Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal coll 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. You want to be happy
Speaker 1: for Dake Edith state is that woo woom and Dan
Speaker 1: and Tie.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the solid burb of boys and girls.
Speaker 2: My name is Ty Hilden Brandon, joining me as always
Speaker 2: over there in beautiful New York City. The one and
Speaker 2: only Dan Rubinstein, who graciously pinch hit for me last year. No,
Speaker 2: who graciously pinch hit for me last week as I
Speaker 2: was quasi dying from illness.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Yeah, youth only sound like you have a
Speaker 1: hint of illness.
Speaker 2: Right, well, that's sort of the beauty of modern audio
Speaker 2: editing equipment. Dan, let's just leave it at that.
Speaker 1: Okay, how are you? I'm terrific, Ty, I am great.
Speaker 1: We haven't spoken since the day after the LSU National
Speaker 1: Championship because, correct, you fell ill. You were supposed to
Speaker 1: come to New York and got sick, and solid wife
Speaker 1: Kate was under the weather, all defensible reasons not to
Speaker 1: come to New York and eat Korean barbecue with me.
Speaker 1: But I've missed talking to you. We have an exercise
Speaker 1: to sort of look back on the season today, and
Speaker 1: I'm excited for that, but I'm glad that Andy could
Speaker 1: pinch it last week talking about new coaches and their
Speaker 1: spiciness quotients. And today, if you're up for it, we
Speaker 1: are just going to talk about we spent a lot
Speaker 1: of the summer previewing and figuring out our thoughts about
Speaker 1: the season and how we felt about certain teams and
Speaker 1: what our expectations were fair, deserved, undeserved, and I think
Speaker 1: it's fair to I think hold ourselves accountable. And I'm
Speaker 1: not going to ask you to rehash all of your
Speaker 1: predictions for every team, but I'm going to ask you
Speaker 1: and provide my own because that's only fair. We are
Speaker 1: going to discuss the biggest surprises of the season. We
Speaker 1: expected Team X to do blank, but instead they did
Speaker 1: why and that was shocking. Or we didn't expect Team
Speaker 1: A to do blank, but it turns out they were
Speaker 1: really good at doing this or had a terrific season
Speaker 1: or a terrible season. So what I think we should
Speaker 1: do is we should go through the teams that we
Speaker 1: sort of talk about the most and probably not enough,
Speaker 1: and figure out where the pleasant surprises were and where
Speaker 1: the not so the e sort of surprises were and
Speaker 1: sort of admit where we overlooked teams good or bad.
Speaker 2: So you're saying a good old fashioned surprise.
Speaker 1: I love it. Oh and I like that you're pushing
Speaker 1: yourself almost excite bike style. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I know you're holding down that B button and the
Speaker 2: meter is going red.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So there's gonna be no voice later tonight, but
Speaker 2: that's fine. As you said, we haven't talked, actually talked
Speaker 2: in about two weeks. So it's good to be back
Speaker 2: in front of a microphone with you about all things
Speaker 2: college football. If you're just finding the show, Hello, I'm Tie,
Speaker 2: He's Dan. We're going to be with you all off season.
Speaker 2: We're going to be doing one show a week. We
Speaker 2: talk about all sorts of topics here in the off season.
Speaker 2: Go back and listen to the show we put out
Speaker 2: late last week. Andy Staples, our friend from the Athletic,
Speaker 2: was kind enough to pinch hit talk some new coaching
Speaker 2: news with Daniel. Today. We're going to talk about surprises.
Speaker 2: We've got a bunch in store for you as we
Speaker 2: progress through the doldrums that is the college football off season.
Speaker 2: Please do subscribe. If you like the show. You can
Speaker 2: also find all of our old stuff out on solid
Speaker 2: verbal dot com. And if you really like the show,
Speaker 2: don't forget to follow along on social media. We're very
Speaker 2: active on Twitter, not as much on Twitter and Instagram.
Speaker 2: That will try to change that this off season. We've
Speaker 2: also got a newsletter that you can sign up for
Speaker 2: on our website. We use that generally to keep you
Speaker 2: up the speed on when we're going to be doing
Speaker 2: some of our live shows, yep, and some other odds
Speaker 2: and ends throughout the course of the off seat that
Speaker 2: might be interesting. We won't spam me. That's not our
Speaker 2: cup of tea. And finally, if you just want to
Speaker 2: talk to other for ballers. If you're wondering where can
Speaker 2: I talk to other people who listen to the show,
Speaker 2: Our great friend Peter does an awesome job running a
Speaker 2: soliverbal subreddit started buyver Ballers Fourverballers. All you gotta do
Speaker 2: is going out to solidverbal dot reddit dot com and
Speaker 2: you can take part in the discussion long after the
Speaker 2: final bell of each and every episode.
Speaker 1: Daniel correct, we're recording this late January, just in case
Speaker 1: you don't see the date in your podcast app So
Speaker 1: we are under the I don't know, the working understanding
Speaker 1: that there's nothing crazy happening right now when there are
Speaker 1: new coaches that we haven't really you and I haven't
Speaker 1: really done a deep dive into I think we're still
Speaker 1: waiting for because we have what signing day, the official
Speaker 1: signing day, not the early signing day, in a little bit,
Speaker 1: all the dust to clear before making sense of all
Speaker 1: of the transfers, all of the coaches. Obviously I did
Speaker 1: a preliminary version of that with Andy, but people want
Speaker 1: to know how you feel. TI sure you are at
Speaker 1: least twenty percent of this show, at least at least
Speaker 1: and so we are obviously going to touch on all
Speaker 1: of you know, the transfers and new coaches and firings,
Speaker 1: hirings and movements of the college football the early college
Speaker 1: football offseason, and how we feel about all those things.
Speaker 1: But I think just because we're still in the after
Speaker 1: glow of the season, we should take a glance at
Speaker 1: things in twenty nine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I'm with you. So because my voice is
Speaker 2: in excite bike mode when you hold down the B
Speaker 2: button a little too long mm hmm, I want to
Speaker 2: try and avoid it cutting out during this broadcast. So
Speaker 2: if you would be so kind as to be our
Speaker 2: Shirpa here oh on this broadcast, this podcast and lead
Speaker 2: us through each conference all the areas that you think
Speaker 2: would be fun to cover here.
Speaker 1: I have thoughts. I can do your part of the
Speaker 1: show too, though. I just can you do an impression
Speaker 1: of me. I can do something like Tye, I think
Speaker 1: my PAC twelve surprise, and this is true. I guess
Speaker 1: we could start with a PAC twelve because why not, Tye?
Speaker 1: I think my Pack twelve surprise is Oregon State? And
Speaker 1: then I will say from you Dan never heard of them?
Speaker 2: Right right?
Speaker 1: So okay, that's my best Why don't we Why don't
Speaker 1: we do that? Let's start with the PAC twelve. Okay,
Speaker 1: you go first.
Speaker 2: What is your biggest surprise during after whatever time limitation
Speaker 2: you'd like to put on this? Yeah, relating to the
Speaker 2: PAC twelve.
Speaker 1: So it's Oregon State. I didn't make it up with
Speaker 1: that little tell. Yes it was not as twelve.
Speaker 2: There was.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of surprises to me. So Jonathan
Speaker 1: Smith in his second year takes Oregon State to five
Speaker 1: and seven. Damn near Bowl team. If you especially if
Speaker 1: you watch the end of that Washington State game, and
Speaker 1: with how far they appeared to come on offense. You know,
Speaker 1: two good running backs splitting time, Jake Luton improving. Isaiah
Speaker 1: Hodgins was obviously very good all year. The defense at
Speaker 1: least showed flashes of competence. I came away very impressed
Speaker 1: in a pac twelve that I wouldn't call it up
Speaker 1: for grabs, but I would call the third and second
Speaker 1: tier perhaps wide open for business, and Oregon State should
Speaker 1: be a bold team. And considering how they've done on
Speaker 1: the transfer market. Trey Low is a four star from Washington,
Speaker 1: Treyshawn Harrison a four star from the Pacific Northwest, but
Speaker 1: from Florida State. They are more talented than people realize
Speaker 1: considering how low they got fifteen, twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: I am quite excited to see what Oregon State can
Speaker 1: do moving forward and how competitive they were this year.
Speaker 1: I did not see coming. Pleasant surprise.
Speaker 2: Yeah, pleasant surprise for me is Oregon State as well.
Speaker 2: For many of the reasons that you listed. I'll go
Speaker 2: on the flip side of the coin and I'll say
Speaker 2: not so pleasant surprise. Washington losing Chris Peterson, Yeah, perhaps
Speaker 2: that could be the center square on the Bingo card
Speaker 2: because I think that caught a lot of people off guard.
Speaker 2: But we can't do a show like this without talking
Speaker 2: about what that means. Now, clearly, Jimmy Lake steps into
Speaker 2: that role promoted from within. If he's able to establish
Speaker 2: some continuity within the Husky program, that would be a
Speaker 2: good thing. But guys like Chris Peterson don't grow on trees.
Speaker 2: And we come back to the same thing that we
Speaker 2: set about the coaching transition at Ohio State. Sometimes it's
Speaker 2: a bit of a coin flip, and I'm always sure
Speaker 2: what you're gonna get. Jimmy Lake's been there, he sort
Speaker 2: of knows the system. At this point. We'll see what
Speaker 2: he can do if he can pick it up and
Speaker 2: run with the baton. But losing Chris Peterson, I think
Speaker 2: is notable. I would also add that I'm sort of
Speaker 2: mixed on the retention of one Clay Helton.
Speaker 1: And somewhat surprising. Yeah, you know, talk about there are
Speaker 1: a lot of eche surprises in the back twelve.
Speaker 2: There really are talk about other items that could fall
Speaker 2: into that center square on the Bingo card category. The
Speaker 2: Clay Helton thing. We talked about that for months on end.
Speaker 2: Long before the season, we looked at the schedule, we said, wow,
Speaker 2: if they don't get past X nine wins, I forget
Speaker 2: what it was, They're not going to retain Clay Helton.
Speaker 2: And they didn't get past X. They still decided to
Speaker 2: retain Clay Helton for myriad reasons, many of which will
Speaker 2: probably never know. But after maybe pursuing a guy like
Speaker 2: an Urban Meyer and some other hot commodities out there,
Speaker 2: they elect to keep Clay Helton. They also retain Graham Harrell,
Speaker 2: which I think is a nice move for them. I'm
Speaker 2: not sure which of those two things is better for
Speaker 2: the health of the program moving forward. But I think
Speaker 2: a lot of USC fans, to say the least, were
Speaker 2: very surprised that Helton was ultimately retained.
Speaker 1: Yes and no. I would imagine that there are a
Speaker 1: number of USC fans who were so down on the
Speaker 1: administration and pessimistic about the new administrators that they, in
Speaker 1: some form weren't all that surprise that he was retained.
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think my not so pleasant
Speaker 1: surprise was Stanford in the season they had, and they
Speaker 1: were so beat up that a certain amount of their
Speaker 1: results are defensible. I guess but they looked horrific at times.
Speaker 1: They really did look horrific. And this was not a
Speaker 1: year where there was a robust middle class to the
Speaker 1: PAC twelve. After Oregon, Utah, and USC. I don't think
Speaker 1: any other teams had winning records in the conference. A
Speaker 1: lot of four and fives. Now, you know, Cal has
Speaker 1: an injury at quarterback. Washington State probably kind of a
Speaker 1: crazy bad surprise with their defense looked like this year,
Speaker 1: but this was a PAC twelve with winnable games, and
Speaker 1: so the fact of the matter is a team is
Speaker 1: talented as Stanford. Not being able to survive a crazy
Speaker 1: amount of injuries, to be fair, was still pretty surprising.
Speaker 1: Washington State doesn't win a road game, a true road game.
Speaker 1: They beat Houston on a neutral field, But just how
Speaker 1: ugly the middle class the PAC twelve was was an
Speaker 1: ugly surprise as well.
Speaker 2: Does it surprise you know that Jacob Easton left?
Speaker 1: No? I think he won to leave as much to
Speaker 1: the imagination as possible before really leaving no doubt as
Speaker 1: to what he is or is not capable of.
Speaker 2: That one sort of caught me off guard. I get
Speaker 2: why kids would want to leave. I don't begrudge him
Speaker 2: for doing that, but clearly flashes. Yeah, we've mentioned Purple
Speaker 2: Cutler countless times on this program over the last six
Speaker 2: months or so. I don't know if that's so much
Speaker 2: a compliment, But nonetheless, he's clearly a kid with talent.
Speaker 2: He can make a lot of the throws, and in
Speaker 2: a clean pocket, he looks very good. But when you
Speaker 2: bring the pressure on, or when you mix up coverage
Speaker 2: a little bit, that's when things start to get a
Speaker 2: little bit more interesting. And certainly he falls into that
Speaker 2: category of having a ton of talent. Clearly an NFL
Speaker 2: caliber arm I'm just not sure it's NFL caliber everything else.
Speaker 2: And I caught me off guard.
Speaker 1: Ty, when your temperature is ninety eight point six and
Speaker 1: you sleep for ten hours, you feel pretty good. Right,
Speaker 1: this is true? This is true? How often that happens? Okay,
Speaker 1: what conference do you want to go to?
Speaker 2: Let's go to the ACC. So I want to read
Speaker 2: something here that I wrote about Sarahcuse preseason.
Speaker 1: I'm ready.
Speaker 2: These are my notes for Batim. How much do you
Speaker 2: temper last season's results given that it was sort of
Speaker 2: a down ACC in twenty eighteen? Fairness, I think a
Speaker 2: good question. I love the line I love the secondary.
Speaker 2: I loved Andre Cisco and the defensive backfield, who is
Speaker 2: already a star coming into the year. The defensive backfield
Speaker 2: was mostly freshmen and really good in twenty eighteen. They
Speaker 2: pretty much all came back this past season. The line
Speaker 2: looked as if it was going to be able to
Speaker 2: get after the passer. Talked about Alton Robinson on many
Speaker 2: a preseason show. Sure, Kendall Coleman, those are some names
Speaker 2: that we were watching. I liked Syracuse with nine wins
Speaker 2: in the twenty nineteen season.
Speaker 1: I was a little less in on the Orange.
Speaker 2: But yeah, Syracuse did not win nine games, Dan, and
Speaker 2: at many points in the season they looked awful, downright,
Speaker 2: just dreadful. So from an analysis standpoint, as you said
Speaker 2: at the top, going back and reevaluating some of our
Speaker 2: preseason picks, Syracuse was a mighty whiff for me, to
Speaker 2: say the least.
Speaker 1: They I'm looking right now did Syracuse did not win
Speaker 1: a Power Five game until November sixteenth, Yeah, when they
Speaker 1: beat Duke on the road. Yeah, it was a tough
Speaker 1: year Syracuse offensively without your boy grungy Eric Donee. Sure,
Speaker 1: who did so much they you could run on Syracuse
Speaker 1: you could throw on Syracuse and they couldn't do much
Speaker 1: of anything. When they had the ball. They generated some
Speaker 1: bigger plays on the ground, but other than that, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was a nightmare for Syracuse. I have Miami as
Speaker 1: my unfortunate surprise, okay, and what the back half of
Speaker 1: their schedule looked like with as much as they returned
Speaker 1: on defense, a defense that was still good. But the
Speaker 1: surprise to me is that they couldn't get it figured
Speaker 1: out with quarterbacks that were in the system. I know
Speaker 1: it was an open quarterback job going into the air,
Speaker 1: but with the experience they had all over this offense,
Speaker 1: and I know the line was rough, but with DJ
Speaker 1: Dallas and Cameron Harris at running back, with how promising
Speaker 1: I thought Jaron Williams looked at time the first half
Speaker 1: of the year, Yes, as a red shirt freshman, but
Speaker 1: still I was surprised they couldn't get it together and
Speaker 1: couldn't improve on offense over the course of the season
Speaker 1: before losing to FIU Duke and being blanked in their
Speaker 1: bowl game against Louisiana Tech. And so that caught me
Speaker 1: by surprise, I thought, even though it was a first
Speaker 1: year coach of many Diaz, it caught me by surprise
Speaker 1: the wide swaths of ineptitude that creeped into the Miami bloodstream.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, and you know, as we've now got into
Speaker 2: the off season, some of the storylines surrounding Miami are mixed.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: We've got Jaron Williams. He mentioned I think the promise
Speaker 2: that we saw in him wasn't consistent per se. He
Speaker 2: has entered the transfer portal because Deeric King is coming
Speaker 2: over from Houston. The Tate Martel thing hasn't really yielded
Speaker 2: much fruit, to say the least has not, So we'll
Speaker 2: have to wait and see what Manny Diaz does in
Speaker 2: year two.
Speaker 1: Pleasant surprise, but rtt lashly you know, yeah, some success
Speaker 1: as an offensive coordinator takes over Miami. My pleasant surprise
Speaker 1: is the new quarterbacks of the ACC. You mentioned the
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen season and the fortuitous road. I suppose that
Speaker 1: Syracuse had to whatever extent good teams take advantage of
Speaker 1: fortuitous roads, but the addition of Hendon Hooker, Michael Cunningham,
Speaker 1: and Sam Howell to the ACC was a breath of
Speaker 1: fresh air. I was pleasantly surprised by the ceiling of
Speaker 1: each of those guys. Hendon Hooker becomes that full time
Speaker 1: starter into the year. Michael Cunningham is wildly efficient and
Speaker 1: appears I think he'll be a red shirt junior next year.
Speaker 1: I forget, I should look that up while I'm talking.
Speaker 1: And of course Sam Howell with his almost immediate impact
Speaker 1: into North Carolina's offense under mac Brown, I could not
Speaker 1: be more excited for that trio moving forward for a
Speaker 1: conference that sorely needed new exciting faces.
Speaker 2: Well, you kind of touched on two of my pleasant surprises. Okay,
Speaker 2: North Carolina for starters obviously hired Mac Brown in the offseason,
Speaker 2: and as I look back here on my acc notes,
Speaker 2: I have marked pretty boldly five wins would be a revelation. Okay,
Speaker 2: a revelation. They finished six and six, that's a big deal.
Speaker 2: They didn't just dominate in the bowl game. They destroyed
Speaker 2: Temple by a fifty five to thirteen score, and a
Speaker 2: lot of their losses were very close. They were within
Speaker 2: one point of the Clemson Tigers, within a touchdown, one possession, yeah,
Speaker 2: a touchdown of teams like app State, who were very good.
Speaker 2: Even Wake Forest too maybe had to dip down the stretch,
Speaker 2: but still looked pretty good for the majority of the season,
Speaker 2: Virginia Tech, Virginia Pit All these were one possession games.
Speaker 2: So this is a team that fought hard, obviously caught
Speaker 2: lightning in a bottle with Sam Howell, and I think
Speaker 2: Mack Brown did a really good job coming off a
Speaker 2: two to nine year in which they obviously made the
Speaker 2: coaching change. North Carolina was.
Speaker 1: A great story and we talked about it before the
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen season. The twenty eighteen season, pre mac Brown,
Speaker 1: that team was in games. The record wasn't there, but
Speaker 1: they were competitive, they fought. They just whether it's bad luck,
Speaker 1: ball bouncing the wrong way, whatever, they were in those games.
Speaker 1: So mac Brown should be commended for flipping Sam Howell
Speaker 1: and entrusting him to run the Tarhill offense.
Speaker 2: The other team that I throw out there, and they
Speaker 2: were two to ten a year ago.
Speaker 1: Is Louisville Louisville Louisville.
Speaker 2: New coach Scott Saderfield. The commentary on them before the
Speaker 2: year is that they're going to want to run it,
Speaker 2: because Scott Saderfield was pretty run happy at app State.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it was a question of well do they
Speaker 2: really got the personnel to do that. They also had
Speaker 2: a really difficult schedule in that they played Notre Dame,
Speaker 2: Florida State, Clemson Miami. I had Syracuse down here, woe
Speaker 2: was me Kentucky obviously to close out the year in
Speaker 2: that rivalry game. And it wasn't a situation preseason where
Speaker 2: I thought you could measure success in terms of wins
Speaker 2: and losses. He wanted to hope that Scott Saderfield could
Speaker 2: lay down a new foundation upon which he could build
Speaker 2: for the future. Never in my wildest dreams did I
Speaker 2: expect that we'd be sitting here late January talking about
Speaker 2: a Louisville team that went eight and five total with
Speaker 2: the bull win over Mississippi State, a Mississippi State team
Speaker 2: which you may get to a little bit later when
Speaker 2: we talk about the SEC. But lo and behold, Scott
Speaker 2: Sadderfield comes in makes an immediate impact. Talked a lot
Speaker 2: preseason about trying to change the culture of that program.
Speaker 2: I'm not close enough, You're not close enough to know
Speaker 2: for sure if that's something that did occur. It would
Speaker 2: seem as if though through one year of Scott Sadderfield,
Speaker 2: he has done something right, and if culture is among
Speaker 2: those things, then clearly he's headed in the right direction.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was surprised watching my guy, Michael Cunningham, thinking
Speaker 1: this guy wasn't your starter. This guy didn't start the
Speaker 1: season atop the quarterback. Maybe it was an injury thing,
Speaker 1: but I was surprised that the most efficient quarterback in
Speaker 1: the country, not the best, the most efficient the ball
Speaker 1: in his hands on a per play basis was Michael Cunningham.
Speaker 1: Javian Hawkins goes forward fifteen hundred yards on the ground
Speaker 1: too to at well was terrific as a sophomore, little guy,
Speaker 1: I believe, I believe it's a sophomore. I know he's
Speaker 1: totally but yeah, I think Louisville, Yes is included is
Speaker 1: in that pleasant surprise tent with Hendon Hooker and what
Speaker 1: Virginia Tech was able to do in the second half
Speaker 1: of the season in unc Where are we going next?
Speaker 2: Where are we going next? By the way, Florida State's
Speaker 2: the center square in the bingo card there.
Speaker 1: But is that a surprise the way that they looked late,
Speaker 1: I guess you could be surprised they didn't improve.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised they didn't improve. I'm surprised they fired Willie
Speaker 2: Taggert before the end of the season. Yeah, and so Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm not that I was expecting a ten win year
Speaker 2: out of Florida State. I wasn't, but just the manner
Speaker 2: in which the season all went down was surprising to me.
Speaker 2: It did not feel like they improved.
Speaker 1: No, it seemed that you would think God for him
Speaker 1: to go in the middle of the season. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a surprise, and it is a surprise that they couldn't
Speaker 1: address the clear weaknesses that were addressable over an offseason.
Speaker 1: You can't all of a sudden snap your fingers and
Speaker 1: have a competent offensive line. But the discipline, the defense,
Speaker 1: the fundamentals, the clock stuff. Yeah, that's a bit of
Speaker 1: a surprise. They couldn't really figure that out given the
Speaker 1: months they had.
Speaker 2: Let's go over to the SEC. Okay, what do you
Speaker 2: got in the SEC? What surprised you other than other
Speaker 2: than lsu.
Speaker 1: Gosh, So, Kentucky is my pleasant surprise that they lose
Speaker 1: Terry Wilson when they do, they lose Sawyer Smith when
Speaker 1: they do, and they're basically completely without a competent throwing quarterback.
Speaker 1: They turn things over to maybe the most athletic player
Speaker 1: in the conference in terms of what he was able
Speaker 1: to do under center, and Lynn Boden and they are
Speaker 1: full on good. Kentucky becomes a full on good team
Speaker 1: when they turn the ball over, much like a high
Speaker 1: school team does to just the clear best athlete on
Speaker 1: the team. They turn the offense over to Lynn Bowden,
Speaker 1: they are dangerous. They become one of the best and
Speaker 1: most explosive rushing teams in the country. The defense missing
Speaker 1: key guys I thought was going to I thought twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen was sort of a once every blue moon type
Speaker 1: season for Kentucky where they become a legitimate threat to
Speaker 1: decent teams, and it wasn't. The job Mark Stoops did
Speaker 1: with the entirety of the twenty nineteen squad was I think,
Speaker 1: to me the conference's most pleasant surprise. What el the
Speaker 1: heights LSU reached was certainly a surprise, but considering the
Speaker 1: degree of difficulty differences between LSU and Kentucky, we knew
Speaker 1: LSU had, you know, an elite ability inside of them.
Speaker 1: But this Kentucky second half, especially, that to me, really
Speaker 1: blew me away. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I love the way they steered into it because you know,
Speaker 2: they had Sawyer Smith available down the stretch. I don't
Speaker 2: know if he was one hundred percent healthy, but they
Speaker 2: elected to go with Lynn Bowden junior. They elected to
Speaker 2: stick with that offense, and it was a ton of
Speaker 2: fun to watch. Glad it worked out. It was a
Speaker 2: charm season in many respects. Yeah, probably didn't fully go
Speaker 2: the way Kentucky fans won it, but on the heels
Speaker 2: of their year that they had in twenty eighteen, I
Speaker 2: thought this is a nice follow up. Yes, so I
Speaker 2: was a fan of what they did. I think quarterbacks
Speaker 2: as a whole in the SEC were somewhat surprising. We
Speaker 2: saw in good and bad ways, or in good and
Speaker 2: bad ways. Yang in good and bad ways. Kyle Trask
Speaker 2: is a story sure. Kyle Trask is a pleasant skiles
Speaker 2: for sure. Twenty five touchdowns, seven interceptions, threw for two
Speaker 2: hundred and forty five point one yards per game. And
Speaker 2: by the way, that was sort of on a whim.
Speaker 2: The way that Dan Mullen reconstructed that offense after his
Speaker 2: starter went down, I thought was really admirable. And I'm
Speaker 2: not surprised that Florida would have a good season. I
Speaker 2: think we saw that coming. But I'm just pleasantly surprised
Speaker 2: in a manner that Dan Mullen was able to cobble it.
Speaker 2: All together on the fly, make Kyle Trask look really good,
Speaker 2: arguably like the second best quarterback. No, that's a little
Speaker 2: bit too generous. Maybe the third best quarterback in the
Speaker 2: SEC and obviously put together a really good year for Florida.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 2: The other topic that I would posit here, Okay, I'm
Speaker 2: ready is Mississippi State.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have that down here.
Speaker 2: Mississippi State. Mississippi State, I think caught us both by surprise.
Speaker 2: We were really high on Joe Moorehead when he was
Speaker 2: hired at Mississippi State.
Speaker 1: Let the record show. I still am yep, that's fair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, continue, it did not work out, he was let go.
Speaker 2: They're obviously going in a much much different direction now
Speaker 2: with Mike Leach. But where do you want to start
Speaker 2: with Mississippi State.
Speaker 1: So I underestimated, or I suppose overestimated, the defensive issues
Speaker 1: that they would have losing what they did up the
Speaker 1: middle on all three levels and really upfront on the
Speaker 1: defensive line. After the twenty eighteen season, I thought they'd
Speaker 1: be fine. I like Bob shop as a defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: I liked that the depth that they were able to
Speaker 1: acquire under Dan Mullen and the early part of Joe
Speaker 1: Morehead's tenure in Starkville. I figured that their offense would
Speaker 1: improve with what I assumed would be more of a
Speaker 1: throwing threat than what they'd had the past few years.
Speaker 1: And I was wrong. I was definitely wrong. There were
Speaker 1: issues at receiver with drops. The one bright spot is
Speaker 1: Kylon Hill, but he couldn't do everything. He had a
Speaker 1: terrific season and did as much as he possibly could
Speaker 1: within the offense. I was surprised that even if a
Speaker 1: step back from twenty eighteen was to be expected, with
Speaker 1: how talented that defense was, I was surprised that offensively,
Speaker 1: And yes, I know it's Tommy Stevens, it's Garrett Schrader,
Speaker 1: a freshman quarterback. I understand the issues and the lumps
Speaker 1: that either were going to take if thrown into the fire,
Speaker 1: but I just figured it would be schemed around and
Speaker 1: they lost to good teams. I have the schedule in
Speaker 1: front of me. It's not like Mississippi State other than
Speaker 1: Tennessee Tennessee. You can make the case, and I know
Speaker 1: it was. I believe it was. In Knoxville. State had opportunities.
Speaker 1: They looked ugly in games, they looked lost in games
Speaker 1: they should have beaten Kansas State at home, and to
Speaker 1: lose to Tennessee the way that they did the manner
Speaker 1: is the biggest surprise. You know, losing to this year's
Speaker 1: Alabama team by thirty, Okay, that happens, obviously, the ugliness
Speaker 1: with the bowl game against Louisville is not any way
Speaker 1: to finish out a season. It's certainly not a ten
Speaker 1: year for Joe moorehead. I was I think I was
Speaker 1: expecting more and I was wrong.
Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about Missouri if we could.
Speaker 2: Let's yeah, that's a pretty enormous surprise. Missouri went six
Speaker 2: and six this season. Missouri was bad. Yeah, bad down
Speaker 2: the stretch. You could argue bad from the game go.
Speaker 2: Losing opening weekend on the road at Wyoming. Not a
Speaker 2: bad team in Wyoming, but not a team that missoo
Speaker 2: sho should have lost to. They started their year five
Speaker 2: and one, won five in a row. After that, Wyoming
Speaker 2: seemingly got things back on track. Then they lose consecutively
Speaker 2: on the road at Vandy, on the road at Kentucky,
Speaker 2: on the road at Georgia, home against Florida, and home
Speaker 2: against Tennessee before eventually winning their sixth game on the
Speaker 2: road at Arkansas. One of the things that we like
Speaker 2: to look at is Bill Connolly's sp plus, and one
Speaker 2: of the measurements that he gives on a game by
Speaker 2: game basis is something he calls postgame win expectancy. Postgame
Speaker 2: win expectancy looks at your efficiency in game and then
Speaker 2: grades out based on that how likely you would have
Speaker 2: been or not been to win a football game. Right,
Speaker 2: the Kentucky game zero percent. Yeah, the Georgia game zero percent,
Speaker 2: the Florida game one percent. The Tennessee game they only
Speaker 2: lost that by four four percent. So what that's telling
Speaker 2: you is in the games when they didn't get blown out,
Speaker 2: mainly that Tennessee game, which they lost by four, they
Speaker 2: definitely did not play well enough to be within four
Speaker 2: points of Tennessee. By Bill's measure, they only played well
Speaker 2: enough to be within fourteen points of Tennessee. I'm not
Speaker 2: even going to talk about the Kentucky, Georgia, and Florida games.
Speaker 2: All of those were blowouts. So this is a team
Speaker 2: that did not put its best foot forward. We had
Speaker 2: talked in the preseason about hey, watch out first week
Speaker 2: in November squaring off against Georgia on the road, Maybe
Speaker 2: they'll be unbeaten. No boy, no, Dan, this was not
Speaker 2: a good football team.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw. But Bill Connolly obviously
Speaker 1: who're speaking of, and Miszoo fan, longtime Mizoo fan, posted
Speaker 1: a graph of the percentile performance of MISSOO so essentially
Speaker 1: and I'll probably get this wrong, but what their ceiling
Speaker 1: is and how close they got to their ceiling given
Speaker 1: their advanced metrics whatever, that's somewhere in the range of it.
Speaker 1: And he posted the graph and basically said, by looking
Speaker 1: at this, you'd have thought that after I don't know
Speaker 1: what the old Miss game or something like that, you'd
Speaker 1: have thought all of their players got hurt. Yeah, all
Speaker 1: of their players got abducted, all of their starters all
Speaker 1: took a deeply aggressive jacuzzi in the wrong dup, something
Speaker 1: that infected the entire depth chart, because they really they
Speaker 1: did fall off a cliff. And this was a team
Speaker 1: with a blessed schedule tie going into the season, getting
Speaker 1: West Virginia with a first year coach at home, having
Speaker 1: their road games in the East be Vandy, Kentucky, Georgia,
Speaker 1: and then a road split with the West at Arkansas.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. I think they also had, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they had Old Miss from the West. So this was
Speaker 1: a per fixed ten in two season with I don't know, competence,
Speaker 1: and it ends with disaster and they fire their coach. Unbelievable. Unbelievable,
Speaker 1: And I mean with Larry Rowntree, with Big Albert Oh
Speaker 1: with we weren't super high on Kelly Bryant but still
Speaker 1: led a team, a very talented team to the playoff,
Speaker 1: and he had injury issues. Cale Garrett was a star
Speaker 1: on that defense. He goes down, so they're affected by
Speaker 1: any number of things. But really, I know they were
Speaker 1: not allowed in the postseason. But to go six and
Speaker 1: six with that schedule, where do you want to go? Okay,
Speaker 1: let's go to the Big twelve.
Speaker 2: Big twelve is the center square Texas.
Speaker 1: Here as the unfortunate surprise. Yes I've lumped Texas in
Speaker 1: with and I talked about this a little bit the
Speaker 1: Pac twelve. I have an unfortunate surprise being no middle
Speaker 1: class of a sort of entertainment value, which we always
Speaker 1: seem to have with the Big twelve. Good year, bad year.
Speaker 1: It always seems to be like, well, something weird is
Speaker 1: going to happen in TCU Iowa State, Well, something weird.
Speaker 1: It's going to happen with West Virginia, Texas Tech, And
Speaker 1: yes there was. There were definitely weird moments. There were
Speaker 1: definitely fun players, individual players, be it Chewba Hubbard, be
Speaker 1: it Brock Purty, Jalen Rager, whatever. But to have nobody
Speaker 1: string together and entertaining September through December, I suppose other
Speaker 1: than Oklahoma and Baylor, but those are not middle class teams.
Speaker 1: That was a bummer. That was a pretty significant bummer.
Speaker 1: I figured that a number of teams, even though there
Speaker 1: were a number of new coaches and Matt Wells, Neil Brown,
Speaker 1: Chris Climb and Les Miles, just an unfun middle class
Speaker 1: was something I was not expecting. Was pretty bummed out by.
Speaker 2: Kansas State is a team that I think we should
Speaker 2: talk about. You mentioned the new coach, Chris Clemon, comes
Speaker 2: over from North Dakota State, had a previous stint working
Speaker 2: with the now athletic director at KNA the state, and
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know if we knew what to expect.
Speaker 2: It was a question of personnel before the year, personnel
Speaker 2: at quarterback, personnel across the board. What are they going
Speaker 2: to do to try and fill some of these gaps
Speaker 2: or take a step forward. They ended up being very
Speaker 2: Kansas State in the end. This was a good football team.
Speaker 2: They obviously took down Oklahoma during the year, finished with
Speaker 2: an eight and four regular season record, lost to Navy
Speaker 2: in the bowl game. This is a team that I
Speaker 2: don't know that they did anything spectacularly well, but they
Speaker 2: were decidedly above average.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I did not like watching Kansas State all that much.
Speaker 1: I didn't say like watching yeah, but no, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's definitely a lot to be encouraged by. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm speaking strictly from an entertainment standpoint. Other than the
Speaker 1: Oklahoma game, I didn't. I didn't love watching a lot
Speaker 1: of the middle class in this conference.
Speaker 2: What about Kansas Were you surprised at all by the
Speaker 2: Jayhawks given the fact that they brought in less Miles
Speaker 2: and less Miles was a fun talking point right before
Speaker 2: the season started, because of course, the mad Hatter and
Speaker 2: the grass seating and his flowery personality. But Kansas won
Speaker 2: a couple games. Kansas was plucky.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it seemed a lot more encouraging after
Speaker 1: they went at Boston College. Is that a Friday night
Speaker 1: where they went into BC and ran all the hell
Speaker 1: over them. Oh right, yep, yep, and then they keep
Speaker 1: a close against West Virginia. They have the shootout loss
Speaker 1: against Texas. That was really that was one of the
Speaker 1: more fun moments obviously, that just game in general, the
Speaker 1: ending of the Texas Tech game was very strange. It
Speaker 1: felt like as good as you could hope for from
Speaker 1: year one for less Miles, I wouldn't go as far
Speaker 1: as saying I'm encouraged that there was going to be
Speaker 1: consistent growth in Lawrence, but I don't know how other
Speaker 1: than the the offensive showings, I would say, yeah, pleasant surprise.
Speaker 1: I mean, the offensive showings have led to it becoming
Speaker 1: a pleasant surprise for me. Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 2: The other team that I'll throw out here very quickly
Speaker 2: and then we'll move on TCU. I am never going
Speaker 2: to talk about TCU again.
Speaker 1: Off watch.
Speaker 2: I'm never going to talk about TCU again. I miss
Speaker 2: every year they missed a bowl game. They were five
Speaker 2: and seven this season. That's off of a seven and
Speaker 2: six season with the Bowl win, the legendary cheese At
Speaker 2: Bowl win over Cow. Yeah. I just can't predict this team.
Speaker 2: I think Max Duggan gave reason for optimism as we
Speaker 2: move forward, BEng quarterback. Maybe right, I'm looking for bright
Speaker 2: spots here because you know my saw spot for TCU.
Speaker 2: But five and seven, five to seven is not something
Speaker 2: I had on the radar.
Speaker 1: It's very strange that TCU does not win nine games
Speaker 1: every year exclusively, especially with what the Big twelve looks
Speaker 1: like right now, That to me is just incredibly strange.
Speaker 2: Anything else in the Big twelve. Oh Baylor, what about Baylor?
Speaker 1: Baylor's my surprise in a pleasant way for Baylor, and
Speaker 1: I know certainly the outlook is different, could be better,
Speaker 1: could be worse, whatever under Dave Randa. But for Matt
Speaker 1: Rule to do what he did in Waco, especially with
Speaker 1: Phil what Phil Snow who has worked with Matt Rule
Speaker 1: for a number of years. Now, we have the snow
Speaker 1: is snow alert snow alert. Yeah, yeah, we have the
Speaker 1: snow alert. But I guess we can't really no advisor,
Speaker 1: no advisor, excuse me. What Baylor did this year was exemplary,
Speaker 1: especially that defense. The offense wasn't a great watch, but
Speaker 1: generally did enough save for the second half of the
Speaker 1: Oklahoma game or games. Yeah, for what they're able to
Speaker 1: do to take advantage of a down conference, which is
Speaker 1: what good teams do to build out over those three
Speaker 1: years under Matt rule. How can you not be impressed
Speaker 1: with what the Bears look like most of the year.
Speaker 2: For sure? For sure, this is a team that finished
Speaker 2: eleven and three. Obviously, lost in that Sugar Bowl to
Speaker 2: Georgia and made it to the Big Twelve Championship, lost
Speaker 2: by I think it was three in the end to Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: But defense, you're right to call out the defense because.
Speaker 1: James Lynch tied James Damn Lynch. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Entering the season, the problem was playmaking on defense. They
Speaker 2: didn't force a lot of turnovers all year. Last year
Speaker 2: they allowed twenty five touchdowns of thirty or more yards
Speaker 2: and eighteen touchdowns of forty or more yards. They were
Speaker 2: killed by big plays the year prior. So what did
Speaker 2: they do this year? Well, first things first, they came
Speaker 2: out and they improved their HAVOC rate, which is a
Speaker 2: number that you and I love to call out, but
Speaker 2: basically number of plays behind the line of scrimmage and
Speaker 2: defensive line linebacker all on the front seven. They were
Speaker 2: very very good.
Speaker 1: Tackles for loss, forcing turnovers stuff, right, yeah, yeah, stuff
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 2: And in terms of allowing big plays. Again, as we
Speaker 2: look at this from an SP plus standpoint, very good
Speaker 2: both as a passing defense and rushing defense in big
Speaker 2: plays allowed, marginal explosiveness is way way down. I think
Speaker 2: they did a good job on that front. So what
Speaker 2: Matt Rule was able to put together, what Phil Snow
Speaker 2: was able to put together along that defensive side of
Speaker 2: the ball was really impressive. It was the engine that
Speaker 2: drove this team. I'm sure Baylor fans are screaming for
Speaker 2: a little bit more consistency on offense, and I know
Speaker 2: Charlie Brewer got nicked up a little bit down the stretch,
Speaker 2: which didn't do them any favors, right, but nonetheless a
Speaker 2: hell of a year for Baylor. I remember talking in
Speaker 2: that preseason show where we previewed the Baylor Bears, and
Speaker 2: I had gone out to a Baylor blog I forget
Speaker 2: which one, and I remember seeing nine wins and commenting
Speaker 2: that I thought that was, ooh, that's a little ambitious.
Speaker 2: Right there. I could see a pathway, but it's very
Speaker 2: narrow and it doesn't seem at all realistic. As the
Speaker 2: year wore on, it became very realistic. Like you said,
Speaker 2: the top not a big middle class, if any middle
Speaker 2: class in the Big twelve. So for them to get
Speaker 2: to that eleven win plateau in total, that's a pretty
Speaker 2: big deal. Kudos to met rule.
Speaker 1: I Uh yeah, what a strange year that a team
Speaker 1: with an OK offense and a lights out defense is
Speaker 1: an overtime period away from winning the Big Twelve. No,
Speaker 1: strange season.
Speaker 2: Strange strange season. Shall we move on to our final
Speaker 2: Power five conference?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 2: A Big ten, Daniel, the big big ten.
Speaker 1: Uh, let's talk about the Northwestern Fighting Wildcats. We always
Speaker 1: figured that they had. They always seemed to have the
Speaker 1: highest floor. Like, Northwestern might not be great this year.
Speaker 1: I'll go to a bowl game, They'll go seven and five.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: They did not go seven and five. No, they most
Speaker 1: certainly did not. I don't think they won their first
Speaker 1: Power five game until the Illinois game? Is that right, am?
Speaker 1: I looking at their schedule correctly.
Speaker 2: They did not win their first Power five game until
Speaker 2: the last week of the year.
Speaker 1: Yes, the offense was a disaster. The injuries were a disaster.
Speaker 1: On offense, Hunter Johnson did not work out all that well.
Speaker 1: He's beat up when he's in does not work out
Speaker 1: all that well. They make a change at offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: after the season. They're unable to run the ball, They're
Speaker 1: unable to pass the ball, they're unable to score the ball.
Speaker 1: They're unable to move the ball in any sort of
Speaker 1: creative fashion. All season long, at least, I guess before
Speaker 1: the Illinois game, they scored twenty points. I'm seeing zero
Speaker 1: times before November. This was a historically bad not just
Speaker 1: Big Ten, not just Power five, but FBS offense. And
Speaker 1: while they had their offensive struggles in years past, it
Speaker 1: always seemed like Northwestern was what you could count on
Speaker 1: in terms of competence, sheer competence, and you could not
Speaker 1: this season. That was a shocker to me.
Speaker 2: Interesting now I think I'm I think I'm with you
Speaker 2: on that front. I'm surprised by a couple of things.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised that Michigan State didn't get better already been
Speaker 2: No I am, I am actually okay, No I am,
Speaker 2: I am for real. I wasn't necessarily expecting a nine
Speaker 2: win campaign from Michigan State, but I wasn't expecting what
Speaker 2: we saw. Like the defense was still pretty good, and
Speaker 2: of course they won the bowl game to get to
Speaker 2: seven wins, but six and six is is not something
Speaker 2: I was expecting. I wasn't expecting a thirty four point
Speaker 2: loss or a thirty eight point loss against Michigan or Wisconsin.
Speaker 2: There were many games this year we talk about a
Speaker 2: zero percent postgame win expectancy. I'm looking at goose eggs
Speaker 2: at Ohio State, at Wisconsin, and at Michigan. These are
Speaker 2: really bad showings. This was a hapless offense that just
Speaker 2: could not get going. We talked about before the year,
Speaker 2: how we talked before the year about how Mark D'Antonio
Speaker 2: was jumbling up his offensive coaching staff in hopes of
Speaker 2: jump starting things that didn't work out.
Speaker 1: Well, what did you so you say you're surprised by
Speaker 1: the offense at Michigan State not working out, But what
Speaker 1: gave you confidence that it would when there was no
Speaker 1: significant change, There was no catalyst, there was no spark,
Speaker 1: there was no overhaul of anything.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a fair question. It's a fair question. Perhaps
Speaker 2: it was a bit of wishful thinking, but I have
Speaker 2: a lot of respect in Mark D'Antonio. I still think
Speaker 2: he's a good football coach. Now recent Mark D'Antonio maybe
Speaker 2: unbiased based on past results, right, but I had more
Speaker 2: faith that he would be able to resurrect this situation
Speaker 2: and put out a better offense that just didn't happen,
Speaker 2: And be the jokes on me for feeling surprised by that,
Speaker 2: but I just I did expect more and I don't
Speaker 2: think we ever saw it. So the Michigan State thing
Speaker 2: caught me a bit off guard. I was pleasantly surprised
Speaker 2: by Ohio State and Justin Fields. This is an incredible
Speaker 2: season and you know, to be three quarters of the
Speaker 2: way through the year to be in the playoff. Reading
Speaker 2: comments from fans, and it wasn't just our friend Dane,
Speaker 2: there were multiple fans who wrote in saying, this is
Speaker 2: the best Ohio State team I've ever seen. To do
Speaker 2: that a year after rbi Meyer leaves the program, hands
Speaker 2: it off to a first time head coach. That was
Speaker 2: a hell of a debut effort, to say the least.
Speaker 2: So the way they look, the way they put their
Speaker 2: defense back together after a bit of turmoil the year prior.
Speaker 2: Justin Fields goes without saying I was very surprised, pleasantly
Speaker 2: not too too surprised, but I was encouraged. I was
Speaker 2: happy to see the job that took place at Ohio State.
Speaker 1: That's boring tie. That is just a boring answer. I
Speaker 1: don't care, I know, I mean I was. I was
Speaker 1: more pleasantly surprised by revn to seven to drive for six,
Speaker 1: Illinois taking down Wisconsin in the last second Michigan state
Speaker 1: that crazy comeback, hanging with Michigan for as long as
Speaker 1: they did. For a team that loses to Eastern Michigan
Speaker 1: in what mid September, that win alone would have gotten
Speaker 1: them to rev to seven. They're close against Nebraska that
Speaker 1: ends on sort of a not great call. This was
Speaker 1: a I'm not gonna say good, I'm not gonna say plucky,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say frisky. Just damn weird team all
Speaker 1: year long, and they were crazy beat up against Northwestern.
Speaker 1: They hang with Iowa on the road, I believe in November,
Speaker 1: and they take the elegance cal which is to be
Speaker 1: expected in the barry and the ball game. But the
Speaker 1: ups and downs of this season and the fight I
Speaker 1: guess that they showed when somewhat healthy. Illinois is one
Speaker 1: of the teams that, strangely enough, will come to define
Speaker 1: the twenty nineteen season. If you dig far.
Speaker 2: Enough, here's a hyper local answer. Okay, if you would
Speaker 2: have told Lehigh. No, not Lehigh, I'm not going to
Speaker 2: talk about Tyler Monico.
Speaker 1: Okay. Sorry.
Speaker 2: If you would have told September Tie that November Sean
Speaker 2: Clifford would leave him feeling this underwhelmed, that would have
Speaker 2: been a pretty big surprise. Remember the context here. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the all time winning his quarterback left the program. But
Speaker 2: to lose Trace and enter a new season with a
Speaker 2: lot of turnover you lose Miles Sanders. There were ready
Speaker 2: questions about the wide receiving core going into the year.
Speaker 2: To lose a guy of that caliber and turn it
Speaker 2: over over to Sean Clifford after the Tommy Stevens transfer,
Speaker 2: there were questions about how are they gonna fare at
Speaker 2: this quarterback position? And I think to start the year.
Speaker 2: To start the year, he looked way way better than
Speaker 2: he did as the year wore on. He had like
Speaker 2: a gosh, what was it like, a nearly four hundred
Speaker 2: yard game against Maryland who Maryland was found out by
Speaker 2: the point in time when they played them, but still
Speaker 2: he completed like eighty percent of his passes in that
Speaker 2: game and looked really good the first half of the year.
Speaker 2: Towards the latter half of the season when they started
Speaker 2: playing better teams, he started looking a bit yippie and
Speaker 2: gave me serious like branded Wimbush vibes where he was
Speaker 2: staring at the offensive line sure and maybe not sure
Speaker 2: of the pocket and making some weird decisions. He had
Speaker 2: some of his own injury concerns. Didn't think he looked
Speaker 2: all that great in the bowl game. Got the job done,
Speaker 2: but he has a lot of questions to answer. As
Speaker 2: we entered the twenty twenty season, I did not feel
Speaker 2: at all great about Sean Clifford, outside of maybe that
Speaker 2: Minnesota game down the stretch where he was able to
Speaker 2: rally late and put up some nice numbers.
Speaker 1: You could argue the number of teams had surprising elements.
Speaker 1: I mean Indiana to have the success that they did. Granted,
Speaker 1: the bottom of the Big Ten was horrific this season.
Speaker 1: Minnesota's ascent this year, yeah yeah, also fortuitous situations, nothing
Speaker 1: that they could really control, and they took advantage like
Speaker 1: good teams do. They lose to tie those two teams together,
Speaker 1: they lose their offensive coordinator to Penn State. There's never
Speaker 1: anything surprising about Iowa. I surprised Perdue and dealing with
Speaker 1: I guess Purdue is covers both. For me, I was
Speaker 1: surprised at some of the success they had with all
Speaker 1: of the crazy injuries that they were suffering, but also
Speaker 1: surprised that they looked as poor as they did at
Speaker 1: certain times. The Nebraska that's a bit of a shocker still,
Speaker 1: and they're dealing with injuries as well, especially with Adrian
Speaker 1: Martinez his health all season long, but even when he
Speaker 1: was in there, A Nebraska was a rough, rough watch
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I would agree with that, Dan, for sure.
Speaker 1: A lot of surprises in the Big Ten.
Speaker 2: Do you want to do a group of five? Quick?
Speaker 2: You got anything?
Speaker 1: I'd love to?
Speaker 2: Okay, how about Air Force?
Speaker 1: I think you could only talk about the service academies
Speaker 1: with this situation.
Speaker 2: Air Force had a legitimately good offense and run a
Speaker 2: different scheme. Granted, but they were pretty good down.
Speaker 1: The street on the same scheme as they always run.
Speaker 1: But they run the same scheme tea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but closed out the year winning a bunch of
Speaker 2: games in a row, like eight straight games if you
Speaker 2: include the Bowl. Beat Washington State thirty one to twenty
Speaker 2: one in the Bowl them, Yeah, ran all over them.
Speaker 2: They're only two losses all year. Were at a Boise
Speaker 2: State and to Navy, both on the road. So I
Speaker 2: think by a large are really good year. Beat Colorado,
Speaker 2: beat a team like a Utah State who maybe wasn't
Speaker 2: as good as we thought entering the year, but still
Speaker 2: a nice win the Army. Another team that made that category,
Speaker 2: oh for sure, Hawaii was a nice win on the road.
Speaker 2: Hawaii ended up being a pretty good team.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, I I love the hell out of watching.
Speaker 1: I think it's Caden Remsburg. They're back in the bowl
Speaker 1: game against Wazoo. They had a hell of a year
Speaker 1: and it was sort of I would go as far
Speaker 1: as saying like their defense in a number of ways
Speaker 1: led the way. They were very stout upfront against the run.
Speaker 1: So really nice surprise there. I was surprised, I don't
Speaker 1: want to say fully surprised, but I would say I'm
Speaker 1: impressed by the bounce back here that Navy had almost
Speaker 1: getting themselves to the American Championship Game, especially with how
Speaker 1: much better their defense got year to year. Also surprised
Speaker 1: by the dip Army took, and that was to be
Speaker 1: expected with the number with the amount of attrition from
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, but still sort of surprised there and elsewhere
Speaker 1: in the G five, I don't know, pleasant surprise Hawaii
Speaker 1: continues to improve to the point where they lose their
Speaker 1: coach to a Power five conference.
Speaker 2: I think Hank Bachmeyer was a pleasant surprise.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess when he played.
Speaker 2: When he played, showed a lot of promise and definitely,
Speaker 2: gay Broncos fans are reason to be excited.
Speaker 1: I was impressed by Western Kentucky, especially that defense this year. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: the lows that they fell to and then to beat
Speaker 1: Arkansas the way they did with a former Arkansas quarterback
Speaker 1: and tie story. I thought Western Kentucky and Tyson Helton
Speaker 1: did a really nice job. Any other surprises to you
Speaker 1: in the G five ranks.
Speaker 2: It's tough to be surprised by app State at this point. Sure,
Speaker 2: Billy Napier did a good job at Louisiana. Yes, I
Speaker 2: don't know how big of a surprise that ends up being,
Speaker 2: but they were formidable a team that we liked in
Speaker 2: awful lot in bull season. Hopefully got a lot of
Speaker 2: confidence points for some of our participants.
Speaker 1: I would say, I guess Georgia State bouncing back the
Speaker 1: way that they did, Yeah, a really nice surprise yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: especially with how they start out the season. Yeah, I would,
Speaker 1: I would lump the Panthers in there.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, I think that's it, Dan. Let us
Speaker 2: know your surprises again. You can do that by emailing
Speaker 2: unless it's so oliverble at gmail dot com. If you
Speaker 2: want to follow along on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, you
Speaker 2: can comment in any of those places. There is also
Speaker 2: a subreddit, which I mentioned at the top of the show.
Speaker 2: It is solid Verbal dot reddit dot com. You can
Speaker 2: go out there and discuss your pleasant surprises not so
Speaker 2: pleasant surprises with other for bawlers who listen to the show.
Speaker 2: If you like what we do, subscribe. You can subscribe
Speaker 2: on any of the podcasting apps, doesn't matter. If you
Speaker 2: really like what we do, you can leave a review.
Speaker 2: We always appreciate that. But beyond that, Dan, again, as
Speaker 2: we now enter this off season mode, one show a
Speaker 2: week most weeks.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, and that's not to say there will be
Speaker 1: zero one show if not more. If you really really
Speaker 1: like what we do. Tie's phone number is six one
Speaker 1: oh four. No, shoot, I'm reading this wrong, Okay, I'll stop. Ty.
Speaker 1: I thought you did great, Thank you, thank you. I'm
Speaker 1: a little bit surprised that I was able to get
Speaker 1: a newborn to one full year of life.
Speaker 2: Congratulations, and happened to the little guy.
Speaker 1: I'm surprised that after hearing that you had the flu,
Speaker 1: that I found out that you were in urgent care
Speaker 1: last night with a fully separate issue that yeah, recovery.
Speaker 2: Well it wasn't. It wasn't the full blown flu. I
Speaker 2: came to find out later, but I was swabbed multiple
Speaker 2: times at two different doctors' offices to see if I
Speaker 2: had it.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay, and then you went with some sort of
Speaker 1: respiratory situation.
Speaker 2: I think I pretty much have everything wrong. The only
Speaker 2: thing working right now is to some extent my voice
Speaker 2: into a lesser extent my brain.
Speaker 1: Okay, well listen, you go heel up, have some chicken soup,
Speaker 1: get some rest, rest those pipes. We got a long
Speaker 1: off season. We've got a lot of very strange shows
Speaker 1: in our future. As we have guests, we probably have
Speaker 1: deeper conference looks that require some investigation. We have all
Speaker 1: sorts of fun plans for the off season, new stuff,
Speaker 1: old stuff, And you know what, why don't you go
Speaker 1: to solid verbal dot reddit dot com and tell us
Speaker 1: specifically what you want out of this Off Season from
Speaker 1: I would imagine the best podcasts in the world.
Speaker 2: I want it titled off Season Dash, What you Want,
Speaker 2: What you Want, what you Want? Let us know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, make it. Whoever starts that, make it as uncomfortable
Speaker 1: as time made it sound.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what you want on that note or that guy
Speaker 2: over there, the proud Papa Stan Rubinstein for myself, Tie
Speaker 2: Hilton Brandt, thank you so much for listening to the show.
Speaker 2: We will be back a week from now to talk
Speaker 2: more college football. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of
Speaker 2: your week, all of your weekend. Hope y'all stay healthy
Speaker 2: and by all means stay solved.
Speaker 1: Nice