Burns sees a 'clear advantage' for No. 10 A&M over Arizona State

Key notes from Peter Burns interview

• It’s been kind of a slow week in college sports. Michigan can't keep the clock right for their Hail Mary, Florida State didn't pay their electricity bill, and you have the SEC suing LSU. So, normal things happening.
   
• When it comes to LSU and the SEC presidents, I think every single school, including Texas A&M and all the other presidents and those who would vote on it, understands the value of LSU as a brand, as a firestorm of interest one way or another and the amount of success that they've had in the league and national championships. I think you would take something unbelievable to get to the point of removing them. But the reality of the situation is that the league finds itself at a crossroads in trying to figure out if the NCAA is not going to truly regulate college sports. If Congress isn't coming to save them, can they pass rules and govern those rules? This is kind of the first litmus test to figure it out. We have these rules, and we think a university wants to circumvent those rules. Do we have the right to punish or sanction these schools? We'll find that out a little bit later today. I want to be in the federal court in Alabama, whether or not they can have those discussions. If they do, then on Thursday it kind of just figures out what happens with the rest of the presidents and how they want to vote.
   
• I don't think LSU is getting kicked out of the league, but do they punish someone if they do it? It might be an in-season suspension. They're probably not going to wait until the following year. You probably wouldn't do it against a non-conference opponent, and you wouldn’t do it this late into the game. They may say that you can't coach tomorrow. But they might say it's available now.
   
• I think of the fans, because I cannot wait to see the drama of Lane Kiffin going back to Ole Miss. I will tell you this: I spent some time in Oxford. It's a toxic situation between Kiffin and the Ole Miss fans, right? Kiffin may say it's not, if he's toxic about it, but I could see the fan bases. I think if LSU continues to look the way that they did against Clemson, I think LSU would beat Ole Miss. If they beat them, they might beat them handily. I don't think that's a recipe for chaos, to say the least, of Kiffin trying to burn down Oxford a second time if he doesn't end up victorious. I can see that Kiffin going back to Ole Miss this week as 20 times bigger than Kiffin going back to Tennessee or Jim Schlossnagle going back to Texas A&M. You think about it, right? Kiffin returning to Tennessee - it had been years. That scab had kind of healed over. Schloss to A&M- while it was ugly, it's kind of niche. It's not everybody. If you're inside baseball, you kind of knew what was going on. You knew the story, but maybe a casual A&M football fan didn't really get dialed into it. Everybody in the world knows about Kiffin and the Ole Miss situation. Kiffin loves to play with fire in the media, and you kind of think, "Oh, he's not going to make a big deal out of it, but what if he did?" He can't help but poke the bear. Think about his comments to Holly Rowe at halftime, right? That's just Kiffin.
   
• If you were looking to have a lesson learned from all of this, it’s not to go against the SEC and their rules. You would probably suspend the coach if you felt like you had the receipts that he had done something. But just on a level, can you imagine? I mean, Kiffin’s probably been circling the LSU-Ole Miss game, going back to Oxford, every single day since he left. To take that away from him, that is as bad a punishment as Kiffin could probably ever have.
   
• I’m hoping Texas A&M brings a beatdown against Arizona State this weekend. I think Kenny Dillingham has done a pretty good job of trying to keep his roster intact, but if you look at what these rosters look like, there's a clear advantage for A&M. It was hard to digest what we saw. The offense looked good at times. Defense, you have to clean the slate. You seem to be pretty healthy coming out of it. But this is almost the perfect opponent for Marcel Reed to show that he can kind of take the next step in his progression. I think Vegas looks at this and says that it's probably about a two-touchdown favorite.
   
• I don't think you have to be worried about A&M’s secondary this weekend. This is not a situation where I think it's going to be a shootout. I think Mike Elko's defense is strong enough that I would be shocked if they give up over 17 points to an Arizona State team that I'm not wild about. This is not when they had Sam Leavitt a couple of years ago, and they were kind of coming out of nowhere. I don't think they're as good as they were that year, frankly. This is more about imposing your will on a team where your roster is better. As long as Reed isn't as bad as he was in the first half of South Carolina, he just needs to be as good as the second half. Just show me you can run the offense, and I absolutely think Reed can do that.
   
• I think Ohio State at Texas is a coin-flip game, honestly. We were just having a conversation with the Big Ten guys on SiriusXM radio. The question comes back to quarterback play. I think they're very similar to each other. The problem is that Julian Sayin, last year, when he got any type of pass rush against him, wasn't ready for it. Now he's a little bit stronger, a little bit better, a little bit more seasoned, but Will Muschamp's not afraid. He never met a blitz he didn't like. They're going to try to press Sayin early to see if that can make him make a mistake. I know the Longhorn fans are going to be fired up. I think you're just going to see a vastly different version of Arch Manning than you saw last year, making that first big start in Columbus. I think he is an upper-tier quarterback. I think it is Texas, but I do think it's a coin-flip game. As long as Manning doesn't have a bad turnover, they should win that game.
   
• With nine SEC teams on their schedule, Texas has the same margin for error against Ohio State as they did last year. It's going to be close for everybody. I think everybody's getting smarter about looking into more of a GM, NFL roster and how they spend their money wisely. We're starting to see that. That's why there's so much parity, and that's why I think this year is going to be a bloodbath in the SEC. We're going to see good teams go 8-4 that I think could compete for the College Football Playoff. Maybe not winning the title, but I think there are going to be some teams where their feelings are hurt just because there are a lot of good teams, just like there are in the NFL.
   
• Kentucky looks good. Kenny Minchey looks solid. The difference for Kentucky is they finally have an offensive line. I was talking to some people over there, and they thought their offensive line was going to be good. It's even better than they thought. That’s Week 1. It might change against Alabama and Kane Wommack's defense. I think Alabama is for real. I really do. I think Keelon Russell showed the poise that we thought. I think they were able to run the ball. They've understood that Ryan Grubb's offense. They haven't been able to do that. I think we're going to come around on Saturday and say Kentucky punched them in the mouth early, maybe even had an early lead. And then, at the end of the day, we're going to look at it like, “Wow, how was it 34-13?” Maybe we start looking at Alabama as a national championship-type contender.