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Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal hull that for me, I'm

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Speaker 1: a man, I'm forty.

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Speaker 2: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to

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Speaker 2: be happy. You want to be happy for day Edith State?

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Speaker 1: Is that whoo whoom? And then and tie Dan Robinstein.

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Speaker 1: At long last, we've arrived at previous season. Last episode

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Speaker 1: we talked through the big, high level stuff, all the

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Speaker 1: things that are changing in the year of our Lord

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty four college football. Now it is time for

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Speaker 1: the rubber to meet the road. Today, we've got the

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Speaker 1: Group of five. We're going to start off with the

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Speaker 1: American and Conference USA in part one. In part two,

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Speaker 1: we're going to do the Mountain West, the Sun Belt,

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Speaker 1: and the MAC. But we're finally here. I'm excited. We're

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Speaker 1: finally here to actually talk some teams in college football

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Speaker 1: and conferences and all the good stuff we've waited all

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Speaker 1: summer long for.

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Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, And the good thing about you know, the

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Speaker 2: G five portion of this, And you know how I

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Speaker 2: think we both hate sort of that term and lumping

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Speaker 2: all of these conferences together because they are their own

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Speaker 2: unique ecosystems that have brands and personalities and everything. But

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Speaker 2: the great thing about I think what most, if not all,

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Speaker 2: of these conferences is there's no clear obvious power across

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Speaker 2: the board, and one of these teams, I guess I

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Speaker 2: take that back in liberty within Conference USA, but that's

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Speaker 2: a sort of a different situation because they were that

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Speaker 2: last year and they got into the Fiesta Bowl against Oregon.

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Speaker 2: That there is I think we're going to delineate tiers here,

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Speaker 2: but like there's like there is a fuzziness to where

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Speaker 2: these teams fit in in unique ways across different conferences.

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Speaker 2: And I sort of love that. I sort of love

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Speaker 2: that anybody who is confident in their hierarchy picks is wrong,

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Speaker 2: is just absolutely wrong, and that's the fun of it all.

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Speaker 2: And so this makes me very excited for this year

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Speaker 2: in particular because the nature of a number of these

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Speaker 2: confferences is nothing but crazy change, not unlike major conferences,

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Speaker 2: but it seems that like the the identities of so

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Speaker 2: many of these teams is like, well, they could go

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Speaker 2: three to nine or nine and three based on you know,

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Speaker 2: they've got seventy one new players and three new coordinators.

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Speaker 2: That's the fun of sort of not being a fan

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Speaker 2: of a specific team because I think there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of harrowing moments if you're a fan of Whoever, North

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Speaker 2: Texas or FAU or something because of the unknown. But

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Speaker 2: I don't know from a pure TV show standpoint, there's

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Speaker 2: a lot to love here. There's a lot to love.

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Speaker 1: It's a great TV show. And look, I'm excited to

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Speaker 1: do a two part Group of five preview. I'm with you,

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Speaker 1: like we sort of don't have much love for the

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Speaker 1: Group of five Moniker Umbrella as a whole. Right. We

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Speaker 1: don't mean to diminish any of these teams or conferences.

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Speaker 1: It's just sort of the way that the sport has

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Speaker 1: gone and we need some way to classify it. So

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Speaker 1: we'll roll with it. But we've never done a two

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Speaker 1: part preview before, and as you and I talked in

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Speaker 1: the off season and now into the preseason, we just

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Speaker 1: kind of felt dirty about putting it. At the very end,

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Speaker 1: just going through all of this information in one hour.

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Speaker 1: One hour was not enough to talk through the minutia

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Speaker 1: and the details and the things that we think make

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Speaker 1: all five of these conferences unique. So we're going to

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Speaker 1: get into that. We're going to give them their due.

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Speaker 1: We're going to start off with these five conferences this

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Speaker 1: year as oppose to what we've done in the past,

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Speaker 1: and I'm excited about it. We've put in I can't

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Speaker 1: even tell you how many hours of research to make

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Speaker 1: sure we're up to speed that we can talk knowledgeably

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Speaker 1: about it, and this year we've got a different format

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Speaker 1: that we're going to follow. It's not complicated by any

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Speaker 1: stretch of the imagination, but I do think it plays

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Speaker 1: into what makes college football great. To start things off,

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Speaker 1: just because there is going to be a G five

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Speaker 1: representative in this new playoff system, you and I are

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Speaker 1: going to talk through our championship tiers, the teams in

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Speaker 1: our research that we feel have a real run at

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Speaker 1: that G five invite. Who are they? How do we

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Speaker 1: rank them? Just from a very high level. After that,

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Speaker 1: then we're going to get into individual conferences, and the

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Speaker 1: theme for how we're going to approach each conference and

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Speaker 1: each team within is danger danger Danger? Are you feeling dangerous?

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Speaker 1: Are you not feeling dangerous? Each team? Each conference? Why

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Speaker 1: are they dangerous? Why are they not dangerous? Could they

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Speaker 1: pull an upset? Are they going to be upset? Sorry?

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Speaker 1: That won't be the last time I play that stab.

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Speaker 1: That's all we have, That's all we got. One second

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Speaker 1: of Kenny Loggins. But alas is that not the very

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Speaker 1: fiber of college football? Can they pull an upset? Will

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Speaker 1: they be upset? That's what everybody?

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Speaker 2: Or are they clearly dominant? What makes them so dangerous

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Speaker 2: and dominant? What is it about this team that makes them,

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Speaker 2: you know, not just dangerous but also like a big

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Speaker 2: time playoff contender. There's a difference between you know, dangerous,

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Speaker 2: I think has a ceiling. Right, you're dangerous until you're great.

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Speaker 1: You're great.

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Speaker 2: You just don't question greatness, right that it's sort of

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Speaker 2: self evident. Dangerous is sort of the last stop on

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Speaker 2: the greatness train. And so we want to find this

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Speaker 2: is all nonsense, Ti, you know that, But we want

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Speaker 2: to find the levels, right, the magnitude of danger or

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Speaker 2: lack thereof in these conferences in potential contenders to make

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Speaker 2: the college football playoff. And I have no idea what

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Speaker 2: your list is in terms of playoff contenders among the

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Speaker 2: G five ranks, And I don't think you have any

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Speaker 2: idea of what mine is. And that makes me excited.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely. The only other thing that I will add, I

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Speaker 1: promise you there isn't a whole lot of setup required,

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Speaker 1: no for any of this for those watching the video

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Speaker 1: version of the show. I've got to take a toe

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Speaker 1: behind me? That's true? Or why bird? As we go through,

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Speaker 1: as we start talking through these teams, and I think

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Speaker 1: specifically as we get into the power conferences and we

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Speaker 1: have more informed predictions to offer, this is when take

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Speaker 1: Atoa is gonna shine. It's been dormant the last couple months.

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Speaker 1: It's been hiding in the other room that's adjacent to

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Speaker 1: my studio here. But we're gonna throw some of our

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Speaker 1: takes in predictions and just oddball thoughts into the volcano.

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Speaker 1: I'll keep track of them all. At some point we'll

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Speaker 1: have a take a toe A review episode. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: will smoke. I charged the battery on the contraption. I've

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Speaker 1: also looked it up. Apparently whatever the smoke is that's

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Speaker 1: coming out won't give me lung cancer. So we're good

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Speaker 1: okay in that department. At least, that's what the Internet says,

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Speaker 1: for whatever Google's worth. If you are new here, hit follow,

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Speaker 1: hit subscribe so that you don't miss any of our

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Speaker 1: preview episodes. Of course, all are welcome in the for ballerhood.

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Speaker 1: If you've been here a while, tell your friends that

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Speaker 1: we started up our previews. Of course, they're welcome to

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Speaker 1: stop by as well leave a rating or review wherever

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Speaker 1: you can, and if you are a superverballer forballers dot com.

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Speaker 1: Forballers dot com. We haven't updated the Patreon tiers yet.

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Speaker 1: We'll do that as we get a little bit closer

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Speaker 1: to the season, but things are starting to ramp up.

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Speaker 1: More people are starting to join. Hop on over to

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Speaker 1: the discord talk through obviously, I would expect people are

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Speaker 1: going to be talking through our previews here to tell

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Speaker 1: us where we're right, where we're wrong, and wherever it

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Speaker 1: is you're listening, let us know, soliverbogmail dot com, what

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Speaker 1: we could do better, what you think we got wrong,

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Speaker 1: what you think we got right right correct. Let's start

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Speaker 1: this off, Dan, I'm ready. There is going to be

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Speaker 1: a G five rep in the playoff this year. I

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Speaker 1: would assume maybe it's a bad assumption that it's going

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Speaker 1: to be the number twelve seed in the playoff. There

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Speaker 1: are scenarios in which that would not be the case.

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Speaker 1: I think we talked through them on the last episode.

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Speaker 1: Give me your list of true G five contenders for

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Speaker 1: that one and only playoff spot.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't think it's necessarily going to be

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Speaker 2: the case that they're twelve. I melast year, it was

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Speaker 2: very clear that Liberty was the low man on those

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Speaker 2: New Year six games. But we've seen seasons in which

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Speaker 2: you know, an undefeated Cincinnati, an undefeated Boise State are

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Speaker 2: hovering around five and six. Not necessarily in college football

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Speaker 2: playoff rankings, with you know, Boise State's height pre playoff,

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Speaker 2: but certainly we could see, especially with some of these

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Speaker 2: teams scheduling up like they kind of have to do,

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Speaker 2: that you could have that huge signature win that vaults

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Speaker 2: you above that number twelve spot. And so what I

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Speaker 2: like to do in looking at a potential playoff contender

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Speaker 2: and somebody who could actually compete in the playoff is like, Okay,

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Speaker 2: it's one thing to look relatively complete and well coached,

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Speaker 2: but what do you do excellently? Is it a Luke

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Speaker 2: Fickle defense? Is it a Chris Peterson offense?

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Speaker 1: Right?

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Speaker 2: That to me is generally the difference on the margins

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Speaker 2: between teams who can avoid that like weird down week,

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Speaker 2: that they can lean on something excellent to you know,

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Speaker 2: run the table or whatever or give you know, in

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Speaker 2: the case of like I think Fresno State has Michigan

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Speaker 2: early on. Like to give a team like that a

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Speaker 2: good amount of that dangerous feeling that we're talking about.

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Speaker 1: And so I don't know.

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Speaker 2: I think you start with the most obvious candidate because

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Speaker 2: of their schedule and conference. It's Liberty to me because

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Speaker 2: they did it last year. They return a good amount.

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Speaker 2: They lose a star receiver, but Caden Salter came back

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Speaker 2: into the roster from the portal and so there's a

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Speaker 2: good amount to like about Liberty. They have app State

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Speaker 2: this year, but their schedule is still incredible in Conference USA.

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Speaker 2: Is just they're not fielding a team on Liberty and

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Speaker 2: in Jamie Chadwell's level right now. So that's obvious candidate

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Speaker 2: number one for me. Do you have them in your candidates?

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Speaker 1: Well, they're obviously in my candidates right I've got seven

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Speaker 1: teams listed here and I have ranked them in disorder. Okay,

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Speaker 1: my number one is a f State. Okay, my number

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Speaker 1: one am app State. We will talk about app State

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Speaker 1: in Part two in more detail when we break down

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Speaker 1: all things Sun Belt. But I like rep States that

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Speaker 1: I like where their offense is at. Their defense has

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Speaker 1: been trending downwards in the last couple of years, but

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Speaker 1: I'm hopeful that they might have a chance to rectify

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Speaker 1: that this season. I just think they're really strong. All

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Speaker 1: these teams that I looked at, I think they're the

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Speaker 1: strongest in my opinion.

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Speaker 2: Also in a Sun belt that's a little bit more

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Speaker 2: gettable with the loss of some coaching and player talent,

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Speaker 2: of course, not the least of which James Madison and

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Speaker 2: Kurt Signetti. I have Boise State Boise State second. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I've got Boise State too on mind. Okay, I didn't

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Speaker 2: order mine. I just sort of have a corral of

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Speaker 2: playoff threats. Sure, sure, Boise State is interesting because of

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Speaker 2: the way they finished the season last year. Their schedule

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Speaker 2: is pretty good. They have Oregon week two or Week three,

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Speaker 2: and so we'll have a good sense of what Boise

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Speaker 2: is or is not. They had Washington last year and

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Speaker 2: they were not last year, and they move on from

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Speaker 2: Andy Avlos. But you know, when you have one of

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Speaker 2: the best, like three or four running backs in the

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Speaker 2: world in the college football universe, excuse me, in Ashton

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Speaker 2: Genty like, they start off from a good place. He

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Speaker 2: has a good line in front of them. Their schedule

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Speaker 2: shouldn't be terrible. Boise I think depending on where they

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Speaker 2: are at quarterback, I think they should have a good

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Speaker 2: amount of firepower and offense, and the defense should be improved.

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Speaker 2: Boise I think is the is the probable clear favorite

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Speaker 2: in the in the Mountain West, which should give them a.

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Speaker 1: Good leg up. Yeah. So I've got app State one,

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Speaker 1: Boise State two in my power ranking. I've got Liberty three.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned it just a minute ago, but app State

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Speaker 1: and Liberty do play this year, Yeah, and I think

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Speaker 1: it's sometime in October. I'll pull it up when we

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Speaker 1: talk through these teams. That's in effect a potential play

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Speaker 1: in game for the playoff between those two, because you

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Speaker 1: got to expect Liberty is going to go through the

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Speaker 1: Conference USA without much resistance. I just think head and

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Speaker 1: shoulders there better than all the other teams. And there

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Speaker 1: are some interesting schools that we'll talk through, but I

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Speaker 1: think Liberty is a clear favorite there as you as

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Speaker 1: you mentioned and app State. I really like app State.

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Speaker 1: I like the fact that they schedule Liberty, Like the

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Speaker 1: fact that Liberty scheduled app State, like the fact that

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Speaker 1: we get that game. I think app State's got a

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Speaker 1: really good shot at winning the Sun Belt this year,

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Speaker 1: though the Sun Belt remains interesting and has been interesting

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Speaker 1: in the last couple of seasons. Liberty is three for me.

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Speaker 1: I'm curious though, outside of those three teams, like if

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Speaker 1: you're ranking them Liberty, Boise State or app State, Boise

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Speaker 1: and Liberty, kind of those three in no particular order,

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Speaker 1: what is kind of like your next grouping of teams.

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Speaker 2: I would put Memphis in the group there just because

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Speaker 2: of what they return and close losses last year. I

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Speaker 2: would probably put Fresno State in that group. And the

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Speaker 2: Fresno State thing is interesting. They return a good amount

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Speaker 2: on offense, the defense hopefully is improved, but they have

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Speaker 2: a bite at the Apple situation where they have Michigan,

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Speaker 2: Wazoo and UCLA and so again on the margins if

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Speaker 2: you're comparing resumes of a one or two loss Fresno

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Speaker 2: and an undefeated Liberty, but we're talking about a win

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Speaker 2: over Ucla or a win over Wazoo and close losses

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Speaker 2: to you know, Michigan and UCLA or something like that

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Speaker 2: like that to me, that that scratches me where I

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Speaker 2: itch in terms of you know, you have the tested

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Speaker 2: coach and Jeff Tedford who's been successful both at cal

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Speaker 2: and Fresno. Hopefully his health is in order. So schedule wise,

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Speaker 2: they're in a good place within the Mountain West, so

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Speaker 2: I would include Fresno in that group.

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Speaker 1: In Fresno could beat Ucla Dan, of course they could.

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Speaker 1: They could beat Usula, it's later in the year. It's

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Speaker 1: a late game. I don't think they stay much chance

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Speaker 1: against Michigan. Alho. Michigan is kind of in. It's early.

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Speaker 1: I think michigan'sn be really good this year, but I

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Speaker 1: don't know. I think Michigan will be really good as well.

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Speaker 1: But Michigan's got their own change that they're that they're

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Speaker 1: undergoing at the at the moment. In Ucla might be

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Speaker 1: a little bit more seasoned later in the year, but

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Speaker 1: I Fresno's veteran team. Fresno could take them down. I've

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Speaker 1: also got Memphis and Fresno, excuse me, in addition to

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Speaker 1: Louisiana and Tulane to round out my seven. Louisiana interesting, Yeah, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I like Louisiana this year.

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Speaker 2: I'm not.

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Speaker 1: I'm not as I wanted to include them, if only

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Speaker 1: because I included them as one of my contenders for

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Speaker 1: or the American Okay, and The same is true for Tulane.

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Speaker 1: Both of those programs are kind of dealing with their

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Speaker 1: own elements of change. I think you could make a

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Speaker 1: case for them, but I ranked them much lower six

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Speaker 1: and seventh on this list just because I don't think

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Speaker 1: it's as strong of a case in reality. For me,

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Speaker 1: it's five teams. It's five teams that I feel best about,

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Speaker 1: and those are Apupstate, Boisese, State, Liberty, Memphis, and Fresno. Okay,

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Speaker 1: with a kicker of Louisiana and Tulane. Are there any

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Speaker 1: other schools that you included that you wouldn't include? Doesn't

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Speaker 1: sound like you're too high on two Lane or or Louisiana. Yeah, okay,

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Speaker 1: are the eyes that I miss? In mind?

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Speaker 2: I am exceedingly curious about the tier in which, or

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Speaker 2: your opinion of and maybe we'll get there when we

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Speaker 2: talk to the Americans soon. UTSA, yeah, just because of

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Speaker 2: the Jeff Trailer factor. Frank Harris is out of eligibility,

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Speaker 2: but he has had a great eye for assistance, and

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Speaker 2: even with a slow start last year, they get things

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Speaker 2: in order. He's recruited quite well, to say, Antonio, So

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Speaker 2: that's somebody where I'm like, Okay, they could have a

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Speaker 2: weird like under the radar this offseason.

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Speaker 1: Put it together. I know.

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Speaker 2: I think they are at Texas relatively early on Schedule's

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Speaker 2: not terrible. They've got a couple of those bigger games

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Speaker 2: at home. That to me is interesting that he's been

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Speaker 2: there long enough and he has used the portal well

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Speaker 2: enough that it could be more rebuild than a reload

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Speaker 2: than rebuild.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I misspoke. I think I said that

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Speaker 1: we'll talk about Louisiana today. We're not gonna talk about Louisiana. No, No,

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Speaker 1: that'll be the second show. It'll be the second show. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I'm getting all these conferences mixed up because we studied

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Speaker 1: all of them and we're going to do all of

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Speaker 1: our recordings on one day, so a lot of information.

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Speaker 2: Also, they all switch switch. It's one big swingers party

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Speaker 2: between Conference USA and the American and the Sun Belt

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Speaker 2: Speaky Party.

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Speaker 1: Of Feeling Dangerous Dan. Hey, let's get into the American,

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Speaker 1: shall we. Let's bulge a file the Tornados coming front

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Speaker 1: for you, Lives common, the American oohoo, whoa hey, Hey, okay, okay, American,

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Speaker 1: the American, the aac AS. It were very interesting conference

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Speaker 1: as all of these are. We're going to do five

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Speaker 1: conferences between this episode and next. I also did a

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Speaker 1: secondary tier ranking of my teams in the American that

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Speaker 1: I can use kind of right now as a guide

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Speaker 1: for where I want to take this because I was

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Speaker 1: the one who did the deep dive of this conference.

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Speaker 1: I think the two obvious contenders for me, and if

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Speaker 1: you want to come up with any kind of place

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Speaker 1: danger themed tiers, be my guest. Okay, you're the creative

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Speaker 1: one between the two of us. I'm just the pace

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Speaker 1: car here on this show. Okay, my two obvious contenders

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Speaker 1: are Memphis and two Lane. I think it's obvious those

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Speaker 1: are the two schools that far and away I think

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Speaker 1: are the ones that are the two primary contenders here.

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Speaker 1: Beyond that, though, the teams that are giving me the vapors,

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Speaker 1: the teams that are making me feel dangerous. Frankly, USF

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Speaker 1: about whom we have talked many times over here on

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Speaker 1: this show, as well as UTSA, a team that you

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Speaker 1: mentioned earlier. The teams that are I think, in their

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Speaker 1: own right, feeling dangerous that could pull an upset along

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Speaker 1: the way. The Rice Owls Army Army, a new addition

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Speaker 1: to the conference I'll talk about in a second FAU

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Speaker 1: the Owls, another owl in this group, and ECU Pirates,

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Speaker 1: and then the teams that I'm just sort of given

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Speaker 1: the wave off Navy, North Texas, UAB, Tulsa, Charlotte Temple.

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Speaker 1: We're going to talk about all of these programs here,

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Speaker 1: I promise you. But in terms of actually contending winning,

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Speaker 1: you know, in upset capacity, I'm I'm not seeing it, Okay,

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Speaker 1: all right. I don't know if that jives with anything

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Speaker 1: that you have read that you put together. I know

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Speaker 1: I did the deep dive here, but are any points

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Speaker 1: of contention with grouping those teams as such?

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Speaker 2: I mean the Navy right off, I understand why you're

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Speaker 2: doing it. I don't know. I just have too much

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Speaker 2: history writing off Navy and them having that it's that

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Speaker 2: random week that I still think they're dangerous, like a

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Speaker 2: Week nine where they just get it all together. But

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Speaker 2: I don't think that fully qualifies them as dangerous.

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Speaker 1: Well, you know the AAC NOWS fourteen teams, even though

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Speaker 1: SMU left this year, they bring in Army Army enters

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Speaker 1: as a football only member of the conference, and we

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Speaker 1: mentioned it a little bit on the last episode. While

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Speaker 1: you bring up Navy. The Army Navy rivalry is going

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Speaker 1: to remain unchanged. They're going to continue playing it second

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Speaker 1: Saturday in December as a non conference game, even though

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Speaker 1: both teams are in the same conference. So it does

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Speaker 1: set up the situation again that we outlined on the

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Speaker 1: last episode Go back and listen, where in some future

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Speaker 1: universe where Army and Navy are the top two teams

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Speaker 1: in the American and they have to play for the

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Speaker 1: conference championship in week fourteen, could be an exhibition game

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Speaker 1: between the two of them again all week fifteen, unless

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Speaker 1: they decide, you know, they don't want to do that,

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Speaker 1: But that makes it interesting. The other thing that makes

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Speaker 1: it interesting is a bigger picture. I do think it's

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Speaker 1: probably the only conference in America that has two pure

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Speaker 1: option teams, Like this, is it not? I believe so? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Like it sets up the hellish possibility of a double

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Speaker 1: body blow, and UAB is the closest to kind of

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Speaker 1: dealing with that this year because they've got Navy two

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Speaker 1: lane and an Army on three consecutive weeks, but thankfully

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Speaker 1: no two option games back to back, which I hope

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Speaker 1: they do just for the hell that at some point

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Speaker 1: to keep things interesting for us on the podcast. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: the whole Army edition I think is really cool.

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Speaker 2: Well, the good news of your UAB is the defense

381
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Speaker 2: is probably just going to be horrific anyway, so you're

382
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Speaker 2: not going to be able to tell that there's an

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Speaker 2: actual effect playing Army in the No.

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Speaker 1: No, the other thing that I would I would add

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Speaker 1: about the fourteen teams in the American this year, twelve

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Speaker 1: of them per Bill Connolly's projections, twelve of them are

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Speaker 1: at best half teams.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: What do I mean by that? Either really good offense

390
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Speaker 1: and a bad defense or vice versa. The only two

391
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Speaker 1: that aren't are UTSA and two Lane. Per that metric,

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Speaker 1: both of them figure to be a lot more balanced

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Speaker 1: on both sides of the football. Interestingly enough, Memphis, who

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Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, the biggest, like the biggest, not one

395
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Speaker 1: of the biggest, They are the biggest in the entire conference.

396
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Speaker 2: Like the distance between their offensive projection their defense projection

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Speaker 2: in the American.

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Speaker 1: Huge, huge, biggest half team, but maybe maybe the conference

399
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Speaker 1: favorite really Yeah.

400
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Speaker 2: More than North Texas, Yeah, who might have the worst

401
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Speaker 2: defense and had like a top thirty offense nationally last

402
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Speaker 2: year per projections.

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Speaker 1: Wild okay, Memphis looks to be the biggest half team. Okay.

404
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Speaker 1: And then the final point that I'll add here before

405
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Speaker 1: we dive in, and you can tell me where you

406
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Speaker 1: want to go next place. As you alluded, there's a

407
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Speaker 1: lot new across G five, but in this conference in

408
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Speaker 1: part two, just from a returning production standpoint, there are

409
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Speaker 1: only four teams inside the top fifty of that metric.

410
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Speaker 1: Rice is fifth nationally and they return the most on

411
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Speaker 1: defense of any team in the country. They're number one,

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Speaker 1: USF is eighth nationally. They have a fifth in the

413
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Speaker 1: country in terms of what comes back on offense, and

414
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Speaker 1: Memphis twenty second overall. They return a lot on both sides.

415
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Speaker 1: Navy is right in there at number fifty as well.

416
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Speaker 1: But there's anytime you see that metric, either via transfers

417
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Speaker 1: or graduation or whatever, there's a lot new in the

418
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Speaker 1: American which I think tends to kind of up the

419
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Speaker 1: variance and increase the possibilities that you could see.

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Speaker 2: So it's interesting and you'll see, you know, guys, in

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Speaker 2: any of these conferences we're talking about, it's coming up

422
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Speaker 2: from an FCS level or from another G five conference

423
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Speaker 2: coming down looking for more playing time. From a power conference,

424
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Speaker 2: and you know, depending on how robust the NIL situation is,

425
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Speaker 2: and it varies team to team. Of course, conference to

426
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Speaker 2: conference is when you'll see a lot of Jags coming

427
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Speaker 2: in just guys, right, just warm bodies and actual interesting

428
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Speaker 2: contributor potential. And so it's sort of tough to sort

429
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Speaker 2: out right now because a lot you know, it's either

430
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Speaker 2: a competition thing or it's just haven't seen this guy

431
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:21,160
Speaker 2: who's been the third string left guard for Texas these

432
00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:25,520
Speaker 2: past three years play. But it yeah, it throws the

433
00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:28,280
Speaker 2: whole thing into a sort of mysterious vapor.

434
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:31,320
Speaker 1: Where do you want me to start? Which team? I

435
00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:33,560
Speaker 1: don't know? Who's just doing it for you? Memphis is

436
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:36,040
Speaker 1: doing it for okay, Memphis is doing it for me.

437
00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:38,320
Speaker 1: Memphis went ten and three last season. They beat Iowa

438
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:40,560
Speaker 1: State in the Liberty Bowl. They got in the zone

439
00:22:40,560 --> 00:22:44,399
Speaker 1: the auto zoned Liberty Bowl. They also played in six

440
00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:48,240
Speaker 1: one score games and they won four of them, so

441
00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:51,239
Speaker 1: the margin there was very thin, and more often than

442
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:55,840
Speaker 1: not they they came out in front. Memphis projects as

443
00:22:55,920 --> 00:23:01,399
Speaker 1: the best G five team this year, which of course

444
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:04,560
Speaker 1: is significant because of the playoff stuff that we discussed earlier.

445
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:07,119
Speaker 1: The biggest question for me is how they deal with

446
00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:10,960
Speaker 1: their schedule, in particular the home road splits, which are

447
00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:15,160
Speaker 1: not favorable. They've got games against usf UTSA T Lane,

448
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,280
Speaker 1: all of them are on the road. I mentioned this

449
00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:21,760
Speaker 1: for two reasons. A. It's pretty tough, especially considering they

450
00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:23,960
Speaker 1: got to go what twelve and one to get into

451
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:27,800
Speaker 1: that playoff spot. Yeah, and B They're going to need

452
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:30,040
Speaker 1: to play some defense to make it through, and I'm

453
00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:33,000
Speaker 1: not sure they will or can. That's sort of the

454
00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:35,240
Speaker 1: open thing with Memphis this year. I mentioned the half

455
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:37,960
Speaker 1: team thing, but it's a defense thing. Really. They'll be

456
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,720
Speaker 1: able to play offense. I'm not concerned about that. Last

457
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:43,160
Speaker 1: year they allowed four hundred and thirty yards a game

458
00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:48,000
Speaker 1: and twenty eight point eight points per game. Almost everything

459
00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:50,679
Speaker 1: was a shootout, So it's easy to have faith in

460
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:54,639
Speaker 1: the offense, which was really good last year and brings

461
00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:58,359
Speaker 1: a lot back. Some questions about the offensive line, but

462
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:00,360
Speaker 1: for the most part, we're talking about seth and again

463
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:02,840
Speaker 1: at quarterback, a very good wide receiver corps went by

464
00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:06,400
Speaker 1: Rock Taylor, A lots back. There's a lot to like there.

465
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:08,320
Speaker 1: Just a defense question.

466
00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:12,280
Speaker 2: Man, It's kind of true, but like every team in

467
00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:15,600
Speaker 2: the American in Conference USA in the Sun Belt Mountain West, Like,

468
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,320
Speaker 2: I just don't think you can hide great defensive players

469
00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:21,040
Speaker 2: anymore because at real defense on a certain level, it's

470
00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:24,360
Speaker 2: just who has the best players trying the hardest on defense,

471
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:25,680
Speaker 2: and you can't hide them. If you've got a great

472
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:29,000
Speaker 2: edge rusher at UTSA, guess what Texas wants him? And

473
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:33,159
Speaker 2: you know the days of what was the Toledo Corners

474
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:35,600
Speaker 2: name Quinyon Mitchell. He was drafted in the first round.

475
00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:38,199
Speaker 2: Sure that's going to become so rare for him to

476
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:41,760
Speaker 2: stick around, and I'm impressed by it when it does happen.

477
00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:44,239
Speaker 2: But when you look at a team like Memphis who

478
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:46,120
Speaker 2: couldn't rush the passer at all last year, who gave

479
00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:49,159
Speaker 2: up a ton of big plays, like they can recruit

480
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:51,160
Speaker 2: and evaluate, well, I just don't know how well they're

481
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:53,320
Speaker 2: going to be able to sustain and build a good defense.

482
00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:56,520
Speaker 2: Any team to sustain and build a good defense over

483
00:24:56,560 --> 00:25:00,199
Speaker 2: time in the portal era. So then you're looking at

484
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:03,120
Speaker 2: who has the savvout coaches, who has an offense that's

485
00:25:03,119 --> 00:25:07,600
Speaker 2: inventive enough to score on anybody, and and who has

486
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:10,160
Speaker 2: the schedule that won't get exposed and will at least

487
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:13,720
Speaker 2: get them to, you know, the the stoop of the playoff,

488
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:16,359
Speaker 2: and in memphisis case. I just don't think they're starting

489
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:18,560
Speaker 2: out from a good enough place on defense to to

490
00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:22,560
Speaker 2: really scare me that they're gonna, you know, run the

491
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:23,440
Speaker 2: table this year.

492
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:26,360
Speaker 1: Yeah. The offense will be there, They're gonna score points.

493
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:29,720
Speaker 1: The personnel they have on stat like, they'll yeah, they're

494
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:32,960
Speaker 1: offensive be super strong. Yeah, but the question is can

495
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,639
Speaker 1: they do so in a way that every game isn't

496
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:39,160
Speaker 1: a shootout or they actually do step up up on defense.

497
00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:42,840
Speaker 1: Ryan Silverfield took in twenty nine transfers to try and

498
00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:45,480
Speaker 1: build up some quality depth to the point where you

499
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:47,240
Speaker 1: actually wonder if they're going to be able to gel

500
00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:49,679
Speaker 1: in time for the season. You know, we're not just

501
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:52,280
Speaker 1: talking about warm bodies to fill up the two deep.

502
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 1: We're talking about quality depth that he built going out

503
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:59,359
Speaker 1: there and brought a lot of guys in. It's just

504
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:00,840
Speaker 1: that doesn't always take.

505
00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:04,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it helps when you have that cash infusion

506
00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:07,080
Speaker 2: from FedEx behind the scenes twenty.

507
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,840
Speaker 1: Five million dollars over five years. I'm glad you mentioned that. Yeah,

508
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:12,639
Speaker 1: to your point of can they build can they sustain?

509
00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:16,840
Speaker 1: That's a serious investment that I think definitely puts Memphis

510
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:19,159
Speaker 1: at an advantage as compared to some of their peers

511
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:22,200
Speaker 1: on the G first level, but that it takes time,

512
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:24,960
Speaker 1: you know, it takes time for that to kick in,

513
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:28,480
Speaker 1: for there to be a cohesive strategy, and for them

514
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:30,800
Speaker 1: to kind of infuse that program with more talent on

515
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:33,600
Speaker 1: a year and year out basis. The reason Memphis is

516
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 1: dangerous is obvious. It's because they've got skill talent. They've

517
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,760
Speaker 1: got a very potent offense. The reason why they won't

518
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 1: be dangerous is that constant threat of their defense bottoming out.

519
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,199
Speaker 1: I think they will be better on that side of

520
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:52,680
Speaker 1: the ball, but that's the risk. That's the risk. Also

521
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:55,240
Speaker 1: the schedule. I mentioned the schedule just in conference, but

522
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:57,879
Speaker 1: they've also got a game early against Troy. I'm not

523
00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:01,040
Speaker 1: particularly high on Troy for many reasons. I think people

524
00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 1: on this show know already. We'll talk about that. That

525
00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:06,880
Speaker 1: makes me immediately think Troy's going ten to two. Oh yeah,

526
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:09,960
Speaker 1: that's fair. But also Florida State, they're on the road

527
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:13,320
Speaker 1: in Tallahassee week three. We will know a lot about

528
00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:17,040
Speaker 1: Memphis pretty soon. Great won't be that long of a week,

529
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:19,000
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty high on him. I just you know,

530
00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:20,399
Speaker 1: there are there are obvious issues.

531
00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:23,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are, as you mentioned, eight to ten teams

532
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:26,480
Speaker 2: who are willing to win or lose a game forty

533
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:28,240
Speaker 2: five forty two in any given week.

534
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:31,359
Speaker 1: The other team that I put a top of my

535
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:35,639
Speaker 1: contenders list in the American is two Lane. Okay, it's

536
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:38,040
Speaker 1: for obvious reasons, right, I mean, Tulane was eleven to

537
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 1: three last year. They lost to SMU and the conference

538
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:43,040
Speaker 1: title game. They lost a Virginia Tech in the bowl,

539
00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: but they went eight to no in conference play during

540
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:48,920
Speaker 1: the regular season. The thing with Tulane that we need

541
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:51,119
Speaker 1: to pay attention to is that they replaced willly Fritz.

542
00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:55,720
Speaker 1: Willi Fritz left went to Houston. Everyone loved the hire

543
00:27:56,119 --> 00:27:58,120
Speaker 1: when he was at Tulane, and now when he's at Houston,

544
00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: everybody loves Willi Fritz just seems, you know. And they

545
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 1: replaced him with another guy that everybody loves and John Summral.

546
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 1: He was twenty three and four in two seasons at Troy,

547
00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 1: may or may not have been the higher of the offseason,

548
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:17,439
Speaker 1: depending who you talked to. That said ninety sixth in

549
00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:21,560
Speaker 1: returning production. Ok, they're a little greener on defense than

550
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:23,960
Speaker 1: they are on offense. But their biggest loss was easily

551
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:26,720
Speaker 1: Michael Pratt, a name that we've talked about. I feel

552
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 1: like for an eternity on this show. He was an

553
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:32,320
Speaker 1: outstanding quarterback. He was there forever could have transferred to

554
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:35,440
Speaker 1: a bunch of big places. Before last season, I thought

555
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:36,959
Speaker 1: it was going to happen at Notre Dame. I had

556
00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:39,800
Speaker 1: heard rumors about Michael Pratt to Notre Dame, you know,

557
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:42,920
Speaker 1: like middle of the previous season. It didn't. It didn't

558
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 1: come to fruition. They end up going with Sam Hartman instead,

559
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:49,280
Speaker 1: but now without Pratt. If you're trying to construct a

560
00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 1: case for why Tulane won't be as dangerous this year,

561
00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 1: it's because there probably is going to be a drop off.

562
00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:57,240
Speaker 1: The new quarterback is Ty Thompson. You could probably tell

563
00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:59,400
Speaker 1: us more about Ty Thompson than anybody. He's the former

564
00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:01,120
Speaker 1: five star from Yes.

565
00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:05,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, originally from Arizona, was at Oregon for a couple

566
00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 2: of years and physically has a ton of potential. Had

567
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:11,800
Speaker 2: been in a couple of big games and looked a

568
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:14,360
Speaker 2: little bit lost and just not ready for prime time,

569
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:17,440
Speaker 2: but seemed to improve over the course of the last

570
00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:21,720
Speaker 2: year in garbage time through some nice balls, and the

571
00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 2: potential is there. And as we know, progress isn't linear,

572
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 2: and you know, some guys need two three years to

573
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:29,560
Speaker 2: really feel comfortable in their own skin as a somewhat

574
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:33,440
Speaker 2: major college football quarterback. And hope this new home works

575
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 2: out for ty Thompson because he should have the opportunity

576
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 2: Ky Horton his back right as well. I don't know

577
00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:40,080
Speaker 2: how much of a battle that is in this moment.

578
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 2: Ky Horton looked pretty good in relief for Tulane when

579
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:46,400
Speaker 2: Michael Pratt went down, but ceiling wise, it seems like

580
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:49,160
Speaker 2: ty Thompson is the guy that owns that part of

581
00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:49,640
Speaker 2: the equation.

582
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:53,360
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. They also have Mackay Hughes back. They're running

583
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:55,560
Speaker 1: back who rushed for close to fourteen hundred yards last

584
00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:58,080
Speaker 1: season as a red shirt freshman, which is awesome. That

585
00:29:58,120 --> 00:29:59,719
Speaker 1: will help. It helps to kind of have that one

586
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:02,560
Speaker 1: too punch. It's not going to be all on ty Thompson.

587
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:05,040
Speaker 2: Lost the big receiver to Tennessee, right, Yeah, Chris Brasel.

588
00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 1: Yeah. The other thing that I would add that is

589
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:11,920
Speaker 1: really standing in Tulane's way, I think of making the

590
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:15,480
Speaker 1: play even if they win the conference their schedule has

591
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:19,040
Speaker 1: both Kansas State and Oklahoma on it back to back weeks.

592
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:22,920
Speaker 1: So from a conference standpoint, that does not factor in

593
00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:28,440
Speaker 1: at all, Right, But from an overall playoff perspective, Let's

594
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:31,080
Speaker 1: say they win the conference, but then we've got this

595
00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:34,840
Speaker 1: data point of how they do against Kansas State and Oklahoma.

596
00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:37,800
Speaker 1: Two games are probably going to lose. I don't think

597
00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:38,880
Speaker 1: that helps their case.

598
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:42,560
Speaker 2: Wait, is tou Lane on a winning streak against Kansas State?

599
00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:46,080
Speaker 2: That is my understanding. Correct, that they're on a current

600
00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:50,800
Speaker 2: winning streak against Chris Climbing and the Wildcap. Sure, sure

601
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,880
Speaker 2: they beat them in twenty one, twenty two, twenty one, correct,

602
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 2: And I think they they sort of put the fear

603
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:03,800
Speaker 2: of God into Lincoln Riley they did years ago they did.

604
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:05,880
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think Tulane is going to be

605
00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:10,640
Speaker 1: different coach now and pushover opponent. I agree, but both

606
00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:13,360
Speaker 1: of those games are early and again ninety six in

607
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:16,560
Speaker 1: returning production new quarterback, you don't have the veteran handback

608
00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:19,800
Speaker 1: there like they did before. Agree, it's just a different situation.

609
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:23,840
Speaker 2: But they don't know what they're getting from Tulane this year, right,

610
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:25,000
Speaker 2: They're a mystery there.

611
00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:27,040
Speaker 1: There are a bit of a mystery. So why is

612
00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:29,600
Speaker 1: Tulane dangerous. They're dangerous because they've got a good coach.

613
00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:33,640
Speaker 1: They're dangerous because I think they've shown consistency and they

614
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 1: still have a very talented roster. Right, none of that

615
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 1: stuff should be overlooked. Where they're not dangerous, there's just

616
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:43,520
Speaker 1: a lot new. They are that unknown, and I don't

617
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:45,880
Speaker 1: think the schedule is doing them a whole lot of favors.

618
00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:48,400
Speaker 1: So I think that flies in the face a little

619
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:51,440
Speaker 1: bit of Tulane going on a deep run here this year. Okay,

620
00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:55,640
Speaker 1: fair enough, Who are you interested in next? Next? Most

621
00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:58,920
Speaker 1: among these teams? These fourteen teams in the American I mean,

622
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 1: do you have passing ut thoughts? I mentioned them as

623
00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 1: like in the sort of gray area of contention just

624
00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:08,000
Speaker 1: because they've done nothing no matter what conference. They're relatively

625
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:10,880
Speaker 1: new to the American of course, yeah, they compete, and

626
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:13,800
Speaker 1: so that to me is interesting. Well there, I mean, look,

627
00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 1: don and for last season they beat Marshall in the

628
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:18,200
Speaker 1: bowl game. They started one in three. I remember talking

629
00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:20,840
Speaker 1: about that like who going to be a rude awakening

630
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 1: for UTSA going into a new conference, and then they

631
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,160
Speaker 1: ripped off seven straight wins. They lost their season finale

632
00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:31,080
Speaker 1: against Tulane, but they ended up with a pretty good season,

633
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:33,520
Speaker 1: and you got to feel good about UTSA just because

634
00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 1: Jeff Trailers there. Like Jeff Trailer gets interest every year

635
00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:40,720
Speaker 1: from teams inside the state of Texas, and it feels

636
00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:43,760
Speaker 1: like he's gotten that program to a very very stable place.

637
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:47,800
Speaker 1: They're just good every year. The reason that I am

638
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:50,840
Speaker 1: not as high on UTSA, I'm still pretty high on them. Yeah,

639
00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:55,600
Speaker 1: but can they replace Big Frankie Harris, our guy at quarterback?

640
00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:58,480
Speaker 1: He was there forever felt like an eternity. It was

641
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:03,400
Speaker 1: an eternity. He's easily at present the best player in

642
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,680
Speaker 1: the history of the program, Frankie Harris and walking through

643
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:07,960
Speaker 1: that door in twenty twenty four.

644
00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:10,920
Speaker 2: No, but he is available on a CD box set

645
00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:14,800
Speaker 2: of the Doop Legends of the Fifties Frankie Harris continue.

646
00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:20,320
Speaker 1: His replacement is Owen McCown, who is related the son

647
00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 1: of Josh the nephew of Luke Right comes from quarterback pedigree.

648
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:28,000
Speaker 1: If not McCown, it'll be somebody by the name of

649
00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:31,240
Speaker 1: Eddie Lee Marberger, who does sound like he's currently on

650
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:32,920
Speaker 1: the run from the Feds. If I'm being a host,

651
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:36,120
Speaker 1: but I think that, for me is the biggest question

652
00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:38,960
Speaker 1: about UTSA at the quarterback spot. They just had a

653
00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:42,880
Speaker 1: trusted hand year in year out who could operate that offense,

654
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:46,960
Speaker 1: and now they don't, and so I expect there will

655
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 1: be a bit of a drop off there. Jeff Trailer

656
00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:51,160
Speaker 1: will have that program playing at a pretty high level

657
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,400
Speaker 1: as they have for the last couple of seasons. That's

658
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:56,920
Speaker 1: just not a question to me. It's just it's tough

659
00:33:56,960 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 1: when you lose a guy that caliber. He just you

660
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:03,280
Speaker 1: can't can't grow that on a tree and just put

661
00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:04,800
Speaker 1: it out there on the field the next year. So

662
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:07,760
Speaker 1: all In McCown might be the real deal. Course of

663
00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:10,560
Speaker 1: course he comes from, like I said, quarterback pedigree. But

664
00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a little bit lower on UTSA this year

665
00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:15,680
Speaker 1: just because they lose big Frank Am.

666
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:20,880
Speaker 2: I crazy in thinking that the most electric playmaker in

667
00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:24,480
Speaker 2: the conference is somebody whose team we haven't mentioned yet.

668
00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:29,040
Speaker 1: Who's that is it? Byron Brown at usf AM? I

669
00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 1: like feeling dangerous? You got it?

670
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:36,919
Speaker 2: I don't know, and they get what Bama this year.

671
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:39,080
Speaker 2: They might got a couple of big teams, but I

672
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:41,279
Speaker 2: know they're in Tuscaloo. So you remember that was like

673
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 2: the weird rain game early on last year where it

674
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:48,520
Speaker 2: was shuffling of backup quarterbacks for the Tide. But man,

675
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:51,680
Speaker 2: he's real good. He's fast, he throws a good ball,

676
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:54,600
Speaker 2: he's in a fun system. He's got to score fifty

677
00:34:54,640 --> 00:34:58,520
Speaker 2: a game because they have no defense. Like I'm pretty

678
00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:01,279
Speaker 2: excited for the wild card Byron Brown.

679
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,960
Speaker 1: Seven and six. Last year they shut out Syracuse forty

680
00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:09,320
Speaker 1: five to nil in their bowls, Oh Boca Ratone Bowl.

681
00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:13,360
Speaker 1: If you've listened to this show at all over the

682
00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:16,080
Speaker 1: last few months, you know that Dan and I are

683
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:19,080
Speaker 1: both pretty high on USF and the reason for that

684
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:21,600
Speaker 1: is pretty simple. They were one and eleven and twenty

685
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:26,160
Speaker 1: twenty two. The program was dead to rights. Jeff Scott

686
00:35:26,200 --> 00:35:30,319
Speaker 1: was a higher fire. Alex Golish comes in year one,

687
00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:35,279
Speaker 1: knew everything suddenly an enormous jump forward, like a resounding

688
00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:37,640
Speaker 1: shutout win in the bowl game, all of it with

689
00:35:37,719 --> 00:35:40,839
Speaker 1: a red shirt freshman. And you mentioned Byron Brown, and so,

690
00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:44,880
Speaker 1: to quote our friend Bill Connolly, almost all the reasons

691
00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:48,399
Speaker 1: for last year's improvement return which is a really good

692
00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:52,240
Speaker 1: starting point. Yes, this is where the returning production stat

693
00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:55,439
Speaker 1: actually matters, though it should never be the only thing

694
00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:57,839
Speaker 1: you look at when you're high on a team. It's

695
00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:01,640
Speaker 1: always much safer when you've got some supporting detail, or

696
00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:04,759
Speaker 1: when this is a supporting detail, I should say, when

697
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:07,160
Speaker 1: you can assume that we're going to get like incremental

698
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:11,040
Speaker 1: improvement instead of just the enormous sleep forward, that's when

699
00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:13,920
Speaker 1: it feels more comfortable. And Bill's right, like all of

700
00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:17,680
Speaker 1: the reasons for USF jump forward last year or back,

701
00:36:18,480 --> 00:36:20,839
Speaker 1: especially in offense where they've got nine starters coming back,

702
00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:24,360
Speaker 1: short of injury, short of unfortunate stuff that happens to

703
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:27,080
Speaker 1: every team. I have a really hard time believing that

704
00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:29,960
Speaker 1: this offense isn't just going to continue improving, especially with

705
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:33,560
Speaker 1: an offensive minded guy like Alex Kulesh. Yeah right. The

706
00:36:33,600 --> 00:36:36,400
Speaker 1: big key, though, is going to be keeping great postgame

707
00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:39,560
Speaker 1: interview too, oh, Alex Colesh. Yeah, the big key is

708
00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:42,160
Speaker 1: going to be keeping Brown up right though? Mm hmm.

709
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:46,840
Speaker 1: Did you know outside of Jaden Daniels, he was the

710
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:49,640
Speaker 1: only quarterback in college football to throw for more than

711
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:51,920
Speaker 1: three thousand yards and rush for more than eight hundred.

712
00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:55,800
Speaker 1: Didn't know? It makes sense, didn't you know? And also

713
00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:59,799
Speaker 1: he got sacked forty three times, Yeah, which was tied

714
00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:04,040
Speaker 1: for the tenth worst in college football. So again, incremental improvement.

715
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:07,960
Speaker 1: Incremental improvement up front makes this offense a lot better.

716
00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:10,160
Speaker 1: If they can get more out of Ni Kwan right

717
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:13,440
Speaker 1: they're running back, they'll be better for it. He's a transfer,

718
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:16,480
Speaker 1: he came over from Florida, won the job last season,

719
00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:19,080
Speaker 1: had a good statistical season, but it was really lumpy,

720
00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:22,480
Speaker 1: like a few great games which pushed up the averages,

721
00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:25,359
Speaker 1: but a bunch of stinkers sort of mixed in there.

722
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 1: They got to get more out of him so that

723
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:31,160
Speaker 1: the pressure isn't all on Byron Brown on the defensive

724
00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:33,719
Speaker 1: side though, Like, this is the thing. They gave up

725
00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:36,400
Speaker 1: at least forty one points in five of their six losses.

726
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:41,400
Speaker 1: That's not good enough, Dan, No, they did lose one game,

727
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:44,720
Speaker 1: only one game where they gave up only seventeen points,

728
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:50,000
Speaker 1: and that was the infamous Ty Simpson game against me. Yeah. Yeah,

729
00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 1: So this is a catastrophically bad defense two years ago.

730
00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:56,440
Speaker 1: Last year it was merely really bad. If you're a

731
00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:59,440
Speaker 1: Bulls fan, you'll still take that. That's fine. It's progress.

732
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:04,200
Speaker 1: Were positives there. I think the effort stats like pressure

733
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,239
Speaker 1: rates and havoc rates, that stuff that again indicates Are

734
00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:10,319
Speaker 1: they trying? Are they not trying? Those numbers were pretty good,

735
00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:12,440
Speaker 1: they weren't bad at all, but they just gave up

736
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:15,439
Speaker 1: a ton of big plays. They got skewed through the air,

737
00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:17,640
Speaker 1: especially when they played man covers. They were just bad

738
00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:20,560
Speaker 1: at doing that. The past defense, ultimately is what really

739
00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:23,160
Speaker 1: let this team down. So you know, as we kind

740
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:26,120
Speaker 1: of zoom out and look at what the landscape books like,

741
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:29,400
Speaker 1: it's not an easy schedule, but it is extremely frontloaded.

742
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,000
Speaker 1: So within the first five weeks of the season, they

743
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:34,480
Speaker 1: go to Bama, they host Miami, they go to Tulane.

744
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:36,799
Speaker 1: If you zoom out a little bit more, there's a

745
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:39,480
Speaker 1: bye after that two lane trip. Then they're back home

746
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:41,479
Speaker 1: against Memphis, which is going to be like an eighty

747
00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:44,880
Speaker 1: five point shootout. We know that. But the rest is manageable.

748
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:47,680
Speaker 1: If you get through that patch in the front part

749
00:38:47,719 --> 00:38:50,480
Speaker 1: of the schedule, assuming the defense can just get a

750
00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:53,680
Speaker 1: little bit more consistent us that's going to be a

751
00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:55,160
Speaker 1: damn fun watch this year.

752
00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:59,280
Speaker 2: I know the defensive coordinator is go ahead, Todd, Orlando,

753
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:02,359
Speaker 2: Todd Orlando. You know who their special teams coordinator is,

754
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 2: some guy named Chad Creamer. And you told me this

755
00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:10,600
Speaker 2: before you have a few DVDs that star somebody named

756
00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:13,480
Speaker 2: Todd Orlando Chad Creamer way back when.

757
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:17,520
Speaker 1: Is Chad related to Chris Kremer of the sports logo Fame.

758
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:19,640
Speaker 1: I hope, so, I really do.

759
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:23,759
Speaker 2: No, USF should be fun Todd Orlando, Like, say what

760
00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:26,600
Speaker 2: you will about his time at USC It wasn't good,

761
00:39:26,719 --> 00:39:29,759
Speaker 2: but he had too many stops where he was able

762
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:34,840
Speaker 2: to eventually build dangerous defenses that I think he should

763
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:37,719
Speaker 2: be able to because of how active us F will

764
00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:39,239
Speaker 2: continue to be in the portal, I think he'll be

765
00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:41,800
Speaker 2: able to build a defense at USF.

766
00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:44,360
Speaker 1: I think the ceiling is eight and four. Okay, I

767
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:45,839
Speaker 1: think the ceiling is eight and four. But I think

768
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:47,279
Speaker 1: they're going to put the fear of God into some

769
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:49,000
Speaker 1: teams because the offense is so damn good.

770
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:52,520
Speaker 2: Okay, I think so too. And he'll be great for

771
00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:54,960
Speaker 2: NSIS State next year Byron Brown. So there's that.

772
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:59,480
Speaker 1: Let's go to Army like, Okay, I'm fascinated by Army

773
00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:03,000
Speaker 1: joining this. I don't have a whole lot of deep

774
00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:07,719
Speaker 1: Army takes here, okay, but I think it's interesting what

775
00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:12,800
Speaker 1: happened last year. Last year they had i'll say, noble

776
00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:15,960
Speaker 1: intentions to try and modify the offense a little bit.

777
00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:19,360
Speaker 1: That didn't take. No, it didn't take, and.

778
00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:21,480
Speaker 2: They lose to Navy and don't score a lot of

779
00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:22,440
Speaker 2: points in the process.

780
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:24,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, towards the end of the season they just reverted

781
00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:27,680
Speaker 1: back to what they had done many years prior, and

782
00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:29,719
Speaker 1: then they actually built some momentum. They were just better

783
00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:31,960
Speaker 1: at that. So I think this year that's going to

784
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:35,839
Speaker 1: be the marching orders, no pun intended. If Army can

785
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,320
Speaker 1: build on that, if they can get the offense merely

786
00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:43,399
Speaker 1: back to a serviceable level, I am very curious about

787
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:46,799
Speaker 1: what that means for this conference, because the best of Army,

788
00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:51,440
Speaker 1: the best of any option team, grinds you down. And frankly,

789
00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:53,960
Speaker 1: there are a lot of vulnerable defenses in this version

790
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:57,640
Speaker 1: of the American. Right. Bill and Bill Connolly in his

791
00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:03,040
Speaker 1: preview of the American talked about out generally speaking, a

792
00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:08,600
Speaker 1: downward trend in the conference where they have essentially been

793
00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:12,680
Speaker 1: forced to trade quality for quantity because of conference realignment,

794
00:41:12,719 --> 00:41:15,000
Speaker 1: because of a number of factors. It's not just one thing.

795
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 1: And so the American after years of being kind of

796
00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:23,359
Speaker 1: this beacon in G five, this conference that we held

797
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:25,680
Speaker 1: up as being like the cream of the crop. That's

798
00:41:25,719 --> 00:41:29,080
Speaker 1: not so much the case anymore, and they're just a

799
00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:32,280
Speaker 1: lot of teams that are kind of teetering, and especially

800
00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:33,920
Speaker 1: on the defensive side of the ball, that's where you

801
00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:37,280
Speaker 1: see the weakness. That's where Army, that's where Navy present

802
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:41,640
Speaker 1: really interesting challenges, especially in just sort of the normal

803
00:41:41,719 --> 00:41:45,239
Speaker 1: flow of a conference schedule, where they're so different to

804
00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:47,960
Speaker 1: prepare for. They grind you down so much when they're

805
00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:49,960
Speaker 1: at their best, they could put some teams in a

806
00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:53,239
Speaker 1: real pickle defensively. I don't know if it happens this year,

807
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:55,600
Speaker 1: but I'm glad Army is in this conference. I think

808
00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:57,799
Speaker 1: it'll make things far more interesting than they were last year.

809
00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:02,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, I tend to agree, and I like the specificity

810
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:03,840
Speaker 2: of it all. Like Memphis is gonna be, you know,

811
00:42:03,880 --> 00:42:06,440
Speaker 2: have a big offense, and Army's gonna run it, Navy's

812
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:10,799
Speaker 2: gonna run it. Tulane should be relatively balanced. UAB is

813
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:13,160
Speaker 2: probably gonna throw a bunch of checkdowns like they did

814
00:42:13,200 --> 00:42:16,520
Speaker 2: it all last year. In surprise, surprise, Trent Dilfer runs

815
00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:19,520
Speaker 2: an offense that features a bunch of checkdowns, efficient short

816
00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:22,360
Speaker 2: passes or whatever. UTSA should be fun on offense. And

817
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:25,200
Speaker 2: then like you look at like Tulsa seems like they're

818
00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:27,600
Speaker 2: gonna continue to be disappointing. Temple seems like they're gonna

819
00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:28,719
Speaker 2: continue to be disappointing.

820
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:29,160
Speaker 1: Charlotte.

821
00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:31,239
Speaker 2: I'm at least intrigued because of Biff po Gee and

822
00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:33,640
Speaker 2: bringing in a bunch of like higher level transfers from

823
00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:34,400
Speaker 2: big places.

824
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:35,400
Speaker 1: FAU.

825
00:42:36,239 --> 00:42:38,560
Speaker 2: There's no spark to me with FAU in this moment.

826
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:41,520
Speaker 2: ECU has been down. Maybe there's a spark there, but

827
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:44,200
Speaker 2: I don't know. There's a bunch of teams where you're

828
00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:47,400
Speaker 2: just like, give me something, Please give me that reason

829
00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:48,200
Speaker 2: to care about you.

830
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:52,240
Speaker 1: Do you know who got the G five playoff spot

831
00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:55,120
Speaker 1: when they simulated a full season in the new EA

832
00:42:55,200 --> 00:42:58,560
Speaker 1: College Football video game. There's a new EA College football

833
00:42:58,600 --> 00:43:01,600
Speaker 1: video game. I know it came out of nowhere. Weird, Okay,

834
00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:06,680
Speaker 1: what team got that? The Rice Owls got it. Okay,

835
00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:09,520
Speaker 1: six and seven last season lost a bowl game to

836
00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:13,279
Speaker 1: Texas State. This year they lose both JT. Daniels and

837
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:16,080
Speaker 1: Luke McCaffrey and they're still fifth in returning production, which

838
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:19,960
Speaker 1: is kind of wild. Great. Their new quarterback is EJ. Warner.

839
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:22,839
Speaker 1: You know who that is? Temple yep. From Temple. It's

840
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:26,720
Speaker 1: Kurt Warner's son, yep. So it comes with some acclaim.

841
00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:30,640
Speaker 1: The offensive line is enormous. I think they're going to

842
00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:32,680
Speaker 1: be able to overpower a good chunk of the teams

843
00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:36,960
Speaker 1: on their schedule. The defense is number one nationally. As

844
00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:40,440
Speaker 1: I said earlier in returning production, the win total per

845
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:44,680
Speaker 1: vegas is six and a half. Rice is interesting for

846
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:47,680
Speaker 1: our folks out on Discord who have been Rice fans

847
00:43:47,719 --> 00:43:52,840
Speaker 1: for a while. Yeah, this version of Rice is particularly

848
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:58,719
Speaker 1: intriguing to me. Oh my god. I okay, but laugh

849
00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:01,560
Speaker 1: at me. I'm laughing. Continue, you have to laugh at me.

850
00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:04,800
Speaker 1: We're all friends here, Okay. I am a Rice believer

851
00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:07,680
Speaker 1: to some extent. I don't know what they're going to

852
00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:11,240
Speaker 1: get out of YOUJ Warner. That to me is sort

853
00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:14,920
Speaker 1: of the big open question. I think Rice could be

854
00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:17,600
Speaker 1: very spicy in this conference. I think they could be

855
00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:20,080
Speaker 1: just a real pain in the ass for everybody that

856
00:44:20,120 --> 00:44:23,480
Speaker 1: they have to play. There's a lot back, but they

857
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:25,839
Speaker 1: got to get it at the quarterback position. They have to.

858
00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:30,080
Speaker 1: That's all. I agree. That's all say about that. That's

859
00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:33,000
Speaker 1: that's pretty much to everybody. Yeah, laugh at me for Rice.

860
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:35,839
Speaker 1: How dare you yeah, continue, You know I always love

861
00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:38,520
Speaker 1: when who did you mention? It was EJ. Warner at Rice?

862
00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:42,359
Speaker 2: Where you you have no I have no concept of

863
00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:44,360
Speaker 2: if a player is a red shirt freshman or like

864
00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:47,560
Speaker 2: a sixth year COVID senior. That anytime I study any

865
00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:49,440
Speaker 2: of these teams, in any of these conferences, I just

866
00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:52,439
Speaker 2: fully expect to see a name like, oh, yeah, CU

867
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:57,319
Speaker 2: brought in Kurt Bankert. What but they had like James

868
00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:00,239
Speaker 2: Madison brought in Dylan Morris from Washington, Like oh cool,

869
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:02,759
Speaker 2: Dil Morris, send it up somewhere like I I have

870
00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:05,439
Speaker 2: no idea like because of all of these names, Because

871
00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:08,880
Speaker 2: of all this movement, I lose full complete track of

872
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 2: eligibility years continue.

873
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:12,919
Speaker 1: If we want to put it and take a toe,

874
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:15,800
Speaker 1: I can start tak a toe up that Kurt Bankerd

875
00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:17,799
Speaker 1: is playing for EC this year that time. I don't

876
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:19,560
Speaker 1: think Kurt Banker is going to be playing for Easy.

877
00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:22,480
Speaker 1: Oh more takes.

878
00:45:22,760 --> 00:45:27,400
Speaker 2: Why it's such a good take. Actually, Tutieth is incorrect.

879
00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:32,279
Speaker 2: Twenty sixteen sophomore Kurt Bankert from Virginia is that, yeah,

880
00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:35,440
Speaker 2: Virginia is going to be playing for CU.

881
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:39,240
Speaker 1: I'm just going to ring Baker taking weird football content

882
00:45:39,320 --> 00:45:42,319
Speaker 1: these days? Is he he is? Yeah? Okay, he's his

883
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:45,400
Speaker 1: own like JT. O. Sullivan. Yeah, I just thought of JT. O. Sullivan.

884
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:47,719
Speaker 1: It's pretty good. Actually, I'm going over on that six

885
00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:50,359
Speaker 1: and a half win total for Rice. Oh, okay, in

886
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:52,520
Speaker 1: on Rice, I mean on Rice. All right, let me

887
00:45:52,600 --> 00:45:54,160
Speaker 1: let me buzz through some of these other teams. I

888
00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:58,359
Speaker 1: mentioned Army, I'll mention Navy quickly five and seven. Last

889
00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:01,719
Speaker 1: year it was Brian Newberry's first year. They're trying to

890
00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:05,359
Speaker 1: fix their offense too. They hired a guy away from

891
00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:09,800
Speaker 1: Mercer the Bears to come in and revive the rushing attack.

892
00:46:10,480 --> 00:46:14,000
Speaker 1: He runs a solid program. He runs something called, quote

893
00:46:14,040 --> 00:46:19,319
Speaker 1: the millennial version of the wing T offense, which is

894
00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:21,799
Speaker 1: interesting on a number of levels because Drew Chronic, the

895
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:26,160
Speaker 1: name of this gentleman, is not a millennial. He was

896
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:28,960
Speaker 1: born in nineteen seventy four. I would love born with

897
00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:31,560
Speaker 1: the pulse tie. I'd love more info on how he

898
00:46:31,600 --> 00:46:35,520
Speaker 1: came to this labeling. But it is a hybrid wing

899
00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:38,840
Speaker 1: T offense. It should look like a hybrid of the

900
00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:42,960
Speaker 1: triple option that Navy's been running with the spread option,

901
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:48,840
Speaker 1: some combination of those two things. His pedigree is interesting

902
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:52,040
Speaker 1: rushing offenses. Navy's a good spot for that. We'll see

903
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:53,439
Speaker 1: how it fares. I don't know. I think it makes

904
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:55,879
Speaker 1: them interesting. Last year they were one hundred and tenth

905
00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:58,840
Speaker 1: in rushing success rate. Not ideal. Obviously got to be

906
00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:01,480
Speaker 1: about improvement. Yeah, we'll see what this dude can do.

907
00:47:01,640 --> 00:47:03,239
Speaker 2: At least he didn't call it like the wing T

908
00:47:03,480 --> 00:47:07,279
Speaker 2: four K No, No, nothing like that. No, that crav

909
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:11,640
Speaker 2: was that highly highly dynamic, highly diversified. What was the

910
00:47:11,800 --> 00:47:13,840
Speaker 2: HD in that? It wasn't supposed to It was something

911
00:47:13,960 --> 00:47:14,960
Speaker 2: fun continue.

912
00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:19,480
Speaker 1: The defense was okay. They were plus eleven and turnover

913
00:47:19,520 --> 00:47:23,120
Speaker 1: margin Navy was tied for fourth nationally. In theory, you

914
00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:25,359
Speaker 1: create turnovers, you slow the game down when you get

915
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:27,840
Speaker 1: the ball. If you can move the ball, if you

916
00:47:27,840 --> 00:47:29,960
Speaker 1: can eat the clock, that's that's one way to win,

917
00:47:30,320 --> 00:47:31,719
Speaker 1: and I think that's the way that they're going to

918
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:34,680
Speaker 1: try to win. Brian Newberry's pedigree is a defensive mind.

919
00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:38,560
Speaker 1: So hopefully if he can join forces with Drew Chronic again,

920
00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:40,600
Speaker 1: the dude they brought over from Mercer, if they can

921
00:47:40,800 --> 00:47:45,040
Speaker 1: revitalize this offense, that put Navy an interesting spot. Yeah,

922
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:47,600
Speaker 1: but you know, we'll see again, it's it's kind of

923
00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:49,360
Speaker 1: an open question if they can accomplish that.

924
00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:52,759
Speaker 2: Every time you say Drew Chronic, I laugh just a

925
00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:57,600
Speaker 2: little bit every time. And sure, I that was your

926
00:47:57,640 --> 00:47:59,840
Speaker 2: mixtape in high school, that was your name. But like

927
00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:07,040
Speaker 2: Drew Chronic, you can say that with the straight face. Okay, FAU,

928
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:08,319
Speaker 2: the owl is another owl here.

929
00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:12,480
Speaker 1: Yeah. Four and eight team Tom Herman's first year. Last year,

930
00:48:14,239 --> 00:48:19,040
Speaker 1: it's notable that FAU has the easiest schedule in the country. Great. Also,

931
00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:24,719
Speaker 1: they got crushed in returning production, crushed, lost thirty four

932
00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:28,399
Speaker 1: guys to the portal they brought in twenty. I don't

933
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:30,759
Speaker 1: have a whole lot more to add beyond that. I

934
00:48:30,800 --> 00:48:34,920
Speaker 1: think this is a prolonged rebuild. I don't think this

935
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:38,680
Speaker 1: is instantly gonna pop. I think we like Tom. Tom

936
00:48:38,719 --> 00:48:41,720
Speaker 1: Herman's been on the show. I think we like Tom Herman,

937
00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:44,760
Speaker 1: and there's a lot there to suggest that he can

938
00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:48,960
Speaker 1: in time build up this program. It's isn't gonna take

939
00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:52,200
Speaker 1: a while. He's still getting the rostered order. It's just yeah,

940
00:48:52,360 --> 00:48:55,719
Speaker 1: that's really it. Yeah, Willie Taggert did a full on

941
00:48:55,840 --> 00:48:58,920
Speaker 1: bad job. Yeah he didn't, And it's going to take

942
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:01,200
Speaker 1: a minute. FAU with some It is hypothetically one of

943
00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:03,799
Speaker 1: those places that can build a roster of transfers from

944
00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:08,920
Speaker 1: the area and win games. H ECU is interesting to

945
00:49:08,920 --> 00:49:11,560
Speaker 1: me this year down here last year three and nine

946
00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:15,080
Speaker 1: to two to ten last year. The upside is that

947
00:49:15,360 --> 00:49:18,879
Speaker 1: a good chunk of the underlying numbers, like we don't

948
00:49:18,880 --> 00:49:21,080
Speaker 1: play the game on paper, but the underlying numbers and

949
00:49:21,120 --> 00:49:24,000
Speaker 1: that type of thing were better than the final record.

950
00:49:24,760 --> 00:49:28,560
Speaker 1: They had four to one score losses against Rice, Charlotte, Twulane,

951
00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:32,080
Speaker 1: and Tulsa. Three of those were at home. So last

952
00:49:32,160 --> 00:49:36,000
Speaker 1: year's team was driven almost entirely by its defense. It's

953
00:49:36,040 --> 00:49:39,720
Speaker 1: a defense that brings a ton back this year. Okay,

954
00:49:40,120 --> 00:49:43,440
Speaker 1: I think I'm I think we'll continue to see improvement

955
00:49:43,440 --> 00:49:46,120
Speaker 1: on the defensive side of the ball. Chavon revel is

956
00:49:46,160 --> 00:49:49,200
Speaker 1: the name to know. He's their star corner, almost certainly

957
00:49:49,200 --> 00:49:52,400
Speaker 1: a future draft pick. He kind of leads the way

958
00:49:53,080 --> 00:49:55,080
Speaker 1: on defense. But there they're again going to be driven

959
00:49:55,080 --> 00:49:58,200
Speaker 1: by that defense. It's just offense, right, It's a quarterback

960
00:49:58,280 --> 00:50:01,080
Speaker 1: race between a couple interesting names he may be familiar with,

961
00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:04,480
Speaker 1: notably Jake Garcia, who's now on another stole. Oh that's right,

962
00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:07,400
Speaker 1: I did see this, Yeah, Jake Garcia transfers in from Missoo.

963
00:50:07,520 --> 00:50:11,359
Speaker 1: Catenhauser transfers down from Michigan State. I don't think they're

964
00:50:11,360 --> 00:50:14,399
Speaker 1: going two and ten again, but I think unless there

965
00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:17,200
Speaker 1: is market improvement, this could be it for Mike Houston.

966
00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:21,040
Speaker 1: Like that's that was a really good program back in

967
00:50:21,080 --> 00:50:23,160
Speaker 1: the day, and they have fallen on some hard times here.

968
00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:26,279
Speaker 1: So he's he's got to prove, kind of like Neil

969
00:50:26,280 --> 00:50:29,000
Speaker 1: Brown did last year, that he can turn this thing

970
00:50:29,040 --> 00:50:32,200
Speaker 1: around and get them on more of an upward trajectory.

971
00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:36,840
Speaker 2: Okay, I enjoyed your I hear you, butt, and we

972
00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:41,120
Speaker 2: can give Bill c his choice of like the Bowl

973
00:50:41,160 --> 00:50:43,760
Speaker 2: teams and his special Bowl that have teams that don't

974
00:50:43,760 --> 00:50:46,440
Speaker 2: have five hundred records that can go to the underlying

975
00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:49,680
Speaker 2: numbers Bowl Like, look, I know these two three and

976
00:50:49,800 --> 00:50:53,759
Speaker 2: nine teams lost all of their There are bunch sized.

977
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:57,360
Speaker 1: Games, you know, we we we find this, especially this

978
00:50:57,480 --> 00:50:59,719
Speaker 1: time of year when we're digging into what did these

979
00:50:59,719 --> 00:51:03,120
Speaker 1: teams do last year? Yeah, more often than not, you've

980
00:51:03,120 --> 00:51:05,600
Speaker 1: got a bunch of them that we're in just a

981
00:51:05,719 --> 00:51:08,560
Speaker 1: ridiculous amount of one score games. I've got one when

982
00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:11,880
Speaker 1: we talk about the MAC that will blow your mind. Okay, okay,

983
00:51:11,960 --> 00:51:13,680
Speaker 1: I've got one that is sort of like the King

984
00:51:13,719 --> 00:51:17,319
Speaker 1: of the stat but a last there are many more.

985
00:51:17,360 --> 00:51:19,919
Speaker 1: We'll talk through them. Let me round this conference out

986
00:51:19,960 --> 00:51:24,680
Speaker 1: here by talking about the final five teams. North Texas Dan. Yeah,

987
00:51:24,719 --> 00:51:27,320
Speaker 1: I'll gas no breaks once again. Five and seven a

988
00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:33,560
Speaker 1: year ago made a coaching change. Might be Chandler Morris,

989
00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:34,600
Speaker 1: you're starting.

990
00:51:34,680 --> 00:51:37,719
Speaker 2: Probably will be yeah, might be him at a quarter

991
00:51:37,719 --> 00:51:40,520
Speaker 2: a third team, Yeah, he.

992
00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:43,040
Speaker 1: Could be one of eight new starters on this offense.

993
00:51:43,080 --> 00:51:45,600
Speaker 1: It was an offense that was good last year, had

994
00:51:45,640 --> 00:51:49,879
Speaker 1: no support on defense whatsoever. None. This was pretty much

995
00:51:49,880 --> 00:51:54,600
Speaker 1: the worst defense in the country. The numbers here are ridiculous.

996
00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:58,319
Speaker 1: I mean, four hundred and seventy six yards a game,

997
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:03,120
Speaker 1: thirty seven points per game. Yeah, it's impossible to win

998
00:52:03,160 --> 00:52:05,280
Speaker 1: with numbers like that. And still they won five games,

999
00:52:06,120 --> 00:52:08,400
Speaker 1: which actually, like five and seven is not a great record.

1000
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:11,160
Speaker 1: It's not the worst, but when you look at those

1001
00:52:11,239 --> 00:52:13,919
Speaker 1: numbers and how bad they were on defense, it's actually

1002
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:16,520
Speaker 1: kind of impressive that they wont any games at all. Right,

1003
00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:19,360
Speaker 1: every game is a shootout when you play like that

1004
00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:23,760
Speaker 1: on defense, So you know they've they've got kind of

1005
00:52:25,239 --> 00:52:30,440
Speaker 1: a retooled front seven this year kind of okay, they

1006
00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:33,120
Speaker 1: should be better for the Mean Green this year, and

1007
00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:35,200
Speaker 1: the Front seven, I think is is where they really

1008
00:52:35,239 --> 00:52:37,839
Speaker 1: need to improve. They want to get better. It needs

1009
00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:40,920
Speaker 1: to be better, if only because it can't possibly literally

1010
00:52:40,920 --> 00:52:42,480
Speaker 1: cannot get any worse. They were horrible.

1011
00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:46,520
Speaker 2: Don't challenge, Tie, don't you challenge? Don't you lay down

1012
00:52:46,560 --> 00:52:49,680
Speaker 2: that sword? From a ranked stand dare.

1013
00:52:49,480 --> 00:52:53,760
Speaker 1: You from a ranking standpoint, sure it cannot get any worse.

1014
00:52:54,200 --> 00:52:57,640
Speaker 1: Maybe it can because there's another team in FBS this year. Yeah,

1015
00:52:57,719 --> 00:53:00,280
Speaker 1: so I guess technically it could, but that's a stretch

1016
00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:03,279
Speaker 1: for me. I am concerned about this team because the

1017
00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:06,600
Speaker 1: defense was really bad last year and there is so

1018
00:53:06,680 --> 00:53:10,320
Speaker 1: much new on offense. But should be a hell of

1019
00:53:10,360 --> 00:53:12,160
Speaker 1: a TV show, Yeah, Mean Green.

1020
00:53:13,600 --> 00:53:15,319
Speaker 2: I don't know, man, it's probably not a great TV

1021
00:53:15,400 --> 00:53:17,000
Speaker 2: show if you're a North Texas fan.

1022
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:22,319
Speaker 1: No, we know Patreon membership that it hasn't been a

1023
00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:25,560
Speaker 1: la watch of North Texas. People talk about North Texas.

1024
00:53:25,600 --> 00:53:28,560
Speaker 1: But what a challenge you've laid. Can't get worse?

1025
00:53:29,400 --> 00:53:32,160
Speaker 2: It definitely can always get worse. Ty, You've watched the

1026
00:53:32,200 --> 00:53:35,920
Speaker 2: sport long enough to know that this team, this defense,

1027
00:53:36,000 --> 00:53:38,120
Speaker 2: whatever it gets, they play.

1028
00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:41,600
Speaker 1: With nine men. That's the only way it can definitely happen,

1029
00:53:41,600 --> 00:53:43,560
Speaker 1: and they don't. The offense is now face sure, they

1030
00:53:43,600 --> 00:53:46,760
Speaker 1: don't give red cards in football, at least not yet.

1031
00:53:47,360 --> 00:53:49,359
Speaker 1: I don't think it can possibly get you worse than

1032
00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:53,880
Speaker 1: it was last year. Okay, fair enough, uab Trent Dilfer

1033
00:53:54,080 --> 00:53:56,919
Speaker 1: four and eight. Last year the offense was all right,

1034
00:53:57,080 --> 00:54:00,720
Speaker 1: like it wasn't horrible. Jacob Zeno, Jacob Zeno was a quarterback.

1035
00:54:00,760 --> 00:54:03,799
Speaker 1: You remember him from the Baylor days. He's back. I

1036
00:54:03,800 --> 00:54:05,799
Speaker 1: think four or five linemen in front of him are

1037
00:54:05,840 --> 00:54:08,120
Speaker 1: back as well, So the offense will be okay, it's

1038
00:54:08,200 --> 00:54:11,600
Speaker 1: just a defense man. You said it earlier. North Texas

1039
00:54:11,640 --> 00:54:13,880
Speaker 1: was the worst in the country. These guys were second worst.

1040
00:54:14,880 --> 00:54:16,720
Speaker 1: Now they signed a bunch of defenders in the portal.

1041
00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:21,040
Speaker 1: I again, it's another situation where they have to be better.

1042
00:54:22,120 --> 00:54:24,480
Speaker 1: They have to be better because they can't get much worse.

1043
00:54:24,880 --> 00:54:27,439
Speaker 1: Frankly though, a year into this and we'll know more.

1044
00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:31,960
Speaker 1: Obviously come December. It's still looking like a dumb hire, right.

1045
00:54:32,400 --> 00:54:35,919
Speaker 1: You know when they hired Trent Dilfort, Dilfert raised eyebrows like, oh,

1046
00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:38,319
Speaker 1: what are we doing here? Why? They and they gave

1047
00:54:38,360 --> 00:54:40,959
Speaker 1: their own justification for it, and that's fine. It looks

1048
00:54:40,960 --> 00:54:44,279
Speaker 1: like a bad hire who to thunk, looks like a

1049
00:54:44,280 --> 00:54:44,920
Speaker 1: bad hire.

1050
00:54:46,680 --> 00:54:49,440
Speaker 2: Man, which, by the way, reminds me how many former

1051
00:54:49,560 --> 00:54:51,520
Speaker 2: Baylor quarterbacks are out there right now.

1052
00:54:51,520 --> 00:54:52,600
Speaker 1: Oh my god, so many.

1053
00:54:52,800 --> 00:54:55,200
Speaker 2: So you've got Kyraen Drones in Virginia Tech. I think

1054
00:54:55,239 --> 00:54:58,279
Speaker 2: Gary Bohannon is off to BYU Yep, Blake shaping at

1055
00:54:58,280 --> 00:54:59,120
Speaker 2: Mississippi State.

1056
00:54:59,480 --> 00:54:59,880
Speaker 1: Jacobs Z.

1057
00:55:00,080 --> 00:55:03,760
Speaker 2: You know at UAB is Sawyer Robertson still at Baylor.

1058
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:07,400
Speaker 2: I do not know, oh, ty, do not have like

1059
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:09,719
Speaker 2: a Sawyer Robertson Google alert set?

1060
00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:11,319
Speaker 1: Unfortunately I deleted it.

1061
00:55:11,640 --> 00:55:17,920
Speaker 2: Okay, But the undeveloped Baylor quarterback tentacles like we talk about,

1062
00:55:17,920 --> 00:55:23,080
Speaker 2: like the Bill Parcells coaching tree. Yeah, the Dave Randa appears.

1063
00:55:23,120 --> 00:55:25,160
Speaker 2: Soyer Robertson is still in Waco.

1064
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:25,760
Speaker 1: Excellent.

1065
00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:32,720
Speaker 2: The undeveloped Baylor quarterback tree, probably improving elsewhere, is probably

1066
00:55:32,760 --> 00:55:36,320
Speaker 2: alone in its specific merit right now in college.

1067
00:55:36,880 --> 00:55:38,799
Speaker 1: And Sawyer Robertson will be playing for one of these

1068
00:55:38,840 --> 00:55:41,960
Speaker 1: teams next year after Aranda gets fired. So yeah, he'll

1069
00:55:41,960 --> 00:55:45,560
Speaker 1: be at Texas State, He'll be somewhere. Yeah. Three final

1070
00:55:45,600 --> 00:55:47,160
Speaker 1: teams here and then I'll turn it over to you

1071
00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:51,200
Speaker 1: to talk about Conference USA for a bit. Yeah, Tulsa,

1072
00:55:51,360 --> 00:55:54,759
Speaker 1: Charlotte and Temple three teams that are going to be

1073
00:55:54,760 --> 00:55:57,640
Speaker 1: at bottom of the conference. Like Kevin Wilson went four

1074
00:55:57,640 --> 00:56:00,720
Speaker 1: to eight in his first year at Tulsa. Not great

1075
00:56:00,760 --> 00:56:03,600
Speaker 1: from a returning production standpoint. Pretty Much the entire front

1076
00:56:03,640 --> 00:56:06,799
Speaker 1: seven and all but one of the offensive linemen need

1077
00:56:06,840 --> 00:56:09,320
Speaker 1: to be replaced this coming season, which isn't a good start.

1078
00:56:09,880 --> 00:56:12,040
Speaker 1: The irony is that the skill position guys are actually

1079
00:56:12,080 --> 00:56:15,080
Speaker 1: pretty good, Like Anthony Watkins at running back is pretty decent,

1080
00:56:15,440 --> 00:56:18,640
Speaker 1: Camden Benjamin out wide is really solid. It just seems

1081
00:56:18,640 --> 00:56:20,360
Speaker 1: like it's going to be too much to overcome not

1082
00:56:20,560 --> 00:56:24,640
Speaker 1: having the trenches sorted out. So I'm not too optimistic

1083
00:56:24,680 --> 00:56:27,480
Speaker 1: about Tulsa this season. And Tulsa should never be a

1084
00:56:27,520 --> 00:56:30,840
Speaker 1: team that misses bowl games too. No, No, they shaven.

1085
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:35,799
Speaker 2: Location, given history, given recent defenses, offensive developments like that,

1086
00:56:35,800 --> 00:56:37,680
Speaker 2: that should always be a bowl caliber team.

1087
00:56:37,719 --> 00:56:39,120
Speaker 1: It should be. They've, like you said, they've had a

1088
00:56:39,160 --> 00:56:42,600
Speaker 1: lot of success there. Yeah, but it's another situation where

1089
00:56:42,600 --> 00:56:44,520
Speaker 1: they're still trying to get the roster in order. Yep.

1090
00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:49,400
Speaker 1: And this year, the returning production thing, and their losses

1091
00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:53,319
Speaker 1: in particular are just not helpful. Charlotte three and nine

1092
00:56:53,400 --> 00:56:55,959
Speaker 1: last year and bif po Gee your boys first year.

1093
00:56:57,719 --> 00:57:03,359
Speaker 1: Their offensive stats were a car crash. Yes, they were

1094
00:57:03,400 --> 00:57:07,439
Speaker 1: an absolute frigging car crash last season, and they weren't

1095
00:57:07,520 --> 00:57:11,120
Speaker 1: much better on defense. In terms of the sp plus

1096
00:57:11,160 --> 00:57:14,400
Speaker 1: which we know and love on this show, twenty seven

1097
00:57:14,440 --> 00:57:19,520
Speaker 1: spots worse on offense, sixteen spots better on defense, and

1098
00:57:19,560 --> 00:57:22,400
Speaker 1: five spots worse on special teams last year versus the

1099
00:57:22,480 --> 00:57:28,480
Speaker 1: year prior. Okay, so some improvement mostly not still bad.

1100
00:57:28,960 --> 00:57:31,560
Speaker 1: The intrigue here, though, is that again he is going

1101
00:57:31,720 --> 00:57:34,720
Speaker 1: very heavy on the portal and trying to restock the roster.

1102
00:57:35,560 --> 00:57:39,600
Speaker 1: So didn't quite take your one, trying it again your two.

1103
00:57:39,680 --> 00:57:42,280
Speaker 1: We'll see, we'll see, We'll see if it helps him

1104
00:57:42,320 --> 00:57:44,960
Speaker 1: grow some sleeves this year on his game day get

1105
00:57:45,040 --> 00:57:48,360
Speaker 1: up all right? Fair enough and last but certainly not

1106
00:57:48,480 --> 00:57:52,480
Speaker 1: least the temple aals year two. Understand, Drayton. They went

1107
00:57:52,520 --> 00:57:57,120
Speaker 1: three to nine, They lost DJ Warner, their quarterback to

1108
00:57:57,200 --> 00:58:00,840
Speaker 1: the portal feels like a full rebus in year three,

1109
00:58:00,880 --> 00:58:03,240
Speaker 1: which is not hopeful for stand. That means it's yeah,

1110
00:58:03,400 --> 00:58:06,040
Speaker 1: that means it's done so in all likelihood for Stan Drayton.

1111
00:58:06,160 --> 00:58:09,400
Speaker 1: But you know, Temple has been a program that's shown

1112
00:58:09,440 --> 00:58:11,720
Speaker 1: patients in the past. I don't know if they're in

1113
00:58:11,760 --> 00:58:14,560
Speaker 1: any great rush to pay a buy out and fire

1114
00:58:14,560 --> 00:58:17,200
Speaker 1: a coach or anything of that nature. But does not

1115
00:58:17,680 --> 00:58:19,560
Speaker 1: look does not appear as if things are pointed in

1116
00:58:19,600 --> 00:58:21,080
Speaker 1: the good direction for the Temple Owls.

1117
00:58:21,160 --> 00:58:24,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, let me stop me if this exists for every

1118
00:58:24,240 --> 00:58:26,680
Speaker 2: team in the conference, counting on a lot of transfers

1119
00:58:26,720 --> 00:58:30,720
Speaker 2: on defense, right, that's the name not generally a great

1120
00:58:30,720 --> 00:58:33,160
Speaker 2: place to be if you've lost a ton of games already.

1121
00:58:33,720 --> 00:58:35,480
Speaker 2: All Right, so you're champion is too Memphis.

1122
00:58:35,840 --> 00:58:39,560
Speaker 1: My champion is Memphis. Yeah, my champion is Memphis. But uh,

1123
00:58:39,880 --> 00:58:42,680
Speaker 1: and I didn't want to kind of spoil the American

1124
00:58:42,720 --> 00:58:47,160
Speaker 1: preview by saying this at the top. Yeah, but I

1125
00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:50,400
Speaker 1: I could not help but feel a bit underwhelmed coming

1126
00:58:50,400 --> 00:58:53,960
Speaker 1: out of my American preview, especially after I again, I

1127
00:58:54,000 --> 00:58:56,800
Speaker 1: feel like we have held this conference up for a

1128
00:58:56,800 --> 00:58:59,800
Speaker 1: good long time as kind of like the the t

1129
00:59:00,440 --> 00:59:05,560
Speaker 1: that other G five conference conferences should aspire to be. Yeah,

1130
00:59:05,680 --> 00:59:09,640
Speaker 1: it didn't leave me feeling very optimistic this season.

1131
00:59:09,920 --> 00:59:12,320
Speaker 2: I think there's enough that's intriguing in the top half

1132
00:59:12,480 --> 00:59:13,600
Speaker 2: of the American It's.

1133
00:59:14,040 --> 00:59:20,400
Speaker 1: Memphis is interesting, Tulane is interesting, UTSA USF. Those four teams, Yeah,

1134
00:59:20,520 --> 00:59:21,919
Speaker 1: that's kind of enough. Though.

1135
00:59:22,080 --> 00:59:24,600
Speaker 2: If you have four interesting competitive teams at the top,

1136
00:59:25,640 --> 00:59:28,640
Speaker 2: that means you're gonna get enough good October November matchups

1137
00:59:28,640 --> 00:59:30,760
Speaker 2: that are meaningful. Hopefully it's not a back to back

1138
00:59:30,920 --> 00:59:34,120
Speaker 2: like the American has had Conference championship final Game of

1139
00:59:34,160 --> 00:59:34,880
Speaker 2: the Week matchup.

1140
00:59:34,920 --> 00:59:36,000
Speaker 1: But I don't know.

1141
00:59:36,080 --> 00:59:37,680
Speaker 2: That's I think that's a pretty good place to be,

1142
00:59:37,800 --> 00:59:40,200
Speaker 2: especially because we're going to transition right now to Conference USA,

1143
00:59:40,320 --> 00:59:42,840
Speaker 2: which my preview is gonna be a lot shorter because

1144
00:59:43,000 --> 00:59:45,920
Speaker 2: there's just not Look, that's the top is Liberty. That's

1145
00:59:46,240 --> 00:59:51,400
Speaker 2: Liberty alone. Okay, Liberty you know ends last season winning

1146
00:59:51,640 --> 00:59:54,840
Speaker 2: the Conference USA Championship over New Mexico State, a very

1147
00:59:54,880 --> 00:59:57,320
Speaker 2: good New Mexico State team that had just beaten Auburn

1148
00:59:57,880 --> 01:00:00,000
Speaker 2: before losing to Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl. They lose

1149
01:00:00,080 --> 01:00:02,880
Speaker 2: their best receiver to l s U CJ. Daniels, Caden

1150
01:00:02,920 --> 01:00:06,680
Speaker 2: Salter returns. The offense should be very good once again.

1151
01:00:06,680 --> 01:00:07,960
Speaker 2: They're gonna run the hell out of the ball, and

1152
01:00:08,000 --> 01:00:11,040
Speaker 2: that Jamie Chadwell offense defense was somewhat average last year.

1153
01:00:11,080 --> 01:00:12,040
Speaker 1: They should be once again.

1154
01:00:12,400 --> 01:00:16,760
Speaker 2: They bring in some bigger school experience transfers. They are

1155
01:00:16,760 --> 01:00:20,240
Speaker 2: the prohibitive favorite to win Conference USA once again because

1156
01:00:20,240 --> 01:00:22,520
Speaker 2: of the level of talent and the level of investment

1157
01:00:22,640 --> 01:00:25,520
Speaker 2: and the level of transfers and what the rest of

1158
01:00:25,560 --> 01:00:29,360
Speaker 2: the conference is dealing with right now. Intriguing enough, Tyson

1159
01:00:29,400 --> 01:00:30,600
Speaker 2: Hilton Hilltoppers.

1160
01:00:30,880 --> 01:00:33,640
Speaker 1: Who whaho? Who? What are we doing here? What is

1161
01:00:33,680 --> 01:00:36,400
Speaker 1: this your first day on the job? Yeah, oh you want,

1162
01:00:36,440 --> 01:00:47,120
Speaker 1: you want? That's Danger Conference USA. You gotta let me

1163
01:00:47,200 --> 01:00:50,040
Speaker 1: play the stab at the top to really gotta be quick,

1164
01:00:50,120 --> 01:00:52,600
Speaker 1: ty Well, I didn't know you were going to keep talking.

1165
01:00:52,880 --> 01:00:54,640
Speaker 1: Of course I'm gonna keep talking. I have a lot

1166
01:00:54,680 --> 01:00:58,840
Speaker 1: to say. So you're what are your danger tiers here? Say?

1167
01:00:58,880 --> 01:00:59,800
Speaker 1: Liberty is at the top.

1168
01:01:00,040 --> 01:01:03,880
Speaker 2: Liberties alone at the top as the as a clear contender.

1169
01:01:04,560 --> 01:01:08,280
Speaker 2: And then just in terms of danger, I have WKU

1170
01:01:08,440 --> 01:01:12,760
Speaker 2: and probably Jacksonville State agreed. And then the rest of

1171
01:01:12,760 --> 01:01:17,040
Speaker 2: the teams are anywhere between non competitive, new and you know,

1172
01:01:17,120 --> 01:01:19,640
Speaker 2: at best a wild card with a new coach or

1173
01:01:19,720 --> 01:01:22,400
Speaker 2: an overhauled roster, right, And that's just how it works.

1174
01:01:22,440 --> 01:01:25,720
Speaker 2: And by the way Conference USA, Conference USA, and you

1175
01:01:25,760 --> 01:01:27,160
Speaker 2: mentioned this a little bit of the American. I think

1176
01:01:27,200 --> 01:01:31,280
Speaker 2: it's more pronounce in Conference USA. It's a very strange conference.

1177
01:01:31,480 --> 01:01:34,800
Speaker 2: It's it's incredibly strange. So a ton of turnover like

1178
01:01:34,840 --> 01:01:37,240
Speaker 2: every conference, but like a ton of like new teams

1179
01:01:37,360 --> 01:01:42,440
Speaker 2: entering the FBS Division have entered through Conference USA or

1180
01:01:42,600 --> 01:01:45,960
Speaker 2: the portal for new teams independence joining conferences like New

1181
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:49,000
Speaker 2: Mexico State recently, Kennessas State, the Owls who have only

1182
01:01:49,040 --> 01:01:52,080
Speaker 2: been a program for like nine ten years becoming an

1183
01:01:52,120 --> 01:01:56,840
Speaker 2: FBS team joining Conference USA, Jacksonville State, New Sam Houston

1184
01:01:57,040 --> 01:02:01,400
Speaker 2: New Like there's just an know it's I think Bill

1185
01:02:01,440 --> 01:02:04,480
Speaker 2: Connolly called it the Ellis Island of conferences, just welcoming

1186
01:02:04,640 --> 01:02:06,600
Speaker 2: huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

1187
01:02:07,000 --> 01:02:10,320
Speaker 1: Yeah. Liberty by the way, so you're right, I mean,

1188
01:02:10,320 --> 01:02:14,520
Speaker 1: Liberty is I think the prohibitive favorite in this conference.

1189
01:02:16,240 --> 01:02:19,840
Speaker 1: A very weird schedule. They've got by weeks in both

1190
01:02:19,880 --> 01:02:23,240
Speaker 1: week six and eight, okay, which I don't know if

1191
01:02:23,280 --> 01:02:27,280
Speaker 1: I've ever seen before. It seems as if they're trying

1192
01:02:27,320 --> 01:02:30,160
Speaker 1: to stock up, like they saw the playoff getting bigger

1193
01:02:30,160 --> 01:02:33,840
Speaker 1: in the window. And Jamie Chadwell added a ton of

1194
01:02:33,840 --> 01:02:37,480
Speaker 1: transfers in the front seven guys from power conferences along

1195
01:02:37,520 --> 01:02:40,920
Speaker 1: with some guys from G five schools. This defense was

1196
01:02:40,960 --> 01:02:43,920
Speaker 1: atrocious last season and it didn't really matter until the

1197
01:02:43,920 --> 01:02:46,480
Speaker 1: Fiesta Bowl. That's where we saw it on display against

1198
01:02:46,480 --> 01:02:47,200
Speaker 1: the Oregon.

1199
01:02:46,960 --> 01:02:49,040
Speaker 2: Well that doesn't mean anything. There doesn't mean any building

1200
01:02:49,040 --> 01:02:50,880
Speaker 2: to compete with Oregon. But yeah, doesn't mean anything.

1201
01:02:50,880 --> 01:02:52,960
Speaker 1: They are now though. They are now though. I think

1202
01:02:53,000 --> 01:02:57,080
Speaker 1: they kind of see this invitation into the playoffs as

1203
01:02:57,440 --> 01:02:59,480
Speaker 1: a reason to try and stock things up on the

1204
01:02:59,520 --> 01:03:02,880
Speaker 1: defense the ball, and so they've tried to do that.

1205
01:03:03,400 --> 01:03:05,440
Speaker 1: They're going to be able to again outscore most of

1206
01:03:05,480 --> 01:03:08,240
Speaker 1: the teams in the conference. They've got that awesome game

1207
01:03:08,240 --> 01:03:10,560
Speaker 1: that we alluded to at the top of the show

1208
01:03:10,680 --> 01:03:13,000
Speaker 1: in Week five against app State, which could end up

1209
01:03:13,000 --> 01:03:16,400
Speaker 1: being a de facto playing game for the playoffs. Sure

1210
01:03:16,440 --> 01:03:19,560
Speaker 1: and otherwise, Yeah, otherwise, we're going to be talking a

1211
01:03:19,600 --> 01:03:22,160
Speaker 1: lot about Caden Salter and Quentin Cooley. They're running back.

1212
01:03:22,240 --> 01:03:25,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, both very good. Quinn Cooley, you know, transfers

1213
01:03:25,880 --> 01:03:29,800
Speaker 2: from I think Wake Forest a couple of years ago. No,

1214
01:03:29,920 --> 01:03:32,680
Speaker 2: Liberty is going to be very good. Once again, there's

1215
01:03:32,720 --> 01:03:35,200
Speaker 2: not much to add right now. They are just in

1216
01:03:35,360 --> 01:03:39,880
Speaker 2: an advantage position within Conference USA. I was starting to

1217
01:03:39,880 --> 01:03:42,440
Speaker 2: transition to Western Kentucky. Yeah, I waited to get in

1218
01:03:42,480 --> 01:03:43,680
Speaker 2: that very sexy intro.

1219
01:03:43,800 --> 01:03:45,360
Speaker 1: I needed to get in the sexy interrot. I know

1220
01:03:46,240 --> 01:03:49,360
Speaker 1: how big is the gap between Liberty and Western.

1221
01:03:51,720 --> 01:03:55,400
Speaker 2: Not terribly large, because Western Kentucky has a good amount

1222
01:03:55,440 --> 01:03:58,680
Speaker 2: of continuity with Tyson Helton being there now for a

1223
01:03:58,680 --> 01:04:02,200
Speaker 2: few years and bringing in TJ. Finley, who has now

1224
01:04:02,240 --> 01:04:05,000
Speaker 2: gone on to play for four schools in five years.

1225
01:04:05,160 --> 01:04:07,800
Speaker 1: Beautiful LSU Auburn.

1226
01:04:07,520 --> 01:04:09,520
Speaker 2: Last year at Texas State through for a tonnage of

1227
01:04:09,600 --> 01:04:14,400
Speaker 2: yards now moves into what Austin Reid spot at Western

1228
01:04:14,480 --> 01:04:18,000
Speaker 2: Kentucky should be a wide open offense. They need to

1229
01:04:18,000 --> 01:04:20,520
Speaker 2: be a much more balanced offense. They need to stop

1230
01:04:20,560 --> 01:04:23,760
Speaker 2: people a lot more defensively. But there's a good amount

1231
01:04:23,760 --> 01:04:27,280
Speaker 2: of firepower at WKU in that matchup against Liberty is

1232
01:04:27,480 --> 01:04:31,439
Speaker 2: legit exciting, So it's a tear down. But in terms

1233
01:04:31,480 --> 01:04:35,200
Speaker 2: of danger, it's Western Kentucky and Jacksonville State and it's

1234
01:04:35,280 --> 01:04:38,000
Speaker 2: rich Rod. They're going to continue to run the ball well.

1235
01:04:38,200 --> 01:04:39,960
Speaker 2: They need to throw the ball better, they need to

1236
01:04:39,960 --> 01:04:43,240
Speaker 2: play better defense, but there's enough promise at Jacksonville State,

1237
01:04:43,680 --> 01:04:46,640
Speaker 2: and what I was saying about Conference USA, which sort

1238
01:04:46,640 --> 01:04:48,520
Speaker 2: of differs it the level isn't as high as the

1239
01:04:48,520 --> 01:04:53,280
Speaker 2: American but the coaching ceilings of just the guys who

1240
01:04:53,320 --> 01:04:56,880
Speaker 2: have tried to reshape their careers as like second or

1241
01:04:56,960 --> 01:05:01,720
Speaker 2: third act type coaches. So it's Jamie chad Well, it's

1242
01:05:01,760 --> 01:05:06,320
Speaker 2: Mike McIntyre at FIU, Rich Rod at Jacksonville State, Like

1243
01:05:06,360 --> 01:05:09,160
Speaker 2: there's there's good enough names here. Sunny Comby has been

1244
01:05:09,200 --> 01:05:12,640
Speaker 2: a big conference coordinator, Eric Mason, Derek Mason now at

1245
01:05:12,680 --> 01:05:17,080
Speaker 2: Middle Tennessee, Like there's interesting enough names in this conference

1246
01:05:17,120 --> 01:05:19,080
Speaker 2: that like, I don't have faith that you're going to

1247
01:05:19,120 --> 01:05:21,240
Speaker 2: turn you know, Middle Tennessee into a ten and two

1248
01:05:21,280 --> 01:05:25,000
Speaker 2: program or something like that, but I have enough faith

1249
01:05:25,040 --> 01:05:29,040
Speaker 2: that these coaches won't make bonehead sort of newbie mistakes,

1250
01:05:29,360 --> 01:05:31,680
Speaker 2: which I think is an interesting floor to have for

1251
01:05:31,720 --> 01:05:32,960
Speaker 2: a number of these programs.

1252
01:05:33,200 --> 01:05:35,360
Speaker 1: And the other thing that I would add you mentioned

1253
01:05:36,040 --> 01:05:40,640
Speaker 1: sort of together in like that feeling dangerous tier. Western

1254
01:05:40,680 --> 01:05:45,240
Speaker 1: Kentucky Jacksonville State both have gone out and hired new

1255
01:05:45,280 --> 01:05:48,280
Speaker 1: coordinators to try and fix what ailed them a year ago. Yeah,

1256
01:05:48,400 --> 01:05:50,840
Speaker 1: so Western hires will friend to come in and be

1257
01:05:50,880 --> 01:05:53,480
Speaker 1: the new offensive coordinator pretty much hired to come in

1258
01:05:53,480 --> 01:05:56,200
Speaker 1: and fix the rushing attack. Last on the ground, yeah,

1259
01:05:56,200 --> 01:05:58,200
Speaker 1: it was all on Austin Reid, as you mentioned, and

1260
01:05:58,520 --> 01:06:00,000
Speaker 1: there's a lot back this year. They get nine star

1261
01:06:00,280 --> 01:06:03,640
Speaker 1: back on offense, TJ. Finley. If they can give him

1262
01:06:03,640 --> 01:06:05,280
Speaker 1: a little bit more support on the ground, he'll be

1263
01:06:05,280 --> 01:06:08,000
Speaker 1: better for it. And on the flip side with Jacksonville State,

1264
01:06:08,960 --> 01:06:11,680
Speaker 1: Luke Olson, who I kept referring to as lut Olsen.

1265
01:06:11,840 --> 01:06:15,840
Speaker 1: Different guy. He comes in and runs. Of course, the

1266
01:06:15,840 --> 01:06:19,920
Speaker 1: aggressive attacking defense, the three three five that they're hoping

1267
01:06:20,000 --> 01:06:22,600
Speaker 1: can give them a little bit more pop. There's been

1268
01:06:22,720 --> 01:06:25,200
Speaker 1: a lot of turnover on that defense from a year ago.

1269
01:06:25,520 --> 01:06:27,560
Speaker 1: It was a pretty good defense last year. All things

1270
01:06:27,560 --> 01:06:30,800
Speaker 1: can sie, Yeah, but they want a different system that

1271
01:06:30,840 --> 01:06:33,360
Speaker 1: can come in and help them, and you know, especially

1272
01:06:33,400 --> 01:06:36,000
Speaker 1: with so much new that's interesting. The only other point

1273
01:06:36,000 --> 01:06:38,960
Speaker 1: that I would add about Jacksonville State, Tyler Huff is

1274
01:06:39,000 --> 01:06:41,640
Speaker 1: a really interesting name to me. Tyler Huff is a

1275
01:06:41,640 --> 01:06:44,920
Speaker 1: transfer quarterback from Furman. He had a good run with

1276
01:06:45,000 --> 01:06:48,600
Speaker 1: Furman last year. Curious to see what he looks like

1277
01:06:48,640 --> 01:06:49,640
Speaker 1: in the rich Rod system.

1278
01:06:50,240 --> 01:06:54,520
Speaker 2: Sure fair enough. Logan's mothers also at Jacksonville State.

1279
01:06:55,480 --> 01:06:56,320
Speaker 1: And Zion.

1280
01:06:56,360 --> 01:06:58,480
Speaker 2: It's a it seems like a full on quarterback value.

1281
01:06:58,680 --> 01:07:01,560
Speaker 2: Logan's mothers Zion Turner answers in from Yukon. You know,

1282
01:07:01,640 --> 01:07:04,840
Speaker 2: potential double Zion situation with last year's quarterback being Zion

1283
01:07:04,880 --> 01:07:07,200
Speaker 2: Web who had like all the the off field will

1284
01:07:07,240 --> 01:07:09,320
Speaker 2: he or won't he get on the field to start

1285
01:07:09,320 --> 01:07:10,760
Speaker 2: the year with eligibility stuff.

1286
01:07:11,120 --> 01:07:12,720
Speaker 1: So yeah, I.

1287
01:07:12,640 --> 01:07:14,680
Speaker 2: Think Jacksonville State is promising. And when you can run

1288
01:07:14,680 --> 01:07:17,400
Speaker 2: the hell out of the ball, it certainly is advantageous

1289
01:07:17,400 --> 01:07:19,520
Speaker 2: for your own defense. So Jacksonville State should be in

1290
01:07:19,520 --> 01:07:22,880
Speaker 2: an interesting place. And then it's just sort of a morass,

1291
01:07:22,960 --> 01:07:26,040
Speaker 2: right you have Kennesad joining the conference and they've had

1292
01:07:26,080 --> 01:07:30,000
Speaker 2: a coach they he was like almost immediately successful for

1293
01:07:30,080 --> 01:07:33,120
Speaker 2: the Owls, but you know it's been up and down recently,

1294
01:07:33,160 --> 01:07:34,840
Speaker 2: and they're just going to take a minute to get

1295
01:07:34,920 --> 01:07:38,000
Speaker 2: used to a new level. New Mexico State starting over

1296
01:07:38,160 --> 01:07:40,520
Speaker 2: sort of Tony what are we calling him? With John

1297
01:07:40,520 --> 01:07:45,480
Speaker 2: Miller's voice, Tonyz who played in New Mexico State. He

1298
01:07:45,560 --> 01:07:48,160
Speaker 2: coached at UNLV, but they got decimated by the Portal

1299
01:07:48,200 --> 01:07:51,080
Speaker 2: when Jerry Kill left, including you know, losing Diego Pavia

1300
01:07:51,120 --> 01:07:53,520
Speaker 2: to Vandy with Jerry Kill who takes over as like

1301
01:07:53,520 --> 01:07:55,439
Speaker 2: an assistant head coach or whatever.

1302
01:07:57,000 --> 01:07:59,560
Speaker 1: I read off the damage you mentioned, you know, by

1303
01:07:59,600 --> 01:08:02,640
Speaker 1: all means total. Yeah, they lost their top two quarterbacks,

1304
01:08:02,680 --> 01:08:05,280
Speaker 1: top two running backs, seven of eight leading wide receivers,

1305
01:08:05,280 --> 01:08:09,600
Speaker 1: their top six defensive linemen, and eleven of thirteen defensive backs.

1306
01:08:10,000 --> 01:08:14,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's decimated. I think that counts. Yeah, agreed, Which

1307
01:08:14,400 --> 01:08:16,000
Speaker 2: is a shame because they were one of the cooler

1308
01:08:16,040 --> 01:08:18,439
Speaker 2: stories last year and a program that has been so

1309
01:08:18,520 --> 01:08:21,479
Speaker 2: traditionally down and Jerry Kill just does nothing but win

1310
01:08:21,560 --> 01:08:24,439
Speaker 2: a good number of games and did so and you know,

1311
01:08:24,560 --> 01:08:26,680
Speaker 2: everything got kind of lost in the politics of it

1312
01:08:26,720 --> 01:08:28,800
Speaker 2: all and everybody falling out of love with each other.

1313
01:08:29,320 --> 01:08:31,679
Speaker 2: But too bad for New Mexico State.

1314
01:08:31,720 --> 01:08:34,839
Speaker 1: The other thing on kennisaw real quick. So Kenna saw

1315
01:08:34,960 --> 01:08:36,679
Speaker 1: a new FBS team of the one hundred and thirty

1316
01:08:36,680 --> 01:08:40,800
Speaker 1: fourth team this year. They run a pistol option great,

1317
01:08:41,439 --> 01:08:44,400
Speaker 1: which is fun. We've got our assault action. Yeah, they've

1318
01:08:44,400 --> 01:08:47,479
Speaker 1: They've got a lot back, sixteen starters back from a

1319
01:08:47,560 --> 01:08:50,000
Speaker 1: year ago. It's just a huge step up. I don't

1320
01:08:50,040 --> 01:08:51,519
Speaker 1: think they're going to come in and take the world

1321
01:08:51,520 --> 01:08:54,599
Speaker 1: by storm. Of course, as we've seen with pretty much

1322
01:08:54,640 --> 01:08:58,880
Speaker 1: every newcomer to FBS outside of James Madison. Depth is

1323
01:08:58,920 --> 01:09:02,000
Speaker 1: always an issue, defense is always an issue. These are

1324
01:09:02,120 --> 01:09:05,840
Speaker 1: kind of constants for schools that take that step up.

1325
01:09:06,400 --> 01:09:08,919
Speaker 1: But I think just their style of play is interesting.

1326
01:09:09,240 --> 01:09:11,559
Speaker 1: It is certainly a bit of a zag as compared

1327
01:09:11,560 --> 01:09:14,439
Speaker 1: to some of the other programs that we're talking about here,

1328
01:09:14,520 --> 01:09:17,960
Speaker 1: which are more wide open. Certainly different than a team

1329
01:09:18,040 --> 01:09:20,880
Speaker 1: like we Western Kentucky's going to be better, but they

1330
01:09:20,960 --> 01:09:23,559
Speaker 1: run just a drastically different system than some of the

1331
01:09:23,560 --> 01:09:25,400
Speaker 1: other schools that they're going to play against, which is neat.

1332
01:09:25,560 --> 01:09:29,200
Speaker 2: By the way, just on the topic of zag, UTEP

1333
01:09:30,680 --> 01:09:33,080
Speaker 2: makes a change as the head coach hires Austin P's

1334
01:09:33,840 --> 01:09:38,400
Speaker 2: Scotty Walden, and he's doing like the Tyson Helton Zach

1335
01:09:38,479 --> 01:09:41,479
Speaker 2: Kittley line change where he's bringing in a bunch of

1336
01:09:41,479 --> 01:09:44,320
Speaker 2: Austin p players. Nobody knows how good they'll actually be.

1337
01:09:44,439 --> 01:09:47,560
Speaker 2: UTEP is a tough place to win, but by all accounts,

1338
01:09:48,120 --> 01:09:49,040
Speaker 2: the man runs hot.

1339
01:09:49,520 --> 01:09:51,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, he does run.

1340
01:09:52,080 --> 01:09:54,840
Speaker 2: So that's fun just in terms of like they might

1341
01:09:54,840 --> 01:09:56,920
Speaker 2: go to and ten, but those two might get weird.

1342
01:09:58,240 --> 01:10:01,519
Speaker 2: UTEP is interesting to me. Probably it's a longer term play,

1343
01:10:02,000 --> 01:10:05,439
Speaker 2: but yeah, I'm always, you know, rooting for teams like

1344
01:10:05,520 --> 01:10:07,559
Speaker 2: Utexs to rise up.

1345
01:10:07,960 --> 01:10:12,320
Speaker 1: He's definitely done the wind change thing. But there's also

1346
01:10:12,439 --> 01:10:16,680
Speaker 1: I think a pretty significant effort to focus more on

1347
01:10:16,760 --> 01:10:20,559
Speaker 1: high school recruiting, especially in Texas. Sure, so I think

1348
01:10:20,560 --> 01:10:24,800
Speaker 1: they're trying to like use the immediate levers available to

1349
01:10:24,840 --> 01:10:27,960
Speaker 1: them to put a roster together and jumpstart the program.

1350
01:10:28,000 --> 01:10:30,719
Speaker 1: But the longer term plan is going to be Texas

1351
01:10:30,760 --> 01:10:33,000
Speaker 1: high school recruiting for Scotti Wolden has to be if

1352
01:10:33,000 --> 01:10:36,400
Speaker 1: it works, if it works, that's if it works plan is.

1353
01:10:37,000 --> 01:10:39,519
Speaker 2: FIU has a ways to go, and Mike McIntyre is

1354
01:10:39,560 --> 01:10:42,240
Speaker 2: a quality coach. He's turned programs around like Colorado and

1355
01:10:42,280 --> 01:10:44,840
Speaker 2: San Jose State. They just I don't know, they're not

1356
01:10:44,880 --> 01:10:48,080
Speaker 2: building out that roster. They're not a transfer destination. They're just,

1357
01:10:48,320 --> 01:10:50,639
Speaker 2: I don't know. They seem doomed to hope to go

1358
01:10:50,720 --> 01:10:52,960
Speaker 2: five hundred. That's the kind of program that I think

1359
01:10:53,040 --> 01:10:54,439
Speaker 2: is happening right now at FIU.

1360
01:10:54,960 --> 01:10:59,479
Speaker 1: Did you get transfixed by Kewan Jenkins the way I did?

1361
01:11:00,040 --> 01:11:00,719
Speaker 1: Who he is great?

1362
01:11:00,800 --> 01:11:02,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, But that's the problem with a program like FIU,

1363
01:11:02,760 --> 01:11:05,639
Speaker 2: Like there's a guy on offense and a guy on defense.

1364
01:11:05,960 --> 01:11:07,920
Speaker 1: It's a young team though it was a young team

1365
01:11:08,000 --> 01:11:12,000
Speaker 1: last year, and in some cases they seem to get

1366
01:11:12,000 --> 01:11:15,800
Speaker 1: better as the year war on. And so if if

1367
01:11:15,840 --> 01:11:18,840
Speaker 1: we're now in year three of Mike McIntyre, if he's

1368
01:11:18,960 --> 01:11:24,040
Speaker 1: as focused on player development as he's seemed to be, right,

1369
01:11:25,120 --> 01:11:27,679
Speaker 1: maybe there's a jump this year. I'm not like super

1370
01:11:27,720 --> 01:11:30,599
Speaker 1: optimistic about that. I like their quarterback. I still think

1371
01:11:30,600 --> 01:11:33,120
Speaker 1: they're pretty young across the board, like it. I think

1372
01:11:33,160 --> 01:11:35,120
Speaker 1: we could see some progress there, even if it's not

1373
01:11:35,280 --> 01:11:36,679
Speaker 1: jumping off the page at US.

1374
01:11:37,080 --> 01:11:39,880
Speaker 2: I worry sometimes when I see that though, where it's

1375
01:11:39,880 --> 01:11:42,120
Speaker 2: just like they were really young last year. We like,

1376
01:11:42,160 --> 01:11:45,040
Speaker 2: maybe they were really young because the older players that

1377
01:11:45,080 --> 01:11:47,680
Speaker 2: were in the program didn't like being there or were

1378
01:11:47,720 --> 01:11:51,000
Speaker 2: misevaluated and nowhere near as good. And so what makes

1379
01:11:51,040 --> 01:11:54,880
Speaker 2: these young players that much more promising beyond the adjective young?

1380
01:11:55,080 --> 01:11:57,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, you're right. What do we make of

1381
01:11:57,960 --> 01:12:01,480
Speaker 1: Sam Houston Louisiana in Middle Tennessee.

1382
01:12:01,439 --> 01:12:03,840
Speaker 2: Wuisiana texts in a tough place. It's hard to see

1383
01:12:03,880 --> 01:12:07,880
Speaker 2: them turning around. I just you know, they had their

1384
01:12:07,920 --> 01:12:10,600
Speaker 2: like very small window with Skip Holtz, and you know

1385
01:12:10,640 --> 01:12:13,600
Speaker 2: they have this history of building out interesting offenses, but

1386
01:12:14,320 --> 01:12:17,639
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's tough to see this being turned around.

1387
01:12:18,000 --> 01:12:21,719
Speaker 2: Middle Tennessee is interesting because of Derek Mason. He's bopped

1388
01:12:21,720 --> 01:12:23,800
Speaker 2: around as a coordinator these past couple of years, but

1389
01:12:24,160 --> 01:12:25,600
Speaker 2: you know, he was able to do interesting things that

1390
01:12:25,680 --> 01:12:29,439
Speaker 2: Vanderbilt has recruited that state, in that region. So it's

1391
01:12:29,600 --> 01:12:33,400
Speaker 2: weird with Middle Tennessee being just like stock still HQ

1392
01:12:33,640 --> 01:12:36,160
Speaker 2: for as long as it was to have a new

1393
01:12:36,200 --> 01:12:40,280
Speaker 2: face in there. So I know, I'm hopeful that you know,

1394
01:12:40,400 --> 01:12:44,960
Speaker 2: Derek Mason can Tedford eyes Middle Tennessee sure where you

1395
01:12:45,040 --> 01:12:47,840
Speaker 2: know he has some coaching acumen and if he's re

1396
01:12:48,000 --> 01:12:52,120
Speaker 2: energized somewhere that it could be interesting. Sam Houston still

1397
01:12:52,280 --> 01:12:56,400
Speaker 2: very new and finished the season strong I believe last year,

1398
01:12:56,840 --> 01:13:00,519
Speaker 2: So Sam Houston can be I think interesting. But another

1399
01:13:00,520 --> 01:13:03,160
Speaker 2: one of those programs that like if a left guard

1400
01:13:03,200 --> 01:13:06,280
Speaker 2: gets hurt, the season's over, that you know that they

1401
01:13:06,320 --> 01:13:09,120
Speaker 2: don't have the depth, that they don't have the firepower

1402
01:13:09,160 --> 01:13:12,639
Speaker 2: on both sides of the ball, and hopefully they're dangerous.

1403
01:13:12,840 --> 01:13:16,160
Speaker 2: Hopefully they're you know, again well coached, because they did

1404
01:13:16,200 --> 01:13:18,719
Speaker 2: have a good amount of success as an FCS program

1405
01:13:19,240 --> 01:13:22,840
Speaker 2: that you know within conference USA. Within you know, the

1406
01:13:22,960 --> 01:13:26,639
Speaker 2: conference that has as many changes and as many sort

1407
01:13:26,640 --> 01:13:30,120
Speaker 2: of average to blow average teams, it's begging for somebody

1408
01:13:30,200 --> 01:13:31,400
Speaker 2: to just randomly go eight and four.

1409
01:13:31,560 --> 01:13:35,880
Speaker 1: Sam Houston lost its first eight games, and they just

1410
01:13:36,000 --> 01:13:39,800
Speaker 1: jumped up. Last year. The offense was terrible, the run

1411
01:13:39,840 --> 01:13:42,720
Speaker 1: game was bad, the defense was good. Now they got

1412
01:13:42,760 --> 01:13:44,920
Speaker 1: to replace a lot this year, but you're right, they

1413
01:13:44,920 --> 01:13:49,320
Speaker 1: did get better. One they're finally beat Memphis, uh or

1414
01:13:49,439 --> 01:13:52,640
Speaker 1: Middle Tennessee not Memphis. Yeah right, Sam Houston beat a

1415
01:13:52,720 --> 01:13:55,680
Speaker 1: Tennessee school to close out the season last year, thank you.

1416
01:13:56,760 --> 01:14:00,760
Speaker 1: And on that point, Middle Tennessee, like I think I'm

1417
01:14:00,800 --> 01:14:04,280
Speaker 1: with you. It was the Rick stock Still Show forever.

1418
01:14:05,120 --> 01:14:08,360
Speaker 1: There is talent on hand there for Derek Mason. There

1419
01:14:08,360 --> 01:14:10,240
Speaker 1: aren't a whole lot of players that knock me over.

1420
01:14:10,880 --> 01:14:12,160
Speaker 1: There are a lot of guys who I look at

1421
01:14:12,200 --> 01:14:14,720
Speaker 1: and I say, hey, they could be all right. They

1422
01:14:14,720 --> 01:14:17,280
Speaker 1: could be all right. But it's a situation where they're

1423
01:14:17,320 --> 01:14:19,960
Speaker 1: learning new schemes on both sides of the ball. Not

1424
01:14:20,200 --> 01:14:22,880
Speaker 1: usually a great formula like holding willis the slot receiver

1425
01:14:23,000 --> 01:14:25,080
Speaker 1: is a lot of fun. But outside of that, I

1426
01:14:25,120 --> 01:14:27,400
Speaker 1: think it's going to be it's going to be a

1427
01:14:27,400 --> 01:14:31,160
Speaker 1: situation where there's just a lot new again and you

1428
01:14:31,200 --> 01:14:32,960
Speaker 1: know it's going to be a work in progress. I

1429
01:14:33,000 --> 01:14:37,720
Speaker 1: sort of disagree on Louisiana Tech Okay Sonny Comby is

1430
01:14:37,920 --> 01:14:43,040
Speaker 1: six and eighteen. I want to say in two seasons. Yeah,

1431
01:14:43,200 --> 01:14:45,160
Speaker 1: I do think there's a lot pointed in the right

1432
01:14:45,200 --> 01:14:51,240
Speaker 1: direction for Louisiana Tech. Okay. Health was a huge issue

1433
01:14:51,240 --> 01:14:56,680
Speaker 1: for this team last year. They gotta stay healthy. It

1434
01:14:56,760 --> 01:14:59,679
Speaker 1: is your three. Your three is often when you see

1435
01:14:59,680 --> 01:15:03,479
Speaker 1: some joke. So I am I am remaining optimistic. I'm

1436
01:15:03,520 --> 01:15:06,320
Speaker 1: not willing to burn the boats yet. When we talk

1437
01:15:06,360 --> 01:15:09,360
Speaker 1: about LA Tech lost Hank Bachmeier though Ty, they did

1438
01:15:09,400 --> 01:15:12,920
Speaker 1: lose Hank. They did lose Hank. Yeah, but I'm I'm

1439
01:15:12,960 --> 01:15:15,640
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hold out hope that this could be a

1440
01:15:15,720 --> 01:15:19,040
Speaker 1: year that we see some fortunes start.

1441
01:15:18,800 --> 01:15:22,280
Speaker 2: To change, Okay for lock kind of the bummer here.

1442
01:15:22,360 --> 01:15:25,080
Speaker 2: I was also within this conference is everything's pointed towards

1443
01:15:25,080 --> 01:15:26,519
Speaker 2: the end of the year, when it would have been

1444
01:15:26,680 --> 01:15:31,080
Speaker 2: nice too earlier on get a nice idea of you know,

1445
01:15:31,160 --> 01:15:33,479
Speaker 2: how vulnerable if at all is Liberty. But like they

1446
01:15:33,479 --> 01:15:36,439
Speaker 2: play Western Kentucky, I think late November and Western Kentucky

1447
01:15:36,439 --> 01:15:39,360
Speaker 2: plays Jacksonville State maybe the week after that, so it's

1448
01:15:39,360 --> 01:15:41,719
Speaker 2: all sort of, you know, the top seams jammed together

1449
01:15:42,640 --> 01:15:43,439
Speaker 2: at the end of the year.

1450
01:15:43,960 --> 01:15:47,600
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for downloading, for listening, for supporting.

1451
01:15:47,800 --> 01:15:50,880
Speaker 1: We would encourage all of you to reach out and

1452
01:15:50,960 --> 01:15:53,519
Speaker 1: let us know what we got right, what we got wrong,

1453
01:15:54,120 --> 01:15:57,559
Speaker 1: what else we should know about your teams, maybe what

1454
01:15:57,720 --> 01:15:59,960
Speaker 1: you are most interested in. The easiest way to do

1455
01:16:00,120 --> 01:16:02,880
Speaker 1: that soliverbo at gmail dot com. You can, of course

1456
01:16:03,160 --> 01:16:05,640
Speaker 1: reach out to us across any of our social media platforms.

1457
01:16:05,640 --> 01:16:07,880
Speaker 1: We've got all of them, I think at this point,

1458
01:16:08,040 --> 01:16:10,439
Speaker 1: so reach out, let us know your thoughts on any

1459
01:16:10,479 --> 01:16:13,000
Speaker 1: of these previews. In part two, we're going to talk

1460
01:16:13,040 --> 01:16:16,479
Speaker 1: about the Mountain West, the Sun Belt, and the MAC

1461
01:16:16,960 --> 01:16:20,240
Speaker 1: and that episode is coming up next week. After that,

1462
01:16:20,320 --> 01:16:23,000
Speaker 1: we've got all sorts of Power Conference previews that we're

1463
01:16:23,040 --> 01:16:24,519
Speaker 1: going to do. I think we're going to go in

1464
01:16:24,560 --> 01:16:27,280
Speaker 1: the order of the ACC, the Big twelve, then the SEC,

1465
01:16:27,360 --> 01:16:30,920
Speaker 1: then the Big ten. A lot coming your way over

1466
01:16:30,960 --> 01:16:34,800
Speaker 1: the next five weeks or so. It feels really good

1467
01:16:34,880 --> 01:16:37,439
Speaker 1: to do this again. Yeah, baby, It's a lot of

1468
01:16:37,520 --> 01:16:41,320
Speaker 1: cramming for you and I A lot of cramming to

1469
01:16:41,320 --> 01:16:44,680
Speaker 1: get used to new names and new places and new situations.

1470
01:16:44,720 --> 01:16:50,320
Speaker 1: But it always feels really redeeming to do a show

1471
01:16:50,400 --> 01:16:52,400
Speaker 1: like this, to talk it all out and see where

1472
01:16:52,439 --> 01:16:53,920
Speaker 1: we agree and disagree. So I'm excited.

1473
01:16:54,320 --> 01:16:57,120
Speaker 2: What year was the Magna cart assigned? You probably crammed

1474
01:16:57,120 --> 01:17:02,960
Speaker 2: that information at a certain point. Definitely, dah fifteen, fourteen,

1475
01:17:03,120 --> 01:17:06,320
Speaker 2: fifteen twelve. I thought it was in the thirteen, fifteen twenty.

1476
01:17:07,000 --> 01:17:07,600
Speaker 1: Couldn't tell you.

1477
01:17:07,720 --> 01:17:11,760
Speaker 2: I think it's fifteen's Magna Carta signed Here we go

1478
01:17:12,920 --> 01:17:13,799
Speaker 2: twelve fifteen.

1479
01:17:14,200 --> 01:17:16,720
Speaker 1: H I guess I would win lipped it. I was

1480
01:17:16,880 --> 01:17:21,760
Speaker 1: yours closer. I was closer. Damn. This is fun. Part two.

1481
01:17:21,880 --> 01:17:24,640
Speaker 1: Come in your way. Don't forget to hit follow or subscribe.

1482
01:17:24,640 --> 01:17:26,160
Speaker 1: If you made it this far, we'd love to have

1483
01:17:26,240 --> 01:17:29,040
Speaker 1: you with us all season long. Forballers dot com is

1484
01:17:29,080 --> 01:17:31,880
Speaker 1: where you can go for bonus content, ad free episodes,

1485
01:17:32,320 --> 01:17:33,760
Speaker 1: and all of the fun tricks that we're going to

1486
01:17:33,840 --> 01:17:36,599
Speaker 1: unveil here in a few short weeks, says, the season

1487
01:17:36,600 --> 01:17:39,960
Speaker 1: gets a little bit closer. But Dan Rubinstein, one of

1488
01:17:39,960 --> 01:17:43,120
Speaker 1: our many previews now officially in the books, love it.

1489
01:17:43,360 --> 01:17:46,599
Speaker 1: Can't wait for that guy over there, Dan Rubinstein for myself,

1490
01:17:46,600 --> 01:17:49,160
Speaker 1: ty hiling Bed thanks again for downloading, for listening, for supporting,

1491
01:17:49,520 --> 01:17:51,920
Speaker 1: hit follow, hit subscribe, leave a rating, leave a review.

1492
01:17:52,320 --> 01:17:54,759
Speaker 1: We'll talk to y'll soon. Stay solid, peace,