Week 0 Predictions, CJ Carr Named Notre Dame Starter, "Enhanced" CFP Metrics & the Verballer Top 12

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

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Ull that 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 2 (00:10):
You want to be happy for day Edith State? Is
that whoo whoom?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
And Dan and Tye.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Dan Rubinstein on today's episode, We've got news of new quarterbacks,
We've got injuries, We've got an updated metric in the
college football playoff universe. But most importantly, we have football,
actual football to discuss. Week zero is upon us a
very slim down slate of five games, all of which

(00:40):
we will talk through. I am excited to be here
with you to talk about some actual on the field
stuff at long last, Sir, welcome back.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
It feels great, ty thanks for joining me on this ride.
I cannot wait to watch actual football as strange, unusual,
exhilarating as Week zero can be, both domestically and abroad.
Because that is week zero. Now that we have Kansas
State and Iowa State in Ireland and Doblin, this is great.

(01:13):
I don't even like calling it week zero because it
is something. Zero implies the absence of something, and this
we have something, right. We have football, We have excitement,
we have a schedule, We have an appointment to watch
football on Saturday. You know, when you sit down and
they give you chips and salsa, that's not nothing. It's
not the meal. When you sit down they give you

(01:34):
hot bread. Good hot bread at one of those type places. Right, Oh,
is that bad? They could pull it apart whether you
know that kind of that's not nothing. That's something that
I treasure, and so I treasure this weekend, this Saturday,
these matchups Sam Houston, Western Kentucky, you see Davis Mercer, Kansas, Fresno,

(01:55):
you name it.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
I'm in baby, well, welcome back in one and all.
Thank you for for joining us once more here as
the season gets going. Officially, hope you're gonna stay with
us for the entirety of the ride this year in
twenty twenty five, Hit follow Hit subscribes that you don't
miss any of our episodes. We will not be doing
the live stream this Saturday night, but that will start

(02:18):
up as we get into week one, So stay tuned
to the YouTube channel if you're interested in being in
a bit of a night ol and watching us live
at midnight Easter and every Saturday.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
React.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
What was our vanity url for that stream last.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Year was it Smelti's hair or was it a different
meltize hair?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Sounds right Saturday Night, Thie. I always forget we have
so many vanity URLs. I guess you bought coctober dot
com for this year. I don't know what that's going
to link to, but that's tie. He can explore that
creative space.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Indeed, one other note that I should add before we
dive into all of the action here on the pod
for those interested inverballers dot com supporting us a little
bit more directly getting the ad free episodes, the bonus content,
the discord access, voting in the Verballer Top twelve poll, which,
by the way, I'm going to reveal at the end

(03:12):
of this episode, you got a ton of votes love
it this year, just record breaking number of votes that
came in.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Run the board.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Our annual are weekly pick them game where you pick
yeah they'reabouts ten twelve, fourteen games a week that is
now up and running at verballers dot com. I will
put together a gigantic post out on the Patreon that
everybody can read that gives you the details of it.
But if you finish in the top five of the
year long contest, you get a coveted seat on our

(03:44):
board of trustees.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Dan, we have a board meeting once twice a year.
We talked through show issues.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
We need your vote of confidence to continue otherwise, you know,
maybe it could be Chip Patterson sitting here. I don't know.
I don't know what the board's gonna say. True, run
the Board. That's the year long prize. We give weekly prizes.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
And less and less.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
You're afraid to compete unless you're flight to compete, that's
a completely different story that If you're not willing to
compete in a pick and pool, that game's not for you.
But I think we got some competitors in this audience. Ty,
I am very excited about Run the Board. You will
hear me talk much more about it. As I am
recording this on a Wednesday afternoon, I am still in

(04:25):
the process of getting it set up. But by the
time this sees the light of day, Run the Board
is gonna be out there. You can start picking games.
You can start picking games for week one. It starts
to meet all right one, Why don't we dive into in?
Are you ready?

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Always ready, born?

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Ready?

Speaker 2 (04:47):
We have some bereat gig News.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Quarterback announcements in and around the world of college football.
There have been a bunch of big ones that have dropped,
but per perhaps none bigger than the one that dropped yesterday.
Courtesy of Marcus Freeman, CJ. Carr has officially now won
the job over Kenny Minsche. Came as a bit of

(05:14):
a surprise, if I'm being honest, If you followed any
of the public reporting over the last couple of weeks,
things very much seemed to be trending in the direction
of Minche. Now interesting if you had talked to me,
if you had talked to anybody who covers the team
more closely than you and I. There was an assumption

(05:34):
out there that this was always gonna be CJ. Carr
from the moment CJ. Car stepped on campus, from the
moment he signed on that dotted line.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Multiple dotted lines, multiple that there's a payment structure in
place for CJ.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Carr right from the moment that he signed however, many lines. Yeah,
there was an assumption that this eventually was going to
be his job, But it was much more of a
race in fall camp than I think many expected.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
CJ.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
Carr got the gig officially yesterday. Red shirt freshmen red
shirt freshmen, and as much as Notre Dame does or
doesn't do red shirts, yeah, correct, So caught a lot
of people off guard. Marcus Freeman did say as recently
as his past Sunday that it was still neck and neck,
but ultimately it was his decision to make. I'm sure

(06:19):
he's going to be asked about this a million times over.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Now to what end.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
We'll get his actual thought process? Clearly that remains to
be seen. Who knows on that front. I can only
speculate here because again I'm not at practice. I'm here
in my basement in our studio. So forgive me for
speaking out as a fan, but I would say, truly,
if this were a neck and neck race, even if

(06:44):
Kenny Minshee did at some point or another pull ahead,
the fact that they still went with CJ. Carr tells
us two really big things tell me about Notre Dame
this year. The first, I think, and this may be obvious,
it screams to me that the coaching staff thinks CJ.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Carr is the higher ceiling.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Why else would you give it to somebody who maybe
doesn't have the edge. It's because you think he's got
more to give in the long run.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
Right, he can develop into something and this time will
allow him to do so.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah, a year younger than Kenny Minshee, so it's a
bit of a longer term play. Plus, you know, as
well as I in the Portal era, Dan, you got
to have that mentality that you're going to lose one
of these guys to the portal. It seems clear they
want to hold on to CJ.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Carr.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
That's what I'm getting out of this, right. And then secondly,
and I think more encouraging for those of us who
cheer on the Irish, Marcus Freeman must have enough confidence
in the rest of the team and the rest of
the offense that he let this drag on for as
long as it did. Right, This was truly like his
first quarterback race of this magnitude, and I think he

(07:54):
was content to let it drag on, to let these
two duke it out for as long as they did,
because frankly, there's less of a risk when you've got
a beast of an offensive line and what might be
one of the best two ground games in the entire
country with Jeremiah Love and Jadarian Price. So we'll have
to wait and see what it looks like against Miami
in Week one, that Sunday of Week one. I think

(08:17):
ultimately both guys probably end up being very good college quarterbacks,
whether it's at Notre Dame or somewhere else. But the
decision has been made. It did surprise a lot of people.
Maybe we're right back to where the conversation started at
the end of last year. Who knows, but it's going
to be CJ. Carr when the Irish take the field
in Miami.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah. I mean, look in any of these quarterback races
and selections and naming of starters situations that we're talking about,
if there is a true legit competition, if it is
neck and neck generally speaking, if you're just playing the odds,
if you're just doing a little bit of math, and
I'm not the best person to be talking about doing
math generally speaking, you either have two pretty good quarterbacks

(08:56):
and you're trying to figure out who has the best
chance of being excellent, or you have two like pretty
average or below average quarterbacks and you're figuring out who
is the less below average quarterback, right who has the
higher floor. From what we've seen of these two quarterbacks,
it seems that they're probably both pretty good, just just
to echo what you're saying, and not two excellent quarterbacks

(09:20):
who are of Heisman caliber, and like, what a crazy
decision we have to make, What a luxurious, crazy situation
we find ourselves in that they're both pretty good, And
it seemed that CJ. Carr, because of the year he
is he's in his second season, as opposed to Kenny
mentioning his third or because of the best of his
throws or the best of his plays, seems to have
a higher ceiling. So that would be where my money

(09:42):
is for any of these quarterback battles, especially at the
high profile places, if they're legit back and forth right.
Sometimes they're quote unquote quarterback battles, but it's one guy
all along. But if this one is indeed legit, then
that would be where my money is. That both of
these guys are at least pretty good, but CJ. Carr
has that ceiling.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
And honestly agree, I'm not discouraged by the fact that
there was a true quarterback competition, especially especially given the
fact that, as you said, both seem to be pretty good.
Both will end up being good college quarterbacks. Again, whether
it's at Notre Dame or somewhere else. The real surprise
to me was that it was a real bona fide race,

(10:19):
because I was under the assumption that it was always
just going to be CJ.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Carr. They were going to hand it over to him,
but by all accounts, Kenny Minche.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Pushed him pretty good. Who knows how this goes through
the first month of the season. It could still be
Kenny Minchi's to gain, depending out CJ. Carr shows out
here in the first few weeks of the season. But
our long national nightmare is over. If you are a
Notre Dame fan.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Who else do you have in terms of the quarterback
battles and starters named? That gets your antenna? I bubblin
Julian saying, Dan know who that is?

Speaker 3 (10:52):
Of course, Julian saying the former five star who initially
committed to Alabama then transferred up to Ohio State after
the Saban news he beat out Lincoln Keenholtz at Ohio State.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
He's going to be the guy.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
I am excited to playing my super Saiyan sound all
season long.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Julian's saying, going to be the guy.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Speaking of Alabama, Ty Simpson, this one came out. I
think a little bit before most of these names that
I'm about to read off, but of course the former
backup to Jalen Milroe one the job has been in
the system now for two years. He edged out Austin
Mack and Keilon Russell. If you go back and listen
to our SEC preview, I think it still applies that

(11:36):
regardless of who they picked here, much like the Notre
Dame situation, actually they have plenty of good options in
that quarterback room. They're going to be fine, whether it's
Simpson or whether or not they end up going to
somebody else down the road.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Right now, there's all sorts of calculus and as you mentioned,
of knowing that guys are going to leave, Ty Simpson
seems to be the guy for Alabama reading the tea leaves,
that checks the most boxes, that's most ready to win. Now,
Keilon Russell is likely the future after what his talent
level is perceived to be. But to come in with

(12:10):
how well built Alabama is for a run in the
SEC to hand it over to a true freshman, you
better be awfully sure than that true freshman. And when
you look at all the quotes along the way, it
was like this, these guys each offer us different interesting things.
So it's pretty clear that Ty Simpson checks the most boxes.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Joey Agiwar it's not a surprise that he would get
the gig at Tennessee. He was part of that transfer
trade recall Nico leaves, Joey Agilar comes from UCLA to Knoxville.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
He beat out Jake Merklinger.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
And country legend George McIntyre.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Contest and country legend George McIntyre. Thank you.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Bill Connolly on the last episode, the interview that you
did with him had some thoughts on this insofar as
maybe Aguilar could be even better than what we saw
at a Nico last year. There's been an assumption that
he wouldn't or that he couldn't. But Bill feels a
little bit differently.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
So the bar wasn't terribly high. Yeah, I think that
starts of actual production against quality teams. Tennessee had a
lot to had a lot left to be desired.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
On offense, sure, Bear Bachmeyer, great name, great head of hair,
Stanford transfer, Stanford transfer, getting the nod at BYU. So
he's gonna wear number forty seven, which is different. He's
going to be the first true freshman to start an
opener for BYU, which is also different, and he's one

(13:36):
of the Bachmeyer dynasty. Yes, Steve Angeli gets the gig
at Syracuse. Dylan Lonergan gets the job at Boston College.
Ben Go, Ben Goldrn, I can't even say it.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
You're good.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
I've had six years to get this down. I still
screw it up.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Ben Go.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Branson beat out Elijah Brown at Stanford. The former Blue
Chipper was their highest prospect in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
But Ben, I'm just gonna call him Big Ben. He
gets the gig M H and H, Jaron Kave Sogapoola,
Telly Dan nailed it.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Look at you.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
I wrote it down phonetically here in the sheets, so
I didn't screw it up.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yes, he gets the gig at cal Yeah. Was that
Oregon for an hour and a half in December?

Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, Yes, was at Oregon for a hot minute. Transferred
back down to Berkeley. He won the job over the
Ohio State transfer Devin Brown.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Maybe a tough year in Berkeley for him, but you
get that year of experience and we'll see where that
leads him.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
Just some other really quick ones for the G five
fans among us. Brendan Lewis gets the gig at Memphis.
He came over from Nevade. He's going to replace Seth
Hanagan who was there forever At Fresno.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
It's EJ.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Warner.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
Yeah, talk about that in a little bit when we
talk about the Fresno Kansas game. Kurt Warner's son his
third team in four years. For those keeping track.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Drew Mestemaker is going to be the guy at North Texas.
Interesting tidbit on Drew Mestemaker. Until the Bowl game last year,
he hadn't started a game at quarterbacks since the ninth grade.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Wow, right to roll. He's well rested.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Ty, well rested.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
Jack Laye at New Mexico, Chase Jenkins at Rice Brandon Rose,
the former Utah back. Yeah, yeah, getting the gig at
UMass and Dexter Williams.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Remember Dexter Williams from Indiana, Indiana.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Sure had a brief stint at Georgia Southern. Now he's
going to be the starter at Kennessau State.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Great.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
Good luck to all, Good luck to all. A couple
bits of injury news as well. To report Jim Miller presumed,
the starting running back at Alabama had a collarbone injury
during one of their preseason scrimmages. It seems as if
they're going to get him back in time for that
September twenty seventh game against Georgia.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, that's collarbone. If it is like a fracture collarbone,
that's like four to six usually.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
He had he had some surgery on it, and I
haven't seen an official timetable on his return, but at
least some optimism out there that he could be back
for that Georgia game at the end of se.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
You imagine, by the way, quick little sidebark, could you
imagine somehow like fracturing or breaking or cracking your collarbone,
healing up, and then somebody telling you all right now
that you're better go run into the Georgia too. Good
luck out there. Yeah, I would need a suit of.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Armor before I'd be willing to do that, But.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
Okay, whatever, continue Quinton Joiner at Texas Tech. This one's
a tough one man. Quentin Joyner came over from USC
at the start of the year. Done now with the
torn acl oh brutal, which is a bummer for him
because it was a good situation he was stepping into,
and an even bigger bummer now for Texas Tech. Who's

(16:51):
going to have to rely on two sophomores, Cameron Dicky
Jacobe Williams, both of whom played a bit last year
thereabouts five yards of carry in some limited action forty
one It was a.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
Taj Brooks backfield, but it was entire plane. Yeah, so
one of these dudes is going to have to step
up now. Other injury news out there are just notable
names that I think the verballerhood would be interested in.
Chris Brasel, the wide receiver for Tennessee, didn't play in
the most recent scrimmage, still not ready to go. I
haven't seen a whole lot as to what exactly is

(17:23):
going on there, but Brasles a name that I would
hope would step up out wide for Joey Agilar in
that Tennessee offense. Michael Van Buren, your backup at LSU,
did something that was throwing hand. He was wearing a
splint around earlier in the week. Dalan Hayden, as well
as the entirety of the Colorado offensive line, appears to

(17:44):
be banged up. Okay, Dalan Hayden's got a hand injury.
He's going to miss the start of the year. The
offensive line. Dian was very vague about what's going on
with the offensive line. He didn't list any names, but
he just said, yeah, we're all banged up. He has
talked about that they would be going about things differently
on offense in terms of where their focus was, because
obviously hasn't been on running the ball these past couple

(18:04):
of years. No, so he alluded to a shift, yes,
in focus on offense. I don't know if it's more balanced.
I don't know if it's more run heavy or extremely
run heavy, or just looking at different ways that Colorado
can operate. Continue.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
It would be problematic if the line were nicked up.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Correct.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
You said about literally any You said literally about any team,
but I Colorado especially because I do think they need
to bring things a little bit more into balance.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, got better last year.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
Otherwise, look, I mean, there have been injury concerns about
DJ Lagway. He was dealing with a leg thing. He's
back to full health.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
Diego Pavi has got some calf tightness, but sounds like
he's gonna be fine. Florida State's still waiting on Squirrel
White their transfer. Did they bring down from Tennessee. He's
been limited in practice, but he should be good for
the Alabama game when they open things up.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
So not a whole lot.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Here are a couple catastrophic ones to report, but otherwise
most of the big names seem like they're good to go.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Man, it seems like it's gonna be all right.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
I would treasure somebody's taking that much interest in me
physically every day, saying got any stuff today and be like,
kind of a hamstring thing, there's something elbow wise that
I'm like. I would love a daily report on how
I'm holding up in the way that we have to. Like, Oh,
the offensive line for Colorado is a little bit nicked up.
I would love that kind of attention. But maybe that

(19:19):
says more about me. Continue, Dan, can you give me
that computer sound that you have?

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Sorry, thank you?

Speaker 3 (19:28):
So.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
The College Football Playoff Committee dropped some news shortly before
we hit record here today.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
It is no secret to this crowd anyway, that the
strength of schedule argument rears its ugly head every November,
even before we had the twelve team format, back when
it was a FOD team format, even back when we
had the computers picking who the top two were sure
the schedule, the strength of schedule argument is like as

(19:58):
old as time itself.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
You can even call it the sank of schedule argument
because it's Greg sank like he might we might as
well name that discussion point after him, like he can
be like a title sponsor. Anytime you mentioned strength of
scheduling sponsored by Greg Sanki, it's yeah, it's sort of
like the uh, you know, when you look at Texas's
excuse me, when you look at Texas's Greg Sanki presents

(20:21):
strength of schedule. Continue.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
So the College Football Playoff Committee is going to be
rolling out what they're calling quote enhanced metrics, Dan Love
that whatever that is, they're going to be including something
called record strength now in their mix of stats that
they look at mm HM, basically a fancy way of
saying that they're going to give you a little bit

(20:47):
more credit for beating the good teams. You're not going
to hammer you as hard if you're losing to the
better teams on your schedule, whereas if you're playing a
weaker schedule, you're losing two worse teams that might reflect
on you a little bit differently. So it gives you
a bit of a safety net, right if you're playing
a tougher schedule. Clearly, the strength of schedule arguments will

(21:08):
not go away anytime soon, because bear in mind, this
is still a process that relies on a committee of
people to subjectively, again, very subjectively. Yeah, I was gonna say,
pick a field of twelve. The argument's not going away.
But if we're to believe these reports are going to
put a little bit more emphasis on the teams that
play the hardest schedules. For whatever that's worth you, it's

(21:30):
still very vague. Good thing, bad thing, indifferent, Dan Rubinstein.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
So, I mean, it's the same question that we can
ask every year. Right, It's a hard schedule according to
whom it's an easy schedule? According to whom? What makes
for an easy schedule? These teams? Are these teams bad? Good? Average?
According to whom? Which objective metrics are you using? Whose
objective metrics are you using? And then, even though the

(21:58):
numbers are objective, the person or people or collection of
people deciding on what is weighted more than what isn't
weighted in that you know, equation, whatever you want to
call it, why according to whom? Like, what what is
it about that equation that gives us a more accurate read?

(22:19):
On Tennessee's quality or Texas's quality or you know, Minnesota's quality,
and so somewhere along the way there is somebody looking
at the Greg Sankie present strength of schedule metric and
saying to themselves, Hmmm, I think Auberns the team that
blah blah blah blah. Hmmm, I think NC State actually

(22:40):
is as a quality win or a quality loss. Like eventually,
you're just going to get to a subjective point the
further you dig. And that's fine. We only have twelve
games to figure it out, and we're going to try
to figure out seven, eight, nine games in anyway to
give out rankings for everybody to look at. But to
sort of say we're using an objective method to figure

(23:04):
out strength of schedule and how to rank these teams,
I don't think that really exists. And so just tell us,
is it Bill Connolly, is it Brian Fremo? Is it
Tye Hill? The brand? Whose strength of schedule metric should
we be looking at? And how much transparency can we
get in that process?

Speaker 3 (23:24):
Yeah, this Google sheet is owned by an sec at
gmail dot com address.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Because you know the SEC money wise, they're not springing
for the full custom RL. Of course that's a Gmail address.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
And all of these SEC teams, the cells don't have formulas.
It's almost as if this number has been manually input.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
Manually input it correct. Yeah, that's what the Greg Sanki
presents strength of schedule is ultimately going to be.

Speaker 3 (23:51):
It's all very vague. Yeah, I'm curious to see what
it looks like in practice. Two obvious questions for me, though,
One on the topic of Sankie. Does it give him
enough cover to switch things up to a nine game
conference slate now?

Speaker 1 (24:06):
Because this has been his thing.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
He's been beating the drum for a long time, and
there was this whole back and forth about the playoff
system and if they get the aqs, if they don't
get the AQS, that could influence them one way or
another here with the conference slates. So if this is something,
I guess in the short term that seems to benefit
the SEC, I could see them making the switch. But
that's just me talking from afar. The second thing, I'm

(24:31):
interested in the degree to which this could affect things
short term for teams like Indiana and even some of
the G five schools that now have a stake in
this playoff. Like I looked at Indiana's non conference slate
out at fbsschedules dot com, sort of one of the
many bibles that we check this time of year. Sure,

(24:52):
they don't have a meaningful non conference game until twenty
twenty nine against Notre Dame.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
Right, because it's the intention of where that program was
when they were booking these schedules. Or sometimes in a
lot of cases, there are canceled matchups. I don't know
if or if not Indiana had a home and home
booked with Florida, probably not considering it's Florida, but those
things get canceled sometimes and then you're, you know, playing

(25:20):
take your pick, smaller school, you're playing Furman instead, and
your schedule doesn't look quite as impressive. So I'll due
respect to whether the Paladins tie that. Yes, if your
intention is, let's let's figure out how we can most
quickly get to six or seven wins. Great, and now
that Indiana is capital A actually good, Now that schedule

(25:43):
is not doing them any favors, right, right.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
So how quickly can you change that type of thing?
You know?

Speaker 3 (25:47):
That's yeah, above my pay grade, But it looks like
it's going to be a minute before Indiana has a
meaningful non conference opponent, like I said twenty twenty nine,
right now, it's Notre Dame. And the other side of
this is that G five slot that we've got right
now in these playoffs. Like I was thinking about this,

(26:08):
Liberty is probably a good example, right, Liberty plays the
easy schedule in the country this year. We talked about
it on the Conference USA preview. Right, that's in large
part because of the conference slate. Is there some way
that they can rejigger the schedule so that it's more
attractive to the committee or do they have to actually
leave the conference to get that tougher slate so they

(26:29):
can fashion themselves truly as a playoff contender. I don't
know what that calculus looks like on the G five level,
but I could imagine a world in which this could
really affect some of those teams, not necessarily getting in
over in Alabama, but just getting in over a Boise
State who is righting.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
There eleven and one in Boises ten and two. Right,
I think it's going to be near impossible for the
Conference USA champion to get to the playoff any at
any point less than being undefeated and being compared against
a ten and two team confers. USh just is not
built in terms of quality, like the Sunbelt, like the American,

(27:08):
like the Mountain West. That's gonna be very It's just
gonna be difficult.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
It is.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
It absolutely is so much more to come on this front.
But in the interim, get ready for some quote unquote
enhanced metrics, Stan Rubinstein.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Oh, by the way, we got Pack twelve coming up soon, right,
the newly formed version of the quote unquote pack twelve.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
You want to pick some games?

Speaker 2 (27:30):
I would love to.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Dan time to help the weak.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
We got five of them. Dan, you have bowed out
of giving this weekend a name.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah, it's just football.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
It's just football.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
This this week is just football.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
The big one is at high noon Eastern time on ESPN.

Speaker 3 (27:50):
It is Iowa. Stated is Kansas State. It is Pharmageddon again.
They played at a Viva Stadium in Dublin. Can you
give me your Irish Dublin one more time, please?

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Doblin, Doblin, Doblin. Yeah, I have no idea if that's accurate.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Continue. We were invited to this game.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
We were invited. I was tempted because Ireland and Northern
Ireland are beautiful countries, a beautiful island. I loved visiting
a couple of years ago. Had a great time eating Indoblin,
great walkable European city. It was Bambino. Loved Bambino pizza.
Talk about Bambino pizza. I've been a sticker on my
water bottle right here Bambino. Love that little baby eating pizza.

(28:31):
I also had a good meal like Grano, really good
homemade pasta continue wonderful.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
Well, we're not able to make it. We appreciate the invite.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
The good news, though, is that frosted wild berry and
frosted hot fudge Sunday.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Will be there rooting on Iowa State.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
Good they won the pop Tars Bowls, so there's got
to got to keep the rep.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
You know that's true.

Speaker 3 (28:52):
Kansas State's favored by three points in this matchup. You
know I'm high on both these schools. I've got them
playing an eventual remat in the Big twelve title game.
And I've also telegraphed where I stand on this game
in that I'm walking up k State minus.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Three Block of the week.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
So with that being said, I am going to turn
it over to you because one thing that I found
interesting in looking at these schools, especially now that they're
matched up against each other in the first game of
the college football season. To a degree, both of these
schools fit your very specific Dan Rubinstein rubric of having

(29:36):
a good quarterback, having a good defense. Yeah, if that's
your starting point, that's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
So what say you about that setup that both schools
have something that I know you always like being So
it's this early in the season in a foreign country,
different stadium, where yet.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
I mean, it's a fascinating matchup. A lot of it
is just potential are promising, like a promising defense and
a promising quarterback. The best of Avery Johnson is quite promising.
When Kansas State loses, it seems that it's Avery Johnson
in the passing game or weird fumbles that aid in
that loss. And so it's Kansas State with a new

(30:21):
look offensive line with transfers but really fun looking skill players.
It's Iowa State with a new look defensive line a
much healthier at linebacker. So it's like Kansas State wants
to get better on offense, Iowa State wants to get
better at defense. Iowa State's looking to find new receivers.
Kansas State's looking to stop big pass plays. There's a

(30:41):
lot of like, hey, we struggled doing this thing last
year and it led to not so fun moments. We
hope starting the year with a rivalry game will immediately
have our teams and transfers that are coming into solve
these issues focused on fixing those things. And so it's
hard to really feel anything strongly. We haven't seen these

(31:03):
versions of teams. There's new personnel everywhere for both of
these teams. I can say this if you are a
believer to whatever extent in trends, Iowa State in September
is not super good. Iowa State, for whatever reason under
Matt Campbell, has started very slowly needed like triple overtime

(31:25):
to beat Northern Iowa, or loses to Northern Iowa, or
scores seven and a half points a year against Iowa.
Sometimes it's good enough to beat the Iowa offense. That's fine,
But there is something about losing to Ohio and Matt
Campbell having a little bit of a moment. We'll call
it a bously had a moment. We've all been there,
lest I can consider Matt Campbell a lesser person. I've

(31:50):
had that moment three times this morning time. I have
a six year old and four year old, so I
kind of like going against Iowa State. I kind of
like that Kansas State has been a little bit more
solid than the early going these past years under Chris Kleiman.
I kind of love the under. If that's a person,
that's the kind of person you are. Iowa State does

(32:11):
not hit overs as a dog. Kansas State does not
hit overs as a favorite. So this game is being
played forty four thousand miles away. Don't fact check me.
I kind of like a low scoring Kansas State cover
of twenty three seventeen in that range. How does that?
How does that strike you?

Speaker 3 (32:30):
I got it in the same range. Okay, I think
I'd be inclined to go under. I never bet unders
because that's just no fun.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
It definitely is no fun.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
It's no fun to do that. If you're that kind
of person, you're kind of a monster.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Right. Last year's Georgia Tech Floresa A was twenty four
to twenty one. Yeah, so that's under fifty. So that's
right around where that number is this year.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Yeah, maybe a nice monster, just not Yeah, my tigre better.
You can still listen to the show You can still
come to the live shows whenever we do them, but
it's not my cup of tea.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Here's the thing for me. The passing game.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
I talked about this in all the previous stuff that
we did on the Big Twelve radio shows that I
did talking about the Big Twelve teams.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Jeez, brag much.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
Continue my question on both sides is the passing game
On the k State side, I think it's one more
of consistency with Avery Johnson. On the Iowa State side,
it's because they lost to eleven hundred yard receivers. I
like Rock Obeck, the best of all Rocos the bore
if you will, of course, but that's a lot to
lose out wide. And I think it hurts Iowa State

(33:36):
more because if they don't have the pop in the
passing game this year, and if their running game does
not get more explosive than it was a year ago,
this turns into a pickleball offense in a.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
Hurry, Yeah, in a hurry.

Speaker 3 (33:51):
Meanwhile, if you're K State Dan and you can't get
it going, it basically turns into an improv show. Like
Matt Wells is just going to hand it off to
his athletes. He's gonna let Avery Johnson dance around in
the backfield and figure something out. Let your playmakers figure
it out. I like the Colones a lot, but they're
gonna need some dudes to step up and become those

(34:11):
type of dynamic playmakers to give this offense a little
bit more pop out wide. And that's sort of the
big hang up with Iowa State this year, at least
on offense. There's a lot of veteran presence there. I
love the quarterback, I still like the backfield. I'd like
to see more chunk plays, but what is that passing
game going to look like?

Speaker 2 (34:28):
That?

Speaker 3 (34:28):
To me is one of two big concerns in this
game for Iowa State. And the second thing I guess
is like a build on that, is how does ca
State use Avery Johnson to test that Iowa State secondary?
You know, like you generally trust that John Haycock's going
to figure out defense. You know, he's been doing it
for a long time. He's very good at it. It

(34:49):
was a struggle last year, but that was a lot
of injury, a lot of injury stuff. Sure, generally you
can trust the guy.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
YEP.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
Secondary this year, though, is the big question we know
from watching this game our entire lives what a good
dual threat quarterback can do to a defense, especially a secondary,
How it can pull defenses apart, get them out of shape,
cause communication issues, things like that. Avery Johnson is that
kind of guy, and so I'm curious to see how

(35:19):
they utilize his legs, how they do it early, and
if they're able to take advantage of that to open
up some passing lanes down the field against the secondary
that at least to start is relatively unproven.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
It was actually a really good secondary last year. That
was not the weakness of this defense. This team was
tenth in the nation. Again, this team or this program,
it's a different team this year, both sides the ball.
But in terms of what John Haycock does putting his
players in a position to succeed, they were top ten
nationally in interception percentage, So.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
He will figure it out. I'm confident in that.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
But early against a good dual threat guy like Avery Johnson,
I think it's going to hinge on a couple big
plays down the field that are set up mainly because
of the threat of him running. So for me, I
also have this under a little bit less under I
guess than you do. I've got it at twenty seven
to twenty K State in a really good game like

(36:12):
this is an awesome game to bring to the Irish people,
like I love the fact that they're playing Pharmageddon there.
For as much as I'm in favor of playing all
games on campus all the time, if you're going to
take a game abroad, this one's pretty fun. Really go
for it, right, This one's a pretty fun one.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
The what the air lingis college Football Classic? We love
a good not a sponsor. Continue, No, it could.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
Be, absolutely could be.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
So we're both on K State here.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
I'm walking them up minus the three.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
I agree some other action.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
Also, at noon, we get to see UNLV for the
first time under Dan Mullen.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
Both quarterbacks will play against Idaho State, as that's the
most recent thing I saw. Alex Oorge, Anthony Calandria.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
Yeah, all right, you and LV is going to win
the game. I'm I'm curious to see what they look
like under Dan Mullen. I'm curious to see what the
quarterback situation is and how that evolves. There has not
been an official announcement to your point about who QB
one is or will be. There's been a lot of

(37:15):
chatter among the people that cover UNLV that it could
be alex Orgi is a better fit for the Dan
Mullen system. I still think alex Orgie is a better
fit for wide receiver than he is for quarterback. But
however they want to play this, it's on them. I'm
curious to see how he looks in the Mullen system,
if it does benefit his skill set a little bit more.
I've always been a callandry guy. You know, I just

(37:37):
got to think for Anthony Kalandria.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
I watch a game and a half of Anthony Calandria
until you know what I love. That is not true,
and you know continue.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
But UNLV will be in action four o'clock on Fox.
We've got Fresno State at Kansas. Kansas is reopening the
booth their stadium, which has been under renovation for a
while now. Yes, I think they are going to smoke
Fresno State in this game.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
So they had their own issues early, and they've had
their own issues early. That's in large parts of the
fact that Kansas was garbage before Lance Leipold fully weaponized
this program. They really did struggle last year, and Fresno
State had their own struggles last year, and this is
a different Fresno staff, a different Fresno roster, a lot

(38:28):
new on the Kansas side as well, So this is
much more. I think about the fans and the scar
tissue that fans have from watching these two teams last
year is if this game is close, We're going to
have two fan bases white knuckling at the end of
this game because of last year. What Fresno was not
able to accomplish close and especially in the first five

(38:49):
or six weeks last year, be it against you mentioned UNLV,
be it against Illinois, last year West Virginia. Kansas had
its own struggles in close fourth quarter matchups. I think
Kansas is better position, but there is a ton new
for me to feel super confident in. So I'm gonna
go Kansas. I'm not on a limb from limb situation yet,
but I'm pretty confident Kansas has this.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
They're going to smoke Okay, Fresno in this game. The
place is going to be hopping because of reopen in
the stadium. Yeah, and we've talked before about how this
was like the missing piece for Lance Leipold is one
of the things that he advocated for upon taking that
job and having some pretty quick success. They wanted this.
Now they're reopening it. I think everybody's going to be hopping.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
And they're unopposed in this window, right, this is for
Eastern It's unopposed, right, So this is they know this
is the show that everybody's watching.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
This is the show the place is going to be hoping.
It's only week zero, which I believe means that Jalen
Daniels doesn't hurt yet.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Oh, stay healthy.

Speaker 3 (39:46):
I hope he stays healthy. He's very exciting when he is.
He's just always hurt. He's not hurt yet, so that's good.
And then I think the other layer to this is
that it's a new regime at Fresno State with Matt Intz,
who I like a lot. I actually really like that
higher he's got the defensive background. I think he's gonna
have a decent defense this year.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Hired the best tight ends coach in America. Let's not
skip over that. Brian Farrens. Yes, we'll be there. I
just don't trust him on offense with EJ.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
Warner. Like EJ.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
Warner is not Kurt Warner.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
He's not. Hold on, let me write this down yeah,
please put that on the legal pat.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Not Super Bowl quarterback, Hall of Fame caliber quarterback.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
Okay, continue Kansas minus thirteen is the play for me.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
I think they're gonna go limb from Okay.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
I don't hate that. Two other games here.

Speaker 3 (40:35):
That I want to mention quickly six point thirty. It
is Sam Houston versus Western Kentucky. Western Kentucky is one
of my pet teams this year. Okay, well my pet
teams because what Tyson Helton is doing and running back
his twenty twenty one playbook. So instead of bringing over
Bailey Zappi and his offensive coordinator Zach Kitley from Houston Baptist,

(40:58):
this year, it's Rick Bowie the offensive coordinator and Maverick
mckiv from Most.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
To Texas Tech a few years ago.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
Yeah, from Abilene Christian.

Speaker 3 (41:07):
Yeah, and the Maverick was super productive last season, almost
beat Texas Tech last year. So I'm curious to see
what that looks like. And also the Houston, the Sam
Houston story is pretty interesting because they lose their coach
to Temple. Phil Longo comes down going to change entirely
the philosophy of the program, which last year defense first.

(41:28):
This year He's going to offense first, it seems. So
you set something up like that, and what do you
think happens? All your defensive guys leave. He's basically replacing
every starter on defense, which is just a hair worse
than Western Kentucky, which loses like its top twelve tacklers

(41:50):
or something like that. So possible shootout here over under
was like sixty sixty three somewhere in that. I don't
know a lot of points are expected here. I like
Western by about fourteen. They're favored by ten. So I'm
on the hilltoppers here at home.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
Nice little sidebar hair. Because you mentioned Sam Houston being fascinating,
the actual Sam Houston is super fascinating at the very least.
Go to the Sam Houston, like the guy Sam Houston
from the nineteenth century, Yeah, who is like one of
the if not the father of the state of Texas.
Skim the Wikipedia page. Check out a book about Sam
Houston from your local library. Dude on like two separate

(42:28):
heartbreak occasions, moved in with the Cherokee people near him.
It's great. Sam Houston fascinating life. I don't condone everything
he did or thought, but super fascinating. Read about Sam
Houston a.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
Big Wikipedia page.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, it's a big time like if you look at
if you were to have a Greg Sanki present Strength
of schedule Wikipedia entry rating system. Sam Houston's up there.
It's a good read. Continue all right, fair enough?

Speaker 1 (42:55):
Do you have a lean in this game?

Speaker 2 (42:57):
I guess I'm gonna go Western Kentucky. I think both
of these two. You know, Western Kentucky was close and
or perform well against some quality teams last year, and
same goes for Sam Houston. The game is at WKU
correct correct, correct, they played last year. I believe Western
Kentucky won close relatively early on in the season. Western
Kentucky should once again be able to exclusively pass and

(43:18):
maybe not do anything else near that success rate. But
I'm going hilltoppers here.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
And finally, seven pm on CBS is Stanford traveling to
the Islands of Hawaii. Hawaii favored by two and a
half points here, So we've got the aforementioned Ben Gilbranson.
I believe I got that name correct that time.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yeah, you're in the vicinity.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
He is leading the charge for Stanford. I don't really
know how you handicap this one. Dan on the Stanford
side anyway because so much new an interim coach. They
are traveling a long ways to get of the islands
to play this game. Meanwhile, I think Hawaii might be

(44:04):
pretty decent this year. There's like a lot back on defense,
more back on defense, I guess than usual. I like
their quarterback Micah Elejado Okay southpaw smaller dude, threw for
four sixty nine and five touchdowns in the last game
of the year last year against New Mexico. I think
this is going to be a very very competitive game

(44:26):
and a fun one to watch at seven pm Eastern time.
I am going Hawaii lower scoring game twenty seven to
twenty somewhere in that neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
Every year is different, every team is different, Everything is
its own individual thing. Hawaii playing at home last year,
you've heard of quiet, quitting tie, quiet quality, Hawaii quiet quality.
If they were playing on the West Coast, not terribly
far from Hawaii or in Hawaii, they were pretty good.
There was quiet quality to them. You look at what

(44:58):
they did against UCLA early. That was in LA But
when teams came to the islands, like or one specific
island the UNLV, they were right there, like quality team
that the defense improved, the defense was able to make plays.
If the defense is anywhere near that this season, and
the quarterback play is okay, I think they're winning this game.

(45:18):
Stanford is just they've got a ways to go. I'm
going Hawaii here. There you have it.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
Those are your five games and a moves boosh, as
you like to say.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
By the way, I mentioned UC Davis at the top.
They're on big old regular ESPN at six or seven
pm Eastern. It's like the FCS Showdown Classic or something
against Mercer. I think they're like both in the top
fifteen or so. Davis is always going to have a
soft spot in my heart and to Davis a bunch,
So I don't know, that's an interesting window if one

(45:49):
of the what the aft the Kansas game is out
of control, like Tie anticipates, check in on UC Davis,
check in on the fight and aggies.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
Check in on the other aggies.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
Why don't you exactly.

Speaker 3 (45:59):
We've got one final segment here today, Dan, it is
time to reveal at long last, the results of our
Verballer Top twelve preseason poll. So we invited those across
the verballer hood to come on over to our Patreon
forballers dot com. Sign up to vote for free, tirely

(46:20):
free to vote in the poll preseason poll. Anyway, I've
been very quietly collecting the results of it. Everybody out
there has already released the results of their preseason poll.
This one, the most important one, is going to be
released last. Number one Texas Longhorns.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
All right, makes sense.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
Number two Penn State nitne Lyons. Number three the Ohio
State Buckeyes. Not a whole lot of separation between those
top three teams, very neck and neck.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
When you think about college football, you think about Penn
State being slightly ahead of Ohio State. So I get
where everybody's coming from there. Continue.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
Number four my America is Clemson Tigers, a bit of
a distant fourth, not quite close enough to really challenge
for third over Ohio State.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
And we're saying we're thinking Clemson with huge preseason expectations,
huge pre interesting codation. I assume it's going to go well.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
Continue and definitely a bit of patting between them and
the fifth place team, the Georgia Bulldogs. Okay, so this
is interesting because Georgia by a nose over Alabama, who
came in sixth in our poll. This is about as
low as I've seen Alabama in most of the polls, frankly,
but Alabama came in sixth. Not a lot of separation
between six, seven and eight, which is Alabama at six,

(47:37):
Notre Dame at seven, your Oregon Ducks at number eight.
To round out the top ten, we've got LSU at nine,
Miami at ten, Arizona State at eleven, and me chigaan
the Wolverines all the way up to twelve in this poll,
which feels aggressive, but nonetheless there's a lot to.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
Like about the Michigan Wolverine year.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
So that's your top twelve. By the way, the first
five out that is a thing. Florida Gators were thirteenth,
Texas A.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
And m was fourteenth.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
Illinois, Kansas State, and South Carolina. Those are the next
five in that order. What are your reactions to this, Dan.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
Any poll that does not include Missoo in the top
three is a fraudulent poll. Tie. Look, my reaction to
this is the same as it is to the AP
and Coach's poll. More broadly speaking, that there's so many
new quarterbacks and so many enormous questions and so much
roster upheavil for the most part in the top twelve
or top seventeen that we can confidently say that we're

(48:42):
going to look back on this pole through tiers of laughter.
And I wouldn't change anything. I wouldn't argue against anybody specific.
Like I'm pretty high on Michigan. I just don't believe
them to be like a conversational team in this moment.
I'm pretty high on a number of these teams, but
like when you see the number next to them, they're like,

(49:05):
oh man, that's ah, that's pretty up.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
There, Michigan all the way up at twelve. That to
me is what jumped out the most. I think I
had Clemson number one in mind. You know where I
stand on Clemson. I'm all in on Clemson.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
This year.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
I had Alabama two. I really like Alabama. Then I
had Penn State, then I had Ohio State, then I
had Texas in that order. Yeah, these polls are largely useless,
but it is an interesting exercise to see how people
feel about these teams after our previews.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
I like the fact that.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
We're giving the verbawlers a voice now in the preseason.
Typically we only do this during the season. By the way,
if you sign up at verbolers dot com. You can
vote in this poll all season long if you're a
premium or a certified tier verboler. This will change a
million times over, but we got a great turnout. I
appreciate the verballer hoods stop and buy us, casting their votes,

(49:59):
making their opinions heard. I saw a bunch of screenshots
out there on the Internet, people talking through their logic
for putting which teams wear, so clearly a million different
schools of thought for how to go about conducting yourself
here with this poll. Got some interesting schools getting votes.
Let's say, Yeah, a couple of Missouri states in there

(50:19):
just for the hell of it. But by and large,
I think what we saw here mostly tracks with what
we've seen elsewhere, a pretty good sense for who the
top teams are at least the start of the season,
at least based on the assumptions that we have after
doing our previews correct.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
No, I can't. I can't wait to see how the
poll evolves over time. And just like we had last
year with Arizona State late it's that. I think it's
the eight hundred meters that you know, you got to
pace yourself and then you come on strong at the end,
your final kick. That's what I'm get excited for. Who's
that November kick that all of a sudden hasn't been
in that poll for two months and enters at number six,

(50:57):
Just like a team that's just like, yeah, we're here,
this is it, this is who we are. We're top sixteen,
we're top two team. Let's roll. I love that.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
By the way, Overballers dot Com. Again, not to do
too many promos here in this episode, but you can
vote in this poll all season long. If you support
what Dan and I do. You can also get access
to ad free episodes, bonus content, our discord server, the
game run, the board that I mentioned at the very
top of the episode, which is now live, living color.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
It is excited.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
It is ready for you.

Speaker 3 (51:30):
To file your projections, your picks and compete for an
opportunity to win not only are week one prize which
won veil next week, but also the season long race
to be part of our board of Trustees. Yes, that's
everballers dot Com. Every little bit helps you in an
agent de light on. I love that support.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (51:50):
We've saved the best for last. And here's the reason
that I'm doing this. Okay, Okay, I am still very
sensitive to something that I said after Michigan won the
National Championship. Okay, in the immediate aftermath of Michigan winning
that National Championship game a couple of years back over Washington,

(52:11):
we got eleven minutes into the episode. Eleven minutes I
went back. I checked this morning just to make sure
that I was right eleven minutes into that episode before
I brought up all of this with Michigan. Okay, And
at the time, my comment was, Hey, we don't know
what the NCAA is going to say about all this.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
It's not unreasonable.

Speaker 3 (52:34):
I'm not much for vacating wins, but at least at
that point in time, there were a lot of people
sending in thoughts about that this isn't going to count
in a couple of years when they lower the boom
on Michigan in response to the science dealing thing Connors
whatever Connors Stallions did. At the time, we didn't know
as much as we do now. A lot of Michigan

(52:54):
fans took exception to that. I didn't want to lead
the show with that news because at this point we're
recording several days after it's all been released.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
About a week after.

Speaker 3 (53:04):
So now we have some actual notice from the nc DOUBLEA.
What does this amount to. It's a big fine, some probation,
some show causes that have been thrown about Dan, but
ultimately Michigan gets to keep its national championship. Ultimately, Michigan
might have something of a reduction in on campus visits

(53:26):
and some things here and there. But I don't think
the NCAA really quote unquote lowered the boom on Michigan
the way that many out there. I think the boom
days are over tie the way that many out there
would have hoped.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
So Michigan's going to be just fine. Michigan, as I
said a.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
Few moments ago, is twelfth in this preseason poll. What
was your reaction to the news that Michigan was being
punished or in some cases not being punished by the
nc DOUBLEA.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
Not much reaction. So we've had punishments previously with Jim
Harbass sitting out games and obviously coaches leaving or obviously
the big employee in Connor Stallion's look, the information that
came out is not like the most most damning ever,
and part of that is because a lot of evidence
and obstruction was involved. A lot of evidence was destroyed,

(54:14):
I think at the bottom of a pond, or multiple ponds,
which is where phones ended up. Sure, I think this
is a two things being true situation. One, Michigan won
a national championship, right, Michigan did. They won a national championship.
They won a bunch of games. Also, by the letter
of the NC doublea's law, to whatever extent you care

(54:38):
or put weight in that or zero weight in the
NC doublea's rule of law, Michigan was a big time
cheating program. Right for that, For a stretch of time,
Michigan was a big time cheating program, per the NC DOUBLEA.
You might not think it, I might not think it,
but in the eyes of the NC DOUBLEA, the only

(54:58):
real governing body we have better for much much worse.
In very tenuous air quotes, yes, yes, Michigan is a
big old cheating program. And I assume Michigan people are
okay with it. I assume a lot of college football
people are okay with it. But like, we shouldn't fully
ignore that reality. Right Sure, Look, they've paid, they've paid

(55:21):
for it, They've had coaches do their time. They will
have Jim Harbaugh never ever coach that team again, but
he delivered a championship. There are show causes head coach
is going to miss another game. I think not this year,
but next year. He's missing what games three and four
this year?

Speaker 1 (55:38):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
So they're being punished like a program that is a
big time cheating program in the eyes of the NC
Double A is being punished not in the same way
that they used to by you know, forfeiting games or
you know, removing Heisman's anything like that or other trophies.
And I guess to the NC Double a's credit that

(56:00):
they're saying that they're not going to punish future players
and current players for the crimes of past people that
were in charge. Okay, so that's good because that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
That shows growth, I think absolutely, But.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
It also sort of shines a brighter light on how
much the NC DOUBLEA just completely trash teams like Ohio
State and USC and Miami schools like that. So I
don't think you should feel better if you're a fan
of one of those teams. So here we are at
least I guess we have some closure. So there's that.
There is that, But that's what I thought about. I

(56:33):
was like, it was not a report of like, oh man,
that was all overblown. That's on us, guys. That was
not the report that came from the nc double A.
I don't think people are going to think about this
for a second moving forward. But yeah, that was our
conclusion as a college football society.

Speaker 3 (56:50):
I was curious to see what the NCAA was going
to do, not because I expected anything too salacious, but
because in this era of college football, it seemed like
this was maybe their last best chance to exert something
of real hard compliance.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
Right.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
The NCAA has definitely been minimized in this new era
of college football. Frankly, it has been afraid to go
out after really anybody or anything for fear of lawsuits.
It just isn't created the same way as it used
to be. It's a different ecosystem nowadays, and so this
I saw as maybe its last best chance to show

(57:30):
that it still has some muscle. In this whole conversation,
you know, we can debate whether or not it was
enough of a punishment that was handed down. I saw
plenty of Ohio State people online saying, ah, it wasn't enough.
It was sure that debate is going to be raging
for years to come. That's not going to be a
new thing. It certainly hasn't been new for the last

(57:50):
couple of years, So it's very much statisical on that front.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
Do you think people do you think people in what
year is this twenty twenty five, twenty thirty three, twenty
thirty nine, when there are well, no, hold on, not
Michigan people. Do you think when somebody brings up Jim
Harbaugh and they all like the forty nine ers and
the Chargers they won all those Super Bowls with Justin
Herbert hooray, do you think when they get to that
Michigan part of the conversation and they're saying, yeah, you know,

(58:18):
they finally broke through, had a real tough time getting
to that level, but they won that national championship in
twenty twenty whatever it was the twenty twenty three season, right,
Do you think there will be the like Comma and
uh there was that wild Connor stallions and institutional spying
thing involved in that whole run. No, you don't think so,

(58:41):
I don't. I think it depends on the fan base
discussed ends to the base. I think Michigan State fans,
Ohio State fans, Penn State fans. I think it will.
Somebody will be like, well, uh so skip to detail
about that run of Michigan teams.

Speaker 3 (58:57):
The problem that I have with that school thought as
I'm not all that worked up about this. No I
I'm not, and I haven't really ever been, contrary to
popular belief.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
No, well that's not true. You've been worked up in
a good way about all the very specific details of
the story. I've gotten so many texts and messages.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
From you, I can't get enough.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
Oh well, and look, I sign stealing is a dark art,
of course, that exists in all of sports.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
In person against the rules. Signs stealing, yeah, advanced scouting
in person.

Speaker 3 (59:32):
Yeah it Some iteration of this is present across the
board in sports. I don't care what sport it is.
I always had a hard time getting two worked up
over this. Whether or not it's against the rules that
you know, that's probably a separate conversation. But for me,
it never really moved the needle all that much. It
was still a good team. We saw that team with

(59:54):
our own eyes. They won games even after this was
common knowledge that it was going on.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
Right, did it help? Did it hurt?

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
I don't know. Okay, who's to see.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
I don't think it can hurt, but I don't think
it get hurt.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
But the degree to which it helped that, you know,
we can debate that until the end of time.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
Frankly, I'm just glad it's over.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
I'm glad we can move past this now and we
can talk about the twenty twenty five season and we
don't have to sit here and worry about what's gonna
happen in Michigan. It's it always felt to me like
it was going to end up like this. The more
time that passed between the initial bombshells that broke and
where we are now, it just seemed almost a certainty

(01:00:35):
that they weren't going to like dismantle the program. They
weren't going to go out in a limb they were
working to just seems like, seems like this was always
going to be a foregone conclusion.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
Yeah, that sounds about right. And look, Ty, we've all
also moved on to the fact that this is a
Tiger State now, the best team in the American League
at time of recording. Jason Bennetti calling those games for
the Detroit Tigers.

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
That's all there, It is, baby, all right, Week zero
is upon us, Dan Rubinstein, wherever it is you are
out in the verballer hood, enjoy this first weekend of games.
Hope you all have a chance to PLoP yourselves in
front of a TV watch some of the action again.
It kicks off at noon Eastern time from Ireland. It

(01:01:20):
is farm again. It is Iowa State, it is Kansas State.
You know where to find us online. We'll be online
watching these games with all y'all. Follow us across social media.
Hit subscribe on the YouTube channel if that's your thing,
of course, follower subscribe on your podcasting app of choice.
We will be back in some way, shape or form

(01:01:40):
early part of next week to talk through what transpires
in these games. Of course, the deeper we get into
next week, we'll be previewing all of Week one, a
big college football weekend, like five days worth of college
football action starting on Thursday and Friday and Saturday and
Sunday all the way through to Monday. So it's going
to be a very very busy one for us. Keep

(01:02:00):
it tuned right here. We'll give you all the information
that you need to know, not just on the games,
but when you can catch Dan and I in the
interim though, Remember reballers dot com. Remember to follow us
on social media yep. And of course if you're interested, Bambino, Bambino,
if you're over there, if you're over in Ireland, let

(01:02:21):
us know, send us, send us out. I love that pictures.

Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
We'd love to see him for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:02:26):
Enjoy Week zero everybody, for that guy there, Dan Rumanstein,
for myself.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
Tie.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
We'll talk to you all in a few days.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
They saw peace,

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