Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal hull. For me, I'm a man,
Speaker 1: I'm forty.
Speaker 2: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
Speaker 2: be happy.
Speaker 3: You want to be happy for a day? Edo Steak
Speaker 3: is that woo woof?
Speaker 1: And them and.
Speaker 2: Tie Welcome back to the solburbal boys and girls. Money
Speaker 2: is tight, Helen Brand joining me as homies. Whoa over
Speaker 2: there in wintry Chicago, Illinois. Dan Rubinstein howry, I don't
Speaker 2: know why I did that. I apologize.
Speaker 3: Yeah, your voice is all over the place right now.
Speaker 3: I'm just I'm thrilled to be here with you, and
Speaker 3: I'll just speak for me. I'm not afraid of anything
Speaker 3: in this world. There's nothing you Tie can throw at
Speaker 3: me that I haven't already heard. I'm just trying to
Speaker 3: find a decent melody, a song that I can sing
Speaker 3: in my own company.
Speaker 2: I'm drawing out. I have no idea what that is.
Speaker 4: You've got to get yourself too, Oh you do. Stuck
Speaker 4: in a moment. Stuck in a moment and now you
Speaker 4: can't get out of it? Is how that lyric kept going.
Speaker 4: Because you two hit a wall around two thousand and
Speaker 4: two thousand and one, Somewhere in there beautiful day was fine.
Speaker 2: But.
Speaker 3: I am very excited for the show if you can
Speaker 3: make it through it physically, because I know you're still
Speaker 3: on the mend, but you are. You're dedicating yourself to
Speaker 3: the cause because I gave you a very specific theme
Speaker 3: I gave listeners and people who follow us on Twitter
Speaker 3: are very specific theme about teams stuck in their own moment,
Speaker 3: however long it's been, and they can't get out of it.
Speaker 3: And I sent you a link to the Librea tar Pits,
Speaker 3: which I'm positive you've never heard of.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you pronounced Librea because I was not sure
Speaker 2: how to pronounce that second worry.
Speaker 3: Really well, that's a major street in Los Angeles. I
Speaker 3: don't expect I'm like, it's dumb for me to expect
Speaker 3: anything from anybody, but I feel as if Librea is
Speaker 3: a pretty well known Lobrea Bakery is a big national thing.
Speaker 2: Still drawing a blank. Still drawing a blank. But I'm
Speaker 2: glad that you said the word first before I went
Speaker 2: all globe Tomato on it.
Speaker 3: I believe Lauren Conrad Heidi Montag lived at the Park
Speaker 3: Librea apartments. Okay, we're really going to search your memory
Speaker 3: banks okay.
Speaker 1: Well that's all.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, Welcome one, Welcome all. We're going to get
Speaker 2: into the hill. Yeah, we're going to get into the
Speaker 2: Librea tar pits. And it's connection to this year college
Speaker 2: football podcast in this specific episode. I am Ty, he
Speaker 2: is Dan. We are the Solid Verbal. We are broadcasting
Speaker 2: Slash podcasting year round. Go to our website Solid verbal
Speaker 2: dot com for all the intel on how you can subscribe.
Speaker 2: We're also out there on social media on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
Speaker 2: on YouTube at YouTube dot com. Slash The Solid Verbal
Speaker 2: also doing some stuff on Twitch. Did you play the
Speaker 2: games yet? Are you going to be doing it?
Speaker 3: I'm stupid and I haven't done it yet. Now I
Speaker 3: have tell me which if people want to suggest to
Speaker 3: I don't know, Instagram, Twitter, Solidverbletgmail dot com, which sne
Speaker 3: S games people want me to stream, I'll just do it.
Speaker 3: I'll just go on Twitch and stream myself playing SNAs
Speaker 3: games poorly.
Speaker 2: I did notice on there that there are like two
Speaker 2: million people who frequent the Mario Kart for Oh, Nintendo switch,
Speaker 2: so may I play some Mario Kart?
Speaker 1: I do? Have? You have to hook up your switch
Speaker 1: or N sixty four you have to do something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I could hook that. I could hook up the
Speaker 2: switch pretty easily. Oh god, problem, good do it?
Speaker 1: So maybe they all call it Mario or what's the Mario?
Speaker 2: I know, I know apparently most normal people refer to
Speaker 2: him as a different moniker, but he's always Mario to me.
Speaker 2: And I've still got some NCAA fourteen that I need
Speaker 2: to play. I have to finish out our season. But alas,
Speaker 2: you can go to the Twitch as well, Twitch dot tv,
Speaker 2: slash Solid Verbal. We're doing some stuff out there as well.
Speaker 2: For Ballers dot Com is a Patreon. Just because season's
Speaker 2: over does not mean we don't have bonus content planned
Speaker 2: on the Patreon. Still have folks sign it up for it,
Speaker 2: and we do have a Winter Wonders winner, which we
Speaker 2: will announce on our Thursday Eh yeah show, so stay
Speaker 2: tuned for that. We'll talk a little bit more in detail.
Speaker 2: But but but but we have a show before us
Speaker 2: tonight where you have found a tie into the Librea
Speaker 2: tar pits, Dan, I.
Speaker 3: Have, Well, first of all, do you want it any news?
Speaker 3: Is there anything you want to stress your voice out?
Speaker 2: I'm not going to yell it, but breaking news, it's
Speaker 2: a breaking news. Sound somebody asked us, is that from
Speaker 2: Always Sonny in Philadelphia. I'll say, if it is, it's
Speaker 2: not intentional because that's an old sound from Apple Garage
Speaker 2: Band that I just pulled and decided it would be
Speaker 2: fun to use here.
Speaker 3: I think Always Sonny specifically also utilizes a number of
Speaker 3: either free or copyright loose sounds and songs they're from
Speaker 3: like generic sound libraries. That's a lot of not copyrighted music,
Speaker 3: not expensive music. Yeah, I mean, Tennessee still doesn't have
Speaker 3: a coach, but it looks like the steam might be
Speaker 3: behind Tony Elliott, offensive coordinator at Clemson. Basically at Clemson
Speaker 3: life or played there and certainly has been a coach
Speaker 3: there for I think a decade about so we'll see
Speaker 3: on Tennessee. But they did hire an ad and Danny White,
Speaker 3: who seems well regarded, has made some good both football
Speaker 3: and basketball hires going back to his time at Buffalo,
Speaker 3: but they pulled him away from UCF. So guys like
Speaker 3: Lance Leipold's you know Tony Elliott. Certainly PJ. Fleck now
Speaker 3: is a name that has come up a bit. Ol Ryan,
Speaker 3: you know, the new offensive coordinator at Alabama, but certainly
Speaker 3: with his own head coaching experience both in the NFL
Speaker 3: and in college, two different levels of success. But there
Speaker 3: are some bigger names now associated Jamie Chadwell from Coastal
Speaker 3: Carolina with his background, so something to pay attention to.
Speaker 3: And it seems like and this will eventually transition us
Speaker 3: to the meat of today's episode. It seems like the
Speaker 3: organizational structure and personalities have matured a bit at Tennessee. Okay,
Speaker 3: what is that hire of Danny?
Speaker 2: What does what does that mean?
Speaker 3: That means that it's been a pretty chaotic administration. And
Speaker 3: if you listen to fans and writers making illusions, guys
Speaker 3: like Jimmy Haslam have wielded a ton of power, you know,
Speaker 3: a major booster. He owns who the Browns?
Speaker 1: Yes? Is that who he owns?
Speaker 3: And just it's been chaotic in terms of a power struggle.
Speaker 3: And you know, hiring Philip Fulmer, who had a little
Speaker 3: bit of athletic department type experience going in, but it
Speaker 3: seemed like a he's a Tennessee guy, he understands this
Speaker 3: place and made a pretty bad hire in Jeremy Pruitt.
Speaker 3: It's looking like more and more if some of the
Speaker 3: allegations behind the scenes are true, So that doesn't reflect
Speaker 3: poorly on how that program and how the athletic department
Speaker 3: has been running.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the.
Speaker 3: Basketball team has been pretty good, but I don't pretend
Speaker 3: to know too much about the details of Tennessee basketball.
Speaker 3: But all the same, it seems like when schools get
Speaker 3: away from hiring alumni because they're alumni and because they
Speaker 3: get it in insert school here, that's when you see
Speaker 3: some growth. When you hire people experience with a lot
Speaker 3: of important successful experience at important jobs that demand it.
Speaker 3: So I'm hopeful for that for Tennessee because it's been
Speaker 3: a while since they've had that sort of leadership, it
Speaker 3: seems from the outside. I don't know if you have
Speaker 3: any Tennessee thoughts about who they should hire or any
Speaker 3: specifics about it, but that's where they stand now.
Speaker 2: No. I saw some of my Penn State friends. We're
Speaker 2: tracking a private jet from I believe State College to Knoxville.
Speaker 3: So, okay, interesting given James frankis state for James Franklin, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Given his ties to the state of Tennessee. Maybe that's
Speaker 2: I don't know. You know, this is when rumors run crazy.
Speaker 2: I've not heard anything to that point, but who knows
Speaker 2: it is a little bit late in the cycle here.
Speaker 2: That's when strange things do happen. So book, I hope
Speaker 2: they get their guy. We've we've been wanting Tennessee to
Speaker 2: kind of come into its own now for probably as
Speaker 2: far back as I can remember. At this point, it's
Speaker 2: been a while since I felt like Tennessee was a
Speaker 2: true contender. And it's a great school, it's a great stadium.
Speaker 2: It's always more interesting when Tennessee is interesting. So I
Speaker 2: wish them well. I don't know that's true.
Speaker 3: I hope for just there's a lot of enthusiasm to say,
Speaker 3: to be kind with a word, around Tennessee football, and
Speaker 3: so I hope Tennessee can become successful. I don't remember
Speaker 3: the last time I thought man college football is certainly
Speaker 3: better right now because Tennessee is awesome.
Speaker 2: Been a long time. No, it's been a long time,
Speaker 2: but fair point. I just think that so long the
Speaker 2: narrative has been about the SEC West being the true
Speaker 2: Titan of the SEC. And now we see Georgia rising up,
Speaker 2: we see Florida rising up. It'd be nice to have
Speaker 2: some other schools on the Eastern at.
Speaker 1: Least three times.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm trying to prove I know here, Dan,
Speaker 3: I mean, you just sort of have to bring your
Speaker 3: own citrus ball to the party if you're talking about Tennessee.
Speaker 3: Get point though, I want to I understand, I want
Speaker 3: to see the East rise up. Okay, in some respect,
Speaker 3: we could go a lot of weird places with that statement.
Speaker 3: Larry Scott, by the way, that's a that's a big deal.
Speaker 2: A burying the damn lead man.
Speaker 3: Yeah continue, sorry, oh man, Well didn't they announced this
Speaker 3: on inauguration Day?
Speaker 2: I think they did the all time timing for a
Speaker 2: good old news dump. But look, Larry Scott was the
Speaker 2: embattled leader of the PAC twelve. What CEO group is that,
Speaker 2: what it's called whatever? He was in charge of the
Speaker 2: PAC twelve as a whole. We have probably done over
Speaker 2: the course of his tenure at least half a dozen
Speaker 2: at least half a dozen shows. I was talking about
Speaker 2: what's wrong with the PAC twelve and what Larry Scott
Speaker 2: in particular had done wrong in his tenure the top
Speaker 2: PAC twelve. So it's not a total surprise that they
Speaker 2: would decide that they want to go a different direction,
Speaker 2: but it did catch a lot of folks off guard.
Speaker 2: And now this opens up the door for some new leadership,
Speaker 2: some new ideas to hopefully bring this conference into a
Speaker 2: spot where it gets more national prominence, it gets more
Speaker 2: fill in the blank, Dan, What does the PAC twelve
Speaker 2: need more of and who can help them get more
Speaker 2: of it?
Speaker 1: Fans?
Speaker 3: The PAC twelve needs more alumni of its schools to
Speaker 3: be rabid fans, both in seats at the stadium and
Speaker 3: watching on TV and donating money. I don't know if
Speaker 3: that's a realistic thing. Larry Scott certainly can't control that.
Speaker 2: Is that that was gonna be? My question? Is that
Speaker 2: a realistic thing? Out west? Now?
Speaker 3: The best case scenario for the PAC twelve is something
Speaker 3: that the commissioner, alongside employees around him and whoever is
Speaker 3: involved in negotiating a TV deal, puts the conference in
Speaker 3: the best possible pr and broadcast positions so that if Oregon,
Speaker 3: USC Washington, I suppose ASU, and that's probably it. In
Speaker 3: terms of programs that have the ability to rise up
Speaker 3: and do fun, interesting things that people in Chicago, Nashville, Birmingham, Miami, Charlotte,
Speaker 3: Philadelphia are going to care about watching no matter the
Speaker 3: time zone, then they can succeed. They can absolutely succeed,
Speaker 3: but it's a matter of making smart decisions financially on
Speaker 3: a competitive level for the conference that if and when
Speaker 3: those programs do something fun, because we've seen those programs
Speaker 3: to whatever extent, do fun, interesting things or successful things,
Speaker 3: but the conference places their games at eleven pm Eastern
Speaker 3: for a big game kickoff, or puts USC in a
Speaker 3: position where they're playing on a Friday night after a
Speaker 3: Saturday road game and don't make the playoff essentially because
Speaker 3: of it. With Sam Darnold, I think that was twenty seventeen,
Speaker 3: I want to say, when they ended up playing Penn
Speaker 3: State in the Rose Bowl. Little things like that, getting
Speaker 3: things right from a pr perspective, because they're never going
Speaker 3: to like generate thousands and thousands of Arizona donors and
Speaker 3: thousands of thousands of Colorado donors and people in all
Speaker 3: of those cities I named wanting to watch Cal football.
Speaker 1: It's fine.
Speaker 3: They have to be realistic about where they stand right
Speaker 3: now and just hope to put those teams that will
Speaker 3: pop up and do fun, interesting things in the best
Speaker 3: possible position for people to care about them financially. Larry
Speaker 3: Scott putting the conference and you know, the TV deal
Speaker 3: with the PAC twelve network putting the conference in San Francisco.
Speaker 3: I think they're playing like eight million dollars in annual
Speaker 3: rent or something wild that needs to be improved, that
Speaker 3: needs to be altered, and that is definitely on that
Speaker 3: specific vision. So, I mean, you don't see mid level
Speaker 3: sandwich companies basing themselves and super like as Quizno's based
Speaker 3: in the middle of Manhattan somehow, I don't think so.
Speaker 3: So I think there just needs to be a reevaluation
Speaker 3: of strategy and that they're going to need to do
Speaker 3: something TV wise and scheduling wise.
Speaker 2: But there's a there's a.
Speaker 3: Ceiling right now and for the foreseeable future with the
Speaker 3: PAC twelve just because it's not by and large when
Speaker 3: you compare it to the Midwest and the SEC. And
Speaker 3: I talked about this with Andy Staples on his podcast
Speaker 3: last night.
Speaker 1: It's not by and.
Speaker 3: Large a place where culturally it matches up with the
Speaker 3: Midwest and South. So you have to do the best
Speaker 3: with what you have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, And that's a challenge, right, That's just a challenge.
Speaker 2: The time zone thing has long been a huge problem
Speaker 2: and there's no easy way to solve that. There just
Speaker 2: isn't an easy way to solve it in a way
Speaker 2: that works for both the East and the West coast.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it worked for Shanghai with their streaming of
Speaker 3: the PAC twelve.
Speaker 2: But otherwise, oh man, well more to come on this one.
Speaker 2: I thought you were gonna go there first. I'm a
Speaker 2: little disappointed you didn't. But Tennessee still coached, and yeah,
Speaker 2: Larry Scott's no longer a top the PAC twelve. All right,
Speaker 2: solberbogmail dot Com as always, is the email right in
Speaker 2: let us know your thoughts on this and any and
Speaker 2: all college football matters. We continue to get a number
Speaker 2: of questioned comments, and people like sarkstaff.
Speaker 3: By the way, what he's putting together at Texas not
Speaker 3: that whisky. Yeah, the Washington decordinator as his new defensive
Speaker 3: coordinator brought some Alabama assistants, Jeff Chote, the Montana state
Speaker 3: head coaches is new. I like the linebackers, I like
Speaker 3: them special teams. Yeah, I mean it seems like an
Speaker 3: impressive group of people that Sark is putting in position
Speaker 3: to win, hoping for the best for them too.
Speaker 2: We have him by we I mean mostly you telling me.
Speaker 2: We've recently gone on a little bit of a binge
Speaker 2: watch of Steve sarkishan net coaching clinics on YouTube.
Speaker 3: That's a good watch. I liked it.
Speaker 2: It's not a bad watch. Did you watch it? I did.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The guy knows what he's doing. That's why he's the
Speaker 2: coach Texas, why he's coached offense at a number of
Speaker 2: places now. But good watch. I warned something, Dan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was from a clinic I think a couple
Speaker 3: of years ago, a year ago, and I believe it
Speaker 3: was a year ago, and man, it's been a long year. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's on YouTube if you look up some sort of
Speaker 3: Sark coaching clinic. I don't think offensive acumen has ever
Speaker 3: been the problem with Sark, but good to see him
Speaker 3: in that position because he's you know, he wasn't able
Speaker 3: to really talk that much at Alabama. So it's some
Speaker 3: nice insight into the Sark offense during that coaching clinic.
Speaker 3: This transitions nicely because we've talked about the Tennessee, we've
Speaker 3: talked about USC's conference, and we've talked about Texas. I
Speaker 3: asked people on Twitter choose one of the teams below
Speaker 3: and explain why they're struggling to return to Glory, usc Tennessee, Miami, Nebraska, Texas.
Speaker 3: We got a lot of good answers. We got a
Speaker 3: lot of good answers that basically said their.
Speaker 1: Fans are unrealistic. It's not nineteen ninety three anymore.
Speaker 3: And the snarky side of me, flank of me appreciated that,
Speaker 3: But that wasn't all that helpful. So I want to
Speaker 3: talk about those five schools with you and being stuck
Speaker 3: in a moment that you can't get out of, being
Speaker 3: stuck in the Librea tarpits, a gurgling mass of oil
Speaker 3: and tar emitting methane that got wooly mammoths and predators stuck,
Speaker 3: and now there are all sorts of fossils in the
Speaker 3: middle of Los Angeles. I want to talk about those
Speaker 3: five schools specifically and the broader lessons that can or
Speaker 3: can't be learned from their last I don't know, ten years,
Speaker 3: thirty years, It depends on the school.
Speaker 2: First, Can we talk about the LaBrea tar pits a
Speaker 2: little bit more? Because I didn't know this was a
Speaker 2: real thing. Yeah, it definitely has the feel of like
Speaker 2: the Sarlac in Star Wars or whatever it was called.
Speaker 3: The pit I've been on many a field trip. By
Speaker 3: the way, in my day, is.
Speaker 2: This like a thing where you're from? Is it close
Speaker 2: to you?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's in the middle of Hollywood, West Hollywood. It's
Speaker 3: probably i don't know, forty five minutes something like that.
Speaker 1: Not terrible.
Speaker 2: Is it enjoyable? Does it stink because of the methane? Like?
Speaker 2: What's that experience? Like?
Speaker 3: Doesn't crack my top twenty five of best places I've smelled?
Speaker 2: Okay, right, Yeah, it's kind of cool.
Speaker 3: I mean, you get to see a bunch of fossils
Speaker 3: and there's some history there, and it was generally paired
Speaker 3: with something else in the area field trip wise, like
Speaker 3: you'd get a really good lunch out of it somewhere
Speaker 3: around there, something like that. But yeah, it was among
Speaker 3: the things you can go on a field trip to see.
Speaker 3: There's all sorts of museums and science centers in LA
Speaker 3: that we'd go on field trips to. But yeah, Labret
Speaker 3: Tarpits was for sure in the roadation.
Speaker 2: We need to do an entire separate episode about field
Speaker 2: trips from back in the day.
Speaker 3: I would love to. We have a bunch of off
Speaker 3: topic shows coming up in the off season for our
Speaker 3: Patreon for ballers.
Speaker 2: I think field trips would be a great discussion point.
Speaker 2: But alas we're talking about teams that just wandered into
Speaker 2: the Lebretar pits or whatever it is closest to them,
Speaker 2: why don't we start with USC? Since okay, since USA
Speaker 2: is there, yeah, not all that far from there. What
Speaker 2: kind of responses did we get to this?
Speaker 3: It was a lot of administration stuff. It was a
Speaker 3: lot of hiring Pat Hayden, Mike Garrett, bringing in Sark
Speaker 3: and Lane Kiffin to get the band back together. Certainly,
Speaker 3: what the NCAA did to USC and didn't retract from
Speaker 3: USC when it became clear that in retrospect their case
Speaker 3: was pretty awful. Considering the punishments levied at the Trojans,
Speaker 3: that hasn't really looked all that rosy looking back on
Speaker 3: the nc DOUBLEA. So, you know, dealing with the scholarship
Speaker 3: issues that they've had to deal with, but then it's
Speaker 3: making mistakes and it certainly seems like Clay Helton is
Speaker 3: not going to hit the expected ceiling. But then on
Speaker 3: a bigger level, on a higher level, what is the
Speaker 3: commitment like at the top for USC from the you know,
Speaker 3: whatever it is, President Chancellor regents whatever, like, is there
Speaker 3: an actual commitment to bringing USC to a national platform
Speaker 3: or is it just hoping it happens despite not devoting resources.
Speaker 3: And by resources I mean support staff, facilities, and they've
Speaker 3: upgraded facilities and stuff like that recently, but still there
Speaker 3: is a sort of backslappy way to how things work
Speaker 3: at Heritage Hall. I don't think has been fully fumigated
Speaker 3: out of that program. And so now they're just sticking
Speaker 3: with Clay Helton because he has a huge buyout and
Speaker 3: is stable at head coach after the Sark and Lane
Speaker 3: Kiff and eas and it seems like right now they've
Speaker 3: just set a ceiling for themselves because of these programs.
Speaker 3: Their path back to at least consistent New Year six games,
Speaker 3: if not the playoff, seems the cleanest hypothetically to me. Now,
Speaker 3: Texas isn't a better place right now than USC to me,
Speaker 3: But in terms of pathway, especially with the quarterback they're
Speaker 3: bringing back, USC should get there quicker. But USC also,
Speaker 3: I mean, you look at the different elements that helped
Speaker 3: Pete Carroll get USC to the national stage, and it's luck,
Speaker 3: it's health, luck, it's hiring Pete Carroll, Luck, it's that
Speaker 3: the Pac Ten wasn't necessarily consistent at the top during
Speaker 3: their stretch run between Washington being very very down, Oregon
Speaker 3: being sort of inconsistent after the Joey Harrington years. You know,
Speaker 3: it's dirt cutter. There's not a lot of killers in
Speaker 3: the Pac ten at this time, like two thousand and
Speaker 3: two to two thousand and eight essentially, so a lot,
Speaker 3: And that's true of a lot of teams looking back
Speaker 3: at their glory days. But for USC specifically, it doesn't
Speaker 3: seem like it'll take a lot to unmuck themselves beyond
Speaker 3: starting over hiring super qualified people at the top, which
Speaker 3: it seems like they've done at Athletic director with Mike Boone.
Speaker 3: We'll see what happens if it remains a football higher
Speaker 3: the name excellent name, But I think it's rather a
Speaker 3: question of self scouting, self awareness and identity, like does
Speaker 3: USC want to put into its program what Ohio State does,
Speaker 3: what Oklahoma does, what Alabama does, what Florida does, what
Speaker 3: Michigan does schools like that, and even Michigan's been down,
Speaker 3: but the commitment doesn't seem like it's fully there, whereas
Speaker 3: with some of these other schools, like the commitments there
Speaker 3: with Tennessee, it's there with Texas.
Speaker 1: So I don't know.
Speaker 3: It's USC wanting to be something without working to get there. Fully,
Speaker 3: that's what it seems.
Speaker 2: It does have a feel of that. I saw. We
Speaker 2: got one response here from a gentleman talking about talent
Speaker 2: in southern California, and I want to unpack this a
Speaker 2: little bit because.
Speaker 3: It's another one of those what's his name? I think
Speaker 3: I saw this tweet and it was maybe one of
Speaker 3: the stupidest things I've seen, but continue, Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to call the guy out because he
Speaker 3: was just responding to our stuff. But his point was
Speaker 3: there's not much talent in California. Everyone wants to believe
Speaker 3: California is a great high school football state because of
Speaker 3: its population, but really it's worse than Florida, Texas, Georgia, La.
Speaker 2: Okay, so did you see my response to him. I
Speaker 2: did not see a response to it, but it's okay.
Speaker 2: I did not see it, but my initial response is
Speaker 2: that that's way off base.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: The current number of active NFL players by state is
Speaker 3: as follows. Yeah, Florida two eighty nine California to fifty
Speaker 3: seven Texas, two thirty nine, Georgia one fifty eight, Ohio
Speaker 3: ninety eight. So if my math is correct, it's almost
Speaker 3: three times higher than number five.
Speaker 2: It feels feels like this is a little bit all base, Okay.
Speaker 1: Enough to put together a decent roster right now.
Speaker 2: I am not subscribing to that logic, but okay, I
Speaker 2: am firmly in the camp of for whatever reason, USC
Speaker 2: has had a hard time getting the most out of
Speaker 2: that talent. And when it shows up on campus, a
Speaker 2: lot of the guys are highly regarded. They obviously had
Speaker 2: banner careers as high school athletes, but it just seems like,
Speaker 2: for whatever reason, over the last better part of a
Speaker 2: decade now, USC has had a hard time getting those
Speaker 2: guys to their absolute ceiling.
Speaker 3: Yes and no, they've put together some really impressive seasons.
Speaker 3: I went back, like the twenty fourteen season, was Codyler
Speaker 3: going like thirty seven touchdowns five picks. I think they
Speaker 3: went nine to three, But they had that dut against
Speaker 3: Boston College. I look back, Tyler Murphy, by the way,
Speaker 3: won that game at quarterback for BC five of fourteen. Yeah,
Speaker 3: for like ninety one yards. He ran for a ton.
Speaker 3: But it's just there's that letdown, and so it's our
Speaker 3: old favorite Seinfeld moment. It's not about the taking the reservation,
Speaker 3: it's about the keeping of the reservation. It's not always
Speaker 3: just about the acquisition of talent. It's about the development
Speaker 3: and making that talent care every week. And so that
Speaker 3: has been the issue, along with the actual numbers of talent.
Speaker 3: If you're only suiting up sixty five scholarship guys because
Speaker 3: of terrible you know, twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, whatever, but
Speaker 3: have you, it's it's a bigger challenge. But yes, you
Speaker 3: are right. It's it's the coaching staff thing. It's the
Speaker 3: dedication to growing a program thing. It's not just the
Speaker 3: acquisition of four star guys, five star guys, but guys
Speaker 3: that fit in your locker room, Guys that will.
Speaker 1: Contribute to a winning culture. That kind of thing. And
Speaker 1: when you're a.
Speaker 3: School like you and you have your proverbial pick of
Speaker 3: talent in southern California, maybe it's also good to go
Speaker 3: into Nevada. Maybe it's also good to go into Arizona.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's good to go into Texas and get the
Speaker 3: Texas Tesla. Like Ronald Jones, Like you don't necessarily say
Speaker 3: we can just build a team based on people within
Speaker 3: fifty miles of the school. It's how do we build
Speaker 3: a team that adheres to this specific vision. We need
Speaker 3: players that meet this specific criteria. And that's where I
Speaker 3: think USC has fallen off, or had fallen off on
Speaker 3: their way to inconsistent results.
Speaker 2: You know where you don't go though for USC. If
Speaker 2: you don't go in the little brea tar pits Dan,
Speaker 2: you don't go.
Speaker 3: Should we get like a gurgling tar bubbly sound to
Speaker 3: put in at it in post okay, okay, at it
Speaker 3: and post thank you? It is literally natural asphalt. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it is natural. It's an end natural asphalt reserve. And
Speaker 3: I think the broader point with USC is what the
Speaker 3: broader point is, Expectations are tricky, and you can't just
Speaker 3: as a fan base or as a school, expect certain
Speaker 3: things because of advantages. If you're not following through in March, April, May,
Speaker 3: June on what it takes to reach whatever the high
Speaker 3: ceiling of college football is right now, that's where USC.
Speaker 3: That's what I think Al's USC. That's the lesson there,
Speaker 3: because you're right, you look, I mean that twenty fourteen
Speaker 3: team specifically, it's a great example. I think they went
Speaker 3: nine to three before their Bowl game. You're talking Juju
Speaker 3: Smith on one side, Nelson Aguilar on the other, Antwine Woods,
Speaker 3: and Leonard Williams upfront on defense. Legit NFL players like
Speaker 3: longer NFL careers, successful NFL careers across this roster, and
Speaker 3: just I know this is when things went sort of
Speaker 3: hay wire for Sark. But man, it just seems like
Speaker 3: the story of USC so much potent every year, and
Speaker 3: just what are they doing behind the scenes to fortified
Speaker 3: depth and making sure they're recruiting the right guys, hiring
Speaker 3: the right guys Because I think they hired Sark over
Speaker 3: Chris Peterson. That's a nice little what if. I don't know,
Speaker 3: it's it's sort of the getting rid of the fumigating
Speaker 3: the Hubris thing. I think it is where USC has struggled.
Speaker 2: Do you can you want to take a guess at
Speaker 2: the oldest material that was recovered from the little brea
Speaker 2: tar pits, like by year or the actual substance per
Speaker 2: radiometric dating of preserved wooden bones.
Speaker 1: Preserved wooden bones over a million years old?
Speaker 2: No, thirty eight thousand, millions thousands, Okay, one a million
Speaker 2: where are we going?
Speaker 3: What I just screw out a number. Let's talk about
Speaker 3: Texas the school. That's how closely associated. Let's move from
Speaker 3: west to east. I guess Texas. I'm now looking at
Speaker 3: a map Nebraska versus Texas has compared to USC.
Speaker 1: Well, let's just do Texas anyway.
Speaker 2: Let's do Texas. Okay, Texas. So I feel like this
Speaker 2: has changed over the course of time. What was the
Speaker 2: rub on mac Brown when he left? The rub was
Speaker 2: sort of that what the game had passed him by
Speaker 2: a little bit, that he wasn't turning talent into its
Speaker 2: optimal version right that. Of course, there was the famous
Speaker 2: story of recruiting Johnny Manziel to play a safety. So
Speaker 2: there were a couple of things going on at the
Speaker 2: end of Max's tenure when they eventually ran him out
Speaker 2: of town lightly to my eyes, slightly more west than Lincoln. Oh,
Speaker 2: it's pretty close. Continue so Texas to me, outside of
Speaker 2: the whole mac thing which went south, he had a
Speaker 2: great run, won a title. Of course, they have been
Speaker 2: in limbo ever since, and it feels like Texas, maybe
Speaker 2: even more so than USC, has been just a dearth
Speaker 2: of leadership, Like who has that unifying vision that the
Speaker 2: entire fan base is going to get behind and can
Speaker 2: take the next step with that program. I just don't.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's easy now after the fact, after a
Speaker 2: couple coaches that have gone the way of the DODO, like,
Speaker 2: it feels easy to say it now. I'm trying to
Speaker 2: think how I felt in the moment about some of
Speaker 2: these hires that they brought in. It just feels like
Speaker 2: all of them went south really quick. I remember the
Speaker 2: Charlie Strong hire, and that was going to be a
Speaker 2: transformational move, and it just seems like that came off
Speaker 2: the swivel very quickly. Tom Herman another example of that,
Speaker 2: Tom Herman. Tom Herman was on the show. We were
Speaker 2: asking him about his aptitude and being part of the
Speaker 2: MENSA Club. Like all these guys that were supposedly going
Speaker 2: to get the most out of that situation never did.
Speaker 2: And I don't think it's because any of them were
Speaker 2: bad coaches. I just think it's there was there's always
Speaker 2: been friction with respect to the leadership. Counterpoint a Charlie
Speaker 2: Strong Texas squad lost to Kansas counterpoint counterpoint, Yeah, is
Speaker 2: that fair to say? Yeah, but I think it goes
Speaker 2: a little bit deeper. Well, first of all, Mac Brown.
Speaker 2: If we're talking about the heights of mac Brown and
Speaker 2: returning to the glory days, this is what Mac Brown
Speaker 2: in Texas did between two thousand and one and two
Speaker 2: thousand and nine in terms of wins including this is
Speaker 2: including bowls. So take that with whatever size grain of salt.
Speaker 2: Eleven eleven, ten, eleven, thirteen, ten, ten, twelve, thirteen, not
Speaker 2: a single single digit win between two thousand and twenty ten.
Speaker 2: It's pretty good, pretty good, really good.
Speaker 1: Two national championship appearances.
Speaker 3: Of course, Colt McCoy gets hurt two thousand and nine,
Speaker 3: but the two thousand and five season just incredible. So
Speaker 3: what is interesting to me, especially when you look at
Speaker 3: some of these other schools, is Texas. I think the
Speaker 3: Mac Brown thing is not that the game passed him by,
Speaker 3: that you just can't whiff on quarterbacks and you just
Speaker 3: can't get lazy recruiting. And that's the sort of thing
Speaker 3: where just because you can get essentially for whatever stretch,
Speaker 3: most of the five stars in the state of Texas
Speaker 3: that you want for a stretch doesn't mean building a
Speaker 3: program without being more discerning or seeing how some players
Speaker 3: start their senior year and so forth and so forth
Speaker 3: isn't worthwhile, And so we saw a lot of mac
Speaker 3: Brown wrapping up his recruiting classes on junior Day, and
Speaker 3: I guess that's okay if it works out. Guys change, guys,
Speaker 3: priorities change, guys get hurt, things change, and so it
Speaker 3: just seemed that the end, mac Brown wasn't attacking every
Speaker 3: element of running a program the size of Texas like
Speaker 3: perhaps he wants. I think that's reasonable to say. And
Speaker 3: then you couple that with every egg in the Garrett
Speaker 3: Gilbert basket, right, and that doesn't work out, and then
Speaker 3: it's the David ash injury issues. He has a somewhat
Speaker 3: promising twenty twelve case McCoy doesn't fully work out, and
Speaker 3: that's into you know, you're getting into Charlie Strong and
Speaker 3: Tyrone Swoops and Jerrod Hurt, Like you can't whiff on
Speaker 3: quarterback at Texas. There are too many amazing options to
Speaker 3: choose from that it is mandatory that you at least
Speaker 3: find yourself a B plus quarterback, which is what I
Speaker 3: think Sam Ellinger is. But that brings me to sort
Speaker 3: of access of mediocrity, and that goes coaching staff quarterback whatever.
Speaker 3: But there is also that element of I am going
Speaker 3: to tie my success to this B B plus quarterback
Speaker 3: with a pretty well defined ceiling and hope that it
Speaker 3: doesn't come back to bite me. Spoiler it always does.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, it's Sam Ellinger, it's Tommy arms Strong, it's
Speaker 3: ja Corey Harris, it's you know, all these types where
Speaker 3: you're saying, and I B plus might be generous in
Speaker 3: some of those seasons where you're saying, I am not
Speaker 3: going to be I'm going to be too sentimental and
Speaker 3: I'm not.
Speaker 1: Going to be.
Speaker 3: Win at all costs and do what's actually best for
Speaker 3: the program, which is search out the best possible answer
Speaker 3: at quarterback every year and open the competition. Unless my
Speaker 3: quarterback is a legit star. My quarterback is not a
Speaker 3: legit star at Texas, competition is open. I think you
Speaker 3: have to have that mentality at places that big.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the quarterback thing's been concerning, and I also feel like,
Speaker 2: you know, so I point to leadership Tyler Bray. Sorry,
Speaker 2: thank you, don't do that ever again. Just yell that
Speaker 2: interrupt you. Which while we're prey Toiler Bray, but the
Speaker 2: leadership thing is is one angle. The cohesive, unifying vision
Speaker 2: is obviously a symptom of that, but like it's just
Speaker 2: never been both sides of the football, or even two
Speaker 2: sides of the same side of the football working in Unison.
Speaker 2: It's been a lot of disparate parts kind of going
Speaker 2: opposite directions and never felt like they've been rowing in
Speaker 2: the same direction since that nice run that they had
Speaker 2: at the end of I guess the Oughts, right, It's.
Speaker 3: Just yeah, and there were moments in twenty eighteen, Tom
Speaker 3: Herman had a really nice They've had moments.
Speaker 2: They've had moments to look under Herman, they were good
Speaker 2: in big games. They were good in big games, they
Speaker 2: were they were good in bowl games, right, But as
Speaker 2: forgetting them to kind of that next level just hasn't happened.
Speaker 3: So what's keeping them stuck throughout We're now talking about
Speaker 3: three different coaches. What's keeping them stuck?
Speaker 2: Well, I think what Gotham stuck was leadership. I think
Speaker 2: what's keeping them stuck is so you're.
Speaker 3: Talking ad are you talking Boosters head coach? I think
Speaker 3: the whole school leadership. I think the whole lot. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think the whole lot.
Speaker 2: I think it's they've not been able to put together
Speaker 2: a formula where the coach does this, the ad does that,
Speaker 2: boosters have their role here, likes it just feels like
Speaker 2: a big old mishmash. And sure it's hard at a
Speaker 2: school like Texas, right, that's really tough. So I think
Speaker 2: that's keeping them stuck. Hopefully they can kind of navigate
Speaker 2: their way out of that now. But the talent thing,
Speaker 2: to your point of you can't have a B plus
Speaker 2: quarterback or you need to have at least a B
Speaker 2: plus quarterback, they haven't been able to really develop talent elsewhere, right,
Speaker 2: And so just that inconsistency to me, I don't know.
Speaker 3: There's also well there's also the element of when you're
Speaker 3: talking about leadership and you're talking about voices behind the scenes,
Speaker 3: is the coach hiring a staff that he fully believes
Speaker 3: in or is there somebody saying this is the guy,
Speaker 3: or don't hire this guy. We don't like this guy
Speaker 3: a defensive coordinator, you can't hire him. Like, how much
Speaker 3: is the coach empowered? And then what is the coach
Speaker 3: like in terms of force of personality to keep those
Speaker 3: voices at bay, because that leaks into everything that becomes
Speaker 3: a distraction when you have all sorts of cooks in
Speaker 3: the kitchen saying, that's a little much tarragon in that still,
Speaker 3: I don't know that lunch taragon. Why don't we take
Speaker 3: out some tarragon? Why don't we take out half of
Speaker 3: that rescue like when you start. And that's maybe the
Speaker 3: singular hidden Nick Saban talent, because it almost seems like
Speaker 3: it's the exception to the rule at a lot of
Speaker 3: these enormous places to keep that train rolling as long
Speaker 3: as possible, what Nick Saban has done, given how many
Speaker 3: voices are in that background at Alabama, that that might
Speaker 3: be the singular talent. And it's his winning that obviously
Speaker 3: does it. But he has full daily control and makes
Speaker 3: correct decisions every day, because as soon as he doesn't,
Speaker 3: that's when the voice get a little bit louder. Was
Speaker 3: and Tom Herman that that force of personality maybe at times,
Speaker 3: but not overall. It seems doesn't seem like it was
Speaker 3: for Charlie Strong. Seems like mac Brown had a really
Speaker 3: good stretch of being but he got into that sort
Speaker 3: of senate oriol older not perhaps being as hungry near
Speaker 3: the end of that. And I don't know if that's
Speaker 3: the quarterback evaluation thing. And he made changes, he found
Speaker 3: a you know, a young hungry Manny Diaz, I think
Speaker 3: from Mississippi State, like he identified some good coaches. Brian
Speaker 3: Harson was brought in, I think as his offensive coordinator there,
Speaker 3: and it just.
Speaker 1: It didn't work.
Speaker 3: It didn't work because you got to find a quarterback
Speaker 3: and you can't stay that well. You can't screw up
Speaker 3: quarterback in Texas well. So that's what I think big
Speaker 3: picture it really And I don't know if Sark is
Speaker 3: that for us a person.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know if the staff, I don't know Sark
Speaker 2: is that either. But the staff, the staff's interesting, you know.
Speaker 2: I I remember a few hires ago there was one
Speaker 2: Division one head coach who was in the mix and
Speaker 2: wanted the job, but ultimately turned it down because he
Speaker 2: didn't have control over his staff. I don't know if
Speaker 2: that would have been a good hire, but I know,
Speaker 2: at least in one instance, that used to be the case.
Speaker 2: Doesn't like it's quite the case now with Sark. You know,
Speaker 2: he's really thinking outside the box, not necessarily going for
Speaker 2: the sexiest name, but trying to get guys in there
Speaker 2: that he thinks are going to be helpful. We'll see,
Speaker 2: we'll see if it changes. You want to do Nebraska now. Sure.
Speaker 3: By the way, Mike Stoops was apparently offered a job
Speaker 3: on that Texas staff and that was rescinded by Sark
Speaker 3: because of like internal backlash. Yeah, so it's that might
Speaker 3: be test number one. We'll see, And that's when I
Speaker 3: think Jeff Choke got the job. Let's do Nebraska. Nebraska's fascinating.
Speaker 2: So Nebraska left the Big Twelve. Nebraska was in the
Speaker 2: Big Twelve forever mm hmm, and decided to go to
Speaker 2: the Big Ten, which I still thinks a good move financially.
Speaker 2: We've got a lot of commentary here that culturally it
Speaker 2: wasn't the best move for Nebraska, but we can debate
Speaker 2: the merits of that here in time. Look, the college
Speaker 2: football world has grown in many different directions since Nebraska
Speaker 2: was a force, right, It's it's just a different ballgame now.
Speaker 2: And I feel like recruiting is always going to be
Speaker 2: a challenge to a place like Nebraska. You've got to
Speaker 2: have a system, like a Tom O'Brien had a system
Speaker 2: and be very good at it.
Speaker 1: I know you meant Tom Osborne, but I love that
Speaker 1: you said to Tom O'Brien.
Speaker 2: Different guy tom Osborne. You know who I meant, Nobody
Speaker 2: in the great state of Nebraska. I apologize, It's okay
Speaker 2: tom Osborne, right, yeah, But he was very good at
Speaker 2: running his system. Folks knew what it was. It had
Speaker 2: an identity, he could recruit to it, and eventually he
Speaker 2: hit critical mass with it or it just kind of
Speaker 2: fed into itself. It was very dominant for all those years.
Speaker 2: They've lost that identity. Right over the years, they've lost
Speaker 2: that identity. I don't know if that old Osborne identity
Speaker 2: would even work nowadays. Probably not. But I just kind
Speaker 2: of don't know what Nebraska is. I thought we knew
Speaker 2: what it was going to be when Scott Frost got there,
Speaker 2: that it was going to be this high flying offense
Speaker 2: that was going to be a ton of fun to watch.
Speaker 2: And I still think he's a good coach, But even
Speaker 2: he's had difficulty building out that system in the same
Speaker 2: way that we saw it down at like a UCF
Speaker 2: hasn't materialized. So I think we got to start with
Speaker 2: the recruiting question of are they able to attract the
Speaker 2: talent even to Lincoln, Nebraska that they could down in Orlando,
Speaker 2: Dan despite the fact that it's like two separate planes
Speaker 2: of college football. I think that's a fair question to ask.
Speaker 2: Scott Frost was a no brainer. Higher the sentimentality was there,
Speaker 2: which can become an issue like we sort of talked
Speaker 2: about with USC. I agree to a certain extent. So
Speaker 2: Nebraska and success was tied to a lot of different things, right.
Speaker 2: Their strength and conditioning program was way ahead of its time.
Speaker 2: People snicker while listening and say, well, maybe a little
Speaker 2: too ahead of its time in terms of what some players,
Speaker 2: all players whatever put into their bodies. All conjecture, but
Speaker 2: that's a line of thinking. But certainly, yes, the strength
Speaker 2: and conditioning as well ahead they had the walk on program,
Speaker 2: They had all sorts of things to build up depth.
Speaker 2: That was the play.
Speaker 3: Certainly, it was an extremely winnable conference at its height,
Speaker 3: because I mean the modern height, because I think Oklahoma
Speaker 3: was pretty down in the mid nineties if you look
Speaker 3: back Gary Gibbs and the one year of the disastrous
Speaker 3: year of Howard Schnellenberger. So there were advantageous things, just
Speaker 3: like when Texas was at its height, if you look
Speaker 3: at the Big twelve North and who they had to
Speaker 3: play year in and year out in a Big twelve
Speaker 3: championship game. It's more acxis of mediocrity. So I'll due
Speaker 3: respect to some of those Northern teams, but still look
Speaker 3: at the records. It wasn't amazing. A lot of people
Speaker 3: like to point out the Nebraska thing of like, oh,
Speaker 3: it's not ninety five anymore. You can't just expect to
Speaker 3: be amazing. Yes, and no, Nebraska is in a really
Speaker 3: nice position.
Speaker 1: Certainly.
Speaker 3: Recruiting change that got more national to move to the
Speaker 3: Big ten I think was a disaster for its recruiting
Speaker 3: because you lose the Texas footprint if you're all the sudden,
Speaker 3: if you're playing Texas Tech and Baylor.
Speaker 1: And TCU or whatever.
Speaker 3: If there is some sort of evolved Big twelve whatever
Speaker 3: with Nebraska still in it and adding a school like TCU,
Speaker 3: there's good reason for a high level three star, low
Speaker 3: level four star, four star whatever kid to go to
Speaker 3: Nebraska because you know you're going to be playing in
Speaker 3: front of friends and family, you know, you know you're
Speaker 3: going to be playing in your home state. So there
Speaker 3: is that recruiting footprint element. And Nebraska is I mean, it's.
Speaker 1: Just a small state.
Speaker 3: I think it's the thirty eighth largest state in the country.
Speaker 1: Can you name the third largest city in Nebraska. I
Speaker 1: had to look it up.
Speaker 2: The third largest city.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Omaha one, Lincoln two. I'd be shocked if many
Speaker 3: people that are not from Nebraska could name Bellevue, Nebraska.
Speaker 3: Is that the answer, that's the answer. Yeah, nah, no, sorry,
Speaker 3: you're right. It's just it's different. It's difficult, and I
Speaker 3: don't want this to come off as tectoring or lecturing
Speaker 3: or whatever, but Nebraska has to be very specific. And
Speaker 3: I think the specific fault of Mike Riley, who recruited
Speaker 3: pretty well, but the specific fault of Scott Frost. It
Speaker 3: comes down to. It's that sentimentality. Four years of Tommy
Speaker 3: Armstrong four took over for her Taylor Martinez four years Okay, okay,
Speaker 3: but that is a signal. The Frank Solich thing I
Speaker 3: know people are going to point to because he was
Speaker 3: winning a bunch of games and whatever, and he went
Speaker 3: to Ohio and he's been very good at Ohio for
Speaker 3: a long time. There were high expectations. Nebraska just couldn't
Speaker 3: see the writing on the wall years in advance that
Speaker 3: college football was evolving. And if you've got a successful coach,
Speaker 3: just hold on to him. Now, maybe there are interpersonal
Speaker 3: issues that I'm not touching on here that are part
Speaker 3: of the story. But all the same, the Nebraska thing,
Speaker 3: it's just harder to win there, but I will insist
Speaker 3: it's not impossible.
Speaker 2: So let me as if you let me, let me
Speaker 2: ask you a question, then let me ask you kind
Speaker 2: of a related question. Yeah, Scott Frost, I agree, no brainer. Hire.
Speaker 2: I still believe in Scott.
Speaker 3: Frost, though it was almost hired at Florida, almost hired
Speaker 3: at Florida, Scott Frost, no brainer, hire, take him home
Speaker 3: to Nebraska.
Speaker 2: I like the move. My confidence has waned a little bit.
Speaker 2: Not going to lie, but I still think he's the
Speaker 2: right guy for the job.
Speaker 1: Mhm.
Speaker 2: That being said, if I were to unhire Scott Frost
Speaker 2: and in his place hire Matt Campbell, would you feel
Speaker 2: differently about the state of the program.
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think Matt Campbell has proved it at a difficult
Speaker 3: place to win and Scott Frost hasn't. I don't think
Speaker 3: UCF is a difficult place to win in that conference.
Speaker 3: I because of the nearby talent. Now, there are lots
Speaker 3: of schools Miami Hurricanes near a lot of talent that
Speaker 3: cannot win on an expected level. But you seef in
Speaker 3: that specific conference with that talent, and you know, having
Speaker 3: nearby powerfy programs that guys are transferring away from, I
Speaker 3: can just land at UCF that kind of thing. It's
Speaker 3: a great place to be. And this is our old
Speaker 3: what our iron chef versus chop thing? What can you
Speaker 3: do with weird ingredients? What can you do with the
Speaker 3: best ingredients? People aren't food? But that's my analogy.
Speaker 2: And Nebraska is.
Speaker 3: But I think I'm going to insist you can win
Speaker 3: at Nebraska. But the vision has to be very specific.
Speaker 3: The recruiting has to be very specific, and the assistant
Speaker 3: hire and culture has to be more specific on a
Speaker 3: level probably unmatched at any other Power five wanna be
Speaker 3: huge program.
Speaker 2: The recruiting thing is a very interesting problem at Nebraska
Speaker 2: because you're just not buy population center. Somebody wrote in
Speaker 2: about this, and it's fair point true. You're not by
Speaker 2: population centers, which means that, given the fact you can't
Speaker 2: really ride on the old tom Osborne coattails at this point,
Speaker 2: not riding on legacy in twenty twenty one, you have
Speaker 2: to be very deliberate about where you're spending your time
Speaker 2: and your resources to go out and bring new talent in.
Speaker 2: And now that you're removed from the Big twelve, do
Speaker 2: you lose that pipeline you might have had into the
Speaker 2: state of Texas. I don't know, but it's a very
Speaker 2: very difficult nut to crack if you're Scott Frost to
Speaker 2: go out there to bring talent in. And you know,
Speaker 2: I almost compared a little bit to like a Lubbock,
Speaker 2: Right you're kind of in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 1: No no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2: No, not quite.
Speaker 3: Come on, you're still in West Texas. Is that can
Speaker 3: be out there, but you're still in state and playing
Speaker 3: in state schools every week. That's my put a lot
Speaker 3: of the time. Yeah, that's my point.
Speaker 2: My point is that there's a similarity there, but it's
Speaker 2: almost more difficult. So, I don't know, more difficult. It's
Speaker 2: a very interesting problem. I certainly hope that Scott Frost
Speaker 2: can put all the pieces together. But I think with
Speaker 2: all the schools that we've talked about here so far,
Speaker 2: USC Texas, Nebraska is the one that's the hardest to
Speaker 2: solve for a number of different reasons. That being said,
Speaker 2: that being said, I think the Big ten West might
Speaker 2: be the easiest side of the conference to win.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's the easier side for sure.
Speaker 2: So if you can get a little bit of momentum,
Speaker 2: you can build your profile up pretty quickly. But it's
Speaker 2: getting it's breaking out inertia, right that I think is
Speaker 2: the hardest car Yeah, getting out of those pits. Yeah
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 3: So, by the way, two thousand and nine, two thousand
Speaker 3: and nine, the two thousand nine Nebraska defense was arguably
Speaker 3: the best defense in the country. Now we're going back
Speaker 3: now eleven twelve years. Where's Jared Crick from Tie I'd
Speaker 3: be shocked if you knew this because I had to
Speaker 3: google it eleven seconds ago. It's from Albuquerque. Where's Damakan
Speaker 3: Sioux from He's from Portland. They can build a program,
Speaker 3: they can recruit. It's Bo Polini and he had that reputation.
Speaker 3: But if Scott Frost is going out and hiring or
Speaker 3: whoever is replacing scy Frost next year, the year after whatever,
Speaker 3: is going out and identifying assistant coaches with very specific
Speaker 3: relationships in different parts of the country, maybe the western
Speaker 3: half or the midwestern part of the country where they're
Speaker 3: just they have this reputation for unearthing high quality starting
Speaker 3: three star defensive lineman offensive linemen and turning them into
Speaker 3: four star, five star type talents once they're in college.
Speaker 3: Nebraska can beat most teams in college football, but it's
Speaker 3: that very specific vision. It's hiring that coach with those relationships,
Speaker 3: with that ability to sell, with that ability to build
Speaker 3: a culture, which it seems like Scott Frost just isn't
Speaker 3: that guy, because that's a tough ass job.
Speaker 2: Tough job, tough job. Look, I've enjoyed the fact that
Speaker 2: we've had actual conversations about these situations and that we're
Speaker 2: not just buzzing through it. So my proposal is, why
Speaker 2: don't we bump off what schools do we have left?
Speaker 2: We have Miami?
Speaker 1: Who else Tennessee?
Speaker 2: Tennessee. Maybe we'll throw another third school in, maybe like
Speaker 2: Michigan or somebody can't believe you're giving me the red light,
Speaker 2: and we'll talk about that on Thursday as part two. Okay,
Speaker 2: I like that we have to find an international tar pit,
Speaker 2: an international tar pit. Sure, yeah, but I want to
Speaker 2: give ourselves a chance here to you know, expound on
Speaker 2: some of these points and get some more commentary from
Speaker 2: the overballlerhood because I'm looking through we got a lot
Speaker 2: of great answers, and the show's already running a little
Speaker 2: bit long in the tooth, so we'll have that conversation
Speaker 2: on Thursday. If you're cool with that. I'm cool with that,
Speaker 2: all right, Dan. Where can people find us?
Speaker 3: What your only fans? Your secret only fans is as follows.
Speaker 3: They can find us solid reble dot com, follow us, Instagram.
Speaker 1: Twitter, blah blah, bah blah.
Speaker 3: Everybody that's listening to the show still at this point
Speaker 3: either knows where they can find us or is an
Speaker 3: above average Who's an above average quarterback? Who is the
Speaker 3: most above average quarterback currently playing in college football?
Speaker 2: Tie?
Speaker 3: That's what I'm going to compare their googling skills too.
Speaker 3: And if you'd like to support the show, because this
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Speaker 3: learn more who is the most above average? Who is
Speaker 3: the quintessential current above average quarterback in college football? Or
Speaker 3: from twenty thirteen your choice or from twenty thirteen or
Speaker 3: from twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2: Man, I need to think more about that. I don't know,
Speaker 2: not off the top.
Speaker 1: Of you want to say, Sean Manyon.
Speaker 2: Sewn Many was very Shawn Many was a pro prospect.
Speaker 1: Wasn't he? Hey?
Speaker 3: He was on some rosters. Quinn essential above average quarterback.
Speaker 3: James Franklin missoo as a senior.
Speaker 1: I thought he was.
Speaker 3: Full on gooding about the okay casual address. Right, we
Speaker 3: want to talk about Chase Reddigg.
Speaker 2: I can't even remember what I had for Connor Shaw thirteen.
Speaker 2: Connor Shaw was Connor Saw not just above average, He's
Speaker 2: probably he might be the answer, though.
Speaker 1: Kevin Hogan.
Speaker 2: Kevin Hogan was he was a clustant guy.
Speaker 1: Shane cardon ECU.
Speaker 2: Wow, you're really digging these out, aren't you.
Speaker 1: Of course?
Speaker 3: I mean I have a list here. I'm not going
Speaker 3: to Nathan Shieldhouse. Do we have Nathan Shielhouse level googlers
Speaker 3: in our midst?
Speaker 1: I say, yes?
Speaker 2: What about Max Brown?
Speaker 1: Oh, I mean he started a game.
Speaker 3: I think for you, I think he was, but then
Speaker 3: he went to I really like the media work he's done.
Speaker 3: But yeah, above average college quarterback, I'm not sure. Brat
Speaker 3: Hunley J.
Speaker 2: W Walsh, we had him on our show. I think
Speaker 2: back in the day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd say he's quintessential above average too. I think
Speaker 3: he led the year led a season in efficiency rating,
Speaker 3: though Devin.
Speaker 2: Gardner oh Man, Devin Gardner.
Speaker 1: Shout out Hankster. I think that's where it's from. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's all I.
Speaker 2: Have for that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein,
Speaker 2: for myself, Tie hilden Brand. We will talk to you
Speaker 2: all on Thursday. In the meantime, stay safe, stay healthy,
Speaker 2: day solid.
Speaker 1: Can't wait for part two. Please