Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't look normal, but that's okay. We do
Speaker 1: the pay stage speaker series all the time, but occasionally
Speaker 1: we will schedule some home and homes. No neutral sites here.
Speaker 1: We don't go to Germany to play games. So raise
Speaker 1: your hand when I call your name. Ty Hildebrandt Dan Rubinstein,
Speaker 1: both halves of the Solid Verbal podcast mentioned on this
Speaker 1: show many times. I used to listen to it. I
Speaker 1: still listen to it. It's way better than our show.
Speaker 1: It's my favorite college football pod. Gentlemen, how are we
Speaker 1: on the precipice of this twenty twenty five college football season.
Speaker 2: We're doing well, man. Thank you for the invite. Thank
Speaker 2: you for the kind words that you offered on your show.
Speaker 2: I guess a couple weeks ago we had a lot
Speaker 2: of new people stop by, so we're we're thrilled to
Speaker 2: be here. We've been trying to do this for a while,
Speaker 2: so I'm glad we were finally able to get it
Speaker 2: off the ground.
Speaker 3: Couldn't be better by the way. I looked at the
Speaker 3: schedule for week one, and I do it every like
Speaker 3: four to seven days to remind myself that, like I
Speaker 3: need to train for the stamina needed to ingest all
Speaker 3: of that college But we have week zero, but like
Speaker 3: a first full Saturday with college football after the darkness
Speaker 3: of the summer without it, Like, I just don't want
Speaker 3: to get too excited at Newon Eastern. I have to
Speaker 3: pace myself for three full days and I'm not ready yet.
Speaker 1: Sure, I've been, by the way, in a knock down,
Speaker 1: drag out internet fight over the concept of week zero.
Speaker 1: You know, you do your countdown to kick off and
Speaker 1: your countdown to the regular season. Now it's my personal feel,
Speaker 1: and that's all it is, by the way, is a
Speaker 1: personal preference sort of feel that the season kicks off
Speaker 1: in week one? Yes, because that's why we call it
Speaker 1: week one, And then you fully acknowledge, yes, there are games,
Speaker 1: intriguing games in week zero, But I've been doing the
Speaker 1: countdown correlated to week one. I think ninety five percent
Speaker 1: of the country is in consensus agreement on that. But
Speaker 1: the thing you need to know about the five percent
Speaker 1: is they're very vocal, and they all have Internet and
Speaker 1: they will come after you. Where do you guys stand
Speaker 1: on week zero versus Week one? Like, what is the
Speaker 1: curtain lifter on the full college football season?
Speaker 3: I think it's no in week one. I think it's
Speaker 3: new in Eastern week one. There is something about the
Speaker 3: span of what's going on in that moment that week
Speaker 3: zero is great. It's a great what is it like
Speaker 3: a snack?
Speaker 1: Chips and salsa, That's what it is.
Speaker 3: It's a great snack. You sit down, you have some
Speaker 3: peanuts before the menus come. Whatever, it's great. We cherish it.
Speaker 3: We love having it. The first Thursday night great, right,
Speaker 3: you come home from work, you have football. It's a
Speaker 3: uniquely special moment. It's not week one until Saturday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, speaking of the internet coming at you, I said
Speaker 2: on our show that they should just move Army Navy
Speaker 2: to week zero if they're going to be in assistant
Speaker 2: on having a week zero, because that's something everybody can
Speaker 2: look forward to, and because you know they're both now
Speaker 2: in the same conference, there's some weirdness potentially down the
Speaker 2: stretch if both end up playing for the conference title game.
Speaker 2: So I'm just I'm not a huge Week zero fan.
Speaker 2: I like, maybe I'm too old at this point. I
Speaker 2: just kind of don't remember how it came about, why
Speaker 2: it came about.
Speaker 4: Why we still have it.
Speaker 2: I always tend to like anchor the start of the
Speaker 2: college football season two. As you said, Dan, like noon
Speaker 2: week one, that's sort of when everything gets started. If
Speaker 2: we're going to do week zero, let's try and spice
Speaker 2: it up a little bit. But I would say, more
Speaker 2: broadly speaking, I'm kind of a fan of the Dan
Speaker 2: Lanning plan that I think he talked about at media Days,
Speaker 2: where like, if you want to use that date for
Speaker 2: college football, great, but let's just move everything up and
Speaker 2: make that the new week one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right? So confirmed? That means, according to sources,
Speaker 1: the three of Us hate Kansas State hate Iowa State,
Speaker 1: don't believe that game counts. We just confirmed sure.
Speaker 4: Of course.
Speaker 1: When we did your version of the Home and Home
Speaker 1: on both of your channels, we talked about the boldest
Speaker 1: but most believable takes that we could come up with.
Speaker 1: Take a Tooea. Mount Takatoa is right there in the background,
Speaker 1: all right, So we filled that up. What I wanted
Speaker 1: to do is go a little bit broader. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to throw blanks out there, the stuff we're most
Speaker 1: looking forward to. I'll kick us off, what the things,
Speaker 1: the all Things team, if you will, that we're most
Speaker 1: looking forward to this year. Because I go to week one,
Speaker 1: and I go to the Atlantic Coast Conference and I
Speaker 1: think about all these games LSU at Clemson, BAMA at
Speaker 1: Florida State, Georgia Tech at Colorado, Notre Dame at Miami,
Speaker 1: TCU at North Carolina, you got Tennessee, Syracuse, you got
Speaker 1: Virginia Tech, South Carolina. I think I just listed seven games.
Speaker 1: I think there's a world where the ACC goes like
Speaker 1: two and five or worse in that lineup, and it
Speaker 1: really comes back to bid them in the very very
Speaker 1: uncomfortable playoff. Converse station comparative conference strength of schedule type
Speaker 1: debates that it ramped up last year. It was the
Speaker 1: SMU or Alabama SMU or South Carolina Ole Miss and
Speaker 1: so you had the whole Well it's the SEC. And
Speaker 1: then other people said, yeah, but they play in their
Speaker 1: conference championship game. Well, I think that if we get
Speaker 1: there again and the ACC represented itself valiantly in week one, okay,
Speaker 1: But there's also a world where I think they just
Speaker 1: tie a cinder block to their ankle in Week one
Speaker 1: and someone's still going to win the conference. Two teams
Speaker 1: may even go you know, ten and two or something
Speaker 1: like that. I just don't know if you drop the
Speaker 1: ball fantastically in Week one if you grant yourself benefit
Speaker 1: of the doubt, and then you've got the like the
Speaker 1: Georgia versus Georgia techs of the world later in the year.
Speaker 1: But I think that week one, given the perception out there,
Speaker 1: which is somewhat deserved, I think it's so imperative that
Speaker 1: they go five hundred or better.
Speaker 3: I agree, I absolutely agree, And there's never a moment
Speaker 3: it seems that the entire sport has the eyes on
Speaker 3: it in the same way it does for Week one,
Speaker 3: and you're building on Week one for the rest of
Speaker 3: the month. That said, I still think there are moments
Speaker 3: in this sport where we totally forget what happened in
Speaker 3: early September. I think the wisest among us, and it's
Speaker 3: not necessarily me, the wisest among us, realized that seasons
Speaker 3: are living, breathing things, especially you know, after Ohio State
Speaker 3: loses as early as they did to Virginia Tech, I believe,
Speaker 3: and won the NAT the very first college football Playoff
Speaker 3: that you can be forgiven for where you were in September,
Speaker 3: but for with regard to conference strength conversations, it helps,
Speaker 3: It really does help to have that terrific start. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to say that that's untrue.
Speaker 1: Here's where my head's also at, And I am not
Speaker 1: advocating for this mentality to exist. I'm just saying I
Speaker 1: think this mentality will exist. Has no business in the converse,
Speaker 1: but I think it will exist. SMU, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: rightfully got benefit of doubt. They got into the playoff
Speaker 1: last year. I thought they belonged to the playoff. They
Speaker 1: got blown out by Penn State. I could easily see
Speaker 1: a scenario where if it's coin flip, if it's fifty
Speaker 1: one forty nine, either way, benefit of doubt goes against
Speaker 1: the acc because that is in recent memory in the
Speaker 1: eyes of the committee. Shouldn't be, but it is factoring
Speaker 1: into the twenty twenty five decisions. Shouldn't but will and
Speaker 1: if you coincide that, if you combine that with and
Speaker 1: you guys also went like one in six or two
Speaker 1: and five when your conference, when your league had a
Speaker 1: chance to flex in week one, and you didn't, Like,
Speaker 1: we don't have this great robust inventory of data points
Speaker 1: cross conference data points, the ones we do have access to,
Speaker 1: you guys dropped the ball. So if you have another
Speaker 1: another SMU Alabama caliber debate. I could see a world
Speaker 1: where it goes against the ACC for those reasons.
Speaker 2: And by the way, that's why LSU at Clemson and
Speaker 2: Week one is such a big game among other reasons,
Speaker 2: right because Clemson obviously comes in with most returning production
Speaker 2: in the country and LSU we know stakes for Brian
Speaker 2: Kelly and LSU, but that is a road game that
Speaker 2: is ad in Clemson's Death Valley, and I think, however,
Speaker 2: that game kind of comes about, you know, we'll be
Speaker 2: talking about that one for a good long time, perhaps
Speaker 2: as one of those indicators with respect to conference strength,
Speaker 2: because like it or hate it, I think, you know,
Speaker 2: on both of our shows we talk about the conferences
Speaker 2: the full way through, but most people tend to gravitate
Speaker 2: towards the teams at the top, and LSU is probably
Speaker 2: going to be near at or near the top of
Speaker 2: the SEC at some point. Clearly Clemson's already going to
Speaker 2: be there to start the year. Having those two teams
Speaker 2: go up against one another right out of the shoot
Speaker 2: is going to be pretty interesting for that conversation moving forward.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Brian Kelly almost wins a lot of these openers.
Speaker 1: So you said it bore all right, Rumistein you wan
Speaker 1: the coin for it? You can go next?
Speaker 3: What am I answering?
Speaker 1: You just want to tell me the thing?
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm looking forward to whatever. Okay, my next item is.
Speaker 3: I can't wait to learn who is going to be
Speaker 3: a new problem, right, I can't wait to find out
Speaker 3: the player that you watch his week one or week two.
Speaker 3: Be it a freshman, be at a new starter somewhere,
Speaker 3: be at an edge rusher who is hurt in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four in his back and like we don't really
Speaker 3: fully know his name yet, or there's a new coordinator somewhere.
Speaker 3: There are candidates for this across the board, you know,
Speaker 3: like Decoryan Moore at Oregon. Right, He's he's somebody that
Speaker 3: gets me excited as an Oregon human. But like when
Speaker 3: you watched Ryan Williams against Georgia, you're like, oh, man,
Speaker 3: we got three years of a problem at Alabama. We
Speaker 3: were hoping he would be this, especially as young as
Speaker 3: he was. Slash Is and Jeremiah Smith, like, I can't
Speaker 3: wait across this sport to find out who the new
Speaker 3: issues are going to be for coordinators. I love that
Speaker 3: moment early on in September, We're like, hmm, this guy's
Speaker 3: going to be a catastrophe for the rest of this
Speaker 3: schedule for a lot of pretty decent teams.
Speaker 1: I love that is anybody that fits The answer to
Speaker 1: this question is anybody Is any one of those names
Speaker 1: one of the high profile first year quarterbacks?
Speaker 4: Sure?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I absolutely think like the upside of all of
Speaker 3: these first year starting quarterbacks right with what ty Simpson
Speaker 3: has in front of him as an offensive line, with
Speaker 3: who he's throwing to, with I think, maybe to a
Speaker 3: lesser extent, who he's handing it off to. I think
Speaker 3: that's a huge, huge problem potential for everybody in Alabama's schedule,
Speaker 3: especially getting Ryan Grubb back. Like absolutely like the way
Speaker 3: that a lot of these first year starters are built around.
Speaker 3: Like I think Notre Dame's going to have a little
Speaker 3: bit more pop on offense. I think what Dante Moore
Speaker 3: brings arm strength wise is more than what Dylan Gabriel
Speaker 3: had well had. We'll see what, you know, skill position
Speaker 3: looks like around him. I think there's all the potential
Speaker 3: in the world for all of these first year guys
Speaker 3: to be like an elevated problem because they could do
Speaker 3: something that the previous guy couldn't do consistently at a lot
Speaker 3: of these places.
Speaker 4: I like it. I'm with you.
Speaker 2: I'm excited to see you know many of these new situations,
Speaker 2: to say the least, And as we talked about when
Speaker 2: we kind of did this version over on our show,
Speaker 2: the like the I guess the variability with respect to
Speaker 2: what could go right versus what could go wrong as
Speaker 2: part of what makes this the season so fascinating.
Speaker 4: I think, at least starting in week one.
Speaker 1: I love by the way that there is I think
Speaker 1: for most of these guys at least a high profile
Speaker 1: game first three weeks of the season. I don't think
Speaker 1: that many of them we go like until October before
Speaker 1: we see him dial it up. That also means someone
Speaker 1: could fall flat on their face and the rebound in
Speaker 1: October after they've already been forgotten about. All right, ty,
Speaker 1: next up.
Speaker 2: I am most looking forward to seeing who becomes this
Speaker 2: year's India. And this is not to say a team
Speaker 2: comes out of nowhere in the way that Indiana did
Speaker 2: and they somehow find their.
Speaker 4: Way into the college football Playoffs.
Speaker 2: But as I think we've come to know just in
Speaker 2: watching the playoff one year through, we're going to have
Speaker 2: a conversation at some point latter half of October, latter
Speaker 2: half of November, where there are teams at least part
Speaker 2: of that conversation that we did not expect coming in.
Speaker 2: On a personal level, I'm very excited to see which
Speaker 2: of my predictions fall the most flat, because I've got
Speaker 2: several I'm like all in on pit this year as
Speaker 2: one of those teams that could be don't ask me why.
Speaker 2: It's a longer conversation, but we know that there are
Speaker 2: going to be a handful of these teams that just
Speaker 2: sort of pop up out of nowhere. Maybe they're hovering
Speaker 2: around a six and a half seven and a half
Speaker 2: win total per Vegas and you look at the schedule,
Speaker 2: you look at what they've got coming back. I mean,
Speaker 2: we did it on our show, Dan, You're potentially very
Speaker 2: high in Miszoobi because of the schedule. Like, there are
Speaker 2: teams out there that I think are below like that
Speaker 2: top line in each conference that are worthy of attention,
Speaker 2: but maybe we don't fully know it yet, and we
Speaker 2: just know that by the end of September some of
Speaker 2: those are going to begin to emerge. So that to me,
Speaker 2: it's not just this season, but I would say just
Speaker 2: for as long as they've been a college football fan,
Speaker 2: waiting to see which teams pop like that in an
Speaker 2: unexpected way.
Speaker 4: That's one of the reasons to be excited about a
Speaker 4: new year.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think about who the most random team
Speaker 1: that would plausibly make sense to be in the playoff
Speaker 1: would be that could kind of fit this maybe not
Speaker 1: maybe not quite. I don't know, like some of these
Speaker 1: could shot in the world. Like I'm thinking totally randomly.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, if Virginia Tech emerged, right, if Michigan State
Speaker 1: scaled their performance came out of nowhere, I think Missouri
Speaker 1: is a more likely candidate. What if what if instead
Speaker 1: of Boise it's Dan Mullen and UNLV the year after
Speaker 1: people kind of thought they could make the playoff, that
Speaker 1: win the Mountain West and make the playoff. Georgia Tech,
Speaker 1: you know, you guys know I'm sky high on them.
Speaker 1: If they make the title game, like I think they will,
Speaker 1: They're one win away from automatically being in Texas. You know,
Speaker 1: Texas Tech is a conversation piece in any Big twelve prediction,
Speaker 1: as they should be. But have people wrapped their minds
Speaker 1: around the possibility of Texas Tech actually being in the playoff.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they've gone quite that far down
Speaker 1: the bridge yet. So yeah, there's a lot of team
Speaker 1: like a TCU.
Speaker 3: I was about to say, TCU T this is why
Speaker 3: we do this showy.
Speaker 4: TCU has a brutal schedule.
Speaker 2: But I would say, reasonably, I could assume that the
Speaker 2: three of us like Josh Hoover. The problem, of course,
Speaker 2: is if you like Josh Hoover and if you believe
Speaker 2: that they can make the playoff, you got to believe
Speaker 2: a lot else in order to put them in the
Speaker 2: contender tier of the Big twelve and at least get
Speaker 2: them into this conversation as a team that could maybe
Speaker 2: make that field of twelve. But the defense should be
Speaker 2: a little bit better this season, which is why I
Speaker 2: think Dan and I are, you know, cautiously optimistic here.
Speaker 4: They're really bad against the run last year. They got
Speaker 4: to fix that.
Speaker 2: But you know, you got a schedule like this, You
Speaker 2: have a coach who knows how to coach offense, You
Speaker 2: have a quarterback that potentially could have gone to Tennessee
Speaker 2: if you believe Josh Hoover and what he had to say.
Speaker 2: So there's a lot to like about this TCU team.
Speaker 2: You just have to assume that so many other parts
Speaker 2: of this team are going to get better in order
Speaker 2: for them to maybe aspire to those heights.
Speaker 1: Speaking of a portal quarterback, my next one is I
Speaker 1: can't wait to see what Carson Beck is at Miami.
Speaker 1: Because he claims and they claim, he's been healthy for months.
Speaker 1: I have no reason not to believe that they lose
Speaker 1: what their top half dozen pass catchers. But yet there
Speaker 1: wasn't really a lot of just sheer electricity in that
Speaker 1: room to begin With all due respect to Xavier Ristreppo,
Speaker 1: he was kind of the quarter stowed of that room
Speaker 1: and either went seventh round or undrafted. He's in Nashville
Speaker 1: right now, he's with the Titans. So I think to myself,
Speaker 1: I don't just think about Carson Beck in a I
Speaker 1: think about the quarterback position at Miami this time last year.
Speaker 1: You got cam Woard there and he's going to go
Speaker 1: on to be a superstar. But cam Ward also had
Speaker 1: several times, as it turns out, that he shows up
Speaker 1: to the building knowing I got to score forty if
Speaker 1: we're going to win today. Well, when you make the
Speaker 1: moves that they made at defensive coordinator. I don't know
Speaker 1: how improved they'll be this year, but they've got to
Speaker 1: be improved. So does it become a more somewhat of
Speaker 1: a more complimentary Miami team. Are there some hard fought,
Speaker 1: like twenty three to twenty type games? Can they come
Speaker 1: out on the plus side of those? Does that coaching
Speaker 1: staff improve itself in fourth quarter high leverage positions, because
Speaker 1: all of that dictates how we grade Carson Beckett the
Speaker 1: end of the year. I just think it is so
Speaker 1: wild that if we strawhold the college football public, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people who would have looked you
Speaker 1: dead in the eye and said, that guy's going to
Speaker 1: be the number one overall quarterback taken in the draft
Speaker 1: this time last year. Who this year, same human this year.
Speaker 1: If you even said he's gonna, you know, challenge for
Speaker 1: all acc honors, would say, oh, you're crazy, dude, Carson
Speaker 1: beck He's not that good. But you told me yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: But forget about all that. No, the world's changed now.
Speaker 1: So I think that there is a litany of example
Speaker 1: in this sport of teams that pop the year after
Speaker 1: the public expected them to shore. Maybe Miami is that
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm super high on Miami. I really like how
Speaker 3: aggressive they were and addressing very obvious needs in the
Speaker 3: secondary that I think even if Carson Beck is merely
Speaker 3: good but not incredible, that they're He's playing behind one
Speaker 3: of the better, if not best, offensive lines in the country,
Speaker 3: has a good running back room, has a promising but
Speaker 3: young receivers room. They're starting over a little bit at
Speaker 3: tight end. But I don't know, there's number one offense
Speaker 3: in America. Last year in terms of I think points
Speaker 3: per drive, they were the number one offense. And so
Speaker 3: the starting point for Carson Beck and Miami is crazy intriguing.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 2: My zag is that Miami's an eight and four team
Speaker 2: this year. I don't think they're beating Notre Dame week one.
Speaker 2: I don't think they're beating Florida week four. I could
Speaker 2: see them losing to Louisville. I think they're losing to
Speaker 2: pit the close out the year.
Speaker 1: So and that's tough. That's tough because two of the
Speaker 1: you didn't use the word guaranteed, but like two of
Speaker 1: the pretty solid l's that you're putting on them both
Speaker 1: happen at home, which almost happened multiple times last year, but.
Speaker 3: Just one of those teams is on a sizeable losing
Speaker 3: streak at the moment.
Speaker 2: No, this is this is all true, and I like
Speaker 2: Corey Heatherman, I agree with you, Dan. I mean, I
Speaker 2: think what they did to try and improve the defensive
Speaker 2: side of the ball, like everybody knew that they needed
Speaker 2: to get better there, and so I do think that
Speaker 2: they will. But the offense is going to be slower
Speaker 2: this year. It's probably going to look a little bit different.
Speaker 2: It might be oriented more around the run, and I
Speaker 2: like their running back room generally speaking, but I think
Speaker 2: this might revert back to more of the Mario Crystal
Speaker 2: ball man ball style football that we've seen him run
Speaker 2: in the past. And I'm still not totally convinced that
Speaker 2: they're going to get beyond some of these late game
Speaker 2: situations that I've haunted them. So I like Carson Beck
Speaker 2: veteran presence back there, but I do think the offense
Speaker 2: looks a little bit different, and I'm just not totally
Speaker 2: sold in this sear I caught hell for this out
Speaker 2: on our YouTube channel and after we did our acc
Speaker 2: preview from people who like Miami and I get it,
Speaker 2: but I'm just not buying it.
Speaker 3: I'm going to offer you one. By the way, I
Speaker 3: could give you this is I'm yes ending, But I
Speaker 3: could give you one through eight in the Big Twelve,
Speaker 3: and you could, without any argument, have to say, all right, sure, yeah,
Speaker 3: there are four hundred and thirty five different outcomes that
Speaker 3: are completely believable in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 4: This year.
Speaker 3: You could say like, yeah, Caden Salter rips it at
Speaker 3: Colorado and they're amazing, and they end up in the
Speaker 3: Big Twelve championship game. We've got a good defensive front
Speaker 3: and a good quarterback and promising who are getting out
Speaker 3: of the rotation into starting roles and they're good. You
Speaker 3: could tell me Kansas and Lance Leipold figured out with
Speaker 3: Jayalen Daniels in his fourteenth season and be like, great, cool, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I totally believe it. The best of him is one
Speaker 3: of the best quarterbacks in the country. You could tell
Speaker 3: me anything with regards to Kansas State, TCU West Virginia
Speaker 3: bringing in sixty three new players, like you could tell
Speaker 3: me any outcome that this team finished in fifth, this
Speaker 3: team finishing first, this team finished in eleventh, and I'd
Speaker 3: be like, all right cool, and so for that reason
Speaker 3: they are like crazy, must watch every week, can't wait.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know about about lump in West Virginia
Speaker 4: in there, but maybe not West Virginia. West Virginia's a
Speaker 4: bridge too far.
Speaker 3: But what I'm saying is if you put West Virginia
Speaker 3: eighth in the Big Twelve when they were, you know,
Speaker 3: thought of as to be lower and fully rebuilding, but
Speaker 3: have one of the best three coaches in the conference,
Speaker 3: I mean, you don't know what West Virginia is. Nobody does,
Speaker 3: no because it's all new dudes wearing those uniforms.
Speaker 2: So the team he didn't mention, by the way, is Baylor.
Speaker 2: Baylor's another one that was very close. Only a few
Speaker 2: opportunities are for let's say, missed opportunities away from getting
Speaker 2: into that in twelve title game could.
Speaker 1: Very well be my preseason conference.
Speaker 3: By the way, and there's no like great argument against it.
Speaker 2: I mean, they got annihilated with chunk plays on defense,
Speaker 2: and I am being cautiously optimistic with David Randa, you know,
Speaker 2: taking over and I mean did called defense last year,
Speaker 2: but I'm optimistic that he can improve upon that this season.
Speaker 2: But provided the defense gets just marginally better, just marginally
Speaker 2: better in the offense stays electric as it was a
Speaker 2: year ago. This again, it's another one of those possibilities.
Speaker 4: I think you're right.
Speaker 1: I can't wait.
Speaker 3: By the way, I can't wait to see what happens
Speaker 3: with Penn State this year. You stole mine, you stole mine,
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Okay. My take with Penn State in this
Speaker 3: moment is.
Speaker 4: We've seen this.
Speaker 3: We've seen Penn State every year do what they do,
Speaker 3: don't do what they don't do. Like I can't believe
Speaker 3: we're doing this again with Penn State. That I can't
Speaker 3: wait to see these games against Oregon, which we're going
Speaker 3: to be there. I can't wait to see Penn State
Speaker 3: against Ohio State in Columbus. And I kind of can't
Speaker 3: believe we get to run this narrative back with Penn State.
Speaker 3: Of they've got a good quarterback, they've got good coaches,
Speaker 3: they've got a good schedule, they're returning a ton. Let's
Speaker 3: see if they can win games against the best teams
Speaker 3: on their snope. Okay, they didn't do it again, all right,
Speaker 3: I just I can't believe we're so lucky as a
Speaker 3: community that we get to try back this old story.
Speaker 2: Let me give you more of a nuanced take. Because
Speaker 2: of the three of us, I am the Penn State
Speaker 2: grad YEA. What makes the Penn State situation, the narrative
Speaker 2: as a whole, so interesting is because Penn State is
Speaker 2: in a situation not unlike what Ohio State was in
Speaker 2: a year ago. And that is of course, you're looking
Speaker 2: at the national landscape, everybody is.
Speaker 3: Technically Ohio State can't beat Ohio State either, So.
Speaker 4: Well, there's that case in point.
Speaker 2: But my thing here is Penn State clearly is one
Speaker 2: of the teams right now in the preseason.
Speaker 4: That's all the rage and why not.
Speaker 2: They've got so much back you can understand, even if
Speaker 2: you're not betting on Penn State, you can understand why
Speaker 2: they are part of that conversation. So clearly that's the
Speaker 2: thing you want. But much like Ohio State a year ago,
Speaker 2: Penn State is also in the situation where the fan
Speaker 2: base as a whole is looking at one big game
Speaker 2: on the schedule, and for them and for us speaking
Speaker 2: as an alum, beating Ohio State is representative of the
Speaker 2: whole thing. There is this sense in the community that
Speaker 2: Penn State cannot get that monkey off its back.
Speaker 4: Oh, it's not just in the community, tie, it's everywhere.
Speaker 4: It's everywhere.
Speaker 2: And so my point is just that Penn State can
Speaker 2: go on to great things. I think, you know, the
Speaker 2: schedule is advantageous. They look like a ten and two
Speaker 2: at worst caliber team this season. Barring any kind of
Speaker 2: total collapse or disaster, they should be in that playoff
Speaker 2: and they should have another run at this thing. I
Speaker 2: think there is a fair amount of assumption in the
Speaker 2: Penn State world that that will come to fruition, and
Speaker 2: everybody's cool with that. But the indicator, the indicator that
Speaker 2: this thing is for real, is going to be when
Speaker 2: they play Ohio State on the road in Columbus.
Speaker 4: They don't win that game, They're still going to.
Speaker 2: Find their way into the playoff in all likelihood, but
Speaker 2: that is the thing that the people that I talk
Speaker 2: to in this universe are most focused on that game.
Speaker 4: They want to get that one out of the way first.
Speaker 2: So how they deal with that narrative will be really
Speaker 2: interesting to see because this is a team that's for
Speaker 2: all intentsive purposes loaded coming into the year, but just
Speaker 2: kind of coming to grips with that if in fact,
Speaker 2: they fall short against Ohio State, if in fact, they
Speaker 2: fall short in any of these big games that they
Speaker 2: got on the schedule, maybe Oregon when they come.
Speaker 4: To town for the wide out. I don't expect that, but.
Speaker 2: That, to me, that just that sort of interesting twist
Speaker 2: with the way that the fan base, I think think
Speaker 2: use the Penn State season should be fascinating to sea unfold.
Speaker 1: The psychology amongst the global college football community is such that, yeah,
Speaker 1: everything you just said, everything Dan just said. The people
Speaker 1: inside Penn State, to their credit, I guess they're not
Speaker 1: trying to temper expectations. Like this past weekend. I talked
Speaker 1: to several people up there and no, it's real, man,
Speaker 1: Like we should do it this year. It's real. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, and I'm not necessarily disagreeing, But here's
Speaker 1: the add on. So that's one layer of the cake
Speaker 1: that's been there before. The next layer of the cake is,
Speaker 1: at least perceptionally, there's not that insurmountable hurdle out there
Speaker 1: for them. In years past, there was like a superpowered
Speaker 1: Georgia or Alabama where you looked and said, well, they're
Speaker 1: not going to get past them, even if they do
Speaker 1: get to whatever fill in the blank. There is not
Speaker 1: that this year. So you're telling me you got your
Speaker 1: best shot. Internally, I'm telling you the landscape is totally
Speaker 1: muddy right now, and you already sort of got a
Speaker 1: taste of it last year by getting in the playoff.
Speaker 1: That it's the most unique I think competitive job pressure
Speaker 1: in America this year, because it's not job security pressure.
Speaker 1: He's not getting fired, but it's just this this kind
Speaker 1: of very very fine window of championship. It's it's a
Speaker 1: championship window. And if you're not ready to do it
Speaker 1: this year, it's not the worst thing in the world
Speaker 1: to be a ten win kind of periphery contender type,
Speaker 1: but maybe that's all you ever are if you can't
Speaker 1: get it done this year, and it all comes down
Speaker 1: to these few moments. Even in those games, it's going
Speaker 1: to come down to like some fourth and one, whether
Speaker 1: whether you like fight for six extra inches or not.
Speaker 1: That's what your legacy is going to be determined by.
Speaker 1: And you already know that now. You just don't know
Speaker 1: the specifics of down distance.
Speaker 2: When I would be very curious if you pulled your audience, Josh,
Speaker 2: people who care about Penn State, who are within the
Speaker 2: Penn State community.
Speaker 4: What is their view of a quote unquote successful season.
Speaker 2: Is it beating in Ohio State or beating an Oregon
Speaker 2: or winning a team against a traditional power for opponent
Speaker 2: in the playoffs and acquitting themselves well, or is it
Speaker 2: winning the national championship. My hunch is it's the former
Speaker 2: as opposed to the latter. And I think what we've
Speaker 2: seen elsewhere throughout the Penn State world, just with their
Speaker 2: signals of intent, with going out and paying three point
Speaker 2: one million dollars to bring Jim Knowles in, they didn't
Speaker 2: necessarily need the best defensive coordinator in college football to
Speaker 2: maintain a really high standard for defense.
Speaker 4: But they're gonna do it.
Speaker 2: They're going above and beyond, I think, to prove that
Speaker 2: they can do it this year because they're loaded up
Speaker 2: for this season, even some of the renovation work they're
Speaker 2: doing on the stadium. There's just a lot of internal
Speaker 2: intent that they are trying to move this thing forward.
Speaker 2: They are trying to get over those proverbial humps, and
Speaker 2: so there's definite reason for optimism, and I understand all that,
Speaker 2: I share most of it, But just that question of
Speaker 2: what is successful this season in the Penn State community
Speaker 2: is I think, you know, one of the more intriguing
Speaker 2: storylines that we're going to follow throughout the course of
Speaker 2: the year.
Speaker 3: I'll keep it personal. I'll go Dan Lanning Comma villain.
Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to in twenty twenty five. So Dan
Speaker 3: Lanning at Oregon, which is already a place that's polarizing
Speaker 3: because some people love the uniforms and the style and
Speaker 3: the innovation whatever, and some people look at it as
Speaker 3: all flash and no substance. Dan Lanning in Oregon put
Speaker 3: out the videos last year where they're showing clips of
Speaker 3: inglorious bastards before beating Michigan, or they're you know, the
Speaker 3: different themed videos, or Dan Lanning has the twelve man
Speaker 3: on the field that they have to change the rules
Speaker 3: regarding Dan Lanning jumps in a pool with the recruit,
Speaker 3: which is seen, I think rightfully so as kind of
Speaker 3: corny but kind of fun if the recruit likes it.
Speaker 3: Recruit didn't stick with Oregon, to be clear, he couldn't
Speaker 3: work out. He's ending, He's ended up, it seems. I
Speaker 3: think in Austin people delighted in Oregon both beating Ohio
Speaker 3: State and then fully collapsing against Ohio State in the playoff,
Speaker 3: and I think it's crucial that this sport is clear
Speaker 3: to have people you enjoy rooting for. And maybe that's
Speaker 3: Oregon for you, it is for me. I went there
Speaker 3: or rooting against and people didn't like Nick Saban because
Speaker 3: they saw like how he left the Dolphins in the
Speaker 3: NFL and what he's doing at Alabama and the sort
Speaker 3: of the gruff demeanor on the sideline. They didn't like
Speaker 3: Jim Harbaugh. I think to a you know, to some extent,
Speaker 3: people feel that way against Dabo Fair or not, but
Speaker 3: I don't think they feel it about Kirby Smart. I
Speaker 3: don't think people have strong opinions about Sark across the country.
Speaker 3: But I think Dan Lanning before the Colorado game with
Speaker 3: they do it for clicks, we do it on the field.
Speaker 3: Like I think there is a brashnist to him that
Speaker 3: players respond to that has worked for that program. But
Speaker 3: I like that he is seen in sort of like
Speaker 3: a villainous way. And is he gonna cut the electric
Speaker 3: grid in Iowa City this year? I don't know. Is
Speaker 3: he gonna break up a marriage? I don't know, Like
Speaker 3: what is the next step for Dan Lanning's villain this
Speaker 3: tour in twenty twenty five. Can't wait.
Speaker 1: That's delicious, Thank you, because you're right, there's no like
Speaker 1: I would argue, there is no central voice, there's no
Speaker 1: face of college football right now. I think people have
Speaker 1: been very reluctant to accept that role since Satan, and
Speaker 1: that's both positive and negative. You don't have an ultimate
Speaker 1: heel out there, but you don't have a voice. You
Speaker 1: don't have that guy than when he speaks, everyone else
Speaker 1: shuts up. I think people have been reluctant to take that.
Speaker 1: I'll go one for you here. I'm interested to see
Speaker 1: what Michigan is on multiple fronts. So I'm interested to see,
Speaker 1: you know, whether they can go to Oklahoma and win
Speaker 1: in Week two. But there's also this other cloud that
Speaker 1: keeps hovering. And if you try, and you know, the
Speaker 1: closer you get to football season, the more you just
Speaker 1: want to talk about football and leave all the other
Speaker 1: stuff you know outside. And for a large extent, I'm
Speaker 1: happy to do that with Michigan. We have this impending
Speaker 1: NCAA matter that looks like it's gonna publicly play itself
Speaker 1: out right about the time the season starting thereabouts, and
Speaker 1: so I wonder, like if that goes against them. If
Speaker 1: it really, like severely goes against them publicly, you got
Speaker 1: coaches that have to serve added suspensions or their show cause,
Speaker 1: or they have punitive measures taken against them. I'm skeptical
Speaker 1: that that'll happen, but I could be wrong if all
Speaker 1: that plays out as the backdrop of them going seventy five.
Speaker 1: What's the conversation around Sharon Moore, You're two years removed
Speaker 1: from Jim Harbaugh. Perceptionally, he left you a pretty full coboard,
Speaker 1: not of the roster per se, but like the organization
Speaker 1: was in a good spot. But now that's evaporated, and
Speaker 1: we were winning games and playing for titles. Now that's evaporated.
Speaker 1: There really are no proven commodities here that we can
Speaker 1: fall back on and say, well, historically, this guy's got
Speaker 1: job done. You don't really have that anymore. And what if, also,
Speaker 1: your rival just won a national championship, which, oh, by
Speaker 1: the way, they did, but you've got that one thing
Speaker 1: to hold over them, which is we've got four straight
Speaker 1: wins over you. But what if they come into your
Speaker 1: building at the end of the year and that gets
Speaker 1: a race too. It could really get uncomfortable and weird
Speaker 1: in sideways from Michigan this year in a hurry.
Speaker 3: By the way, that week's game, the Ohio State Michigan game,
Speaker 3: the game, and it's like the narrative game of the
Speaker 3: conference portion of the season.
Speaker 4: I think that.
Speaker 3: Game is going to end in a seven to six
Speaker 3: Michigan win or an eighty to thirteen Ohio State win.
Speaker 3: Nothing in between, absolutely zero in between. Either Ryan Day
Speaker 3: is exercising everything or Michigan is going to find a
Speaker 3: way to become the most hateful boa constrictor of the
Speaker 3: modern sport has ever seen.
Speaker 4: That's my opinion, man.
Speaker 2: I mean, realistically, Josh, realistically, what do you expect on
Speaker 2: the NCAA side, Because I'm with you, I think I'm
Speaker 2: skeptical that there's going to be a whole lot more
Speaker 2: thrown at them. I do think there's probably some inclination
Speaker 2: from the NCAA to flex its muscles a little bit,
Speaker 2: to prove that it still has some clout in the sport,
Speaker 2: which we know which has been dwindlinks sometimes by its
Speaker 2: own decision. But like, what, what is a realistic expectation
Speaker 2: for that?
Speaker 4: In your view?
Speaker 1: I don't think that there is any punitive action taken
Speaker 1: against them that would impact the viability of Michigan moving forward.
Speaker 1: By that, I mean there's nothing that's going to happen
Speaker 1: to them that makes you less likely to want to
Speaker 1: watch a Michigan football game. So if you want to
Speaker 1: find them, which I believe they'll do, okay, show causes
Speaker 1: for coaches. I believe that's very much on the table.
Speaker 1: But really, when it comes to NCAA investigations, all the
Speaker 1: normal fan wants to know is are you're gonna have
Speaker 1: a bowl ban or you're gonna have scholarship restrictions? Even
Speaker 1: know that scholarship restrictions happen anymore or if they matter?
Speaker 1: I don't think that postseason bands on the table at all.
Speaker 1: And this is a fundamental disagreement I have with large
Speaker 1: swats of the Ohio State shunbase. Not even I almost
Speaker 1: remove what I think should happen, like what I think
Speaker 1: is just and right ethically, we left that outside looking
Speaker 1: in a long time ago. I think we have to
Speaker 1: understand what the NC double A is. The NC double
Speaker 1: A is something that exists as an enforcement arm to
Speaker 1: serve at the behest of university presidents. The same university
Speaker 1: presidents are the ones who collectively sign their name on
Speaker 1: multi billion dollar media rights deals. So I just have
Speaker 1: to ask myself, not getting conspiratorial at all. Just common
Speaker 1: sense tells me there's no way networks enter into multi
Speaker 1: billion dollar agreements with university presidents and leagues who have
Speaker 1: an enforcement arm that attaches to them. Why are about
Speaker 1: to sit and watch those presidents allow their enforcement arm
Speaker 1: to take measures against one of their most prized assets
Speaker 1: that fundamentally deteriorates the viability and viewability of that asset.
Speaker 1: That's not the way this works anymore. Whether it should
Speaker 1: or not, I don't think that's the way this works anymore.
Speaker 1: So whatever a slap on the wrist is, however many
Speaker 1: millions of dollars that is, I think that's the modern
Speaker 1: day version of the NCAA swinging the hammer. So I
Speaker 1: don't think when that theme comes down, it's going to
Speaker 1: be like the trains completely off the tracks. What are
Speaker 1: we going to do like it would have been twenty
Speaker 1: five years ago if you had multiple level one violations.
Speaker 1: Having said that, there are a lot of people who
Speaker 1: strongly disagree with that. I don't know that anyone knows anything,
Speaker 1: but there are people who pretty strongly disagree with that.
Speaker 1: I just I'd have to see it to believe it.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's going to happen. I agree with you,
Speaker 2: and not to get conspiratorial, but and.
Speaker 4: There have been coaching suspensions for making.
Speaker 2: Sure yep, sure, I think something will be, something will
Speaker 2: be levied upon Michigan. I don't think to your point, Josh,
Speaker 2: it's going to be anything that truly impacts what we
Speaker 2: see out there this year.
Speaker 3: And I think something heavy would have to be drawn
Speaker 3: out from a crazy bit of new evidence that yes,
Speaker 3: Michigan had every single one of Ohio States practices in
Speaker 3: four K on their servers, right, it was something on
Speaker 3: that level. You're like, well, I guess they got to
Speaker 3: hit them now. But beyond that, yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 4: I've got one I would love to know.
Speaker 1: I would love to know in media rights deals and
Speaker 1: I don't know this. I would love to know, is
Speaker 1: their language that that almost like when I was working
Speaker 1: in local TV, we didn't have a backup generator at
Speaker 1: my station, which is just an insane existence when you're
Speaker 1: running when you're the affiliate for NBC and you're running
Speaker 1: playoff games for the NFL, to know that if your
Speaker 1: power goes out, you have to return deliverable ad revenue
Speaker 1: to local advertis because their ads didn't run. Is there
Speaker 1: something similar baked into the language and legal ees of
Speaker 1: media rights deals where we're paying I mean, in the
Speaker 1: Big Ten, you're paying for about four teams and you're
Speaker 1: taking the other. However, many if one of those four
Speaker 1: by your own enforcement bodies mechanations suffers and is not
Speaker 1: as visible and as not as worthy to be put
Speaker 1: on national airwaves, do we get some of our money back?
Speaker 1: I would love to know if that exists.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's again to your point, it's an interesting
Speaker 2: conversation of what should happen versus what realistically should happen
Speaker 2: given the circumstances and kind of all these entanglements.
Speaker 1: It's fascinating multiple level one violations should be a multi
Speaker 1: year post season ban in a former lifefe. We just
Speaker 1: don't live in that life anymore.
Speaker 3: Yeah. We also kind of live in a reality in
Speaker 3: which the Big Ten in Michigan, if they're handed down
Speaker 3: something severe, might just say we disagree.
Speaker 1: Nope, Nope, we're going to show up anyway.
Speaker 3: We're gonna be wearing our amazing blue you know where
Speaker 3: to find us. We're going to be there.
Speaker 2: It's like when George Costanza got fired and just showed
Speaker 2: up anyway.
Speaker 3: Showed up.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, I've got I've got a good one here. Okay.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: And maybe I'm the only one who's looking forward to this.
Speaker 4: I don't know, but.
Speaker 2: The overwhelming majority of college football fans aren't talking about
Speaker 2: the seven teams in major college football that have thirty
Speaker 2: five or more incoming transfers. Oh, talk about Okay, Purdue,
Speaker 2: West Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, UCF, CAL, and Wake
Speaker 2: Forest at least per twenty four to seven. Yeah, those
Speaker 2: are the schools that have the most transfers this cycle.
Speaker 1: Ty, do you know what Purdue's number is?
Speaker 2: The total number is fifty four, and they've got sixty
Speaker 2: nine new players in total if you include their high
Speaker 2: school transfers, which is the most in college football.
Speaker 1: The other day I talked to Barry Odom about this.
Speaker 1: He said, I had thirty eight players in my first
Speaker 1: team meeting in December. I will have eighty two of
Speaker 1: one oh five as new players, either incoming freshmen or transfers.
Speaker 1: Eighty two of his one oh five are new players
Speaker 1: this year that we're not there accounting.
Speaker 2: A year ago it's crazy, and so the reason that
Speaker 2: I bring this up, obviously, this is sort of like
Speaker 2: the new World Order of college football.
Speaker 4: Everybody's taken a ton of transfers.
Speaker 2: One of these teams is going to punch way above
Speaker 2: preseason expectations. Most of these schools that I listed out,
Speaker 2: maybe with the exception of North Carolina, and I.
Speaker 4: Guess it depends how you feel about Oklahoma State.
Speaker 2: But most of these schools I think are projected at
Speaker 2: or near the bottom of their respective conferences. But without fail,
Speaker 2: one of them will exceed expectations and no one will
Speaker 2: have seen it coming, because how could you. There's no
Speaker 2: way to project when you're dealing with that many new
Speaker 2: We can't even agree on how many new players perdue
Speaker 2: has Josh right, So whenever you've got this incredible number
Speaker 2: of new people coming in, it is an Indiana situation
Speaker 2: where it is like Purdue and name only, UCF in
Speaker 2: name only, it's an entirely new cast of characters, despite
Speaker 2: the fact that they're wearing the same uniform. I'm just
Speaker 2: really curious to see who that's gonna be. I guess
Speaker 2: the easy answer would be to say North Carolina, because
Speaker 2: there is a lot working in their favor, and I
Speaker 2: think they got something.
Speaker 4: Like seven four star transfers something like that.
Speaker 2: I mean, clearly, Bill Belichick's got a name that people
Speaker 2: are interested in. But I mean, would it surprise you
Speaker 2: at all six months down the line to be like,
Speaker 2: you know, cal actually was kind of interesting this past
Speaker 2: year in a way that we didn't next their wake Forest.
Speaker 2: You know, Jake Dickert was a GA once east of
Speaker 2: the Mississippi. Now he comes to wake Forest, a beautiful place,
Speaker 2: a beautiful campus, and suddenly he just he kind of
Speaker 2: makes it interesting in.
Speaker 4: A way that we didn't see coming.
Speaker 2: One of these seven teams is going to be there
Speaker 2: at the very end of this thing, and we're going
Speaker 2: to have that conversation, and I don't know who it's
Speaker 2: gonna be, But I also don't know how to handicap
Speaker 2: any of those schools that I just mentioned, So it's
Speaker 2: going to be fascinating.
Speaker 1: Was Southern Miss on that list?
Speaker 2: Southern Miss is not on this list per se, but
Speaker 2: Southern Miss is basically playing with the Marshall championship team
Speaker 2: from a year ago because of Charles huff In that
Speaker 2: whole situation with him coming down to take over at
Speaker 2: Southern Miss. So that's another school where though they might
Speaker 2: not be on like the top national line. With respect
Speaker 2: to conversation, if you're looking at Southern Miss this year
Speaker 2: and you're wondering, is this a team that could contend
Speaker 2: for a conference title, it's a big old shrug. We
Speaker 2: have no idea what to expect from them either.
Speaker 1: I picture people picking up the local like Hattiesburg newspaper, Allah,
Speaker 1: the opening scenes in Major League.
Speaker 2: Who are these other guys exactly exactly crazy?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean they're all getting to know each other
Speaker 3: as we speak, right, eighty new guys in West Lafayette.
Speaker 3: That's not a basket, that's a basketball tournament. That's yeah,
Speaker 3: sixteen starting fives.
Speaker 2: Check, by the way, check that I only had this
Speaker 2: filtered based on power concoences.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Southern Miss does have fifty four incoming transfers. So
Speaker 4: that's my bad.
Speaker 2: I need to learn how to work the internet here.
Speaker 2: But yeah, they're another one that you know, we can
Speaker 2: include them as the eighth team as part of this
Speaker 2: conversation like a full on hockey line change.
Speaker 4: Who the hell knows?
Speaker 3: Sidebar. With regard to North Carolina bringing in, we have
Speaker 3: not mentioned Bill Belichick specifically at I have no idea
Speaker 3: what UNC is going to do this season. I don't
Speaker 3: know what they're going to look like. I don't know
Speaker 3: what their systems are going to be exactly. I don't
Speaker 3: know who is going to shine who is not going
Speaker 3: to shine of this. I am sure there's going to
Speaker 3: be a moment, likely in September, likely early on in September,
Speaker 3: where there's going to be a close up of Bill
Speaker 3: Belichick's face in beautiful four K where you are going
Speaker 3: to be able to read his face precisely, and the
Speaker 3: words that you're going to be able to read on
Speaker 3: his face are I think I'm working with children. I
Speaker 3: think I might be working and I'm not gonna make
Speaker 3: the easy joke here. I think I might be working
Speaker 3: with adolescents who are making mistakes because they took the
Speaker 3: SATs an hour and a half ago, they've been driving
Speaker 3: for ten months, whatever, And I can't wait for that
Speaker 3: realization to creep up pot across his face like a storm, like.
Speaker 1: I mean, do you do you when? Do you think?
Speaker 1: It happens that they lose a game and he just
Speaker 1: goes scorched earth in the locker room and tells them
Speaker 1: what they're about to be put through the next week
Speaker 1: and somebody just leans in his ears says, we only
Speaker 1: got twenty hours and a half week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we need to we need to get them new wristbands.
Speaker 3: We don't have time. Yeah, it's inevitable. Again, they could
Speaker 3: go ten and two, they could go for and I
Speaker 3: don't know what they're gonna do, but that look is
Speaker 3: going to one hundred percent happen.
Speaker 2: I think the other thing that I am most interested
Speaker 2: in this year, and you know, on our show we
Speaker 2: talk a lot about just to focus on things that
Speaker 2: we just think everybody would find interesting that we at
Speaker 2: least find interesting.
Speaker 4: Oklahoma to me.
Speaker 2: Is like, y oh yeah, for my money, the most
Speaker 2: interesting story in college football. And there are a great
Speaker 2: number of them that I could I could pull out
Speaker 2: and I say, I like this about this team, and
Speaker 2: I think this is interesting about another. But Oklahoma now
Speaker 2: going out and getting Jometerier and Ben Arbuckle, playing the
Speaker 2: schedule that they have to play, coming off the season
Speaker 2: that they came off of, There's so many variables at
Speaker 2: play with this team. There's a lot new The schedule
Speaker 2: is just murder. This is another one of these schools
Speaker 2: They're not necessarily taking fifty four transfers. But you could
Speaker 2: convince me almost anything of Oklahoma. You can convince me
Speaker 2: of ten and two, the same way you could convince
Speaker 2: me of.
Speaker 4: Six and six. I don't know what to expect.
Speaker 2: I can't assume that job Matier is just going to hit,
Speaker 2: even though he's an exciting prospect. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: you know, it's playing an SEC schedule, so there is
Speaker 2: so much new there.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you didn't make the wheels coming off joke
Speaker 3: with Oklahoma too obvious. You are a classic guy for
Speaker 3: doing that. Tie continue.
Speaker 2: I'm just damn curious about Oklahoma, and I don't you know.
Speaker 2: We could sit here and talk through two deeps and
Speaker 2: schedules and all that, but the truth is, with so
Speaker 2: much new, we're not going to know until the ruverer
Speaker 2: meets the road.
Speaker 1: Sure, I've got them as a top ten caliber team,
Speaker 1: but not factoring in schedule. When you factor in schedule,
Speaker 1: it's a whole new ball game. I just don't think.
Speaker 1: I don't think they were I think they had a
Speaker 1: fatal flaw last year. I don't think of them as
Speaker 1: a fatally flawed team. And if I conservatively think they're
Speaker 1: gonna get top twenty defense this year, which I do
Speaker 1: maybe better than that. Then, Man, I really think that
Speaker 1: this entire concept of bringing an entire offensive combination in
Speaker 1: an OC quarterback doesn't happen all that often. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm very very high on them. I easily see them
Speaker 1: in SEC Championship contention in late November. But you're right,
Speaker 1: anytime you play the strength of schedule they do. There's
Speaker 1: also the cliff dive mode that could be applied.
Speaker 2: To Yeah, and you know you're you're right to point
Speaker 2: out that when you get the quarterback offensive coordinator combo,
Speaker 2: it always makes it just a little bit more interesting.
Speaker 2: Like we saw them do it a couple of years
Speaker 2: back at Western Kentucky, right, Zach Kittley and Bailey Zappy.
Speaker 2: That worked famously. Well, now we've got one here with Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: They're trying Ben Arbuckle, they're trying John Mattier. Western Kentucky,
Speaker 2: by the way, trying it again this year with Houston Baptists. Right,
Speaker 2: So it's a I guess Ablie and Christian this year.
Speaker 2: Whichever one it is. There are a couple of schools
Speaker 2: that I think are interested in that sort of combo play.
Speaker 2: Maybe it can get the offense up and running a
Speaker 2: little bit quicker. I guess we're gonna see it at
Speaker 2: Utah is another example this season. So there are some
Speaker 2: interesting spins on this whole transfer portal thing where it's
Speaker 2: not just the player but also the coaches. And if
Speaker 2: that's able to supercharge this offense in a quick way,
Speaker 2: they're going to need it.
Speaker 3: Deon Shador by the way, yeah.
Speaker 4: Dean Shador, right, I mean we've seen it on a kid.
Speaker 2: If Oklahoma is able to super charged that offense in
Speaker 2: a quick way, which I think they need to do
Speaker 2: in order to get off the mat here in the SEC,
Speaker 2: it would be I mean, it ready is one of
Speaker 2: the more interesting conversations in the country, but it would
Speaker 2: make it all the more interesting if Oklahoma comes out
Speaker 2: and they just sort of hit the ground running.
Speaker 1: All right. I asked for forty five. We've gone over
Speaker 1: forty five. So I'll wrap this up here with one more.
Speaker 1: It's very very broad. We could actually go forty five
Speaker 1: minutes just on this one. But there is this huge
Speaker 1: chunk of the SEC that, by my observation and estimation,
Speaker 1: thinks that last year was an appetizer to this year's
Speaker 1: main course and last year. Last year may have been
Speaker 1: ten wins if you're Georgia and an SEC championship. Last
Speaker 1: year could have been seven and five, and your Auburn,
Speaker 1: but either of those think about this year as we're
Speaker 1: going to level up this year, respectively. Okay, I've got
Speaker 1: Florida in this bucket. I've got Georgia in this bucket.
Speaker 1: I've got LSU in this bucket. I've got South Carolina
Speaker 1: in this bucket. I've got Texas A and M in
Speaker 1: this bucket. I've got Alabama in this bucket. I've got Auburn.
Speaker 1: If I didn't mention them already, I am going about
Speaker 1: half of the conference that thinks to themselves, because Texas
Speaker 1: thinks that as well. By the way, so I have
Speaker 1: got half the conference that realistically thinks last year was
Speaker 1: okay because of what this year will be, and the
Speaker 1: simple math and logic dictates you don't have enough wins
Speaker 1: to go around. Many of you are going to play
Speaker 1: each other, you don't have enough wins to go around.
Speaker 1: My point is, I think for one or a couple
Speaker 1: of those teams, there is a seven and five and
Speaker 1: oh yeah, and I do not think like I said
Speaker 1: when we were recording on your Guys's channel, I don't
Speaker 1: think we've recalibrated our mentality nationally, but especially in the
Speaker 1: SEC to account for the changes in the sport and
Speaker 1: to account for the fact that seven and five may
Speaker 1: be the new nine and three, especially if it's a
Speaker 1: bunch of close losses. Seven to five could be the
Speaker 1: new nine and three, because we absolutely know ten and
Speaker 1: two is the new eleven and one. So I think
Speaker 1: somebody in that group is going to have some really
Speaker 1: stupid conversation around the head coach in December around the
Speaker 1: changes that need to be made. And really all that
Speaker 1: will have happened is they had some tough injury luck
Speaker 1: and they lost some hard fought games, but they were
Speaker 1: probably every bit the caliber that one of their nine
Speaker 1: and three counterparts were.
Speaker 3: Counterpoint we lost. We saw how Auburn lost some of
Speaker 3: those games last year. You can't go seven and five
Speaker 3: in that exact same manner, right, you can't. There has
Speaker 3: to be some sort of like, Okay, yes we went
Speaker 3: seven and five, but look there were fifty to fifty
Speaker 3: games and we beat X, Y and Z and they
Speaker 3: were ranked in the top ten. Sure, I grant you that,
Speaker 3: but I think manner does apply here where some of
Speaker 3: these teams lost games or even one games the way
Speaker 3: Florida beat Ole miss where you're just like, oh, I
Speaker 3: don't know if we can count on Jackson dart Ish
Speaker 3: interceptions plural in the last few minutes, Like that's that's
Speaker 3: the only caveat is you have to be putting forth,
Speaker 3: you know, a pretty sincere performance in order to justify it.
Speaker 3: But you're right that they're just like somebody's going to
Speaker 3: be legitimately good and go seven and five or eight
Speaker 3: and four if something breaks their way. I happen to
Speaker 3: think Mike Elko is who Matt Rule fancies himself to
Speaker 3: be in twenty twenty five. That's my take that I
Speaker 3: think Texas A and M is quietly super interesting this year.
Speaker 3: But all of those teams you listed, by the way,
Speaker 3: you could say wildcard quarterback, wild card quarterback, wild card quarterback,
Speaker 3: wild card quarterback, or like DJ Lagway injured, we think
Speaker 3: he's great, but oh yeah, I'm kind of wildcard, Like
Speaker 3: I love that about all those teams you listed.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I'll leave you with this too.
Speaker 2: And it's sort of a semi related point here when
Speaker 2: we're talking through you know, seven and five being the
Speaker 2: new nine and three. There are a lot of teams
Speaker 2: at the top of that conversation that have brutal schedules.
Speaker 2: There are also a couple that I think we think
Speaker 2: could be pretty good relative to the field, that have
Speaker 2: easier schedules. I'm looking at Old Miss as an example
Speaker 2: of that. I happen to think Ole Miss will still
Speaker 2: be pretty good. I don't know if they're going to
Speaker 2: be at the top of the conference, but could there
Speaker 2: be a situation, especially in this new world now where
Speaker 2: there's no divisions, there are more teams in all of
Speaker 2: these conferences where at the end of the year in
Speaker 2: the SEC season, we're looking at teams that are higher
Speaker 2: up in the standings, but in effect they're arguing amongst
Speaker 2: one another because one schedule is significantly easier than a
Speaker 2: team below them in the standings. I think there's real
Speaker 2: possibility for that this year again, we'll see there is
Speaker 2: a lot of wildcard potential with a lot of the
Speaker 2: quarterbacks I think on display in this conference. But it's
Speaker 2: like we've evolved to this point now with major college
Speaker 2: football because the conferences are so big that there is
Speaker 2: just this raging conversation between within each conference. It's sort
Speaker 2: of like its own counterculture, which is pretty cool.
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