Episode Details

Pete Golding named Edwin Joseph on Tuesday as the player nobody's asking about. Today I got to ask the one man in America who has actually watched him play.

Steven Willis is joined by Brian Smith of Locked On The Portal — who also operates Locked On Seminoles, and covered Edwin Joseph at Florida State.

IN THIS EPISODE:

🎯 The scouting report. Joseph came out of Chaminade Madonna in South Florida — a program that wins state titles almost every year, and where Jeremiah Smith played. A four-star on the 247 composite, recruited by Auburn, Louisville, Penn State and straight down the list. Nobody was sure whether he'd end up at receiver, corner or safety, because he's just a really good athlete. Brian's read: single high, in the box, at nickel — he can run. And he's physical; contact doesn't bother him.

🧩 Why he might be better here. Florida State completely changed its defense last season under Tony White, and that scheme is zone-heavy and built to confuse — the safety lines up somewhere different against identical personnel, and the whole goal is making the quarterback throw it to the wrong team. It's a lot of information, and Brian's honest take is that it produced four or five great plays and then a coverage bust. His framing on the switch: like being an IndyCar driver and trying a different kind of racing. His advice on Joseph: don't cloud him too much.

🛡️ Joseph and Aguero together. They're similar players who'll both be free safeties at different times — put them on the field together and you disguise everything while keeping it simple, because nobody knows which one is the free safety. Brian's read on what that says about Golding's plan: stuff the run first, then create havoc in the backfield. Because you're going to give up explosive plays no matter what, so you'd better create some of your own.

📉 Is Ole Miss the drop-off team? Somebody on Brian's show said yes. He disagrees — he's got Ole Miss 9-3, in the Playoff or just outside. And here's the one factor that actually predicts a top-10 collapse: an overhyped quarterback. That's not Trinidad.

Plus two future Ole Miss quarterbacks facing each other in a high school game on ESPN2, and why practice in Oxford is locked down tighter than it ever was under Kiffin.

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Episode Timestamps

00:00 Pete Golding's defensive strategy

03:16 Restricted access to Ole Miss practices

08:43 Analyzing Defensive Flexibility

11:13 Using GameTime to buy tickets

13:48 Chattanooga Game with Manning Hype

17:36 Using Calci for sports predictions

20:54 Quarterback performance and prospects

24:29 Promoting YouTube and Discord Channels

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