It's time for our April Q&A, driven by your questions. In this episode, we wonder when college football becomes too much like the NFL? What does Arch Manning need to accomplish to live up to the hype? How does the Bryce Underwood Hype Train compare to others? Who were the biggest losers with the new playoff format? What's your ideal overtime format? Which two coaches would you want with you on a deserted island? And, most importantly, do you consider mermaids to be humans or fish?

A fan of our college football podcast? Leave us a rating and review, and don't forget to subscribe or follow so you don't miss any of our podcast episodes:

Apple Podcasts: https://play.solidverbal.com/apple-podcasts

Spotify: https://play.solidverbal.com/spotify

Amazon Music: https://play.solidverbal.com/amazon-music

Overcast: https://play.solidverbal.com/overcast

Pocket Casts: https://play.solidverbal.com/pocketcasts

Podcast Addict: https://play.solidverbal.com/podcast-addict

CastBox: https://play.solidverbal.com/castbox

Our college football show is also available on YouTube. Subscribe to the channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@solidverbal

Learn more about the show on our website: https://www.solidverbal.com/about

Want to get in touch? Give us a holler on Twitter: @solidverbal@tyhildenbrandt@danrubenstein, on Instagram, or on Facebook. You can also find our college football podcast out on TikTok and Threads. Stay up to date with our free weekly college football newsletter: https://quickslants.solidverbal.com/subscribe.

College football has been our passion since we started The Solid Verbal College Football Podcast back in 2008. We don't just love college football, we live it!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/


Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the solid verbal hell that.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
For me, I'm a man, I'm forty. I've heard so
many players say, well, I want to be happy. You
want to be happy for Dake Edith Steak, is that
woo woo?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
And no then and tie.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Dan Robinstein, it is time for the April Q and
A episode. My friend, how are you today?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm good and I appreciate you asking, and I'm especially
good because I saw some of the questions and they're
great as always. It's it's indicative that is we're recording
this on April eighth. This is Master's Week, by the way,
Congratulations to.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
You and your tradition unlike any other, of course.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
But it's receiving questions in early April, you kind of
get a sense for the vibes of where the generic
college football fans head is at, and there's there's it's
always touched with like okay, say Kate Klubnick is a dentist.
Stick with me here, and there's a little bit of
that to the questions we get, like, all right, for

(01:03):
quick exercise, you're a unicorn who's just getting into college football.
Which MAC team do you think appeals to your most
discerning unicorn species. Right, we get a lot of that
in this case.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
In this case, we got a question totally unrelated to
college football regarding mermaids. All right, may see that our
mermaids fish or they humans. Maybe we can get into
that a little bit later. Yes, it is that point
in the off season where we start getting questions about
mermaids and unicorns and you name it. Welcome back to
the show, Hit Fall, Hit subscribe. Yes, we do have

(01:39):
a variety, let's say, of college football questions that we're
going to get into, most of which came from our
team and community super listeners, ardent fans. You know it well,
verbawlers dot com. I mentioned it at the beginning and
end of every episode. Excuse me bonus content without the ads.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
You can submit question all year through. If you're ever
so inclined.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
You get question priority. So if you're thinking to yourself, like, hey,
I'm a good looking dude from Tulsa, I want them
to talk more about Tulsa football. Why aren't they talking
more about send us an email, join the Patreon and
get question priority like you are in control, good looking
dude from Tulsa, one hundred percent lovely looking person from Duluth, Minnesota.

(02:24):
Why aren't we talking more? Go for like you're in
control and so pull the strings. Let us be your
content marionettes, and we'll be happy to oblige.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
E E R B A L L E R S
dot com for ballers. Dot com is where you can
go for more information. Of course, that is not your speed.
You are formally invited here two four to just tit,
follow or subscribe, and if you like the show, leave
us a star rating or a review or a comment
on any of the platforms at all A to do
so all that stuff helps, Okay, definitely. So you know

(02:54):
the drill it is the off season. I talked about
it about a week and a half ago, kind of
plumbing the depths of the bottom of the off season.
Right now, maybe starting to get a little bit of
a lift as we get deeper into April, as we
start talking about spring football, quarterback battles, the draft is
coming up, things of that nature. We will, of course
cover all of that here. But what we've been trying

(03:14):
to do this offseason, really every off season, every month,
trying to at least one Q and a episode because
we know we get great questions we do from the
community consistently, and I thought maybe we'd do that here today.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
So let's just dive right in. Congratulations, Skippy, you've got mail.
You've got mail on the solid verbal since the beginning
of time. We've been doing this show since eight.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yeah, we like to pay homage to the find people
that write in solid verbal at gmail dot com. We
get questions out on email. We also get questions across
social platforms, questions out on our Patreon. Again at Dan,
what is that you are out?

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Just one more time for the fine.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Folks verbalers dot com. V E R B A L
L e r s dot com.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
You nailed it. You nailed it.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Let's first start out with this one that comes to
us from alex With college football becoming increasingly NFL light,
what is the line that the game would have to
cross to make you decide that enough is enough and
stop watching for good?

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Dan?

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Does that line exist for you? It's a gray area,
It's a hazy line. No college football can do almost
nothing to completely turn myself away. Is that english from
the sport? There is? But in terms of this being

(04:36):
my job and in terms of my in my marrow
love for the sport, it would take a lot, but
you if you keep taking the thing further away from
the main thing, as we've been doing, and it's not
a realignment thing per se. But then when you start
kicking out Oregon State and Wazoo and when your team

(05:00):
in the ACC is used to playing, you know, a
familiar looking schedule, and it becomes more and more populated
with Stanford cal SMU, we haven't played Florida State in
four years. Like the more we get away from familiar territory,
and I know, the only certainty in life is change
and you know, things evolving, But the further we get

(05:23):
from that, the more difficult it will be to make
a game that doesn't involve my team or a team
I'm interested in, but it's kind of a big game, Like, yeah,
it seems that Oklahoma State Baylor is kind of a
big game, but then it's just like, well, I don't
know if I'm gonna stream it while watching my kid

(05:44):
play little league because it just feels weird. And I
guess Oklahoma State Baylor is a bad example because they've
played forever. But if you know, San Diego State is
a meaningful team in the Big Twelve in seven years,
and you're like yeah, it's a pretty big game San
Diego State TCU. You're like, ah, okay, that that hurts.
So the more we hurtle towards that, the easier will

(06:06):
be to ignore those types of specifics. The more we
exclude teams quality programs that I've grown to love for
what they've been over the years, that off all of
the sudden. You know, Arkansas is not in the SEC
because it just doesn't make financial sense. You're just like, God,
that sucks. I don't know if I want to watch
SEC football in the same way like that's it's it's

(06:27):
sort of an aggregate of things of Oregon State, Washington
State type events happening and getting into that super league,
getting into like excluding Indiana, excluding Arizona, whatever it is.
Like that to me would turn my stomach to the
point where I would have less personal interest in the

(06:50):
sport while my maintaining professional interests.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Look, I have been watching this sport my entire life.
I've made a career out out of it. Now, to
your point, I think there is very little that could
happen that would completely turn me away. I understand the
popular answer here will be to say this X, Y,
and Z, and then I'm out. I'm done. I can

(07:14):
in good faith say that, because I don't think that
would be the case. I do harken back though to
something that was once written by the wise prophet Spencer Hall,
when he compared the NFL to college football, and he said,
the NFL is like paying for sex.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Please, I mean you would know go on.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Of course, the difference between pro football and college football
is the soul. The college football has a soul that
I do not think exists with the NFL. That's why
I think it's better. That's the first thing, And I
guess the things that come to mind first are if
you're truly going to kill this thing in the mind
of a fan, how can you kill that soul. One

(07:53):
way to do it is regionality. This is still a
sport built around regionality. You have this Southern identity for football.
You have conference identity for football. College football has organized
itself just on the fan level in a couple.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Different warring factions. But if you take.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Away that regionality that I don't know, community aspect of it,
then I could see some people being turned off. Sure,
if you take away the David versus Goliath side of
college football, you know, well, when it gets to the
latter stages of the season and you've got a team
ranked in the top ten playing a team that's.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Not ranked at all.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
One of the things that keeps fans coming back for more,
keeps fans interested in watching that game just at all,
is because there is potentially a threat of an upset.
If you move to a super league, if you start
grouping these together like it is an NFL light, you
potentially lose some of that David versus Goliath. You potentially
stop seeing the thirty point point spreads and see much

(08:56):
more along the lines of the NFL, where every game
is a three or four or a seven point line, Right,
David versus Goliath, You take that out of college football,
I think that steals a little bit of the soul
from it. And I would go further. And this is
not a show about politics, but we did see in
twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
College football was politicized.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
Yeah, okay, I'm not arguing one side or the other,
but I can tell you what people wrote into us,
and what people wrote into us is the fact that
college football was so much under the microscope with respect
to politics and are they going to player they not
going to play I mean, there were clearly some pretty
contrasting opinions on both sides of that argument. But that

(09:35):
turned a lot of people off on both sides of
the aisle. And hopefully that is not something that comes
back into the sport.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
I fear it will.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Clearly we know that there are house settlements and there
are conversations about should Congress get involved? How does the
ncaa factor in. It's unavoidable on some level that everything
in this world is a touched by politics.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Where everything is politics.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
Yeah, but I hope we can keep as much out
of that as possible, just because I do think every
time it inserts itself, you have some fans who are like,
you know what, I come to sports to get away.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
From the politics.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
Sure, those are three things. Those three things I think
strike at the soul of the sport and make it
what it is and make it unique and fun to
watch and like and escape for people when they watch
on the weekends. For me personally, I don't know if
any of those things would ever turn me off completely,
but that's where I would look first.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
To answer Alex, Alex's question.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, I mean, I think we're sort of saying the
same thing in different ways. It's the further we get
from the core of why we love this sport and
so having more neutral site games in NFL stadiums, like
there's just something visual and you know ingrained in how

(10:54):
the sport looks, how the sport sounds, how the sport
is built. And again everything changes. But like there's there's
going to come a day where you watch a Notre
Dame game or you watch a Penn State game and
a dude has three secs and you are going to say,
you know, a Penn State edge or something and you say,
I have no idea who this guy is, right, I

(11:15):
have no idea where he came from. I have no
idea if he was a high school recruit, or if
he was a transfer from Bowling Green, or if he
was a transfer from you know, the University of British
Columbia or something that there is going to be something
where you're just like, it's gotten so far away from
the community aspect, the cultural aspect, the social aspect, and

(11:37):
it'll make it kind of sad. And look, this is
going to happen to all of us as we get older, Ty,
and you would you can speak to this more than
I can in your mid to late forties.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
I hate you, Oh, I hate you.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
You know you've talked to your generation about this kind
of thing where like you just have to abandon certain
things because not because you dislike it, You're just like,
it's so unfamiliar and I don't have time to learn
about where you know, popular music is or trendy restaurants
are going ors. You're just like, you know, I kind
of like what I like, And I'm happy for the

(12:08):
people that are on TikTok and following trends, and I
hope it brings them great joy and closure and whatever
else they need from it. But like, I'm it's just
too much for me, and I hope that we don't
get there with college football. But I think it would
be weird to deny that you and I being in
our forties and far away from college at this point,

(12:30):
like that has something to do with it. That you're
just like, this is what college football is in my brain,
and the farther we get away from it, like the
easier it will be to say, like, I still love
college football for what it can be, but there are
certain aspects where it's just like, yeah, I'm just not
going to follow recruiting anymore it got too weird or
I'm just not going to like watch a Big ten

(12:52):
game or an SEC game, or an ACC game or
a Big twelve game or whatever, because it's just like
Stanford cal Is now has a championship game implications you
just like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't
think that's what it's supposed to be. And I don't know.
I think part of it is just going to be
our age.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Look, each of us is.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
Fully entitled to make college football be whatever we want
it to be. Everybody has their own definition of that.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
I rode in the shuttle after dropping off my car
the other day. I was talking to a guy in
the in the car about college football and he's like,
I don't I don't know about any of the new rules.
I just like watching Penn State. I don't follow recruiting,
I don't follow the news. I'm not going to listen
to your podcast. He ask what I did, But I
just like watching on Saturdays. Totally. That's cool, that's right.

(13:42):
Make of it whatever you want, whatever brings you the
most joy.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
I am of the mind that the more we empower
TV executives to run this sport, the worse it's going
to get, and the farther away from you know, look,
the games will still be on Saturdays. They're still going
to be in Beaver Stadium, They're still going to be
in Austin Stadium. They're still going to wear you know,
may and white and green and yellow and black and
silver and white whatever. Like, there's going to be something
visually familiar, but it's going to be more difficult to

(14:07):
relate to the sport the more TV executives are in charge.
And I mean, you know, if you've been places, you
know what the term overfishing is where it's just like
we got to get every single lobster off and they're like, no,
there are rules. You don't bring up pregnant lobsters.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
Right.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
You have to like think about the future of the
ecosystem so that you don't ruin things in the long
term for the benefit of the short term. And I
just I feel like inserting TV people into every conversation
about this sport is just going to overfish it and
that's going to be unfortunate.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Let's go to Dan on Patreon. He says, this is
a really good question, actually, Okay that I have not
seen enough places. Frankly, what does Arch Manning need to
do to live.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Up to the hype?

Speaker 2 (14:57):
What does Arch need to do to live up to
the hype? He needs to be in New York. He
needs to be a Heisman finalist, and there's no reason
to think he won't be given you know, the receivers.
I know they're turning over the offensive line at Texas,
but the offense, how good Sark has been with quarterbacks. Traditionally,
Texas has to be a playoff team, and it has

(15:18):
to be in large part due to Arch's brilliance as
a starting quarterback. He has to end up in New York,
and I think he is. As he becomes somebody that's
more and more in the spotlight, he's going to have
to acquit himself in like a pretty charming way, because
that's sort of what's asked of somebody that has this

(15:39):
much attention that he's going to have to have. I
don't know what his smile looks like. Cam Newton has
a million dollar smile, right, that's part of it. Like
Johnny Manziel charisma, Cam Newton charisma.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Well, what's interesting about Arch is he basically didn't talk
for an entire year, and if you saw any of
the interviews that he did any of the media, and
he still didn't do a whole lot of it that
he did over the last I don't know, twelve months
or so. He is very engaging. He does seem like
somebody who's received a little bit of media training. He

(16:11):
does seem like a Manning, somebody who is used to
being in the spotlight.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Well, I was gonna say his I don't know if
Eli's hosted SNL. Peyton Manning has hosted Saturday Night Live.
His uncle Eli Manning and Peyton Manning are TV personalities
and like Eli Manning is doing like goof videos on
YouTube and you know, on his show on whatever on
Omaha ESPN. His uncles are both personalities and Hall of

(16:35):
Fame caliber NFL quarterbacks. So for him to live up
to the hype, which by the way, I don't personally
care about, Like, he doesn't have to be the most
personable guy in the world. He doesn't have to be
in New York for me to think he's a really
good quarterback prospect, whatever. But in terms of living up
to the hype of being Arch Manning and being an

(16:56):
EA sports commercials and everything like that. Yeah, that would
be the only way I think you could satisfy people
hungry for arch Manning to fulfill his destiny as like
the next great name in this sport.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
I don't think he needs to win a national championship,
though obviously that would help, But I agree with you,
he needs to get to New York in order to
satisfy at least the performance side of the expectations. Frankly,
it's sort of an impossible.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Situation for him.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
It's impossible.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
And though I would have liked to see him play
sooner or I understand why he didn't, quen viewers was there.
I do think the way that Texas has gone about
having him on the roster, the way he has gone
about just his early career as a college football player,
has actually been quite smart, and they have done as
much as humanly possible to shield him from being thrown

(17:49):
into the limelight too soon. He clearly wanted to be
at Texas. That's why he's still at Texas, why he
did not opt to go elsewhere before this past season.
He likes being there, he likes playing for Sark. He
feels like that puts him in the best position to
go on and be successful at the NFL. It just
feels like everything that he has done so far has

(18:10):
been to guard against a little bit of what could
be falling into an abyss if you can't live up
right away to that hype.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
So the interesting thing is, though, so basically sitting He's
started a little bit with Quinn, you were his injuries.
Sitting for as long as he has is almost unheard
of for a player of his status coming in as
a five star recruit, especially given his last name and
his family. So it almost is as if the hype

(18:38):
has been mounting for so long. I know that he
is not even going to be afforded the opportunity to
be only good, not great.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
He probably won't be, but I'll tell you this, yeah,
he'll be nothing. If not prepared, he will be. He
should be prepared that well. I mean that adds to
the pressure though, that like you've had this long to
develop I hear the next great college foroball quarterback. If
you're not great, what is it that you've been doing
for these past two years at a place that should

(19:08):
be as good at developing quarterbacks as anybody in the country.
He has as good a receiving corps. I believe, you know,
just in terms of what the recruiting rankings and you know,
the reports out of Austin are like, this should be
a pretty deep and interesting recruiting room. And so if
he's not great, even with some a good amount of

(19:29):
live experiences starting quarterback and a quarterback and relief, then
you kind of question, like, oh, is this guy never
going to be this good?

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Like was just from the start? Was he over his
ability overstated because of his last name? And so it's
an unbelievable amount of pressure given how long he's had
to fully mature into the quarterback he'll become.

Speaker 3 (19:51):
Let's kind of stay on the Texas beed for a second.
This one comes to us from Joshua. How will Texas
versus Ohio State affect your perception of each team and
how will it affect your perception of the twenty twenty
five college football season. So he brings this up because
Texas and Ohio State play in the Horseshoe Week one.

(20:16):
It is an awesome Week one. By the way, in
twenty twenty five. I won't go through the full list
of games, but there are some really good games in
Week one.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Get excited about that.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
It's been a couple of years since I think we
had like banger after banger. This is looking like it's
gonna be a pretty good week one.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Texas versus Ohio State.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
Both programs in a position where they're not ranked that
highly in terms of returning production.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
It also doesn't.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
Really matter for either of these teams because recruiting has
been so strong. I think it probably will be more
evident on the Ohio State side since there is so
much leaving that offense, and it seems to me anyway
like there will be a little bit more continuity on
the Texas side.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
I mean, that's a new offensive line, new offensive one.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
I think my initial impression of this question is it
would affect me more. It would affect my perception more
if Texas went in and Layden Egg, if Texas went
in in Laiden Egg. Kind of on the heels of
the search manning conversation that we just had.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, versus an Ohio State.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
Team that's got a lot new new quarterback, running backs,
wide receiver, I mean, to some degree, wide receivers. The
line's still kind of in question, a bunch of guys
leaving the defense. Ohio State to me, even if they lose,
it feels like because they are starting anew at so
many positions, there is ample time for them to get better.
And since Texas is probably going to be a top

(21:43):
ten team, it's not like that's a bad loss. You
don't just want to just don't want to get blown
off your own field. But if Texas goes in, if
they lay an egg, then I think it's fair to
start wondering, Okay, is this going to be the Golden Age?
This is this going to be the year for Texas.
You know, they just lost to Ohio State. They have
an opportunity to avenge loss here if they come in.

(22:04):
If they don't look at least like they're up to
that challenge, I think that would probably affect me more.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
I think this game means so much in terms of
entertainment value week one, But when you look at how
new both of these teams are in I mean, we
assuming it's Julian saying for Ohio State right and Arch
manning for Texas, So you have first time, full time
starting quarterbacks. Arch has started games before and played in games,

(22:33):
Julian is not, and they're both going to be playing
behind largely if not completely new offensive lines. They will
be throwing to experienced receivers and they will be supported
by largely new defenses, though both have a couple of
huge pieces back. You know, Caleb Downs is obviously the

(22:53):
headliner of all those guys, but there are obviously upfront
for Texas some huge names back. Colin Simmons like, there's
there's good names on defense to support where the offenses
are going to be. But it's Week one, and you
are afforded at least one, probably two mulligans if you're
a program of these sizes, and the time between whatever

(23:16):
the date is, August thirtieth or September first, whatever Week
one's date is, the time between that and selection Sunday
in early December feels more astronomical than ever because of
the mulligans, and you're just like, yeah, it's losing to Texas,
but that's as good a loss as you're going to
get in this sport. Week one, we've seen teams get

(23:36):
destroyed week one. We saw Clemson get destroyed week one
by Georgia. We saw Oregon get destroyed by Georgia a
couple of years ago. Ultimately it didn't matter. It mattered
like Okay, this is what their ceiling probably is. Clemson
still on the ACC and went to the playoff. Oregon
was still right in there. That was Dan Lanning's first
game and they ended up winning ten games that year,

(23:57):
and so Week one, I think more than any is
just like, Okay, let's get a nice little early season
snapshot against a quality team. But I think it's more
indicative of like, Okay, this is what a team needs
to work on in September, more than like, this is
how I'm judging a team for the next fourteen weeks.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
I think that's fair by the way, I got my
numbers mixed up, And Okay, Texas has far more returning
production on defense than it doesn't.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
I was saying it, and it wasn't computing as I
was saying it.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
But yeah, look, these are two teams that we can
split hairs over what the numbers are, but there is
a fair amount walking out on both sides.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
I like the continuity of having arched there to the
previous question. I like the continuity of having them him
there on offense, and I think that should give them
a good starting point, if nothing else, to go on
the road and maybe get a big win in the
shoe Week one.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
Yeah, Texas is down. I think he does. On the
defensive line, a couple of key guys, their best corner,
best nickel safety type in the secondary. But yeah, there's
a lot ton of production back at linebacker, a lot
of rotation guys in the secondary. So I think they're
ahead of where Ohio States should be in terms of
experience on defense. But games in the shoe, right, games
in the shoe, that's a tough place to start your season.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
Eric says, how would you compare the Bryce Underwood hype
train to other recent quarterback hype trains? So he brings
up quin viewers, he brings up Trevor Lawrence. Sure, or
at least it conjures up images of those guys when

(25:36):
he asks this question. When I think about it, I
think it's right up there. To be honest with you,
I don't know if Bryce Underwood quite has the name appeal,
name recognition as some of the guys that came before
him that were as highly rated.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
Surely it does within the Michigan community. I mean that
goes without.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
Saying, but yeah, I think, just in terms of the
Michigan fan base. Having watched the season, they watched knowing
that you're getting the number one overall quarterback, number one
overall player at a time, and you desperately need better
quarterback play. That to me, I think, in and of itself,

(26:16):
is going to put so much pressure on him. The
hype train is going at full speed. If he goes
out there early in the season and is the starter,
as some reports have indicated, he might be the front
runner to get that.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
They have Oklahoma Week two.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah, yeah, if we see Bryce Underwood go out there
and perform at a moderately decent level. I'm not even
talking All Star, but just don't do anything stupid, clearly
elevate their quarterback play over where it was a year ago.
I think the hype train will almost go on without

(26:52):
any breaks. I think you will see that accelerate. You
will hear a lot more people talking about Bryce Underwood.
It's just not there yet on the national level. I
don't think it'll take much to get there.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
Right.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
So a few things that play here with Bryce Underwood
and hype. One, he grew up in the shadow of
ann Arbor. I believe right really close to ann Arbor. Two,
we are playing in the nil era, and so attached
to Bryce Underwood's recruitment is alleged millions upon millions of
dollars that he has commanded, and I say that in

(27:26):
a positive way for his services and his nil services whatever.
Three he was committed to a major program that's not
in the shadow of Ann Arbor, a major coach, a
major program in LSU, And there was a very high
profile de commitment and commitment to Michigan. Three, four or five,

(27:47):
I don't remember what number I'm on, bullet point wise,
Michigan just won a national championship, and so he's they're
in the wake of them succeeding on a level that
they haven't for a long long time. They're now hungry
for more time, right, and now they've seen what can
happen without a quality quarterback running things in a quality

(28:08):
offense running things. So then there's a new kind of
hunger for quality at quarterback. There you have the new
era of college football where the Big Ten now has
higher profile opponents and teams like Oregon and Washington and
Michigan added to all of these teams' schedules, and his
specific style of play as a dual threat is especially

(28:33):
tantalizing and so You can say whatever you want about
other quarterbacks who have like profoundly impressive abilities throwing the ball,
but to have somebody like, oh, is he the next
Lamar Jackson, Is he the next Cam Newton? Is he
the next terrelle pryor whoever you're just like that can
take an offense to such a crazy level that you

(28:54):
can't help but be wowed by the potential. And so yeah,
I think the local element of this, Like Trevor Lawrence,
even though he's not from South Carolina, I believe where
he's from is really close to Clemson. Cam Newton from Georgia,
went to Florida and then obviously to Auburn, like he's
from the area. He's from the region. But I just
I think it's different when somebody is so hyper local

(29:16):
as like the next great thing, and there's a pretty
good chance he's doing it almost immediately, so that you're
just you can't be patient with Bryce Underwood if you're
a Michigan fan, because you're going to see him likely
in September, either as a starter or somebody who's heavily
involved in the game plan. And so he's up there, man,

(29:38):
he is way way up there. Given the hunger in
Ann Arbor. So yeah, I can't imagine somebody who was
definitively above him in terms of incoming hype in the
last five years or so now.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
And by the way, we've seen this before.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
I mean other than I guess arch Manning, but other
than he wasn't but he wasn't coming in as like
the expected compete for the job guy.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Yeah, yeah, what we've seen happened before, especially with some
of these highly touted recruits, not just at the quarterback position,
but yeah, in many cases where he do have somebody
who's local to the area, generally speaking from the same region,
a lot of people in that region, in that conference,
certainly the people who are hanging out on message boards,
they know all about the guy.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
The rest of us don't.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Maybe you and I do, but the overwhelming majority of
college football fans don't know who that person is until
they go out there early part of the season, start
making hey. Then suddenly the hype breaks contained mm hm.
And I think that's what we could see with Bryce
Underwood if he's half as good as we've been led
to believe.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, I mean we've seen it from all over, like
highly Matt Barkley at USC. Right, he's from Orange County. Right,
he comes in, he plays immediately as a starter. He
was a really good USC quarterback, really good. Is he
going to be as fondly remembered as somebody who won
a national championship at USC as Matt Lionert, who also
grew up there. Probably not. Matt Leonard had some time

(31:01):
to develop. Matt Barkley was like immediately just like good looking,
blonde kid, blue eyes, whatever. You're just like, oh, this
guy just is the prototype for quarterback at USC. I'm like,
all you can say about him was he was really
good for USC. But because of that local hype, you know,
you never I don't think USC fans are immediately going
to be thinking about Matt Barkley in the same way

(31:21):
they think about a couple other guys ahead of him,
which is just like a product of having that five
stars next to your name and being from the area.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
PJ wants to know how many years can Sharon Moore
miss the playoffs but beat Ohio State and still keep
his job.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
The expectation for Michigan, rightfully so, given resources, given recent success,
should be much more often than not being in the
playoff conversation in November. And if it's only conversation, if
they're like, oh, they're seven and two every year, but
blow it near the end, but beat Ohio State, I

(32:05):
think it's gonna get old. I don't think Michigan people
will be happy going three years in a row beating
Ohio State and not playing in January.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
Beating Ohio State is a nice cherry on top of
the season. It is hard, though, I think if you're
a Michigan fan to recognize that, well, we beat Ohio State,
but Ohio State went on to win the national championship. Right,
You still don't really want to see That'd still much
rather be your team, frankly.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
Any other team other than Ohio State.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
Right, So I agree with you. I think that will
paper over.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
How many Big Ten teams made the playoff this past year,
four Indiana, Penn State, Oregon, Ohio State. If Michigan is
not consistently one of four or five as the playoffs
are expanding, he's gone now. Beating Ohio State is amazing,
arguably the most important thing you can do at Michigan,

(33:01):
but it's not the only thing that keeps you employed.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
I would give it two more years especially make the playoff,
especially now two to three more years, especially now with
this hype around Bryce Underwood and recruiting is picked up.
I mean they they clearly are trying to get better
at the positions where they felt they were deficient.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
Two to three more years.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Keep beating Ohio State, that's great, but at some point, yeah,
the rubber meets throat.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
You got to get in the playoff.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
It's a good question, PJ. Here is one from Georgia
is a verb Patreon. Which team do you feel like
you already have the most fully formed opinions about going
into next season? Man, Okay, so this is not a
preview episode. We haven't started really researching much preview content,
and all that will be for late stage June and

(33:55):
probably let's say early July. Yep, where do you stand
on this question?

Speaker 2 (34:03):
Which teams do I have the most fully formed opinions of? Yeah,
so it's got to be somebody with a ton of
returning production. It's got to be somebody returning a quarterback.
It's got to be somebody returning probably both, if not
hopefully one of the coordinators and a head coach that
you're just like, yeah, I kind of have a great
concept for what this team is and isn't even with

(34:26):
you know, expected improvement, expected, you know, steps taken in
the wrong direction. I don't know. I'm kind of there
with Kansas State a little bit that like there's enough
continuity there even with a kind of a coordinator change.
Matt Wells has been there. I'm kind of there with

(34:48):
Arkansas on a certain level. We're like, I think I
have a good concept that like Arkansas can win a
couple of those games that they gave away, but I
don't think they're going to mount either an incredible defense
and at times the offense will look incredible, and they
probably have a ceiling of about eight or nine wins.
And that's Arkansas.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
I would like to express my love right now for
the Clemson Tigers. Okay, I am all in on the
Clemson Tigers. I am reopening the club level for this season.
This season only case.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
To be made that they have one of the best
two or three quarterbacks in the country as of now.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
The version of kid Clubnick that we saw in the
playoffs was incredible. Part of kid Klubnick's problem is that
you don't get that version all the time. But if
we see more of that it makes Clemson better for it.
Clemson's got I think the most returning production on offense
of any team in college football.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
That's helpful.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
They're a top ten returning production team on defense, that's helpful.
Their schedule sets up beautifully. They've got LSU to start
the season, South Carolina to close it in between, kind
of that normal mess of ACC teams that at some
point will probably be ranked being a good example. I'd
imagine Florida State potentially one of those as well.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
You've got a.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
Bunch of team maybe North Carolina.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
Teams in the middle that I'm not sure we fully
know where to rank them at time of recording here
in early to mid April.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
It's very workable.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
It's very workable, especially for a team with that much
experience and that much veteran leadership.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
So for me, I saw this question.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
As immediately, I immediately had a visceral reaction thinking of Clemson.
I think that's the answer, the only answer for me.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
I mean, I would go with one of your schools
in Penn State, where it's just like they should have
a really good defense, they should have an offense that
scores points against mediocre teams, and they might struggle on offense.
They will likely struggle on offense against the better defenses
on their schedule and the better built teams on their schedule.
Because that's like ninety three percent of the James Franklin

(36:56):
experience at Penn State.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
By the way, that's ninety three percent of the rest
of college football too. You play against better defense is
the better constructed defenses. Unless you're Ohio State, the offense
doesn't look nearly as good. But I tried to veer
away from the Penn States and the Notre Dames and
the Oregans for this question because that would be probably
a little bit too predictable. Clearly, I have some pretty
good but.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
They're returning an offensive coordinator, they recruit so well on defense,
and the identity seems to be even with the a
coordinator change, that the identity is so strong on defense
and the assistants have been there for a while now
on defense that like they are a ten and two
type program who far more often than not will be
in the playoff and will beat you know, they're not

(37:40):
going to lose SMU, They're just not. But they're going
to struggle, like getting over offense, getting over a hump
whatever for Penn State seems to be the James Franklin experience.
He is a very very good coach, if not a
great coach, but you kind of have a concept for
Penn State every year.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
This is a really good question from Janey. Okay, we
have talked about I guess the other side of this
question until we're blue in the face. Who do you
think were the biggest losers in the new expanded twelve
team playoff era? We've talked about this, gosh, more times

(38:22):
than I could remember. The winners, the winners Penn States
and the Tennessee's and the Notre Dames. The team Utah.
Utah didn't get in this year, but Utah could have
been a winner this year because these were teams that
historically had been boxed out of getting into a four
team format, but span the field. Suddenly you're letting different
teams in Boise State getting in clearly a huge winner

(38:45):
to get to play on that stage. Maybe not the
way they played, but.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Who are the losers?

Speaker 2 (38:53):
Big Ten West teams? Because of there's an ability to
inflame your final record and ranking based on lack of
opponent offense. Playing in the Big Ten West at times
like Wisconsin's a loser in this Wisconsin the best years

(39:13):
of Wisconsin football, Wisconsin was a legitimately very very good team,
if not great teams sometimes, but at times they were
difficult to fully gauge because of their schedule and having
down Illinois and down Purdue and down Nebraska and down
Minnesota some combination thereof it's tough to fully know. There

(39:38):
were years that the SEC East would have a number
of Downport, you know, down Tennessee, down Vanderbilt, down South
Carolina and so teams that would pop up in one
of those divisions and make it to you know, a
Missoo Zoo was legitimately great when they were making SEC
championship games. They've proven that they can succeed in a

(40:01):
divisionless SEC world, but they've been through some challenges that
Zoo has since you know those early like Crazy Cony Ely,
Michael Sam defensive lines, Darryl Green Beckham like those those
were nice paths to have for Miszoo when Georgia wasn't
fully Georgia in the early I think it was early
twenty teens we're talking about right now, and so I'm

(40:24):
trying to think of who else, like UCLA is kind
of a big loser right now in the Big ten.
Just it doesn't seem like this version of UCLA is
going to be able to build a team to compete
for nine or ten wins, and they really weren't able
to in the Pac twelve. Especially now, it seems like
trying to sell kids on going to UCLA and playing
all over the Midwest and East Coast, it's going to

(40:44):
be especially difficult for a program that doesn't seem fully
committed to succeeding on a high level in football. Who
do you have?

Speaker 3 (40:53):
Well, I kind of went a different way with this. Okay,
I think if you work an office job and you're
a college football fan, this playoff system caused some issues.
They played some of these games on weird days at
weird times that they wouldn't normally.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
Oh so you're going non college football people who are
losing out because of this.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Yeah. I mean I could talk to it from about
a thousand different angles, but that was the first thing
that came to mind. I mean, you and I know
how discombobulated we were just trying to follow this because
so much of our fall is based around Saturday being
the epicenter of everything when.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
You changed that.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
Clearly we can find a way around it, but it
makes it harder for people at home to watch. Sure
if you're doing it during the week now it was
over the holidays. It's probably not fair to fully lump
this in as a bad thing because in many cases
we were getting football on nights we wouldn't otherwise, So
it's not inherently a bad thing. I do think it
was more inconvenient. So there are definitely some people out

(41:50):
there who are like, I gotta go to work tomorrow. Yeah,
We're going to DVR this one. We'll watch the highlights
on Sports Center tomorrow. Yeah, that's the first thing that comes.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
To Sports Center. Still exists? Is that still on?

Speaker 3 (42:01):
It does?

Speaker 1 (42:01):
Apparently?

Speaker 3 (42:02):
Yes, Okay, you gotta find it apparently, Yes, Okay. I
think Greg sank you would argue that the SEC was
a big loser. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
I mean, as schedules get more difficult, and no conference
is fully going to get the benefit of the doubt
if you get those third losses in there.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
Yeah, Greg SANKI would argue. He has argued that the
SEC Miss dut Lane Kiffin argued that ole Miss was
a big loser in this system.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
But they definitely almost won their bowl game, right to
sort of shut up everybody, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
I do think that the biggest loser is probably some
of those early season games that typically would have a
lot more of an impact when it comes to the postseason.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
But almost won their bowl game by thirty two points.
I'm aware, I think, and we're all all the better
for them beating up on Duke. Yeah, but like no,
Notre Dame losing a week two da NIU. Yeah, those
are the types of games that people talk about for
years to come. We did a whole episode talking about
ones that we remember from your past. Yeah, the ones

(43:12):
that occurred in years past had a lot more significance.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
At the end of the season.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
Now Notre Dame went on this incredible run, they ripped
through the field. They end up with just one regular
season loss. Clearly they're going to get in. There has
been an argument against this playoff format because of that
very circumstance. Yeah, giving the regular season a little bit
less value. I'm not going to argue that those people

(43:41):
are wrong. I do think it gave the regular season
a little bit less value. I don't think I mind it.
I'm okay with this format. But I certainly understand that argument,
and I think you can make a case that the
early part of the season, some of the upsets, or
at least the thrill of the upset that we saw
throughout the course twenty twenty four, the significance of those

(44:04):
games perhaps was the biggest loser in this expanded format.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
I would say the salespeople who are selling title sponsorships
for Bowl games, because.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
It does not seem bowl games by the way, might
be the answer.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Bull games are an answer.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
Non playoff bowl games might be the answer to Janie's question.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
Yeah, it's just tough when you see some of the
stands empty. It's tough when you're like, yeah, this game
was sponsored by an office park in Nampa, Idaho. You're like, Okay,
that seems disappointing. It seems like a low bar to clear.
So yes, I would say the attention and the merit

(44:46):
and the whatever, the prestige of mid tier Bowl games
that don't have a fun sponsor like you know, cheese
It or pop Tarts or something like that, a snackable sponsor,
it's a it seems like they've taken a hit in
terms of relevance for sure.

Speaker 3 (45:06):
I think that's fair. Dan. Okay, let's go to let
me pull up this next question. Yeah, this one is
about preferred offensive styles. Okay, which style a football slash
offense is the most effective when all cylinders are running.
So a couple different ways you can take this question, right, Yeah.

(45:30):
I think the spirit of what Jordan was going for
with this question is specific offensive system. Specific offensive system
that you feel, when it is fully optimized, is virtually unstoppable.
Is there anything that comes to mind, because I have
a couple any species of power running.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
If you're able to control clock, if you're able to
physically control a team, if you are able to mentally
control a team that they can't get off the field
on third and three, and that you are just mowing
down clock and ending drives and points touchdowns.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
This is twenty twenty three Michigan.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
It's well, but the offense wasn't. I don't have the
numbers in front of me. Twenty twenty three Michigan. I
think was more led by defense and an efficient offense.
I think this is more like the height of early
Bama on the ground. This is the height of Stanford.
This is the height of option teams where you're just like,

(46:34):
you're losing every game twenty four to seven. You have
the ball nineteen percent of the time, and there's not
much you can do because your defense can't get off
the field. In terms of pure efficiency, I think that's
the way to go, because we're asking about offensive style
and if you're sort of talent agnostic on this, if

(46:54):
I'm using that term correctly, where you're just like, yeah,
if you have like Alabama's receivers from twenty twenty to
twenty nine team, that's the best style. But no, that's
not a style as much as it is construction and style.
But if it's pure like this team will score three
and a half points a drive and almost never give

(47:15):
the ball up because it is such a ball control
heavy team and there's blocking tight ends and blocking receivers
and nasty guards whatever. I think from an efficiency standpoint,
you're gonna probably have left turnovers because you're not throwing
the ball a ton. I think a highly powerful rushing

(47:35):
attack based offense, whether it's the spread with Ohio State
and Ezekiel Elliott or something like that, or if it's
power like Stanford under center, whether it's the best of
the option teams I think that's the height of perfect
demoralizing offensive football.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
The first thing that came to mind for me was,
and again Jordan's question here is when fully optimize, what
style is most effective?

Speaker 2 (48:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (48:03):
Okay, not pretty. Effect doesn't need to be pretty, it
needs to be effective.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
I think if you've got a quarterback, maybe not with
crazy arm talent, but a quarterback who knows how to
process it, makes good decisions, understands the offense. If you've
got that guy, which clearly feeds into being fully optimized.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
Right, But that's not a system, it's not a system.
And getting that system that attribute, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
You need that attribute to make this system go. Because
the system I'm thinking of is pretty much like the
modern spread offense, but with RPO concepts mixed in. Because
if you've got an offense like that, you're already taking
advantage of space. It's an adaptable offense that you can
do a lot with. You can run out of that, clearly,
you can pass out of that. It keeps defenses honest.

(48:51):
Are you backing off receivers? Are you playing up to
guard against RPOs? Are you playing up to guard against
the run. Can you even afford to stack the box?
Without risking something over the top. If you've got the
quarterback who knows how to make that engine go and
knows how to read a defense and where the ball
needs to go, not necessarily throwing dimes thirty five yards

(49:12):
down the field, but just knows where the ball needs
to go and what the right way is to call
out protections and call the best possible play. That play,
that system of plays, I should say, with those RPOs
mixed in, is kind of unguardable, right, It's kind of unguardable.
So I'm with you on the power rushing attack. That
could be frustrating as hell, and it's hard to watch.

(49:33):
It is hard to watch if your team is playing
a team like that. Yeah, But for my mind where
we're at right now, mix in some version of the
spread with RPOs with a quarterback who knows where he
is supposed to go with the football, that's very frustrating
as well.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Yeah, So here's what I would say. I would say,
we're sort of both talking about the same thing.

Speaker 3 (49:54):
We are.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
We kind of end we're talking about the same thing.
You're You're talking more about, you know, qualities at a
quarterback has in running that offense. I think we're talking
about twenty eleven Wisconsin. Okay, I think we're talking about
Russ Wilson, Paul Chris Brett, Bielima, Chris Ashes running the defense.
That was his first year. I'm just reading Wikipedia at
this point. Yeah, yeah, I got But that's a Monty

(50:15):
Monte ball Wisconsin team with Wisconsin's only electric quarterback in
the last however many years, if not ever, and they
did meet their demise in the Rose Bowl. I think
they lost one or two games in the regular season,
but at its best when that Wisconsin offense without game

(50:37):
changing receivers in the way that we've grown to understand
game changing receivers in the last few years, they had
good players, but not dominant players at receiver if my
memory serves. But having that type of offensive line and
running back dominance with a quarterback who could compliment that
and at times, if needed, make huge plays, that's probably

(50:58):
the most efficient way to do things in terms of
demoralizing a team. We've had Alabama teams like that. Look,
the most efficient offense of the most efficient element of
an offense is to have a specific, unstoppable star player.
It's to have Lamar Jackson's to have Cam Newton. It's
to hand the ball off to Dereck Henry and say,
I think we're gonna be all right. I think we're

(51:20):
gonna be alright twenty fifteen Alabama. But full composition, it's
having those you know, to be able to do that
for four quarters with multiple fresh legs, NFL caliber offensive
line and not overthink things and take unnecessary chances. It's
probably the most efficient way to go. Teams just can't
build that, Nelselie, No you can't.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
All right, I organized these into a couple buckets. I'm
gonna pick and choose here for let's say the next
ten minutes or so, Dan, and we'll wrap this one up.
Whatever bonus content, Yeah, we can muster from this list
of questions. We had a bunch that came in. We
will include some of our favorites on the upcoming bonus
episode that dropped it later this week out on.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
Let's wrap it? So are we rapid firing non college
football right now?

Speaker 3 (52:04):
We're just gonna rapid fire questions in general? I'll get okay,
all right, all right, mister Pizzacoli out on Patreon, what's
your preferred overtime format?

Speaker 1 (52:14):
Go?

Speaker 2 (52:15):
I'm kind of Okay with where we are right now.
I think there's a heightened sense of drama. I like
that we've gotten rid of a fresh time out for
every overtime, and I'm good with the two point conversion thing.
It makes for good TV, and I'm good with that
as somebody who consumes this game largely on TV. So
that's a cop out answer.

Speaker 3 (52:35):
Rapid fire, rapid fire.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
I like it. Commit can change. I'm good with it.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
Speak with your chest, go back to the twenty five
yard line. Have everybody started the twenty five yard line.
The variation I put on it is everybody's got to
go for two right away?

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Got it right away?

Speaker 2 (52:50):
I'm absolutely good with that.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
Yes, okay, get rid of the kicks thing. But if
you score a touchdown, you got to go for two.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
You can't kick. Dish your point.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
I agree with that, all right.

Speaker 3 (52:59):
Andrew says is already a feature of the new Big
twelve or.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
A bug from the first season.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
I wouldn't judge anything based on one season. I think
parody is a feature.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
I think parody is a future and I love it.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
It's great.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (53:13):
Actually, we're going to talk about some Big twelve next week,
so stay tuned Andrew, Okay, we'll talk.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
Don't judge the Big Twelve on national championships. Judge the
Big Twelve on how entertained am I week in and
week out.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
Chako, would you be comfortable with Notre Dame, Penn State,
and Oregon adopting a GM model like Stanford did with
Andrew Luck.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
Yes. Coaches aren't built to be administrators in the way
that they're expected of in every instance, so yes.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
I like it. I think the caveat is that Andrew
Luck has a certain amount of gravitas at Stanford, right
he can come in and almost immediately garner the respect
of fans of the program, administrators of the program, people
that will work to help build that football program. I
don't know if every place has a guy like that
who is interested in stepping into that role, but I

(54:01):
think in theory, in theory, I kind of like it
because right now everyone's organized a little bit differently. I
don't know to what end it leads to inefficiencies and
that type of thing, like if everybody is reporting into
the head coach. But the GM is really just in
terms of helping in terms of talent and not coaching staff.
And yeah, it tends to get muddled. So I like

(54:23):
it in theory. I've talked about it a couple of
times to how I like it in theory. But I
do think in this case it is very relying on personality.
For Stanford, I hope it works.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
The caveat here is the job has never existed in
this specific way. No, And so like you'd be okay
with it at your school if you have somebody offloading
some of the responsibility from your head coach interpersonal stuff,
administrative stuff. But it's not an athletic director, it's not
a head coach. It's somebody who can understand both of
those worlds and occupy both of those worlds. So like, yes,

(54:56):
you're okay with it, but it's going to take some
time for a pool of people to understand and be
able to execute the demands of that job. If you
had to add a third permanent host who was a
former college football player, who would it be from Davis?
Andy Staples technically counts here.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
He does, Yeah, he does, he does.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
I would be somebody that we have to have a
good pre existing report. We I mean, it's mostly offensive
lineman Jeff Schwartz, Marshall Newhouse Andy Staples.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
I would add JJ McCarthy.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
Do you know who I think why JJ McCarthy.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
JJ McCarthy.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
Of he's very young, he won't understand any of our references.
He won understand heard of Seinfeldt.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
He will breathe new life into our show and our demographics.
I would add, Okay, he's also going to be the
starting quarterback I believe for the Vikings. So he may
not have the time, but he is technically a former
college football player.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
And you know that.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
I mean you and I both pay attention to this
type of thing because we're in the media world here.
But I am always listening to postgame interviews to try
and evaluate which players I think will be good on
camera or in some sort of studio set up or
in a booth somewhere when they're playing. Get over. JJ

(56:10):
McCarthy is the smoothest in front of a camera of
a current or former player, frankly, that I've ever seen
in my life.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
And he is very young.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
I don't want somebody making us look bad he is physically,
he's going to make us look ancient.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
These are all things that are true.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
I'm just saying in terms of somebody who could step
in and immediately command the microphone in the audience. JJ
McCarthy's my answer.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Okay, So I'm only going to answer this from a
perspective of people we don't know and haven't been guessed,
because I don't want to hurt like we've had, Like
I think Yogi Roth would be great, like he does
a great job all these players. So I don't know.
Even though I've interviewed him a couple times, I don't
know him. I'm not friendly with him. I don't have
a relationship with him. I kind of think RG three
is built to be a real quality podcaster. I might

(56:56):
have a podcast. I think he's got a podcast. I
think he does too.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
I think his energy is really good for this medium,
and I think he's a good play by play announcer.
I think he needs to maybe lock in a little
bit and stay on task, but I kind of enjoy that,
you know, he lets out his personality. He weirdly gets
horny comparing things during a college football game. I can
relate to that. So I would say RG three I

(57:21):
think would be a welcome addition to the solid verbal universe.

Speaker 3 (57:25):
Kyle out on Twitter. If you were stuck on a
deserted island and had to pick two college football coaches
to be there with you.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
Who would you pick?

Speaker 3 (57:32):
Now, we have gotten variations of this question a million
times over over the last fifteen years. I thought this
one was particularly interesting because, speaking for myself.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
I have no survival skills.

Speaker 3 (57:46):
I have no survival skills, So I need to pick
two coaches that are probably physically fit enough that they
can handle whatever sort of building needs to occur on
the island to construct shelter, raft, just something to keep
you safe, maybe from the critters that are also on
the island, right, as well as coaches who actually know

(58:08):
how to survive without food, without potable water, without the
types of.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Things that you would need. Well, yeah, on a deserted island.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
Her he was chopped, her he was un chopped, Her
hand was on chopped, but they gave him the ingredients
on chopped.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
I know. But what I'm saying is, if he's wandering
around an island and finding coconuts and finding leaves, he
can assemble something for us.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
The two head coaches that I zeroed in on, Okay,
the first is Mike Gundy. Okay, Mike Gundy. If you
go back, Bruce wrote an article twenty seventeen. Is an outdoorsman,
big time outdoorsmen, also kind of nuts, which I think
you would need. I think you would need somebody who's
got a little bit of a screw loose with you

(58:52):
on the deserted island, just to keep things fresh and interesting.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
He went on, like rattlesnake hunts and knows a lot
about hunt rattlesnakes and that sort of thing. I feel
like Gundi would be to be a good addition. I
would need somebody like that because I would probably be
scared out of my mind to be on a deserted island.
And I feel like Gundhy's just a little bit crazy
enough that he could take away some of that edche.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
He'd be the You're also going to have to hang
out with Mike Gundy. I understand every day.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
I understand that, But I'm just thinking in terms of
keeping my head above water here and surviving until a
plane sees me with the mirror or something. Right, Sure, Gundy,
I think is a good answer. The other one, believe
it or not, is Scott Frost. And let me explain why. Yeah,
Scott Frost grew up in rural Nebraska on a farm. Okay,

(59:39):
and notably, he knows how to hunt, he knows how
to fish, he knows how to conduct himself out.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
In the wilderness.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Just tie out there with Mike Gundy and Scott Frost
chatting it up.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
I'm not saying we got a whole lot of shared
life experience, uh huh. But give me the guy who
hunts the rattlesnakes along with the farmer on the island.
Both guys not afraid to conduct themselves in the outdoors.
That's true, Okay, I need that otherwise I'm dead. But
you are going to be sitting around a fire with

(01:00:10):
these two. I can make do every night. I can
make do until the rescuers get there. But I just
got to stay alive until they do.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
Do you think either of those guys, between Scott Frost
and Mike Gundy, let's say you're up climbing a tree
in search of coconuts or something like that, and you
fall and break your leg and it gets infected, do
you think either one of them would have what it
takes to put you down, To put me down, to
put me down, you just put you out of your misery,
or put if Mike Gundy's climbing up a tree for

(01:00:41):
some coconuts, that Scott Frost would have the stones to
do what is needed.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
I mean, Scott Frost couldn't finish when he was a coach.
That was part of the problem. That's part of why
he got run out of town. So I'm not sure
he would be the answer.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
I make those tough decisions. I couldn't do it on
a deserted island.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
No, I would be there for random factoids that may
only interest me. I could keep the conversation going. Yeah,
otherwise I'd be useless. That's part of why I'm bringing
these guys onto my island, because I feel like they
at least would know what they're doing out there to
keep us alive long enough, hopefully until the rescuers get there.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
I don't know the outdoors background of Shane Beemer, but
there's something relentless about Shane Beemer that like he is
not sleeping until this hut is built, and I kind
of like that out of Shane Beemer. Also, he's younger, right,
there's just gonna be more energy. And Scott Frost is
on the younger side too. Mike Gundy's not young so

(01:01:41):
how much energy you're actually getting out of Mike Gundy? Like,
sure he has history trapping animals, but how old is
he sixty something?

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
Well, Shane Beemer is forty eight.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
No, he's not sixty something. Mike Gundy is fifty. He's
a man.

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
Excuse me, he's fifty. He's fifty seven. Yeah, Scott Frost
is fifty. Yeah, and your boy, Shane Biemer is forty eight.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Another name that I considered, I.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
Would go landing with the relentlessness and the energy.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
Another name that I considered, yeah, Jim Mora Junior.

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
Okay, Jim Mora.

Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
Junior is apparently in impeccable shape. I believe he's sixty three,
so at least relative to some of these other names,
he would.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Be Are you saying that you'd be able to eat
his carcass?

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
No? No, no, to listen to me, Go and do some
research or research on Jim Morra Junior. Jim Mora Junior
has done several adventures in mountaineering. He climbed Tolman Jarro
to help benefit clean water in Africa. He also climbed
Mount Rainier with I believe it was Roger Goodell. And

(01:02:46):
so he's clearly comfortable in that setting. Supposedly, his data
was indicative of him being the best equipped of any
of the other people on the adventure. Physically, he was
in the best so provided he takes care of himself,
he is somebody else who is comfortable in that type
of setting. The question did not specify whether or not

(01:03:11):
this island has mountains on it, So if this is
a mountainous island, then maybe I go somebody like a
Jim Mora junior in place of a Scott Frost.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
I mean, ultimately, what I how I think about this question,
is somebody who is physically capable of hunting a wild
boar right with self made tools. I don't know about
the ability to hike Mount Rainier, but somebody who has
what it takes to hunt a wild boar and spearfish,
build fires and not seem like a complete jackass around

(01:03:46):
a fire at night. So I don't I don't know
who fits that bill got you want somebody with a
little bit of a screw loose, which you named yep,
but I don't know like which. Like Sam Pittman on
the older side.

Speaker 3 (01:04:03):
Sam Pittman has talked about I did a lot of
research on this question By the way, Yeah, Sam Pittman
is on public record speaking of his enjoyment of being
out there fishing and hunting that type of thing. I mean,
that is not something I know anything about, right, So
for me, we need to add that to our trio.

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
Otherwise I'm dead.

Speaker 3 (01:04:24):
Somebody who can go out there and kill the wild boar,
the wild game, Gundhy would do it with his hands. Yeah,
I mean, Gundhy's crazy. So I would take Gundhy on
the island again. The fireside chatter I don't know about,
but I am more interested in staying alive. I can
deal with the occasional disagreement around the campfire.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
Fair all right.

Speaker 3 (01:04:44):
One more question, final question, I referenced it at the top.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
Is a mermaid of fish or a human?

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
Okay, mermaid is a human to me because of having
a human brain. I think that's the defining feature. My
big question to you is if you were an ancient sailor,
do you think you could avoid the sirens song? No,

(01:05:10):
I definitely couldn't. I would definitely meet my demise because
I would be seduced by the siren song. Do sirens
have Are they mermaids?

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
I think they occupy the same space.

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
Okay, I mean like a mermaid speaks, it sings, it
can fall in love.

Speaker 1 (01:05:28):
We've seen movies about that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
That's Ariel. That's not necessarily that's a disneyfied version of it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:34):
But listen, Ariel is the prototypical mermaid. Right, it's at
least fifty one percent person. I think it's fifty one
percent person.

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
So I'm going human with this, thank you shit.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
I don't know if I could fully fall in love
with a mermaid, but a mermaid could talk me into
some stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:05:52):
I think I could justify it. Dan, if it were Ariel,
I think I could justify it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
But you're talking Ariel with the tail or, Ariel land
unable to speak.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
I mean the question was about mermaids. I think I'm
talking about with the tail.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
Yeah, I think they are more human than not, though
it would give me pause about like the long term
romantic prospects.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
Yeah, where you live, where are jobs? How do you
get money? That type of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
No, I'm not thinking about that. I'm just thinking about like,
where whose space are we going to?

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
I don't know, but I would say more human than.

Speaker 3 (01:06:27):
Fish got to have it in ground pool I'll tell
you that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
But like, okay, so a mermaid has to have gills,
right if they're breathing underwater. Sure, so you're saying they
think like a human, but physiologically they're alive because of
their fish like qualities.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
They move because of their fish like qualities. They breathe
because of their fish like qualities. They hunt and eat
because of their fish like qualities. Their environment is a
fish like environment. What do mermaids eat? Does anybody know?
I don't know. It's been a long time since I've
seen The Little Mermaid or really research mermaids. Did they
ever broach that subject in any movie? Kelp and other

(01:07:14):
small plants attached could be a deal breaker.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
That could actually be a deal breaker for me.

Speaker 2 (01:07:18):
I'm out because they're probably not eating other fish, though
it's it's entirely possible, though Ariel was friends with fish
and crabs, so I think the implication was Ariel. I
don't remember what Ariel ate on land though.

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
This is a very very deep question. Thank you Shay
for getting it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
But I imagine she's more plant based under the sea.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
For me.

Speaker 3 (01:07:38):
Yeah, we've got much more to discuss. We will do
that on our bonus episode coming up a little bit
later on this week.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
We've also got an interview. This is another one of
those rare weeks where we're dropping public episodes on Wednesday
and Friday. Yep, so stay tuned for that. We do
have two episodes coming. This is the first of them.

Speaker 3 (01:07:55):
Of course, you go over bawlers dot com, you get
access to the bonus episode where we are going to
go through a bunch of these questions and I feel
like we need to unpack a little bit more on
this Mermaid thing, so we can do that when we
record on whenever we do a little bit like.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
Have you been somewhere where they have the women in
the fish tail? I have like apparatus I have. It's
very uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable.

Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
Yeah, yeah, I need to think more about this before
I answer definitively.

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
Okay, okay, Mermaid Show, the Mermaid Show.

Speaker 3 (01:08:24):
Yes, that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein,
for myself, Tie Hildebrand, for everybody who provided questions, gave
us the content.

Speaker 1 (01:08:31):
For this here episode. We appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
Hit follow, hit subscribe if you have yet to do so.
In the meantime, talk you'll soon stay sell it peace,

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club

The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!