Tim Brandon (@TimBrando) joined Jeff Thurn on Monday's edition of Overtime.

To hear the conversation between Brando and Thurn, listen below.

Is there a team in the college football playoff that could benefit from having long lay-off? 

"Boy that is a real good question. I think Ohio State would of loved to have played a lot sooner after that win against Wisconsin. Especially because of that freshman quarterback (Cardale Jones) and needs as many reps as he can get. I am sure if Urban Meyer, if you got him away from the media and you say, hey, Urban wouldn't have you had a few games with this kid even though you won the Big Ten title and you did manage to get into the Final Four. Wouldn't it have been nice to play at least one more regular season game? I think he would say yes because this long lay-off as much as it can benefit Meyer in preparation, it certainly benefits Nick Saban and Kirby Smart. What they dial up defensively, I think this kid (Jones) is in for a world of trouble in the match-up of the Sugar Bowl because they're just limitations to what they can do. Yeah he (Jones) had a great game. After I called the Pac-12 Championship in Santa Clara on Fox, I flew to Indianapolis to do the Butler-Northwestern hoops game and then I drove over to Lucas Oil Stadium to see the Big Ten Championship. I watched him (Jones) with my own eyes. As good as Cardale Jones was, they out-athleted. I mean they had more athletes than Wisconsin. He threw four touchdown passes in that game and three of them were jump balls with defenders all over receivers and the receiver was just the better athlete and make a play and score a touchdown. That won't happen against Alabama. Their athletes are every bit as big, and fast. Probably better than yours. So I think that's trouble for Ohio State. Big time trouble. Oregon I think needed the time. Hroniss Grasu at center being back. Getting that offensive line healthy. They had eight different offensive lineman starting at line during course of the regular season going into the Pac-12 title game. Even though they lose Ifo Ekpre-Olomu. That's a big loss to lose Olomu. I think Troy Hill and the rest of that secondary, they can match-up. I think they have some time to know how they can match-up with Florida State's outstanding receivers. I think offensively they probably know what they are going to do with the system they run and I don't think as effective by not getting the rest. Florida State has been turnover-prone all year and they simply cannot turn it over early in games as they have in the past. I think without question while the news right now on Jameis Winston is good, Jimbo Fisher would like to play games as soon as possible. He's wondering if the phone is going to ring every night he goes to sleep. So I am sure he would like to play right now. The two teams that I like are Oregon and Alabama and I think that is the perfect contrast in styles and really the national championship, nationally people want to see. I know there's the whole Jimbo-Nick Saban undercurrent storyline, and I know the Florida State athlete is built like the Alabama athlete. And Florida State looks like an SEC school. Now they get to measure themselves but nationally the game everyone would like to see is the yin yang factor of Oregon's system versus how far as Nick Saban really come. You know Auburn let them on the ropes. They had let them off the hook because the secondary couldn't check Amari Cooper. What if Oregon can get out to a lead like Oregon did with their pedal stayed to the medal and could Alabama still wear them down? As often teams like Alambama have worn teams like Oregon down. I think this is a different Oregon team. I don't think they wear down they once did."

Alabama plays Ohio State, and Florida State plays Oregon on New Year's Day in the inaugural college football playoff.

Have a Merry Christmas!

**Thurn is on ESPN 99.1 daily from 3 to 6 p.m. Follow Jeff on Twitter @jtespn991 and Sam @samtastad.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
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