Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal hell that for me, I'm
Speaker 1: a man, I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well,
Speaker 1: I want to be happy.
Speaker 2: You want to be happy for a day? Edith Steak
Speaker 2: is that woo woom?
Speaker 1: And Dan and Tie welcome back to the solid verbal
Speaker 1: boys and girls. My name is Ty Hildenbrandt, joining me
Speaker 1: as always out there in the heart of the Midwest.
Speaker 1: Dan the Pizza Man Rubinstein, Sir, how are you good?
Speaker 2: I have some pizza inside my belly and it was
Speaker 2: a terrible pizza and I messed it up, and I
Speaker 2: still had two and a half slices. And it's especially
Speaker 2: appropriate to do a spring cleaning episode.
Speaker 1: Because I don't know what my inside's gonna look like later.
Speaker 2: I had a lot of dairy.
Speaker 1: Aren't going to go? Well? You did a vodka sauce pizza,
Speaker 1: did you not?
Speaker 2: I did? And that's tricky because we're talking about a
Speaker 2: cream element or majority of the sauce mixed with For me,
Speaker 2: it was tomato paste and shallots and garlic and all
Speaker 2: sorts of season. It was I mean, it tasted good,
Speaker 2: but the ratios and I don't think I think it
Speaker 2: was too rich and so it's just sort of it's sitting.
Speaker 2: It's sitting there, occupying space without contributing much. Kind of
Speaker 2: like Jeff Long.
Speaker 1: Kind of like Jeff. We'll get to that. Who now
Speaker 1: was the athletic director at Kansas. We'll get to that momentarily.
Speaker 1: But you know where I stand at vodka sauce. That's
Speaker 1: your one true identifier of quality. That's my identifier of
Speaker 1: quality when it comes to the Italian restaurant. And so
Speaker 1: I had an instance where we went to go visit
Speaker 1: friends and hang out at their house for the night,
Speaker 1: but first went to a nearby restaurant and I got
Speaker 1: the vodka sauce pizza. And let me tell you, buddy,
Speaker 1: go into that friend's house for most of the rest
Speaker 1: of the evening was quite an uncomfortable experience. Needed to
Speaker 1: locate the facilities second we walked in that door. Because
Speaker 1: vodka pizza sauce has never been a good combo for me.
Speaker 2: FYI the Tavon Austin of Digestion.
Speaker 1: Okay, sure, well, on that note, On that note, I
Speaker 1: have ty he is Dan. This is a solid verbal.
Speaker 1: We come your way twice a week here in this
Speaker 1: college football off season. We will switch up to three
Speaker 1: times a week as we get a little bit closer
Speaker 1: to the start. In the meantime, though, follow along on
Speaker 1: social media all the usual hotspots. Check out our patreon
Speaker 1: at verballers dot com. We've got I believe if memory
Speaker 1: serves another off topic show coming up in the very
Speaker 1: very near future that I still need to talk to
Speaker 1: you about. In coordinatings, I think every good idea love it. Also,
Speaker 1: solid verbal dot com is where you can find all
Speaker 1: the information for how to follow along with our podcast.
Speaker 1: Did you see that Apple was dropping the subscribe terminology?
Speaker 2: So what are they doing? What exactly are people to
Speaker 2: do now? They're just going to call it follow?
Speaker 1: Oh okay, it's just apparently there is data to suggest
Speaker 1: that when people see the words subscribe, they associate that
Speaker 1: with having him pay money. Too much of a commitment,
Speaker 1: that's right, But follow Follow is something we do on
Speaker 1: Facebook and Twitter, Instagram. Yeah, it's free to do that.
Speaker 1: So anyway, follow follow us if you will on your
Speaker 1: selected podcasting app, Dan, what'd love for you to do that.
Speaker 1: The show topic this evening is spring cleaning, and it's
Speaker 1: a little bit of a different Sorry, that's just my cleansings.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, please it's a little bit of a different
Speaker 1: spin on it. We've done different versions of the show
Speaker 1: over the years. We did a Marie Condo show a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. I am not ruling out doing
Speaker 1: another Marie Condo show as we get into this year
Speaker 1: off season, but we're getting further and further away from
Speaker 1: that reference being meaningful to a lot of people. This
Speaker 1: is also true, very true, Yeah, very true. I enjoyed
Speaker 1: that show.
Speaker 2: It's good.
Speaker 1: Our spin on spring cleaning today is.
Speaker 2: We're talking about coordinators. We're talking about new coordinators in
Speaker 2: some instances, new coordinators on new staves, stabs, staff, staves,
Speaker 2: hold on, hold on, hold on. I understand that the
Speaker 2: word is staff, like calves, But if a football game
Speaker 2: has two halves and we have two calves staff, why
Speaker 2: are we not hold on? This is I'm running for
Speaker 2: office on this platform. Should it not be.
Speaker 1: Staves?
Speaker 2: Should we have staves?
Speaker 1: Oh no, this is your globe moment.
Speaker 2: You're no, please, You're trying to cover for glove like
Speaker 2: it's not an all all all timer. Okay, the Free
Speaker 2: Dictionary says staves is not a known English word.
Speaker 1: Sure, I grant you that way with staves, continue as
Speaker 1: you should have stuck with Globe. You should have just
Speaker 1: planted your flag. I forgot where I was going.
Speaker 2: Okay, new college football staffs in place, but so like,
Speaker 2: for an example, Pete Kwakowski is a new defensive coordinator
Speaker 2: for Texas, but he's part of a new staff for Texas,
Speaker 2: so that counts. So what we're going to do is
Speaker 2: we're going to go back and forth and draft I
Speaker 2: don't know, eight, ten, twelve coaches, however many it takes
Speaker 2: to fill out a show, and we are going to say,
Speaker 2: and this is just in terms of not the best
Speaker 2: hire at offensive or defensive coordinator, and all due respect
Speaker 2: to special teams coordinators, but we're focusing on offense and defense,
Speaker 2: not the best. So there are guys who are clearly
Speaker 2: a Marcus Freeman. Going from Cincinnati to Notre Dame feels
Speaker 2: like a no brainer. I want to approach this in
Speaker 2: terms of improvement, in terms of looking at a unit
Speaker 2: that was so woeful or a team that was so
Speaker 2: woeful or disappointing that they needed to bring in new staves.
Speaker 2: You heard me, staves, New staves, you say, Mario, And
Speaker 2: that's it's fine. No, just just take your own stabs.
Speaker 2: Steer INtime, steer into it, or need to overhaul a
Speaker 2: specific unit, and I want the degree of improvement. So
Speaker 2: we're just predicting. We're just saying, Okay, this team hired
Speaker 2: this new coordinator. My number one overall pick is this
Speaker 2: guy because I believe what he can do with this
Speaker 2: unit will be more pronounced in terms of improvement than
Speaker 2: any of these other guys with these other units. So
Speaker 2: that's the metric by which we're drafting offensive new offensive
Speaker 2: and defensive coordinators. They don't have to be an addition
Speaker 2: to an existing staff, can be part of an all
Speaker 2: new staff as well.
Speaker 1: So what you're talking about is essentially value over replacement
Speaker 1: coordinator the Vork if you will, I will absolutely say Vork, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're going to play that game momentarily. Before we do, though,
Speaker 1: I guess we should just get this out of the way.
Speaker 1: We said it as we came on the air here,
Speaker 1: But are you gonna get your big pipes back? By
Speaker 1: the way, I'm taking it easy this offseason, okay, breaking now,
Speaker 1: taking it taking it easy, right now? Okay. Jeff Long.
Speaker 1: Jeff Long is out as the Kansas Athletic director. This,
Speaker 1: of course, is only a couple of days after they
Speaker 1: parted ways with previous football coach Les Miles. Looks like here.
Speaker 1: An official announcement is scheduled for later today. As we
Speaker 1: record on Wednesday, Kansas has called a meeting of its
Speaker 1: own staff. There's that word again. Yeah, Long has declined
Speaker 1: further comment at this time. Look, there there was an
Speaker 1: article that you sent me from her friend Jason Kirk
Speaker 1: that pretty much called Jeff Long out for failing miserably
Speaker 1: and continuing to be gainfully employed. We're not going to
Speaker 1: necessarily dig into Jeff Loong's past, but I will say
Speaker 1: that essentially hitching your wag into Less Miles at this
Speaker 1: latter stage in his career, maybe with some skeletons in
Speaker 1: his own closet, maybe not the wisest move.
Speaker 2: What I enjoy about the whole concept of Jeff Long
Speaker 2: and Jason Kirk illustrated this very well.
Speaker 1: It was for Slate right.
Speaker 2: Where he wrote Lapies was it was like Jeff Long
Speaker 2: hires known dirt bag Bobby Patrino. Bobby Patrino turns out
Speaker 2: to be a dirt bag, brings in John L. Smith,
Speaker 2: It goes horribly, goes to Kansas and brings in Brett
Speaker 2: Bieloma because Brett Bielima wrote him a nice letter once
Speaker 2: the Bobby Patrino thing went down at Arkansas and goes
Speaker 2: to Kansas where he brings in. Eventually it has found
Speaker 2: out known dirtbag Les Miles alleged dirt bag, I suppose,
Speaker 2: but it's it's a very specific way of hiring coaches
Speaker 2: that basically never works out in the long term that
Speaker 2: Jeff Long can be convinced to say, maybe this guy though,
Speaker 2: maybe this guy.
Speaker 1: Jeff Long was the friendly face behind the BCS Playoff
Speaker 1: committee for a couple of years too.
Speaker 2: Well, it was there was the BCS and then the
Speaker 2: College Football Playoff making fun of stabs and yeah, he
Speaker 2: was the original chairman of the committee. I talked about it,
Speaker 2: what I'm looking for and the like. So he's out.
Speaker 2: I am hopeful, hopeful, And I don't know who Kansas
Speaker 2: should hire, because I think it's just kind of a
Speaker 2: doomed place until proven otherwise. And I don't know if
Speaker 2: that's an administrative buy in, you know, if it's a
Speaker 2: money thing, whatever it is, it's I hope they hire
Speaker 2: somebody create of inventive, well liked by people in the
Speaker 2: athletic administration. World to run the athletic department because it's
Speaker 2: still a major, major forces in basketball and that matters,
Speaker 2: and that person is able to hire with his and
Speaker 2: the good judgment of everybody involved in the hiring process,
Speaker 2: a good college football coach who makes sense for a
Speaker 2: dramatic rebuild. So I yeah, trusting Jeff Long to make
Speaker 2: this next hire seem like who would be the most
Speaker 2: Jeff Long hire at this point? Like who is it?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: He would he hire Kevin someone? Would he hire Houston Nutt?
Speaker 2: Would he hire a Bowden? Like It's something like that,
Speaker 2: It's something on that level. Yeah, So yeah, hope it
Speaker 2: works out for Kansas. I mean, I it sounds like
Speaker 2: we're piling on. It sounds like I'm piling on. But
Speaker 2: it's never fun when a team is just woefully incompetent.
Speaker 2: It's not a fun thing to say, oh, we don't
Speaker 2: have to worry about any of these teams playing Kansas
Speaker 2: in the Big Twelve because it's not going to be
Speaker 2: an entertaining game. And occasionally there are surprisingly entertaining games
Speaker 2: against say TCU in Texas these past few years, but
Speaker 2: largely to just fully ignore a team at a major
Speaker 2: conference is I mean it's just I'll speak for myself.
Speaker 2: It's just a bummer.
Speaker 1: We got anything else in the news department that jumped
Speaker 1: out at you for now? Not especially? Okay, well, we'll
Speaker 1: cover more when we do the show next Tuesday. But
Speaker 1: in the interim, why don't we get to why don't
Speaker 1: we get to our game? Here? So we are drafts.
Speaker 1: We are drafting staves today. We're not doing staffs. It's
Speaker 1: just coordinators. But I like where you're going. We're drafting
Speaker 1: staves and we are looking for value over replacement coordinators.
Speaker 1: So in front of us, we've got two links, both
Speaker 1: from our friends over at FootballScoop dot com where they
Speaker 1: track such things. Coordinator hires, big time, coordinator hires offense defense.
Speaker 1: Let me start with one.
Speaker 2: Who gets the first pick? Who gets the first pick?
Speaker 1: Oh all right, well here let me. I'm gonna flip
Speaker 1: a coin, flip something. Tell me what you call heads
Speaker 1: your tails? Tell me one count to three, call it
Speaker 1: call it now heads? Heads?
Speaker 2: It is heads? It is okay, uh, with the first
Speaker 2: overall pick. In terms of pure improvement, I'm gonna go with,
Speaker 2: Thank you very much that under the wire. Continue right
Speaker 2: under the wire. I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: Deronte Jones LSU LSU LSU defensive coordinator based on how
Speaker 2: LSU has recruited and purely based on the depths to
Speaker 2: which this defense fell in twenty twenty under Bo Polini.
Speaker 2: I am under the impression and that merely the average
Speaker 2: performance from everybody on this on this defense, the average
Speaker 2: effort and improvement with the benefit of more springtap practice,
Speaker 2: more summer workouts, more fall camp. I am going to
Speaker 2: roll with Deronte Jones making a large jump with this
Speaker 2: LSU defense. They hire I think a new defensive line
Speaker 2: coach or Andre Carter from cal Way back when oh yeah,
Speaker 2: of course their new defensive line coach, Jets, they have
Speaker 2: a new linebackers coach, and certainly issues on you know,
Speaker 2: especially in the back part of this defense. We saw
Speaker 2: them get lit up, especially in the first part of
Speaker 2: that season of the twenty twenty season, So I think
Speaker 2: things get short up with Deronte Jones. He has he
Speaker 2: was a recommendation from Dave Randa. He coached with a
Speaker 2: rand I believe at Wisconsin he was with the Vikings.
Speaker 2: His background is in the secondary and so in terms
Speaker 2: of I for coaching talent, both spanning the NFL and
Speaker 2: college game and you know, being some part some branch
Speaker 2: and the Dave I Randa Tree. I think this ship
Speaker 2: will get righted. I think there will be energy infused
Speaker 2: into this defense that was sorely needed and Bobolini was
Speaker 2: clearly not the answer. So I think we are we
Speaker 2: are due for a bounce back, a progression to wear,
Speaker 2: not a regression to the mean, but a progression to
Speaker 2: the average place where LSU should generally be given the
Speaker 2: talent on hand. Given the major new quarterbacks in you know,
Speaker 2: quarterback movements in the SEC West, places like Alabama, we'll see.
Speaker 2: You know, Auburn has Mike Bobba. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you'll draft him or I'll draft him. But a new
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator at Auburn A and M's moving on to
Speaker 2: a new quarterback almost should be very dangerous. But I
Speaker 2: think it's a pretty good year to get the ship righted.
Speaker 1: In Baton Rouge, Okay, I'm going as my first pick,
Speaker 1: gonna go Mike Yoursitch, interesting Homer, Homer, Homer, big time
Speaker 1: homer pick here, Mike yoursich Is.
Speaker 2: I think it's you. Is it You're Sitch or you're
Speaker 2: sick I.
Speaker 1: Believe I looked this up a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: and it's your sitch, okay, And at this point if
Speaker 1: it is, and I'm just going to go with it anyway,
Speaker 1: that's what we do now on the show. This is
Speaker 1: what we do. But Mike Eusitch from neighboring Ohio went
Speaker 1: to California University of Pennsylvania, which is in the western
Speaker 1: part of the state, has bounced around a couple places, right,
Speaker 1: he was obviously at Oklahoma State, Ohio, State Texas. More
Speaker 1: recently it is yoursitch.
Speaker 2: By the way, your sitch did a quick fact check.
Speaker 1: You got it right, thank you. Has some ties to Shippensburg,
Speaker 1: which is also smaller school in state of Pennsylvania. So
Speaker 1: now coming back to the Great State of PA and
Speaker 1: I like this move for a couple of reasons. First
Speaker 1: and foremost, we talked about James Franklin seemingly having a
Speaker 1: quick hook to get rid of Kirk Shiaka, friend of
Speaker 1: the show. Kirk absolutely of course doesn't know it, but
Speaker 1: he is doesn't know it, but he is so didn't
Speaker 1: feel like it was working out with Shiraka and now
Speaker 1: goes to usage. What I like about this move is
Speaker 1: that Usich has coached himself a pretty good quarterback in
Speaker 1: his day. I feel like he's someone who can bring
Speaker 1: a lot to that position grouping at Penn State, And frankly,
Speaker 1: it's a position grouping that has the most questions for
Speaker 1: this team moving forward in twenty twenty. So I like
Speaker 1: the fact that you're bringing in a guy who was
Speaker 1: coach quarterbacks before, who knows how to run an up tempo,
Speaker 1: high flying offense. I don't necessarily blame it all on
Speaker 1: Kirk Shiraka last year. I don't think Sean Clifford is
Speaker 1: the answer was the answer at quarterback. I hope they
Speaker 1: go in a different direction this year, and I like
Speaker 1: starting over with a guy of Usich's prowess at that
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator position. The thing is, and here's why I
Speaker 1: think you number two overall pick. Yes, here's why I
Speaker 1: think you wrinkled your brow. If I look at like
Speaker 1: SP plus rankings, Penn State's offense, by comparison last year
Speaker 1: was not necessarily the worst offense in the world. Like,
Speaker 1: we're not talking a half team. We're talking about a
Speaker 1: bit of a frustrating team.
Speaker 2: To say they weren't a half team because they were
Speaker 2: just a team that was at best average, they were
Speaker 2: sixtieth and points per drive on offense, forty seventh on defense.
Speaker 2: So there was not one side of the ball that
Speaker 2: was dramatically better than.
Speaker 1: The They were frustrating is what they were. I feel
Speaker 1: like he gives them a lot of lyft, especially at
Speaker 1: that quarterback position. So I'm going to go with him
Speaker 1: as my number two overall pick. Homer pick.
Speaker 2: I think that's a terrible pick. Great, yes, and it's okay.
Speaker 2: It's okay because if nothing else, I have proven myself
Speaker 2: to be wrong a lot I did. I mean, it
Speaker 2: was my quarterback for a dramatically improved Penn State. It's
Speaker 2: either going to be Sean Clifford will Levis laugh now
Speaker 2: that would have been a better answer, or it's going
Speaker 2: to be somebody with essentially no playing time or a
Speaker 2: true freshman or something like that. And so it's hard
Speaker 2: to imagine, even with the improvement that we saw at
Speaker 2: skill positions, when the younger guys started getting more touches
Speaker 2: near the end of that season, near the end of
Speaker 2: last year, I just if I'm going to see a
Speaker 2: dramatically improved offense. I mean, I heard you say hope,
Speaker 2: like five and a half times, so it's a dice roll.
Speaker 2: You might be.
Speaker 1: Getting all dice rolls. Though.
Speaker 2: I think the town level is high enough at LSU.
Speaker 2: That and the fact that they looked like they did
Speaker 2: and I know the players are different, and it was
Speaker 2: a senior laid and upperclassmen laden team two years ago
Speaker 2: when LSU won the national championship. But the recruiting has
Speaker 2: been so high and defense is so much more about
Speaker 2: effort to me and just buy in that if early
Speaker 2: on in the season you have a group of guys
Speaker 2: on defense, starters on defense, rotation, guys that are just
Speaker 2: not bought in and don't feel prepared, the season can
Speaker 2: away from you quickly. I think you can get buy
Speaker 2: in from an offense, but if you don't have a quarterback,
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how much it actually matters. And so, okay,
Speaker 2: that's real, pretty serious spot. I think Penn State is in.
Speaker 2: But it's okay, It's okay.
Speaker 1: To be wrong.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, you're up, all right, the pick is in.
Speaker 2: I think we should we should rotate, by the way,
Speaker 2: rotate like our first two. My first pick was a
Speaker 2: defensive coordinator in yours was an offensive today. I'll next, Okay,
Speaker 2: my next one is going to be offense. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go grimey at Baylor. Jeff Grimes, all right, continue new
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator. Baylor has interesting guys on offense. And we
Speaker 2: know the problem with Baylor. I mean, it's been largely
Speaker 2: rooted in either not having playmakers or trying to run
Speaker 2: an offense behind a pretty terrible offensive line. Charlie Brewer
Speaker 2: was running for his life these past few years. Jeff
Speaker 2: Grimes comes in having called the number two points per
Speaker 2: drive offense last year at BYU. Has an offensive line background,
Speaker 2: which doesn't necessari mean anything if you don't have good
Speaker 2: offensive lineman. But I do like that background. I like
Speaker 2: how creative BYU was. It was a lot of RPO stuff,
Speaker 2: which is an offense that should be able to find
Speaker 2: any team free yards if you can teach a quarterback.
Speaker 2: And I do think there's talent there betweens what Zeno
Speaker 2: and Bohannan. I know they have some interesting guys there.
Speaker 2: It didn't work out with Larry Fedora. I think the
Speaker 2: Baylor defense will largely put the Baylor offense in a
Speaker 2: pretty good position after a promising first year under Dave Randa.
Speaker 2: I personally see a coordinator with a mustache, and I
Speaker 2: see a coordinator who not only am I going to
Speaker 2: have a very difficult time not calling Frank Grimes from
Speaker 2: The Simpsons If you remember that episode, look at You,
Speaker 2: you went to Space, You're eating lobster. He calls himself
Speaker 2: Grimey on Twitter, so I can always call him Grimey.
Speaker 2: And I think that the year two improvement will be
Speaker 2: somewhat pronounced. There's something about me that actually likes when
Speaker 2: you have the marriage between a new coordinator and a
Speaker 2: new starting quarterback, as if somebody doesn't need to relearn
Speaker 2: how to operate an offense in game that they are
Speaker 2: just everybody's starting on the same page. Now, it's still
Speaker 2: the infancy to call back to a previous show of
Speaker 2: the Dave Randa era, But I think there's going to
Speaker 2: be a floor jump for Baylor's offense that as I
Speaker 2: look right now, Baylor's offense and points per drive a
Speaker 2: d analytic metric that I enjoy one to twelve, So
Speaker 2: lot of room for a pronounced vork from the Baylor Bears.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna go with griming. I mean, look, Zach
Speaker 2: Wilson's going to be a top what five pick in
Speaker 2: the NFL Draft right hard to say. Well, I hope
Speaker 2: he'll do for Baylor what he did for BYU, But
Speaker 2: he's been around major college football, Auburn, LSU. I feel
Speaker 2: good about Jeff Grimes and a creative enough, efficient enough
Speaker 2: offense at Baylor that they are going to ascend at
Speaker 2: least somewhat dramatically.
Speaker 1: I like it. I do like it. Okay, what do
Speaker 1: you know about Vandy this coming year? Dan room for improvement? Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of Vork potential there.
Speaker 2: Yep, I would say so.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go way off the radar with Jesse
Speaker 1: Minter defensive new defensive coordinator for Vanderbilt, the youngest looking
Speaker 1: coach I've ever seen. He was previously the Ravens defensive
Speaker 1: backs coach, and he is going to replace ted Roof
Speaker 1: much the way I have a negative relationship with John
Speaker 1: Donovan forma act offensive member of the stave for Penn
Speaker 1: Statebilt and Vanderbilt. Yeh, ted Roof. Ted Roof also has
Speaker 1: some deep roots into the Penn State community, and last
Speaker 1: year his defense or Vandy was terrible. Now I understand
Speaker 1: it's Vandy, I understands some the easiest place to do
Speaker 1: anything from a football standpoint, but they were really bad
Speaker 1: and Ted Ruff sort of has a track record, Oh,
Speaker 1: he definitely does, not really being that good of a
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator. So I think there's a lot of room
Speaker 1: for provement with jesse Minter comes over from the Ravens
Speaker 1: starting anew with Clark Lee, also a defensive minded coach,
Speaker 1: someone who knows Vanderbilt wanted that job, clearly is going
Speaker 1: to be working very closely with jesse Minter to try
Speaker 1: and build this defense up. If my numbers are correct here,
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure what your d analytics have to say,
Speaker 1: is one hundred and sixth in the nation in SP
Speaker 1: plus defense. Their marginal efficiency on defense last year was
Speaker 1: one twenty seven. There aren't a whole lot of numbers
Speaker 1: here that are in the green. Average third down distance
Speaker 1: is the only one, and Blitz's per drop back is
Speaker 1: the second. Everything else stinks defensively, so a lot of
Speaker 1: room for upper mobility working with a defensive coach.
Speaker 2: So he was at Georgia State as a defensive coordinator,
Speaker 2: what did he do with the Ravens defensive backs coach
Speaker 2: dB secondary coach? Okay, because what Michigan also plundered the
Speaker 2: staff of the Baltimore Ravens with Mike McDonald, right, Mike McDonald,
Speaker 2: YEAHO different, different, Mike mcdifferent, guys, but as far as
Speaker 2: we know, yeah, banking on a Vanderbilt defense to take
Speaker 2: a big jump. Now you have the Clark Lee element
Speaker 2: to having your head coach, but we had the Derek
Speaker 2: Mason element. He called a ton of really good defenses
Speaker 2: for Stanford, and Vanderbilt's defense at you know, early on
Speaker 2: in Derek Mason's tenure was interesting. I don't know if
Speaker 2: really strong is the correct way to describe it, but
Speaker 2: definitely interesting against some lesser opponents.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 2: I think the strength of Vanderbilt moving forward, knowing that
Speaker 2: the talent isn't fully there right now, is the fact
Speaker 2: that we have what a full new staff at South Carolina,
Speaker 2: a new offensive coordinator at Kentucky. Georgia's offense should be good.
Speaker 2: New quarterback at Florida Tennessee feels like it's full full
Speaker 2: square one down to the studs. So there are similar
Speaker 2: boats in the SEC East. Now Missoo should have a
Speaker 2: pretty nice offense. We assume we'll see, but's it's not
Speaker 2: the worst time to be working in a new defense.
Speaker 2: A new team whatever, as most teams it seems like,
Speaker 2: are in some way rebuilding or refreshing and spring cleaning
Speaker 2: in the SEC East. So I don't hate this pick.
Speaker 2: I just don't know enough about Jesse Minter to know
Speaker 2: how I feel about his potential in the short term.
Speaker 1: So all right, huge Jesse guy right here entire. I
Speaker 1: always claim to be always you know, the Minter Cast
Speaker 1: coming soon to your favorite podcast app. Where are we
Speaker 1: going next?
Speaker 2: Dan?
Speaker 1: You're up?
Speaker 2: Okay, the pick is in and I need to select
Speaker 2: a defensive coordinator. I'm tempted to go in one direction,
Speaker 2: although I don't want to give my hand away. Actually,
Speaker 2: so I'm going to go with my pick. Indeed, it's
Speaker 2: Tim de Ruter at Oregon. I'm gonna go with my
Speaker 2: homework pick here because of the talent level, because of
Speaker 2: the quarterback situation of the opponents on Oregon schedule. Tim
Speaker 2: de Ruter season defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: He called a really, really good cal defense and I
Speaker 2: believe twenty eighteen and his specialty is linebackers. If you
Speaker 2: remember Evan Weaver all over the place and known to
Speaker 2: be especially strong in terms of confusing opposing quarterbacks. You
Speaker 2: always did well against Mike Leach and the air raid.
Speaker 2: So there is something about Tim de Ruter now moving
Speaker 2: on from Cal to a team. And I know Cal
Speaker 2: has has had NFL caliber defensive backs, but Oregon has
Speaker 2: recruited extraordinarily well on the defensive side of the ball,
Speaker 2: and they have two five star linebackers they've recorded, They've
Speaker 2: recruited corner exceedingly well. Safety is a bit green and
Speaker 2: a question still right now, but they've gotten pretty deep
Speaker 2: on this defense. They're good up front and when this
Speaker 2: Oregon defense is at its best, and was at its
Speaker 2: best under Andy Avlos these past couple of years, they
Speaker 2: were not allowing a ton and we saw it in
Speaker 2: the USC game to win the Pac twelve championship, just
Speaker 2: completely swarming USC upfront and getting after Keaton Slovas. I
Speaker 2: think Tim de Ruter will be a welcome edition Oregon
Speaker 2: last year because of some down games finished. I'm seeing
Speaker 2: right now in the points per Drive on defense, it
Speaker 2: looks to be seventy third nationally in twenty twenty, and
Speaker 2: you know, a very small sample size. I think they
Speaker 2: it's an easy move up into the top twenty, top twenty,
Speaker 2: excuse me, top thirty. Like in the twenties. I think
Speaker 2: you can have a pronounced improvement there. So Tim de
Speaker 2: Ruter the pick to me Oregon not needing to fix
Speaker 2: a defense necessarily.
Speaker 1: That was going to be very good. See, that was
Speaker 1: going to be my question much the way. It's not
Speaker 1: fully in the spirit, but they do. But it was
Speaker 1: a defense that was below average last year. They just
Speaker 1: didn't fire their defensive coordinator. He moved on to a
Speaker 1: head coaching job, but still a defense overall that needed
Speaker 1: to be ironed out a bit. Okay, seventy third below average? Fair,
Speaker 1: that's fair? Okay, Yeah, well I like the higher as well.
Speaker 1: I think I'm with you. So, okay, what do I
Speaker 1: have to pick? Offensive coordinator?
Speaker 2: You have to pick?
Speaker 1: You just picked Jesse Minter, longtime friend of yoursally huge.
Speaker 2: Give me an offensive coordinator, a spring cleaning spring cleaning coordinator.
Speaker 2: Vork I am so tempted to go with this pick.
Speaker 2: I don't know anything about either of these guys. Maybe
Speaker 2: we could talk it through, but I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 1: I just have to. Okay, because LSU has hired the
Speaker 1: combo of Jake Pets and DJ Mangus, which really does
Speaker 1: sound like it could be an ed m band, Pete's.
Speaker 2: And Mangus DJ Mangus, Yeah, I mean, let's hope things
Speaker 2: work out better than you know, any sort of involvement
Speaker 2: with DJ Diurkin, so I'm good with it. Or I
Speaker 2: mean DJ Benga had a decent tenth man career for
Speaker 2: the Lakers. If you remember DJ Qualls, if you remember,
Speaker 2: was he road trip? I believe it was a roads Yeah.
Speaker 2: DJ Tanner's different.
Speaker 1: D Yeah, D just goes by D. Pete and Mangus
Speaker 1: could also be a drive time sports talk show. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Steve Ansminger retired and ed Orgeron is now I think
Speaker 1: trying to recapture the old Joe Brady magic. And you
Speaker 1: see this elsewhere in college football. It's not just LSU the.
Speaker 2: It was also what a Scott Lenehan situation last year
Speaker 2: as well for LSU.
Speaker 1: Right he was the passing game coordinator and they decided
Speaker 1: to move on from him. So Pete and Magas were
Speaker 1: both added from the Carolina Panthers staff and they worked
Speaker 1: under Joe Brady, who was formerly the LSU offensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: Obviously part of that once in a generation national championship
Speaker 1: season that led Joe Burrow to the number one overall,
Speaker 1: pick LS was really bad last year. They were really
Speaker 1: bad last year on a number of different fronts. What
Speaker 1: you're gonna tell me they weren't they weren't as bad.
Speaker 1: I think that's harsh.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're still talking about a team that destroyed
Speaker 2: South Carolina with essentially a first time quarterback and with
Speaker 2: weird circumstances to beat Florida on the road, like really bad.
Speaker 2: Their defense was bad, but I think they were okay,
Speaker 2: which for LSU was really bad. But I don't think
Speaker 2: they were a really bad team.
Speaker 1: They had their issues at the quarterback spot, I mean,
Speaker 1: and they bounced around a little bit because yep, obviously
Speaker 1: they had the injury to Miles Brannan. We saw TJ.
Speaker 1: Finley for a while, We saw Max Johnson eventually take
Speaker 1: over that spot and do really well towards the end
Speaker 1: of the year. So you know, they've obviously got enough
Speaker 1: to work with. I think the thing with LSU, and
Speaker 1: I know something that's driven LSU fans crazy forever is
Speaker 1: maximizing that talent, getting the most out of it the
Speaker 1: way they did the year that Joe Burrow was there.
Speaker 1: But they were just incredibly effective on offense. So I
Speaker 1: think it has nowhere to go but up. Last year
Speaker 1: may have been a weird year. I like starting over.
Speaker 1: I like kind of retooling the entire STAB, both on
Speaker 1: offense and defense and trying to bring some new blood in.
Speaker 1: I don't I guess the risk here is that are
Speaker 1: they trying to find the next Joe Brady's.
Speaker 2: Well, that's fine, I mean you can that's a good
Speaker 2: search if you can find. If you are finding the
Speaker 2: next Joe Brady, you are finding a crazy talented coordinator.
Speaker 1: They just need to get better in terms of their
Speaker 1: efficiency the quarterback. Notwithstanding, this is a team that just
Speaker 1: look had to replace a lot and had Jamar Chase
Speaker 1: opt out, and it just was a tough year to
Speaker 1: try and build a new after again a once in
Speaker 1: a generation season. So efficiency is I think going to
Speaker 1: be paramount, getting more bang for the buck if they
Speaker 1: can do that, even if it's not quite to their
Speaker 1: what twenty nineteen levels, which seems impossible, any step up
Speaker 1: in terms of efficiency I think is a pretty big deal.
Speaker 1: So let's go Petez and Mangus because I like the
Speaker 1: name and I get two for one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, when you look at what LSU did,
Speaker 2: Elsie I have it as eighty third on offensive points
Speaker 2: per drive, so a ton of room for improvement. The
Speaker 2: quarterback room isn't a great place. Miles Brennan, before he
Speaker 2: got hurt, was plenty good to be the quarterback of
Speaker 2: a winning SEC team. He was accurate enough, he did
Speaker 2: not turn the ball over that much. He was totally fine,
Speaker 2: if not good. He just followed up Joe Brady, excuse me,
Speaker 2: Joe Burrow. And that's a tall task, and you get
Speaker 2: hurt and you have to start relying on green dudes
Speaker 2: like TJ. Finley and Max Johnson. I kind of really
Speaker 2: liked Max Johnson. I thought there was some zaz to
Speaker 2: his game, kind of athletic, made plays when things broke down.
Speaker 2: I liked Max Johnson. I don't know, he just seems
Speaker 2: fascinating to me. I guess so yeah. I mean as
Speaker 2: far as Pets and Mangus, obviously younger guys and you know,
Speaker 2: experience in that system, experience with Joe Brady with the.
Speaker 1: Panthers, I like to pick a lot.
Speaker 2: I think even an average LSU offense, given the talent
Speaker 2: they have at quarterback, given what they bring back at receiver. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean they can immediately get back to be a
Speaker 2: top twenty in terms of this metric. Yeah, I think
Speaker 2: that's a great pick from you.
Speaker 1: They have all the tools that they need. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: have all the tools that they need to come in
Speaker 1: there and make an impact. Again, I think it's risky
Speaker 1: to even have in the back of your mind that
Speaker 1: you're getting the next Joe Brady Joe Brady's But sure,
Speaker 1: I appreciate going out and trying to bring some new
Speaker 1: blood in and effectively effectively reboot.
Speaker 2: It's a really good thing to me. It's a really
Speaker 2: good thing when a head coach goes out and goes
Speaker 2: to people he knows and trusts and say, this guy
Speaker 2: isn't your offensive coordinator, or like, you don't have an
Speaker 2: opening offensive coordinator, but if you did, who would you target,
Speaker 2: and saying these two guys, this guy, this guy whatever,
Speaker 2: Piets and Mangus. I mean, if that works out, it's
Speaker 2: always going to be better to me to get a
Speaker 2: reference of a guy you don't necessarily know, but say
Speaker 2: to yourself, the recommendations, the references are there, and the
Speaker 2: track records seems to be building. Sure, because the Polini thing,
Speaker 2: the Linehan thing, there is something that reeks of Okay,
Speaker 2: I did it this way. I'm feeling very confident that
Speaker 2: my guys are the way to go. That's that's how
Speaker 2: ed Oorzron found Joe Brady. I'm sort of all over
Speaker 2: the place there. But he went to Sean Payton, and
Speaker 2: he went to Joe Morehead. These guys that Joe Brady
Speaker 2: had worked with him, like, what do you think about
Speaker 2: this guy? And they like, across the board, that is
Speaker 2: the smartest guy in the room. So if Joe Brady
Speaker 2: is giving this recommendation, it seems worthwhile to kick those tires.
Speaker 1: Okay. So I like, you're up to pick what a
Speaker 1: defensive guy?
Speaker 2: No, I just picked Tim de Ruder. I'm due for
Speaker 2: offense since this one is tough for me. This one
Speaker 2: is really tough. But I guess if we're looking for vork,
Speaker 2: if we're looking for room for improvement, I'm going to
Speaker 2: select the team with the number ninety two points per
Speaker 2: drive offense in twenty twenty, that's Kentucky hiring Leo Cohen. Okay,
Speaker 2: Liam Cohen from of course, ty, if you're going to
Speaker 2: hire somebody, if they're not if they don't come recommended
Speaker 2: by Joe Brady, they better come recommended by Sean mcvay'
Speaker 2: and that's exactly what Liam Cohen is, somebody who's recommended
Speaker 2: by Sean McVay to Mark Stoops at Kentucky. The problem
Speaker 2: with Kentucky right now is the quarterback position. I mean,
Speaker 2: it could be Joey Gatewood, it could be Will Levis.
Speaker 2: There's a freshman in there who I think is probably
Speaker 2: better built for a more traditional offense than a more
Speaker 2: running offense, which Will Levis and Joey Gatewood were counted
Speaker 2: on for their legs a little bit more, it seems,
Speaker 2: in the past, than their ability to scan the field
Speaker 2: and make plays with their arms. So I'm going to
Speaker 2: go with Kentucky. I'm gonna go with the experience at receiver,
Speaker 2: even though it was not a popping offense. I believe
Speaker 2: Chris Rodriguez is back. This is a program that has
Speaker 2: developed offensive lineman and you know, if I'm going to
Speaker 2: be like you know every other person hiring offensive coaches
Speaker 2: and roll with the Sean McVay tree, so be it.
Speaker 2: I'm going with Liam Cohen. I'm going with Kentucky for
Speaker 2: similar reasons. I mean, we have rebuilding Tennessee, South Carolina Vanderbilt,
Speaker 2: so if Kentucky's offense and quarterback position rises to consistently competent.
Speaker 2: And I like Terry Wilson, but he was sort of
Speaker 2: a three to four yard passer at a time. He
Speaker 2: was not really a big downfield guy. So if they
Speaker 2: can get that downfield element within that offense.
Speaker 1: Obviously, this is.
Speaker 2: Sort of how I ragged on you for selecting Mike.
Speaker 1: Rzich, saying I was going to be my next point.
Speaker 2: The quarterback position is not anywhere near settled, but yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm going to roll with that Situationally, I think
Speaker 2: it's Bo Allen. I don't know if it's Bo or
Speaker 2: b Eau, it's both something. I think it's Bo Allen,
Speaker 2: who is the promising younger quarterback, so because of the
Speaker 2: skill talent. Oh and what doesn't Wandale Robinson enter the
Speaker 2: fold for Kentucky. I believe he does so an interesting
Speaker 2: weapon there in a way that they haven't had, I
Speaker 2: guess since Lin Bowden a couple of years ago, all
Speaker 2: the way back in twenty nineteen. I'm going to go
Speaker 2: with Kentucky and Liam Cohn.
Speaker 1: I don't think I played the draft chime, but I'll
Speaker 1: play it for me. Play it now, Yeah, I like
Speaker 1: that pick. I also appreciate that you've left Don Brown
Speaker 1: waiting for so this is an interesting conversation. Continue, Yeah,
Speaker 1: waiting for me in the green room. Don Brown comes
Speaker 1: over from Michigan, longtime defensive coordiator for Michigan at least
Speaker 1: since the Horriball era. He is now going to Tucson
Speaker 1: with Jedfish. So I like the hire by Jedfish. Jedfish was,
Speaker 1: per what we understand, kind of preferred by some at
Speaker 1: the university, but maybe not everyone, so a mixed hire
Speaker 1: in some regresident loves him, president loves him. Arizona.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe we.
Speaker 1: Should rely more on what the university presidents think versus
Speaker 1: athletic directors and light of the Jeff Long stuff. But
Speaker 1: that aside, Jed Fish is the guy. He went out
Speaker 1: and he hired I think a known commodity in Don Brown.
Speaker 1: Don Brown, I was reading, gave some interesting comments to
Speaker 1: a local paper when asked about what went wrong at
Speaker 1: Michigan and you know, I mean he'd been there a while,
Speaker 1: but cited COVID the pandemic for lack of practice in
Speaker 1: the spring, talked about some of the upper classmen that
Speaker 1: he had at Michigan, but the lack of depth at
Speaker 1: defense and how you know it just was diminishing returns
Speaker 1: there over the last couple of years, and it sort
Speaker 1: of culminated in a goofy year where you couldn't quite
Speaker 1: do everything that you needed to. I think he has
Speaker 1: to be better, just has to be better than what
Speaker 1: Arizona had previously. Now here's where I do think he
Speaker 1: gets interesting. Had from a friend of the solid verbal
Speaker 1: that was gonna be my point. Paul Rhodes was the
Speaker 1: former defensive coordinator who for a long time has been
Speaker 1: a pretty good defensive mind in and around college football.
Speaker 2: It's been a minute, it's been a minute, it's been.
Speaker 1: A minute, but he at least has that reputation. I
Speaker 1: like Don Brown. Don Brown's an older gentleman, He's been
Speaker 1: around the game for a long time. I like the
Speaker 1: move for him to go out to Arizona where they
Speaker 1: have not had a defense in forever. I certainly hope
Speaker 1: that Jedfish makes that a priority, and I think Don
Speaker 1: Brown's a good guy to help him do that. So
Speaker 1: they got to be better than where they were Dan
Speaker 1: they just they have to be better than where they were.
Speaker 1: They were dreadful dreadful in every defensive category last year.
Speaker 1: I can't find any green, any green on this chart,
Speaker 1: so it has to improve. If we're talking strictly about Vork,
Speaker 1: there's certainly a lot of potential to move up. So
Speaker 1: this is kind of a Vandy esque pick here with
Speaker 1: I mean, certainly Don Brown doesn't have the name recognition
Speaker 1: of Jesse Minter, but he's up there.
Speaker 2: Arizona finished one hundred and twenty first in deventsive points
Speaker 2: per drive allowed, culminating in what was seventy to seven
Speaker 2: or something against ASU to finish out the twenty twenty season,
Speaker 2: and it just it didn't work. It didn't work. The
Speaker 2: problem to me with Arizona and Don Brown is, I
Speaker 2: mean Arizona's hiring discount Don. If Don Brown were in
Speaker 2: high demand, he would have gone to somewhere bigger than Tucson,
Speaker 2: which is kind of college football exile right now, middle
Speaker 2: of the desert, away from the bright lights of college football.
Speaker 2: Hope Jed Fish gets it going in Tucson for the Cats.
Speaker 2: You know, fun environment when things are when things are
Speaker 2: going well. But I always hesitate with grabbing a guy
Speaker 2: coming down from success to a media and out was
Speaker 2: very strange.
Speaker 1: We know this.
Speaker 2: This is the the unspoken disclaimer at the top of
Speaker 2: every show in which we talk about twenty twenty games
Speaker 2: in the season. But it's a pretty strong quarterback division
Speaker 2: Keaton Slovas and Jaden Daniels and dtr There's there's talent there,
Speaker 2: and the recruiting has been so bad at Arizona that
Speaker 2: while I'm with you in terms of Arizona's defense should
Speaker 2: improve because there's only kind of one direction to go,
Speaker 2: I don't know how dramatically it can improve if the
Speaker 2: talent isn't there. The talent was absolutely there at Michigan,
Speaker 2: less so at Boston College, where he had excellent defenses.
Speaker 2: He is unquestionably somebody with an incredible defensive track record.
Speaker 2: I just wonder if he can be that extreme chopped
Speaker 2: defensive coordinator like we'd like to talk about top chef
Speaker 2: versus chopped, iron chef versus chopped you know, the greatest ingredients.
Speaker 2: Whatever players are not food. But still I hesitate. I
Speaker 2: hesitate here in terms of year one, I think it
Speaker 2: could be like ninety nine and there's no appreciable difference
Speaker 2: off to our eyes week over week watching Arizona football.
Speaker 2: So that's why I hesitated. I like the pick because
Speaker 2: he does also have a mustache.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I need the mustache.
Speaker 2: Also, majority of his experiences in what the Midwest and
Speaker 2: the Northeast that worries me a little bit too. So
Speaker 2: we'll see. We will absolutely see. So I need to
Speaker 2: go from what Liam Cohen to a defensive coordinator?
Speaker 1: Correct, all right?
Speaker 2: This one, I like, I'm going Pete Quakowski at.
Speaker 1: Your boy you love he can't shut up about Pete.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's me. I talked Pete Quitkowski all the time
Speaker 2: co defensive coordinator at Washington now Texas forty ninth, I'm
Speaker 2: seeing right now a lot of miss tackles. If you
Speaker 2: watched Texas football last year, the effort, the injuries. Strange
Speaker 2: season for sure, But I think the Pete Quitkowski hire
Speaker 2: could be super interesting because those Washington teams he both coordinators,
Speaker 2: and he coordinated and co coordinated with Jimmy Lake before
Speaker 2: Jimmy Lake became head coach. You know, the two really
Speaker 2: deep safeties that Washington team was happy to let you
Speaker 2: nickel and dime them, but they were not getting beat deep.
Speaker 2: They developed a ton of real equality players in the secondary.
Speaker 2: Even though Peoklkowski's experience is largely upfront. I think that
Speaker 2: specific defense paired with an unquestioned talent level. I know
Speaker 2: secondary took some lumps, and perhaps some of those blue
Speaker 2: chip recruits didn't quite live up to their potential these
Speaker 2: past few years, But up front, I kind of love
Speaker 2: what Texas had. Now I'm not being seduced into your
Speaker 2: you know, Texas's back thing, but I think the job
Speaker 2: that Qwikowski has at Texas is a pretty quick fix.
Speaker 2: I'm not fully in love with the big twelve top
Speaker 2: to bottom at quarterback and on offense. I think talent wise,
Speaker 2: effort wise, I think it's going to go up. Obviously,
Speaker 2: there was a year of Chris ash last year after
Speaker 2: Todd Orlando was let go, so that sort of changed
Speaker 2: with a short season, a weird season. I'm going to
Speaker 2: go that full refresh being a quality, quality thing for
Speaker 2: the Texas defense. I think they can go from what
Speaker 2: did I say, forty ninth yep. I think I've got
Speaker 2: to make sure, yeah, forty ninth. I think they can
Speaker 2: get into eighteen to twenty five somewhere there pretty quickly
Speaker 2: with him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I forgot to play it again. By the way,
Speaker 1: I apologize, please play it now, Okay. So, I think
Speaker 1: this is probably our last, like one or two picks here,
Speaker 1: since we're running a bit long in the tooth. I
Speaker 1: wanted to throw out Dan Enos at Maryland.
Speaker 2: Whoa okay, sell me.
Speaker 1: This is a weird pick, I understand, and I am
Speaker 1: trading on dan Enos's ties to the tongue of Iloa family. Essentially, yeah,
Speaker 1: so flashes he did. Scotty Montgomery was formerly the offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator part of ways. A few days after, you know,
Speaker 1: after the season, and then they announced that Danny Noos
Speaker 1: was coming aboard. Dannys has had a couple stops along
Speaker 1: the way. I remember, you know, obviously his time at Alabama.
Speaker 1: He was supposed to be kind of like the savior
Speaker 1: of the Miami offense. That didn't work out at all,
Speaker 1: so mixed bag, but still kind of has a good
Speaker 1: name to trade on. And did he have I think so?
Speaker 2: I mean, whose name Dan la Fever's. I'm just wondering.
Speaker 2: I just want to know. I'm just here asking questions
Speaker 2: time about these stabs.
Speaker 1: Don't ruin this for me?
Speaker 2: Wasn't he knows the guy who just left Alabama without
Speaker 2: telling Micksaban was leaving like he was supposed to show
Speaker 2: up to a morning guy.
Speaker 1: I just said in terms of.
Speaker 2: I think he refutes that story, but that is a
Speaker 2: story about him at all. I'm taking the Miami job.
Speaker 1: In terms of being a football mind. Yeah, the Maryland
Speaker 1: offense wasn't terrible last year. I think it was better
Speaker 1: than expected. But I think if Taliah is going to
Speaker 1: be the guy moving forward, and given that Danny Nose
Speaker 1: has some familiarity there with with the family, I just
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a pretty good spot to be in.
Speaker 1: There's always room for improvement at Maryland, at least in
Speaker 1: the early going now under the Mike Loxley. Mike Loxley tenure.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, Uh, we know he loves the DMV. We
Speaker 1: know he can recruit the DMV. That's not who were
Speaker 1: you drafting though? No, But I feel like it's another situation,
Speaker 1: low key, where they are going to be an increasing
Speaker 1: number of tools that he has to work with. So
Speaker 1: let's go dan.
Speaker 2: Is it is it Mike Loxley's offense?
Speaker 1: Though?
Speaker 2: Is this like it's one of those things where like
Speaker 2: we could I told you we can't draft Kyle Flood
Speaker 2: because this is Steve Sarkeesian's offense at Texas. So I
Speaker 2: don't know the answer to that. You took, you took
Speaker 2: Danny Nose, So I don't know who's whose mind, whose playbook,
Speaker 2: who's calling the plays on game day maybe hasn't even
Speaker 2: been determined yet. But that's that's a question for me
Speaker 2: with this pick. Also, I'm sure you have somebody in
Speaker 2: your life like this, or solid wife Kate has somebody
Speaker 2: in her life like this that posts a lot on
Speaker 2: social media every so often. They post every so often
Speaker 2: there's a new significant other. You're like, huh, I thought
Speaker 2: she was with the guy, dark hair, kind of curly,
Speaker 2: now a buzz cut, blonde, Okay, okay, And that is
Speaker 2: somewhat emblematic to me of Danny Knows recently where you
Speaker 2: just you squint a little longer at somebody who's just
Speaker 2: kind of island hopping as a coach, just just bopping
Speaker 2: around because up not working out. Up the found out
Speaker 2: I was this, well gotta go somewhere new. Well, let's
Speaker 2: see if they care. There's something to me about that
Speaker 2: with Danny Knows, completely unfounded. But that's why I always squint.
Speaker 2: I squint a little bit longer at the people who
Speaker 2: who pop up with a new boyfriend or girlfriend or
Speaker 2: something like that on social media every three months, just like,
Speaker 2: why don't we why don't we let something just play
Speaker 2: out a little longer?
Speaker 1: Right? All right? I don't know. Always concerns me. Red
Speaker 1: flag for me? Last round here, Dan, you get your
Speaker 1: last selection?
Speaker 2: So who did I just take? I just took Peakwakowski?
Speaker 2: So I had to go offense. Man, I really could
Speaker 2: not find somebody. I was really hoping to get in
Speaker 2: with both LSU sides of the ball. I do have
Speaker 2: myke Earsitch on my list. That was a late round
Speaker 2: flyer for me. All right, man, Okay, I'm gonna go.
Speaker 1: It's getting a little bit tricky here.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go. Yeah, thank you, I'm gonna go.
Speaker 1: Doug Meachumcu I mean, is he a new offensive coordinator?
Speaker 2: I mean he was a position coast last year, and
Speaker 2: he was an offensive coordinator many years ago for TCU.
Speaker 2: He was promoted like.
Speaker 1: I think its okay?
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I have Bobo down here as a potential pick,
Speaker 2: and I have Chip Long at Tulane after a year
Speaker 2: at Tennessee. Now the reason I hear you about Chip Long,
Speaker 2: I want to say, I looked it up, so Tulane
Speaker 2: last year they it looks like I'm seeing forty So
Speaker 2: not an awful offense. Not a ton of room for improvement.
Speaker 2: You know, Willie Fritz is gonna have his hands on
Speaker 2: the offense. But Notre Dame's offense did make a really
Speaker 2: nice jump about thirty spots and his I think his
Speaker 2: first year was twenty seventeen at Notre Dame, so that
Speaker 2: was interesting to me. I know they got a lot
Speaker 2: better in the red zone. I can't roll with Chip
Speaker 2: Loong and Tulane, so I guess I'm gonna go with
Speaker 2: Doug Meachum, former XFL recent XFL brief coordinator. There's something
Speaker 2: to me about an experienced quarterback. I kind of love
Speaker 2: Zach Evans on the ground. I think his potential is
Speaker 2: pretty interesting to me. So if TCU is not turning
Speaker 2: the ball over, I think they're gonna be. They finished
Speaker 2: sixty eighth last year, so there's room for improvement with TCU.
Speaker 2: I'm not nearly as seduced by TCU as you are.
Speaker 2: Yet over for three years now, you keep it and
Speaker 2: then you come back to the season, you're like they
Speaker 2: start to and O. I think there is something about
Speaker 2: the younger skill guys for TCU that it's not interesting
Speaker 2: to me about TCU as a whole, because I still
Speaker 2: I'm still extremely mixed on Max Duggan at best, but
Speaker 2: I'm glad he was healthy last year and was able
Speaker 2: to play after his scare over the summer. There's something
Speaker 2: about experience at quarterback and those skill position players that
Speaker 2: makes me thinking, I don't think the magic is back
Speaker 2: from twenty fourteen or anything like that, but that's gonna
Speaker 2: be my pick that there is there is some pixie
Speaker 2: dust in Fort Worth to be mined.
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: Is that okay with you? Did you even consider it?
Speaker 2: Was he on your board?
Speaker 1: No? No, I'm done with TCU.
Speaker 2: You know that I'm done, No, but that I'm just
Speaker 2: in terms of often who else is on your offensive
Speaker 2: or defensive board? I had Brad Lambert Purdue. I don't
Speaker 2: know if you want to make this pick right now. No,
Speaker 2: I have I think Marshall's defense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I looked at him, if only because he's taking
Speaker 1: over for Bob Diaco bobya oh yeah, and it's terrific
Speaker 1: head of hair. But I'm actually gonna go a different
Speaker 1: direction here. Here we go, I am getting in on
Speaker 1: the baby Ravens, Dan, That's what I'm doing. Okay, in
Speaker 1: on the baby Ravens. You know, I'm high on Jesse Minter.
Speaker 1: Let's go the other side of the coin and go
Speaker 1: with Michael McDonald oker for girl. Mike McDonald, as it were,
Speaker 1: he is the new defensive coordinator at Michigan, taking over
Speaker 1: for Don Brown.
Speaker 2: He's a co defensive coordinators. You get two.
Speaker 1: We got Mo Linguist too. I to get Yeah, you get.
Speaker 2: Two for one.
Speaker 1: I get the full stav there staff. Yeah. Yeah, Mike
Speaker 1: McDonald is thirty three years old.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a It's not that difficult anymore, knowing
Speaker 2: how young coaches are that are getting hired in college,
Speaker 2: successful coaches, coordinator's, position coaches, whatever. But when it's low thirties,
Speaker 2: high twenties, as I ascend to my mid to upper thirties,
Speaker 2: it's tougher and tougher. I told Jody with and I
Speaker 2: was like, hey, Michigan's new defensive coordinators thirty three. She
Speaker 2: said he's he's nine years older than me.
Speaker 1: And I said, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2: So yeah, give me give me your your Mike McDonald's
Speaker 2: and Mo Linguist optimism.
Speaker 1: I don't know enough about either of these guys. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to pretend well, no, hold on, it's fine.
Speaker 1: I mean they were position coaches. In the NFL, there
Speaker 1: were position coaches. He comes over from the Ravens, so
Speaker 1: Jesse Minter defensive backs coach in this case, Mike McDonald,
Speaker 1: a linebackers coach, had a stint before that as a
Speaker 1: defensive backs coach. By all accounts, he is a young
Speaker 1: up and comer, started coaching while he was still in
Speaker 1: college at Georgia. Smart guy graduated from Georgia like Summa
Speaker 1: cum laud and was coaching at the high school level
Speaker 1: for a couple of years while he was still in school.
Speaker 1: So this is he knew he wanted to do this
Speaker 1: to some extent, right, He knew he had this in
Speaker 1: the back of his mind. He got a Manny Diaz
Speaker 1: on your hands. Maybe so he he was intern with
Speaker 1: the Ravens. He worked his way up and obviously now
Speaker 1: got this gig with Jim Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh, for what
Speaker 1: it's worth, probably reached out to his brother and was
Speaker 1: able to get a pretty good recommendation here on what
Speaker 1: Mike McDonald brought to the team. To your point though
Speaker 1: about Don Brown. Doesn't Jim Harbaugh already employ one brother?
Speaker 1: Isn't there a Jay on the staff? I believe there's
Speaker 1: a Jay Harbaugh. There are so many Harbas at this point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but here's here's here's the thing. There's room for improvement
Speaker 1: on that Michigan defense for all the reasons it didn't
Speaker 1: work out for Don Brown. He's the son of Jim,
Speaker 1: by the way, the son of Jim. Jim. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: Say what you want about Don Brown. I think we
Speaker 1: have a lot of respect for him. We love the mustache.
Speaker 1: There has been a situation at Michigan of diminishing returns
Speaker 1: and so now bringing new blood. They've got talent, hopefully
Speaker 1: depth is improved over a year ago. And we got
Speaker 1: a young guy who maybe brings some new energy to
Speaker 1: the side. That's all I got. I don't really, I
Speaker 1: don't know much here.
Speaker 2: What a fantasy thing it will probably be this year.
Speaker 2: Young coach brings new energy. Coach under Fordy brings new energy,
Speaker 2: new blood news as well. If we would have done
Speaker 2: it last year, we could have done the next Joe Brady.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, easily, easily. Now the best I mean, not
Speaker 2: even the best. I think two years ago Michigan's defense
Speaker 2: was pretty good, the top twenty five or so defense,
Speaker 2: and otherwise they've been kind of a top ten to
Speaker 2: fifteen unit under Don Brown. The concern for me is
Speaker 2: Don Brown's defense was so specific, and I know a
Speaker 2: lot he runs a lot of things, a lot of
Speaker 2: I just hit my microphone. I know he runs a
Speaker 2: lot of things that a lot of teams run, but
Speaker 2: he you know, he puts his corners out on an island.
Speaker 2: He as the specialized positions.
Speaker 1: Up front.
Speaker 2: You get the viper, which I think is the you know,
Speaker 2: the Jabrill Peppers outside linebackers, safety hybrid, and so they're
Speaker 2: very specific positions. And the way guys were recruited to
Speaker 2: this defense that's now being overhauled. The good news for Michigan, well,
Speaker 2: it was like I said before, defense is about, you know,
Speaker 2: effort and buy and whatever, and that's what leads to
Speaker 2: really strong tackling.
Speaker 1: It's just effort.
Speaker 2: It's just effort if you have the talent in place,
Speaker 2: and Michigan upfront along that defensive line. Upfront, linebacker, I
Speaker 2: now was pretty dicey. Secondary was pretty dicey last year,
Speaker 2: but upfront, at least with Donovan Jeter, with Aiden Hutchinson.
Speaker 2: There is there are bookends, There are interesting, big beefy
Speaker 2: bodies to build this defense upon, and so it's a
Speaker 2: really nice starting point. I don't know much about Mo Linguist.
Speaker 2: I know we bounced around college as a secondary coach
Speaker 2: for a while there and a bunch of different conferences
Speaker 2: and then ended up I think with the Cowboys last year,
Speaker 2: so I don't know much about his reputation as a coach.
Speaker 2: It seemed like some of his defenses improved when he arrived.
Speaker 2: But yeah, the McDonald think is interesting. I think it
Speaker 2: was certainly time for a complete refresh of the defense
Speaker 2: after last year and again nightmare of a year, but
Speaker 2: it was time. It was absolutely time. And you like
Speaker 2: to talk about Jim Harbaugh running his uh you know,
Speaker 2: coaching staff and his players into the ground and everybody
Speaker 2: needing evs his stabs or just his eight his staff.
Speaker 2: I am going to go with this being interesting. I mean,
Speaker 2: there's they finished one hundred and seventh last year in
Speaker 2: points allowed per drive, so the room for improvement is
Speaker 2: one hundred percent there. And also I just pulled up
Speaker 2: Michigan's schedule. Do you know who Michigan plays this year.
Speaker 2: Can I'm going to run through it with you and
Speaker 2: you tell me when I get to a probably good offense. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 2: all right, here we go. We're going to start with
Speaker 2: Western Michigan on September fourth.
Speaker 1: Nope, I don't. I'm not a big believer right now.
Speaker 2: And then we go to up It's self refreshing Washington
Speaker 2: pretty efficient last year, but I don't think Dylan Morris,
Speaker 2: and now that Puka Nakua, one of the receivers they
Speaker 2: are counted on, just entered the transfer portal I think
Speaker 2: is heading to BYU. I'm not a big believer right
Speaker 2: now in Washington Johnson offense, John Donovan offense. That game
Speaker 2: is in ann Arbor. Next next Northern Illinois, next Rutgers,
Speaker 2: next at Wisconsin. I'm not can you say right now,
Speaker 2: I don't know what today March tenth, probably good Wisconsin offense. No, no, no,
Speaker 2: I'm not there. I like where they at. I like
Speaker 2: where they're at running back, but otherwise at Nebraska, listen,
Speaker 2: I'm We're now into October ninth.
Speaker 1: Sorry, sorry, Northwestern. Okay, Now at Michigan State Indiana maybe
Speaker 1: so Indiana is a maybe probably good November sixth, and
Speaker 1: by the way, after that is at Penn State, maybe,
Speaker 1: at Maryland maybe, and then Ohio State and an arbor
Speaker 1: for sure. So are you on this podcast on March
Speaker 1: the eleventh, twenty twenty one, right here, right now, predicting
Speaker 1: eleven to one Michigan. I think that's what I'm hearing.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would be stupid not to. I'll be
Speaker 2: stupid not to. No, I'm just saying, situationally, if you're
Speaker 2: looking for buy low, they've recruited I think, well to
Speaker 2: very well. Better on offense, it seems, than defense. But
Speaker 2: all the same, they've recruited.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: The schedule this year is not filled with probable killers.
Speaker 2: So I mean, how many actual offenses are you scared
Speaker 2: of in the Big ten at this point after what
Speaker 2: we saw last year? Not many? In Ohio State is
Speaker 2: a new starting quarterback. He'll be good. Whoever it is,
Speaker 2: it'll be good. So I think pieces are in place
Speaker 2: to go from one oh seven to I don't know,
Speaker 2: thirty eight. Is that crazy? Doesn't seem like it.
Speaker 1: This is why we take Mike McDonald Dan Okay, forgot
Speaker 1: Mike McDonald, all right, So there you have it, don't
Speaker 1: forget to write in It's Oliver gmail dot com or
Speaker 1: by going to our website solid verbal dot com. Want
Speaker 1: to know your thoughts. We do have a Patreon where
Speaker 1: both you and I have been a lot more active lately. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I posted a video of me making pizza dough.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you posted the pizza dough video. I'm working on
Speaker 1: a little podcast video. It's like, are you too, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got I got a little something in the lab here.
Speaker 1: I've been working up in all my free time, you know,
Speaker 1: be working up something and and also been more active
Speaker 1: on the discord, which is a lot of fun, kind
Speaker 1: of in the moment.
Speaker 2: This morning we had a light debate of what was
Speaker 2: it AJ mccaren versus Who was ajmccaron versus Trace McSorley
Speaker 2: or something. Okay, this is what you do in March.
Speaker 1: This is this is what you do. I played my
Speaker 1: game on which did you watch? I did watch some.
Speaker 1: I lost Rylan not good. I lost thirty one twenty
Speaker 1: eight through an interception with nineteen seconds left against my
Speaker 1: friend Ah gave him an easy three. I lost.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I'm sorry, Ty, Yeah.
Speaker 1: But we got more more on the way. We knocked
Speaker 1: off Penn State and we got a game against app
Speaker 1: State against Notre Dame, and then I believe that the
Speaker 1: rivalry against Army to close out Navy. He so probably
Speaker 1: looking at a one lost season if all goes well.
Speaker 1: Can I ask you please? Was this a fun show?
Speaker 1: This is a fun It is okay, fun show, fun show, Okay,
Speaker 1: fun show, just okay? Talking about stabs was fun? Okay.
Speaker 1: Good for that guy over there, my good friend Danrewbstet
Speaker 1: For myself, Tie Hildebrand, thank you so much for downloading,
Speaker 1: for listening, for playing along with our madness. Have yourself
Speaker 1: a good weekend. We will catch you on the flip
Speaker 1: side of the meantime. Stay solid peace. But before we
Speaker 1: go any further, Danielle, I have a request, Tyler. Will
Speaker 1: you drop that slinking, slithering, slathering drum and five? Ah
Speaker 1: there it is hello, old friend Dan. We have two
Speaker 1: Patriot League games, two Patriot League games to discuss. As
Speaker 1: you know, the Patriot League is playing football this spring.
Speaker 1: Let's start here with the College of the Holy Cross
Speaker 1: traveling to Goodman Stadium high noon this coming Saturday to
Speaker 1: square off against yours mine, the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. DA mine.
Speaker 1: Let's say you.
Speaker 2: Get out of town with that accusation. Oh man, do
Speaker 2: I love gambling against the engineers, especially especially.
Speaker 1: You know the Crosssaders have been in the weight room.
Speaker 1: You know they're staying late after practice. You know they're
Speaker 1: they're feeling the beads of sweat with the prospect of
Speaker 1: taking down those knears. Give me the Crosssaders and give
Speaker 1: them to me, big look. You know, I gotta go
Speaker 1: lee High here. You know that.
Speaker 2: I don't think you have to. Who's gonna say anything.
Speaker 1: You gotta go Lehigh here. Give me the Mountain Hawks
Speaker 1: at home. They've had a lot of time to prepare
Speaker 1: to study the tape on Holy Cross. I feel good
Speaker 1: about the home team here. Okay, Colgate, hello old friend again. Yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: also traveling to the great state of PA, traveling just
Speaker 1: a few miles up the road to Easton to swear
Speaker 1: off against your Lafayette Leopards, Dan Rubinstein, That's.
Speaker 2: What I'm talking the Lafayete Leopards of both Papa Rubinstein
Speaker 2: and I forgot what we called her, Katie the Kapper. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's Katie the Kapper right way back when, also a
Speaker 2: proud Leopard.
Speaker 1: The audacity of the Gators of Colgate to think that
Speaker 1: they can just literally waltz into I think it's Fisher Stadium.
Speaker 2: That's right, Fisher Stadium. I've been to Easton, PA.
Speaker 1: I've seen how difficult it like.
Speaker 2: Just the noise. Forget the crowd noise during a football game.
Speaker 2: It just people of Easton bear on top of it.
Speaker 2: When you enter the town, the you know, the entrance.
Speaker 1: To the House stadium, the House of Pain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going Lafayette in an embarrassing fashion.
Speaker 1: Big. Absolutely, I'm going Gators here, Dan, you know, just
Speaker 1: by virtual going Lehigh, I feel it's required to go
Speaker 1: Colgate in opposition to either of these. Is are there
Speaker 1: people allowed in these stadiums? I have no idea, but
Speaker 1: I could probably just walk again if I really wanted to.
Speaker 2: Which is preferable?
Speaker 1: Goodman are fishing? Probably Goodman. It's a lot closer. So
Speaker 1: I'm not against it, Dan, I'm not against it. And
Speaker 1: actually I should hold on. I should fade the music
Speaker 1: out here. No, I like everyone to the final matchup.
Speaker 1: There was supposed to be a matchup between your fordum
Speaker 1: Rams and the Bucknell Bison, but New York's one. Sure, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that game has been postponed. So not off to the
Speaker 1: best start. Here with thirty three perstead of the scheduled
Speaker 1: games being canceled or postponed. But uh, spring football in
Speaker 1: the Patriot League is finally upon us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, where's that Lewisbourg, PA. That's where Bucknell is. How
Speaker 2: far are you from Lewis Bournon probably asked this before.
Speaker 1: Sorry about hour and forty five minutes.
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's not that close, So that's not really
Speaker 2: an option even if they were playing good to know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm going to focus on what we have instead of
Speaker 2: what we don't. And we have Lehigh and Lafayette hosting
Speaker 2: big game games. I believe our both are streaming right
Speaker 2: on ESPN Plus correct. So if you need your football
Speaker 2: fix this weekends, you know what to watch