that one, Pate said, and Texas is basically out of the playoff picture "and it's not Halloween yet." If the game goes sideways or starts slow, he wondered whether Sarkisian would turn to KJ Lacey. "Imagine seeing Texas benches Arch Manning during a football game for non-health-related issues. That's where we are."

He compared the trajectory to James Franklin at Penn State last year: sunny skies in August, "thunderstorms everywhere by October."

## Whose fault is it?

Rich asked the obvious follow-up, and Pate refused the easy answer. He does not buy the word "bust."

His theory: Texas can't run the ball, and the offensive line has been inefficient for a couple of years, so the problem is bigger than one player. Pate granted that Sarkisian could probably cut up 30 plays where the design was right and the read or throw wasn't. Even then, Pate said, it circles back to development.

"This is not a true freshman we're talking about. This is a guy who has multiple years in the program now," Pate said. "To say that Arch Manning's a bust is to say that you believe he would be this inefficient no matter where he was playing. Cuz if you're saying anything other than that, then it's a developmental issue, it's a program issue, it's not just a player issue."

## Ohio State without Julian Sayin

With Julian Sayin hurt, Ohio State has a bye and then USC. Rich asked what comes next. Pate did not hedge.

"I think they'll lose at least three games and I think they'll miss the playoff," he said. "I think they'll be a nine and three team. Really good defense."

That is a big swing from a guy who power-rated Ohio State the No. 1 team in the country with Sayin. But Pate said Sayin was not performing phenomenally before the injury either, and he sees a pattern across the sport. Marcel Reed, John Mateer, Arch Manning: underachieving quarterbacks with run games that "either suck outright" or are falling short. Meanwhile Gunnar Stockton and Conner Weigman at Houston are thriving behind good ground games.

"So many of these places are counting on going and buying a quarterback to bail out their failures at other critical areas of the program and organization, and it doesn't work that way," he said.

Pate also wondered why Tavien St. Clair, another former five-star, isn't ready to play, and he wants Ohio State to throw everything at defenses with a backup in. Jeremiah Smith is "just unbelievable to see in person," and Pate thought Indiana was surprised Chris Henry Jr. wasn't on the field more. "If you're going to die, you need to die with those dudes on the field."

Rich backed him up with a goal-line stand at Indiana where Smith stood on the sideline for three tries, then came in as a decoy on fourth down while a wide-open teammate in the flat scored.

## Georgia, Notre Dame and the 1-second mess

Which loss stood out more, Georgia's or Notre Dame's? "Oh, easily Georgia," Pate said.

He called it explainable on the schedule alone: Georgia playing its seventh straight game, coming off Alabama, with Auburn off a bye. Georgia fumbled four times against Alabama and recovered all four, then turned it over three times against Auburn, which had none. Auburn finally ran Byrum Brown. Pate flagged a similar trap this weekend: Tennessee, in its eighth straight game and coming off Alabama, at a South Carolina team coming off a bye.

Notre Dame losing didn't shock him. Notre Dame never controlling the game did. "I just flat out did not think Brigham Young had that in them," he said of BYU's offense, adding that Bear Bachmeier throwing for, running for and catching a touchdown is a story he'll be telling "his dying day."

Then the clock. Pate has had it with the 1 second left that wasn't. This is procedural, he said, like the offsides on an onside kick that wasn't called in the Michigan State game a couple weeks ago. "We're not playing 162 games. We played 12 of them." One more shot from the 4-yard line versus game over could decide who makes the playoff.

His bigger complaint is accountability. Players, coaches and athletic directors all face the media. Officials hop in a van. "We're not guarding nuclear codes here," Pate said. "It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to have a pool reporter meet with an official after a game."

## Why Pate hates a 24-team playoff

Rich said he spent the weekend watching games through the prism of a 24-team field, from Michigan-Penn State to a two-loss Georgia. Pate let loose.

He has no patience for "bad faith" arguments that pretend critics think big games would become meaningless. "I'm saying it's very foolish for us to claim that we're creating more meaningful games, which is a lie, when in reality you're just redistributing the meaning," he said. Meaning moves off games featuring real contenders and onto teams "destined for three and four losses and a first-round exit."

And no, the basketball comparison doesn't work for him. "College football's not a tournament sport," Pate said, noting the tournament taught him he doesn't need to watch college basketball in December. "I'm not sitting here saying a 24-team playoff destroys the regular season. No, it doesn't. It cheapens it. It lowers the urgency on the biggest games."

His closer: college football already has a playoff. "It just doesn't have the sticker on it." He'll respect a fan who admits he just wants his team in, whatever the format. What he hates is the dishonesty. Rich said Pate was getting a standing ovation on set.

## Next stop, Columbia

Pate's show heads to South Carolina on Friday for what he called "Cocktober," and he owned his role in the Shane Beamer hot-seat talk. "By they, I mean I." South Carolina smoked Florida, went into a bye, and flipped from a two-and-a-half point underdog to a two-and-a-half point favorite against Tennessee. With LaNorris Sellers, Nyck Harbor and Dylan Stewart, who went from suspended to playing 70-plus snaps against Florida, Pate expects an electric scene at Williams-Brice Stadium, which he called the most underrated home-field environment in college football.