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Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal.

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Speaker 2: I'll that for me. I'm a man, I'm forty.

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Speaker 3: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to

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Speaker 3: be happy. You want to be happy for a day?

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Speaker 3: Edo Steak is that woo woof?

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Speaker 2: And them and Ty.

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the solid verbal. Boys or girls, My

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Speaker 1: name Ty hilde Brandt, that fine gentleman over there as

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Speaker 1: always the one, the only, still, the incomparable Dan Rubinstein,

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Speaker 1: who has a bit of a harrowing tale key word

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Speaker 1: tail to share with us this morning, Dan, how are

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Speaker 1: you doing? Are you okay?

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Speaker 3: I'm all right. I had my normal Friday pizza. I

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Speaker 3: had a good Father's Day. I was feeling good. Uh

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Speaker 3: saw a family. Got to hang out with the boys,

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Speaker 3: of course, which is just all you want if you're

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Speaker 3: you know, you're a dad on Father's Day, you want

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Speaker 3: to hang out with the people who made you d dad.

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Speaker 3: So I had a good one, and you know, I

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Speaker 3: wanted to go for an early run this morning, maybe

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Speaker 3: run off some of those cows, some of the grief

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Speaker 3: from the week. Woke up early, you know, really went

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Speaker 3: for it. Beautiful morning out here in the suburbs of Chicago,

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Speaker 3: and I guess it's sort of the season for I

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Speaker 3: think it's red tailed hawks, red tailed talks. Yes, I've

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Speaker 3: been running, you know, California, Eugene, Oregon, New York. I've

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Speaker 3: been running for many, many years, and I haven't thought

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Speaker 3: about birds once. And apparently I think red tailed hawks

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Speaker 3: set up camp over the summer or whatever in this

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Speaker 3: area and are agitated and territorial. And I just want

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Speaker 3: to say, right from the onset, I did nothing to

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Speaker 3: provoke this bird. Right just on my way running, listening

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Speaker 3: to a movie podcast, and all of a sudden, I

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Speaker 3: feel talents on my head, and you think about a

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Speaker 3: lot of things when you're running. Yeah, my first thought

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Speaker 3: was it was just a friend from the area who's

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Speaker 3: also running and sort of messing with me.

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Speaker 1: Like a friend with very long nails.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a very like it was like a

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Speaker 3: violent scout massage. So it didn't really make sense like

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Speaker 3: I would have expected like a pat on the back

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Speaker 3: or something like that, like hey, bud Way to get

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Speaker 3: after it early morning, something like that.

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Speaker 1: No, that was not the case.

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Speaker 3: And I look up and I don't see anything specific,

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Speaker 3: but I hear and the flaps and I just catch

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Speaker 3: it like going into a tree after a shot. Across

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Speaker 3: the bow at the non threatening Dan and I altered

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Speaker 3: my route on the way home. I have now donated

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Speaker 3: a good amount of money to some anti bird causes,

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Speaker 3: like I'm suddenly pro logging, I'm all sorts, I'm in favor. No,

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Speaker 3: but I do want to say this. It got my attention. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: it got my attention, and it woke me up to

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Speaker 3: the fact that sometimes you have to keep your head

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Speaker 3: on a swivel and realize your surroundings and what time

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Speaker 3: of year it is. And right now, Ty, I.

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Speaker 1: Was wondering, how are you gonna do this continue?

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Speaker 3: Right now? The off season sort of turning into the preseason,

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Speaker 3: and it's grabbing me on the scalp and it's telling

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Speaker 3: me wake up. The first time I had that was

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Speaker 3: realizing the preview magazines were coming out, however accurate they

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Speaker 3: are with you know, transfers and coaches and everything like that.

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Speaker 3: I was like, oh, wow, it is that time. Okay,

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Speaker 3: all right. And then the second instance was Dug the

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Speaker 3: Red Tailed Hawk. I don't know why I'm calling him Doug.

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Speaker 1: Doug, Doug, Yeah, don't.

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Speaker 3: I don't love a lot of Dugs that have come across. Okay, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: I've fluty hasn't been great for me on TV.

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Speaker 1: I don't know he was on TV. It's not just you,

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Speaker 1: but man.

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Speaker 3: It really woke me up.

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Speaker 1: And here we are. I have I have lived to

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Speaker 1: tell the tale. We are swooping down into all things

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Speaker 1: preview to the preview season in On today's episode, our

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Speaker 1: good friend Bill Connolly from ESPN dot com is going

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Speaker 1: to stop by. Bill's been previewing things college football related

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Speaker 1: pretty much all off season, but more seriously, gosh, since

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Speaker 1: February now, he's really been down in the weeds doing

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Speaker 1: the dirty work. And as we are set to embark

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Speaker 1: on our own preview mission here starting next month, we

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Speaker 1: need to get some preview to the preview content from Bill. Storylines, trends, favorites,

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Speaker 1: all sorts of things that he's identified through the course

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Speaker 1: of his own research. So he's going to stop by

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Speaker 1: give us about thirty five to forty minutes of his

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Speaker 1: time or so if we can cover a little US

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Speaker 1: men's national team. If we can cover that, we will,

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Speaker 1: right but if not, we'll find another way to do

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Speaker 1: so we appreciate his time.

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Speaker 3: We do some off topic shows on Patreon right for

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Speaker 3: our most art and supporters and most supportive listeners, which

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Speaker 3: I encourage everybody spoke around. I think maybe we'll have

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Speaker 3: to bump it over to the Patreon Verballers dot com

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Speaker 3: by the ways, where you can go if you are

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Speaker 3: ever so inclined. We've got a number of new folks

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Speaker 3: signing up joining the discord being part of the verballer

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Speaker 3: hood as we know it, as we like to promote

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Speaker 3: it is a great community of college football fans. Don't

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Speaker 3: forget this episode. All of our episodes are driven by

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Speaker 3: our good friends over at Geico. We would encourage you

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Speaker 3: all to not only subscribe to the podcast if you

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Speaker 3: like what we've been doing this offseason, There's going to

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Speaker 3: be much more of it to follow, I promise you.

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Speaker 3: But if you've already subscribed to the show, don't forget

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Speaker 3: to tell your friends who want to grow the verballerhood

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Speaker 3: as best we can here, especially as we start reving

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Speaker 3: up in preparation for college football season and last but

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Speaker 3: not least, solid giveaway dot com.

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Speaker 1: You've got about eleven days, oh ten days left to

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Speaker 1: sign up for your opportunity to win that Brian Brazie

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Speaker 1: signed Clemson mini helmet. But yeah, it ends at the

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Speaker 1: end of June, which is crazy to say a week

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Speaker 1: and a half away, June is done, July has begun done.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, but get in before it is too late.

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Speaker 3: Agree. I think I have a lot of questions for Bill.

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Speaker 3: I'd like to talk to Bill, no offense. I love

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Speaker 3: talking to you, but I talked to you a lot,

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Speaker 3: both on with microphones and outside of microphones and in

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Speaker 3: text form like I'm ready for I'm ready for a newer,

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Speaker 3: shinier model.

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Speaker 1: No offense. All right, Dan joining us now. We like

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Speaker 1: to bring them on every so often. Just see what's

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Speaker 1: going on in in his world. Bill Connolly from ESPN, Sir,

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Speaker 1: how you doing pretty good?

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Speaker 2: This is a this is a college football podcast. I

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Speaker 2: don't know why you were invited a soccer writer on.

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Speaker 1: That's true.

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Speaker 3: Well we have tys in his notes has a number

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Speaker 3: of questions about Byron's academy and who among the ten

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Speaker 3: eleven year olds you're buying early on, So just be prepared.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I'm ready.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you actually went to Germany? Yeah, I did went

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Speaker 1: to Germany. You did some yeah, yeah, I was gonna

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Speaker 1: say you did some reporting on the Bundesliga and all

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Speaker 1: things soccer. Did you learn anything about college football while

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Speaker 1: covering soccer abroad.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean one thing, I told my editor that

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Speaker 2: I need to go to a couple of pretty cool

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Speaker 2: college football events venues this fall because I'm in danger

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Speaker 2: of becoming an even bigger soccer snob at this point

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Speaker 2: and that's really just not a good place to be.

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Speaker 2: So I need to kind of even things out a

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Speaker 2: little bit. Because it was it was incredible. I saw

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Speaker 2: four of the best venues, the best clubs you could see,

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Speaker 2: and it was an absolute blast. So the bar is

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Speaker 2: pretty high.

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Speaker 1: Now does that make it harder for you to come

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Speaker 1: back into this world and do college football previews in

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Speaker 1: mid ap it?

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Speaker 2: I mean, it was a nice test of whether that was,

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Speaker 2: you know, true or not, and it's absolutely not true.

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Speaker 2: I dive back into like it's just such a familiar

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Speaker 2: world and I know all the neighborhoods, all the knooks

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Speaker 2: and crannies. As soon as I get back in, it's

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Speaker 2: all extremely familiar. So no, no danger of that. I

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Speaker 2: just have to figure out how to create, how to

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Speaker 2: live in two different worlds that I really love instead

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Speaker 2: of one.

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Speaker 1: Well we'll get to that other world a little bit later,

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Speaker 1: I promise, but let's talk about the one that we

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Speaker 1: all live in college football. You started doing previews what

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Speaker 1: mid April?

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Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, like the whichever one was first, Conference

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Speaker 2: USA or MAC or whatever. That was mid February. We

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Speaker 2: had to take some time off because suddenly there were

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Speaker 2: no schedules. You know, Southern miss had twenty games scheduled

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Speaker 2: because they were in Conference USA and the Sun Belt

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Speaker 2: and all that. So there was a period, a decent

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Speaker 2: sized off period there. But we've been rolling in full

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Speaker 2: steam since mid April, I believe.

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Speaker 1: Just asking for two friends here, Bill, it feels like

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Speaker 1: there were a lot more moving pieces this offseason, and

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Speaker 1: it's hard for me to tell if it's just that

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Speaker 1: the ones that moved were higher profile, or if in reality,

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Speaker 1: there is more variability that we need to account for.

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Speaker 1: We're about to start doing our previews next month.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we also have teams moving tie and we

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Speaker 3: have teams moving conferences and how that afects how Bill

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Speaker 3: evaluates things.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So was it harder this year with your preview content?

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Speaker 2: Well, I guess the writing part wasn't just a ton harder.

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Speaker 2: It was still kind of the same vibes. They're bringing

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Speaker 2: in these transfers and here's the backstory of the coach

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Speaker 2: and blah blah blah. Like that part wasn't bad, but

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Speaker 2: from a numbers perspective, From a projections perspective, I mean

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Speaker 2: USC and LSU are unprojectable. Yeah, Like there's no an

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Speaker 2: ask my I'm going to once I'm done finally updating

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Speaker 2: all the rosters over the next week or so, I'm

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Speaker 2: going to try to look back at twenty twenty one

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Speaker 2: and see what we can learn just in terms of

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Speaker 2: what does taking on a lot of transfers mean different

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Speaker 2: kinds of transfers, and hopefully try to start piecing together

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Speaker 2: how I'm going to create projections for this new eight

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Speaker 2: You know, one team takes eighteen transfers in a year

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Speaker 2: kind of environment, and so you know, moving forward, maybe

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Speaker 2: it'll be all right. But I mean this time around, like,

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Speaker 2: how do you how do you project USC's off when

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Speaker 2: they lose two starting quarterbacks and at a third huh?

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Speaker 2: And it was it was a guy who everybody knows

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Speaker 2: is going to be good, but he only played like

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Speaker 2: two thirds of a season to begin with, so he

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Speaker 2: didn't even have like a full year's stats. And then

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Speaker 2: they like lose a top ten draft pick or wherever

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Speaker 2: Drake London ended up first round and they gained the

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Speaker 2: bolitnik Off winner. Like it's it's a it's a completely

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Speaker 2: different universe, just the not only the number of transfers,

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Speaker 2: but the importance of the transfers has has changed considerably,

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Speaker 2: And I don't know how to project that. I'm still

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Speaker 2: pretty sure USC's defense is going to stink and therefore

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Speaker 2: then being a top five team is going to be

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Speaker 2: Probably that's probably foolish thinking. But I have him like

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Speaker 2: fifty first right now, that's pretty foolish too. So I

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Speaker 2: don't know. We're gonna We're gonna find out.

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Speaker 3: So this question basically has no merit and it is

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Speaker 3: rounded in nonsense, but hostfully it triggers something in your head.

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Speaker 3: Is there anything on player level data, because it is

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Speaker 3: now much more of a player centric movement across the

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Speaker 3: sport than I mean, and coach obviously level movement as well.

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Speaker 3: But like when you think about a quarterback who leaves,

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Speaker 3: when you think about an offensive lineman who leaves, or

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Speaker 3: a receiver, a high profile receivers or receivers like Jordan

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Speaker 3: Addison and Mario Williams, is there on any level a

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Speaker 3: need for you or for anybody to say what's their

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Speaker 3: plus minus essentially, like are they on the field for

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Speaker 3: successful plays more often than not? And is that something

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Speaker 3: that's transferable to how you evaluate and project a grouping

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Speaker 3: of starting players on a team. Again, I know that's

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Speaker 3: not grounded in merit or sense, but is that sort

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Speaker 3: of the next level about how you start thinking about

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Speaker 3: player movement and coaching movement across the sport.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I think there is, certainly there's a

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Speaker 2: little bit of value there just in terms of, you know,

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Speaker 2: there are really nice overall measures now that we have

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Speaker 2: snap counts for everybody, you know, Sports Info Solutions PFF,

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Speaker 2: that we actually have snapcouts and we know how frequently

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Speaker 2: these guys are involved and so on and so forth.

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Speaker 2: Now that we kind of have that, you can get.

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Speaker 2: I mean, there's a measure you see used a lot

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Speaker 2: of PFF and I've used it at times, yards per

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Speaker 2: yards per route run for a receiver, and so it

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Speaker 2: combines both like efficiency and explosiveness and frequency of use

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Speaker 2: in a really interesting way. If you averaged over two

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Speaker 2: yards per route run last year, you did really well,

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Speaker 2: you know, Jackson Smith and Jick my average like four

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Speaker 2: point one or something absurd. But I think when you

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Speaker 2: have that kind of measure, or you know, you're looking

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Speaker 2: at a running back and you know not only you

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Speaker 2: know his yards per carry or his yards per touch,

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Speaker 2: you know if you want to include passes, but you

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Speaker 2: know again how frequently he was involved in the offense, right,

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Speaker 2: and you can sort of project how frequently he's going

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Speaker 2: to be involved in his future offense. You can kind

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Speaker 2: of get down the road of decent player projections like that.

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Speaker 2: I'm not that far down that road, right, but you

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Speaker 2: can kind of see that. Now. It's still college football

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Speaker 2: and opponent adjustments still matter more than anything else in

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Speaker 2: the world, and those are really really hard, but you

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Speaker 2: can at least sort of get down that road, and

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Speaker 2: it would be interesting to see, like I got to

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Speaker 2: figure that would do if I were to make headway

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Speaker 2: in that regard, that would be very beneficial for the

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Speaker 2: projections overall.

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Speaker 3: You who are the teams, be it you know, Conference

263
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Speaker 3: USA America and Big Ten, whoever? Who are the teams

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Speaker 3: that you are the most sure of, Not your projection

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Speaker 3: and what it says, but because of the amount of

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Speaker 3: data you have on those teams, because of returning guys,

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Speaker 3: returning coaches. You know, data on those coaches have been

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Speaker 3: around for a long time within that program. Like, who

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Speaker 3: are your your data overlords at this point, Georgia.

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Speaker 1: Okay, that's a good answer.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean no transfers. They didn't take a single

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Speaker 2: transfer this year. Offense, I mean, the defensive coordinator left,

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Speaker 2: so there is that, But you know, the offense, we

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Speaker 2: kind of know what that offense is going to be

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Speaker 2: and we trust it even with the defensive coordinator gone.

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Speaker 2: Last time they lost a defensive coordinator, they got better defensively,

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Speaker 2: So I'm not real worried about that site either, Like

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Speaker 2: they have really really good pieces to replace, and so

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Speaker 2: they're you know, they're projected third and sp plus a

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Speaker 2: hair behind Ohio State and Alabama. But I feel we've

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Speaker 2: got a very very very good read on them. Alabama too,

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Speaker 2: if we're being honest. I mean, they actually didn't lose

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Speaker 2: a coordinator for the first time in like thirty eight years,

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Speaker 2: and they return their starting quarterback who's pretty decent. I

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Speaker 2: feel like we have a good read on them. After that,

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Speaker 2: I'm not really sure. I mean, you just look at

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Speaker 2: the top teams and sp plus and you realize the

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Speaker 2: number of unknowns not that, not that it's rare to

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Speaker 2: have unknowns at the top at this point in college football,

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Speaker 2: but I mean, Ohio State, we have no idea what

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Speaker 2: their defense is capable of. If it's the top fifteen defense,

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Speaker 2: they're probably the best team in the country, but we

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Speaker 2: don't know for sure that that's going to happen. Michigan

294
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Speaker 2: massive assistant coach turnover or important turnover. I should say

295
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Speaker 2: Oklahoma is fifth, kind of completely new, you know, that's

296
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Speaker 2: just pure Oklahoma are right there, lots of coaching changes there.

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Speaker 2: Clemson is sixth. We have no idea what their offense.

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Speaker 2: If it's going to be merely averaged, then they're probably

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Speaker 2: a top five team, but we don't It wasn't average

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Speaker 2: last year, and you know, Dabo responded to that by

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Speaker 2: promoting from within for his coordinator, which I really didn't

302
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Speaker 2: like all that much. So we don't know that. Notre

303
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Speaker 2: Dame is seventh. They have a new coach, like it's

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Speaker 2: it's tough after that, and then you add in the

305
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Speaker 2: USCS and the LSUS and the old miss the teams

306
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Speaker 2: that took on just a hilarious number of transfers. It

307
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Speaker 2: is a pretty unique environment. But I feel Alabama and

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Speaker 2: Georgia are pretty trustworthy overall.

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Speaker 3: Did you bake in anything new or tweak anything? You

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Speaker 3: seem to do that every year in terms of how

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Speaker 3: you evaluate teams and returning production and recruiting ranking, and

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Speaker 3: you know, there's a number of factors that go into this.

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Speaker 3: What were this year's SP plus weighted tweaks?

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Speaker 2: If any I didn't want and I didn't like doing

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Speaker 2: this because I don't like doing anything where I don't

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Speaker 2: have like three or four years at least of data

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Speaker 2: to know how it'll go. But I did add the

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Speaker 2: recruiting rankings. I added a recruiting component for the transfers

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Speaker 2: you're taking in, so it's not so your recruiting ranking

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Speaker 2: isn't solely based on your freshman and your juco's the

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Speaker 2: typical signing class quote unquote. I tried to account for that.

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Speaker 2: You know, I'm including you know, those recruits their production.

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Speaker 2: I'm including that in the returning production piece, which I've

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Speaker 2: always done. But just knowing that that wasn't quite enough

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Speaker 2: if you're gonna you know, that worked really well when

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Speaker 2: you're bringing in three, four or five transfers. If like

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Speaker 2: legitimately a lot of first year coaches are bringing in

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Speaker 2: fifteen plus and understanding the important so that I at

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Speaker 2: least tried to account for it in that way. It's

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Speaker 2: not a huge weight. It's probably enough weight. But we

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Speaker 2: don't really know how these transfers are going to work out.

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Speaker 2: But that was that was the one thing. The one

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Speaker 2: change I made. One change I might make in the

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Speaker 2: future that I'm going to look into once I have

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Speaker 2: data for it. Is you know, I always talking about

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Speaker 2: how clumsy it is the way I handle transfers, where

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Speaker 2: I just kind of mash that production into the into

338
00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:27,000
Speaker 2: the numerator and the denominator of the returning production formula.

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Speaker 2: So like, you know, if you lose your starting quarterback,

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Speaker 2: but you pull in somebody else's, then you return fifty

341
00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:34,959
Speaker 2: percent of production, which kind of makes sense. Might tweak

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00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:38,200
Speaker 2: the way that works a little bit. If it turns

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Speaker 2: out that, you know, USC really does suddenly have a

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Speaker 2: top ten team, then I might you know, we'll see

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Speaker 2: what the data says. But I haven't done anything in

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Speaker 2: that regard just yet.

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Speaker 3: I want you to plant your flag on the G

348
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Speaker 3: five level now that especially that's where you've started your

349
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Speaker 3: previews and you are probably the most familiar even though

350
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Speaker 3: in some cases I'm sure it's more difficult to evaluate

351
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Speaker 3: because of transfers come in and there's more known between

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Speaker 3: Power five transfers based on production and opponent quality. Maybe

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Speaker 3: I don't know, that's just me guessing, but play your

354
00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:13,760
Speaker 3: flag now purely in terms of unforeseen fun among teams

355
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Speaker 3: from group of group of five conferences that you're like,

356
00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:18,440
Speaker 3: you know what, they return a lot, that they did

357
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Speaker 3: interesting things in the back end of the season. Who

358
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Speaker 3: are the teams in the American or the Mountain West

359
00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:26,240
Speaker 3: or whoever that you're like, you know what, you should

360
00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:29,800
Speaker 3: just keep tabs on this team. They're going to be entertaining.

361
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Speaker 2: Well, there's this up and coming named Luke Fickele who

362
00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:35,320
Speaker 2: I think might have a pretty good team at Cincinnati. Sure,

363
00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:38,719
Speaker 2: that's something you might want to keep an eye on.

364
00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:44,080
Speaker 2: I knows. As crazy as that sounds, you know, I

365
00:18:44,080 --> 00:18:47,399
Speaker 2: do think I joke, but it is probably worth pointing

366
00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,720
Speaker 2: out that Cincinnati could be really good again, like they

367
00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:54,600
Speaker 2: really do. Obviously they're going to regress at the cornerback position,

368
00:18:55,040 --> 00:18:57,119
Speaker 2: Like there's no way you're going to have you know,

369
00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:59,400
Speaker 2: two of the whatever that was five or six best

370
00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:02,560
Speaker 2: cornerbacks in the country again, that was rare, and there's

371
00:19:02,560 --> 00:19:04,760
Speaker 2: probably gonna be a little bit of regression at the

372
00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:09,000
Speaker 2: quarterback position, but they have two really high potential quarterbacks.

373
00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:11,119
Speaker 2: One of them is going to take over probably do

374
00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:14,040
Speaker 2: pretty well. So I think they are still probably a

375
00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:17,000
Speaker 2: top twenty or twenty five caliber team overall. Beyond that, though,

376
00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:19,439
Speaker 2: I mean there is Mount West has a ton of

377
00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:24,440
Speaker 2: potential for oddity, Like Boise State maybe figures things out

378
00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:26,400
Speaker 2: there were early weren't that bad last year, but maybe

379
00:19:26,440 --> 00:19:30,280
Speaker 2: they take a nice step forward again. Forresno State, you know,

380
00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:31,960
Speaker 2: look like, you know, they lose their head coach and

381
00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:34,800
Speaker 2: their starting quarterback, but then you know, bring Jeff Tedford

382
00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:37,880
Speaker 2: back again in the quarterbacks days and suddenly it looks

383
00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:41,560
Speaker 2: like they might have a good amount of potential. Air

384
00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:44,960
Speaker 2: Force probably is ready to overachieve its projections again like

385
00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:47,640
Speaker 2: it normally does, so that could be just a weird race.

386
00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:49,119
Speaker 2: I don't know if any of those teams really went

387
00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:53,679
Speaker 2: enough to you know, you know, snare the New Year's

388
00:19:54,200 --> 00:19:56,679
Speaker 2: the New Year's six bid or anything, but just in

389
00:19:56,800 --> 00:19:59,080
Speaker 2: terms of weirdness, that should be a pretty fun conference

390
00:19:59,119 --> 00:20:02,080
Speaker 2: to watch. And honestly, I mean, I could not be

391
00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:04,720
Speaker 2: more excited about the sun Belt East just as a whole,

392
00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:09,080
Speaker 2: as if forty that's going to be the first sun

393
00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:12,040
Speaker 2: Belt East that is you know, that includes Marshall, that

394
00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:17,600
Speaker 2: includes James Madison Old Dominion. That is maybe the best

395
00:20:18,119 --> 00:20:20,440
Speaker 2: since the AAC doesn't have divisions at least, that is

396
00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:24,359
Speaker 2: probably the best division at the G five level. And

397
00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:26,000
Speaker 2: I'm really not sure which way it's going to go.

398
00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:27,960
Speaker 2: Marshall has a lot of potential. App State has a

399
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:30,680
Speaker 2: lot of potential. Of course, Coastal still has Grays and McCall.

400
00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:31,720
Speaker 2: They lose quite a bit.

401
00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:34,920
Speaker 3: But it has the feel of when when app State

402
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:37,200
Speaker 3: made the leap, We're like, this is a serious football

403
00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:40,600
Speaker 3: program that is making a leap and will absolutely compete

404
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:42,840
Speaker 3: sooner rather than later with what the East looks like now,

405
00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:43,360
Speaker 3: which I love.

406
00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:46,399
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, it's it's just a really cool conference. I

407
00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:48,760
Speaker 2: love that it came together. I love that ten years

408
00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:51,120
Speaker 2: ago when Conference USA rated the sun Belt and took

409
00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:54,040
Speaker 2: all of its you know, market potential, we got We're

410
00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:56,960
Speaker 2: taking North Texas because of Dallas, We're taking Middle Tennessee

411
00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:01,160
Speaker 2: because it's Nashville. You know, I'm suddenly the Conference USA

412
00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:04,440
Speaker 2: got worse while the sun Belt added football programs that

413
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:08,240
Speaker 2: got better. I love that they basically continued that that

414
00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:11,320
Speaker 2: they beat Conference USA out for James Madison basically, and

415
00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:14,919
Speaker 2: they took Marshall and someone Miss is like thrilled to

416
00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:17,280
Speaker 2: be going from Conference USA to sun Belt. It's just

417
00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:20,440
Speaker 2: a cool place right now. And I wish Louisiana Tech

418
00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:22,560
Speaker 2: had gone too. It kind of feels like they should

419
00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:24,960
Speaker 2: be there, even though they would never dag to join

420
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:29,000
Speaker 2: a conference with Louisiana and Louisiana Monroe, that feels like

421
00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:31,200
Speaker 2: a Sunbell program that should be a sun Belt program.

422
00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:33,800
Speaker 2: But alas the fourteen that are in there are really good.

423
00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:37,320
Speaker 1: Bill on the topic of the Sun Belt. I feel

424
00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:39,960
Speaker 1: like over the course of our discussions, we've talked through

425
00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:42,800
Speaker 1: a number of different variables that you have to account

426
00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:45,000
Speaker 1: for with your rankings. How do you account for a

427
00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:49,080
Speaker 1: program jumping from FCS up to the FBS level like

428
00:21:49,160 --> 00:21:49,880
Speaker 1: James Madison.

429
00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:52,639
Speaker 2: I feel like I have a better grasp on it

430
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:54,800
Speaker 2: now than I used to, just because I've got pretty

431
00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:58,280
Speaker 2: good FCS numbers. You know what, I came up with

432
00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:01,120
Speaker 2: a like, Honestly, the FCS s peoples ready the last

433
00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:04,479
Speaker 2: year were better than the FBS numbers which is weird.

434
00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:07,760
Speaker 2: But so I feel like we have a you know,

435
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:12,400
Speaker 2: a decent grasp of kind of the gap between FBS

436
00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:14,920
Speaker 2: and FCSS, like twenty eight points or so on average.

437
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:17,280
Speaker 1: What does that mean? Twenty eight points?

438
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:20,080
Speaker 2: It means basically like the average FBS team would be

439
00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:23,320
Speaker 2: projected to beat the average FCS team by twenty eight points. Wow,

440
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:25,600
Speaker 2: like that perfect. If both of them had like their

441
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:29,240
Speaker 2: perfect zero point zero rating and their respective subdivisions, it

442
00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:31,040
Speaker 2: would be about a four touchdown advantage.

443
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:32,280
Speaker 1: And so it seems high.

444
00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:35,320
Speaker 2: I mean it is, But at the same time, you know,

445
00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:37,760
Speaker 2: James Madison and North Dakota State have been basically playing

446
00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:40,640
Speaker 2: like top forty to sixty programs over the last few years,

447
00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:42,560
Speaker 2: and that's kind of where they grade out. It probably

448
00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:47,080
Speaker 2: honestly discounts North Dakota State of hair, but it's that's

449
00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:49,840
Speaker 2: where the numbers, that's where the projections fare the best.

450
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:52,199
Speaker 2: When that number is at about twenty eight. Last year

451
00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:54,600
Speaker 2: was a hair smaller because everything was weird last year,

452
00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:57,359
Speaker 2: but on average it's about twenty eight. So we take that,

453
00:22:57,480 --> 00:22:59,920
Speaker 2: We take what their ratings have been in recent years.

454
00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:01,680
Speaker 2: We take the fact that you know, I can do

455
00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:06,040
Speaker 2: a pretty good approximation of returning production based on you know, passing,

456
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:08,200
Speaker 2: and like, we don't have snap counts, but we got

457
00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:10,560
Speaker 2: everything else. I feel like I kind of approximate it

458
00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:13,840
Speaker 2: pretty well. And so you know, the recruiting hasn't been amazing.

459
00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:16,080
Speaker 2: That is a tricky part of the equation, just because

460
00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:18,400
Speaker 2: not even you know, the two four seven composite really

461
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:22,360
Speaker 2: gets ratings for all that many FCS signings. So that's

462
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:25,280
Speaker 2: kind of chicky. But I have them right now one

463
00:23:25,359 --> 00:23:28,520
Speaker 2: hundred and seventh. Overall, that kind of I adjusted the

464
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:30,399
Speaker 2: way I was looking at their recruiting rankings a little bit,

465
00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:32,879
Speaker 2: so they fell from like ninetieth to one hundred and seventh.

466
00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:37,000
Speaker 2: But I do feel like I have better tools for

467
00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 2: evaluating a program making that jump now that I used to.

468
00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:43,520
Speaker 1: That'll be an interesting story to follow. I do want

469
00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:47,439
Speaker 1: to jump back to USC you mentioned them earlier. I

470
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:51,800
Speaker 1: think you said what fifty first in your rankings, which admittedly.

471
00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:56,080
Speaker 3: Unprojectable, projectably rejectable is the name of a Ringer podcast.

472
00:23:56,119 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 3: By the way, righty may need to be tweaked.

473
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:02,600
Speaker 1: Mark Schlebaugh had him forth last month. Yeah, Yeah, the

474
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:04,520
Speaker 1: answer is clearly somewhere in the middle.

475
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:10,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would be like, again, I can guarantee that

476
00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:13,120
Speaker 2: it's that sp plus is undervalue. With their offense. They're

477
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:17,000
Speaker 2: projected twenty fourth on offense. I will be shocked if

478
00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:20,679
Speaker 2: it's not top ten, just because of Lincoln Riley, because

479
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:22,560
Speaker 2: of the pieces he added and the pieces that he

480
00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,680
Speaker 2: already inherited. You know, that's it's hard not to see

481
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:28,920
Speaker 2: that as an elite offense. But why do I, Why

482
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:33,800
Speaker 2: should I? Why should anyone expect the defense to be

483
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:36,760
Speaker 2: that of a top five team overall? Alex Grinch, you know,

484
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 2: it was what three years at Oklahoma had a good

485
00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:41,560
Speaker 2: I had a really really good defense for about half

486
00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:43,960
Speaker 2: of a season, you know, the second half of twenty

487
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:45,960
Speaker 2: twenty when his suspended guys came back and he had

488
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:49,199
Speaker 2: like three elite pass rushers and suddenly everything kind of

489
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:52,480
Speaker 2: worked really nicely in twenty twenty. Otherwise they've been barely

490
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:57,120
Speaker 2: like borderline top fifty defense. USC's defense was horrific last year,

491
00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:00,280
Speaker 2: and admittedly, you know, their coach got fired and everything

492
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:02,680
Speaker 2: was kind of weird, but it was they haven't had

493
00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:05,239
Speaker 2: a really good defense in a very long time. They

494
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:08,879
Speaker 2: added transfers on defense, but not like Mario Williams Jordan

495
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:14,560
Speaker 2: Addison level transfers, and so they're projected eighty fourth in

496
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:17,760
Speaker 2: defensive sp plus. That's probably too low. But why should

497
00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:21,000
Speaker 2: I why should they have? Like, what evidence do we

498
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:23,000
Speaker 2: have that that's a top fifty defense. I don't think

499
00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:26,439
Speaker 2: we have much. So I have the feeling, you know,

500
00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 2: this is Alex grinch Stow, He's going to want to attack, attack, attack,

501
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:31,639
Speaker 2: and they're going to get burned a lot, and they

502
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:33,600
Speaker 2: might have the offense to overcome it and still win

503
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:35,360
Speaker 2: a lot of games, but I don't see that as

504
00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:36,720
Speaker 2: the top five team for that reason.

505
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:40,760
Speaker 1: One of the other conferences Bill that Dan and I

506
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:43,240
Speaker 1: have been very interested in just through the course of

507
00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:45,680
Speaker 1: our discussion here in the pre to the pre pre

508
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:51,600
Speaker 1: preview acc namely because there are a ton of interesting storylines,

509
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:54,120
Speaker 1: not the least of which is quarterback play. We went

510
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:56,400
Speaker 1: through a bit of a thought experiment on our show

511
00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:59,040
Speaker 1: we did last week where we talked through our favorite

512
00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:01,879
Speaker 1: quarterbacks in the ACE and who should be first and second.

513
00:26:01,880 --> 00:26:02,040
Speaker 2: Look.

514
00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 1: I don't want to put you too much on the spot,

515
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:06,399
Speaker 1: but we both agreed that our top two was Tyler

516
00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:09,640
Speaker 1: van Dyck and Devin Leary, followed by a whole bunch

517
00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:14,399
Speaker 1: of other guys. Sam Hartman filed your Kovic, Malie Cunningham

518
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 1: who probably should not be overlooked, Brendan Armstrong. There is

519
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,680
Speaker 1: a pretty long list of really good quarterback. Jordan Travis

520
00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 1: has better numbers than perhaps I would like to admit.

521
00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:28,520
Speaker 1: As you think through the acc and that particular quarterback storyline,

522
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:30,800
Speaker 1: how do you kind of suss out the field?

523
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:34,760
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I think I put cunning him

524
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:37,880
Speaker 2: Man Hartman ahead of Leary. I know that I didn't

525
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:40,120
Speaker 2: realize that would be controversial, but it feels like it's,

526
00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:42,199
Speaker 2: you know, the way the hype chain has kind of

527
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:46,520
Speaker 2: gathered steam there, that's suddenly kind of a controversial, uh take.

528
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:51,320
Speaker 2: But Devin Larry, I mean, his numbers, like his high

529
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:53,480
Speaker 2: level numbers aren't crazy. And I really I realized that

530
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:56,920
Speaker 2: it was what like thirty five to five touchdown to interception,

531
00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:59,800
Speaker 2: sixty six percent completion rate. Most of those completions didn't

532
00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:03,160
Speaker 2: go inhere. That's a very very conservative offense that kind

533
00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:07,879
Speaker 2: of had a at times a big play issue. They

534
00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 2: they still produced some like Devin Carter Amasi and the

535
00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:14,359
Speaker 2: I guess am Easy's gone, but they still had some

536
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:16,520
Speaker 2: big play moments. But the run game went nowhere. They

537
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:18,120
Speaker 2: leaned as much on the run game as they could,

538
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:20,960
Speaker 2: especially when they had the lead, and Leary was asked

539
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:22,240
Speaker 2: to throw a whole heck of a lot of like

540
00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:27,439
Speaker 2: seven yard passes. So with the defense they have, maybe

541
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:30,560
Speaker 2: that's fine. It's it's you know, that's a pretty good

542
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 2: combination because their defense should be absolutely ridiculous. They were fifteenth.

543
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:37,160
Speaker 2: They jumped to fourteenth actually in defensive s PEO plus

544
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:41,879
Speaker 2: without Peyton Wilson last year and Cecil pal the cornerback

545
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:46,480
Speaker 2: who was a borderline starter as well, and CJ. Clark Actually,

546
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:49,040
Speaker 2: now that i'm looking the nose tackle, they had some

547
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:54,040
Speaker 2: serious injury issues on defense and still were awesome. They're

548
00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:56,440
Speaker 2: gonna be awesome. That's great. You can get by with

549
00:27:56,480 --> 00:28:00,480
Speaker 2: a conservative offense, but as far as offense goes wakes awesome,

550
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:05,119
Speaker 2: just just tremendous. And Hartman is the absolute perfect quarterback

551
00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:08,760
Speaker 2: for what they want to do. And yeah, Malie Cunningham's

552
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:10,879
Speaker 2: numbers really kind of sneak up on you. But he

553
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:13,639
Speaker 2: almost threw He almost rushed for twelve hundred yards. He

554
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 2: almost threw for three thousand yards last year. That's a

555
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:19,640
Speaker 2: really really fun offense. If they have any defense whatsoever,

556
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:21,680
Speaker 2: Louisville could be a team that surprises a little bit.

557
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:25,040
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean, as far as that hierarchy goes,

558
00:28:25,119 --> 00:28:28,199
Speaker 2: I get Vandyke. He's also kind of the you know,

559
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:30,399
Speaker 2: he threw a lot of safe passes too, but just

560
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,800
Speaker 2: the way he the way he grew the second half

561
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:35,719
Speaker 2: of his red shirt freshman year when he started off

562
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 2: as the third stringer, that was awfully impressive. So I

563
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:40,320
Speaker 2: definitely have him in the top tier, but I might

564
00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:43,320
Speaker 2: I might have cunning him and Hartman both ahead ahead

565
00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 2: of Leary.

566
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, you get the sense with TVD as we lovingly

567
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:49,440
Speaker 1: refer to him here on the show, that the ceiling

568
00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:52,640
Speaker 1: is pretty high, maybe more so than anyone else in

569
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: that class. He's he's got a pretty high pro ceiling,

570
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 1: which we'll probably hear all about throughout the course of

571
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:02,040
Speaker 1: the season. What other storylines jumped out to you, Bill

572
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 1: as you went through and did your previews? Are there

573
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:08,160
Speaker 1: are there any other things that perhaps for like pet

574
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:12,720
Speaker 1: storylines of yours that just felt really meaningful or really

575
00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:13,960
Speaker 1: exciting as you looked ahead?

576
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:17,280
Speaker 2: Well, I think, I mean nobody's read my Big twelve

577
00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:20,240
Speaker 2: preview yet because it hasn't gone up yet, but everything

578
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:24,120
Speaker 2: like the thing I have come back to the most

579
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 2: this season, and I made a visit to a Big

580
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 2: twelve school this spring. I have a piece coming out

581
00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:31,080
Speaker 2: later this week about it. I don't really know why

582
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 2: I'm being secretive about who that is, but it's fun,

583
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,760
Speaker 2: so I'm going to keep doing it. Pig twelve's gonna

584
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:39,480
Speaker 2: be so much freaking fun, like just so much fun,

585
00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:42,600
Speaker 2: and in a way that when OU and Texas leave,

586
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:46,000
Speaker 2: it'll become more fun because every single game in that

587
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:48,160
Speaker 2: damn conference is going to be decided by like three points,

588
00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:51,320
Speaker 2: just constant. And we saw that last year Baylor in

589
00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:53,680
Speaker 2: Oklahoma State. The reason they had the seasons they did

590
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 2: or they won the close games. I Aoway stayed just

591
00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:00,960
Speaker 2: got so like, you know, losing to Texas Tech VA

592
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 2: sixty two yard field goal. They were the snake bitten

593
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:06,720
Speaker 2: team that lost all the close games. But there's just

594
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:09,160
Speaker 2: so much drama just week to week, so many games

595
00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:11,480
Speaker 2: to watch in that conference, and I love, you know,

596
00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:14,160
Speaker 2: all four teams that they're adding starting next year have

597
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:16,800
Speaker 2: been like top thirty level at least once in the

598
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:20,240
Speaker 2: last five years. Obviously, Cincinnati and BYU have been much

599
00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:23,200
Speaker 2: better than that. USUCF was very close to that what

600
00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 2: four and five years ago. That's going to be, like,

601
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 2: I might that conference might never produce another national title

602
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 2: winner after Hokie leaves, and I get that, but oh

603
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:35,280
Speaker 2: my god, they have so many Top twenty caliber teams,

604
00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 2: and that's going to be just a blast to follow,

605
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:41,000
Speaker 2: especially if we if everybody stops being you know, huffy

606
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 2: and stubborn, and we actually get the twelve team playoff

607
00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:44,000
Speaker 2: we were supposed to get.

608
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:46,400
Speaker 3: I want to piggyback that a little, just because I

609
00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:49,400
Speaker 3: don't care about the best conference necessarily in the way

610
00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:52,760
Speaker 3: that I think there is always that conversation during the season. Yeah,

611
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:56,160
Speaker 3: I care about the conference with the highest depth of

612
00:30:56,400 --> 00:31:01,640
Speaker 3: competence to you, and it's not the BacT Well, to you,

613
00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:05,360
Speaker 3: I mean, is it the SEC? I mean, you know,

614
00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:08,080
Speaker 3: you hear from coaches that like, look, the top is incredible,

615
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:10,480
Speaker 3: but like the middle and bottom are not all that

616
00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:13,360
Speaker 3: different from the middle and bottom of other conferences. Who

617
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:15,800
Speaker 3: is that? Who is that conference right now? Just in

618
00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:18,840
Speaker 3: terms of depth of competence, and usually that means combination

619
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:22,160
Speaker 3: quarterback and defense, But who is that conference at you know,

620
00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:23,560
Speaker 3: in mid to late June.

621
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:27,640
Speaker 2: I mean it's at the Boord answer. Probably it's probably yeah, yeah,

622
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:30,120
Speaker 2: it's okay, Like I mean, I don't I don't want

623
00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:31,840
Speaker 2: to give that answer. But I mean, even outside of

624
00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 2: Alabama and Georgia, obviously A and M is a potential

625
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:38,920
Speaker 2: top ten team or like probable top ten team at

626
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 2: this point, even though you know they don't believe in

627
00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 2: you know, bells and whistles in explosive plays one of

628
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:48,920
Speaker 2: your past, right, Like, besides that, they just like fighting

629
00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:50,840
Speaker 2: with rocks and they're pretty good at it at this point.

630
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:52,920
Speaker 2: But I mean you go through the number of teams

631
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:56,880
Speaker 2: that have top fifteen ish potential. Tennessee does, Old Miss

632
00:31:56,880 --> 00:32:01,000
Speaker 2: does Mississippi State might, Kentucky might Auburn and Florida still do.

633
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:04,960
Speaker 2: I mean, they've got plenty of issues, but they obviously

634
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:08,280
Speaker 2: still have top fifteen potential. LSU probably does. I have

635
00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:12,360
Speaker 2: no idea what to really expect from LSU. Arkansas probably does.

636
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:16,320
Speaker 2: So that's still a lot. I mean, that's the conference

637
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:18,600
Speaker 2: with the most money. When they make a series of

638
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:21,680
Speaker 2: pretty good hires, that's usually a pretty good combination. And

639
00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:24,640
Speaker 2: it's it looks really good right now for the SEC.

640
00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:26,760
Speaker 2: But beyond that, I mean, the PAC twelve is not

641
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:31,400
Speaker 2: in that conversation, but the Big ten is obviously also

642
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,200
Speaker 2: has money and a lot of good hires. But this is,

643
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 2: you know, you can certainly you look at the Big ten,

644
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:39,640
Speaker 2: the Big twelve as it is currently as it is

645
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:44,720
Speaker 2: currently constituted. Oh, you's got top five potential. Texas, I

646
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:47,160
Speaker 2: don't freaking know, like I saw. I know FBI hasn't

647
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:49,280
Speaker 2: in the top ten. We all know they have that potential,

648
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:52,040
Speaker 2: but it's you know, show it. You know, you got

649
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:54,200
Speaker 2: to maybe show it a little more frequently. But the

650
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:57,440
Speaker 2: potentials there. Oklahoma State and Baylor were top ten last year.

651
00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:00,360
Speaker 2: Kansas State has top fifteen potential. I love their defense

652
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:05,360
Speaker 2: and I love that backfield. That's a good number of

653
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:09,080
Speaker 2: teams right there. That's half the conference basically that has

654
00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 2: that potential too. So I do think that's the third

655
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:13,560
Speaker 2: best conference overall this year. And that's why it is

656
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:16,000
Speaker 2: a nice deep conference. Even if we can't really trust

657
00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:19,040
Speaker 2: O you with all that change to get through twelve

658
00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:21,840
Speaker 2: and oh or thirteen and oh necessarily, that's still a

659
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:22,560
Speaker 2: lot of potential.

660
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:26,320
Speaker 3: I think there is value in somebody who keeps keeps

661
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:31,120
Speaker 3: tabs of as many things as you do. There's monetary value. Okay,

662
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:34,400
Speaker 3: there's monetary value. And something that we discussed last year

663
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:39,800
Speaker 3: is the teams who outperform the spread consistently that you know,

664
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:42,080
Speaker 3: finished ten or eleven and one or whatever against the

665
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:44,680
Speaker 3: spread that Vegas couldn't quite figure out or couldn't quite

666
00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:47,680
Speaker 3: get a handle on, tended to be teams who are

667
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 3: catastrophic on some level, relatively catastrophic the year before, and

668
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:54,360
Speaker 3: Vegas couldn't make heads or tails of them for the

669
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,560
Speaker 3: first six or eight weeks before starting to correct things.

670
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:02,080
Speaker 3: And usually not always, but usually that sort of improvement

671
00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:05,800
Speaker 3: from catastrophic to competent came on the defensive side of

672
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:10,000
Speaker 3: the ball, especially in the ability to limit bigger plays.

673
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:13,320
Speaker 3: Not always, but like we saw Michigan make a defensive

674
00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:17,000
Speaker 3: coordinator change and got way better on defense, especially as

675
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,279
Speaker 3: it relates to preventing big plays. And obviously Iowa was

676
00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:22,040
Speaker 3: always that team, and just the teams that tended to

677
00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:26,000
Speaker 3: bounce back against the spread especially had that in common.

678
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:29,360
Speaker 3: It's silly for me to ask you this question because

679
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:32,280
Speaker 3: you don't know, nobody knows, but we had a number

680
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:36,680
Speaker 3: of catastrophic teams last year. So of those catastrophic teams

681
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:41,120
Speaker 3: if you were a wagering human and looking at Okay,

682
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:43,799
Speaker 3: here's who Vegas is going to undersell until mid to

683
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:47,880
Speaker 3: late October or something like that. Who are those teams

684
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:50,279
Speaker 3: that you're like, I don't know. I'm still a Tom

685
00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:52,759
Speaker 3: Allen believer. They're not an elite loser anymore like they

686
00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:55,239
Speaker 3: were last year. I'm a Michael Oxley believer. Like, who

687
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 3: is there anybody who were like, they're not going to

688
00:34:57,480 --> 00:35:01,279
Speaker 3: It's impossible for them to be as catastrophic, which is

689
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:03,319
Speaker 3: my word of the day as they were last year.

690
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:07,040
Speaker 2: So while you were talking, I got my projections here.

691
00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:09,239
Speaker 3: I always do that, by the way, I always that's

692
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:11,520
Speaker 3: like our Stockton Malone, Like I always try to give

693
00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:13,640
Speaker 3: you a little time to load up a spreadshel That's.

694
00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:16,880
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that's right. And nobody brings spreadsheets to a

695
00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 2: podcast like I've got the you know, I got my

696
00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:27,239
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two projections here. I got you know, I

697
00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:29,280
Speaker 2: sorted them out by defense. I'm looking at the worst

698
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:32,840
Speaker 2: defenses in the Power conferences projected defense in the Power Conferences.

699
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:36,400
Speaker 2: A lot of them are extremely justifiable. Duke and Kansas

700
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:39,719
Speaker 2: at the bottom two makes sense, Yeah, Georgia Tech's down there.

701
00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:44,279
Speaker 2: Branderbilts down there makes sense of the ones that are

702
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:47,400
Speaker 2: down there that I could see, you know, teams that

703
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:51,000
Speaker 2: have either had good defenses recently and like you said,

704
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 2: got ripped apart by big plays. Specifically, TCU has projected

705
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:59,600
Speaker 2: eighty fifth because they were suddenly terrible defensively last year. Yes, Andy,

706
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:02,880
Speaker 2: not been, you know, they were. That was kind of

707
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:08,200
Speaker 2: Gary Patterson's thing was having not tragic defenses, and suddenly

708
00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:10,359
Speaker 2: they had one. And so they're projected pretty I mean,

709
00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:15,080
Speaker 2: they're borderline top fifty basically because of that. But if

710
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:17,399
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, Sunny Dicks made a lovely higher.

711
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:21,320
Speaker 2: He brought in the Tulsa guy as defensive coordinator. Tulsa's

712
00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:24,120
Speaker 2: had a couple of three straight really really solid defenses.

713
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:27,040
Speaker 2: If that kind of sticks, if something clicks there and

714
00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:30,200
Speaker 2: his truckload of transfers that he brought in, if everything

715
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:33,160
Speaker 2: kind of normalizes and they just leaned big plays a

716
00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:37,080
Speaker 2: little bit better, their often should be fantastic. Like suddenly

717
00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:41,279
Speaker 2: tcgoes from borderline top fifty to top twenty. So that's

718
00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:43,719
Speaker 2: a team and I'm not sure like Vegas might, they're

719
00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:47,080
Speaker 2: still TCU. They've won games relatively recently enough that maybe

720
00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:50,600
Speaker 2: maybe Vegas is already expecting decent things of them. But

721
00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:52,759
Speaker 2: that is a team that you know, they're projected to

722
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:56,000
Speaker 2: win like six point eight games on average with my ratings,

723
00:36:56,560 --> 00:36:59,560
Speaker 2: it's not hard to see them suddenly being a lot

724
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:02,880
Speaker 2: more calm on that side and suddenly winning nine or

725
00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:06,840
Speaker 2: ten games USC. I do think it's still going to

726
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:12,600
Speaker 2: get ripped apart defensively at times, but no, never mind,

727
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 2: Vegas is gonna Yeah, Vegas is not going to treat

728
00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,279
Speaker 2: them as a as a top fifty team, So that's

729
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:22,240
Speaker 2: not there's no catching up to do there, North Carolina.

730
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:23,120
Speaker 2: How about that?

731
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:27,600
Speaker 1: Oh the Hysick rise to mediocrity.

732
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:30,320
Speaker 2: Effect, which I'm not really sure is a thing.

733
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:32,719
Speaker 3: Which he's already done by the way in Chapel Hill.

734
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:35,120
Speaker 3: The rise to mediocrity, I think he took like the

735
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:37,439
Speaker 3: one hundred and eighteenth best defense and turned them into

736
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:38,440
Speaker 3: like the sixty fourth.

737
00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:40,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, he hasn't. I did look it up for my

738
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,320
Speaker 2: ACC preview. He hasn't had a top sixty defense in

739
00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:45,520
Speaker 2: my numbers since two thousand and six when he was

740
00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:48,080
Speaker 2: with Mac Brown. But he did make them more competent,

741
00:37:48,239 --> 00:37:51,800
Speaker 2: so maybe even after five years in the broadcast booth,

742
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:55,360
Speaker 2: maybe he's still capable of that. And I mean they

743
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:57,799
Speaker 2: lose a lot offensively, but they're still it's you know,

744
00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:00,759
Speaker 2: that offense, you know, never going to score much on

745
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:03,480
Speaker 2: the lead defenses they don't face just a ton of those,

746
00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:06,319
Speaker 2: so you know, they they will score points. And if

747
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:08,919
Speaker 2: suddenly they're not getting blown up for constant fifty yard

748
00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:12,160
Speaker 2: gains on defense, then that is a team. Like where

749
00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:14,680
Speaker 2: are they They're they're projected in my numbers to win

750
00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:16,000
Speaker 2: seven and a half. I'm not ware of this year.

751
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:19,319
Speaker 2: Where they're over under is it's not impossible to see

752
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:22,200
Speaker 2: them jump in a decent amount. My heart's not really

753
00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:24,600
Speaker 2: in these picks to a certain degree, I don't know,

754
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:29,680
Speaker 2: but that is that Iowa states one that they lose

755
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:32,279
Speaker 2: a ton defensively. They didn't. I mean, they were good

756
00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:35,160
Speaker 2: defensively last year, so it's kind of a different story.

757
00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:37,919
Speaker 2: But they we could be overestimated how much they fall

758
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:40,239
Speaker 2: because especially if you look at their seven and six

759
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:42,359
Speaker 2: record and decide they weren't very good last year, they

760
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:45,279
Speaker 2: were still, you know, very solid. Is just they lost

761
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:47,840
Speaker 2: on their close games. So that's a team that you

762
00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:50,799
Speaker 2: combine that with a defensive turnover. If Haycock is just

763
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:54,640
Speaker 2: incapable of producing bad defenses, then that's a team that

764
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:55,440
Speaker 2: could overachieve.

765
00:38:57,239 --> 00:38:58,960
Speaker 3: By the way, I'm picturing as you're saying this, both

766
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:01,600
Speaker 3: Gary Patterson and John Haycock with business cards with their

767
00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:05,279
Speaker 3: names and have her of not bad defenses. It's like,

768
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:08,480
Speaker 3: that's kind of my thing. I may have a bad defense.

769
00:39:08,600 --> 00:39:10,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, Patterson had his card taken away last year.

770
00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:13,680
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say not at TCU last year. Back to Kinko's,

771
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:18,200
Speaker 1: back to moo dot com. Yeah, sorry, oh man.

772
00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:20,960
Speaker 2: He's an assistant to the Texas head coach. That is

773
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:22,000
Speaker 2: just crazy.

774
00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:25,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's wild. Bill Connolly, ESPN. I think we're out

775
00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:27,840
Speaker 1: of time. I do want to talk soccer with you,

776
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:29,360
Speaker 1: but I'm going to invite you back to do that

777
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:31,000
Speaker 1: at some other point because I know you got to go.

778
00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:34,480
Speaker 2: We have time, and we've got time before the World Cup.

779
00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:36,440
Speaker 1: So that's right, So we'll invite you back on at

780
00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:38,680
Speaker 1: some point in near future. You and I can can

781
00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:40,680
Speaker 1: have a go at the US national team in advance

782
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:43,000
Speaker 1: of the World Cup, but in the interim, very quickly

783
00:39:43,040 --> 00:39:44,759
Speaker 1: before you go, what you got coming up over the

784
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:48,000
Speaker 1: next few weeks and months and promote anything you need to.

785
00:39:49,239 --> 00:39:51,280
Speaker 2: Well, it's it was a it's been a weird offseason

786
00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:53,759
Speaker 2: for me, just because I was suddenly traveling again, and

787
00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 2: therefore a lot of the pieces I would have written

788
00:39:55,600 --> 00:39:57,480
Speaker 2: in like March and April, kind of the one off

789
00:39:57,560 --> 00:40:00,280
Speaker 2: kind of things, we've been banking to a certain degree,

790
00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:02,160
Speaker 2: and so I did. I had a piece with Virginia

791
00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:05,080
Speaker 2: Tech about Virginia Tech and Brent Pryor last week. Got

792
00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:06,680
Speaker 2: a whole bunch more of those to come. It's going

793
00:40:06,719 --> 00:40:10,160
Speaker 2: to be a very heavy June, July, August run here

794
00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:13,839
Speaker 2: with stuff that I've banked. So not that anybody has

795
00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:18,439
Speaker 2: ever really doubted my quantity even this year, but there's

796
00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:20,520
Speaker 2: a lot of quantity coming in. A lot of it

797
00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:22,920
Speaker 2: is that variety the travel things that I that I

798
00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:25,120
Speaker 2: did in the spring that haven't really seen the light

799
00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:26,520
Speaker 2: of day yet. We're gonna have a lot of those

800
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:26,839
Speaker 2: to come.

801
00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:30,920
Speaker 1: All right, Pill Connley, ESPN dot com. Always a pleasure.

802
00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:35,080
Speaker 1: We will talk soon. Thanks again for your time. Absolutely

803
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:39,520
Speaker 1: all right, Dan, there you go. Bill Connolly, ESPN dot com.

804
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:42,640
Speaker 1: We're gonna have to invite him back, maybe maybe for

805
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:45,239
Speaker 1: an off topic show on Patreon for Bowlers dot Com.

806
00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:48,800
Speaker 1: Wink wink, nudge nudge. Uh huh. Of course, maybe maybe

807
00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:52,000
Speaker 1: we can do US soccer in the run up to

808
00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:52,640
Speaker 1: the World Cup.

809
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:58,279
Speaker 3: Which country would you like to go? I assume you're

810
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:01,480
Speaker 3: gonna say England if you could go a international soccer,

811
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:03,839
Speaker 3: but you could say Argentina, you could say Germany. There's

812
00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:06,279
Speaker 3: also you can say Italy, you could say Spain. Like

813
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:10,680
Speaker 3: which non England? There's your your qualifier because Bill just

814
00:41:10,680 --> 00:41:13,600
Speaker 3: went over to Germany and you know, fattened himself up

815
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:16,480
Speaker 3: with currywurst and donor kebab's in the best possible way.

816
00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:22,520
Speaker 3: Which non UK England country would you go to see

817
00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:27,600
Speaker 3: international soccer? Well, I mean there's club soccer with the

818
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:30,480
Speaker 3: various leagues in each That's what I'm talking about, and

819
00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:33,040
Speaker 3: then there's international which is kind of a different ballwax.

820
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:34,000
Speaker 2: No club soccer.

821
00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:38,239
Speaker 1: For me, it's probably either Germany or Spain. Okay, I

822
00:41:38,480 --> 00:41:43,200
Speaker 1: would say Germany or Spain probably neck and neck for me.

823
00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:45,920
Speaker 1: I know a little bit more about German. Plus my

824
00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:47,600
Speaker 1: last name is German and I speak a little bit

825
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:50,799
Speaker 1: of German, So okay, that would probably be around easily. Yeah,

826
00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:53,200
Speaker 1: that would probably be the answer for me, but definitely

827
00:41:53,239 --> 00:41:56,520
Speaker 1: a different world than I've been reading all of Bill's breakdowns,

828
00:41:56,560 --> 00:42:00,760
Speaker 1: as he's himself gone through and traveled Germany in Europe.

829
00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 3: Do you watch like non English club soccer? Will you

830
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:07,040
Speaker 3: watch it down and watch Bundesliga? I know, like what

831
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:10,239
Speaker 3: Geo Rena and Pulisic have been on or are on

832
00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:13,239
Speaker 3: German clubs. Is that your main impetus or do you

833
00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:14,680
Speaker 3: watch it just because it's good soccer?

834
00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:20,600
Speaker 1: That was one of the motivating factors. But okay, I

835
00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:24,000
Speaker 1: don't watch as much as Premier League to be real,

836
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:29,080
Speaker 1: But if I'm watching, if there's a game of interest, yeah,

837
00:42:29,280 --> 00:42:32,440
Speaker 1: I'll flip it on. It's not so much any kind

838
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:35,160
Speaker 1: of loyalty to the league as it is, Oh there's

839
00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:37,560
Speaker 1: a cool game that's happening, right right. I treat it

840
00:42:37,600 --> 00:42:41,800
Speaker 1: the same way I would treat Sunbelt football or sometimes

841
00:42:41,840 --> 00:42:44,960
Speaker 1: in the game or sometimes acc football. Yeah, it's just

842
00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:48,840
Speaker 1: game by game based whatever suits my fancy in that moment.

843
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:52,440
Speaker 3: Okay, that's fair enough. I don't think I have anything

844
00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:54,640
Speaker 3: else for you. I'm looking are you getting Philly tickets

845
00:42:54,719 --> 00:42:55,560
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six?

846
00:42:55,719 --> 00:42:57,160
Speaker 1: I'm gonna work on it. Yeah.

847
00:42:57,200 --> 00:42:58,120
Speaker 3: Do you have connections?

848
00:42:58,239 --> 00:43:01,480
Speaker 1: No? No, not, but I will develop them in the

849
00:43:01,520 --> 00:43:03,920
Speaker 1: next four years. I guarantee it. All Right, you.

850
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:05,799
Speaker 3: Gotta get to fit. What's the backup city if you

851
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:06,839
Speaker 3: can't get Philly.

852
00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:09,279
Speaker 1: Well, there's games in New York.

853
00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:11,319
Speaker 3: Dude, we got to take the games and take the

854
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:14,600
Speaker 3: show on the road, Lahara, twenty twenty six.

855
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:15,680
Speaker 2: Let's go.

856
00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:19,200
Speaker 1: I will figure out some way to witness the World

857
00:43:19,239 --> 00:43:23,520
Speaker 1: Cup in person in four years. Okay, here, I will

858
00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:26,400
Speaker 1: find a way. What was the dude's name, was it

859
00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:29,440
Speaker 1: Dion Rich? The guy who would sneak into all the

860
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:32,400
Speaker 1: sporting events until they wise don't remember. Yeah, there's a

861
00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:34,160
Speaker 1: big thing on it. What I want to say, Dean Rich.

862
00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:36,280
Speaker 1: I don't remember if that's the right name, But okay,

863
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 1: I will. I will pull a Deon Rich. Let's assume

864
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:41,280
Speaker 1: it's correct. Do you look some way into the Games

865
00:43:41,320 --> 00:43:41,920
Speaker 1: in four years?

866
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:46,040
Speaker 3: Do you look enough like could you train yourself and

867
00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:50,279
Speaker 3: shape yourself physically like MTV's made to look enough like

868
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:54,000
Speaker 3: an international soccer star like fake Klay Thompson got into

869
00:43:54,040 --> 00:43:56,560
Speaker 3: the Chase Center this past week by looking enough like

870
00:43:56,640 --> 00:43:58,520
Speaker 3: Klay Thompson. Is that a viable way?

871
00:43:59,560 --> 00:43:59,680
Speaker 2: Like?

872
00:43:59,719 --> 00:44:01,399
Speaker 3: I don't know what country it would work?

873
00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:01,719
Speaker 2: For you.

874
00:44:02,160 --> 00:44:04,040
Speaker 1: I think I think I've got a little bit of

875
00:44:04,080 --> 00:44:05,440
Speaker 1: geoorina in my jawline.

876
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:08,400
Speaker 3: All right, but you need to you probably need the

877
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:10,880
Speaker 3: physique to be more in line. No, I need to

878
00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:13,400
Speaker 3: hear your trim guy, But none taken.

879
00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:16,359
Speaker 1: I will be deeper into my fifth decade of life

880
00:44:16,400 --> 00:44:19,240
Speaker 1: at that point. It's true. I still I still maintain

881
00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:22,359
Speaker 1: the babyface and was carded twice this weekend. Look at you.

882
00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:29,800
Speaker 3: It's still a stretch. But probably temples, the grand temples.

883
00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:31,879
Speaker 3: We might need some just from a natural No one

884
00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:32,279
Speaker 3: can tell.

885
00:44:32,360 --> 00:44:34,960
Speaker 1: Not a sponsor. Could be, Yeah, it could be. We'll

886
00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:38,959
Speaker 1: see four years to figure out my master plan. Wait,

887
00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:39,400
Speaker 1: how old will we?

888
00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:39,759
Speaker 2: Oh?

889
00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:42,200
Speaker 3: My god, stop going to be much older in four years?

890
00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:45,520
Speaker 1: All right, Dan, that does it for today, Thanks again

891
00:44:45,640 --> 00:44:48,960
Speaker 1: to our guest of honor, Bill Connelly from ESPN dot

892
00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:51,719
Speaker 1: com is always go and check out Bill Connolly and

893
00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:53,920
Speaker 1: the fine work that he puts out. We will be

894
00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:56,560
Speaker 1: back on Thursday. I believe we're doing a mega June

895
00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:59,520
Speaker 1: Q and a to wrap. You are month right, mm

896
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:02,560
Speaker 1: hmm correct. Stay tuned. If you've got any questions that

897
00:45:02,600 --> 00:45:05,360
Speaker 1: you'd like answered, we will be putting a call out

898
00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:08,480
Speaker 1: all across social media as ever, our email address is

899
00:45:08,520 --> 00:45:12,960
Speaker 1: soliverbal at gmail dot com. And last, but certainly not least,

900
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:16,120
Speaker 1: subscribe to the show. If you haven't already, we'd encourage

901
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:19,000
Speaker 1: you to tell your friends to follow us on social

902
00:45:19,040 --> 00:45:21,920
Speaker 1: media that includes all the social media platforms, not the

903
00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:24,799
Speaker 1: least of which is YouTube, or we'll post clips from

904
00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:28,359
Speaker 1: this episode, all of our episodes in much much more. Yeah,

905
00:45:28,560 --> 00:45:30,400
Speaker 1: that's how I have for that guy over there, my

906
00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:33,640
Speaker 1: good friend Dan Rubinstein, for myself, Tie Hildebrand. We will

907
00:45:33,680 --> 00:45:36,640
Speaker 1: talk to you all on Thursday. In the meantime, as always,

908
00:45:36,719 --> 00:45:38,520
Speaker 1: stay solid, please