Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal holleh for me, I'm a man,
Speaker 1: I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well, I
Speaker 1: want to be happy. You want to be happy for
Speaker 1: day Ato State? Is that whoo whoo? And no Dan
Speaker 1: and tie Dan Rubinstein.
Speaker 2: It is already our third third preview episode. We are
Speaker 2: well on our way to the twenty twenty six season.
Speaker 2: My friend, how are you today?
Speaker 1: Terrific? Ty I get to talk Mountain West Football America's conference,
Speaker 1: which is weird because there is an American conference, but no, nonetheless,
Speaker 1: I'm excited to talk Mountain West Pac twelve conference. Usay.
Speaker 1: It just when when I research these conferences, both in
Speaker 1: terms of who's new and the changes and the schedules
Speaker 1: and what went wrong or right last season, I don't
Speaker 1: I just I get filled with energy, Tye. I just
Speaker 1: there's there's a juice to it that I can't describe.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 1: So it's, you know, summertime and everybody's looking forward to
Speaker 1: the season. But when I'm really diving into it, I
Speaker 1: just I don't know, Man, I get the warm fuzzies
Speaker 1: you get that.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, it's not specific to these conferences,
Speaker 2: it's just in general, actually talking about football instead of
Speaker 2: what we're normally inventing throughout the month of May and June. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's definitely a welcome relief to actually have some football
Speaker 2: stuff to talk about. I should add an addendum onto
Speaker 2: your opening monologue there please. Yukon is also going to
Speaker 2: be included in today's preview episode. We didn't know where
Speaker 2: to put Yukon, so Yukon being one of two college
Speaker 2: football independents alongside Notre Dame, who, by the way, we
Speaker 2: will talk about Notre Dame in the upcoming acc preview.
Speaker 2: Yukon's going to be with these conferences today. Maybe at
Speaker 2: some point in the future they will decide to join
Speaker 2: one of these conferences. Who the hell knows. This is
Speaker 2: just a state of play in the Year of a
Speaker 2: Lord twenty twenty six. If you are new here, If
Speaker 2: you like what you hear, hit follow or subscribes that
Speaker 2: you don't miss any of the episodes going out to
Speaker 2: the YouTube channel, leave us comment.
Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 2: Of course, the star ratings and reviews wherever you get
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Speaker 2: little bit early and having access to our great discording community,
Speaker 2: you also get the satisfaction of knowing that you are
Speaker 2: directly supporting. You are directly helping Dan and I keep
Speaker 2: the lights on here over at SVHQ.
Speaker 1: And if you really really like the show, no boy,
Speaker 1: go to the comment sections on Spotify and YouTube of
Speaker 1: other college football shows and say something like, look, this
Speaker 1: is a quality show and I'm glad they're doing it.
Speaker 1: But if you really want the quality content straight from
Speaker 1: the college football teat, it's solid verbal all day. And
Speaker 1: that's all caps all day, some iteration, some version of that. Yes,
Speaker 1: straight from the teat. Yeah, straight from the tea, the
Speaker 1: college football teat. Okay, I don't know what that means.
Speaker 2: Like I said, we appreciate everybody stopping bye. We do
Speaker 2: have two preview episodes already that have been published. The
Speaker 2: first is the intro to the twenty twenty sixth season,
Speaker 2: where we go through everything that's changed, just really high level,
Speaker 2: the thirty thousand foot view of what this season is
Speaker 2: going to look like.
Speaker 1: This aka welcome to the Fleck Parade. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: flec Parade.
Speaker 2: That's correct, just the general shape of this upcoming season.
Speaker 2: The one that we did our first conference or conferences
Speaker 2: that we're previewed is episode I guess two of previous season.
Speaker 1: Now, this is.
Speaker 2: Episode three where we're going to go through again the
Speaker 2: Mountain West, the PAC twelve conference to USA and we're
Speaker 2: going to include Yukon in there just for kicks.
Speaker 1: And we decided against entering the glory hole yes in
Speaker 1: talking because we didn't want to be insulting by saying
Speaker 1: G six or mid major, and that we said the
Speaker 1: true glory is in the ranks of the American in
Speaker 1: the Mountain West, because there's a hole left behind by
Speaker 1: all this postseason talk and transfers and nil and this
Speaker 1: is where the real football is happened. So we're one
Speaker 1: hundred percent against that sub headline. I listened to another.
Speaker 2: Podcast where there were a couple hosts, and one of
Speaker 2: the hosts was out there on social media and across
Speaker 2: popular media that shows way bigger than ours, by the way,
Speaker 2: but one of them said something that was I would say,
Speaker 2: rather problematic.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: I listened to the follow up episode, and the other
Speaker 2: hosts did everything imaginable to say, brother, we love you.
Speaker 2: We are going to distance ourselves from those comments as
Speaker 2: much as humanly possible.
Speaker 1: Which is I'm tripling down time. What I am doing now,
Speaker 1: my friend, I am tripling down. I think it's a
Speaker 1: great way to look at this. These collection of conferences continue.
Speaker 1: Which conference you want to start with. Let's go to
Speaker 1: the PAC twelve. Let's go to the snappy, zazzy, new
Speaker 1: old PAC twelve. I don't have like a nickname for
Speaker 1: the PAC twelve as weird as weird as it is
Speaker 1: that a conference essentially disbanded and then they are regrouping,
Speaker 1: albeit with new members. Basically entirely up and down eight teams,
Speaker 1: two of which technically were in the PAC twelve last year.
Speaker 1: They made up the entirety of the PAC twelve. Let's
Speaker 1: get snappy and zazzi with the new old, New PAC twelve.
Speaker 2: The big theme for the PAC twelve this year, Dan,
Speaker 2: I'm backed, Babe. The main theme, in the words of
Speaker 2: the legend Frank Costanza, the PAC twelve is back Baby.
Speaker 2: The evolution of this conference from ten to twelve to
Speaker 2: two now to eight has really been a journey in
Speaker 2: odyssey of the mind for all of us who follow
Speaker 2: college football.
Speaker 1: I want to say there was a pack eight in
Speaker 1: like the seventies twelve.
Speaker 2: Oh it started with the eight. Okay, Yeah, this feels
Speaker 2: a bit to me like hearing that All Birds is
Speaker 2: pivoting from being a shoe company to an AI company.
Speaker 1: Now, I don't think it's that extreme. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think the PAC twelve is like we're going from a
Speaker 1: shoe company to a lace company. To get we hear
Speaker 1: it the solid verbal, we're gonna make souls. We are
Speaker 1: all about reinventing yourself, going boldly in a new direction.
Speaker 1: But yeah, this is a little.
Speaker 2: Bit different than we're used to bringing something back from
Speaker 2: the dead in this manner. We have eight teams in
Speaker 2: this conference. This here, all of them end in state.
Speaker 2: We will go through them in a minute. I just
Speaker 2: gotta say, though, Dan, we're starting to preview all these
Speaker 2: conferences or researching conferences like crazy. Is it not a
Speaker 2: dream to have a conference with just eight teams?
Speaker 1: It is nice. Well, they have the flex thing at
Speaker 1: the end as well.
Speaker 2: Well, they have the flex but I'm just saying in
Speaker 2: terms of what we have to do, because truly it
Speaker 2: is all about us.
Speaker 1: Of course, is it not the dream?
Speaker 2: Not an eighteen team super conference or a sixteen team
Speaker 2: or a fourteenth totally eight, a nice round eight.
Speaker 1: Everybody plays everybody. You get a much more secure sense
Speaker 1: of who's what just because it's fold round. Robin and
Speaker 1: I listen when we were talking about the halcyon days
Speaker 1: of like, how should these PAC twelve teams that look
Speaker 1: like they might be on an island, you know, Oregon
Speaker 1: and Washington Callen Stanford. As the conference looked like it
Speaker 1: was disintegrating. I was a proponent of four team conferences.
Speaker 1: I remember that. Yeah, just my traveling pods microcons. So
Speaker 1: I'm great with small conferences. I understand why it's not
Speaker 1: a thing that's preferable for a lot of teams, but yes,
Speaker 1: to get these eight teams together, and in this weird
Speaker 1: time that we are only going as far east as
Speaker 1: Texas would be the farthest possible point that it's not
Speaker 1: a full like adding Memoris or USF or something like
Speaker 1: that to make it a weird national conference. It's nice
Speaker 1: and cozy. It makes sense. It's like switching back to
Speaker 1: analog is beautiful. I love it. Yeah, I love that
Speaker 1: this is back.
Speaker 2: Now you mentioned the flex thing, What does that mean.
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you they're trying out flex matchups
Speaker 2: in the last week of the regular season. So you
Speaker 2: might recall how last season, when the Pac twelve only
Speaker 2: had two teams, Wazoo and Oregon State played each other twice.
Speaker 2: That was kind of a pilot for this. They're doing
Speaker 2: it again, though they've scaled it up. Everyone is going
Speaker 2: to get a repeat matchup. If you look at schedules now,
Speaker 2: if you go out to like FBS schedules or ESPN
Speaker 2: or if they have schedules, you're going to see that
Speaker 2: one team is repeated twice. The two wrinkles with that
Speaker 2: are it'll technically count as a non conference game. It's
Speaker 2: not going to count against your league record.
Speaker 1: Your conference right yea yeah.
Speaker 2: Also, they can change it. That's where the flex comes in.
Speaker 2: So right now they just had to put a team
Speaker 2: on there to in an occupy space and not confuse humanity.
Speaker 2: But all of those matchups are tentative. They can change
Speaker 2: them in November as needed. This is in effect of
Speaker 2: play to try and get a team in the playoff.
Speaker 2: They're trying to prop up their best teams. If there's
Speaker 2: not a team that obviously has a stake to that throne,
Speaker 2: then they'll find some other way to maybe spice things
Speaker 2: up a little bit if need be. Maybe they won't
Speaker 2: change it at all. In a lot of cases my hunches,
Speaker 2: they won't, but they're trying it out.
Speaker 1: They're trying to be innovative.
Speaker 2: They've got some teams now that I think would want
Speaker 2: to try and get into the playoff, and maybe they
Speaker 2: need a little bit of a boost. I don't know
Speaker 2: what this can provide. I love the idea of it.
Speaker 2: I love the idea of it. I think it's fabulous.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't hate if other conferences, bigger conference has tried it,
Speaker 2: because lord knows, that would definitely get a little bit
Speaker 2: more or give us a little bit more mileage in
Speaker 2: terms of conference matchups during the season. But for now, anyway,
Speaker 2: we get to see what the Pac twelve does with this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so essentially five non conf ference games for these
Speaker 1: teams on their final records, seven conference games, five non
Speaker 1: conference games, and look, it's hopefully increasing the amount of
Speaker 1: quality football now. Obviously, the flex game is the final
Speaker 1: week of the season, right, right, So it's a jam
Speaker 1: packed college football slate already. It's not like we're getting
Speaker 1: something intriguing in like a Week one or Week two,
Speaker 1: when perhaps the pickens are slim. But I can appreciate
Speaker 1: trying something out and seeing how it works out. Sure.
Speaker 2: My favorite thing about this conference, having studied it, you
Speaker 2: can say virtually anything and it's true about half the teams. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't It truly doesn't matter. You can say
Speaker 2: they've got a good offense, they've got a bad offense,
Speaker 2: good defense, bad defense, returning quarterback, new coach, contender, not
Speaker 2: a it's all on the table. Say whatever you want
Speaker 2: to say, it's true about for these teams. What do
Speaker 2: your tiers look like? Have you had a chance to
Speaker 2: dive in, because I've got I think three very definitive
Speaker 2: tiers of these eight teams.
Speaker 1: I think my upper tier is Fresno, San Diego, Boise,
Speaker 1: not necessarily in that order here of mine.
Speaker 2: Okay, I've got those three contenders. I just called them contenders.
Speaker 2: I've got a coin flipped here of Texas and Wazoo,
Speaker 2: and that is not to any state, Texas State and Wazoo.
Speaker 1: Excuse me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is in no particular order. And then yet
Speaker 2: at the bottom, I've got Oregon State, Utah State, in
Speaker 2: Colorado State. I just call that everyone else because I
Speaker 2: don't I don't even want to call it the bottom.
Speaker 2: I just it's just the other three teams.
Speaker 1: I don't know how I feel about Utah State there
Speaker 1: just because they have one of the best head coaches
Speaker 1: in the conference and there's proof of concept of success,
Speaker 1: but I'm fine with it. Oregon State and Wazoo, you know,
Speaker 1: are blank slates with new coaches and fully new rosters,
Speaker 1: So I'm okay with that. Yeah, I think the floor
Speaker 1: for Oregon State should always be and for Wazoo should
Speaker 1: be higher just because because of the institutional commitment to
Speaker 1: the sport. But no, I think I'm good with your tears.
Speaker 2: Boise State was the big get getting Boise State for
Speaker 2: the new look PAC twelve. You know, I don't know
Speaker 2: if it's a better conference in terms of quality relative
Speaker 2: to the Mountain West, but there will definitely be more
Speaker 2: exposure for Boise State, and at a minimum, the PAC
Speaker 2: twelve brand probably probably I'm qualifying this probably has more
Speaker 2: weight than the Mountain West, So I think they're excited
Speaker 2: about it as well. Obviously, like I said, it's a
Speaker 2: pretty big pull to bring Boise over. Right now, they
Speaker 2: are projected as the clear favorite. If you go by
Speaker 2: our friend Bill Connolly's preseason sp plus, he's got them
Speaker 2: at number thirty eight per his math. Boise is also
Speaker 2: the biggest conference favorite of all the ten conferences that
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about, the biggest favorite relative to
Speaker 2: the other teams in that conference is Boise State. Would say,
Speaker 2: if nothing more, and as I have seen noted in
Speaker 2: nearly every preview that I have read about the PAC twelve,
Speaker 2: boise projects to have like the best defensive line in
Speaker 2: the conference, the best linebackers, the best running backs, if
Speaker 2: nothing more, a veteran quarterback. That's all a pretty good
Speaker 2: starting point.
Speaker 1: Fully agree, Yeah, I mean Boise has I think it's
Speaker 1: the best duo of edge rushers in the conference specifically,
Speaker 1: if not one of the best duos of edge rushers
Speaker 1: in the country. Maddox Madson is back for a thirty
Speaker 1: seventh season. The running backs have a ton of experience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a ton to like. It's to me the problem
Speaker 1: with Boise State right now is the speed who's catching
Speaker 1: passes and who is in that defensive backfield. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure a lot of people are going to really test
Speaker 1: those new bodies in the conference. But they do open
Speaker 1: with a team that's going to be in the top
Speaker 1: five nationally in Oregon. Right they have what Western Michigan
Speaker 1: and Memphis also in September ish, so those are we
Speaker 1: think it'll be a quality Memphis team, heredy, sure it'll
Speaker 1: be a quality Western Michigan team. Those are those should
Speaker 1: be winnable games for boys given what they're returning.
Speaker 2: Ultimately, this is an offense that wants to be physical
Speaker 2: and run it down your throat, and then they're going.
Speaker 1: To work play action off of that.
Speaker 2: If you're optimistic, it's because you've got a solid line.
Speaker 2: You've got a really good backfield with Dylan Riley and
Speaker 2: Sire Gains who last year. I don't know how this
Speaker 2: slipped off my radar, but combined for almost two thousand yards,
Speaker 2: which is really good. They've got one guy, Riley is
Speaker 2: more of the home run guy. Gains is kind of
Speaker 2: the bulldozer. But more importantly, both these guys are pretty
Speaker 2: good in the passing game, which kind of gives the
Speaker 2: offense that added wrinkle they're going to be tough to
Speaker 2: stop in the Pac twelve. The Maddox Madison thing is
Speaker 2: interesting still. The quarterback, as he said, for the thirty
Speaker 2: seventh year, Maddix Madson is not a sports car like,
Speaker 2: he's not going to go out there and wow you.
Speaker 2: He is firmly at maz to c X five, right.
Speaker 2: You know, he's the sensible price point. He doesn't have
Speaker 2: all the bells and whistles. He's like a rhythm guy.
Speaker 2: The play action offense suits him pretty well. But it is,
Speaker 2: as you said, a pretty green wide receiver room. A
Speaker 2: lot of upside, but they definitely need that running game
Speaker 2: to work.
Speaker 1: I like the line.
Speaker 2: I think it's a combination of new guys, a lot
Speaker 2: of guys who had surgery in the spring and didn't
Speaker 2: get reps. So whether or not it clicks for some
Speaker 2: of those big games early will, I think be interesting
Speaker 2: for us to discuss here. But I think ultimately the
Speaker 2: floor is like eight and four in the ceiling might
Speaker 2: be eleven and one. Somewhere in the middle is like
Speaker 2: we were They're going to end up because they're not
Speaker 2: going to beat Oregon in Week one. They do have
Speaker 2: the tricky road games as you mentioned with Western Michigan.
Speaker 2: They've got a getaway game before a bye against Fresno
Speaker 2: who's had their number the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: I think they've won three in a row, and.
Speaker 2: They host San Diego State their second to last game
Speaker 2: of the season. So it's not what I would call
Speaker 2: an easy road for Boise State by any stretch, but
Speaker 2: they're certainly well positioned, better positioned than any of these
Speaker 2: other teams in the Pac twelve to make it go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and obviously credit Spencer Danielson for having that experience
Speaker 1: righting the ship when things go wrong. He gets things
Speaker 1: in order right. They started last year with a pretty
Speaker 1: gigantic dud across the country at USF losing by whatever
Speaker 1: was twenty five twenty seven points, and gets them right. Obviously,
Speaker 1: they had the two bad losses offensively during the season.
Speaker 1: I think it was with San Diego State and Fresno
Speaker 1: State kind of hammered them. But he gets them back,
Speaker 1: and the resilience with Boise State is obviously impressive.
Speaker 2: And look, they can be fun to watch on defense,
Speaker 2: can be fun to watch it.
Speaker 1: They've been raided by a bunch of teams.
Speaker 2: They've been raided, but the philosophy here, as we talked
Speaker 2: about in the last episode, is just bring a ton
Speaker 2: of pressure. Bring a ton of pressure, create havoc. The
Speaker 2: caveat to that is you've got to be able to
Speaker 2: cover the pass. This is a rebuilt secondary to your
Speaker 2: earlier point, so there's probably an open question as to
Speaker 2: whether they can get back to that same level. I
Speaker 2: also question if they can stop the run. So like defense,
Speaker 2: that's where most of my questions are with this team.
Speaker 2: But I just think the offense is going to be
Speaker 2: a handful and that's going to take you pretty good ways.
Speaker 2: I like what they have coming back, and I understand
Speaker 2: why they're head and shoulders above the field. If we're
Speaker 2: thinking of this in terms of contenders.
Speaker 1: They're the hunted, right, They're the one who knock, and
Speaker 1: so they could have that letdown moment. It's hard to
Speaker 1: see them finishing any worse than like nine and three.
Speaker 1: I completely agree.
Speaker 2: Now, what I would say is, even though it feels
Speaker 2: like they are head and shoulders above the competition in
Speaker 2: the Pac twelve and as a result, they will end
Speaker 2: up in the playoff conversation, I don't think this Boise
Speaker 2: team is anywhere close to the one that made the
Speaker 2: playoff two years ago. I think it's night and day.
Speaker 2: That team was way better than this team. So don't
Speaker 2: like at least I'm more talking to myself here. Don't
Speaker 2: confuse one for the other. This is a good Boise
Speaker 2: team in conference, but this is they don't have the
Speaker 2: generational player the way they did with Ashton gin.
Speaker 1: Or even players on that defense. That was a very
Speaker 1: strong defense, especially up the middle. That I just we'll
Speaker 1: see how the secondary works out. But that was a
Speaker 1: team that was built to peak that season and it did. Right.
Speaker 1: Maddox Madison still, I don't think has beaten a power five,
Speaker 1: power four now opponent, so we'll see what he looks like.
Speaker 1: He's already played at Otson once and it struggled. In
Speaker 1: that game. Ashton Genty went off, had a couple huge runs.
Speaker 1: But no, this this should be a Boise team with
Speaker 1: huge expectations but limited you know, height of a ceiling.
Speaker 2: So you like Boise one, I'm assuming. Yeah, if you
Speaker 2: had a pick between Fresno and San Diego State, who
Speaker 2: would you put number two? Probably Fresno. I think I'm
Speaker 2: with you. I've got Fresno as my number two team.
Speaker 2: I like teams where you can see the vision and
Speaker 2: I feel like we have a sense for what matt
Speaker 2: Ens is trying to do. He's very much trying to
Speaker 2: build in the North Dakota State model, where he's gonna
Speaker 2: do some ground and pound and he's gonna beat you
Speaker 2: on defense. Saw glimpses of that last year with speedy Luke,
Speaker 2: Bryce and Donaldson in the backfield. It was a defense.
Speaker 2: It took a big step forward, and I like the
Speaker 2: defense again this year. I think that's why I give
Speaker 2: them the nod over San Diego State. The returning production
Speaker 2: number does not jump off the page at you, but
Speaker 2: they've got really good experience at all three levels the defense.
Speaker 2: As veterans, they're just solid. They're solid. My favorite name
Speaker 2: is kve On Thunderbird. Good name att linebacker who may
Speaker 2: have been born the year that Ford made the last
Speaker 2: Thunderbird in two thousand and five. Which try to forget
Speaker 2: that I just said that and make myself feel old.
Speaker 2: But I think with that as like the spine of
Speaker 2: this team and knowing that it at least feels like
Speaker 2: it's going somewhere, that's really reassuring to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, their schedule is fine, it's not easy. It's not impossible.
Speaker 1: They're gonna get throttled by USC in Week one, but otherwise,
Speaker 1: I don't know. If your starting point is a good
Speaker 1: amount of experience on defense and a coach who has
Speaker 1: won a bunch, I think they're going to be fine.
Speaker 1: I don't love them, but I think they're like in
Speaker 1: that eight nine win region.
Speaker 2: Let me oversimplify. This is not a complicated preview. It
Speaker 2: comes down to quarterback. Yeah, the whole thing for Fresno
Speaker 2: comes down to the quarterback.
Speaker 1: The EJ. Warner era is over this year.
Speaker 2: It's either Christian Martin, who's a transfer from Maryland, or
Speaker 2: Jaden Mandal, who was on the roster last year. Neither
Speaker 2: one of these guys as much of a sample size
Speaker 2: at time of recording. We don't yet know which direction
Speaker 2: they're going to go. My hunches it's going to be Martin,
Speaker 2: but we'll come back to it if anything changes.
Speaker 1: It's a quarterback thing.
Speaker 2: If they get good quarterback play, then it's going to
Speaker 2: be a team that we're talking about deep into the season.
Speaker 2: I could also see this being the type of team
Speaker 2: that gets flexed in Week thirteen if they're trying to
Speaker 2: prop them up like Fresno would be a really good
Speaker 2: candidate for that, but they got to get quarterback play. Defensively,
Speaker 2: they should be able to hold their own against teams
Speaker 2: like Boise given how deep they are, especially in the
Speaker 2: interior line. But Fresno's my number two team for sure.
Speaker 2: I gave them the not over San Diego State, who
Speaker 2: I have next.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my concern with San Diego State is just where's
Speaker 1: the offense coming from? Missing what they're missing on defense,
Speaker 1: and the first half, the first two thirds of their
Speaker 1: schedule is pretty rocky.
Speaker 2: Look, this was not a good offense. The jump last
Speaker 2: year was mostly powered by the defense. This year a
Speaker 2: lot back from a bad offense and a chunk gone
Speaker 2: from the good defense, which kind of gave me the
Speaker 2: skives a little bit. Yeah, including the defensive coordinator who
Speaker 2: went to Nebraska, looks like there's a.
Speaker 1: Path for the offense to get better.
Speaker 2: They've been a little bit more deliberate about adding offensive
Speaker 2: linemen to the roster. They have ten more scholarship linemen
Speaker 2: on the roster now than they did two years ago,
Speaker 2: so they're at least trying in that sense. They just
Speaker 2: got to get more out of quarterback. This is another
Speaker 2: situation where I got to see more out of quarterback.
Speaker 1: For all of these teams that we're going to discuss today, Basically,
Speaker 1: if you had a really good offense and a really
Speaker 1: good defense last season, you're currently coaching at UCLA. That's right,
Speaker 1: you're currently coaching at Florida. And so we're not going
Speaker 1: to come through this preview and say like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: they return a bunch from a successful offense and a
Speaker 1: successful defense at best. Some of these teams are returning
Speaker 1: like really good offensive players and their defense was a
Speaker 1: nightmare last year and they're hoping and praying that a
Speaker 1: bunch of UTEP and Oklahoma State transfers or something work out.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's the reality of basically all of these teams. Right.
Speaker 1: San Diego State's offense wasn't anything special, Fresno's offense wasn't
Speaker 1: anything special, but they returned just enough pieces in different places.
Speaker 1: We're like, Okay, if they can figure this out, if
Speaker 1: this new coordinator has a plan or as a vision
Speaker 1: as you like to say, sure, but you know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of wing in prayer to a lot of
Speaker 1: these teams.
Speaker 2: There is, And look, the backbone for the San Diego
Speaker 2: State case might be. They've got a veteran offensive line,
Speaker 2: they've got two good running backs and Lucky Sutton and
Speaker 2: Christian Washington, who I think can benefit from that if
Speaker 2: they get more from Jayden Denegal their quarterback sure also,
Speaker 2: like me, has two bumped shoulders that he's rehabbing at
Speaker 2: any given time. Had surgery in December. Supposedly healthy now. Like,
Speaker 2: if they can get more out of the quarterback position
Speaker 2: to go along with that ground game, they'll be in
Speaker 2: a good spot. But again, it was built on defense
Speaker 2: last year. Given what they lost, they are kind of
Speaker 2: rebuilding all three levels of that defense this year. The
Speaker 2: pass rush lost a lot more than it gained. They'll
Speaker 2: be fine. I just don't think as good as last year.
Speaker 2: So whether the offense can improve enough is where we're
Speaker 2: at with San Diego State, and I've got him at three.
Speaker 1: One of the absolute worst third down teams in America
Speaker 1: last season, so they had a problem staying on the field.
Speaker 1: If they can just figure out ways to generate more
Speaker 1: third and short stuff like that, the easy stuff, then
Speaker 1: we're talking about more, you know, hopefully like twenty three
Speaker 1: to twenty type wins.
Speaker 2: My next team up is Texas State, very volatile year.
Speaker 2: Last year not as steady as the previous two seasons.
Speaker 2: Still went to a bowl, still finished seven and six,
Speaker 2: but they went through a bad stretch where they lost
Speaker 2: five straight. Four of them were by a combined fourteen points,
Speaker 2: and two of them went to overtime, so it was
Speaker 2: really on a knife edge. They have the best quarterback
Speaker 2: in the conference in my opinion, in Brad Jackson, who
Speaker 2: can both run it and throw it. It's a system
Speaker 2: that is heavily dependent on a quarterback who knows what
Speaker 2: he's doing and wide receivers who know how to break
Speaker 2: off their routes and make a choice. I like this team.
Speaker 2: I've got a soft spot for Texas State. I feel
Speaker 2: like I have ever since DJ Kinney got there. They've
Speaker 2: got a really good wide receiver pairing that should propel them,
Speaker 2: at least on offense. I should note it is not
Speaker 2: an air raid offense. They still want to run it.
Speaker 2: It's a question of how well can they run it
Speaker 2: because both the running back and the offensive line are
Speaker 2: heavily dependent on whether they're going to pop with what
Speaker 2: they brought over in the transfer portal. So like I
Speaker 2: can't project that, you can't project that we know they'll
Speaker 2: be pretty good through the air. We tend to trust
Speaker 2: good quarterbacks. I know your rubric is typically quarterback and defense.
Speaker 2: The obvious question is defense when we're talking about Texas State.
Speaker 1: The thing I like about them, I don't know if
Speaker 1: it translates to this year, is they finished strong last year,
Speaker 1: winning their final four. They had a lumpy middle of
Speaker 1: the road and there were a couple of shootout losses
Speaker 1: close ones to Troy and Marshall types in Arkansas State,
Speaker 1: so winnable games obviously, given the level of opponent, I
Speaker 1: think they should have a decent time this year. If
Speaker 1: you're starting position is at least quarterback, And I did
Speaker 1: like that they were especially good in the red zone
Speaker 1: last year, which to me points to a plan, right,
Speaker 1: especially having a younger quarterback last year. I think they're
Speaker 1: going to be in a good place this year to
Speaker 1: at least they'll put themselves in a good place to
Speaker 1: win late if they're converting deep in other team's territory.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it comes down to just how often can
Speaker 1: this defense figure out havoc and turnovers and ways to
Speaker 1: get off the field If the talent just isn't there
Speaker 1: on defense and.
Speaker 2: They actually weren't bad on defense last year. That's the
Speaker 2: thing this year, though, Bill is projecting them to be
Speaker 2: one twenty nine out of one thing they can be. So,
Speaker 2: I know they've got a new defensive coordinator, they're trying
Speaker 2: to shift to like more zone whatever, and they did
Speaker 2: spend along the defensive line to try and beef that up.
Speaker 1: But can they stop teams or is it going to
Speaker 1: be all shootouts? Right?
Speaker 2: I think it's a tough schedule. I think they'll score points.
Speaker 2: It's a question for me of how many points did
Speaker 2: the guy actually got to score if they want to
Speaker 2: get wins?
Speaker 1: Agree. Wazuo was next up for me. Then okay, new
Speaker 1: coach knew everything. Jimmy Rodgers was there for about an
Speaker 1: hour and a half and here we go.
Speaker 2: Wazuo returns the fewest starts of anyone in the conference,
Speaker 2: and especially so on defense. Because Jimmy Rodgers left for
Speaker 2: Iowa State, he took guys with him. Kirby Moore is
Speaker 2: the new coach. I think I've told the story before.
Speaker 2: I got a cryptic DM from somebody who tipped me
Speaker 2: off that he was going to be hired like three
Speaker 2: days before it happened, and I didn't see it in time.
Speaker 1: I could have had a coaching scoop. Well, you would
Speaker 1: have had to confirm it. You need two sources, ty,
Speaker 1: I only had one. You went to the Columbia School
Speaker 1: of Journalism. As we know, you are just a stickler
Speaker 1: for ethics. So Kirby Moore a sensical pick, given where
Speaker 1: he's from and given I mean you say, like offensive needs.
Speaker 1: It's a totally new team. They were led by their
Speaker 1: defense last year. But if you are a Wazoo fan,
Speaker 1: you are hopeful that bringing in somebody like Kirby Moore,
Speaker 1: who had a very nice influence on the Miszoo offense,
Speaker 1: has a similar influence. They just bring over Matt Miller,
Speaker 1: I want to say from Boise. Yep, it's that aged
Speaker 1: me by the way. I was like, he wasn't he
Speaker 1: a receiver two and a half years ago. Oh it's
Speaker 1: been a dozen years. Okay.
Speaker 2: Matt Miller from Boyse State, who's on the offensive staff
Speaker 2: at Boise comes over to run the offense. The new
Speaker 2: defensive coordinator is the old defensive coordinator and head coach
Speaker 2: at Oregon State, Trent Bray.
Speaker 1: Trent Bray, Yep.
Speaker 2: The fun name to watch is Caden Pinnock. He is
Speaker 2: the quarterback transfer from UC Davis. As a freshman, thirty
Speaker 2: two touchdowns and a seventy percent completion percentage ran a
Speaker 2: little two. He's my number two pet tran for this
Speaker 2: year going from FCS to FBS. I will talk about
Speaker 2: number one at some point, but we'll get to the
Speaker 2: big twelve. But notably, the system that he's gonna run
Speaker 2: is very similar to what he ran last year, so
Speaker 2: it's not like he's starting over with new vocabulary or whatever.
Speaker 2: That looks like it's a pretty good fit. I like
Speaker 2: their running backs, I like their wide receivers. I think
Speaker 2: he should have help. I think the line will be okay.
Speaker 2: Defense is completely new.
Speaker 1: Well, I hope for your sake that he works out,
Speaker 1: because your whole secret sauce is FCS quarterbacks. All right.
Speaker 1: I love me a good FCS quarterback. It works like
Speaker 1: fourteen percent of the time. But when it does, ty
Speaker 1: pats himself on the back. Yeah, listen, I'm all for
Speaker 1: UC Davis influence in our lives. Shout out. Robert Mondavi
Speaker 1: is Bob Mondavi from UC Davis, the wine guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's the Mondavi Center, Like it's a whole
Speaker 1: thing like, I think they're auditorium or something. He's donated
Speaker 1: a bunch of money. You can study wine. I think
Speaker 1: it's what is the study of wine called it? Id
Speaker 1: I know?
Speaker 3: Is it? Oh?
Speaker 1: It's an and a file.
Speaker 2: I just know that dude on social media with like
Speaker 2: the gray slick back hair who's like really into it
Speaker 2: and washes it around and sniffs it.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Yeah, the anology Oh E
Speaker 1: N O L O G Y. You can study that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you're in northern California. You're outside Sacramento. That's
Speaker 1: that's the place ty get that graping on.
Speaker 2: I think Wazoo has fewer proven entities, which is why
Speaker 2: I'm going to go Texas State, especially on offense. Just
Speaker 2: just buy a nose ahead of them. But like I
Speaker 2: said at the top, for me, it's a coin flip.
Speaker 1: I agree, And they have continuity in a coach and
Speaker 1: you know what their their vision is. Continue.
Speaker 2: Let's rip through these three final teams. Let's talk about
Speaker 2: Oregon State. JaMarcus Shephard is a new coach comes up
Speaker 2: from Alabama. Speaking of philosophies, speaking of taglines, he's branded
Speaker 2: the program as fat, pretty hot, and tempting.
Speaker 1: No, no with an F, oh with an F? Okay,
Speaker 1: but is it an acronym or is it just like
Speaker 1: we're getting high off the hog? What do we do now? Family, accountability,
Speaker 1: and toughness? Okay, I think we can all agree those
Speaker 1: three things are words.
Speaker 2: I am proposing that everyone out there come up with
Speaker 2: their own motto, not just for Oregon State, but really
Speaker 2: for their own sense of humanity.
Speaker 1: Does it have to be an acronym for our existing
Speaker 1: first names? It can be whatever you want, man. So like,
Speaker 1: if I'm thinking t why it's toughness in youth?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: Of course? Of course, I guess toughness youth. What would
Speaker 1: be a good L if we got an L and
Speaker 1: a EAN and R. Right, an L would be latitude
Speaker 1: tie you you give people a wide berth.
Speaker 2: E.
Speaker 1: What's energy? Everybody knows ties? Energetic R?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Would be an R relaxing?
Speaker 2: Relax Now, it's definitely not relaxing, Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Soliverbotgmail dot com. If you got your own mind, This
Speaker 2: dude reminds me a little bit of fran Brown. I
Speaker 2: think he's I think he's a motivator. I think he's
Speaker 2: going to have guys who want to run through a
Speaker 2: wall I love to hire. I don't know how long
Speaker 2: it's going to take to actually bear fruit, because this
Speaker 2: is a near total reboot of the program.
Speaker 1: Malik Murphy still there, still there, still the in theory,
Speaker 1: In theory, he's the type of quarterback that would work
Speaker 1: well with.
Speaker 2: The system that I think he wants to run, which
Speaker 2: is more of like the Kalin Debor school of offense.
Speaker 2: A lot of new receivers, same deal with the offensive line,
Speaker 2: kind of a mix of transfers, guys coming back smaller
Speaker 2: school guys, guys who want playing time who are at
Speaker 2: bigger schools. Defensively, they only had sixteen sacks and ten
Speaker 2: force turnovers a year ago, so they need to try
Speaker 2: and manufacture a little bit more havoc without exposing the secondary,
Speaker 2: which is also you guessed it pretty much rebuilt. They
Speaker 2: also start off the year at Houston and against Texas Tech.
Speaker 1: It's an uphill climb for JaMarcus Shepherd. It's a I
Speaker 1: think it's a tough schedule kind of all the way through.
Speaker 1: They're at Fresno and at Boise in November ish with
Speaker 1: Texas State between them. I don't know who that flex
Speaker 1: team is going to be at the end, but they
Speaker 1: might lose those first two games ninety one to thirteen.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I hope not. But it's
Speaker 1: on the table with Houston and Texas Tech, and.
Speaker 2: That brings us then to Utah State and Colorado State.
Speaker 2: I think I think you like Utah State a little
Speaker 2: bit more than I do.
Speaker 1: Look that if the starting position is figuring out how
Speaker 1: to win, how to generate yardage. Last year with a
Speaker 1: lot new they you know, they brought in say what
Speaker 1: you will if you're an acc fan and you have
Speaker 1: been wronged by offensive coordinator Robert and I. He's reunited
Speaker 1: with Bronco Mendenhall. They spent his reunited together. Yes, so
Speaker 1: there is you talk about like not having to learn
Speaker 1: a new language. They speak the same language offensively given
Speaker 1: their time at by you in Virginia. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think they'll be fine. Bronco Mendenhall kind of figures
Speaker 1: out how to get teams to bowl games, and so
Speaker 1: I'm just going off of that. I think the defense
Speaker 1: was awful last year. Yes, I mean the bar is
Speaker 1: let's put it this way. Yeah, let's not dwell in
Speaker 1: the past.
Speaker 2: The defense has some names. It has to get much better.
Speaker 1: I guess awful is too strong. They struggled. They struggled.
Speaker 2: Bill right now if you care about preseason stuff has
Speaker 2: them as the one hundredth best defense in the preseason.
Speaker 2: So as long as they move up from that, I
Speaker 2: would consider it a success. Just more towards competence is
Speaker 2: something I would look at and say it's very successful.
Speaker 1: But like, they go to.
Speaker 2: Idaho State, Washington, Utah, they're home against Troy, and they're
Speaker 2: at Boise.
Speaker 1: State, which is four weeks in a row. Yeah, which
Speaker 1: is like rough.
Speaker 2: That is rough for a new offensive coordinator, a new
Speaker 2: starting quarterback in McKay Hillstead who has a very limited
Speaker 2: sample size. The team as a whole, at least on offense,
Speaker 2: only has forty percent back from a year ago, and
Speaker 2: the defense is still being rebuilt. That's like a tough
Speaker 2: stretch for me, which is I couldn't go any higher
Speaker 2: than bottom two for Utah State.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think if they get to a bowl game,
Speaker 1: that's a pretty enormous accomplishment. Fun fact about I have
Speaker 1: two fun facts about Uta State by the way, Okay,
Speaker 1: Number one, they were seventy seven percent and number three
Speaker 1: overall against the spread last season, really, so they were
Speaker 1: undervalued by Vegas. According to the numbers I'm looking at,
Speaker 1: Utah States winning percentage against the spread was seventy six
Speaker 1: point nine percent, good for third in the country. So
Speaker 1: they were undervalued last year, at least in terms of
Speaker 1: those specific numbers. The other thing about Uta State, as
Speaker 1: I was looking at last season, their key players last
Speaker 1: year were named Bryson, Brady, Bronson, Brevin, and Brayden. And
Speaker 1: they were coached hear me out ty, they were coached
Speaker 1: by A Bronco Bnko.
Speaker 3: Bryson, Brady Bronson, Brendan Brocking, and Braid coach Bronco Bryson,
Speaker 3: Brady Bronson, Bravit Brocking Braiden.
Speaker 1: So if I seem unprepared to talk anything uh Pack
Speaker 1: twelve in Utah State, it's because most of my study
Speaker 1: time was made producing that producing sounds. Give me that
Speaker 1: one more time that was I apologize or you're welcome.
Speaker 3: Bryson, Brady, Bronson, Brendan Brocking, Braid coach Bronco, Bryson, Brady, Bronson,
Speaker 3: Bravit Brocking Braiden.
Speaker 2: Did you learn how to do a little bit of
Speaker 2: like beatboxing there in order to no.
Speaker 1: I just found a sample free or a copyright free
Speaker 1: E ed M type track and then put a bunch
Speaker 1: of effects on my voice, and I'm happy. I don't
Speaker 1: think anybody was home when I was yelling out. Brady
Speaker 1: Bront scared the neighbors. Man, Wow, good jam on bleacher
Speaker 1: report br for not discovering that good work man, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2: Roger Final team Colorado State. We've got Jim Moore junior
Speaker 2: coming over from Yukon. More than sixty new players on
Speaker 2: the team this year. It is kind of a Yukon
Speaker 2: transplant situation. I all five guys are gone on the
Speaker 2: offensive line, virtually no snaps return. It looks on paper
Speaker 2: like the worst offensive line in the conference, which is
Speaker 2: a problem because they want to run a lot, they
Speaker 2: want to do heavy sets and that type of thing,
Speaker 2: and I just I don't know if they've got the
Speaker 2: manpower to do it.
Speaker 1: So counterpoints, Yukon was very close to going undefeated last year.
Speaker 1: They were Yukon. Yukon was very close. Who we lost
Speaker 1: talking about three a game by I think they a
Speaker 1: lost oh two games by three to one game by seven.
Speaker 1: And then they lost their bowl game significantly to Army.
Speaker 1: I don't know if Jim Mora was still there then,
Speaker 1: but Jim Moore did an incredible job at Yukon. The
Speaker 1: offense was strong to quite strong in stores last season,
Speaker 1: and kind of everything for Colorado State last year, and
Speaker 1: this is what happens when your coach gets fired was
Speaker 1: pretty damn awful. So I don't know, they got a
Speaker 1: pretty huge upgrade at coach. It seems. I don't know
Speaker 1: how quickly it'll translate. But that's why I'm not in
Speaker 1: a rush to say they're in my bottom tier. But
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think a bull's get a bull. I
Speaker 2: think you get to a bowl. And I didn't even
Speaker 2: call it a bottom tier. I called it everyone else
Speaker 2: because I don't I don't know. I like Jim Moore junior.
Speaker 2: And they got a quarterback race?
Speaker 1: Is it hass Haney? Is that how you say his name?
Speaker 1: I think so from Oklahoma State they got him.
Speaker 2: They got Kashanfarr, the guy from Yukon who obviously knows
Speaker 2: the system. He had a good spring. Well, you know,
Speaker 2: we'll see. I hesitate to make it any kind of
Speaker 2: real projections on Colorado State because this is another transplant situation,
Speaker 2: which is a bunch of new guys, new coach.
Speaker 1: You know how that works. By now, their home road
Speaker 1: splits are kind of even. Fresno and Texas State are
Speaker 1: both on the road. Boise's at home. They do have
Speaker 1: BYU at home, which they'll probably get run over by BYU,
Speaker 1: and they do travel San Antonio to play UTSA. So
Speaker 1: it's a tough ball road. But I don't know if
Speaker 1: they're at least threatening in November, like, oh, maybe a
Speaker 1: couple of things break right and the Flex game works out.
Speaker 1: That's a huge season for Colorado State year one. I've
Speaker 1: got Boise over Fresno. Yeah, I think so too. Let's
Speaker 1: talk Mountain West. Call Kenny Loggins because you're in the
Speaker 1: danger zone the Mountain West.
Speaker 2: These are old sounds. I don't know when we made
Speaker 2: that sound to some old sounds. Talk me through the
Speaker 2: Mountain West end, talk talk me through. Because we've got
Speaker 2: Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Colorado State, and
Speaker 2: Utah State all going elsewhere. Then we've got UTEP coming
Speaker 2: over from Conference USA, We've got Northern Illinois coming over
Speaker 2: from the MAC. Yeah, Hawaii is now a full football member,
Speaker 2: and we got North Dakota State walking in. So it's
Speaker 2: a smaller conference, I think, a stranger conference, and that
Speaker 2: feels to me like the top of the league is
Speaker 2: a little bit more open than it's been in a
Speaker 2: long time because Boise State's out of there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's UNLV in New Mexico at the top. Those
Speaker 1: are the teams that I don't see how you could
Speaker 1: put any other team given look, North Dakota State has
Speaker 1: been a powerhouse of a program, but there's just so
Speaker 1: much of an unknown right now. It's not like they're
Speaker 1: bringing back, you know, a championship squad in every position
Speaker 1: right Their offensive line and defense of line should be
Speaker 1: really good, but it's just a different level and different
Speaker 1: opponents that they're not used to scouting. It's just a
Speaker 1: whole different experience for North Dakota State, just in terms
Speaker 1: of quality. My next tier I think is going to
Speaker 1: be North Dakota State, Hawaii and I. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I can put air Force quite there. I'd like to,
Speaker 1: but when previously on air Force you fielded what may
Speaker 1: have been the worst FBS defense, I can't fully get there.
Speaker 1: As much as the offense should have some pop this year,
Speaker 1: it's Luke Sarka, I think it's how you pronounce it
Speaker 1: coming back or Liam Sarka.
Speaker 2: It's an s Yeah, Liam, it's an SZ situation. Yeah,
Speaker 2: at the front of the last name, Yeah yeah, Liam
Speaker 2: Sarka coming back. And when he was on the field,
Speaker 2: they were able to move the ball. Now there's new
Speaker 2: stuff to the Air Force team. We can get there
Speaker 2: in a second.
Speaker 1: But you and LV you gotta believe in the magic
Speaker 1: of Dan Mullen at quarterback ten and four. Have to
Speaker 1: believe in it ten and four last year, right, But
Speaker 1: Anthony Calandras showed something at Virginia Jackson Arnold previously on
Speaker 1: Jackson Arnold right, previously on Jackson Arnold's I don't want
Speaker 1: to make this personal, but I'm just saying hasn't shown
Speaker 1: that something as a college quarterback with any sort of
Speaker 1: consistency irregularity. So Dan Mullen has had basically nothing but
Speaker 1: interesting success in production, to be kind, I guess from
Speaker 1: the quarterback position during his time as a head college
Speaker 1: football coach. And obviously the proof is in the pudding.
Speaker 1: With Anthony Calandria last year, they're able to win with
Speaker 1: basically a bad defense. There's no indication that the defense
Speaker 1: is going to be any better this year. There were
Speaker 1: some underlying numbers last year with UNLV, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: This Rebel team should be really good. Is probably too strong,
Speaker 1: but the most good. I think they're dangerous enough on offense,
Speaker 1: and I think they play offense better than anyone will
Speaker 1: do one specific thing this league. And given the coach,
Speaker 1: given the track record, I think I like you and LV,
Speaker 1: They're just going to have a good amount of pop
Speaker 1: on offense in a way that another team is not
Speaker 1: gonna have a not gonna have pop on one side
Speaker 1: of the ball to me.
Speaker 2: So, Jackson Arnold transfers up from Auburn. Previously he was
Speaker 2: at Oklahoma. It didn't work out at Auburn. Now he
Speaker 2: is going here. We know he could run. He's a
Speaker 2: good runner. We have seen that on display. The passing
Speaker 2: game has sort of been all over the map. Like
Speaker 2: the best of Jackson Arnold has been really good. The
Speaker 2: worst of Jackson Arnold is pretty bad. I feel like
Speaker 2: we've seen more of the latter over the last two
Speaker 2: one and a half seasons, let's say. And so it's
Speaker 2: an open question to me what Mullen can get out
Speaker 2: of him. But mull intends to do well with guys
Speaker 2: like this, right, that was why they got Calandria. He
Speaker 2: was kind of an improvisational threat in the backfield.
Speaker 1: They still that it didn't start the first game last
Speaker 1: he didn't start the first game last Year's still Vallex.
Speaker 1: They do got hurt, yeah, who is coming off injury.
Speaker 1: But he also gives them more of a running element
Speaker 1: at quarterback. They're solid at running back. I think they'll
Speaker 1: be able to run pretty well. It's just to me
Speaker 1: a question of all, right, to what heights can Jackson
Speaker 1: Arnold take them on offense? And are they going to
Speaker 1: get better on defense?
Speaker 2: Because they gave up close to four hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: yards a game last year, which was not good. That
Speaker 2: a lot of the efficiency numbers, yards per play, explosive
Speaker 2: play rate, all those things. I'm not going to list
Speaker 2: it off, but a lot of those red flags that
Speaker 2: we tend to call out when we're doing previews and
Speaker 2: when we're reviewing games and figuring out who's good and
Speaker 2: who isn't good. It suffice to say this defense has
Speaker 2: a lot to prove in year two under Mullin.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So two tricky openers for UNLV this year because
Speaker 1: they open up against what a Memphis team that they
Speaker 1: can't really prepare for that's completely new with Charles Hoff
Speaker 1: and then they play Hawaii on the road. Hawaii is
Speaker 1: just oh better at home with the amount of travel
Speaker 1: that a lot of teams have to do to get
Speaker 1: to the islands. Cal at home is tough, but the
Speaker 1: home road splits from there. Cal's at home, North Dakota
Speaker 1: State's at home, and well Nevada is at home. But
Speaker 1: they go on the road to New Mexico, which should
Speaker 1: be the headline game. They travel to Albuquerque, which should
Speaker 1: be tough. That should also be must watch TV if
Speaker 1: if all works out, you know, ULV should be able
Speaker 1: to run the hell out of the ball with Jayden
Speaker 1: Thomas probably the best returning running back in the conference. Yeah,
Speaker 1: UNLV I think is my favorite ever ever, so slightly
Speaker 1: over New Mexico. But I really do like New Mexico
Speaker 1: a good deal as well.
Speaker 2: So New Mexico would be the team that you go
Speaker 2: with if you're into returning production. Yes, because this is
Speaker 2: a team that went on and four last year. Year
Speaker 2: one also a year one situation, this one for Jason
Speaker 2: Beck got him to their first Yeah or eck, I
Speaker 2: always get the Beck in the I got it in
Speaker 2: front of me, and I still say Beck Jason Eck
Speaker 2: had a really campaign, got him to their first Bowl
Speaker 2: game since twenty sixteen, was undefeated at home, and now
Speaker 2: he's bringing back sixty three percent production. So for this program,
Speaker 2: that is like a huge shift in posture. Right, New
Speaker 2: Mexico is no longer the cute story. New Mexico is
Speaker 2: trying to be one of the actual league favorites. And
Speaker 2: it's probably a lot easier now that you know a
Speaker 2: bunch of the teams that we mentioned earlier went to
Speaker 2: the PAC twelve.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The good thing about New Mexico one is their
Speaker 1: starting position, depending on health, is returning quarterback in what
Speaker 1: Jack lane Jack Laine. Yeah, with the elbow, there's some
Speaker 1: pop back at you know, running back and receiver. Just
Speaker 1: experience there. We'll see there. I'm just going to trust
Speaker 1: a Jason X offensive line to figure things out. Defensively,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's a K Jaxton Ck right here,
Speaker 1: like fifty more tackles X t o n Jackston Ck
Speaker 1: Jackston K one hundred and twenty nine tackles. He was
Speaker 1: a Mountain West co Defensive Player of the Year, center
Speaker 1: of that defense so I really like the schedule. Now
Speaker 1: they have Oklahoma on the road, that is a letdown
Speaker 1: spot for Oklahoma after they traveled to Michigan. Oklahoma should
Speaker 1: win that game. But otherwise for New Mexico, they have
Speaker 1: Hawaii on the road, which we just mentioned that's going
Speaker 1: to be tough but winnable games elsewhere on the road.
Speaker 1: New Mexico State, Nevada, San Jose State, and Wyoming, all
Speaker 1: with like pretty significant issues are all on the road
Speaker 1: and getting UNLV the air Force offense at least North
Speaker 1: Dakota State at home. The schedules set up really really
Speaker 1: nicely for them to contend for this conference. If not,
Speaker 1: if everything breaks right, something even bigger. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I buy in on New Mexico because of the defense,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, the schedule helps, and it obviously
Speaker 2: helps to have a guy like a Jack Lane and
Speaker 2: we don't know, I guess fully his health status. The
Speaker 2: defense went from really bad to legitimately very good. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and really good against the run, really good at creating havoc,
Speaker 2: especially sacks last season. And you know, you mentioned Jackstoneck
Speaker 2: as well, who helps. So I think they're solid across
Speaker 2: the board. And so they're you know, anytime you're talking
Speaker 2: G six, there are holes, but there are fewer holes
Speaker 2: with New Mexico and I'm in, I'm in. I think
Speaker 2: it's I'll say right now, I think it's New Mexico and.
Speaker 1: UNLV UNLV at the top. Yeah, yeah, yeah, especially if
Speaker 1: New Mexico can find the pressure they had they lost
Speaker 1: guys up front on the edge. If they can find
Speaker 1: those those pressures, it'll go a long way for this
Speaker 1: team winning double digit games potentially.
Speaker 2: North Dakota State is jumping up. They have won ten
Speaker 2: FCS national titles in fifteen years. Their coach, Tim Polasek
Speaker 2: is twenty six and three in two FCS seasons. Bill
Speaker 2: Connolly's got them starting out at number seventy two nationally
Speaker 2: in terms of his sp plus, which puts them third
Speaker 2: in this conference. And I think they are going to
Speaker 2: capture the imagination of nearly everyone who cares about G
Speaker 2: six football. North Dakota State has been legendary at the
Speaker 2: FCS level, much more so than JMU before James Madison
Speaker 2: came up. So North Dakota State people are going to
Speaker 2: be very interested in the Bison this year.
Speaker 1: North Dakota State, it should be noted, joined an FBS
Speaker 1: conference before Notre Dame. Oh look at you. Everybody said, hey,
Speaker 1: look at you. If you want to win a bunch
Speaker 1: of national championships, join a conference up above with the
Speaker 1: big boys looking to look at you, Dan, they did.
Speaker 1: Our independence is our identity North Dakota State. Isn't that
Speaker 1: the isn't that the line it's I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: something like that. I'm trying to tell. The line is
Speaker 1: a good Notre Dame fan. No, you me huge. Jacksonville State, Fordham,
Speaker 1: Jacksonville State, Fordham and so State in the non conference
Speaker 1: portion of the North Dakota State schedule. So a nice
Speaker 1: little runway into this level. Not that North Dakota State
Speaker 1: hasn't beaten bigger teams.
Speaker 2: Don't sleep on jack State. Okay, I'll get to that later.
Speaker 2: I'm in on Jacksonville State, big timing.
Speaker 1: I'm just it's in the Fargo Dome. It is so
Speaker 1: got to make that Alabama, which is like a monster
Speaker 1: truck rally. It's great. It is like going to a
Speaker 1: monster truck rally the Fargo Dome.
Speaker 2: There will be an immense home field advantage at the
Speaker 2: Fargo Dome.
Speaker 1: Their home road splits are low key brutal North Dakota State.
Speaker 1: Now it's brutal for teams to go to the Fargo Dome,
Speaker 1: but also they're traveling to air Force altitude, they're traveling
Speaker 1: to UNLV perhaps conference favorite, they're traveling from North Dakota
Speaker 1: across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. That's got to be
Speaker 1: like an eight hour flight. No even the like state
Speaker 1: side flights, it's not close to get to San Jose
Speaker 1: from Fargo, so their travel will be significant. Although they've
Speaker 1: played teams obviously all over the West Coast in Big
Speaker 1: Sky Country, so not anything that's new fully to them,
Speaker 1: but it's a lot of road time, especially when you
Speaker 1: factor in Hawaii and traveling to Sacramento. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's it could be a lot. I'm not worried about
Speaker 1: San Jose, to be clear. So to me, it's just
Speaker 1: if this truly is a program that can just reload
Speaker 1: new player, you know, sleepwalk to double digit wins, this
Speaker 1: is the time to prove it. This is the time,
Speaker 1: even though it's a new level and it's new teams
Speaker 1: to prepare against. There's a lot of wins on this schedule.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of wins on this schedule, and
Speaker 1: I don't know if I see them going ten and two,
Speaker 1: but I think they can threaten it a couple good
Speaker 1: breaks if their starting point is a really good or
Speaker 1: at least experience offensive and defensive line. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I trust the quarterback. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: trust the pop on offense. We'll see about the speed
Speaker 1: on defense. We're not talking about joining a conference that
Speaker 1: has six obvious contenders. North Dakota State can happily step
Speaker 1: in and go nine to three.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again, if your starting point is the trenches.
Speaker 2: There aren't a whole lot of teams in this conference,
Speaker 2: frankly in college football that can make that claim. And
Speaker 2: I think they're up there. I think they're up there.
Speaker 2: If not the best, they are among the best offensive
Speaker 2: line defensive line in the Mountain West. And you'll take that.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I have the question about quarterback Nathan Hayes. Nathan Hayes
Speaker 2: very limited sample size, has never been on this stage,
Speaker 2: so the concern there is fairly obvious. I think the
Speaker 2: defense should step up. I think they've got structure. I
Speaker 2: think they know what they're doing. I question the secondary.
Speaker 2: Maybe against some better passing teams, but all told that
Speaker 2: they're in a really, really good spot. I'm even more
Speaker 2: excited that some of the nice people we met up
Speaker 2: at the Fargo Dome when you and I went up
Speaker 2: to the FCS playoff game years ago, that some of
Speaker 2: the people we told about our podcast might now actually
Speaker 2: get to have a.
Speaker 1: Reason to listen to that for a reason.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because before they didn't, but now they do. And
Speaker 2: so if you're a new listener, if you're North Dakota
Speaker 2: State fan, reach out saliverbo at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: How many obviously good defenses will this offense face on
Speaker 1: this schedule? So Wyoming, maybe we'll see the offense has
Speaker 1: been a New Mexico for lately. New Mexico, New Mexico
Speaker 1: likely UTEP is starting all over. They had a fun
Speaker 1: defense last year, but they're fully starting over. Hawaii had
Speaker 1: an interesting defense, but they lose Key Chung. I mean
Speaker 1: not UNLV, they don't, right, it's not UNLV. Not Sex
Speaker 1: State Air Force obviously is trying to do something on
Speaker 1: defense because they didn't do anything on defense last year.
Speaker 1: San Jose State, No, and I you had a good defense,
Speaker 1: but they're replacing a ton Yeah, okay, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a nice nice runway into the FBS time stick stick
Speaker 1: with Air Force then Air Force. I've always really enjoyed
Speaker 1: the Air Force experience over the years because they've found ways,
Speaker 1: I mean, Troy Calhoun has found really interesting defensive minds
Speaker 1: that have been picked off from Air Force. But they've
Speaker 1: managed to be the one, it seems like service academy
Speaker 1: that could field complete teams pretty regularly, or at least
Speaker 1: figure out defense regularly. They were truly awful on defense
Speaker 1: last season again, one of the absolute worst. They went
Speaker 1: back to. They hired a new old defensive coordinator who
Speaker 1: was with them in the twenty teens. He didn't do
Speaker 1: an especially good job for them. It was sort of
Speaker 1: post I think it's Brian No, Brian Nor left. It's
Speaker 1: Steve Russ who was the new old defensive coordinator. He
Speaker 1: didn't do a pretty good he did not do that
Speaker 1: great a job for Air Force. But when it was
Speaker 1: Liam Sarka running the offense when he was healthy, he
Speaker 1: was good. They just in terms of receivers and more
Speaker 1: importantly obviously running backs and the pop on their offense.
Speaker 1: They're replacing him. It's obviously a system. There will be
Speaker 1: probably some sort of learning curve for this air Force offense.
Speaker 1: But I expect them to score. I expect them to
Speaker 1: move the ball. All the underlying numbers were good last year,
Speaker 1: especially when he was healthy. Just in terms of like
Speaker 1: all these option teams are like converting first downs and
Speaker 1: converting third and shorts and time of possession. Right, they're
Speaker 1: going to play to a certain system. The question now
Speaker 1: is like can they get anything from this defense? If
Speaker 1: their defense is merely average or below average, this will
Speaker 1: be a very difficult out for everybody in the conference.
Speaker 1: I just don't think you can go from where they
Speaker 1: were to where they want to be in a year.
Speaker 1: So I like air Force, I don't love them.
Speaker 2: I sent you a picture of Troy Calhoun's That's a
Speaker 2: dye job, right, you.
Speaker 1: Know when they have that paint that is the special
Speaker 1: shade of black that it absorbs all light in the
Speaker 1: area and it makes it look two dimensional. I don't
Speaker 1: know if the picture you sent me of his scalp
Speaker 1: is recent, but it's it's not natural that picture.
Speaker 2: When ever this picture was taken, this is this is
Speaker 2: a die job.
Speaker 1: It has to be. We should have a should we
Speaker 1: do a bracket of coaching die jobs? Saban's been active.
Speaker 1: Saban has been. He has been active in the salon.
Speaker 1: Smiles had that like a signetti for sure, although he
Speaker 1: I think he laid off with more attention. I think
Speaker 1: he's laid off. I think he, uh, he's much more
Speaker 1: in like the just for men, like just rub in
Speaker 1: a little salt and pepper. He's got the salt and pepper,
Speaker 1: but he has he has a history. Yeah, yes, this
Speaker 1: picture is an all timer less. Miles had his sort
Speaker 1: of there's no color on the spectrum. It was sort
Speaker 1: of a dusty copper. Yeah, there's there's some Troy Calhoun
Speaker 1: shots out there. But yeah, I I really do hope
Speaker 1: for you know, Air Force's sake. Obviously they're playing for
Speaker 1: the Commander in Chief trophy and Navy games at home,
Speaker 1: Armies away. So that's a you know, a trip across
Speaker 1: the country. They don't have, I believe, an especially challenging
Speaker 1: non conference slate, so it's duquane it is. And then
Speaker 1: the service academies Army and Navy, so those will be tough.
Speaker 1: Those are quality teams. We talked about Navy already. Navy's
Speaker 1: gonna be good this season. Army, I think Armies. I
Speaker 1: think I'm higher on Army than you are by your
Speaker 1: way higher him. It's a tough but not impossible schedule.
Speaker 1: If they can figure out that defense, I think they
Speaker 1: should go bowling. I think they can get in that
Speaker 1: six to seven win range. I like Hawaii.
Speaker 2: I think they've got the quarterback Micah Alejado through for
Speaker 2: thirty one hundred yards a year ago as a red
Speaker 2: shirt freshman. Definitely a little bit of a pop gun situation.
Speaker 2: Not as bad as Bryant Monies who came before him,
Speaker 2: but yeah, way before him, to wait, way before him. Yeah,
Speaker 2: was playing through an ankle injury. I think if he's right,
Speaker 2: Hawaii can absolutely be in this title conversation. I worry
Speaker 2: about the defense.
Speaker 1: Look, it's like they.
Speaker 2: Dennis Thurman did a good job last year, but there's
Speaker 2: not a whole lot back for Hawaii in terms of
Speaker 2: returning production. I'm curious to see what they can do
Speaker 2: on that front, if they can take a step forward there.
Speaker 2: I think Timmy Chang on the whole has done a
Speaker 2: pretty good job with this team. I like the passing offense,
Speaker 2: but I worry about a half team situation. The schedule
Speaker 2: I think is interesting. You and LV, New Mexico and
Speaker 2: North Dakota State all come to Honolulu, which is huge.
Speaker 2: But Stanford un l V in both weeks one and two,
Speaker 2: I think we're going to know very quickly if they're
Speaker 2: worthy of being a contender or if it's just going
Speaker 2: to be a showcase for their quarterback.
Speaker 1: I don't know if how worried I am about their defense.
Speaker 1: Their defense was better than their offense last season. They
Speaker 1: rushed the passer well. Look load, there's so many new players,
Speaker 1: you know, gone players, gone players in. They rushed the
Speaker 1: passer well, They got off the field decently well on
Speaker 1: the down. They're very good in the red zone at
Speaker 1: times on defense, and a lot of that can go
Speaker 1: to coaching, like here's our system on third down, here's
Speaker 1: our system, more backed up kind of stuff. So to me,
Speaker 1: it's just an overall talent thing, and it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's always gonna be a weird schedule stuff. It's always
Speaker 1: been a weird schedule thing. I mean, the offenses on
Speaker 1: this schedule are not crazy. On this schedule, they have Stanford,
Speaker 1: New Mexico State, Wyoming, San Jose State, Northern Illinois, UTEP, Nevada,
Speaker 1: and Sack State, all with enormous offensive questions. Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I'm just to climb on offense.
Speaker 2: I'm spooked by the returning production thing. I'm spooked by
Speaker 2: that a little bit. But they do they have good
Speaker 2: They have good players at all three levels. So it's
Speaker 2: not a dearth of talent. It's just I don't know
Speaker 2: as if there's enough around those guys to leave me
Speaker 2: feeling the warm fuzzies about where this all goes next.
Speaker 1: UNLV, New Mexico and North Dakota State all coming to them. Yep,
Speaker 1: pretty good, they can pick off one of those. I
Speaker 1: think they're in decent enough shape to get to seven
Speaker 1: or eight again. They got to nine with the Bowl
Speaker 1: win last year, right, I think they're in the.
Speaker 2: Vicinity Wyoming it. It's maybe a Bowl team. Like, I
Speaker 2: think the defense is good enough to keep them in games.
Speaker 2: The offense is probably bad enough to ruin everything else.
Speaker 1: Yep. Is that a fair analysis? This is getting kind
Speaker 1: of serious Wyoming wise for it J So he's not
Speaker 1: winning games seven and seventeen in two years, and so
Speaker 1: there's a lot that's winnable. Right. You have Colorado State,
Speaker 1: it's on the road. That's the first game of the
Speaker 1: Jym Mora era at Central Michigan, who shouldn't be all
Speaker 1: that good this year. Northern Colorado, so you can say
Speaker 1: if they're okay, that's three and zero. San Jose State
Speaker 1: could be winnable. I don't think they're going to be
Speaker 1: especially good this year, and I you making their move late.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that. I don't think they're going to
Speaker 1: be especially good this year. I think they can figure out.
Speaker 1: I think there's gonna be a couple of those key
Speaker 1: games late that they could figure out how to get
Speaker 1: to six wins. If they're doing any literally anything on offense,
Speaker 1: they're doing the they're bringing in Bill and Mary's quarterback.
Speaker 1: I believe that's right. So from Bill and Mary to
Speaker 1: Lara Me, that's a tough I'm not proud of it.
Speaker 1: Christian Taylor is the name, right, He's the quarterback. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it just comes down to to offense. Well,
Speaker 1: Christian Taylor is the Christian. Excuse me, Christian Taylor is
Speaker 1: the OC's Tyler Hughes.
Speaker 2: I've been getting those confused the entire time we've been
Speaker 2: studying these teams. I even jotted it down wrong, but
Speaker 2: you're right, Tyler Hughes, excuse me, is the quarterback from
Speaker 2: Bill and.
Speaker 1: Amy run the ball little they have returning experience at
Speaker 1: running back. I can squint and see November Bowl conversation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a tough place to play. That's the elevation, right,
Speaker 1: that's the highest point. If I'm going to say I'm
Speaker 1: an elevation guy, you're an elevation guy. I gotta I
Speaker 1: gotta be a cowboy guy.
Speaker 2: I love their running back, whose nickname is Tote Tote,
Speaker 2: great nickname, Samuel Tote. Harris is their running back. Had
Speaker 2: a good campaign as a freshman. We'll see what he
Speaker 2: can do this year. But I think six wins is there.
Speaker 2: I think it's there. I do like the defense. They
Speaker 2: were really good last year, especially against the pass. Yeah,
Speaker 2: didn't do much in terms of a pass rush.
Speaker 1: Two years ago they beat NFL starting quarterback Tyler Shuck
Speaker 1: and Texas Tech in Laramie. Yeah. Yeah, not bad so
Speaker 1: two years ago, three years ago. I lose track of time. Nevada, Nevada.
Speaker 1: Nevada is not good. Nevada is trying on offense, They're
Speaker 1: stuck in a choke hold, man, They're stuck in the chowthold.
Speaker 1: They're trying to go more air. Rady on offense. It's
Speaker 1: it was a Mike Leach disciple from Wazoo who was
Speaker 1: at Colorado last year. It's Brett Bartaloni, I believe, is
Speaker 1: the new offensive coordinator for Jeff Choate and the and
Speaker 1: the Nevada operation, the wolf Pack. I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: they went three to nine. They were pretty bad. They've
Speaker 1: got a lot. They were I think arguably the worst
Speaker 1: passing team in America at times really last season, and
Speaker 1: so they're bringing in a bunch of transfers on offense
Speaker 1: to improve things.
Speaker 2: I think the line, the line should be okay. The
Speaker 2: offensive line will be okay, and so, like I whenever
Speaker 2: you've got that as a starting point, and I'm not
Speaker 2: saying I'm not saying they're Notre Dames offensive line, but
Speaker 2: I'm saying it's not we're talking about the offense in
Speaker 2: these dismal terms. I think that I think the offensive
Speaker 2: line will be okay. Whenever you got that as a
Speaker 2: starting point, that's cause for optimism. But you know, like
Speaker 2: new receivers, Yeah, maybe changing the system here a little bit.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Schedule's pretty tough, especially the back half.
Speaker 1: They have UCLA, New Mexico, North Dakota State three out
Speaker 1: of four weeks, like mid October to early November, they
Speaker 1: finished with Hawaii and UNLV back to back. At least
Speaker 1: Hawaii is in Reno, and obviously the UNLV trip is
Speaker 1: not all that far from Reno to Vegas. But like,
Speaker 1: if they haven't figured anything out by the back half
Speaker 1: of the schedule, they could be staring down the barrel
Speaker 1: of like losing four or five to finish the year
Speaker 1: and finish three and nine four and eight again.
Speaker 2: They are also the only team that has to play
Speaker 2: all three new members of the Mountain West in UTIP,
Speaker 2: North Dakota State, and Northern Illinois.
Speaker 1: I'm not feeling great about the prospects all right.
Speaker 2: So the last three teams then that we got to
Speaker 2: go through quickly are San Jose State or they're an
Speaker 2: Illinois and UTEP sus those out for me.
Speaker 1: San Jose State was a mess last year. They lose
Speaker 1: their starting quarterback in Walker Egot. They were pretty close
Speaker 1: early on last year but fell off the map late.
Speaker 1: They're starting over once again. They've had good receivers lately.
Speaker 1: They're gonna get throttled by USC early. That's a week
Speaker 1: zero game. I believe the schedule isn't doing them any favors,
Speaker 1: especially later on in the schedule where they have New
Speaker 1: Mexico UNLV travel to Air Force in North Dakota State.
Speaker 1: The back half of the schedule, it's difficult to find
Speaker 1: pop at the defense've just so got awful last year
Speaker 1: and the offense fell off as well. So it just
Speaker 1: I think it's too too tall a mountain to climb
Speaker 1: to feel all that good about them even making a
Speaker 1: Bowl game at this point, there's they feel like foreign
Speaker 1: eight ish to me. Okay, who else do you say? Uta? Niu?
Speaker 1: Yeah you tip in niu u Tip was at least
Speaker 1: a little saucy last year. I think they were able
Speaker 1: to generate big plays. They lose just a ton, including
Speaker 1: their offensive coordinator, who wasn't all that I mean, the
Speaker 1: offense wasn't all that consistent, but they did hit on
Speaker 1: a couple of big plays last season. They go two
Speaker 1: to ten last year. A ton needs to be fixed.
Speaker 1: They have. They lose a ton to the portal, they
Speaker 1: gain a ton in the portal. There's just not especially
Speaker 1: they have Oklahoma and Michigan in two of the first
Speaker 1: three weeks, right, because that's just part of how they
Speaker 1: schedule the home road splits are also including those teams
Speaker 1: traveling to Air Force traveling to North Dakota State. Not great.
Speaker 1: There's just it doesn't seem like there's a clear path
Speaker 1: beyond three wins.
Speaker 2: EJ Colson baby sure EJ caught another transfer from FCS
Speaker 2: from Incarnate Word.
Speaker 1: Yeah, put up big numbers they.
Speaker 2: Named in the starting quarterback already close to seventy one
Speaker 2: percent completion percentage, can throw runs a little. If he's
Speaker 2: better than any of the quarterbacks last year for UTEP
Speaker 2: who combined for twenty interceptions. If he can help stop
Speaker 2: that bleeding, I would say that's a good start.
Speaker 1: I think they only beat what Sam Houston and an
Speaker 1: FCS team last season, correct, and we're competitive in games
Speaker 1: against terrible teams. So I don't know. I just I'm
Speaker 1: not I like Scottie Walden. I'm just that they're at best,
Speaker 1: at absolute best. You can say he's just gonna hit
Speaker 1: on a ton of transfers and they are going to
Speaker 1: flirt with you know, going to a bowl or something
Speaker 1: or being bolish six and six something like that, and
Speaker 1: the evaluation I think would have to be off the
Speaker 1: charts for that to happen.
Speaker 2: And I you now in the Mountain West. I must
Speaker 2: be completely honest with you. The entire time you've been
Speaker 2: mentioning Northern Illinois, I'm thinking, just because I've been pre programmed.
Speaker 1: Why do I keep mentioning? Why is he mentioning a
Speaker 1: MAC team?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Northern Illinois joining the Mountain West, historically a very
Speaker 2: mountainous region of Illinois. Of course, they're changing conferences. Their coach,
Speaker 2: Thomas Hammick left for the Seattle Seahawks back in February. No,
Speaker 2: he's not the head coach. He's just on the staff,
Speaker 2: and so Rob Harley is the interim guy now, which is,
Speaker 2: let's be honest, a tough way to enter a new league.
Speaker 1: Offense was the problem last year.
Speaker 2: They were one thirty five in offensive sp plus really
Speaker 2: bad as a passing entity. The run game is okay,
Speaker 2: but everything through the air was just a disaster. So
Speaker 2: we've got that as a starting point.
Speaker 1: The defense.
Speaker 2: Nineteen players who started at least one on last year,
Speaker 2: Only three of them are back from last year.
Speaker 1: Per Bill. Yeah, the defense was good. Last year.
Speaker 2: Defense was okay, but they lose a lot. So this
Speaker 2: is just sort of like.
Speaker 1: The defense was not good. The defense was really good.
Speaker 1: At stopping big play big plays. Yes, and they did
Speaker 1: a thing really well. So I guess my point is
Speaker 1: just that a lot new including the league, does not
Speaker 1: leave me feeling that inspired about how this starts off
Speaker 1: for NIU. You gotta look at the silver lining. The
Speaker 1: silver lining is we get late in the season an
Speaker 1: NIU Nevada game, which were two of the absolute worst
Speaker 1: passing teams in America last year. So we might get
Speaker 1: a game hope either like, oh wow, they've really attacked
Speaker 1: this and look a lot better through the air, or
Speaker 1: a game between two quarterbacks who look like they're throwing
Speaker 1: into the wind when it's not actually windy, so we
Speaker 1: get the joy of seeing who is better at throwing
Speaker 1: the ball. After a season in which neither one of
Speaker 1: these teams, we get an off brand army. Yes, and
Speaker 1: we do get games, by the way, between teams who
Speaker 1: are like the one of the absolute worst offenses against
Speaker 1: one of the absolute worst defenses, the like something's got
Speaker 1: to give in the other direction, so like the air
Speaker 1: Force defense from last year against the Nevada off Like,
Speaker 1: we do get that intrigue. If you're that kind of
Speaker 1: college football masochist, you can tune in to see who
Speaker 1: wins between the unmoving force offensively or defensively.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got New Mexico over UNLV because of the defense.
Speaker 1: Okay, I think I'm gonna do that too. I think
Speaker 1: we're going to agree. We're eckheads here we are. I
Speaker 1: think I think they're in a good position. I think
Speaker 1: last year Bill Connolly personally deciding not to put New
Speaker 1: Mexico in the championship game. It was the sour taste
Speaker 1: in their mouth. Yeah. No, he did not personally decide that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, it's all coming up, Lobo. Let's do a
Speaker 1: Conference USA. There's only one thing you love.
Speaker 2: That's danger.
Speaker 1: Conference USA. I know I found that sound. You definitely
Speaker 1: found that, so you made it. I think that was
Speaker 1: from the original Ocean's eleven.
Speaker 2: Yes, Western Kentucky looks like the favorite, but they have
Speaker 2: the least returning production in the conference and the fifth
Speaker 2: worst in the country. Almost every team you would consider
Speaker 2: a quote unquote contender has a rather large quarterback question
Speaker 2: in Conference USA. In terms of defense, I would say
Speaker 2: that in the land of the Blind, the one eyed
Speaker 2: man is king. There is no obvious answer for who's
Speaker 2: got the best defense in this conference. I think everyone
Speaker 2: has an enormous question mark about their defense, and the
Speaker 2: first team that figures it out is going to have
Speaker 2: a real advantage everybody. Everybody is rebuilding through the portal.
Speaker 2: It's just sort of the standard now and bigger picture,
Speaker 2: the plight of Kennesaw State, Missouri State, and Delaware remained
Speaker 2: super interesting to me. Remember three teams that recently jumped
Speaker 2: up to FBS. All of them are in very very
Speaker 2: different spots. You've got Delaware with a ton back, You've
Speaker 2: got Missouri State completely rebooting, and then you've got Kennesaw State,
Speaker 2: who actually won the damn conference a year ago but
Speaker 2: then lost a ton and.
Speaker 1: We had their coach on he could get the solidverbal
Speaker 1: bump though he could. I'll get to that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: The team that I liked the most in Jacksonville State.
Speaker 2: Three years in FBS now three nine win seasons, three bowls,
Speaker 2: two straight Conference USA Title Game appearances. They lost Cam Cook,
Speaker 2: who was their running back ran for sixteen hundred yards.
Speaker 2: He transferred over to play with rich Trod at West Virginia.
Speaker 2: There isn't a like for like replacement for him. It'll
Speaker 2: probably be a committee approach, but the committee approach might
Speaker 2: work well because they're going to build a plane out
Speaker 2: of Caden Kreole, who is back. He was their quarterback
Speaker 2: fifteen hundred yards to the air, almost eleven hundred on
Speaker 2: the ground. You combine him with whatever running back and
Speaker 2: DeAndre Johnson, who is a six' eight monster of a
Speaker 2: man at wide, out and that's your.
Speaker 1: Offense does anybody ever describe you as a monster of a?
Speaker 1: Man never EVERYWHERE i.
Speaker 2: Go intellectually maybe, yes intellectual monster as a world smife maybe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well isn't this then kind of become a coaching
Speaker 1: conference at least in how you talk about it right,
Speaker 1: Now like if you Trust Tyson helton more than other,
Speaker 1: people if you trust Obviously Missouri state's starting over at head.
Speaker 1: Coach you, know if you are A Jerry mack, GUY
Speaker 1: i am. It we, Are We're jerry mac, Show we're
Speaker 1: children Of. Mac, yeah that's a weird way to phrase.
Speaker 1: It Mac. Trucks. Sure so. YEAH i, mean with all
Speaker 1: of these teams just going to continually lose their best,
Speaker 1: players having to lose their best players because of the
Speaker 1: realities of the sport and the size of these, schools
Speaker 1: you're going off. Of, okay who's evaluation skills who do
Speaker 1: we trust late in. GAMES i, mean they're pretty good
Speaker 1: coaches in This there are there, are there are. There
Speaker 1: really it's the non Chip Charles kelly now right At Jacksonville.
Speaker 1: STATE i Love Jacksonville.
Speaker 2: STATE i have coming out of the conference and a
Speaker 2: lot of people are in On Western, kentucky But i'm
Speaker 2: in on Jack.
Speaker 1: STATE i like their.
Speaker 2: DEFENSE i think they've got some of the better, pieces
Speaker 2: especially in the back. Seven and in terms of all
Speaker 2: THE g six teams that we've, studied because we're rounding
Speaker 2: the bend here, now this is the last conference that
Speaker 2: we're going to.
Speaker 1: Discuss schedule is one of my. Favorites it's not the.
Speaker 2: Easiest it's just interesting because they open the year At
Speaker 2: North Dakota, state which you mentioned. Earlier they've got two
Speaker 2: enormous road games At Kennesau state In, october At Western
Speaker 2: kentucky In. November and if this team makes it through
Speaker 2: their road, games and we'll know a lot more By,
Speaker 2: december as it. Were of, course as, always this is a,
Speaker 2: program a team that will have been very battle tested
Speaker 2: and will probably be a tough out in the conference title.
Speaker 2: GAME i don't think any of these teams In CONFERENCE
Speaker 2: usa are playoff. Viable the schedules just aren't tough. Enough but,
Speaker 2: again we're not thinking of this in terms of. Playoff
Speaker 2: who cares?
Speaker 1: Agree SO i Like.
Speaker 2: JACKSON i think there's a lot to like, here both
Speaker 2: in terms of their quarterback and what they return on.
Speaker 1: Defense all, right fair, enough anything From liberty that interests
Speaker 1: you just Because Jamie chadwell has been a.
Speaker 2: Name, yeah what interests me on The liberty front is
Speaker 2: that they could be a nice rebound candidate because In
Speaker 2: chadwell's first year they went thirteen and, one then eight and,
Speaker 2: four and then four and. Eight so the trend has
Speaker 2: been in the wrong, direction, Correct and there's there's a
Speaker 2: real question about, that which is this a? Trend is
Speaker 2: It Jamie chadwell trying to put his system in. Place
Speaker 2: they do have the easiest schedule in the, conference WHICH
Speaker 2: i think should help with the win. TOTAL i like
Speaker 2: their running. BACKS i think they've got really good, depth
Speaker 2: even By CONFERENCE usa, standards really good. Depth if we
Speaker 2: see a rebound is probably because of the line in
Speaker 2: the running. Game but they got to fix the defense
Speaker 2: and they're. Trying they brought over a Guy Sean quinn
Speaker 2: From Virginia tech try and run the, defense try and
Speaker 2: make it. Better they were near the bottom last year
Speaker 2: in terms of creating. Havoc they've got some pieces in
Speaker 2: the front, seven but basically everyone who mattered in the
Speaker 2: back is, gone.
Speaker 1: So what they do with that will be.
Speaker 2: Interesting the quarterback, room it's Between Ethan, vasco remember that.
Speaker 2: Name of, Course Ethan vasco is competing with The Sean
Speaker 2: purdy And Jalen. Henderson answer is one From wake one
Speaker 2: From West. Virginia Jamie chadwell said he wants to play
Speaker 2: one quarterback right. Now it looks like he wants to play.
Speaker 2: Three it's JUST i DON'T i don't know the recipe.
Speaker 2: Though if they want to get that, rebounds probably getting
Speaker 2: better at, quarterback leaning on their ground, game and creating
Speaker 2: some kind of disruption on.
Speaker 1: Defense whatever that. Was Jalen, henderson by the, way is
Speaker 1: from vaguely Where i'm. From, yeah fourth, School, Yeah, FRESNO
Speaker 1: a AND, M West. VIRGINIA i just had a little
Speaker 1: flash AT a AND m. LATE i Think laden twenty
Speaker 1: three or twenty four didn't do anything last year, obviously
Speaker 1: and now is battling for, liberty so he's on a.
Speaker 2: Journey i've got them fourth in the. Conference i've Got
Speaker 2: Jacksonville state Over Western kentucky and a lot of, teams
Speaker 2: a lot of. TEAMS a lot of people Like Western
Speaker 2: kentucky as the team In CONFERENCE, usa AND i like him.
Speaker 2: Too what's interesting About western is The Tyson helton thing
Speaker 2: where every year they lose a ton of auction and
Speaker 2: every year it kind of doesn't. Matter every year they
Speaker 2: win at least eight.
Speaker 1: Games what was it THAT i forget if it Was
Speaker 1: Art vandala or Aj pennypacker who did import? Export that Was.
Speaker 1: Vandalay that Was. Vandalay, yeah That's Tyson. Helton, yeah what
Speaker 1: does he? Do he's import, export He's Vandale. Industries, yeah
Speaker 1: that's all it. Is he goes about it his own.
Speaker 2: Way their, Quarterback Rodney Tisdale, junior was the freshman of
Speaker 2: The year in the. Conference rocket for an arm if
Speaker 2: we want to stay On seinfeld could run a little.
Speaker 2: Bit also took thirteen sacks and threw seven picks and six,
Speaker 2: Starts so you, know got to clean some stuff. Up
Speaker 2: if they're good on the, line and they lost a
Speaker 2: lot on the, line.
Speaker 1: They can win the.
Speaker 2: League, OKAY i THINK i think the whole thing for
Speaker 2: me really comes down to that defense had fits and
Speaker 2: starts last. Year good in terms of some, things bad
Speaker 2: in terms of. Others but schedule's. Weird they're At georgia
Speaker 2: and At indiana in back to back weeks In.
Speaker 1: September i'm just like looking At CONFERENCE usa teams who
Speaker 1: have the least brutal non conference, also obviously that doesn't
Speaker 1: affect how they finish in, Conference BUT i don't. Know,
Speaker 1: man Having george And indiana just brood and sound fun
Speaker 1: for your spleen as cut into conference.
Speaker 2: Games trying to find an easy schedule in the non
Speaker 2: con is like a needle in a. Haystack And delaware
Speaker 2: has Got vandy In. Virginia, yeah their schedules, really their
Speaker 2: conference schedules really. Backloaded they Get, Jacksonville, State liberty And
Speaker 2: kennesaw in the last three weeks of the. Year, okay
Speaker 2: so we will need to wait Till december to actually
Speaker 2: know anything About Western.
Speaker 1: KENTUCKY i appreciate That.
Speaker 2: Kennesaw, look were Fans kennesaw obviously an incredible turnaround story
Speaker 2: last year won the Damn conference and we Had Jerry
Speaker 2: mack in the show a few months.
Speaker 1: Ago go listen to that.
Speaker 2: Episode, yeah they're down a bunch of starters on offense
Speaker 2: and did good work in the. PORT i think they
Speaker 2: managed to scrape together a pretty good line that has,
Speaker 2: experienced SO i think they'll be.
Speaker 1: Okay up.
Speaker 2: Front they're going to Try Ricky, collins a quarterback From.
Speaker 1: SYRACUSE i think it's probably an earnest. Competition. YEAH i
Speaker 1: don't think you can watch The syracuse offense last year
Speaker 1: with as many issues as they had and say that
Speaker 1: is the guy that we are just handing the reins.
Speaker 2: To he threw ten, picks he went zero to five
Speaker 2: as a starter FOR. Qs then they benched. Him that's
Speaker 2: why he.
Speaker 1: Transferred so backing Up Steve, angeli he was not the first.
Speaker 2: Choice, Yeah And angelly blew out his, Achilles and then
Speaker 2: they brought In Ricky. Collins at least, defensively they got
Speaker 2: the best linebacker in the, league And Baron. HOBSON i
Speaker 2: think they've got enough around him where they can create
Speaker 2: some Havy you're really bad against the run last.
Speaker 1: Year we should have asked coach about. That but why
Speaker 1: couldn't you tackle running backs Last? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Seriously and then we got the rest of the, conference
Speaker 2: AND i found something interesting about each of these teams.
Speaker 1: Like you, Know i'm a fan of The Blue.
Speaker 2: Hens you, know The Blue hens Of delaware were the
Speaker 2: first school THAT i visited WHEN i was taking college.
Speaker 1: Visits was there nil, package not? Robust it.
Speaker 2: Wasn't it wasn't as big As Penn, stance to be
Speaker 2: honest with, YOU i got. That and the dorms were
Speaker 2: significantly smaller than the other. College that's. True it Was
Speaker 2: that's WHY i didn't go. THERE i Like, DELAWARE i just.
Speaker 2: Did the dorms were like a shoe box at the.
Speaker 1: Time nobody has won a sixty eight Ventures bowl more
Speaker 1: recently Than. DELAWARE i defy you to find a.
Speaker 2: Team they are in the top twenty five nationally with
Speaker 2: sixty two percent production. Returning okay went to A, bowl
Speaker 2: went seven to six in their first year IN. Fbs
Speaker 2: their Quarterback. Storry, yeah it was a great. Story their,
Speaker 2: Quarterback Nick minicucci is the best reason to take them.
Speaker 2: Seriously had a really good, campaign solid player all, around could.
Speaker 2: Run they use them in the red zone a. LOT
Speaker 2: i Think delaware is going to be solid on. Offense
Speaker 2: that's the Reason i'm not higher is the. Defense and
Speaker 2: this is, like stop. Me if you've heard this, before,
Speaker 2: right they give too many big, plays got to replace a.
Speaker 2: LOT i think it's a bold. Team, AGAIN i don't
Speaker 2: know if they can go higher than. That all, RIGHT
Speaker 2: fiu dal a baby pit Bull stadium Is Willie. Simmons
Speaker 2: Willy simmons immediately went seven and, six immediately went to
Speaker 2: FIU's first bowl game since twenty, nineteen BEAT fau one
Speaker 2: At Western. Kentucky finished the regular season four and oh
Speaker 2: did get drilled in the bowl game BY, utsa but
Speaker 2: a really impressive. Start who cares a really impressive? Start
Speaker 2: they do lose both, Quarterbacks they lose a running, back wide,
Speaker 2: receivers basically the entire.
Speaker 1: Line there's work to. Do the new quarterback IS Jj
Speaker 1: cole still? Playing remember?
Speaker 2: Him Iowa state to Ap. State it's a throwing motion
Speaker 2: that looks like it's in slow. Motion, dan we had
Speaker 2: his dad on the. Show was that his? Dad?
Speaker 1: YEAH i didn't know that was his?
Speaker 2: Dad, yes from the kicking, camp the kicking, Expert, yes
Speaker 2: this is his.
Speaker 1: Kid? Yes how did cool did you not tell me?
Speaker 1: This how DID i not make the? CONNECTION i think
Speaker 1: he was the one who referenced it on the. Show
Speaker 1: Man cole kicks. Right cole kicking whatever The coles. Kicking,
Speaker 1: YEAH i love that. Interview, YEAH i had no. Idea,
Speaker 1: yeah there you. Go now you Know i'm, verifying But
Speaker 1: i'm one hundred. Percent i'm near one hundred. Percent, Wow
Speaker 1: how DID i not know?
Speaker 2: That? YEAH i think there's a path for him to get.
Speaker 2: Better it's very much dependent on the line. Play they
Speaker 2: got a tough road slate at Jack, state At, liberty At,
Speaker 2: delaware At. Kennesaw But Willie simmons is a guy who you,
Speaker 2: know stepped in and immediately made a. Difference there's no
Speaker 2: reason to think he can't continue on.
Speaker 1: That of.
Speaker 2: Course, yes let me round out this conference here with
Speaker 2: the final four. Teams i'll go through them. Quickly, okay
Speaker 2: please Do New Mexico state close enough to be mad
Speaker 2: about the way the season went last. Year they started
Speaker 2: three and, Two they lost six of seven with four
Speaker 2: to one score. Losses they were the worst rushing team
Speaker 2: in the country last, year so there was an effort
Speaker 2: to get better on that side of the. Ball James
Speaker 2: jones is the running back that they're bringing over From Delaware,
Speaker 2: state and they also added a bunch of line. HELP
Speaker 2: i don't know if it's going to WORK i have
Speaker 2: no idea.
Speaker 1: Good at home road Splits New, Mexico Western, Kentucky Jacksonville,
Speaker 1: State liberty And delaware all at.
Speaker 2: HOME i think this will be a team that leans
Speaker 2: on their, defense and if they get the six, wins
Speaker 2: is going to be mostly because of their. Defense but they're. Trying,
Speaker 2: okay you can see what they're trying to improve. Upon,
Speaker 2: Yeah Missouri. State Missouri state another one of these success.
Speaker 2: Stories in their FIRST fbs, season they went seven and,
Speaker 2: six they made A bowl And Ryan beard and like
Speaker 2: every buddy the Whole patrino clan left For Coastal carolina
Speaker 2: took everything with. Him so it's a complete. Rebuild now
Speaker 2: For Casey, woods who's the new coach formerly AT, smu
Speaker 2: both both fronts need to be. Rebuilt obviously a first
Speaker 2: time head, coach he's gonna have his work cut out for.
Speaker 2: Him he has Both TEXAS a AND m AND smu
Speaker 2: on the road In. September AND i think if you
Speaker 2: like try to work out the math for them to
Speaker 2: get back to a bowl, game they basically need two,
Speaker 2: upsets two fairly sizable, upsets and then for no other
Speaker 2: like weird hiccups in order to get back to A bowl, Right,
Speaker 2: Okay Middle Tennessee Derek. Mason the reason to watch Is Roman.
Speaker 2: Gagliano he is their. Quarterback he took over late in the.
Speaker 2: Year he went two and one as a, starter four
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy one total yards Against, western which was
Speaker 2: the most by A Blu raider freshman in his first.
Speaker 1: Start there's a lot to like.
Speaker 2: There he's one of those guys who's not really a,
Speaker 2: runner but when he does, run he's deceptively.
Speaker 1: Quick and we all know about those.
Speaker 2: Quarterbacks they can be, dangerous not the most accurate, passer
Speaker 2: but definitely give them some. Potential the problem is, this
Speaker 2: the defense could not stop anything through the air last,
Speaker 2: year and as we, know this is a program, that
Speaker 2: for what feels like in, eternity was a Proud bowl,
Speaker 2: team a proud eight win team Under Rick, stockstill so
Speaker 2: there is mounting pressure On Derek mason to do something
Speaker 2: to win more than three. GAMES i should, add as
Speaker 2: our friends over at THE g Five hive pointed, out
Speaker 2: the university president is retiring at the end of the,
Speaker 2: year and that's always one of the signals you look
Speaker 2: for with regard to coaching, changes is it?
Speaker 1: Not it could be ad or.
Speaker 2: President whenever you've got the long time or stepping aside
Speaker 2: and somebody else coming.
Speaker 1: In maybe they want to make their, mark maybe they.
Speaker 2: DON'T i can't imagine that The Blue raider fan base
Speaker 2: is all that excited about back to back three win.
Speaker 2: Seasons so it's put up a shut up For, MASON i.
Speaker 2: Agree and then to close it, out we'll talk About Sam.
Speaker 2: Houston we joked about it last year because of their stadium,
Speaker 2: renovations they played their home games seventy miles, away which
Speaker 2: is never great for the home field. Advantage they're going
Speaker 2: to be back At Bowers stadium this. Year they're scheduled
Speaker 2: to finish renovations by the end Of, july so there you.
Speaker 2: Go sounds like their new press box is going to
Speaker 2: be better Than Penn, states which isn't saying. Much but, no,
Speaker 2: NEVERTHELESS i will Give Phil longo a bit of a.
Speaker 2: Mulligan the roster was decimated Because Casey keeler left And
Speaker 2: longo was kind of hired late in the, Process so
Speaker 2: it looks like another rebuild this. Year we'll see what
Speaker 2: he can. Do But i've Got Sam houston bringing up the.
Speaker 1: Rear, yeah it has like a three to, nine four
Speaker 1: and eight type feel at the. Moment, okay, WELL i
Speaker 1: hope they feel at home in the new.
Speaker 2: Digs bucking the trend going With Jacksonville state Over Western.
Speaker 1: Kentucky i'm going just BECAUSE i want the shirt that
Speaker 1: Says mac To. Mac i'm going To Kanasas state to
Speaker 1: repeat and win the. Conference one more, team, Okay Yukon. Huskies,
Speaker 1: yes so outside Of CONFERENCE Usa independent and now they are, candlefied.
Speaker 2: We Need yukon to either join The Mountain west or
Speaker 2: The Pac twelve just to really spice things.
Speaker 1: UP i mean that would GIVE Us yukon And gonzaga
Speaker 1: in the same basketball. Conference that's What i'm. Saying, Man,
Speaker 1: well because there was A yukon conversation about when The
Speaker 1: Big twelve was looking to backfill or add. Too there
Speaker 1: was That yukon conversation THAT i guess could have at
Speaker 1: some point IN us a team in Stores connecticut And Tucson,
Speaker 1: arizona then they could be The Pacific Atlantic. Conference that's,
Speaker 1: true THE Pa.
Speaker 2: Atlantic Jim mora junior, left he went To Colorado.
Speaker 1: State we mentioned that.
Speaker 2: Earlier the new coach Is Jason, kandall who comes over
Speaker 2: From TOLEDO i THINK i like him a little bit
Speaker 2: more than you. Do you don't burn for the candle
Speaker 2: the WAY i.
Speaker 1: Do well now That yukon is just a place where people.
Speaker 1: Win who knows right that he has institutional advantages Coaching
Speaker 1: yukon football in a way that really we hadn't seen
Speaker 1: for quite some time since what The Joe morehead had
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator and, god what's his? Name i'm losing my
Speaker 1: mind with my. Memory the, Mayor, Yes i'll dare you.
Speaker 1: Forget maybe you're just set up to succeed in.
Speaker 2: Stores fifty over fifty portal additions this. Year just five
Speaker 2: guys back for The huskies who started games last.
Speaker 1: Year the Reason yukon went nine and four was because
Speaker 1: of their.
Speaker 2: Offense all that's, gone the whole. Thing it's still an
Speaker 2: active quarterback competition at time of. RECORDING i think it's
Speaker 2: gonna Be Jake, merklinger the transfer From tennessee once was
Speaker 2: a four. Star But Caleb, osborne who comes With kandle From,
Speaker 2: toledo is also a name That i've been reading a lot. About,
Speaker 2: he's you, know maybe the guy who knows the system,
Speaker 2: better even if he doesn't have all the upside Of,
Speaker 2: merklinger but at time of, recording we don't. Know last
Speaker 2: year it was a lot Of Joey fagnano And Skylar belt.
Speaker 2: Right that was why they were so good on offense
Speaker 2: through the.
Speaker 1: Air right now.
Speaker 2: Gone this offensive staff has, credentials but there's no returning.
Speaker 1: Production Nunzio. Campanelli, mmm just making them What Syracuse Rutgers
Speaker 1: yukon Try, Yeah, Fryad, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yep he is bringing over the passing resume that he
Speaker 2: had At, syracuse WHICH i to his, credit was pretty.
Speaker 1: Good, okay But yukon returns. Again nothing on.
Speaker 2: Offense no three hundred yard receiver on this, Roster so
Speaker 2: question of, okay what's he going to work? WITH i
Speaker 2: like the, LINEBACKERS i guess on, defense but otherwise they
Speaker 2: got to cover for a. Lot they got to cover
Speaker 2: for a completely rebuilt secondary that again is losing all
Speaker 2: of its. PRODUCTION i, Listen i'm not gonna go position by.
Speaker 2: Position it's kind of pointless to do. That it's entirely new.
Speaker 2: Team what you are hoping for if you are A yukon,
Speaker 2: fan is That Jason kandall can put it together, quickly
Speaker 2: that he, can you, know figure out the quarterback. Thing
Speaker 2: that he can lean into that pipeline Of toledo guys
Speaker 2: that came with him and use a schedule that has
Speaker 2: eight home games on it to try and build some.
Speaker 2: Momentum all, right eight home games. Helps i'm not Seeing
Speaker 2: bowl in year, one BUT i have typically put a
Speaker 2: lot of faith In Jason kandall to at least figure it.
Speaker 2: Out and as he now takes this next step and
Speaker 2: starts this new chapter with a different, team we'll see
Speaker 2: what he's made. OF i like the, STAFF i like his.
Speaker 2: Pedigree i'm Just i'm not feeling. It there's too much,
Speaker 2: new AND i don't even know how to project This yukon.
Speaker 1: Team are you sure it's eight home? GAMES i counted? Eight,
Speaker 1: DI i count. Wrong i'm counting. Seven, Lafayette, Maryland, Syracuse
Speaker 1: UMass that's, four and Then North Carolina James MADISON Odu okay, seven.
Speaker 2: SEVEN i counted. Wrong but, whatever more home games and away, games.
Speaker 1: More home games than away. Games, yeah it's Just toledo
Speaker 1: is also a place that cares deeply about, football And
Speaker 1: yukon has football at least third down the ranks of
Speaker 1: how we're spending OUR rev share. Money, Right probably it's
Speaker 1: a difficult.
Speaker 2: Ask probably. True, Lafayette, Maryland, Syracuse, UMass North. Carolina jmu old,
Speaker 2: DOMINION i counted.
Speaker 1: Wrong, Okay, yep it's. OKAY i think that does. IT
Speaker 1: i think that's part of part.
Speaker 2: TWO i guess of OUR g six, previews we Included
Speaker 2: yukon in. There we didn't know where else to bolt them, on.
Speaker 1: So we thought name goes with THE acc THAT na
Speaker 1: goes to the A. Cc, yeah, yeah, Cool i'm. Excited,
Speaker 1: no that was that was a good. One i'm not
Speaker 1: going to play The Bryson Brady bronson whatever thing. Again
Speaker 1: don't think price was. Enough but if you want a
Speaker 1: copy for a, mixtape just let me. Know i'll send
Speaker 1: it over.
Speaker 2: Soliverbo at gmail dot com if you want.
Speaker 1: So if you're a festival, right if you're a THE
Speaker 1: i don't know the names of any e D m
Speaker 1: festivals in Like norway Or Fort lauderdale or, something just
Speaker 1: get at. Me i'll hit you with.
Speaker 2: The, track solve or about gmail dot com if you
Speaker 2: want the. Track if you want anything else off your.
Speaker 2: Chest that's the best way you can get in touch with.
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Speaker 1: Said it in like twenty thirteen when you last they
Speaker 1: definitely said it in twenty. Thirteen, yeah, yeah one hundred.
Speaker 2: Sure all, right my voice is starting to sound a little,
Speaker 2: raspy which is usually our cue to call it quits
Speaker 2: for the.
Speaker 1: Day you know Where i'm at right. NOW i started
Speaker 1: drinking a giant mug of coffee at the top of this,
Speaker 1: episode And i've got a bladder that's about to errupt
Speaker 1: all over this.
Speaker 2: Basement that's how you know we're, Young. Ty we don't
Speaker 2: want that to happen. Now we encourage the utmost bladder
Speaker 2: health here on the. Show we'll be back next, episode
Speaker 2: or it'll be part one where we talk through tears
Speaker 2: and talk through bigger picture stuff in THE. Acc you
Speaker 2: got a lot to get off my chest from that.
Speaker 1: One so That's Notre dame AND. Acc Notre dame will
Speaker 1: be at the a CC. S yes for that guy over, There,
Speaker 1: dan for myself over.
Speaker 2: Here. Ty thank you as always for, downloading for, listening
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