The College Football Predictions Special: Playoff Brackets, Awards & Fantasy Things

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

Speaker 2 (00:05):
For me, I'm a man, I'm forty.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
be happy.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
You want to be happy for day Edith State?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Is that?

Speaker 4 (00:13):
Whoo whoom?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
And Dan and tie Dan Rubinstein. We've got one big
preview episode left. As you know, we did a bunch
of conference previews over the last six weeks or so.
We even did a look back at our preview episodes
on the episode that dropped on Thursday with our friend
Brett Siancia from Pick six previews. We have been teasing

(00:37):
this one though, for weeks, if not months, and this
is where the robber meets the road. This is where
it matters. Playoff predictions, a few other predictions. We're even
going to sprinkle in some fantasy things at the end
of this episode. We got verballer predictions as well. We
have a reverb segment that we're going to play today.

(00:58):
This is a jam packed show. Well right here on
the soliverbal Welcome back, my friend. How are you today?

Speaker 3 (01:03):
I'm great. So this is a receipts episode. This is
an accountability episode, as the gen Zers like to say, receipts.
So we are putting our receipts out into the ether.
If it turns out that we are right, you gotta
give us our hold on. I'm looking at my gen
Z Legal pad flowers, Tie, you gotta give us our flowers.

(01:25):
And if not, you can say we are absolutely sus
And that's fine with me, Ty, because it takes a
certain amount of courage to do what we're doing here today.
And it's the courage to be wrong, right, it's the
courage to be Desmond Howard love Desmond Howard putting out
his like Pitt Baylor in the college football Final four?

(01:46):
What was A and M Pitt Baylor? I forget the
fourth team and it was so good. But you know what,
it's courageous, Tie, to go against the current. So he
was trying to be an intellectual college football salmon, just
swimming against the trying to spawn good ideas about well,
who's going to end up in the college football final
for And that's what we're doing here today, Ty, We're

(02:08):
trying to be our inner college football Chinook. You said
a lot there. I agree with all of it. Thank
you for being you, and thank you, Kindverballerhood for stopping
on back here.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Hit follow hit subscribes that you don't miss any of
these episodes. We've been getting questions from new folks Dan
left and right. How often do we record? What type
of thing do we do during the season? Three episodes
a week as we have for many years over now Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday,
Sunday Morning is the recap. Actually, if you're watching out
on YouTube now, you can watch the recap live every

(02:44):
Saturday night at midnight. We're going to start that up
after week one, not week zero. Tuesday episodes, bigger picture stuff,
whatever we didn't get to on the Saturday Night slash
Sunday Morning recap, we talk about it there. We also
talk about bigger picture narratives. And then Thursday, of course
Thursdays when we make our picks, we preview the week ahead.
We do all sorts of goofy stuff on that Thursday episode,

(03:07):
though I think we get more people listening to the
reactions episode. The Thursday one is really where you and
I go a little hog wild and we get creative
with how we're previewing the week ahead. So that's what
you have to look forward to.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
We've got, you know, what are the weekly nicknames? I
don't even remember year to year, we've had like Skinemac Saturday,
Centaurs Saturday. Right, we took the idea that ESPN is
like Separation Saturday, and we just make a bunch of
U turns and go off of buts about right. Yeah,
that's fine.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
That's what you have to look forward to. If you
hit the fall, if you hit the subscribe, if you've
already done that and you like the show rate review,
all that stuff goes a very long long way, excuse me,
towards helping new people find what it is that we do.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Sir, let's do it. I'm ready Luck of the Week.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
I'm playing a lot sound a little bit early because
these are our predictions.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Dan all right, receipts.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
The voice goes up in October two while we're talking
through our playoff brackets, when we're talking through awards, when
we're talking through all of this stuff. So again, the
Verballer hood sent in a bunch of via our Patreon,
which I will discuss here in just a little bit.
If you want to get in on that fund. There
is more fun to be had at verballers dot com.
I will again detail that later, but without further ado.

(04:26):
Mister Rubinstein, you know, we have gone through all of
our conference projections. At this point, we have laid out
who we think is winning all of these conferences. We
did give ourselves the grace of having second thoughts on
our last episode. And I don't know about you, but
as I was trying to fill out my field of twelve,

(04:46):
I did have a bit of second thoughts, some doubt
creeping in. And I do think I veered a little bit,
at least from what I said in some cases over
a month ago, just the benefit of hindsight thinking through
some of these things a little bit more. Not any
drastic shifts, mind you, but I really had a hard
time coming up with team number twelve.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Same absolutely well. Notre Dame screws this all up. They do,
because you kind of plant a flag. I'm not gonna
speak for you, but you kind of plant a flag
with regard to the SEC and Big Ten that at
least one of them, probably only one of them for
the time being, is getting four teams in.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
I agree with that.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
And then you're like, well, do I feel better about
the ACC or the Big twelve? And right now it
seems a lot of us seem to believe that the
ACC has stronger teams at the top, whereas there is
more sure thing quality in the Big twelve, which almost
hurts the conference because then you get a mess of
nine to three or eight and four type teams that

(05:49):
are all clearly high quality.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
It's a demolition derby.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
And so if you're again going to say two teams
for the ACC, one team for the Big twelve, seven
between the SEC and the Big ten, you're now at
ten teams. You have a G five representative in whoever
and Notre Dame. Yep, and there we are, and.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
There we are. That's twelve. There's your twelve.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
If you believe in Notre Dame is a top twelve
team this year, yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
That is a big time if so again, just to reiterate,
they have changed how they handle the seating this year.
It does give you a little bit more reason to
pay attention to those weekly polls that the College Football
Playoff Committee puts out. You and I don't necessarily set
our watch by that special every week that ESPN airs,

(06:39):
presumably just to get more commercial inventory. That's at least
what it looks like to me for the first couple
iterations of it. But eventually when they give you their
top twelve ranking that now factors in with respect to
who is getting the first round byes. Remember last year,
if you want a conference, if you were one of
the four highest ranked conference champions last year, you were

(07:00):
guaranteed an automatic first round by this year, they're going
straight seating. Whoever, the top four teams are, regardless of
whether they win their conference or not, those are the
four teams that are going to get a first round
by So the subtle change, everything else remains intact. We
will talk through what all that means. Again. If you're
winning your conference, if you're in the Power for in
all likelihood you will be getting an automatic bid in

(07:23):
That part is still in the rules as well. Why
don't we start off with your bracket?

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Dan?

Speaker 1 (07:27):
If you're feeling saucy, Tim, I'm always feeling okay with that. Yes,
of course, What was your approach to putting this together?
Were you going through conference by conference? Okay, here is
who I picked to win the SEC. We guarantee that
team a slot. Then I am counting down from that point,
looking at my tiers ABC and D get in like,
what what was your strategy for trying to put this together?

(07:50):
I mean guessing first of all. Sure, Yeah, none of
this should be taken at face down. Yeah, okay, this
is all going to be terribly wrong by the time
the field eventually set in early December.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Yeah, at least we're doing this in mid August. Our
friends Andy Staples and Ari Wassonan are like, oh, right,
Mitt's Valentine's Day. So let's figure out who our top
twelve is. Okay, that's an impression of nobody. I have
won two teams from the Big Ten in the top four,
and two teams from the SEC in the top four,

(08:23):
and an independent team. Yes, you're Yukon Huskies at number five.
Of course, I have my number one overall seat is
Ohio State this year?

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (08:34):
Is Ohio State?

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Okay? And so you've got Ohio State winning the Big Ten.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
We talked this Ohio State over Penn State in the
Big Ten championship, and I'm sticking with it.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
Why it's not that, I mean, they're obviously a top
three or four team, it seems right now in terms
of talent, in terms of potential, there's obviously changes to
coordinators and a loss of talent on both sides of
the ball. I just think what they bring back what
their schedule looks like. I feel good about them. Basically,
you're saying, who are the most likely teams to go
eleven and one or twelve and one in this case

(09:08):
in effect?

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, And what's interesting about this the Big Ten and
the ACC in particular, there's a lot of disagreement over
how the SEC shakes out. There's a lot of disagreement,
more disagreement as you might expect. On the Big twelve side.
You can make a case for seven teams if you
really wanted in the Big twelve, but there seems to
be a general consensus the top three in the Big

(09:31):
Ten being Penn State, Ohio State, and Oregon in some order.
And that's the very top of the ACC being Clemson. Sure,
those two things I think across the board, based on
what I've seen, those seem to be the two things
with respect to conference standings that most people tend to
agree on.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
So I have Ohio State. I think their upside is fantastic.
When you have the gravitational weapon of Jeremiah Smith, I
think it's going to open up so much. Everybody's going
to be freaking out well ahead of time about what
to do with Jeremiah Smith and hopefully the combination of
Brian Hartline and Ryan Day can figure out what to
do with the best possible gift that you can have

(10:09):
on your offense. So, okay, they're my number one team,
So we don't even know who's starting. A quarterback. Could
be Julian Sane, could be Lincoln Keenholtz. But I'm going
to Ohio State here. I think in a year where
so many teams have so many questions, I still feel
good about their answers. So I'm going to Ohio State one.
My two seed or unless you want me to go
to my twelve seed.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Dude, whatever order you want, Doug, whatever you are.

Speaker 3 (10:33):
My two seed is the Alabama Crimson Tide, who I
guess I have winning the SEC. I don't know how
they could get to the two seed without winning the SEC,
unless I guess they were twelve and oher and lost
in a freak way to a two loss team something
like that.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
I think you had Texas? Did I have Texas in
our preview when we did the preview?

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Okay, well I've revised things.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Tie that's fine. No, no, no, this is good. This
is healthy.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
This is my official receipt episode. I have Alabama as
my two seed and SEC champion.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Okay, I don't feel great. Who's three? Who's three?

Speaker 3 (11:06):
My three state is the Penn State and at Alliance.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Okay, so you've got Penn State playing for the Big
ten but not winning it. Correct four, I'm assuming is
Texas in five must be Notre Dame.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
With for is Texas five is Notre Dame. I like
Alabama to have a very nice year two bump. As
Brett Siancia mentioned on our previous show, I think they're
going to be better at quarterback in terms of throwing
the ball downfield or even throwing the ball twelve yards
down the field consistently their starting point with a defensive front.
What I expect to be high level quarterback play their

(11:38):
own gravitational receiver. I think there's just solid to very
very good at too many places. So I'm going Alabama
by just a nose to take down Texas in the
SEC championship as of August fourteenth.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
We're recording this August fourteenth, yes, of course, so let
me let me flash up your bracket here. Please watching
the video. We'll talk through this for the audio crowd
as well. As you said your top five is Ohio State, Alabama,
Penn State, Texas, and then Notre Dame. Yes, outside of
that top five though, this is when you start getting
to first round matchups and where it starts to get

(12:14):
at least a little bit more interesting. So your first
round matchup featuring Notre Dame the five seed at home
is a rematch with the Miami Hurricanes.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
I'm leaning towards that being a revenge spot that Notre
Dame will lose at Miami with a new starting quarterback,
young starting quarterback, inexperienced starting quarterback, and then beat Miami
in a playoff matchup.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Your sixth seed is the Clemson Tigers playing host to
the Old Miss Rebels. So you've got Old Miss in here,
which I think is a headline in and of itself. Yes,
Clemson hosting a game would be awesome. Clemson pretty far
down though on this list.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
Well, Clemson opens with LSU, and they won't be punished
if they lose that game unless they lose that game
in like a crazy constable way. But they open their
season up last season doing that as well, so ultimately
they can bounce back. We know they have the ability
to bounce back, So I like Clemson schedule a good deal,
but I think when push comes to shove, I think
they're probably gonna drop two.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
I think they'll drop one to a quality team and
one to a freak occurrence.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
I think your nuts for saying that.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
I know you do.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
You've got your Oregon Ducks as a seventh seed playing
host to the Boise State Broncos, who you've got here
as a ten. You've got Oregon moving on. I think
we're in agreement that Boise is the G five representative,
though I will say I did give a second look
to both Tulane and James Madison. Those are the other
schools that I'm eyeing up potentially for that spot. Even

(13:48):
though Tulane now is bringing in Jake Retzleif from BYU,
I still think across the board, maybe outside a quarterback,
they are worse at every offensive position, and so that's
the rub for me and James Madison. I like JMU.
I just I have questions about how they look against
better competition, and I think that question is going to

(14:10):
come up repeatedly when we talk about the Dukes this year.
But I'm still like keeping them in the back of
my mind potentially for that spot. Certainly if they got in,
they'd be the twelve. But you've got Oregon over Boise
State here in the first round, and then your other
matchup is the eight Georgia playing host to the nine,
Arizona State, with Georgia moving.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
On Big twelve champ Arizona State one team coming in
from the Big twelve. I have ASU there, but Georgia Ultimately,
by the time the end of the season rolls around,
like it could get a little bit bumpy with a
lot new I think they're going to come into their
own by Halloween, and so I think they're going to
be a strong team that we might even think is
playing like the best team in the SEC, but because

(14:52):
of the record, doesn't play in the SEC championship game.
And I have them beating ASU in that first round
and setting up a matchup against Ohio State.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Now, I like what you did here in the second
round because you didn't go straight chalk. I think it's
very easy to go straight chalk when you do this. Yes,
it didn't go straight chalk last year for a multitude
of reasons. But you've got Georgia over Ohio State in
the quarterfinals. Why do you favor Georgia over Ohio State for.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
The reason I just said that Georgia is going to
come into its own, that there's so much talent on
defense that I don't think Gunner Stockton needs to be incredible.
I'm gambling a little bit on these receivers taking a
jump after a disappointing twenty twenty four. But they've added
reinforcements to positions they feel like they've needed depth at.
And I don't think Kirby Smart has accidentally played for

(15:40):
as many national championships and in as many playoff games
as he has, and so there's some consistency with the
coaching staff as well. So I just I don't know.
I like things. I like Georgia being a little bit
overlooked this year. I like that for them. So I
love that free, I love that for you. So I
like Georgia over Ohio State. Here that ultimately it's just

(16:03):
going to be a question of Georgia's defense being able
to run with Ohio State's offense, and then perhaps Ohio
State's defense not being as fully formed as they should be.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
The other quarterfinals that you have on your bracket, you
have Texas over Notre Dame, you have Penn State over
Clemson Tom Allen Bowl Baby Tom Allen boll of course.
And you've got the Alabama Crimson Tide over your Oregon Ducks.
So that would set up a final four of Georgia
against Texas, Alabama against Penn State. It would be three

(16:36):
SEC teams in the semifinals, correct.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
I think the pendulum swings back to the SEC this
season in terms of representation in that final four.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
You've got Texas over Georgia, You've got Alabama over Penn State.
I'm curious you're thinking specifically around those two matchups.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
Sure, And by the way, so Texas is over Notre Dame.
I just think you're gonna need to score a certain
amount of points to beat Texas, and I don't I'm
not positive Notre Dame is there quite yet. And if
you can stop Notre Dame on the ground, it makes
a little bit more challenging. That's a big if though.
So yes, I have Texas over Georgia there. I just
think for the same reason, you're gonna have to score

(17:15):
a certain number of points to beat Texas. And that's
a very obvious thing that I now that I hear
myself say it out loud, you got to score more
points than the other team. But I don't think Texas
is going to be involved with in a number of
thirteen to ten, fourteen thirteen type games. So I'm going
to give the edge the team that I think has
the most pop on both sides of the ball, and
to me, that's Texas against Georgia there. I have Penn

(17:36):
State over Clemson because I just think there's too much
experience and I don't know. I think they'll be able
to run the ball. I think that's gonna be an
interesting thing there. Penn State should be able to run
the ball on Clemson. I have Alabama over Oregon. I
just too much talent on the Alabama defense and too
much new without a known go to guy for Oregon.
Hopefully it's to Corean Moore for the Ducks, but we'll see.

(17:58):
You want to know why Alabama Penn State?

Speaker 1 (18:01):
I do.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
I've watched Penn State football in big spots before. Oh,
that's it, that's it. Yeah, sometimes the truth hurts. I mean,
I'm with you. I just you're gonna you're gonna ask me.
I don't know where this game is gonna be played.
The semi finals this year, one's at the peach Ones
at the Festabal. So you're asking me to go to

(18:26):
either Atlanta or Arizona, have Drew Aller, throw into the
teeth of the Alabama secondary and come away with a win.
I'm not there, happy to be proven wrong. Here are
my receipts. Alabama over Penn State. There, Texas over Georgia
I mentioned what there, and then Texas over Alabama in
a game that big. I'm gonna give the edge to

(18:48):
a quarterback. I'm gonna give the edge to coordinators who've
been there before. Whereas you know, Alabama doesn't have that
on defense. Obviously, Ryan Grubb has called a championship game
as it's Kalin de Borr. Sure, but I think Archie
Manning's just a little bit more season by the time
they get to this point, everybody's going to be seasoned. Yeah,
I'm going with pass rushing quarterback to win that game.

(19:11):
And that's a question I think Texas will be more
able to answer than Alabama. And there you have it.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
So you're in with Texas being back, baby.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
I'm in with Texas being back.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Better you than me, my friend, Better you than me.
Here's what I've got. Okay, let me talk through mine.
Mine isn't all that different from yours, to be clear.
But I've got as my first four seeds Clemson at
the one, Alabama at the two, Penn State at the three.
Texas's the four. So three of the four are the

(19:46):
same for you and I. I'm just way higher on Clemson.
I'm really high on Clemson. I will go down with
the Clemson ship this year for sure. I think they're
going undefeated in the regular season. I think they're winning
the ACC Crown. I think they are winning two playoff
games and getting to the national championship. Yes, I've got
my bracket up on the screen now for those watching

(20:07):
the video. By the way, I will post these brackets
out across social media out on our Patreon so that
you can go out there and give us your comments
on what you think is right and wrong. Okay, here
is how my first round matchup set up. I've got
Ohio State as the five, winning over the twelve Boise State.
I've got Georgia the six winning over the eleven Texas

(20:32):
A and M. That game would be freaking awesome, by
the way. In Athens, Yeah, I've got Notre Dame winning
a cold one over Arizona State my ten.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
Okay, a Taylor Kelly rematch, that's one deep cut.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
That is a deep cut.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Who was the quarterback that year? Okay? Continue?

Speaker 1 (20:53):
And then I've got your Oregon Ducks as the eight,
hosting a game and winning out over the nine Kansas State.
So what's different about my bracket versus yours. I've got
two big twelve teams in this thing. Yes, And I
really struggled with who that last team was going to be.

(21:15):
I went back and forth a million times. At one
point I had Illinois in, but then I looked at
illinois schedule, and I looked at Illinois's team, and I
listened to the conversation we had with Brett, and I
just I didn't have the heart to do it. I
thought about Indiana, but Indiana's schedule, I just don't trust
that they're going to be able to navigate that and
make it the full way through. They would have to go,

(21:35):
in my view, eleven and one, ten and two.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
They would, Yeah, they would have to beat Penn State
or Oregon. I believe both of whom I think they
get on the road.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
I do. I stand by what I said on the episode.
We did with Josh Lsu, I think will have a
case to be made to get into this, but I
think they're going to have too many losses on that schedule,
and I think it's ultimately going to keep them out
of this field. And again I thought about Pitt because
you know, I'm high on Pitt. I think Pitt's going
to have three losses. I think they might play Clemson

(22:05):
for the ACC title game, but it's going to be
too many losses to get in. I am not high
at all on Miami, even though I have had some
second thoughts there. So ultimately, I've got the ACC with
one team, the Big twelve with two, the Big Ten
with three, in the SEC with four. That's where he
came down to this thing.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
I have.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
In my right e FFing their potential. I have Indiana
for the reasons you laid out. Schedule wise, it's going
to be difficult, but I like their starting point of
how well they're coached, who they brought in at quarterback,
what they return on both sides of the ball. I'm
good with that. But yeah, it's a schedule thing. I
have Auburn as potentially in this conversation.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Time, Come on, man, there's no chance telling you there
is no chance.

Speaker 3 (22:50):
I'm just telling you, now, Okay, what is Auburn as
a program if not a team that as soon as
you think they're good, all right, they're not. As soon
as you think they have a ways to go there
they are. I have Texas Tech right there, just potential wise.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
Listen, we're all just throwing darts at this point. I
know I can't be too harsh on this. I know
I understand where you're coming from.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
I'm just saying, if roster wise quarterback experience. I'm not
a big Baron Morton guy, but he has experienced both
on the field and in the injury tent, a lot
of injury tent experience. I have USC as potentially right there.
I know I'm higher on USC than you are this season,
but you.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
Could see it, like even I could see it. And
I'm not super high on USC, right, But it doesn't
take that big of like a mental exercise to talk
yourself into how USC could get into this playoff field.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
I would say all of these teams need to benefit
from injury luck.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
And that's true for everybody.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
Well it's you know, it's not true for everybody Like
Georgia can take an ACL tear to an outside linebacker
much more so than a lot of teams can. I'm
just saying of the teams that, like, if Texas Tech
has unusual injury luck, they've addressed enough needs that if
they can win, you know, more fifty to fifty games,
don't give up huge. Like you know, there's a lot

(24:13):
of ifs for all these teams that are in the
like thirteen to twenty one range. But I think those
teams have the talent, have the coaching, and you know,
might have a twinkle, a little glimmer in their eye
that leads them to at least November conversation.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Let me talk through the rest of my field here.
Please go into the quarterfinals. I've got Clemson over your
Oregon Ducks.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
That would be on the East coast somewhere. I think
that would be in Miami or something.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, I've got Texas over Ohio State in a rematch.
So this in effect is me saying that Texas is
going to win both times they play Ohio State. That
is what you're saying, which may not be a smart
hill to die on, but alas here we are. I've
got Penn State over Georgia and I've got Alabama over
Notre Dame. So my final four is Clemson, Alabama, Texas,

(25:06):
and Penn State essentially one, two, three four. As oppose
what we saw last year where it wasn't very chalky,
this year, I think it's shaking out that way. I've
got Clemson over Texas, getting revenge on Texas after the
game from I guess season, yep, yeah, the end of
twenty twenty four. And then I've got Penn State over
Alabama and Penn State over Clemson. I can't believe that

(25:29):
I got to this point, but I did it. I
jinxed them, I jinxed my alma mater. I am picking
Penn State to win the national championship.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
So when you look at Penn State, you have Penn
State beating Georgia, Alabama and Clemson. Yes, like you know
Ezekiel Elliott through the heart of the South, that's right.
What is it, specifically when you see those matchups where
you're like, something is different this year? Something that is

(25:59):
What is that Penn State has that Georgia, Alabama and
Clemson don't quite have an answer for.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
It's a good question, and I'm sure that everything I
say here will be used against me at some points.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
That's fine. We're putting it out into the universe.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Size is the receipts episode, and this is what we
got to do. I think there is something to be
said for getting very close but not getting the cigar.
And I feel like over the last two seasons now,
with this Penn State squad, and more broadly just how
they have been building it the last decade or so

(26:36):
under James Franklin, there have been small incremental steps to
get to this point. Now, I will harken back to
something that I said previously, Penn State's got to win
one of these big games on they're schedule this year. Okay,
this might be putting the cart before the horse. I
do think they're a playoff team regardless they got to
beat Ohio State or they need to beat Oregon, just

(26:57):
one of the two. They need to prove to the fan. Yes,
they need to prove that they can win a game
like that, because to your point, Penn Satan big games
has sometimes left us a bit underwhelmed. But I think
with the experience that they've got coming back this year,
I think with the leaps and bounds that we've seen
Drew Aller grow as a quarterback. I mean, it's easy
to forget how much he grew throughout the course of

(27:19):
last season, even though there were underwhelming elements to it.
I give you that, but I think he got a
lot better under Andy kotal Nicky, having that backfield, back,
having the line in front of him back. There is
just so much that they build upon now that other
teams are kind of starting a new right. You don't
have this combination across the board where even if you

(27:41):
look at these top four teams, Alabama's going to have
a new quarterback. They might like their quarterback a lot.
I happen to like Ty Simpson. I think he'll be fine,
But that's a new situation. Georgia has a lot of
new with its offense. It's not all intact Texas. Texas
has basically a brand new offensive line. Sure they'll still
be solid. Also a new starting quarterback, a new full

(28:03):
time starting quarterback who we believe in to a great extent,
but still there's a lot new. Clemson may be the
exception as part of this conversation, because they also have
a lot back, which is part of why I have
them playing each other in the National Championship. So I
am enticed by the experience that Penn State has coming back.
I think there will be a second year boost on

(28:23):
offense now with cotal Nikki and basically the same cast
of characters. And then furthermore, I think bringing Jim Knowles
into the equation is going to make the defense a
little bit tougher to game play around.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
Question about year one Jim Knowles at various stops.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Absolutely so, I just I like that combination for Penn State.
I think the schedule sets up well at least to
get them into this field even if they're not the three,
and I like the depth that they have across the board.
I like their depth. I think they will be a very,
very difficult out, especially if you give them a week
of rest against teams like Georgia, who in this setup

(29:01):
would have an absolute war on their hands against Texas
A and M Yeah, an Alabama squad that would have
had to go through Notre Dame. Speaking of wars, I
just really like what they've got here this season and
how it sets up for them. So I cannot believe
that I eventually ended up picking Penn State, but I

(29:22):
think I just jinked Penn State.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Dan.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
That's Okay, I appreciate it. Did Who did I say
to I have Oregon winning the national championship last year?

Speaker 1 (29:31):
You may have yeah, I think and he jinks them.
So I mean, this is not this is not ideal
if you're a Penn Stater out there listening to this.
But look, I've what kind of pen Stater would I
be If I've got the Beaver and Locust Avenue signed
behind me, I've got Penn State hats galore that I
wear on the show. If I didn't pick my alma

(29:52):
mater in what appears to be the year or the
closest they've had to the year, what are we doing here?
In the words of Taylor Towelman.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
In all fairness, the seating this year is a reaction
to what happened last year with Oregon and getting Ohio
State early and whatever. That's fine. I still stand by
my statement that get get who you need to beat early.
But alas here we are, here, we are, so we are,
Our brackets are somewhat similar, we disagree on some placement,
and your wildcard, essentially your wild card is Texas A

(30:25):
and m yep, and I guess Kansas State. You have
Miami not in this No, so one ACC two Big twelve.
I have two ACC one Big twelve.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
So you have Kansas State and Texas A and m
AS you're sort of outsiders crashing the party. Yep, Texas
A and m wins double digit games with frequency and regularity.
So they're right there, right.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yeah, maybe not, but I like the team this year.
I do. I stand by that, and again the teams
that there were like nine teams that I really waffled
on and thought about maybe putting in that. Arizona State
was the last one in for me because they have
k State winning the Big Twelve, but ASU ultimately is
where it came down. I stand by what I said

(31:12):
that it could still be Kansas State playing for Iowa
playing against Iowa State for the Big Twelve just because
of who they play in non conference matchups. Remember Iowa
State's got that game against Iowa very early on, which
I think they're gonna lose. I'm getting on Iowa in
that matchup. Just bigger picture of we zoom all the
way out. But I considered Pitt in Miami and even
Georgia Tech, Iowa State, you know, Arizona State I went with.

(31:36):
But Illinois India and lsu Ole Miss. I'm looking at
my list here. There's a good collection of teams and
a bunch of different ways that you could play this
if you really want to. But yeah, I'm on Penn State.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
I like All Miss the schedule. By the way, for
my wild card, I think who they get when they
get them, it can be really nice, Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
You know.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
There's something also about like the year after the year.
I don't know if that's like the the T Martin
coroliar that Peyton Manning leaves and T Martin immediately wins
a national championship for Tennessee. There's something about that the
year after the year that happens in college football that
I can't shake. So last year was supposed to hear
for all Miss. I think this year is going to
be the year. So I'm buying low. I'ay what they

(32:16):
are in the AP or the first AP somewhere around
twenty something like that. So that's my pick.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
What other predictions you got do you have, like awards
like Heisman or Coach of the Year or any of
that stuff. You give any thoughts to that?

Speaker 3 (32:28):
Well, if I'm gonna put Ohio State as the number
one team in the country and good enough to get
over the hump and beat Michigan, get over the hump
and like it over the hump. But to beat Penn State,
to beat Texas like, something's gonna have to work out really,
really nicely at quarterback. So my Heisman winner is Julian.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Saying, whoa do you have him going full super Saiyan?

Speaker 3 (32:49):
I think so?

Speaker 2 (32:50):
Why not?

Speaker 3 (32:50):
Of course.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
That's my Julian Sane sound this year. By the way,
he's gonna go super Saiyan.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
Okay, that's an anime something you told us dragon ball
z Okay, gotcha? Noted, I have Coach of the Year
as Lane Kiffin. Again. If I'm planning the flag as
ole miss breaking through as a playoff team, okay, that
means Lane Kiffin's coaching job this year, both with regard
to Austin Simmons, the portal navigating this schedule, taking advantage

(33:18):
of opportunities will be exceptional. Lane Kiffin coach of the year.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
I've got kid club Nick winning the Heisman.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
If Clemson goes undefeated, wins the conference, and is the
number one overall seed, he's going to win the Heisman.
And I think I feel confident saying that because they
will have to put a lot more on him, at
least to start, and that's when they play a team
like an LSU, right Like, they're still trying to figure

(33:46):
out who their running back is going to be. And
I don't know if any of us at this stage
in the middle of August can confidently say that they're
going to be effective on the ground, Like I like
their options, But we know a lot more about Kid
Club Nick. I think we know a lot more now
than we did a year ago about what they've got
out wide. We feel better about what they've got. Definitely,

(34:07):
Caid Clubnick is having a monster season if this goes
the way that I've predicted, so he would be my
bad I looked earlier. I was like nine to one
on the Heisman. If you like Heisman betting, that's not
bad odds to be honest for Kaid Clubnick. So I've
got him winning the Heisman. My coach of the year
is Kaylen de Boor. Okay, you can make a case,
obviously for a multitude of these playoff coaches. All of

(34:30):
them have their own claim to fame. James Franklin's another
one that I considered, But I just think Kaylin de
Boorr taking over for Nick Saban essentially rebooting the program
to an extent in a year and a half, in
getting into the playoff, potentially as a two seed, potentially
as an SEC champion, it would be hard for the

(34:51):
voters to not put him as Coach of the Year.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
The only reason I disagree with you on your decision,
on your personal decision is because you have Chris Kleiman
playoff team, and you have a playoff coach, and you
have Mike Elko playoff coach.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
I do so.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
I think the story of those two guys would outweigh
taking Alabama to the playoff a preseason expectation overwhelming preseason expectation.
Whereas if you're saying Kansas State is breaking through and
now he's won the conference, he hasn't taken a team
to a playoff yet. It's been a four team playoff
until last season, and Mike Elko doing this would be

(35:32):
extremely impressive because they would be doing it at a
place that has not been on this type of stage ever.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
Right now, listen again, you can make a case for
all these guys.

Speaker 3 (35:43):
No, what I'm saying is the degree of difficulty to
do that at Kansas State is just harder. Yeah, so
I think you picked your wrong guy, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
But that's okay, that's fair enough.

Speaker 3 (35:54):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
We did get a bunch that came in from the
for ballerhood as well. I put out a call let's
get it on Patreon. By the way, if you go
to Verballers dot com v E R B A L
L E r s dot com, you can sign up
for free. You can sign up for a paid tier
of course, that supports what we do. You get episodes
without the ads, you get bonus content. We're going to
record a bonus episode a little bit after we record this.

(36:17):
You get access to our discord server and to the
games that we're going to play, the weekly and the
yearly games, the Pickham games that everybody gets into called
run the Board. You have access to all that if
you sign up for the paid tier.

Speaker 3 (36:27):
And you get to join our board, by the way,
that's why it's called run the board. If you finish
in the top what is it five?

Speaker 1 (36:33):
Top five? Yeah, we do a Board of directors calls, yes,
which we did earlier, and I think we committed to
doing another one at some point like mid season this year,
so you get to be part of the board, help
with decision making and talk through the show and all
that stuff. That's sort of the vote of confidence. We
both got it this year unmentioned Perk on this.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
But if you if you don't want to go to
that extreme, and if you just want to vote in
the preseason poll, you can sign up at verballers dot
com for free, create an account. You'll go in there.
You can see the link to vote in the preseason poll.
We've got a bunch coming in. We'll unveil that a
little bit later on this week. I don't want to
do that now. I want to give more people a
chance to vote in this poll. But shortly before the

(37:13):
games go down a week zero will unveil officially our
preseason poll. There's no real reason to put it out
super early. Who cares? That's great?

Speaker 3 (37:22):
I agree.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
So here's what we got. We got a couple Georgia
Tech takes. We already have there, so it's fine exactly.
We got one here that says there's an oddball team
that gets into the top five, and it feels like
two thousand and seven all over again, with a specific
focus on established quarterbacks leading teams to overachieve. Get ready
for top five Georgia Tech Dan Okay, this was not

(37:49):
Josh Pate. Now this is a long time for baller.
Chiming in with that one, we got a couple other
Georgia Tech takes one here saying that they go eleven
to two but lose the ACC Championship.

Speaker 3 (37:59):
Is this saying that george Attack is going to end
up in the top five?

Speaker 1 (38:02):
I believe so. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
So if they're ending up in the top five, that
means they're almost assuredly beating Georgia. Well, it would be
hard to lose that I got here.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
That's what I'm looking at. Another one here, somebody says
that they could take down Georgia.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
Yeah, or they if they lose to Georgia, they would
basically have to start eleven and zero, which means beating Clemson.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
Yeah, okay, I see. It's like we got another one
here from our friends over at Game on Paper, Go
and check out Game on Paper dot com. Not a sponsor,
could be they don't need to sponsor us. Well, you
always shout them out. They do a great job. They
got a cool scoreboard that you can use every Saturday
to track what's going on in college football, get access
to like all the stats all the time. If that's

(38:49):
what you're into, they do an awesome job. Check them out.
They chimed in with Georgia does not win more than
seven games this year.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Dan okay, six and six, five and seven, seven and
five Georgia. So we're talking about likely a quarterback injury
or super disappointing play at quarterback that the defense can't
make up for. I think that's two extreme a take,
because I think you could figure out some real bottom
tier offenses to pair with George's defense and they'd win

(39:19):
eight games.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Daniel says that Georgia goes eight and four and misses
the playoff, and that Georgia Tech knocks them out of
contention on Black Friday. Now, So these are not intended
to be hot takes. These are predictions. I gave everybody
one prediction, just one one predict.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
Take in your marrow. If you had to wage your
money on something happening this year, it would be this
wild Okay, we.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Got a bunch of Oklahoma takes here.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
Okay predictions.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
Joseph says Oklahoma makes the SEC title game. John Mattier
is a Heisman finalist. Okay, Yeah, another one that says
Oklahoma goes ten and two in the conversation for a
playoff spot and they're going to lose at South Carolina
and at Alabama. We've got another person here saying that
Oklahoma goes ten and two, and then we've got Tommy

(40:11):
being the odd man out saying that Oklahoma continues down
the path of being the Nebraska of the SEC and
Brennables are Brennables. Brent Venables get sacked after a six
and six season.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
Okay, so it was South Carolina and Alabama was one
of them said ten and two with those two losses. Yep,
So that means Oklahoma's taking down Michigan at home, not crazy,
taking out Texas and Dallas not crazy, but seemingly unlikely
in this moment, beating Ole Miss at home, South Carolina

(40:44):
on the road, Tennessee on the road, Missoo, and LSU
to finish out the year. Yeah, buddy, that's Brent Venables,
not just keeping his job and off the hot seat.
That's Brt Venables coach of the year. That's John Materier. Look,
if you're talking about ten into Oklahoma, saying that also
John Mattier is going to go to New York. The answer,

(41:05):
of course, of.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Course, is why. This is why I stand by what
I said on our previews. Oklahoma's the most interesting team
in the country because the range of things that could
go right or could go wrong.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
I said that about LSU, so yeah, I'm nearby.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Yeah, I mean just there is so much that could happen.
That spectrum is wide for the Sooners as it is
for LSU. I agree with you, they're interesting as well.
But for me Oklahoma with I think the clear recognition
this offseason by Brent Venables that's something big needed to change,
otherwise he's going to be out yep, this is this
is it man like They're they're laying it all out there.

(41:43):
So there's and look, even within the verbolerhood, we have
disagreement on what this could look like for the Sooners. Great,
So I'm I'm fascinated. You know that in that scenario
Oklahoma's in the playoff, not if they go six and six,
but if they go ten and two two, and in
the prediction scenario they're in the playoff. Absolutely that they

(42:04):
would have beaten so many big teams as you walk
through there, they would have to be in the playoff. Okay,
Tyler says Texas Tech's gonna win the Big twelve or
Joey McGuire will be fired due to the obscene amount
of money they are spending this off team.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
So this is not crazy and it's not intended to
be crazy. But if there's any school that will happily
eat a disappointing buyout, it's Texas Tech right now with
what they are spending on the program on anil stuff. Yeah, absolutely,
I can say it. Continue.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
We've also got Ryan and Plano saying that Lincoln Riley
returns home but not to Oklahoma to take over as
head coach at Texas Tech. So this is more of
the take variety of prediction, granted, but just a little
bit of spice here.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
Have we had that kind of So Lincoln Riley from
Oklahoma to USC to Texas Tech. I'm trying to think
of who has without taking any breaks, jumped around to
power conference programs like that, like Urban when we was
at Utah, not a power conference program, went to Florida,

(43:16):
took time off before Ohio State, right, So I'm thinking
of the names that bopped around lily pads in that
specific fashion.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
It's wild, man, that's wild. Let me let me go
through a few other ones here, Okay, I don't have
time to read all me some odd.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
That the ones that get you tingling.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
Tristan says Iowa will make the playoffs at ten and
three after losing to Ohio State in the conference championship game. Okay,
I could squint and make a case for this, Tristan, Okay,
because I am also very high on Iowa. Not this high.
There's a little too much even for me. But I
appreciate the spice. There's a lot of spice here.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
I got a text from somebody that said, find you
somebody that looks at you the way Ty looks at
FCS quarterbacks.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
Making the leap, yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
Ten and three Iowa likely means losses against Nebraska, Oregon,
Penn State. I mean so that means winning at Iowa State,
beating Wisconsin on the road, beating Minnesota at home, beating
USC on the road, and winning out. Beyond that, Gronowski

(44:31):
would have to be awfully, awfully good coming off. If
I think a foot injury, some kind of lower body injury,
he'd need to.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Be cam Ward or Tim Tebow is what he would need.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
With little to know, receiving pop downfield.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
That we know of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Robert says Dion
Sanders will end up coaching at Florida State before the
championship game kicks off.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
Okay, Florida State. I think Mike Norvell's buyout is like
dozens upon dozens of millionllions of dollars. Correct, nobody's paid
that other than A and M. Basically, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Three people chiming in that Hugh Freeze is going to
get fired before November.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
That's always on the table. You can tell me Hugh
Freeze get fired before the end of August. It's on
the table.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
Alex says that Brian Kelly will have actual tiers in
a postgame press conference. I like that. That's teetering on
the brink of fantasy things, which we're going to get
into here at the very end.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
He feels everything he feels. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
B Roth says Rutgers receives their first AP top twenty
five since twenty twelve.

Speaker 3 (45:39):
Tough for me to see. I like Rutgers, fine, but
Rutgers should almost throw a parade or like issue a
press release if they receive votes. Forget getting into the
top twenty five. Just if they receive at least five
votes to be there. There should be some sort of
info graphic that says five votes for Rutgers.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
And I will close it out with Arkansas because we
had a great level of specificity with some of these
Arkansas predictions. Don says that Memphis beats Arkansas in Week
four and that's what starts the coaching carousel. Kevin says
that Arkansas will win seven games and Sam Pittman's going
to hand the reins to Bobby Petrino, and AJ goes

(46:24):
a step further. Hugh Freeze, Sam Pittman, Billy Napier will
all be fired before the end of October, to thus
creating it opening for John Gruden to join the SEC
in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 3 (46:36):
Who has expressed interest. He apparently like went to Georgia
fall camp and was like, I want to do this.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
If Florida gets rid of Napier, we would be remiss
to not play back all of the Jedfish commentary from
last year. Oh but yeah, we'll get there when we
get there. I did want to play these. We had
a few others that came in via the reverb blind.
Have a listen.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
O Brahma returns before and going ten and two and
living in the first round.

Speaker 5 (47:04):
Of the playoffs as sooner.

Speaker 6 (47:08):
Hey guys, it's sharing me at Sully.

Speaker 7 (47:10):
This is Tyler from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Mitch from Fort Benning, Georgia.
Is Peyton.

Speaker 6 (47:15):
I'm calling from a closet at my workplace.

Speaker 7 (47:18):
There's always that team in the top ten that polls
out of the top twenty five. Now I'm going with
Miami Hurricanes will finish the season unranked. This year will
tidy record that was sending twenty twenty two of teams
that are ranked in the AP preseason top twenty five
finishing the season unranked.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Which was fifteen teams.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
It's the record.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
I think this season we can.

Speaker 6 (47:39):
See that many teams finish unranked as well.

Speaker 4 (47:42):
This is finally the year that Ryan Day goes up
to Michigan and beats them by three touchdowns. No, if
fans butts about it. If not, he's gone. He's only
got one chance to do it, and this is what
he's got. Let's get it.

Speaker 7 (47:59):
And my prediction for the twenty twenty five season is
that Ohio State goes eight to four and misses the
playoffs when in Oklahoma or Auburn and seep in the
conversations to be the set title game late in the season,
and the other has fired as coach before that. My
prediction for the twenty twenty five season is something that

(48:19):
has not happened since twenty sixteen, and that is that
all three Serve.

Speaker 6 (48:24):
Academies, Armies, Navy, Air Force will go bowling. Noise will
make a Bowl game this year under Rich Rod during
his first year back, and beat those dirty Yankees from
up North to Pittsburgh champions.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
They say it's important to be honest with yourself about
things that make you uncomfortable. So here we go. Number one,
Boise State will run the table. Number two Boise State
will make the playoffs. Number three Boise State will win
a playoff game. Number four I will root against Boise
State the entire time. And that's not a prediction, that's

(49:03):
a spoiler.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
That is Shae Shay is our reverb engineer. Yes, even
though we said only one prediction, we will give him
a little bit of latitude since he did such a
good job mixing these up. Thank you to the verballer
hood for calling in again. As a reminder for the
new folks out there. We open up the reverb line
every Saturday. You can call in as you're watching the games.
We mix these up, we put them together, and we

(49:27):
play them on our midnight stream just as a way.
So I guess, put our finger of the pulse on
the pulse of the verbaler hood.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
Yeah, yes we do.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
We've got one thing left, Dan, all right, this may
be the reason that many people have tuned into this episode.
To be honest, play my chimes. Ty predictions are a
plenty this time of year. Everybody does predictions, Play my chimes.
Only the solid verbal does fantasy things. This has been

(49:59):
our go to life show concept since we started doing
live shows back in like twenty sixteen. Yes, this is
one of my favorite things that we do. We've got
more of a streamlined version of it this year because
we're not doing live shows. But talk to the folks
out there, Dan, talk to the verballerhood, talk to the
new members of our community. What exactly are fantasy things?

Speaker 3 (50:21):
Fantasy things? You're drafting narratives, you're drafting an occurrence, you're
drafting a trend, something that you feel like you enjoy,
that you keep seeing that happens during the college football
season that you want to make a bigger note of
you want to plant a flag about and what we
have done traditionally if we've turned that into a draft,

(50:42):
I think this year it's more of a reveal, Yes,
that we are just going to issue our bullet points
of things we either hope happen or we think might
happen from either a specific or broad standpoint.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
That's right. So for example, you might say Penn State's
going to win the national championship, but I'm drafting that
that is not specific enough correct for this concept. These
aren't all serious things, Dan, In fact, most of them aren't.
These are offbeat things. These are very esoteric things within

(51:16):
the college football world. Our brains might be the only
two brains out there that notice half of this stuff.
But what do you got first on your list?

Speaker 3 (51:26):
As an example of that? By the way, it like
h touch screens going wrong.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
Yeah, in the past, I had uncontrollable touch screens. Yeah,
We've had weird weather situations in.

Speaker 3 (51:38):
Games, mascots gone what live mascots going off.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Script, We've had complicated scheme demonstrations on tiny studio fields. Yes,
of course, So there's a lot of media stuff that
creeps in here. One of the all time best was
you had Dean Blandino is wrong.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
It's tough.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
We love to celebrate those moments where you know your
rules analyst is way off base.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
Where it's just like, guys, I don't see how they
rule this a catch. Immediately going back to the broadcast,
I'm like, the receiver did come down with possession?

Speaker 1 (52:12):
First down I jotted down this year kind of in
the same vein Matt Austin is afraid to take a side.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
Oh that's great, no.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Offense to Matt Austin. I feel like there were numerous
occasions last year where Matt Austin was afraid to take aside.
So I just the whole thing is taking aside the
whole that's the whole job, or the like where Matt
Matt Austin does not take a side.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
He sits on the fence where like he hedges. He's like,
look to my eyes, that's a fumble. But I could
see how they'd say he was down. Not everybody goes
in cleats up like gene sterotor. You know, exactly right.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
So Matt Austin afraid to pick aside is one of
the items I've got on my list. What do you
have on yours?

Speaker 3 (52:52):
I have espionage. Okay, So we've had Waki leaks, we
had the rumors of the store sorry about I think
it was Utsa and Memphis with a disgruntled safety sharing information.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
A playbook, Yeah, we've.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
Had yeah, playbook or signals or we obviously had the
Michigan situation and allegations. Any sort of espionage, drones, hacking,
an exchange of playbooks within a briefcase like a you know,
an FBI agent being arrested for working for the KGB,

(53:29):
anything along those lines. Okay, espionage I would be entertained by.
I'm not going to be true, and.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
It seems like that's in vogue now. We're recording this,
by the way, on Thursday afternoon. The public will hear
this episode on Sunday, And shortly before we hit the
go button today, there was news that broke that the
NC doablea is a Guest is gonna officially reveal its
findings with respect to the whole Michigan Connor Stallion's thing

(53:59):
on Friday, So by the time people listen to this
there could be some actual espionage news to discuss here.

Speaker 3 (54:05):
We also are rooting for a sport in which players
routinely now leave a school after two, three or four
games to transfer and maintain a red shirt. And if
somebody leaves on bad terms, with bad blood, maybe they
have some information for others. M Okay, so espionage I

(54:28):
have on there as I'm hoping, but it's become recent.
I have on here. Ohio State does not play at noon.
I can't guarantee that this is a smart pick, but
I feel like at some point.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Shouldn't you say, doesn't play a home game at noon?

Speaker 3 (54:45):
Doesn't play a home game at noon?

Speaker 1 (54:47):
Right, because if they're away from home, then all bets
are off. But provided they're at home and there are
some big ones at home. Yeah, this year, now, I
will say, just in looking up and down their schedule,
they do play Grambling State. That game is not at noon,
but it is okay. They do play Ohio State, that High.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
State plays Ohio State.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Ohio State plays Ohio excuse Ohio. Okay, that's seven pm
kickoff on Peacock. But in terms of like big non
conference opponents or big in conference opponents, obviously the Texas
game is going to be a nooner they're going to
have some other options here, Minnesota coming to town, Penn
State coming to town, Ucla Rutgers both coming to town

(55:29):
as well. Curious to see those game times have not
been revealed yet. We'll find those out a little bit
later on down the road. It will be interesting to
see if they get a conference game that is not
being played at noon.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
Buddy, if Fox found out that people in Shanghai were
willing to watch Ohio State games, they'd kick that stuff
off at seven am to show o zempic commercials. I
have Texas Tech has had an infusion of money. I
think that's going to be a conversation.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Oh yeah, long, So you just think we're going to
constantly find different ways to bring that up in the broadcasts.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
I think the more adventurous graphics crews are going to
figure out ways to have money spouting out of oil wells.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Right.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
I think we're going to see dollar dollar bill graphics
involved with Texas Tech. And you know what.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
Cody Campbell's face on like a gumball machine, which, oh.

Speaker 3 (56:28):
Yeah, we're going to see go to Campbell. There's just
going to be some some allusion either explicit or implicit
to the infusion of cash that Texas Tech has had.
And let me continue this sentence and good for them,
Good for them, Yeah, good for them. That's where the
sport's at these days. Right next, I have Bill Belichick
think some college rule is absolute horseshit, excuse my language.

(56:52):
I think he has an immense ability to pay attention
to detail. I don't think he's going to be caught
by surprise by any on field or off field rule,
but he might even adhere to the rule and then
at a press conference after the game is going to
like go on a tirade of like, what are we

(57:13):
even doing? This makes no sense, This is just unbelievable
that this is part of our game. There's going to
be something like that. I have Greg Sankie laments that
nobody respects the SEC's strength of schedule. That's too easy,
that barrel dude, that is you already started that he's
been doing that since July. Correct. That is going to
be the ongoing PDF presentation. I have Hugh Freeze accepts

(57:39):
responsibility for something literally anything.

Speaker 6 (57:42):
Now.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
I don't think this is going to happen often, but
when it hits, you're going to say, Dan told me
that at some point, Hugh Freeze is going to do
something completely out of character, brand new and accept responsibility
for something could be anything, right, and you're gonna say
Dan nailed that. In August fourteenth, did I have Dan
Mullen visibly appears to regret going back into coaching.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
Oh, this is going to happen. This is one thousand
percent going to happen.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
Dan Mullen has long been looking for new jobs when
he's at Mississippi State. Whenever. I think there is going
to be something about the challenge at UNLV that he's
going to have like a Joe Bluth face. He's like
made a giant mistake. Get it good? Is ESPN cracking

(58:28):
wise on Florida on whoever? I know he can't get
coaching out of his blood. I know things are very
exciting right now at UNLV for Dan Mullen. I just
think there are going to be certain realities that hit
him about coaching in the Mountain West, or coaching a
program that might have some financial issues that's not going
to be super fun for him.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
I'm curious to see. I mean, because the big rub
on the end of the Mullin era at Florida was
that he didn't recruit right, right, I mean, if you win.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
Recruiting was different.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Now it recruits every but if you win more, obviously
he can paper over some of that stuff. But he
didn't win enough, and the recruiting wasn't there, And ultimately
that was an easy case to build against a coach
locker room in the SEC locker room wasn't there. I mean,
it wasn't just one thing. There was a bunch that
went south. I'm curious to see now in this new setup,
and I think we're in agreement that this, even if

(59:16):
it works, even if it doesn't work, it's not a
long term thing at UNLV for Mullen. I am curious
to see though, over the short term if he's able
to adapt recruiting, Like could it just be that he
didn't like high school recruiting. Could it be that now
recruiting out of the portal and maybe adopting the Dion
strategy is something that is a little bit more his taste.

(59:36):
I find that hard to believe.

Speaker 3 (59:38):
I mean, that's what Barry Otem did at UNLV.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
So Barry Otem did right, and Barry otin was very
successful doing it.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
And yeah, and UNLV money is probably more excited than
it was three four years ago pre otum.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
So let's just like, let's see if Mullen is able
to modify his ways and be a little bit better
at recruiting the pl.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
I have Brett Bieliman needles another coach and giggles, Now.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
That's gonna happen. He seems like he's a megatroll. It
seems like this is something that he's into.

Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
He does it on social media, he does it on
the sideline. I love having it in the sport. I
love talking your trash and backing it up. I have
RG three gets horned up or goes rogue, but Jason
Bennetti handles it gracefully and lands the plane.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
Horned up RG three, I think is what we should
tagline this with, Yes, horned up RG three. I jotted
down RG three ripping on ESPN, but horned up RG
three now back in the booth for Fox. I think
is a great just.

Speaker 3 (01:00:40):
Him seeing a sideline shot of like left tackle's mom
or something and saying and Jason Benetti bringing it back
to third and eleven Robert something along those lines. I
think is kind of a sure thing. What a great pairing.

(01:01:01):
Hopefully it's either gonna be a great pairing or we're
gonna get you know, fourteen short weeks of fun, right,
everybody goes their separate ways, and.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
Then a very long, awful announcing post. Right. Yes, so
I've got one here that, frankly, I'm a little surprised
you didn't bring out of retirement. Okay, you know how
in the baseball draft, when a player doesn't sign, he's
able to go back in the following year. Yes, for
the sake of argument here, let's just assume that this

(01:01:33):
former Fantasy Things draft pick did not sign and is
now eligible again. I think we have to bring a
little bit of Baker Mayfield out of retirement because I've
already started to see it with John Mattier. You know,
maybe this echoes in. This tracks with Baker Mayfield's own
NFL career right where it started up hill Lull, where

(01:01:54):
he's bout where did he go the Panthers and then
the Rams for a minute, but then he just took
i think the Bucks to the playoffs, right and got
a huge contract.

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
Like so this this sort of mirrors Baker Mayfield in
our consciousness.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
Continue, this was first a draft pick by you when
we did a live show out in Chicago in twenty eighteen.
I went back and looked it up. John Mattier having
a little bit of Baker Mayfield in him is going
to be all over the place this year, at least
until something goes south with Oklahoma. If it goes south, right,
But I am drafting John Matteer having a little bit

(01:02:28):
of Baker Mayfield in him. That's going to be a
very popular talking point.

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
Well, here's the thing with John Mattere just at least physically.
I don't know if he's going to have like the
facial hair situation, but he's got a nice head of
hair on him, and he wears a headband.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
There's a lot of Baker Mayfield in him.

Speaker 3 (01:02:45):
So what I'm saying just visually, Yeah, there's something there,
not play style only, but play style's there. Of course,
he's a dual threat and put up a ton of yards,
scored a bunch of touchdowns to the air and on
the ground, So you're not wrong. So I think that's
a good pick. But it's not just a little bit
of Baker Mayfield. It's a little bit of Baker Mayfield.

Speaker 7 (01:03:08):
Again.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
Voice gotta go up in octave just to drop of
the essence of Mayfield. That's right, that's right, it's little
Mayfield extract. I've got one here, Yeah, Dave Portnoy a
NOI's urban Meyer.

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
Yeah, I have something very similar to this. Continue.

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
I feel like this is a near certainty. I feel
like Fox is paying for this by bringing Dave Portnoy
onto their pregame show. But Portnoy notably a Michigan man.
Urban Meyer notably not. They are bringing him on for
shock value, sort of their version of the Pat McAfee experience.

Speaker 3 (01:03:43):
Yeah, I will.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
Be disappointed if this does not happen, But I just
want to have it on the Fantasy Things roster for
when it does, so that people can chime in. Send
us tweets, leave us reverbs, the whole nine yards, send
us email soliverbelgmail dot com. When this happens, I want
to hear from them for Ballerhood, because I want to
be the first tell you that it was gonna happen.
You already know it's gonna yeah, of course, just calling
it out here in an official capacity the receipt show

(01:04:07):
to make sure that people know that I am watching
for this very thing. You know, Fox takes some personnel swings.
Ty really is this new Fox does take some personnel
swings and see if it works out. I have big
noons Saturday devolves into chaos. But you could also say
the same thing about Game Day. With the way it's
been the past few years. I mean it's like eight

(01:04:29):
hours long, it's hard not to devolve into case true.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
So I think this is an easy pick. I think
at some point, you know when a news anchor was
missing all of a sudden, when they were just like,
oh and uh, Dan Rather's on assignment, right, right, that's right,
it's gonna be. There's gonna be something this season whereas
somebody gets like mysteriously suspended.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
Yeah, Rob Stone is on assignment. There's gonna be with
a personal matter, right, Rob Stone isn't here. We have
nothing on, by the way, on my list anyway about
Gus Johnson or Joel Klatt. No, Well, we had last
year that Joel Clatt would have his annual smile.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
We loved Joel Clatt's annual smile.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
We saw it. I mean we celebrated here on the show. Yeah.
And I do think we had something about Gus coming
up with a couple nicknames, because that was on the
heels of Maserati Marv, which he beat into the ground
in one week. So I didn't want to go out
there on Gus this year. I just sort of want
to enjoy Gus in his natural habitat. Okay, fair enough,

(01:05:33):
I've got a couple other things here. Very quickly, I
have a five way tie. Okay, you know, all these
conferences are huge now, and the tie breakers are very byzantine.
I mean they need their own website with their own
Python script kind of running behind the scenes to figure
all this crap out. We almost saw a six way tie.

(01:05:55):
We thought we might see a six way tie last
year in the MAC, right. I think there is an
opera counity here again in the Big twelve. It goes
without saying in the Big twelve, but maybe even in
the ACC I think there's going to be, as I
said earlier, a bit of a demolition derby. There not
a four way tie. We've seen those before. A five
way tie. Let's get real in the weeds with this thing.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
So essentially you're saying at the top or for like
the second.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
No no, no, no, no, at somewhere at the top, maybe
not necessarily at the very top, but just to decide
who gets into.

Speaker 3 (01:06:25):
The conference the second team to get in the conference
championship game, and they're going to have to go to
tie breaker letter J. Yeah, it would be great if.

Speaker 1 (01:06:32):
There were a five way tie for first in one
of these conferences. Yeah, or we're really digging deep to
try and figure.

Speaker 3 (01:06:37):
Out mathematically that might be tough. But yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
Don't think we've ever called this out before, bizarre training regimens.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
I like this, and I like what I mean by this.

Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
We've done the thing before where the new strength coach
is paying dividends or the strength coach has a screw loose.
We've always tend to focus a little bit on the.

Speaker 3 (01:06:55):
Striking an interesting appearance choice, right that the lightish medium
shirt or the mud stash.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
Yeah, we've talked about the strength coach until we're blue
in the face. But what we haven't talked enough about
is some of the goofy training regimens that players are
now engaged in these days. Okay, for me, I have
history with this. I wrote an article back in the day,
and I'm showing my age a little bit here when j.
Paterno was trying to teach Anthony Morelli how to read
coverages by playing Madden.

Speaker 3 (01:07:21):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:07:21):
And I wrote an article about this, and a very
prominent Penn State professor wrote to me I rate that
I would even pen this, questioning my journalism, to which
I said, this isn't journalism. They pay me to take potshots.

Speaker 3 (01:07:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:33):
There are things like this going on all the time, right,
whether it's like the ar headsets or people doing questionable
things with like truck tires to try and get ready
for the season.

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
Have you seen the Matthew Stafford stuff?

Speaker 5 (01:07:46):
Yeah, right, exactly, a AB mortal, A mortal like he's
in a trailer with infrared electronic good vibe signals.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
See. The reason that this comes to the forefront is
because there is a need, more to the point, for
eight hours of pregame coverage in these days. Yeah, and
somebody will find what these things are and they'll put
it on ESPN. So I don't know what it's going
to be this year. I know I'm being vague with
the selection, but somebody's bizarre training regimen is going to

(01:08:20):
show up on your Saturday morning television and I want
to be the first to tell you about it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:24):
You want the twenty twenty five Rob tbou having Tim
pushing trucks and chopping wood.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
That's a better play quarterback. That's right, That's right. Okay,
And my final thing here in this is very very
in the weeds granted a new iblack design, and what
I mean by that is, I feel like we have
seen multiple iterations of how players are using their EyeBlack.

Speaker 3 (01:08:47):
They go Biblical, they go Reggie Bush with the area code.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
Yeah, they go Jackson Dart with the Anakin Skywalker. Look, yes,
I'm just curious to see what's next. I don't know.
I mean seeing Riley Leonard what the crosses was new
for me? Well, no it wasn't. Tua did that. Yeah,
Tua did it. But I just feel like we saw
more of it last year, right to the extent now
where it's actually in the college football video game.

Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
Right, We've we've seen the passages and now we've also
seen the crosses for the past few years. Yeah, so that's.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
Picked up a little bit of steam. I just want
to see what's next. Okay, there will be something new.
There always is a Venmo account written in the Ieblack.

Speaker 3 (01:09:25):
Not you did in Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State tried to
do that. Yep, Yeah, Venmo actually with John Mattier and
by the way, sidebar here, whatever he was doing on Venmo,
if you're paying off a gambling debt allegedly, right, who
would write on Venmo sports gambling? Nobody, Nobody would write

(01:09:50):
sports gambling unless it's a goof. You wouldn't write crimes
on your.

Speaker 1 (01:09:57):
Those of us. For those of us who are steeped
in the tradition of using the paypals and the Venmos
and the other cash apps, your zell's to pay for
actual gambling things like pools and whatnot. Everybody who knows
what they're doing knows that you list it as dinner, yeah, sandwich,

(01:10:18):
or as dolls or as some any other emoji out there.
You do do sports gammes, sports take carre. That is
how I am certain escorts thank you. That is how
I am certain that this is not a real thing.
Nobody does this.

Speaker 3 (01:10:32):
I mean, he apologized, so there is some acknowledgment that
he used Venmo improperly, but I I am not buying
the sports gambling parentheses USC versus UCLA and BRENTA. I
just I don't know. It seems very stilly to me. Okay, continue,
I mean, Venmo in general could continue as a fantasy
thing this year.

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
Venmo could be interesting. Do we want to add that
to the list?

Speaker 3 (01:10:56):
Sure? Just Venmo, a Venmo story, any sort of digital
cash trans action. Like Hugh Freeze is completely bankrupt after
investing in a meme coin. Write that down. I've done
completely broke gambling.

Speaker 1 (01:11:14):
On Abby Coen, Hugh Freeze.

Speaker 3 (01:11:20):
I think these are all quality tie. I think these
are all great. Like them, there's a lot of innovation needed. Right,
So when you were talking about innovation and iblack, what
about innovation in terms of the Chris Collinsworth slide in
right when the two broadcast partners first greet the audience
at home, Because there's like a clatt Gus Johnson, how

(01:11:41):
do you do?

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:11:42):
They do? They do something? So I want to see
because this is also what this is the final year
of Gary Danielson. Yes, I want to see if he
and Brad Nessler, if they're fist bumping, if there's a handshake,
if there's a slide, if there's a three sixty, if
there's a kiss on the cheek, some kind of acknowledgment. God, right,
I would love to see some sort of innovation.

Speaker 1 (01:12:03):
A kiss on the cheek would be the fire for
a million blog posts out there, right, I need to
go into that.

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
Yeah, yeah, if there was something something new and creative,
like somebody doing the like the canoe into the into
the frame, or like a Brian wyndhorse spin.

Speaker 1 (01:12:22):
So you're talking about an entrance essentially, I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:12:24):
Talking about an entrance. I'm talking about a creative entrance.
RG three. If you're listening, this could be your new
calling card.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
I mean, Cole Kubolick's got some potential as well on
the sidelines, that's true. Calls a high energy guy. He
cares about the game, he cares about the sport.

Speaker 3 (01:12:40):
Do smelling salts on camera for your first hit.

Speaker 1 (01:12:43):
I could see him coming in on a parachute.

Speaker 3 (01:12:46):
Oh he's aerodynamic with the shaved head. Yeah, of course, absolutely.
This is what I want. I want sideline innovation, I
want both innovation. Really make me think about it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:57):
Why don't we leave it there? Folks, you have, of course,
can always write in soliverble at gmail dot com. We
read all of your comments. Sometimes it takes us a
while to get around to them. We apologize, we get
a lot of them, but we read all of them,
we internalize most of them. We welcome your fantasy things,
your playoff predictions, your awards predictions, eventually your reverbs when

(01:13:21):
we open the reverb line backup on week one. Yes, sir,
this is a community feel here in the verballerhood. Go
on out to Verbaler's dot com vote in our preseason poll.
If you have yet to do so, again, can sign
up for free and vote in that. If you do
want to support what Dan and I do, of course
that is appreciated. But we just want to get more votes.
We just want to get more votes. We want to
hear what the verbaler hood thinks. We will drop the

(01:13:43):
preseason Verballer Top twelve at some point later this week.
Please hit follow, please hit subscribe if you have not
done so yet, leave us a star rating or review.

Speaker 3 (01:13:55):
All that stuff helps, definitely.

Speaker 1 (01:13:58):
The receipts have been printed, Dan, they're out there. I've
got the graphics saved. As always, reach out on social media.
Let us know where we're right, where we're wrong. If
you're watching on YouTube, leave comments. That stuff helps. The
season is just about here. My friend. We made it
for that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein,
for myself. Tie hilden Brand for the verballer hood watching

(01:14:19):
at home. We'll catch you on Tuesday and anytimes day.

Speaker 3 (01:14:23):
Song Peace,

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