Speaker 1: Welcome to the Solid verbal.
Speaker 2: I'm that for me. I'm a man, I'm forty.
Speaker 3: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
Speaker 3: be happy.
Speaker 1: You want to be happy for dake Ado State? Is
Speaker 1: that woo woom? And Dan and Tye welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Solid Verble boys and girls. My name is Ty Hildenbrandt.
Speaker 1: I am joined as always by my good friend. He's
Speaker 1: a colleague, he's a co host for many years. His
Speaker 1: name is Dan Rubinstein. Over there in New York City, Sir,
Speaker 1: how are you? Ty?
Speaker 3: I am excited. I am ready to go. I could
Speaker 3: not be looking forward to this show more. We've got
Speaker 3: a longtime friend coming. We have baseless, baseless predictions, and
Speaker 3: we get to talk about intellectual things with college football,
Speaker 3: so it's something for everybody.
Speaker 1: I was not prepared for this intellectual portion.
Speaker 3: Dan, We never are, Ty, That's what makes us so charming.
Speaker 1: It is May. It is the college football off season.
Speaker 1: A couple of weeks ago, we put out our How
Speaker 1: Coaches Get Made show, which people seem to enjoy. People
Speaker 1: seem to enjoy that. We had a lot of fun
Speaker 1: with the show we did last week as well, so
Speaker 1: you know we're doing our best here to make the
Speaker 1: time pass in the doldrums that are the college football
Speaker 1: off season. Now, we've been doing this for a number
Speaker 1: of years now, and one of the shows that I
Speaker 1: know you mentioned to me earlier in the week that
Speaker 1: we need to plan out that we need to make
Speaker 1: sure happens this history of the soliverbal.
Speaker 3: Yes, the Ultimate Naval Gaze.
Speaker 1: So I believe that's going to happen tentatively at some
Speaker 1: point in July. We've had a couple people ask us
Speaker 1: when might that show be in the build up to
Speaker 1: what will be our tenth college football regular season, which
Speaker 1: is crazy. We will be doing a history of style
Speaker 1: show at some point later this summer.
Speaker 3: You will not be revealing the secret day job.
Speaker 1: I will not be revealing this secret day job, but
Speaker 1: we will be giving you a unique behind the scenes
Speaker 1: look at how the sausage gets made here, how it's
Speaker 1: gotten made over the years. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So this will be our tenth season like football season together.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Crazy.
Speaker 3: So that's sort of a preamble to that. If you
Speaker 3: haven't and even if you don't listen to the podcast
Speaker 3: as you should, that's insane. Listen to the Starters formerly
Speaker 3: known as the Basketball Jones. They did it, I want
Speaker 3: to say last year or the year before h and
Speaker 3: it's an incredible listen just like how far those guys
Speaker 3: have come there now on NBA TV. So really proud
Speaker 3: of them and hopefully you guys will enjoy it, because
Speaker 3: every once in a while we have people say, hey,
Speaker 3: I don't know know how you guys sort of started
Speaker 3: this up and met, and then we'll be able to
Speaker 3: send them an hour and a half link here you go. Yes,
Speaker 3: everything you could possibly want to know about us and
Speaker 3: what was going on in our lives is everything was
Speaker 3: transpiring with the show, and we were growing and how
Speaker 3: we did things and how we think we did things.
Speaker 3: So we're going to do that over the summer. At
Speaker 3: some point. We've got another show planned with our friend
Speaker 3: Bill Barnwell, Yes, a look back at a new topic
Speaker 3: before it was EMO. We're going to wax nostalgic about
Speaker 3: something else that we have planned.
Speaker 1: I am so excited about this show, Dan.
Speaker 3: I know, I know it.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 3: So we've got some plans And because the feedback on
Speaker 3: the How College Football Worked episode with the coaching hires
Speaker 3: seem to be exceedingly positive, which we're never quite used to.
Speaker 3: We have a plan. I think to do a couple
Speaker 3: more of those. Hopefully we can get it all done
Speaker 3: in the spring. But time getting married in three and
Speaker 3: a half weeks. Yes, I got some plans. You got
Speaker 3: some plans. No, But we have time, so I think
Speaker 3: we can knock out a couple more of those during
Speaker 3: the off season.
Speaker 1: That is the plan. We thank you for listening. Don't forget.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe at iTunes, dot com, slash, Soliverbal, or
Speaker 1: anywhere fine podcasts are sold. We're given away for free.
Speaker 1: Look us up. We're the Sliverbal. We're also on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
Speaker 1: the works. Okay, so Dan, Yeah, what are we doing today? Oh?
Speaker 2: Ty?
Speaker 3: I love that that song behind you. Today, we're gonna
Speaker 3: look into some crystal balls. We're gonna look into the future.
Speaker 3: We're looking at the horizon. We're gonna look into the
Speaker 3: layers of this universe college football in which we live.
Speaker 3: We're going to try to just find truth, Ty. We're
Speaker 3: going to look at the spring and we're going to say,
Speaker 3: this is a thing that exists. What does it mean
Speaker 3: for the future?
Speaker 1: What is it? That song just sort of comes at
Speaker 1: you in waves, doesn't it right?
Speaker 3: It starts up, it comes down.
Speaker 1: I laughed, I make some emotion angry. Yeah, really the
Speaker 1: full damdle tie.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, So we're gonna bring on our friend Bill Connolly
Speaker 3: of Vespianation Podcasting played nobody and of course his new
Speaker 3: book about the fifty best and most interesting and greatest
Speaker 3: teams of all time and talk about that as well.
Speaker 3: So again, packed full of emotions. Ty, we're gonna look
Speaker 3: into the future, We're going to look into the past.
Speaker 3: We're going to stay in the present. The show is
Speaker 3: literally just it's a thrown together good time.
Speaker 1: Without further ado. Let's welcome in our friend Bill Connelly. Sir,
Speaker 1: how are you? I'm good?
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 1: You're already previewing teams? You've been previewing teams for a
Speaker 1: couple months now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm almost done with the mid majors as a
Speaker 2: matter of fact, finished finished AAC, got the AAC Power
Speaker 2: Rankings coming up, got inb's on deck, and then it's
Speaker 2: onto the Big twelve, which is a power conference and
Speaker 2: is still better than the AAC.
Speaker 1: How do you how do you do that? Like, what
Speaker 1: is your process for acquiring that information so far in advance?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean the biggest thing. I mean a lot
Speaker 2: of it is obviously pulling off of last year's stats,
Speaker 2: and so I'll set that up in January kind of
Speaker 2: a template for each one, and then as I get
Speaker 2: close to each preview, then you know, I'll have everything
Speaker 2: set up for in this template, and then I'll just
Speaker 2: go in and add guys or you know, subtract the
Speaker 2: guy who left. It is kind of tricky early on
Speaker 2: because it takes him till probably the end of February, aka,
Speaker 2: after I'm done with the sun Belt for teams to
Speaker 2: really start updating those twenty seventeen rosters. So AL do
Speaker 2: my best, but there's no way to avoid kind of
Speaker 2: getting some roster bits wrong here and there for the
Speaker 2: early team. And occasionally, if I actually get my act
Speaker 2: together and I worked ahead a couple of days, I'll
Speaker 2: end up with something like the NIU preview where it
Speaker 2: was like late March and their quarterback from last year
Speaker 2: that I'm blanking on his name Maddie or something like that.
Speaker 2: It looked like he was going to get a sixth year.
Speaker 2: He was listed on the roster, they had started spring practice.
Speaker 2: I took that to mean that he had gotten his
Speaker 2: sixth year as planned and then like two days before
Speaker 2: I actually wrote the preview, it came out that he
Speaker 2: had been denied. So occasionally you'll get that, but I
Speaker 2: get most of it, right, I think.
Speaker 3: Ty, you know what I'm hearing. I'm hearing that Bill
Speaker 3: uses current information to try and look into the future.
Speaker 3: Oh That's what I'm hearing, Tie, All right, Dan, Yeah,
Speaker 3: do tell what is the name of this game? Oh,
Speaker 3: that's a great question. We are going to call it
Speaker 3: the solid verbal Cloudy Glimpse into the Nether Fall, the
Speaker 3: psychic network, the solid verbal psychic Network.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like that as well. I like nether Fall, though,
Speaker 1: how does this work? What is the nether Fall? Okay?
Speaker 1: So what we do.
Speaker 3: We have a number of items, and we are using
Speaker 3: spring storylines, which a lot of people think don't mean
Speaker 3: anything because spring games are generally not that competitive, and
Speaker 3: we don't have teams playing as one. We have teams
Speaker 3: that are split up, and we have scoring that's a
Speaker 3: little bit wonky, and we have injuries and walk On's
Speaker 3: playing a significant role and it's really not representative of
Speaker 3: what we're going to see in the fall. But there
Speaker 3: are always nuggets, Tie, There are always nuggets. So many
Speaker 3: nuts that they might turn into a full rotisserie chicken. Okay,
Speaker 3: So we are going to try and look at some nuggets,
Speaker 3: either from spring games or storylines or just situations around
Speaker 3: the world of college football and glimpse into that cloudy
Speaker 3: crystal ball to see if we can get any clarity
Speaker 3: to see what might, in fact, IIE be Big. Now
Speaker 3: I understand it's a bit of a mixed metaphor because
Speaker 3: the movie Big involves changing your your current status.
Speaker 1: We haven't heard from Bill at a while. You're still
Speaker 1: over there, right, we haven't bored you to death.
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to figure out if you guys have
Speaker 2: a copyright for that.
Speaker 3: No, well, it's who's to say Bill, who is to
Speaker 3: say please?
Speaker 1: Don't? Please?
Speaker 3: Don't turn us in? So, yeah, we are going to
Speaker 3: we have a number of situations. We're going to go
Speaker 3: through some preseason, post spring top twenty fives, and we're
Speaker 3: just going to figure out by looking into our mythical
Speaker 3: nether fall ball, what actually may or may not matter time.
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to figure out how chicken nuggets are
Speaker 1: backwards compatible with the rotisserie chicken. But that, oh you'll see,
Speaker 1: that can be a podcast for deeper into the offseason, Dan,
Speaker 1: shall we present our first topic? Can you look? I
Speaker 1: think wessed a ball? What is it that we are
Speaker 1: trying to trying to foresee?
Speaker 3: Okay, so, as we know, as Bill and you and
Speaker 3: the college football universe at large, nos, Ohio State is
Speaker 3: a new offensive coordinator and Kevin Wilson, and based on
Speaker 3: his time at both in Bloomington and for Oklahoma where
Speaker 3: he really opened things up and a historic offense with
Speaker 3: Sam Bradford and the Sooners, people are expecting Ohio State
Speaker 3: to be a much more open offense, to spread it
Speaker 3: out a little bit more, to throw downfield a little
Speaker 3: bit more. And that's what happened this fall. Excuse me,
Speaker 3: this spring, Joe Burrow, Dwayne Haskins, and of course the
Speaker 3: starter j T. Barrett all through the ball downfield a
Speaker 3: ton more with the two backups as sort of more
Speaker 3: successful in a spring game that didn't mean all that much.
Speaker 3: We know Ohio State and Urban Meyer have a hiss
Speaker 3: of perhaps starting the wrong quarterback recently. So what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: will Ohio State be a squad that really opens things
Speaker 3: up on offense? What do we see and will it be?
Speaker 2: J T?
Speaker 3: Barrett is the trigger man.
Speaker 1: All right, mister Connolly, let's throw it over to you.
Speaker 1: You heard the setup? What see you? Whyse suthes Sayer
Speaker 1: in your crystal ball?
Speaker 2: You know, I always land with the incumbent, you know,
Speaker 2: we always fall in love with the other options. But
Speaker 2: in the end, I mean, the guy who's been around
Speaker 2: for a few years and has won a lot of
Speaker 2: games tends to win that job. And so without knowing
Speaker 2: the ins and outs of Joe Burrow's strengths and weaknesses,
Speaker 2: or Dwayne Hoskins or whoever, I will assume that Barrow
Speaker 2: keeps his job. Barrow Barrett, excuse me, keeps his job.
Speaker 2: And you know with you know what I always liked
Speaker 2: about Kevin Wilson offenses is they're just, for lack of
Speaker 2: a better term, they're logical. They basically, you know, to
Speaker 2: set this up. That means we have to do this.
Speaker 2: And once this is set up and defenses will do this,
Speaker 2: then we can do this. And part of that is
Speaker 2: going deep. If you want to be able to run
Speaker 2: the ball, well, you got to be able to stretch
Speaker 2: the field a little bit. And you know, the lack
Speaker 2: of a go to receiver could be an issue. We
Speaker 2: all I mean, Noah Brown is great at that one game,
Speaker 2: and the Lord knows they have got like thirteen other
Speaker 2: four star kids who could come up big. But you know,
Speaker 2: assuming they've got decent options for stretching the field, they'll
Speaker 2: do it, because that's just what you do in a
Speaker 2: logical offense, I guess. And if they can, then I
Speaker 2: mean everything else works.
Speaker 1: J T.
Speaker 2: Barrett doesn't throw a terrible deep ball. Obviously he doesn't
Speaker 2: have the best arm in the world. But the whole
Speaker 2: point is a lot of times those balls are gonna
Speaker 2: be really open and you just have to take them.
Speaker 2: And if they do that, then the run game should
Speaker 2: be killer.
Speaker 1: This is the question that I have about their new
Speaker 1: offense under Kevin Wilson. And I said this to you
Speaker 1: weeks ago, Dan, the Kevin Wilson offense that we've seen
Speaker 1: in the past at Indiana, certainly at Oklahoma when he
Speaker 1: is still working down there, it does not seem to
Speaker 1: be necessarily compatible with the skill set of J. T. Barrett,
Speaker 1: And so I've questioned, how is that all gonna go? Now?
Speaker 1: Your counterpoint was, well, you know, they ran a little
Speaker 1: bit and they were a little bit different stylistically at Indiana,
Speaker 1: and that's true, but I'm just kind of curious to
Speaker 1: see how he melds in his previous system with now
Speaker 1: the personnel grouping at Ohio State. If you look at
Speaker 1: the schedule, they actually do play Oklahoma fairly early on
Speaker 1: in the year. That's not going to be an easy game.
Speaker 1: Then they've got a little bit more runway where they
Speaker 1: can can work things out before they get to Penn State,
Speaker 1: before they get to Michigan State, and obviously close out
Speaker 1: the year at Michigan. So I think all will be
Speaker 1: fine for Ohio State. I've kind of seen cloudy things
Speaker 1: when I look into my crystal ball about how that
Speaker 1: offense starts its season.
Speaker 3: Ty play the sound again for me plays oh It's lovely,
Speaker 3: very mysterious, but kind of sooner serious. So this is
Speaker 3: what I do. I look into this ball tie and
Speaker 3: I see clarity. For the first six or seven weeks,
Speaker 3: not a lot of big defenses on Ohio State schedule,
Speaker 3: but then Halloween music very appropriate. I see a lion tie.
Speaker 3: I see energy, I see vibrations. I see a nitney lion.
Speaker 3: I see trouble for Ohio State on offense in that
Speaker 3: game against a team Penn State that returns a lot
Speaker 3: of defensive players, not the defensive vents, but defensive players nonetheless.
Speaker 3: And I think by that by Iowa State Michigan State
Speaker 3: in there sometime before the Michigan game. I see rotating quarterbacks.
Speaker 3: I see a quarterback controversy, and I see Joe Burrow
Speaker 3: perhaps even supplanting JT. Barrett.
Speaker 1: How about that? Would you say he's digging in at quarterback?
Speaker 3: I would not.
Speaker 1: I would never.
Speaker 3: I would That is not okay.
Speaker 1: Just checking, just checking? Fair enough? Where are we going
Speaker 1: nowt ok all? Right?
Speaker 3: Next, ty, do we have and on the subject of
Speaker 3: quarterback battles, do we have a quarterback battle in Tuscaloosa
Speaker 3: following Tua? And I'm going to get this right. Tongue
Speaker 3: of Valoa, tag of a looa tongue of the true
Speaker 3: freshman from Hawaii coming in and completely shredding the defense
Speaker 3: that he saw. In Alabama's spring game, both he and
Speaker 3: Jalen Hurts had very good games. With the new offensive
Speaker 3: coordinator throwing the ball down field. We know Alabama now
Speaker 3: unafraid to play it and start a true freshman at quarterback.
Speaker 3: Is it possible that Tua Tongua Valoga to Tua let's
Speaker 3: just go with Tua has a higher ceiling as a
Speaker 3: thrower than Jalen Hurts, who struggled in the back end
Speaker 3: the back three four games of Alabama's season.
Speaker 1: I got to use the sounding because I love the sound.
Speaker 1: Do it all right? I am selling this one. My
Speaker 1: crystal ball nearly broke and I saw this question on
Speaker 1: your list. Why are you asking this? How could you
Speaker 1: possibly ask this given what Jalen Hurts did last year?
Speaker 3: Ty as the sheriff's thing in college football?
Speaker 1: Is this what I feel? This is like a Oiji
Speaker 1: board scenario where you kind of involuntarily want to believe
Speaker 1: that Jalen Hurts my might be supplanted by someone else,
Speaker 1: and therefore your involuntary muscles pushed you towards Oh.
Speaker 2: Alabama fans have been very much pushing for that too,
Speaker 2: So it's out there. It's out there.
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, So you're not wrong to say that Jalen
Speaker 1: Hurts struggled against some of the better defenses. He played
Speaker 1: certainly down the stretch, but he still was a true freshman.
Speaker 1: He still had a ton of talent around him. He
Speaker 1: was in his first year. Give him a little bit
Speaker 1: of slack, even though he's at Alabama. I think there
Speaker 1: is plenty of reason to be excited about your quarterback
Speaker 1: depth at Alabama. But he got you to the National
Speaker 1: Championship game, and he looked a hell of a lot
Speaker 1: better throwing the football down the field. That seemed to
Speaker 1: be the focus of their spring football game, to try
Speaker 1: and get a little bit more of a deep threat
Speaker 1: established offensively. Look at those numbers you mentioned, well, how Dan,
Speaker 1: I'd like to hear you say that name again to
Speaker 1: what was it, Tagavaloa, Tagavloa, thank tounguea Valoa.
Speaker 3: I believe Tungueavaloa.
Speaker 1: Yeah, seventeen of twenty nine for three thirteen passing day.
Speaker 1: That's not bad. Jalen Hurts, by the way, sixteen to
Speaker 1: twenty five for three oh one, so not that big
Speaker 1: a disparity. I think he is the guy. It's good
Speaker 1: to know that if and when he goes pro, or
Speaker 1: if and when he should go down with injury, you've
Speaker 1: got another fallback option. But no, I don't see that.
Speaker 1: I don't see him being supplanted anytime soon. Bill. Look
Speaker 1: into the orb.
Speaker 2: I have seen, you know, huddle film of Taga Blowa.
Speaker 2: So I consider myself an expert on all of his
Speaker 2: strengths and weaknesses he's got. I mean, he's got a
Speaker 2: nice arm obviously, but and you know, it's easy to
Speaker 2: put it's easy to piece this logic together because he
Speaker 2: has a nice arm. He can throw a deep and
Speaker 2: there's no question I Meanson Clemson won the national title
Speaker 2: game by daring Jalen Hurts to connect deep. He did
Speaker 2: it once on that wheel route to Howard. He missed
Speaker 2: like two or three others that if he connects it,
Speaker 2: they won the national title and he just missed them,
Speaker 2: just overthrew them. And so you pieced that together. You've
Speaker 2: got kind of a custom made quarterback battle here. But
Speaker 2: I just I'm just allergic to quarterback controversies. I hate
Speaker 2: them so much, so many of them start like this
Speaker 2: that I immediately start pushing back and just say stop,
Speaker 2: just start Hurts, You're fine, and and let's stop right now.
Speaker 3: To be clear, I don't I don't want this, you guys.
Speaker 1: I just see things.
Speaker 3: I just look forward into the space time time space,
Speaker 3: and I'm seeing I'm seeing an issue here. And I
Speaker 3: think coupled with the fact that tag of a tongue
Speaker 3: of Alahutua has looked very good early. Is the fact
Speaker 3: that there's a new offensive coordinator, so it's not like
Speaker 3: Jalen Hurts is the guy of the complete offensive coaching staff.
Speaker 3: Maybe Tua fits. What the it's Brian something comes in
Speaker 3: from the Patriots. Maybe he fits. Maybe he makes the throws. Maybe,
Speaker 3: just maybe, Ty, this is what the doctor ordered. The
Speaker 3: good doctor wanted some Hawaiian.
Speaker 1: Hawaiian refreshments, Hawaiian punch. Yeah. Look here, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: You could start an old boot at quarterback for Alabama
Speaker 1: and they'd still find a way to win ten games.
Speaker 1: This is a team that's loaded to the gills, and
Speaker 1: you can make a real strong case. Bill could probably
Speaker 1: find a statistical case for it doesn't matter who plays
Speaker 1: quarterback as long as he doesn't shoot himself in the foot.
Speaker 1: To simply have two quarterbacks that are mobile, agile, hostile
Speaker 1: the way these guys are, that is a luxury that
Speaker 1: exists at Alabama and maybe only a small handful of
Speaker 1: schools elsewhere around the country.
Speaker 2: I could be meet and point out that your point
Speaker 2: is made. I think they won a national title with
Speaker 2: Greg McElroy, but I'm not gonna say that.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to be mean, Nope, absolutely not. That's
Speaker 3: looking into the past.
Speaker 1: Regardless of who plays quarterback, Alabama will be just fine,
Speaker 1: even though again a ton of talent goes to the NFL.
Speaker 1: But I do think it's hurts. I think your crystal
Speaker 1: balls little bit off, Dan got to reconfigure that thing.
Speaker 3: Easy to say in May, easy to say in May.
Speaker 1: Okay, very good.
Speaker 3: Next item, This one's interesting to me. So the Pac
Speaker 3: twelve South is yet to win the conference as a whole.
Speaker 3: Sam Darnold has rightfully received a ton of attention as
Speaker 3: a Heisman candidate, perhaps the number one overall draft pick
Speaker 3: next spring. USC has a bit of a tricky schedule
Speaker 3: to start out the season, a number of offensive line,
Speaker 3: wide receiver secondary losses. You know that the ship isn't
Speaker 3: fully running smoothly yet. With Clay Helton only entering his
Speaker 3: second year with the Trojans, USC as what appears to
Speaker 3: be the overwhelming favorite, with still Washington right there, USC
Speaker 3: coming off a Rose Bowl win, will not win the
Speaker 3: Pac twelve. Us C is going to trip up a
Speaker 3: little bit, Bill. Look into that crystal ball. Is their
Speaker 3: cloudiness surrounding USC's fall.
Speaker 2: I think really the answer to that comes partially with
Speaker 2: what you think about Stanford, because Stanford, I mean, they
Speaker 2: get Stanford in Week two, and these issues. You know,
Speaker 2: in theory, these issues get kind of worked out as
Speaker 2: we go along. I mean, goodness, those have got talent
Speaker 2: on the line and in the receiving core and whatnot.
Speaker 2: It's just kind of breaking in new pieces. So in theory,
Speaker 2: they finished the year good team. But I mean if
Speaker 2: they trip up early, that could hurt their national title caliber,
Speaker 2: their their their qualifications, and you know, maybe, man, I can't.
Speaker 2: They're gonna be awesome. I'm trying here, but they're going
Speaker 2: to be really good. And the fact is Sam Darnold's
Speaker 2: able too. He's got really nice es capability. That helps
Speaker 2: when you've got a nifty line and an if you're
Speaker 2: receiving core for that matter, because you can kind of
Speaker 2: wait for guys to to come open on not and
Speaker 2: create on the on the run. So I really I'm
Speaker 2: struggling here. I think they're going to be just fine.
Speaker 1: Dan, you have the most pessimistic crystal ball I think
Speaker 1: that exists in the college football.
Speaker 3: I've got I've got guys jumping up and executing. I've got,
Speaker 3: you know, a wide open, improved pac twelve. I'm thinking
Speaker 3: great things around the country time, I'm seeing it in
Speaker 3: my ORB.
Speaker 1: So again, we're talking about the PAC twelve as a whole.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: And I should point out you see this too in
Speaker 3: your orb of knowledge. Yes, uh, USC MISSUS Washington on
Speaker 3: their schedule.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about the PAC twelve as a whole
Speaker 1: and not just the PAC twelve South.
Speaker 3: That's correct.
Speaker 1: I think it's a distinct possibility that USC won't win
Speaker 1: the PAC twelve. I don't necessarily think it's because their
Speaker 1: offensive line or their defensive backfield stalls out. It could
Speaker 1: just be because the PAC twelve's really good this year.
Speaker 1: It's really good.
Speaker 2: I think it just comes out of it to the
Speaker 2: PAC twelve title game. I mean that's you know, they
Speaker 2: get Colorado on the road. Colorado will take a step backwards.
Speaker 2: I don't know how much of one, but they will.
Speaker 2: Arizona State might not be ready yet on the road
Speaker 2: at cal I. Really, they get U telling UCLA at home.
Speaker 2: It's hard for me to make the case for anybody
Speaker 2: else to win the South, but I mean, you're right,
Speaker 2: they're going to play a really good team on a
Speaker 2: neutral field in the PAC twelve title game, and therefore
Speaker 2: they need to obviously lose that.
Speaker 3: I'm seeing a lightning storm, and I'm seeing on the
Speaker 3: outside offensively for USC and defensively we talk about the
Speaker 3: defensive backfield. You Sam being too negative. I see a
Speaker 3: ton of positivity here because when you look at their schedule,
Speaker 3: how many good proven quarterbacks do you see?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I don't see. If you want to count Josh Rosen,
Speaker 3: which I think is reasonable, tie, he might be the
Speaker 3: only one. And that's not until November eighteenth. You want
Speaker 3: to say, Shane Buchelle, I can't fully agree. And beyond
Speaker 3: that tie good proven quarterbacks are I'm not seeing them
Speaker 3: in my cloudy orb.
Speaker 1: You're not wrong.
Speaker 3: So I'm seeing positivity. I'm seeing electricity. I'm feeling good vibrations.
Speaker 1: Still, you know, the only reason you put this in
Speaker 1: as crystal ball was because he wants a Oregon to
Speaker 1: win the Pac twelve.
Speaker 3: Right, you know I don't. That is not in my orb.
Speaker 1: All right, keep shaking that thing. Where are we going next?
Speaker 3: Next Bill, We'll start with you once again. Penn states
Speaker 3: in year two of the Joe Moore head era, we'll
Speaker 3: have the clear best and deepest skill group in the
Speaker 3: Big ten even without I believe Chris Godwin has departed
Speaker 3: to the NF But Saquon Barkley, They've got young receivers
Speaker 3: coming on strong. They've got experience on the offensive line,
Speaker 3: if not a couple of holes to fill, but trace
Speaker 3: McSorley in the effort go deep offense, Penn State will
Speaker 3: have the clear most dangerous and electric offense all season
Speaker 3: long in the Big Ten.
Speaker 2: With Ohio State's potential with Mike Webber, with Brown, with
Speaker 2: baw et cetera. I can't say for sure that that's
Speaker 2: the case because the Ohio State exists. But if Juwan
Speaker 2: Johnson turns out to be as good as everybody from
Speaker 2: Penn State says he is, and he had a great
Speaker 2: spring and all that that, if he's there, you know, say,
Speaker 2: black Nole's still there. Mike Ziki might be the best
Speaker 2: tight end in the country. Sae Kwon Barkley rush for
Speaker 2: fifteen hundred yards without an offensive line, which is really
Speaker 2: tricky and hard to do. I've heard Miles Sanders as
Speaker 2: soon as he learns to not drop the ball, he's
Speaker 2: going to be amazing. So yeah, I'd say the potential
Speaker 2: is there, but Ohio State's still going to have a
Speaker 2: little something to say.
Speaker 1: About when you look at Penn State schedule again in
Speaker 1: your crystal ball bill, where do you feel the biggest
Speaker 1: land mines are, Because if I step through it here,
Speaker 1: Akron Pitt, Georgia State, at Iowa, Indiana, Northwestern, Michigan's going
Speaker 1: to be tough, but they lose a ton on defense.
Speaker 1: They're kind of starting over in some respects on offense.
Speaker 1: Ohio State obviously the most name brand variety of landman,
Speaker 1: but Michigan State still trying to find their way after
Speaker 1: last year. Rutgers Nebraska entirely new defense, and at Maryland
Speaker 1: who maybe could be sneaky, but it just perhaps it's rhetorical.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't look to me like there is so
Speaker 1: much AMMO in that schedule that they are in any
Speaker 1: real danger of falling below you know, ten nine wins
Speaker 1: at the absolute minimum.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, if we're talking about them as a
Speaker 2: national title contender, then they can't drop any of those
Speaker 2: games because of Ohio State probably, but and you could
Speaker 2: really make a case that, Okay, so maybe Iowa Northwestern
Speaker 2: and Michigan State or well, and I mean Maryland too,
Speaker 2: that they all won't really seriously challenge and stay, but
Speaker 2: one of them it could most likely trip them up.
Speaker 2: And so that's kind of the lots of land mines
Speaker 2: there on the road, even if we don't count of
Speaker 2: High State, which is not a which is a little
Speaker 2: too big to call a landmine, I would say. But
Speaker 2: if we're talking about if we're sitting in the bar
Speaker 2: nine or ten wins, yeah, I'd say they've got a
Speaker 2: very very good chance to do that. Their defense is fine,
Speaker 2: I mean, it's not necessarily good enough to stop an
Speaker 2: elite level offense. There areked a lot of elite offenses
Speaker 2: on that schedule, especially with pitt rebuilding, so they're probably
Speaker 2: gonna they're looking at worth probably ten wins, I think,
Speaker 2: unless mcsorty gets hurt, and then who knows after that?
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, so here's where I'm going to go ahead
Speaker 1: and renew my pessimistic Trace mcswirly card Dan please tie.
Speaker 1: I was not sold on Trace for a good chunk
Speaker 1: of last season, and then the Minnesota game happened. They
Speaker 1: seem to use him a little differently. He obviously caught fire,
Speaker 1: was throwing the ball downfield like a like a mad banshee,
Speaker 1: and Iowa game was great. Yeah, I mean he he
Speaker 1: was great. He was objectively great second half of last season.
Speaker 1: For some reason, I still remain unconvinced of his skill set.
Speaker 1: I know the kid's a winner, I know he got
Speaker 1: it done last year. I'm curious to see what he
Speaker 1: does without Chris Godwin. Perhaps that's just me being artificially pessimistic,
Speaker 1: but for some odd reason, I just I have a
Speaker 1: hard time trusting that he's got staying power to be
Speaker 1: that good all the time.
Speaker 2: Well anytime? Are you know we're relying on on a
Speaker 2: collection of four or five six games to completely I mean,
Speaker 2: you think about what everybody was saying about Penn State
Speaker 2: at the end of September, and now they're not. They're
Speaker 2: this supposedly known quantity, absolute surefire Big ten national title contender,
Speaker 2: et cetera. When you know, a month in to last year,
Speaker 2: people thought James Becker was gonna get fired. So when
Speaker 2: the perceptions changed that quickly, yeah, it's it's sometimes worth
Speaker 2: it to kind of tap the brakes little and really
Speaker 2: kind of reassess. But yeah, the last half of last
Speaker 2: year they were amazing.
Speaker 1: On offense, absolutely, so I guess with that in mind, Dan, yes,
Speaker 1: perhaps to Bill's point of needing a little bit more
Speaker 1: data to feel truly comfortable. I will stop short of
Speaker 1: saying that Penn State has the clear the best or
Speaker 1: the deepest skill group in the Big Ten, but they're
Speaker 1: certainly in the equation. If McSorley keeps doing what he
Speaker 1: did at the second half of last season, then then
Speaker 1: they're definitely in a very strong position to take the cake.
Speaker 3: Now, Tye, as I look into the horizon, can I
Speaker 3: hear my music?
Speaker 1: Please? Tach?
Speaker 3: Can I hear my music? As I look into the horizon?
Speaker 1: Thank you?
Speaker 3: I see calm waters for Penn State for the first
Speaker 3: five or six weeks, tie. But then as I look
Speaker 3: into my orb, I see them nowhere near central Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3: And that is because three of four games on the
Speaker 3: road northwestern Ohio State and Michigan State, all the way
Speaker 3: from Central PA, all away from the Is there a valley,
Speaker 3: ty Yeah, they're located.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yea.
Speaker 3: Is it a happy valley?
Speaker 1: It's very happy.
Speaker 3: Normally I see unhappiness away from the valley, not in
Speaker 3: the form of Ohio State, not in the form of
Speaker 3: Michigan within the valley, but two weeks of body blows
Speaker 3: before traveling to East Lansing. I see a trip up
Speaker 3: spot there, I see a d I see an iss,
Speaker 3: I see a ree, and I see a spect with
Speaker 3: Michigan State. To answer the question, though, Penn State will, indeed,
Speaker 3: because of Saquon Barkley and the attention he'll receive upfront,
Speaker 3: have the clear best deepest skill group in the Big
Speaker 3: Ten and they win the conference once again.
Speaker 1: How about that? Wow? Okay, all right, we got another
Speaker 1: one on here, go ahead, we do. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Clemson Tigers. Clemson with their quarterback struggles this spring being
Speaker 3: an eye to the fall where they don't have obviously
Speaker 3: an incumbent with the Shawn Watson off to the NFL.
Speaker 3: The Houston Texans Kelly Bryant, I believe one gentleman's name
Speaker 3: is Israel. That's all I really. There's a freshman that
Speaker 3: is promising, but all of them sort of struggled in
Speaker 3: the spring, both on the field and with injury to
Speaker 3: really make a mark. Clemson has a very good defense,
Speaker 3: but schedule's not great. They have Auburn early. They're on
Speaker 3: the road at Louisville, They're on the road in Blacksburg,
Speaker 3: They're at the Carrier Dome on a Friday night, I
Speaker 3: already don't like it. I already don't like it. They
Speaker 3: have Florida State at home, but I say Clemson will not.
Speaker 3: This is what the ball is telling me. Okay, make
Speaker 3: a New Year's six bowl game.
Speaker 1: This is such pessimistic balls, Dan, It's just tough, And yes,
Speaker 1: I am with you. I think that early season matchup
Speaker 1: against Auburn will be a bit of a menace for them.
Speaker 1: And not to say Auburn is going to be back
Speaker 1: to Cam Newton days, but I feel like they should
Speaker 1: be good enough on defense to challenge Clemson, to keep
Speaker 1: things a bit confusing for whoever ends up playing quarterback,
Speaker 1: and they've obviously got that Florida State game later in
Speaker 1: the year. Florida State should be really good this season.
Speaker 1: You never know what happens when you go to Virginia Tech.
Speaker 1: You never know if there's another game lurking, you know.
Speaker 1: I think by the end of the year they'll be
Speaker 1: fine at quarterback. I really do. Dabosweeney will find a
Speaker 1: way to coach up that position group. But to start
Speaker 1: out knowing that they've lost a lot from last season offensively,
Speaker 1: it's going to take them a while to get things going.
Speaker 1: So I think just in general offensive struggles. Offensive uncertainty
Speaker 1: could mean them missing a New Year Six Bowl game,
Speaker 1: maybe not specifically that quarterback group.
Speaker 2: I think I agree because there are a lot of
Speaker 2: good defenses on that schedule, and I mean they'll have
Speaker 2: the defense to kind of you know, it'll be a
Speaker 2: lot of gross games, maybe like Clemson last year was
Speaker 2: the Auburn's gonna have a good defense. Louisville could, Boston
Speaker 2: College could, Virginia Tech will in c State might have
Speaker 2: one of the best run defenses in the country this year,
Speaker 2: and they play at Virginia Tech at NC State. It
Speaker 2: does feel like there are a couple of losses in there,
Speaker 2: and you know, obviously Florida State at South Carolina, there
Speaker 2: are a lot of opportunities there where there will be
Speaker 2: a very very good team, but they'll finish ten and
Speaker 2: two and then have to settle for a New Year's
Speaker 2: Bowl or something into that effecting instead of the New
Speaker 2: Year's six Bowl, which is just you know, a crushing
Speaker 2: disappointment of a season.
Speaker 3: I realize, yeah, I'm seeing them missing that New Year
Speaker 3: Six Bowl tie. Yeah, in my visions, in my vibrations
Speaker 3: and my energies in front of me I'm seeing some struggles,
Speaker 3: and I think Bill hit it on the head. They
Speaker 3: struggled with NC State with Deshaun Watson, with Mike Williams,
Speaker 3: with Jordan Leggett, with Wayne Gollman, and I think, listen,
Speaker 3: take it from take it from me, Take it from
Speaker 3: a Notre Dame fan in you that even though you
Speaker 3: get good quarterback play year in year out for what
Speaker 3: seems like a long time, you get it until you
Speaker 3: don't ty and it can disappear quickly. It's an elixir
Speaker 3: that not every team, every program has And I think
Speaker 3: you're right. By the end of the season, I think
Speaker 3: they'll have something going. But early on I think that
Speaker 3: it's going to be a little bit rocky and that's
Speaker 3: going to cost him a January one game.
Speaker 1: All Right, There you have it. This has been an
Speaker 1: eliminating look dan into the pessimistic and optimistic crystal balls
Speaker 1: here in the Soliverbol while we've got Bill, Yes, we
Speaker 1: do need to talk about something else. I mentioned it
Speaker 1: at the top and we introduced him. But he's got
Speaker 1: a book out. It's called the fifty Best College Football
Speaker 1: Teams of All Time. I read to you directly from
Speaker 1: the official description of the book that Bill Connolly dives
Speaker 1: into history and evolution of the sport, telling its story
Speaker 1: through fifty particularly interesting teams. Now this is across the
Speaker 1: rich history of college football. It's not just fifty ten
Speaker 1: teams over the last fifty years or anything like that.
Speaker 1: As I'm sure you are aware, Bill, Like, the hardest
Speaker 1: thing to do in sports is compare eras, and your
Speaker 1: books entirely about comparing eras. How do you put one
Speaker 1: hundred or one hundred plus years of college football on
Speaker 1: an equal playing field? And to try to sess this
Speaker 1: all out.
Speaker 2: Well, I start by not actually trying to determine the
Speaker 2: best at all that was. That is a little misdirection
Speaker 2: on the cover, as you see the little asterisks there,
Speaker 2: the little anti social asterisks that you know, probably shouldn't
Speaker 2: have had, and it'd be a lot easier to explain.
Speaker 2: But yeah, this is fifty easy, fifty interesting, influential, innovative
Speaker 2: teams that allowed me to tell college football story. So
Speaker 2: I was able to kind of you know, I was
Speaker 2: a setless nerd when I was going to concerts in college,
Speaker 2: and this is a set list crafted to allow me
Speaker 2: to do that. From some offensive innovators to some defensive innovators,
Speaker 2: teams that just had crazy, wacky years, teams that were awesome,
Speaker 2: teams that were almost awesome. And I was able to
Speaker 2: kind of piece it together there to where if you
Speaker 2: read it straight through, it tells college football story. If
Speaker 2: you skip around to just the teams you want, it's fine.
Speaker 2: You know you'll get that team story too. But you
Speaker 2: can kind of trace the evolution from nineteen oh six
Speaker 2: Chicago to twenty thirteen Auburn pretty well.
Speaker 1: I think, well, football is unique in the way it's evolved,
Speaker 1: both in the rules of the game and the styles
Speaker 1: and schemes within the game. You see a year to year,
Speaker 1: but I'd imagine if you look at it over one
Speaker 1: hundred plus years, you're really going to get a full
Speaker 1: sense for how much the game has changed. Let's assume
Speaker 1: football's around in fifty years. What does it look like.
Speaker 1: Where is it headed now in twenty seventeen relative to
Speaker 1: where it was and where you think it's going to head?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I think basically it's you know, the
Speaker 2: Spencer Hall's piece earlier in this earlier this week at
Speaker 2: sp Nation kind of covered the same thought. Pretty well.
Speaker 2: You know, it gets fafter and it gets more spread out,
Speaker 2: and that's kind of the way things have gone. That's
Speaker 2: probably the way they'll keep going to some degree, and
Speaker 2: there are a million ways to do that, but that's
Speaker 2: that's kind of where it goes. And so you know
Speaker 2: when you compare, when you compare nineteen oh six Chicago
Speaker 2: to twenty thirteen Auburn, you kind of you see that
Speaker 2: the way that motion, well, like nineteen seventeen Georgia Tech,
Speaker 2: they use the jump shift. Basically a bunch of guys
Speaker 2: would literally jump to kind of change the matchups, to
Speaker 2: change the numbers. That was their version of Auburn running
Speaker 2: motion on every single play to figure out where the
Speaker 2: numbers advantages were for Tray Mason in twenty thirteen. And
Speaker 2: there's just a lot of that you see, and I
Speaker 2: mean it was still all. You know, college football is
Speaker 2: so rich because it has been around so fricking long,
Speaker 2: and so there have been so many teams, so many
Speaker 2: programs that have hundred plus year histories. That's not something
Speaker 2: we can really say about many pro sports. I mean,
Speaker 2: even baseball has been around forever, they haven't had one
Speaker 2: hundred plus teams playing major division ball. And so there's
Speaker 2: all this the quote unquote pomping circumstance that makes it
Speaker 2: all college football, and the fact that you're always using
Speaker 2: eighteen to twenty two year old male to play the
Speaker 2: game kind of ensures that you have a certain similarities
Speaker 2: from era to era. But no, the game is going
Speaker 2: to get faster, it's going to get in theory a
Speaker 2: little bit less violent, and I'm betting it will probably
Speaker 2: still exist in fifty years.
Speaker 1: Harder or easier to build a truly dominant team in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, you had the advantage of you know,
Speaker 2: minimal film and uh, you know, you had a lot
Speaker 2: of advantages like that. But you also nobody was recruited
Speaker 2: nationally except for maybe not to Dame at that point,
Speaker 2: so you were kind of more a victim of the
Speaker 2: talent at hand. And so I would say more difficult,
Speaker 2: but also harder to tell if you're dominant, or if
Speaker 2: you're dominant nationally at least, because yeah, you know, unless
Speaker 2: you're Notre Dame, you're only playing teams within your region
Speaker 2: and then maybe a ball opponent at the end of
Speaker 2: the year and bowl and teams really didn't take baths
Speaker 2: all that seriously. Then, So I would say it was
Speaker 2: probably less, it was either harder to build a dominant
Speaker 2: team or know you had a dominant team.
Speaker 1: Bill.
Speaker 3: If nothing else, the book seems to sort of be
Speaker 3: a way for you, a vehicle for you to talk
Speaker 3: about what you sort of love about the sports. And
Speaker 3: it looks to me and I insist that you correct
Speaker 3: me if I'm wrong, especially with some of the modern
Speaker 3: teams that you've chosen, but even throughout the history, So
Speaker 3: your first team and here is the nineteen oh six
Speaker 3: University of Chicago team, and the final team on here
Speaker 3: is your twenty thirteen or college Football's twenty thirteen Auburn Tigers.
Speaker 3: But it seems that if there is a through point,
Speaker 3: it's sort of the idea of coming out of nowhere,
Speaker 3: like you have two thousand and seven with Chip Kelly
Speaker 3: coming out of now or Boise State coming out of nowhere,
Speaker 3: twenty thirteen Cosmels on coming as as a high school coach,
Speaker 3: you know of Voomerkin from Arkansas. You have a Dartmouth
Speaker 3: team in nineteen seventy, you have Michael Vick and Virginia
Speaker 3: Tech exploding onto the national stage without really a rich history,
Speaker 3: a rich modern history before then. Is that something that
Speaker 3: feels unique to college football because the feeding system almost
Speaker 3: is so unknown to everybody outside of that one local
Speaker 3: ecosystem for that team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was probably a good and there are a
Speaker 2: lot of examples, like you know, choosing four Texas instead
Speaker 2: of five, ninety four Nebraska instead of ninety five. I
Speaker 2: think at the bottom line is if I would have
Speaker 2: actually written a book about the fifty absolute best teams,
Speaker 2: you know, forty five of them them would have finished undefeated,
Speaker 2: and about half of them you would have basically been
Speaker 2: the same story to tell over and over again with
Speaker 2: different names. And so the interesting part to me is, yeah,
Speaker 2: sometimes it's the parts you didn't expect or the things
Speaker 2: that happened right before the big run. Oh, four Texas
Speaker 2: being the best example of that. That was the team
Speaker 2: where you know, we were talking about Penn State and
Speaker 2: the fact that you know, the perceptions changed so quickly. Well,
Speaker 2: halfway through two thousand and four, Vince Young was a disappointment.
Speaker 2: He was getting benched because he you know, they got
Speaker 2: shut out against Oklahoma, he got benched against Missouri because
Speaker 2: he was throwing terrible interceptions. He was not Vince Young
Speaker 2: until late in that season. Uh, And that was that's
Speaker 2: a more interesting story. Ninety four Nebraska having to deal
Speaker 2: with Tommy Frasier's injuries and deal with actual adversity instead
Speaker 2: of the ninety five team, which just wrecked everybody. It
Speaker 2: was a lot more interesting to tell those stories. So
Speaker 2: I do think I leaned into it, especially especially for
Speaker 2: the more recent teams, where I knew more about them
Speaker 2: heading in, like some of the older teams. I mean,
Speaker 2: like forty five Army was the best team of all time.
Speaker 2: That one's pretty that was interesting to tell because of
Speaker 2: all the transfers and all that, But it was still
Speaker 2: just dominant game after Domina game. As I got to,
Speaker 2: you know, more recent times, I did seem to favor
Speaker 2: the surprises or the out of nowhere things are just
Speaker 2: the you know, the the realized greatness part, instead of
Speaker 2: just the full season of domination.
Speaker 3: It's obviously going to be nearly impossible to pick one
Speaker 3: or two or three. But college football, maybe more than
Speaker 3: any other sport, is it seems like it's defined by
Speaker 3: larger than life personalities of the coaches. Was there anybody
Speaker 3: when researching this? I mean, you look through all that,
Speaker 3: you know you have Steve Spurry, you have Don James,
Speaker 3: you have Tom Devaney and you have just like there's
Speaker 3: a million different people, you have less miles on. Here
Speaker 3: are there personalities going back in time that you were
Speaker 3: not expecting to either like or be intrigued by as
Speaker 3: much as you were.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was really happy that I chose sixty five
Speaker 2: UCLA for the book because Tommy prothrow was fascinating. I
Speaker 2: wish he had never gone to the pros. I wish
Speaker 2: he like he belonged with college football. You know, he
Speaker 2: carried a briefcase around nobody ever knew what was in it.
Speaker 2: He's done all these really super weird quirks and he
Speaker 2: was a g I meant, I got a Heisman winner
Speaker 2: at Oregon State and then he goes and wins the
Speaker 2: Rose Bull his first year at UCLA. Like that was
Speaker 2: he was a very very interesting character that maybe because
Speaker 2: he left for the Pros when he did, he isn't
Speaker 2: quite as as as regarded as well known as other coaches.
Speaker 2: He was awesome though, And plus that sixty five UCLA team,
Speaker 2: there was kind of a sense of discovery about some
Speaker 2: of the older teams, just in that I made I
Speaker 2: made my you know, my quote unquote set list, and
Speaker 2: before I kind of knew everything I maybe needed to
Speaker 2: know about some of these teams, and so it was
Speaker 2: at dicovery process in the sixty five team ending with
Speaker 2: you know, a dramatic comeback went over USC and then
Speaker 2: randomly I wanted Memphis to play Tennessee and getting screwed
Speaker 2: on a couple of calls and Tennessee scoring the game
Speaker 2: winning touchdown by like a millimeter and then knocking off
Speaker 2: Michigan State at the last second to win the Rose Bowl.
Speaker 2: That was one of the more Auburn twenty thirteen. Auburn
Speaker 2: is kind of dramatic seasons that I was really happy that.
Speaker 3: I chose of the of the coaches and programs that
Speaker 3: you profiled here there there's also a theme of adaptability.
Speaker 3: You know, this wrinkle happened to the team or to
Speaker 3: the sports, the conference, whatever, and this is how this
Speaker 3: team changed things up or responded or you know, reversed course.
Speaker 3: Is there a specific coach that you feel or coach,
Speaker 3: series of coaches whatever that you feel like has a
Speaker 3: sort of timeless quality that could you know, if it's
Speaker 3: you know, Bobby Bouten nineteen eighty one, whoever it is,
Speaker 3: that could have succeeded in nineteen thirty seven, just as
Speaker 3: well as they could have succeeded in two thousand and four.
Speaker 3: Is there a guy that that fits that well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean pot Rowe didn't have a specific formula
Speaker 2: to go by, so he was probably on the list,
Speaker 2: But I mean Bear Bryant's another one where you know,
Speaker 2: the changes he made, you know, as his program began
Speaker 2: to Stacknate and just created this decade of dominance in
Speaker 2: the seventies, not just integrating his roster obviously, but also
Speaker 2: catching on to the success of the Wishbone early kind
Speaker 2: of breaking it in or installing it in the Debt
Speaker 2: of Night basically after Springball had ended so that he
Speaker 2: could unleash Hell in nineteen seventy one. That was pretty fun.
Speaker 2: Thousand's another one I think that could have succeeded in
Speaker 2: a lot of ways. But yeah, there are some some
Speaker 2: guys that are you know, that either made the book
Speaker 2: or just were great in general because of the combination
Speaker 2: of style. Like Barry Switzer, you know, would he have
Speaker 2: succeeded without the Wishbone. He kind of tried to succeed
Speaker 2: without the Wishbone in the in the early eighties, and
Speaker 2: it didn't work. He kind of had to go back
Speaker 2: to his baby a little bit. But but yeah, there
Speaker 2: are certain coaches who, like, you know, John Heisman. You know,
Speaker 2: obviously Stag is the ultimate example of the guy who
Speaker 2: just like, oh, you're changing the road, all right, Well
Speaker 2: that'll allow me to draw up these new plays and
Speaker 2: I'm going to be to like this instead. I mean,
Speaker 2: they were a dominant team before the forward pass, they
Speaker 2: were dominant team for a while after the forward pass,
Speaker 2: so that there are plenty of examples of guys like
Speaker 2: that that were pretty fun tinkers. And you know, really,
Speaker 2: since Stag has awards named after him, maybe we should
Speaker 2: start there.
Speaker 1: Bill, what you learned that you didn't know? Or if
Speaker 1: there are too many things to answer that, what was
Speaker 1: your favorite thing that you learned while doing this?
Speaker 2: I think I decided that the sport was really it
Speaker 2: became itself in the mid nineteen twenties and early nineteen thirties,
Speaker 2: because in that little period of time you had Notre
Speaker 2: Dame becoming Notre Dame and you know, getting getting the
Speaker 2: people in charge of the university to allow them to
Speaker 2: go to the Rose Bowl, and then winning the Rose Bowl,
Speaker 2: you know, and kind of becoming that national name. You
Speaker 2: had Alabama winning in the Rose Bowl for the entire
Speaker 2: South the very next year, and the SOW at that point.
Speaker 2: Then the Southern schools that I actually really kind of
Speaker 2: enjoyed football getting together a few years later, creating the SEC,
Speaker 2: and you know, et cetera. From there, I guess, But
Speaker 2: then you know, nineteen thirty, but with the with the
Speaker 2: depression kind of thinking, and I wrote about nineteen thirty
Speaker 2: Utah a team that was amazing that had nobody to
Speaker 2: play basically, but they were trying to set up benefit
Speaker 2: games and after the season against USC or some team
Speaker 2: at Yankee Stadium just to kind of prove how good
Speaker 2: they were. Number One, they had to give that up
Speaker 2: because they had a basketball season to play, and all
Speaker 2: those same guys were awesome at basketball and they went
Speaker 2: like eighteen and three. But number two, that was the
Speaker 2: idea of a depression era benefit game. Is why Army
Speaker 2: Night and Navy started playing every year. And so all
Speaker 2: these things that happened in that little bitty period of time,
Speaker 2: from Notre Dame to the creation of the SEC to
Speaker 2: Army Navy, all of that carried forward and kind of
Speaker 2: defined the sports that was that. You know, if i'd
Speaker 2: known how what some of the really good resources were
Speaker 2: that I was going to be able to pull from
Speaker 2: newspapers died Calm among them. Really, I would have maybe
Speaker 2: chosen a people have a few more old teams, because
Speaker 2: you really see it like there's a load of teams
Speaker 2: in the seventies, eighties, nineties. I would have chosen more
Speaker 2: from that era because it really was a nice learning process.
Speaker 3: Bill, Was there a specific year or time when you
Speaker 3: can point to the fact that this, you know, it
Speaker 3: starts out as this hyper hyper local sport, slowly expands
Speaker 3: to becoming regional, and then finally becomes a national sport.
Speaker 3: I would assume relatively recently because of the advent of
Speaker 3: the ability to watch so many games on TV.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Is could you see when you were researching when the
Speaker 3: sort of switches got flipped from being sort of hyper
Speaker 3: local maybe at the state level, maybe region level, maybe
Speaker 3: half of the country level, and national level. Were there
Speaker 3: specific tipping points or was it in fact sort of
Speaker 3: super gradual?
Speaker 2: Well, the first one was noted in becoming a national brand,
Speaker 2: and then during the war, you know, being able to
Speaker 2: kind of keep some of its players with because of
Speaker 2: a connection with Navy during the war that they were
Speaker 2: able to dominate during that time. Having that national name helped.
Speaker 2: But really, yeah, I mean it goes down to was
Speaker 2: that the ncaa versus border regions of Oklahoma in the
Speaker 2: in our mid eighties, there the Supreme Court case that
Speaker 2: basically said that teams could align with each other and
Speaker 2: create their own television deals. That plus the creation of
Speaker 2: ESPN and the emergency of ESPN created what we know
Speaker 2: of there. It wasn't two or three or four or
Speaker 2: five games a week. It's every game is now televised,
Speaker 2: and that just that level of exposure changes everything. That's
Speaker 2: kind of when when it started going down the road
Speaker 2: of becoming a true national sport. And that is you
Speaker 2: know what the part of the rationale for writing this
Speaker 2: book in general is because it is our history is
Speaker 2: so regionalized in this sport, and in that you know,
Speaker 2: Alabama fans no Alabama's history, but not necessarily USC's and
Speaker 2: Oklahoma's and Notre Dames. And we all have our own
Speaker 2: history books, but we don't have just a ton of
Speaker 2: books that really tie everybody's history together. And so that
Speaker 2: was one of the goals of the book.
Speaker 3: Who is the most upset that a specific team was
Speaker 3: left stout which fan base and which team? Do you
Speaker 3: acknowledge that, yes, you have a point. I couldn't make
Speaker 3: it the best seven hundred and forty four teams of
Speaker 3: all times? Where has the title wave of criticism? I
Speaker 3: assume good natured criticism come from well, well number one.
Speaker 2: Miami fans yelling that I didn't include two thousand and
Speaker 2: one in Miami because no matter how many times I
Speaker 2: explained that it wasn't just the best teams and there
Speaker 2: was more. I had explained that a lot to Miami fans,
Speaker 2: Penn State fans had a legitimate gripe. There was really
Speaker 2: there were two or three Penn State teams that were
Speaker 2: on the initial Like when I created a list of
Speaker 2: all the teams I wanted to cover, it was like
Speaker 2: one hundred and seven and there were like three of
Speaker 2: them on there. But you know, for quote unquote set
Speaker 2: list purposes, one of them didn't end up making their
Speaker 2: the list. So that was an obvious if you're just
Speaker 2: looking at the big name programs not having Penn State
Speaker 2: on there. You know, obviously with some awkwardness now about
Speaker 2: everything that we defined as the Joe paternal era, that
Speaker 2: didn't help, but that was I think something I couldn't
Speaker 2: quite figure out. Arkansas was another one that didn't and
Speaker 2: should but really fans of of Kansas State were just
Speaker 2: sad that like the ninety eight Kansas State team didn't
Speaker 2: make it or something, and that made me said, all right, Bill.
Speaker 1: Final question, it's open ended. Why should people? Why should
Speaker 1: college football fans read this book?
Speaker 2: Because it tells the story of college football and it
Speaker 2: you know, we are fans of college football, we all
Speaker 2: have our team, but this is this tells the sports
Speaker 2: story and tells it's pretty much guaranteed to tell you
Speaker 2: a lot of things you didn't know, and it really
Speaker 2: it just ties together. I said this on podcastsing played
Speaker 2: Nobody earlier today too. This is such a huge sport
Speaker 2: in terms of the number of people it takes to
Speaker 2: put a team together and take it on the road
Speaker 2: to play another team. The number of people involved and
Speaker 2: invested in this sport is just ridiculously big, and so
Speaker 2: being able to tell not only fifty stories, but fifty
Speaker 2: stories from like forty two different teams, every region, every era,
Speaker 2: I think really it was very exciting. It was it
Speaker 2: was a long time. It took a few number of
Speaker 2: months to write this, but it was really worth it
Speaker 2: because you could see the stories all kind of being
Speaker 2: intertwined a little bit and a nice it's a nice
Speaker 2: reminder that we're all in this together. I guess that's
Speaker 2: that's the handholdy way to say it.
Speaker 1: Very good. His name is Bill Connolly. Find his fine
Speaker 1: work at Espianation. Don't forget to buy his book again,
Speaker 1: the fifty Best College Football Teams of All Time and
Speaker 1: lest we forget podcast Ain't played Nobody. Him and Stephen
Speaker 1: godforre you do a wonderful college football podcast, which we
Speaker 1: would recommend to everyone that listens to the very bal Bill.
Speaker 1: Hope you're doing well. We will talk to you soon
Speaker 1: and it's a long off season, so keep doing what
Speaker 1: you do.
Speaker 2: Sounds good?
Speaker 1: All right, Dan again Bill Connolly, yep, Espianation podcast Ain't
Speaker 1: played Nobody, Don't forget to buy his book. We'll put
Speaker 1: the link in the description of this show, the fifty
Speaker 1: Best College Football Teams of All Time. And he sort
Speaker 1: of gave away the game a little bit, saying, well,
Speaker 1: the title might not be perfectly representative of what this
Speaker 1: bo book entails, but I like what he did. Bill's
Speaker 1: a student of the game. Anyone who's ever read Bill
Speaker 1: knows that he's a student of the game for nearly
Speaker 1: every aspect he can be. So I'm excited to dive
Speaker 1: and I haven't had a chance to read it yet.
Speaker 1: I'm excited I have to and learned a little bit
Speaker 1: more about the fine work that he did. Also, I
Speaker 1: enjoyed this show. I really like the sound. I feel
Speaker 1: like I've got a new one that I can add
Speaker 1: to the arsenal now as we go through the off season,
Speaker 1: and maybe can sub that one out for my hypothetical sound.
Speaker 3: I'm going to tell you something one hundred percent real
Speaker 3: about Bill's book, The fifty Best Astress College Football Teams
Speaker 3: of All Time. It's a hell of a pooper reed
Speaker 3: tie really it is, because listen, it's broken up, it's
Speaker 3: fifty teams, it's a couple hundred pages, so they're almost
Speaker 3: just like Bill boils everything down into what you need
Speaker 3: to know about each squad and each he provides a
Speaker 3: ton of good context. But there have been times where
Speaker 3: I've said to myself, you know what, I'm an exercise today,
Speaker 3: or I am going to to eat a little extra
Speaker 3: fiber so I have some more reading time with Bill,
Speaker 3: that's one hundred percent true that ginger Tea is very
Speaker 3: good for it. If you go with some stuff that
Speaker 3: really suits your factory, well you can get down with
Speaker 3: Bill in a very intimate way.
Speaker 1: Now would be a good time to point out that
Speaker 1: one of the off season shows that we will this
Speaker 1: is your dream show. I don't believe we're going to
Speaker 1: do the bathroom Medicut show.
Speaker 3: We're not going to do that.
Speaker 1: We shouldn't do that. Let me ask you this. People
Speaker 1: would be repulsed if we did that.
Speaker 3: But I've got may I follow up with your statement?
Speaker 1: Please?
Speaker 3: I have not agree to if we do a Q
Speaker 3: and A say next week, as we've been doing early
Speaker 3: on in the off season months, and people happen to
Speaker 3: write in with questions about bathroom Medicot and it's mixed
Speaker 3: into a general college football, non college football show, will
Speaker 3: you reveal some of your secrets about the bathroom.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm going to have to be extremely careful
Speaker 1: about how I word some of their responses here. It
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be corporate bathroom etiquette. Okay, okay, right,
Speaker 1: so we're not specifying, right.
Speaker 3: It could be home, it could be at the in laws,
Speaker 3: it could be you know, you're in the middle of
Speaker 3: the street in Chicago and you need to is it
Speaker 3: a Barnes and Noble situation? You know, maybe talk about
Speaker 3: what you do if you're on a college campus, and
Speaker 3: how to scope out the best bathroom.
Speaker 1: If people want to ask questions about it, I might
Speaker 1: have to go through and handpick the ones that I'm
Speaker 1: willing to answer. But you know this, no one else
Speaker 1: knows this. There isn't a week that goes by that
Speaker 1: I don't message you about a new bathroom etiquette observation.
Speaker 3: This is absolutely true. Yeah, So what I'm saying is
Speaker 3: you don't need to bring your own experiences to the table.
Speaker 1: Tie. Yeah, we have listeners who work in offices of
Speaker 1: all kinds. We could broaden it to office etiquette. We
Speaker 1: got a great one about fingernail clipping at the office cubicle,
Speaker 1: which I can elaborate on based on a previous role. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but yes we will.
Speaker 3: We will take any question that people have and Ty
Speaker 3: will give you his expertise based on his own experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think that's fair to say.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we can do that. Okay. I don't know
Speaker 1: how he got on that tangent oh poop read right.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, oh Bill, Yeah, read this book. I mean,
Speaker 3: read it anywhere. Read it while you're traveling, read it
Speaker 3: while you're on the beach, read it, you know, at
Speaker 3: night before you go to sleep. But I'm just telling
Speaker 3: you this is almost scientifically created and curated for your
Speaker 3: thronell experience.
Speaker 1: Bill's gonna love He's gonna love that ringing endorsement from.
Speaker 3: If there's another printing, I'd be happy to blurb it. Okay,
Speaker 3: I'd be happy to blow.
Speaker 1: Well, we see the Amazon review under an anonymous name,
Speaker 1: will know who it is.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 1: Big thanks to Bill Connolly Again, don't forget to check
Speaker 1: him out again. Espianation podcast ain't played nobody the fifty
Speaker 1: best college football teams of all time. We will absolutely
Speaker 1: put that link in our podcast description. We're off until
Speaker 1: next Wednesday. We'll be back talk some more college football
Speaker 1: with all y'all. Don't forget. You can email us at
Speaker 1: saliverbo at gmail dot com, or find us on Twitter,
Speaker 1: on Facebook, Instagram, all the normal social media channels. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, tell your friends about the show, Subscribe at
Speaker 1: iTunes dot com or wherever find podcasts are sold. For
Speaker 1: that guy over there in beautiful New York City, Dan Rubinstein.
Speaker 1: For myself here in good old Eastern PA. My name
Speaker 1: is ty Hildebrandt. We will catch you all in a week.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, stay solid, hey,