Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid Verbal coll that for me, I'm
Speaker 1: a man, I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well,
Speaker 1: I want to be happy. You want to be happy
Speaker 1: for day Edith State is that whoo whoom? And Dean
Speaker 1: and Tye.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Solid Rebel boys and girls. My
Speaker 2: name is ty Hildebrandt, joining me as always over there
Speaker 2: in beautiful New York City.
Speaker 1: My man, the one and only Dan Ruberstein, Sir, how
Speaker 1: are you? I'm good. I feel like we can check
Speaker 1: whatever hour we're recording this eight pm Eastern, off of
Speaker 1: the very random hours that we recorded this.
Speaker 2: What is what is the most random time we did
Speaker 2: that we post, we did the post all.
Speaker 1: This will tie in with both me and the Big
Speaker 1: ten post Ohio State Oregon National Championship post game sometime
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night. We hit record around
Speaker 1: midnight twelve forty five something like that in Texas, So
Speaker 1: that's probably the most extreme. But we've done very early
Speaker 1: to accommodate weird schedules. We've done random midday, We've done
Speaker 1: our general evening. So I like this is it's not
Speaker 1: quite after dark, it's not solid Verbal after dark, but
Speaker 1: it's solid verbal colon cocktail hour, solid.
Speaker 2: Verbal colon cocktail hour. Yes, I like that. So here
Speaker 2: is what we are doing. We're actually recording this on
Speaker 2: a Sunday evening, later than usual on a Sunday. We're
Speaker 2: used to doing the Sunday thing, just not really ever
Speaker 2: this late. We want to get the Big ten out
Speaker 2: of the way because we've got a loaded week. If
Speaker 2: you're listening to this, it is Wednesday, August the fourteenth,
Speaker 2: maybe sometime after, but certainly in that general timeframe. We're
Speaker 2: recording it early because we've got two live shows, by
Speaker 2: the way, that we're doing this weekend. The first is
Speaker 2: going to be on Saturday in Dallas. It's August the seventeenth.
Speaker 2: It's at Alamo Draft House at eight pm Central Time.
Speaker 2: Buy your tickets now still left saliverboltickets dot com, Slash Texas.
Speaker 2: Actually I should preface this by saying, I don't know
Speaker 2: if tickets will be left, but if they are left,
Speaker 2: that's where you can find them. And then the very
Speaker 2: next day, I've said it time and again, hopping on
Speaker 2: the bird, flying back across the country, going to the
Speaker 2: nation's capital at Union Stage, we're going to put on
Speaker 2: a second performance of the Fantasy Things Draft a different show.
Speaker 2: Maybe a little bit of overlap, but a different show
Speaker 2: for the most part. August the eighteenth, it's a Sunday night.
Speaker 1: I don't think there's gonna be overlap. I mean, other
Speaker 1: than the two extremely handsome hosts and general theme of
Speaker 1: the show. But in terms of the picks and the
Speaker 1: jokes and the yucks that we're coming up with, that's
Speaker 1: on the that's on the fly, on the spot. So
Speaker 1: that's on the fly, that's on the spot.
Speaker 2: There will be there has to be a little bit
Speaker 2: of overlap just to tie the two together.
Speaker 1: Is that overlap? Does it rhyme with Blean Blandblino? Are
Speaker 1: we doing an all Dean Blandino Fantasy Things? Just tell
Speaker 1: me now, because you hold.
Speaker 2: The if that could be the compensatory round, what would
Speaker 2: you do if you or we sat next to Dean
Speaker 2: Blandino on our flight randomly from Dallas to DC, We'd
Speaker 2: have to engage him in conversation.
Speaker 1: We would have to engage him.
Speaker 2: I don't know if we could talk about putting a
Speaker 2: giant picture of him up behind us at the Venom
Speaker 2: Theater in Chicago.
Speaker 1: That could be a little bit weird. I mean that's
Speaker 1: a high point, a life high point, Big ten Country
Speaker 1: and Dean Blandino.
Speaker 2: The good news though, is if we sat next to
Speaker 2: Blandino on a flight, we wouldn't have to worry about
Speaker 2: what content to discuss when we get to DC.
Speaker 1: That's true. Also, we'd be sitting first class because Blandino
Speaker 1: don't fly coach. That is I believe that's checking out. Yes,
Speaker 1: I would also like to add, and I put, this
Speaker 1: is nothing I have cleared with you. This is nothing,
Speaker 1: and you might very well edit this out. Who knows.
Speaker 1: But we are actually flying into Austin, Texas. Correct. We're
Speaker 1: flying into Austin, Texas on Friday, the day before the
Speaker 1: Dallas show because we have friends we'd like to see Austin,
Speaker 1: and I have Mexican food I'd like to eat. I'm
Speaker 1: proposing Saturday morning before we drive and we're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna hit the road pretty early. I would say to
Speaker 1: go to Dallas. Yes, I think we should get some
Speaker 1: breakfast tacos hashtag tacos with tie and tell people where
Speaker 1: to go and we can just have some breakfast tacos
Speaker 1: with anybody that happens to be in Austin. That is
Speaker 1: not a bad idea, Dan, because I'm an old man
Speaker 1: and I'm probably gonna want to get some sleep the
Speaker 1: night before before a long day, so I don't want
Speaker 1: to I want to be out late. But let's call
Speaker 1: it Saturday morning, Pueblo via hoh, we're getting We're getting
Speaker 1: breakfast tacos. How about that. I am down with come out,
Speaker 1: come out, and we will give you a well. We'll
Speaker 1: put the time on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, whatever,
Speaker 1: tacos with tie in Austin, Saturday morning, the seventeenth, Is
Speaker 1: that correct? Yeah? Seventeenth, Yeah, Saturday morning the seventeenth, hashtag
Speaker 1: tacos with tie. And then we're going to be on
Speaker 1: our way and you can you can wish us well
Speaker 1: and hopefully we'll see more people in Austin in Dallas
Speaker 1: that night. But that that is my proposition.
Speaker 2: We will start the caravan up to Dallas from plow Vah.
Speaker 1: Done, let's do it. Bring the cowbells. More details to come.
Speaker 2: More details to come. We're doing a show than the
Speaker 2: very next day in DC. Soliverble tickets dot com, slash DC.
Speaker 2: If you're going to be in the DMV and we'd
Speaker 2: like to stop on by the live show special guests.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a lot of fun. Correct, We're excited.
Speaker 2: I have not begun preparing for this yet.
Speaker 1: Well, we have our master list of about fifty items
Speaker 1: we do we need to bank of. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: need the drone on anymore about that.
Speaker 2: You can find us on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram,
Speaker 2: also on Reddit, reddit dot com slash r slash solid
Speaker 2: Verbal fiver Ballers four Verballers is the subreddit started by
Speaker 2: our good friend Peter Hoffman, who's doing a lot of work.
Speaker 2: God's work, really pulling together some cool amas. So check
Speaker 2: out reddit dot com, slash our slash solid Verbal Dan.
Speaker 1: What are we doing tonight exactly? We're having ourselves a
Speaker 1: big moment. We're going to talk about the Big Ten fourteen.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of teams that are very interesting
Speaker 1: to us. The season is what a couple weeks away basically,
Speaker 1: and this is a pretty significant conference in the Midwest. Hi,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're familiar, I am earlier yet
Speaker 1: to talk Big ten teams. We've split it up and
Speaker 1: we're going to attack it in the way that we
Speaker 1: have been attacking. We've done the acc we've won the
Speaker 1: Pac twelve, we've done the Big twelve. We've split it
Speaker 1: and we're gonna ask each other questions and figure out
Speaker 1: what the other person is curious about and try to
Speaker 1: answer answer their question the best of our ability. Oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, also going to lump in Notre Dame
Speaker 1: with this show, Yeah, I got to think of a
Speaker 1: Notre Dame question. Lump in Notre Dame as well.
Speaker 2: I guess technically we should have lumped them in with
Speaker 2: the acc but we were young and dumb and unprepared,
Speaker 2: and now here we are lumping in Notre Dame with
Speaker 2: more of their geographic partners in the Big Ten.
Speaker 1: Do you wish they were in the Big ten?
Speaker 2: Time?
Speaker 1: I do? Okay, I do I always have? Do you
Speaker 1: do you not want to save uh Notre Dame for
Speaker 1: our UMass specific episode? I don't.
Speaker 2: Actually I want to go save by the bell, Well,
Speaker 2: Notre Dame plays Michigan, and there's there's a lot of
Speaker 2: tie in here at the Big ten, So we'll get
Speaker 2: to Notre Dame here in a little bit, Daniel, where
Speaker 2: do we want to start here?
Speaker 1: Let's get into the Big ten. Let's do it. Mash
Speaker 1: all those buttons, plase, that wasn't bad? That you really
Speaker 1: the the that was a good way.
Speaker 2: You know what else I have here? I didn't realize
Speaker 2: this until now. A couple of years ago when we
Speaker 2: were talking about the Big Ten West, you put together
Speaker 2: what you called Big ten Underscore West Underscore death Metal.
Speaker 2: It sounds like this. It's very hard, it's very edgy
Speaker 2: for the Big ten West. And maybe we can start there, Dan,
Speaker 2: because my takeaway in looking at that side of the
Speaker 2: conference is that every team is really freaking young, and yeah,
Speaker 2: it's sort of wide open there are you can make
Speaker 2: a case for a couple teams, a couple different teams
Speaker 2: other than the usual suspects, to have a puncher's chance
Speaker 2: at winning that side of the conference.
Speaker 1: Sure. Yeah, I was just thinking of metal lyrics to
Speaker 1: set to like current, the offensive line of Northwestern be
Speaker 1: any better? Is there any hope for Northwestern to have
Speaker 1: an offense? And I just I'm not in a good place.
Speaker 1: So let's start with the Big ten West because we
Speaker 1: have the metal asking me a question.
Speaker 2: I want to start with Nebraska because Nebraska is a
Speaker 2: very trendy pick right now in the Big Ten West.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's warranted. That's sort of my
Speaker 2: question for you. I'm going to go back to something
Speaker 2: I said a couple shows ago. I think it comes
Speaker 2: down to the defense on Nebraska. Everyone's talking about the
Speaker 2: offense and Adrian Martinez and Scott Frost what he can
Speaker 2: do with that side of the ball.
Speaker 1: That's very exciting, but I.
Speaker 2: Think if it's going to happen for Nebraska, it needs
Speaker 2: to happen on the defensive side. Do you think you've
Speaker 2: got enough confidence in the Nebraska Cornhusker defense to warrant
Speaker 2: such high expectations in year two now under our boy
Speaker 2: Scott Frost.
Speaker 1: No, but that doesn't mean I don't have long term
Speaker 1: confidence that this defense can get to an interesting place
Speaker 1: because there is that connection both with Frost and then
Speaker 1: his defensive coordinator Eric Chenander Shenander, I guess are there
Speaker 1: any vowels in that word? Very few. He was an
Speaker 1: outside linebackers coach at Oregon. He was a Jerry as
Speaker 1: an arro guy in Nick alliotty guy. So I remember
Speaker 1: him well and he was he was pretty highly thought
Speaker 1: of as a recruiter. So in terms of building depth
Speaker 1: on this Nebraska defense, I am optimistic that they're going
Speaker 1: to get to a good place. We've talked about this
Speaker 1: in episodes past, whether it was Iowa State or whoever
Speaker 1: we were talking about in the ACC. In terms of combination,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's Clemson quarterback and defense, sure, and Nebraska
Speaker 1: in the West has the quarterback is what it appears
Speaker 1: in Adrian Martinez. But I don't know this defense at
Speaker 1: its best. This defense is very thin. I like them
Speaker 1: up front on the line and at linebacker is it
Speaker 1: gets pretty rough. It seems okay in the back end,
Speaker 1: but still they were really horrid against the run last year,
Speaker 1: and that worries me because if you don't have to
Speaker 1: be complicated against this Nebraska team and be okay, that's
Speaker 1: that doesn't spell you know, division titles. So they weren't
Speaker 1: great on third down last year. They were not great
Speaker 1: in the red zone. They gave up a lot of
Speaker 1: big plays. So yes, if they fix their situational d
Speaker 1: and they tighten up they you know, they bend but
Speaker 1: don't break, that will go a long way. But offensively,
Speaker 1: you're focusing on the defense, which is right because I
Speaker 1: think they're still pretty thin there. Offensively, who's Adrian Martinez
Speaker 1: throwing to JD. Spielman and maybe Wandale Robinson's the big
Speaker 1: incoming true freshman, big recruit. The offensive line still up
Speaker 1: in the but it should be okay. They're leading returning Russia.
Speaker 1: Maurice Washington has has some legal issues in California that
Speaker 1: are pretty serious, and he's still away from the team
Speaker 1: or not. His status is in question, and they have
Speaker 1: a Georgia Tech transfer there. But they're just thin and
Speaker 1: they're building it up. They've recruited pretty well, but in
Speaker 1: terms of confidence, like when you look at other teams like, okay,
Speaker 1: well they lose this many starters, but they these many
Speaker 1: snaps were played by their rotation guys, Nebraska doesn't have
Speaker 1: that to me. So to me, their best case scenario, yes,
Speaker 1: is probably competing for the West, but that's health and
Speaker 1: a major step up on defense that I can't feel
Speaker 1: great about. So the best case is probably a nine
Speaker 1: to three year. You want to know what I do?
Speaker 1: I feel great about what.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at the schedule right here, Oh, it's a
Speaker 2: nice schedule. Well, if you were going to say it isn't,
Speaker 2: it isn't.
Speaker 1: It isn't.
Speaker 2: Okay, So obviously they've got a really tough matchup end
Speaker 2: of September. It's at home against Ohio State. That is
Speaker 2: most likely a loss. We'll get into Ohio State in
Speaker 2: a little bit.
Speaker 1: But well, it's Ohio State, Northwestern and at Minnesota in
Speaker 1: a row. In a row, yeah, in a row.
Speaker 2: That is a tough stretch end of September, early part
Speaker 2: of October. But by a large the tough games are
Speaker 2: at home on the road. You've got a non conference
Speaker 2: spot against Colorado. You've got a road game at Illinois.
Speaker 2: You've got a road game at Minnesota. Minnesota is tricky. Yeah,
Speaker 2: You've got a road game at Purdue, in a road
Speaker 2: game at Maryland. You're home against Wisconsin, home against Iowa,
Speaker 2: home against Ohio State Northwestern. That ain't bad, dog, I'll
Speaker 2: take it. They miss and they missed Michigan, Michigan State,
Speaker 2: Penn State.
Speaker 1: Right, that is correct, And they also have NIU, who
Speaker 1: the last time they played they almost won tenderly, almost
Speaker 1: didn't throw interceptions. I think that the non conference this
Speaker 1: might be a theme in the West, might be a
Speaker 1: little bit trickier than it appears. But yes, the fact
Speaker 1: that there is no Michigan who absolutely took it to
Speaker 1: them last season. No Michigan's defense, and that was a
Speaker 1: wild weather game last year. And then no Penn State,
Speaker 1: who should have a pretty good team this year. It's
Speaker 1: a nice schedule for sure. Their worst case though, is
Speaker 1: losing those fifty to fifty high scoring affairs, still giving
Speaker 1: up too many big plays. Their Bowl eligible, but barely
Speaker 1: I think at six and six.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or if the injury bug bites the way it
Speaker 2: did Michigan State last year, that could spell trouble for
Speaker 2: Sisconsin last year. Yeah, that could spell trouble given their depth.
Speaker 2: But all in all, I think if you're a Nebraska fan,
Speaker 2: you've got a lot to look forward to. This will
Speaker 2: be an exciting year. You've got the schedule to contend
Speaker 2: here in the West, which is fun.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's go to the East. Let's start at
Speaker 1: the top. They won the Rose Bowl last year. They
Speaker 1: made a coaching change there. There's gonna be a new
Speaker 1: starting quarterback, a new defensive coordinator. Ohio State. For all
Speaker 1: of the attention, Justin Fields is getting that, Ryan Day
Speaker 1: is getting that. You know what this new era is
Speaker 1: going to look like? What it's getting. They got very
Speaker 1: strangely leaky on defense last year with the clear best
Speaker 1: talent in the conference, if not the country. So when
Speaker 1: you look at the defense that now Greg Madison is
Speaker 1: taking over from the the co defensive Chiano And uh,
Speaker 1: what's his name, Alex? He's at Oklahoma this year? Oh,
Speaker 1: Alex Crinch, Alex Grinch. Correct, it's late for me? Is it?
Speaker 1: Do they miss in recruiting? The secondary seemed to be off?
Speaker 1: Is it just a development thing? Is it a scheme thing?
Speaker 1: How easy is this fix for Greg Madison in the
Speaker 1: defensive staff in Columbus?
Speaker 2: Well, the problems last year were threefold. Okay, First off,
Speaker 2: they had turnover from the year before in secondary, which
Speaker 2: just inherently meant that there was going to be something
Speaker 2: of a step back in the defensive backfield. That happens
Speaker 2: innat Ohio State.
Speaker 1: They oh year over year they were pretty good for
Speaker 1: pretty good but before last year, but there was a
Speaker 1: step back.
Speaker 2: Jordan Fuller made the All Big Ten team and they
Speaker 2: moved him around a bunch trying to plug gaps. This
Speaker 2: was a defensive place a lot of man to man.
Speaker 2: They needed to use it in different spots and he
Speaker 2: couldn't cover all of them. So that's the first thing.
Speaker 2: I think the secondary took something of a step back. Secondly,
Speaker 2: and more broadly, Greg Ciano's system was a very rigid
Speaker 2: four to three scheme, and it worked when they had
Speaker 2: better athletes at linebacker, that same level of athleticism, though
Speaker 2: just it wasn't there with the group they had last year.
Speaker 2: They had trouble matching up with slot guys like they
Speaker 2: could otherwise in the past.
Speaker 1: He was adamant.
Speaker 2: Greg Shiana was adamant about playing three linebackers to the
Speaker 2: extent where it actually hampered their ability to defend against
Speaker 2: unbalanced sets, against plays with motions, uh sweeps, that whole thing.
Speaker 2: Fans were screaming, don't get speed on offense. A lot
Speaker 2: of teams go base nickel kind of stuff. Absolutely, fans
Speaker 2: were screaming, try to not do that, and he was
Speaker 2: insistent upon playing those three linebackers. The good news bad
Speaker 2: news scenario this year is that all three of those
Speaker 2: guys are back. But given the change I think in
Speaker 2: leadership on the defensive side, we might see a little
Speaker 2: bit of a different take on how exactly to play
Speaker 2: more of a spread system like we're seeing across college football.
Speaker 2: And then finally, you know, they tried to get as
Speaker 2: much athleticism as they could where they could, and that
Speaker 2: was along the defensive line. But the manner in which
Speaker 2: they did. It was very risky and it left the
Speaker 2: secondary more vulnerable. So there was a whole systemic thing
Speaker 2: going on with Ohio State. If you look at the numbers, look,
Speaker 2: they need to get better on defense. You called it out,
Speaker 2: fiftieth in points per game allowed, seventy ninth in yards
Speaker 2: per rush at four and a half per rush, it's
Speaker 2: a lot, and then fifty first in yards per attempt
Speaker 2: in the passing game. Seven yards per attempt is just
Speaker 2: not good enough for Ohio State. Now, the thing about
Speaker 2: Ohio State is this, I could probably do an entire
Speaker 2: show just me talking about the Buckeyes.
Speaker 1: I studied them intently. You should do a one man
Speaker 1: show in the great Allentown, Bethlehem, Northampton, just Ohio State
Speaker 1: tie on the Bucks. Yeah, just Ohio State. The problem
Speaker 1: is you've getting up there, you and a chair and
Speaker 1: a PowerPoint presentation because you were you actually were very
Speaker 1: pissed that you did not know about the National PowerPoint Championship.
Speaker 1: So this could be your big comeback. It could indeed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Ohio State this year is the epic battle of
Speaker 2: turnover versus talent. That's going to be the theme. They've
Speaker 2: got turnover on the coaching staff at quarterback, at wide out,
Speaker 2: along the line, along the defensive line, but a ton
Speaker 2: of talent in the form of blue chips that they
Speaker 2: have amassed over the last couple of years. They've got
Speaker 2: the top blue chip ratio in the country, which is
Speaker 2: something our friend Bud Elliott keeps track of. How many
Speaker 2: blue chippers are being recruited or signing to your school.
Speaker 2: More often than not, there is a correlation between that
Speaker 2: talent who makes the playoff who ends up winning the
Speaker 2: national championship. So I think specific to the defense, it's
Speaker 2: those three things. But the more existential question, now Dan
Speaker 2: is urban Myer's gone, Yeah, he is. We can't do
Speaker 2: this preview without talking about urban Meyer. Ohio State won
Speaker 2: twelve games last year, including the bull This is still
Speaker 2: a really good football team, albeit some issues on defense.
Speaker 2: Now we got Ryan Day taken over. How do you
Speaker 2: feel about Ryan Day taken over?
Speaker 1: Pretty good? I mean, all things consider, like the continuity,
Speaker 1: we've seen it succeed at big places with a successful
Speaker 1: offensive mind stepping in after time learning on the job.
Speaker 1: And sure he obviously stepped in last year with urban
Speaker 1: Meyer's suspension to start the season and looked pretty good
Speaker 1: and by all accounts, whether it's on the road recruiting,
Speaker 1: it's with assistance. I like the hires that he made
Speaker 1: and filling out his staff. I think there's good reason
Speaker 1: to feel good about Ryan Day landing Justin Fields, who
Speaker 1: is not Dwayne Haskins. And this is something you can
Speaker 1: probably speak to with Ohio State because you're doing a
Speaker 1: one man show at the regional theater out there. That's right,
Speaker 1: But this is the first year. That's also interesting to me,
Speaker 1: Where these past years it was Braxton Miller, j T. Barrett,
Speaker 1: Cardell Jones, it was J. T. Barrett, Dwayne Haskins. This
Speaker 1: year it's Justin Field's Gunner Hoke transfer from Kentucky. It's
Speaker 1: a different look in room, and that to me is
Speaker 1: pretty intriguing.
Speaker 2: Ryan Day is your new coach. Part of why he
Speaker 2: was brought on to be the coach is because he's
Speaker 2: had a knack for developing quarterbacks. Now to help him
Speaker 2: do that with Justin Fields, they hired Mike Ersich to
Speaker 2: be the new quarterback coach, who was at Oklahoma State
Speaker 2: for a while sick. So I think he has done
Speaker 2: a pretty good job assembling a staff. My only bit
Speaker 2: of hesitation here is that coaching changes are a bit
Speaker 2: of a coin flip. They always are. Even when you
Speaker 2: sometimes think you have the guy, it just doesn't always
Speaker 2: turn into Lincoln Riley. Sometimes it turns into Larry Koker,
Speaker 2: where it's good for a while and then something happens
Speaker 2: and it's not so good. I don't know if Ryan
Speaker 2: Day is Lincoln Riley or Larry Koker. We don't have
Speaker 2: enough data at that time.
Speaker 1: We don't. We don't have enough data. I like what
Speaker 1: I've heard. He was good in the early part.
Speaker 2: Of last season. I hope that continues. But this is
Speaker 2: ever the question with a coaching change. Can he continue
Speaker 2: what the legend built Dwayne Haskins good first year starter? Yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'd say so. And he'd be if if.
Speaker 1: Brian Kelly were to leave, if he left after last
Speaker 1: season and Urban Meyer State at Ohio State and Notre
Speaker 1: Dame hired away Ryan Day, you'd be pretty pumped about that, right,
Speaker 1: I would feel fine about that. Yeah, But I'm just
Speaker 1: saying it's not a slam dunk, which is why I'm
Speaker 1: urging a little bit of caution here. But yeah, he
Speaker 1: brings in justin fields, he's a new quarterback. He was
Speaker 1: a five star, the number two overall prospect in the
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen class. He's a big kid, six three two
Speaker 1: twenty five. He can really run. There's a lot to
Speaker 1: like here.
Speaker 2: Brings over Mike yersich Day himself, like I said, has
Speaker 2: a knack for developing quarterbacks. He also went out basically
Speaker 2: and nuked the entire defense of coaching staff. He kept
Speaker 2: Larry Johnson the defensive line coach, but made a bunch
Speaker 2: of changes to try and amend things on that side
Speaker 2: of the ball, which we addressed a little earlier. The offense, though,
Speaker 2: will be interesting now with fields because there are a
Speaker 2: couple other items that I think need to be mentioned.
Speaker 1: JK.
Speaker 2: Dobbins very exciting player. He's now the full time running back.
Speaker 2: He's never had like that number one alpha role in
Speaker 2: the backfield. I'm curious to see if we get some
Speaker 2: action out of Master Tigue the third. I love the
Speaker 2: name kids a bowling bag to Mario McCall play.
Speaker 1: He's good. I know.
Speaker 2: Master Tigue, though, is a bowling ball with eyes. I
Speaker 2: hope he gets some carries. I want to see what
Speaker 2: Dobbins can do as they increase his workload. They had
Speaker 2: some turnover at wide out. They've got talent at wide out,
Speaker 2: but they've got turnover there. They also lost four offensive
Speaker 2: linemen too, the.
Speaker 1: NFL ned sign. They've recruited well, they've recruited well. So
Speaker 1: we'll see.
Speaker 2: I don't know the thing that I we'll say about
Speaker 2: the schedule, and then we should probably move on because again,
Speaker 2: I can do this for a half hour, two back
Speaker 2: to backs end of September and first week of October
Speaker 2: at Nebraska home against Michigan State, then the last two
Speaker 2: weeks of November home against Penn State, close out the
Speaker 2: year on the road at Michigan.
Speaker 1: That's what's going to define this season for the Buckeyes.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, yeah, no, totally is. And they lost a
Speaker 1: bunch of receivers but have recruited well there as well.
Speaker 1: kJ Hill's back, right, kJ Hills back, Yes, he'll be good.
Speaker 1: So best case is what they run the table.
Speaker 2: Best case they run the table. Yeah, they've got the talent.
Speaker 2: They've got the talent to run the table here.
Speaker 1: Worst case, I guess is justin fields is just a
Speaker 1: guy and team stack the box and the offense is
Speaker 1: fits and starts kind of thing, and the defense doesn't
Speaker 1: really fix itself. And so what's that that worst case.
Speaker 2: Well, the worst case might be three losses on the schedule. Okay,
Speaker 2: I don't believe in that, but right there's not a
Speaker 2: lot of depth to your earlier point about justin fields
Speaker 2: behind him something where to go south in that regard
Speaker 2: that could be a problem.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, let's move on. Let's move on, Dan, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about Wisconsin. I'm always curious when you
Speaker 1: do that, if you're going to say, let's move on, Dan,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about suits. No, I want to
Speaker 1: talk about customs. Okay, Wisconsin a little bit later, we'll
Speaker 1: do that. Oh, a tease.
Speaker 2: Who is playing quarterback for Wisconsin this year? And furthermore,
Speaker 2: does it matter since they still have Jonathan Taylor tailback
Speaker 2: who will clearly be the focal point of that offense?
Speaker 1: Can I just say, oh, that's why I'm asking the question.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Jack Cone appears to be ahead. And
Speaker 1: by the way, this is not meant to be mean,
Speaker 1: This is not meant to be accusatory. But try not
Speaker 1: to name your kids something that ends with the letter
Speaker 1: in which his last name is going to start. Because
Speaker 1: Graham Hertz sounds like zach Ertz's little brother and it's
Speaker 1: Graham Mertz and I hate that we have to do
Speaker 1: that for the next however long he's playing college football.
Speaker 1: Grammer Jack Grammarts, Country Grammarts. That's good. I hate myself.
Speaker 1: I just burminized something. Jack Cone is probably gonna be
Speaker 1: the guy. It is going to matter because Wisconsin goes
Speaker 1: from good to potentially really good when they have an
Speaker 1: efficient quarterback. And Jack Cone does not need to light
Speaker 1: the world on fire. Jack Cone does not need to
Speaker 1: be a crazy dual threat kind of guy, but he
Speaker 1: needs to be a lot better than he was last season.
Speaker 1: And Alex Hornybrook had a pretty horrible year. He threw
Speaker 1: a ton of picks. Jack Cone comes in when hornybrooks
Speaker 1: hurt and just not performing and is not that great.
Speaker 1: He throws picks less often, which is not the greatest
Speaker 1: compliment you can pay somebody. Wiscons has got a new
Speaker 1: offensive line in front of him. The good news for
Speaker 1: Cone if he is going to improve, he's a pretty
Speaker 1: nice set And aside from Jonathan Taylor, Jonathan Taylor touchdowns,
Speaker 1: so we call him right or tailback tailback tail touchdown
Speaker 1: if you want no, I like tailback AJ Davis or
Speaker 1: Danny Davis, AJ Taylor and possibly because he was just
Speaker 1: acquitted and his status is still up in the air,
Speaker 1: Quintes Cephis might be back for Wisconsin, so he could
Speaker 1: have a nice array of players to be throwing to. Defensively,
Speaker 1: they have to be healthier. They're still I mean, the
Speaker 1: linebackers are pretty new. A lot of what Wisconsin succeeded
Speaker 1: in doing was shutting teams down on defense and when
Speaker 1: they had the ball, just pounding them and just wearing
Speaker 1: teams down. And so I look at this defense. They're
Speaker 1: pretty green upfront. You know, there's a decent amount of
Speaker 1: experience in the back. But it's going to have to
Speaker 1: be a situation which somebody else's shouldering the load outside
Speaker 1: of Jonathan Taylor tailback if they're going to get to
Speaker 1: threatening double digit wins. So the best case scenario, after
Speaker 1: last year, which you know, the offense was rough outside
Speaker 1: of JTT, the defense was okay against the run, but
Speaker 1: pretty bad against the pass, the best case scenario for
Speaker 1: the Badgers, for Bucky b Edger, offensive line comes together,
Speaker 1: offense bounces back, somebody who you know is a gravitational
Speaker 1: player continues to be on the outside, and the defense improves.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say nine to three is probably their best
Speaker 1: case right now, with a chance to get to ten
Speaker 1: in the bowl game. Worst case is Jack Cone is
Speaker 1: still below average and you know, some games the defense
Speaker 1: shows up, some games doesn't and they go seven to five.
Speaker 1: That's the worry for me that it's more of the
Speaker 1: same if Mertz is not ready to be that full
Speaker 1: time guy and Jack Cone is the guy at least
Speaker 1: in the beginning, and then it's a will they won't they?
Speaker 1: With Who are they starting come week six? I don't know.
Speaker 1: The schedule is not bad. They have what Michigan in September,
Speaker 1: they're on the road at Ohio State this year they
Speaker 1: have a buye before iowather at Nebraska. They're at Minnesota,
Speaker 1: which we'll get to I think is interesting. So it's fine,
Speaker 1: how much but how much let down? Look ahead? Potential?
Speaker 2: Is that October nineteenth game it's at Illinois. It's between
Speaker 2: Michigan State at home and Camp Randall Stadium homecoming. And
Speaker 2: the week after Illinois it's on the road in Ohio
Speaker 2: Stadium against the Buck guys.
Speaker 1: Is Trevor Lawrence and all of his receivers gonna say,
Speaker 1: why don't we just go to Champagne and be legends.
Speaker 1: If that's not happening, fair enough, I don't think Illinois
Speaker 1: has a quarterback to really put the fear of life
Speaker 1: into anybody. Fair enough, Okay, I'll do apologies to Brandon Peters.
Speaker 1: Fair enough.
Speaker 2: Where you gonna go next?
Speaker 1: All right, let's stick with Brandon Peter's old team. Let's
Speaker 1: just get it out of the way. Let's do it.
Speaker 1: So a lot of what I'm seeing about I've seen
Speaker 1: actually two things about Michigan this off season. One, Josh
Speaker 1: Gaddis is coming in. We're gonna we're gonna modernize this. Modernize, yeah, modernize,
Speaker 1: We're gonna spread them out. We're finally gonna get to
Speaker 1: the twenty first century, twenty forty chess on this offense.
Speaker 1: The other thing I've seen was describing Michigan's defense in
Speaker 1: the way that people describe Clayton Kershaw, where they're just like,
Speaker 1: if you take out this one start, if you take
Speaker 1: out this one playoff game where you gave up forty
Speaker 1: four earned runs against the Cardinals, he's pretty good. And
Speaker 1: that I've seen that about Michigan's defense, and you take
Speaker 1: out the Ohio State game, and what are we talk
Speaker 1: We're talking about pretty successful guy in defense. So let's
Speaker 1: stick with the modernizing. What does that actually look like? Is?
Speaker 1: What is a modern Michigan offense run by Shape Patterson
Speaker 1: with we'll edit in a running back get one and
Speaker 1: you know, good but kind of beat up receivers in
Speaker 1: a good offensive line. What does that quote unquote modern
Speaker 1: offense look like?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, Harbaugh kind of started modernizing it last
Speaker 2: season when he brought Shape Patterson over, who was not
Speaker 2: the kind of quarterback who would typically fit his system,
Speaker 2: you know, and hire a new line coach.
Speaker 1: I always screw up his name? Is it Edward Rinner?
Speaker 1: Warren Warrener? With Warrener.
Speaker 2: It's so easy, it's right in front of me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I know the guy. We've been talking about him for years.
Speaker 2: I just can't say his name's He's.
Speaker 1: Well known around the globe, well known around the globe.
Speaker 2: He's got a wealth of knowledge about the running game,
Speaker 2: about spread offense. Is really good coach. This was definitely
Speaker 2: I think the start of now what we see going
Speaker 2: on in twenty nineteen bringing over Josh gaddis. I think
Speaker 2: what you're going to see if you talk about more
Speaker 2: modernized I think you're going to see more tempo. We're
Speaker 2: hardly ever going to see huddle and you're going to
Speaker 2: see more RPOs. Gaddis is big on this, all right.
Speaker 2: He's trying to I don't know if you saw this,
Speaker 2: he's trying to invent his own hashtag, speed in Space. Okay,
Speaker 2: he's been tweeting that out. That's going to be the
Speaker 2: theme for this offense. And you know, hey, it's kind
Speaker 2: of a gimmick thing, but speed in Space is definitely
Speaker 2: not how you would define the old Jim Harbaugh system
Speaker 2: where you line up under center and give it to
Speaker 2: somebody who's big and the gun a lot last and
Speaker 2: tight ends. But no, I'm saying last year was the
Speaker 2: start of it. This year, I think we get to
Speaker 2: the next level now with Josh Gaddis. I'm familiar with
Speaker 2: Gaddis from his time at Penn State, and honestly, if
Speaker 2: you're a Penn State fan, you miss Josh Gaddis because
Speaker 2: the wide receiving core has not been the same since
Speaker 2: he left. If you're a Michigan fan, you get excited
Speaker 2: because maybe you see a flavor of what Joe Moorehead
Speaker 2: did at Penn State. What he's done a little bit
Speaker 2: at Mississippi State. Bruce Felman depicted this higher pretty well
Speaker 2: in an article. He talked about Harball basically calling up
Speaker 2: Josh Gaddis, giving him full control of the offense and
Speaker 2: essentially the job within twenty minutes, like he knew this
Speaker 2: was the guy he wanted to get. That's something if
Speaker 2: I'm a Michigan fan that gets the juice is flowing,
Speaker 2: you sort of know what you're going to get.
Speaker 1: Though, I think, so, okay, why would it not. I
Speaker 1: didn't think the Michigan offense was that bad last year Michigan.
Speaker 1: I mean they were bad against Notre Dame, scored ten
Speaker 1: offensive points, right, it was ten points and yes, nineteen
Speaker 1: eight yard kickoff return touchdown. And then it wasn't the
Speaker 1: offense that was. I mean, it wasn't great against Ohio State,
Speaker 1: but that was a game at halftime and the defense
Speaker 1: just could not keep up with Dwayne Haskins and all
Speaker 1: those receivers.
Speaker 2: For all there were there were two nineteen minute chunks
Speaker 2: that defined Yes, this was what Nicole auerbacks is what
Speaker 2: Nicole wrote, Yeah, the athletic for the athletic there were
Speaker 2: two nineteen minute chunks. One in the beginning part of
Speaker 2: the year against Notre Dame one at the end of
Speaker 2: the year against Ohio State in which during which the
Speaker 2: defense had these momentary lapses and that really did alter
Speaker 2: the course of the season. Otherwise, though, you could really
Speaker 2: make the case that this might have been the best
Speaker 2: defense in the country. So they had their moments, and
Speaker 2: they need to cut back on those mistakes for sure
Speaker 2: against better competition, but like it was still pretty damn
Speaker 2: good last year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a top probably twenty twenty five offense
Speaker 1: in the country, and the defense was one of the
Speaker 1: best ten or fifteen defenses in the country, if not higher.
Speaker 1: So they were just they were they were losers in moments,
Speaker 1: they were not you know, in need of an overhaul.
Speaker 1: And so that it worries me that there's going to
Speaker 1: be new verbiage, that there's going to be confusion at times.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe, well that's fair, right, that's fair.
Speaker 1: I am I'm just curious. I'm curious that they're going
Speaker 1: to overthink it sometimes. And you know, he hasn't been
Speaker 1: an offensive coordinator. I saw that there was a feud
Speaker 1: between he and Mike Locksley over Mike Locksley not giving
Speaker 1: him credit and media. I don't know whatever it is.
Speaker 1: I'm curious. I think it's a it's a high risk
Speaker 1: maneuver that could pay huge dividends, but curious to see
Speaker 1: if not, if it wasn't the most needed thing overhauling
Speaker 1: this offense.
Speaker 2: Some other quick factoids and then we'll move on. The
Speaker 2: line should be should be a strength of this team
Speaker 2: because they've got full definitely four guys back. It's going
Speaker 2: to help Shape Patterson. Hopefully, it's gonna help the run attack.
Speaker 2: As you said, they lost both both Karan Higgen and
Speaker 2: Chris Evans. We can edit in a running back name here.
Speaker 1: But I think it's it's going to be a true
Speaker 1: freshman who I think is from southern California, Trebousche Adam.
Speaker 2: Whoever gets the whoever gets the carries right the line
Speaker 2: should benefit them. Of course, Shape Patterson's back pretty good
Speaker 2: in his first year. There was room for improvement. I'm
Speaker 2: curious to see now what he does with this system.
Speaker 2: The big spot that I am watching now, especially given
Speaker 2: the fact that we've got Josh Gattis coming up from Alabama. Yeah,
Speaker 2: wide receiver, somebody's got to step up. I thought it
Speaker 2: would be Donevan people's Jones. Yeah, but he didn't really
Speaker 2: step up and be that alpha, so it needs.
Speaker 1: To be good. He was good, Nico Collins.
Speaker 2: He needs to be People's Jones or Nicocollins or Ronnie
Speaker 2: Bell who's a burner, or even Tarik Black if he
Speaker 2: can stay healthy. Somebody's got to step up, and I
Speaker 2: think be that alpha target out wide and then defensively.
Speaker 2: You know, we've talked about it in the off season.
Speaker 2: Rashaun Gary, Chase Winovich, Devin Bush, they're all gone, So
Speaker 2: the work is cut out for Don Brown a little bit.
Speaker 2: They got so many good dudes, though, but they've got
Speaker 2: so many good dudes. Oh my god, Lavert Hill, come on,
Speaker 2: what's his name, Carlo camp Inside.
Speaker 1: It would really help if.
Speaker 2: Khalie Cutson went back to twenty seventeen form, that would
Speaker 2: be nice.
Speaker 1: I think he'll be fine. I think he'll be fine.
Speaker 1: I think the secondary is going to be fine. This
Speaker 1: I hate regurgitating platitudes like this could be the most
Speaker 1: athletic defense Doan Brown has held at Michigan, but there
Speaker 1: is some evidence that it could be one of the
Speaker 1: faster defenses in the country. It should be a very fun,
Speaker 1: angry defense. It should be. It's not an easy schedule.
Speaker 1: It is not easy schedule. By the way, trebousche is,
Speaker 1: I believe a cannon or a slingshot of some kind.
Speaker 1: They could be starting zach charbonnet or sharbonette. I don't
Speaker 1: know how you pronounced it. He's a freshman. I'll learn,
Speaker 1: but that's his French tribouchet idea.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm excited about Michigan. I got them coming
Speaker 2: out of the East this year.
Speaker 1: Interesting. What is it about Michigan before we move on
Speaker 1: to the next team in the West that has them,
Speaker 1: aside from playing the game in ann Arbor, in a
Speaker 1: better place than Ohio State, another presumed favorite.
Speaker 2: I am not entirely sure what Ohio State is going
Speaker 2: to look like. Okay, so coaching coaching turnover, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: go back to what I said before. Coaching turnover brings
Speaker 2: with it a fair amount of uncertainty, and we don't
Speaker 2: know what we're going to get out of justin fields. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's a fair amount of turnover there. Even though they've
Speaker 2: got blue chips out the wazoo. I'm just not as
Speaker 2: confident in them. We'll talk about Michigan State. I like
Speaker 2: Michigan State too, but the issue was offense last season.
Speaker 2: To what end will they be season that? Well, yeah,
Speaker 2: many seasons and then Penn State. Penn State could go
Speaker 2: any one of a thousand different directions. So Michigan is
Speaker 2: a team I feel best about right now. So you
Speaker 2: mentioned a tough schedule, so that is what well, with
Speaker 2: the exception of road games at Penn State and I
Speaker 2: guess at Wisconsin if you want to wump them in
Speaker 2: all their hardest games their home, all their hard games
Speaker 2: are at home. It's just the competition isn't the easiest.
Speaker 2: We're not talking about a creampuff schedule here. I'm looking
Speaker 2: at it. We've got Army Week two, which we've already
Speaker 2: labeled as a interesting game, Yeah danger Notre Dame at home,
Speaker 2: Michigan State at Indiana Ohio State to close out the
Speaker 2: year that Indiana games won that I have circled as
Speaker 2: a letdown look ahead spot. There's a Penn State game
Speaker 2: in there, There's an Iowa game in there.
Speaker 1: This isn't the easiest schedule by any stretch. By the way,
Speaker 1: I did notice because you mentioned the Army game, Don Brown,
Speaker 1: this is not on our fantasy things list. I don't
Speaker 1: believe it ever has been. Don Brown said last week,
Speaker 1: Michigan defensive coordinator, We've been practicing against the options since
Speaker 1: it's great, awesome.
Speaker 2: That's a good cool I love it.
Speaker 1: It should be, but it's not a fantasy thing, all right.
Speaker 1: So you have them coming out of the East. I do,
Speaker 1: I do? Okay, what do you want to know about
Speaker 1: in the West?
Speaker 2: I want to know about Iowa. I want to talk
Speaker 2: to their kids about Iowa, so do I. They've got
Speaker 2: a brutal schedule, and that's saying something because they don't
Speaker 2: even have to play Ohio State.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: How confident are you that they get the running game
Speaker 2: back to where it's been in years past, at least
Speaker 2: to a serviceable level, so that it can compliment Nate
Speaker 2: Stanley and move this team forward offensively.
Speaker 1: I am. They took a step forward last year in
Speaker 1: Big ten play. It was a rough going early on,
Speaker 1: but against Big ten teams they were actually better than
Speaker 1: they were than in twenty seventeen. So with the linemen
Speaker 1: that they bring back with they're in good shape at
Speaker 1: running back. I what's McKay I was gonna say, Makay Pfiffer,
Speaker 1: Makai Sargent, McKay Sargeant or Mackay Pfiffer. Who's to say
Speaker 1: about eligibill.
Speaker 2: Kai Pfiffer could get one point two yards per carry.
Speaker 1: That's true? Well, yeah, probably with mckaye sergeant there. And
Speaker 1: I liked him in an all purpose way last year.
Speaker 1: I thought he showed out pretty nicely at times. Bringing
Speaker 1: back Nate Stanley my guy. We know he can be good.
Speaker 1: There are times where he's not so good. The big
Speaker 1: hole left by t. J. Hawkinson and Noah fan is
Speaker 1: worrisome to me, both in the past and run game,
Speaker 1: just because they were gravitational players that theoretically should be
Speaker 1: opening things up or should have opened things up for Iowa.
Speaker 1: So if the offensive line can get back, can get
Speaker 1: better in run blocking, I think Iowa was going to
Speaker 1: be in a pretty good place offensively. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, I don't see that there needs to be
Speaker 1: motivation on Iowa's end. They go what eight and four,
Speaker 1: nine and four every year, and they seem happy with that.
Speaker 1: This this seems to be a year that they're circling
Speaker 1: as a you know, this is a great situation even
Speaker 1: with the schedule. Iowa State on the road Week three.
Speaker 1: I think they have what they're at Michigan, and then
Speaker 1: they get Penn State in Iowa City the following week
Speaker 1: in October. They're November is pretty tough on the road
Speaker 1: at Northwestern and Wisconsin and Nebraska. But the way they play,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's going to be more of the same.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think they can be a little bit
Speaker 1: better with that experienced quarterback stretching the field. Even if
Speaker 1: I don't love their receivers and pass catchers. They win
Speaker 1: two of those those fourth quarter lead games that they
Speaker 1: had last year that they blew. They're ten and two,
Speaker 1: and I don't know how much differently we feel about Iowa.
Speaker 1: So that's sort of where I'm at right now. Best cases,
Speaker 1: they're ten and two. They run a little bit better,
Speaker 1: and they look a lot like they did last year.
Speaker 1: And the great news for them too is defensively they
Speaker 1: might have the best rush end if it's not Chase
Speaker 1: Young in the big ten and aj at Panessa. They're
Speaker 1: in a good place up front. They they're strong at safety.
Speaker 1: I just I don't know, it feels like we're saying
Speaker 1: the same thing most years about Iowa does and so well,
Speaker 1: I got to replace this big, tight end, and you
Speaker 1: know they should be good along the lines. Quarterback is
Speaker 1: generally decent, but they can't really run the ball. I mean,
Speaker 1: this whole thing has been from twenty eighteen and you
Speaker 1: probably didn't even realize. So yeah, if they're worse than
Speaker 1: moving the ball without the tight ends, if the new
Speaker 1: corners struggle, which year over year they keep finding new
Speaker 1: corners that are amazing, they go seven and five, but
Speaker 1: it's probably again going to be eight or nine wins
Speaker 1: their Utah East. What a weird sister state that Iowa
Speaker 1: and Utah could make for each other. Let's go to
Speaker 1: Michigan State. Okay, because I'm a glutton for punishment after
Speaker 1: last year's and this one's in quotes offense and the
Speaker 1: off season, I'm gonna be very kind again Coach Reshuffling. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's that? It's just I don't know what it was.
Speaker 1: I have the full list here, by the way, it's incredible,
Speaker 1: thank you. If Michigan State's gonna if they're gonna heal
Speaker 1: on offense, if they're going to begin to eel as
Speaker 1: an offense, who or what will be that medicine?
Speaker 2: Well, first off, heel is the proper word to use
Speaker 2: because They were nicked up on offense, and by nicked up,
Speaker 2: I mean pretty much destroyed because of injuries. Brian Lawerki
Speaker 2: hurt his shoulder, didn't really recover. His wide receiving corps
Speaker 2: was all banged up. Felton Davis blew out, and Achilles
Speaker 2: Cody White broke his hand. Darryl Stewart hurt his ankle.
Speaker 1: LJ.
Speaker 2: Scott wasn't healthy for most of the year either, so
Speaker 2: they were they were just banged up. It was the
Speaker 2: first brutal because he really was. He was great, and
Speaker 2: it just sucks. That's football. This was the first year
Speaker 2: ever for Mark D'Antonio where he had exactly zero offensive
Speaker 2: players make the All Big Ten team.
Speaker 1: Wow, a little factoid for you. Well deserved, well deserved.
Speaker 2: The other thing here, separate from injuries, is that the
Speaker 2: offensive line and really was comically bad at run blocking.
Speaker 2: And you know, by every blocking metric we have when
Speaker 2: you look at Bill C's numbers and all these stuff,
Speaker 2: rates and what does it all mean, I'll tell you
Speaker 2: what it means in all of them. Michigan State has
Speaker 2: been terrible the last two years and that needs to
Speaker 2: improve if they want to try and move forward now.
Speaker 2: In twenty nineteen. They got to stay healthy. They got
Speaker 2: to heal literally and then to heal figuratively. They got
Speaker 2: to figure out something along the offensive line. Now, the
Speaker 2: good news for them is that they bring back a ton.
Speaker 2: They've got seventeen returning starters. It's the fourth most in
Speaker 2: the country. Nine on offense, eight on defense, which I'll
Speaker 2: talk about here momentarily. But you mentioned the coach shuffle.
Speaker 2: This is interesting to me. It's interesting because we saw
Speaker 2: what Ryan Day did at Ohio State, essentially ripping down
Speaker 2: the defensive coaching staff to the studs, the one stud
Speaker 2: being Larry Johnson. Mark D'Antonio ain't here to cause no trouble, Dan,
Speaker 2: He's just here to do the coaching staff shuffle.
Speaker 1: Right. Did he get that joke? Now? Gotcha? He got that.
Speaker 1: I'm just letting it breathe, Okay.
Speaker 2: Former quarterbacks coach Brad Salem is now the offensive coordinator
Speaker 2: slash running backs coach. Former offensive coordinator slash running backs
Speaker 2: coach Dave Warner is on the staff still as the
Speaker 2: new quarterbacks coach, a position he coached at Michigan State
Speaker 2: from two thousand and seven to twenty twelve. Former co
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Jim Bowman. He's now
Speaker 2: the offensive line coach. Former offensive line coach Mark Statton
Speaker 2: now coaches the tight ends, a position he coached previously
Speaker 2: from two thousand and seven to twenty ten. And former
Speaker 2: assistant defensive backs a special teams coach Don Treadwell now
Speaker 2: coaches the wide receivers, a position he coached from Michigan
Speaker 2: State at Michigan State from two thousand and seven twenty ten.
Speaker 2: And if you're wondering what happened to the wide receivers
Speaker 2: coach Terry Samuel will now he's assistant defensive backs coach.
Speaker 1: Then feels it feels like an episode of Undercover Boss.
Speaker 1: Everybody's undercover, where it's like we went we went to
Speaker 1: the Freedo lay factory and eleven different executives where undercover,
Speaker 1: this is music chairs, it's back to the future.
Speaker 2: They're trying to go back to two thousand and seven
Speaker 2: and maybe it'll work. Mark D'Antonio is a loyal guy.
Speaker 2: He values loyalty. He wants to try and keep the
Speaker 2: same guys in place, and and God help him here.
Speaker 2: What helps him, I think a lot is that their
Speaker 2: defense is going to be elite. I'm not going to
Speaker 2: go through and talk about all the names, but Joe
Speaker 2: Bachi coming back at linebacker, Josiah Scott a lockdown at cornerback,
Speaker 2: Kenny will Leaks was the Big Ten defensive lineman of
Speaker 2: the year. And then we've got the two brothers. I
Speaker 2: looked up phonetically. How you say Mike Panashuk and Jacob Pashuk. Okay,
Speaker 2: there are two brothers along the line who you might
Speaker 2: be excited to.
Speaker 1: Know talk Polish to each other to call out signals.
Speaker 1: Is Rocky Lombardi back?
Speaker 2: Rocky Lombarti is back, but he is not playing quarterback
Speaker 2: because Brian Willwurkie is your presumed starting quarterback.
Speaker 1: What's is he the assistant offensive coordinator? What is Rocky
Speaker 1: Lombardi doing? Is he just the backup quarterback? I guess
Speaker 1: he's just the backup quarterback with the cool last name.
Speaker 1: What a name? What the whole name? It's like naming
Speaker 1: your cond terminator predator.
Speaker 2: Right. It's a tough Big Ten road schedule. It's a
Speaker 2: tough Big Ten road schedule. They're in good position to
Speaker 2: start five and zero Week three at ASU's bit of
Speaker 2: a Bellweather game, maybe more for ASU, but definitely a
Speaker 2: measuring stick to see where we're at with this hopefully
Speaker 2: healthy Michigan State offense. There are seasons going to be
Speaker 2: defined by a six week stretch that they have between
Speaker 2: early October and mid November when they go to Ohio State,
Speaker 2: two Wisconsin home against Penn State, at home against Illinois,
Speaker 2: and then too Michigan.
Speaker 1: Okay, the bus is what is your clearest answer? It's
Speaker 1: it's not at all difficult to yuck it up and
Speaker 1: say Hardy Harror, Mark D'Antonio, shuffle the deck, shuffle the
Speaker 1: chairs on the whatever. What is? What is? Is it
Speaker 1: just health because it doesn't feel like when you watch
Speaker 1: recent Mischione. No, it's not just health. That's that's the
Speaker 1: cure to what happened.
Speaker 2: Well, it's the most immediate cure to get better because
Speaker 2: it really got in their way last year. But I
Speaker 2: for sure they need to figure out the offensive line
Speaker 2: in the running game. It can't all be on Brian Laworkie.
Speaker 2: He tried as best he could last year before he
Speaker 2: got hurt to carry the team, and to some extent
Speaker 2: he did, but they just weren't good enough. They haven't
Speaker 2: been good enough at running the football. They need to come.
Speaker 1: Up with the solution there. That'll be all right. On defense,
Speaker 1: They're gonna be elite on defense.
Speaker 2: Why because they've got eight starters back, big talent at
Speaker 2: all three levels of that defense. Right, They'll be fine.
Speaker 2: They'll be fine. It's gonna be a very good defense.
Speaker 1: It is amazing to me when when teams like that
Speaker 1: with such inappt offenses, because Michigan State kept it together
Speaker 1: on defense last year they did when things were just
Speaker 1: totally shut down an offense, that's always impressive.
Speaker 2: I think they're going to be very good on defense,
Speaker 2: one of the best defenses in the country. I have
Speaker 2: the same questions you do about the offense. Okay, but
Speaker 2: a lot of returning talent, maybe nine to three could
Speaker 2: see ten and two.
Speaker 1: Whoa did you see their alternate uniforms. I don't like them. No,
Speaker 1: I don't like them at all. I don't like it.
Speaker 2: It looks like they're about to play a game of
Speaker 2: laser tag Dan. I don't like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I tweeted it, comparing it to the look of
Speaker 1: an absinthe bottle. It's not great. Yeah, And you know
Speaker 1: what the thing is that always bothers me about, like
Speaker 1: we had those like copper tinted Michigan State all uniforms
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. Get it out always Yeah,
Speaker 1: what did you like those? No? No, I didn't like
Speaker 1: those at all. The state script that the basketball team
Speaker 1: has I think is so cool and they should lean
Speaker 1: into that sort of recherie modern look for football. But
Speaker 1: maybe they haven't. I just forgot, but I love that
Speaker 1: state script. Love it so much.
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Speaker 2: you don't go back. Speaking Dan of going back, let's
Speaker 2: talk about Jeff Brohm.
Speaker 1: Okay, whoa pro.
Speaker 2: Jeff brom elects to stay at Purdue. He had offers
Speaker 2: from Wellville, maybe other places. Who knows by Ontown IronPigs, Yeah,
Speaker 2: never know, never stops.
Speaker 1: Yeah. At Purdue this season, he's losing three offensive linemen.
Speaker 1: He's losing his top two running backs from a year ago.
Speaker 1: I hate to ask this question because it's going to
Speaker 1: sound like I'm really down on Purdue, and I'm really not.
Speaker 1: I'm really always rooting for this team. I love pro
Speaker 1: You sure, but truly, is there enough talent on this
Speaker 1: roster right now to fill in all the gaps they're
Speaker 1: going to have and still somehow some way contend or
Speaker 1: qualify for a bowl game? If you watched any of
Speaker 1: their bowl game last year, that's a good question. I
Speaker 1: was really hoping you're gonna say, I have a big question.
Speaker 1: Can their drum get any bigger? Can that drum? Can
Speaker 1: they expand the drum? No, it's a reasonable question. It
Speaker 1: hinges on a couple of pretty huge things. And that's
Speaker 1: one Elijah Sindelar and to the defense, and you know,
Speaker 1: the singularity was very good against Minnesota and Arizona, I
Speaker 1: believe two years ago, and that's kind of it. It
Speaker 1: was not great at all starting the season last year.
Speaker 1: If you remember they had they lose to Eastern Michigan.
Speaker 1: They have you know, they go back and forth against Missoo,
Speaker 1: but lose that game. They have Rondelle Moore in a
Speaker 1: losing effort against Northwestern to open the season, so they
Speaker 1: start owing three and then they have you know, this
Speaker 1: incredible high against Ohio State and big emotional game at home.
Speaker 1: They ran all right, they threw it well with David
Speaker 1: Blau and they were they were good at generating big plays.
Speaker 1: But man, did the defense take a huge step back
Speaker 1: last year because two years ago they have this experienced defense,
Speaker 1: especially upfront, and then they were just they were below
Speaker 1: average against pretty much everything last year. And they have
Speaker 1: one of the most exciting dudes in the country and
Speaker 1: ron Dale Moore and some inexperienced dudes, like you're mentioning, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, running back and receiver around him, and the
Speaker 1: line is really thin. I'm not feeling good. I you know,
Speaker 1: the best cases, you know, the defense shores up and
Speaker 1: Elijah Sindelar looks like what David Blou looked like last year,
Speaker 1: and they can go eight and four, but I see
Speaker 1: like three or four different ways that they could go
Speaker 1: four and eight or five and seven. Yeah, I'm looking
Speaker 1: at it right now. He's running for his life behind
Speaker 1: that line. Their their schedule is pretty tricky. I mean
Speaker 1: it's on the road against Nevada, Vanderbilt, and TCO. He's
Speaker 1: not pushover games. They go two Penn State, they go
Speaker 1: to Iowa. Their November is tricky with Nebraska on the
Speaker 1: road against Northwestern on the road against Wisconsin. You know,
Speaker 1: the Oaken Bucket game at least is at home. But
Speaker 1: Indiana is looking better and better, So I have them
Speaker 1: scrapping for bowl eligibility again. Yeah, and it's gonna come
Speaker 1: down to those fifty to fifty gains. That's how it feels. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm with you. Sorry, We're next, all right, oh Man
Speaker 1: with a tone of defeat in his poy No, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm rooting for Jeff Brow. I'm rooting for Purdue. But
Speaker 1: I looked at it too, and I'm thinking, I just don't.
Speaker 1: I don't see it. I don't I don't know how
Speaker 1: it happens. I hope it does. It's tough. I also
Speaker 1: realize I've said that each of the last two years
Speaker 1: about Purdue, but this year, really, truly, I don't know
Speaker 1: how it happens if they get to a bowl. Yeah,
Speaker 1: fair enough, but you know, I think a lot of that,
Speaker 1: not a lot of it, but there's a little bit
Speaker 1: of the taste left in our mouths after the last
Speaker 1: year's bowl game where they're just completely run off the field.
Speaker 1: I run off. So, speaking of which Penn State play
Speaker 1: Michigan last year and looked kind of the same way.
Speaker 1: Their offense fell off kind of significantly last year, which
Speaker 1: surprised me given how they've recruited. Given Trace mcsorley's experience
Speaker 1: going into the season, I thought he was at best
Speaker 1: average and he was hurt offense, he was hurt. He
Speaker 1: was hurt for a big chun sport. For that reason,
Speaker 1: he looked very average with a good amount of experience
Speaker 1: around him. So can you see Penn State doing drastic
Speaker 1: things to improve this offense or are they in their
Speaker 1: heads saying what you're saying they were beat up. A
Speaker 1: healthy Sean Clifford is gonna better than a beat up
Speaker 1: Trace mcsorly. They have, You know, it was with Ricky.
Speaker 1: Ricky Slade was the number one running back couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. kJ Hamler showed out last year. Justin Shorter
Speaker 1: was a number one receiver recruit last year. You know, defensively,
Speaker 1: they return a top ten national defense. Are they trying
Speaker 1: to overhaul things or they just.
Speaker 2: Is it just an offseason tweak. I don't think it's
Speaker 2: an overhaul. I don't think it's an overhaul.
Speaker 1: Should it be?
Speaker 2: I don't think it's I don't think it needs to be.
Speaker 2: I think it's overhaul enough given the fact that Sean
Speaker 2: Clifford is now stepping in as starting quarterback.
Speaker 1: Okay, you like them, I do, I do?
Speaker 2: You know, the more I read about him, we haven't
Speaker 2: seen a whole lot of Shan Clifford, but former Blue Chipper,
Speaker 2: former Elite eleven kid. He's got a big arm, not
Speaker 2: quite the mobility of Trace mcsory, but quick enough to
Speaker 2: extend plays, which is really all you need. What I
Speaker 2: like about him is he seems like a real football nerd,
Speaker 2: and I mean that.
Speaker 1: In a in a very good way.
Speaker 2: He's super intense about the minutia, a lot of folks
Speaker 2: touting the leadership, all things. You hear this about everybody, right,
Speaker 2: but these are things you like to hear. He committed
Speaker 2: to Penn State very early on, so he's exactly where
Speaker 2: he wants to be, and he waited his turn behind Yeah,
Speaker 2: a starting quarterback that was there forever in Trace pixorly
Speaker 2: thought Da David thought he was going to have to
Speaker 2: battle Tommy Stevens for the job. But Tommy Stevens bolted
Speaker 2: and now it seems like it's fallen in his lap.
Speaker 2: They haven't officially given him the job yet, but he's
Speaker 2: he's gonna be the guy. What I'm curious to see though,
Speaker 2: on the offensive side, is how the play calling looks
Speaker 2: in year two now under Ricky Ronnie. There were a
Speaker 2: couple moments last year where he was overly conservative. I
Speaker 2: don't know what it was. I don't know if it
Speaker 2: was quite big games or what caused it, but some
Speaker 2: spots where he was very conservative, where it felt like
Speaker 2: he was playing not to lose, where the offense got
Speaker 2: a little predictable.
Speaker 1: There were other moments where.
Speaker 2: It seemed like, Wow, this is this is a guy
Speaker 2: who knows what he's doing, And there were a very
Speaker 2: small fraction of plays where you were curious what the
Speaker 2: grand scheme was. I don't think they need an overhaul.
Speaker 2: I think they're going to get a personnel overhaul, which
Speaker 2: will change the way the offense looks to some degree.
Speaker 2: But as long as they can make some modifications to
Speaker 2: what we saw last year, I think they're going to
Speaker 2: be in a good spot. Where there was an issue though,
Speaker 2: and a big one was that wide receiver. I talked
Speaker 2: about it earlier. Josh Datis leaves a couple of years later,
Speaker 2: guys are dropping passes, They're not getting open. They need
Speaker 2: to play better. Heads heads are falling off.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 2: kJ Hamler, I think is the name that you know
Speaker 2: that you love, that we know that we love. He's
Speaker 2: very good out wide. He represents a player that you
Speaker 2: might see us differently. Yeah, because of his speed. He's
Speaker 2: a guy to keep your eye. Yeah, gravitational player. Yeah,
Speaker 2: keep your eye on what they do with kJ Hamler.
Speaker 2: Outside of him, though, they're gonna need Johan Dotson. They're
Speaker 2: gonna need Justin Shorter to step up out wide. They've
Speaker 2: also got Pat Fryermuth at tight end, which is the
Speaker 2: ultimate safety. Valve led the team in TD receptions as
Speaker 2: a freshman last year. Having that big target's gonna help
Speaker 2: Sean Clifford. But sure, they got to get better out wide.
Speaker 2: I don't know what's gonna happen with Ricky Slade at
Speaker 2: running back. Uh, we'll see. Lines should be okay. They
Speaker 2: even though they lose Ryan Bates and Connor McGovern.
Speaker 1: Those got starting tackles right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, They've they've got enough talent that I think they
Speaker 2: should be able to plug in. It's the line will
Speaker 2: be fine. It's not gonna be recruited very well. They've
Speaker 2: recruited extremely well. They've got the talent to plug and play.
Speaker 2: It's not going to ever get to the point, hopefully
Speaker 2: of like the offensive line crisis of twenty twelve. Like
Speaker 2: it's gonna be okay, even though they lose two guys
Speaker 2: who played at a really high level. I'm excited to
Speaker 2: see what that looks like. The defense, though, is if
Speaker 2: you've got no other reason to watch Penn State football,
Speaker 2: the defense is going to be a ton of fun. Yeah,
Speaker 2: because they're young, they're mobile, agile, hostile.
Speaker 1: I'd like that.
Speaker 2: A dude name E Tour He tour gross matos. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: they need to get better against the run, but yeah,
Speaker 2: E Tour gross matos ygm mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Very good.
Speaker 2: A ton of talent at defensive end, A ton of talent.
Speaker 2: They've got more guys than they know what to do with.
Speaker 2: They got Micah Parsons back at linebacker who led the
Speaker 2: team in tackles as a freshman. That's after they moved
Speaker 2: him from defensive end. And the schedule I think is
Speaker 2: pretty favorable. It's about as good as you could want
Speaker 2: for being in the Big Ten East.
Speaker 1: I also learned by the way on defense, John Reid
Speaker 1: is back forty seven. He's like John Stockough. Yeah, oh incredible. Okay.
Speaker 2: Schedule schedules about as favorable as you could want for
Speaker 2: being a big ten East. It's it's all gonna come
Speaker 2: down October. October will decide whether it's an eight and
Speaker 2: four season or a ten to two season.
Speaker 1: Where are you leaning right now? I'm leaning nine and
Speaker 1: three right in the middle, right smack dab in the middle.
Speaker 1: Those three losses come against Ohio State Michigan and Ohio
Speaker 1: State Michigan, and I think a dumb one. Oh No,
Speaker 1: like last year's Michigan State game.
Speaker 2: I think a dumb one. Now they're on the road
Speaker 2: at Michigan State this year. I don't necessarily think it's
Speaker 2: gonna be that one, but I just it's gonna be.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be off the radar. So that means Minnesota
Speaker 1: Perdue Iowa was on the radar. They've lost to Iowa.
Speaker 1: 'reing the raid. Actually, they look good against Iowa last year.
Speaker 1: But Pitt, no, my my beautiful four and eight darlinks No,
Speaker 1: I don't think Pitt that's a that's an ab game,
Speaker 1: by the way, that pit game. Okay, So gonna lose
Speaker 1: something weird. So you're thinking in the Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue
Speaker 1: Maryland phylum is where that's happening. Yes, Okay, what's your
Speaker 1: next question? Next question, Dan? Okay, let's talky about Minnesota. Ah,
Speaker 1: I thought you'd never ask.
Speaker 2: Minnesota has the Big Ten West's most experienced offense. They've
Speaker 2: got a light non conference schedule, as far as I
Speaker 2: can tell here, a relatively easy slate of crossover games.
Speaker 2: Can PJ Fleck and the Golden Gophers get to nine wins?
Speaker 1: Is that possible? So I'm gonna take exception with a
Speaker 1: couple of things you said. I think going to Fresno
Speaker 1: is difficult. They pulled that game out in the last
Speaker 1: second last year. I think playing Georgia Southern, who beat
Speaker 1: app State, my beloved Mountaineers of Boone, North Carolina, that's
Speaker 1: a big deal. They had a terrible situation with their
Speaker 1: quarterback last week, Shy Wurtz, and that's all resolved and
Speaker 1: good for him. But that's tricky. That's tricky for a
Speaker 1: team that has did definitely finish really nicely on defense
Speaker 1: last year, but it has a propensity against you know,
Speaker 1: some not so good teams to give up some yardage,
Speaker 1: So I think your question is fair. I think their
Speaker 1: absolute ceiling is probably eight and four right now, Okay,
Speaker 1: I have made peace with Tanner Morgan. I think he's fine.
Speaker 1: I just when you start talking about nine wins, we
Speaker 1: start getting into the combination of defense and quarterback, and
Speaker 1: I am not there with Minnesota yet. But I like
Speaker 1: that Rodney Smith is coming back and that they're gonna
Speaker 1: pair him with Mohammed Ibrahim, who looked obviously terrific in
Speaker 1: their bowl, just demolishing of Georgia Tech. So they're strong
Speaker 1: in the backfield. Tanner Morgan's probably gonna win this job
Speaker 1: over Zach Annexstad, which is very fun to say. Tyler
Speaker 1: Johnson and Bateman are very quietly one of the better
Speaker 1: wide receiver duos in the nation. Tyler Johnson, he's local,
Speaker 1: He's he's an all timer for Minnesota. Rashad Bateman, we
Speaker 1: actually talked about him going into his freshman year last
Speaker 1: year as being excited to see him a ton of
Speaker 1: experience on the line. As you sort of alluded to,
Speaker 1: they need to get better. They allowed a lot of sacks.
Speaker 1: The run game was pretty inconsistent, you know, Daniel Fatlle whatever,
Speaker 1: it's going to get a lot of attention. Sorry, was
Speaker 1: that dismissive. I didn't mean to be dismissive. Did you
Speaker 1: like that he's six nine, four hundred pounds. It's a
Speaker 1: fantasy thing, but we're actually I don't think it's an
Speaker 1: actual fantasy thing. Like his size is going to be
Speaker 1: mentioned eleven times, big fella. Yeah, he's large. He is large.
Speaker 1: He is like he's bigger than Jonathan Ogden. He is.
Speaker 1: He's big, and I think he's pretty good for being
Speaker 1: as inexperience as he is. Nine wins is pushing it
Speaker 1: though they are. They struggled a good deal on defense
Speaker 1: in the back end, and the big ten West should
Speaker 1: be able to throw someone we're getting into more into
Speaker 1: a couple more quarterbacks there. I should highlight in spotlight
Speaker 1: even though I said, you know, upfront, they're not that good.
Speaker 1: Carter Coughlin is that good. He is there like hybrid
Speaker 1: outside linebacker rush and he's all big ten caliber is
Speaker 1: he is mister Havoc for the Gophers. So they in
Speaker 1: spots like running back and receiver and you know this
Speaker 1: rush end, they're very interesting. But they need to put
Speaker 1: it together a little more often because it was. It
Speaker 1: was pretty uneven last year, and when you look at
Speaker 1: their schedule, they were only like competitive in two games.
Speaker 1: It was competitive in that they were relatively close near
Speaker 1: the end of the game. They were either separating themselves
Speaker 1: from teams or just getting demolished by teams. So there
Speaker 1: probably needs to be more consistently for four quarters at
Speaker 1: a time, and I think a lot of that comes
Speaker 1: down to turnovers. So still too many questions for me
Speaker 1: to get to nine wins, but the potential to take
Speaker 1: a nice step forward exists. The worst case is the
Speaker 1: defense progresses without a good, good line and the secondary
Speaker 1: stays pretty pretty leaky at five and seven, So I'm
Speaker 1: going to say there are a seven and five team
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 2: I'm a huge Taylor Johnson fan. He's so good, both
Speaker 2: of those guys. Huge fan of Tyler Johnson.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I was watching clips of Tanner Morgan because
Speaker 1: I honestly have not. You know, I don't spend June
Speaker 1: and July watching a lot of Minnesota football or Georgia
Speaker 1: Tech football or whoever football. I just don't. I like
Speaker 1: hanging out with Jody with an Eye and the solid baby.
Speaker 1: So I did a refresher on Tanner Morgan and man
Speaker 1: does he look he tries hard, He really goes for it.
Speaker 1: And I like that there's a lot of effort there,
Speaker 1: but that it's it's not for me a lot effort
Speaker 1: as a team competing for the divisions. I'm I need more.
Speaker 1: I just need a little bit more from the ghosts.
Speaker 1: All right, Dan, give me give me a question here,
Speaker 1: you know what, Let's talk about your precious Indiana. They
Speaker 1: they get better, Uh, let's do it. They get better
Speaker 1: on offense last year with a key injury at quarterback
Speaker 1: and they still managed to have a nice season yep.
Speaker 1: But took a pretty significant step back on defense, which
Speaker 1: seems uncharacteristic from what we've seen of Tom Allen. When
Speaker 1: he goes places, their defenses improve and it did in
Speaker 1: Indiana when he was a coordinator, but takes a step
Speaker 1: back last year as he assumes the head coaching role.
Speaker 1: Is it a course correction thing to you? You know?
Speaker 1: Is it getting to just be okay? On defense? How
Speaker 1: far away are they from getting back to a bowl?
Speaker 2: Well, okay, two different questions, I'll start with. I'll start
Speaker 2: with the bowl question here. Yeah, because you know, I'm
Speaker 2: excited about Indiana always are not always last couple of years,
Speaker 2: I've been excited about Indiana. Yeah, I don't mean to
Speaker 2: say I'm like nine and three excited. I'm not even
Speaker 2: sure I meet eight and four. But they do have
Speaker 2: seven guys back on each side of the ball. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I think there's going to be enough feistiness on
Speaker 2: the offensive side to win six or seven games and
Speaker 2: maybe scare the crap out of Ohio State in Week three.
Speaker 2: That's kind of my big prediction.
Speaker 1: I just remember you saying things about Stevie Scott that
Speaker 1: made me think, is solid wife Kate in a good
Speaker 1: place with you? Do you have wandering eyes towards Bloomington.
Speaker 2: Well, I love Stevie Scott, but they're replacing three of
Speaker 2: five starters up front, and that will have a direct
Speaker 2: impact on one. Steven Scott Okay, another big kid, a
Speaker 2: lot of promise for Indiana. Rushed over eleven hundred yards,
Speaker 2: had ten touchdowns last year as a freshman. He was
Speaker 2: on my dude watch list. I like him, but I've
Speaker 2: got questions about that line. I'm real curious to see
Speaker 2: what happens just with the offense as a whole. Because
Speaker 2: they hired Caitlin de Borr away from Fresno to come
Speaker 2: in and run the offense. Now, this is already assystem
Speaker 2: that through a lot, but now you bring de bor
Speaker 2: In from Fresno, and Fresno threw an awful lot.
Speaker 1: He's on the record talking.
Speaker 2: About how they want to get more explosive, how that's
Speaker 2: a priority for this coming season. I don't know if
Speaker 2: it's Peyton Ramsey or if it's going to be someone
Speaker 2: else at quarterback, but they just couldn't throw deep and
Speaker 2: they need to get better in this area, which is
Speaker 2: part of the reason why I reiterate I'm high on
Speaker 2: Nick Westbrook. I think he's in line for a big year.
Speaker 2: Led the team in targets a year ago. That being said,
Speaker 2: you're right in saying that rushing defense has been an
Speaker 2: issue not just last year, really the last decade. And
Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to the question on that front.
Speaker 2: I don't know how angry. I don't know what it takes,
Speaker 2: honestly to sort that out. They've got to make a tweak,
Speaker 2: They've just got to get better. I don't have an
Speaker 2: answer for you. I don't know, because it's continually been
Speaker 2: an issue for them. The schedule does not present as
Speaker 2: a murderer's row. But they're in the East, so they've
Speaker 2: already got those four games that look like easy losses,
Speaker 2: both of the Michigan schools, Ohio State, and Penn State.
Speaker 2: They've also got a road game at Nebraska, road game
Speaker 2: at Purdue. They've got a home game against Northwestern. From
Speaker 2: the West. They get Michigan at home, which is my
Speaker 2: favorite let down look ahead spot of the year. You
Speaker 2: don't just go to blooming Michigan coming off a home
Speaker 2: game against State a week before a home game against
Speaker 2: Ohio State. They go to Bloomington. That's my favorite letdown
Speaker 2: look ahead spot.
Speaker 1: Indiana.
Speaker 2: I'm high in Indiana because I think it could go
Speaker 2: a bunch of different directions. I like the hire of
Speaker 2: the Boor away from Fresno. I like the young talent
Speaker 2: on this team. Have no idea what happens along the line,
Speaker 2: or at quarterback or on defense. Your guess is as
Speaker 2: good as mine. I'm just being honest here. I honestly
Speaker 2: don't know. I know what's going on. I don't know
Speaker 2: what's going to.
Speaker 1: Happen quick thing I didn't realize Kaylan de Boor replaced
Speaker 1: Mike de Board. I believe that's right. Yes, okay, great,
Speaker 1: I like how they didn't stray too far. Mike de
Speaker 1: Board retires, but an opportunity arose in January of this
Speaker 1: year when the San Diego Fleet of the AAF lost
Speaker 1: their offensive coordinator John Kittna, who is now who's now
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks coach of the Dallas Cowboys. To take his place,
Speaker 1: and I'm quoting Wikipedia here take his place, the Fleet
Speaker 1: hired Mike de Boord, reuniting him with San Diego Fleet
Speaker 1: head coach Mike Martz.
Speaker 2: I didn't know any of this. I'm glad to have
Speaker 2: warned it on our show. Does this mean that Kaylin
Speaker 2: de Boor is the present tense of Mike de Boord?
Speaker 1: Yes, which, okay, so Kaylan de Boor is the present
Speaker 1: tense of Mike to board, the future tents will be
Speaker 1: somebody named Will de Boor. I got to ask my mom.
Speaker 1: She's she's a linguistics expert, but yeah, I think I
Speaker 1: think that's right. We have to learn how to conjugate
Speaker 1: debor are if we're ever going to succeed in accurately
Speaker 1: breaking down They know they did they in all fairness,
Speaker 1: they did get better on offense. Peyton Ramsey I think
Speaker 1: was fine last year.
Speaker 2: Didn't throw deep, but he was fine. Other one deep
Speaker 2: he was fine. They could be entertaining, and they've got
Speaker 2: feistiness on offense. Yeah, you said, he said that somebody
Speaker 2: tries real hard. Ted or Morgan tries very hard. I'm
Speaker 2: telling you. You watched clips of him. You're like man
Speaker 2: saying my compliment was a little bit more upbeat than
Speaker 2: that one. Okay, he does try, he does, you're a feutable.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about another quarterback. Okay, Hunter Johnson making some waves.
Speaker 2: He was, yeah, you know, all world everything. Quarterbacks signed
Speaker 2: with Clemson. I think wisely got out when Trevor Lawrence
Speaker 2: came to town because he wasn't playing over him. Now
Speaker 2: he ends up at Northwestern, and this is a big
Speaker 2: deal for Northwestern. It's been a long time since they
Speaker 2: had a guy of this caliber playing quarterback. Haven't seen him,
Speaker 2: mind you, but at least on paper looks the part
Speaker 2: seemingly is going to be as bout as good at
Speaker 2: quarterback as they've ever had there. Does he elevate Do
Speaker 2: you expect him to elevate the Northwestern offense in any
Speaker 2: kind of meaningful way? And at this juncture in mid August.
Speaker 2: Do we have any way of being confident about whatever
Speaker 2: you're about to say.
Speaker 1: So what I'm about to try to convey is the
Speaker 1: word no with a question mark at the end, which
Speaker 1: is a terrible answer to your question. No. So the
Speaker 1: problem with Northwestern's offense hasn't been because they haven't had
Speaker 1: talent talented quarterbacks, because it seems like, even though they
Speaker 1: don't really play all that often, that there's interest from
Speaker 1: the NFL guys like Trevor Simeon that we're fine. But
Speaker 1: they've had the same offensive coordinator for going on at
Speaker 1: least a decade, Mike McCall. So this is D analytics in
Speaker 1: that it's not D analytics. This is from our friend
Speaker 1: Brian Frimo, who runs the FBI. So these are the
Speaker 1: offensive points per drive, which is something I appreciate, and
Speaker 1: there's no garbage time. Here are the last the last
Speaker 1: decade or so of Northwestern's offensive football. So doesn't matter
Speaker 1: how quickly or how slowly you play, it's just what
Speaker 1: you do per drive. Ninety ninth, seventieth, sixty seventh, one
Speaker 1: hundred and seventeenth, one hundred and third, eighty second, fifty seventh,
Speaker 1: and twenty twelve shoutout Dan Person Cane Coulter. I believe
Speaker 1: that was like the twenty eighth and twenty eleven. Hell yeah,
Speaker 1: but then seven sixty seven sixty second. So Northwestern fielding
Speaker 1: average offenses is pretty rare. And so maybe it happens
Speaker 1: with Hunter Johnson and maybe you know, with Isaiah Bowser
Speaker 1: next to him. This was a pretty terrible rushing team
Speaker 1: last year. They replaced a lot along the offensive line.
Speaker 1: Not a great combination to me. They kind of have
Speaker 1: an interesting receiver in Bennett's Gronic It's been a mainstay there. PJ.
Speaker 1: Flynn's gone. They've got good names, but it's not a
Speaker 1: lot of proven, interesting, fun highlighting names. I just it's
Speaker 1: a pretty big question up front. It's a new offensive
Speaker 1: line coach. They need a pretty giant jump up front there.
Speaker 1: The good news for Hunter Johnson is I think Ali upwise,
Speaker 1: the defense will put the offense again in a pretty
Speaker 1: good position field, position wise, turnovers wise, whatever. Joe Gaziano's
Speaker 1: he's a are upfront. She's got decent pieces around him.
Speaker 1: Patti Fisher I mentioned on the Dude episode, he's all
Speaker 1: over the place. Two D's right, two d's Patty Fisher,
Speaker 1: the secondary's experience, they should be fine. You know, we've
Speaker 1: gotten to the point where I think benefit of the
Speaker 1: doubt is probably too strong a phrase with the Northwestern defense,
Speaker 1: but you can count on them for being, you know,
Speaker 1: a probably top five unit in the Big Ten, if
Speaker 1: not better. So schedule, there's a rough stretch on this schedule,
Speaker 1: and they open at Stanford week one. It's the stretches
Speaker 1: Michigan State at Wisconsin at Nebraska.
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 1: I have BYU here, but it might be a bye.
Speaker 1: I don't believe it's b YU. It may just be
Speaker 1: a typo Ohio State, Iowa. That's a rough stretch. That
Speaker 1: is a that is a not super fun bit of
Speaker 1: football for for Northwestern, But year after year they get
Speaker 1: pretty good quarterback play and a disappointing offense and a
Speaker 1: good defense. So if Hunter Johnson's very good, if the
Speaker 1: offense has its moments behind, a better line gets to okay,
Speaker 1: they have the sixty fourth best offense in the country
Speaker 1: or something going ten to two, they just are. If
Speaker 1: Hunter Johnson is just okay, the line is still in
Speaker 1: the eh, the secondary's hit or miss. They're going seven
Speaker 1: and five, so I haven't met eight or nine wins.
Speaker 1: So that's how I feel. Do you have any Northwestern
Speaker 1: thoughts Hunter Johnson thoughts? I've seen him play a little bit.
Speaker 1: He hasn't really played meaningful snaps. He hasn't played meaningful snaps.
Speaker 1: That's why I asked the question. I honestly don't know,
Speaker 1: but I think it's exciting. Believe it or not, we
Speaker 1: do have a ton of Northwestern fans that listen to
Speaker 1: this show. Yeah, and.
Speaker 2: It's just exciting to have a high level, high level
Speaker 2: prospects such as Hunter Johnson playing quarterback.
Speaker 1: I watched a lot of Northwestern football a few years
Speaker 1: ago with our pale Roger Sherman. Yeah, and they've always
Speaker 1: been pretty good. And despite that, watching with Roger was
Speaker 1: a lot of moments of like watching him sing I
Speaker 1: hate everything, I hate everything to like the tune of
Speaker 1: Super Mario two. So I, for his sake, hope that
Speaker 1: this is the year that Hunter Johnson is that talent.
Speaker 1: We're like, oh Man, Northwestern's offense is dealing. Do it
Speaker 1: for Roger, Do it for Rogers, A good dude, do
Speaker 1: it for Roger. Yeah. Okay, I'm let me ask you
Speaker 1: about Indiana again. Just let's go back to Bloomington. Let's
Speaker 1: do it. Okay, who do we have left here? We
Speaker 1: got Maryland and Rutgers. Okay, I'm pretty down on Maryland. Okay,
Speaker 1: I I don't know if you are. What is a
Speaker 1: even five wins? To me? Seems kind of like a stretch.
Speaker 1: I know they get Josh Jackson, but what does a
Speaker 1: five five plus win Maryland team look like in twenty nineteen?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: They were five and seven last year and they decided
Speaker 2: to go a different direction at head football coach. Brought
Speaker 2: in Mike Loxley. He's from the area, came over from Alabama,
Speaker 2: knows the area well, which is a great fantasy fantasy thing,
Speaker 2: great fantas knows the area well. You're gonna hear it
Speaker 2: time and again. Here is the problem that I see
Speaker 2: from Maryland. I'll start with the schedule. Before November. They've
Speaker 2: got Howard Syracuse, tough game at Temple, Penn State, tough
Speaker 2: game at Rutgers, at Purdue Indiana and Minnesota. Now that
Speaker 2: doesn't strike me as a cakewalk, but it is supremely
Speaker 2: easier than they're November, where they've got Michigan at Ohio
Speaker 2: State home against Nebraska and at Michigan State. It's very
Speaker 2: possible they lose all four.
Speaker 1: Of those games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they lose all four of those games, and that
Speaker 2: means they got to be QS, Rutgers, Perdue, Indiana, Minnesota. Like,
Speaker 2: there's just not a lot of wiggle room there, and
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how it happens, if it happens. I
Speaker 2: like Mike Loxley. I like the fact that he's got
Speaker 2: a passion for coaching in this area.
Speaker 1: I do you fell into the trap? I do? I
Speaker 1: like it? Yeah.
Speaker 2: I like that he brings Josh Jackson over from Virginia Tech.
Speaker 2: He's most likely going to be the starter. I like
Speaker 2: Anthony McFarlane. We talked about him on the Dude watch List.
Speaker 2: A great freshman campaign. But the wide outs are really young.
Speaker 2: They're all sophomores or red shirt sophomores, which is crazy.
Speaker 2: The offensive line has some experience, but not a lot
Speaker 2: of depth, and the defense last year couldn't generate any pressure.
Speaker 2: Now they get a big booth. Shaq Smith is transferring
Speaker 2: over from Clemson, which opened some eyes, but otherwise they
Speaker 2: just they got a lot to figure out here, and
Speaker 2: I don't know how they get to five wins. I
Speaker 2: could see a step back I could see a foreign eight.
Speaker 2: I could see even if three and nine.
Speaker 1: What if Mike Locksley makes it super clear how much
Speaker 1: he likes coaching the area, because that was the reason
Speaker 1: you gave for why Maryland is something to be excited
Speaker 1: about long term. Yeah, I think we're on the same
Speaker 1: but look.
Speaker 2: But okay, longer term, the area is rich with talent.
Speaker 2: It's always it's pretty good players there. Yeah, and I
Speaker 2: remember we made the joke about Randy Etzel when Randy
Speaker 2: Etzel came down and took his dream job. That was
Speaker 2: one of the things that he highlighted. He wanted to
Speaker 2: try and keep those kids close to home, right. I
Speaker 2: don't know if they've been all that successful doing that.
Speaker 2: Mike Loxley is a good recruiter and has been for
Speaker 2: a while. He knows the area. He's got these pipelines.
Speaker 2: Hopefully that can bear some fruit for the Terrapins.
Speaker 1: Okay, do you have those little headlines that are on
Speaker 1: the bottom of every website, like the sponsored headlines, and
Speaker 1: it's like these three things in Tacos may kill you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the Maryland schedule right now, and this
Speaker 1: probably has nothing to do with Maryland football. But I
Speaker 1: have Steve Miller sells Island Compound for less than half
Speaker 1: the original asking price. The early signs of type two diabetes,
Speaker 1: and it's a picture of an older hand feeling an
Speaker 1: older foot. I have no show socks, and I have
Speaker 1: cowboy boots. Are taking over New York parentheses. Here's why
Speaker 1: is that true? These are all not to my not
Speaker 1: to my eyes. But you know I don't see everything.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what I've clicked to get to
Speaker 1: this point. I enjoy Steve Miller. I'm not worried about
Speaker 1: type two diabetes. I do wear socks. I don't wear boots.
Speaker 1: Maryland football and Marylynd football. Okay, where are we going next?
Speaker 1: The other? Oh, let's just do Rutgers. Let's do Rutgers. Okay,
Speaker 1: my question about Rutgers. I wrote this down because I'm
Speaker 1: very serious about this preview. To quote the immortal Shaka
Speaker 1: Khan Chocka Cohn. Great, damn me. Something good about Rutgers.
Speaker 1: About positivity.
Speaker 2: I like Raheem Black share Yeah at running back and
Speaker 2: another guy named Isaiah whose last name I have no
Speaker 2: idea how to pronounce. Start at the p Accheco, Pachecko,
Speaker 2: Pachico Pashko, and we can just look it up on YouTube.
Speaker 1: I could, but I didn't.
Speaker 2: My point here is that if there's going to be
Speaker 2: a bright spot on the offense, it's probably the ground attack.
Speaker 2: Probably the ground attack. They feel actually pretty good about
Speaker 2: it now. They were one and eleven last year, and
Speaker 2: they closed out this year with Ohio State and Michigan
Speaker 2: State in Piscataway, followed by a road trip to Penn State.
Speaker 2: It looks like another one and eleven or two and
Speaker 2: ten year to me because they gave up thirty one
Speaker 2: points per game on defense last year and I just
Speaker 2: don't see it improving all that much. But if we're
Speaker 2: going to find something to be happy or excited about,
Speaker 2: I think the ground game should be.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: I am curious to see what happens with my boy
Speaker 2: King Arthur Sikowski, because the passing game last year was
Speaker 2: a disaster. He threw eighteen picks that was the most
Speaker 2: in the nation. Rutgers as a whole was a turnover machine.
Speaker 2: They were negative fourteen and turnover margins, and the line
Speaker 2: just they couldn't pass protect receivers couldn't get open when
Speaker 2: they were open. They were dropping passes. Just a lot
Speaker 2: of slow decision making there in the passing games. So
Speaker 2: passing game needs to improve. Running game is.
Speaker 1: Something something to not be too down on.
Speaker 2: Okay, fair enough, let me go to Illinois, the last
Speaker 2: Big Ten team. Yeah, on your side here, Okay. They
Speaker 2: extended Lovey Smith for two additional years despite winning nine
Speaker 2: games in his first three seasons.
Speaker 1: M h. But they've got a lot of I guess
Speaker 1: returning production coming back or returners coming back. Ya give
Speaker 1: me your.
Speaker 2: Drive to six projection this year? Is the Drive to
Speaker 2: six something that we can reinstall as part of our
Speaker 2: weekly shows.
Speaker 1: I'm not thinking so, I'm not thinking so. And it's
Speaker 1: they don't have a quarterback. It's Brandon Peters and interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: Isaiah Williams, who was quarterback, huge quarterback recruit but listed
Speaker 1: as sort of an athlete and the same name as
Speaker 1: Juice Williams. So that's interesting nickname potential for us. What
Speaker 1: can call the next Juice Williams. Defense was just you know,
Speaker 1: if I'm again going to hammer home combination of quarterback
Speaker 1: and defense, it was just a mess. Last year. The
Speaker 1: offense was improved. They ran the ball, they beat Rutgers,
Speaker 1: they dropped fifty sixty points against Minnesota in a win,
Speaker 1: but nothing else for them was competitive. Then they made
Speaker 1: Northwestern interesting at the end. There they couldn't throw the
Speaker 1: ball a lot of turnovers, and their defense needs to.
Speaker 1: I mean, the starting point for their defense is they
Speaker 1: were truly abysmal against the run last year and that
Speaker 1: was matched only by how horrid they were against the pass.
Speaker 1: So that's the starting point of a Bowl eligible potential defense.
Speaker 1: And there's a couple pieces in the secondary, but upfront
Speaker 1: I don't like a lot. So they've got a Michigan
Speaker 1: Wisconsin combo in October and October, you know, they're on
Speaker 1: the road against Michigan State before bye and then at
Speaker 1: Iowa and Northwestern. I guess the absolute best case scenario
Speaker 1: is Brandon Peters is pretty good. He's the good version
Speaker 1: of Brandon Peters. If he ends up starting the season
Speaker 1: for them, who knows what happens after that. It's a
Speaker 1: fairly easy non con you know, beat Rutgers and a
Speaker 1: fifth win would be against a team who has a
Speaker 1: hurt quarterback. That's that's what I have down here. You know,
Speaker 1: the worst case scenarios is two to ten because of
Speaker 1: more of the same, and I don't want people to
Speaker 1: get hurt no Situationally that does help bad teams win games.
Speaker 1: All right, That's what I have for Illinois. So I
Speaker 1: think they're going to be more in the four and eight.
Speaker 1: That's my most realistic three and three or four and
Speaker 1: eight for the ALI and I. Unfortunately, they just they
Speaker 1: gotta find They have a ton of USC transfers, so
Speaker 1: the talent level is up in Champagne. There's at least
Speaker 1: a little bit of there's a glimmer of hope at
Speaker 1: Papa Dell's are in Champagne, Illinois. I think their uniforms
Speaker 1: are cool. I like their unis. I do like their uniforms.
Speaker 1: I like that color combo. I like the sort of
Speaker 1: straightforwardness of them. But that's what I have for the
Speaker 1: ALI and I, and I think out of the West,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go with Iowa. Okay, I'm going with
Speaker 1: Iowa here. I think they edge out Northwestern. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think we have Iowa Michigan in the championship game.
Speaker 2: I am tend to go in Nebraska, but I just
Speaker 2: don't trust the defense. Okay, and I like Northwestern, but
Speaker 2: your talk about what they've done on offense has really
Speaker 2: spooked me and so I think, but they win despite it.
Speaker 2: They do win despite it, and I think that speaks
Speaker 2: to what Patt Fitzgerald has built.
Speaker 1: How good of a coach he is. You know what
Speaker 1: their offense reminds me of. Yeah, I most of my
Speaker 1: life now when I'm at home is watching the solid Baby.
Speaker 1: He can't quite crawl yet, but he does the army
Speaker 1: crawl thing where he's just sort of dragging himself with
Speaker 1: his forearms across his mat. He gets to where he
Speaker 1: wants to go. And that worries me that he's a
Speaker 1: Northwestern man in training to sure. So I don't know
Speaker 1: how to act you on who I'm picking here, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Okay, So Notre Dame, Notre Dame right last
Speaker 1: team here? Is Notre Dame a playoff caliber pro right now?
Speaker 1: And by that, I mean, should the expectation, no matter
Speaker 1: who's starting a quarterback, no matter what you know the
Speaker 1: depth looks like in a particular year. Have they now
Speaker 1: reached the point where you know they have these letdown moments?
Speaker 1: Who was it? Last year? It was Van Dey ball
Speaker 1: stateon pit They weren't really seriously challenging in the regular
Speaker 1: season against their better opponents. So is my assumption. Should
Speaker 1: my assumption, Should America's assumption be with Notre Dame? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they should be. You know, we should consider them a
Speaker 1: playoff threat every year.
Speaker 2: Now I think we are there. Yes, okay, explain, show
Speaker 2: your work. I do think we are there. They have
Speaker 2: recruited strongly over the span now of Brian Kelly's tenure
Speaker 2: in South Bend. So this is a team that very
Speaker 2: slowly has been establishing itself as I think belonging on
Speaker 2: that stage, and they've now finally got the blue chip
Speaker 2: talent to back it up. I think it's totally fair
Speaker 2: to put them in that category. They're not in the
Speaker 2: same category though as Alabama or Clemson. They're not in
Speaker 2: the same category I don't think as Georgia or Ohio State.
Speaker 2: But they're sort of like right on that cusp, whatever
Speaker 2: cusp it is that comes after that elite grouping of
Speaker 2: teams at the very top. Notre Dame has been very,
Speaker 2: very good in the recruiting department.
Speaker 1: Ah, So who worries you on this schedule this year?
Speaker 2: There are three games that decide the season for Notre Dame.
Speaker 2: We've put all this time in talking about the Illinois
Speaker 2: and Northwesterns and whoever else in the Big Ten. In
Speaker 2: many ways, this Notre Dame preview was the easiest one
Speaker 2: that I had to put together because there are three
Speaker 2: games on the schedule that are going to decide the fate.
Speaker 2: There's a road game at Georgia, There's a road game
Speaker 2: at Michigan, and then there's a road game, a cursed
Speaker 2: road game, damn it to hell, end of the year
Speaker 2: against Stanford. Okay, those are the three games at all
Speaker 2: t we decided to a lesser degree, you've got home
Speaker 2: games against Virginia the week after Georgia and Virginia Tech,
Speaker 2: which is the week after Michigan Michigan. Yeah, those could
Speaker 2: be a little letdowny, but it's really those three games
Speaker 2: that I think are going to decide it. And that's
Speaker 2: sort of my first point of I don't know reference
Speaker 2: as we look at twenty nineteen with Notre Dames.
Speaker 1: That's the starting point here.
Speaker 2: The second thing to point out is that this year's
Speaker 2: team is kind of the opposite of last year's team.
Speaker 2: I remember when I did the preview with you last
Speaker 2: year where we really like Notre Dame's leadership and talent
Speaker 2: on defense, and we had all these questions about the
Speaker 2: offense in Brandon Wimbush. This year, it's reversed. This year.
Speaker 2: The defense loses big guns at all three levels. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: the offense is mostly intact, and that probably means more
Speaker 2: pressure on Chiplong and certainly more pressure on ian Book
Speaker 2: to generate bigger plays and score more points while the
Speaker 2: defense is figuring it out. But a little bit of
Speaker 2: a role reversal. Now as you look at twenty nineteen,
Speaker 2: what they need to do on offense is they need
Speaker 2: to generate more of those big plays. I don't know
Speaker 2: how they do it. But the vertical passing game last
Speaker 2: year was an issue for ian Book. Some of those
Speaker 2: passes he threw deep when he had guys opened or
Speaker 2: not great Dan, not great at all, Not great Bob,
Speaker 2: not great Bob. Got to get better accuracy on that
Speaker 2: deep ball. They need to convert just a handful more
Speaker 2: of them, and it makes them better as an offense.
Speaker 2: That's the first thing. Secondly, I don't know what the
Speaker 2: running game looks.
Speaker 1: Like this year.
Speaker 2: I have no idea why. Well, they lose Dexter Williams.
Speaker 2: He's gone, and now they're in a position where they've
Speaker 2: got Jafar Armstrong, who's a converted wide out was nicked
Speaker 2: up last year. He's more of a jack of all
Speaker 2: trades type of guy. And then they've got Tony Jones Junior,
Speaker 2: who's a senior, more physical, more north south. I don't
Speaker 2: know if either of those guys is really the answer
Speaker 2: at running back, but they need to get something that
Speaker 2: is a little bit more consistent out of that ground attack.
Speaker 2: And then on the defensive side, they need to get
Speaker 2: better at stopping the run game. There's some questions this
Speaker 2: year about defensive tackle. They lose Jerry Tillery a lot
Speaker 2: of turnover at linebacker as well. Drew trankwell, he's gone,
Speaker 2: but the secondary looks pretty good. At corner, they're loaded
Speaker 2: back there at safety with the Lohi Gilman and Jalen Elliott.
Speaker 2: Maybe Kyle Hamilton fits in.
Speaker 1: Who's the new guy? You like you? Kyle Hamilton is
Speaker 1: hot and bothered Kyle Hamilton.
Speaker 2: He had three picks off philger Kovic on the first
Speaker 2: day of fall camp, huh, which probably says more about
Speaker 2: filder Kovic than Kyle Hamilton. But I believe Hamilton is
Speaker 2: now up to five interceptions in fall camp at time
Speaker 2: of recording. He was a five star kid from Georgia,
Speaker 2: I want to say, committed to Notre Dame. He has
Speaker 2: been making a splash to the extent the coaching staff
Speaker 2: is trying to find other ways that they can utilize them,
Speaker 2: like maybe we could play tight end. I don't know,
Speaker 2: maybe we'll play running back this year.
Speaker 1: They all knows. So if your concern is with the offense,
Speaker 1: what I'm hearing is the new college football drive for six.
Speaker 1: Is Notre Dame scoring a playoff touchdown?
Speaker 2: Yes, my concern isn't with the offense, though, That's not
Speaker 2: what you're hearing.
Speaker 1: Okay. I have questions about how they can make the
Speaker 1: offense better. Okay.
Speaker 2: My concern though, is mostly with how they replace some
Speaker 2: of the spine.
Speaker 1: Of that defense.
Speaker 2: Okay, up the middle, who's stopping the run at the
Speaker 2: first level, At the second level, who your linebackers now
Speaker 2: that Tavon Coney Drew Trank wore gone really right up
Speaker 2: the gut? Is my question with this team.
Speaker 1: Do you like Clark Lee? I do like Clark Lee. Okay.
Speaker 2: I think they've got a great coaching staff in place,
Speaker 2: and I think they're going to be able to get
Speaker 2: after the passer. But how they stop the run is
Speaker 2: going to mean a lot and ultimately tell us which
Speaker 2: direction this team's going.
Speaker 1: So so best case is what eleven and one, twelve
Speaker 1: and zero again probably yeahs worst case nine and three?
Speaker 1: And why do they go nine and three?
Speaker 2: I think they go nine to three because, first off,
Speaker 2: that Georgia game is tough in Athens, and I don't
Speaker 2: see him winning that game. I could also see a
Speaker 2: situation in which they drop a game against Virginia in
Speaker 2: a letdown spot. That one terrifies me. And that Michigan
Speaker 2: game is going to be tough. Yeah, if Michigan's better
Speaker 2: on offense, if they could find a way to pull
Speaker 2: Notre Dame apart with this new speed and space thing
Speaker 2: that Josh Gaddis is trying to try it out there,
Speaker 2: that could make the spine of the defense very susceptible.
Speaker 1: So their losses probably loves you know who loves hashtag
Speaker 1: speed and space.
Speaker 2: J Paterno, I don't know. I'm excited about Notre Dame
Speaker 2: of course, got blown out in the playoff semifinal last year.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think it's an easy preview.
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 2: It's an easy preview. Three big games, two letdowns to
Speaker 2: be careful of and uh, the offense should be pretty good.
Speaker 2: I just got questions on defense.
Speaker 1: Now, well, listen, if fifty of this show's host don't
Speaker 1: have to root for a team running the pistol, that's
Speaker 1: a win in its own That is a winn in
Speaker 1: its own right. Yeah, okay, that's all I have, Big
Speaker 1: ten and Notre Dame. Hooray.
Speaker 2: If you are not already coming to the live shows,
Speaker 2: you still got time. We're going to send an email
Speaker 2: out this week. Many of you may see that email
Speaker 2: before you have a chance to listen to this show.
Speaker 2: Soliverbletickets dot com, slash Texas meet us in Dallas if
Speaker 2: you like you can't make that one, and it'll be
Speaker 2: on the East coast. Soliverbletickets dot com, Slash DC. We
Speaker 2: will be at Union Stage on August the eighteenth, of
Speaker 2: the Sunday night. That show starts at seven thirty. Daniel,
Speaker 2: I'm exed, Mike. We likes coaching in that area. Indeed,
Speaker 2: I will see you this weekend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, I can't wait. So we've got Texas, We've
Speaker 1: got DC, we got flights, weathers looking good, We're feeling great,
Speaker 1: we have lots of material. We're all in the we're
Speaker 1: in the process of organizing it all. We're gonna collate it.
Speaker 1: Maybe head up, head over to a Kinko's. Yeah, very
Speaker 1: exciting times for the Solid Verbal. We really really would
Speaker 1: love to see you. We are we're running low on tickets,
Speaker 1: so if you are on the fence, just just come
Speaker 1: on out. It's a great time. We'd love to meet you.
Speaker 1: We'd love to see you. We do this show staring
Speaker 1: into a screen with all sorts of weird foam on
Speaker 1: the walls around us. It is. It's a great time
Speaker 1: to meet everybody, So I really hope you can come out.
Speaker 1: That'd be great for.
Speaker 2: That guy out there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein, for myself,
Speaker 2: Ty Hildon Brandt.
Speaker 1: We will catch you all very soon. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: stay sold peace,