BIG 12 TEAM PREVIEWS: Arizona State, Kansas State, Iowa State, Baylor, Texas Tech, West Virginia, UCF & Arizona | 2025 College Football - The Solid Verbal College Football

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Solid Verbal hull. 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
a day? Edo state is that?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Whoo whoo?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
And no Dan and Tie Dan Ribesteine, welcome back. This
is the Big twelve Preview Part duh, which is very
confusing because it's team preview part one. When I look
at all of the files in the.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Final cut pro area of my life, I have to
remind myself that it's part one of the teams, but
part two of the conference.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
And I'm slow, so that helps. It's all part of
a bigger thing here at the Solid Verbal as you
know by now. Hello, welcome, thank you for stopping on
back here. I am Tayie is Dan. Yeah. Yes, this
is part two of the Big twelve Preview. Go back
and listen to part one, which was the last episode
where we talked through who our contenders are. We broke
it down into what we call Tears of the Kingdom.

(00:58):
Don't worry, I won't play this out again. Dan. Okay,
a little bit of a Zelda theme. We didn't really
roll too much with it, but it was just something
that I found amusing. Go back and listen, hit file,
hit subscribe if you've get to do so again so
that you don't miss any of these preview episodes. We
got a lot more to do. We've got a Part
three coming up for the Big twelve. Then we're going

(01:18):
to go into the Big ten, the SEC. At some
point we're going to bolt on Notre Dame and Yukon,
just to be completists and make sure that we cover
all one hundred and thirty six teams. Of course, if
you like what we do and you want to further
support the operation here over at SVHQ, go to overballers
dot com. That's v E R B A L l
e r s dot com. That's the Patreon. You can

(01:41):
support us at the five at the ten dollars tier,
or you can just sign up as a free member.
On occasion, we'll throw some crumbs to the free folks
as well. Cross start well that I don't know what
else to call it. Wow, Okay, I apologize that that's derogatory.
I don't mean it that way. We appreciate all the
support we get. Of course, if you're not into any
of that, a five star rating or review on your

(02:04):
chosen podcast platform. All that stuff goes an awful long
way towards helping to grow this Big ten of the
Forbollerhood agree.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
It's just the right amount of access and personal ties
to the solid verbal without having Tie make you like
wash his feet or something that's too personal.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
That's too much. What are we talking about here?

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Isn't that a thing? Don't like popes wash feed? Isn't
that like a symbolic gesture that they are of the people?
Come on, Tie, sure, yeah, okay, you're my Catholicism expert here. Okay,
Big twelve Team preview. Should we get into it?

Speaker 1 (02:42):
We should so again, go back and listen. Contender cheers
this last episode. On today's episode, though, we're picking a
fair amount from what I think is our top tier,
and we're also going to cover three schools that we
unanimously agree are going to be near the bottom. Okay,

(03:03):
at the top, we're going to have k State, Iowa State,
Arizona State, Texas Tech, and Baylor. I wanted to keep
Texas Tech and Baylor together because, as we said last episode,
those are two schools that are really getting a lot
of hype right now. Ties all about that butt, right,
be you and TT all about the butt of course
tis about that butt life continue and then West Virginia

(03:24):
U CF Arizona.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
You know, sometimes when I say things like that, I
go to check to see if you're marking it to
edit it out, and it looks like you're leaving it
in right now.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Oh no, we're leaving that in. Okay, leaving that in.
You can tell when I look down at the DA
you're all right, eight minutes and fourteen segets too right there. Yep,
we're keeping the butt reference in Okaya. You are all
in on Arizona State. I am on the last episode,
and I'm not not in on Arizona State. I'm just
not quite as high on them, and sleeping on those

(03:58):
thoughts after we recorded part one, yeah, yesterday, I remain
very conflicted about all of these teams at the very top.
These top five for us are interchangeable to an extent.
For me, I'm not as high on bail Or I'm
not as high on Texas Tech for reasons that you
can go back and listen to, and I'm sure we'll
discuss here, But really, that trio of Arizona State, Kansas State,

(04:23):
and Iowa State to me, it's whichever way the wind
is blowing, whatever the humidity is. We kind of mood.
I'm in what I ate for breakfast. Like all of
these things, I'm finding influence how I feel about that
top three. But no Texas Tech in that group. Now
con Texas Tech at the top. Yeah, but Arizona State,
let's start there because they won the conference last year.

(04:45):
There's a ton of steam on them coming into twenty
twenty five. They were very close to knocking off Texas
in the College Football Playoff. There is great reason to
be optimistic about this team. Agree, Why do you feel
so optimistic about them and have them as your top team?

Speaker 3 (05:02):
I like the progress that they were able to make
very quickly under Kenny Dillingham, and with the continuity involved
with both the roster and the coordinators being back and
assistance back that they have taken or they are primed
to take, I believe another step forward. We're talking about
like key transfers at a number of places on this

(05:24):
roster that worked out. Sam Levitt back half of his season,
you know, came on super strong in November. Of course,
down the stretch, like there is just it seems a
path for this team to continue to improve and feel
confident that the offense is going to add things to
its playbook, that the defense now has a self awareness
about it what it needs to improve, what it did

(05:44):
well last year, given everybody that's back, And I don't
think you can say that about you know, just in
terms of continuity and the roster and the playmakers out wide.
For Asu and even losing Cam Scataboo, it seems to
be a high ceiling running back room, even if it's
not dominant and aggressive and world eating, Like Cam Skataboo

(06:08):
was at his best and you were old me world eating,
he ate the world?

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Tie he did? He did kind of eat the world.
I am thrilled by the way that the Giants drafted
him as a wrong suffering New York Giants fan. I
used the reference often a bowling ball with eyes. Cams
Kataboo is a bowling ball with eyes.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
He's sort of like a sentient, aggressive Xerox machine making
his way through a field.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
You're okay, you're You're.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Right about cam'skataboo, and you know the the question that
you and many have, and you're thrilled that he's on
the Giants now, who you sometimes claim is your team
depending on who's playing quarterback.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
I guess it's it's sports fandom is complicated. What I
was gonna say is that there's just a lot of
production walking out the door with Camskataboo, which everybody knows
that's not Again, you don't need the PhD in collegeootball
to know that if you just watched Down the Stretch
last season. So I hear you. I don't dislike what
they've got coming back in the running back room, and

(07:04):
I do trust in Kenny Dillingham that he will figure
out a way to get more out of that group
than we know right now. When mid July we're recording this,
He's going to figure it out. He figures it out
all the time. But it's just without having that thing
to hang on to that you can trust going into
the season feels like a lot by default goes onto

(07:28):
the arm of Sam Levitt.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Wait, if the surest thing about this offense is the
emergence and quality of Sam Levitt, isn't that something good
to trust?

Speaker 1 (07:39):
It is, but he had Scataboo last season down the Stretch.
They relied upon Cam Skataboo to put them in these
winning situations, and now without him helps to get Jordan
Tyson back. I just feel like there is going to
be much more stress on Sam Levitt and I like him.

(08:01):
As I said last episode, not all progress is linear.
I hear see it. I want to see it before
I'm willing to put ASU as my number one team.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
I just think they they bring more to the table
that we are aware of and can count on than
I think the other teams I'm comparing them against within
the conference, and that's good enough for me. Honestly, that's
good enough for me. Their schedule is tricky, but like
at the same time, you're looking at a back half
of the schedule of you know, Houston who lost a

(08:31):
ton Iowa State who lost a good amount especially on defense,
and took a step back on defense last year and
lost their pop from the offense, couldn't run the ball
at all, and they murdered them in the Big Twelve
championship game. A West Virginia team that's starting over, a
Colorado team that's starting over on offense, especially a rivalry
game against Arizona that was completely lopsided last year. And

(08:54):
Arizona in a lot of ways is starting over, hiring
a new coordinator, on both sides of the ball, right,
And then even if you like Texas Tech, even if
you like TCU and Baylor, which are totally defensible positions,
TCU and Texas Tech are at home. Baylor's on the
road early, and that's after Baylor already has a really
rough September, and Utah is on the road and that's
going to be difficult, and that's at altitude, and I

(09:15):
never like playing that Utah defense no matter who I am.
Their offense is starting over. So if you're comparing ASU
against their schedule, they're just checking more boxes about known
quantities at this point in mid July, and so you know,
looking at their schedule, looking at what they have, looking
at what they did last year ahead of schedule. No,

(09:37):
I'm just in on Sparky man.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Listen, I think all that's fair. Again, this is an
eleven and three team from a year ago that hits
sixteenth in twenty twenty fourth sixteenth. Yeah, ASU's over under
is eight and a half this season. I like the over.
I still feel confident about the but I do have

(10:02):
some questions the way I look at this team, and
I think you hit on a lot of these points already.
So I don't mean to be repetitive, but it's okay
Sam Levitt. Whether or not he goes quantum with his
leap forward remains to be seen, but there's a lot
of reason for optimism there, especially now that Jordan Tyson
is coming back and they've got four starters back along
the line. That's a pretty good nucleus. Yeah. If the

(10:25):
offense doesn't click, or I'll say doesn't click right away
with some of the new pieces, it's because I think
one of two reasons, Cam Skataboo and the void in
the backfield. They're going to try to make up for
it with what I'm calling the law firm of Brown,
Brown and Udo, Kyson Brown, ray Leak Brown, and Kanye Udo,

(10:45):
who they got from Army. Speaking of culture changes, sure,
coming down from Army, that's a pretty big deal. Scataboo
just did like so much for them. He was a
one man wrecking crew, I agree, and was great through
the air. You're losing Cam Skataboo both as a running
back and as a receiver, which is a big deal. Yeah,
and I've already talked too much about this. I'm sure
there are asu people out there rolling their eyes, like

(11:06):
get on with it already, fair point, Okay, I'm just
a little leery about that. The second thing is, and
this is what I've been alluding to, I think more
if sam Levin doesn't develop quickly enough to handle that
added responsibility. Sure, that's and again I'm really splitting hairs
with that. I'm just trying to be complete here in
my coverage, or at least be honest about how I'm feeling.

(11:28):
That said, I think the defense is going to be nails.
I think it'd be pretty good. Yeah, nine guys back
from a defense last year that ended up being a
wall against the run. If you're at this point, Dan,
mid to late July, whatever, whenever, you're listening to this
the Year of Our Lord twenty twenty five, and your
biggest question is, Hey, who's the nickel corner going to be?

(11:51):
We're in a pretty good spot, aren't you good? Good,
good time. That's a good place to be at. So
if it doesn't work on defense, it's because of the
pass rush, which I said yesterday, they got to take
a step forward there, the turnover margins another thing that
Again this is me splitting hairs. Yes, that might not continue,
but hey, they're probably still going to be pretty good

(12:12):
at it. I like ASU, I just don't like them
as much as you. The only other thing that I
will throw out here and then we're going to move on. Please.
Teams will be gunning for a SU this year totally,
and there is some meaning to that. When everybody is
out to get you each week, when you get every
market on your back, you get everybody's best. And ASU,

(12:36):
for better or worse, last season was able, I think,
to fly under the radar. Suddenly they had a full
head of steam and they were knocking teams off and
they were able to propel that or use that to
propel them into the College football playoffs big as a
Big twelve title team. It will be different this year.

(12:56):
I am not implying it all that they got there
by luck last season, but it's just a wide open conference.
They were able to fly more under the radar last season.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
By the way, last season probably should have been eleven
and one rather than ten and two. They lost to
Cincinnati without Jeff Simms, who's still a college football player.
He's still there backing up Sam Levitt. Yeap oh, yeah,
still at ASU. I believe so good.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Let at every indication that Jeff Sims is still there
and it just you know, I think he arrived in
twenty twenty and so that changed everybody's time calculus and
didn't work out at Georgia Tech, didn't work out at Nebraska,
but still at ASU. Yeah. Okay, great, good, good, good
on him. Yeah. All right, let's shift then to my

(13:41):
top team, Okay, which is Kansas State. All right, let's
talk cats. I was actually kind of surprised that you
weren't a little bit higher in Kansas State. I think
you had them as your number two teams, so it's
hard to go much higher. Yeah, but usually on this show,
you are the guy who is all in on k

(14:02):
State every year. Agree? And as I look at k State,
I say nine to win tim a year ago, whilst
to by you, we didn't know what b why you
was at the time, had something of a confounding loss
on the road at Houston and then lost by ten
to Arizona State, ended up losing on the road at Iowa.

(14:26):
State beat Rutgers in the bowl game. So there's that.
There are just so many good things to highlight about
Kansas State this year that I almost don't know where
to start. If you are listening to this right now,
you are probably expecting that Kansas State's going to be
a contender, if only because we talked about it yesterday.
But sight unseen, this is a program that's been really

(14:49):
stable in the Big twelve. Yes, they've been so consistent
under Chris Climb, and they're just kind of in that
conversation every year. The big question for me, though, is
the same that we been asking for a few years
running now with k State, And again this is also
no mystery. We know this is a good team. What
happens or what needs to happen for them to become

(15:10):
a great team? For example, good team last year? Great
teams don't blow two score leads against a fourign eight
Houston squad. Agree, So what does it take? Dan, And
my hunch is that this is where you came down
on k State and why you weren't a little bit
higher on them. What does it take in your estimation

(15:30):
to get them just one peg up so that they
are the top dog in.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
The conference discipline? They were an extremely sloppy team last year,
and I know that you are a like turnovers aren't
always indicative of where a team is or isn't year
to year, because a lot of that can be random,
but a lot of those turnovers last year, with pitches
and fumbles and interceptions, there was a sloppiness to the
way Kansas State either turned the ball over or lost

(15:56):
games that you know they fumbled it right away. Was
it the Iowa State game. You might be able to
fact check me on that, But there was a certain
amount of losing games because of slop or losing games
to teams they have no business losing to because of slop.
And I just I need Avery Johnson to fully shave

(16:19):
that the beautiful mane of his and become mister clean
if I'm going to feel excellent. That's a reference to
the cleaning solution, Ty mister clean and his beautiful bald head.
That's what I need from Kansas State. I need cleanliness
from what I believe to be a very very talented offense,
and I need cleanliness from a secondary that was just
too leaky. And they're new pieces to this defense this year,

(16:42):
and I'm just gonna need to see proof of concept,
make you know, another sort of pseudo coordinator change with
Matt Wells fully taking over the offense right that I
have faith in Chris Cleiman as a coach. I have
faith in Avery Johnson as an athlete, but I still
need to have faith in him as he was his
third year of playing, he was, you know, a rotational

(17:03):
type change of pace guy. In year one with Will Howard,
I need to feel confident that he has this under control,
he has this situation, he has this read on whatever
defense they're playing under control that he's always going to
bring so much athletically to the table, you know, extending
drives with his feed on third and nine or whatever,

(17:24):
in finding the pylon or finding you know, the down marker.
But to me, it's just a matter of discipline and
cleanliness for Kansas State on both sides of the ball,
because from a coaching perspective, from a star power perspective,
it's in a number of spots right now, it's just
why are you losing to this team? Why are you
barely beating this team like their game against Kansas last

(17:46):
season when they're trying to give it away. Why are
you losing this game in this specific manner because of
interceptions or undisciplined like giving a team a twenty four
yard touchdown drive or something like that, because you've made
a mistake. That to me is what I need to
see from Kansas State this year before feeling all of
the tingles about the Cats.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, the BYU game comes to mind. Oh that was
that was a wave of slop. Yeah, there was a
wave of slop and there were turnovers, but they had
special teams stuff fumbled snaps, bad turnovers in some of
those November losses as well. And I think you're right
about Avery Johnson. I mean that's I think my sticking

(18:31):
point with him. Clearly, he's talented, gets a little yippie
as a passer sometimes, is not fully a complete product yet,
so you see the upside. Ran for six hundred yards
last season this year. No more DJ Giddens, but I
do like the combination a lot of Avery with Dylan

(18:51):
Edwards in the backfield too. Native Kansons, by the way, Yeah,
that make for really tantalizing pairing.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
They have the highest, i think the highest rated re
rout coming in in the Big twelve and a five
star tight end.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Linking c linking cure. Yeah. It's the i think highest
rate to recruit ever at Kansas State. Yeah, and I'm
curious to see what they do with him, if they
work him into the rotation. I suspect they will. You
mentioned Matt Wells as offensive coordinator as well, lone offensive
coordinator this season. I mentioned this a little bit last episode,

(19:24):
but based on the tea leaves I've been reading, going
to try to use the speed in the backfield, their versatility,
try to twist some knots defensively, try to twist some
defenses in knots.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Excuse me, Twisting knots is something you can pay for
on our Patreon tier to get those knots out of
ties feet continue.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
I think the offense could be really fun. I got
questions about who's out wide and whether they work a
guy like a Linking Cure in out there. But other
than the starting point is excellent. Other than some new
faces up front, which everybody's dealing with to some extent, yeah,
I think the offense is going to be really suck.
By the way, there is another Blake Barnett, really Blake

(20:09):
bar Remember that name, Blake Barnett.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Yeah, so that was one time Notre Dame commit ended
up at BAMA before going to USF. I want to
say he was all over from the San Diego area.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
I saw Blake Barnett in some of these previews, and
I was like, is this guy Benjamin Button, what is
going on here? He is the backup? It is a
different Blake Barnett. The other one that we know is
twenty nine. Now, I don't think he has eligibility, although
twenty twenty five who they all knows of this.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
By the way, Blake Barnett sidebar here was one of
the inspirations for a former fantasy thing of like, yeah,
sure this quarterback is okay, but check out his hot
babe girlfriends.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
I forgot about that from like accounts that you never
knew exists on social media that were.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Just like college foot I'm all bros. Daily continue got
to keep Avery Johnson healthy. No disrespect to this Blake Barnett,
but Avery Johnson's the one who's who's going to get
it done. I like their defense. I always like their defense.
It hurts to lose Brett and Mott along the line,
who was a first team All twelve or led the
team in sacks. But I think the front seven is

(21:20):
really good.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
I like Twelver there. I don't know, I don't know
if that was intentional and All twelve.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
And All twelve great This is where one of my
dumb food references come in. And I actually wanted to
workshop this with you. Okay, I'm ready. I really like
Austin Romaine. Okay, who is their linebacker ninety six tackles
last year as a sophomore. Okay, I'm work shopping a

(21:46):
couple T shirt designs that that's salad. No, we tried
to run at Austin Romaine, but he wouldn't let us. Ty,
or you can go the other way and say, let
us show you Austin Romaine.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
What about like leaf him alone? No, I'm not great
with it, Ty.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
There's something there. His name is Romaine. His name is Romayne. Romayne, calm.
I don't know. I appreciate you going for it, though
I do. This is what I bring to this show.
This is real tough. This is also the sound of
people unsubscribe. Yeah, oh hold on, it gets better, It
gets better. I've got another one that I think is
actually worse. Oh no, okay, which, yeah, we're gonna get

(22:37):
to that this episode. Stand by for that. If you're
gonna go a case state, the way to do it
is through the air. The secondary is younger. Now, what
position does Romayne play? Linebacker, so the hands not in
the dirt like Romaine. Okay. I was trying to see
if there's anything in that direction. Continue. I think we're
gonna see some deep shots in that week zero game
against Iowa State. I'm curious to see how they can

(22:59):
tend with it. One of the better schedules in the conference.
It's spread out really well. There are four big games
that I think the termine this season. The first is
that Week zero game in Dublin. They're at Baylor. Week six,
they played Texas Tech. Week ten, They're at Utah week thirteen.
I am going over for k State. I'm going over.
They're over. Under is eight and a half. The under

(23:21):
means that are losing all four of those. I don't
think they will. Of course, given the conversation, you can't
rule out a dumb loss or some weird sort of
turnover implosion. But yeah, I am. I think the floor
is nine and three for k State, and they're the
ones that I've got coming Flora is nine and three.
Yeah for me, the floor is nine and three. I
think they're coming out of this conference going to the playoff.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
All right, So they've got Baylor on the road obviously,
Iowa stayed in Dublin. They've got the Kansas rivalry game
on the road a week before Texas Tech. It's definitely
not a look ahead, but it's the you know, the
new look Kansas facility.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
That game.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
Kansas has really had a great shot in last year.
Maybe they'll be better prepared to start the season this
year at altitude a week after going to Stillwater. So
two weeks on the road in a row. It's a
tricky schedule. I still like this schedule. I still like
Kansas State a lot. I like them a lot more
than many of these teams on their schedule.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
That Army game is a little bit weird too. Yeah,
not as high on Army this year. But I'm not
super high on Army. It's just I like them. I
like them. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
It's if you throw an interception or cough the ball
up once on the ground and Army turns that into
a seventy three minute touchdown drive, that's a short game.
That's everybody's getting six possessions and that's that.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
A bit of body blow there, Yeah, I hear you.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
Yeah, they have Arizona the week after, but it's a
short week after Army. Body blow. Short week into the
desert in September on the road.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
And it's gonna be hot. Tie, let's go to Iowa State.
So you've got ASU over Kansas State. I've got Kansas
State over Iowa State. Okay. On my side of things,
Iowa State eleven and three last year, their win totals
seven and a half. This year I mentioned this last episode.
You can read about this all over the internet. The
first double digit win season in the one hundred and

(25:23):
thirty three year history of the Iowa State football program,
the best season ever ever ever. It coincides with having
the best duo of receivers who are no longer there,
both named Jay, and it showed roc Obeck was really good.
They won with their with Rocobec's arm. They won in

(25:44):
spite of a ton of injuries up front, and winning
that number of games dealing with the injuries they dealt
with is its own degree of difficulty that we should
stand up in applot. Oh my god, yeah, absolutely. I
have three big questions about this seam. I like them
a lot. By three big questions. The first is we
know this is a chaos conference. The case for Iowa State,

(26:06):
I think is very logical. They've got Rock Obec the
bore back, Carson Hansen, Abu Sama at running back. They've
got a very experienced line.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
Did very little last year in terms of explosive plays
and leading this offense continue.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Absolutely, yeah, but a very experienced line, albeit with guys
that have bounced around, played, you know, a couple different
positions up front. Dominique Orange is the bull at the
center of the three three five defense for John Haycock. Okay,
they're loaded at linebacker. Just on its known, on its own,
that's enough to cover I think seven and a half

(26:45):
of Iowa State. But the wrinkle is that situation out wide.
We can sit here and talk about what they have
back on both sides of the ball. The ECU transfer in,
but when you're losing both Jayden Higgins and Jalen Noel,
that is a lot of production. It's a lot of
grass to replace. Yeah. If I'm gonna make that point

(27:05):
when I talk about Arizona State, I gotta make it
here because those are two eleven hundred yard receivers that
are off to the NFL DAN Yeah. So I guess
the easy answer is they probably lean a little bit
more on the ground game. They feature more sets with
two tight ends, since that's a relative strength until we
see it, I'm not totally confident that going back to that,

(27:28):
and especially since we didn't really see the explosiveness on
the ground last year, how they kind of work that
calculus will be interesting to see if they do have
to lean more on the run until they can develop.
Some guys out.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
Wide agree they also want a bunch of close games
last year, which I'd rather have a team win those
than not win those. But the question remains, like are
they going to have that same record in tight come
to the end of the game one possession type games.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
This is another question that I have. Okay, bring it up.
It was my third question on my sheet, but we
can skip to it now, Dan, because you're getting a
little bit ahead of me. But that's fine.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
I apologize. This is what we're very simpatico. We're I
don't know how many miles apart we are, but the.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
We're cycling, we're on the c electricity is connected. There
is a bit there's always a bit of a letdown
a work with Iowa State, I have found and this
has given me fits because I've been high on Iowa
State for a couple of years running. Now I called
this out in the sun Belt preview just as an example.
I'm gonna mention again. Now, Iowa State goes to Jonesboro,
Arkansas to play Arkansas State in week three. It's a

(28:35):
week before or excuse me, a week after the Syhawk
rivalry game, which is in Iowa and it's a week
before Iowa State goes on by So your like open face,
let down, look ahead, sandwich.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
It would be kind of funny if they did the
Syhawk and Pharmageddon in Dublin. We're just like, just stay there,
just say that we're good. We're gonna come to you.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
I am not saying that Iowa State's gonna lose that game,
but it's a great spot to hammer like a first
half line o our Kansas State because Arkansas ste Arkansas
State's not gonna play a look at defense, but they're
gonna throw it. They got Jalen Rainer. They're a fun
team on offense. YEP. I quite literally set a reminder
on my phone about this. This is one example. Iowa State,

(29:13):
I feel like, is prone to some of these random
disappearing acts where it feels like they're stuck in the
mud and they take a loss that they should. We've
seen this over the years. My second question is can
they ad avoid some of those land mines? And then
question third question, the secondary secondary lost a lot. There're

(29:33):
gonna be a bunch of younger guys back there. They
have potential, but they're not trustworthy. You know how I
feel about trust I trust John Haycock to figure it out,
but he's gonna need the line he's gonna need the linebackers.
I think they carry this thing for a bit until
they can sort out what's going on in the back.
This is probably the best reason to be skeptical of
Iowa State if you are, because there are definitely some

(29:54):
teams in the schedule that I think are gonna throw
it on them. Yeah, I mean, that's to me.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
That's the con learn about Iowa State overall, is what
is it that's going to get them out of trouble
if they find themselves in trouble. It's an unproven passing attack.
Given what they lost at receiver. They couldn't run the
ball last year with the injuries last year. Situationally, they
were awful on third.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Down and in the red zone.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
They were just they couldn't make heads or tails of it,
and what is it that is leading the way for
them this year? Being healthier upfront on defense is a
great start. But yeah, that's the question is in these
fifty to fifty games, if they have to drive the field,
if they have to get stops, you know, down thirty
one to twenty eight and get the ball back, what
is it going to take for Iowa State to continue

(30:40):
those close wins. And by the way, the degree of
difficulty loss I think to Texas Tech last year, like
you could watch the game five minutes left, four minutes left,
three minutes left, and you're just like, well, there's just
no way they're going to lose this game. Yeah, like
this is in the bag and Texas Tech found a
way that that is a little bit concerning. That's one
that's a one game sample size, But I'm not there

(31:02):
with Iowa State being some combination of experienced and with
pop at this moment.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, you mentioned the rushing attack, and again getting back
to one of my questions, last year is not this year?
Last year is last year? Who knows for sure, but
last season they had those targets out wide. Right now
at time of recording, they don't not that they can
rely on in the same manner, right, and so I

(31:29):
like Carson Hanson. Carson Hansen was a bull down in
the red zone, had eleven touchdowns on the ground last year.
Abu Sama, we wanted more of that explosiveness out of him.
He's a tough runner. We didn't really get that. We
didn't really get that after or from either of those guys.
Both were under five yards to carry. So we talked
about the ground game. Yes, taken together, Carson Hanson Abusama

(31:54):
went over eleven hundred and twelve hundred yards explosive. This
on the ground is something they're going to need more
of this season for sure, if they're not going to
have the targets out wide.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
By the way, if you want an even deeper sleeper
than Arkansas State, the Coyotes of South Dakota are taking
on Iowa State and they're a pretty damn good team
on the FCS level. They won ten eleven games last year. Right,
South Dakota lost in the semis of the FCS playoffs.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
You're not thinking of South Dakota State, No, I'm not.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
The South Dakota State is the jack Rabbits. The South
Dakota Coyotes went eleven and three last year.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
That's a sandwich spot between the K State teams before
the Syhawk game. We almost have a double sandwich situation.
Then if you want to consider Arkansas State Week three,
because we got K State Week one on the road
in Ireland. Yeah, come back home, square off against the
formidable Coyotes of South Dakota. Stay at home against Iowa

(32:56):
for the Syhawk game, big rivalry the week after, and
after that before a bye, go to Jonesboro, Arkansas to
play the Red Wolves. Yep. It's like a double decker,
open face look ahead sandwich. Yep they are. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
The middle of the schedule is actually pretty nice. Hopefully
it appears. Arizona at Cincinnati at Colorado BYU. Will see
how any of those. You know, there's gonna be two
or three teams that are far feistier than we anticipate
in this moment and might be in that grouping. But
the that's followed up with a November. I believe this
is November featuring ASU at home at TCU and Kansas

(33:37):
and correct me if I'm wrong. Whooped upon by Kansas
last year? Whoop whoop, so whooped upon that's the correct phrasing.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
It can be. I don't know. I guess yeah. They
were whooped upon by the Jayhawks, all right, So I
just I don't think it's an easy schedule unless their
act is more together than I think you and I anticipate.
In mid July, I read to you a quote very
quickly before we move on to our next team from

(34:08):
Leslie Saro. Leslie is the VP of marketing at Sweet Snacking. Quote.
The pop Tarts Edible mascots work tirelessly to fulfill their
dreams of being eaten, so we agreed they deserved a
vacation to watch the previous Pop Tarts Bowl winners play
in Ireland. Fans in Dublin can expect the mascots to

(34:28):
show up around town and bring crazy good shenanigans to
the game itself. We know frosted cinnamon roll and frosted
strawberry are two previously sacrificed mascots. Would be proud they
are sending the last two remaining I guess living in
this universe mascots to the game in Dublin. So you're

(34:50):
gonna see frosted wild berry and frosted hot fudge in
and around Dublin around this game. Great that is a
ridiculous press release. Right, I've never been a pop tart person.
It's fun though.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
No, No, I'm not pop Tart Bowl. The pop Tart
Bowl is creative and interesting. Pop tarts themselves are I
don't just have a donut, have some frost and miniweeds.
I don't know if they want to have processed sugar
for breakfast.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
We could use the sponsorship. Okay, we got to keep
the lights on type.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
But I'm trying to be honest. I'm to say for
the verballers, Tie, be careful what you said. I don't
just take any dollar.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
Tie.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
I'm a man of great integrity. I appreciate what whoever
the marketing firm behind the pop Tarts Bowl has done.
Come at us Kellogg's. I'm I'll sell frost in miniwheats.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
I do like frosted any weights. Yeah, they're terrific.

Speaker 3 (35:47):
You want Hostess Donuts presents the solid verbal. You want
to slap your logo on our great let's talk.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
I would like some of those Dunkin Donuts mini's like
the Munchkins. Yeah, the munchkins, Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
You're delicious. Youngest son opted for a mountain of Munchkins.
At his birthday party instead of cake.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
It's great. All right, let's move gears. Okay, let's shift
gears here. Let's talk about your team, America's team, Texas Tech.
Oh my god, Texas Tech. Are you ready, ty, I'm ready.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
We offer you the bond of family that very few
oil men can understand. No matter what the others promised
to do, and it comes to the showdown, they won't
be there. Now, you have a great chance here. Bear
in mind, you can lose it all if you're not careful.
I can guarantee to start drilling and to put up
the cash to back my word.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
How long does this sound? That's it? I did those
four different sounds. And I know what you're thinking. Pretty
rich of the guy who roots for Oregon with the
most notable and notorious benefactor to make fun of Texas
Tech and go t Campbell for spending all this money
in the portal. And to that, I say, yeah, you're
probably right. I don't know. It's all funny to me.

(36:58):
Pretty rich this guy over here, we did promise sounds
from there will be blood. Yeah, of course, I mean
a football program funded by an oil baron is much
funnier than somebody who already runs a or I used
to run and founded a sports company. An oil baron
running a football program is great. It is great. Objectively,

(37:19):
it is great. Eight and a half's the win total.
They went eight and five last year, won six games
in conference. As I said, this is the most hype
I can ever remember there being on Texas Tech. And
that's for a couple reasons, not the least of which
is what they did in the portal twenty one transfers
twenty four to seven, ranked as the second best transfer

(37:41):
class in the nation. They spent this offseason, they continue
to spend trying to build this thing up. So it's exciting.
It's certainly exciting what they did here in advance of
this season. But I'm going to reiterate what I said
on the last show. The real benefits going to come
down the line, and this could just be the start
of what's to come for Texas Tech. So I think

(38:03):
if you're a Tech fan, this is really exciting where
this program is gone. Sure, the portal strategy in and
of itself, though, feels very willy fritzy to me. And
I know we didn't talk about this yet, not in
great detail, because we even't talked about Houston. We'll do
that next episode. This is a great transfer class, and
I think a lot of people are gonna look at

(38:23):
it and they won't recognize the names of most of
these guys. Oh are you not up to date on
Stanford's twenty twenty four front seven. I could talk about
David Bailey TOOMBOO in the face, but I'm mysel But
did you know who David Bailey was last November? No?
Did anybody right? Yeah? No, I'm gonna be honest. No. Yeah,
but this is a class that had a lot of

(38:45):
experience starting elsewhere, and it was definitely targeted to make
things better along the lines, to give them depth, replace
what they lost in a guy like a Taj Brooks
the running back. This is the all Costco transfer clabs
quality in bulk, quality in bulk, That's what Texas Tech did.
Not a sponsor, could be not as absolutely could be

(39:06):
a sponsor. Yeah, I got a lot of Costco thoughts. Continue.
The defense is what I am watching most, Dan. I'm
watching it because sheil Wood comes over from Houston, where
he improved the defense right away, big jump forward. This
was the ninety second best defense in the country last
year per the sp plus even a modest jump into
like the sixties, I think would be a huge deal.

(39:29):
Eighty eight per D analytics per D analytics. Okay, still
not good right now, It's right there, not good at all. Yeah,
this is where the transfers, like the aforementioned David Bailey,
Lee Hunter, Romolo Height, That's where these guys come in.
So I think the potential for this team to have
a real, honest to goodness pass rush is kind of

(39:51):
something that we should be talking more about, and potentially,
given where they've been, that would be a game changer.
I'm really watching for that this season.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
I think they're gonna be good team. As mentioned a
thousand times on this show, they beat both teams that
played for the Big twelve championship last year in Iowa State,
in Arizona State. There's a ton of experience in that backfield,
Quentin Joiner experience at USC, Darren Morton experience at Texas Tech.
I think he's fine. I think there are times he's
very good. I think there are times where he disappears,

(40:20):
especially against the better teams on Texas Tech schedule. I
think they were dragged in a good way to the
end zone a number of times and dragged through successful
drives by ToJ.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
Brooks. I think Quentin Joyner is good. Is he like
put the full team on his shoulders? Good like TODJ.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
Brooks seemed to be the last couple of years TBD.
I like the receivers. I think there's potential at receiver.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
We'll see.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
I mean, they seem to have addressed the offensive line successfully.
It's what Howard Sampson is, the new left tackle that
came over from North Carolina who was very good for
the Heels last year. You're right about the defense being
probably more important because there's just enough there on offense
that they're going to score points. And the defense has
taken steps forward, but was pretty atrocious cin certain elements

(41:06):
last year. So if the defense is functional, if they
stop big plays, if the secondary is successfully addressed, when
we see all how these transfers do, they absolutely could
win the conference.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
But the issue with me with Texas Tech is there
are so many pieces that need to come together on
both sides of the ball. That's it, man, that that's it.
There's a lot, right, there's a lot here that it
all has to click in order for this to go
off totally, and again I'll turn the camera back on myself.

(41:40):
Oregon is a team who has gone after a number
of transfers at all sorts of position and has counted
on them. I think their overall talent level is higher
than Texas Tech in terms of what was already on
the roster, So it can work. Texas Tech can bring
in quality in bulk and win this conference. To me,

(42:01):
the question remains one. Is Texas Tech a place that
people can win and finish ranked as it happened in
sixteen years? Is Joey McGuire the coach to do it
every week without giving up? Do they have a game
where they gave up like sixty points to Baylor last year?
Right that they don't have that random stupid week or

(42:21):
three stupid weeks. The defense seems to be fixed. I
saw the story, and again I don't care how much
teams spend. If you have the money and it's allowed
to you're allowed to spend the money and it's going
to players who are earning this on the field. Great.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
It seems like that's something everybody wants, right, that the
players want it, that the people paying want it. Texas Tech,
who with Texas Tech fan is going to be upset
that they're doing everything they can to win. So that's great.
It's just the question of all of these new pieces
at the same time being coached by Joey Maguire, who
I happen to really like as a head coach. I'd

(42:57):
like for him to take the next step because it's
seems to be a good story given his Texas roots.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
It's just the number of questions.

Speaker 3 (43:06):
It's more of a quantity of question thing than quality
of the transfers coming in or anything like that.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
And so for that reason, I'm out. No.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
For that reason, I'm just not fully there yet. I'm
going to need to see what this Texas Tech experiment
looks like as it's come together before feeling all of
the tingles.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
Yeah. The other thing that we should mention, and I
alluded to this yesterday, but they hired Mac Leftwich as
a new offensive coordinator, comes over from Texas State State.

Speaker 3 (43:35):
Yeah, who had like a top fifteen national offense last
year in points per Drive, Broyle's nominee.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
In one season they ran a top twenty offense. My
sticking point with a lot of the previews that I've
read about Tech a little too much panning of the
fact that Baron Morton has had real health issues, right,
and he's sort of just been okay, a little fresh seasons,
a little fragile. Last year was better, don't get me wrong,
off season shoulder surgery, new coordinator. I think it's realistic

(44:06):
that he'll put up better numbers this season. I think
that's the best supporting cast he's had, and he does
have a lot of experience. But Dan, this is where
I tell you something else. Okay, if this is gonna work, Yes,
we need a little bit of that Morton season salt. Dan,

(44:28):
that's not bad. That's not bad. Not a sponsor, could
be we need a little for him. We need a
little bit of that Morton season salt to really elevate
the flavor profile of this offense and go next level.
I was thinking maybe we need some Morton saltiness, Like,
we need a little bit more aggression from him, a
little more a veteran. He's a veteran, he's seasoned. Yeah,

(44:49):
we need the seasoned salt. Okay, that could be an
nil opportunity, Baron, That's what I'm saying for him. Get
Cody to call his contacts.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
Yeah, they Okay, if they start six, seven and zero
and maybe he has like a crazy game winning throw
against ASU on the road October eighteenth.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
That's the season style raised, that's the season salt.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
Then you get that Morton's deal. Okay, So I'm one
out of two on this episode with these that's not bad.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
That's okay. We're still working.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
Yeah, yeah, I don't see like Kansas might be a
look ahead spot before ASU. Kansas State on the road
is going to be tough.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
I've got nine and three. I've got nine and three.
I think they lose at Utah, I think they'll lose
at Arizona State, and I think they lose at Kansas State.
Those are my three. I like this team a lot.
I think they're going to be the mix, but those
three road games in particular are going to be tough.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
So if you're what are you looking at as their
biggest single like position group or element question like their
secondary or giving up big plays which they did last year.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
Oh, I think it's they got to get a pass rush.
When they addressed it, obviously, they spent on a defensive line,
they spent on it, they knew it was a concern.
I want to see if it actually materializes, because some
of us are old enough to remember a team like
a Florida State last year, which supposedly built up the
best defensive line in college football and they went missing.

(46:18):
So just because they say it and just because everybody
is excited about it, doesn't mean it's actually gonna happen.
I got to see this before.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
I'm willing to believe it in terms of what their
schedule looks like against what you and I think a
lot of people perceive their weakness or weaknesses to be
given where the defense was last year, new defensive coordinator,
new personnel, everything like that, but still needs to be corrected.
They don't play a lot of like sure thing downfield
threat passing offenses its schedule.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
They don't. It's Oregon State and Utah and Houston and
Kansas is starting over at receiver. I believe ASU, yes, dangerous,
Oklahoma State probably not. Kansas State. Big questions BYU, big questions, UCF,
big questions, West Virginia big questions. So it's quite like
there's no Baylor on this schedule, right, So, which, by
the way, can sidebar No butt game, no butt game,

(47:07):
no no butt game. Okay, that's a.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Decision Big twelve. It actually works out really nicely schedule
wise in terms of quarterbacks and passing offenses.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
Faced shall we go on to Baylor. Let's Baylor was
eight and five last year. Their win total is seven
and a half. I want to believe the championship pipe here.
There is real championship pipe for Baylor. The combo of
the defense and the schedule for me are a little

(47:37):
too much to get over. Okay, I am cautiously optimistic
about this team. I've got him at eight and four.
I think there's potential for more. But I'm just it's
stuck in my cross kind of like with Texas Tech. Honestly,
the question is not so much offense, it's defense. Right.
I think we can agree at this point, at least

(47:57):
for the moment. It changes every six months. David Randa's
seat has cooled, or would you agree with that for
the time being.

Speaker 3 (48:08):
If the defense was a nightmare last year and he
did take over play calling duties and it's once again bad,
it becomes a situation of what is it that you
say you do here?

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Yeah? If the defense is a little Thomas mccowski situation, yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
Right, So that's that's the I'm like, if you're going
into a season with a tough schedule and a defense
that needs to improve, and they addressed it in the portal,
not as aggressively as Texas Tech, but they did address it,
especially upfront, and I think we they have an Ohio
State transfer coming in at corner, Colvin Simpson Hunt. I
want to say they're doing their best to address it.

(48:45):
They spent to try and address it. It could be
a situation where the offense is a little too successful,
that scores a little bit too quickly, or little two
feast or famine.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
That's the problem. So the defense is definitely the wild card.
And you're right they added some help from the portal.
The past defense was a trope. They got eaten alive
by chunk plays a year ago trying to boost it.
Keaton Thomas is still there, which helps the He was
the linebacker who had a one hundred and fourteen tackles
last year, which sounds like a lot you can build
around a guy like that. Okay, I think the calculation

(49:15):
with Baylor is pretty straightforward, and it's the defense is
going to dictate the team stealing not unlike Texas Tech.
There's a lot of overlap there the issue that I
think I am grappling with. The offense is going to
be friggin awesome. You'd think so. You would think so.
Last year was a huge success under Jake Spavitoll and

(49:36):
it's possibly going to be even better this season. Sawyer Robertson,
who was kind of an afterthought before last season because
I remember it was like the Kwan Finn. We were
talking about the Kwan Finn. Yeah before that Blake shape
and yeah, Sawyer Robertson emerged as arguably the best quarterback
in the whole damn Conference. By the end of the year.
He had twenty two touchdown passes in his final eight

(49:56):
games of the season. The backfield was also a real
big success story. Bryce and Washington became the best freshman
running back in Baylor history, going over one thousand yards
twelve touchdown. Dawson Pendergrast, another name, added seven hundred more
yards on the ground. This is a good quarterback, a

(50:17):
good running back duo, one of the better offensive lines
in the country. Just hit stop. That's good. That's a
good starting point for a spav offense that I think
he's going to be able to ratch it up again.
So agreat. I like where they're at with that. I
think if Baylor is good enough on offense to win
the conference, this is where we start relying on Dave

(50:39):
Randa and the quote unquote brilliant defensive mind. Yeah. I
don't want to count him out. It's not a quote
unquote he has fielded too many good defenses for us
to not think he can figure this out. But it's
quote unquote because the pass defense was so terrible last year.
Let's throw it up. There's more work to do here.
Here is the if I can pull out the flawfinder

(50:59):
here for a secon, I'm going to introduce my flawfindal Okay,
thank you, Lorenzo holy Hell. The schedule September is September
to remember, yeah, Lee Hell. In the first half of
the season, Baylor has Auburn, SMU, Arizona State, Kansas State,
and TCU. That's not even mentioning that they're going to
face two teams that made the College Football Playoff in

(51:21):
Arizona State and SMU. Okay added context there. That is
a murderer's row and it's tough, especially for a defense
that struggled last year against the freaking pass that's a problem.
So the whole game with Baylor this season for me,
how much is the defense going to improve? Can the
defense improve enough that it's not going to sabotage what

(51:44):
should be one of the better offenses in the whole conference?
You're right, I mean, you are right.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
The schedule's tough, the defense hopefully is improved with better
personnel on all three levels. And I don't know, I
think they are squarely in the conversation for the most
entertaining team in the conference.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
Oh so easily, easily if they.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
Can win some forty one thirty eights instead of losing
forty one thirty eights and close games. And the schedule
after that first half, because it's what Oklahoma State is before.
Oklahoma State is an incredible sandwich spot. By the way,
in Stillwater against Baylor, and that's always like house of
horrors for Baylor. Good teams, bad teams. Whatever, Baylor and Stillwater,

(52:27):
there's a scar tissue there. It's between Arizona State and
Kansas State. If I'm reading this schedule.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Card, that is a letdown look ahead sandwich scene. One. Yeah,
in a tough place to play in a game that's
been weird you're right.

Speaker 3 (52:38):
If the defense isn't fully fixed halfway through the season,
they're on the road in Fort Worth in the rivalry spot.
That's tough. At least they get Utah at home, but
Utah is probably not a team that's going to fully
take advantage of whatever Baylor might have. That weakness on
the seconds second half is demonstrably it's more manageable for sure.

(52:59):
The final five October twenty fifth on at Sincy home
against UCF home against Utah, at Arizona home against Houston.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
So those are five games that feel gettable in my view.
Utah will be tough, but otherwise five games very gettable
for that to me with this team and their offense,
feel like they should be almost gimmes in the win column.
By the way sidebar.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
As you know, Big twelve reputation sort of shifts, you know,
before it's all offense, no defense, and then we had
a bunch of interesting defenses, you know, highlighted by what
Jim Knowles in Oklahoma State for a few years there.
Not that it's shifted in any one direction dramatically in
this moment, maybe it's shifted back to offense and we're
talking about a bunch of teams with big defensive questions,

(53:45):
really strong and deep quarterback conference these this year, it
looks like, especially the top half, like not elite incredible
NFL field, but quality, fun, interesting, varied styles and like
you were talking about, you know, maybe by the end
of the year last year, sorry, Robertson was the best

(54:06):
or one of the best quarterbacks. We're also talking about
Sam Levitt and should Or Sanders last year. Like it
was a really fun grouping last year, and it appears
to be this year as well, which I think just
highlights the entertainment factor here.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
And we're not even gonna talk about Josh Hoover on
this episode. We'll talk about in the next episode. He's
another one. He's another one who quietly has emerged as
one of the better, one of the better arms in
the conference. For sure. We got three teams left here, Dan,
all right, where are we going? And they are West
Virginia UCF in Arizona. They are on the opposite end

(54:38):
of the Big twelve spectrum for a whole multitude of reasons.
Two of them have new coaches, one decided to retain
their coach. Why don't we start with West Virginia. Okay,
let me start with this on West Virginia. Okay, I'm ready.
How many previews do we read? More? Putting this together
as many as we can.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
Try to watch some games from last year to understand
the context of what fans are going through. I try
to reread all the numbers, advanced, normal, whatever. There's a
lot of information downloading to our pe brains. Would you
say that by now, after doing this for all these years,
that we have.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
Generally gotten used to the format of previews, we know
what to expect when we're reading previews. We know how
to kind of decipher them and interpret what the authors
are saying. Is that fair to say that is?

Speaker 3 (55:29):
There are very few surprises with regard to interview research,
although as the transfer portal takes hold this year, I
learned that there is a Limestone University. I think UCF
has a receiver coming in from a D two school
named Limestone University. So those are always a surprise.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
Whenever someone lists a punter as a strength, that either
means the team is going to be really good or
really bad. Okay, there is no in between. If you
are listing a punter, yeah in your preview as a strength.
I think I know how this is going to go

(56:11):
for West Virginia this year. Okay, I think this is
a ginormous rebuild. It is that, that's for sure. But
Oliver Straw, boss punter, he's back and he is ready
to take the next step and become an NFL punter.
So there's that. This is the state of West Virginia
football right now. But Neil Brown's out, got rid of

(56:32):
him finally, rich Rod back in. It is a full friggin'
line change. Fifty two incoming transfers. That is second only
to Purdue by two. Purdue at fifty four, Yeah, that
place is emptied out, completely emptied out. The fifty two number,
by the way, is eleven more than the next closest,

(56:54):
which are North Carolina, Oklahoma State and ucf Fifty two
is also, just for context, further context, that is equivalent
to what Dion brought with him his first year at Colorado.
So remember how big of a story that was. Maybe
it's commonplace now in the Portal era, everybody's doing it,
but remember how big of a deal that was and

(57:15):
how much we talked about it. Fifty two is a
big old number, and that's what rich Trod's got this year.
That's ten plus starting basketball teams. That's right, that's exactly right,
double digit starting basketball teams coming in for a line
change in Morgantown. We know who Richrod is at this point.
We know what he's going to do. He's going to

(57:36):
try to build a beast of a ground assault, and
I think especially this year, because that's one of their
relative strengths. I just don't know how you handicap a
team with fifty ten new players.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
Like I like the Hires, Yeah, like they need to
be evaluated in the medium term. Like as we see
what recruiting looks like two three cycles in both high
school and portal, we see the Hires again. Zach very
much a defensive mind in demand.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
You know what I found surprising about him? Please? Surprisingly enough,
Zach ally wants to run more of an aggressive, attacking defense.
I appreciate that. Finally somebody has the guts to say it.
They're gonna try some stuff. It might not work, but
I think it'll be fun to watch. I like Jimmery
Robinson had a beast of a season for UTSA, was
first team All American. He's there. They gave up something

(58:25):
like thirty two points per game last season. There's a
pretty good chance it's gonna end up around there again
this year. But they're gonna try some stuff fin like
Zach Glly, So there's that. I'm with you on that
front from what I can tell. The other interesting bit
here with West Virginia and how they're gonna build their offense.
I think they're gonna fly the whole plane or build
the whole plane out of Jaheem White. Not the worst

(58:45):
idea little to healthy five seven five Speaking of bowling balls,
he is going to get a steady diet. They're going
to keep him as happy as humanly possible so that
he doesn't transfer go pro after the season, right, I
think that's the plan if you are wondering. Also what
happened to CJ. Donaldson who they used to have. He's
playing for Ohio State now the yeah playing for Ohio State.

(59:08):
So but otherwise, like huge rebuild along the lines, unclear
who is getting targets out wide? Unclear who's going to
be the quarterback? Right? This is a huge control al
delete situation. Dan who transferred to Jalen Henderson from A
and M. Jalen Henderson from A and M or it's
going to be Nico, Nico Marshall, Marishall, I think it's
Mark y'all. Mark y'all.

Speaker 3 (59:30):
I think I don't know right in so dot Com
one of those two guys going to be the quarterback.
Also a tough schedule, marky All, Yeah, tough schedule. This
is a foreign eight team. It's four and eight team.
It's a rebuild.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
But you know what, though I don't often like retreads, Yeah,
rich Rod knows West Virginia. Rich Rod had a ton
of success at West Virginia, knows what it takes to
win their rich Rod coming back to West Virginia has
I think animated the fan base. I don't think it's
a bad move at all to bring rich Rod back,
and I'm excited to see what he does in year

(01:00:06):
two and three. So the good news is for this hire.

Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
And if you do like re treads, don't like red treads,
whatever is. He hasn't just been sitting at a media
job for like seven years since leaving Arizona. Jacksonville State
was good, it was a good team. He was a
coordinator at what Ole Miss and Jacksonville State. Like he
wants to coach, He wants that grind, He wants to

(01:00:31):
produce offenses. He wants to build programs. So there is
something that seems energizing about rich Rod. Obviously, you know
you're getting the quotes of like I never should have left.
This is home, and that's smart to say. And the
recruiting he did at West Virginia was terrific all those
years ago, especially up and down the southeast. So I

(01:00:51):
think right now it's it's not an experiment, but it's
sort of a fascination.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
What does this look like?

Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
How long is it going to take to become something?
And what does that something looked like as compared to
last time. Yeah, I'm entertained by it. Good good for
wu Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
Speaking of quotes, quote don't take the wrong job. Yeah yeah, yeah,
well there's that quote too. I said I wouldn't leave
unless it was someplace you could win a national championship,
and then he decided on Nebraska. I got tugged in
a direction to try and help my alma mater and
didn't really want to do it. It wasn't a good move.
I'm lucky to get back to a place where I

(01:01:30):
was a lot happier. End quote that's from Scotti. Frost
got some headlines with that one in response to a
question from our Frank Chris Venini out at the Athletic. Yeah,
I did not read enough on this because I have
been nose down deep in the weeds here studying preview content.

(01:01:53):
I can't imagine that quote went overwhell with Nebraska people.
Or maybe it did. I don't know, but man, what
a what a weird thing to say. It's strange, and
we talked about this before. I'm okay with honesty. The
phrasing probably could have been improved, but it sounds like
those bridges were long since charred between Scott Frost and Nebraska.

(01:02:18):
So I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
He appreciates a hot mic and the you know, the
spirit of what he was saying was I had it good.
I never should have left. This place is special, and
maybe he should have thrown into like, you know, Nebraska's
always going to hold a special place in my heart.
You know, personally, I'm a little bummed it didn't work
out there, but I think I'm just a UCF guy.
That's probably the spirit of what he intended to say.

(01:02:41):
But also he went on some he dipped into that
emotional well a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
Oh yeah, I'm good with that's great, makes me happy. Oh,
it makes us happy. Absolutely fantasy thing. Actually if I could,
oh please. UCF has sixty seven new players this year,
an entire roster in flux. But in reading the preview content,

(01:03:06):
the coach quote really likes the talent on the roster
and course, of course, of course, my favorite thing that
I found reading preview mags this year, every coach loves
their talent. You got a bunch of guys in here
who are just going to compete for starting roles, and
I think they're going to catch a lot of people

(01:03:26):
by surprise. Here is the harsh reality though for UCF
two new schemes. They lose RJ. Harvey out of the backfield,
who was a bull. Yeah, rebuilding out wide, it's a
rebuild up front other than at left tackle, basically a
rebuild on defense to a very serious degree in the secondary. Also,

(01:03:47):
their quarterback is going to be inconsistent, likely with Raven
Taven Jackson, who I love from Indiana, or Jae Curry.
You could just use the word love however you want.
Words don't always have meeting, Okay, Okay, not talking about this, okay,
or Jae Curry Brown Jacurry Brown by the way I

(01:04:08):
think was my quarterback at Miami in our college football
dynasty that we run out a for ballers dot com.
Still not but I got a couple of good years
out of him. Didn't win anyky, but I got a
couple of good years.

Speaker 3 (01:04:20):
No, I'm just saying. In NCAA twenty five he was
on the Miami roster.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
He transferred. I took him in as a transfer. I
took him under both we took him back. Yeah, I
took him back. Oh my, look at you in your forgetting.
I lost cam Ward. I needed a guy Ja Curry
Brown step up. He was a great, real bull at
the ball, couldn't throw, but uh, we got an Alex
Grinch defense here. We got a tough schedule. I don't
think you see it's going to be good. I do
think there are plenty of reasons to watch him be entertained,

(01:04:47):
because this is all going to be a big old
experiment in year one.

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
Yeah, and that's okay. And basically what they need to
establish is that they are a good home players leaving
the three big schools in Florida.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
Yes, that the Gator.

Speaker 3 (01:05:05):
Doesn't work out, Seminal doesn't work out. Caine doesn't work out,
and they have been on this roster. There are guys
you mentioned, Garry Brown, I Jelick Kelly, is that Hey
Brownce I don't know, from Miami who had a nice
freshman year. They need to establish that sort of home
base for portal players from the state of Florida who

(01:05:25):
went to the Big ten or the Big twelve or
something and want to come back. Obviously, I know they
are a Big twelve team within the state of Florida,
but you know what I'm saying, they just need to
show some bite, some fight, and anything else that rhymes.
I think they are interesting. It's weird that Scott Frost
is back on a certain level with everything that's gone

(01:05:48):
on since.

Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
But I don't know. It didn't work with Gus Miles on.
But they're excited. Everybody's excited about this. They want to
hope the money is excited. Okay, the quote didn't affect them.
They're thrialties back. Yeah, and you know I will say this,
I'm dunking on the preview bags a little bit and
Scott Frost a little bit here. He likes the talent.

(01:06:10):
The previews like to write about him liking the talent.
I like some of the talent. I talked a lot
about Tavin Jackson. I called him Raven Tavian. I know
you just like rhymes, though I do like rhymes. I
think the offense is going to play real quick, which
is fun. We're gonna have a motion creates a motion
situation here with this offense where there's just a lot
going on all the time, and the quarterbacks on the

(01:06:33):
roster I think are playmakers. Dwayne Thomas is a five
to eight slack guy from Charlotte. He is a burner
and it would not surprise me at all if he
turns into one of these gadget guys where they just
find ways to get him involved. I read a lot
of good things about Waydeen Charles to the freshman who's
gonna get some time out wide. So I don't hate
those guys. I don't hate what they did upfront on defense.

(01:06:54):
The line is probably gonna be okay. I just don't
think it's that good of a roster, and it's gonna
be a transition here with a new It's not there, Yeah,
it's not there yet, but you know, there are some
reasons to be excited, not the least of which is
they have now codified the Bounce House. That's true. It
is the Akraschuer Bounce House. As the name of the
stadium previously, I believe it was the f b C

(01:07:15):
Mortgage Stadium. Doesn't have the same bite to it.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
What's the other thing that's got you all a flutter?
It's that the possibility of a space themed trophy game
against Houston the two NASA that's what you mentioned that
to me?

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
Yeah, I saw that there was buzz about it. Yeah, yeah,
and that just that scratched you where you are. Let's
do it. I'm ready. I'm on four and eight for
UCF this year. Yeah, that sounds about right. Final team
is the Arizona Wildcats. Dan, isn't this where Mama Rubinstein
went to school? It is. I'm a legacy. I'm a
Cat legacy. I love Tucson. Also Ari Wasserman Arizona. Yeah,

(01:07:51):
of course.

Speaker 3 (01:07:51):
And Eugene Edgerson, role player on the nineteen ninety seven
National Championship basketball team. Right, that was a great team,
by the way, Mike Baby Miles Simon, really fun.

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
Simon says, championship.

Speaker 3 (01:08:04):
Yeah, the old name I had, the I had the character,
the caricature shirt, the championship shirt Lude Olsen right there.

Speaker 1 (01:08:10):
Yeah, that's snow White Hare Big Cats guy. Yeah, Jason
Terry right after love It. Yeah, okay. I will reiterate
what we said last episode. The the buzz around Brent
Brennan was like non existent down the stretch last season,
and we heard rumblings that they were wondering isy and

(01:08:33):
over his head. Should we move away options? Yeah? Yeah, Instead,
they I think just invested into Nil, which is honestly
a model we have seen work elsewhere. I think there
are two ways to look at Arizona this year. If
you're the optimist, you could say, well, they're bringing back
no Fafida. I've seen a lot of assumption out there

(01:08:53):
that he's just gonna revert back to the form we
saw two years ago that last year was an off year.
Don't worry about it. He's going to snap back into form.
They also have two new coordinators, Set Deggi Danny Gonzalez.
I think we like Danny Gonzalez a lot. I'm not
sure about Set Deggi.

Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
Weird coordinator moves last year to be clear from Arizona
with Duyna Quina. Oh god, I'm blanking on his name.
What's his name, the Syracuse head coach Dino Baby, you
know Babers.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
Thank you. I beat Google. By the way, now, I
was having like Syracuse coach fire two thousand Babers. I
wasn't typing. I have my hands over my face. Yeah,
I know. Uh. I like the secondary sm pieces back
and total, they've got like nine starters in total if
you count the transfers on defense. Could be optimistic about

(01:09:41):
hitting the reset button. The fact that Brent Brennan had
a pretty good track record before he got to Tuson.
These are all things I think you could gravitate towards
if you're trying to be an optimist. But if you're
a skeptic like I am, right, I think you're going
to side eye the idea that Noah Fafeeda is just
going to get better after losing one of his best
friends and maybe the best player of all time at

(01:10:03):
the program and TAC like suddenly that's just gonna He's
gonna snap back into form. I think you also look
at the roster and say, what am I trusting here? Right?
And the schedule is tough. It's a really tough schedule,
so I just think there's more working against the optimism,

(01:10:23):
and I'm not trying to dunk on Brent Brennan or Arizona.
I generally root for Arizona, but I'm just more of
a skeptic this year. I think you've got to have
a coach that's an escape artist to avoid the wrath.
As I said last episode of year two, year zero
essentially coming in year two, which is what this looks
like to me. I don't have faith that Fafit is

(01:10:44):
going to improve. Even if he does, I don't think
it's going to be enough to like ultimately alter where
I think this program is headed. I've got him going
three and nine and firing Brent Brennan. I think there's
room for improvement.

Speaker 3 (01:10:58):
I think some of the guys that they brought in
on both sides of the ball were productive transfers, coming
in a lot of whom from smaller schools. I kind
of like, well, I definitely like Danny Gonzalez TBD on
Seth Dagi. Danny Gonzalez has been a successful coordinator running
a three three five.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
You know, if you're not.

Speaker 3 (01:11:17):
Able to find big, deep defensive line rooms, there's something
about a three three five build around speed that they
have the opportunity to be again. It could be a
five and seven version for an eight version, a weird
little stinker of the Big twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
Okay, where they're.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
Like they're not good, but you know in week three
and Week nine and week eleven they were actually pretty scrappy. Sure,
they have that potential. To me, I don't know if
it goes beyond that. I don't think their line play
is impressive enough to be a Bowl team. It's just
too many new faces and it seems to be a
pretty low ceiling there. Yeah, so yes, I think they

(01:11:59):
can be scrappy sometimes, but beyond that, I don't put
much on Arizona, especially with the schedule, as you mentioned,
pretty tough throughout Kansas State.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
On a Friday at Iowa State, they go to Houston,
to Colorado to Cincinnati. It's not really the road games here.

Speaker 3 (01:12:17):
But it's road games against the teams that if some
of them aren't so good. Yes they're on the road,
those are the winnable games hypothetically, But now they're on
the road.

Speaker 1 (01:12:25):
Yeah, that's right. And they do close out the your
Territorial Cup on a Friday against Arizona State. Baylor's on
this thing. Kansas is on this thing BYU and Oklahoma
State are on the There's just a lot here and
for a team that I think is like I said
year zero in year two, if the winnable games are
on the road, that makes it tough. That makes it
really tough. Agree, why don't we leave it there? Eight

(01:12:50):
teams down? Yes, we got eight more to go. We
were actually pulling a double shift. As people are listening
to this, We're going to record the second of these
two parts a little bit later today. So if we
sound raspy and big twelve part three, that's why it's
okay right in solidverble edge pour and everything we have
into it. Sorry, where are they emailing soliverblegiba dot com.

(01:13:12):
There it is if you're interested, if you have more
thoughts on this, as I say you, you will always
know your team better than us. We encourage the feedback.
We'd love for you to weigh in and let us
know or wrong. Yeah, but just don't be a dick
about it. That's generally the rule.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
But if you are a dick about it, be kind
of funny and weird with it, right, Like you can
go explore the space. By the way, there's probably a
lot of people here who have been like edge of
the seat wondering when we're going to weigh in the
sourdough I talked about on part one of the show.
I was going to ask you about the bread yips.
It does stiff starter, It doesn't win started gips anymore. No,

(01:13:51):
I went seventy percent hydration on the starter, so I
stiffened that up a little bit for some more yeast activity,
a little bit fewer bacterium in the starter. Stiff stiff
did basonage so out of the water in different stages.
Absolutely killer loaf this morning, Absolutely killer great oven spring.
Recommend a shift to a stiff starter to all struggling with.

Speaker 1 (01:14:14):
That nice elefant ear on that too. I saw the
picture you sent me.

Speaker 3 (01:14:17):
It's in the ear. Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice ear on there.
Very happy with it. I'm about to cut it open now.

Speaker 1 (01:14:23):
Why don't we leave it there. It's been a long episode,
but it's been a lot of fun talking through the
top end parts of the bottom of the Big twelve.
We've got kind of that meaty middle tier coming up
on the next episode, which I think will be equally
as fun. Hit Follow, Hit, Subscribe if you have yet
to do so, leave a star rating or a review
if you can. That helps. Of course, tell your friends,

(01:14:44):
always tell your friends about the show. We're always trying
to grow the footprint here. And if you want to
further support what Dan and I do, if you want
to get episodes a little bit early without the ads,
get access to our discord playing our games. V E
r B A l l e r s dot com.
And since I know you like the sing song Dan,
of course v E r B A l l e

(01:15:05):
r s dot com. Oh you nailed it, Tye. What
a guy. For that guy over there, my good friend
Dan Rubinstein, for myself, Tie hilding Brand, thank you so
much for downloading, for listening, for sporting. We'll talk to
y'all next episode in the meantime, As always, stay solid, peace,

All Episodes

BIG 12 TEAM PREVIEWS: Arizona State, Kansas State, Iowa State, Baylor, Texas Tech, West Virginia, UCF & Arizona | 2025 College Football

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

24/7 News: The Latest

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}BIG 12 TEAM PREVIEWS: Arizona State, Kansas State, Iowa State, Baylor, Texas Tech, West Virginia, UCF & Arizona | 2025 College Football