Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal home that for me. I'm
Speaker 1: a man. I'm forty.
Speaker 2: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
Speaker 2: be happy.
Speaker 1: You want to be happy for a day? Edo steak?
Speaker 1: Is that woo woom?
Speaker 3: And then and tie.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the solid verbol, boys and girls. My
Speaker 1: name is ty hilden Brandt. That fine gentleman over there
Speaker 1: is always the monster of the midway, Dan Rubinstein, sir,
Speaker 1: how are you? I'm not bad, Tye, I'm not bad.
Speaker 1: I went into the city yesterday for a lunch. I
Speaker 1: got out of the house, which felt good. It's not
Speaker 1: raining today, so I'm gonna try to go for a run.
Speaker 1: I'm a very strange runner. I've talked about this on
Speaker 1: the show before, where you know the old adage it's
Speaker 1: not a marathon, or it's not a sprint, it's a marathon, right.
Speaker 1: I go out there and I do sprints. I go
Speaker 1: out there and I don't just go jogging for like
Speaker 1: a five k or a ten k or something like that.
Speaker 1: I'll do a warm up jog and then I just
Speaker 1: sprint like eighth of a mile, quarter of a mile,
Speaker 1: because one I find it to be a better workout
Speaker 1: for me and I put a little bit less stress
Speaker 1: on my joints because I don't like running long distances,
Speaker 1: and two because I'm a demon on the tennis court.
Speaker 1: It's good for my short track speed, my burst.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 2: So I'm out there as people are just leisurely riding
Speaker 2: their bicycles, going for walks, going for jogs like and
Speaker 2: that's me out there, burning up the pavement and always
Speaker 2: excited to do it. And when it's warm enough, TI
Speaker 2: come on. Life is good.
Speaker 1: Have you considered going to a local baseball field and
Speaker 1: running from home to first and first to second to
Speaker 1: work on that interval.
Speaker 2: I haven't done baseball field and I haven't thought about it,
Speaker 2: but I have thought about finding giant empty parking lots
Speaker 2: like you would train a toddler to ride a bike
Speaker 2: or train a teenager to drive a car, and just
Speaker 2: do it at like six am. So my exposure is
Speaker 2: not there.
Speaker 1: Wearing a garbage bag like Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook.
Speaker 1: Again again, I'm the same page, setting up some cones
Speaker 1: and just doing sprints because if I'm really doing it
Speaker 1: for tennis, I need the right surface, So it's going
Speaker 1: to be a harder surface, not dirt and really doing
Speaker 1: that short track like change of direction, burst speed stuff.
Speaker 1: But that that may be a bridge too far. We'll
Speaker 1: see though, Yeah, because I mean you're pushing up now
Speaker 1: into your fifth decade of life before you know it.
Speaker 1: I'm in my mid to late thirties, sir. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: pushing up against that glass ceiling of sorts, and the
Speaker 1: point at which you just stop caring what others think
Speaker 1: is fast approaching.
Speaker 2: True, it's a reality, but ty, I'm just I'm getting better.
Speaker 2: I'm improving, which is.
Speaker 1: What the following teams should be aiming for, should be
Speaker 1: angling for. We are celebrating four and eight week. This
Speaker 1: episode will be released on for the public on April
Speaker 1: the seventh, which is a day before the.
Speaker 2: Eighth, but it's four and eight week, and so we
Speaker 2: are celebrating a number of teams, both in Power Conferences,
Speaker 2: G five Conferences and the like, who unfortunately went four
Speaker 2: and eight and twenty twenty one. And it's not a
Speaker 2: season recap, it's not a season preview. It's just sort
Speaker 2: of a state of four and eight, How they got there,
Speaker 2: what's going on? Did coaches come in and out, did
Speaker 2: players come in and out? You know where is this
Speaker 2: program in terms of how serious they are about pushing
Speaker 2: up much in the way that you have pushed up
Speaker 2: into your fifth decade of life. Thank you into becoming
Speaker 2: a bowl team, because that's obviously the next goal for
Speaker 2: a number of these teams. Obviously some have higher aspirations,
Speaker 2: but we celebrate all things four and eight because it
Speaker 2: is April eighth soon at the time of recording this show.
Speaker 1: All of our shows driven by our good friends over
Speaker 1: at Geico. Don't forget the subscribe or follow if you
Speaker 1: have yet to do so. Overballers dot Com is where
Speaker 1: you can get the video version of the show. You
Speaker 1: can also get this show all of our episodes a
Speaker 1: little bit early via the early access that we offer.
Speaker 1: There's a Discord server. You can still go out and
Speaker 1: listen to the Extra Nuggets limited run that Dan and
Speaker 1: our good friend Adam Amin have dropped for all y'all.
Speaker 3: To listen to. We welcome your feedback.
Speaker 1: Has ever a ton of perks that are out there
Speaker 1: right now on verbawlers dot com. Last but not least
Speaker 1: Sold Giveaway dot Com is where you can go if
Speaker 1: you want to throw your name in the hat to win.
Speaker 1: As signed AJ Brown, Old Miss mini helmet, and of
Speaker 1: course don't forget to follow us across every social media
Speaker 1: channel and YouTube. Hit the subscribe button on YouTube as well.
Speaker 1: We post clips from all of our episodes out there
Speaker 1: in case you're interested in seeing what goes on here
Speaker 1: behind the scenes. Should we do some news first before
Speaker 1: we go further, let's Bob Bowlesby. Dan, Bob Bowlesby gonna
Speaker 1: be stepping down as Big Twelve commissioner. That news came out.
Speaker 1: Bob Bolesby has presided over a rather interesting time in
Speaker 1: the Big Twelve, notably during which two of the founding members,
Speaker 1: Texas and Oklahoma.
Speaker 3: Have decided a bolt for the SEC.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've got any like stinging thoughts
Speaker 1: on this, Dan, but it is notable because Bob Bolsby
Speaker 1: has been a pretty big player, a mid conference re
Speaker 1: alignment talk, a mid playoff expansion talk, amid so much
Speaker 1: of what goes down, specifically as it relates to college
Speaker 1: football in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I wouldn't call it a risky addition to
Speaker 2: the Big Twelve in terms of the four new teams
Speaker 2: coming in, but it is a conference going through a
Speaker 2: good amount of change, and he was at the time,
Speaker 2: unable to sort of navigate the politics and bring the
Speaker 2: Big Twelve in line with where the Big Ten and
Speaker 2: SEC were in terms of adding teams of note and
Speaker 2: of substance or just teams that exist in the case
Speaker 2: of a couple of those editions, and so fell behind
Speaker 2: as a commissioner as it relates to football expansion and
Speaker 2: you know, TV deals, But all in all seems to
Speaker 2: be somewhat well respected in the community. And now the
Speaker 2: names that are being thrown around, largely in the athletic
Speaker 2: director and an administrative community are some of the name
Speaker 2: you know, Greg Byrne and Alabama and Rob Mullins at
Speaker 2: Oregon I saw are the names that you know have
Speaker 2: come up for these types of positions in the past.
Speaker 2: And we'll be fascinating to see because the Big Twelve,
Speaker 2: of course, is finding itself in a time of great change.
Speaker 2: So you know, I'm sure it was a you know,
Speaker 2: when you look at some of Bolsby's quotes and comments
Speaker 2: about the Texas and Oklahoma change, that he was caught
Speaker 2: totally off guard. YEA, that it has been an entirely
Speaker 2: stressful time these past couple of years.
Speaker 1: In the in the Big Twelve, offices. I also saw
Speaker 1: Oliver Luck. There can't be always administrative job in college
Speaker 1: football or otherwise it does involve Oliver Luck's name. He's
Speaker 1: got the best agent correct on that side of the business.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we'll see which direction they go. One interesting
Speaker 1: nuggie that I found oh about this is did you
Speaker 1: know that now with Bob Bolsby departing retiring, Greg Sankee
Speaker 1: is going to be the lone commissioner who was with
Speaker 1: his league prior to twenty twenty. So there's been a
Speaker 1: lot of chess in the commissioner space here within major
Speaker 1: college football. It will reshape the way we view things.
Speaker 1: We saw what happened during the pandemic and more recently
Speaker 1: now with the Pac twelve and Kevin Warren in the
Speaker 1: ACC and the quote unquote alliance. Who knows what's to
Speaker 1: come for the Big twelve, but it will be a
Speaker 1: new person at the Helm for that conference. And if you,
Speaker 1: by the way, if you remember, because we did the
Speaker 1: show with Nicole Aauerback who spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: discussing the dynamics within the Big ten and having a
Speaker 1: new commissioner when a number of athletic directors and presidents
Speaker 1: and chancellors were pulling in different directions with the COVID
Speaker 1: season last year twenty twenty, and so whoever it is,
Speaker 1: and this goes obviously for any any commissioner who has
Speaker 1: unique challenges within his or her conference. It's going to
Speaker 1: be somebody who can come into this changing conference with
Speaker 1: a number of teams with different perspectives or programs in
Speaker 1: schools with different perspectives, different goals, and has to very
Speaker 1: quickly get them on the same page, right, that there
Speaker 1: has to be this unifying force that has to come in,
Speaker 1: especially in a conference with so much change. And that
Speaker 1: was where you know, the Big Ten really struggled with
Speaker 1: with Kevin Warren. Communication, Yeah, communication and and and that
Speaker 1: mutual trust right when we talked to and this is
Speaker 1: part of we did a couple episodes about this. We
Speaker 1: also talked to David Jones, our friend for Penn Live,
Speaker 1: and his point was just in comparing someone like a
Speaker 1: Kevin Warren to Jim Delaney for whom he took over
Speaker 1: the conference, his point was, folks didn't always like Jim Delaney,
Speaker 1: but they knew they could trust him and he was
Speaker 1: very good at getting people in line. He was good
Speaker 1: at communicating and for a new commissioner in the case
Speaker 1: of Kevin Warren to step in at the moment that
Speaker 1: he did, it was a particular challenge, not only trying
Speaker 1: to circle the wagons here and get everybody on the
Speaker 1: same page, but with COVID going on, it was it
Speaker 1: was sort of a nightmare. Bob bowlsby stepping away at
Speaker 1: this point in time, it's got its own set of
Speaker 1: unique challenges with the conference changing, with college football changing,
Speaker 1: what have you. So yeah, we'll see which direction they go. Also,
Speaker 1: at the administrative level, I saw that Mark Emmert is
Speaker 1: issuing kind of an edict would be the wrong word,
Speaker 1: but he's making a request, let's say, prayer, a prayer
Speaker 1: that Congress will take up legislation and create a uniform
Speaker 1: set of guidelines and rules for nil R. The NCAA
Speaker 1: now trapped in this awkward grace base where they want
Speaker 1: to be involved but not too much correct asking, ever
Speaker 1: so politely, please take up some legislation some way to
Speaker 1: apply these rules uniformly across.
Speaker 3: All fifty states.
Speaker 1: I don't know how close we are or aren't to
Speaker 1: that actually happening. My guess is that there is political
Speaker 1: interest out there for some congressmen among us to get
Speaker 1: that job done. Whether or not it's something that will
Speaker 1: be fast track remains to be seen, but it will
Speaker 1: certainly be a talking point, at least at that NCAA
Speaker 1: level for quite some time until it actually gets done.
Speaker 1: It will get done eventually, we just don't know when. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have no idea.
Speaker 2: It just doesn't seem like it's going to become a
Speaker 2: huge national priority unless there are political points to be gained,
Speaker 2: just because I don't know. It seems like a lot
Speaker 2: is happening right now, not going on right now, a
Speaker 2: lot of downtime to say, is there anything we can
Speaker 2: figure out that doesn't seem to.
Speaker 1: Be the case. But I don't know, I'm the wrong person.
Speaker 3: Ask elsewhere.
Speaker 1: In college football, Yeah, Notre Dame announced via a hype video. Sure,
Speaker 1: just weird that they're going to play Tennessee State to
Speaker 1: open the season in twenty twenty three. It is the
Speaker 1: first time ever that the Irish will be playing an
Speaker 1: FCS team. Not sure for the promotional stuff, I don't
Speaker 1: really get that. But it's April. It's April. We're all
Speaker 1: in search of content. What I took away from this
Speaker 1: with them playing an FCS team is maybe they're closer
Speaker 1: to joining the SEC than anybody really thought, Oh how
Speaker 1: dare you? Maybe they're just they're close to it. I
Speaker 1: don't just getting their feet wet.
Speaker 2: I'm okay with playing an FCS team and FCS team
Speaker 2: every year. My views have sort of come around and
Speaker 2: evolved on this, because.
Speaker 1: Man, you need cash.
Speaker 2: You need cash if you want multiple levels of football,
Speaker 2: if you want a lot of participation in the sport,
Speaker 2: you have to make it financially viable. And it's an
Speaker 2: opportunity to play a lot of young players and walk
Speaker 2: on if you're one of these power programs in the
Speaker 2: second half and you're blowing somebody up and you see
Speaker 2: what you have in terms of depth and guys and
Speaker 2: effort and all those things. So I don't know, I
Speaker 2: don't like the idea that I still like the idea
Speaker 2: of a more centralized way of scheduling. But yeah, it
Speaker 2: was Notre Dame USC and UCLA, and UCLA now has
Speaker 2: I believe Alabama State on the books and USC canceled
Speaker 2: the game with the fight naggies of UC Davis I
Speaker 2: think last year. So they still haven't played an FCS team.
Speaker 2: That's some sort of like merit badge, I guess, but no,
Speaker 2: I'm okay with it. I want the still more uniform
Speaker 2: scheduling of more you know, interesting power five on power
Speaker 2: five action that schools don't just get to decide amongst themselves.
Speaker 2: But I'm fine with it, especially because it gives us
Speaker 2: always the possibility of a major program paying big money
Speaker 2: to lose, to lose that game, and before it has
Speaker 2: not just FCS Power five G five of course, but
Speaker 2: it just it gives us that chance, and I'm always
Speaker 2: for it.
Speaker 1: That's a perfect segue, yes, into our segment.
Speaker 3: That's why you're a pros pro.
Speaker 1: Any other news, by the way, anything that came across
Speaker 1: the desk of Dan Rubinstein that we should address here.
Speaker 2: No, I mean, we have spring practice going on, and
Speaker 2: we have spring games going on, and you know, there's
Speaker 2: not a lot of teams that are gonna take chances
Speaker 2: with guys who are beat up, and there's not a
Speaker 2: lot to glean from a lot of these games. And
Speaker 2: we'll do a sort of spring game and spring practice
Speaker 2: recap and wrap once it's over. So I don't know
Speaker 2: worth paying attention to if, especially if you're rooting for
Speaker 2: a team with a new coach. I don't even I
Speaker 2: think I'm gonna be on the road when Oregon plays
Speaker 2: it's spring game. I don't know if you are planning
Speaker 2: your I don't know April or May around Notre Dames
Speaker 2: spring game always.
Speaker 1: I know, I gotta look when it is always always
Speaker 1: playing around that.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just seems like a situation where we're better
Speaker 2: off aggregating the bigger stuff than really diving into each
Speaker 2: individual story that comes out. As as he mentioned at
Speaker 2: the top of the show, Dan Rubinstein, it is four
Speaker 2: and eight week, Yes, four and eight week. We've got
Speaker 2: a list of teams in front of us, those being USC,
Speaker 2: Washington and Colorado, sort of like packed twelve week here
Speaker 2: on the.
Speaker 3: Show, How dare you?
Speaker 1: In addition to Bowling Green, Buffalo, Navy, Rice, Texas State,
Speaker 1: and Louisiana Monroe the Warhawks, those are the teams in
Speaker 1: major college football that went four to eighth this past season.
Speaker 1: What we've been doing, what we've done two previous episodes
Speaker 1: now during three and nine and two and ten week
Speaker 1: is Dan puts together a couple questions and he quizzes
Speaker 1: me which team is responsible for insert your nuggie here.
Speaker 1: I try to guess sometimes I get it right, in
Speaker 1: the case of the last episode, most of the time
Speaker 1: I get it wrong. Now we talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about that team, as he said, not a recap, not
Speaker 1: a preview, just sort of a what the hell?
Speaker 3: Four and eight? What the what the hell?
Speaker 1: So, I don't know if you've got any sounds at
Speaker 1: the ready? My iPad, I'm gonna hold this up for
Speaker 1: the camera. Mypad's dead again. I have to get this fixed.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I did. All good, I'll teach
Speaker 1: you some technology stuff. Yep, dead, I can't get it
Speaker 1: to start back up. So maybe a genius bar appointment
Speaker 1: in my future. That being said, play some sounds for
Speaker 1: us usher in this ridiculous game that we've got here
Speaker 1: on four All right, we are building programs back into
Speaker 1: bowl shape here on the solid verbal So I'm here
Speaker 1: to help.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, you ready for program number one? Yes, this
Speaker 2: program's offense was so bad?
Speaker 1: How bad were they? Damn? How bad? They were? So bad?
Speaker 2: They got shut out by a team who themselves were
Speaker 2: very displeased with Their offensive coordinator went in a new direction.
Speaker 2: And so this team that got shut out hired said
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator, who led a comfortable win over this team.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest, Yeah, I had a hard time
Speaker 1: following that. Okay, So team A lost a game thirty
Speaker 1: to zero. The team that scored thirty at the end
Speaker 1: of the season was like, Nope, we don't like this
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator. Team B, who scored zero points said, I
Speaker 1: don't know, we'll take them. Our offense is pretty bad
Speaker 1: and thirty seems like a pretty sweet deal. Okay, I
Speaker 1: don't know who what team that is. So Colorado lost
Speaker 1: to Minnesota thirty to nothing. Mike Sanford was Minnesota's offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator last year. They were not too pleased, especially because
Speaker 1: Minnesota they themselves lost to another team on this four
Speaker 1: and eight list, not scoring many points in the process.
Speaker 1: And so Mike Sandford is now the new offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: at Colorado who has had themselves a very strange I
Speaker 1: would argue a year and a half after being surprisingly
Speaker 1: good in the COVID short and twenty twenty season, especially
Speaker 1: with what they were to do on the ground, they
Speaker 1: were feisty at moments in twenty twenty one, but they
Speaker 1: lost a good amount of talent to the portal and
Speaker 1: weirdly and I guess impressive in its own way. Colorado
Speaker 1: lost said talent on defense to big schools, which is
Speaker 1: typically not what we see. Typically, what we see is
Speaker 1: when players enter the portal, they like they'll go down
Speaker 1: to a you know, lesser programs for more playing time,
Speaker 1: be it smaller.
Speaker 2: P five, G five whatever. Colorado players have ended up
Speaker 2: at you know, Brendan Rice and at least a player
Speaker 2: in the secondary ended up at USC another dB A
Speaker 2: corner Christian Gonzales at Oregon. They lost a player to
Speaker 2: TCU Iowa State. So Colorado in a weird position where
Speaker 2: the offense was kind of a nightmare last year. They
Speaker 2: hire a coordinator who is not super well regarded as
Speaker 2: of late, and Mike Sandford and haven't been recruiting well
Speaker 2: at all, and so I you know, they bring in
Speaker 2: Tommy Brown, an offensive lineman from Alabeia who was well
Speaker 2: regarded as a recruit but didn't really make a huge
Speaker 2: impact on the Alabama offensive line these past few years.
Speaker 2: So it's hard to be crazy optimistic about Colorado short medium,
Speaker 2: long term, and I don't see it ending well for
Speaker 2: the Buffs. It's hard to see them as a consistent
Speaker 2: six seven eight when program moving forward.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you sort of tell the Colorado story
Speaker 1: in the last five years of pre slash during Meltucker,
Speaker 1: that one volunted season. Yeah, and now what's happened since?
Speaker 1: And they were, as you said, surprisingly decent in the
Speaker 1: first season under Carl Durrell.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I.
Speaker 1: Think he won awards, right, he was doing a pretty
Speaker 1: good job. And then it kind of spun out a
Speaker 1: little bit and then we have what took place in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. You could argue the highlight of the
Speaker 1: season was losing in Week two by.
Speaker 3: Three to Texas A.
Speaker 1: And that was the game, by the way, where Haynes
Speaker 1: King went down in the second possession. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it was in Denver. Yeah, ushered in the Calzada Armada.
Speaker 1: Now he's off to Auburn, which is a whole other thing.
Speaker 1: We can talk about that later. But otherwise, this was
Speaker 1: a team that really struggled. You know, there's not one
Speaker 1: thing you can point to. This is a team that
Speaker 1: really just frankly struggled in nearly all facets of the game.
Speaker 1: I always go to coaches hotseat dot com. That's my
Speaker 1: fun little vice here in the offseason, just to see
Speaker 1: how they're ranking college coaches as we go into the
Speaker 1: new season, right as you might expect, Carl Durell cracking
Speaker 1: the top ten there, coming in at number ten. I'm
Speaker 1: curious to see what happens to him if, in fact
Speaker 1: they end up going a different direction. It was always
Speaker 1: kind of a strange hire to me to bring him back,
Speaker 1: but Colorado needs to get some juice here as we
Speaker 1: go forward at the twenty twenty two. Otherwise I think
Speaker 1: there's going to be a coaching change.
Speaker 2: Well, they brought back our guy, Derek Markle in terms
Speaker 2: of graphic design and and publicizing the program, who does
Speaker 2: a very good job, so that's helpful. I'm not across
Speaker 2: the board against retread hires as Carl Durell. You know,
Speaker 2: he has some success at UCLA, but is ultimately not
Speaker 2: a long term answer at UCLA what like fifteen twelve
Speaker 2: years ago, and goes to the NFL, comes back to Colorado.
Speaker 2: It just seemed a little bit uninspired the way in
Speaker 2: which he has hired assistance and whatever their budgetary constraints
Speaker 2: obviously play a role in this at Colorado. But if
Speaker 2: he comes back to a PAC twelve PAC ten job
Speaker 2: and says I'm hiring these young up and coming assistants,
Speaker 2: Like we're putting all this money into recruiting and going
Speaker 2: into Texas and California, but it just seems like, you know,
Speaker 2: you bring in Mike Sandford, like you just you make
Speaker 2: some of these assistant hires and they're not recruiting on
Speaker 2: any interesting levels. At least you look like Arizona in
Speaker 2: the way that, like Jed Fish has said, Okay, this
Speaker 2: is what we're doing. This is how we're focusing on
Speaker 2: the portal. This is how we're going to recruit southern California.
Speaker 2: This is how we're gonna build relationships and hire assistance.
Speaker 2: It's inspired. What Colorado has done is just sort of
Speaker 2: at best, hoping to luck into a bowl game via
Speaker 2: some lucky breaks, which is not a way to live
Speaker 2: your life.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: By the way, I do have the sp plus numbers
Speaker 1: here for Colorado. Yeah, one hundred and fourth overall, one
Speaker 1: hundred and twentieth on offense, which is not good, ninety
Speaker 1: fourth on defense equally almost equally not as good. Second
Speaker 1: order wins was three, So this is a four win
Speaker 1: team that played like a three win team, which tells
Speaker 1: you a lot of what you need to know here
Speaker 1: about the Buffaloes. Last season, Next team, next team. All right,
Speaker 1: this team did the sort of impossible, And there's a
Speaker 1: lot of teams who you could argue did something that
Speaker 1: was sort of impossible in which the manner in which
Speaker 1: they went four and eight. It's sometimes difficult to go
Speaker 1: four and eight, believe it or not. This team managed
Speaker 1: to have arguably the best defensive field that helped to
Speaker 1: produce an interestingly very good defense with almost no pass
Speaker 1: rush and definitely basically no offense, but still managed to
Speaker 1: put up in like, very very impressive defensive numbers in
Speaker 1: the process, especially considering how difficult it is to have
Speaker 1: an elite part of your defense and go.
Speaker 3: Four and eight. Is this the Washington Huskies.
Speaker 1: It is the Washington Huskies. We're staying out west.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Washington Huskies led by Trent McDuffie. He's the big
Speaker 2: name and he's the big draft name coming up here.
Speaker 2: But think Kyler Gordon. They bring in Bookie Radley Hiles,
Speaker 2: the transfer from Oklahoma. Basically no pass rush, ETF doesn't
Speaker 2: come back until later on in the season, but they
Speaker 2: play that two high system and Bob Gregory took over
Speaker 2: as defensive coordinator. And whether it was a Pac twelve
Speaker 2: quarterback thing, whether it was an opposing offensive coordinator thing.
Speaker 2: There are all sorts of factors that go into it.
Speaker 2: But the Washington pass defense was incredible without a good
Speaker 2: pass rush. Is this a half of a half team?
Speaker 1: It's quarter team. Yeah, we've got a quarterton team or something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: eighth of a team. Here is the book on Washington.
Speaker 1: Washington came into the season with a lot of acclaim.
Speaker 1: I remember doing a preview Washington. Whenever we did it,
Speaker 1: when was that July, last July something like that, we
Speaker 1: were holding up I have it here behind me. I
Speaker 1: was holding up the Phil Steele preview magazine, and Washington
Speaker 1: was one of his surprise teams.
Speaker 3: That's the thing that he does.
Speaker 1: He was all in a Washington. They got a lot
Speaker 1: coming back. Jimmy Lake knows how to coach defense.
Speaker 3: Blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: Well it didn't work out. Predictions don't always work out.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to hold that against Phil Steele, but
Speaker 1: right it was something that I frequently pointed out throughout
Speaker 1: the course of the year because Washington was bad. Washington
Speaker 1: was eighty third in the SP plus they were the
Speaker 1: epitome at least of a half team, maybe of a
Speaker 1: quarter team by your definition, but one oh one in
Speaker 1: terms of their offensive sp plus efficiency, forty fifth in
Speaker 1: terms of defense. Yeah, second order wins five point two.
Speaker 1: So maybe the record wasn't quite indicative of this team,
Speaker 1: but it was close enough. This team had to deal
Speaker 1: with the Jimmy Lake thing. There was strife around Jimmy Lake.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Lake got fired after a week eleven loss to
Speaker 1: Arizona State. For the rest of the season, pretty much,
Speaker 1: I should say, the entire season. This is the story
Speaker 1: of the defense. I think, to your point, playing pretty
Speaker 1: damn well, you're good enough stopping big plays. They're really
Speaker 1: good against the pass, maybe not so much against the run.
Speaker 1: That's why Michigan beat him by twenty one, But we
Speaker 1: can talk about that if we want. On offense, though,
Speaker 1: they just they didn't have any playmakers. If I said
Speaker 1: to you, no, who were Washington's playmakers, how do you
Speaker 1: answer that question? On offense?
Speaker 2: Uh, they're offensive tackles like I don't like. I'm no,
Speaker 2: Kate Otton was good, a very good tight end, but yeah,
Speaker 2: otherwise no, but no, they went they went Torrell buying
Speaker 2: them left. Yeah, they went three.
Speaker 1: And out A Ton ninety ninth in the nation in
Speaker 1: terms of three and out percentage. So the offense was
Speaker 1: not good when it was out there. Yeah, the passing
Speaker 1: game we talked about this a little bit before we
Speaker 1: hit record, just didn't really have much in the way
Speaker 1: of downfield threats, right.
Speaker 3: That hurt them.
Speaker 1: We should have known something was off when they lost
Speaker 1: in Week one to Montana, which is a callback to
Speaker 1: what we said before about losing FCS teams. They lost
Speaker 1: to the Grizz.
Speaker 3: Grizz is a good.
Speaker 2: FCS team, But come on, this is Washington counterpoint. Counterpoint,
Speaker 2: Why you got to bring up old stuff? Ty, We
Speaker 2: are in a new era of Washington football. So this
Speaker 2: is our first team where everything has been overhauled. Correct
Speaker 2: hire Klin de boor their new coordinators. I mean, so
Speaker 2: Washington is essentially all in on the Fresno staff, which
Speaker 2: is I'm sure was part of his hiring. He was
Speaker 2: he had the ability to say because there were reports
Speaker 2: that Washington was sort of not getting a ton of
Speaker 2: enthusiasms from some of the bigger names in the coaching world,
Speaker 2: and so Kaylen de Bor had some leverage and he's
Speaker 2: I'm gonna bring my coordinators in Washington said, all right,
Speaker 2: so Washington's all in on Fresno ball. They tried to
Speaker 2: get Jake Hayner, but obviously that didn't work out, so
Speaker 2: Washington is into the kaylend bor era. It is unclear
Speaker 2: but not promising in terms of what they're going to
Speaker 2: do on the recruiting trail, because they are a program
Speaker 2: that is has site set on keeping up with USC
Speaker 2: and Oregon on the trail, and of course Utah in
Speaker 2: the win column, and Utah has been recruiting better and
Speaker 2: better for sure. So they I think are going to
Speaker 2: improve from a play to play competence quotient kind of perspective,
Speaker 2: just because I think Kaylen de Borr is a very
Speaker 2: much seasoned head coach who has an eye for assistant
Speaker 2: and playing talent. The question is can you do that
Speaker 2: only finding your guys right, Because Chris Peterson was able
Speaker 2: to recruit on a high level, Sark was able to
Speaker 2: recruit on a high level. You know, they notably bring
Speaker 2: in Michael Pennix, who kalender War has the experience with
Speaker 2: from Indiana at quarterback. You know, bring in the new
Speaker 2: Mexico running back transfer who's promising, but they lose a
Speaker 2: healthy amount of guys to the portal, especially on defense,
Speaker 2: and so what does that roster look like, not just
Speaker 2: this season whatever, but these next three years? What is
Speaker 2: the recruiting strategy, What is the retention strategy? What does
Speaker 2: the portal guys coming in strategy look like for the Huskies?
Speaker 2: Because I don't know. I think budgetarily couldn't be a word,
Speaker 2: but maybe it is. I don't know if Washington necessarily
Speaker 2: has the budget to go out and make big hires
Speaker 2: or load up that staff in a place where it's
Speaker 2: costly to live, you know, the recruiting staff, the analysts,
Speaker 2: all that kind of thing. So like Washington has an
Speaker 2: uphill battle in state talents decent, But man, I'm curious
Speaker 2: to see what that that big picture strategy looks like
Speaker 2: come twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it also should be pointed out. Maybe it's the
Speaker 1: elephant in the room. John Donovan was the offensive coordinator. Correct,
Speaker 1: John Donna on to the budget thing. Yeah, so like
Speaker 1: I think on some level, just get rid of him
Speaker 1: and go in the direction whatever direction Kaylin de board
Speaker 1: decides to go, that will be better.
Speaker 3: Than where they were under him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure John Donaland's a nice guy. He's just
Speaker 1: not a good coordinator, and so they're gonna get better
Speaker 1: on offense. The question is after you kind of sand
Speaker 1: off the rough edges and get things nice and tight
Speaker 1: and get them to the point where fundamentally they're they're
Speaker 1: more sound than they've been. Yeah, to what degree can
Speaker 1: you elevate the program? To what degree can you get
Speaker 1: above seven, five, eight and four after you do that, which, yeah,
Speaker 1: you would assume Washington can get to before long. It's
Speaker 1: that kind of place. But elevating the program to the
Speaker 1: point where they're like contending, that's that's going to be
Speaker 1: I think the the interesting question for Kaitlin debor how
Speaker 1: can he do that? How can he elevate?
Speaker 2: I think you nail the numbers exactly seven and a
Speaker 2: half eight wins without recruiting on a high level, without
Speaker 2: you know, producing top three in the PAC twelve classes.
Speaker 1: Year and year out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, is doable. You can do that.
Speaker 2: It's going to be a question of acquisition and retention.
Speaker 2: And unclear to me right now that that that this
Speaker 2: is a Washington program serious about acquiring and retaining on
Speaker 2: that level. Next program, Yeah, gutted to the stud's highest ceiling.
Speaker 1: In the in the grouping that we have got to
Speaker 1: be USC, right, it's USC. Yeah, Yeah, it's either USC
Speaker 1: or RICE, and I don't I think it's Rice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, Yeah, your sister programs USC and RICE. Look,
Speaker 1: they go four and eight for a reason. The defense
Speaker 1: is a nightmare. They fire Clay Hilton a couple games
Speaker 1: into the season. He's now at Georgia Southern. We know everything.
Speaker 2: With Lincoln Riley now coming in, A ton of players leave,
Speaker 2: I think, the most notable being Jackson Dart.
Speaker 1: A ton of interesting players come in.
Speaker 2: Most notably Caleb Williams, followed by Mario Williams, followed by
Speaker 2: Travis Dye from Oregon Like. There are a lot of interesting,
Speaker 2: especially offensive players that have come into this program. Offense
Speaker 2: not necessarily the biggest problem, but.
Speaker 1: Losing who they do. Keaton Slovas makes his way to PITT.
Speaker 1: I believe.
Speaker 2: Recruiting should be gangbusters. This is a team that if
Speaker 2: all clicks, if all works out, especially on defense, team
Speaker 2: will be contending for a playoff spot in a few years.
Speaker 2: I think it'll take some time, but I am exceedingly
Speaker 2: curious about where USC goes from here. A lot of
Speaker 2: inc has been spilled over how USC got to the
Speaker 2: point where they were four and eight and firing their
Speaker 2: coach a couple games into the season. But if you're
Speaker 2: a USC fan right now listening to the show in April,
Speaker 2: it's all puppy dogs and rainbows, right.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 1: And I mean evidence enough of this, not just the
Speaker 1: I think optimism on the USC side, but also on
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma side. Whenever we post a video on YouTube,
Speaker 1: whenever anybody does anything, yeah, whenever we post a video
Speaker 1: specifically for us on YouTube that references Lincoln Riley or USC,
Speaker 1: it does better than all the other videos. And I
Speaker 1: think it's because people care, people are interested in this story.
Speaker 1: It was really the first big domino to fall in
Speaker 1: the coaching carousel after Lincoln Riley decided to go westward.
Speaker 1: We had the news come out about Brian Kelly. I
Speaker 1: think like the next day or so. I mean, it
Speaker 1: moved pretty.
Speaker 3: Quickly, and.
Speaker 1: I think everybody is very curious here, curious to see
Speaker 1: how quickly he can build them up. There seems to
Speaker 1: be an assumption that he will sure, and I was
Speaker 1: hoping maybe we could unpack that a little bit, because
Speaker 1: USC finds itself in an interesting spot. I think you're
Speaker 1: right to say that recruiting is going to be very solid.
Speaker 1: Recruiting's already been very solid. No, it's going to be
Speaker 1: very very very very very good. It's going to be
Speaker 1: very good. It's already been good. He's worked the portal,
Speaker 1: I think masterfully. People just want to play for this guy.
Speaker 3: But the point that you've raised that.
Speaker 1: I've seen others raise in the past is that USC,
Speaker 1: at least in twenty twenty two, is going to be
Speaker 1: better on the top line when it comes to talent,
Speaker 1: but building up depth, getting to the point where they've
Speaker 1: got the fundamentals taken care of, especially on defense, doing
Speaker 1: a lot of the little stuff that maybe doesn't make
Speaker 1: the headlines. That's going to take a while. Do you
Speaker 1: still feel that way? Yeah, yeah, I am. Look, there's
Speaker 1: not a lot standing in USC's way within the PAC twelve.
Speaker 1: I think there is a pretty wide chasm between where
Speaker 1: USC currently is and where the best of college football
Speaker 1: is now. Maybe it's being closed because of Caleb Williams's ceiling.
Speaker 1: We know what Caleb Williams' floor looks like, and it's
Speaker 1: not super attractive, but he was a freshman. It's fully
Speaker 1: expected that you have those down moments. Sure, No, I
Speaker 1: think USC is going to be a good program, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to need to see some things from an
Speaker 1: Alex Grinch defense that like, we're getting further and further
Speaker 1: away from that one good season at Wazoo, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to need to see what offensive and defensive line
Speaker 1: recruiting looks like nationally or how well they go into
Speaker 1: I don't know Arizona or Nevada or Texas or any
Speaker 1: of these places, because I just don't see a lot
Speaker 1: of it on the West Coast. I have to recruit
Speaker 1: nationally on those levels, and USC I think we'll do
Speaker 1: all right on the defensive line on the West Coast.
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I still think that if they
Speaker 1: were to play tomorrow against Utah on a neutral field,
Speaker 1: I don't know why you would feel good about USC
Speaker 1: right Like, they're not even the they're not the class
Speaker 1: of their own division now at the moment, at the moment,
Speaker 1: So I just I think it's almost unfair to Lincoln
Speaker 1: Riley and the players and the coaches on this USC,
Speaker 1: in this USC program to put any sort of expectations
Speaker 1: on them in year one. But such as the nature
Speaker 1: of the college football beast, it will happen. I should
Speaker 1: point out the SPPLUS numbers just before we put a
Speaker 1: bow on this thing here. USC eighty second in the
Speaker 1: sp plus, almost the opposite of what we saw at Washington.
Speaker 1: So they had firepower on offense. They weren't very consistent,
Speaker 1: but forty fifth sp plus ranking on offense, one hundred
Speaker 1: and six on defense. The defensive side of that is
Speaker 1: I think what we're going to watch most closely. Of
Speaker 1: course they're gonna be big names on offense, but the
Speaker 1: question is going to be, as he said, can Alex
Speaker 1: Grinch find a way to get this defense playing better?
Speaker 1: He has done that in spots right. He has a
Speaker 1: bit of a track record for improving defenses. But I think,
Speaker 1: as we saw at Oklahoma, it's a matter of can
Speaker 1: he sustain that.
Speaker 2: We saw the Oklahoma defense in the COVID year once
Speaker 2: Ronie Perkins came, it was pretty exciting and interesting.
Speaker 1: For sure, we'll see.
Speaker 3: That's been the rub though for USC.
Speaker 1: The rub for USC has been and I remember, I
Speaker 1: don't know if it was Bruce or if it was
Speaker 1: Andy or somebody wrote an article about one of those
Speaker 1: deals where they go around and they talk to opposing coaches,
Speaker 1: it was probably Bruce he does that a lot, yea.
Speaker 1: And what they flagged about USC was the fact that
Speaker 1: Drake Jackson was the best player out there, and outside
Speaker 1: of him.
Speaker 3: A bunch of guys.
Speaker 1: Oh the defense, the defense, yeah, yeah, on defense, and
Speaker 1: outside of Drake Jackson, it was a bunch of guys
Speaker 1: who played pretty soft. And what's notable about that is now,
Speaker 1: looking forward at Drake Jackson's NFL scouting profile, everybody says
Speaker 1: he's very athletic, he's good, but he's soft. So if
Speaker 1: the best player on an already soft defense, the NFL
Speaker 1: is saying is soft, I don't know. It doesn't say
Speaker 1: much about what the previous regime was doing on that
Speaker 1: side of the football.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or what the culture of West Coast high school
Speaker 2: football is. I don't know, but it's a different place
Speaker 2: that is going to you know, I do not think
Speaker 2: it is plug and play plug in a playoff coach
Speaker 2: who has developed these quarterbacks. I think it's going to
Speaker 2: take a lot of work to get USC to be
Speaker 2: a perennial ten to eleven win program. I think it's
Speaker 2: even in a downpack twelve. I think with Utah rising,
Speaker 2: no pun intended with Washington surely getting better whatever that means.
Speaker 2: No idea what Oregon's going to be. The UCLA just
Speaker 2: blew him out, so you have to consider UCLA at
Speaker 2: least decent. Arizona is improving, Asus falling.
Speaker 1: Off a cliff.
Speaker 2: All apologies to Sun Devil fans. Hopefully it gets better
Speaker 2: sooner rather than later. But I still think it's going
Speaker 2: to be tricky for US see and the good news
Speaker 2: is though USC I don't believe and I keep saying
Speaker 2: this when in reference to it, but I don't think
Speaker 2: they have anybody tricky. I mean, they'll always have Notre Dame,
Speaker 2: but they haven't scared. There's no Ohio State, there's no
Speaker 2: you know, uh Alabama, there's no you know, one of
Speaker 2: those types of teams in the non conference for one
Speaker 2: of those headline early September games on any level.
Speaker 1: In the next few years. The hours of content that
Speaker 1: were created around Keile Williams maybe going somewhere other than USC.
Speaker 1: Yeah something, Perhaps we can do a retrospective one three
Speaker 1: years from now, but Keyle Williams now firmly entrenched at USC.
Speaker 1: That'll be interesting to see what he does it at
Speaker 1: these spot. Okay, can I give you an over under
Speaker 1: real quick. Yeah, please, just because I know this brings
Speaker 1: out you are very kind and saying like, oh, people
Speaker 1: care so much about it. You were so positive about that.
Speaker 1: In reference to Lincoln Riley and Oklahoma fans, if Lincoln
Speaker 1: Riley in a season at USC wins eleven games, okay,
Speaker 1: they go eleven and one and win the Pac twelve,
Speaker 1: So they go twelve and one wherever that nets them
Speaker 1: in the playoff, not in the playoff whatever, But he
Speaker 1: goes eleven and one.
Speaker 2: I'll keep it an over under of one and a
Speaker 2: half under more seasons. I knew you, I ask said
Speaker 2: by the way, I saw some of the conversation around
Speaker 2: Lincoln Riley in the move to LA, where if he
Speaker 2: does have NFL interest, it could just be from an
Speaker 2: LA team. He doesn't have to uproot his family now
Speaker 2: that they're in the southern California regia.
Speaker 3: What's his name?
Speaker 1: Brandon Staley keeps going forward on fourth downs. Maybe he'll
Speaker 1: be out before long, who knows. Oh, I love Brandon Staley.
Speaker 1: I hope he's there forever cause I love Justin Herbert.
Speaker 1: I hope that's a that's a match, don't heaven? But
Speaker 1: it's you.
Speaker 2: Know, if Sean McVeigh gets one hundred million dollars a
Speaker 2: year to go to Fox or something, who knows crazy.
Speaker 1: I'll say, all right, So of the teams that we
Speaker 1: have left, they're all group of five teams.
Speaker 3: Yes, all group of five teams.
Speaker 1: So my hunch is that I'm not going to get
Speaker 1: viny of these trivia questions, right, but I think you'll
Speaker 1: be all right. We've got Bowling Green, Buffalo, Navy, Rice,
Speaker 1: Texas State, and Louisiana Monroe, the vaunted Warhawks. Go ahead.
Speaker 1: This team beat nobody of note, but they did give
Speaker 1: Coastal Carolina a scare, and for all that effort, their
Speaker 1: starting quarterback was like, no, I'm leaving.
Speaker 3: Is this Buffalo?
Speaker 1: It is Buffalo.
Speaker 2: It is the Bulls who It's an unfortunate situation. And
Speaker 2: I just don't hold twenty twenty one against Mo Linguist
Speaker 2: at all because Lance Leipold leaves when he leaves in
Speaker 2: the spring to take the Kansas job, and so he's
Speaker 2: tasked with, you know, whatever he wants to do with
Speaker 2: the staff or not with the staff, or has to
Speaker 2: hold on to guys because the market isn't there to
Speaker 2: build out the staff he wants, and you have players
Speaker 2: leaving because of increased mobility, and just you got to
Speaker 2: do a lot on the fly wh us into that position.
Speaker 2: He of course took the job, a job on the
Speaker 2: defensive staff at Michigan and then made the move to
Speaker 2: Buffalo and they just weren't that good. They managed to
Speaker 2: hold on to their starting running back. Who was promising.
Speaker 2: That's Dylan McDuffie. I know it's a mcduffy who've already
Speaker 2: used that last name once. The defense was a nightmare
Speaker 2: in year one. He's already made a change there, so
Speaker 2: kudos to him. He hires a young guy who was
Speaker 2: like an analyst quality control assistant at Texas A and M,
Speaker 2: who was a defensive coordinator defensive coordinator in high school
Speaker 2: as recently as twenty seventeen. So hope he's a great
Speaker 2: up and comer because Buffalo needs all the help on
Speaker 2: that side.
Speaker 3: Of the ball.
Speaker 2: But no, it's an uphill battle. It's an uphill battle
Speaker 2: for Buffalo, who has had some success under a couple
Speaker 2: different guys as of late. And I don't know, we'll
Speaker 2: see it's the mac. It's winnable.
Speaker 1: The turnovers thing is interesting because that's something that will
Speaker 1: just regress to the mean either way, because there's a
Speaker 1: randomness to turnovers. So I thought they played with some
Speaker 1: fight throughout the year. They just they lost a ton.
Speaker 1: Like if you go to the twenty four to seven
Speaker 1: transfer portal page and you just scroll through teams, there
Speaker 1: are a few teams where on the bottom of the
Speaker 1: page there's a handy little button that says load more,
Speaker 1: and Buffalo was one of those load more teams, which
Speaker 1: is not the best. You don't want to be a
Speaker 1: load more team. You do not want to be a
Speaker 1: load more team. So Buffalo a lot of attrition there,
Speaker 1: and again you understand that they Mo Linguist didn't recruit
Speaker 1: these guys to Buffalo, and so it's you know it's
Speaker 1: going to happen when you have a new coach, especially
Speaker 1: given the timing of the hiring and of the change.
Speaker 1: So hopefully they can build on the solid rushing numbers
Speaker 1: in year one and get on more steady footing in
Speaker 1: year two. Next team, Next team. This was the team
Speaker 1: to me that made the move on one side of
Speaker 1: the ball from shockingly inept to decently frisky. Shockingly inept
Speaker 1: to decently frisky.
Speaker 2: Yeah or maybe not shockingly inept, clearly inept and an
Speaker 2: embarrassment to decently frisky in but a year.
Speaker 1: Wow, you say Texas State Bowling Green. Okay, so Bowling
Speaker 1: Green in twenty twenty, which again like the twenty twenty whatever,
Speaker 1: however large a grain assault you want to give it.
Speaker 1: But Scott Leffler era started out atrociously, yeah, defensively in
Speaker 1: year two and you remember they beat Minnesota, they have
Speaker 1: a headline win. In year two, Bowling Green's defense was
Speaker 1: full on decent, a full on frisky defense, especially especially
Speaker 1: against the past and nice pass rush the DB's made plays.
Speaker 1: The problem with Bowling Green was offense, and in the
Speaker 1: MAC it seems like a correctible element because there's a
Speaker 1: lot of speed to be had. Still we see a
Speaker 1: year in and year out within the MAC a lot
Speaker 1: of creative offensive minds and right now with Bowling Green,
Speaker 1: and I would not lump Scott Leffler in that category.
Speaker 3: Got one, just one.
Speaker 2: T made the change at offensive coordinator, promoted from within,
Speaker 2: and it seems like it could be an easier thing
Speaker 2: to correct by giving more of that that the mind power,
Speaker 2: the creativity elsewhere. If you've got the defense, if you're
Speaker 2: able to make plays, especially against the pass in the MAC.
Speaker 2: It seems promising to me. And so they lost a
Speaker 2: few players, like I think twelve out four guys come
Speaker 2: in uh the schedule this year. I know they're at
Speaker 2: UCLA and at Mississippi State, but again, they they've on
Speaker 2: one side of the ball already, they've made that leap.
Speaker 2: Who's to say in year three if Scott Leffler's hands
Speaker 2: are not on the offense, they can't go from truly
Speaker 2: horrific merely woeful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred and twenty fifth nationally. Yeah, on the.
Speaker 2: Didn't score thirty points. They did not score thirty points
Speaker 2: until Halloween.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a that's a rough watch if you're a
Speaker 1: Bowling Green fan. Ninety sixth on a defense, excuse me, so,
Speaker 1: cracking the top one hundred, one hundred and eleventh overall,
Speaker 1: three point nine second order wins, So pretty much right
Speaker 1: on the money for a four and eight team. Highlight
Speaker 1: of the season you mentioned it earlier. They beat Minnesota.
Speaker 1: They beat Minnesota on the road fourteen to ten. The
Speaker 1: rest of the season was kind of a nightmare mm hm,
Speaker 1: but they'll have that. That was one of those games
Speaker 1: with Minnesota specifically where we saw that and kind of
Speaker 1: scratched our head. Weren't talking so much about Bowling Green
Speaker 1: at that point, but Minnesota, man, what's going on here?
Speaker 1: Defense played well enough in that game. Minnesota didn't necessarily
Speaker 1: have a gangbusters offense either, but a nice win for
Speaker 1: Scott lefto.
Speaker 3: Or on the road.
Speaker 1: One thing that I found interesting I mentioned this to
Speaker 1: you as well. Scott Leftwer became the first college football
Speaker 1: coach to be ejected in a game for having two
Speaker 1: unsportsmanlike penalties called against him. Yeah, got the boot, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that'll happen. For what it's worth, danalytics wise, this comes
Speaker 1: up not from me, but they went from one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty seventh to eighty fourth in points per drive
Speaker 1: allowed on defense and per sp plus. These are some
Speaker 1: of the nineteenth in passing success rate defense nationally. They
Speaker 1: gave up way too many big plays, which is why
Speaker 1: they're still you know, there's a lot of room for
Speaker 1: improvement on defense. Number three on passing downs success rate,
Speaker 1: and so against the pass they were able to make plays.
Speaker 1: They did get burned sometimes or a lot of times,
Speaker 1: but the pressure rate was decent enough. Sixty eighth nationally.
Speaker 1: The sack rate was twenty first nationally, especially on passing downs.
Speaker 1: They were very good at getting to the quarterback. So
Speaker 1: just building blocks you like to see as there are
Speaker 1: Falcon fans who are looking to go from four and
Speaker 1: eight to six and six. Yeah, and to I guess
Speaker 1: underscore your optimism before we move on Bowling Green is
Speaker 1: number one, number one, okay, across all of major college
Speaker 1: football when it comes to returning production for twenty twenty two. Okay,
Speaker 1: number one on offense pretty much the whole offense back
Speaker 1: and number four on defense returning production. So take that
Speaker 1: for whatever it's worth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that that. The question is always like,
Speaker 2: is it good that the returning production?
Speaker 3: Is that? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, but you'd still rather have guys back in a
Speaker 1: lot of cases not all right, And that's I think
Speaker 1: a pretty good about to be. So we'll see what
Speaker 1: Scott Lefler can do. If he can rectify that offense.
Speaker 2: This team had their athletic director fire the offensive coordinator
Speaker 2: after a particularly bad game, only to have the head
Speaker 2: coach rehire set offensive coordinator in a demoted role. Also,
Speaker 2: this team used to be awesome and now they're not.
Speaker 1: I should know this, shouldn't I yeah, is this Navy.
Speaker 1: This is Navy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is Navy.
Speaker 1: Navy.
Speaker 2: Navy was awesome. They dominated the rivalry with Army for
Speaker 2: a long time.
Speaker 1: They were one of.
Speaker 2: The hardest outs in college football because of the relatively
Speaker 2: unorthodox style of their offense. But they seemed to have
Speaker 2: the advantage of having a set system to recruit, to
Speaker 2: to have a head coach who wanted to be there,
Speaker 2: and you know, was a familiar face in winning college
Speaker 2: football circles. And then something happened, and obviously it went
Speaker 2: off the rails a little bit with Ivan Jasper, the
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator, after the offense these past couple of years
Speaker 2: has just fallen off a cliff and a lot of
Speaker 2: frustrated people in Annapolis within the program and one of
Speaker 2: those programs, along with I think one of the last
Speaker 2: couple we're gonna mention, that's just in an unfortunate place
Speaker 2: in the nil and transfer portal era where it's just
Speaker 2: going to be more difficult to plug holes and losing
Speaker 2: guys like it's just Navy's going to be a difficult
Speaker 2: place to succeed, and the service academies in general, one
Speaker 2: could argue it is, but also Army and Air Force
Speaker 2: a thriving right now. So what's happening with Navy is
Speaker 2: some combination of not building the program from a talent
Speaker 2: perspective properly. I don't know if it's a ken Neo
Speaker 2: Modololo who's flirted with other jobs, most notably Arizona a
Speaker 2: few years ago, and didn't get that job because of
Speaker 2: the stigma of the option that is Kenia Modelolo want
Speaker 2: to be in Annapolis because I don't know if something turned,
Speaker 2: but Navy is in especially on offense. Did I mean
Speaker 2: you have the numbers in front of you. Was there
Speaker 2: a worst offense in America than the midship men?
Speaker 3: There?
Speaker 1: There were, okay, but but only like fifteen of them? Okakay,
Speaker 1: what I would say on the Navy side. That definitely
Speaker 1: caused me to raise my eyebrows. What have we said
Speaker 1: about Navy for years? It's always been about the offense, right.
Speaker 1: The offense has been kind of the cornerstone of that
Speaker 1: program under Kennia Montalolo. Whenever you've got a situation when
Speaker 1: I'm looking at these numbers after the fact, when the
Speaker 1: offense was worse than the defense, something's wrong because that
Speaker 1: was always the exact opposite for Navy, it's at least
Speaker 1: been even in their good years where they were contending,
Speaker 1: where they're taking teams like Notre Dame to the wire.
Speaker 1: You never had a defense better than the offense neither
Speaker 1: side of the ball, to be frank, was all that good.
Speaker 1: They were four and eight team. But to be one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifteenth nationally on offense and seventy fifth on defense,
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: That feels a little.
Speaker 1: Bit off kilter to me. Three and a half second
Speaker 1: order wins pretty much right on the number. Again for
Speaker 1: a four and eight team.
Speaker 3: What's notable to me?
Speaker 1: You mentioned all that stuff about head coach Ken neamandlolo
Speaker 1: first time in his tenure at Navy that he's had
Speaker 1: back to back losing seasons. Yes, and you say whatever
Speaker 1: you want, it's just Navy whatever, But this is a
Speaker 1: guy who's been pretty successful for a good chunk of time.
Speaker 1: What is it fourteen seasons now at Navy, whatever, it's
Speaker 1: been to have back to back losing seasons, to look
Speaker 1: as hapless as they did at times, they weren't even
Speaker 1: in the conversation, Dan, they weren't even in the conversation
Speaker 1: in a lot of these games. You know, We preview
Speaker 1: games all year and typically we'll look at that Navy game.
Speaker 1: We've talked about the body blow, like all these things
Speaker 1: that have been woven into the fabric of our show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they weren't even a consideration this past season. They were
Speaker 1: kind of a doormat and that sucks. I don't know
Speaker 1: what's going on there.
Speaker 2: I wonder if part of it. And to be fair,
Speaker 2: Navy beat Army this year. They did upset their arrival,
Speaker 2: but it's weird that it's now considered an upset and
Speaker 2: no disrespect to Jeff Mounkin and how great of a
Speaker 2: job he's done at Army. So they beat Army. They
Speaker 2: beat Tulsa and UCF, which are both decently impressive wins
Speaker 2: all things considered. So the Tulsa team that almost beat
Speaker 2: Cincinnati and a UCF team it was early on and
Speaker 2: dealing with their own injury issues, and you're one of
Speaker 2: the Gus Miles on era, so like, those are impressive wins.
Speaker 2: But seven points against Marshall, three points against air Force.
Speaker 2: They don't crack twenty against Memphis in a loss. They
Speaker 2: don't crack ten against Notre Dame, a team that they've
Speaker 2: typically given fits. If not you know, they don't beat
Speaker 2: Notre Dame all that often, but like they give Notre
Speaker 2: Dame issues, which speaks to the job Kenny Motelone had
Speaker 2: done there. The problem is, and this is what I wonder,
Speaker 2: do you remember the old I'm almost positive with Steve Spurrier,
Speaker 2: it was like college football coaches aren't meant to be
Speaker 2: places for more than a decade, Like it's just too
Speaker 2: difficult to be somewhere more than a decade for like
Speaker 2: ninety nine percent of coaches and feel inspired, feel like
Speaker 2: the juice of winning at that place. Sometimes you just
Speaker 2: need to do something new. And I wonder if that
Speaker 2: ten year mark for ken neamade lolo and it really
Speaker 2: was jump started. I know there were obviously off field
Speaker 2: stuff with COVID when they just got demolished by BYU
Speaker 2: to start out the twenty twenty year when they ran
Speaker 2: all over them. That's, you know, Zach Wilson, you know,
Speaker 2: starting to really shine for the Cougars. But I don't
Speaker 2: know if there's just something about that place, is it's
Speaker 2: such a different place than most of the you know,
Speaker 2: they're in a major conference now or a pseudo major
Speaker 2: conference in the American that man it's just sometimes you
Speaker 2: just need a reboot tie, just like all of our routers.
Speaker 2: And I wonder if that's true for Navy and kenyam.
Speaker 1: Up, pull out the power cord weight ten seconds, plug
Speaker 1: it back in. Yeah, all right, we've got three teams left.
Speaker 1: We've got Rice, We've got Texas State, We've got the
Speaker 1: Louisiana Monroe vaunted Warhawks. I don't know why this next
Speaker 1: team exists as an FBS team. I have no clue.
Speaker 3: This is Rice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is Rice, who one winning coach in the
Speaker 2: past like one hundred years over the course of his career,
Speaker 2: and zero if you take away Todd Graham, who was
Speaker 2: only there for a year in two thousand and six. Yeah,
Speaker 2: everybody loses at Rice. It is like the ninth most
Speaker 2: popular team in their own region. Like by region, I
Speaker 2: mean like the very the Houston area, the vaguely Houston area.
Speaker 2: I know College Station is not necessarily the Houston area,
Speaker 2: but it's you know, an hour and a half, two hours,
Speaker 2: whatever it is. I'm almost positive I got that geography wrong.
Speaker 2: But why does Rice exist? Rice is an incredible academic
Speaker 2: institution in a very much football happy part of the universe,
Speaker 2: and they never win. There is no desire. Like for
Speaker 2: some of these schools, you're like, wow, we were good
Speaker 2: in the eighties and you've got all the money saying
Speaker 2: let's get good again.
Speaker 1: That was so fun. They've never been good. This has
Speaker 1: never been a good program. Right, nobody cares about Rice
Speaker 1: football at all. This is Mike Bloomgren comes in from
Speaker 1: Stanford New Marcus Tuyasa Sopo's the offensive coordinator. Like there's
Speaker 1: decent enough coaching talent there. There's not a program that
Speaker 1: has any designs of becoming a serious program about getting
Speaker 1: to bowl games. Like it should not exist, Like this
Speaker 1: is an example of somebody collecting a check for not
Speaker 1: contributing all due respect to whoever is listening. That's a
Speaker 1: Rice fan, all point four of you. But I don't
Speaker 1: know man, Like it was just another disappointing year. They
Speaker 1: beat you a right, Like they had that random, really
Speaker 1: nice performance where they just think they strung together drives,
Speaker 1: they ran the ball decently enough. They actually passed it
Speaker 1: really well in that game. But other than that, it's
Speaker 1: an unseerious program about Like, I know they've they spent
Speaker 1: a little bit of money hiring these guys, but they
Speaker 1: finished the year, losing four or five. They do. They
Speaker 1: go on a go out on a high note, beating
Speaker 1: Louisiana Tech, but I don't know. They're scoring twenty plus,
Speaker 1: but they lose forty five nothing to UTSA has you know,
Speaker 1: their own like, you know, beautiful season, but Man lose
Speaker 1: to an FCS team in Texas Southern.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I've wondered this for quite some time, and perhaps somebody
Speaker 1: can come on this show, somebody brighter than you and I,
Speaker 1: you can explain the economics of it, of which there
Speaker 1: are many, of which there are most to be frank, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there must be some sort of financial reason to keep
Speaker 1: your standing among FBS.
Speaker 3: There must sense. There has to be. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's playing some of these non conference games. The
Speaker 1: payout helps fund other aspects of the athletic program. Rice
Speaker 1: is a good baseball team. Rice has other good programs
Speaker 1: that sure great, are nationally recognized, but yeah, the football
Speaker 1: team is not one of them at this point in time.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: If I were a student at Rice, if I were
Speaker 2: anybody a faculty member at Rice and all this money
Speaker 2: was going to football, I would kind of be like, why,
Speaker 2: what is the point of this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1: Two other teams, Texas State and Louisiana Monroe, the vaunted Warhawks. Man,
Speaker 1: I don't know one of these teams lost to an
Speaker 1: FCS team and made no coaching changes after going four
Speaker 1: and eight with a bad defense that couldn't get off
Speaker 1: the field.
Speaker 3: This is Texas State.
Speaker 1: It is Texas State. Whose defensive coordinator is the coaches brother.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: So I don't know.
Speaker 2: Jake spabottall has that, you know, offensive reputation, quarterback reputation.
Speaker 2: He's a hole go guy.
Speaker 1: Their quarterback just decided to transfer, Brady McBride. It's just
Speaker 1: the Bobcats are in a position now where, like I
Speaker 1: guess their ceiling is, hey, we can score forty a
Speaker 1: game and sometimes we keep teams to thirty nine or fewer.
Speaker 1: But otherwise Texas State's.
Speaker 2: Been you know, they went from what three to nine
Speaker 2: to four and eight, So technically they are, yes, heading
Speaker 2: in the right direction. There's some promise on the offensive line,
Speaker 2: but I don't know if you're looking long term at
Speaker 2: Texas State. As like the path to a bowl. They
Speaker 2: get by a bad Butch Davis Arkansas State team, they
Speaker 2: beat Monroe. Who's the final team on this list. You know,
Speaker 2: sneak by South Alabama beat a bad FIU team, like
Speaker 2: they beat some of the bad teams they were supposed
Speaker 2: to beat. Yeah, but like they give up sixty to
Speaker 2: Eastern Michigan, Like they's just I don't know, they're just
Speaker 2: it's almost like to start the game, just assume they're
Speaker 2: going to give up thirty five points. And I don't
Speaker 2: know if this is headed in a meaningfully good direction.
Speaker 1: You know what a bobcat is? Have you ever seen
Speaker 1: an actual bobcat? Probably probably in a zoo somewhere. Bobcats
Speaker 1: are prevalent. They're bobcats around here. Okay, bobcats are a
Speaker 1: very underrated mascot slash nickname for my money, because you've
Speaker 1: got the added benefit of not just the cool animal,
Speaker 1: which is looks like a mini cheetah, mini tiger with
Speaker 1: the extra tuffs coming out the ear, a little bit
Speaker 1: bigger than a house cat. Yep, You've also got the
Speaker 1: added benefit, the added layer of the really cool machine
Speaker 1: bobcats that you might have in a bat layard. You're
Speaker 1: you're getting some renovations done. You got a digger, they
Speaker 1: got all sorts of bobcats. Bobcat not a sponsor. Could
Speaker 1: be sure Bobcat a very underrated mascot for my money. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'd known next to nothing about bobcats. Maybe it'll come
Speaker 1: up on extra nuggets. Oh my gosh, bobcats. I'm going
Speaker 1: to send you the Wikipedia.
Speaker 3: Go through this.
Speaker 1: I'm on it right now.
Speaker 3: Are you looking at this? Look at these guys. Look
Speaker 3: at these guys.
Speaker 1: What disrespect to Texas State where we're just talking about
Speaker 1: tufts and there are red lynx. Right, that's what a
Speaker 1: bobcat is. Uh yeah, sure, it's not going to it's
Speaker 1: not going to eat you won't eat me. But it
Speaker 1: does eat all sorts of different things, like different sizes
Speaker 1: kind of. It's adapted itself to the point where it
Speaker 1: can live pretty much anywhere.
Speaker 3: It's a cool, cool cat. Literally.
Speaker 2: Birds up to the size of an adult trumpeter swan
Speaker 2: are also taken in ambushes while nesting along with their
Speaker 2: fledglings and eggs.
Speaker 1: Bobcats don't care.
Speaker 3: They don't care.
Speaker 1: Man like honey batch trumpeter swan. It's a big, not
Speaker 1: a small animal. It's a big freaking swan. I've seen them.
Speaker 3: You're huge.
Speaker 1: Okay, cat information, there you go, all right, Final team here,
Speaker 1: we don't need to do the question. The final team
Speaker 1: is Luisiana Monroe, correct, the Warhawks.
Speaker 3: The Warhawks, Yeah.
Speaker 1: They are, I guess trying to improve after year one
Speaker 1: under Terry Terry Bowden took me over that program.
Speaker 3: Last year.
Speaker 1: It was not a good team. They just they weren't good.
Speaker 1: They were two point six on the second order win scale,
Speaker 1: which means they were a four win team that probably
Speaker 1: got a little bit lucky to get to four wins.
Speaker 1: One hundred and twenty fourth nationally in terms of the
Speaker 1: sp plus one twenty seven on offense, which is just
Speaker 1: impossibly bad.
Speaker 2: Impossibly especially given who their offensive coordinator was very briefly, Yeah,
Speaker 2: impossibly bad.
Speaker 1: One hundred and twenty seventh and then on defense one
Speaker 1: hundred and thirteenth isn't really going to do the offense
Speaker 1: any favors. So a lot of room for improvement here
Speaker 1: under Terry Bowden. Will see if he can do it.
Speaker 1: Terry Bowden, you know, Terry Bowden is at Auburn for
Speaker 1: period of time he's been around, you would assume that
Speaker 1: he can at least get that program up from where
Speaker 1: it's been. Not saying they're gonna win nine games a year.
Speaker 1: But I would expect some degree.
Speaker 3: Of improvement in the next year or so.
Speaker 1: So rehire They rehire an offensive coordinator mc kubick Kubic
Speaker 1: from Southern miss who had a good degree of success
Speaker 1: for the Warhawks. Rich Rod goes over to Jacksonville State
Speaker 1: now as the head coach there. Yeah, if they did
Speaker 1: anything decently well last year, it was run the ball.
Speaker 1: It was at best decent. Yeah, defense was a nightmare.
Speaker 2: I what's interesting is Terry Bowden is Terry Bowden's the
Speaker 2: best modern coach or best Akron coach ever.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, they got rid of him right until we
Speaker 3: love for.
Speaker 2: Whatever reason, we love him as he Monroe has been
Speaker 2: interesting in the last whatever it is, decade, decade and
Speaker 2: a half. It's in an area of country where you
Speaker 2: can find talent, where you can scoop up transfer talents
Speaker 2: from bigger conferences.
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, Well, look I don't know. Let
Speaker 1: me put it to you this way and then we'll
Speaker 1: move on. Yeah. I guess this is our last team.
Speaker 1: We can end the shelf if we want. Yeah, Monroe's
Speaker 1: got a lot coming back on offense. Okay, a lot
Speaker 1: coming back on offense. So at a minimum, the impossibly
Speaker 1: bad offense one hundred and twenty seventh nationally. Should improve,
Speaker 1: it should improve, has to improve defensively could be another story.
Speaker 3: It was a lot on defense.
Speaker 1: So best case scenario, we're talking about a half team
Speaker 1: of sorts. I don't think they're going to improve much
Speaker 1: on the defensive side of the football, but as a
Speaker 1: four and eight team, there's always room to go up.
Speaker 1: So we'll see what he can do. See what he
Speaker 1: can do.
Speaker 2: Louisiana. Monroe finishes with the worst recruiting class per average
Speaker 2: recruit ranking, and I think in general the worst recruiting
Speaker 2: class in the Sun Belts, and just above them is
Speaker 2: Texas State. Great so three three star recruits from Monroe,
Speaker 2: two for Texas State. Texas State's average recruit rank a
Speaker 2: little bit higher, but a ways to go for uh
Speaker 2: for Monroe, it's not looking super positive in the short term,
Speaker 2: but you never know. All you need is six, All
Speaker 2: you need is six.
Speaker 3: All right? That does it.
Speaker 1: For four and eight teams, yes, make sure you join
Speaker 1: us next month as we push into the first week
Speaker 1: of May. For five and seven teams, yes, a lot
Speaker 1: more five and seven teams that we can talk about.
Speaker 1: Do you have the list in front of you. I'm
Speaker 1: in the process. I'm stalling.
Speaker 3: Actually, are you really I have the list?
Speaker 1: You're ready?
Speaker 3: What's the list?
Speaker 1: Florida State, Syracuse, Texas, TCU, Illinois, FAU, Charlotte, San Jose State,
Speaker 1: You're California, Golden Bears, Troy Trojans, and South Alabama. I'll
Speaker 1: go five and seven. Some interesting teams in there, Dan,
Speaker 1: it's not bad. Hit the subscribe button, hit the follow
Speaker 1: button if you have not already. We will, of course
Speaker 1: continue broadcasting twice per week here through the off season.
Speaker 1: Once we get into July, that's when the rubber starts
Speaker 1: to meet the road. That's when we start talking previews.
Speaker 1: You and I start doing a ton more research. We
Speaker 1: put together a hockey Little concept to take you through
Speaker 1: every conference in America get you ready for the college
Speaker 1: football season. But until then, at least to a week.
Speaker 1: If you are a Patreon subscriber out at verbowlers dot com,
Speaker 1: we also do bonus episodes of brewin a every Friday.
Speaker 1: We've still got to talk through what we're doing for
Speaker 1: our off topic show in the month of April, but
Speaker 1: we can get there. Talk to me about your summer plans.
Speaker 2: I need this kind of positive, warm thinking in the
Speaker 2: still gray Midwest, because you're talking about July and the
Speaker 2: excitement and the rubber meeting the road, Like, yeah, do
Speaker 2: you have a vacation plan? Are you thinking you're going
Speaker 2: to go to the beach more or to a lake more,
Speaker 2: or revise some boat goals, or revise wardrobe or like
Speaker 2: you told me earlier, like you're rethinking your lawn care strategy.
Speaker 2: Like talk to me about summer thoughts. It's never too early.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, I mean, first off, you know I want
Speaker 1: to get on the pickleball train. Yes, I do. You
Speaker 1: know I want to try this. I'm a little spoop
Speaker 1: by the fact that I've got some friends of mine
Speaker 1: whose parents live in a retirement village, and they said
Speaker 1: that once you get into pickleball, you sort of can't
Speaker 1: get out. It's sort of a it's a lifestyle of sorts.
Speaker 1: And I'm not I'm not looking to modify my current lifestyle.
Speaker 1: Like I got it, I got it pretty good. But
Speaker 1: pickle ball, I think is something I'd like to attempt.
Speaker 1: I definitely would like to play more golf because as
Speaker 1: we were planning out for the summer, like quite literally
Speaker 1: this time last year, I didn't know I was leaving
Speaker 1: my job, right, And I worked all the way up
Speaker 1: until the point where you and I were killing it
Speaker 1: on the research front, and I didn't really have much
Speaker 1: time to get out and play golf. Right. So now
Speaker 1: this year, with the benefit of a little bit more
Speaker 1: off season time, at least the first half of summer,
Speaker 1: I'm hoping to get out there and hit the links
Speaker 1: more so. That's the top billing for me, to say
Speaker 1: the least. Yeah, the lawn care thing. Rethinking the strategy
Speaker 1: a little bit. Also trying to figure out if there
Speaker 1: are any other odds and ends I want to add
Speaker 1: in the backyard. Still early days for that level. You
Speaker 1: began your fire pit season. We did start the fire
Speaker 1: pit season. Yeah, I sent you picked its huge.
Speaker 3: We started that. We had a nice day on Saturday.
Speaker 3: Was able to do that.
Speaker 1: It's now rained the last five days or however many
Speaker 1: days it's Saturday. Yep, it's rained pretty much NonStop since.
Speaker 1: But at least we had that one day. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Are you happy with your summer wardrobe?
Speaker 3: No? No, I'm not right.
Speaker 2: What are we more breatheable fabrics, shorter shorts, new sandals.
Speaker 2: What's on the agenda.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think I need to take a
Speaker 1: trip over to to some of the stores in the
Speaker 1: area and figure out what the plan is going to be. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for this branding the summer wardrobe.
Speaker 3: No, not a rebrand.
Speaker 1: This is not I'm ready for. It is a refresh
Speaker 1: some pineapple print. Pineapple print is my thing. You have
Speaker 1: an en sam adjustment here. No, you can go from
Speaker 1: like nine to sevens now, I think mostly the same size.
Speaker 1: But just I need to figure out how to upgrade
Speaker 1: or how to refresh some of what I've had for
Speaker 1: years now. I don't like clothes shopping. I don't know
Speaker 1: how you feel about it.
Speaker 3: I hate it.
Speaker 1: I do most of it online, if not all of
Speaker 1: it online, So it's not that bad. I don't mind
Speaker 1: doing it online. I'm just saying, I just, yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't like spending the money. Okay, I hate it. What
Speaker 1: do you think of adding to your backyard?
Speaker 3: Maybe shed?
Speaker 1: We've talked about the shed before, right, Okay?
Speaker 3: Just storage storage?
Speaker 1: Yeah, storage storage would be good. Probably due for refresh
Speaker 1: on some of the patio furniture as well. We've had
Speaker 1: that for a while. Okay, so we'll see. I don't
Speaker 1: any new grilling goals or I mean summer star tails.
Speaker 1: Maybe to start to grill up more than twice a
Speaker 1: summer would be a goal. You only grill twice in
Speaker 1: a summer.
Speaker 3: I've only grilled twice in the last two summers.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, No, get some burgers, gets piece of fish,
Speaker 1: Come on, there's so much there. I know, I know, veggies.
Speaker 1: We've talked about this.
Speaker 3: I don't feel good about it.
Speaker 1: I don't feel good about it.
Speaker 2: But are you h you know what I've seen in
Speaker 2: a couple of backyards here, because it's kind of needed
Speaker 2: for some people. I suppose have you ever seen backyards saunas?
Speaker 2: Back to those giants, the giant barrels that people can build.
Speaker 2: You can build it like a free standing So that's
Speaker 2: why when you said, Shad, I was wondering where you're
Speaker 2: going with it. It's like a giant looking barrel contraption
Speaker 2: that's like a much more personal individual or maybe two
Speaker 2: person size sauna. Obviously you don't need that every summer.
Speaker 3: If you're talking about like.
Speaker 1: The little standing pedestals with the they look like big,
Speaker 1: big toadstools that have the fire coming out the top. No,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about a sauna that you go in like
Speaker 1: to steam yourself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, that's different. I know I've never seen those.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I've seen those. I'm just thinking what you
Speaker 2: could add unique to your backyard. Final question, final question.
Speaker 2: First of all, I think pickleball is a no brainer
Speaker 2: for you. And we've already talked about your and my
Speaker 2: plans at the same time to add more strength training. Yeah,
Speaker 2: if you demonstrably improve one part of your golf game
Speaker 2: this summer, what will make you happiest.
Speaker 3: Definitely my second shots, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1: Your more approaches, your your mid irons. Okay. The best
Speaker 1: part of my game, and this is I think topical
Speaker 1: now with the Masters taking place this weekend. Yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: I'll be playing next year and we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1: But the best part of my game is a driver.
Speaker 1: I crush the driver and I'm accurate with the driver,
Speaker 1: which is weird because I never used to be. But
Speaker 1: something happened maybe after my shoulder thing, and I crush it.
Speaker 1: Nice little baby draw right down the middle. Mm hm.
Speaker 3: After that.
Speaker 1: Short games, very good, really good. I've got an imagination
Speaker 1: around the greenstand.
Speaker 3: Okay, very strong there.
Speaker 1: Putting is so so nobody's a good putter.
Speaker 3: Nobody.
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody who knows a good putter, And
Speaker 1: chances are if they're a good putter, they stink at
Speaker 1: everything else. They're a nightmare elsewhere. Yeah. Yeah, so nobody's
Speaker 1: good at putting. That just kind of is assumed. Where
Speaker 1: I really struggle, though, is when I'm crushing the driver,
Speaker 1: I split the fairway. I've got, you know, one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty yards in nothing in my way. I get
Speaker 1: the yips. I overthink it. Mm hmmm hmm. And I'm
Speaker 1: not missing by much, but I'm missing enough that I'm
Speaker 1: not putting myself in a position to score. Which iron
Speaker 1: is your white whale? I just don't have a handle on.
Speaker 1: I mean the wish you could, you could improve your
Speaker 1: seven or you're six or you're eight. No, I you know,
Speaker 1: the long irons are tougher for most people. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: is more that can go wrong. It's a longer club, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: So you know, if I could get a little bit
Speaker 1: more consistent with say a four iron, okay, I think
Speaker 1: that would help. But basically it's it's just that situation
Speaker 1: as opposed to a specific club.
Speaker 3: In the bag.
Speaker 1: I just overthink it a heck, you know me, you've
Speaker 1: met You've known me for a long time. It's true.
Speaker 1: I'm a head case and I overthink things, and I
Speaker 1: overthink that all the time. So inevitably what happens to
Speaker 1: me is I get thirteen holes in and then I explode.
Speaker 1: I'll have a good roundwork and for thirteen holes and
Speaker 1: then it's just the bottom falls out. How how is
Speaker 1: the breathe ability of your golfing summer apparel? I've got
Speaker 1: a lot of dry fit Okay, good, I had a
Speaker 1: lot of drive fix. I do like to hear that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, that's all. I have productive discussion as ever
Speaker 1: here on the show talking four and eight teams.
Speaker 3: Dan. Next episode we'll talk about your summer plans. Okay,
Speaker 3: I promise I would love to. Oh my god, I
Speaker 3: will jot that down as we said earlier.
Speaker 1: Subscribe, make sure you're going out to Forballers dot com.
Speaker 1: If you want to help support the show, follow on
Speaker 1: social media, and if you haven't already, get your name
Speaker 1: in the hat over at solid giveaway dot com. We
Speaker 1: will be back next week. Everybody. Enjoy the Masters if
Speaker 1: that's your cup of tea. Otherwise, enjoy spring football. We'll
Speaker 1: talk to y'all on Tuesday. In the meantime, stay solid, peace,