Billy Napier Fired, Hard Launch/Soft Launch + Early Lookaheads for Ole Miss-Oklahoma, BYU-Iowa State & Texas A&M-LSU | College Football - The Solid Verbal College Football

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the solid verbal holleh.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
For me, I'm a man, I'm forty. I've heard so
many players say, well, I want to be happy. You
want to be happy for dake Edo State.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Is that? Whoo whoo?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
And now Dan and Tie.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Dan Rubinstein, welcome back week eight officially in the books.
On today's episode, gonna talk a little bit more about
week eight, Gonna talk a little bit about Week nine.
We're gonna have a ton of fun in between. It
is a pleasure as always to be with you. Good sir,
how are you today?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'm great. I think I'm especially good knowing that I
get to wake up this coming Sunday morning and listen
to a solo Ty hilden Brand episode, maybe with surprise guests.
I don't know where you're gonna head with this, but
I have a fall wedding this coming weekend that I'm very,
very excited about on the West Coast. It's a different
kind of show. I'm very excited for the recap show

(00:59):
for this week because it's unfiltered. It's pure Tie, and
whatever I was doing to hold you back is no longer,
so you get to fully explore the audio space for
the week nine recap. But here we are on the
week nine look ahead. I'm looking ahead to that, but
I've got a lot to I guess, think about and

(01:20):
with you work through and do an exercise about what
happened in week eight that we couldn't quite get to.
We're gonna go through the polling. You have an apology
written into our rundown. I don't know if you're apologizing
to me, if you're apologizing to a fan base, if
you're apologizing to a coach.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
A lot to get through fledged apology. But okay, listen,
this is a show about honesty, is it not? It
is Sometimes a key component of that is being honest
with yourself also true. And I had a moment of clarity,
an epiphany of sorts on Sunday morning when I woke
up when the haze of the mushroom coffee that I

(01:55):
had again at midnight war off.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
You're drinking coffee at midnight? Yeah I did, Oh, ty,
I did. They're so new.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
I know I'm not a coffee guy. Anyway, when I
came to when I came to my senses, I too
had some thoughts that I decided I need to put
out there into the forballer Hood, so we'll do that.
As you said, you got your poll, we got a
whole bunch of stuff. Yeah, we're going to discuss here
on today's episode. It is a pleasure to be back
with you kind for Ballerhood. Hit follow, hit subscribe if

(02:25):
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Uh sometimes on Sundays when we've got firings. We did
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we'll get to not to give away the game here
in just a little bit. Forballers dot com is where

(02:48):
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(03:09):
to merch dot solid verbal dot com.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
It does look nice. I gotta say it's a clean hat.
Continue it is a very clean hat.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Dan uh. Let's get to the news the coaching bringing
the sound out of retirement.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Dan. If ever there were a year to do it,
this would be the year to bring that ridiculous sound
with the dinosaur roaring. I don't know why we came
up with that back in the day, but Billy Napier
is out at Florida. This news broke on Sunday around
middle of the day despite beating Mississippi State. You may

(03:49):
remember me saying on the Saturday night stream that they
can't fire I me just one and you said, well,
maybe pump the brakes in that little bit, right. Why
don't we just add that to the long list of
things that Ty's been wrong about this year. Because Billy
Napier is officially out. He was twenty two and twenty

(04:11):
three as the head coach of the Florida Gators. He'll
be owed about twenty one million dollars or so in
buyout money. Billion Zalees will be the interim coach. None
of this, of course, comes as any great surprise. On
the napier front, it kind of felt like he was
on the hot seat more often than not. I will

(04:31):
not share the exact contents of the text exchange I
had with our friend Richard Johnson of CBS and Split
Zone Duo, but suffice to say I was picking up
notes of relief from Florida Richard Johnson. So the saga
is over. This is obviously a marquee job. We can
talk about what all of that means, Dan, but I

(04:53):
presume you were not surprised by this announcement.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
No, not surprised. I mean, look after a win, it's
it's a different way of going about this, but certainly
the manner in which Florida's offense has continued to struggle.
I know DJ lagway through a couple of picks and
it just it wasn't a consistent performance that understandably that
or understandably, but it is understandable that Florida, if they
felt like this was going to happen, that the bye

(05:18):
week and the ability to start speaking in earnest to
representation of potential candidates, that kind of thing. As these
types of hirings seem to be happening earlier and earlier
with you know, getting somebody in place and getting a
staff in place before the portal time. That's just the
routine and rhythm of the of this universe now, So

(05:41):
I get it. And Florida's got high hopes. You know,
Penn State has had, we talked to We sort of
used the billion Napier news to compare it and set
it against what Penn State is doing right now in
terms of what they hope to accomplish with a new coach. Certainly,
the expectation of the bar for Florida is going to
be very high. It is. It is interesting when you
look at where the SEC is now with how deep

(06:03):
it is with teams with playoff aspirations. And when you
say playoff aspirations, you're talking about minimum nine likely ten
win season. Are there ten twelve teams now in the
SEC that are saying like, yeah, we should be regularly
competing to win ten eleven games. Mathematically, that's not really
going to work out that, you know that? Oh yeah, Texas, Oklahoma, LSU, Auburn, Alabama,

(06:26):
Miszoo like all these teams LS like all these teams
have the same goal in mind, which mathematically is sort
of irresponsible, but I get it right, somebody has to.
I think what you're dealing with now in the SEC
is a lot of eight and four, nine and three
teams who are going to happen to win ten eleven

(06:47):
games sometimes because more fifty to fifty games are going
to break their way. And so I don't think there's
anything wrong with having those aspirations, but it's to look
at the Florida job in a similar way to how
we looked at it in two thousand and nine, I
think is also kind of irresponsible. So I don't blame
them for having that aspiration, but it's a different reality.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
It is a different reality. And one comparison that came
to mind is I was thinking this through a little
bit last night. You know, we've talked about this at length.
The Nick Saban tenure at Alabama drove everybody in the
SEC crazy bonkers. Yeah, you know, everybody wanted to be Alabama.
That was the standard that they aspired to. And as such, everybody,

(07:34):
and I do mean everybody outside of Alabama turned over
their coach at least once. Sure, this is a different
situation the college football world has changed drastically, but now
the thing that everybody is after outside of a national
championship and obviously a conference championship that definitely still holds value. Okay, yeah,
but getting to the playoff is the thing. I wonder

(07:56):
if we have now reached this point a year in
everybody kind of gave it a year, a cycle to
see what this was all gonna entail, and we're at
the point now where it's starting to drive programs crazy. Yes,
the SEC is there, obviously Big Ten got there. We'll
see if there are others that emerge in the two
pre eminent conferences in college football. My hunches that we're

(08:17):
going to see openings all across the FBS, if not
the Power for Yeah, we have definitely arrived at this
point where there are gonna be some irresponsible decisions. And
I'm not saying that Florida made one here because.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
This is college football, this sport.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
I know, surprising as it may sound, but this move
here to move Napier or move on Napier when they did,
should not come as a huge surprise, even after a win,
because he has been on the hot seat seemingly, as
I said, more often than not, some of the names
that have emerged here in the early going Lane Kiffin,

(08:51):
Eli Drinkwitz, of course, James Franklin, Jedfish, my guy, Jedfish. Yeah,
Jeff Brohm's name has popped up, which I think is
really enticing. I saw Bruce also included Rhet Lashley at SMU,
as well as Alex Skulish. So Florida job is going
to be one of the big jobs's cycle. I don't

(09:13):
think there's any question about that. Clearly, the name that
everybody seems they're going to, everybody seems to think they're
going to go after right away's link Kiffin. So we'll
see what his interest level is. I did see there
were some comments from I believe the athletic director at
Old Biss talking about potentially working on a contract extension
for Lane. He was optimistic it could get something done.
But we'll see. We'll see. This is going to be

(09:36):
a very wild cycle. That's why we brought the sound
out of retirement.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Just I guess the question with regards to Florida, I mean,
the big question is who they're going to hire. I
guess the second big question is going to be how
many different oil dereks are going to be named after
DJ Lagway in West Texas when he goes to Texas
Technics three four. I mean, that's going to be an
interesting story to follow that.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
There's a lot of talent there. This wasn't a talent
thing at Florida, you know, it really wasn't a talent thing.
Because they've got talent.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
No, I know. But now, what's going to happen with
this roster? Right that? Like, are these guys you know
is you know, Dallas Wilson, DJ Lagway. There's a couple
guys on this defense that like, are they going to
stick around? DJ Lagways? Not from Florida.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
This is one of those things. This is one of
the calculations that you need to make if you're an ad.
Penn State made it. Penn State's recruiting class seemingly evaporated
as a result of it.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Look, if a guy's not the guy, you can't think
about a recruiting class or even two recruiting classes.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
In this world of roster, it is a short term hit. Yeah,
in hopes of a long term game. I understand the logic,
and I think you do what you gotta do. But
for sure, the players and the roster, whoever were to
come in, job one would be re recruiting the guys
that they've got on that offense in particular, and the
two guys I'm looking at are Dallas Wilson and DJ Lagway.

(10:57):
Of course there are others. It's a very talented team.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
DJ or excuse me, Dallas Wilson from the state of Florida,
and there were there were family situations that brought him
back to the state, so very well likely stay obviously
in the state. The Florida job is fascinating. There's high upside.
The local recruiting can be off the charts, and the
pull of staying local can be off the charts. But

(11:21):
like we said on our our you know, immediate reaction stream,
this is also a situation in which everybody recruits Florida,
and so you look at some of the all time
recent legends for a number of schools, there's a lot
of whom that came from within the Sunshine State. So
this isn't a matter of like, yeah, all Florida kids

(11:42):
stay home, and that's what you know, makes this job
so alluring. I imagine they're going to get a pretty
big name. But also one would think, also we live
in a universe in which if you got a good
thing going somewhere and there's a place like Florida that
is now how many coaches since urban Meyer died into

(12:04):
Muschamp and Jim mcelwayne and I don't know. It's one
of those things where the right guy can work wonders
at Florida. That's a tough job, you know. With that
kind of upside also comes a lot of pressure. So
we'll see it works out, because you know, the swamp
absolutely going berserk is one of the best things to

(12:25):
witness in this sport.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
Staying in the Sunshine State, Dan and more along the
lines of the rumor mill, there were some posts out
there on Sunday that there were ongoing conversations about Mike Norvel.
Shortly before we hit the record button, the athletic director
at Florida State, Michael Alford, announced a comprehensive assessment of

(12:51):
the Florida State football program, which will be done at
the end of the season. For now, they are quote
fully committed to helping Mike Norvel strongly rebound in the
coming weeks. Therefore, they talk about canning Mike Norvell after
last year at least midway through this year. If we

(13:12):
are to believe this is more of a thought experiment,
it seems likely to me that they will move on,
although who the heck knows It is a hefty buyout,
something north of fifty million dollars. Bear in mind, Mike
Novell brought in a bunch of new assistants, brought in
a bunch of new players via the transfer portal. They
did get off to a three and zero start, they

(13:33):
beat Alabama. Things have since gone sideways. Tommy Castellanos may
have been right that Alabama couldn't stop them, but it
turns out that Virginia, Miami, pitt and Stanford did so.
As it stands, they are three and four. They've lost
four straight in conference. I'm not sure any of their
remaining games are gimmes. So it'll be interesting to see

(13:53):
what the results of that assessment look like when they
do it at the end of the year. But I
at least like that they've come out and said, listen,
we get it, We're going to do the assessment. We'll
get back to you at the end of the year.
Firing him now. I don't know if there is any
kind of cost benefit analysis that has gone on with
respect to the buyout and what the language looks like
on that front, Maybe they save a few bucks if

(14:14):
they do it later than earlier. But alas Mike Norvell,
I don't think is off the hot seat for the moment.
It's a bit of a stay of execution.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Well, look, if Nick Saban, we're still at Alabama right
in this universe, Florida State likely isn't beating Alabama this season,
and he likely isn't getting that huge bump when he
was rumored to be a candidate for Alabama, and his
buyout is far less and he's likely gone. Right, the

(14:43):
twenty twenty three season is now looking more like an
aberration than ever the Jordan Travis season. And even though
they weren't exactly week to week dominant during that season,
they won a ton of games. And so the Mike
Norvel experience at Florida State is not defined overall by
winning a ton of games. And so it looks like

(15:06):
between the recruiting, between the failed swings, it seems at
quarterback otherwise that it's just not going to work out.
And again, if this were like a seventeen million dollar
an eleven million dollar buyout, he'd likely be gone. So
that seems like the cost benefit thing right now is
either finding money or figuring out how to get out

(15:27):
from under this or restructuring somehow, because we're seeing the
same thing happen right now at Wisconsin that Luke Fickle
got a we're not doing anything right now. We're going
to valuate things at a different time, And I think
the language with Wisconsin was a little bit more we'd
rather invest the money in the roster than start over

(15:48):
and pay out Luke Fickle and this staff and then
bring in a whole new staff. So there is that
cost benefit analysis what you can do with potentially the portal,
But that's kind of what we were told last year
too with Wiscon.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Yeah, well back to the Florida state thing. I do
think if this is going to be the end for
Mike Norvel, it will be in large part defined by
what he did do I guess, in this case, what
he didn't do via the transfer portal. It worked out
really well when he had a bunch of homegrown guys.
It took a while to get there, but clearly the

(16:21):
twenty twenty three season was a huge success. It kind of,
you know, had a bit of a depressing turn at
the end, but when he was working with guys that
he had homegrown, it seemed like it worked out a
little bit better than it did the last two years,
where there was much more of a massive roster overhaul
with the transfer portal obviously the quarterback position. This year,
as I said, went out, brought in a bunch of

(16:42):
new assistants. So it just they are having a hard
time rebooting this thing.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
They legit could go eight and the acc this they
could elsewhere.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
You mentioned fickle quiet on that front. As you eluded,
there seems to be some activity behind this scenes at Auburn,
people talking about the future for Hugh Freeze. Hugh Freeze
is a very manageable fifteen dollars fifteen dollars, fifteen million dollars,
fifty dollars would be ideal. Fifteen million dollar buyout. It
would not surprise me if they decided to make a

(17:13):
move sooner than later. There are increasing questions about Brian
Kelly at LSU. There is a lot of speculation Bill
Belichick at UNC potentially a Mark Stoops conversation. Let me
just say that there are many other whispers out there,
and as we have worn now for what feels like

(17:33):
months on end. It is going to be a crazy
coaching carousel. So get your affair as an order, as
I like to say, just.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Be prepared, get affairs an order, Get the go bag
ready by the door.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
We're going to be playing a lot of that dinosaur sound.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
I think we're going to be playing a lot of like, wait,
how much of a raise did this coach get for
not going somewhere by literally doing the same exact thing
he's been doing, but now has a bunch of leverage.
Not that this is terribly different than other seasons, but
it feels with the number of jobs that are going
to be open and that already are open at big places,
a lot of agents by new beach houses.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
You know it, brother, all right? Write in salverbot gmail
dot com. Leave a comment wherever you can if you
are ever so inclined. We'd love to hear from you
on these firings and much much more. We do have
new polls to discuss, Dan, please new AP Top twenty five,
new Verballer Top twelve. The biggest gainers in the AP

(18:34):
Top twenty five. We've got Georgia up four to number five,
Georgia Tech up five to number seven, Vandy up seven,
Crack in the top ten BYU, Slow and Steady wins
the race. Dan They're up four now number eleven in
the country. Biggest droppers Miami down seven to nine, Texas
Tech down seven to number fourteen, Tenniseee down six to

(18:57):
number seventeen, and LSU drops ten all the way down
to number twenty. This mirrors very closely, very closely with
what we see in the Verballer Top twelve. The Verballer
Top twelve has Ohio State, Indiana, Texas, A, and m
in Alabama one, two, three, four. That is the same

(19:17):
as the AP Top twenty five. We do see some
disparities once we get outside that top four, but many
of the same teams. We've got Oregon, Georgia, Georgia Tech,
Miami at eight, Vandy at nine, Ole Miss at ten,
BYU again at eleven, Notre Dame peaking in at number twelve,
just like in the AP Top twenty five. So I

(19:39):
think the disparities have all but vanished at this point.
We are now eight weeks into the season. We have
a really solid base of understanding for where these teams
are at. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your perspective, we
see a lot going down each week. There's been a
lot of movement week to week in these polls, but

(20:00):
it is nice to see that finally the AP pole
is starting to mirror the more superior poll in the
college football universe, that being the ever Bowler Top twelve.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, so I'm just looking at the A people right now.
It's eight of ten. Eight of the top ten are
SEC Big ten if my math is correct, So that's
been dominated BYU is the highest ranked Big twelve team,
and then obviously having Miami and Georgia Tech in the
top ten, there is interesting look there. It's a very
strange year that certainly, like what Georgia has accomplished lately

(20:33):
is super impressive, what Alabama's accomplished lately is super impressive.
But outside of Ohio State, everybody is like kind of
had a scare that makes them look mortal. Nobody has
really looked dominant dominant, I guess again, other than Ohio State.
And you look at a one score win against Texas
now with like ooh, that's not a great look. But

(20:53):
that was Week one. So it's an interesting year for parody.
It's an interesting year that there's a lot of move
that is potential from all the way down to like
ASU at twenty four. Right now, we'll see on Michigan,
but I think there's there's a lot of opportunity for
a limber October November, which I think is great.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
A limberpol is something that we live by here of
course over at SVHQ. But let me ask you this.
Among the teams that are currently in the top twelve, okay,
I'm giving you the opportunity to sell one of them,
a team that by the end of all this will
not be inside the top twelve. I think we have
a lot of the usual suspects in there right now.

(21:36):
Right you got one pick, though, one pick for a
team that will not finish in the top twelve that's currently.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
There, Ah BYU. And it's nothing against BYU. They've just
played a lot, a lot of close against a lot
of average seeming teams. And I don't include Utah in
that necessarily. That's a rivalry game that's at home. But
that close game against Arizona, the close game against Colorado,
I have my doubts to a small extent about what

(22:03):
BYU can accomplish on the road. And they're about to
take on three good to very good teams on the
road this last month and a half of the season
in Iowa State, Texas Tech, and Cincinnati. Cincinnati currently has
probably a top twelve to fifteen offense in the sport.
Sample size isn't great in terms of defensive competition, but

(22:23):
I just think it's going to get a little bit
realer with the green nature of bar Bachmeer quarterback, who
I think is quite exciting and can be really fun.
But I think the road is going to affect I
think BYU's bottom line, and so that's a team that
I would say is probably peaking right now.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
You thought about Vandy, but then I looked at Vandy's schedule.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
It's pretty good.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Vandy's got a game at home this week against Miszoo.
We're not going to preview it on this episode. We'll
do that on Thursday. But they could beat Maszoo. They
go to Texas, that'll be a tough spot. Yeah, Texas's
offense not necessarily knocking anybody over at this point. Good defense.
I think it's a winnable game home against both Auburn

(23:10):
and Kentucky. All Auburn does is lose close games. Sure
Vandy could win that rivalry against Tennessee to close things
out on the road, That'll be a tough spot, for sure, tough,
But right now Vandy sitting with one loss, Dan, I
don't know if a ten and two Vandy gets in,
especially if they lose their last game of the year.

(23:31):
But if I'm looking at teams that I want to sell,
Vandy's probably not the answer.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Man. If you go ten and two in the SEC
this season, if you're able to navigate the SEC at
ten and two with I guess a couple signature wins,
you're in a real nice spot. You really are.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
I think the team that I am settling on for
now is george Tech. Wow, Okay, and I like George Tech.
Georgia Tech has yet to take a loss this year.
They have been in a handful of close games and
thinking of the Clemson game, think of the wake Forest game,
even the Duke game to an extent was close. Sure,

(24:10):
but I harken back to something that you and I
have talked about a couple times over now, tho, this
is a good team, tough team. We like Haynes King.
Hanes King thankfully has stayed pretty healthy so far. Yeah,
definitely feels like there's a loss in there.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
Are I agree, and it's amazing for Georgia Technical eleven
and one against you know, a reasonably tough schedule that
certainly finishes with Georgia. The game is what it's in Atlanta,
but not at Bobby Dodd. I had circle those wake
Forest and Duke games as those spots for an imperfect
team to go down on the road, and they found

(24:48):
a way. So I'm believing a lot more than I
was before in terms of Georgia Tech continuing to find
a way because the defense has improved very clearly, and
it is as long as Haines King is upright, he
finds ways to move the ball forward and move the chain.
So Georgia Tech is in a great spot, and so
I'm not done doubting the super high end of their ceiling.

(25:12):
They look really, really good.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
The other answer I have here, and this probably will
leak out into our conversation about the Old Miss game
Ole Miss against Oklahoma this week, but you can make
a pretty strong case that Old Miss won't be in
the top twelve at the end of the year.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
I also consider that in my answer, it's a tough.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Spot this week on the road at Oklahoma, we will
get into that. They've got game's at home against South Carolina,
at home against Florida, on the road at Mississippi State
to close things out. Mississippi State is not a bad team,
that's a rivalry spot. Who knows what state Florida is
going to be, and even South Carolina can be a
pain in the ass sometimes I could definitely see them

(25:55):
take in another loss along the way.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
But even then, if you're saying another loss along the way,
a ten and two SEC team with wins against LSU
and I guess, take your pick, I guess at that
point it would be the likeliest loss is Oklahoma moving
forward because it's on the road two consecutive road games,
but it's ten and two, I guess with wins against
South Carolina, Florida, LSU, and let's not forget that big

(26:19):
comeback win against Wazoo. Yep, I don't know. To get
in at ten and two in the SEC are big ten,
it seems. Let us know, again, soliverablelgema dot com. Let
us know in the comments wherever you can, who are
you selling in this top twelve. I think it's an
interesting debate, to say the least, there are certainly some
teams that I would buy to maybe work their way

(26:41):
up into the top twelve, to maybe get themselves on
more secure footing within the big top twelve Big twelve.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
But who are you selling? Let us know.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Who is that answer in you know, the teens area
thirteen to twenty that you're buying or beyond to make
a sizeable leap up, I would.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Buy Texas Tech. I still think Texas Tech is pretty good.
We'll see on quarterback health though, We'll see on quarterback health.
I would be inclined to buy Virginia, not because I'm
the hugest Virginia believer, but because they've got a very
favorable schedule, and based on what we've seen so far,
I think there's a lot of reason be optimistic.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
About you that wake Duke one two and they go
to the hinterlands.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
They do go to the hinterlands. And another one kind
of staying in the act would be Louisville. Louisville showed
me something on Friday night beating Miami.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
That's true, but that's sort of their mom under Jeff Brohm.
So they have a pretty good schedule left though, getting
Clemson whatever Clemson is, and what their health is at
that point, and SMU and that's on the road. That's
a tough one too, But I think they're in a
good spot. I might circle miszoo here.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
I'm not buying Missoo. I'm not buying buy Aoo. I'm
not buying Tennessee. I'm certainly not buying LSU.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
I'm out on most of those SEC teams.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
That are outside top twelve at this point, they're just
gonna fall once or twice and take themselves out. Okay,
let us do.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
Dan, ruis seen? Do you have a sound first?

Speaker 2 (28:08):
At this point, I think I do? Is it this?

Speaker 1 (28:11):
I want to dance with? Oh?

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Want to dance time?

Speaker 1 (28:13):
I want to dance on this part of the episode.
Now we are talking soft launches and hard launches, Dan, I.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
Had to look up what it meant. I think I
did so did I we we use some sort of
youth website to indicate that a soft launch on Instagram
or Facebook or some social media platform TikTok about a
relationship means that you're hinting at the formation of a
new relationship, whereas a hard launch is like, hey, everybody,

(28:46):
this is my new person, right, And that's a picture
and it's your showing happiness. Maybe you're on some sort
of European island together. That's what a hard launch is.
So we're doing soft launch hard launch today.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Dan. You're gonna give me some of your college football takes, Yes,
some things that you have been steing over. We're going
to have a conversation as we always do here, but
I am going to make the determination whether that's a
soft launch situation or sure if maybe you should just
go for and go hard launch. Right, what do you
got first?

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Well, I was just going to make this about teams
or I guess quarterbacks. Are situations like you seem like
you're ready to hard launch Virginia as a playoff contender. Yes, no,
you're not ready. No, this is a soft launch for you.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
It's very much a soft launch for me.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
I like you, Yeah, I do. I like their schedule,
I like what we have seen so far. There is
definitely still a mental block when it comes to UVA. Okay,
I don't understand how we got here so quick, and
that is not got anything to do with Tony Elliott,
Chandler Morris and what they have done in Charlottesville. That

(29:53):
is completely separated this is a me thing that I'm
talking about here, and so no, I'm just not I'm
not ready to con to that bit yet. But I'll
sft launch.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
It, Okay, are you ready to? And I'm gonna I'm
gonna hard launch it here. Uh, the Pit Panthers, you
never should have abandoned them after losing to West Virginia, right,
just there's weird rivalry moments.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Ye.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
My take on PIT is it's time to hard launch Ty,
It's time.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Man. I've struggled with this, Okay, I've struggled with this
because I was all in on PIT at the start
of the year, and the entire basis for the argument
was Eli Holstein and des reed and Eli Holstein really
wasn't that good. It really wasn't to start the year.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
Okay. But here's here's the hard launch with PIT.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Right.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
It's not that Pitt's going to make the playoff or
anything like that. Are you ready to hard launch PIT
as a competitive, competent team that is going to show
out well against those final three?

Speaker 1 (30:54):
Oh yeah? Oh yeah?

Speaker 2 (30:56):
So Notre Dame will not embarrass Pitt. I think that
game is at PIT right, a pit right, Georgia Tech,
and that it's a look ahead spot for Georgia Tech
I believe, right the second to last game of the
season before the Georgia matchup, and it's Miami's final game.
So Pitt in terms of like where they could be
and getting those teams at the end of the year,
maybe they're a little bit beat up. Obviously, Pitt could

(31:18):
be a little bit beat up. They've got a green
quarterback and Mason Heinschel. You're saying Pitt will be a
fully formed, competitive, dangerous team throughout the back half of
the season.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Look, there's a gumpy quality to that schedule, sure, where
they're going to be adjacent to other teams that have
a lot to play for, and who knows where the
ACC is going to go, right, Pitt could find itself
having a lot to play for in terms of the conference.
I don't know, But all that being said, yeah, I
think what we have seen recently, the switchcheck quarterback has

(31:51):
definitely given them a spark. They have looked better and
they will have plenty of opportunities to be more of
a factor in this thing the final month and a
half of the season. So yeah, le's hard launch it.
I'm in. Let's go I hard launched it at the
start of the year. What the hell, let's do it again.
Let's do it again. I'm ready to be hurt.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
I am okay, I'm gonna be very specific about this.
My most entertaining co star these next five to six
games of the season is going to be the Cincinnati Bearcats.
Look at the remainder of Cincinnati skete.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
I looked at it earlier.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Cincinnati has Baylor at Utah, Arizona byu TCU. What do
all those teams have in common? The potential for superan
entertaining quarterbacks going against a Cincinnati pass defense that's not
all that good. Cincinnati's own passing game has been terrific.
Their own offense have been terrific. Cincinnati is due to

(32:49):
play a bunch of thirty eight thirty fives, and you
should circle the calendar. Put Cincinnati on your every week
YouTube TVDVR. Not a sponsor could be I'm hard launching
Cincinnati as electricity in November.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Okay, with that, I I will hard launch the idea
of them being super entertaining in November.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Yes, I think it's gonna be great. I will hard
to launch that.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
I was looking at some tiebreaker scenarios in the Big
Twelve earlier today, and as you might expect, I mean,
there's still a whole range of possibilities. It's still relatively early.
It's probably too early to be looking at stuff like this,
but there are just some interesting teams that I think
have a role to play. Cincinnati, for sure, Iowa State

(33:39):
still has a role to play. I don't think they're
going to get into the top two of the conference,
but Iowa State is there, by you who were going
to talk about a little bit later when we preview games,
They're certainly there. Even a team like a Houston who
will not be at the top of the conversation. So
this is all to say the Big Twelve is going
to be crazy fascinating. I think Cincinnati is certainly leading

(34:01):
part of that charge.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
I know, but there is something fun about this, an
old school Big Twelve mentality with Cincinnati, right, the struggles
on defense somewhat and then just incredible effervescent potential on offense.
And so I'm hard launching this relationship in a way
that somebody would hard launch a relationship with. Like I

(34:22):
met Trevor at a rave. We've decided to move in
into a van we're gonna live that van life. And
you see that post and you're like, this is gonna
end terribly, but subscribe. Yeah, I'm in.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
All right, Yeah, I'm in. I'm in. What else you got?

Speaker 2 (34:37):
I'm hard launching a relationship right now? With Indiana winning
the conference? Are you ready? Will you come on this
journey with me? They're gonna end up in the game.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
They're gonna end up in the game.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
They're gonna end up in the Big Ten title game.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
I don't have a dog in the fight, okay, And
I don't want this to sound like I am favoring. Sure,
it would be a pretty crazy storyline if Indiana ended
up beating Ohio State to win the Big Ten. I
mean it would have been crazy last year. It's equally
as crazy this year. I still remember doing the previews

(35:11):
where we argued over whether Indiana or Illinois should be
fourth or fifth. All that stuff's going out the window now.
Indiana's are really good. They beat Oregon on the road.
They're killing teams, maybe not Iowa, but they're killing everybody else.
I'm willing to go on the journey with you. I
am soft launching the idea, though, because Ohio State has

(35:31):
looked unstoppable on defense. I hear you, they totally unstoppable
on defense. I'm curious to see what Indiana looks like
the rest of the way. I mean, they had their
way with Oregon Penn State that game. Penn State's in disarray,
the game is in State College. It is still a
decent enough Penn State defense. I'm curious to see if
they can provide some resistance even if they're not able

(35:53):
to get anything going on offense.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
Right Ah, I'm only going to soft launch it, Dan,
You're gonna soft lunch. Okay, this is why I'm hard launching.
Ohio State plays nobody all season long. I know, I
know I was looking at that, so so I'm just
saying the ability to self scout and respond to adversity
and figure out. Okay, this team is doing this interesting thing.

(36:15):
Penn State with Ethan Grunkemeyer, Purdue on the road, Ucla, Rutgers,
and then of course the Michigan game. I don't believe
they're going to struggle with Michigan this season. I don't.
Look it's different. Weird things keep happening with this game.
I mean, we keep saying that about Ohio. See I understand.
I think it's it's gonna be okay for Ohio State

(36:37):
this season, that's my prediction. But I don't think they're
going to be They're going to have that specific experience
that will help them in this spot. Like they the
big reason they had their wake up calls last season.
They had a wake up call on defense after that
Oregon game in Eugene and a wake up call after
the Michigan game and didn't end up playing in the

(36:57):
Big Ten championship game. I think there's some that's going
to be more tested about Indiana by the time they
reach that point that is going to give them an advantage.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
Man, if they play that game in Indianapolis too, that's
basically a home.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
A game in Indiania. Well, every game is kind of
a home game. If it's a big game involving Ohio State.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
They travel, But Bloomington's only like what an hour away?
If that from Indianapolis, I could only soft launch. It
doesn't mean I won't root for the storyline because I
think it would be a very cool zag as opposed
to what we're used to. Yeah, I'm not fully there yet.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
We just we don't know exactly how good Ohio State.
Is we think we are nearly positive. They are undoubtedly excellent,
but you'd like measuring sticks here.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
I don't know, man. I watched some of their defense
this weekend.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
They're ridiculous. They're solidly front. They're so good up front.
What else you got?

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Okay, I'm going sec I'll go Mountain West. I'm kind
of getting to a really serious place with San Diego State,
San Diego State, san Diego State.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Okay, so talk me through the Dan Rubinstein evolution from
San Jose State to San Diego State. Why are you here?
Are we hard launching? Are we soft launching? What? How
serious is this relationship?

Speaker 2 (38:27):
This is how serious it is. Okay. San Diego State's
offense is average, their defense is very good. They have
basically one good offense left in Boise State, and the
game is at home. San Diego State plays the following
defenses in terms of defensive sp plus ranks to finish
out the season. Number seventy seven coming off of a

(38:48):
bye this past week in Fresno State, Wyoming eighty, Hawaii
seventy three, and that's on the road. That'll be difficult.
Boise at home seventy one San Jose State one to
seventeen New Mexico on the road one twelve. That would
put them at eleven and one, with a comfortable loss
to Washington State and a thirty four to zering win

(39:09):
against Cal.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
Also a six to three win over Northern NOI back
in Week four.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
Win your clunkers, Tyler, win your clunkers. I'm just saying
San Diego State right now, has I mean their offense
is that they're going to face one ten ninety four,
eighty six eighty one. They it's basically a one game
season to me, if you're going to oversimplify the rest
of the Aztecs here, they're in a really nice place
and they were bad a year ago.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
So Seann Louis is doing a good job.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Sewn Louis is doing a very good job there. I
mean again, it's it's led by their defense, and you
look at the offenses that they faced. Obviously this is
not a roster of incredible quarterbacks faced. But I think
they could be one of those teams where you look
up around, Thanksgav and you're like, oh, San Diego State's
in the driver's seat for the playoff. Okay, sure, great.
I just think they're in a good place.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
I'll saw to launch that one. You're gonna soft on sang,
I just a mountain less is weird, dude, It is weird.
It's weird. And when you've got a six to three
win over Northern Illinois.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
I don't know, they don't make sense.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
They really don't like this is This to me is
kind of like one of those magic guys where you
got to cross your eyes and like move the page
back and forth until you see the sailboat. I kind
of feel that way with San Diego State right now.
I'm not sure what they are. I'm not sure I
fully see it at this point. I'm glad that you do,
and I'm glad you're into it, but uh, I don't know.

(40:38):
My eyes are still cross right now looking at the Aztecs,
and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to get out
of it.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Okay, and Boise has a buye before that game against
San Diego State, but it is after Fresno. I don't
think anybody is finishing the SEC season with one conference loss.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Hard launch I'm in yeah, I mean, I.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Don't think anybody's going whatever it is now seven and one.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
No I don't think so either. See, I think the
SEC has borrowed a page out of the Big Twelve,
where different teams, different play styles, obviously a different conference
makeup altogether, right, But the thing they have in common
is that it's going to be a demolition derby the

(41:23):
rest of the way. And so if you are a
college football fan and maybe does not have any dog
in the SEC fight, we have a lot of people
who listen. They just like college football. They don't even
necessarily have a team. They pick a different team year
in and year out. Whatever you're into, we don't care.
But this is part of what makes college football great.
It is I think what we see unfolding in this conference,

(41:46):
which is a lot of really good teams. It is
very deep. We looked at the top twenty five. They're
a bunch of ranked SEC teams and it's a good conference. Yes,
they're all going to beat each other. They're all going
to beat each other. There's going to be some cannibalisation
that goes on. There's going to be some team that
gets left out of the playoff that feels that they
are slighted.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Yep, it is.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
Going to because they all end up beating each other,
and that makes for a very interesting November.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
So A and M has at LSU, at Miszoo, at Texas. Yeah,
and they've currently not lost a game BAMA has. They're
playing Auburn. Where's that game? That game is at Auburn.
They have Oklahoma and LSU, and they're at South Carolina.
I think BAMA has the best shot to lose once
and once only and maybe all undefeated. It's more of

(42:36):
a medium launch from me, just because I think Bama
has a pretty good shot. I'm worried about the A
and M defense in this moment, though they did improve
as they generally do in the second half against Arkansas.
I think they allowed forty or fifty yards on the
ground only after just allowing everything in the first half
to Arkansas on the ground. But yeah, I think November
October bloodbath.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
I've got one for you.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
Please.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
I am hard launching that I said something stupid on
the Saturday night reaction stream. Yeah, I am an idiot
for the way I talked about Notre Dames when over USC.
So I am hard launching my relationship with Notre Dames
defense once more.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Oh okay, you just kept calling it a clunker performance.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
I don't need to make this a long diatribe. I
said what I said, Yeah, but I went to bed
thinking about it. After the coffee wore off. I mentioned it.
I think again to you yesterday morning. I expected that
I would get roasted a lot more than I ended
up getting roasted. I appreciate that. Thank you for baller hood.

(43:42):
Something happens to us as fans where we like protect
our heart by tempering every bit of excitement with a
little bit of negativity. Right. That is just the fan experience,
especially in college football, because this thing is always on
the verge of and off the swivel. I don't care
who you're root for, Yeah, And I think that is

(44:03):
especially true for you and I, Dan, because we have
never made any secret of the fact Oregon fan, Notre
Dame fan, penn s data alum. We've never tried to
conceal the fact that we have rooting interests here. It's
part of the show, it's part of who we are.
People tune in for that. But at least speaking for myself,

(44:24):
sometimes ago a little too far in the opposite direction
to present as unbiased and fair, right, and I went
so far that I pretty much wrote off what was
a really good defensive showing by Notre Dame, a really
good showing in general in the Yeah, right, the Notre
Dame defense. Despite the fact that I still have some

(44:47):
trust issues based on what we saw in the early
part of the year, USC was the number one sp
plus defense offense offense definitely not defense, but offense. Yeah,
Notre Dame held them to twenty four points. They created turnovers.
If you look at the drive chart, I mean, they
pretty much held USC at bay for the majority of

(45:11):
the second half. What more could I want? If you're
holding it offense that good to only twenty four points,
there aren't a whole lot of negative things that you
should be talking about. That was very good showing by
the Notre Dame defense.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
Made plays, took advantage of turnovers, force turnovers. Yeah, in
a big spot national TV.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
So I went back and I listened to myself and
I was like, dude, what are you talking about? Hm,
you're making an ass to yourself right now.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
So I'm not going to apologize for anything I said.
What I said, that was what I felt in the moment.
Maybe hopped up on mushroom coffee. It's becoming a theme here,
not a sponsor absolutely could be at this point, but
I am. I am sending some sweet nothings back to
the Notre Dame Defense. I'm ready to hard launch a
new chapter of my relationship with that Notre Dame Defense

(46:05):
because it seems like they're getting better and it's nothing
more of the game that we saw against USC. I
think was proof positive of that. So look, hand up.
I don't think I did a good job explaining where
I was coming from. I think maybe I went a
little bit too far in the other direction to appear
fair and bounced. But alas uh, it was a good
showing and I probably should have given a little bit
more credit.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
So I'm back in. I'm back in, Okay. And it
wasn't a great game for CJ. Carr No, And yet
Jendarium Price and Jeremiah Love both went over like two
hundred dollar purpose yards, right.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
Yeah, I mean Jadarian Price ran a kick back, had
like eighty some odd yards on the ground. Jeremiah Love
two twenty eight on the ground. It was his career high.
They ran all over USC, like what more do you want?
You don't always need to be firing on all cylinders
in order to put in a good game and have
a workman like effort and have an impressive win. And
so while I stand by the fact that I think

(46:59):
USC on offense is damn impressive, there's going to beat
a lot of teams and it is going to be
a force to be reckoned with the rest of the way.
Not not even won the game. They won the game by ten.
They look good on defense. They did what they had
to do on offense. I think they very much played
the style that they want to play under Marcus Freeman,
which is bullyball, run it down your throats, control the
line of scrimmage. They did all of those things. For

(47:22):
me to be too negative, I don't know that's that's
an accomplishment that I need to deal with on my
own personal time. But in the meantime, yeah, Hard launching
new relationship with Notre Dame defense.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
So they're going to be in the playoff, I think
so at this point, right, gotta beat pat a week
after Navy, I think so.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
I think what we're going to see from this point forward,
because it really was kind of like a one game
season for Notre Dame. They need to beat USC. Right,
you beat USC, They're going to be a clear favorite.
Over pretty much everybody else in the schedule. If you
can run like that against the teams that they've got
coming up, they're not going to lose.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
I agree.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
I don't know what happens when they get to the playoff.
That's gonna be a separate conversation. But yeah, right now,
if you're looking at the Irish, there's a pretty good
chance they're gonna be inside the top ten on stable
ground going to that final round of rankings first week
of December. So I feel pretty good about their chances
to get back in.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
I think that's probably right, just because there's so many
teams that are gonna be moving around so much that
they're just gonna steadily move up one win nine, seven, six,
They're just I don't know. I think there's gonna be
so much action around them. They could be jumped a
bunch as well, because they're not playing any huge resume
games these final five weeks, and we'll see where USC is.
USC still has Oregon on the road, and I believe

(48:39):
they have the juggernaut that is UCLA to finish out
the season. So you know, you got a root for
USC on a certain level. You gotta have a signature win.
That's the only thing that you can be held against
Notre Dame if you're gonna project this forward is who
is that big deal win you'd like to see? I
guess if you're a Notre Dame fan, Boise State keep winning.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
They have State, I mean all the teams right you
want to see and keep winning. You can make the
case that right now their best win is a close
loss to Texas A and M right at home. But
we'll see. I don't know right now it's set up
for them. This is a really good showing. The lesson,
as always is that I'm an idiot.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
So also, look, if the committee wants to put a
Notre Dame, they will. They'll use the justification of Look,
it was the first two weeks of the season, new quarterback,
and they're a different team now than they were back then,
and it's not a difficult case to make, but that'll
be the justification.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
Right in solid Vermont gmail dot com, let us know
what you are hard launching, what you're soft launching here
the remainder of the season. It's previous some games Dan
early Bird special, as we've been doing here on Tuesdays,
Let's give you an advanced look at a couple of
the big ones. This week. We've got three of them,

(49:50):
the first of which is at high noon on ABC.
It is number eight, Ole Miss It is number thirteen Oklahoma.
Oklahoma is a four and one half point favorite. Dan,
I have an honest question for you about Oklahoma. Okay,
I'm so happy you did not bring Oklahoma up when
you did your hard launch soft launch thing. Okay, Well,
it's not meant as a troll. This is an honest question.

(50:11):
All right. The Oklahoma people listening, don't at me. Is
an honest question.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
I'm listening.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Do you think that Oklahoma is overrated.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
At their actual ranking of thirteen or just in terms
of their place in the sport.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
They're ranking at thirteen right now, But I would say
the assumption that Oklahoma is one of the teams to
beat in the SEC and the sport at large.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
I think they're properly rated. I think they're looked at
as likely flawed in certain aspects. Offensively, though, what they
did against South Carolina, a South Carolina defense that's okay,
a South Carolina offense that's been terrible this year, that
was a losable spot. Considering their lack of performance against
Texas to let that rivalry loss beat them twice.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Here's why I asked this. Okay, for all the talk
about Oklahoma's defense, have we seen them against a high
powered offense? We saw them against Michigan in week two,
Auburn in week four.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
That was a very early Bryce Underwood start in. Michigan's
offense is fine but not incredible.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
Sure, but case in point, moment in time was definitely
not a high powered offense. Texas two weeks ago was
not knocking anybody over with their offense, even though they
won right South Carolina last week. Now this week, I
think Old Miss is a completely different conversation. We'll get
to that. You consider the other side of it too,
with their offense and a lot of talk about John Mattier,

(51:45):
how he's come in, he's revitalized the offense. That is
not untrue. But they're twenty six points last week against
South Carolina. That was the most they've scored against the
power conference opponent.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Right.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
So the reason that I asked this, we have and
really seen the defense go up against a great offense,
and we haven't seen the offense, albeit better, put in
an incredible showing against a power conference opponent. So I look,
I say, thirteenth, I look at the teams that are
left on this schedule, Tennessee, Alabama, Miszoo all still on

(52:18):
this thing. These are good offenses. I think it's a
fair question.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
Yeah, I think they're due for a dip, but in
terms of what they've accomplished thus far, I think their
starting point of what their defense can be and has
shown itself to be against lesser offenses. I think there
is less to worry about this Oklahoma defense than there
is defenses across this conference. So it's not perfect, it's

(52:43):
not incredible, but I think it's gonna do them a
ton of favors. I think the fact that they can
run the ball more is gonna help their defense. It's
gonna give their defense a little bit more rest. They're
gonna be able to control more games hypothetically if this continues.
I don't think they're overrated. I just don't think they're
built to win in a number of ways like i'd

(53:03):
like to see a team built like Against the rest
of this schedule, I think they are at the moment
properly rated. And look, if they win four or five
or whatever it is, they're going to be the top eight.
They're gonna be the top six if.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
They show out against their remaining schedule. Yeah, they should be.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
Yeah. I'm a believer in Oklahoma as a good team.
With questions about the lack of winter wonders out wide,
we you know, different ways to win. You're still dealing
with John Matier coming off of a pretty significant injury,
and he's not one hundred percent though encouraged by recent results. Sure,
we'll see, but I think they have that kind of

(53:41):
Texas game in them as well, even if John Matier
were healthy.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
I also think there's a strong possibility with respect to
this game that we see a little bit of a
hangover effect for Old Miss.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
I do too. Second straight road game, yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
Second straight road game. They could have won that game
last week against Georgia. So now to turn around and
play and nooner in Norman, Oklahoma. That's a really tough
one too.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
What's the number? What's the line?

Speaker 1 (54:06):
Four and a half?

Speaker 2 (54:08):
I like Oklahoma here. I like Oklahoma because if what
they're able to do on the ground is for real,
that's the very specific weakness that ole Miss has had,
and so to ask ole Miss to get a lot
better against the run, on the road in a difficult
place to play. I like ole Miss, but I think

(54:29):
the more teams get a look at Trinidad Chambliss, the
more they have a concept of how to play him.
And I think there's enough speed on this defense to
keep him honest. So I like Oklahoma here. I'm gonna
take the points. Okay.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
Part of why I'm taking the points is because I
initially liked Oklahoma too. Yeah, betting against myself has actually
worked out quite well, but.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
But that's your end. But the tie instinct is to
bet against tie. So that's what's wrong with the tie instinct.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Now. I don't trust the Oklahoma offense right now, okay,
and I have a lot of faith that ole Miss
can score at least twenty four points. Okay, it's his defense.
I think Oklahoma wins. I think Oklahoma's going to be
the better team. But I've got it a close twenty
seven to twenty four somewhere in that neighborhood. The reason

(55:21):
I say don't fully trust the offense is I hear
what you're saying about the Oklahoma ground game. I'm not
sure I'm fully buying it yet.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Okay, fair enough, I have this at twenty four to eighteen.
I don't know how they get there twenty.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
So both lower scoring though right we're lower scoring, more
of a lower scoring defenses struggle.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
It's also a nooner correct, yes, which I think favors
Ole Miss a little bit in terms of you're not
getting the huge energy level that you could. But I'm
still going with Oklahoma. That's new in Eastern time. Let's
get our time zones right here. Norman, Oklahoma time right
now be Central time, So be Central time, so it's
even earlier eleven am. Yeah, yeah, Oxford, Mississippi time right

(56:02):
now also central Okay. So it's not a body clock
situation at all, but I just it is a little
it's a little bit more, you know, can be a
little bit more lethargic or whatever.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
Plane that early three point thirty on Fox number eleven
BYU on the road at Iowa State. Iowa State favor
by two and a half points. Stand to quote, the
wise profit is Shanti. This game's about trust, babe. You know,
I hung onto my preseason projections for a long time,

(56:37):
and I continued trusting Iowa State. And that is despite
the fact that they have basically been screaming, Hey, don't
trust us. Don't trust it. We're not trustworthy. Actually, and
now what's happened now The Clones have kind of put
themselves in a bit of a box because they basically
need to win out. They need some help in addition
to that if they want any chance of getting back

(56:59):
to that Big twelve title game. These next three weeks
are critical. They've got the BYU game, which we're going
to talk about here, They've got ASU on deck, They're
on the road at TCU. My issue is, despite my
preseason projections, I am at a point where I no
longer feel like I can trust these guys. And if

(57:20):
you look at the body of work, the best win
might be that close loss to Cincinnati. Not a lot
on here, look at the resume. So I'm really mixed
on Iowa State. There was a lot that I liked
about them coming into the season. I still like rock
Obeck the best of all rocos of course the Boar,
but they're banged up, especially on defense. BYU is a

(57:45):
tough team. I think, to fully understand, I don't feel
like I can trust Iowa State. So my inkling here
is to go BYU.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
I'm going to Iowa State I'm going to Iowa State
off of a bye with BYU in the biggest letdown
spot they'll likely have this year, a close win and
a rivalry match, a big emotional win at home. I
think situationally, it's just a nice spot for Iowa State.
They hammered Arizona after the bye earlier this season at
home and ames I don't love anything specific about Iowa

(58:18):
State this year. They can throw the ball, but the
defense is so beat up that it's hard to have
a lot of trust in Iowa State here. But even
all that said, BYU hasn't been that good on the
road this year. No, they win, they've won. Winning is
better than losing. But you know, sneaking by Arizona in Colorado,
they weren't you know, comfortable wins for BYU. I think

(58:40):
they're a good team, I really do. I'm going Iowa
State situationally here, I think this they win this in
a relatively low scoring fashion as well. I have at
twenty four to twenty Iowa State.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
I think BYU's proven to me that they're winners. I agree,
And it's important to consider the context for BYU because
they lost their quarterback a couple weeks before the seat,
and so Kalani Sataki decides they're going to start a freshman,
and suddenly there's seven and zero. They're very much in
the playoff conversation. If nothing more, they're very much in

(59:11):
the Big twelve conversation. The only two reasons that you
don't trust BYU right here are a if you're worried
about the letdown effect, which I think you mentioned yep,
or if you think it's a bad matchup. And I
don't know if it's a bad matchup with at BYU's core.
I think they want to play slow and they want
to run it, and I think the running game will

(59:32):
very much be there as long as they don't come
out with that hangover. The running game is going to
be there. Iowa States one hundred and fourteenth in yards
allowed before contact. If BYU wants to try and grind
this one out in the ground, I think it'll be there.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
So I think it's time that I let go of
my preseason assumptions. I think I took this. It's about
time I take the season for what it is. And
I think BYA is a winner.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
So you're breaking up with Iowa States is what you're
saying on this soft hard launch appis I am, which.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Is great news for the Colons fans out there.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
But congratulations everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
Yeah, low scoring, ugly BYUNS twenty three to sixteen.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Yeah, I don't think their act is together enough to
weather the letdown. Rat poison here, rat poison, Dann.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
We got one more game here, seven thirty ABC number
three Texas A and M number twenty LSU. This one
in Tiger Stadium at night. Texas A and M a
two and a half point road favorite. A tough spot
for them. They are surely no stranger to loud Rocket stadiums,
but Tiger Stadium, everyone's gonna be rooting against him. It's

(01:00:37):
not Kyle Field, So that part clearly favors LSU. Defensively,
If you look at the numbers, these teams are bout.
Even The big disparity is on offense. Though our friend
Bill Connelly, you know, he ranks everything a million different ways.
He's got A and M as the number six offense
in the country. LSU is number forty eight. My question

(01:00:58):
for you, and we asked this about a bunch of
games week in and week out, how many points is
LSU need to score in order to win. And do
you think they can do it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
To win this game? I think they're going to have
to be able to score thirty. I think the varied
nature of Texas A and M offense, Texas A and
M's offense, with how well they can play balance and
what they can get speed wise on the outside, I
just think they're capable of scoring thirty anywhere against pretty
much anyone. And if LSU's offense were pretty good, if

(01:01:30):
there was decent balance, not incredible, but decent balance, there's
a lot to like about LSU here. Now, I like
Texas A and M as a team more, but I'm
gonna stick with my rubric here Ty, I think the
A and M defense was exposed a little bit more
than I would have liked. This is a second consecutive
road game, is it not. Texas A and M second

(01:01:53):
consecutive road game against a really good defense on the road,
and that home team is a home dog. I'm taking
LSU here. I'm sticking with my rubric. I'm saying the
rubric is you take a home dog with a good
defense at home. That's a home dog. A good defense
at home as a dog.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
Have you stopped with a crazy crowd, incorporating the quarterback situation.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
I've never incorporated the quarterback.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
Oh you've always talked about quarterback a defense. What are
you talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
No, No, that's to make a playoff. I'm just saying
just in terms of picks.

Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
This rubric changes every time we talk about it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
No, no, no, making a playoff, you need quarterback and defense
my picks. I will always almost always take a good
defense as a home dog in front of a raucous crowd.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
You're nuts, You are nuts, you know that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
Look I took South Carolina last week against Oklahoma. It's
not perfect, but.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
Man, I see I think A and M's game plan
is going to look a lot like Vandy against LSU,
and Vandy ran for two thirty nine. They gave a
bunch of different guys the ball to lose the Diego
Diago Pavia you to keep the defense off balance. They
didn't exactly air it out, but you know that Pavia

(01:03:07):
threat kind of opened everything up. I gotta believe that
Colin Klein was watching that tape and licking his chops. Okay,
because Marcel Reid can do a lot of that same stuff.
He could be better at it. And on the LSU side,
I get what you're saying. I like, I don't like
that this is a night game at least from the

(01:03:28):
eight m perspective in Tiger Stadium. That's a tall order. Yeah,
but bear in mind LSU is basically a half team
with a half offense.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
Agree, totally agree?

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
Does that mean they're a quarter pounder? Sure?

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
An all time classic favorite?

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
Like, if you want a true ricochet shot at Brian Kelly,
you could say that they're a quarter pounder with sleeves.
But that's up to you. I'm not saying that, of course. Okay,
I just don't think LSU's got enough variety on offense
at this point to win this game.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
Ty, Everything you're saying is right, But everything you're saying
exists in a vacuum. This sport doesn't exist in a vacuum.
You're talking about children traveling from Texas, A and M
to Arkansas.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
They don't have enough variety. There's not enough variety for
them to win.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
I think you're totally right, Ty, But do teams ever
come out flat that should win and don't? Right? This
is this sport.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
This is another one where you're wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
I try to warn you about the Oklahoma South Carolina game.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
We you're wrong about this, Okay, that's fine.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
You saw it the game with A and M that
if you've got variety, you can score on them, even Arkansas.
Arkansas fired their coach ran for two sixty eight through
for two fifty nine and three touchdowns. So this is
not a brick wall defense. But you gotta have some variety,
and I don't think else you has it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
I really ty, I think you're right. I'm not arguing
with you. If they were playing this game in Vancouver,
if they were playing this game in Copenhagen, if they
were playing this game in Albany, if they were playing
this game in Miami, I think you'd be right. This
game has been playing baton Rouge.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
I think that matters thirty one to twenty A and
m wins.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
Twenty four to twenty three. LSU, yes, that's fine.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
I mean, to your credit, it's a two and a
half point line, so it's not exactly like people are
thinking blowout here. So you're not that crazy. I just
I don't see it. I could not go through the
mental exercise of figuring out a way for Lcy to
win this game.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
I know, but Ty, we're dealing with college football here.
We're dealing with everybody comes out flat, everybody comes out
with a bad game plan. We're dealing with the fact
that Alabama lost to Florida State, who has not won
a conference game, and it is almost Halloween. I mean,
UAB just beat Memphis to everybody from the playoff after

(01:05:51):
firing their coach. I mean, once you disinfect the facility
of Trent Dilfer, it's all on the tape.

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
And all right, well, those are our three big previous
for now. We've got many others to preview on the
Thursday episode. Some interesting matchups this week. Okay, it is
not a Gangbusters kind of week. We don't have all
of the headlining games being played at the same time.

(01:06:22):
We don't even have as many headlining games as I
think we've seen the last couple of weeks. Sure, it's
always the quiet Ones. Ohlways, the quiet Ones. Dam be careful.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
Yeah, that's what I just told you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
UCLA at Indiana. Does the UCLA juggernaut continue in Bloomington?
I that's the big noon game, right, big noon game. Yeah,
We've also got South Florida at Memphis. That one's at
noon on ESPN two Kansas State Kansas Sunflower Showdown. Nice
little rivalry. Auburn at Arkansas should be fun as hell
to watch, if nothing more. Agreat middle of the afternoon,

(01:06:56):
We've got Alabama at South Carolina. Good take at South
Carolina this time, Dan, I don't think I will, but
no Missoo at Vandy will preview that one On Thursday.
Illinois at Washington could be interesting. Baylor at Cincinnati it
is gonna be crazy. That game's gonna be nuts. Texas
at Mississippi State, Dan, sure, and then Florida Rosdale. You

(01:07:17):
got Minnesota at Iowa. And then in a nightcap, We've
of course got the game that we just discussed, Texas
A and MLSU. We've also got Michigan Michigan State, Tennessee
at Kentucky. Sure, And if you're really a sick of
Colorado at Utah kicking off at ten to fifteen Eastern.

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Time, Man, I got look, South Florida Memphis is gonna
be great. I have Northwestern Nebraska as potentially being interesting.
SMU Wake Forest. SMU hasn't lost in the ACC yet. Nope, Nope,
that's gonna be tough and interesting. I wish somebody would
describe me as tough and interesting someday, But you know,
a boy can dream. No, I think it's a good week. Look,

(01:07:52):
Minnesota Iowa is gonna have upwards of thirteen to seventeen
total points scored.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
Emotions are starting to run pretty high. We're seeing it
reflect in the comments we get. This season is starting
to get interesting. So many more games to discuss on
the Thursday episode. I'm excited to discuss those with you.
A comment here. This is an Apple podcast review. Okay,
you've got a bunch of these that have come through.

(01:08:17):
I thought i'd read one of my favorites.

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
Dan, Okay, I'm ready, I think.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
From Leperchawn sixty Still great after many years. Five stars.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
Hell yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
He did write this before hearing what I had to
say about Notre Dame against USC, so maybe the opinion
has changed. I don't know. Okay, been listening for over
eight seasons. Still great. The guys know their stuff and
their love of college football comes through each and every episode,
so much better than all the TV talking heads, Dan
and Tie forever. Thank you, Leperkhn. We appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
Hell yeah. Thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:08:50):
Please submit your Apple reviews wherever you can anywhere you
can leave a five star review. We appreciate it. Of course,
leave us a comment wherever possible. Well, I'm gonna start
reading more of these just because we get so many
good ones. I want to pay sweet homage those of
you who take the time to interact with us.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
That's it. I gotta stop drinking mushroom coffee before the show.
I feel like I'm ready to walk to Amarilla, Texas
right now.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
Not a sponsor could be?

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
Well, I just said mushroom coffee. I didn't say the brand.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
Could be could be a sponsor.

Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
I don't believe it, but maybe I'm wrong. I don't
think you ever soft or hard launched your relationship prior
to your wedding online.

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
Oh, I'm not much of an online person. With that,
I'm not sure. I'm not much of an online person now.
I do the bare minimum because we have to with this.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
I know, but you are young.

Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
Back then, I was that young.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
You were pretty young. You were in your early fifties.

Speaker 1 (01:09:51):
You're a dick. I hate you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:53):
Yeah, uh no, I don't think you did. That's okay.

Speaker 1 (01:09:57):
I think I might have just flipped over the old
face book machine when we got married, got it? And
maybe I changed it to in a relationship at some point.
I don't remember.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
That's not really how it's done now.

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
But yeah, yeah, I haven't been on Facebook in an eternity,
but right, yeah, I don't know how it would adapt
to these new changing times.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
I don't know what I did think. I think it
was a soft launch and then I was like, oh,
I'm married now, I'm at now. Yeah, I think that's
what mine was way back when. But Okay, good to.

Speaker 1 (01:10:30):
Know I've heard the term out there in popular media.
Glad that you were bringing it to the Forballer. But
I'm also glad that you explained exactly what it meant.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
I had to look it up before the show began.
That's all all right.

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
Well, on that note, I hope you enjoyed. Today's episode
covered a lot of ground. Again, writ in, let us
know your reactions to the coach firings, the coach rumors,
the Forballer Top twelve, which college football reallyationships, who are
hard and soft? Launching your picks for week nine at

(01:11:05):
least the games that we discussed, and what games you're
most excited about in the Saturday that is to follow.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
I'm hard launching a number of Athletic Department receptionists saying
it's James Franklin online four these next two months. It's
James Franklin again. Should I tell him your no? Okay,
I'm anticipating a lot of hard launching of James Franklin
inquiring about various new positions in warmer climates.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
For that guy, have there, Dan Rubenstein for myself, Tie
hilder Man, thank you as always for supporting leave us
those reviews and comments.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
Yes, we'll do our.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
Best to read him on the next episode. In the meantime,
you know the drill stay song, Peace,

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Billy Napier Fired, Hard Launch/Soft Launch + Early Lookaheads for Ole Miss-Oklahoma, BYU-Iowa State & Texas A&M-LSU | College Football

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Billy Napier Fired, Hard Launch/Soft Launch + Early Lookaheads for Ole Miss-Oklahoma, BYU-Iowa State & Texas A&M-LSU | College Football