ESPN college football booth duo of Joe Tessitore and Todd Blackledge participated in a media conference call today to discuss the College Football Playoff. Tessitore and Blackledge, along with reporter Holly Rowe, will call the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl, the first semifinal of the CFP, between No. 1 Alabama and No. 4 Washington on Saturday, Dec. 31, at 3 p.m. ET.

Transcript of the conference call is available below.

Todd Blackledge: Good afternoon, everybody. Very excited to really start digging in and get ready for this game, for the first playoff game.

I’m excited about the matchup, too. I know that most people kind of assume Alabama is a runaway favorite in the game, but I think Washington is a very intriguing matchup for Alabama. As good as they are on defense, as dominant as they’ve been on defense, I think the offensive attack of Washington presents some challenges for Alabama and their ability to throw the football, the dynamic play-makers they have in their passing game.

Of course the big question always is, when you play Alabama, how can your offensive line hold up. Are they sturdy enough to allow you to throw the football. I do think there’s an intriguing matchup on that side of the ball with the passing game of Washington.

I also think on the other side of the ball, Washington’s defense is maybe a little bit better than most people realize or think. I think they’re extremely talented in the back end of their defense, and I think they’re also better than people maybe give them credit for up front.

They have overcome a couple injuries in their front seven. But their defensive line is a very active, very talented group. I think their defense is good enough to hold them in this game. It’s just a matter of whether or not offensively they can make enough plays in the passing game.

But Alabama has been impressive to watch. It’s amazing to me how this is another one of Nick Saban’s teams that just has gotten better and better as the year has gone on. You don’t have to look any further than their quarterback Jalen Hurts to see that kind of improvement and progression through the season.

It is an impressive football team that’s playing their best football at the end and I think the matchup is very exciting for us to have a chance to call.

Joe Tessitore: Good afternoon, everyone.

I completely agree with Todd in terms of on surface level, you hear a lot of the dismissing of Washington, and Alabama is going to roll. I think we’re really fortunate that we spent a lot of time with Alabama, as well as a good week with Washington for the Stanford game, and feel like we have a great sense of both programs. I think people are absolutely dismissing how talented and how capable the Washington defense is.

I often also think sometimes when you get to games at this level, when one matchup is getting all the attention, and everybody seems to be on the same page at a matchup level, look at what the Alabama defense is going to be able to do in this game, it tends to be the other side, the other matchup that often defines games like this.

I really am focusing in on the Washington defense against the Alabama offense. When I look at the Alabama offense, I think Lane Kiffin has done a great job as a play-caller in recent years, taking different quarterbacks with different talents, not exposing them, playing to strengths, utilizing the best weapons as any play-caller has in the last three years of college football.

This is strange to say with such a dominant football team, a 13-0 SEC Championship football team, I still see an offense that isn’t fully evolved and developed as to where they want to be, they have some deficiencies, especially the interior of the offensive line, and a quarterback that is a great runner, is so calm, poised and cool. But so often the passing game is at or behind the line of scrimmage. You’re limiting other things and other elements that aren’t quite there yet.

Much like Todd, I look at a Washington defense, I remember saying this when we were out there spending time with them at practice, it’s not often you look at PAC-12 defensive lines and they remind you what you typically are seeing when calling games on Saturday night primetime in the SEC, but this defensive line looks that way.

And then it is a defensive backfield that’s extremely talented, tall, rangy and athletic at corner. Now with the emergence of Taylor Rapp at safety, maybe (indiscernible) allowing Budda Baker to do more things and play more aggressively.

That has been getting a lot of my attention, that matchup, the Washington defense against the Alabama offense, when it seems the whole world is just focused on the Alabama defense dominating this football game.

That’s my quick early thoughts.

The only other thing is the role that Chris Petersen plays when he has a lot of time to game plan, a lot of time to dig in. You saw through all the off-seasons at Boise when he was preparing for open weekend games that he always pulled upsets with, then of course what he was able to do with Fiesta Bowls in the past. The role that Chris Petersen and his staff will have with a month of preparation with this game is very intriguing.

I have an unusual question. Todd, do you ever kind of catch yourself thinking about where Alabama was as a program about 15 years ago, just the contrast of where they are now from where they were then?
Blackledge: I definitely do because when I first went to CBS, before I came back to ESPN and ABC, it was during that time. There was Mike DuBose, Mike Shula. They still had the tradition and the history, the resources, but they just were not going in the direction that they wanted to go in.

So to see the turnaround under Nick Saban after that first year where he kind of took his lumps, the consistency that they have had since his second year is staggering and really a credit to him and his staff, their support staff, everything that they have in place there.

But yeah, I very often remember that. When I first started doing Alabama games at CBS, they were kind of floundering a little bit, didn’t know exactly which way they were going and who was going to lead them until they got ahold of Nick Saban.

Tessitore: It’s funny you say that because I have a son who is a junior in high school, football obsessed. We were having a conversation recently. He made some comment about Alabama, Alabama has always been there. I pointed out to him that in 2007, when Nick Saban took over, they lost to Louisiana Monroe late in the season. He couldn’t believe me. It was unfathomable.

I do think about that, as well. To that point, I believe what Nick Saban has done over the course of the last nine seasons is the finest display of coaching in college football that we’ve ever seen.

I know we’re coming up upon the fact that two more wins and there he is in the record book. But I think you can already start to make the statement of greatest college coach of all time, considering where the sport is, what it takes to win consistently in the sport right now, how spread out the talent is over 128 teams now. I think it’s the best stretch anybody’s ever had.

There have been a lot of great dynasties in college football history. If Alabama does it, would this be the greatest? I know we’re a nation of lists. If you don’t think so, which dynasty is the greatest?
Blackledge: I would agree that this is the most impressive, considering the landscape of college football now with scholarship numbers, the parity, so to speak, with talent spread out, the fact that you don’t have very many guys that are there for five years anymore, your elite players are three years in a program.

I just think that the consistency and the championship-level consistency they’ve been able to play at and sustain is unbelievable. It’s the best that we’ve ever seen in college football.

Tessitore: I think we’re right on the doorstep of all this being just so clear to everybody that tries to frame the history of the game. I think there have been great ones. Obviously the very short, compact run of Nebraska in the ’90s, Miami in the ’80s through early ’90s.

But you go back in the annals of history when there were only a handful of teams and a collection of talent on certain rosters, whether you’re talking about prime Notre Dame teams, 1940 Army teams, or going back to the turn-of-the-century teams that dominated like Yale and whatnot.

This to me, understanding what the landscape of the sport is right now, would go down as the most impressive dynasty.

Todd, this is a little bit off topic. I wanted to ask you about the Rose Bowl with Penn State. You played in the Fiesta Bowl against USC. Do you have any thoughts on why most of these games haven’t been close between USC and Penn State over the years?
Blackledge: Yeah, I don’t know that you could pinpoint any one thing. My recollection when we played USC that particular year, that was an extremely talented USC team. They had Marcus Allen coming off of a Heisman-winning season.

But I do sense that with their team, there was a little bit of a disappointment of not playing in the Rose Bowl. I don’t even remember who played instead of them. I just remember that’s who we played.

We were fired up to go to the Fiesta Bowl and to play them. We had been to the Fiesta Bowl the year before and played Ohio State, had a great experience in Phoenix and Scottsdale. It was a great treat for us.

I think in that case, as talented as they were, I don’t know if they were as thrilled to be there as we were. I think sometimes in bowl games or in matchups, that becomes a factor.

Now this year, I don’t think there’s any such thing. I think this year’s game is going to be extremely competitive and extremely entertaining. Were it not for the fact that you have about a month layoff at the end of the regular season, I think you would have had the two hottest teams in college football, arguably two of the hottest teams in college football, in the way USC played down the stretch and the way Penn State played down the stretch.

I think it’s going to be a highly entertaining Rose Bowl.

Todd, given the fact that only one true freshman quarterback has ever won a national title, [Jamelle] Holieway with Oklahoma back in the ’80s, are there any unique challenges for a quarterback who is in his first season as a freshman that has kind of kept that from happening? How significant is it that Nick Saban is trying to do it this year, and we’re all saying, Yeah, we’re fine with it?
Blackledge: A couple things you think about. I was at that game when Jamell Holieway won the national championship as a freshman. With this team and this quarterback, a couple things to keep in mind. First of all, it is a tremendous luxury for a quarterback, whether you’re a freshman or a fifth-year senior, to know that the guys on the other side of the ball on your team are going to keep you in every football game.

Defensively Alabama is never going to put their quarterback in a panic-type mode where he’s going to have to feel like he’s going to have to score a ton necessarily to get him back in the ballgame, or to win a ballgame. I think that’s one thing.

Number two, he’s surrounded by great play-makers. He has as good of a play-caller in Lane Kiffin as a quarterback can have.

Number three, Lane Kiffin’s track record is pretty amazing in his years at Alabama because, yes, this is a true freshman quarterback, but in each of the last two years that they’ve made the College Football Playoff, he’s had a first-year starting quarterback. They weren’t freshmen by age, but it was the first year they were starting. This is nothing new for him, nothing new for Alabama, having a first-year starter at quarterback.

I think all those things combined, then when you look at Jalen Hurts himself, his poise and his calm demeanor I think is his greatest asset playing the position for this team this year.

I think as he grows in the position next year and the years to come, he’ll be called on to do more as a passer, more of making game-breaking-type plays. For right now, his calm demeanor is exactly what Alabama needs at that position. So it’s a perfect fit.

You talk about how this Alabama dynasty is comparable. More specifically, the defense. Obviously they’ve lost two starters now. It’s kind of like the next-man-up sort of thing. Usually you lose two starters, the wheels start falling off, but that’s not the case. How would you place this year’s Alabama defense in the spectrum of not just Alabama defenses of the past, but maybe all-time great defenses?
Tessitore: It’s funny, I was actually doing some work on the Alabama defense this morning. I’m sitting there saying, okay, they do have a player out for the year, and it’s Rashaan Evans stepping up to fill that hole. He would probably be a very productive superstar now in his third year just about in any other Power 5 program in the country. Here he is stepping up to be a starter. We’re trying to find ways in which the Alabama defense isn’t as good as they once were.

I think they will be just fine. Hamilton had a really productive year, but everywhere you turn, they can backfill with very talented guys.

The one spot where I do think they have had to patchwork a bit is moving some of the pieces around in the backfield, whether it’s losing Eddie, and Minkah sliding to safety, now other guys starting to get playing time, with Averett in the mix, I see Carter starting to get some practice time with them. Everywhere you turn, you still have very, very talented guys.

I saw some quotes from Clay Helton, who obviously has played both teams, saying (indiscernible) one spot where you can attack that. But you have to get the chance to attack them. That front seven, what they’re capable of doing up front, those guys are so special.

I am sure that if we put up different groups of talented defenses through the years and just looked at who was on the field, I know there were some Miami teams that were absolutely loaded defensively, and there may be some more impressive lists of guys who were great All-Americans, went on to be NFL Pro Bowlers on that side of the ball. But the production and what you see of leading the nation in three-and-outs, forcing punts, leading the nation by such a wide margin, giving up the fewest rushing yards, the tackle-for-loss numbers, the sack numbers, and some of the stats that these guys have collected without being on the field that much, I think in terms of production, what they show up with when they’re on the field, it is right there among if not the best defenses we’ve seen in college football history.

Blackledge: I would add a couple things that’s interesting to me about their defense and this year’s version of their defense, really the last two years. Their sack numbers and their tackle-for-loss numbers in the last two years have really taken a huge jump. I think that is the result of a couple things.

I think that Nick Saban realized over the last few years that the way his defense was built in some of his earlier national championship teams doesn’t work quite as well in his league or in the landscape of college football with so much of the spread offenses, where they really try to stretch you out.

So they’ve recruited different. They have different looking players, particularly at the linebacker position. That’s where you see a change in the Alabama defense. Nobody is a better example of that than Reuben Foster to me. I mean, this is a guy who plays sideline to sideline, he’s fast, explosive. Their linebackers in years past were bigger, more physical, run-stopping guys, but they didn’t have the same range that a guy like Reuben Foster has.

I think that’s just an indication of why their defense is different. Two years ago when I did the Ohio State/Alabama playoff game, Ohio State really felt going into the game you would have a lot of trouble attacking Alabama inside. They thought they would have success with Ezekiel Elliott on the perimeter, and they did have success with that.

I think Alabama’s defense now is different. You can’t run on the perimeter or inside against these guys the way you used to be able to. They used to say a running quarterback was a big problem for Alabama. It’s not so much the case anymore.

They are still kind of vulnerable if you can protect a little bit, if you can throw the football down the field. As good as Alabama’s numbers were this year defensively, they really only played two quarterbacks that I think were high-quality quarterbacks: Chad Kelly at Ole Miss and Austin Allen at Arkansas. Both of them threw 400 yards against Alabama, throwing the football down the field.

There are plays to be made if you can protect a little bit and if your receivers can make some contested catches down the field, but that’s easier said than done.

The other part of that, Alabama’s defense this year, if you throw the ball and you make mistakes or take some unnecessary risks, they will make you pay for it because they will intercept the ball, and in a lot of cases they’ll take it back and score with it.

There are plays to be made but you got to be really smart and pick your spots when you try to attack down the field.

Tessitore: It’s not just the fact that they shut you down, as you look at all these yardage numbers. 10 touchdowns on the year (indiscernible). They’re doing it every which way.

Every year a big part of the interest in this has been the debate over which teams get in. Does that end for you? Do you discuss who should have been five, who should have been six, or are you just focused on the game at hand?
Tessitore: I’m focused on the game at hand. We have the matchup, now it’s time to have a playoff game.

Blackledge: Yeah, I’m the same way. Even though I’m a Penn Stater, Penn State was one of the teams in the debate, rightfully so. Now that it’s settled, it’s on with the games.

You could make a very strong argument that the four best teams, the four most deserving teams are in the playoffs, and you could make arguments the other way.

But it is what it is and I love both matchups.

A question about Jake Browning. How do you think he will respond to the speed of Alabama’s defense?
Blackledge: Yeah, I mean, I’m not going to say he’s going to have a rude awakening because I think Washington’s defense is pretty good. I think they’re excellent in the secondary. I don’t think the speed on the back end of the defense is going to surprise or fool him at all when he faces Alabama because of what he’s seen with his own defense when ones work against ones.

The front seven is a special group. I think that he’ll know very early on, as most quarterbacks do. When you play a team that’s got the kind of sack numbers and tackle-for-loss numbers that they have, you have to speed that clock up in your head a little bit and realize a couple things:

Number one, you got to get the ball out of your hand. That’s one of the things about Jake Browning that I think is one of his real strengths. When I first watched him early in the year, studied him on film, he’s a quarterback that knows exactly where he wants to go with the ball just about every time he takes a dropback. He does not hold the ball very long. He’s very decisive, very accurate, as long as he has time and some protection.

But he doesn’t hold it for a long time. You can’t do that. Like I said a little bit earlier, you just can’t take unnecessary risks against Alabama’s defense. Throwing the ball away some, which no quarterback likes to do, but second-and-ten is way better than second-and-19, or better than throwing a careless interception that they return deep into your own territory or even for a touchdown.

You have to throw the ball away some and realize a defense this good is going to win some battles and you have to live to fight the next one.

Tessitore: You asked the question about Browning facing this front. It’s actually something that I’m going to be asking Todd when we’re down in Atlanta, probably doing some of our leadup to the game.

I think that even though the scores, it’s not clear to see because they dominated the last three games, the stretch the season, Washington did, but I think the four-week break came at a good time for Jake Browning because I noticed a little bit of losing some of that pop in the arm strength, leaving a lot of big-play opportunities on the field.

Todd already brought up the fact that maybe buying that lottery ticket down the field trying to pass deep against Alabama could be the answer. They definitely have the weapon in John Ross to do it. There were a few moments that showed up late in the PAC-12 championship where Browning didn’t have the strength, the arm strength, the pop in that arm to get it done. One was a pass interference that benefited them, the other one was short and incomplete.

I think that’s going to be critical. I think a freshened-up Jake Browning who can get the ball out quickly, how much does that fit into the game plan of getting the ball out quick, getting it to some of these speed pieces out on the edge.

I think even the arm strong down the field to Ross is going to play a huge part in this game. You don’t have a lot of time to set up when Ryan Anderson and Tim Williams are coming at you, that’s for sure.

The other semifinal, in particular Urban Meyer. Obviously he’s had a ton of success at Ohio State. How do you think what he’s done there with the Buckeyes has affected the rest of the Big Ten?
Tessitore: I think when he stepped in, just the pure talent that he has put on that roster, how competitive recruiting has become on the national front in the Big Ten, that’s the first thing that stands out to me.

Blackledge: I think Urban came from the SEC at the peak of the SEC’s kind of dominance on the national championship front. So when he went to Columbus, he knew, If we want to compete for championships, the Big Ten and beyond, this is what we have to look like.

Ohio State is the kind of place that has always recruited well. They’ve got great facilities, great resources, everything. He was able to step in there and immediately make an impact in that way.

I think he rubbed some people the wrong way. I think he ruffled some feathers in the league because of how aggressive he was in recruiting. But from where he came from, that was a normal day’s business.

I think what irritated and maybe ruffled feathers early, it caused a lot of people to step up their game a little bit in that regard as well.

I think the fact that the Big Ten had the kind of season they’ve had this year, had the success that it had this year, the quality of play, is not completely the result of Urban Meyer and what he did at Ohio State, but that’s certainly a part of it. I think it’s a big part of it.

I want to switch gears a little bit and ask you, what are your thoughts about college football stars leaving early for the NFL Draft to forego their bowl games, like Fournette and McCaffrey? Do you think this will be a trend that will follow into the upcoming seasons?
Blackledge: Well, unfortunately it probably will become a little bit more of a trend. I know I’m old. It was a long time ago when I played college football. I get that. But I was a first-round draft pick in the NFL. I would have never even considered the thought of not playing in a bowl game with my team.

Now, it’s different. I get it, it’s different. There’s a lot of guys that leave early or leave after three years. The money, which was big when I was coming out, is ridiculously big now. I understand all of that, but I don’t like it. I don’t like the precedent that it sets.

I think Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey are two of the finest not just football players but human beings and representatives of their school and of college football that we’ve seen. I don’t like the precedent that it might be setting.

Tessitore: I totally get it. I totally understand it. I also don’t like it. I think it’s hard for a lot of us. It’s funny, it’s been such a hot topic the last 24 hours. I think one of the reasons it’s a hot topic is because it’s tough to digest with the balance of understanding the realities of the business, of life, of what it means for their futures compared to what we all would prefer.

I do think it is now going to start up. I do think, much like guys leaving early started up some years ago, you will have guys who misjudge their stock price, and you’ll have guys that are overvaluing themselves instead of the very unique situation like Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey.

This becomes a thing every December, who is going to play in this game or leave now, or which player is going to think about shutting down now and not playing in what they’re terming an exhibition game or unless you’re playing in the New Year’s Six or in the College Football Playoff.

I’ll add this. Todd, I think as a high school basketball coach you can speak to this. I found it to be a very difficult conversation with a young man who plays football in my house and plays it for the brotherhood and the competition and the team aspect, and takes so much away from that, of somebody who would never think of not suiting up under any circumstances to be with his brothers that he went through double sessions with back in 100-degree August heat.

It’s a strange conversation to have with others who play this sport and go about it.

Blackledge: It’s a very interesting topic. Joe is right. There has been a lot said and discussed and debated about it, with different opinions on it.

I would just say, again, I think Joe brought up a really, really interesting point that is probably the crux of it for me. I don’t know that you could find a better teammate, if you talked to LSU players, Stanford players, those two guys were tremendous teammates that were loved by the guys they played with.

It wasn’t like some outcast guy that’s just doing his own thing and only thinking about himself. But the problem is, you know, as much as it might make sense for a Leonard Fournette or Christian McCaffrey, there are going to be a lot of other guys, like Joe said, that overvalue themselves and make that decision. It’s going to end up being bad decisions for I think more people than it will be good decisions for.

If you were in charge of the post-season and playoffs, what changes would you make?
Blackledge: Well, I’m glad I’m not in charge actually. I like doing what I do. You just show me the two teams you want me to talk about, call the game, and that’s in my wheelhouse.

I was never a proponent of the playoff to begin with. However, my caveat was, if they do make a decision, I think a four-team deal is the best way to go. The reason I was never a playoff guy is I think the regular season of college football is extremely important and extremely special. I think the more teams you talk about adding, the more you take away from that.

I’m a former player that went to four different bowl games during my career at Penn State. The experience that that brought to the whole team and the families of coaches, the families of trainers, managers, everybody being together like that, as a reward for a season well-played, I’m just a firm believer, a big believer in the value of that.

Again, I think the more emphasis there is on playoffs and expanding the number of teams, the more you lose in terms of bowl games, and that becomes less and less important.

That’s why I was never a big fan of some big wholesale 16-team-type playoff for Division I college football. But I think the four-team format has been pretty good. It’s been really good for the sport. It’s maintained the integrity of the regular season and it’s maintained, for the most part, the integrity of the bowl system.

Tessitore: The one thing I love about college football is how much it all matters. I think in sports, in almost every aspect of American society, we have become a culture of quantity. College football is still a culture of quality, a high-quality regular season, games that matter from week one onward, great relevance and significance, tradition.

I do think as much transparency as possible is a good thing in the process of understanding at how we arrive and how we’re evaluating these teams. I think the committee has been pretty good with that. We can always strive to be better.

The one thing that I think that happened early on in this process that can be challenging and confusing is simply using the label ‘best’, we just want the four best teams. At the end of the day it’s not necessarily true in terms of the four best teams. It’s the four best teams of the most deserving teams, from that pool of most deserving.

I do think sometimes I don’t know how much good comes from the weekly release of rankings because it’s taking a long time to recondition the public from that poll mentality thinking that if there’s a certain number next to your name, somehow that’s solidified that’s what you are. How you move up or down is based on that. That’s not what this is. This is a new judgment every single week.

I think the fans and even some of the college football intelligentsia struggle with that concept. But we’re getting there. We’re working through it as the years go on. This year we cross a new threshold of conference championship and how that matters and/or doesn’t matter, the entire résumé.

I think that singular word ‘best’ needs to be muted just a little bit. The four best teams among the most deserving teams.

But overall, keeping it at four, having it at four, feels like the right fit to me because it then aligns with the high quality and relevance of a regular season.

Joe, I think it was you who touched on Chris Petersen and his ability to game plan when given time. Could you elaborate on that. Obviously he had a lot of success doing that at Boise, with the ’07 Fiesta Bowl being the biggest.
Tessitore: Everybody obviously points to the Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl as the defining moment of his career when it comes to that.

I think when you look through the years, listen, there was a time in my career where I was not doing prime time games with Todd Blackledge, College Football Playoff. I was out there a lot of Friday nights in Boise spending a lot of time with Coach Pete. I’ve called a lot of his games. Really had a first-hand seat to see that entire ride up.

There were many off-seasons where he would schedule that big opening weekend non-conference game, Virginia Tech, Georgia, Oregon. He had the time to really scheme it up, really have an understanding of how to utilize his pools with perceived lesser talent on the field and maximize what you could get with the outcome.

I know Todd has great respect for him. I know Coach Saban has unbelievable respect for him. The way he’s always gone about it, he’s always going to put his team in the best possible position to win knowing what he has.

Now he has much better tools to work with. I’m not sure if you start lining up these two rosters, and this is very rarely you can say this with Alabama, but when you look at a guy like John Ross, you’re not going too far down the list of best athletes on the field before you say the name John Ross. There are a couple other pieces to the puzzle that are similar to that. Budda Baker, consensus All-American, they have up front on the defensive line.

He’s done it in the past and now he has better tools to work with.

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