Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid Verbo. I'll 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 a day at the State. Is that woo woom?
Speaker 1: And and Tye, welcome back to the solid Purba boys
Speaker 1: and girls. My name is ty Hildebrandt. Joining me is
Speaker 1: always over there and beautiful and sunny in almost springing,
Speaker 1: New York City. Dan Rubinstein, sir, how are you?
Speaker 2: I'm pretty good, ty, I'm pretty good. I considered stopping
Speaker 2: at any number of places on my walk home from
Speaker 2: the office for a little snack, but I was just
Speaker 2: in LA for a very short time for a podcast conference, okay,
Speaker 2: and I ate a lot of food, So my discipline
Speaker 2: to stay the course was actually pretty admirable. Unlike Melt Talk, Mel.
Speaker 1: Tucker, We're going to get into the El Tucker news
Speaker 1: here momentarily Today's Q and A Show, or at least
Speaker 1: part one of a Q and A show, so it
Speaker 1: works in typical fashion here on the Soliverbal. We like
Speaker 1: to do more of the Q and A Style show
Speaker 1: in the offseason because there isn't as much news to
Speaker 1: talk about. Mel Tucker ain't walking out that door every week,
Speaker 1: after all, So we got to fill the time with
Speaker 1: useful college football intel and knowledge and questions from the
Speaker 1: verballerhood at large. So what you did is went out
Speaker 1: on Twitter. You went out on all of our social channels.
Speaker 1: We got other email questions that came in to Soliverbal
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com, compiled those in a big old
Speaker 1: Google doc, and we're going to read through a bunch
Speaker 1: of football questions here in just a little bit. The
Speaker 1: other tidbit that I'll throw out there, and I started
Speaker 1: advertising this a little bit on Twitter earlier today at
Speaker 1: Soliverbal if you don't already follow us. But as we said,
Speaker 1: Dan and I are in the very early stages now
Speaker 1: of planning out what our live show menu is going
Speaker 1: to look like for the month of August, when we
Speaker 1: typically do fantasy things and maybe we'll throw other things
Speaker 1: in there, who knows. But we put together a survey
Speaker 1: which I linked up on our Twitter sphere. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: link it up on our website. If you go to
Speaker 1: solid verbal dot com slash live, you can get to
Speaker 1: our survey and just let us know if you're gonna
Speaker 1: be around in August if any of these cities or
Speaker 1: locations appeal to you, you might want to come out
Speaker 1: and see us. That'll help us put together what our
Speaker 1: game plan is going to become August. But it is
Speaker 1: something we're starting to think about, even though it's February.
Speaker 1: Obviously it's better to do that earlier and get people
Speaker 1: in the know than later. Kind of at the last second.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if it were up to me, we would just
Speaker 2: be doing a tour of small towns just north of
Speaker 2: San Francisco and have a nice little summer wine tour.
Speaker 1: Little wine. You don't even like wine.
Speaker 2: I don't even like wine, but I like that area. Ty, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I like trees, I like grapes, I like sunshine. There's
Speaker 2: a million places that I think we would have a
Speaker 2: terrific time doing a live show and could not be
Speaker 2: happier about doing that. All we really know is that somehow,
Speaker 2: someway we are going to include the Navarro cheer team.
Speaker 2: Of course, Oh my gosh, my people, All right, absolute people, Okay, sorry, yeah, boom.
Speaker 1: Boom boom boom. You mentioned mel Tucker at the top.
Speaker 1: Melt Tucker has reversed course, So Meltucker head football coach,
Speaker 1: formerly head football coach at Colorado. He initially turned down
Speaker 1: Michigan State, he reversed course. He has now accepted the
Speaker 1: job at Sparta. Do you like this move?
Speaker 2: I think it'd be hard to form an opinion about
Speaker 2: mel Tucker after one season going five and seven, inheriting
Speaker 2: a not amazing roster, but still your guys Stevie Montes
Speaker 2: and Leaves Chanalt are quality players that you know. Chanalt
Speaker 2: was hurt but didn't have the talent to really turn
Speaker 2: the defense around. Excuse me, y'ar one his specialty. So
Speaker 2: I don't know how any Michigan State fan, how anybody
Speaker 2: can think like yes, home run when they're just Jerry's out, Like,
Speaker 2: we just have no idea because we have to have
Speaker 2: a bigger sample size from him. The headline here, as
Speaker 2: you know, we talk about it like six days after
Speaker 2: it happened because that's our recording schedule, is that he
Speaker 2: was only at Colorado for a year and he got
Speaker 2: basically his salary doubled, His assistant pool was significantly increased,
Speaker 2: which is very very important by a Michigan State program
Speaker 2: which makes a lot more money from the Big ten
Speaker 2: and their TV deals plural than the PAC twelve does.
Speaker 2: And Colorado is not a program that has been in
Speaker 2: the money these this past decade fifteen years, things have improved.
Speaker 2: I think they've built new facilities, but certainly from a
Speaker 2: monetary standpoint, Colorado is not as big a program and
Speaker 2: doesn't have as big a wallet as Michigan State does
Speaker 2: by you know, their circumstance. So I think the higher
Speaker 2: is fine. I think his background, his experience, both you know,
Speaker 2: in the SEC and the NFL. I think people respond
Speaker 2: well to him as a coach. It appears he's been
Speaker 2: able to recruit and his short time in Boulder pretty well,
Speaker 2: so I imagine he will do a pretty good job
Speaker 2: given his background both in the Midwest and South, attracting
Speaker 2: talent to Michigan State. It's a tough job to me,
Speaker 2: so I think it's fine slash tbd.
Speaker 1: Here is my overarching question about this though. How good
Speaker 1: of a job is that Michigan State job. I know
Speaker 1: it's something we've discussed here on the show, right, and
Speaker 1: I think we like Boulder, Colorado as a college football
Speaker 1: or just college destination. I just get a human destination
Speaker 1: to make human destination. Sure, it's a good place. It's
Speaker 1: in a conference that is certainly at a little bit
Speaker 1: more wide open than the Big ten East. I think
Speaker 1: that much is assumed, right, So how much of a
Speaker 1: better job? Obviously the money's better, But outside of the money,
Speaker 1: is it truly a better college football spot than in Boulder?
Speaker 1: So what defines that to you?
Speaker 2: How if you are going to list items bullet points
Speaker 2: say this is what makes a good job to me,
Speaker 2: it's administrative support, money, proximity to recruits, maybe, path to
Speaker 2: maximizing success based on division, based on conference, How strong
Speaker 2: is the school's quote brand regionally, nationally, internationally, whatever. And
Speaker 2: for Michigan State, it's tricky. I think if it starts
Speaker 2: with administrative support, there's a lot of the word interim
Speaker 2: right now at Michigan State. It's not a strong time
Speaker 2: for the Michigan State brand. Not the fault of regional
Speaker 2: recruits in the Midwest or coaches that Mel Tucker, not
Speaker 2: a fault of a lot of people who were in
Speaker 2: that Michigan State program during some up and down years
Speaker 2: under Mark d Antonio.
Speaker 1: But it's rough.
Speaker 2: I don't think there's a lot of confidence on the
Speaker 2: board of trustees and the athletic director in the athletic
Speaker 2: department right now. So that to me is in flux,
Speaker 2: which is never great because if you look at schools
Speaker 2: that generally succeed consistently, there seems to be a good
Speaker 2: backbone of continuity there. Right, No, you've had what Notre
Speaker 2: Dame is at the same AD forever, Oregon has had,
Speaker 2: I mean the same AD forever. These are the schools
Speaker 2: we're most familiar with. Penn State had to deal with
Speaker 2: a lot of flux, but things have calmed down some, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: So looking at schools, especially in the Big Ten, Wisconsin
Speaker 2: has a lot of continuity. Michigan has had some changes.
Speaker 2: Ohio State has had some changes, but Jean Smith has
Speaker 2: been at Ohio State for a long time and so
Speaker 2: there's experience there running things. Michigan State's different, and Michigan
Speaker 2: State has had a lot of success in the last decade.
Speaker 2: One could point out that Michigan State's absolute height twenty
Speaker 2: thirteen to twenty fifteen, like we've talked about before, came
Speaker 2: at a time that perhaps Michigan and Ohio State, they're
Speaker 2: chief rivals in the division, we're not operating at full capacity.
Speaker 2: But one could also point out that Penn State and
Speaker 2: Michigan today are not unbeatable, So it can be a
Speaker 2: very good job. This is a Rose Bowl job if
Speaker 2: the circumstances are correct, But a lot of good jobs
Speaker 2: are the same way that you just need things to
Speaker 2: break correctly. So I think it's tough, but I think
Speaker 2: Michigan State has a much higher ability, a higher ceiling
Speaker 2: than a lot of teams in this country.
Speaker 1: The downside from Michigan State, whenever somebody steps aside in
Speaker 1: February or just at a really weird juncture in the season,
Speaker 1: if you want to get a decent name, you sort
Speaker 1: of got to pay the piper, yeah, premium, And that
Speaker 1: meant good news from mel Tucker on that side of things. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: I'm ambivalent on this. It's good news for them that
Speaker 1: they're able to go out and get a guy in
Speaker 1: mel Tucker who's been highly thought of for a while
Speaker 1: and someone who you would think could continue building that
Speaker 1: winning tradition, certainly on the defensive side of the ball,
Speaker 1: where he's always been very good. That's all very good news,
Speaker 1: but like five and seven first year, you're paying that
Speaker 1: guy five and a half million dollars, it seems like
Speaker 1: maybe they overbid on a guy that you know they
Speaker 1: didn't have to overbid for well, they had the cash.
Speaker 2: They have the cash to pay that much money to
Speaker 2: a coach. I mean, Scott Frost is making a ton
Speaker 2: of money, and at least I guess he accomplished more
Speaker 2: as a head coach than Mel Tucker did. Going in
Speaker 2: Jeff Brohm, I don't know how. I mean, he had
Speaker 2: a huge win for Purdue over Ohio State, and I
Speaker 2: had to have the leverage with Louisville coming after him.
Speaker 1: But there are what.
Speaker 2: Looked to be not crazy impressive coaches in the Big
Speaker 2: Ten making at least right now to me, impressive money.
Speaker 2: The other interesting thing is this people treated this as
Speaker 2: more dirt on the PAC twelve casket, and I'm sort
Speaker 2: of confused by that.
Speaker 1: Somewhat.
Speaker 2: I know the PAC twelve is lagged behind another TV
Speaker 2: deal isn't good, But I've just never understood why people
Speaker 2: look like people look at the PAC twelve as like, yeah,
Speaker 2: they're a Power five conference. They should be right in
Speaker 2: the neighborhood is of how much money the Big Ten
Speaker 2: and SEC are making when PAC twelve football as a whole,
Speaker 2: as a full product has never been as popular as
Speaker 2: conferences that have these enormous enormous properties when the PAC
Speaker 2: twelve has like one point eight of them.
Speaker 1: So does a move like this and I promise we'll
Speaker 1: move on after this? Yeah, maybe two point six. Does
Speaker 1: a move like this worry you then about, like, let's say,
Speaker 1: the overall health of Power five football or college football
Speaker 1: as a whole, Given that there is this gulf between
Speaker 1: different revenue models from conference to conference.
Speaker 2: I guess I think you need smarter people at athletic
Speaker 2: departments making better decision as to who you hire. I mean,
Speaker 2: it can be weathered in the Big ten and SEC.
Speaker 2: If you know, Mississippi State hires Joe Morhead and it
Speaker 2: doesn't work out after a couple of years, they don't
Speaker 2: hesitate to pay his buyout, to move on to pay
Speaker 2: Mike Leach whatever it is, five million dollars, And that's
Speaker 2: certainly a very nice luxury to have. But in the
Speaker 2: Big twelve, which has you know, come under some some
Speaker 2: troubling times having to go back to ten teams, the
Speaker 2: TV deal isn't where the Big ten and the SEC
Speaker 2: are and the PAC twelve, and to I guess a
Speaker 2: lesser extent.
Speaker 1: The ACC.
Speaker 2: You got to make better decisions. It's not Larry Scott's
Speaker 2: fault that you know, Oregon State and Gary Anderson didn't
Speaker 2: work out.
Speaker 1: I tweeted that out.
Speaker 2: It's not, you know, Larry Scott's fault that you know,
Speaker 2: Kevin Sublan has been pretty bad in terms of a
Speaker 2: hire for Arizona thus far, and it hasn't been wasn't
Speaker 2: as you know, whatever is John Embry, Mike McIntyre and
Speaker 2: ever the up and down of his career there. That's
Speaker 2: not on the conference. It's just these schools needs to
Speaker 2: do a better job of finding perhaps up and comers,
Speaker 2: perhaps better deals at head coach, and figure out how
Speaker 2: to get creative in terms of raising money. And that's
Speaker 2: it's certainly tougher. But I'm not sure I ever understood
Speaker 2: why they everybody needs to just automatically be on an
Speaker 2: equal playing field.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't understand that that I don't. I don't reckon
Speaker 2: that that's what college football has happened.
Speaker 1: I don't reckon. I don't reckon. All Right, the other
Speaker 1: tidbit here that I think we should probably mention. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so the Big Ten pitched it, the ACC agreed a
Speaker 1: one time transfer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the NCAA is now looking into it as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, without penalty. It's under consideration for the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: slash twenty twenty one school year. To provide some important
Speaker 1: context here, the only sports for which you must sit
Speaker 1: out a year if you transfer or college football, both
Speaker 1: men's and women's basketball, also baseball, also hockey. Right, if
Speaker 1: you add this rule one time transfer without penalty. My
Speaker 1: guess is we're going to see a lot of interesting
Speaker 1: takes out there as whether or not this is good,
Speaker 1: it's bad. They are winners, there are losers.
Speaker 2: They're already out there. The takes are out there. Oh,
Speaker 2: the takes trips alongside his weird hot dog sandwich thing
Speaker 2: is out there.
Speaker 1: So what do you think? I'll tell you where I
Speaker 1: stand here. Please. I think this is a really good thing, okay,
Speaker 1: And I understand the counter argument here is that it
Speaker 1: perhaps devalues a commitment, and why commit if you can
Speaker 1: just leave. I'm sure we're gonna see plenty of you know,
Speaker 1: the kids these days style arguments against this. But the
Speaker 1: truth of the matter is, and we've been beating this
Speaker 1: drune for years on this show. Programs coaches have so
Speaker 1: much leverage over these kids. Yeah, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: mean to demean the value of a scholarship. Certainly, that's
Speaker 1: something that holds a lot of value. Sure, but programs
Speaker 1: have so much damn leverage over these kids. And we
Speaker 1: saw with mel Tucker. Look, I mean mel Tucker, I'm
Speaker 1: sure didn't do it with any malice in his heart,
Speaker 1: but mel Tucker got a godfather offer to go to
Speaker 1: a different school, He got five and a half million dollars.
Speaker 1: And now the kids that's signed to play under Meltucker
Speaker 1: that he's not going to be there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is not this is not the first
Speaker 2: time we saw Todd Graham, we saw Willie Tagger.
Speaker 1: Happens, all happens every single year. So I don't know
Speaker 1: if this balances truly balances out that situation, but I
Speaker 1: do think it gives kids a little bit more leeway here.
Speaker 1: I like the move, I really do. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think offering freedom is a good thing. And I
Speaker 2: know people are going to say, well, like, this is
Speaker 2: free agency for college football. It's my opinion that kids
Speaker 2: don't want to transfer. Kids want to be happy with
Speaker 2: where they end up. Kids want to be somewhere where
Speaker 2: they're perhaps dating somebody, perhaps they like their classes. If that,
Speaker 2: if academics are a part of their life in a
Speaker 2: major way. They like their coaches. They're committing to a
Speaker 2: school because, you know, potentially their coaches there and stays there.
Speaker 2: They're committing to a school because maybe they like the
Speaker 2: college town, maybe they like the campus, maybe they like
Speaker 2: the food, maybe they like the facility. They want to
Speaker 2: succeed in the place they commit to, And I can't
Speaker 2: imagine like people are freaking out because they think it's
Speaker 2: free agency and like, wow, it doesn't work out here,
Speaker 2: They're just going to go over there, Okay. You want
Speaker 2: people to want to be where you are. I think
Speaker 2: that's an understanding. Whether it's in an office setting, whether
Speaker 2: it's in a family setting, you want people to want
Speaker 2: to be there. And if you have all sorts of
Speaker 2: people who are not happy with their role, who've been
Speaker 2: sitting for two three years, or who get somewhere and
Speaker 2: be like, yeah, this was definitely a wrong decision. I'm
Speaker 2: trying to see this through, but I am unhappy. You
Speaker 2: want your locker room to be filled with happy people.
Speaker 2: That's why a team like Clemson has succeeded to the
Speaker 2: degree that they've succeeded because people, coaches, players, support staff
Speaker 2: want to work for Dabo Sweeney at Clemson, and so
Speaker 2: it actually puts a lot more pressure on people running
Speaker 2: programs and running athletic departments to build a culture that
Speaker 2: people want to be a part of. And you cannot
Speaker 2: hire d holes. Tie you can't hire d holes as much,
Speaker 2: and that's a big win.
Speaker 1: You know. I mean, so much of the problem with
Speaker 1: college football is the fact that it's college football, that
Speaker 1: it's not club football. That we've tied in the academics
Speaker 1: with the sport. I think that's the root of much
Speaker 1: of the evil that we see in college football. And
Speaker 1: somebody once told me that, without exception, any player who
Speaker 1: plays at the D one level, certainly the D one
Speaker 1: Power five level, without exception, all of those kids think
Speaker 1: they're going to the NFL. Of course, perhaps that's the
Speaker 1: cynical way to look at college football, but that I
Speaker 1: believe is the reality that we are living in. Academics
Speaker 1: can still be important to many kids, it still is
Speaker 1: and will always be, but football, if you're playing at
Speaker 1: this level, definitely takes on a greater significance to I
Speaker 1: think deny an option for kids who are very clearly
Speaker 1: heavily invested in their football future, maybe to go elsewhere
Speaker 1: and play to pursue that dream I just think is wrong.
Speaker 2: It also takes power away from the NC double A
Speaker 2: who's been having to decide on waiver appeals. Well, let's
Speaker 2: see there it is, and that's power away, which is nice.
Speaker 2: You're speaking to my stick it to the man's side. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you take power away from a governing body that if
Speaker 2: you listen to Kirk Farence, the sport has probably grown
Speaker 2: too large for the NC double A to sort of
Speaker 2: figure out which rules too and to kind of enforce.
Speaker 2: And that that all rings true to me. You're also
Speaker 2: strengthening It probably strengthens G five teams because a lot
Speaker 2: of times the power five player will want to transfer
Speaker 2: to a G five school but may want to play immediately,
Speaker 2: or may only have a year of eligibility left and
Speaker 2: hasn't graduated and goes to the FCS level to avoid
Speaker 2: sitting out for a year. So you're strengthening G five
Speaker 2: And I understand you could have situations like Derek King.
Speaker 2: You know it's not working out for him at Houston,
Speaker 2: and he's obviously proven himself to be a level quarterback.
Speaker 2: Why not go up a slight level? All the Houston's
Speaker 2: had a ton of success playing the ACC play at Miami.
Speaker 2: Generally speaking, teams that are very, very successful are not
Speaker 2: doing so because G five quarterbacks have gone to a
Speaker 2: Power five team. Generally, it's because Power five teams build
Speaker 2: cultures that really strong quarterbacks want to be a part of,
Speaker 2: and they develop and become a really strong quarterback or
Speaker 2: player there.
Speaker 1: So maybe the.
Speaker 2: FCS level is hurt a little bit by not getting
Speaker 2: a G five or a Power five transfer, be it
Speaker 2: at quarterback or any other position. But I don't think
Speaker 2: it's going to be as pronounced as the the alarmists
Speaker 2: may think.
Speaker 1: All right, enough on the news front, Okay, we got
Speaker 1: a bunch of really smart, really fun questions here from
Speaker 1: our college football loving for ballers. Congratulations, Skippy, you've got mail,
Speaker 1: You've got mail. On the solid verbal let's start here
Speaker 1: at the very top. From Brian, he wants to know
Speaker 1: how does Baylor's improved defense adapt to the Dave Aranda system.
Speaker 1: So Dave Randa, highly paid defensive coordinator for the LSU Tigers,
Speaker 1: they win a national championship. Matt Rule Leeves Goes gets
Speaker 1: a godfather offer from the Carolina Panthers. Well, and behold,
Speaker 1: Dave Randa's your new head football coach in Waco, Dan Now,
Speaker 1: Dave Randa comes from really good defensive stock. He's run
Speaker 1: a great defense. Is defensive stock. He is defensive stock.
Speaker 1: He kind of sounds like Batman when he talks right,
Speaker 1: He's got that prodelly deep voice. But defensively, defensively, what
Speaker 1: are you feeling here? So Phil Snow ran like an
Speaker 1: adaptable three three five. He rotated in a number of players,
Speaker 1: which is good news for the Bears because I think
Speaker 1: they lose nine starters those most of if not all,
Speaker 1: of their linebackers. Their secondary is going to look pretty different.
Speaker 1: But a lot of the guys who are stepping in
Speaker 1: should be familiar or with playing high level college football
Speaker 1: on a high level defense. David Randa's defense succeeded. I
Speaker 1: saw this from our Daily Bears, a really cool community
Speaker 1: that David Randa's defenses have succeeded in year one. Every
Speaker 1: you know, Utah State, Wisconsin, LSU, They've made jumps. So
Speaker 1: I imagine Baylor is going to be in a pretty
Speaker 1: good position. I don't know if it's where they were
Speaker 1: last year. A lot of upperclassmen, a lot of guys
Speaker 1: with a ton of experience. The Baylor offense to me
Speaker 1: under Larry Fedora is probably the bigger question. The line
Speaker 1: is okay, but pretty new, and they should not be
Speaker 1: as explosive as they were at times. This was not
Speaker 1: a crazy explosive offense last year, but it's going to
Speaker 1: be new look on both sides, and I think there's
Speaker 1: gonna be an adjustment period. The good news for the
Speaker 1: defense is, I mean, are there a lot of scary
Speaker 1: experienced quarterbacks in the Big Twelve? My sources say no, no,
Speaker 1: not really. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean there's Sam Ellinger, and we assume Spencer Ratler,
Speaker 2: whoever starts at Oklahoma should succeed. But otherwise across the conference,
Speaker 2: you know, Spencer Sanders had moments, but he's not where
Speaker 2: Oklahoma State quarterbacks have been, Kansas State, TCU, West Virginias.
Speaker 2: A lot of questions on offense. So it's a good
Speaker 2: year I think to work in a new defensive scheme
Speaker 2: for Baylor.
Speaker 1: On the topic of Baylor, we have a question here
Speaker 1: from Adam and it might not even be David Randas
Speaker 1: three four, by the way, correct on Roberts is the
Speaker 1: new coordinator. It might be his defense. We'll say correct,
Speaker 1: and that's where I'm going next year? So Adam writes
Speaker 1: in and he says he graduated from Baylor More Baylor
Speaker 1: in two thousand and one. He was before Matt Rule.
Speaker 1: He had never seen a Baylor coach leave under good circumstances.
Speaker 1: And he knows what the talking points are when a
Speaker 1: coach gets fired for losing or for some crazy other reason.
Speaker 1: But his question is what are the talking points when
Speaker 1: it doesn't end on bad terms? What are the preseason
Speaker 1: talking points now? For Baylor, given the fact that they
Speaker 1: had a great season a year ago. Matt Rule leaves
Speaker 1: what they bring in an excited guy in a Dave Aranda.
Speaker 1: This is a really good question. I had never really
Speaker 1: considered this. I would lean on the fact that I
Speaker 1: think the talking points will center around the fact that,
Speaker 1: first off, Dave Randa's first time head coach. But Dave
Speaker 1: randa brings in a I believe proven commodity at least
Speaker 1: on the offensive side of the ball. And Larry Fedora,
Speaker 1: who knows that a coach offense should hopefully improve their
Speaker 1: output on the offensive side. Excuse me, and you mentioned
Speaker 1: Ron Roberts. Ron Roberts was a mentor for Dave Oranda.
Speaker 1: He taught him a lot of what he knows. So
Speaker 1: I would hope that if you like the Dave Randa
Speaker 1: defense that you've seen over the years, what you're going
Speaker 1: to see now out of Ron Roberts, Even if there
Speaker 1: is a new cast on the defensive side of the
Speaker 1: ball for Baylor, you should expect more of the same
Speaker 1: moving forward. I think you know what you are getting,
Speaker 1: or at least we have a really good sense of
Speaker 1: what we are getting for Baylor the foreseeable future, just
Speaker 1: given the coaching staff that Randa has assembled here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I expect year one reduce sodium Baylor. That's all
Speaker 2: reduce sodium Baylor. I like reduce sodium Baylor. Nathan wants
Speaker 2: to know, Yes, will Wisconsin win a national tighter title
Speaker 2: or tighter under Paul christ.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: Next question shares Wisconsin's really good and fun at football.
Speaker 2: They need a game changing quarterback and I don't think
Speaker 2: they've had one since Russell Wilson. And that was not
Speaker 2: an accident, but that was a happy occurrence to receive
Speaker 2: somebody as talented did Russell Wilson. I just the talent
Speaker 2: isn't necessarily there. There's certainly a tier below recruiting wise,
Speaker 2: and bringing in blue chips to absolutely compete and win
Speaker 2: a Big Ten championship over presumably Ohio State and then
Speaker 2: win two games against teams like Clemson, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma,
Speaker 2: that kind of thing. So no, I think probably not,
Speaker 2: but I'll never say never. I'll say there's a one
Speaker 2: point six percent chance.
Speaker 1: I am not rooting against their chances. But no, I
Speaker 1: tend to agree with you.
Speaker 2: No, nicelys that just came into Madison as well. Jack
Speaker 2: wants to know who should Colorado hire and by the time,
Speaker 2: do you want to just react to every potential hire
Speaker 2: we see happening?
Speaker 1: Well, we joked around on the mysterious g Chat earlier
Speaker 1: today that they were going to announce Brett Bielma at
Speaker 1: six oh eight pm Eastern time, shortly after we hit
Speaker 1: the stop button, because like all big announcements in college football,
Speaker 1: it always happens immediately after we hit the stop button
Speaker 1: on a podcast, doesn't it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're not a college football podcast unless you complain
Speaker 2: about the timing of coaching news.
Speaker 1: So who are who are the likely candidates here? Brett
Speaker 1: Beielma's one.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, Troy Calhoun and Brett Bielima. There was a
Speaker 2: report from football Scoop. I saw today as we record
Speaker 2: this Wednesday, the what's the nineteenth? Yeah, that an announcement
Speaker 2: could come as early as tomorrow, so shift time with us.
Speaker 2: But I think both of those hires. What's the opposite
Speaker 2: of hot and bothered? Cold and comfortable?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I don't both. I don't know those either of
Speaker 1: those options, do you?
Speaker 2: I like the literal option that Troy Calhoun and what
Speaker 2: that offense looks like at its best. But I would
Speaker 2: just go get Ken Neo modalolo engage his interest. Maybe
Speaker 2: he wasn't interested in Colorado, but I would. I would
Speaker 2: go for the dude doing this option thing. Man, I
Speaker 2: can't what I can't get into it. Colorado is a
Speaker 2: job that if you take Colorado to nine wins, you're
Speaker 2: probably gonna leave unless you went there or are a
Speaker 2: West Coast guy, and that's where you want to coach
Speaker 2: in the Pac twelve. If Brett Bilma goes to Boulder
Speaker 2: and goes nine to three, he's just gonna leave and
Speaker 2: we're back here.
Speaker 1: Who wants to Bilma? Though?
Speaker 2: I mean he had a he had a nice year
Speaker 2: at Arkansas singular singular, and a really nice run at Wisconsin. Now,
Speaker 2: he's been in the NFL. Arkansas is a tough place
Speaker 2: to win, and he had a singular good year. Troy
Speaker 2: Calhoun doesn't really do it for me. It's hard to
Speaker 2: know exactly what he'll run. Ken Neo Moodalolo talked about
Speaker 2: adjusting his offense when he was under consideration for the
Speaker 2: Arizona job, and you know, perhaps it's it's a different
Speaker 2: style offense than what he's done in previous years, but
Speaker 2: the air Force defense is these past like it. Basically
Speaker 2: his entire era have not been good. And I understand
Speaker 2: it's tough to build a good defense when that's what
Speaker 2: your offense runs. But that's that's tough. I would trust
Speaker 2: ken Ney Madololo more. That's all that's that to me,
Speaker 2: is is better. I know Eric Bienemy's name came around.
Speaker 2: He was the offensive coordinator there like a twenty eleven,
Speaker 2: twenty twelve all time bad Colorado offenses. I don't think
Speaker 2: that's on him. Has succeeded with the Chiefs. I think
Speaker 2: he can do better than Colorado.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Again, we love Boulder and we like Colorado football being good.
Speaker 1: I'm mixed on the Brett bielm The thing I don't
Speaker 1: think that culturally he is a good fit. But I
Speaker 1: am interested stylistically in what a version of his old
Speaker 1: offense could do in the Pact. Now, if he could
Speaker 1: rebuild essentially, uh, what he had at Wisconsin with a
Speaker 1: beast offensive line, in a really solid running game, and
Speaker 1: just like a really good game manager at quarterback, you
Speaker 1: could go places in the You could win nine games
Speaker 1: in the Pac twelve with that pretty easily.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's because he was at Colorado State, but Jim
Speaker 2: mckaway just looks like a Colorado coach. He just looks
Speaker 2: as like, Yeah, that dude runs out with a buffalo.
Speaker 1: I get it. Did I see that they were considering
Speaker 1: Jim Mora?
Speaker 2: Of course, anyway's post job, Jim Mora's name comes up,
Speaker 2: great age retreads. Good lord, Okay, I don't. I mean
Speaker 2: Darren Shiverini. Shiverini, who's been there for a few years assistant, right,
Speaker 2: I know he's been under consideration.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a. It's a. It's another tough job. Next question,
Speaker 1: Next question, Dan, let's go to let's go to left coast. Kane. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm ready. Did the Miami Hurricanes win the off season? Okay,
Speaker 1: this is a loaded question. Headed into spring ball, they
Speaker 1: went six and seven. They landed a new offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: and Rhet Lashley, the top two players in the transfer portal.
Speaker 1: They hired Ed Reid. They finished with the number thirteen
Speaker 1: recruiting class and six under armour all Americans. Wow. So
Speaker 1: I was under the impression that they sort of won
Speaker 1: the off season last year when they got Manny Diaz.
Speaker 1: We did a whole thing on how you know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's bringing the swagger back to Miami. That did not
Speaker 1: work out according to the plane here. But now we're back.
Speaker 1: We're another bite at the apple. Dan, Did they win
Speaker 1: this offseason?
Speaker 2: I mean I've always I've long said, Miami and USC
Speaker 2: our sister schools in USC man those recruiting classes, the
Speaker 2: assistant hires, the transfers.
Speaker 1: All every is htt Lashley good. Yeah, that's a question.
Speaker 1: Is he is he? Actually?
Speaker 2: So his offense is whether or not he's called the plays.
Speaker 2: I don't know if he's been like the architect because
Speaker 2: it's been with Gus Melzan and most recently Sunny Dykes
Speaker 2: at SMU. His offenses have succeeded with other people building
Speaker 2: those offenses, and so Auburn's offense seemed to get worse
Speaker 2: the more he was empowered.
Speaker 1: I wasn't in the room.
Speaker 2: I have no idea, but that's what it seems that,
Speaker 2: you know, the Nick Marshall offenses were really fun, and
Speaker 2: then when they went into the post Nick Marshall world
Speaker 2: where at Lashley seemed to have more responsibility and what
Speaker 2: they weren't as good.
Speaker 1: So I don't know.
Speaker 2: I honestly don't know about that. And the transfer portal thing.
Speaker 2: The Eric King certainly promising Quincy Roche. I think his
Speaker 2: name is from Temple the edge rusher really strong for
Speaker 2: Temple ed Reid. If he can play safety, he's able
Speaker 2: to play. I don't know exactly. I think he's what
Speaker 2: the head of personnel, chief of staff, something like that.
Speaker 2: So hopefully that's a good influence on people caring at Miami.
Speaker 2: It's just what does the offense look like?
Speaker 1: That's all it is.
Speaker 2: And so winning the off season, I don't know. I
Speaker 2: like what Oregon's done personally, hiring Joe Morehead, recruiting well,
Speaker 2: keeping Mariho crist of all, all of those things have
Speaker 2: been positive for me. There's a number of teams who've
Speaker 2: had decent enough off seasons. Tennessee finishing with a really
Speaker 2: nice recruiting class and finishing their year. I think the
Speaker 2: momentum is nice for Tennessee. Sure, I think winning the
Speaker 2: off season is an important thing if you're Miami. So yes,
Speaker 2: I will say yes, sure.
Speaker 1: I mean I like the fact that Manny Diaz is
Speaker 1: pulling out the stops here and seemingly trying to build
Speaker 1: a better program, trying to make an immediate impact. But
Speaker 1: I would hope so, yeah, you know, I mean there's
Speaker 1: reason for optimism. But I was very optimistic going into
Speaker 1: this last season and that did not work out at all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Derek King behind that same offensive line won't be amazing.
Speaker 2: Coda writes in when will be the next time?
Speaker 1: So get out your crystal ball here, Dan, Yeah, the
Speaker 1: next time a team west of the Mississippi wins a
Speaker 1: national title? And who will it be? Wow, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try to translate this.
Speaker 2: When will a team west of the Mississippi win a
Speaker 2: national title?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: How we would edit that? And who is going to
Speaker 2: be that team? I think the easiest answers would be
Speaker 2: And I had to look up exactly the border of
Speaker 2: the Mississi too, actually, So if you are back and
Speaker 2: forth about Minnesota, they count Minneapolis is West believe if
Speaker 2: my research is correct, so Iowa, if that's a team
Speaker 2: that you're considering Nebraska, who will it be? I think
Speaker 2: the earliest is probably twenty twenty one would be the earliest.
Speaker 2: And I would have it as probably Oregon, Washington, Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: And I would say Oregon or Washington because I think
Speaker 2: the aths are easier for them if the PAC twelve
Speaker 2: remains somewhat down at the top, Okay, see what happens
Speaker 2: with Washington quarterback. But I'm pretty confident Washington can build
Speaker 2: a borderline championship defense.
Speaker 1: Se I'm not feeling you on the Washington vibe. Oh,
Speaker 1: I love hyping up Washington. I know, I know you
Speaker 1: do it every year. I look, Jimmy Lake could work out.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of reason to believe that Jimmy Lake
Speaker 1: will work out. I'm always skeptical on new coaches. You
Speaker 1: don't care if I watched John Donovan offenses. I have
Speaker 1: watched Joses thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. Implosive implosive implosive. Yeah, yeah, sorry,
Speaker 1: So forgive me if I'm a little bit skeptical. I
Speaker 1: share your optimism on Oregon. I've got Oregon in my
Speaker 1: contenders list as well, because recruiting has been strong. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Mario Chris Ball has played a much more physical brand
Speaker 1: I think of football, especially on the defensive side of
Speaker 1: the football. Bring that sec mentality, bringing that sec mentality
Speaker 1: to the Pacific Northwest. So more to come on that front.
Speaker 1: Say the least, I like Oregon, I like Oklahoma or
Speaker 1: Oklahoma kind of goes without saying they've been not I
Speaker 1: almost want to disqualify Oklahoma. Well, they're in here. This
Speaker 1: is the question. I've seen them in the playoff.
Speaker 2: I have not seen the current iteration of Oregon against
Speaker 2: We'll see them against Ohio State early next year. I've
Speaker 2: not seen them on that stage. So I cannot say
Speaker 2: with certainty that there is a good chance they're going
Speaker 2: to get blown out with Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: You can, you can, you can't. I let me throw
Speaker 1: Texas A and m out there. A coach that's been
Speaker 1: there before. That's just such a tough path though, it's
Speaker 1: a very tough path, but it's a coach that's been
Speaker 1: there before in Jimbo Fisher. It's a recruiting situation that's
Speaker 1: been very strong in the last two years, especially this year,
Speaker 1: very very good. He's building depth. He's also got a
Speaker 1: lot coming back from season. So it's a good situation
Speaker 1: in college station. I don't know how soon it is,
Speaker 1: and I know Alabama is still recruiting and still playing
Speaker 1: at a very very high level. But what the post
Speaker 1: to Alabama looks like remains somewhat to be seen.
Speaker 2: I have a guest, I think they're gonna look like Alabama.
Speaker 1: They're gonna look incredible, I'm sure, but there is some
Speaker 1: turnover there that maybe they can take advantage of. The
Speaker 1: SEC West is baller. Obviously, LSU just won a national championship.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty good situation as well. LC is going
Speaker 1: to take a minute to get back to where they were,
Speaker 1: though I believe that's accurate. So A and M is
Speaker 1: interesting to me. The two programs that aren't on either
Speaker 1: of our lists are Texas and USC.
Speaker 2: I would put Texas ahead of Texas A and M.
Speaker 2: I would put Texas A and M ahead of Texas
Speaker 2: if they were still in the Big twelve. It's a
Speaker 2: path thing to me, and as open as the SEC
Speaker 2: West appears to be. With a new full time starting
Speaker 2: quarterback for Alabama and some consistency issues in retaining assistance,
Speaker 2: Alabama is still crazy talented. LSU should field still really
Speaker 2: good sides the ball, offense and defense should still be
Speaker 2: interesting enough. The Mississippi schools are not national title contenders.
Speaker 2: Auburn is a perennial, dangerous at times team. The path
Speaker 2: is just more difficult and I cannot right now. I mean,
Speaker 2: this year will have Kellen Mond and I just moving forward.
Speaker 2: There's nothing that tells me texts A and M can
Speaker 2: come over like two humps right now, whereas with Texas
Speaker 2: it looks like it's only one hump.
Speaker 1: What if right now? What if Nick Saban retires in
Speaker 1: two years. Sure, we've been saying that since twenty fifteen
Speaker 1: he may be indestructible, but if and when he retires,
Speaker 1: that could upset the balance of things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's gonna be a long time for USC.
Speaker 2: It was a long time before they were really good
Speaker 2: and it's been a long time since. So all right,
Speaker 2: they had the Sam Donald dear and.
Speaker 1: That was that. Jeremy says, I know you guys love
Speaker 1: to do restaurant recommendations, but what about stadium recommendations? What's
Speaker 1: on your bucket list for college football stadiums to attend
Speaker 1: and which ones have you been to that verballers should
Speaker 1: go to. So for those listeners who do not know
Speaker 1: the full story of how this show came to fruition,
Speaker 1: Dan used to do a digital series for SI dot
Speaker 1: com called The College Football Tour Guy. The SI Tour
Speaker 1: Guy as he was later known. You visited a lot
Speaker 1: of college football stadiums, so your resume, at least in
Speaker 1: this sense, is far deeper than mine. What are your
Speaker 1: recommendations here.
Speaker 2: Wisconsin in terms of putting it all together? Game environment,
Speaker 2: Tailgating town is really strong in the Big Ten. I've
Speaker 2: enjoyed going to some of the like the cocktail party.
Speaker 2: It's not a college town. I would if you're looking
Speaker 2: at bucket list stuff, maybe don't go to a neutral
Speaker 2: site game. In terms of places I haven't been that
Speaker 2: i'd like to go, I still haven't been to the Plane,
Speaker 2: so I haven't been to an Auburn game. I haven't
Speaker 2: been to Stillwater or Norman. I'd like to go to
Speaker 2: both of those places I haven't been to. I'm not
Speaker 2: dying to go to a Florida State or Miami game,
Speaker 2: but I would. That's just not top of my list
Speaker 2: where some of other you know, the smaller college towns are.
Speaker 2: Clemson's a really good time if it's a big game.
Speaker 2: They just don't play that many big games with what
Speaker 2: the ACC is like right now. Sure, unless I guess
Speaker 2: Notre Dame comes to town or if you know, North
Speaker 2: Carolina or Louisville continue to improve. What else is on
Speaker 2: my Tennessee is wild. I love my time at Tennessee.
Speaker 2: That is a just enormous undertaking. Oregon and Washington are
Speaker 2: both fun out west in the Pacific Northwest, it's you know,
Speaker 2: even though Seattle's not a college town that stadiums run
Speaker 2: on the lake as well, it's a good time. I'm
Speaker 2: trying to think other bucket lists. I Wisconsin to me
Speaker 2: is in the Midwest, Notre Dame is a good time,
Speaker 2: but South Bend didn't really move the needle for me.
Speaker 2: But the actual Notre Dame campus and stadium was pretty incredible.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I would say in the Midwest, go to
Speaker 2: Madison would be my verdict. And in the South, lsu
Speaker 2: or Ole Miss l it's.
Speaker 1: Your ole, miss Okay. I'm gonna go with your recommendations.
Speaker 1: Go with bands recommendation. George is also a great time.
Speaker 1: Georgia was a good time. I enjoyed my enjoyed my game,
Speaker 1: and I saw at Georgia. Yeah, which new higher This
Speaker 1: is from MSU jargon great, which New Hire will win
Speaker 1: the most games next year? And which coaches will be
Speaker 1: on the hot seat in twenty twenty. So we're just
Speaker 1: skipping over twenty twenty here and going right to the end.
Speaker 1: So here's a quick listing of new coaches. We've got
Speaker 1: Sam Pittman at Arkansas, Eli Drinkwoit's at Missou, Mike Leech
Speaker 1: at Mississippi State, Jeff Haffley Boston College, Mike Norvelle Florida State,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Lake at Washington we mentioned him earlier, Mel Tucker
Speaker 1: at Michigan State. We've got Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss.
Speaker 1: We've got Greg Ciano at Rutgers, Ryan Silverfield Memphis, Jeff
Speaker 1: Scott USF Dave Randa Baylor, Kaylin de Boor at Fresno State.
Speaker 1: We've got Brady Hokee at San Diego State, And did
Speaker 1: I mention Todd Graham Graham at Old There.
Speaker 2: Are more than this, but these are the ones I
Speaker 2: guess we'll consider.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, so of these here, Yeah, who who strikes
Speaker 1: you as being in the best situation too, let's say
Speaker 1: win the most games and or potentially make a make
Speaker 1: a big Bowl game.
Speaker 2: So there's only a couple of them where the coaches
Speaker 2: left because the situation was good and they decided to
Speaker 2: retire or move on to a bigger job. And so
Speaker 2: it's Ryan Silverfield at Memphis, Jimmy Lake and Washington Nick Rolovich.
Speaker 2: I forgot to mention Nick Rolovich at Rolovich Washington State. Yes,
Speaker 2: obviously Jeff Tedford retired for health reasons from Fresno State.
Speaker 2: San Diego State is in a good situation, especially on defense,
Speaker 2: and Baylor in bringing in David Randon to replace your
Speaker 2: guy Matt Ruhle heading to the Carolina Panthers. So a
Speaker 2: lot of like continuity schools, I'm probably gonna say Ryan
Speaker 2: Silverfield at Members I've got him highlighted returning quarterback, non
Speaker 2: major conference but semi major conference, depending on where your
Speaker 2: brain's at. I think he's in a good situation continuity wise,
Speaker 2: whereas a lot of these guys are either in very
Speaker 2: tough divisions, tough conferences, or are inheriting a talent level
Speaker 2: that's probably year two, three years away. So I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go with Ryan Silverfield here I agree.
Speaker 1: Moving on, all right, Taylor says, tell me something good
Speaker 1: about Texas Tech football. Oh, Alan Bowman's good. Alan Bowman's good.
Speaker 1: They've also got a terrific home schedule. They have a
Speaker 1: good scat next year. They've got Baylor, Texas.
Speaker 2: And Oklahoma all at home. Their defense was probably their
Speaker 2: best defense and now the Big twelve is very different
Speaker 2: in twenty nine, but probably the best defense since like
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen. Yeah, something like that. To set up points
Speaker 2: per drive was like seventy seventh, which is a revelation
Speaker 2: to just being kind of below average. So it's going
Speaker 2: to be an interesting year. Alan Bowman seems to always
Speaker 2: get hurt, so sometimes quarterbacks get hurt a lot and
Speaker 2: then they just don't and hopefully that's what happens to
Speaker 2: Texas Tech.
Speaker 1: He also says actual questions, so apparently that wasn't his
Speaker 1: real question. Oh okay, how does the Pac twelves continued
Speaker 1: dissent impact the overall landscape of college football if it
Speaker 1: doesn't improve in the next few years? How does realignment
Speaker 1: look for West Coast football? So does he mean realignment
Speaker 1: in a figurative or a literal sense? Because I am
Speaker 1: here for the literal sense if we mean like that
Speaker 1: like Pangaea.
Speaker 2: Oh, let's do that thing again, land masses rejiggering.
Speaker 1: Oh let's get Chip Brown online one, Let's do this
Speaker 1: thing over again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the West Coast literally breaking off the rest of
Speaker 2: the country and floated to the Pacific, right right, it
Speaker 2: makes it worse. I mean, the Pac twelve playing interesting
Speaker 2: games on a channel that everybody gets is a net
Speaker 2: positive for everybody involved. I don't know if and when
Speaker 2: that happens, So I think he's probably asking, like, does
Speaker 2: the PAC twelve and Big twelve do they merge? That
Speaker 2: seems to be the underlying part of his question. I
Speaker 2: don't think so, but I can't swear that it won't happen. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it is important for every single major conference to have
Speaker 2: impressive teams at the top and good enough teams in
Speaker 2: the middle that any given week something weird can happen,
Speaker 2: sort of like where the Big twelve I think more
Speaker 2: often than not has been Maybe what the SEC looked
Speaker 2: like in twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen when Ole Miss became
Speaker 2: a player, what the ACC was like with you know,
Speaker 2: the annual Clemson Florida State but also you know, Louisville's
Speaker 2: hanging around Teddy Bridgewater, all these teams. That's what you want,
Speaker 2: and that's where the PAC twelve isn't. The PAC twelve
Speaker 2: has chunks of impressive teams at different places. You know,
Speaker 2: ASU here and there, USC's offense Utah until they have
Speaker 2: to play talented teams Oregon when they're not let down
Speaker 2: against a team like ASU or finishing the Auburn game
Speaker 2: in that way. They need that quality of the top.
Speaker 2: They need two really strong teams at the top and
Speaker 2: then four teams after that that it had their act together.
Speaker 2: You know, get that three out of three on the
Speaker 2: competence test that we did on the twos cruise midway
Speaker 2: through the year. And I'm not confident in it.
Speaker 1: I really am not.
Speaker 2: So I think college football is just going to continue
Speaker 2: to suffer without a decent PAC twelve.
Speaker 1: So we just move Arizona and Arizona State, along with
Speaker 1: Colorado and Utah over into the Big twelve. I guess
Speaker 1: they'd have fourteen teams at that point, so I have
Speaker 1: the back to the pack eight I think, so, yeah,
Speaker 1: that will be eight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's really a solution is to take out teams
Speaker 2: and fan bases oh, I am, I am here for this.
Speaker 2: You take out maybe the best one of the best
Speaker 2: two college basketball teams in the conference in Arizona or programs. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's a very strange okay, maybe the only consistently good
Speaker 2: team football wise in Utah.
Speaker 1: Jake says, what traditionally bad program would you want to
Speaker 1: suddenly become a national power? Yeah? The example he uses
Speaker 1: here is Ucla. He says, UCLA is now the best
Speaker 1: team in the Pac twelve and a consistent top ten teams.
Speaker 1: So he says, traditionally bad program. I guess, yeah, which
Speaker 1: is kind of misleading, Like, yeah, is Ucla traditionally bad?
Speaker 1: I don't know if they go that far.
Speaker 2: So if we were to shift this to like underperforming underperforming, yeah,
Speaker 2: given what we consider to be a higher ceiling than
Speaker 2: what they've shown.
Speaker 1: I actually did take this in a more literal sense,
Speaker 1: traditionally bad. So I went through each Power five conference
Speaker 1: and identified the schools that I would want to root
Speaker 1: for to suddenly become that national power in the ACC
Speaker 1: For me at Syracuse, Syracuse has been traditionally pretty bad. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: And I've always been a fan of Otto the Orangeman. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Out of the Orange, So for me, it's Syracuse. Also,
Speaker 1: the Carrier Dome just a weird place to play. I
Speaker 1: do enjoy that element more notoriety for the Carrier Dome
Speaker 1: in Syracuse, and the Orange is pretty exciting. Iowa State
Speaker 1: in the Big Twelve now, maybe not so much recently,
Speaker 1: but Iowa State's been a doormat for a long time
Speaker 1: in the Big Twelve and I've enjoyed what's going on
Speaker 1: there under Matt Campbell, and I'd love to see more
Speaker 1: of it. So Iowa State the national power.
Speaker 2: Iowa State is an easy, easy answer, just because those games,
Speaker 2: when the big Games and ames are always fun.
Speaker 1: In the Big Ten, Minnesota is really interesting to me.
Speaker 1: Minnesota had a renaissance this past year and PJ Fleck
Speaker 1: is trying to build them up accordingly. But they play
Speaker 1: in an outdoor stadium in the middle of winter. It's
Speaker 1: maybe not the easiest place to recruit to, but it
Speaker 1: definitely poses an interesting challenge if you're a team having
Speaker 1: to go to Minneapolis in mid to late November.
Speaker 2: I'd rather have Nebraska as a super strong team in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: But they're not traditionally bad.
Speaker 2: Maybe underwhelming, modern underwhelming.
Speaker 1: Modern underwhelming. Okay, I could get behind that too.
Speaker 2: But Minnesota is currently peaking, and he used the example
Speaker 2: of top ten Ucla and you are pointing out Minnesota,
Speaker 2: who literally.
Speaker 1: Just finished the season.
Speaker 2: I know, but traditionally they've been very bad. I don't
Speaker 2: think no, Minnesota has not been traditionally very bad. They
Speaker 2: have been an average program. Oh, come on, they've been
Speaker 2: They're a perennial bowl.
Speaker 1: Program, are they. Yeah, look that one up. Okay, I'll
Speaker 1: look at it. If I'm wrong, yell at me, I'll
Speaker 1: take Okay, Okay, Pac twelve, Pack twelve, I've got cal.
Speaker 2: I think i'd rather have Ucla. They're playing the Rose Bowl.
Speaker 2: They've had big names come through their Chip Kelly's there now,
Speaker 2: so that means Chip Kelly's reigniting the program, which I
Speaker 2: think is.
Speaker 1: A positive thing. What about Arizona?
Speaker 2: Arizona's fine, They're fine. I think Ucla is just a
Speaker 2: better answer.
Speaker 1: Do you know the one? Okay, it might be a
Speaker 1: better answer. But the one thing that I find interesting about.
Speaker 2: You, since nineteen ninety nine, Minnesota has four seasons where
Speaker 2: they haven't been to a bowl game. Really, so since
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine, if I'm going to add on the fly, seven, nine, fourteen, sixteen.
Speaker 1: Out of.
Speaker 2: Twenty one seasons, they've been to a Bowl game.
Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, I didn't know that. I'm going to leave
Speaker 1: this in the show.
Speaker 2: That was after a long gap. We thank you that
Speaker 2: the Jim Whacker era, yeah, was not super kind.
Speaker 1: All right, So there's a little something for everybody. If
Speaker 1: you want to yell at me, at Suliver, well you
Speaker 1: can yell at me. It's fine. Shout out Joe Salem,
Speaker 1: shout out Murray Warmath. That's right, Stole. What I was
Speaker 1: going to say, though, is the one thing that I
Speaker 1: don't know if it comes through on any of our shows, is,
Speaker 1: of course you're mister Pac twelve, mister Oregon. Yeah, people
Speaker 1: know that, but I don't think it ever truly comes through.
Speaker 1: Just how angry you are that Arizona isn't better.
Speaker 2: I do want Arizona. Arizona is a great time. What
Speaker 2: were we just discussing this with someone disappointing we were
Speaker 2: we were just talking about this very point and Arizona
Speaker 2: not being a boll team is the dumbest thing in
Speaker 2: the world.
Speaker 1: It comes through like fire on the Mysterious g Chat
Speaker 1: when we talk about Arizona and you are genuinely, like
Speaker 1: viscerally angry. Yeah, over the fact that this is not
Speaker 1: a better football program.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm a legacy. My mom went to Arizona.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, proud graduate.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think UCLA is the better answer there. Uh.
Speaker 2: Colorado, I think is they're not print. They've won a
Speaker 2: national championship, but it'd be better if Colorado were better.
Speaker 2: I'd want probably, and they appear maybe to be on
Speaker 2: an upswing. I'd love for Tennessee to be a power again, yeah,
Speaker 2: and add some depth to the East there. I'd love
Speaker 2: for Arkansas to be mixing it up once again. I
Speaker 2: mean those like the run DMC teams. Yeah, amazing, amazingly
Speaker 2: fun to have Arkansas on the mix.
Speaker 1: At the top of the sport. I'm okay with both those. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, where do you want to go next year?
Speaker 2: Let's go to let's go to Mike any tips for
Speaker 2: being a new dad and watching college football? Now, this
Speaker 2: is sort of we're doing a non college football and
Speaker 2: not like a non college football part two to this
Speaker 2: Q and A yes, but this is a college football
Speaker 2: specific watch question, so I'm gonna do my best to
Speaker 2: tie it specific to watch in college football uh. He
Speaker 2: and his wife are expecting their first in August. So
Speaker 2: I'm trying to strategize the fall and the college football
Speaker 2: intake now.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna sit this one out. No, Ty, I
Speaker 1: think you should jump in. I could.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm you have so many good answers when
Speaker 2: you talk about things that you're not personally experienced with,
Speaker 2: and so do I.
Speaker 1: I have a puppy, which isn't quite the same thing.
Speaker 1: What so if you want, if you want feedback on
Speaker 1: that side of things, Mike, I'd be happy to oblige.
Speaker 2: But no, have you ever have you ever in person
Speaker 2: when somebody is talking about their kids, say, listen, I
Speaker 2: don't have a.
Speaker 1: Killing that puppy. I listen, I have a puppy. So
Speaker 1: if I can jump in right here, no, I haven't.
Speaker 2: And I drop your kid off at obedience school while
Speaker 2: you're at work, that's right, and you'll they'll give you
Speaker 2: a certificate.
Speaker 1: All right, so's what's what's the strategy here?
Speaker 2: The strategy is to get your kid probably sleep training.
Speaker 2: I have a couple recommendations as early as they'll let you,
Speaker 2: so you get on a good schedule.
Speaker 1: You're trying to get me to buy this from my
Speaker 1: cousin who just reads.
Speaker 2: I've got a really good recommendation, but I think I'm
Speaker 2: gonna try to get them on board as a sponsor.
Speaker 1: You gotta get him as a sponsor first.
Speaker 2: You gotta get him as a sponsor first, because I
Speaker 2: it will be the best reads I've done since I
Speaker 2: told the world how much you love Manscape. That's right, great,
Speaker 2: you gotta get them. You gotta get them on a
Speaker 2: regular sleeping schedule. And then what you have to do
Speaker 2: is to your spouse, say what do you want to
Speaker 2: get done? Do you have errand's? Do you want to
Speaker 2: take a nap? Do you want to go for a run,
Speaker 2: do you want to visit, you know, hang out with
Speaker 2: your friends? You let me know what you want to do,
Speaker 2: because I want to go to the gym, and I
Speaker 2: want to schedule that around the sleep schedule. And then
Speaker 2: you go to the gym for the last hour of
Speaker 2: a game you really want to watch. If you're in
Speaker 2: make sure you go to a gym that has TVs
Speaker 2: because I would also recommend your instinct is going to
Speaker 2: be I need to sleep when the baby sleeps, and
Speaker 2: that's right. But also sometimes instead of taking a nap,
Speaker 2: you should go work out, because that's very good for
Speaker 2: your brain and your body. So I would time up
Speaker 2: gym visits with a TV or just like bring a
Speaker 2: tablet that you can stream games on and just go
Speaker 2: real slow on the treadmill, real slow on an ex
Speaker 2: exercise bike and find that window of football watching you
Speaker 2: want to watch, or just DVR games and do the
Speaker 2: best job you can without finding out the results. And
Speaker 2: you're gonna be up in the middle of the night anyway,
Speaker 2: probably either with your wife or solo if that's how
Speaker 2: you're feeding, and you know, zoom through games that you
Speaker 2: know two.
Speaker 1: Forty four window, window of opportunity, window of opportunity, window
Speaker 1: of opportunity, I think is I'm what I'm hearing here?
Speaker 2: Okay, but do some do some time management negotiation and
Speaker 2: be the one to say, when what do you want
Speaker 2: to get done? I will watch the kid and then
Speaker 2: time it up so your gym visit coincides with the
Speaker 2: last hour at you.
Speaker 1: That's it. Well, good luck to you, Mike, Congratulations, be giving.
Speaker 1: Let's do like two or three more here, yes, and
Speaker 1: call it a night. Austin Taos says, what do y'all think? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Did I do the y'all right, I mean you've long done, y'all,
Speaker 2: so yes, that was an improvement.
Speaker 1: What do y'all think the ideal conference size slash structure
Speaker 1: should be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Bill Connelly's pods obviously obviously get pods going, so
Speaker 2: teams play each other more often than not, because what
Speaker 2: do we have this We had Texas A and M
Speaker 2: and Georgia playing for the first time since joining the
Speaker 2: same conference.
Speaker 1: That's right, Yeah, So.
Speaker 2: I avoid situations like that with pods to schedule regularly
Speaker 2: occurring matchups.
Speaker 1: I like twelve. I like twelve. I like nine conference games,
Speaker 1: and the I guess the extra flavor that I would
Speaker 1: add to this, And I don't know how you could
Speaker 1: possibly enforce this, but I got twelve teams, nine conference games,
Speaker 1: and one, honest to goodness, try at a premium non
Speaker 1: con opponent.
Speaker 2: I don't even need nine. I'm okay with eight if
Speaker 2: everybody's if everybody across the board is playing ten Power
Speaker 2: five games or something like that in the way that
Speaker 2: we have these you know, Clemson, South Carolina, Florida, Florida State,
Speaker 2: we have these inter conference annual matchups. If we get those,
Speaker 2: I'm fine with an eight game pod.
Speaker 1: System. Okay, I like the pod system, I just don't
Speaker 1: think it's realistic.
Speaker 2: Look up, look up Bill Connolly's pod system, and I
Speaker 2: think you will all be converts.
Speaker 1: Converts because we can't do a Q and A show
Speaker 1: without a Jim Harbaugh question. This one for Abbot, says
Speaker 1: dear friend, Abbot, Dear friend, Abbot. He says, not that
Speaker 1: I think there's a better option, but how many straight
Speaker 1: losses to Ohio State will hire ups at Michigan take
Speaker 1: before showing Harball the door? Abbit abbit, habit habit listen quote,
Speaker 1: Not that I think there's a better option end quote.
Speaker 1: Is doing a lot of work in this question, Dan, Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of work here. I think it's far more
Speaker 1: likely that Jim Harbaugh finds a different gig, most likely
Speaker 1: in the NFL, than Michigan ever firing him. Agree, disagree.
Speaker 2: I don't care that much about Jim Harbaugh's job security,
Speaker 2: but I think the way he framed this question is right.
Speaker 2: That not that I think there's a better option. I
Speaker 2: think if I were to frame this question would be
Speaker 2: how many times can he lose to Penn State and
Speaker 2: or Wisconsin and or Iowa say before his seat warms up?
Speaker 2: I don't think Michigan has to consistently beat all of
Speaker 2: those teams every year before we can And we've talked
Speaker 2: about this before before. Ohio State is the measuring stick
Speaker 2: for Michigan. I know their arrival, but they're ahead. They're
Speaker 2: just ahead or as a program, and they're ahead by
Speaker 2: a considerable margin if you look at the recent scores.
Speaker 1: I know there was the JT.
Speaker 2: Barrett game, but it doesn't look like Ohio State is
Speaker 2: going to have a quarterback who is similar to J. T.
Speaker 2: Barrett or has j T. Barrett's consistency limitations anytime soon.
Speaker 2: So beat those three teams in Michigan State. I mean,
Speaker 2: we'll see. I mean Michigan State is not in the
Speaker 2: position right now. I think of Iowa, Wisconsin and Penn State.
Speaker 2: But Michigan has to jump out of that group before
Speaker 2: we can say we only lost in another one of
Speaker 2: Ohio State. I think it's just I think it's framed improperly,
Speaker 2: even if that's the reality. So I think if he
Speaker 2: loses the next three by three plus touchdowns, right, and
Speaker 2: it's the game that seals Michigan as a cements Michigan
Speaker 2: as a non double digit, that's cementsa nine and three season.
Speaker 2: I think it warms up, but there has to be
Speaker 2: an obvious person to ascend to that position, and the
Speaker 2: odds of that happening are not zero. But it seems
Speaker 2: sort of like a stretch, sort of like a stretch
Speaker 2: like Jim Harbaugh and having acrimony at San Francisco and
Speaker 2: having acrimony and ann arbor with Brady Hoke. That was obvious.
Speaker 2: I don't know who that obvious name is. I'll bet
Speaker 2: you it's not Less Miles. All right, Well we'll see, Yeah,
Speaker 2: we'll see. We did see offensive improvement towards the latter
Speaker 2: half of the year, so I think, at least on
Speaker 2: the coaching side of the offense, the move to go
Speaker 2: out and change the system up did yield some results
Speaker 2: later down the stretch. I don't know if that translates
Speaker 2: to beating Ohio State. I don't know if that translates
Speaker 2: into getting Michigan too a more stable spot. But I
Speaker 2: was encouraged by that at the minimum. So Grizzly Grizzly
Speaker 2: Web asks a fascin grizzly web, Okay, what can a
Speaker 2: school do to change the national perception that their school
Speaker 2: has a very toxic fan base, He adds here he's
Speaker 2: a diehard Colgate fan.
Speaker 1: No. Wow, I don't know if you thought about this
Speaker 1: at all. I thought about it a little bit, and
Speaker 1: I don't know what a school can do. I didn't
Speaker 1: even see this question. Yeah, it came.
Speaker 2: It came in earlier today, or it was came in
Speaker 2: pretty late on the subreddit soliverble do reddit dot com Join.
Speaker 1: Now what I think a lot of this is dependent
Speaker 1: on is maybe the fan communities.
Speaker 2: Are there funny people, funny fans that are tweeting out
Speaker 2: funny things or starting blogs or podcasts or video series
Speaker 2: that they themselves come off as being somebody with a
Speaker 2: sense of humor, somebody who doesn't take things too too seriously,
Speaker 2: and somebody creating a sort of fan universe that you
Speaker 2: want to be a part of because it doesn't seem
Speaker 2: full of hate and toxics. So what you're saying is
Speaker 2: that we have reopened our recruitment. Yeah, as a college
Speaker 2: football entity, the soliverbal is open to changing its fan affiliation.
Speaker 1: Can you to that point? Can you hire someone like
Speaker 1: a Matthew McConaughey, Like a Matthew McConaughey. Of course you can't.
Speaker 2: I don't think Texas was ever thought of as being toxic.
Speaker 1: No, But like you, if you put Matthew McConaughey in
Speaker 1: or on top of a really toxic situation, do you
Speaker 1: think that would immediately revive the image of that fan base.
Speaker 2: So I was going to actually go to Texas A
Speaker 2: and M. Okay, not that I thought Texas A and
Speaker 2: M was toxic, but it definitely appears to be a
Speaker 2: fan base that can get too serious.
Speaker 1: So if you took McConaughey, yeah, and transplanted him, forgot
Speaker 1: about his Texas affiliation, right, and moved them over to
Speaker 1: the A and M side of things, do you think
Speaker 1: that was flaming this up? Well, I'm trying. It's one
Speaker 1: of our last question. That's what it was he was saying.
Speaker 2: So, for instance, like textags doesn't an incredible job covering
Speaker 2: the Aggies, right, they are just one stop solution. They
Speaker 2: produce a ton of content. I know they're affiliated or
Speaker 2: war affiliated with the Athletic whatever it is. And it's
Speaker 2: just like this, this grouping of diehards. I remember, like
Speaker 2: Robert Gates was on textags, right, Secretary of Defense, like
Speaker 2: you just have and so like I would always just
Speaker 2: think about text saying M like, Okay, there's this this
Speaker 2: ag and like military type school and they don't have
Speaker 2: the history of top level success, but they expect it.
Speaker 2: They're so serious. They're they're on message boards all year long.
Speaker 2: They have these like crazy important people on there. And
Speaker 2: then the good bull hunting people popped up and they
Speaker 2: do an incredible job and they have like a sense
Speaker 2: of humor and I always am excited to see what
Speaker 2: they have to say about the Aggies and they do
Speaker 2: really fun graphic and stuff like that. And that totally
Speaker 2: altered my overly serious perception of Texas A and M
Speaker 2: and their fan base because those guys are good at
Speaker 2: what they do in terms of not going berserk and
Speaker 2: having a little fun with it. Felt the same way
Speaker 2: about some Iowa fans that are funny, like Spencer Hall
Speaker 2: and Florida. Like when you have those prominent fans or
Speaker 2: communities that do a good job of putting things in
Speaker 2: perspective and getting a little wacky, that changes things for.
Speaker 1: Me, Hmmm, fair or not? Okay, I don't know what
Speaker 1: you do.
Speaker 2: Because these are they're the most public facing fans if
Speaker 2: you're asking about toxic because every every school has a
Speaker 2: section of fans that are yelling at recruits online and
Speaker 2: are poisoning trees and yelling terrible things to children wearing
Speaker 2: the wrong colors at games. That exists everywhere. That's this
Speaker 2: dumb sport that we love. But yeah, I think you
Speaker 2: just got to get lucky with some of your public
Speaker 2: facing fans.
Speaker 1: I was just going to say Russian disinformation, Dan, but
Speaker 1: that's all. You have a much better thought out answer,
Speaker 1: so we can go with that.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you this, Mike Golick Junior has done a
Speaker 2: nice job of young and up Notre Dame. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's a very old angry Fanase not that angry
Speaker 2: you've done.
Speaker 1: Okay too, I'm not as well. I didn't play for
Speaker 1: Notre Dame. No, but all right, final question here from Peter.
Speaker 1: All right, who has been your favorite player that you
Speaker 1: discovered by accident? Example, you turn on Team X because
Speaker 1: you've heard about their star tight end, but discover their
Speaker 1: running back that no one else is talking about. He's
Speaker 1: really the one who melts your butter. I love that
Speaker 1: term melts your butter. So I have a very easy
Speaker 1: one for me, and it probably doesn't quite fit the
Speaker 1: example that he laid out. But for me, it's Clyde
Speaker 1: Edwards Hilaire. Oh, good answer.
Speaker 2: For Ellis answer, good answer, thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank That's what they tell you at game shows to do. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: for me, it's Clyde Edwards Hilaire. I had tuned in
Speaker 1: for Joe Burrow all last season, and I feel like
Speaker 1: every time I saw Clyde Edwards Lair, I came away impressed,
Speaker 1: like I was seeing him with virgin eyes dan for
Speaker 1: the first time. So Clyde Edwards Lair for me, it's
Speaker 1: an easy answer.
Speaker 2: This year he was He started the season as a backup,
Speaker 2: but obviously Michael Cunningham to me, Michael Puma pass got
Speaker 2: Saderfield's first year, they start running all over Notre Dame
Speaker 2: and then things kind of go south. But then he's
Speaker 2: a revelation for Louisville. Didn't originally tune in for him,
Speaker 2: but there he was. I remember specifically, and maybe I'm misremembering,
Speaker 2: but when Kansas State was really peaking seven, eight, nine
Speaker 2: years ago with Colin Klein, it was like he's the
Speaker 2: new t Bow and he would always he would always
Speaker 2: do that sort of stutter, like it's going to be
Speaker 2: a draw. And pop back or do little pop passes
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. And Kansas State was winning a
Speaker 2: lot of games. People were going into Manhattan thinking they
Speaker 2: could come out with a win. What is it, Bruce
Speaker 2: Snyder family whatever, and they didn't know. And I would
Speaker 2: watch some of those games for Colin Kline, and I
Speaker 2: guess the good people Samsung did too, because he's all
Speaker 2: over their commercials. But then I saw who when he
Speaker 2: would throw it, every time he threw it to this
Speaker 2: one dude, he would catch it, and then they just
Speaker 2: kept throwing it to him and nobody could cover him.
Speaker 2: And I love that element more than I love Colin Kline.
Speaker 2: And that was Tyler Lockett, Okay, And he just sort
Speaker 2: of came out of nowhere for me that like, just
Speaker 2: consistently he was dependable, he was unguardable. Those are the guys,
Speaker 2: the receivers that just continue, like I mean this year
Speaker 2: with Minnesota, that did it a little bit for me
Speaker 2: that I was watching. Okay, let's see if Tanner Morgan
Speaker 2: gets better than like they have. Arguably the maybe it's
Speaker 2: not Ohio States level, but maybe the best receiving duo
Speaker 2: in the conference. Tyler Johnson and or Sean Bateman. Those
Speaker 2: types of surprises happen every year for me, it's happened
Speaker 2: for teams I root for it, it happens for teams
Speaker 2: I root against. I remember feeling that way about Buddha
Speaker 2: Baker for Washington.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, we're just like damnd. It's everywhere, man, Tyler
Speaker 1: Locket's such a good answer. I've had him stashed away
Speaker 1: on my fantasy football bench for like five years, waiting
Speaker 1: for him to pop, and it finally happens like the
Speaker 1: last two years. Get it. Oh that's good. Yeah, okay, well,
Speaker 1: thank you one, thank you all for the questions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't forget to go on out to that link I
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, soliverble dot com slash live. We want you
Speaker 1: to take our survey. Let us know if you want
Speaker 1: to come see us in person. We're still trying to
Speaker 1: figure out where exactly we're going to go in the
Speaker 1: month of August, but your feedback will most certainly help,
Speaker 1: So if you can fill that out, that be helpful.
Speaker 1: Don't forget to follow us on all of our social
Speaker 1: media channels and by all means, if you got something
Speaker 1: to say, if you want to talk to us, take
Speaker 1: a knee, talk a little bit more individually, more personally.
Speaker 1: Cliverrable at gmail dot com is always the email addressed.
Speaker 2: In Yeah that's all I got. I think that's all
Speaker 2: I have. I was listening to a podcast I really
Speaker 2: enjoy that. I'm sure is much too big for me
Speaker 2: shouting them out to do anything. But there's a show
Speaker 2: called Two Bears, One Cave Tie. Oh nice couple, comedians
Speaker 2: Thompsoner and Burt Kreischer, And on this week's episode they
Speaker 2: made a point of over emphasizing love and it brought
Speaker 2: me great joy. If you decide to listen to that show,
Speaker 2: it's it's for mature audiences. It is not safe to
Speaker 2: listen to at work out loud. But if you like
Speaker 2: comedians and like podcasts, they do a great NSFW is
Speaker 2: the NSFW. Lou make me very happy. I laughed on
Speaker 2: a subway.
Speaker 1: Platform for that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein,
Speaker 1: for myself, Ty Hilde Brian, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: tuning into the show. We will catch you all in
Speaker 1: a week. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your week,
Speaker 1: all of your weekend, and hey, stay so peace.