Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal.
Speaker 2: Hulleh for me. I'm a man, I'm forty.
Speaker 1: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
Speaker 1: be happy.
Speaker 2: You want to be happy for day Edith State?
Speaker 1: Is that? Whoo whoo and nod and Tye, welcome back
Speaker 1: to the solid verbal Boys and girls, My name is
Speaker 1: ty hilde Brand. That fine gentleman over there, the one,
Speaker 1: the only, still, the incomparable Dan Rivenstein, sir, Yeah, how
Speaker 1: are you.
Speaker 2: I'm good? And something struck me about Ball Season that
Speaker 2: I didn't fully bring into account when we did part
Speaker 2: one of ball Season, and that is that I think
Speaker 2: we use a pejorative term of TV show, right. The
Speaker 2: playoff is a TV show, right, And that it is
Speaker 2: kind of true that there is that element of we're
Speaker 2: doing things for entertainment above all else, not necessarily for
Speaker 2: competitive reasons or you know, national college football reasons, whatever,
Speaker 2: that this is like the good of the sport. And
Speaker 2: obviously there's something about the good of the sport being, hey,
Speaker 2: let's make a bunch of money so we can pay
Speaker 2: coaches or retain coaches or you know, maximize things for
Speaker 2: the program. But Bull Season is that unabashed element or
Speaker 2: that unabashed motivation, being TV show friendly, and I love not.
Speaker 2: I mean, the major Bowls are fine, but there is
Speaker 2: something about forgetting that there's a bowl game on and
Speaker 2: coming across Oh, the New Mexico Bowl is on. I
Speaker 2: have no investment in any of these teams. This has
Speaker 2: no bearing on the future of the sport, you know,
Speaker 2: writ large anything like that. But I don't know. I
Speaker 2: can watch Colorado State for a few minutes.
Speaker 1: I can.
Speaker 2: I can dedicate fifty seven minutes of my life to
Speaker 2: watching Memphis football three hours of my life. Like it's
Speaker 2: snowing outside, it's windy, it's blustery. Like, yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: absolutely cancel whatever workout I was gonna do or whatever
Speaker 2: me I was gonna make, and dedicate myself to Wazoo Miami.
Speaker 2: Why not? And I love this surprise factor of ball
Speaker 2: season that you know, sometimes you'll be doing something and
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, it's fifty seven fifty four with seven
Speaker 2: minutes left. Yes, I have to watch the end of
Speaker 2: this game. Yeah, I have to drop all work and
Speaker 2: social plans because the Bahamas ball is out of control.
Speaker 2: It's wonderful.
Speaker 1: It's like happening upon Major League on TNT or one
Speaker 1: of those other movie Independence Day where you simply can't
Speaker 1: look away. I think, especially for us, so much of
Speaker 1: what we do from the end of August through the
Speaker 1: beginning of December is hang on the results of these games, Yes,
Speaker 1: and we try to make sense of it. We try
Speaker 1: to put in context for the listening audience. Yeah, when
Speaker 1: you get to ball season, as we'll discuss, there are
Speaker 1: so many other variables at play, with coaches leaving, with
Speaker 1: players opting out, with guys transferring. It has been a
Speaker 1: very active transfer portal, as you know. Maybe we'll get
Speaker 1: into a little bit of that today to kind of
Speaker 1: have all of those competing factors and in effect have
Speaker 1: exhibition games that are meaningful and do require context after
Speaker 1: the fact, but we don't need to take them as seriously,
Speaker 1: which is part of why some of the games are
Speaker 1: named after the Gasparillo Pirate Festival. Sure, Dan, that's why
Speaker 1: we're here.
Speaker 2: Jim Jimmy Kimby Kimmel had a quote that said, I
Speaker 2: think on his TV show he said, who's playing in
Speaker 2: my game?
Speaker 1: Again?
Speaker 2: Something like that just ridiculous, which is disrespectful honestly to
Speaker 2: both Oregon State and Utah State. Who I believe that
Speaker 2: those are the teams playing in Sofi Stadium and the
Speaker 2: Jimmy Kimmel La Bowl. But yeah, it while you were talking,
Speaker 2: I had visions of, you know how, sometimes, very rarely,
Speaker 2: we'll get a semi truck that flips while driving and
Speaker 2: nobody's hurt and traffic is affected, which is not good,
Speaker 2: but it's all it's filled with you who I'm gonna
Speaker 2: dig a little deeper and find as many pictures of
Speaker 2: this flood of chocolate drink along I eighty.
Speaker 1: There are many tons of Duke's Mayo.
Speaker 2: Yeah. On the there's there's a hilarious truck spillage where
Speaker 2: nobody's hurt, where you're just like, well, there's a there's
Speaker 2: a lot of Oscar Meyer hot dogs spilling out onto
Speaker 2: the highway. And I'm gonna look at pictures and I'm
Speaker 2: just it's gonna occupy my attention. And here we all.
Speaker 2: Here we are Bull Season Part two, which is filled
Speaker 2: with both that and actual competitive matchups that we that
Speaker 2: we should talk about with actual, you know, bigger competitive meeting.
Speaker 1: We absolutely will. So first things first, our website is
Speaker 1: solid verbal dot com. If you are just finding us
Speaker 1: this Bull Season, it would have been nice to have
Speaker 1: you during the regular season. But yeah, nonetheless, we're glad
Speaker 1: you found us. Please don't forget to subscribe on Apple,
Speaker 1: on Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. Your subscription goes
Speaker 1: a long way. We're also doing something called the Solid
Speaker 1: Giveaway Solid Giveaway dot Com. We ask you to take
Speaker 1: a few easy steps. It's free to join. Get your
Speaker 1: hat in the ring for a signed Desmond Howard mini helmet.
Speaker 1: It's Michigan season, baby. We got all sorts of sken reasons.
Speaker 1: Howard just awkwardly put down Ohio State on the Heisman stage.
Speaker 1: And you can own a piece of that legacy. Own
Speaker 1: a piece of that legacy. Go to Solid Gateway dot com.
Speaker 1: And last, but certainly not least, you know, as we're
Speaker 1: talking through all of these games, we are running the
Speaker 1: Big Bowl Confidence Pool Playwinter Wonders dot com. It's only
Speaker 1: available to our Patreon subscribers. It's a big fun contest.
Speaker 1: We love the Bowl confidence pools. I will recap in
Speaker 1: painstaking detail for anyone who missed my Cock and Maamy
Speaker 1: theories of how to pick these games on the last episode,
Speaker 1: but suffice to say, Playwinter Wonders dot Com is how
Speaker 1: you can get in on the action. We got hundreds
Speaker 1: of people who have already joined, hundreds more are soon
Speaker 1: to follow. But it is a note that you only
Speaker 1: have until noon on December to seventeenth, because that's when
Speaker 1: the Bahamas Ball starts and after that you're you're unable
Speaker 1: to get in pick slock. So yeah, still got a
Speaker 1: couple of days. We would encourage you to go on
Speaker 1: out there. Playwinterwonders dot com for more information.
Speaker 2: I missed confidence Pool playing because we didn't do it
Speaker 2: last year. We did a separate kind of Winter Wonders
Speaker 2: and we're back to the confidence system and there is
Speaker 2: that that tension when you're looking at that screen like
Speaker 2: is it a thirty eight or thirty three? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: Love confidence Pool. Playwinterwonders dot com. Let's dive into Batch
Speaker 2: two again.
Speaker 1: Time to help the weak. So to recap on the
Speaker 1: last episode, we went through all of the Bowl games
Speaker 1: up to and including December the twenty eighth. Yeah, up
Speaker 1: to and including the Guaranteed Rate Bowl which they play
Speaker 1: at Chase Field and Phoenix. That one is between West
Speaker 1: Virginia and Minnesota. When we recorded that show, the lines,
Speaker 1: the points spreads were I think still relatively accurate, had
Speaker 1: some early lines that we put out there into the ether.
Speaker 1: We're not picking these games based solely on the point spreads,
Speaker 1: but again as a way of providing more information, giving
Speaker 1: context to at least how Vegas feels about these games.
Speaker 1: In some cases it is pertinent information. What I found
Speaker 1: in going through Bullbatch too and looking at the point
Speaker 1: spreads that I had initially jotted down, A lot of
Speaker 1: them moved a lot, Yeah, a lot. There were some
Speaker 1: that moved double digits, and that's for a multitude of reasons.
Speaker 1: That's because of coach movement, that's because of player movement,
Speaker 1: both opt outs and its opt out and transfer variety,
Speaker 1: some injuries, that type of thing. So we're going to
Speaker 1: do our best here to try and capture that. But
Speaker 1: please do note here right out of the shoot that
Speaker 1: a lot of this is subject to change. We're only
Speaker 1: starting to find out who in fact is opting out
Speaker 1: of their games and who isn't, as we'll discuss as
Speaker 1: we go through here. There are I'm sure many other
Speaker 1: players to come. Kenny Pickett is one who who I
Speaker 1: don't think will play, doesn't sound like he'll play, but
Speaker 1: has not given an affirmative one way or the other
Speaker 1: as to what he's going to do. So we'll get
Speaker 1: into all that and much much more. Should I just
Speaker 1: recap Dan? I you know, I don't know how much
Speaker 1: I want to really hit on this again. But should
Speaker 1: I recap my theory of the case and why I'm
Speaker 1: on Ty's Bowl preview?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Real quick, just give me, give me those three
Speaker 2: bullet points. Three bullet points confidence pull. First off, you
Speaker 2: pick the winners, and then you rank your order of certainty.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And so the first order of business is the
Speaker 1: default setting in the game. If you go to Playwinterwonders
Speaker 1: dot com, the default setting is the game automatically allots
Speaker 1: one point on the Bahamas Bowl and forty four points
Speaker 1: on the Playoff. I say, and it's not my idea,
Speaker 1: but I say switch it. Because you don't know who's
Speaker 1: going to be in that final game of the playoff.
Speaker 2: You have no idea, right.
Speaker 1: And furthermore, the deeper you get into this thing, you
Speaker 1: get to the New Year's six games, the teams are
Speaker 1: a lot more evenly matched than they are early. So
Speaker 1: if you're betting all your points on something, bet early.
Speaker 1: Bet on the games that are bigger mismatches and try
Speaker 1: to front load your points as much as possible. So
Speaker 1: as we go through here, what we're going to do
Speaker 1: is we're going to talk through high, medium, and low
Speaker 1: confidence levels for each of these games as we make
Speaker 1: our talks.
Speaker 2: And I mean, it's sort of it's the theory that like, hey,
Speaker 2: if you're going to start wagering a bunch of money
Speaker 2: on college football or sports in general, become a Mountain
Speaker 2: West expert, just go WS or MLS where you're just like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm going to dig, dig, dig deep for the data
Speaker 2: about these teams in these matchups. Whereas you know, a
Speaker 2: great SEC team against a great big ten team, a
Speaker 2: great ACC team against a great big twelve team, you know,
Speaker 2: can be it's just a normal you know, the normal
Speaker 2: variants of college football. So I'm totally with you.
Speaker 1: So that's the first rule. The second rule is, as
Speaker 1: we discussed, if you're serious about picking winners and losers
Speaker 1: mm hmm, preferably winners, pay attention to things like transfers,
Speaker 1: pay attention to opt outs, coach movement, stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I I generally will like to pick against a team
Speaker 1: that is losing its coach, but that does not apply
Speaker 1: to all cases. It's not one size fits all. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty heavy on Florida and Florida lost its guy, right,
Speaker 1: So it's a case by case thing. But again, if
Speaker 1: you're serious, you got to pay attention to these types
Speaker 1: of things. And then the final point, which is harder
Speaker 1: to pin down, is motivation. These are exhibition games. As
Speaker 1: we said at the top, motivation plays a factor. Who
Speaker 1: wants to be there more. Utah has got its first
Speaker 1: ever Rose Bowl coming up against Ohio State. My hunch
Speaker 1: is that motivation is very high on the Utah side
Speaker 1: and on the Ohio State side. I'm sure it's equally
Speaker 1: as high because people don't just you know, scoff at
Speaker 1: the Rose Bowl. But at the same time, it's very
Speaker 1: likely that both Chris Olavy and Garrett Wilson will opt
Speaker 1: out by the time thanks to Yeah, well that real possibility.
Speaker 2: Well s's why, That's why, And I'm totally aligned with
Speaker 2: you in terms of motivation, in terms of caring, in
Speaker 2: terms of finding you know, finding ways to find continuity
Speaker 2: whatever within your team, within your coaching staff, and make
Speaker 2: it work even with a bunch of changes. To me,
Speaker 2: it's defense. To me, defense is the umbrella over all
Speaker 2: those things. You don't suddenly learn to figure out run
Speaker 2: fits in mid December if you haven't been doing it
Speaker 2: all year long. And so if a team cares, if
Speaker 2: a team is bought in and gives effort all season long,
Speaker 2: it's likely that that's going to continue during both season.
Speaker 2: On defense because what it travels, and it's just it's
Speaker 2: a factor of if you're beat up whatever, it's harder
Speaker 2: to play defense. So I think everything you said is
Speaker 2: absolutely true, and that's why I put it under the
Speaker 2: Dan umbrella of defense. And if there's a team that's
Speaker 2: dramatically better defensively, especially in points per drive, a metric
Speaker 2: I really like to use because it's more results oriented,
Speaker 2: that's almost always the direction I'm going to go in,
Speaker 2: unless there is some sort of you know, huge changes
Speaker 2: at the top or something like that that could affect
Speaker 2: effort and everything like that. But no, that's sort of
Speaker 2: that's my mantra with confidence bull stuff.
Speaker 1: Speaking of defense. Speaking of hard nosed football, let's go
Speaker 1: to the Wasabi ball wes Sasabi ball? Are you are you?
Speaker 2: Was that like a what's up? Budweiser combined with yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: you are you? A w sabi person, do you like
Speaker 2: that spicy root?
Speaker 1: Not really? Oh really, I like wassabi fresh with sabi,
Speaker 1: very good. The was sabi Fenway Ball. They play it
Speaker 1: on December twenty ninth at eleven am Eastern Time on ESPN.
Speaker 1: It is SMU at eight and four. It is Virginia
Speaker 1: at six and six. Virginia now favored by one and
Speaker 1: one half points. Dan, this game is a certified mess.
Speaker 2: It is it's in a baseball stadium. Two interims, Yeah, continue.
Speaker 1: In a baseball stadium. He got two interims. Sunny Dykes
Speaker 1: is already gone and he took some assistance with him. Also,
Speaker 1: Reggie Roberson and Danny Gray, two of the top three
Speaker 1: wide outs for SMU, have opted out. Meanwhile, Bronco Mendenhall
Speaker 1: excuse me, had the shock announcement that he was stepping away.
Speaker 1: He will coach in this game.
Speaker 2: That's double interim situation. But yes, he's done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but eight Virginia players have entered the portal, including
Speaker 1: a bunch of offensive linemen. Now I haven't seen if
Speaker 1: they're gonna play. They could technically play if they wanted,
Speaker 1: but there's just a lot of distractions really across both teams.
Speaker 1: Here with all these competing factors, do you have a lean?
Speaker 2: I think so, with all these competing factors with SMUs,
Speaker 2: I think they're not great against the past, They're stronger
Speaker 2: against the run. Virginia came along against the run. But
Speaker 2: you mentioned the offensive line opt outs and transfers.
Speaker 1: Whatever.
Speaker 2: I'm going Virginia here. This is sort of a win
Speaker 2: and out too bad defenses, and they have the coaching
Speaker 2: continuity with Bronco Mendenhall being his last game, so there's
Speaker 2: the emotion there, and the quarterback factor that Brendan Armstrong
Speaker 2: was beat up and he has only gotten healthier. I
Speaker 2: don't believe he is opting out. He was very clear
Speaker 2: that his decision was going to come down to staying
Speaker 2: at Virginia or going to the NFL, not transferring or
Speaker 2: anything like that, or entering the portal. So I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go with the I'm gonna ride the Virginia emotion. Whereas
Speaker 2: SMU going from Texas to an extremely cold place near
Speaker 2: New Year's it could be blustery, snowy whatever in Fenway.
Speaker 2: I think I'm just going to opt for Virginia finishing
Speaker 2: out the season strong. Whereas SMU, I believe not so
Speaker 2: much in terms of finishing out the season strong, right yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean not even just losing their coaches. But they
Speaker 2: lost four or five to after starting the season eight
Speaker 2: o seven to oh. So I don't I don't love
Speaker 2: the momentum. I think SMU is ready for the sunny
Speaker 2: Dyke's era and excuse me, that was the Red Lash era.
Speaker 2: Excuse me, and just wants to play out the air.
Speaker 2: So I'm well with Virginia to feel that electricity within
Speaker 2: the friendly confines of Fenway.
Speaker 1: My thoughts exactly. He could not have of it, could
Speaker 1: not have taken my words more verbatima, Virginia. Low confidence
Speaker 1: for me, low confidence.
Speaker 2: I'd load a medium, maybe right around double digit, but
Speaker 2: not too much higher than you know, ten to eleven.
Speaker 2: Area four is the move for really good looking charred pizza,
Speaker 2: beer wine. I think that's my move. I know there's
Speaker 2: a lot of you know, touristy spots, you know, the
Speaker 2: Freedom Trail whatever in Boston Area four.
Speaker 1: That would be where I go. Alrighty, let's go to
Speaker 1: the new era Pinstripe Bowl. Dan, speaking of games in
Speaker 1: baseball stadiums, he got another one here two fifteen ESPN
Speaker 1: Maryland at six and six Virginia Tech at six and six,
Speaker 1: The Turps are a one point favorite. You may recall
Speaker 1: Justin Fuente was fired, but mostly the same staff sticking
Speaker 1: around through the bowl game to aid that coaching transition
Speaker 1: over to Brent Prye. Tech had a bunch of guys
Speaker 1: opt out saw that And maybe this is just me
Speaker 1: hopping aboard the overthink express, which is something I'm prone
Speaker 1: to doing.
Speaker 2: But this is well side. You have Pinstripe Bowl experience,
Speaker 2: I have real as a fan. You have insight that
Speaker 2: I don't have, have.
Speaker 1: Real Pinstripe Bowl experience. Thank you for reminding me of
Speaker 1: that day. I appreciate that you're a good friend.
Speaker 2: Is your hat nearby?
Speaker 1: It is not nearby. I may have lost it. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure where it got to. No, this seems like
Speaker 1: the kind of game where Mike Loxley would get his
Speaker 1: guys fired up, because Mike Losley knows the DMV, as
Speaker 1: we've said time and again on this show, and this
Speaker 1: is kind of like a recruiting chip, right. This is like, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: we're kind of in the same footprint. We're trying to
Speaker 1: get one up on those guys down in Virginia. It's
Speaker 1: something he could sell to recruits. We already know coaches
Speaker 1: do this all the time with rivalries. Locksley seems like
Speaker 1: the kind of guy, given his strong roots to the area,
Speaker 1: who would look at this game and find a way
Speaker 1: to craft it as a rivalry. So I think with that,
Speaker 1: I think, with the fact that Tech is really a
Speaker 1: shell of itself at this point, Maryland's going to be
Speaker 1: fired up. I go Maryland medium, high confidence. Man, I'm
Speaker 1: in on the turps here. Oh Ty, you dumb bitch.
Speaker 2: Sorry for the language. I try not to swear on
Speaker 2: this show because I know we might be in cars
Speaker 2: with children or whatever. But first of all, shell of
Speaker 2: itself is an amazing turn of phrase from Maryland with
Speaker 2: you know, turtle shell whatever. I'm not gonna just jump off.
Speaker 2: Maryland is an elite loser when they get to the
Speaker 2: Pinstripe Bowl. Okay, you know what elite losers do. Tie
Speaker 2: no matter the opponent, no matter the place, no matter
Speaker 2: the time, no matter the weather, they find ways to
Speaker 2: lose by double He won six games, though, Yeah, until
Speaker 2: how they do after that? How they do after winning?
Speaker 2: I mean, what do they start the season. They started
Speaker 2: the season four and oh, and then they finished the
Speaker 2: season two and six. Is my math correct there? Two
Speaker 2: and six? Sure, they beat Indiana, who is also an
Speaker 2: elital loser, by three points, and then they beat Rutgers handily,
Speaker 2: and I get that. Fine, that's that game was not
Speaker 2: in the DMV though that game was in the Tri
Speaker 2: state area where this game is happening. I think Virginia
Speaker 2: Tech with the experience of an interim coach I think
Speaker 2: his name is Price, who's coaching his final game as
Speaker 2: the interim coach before Brent probably takes over Maryland dealing
Speaker 2: with transfers right a couple of their higher profile commitments
Speaker 2: from these past couple of years, more talented players have
Speaker 2: left the program. I think a linebacker, a top flight
Speaker 2: linebacker from Florida. So no, I'm not jumping off. I
Speaker 2: think Virginia Tech finds a way in the Bronx. By
Speaker 2: the way, you should be eating old school Italian red
Speaker 2: sauce joint food on Arthur Avenue. If not, if you're
Speaker 2: staying in Manhattan, I don't know, go to Johns of Bleaker.
Speaker 2: There's amazing pizza and restaurants of all kinds upland would
Speaker 2: be a good nicer restaurant option. I'm going with Virginia
Speaker 2: Tech here. I'm going with Virginia Tech to run on
Speaker 2: them to get stops and turn to Leah Tungovailoa over
Speaker 2: a lot, because that's the experience we have. I'm watching
Speaker 2: Maryland football this year.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go to the cheese at ball. They
Speaker 1: play at in Orlando at camping Wood Stadium, five forty
Speaker 1: five on ESPN. And is Clemson at nine and three.
Speaker 1: It is Iowa State at seven and five. Iowa State favored, Yeah,
Speaker 1: favored by one point here, which, okay, I found that interesting.
Speaker 1: Clemson did lose both coordinators, Tony Elliott off to UVA,
Speaker 1: Brent Vennibles notably off to Oklahoma. I would also expect
Speaker 1: that we're going to see an opt out from Andrew
Speaker 1: Booth junior the corner, okay, for Clemson, and I would
Speaker 1: also expect an opt out for Brise Hall on the
Speaker 1: Iowa State side. I don't know if there's really much
Speaker 1: at stake him here for him to play other than
Speaker 1: his own NFL future, but I am trying to pick
Speaker 1: these games with those opt outs in mind, because I
Speaker 1: think in most cases, eighty percent of the cases, the
Speaker 1: guys we expect to opt out, probably will I don't
Speaker 1: know about Breese Hall staying in this game. Definitely gives
Speaker 1: me more to think about. My working assumption here is
Speaker 1: that he will not be taking part in this game.
Speaker 2: Would you say it was point and a half two points?
Speaker 2: Iowa States favored one point? One point? Okay, I've seen
Speaker 2: it all over the place these past couple days. Just
Speaker 2: between one and two. I'm going Clemson here. I'm going
Speaker 2: Clemson here because I do like the momentum and opportunity.
Speaker 2: I think Clemson will take Iowa States seriously, even though
Speaker 2: this is a clone program who I don't think of.
Speaker 2: I don't think they met expectations, but those are lofty expectations.
Speaker 2: I still think like if Iowa State's winning eight and
Speaker 2: nine games a year, that's a good place to be considering.
Speaker 2: So I think Clemson will take Iowa State seriously. I
Speaker 2: worry about Iowa State without Breee Hall, which seems likely
Speaker 2: we'll see, and I think the Clemson defense, even with
Speaker 2: some opt outs, is still deep enough and we'll be
Speaker 2: ready to play. I mean, no ted Roof anymore, so
Speaker 2: that's a hit obvious. Losing ted Roof there as an analyst,
Speaker 2: But no, I'm still in on Clemson. I still think
Speaker 2: Dabo is a motivator and we'll get them ready for
Speaker 2: this game. And I think there will be a certain
Speaker 2: degree of confidence from dj Uyangola La after the way
Speaker 2: he finished out the year improved. I think they should
Speaker 2: be able to run a little bit against a very
Speaker 2: good Iowa State defense. And look, Iowa State is a
Speaker 2: tricky team. As somebody who roots for a team who
Speaker 2: was not all that competitive against this Clone team in
Speaker 2: a big bowl game last year, I can tell you
Speaker 2: they have a very specific way of trying to nickel
Speaker 2: and dime. I think Iowa States without a couple of
Speaker 2: receiving targets Tarik Milton opted out.
Speaker 1: That's correct, That's correct.
Speaker 2: So I just I don't think Iowa State can afford that.
Speaker 2: I think you need to score at this point. We
Speaker 2: said twenty to beat Clemson before. You probably need to
Speaker 2: score twenty eight to beat Clemson now. And I just
Speaker 2: don't see it from Iowa State. So I'm taking Clemson
Speaker 2: here to get it done. Especially with how careless Rock
Speaker 2: Purty can be at times with the ball, I think
Speaker 2: Clemson forces a couple of brutal mistakes so I have
Speaker 2: them winning by you know, six to ten points.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm on Clemson high confidence for pretty much all
Speaker 1: the same reasons that you're on them as well. The
Speaker 1: only other thing that I'd point out is if Breet's
Speaker 1: Hall is out and if brock Purdy is already down
Speaker 1: to targets, he may be back in that situation that
Speaker 1: Matt Campbell has cautioned us about in the past, which
Speaker 1: is brock Purdy trying to do everything on his own. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That does not feel Yeah, that doesn't feel like a
Speaker 1: great formula to me, going up against a very stingy
Speaker 1: defense at Clemson. Yeah, so I'm with you. I'm with you.
Speaker 1: I'd be inclined to go Clemson.
Speaker 2: Plus one is that is brock Purdy our tof Beer
Speaker 2: player of the Week, the cause and solution to all
Speaker 2: of iowas to be problems.
Speaker 1: He might be. Yeah, all right, all right, let's go
Speaker 1: to the Alamo Bowl. Dan, You've got a rooting interest
Speaker 1: in this one. I do nine fifteen play this one
Speaker 1: in San Antonio at the Alamo Dome.
Speaker 2: They have since I should mention, by the way, nine
Speaker 2: oh three mills for a nice soup and sandwich combo
Speaker 2: and some beer and wine in Orlando.
Speaker 1: Wow, thank you.
Speaker 2: You know like that that country bread grilled chee.
Speaker 1: He looks very strong. Back to the Alma bole. Sorry,
Speaker 1: it's okay. Oklahoma minus four and a half. They're ten
Speaker 1: and three. Oregon is ten and two. Again nine to
Speaker 1: fifteen on ESPN. Another situation where we've got new coaches
Speaker 1: and two high profile coaches, or coach openings or interims,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call this matchup here between Oregon
Speaker 1: and Oklahoma. It'll be Bob Stoops for Oklahoma, no stranger
Speaker 1: to the program. Pull on a Barry Alvarez step it
Speaker 1: in for the Sooners and Brian mcclennon for your Oregon Ducks.
Speaker 1: The line shifted eleven points, eleven points from Oregon minus
Speaker 1: six and a half two Oklahoma minus four and a half.
Speaker 1: It may shift more. Who's to say. We also have
Speaker 1: Kevon Thibodeaux opting out declaring for the NFL Draft. Oregon
Speaker 1: had a corner. DJ James hit the portal. We have
Speaker 1: Joe mooreh ed dutifully sticking around to call the plays
Speaker 1: on offense. I have not seen the status of other
Speaker 1: assistants on the Oregon side.
Speaker 2: Dan, what I think largely. It's very strange, by the way,
Speaker 2: and I don't I mean, this is a broader conversation
Speaker 2: in general about coaching continuity and guys leaving for new
Speaker 2: jobs or whatever. Like I think they're gonna be one
Speaker 2: two three guys, strength coach whatever leaving for Miami. Like
Speaker 2: Mario Chris Baal's best friend is the longtime Oregon offense
Speaker 2: or a long time four year offensive line coach, and
Speaker 2: he's going with him to Miami, but he's still coaching
Speaker 2: Oregon and you're just like, why is why is he
Speaker 2: still there?
Speaker 1: Why don't we do it? Like do we not have GA's,
Speaker 1: do we not have some sort of contingency, And it's, uh,
Speaker 1: it's odd.
Speaker 2: So I think there are there are guys that are
Speaker 2: still there that are moving on, and I really hope
Speaker 2: I don't see a bunch of Oregon offensive lineman transferred
Speaker 2: to Miami with this offensive line coach just hanging around. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's like, hey, what about warmer in Miami? That's what
Speaker 2: he sounds like, Alex mirorwell, so, uh yeah, they have assistance.
Speaker 2: They're practicing. Dan Lanning has been at practice. I think
Speaker 2: he's resonated well with some players, so far. But uh, yeah,
Speaker 2: they're being coached up for Oklahoma as I'm sure Oklahoma
Speaker 2: with some because I know Lincoln Riley took assistance with
Speaker 2: him to USC and they're not coaching anymore in Norman.
Speaker 2: So I mean they'll show up, they'll wear uniforms, they'll
Speaker 2: wear pads, helmets, the whole thing. No idea what to expect.
Speaker 2: I just I hope both of these teams are like,
Speaker 2: let's run thirteen to eighteen trick places.
Speaker 1: Well there, this will this will, I think baby the
Speaker 1: optimal game. Yeah, to do what I said earlier and
Speaker 1: just change the rules. Man, Yeah, we're gonna have a
Speaker 1: spring game out here. Yeah, let's just throw it around,
Speaker 1: draw to the single wing. Why not? So Joe moorehead
Speaker 1: will be there. We don't know who else is gonna
Speaker 1: be there. Yeah, Oklahoma has also seen some turnover. Not
Speaker 1: to focus too much in Oregon, but Alex Grinch and
Speaker 1: like three or four other guys on the coach treatment
Speaker 1: to USC. It is a weird situation, man, It's is
Speaker 1: a weird situation.
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 1: I get why you go bob stoops, I get it.
Speaker 1: I hate that situation. I hate the situation where you
Speaker 1: bring the guy back who wasn't on the staff, he
Speaker 1: just swoops in and takes over. And you know, Stoops
Speaker 1: in this case, I guess it's a conduit to venabules.
Speaker 1: They know each other, right, they obviously stop. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone on the Oklahoma side is going
Speaker 1: to dog it out there. But it's just an odd
Speaker 1: circumstance that we find ourselves in in a game like this,
Speaker 1: and frankly every Bull season when you got coach movement
Speaker 1: and new people stepping in. Even still, I'm gonna pick
Speaker 1: Oklahoma and I'm gonna go medium confidence. I just don't
Speaker 1: like Oregon in the matchup. Okay, for as much as
Speaker 1: the coaching thing kind of sticks in my craw, I
Speaker 1: just don't like Oregon in the matchup. I think if
Speaker 1: Oklahoma wanted to, especially given circumstances where they're probably gonna
Speaker 1: be running with like a dressed down playbook and trying
Speaker 1: to keep it a little bit more of an NILA,
Speaker 1: I would assume then normal they can play bullyball against Oregon.
Speaker 1: They can play that same style that Utah played and
Speaker 1: had a lot of success with. That's on tape now
Speaker 1: and Stoops is going to see that. So I think
Speaker 1: if they want to play that style football, they can,
Speaker 1: and I think they'll win. I got medium confidence on
Speaker 1: this Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have no confidence at all in this game,
Speaker 2: just because I have confidence that I'm going to watch
Speaker 2: this game in a way that I haven't watched Oregon
Speaker 2: football in a long time, which is like, here's just
Speaker 2: just a crazy toss up. It was going back to
Speaker 2: like two thousand and seven when Oregon was starting like
Speaker 2: it's fifth string quarterback. We're like, I'm not expecting anything,
Speaker 2: but let's see what happens. And Oregon actually won their
Speaker 2: bowl game doing that with Justin Roper. If you remember
Speaker 2: way back when I am I'm just excited to see
Speaker 2: how these teams are bob stoops on the sideline, you know,
Speaker 2: interim situation at Oregon, and you know, if Joe Morehead
Speaker 2: really does throw the kitchen sink, now there are Oregon
Speaker 2: fans that say that he was held back by Mario
Speaker 2: Cristobal's footprint and design to play that kind of guerrilla ball.
Speaker 1: I think they're just gonna go for it.
Speaker 2: I think Oregon will lose this game forty five to seven,
Speaker 2: or win this game forty eight to forty five, right, Like,
Speaker 2: I just it's all on the table with with nothing
Speaker 2: to lose, really given the lame duck, no pun intend.
Speaker 1: They're going full Presbyterian here, not punting. Yeah, fourth downs.
Speaker 1: Orgon might run a hooking ladder first play of the game.
Speaker 2: Why not. Joe Morehead's got what are the repercussions for
Speaker 2: Joe Morehead? He's going to Akron. You know the staff
Speaker 2: is going to be there and be professional. They have
Speaker 2: their own professional reputations. But yeah, I don't love Oklahoma
Speaker 2: in this spot, Like, I'm not all that confident in
Speaker 2: a Bob Stoop's coach team. Guys are leaving, they're transferring
Speaker 2: the recruiting classes up in the air. Who the hell knows?
Speaker 2: You know, Caleb Williams can be both excellent but also
Speaker 2: go four of eleven for seventy seven yards, Like that's
Speaker 2: always on the table as well with him at this
Speaker 2: point in his career. So y, I don't know what
Speaker 2: the point spread is. I would take the points in
Speaker 2: weird games because there are just more opportunities to win
Speaker 2: that way, and I'm gonna go Oklahoma with medium confidence.
Speaker 1: Alrighty, Well, we disagree by the way, we should point
Speaker 1: out especially as we move to this game here the
Speaker 1: Duke's Mayo Bowl.
Speaker 2: Two M Smokehouse and two M Smokehouse, two M smokehouse
Speaker 2: for what looks to be sensational barbecue with a lot
Speaker 2: of Mexican influence. Which yeah, uh, tie my hands behind
Speaker 2: my back and hog time me and keep me away
Speaker 2: because that's singing.
Speaker 1: My name, singing your name. Just yell out the restaurants
Speaker 1: I keep forgetting two M, two M. Thank you. I
Speaker 1: appreciate that. Okay, what I was gonna say is there
Speaker 1: is some overlap between the Evluir Al Mobile and the
Speaker 1: Duke's Mayo Bowl on the thirtieth because Oklahoma is playing
Speaker 1: in that Almobile and South Carolina is playing in the
Speaker 1: Duke's Mayo Bowl, and notably Sincer Rattler, and now he's
Speaker 1: going to South Carolina of all places we heard UCLA
Speaker 1: everybody wanted Spencer Ratler. Spencer Ratler. Yeah, preseason Heisman favorite,
Speaker 1: kind of one of them. Anyway, coming into the twenty
Speaker 1: one season, well and behold Spencer Ratler going to Shane
Speaker 1: Biemer biamber ball two point zero. Get a nice little
Speaker 1: boost there on offense.
Speaker 2: Shane and Spencer. Was there not a Yankee named Shane Spencer.
Speaker 1: There was a Shane Spencer, yea utility mension mostly outfielder,
Speaker 1: played a little bit of first base here and there.
Speaker 2: Didn't see this coming. I thought Spencer Ratler would have
Speaker 2: opted for a more turn key offensive operation, considering his
Speaker 2: time thus far at Oklahoma, which is, you know, obviously
Speaker 2: was a well oiled machine under Lincoln Rally in South Carolina,
Speaker 2: very much still in developmental mode on offense, but certainly
Speaker 2: to have you know, the stage in the SEC and
Speaker 2: be the guy unquestionably which he wasn't at Oklahoma. Bringing
Speaker 2: in a five star behind.
Speaker 1: Him, it's great. And also Austin Stogner Stoner Stagner, I
Speaker 1: say his name, the tit end four star going to
Speaker 1: South Carolina as well. So nice little coup there, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for Shane Biemer on the portal. As for the Duke's
Speaker 1: Mayo Bowl, Dan Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, December
Speaker 1: the thirtieth, eleven thirty a m. Eastern time on ESPN,
Speaker 1: It's North Carolina versus South Carolina tar Heels favored by
Speaker 1: a touchdown by seven points here in this football game.
Speaker 1: Here's what I believe. I believe that Sam Howe is
Speaker 1: going to play in this game. To be clear, the
Speaker 1: only reason that Sam Howe plays in this game is
Speaker 1: to try and boost his draft stock. There's really no
Speaker 1: other reason. I believe he's going to play in this game. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Everything I've seen points to that. Everything I've seen points
Speaker 1: to that. For South Carolina, I think the real Bowl
Speaker 1: win is getting to the Bowl at all, just getting here,
Speaker 1: and I think they'll want it more. I think they
Speaker 1: will be motivated. I just think North Carolina is better.
Speaker 1: Even if it's Sam Howell out there doing what he does,
Speaker 1: running around pointnet guys showing him where to run down
Speaker 1: the field. I just think they're better. I wouldn't touch
Speaker 1: the point spread here because I think there is a
Speaker 1: motivation factor. I could see this one being uncomfortably close.
Speaker 1: But I am on UNC with high confidence because I
Speaker 1: genuinely feel like they're the better team. Even though South
Speaker 1: Carolina got here, I still don't really think they're that good.
Speaker 1: It might be better next year with Spencer Ratler. I
Speaker 1: hope they are right. The fact that they got here,
Speaker 1: the fact that they got the six and six is
Speaker 1: an accomplishment unto itself. But give me UNC.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I this is interesting because both of these defenses
Speaker 2: are better at one thing than another thing, So I
Speaker 2: was trying to look at who might have the advantage there.
Speaker 2: We've seen North Carolina take a giant step back in
Speaker 2: a number of areas on both sides of the ball
Speaker 2: at times, especially up front. You know, South Carolina is
Speaker 2: decent against the pass, but they allowed too many big
Speaker 2: pass plays and North Carolina really took step back kind
Speaker 2: of as a hole on defense, but especially upfront. I'm
Speaker 2: going North Carolina here went in doubt with two questionable defenses.
Speaker 2: It seems like there's a little more continuity with how
Speaker 2: long mac Brown has now been in Chapel Hill and
Speaker 2: to have that quarterback advantage, especially with like like you mentioned,
Speaker 2: this is a showcase performance type game for Sam Howell.
Speaker 2: I'm going I'm going heels here in a bit of
Speaker 2: a shootout, medium high confidence.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to the trans Perfect Music City Bawl,
Speaker 1: a Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 2: Futo Bhuta is the Roman place I've mentioned in Charlotte,
Speaker 2: but also Optimist Hall is a food haul. Harriet's an
Speaker 2: amazing looking burger. They sell burgers and fries.
Speaker 1: That's it. That's my kind of place, simplicity. Just gotta
Speaker 1: yell it out, man, just tack on. Sorry, I keep
Speaker 1: forgetting tack it on to the back end of the
Speaker 1: games or something.
Speaker 2: Now time you're the pro in this split screen, you're
Speaker 2: the pro.
Speaker 1: Not I can watch. By the way, ad for Bowlers
Speaker 1: dot com. Oh for Bowlers dot com. Trans Perfect Music
Speaker 1: City Bowl between Nissan, No, not between Nissan. They play
Speaker 1: hold on Nissan might be involved. Nissan versus Nashville No
Speaker 1: Nissan Stadium in Nashville, three pm ESPN, Tennessee. Volunteers playing
Speaker 1: the home game. Man playing the home game seven and
Speaker 1: five their minus four and a half points. They are
Speaker 1: squaring off against Perdue. Tasty little matchup on the surface.
Speaker 1: Both George Carloftis and David Bell have declared for the
Speaker 1: draft for Perdue. Peace. Yeah, I am peace. I am
Speaker 1: picking this game under the assumption that those guys aren't playing.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's the case. I haven't seen
Speaker 1: any confirmation, but I'm assuming they're out.
Speaker 2: I think that I'm looking right now. I believe Georgia
Speaker 2: Carloftis and David Bell either are or have already opted out.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, I know they're going pro. You could check
Speaker 1: on that someone else who's out as Tyon Evans four Tennessee.
Speaker 1: He's entered the portal. He's gonna go to Louisville, so
Speaker 1: he's out. Tennessee did get a boost Tendon Hooker coming
Speaker 1: back for a sixth tour of duty of college football,
Speaker 1: which is definitely good news for the Balls because he
Speaker 1: was really good down the stretch for them. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: I don't know where you're at. Where I'm at, is
Speaker 1: Purdue great story? If they're without Carl Loftis and Bell,
Speaker 1: there's no way you can pick them, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean those are the gravitational players on both
Speaker 2: sides of the ball for them. The offense was good
Speaker 2: for Purdue and Tennessee's defense was improved but not amazing.
Speaker 2: I could see Purdue in this spot, but I'm also
Speaker 2: haunted by who did Purdue just get annihilated by.
Speaker 1: Two years ago? Auburn? Right right, right? I've been burned before, ty,
Speaker 1: I will not be burned this year. I'm going balls here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I don't think you could pick against Tennessee
Speaker 1: with the looming threat that Carl Loftis and Bell might
Speaker 1: be out because those are the two best players. So
Speaker 1: Tennessee for me, high confidence, high confidence. I feel good
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: Great Ah in Nashville. See how I'm tacking. Baby, you're
Speaker 2: a pro, man, you're a pro. It's an attack.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: There's all the tourist places and all. You know, you
Speaker 2: go to the honky tonks, you can go to you know,
Speaker 2: get your hot chicken whatever. But I'm still gonna say Husk.
Speaker 2: I know it's not new to to Nashville, but that
Speaker 2: still remains the best burger I've ever had because of
Speaker 2: my specific taste and burgers.
Speaker 1: The Husk Burger. It's a nicer Southern style restaurant, heritage
Speaker 1: Southern restaurant.
Speaker 2: Also the Stillery. The Stillery a popular place, good looking
Speaker 2: chicken and Southern inspired places. Beer, everything like that kind
Speaker 2: of a bar. It looks wonderful. Those are my recommendations
Speaker 2: for Nashville. But it's another place where it's hard to
Speaker 2: go wrong. You can eat very very you know, Pinewood Social,
Speaker 2: all these places, great great food place.
Speaker 1: Chick pile, a peach bowl, Mercedes ben Stadium in Hot Lanta.
Speaker 2: Oh man, they don't like it there. They don't like
Speaker 2: when people call it that just like people in San
Speaker 2: Francisco don't like San fran People in California, you don't
Speaker 2: like Cali. I don't think Atlanta people like Hotlanta. I
Speaker 2: don't think they do Mercedes Been Stadium in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: My apologies. You don't pronounce the second team seven PM
Speaker 1: ESPN Pitt at eleven and two, Michigan State at ten
Speaker 1: and two, Michigan State favored by point and a half.
Speaker 1: It's the Paton R. Doozy Bowl.
Speaker 2: Baby, Yeah, it's also just Pat Bowler because we got
Speaker 2: Nick Patty. Right, that's who's starting a quarterback for Pitt.
Speaker 2: I think, right.
Speaker 1: I don't know Kenny Pickett, so I haven't seen anything official.
Speaker 1: But Kenny Pickett was asked if he plans on playing
Speaker 1: in this game. Yeah, and he was like coy af man.
Speaker 1: He did not really give an answer. He's sort of
Speaker 1: waffled and he's like, well, you know, I just got home,
Speaker 1: I got talked to my parents and again. He threw
Speaker 1: forty two touchdown passes. He threw for over forty three
Speaker 1: hundred yards this season.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be a first round pick in all likelihood
Speaker 1: if Kenny Pickett doesn't play. I understand there's an emotional
Speaker 1: aspect here, and you want to do right by your teammates.
Speaker 1: Nobody would fault him if he doesn't play in this game,
Speaker 1: and so I just interpret anything outside of a definitive yes,
Speaker 1: I'm playing. I'm psyched to be No, you gotta be
Speaker 1: kidding me. I can't play in this game.
Speaker 2: Ty, if you were seventeen eighteen years old and you
Speaker 2: thought to yourself, I am asking this young lady to
Speaker 2: my senior prom and you do it and she responds with,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm gonna have to go home and kind
Speaker 2: of give it some thought, really think it through, think
Speaker 2: about all the scenarios involved in a commitment like that.
Speaker 2: You're probably not feeling great about yourself in terms of
Speaker 2: getting an answer like that. And so I'm operating under
Speaker 2: the assumption that this is going to be a Nick
Speaker 2: Patty game for Pitt hope to be proven wrong and
Speaker 2: get to see Kenny Pickett one last time. Weirdly, for
Speaker 2: Pitt to have a quarterback named Pickett and a former
Speaker 2: kicker name Blewett who knew same school, to have unfortunate
Speaker 2: last names for positions, and Michigan State without Kenny Walker, right.
Speaker 1: I have not seen like he may play. I know
Speaker 1: that mel Tucker was waiting to get clarity on who
Speaker 1: is going to be playing for Michigan State. I think
Speaker 1: there's a chance that most of this team is going
Speaker 1: to be intact, and I think that's why I like
Speaker 1: Michigan State here. Low confidence, but the outcomes seems somewhat
Speaker 1: obvious that you have to go Sparty if Pickett is out.
Speaker 2: Pitt also without Mark Whipple, correct without defensive coordinator moved
Speaker 2: on to Nebraska. So they're down, Yeah, but they.
Speaker 1: Are, and so I think, you know, it's maybe it's
Speaker 1: the underthink express to say that you have to go
Speaker 1: Michigan State if Pickett's not playing. I don't think the
Speaker 1: wheels totally fall off for Pitt though. Right the defense
Speaker 1: was good enough. It's not as good as it's been
Speaker 1: in some years, but it's good enough and it'll keep
Speaker 1: Michigan State from running away with this thing. I think
Speaker 1: it'll be close. On paper again, that pit defense looks good,
Speaker 1: but in practice there have been too many games where
Speaker 1: they played better offenses and gave up a lot of points.
Speaker 1: And I think Michigan State's good enough to score. So
Speaker 1: all that being said, I'm not terribly confident in this result.
Speaker 1: But I think I favor Michigan State here. Michigan State
Speaker 1: low to you know, very medium, low confidence level.
Speaker 2: Man, It's amazing how like blowouts change your opinion of
Speaker 2: a team, not just losses, but the way Michigan State
Speaker 2: lost to Ohio State, and certainly Pitt without Kenny Pickett
Speaker 2: is not where Ohio State was and passing the ball
Speaker 2: anywhere near. But man, that affects me. Man, that absolutely
Speaker 2: affects me. And Michigan State without a home run threat
Speaker 2: in the backfield in the way that Kenny Kenneth Walker
Speaker 2: is was, that affects me as well. I think I'm
Speaker 2: going pit here. I think I'm going with defense. And
Speaker 2: when Michigan States their specific pass defense, they're big play
Speaker 2: pass defense was as atrocious as it was at times.
Speaker 2: I'm going with, you know, Pitt looking to put the other.
Speaker 2: They're both trying to put exclamation points on surprise seasons.
Speaker 2: I'm still gonna go with Pitt. I think they have
Speaker 2: more ways to win, more ways to make winning plays.
Speaker 2: And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'm still going medium confidence.
Speaker 2: It's in Atlanta. You should be eating at Ria's. Ria's Bluebird.
Speaker 2: I believe was where we ate great breakfast place. If
Speaker 2: I can find a great local breakfast place, it sets
Speaker 2: the tone in such a magnificent way.
Speaker 1: Was that the place across from the cat bar that
Speaker 1: we were at?
Speaker 2: Correct? Correct? I believe Riea is no longer with us.
Speaker 2: May she rest in peace, but a great creative breakfast spot.
Speaker 2: So I did enjoy that. Okay, Yeah, so I'm going
Speaker 2: pit here. I'm going pit down potentially quarterback offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2: Still I ride with Jordan Addison in a way I
Speaker 2: don't believe I ride with anybody on Michigan State's offense.
Speaker 1: So there's that. Here go, here's a mouthful. The SRS
Speaker 1: distribution Las Vegas, buwl. There you go. That's what he
Speaker 1: always wanted. An Allegiance stadium out there in Vegas. Ten
Speaker 1: thirty pm Eastern Time on ESPN. Got Wisconsin at eight
Speaker 1: and four. I got Arizona State at eight and four.
Speaker 1: Was conson favored by seven points. Of note here Rashad
Speaker 1: White declared for the draft on the ASU side is
Speaker 1: not going to play in this game. He's a star
Speaker 1: running back. Diamante. How do you say it? Traanium trainium,
Speaker 1: I don't know he's in the portal. He's not playing either.
Speaker 1: For ASU, that's most of the offense walking out the door.
Speaker 1: More than enough, I think to tip the scales in
Speaker 1: favor of the Badgers, I will go Wisconsin here. Medium
Speaker 1: confidence the main hesitation for me, though, you know, it's
Speaker 1: that the Badger's still kind of stink on offense, don't they?
Speaker 2: Dan Uh, Briyl and Allen gives me a little bit
Speaker 2: of home.
Speaker 1: They've gotten better.
Speaker 2: Yes, So okay, I'm gonna tell you why I like
Speaker 2: Wisconsin with high confidence. Okay, tell me please, Arizona State
Speaker 2: without Rashad White and who Diamonte whatever the train of
Speaker 2: the backup running back. This is one of the best
Speaker 2: absolute rushing teams in the country where they not like
Speaker 2: top five or something in terms of how often they
Speaker 2: ran really well. Their success rate on the ground was
Speaker 2: extremely high, elite. What my one might say, Wisconsin already
Speaker 2: has an incredible elite maybe the best rush defense in
Speaker 2: the country short of what Georgia or Clemson one of
Speaker 2: those teams. So Wisconsin comes in with the effort, with carrying,
Speaker 2: with motivation. There is a whiff of If you remember,
Speaker 2: I don't know two three years ago, you remember im
Speaker 2: the Iowa receiver Ivory Smith Marks said something like that
Speaker 2: where Iowa played USC and the Holiday Bowl, and you
Speaker 2: have this reeling Pac twelve team that was inconsistent, higher hopes, disappointed,
Speaker 2: and then you've got a team with defense and looking
Speaker 2: to turn around an offensive narrative in a game out
Speaker 2: west and I alway just blew the doors off of
Speaker 2: that USC team. That's what I'm seeing for Wisconsin here.
Speaker 2: I think they're going to force a bunch of turnovers.
Speaker 2: I think the final score is going to be something
Speaker 2: like thirty five to thirteen.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: I have high confidence in Wisconsin in Vegas the way
Speaker 2: they finish out the season. Yes, I include the game
Speaker 2: against Minnesota which they didn't score an offensive touchdown. I'm
Speaker 2: right there with you, But I don't think Arizona State
Speaker 2: is in that place defensively, especially with how quickly that
Speaker 2: offense might get off the field without a go to
Speaker 2: receiver for Jaden Daniels. I think it's and the uncertainty
Speaker 2: surrounding Arizona States program. Still with herm Edwards, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go with Wisconsin like high twenties thirties, Wow those confidence wise, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm just a little worried this could devoult defense. Baby,
Speaker 2: I get the defense. I'm worried that this could turn
Speaker 2: into a rock fight because it's Wisconsin and that's not
Speaker 2: beyond Wisconsin. Yeah, but what is Arizona State doing to
Speaker 2: move the ball without their clear MVP.
Speaker 1: I know, I know we're both on Wisconsin here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just a little less confident than you are. Where
Speaker 1: are we eating in Vegas?
Speaker 2: In Vegas, we are going to Lotus of Siam, a classic,
Speaker 2: classic tie place that's just high level. It's in a
Speaker 2: random strip mall and it's excellent. Go to best friend
Speaker 2: if you want to eat somewhere really good on the strip.
Speaker 2: Best friend Roy Choi Kogi Barbecue Fame in La It's
Speaker 2: his sit down restaurant in Vegas. Carbone for super nice Italian.
Speaker 2: It's a New York place that's also in Vegas. And then,
Speaker 2: if you're looking for pizza, which I always am, Pizza
Speaker 2: Rock Tony Geminiani, who you sent me a cameo of
Speaker 2: I did. Chef Tony Geminiani does a great job with pizza.
Speaker 2: Pizza Rock in Vegas.
Speaker 1: Let's go to Friday, December the thirty first, otherwise known
Speaker 1: as New Year's Eve is YO Year's Eve will be
Speaker 1: so awesome. Let's start with the tax Slayer Gator ball
Speaker 1: Dan Yeah, t I a a bank field in Jacksonville.
Speaker 1: It will be the best game they've seen all year
Speaker 1: down there.
Speaker 2: I only follow the Urban Meyer stuff from AFAR. I
Speaker 2: don't really look at NFL stuff, But since he does
Speaker 2: have that college connection, I can say who it does
Speaker 2: not seem good. Urban Meyers fora into professional football does
Speaker 2: not seem to be a long term aspect of his life.
Speaker 1: The wheels are correct, the wheels are definitely off. The
Speaker 1: car is on fire.
Speaker 2: I saw a tweet suggesting I think it was from
Speaker 2: our buddy Chrispy Brown, where it was like, people should
Speaker 2: just start asking Urban Meyer about fictional players to see
Speaker 2: if he knows that they are fictional names, not actual
Speaker 2: members of the Jaguars roster, and see if he responds
Speaker 2: with something like, you know, he's really impressing this. In practice,
Speaker 2: they do that to politicians all the time.
Speaker 1: A great prank, My god man. Yeah, anyway, Wake Forest, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Texas A and M eleven am Eastern time in ESPN.
Speaker 1: Wake is ten and three A and M is eight
Speaker 1: and four A and M favored by five, they were
Speaker 1: favored by seven, and then they were down to five
Speaker 1: after the news came out that Zach Calzada, Zach Calzada
Speaker 1: and his lovable Armada will be setting sail for a
Speaker 1: new port before the bowl game. He is officially in
Speaker 1: the transfer portal. My hunch is that he saw the
Speaker 1: riding on the wall that it wasn't a given he'd
Speaker 1: be even the backup next year, because you know, A
Speaker 1: and M recruits at a very high level, So there
Speaker 1: is a chance here that A and M is going
Speaker 1: to be starting a true freshman walk on named Blake
Speaker 1: Bost or boast.
Speaker 2: He's a lefty.
Speaker 1: I looked a lofty Yep, he's a lefty. He's a
Speaker 1: baseball player. I think. Formerly we've also got to Marvin
Speaker 1: Lele going pro won't be available for A and M,
Speaker 1: so they're gonna be down a few guys here. And
Speaker 1: I think on top of that, the other factor that
Speaker 1: worries me a bit is that there's really no doubt
Speaker 1: to me that this game means a lot more to
Speaker 1: Wake Forest, doesn't it. Don't you think?
Speaker 2: Does this game mean more to Wake Forest than Texas?
Speaker 1: A and M.
Speaker 2: Probably, but that doesn't make their ability to play defense
Speaker 2: any better. I hear you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, true. I originally thought, as I was looking through
Speaker 1: what Wake has done this season, that this game would
Speaker 1: go the root of the time Wake played Clemson or
Speaker 1: the time Wake played Pit and it's one of those
Speaker 1: deals where Wake scores like twenty eight points and then
Speaker 1: they lose because either the opposing defense gets more stops
Speaker 1: or forces turnovers like in the Pit game, something like that,
Speaker 1: but they end up losing comfortably. That was my original
Speaker 1: thought here. But now, man, I'm getting ten seven versus
Speaker 1: Colorado vibes all over again with this news about Calzada leaving.
Speaker 1: I hear you. It's it's weird to me out and
Speaker 1: I still think A and M's better. They're way better
Speaker 1: on defense, to be clear, But I'm worried about them
Speaker 1: getting into a shootout here with Wake Forrest with Blake
Speaker 1: Boast at quarterbacks. So I don't know. I don't have
Speaker 1: any confidence on this game anymore. I am gonna pick
Speaker 1: the team here. Yeah, I originally had A and M.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go Wake because I think Wake wants it
Speaker 1: more and I think if there is a chance this
Speaker 1: game gets to like a point where A and m's
Speaker 1: got to score twenty eight points. I'm not sure they
Speaker 1: can do it even against Wake's defense with a walk
Speaker 1: on freshman whatever he is, Blake Boast, I am, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go Wake low confidence, very low confidence.
Speaker 2: Like for I'm going Okay, I'm going A and M
Speaker 2: medium confidence. And I think you're totally right about motivation
Speaker 2: right that A and M loud like their quarterback is
Speaker 2: gone the leader of this offense. I mean he's backup
Speaker 2: quarterback to Haines King.
Speaker 1: Hayes King.
Speaker 2: I don't believe he's going to be healthy enough to
Speaker 2: play in this one. As you mentioned, Blake Boast walk
Speaker 2: on like two star like I think he had lower
Speaker 2: offers like Arkansas State and stuff. Is what I remember
Speaker 2: looking on I saw him. There's going to be somebody
Speaker 2: this bowl season that's going to fit my favorite turn
Speaker 2: of phrase of the season that fills that applies to
Speaker 2: guys like Tyler Van Dim whatever. Like this guy was
Speaker 2: on your bench the whole time. He was just sitting
Speaker 2: there and against the Wake Forest defense, I nominate Blake
Speaker 2: Boast was just on this team. He was ready to
Speaker 2: roll this like he and he might not be good,
Speaker 2: but he also might throw for four hundred and eight
Speaker 2: yards against Wake Forest, and A and M fans are
Speaker 2: going to start talking themselves into the Blake bost era.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's likely. I just think it's on
Speaker 2: the table. It's hospitally on the and given the skill
Speaker 2: talent of A and M. I know there's been some
Speaker 2: shaky play column for A and M down the stretch
Speaker 2: and some higher leverage moments. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: somebody has to emerge. Somebody has to be the who
Speaker 2: is the TCU quarterback who beat Organ bram Colehousen. Somebody
Speaker 2: has to be just like has to have this moment,
Speaker 2: this bull season moment, and Blake Boast has that name
Speaker 2: that I could I could see us, you know, rounding
Speaker 2: or just a celebrating at the end of bowl season.
Speaker 2: It's just being a nice story. So I'm going with
Speaker 2: A and M here with medium confidence. Just when you
Speaker 2: have that the combination of defense and wild card on offense,
Speaker 2: I'm just going with it. So really impressive season from Wake,
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think the disappointment of not making the
Speaker 2: ACC Championship game and you know, losing the way they
Speaker 2: did to North Carolina, I just don't see the defense
Speaker 2: having a great day. So we'll see.
Speaker 1: I mean they had that.
Speaker 2: Did they not beat A and M in a bowl
Speaker 2: game like four years ago?
Speaker 1: They played a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think they won like forty five forty
Speaker 2: two in a shootout, So there is that, there is
Speaker 2: that history there.
Speaker 1: But no, I think it's a different A and M squad.
Speaker 1: So I'm going with the Aggies here the Tony the
Speaker 1: Tiger Sun Bowl. Can I give a recommendation? Oh? I
Speaker 1: was right there.
Speaker 2: I know I'm slow, I'm slow. Please please, Bread and
Speaker 2: board another one of those places, red and board. Yeah,
Speaker 2: grilled sandwiches, you know, super and sandwich.
Speaker 1: I like that stuff. I'm in Tony the Tiger sun Bowl.
Speaker 1: Here we go.
Speaker 2: Okay, Ellen J how about that. I'll get it. I'll
Speaker 2: get it right off the bat. An old school text
Speaker 2: mechs place the letter l am percant j Ellen J.
Speaker 2: Old school text mexanel Passo. Can't go wrong, You can't
Speaker 2: go wrong text mexanel Passo.
Speaker 1: Right, No, Tony the Tiger sub ball he played at
Speaker 1: the Sun Bowl in l Passo high noon, Eastern Times,
Speaker 1: CBS again, this one on New Year's Rocking Eve, Wazoo
Speaker 1: seven and five. They are a two and a half
Speaker 1: point dog against Miami. Miami also seven and five. If
Speaker 1: we could you could humor me for a second, I'm ready.
Speaker 1: Can we pull into the motivation station for just a
Speaker 1: hot minute too. Wazoo promoted from within, with Jake Dickert
Speaker 1: taking over officially. This is a team that had a
Speaker 1: shot at the Pac twelve North down the stretch, and
Speaker 1: they played hard for Dickert. Remember this is a weird
Speaker 1: circumstance for Wazoo this year, with the whole Rolovich thing
Speaker 1: that had to be a distraction. Dickert was able to
Speaker 1: circle the wagons and that's why he got the job.
Speaker 1: The players played hard for him. They definitely got better
Speaker 1: too as the season wore on, and he shifted some
Speaker 1: stuff around on his staff now, but it's still pretty
Speaker 1: much intact. Meanwhile, Miami got its guy. Yeah, but what
Speaker 1: a freaking tire fire. What a tirefire? Yeah for the
Speaker 1: Knes Right now, this is a team even before all this, right,
Speaker 1: the reason that we even had the Manny Diaz conversation,
Speaker 1: as awkward as it was, was because this is a team. Granted,
Speaker 1: went seven and five.
Speaker 2: If you look at this team.
Speaker 1: They could have gone three and nine. They could have
Speaker 1: pulled a full Nebraska here had a few things go
Speaker 1: on the other way. There were a bunch of close
Speaker 1: wins here, and that's even after they discovered Tyler van Dyke.
Speaker 1: So I just think they are checked out. There are
Speaker 1: too many distractions here. The manny Ds thing was handled
Speaker 1: very poorly. I like Tyler van Dyke. They'll still find
Speaker 1: a way to score. But Wazoo just feels like they're
Speaker 1: much more together as a unit right now. So I'm
Speaker 1: with Wazoo. I feel pretty good about it. I'd say
Speaker 1: like medium confidence here. Wazoo in the Sun.
Speaker 2: Bowl, Yeah, I worry a little bit about the mistake
Speaker 2: prone issues of the Wazoo offense against This is Sun Bowl, right, yeah, Tony,
Speaker 2: I think the motivation is with Wazoo here. I'm going
Speaker 2: Koog's here. I'm going medium load to medium confidence because
Speaker 2: picking against the better quarterback is worrisome in a matchup
Speaker 2: like this, but nothing normal happens in the Sun Bowl.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna go Wazoo ugly. And we've seen like
Speaker 2: stretches from Tyler van Dyke early on in games that
Speaker 2: have been disappointing, like he'll start out four of ten,
Speaker 2: he'll start out three of eleven, you know, something like that,
Speaker 2: and then gets into a groove. I'm gonna go with
Speaker 2: Wazoo here. I think you're right. I just man, amateurism
Speaker 2: is a silly term, but it kind of does apply
Speaker 2: to how Miami runs its football program right now.
Speaker 1: Anyway, maybe that'll.
Speaker 2: Change as Yeah, I just think Miami players, I don't know,
Speaker 2: they were sort of left tongue out to dry a
Speaker 2: little bit with like the way Manny Diaz situation was handled.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure you know they're gonna, you know, everything
Speaker 2: will be galvanized under Mario Cristobal sooner rather than later.
Speaker 2: But right now, I just think they it's, you know,
Speaker 2: the the desire to start that new era going outpass.
Speaker 2: So I don't think it is the formula. So I'm
Speaker 2: going with h with Wazoo here, medium load to medium confidence.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go to the Barstools Sports Arizona Bowl. Yes,
Speaker 1: Barstool Sports sponsoring a bowl game played in Arizona Stadium
Speaker 1: in Tucson, two PM. I believe it is through barstool
Speaker 1: dot Com. Yeah, that's daring it digitally, is what I
Speaker 1: could gather Central Michigan Boise State. Boise is favored by
Speaker 1: ten and a half points in this game. Dan I
Speaker 1: went and I checked out both schools to the extent
Speaker 1: that I could. I've watched obviously a lot more of
Speaker 1: Boise than I have of Central Michigan. The single worst
Speaker 1: thing in this game is the Chippewas defense, correct, And
Speaker 1: I think that's why you take Boise State. Their offense
Speaker 1: is pretty good. Central Michigan I think they'll push Boise
Speaker 1: mm hmm. So there's that factor to keep in mind.
Speaker 1: I'd also say that Boise's offense wasn't really that great
Speaker 1: this season. You know, there's so often associated with pyrotechnical offense,
Speaker 1: but they weren't all that good this year. Hank Bachmeier
Speaker 1: has been beat up, he's dealing with I think a
Speaker 1: knee injury. Khalil Skinner, their top wide out, could end
Speaker 1: up opting out as well. So there, it's not a
Speaker 1: slam dunk. Ten and a half points feels like it
Speaker 1: might be a bit much, But I just come back
Speaker 1: to the fact that I don't have a great reason
Speaker 1: to pick Central Michigan here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am I like mac football, but and I
Speaker 2: don't know I don't have the numbers in front of me,
Speaker 2: so I can't say this with absolute certainty. But matched
Speaker 2: up against conferences that I feel are stronger, like the
Speaker 2: Mountain West, a conference in which Boise State was playing
Speaker 2: for the championship.
Speaker 1: Were they not?
Speaker 2: No, they weren't playing for the championship. They lost to
Speaker 2: San Diego State a week before they could have I believe.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It worries me and I it's I had his name,
Speaker 2: now I forget it. I think it's Dan something or
Speaker 2: Daniel something, the quarterback for Central Michigan. I am just
Speaker 2: not I think you're right that the defense for Central
Speaker 2: Michigan worries me to the point I know that the
Speaker 2: opt outs and the injuries are tough for Boise State.
Speaker 2: I'm still going Broncos here with medium confidence because of
Speaker 2: my lack of faith in a bad MAC defense, which
Speaker 2: is also why I had the issues with NIU against
Speaker 2: I think Coastal that's who NIU is playing in their
Speaker 2: bowl matchup. So I'm going with with Boise in Tucson, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, sometimes I come across foods that are
Speaker 2: within a genre of food that I know I already like,
Speaker 2: whether it's you know, Italian food or Japanese food, or
Speaker 2: Mexican food, or you know whatever. And I come across
Speaker 2: a new like subgenre of a food, and my ears
Speaker 2: tingle a new genus, right, a new genus, a new
Speaker 2: phylum inside of a kingdom. And there is a Sonoran
Speaker 2: Sonorias state of Mexico, a Sonoran specialty called a cadamelo
Speaker 2: catamelo to your you know, cottamelo like the candy bar almost,
Speaker 2: you know. And it's not quite a casadia. It's not
Speaker 2: quite a burrito. It's like a big or like a
Speaker 2: medium sized folded burrito, but it's technically a kind of
Speaker 2: over stuffed casadia. It sort of splits the difference. And
Speaker 2: it's called a cadamelo. And there's a truck and there
Speaker 2: they are the places you can get in La and
Speaker 2: you know, through various places, but Tucson, being so close
Speaker 2: to the Sonoran state within Mexico, they've got a couple
Speaker 2: of standout places. It appears caramelo cadamelo King is a
Speaker 2: truck that makes these cadamellos and the thin flower tortillas
Speaker 2: and they charm on the grill and then they you know,
Speaker 2: carne asada and beans and salsa. The first time I
Speaker 2: had one at a place called Sonora Toown, which you
Speaker 2: should go to in La My ears tingled like this
Speaker 2: speaks to me. I am dedicating as much of my
Speaker 2: Mexican food eating time to discovering and experimenting with cadamelos
Speaker 2: So Cadamelo king in Tucson area.
Speaker 1: Excellent. All right, Yeah, go to the first of two
Speaker 1: playoff semi finals again. They're playing it on New Year's Eve,
Speaker 1: the biggest pet peeve of mine of all time in
Speaker 1: college football. And look, I'm a man, I'm forty. I'm
Speaker 1: not necessarily going out to the bars the way I
Speaker 1: used to on New Year's e even still, are you
Speaker 1: kidding me with this? Are you kidding me with this? Well?
Speaker 2: What I mean, what would be your plan? I mean,
Speaker 2: you're forty now, you don't sleep, you're old. You center
Speaker 2: your life around the whims of a big, fluffy doggie.
Speaker 2: So what were you going to be doing otherwise if
Speaker 2: this game were on New Year's Day or January two
Speaker 2: or something like that on New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, Dan, It's not about me. It's about
Speaker 1: explaining it to the loved ones. That makes it very difficult,
Speaker 1: very difficult, even though this is now the job. Really mean,
Speaker 1: they're playing it on New Year's Eve? Really?
Speaker 2: I mean, did solid wife Kate have like, were you
Speaker 2: going to be taking a private jet to Macau? What
Speaker 2: were you going to be doing?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: Who's to say?
Speaker 1: Okay, probably not doing anything this year? Okay, but even still,
Speaker 1: it's just I hate it. I hate it. This is
Speaker 1: okay and this is probably the Rose bowls fault or
Speaker 1: the Sugar Bowl. I don't know whose Bold fault it is,
Speaker 1: but figure this out. Good on New Year's Day. Good
Speaker 1: on New Year's Day, Thank you and Rand. First of
Speaker 1: two games. This one's played at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl
Speaker 1: in Arlington at AT and T Stadium three point thirty
Speaker 1: New Year's Eve, ESPN number four, Cincinnati at thirteen and
Speaker 1: ohero number one, Alabama at twelve and one. Alabama, for
Speaker 1: what it's worth, favored by thirteen and a half points.
Speaker 1: We are going to do a much more exhaustive preview
Speaker 1: of the New Year's six and the playoff games as
Speaker 1: we get a little bit closer to those games. But
Speaker 1: the reason that we're doing this now is because we're
Speaker 1: trying to help you with your winter wonders Pool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we'll give you a brief overview here, maybe outline
Speaker 1: or thinking. I don't know if it's going to come
Speaker 1: as any great surprize, but just to make sure we
Speaker 1: close the loop here and cover all of our bases. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm on Bama. I'm on them with medium high confidence.
Speaker 1: What is medium high confidence to you? What is government
Speaker 1: to you? Medium high confidence? Put like thirty on Alabama.
Speaker 2: I mean I think that's full on high.
Speaker 1: Thirty, like twenty eight somewhere in that twenty five to
Speaker 1: thirty let's say. Okay, between the two playoff games, though,
Speaker 1: I would say that I am less confident in this
Speaker 1: one than I am the George Michigan game. Why is that.
Speaker 1: I think Des Richards a good quarterback. I think Cincinnati
Speaker 1: can attack you multiple ways on offense. They don't have
Speaker 1: the amount of weapons out wide that Alabama does. Nobody
Speaker 1: really does outside of a couple teams, you know, namely
Speaker 1: Ohio State. But I think they can run a varied
Speaker 1: enough offense that it can keep Alabama guessing. And so
Speaker 1: you combine that with a pretty good defense, combined with
Speaker 1: the fact that they've played really well in their big
Speaker 1: games this year. Wait, they pretty good. They played really well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, come on, put some respect on this cincinnat defense.
Speaker 2: On Sauce Gardner's name. I I just I don't think this.
Speaker 1: Is a slam dunk. And now I'm talking myself into
Speaker 1: maybe not that many confidence points, maybe maybe a little
Speaker 1: bit lower on the totem pole.
Speaker 2: You're still like Bama the case for lower confidence and
Speaker 2: we'll get into specific matchups and specific you know, more
Speaker 2: granular details about this matchup is this is a rap
Speaker 2: poison game for Alabama. This is the game that it
Speaker 2: would take so much more or so much less. I
Speaker 2: think convincing from Nick Saban top down to his players
Speaker 2: to say, look we have Michigan, Look, we have Ohio State.
Speaker 2: Look we have Oklahoma State. Look we have whoever from
Speaker 2: a major conference in this bowl game. Whereas Cincinnati he
Speaker 2: can say, look, they hung with Georgia last year. They
Speaker 2: gave Georgia everything they could handle last year in a
Speaker 2: New Year six game. Look they went undefeated. You guys
Speaker 2: didn't go undefeated. Cincinnati went undefeated. You can point to
Speaker 2: all these things droving forward Alabama running back. You know
Speaker 2: that this is a legit squad. This is not a
Speaker 2: cute story, but you can't change the fact that Cincinnati
Speaker 2: played in the American and not the Big twelve, Big
Speaker 2: ten Pack twelve, acc whatever. And so there is that
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Bama's down fourteen to three and they
Speaker 2: might still win this game. But that's rat poison, right.
Speaker 1: There is.
Speaker 2: More convincing needed in the lead up to this game.
Speaker 2: Everybody's taking Bama. Everybody's talking Bama Georgia rematch or something
Speaker 2: like that. The mentality thing makes it tricky, especially with
Speaker 2: this is not a bulletproof Alabama team. We saw him
Speaker 2: against LSU, we saw him against Auburn, and so against
Speaker 2: a speedy secondary, an opportunistic pass rush and secondary against
Speaker 2: a legit offense. I don't think they have the Winter
Speaker 2: Wonders out wide, which is why that's the big scaret
Speaker 2: about taking Cincinnati outright in a confidence pool situation. But man,
Speaker 2: I think this is a landmine of a matchup for Bama.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's I'm gonna revise a little bit downward, Okay,
Speaker 1: just out of respect to what Cincinnati did this year.
Speaker 1: I think we both are in agreement that we're on Bama. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll say I mean, but still speak with your chest
Speaker 1: like twenty three points, okay, twenty three points, Okay, I
Speaker 1: think that's reasonable. Were you eating in Arlington?
Speaker 2: I mean it's DFW, I guess so you're all over
Speaker 2: the place. But in the greater area Norri hand Roll
Speaker 2: I may have mentioned that on the previous Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was which which matchup we
Speaker 2: talked about those in Dallas, but also I also mentioned Cadillac.
Speaker 2: That's cattle ack if you understand, it's a barbecue place.
Speaker 2: But you can eat really well obviously in DFW area.
Speaker 2: I just like hand rolls man all right.
Speaker 1: Second of two playoff semi finals at seven point thirty
Speaker 1: at the Capitol One Orange Bowl Hard Rock Stadium in Miami,
Speaker 1: seven thirty pm Eastern Time on ESPN. Number three Georgia
Speaker 1: at twelve and one, about a seven and a half
Speaker 1: eight point favorite over the Michigan Wolverines, also twelve and one,
Speaker 1: champions of the Big Ten. Mm hm, I am on
Speaker 1: Georgia here, high confidence. No matter how many Michigan people
Speaker 1: email or tweet me and say that I'm biased, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't care. Sure.
Speaker 2: I am speak with your chest, stay with it.
Speaker 1: I am rooting for Michigan, believe it or not. Yes,
Speaker 1: I am rooting for Michigan. I want to see Jim
Speaker 1: Harbaugh get this thing. Okay, I'm still on Georgia, and
Speaker 1: I still don't think it's particularly close. And the reason
Speaker 1: for that is very simple. They sort of play similar styles,
Speaker 1: don't they. I bet yeah that they.
Speaker 2: We don't need excellent quarterback play, but it's power rushing,
Speaker 2: it's opportunistic defense, it's you know, the pass rush being
Speaker 2: a huge key and probably the strongest thing that either
Speaker 2: team has going in this game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I they play similar enough styles, and I
Speaker 1: just feel like the Georgia defense is good enough to
Speaker 1: take away that one thing that Michigan excels at, which
Speaker 1: is running the football right. And if this devolves to
Speaker 1: a game where Cade McNamara is throwing it forty times,
Speaker 1: which is very possible, I don't like that formula for Michigan.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's too simplistic, but that's how I feel
Speaker 1: about it. And I totally get the argument, by the way,
Speaker 1: that it sort of cuts both ways, right, because it's
Speaker 1: not like George's offense overwhelmed anybody in the SEC title game, right,
Speaker 1: Stetson Bennett throw in fifty times isn't exactly you know
Speaker 1: that that's not exactly what Kirby smart wants him, throwing
Speaker 1: that many times into the teeth of a good defense,
Speaker 1: like come on, and this is a good Michigan defense.
Speaker 1: To be fairer, they can cause problems for Georgia. There's
Speaker 1: even a chance that they're going to say enough of
Speaker 1: Stetson Bennett, we got to go to JT. Daniels. So
Speaker 1: maybe it's not a slam dunk. Obviously Vegas doesn't think
Speaker 1: it is. It's only a one score spread here. But
Speaker 1: I just feel very strongly that Georgia can do more
Speaker 1: damage to Michigan's offense than vice versa, which is why
Speaker 1: I like them handily in this game. I just think
Speaker 1: Michigan's gonna have a have a hard time moving the ball,
Speaker 1: and yeah, for me, there's a better chance here of
Speaker 1: Georgia taking this one into rock Fight territory, grinding it out,
Speaker 1: doing the crock pot thing and thing, and winning by
Speaker 1: like seventeen points. So again, I'm rooting for Michigan. I
Speaker 1: like Jim Harbaugh. He's had a great run this season.
Speaker 1: I want to see them do this thing. I'd love
Speaker 1: nothing more than for Michigan to make it into the
Speaker 1: end of the championship game. But I just don't see it, Dan,
Speaker 1: I don't see it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I guess what you can point to if you are
Speaker 2: hesitant about Michigan is I mean the couple performances right
Speaker 2: the Nebraska game, the Penn State game, and Penn State
Speaker 2: has one of the best defenses in the country. And
Speaker 2: Penn State's defense isn't where Georgia's is and can be.
Speaker 1: So I hear you. I'm totally with you.
Speaker 2: I like Georgia.
Speaker 1: I'm not on the confidence level that you're at.
Speaker 2: Michigan is what a not to put this on JJ McCarthy,
Speaker 2: but like kind of a failed hand off away from
Speaker 2: being undefeated, and so that's very difficult to do.
Speaker 1: And they're not undefeated.
Speaker 2: So there's the Rutgers second half, there's Nebraska, there's Penn State,
Speaker 2: there are you know, there are times where they just
Speaker 2: didn't dominate teams like Georgia dominated teams. I don't know
Speaker 2: what Georgia's schedule is in your mind compared to Michigan's,
Speaker 2: but I'm going Georgia as well. I'm going with the defense.
Speaker 2: I'm going with the depth that Georgia can turn to
Speaker 2: on both sides of the ball at running back. Pickens
Speaker 2: now healthy and we saw him make a huge play
Speaker 2: against Bama, but in a huge game with a more
Speaker 2: balanced team than Iowa, to say the least, I think
Speaker 2: Kate McNamara will make plays. But if Kate McNamara throws
Speaker 2: an interception, that might be enough for Georgia to win
Speaker 2: this game, right, And that's you know, there are teams
Speaker 2: that were not able to take advantage Ohio State, you
Speaker 2: know that just didn't have it. But man, I just
Speaker 2: think the formula for beating Georgia is to have a
Speaker 2: potentially excellent quarterback that's short of that which Bryce Young is.
Speaker 2: He's a Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a little too much.
Speaker 2: Now if Aiden Hutchinson and Devin o'jabo, David o'jabo forced
Speaker 2: two strip sacks or you know, popstats in Bennett and
Speaker 2: then he throws it straight up into the air to
Speaker 2: Dax Hill or something like that, Like, yeah, I could
Speaker 2: see that. I just think there are more bullet points
Speaker 2: needed from Michigan to win this game. It's nowhere near
Speaker 2: impossible for Michigan to win this game. They just need this,
Speaker 2: that and the other thing. Whereas Georgia kind of just
Speaker 2: needs to play within a standard deviation of itself and
Speaker 2: not make, you know, killer mistakes and turnovers like they
Speaker 2: did against Bama.
Speaker 1: So it's just easier to see.
Speaker 2: So I have twenty eighteen to twenty two confidence points
Speaker 2: in Georgia.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I probably go a little bit higher. I'm probably
Speaker 1: closer to that's fine, twenty eight thirty. But I just
Speaker 1: don't I don't see it. I think I think this
Speaker 1: is the kind of game and I kind of am
Speaker 1: doing a little bit of revisionist history here because I
Speaker 1: tweeted out after that SEC title game that Georgia was
Speaker 1: going to destroy Michigan. Then I looked at the numbers
Speaker 1: and it's like, okay, Like I could see a path here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I could see a path.
Speaker 1: From Michigan to keep this one close to, you know,
Speaker 1: fight Georgia again. They just similar enough in style that
Speaker 1: I could see them hanging around and this being close.
Speaker 1: I just keep coming back to the fact that I
Speaker 1: think Michigan's gonna gonna ultimately be forced out of its
Speaker 1: game plan and that's going to be their undoing.
Speaker 2: But no games in Miami, by the way, could be soggy.
Speaker 2: I don't know, if that changes any calculus for you,
Speaker 2: if this is a soggy game, we'll go.
Speaker 1: Into more detail.
Speaker 2: Obviously, now we're going into a lot of details about
Speaker 2: this game, and we said we wouldn't, but you know
Speaker 2: that changes a little bit of you know, is Michigan
Speaker 2: better prepared to win a rock fight? You know that's
Speaker 2: It's probably what both coaches want deep down.
Speaker 1: Anyway.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, where do we go in Miami to eat?
Speaker 2: Head to win Wood. There's lots of different neighborhoods that
Speaker 2: are great in Miami. You a little van or whatever.
Speaker 2: Win Wood, cool area, a little more hipster for better
Speaker 2: or for worse. A lot of street art. Zach the Baker,
Speaker 2: great job, pastries, more savory, baked goods, Panther coffee, terrific,
Speaker 2: taco stand really good though it's kind of a rip
Speaker 2: off of Los Tacos number one in New York. Uh yeah,
Speaker 2: just walk around Winwood.
Speaker 1: It's great. Zach the Baker delicious. We don't love it
Speaker 1: all right, Let's go to New Year's Day. Let's do it.
Speaker 1: Start with the Outback Bowl mm hmm, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida,
Speaker 1: twelve pm, ESPN two. It's Penn State at seven and five,
Speaker 1: Arkansas eight and four, Penn State favored by two. We
Speaker 1: got Treilon Burke's opting out for Arkansas, big receiver going
Speaker 1: pro built like t O, He's going to be a
Speaker 1: force in the NFL. I agree. On the Penn State side,
Speaker 1: we got Brent Prye leaving four Virginia Tech their defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: I have not seen if Johan Dotson is gonna opt
Speaker 1: out yet. I would expect that he probably would. Okay,
Speaker 1: I think I think this game and the rest of
Speaker 1: the New York New Year six, excuse me, is probably
Speaker 1: the best testament to the strategy that I mentioned last episode.
Speaker 1: Early in this episode, we have no I have no
Speaker 1: idea who's winning these games, any of them, and so
Speaker 1: rather than go with the default number of confidence points,
Speaker 1: just put as few points as possible in these games. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't want to.
Speaker 1: Put forty in this game? Are you kidding me? I
Speaker 1: don't know who's winning. I have no idea. I think
Speaker 1: I go Arkansas. I think I go Arkansas with a
Speaker 1: little confidence because I kind of felt like Penn State
Speaker 1: was checked out at the end of the year. They
Speaker 1: still couldn't run the ball. They never figured that part out,
Speaker 1: and they have not played a quarterback all year like
Speaker 1: kJ Jefferson and he's gonna give him fits. It's a
Speaker 1: good defense. I mean no, not specifically the physicality of
Speaker 1: kJ Jefferson, but on his level, I mean c J. Stroud,
Speaker 1: but just the mobile nature of KJJ not a runner. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they haven't played a guy like that all year, and
Speaker 1: it just feels like the kind of game where kJ
Speaker 1: gives them fits. And I don't know what Penn State's
Speaker 1: deal is going to be on offense. I saw Sean
Speaker 1: Clifford's coming back, which I hate and I'm not going
Speaker 1: to go into right now, but I just feel like
Speaker 1: I gotta go to Arkansas here. Low confidence, low confidence,
Speaker 1: but give me, give me the Hogs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, even who did penns like? They started extremely slow
Speaker 2: against Rutgers and they eventually won that they shut him
Speaker 2: out twenty seven thirty nothing. I don't know whatever it was.
Speaker 2: I'm just in a close game. This Penn State team
Speaker 2: has not performed. If we do think it's going to be,
Speaker 2: I just I'm going to Arkansas here, and it's very
Speaker 2: difficult because Penn State has the clear better defense. So
Speaker 2: I'm now picking against a belief system thing. But Penn
Speaker 2: State now without their defensive coordinator in this game, so
Speaker 2: that changes how I feel about their defense a little bit.
Speaker 2: Now their staff is good and Poindexter decided not to leave.
Speaker 2: Correct the codc He is coming to Penn State.
Speaker 1: He is coming back. He interviewed for Virginia, but he
Speaker 1: is back now with Penn State.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I'm going to Arkansas here. I'm going quarterback.
Speaker 2: I'm going motivation. You know Penn State, you know the
Speaker 2: close but no cigar games against Michigan and Ohio State. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm going to Arkansas here. Sam Pittman trying to By
Speaker 2: the way, did you see what he was asking for
Speaker 2: contract by.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah yeah, woo woa.
Speaker 2: And you know what, I don't blame him. I don't
Speaker 2: blame him. Double your salary go to three and a
Speaker 2: half to seven million. If he gets in six point two,
Speaker 2: it's a win. And like, how much is it worth
Speaker 2: to Arkansas's administration to not plumb the depths of the
Speaker 2: Chad Morris experiment? Again, Yeah, it's good amount, good amount
Speaker 2: of money. So I'm going to Arkansas here to finish
Speaker 2: on a high note. And uh, when when they're Outback Bowl,
Speaker 2: by the way out Back Steakhouse where Dan Lanning met
Speaker 2: his wife, both working at Outback Steakhouse, New Oregon coach. Now,
Speaker 2: I have a soft spot for out Back in that
Speaker 2: are you going in?
Speaker 1: Are you going out back in Tampa? No? Rules, just right?
Speaker 2: No, by the way Outback created in Tampa, I believe, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's founded in Tampa. No, I'm gonna go with the Adam.
Speaker 2: I mean burger pick and sandwich pick whatever dat's datz
Speaker 2: in Tampa?
Speaker 1: All right? PlayStation Fiesta Bowl, State, farm Field and Glendale, Arizona,
Speaker 1: one pm, ESPN, Notre Dame at eleven and one, Oklahoma
Speaker 1: State at eleven and two. The Irish are favored by two.
Speaker 1: Kyle Hamilton, Kyron Williams out for Notre Dame, Brian Kelly
Speaker 1: out for Notre Dame. Off the LSU, which means welcome
Speaker 1: to the show. Marcus Freeman. Yeah, how do you feel
Speaker 1: about this game? I need to get an outsider perspective here.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm biased, but I'll get into how I feel.
Speaker 1: How do you feel?
Speaker 2: I think I like Notre Dame. So we have, you know,
Speaker 2: the coaching changes, of course, on both sides. Gymnall's leaving
Speaker 2: for Io State, I saw things from Spencer Sanders that
Speaker 2: make me worry about him throwing into a defense with
Speaker 2: or without Kyle Hamilton. I worry about that. And as
Speaker 2: good as Oklahoma State's defense is, I just I'm not there.
Speaker 2: I'm not there with the Pokes, and I understand being
Speaker 2: able to win a game. How many picks at Spencer
Speaker 2: Sanders throw against Baylor four and they almost They came
Speaker 2: up four and a half inches short of winning that game,
Speaker 2: which is impressive in its own way. I think the
Speaker 2: Notre Dame program has been re energized now that players
Speaker 2: and staffers and fans don't have to pretend to like
Speaker 2: Brian Kelly anymore. And so big game Marcus Freeman. Now
Speaker 2: there's a ton of unnecessary pressure right Everybody can't wait
Speaker 2: because he's technically the interim coach for this game, even
Speaker 2: though he has been promoted to head coach. This is
Speaker 2: not his program, This is not his stamp on the
Speaker 2: sport and on the program, because this is still a
Speaker 2: Brian Kelly program that Marcus Freeman happens to be coaching
Speaker 2: out a season that Brian Kelly started. So it's unfair
Speaker 2: to judge Marcus Freeman good or bad on what happens
Speaker 2: in this game. But I still think that the vibes
Speaker 2: of you know, Tommy Reese sticking around despite having the
Speaker 2: opportunity to go to LS. You know, they lost a
Speaker 2: couple guys right as Brian Polly and a strength guy
Speaker 2: to LSU. The offensive line coach is gone, who I
Speaker 2: think Notre Dame fans are happy about. I am just
Speaker 2: going with the feel good vibes of the Irish in
Speaker 2: this matchup. Despite no Kien Williams. I still think they're
Speaker 2: going to be able to move the ball a little bit,
Speaker 2: maybe early on against Oklahoma State, similar to what happened
Speaker 2: against Baylor. And I think that defense is still good
Speaker 2: enough to take advantage of Spencer Sanders' mistakes if and
Speaker 2: when they occur. So I'm going to Notre Dame here,
Speaker 2: I'm going to ride the vibes.
Speaker 1: I agree. I agree. I think in a situation where
Speaker 1: both teams would be at full strength, Notre Dame wins.
Speaker 1: They're not at full strength now and there is turnover
Speaker 1: to consider. I think, though, that there will be enough
Speaker 1: of an emotional lift, as you referenced, with keeping Marcus
Speaker 1: Freeman on board. I also think we could see an
Speaker 1: unfettered Tommy Reese. We heard it unfettered Tommy Reese and
Speaker 1: the Ryan Rasilla podcast. Yeah, he's a man's man, Dan.
Speaker 1: He's out there, and I think he got what he
Speaker 1: wanted to stay in South Bend. I think he's fired
Speaker 1: up about it, and I think we could see some
Speaker 1: more creativity. I don't know if that means Tyler Buckner.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it means different plays. I don't
Speaker 1: know what it looks like. But even with kiraen Williams
Speaker 1: sitting out, there's plenty of depth in the backfield. They'll
Speaker 1: find a way to move the ball. You know, maybe
Speaker 1: Reese doesn't want to give too much away because Jim Knowles,
Speaker 1: the defensive coordinator for Oklahoma State, is going to Ohio
Speaker 1: State and Notre Dame opens up with Ohio State next year,
Speaker 1: and that's like four dimensional chess, right. But I think
Speaker 1: we're going to see some zazz here on offense. I
Speaker 1: think the defense will be fine. I think like low
Speaker 1: to medium confidence in Notre Dame. I genuinely think they
Speaker 1: are the better team tough against a good defense, no
Speaker 1: doubt about it. Right. But the Spencer Sanders thing that's
Speaker 1: weird to me out you know how I feel about him?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, okay, So I'm looking at Mike Gundy's
Speaker 2: bowl history, for better or for worse. He's won four
Speaker 2: of five bowl games, but they've been relatively minor. Alamo Bowl,
Speaker 2: Camping World, Liberty Cheese. It lost the Texas Bowl two
Speaker 2: years ago. You know, won a Fiesta Bowl in twenty eleven.
Speaker 2: Was that against Stanford? I want to say, yes, forty
Speaker 2: one thirty eight against Stanford. So largely they've come to
Speaker 2: play in bowl games. Oklahoma State and if I, if
Speaker 2: I can double back, what's the best thing in this game?
Speaker 2: It's Oklahoma State's defense still right, Yeah, same players, guys
Speaker 2: still have the same ability to make tackles in the
Speaker 2: open field and jump routes and rush the passer. That
Speaker 2: has me worried against a Notre Dame offensive line that
Speaker 2: has been inconsistent but improved and healthier.
Speaker 1: Man, I don't know, I might.
Speaker 2: Double like it's vibes versus actual performance to some man,
Speaker 2: I don't like. Notre Dame is not a bad team
Speaker 2: by any No, they're not. Man Jack Cone throwing into
Speaker 2: Oklahoma State's defense, there will be their defense.
Speaker 1: We will go to the Cone zone at least once
Speaker 1: or twice in this game, where there's a very curious throw.
Speaker 1: But you know, Notre Dame's gotten more vertical with the offense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jack Cone, say what you will about him, but he
Speaker 1: does throw a pretty nice deep ball when he has
Speaker 1: time to throw. Mm hmm. They are still trying to
Speaker 1: find their weapons. Kevin Austin came along late in the year.
Speaker 1: They've obviously got Michael Maherer, so they're working this out
Speaker 1: on the fly. I think it was always going to
Speaker 1: be a transition year. Going eleven and one is a
Speaker 1: pretty good season by any standard. Totally. I like Notre
Speaker 1: Dame load of medium confidence for me.
Speaker 2: Wow, man, I'm going to disagree. I'm gonna go back
Speaker 2: on myself. I'm going with the defense. Okay, I'm going
Speaker 2: with the strongest thing in this game. I'm going with
Speaker 2: Oklahoma State here because what they did was they allowed
Speaker 2: a backup Baylor quarterback to have an awesome first quarter
Speaker 2: and then completely silenced Baylor. And I think Jack cones
Speaker 2: better than what was Blake shaping.
Speaker 1: Is that the name of that? Yep?
Speaker 2: All right, I'm still in Oklahoma State. I was too
Speaker 2: in love even without Jim Knowles. Was he staying for
Speaker 2: this game? He stayed there for this game?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Oh he is here? Okay, Yeah, I'm going I'm going
Speaker 2: pokes here. I am Maybe Baylor was just especially built
Speaker 2: to turn Spencer Sanders over because they forced its seven
Speaker 2: interceptions over the course of the their two games. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think with time, I'm going pokes here?
Speaker 1: Why not? All right? Were we eating by the way
Speaker 1: in Glendale?
Speaker 2: This is Glendale, Arizona, correct, right not?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the fiesta. Go to Pizza Aria Bianco.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's you can eat really well all over
Speaker 2: Arizona and the greater Phoenix area, but Pizzaria Bianco is
Speaker 2: my move when I'm there.
Speaker 1: I just love it. All right, Let's go over to
Speaker 1: the Verbo Citrus Bowl Camping World Stadium in Orlando, one
Speaker 1: pm ABC. Iowa ten and three, Kentucky nine and three.
Speaker 1: Kentucky favored by three. Okay, thank again. This game feels
Speaker 1: like a sixty minute coffin corner drill for the vibe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Tyler Goodson is going pro. He's opting out for Iowa,
Speaker 1: which begs a real question here is like how is
Speaker 1: Iowa to score? How are they going to score. Maybe
Speaker 1: they could turn over Will Levis a couple times. We
Speaker 1: know Will Levis has that bone.
Speaker 2: I like that you're trying to build this Iowa, Like,
Speaker 2: how do they get to seventeen points? Build it for me?
Speaker 2: Brick by Brick.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just not sure. Yeah, maybe they turnovers.
Speaker 2: Yeah it's turnovers. Yeah, it's pick sixes.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go Kentucky here. Low confidence, low confidence, but
Speaker 1: let's let's let's go Kentucky. I don't have a great
Speaker 1: reason to pick Iowa. Yeah, I mean, previously on Iowa
Speaker 1: football scored three points in a game that was on
Speaker 1: a big stage. I'm going Kentucky here as well. I
Speaker 1: am going with.
Speaker 2: The guy I really hoped. I don't think it's happening
Speaker 2: that Dan lann would hired offensive coordinator Liam Cohen. I'm
Speaker 2: going with that offense. You know, the defense I think
Speaker 2: has taken a step back for Kentucky this year, but
Speaker 2: I think on offense, if they're able to play relatively
Speaker 2: mistake free, it shouldn't be the most difficult. And Tyler
Speaker 2: Lindenbaum's playing right that the center for Iowa very much
Speaker 2: playing against Kentucky. This is a good game This is
Speaker 2: just a full on good game. But I'm going Kentucky here.
Speaker 2: With the momentum of that Louisville win, I think they
Speaker 2: have more ways in which they can win.
Speaker 1: All right, Where are we eating in Orlando? Again? I
Speaker 1: mentioned it on an earlier Bowl game? Did I not? Yes?
Speaker 2: Nine oh three mills. Yeah, for a good soup and sandol,
Speaker 2: maybe some alcoholic beverages.
Speaker 1: Rose Bowl Game presented by Capitol One venture X, not
Speaker 1: a sponsor. Rose Bowl. The stadium in Pasadena. You know
Speaker 1: where they play this one. You know when they played
Speaker 1: this one five pm when it should be ESPN Utah,
Speaker 1: their first ever trip to the Rose Bowl. They're ten
Speaker 1: and three, Ohio State ten and two. They are favored
Speaker 1: by six and one half points. So I think it
Speaker 1: says a lot about Ohio State that both Chris Olave
Speaker 1: and Garrett Wilson could decide tomorrow today, five minutes from now,
Speaker 1: to opt out and they'd still be like loaded at White. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're fine, and I think we're mostly going to get
Speaker 1: an Ohio State team that is all throttle, no bottle.
Speaker 1: The quote our good friend Guy Fieri. At time of recording,
Speaker 1: we're still waiting to see if anyone else is opting out,
Speaker 1: But I'm just gonna go ahead and assume that both
Speaker 1: those guys are gone for the Buckeyes. Interesting scenario here, though,
Speaker 1: mm hmm, because, as I said before, nobody sleep walks
Speaker 1: into the Rose Bowl. Both teams are going to be motivated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you get the sense for the game,
Speaker 2: right and the lead up, right, you get that sense
Speaker 2: that this is a big deal stage that you're going to,
Speaker 2: you know, the Beef Bowl, you're doing, you going to Disneyland.
Speaker 2: Like this is not like a oh well, we're disappointed
Speaker 2: we're not in the playoff, like, No, the Rose Bowl is.
Speaker 2: It's somewhere between a Constellation round to me, a Constellation
Speaker 2: round and a playoff. So I mean, you're not going
Speaker 2: up for it.
Speaker 1: You're not going and getting excited about the bomber jacket
Speaker 1: that you get. You're going and getting excited because you
Speaker 1: get to be granddaddy baby. It's the cathedral of college football. Yeah,
Speaker 1: granddaddy of o mall. Yeah. I am putting two confidence
Speaker 1: points on Utah. Okay. The reason for that is I
Speaker 1: saw the Michigan Ohio State game, and Michigan beat them by,
Speaker 1: among other things, playing bullyball. They bullied among the lines,
Speaker 1: and Utah has been doing that. Utah did that twice
Speaker 1: to your team. Yeah, they can play that same style,
Speaker 1: and I think they can have some success against Ohio State.
Speaker 1: Their defense is also very comparable. It's not quite as
Speaker 1: good as Michigan's, but it's comparable enough. So I think
Speaker 1: that factor. I think, with everything Utah has been through,
Speaker 1: I just want to root for him, to be honest
Speaker 1: with you, I want to root for him in this game.
Speaker 1: I'm not at all confident in it, but I could
Speaker 1: see a scenario in which they slow it down, they
Speaker 1: run the crap out of the ball, they play the
Speaker 1: same style that they did against Oregon, and they find
Speaker 1: some way to eke this one out. So let's go
Speaker 1: use two confidence points. Very low confidence.
Speaker 2: Also, the team that Utah just beat into the ground,
Speaker 2: the Oregon Ducks twice. They beat Ohio State. Oregon beat
Speaker 2: Ohio State kind of playing bullyball in the same way
Speaker 2: Michigan did. That said, Oregon does not have much of
Speaker 2: a quarterback Ohio State does. I think if one or
Speaker 2: both of these guys do play, I think Ohio State
Speaker 2: is the team here with time. I think Utah is
Speaker 2: a good team. But I think Ohio State with time,
Speaker 2: with quarterback play in the Rose Bowl. We saw, you know,
Speaker 2: a different quarterback, different situation last year. But we saw
Speaker 2: how Ohio State came to play last year against Clemson.
Speaker 2: Did they drop like fifty ish on Clemson?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think the Buckeyes work it out. I really do
Speaker 2: think they work it out against Utah because with time,
Speaker 2: with that motivation, with the depth that they have on offense,
Speaker 2: I just don't think Ohio State has evolved to the place.
Speaker 1: Where Oregon was at the end of the year. I
Speaker 1: think they've gotten better. And so I'm going buck eyes here.
Speaker 1: I'm rolling with the talent here. I know Utah Utahs.
Speaker 2: It's gonna sound like I'm taking something away, or maybe
Speaker 2: I'm just bitter about them beating more whatever. Man, how
Speaker 2: do you pick against that those receivers?
Speaker 1: I know, I just I know, I get it.
Speaker 2: I just think Michigan's defense is at a better place
Speaker 2: than where Utah's defense is. And so I like the
Speaker 2: Utah players. They're young, they're young and hungry. I wouldn't
Speaker 2: be surprised if Utah won this game. But if you
Speaker 2: ask me to pick I would go Ohio State with
Speaker 2: like twelve confidence points.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I can see it, obviously, I can see it.
Speaker 1: Ohio States.
Speaker 2: There's just there's no If Ohio State is seventy eight
Speaker 2: to eighty two percent of what they can be, what
Speaker 2: their ceiling is, Utah is gonna need to score thirty
Speaker 2: four points or something like that, which they can do.
Speaker 2: I just don't think they have the Winter Wonders.
Speaker 1: I'll due respect to Britain Covey that Ohio State has,
Speaker 1: all right, we disagree, but that's fun. What are you
Speaker 1: eat in Pasadena, oh Man? What are you not eating
Speaker 1: in Passa?
Speaker 2: You go to Lucky Boy and get great breakfast burritos.
Speaker 2: You can go to Glendale and go to Mini Kebab
Speaker 2: and you can mean get a caramelo at Sonoratown, Downtown Mariscos, Jalisco,
Speaker 2: U Street as in the letter you U Street pizza man.
Speaker 2: If you want specifics for LA food recommendations, I'm actually
Speaker 2: gonna be out in California from what the twenty fifth
Speaker 2: to the fourth. I'm not going to the game at
Speaker 2: least I don't have plans to at this moment. Uh,
Speaker 2: just like, tweet me or email me, tell me where
Speaker 2: you're staying, and I'll get you straight.
Speaker 1: The bat signal will go up, Dan will streighten you out. Okay,
Speaker 1: of course, final game here as per usual, the All
Speaker 1: Stage Sugar Bowl m HM, Caesar's Superdome in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Pretty much eat anywhere in New Orleans, right, I can.
Speaker 2: Do this, Yeah, I said, Bevy Kashawan Kashan Butcher like.
Speaker 1: You just do whatever. I mean. Everywhere is good in
Speaker 1: New Orleans. Let's talk about Baylor. Let's talk about Old Miss. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Baylor eleven and two, Ole Miss ten and two, Baylor
Speaker 1: favored by a point in a half again eight forty
Speaker 1: five ESPN. Matt Carral said he's playing. Hmm, he said
Speaker 1: he's playing. We're still waiting on the official injury status
Speaker 1: of Gary Bohannon. I would assume if he's healthy, he'll
Speaker 1: go for Baylor. If not, it'll be Blake Shapein and
Speaker 1: Blake Shapin started seventeen of seventeen in the Big twelve Championship.
Speaker 1: He'll be just fine. This is a three confidence point
Speaker 1: kind of game for me, because I have no idea.
Speaker 1: My initial gut was Old Miss. The numbers definitely trend
Speaker 1: more towards Baylor. At least the ones that I looked at.
Speaker 1: So I think I am going to go Baylor here.
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to finish this thing out again.
Speaker 1: One last ride with the Baylor Bears. I was dead
Speaker 1: wrong on them to start. I warmed up to them quickly.
Speaker 1: They won the Big Twelve. It's been a hell of
Speaker 1: a season for Dave Randa. I think with time to prepare,
Speaker 1: I think given the fact they've got continuity, it's not
Speaker 1: like they're gonna have a bunch of opt outs or
Speaker 1: anything for that effect. I just think they're really playing
Speaker 1: well as a team right now, and I like Ole Miss.
Speaker 1: The defense is better than it's been in the past.
Speaker 1: It still scares me a little bit, and so I
Speaker 1: think this could end up being a very close game again.
Speaker 1: The points spreads Baylor one and a half, so Vegas
Speaker 1: sees it two. I'm just gonna go with my gut
Speaker 1: here and say that Baylor's got it a little bit
Speaker 1: more together, and I'm gonna stick with the Bears.
Speaker 2: Disagree, going All Miss I'm going with speed. I think
Speaker 2: All Misses defense is pretty good. The way that they
Speaker 2: won the uh the Egg Bowl impressed me, and so
Speaker 2: I am I'm on ole miss here. I worry a
Speaker 2: little bit about the fits and starts of Baylor's offense,
Speaker 2: that they can look sensational for a quarter or two
Speaker 2: quarters at whatever, and then kind of disappear at times.
Speaker 2: The turnovers scare me a little bit. With Gary Bohannon,
Speaker 2: if he is playing in this game, I'm won with
Speaker 2: the quarterback. I'm going with a decent defense. Baylor has
Speaker 2: a very good defense. Decent defense, and a play caller
Speaker 2: in Lane Kiffin who I think is going to score points.
Speaker 2: I really do think they're gonna score points. So I'm
Speaker 2: going ole miss here.
Speaker 1: Okay, final game here, or I should say the penultimate
Speaker 1: game here. Yeah. Houston, Tuesday, January fourth, the tax Act
Speaker 1: Texas Bowl in Houston at the nerg nine o'clock ESPN,
Speaker 1: LSU six and six, Kansas State seven and five. LSU
Speaker 1: favored by about a field goal. Here. Fun scenario unfolding
Speaker 1: for LSU. Both Max Johnson and Miles Brennan are in
Speaker 1: the transfer portal. They're not playing and Garrett Nusmeyer can't
Speaker 1: play anymore this season, or they burn the red shirt. Right,
Speaker 1: So either you take the lumps with nuss Meyer, you
Speaker 1: burn the red shirt, or you start a walk on
Speaker 1: at quarterback with Tavian Folk or Matto doubt. I don't
Speaker 1: know what they're gonna do. I have not seen what
Speaker 1: they're going to do here, but that seems like not
Speaker 1: a great situation, especially given the fact that there's a
Speaker 1: ready a fair amount of turnover here and coach O
Speaker 1: not coaching in this game.
Speaker 2: I don't believe he is. Now there's an interim situation. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think it's the offensive line coach.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So there's that, which is weird and uncertain, and
Speaker 1: then there's the case State thing, which is a little
Speaker 1: less weird and a little less uncertain. But we just
Speaker 1: don't know what the deal is gonna be. With Skyler
Speaker 1: Thompson at quarterback. He's been dealing with injury that kept
Speaker 1: him out the last game of the season. The last
Speaker 1: update I saw was December the seventh, so about a
Speaker 1: week ago, and at that point in time he still
Speaker 1: wasn't practicing. So he's got time here. They don't play
Speaker 1: this game till the fourth If he's healthy, that would
Speaker 1: obviously be a nice boost for them. The other interesting factoid,
Speaker 1: and then I promise I'll get to my picks. This
Speaker 1: is the only game that I could find where they
Speaker 1: actually published what the gifts are that they're getting.
Speaker 2: Oh hit me.
Speaker 1: You get access to a gift suite, the Nike backpack,
Speaker 1: the Nike hat, the Nike jrawstring bag. Obviously the Texas Bowl.
Speaker 1: You get the belt buckle and the cowboy hat and
Speaker 1: also the team branded bandana, so he could really be
Speaker 1: a true cowboy. Great, not bad, No, not at all.
Speaker 1: Who do you pick? It is?
Speaker 2: Brad Davis. He's the offensive line coach. He is the
Speaker 2: interim for LSU, head of the Brian Kellierra for the Tigers.
Speaker 1: That's my best impression of a Northerner doing in all
Speaker 1: the tagles.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go with LSU, okay, because could have
Speaker 2: a wild card walk on. This guy was on the
Speaker 2: bench the whole time. They could have that situation. And
Speaker 2: I still think that if it is a Will Howard
Speaker 2: Kansas State team that I enjoy not siding with that option.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to LSU here. I'm going LSU here
Speaker 2: now with a lot of like eight confidence points here
Speaker 2: because this one there's too many different variables that could
Speaker 2: swing this game. But uh yeah, I'm going to LSU here.
Speaker 2: I think the defense might get a if it is
Speaker 2: Will Howard, I think they can get some short fields.
Speaker 2: And sometimes teams players rally around an interim situation, not
Speaker 2: because obviously Brad Davis is not getting the head job
Speaker 2: at LSU, but because they like him, because they want
Speaker 2: to play hard for him. So I'm going with LSU.
Speaker 1: I'm going k State four points. But yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 2: In Houston. If you want nicer Mexican, go to Hugos.
Speaker 1: I've been there.
Speaker 2: It's insanely good Hugos for Mexican and then for via Cajun,
Speaker 2: which is I think at unique to Houston. So that's,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of a fusion between the Vietnamese influence
Speaker 2: of the immigrants in the seventies and the Cajun proximity
Speaker 2: and the Gulf and New Orleans and everything like that,
Speaker 2: and the movement between those two areas. Crawfish and noodles. Hey,
Speaker 2: Crawfish and noodles is the name of the place. Okay,
Speaker 2: Houston on real food City. If you're going to this game,
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're an LSU fan, you're probably used
Speaker 2: to great food. But if you're going to this game,
Speaker 2: get there eight days early and eat five meals a
Speaker 2: day because that's what you should do. If you're spending
Speaker 2: time in Houston.
Speaker 1: It's great.
Speaker 2: The final game Truth Truth Barbecue.
Speaker 1: If you're going there for barbecue, Truth Barbecue. The final
Speaker 1: game is on January the tenth, and that's the National Championship.
Speaker 1: They played at Lucas Oil Stadium. We don't know the
Speaker 1: matchup yet, No, we do not. We don't know the
Speaker 1: matchup yet. You have to pick it. And the way
Speaker 1: that the Winter Wonders game works is you can go
Speaker 1: back and you can change your pick, so you can
Speaker 1: move them around. You can change confidence points as the
Speaker 1: game is going on. Obviously, once a game is played
Speaker 1: and it's kicked off, you're kind of locked in place.
Speaker 1: But we've got like a full month of games, so
Speaker 1: you can move stuff around if you want to. So,
Speaker 1: if you feel like this matchup in the National Championship
Speaker 1: is something that you feel very certain of, your take
Speaker 1: the liberty to move it around if you want to.
Speaker 1: I put one point on it. I put one point
Speaker 1: on it, because then it sort of doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: you if you win or lose, if you if it
Speaker 1: ends up being let's say Michigan against Cincinnati, and you
Speaker 1: feel great about Michigan then you know, change your confidence points.
Speaker 1: Leave yourself that out, but you'll know soon enough you'll
Speaker 1: have plenty. But you have changed this.
Speaker 2: You have time, No, not really, I guess because the
Speaker 2: games are thirty first, right, So I was gonna say,
Speaker 2: you have time to adjust this the confidence in this
Speaker 2: game after the thirty first, because there's still games on
Speaker 2: the first. You do could swap out the confidence on
Speaker 2: a game the first or a little bit after the first.
Speaker 2: How many games are after the first just the fourth, right, LS,
Speaker 2: here's like.
Speaker 1: Six games, six games in total, so you have time
Speaker 1: if you want to swap things around. And yeah, the
Speaker 1: game is cool and that it lets you do that.
Speaker 1: But I think just for planning purposes, like I'm not
Speaker 1: going to go back in and change this, right, I'm
Speaker 1: probably gonna pick the Alabama Cincinnati bo that I have
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna put one point on it, and then
Speaker 1: maybe I'll change it if the matchup is different. But
Speaker 1: for planning purposes, go one point. I'm going to assume
Speaker 1: it's Bama versus Georgia. We already broke that down a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago. I don't know if we saw anything.
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll see something in the playoffs. That will change
Speaker 1: your mind about how version two of that would go.
Speaker 1: But uh, there will be a time and place to
Speaker 1: preview that game. I think for now the move is
Speaker 1: one point.
Speaker 2: I Uh, Indianapolis. I don't have any recommendations yet. And
Speaker 2: part of me was thinking like, well, you know, India
Speaker 2: is east of the Chicago Land area and west of PA.
Speaker 2: I know it's like a you know, three and a
Speaker 2: half four hour drive for me from the Chicago Land area.
Speaker 2: I was like, I wonder if it's like, you know,
Speaker 2: four or five hours from Tye as well, we could
Speaker 2: just sort of an equidistance. It's ten plus hours from me.
Speaker 1: It's a drive, it's a good drive. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I always forget how wide Pennsylvania is.
Speaker 1: Five hours across Yeah, yeah, and so and then it's Ohio.
Speaker 2: Right, it's Pennsylvania. Then Ohio is not narrow.
Speaker 1: You can get to indian about nine if you didn't
Speaker 1: hit traffic, but.
Speaker 2: Google Map says nine to fifty three.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm to get there, get there in nine. But
Speaker 1: it's so it's along a long haul. You figure basically
Speaker 1: five five and a half to get across PA, talking
Speaker 1: another two to get across Ohio. And then yeah, yeah
Speaker 1: to get midway through Indiana an hour somewhere in that neighborhood.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's yeah, it's not close. It's what I'm
Speaker 2: learned that the Midwest, there are things close to me,
Speaker 2: like Milwaukee's not terribly far, Detroit and Arbor Madison, you know,
Speaker 2: all these places are like within an interesting drive because
Speaker 2: I'm sort of right in the middle of the Midwest
Speaker 2: in Chicago. But yeah, you're out there, man, you are
Speaker 2: out there in PA. I actually did consider so because
Speaker 2: I'm obviously, you know, married to a Michigan fan, and
Speaker 2: so my extended social circle involves a lot of Michigan people.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, maybe that would be fun to
Speaker 2: go to India if Michigan's there, and you know, maybe
Speaker 2: we'll just do the podcast from there and you know,
Speaker 2: see Michigan people I know, and like, I don't know
Speaker 2: if Michigan's actually going to be there, But then I
Speaker 2: did see that driving distance for you. I mean, you
Speaker 2: can fly to He's just gonna be pricey with everybody
Speaker 2: coming in. And I was talking to a Michigan friend
Speaker 2: and they're here going down to Miami for the Georgia game,
Speaker 2: and I was like, man, you're flying to Miami last
Speaker 2: second around New Year's from the Midwest where all these
Speaker 2: Michigan fans are coming from. I was like, are tickets
Speaker 2: crazy for that game? He was like he told me.
Speaker 2: He was like, we actually we got a suite. I
Speaker 2: was like, oh man, that's crazy. That's He's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we're gonna try to illegally stuff like thirty people into
Speaker 2: like a fifteen person sweet or something.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say his name or her name.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a her.
Speaker 2: And I was like, and hotel. He's like, now I'm
Speaker 2: staying with a friend or sister or something like that.
Speaker 2: I was like, so tickets for a suite airfare and
Speaker 2: he was like, yeah, it's the most most expensive event
Speaker 2: I've ever committed myself to. It may ruin me financially.
Speaker 2: I'll have the Tiger King. I was like, well, uh,
Speaker 2: go blue, good luck, good luck with all of that.
Speaker 2: So I love yeah, all right, yeah, so I respect it.
Speaker 2: I you know, for teams that are not there in
Speaker 2: these big games that often it's it's very cool. Now
Speaker 2: I get go balls, go playoff whatever.
Speaker 1: It's cool. It's cool. All right, Well that does it.
Speaker 1: For Bolzetch number two, a long show we had a
Speaker 1: lot to cover. We appreciate you bearing with us here.
Speaker 1: Don't forget to go on out to play Winter Wonders
Speaker 1: dot com. That is our Bowl confidence Pool. We've gotten
Speaker 1: a bunch of people signing up since we started doing
Speaker 1: our previews show on Monday. We would encourage you to
Speaker 1: do the same. Uh, it is a Patreon only thing.
Speaker 1: You want to sign up and never sign up again,
Speaker 1: that's fine, but it'll be a lot of fun and
Speaker 1: we're talking a lot about it here. We're excited to
Speaker 1: be doing the confidence pool against Playwinter Wonders dot com
Speaker 1: is how you can find the contest. Solid verbal dot
Speaker 1: Com is how you can find the podcast. We would
Speaker 1: encourage you please to going out to Apple or Spotify,
Speaker 1: anywhere you get your podcasts. Really, but those two in particular.
Speaker 1: If you like the show, that helps us more than
Speaker 1: we can ever put into words. And last, but not least,
Speaker 1: Solid Giveaway dot Com. Solid Giveaway dot Com is where
Speaker 1: you go follow a few quick and easy steps. It's
Speaker 1: free to get your name in the running to win
Speaker 1: assigned Desmond Howard mini helmet. We're gonna draw that on
Speaker 1: the day of the National Championship, so maybe Michigan will
Speaker 1: be there. Maybe they won't, but in any case, if
Speaker 1: you're a Michigan fan or just a Desmond Howard fan
Speaker 1: and to for your chance to win that helmet. Yeah good,
Speaker 1: all righty Dan Long show, fun show. Appreciate everybody's patience
Speaker 1: bearing with us here. We hope this was useful for
Speaker 1: you as you get your ballpicks ready. We will be
Speaker 1: back later in the week. You're gonna talk with Brandon
Speaker 1: Hoffman about recruiting, right, I am big recruiting.
Speaker 2: Got early signing day, We've got uh we'll do a
Speaker 2: bruin a obviously for the subscribers on verballers dot com.
Speaker 2: The fun long bonus show we do every week and
Speaker 2: uh yeah, I it's a it's a very strange early
Speaker 2: signing period. Excited to pick Brandon's brain with all the
Speaker 2: new coaches and all the movement and transfers and people
Speaker 2: filling in gaps that didn't realize they were gonna have Brandon,
Speaker 2: of course, best in the biz Capital B.
Speaker 1: That's all right. Thank you again for tuning in, for downloading,
Speaker 1: for listening, for supporting the show, for that guy over there,
Speaker 1: my good friend Dan Rubinstein, for myself, Ty Hildon Brand,
Speaker 1: thank you, so much. We'll talk to you all on Friday.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, stay solid, peace,