Speaker 1: Welcome to the Solid Verbal. Ill that for me. I'm
Speaker 1: a man, I'm forty.
Speaker 2: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
Speaker 2: be happy.
Speaker 1: You want to be happy for Dake, Ada State?
Speaker 2: Is that? Whoo whoom?
Speaker 1: And Dan and.
Speaker 2: Tye welcome back to the Solid Verbal Boys, girls. My
Speaker 2: name is ty Hildebrand, joining me as always from an
Speaker 2: undisclosed location.
Speaker 1: His name is Dan Rubinstein. Sir, how are you? I
Speaker 1: can disclose that I'm outside of Chicago. I am in
Speaker 1: the suburbs. I'm all right. A lot has happened since
Speaker 1: we last recorded. Okay, right, pause.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we are a show about honesty.
Speaker 1: We are.
Speaker 2: When we recorded last time, you were in la at
Speaker 2: your old house where you grew up. Now you're making
Speaker 2: your way back across the country eastward bound. Here you
Speaker 2: are in Chicago, as I understand it, in the childhood
Speaker 2: bedroom of your brother in law.
Speaker 1: Is that correct? Yes, shout out to Blake. I am
Speaker 1: in the childhood bedroom. I'm next to a CRT. Is
Speaker 1: that what it is? The CRTTV the cathode raid tube. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the tube monitor. Sure, and it's it's not a monor.
Speaker 1: It's the full on like RCATV. There's a VHS player
Speaker 1: built into it. It was convenient. Yes, no, it is.
Speaker 1: It is like a definite fourteen year old boys bedroom
Speaker 1: right now. Life is good. It's very cold. I just
Speaker 1: tad about a food poisoning. I missed the West coastar
Speaker 1: miss southern California. It was very nice. But I actually
Speaker 1: really like it's cool to be inside in a warm
Speaker 1: place when it's so cold outside. There is something that's
Speaker 1: kind of cozy about that that I can appreciate. But
Speaker 1: I watched the news last night and seeing that radar,
Speaker 1: that Doppler tie, even living in New York, that was
Speaker 1: whoof that? Was that new? Back up here for a second. Yeah,
Speaker 1: food poisoning. Oh yeah, food poisoning. I mean we should
Speaker 1: also my Hi. It is a college football show, ye hill.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of bowl games to recap and
Speaker 1: to preview, including the biggest of them all, or I
Speaker 1: guess up to the biggest of them all, and there
Speaker 1: will be plenty of college football momentarily. But I may
Speaker 1: have had food poisoning, and it may have come from
Speaker 1: a mission style burrito in the mission in San Francisco,
Speaker 1: and man, food poisoning is I haven't had it in
Speaker 1: a long, long time. No joke, tie, hot take right there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's no joke. So hold on now, yeah again,
Speaker 2: show about honesty. You had the battle food poisoning, and then,
Speaker 2: as I understand it, you also fell down the stairs.
Speaker 1: I did, I was. I mean, as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: after bad food poisoning, you might need to do some laundry. Tie,
Speaker 1: And so I was bringing laundry down at the in
Speaker 1: law's place and wearing socks on a slick carpet and
Speaker 1: wearing slick socks, and took a spell. I have not
Speaker 1: fallen downstairs intly, I mean unintentionally, I guess, ever, thankfully
Speaker 1: and hurt for a little bit. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: I'm not the athlete I once was.
Speaker 2: So what I think I'm hearing here is that Dan Rubinstein?
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, little.
Speaker 2: Bruce Feldman body blow theory going on for you doing
Speaker 2: this podcast?
Speaker 1: Yeah? After well, it's life. Life is dealing me a
Speaker 1: physical hand here. But you know what, Ty, I'm here,
Speaker 1: I'm a trooper. My streak continues. Well, it's good to
Speaker 1: talk with you.
Speaker 2: I hope everyone out there had a merry Christmas, happy honic,
Speaker 2: a happy quantum whenever holiday suits you best thank you
Speaker 2: for joining us again for the rest of us. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we've got We've got one show here in twenty seventeen
Speaker 2: that we must record because Dad mentioned a bunch of
Speaker 2: Big Bowl games to not only recap, but certainly preview
Speaker 2: as we get into the playoff and the New year
Speaker 2: six we're going to get into all of that momentarily.
Speaker 1: Just checking in. Life is all right with you?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: I want to I don't want to be. Life is
Speaker 1: a lot better with me than it is with you, Okay,
Speaker 1: Just making sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I haven't had a chance to train again for
Speaker 2: our big Ping pong matchup coming up on January sixth
Speaker 2: at the live show.
Speaker 1: I didn't train either in La just so you know,
Speaker 1: a little over Thanksgiving, but not when I was just there.
Speaker 2: But otherwise, yeah, I'm doing fine. On that note, Live
Speaker 2: show tickets are going to go back on sale January
Speaker 2: the second, at one pm. We'll post it on Twitter,
Speaker 2: we'll post it on Facebook.
Speaker 1: And that's pretty limited too. So if you're going to
Speaker 1: be in Atlanta after you know that your team is
Speaker 1: going to be there, i'd grab them quickly, grab them quickly.
Speaker 2: People have email that they're going to be coming down
Speaker 2: either as part of the National Championship, like envoy or
Speaker 2: just otherwise going to be in and around the area.
Speaker 2: So there's some folks still figuring it out. As you mentioned,
Speaker 2: I would make sure that you grab those quick January
Speaker 2: second at one pm. We'll post it everywhere. We'll send
Speaker 2: out another email all that business.
Speaker 1: Just be on the lookout.
Speaker 2: The other thing that we tease we were cooking up
Speaker 2: in the lab and now it's sort of official. But
Speaker 2: more details on this will be forthcoming, we promise you.
Speaker 2: But as everyone knows, there is a college football media day,
Speaker 2: much like the Super Bowl Media Day, where the teams gather,
Speaker 2: there are podiums, you go around, you ask questions. This year,
Speaker 2: we will be at media Day as we have gosh,
Speaker 2: I don't even know how many years in a row now, Yeah,
Speaker 2: we will be broadcasting live throughout media Day from the
Speaker 2: college football playoff Facebook Sports set. Yes, so a little
Speaker 2: bit of a live broadcast that you can tune into
Speaker 2: be part of ask questions through courtesy of our friends
Speaker 2: over at Facebook.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll have fun with some players, maybe a coach
Speaker 1: or two. We'll be over there, so it'll be lighthearted,
Speaker 1: informative and you get to see tie in what I
Speaker 1: can only assume to be pristine high definition.
Speaker 2: So tend what more do you want? Yeah, baby, stay
Speaker 2: tuned for more information on that front. Now on the
Speaker 2: more pressing subjects, Daniel, Yes, I know you're on the
Speaker 2: mend here from various malatees. Are you ready to go
Speaker 2: into some bowl recaps.
Speaker 1: And previews and the like? Yeah, we got a deep
Speaker 1: dive this bad boy mowers Gasparilla bawl. That's right, So
Speaker 1: we have not sure why I played that sound.
Speaker 2: It's not breaking news in the conventional sense here on
Speaker 2: the solid verbal, But we've got a handful of bowl
Speaker 2: games that we want to recap. Actually, I guess it's
Speaker 2: more than just a small handful, maybe a dozen or so.
Speaker 2: Let's start with the DXL Frisco Bowl. This one was
Speaker 2: between Louisiana Tech and SMU. We cautioned folks in advanced
Speaker 2: that just kind of a weird situation with Chad Morris leaving,
Speaker 2: Sunny Dyke's coming in, maybe not the best scenario in
Speaker 2: which to select SMU, even though for a while they
Speaker 2: were favored. Here or low and behold Louisiana Tech fifty one,
Speaker 2: SMU ten. In case you were wondering what the effect
Speaker 2: might be of a weird coaching circumstance. SMU promptly committed
Speaker 2: six turnovers, two of which went for pick sixes, in
Speaker 2: route to losing by forty one points in the bowl game.
Speaker 1: Dan, Yeah, and my favorite receiver running back duo of
Speaker 1: names in bowl season. I think I would have to
Speaker 1: review it some more. But law tech or I don't know,
Speaker 1: do you think law tech hates being called la tech
Speaker 1: like tech people hate law tech? Okay, So Louisiana Tack,
Speaker 1: they're they're dual of running back receiver names Boston Scott
Speaker 1: and Teddyville, which sounds like they're just in a frat at.
Speaker 1: Maybe let's see what frett could they be in Boston
Speaker 1: Scott and Teddyville? Maybe at North Carolina? I don't know, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: They both had terrific games for Louisiana Tack. And as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, SMU, that was a struggle. Even Courtland Sutton,
Speaker 1: even with his couple of nice catches, could not really
Speaker 1: get anything going and to nobody's surprise, and I appreciate
Speaker 1: you giving me the out two. Once it was announced
Speaker 1: that Sunny Dykes would be the interim head coach, before
Speaker 1: he was going to be the head coach. I guess
Speaker 1: still win this game.
Speaker 2: Like everybody who follows college football with really any amount
Speaker 2: of seriousness had to look at that situation and say,
Speaker 2: uh uh, maybe not the best idea to bring Sunny
Speaker 2: Dykes in.
Speaker 1: Yeah I was. I was never going to alter plans
Speaker 1: to watch this game. But I started watching this game
Speaker 1: right before going out to dinner with my parents in
Speaker 1: LA and saw how it started, Like, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: we're good here. Yeah, I think, I think, I think
Speaker 1: I know how this one ends.
Speaker 2: All right, let's move on to the bad Boy Mower's
Speaker 2: Gasparilla Bowl.
Speaker 1: Gasparilla. Temple wins twenty.
Speaker 2: Eight to three over FIU, and I got to say,
Speaker 2: the most interesting aspect of this game for me was
Speaker 2: not the fact that Temple actually caught me by surprise
Speaker 2: in winning this game by twenty five points.
Speaker 1: I thought it was going to be pretty damn close.
Speaker 1: It wasn't.
Speaker 2: Did you hear what Jeff Collins said during the postgame celebration,
Speaker 2: I did not please inform educate. Jeff Collins, first time
Speaker 2: head football coach coach for Temple, took over after Matt
Speaker 2: Ruhle left for Baylor. During the postgame celebration, he said, quote,
Speaker 2: the ceiling for temple is the roof.
Speaker 1: Hmm.
Speaker 2: Now, Michael Jordan had a similar quote about North Carolina
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago, and in that case, people
Speaker 2: tried to really dissect what it meant and what they
Speaker 2: came to. The conclusion that they came to was that
Speaker 2: because North Carolina football does not play in a dome
Speaker 2: of any sort, the open air stadium meant that essentially.
Speaker 1: There was no ceiling.
Speaker 2: Right in this case, they played the game at Tropicana Field, Dan,
Speaker 2: That's a dome, and so I'm still searching a bit
Speaker 2: for what Jeff Collins might have been referring to.
Speaker 1: And isn't it sort of a dilapidated I don't know
Speaker 1: if the ceiling has ever leaked or tiles have fallen
Speaker 1: like they did at the Kingdome, but not a great
Speaker 1: roof to associate your team with. Just like a lot
Speaker 1: of cheap drywall in that stadium. Yeah, impression. I I've
Speaker 1: never been.
Speaker 2: But anytime you build a baseball field in which players
Speaker 2: can hit the lights with a pop fly, generally there's
Speaker 2: like a logistical issue there that needed to be further examined.
Speaker 1: The better news is that Temple was awesome against FIU's
Speaker 1: passing offense, and they stopped the run really well. It
Speaker 1: was really nice defensive performance to go out on for
Speaker 1: the Owls going into next year. Moving on, let's talk
Speaker 1: about the Bahamas Bowl.
Speaker 2: Let's the Ohio Bobcats win this one, forty one to
Speaker 2: six over the UAB Blazers.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 2: Youa be a good story. A couple of years ago
Speaker 2: the program was dead dead is adorn. They came back,
Speaker 2: they were in a bowl. We both liked Ohio here
Speaker 2: though a fair amount because they'd been really good this season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Nathan Rourke, huge game, Drian Brown very nice game
Speaker 1: to go out on on the ground, had had a
Speaker 1: huge day there. Poppy White a name I'm just learning
Speaker 1: for probably the second time for Ohio. He had a
Speaker 1: nice day catching balls for the Bobcats. But a quietly
Speaker 1: very good year for Ohio. And even with the great
Speaker 1: story that is UAB, and I think Bill Clark should
Speaker 1: gotten a little more attention at the end of the
Speaker 1: season with what he was able to do with the Blazers.
Speaker 1: Nice one for Ohio.
Speaker 2: Okay, famous Idaho Potato Bowl Wyoming thirty seven, Central Michigan fourteen.
Speaker 2: I had the question before this game, is Josh Allen
Speaker 2: gonna play? Josh Allen, the all world everything quarterback for Wyoming.
Speaker 1: He did play.
Speaker 2: He was back from the injury. He looked pretty good.
Speaker 2: I thought he looked healthy. Wyoming won the game by
Speaker 2: a pretty healthy margin. And then he declared for the
Speaker 2: NFL Draft, So he is taking his talents to the NFL.
Speaker 2: And in the meantime, though, nice win for the Cowboys
Speaker 2: here I was on the Central Michigan train. Didn't work
Speaker 2: out quite as well for our boys. Sugar Sheene Morris
Speaker 2: with four interceptions I think yep, but yeah, twenty three
Speaker 2: point w for the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: Wyoming and once again Wyoming rightfully came into the season
Speaker 1: with the story being Josh Allen, and even with his
Speaker 1: mostly down year for both reasons that he could and
Speaker 1: couldn't control, Wyoming's defense was a pretty great story. They
Speaker 1: forced a ton of turnovers. Carl Granderson, not just the
Speaker 1: Pisman finalists, but also just a very very good player.
Speaker 1: I think a converted receiver at defensive end led this
Speaker 1: this Cowboy defense, which was pretty stout all year long
Speaker 1: after the non conference part of their schedule. So Wyoming
Speaker 1: another another really dominant defensive performance in their bowl game.
Speaker 1: And you know, Craig bowl slowly but surely. I mean
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't realize how down and sort
Speaker 1: of unexciting this Wyoming program was when he got there.
Speaker 1: Dave Christensen didn't leave it in a spot and you know,
Speaker 1: winning eight games, turning this defense into something pretty special.
Speaker 2: Great job his head, the shape of the Oregona, just
Speaker 2: like sir, all right. The Birmingham Bull was a fun game.
Speaker 2: South Florida wins thirty eight to thirty four. Quinton Flowers,
Speaker 2: my boy, Yes, sir, he threw a touchdown pass with
Speaker 2: sixteen seconds left that lifted the Bulls over Texas Tech.
Speaker 2: Flowers had three to eleven passing and four touchdowns, also
Speaker 2: a Bucks six on the ground and another touchdown. It'll
Speaker 2: be interesting to see how USF fares next year. Because
Speaker 2: Flowers is gone. They lose some other skill position guys,
Speaker 2: something like eight starters on defense. It'll be interesting to
Speaker 2: see what Charlie Strong does down there. But sort of
Speaker 2: a blase way to go out if you're Texas Tech
Speaker 2: and Cliff Kingsbury, remember a bit on the hot seat.
Speaker 2: They gave him a vote of confidence. Yes, he'll be
Speaker 2: back for another season. You'll lose a game like this
Speaker 2: though it was closely contested, kind of a dud way
Speaker 2: to go out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they lost to a good team. It wasn't
Speaker 1: They didn't lose to an average MAC team or something
Speaker 1: like that. They lose to a now ten and two
Speaker 1: USF team who had a nice season. Didn't beat anybody
Speaker 1: of consequence really, I guess maybe until Texas Tech. But yeah,
Speaker 1: really good first season for Charlie Strong. And even with
Speaker 1: Texas Tech losing this game, they finished the year beating Texas.
Speaker 1: That is a note that will remain through the offseason.
Speaker 2: The Armed Forces Bowl, Dan, Army forty two, San Diego
Speaker 2: State thirty five, come back, you're gonna have a shootout?
Speaker 1: Why not be in the Armed Forces Bowl?
Speaker 2: Dan? Yeah, maybe one of the better games will see
Speaker 2: all Bowl season. I don't even know where to start
Speaker 2: with this one. The game itself, I would say, was
Speaker 2: aggressively on brand for both.
Speaker 1: Teams combined thirteen pass attempts.
Speaker 2: You know what Army wants to do. They want to
Speaker 2: run you to death with their option. They want to
Speaker 2: hold the ball for as long as possible.
Speaker 1: Accomplished on that front.
Speaker 2: Daniel forty six minutes of possession for the Black Knights.
Speaker 2: They ran sixty one more plays than San Diego State.
Speaker 2: More than anything. I think that's what wanted for him,
Speaker 2: because they couldn't stop for Shot Penny when he got
Speaker 2: the damn ball right, they were just able to really
Speaker 2: hold it, really play their game for the vast majority
Speaker 2: of this one. They score with eighteen seconds left, they
Speaker 2: go for two, they end up getting it. That gave
Speaker 2: them a thirty six to thirty five lead. They score
Speaker 2: a touchdown on the last place. San Diego State tried
Speaker 2: one of those multipilateral plays that ended up being returned
Speaker 2: for a touchdown. So a good close game, a lot
Speaker 2: of points, and really just a lot of fun to watch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, really nice season for Army and Amad Bradshaw, A
Speaker 1: nice game against San Diego State, a good San Diego
Speaker 1: State defense, And you're right, this was just these two
Speaker 1: teams playing to their exact identities. San Diego State's entire
Speaker 1: offense all year was big, rashod Penny plays and questionable
Speaker 1: passing from Chapman and Army much the same controlling the ball,
Speaker 1: and I would say, all things considered, even with allowing
Speaker 1: as much as they did to her Shad Penny. A
Speaker 1: pretty decent defensive performance from Army when it mattered against
Speaker 1: in big moments, I would say fair enough.
Speaker 2: The dollar general Bull app State thirty four mm hmm,
Speaker 2: Toledo nil.
Speaker 1: Yes, Zip got thirty Daniel, Yeah, what is this? So
Speaker 1: this is the game that instructed me to look for
Speaker 1: something in terms of a pattern in Bowl games because
Speaker 1: we came into this game thinking, well, Logan wouldside is
Speaker 1: the clear best thing about this game in terms of
Speaker 1: pure talent and excitement and explosion. He has a completely
Speaker 1: worthless game. Throws three picks, can't get anything going downfield.
Speaker 1: And app State, even as you know how I love
Speaker 1: my app State, they're the team I can't break up with.
Speaker 1: But they're more like TCU and Ole miss to you
Speaker 1: are like college sweethearts, longtime girlfriend that is always still
Speaker 1: checking their Facebook pages, still friends, yes, yeah, App State.
Speaker 1: For me, it's just like a crush that just nagging.
Speaker 1: It won't go away. And they struggled at points this season.
Speaker 1: They weren't the same Sun Belt team they've been in
Speaker 1: years past, But for them to shut out this Toledo offense,
Speaker 1: by the way, not a good Bowl season for the
Speaker 1: Mac Outside of the all just not no, and app
Speaker 1: State comes down just defensively shuts down everything the Rockets
Speaker 1: try to do. Taylor Lamb has a nice game, They're
Speaker 1: good on the ground with Jalen More. Just that the
Speaker 1: app State team we thought we'd see more of this
Speaker 1: year and they finished with nine wins, another good year.
Speaker 2: Dan Logan Woodside was Florida quarterback bad in this game.
Speaker 1: Yes he was. That's very mean, but not false.
Speaker 2: His QBR, according to ESPN, was nine point six. Yeah,
Speaker 2: which if you're not fully in the loop on what
Speaker 2: QBR means, you're not alone.
Speaker 1: But that's not a good number. Correct. It was a
Speaker 1: huge second quarter, yeah for app State And yeah, Logan
Speaker 1: Woodside huge disappointment in this game, not the way he
Speaker 1: wanted to go out for Fort Toledo. But here's the
Speaker 1: other cool thing that I discovered thanks to this game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so hold on now pause.
Speaker 2: You said you started to look a little bit deeper
Speaker 2: into things after after seeing the result of this one.
Speaker 1: What's that mean? So basically I looked at the result
Speaker 1: of this game that it was so lopsided, and I said,
Speaker 1: is there's something going on here with bowl games? With
Speaker 1: bowl season in terms of patterns in terms of picking games,
Speaker 1: is there anything that can speak to the results we've seen?
Speaker 1: And I'm talking first game on up? So what whatever
Speaker 1: the first what was the first game Troy, North Texas
Speaker 1: not you know, post celebration ball whatever. And basically, if
Speaker 1: you look at yes, ty the danalytics okay, and yes,
Speaker 1: the probably much better almost assuredly much better S and
Speaker 1: P plus metric that Bill Connolly and Football Outsiders Football
Speaker 1: Study Hall does. Basically, if we are in agreement that
Speaker 1: bowl games, especially early on, when it's not necessarily lopsided,
Speaker 1: but the teams come from two very different conferences or geographies,
Speaker 1: whatever situations. You know, this team doesn't have a coach, team,
Speaker 1: you know, their quarterbacks deciding to sit out of the running.
Speaker 1: You know, there's all these sort of variables involved in
Speaker 1: especially these early games. Then what if there's a thread
Speaker 1: that would help you pick, If there's a metric and
Speaker 1: it turns out if bowl games are about effort, do
Speaker 1: we agree sort of caring, getting up for it, motivation, effort, whatever.
Speaker 1: And you could say the same thing about defense that
Speaker 1: generally speaking, teams that play good defense beyond talent, which
Speaker 1: is the most important thing, I would argue it's the
Speaker 1: idea of caring play to play effort, you know, motivation, whatever,
Speaker 1: and it turns out the team with the better S
Speaker 1: and P plus defense or points per drive defense. So
Speaker 1: part of the d analytics, which by the way, that
Speaker 1: is not a metric that I invented, is now through
Speaker 1: all of the games that have happened through I guess Tuesday,
Speaker 1: the twenty sixth, we're recording this on the twenty seventh.
Speaker 1: Straight up are fourteen and three. Okay, that's not bad. No,
Speaker 1: that's not bad. In terms of looking at straight up
Speaker 1: and the game, I think San Diego State had a
Speaker 1: better defense than Army and that was close the UAB ohiogame.
Speaker 1: I think UAB had a better S and P plus defense,
Speaker 1: But all in all, the team that has the more
Speaker 1: consistent defense and the better performing defense, I think Northern
Speaker 1: Illinois has a much better defense. Are a little bit
Speaker 1: better defense than Duke, and that didn't work out for them.
Speaker 1: Fourteen and three not bad, all right.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at my other picks here for the rest
Speaker 2: of the show, and I played. I think I'm going
Speaker 2: to be okay by that metric.
Speaker 1: I have the points per drive ranking, ready to go, okay,
Speaker 1: that's great. Yeah, for the rest of our games, we're picking.
Speaker 2: A couple other ones very quickly. Three more before we
Speaker 2: get to those picks. The Hawaii Bowl, they played this one,
Speaker 2: I believe on Christmas Eve. Fresno wins over Houston by
Speaker 2: a thirty three to twenty seven score. An incredible turnaround
Speaker 2: story for Fresno led by Jeff Tedford. Keep in mind,
Speaker 2: Fresno went one and eleven a year ago. Now they
Speaker 2: go ten and four. They only lose five starters next season.
Speaker 2: I'm so curious to see which direction that program heads.
Speaker 2: On the Houston side, at Oliver, the all world everything
Speaker 2: defensive tackle did have a touchdown run for Houston.
Speaker 1: That's kind of fun fact touchdown. Yes, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: you hit everything. A really cool bounce back season for
Speaker 1: Fresno State to get back to a pretty respectable and
Speaker 1: decent level. They finished. You know, the numbers really liked
Speaker 1: them this year. Marcus mcmaray and the Oregon State transfer
Speaker 1: had a nice year. Their secondary was really really good,
Speaker 1: that the team was led by their defense, and Houston
Speaker 1: didn't have really bad losses this year. They were not
Speaker 1: that far away from being a nine to ten win team.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the story here was Fresno, their defense, you know,
Speaker 1: and the job that Jeff Tedford and his staff have
Speaker 1: done right away, and the San Joaquin Valley.
Speaker 2: That's right, Okay, the Zaxby's Heart of Dallas bull. Utah
Speaker 2: wins by a thirty to fourteen score over West Virginia.
Speaker 2: I've been informed here in the year piece that the
Speaker 2: boys in the truck have some music cueued up, Daniel.
Speaker 1: I'm ready.
Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about what West Virginia's drive
Speaker 2: chart looked like, shall we.
Speaker 1: I would like nothing more West Virginia against Utah. Punt punt, punt,
Speaker 1: field goal, punt, punt, punt, punt, field goal, punt, fumble, punt, interception, Hey, touchdown, innerception. Rough,
Speaker 1: here's the holiday reference. Here's the snow time since we
Speaker 1: last did it. I have not practiced. That was on
Speaker 1: right on, que I can feel it, Ty, when you're
Speaker 1: at my level of hating, you can just feel the crescendo.
Speaker 1: Common we've talked, which was what she said, right, We've
Speaker 1: talked off air about how one of the things that
Speaker 1: we both admire in the radio business is the FM
Speaker 1: radio DJ.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can perfectly time his vocal lead in.
Speaker 1: I do that sometimes, Ty, when I'm listening to music
Speaker 1: like on Spotify something. Yeah, just like try it on
Speaker 1: your own. I will one hundred I do that in
Speaker 1: the car. My wife hates it, my brothers hate it,
Speaker 1: my parents hate it because that's the serious XM voice.
Speaker 1: It's it's one and the same where it's just like
Speaker 1: Aerosmith A ninety two point four k bb. I. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had a drive somewhere.
Speaker 2: It was during one of our national championship trips where
Speaker 2: I'm not kidding, Dan and I did that for about
Speaker 2: forty five minutes strong.
Speaker 1: It's my favorite. Might have been a yeah. Anyway, where
Speaker 1: were we here?
Speaker 2: Uh? Utah, West Virginia thirty to fourteen. West Virginia looked
Speaker 2: a bit of a tire fire in this game. I
Speaker 2: don't think it was entirely unexpected. Thankfully, Will Griar didn't
Speaker 2: play still healing up. Good for him, get healed up
Speaker 2: for next season. I don't have much else to add
Speaker 2: beyond that.
Speaker 1: On their first so on their punt drives, Ty, so
Speaker 1: there were I'm counting here, nine punts. How many of
Speaker 1: those drives? Do you think? We're three and out? Eight
Speaker 1: of ninety eight of nine. Yeah for three and out
Speaker 1: it was it was rough. No Will Greer and by
Speaker 1: the way, shout out Kyle Whittingham. Now I think eleven
Speaker 1: and one in Bowl games. Yeah, the most successful Bowl
Speaker 1: coach of all time. I guess of coaches who've coached
Speaker 1: more than six or seven.
Speaker 2: All right, the Quick Lane Bowl Duke wins thirty six
Speaker 2: to fourteen over NIU.
Speaker 1: Where was this NIU defense that I was talking about?
Speaker 2: I don't I didn't see any defense in this game.
Speaker 1: No, no, not not much.
Speaker 2: Sutton Smith was largely contented. Actually, it was the Duke
Speaker 2: defense that came to play here. NIU was one of
Speaker 2: twelve on third downs, ozho of six on fourth downs.
Speaker 2: I guess the bright spot is that they went for
Speaker 2: it six times on four down fourth downs. Yeah, which
Speaker 2: is always exciting, but it'd be better if you got
Speaker 2: one or two of them.
Speaker 1: I watched a good chunk of this game, and Northern
Speaker 1: Illinois was in the I'm losing this game of Madden
Speaker 1: or NCAA, so whatever, I'm just I'm hitting why when
Speaker 1: I should be hit next? On the play call screen,
Speaker 1: just bombed every play bomb bomb bomb bomb fake punts
Speaker 1: from your own end zone. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: saw that moment, but that was it was just magnificent
Speaker 1: tie it was. It wasn't even ballsy. It was just like,
Speaker 1: screw it, screw everything, I'm going out. I'm taking everybody
Speaker 1: out with me. The bunch through a terrible pass Uh,
Speaker 1: Northern Illinois did not acquit itself.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones was fine. He didn't throw downfield all that much,
Speaker 1: but he completed a bunch of passes. Ran well, I
Speaker 1: am so complexed by Daniel Jones this year. Yeah, took
Speaker 1: a step back, definitely took a step back, and he
Speaker 1: is step back. He is basically if if Sam Darnold
Speaker 1: had like a little cousin who grew up idolizing him.
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm just gonna do exactly what he does,
Speaker 1: but without exactly the same level of talent, where He's
Speaker 1: just gonna I'm gonna throw three dope passes and then
Speaker 1: throw something that you have no idea what I was
Speaker 1: thinking about, Like, I'm thinking about that steam Willie Homer
Speaker 1: Simpson thing while throwing a pass. That was the Daniel
Speaker 1: Jones experience in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2: And finally the Cactus Bowl, Kansas State wins thirty five
Speaker 2: to seventeen over UCLA. Now, interesting factoid in this one. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Josh Rosen apparently advised by his doctors not to play
Speaker 2: in this game. You know, he suffered that concussion later
Speaker 2: in the year. I'm a skeptic. Maybe that was true.
Speaker 2: Maybe it was like convincing your doctor you have glaucoma.
Speaker 2: Like I'm not sure, wow, Ty, what the exact scenario
Speaker 2: was here. Either way, I do not blame him for
Speaker 2: not playing in the Cactus Bowl, whether he was hurt
Speaker 2: or not. I would expect that he will declare shortly
Speaker 2: for the NFL Draft. Clearly this wasn't the way that
Speaker 2: UCLA wanted to close out at season, but there are
Speaker 2: a lot of moving parts there with the new coach
Speaker 2: Ship Kelly Charles Ship Kelly coming on board here.
Speaker 1: Yes, I would say that it is much more likely
Speaker 1: that Josh Rosen did in fact have an injury, and
Speaker 1: it was not unfair to be overly precautious with a
Speaker 1: head injury. With a brain injury, sure ahead of a
Speaker 1: game like this, with you know, a future of playing
Speaker 1: in the NFL, I think it was sort of a
Speaker 1: good mix of good reasons not to play in this game,
Speaker 1: especially given the coaching change, I don't really think that
Speaker 1: had much to do with it. I will say this though,
Speaker 1: Josh Rosen I thought spoke super well about not criticizing
Speaker 1: players not playing in bowl games before this game. I
Speaker 1: thought he made a lot of I love good points
Speaker 1: that it's easy to sort of from Afar and ty
Speaker 1: Lord knows we say a lot of things. From Afar,
Speaker 1: I did not excuse what we say at all. But
Speaker 1: you know, when you don't know the personal situations of
Speaker 1: players deciding to skip games, whether it's a health reason,
Speaker 1: whether it's a financial reason that they want to stay
Speaker 1: with the team, they want to play in Bowl games,
Speaker 1: but you know they have a financial situation where going
Speaker 1: to the NFL and not jeopardize in their draft stock
Speaker 1: makes just a little bit more sense instead of playing
Speaker 1: in the line look the bad boy Mower's Gasparilla Bay
Speaker 1: something like that.
Speaker 2: Completely fine with him not playing. I believe that's why
Speaker 2: only one member of the broadcasting duo had the audacity
Speaker 2: and really the foresight to say that if Josh Rosen
Speaker 2: came down with something before this game, it wouldn't surprise me.
Speaker 2: I don't blame him at all for not playing. I'm
Speaker 2: just a bit of a skeptic here, because hey, I
Speaker 2: called it and it seemed like it was a little
Speaker 2: too convenient. I hope it works out well for him.
Speaker 2: The one thing that scares me a little bit with
Speaker 2: Rosen now is he moves on to the NFL. He's
Speaker 2: a really sharp cookie, really smart guy. He strikes me
Speaker 2: and I'm going to make a golf reference here, which
Speaker 2: please try not to squirm, but.
Speaker 1: Reminds from Manhattan Beach. That's fine.
Speaker 2: Reminds me a little bit of like when Tiger Woods
Speaker 2: decided he wanted to try and tinker with his swing,
Speaker 2: or what's the guy Bryson d. Chambeau who's trying to
Speaker 2: reinvent the golf swing. There's going to be a moment
Speaker 2: in Josh Rosen's career where he thinks he's figured out
Speaker 2: some entirely new way to go about something, and that
Speaker 2: may or may not work on the NFL level.
Speaker 1: I think he'll be fine. I thought the worst, you know.
Speaker 1: I tweeted something about his career in general, that it
Speaker 1: would have been nice to see him in a more
Speaker 1: stable place, because I think he had three different offensive
Speaker 1: coordinators and a defense that swung from really good in
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen to just completely embarrassing in twenty seventeen, and
Speaker 1: that continued against Kansas State where they allowed nearly three
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty yards rushing in the Cactus Bowl. That
Speaker 1: it would have been cool to see Josh Rosen in
Speaker 1: a more stable place, And ultimately, I think the worst
Speaker 1: decision Josh Rosen made at UCLA was deciding to go
Speaker 1: to UCLA probably and to sort of you know, there
Speaker 1: are stories about how he sort of turned off Stanford's
Speaker 1: coaching staff and they didn't really want to offer him
Speaker 1: or accept his commitment, and that, you know, I think
Speaker 1: I think his career would have looked. It would not
Speaker 1: have ended with a lower draft pick or a higher
Speaker 1: draft pick, because he's probably gonna go in the top three,
Speaker 1: but we would have been able to see Josh Rosen
Speaker 1: in a more state place, behind a more stable line
Speaker 1: with Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love. You know, it's a
Speaker 1: sort of what could have been if if everything had
Speaker 1: worked out with that situation.
Speaker 2: And yep, one final point on the Cactus Bowl. Still
Speaker 2: awaiting word on the future for Bill Snyder. We don't
Speaker 2: know what his deal is going to be moving forward
Speaker 2: as head football coach k State obviously very successful. Nice
Speaker 2: way to go out winning team against UCLA in a
Speaker 2: fun bowl game.
Speaker 1: But we will wait and see what the future holds
Speaker 1: there really weird and ultimately fun. I guess season for
Speaker 1: Kansas State. I mean they held onto the ball a
Speaker 1: ton against the Bruins and Alex Delton, Alex Barnes ran wild.
Speaker 1: I was watching this game with the in laws of
Speaker 1: my father in law watching, you know, shout out to
Speaker 1: Joel obviously watching. I think it was an Alex Barnes
Speaker 1: run in the second half where he just sort of
Speaker 1: went untouched for thirty eight yards and my father in
Speaker 1: law went, wait, where's the safety, so somebody should touch
Speaker 1: him in the second level. No, no, that's not how
Speaker 1: you see it. Defense works, and we'll see what happens
Speaker 1: next year. I can only assume they've hired a very
Speaker 1: good linebackers coach to get Nope, no, nope, nope, all right,
Speaker 1: moving on, damn we got balls. The preview yes.
Speaker 2: The week. Whoo, okay, this is going to be Bowl
Speaker 2: preview officially number four here on the solid verbal.
Speaker 1: We've timed this out.
Speaker 2: We've scheduled this out in a way that we haven't
Speaker 2: done in the past. We've done this now for ten
Speaker 2: full college football seasons, and I can say definitively that
Speaker 2: in none of those previous years have we ever previewed
Speaker 2: bowl games in such a regimented and scheduled fashion.
Speaker 1: We actually thought this through. We're full on grown ups. Ty, yeah,
Speaker 1: we have matured to the point where we're able to
Speaker 1: do this.
Speaker 2: So let's let's get into dangerous territory now with your bullpicks. Okay,
Speaker 2: we are officially in this arena now where hopefully you've
Speaker 2: locked in, You've gotten the early games out of the way,
Speaker 2: You've put most of your confidence points on those earlier games.
Speaker 2: Because the games that we're about to talk about are
Speaker 2: the ones that I am least confident in. And it's
Speaker 2: not because I don't know the teams as well. Actually
Speaker 2: I know these teams better, but it feels to me
Speaker 2: like most of these matchups, with a couple exceptions, are closer.
Speaker 1: They could go one way or the other.
Speaker 2: We've got a lot of partly talented teams that we're
Speaker 2: going to talk about here, not the least of which
Speaker 2: is the two big playoff games, which we'll discuss last
Speaker 2: here on the program. Let's start with the Goodyear Cotton
Speaker 2: Bowl Classic. They play this one in Arlington at AT
Speaker 2: and T Stadium. It's on December the twenty ninth at
Speaker 2: eight thirty pm on ESPN, and it's a big one.
Speaker 2: It's one of the games I'm most excited to see.
Speaker 2: We've got the Ohio State Buckeyes. We've got the USC Trojans.
Speaker 2: Ohio State's a seven and half point favorite. Here, Dan,
Speaker 2: what's our gift situation?
Speaker 1: All right? Ty? So the Cotton Bowl Classic, the Goodyear
Speaker 1: Cotton Bowl Classic, Classics, the class the Classic. Now you
Speaker 1: think Texas, you think everything's bigger in Texas. You know,
Speaker 1: bigger bowl sweet bigger gifts. You know we draw attention food. Yes,
Speaker 1: of course we want to show that we're the biggest
Speaker 1: and best. The Cotton Bowl is not disclosing, really their
Speaker 1: gift situation, as per Sports Business Journal, not disclosed. Wow,
Speaker 1: Which why I hope there's a lot of bluetooth. I
Speaker 1: hope there's a lot of sweat wicking fabrics. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Cotton doesn't wick away the sweat, It absorbs it. It
Speaker 2: makes you cold when you sweat.
Speaker 1: And maybe they're embarrassed by that tie. Maybe they're embarrassed.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's something good. I'm sure US Ohio State,
Speaker 1: you know, the scrappy little underdogs finally get a break
Speaker 1: and get something good gift wise. But nope, there's no
Speaker 1: disclosure of bowl gifts.
Speaker 2: So Shaye Patterson, Okay, Yeah, moving on to the actual game.
Speaker 1: I look, I worry.
Speaker 2: I always worry about picking against a team that feels
Speaker 2: like it has something to prove in a bowl game.
Speaker 2: To your earlier point about motivation, what drives a bowl team?
Speaker 2: And I know USC he might fall a little bit
Speaker 2: into that category. But Ohio State this year. Dog, If
Speaker 2: they don't define it, I don't know who does.
Speaker 1: Really well, yeah they I understand they disappointed they're not
Speaker 1: in the playoff.
Speaker 2: Sure they won the Big Ten, they were passed over
Speaker 2: for the College Football Playoff. They got a senior quarterback
Speaker 2: in JT. Barrett who has been perpetually disrespected as a
Speaker 2: starter for his team. Clearly he's going to be motivated.
Speaker 2: This is like his last hurrah. He's not going to
Speaker 2: be playing quarterback in the NFL. Hate to break the
Speaker 2: news to folks out there, But most importantly, I think
Speaker 2: they've got an offense that's going to push on all
Speaker 2: the pressure points of this SC defense. S played a
Speaker 2: team all year with an offense that can beat you
Speaker 2: seventeen different ways like Ohio State can't. They also haven't
Speaker 2: played a defense this good, which will be an interesting
Speaker 2: challenge for Sam Darnold. But I think the combination of
Speaker 2: motivation with scheme, which what I think is a big
Speaker 2: time coaching mismatch in Urban Meyer versus Clay Hilton, there's
Speaker 2: a lot that goes in Ohio State's favor here. The
Speaker 2: fans will travel, well, there's a lot of Ohio State
Speaker 2: people down there to begin with, so I'm going to
Speaker 2: go Ohio State here. Again, not a ton of confidence
Speaker 2: points in any of these games, only four for me,
Speaker 2: but I like Ohio State here and I'm pretty confident
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a shame this year just in looking
Speaker 1: back at USC specifically that they didn't have an opportunity
Speaker 1: to play against Washington because their wins were you know,
Speaker 1: Stanford twice, which is very good. It was not a
Speaker 1: great Stanford team, but that's good. They beat Utah, But
Speaker 1: outside of that, there wasn't much in the way of
Speaker 1: like a top fifty, top sixty win for this USC team. Defensively,
Speaker 1: I think a little bit to be desired. I didn't
Speaker 1: love their secondary at times they weren't great against the run.
Speaker 1: But offensively, you know, you have Sam Darnold, who, in
Speaker 1: terms of outside of Baker Mayfield, the ceiling of playmaking was,
Speaker 1: you know, extremely high up. There's no question that you know,
Speaker 1: when he had to roll out of the pocket and
Speaker 1: look downfield, he was able to make plays that a
Speaker 1: lot of quarterbacks are just flat out unable when he's
Speaker 1: not throwing picks. There's a ton of talent in the
Speaker 1: backfield with Stephen Carr and the Texas Tesla Ronald Jones,
Speaker 1: But against a team like Ohio State, I don't see
Speaker 1: a lot I love. I think Ohio State's defensive line
Speaker 1: can overwhelm USC's offensive line. I don't love the fact
Speaker 1: that Ohio State, when they're just smart and give it
Speaker 1: to JK. Dobbins, which is the smartest possible thing Ohio
Speaker 1: State can do, dominated everybody and looked like a playoff team,
Speaker 1: where USC at times, even in wins, you know, a
Speaker 1: close win against Utah with their backup quarterback at home.
Speaker 1: I like USC a bunch, but I think the the
Speaker 1: talent differential on Ohio State's defense against USC's offense. And
Speaker 1: I know USC has receivers that have improved. The younger
Speaker 1: guys Tyler Vaughan, Stephen Mitchell, those guys improved over the
Speaker 1: course of the season. I don't know how they get
Speaker 1: loose against Ohio State's defense consistently. So Ohio State with
Speaker 1: the better points per drive defense tie and that's it's
Speaker 1: by a considerable margin. I'm taking them to win the
Speaker 1: Cotton Bowl. And here's the big controversy. Yeah, I'll say
Speaker 1: controversial thing. Ty I think Ohio State breaks their scoreless
Speaker 1: streak in the postseason. What I think they do? I
Speaker 1: think they break that streak. I don't think they go
Speaker 1: two years in a row of not scoring a single
Speaker 1: point in the postseason. Wow, I'm out on that, LIMB
Speaker 1: check me off. How many confidence points are you putting
Speaker 1: on this? Not a lot? Uh low? Teens? Twelve, thirteen, Wow,
Speaker 1: somewhere on there. Okay. I like Sam Darnold. I like
Speaker 1: what he was able to, you know, raise his game
Speaker 1: up to last year against Penn State, but that was
Speaker 1: in the Rose Bowl. I don't think this USC team
Speaker 1: is as good as it was last year on offense.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to Ohio State.
Speaker 2: Here we agree, go to the tax Slayer Bowl.
Speaker 1: Yes, who's up for slaying some taxes? Oh that's a
Speaker 1: loaded question, ty.
Speaker 2: Ever bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. They play this one
Speaker 2: on December the thirtieth at high noon. It's on ESPN.
Speaker 2: We've got Loulville a six and a half point favorite
Speaker 2: over in Mississippi State. Several alerts that I need to
Speaker 2: mention to all y'all.
Speaker 1: But before we do, what are our gifts here? What's
Speaker 1: our gift situation?
Speaker 2: Dan?
Speaker 1: The tax Layer Bowl has generally has generously excused me.
Speaker 1: Decided to gift people with Oh, the Cold War still
Speaker 1: rages on. Well, there's a gift suite, no idea. What's
Speaker 1: in the gift suite? Fossil Watch, so a shot across
Speaker 1: the bow obviously early on in our Bowl preview against Timely,
Speaker 1: so the Fossil Watch in this one.
Speaker 2: There are some other watch companies getting in on the
Speaker 2: fun here.
Speaker 1: There's a blow.
Speaker 2: I did notice that, Yeah, the Cold War, the watch
Speaker 2: Cold War. So we've got a whoop whoop new coaching alert. Yes,
Speaker 2: and that Dan Mullen left Mississippi State for Florida. Joemo
Speaker 2: Joe Morehead, coming over from Penn State, will not be
Speaker 2: coaching the bowl game, not pulling the sunny Dikes. We've
Speaker 2: also got whoop whoop injured star quarterback alert in Nick Fitzgerald.
Speaker 2: You might remember he had that ugly dislocated ankle injury
Speaker 2: in the Egg Bowl for Mississippi State, so he ain't
Speaker 2: playing this one either. I don't think there's much need
Speaker 2: to overthink this one, Dan. I do like Mississippi State's defense.
Speaker 2: They played pretty well on that side of the football
Speaker 2: all year. But I think, like any other game, Lamar
Speaker 2: Jackson gonna have like four hundred total yards. I think
Speaker 2: they're gonna jump all over Mississippi State, and it's going
Speaker 2: to be tough for Mississippi State to really score with
Speaker 2: the Cardinals in this one. So I think louis the
Speaker 2: wins comfortably going away. They cover six and a half,
Speaker 2: they win by fourteen. I like Louisville to the tune
Speaker 2: of like twenty nine confidence points here.
Speaker 1: I think that's right. Yeah. The injured quarterback Nick Fitzgerald
Speaker 1: certainly was a huge piece or the biggest piece for
Speaker 1: for Mississippi State. And the fact that we have an
Speaker 1: interim staff, the fact that I don't think we love
Speaker 1: this Mississippi State defense, even you know, up front, there's
Speaker 1: there's a good amount of talent with with Sweat Green
Speaker 1: and Jeffrey Simmons, and they were good. They took a
Speaker 1: lot of chances with Todd Grantham, who's also you know,
Speaker 1: his head and I don't know if he's coaching this game,
Speaker 1: but he's moving on to Florida. Gave up a lot
Speaker 1: of big plays and Louisville is a big play team.
Speaker 1: And even though this is what worries me ty because
Speaker 1: the defensive pick factor, Louisll's defense is significantly worse than
Speaker 1: Mississippi State's and Mississippi State's defense, albeit coaching staff and
Speaker 1: quarterback are gone, their their defenses is relatively intact. And
Speaker 1: Louisville's best win best win was perdue. They lose to
Speaker 1: a pretty decent and okay Boston College team, Yes plucky,
Speaker 1: I don't know you like that word. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: good word. Louisll's offense was great even with the bad
Speaker 1: field position that the defense put them in. It was
Speaker 1: an all Lamar Jackson team.
Speaker 2: We've got we've got competing theories here at play because
Speaker 2: there's no coach, new coach theory against your newly christened
Speaker 2: analytics points per drive a loud thing.
Speaker 1: Right, It's it's basically the abstract versus the tangible.
Speaker 2: Why don't you go with Mississippi State here outright, and
Speaker 2: I'll go with Lowellville and we'll we'll put this to
Speaker 2: the test once and.
Speaker 1: For all right. I'm going to Mississippi State because I
Speaker 1: like the defense. All Right, we disagree.
Speaker 2: The AutoZone Liberty Bowl, dan They played at Liberty Bowl
Speaker 2: Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been to an AutoZone? Yeah, I've gotten
Speaker 1: in the zone. Tie.
Speaker 2: I was at an AutoZone a couple months back when
Speaker 2: my rear tail light went out and I decided on
Speaker 2: the Sunday morning that I me, of course, being the
Speaker 2: gearhead that I am, I was going to check it
Speaker 2: over there to the nearest AutoZone, get in the zone
Speaker 2: and get my new my new tail light. They promptly
Speaker 2: gave me the wrong model, dan Ah. Not only did
Speaker 2: it not fit in the light socket, but after I
Speaker 2: forced it in there, broke it and tried to start
Speaker 2: up the car and pump on the pump on the brakes,
Speaker 2: it didn't light up.
Speaker 1: Is this an extended Memphis defense metaphor? Is that what
Speaker 1: it could be? We're in for Okay, I'm because I'm
Speaker 1: here for it times I am here for it. Okay,
Speaker 1: what are we doing?
Speaker 2: Twelve December thirtieth, excuse me at twelve thirty, twelve thirty
Speaker 2: at twelve thirty, if you will, on ABC, We've got
Speaker 2: the Memphis Tigers, a three and a half point favorite,
Speaker 2: basically a home game against the Iowa State Cyclones, the
Speaker 2: darling of yours truly, the Iowa State Cyclones. I'm seeing
Speaker 2: here a bass, pro shops shopping trip, a Belova Caravel, watch,
Speaker 2: Nike athletic shoes, sports sandals and backpack, and a football.
Speaker 2: That's not a bad selection right there.
Speaker 1: That feels pretty good. If you're into like an outdoors
Speaker 1: way of life. You get the best pro shops, shopping
Speaker 1: spree whatever. You get the watch, you get some Nikes,
Speaker 1: that's great, some sandals I wish I forgot my sandals.
Speaker 1: I like wearing sandals around the house, sports sandals, backpack,
Speaker 1: you got football. It's pretty good. You get to be
Speaker 1: on network television. Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2: Every number I could find for this game was screaming
Speaker 2: for me to take Memphis. Why mainly because of the offense. Okay,
Speaker 2: Iowa State's been my team all year, and you know
Speaker 2: they've had time to prepare for Memphis in the passing game.
Speaker 2: They've been really good on defense all year. I think
Speaker 2: Matt Campbell's going to steer into his running game here
Speaker 2: with David Montgomery. I think they're gonna want to play
Speaker 2: a little bit of army ball here and do their
Speaker 2: best to eat up the clock, keep it out of
Speaker 2: Memphis's hands, and just try to run the air out
Speaker 2: of the football. I like Iowa State. I'm going to
Speaker 2: stick with it. I'm going to go crazy to the
Speaker 2: tune of twenty six confidence points. I'm going to take
Speaker 2: them out right. I'd imagine this also plays nicely into
Speaker 2: your d analytics theory.
Speaker 1: It does play nicely in the analytics. And Memphis had
Speaker 1: a spectacular leader spectacular year, excuse me, all things considered,
Speaker 1: second year with Mike Norvel. They beat UCLA, which UCLA
Speaker 1: didn't have the greatest season, but this is of course
Speaker 1: early September Ucla, and anytime you beat a big name
Speaker 1: Power five program at Memphis, that's a big deal. They
Speaker 1: beat Houston. They lose to a clear top ten team
Speaker 1: twice in UCF. Their offense was nothing short of terrific,
Speaker 1: a ton of explosive plays through the air. Riley Ferguson
Speaker 1: Anthony Miller is probably one of the best three quarterback
Speaker 1: to receiver duos in the country just in terms of
Speaker 1: production and excitement. They were good on the ground, generating
Speaker 1: bigger plays. They weren't particularly efficient running the ball. I
Speaker 1: didn't love the Memphis defense with how much they were
Speaker 1: able to just allow through the air. But Iowa State,
Speaker 1: and you talk about team that has faced top level quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: beaten top level quarterbacks, beating Oklahoma, TCU, Texas Tech, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of not great but okay losses to West
Speaker 1: Virginia and Kansas State. Iowa State was They were a
Speaker 1: team that depended I wouldn't say depended on but they
Speaker 1: were particularly talented at turning the ball over, turning other
Speaker 1: teams over. Specifically once they got to Kyle Kemp they
Speaker 1: were better on offense from Jacob Park. Their run defense
Speaker 1: was terrific, but you have to if you're gonna beat Memphis,
Speaker 1: you have to at least get some stops to the air.
Speaker 1: You know, get stops on third and six, whatever, and
Speaker 1: I think Iowa State is good enough to do that.
Speaker 1: The past defense wasn't the best thing they did, but
Speaker 1: if they can force a couple turnovers, I think they're
Speaker 1: in a good position to win this game. I like
Speaker 1: Matt Campbell and this staff with time, I like the continuity.
Speaker 1: I know Memphis, I think they lose their offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: to Texas A and M. I don't know if he's
Speaker 1: here for this game, but certainly it could be a
Speaker 1: factor in their preparation. So even though the game is
Speaker 1: in Memphis at the Liberty Bowl, I'm gonna go Iowa
Speaker 1: State here. I'm gonna go with that experience, with the
Speaker 1: D analytics, with S and P plus, I'm going with
Speaker 1: the defense here. That I worry a little bit about
Speaker 1: Memphis in the same way I worry about UCF. That
Speaker 1: are they a team that can win in different ways
Speaker 1: if forced to? And I think I always say, can
Speaker 1: slop up this game, give me the Clones. They're gonna
Speaker 1: be unkempt unkemped boom. All right, let's move on to
Speaker 1: the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. Dan, Yeah, they play this one
Speaker 1: at the University of Phoenix, Stadium. This game really does
Speaker 1: it for me, Ty, I am very excited for this.
Speaker 2: You are here for the Glendale PlayStation Fiesta Bowl, Dan.
Speaker 2: I think this one of December thirtieth, four pm on ESPN,
Speaker 2: Penn State, my dear Alma mater, a two point favorite
Speaker 2: over the Washington Huskies. You might guess what the gift
Speaker 2: suite entails here in the PlayStation Wink link nudge nudge,
Speaker 2: Fiesta Bowl, Dan.
Speaker 1: Yes, you get a PlayStation four, right, that's what we're on.
Speaker 2: Four.
Speaker 1: You get a PS four pro bundle. I don't know
Speaker 1: what that involves. If you get like a like a
Speaker 1: badge or a sash.
Speaker 2: Maybe you get maybe you get a second controller.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you get a second controller. They don't have cables
Speaker 1: anymore of these controllers, do they?
Speaker 2: No? No, I mean you have to plug it in.
Speaker 2: I think to charge the charge. It got one of
Speaker 2: the high falutin chargers.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I can tell you this much, Ti. I'm
Speaker 1: not getting a PS four until the NCAA series returns.
Speaker 1: I thought you had a PS four, Now I have
Speaker 1: PS three. Wow.
Speaker 2: So this has been a silent protest side Well, that's
Speaker 2: basically the only game I play.
Speaker 1: At one point I tried to get into FIFA, but
Speaker 1: I realized that I would have to spend a ton
Speaker 1: of time to get competent at FIFA, and so I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm rolling with the NC DOUBLEA series whenever I'm back.
Speaker 2: I'm an avid FIFA player. I know I'm any good
Speaker 2: at it at all, But you've put in time to
Speaker 2: just get to be below average, right, I'm below average
Speaker 2: is being very kind, but yeah, yeah, correct, that is correct.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So you get a PS four pro bundle. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that with a bunch of games or what.
Speaker 1: You have a Fossil Watch. Okay, so double Fossil early
Speaker 1: and an Ogo backpack. I think that's a very good
Speaker 1: And you get to go to Arizona. You have to
Speaker 1: go to Washington. If you're Washington, you can sort of
Speaker 1: make up for the last time you went to Arizona.
Speaker 1: If you're penn State, you don't have to be in
Speaker 1: central Pennsylvania in what early January. That's great.
Speaker 2: This is also the scene of the crime where Bill
Speaker 2: Hancock and I shared a giant bowl of Tostillo's chips.
Speaker 1: That's true. Tostito's no longer I guess involved with the festival.
Speaker 1: Here's the great News too, and because we have a
Speaker 1: special what kinship towards penn State fans alumni whatever, because
Speaker 1: you went there. Yeah, I can't assume I haven't really
Speaker 1: gone searching for great food in Central Pa and State College.
Speaker 1: But if you're going to this game, if you're from Seattle,
Speaker 1: if you're from Washington, if you're from Central Pa, from
Speaker 1: anywhere in Pennsylvania, the Northeast, great food, the greater Phoenix area,
Speaker 1: Austin Pizzeria Bianco, what was that? What was that Mexican
Speaker 1: place we went to? Remember we went to one place
Speaker 1: called tacos chioas we went to one place. Oh no,
Speaker 1: we didn't go there. We went and got torta. Somewhere
Speaker 1: you don't need to go to tacos Chi was Chi
Speaker 1: was or Las Santi Sema for tacos and Phoenix very
Speaker 1: good pizza, Cleta PiZZ I, c l e. T t
Speaker 1: A good pizza as well too, Arizona and namely Phoenix
Speaker 1: secretly really good pizza place.
Speaker 2: Well, this is going to be a fun football game,
Speaker 2: and if you do have the distinct pleasure of going
Speaker 2: to see it, please do send us pictures and let
Speaker 2: us know what the weather's like.
Speaker 1: Out there. It's going to be better than it is here.
Speaker 2: Enjoy your time, Enjoy Dan this is I think this
Speaker 2: is a poor man's version of Clemson versus Alabama.
Speaker 1: I'd say so, yeah, because what makes a.
Speaker 2: Game like this interesting is the contrasting styles that we're
Speaker 2: going to see at play. Penn State in the analogy,
Speaker 2: would obviously be more like Clemson. They've got a lot
Speaker 2: of the run pass option stuff, more wide open Washington
Speaker 2: a lot more like Alabama, a lot more like Alabama
Speaker 2: from a couple of years ago before they had Jalen
Speaker 2: Hurts and Blake Simms. More of that pro style, vanilla offense, play,
Speaker 2: bruising defense, that style of play. It'll be interesting to
Speaker 2: see these two teams go at each other. I do
Speaker 2: want to circle back, though, to something you've been saying
Speaker 2: all year about the Washington Huskies. We've sort of been
Speaker 2: waiting for them to find another.
Speaker 1: Gear, Yeah, especially an offense. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Right, Like last year, you could feel a little bit
Speaker 2: more confident that Washington was gonna go out there and
Speaker 2: they're gonna rip the arms and legs off somebody and
Speaker 2: just beat the crap out of them. This year, it
Speaker 2: felt like that component was missing.
Speaker 1: I think that's fair. Yeah, they had decent wins, but
Speaker 1: you know, they beat Fresno, which you know more and
Speaker 1: more looks like a good win. Was it was pretty
Speaker 1: good in terms of win. They beat Oregon. They killed
Speaker 1: Oregon without Justin Herbert, but they would have beaten them
Speaker 1: with Justin Herbert anyway. They beat Utah. They lose to
Speaker 1: ASU and Stanford, and the performances in those two games,
Speaker 1: especially against ASU on offense, it was a pretty disappointing
Speaker 1: way to lose. I'd say fair to say, yeah, both
Speaker 1: these teams, there actually is a good amount in common.
Speaker 1: So in big games, both of these teams missed I
Speaker 1: would say a big downfield threat receiver right and Chris
Speaker 1: Godwin and John Ross. Absolutely yeah, both both teams without
Speaker 1: their offensive coordinator. Joe Moore had gone, Jonathan Smith gone
Speaker 1: taking head coaching jobs at Power five schools. Sure, and
Speaker 1: led by I think maybe unexpectedly defensive performances. Jason Combinda
Speaker 1: was great, Marcus Allen had a great year in the
Speaker 1: secondary for Penn State. And when Washington was healthy, you know,
Speaker 1: they have one of the best interior alignment in the
Speaker 1: country and Vita Vea the secondary went healthy albeit young,
Speaker 1: great couple of safeties. You know, Byron Murphy's healthy in
Speaker 1: this game, he should stick on somebody really well for Washington.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot to like about these teams that
Speaker 1: are both dealing with I wouldn't say full on issues,
Speaker 1: but wrinkles concerns that are that are very similar. I
Speaker 1: would agree with that. I and really good run in
Speaker 1: Saquon Barkley and Miles Gaskin. Absolutely.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of talk here about how Washington's defense
Speaker 2: is going to give Penn State fits, and I can
Speaker 2: see that. I think that's true to an extent, especially
Speaker 2: since you mentioned Penn State turning over their offensive coordinator
Speaker 2: Ricky Ronnie stepping in now for Joe Moorehead. He's going
Speaker 2: to be taking over play call duties, so there's always
Speaker 2: a little bit of an awkward transition when something like
Speaker 2: that goes down. I really do think, though, that Penn
Speaker 2: State's defense is going to be going to be the
Speaker 2: X factor here. If they can bottle up Miles Gaskin,
Speaker 2: if they can force Washington to be more dependent on
Speaker 2: the pass, I think that really favors them. I'm a
Speaker 2: Penn State alone. I gotta go with my heart here,
Speaker 2: I gotta Penn State. I don't know if I well,
Speaker 2: it's it two points. I gotta go Penn State outright
Speaker 2: to the two of nine confidence points. But I think
Speaker 2: this is going to be an awesome game to watch.
Speaker 1: I think the best thing in this game is still
Speaker 1: probably Washington's defense. On I think they're pretty healthy at
Speaker 1: this point. You know, getting the secondary back to where
Speaker 1: it should be should help against a Penn State team
Speaker 1: that really when they were playing their best, they were
Speaker 1: throwing downfield, and Sequon Barkley helped, I think more as
Speaker 1: an all purpose guy rather than a consistent ground thread
Speaker 1: against the better defenses Penn State face. But still, this
Speaker 1: Penn State team was what the end of the Ohio
Speaker 1: State game away from being in playoff consideration. So this
Speaker 1: was it was an excellent Penn State team about ninety
Speaker 1: four percent of the time, basically the Michigan State team
Speaker 1: the Michigan State game nonwithstanding, I think though that the
Speaker 1: combination of Washington's defensive line, I really like Pete Kwakowski,
Speaker 1: the defensive coordinator for the Huskies. The fact that it's
Speaker 1: on the West Coast I think helps a little bit
Speaker 1: for Washington. The familiarity they're not traveled. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: Penn State will be their days and days ahead of time.
Speaker 1: I think they're going to be able to bottle up
Speaker 1: Saquon Barkley. I think they'll be able to get to
Speaker 1: trace McSorley enough they won't contain him fully. But I'm
Speaker 1: going to roll with what I think is the strongest
Speaker 1: and most continuous part of this game, which is the
Speaker 1: Washington defense and their ability to get pressure with four guys.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go Washington close here, and honestly, the
Speaker 1: whatever the D analytics s and P plus, it's nearly identical.
Speaker 1: Washington seventh, Penn State sixth, and Washington had a stronger
Speaker 1: I think, schedule outside of the conference whatever. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to go with the Huskies here. Wow, so we disagree,
Speaker 1: we disagree. Penn State had one big win. They beat Michigan.
Speaker 1: They did beat Michigan.
Speaker 2: That was the that was their win, all right, Umm,
Speaker 2: I gotta go Penn State outright, So what is the
Speaker 2: real gain? Let's go to the Capitol One Orange Bowl, Dan,
Speaker 2: What's in your wallet? In hard Rock Stadium, Miami, Florida.
Speaker 2: Also on December of the thirtieth, they played it at
Speaker 2: eight pm on ESPN. We've got the Wisconsin Badgers. Badgers
Speaker 2: coming down from the northern part of the Great USA,
Speaker 2: a six and a half point favorite against the home town,
Speaker 2: home dog, home team, Yeah, home team, Miami Hurricanes. Dan,
Speaker 2: I noticed that there is a different kind of watch
Speaker 2: I watch that I've never seen before.
Speaker 1: Now we've mentioned this brand before, I think we have.
Speaker 1: Maybe they were at the Orange Bowl last year. I
Speaker 1: don't know. There's a gift suite. There's the Torneau watch
Speaker 1: t o you are? Is that the former first baseman
Speaker 1: for the Minnesota Twins. Yeah, justin Torneau. Did you not
Speaker 1: know Life brand hat? But that's Life with a Why
Speaker 1: I look these up? They make a denim hat that
Speaker 1: says dad and has a rose on it. How does
Speaker 1: the Torneau watch look? Does that look at least? It's
Speaker 1: it's fine. Yeah, they're in Chicago, so there's that. There
Speaker 1: we go. I can go get one today if I
Speaker 1: if I wanted to, and an ice shaker, water bottle
Speaker 1: and shaker cup. Stay hydrated in Miami, Folks, How do
Speaker 1: you feel about this game? Dan? I think I like
Speaker 1: Wisconsin here. I think there's more to like about Wisconsin
Speaker 1: at this point. You know, Miami without I'm on Richards.
Speaker 1: We saw what that looked like against Clemson and a
Speaker 1: good defense, I mean great defense like Wisconsin also has
Speaker 1: I struggle with feeling super confident about it because it's
Speaker 1: it's a literal home game Iami. I changed my pick.
Speaker 1: I changed my pick.
Speaker 2: I once was where you are, Yeah, please educate me,
Speaker 2: And it dawned to me that this game was tearing
Speaker 2: me apart.
Speaker 1: Yeah, emotionally apt.
Speaker 2: My gut is one hundred percent to go with Wisconsin
Speaker 2: because they're so good on defense. That is going to
Speaker 2: be a real issue from Miami one way or another.
Speaker 2: But then you think about it and Okay, like you said,
Speaker 2: a literal home game from Miami on their home field,
Speaker 2: big game city, big game town, big game team, they're
Speaker 2: going to be rocking a lot of home folks going
Speaker 2: to be at that game. Uh. Their defense is also
Speaker 2: pretty good m hm. And you might remember this little
Speaker 2: apparatus they call the turnover chain, right, I do remember
Speaker 2: people been talking about it.
Speaker 1: It's in the Smithsonian.
Speaker 2: Now. If there is anybody in college football who was
Speaker 2: born to add links to that chain, it might be
Speaker 2: Alex Honybrook.
Speaker 1: Oh does anybody who would know it would be somebody
Speaker 1: who was forced to watch a lot of Brandon Wimbush.
Speaker 1: I'm saying.
Speaker 2: The turnover chain could play a factor in the shootball game.
Speaker 2: I don't like this pick at all, but I am
Speaker 2: going to change it from Wisconsin eight confidence points to
Speaker 2: Miami eight confidence points just because it's an on game
Speaker 2: and I struggled with it so much. I think there
Speaker 2: will be an added layer of motivation here, being that
Speaker 2: it's at home.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go Miami. Do you think there's motivation
Speaker 1: because they're at home or do you think there might
Speaker 1: be malaise? I think at home they're going to be rocking.
Speaker 1: It's a night game. No, they're going to be rocking. See,
Speaker 1: I think it might. They were in the ACC Championship
Speaker 1: and if they win that, they there's a good shot
Speaker 1: there in the playoff. They're not going it. They're not
Speaker 1: going to the Rose Bowl. They're not going to the
Speaker 1: Sugar Bowl. They're not going Yes, you know there's not
Speaker 1: They're just playing a home game.
Speaker 2: I know I'm changing my pick to Miami. I think
Speaker 2: there's gonna be an added layer of motivation.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, Miami has the better resume in beating
Speaker 1: Virginia Tech and Notre Dame, and you know, the win
Speaker 1: that Wisconsin has over FAU looks better and better it does.
Speaker 1: They beat Michigan surprisingly enough, they beat you know, our
Speaker 1: pretty decent Northwestern team. They lose to Ohio State close
Speaker 1: in the Big Ten Championship game when they would lean
Speaker 1: on Jonathan Taylor's tailback. Of course, you know, he rushes
Speaker 1: for almost two thousand yards. I don't think that Wisconsin
Speaker 1: is going to try and throw the ball more than
Speaker 1: they feel they need to. I don't think they're going
Speaker 1: to be throwing into the teeth all that much into
Speaker 1: this Miami defense. You know, the defense is basically as
Speaker 1: good as anybody not in the playoff, if not better
Speaker 1: than certain teams in the playoffs, certainly better than Oklahoma's defense.
Speaker 1: They lose their you know, Wisconsin was their excuse me,
Speaker 1: they're outside linebackers. Coach, he's taking over the Oregon State
Speaker 1: defense and Wisconsin's outside linebacker. You it's very specific tie.
Speaker 1: But with Joe Show and Vince Beagle and TJ. Watt,
Speaker 1: maybe that's a factor. I don't know. I like I
Speaker 1: like Wisconsin. I think I think looking at where Miami
Speaker 1: struggled late in the year seeing them throw into good
Speaker 1: defenses without am On Richard, that scares me a little bit.
Speaker 1: I really should. Yeah so, And as much as I
Speaker 1: do like this Miami defense r J McIntosh, Joe Jackson,
Speaker 1: Shaquill Quorterman all year long, they were really fast, they
Speaker 1: were angry, they played really well as many daz defense
Speaker 1: was fun. I'm willing Wisconsin here just because I they're
Speaker 1: my my more secure pick. I'm not willing to go
Speaker 1: out on a limb for this Miami team right now.
Speaker 2: All right, suit yourself. We disagree.
Speaker 1: We disagree.
Speaker 2: The outback ball Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on
Speaker 2: New Year's Day at High New twenty eighteen on ESPN two,
Speaker 2: Michigan Wolverine's an eight point favorite over the South Carolina
Speaker 2: game Cocks. The gift to all for ballers, the gift
Speaker 2: of college football fans is our good friend, Ryan Nanny.
Speaker 2: He will be the Fryan Bloomin' Onion, the frying Onion,
Speaker 2: Fryan Nanny, Fryan Nanny, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 2: He will be serving as the blooming onion mascot in
Speaker 2: the third quarter. I believe of this football contest.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I was gonna say that's that's the gift
Speaker 1: that keeps on giving. But the Outback Bowl will be
Speaker 1: giving away a Justin's ring. We all know Justin's a
Speaker 1: fossil watch. Here comes Fossil Yeah, one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: five dollars best Buy gift card, Outback Steakhouse gift card
Speaker 1: and a hat and the gift of seeing Ryan Nanny
Speaker 1: in a unit tard with a novelty vegetable around it,
Speaker 1: a novelty appetizer. And of course, are our good friend
Speaker 1: Adam Amine on the call. Wow, I didn't know he
Speaker 1: was working this game. Adam Amine is doing this game.
Speaker 1: He will be taking the Ryan Nanny situation very seriously.
Speaker 1: I want to say, I don't know if Ryan's the
Speaker 1: whole game or the third quarter? Is Is it the
Speaker 1: third quarter? I hope the third quarter. I hope it's
Speaker 1: acknowledged in a some sort of Renaldi situation. I hope
Speaker 1: it's acknowledged in a you know, maybe there's just like
Speaker 1: a box the bottom of the screen, like how they
Speaker 1: would they keep it on a coach, Or maybe there's
Speaker 1: an arrow like when Reggie Bush played for USC got
Speaker 1: to keep tabs on where Reggie Bush is lining up.
Speaker 1: Here's where the onion is the game changing performance right now? Absolutely, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: yes so good gift situation, better life situation, and a
Speaker 1: rematch of the Vince Smith head being popped off by
Speaker 1: Jadavian Clowney.
Speaker 2: Also, all of those things you just mentioned might be
Speaker 2: better than this actual football game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's also fair. That's why we spent time. I
Speaker 1: was looking at this game from every which way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and outside of LSU Notre Dame, which I'll talk
Speaker 2: about here in a little bit, I think this is
Speaker 2: the game I'm the least excited to pay attention to
Speaker 2: on New Year's.
Speaker 1: South Carolina is you know, it's They're not bad, they're
Speaker 1: not great, They're just they They're there.
Speaker 2: They're there. I haven't been enamored with South Carolina and
Speaker 2: their offense all year, like nobody has. Right, this is
Speaker 2: obviously a nice cherry on top of their season to
Speaker 2: go into a big bowl game like this. Sure, I
Speaker 2: just don't think they can move the ball against Michigan.
Speaker 2: Michigan's got such a good defense, and look, I know
Speaker 2: Michigan fans weren't entirely excited about what went on in
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, but if you truly go back and look
Speaker 2: at it if you consider all the pieces they lost
Speaker 2: from a year ago and now look at an eight
Speaker 2: and four season where you know, Loston, Michigan State, all right,
Speaker 2: that might have been one where they shouldn't have lost,
Speaker 2: but Loston, Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin. It's not like
Speaker 2: they were losing to Kentucky like South Carolina was teams
Speaker 2: that they probably shouldn't lose to.
Speaker 1: This mission season was so weird to me. It was
Speaker 1: such because the defense was really good. They'd be like
Speaker 1: they'd hold a team like one yard rush rush for
Speaker 1: no gain, negative two yard rush, one yard rush, eighty
Speaker 1: one yard rush. That was the defense. It was like,
Speaker 1: we're gonna stop you a bunch and then we're just
Speaker 1: gonna like stare at somebody in the crowd and let
Speaker 1: you give get a huge play. If you're ordering the
Speaker 1: Michigan DVD or whatever that year end highlight package for
Speaker 1: the Wolverines, you're getting a lot of the second half
Speaker 1: against Perdue. That was the bright spot. That is, you know, everybody,
Speaker 1: John o'corn he's he's the guy, he's the answer here.
Speaker 1: This offense is ready. And then no, it was you
Speaker 1: know Indiana and Purdue. We're the highlights of this Michigan season.
Speaker 1: They lose to the good teams in their division. The
Speaker 1: offense ultimately was below average. Kron Higgen will be healthy
Speaker 1: for this game. This game feels like it will serve
Speaker 1: as a way to get Michigan fans very excited about
Speaker 1: twenty eight team, which that's going to work out. It's
Speaker 1: a tough schedule, but that's what it feels like to me.
Speaker 1: And you know, there's I guess maybe a three way
Speaker 1: quarterback matchup with Shaye Patterson, Brandon Peters, Dylan McCaffrey. We'll
Speaker 1: see who comes out of that. But short term, this
Speaker 1: game out back ball. The things that matter most one
Speaker 1: onion costume, two Adam mean obviously three whatever happens in
Speaker 1: this game. And South Carolina, you're right, they were fine
Speaker 1: this year. They took they improved. The offense was okay,
Speaker 1: nothing great. AJ Turner wasn't bad. Jake Bentley was okay
Speaker 1: in spots. The defense. The defense improved against the run,
Speaker 1: They prevented bigger plays through the air.
Speaker 2: There's a lot to be happy about, to be satisfied
Speaker 2: with if you're a South Carolina fan. But sure, if
Speaker 2: you do a blind taste test and look at the
Speaker 2: numbers that they put up on offense, and then you
Speaker 2: see that they won eight and four. I would expect
Speaker 2: that that would be a bit confusing because this was
Speaker 2: not an offense that really took anybody by storm.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with the defense here. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: with Michigan comfortably in the twenties.
Speaker 2: I don't know if they cover eight points. That seems
Speaker 2: like a lot to me, but I feel twenty eight
Speaker 2: points confident that Michigan's going to win this game.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Chick fil A Peach Bowl.
Speaker 2: They play this one in the mirror Sadies Benz Stadium
Speaker 2: in Atlanta, the new one.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: On New Year's Day, twelve thirty pm Eastern on ESPN.
Speaker 2: We've got the Auburn Tigers a nine and a half
Speaker 2: point favorite against the UCF the undefeated Dan Yeah, UCF Knights.
Speaker 1: A good gift situation here as well. Yeah, the Peach
Speaker 1: Bowl does not mess around three hundred dollars Vanilla visa
Speaker 1: gift card. Ye, Vanilla Vanilla visa? Okay, Vanilla? Do you
Speaker 1: like scratch it and it smells like vanilla? Or it's
Speaker 1: you can only use it at cold Stone Creamery. That's great. Great,
Speaker 1: that's where they get you Ultimate Ears, wonder Boom Bluetooth speaker. Sure,
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's fine. Sure, you're in Atlanta, it's probably
Speaker 1: gonna be warm ish. I don't know you're inside Fossil
Speaker 1: watch in a football so Fossil coming strong here as well.
Speaker 1: I have a question for you.
Speaker 2: It's a very important and a very serious question. I'm
Speaker 2: ready about this football game. If I gave you one
Speaker 2: dollar for every time somebody asked you a hypothetical about
Speaker 2: UCF's playoff chances, how many bitcoins would you have by now?
Speaker 1: At this point, I don't think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: UCF playoff discussion, but a little while ago, Ty was
Speaker 1: it's a considerable amount.
Speaker 2: Sure, I would have so many bitcoins? Yeah, if we
Speaker 2: were keeping track, Because UCF has been an interesting story.
Speaker 1: They went undefeated.
Speaker 2: A lot of these statistical measures that we use to
Speaker 2: gauge one team against another come back with strong returns
Speaker 2: for UCF. So it's no denying that they're a very
Speaker 2: popular topic, especially given the fact that we've got a
Speaker 2: four team playoff, leaving the whole situation up for debate.
Speaker 2: This will be a good test for UCF. It'll be
Speaker 2: a good test for Scott Frost. He will be coaching
Speaker 2: as well. The rest of his coaching staff. They're gonna
Speaker 2: leave after this game. They're all going to go up
Speaker 2: to Lincoln. But it'll be a really good test to
Speaker 2: see where UCF is at. A game like this, as
Speaker 2: you know, has proven to be a bit of a
Speaker 2: dangerous spot in the past for a team like an
Speaker 2: Auburn because it means so much more for a team
Speaker 2: like UCF than it does Auburn. Auburn was one game away.
Speaker 2: For good use of that phrase, ty, it just means more,
Speaker 2: it does. Auburn was one game away from being in
Speaker 2: the playoff UCF. This is their national championship. They can
Speaker 2: beat an SEC team on Scott Frost's way out the door.
Speaker 2: A lot of intangibles at play. It also did catch
Speaker 2: me by surprise how statistically close this one looked. If
Speaker 2: you go in there and pop the hood, the S
Speaker 2: and P plus likes UCF to win by a point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, S and P plus is not a human factor thing,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you're you're right. I mean, does this game
Speaker 1: feel sort of like pity sex versus breakup sex? I mean,
Speaker 1: football is football. Yeah, but okay, so yes, I think
Speaker 1: the biggest The bigger thing is Scott Frost and staff
Speaker 1: moving on to Nebraska. You have the Nebraska head coach
Speaker 1: now coaching UCF. This would be an enormous cherry. This
Speaker 1: would be a dozen cherries on top of a delicious
Speaker 1: Sunday for Scott Frost and UCF and whatever. But it
Speaker 1: sort of felt like they peaked going twelve and zero.
Speaker 1: I think like this is it's not Chris Peterson, you know,
Speaker 1: staying Chris Peterson. You're back and poising now if you.
Speaker 2: If here's my advice, if you want to root for UCF,
Speaker 2: take UCF plus nine and a half straight up to
Speaker 2: me is a bridge too. Defensively, Auburn is way better
Speaker 2: than anybody UCF played all year, and that's going to
Speaker 2: play a factor here. If nothing more, it's just gonna
Speaker 2: wear down the UCF front. It sounds like kerry On
Speaker 2: Johnson will be healthy, he will play in this football game,
Speaker 2: and I think just by virtue of that, they will
Speaker 2: also be able to wear down the front seven of UCF.
Speaker 1: Auburn will.
Speaker 2: So given what we know of Auburn, they got a
Speaker 2: little bit nicked up down the stretch. If nothing more,
Speaker 2: they were tired because of the brutal stretch they had
Speaker 2: to play. They've had a couple weeks now. Scott Frost
Speaker 2: I saw he was quoted as saying, well, the UCF
Speaker 2: was ahead of Auburn in their preparation. Auburn wasn't practicing
Speaker 2: as often as UCF was for this game. And I
Speaker 2: guess that plays into the fact that maybe it means
Speaker 2: more for the Nights than it does for the Tigers.
Speaker 2: But Auburn had a tough stretch. They deserve some time
Speaker 2: off to kind of get their bearings and get ready
Speaker 2: for this one. I think over the course of sixty
Speaker 2: minutes they will wear DOWNF and come away the victor here.
Speaker 1: I think that's right. Auburn's defense was really, really, really
Speaker 1: really good. They were very good against the run, They
Speaker 1: were absurdly great against the pass. The offense was mostly good.
Speaker 1: After that Clemson game, you know, struggled in the SEC Championship. Certainly,
Speaker 1: I think what they score seven points against Georgia, but
Speaker 1: this Auburn team plays defense basically as well as anybody
Speaker 1: does anything, and that includes UCF on offense, and that
Speaker 1: offense was a complete joy Mackenzie Milton throwing to what,
Speaker 1: trey Quan Smith, Tredrick Snelson. You know, this was an
Speaker 1: exciting offense. My question is this UCF defense was average?
Speaker 1: They were, you know, which is a huge improvement from
Speaker 1: where they were, certainly, but they're okay. Versus the run,
Speaker 1: they weren't bad. Versus the pass. They gave up a
Speaker 1: lot of big plays. We saw the two games against
Speaker 1: Memphis and USF. I just I worry that, Yeah, the
Speaker 1: waves of talent for UCF just they won't be there
Speaker 1: against Auburn. The motivation for Auburn is a legitimate question,
Speaker 1: but they're still playing in a group of five game
Speaker 1: in the National Championship site, stadium, whatever, I think there
Speaker 1: will be excitement for Auburn. This was a good season
Speaker 1: for the Tigers. They beat what two playoff teams, They
Speaker 1: beat George at home, they beat Bama. So it's still
Speaker 1: a wildly successful year. And certainly disappointed with the SEC
Speaker 1: championship game. But yeah, I think the talent factor. I
Speaker 1: think the idea that it is the Nebraska head coach
Speaker 1: just sort of coaching his final game out for UCF.
Speaker 1: I think it's Auburn. I think Auburn ultimately wears them
Speaker 1: down by a couple touchdowns, and.
Speaker 2: Then before we get to the two Big Tamali's here
Speaker 2: a longer show, apologize, thank you for sticking with us.
Speaker 2: Here on the solid line. The Citrus Bowl presented by Overtons.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what is? Do we know what Overtons is? I
Speaker 1: have no clue. What do you It's the Citrus Bowl
Speaker 1: presented by Overtons. Overtons. It sounds like a local diner. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would get a Patty mellet overs. Sure. So Overton's
Speaker 1: launching life on the Water. Since what it's boating, marine
Speaker 1: water sports, anchor and docking trailering, so it sounds like
Speaker 1: it's lake stuff. I don't know.
Speaker 2: They played at Camping World Stadium. I guess a fitting host.
Speaker 1: Yeah, ties in.
Speaker 2: They also played this one on New Year's Day one
Speaker 2: PM on ABC. It's LSU a three point favorite over
Speaker 2: the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. In this game, they give
Speaker 2: away a four hundred dollars best by Player shopping trip,
Speaker 2: which is done. I like that, and a timely watch
Speaker 2: company watch great gift. So Notre Dame was a bit
Speaker 2: in the news. Kevin Stefferson is their wide receiver suspended
Speaker 2: for this game, he got popped for speeding and then
Speaker 2: I guess not having a license and then having weed
Speaker 2: in his car.
Speaker 1: Not his first brush with the law.
Speaker 2: He's kind of been a handful ever since he got
Speaker 2: there for Brian Kelly in a football since he led
Speaker 2: the receiving core with five touchdowns and he might have
Speaker 2: been their best big play guy. Yeah, so's It's not
Speaker 2: something you want to under sell because, as you know,
Speaker 2: my gripe about Notre Dame's offense all year has been
Speaker 2: the passing game. They haven't really been able to get
Speaker 2: much going down the field in the passing game. Now,
Speaker 2: to lose that component, I think is something that will
Speaker 2: obviously affect them negatively going into a big game like
Speaker 2: this against LSU. LSU has a pretty good defense in
Speaker 2: their own right. I don't want any part of Notre
Speaker 2: Dame in this game, why none whatsoever?
Speaker 1: The Stefferson passing game factor, not just that.
Speaker 2: I just feel like you've got such a good defense
Speaker 2: at LSU. You've got a really good defensive coordinator in
Speaker 2: David Randa. I think he's gonna watch the tape. He's
Speaker 2: gonna look, he's going to see what other programs did.
Speaker 2: He's going to see what Miami did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this was I think you're mostly right. This
Speaker 1: wasn't a dominant LSU defense at any one thing. This
Speaker 1: wasn't where this defense was these last couple of years.
Speaker 1: And they were good. They were you know, they were complete.
Speaker 1: They were good. And this LSU team was led mostly
Speaker 1: by the fact that, oh man, the phone keeps ringing,
Speaker 1: most by the fact that they were more talented than
Speaker 1: most of the teams they played, the improvement of Danniettling
Speaker 1: on offense, Darius Guice when he was healthy was very good,
Speaker 1: and the fact that the SEC wasn't terrific. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of changes happening on both sides of the conference.
Speaker 1: So Notre Dame wise, i'd be worried that the obvious
Speaker 1: strategy as well make Brandon Wimbush beat you.
Speaker 2: I don't think that David Randon needs to do anything
Speaker 2: more complicated. Yeah, I really don't. And that worries me
Speaker 2: for Notre Dame here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think that's all reasonable, and I
Speaker 1: think one of the stories about Notre Dame that's a
Speaker 1: little bit below the surface. Unfortunately, because of the emergence
Speaker 1: of Josh Adams as a huge play running back and
Speaker 1: Brandon Wimbusch had a really nice at least first half
Speaker 1: or two thirds of the season. Is the fact that
Speaker 1: Notre Dame's defense got good, especially against the pass this year.
Speaker 1: From where they were in twenty sixteen, they improved so
Speaker 1: much and they'll have a lot to sort of worry
Speaker 1: about with dj Chark as a big play guy and
Speaker 1: Danny Atling throwing the ball downfield pretty well. But that
Speaker 1: was that was a cool thing to see improve for
Speaker 1: Notre Dame. I just as Brandon Wimbush as the ultimate
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty guy. That works me, So I'm going
Speaker 1: to LSU.
Speaker 2: I think probably more of a defensive slug fest than
Speaker 2: any kind of pyrotechnic display on offense.
Speaker 1: But I do think that it will be wimbushed. That
Speaker 1: again sinks Notre Dame. I don't think he's going to.
Speaker 2: Move the ball through the air that he needs to
Speaker 2: that David rand is going to force him to try
Speaker 2: and do.
Speaker 1: Are you confident that they'll he'll improve next year or two?
Speaker 2: No, I'm not confident at all, because he hasn't improved
Speaker 2: this year. Okay, you know, from start to finish, you
Speaker 2: can make a really good case that he didn't get
Speaker 2: any better. So no, I'm not confident at all.
Speaker 1: Okay, fair enough, I'm curious see what else you looks
Speaker 1: like offensively moving forward? But yeah, okay, let's go with
Speaker 1: the agree.
Speaker 2: And finally, Dan, in the wise words of that HQ
Speaker 2: trivia host, have you played that at all?
Speaker 1: Oh? I love HQ Scott was Nowski was new Ski? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I want a Christmas Eve thirty five bucks? Is that true?
Speaker 1: It is twelve questions.
Speaker 2: It all boils down to this, Dan, Let's start with
Speaker 2: the first of two college football playoff games, the Rose
Speaker 2: Bowl Game, presented by Northwestern Mutual. They play it at
Speaker 2: the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. It is on New
Speaker 2: Year's Day at five pm the Classic Rose bull starting
Speaker 2: time on ESPN Georgia. The Bulldogs the SEC champions at
Speaker 2: ten and two, a one and a half point favorite
Speaker 2: over Oklahoma at twelve and one. They enter this game
Speaker 2: with one loss to our friends over at Iowa State,
Speaker 2: and they are the Big twelve champion. In this game,
Speaker 2: there's a gift suite of Fossil Watch, an Agio backpack,
Speaker 2: a new Era nine to fifty snap back adjustable hat,
Speaker 2: and that's all I see.
Speaker 1: Also also a gift. You get to go play in
Speaker 1: the Rose Bowl, the best single setting for a game
Speaker 1: and best game you know, going to the Rose Bull
Speaker 1: for UCLA Arizona State not wonderful, but this Jeep New
Speaker 1: Year's it's the best.
Speaker 2: A quick look at the numbers here, the S and
Speaker 2: P Plus has Georgia as the eighteenth most efficient offense
Speaker 2: in college football the eighth most efficient defense. Oklahoma, They've
Speaker 2: got the top offense, the most efficient offense in the country,
Speaker 2: and most explosive and most explosive, but the ninety fifth
Speaker 2: most efficient defense. Right, whether you understand these numbers are not,
Speaker 2: that's the mismatch.
Speaker 1: On paper.
Speaker 2: It jumps OUTI it sticks out like gasre thumb. So
Speaker 2: let's start there. How fair is it to say that
Speaker 2: the weakest entity on the field is Oklahoma's defense?
Speaker 1: Accurate? I think that's accurate?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Yeah? No, they have the best offense and the worst
Speaker 1: defense in the playoff.
Speaker 2: So now that we know that, now that we're assuming
Speaker 2: that much as fact, given that Oklahoma's offense is so
Speaker 2: damn efficient, how much, if at all, does that defense
Speaker 2: really scare you?
Speaker 1: The defense did improve, To be fair to Oklahoma, they
Speaker 1: gave up what seventeen to a good TCU offense. They
Speaker 1: gave up twenty earlier on in the season to the
Speaker 1: same TCU offense. They obviously shut down Kansas. They were
Speaker 1: other than that Oklahoma State game. They were largely Okay,
Speaker 1: they've got og what is it? Okonquo, I'm going to
Speaker 1: screw that up for the rest of time. And he's
Speaker 1: a great a great guy for them on defense. But
Speaker 1: I think in big spots this Oklahoma defense can be enough.
Speaker 1: I don't know, if they're not going to be good,
Speaker 1: they can be enough to not be a detriment and
Speaker 1: take away from what seems to always be an exhilarating
Speaker 1: offensive performance from Baker Mayfield and his year over year
Speaker 1: new skill set around him. Okay, so it doesn't terrify
Speaker 1: me in the way that I think ordinarily it would
Speaker 1: because you have that quarterback cover.
Speaker 2: I think there is definitely a possibility that Georgia comes
Speaker 2: into this game and does exactly what it's done in
Speaker 2: a bunch of other games this season. They'll grind it
Speaker 2: out with Nick Chubb and Sony Michelle. They'll play off
Speaker 2: that they'll get Jake from some good looks downfield in
Speaker 2: a vacuum. That's a really good matchup for Georgia, and
Speaker 2: on some level we're going to see that play out
Speaker 2: here in Georgia's favor in this football game. They will
Speaker 2: do that to some degree of success. I have no
Speaker 2: doubt about that. What worries me is that Oklahoma runs hot.
Speaker 2: They run hot. They're the best first quarter team in
Speaker 2: college football, at least on offense.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Would it surprise you if they went out there opening
Speaker 2: dry and went eighty yards on three plays and scored
Speaker 2: a touchdown.
Speaker 1: Three plays, maybe seven six, five plays maybe not? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that would I mean? They have the clear best quarterback
Speaker 1: in college football. Who I mean, We've talked about this before.
Speaker 1: He seems like he's in purgatory a little bit all
Speaker 1: season long. He doesn't seem like a college quarterback. He
Speaker 1: seems like a grad student. He's, you know, ready for
Speaker 1: the NFL. Was ready for the NFL early on in
Speaker 1: the season. And I generally don't care how good your
Speaker 1: secondary is. He's going to able. He's going to be
Speaker 1: able to buy enough time to make a play in
Speaker 1: the same way you know, Deshaun Watson was able to
Speaker 1: do last year. Marcus Mariota was you know, there. He
Speaker 1: has that very specific talent that you can cover his receivers.
Speaker 1: You can cover you know, Mark Andrews, you can cover
Speaker 1: whoever for three four seconds. But he is going to
Speaker 1: squirt and squirm and move around enough to make a
Speaker 1: play more often than not.
Speaker 2: I just worry that George is gonna have to play
Speaker 2: from behind early. And okay, if that's the case, what
Speaker 2: happens to their game plan of trying to grind it out?
Speaker 2: And you know, Jake from has been really good. He's
Speaker 2: been efficient and accurate and all the superlatives apply to
Speaker 2: what he's done in his first year. He's been outstanding.
Speaker 2: But Georgia, I think, has a very specific game plan
Speaker 2: that we know a lot about. And what really impresses
Speaker 2: me about Oklahoma is that in spite of losing both
Speaker 2: running backs and DeeDee Westbrook and Bob freaking Stoops from
Speaker 2: a year ago, Lincoln Riley came in. He was starting
Speaker 2: with Baker Mayfield in a good line. And if you're
Speaker 2: a fan, all you can ask is that your team
Speaker 2: gets better. They have gotten better on offense. They have
Speaker 2: so many different ways that they can beat you. I
Speaker 2: don't think Georgia has that kind of variety on their offense.
Speaker 2: They have a very specific formula that they can follow
Speaker 2: and veer from to some degree and still be very successful.
Speaker 2: But I feel much better about Oklahoma really against any defense,
Speaker 2: given that they've got Baker Mayfield.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 2: I am. If I weren't sticking to my formula here
Speaker 2: and putting the minimal amount of confidence points in these
Speaker 2: later games, I would put a lot more than three
Speaker 2: on Oklahoma because I've just been so impressed by how
Speaker 2: they've gotten better throughout the course.
Speaker 1: Of the season. So I'm gonna go Oklahoma here outright,
Speaker 1: every part of my gut is sent telling me Oklahoma
Speaker 1: the quarterback. He's been in the playoff, you know, beat
Speaker 1: Auburn and what the Sugar Bowl last year. You know,
Speaker 1: he's been in these big spots, going into the biggest spot.
Speaker 1: I really like Oklahoma here because of Baker Mayfield. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm going Georgia. WHOA Why I'm going Georgia because
Speaker 1: too many times danalytics scene. No, I mean, the defense
Speaker 1: thing does play a role. Yes, too many times I've
Speaker 1: seen the better defense get the best of an excellent quarterback.
Speaker 1: Too many times over the course of four quarters. You know,
Speaker 1: the talent edge clearly goes to Georgia. The fact that
Speaker 1: their front is as dominant as it is against I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the mat right It's and Lorenzo Carter against the
Speaker 1: just unbelievably dominant Oklahoma offensive line. It's how much can
Speaker 1: Georgia force Baker Mayfield to be uncomfortable? And even when uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield's better than anybody, But that, to me is
Speaker 1: the big difference, and the fact that Georgia was able
Speaker 1: to cover their perceived weaknesses, be it deep with the
Speaker 1: secondary or be it offensive line early on to become
Speaker 1: a strength and even when offensively if Jake From's not
Speaker 1: getting it going, and I think this is God, it's
Speaker 1: an enormous spot for a true freshman quarterback to be
Speaker 1: in against another quarterback who has all of the seasoning
Speaker 1: in the world in Baker Mayfield. I just the more
Speaker 1: dependable thing to me in these spots is defensive talent
Speaker 1: at this point with what we've seen recently, with as
Speaker 1: good as spread offenses have been, with a first year
Speaker 1: head coach with a questionable at times defense, I mean,
Speaker 1: Mason Rudolph carved up this Oklahoma State defense. I mean
Speaker 1: maybe the best receiving corps in college football, but he
Speaker 1: carved them up. I'm just I'm going to go This
Speaker 1: is the same reason I took Wisconsin. Ag It's Miami, Okay.
Speaker 1: There's more I feel like I can depend on in
Speaker 1: this game when things go wrong than just Baker Mayfield.
Speaker 1: So I'm going Georgia and I hate myself for doing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm kind of going with Oklahoma for all
Speaker 2: the same reasons.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think either way, this is potential to be the
Speaker 2: best game of the year, maybe the best game all
Speaker 2: next year too. I think Oklahoma goes up early. I
Speaker 2: think Georgia Whittle's their way back. I think we get
Speaker 2: to the fourth quarter and Oklahoma's trying to hang on
Speaker 2: for dear life, sore more shootout et a very close game.
Speaker 2: I like Oklahoma thirty eight thirty seven in an instant
Speaker 2: Rose Bowl Classic.
Speaker 1: And to be clear, I watched every second of Oklahoma
Speaker 1: Ohio State. I know what I'm doing, and I'm doing
Speaker 1: something bad. But in a spot like this, with the
Speaker 1: amount of time to prepare, I think, you know, Kirby's
Speaker 1: art Mel Tucker, that defense kind of Sam Sewin on offense.
Speaker 1: I think Georgia wins this game twenty eight to twenty seven.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, well, I think it's gonna unbelieve. I
Speaker 1: cannot wait for this.
Speaker 2: I'm very excited for this game, which means that the
Speaker 2: final showdown in the playoffs this season, at least in
Speaker 2: the semi finals, is the All State Sugar Bowl. They
Speaker 2: play it on New Year's Day at eight forty five
Speaker 2: pm Eastern Time on ESPN live from New Orleans in
Speaker 2: the Mercedes Benz Superdome. It's a rematch from last year's
Speaker 2: actual national championship game.
Speaker 1: Alabama at eleven and one.
Speaker 2: They did not win their conference, but they did make
Speaker 2: it in thanks to the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.
Speaker 2: They're a two point two and a half point favorite,
Speaker 2: depending where you look. Over the Clemson Tigers at twelve
Speaker 2: and one.
Speaker 1: They won the A C C. What's our final gift situation, Dan,
Speaker 1: sugar ball always on time is pretty good. The Sugar
Speaker 1: Bowl is giving away. There's a gift sweet situation. A
Speaker 1: fossil watch, a new era cap, Rockham socks, which were
Speaker 1: in agreement. They look pretty great. They need to send
Speaker 1: us rock Em socks, but they need some rock Ems
Speaker 1: and a panoramic game photo. Which I like that I
Speaker 1: have a panoramic view of I think it's Oregon USC
Speaker 1: from two thousand and eight, maybe up in my apartment,
Speaker 1: so I like those. So always better if you are
Speaker 1: the team with the winning score to get a panoramic
Speaker 1: game photo memory. But that's pretty good. I'm sure the
Speaker 1: gift sweet's nice.
Speaker 2: Let's take another look at the numbers here as we
Speaker 2: did with the last game. Alabama nineteenth in terms of
Speaker 2: offensive efficiency, third in terms of defensive efficiency in the nation.
Speaker 2: Clemson at thirty five overall in terms of offensive efficiency
Speaker 2: and number two when it comes to defense. There are
Speaker 2: no glaring deficiencies either way. That's why they're in the playoff.
Speaker 2: The only thing that I'd call out is is that
Speaker 2: Clemson hasn't been great this season at generating those bigger
Speaker 2: chunk plays. They're pretty low on the totem pole when
Speaker 2: it comes to the explosion plays that tend to turn
Speaker 2: a game one way or another.
Speaker 1: So that's something to keep an eye on Clemson. Last year,
Speaker 1: you're defending national champion one hundred and fourth most explosive
Speaker 1: team in the country, right seventh most efficient, So if
Speaker 1: your top ten efficient, explosion matters less. Although the team
Speaker 1: I think that wins the explosion battle typically goes on
Speaker 1: to win the game something like eighty eighty five percent
Speaker 1: of the time. But yeah, so that's where they were
Speaker 1: last year. And we've talked about this before and this
Speaker 1: is Clemson Alabama three. That the thing that teams that
Speaker 1: generally are able to find success against Alabama's defense have
Speaker 1: in common is a fearless combination of offensive play caller
Speaker 1: and quarterback, which certainly they have the play callers, the
Speaker 1: co offensive coordinators have done a great job for Clemson.
Speaker 1: Was that Jeff Scott and Tony Elliott they do not
Speaker 1: have a season And I would sayinatively, fearless quarterback and
Speaker 1: Kelly Bryant. I don't agree with it very good. I
Speaker 1: would agree with that. We've talked about talent wise, you
Speaker 1: need to be comparable. Clemson more than fits that, Bill
Speaker 1: and I would especially along the lines. And the other
Speaker 1: thing that Clemson had last year that they don't have
Speaker 1: this year necessarily is big physical combination of you know, receivers,
Speaker 1: pass catchers, tight end receivers. You know, no Mike Williams,
Speaker 1: no Jordan Leggett. There is a difference in what Clemson's
Speaker 1: receiving corps looks like I know t Higgins has been
Speaker 1: their big play guy, and he's a bigger receiver, like
Speaker 1: six four to two hundred, but it's a it's a
Speaker 1: smaller receiving corps this year, led by Deon Caine, Hunter
Speaker 1: Renfro and really talented guys. But in terms of the
Speaker 1: sort of physicality of having those bigger pass catchers, that
Speaker 1: is a difference for Clemson this year. So that worries
Speaker 1: me a little bit that it's not Deshaun Watson throwing
Speaker 1: to smaller receivers, it's Kelly Bryant.
Speaker 2: And you said the keyword there, Deshaun Watson, I think
Speaker 2: is kind of what I look at that what he
Speaker 2: did last year and how he was able to single
Speaker 2: handedly take out Alabama. If you replace Deshaun Watson with
Speaker 2: Kelly Bryant with anybody else, I don't think Clemson wins
Speaker 2: last year. But he was such a transcendent player on
Speaker 2: the college level, much in the way that Baker Mayfield
Speaker 2: is this year, by the way that he was able
Speaker 2: to will his team to victory. Now, it's no knock
Speaker 2: on Kelly Bryant. I don't think he's at that level yet.
Speaker 2: And so when I went through and I tried to
Speaker 2: evaluate this game, Okay, Clemson has a lot of the
Speaker 2: boxes checked, a lot of the things that you need
Speaker 2: if you're going to go toe to toe with Alabama,
Speaker 2: they have it. But as a rule, when you consider
Speaker 2: that Nick Saban has had so much time to prepare,
Speaker 2: that to me seems like something that would favor Alabama
Speaker 2: in this game.
Speaker 1: Is Jeremy Prewett fully focused on Alabama.
Speaker 2: The thing about Pruet is he's coached at such a
Speaker 2: high level before you know, He's been at Georgia, he's
Speaker 2: been at Florida State, say, He's been around the block
Speaker 2: to know how these things are supposed to work. So
Speaker 2: I don't think that factors in as much, especially given
Speaker 2: the fact that Alabama is just so damn talented on defense. Now, linebacking.
Speaker 2: The linebacking corps has been a bit of an issue
Speaker 2: with the injury bug, but I think they'll be okay
Speaker 2: there by the time this game rolls around. So no,
Speaker 2: I don't think that factors in as much as some
Speaker 2: might lead you to believe.
Speaker 1: Here's the other thing that we should It also is
Speaker 1: worth noting, even though it's been the case for a
Speaker 1: long time. Alabama gave Clemson everything they could handle last
Speaker 1: year with the best Clemson quarterback or player of all time,
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson. That was with Ruben Foster, was with Jonathan Allen,
Speaker 1: that was with Brian Anderson, that was with Dalvin Tomlinson,
Speaker 1: Tim Williams. This is not the same level of danger,
Speaker 1: especially with the injuries in the sort of back half
Speaker 1: of Alabama's defense. So the margin freyer might be a
Speaker 1: little bit wider for Kelly Bryant. This is an excellent
Speaker 1: Alabama defense. It is not an absurdly talented upfront in
Speaker 1: this same way it was last year with you know,
Speaker 1: the versatility. You know, Eddie Jackson was so good for
Speaker 1: them last year playing all over the field. So it
Speaker 1: is a better year this year to play Alabama's defense
Speaker 1: at this point than it was last year.
Speaker 2: You know. And it's such an interesting point too, because
Speaker 2: when I was trying to go through and look at
Speaker 2: what Alabama has done this season, what they've done in
Speaker 2: the past in this playoff sabans two to one in
Speaker 2: the first round of the playoff matchups. Okay, they've been
Speaker 2: in it each of the last three years. You could
Speaker 2: make a case that Bama this year is not on
Speaker 2: the level of any of the three previous versions of
Speaker 2: Alabama in this first round of the College Football Playoff.
Speaker 2: Like all those teams, I think could have been better.
Speaker 1: No, that's totally right, and the reason why this year
Speaker 1: I don't feel too worried about Alabama defense. I don't
Speaker 1: think clemb is going to score thirty five points. Alabama's offense,
Speaker 1: to me is I think probably the big because that's
Speaker 1: where the biggest talent matchup is Alabama on offense, you know,
Speaker 1: with the seven thousand talented running backs and Jalen Hurts
Speaker 1: playing and yet another huge game. He's seasoned, He's struggled
Speaker 1: in a couple of these, but he's played them, and
Speaker 1: you know, they have a huge time receiver in Calvin Ridley,
Speaker 1: and the Clemson defensive front is going to be swarming.
Speaker 1: I think this is going to be the best in
Speaker 1: terms of pure talent on pure talent, the best matchup
Speaker 1: in this game. I'm a little bit worried about Jalen Hurts,
Speaker 1: okay against this Clemson defense. I'm a little worried about
Speaker 1: him getting spooked on third and eight, And I go
Speaker 1: back and forth. I think I'm going Clemson, Okay, and
Speaker 1: it's the same. I think it's the sort of getting
Speaker 1: older and leaning more towards what I can depend on.
Speaker 1: I think it's more that Clemson can get five six
Speaker 1: year olds on the ground. Kelly Bryant can. I mean,
Speaker 1: Kelly Bryan and Jalen Hurts are both great at running
Speaker 1: the ball. Jalen Hurts is a little bit better. But
Speaker 1: there's something that is more dependable about Clemson at this
Speaker 1: point because of their experience on defense, their experience in
Speaker 1: this spot. Kelly Bryant as a runner, He's their best
Speaker 1: running back as a quarterback. I think I like this.
Speaker 1: I think I like Clemson just a tad more in
Speaker 1: this spot.
Speaker 2: It's a very difficult game to try and project.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I actually come down on the opposite side of the
Speaker 2: coin here and I jotted down some of the same
Speaker 2: words that you use.
Speaker 1: Trust.
Speaker 2: I say a time and time again. It's about trust, babe, Yes,
Speaker 2: it is. Who do you trust more to make a
Speaker 2: big play with the game on the line. I think
Speaker 2: it's going to be a defensive slugfest, yeah, one way
Speaker 2: or the other. I think I trust Jalen hurtsmore, and
Speaker 2: I know he struggled in the past, but all things considered,
Speaker 2: he's had a pretty good year. He only threw one
Speaker 2: interception all year. He's very good at running the football,
Speaker 2: and he's had a knack for making big plays in
Speaker 2: the he just hasn't always been consistent. But I do
Speaker 2: think that seasoning does creep into the equation here, and
Speaker 2: given the fact that they're so good on defense that
Speaker 2: it's probably gonna be a tight game. I think Jalen
Speaker 2: Hurts will have a big play in him down the
Speaker 2: stretch that ultimately springs Alabama here to victory.
Speaker 1: Twenty eight, twenty four, all right, I have I don't know,
Speaker 1: twenty three to twenty twenty seven to twenty four something
Speaker 1: in like that close Clemson win, And yeah, I think
Speaker 1: if you're gonna take you have to take chances against
Speaker 1: this Clemson defense. Deep. I think that's where teams have succeeded.
Speaker 1: And Clemson honestly is the more tested team, which is
Speaker 1: very rare to say. And it's because of you know,
Speaker 1: Florida State struggling. It's because of you know, the way
Speaker 1: you know, A and M and LSU weren't really the
Speaker 1: same as they've been in recent years against Alabama, all
Speaker 1: miss being down and Clemson beating Auburn, beating Virginia Tech,
Speaker 1: dominating Miami. We just I think we know more about
Speaker 1: them in big spots. You know, one of these teams
Speaker 1: is beating Auburn. One of them hasn't, so I mean,
Speaker 1: granted it was early September. Yeah sure, but I'm going
Speaker 1: with Clemson here, being a lit little bit more self
Speaker 1: aware in these big spots while healthier.
Speaker 2: I've got two confidence points on this one. I've got
Speaker 2: confidence point one confidence point on the National Championship game
Speaker 2: because obviously we don't know that matchup yet, so that
Speaker 2: gets one.
Speaker 1: But you know, if I could put zero on this one,
Speaker 1: I would. I'd love to give people.
Speaker 2: Out there a hot take about the matchup that I
Speaker 2: see or why I feel more strongly about Auburn than
Speaker 2: Clemson er vice versa. But this is just so damn close,
Speaker 2: Dan and I could totally see it going one way
Speaker 2: or the other. I struggled mightily with Alabama here, but
Speaker 2: that's I'm going to go with the Crimson Tide. I've
Speaker 2: been a fan all year. Let's just roll with it.
Speaker 2: Twenty eight twenty four fair We disagree, slightly disagreed on
Speaker 2: both of the playoff games.
Speaker 1: Actually that's true. All right, Well, there you have it, yeap,
Speaker 1: that does it for all of the bowl games.
Speaker 2: Clearly, we will be back after the New Year to
Speaker 2: talk about all of these games, talk about the playoff
Speaker 2: and then ultimately give you our national championship preview, which
Speaker 2: will drop later on in the week next week, presumably.
Speaker 1: When you and I get to Atlanta and have a
Speaker 1: chance to finish that guy up.
Speaker 2: But wow, great year, great twenty seventeen in the college
Speaker 2: football world. We appreciate everyone sticking with us throughout the
Speaker 2: calendar year, throughout the season, Dan, this has been exciting.
Speaker 1: Our tenth full year. It feels like nine. It feels
Speaker 1: like nine. I'm excited for Atlanta, Tai to see you,
Speaker 1: to see the verballers down there, to get excited to
Speaker 1: do the media day stuff for our friends at Facebook Sports.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a hell of a next I
Speaker 1: don't know what is it, ten days or so. I
Speaker 1: this is the best. This is just it's a lot
Speaker 1: of college football, it's a lot of food. It's I
Speaker 1: love it all in New Year's Day is going to
Speaker 1: be great. I'm excited.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you again to everyone out there who gives
Speaker 2: us so much support. We're going to open up the
Speaker 2: reverblind on New Year's Day if you want to give
Speaker 2: a phone call in. At some point we'll get our
Speaker 2: boy Taylor to cut those together and do one final
Speaker 2: reverbs for the twenty seventeen season four eight verbal one
Speaker 2: four oh eight eight three seven two two five one.
Speaker 2: If you want to get in on the action and
Speaker 2: leave us one more message, you can text us, reach
Speaker 2: out on Twitter, on Facebook, via email at soliverbal at
Speaker 2: gmail dot com. And don't forget if you're planning on
Speaker 2: being in Atlanta, either if you live there, if you're
Speaker 2: passing through town, or maybe if you're coming down for
Speaker 2: the National Championship. We've got another lot of tickets that
Speaker 2: we're going to put up for sale January the second,
Speaker 2: at one pm Eastern. We'll link that up on Twitter,
Speaker 2: on Facebook, on Instagram, post it on the website. We'll
Speaker 2: send out an email to the newsletter of intent. We
Speaker 2: still got tickets we want to sell that out. That
Speaker 2: being said, please do let us know if you're going
Speaker 2: to be in town, if you're interested. Daniel, that's all
Speaker 2: I got.
Speaker 1: That's all I got. I don't think we're going to
Speaker 1: do a secret verbal song is the show song. The
Speaker 1: show is already long enough, but I agree he Hopefully
Speaker 1: we got you out of uncomfortable situations having to listen
Speaker 1: to this show, or got you on your journey more
Speaker 1: comfortably back home to a new place whatever, to vacation.
Speaker 2: So I'm glad we're here, Ty, I'm glad. I'm glad
Speaker 2: that's a longer show than usual. To close out twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2: We will catch you all on the flip side in
Speaker 2: the meantime. For that guy over there, my good friend
Speaker 2: Dan Rubinstein, for myself, Ty Hildenbrand, we'll catch you all
Speaker 2: next week and next year.
Speaker 1: Happy New Year and stay solid peace.