Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal hull that for me. I'm
Speaker 1: a man, I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well,
Speaker 1: I want to be happy.
Speaker 2: You want to be happy for a day? Eta steak
Speaker 2: is that woo woof?
Speaker 1: And them and tie Welcome back to the solid rebel boys. Girls.
Speaker 1: My name is ty Hilda Brandt, that fine gentleman over
Speaker 1: there in tropical Chicago, Illinois, the one, the only, still,
Speaker 1: the incomparable. Dan Rubinstein, sir, how are you? I'm not bad.
Speaker 2: I had a good night's sleep. I uh stayed up
Speaker 2: far past my bedtime. On Saturday night, I went over
Speaker 2: to a buddy's house and watched UFC two seventy two.
Speaker 1: Whoa you getting into a little mma?
Speaker 2: Not especially, but I played tennis with this dude and
Speaker 2: he's super nice and invited me over. He had buddies
Speaker 2: over to watch the fight. Nice little cheese spread, okay,
Speaker 2: had some chocolate, had some chips, had a.
Speaker 1: Beer, A beer, a beer, And I woke up Sunday morning.
Speaker 2: Like, oh, I'm not in a good place. It had
Speaker 2: nothing to do with the beer, but I was worried
Speaker 2: for a moment that my extremely soft tolerance had hit me.
Speaker 2: But if you have any questions about you know, thug
Speaker 2: Nasty Bryce Mitchell.
Speaker 1: I'm right here. I was gonna ask, so tell me
Speaker 1: about the conversation at said MMA party, Like what are yeah,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? Did you do research before
Speaker 1: going over to your buddy's place to learn a little
Speaker 1: bit more about this? We would if we were going
Speaker 1: to a, you know, any other sporting event.
Speaker 2: Not especially, but my buddy did tell me that he
Speaker 2: liked thug nasty from Arkansas.
Speaker 1: That was his his guy.
Speaker 2: No, I knew that the headline about the main event
Speaker 2: featured former good friends and so that it wasn't a
Speaker 2: title fight, so there was like bad blood on the line,
Speaker 2: but not necessarily a belt. So I knew that you
Speaker 2: who fought, if you want to bring it all the
Speaker 2: way back to college football, is Greg Hardy. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: he's in this Miss Carolina Panthers. He's been fighting for
Speaker 2: a while. Pretty quickly dispatched, okay, quickly dispatched by a
Speaker 2: large man from I think Moldova.
Speaker 1: So I don't know. I had fun.
Speaker 2: It's one of those things where I pretended, not pretended,
Speaker 2: but was very agreeable. So it's like a lot of
Speaker 2: like sure, sure at.
Speaker 1: Armbar uh huh uh uh huh. Three quartermount. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what I was.
Speaker 2: That's what I was seeing coming as well. Yeah, uh huh,
Speaker 2: So that was fine. I'm not anti MMA, I'm not
Speaker 2: pro MMA. I'm just I'm there for the.
Speaker 1: Spectacle, there for the spectacle. Well, with that being said,
Speaker 1: today's show is about the spectacle that was three and
Speaker 1: nine teams, Yes, in twenty twenty one. You may recall
Speaker 1: we did an episode like this a month ago. We
Speaker 1: released a show on February tenth, Allah to ten talked
Speaker 1: about two and ten teams, yes, on Wednesday. It is
Speaker 1: March the ninth, three nine a last here we are.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna be talking about all sorts of teams,
Speaker 1: not the least of which is Nebraska and Northwestern and
Speaker 1: Temple and New Mexico. Who doesn't want to talk about
Speaker 1: New Mexico.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you got Miles Kendrick thoughts, Rocky Long roles reversed, big.
Speaker 1: Time thoughts, big time thoughts. We're going to dive in
Speaker 1: and talk about that. We're also going to go through
Speaker 1: the news here momentarily, but before we do, don't forget
Speaker 1: this episode. All our episodes driven by our good friends
Speaker 1: over at Geico. If you like the podcast, if you're
Speaker 1: just maybe finding us for the first time, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for downloading. If you've been here a while,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your continued support. Please do
Speaker 1: subscribe to the show. We're doing two a week in
Speaker 1: the off season. You can also rate and review wherever
Speaker 1: it is you get your podcasts. If you want more
Speaker 1: solid verbal you can go on out to verballers dot com.
Speaker 1: Verballers dot com gives you access to all shows a
Speaker 1: little bit early. You get access to bonus shows. You
Speaker 1: did an off topic show a week ago. We continue
Speaker 1: to do weekly brewin a episodes which are only available
Speaker 1: on Patreon, and last week we had a rather exciting
Speaker 1: announcement about Extra Nuggets. Dan. Extra Nuggets is a trivia
Speaker 1: show that you are doing with our good friend Adam,
Speaker 1: a mean voice of the bulls. Thank you very much,
Speaker 1: brought We're going to use that sound today. Right to
Speaker 1: the annoying reactions, Yeah, calls NFL games, does baseball? Adam?
Speaker 1: You know, Adam. Adam's good. Yeah, good, dear pal. The
Speaker 1: show feedback so far, I think it's been really positive.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, first two episodes on verballers dot com. More
Speaker 2: going up this month. And yeah, it's a really fun concept,
Speaker 2: easy concept, quick show. Each episode is about thirty minutes long,
Speaker 2: and we add additional context to every correct response from Jeopardy.
Speaker 2: So if it's Mickey Mantle, if it's Orion's Belt, if
Speaker 2: it's al Pacino, if it's the Prime Meridian, like, hey,
Speaker 2: here's what it is, here's something fun about it, and
Speaker 2: it just.
Speaker 1: Goes pretty quickly. I like it. It's fun so quick
Speaker 1: listen a digestible podcast you can access that and let
Speaker 1: us know what your thoughts are. Again, over edver Bullers
Speaker 1: dot com. And last but not least, don't forget to
Speaker 1: follow along on social media. Okay, it has been a
Speaker 1: little bit since we delved into news on the college
Speaker 1: football front. True, and there are a couple of things
Speaker 1: that we should mention. The I think news of the
Speaker 1: day is that Jaden Daniels, formerly of Arizona State, he
Speaker 1: announced his intention to transfer a couple of weeks back.
Speaker 1: He has now landed at LSU with Brian Kelly. This
Speaker 1: is of particular interest to me, knowing how mister Kelly
Speaker 1: tends to handle seeming quarterback controversies. He's going to have
Speaker 1: one now in Baton Rouge. With Jaden Daniels coming to town,
Speaker 1: that means he's going to join a depth chart that
Speaker 1: also features Miles Brennan, Garrett nus Meyer and the early
Speaker 1: en roll Ly five star recruit Walker Howard Dan Good move,
Speaker 1: bad move? Where are you at with this? Jane Daniels
Speaker 1: tell us you, I mean it's great for LSU, not
Speaker 1: because I think he's anything crazy special, but because what's
Speaker 1: your phrase? More bites at the apple? Right?
Speaker 2: You got more guys competing hopefully. I mean, so Miles
Speaker 2: Brennan coming off of a season ending a preseason ending
Speaker 2: injury last year. Garrett nus Meyer was the future at
Speaker 2: a certain point, but he's still relatively unproven. And then
Speaker 2: you've got the future future in Walker Howard. And so
Speaker 2: you've got a guy in right now, and if he's
Speaker 2: good enough to beat out presumably Miles Brennan Garrett us Meyer,
Speaker 2: then that's a good thing. That's a good thing that
Speaker 2: LSU has that quality of guy. Because Jade and daniels
Speaker 2: ceiling is interesting. I think he's fine. Like I'm not
Speaker 2: as high on him as I think a lot of people.
Speaker 2: When he entered the portal, he was a bit careless.
Speaker 2: Last year, I went back and rewatched a couple of
Speaker 2: his games, and he was prone a bit to hero ball,
Speaker 2: you know, throwing a away from his body, throwing across
Speaker 2: his body, trying to make plays. There were times when
Speaker 2: the announcers were especially confused why he didn't make certain
Speaker 2: throws when a play was designed for a guy running
Speaker 2: wide open down the field. And so, you know, maybe
Speaker 2: it was the architecture of the offense. Maybe it was
Speaker 2: ASU's offensive line at times in pass protection and confusion.
Speaker 2: But no, I mean, just in terms of a stop gap,
Speaker 2: you can certainly do far worse than Jade and Daniels
Speaker 2: and year one of Brian Kelly as you sort of
Speaker 2: assess what you want to do moving forward. I know
Speaker 2: LSU's offensive coordinator seems pretty well regarded. Sean McVay apparently
Speaker 2: had interest in him to take over the Rams job
Speaker 2: on some level or some assistant job there. So we'll see.
Speaker 2: So Jadan Daniels at LSU, I he's betting on himself.
Speaker 2: It's a roll of the dice for him. And you're
Speaker 2: right about Brian Kelly's past with figuring out who should
Speaker 2: be playing quarterback. It sounds like a this is not
Speaker 2: an annual thing. This is going to be a carnival.
Speaker 2: It is going to be a carnival. This is the
Speaker 2: real Marti grad Dans are super low. This is not
Speaker 2: Brian Kelly in year eleven or twelve. The stakes in
Speaker 2: year one, with the contract he has, with expectations in
Speaker 2: year one, they're basically no stakes right now. No, there's
Speaker 2: no added pressure.
Speaker 1: Ie, He's not going to lose his job, right They
Speaker 1: just committed the entire family farm to Brian Kelly. But
Speaker 1: I fully expect that this quarterback controversy is going to
Speaker 1: last all season. And if history is any guide for
Speaker 1: Brian Kelly and what we've seen in his tenure at
Speaker 1: Notre Dame, having a number of good quarterbacks on the roster,
Speaker 1: all of whom could play, all of whom the fans
Speaker 1: want to see play, he will find some way to
Speaker 1: batch this. And that doesn't mean LS is going to
Speaker 1: have a bad offense. I'm just saying the quarterback thing
Speaker 1: will remain muddled. Just get yourself ready for it now.
Speaker 1: I'm not even saying this to be derogatory. It will
Speaker 1: be muddled all season long. He will not commit to
Speaker 1: anybody until it seems too late. Just get ready.
Speaker 2: Only the only reason why I would push back on
Speaker 2: that a little bit is the these aren't any of
Speaker 2: his guys, right, So there's no there's no sense of
Speaker 2: like Jack Cone wasn't his guy because he didn't recruit
Speaker 2: him out of high school, he wasn't with him for
Speaker 2: years and years last year, and the same those for
Speaker 2: all three of these guys, four of these whatever, however
Speaker 2: many guys end up in this conversation, there's no sense
Speaker 2: of Brian Kelly has watched this guy in practice for
Speaker 2: two years, so he feels like he can really perform
Speaker 2: if given the opportunity. So there's a clean slate element
Speaker 2: having all of these guys where he hasn't sat in
Speaker 2: the living room with these guys his parents, and he hasn't,
Speaker 2: you know, formed these preconceived notions about any of these
Speaker 2: guys over the course of many years. And so I
Speaker 2: just I don't know how much allure there will be
Speaker 2: for any of these guys to jump in when things
Speaker 2: are going wrong for somebody else.
Speaker 1: So we'll see.
Speaker 2: But I just I think the situation is pretty pretty
Speaker 2: different from where he was at Notre Dame.
Speaker 1: It is I hear you, I'll believe it when I
Speaker 1: see it, So okay. Elsewhere he mentioned Jack Cone. Jack
Speaker 1: Cone ran a four to nine at the com Dan,
Speaker 1: Who is that good? Is that bad? I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's faster than I thought he'd run. Oh okay, if
Speaker 1: I'm being honest with you. The combine happened over the weekend,
Speaker 1: a bunch of just factoids I think for college football
Speaker 1: fans that you may or may not be interested in.
Speaker 1: The big headline from the combine was Jordan Davis from Georgia.
Speaker 1: Jordan Davis six six three forty one. Dude ran a
Speaker 1: four to seven to eight broad jump over ten feet
Speaker 1: ten feet three inches, which is believed to be a
Speaker 1: record for anybody over three hundred pounds. Also had a
Speaker 1: thirty two inch vert which is just mind blowing those
Speaker 1: types of numbers. Anyone who tells you that athletes now
Speaker 1: aren't better than they were five ten years ago is
Speaker 1: out of their mind. Jordan Davis definitely given his draft
Speaker 1: stock a bit of a boost. What else do we
Speaker 1: got here? We had some other crazy numbers. Kalin Barnes,
Speaker 1: the defensive back for Baylor, ran the second fastest forty
Speaker 1: time ever, just a one hundredth of a second behind
Speaker 1: John Ross. You'll recall he ran a four to two
Speaker 1: two a couple of years back when he left Washington.
Speaker 1: Klin Barnes four to two three, just blazing fast. Baylor
Speaker 1: also had Taekwon Thornton run a four to eight. He
Speaker 1: was the fastest wide receiver this cycle. All told, there
Speaker 1: were eight receivers that ran under a four to four.
Speaker 1: Your boy Cavon Thibodeau ran a four to five eight
Speaker 1: at what two fifty five, two fifty four something like that? Yep, yep. Uh.
Speaker 1: David o'jabo ran a four to five five, sort of
Speaker 1: the hybrid d N type from Michigan. It seems as
Speaker 1: if that gave him a needed boost to maybe get
Speaker 1: him up into the top twelve. Uh. Breist Hall seemingly
Speaker 1: doing everything he can do to remain one of the top,
Speaker 1: if not the top running back. Prosspect ran a four
Speaker 1: to three to nine, getting under that four to four number. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And then we had some other news. We had Kenny
Speaker 1: Pickett with quote historically small eight and a half inch hands,
Speaker 1: But then he threw and he looked fine, and everybody
Speaker 1: stopped talking about the hands. Sam Howell looked pretty good
Speaker 1: throwing the deep ball folks are starting to talk themselves
Speaker 1: into Malik Willis as the top ten pick. Same holds
Speaker 1: true for des Ridder, not seemingly because of anything he
Speaker 1: did throwing the football, but because he ran a four
Speaker 1: or five two. We always knew he was fast. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that is going to be grounds enough
Speaker 1: to get him into the top ten. We'll cover it
Speaker 1: to the extent that we can here, but does Ritter
Speaker 1: getting a little bit of steam? And we also found
Speaker 1: out that Derek Stingley is recovering from Liz Frank injury.
Speaker 1: Stingley one of those guys that I remember when he
Speaker 1: came out of high school. He kind of fell into
Speaker 1: that Adrian Peterson category of like, if he could go
Speaker 1: right now to the NFL, teams would pick him high.
Speaker 1: And we know he's obviously very talented, but had some
Speaker 1: questions around white and play more. What's going on these
Speaker 1: deal with Liz Frank injury. So okay, claims they'll be
Speaker 1: fine by Pro Day, but another thing to keep your
Speaker 1: eyes on. Again, We'll try to cover this as best
Speaker 1: we can hear from the college football perspective, just because
Speaker 1: it is one of those rare moments of overlap between
Speaker 1: college and pro that a lot of college fans take
Speaker 1: great pride in a guy from their school going pretty high.
Speaker 1: So we'll continue to keep an eye on this and
Speaker 1: talk to folks as we get a little bit closer
Speaker 1: to the draft. But the combine was a pretty big
Speaker 1: deal over the weekend. The only other tidbit that I
Speaker 1: have here, and it's very small and very minor, but
Speaker 1: something worth noting. I'm ready. They are looking at proposed
Speaker 1: rule changes with respect to saw this targeting, as well
Speaker 1: as implementing something to try and curb what they call
Speaker 1: fake injuries.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're going to ban the shift, right, they're
Speaker 2: going to ban the Is that the wrong sport?
Speaker 1: I think you're talking about Major League Baseball? Dan? Okay, gosh, okay, sorry,
Speaker 1: sorry about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's no real good solution here for
Speaker 2: the fake injuries thing. That starts with coaches. It's not
Speaker 2: they're not independent contractors on the field saying they're not freelancing.
Speaker 1: Like, oh, I'm gonna fake it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna fake it and I'm gonna screw everything up
Speaker 2: for the plans of the coaches and the defensive coordinator
Speaker 2: in the rhythm of this game.
Speaker 1: I don't know. It starts with coaches.
Speaker 2: I don't know what you do. It's it's a it's
Speaker 2: a very difficult issue to solve. We've seen it allegedly
Speaker 2: across the sport, and we've also seen crowds freak out
Speaker 2: thinking that players are fake injuries. Well, in fact, they
Speaker 2: were injuries, suggesting excuse me, are you suggesting anything untoward
Speaker 2: about the great fans of Iowa football who've had to
Speaker 2: watch Brian Farren's offense.
Speaker 1: Did I say, I didn't even say excuse me?
Speaker 2: It's I think it's gonna be extremely difficult to legislate
Speaker 2: and to parse what is and isn't fake. And you
Speaker 2: keep players out, and you know, sometimes there are very
Speaker 2: minor injuries where somebody rolls his ankle sure and is
Speaker 2: able to stretch it out and get loose a little
Speaker 2: while later. That's a real thing. So I don't know,
Speaker 2: I don't know what you do. Right answer is I saw.
Speaker 1: There are some quotes from David Shaw, who is involved
Speaker 1: with this, and his point, his sentiment echoes yours. There
Speaker 1: is no good way to handle this. They've kicked around
Speaker 1: something like a video review after the fact, and then
Speaker 1: perhaps conferences or individual schools would be up to levy
Speaker 1: penalties against the player the coach. I don't know against
Speaker 1: whom you'd be letting the penalty. But how many non
Speaker 1: contact injuries do we see in the span of a
Speaker 1: college football seat. Yeah, it happens every week. So it's
Speaker 1: just so hard to legislate that type of thing. On
Speaker 1: the targeting front. Again, it's it's equally as difficult without
Speaker 1: taking the rule out entirely. One of the things that
Speaker 1: I saw kicked around was again this video review where
Speaker 1: a school a conference could appeal and then some larger
Speaker 1: governing body would take a look at it and like, say,
Speaker 1: for instance, it happened in the second half, if you appealed,
Speaker 1: perhaps you could get a suspension thrown out so that
Speaker 1: you'd have to lose a guy for the first half
Speaker 1: of the next game.
Speaker 2: Saw that, right, which just seems I mean, targeting in
Speaker 2: and of itself is such a confusing kind of nonsensical,
Speaker 2: Like it's one of those rules where you're.
Speaker 1: Like, well, by the letter of the law, even though.
Speaker 2: What you're watching doesn't necessarily, you know, resonate in your
Speaker 2: own brain as something crazy serious that you know. So
Speaker 2: I suppose that's at least a step in the right direction.
Speaker 2: Do you have a memorable non contact injury of your
Speaker 2: own your you're living just oh my gosh, where do
Speaker 2: you want me to start? I mean, I have one
Speaker 2: that that immediately comes to mind about seventeen hours into
Speaker 2: the movie Contact.
Speaker 1: If you remember how long.
Speaker 2: That movie was with Jody Foster and Matthew McConaughey, I
Speaker 2: got a Charlie Horse in the world. You ever, just
Speaker 2: you ever silently yell in the middle of a Jodie
Speaker 2: Foster sci fi joint.
Speaker 1: You know it hasn't happened to me recently, Dan Okay,
Speaker 1: I popped at Hanny one time running to first base
Speaker 1: in a softball game. The entire back of my leg
Speaker 1: turned BA. Well that's at least running. Yeah it was
Speaker 1: non contact. Yeah, that's non contact. That's true. Not quite
Speaker 1: for the contact Joey Foster level of the Charlie Horse.
Speaker 1: But yeah. So anytime I see one of those instances
Speaker 1: of I don't know, let's call it a Missouri linebacker,
Speaker 1: let's call it a Washington State safety just out of
Speaker 1: nowhere going down, I don't laugh because I've been there.
Speaker 2: I've been there, like out of nowhere. Ha, So that
Speaker 2: that resonates with me as something that could actually happen.
Speaker 1: On that note, That's all I got.
Speaker 2: For news, Dan, Yeah, all I really care about with
Speaker 2: the combine is which large man suddenly is like the
Speaker 2: f equalm all Star of the weekend. The force equals
Speaker 2: mass times accelerations, good physic. Jordan Davis didn't the I
Speaker 2: think the Rock tweeted out something about how crazy, exciting
Speaker 2: and killer that is that somebody of that size can
Speaker 2: move that quickly. So, I mean, we already knew Jordan
Speaker 2: Davis and who he was and sure can be. But man,
Speaker 2: that type of and I think I want to say
Speaker 2: our pal Bill Barnwell has some sort of formula of
Speaker 2: like who actually ran the best forty based on force?
Speaker 2: And so I imagine Jordan Davis has to be a
Speaker 2: top that list.
Speaker 1: All right, well, keep it right here. We'll do our
Speaker 1: best to cover any sort of draft slash college related
Speaker 1: stuff moving forward. Yes, shall we get into the three
Speaker 1: and nine game? Dan Noine? Yes? Absolutely? What is a
Speaker 1: three and nine game? Explain this for everybody.
Speaker 2: It's about to be March ninth, or is March ninth
Speaker 2: when you're listening to this or was recently March ninth,
Speaker 2: three to nine when you're listening to this. So we're
Speaker 2: just gonna go and take a snapshot. It's not necessarily
Speaker 2: a c in recap.
Speaker 1: It's not a.
Speaker 2: Season preview of twenty twenty two, it's not a spring preview.
Speaker 2: It's just a where is this team now based on
Speaker 2: a number of factors? Where is this program now based
Speaker 2: on a number of factors after going three and nine
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two. So these are, of course non
Speaker 2: Bowl teams, some of which have hired new coaches, or
Speaker 2: have made coaching changes, or have hit the portal especially hard.
Speaker 2: So I just wanted to check in on the current
Speaker 2: three and nine programs with hopes that they will soon
Speaker 2: be I don't know, five and seven programs, and maybe
Speaker 2: next May seventh will be talking about them six and
Speaker 2: six BAWL programs looking at the odds of improvement. I'm
Speaker 2: going to give you a factoid about each of these teams.
Speaker 2: You're going to try and guess which of these teams
Speaker 2: I'm talking about, and we'll go from there.
Speaker 1: Let's do the first factoid. First team, Dan.
Speaker 2: All right, this team had awesome, awesome twins tweet twins. Sorry,
Speaker 2: this team we met awesome brothers, brothers. Arguably the best
Speaker 2: player on each side of the ball had the same
Speaker 2: last name, and there were brothers and still are all right.
Speaker 1: Well, before we go any further, we should at least
Speaker 1: give a list of the teams, right, we should do? Oh,
Speaker 1: you want to do the full list. Here's the full list. Georgia,
Speaker 1: Jack Nebraska not alphabetic order, No, could be Stanford, Northwestern Duke,
Speaker 1: Colorado State, Southern miss Louisiana, Tech Temple, Georgia, Southern Ohio,
Speaker 1: and New Mexico. And we mentioned earlier.
Speaker 2: Each side of the ball the best player was arguably
Speaker 2: you know, two family members. I don't know the answer
Speaker 2: to this, Northwestern, the McBride brothers. We're starting with America's team,
Speaker 2: Colorado State, Trey and Toby McBride. Trey is I think
Speaker 2: a relatively high end NFL draft prospect. Toby McBride really
Speaker 2: strong upfront for the Rams in a a very strange year.
Speaker 2: You know, Steve Dazio probably should never have been.
Speaker 1: The coach for Colorado State. J Norvella is in.
Speaker 2: A bunch of transfers from Nevada come in, including Matt Mummy,
Speaker 2: son of Hal the offensive coordinator now Colorado State was
Speaker 2: at Nevada. Colorado State lost their final six. They somehow
Speaker 2: were the only non Yukon team to lose to Vanderbilt
Speaker 2: last year. Their class was decent. In this recruiting class,
Speaker 2: you know, not a lot of time obviously for Jay
Speaker 2: Norvell to put together a class. They threw the ball
Speaker 2: decently enough. They had an awesome pass rush, Their pass
Speaker 2: defense was largely excellent. Their defense overall was fine, but
Speaker 2: just too many turnovers. Couldn't run the ball, couldn't stay
Speaker 2: on the field on offense, and that is that is
Speaker 2: the RAM recipe to lose a bunch of games, and
Speaker 2: that's what they did.
Speaker 1: Three and nine. Their second order wins count, which I
Speaker 1: like to look at, was five point six. The only
Speaker 1: other team on our list had a higher second order
Speaker 1: wins number was Nebraska because Nebraska had all the one
Speaker 1: score losses nine one score losses. Whatever crazy stat that was.
Speaker 1: But seemingly this would indicate to me that Colorado State
Speaker 1: wasn't nearly as bad as the record when you compare
Speaker 1: what the Rams looked like this year versus what they
Speaker 1: looked like last year. For whatever that's worth, they only
Speaker 1: played four games last year because of COVID, but seemingly
Speaker 1: per sp plus they improved across the board ever, so
Speaker 1: marginally the offense got a little bit better, the defense
Speaker 1: got a little bit better. So this was a team
Speaker 1: that seemed to be headed in the right direction, but
Speaker 1: as you said, inconsistency is what got him, and the
Speaker 1: Steve Dazio thing, as you said, didn't make sense. I'm
Speaker 1: excited to see what Jane Norvell can do, because we
Speaker 1: talked about this when they first made the move. But
Speaker 1: Colorado State, unlike a lot of schools in maybe that
Speaker 1: group of five tier, Colorado State invests in the football program.
Speaker 1: They care about the football program. Yeah, if you're wondering, yeah,
Speaker 1: why is Jane Norvel going from Nevada to Colorado State.
Speaker 1: It's a bigger budget program, and so what can a
Speaker 1: guy like j Norvel do? J Norvel very highly thought
Speaker 1: of in the coaching world. So while this isn't necessarily
Speaker 1: a preview of what's to come in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: I am very excited to see what he can do
Speaker 1: moving on to a place that's got, i don't know,
Speaker 1: more of a commitment towards the football program.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and we're this close to beating Mountain West Champs,
Speaker 2: Utah State. Correct, So that's you know, I would be
Speaker 2: optimistic big picture about Colorado State and Fort Collins, which
Speaker 2: I did look it up. Some decent eating options in
Speaker 2: Fort Collins. So I'd happily find myself going to a
Speaker 2: RAM game.
Speaker 1: That's all. Next one, Next team.
Speaker 2: All right, Next team is a team that has, or
Speaker 2: at least had last year its own version at wide
Speaker 2: receiver of Harris Ranch two Harris's Hairrye so not Nase,
Speaker 2: not Nase, and Damian Harris but smoke and Trey Smoke
Speaker 2: and Trey.
Speaker 1: Harris, Smoke and Trey Harris. And this program has a
Speaker 1: new coach. And the program has a new coach. Yeah,
Speaker 1: uh boy, I probably should have done more. Is this
Speaker 1: Duke is Duke with three and nine team? Yeah?
Speaker 2: They were a three and nine team. No, it's not Duke,
Speaker 2: it's it's Louisiana tack. God, We're gonna get to some
Speaker 2: of the bigger schools in a moment. Louisiana attack. They
Speaker 2: lose future Notre Dame head coach Skip Holtz. They add
Speaker 2: Sonny Comby. Assistants have a heavy Texas flavor, which is
Speaker 2: to be expected to give in Sonny Cumby's background. They
Speaker 2: had a decent passing attack last year with Austin Kendall,
Speaker 2: who's no longer there. Matthew Downing on his third school
Speaker 2: now and goes back to TCU with Sonny Comby. He
Speaker 2: comes in. They are at Missouri at Clemson, which is
Speaker 2: tricky for year one of a new head coach of
Speaker 2: a non conference slate. And the only other like kind
Speaker 2: of fun factoid I found about Louisiana Tech, which, look,
Speaker 2: they have a long ways to go, but this is
Speaker 2: not a disaster. It's a decent state of actually a
Speaker 2: very good state for talent, so they can rebuild relatively quickly.
Speaker 2: We've seen some really fun Louisiana Tech offenses in the
Speaker 2: last you know, decade, decade and a half whatever. The
Speaker 2: big thing is their new offensive coordinator comes over from
Speaker 2: Navarro College in Texas, former head coach at Navarro College,
Speaker 2: home to the Netflix show Cheer Hey.
Speaker 1: So there's that.
Speaker 2: I don't know Louisiana Tech. So they you know, they're
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one. There's there are reasons coaches leave. There
Speaker 2: are reasons why, and that reason is it looks like
Speaker 2: they lost seven of eight Louisiana Tech last year to
Speaker 2: finish off the season with their only win over a
Speaker 2: not so good Charlotte team. The thing I can say
Speaker 2: is this team fought pretty hard. This wasn't a bunch
Speaker 2: of forty one fourteen losses. They were scoring points, they
Speaker 2: were competitive, and just it just wasn't enough. It just
Speaker 2: wasn't enough for Louisiana Tech.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean to your point, last season, last season,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty yeah, now twenty twenty one, I guess two
Speaker 1: seasons ago. Now. Second Order wins two point seven, yet
Speaker 1: their final record was five and five, So that indicase
Speaker 1: to me is a team that had some fight. I
Speaker 1: think you're right about that on the On the whole,
Speaker 1: though marginally better, got a little bit better on offense,
Speaker 1: a little bit worse on defense, so kind of stuck
Speaker 1: in the mud a little bit. Three point eight. Second
Speaker 1: Order wins pretty much right on the number, So maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit unlucky, but by and large, the numbers
Speaker 1: say this is a three win team, and indeed they
Speaker 1: were three and nine. So I love when you bring
Speaker 1: over the coach from a really small college. I love
Speaker 1: that unknown factor. You know, it worked out really well
Speaker 1: for Western Kentucky was Zach Kittley last year, right, bringing
Speaker 1: him up from UH Houston Baptist. We'll see what he
Speaker 1: could do in Texas Tech. But I generally love that formula.
Speaker 1: It at least gives me a little nuggets root for
Speaker 1: I get. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Next next team a three and nine program? Who is
Speaker 2: playing two twenty twenty one three and nine programs? So
Speaker 2: two other teams on this list in the first few weeks.
Speaker 1: Wow, twenty twenty two. Really I can.
Speaker 2: I can tell you the opponents if you're interested. They're
Speaker 2: playing Northwestern in Georgia Southern in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: The lank three and nine Northwestern and Georgia Southern. Yeah,
Speaker 1: gotta be duke, right, Nebraska Brass, I'm zero for three
Speaker 1: in this game. Be more thorough ty, I've been very
Speaker 1: I look, you saw the table that I put here.
Speaker 1: I've been very thorough one two thirty four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
Speaker 1: There's exactly twelve teams, right, I might go three and
Speaker 1: nine in this trivia game. That's okay. Damn.
Speaker 2: The thing is about Nebraska is there like the second
Speaker 2: order win all Star squad of this list of teams
Speaker 2: they have that's been like the sagging Bill Connley has
Speaker 2: been like, Look, Nebraska went three and nine, but it
Speaker 2: was so difficult for them to go three and nine
Speaker 2: with how well they mostly played. I saw another thing
Speaker 2: where Andy Staples wrote about how and he spoke to
Speaker 2: somebody who ran a bunch of models and simulated Nebraska's
Speaker 2: season given their statistical footprint, and said, if Nebraska played
Speaker 2: the season a thousand times, they would mostly go six
Speaker 2: and six, And it was like, hurt. The least likely
Speaker 2: outcome of a thousand simulations of Nebraska season was going
Speaker 2: three and nine. My counter is they did a lot
Speaker 2: of things that three and nine teams do, whether it
Speaker 2: was the special teams, whether it was the offensive line play,
Speaker 2: whether it was the lack of a pass rush, whether
Speaker 2: it was giving up some big plays, whether there was
Speaker 2: some really bad high leverage moment decision making. Nebraska, for
Speaker 2: long stretches did also look like a three and nine team.
Speaker 1: Whenever I'm about to do something, I think three and
Speaker 1: nineteen do that, and if they would, I do not
Speaker 1: do that thing.
Speaker 2: See that's just good logic from Dwight Shrut, possibly edited.
Speaker 2: So Nebraska had really interesting moments last year. They made
Speaker 2: really interesting plays. They had really good players on all
Speaker 2: three levels of their defense at times, but they also
Speaker 2: would go entire halves without scoring. They would al like
Speaker 2: they were just the things where you could understand some
Speaker 2: of the results. Three and nine may have been an
Speaker 2: extreme in terms of how that season played out, with
Speaker 2: how competitive they were against the best teams on their schedule,
Speaker 2: but still there or worry some chunks of their of
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty one Nebraska experience, and they made a
Speaker 2: bunch of wholesale changes, so they're approaching things in a
Speaker 2: serious way. What is your opinion of where Nebraska was
Speaker 2: is and can be?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the only teams they beat were Fordham,
Speaker 1: Buffalo and Northwestern. And you don't get paid based on
Speaker 1: close calls, correct, It's a results based industry. M hm.
Speaker 1: So in looking back at Nebraska, if we compare twenty
Speaker 1: one to twenty Nebraska about the same, about the same
Speaker 1: the results last year in an abbreviated season. I think
Speaker 1: we're a little bit more in line with that statistical footprint.
Speaker 1: As he said, right, second order wins here off the charts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: second order wins has them as a six and six team,
Speaker 1: but thirty seventh overall in the sp plus thirty third
Speaker 1: best offense, twenty eighth best defense. So that in and
Speaker 1: of itself is not really the hallmark of a three
Speaker 1: to nine team, and it definitely indicates that there are
Speaker 1: some underlying things that are causing that inconsistency. I think
Speaker 1: is the big one across the board on offense on defense.
Speaker 1: Right many weeks three, you couldn't really put your finger
Speaker 1: on it. And I think that's the frustration for Nebraska
Speaker 1: fans now as they look ahead, like the team wasn't
Speaker 1: horrible last year. It was decent at times, it just
Speaker 1: wasn't decent enough when it really counted, and that's why
Speaker 1: they lost nine times. So counterpoint, they were horrible to
Speaker 1: their own fans. They were a horrible experience to watch
Speaker 1: as a Husker fan. I'm positive I just wonder, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody's going to go into the season with
Speaker 1: Scott Frost on the hot seat. Of course, it's just
Speaker 1: an inevitability. At this point. I go back and forth
Speaker 1: on whether or not it was smart to retain him
Speaker 1: for another year.
Speaker 2: Well, whatever his I'm sure there were elements beyond like
Speaker 2: is Nebraska good or not? But yeah, continue right, your
Speaker 2: point all along has been. The reason they retained him
Speaker 2: is because no.
Speaker 1: One else that they wanted wanted the job that they
Speaker 1: asked around and they couldn't find anybody else. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: I think there's probably an element of it. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think we've gotten to the point now where we're
Speaker 1: going to ask the same questions about Scott Frost that
Speaker 1: we've been asking for years on end now about Clay Hilton.
Speaker 1: How many games does he need to win in order
Speaker 1: to retain that job? In looking at the schedule, it
Speaker 1: is fairly workable. It is not a bad schedule. Yeah,
Speaker 1: last year is nightmare of a schedule, just at least
Speaker 1: heading into the season what it appeared to be. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they had the fifth hardest schedule last year. This year,
Speaker 1: I don't know what the numbers look like. I'm sure
Speaker 1: somebody's run them. They've got Oklahoma at home at the
Speaker 1: end of September, which is probably going to be a
Speaker 1: bloodbath of sorts. But beyond that, it seems pretty workable
Speaker 1: to me. Why do you think the Oklahoma game will
Speaker 1: be a bloodbath? I don't know. I think I love
Speaker 1: that phrase, and then they'll follow up, Okay, continue Maybe
Speaker 1: I'm just being a little bit biased against Nebraska. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess the game's at home, it's in Lincoln.
Speaker 2: The hell do we know about what Oklahoma's gonna look like?
Speaker 2: All right, all right, okay, sorry.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to know there'll be a healthy dog
Speaker 1: in that game. Okay, they should be a healthy dog
Speaker 1: in that game, fair enough? What? Okay?
Speaker 2: So your opinion right now? So they make the changes
Speaker 2: that they make. They bring in Chubba Party and Casey
Speaker 2: Thompson Mark Whipples now running the offense. They hire a
Speaker 2: new receivers coach. Think it's Mickey Joseph from LSU. They
Speaker 2: hit the portal reasonably hard. They lose key guys, of course,
Speaker 2: Adrian Martinez to Kansas State. Like, do you feel like
Speaker 2: Nebraska from afar has patched up holes? Has done enough to?
Speaker 1: Say?
Speaker 2: Okay, I could see them, you know, not making the
Speaker 2: freak mistakes. And you know they hire a full time
Speaker 2: special teams coordinator and that was a major weakness last year.
Speaker 2: Have they done enough to And I don't know what
Speaker 2: that number is And I don't know what the competitive
Speaker 2: nature of Nebraska has to be for Scott Frost to
Speaker 2: keep his job. But are you if you're a Nebraska fan,
Speaker 2: Are you reasonably happy with the job Scott Frost has
Speaker 2: done to try and make things right from a sort
Speaker 2: of administrative roster and coaching staff perspective, reasonably?
Speaker 1: So? Yeah, he's kicked up enough dust that even if
Speaker 1: he hasn't, it's had a nice distracting effect. But I think,
Speaker 1: I think the quarterback thing is important. I'm very curious
Speaker 1: to see how he handles a quarterback position. Adrian Martinez.
Speaker 1: They tried to build the whole plane out of Adrian Martinez,
Speaker 1: and he just wasn't that guy. Yeah, he wasn't that guy. Right.
Speaker 1: I think Casey Thompson's a better passer, for sure. I
Speaker 1: know he's mobile. We saw him at Texas. He can
Speaker 1: be mobile, but he's a different kind of player and
Speaker 1: son that's true. But yeah, okay, continue that's your opinion,
Speaker 1: go for it, right. He's not a runner, but he
Speaker 1: can move in the pocket. I just feel like the
Speaker 1: type of system that Frost wants to run is probably
Speaker 1: a better fit for a guy like a Casey Thompson
Speaker 1: than somebody like an Adrian Martinez. And so I think
Speaker 1: in that sense, in that sense alone, I feel pretty
Speaker 1: optimistic about where this could head. But you know, then
Speaker 1: you start diving into like, all right, why are the
Speaker 1: weapons out? Why can they support a quarterback like that?
Speaker 1: That's a far more nuanced discussion, but I think on
Speaker 1: the surface level, to the extent that we can diagnose
Speaker 1: it here, I feel okay.
Speaker 2: About Yeah it was. My question is, you know, is
Speaker 2: this fully mark Whipples offense? Is this still Scott when
Speaker 2: you have somebody who's had those types of fingerprints on
Speaker 2: an offense and quarterback preparation or quarterback teaching. Where Adrian
Speaker 2: Martinez is throwing four picks against Purdue, is you know
Speaker 2: making it look there are freak fumble opportunities. They're freak
Speaker 2: you know, not going for fourth down or fourth down calls.
Speaker 2: It's just is Nebraska a team with a coaching staff
Speaker 2: ready to prepare an offense to win moments against equal
Speaker 2: or even slightly better teams. And maybe the addition of
Speaker 2: Whipple is some sort of advantage, but man, I don't know.
Speaker 2: It all feels a little bit too little, too late
Speaker 2: to me. All right, next team, Okay, this next team
Speaker 2: probably had the most precipitous fall on one side of
Speaker 2: the ball. I use the points per drive metric, but
Speaker 2: you can use whatever metric you want on offense or
Speaker 2: defense of any of these teams.
Speaker 1: It's got to be Northwestern's defense, right correct, thank you, yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you.
Speaker 2: They were first in twenty twenty. If you remember how
Speaker 2: well they played against Ohio State in the Big Ten
Speaker 2: championship game. They win the Big Ten West, They completely
Speaker 2: silence basically everybody that they play on defense, and they
Speaker 2: fell from number one in the nation in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: to ninety eighth. That is as far as I can tell,
Speaker 2: as drama as it got in terms of twenty twenty
Speaker 2: to twenty twenty one. Obviously, the context of the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty season is part of things here. But Mike Hankwitz
Speaker 2: retires as Northwestern's longtime, uber successful defensive coordinator. They bring
Speaker 2: in Jim O'Neill, who didn't seem to be a guy
Speaker 2: with the most accolades, but that's who they bring in.
Speaker 1: They have this.
Speaker 2: The revolving door at quarterback continues. You know Hunter Johnson
Speaker 2: a couple of years priors there. He has since now
Speaker 2: gone back to Clemson. Ryan Halensky supposedly comes is a
Speaker 2: guy who came in to stabilize things after Peyton Ramsay.
Speaker 2: That doesn't really work out at all. They just they
Speaker 2: have opportunities at times to win interesting games. You know,
Speaker 2: the Iowa game was one that comes to mind where
Speaker 2: they're driving with about two minutes left, win that game
Speaker 2: and immediately thrown interception. There were pieces on this defense,
Speaker 2: you know, Chris Bergen there was you know, the Bergen
Speaker 2: brothers were were longtime Northwestern stalwarts as playmakers. Was a
Speaker 2: walk on and Joseph ops to transfer. He was a
Speaker 2: freshman All American. He ends up at he's at Notre
Speaker 2: Dame as Marcus Freeman brings him over to solidify that
Speaker 2: secondary that lost Kyle Hamilton. So Northwestern's defense, just especially upfront,
Speaker 2: especially getting after the passer, especially running that really tight
Speaker 2: zone that they've run for the past few years, just
Speaker 2: fully fell off a cliff. Evan Hall stepped up on offense.
Speaker 2: He was a bright spot at running back. But man,
Speaker 2: this Northwestern team, which had largely gotten the Big West
Speaker 2: and its own fans used to competing on an interesting
Speaker 2: level more often than not, just turned in another nightmare
Speaker 2: of a season.
Speaker 1: It was bad. The defensive falloff was very precipitous, and
Speaker 1: that's not doing the team any favors, if only because
Speaker 1: the offense is always in a spot where we're questioning
Speaker 1: where the points coming from. What was the last time
Speaker 1: we talked about a Northwestern offense is electric? Oh wait,
Speaker 1: it's been.
Speaker 2: There were Clayton Thorson moments, but not a full year
Speaker 2: of electricity. Just sparks.
Speaker 1: And that's fine, right, that's okay. You can win like that,
Speaker 1: but it is contingent on you having a decent defense,
Speaker 1: and they just didn't have that last year. Per the
Speaker 1: sp Plus, they went from third to seventy second. The
Speaker 1: team as a whole because of that, dropped from thirtieth
Speaker 1: in the sp Plus all the way down to one
Speaker 1: oh six, right, mostly because of the defense. They went
Speaker 1: seven to two and twenty twenty three and nine obviously
Speaker 1: this past year. So moving forward, I think a lot
Speaker 1: of what you mentioned in play here right, there are
Speaker 1: pieces on the defense that are going to need to
Speaker 1: be replaced. On top of the fact that they need
Speaker 1: to figure out a way to get better on defense.
Speaker 1: Whatever they tried last year did not help. On offense,
Speaker 1: they bring a lot back, so hopefully that side of
Speaker 1: the ball improves, But to go from one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighteenth up doesn't really acquire a whole lot. It just
Speaker 1: now requires a little bit more competence. So I expect
Speaker 1: they'll get better. It's just a matter of can they
Speaker 1: get better enough to pick up the slack for the
Speaker 1: defense wherever that ends up, and then on top of it,
Speaker 1: on top of it, on top of it, they get
Speaker 1: both Penn State and Ohio State from the east in
Speaker 1: some of their cross divisional games, which is about as
Speaker 1: bad as you can do. Yeah, So I don't know. Man,
Speaker 1: Like I know, there's no rush to fire Pat Fitzgerald.
Speaker 1: I don't expect they ever will. But on some level,
Speaker 1: if you don't see the improvement, you got to ask
Speaker 1: the question, what's the plan here? What's the what's the
Speaker 1: plan here? Another bad defensive effort in twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: could be a real deal breaker there. I don't know
Speaker 1: what a couple points here is one. I think you
Speaker 1: undersold how good a defense needs to be with an
Speaker 1: offense that's been so woefully ineffective. It's the half team
Speaker 1: thing Northwestern's defense. They need to be great every year
Speaker 1: to hold up their end of the bargain and win
Speaker 1: six to ten games. Here's a factoid for you about
Speaker 1: the Northwestern offense. I look this one up before place,
Speaker 1: Northwestern had no quarterback on the roster throw for more
Speaker 1: touchdowns and interceptions. The best that they did was Andrew Marty. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he went six and six, six touchdowns, six interceptions. But
Speaker 1: Ryan Halenski three touchdowns, four picks. Hunter Johnson in the
Speaker 1: limited action he saw four touchdowns, four interceptions. I could
Speaker 1: dive in more on the quarterback stats, you don't want
Speaker 1: me to, but let's just leave it there that they
Speaker 1: just didn't get anything on the quarterback front. Evan Hall,
Speaker 1: like you said, bright spot, Evan Hall had a nice year,
Speaker 1: but beyond that, just not much in the passing game.
Speaker 2: The other thing I would add, just because we have
Speaker 2: what Stanford Northwestern duke on this list we talked about
Speaker 2: Vandy last time, is in this current era, this transfer
Speaker 2: portal era, this this movement across the sport in ways
Speaker 2: unlike what we've ever seen, is going to put these
Speaker 2: more rigorous academic programs at a pretty big disadvantage just
Speaker 2: because the barrier for entry academically for these schools makes
Speaker 2: it nearly impossible. I know Stanford picked up a transfer,
Speaker 2: I don't know what Northwestern. They didn't hit the portal
Speaker 2: especially hard this year, right, and so Pat Fitzgerald runs
Speaker 2: this program out of and at times really successfully a
Speaker 2: sense of loyalty for his assistant coaches and his coordinators.
Speaker 2: Like how long was was Northwestern running at best underwhelming offense.
Speaker 2: He just was extremely loyal to the offensive side of
Speaker 2: the ball there. And so if you're not able to
Speaker 2: make wholesale changes to improve your team because of that
Speaker 2: sense of loyalty because of the academic restrictions or it's
Speaker 2: not you know, restriction, obviously, it's just it's going to
Speaker 2: be tricky. It's trickier. It's going to be a small
Speaker 2: pool of guys who were able to come to your
Speaker 2: school for an immediate infusion of talent and improvement. And
Speaker 2: so it's just Northwestern the margin for air of high
Speaker 2: school evaluation has to be so much better than everybody else.
Speaker 2: And that the same goes for Stanford, Duke, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech.
Speaker 1: That's another one of those teams. You know, it's just
Speaker 1: it's just more difficult and more difficult than ever. All right,
Speaker 1: next team, All right, I'm pulling up the list right now.
Speaker 1: This team went two and ten against the spread and
Speaker 1: didn't score more than fourteen points after October second.
Speaker 2: Is that a real stat. That's a real stat. They
Speaker 2: did not score more than fourteen points in a game
Speaker 2: after October second, a date in which they had a
Speaker 2: decent but not huge sized upset. October second was a
Speaker 2: decent sized up and they did not score that more
Speaker 2: than fourteen points from that point thereafter.
Speaker 1: Wow. I don't think it's Duke because I can't think
Speaker 1: of an upset that Duke was part of. And I
Speaker 1: don't think it was Georgia Tech or Stanford.
Speaker 2: No, Stanford had a big upset, but no, they scored
Speaker 2: a little bit more better than that in some of
Speaker 2: those games.
Speaker 1: I'll say, gosh, let's go Georgia Southern Temple.
Speaker 2: So Temple beats Memphis. On October second, Temple beats Memphis.
Speaker 2: Rodkerrey no longer the head coach of the Owls. The
Speaker 2: hired Stan Drayton. He of I mean, he was at Texas,
Speaker 2: but he's been you know, NFL. He's he's been around
Speaker 2: and I think pretty highly regarded higher. Stan Drayton, who
Speaker 2: was you know, background as a running backs coach, to
Speaker 2: take over the program, Temple was just full on bat.
Speaker 2: They bring in Dwan Mathis from Georgia as a transfer,
Speaker 2: he enters the portal, but then has since decided to return.
Speaker 2: It's going to be a complete overhaul. It's going to
Speaker 2: take time. At Temple, they just didn't do much well
Speaker 2: last year, and they're one of the that's I mean,
Speaker 2: aside from being bad as the primary reason and being
Speaker 2: bad consistently. You can keep your job if you're somebody
Speaker 2: like Scott Frost when there's hope, when there's reason to say, Okay,
Speaker 2: we lost these games when it was closed and the
Speaker 2: results didn't really didn't really match with the performance of
Speaker 2: which there were a lot of good performances for Nebraska.
Speaker 2: They just came up short in big moments. Temple was
Speaker 2: just kind of bad at everything. Their past defense was
Speaker 2: okay at times but still gave up too many big plays.
Speaker 2: Just bad, just not a good team and didn't recruit
Speaker 2: especially well.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: The hope is that Temple has been a place where
Speaker 2: coaches can succeed. Philadelphia is not the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2: You can get players from the Northeast. There is football
Speaker 2: culture in the Northeast, not what it is in the
Speaker 2: Midwest of the South. But with what Al Golden and
Speaker 2: then Matt Rule and kind of Steve A. DAZZI were
Speaker 2: able to do. You go to bowl games as a
Speaker 2: Temple owl, and it's going to be recruiting, it's going
Speaker 2: to be evaluation, it's going to be getting lucky with
Speaker 2: other teams in the conference. But that's where Temple sits
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 1: Temple's hired really well in the past. Yeah, they've got
Speaker 1: a track record for hiring, just not this time. It
Speaker 1: didn't really work out, and so to go a different direction.
Speaker 1: Stan Drayton, whom I never heard of before, I must admit, yeah,
Speaker 1: never heard of the guy. But the riding was on
Speaker 1: the wall that they were going to go in a
Speaker 1: different direction before last season, even before what we saw
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one happened. This is a team that
Speaker 1: was one in six in twenty twenty abbreviated schedule. All
Speaker 1: the numbers lined up with a one and six team,
Speaker 1: and again this past year they got worse pretty much
Speaker 1: across the board, and the numbers line up. The fact
Speaker 1: that they got the three and nine I think is
Speaker 1: sort of an accomplishment. So the riding is on the wall.
Speaker 1: It made sense. I echo your sentiment. It is a
Speaker 1: place where coaches have succeeded in the past, you can't
Speaker 1: succeed a Temple.
Speaker 2: They hadn't they hadn't fired a coach since nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 1: They've hired really well. It is just a place, as
Speaker 1: you said, that may not necessarily have that football culture
Speaker 1: like you'd find in State College Pennsylvania. Right, everybody in
Speaker 1: Philly cares about the Eagles. They care about Temple when
Speaker 1: they're on ABC.
Speaker 2: I was just gonna say, there are enough programs in
Speaker 2: the area. Sure, in the portal era between Penn State
Speaker 2: and Syracuse and Boston College and pitt like, there are
Speaker 2: enough places where Temple is a and like they've had
Speaker 2: good dudes drafted. Oh my godn Reddick, who is the
Speaker 2: recent edge guy? Like they've had guys so like if
Speaker 2: Stan Drayton is that guy, if he hires well, if he,
Speaker 2: I mean it proves too a hired well, if he
Speaker 2: recruits well enough and you know, sets up Temple as
Speaker 2: a destination, it's an interesting place.
Speaker 1: No, I'm I'm with you. I'll remain optimistic. This is
Speaker 1: a program that's had some success. And who knows the
Speaker 1: Manny Diaz era, Like, who knows what that could have been?
Speaker 1: The Many era? Wow, Yeah, lasted all of like forty
Speaker 1: eight hours. Two weeks lasted all of forty eight hours.
Speaker 1: I didn't pull up Temple's twenty twenty two schedule. I'm
Speaker 1: not that concerned about it. You're ready for the next
Speaker 1: thing to it again. Let's do it again. So I
Speaker 1: am I am one, two, three, four, five, I'm one
Speaker 1: in four in guessing these teams. Okay, hmmm.
Speaker 2: This team's offense was historically bad and clearly the worst
Speaker 2: in America in twenty twenty one. Got to be New Mexico, right,
Speaker 2: it was New Mexico. Yeah, yeah, play the play that
Speaker 2: sound please, thank you. The defense wasn't great, but there
Speaker 2: is reason to believe now with Danny Gonzalez and Rocky
Speaker 2: Long switching. Daneganzelz played for Rocky Long at New Mexico,
Speaker 2: coached for him at San Diego State. Rocky Long, if
Speaker 2: you remember, was flirting with just leaving the head coaching
Speaker 2: job to talk to like Syracuse and his former assistant there,
Speaker 2: or spoke with with with Syracuse just in general about
Speaker 2: becoming their defensive coordinator. As an active head coach at
Speaker 2: San Diego State, he takes over took over the defense
Speaker 2: at San Diego at excuse me, New Mexico and they
Speaker 2: made plays. You know that that three three five defense
Speaker 2: is always going to be tricky. And he was actually
Speaker 2: good as a head coach at New Mexico. They went
Speaker 2: to a bowl game, I want to say, in like
Speaker 2: five of six years in the early to mid two thousands,
Speaker 2: the Lobos did. They just it's an uphill battle. It's
Speaker 2: not you know, a state that produces a ton of talent.
Speaker 2: They're gonna have to lean on Texas, lean on California
Speaker 2: good amount.
Speaker 1: And just I don't know enough about the program, and
Speaker 1: I don't know enough about the program as a destination.
Speaker 1: But you're not going to attract a ton of names
Speaker 1: to go to the land of Enchantment.
Speaker 2: So we'll see. They we know that they're ceiling. I
Speaker 2: think Bob Davey took him to a bowl or two.
Speaker 2: Mike Loxley was a complete nightmare and disaster as a
Speaker 2: head coach there.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll see.
Speaker 2: Is the best that I can offer. They haven't recruited
Speaker 2: especially well. I mentioned at the top Miles Kendrick, the
Speaker 2: quarterback transfer from Kansas, ended up as a Lobo. But man,
Speaker 2: they just they lost a ton in the portal, which
Speaker 2: is worrisome that this is not necessarily going to work
Speaker 2: out in long term, but it could have just been
Speaker 2: been holdovers from the previous era. I just it's not
Speaker 2: a place like even Temple or some of these other
Speaker 2: schools where you can envision because of the local talent
Speaker 2: and because it appearing as a transfer destination that they
Speaker 2: could become a Bowl team in a year or two.
Speaker 2: It's hard to see.
Speaker 1: With New Mexico. I think dream Point dream Style Stadium.
Speaker 1: I'm going a different direction. I have nothing productive to
Speaker 1: say about New Mexico. Okay, dream Style Stadium, which is
Speaker 1: where they play. Yeah, capacity about forty five thousand. I
Speaker 1: believe that's good. Dream Style Stadium has hosted two very
Speaker 1: famous artists musicians groups in his past. I was gonna
Speaker 1: say Georgia O'Keefe, no different, no still life here. This
Speaker 1: is in the nineties, mid to late nineties. Two acts
Speaker 1: in particular moved through dream Style Stadium. Can you name
Speaker 1: one of the two?
Speaker 2: Does it align with the fact that it's in New
Speaker 2: Mexico or is it just random?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 2: Are you just going to say Eifel sixty five or something.
Speaker 1: They're definitely more well known of Thannifel sixty five. Two
Speaker 1: prominent acts mid to late nineties. Mid to late nineties,
Speaker 1: did Cheryl Crowe pass through dream Style Stadium? Cheryl Crow
Speaker 1: did what as an opening act for somebody else, But
Speaker 1: Cheryl Crow was part of the Bridges to Babylon tour.
Speaker 1: Thank you play that for yourself? The Stones? That was
Speaker 1: The Stones in ninety seven. Wow, okay, I just there's
Speaker 1: something very Southwestern about Cheryl Crow. Vibes Cheryl Croaking Up
Speaker 1: the Sun October thirtieth, nineteen ninety seven. She was the
Speaker 1: opening act for The Stones. The other one in the nineties.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there were more, but the other more prominent
Speaker 1: one in the nineties, nineteen ninety four, August the second
Speaker 1: Metallica Metallica.
Speaker 2: That's super prominent. Yeah, Stones and Metallica coming into the
Speaker 2: dream Style whatever it was called back then.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Cheryl Crow out of nowhere, I could have
Speaker 1: picked anybody.
Speaker 2: You're watching my eyes, you're here. I'm not tapp tapping,
Speaker 2: I'm not doing anything.
Speaker 1: No, no, wow, boom, there's any nugget for you. I
Speaker 1: love that. Thank you very much. Next time.
Speaker 2: Uh this oh man, This team, despite being pretty competitive
Speaker 2: in their losses, finished twenty empty two's class. So the
Speaker 2: recruiting class with the worst in its conference.
Speaker 1: Is this power five team? You know it is not
Speaker 1: It is not Ohio. I don't know it is Ohio.
Speaker 1: It is play look at you, look at me. Let's
Speaker 1: go fire.
Speaker 2: They moved the ball. This is another Rourk, not Nathan.
Speaker 2: I think it was Curtis Rorke. They moved the ball
Speaker 2: decently enough on the ground. Armani Rogers, the UNLV transfer
Speaker 2: came in as sort of a dual threat role couldn't
Speaker 2: really pass, so sort of a mono threat. They could
Speaker 2: run the ball, and they just couldn't finish drives worth anything.
Speaker 2: They could not get in the end zone at all.
Speaker 2: They would move it and just stop it. And so
Speaker 2: that's where the Bobcats really suffered. And then they couldn't
Speaker 2: recruit Tim Alban in his first year. Frank Souliz retires
Speaker 2: relatively close to the season, So there was that weird
Speaker 2: you know, and that's gonna happen in year one in
Speaker 2: the recruiting cycle where you're not just not given time
Speaker 2: to to help form and generate relationships with with high
Speaker 2: school coaches and classes. But Miami of Ohio is a
Speaker 2: pretty good Win into their credit. They were once again
Speaker 2: competitive in those losses, which all things consider better to
Speaker 2: be competitive than not. So Ohio is a place that
Speaker 2: has I mean, Frank Solch won a ton of games
Speaker 2: in Athens, and I don't know. I'm optimistic that Ohio
Speaker 2: can get back to that point because the max seems
Speaker 2: as open as ever. But I just the identity shift
Speaker 2: and the coaching and the high leverage moments, it's just
Speaker 2: going to need to get way better.
Speaker 1: Did you know that the bobcat is a species that
Speaker 1: is native to Ohio? I did not know that it's
Speaker 1: one of seven wildcat species that is found in North America. Okay,
Speaker 1: what are the others? I don't know what the others are.
Speaker 1: I'm getting this whatever you're on on Wikipedia. No, I'm
Speaker 1: getting this from the Ohio Department bit of Natural Resources.
Speaker 1: I don't do Wikipedia. You know that I know Athens
Speaker 1: much more the Wikipedia. Dan come on, Athens has been
Speaker 1: on a lot of lists. Athens, Ohio, not Athens, George Athens,
Speaker 1: Ohio has been on a lot of best college town lists.
Speaker 1: So there must be something correlated to the fact that
Speaker 1: Ohio has been able to attract winning football players and
Speaker 1: be located in a desirable place to go to school. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: Ohio is in a kind of a deep funk right now.
Speaker 1: But we'll see. We'll see next team. Are you ready,
Speaker 1: I'm ready, let's go.
Speaker 2: This team looks to be starting a transfer quarterback who
Speaker 2: would be playing in games.
Speaker 1: In his sixth year. He has played in games in
Speaker 1: five straight years and presumably will be playing in a
Speaker 1: sixth straight season. Now he's you know, injury, so we
Speaker 1: don't play the game or two in some of those years.
Speaker 1: But was a three year starter at his previous place.
Speaker 1: A three year starter at his previous Yeah, I gotta
Speaker 1: be honest, I don't know the answer.
Speaker 2: Again, his coach is not easily recognizable in a Hudson News.
Speaker 1: Oh, Georgia Southern.
Speaker 2: Yes, correct, Kyle Van Trees playing. He transfers in from Buffalo.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: He had thrown balls in five consecutive seasons for the Bulls.
Speaker 1: There's a Forrest Gump quality there where you're going to
Speaker 1: go back through the archives and just find him in
Speaker 1: black and white photos, like at prominent games. What's Van
Speaker 1: Trees doing here? Okay?
Speaker 2: He started college in twenty seventeen. Goes now to State's
Speaker 2: Borough and plays for Georgia Southern, and we'll see what
Speaker 2: happens for Georgia Southern. They lost six of seven to
Speaker 2: end their season. They hire Clay Helton. By the way,
Speaker 2: their new defensive coordinator is Will Harris, who was the
Speaker 2: corners coach at Washington. An awesome corner for USC. So
Speaker 2: you have the USC connection at Georgia Southern. They didn't
Speaker 2: hit the portal especially hard, but to me, it's a
Speaker 2: place you can win. Local talent is there. The conference
Speaker 2: becomes a lot trickier with the additions on the other side. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but true.
Speaker 1: Georgia Southern interesting. They were an a win program in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty. They were pretty good. They were yeah, eight
Speaker 1: and five. The defense was not bad in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: is a top fifty defense. But that bottomed out. It
Speaker 1: all sort of bottomed out past season. That was the issue.
Speaker 1: Defense went from forty sixth all the way down to
Speaker 1: one ten. Yeah, and I think base largely on that
Speaker 1: drop off. That's how you go from seventy first overall
Speaker 1: in SP plus all the way down to one seventeen.
Speaker 1: Second order wins count for Georgia Southern three point zero
Speaker 1: right on the nose. So we'll see what Clay Helton
Speaker 1: can do. That'll be an interesting story to follow.
Speaker 2: As I mentioned, they're playing Nebraska at Nebraska and Georgia Southern.
Speaker 2: Just to correct myself, they are in the sun Belt East,
Speaker 2: the proposed hypothetical sun Belt East with the new so
Speaker 2: a bit trickier of a division. But I don't know,
Speaker 2: I'm reasonably optimistic with Georgia Southern.
Speaker 1: I don't know. All right, next team, are you ready?
Speaker 1: Who do we have left? We've got that Southern miss
Speaker 1: Duke Stanford and Georgia Tech. This team has wall to
Speaker 1: wall murderers their schedule, and it doesn't seem like their
Speaker 1: coach is long for this place. You're refer you've got
Speaker 1: to be referring to Jeff Collins at Georgia Tech, right,
Speaker 1: I am, thank you.
Speaker 2: They finished their season last year losing one hundred to
Speaker 2: nothing at Notre Dame and against Georgia. Having Georgia as
Speaker 2: an annual rivalry non conference is perhaps. I mean, there's
Speaker 2: a case for South Carolina. There's a case for I
Speaker 2: don't know, Florida or Florida State. One of the more
Speaker 2: disadvantage situations giving your own program and its own limitations.
Speaker 2: It's probably the worst. Can I read the schedule off?
Speaker 1: Can I read this? I would both love to and
Speaker 1: hate to hear it? Open up the year, Labor Day weekend,
Speaker 1: the Monday night game in Mercedes Benz Stadium quote unquote
Speaker 1: facto home quote unquote probably quote unquote neutral site. But Clemson,
Speaker 1: Clemson comes to town, to Atlanta, They've got Old Miss
Speaker 1: at home. They go to UCF to pit They are
Speaker 1: on the road again later in the year at Florida
Speaker 1: State and at Virginia Tech on back to back weeks,
Speaker 1: followed up by a home game against Miami. Resurge at Miami.
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll see North Carolina on the road, who knows
Speaker 1: what that's going to be. And then they close out
Speaker 1: the year on the road at Georgia. Brutal, brutal. Looking
Speaker 1: at that count right there, Clemson probably a loss, Ole Miss,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming probably a loss. Florida State. I'll take some
Speaker 1: liberties and say that probably a loss. Virginia Tech probably
Speaker 1: a loss.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know, I mean Virginia Tech's first year coach.
Speaker 1: We'll say what the Georgia definitely a loss. So right
Speaker 1: out of the shoot you're looking at I think at
Speaker 1: least four or five losses.
Speaker 2: Georgia Tech probably needs to go to a bowl game
Speaker 2: this year for Jeff Collins to keep his job, which
Speaker 2: means they will need to beat first year coach at
Speaker 2: Virginia first year coach at Virginia Tech. They get Miami
Speaker 2: at home with the first year coach, they probably need
Speaker 2: to win that game. They got North Carolina with changes
Speaker 2: on defense, with change at quarterback. They probably that like
Speaker 2: in Western Carolina, and then I got you gotta win
Speaker 2: at the Bounce House at UCF. You gotta win at Pitt.
Speaker 2: Now it's you know, new offense, ish at Pitt, new quarterback,
Speaker 2: new coordinator. But they're gonna have to shock and surprise.
Speaker 2: They lose their best offensive player to Alabama and Jamior Gibbs. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's just demolished in the portal. Georgia Tech kills them.
Speaker 2: They hired Chip Long to take over the offense, which
Speaker 2: say what you will, he is at least somebody who
Speaker 2: will stay like he's stabilized Notre Dames offense when they
Speaker 2: needed it. Sure, they got a lot better in the
Speaker 2: red zone. So whatever Georgia Tech season looks like, it
Speaker 2: won't be because of an offense without a vision per se,
Speaker 2: they might not have the talent they you know, quarterback
Speaker 2: Will It's still a work in progress with Jeff Simms.
Speaker 2: I just it's hard to see it ending all ending
Speaker 2: in a bowl game for the Rambling wreck at this point.
Speaker 1: I really want Georgia Tech to be better. I really
Speaker 1: really want Georgia Tech to be better. Do you I do? Okay,
Speaker 1: I do. I think football is more interesting, especially in
Speaker 1: the ACC, if you've got a competent Georgia Tech. And
Speaker 1: I think the one thing that has been consistent throughout
Speaker 1: the time that Jeff Collins has been there, we know
Speaker 1: he's all in on Atlanta. He's trying to sell that
Speaker 1: hard team seemingly plays pretty hard for him. It's just hard.
Speaker 1: At the schedule, man, It's so hard. It is so
Speaker 1: hard to get ahead with the schedule like this. This
Speaker 1: is a team that if you look at what happened
Speaker 1: from twenty twenty where they played ten games, they went
Speaker 1: three and seven twenty twenty twenty twenty one, three and nine,
Speaker 1: obviously ninety sixth in sp plus, so slip by about
Speaker 1: twenty spots offense, marginally worse defense, a lot worse defense,
Speaker 1: Slipped by a pretty drastic number, so you factor in
Speaker 1: the brutal schedule. I don't know, man, I'm not too
Speaker 1: optimistic that it's getting much much better, even that a
Speaker 1: bowl game is on the table. There's so many land
Speaker 1: mines here in the schedule that unless they have kind
Speaker 1: of like a South Carolina esque season where they find
Speaker 1: ways to scrape and claw and get six wins, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Like, I just don't see it.
Speaker 2: I'm just curious because I've thought this whole time you've
Speaker 2: been talking. I'm just racking my brain. You did nothing
Speaker 2: but disrespect Paul Johnson and the Georgia Tech success that
Speaker 2: he had there because you disrespected the Triple basically.
Speaker 1: The entire time.
Speaker 2: You didn't take it seriously. And that's why you were
Speaker 2: sent a what I send you an Orange Bowl champion?
Speaker 2: Had Georgia Tech Orange Bowl champion in Mississippi state.
Speaker 1: It's somewhere around here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you do nothing but disrespect Georgia Tech during
Speaker 2: that time?
Speaker 1: Correct? Correct?
Speaker 2: And when Georgia Tech was succeeding before then, it was
Speaker 2: like the Reggie Ball unwatchable. Like when when is it
Speaker 2: that Georgia Tech has made college football better? Like of
Speaker 2: all the teams like you can make that point about
Speaker 2: Texas or Nebraska or Miami because there's something like there's
Speaker 2: there's branding their style. I just don't understand. Like, to me,
Speaker 2: college football has always been better when Georgia Tech has
Speaker 2: been bad, like because it's come at the expense of
Speaker 2: other more fun programs with better environments. And now I
Speaker 2: understand that, Like it would be a cool story if
Speaker 2: like a local Atlanta team, which, by the way, recently
Speaker 2: discovered that that Atlanta's pronounced basically with two ends at
Speaker 2: the end of the.
Speaker 1: Word, like Toronto, Atlanta Atlanta. Yeah. Uh, I just I.
Speaker 2: Don't know, there's there's never really been that much flash
Speaker 2: to Georgia Tech football that has really like held up
Speaker 2: a side of the sport.
Speaker 1: To me, well, I mean it's a historic program and
Speaker 1: it's in a great football city in Atlanta, I hear you.
Speaker 1: So for my money, even though we don't got a
Speaker 1: whole lot to go on recently, it would be cool
Speaker 1: to have a program in Atlanta Atlanta other than Georgia
Speaker 1: which is over in Athens, be be prominent in the ACC.
Speaker 1: The AEC is gettable, like it's there, man, it's gettable.
Speaker 1: It's always in a bit of a tizzy, especially now
Speaker 1: with who knows what's going on with Clemson, Like there's
Speaker 1: there's a lot of intrigue I think as to the
Speaker 1: direction of that ofference. So I don't think it's happening
Speaker 1: for Georgia Tech. But I think with that being said,
Speaker 1: historic program. You know, Bobby Dodd Stadium is the oldest
Speaker 1: stadium in college football. I did not know that. You know, underneath,
Speaker 1: underneath the West stands are the old West stands. It's
Speaker 1: like a hidden cavern. Is that true. There's a little
Speaker 1: one hundred percent trough. You can go down there and
Speaker 1: still see parts of the old stadium. There's so much
Speaker 1: history at Georgia Tech, not just with the stadium but
Speaker 1: with the program that I would really love to see
Speaker 1: them rise to prominence. I just don't see it happening.
Speaker 1: It's unfortunately not going to happen for Jeff Collins, all right,
Speaker 1: not in twenty twenty two. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm good with it happening, but that doesn't really register
Speaker 2: with me. I remember driving through Atlanta once and somebody's like, oh,
Speaker 2: there's Bobby Dodd, and.
Speaker 1: Like, really, no.
Speaker 2: Usually when you drive through somewhere and you're like Oh
Speaker 2: there's the stadium. Wow are you driving on I thirty
Speaker 2: five or whatever?
Speaker 1: And you're also you're like, yep, there's DKR. Pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Kind of different.
Speaker 2: All right, h next school, who do we even have left? Okay,
Speaker 2: this team was pretty awful and finished with the.
Speaker 1: Number one recruiting class in its conference. Southern Miss Stanford.
Speaker 1: Stanford finished with the top recruiting class in the Panford Yes,
Speaker 1: so really? Yes?
Speaker 2: So you have USC with the coaching change, you have
Speaker 2: Oregon with the coaching change, you have Washington with a
Speaker 2: coaching change. And so even though those schools salvaged classes
Speaker 2: to whatever extent, they were not large classes, Stanford did
Speaker 2: pretty well, especially along the lines they recruit nationally. I
Speaker 2: think they finished something like eighteenth in the country, which
Speaker 2: was good for number one in a very very much
Speaker 2: changing PAC twelve at the top. So Stanford, Yeah, they.
Speaker 1: Go three to nine and finish with the number one
Speaker 1: recruiting class in the PAC twelve. All right, let me
Speaker 1: ask you a question, realistic question. Would Stanford ever move
Speaker 1: on from David Shaw? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean I think it would take probably another couple
Speaker 2: of down years, but he's making something. Remember when the
Speaker 2: USA Today released there or there was some story that
Speaker 2: came out that finally released what he is making because
Speaker 2: it's harder to get the figures from coaches at private schools.
Speaker 2: It's been like nine million dollars a year, like high
Speaker 2: eight's low nine, something in that range. And I just
Speaker 2: don't think you can justify paying those that kind of
Speaker 2: number to somebody going three and nine, four and eight,
Speaker 2: two and ten over you know, a three four year span,
Speaker 2: So I could see it. It's it's probably gonna take
Speaker 2: more because I think he is so beloved there than Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's something that's my brow or something like that.
Speaker 1: That's my point. The offense fell off a cliff last year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the offense fell off a cliff. This was a bad offense.
Speaker 1: They went from thirty first in twenty twenty again abbreviated
Speaker 1: schedule four and two in twenty twenty, all the way
Speaker 1: down to one hundred and fourth nationally, which is a
Speaker 1: huge drop off. If Northwestern was the answer on the
Speaker 1: other side of things, you could definitely make a case
Speaker 1: for Stanford on the offensive side of things, just really bad.
Speaker 1: The defense also really bad. It was really bad last year.
Speaker 1: It got worse in twenty twenty one. YEP, variety of
Speaker 1: factors for that. I'm sure we could talk about it
Speaker 1: if we really wanted to. We don't. What matters is
Speaker 1: the second order wins total two point seven per The
Speaker 1: sp plus had Stanford pretty much right on the number
Speaker 1: at three and nine, So I think you layer all
Speaker 1: that in the recruiting is something we can discuss. But
Speaker 1: bigger picture, as we move ahead now into twenty two,
Speaker 1: this is not an easy schedule for Stanford. It is
Speaker 1: not an easy schedule for Stanford. Brutal road schedule at Washington,
Speaker 1: at Oregon, at Notre Dame. That's all within the first
Speaker 1: six weeks of the season. Then there's a road tilt
Speaker 1: later against Utah. Obviously they play usc pretty early on
Speaker 1: as well, So it's just it. It's stacking up against
Speaker 1: Stanford making some sort of reclabation project in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: They could come on strong late, but they're going to
Speaker 1: have some work to do early. I think if they
Speaker 1: want to prove to anybody that they can get this
Speaker 1: thing turned around in a good direction.
Speaker 2: So they lose both of their running backs who carried
Speaker 2: the ball the most, who toted the rock the most,
Speaker 2: and Nathaniel Pete and Austin Jones. Pete transfers to Massoo
Speaker 2: and Austin Jones to USC And the big thing for
Speaker 2: Stanford is for Stanford. For Stanford is year over year,
Speaker 2: it always seem like whatever they were for better or worse,
Speaker 2: they would get good line play up front on both
Speaker 2: sides of the ball. They would have a good defense,
Speaker 2: they would have a good offensive line. They would get
Speaker 2: guys into the NFL, especially upfront on defense, upfront. On offense,
Speaker 2: you know, they would develop an interesting running back, be
Speaker 2: it Bryce Love hitting home runs, be it Christian McCaffrey
Speaker 2: as one of the all time all purpose greats. And
Speaker 2: they would find these guys and develop these guys. And
Speaker 2: they haven't developed a receiver in quite some time. Tight end.
Speaker 2: They've had guys, you know, most recently Colby Parkinson was
Speaker 2: was that guy. But they've stopped finding, they've stopped developing,
Speaker 2: and they've stopped really being able to weaponize specific players
Speaker 2: on offense. And they would find quarterbacks. But even like
Speaker 2: since Kevin Hogan, like it's been a while, and like
Speaker 2: they're pulling in four and five star kids like Tanner
Speaker 2: McKee I think was a five star quarterback and he
Speaker 2: showed flashes, but this was a predictable offense. It was
Speaker 2: one of arguably one of the worst defensive lines in
Speaker 2: defensive fronts in football. Were they the worst run defense
Speaker 2: in football?
Speaker 1: They were. They were in that grouping, they were rushed around.
Speaker 1: I can, I can pull it up, but they were.
Speaker 2: But so I'm assuming they were the worst power five
Speaker 2: run defense in America and they It's what Lance Anderson
Speaker 2: on defense and Tavita Pritchard on offense as coordinators. They
Speaker 2: retained both of those guys, So they sew another one
Speaker 2: of those guys who doesn't make a lot of wholesale
Speaker 2: changes along his coaching staff and doesn't really have the
Speaker 2: ability to do so via the portal on the on
Speaker 2: the roster. So's it's that same idea of turning around
Speaker 2: that aircraft carrier that you know, Stanford's in a better
Speaker 2: place because they can recruit on a much higher level
Speaker 2: than Northwestern, Vanderbilt duke programs like that. But man, I
Speaker 2: don't know. There's a stubborn streak to David Shaw, both
Speaker 2: in the architecture of the offense and play calling and
Speaker 2: decision making in those higher leverage moments that doesn't seem
Speaker 2: to improve.
Speaker 1: He was.
Speaker 2: He won a bunch of close games in twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: so it doesn't you know, that didn't seem like there
Speaker 2: was going to be pressure on his seat after twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: and they did have their starting quarterback against Oregon and
Speaker 2: that opener because of it, I think it was a
Speaker 2: false positive that it was Davis Mills I think received
Speaker 2: but I don't know. It's really difficult to see when
Speaker 2: you look at this roster and you look at what
Speaker 2: they were or were not able to do on the field,
Speaker 2: to see them as an eight and four, nine to
Speaker 2: three program again any time time soon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the thing to watch on the Stanford front, and
Speaker 1: it's it warn't mentioning. Stanford is third in returning production
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty two, so bring it back nearly everybody
Speaker 1: on offense and most of the defense. Some of the
Speaker 1: other teams that we're talking about here are also on
Speaker 1: that list. We haven't talked about Southern miss yet, but
Speaker 1: they're in the top ten. Georgia Southern also brings back
Speaker 1: a lot. So there are reasons for optimism, I think
Speaker 1: with some of these schools. But you know, Stanford, being
Speaker 1: as high up as they are, really the only Power
Speaker 1: five team that's that high, can they do anything with it?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know. It's been a minute
Speaker 1: since Stanford was like a real, tried and true contender
Speaker 1: in the Pac twelfth. So we'll see. Yeah, and there's
Speaker 1: kind of a window right now, there is in the North.
Speaker 1: You have new coach at Washington, new coach at Washington State,
Speaker 1: new coach at Oregon. Oregon State should be decent enough.
Speaker 1: Cal has had its own struggles. And then, by the way,
Speaker 1: the big games on the road this year coach at
Speaker 1: USC UCLA sort of. I mean that game was gettable
Speaker 1: for Stanford last year. It seemed like at times they
Speaker 1: had a lead. And you know, the Arizona schools are
Speaker 1: very much in flux in Arizona heading the right direction
Speaker 1: in Arizona State. Not Utah's really strong, but Colorado seems
Speaker 1: to be a disaster. So the window for Stanford is
Speaker 1: they're relatively open. Yeah, it's just a matter of handling
Speaker 1: their own business and finding those difference makers on both
Speaker 1: sides of the ball, both sides of the ball.
Speaker 2: So there's Stanford. This This next team was the only
Speaker 2: team on our list to win its final two games.
Speaker 1: Southern Miss. Southern Miss is correct, Thank you, Dean.
Speaker 2: Southern Miss a lot more active in the portal than
Speaker 2: a lot of these teams, and they have the luxury
Speaker 2: of having two major programs in their own state and
Speaker 2: Ole Miss and Mississippi State, which they very much took
Speaker 2: advantage of and added a number of Mississippi State players.
Speaker 1: Last year.
Speaker 2: It was an interesting team. So it was year one
Speaker 2: of Will Hall coming in from from Tulane. He was
Speaker 2: the offensive coordinator and pretty well regarded. I remember Oregon
Speaker 2: interviewing him a couple times for their open open job,
Speaker 2: in which I think they that was Joe Morehead who
Speaker 2: took it at that stage. But the defense was quietly
Speaker 2: decent at times. They allowed too many big plays. Their
Speaker 2: big focus, and it makes sense given the number of
Speaker 2: junior colleges in the state and in the area, was
Speaker 2: on adding JC players and adding players via the portal.
Speaker 2: So they're looking to immediately turn things around. They as
Speaker 2: I mentioned, they went they won their final two, but
Speaker 2: last year did feature pretty bad losses. It's hard to
Speaker 2: go three to nine and not have a few bad losses,
Speaker 2: just in terms of who you lose to. Troy Rice,
Speaker 2: South Alabama. You know, UTEP was improved but still not
Speaker 2: great to lose to the miners Middle Tennessee North Texas.
Speaker 2: And they do have this year in which should be
Speaker 2: a new look team. They they traveled to Miami and
Speaker 2: they host Liberty, So tricky early, early sledding for the Eagles.
Speaker 2: But Southern Miss a program that I'm confident can get
Speaker 2: better quicker than some of these other schools within the
Speaker 2: context of you know, who they play and where they play.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also, as I just said, top ten in
Speaker 1: college football in terms of returning production. Yes, so you
Speaker 1: can do something with that for sure. And it's it's
Speaker 1: a fairly workable schedule. I mean, you mentioned they've got
Speaker 1: game against Miami on the road, and there's some others
Speaker 1: here that are certainly problematic. But yeah, it's gettable, it's gettable.
Speaker 1: They can definitely approve a bit of a rotation at
Speaker 1: quarterback last year.
Speaker 2: So and I don't think any of these three guys,
Speaker 2: Lang Keys or Trey Low for more touchdowns and interceptions.
Speaker 2: So a lot of work to be done through the air.
Speaker 1: But I don't know.
Speaker 2: Again, I have some optimism with Southern Miss and I
Speaker 2: know it's kind of you know, behind the scenes, can
Speaker 2: be a bit of a screwy place, but it seems
Speaker 2: like the activity and attention is there.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so they're miss final team here is Duke.
Speaker 1: You could tell me in a second on what you
Speaker 1: wanted to say about Duke. But what jumped out at
Speaker 1: me when I was looking over the blue devils in
Speaker 1: Duke's case, they lost their last eight yep, North Carolina,
Speaker 1: Georgia Tech, Virginia Wake Forest, Pitt Virginia Tech, Willisville, Miami.
Speaker 1: Not the easiest road if you're Duke, No by any stretch, right,
Speaker 1: But we had talk going into the year like is
Speaker 1: this tire running out of air for David Cutcliff and
Speaker 1: maybe it's time to move on. Ultimately they did. They
Speaker 1: go in the direction of Mike Elco. This is a
Speaker 1: team that pretty much quit, pretty much quit. Yeah, second
Speaker 1: half of the year. If you look at postgame win expectancy,
Speaker 1: they were nowhere close. The only game, the only game
Speaker 1: in all of those eight where their post game win
Speaker 1: expectancy was above a zero percent, which I cannot tell
Speaker 1: you is almost impossible, was Georgia Tech. They lost that
Speaker 1: game by four. All the other games that were pretty
Speaker 1: much destroyed, they had no chance. So the time was right.
Speaker 1: They move on they go. Mike. Mike Elko is a
Speaker 1: good hire for.
Speaker 2: Duke definitely, and given his time in the state at
Speaker 2: Wake Forest and ties to you know, finding you know,
Speaker 2: high level three star kids who can get into Duke
Speaker 2: and succeed and develop and take time. I think it's
Speaker 2: a strong hire.
Speaker 1: Folks on some of the A and M message boards
Speaker 1: were betrayed by this. How could he lead leading Duke?
Speaker 1: Why would he leaved coaching job? Yeah, he could have
Speaker 1: shot higher than Duke. He could have gotten a better
Speaker 1: gig if he wanted to than Duke, But like you said,
Speaker 1: there's a bit of a connection there. He decides ultimately
Speaker 1: he wants to take that gig. Clearly Duke's program that's
Speaker 1: going to give him time. Mike Elko has been a
Speaker 1: successful assistant for many, many years now, so you know,
Speaker 1: the extent to which he can turn that ship around,
Speaker 1: turn that aircraft carrier around, remains to be seen. But
Speaker 1: the time I think was right for a fresh start
Speaker 1: at Duke. And uh, you know, on both fronts, not
Speaker 1: just football, but at time of recording, we just saw
Speaker 1: coach ks scheme. That's true on the basketball side as well,
Speaker 1: So a whole new era for the two money sports
Speaker 1: on the men's side of things.
Speaker 2: For Duke, Yeah, and the expectation isn't there. The expectation
Speaker 2: for Stanford, given recent results, I think is far more
Speaker 2: pronounced than it is at Duke, given what David Shaw
Speaker 2: specifically has been able to accomplish in Palo Alto and
Speaker 2: Jim Harbaugh before him. Yeah, it's you know, get to
Speaker 2: a bowl game sometimes that's good. That's good at Duke.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I get the move from Mike Elco. You
Speaker 2: get a head job in the acc you take it.
Speaker 1: You take it. If you've been trying for a job
Speaker 1: like this, you were going to cook out, by the way,
Speaker 1: ty bit at a cookout or at.
Speaker 2: No No, the fast food chain in the Southeast, specifically
Speaker 2: the Carolinas.
Speaker 1: I think no cookout. No. It is.
Speaker 2: Whatever it lacks in high level quality, it makes up
Speaker 2: for and then some in value. Really, you can feast
Speaker 2: for three dollars eighty four cents. You can get I don't,
Speaker 2: are you a milkshake guy? I know we had the
Speaker 2: whole thing with Adam Amin way back when.
Speaker 1: On occasion it's not my go to, but I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not anti milkshake.
Speaker 2: You can get there's like thirty flavors available at cookout.
Speaker 2: There's it's a huge menu. Everything is cheap if you
Speaker 2: are hungry and you don't have a bunch of cash.
Speaker 2: Not a sponsor could be. I just say this because
Speaker 2: I've only been to Durham once and I ate a
Speaker 2: cookout and I was thrilled with the experience. So, uh,
Speaker 2: maybe that's why michaelko went back.
Speaker 1: Could be for cookout. Yeah, it could be for cookout. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Duke is I don't know.
Speaker 2: They're in a nice position just because the expectations are
Speaker 2: so low. And David Cutcliffe did hire pretty well. You
Speaker 2: remember it was it was Cutcliff who brought Jim Knowles
Speaker 2: I think, onto the biggest stage at that time for
Speaker 2: him and got hired away by Oklahoma State at the time.
Speaker 2: But I did see I think David Cutcliffe might be
Speaker 2: heading to Texas and like a like a an advisor
Speaker 2: type le same way that Gary Patterson's being hired there.
Speaker 2: And maybe can't hurt that Cutcliffe's relationship with the Manning
Speaker 2: family could come handy with the number one quarterback recruiting
Speaker 2: in the country currently, somebody with that last name. But uh, yeah,
Speaker 2: Cutcliff did a lot of good things for them as
Speaker 2: well regarded, but it just it wasn't going to be
Speaker 2: any sort of short, medium, or long term answer for
Speaker 2: the Blue Devils.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and to your point about expectations, Duke's sort of
Speaker 1: starting over at a bunch of positions that they're near
Speaker 1: the bottom in terms of that returning production number. So
Speaker 1: it really is going to be a near full rebuild
Speaker 1: for Mike Elko starting in year one. He can build
Speaker 1: in his image.
Speaker 2: Do you know who is awesome? Matteo Durant and nobody
Speaker 2: we us included. We didn't talk about it because it
Speaker 2: was just he wasn't playing in meaningful games at all.
Speaker 2: And I have no idea if this is going to
Speaker 2: be the case. I know nothing about the draft. I
Speaker 2: know nothing about the NFL. I just know that guys
Speaker 2: like Matteo Durant, who are able to succeed on terrible
Speaker 2: teams can be guys who are you know, free agents
Speaker 2: or you know, drafted in the sixth seventh round, And
Speaker 2: especially at the running back position where value doesn't mean much.
Speaker 1: You're like, this guy just.
Speaker 2: Ran for fourteen hundred yards for the Steelers for the Viking.
Speaker 2: What oh cool? That's the kind of guy I think
Speaker 2: Matteo Durant can be from what I've seen of him.
Speaker 1: Rush for twelve hundred yards nine touchdowns. Not a bad year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not a bad year. Okay, Uh, that does it, Dan?
Speaker 1: So that's it. We went through all twelve teams. I
Speaker 1: don't know how many I got right, maybe five? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that went three to nine in twenty twenty one. Hopefully
Speaker 1: all of them get better. We have no reason to
Speaker 1: root against them. But as we said going through, some
Speaker 1: have greater obstacles than others. We're going to continue doing
Speaker 1: this so the next time around. Now you're the kings
Speaker 1: of losers. We are the kings of losers. Yeah, for
Speaker 1: eight next month we can talk through. There will be
Speaker 1: more tea tea for us. What do we have? Who
Speaker 1: are the highlights? I don't have it in front of me,
Speaker 1: but I did look briefly, and there are more four
Speaker 1: and eight teams. I did check Lehigh and Lafayette Yeah,
Speaker 1: three and eight. Yeah, So I don't know if you
Speaker 1: have any weigh ins about any of those teams. Here
Speaker 1: are the four and eight teams tie four and eight
Speaker 1: FBS teams from twenty twenty one. Are you ready? I'm
Speaker 1: ready please Navy, Okay, Rice, Yeah, Bowling Green, Buffalo, USC, Colorado,
Speaker 1: Texas State, Louisiana, Monroe. And that's it. So there are
Speaker 1: fewer teams. I think there might be fewer Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: damn all right, never mind, it's murders row Dan. This
Speaker 1: is fun. I appreciate your research as ever, we would
Speaker 1: appreciate everybody stopping on by the website heliverbal dot com.
Speaker 1: That's where you can find all of our links. For
Speaker 1: Bowlers dot com right now is where it's really popping off.
Speaker 1: I mean, geezs right, extra nuggets, We've got early access,
Speaker 1: We've got brewin a later this week, we're going to
Speaker 1: do a two part brew and a part that goes public,
Speaker 1: the other part that is private for Forballer's only Everballers
Speaker 1: dot com. You can go on out to the Patreon.
Speaker 1: You can also find the awesome show that we did
Speaker 1: talking about the James web Space Telescope in all Things Astronomy. Daniel,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it was so fun, the most fun
Speaker 1: I've had doing an interview in quite some time. So
Speaker 1: Forballers dot com is where you can find that premium
Speaker 1: content and don't forget again to follow on social media.
Speaker 1: What was the most fun before then? It might have
Speaker 1: been Houston out on the toilet. That was pretty good. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I got nothing else for that over there, my good
Speaker 1: friend Dan Rubinstein for myself, Tie Hildebrand. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for downloading, listening, supporting, and playing along at home.
Speaker 1: We will be back a little later on this week
Speaker 1: for an answer some of your questions. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: stay solid, Pea,