BIG 12 TEAM PREVIEWS: Utah, TCU, Kansas, Cincinnati, BYU, Oklahoma State, Houston & Colorado | 2025 College Football - The Solid Verbal College Football

Episode Transcript
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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
dake Eda State? Is that? Whoo whoo? And Dan and
Tie Dan Rubinstein welcome back. This is a college football

(00:22):
podcast known as the Solid Verbal. This is part three
yes of our Big Twelve preview series. We did the
acc go back and listen to that. We did a
group of five go back and listen to that. Still
to Come is the Big Ten? Still to Come?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
As the SEC and Notre Dame and Yukon of course
got Limestone University Deep preview. I looked it up by
the way mid episode two of the Big Twelve because
I think it's UCF who has a receiver transferring in
from Limestone University? Ty throw out a state? What state
is Limestone University home in? It's not barely English? Is

(00:56):
it located within Pennsylvania? South Carolina? In South Carolina? It's
never a bad guest to guest.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
PA never All the greats are from PAS know. Nevertheless,
this is another preview episode. Thank you for hanging here
with us. Hit follow hit subscribes that you don't miss
any of the episodes of Verballers dot com v E
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(01:23):
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Speaker 2 (01:39):
You would love that.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
All that stuff is very, very helpful. Dan, We've got
eight teams before us today, those being Utah TCU, Kansas,
Cincinnati BYU, Houston, Oklahoma State, and of course Colorado Buffalos.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Dan, Yes, we do. And if there's nothing else. We
don't know if these teams are going to be incredible
or terrible, but there's something about the Big twelve that
has something for everyone.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Fanishing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
I can make a case for any of these teams continue.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
True love and miracles. Why don't we stick with that? Yeah,
let's start with Utah, Dan, Okay, the Utah Utes formerly
of the Pac twelve, are you used to the fact
yet that they're in the Big twelve.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
I'm not used to any of this. I see Utah
in a preview magazine, I see Utah spoken about on
some sort of TV show or video on YouTube or something,
and I'm like, oh, man, how's Oregon gonna handle this
Utah defense?

Speaker 1 (02:47):
This is real tough.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
We got a first year starting quarterback in Dante Moore
to think about, like, Oh, no, I guess they're not
going to write cecles anymore? Huh going to that? Every
time I see any of these teams, I think about
it within the context of what does this mean for
different Ways Coast matchups or Oregon games? And I'm thrown.
I'm old and thrown.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
The only one that I can sort of tolerate is
Colorado because they were previously they were in this conference.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
But there were a lot of interesting well okay, I
shouldn't say there were a lot of interesting Pac twelve
games involving Colorado. There were a lot of huge performances
against Colorado from West Coast teams over the years. So
I got used to the Buffaloes out west.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
I think that's fair. So go back listen to part
two where we covered the other eight teams in the
Big twelve. Go back and listen to part one, where
we talked through what we call the tiers of the
Kingdom and tried to group them accordingly. Utah was one
of those teams that for me was in the top tier,
which had six teams. For you, it was on the cusp.

(03:46):
It was one tier down. So I think at least
relative to the field and where you and I ranked, Utah, yeah,
pretty close. The points of separation with our tiers varied
a little bit, but Utah was a five and seven
team a year ago. They're over under this year is
seven and a half. For my money, one of the
more interesting teams in the conference and probably the country. Sure,

(04:09):
if I'm being real with you, because this is a
program coming off of its first losing season in over
a decade. We had wondered for a while if Kyle
Whittingham might just pack it in, if the game had
passed him by. You know, we've seen this happen with
coaches that have been around for a while. But alas
he is back, and I think provided everybody can stay healthy,

(04:29):
and that's a big if I really like this roster,
I really get what he's got here. Dan, I think
I'm probably a little bit higher on Utah than you are,
But again, we both kind of have them in the
same range. So what's stuck out to you when you're
going through and looking at the youths.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
That if they're similar this year, that they might be
altitude Iowa? Who can't finish? I mean, you're talking about
the quarterback injuries, A long time successful defensive coordinator, a
terrific a blit to develop linemen and defensive players, but
an inability to figure things out on offense and yet
still win a ton. They are the big twelves Iowa

(05:10):
and I don't know who that is insulting too, because
Iowa actually did take a step forward on offense last year.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
They did.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
But yeah, that's now becoming the annual question with Utah.
And we've had camerasing injuries, and we've had this Utah
program win conference championships but at the same time or
compete for conference championships previously at the same time, we
have a similar question this year of like, Utah should
have a pretty incredible defense this year, they return enough

(05:39):
and bring in enough and their starting pieces at all
three levels are interesting or have star power potential to
the point where they should win a bunch of games
Utah these last couple of years, though especially last year,
they've also been a study in winning as a skill
that Utah didn't necessary really have, largely because of injury,

(06:02):
but also they were in those games they were losing
game seventeen thirteen or twenty one to twenty or something
like that, that they just didn't have the juice to finish,
or the players to finish, or the creativity to finish,
or didn't get the breaks to finish. That they played
in so many close games, but weren't you know, the
defense gave them a chance in those close games, but

(06:24):
weren't able to take that one extra step that The
big question now is is this a formula that can
win you nine games in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
Well, first things first, on the defense, I'm with you.
I like the defense too. Yeah, I don't think they're
quite as deep though, And I think that's especially true
along the defensive line, where Utah is historically been really solid.
And I only bring this up because they've had so
many injury issues and I don't know the first thing

(06:56):
about how you solve a problem like that. But I
wish there were a little bit more depth, especially upfront
on defense, because if that goes down, I think that
causes an issue. I think generally speaking, though, you're right,
I like where the defense is at. I'm actually really
high in this offense, really high in this offense. And
I understand where you're coming from, because, frankly, it's been

(07:18):
a minute since the Utah off or did I say
Utah or Iowa? You've got me in my own.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
I said, you said Utah, but you're in your own head.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Continue, it's been a minute since the Utah offense was
something to be excited about. Obviously, they were handcuffed by
the camerising thing for the last couple of years. Yes,
the best of whom was really good when he could
stay healthy, he just never was. So this off season,
what they did Andy Ludwig retired, they did some shopping

(07:44):
down in New Mexico. Dan They got themselves a new
offensive coordinator and Jason Beck a new quarterback, and Devin
Dan Pierre.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
They did.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Kyle Whittingham is on record saying that he's going to
give Jason Beck complete autonomy to run the offense. So
if we are to believe that This is a system
that looks a lot like a spread, has some RPO
stuff mixed in there. Jason Beck likes to run the ball.
That's been a staple as we know of good Utah offenses,

(08:14):
so shouldn't feel that different. But I think you take
that in tandem with what should be a pretty good
offensive line, one of the better units in the country.
All of that type of thing, especially when you've got
the line up front, seems to be a bit of
a catalyst for maybe getting this off the ground in

(08:35):
a hurry or quicker than expected. So I just think
it makes so much more possible when you've got that
line play and you're trying to change some stuff elsewhere.
There's still a lot that's unproven. The other thing that
I like about this setup is though it is a
new Utah quarterback, Devin dan Pierre ran this system with
Jason Beck last year and he had a lot of success.
He threw for twenty seven hundred yards, He ran for

(08:57):
over eleven hundred and thirty one total touchdowns. Go back
and listen to the episode we did a couple of
weeks back with our friend Tim Murray from Viisen, who
was talking this guy up as a Heisman dark horse.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Or how you might a view a dark horse in
a Heisman race. Yeah, sure, but he liked him.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, he is more of the Tommy Castellanos cloth and
that he's five ten, five to eleven. But dudes an
athlete and he's a lot of fun to watch. Passing
is inconsistent, you.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Know, But is that a real need for a quarterback
somebody who can throw consistently well? Is that something that
you would love to have from your quarterbacks or is
it just more about fun? Is that who you are
as a person?

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Ti, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
We've only been doing the show for like seventeen years.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
I would prefer the ratio would be better than twelve
to twelve, which was like it was last.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Year, mistake prone in a much smaller conference in the
Mountain West, Okay.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
I liked it. They got way Sean Parker from Wazoo, saying, also,
Tobias Merriweather is now on his third team. Started with
Notre Dame and went to Cow. Now he's at Utah.
Maybe he'll pop at Utah. I don't yep, who knows?

Speaker 2 (10:00):
So maybe this receiver will work out at Utah? Is
how a lot of different sentences have started and not
really finished in a great way. Continue.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
I just think there's a reason for optimism. There's a
reason for optimism. I like the fact that they're trying
something new with a coordinator who seems very much on
the rise, definitely, and I like devn Dan Pierre from
what I've seen, So I'm willing to remain optimistic until
proven otherwise. The burning question for me is how they're
going to hold up against the schedule, because it's a

(10:31):
really tough slate. They get most of the top teams
in the conference. The three big ones against Texas Tech,
Arizona State, and Kansas State are spread out. They're all
at home, which is good generally. I feel really good
about Utah, and as I said on I guess are
part one aggressively over on the seven and a half.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
I hope, so, I really do hope so because if
you look at this conference, how many teams do something
as well as Utah seems like they'll play defense or
has recently played defense. Not many, not many, no, if any.
Last year, Utah finished with the number nineteen defense in
the country per points per drive minus garbage time ASU

(11:16):
is twelve TCU seventeenth offensively, but this was not a
conference basically after maybe the BYU defense last year that
offered much in the way of like a nationally impressive defense. No,
So yeah, Utah being sort of alone on that island
in the conference, I think is a positive that they

(11:38):
are able to do something that not many teams, it seems,
have the ceiling to do. So I like Utah here,
would you say seven and a half?

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Seven and a half is what I got?

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Schedule wise, they're opening what in Pasadena at UCLA? They
have Texas Tech on here they have Asu, but Asus
at home and Texas Tech is at home.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Actually, all those big games are at home, which I
like the road splits.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
It's a little trickier at the end at Baylor at Kansas,
and that Kansas is a week after the Kansas State game.
It's a tough end to the season, it seems.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
I I think seven and five, eight and four, the
number is perfect. So I'm being extremely boring here. I
don't feel crazy confident in the over in this moment. Yes,
I'm going to say because of coaching, because of consistency
behind the defense, I'm going to say they can go
eight and four, so I'll take the over barely. You're
pretty high on TCU. I am pretty high until you

(12:37):
look at the schedule. It's easy to be high on TCU.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
Yeah, you know, your face and your personality make up
for that extra seven to ten pounds and you can
probably get rid of the flawfinder is out here for TCU.
With the schedule, it is brutal. I've got them at
six and six this season because of the schedule, because
of the schedule. Because of the schedule, listen to this
at North Carolina to open up the season. They've got
SMU at home, ASU on the road, Kansas State on

(13:03):
the road, Baylor at home coming off of bye. By
the way, do go to West Virginia. I'm not crazy
about West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
But that's Baylor coming off of a bye, to be clear,
Baylor coming off TCU on the road at Kansas State
the week before Baylor, which is a feather in your
cap of being down on TCU. Continue, that's right, They've
got Iowa State on here, They're at BYU at Houston,
closed out the year at home against Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
So it's just really difficult across the board. There is
definitely that stretch in the middle of the season, as
you get to the latter part of September where they're
going SMU Arizona State, then after that a game at
home against Colorado. They should win that game against Colorado,
but at Kansas State back home against Baylor. It's just

(13:47):
like in pairs. The way this schedule is set up.
You've got two in a row on a couple different fronts,
and that's going to be really difficult to navigate for
a team that frankly did not run the ball at
all last year. And defense is always kind of a question.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
So here is the obvious counterpoint. TCU is and should
have one of the better passing offenses in the conference,
if not in the country. Given Josh Hoover's experience in
Sunny Dyke's background, this should be a good to very
good passing team. We can agree. Yeah, so when you
go through this schedule, SMU defensive questions, yes, yes, ASU

(14:28):
you had questions about their pass rush, Yes, yes, Okay,
that's a question. We both agree that ASU should be good.
Questions about the back end of Kansas State's defense, yeah, yes,
Baylor's pass defense questions, they didn't play pass defense exactly,
So questions fair. Iowa States defense beat up. I think
their secondary should be ahead of the front this year.

(14:49):
So maybe no secondary is a problem. Oh, secondary is
a problem for Iowa State. Okay, there's another one BYU
I think is replacing both corners. Yes, yeah, okay, So
BYU pass defense question. Houston loses a ton on defense,
yes yeah, okay, so and Cincinnati. I think we have
defensive questions as well. So while I'm with you that
the number of teams I just had to list is

(15:12):
pretty long. It's a long list of teams, but it's
not a list of teams that's immediately bringing to the
table obvious defensive competence, especially against the past.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
I think that's fair.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
So maybe TCU is the one who knocks that's all.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
Perhaps, and I'm guilty of this too. As we go
through all these teams, there have been more than a
few where I tend to judge how they're going to
perform based on their schedule. I agree as opposed to
kind of looking more. I guess inward at what the
team actually has and what I think they're going to
be good at. The offense is going to be really good.

(15:50):
I like, I love Joshueber. I like Josh hue from
the moment he started taking steps. Pete Thamil from ESPN
published a report a couple of weeks ago. Now Well
Tennessee one was interested in Josh Hoover after Nico decided
he wanted to go in the portal and Josh Hoover
is staying put through for thirty nine hundred yards last year.
This year depended on who steps up out wide. Four

(16:13):
of their five top guys are gone. I like Eric McCallister.
Here is Eric McAllister, Dan you mentioned him a couple
episodes ago. I like him as the big play guy.
But I think they're going to need someone else to
step up, someone else to make the jump and go
next level. Jordan Dwyer was one of the top FCS
receivers last year at Idaho. They bring him down, so

(16:34):
that could be interesting to watch. They've got a good line.
They do need to find a way to run the
ball better. That was a real problem a year ago.
But the offense is fine. The offense is going to
score points against almost everybody. It's just who are the
defensive playmakers? Man? They got better on defense. They lost
some of the bigger guns this time around, but they
did improve. They did go to the portal to try

(16:54):
and to dress it, which Lord only knows how that's
going to shake out. I think at a minimum, only
do they neither run the ball. They also have to
get better against the run, because they were twelfth in
the conference last year run defense ninetieth nationally in yards
allowed before contact. So this is painting. I think a
pretty straightforward argument both for and against TCU. To your point,

(17:15):
the offense is there. Yes, the defense got better, but
it was still lacking in some key aspects. And against
a schedule like this nine and four team a year ago,
I think it's possible they go six and six and
at the same time we come out of this saying
tc was actually a pretty good team.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Agree. Yeah, they won six to seven to finish out
the season last year. You're right about the questions on defense.
I also like that first year and it was last
year was the first year with Avlos. Yes, yeah, obviously, yep.
They stopped big plays, which like, if that's your first
line of defense, it was just like, Okay, the pass

(17:53):
rush isn't always there, the run defense isn't always there,
but you limit big plays. You have an offense that
can score points, have an experience coach who's probably not
going to go back to a national championship game, but
you know they're the coordinators are both experienced and competent.
The quarterback has experience. I think you and I are
on the same page of liking TCU, not loving this schedule.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
I don't hate their starting point. And the more I
talk about TCU out loud, the more I think I'm
kind of talking myself into them.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
I kind of feel like I'm doing that too. What
I say, six and six.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
See this happens every year with you and the Frogs.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
I know it does. I've had such a love hate
thing with TCU since the beginning of this podcast. Right,
I'll upgrade also seven and five, but I'm not going
to go any higher. I just think the schedule and
I have defense questions. I can't go higher.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
What's their number? Their win total number.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
TCUs win total is.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Six and a half, five and a half, six and
a half, six and a half. I would go over.
I have the feeling that this is an eight and fourteen.
I think they're seasoned enough that would be a good year.
I think eight and four is be really good year
fall with TCU.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah. Another team with the six and a half win
total is Kansas. They were five and seven a year ago.
The vibes are strong here, if only because they're reopening
the stadium. They call it the Booth. It's David Booth
Memorial Stadium. Yeah, they've been renovating it. Week zero at
home against Fresno State, reopening it. It's going to be

(19:25):
a big freaking deal.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
That's by the way, in like thirty nine days.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
It's crazy crazy. How close is that time of recording?
People are at the time of record, Yeah, it'll be
even a little bit closer to week zero. This is
a program, just have to say it. They were a
doormat before Lance Leipold got there, and this was one
of the things that he wanted them to invest in.
This was and I think they've talked about this as

(19:50):
being the missing puzzle piece or the last puzzle piece.
This stadium thing is a very very big deal for
this program, and it'll be cool to see them open
it up, I'm sure with a lot of emotion in
week zero. I am thoroughly entertained by Kansas this year.
Maybe I am for three reasons. Okay, hell on Jalen

(20:10):
Daniels of course, apparently still eligible, apparently for now.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Healthy, Yeah, that's a good thing.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Needs to stay healthy, which is not always a given.
Needs to be more consistent when he is assuming those
two things. He's a playmaker and this is wide open conference.
It's a team that runs a fun playbook. Speaking of which,
number two co offensive coordinators this year Matt Lubick Jim Zebrowski.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Okay, Lubick is.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
A guy that you know, we talked about him on
an episode, but he helped build the playbook a couple
of years ago with Andy Kotalnikki, and Zebrowski is cut
from kind of the same cloth. So tell me you're
not gonna want to watch if they get back to
running more of that oop to up offense. That was fun.
And then the other thing is they've got one of

(20:59):
the better schedules in the league. Okay, like in conference,
they get all the teams that I'm down on, they
get West Virginia and you see, yeah in Oklahoma State
in Arizona. If they win those four games and beat
both Fresno and Wagner, they need just one more along
the way to hit the over so I like the

(21:20):
over here. They've also got the border War against Miszoo,
which is back on the schedule for the first time
since twenty eleven. Great. Not a perfect team, you know,
they lose Devin Neil. There are some receiver transfers, but
that's a big question. The offensive line is a bit
of a question too, and they've got plenty of areas
of need and transition on the defensive side of the ball.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
But isn't the entire offensive question other than Jalen Daniels maybe,
and what it's Bryce Foster. They have a good center, yeah,
right from A and M.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah, but I feel pretty good about Kansas going over. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
I mean it's a starting point thing that quarterback. Defensive
front is experienced and seems good. Right. Defensive line specifically,
it's who are they stopping. It's who is shining at
skill positions on offense, which is a pretty big question.
Now you're going to stop people and who is going
to be responsible for moving the ball without Devin Neil

(22:20):
and those area basically the two functions of a football team, right, well,
especially a team like Kansas. Right the best of Kansas
is a team that has in the past few years
under lancelip Pold, developed quarterbacks, develop pass catchers, certainly developed
running backs, and so they have earned the benefit of
the doubt that they can identify and develop. There you

(22:41):
got to protect Jalen Daniels, especially given his injury history
and athleticism and propensity to try and extend plays. And
if the offense gets the benefit of the doubt that
they're going to find and develop people, then it should
be a good offense, which means that the defense has
to be complementary because they might find themselves on the
field quickly between scores or big plays whatever. And so
that to me is the even bigger question is who

(23:03):
is Kansas stopping? Who are they not stopping, and who
are the players that are able to make those plays?
How many players do they have at all three levels
to make those plays.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
I think it's a team with enough veteran leadership that
they'll benefit from this schedule and the fact that it's
a wide open conference. I mean great, quite literally anything
could happen. So I'm entertained by Kansas. I'm not expecting
a run into that top tier. But if we've come
to know anything about Kansas in this era anyway, they

(23:36):
can sneak up and get you. They got Iowa State
last year. They just find ways to kind of get
in these games. And when Jalen Daniels is healthy, they're
a different team altogether.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
So you're telling me that somehow Kansas finds.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
A way, I'm simply saying that life finds away. I
knew you were going to find a way to use
you literally said finds away. I knew you were going
to find a way to that out, and then I
found a way to find a way. You found the
way to find the way.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
Okay, Yeah, continue.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
Cincinnati, Okay, Bearcats also six and a half? Dan, where
you at with Cincy and Scott Sadderfield, I'm.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
Just sort of a neutral. I don't know, like, what
is it that is spiking your excitement?

Speaker 1 (24:23):
Tie?

Speaker 2 (24:24):
What is it about the roster, the schedule, the coaching staff,
the vibes, the momentum or lack thereof that has you
feeling decently good about where Cincinnati is in twenty twenty five.
I struggle to find it. Maybe you are a better
bloodhound here.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
I think it's fair to look at this version of Cincinnati,
which has a lot back on defense. Yeah, and ask
the same question basically, wonder why is this year going
to be any different?

Speaker 2 (24:57):
These were just kind of two average units last year.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
I think I think that's a totally fair question. You
can add players, but if you're not getting better in
close games, sure, sometimes that points to a culture thing,
a discipline thing. And for me, that's really the underlying
question with Cincinnati. I don't have an answer to that.
There are aspects of this team that I do like.

(25:22):
I actually found that I like Cincinnati a little bit
more than I expected. So we talked about Brandon Soresby
in part one. I really like him. He's a decent quarterback.
Sort of petered off down the stretch, but that was
more of a Cincinnati thing as opposed to a one
guy thing.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Five straight losses, missed a ball, yeah yeah, So.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
It was not a good end to the season by
any stretch. But you know, there are holes. They lose
four offensive linemen, six receivers, a twelve hundred yard back.
But I think in totality, the roster is still fine,
and the fact that Brendon Soarsby is back, Evan Pryor
is back, Deontae Corleone, one of the great names along

(26:01):
their defensive line is back. I think there is enough
to build around and enough to work with that this
team will be fine. I also think we are on
record both of us being pretty lukewarm about Scott Saderfield. Sure,
Year one was a disaster, I'm just not sure it

(26:21):
was entirely his fault because they jumped up to a
power conference. They lost a lot from the previous season.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
After recently making the College Football Playoff.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Though I know, I know your one was horrible. Year
two there was a lot back last year, schedule set
up really well, and then the dagger was, as you said,
they start five and two, they lose their last five
and the issue again comes back to I think discipline
and those moments where they lose their focus and they
shoot themselves in the foot. So for me, you ask

(26:55):
what am I into with Cincinnati. I think the roster
is actually fine, and I like the quarterback, and I
like some of the key pieces that they have on
this thing. Where I don't like Cincinnati is I don't
know if they can fix that other stuff, because that's
not always a roster thing that tends to be more
of how are you establishing accountability? The boring stuff that

(27:18):
frankly is not really worth talking about on previews like
this where people care about rosters and schemes and things
like that. Right, So I'm mixed. I do like the players,
I just don't know how they fix that part of
the team. They've got seven home games, which helps's good,
and one of the five road games quote unquote road

(27:38):
games is a neutral sider Week one against Nebraska and
Kansas City. Yeah at Arrowhead, right at Arrowhead. Yeah. Yes,
I think they're going to run a little bit more
because the running back room looks to me like a
relative strength. The receiver room is going to be work
in progress, so it's they're going to be running. I
think the defense you look at that they improved last season.
I think they continue on that pass still figure out

(28:00):
a pass rush, which is a recurring theme here. Their
pass rush has been on hiatus for a couple seasons
running now they got to get better at that. So
I'd be surprised personally with this roster, with this schedule,
since they didn't get to at least six wins. To me,
they look like seven and five, eight and.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
Four, so sort of under the radar, like not winning
big exciting games, but winning games against you know, the
bottom or the middle of the Big twelve doing all right,
maybe outside of the Nebraska game and the non conference
and you open your eyes and they're seven and five,
six and six.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
Again, the issue is not the record, which was underwhelming.
The issue is how they got to that record. It's
not even a player thing, it's just how they got
to that record. There were so many of those moments
that were very frustrating. I have to imagine we're incredibly
frustrating as a fan to watch. They have to improve

(28:55):
upon that asap. That is job number one for Scott Saderfield.
That there is palpable frustration within this fan base towards
Sadderfield and the job he's doing. So they gotta shore
that up. If you do nothing else, at least cut
down on the dumb mistakes and the stupid bonehead moments
that get you into trouble. And I think this would

(29:16):
be a better team for it, given the fact that
the roster is still okay, it's all right.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
So if they're all right because of an alright roster,
blurbs Ty Hildenbrandt of the Solid Verbal, the massive popular
popularity that I think.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
The most popular of the two hosts here.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Easily, easily, definitely. Here's what Cincinnati has in front of
them if they are competent. Okay, they have what looks
to be winnable games against Bowling Green, Northwestern State, UCF,
Oklahoma State, Arizona. Okay, by my account, that's five games
that we can just say look reasonably winnable if Cincinnati

(29:58):
is definitely competent, and then they have Kansas on the road.
We'll see what that Kansas, you know, the back half
of that defense and who steps up if there's an
offensive line to be heard from. We'll see what Utah
looks like on offense. Baylor is still going to have
defensive questions, and that's games at home. BYU could be
a mess on offense if quarterback doesn't work out. That's
a BYU team that you have to downgrade. What their

(30:21):
their ceiling looks like. They could be a very very
boring seven to five team when all of a sudden
dud with that schedule.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
I totally think that trucks. Okay, So yeah, I'm higher
on them than I expected. I guess the bigger question,
the more existential question for Saderfield, what is the fan
base willing to accept or how does the fan base
view success this season, because if success is like eight
and four, I don't think they're getting eight four. If

(30:51):
success is making a ball, you know, showing some improvement,
cutting down on some of those mistakes that I talked about,
then that's I think more attainable. But this is a
proud fan base that's used to doing well, as he said,
made the College Football Playoff. They're gonna need at some
point to see some results otherwise they're going to get

(31:11):
more impatient totally, of course, which is true I guess
for everybody.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
But I think it's a place a lot of coaches
have won. You mentioned BYU. BYU's in a.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Really interesting spot now given circumstances, I do tend to
trust in Kalani Sataki. I like Klanistaki. Burning question is
who's playing quarterback? Dan? Who's playing quarterback now? Because this
whole thing with Jake Rhetz Laugh and his departure due
to the honor code due to the civil law suit,
it came very late in the game. Klanie Sataki's definitely

(31:42):
proven that he can manage situations like this, but this
is a big one and it's really late in the game,
and an eleven and two team now entering this season
at time of recording with the seven and a half
win total, I don't know if that's come down at all.
They were a guess was already expecting a drop off
even before the rets laugh news came out. But now

(32:05):
with this, I think it opens up a whole other
portfolio of questions. Are you optimistic that they hit seven
and a half wins?

Speaker 2 (32:14):
No, just because we've seen teams with take your pick,
a quality defense and a developed offensive line, and then
there are just too many questions at quarterback, or there's
a late change because of injury or in this case
Rhet's laugh departing BYU. We've seen lows from BYU, We've
seen highs from BYU. I think this is just somewhere

(32:36):
in the middle. This feels like six and six, seven
and five, six and six, six and six probably vibes
right now. What is it, McKay hilden Brandt? Was that
the name Hillstead? McKay Hillstead. It's it's McKay Hillstead. It's
traycon Borgae or freshman bear Bachmeyer. Yes, there is another

(32:56):
Hank Bachmeyer. Bear Bachmeyer. You know there's another one.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
There's a tiger Bachmeyer, isn't there tiger Bachmeyer? Yeah, well
I love it.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Okay, I think it's gonna be hell said. He threw
a little bit for Utah State a couple of years
ago and transferred in. It's just he's had time there
to learn the system, to get in some practice reps.
So perhaps he's just maybe he's not quite Jake reds Laugh.
Maybe he is better at certain things that reds Laugh
wasn't good at. But sudden changes are not super encouraging

(33:27):
to me.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
So no, not at all. The good news is this,
here's the good news. Yeah, the good news is that
the offensive line is going to be solid and LJ.
Martin is back there running back, which likely means he's
going to be the focal point of the offense. The
offense is going to look very different than last season,
and they're going to need that defense while they figure
things out. Beyond Chase Roberts, the receiving core is very thin.

(33:52):
They lose three of last year's top four guys to transfers,
so they're going to need to figure this out. It's
going to be a work in progress. It was always
going to be, you'll work in progress, but that's even
more the case now that Jake Reht's laugh has departed.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Can I give you the Dan's counterpoint to Dan's original point?

Speaker 1 (34:09):
Are you arguing with yourself? I'd love to hear it
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
The first like seventy five percent, two thirds of their
schedule kind of rules.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
It's great, it's.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
Great, Portland State, Stanford at ECU, which I think is
going to be a little bit difficult, just you don't know,
traveling kind of across the country. At Colorado, we'll see
what the buffs are. Then West Virginia is starting all over,
Arizona's got a lot of questions, and it's Tucson, but
it's into October, the Holy Wars at home. There's the
meaty middle there, Utah at Iowa State, a bye at

(34:43):
Texas Tech TCU. That's really going to stress things. But
are you going to be crazy surprised if they start
the season five and one, six and oho and they're
merely above average doing so maybe not super surprised.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
It's going to be another one of these BYU seasons
where like we know Chase Roberts, we know LG. Martin,
we know they're going to get theirs. But otherwise, there're
gonna be a lot of tributors on this offense that
nobody knows about, and they will find a way to
play as a team and win seven games.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
I'm kind of with you. I think they're the rare
team that is going to have more wins than the
appropriate number that describes what kind of team they are. Like, yeah,
I seven eight wins is not out of the question,
looking like a six and sixteen.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
And we see that every year. We see that every year.
By the way, this defense was statistically the best in
the Big twelve last year. Now it lost a bunch
of starters.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
I have I had Utah slightly above them, but yeah, yeah,
but it was it was up there, right, Yes, for sure,
it was up there by whatever count.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
They were one of the best. They went hard after replacements.
They did lose starters. I think the linebacking corps is
still loaded.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
They gutted Colorado in the bowl game, did they not?

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Oh? Yeah, the linebacking corp is loaded. So that's a
good starting point. The secondary is concerning I think there's
a bit of a step back because there's so much
new and that's going to work against him here with
an offense that's in flux. But again I have come
full circle, or I guess, to be fair, I have
done a one to eighty on Kalani Sataki. At first,

(36:22):
I did not trust that everybody else was trusting him,
And I think given what he's done the last couple
of years, he's proven to me that he's legit. So
he's going to figure this out. And he's got a
schedule here that sets him up well at least to
start things off.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
Yeah, I know I sort of hedged here by saying
there are six and sixteen, what they might go eight
and four? Well, you could talk yourself into it. Sorry,
you can talk yourself into it. There are nine teams
on this schedule that don't obviously have a quarterback and
or passing game to seriously challenge a struggling secondary.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Can I mark you down for nine and two BYU
or nine and three BYU?

Speaker 2 (36:57):
No, you may not, But okay, in pure quantity, in
a pure numbers game, Portland State, Stanford, ECU, Colorado, West Virginia, Arizona, Utah, Cincinnati,
UCF are not obviously taking advantage of a green secondary here.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
ECU could. ECU's got a good passing attack. This year
and should have a good offense. There are questions that
need to be answered about ECU.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
But okay, that that that's on the road.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
That's interesting to me. Their flying cross country to play
against ECU.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
Catenhauser backed up by Mikey Wright Man.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
These guys.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Wait, you could tell me Cole Stout is on a
roster somewhere. All right. I actually know that he's not
because I this is something separate, little sidebar here. When
we were doing the ACC preview, I like to remind
myself of position coaches sometimes to be like, oh, yeah,
this guy is there and he's good with whoever or coordinators,
what have you. Dablosweeney employs every single former Clemson player

(38:03):
who wants a job. If you look at the analyst
list for Clemson, it's like, oh right that guy, ooh yeah,
that guy, Yes, of course that guy. And Cole Stout
is one of them that is employed by Clemson.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
You know one that I saw?

Speaker 2 (38:19):
Taj Boyd's on there. Who else?

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Taylor Mays is the safety's coach for Washington this year.
Do you remember Taylor Mays? And of course he's from Seattle. Yeah.
When he was at USC, he was all the rage yep.
All right, so we're gonna what seven and five? We
feel good seven and five. We've talked ourselves into that zone.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
What's the number again?

Speaker 1 (38:40):
You over unders seven and a half.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
Okay, I don't hate taking the under because of the change,
but again I'm gonna hedge and say, there's nine teams
on there who might not even come close to dicing
up this defense.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Let's get to Oklahoma State. Okay, they're over under his
four and a half this year four and a half.
They went oh to nine in conference three and nine overall.
It was one of the worst years in program history
last year, and it came in a year where everybody,
including you and I had them as one of the
teams to beat in the Big Twelve. Sure I had

(39:15):
a winning the damn conference. That didn't work. Oklahoma State
was terrible. It wasn't quite as bad record wise as
what happened at Florida State, but in some ways I
actually think it was worse. So what happens while it
leads to a messy situation after the season. Basically, they
forced Mike Gundhy's hand. They made him take a pay
cut if he wanted to stick around. He is back

(39:36):
it's going to be year twenty one. It has to
be a make or break thing this year for Gundhy
because even though they signed him, and even though they
got past that little contract dispute, I think that clearly
signals that there is impatience here. This is a proud program.
The patients is running thin. Yes, here is the blinking

(39:57):
red light for me. Okay, Because again we read a
bunch of different previews putting these things together, there was
a common theme UTEP transfers continue, that's one of them.
Almost every preview leaned on one of two reasons why
they thought Oklahoma State could be better.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
The first is Mike Gundy's track record. It's not insignificant,
but there was a lot of yeah, but he's had
nineteen winning seasons, or yeah, but look look at some
of the teams he's had a lot of giving him
the benefit of the doubt. And secondly to logic was

(40:39):
they have to be better because they can't get any worse.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
At times, it did seem that way.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
Yeah, if those are the two things that people are
gravitating towards as they try to build a case for
your team getting better, your team might not get better No,
I don't want to be mean here. And my guess
say is that nobody's trying to be mean about this.
I'm not, But Tracy Chapman, Dan, give me one reason

(41:06):
of belief.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Give me a reason to stay here, and here being
Mike Gundy going to a bowl game.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
I mean, Dan Phil Steele in his preview, and I
like what he does. I mean, we can quibble over
like the format of some of it and all that.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
But no, font is too small, he's a no acronym
is too unclear. Yeah, Mike Gundy has four pflts by
my count. Yeah, we all know what pflts are. Yeah,
of course, let's all move on because we all understand
what he's talking about.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
I've read this book for fifteen years. I still don't
know what they mean. Yeah, Phil Steele on Oklahoma States offense,
this is a real thing. This year. They lose eight starters,
including their star running back Ali Gordon, their top three quarterbacks.
But Mike Gundy will have an improved offense in twenty
twenty five. How that's not even logic.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
No, by the way, if you pull back a little bit,
but I think is relevant. We had conversations when all
of the reorganizing of realignment was happening all over and
you're like, Okay, so Texas and oklahom Oregon, and it
seems like there's a vacuum at the top, and there
are some obvious candidates. This is like pre West Coast teams,
pre Arizona schools, Utah, Colorado joining and like, Okay, who

(42:21):
is going to be that alpha or those alphas in
the Big twelve? And it would be very difficult to
point to a lot of teams that would have a
similar track record to what Oklahoma State has done, you know,
in the five seven years leading up to all of
the realignment, which is like drafted quarterbacks Politnikoff quality receivers

(42:44):
to like nationally impressive all American caliber running backs in
Oli Gordon and Chewba Hubbard, Jim Nole's running one of
the best seven defenses in the country out of Stillwater.
We're just like hiring and development and identifying and just
something happened in the early twenty twenties where Mike Gundy

(43:06):
and college football and Oklahoma State just sort of deteriorated
into I mean, look, they went to the championship game
two years ago. I think that was a blip more
than anything, because the roster can't stay together. The assistant
hiring seems to have just fallen off completely, and Oklahoma
State and Gundy just sort of fumbled this.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
It's look, the conversation was not wrong when the conference
changed and there was an open question of is Oklahoma
State not doing better because Oklahoma remains in their way?
And that was the question. I think we posed to
Scott right from the Oklahoma and we brought him two
years ago. It was exactly that, and that had been

(43:48):
written about, that had been talked about for years. That's
part of why we were so up on Oklahoma State
last season. To go from preseason expectations to three and
nine conference in a new conference. Basically that felt like
it was theirs for the taking. Talk about like falling flat.

(44:10):
That was horrible. Yeah, I'm not trying to make this
a dunk contest, but this is the reality for Oklahoma
State and Oklahoma State fans know this. Yeah. So, I
you know, forty one new guys this year. I look
at the roster, I don't know who any of them are.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
It's too many new guys.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
I don't know who any of these guys are. And
I studied as much as anybody. There is so much new.
They're not exactly coming into the season with a step
depth chart anywhere, so they're hoping it just meshes. If
there are injuries, if they can't get the chemistry part sorted,
it's going to be an issue against the schedule. And
then that's not even mentioning the coordinators. They got Doug

(44:50):
Meetchim in there running the offense, gonna be up tempo,
he's going more pass heavy. Yeah, we're going to see
a lot of shootouts, or at least that's what they're
banking on. If if you're a believer in Zane Flores,
the young quarterback, we should find out pretty quickly what
he's got in the tank, which I.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
Actually think came in what Nebraska.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
Yes, I actually think that's a reason to watch Oklahoma State.
There's been a lot of excitement around this guy, so
I'd like to see him. Todd Grantham though, calling the defense.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
That's tough.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
What are we doing here? Man? Have we not seen
this play before?

Speaker 2 (45:24):
Say what you will?

Speaker 1 (45:26):
He has a vision at least, oh he does. He
does talk about aggressive and attacking.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Every problem can be solved by a zero blitz.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
This schedule is good in that they miss Arizona State
in Utah, bad in that they're at Oregon. Week two, Oh,
they've got Baylor. They're at Texas Tech at Kansas home
against k State at UCF, which I don't think we
could take as a guaranteed win. They close out with
Iowa State at home. So there are no breaks in
this thing. No breaks on this thing. U t Martin

(45:58):
on August twenty eighth is a break, but otherwise maybe
outside of Tulsa, I've got a question about all the
other games in the schedule. I agree, How do you
handicap this? I don't know, with all this new on
a team that I don't think is used to having
this much new, and a coach that I described as
basically saying Jesus take the wheel on our Part one episode.

(46:22):
I think the best case scenario is five and seven,
and that is the best case scenario. More likely. I
am at four and eight, So.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Five and seven means what three big twelve wins, because
I don't think there'll be an Oregon in Eugene. No,
that's tough for me to say. Four and eight feels
about right.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
If he goes four and eight again.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
They got to move on, right, Oh, I think they're
moving on regardless of anything short of probably nine.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Wins, nine wins. They're not getting nine wins with No.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
I'm saying short like nine wins keeps him his job.
I guess I don't know.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
He might as well pack.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
How many chances do you get a guy to completely
redo the raw st every year and hopes that he
strikes gold finally, and so even if he strikes gold
once out of every three nine no, no, no, I'm saying
short of nine.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Wins, they're gonna gone. They're not gonna be anywhere close
to nine wins.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
I know, but there has to be. Everybody's got a number.
Tom Thibodeau just got fired for making the Eastern Conference
championship tie.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
And Gundy's got way better hair than him.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Yeah, it's true. Thibodou's funny, though apparently think Gundy's funny.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
I think Gundy can be funny. Okay, let's go to Houston. Okay,
four and eight last season over under six and five
or six point five? Excuse me your one for WILLI
Fritz came over from two lane. I think it went
about as well as expected. There were some bright spots
that you can point to. They knocked off both Utah

(47:53):
and case Day on back to back weeks, which is nice.
They almost beat Oklahoma in week two. That was before
we knew what'll Homo was going to be, but still
that's a pretty big game. The other thing I'd mentioned
here is that they had terrible turnover. Look, Okay, moving forward. Now,
the overwhelming feeling I get when I look at Houston is, Oh,

(48:17):
They've got a plan. It feels calm, and I'd be
surprised if they weren't markedly better. This season just feels
to me like Willie Fritz knows what he's doing and he's.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Well, you need quarterback health, you do, which is not
always a given. Connor Wigman, Yeah, let me start.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
With the coordinators. Okay, I like the coordinators. Slade Nagel
is the offensive guy. He was with Willie at Tulane.
They also peeled away Austin Armstrong from Florida because of
Florida's situation. He was kind of on the outste Florida anyway.
So on offense, I think that looks like a pretty
balanced attack on defense. The thing about Austin Armstrong that

(48:57):
I really like in this situation and not a lot
of people know. This definitely runs more of an aggressive
attacking defense.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
Oh you have to, you have to.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Actually this was a top fifty defense year. Gone to
Sheil would she'll would have talked on the last episode,
went to Texas Tech. Yeah, yeah, so I like those guys.
I think that's smart hires on the transfer side, to
your point about you need the quarterback, you need a
healthy roster, thirty transfers, and it feels like the strategy
here was just to get better where they needed it,

(49:27):
not unlike Texas Tech. I described the Texas Tech strategy
as Willie Fritzie. We can describe the Houston strategy here
as Texas Techi if we want. I don't care. It
works both ways. People out there are going to hear
this and say, well, duh, like duh, isn't that the
point of it? I'm telling you, when you study one
hundred and thirty six teams, you have drastically different portal strategies.

(49:50):
Not all of them are this straightforward. They just aren't.
So the biggest name here is Connor Wigman, former five star,
comes over from Texas A and M. He's from Houston,
which is pretty neat and I think they just added
quality across the board. They have a couple different ways
to use their running back room. They brought in a
lot of experience on the offensive line. Again, just smart stuff.

(50:10):
It makes sense we should see a nice jump in offense,
which would be nice. I'm all great, so I feel
good about that side of the ball. My red flag
is this, where's my lomis thing?

Speaker 2 (50:21):
I kind of have a problem with your hair. It's
bothering me.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Of course, I like the defensive front. I think the linebackers,
I think the secondary are way more up in the air.
Then they've got a new scheme. Ye had a new transfers.
I could see this taking a while to click. Now
they have some time to work that out because September
is gettable. The rest of the schedule is okay.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
It's a lot of snip snap. There's not a lot
of stretchiness in here. There's not a lot of three
straight toughies. They I think they end with a couple
of tough ones. It's TCU and Baylor to finish things out.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
TCU and Baylor after a buy to finish things out
in late November.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Yeah, but that's preceded by West Virginia and UCF. They've
got Arizona before Arizona State, and Oklahoma State before Arizona,
Oregon State, which I think will be improved but not
a killer, before Texas Tech. Colorado is will see, but
that's preceded by Rice, who's starting over in steven f. Austin.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
Schedule is pretty good. The schedule's not bad. I mean, no,
no Kansas State, no Iowa State, no Utah. Right, and
Vegas is right there at six and a half with
the over under, So I would not bet on the over,
but you can definitely look at this and if you
feel optimistic about the offense, and if you think that
in time the defense will click under a good coordinator
or aggressive coordinator. Let's be honest. You could find a

(51:37):
path to seven wins here.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
Oh easily. You can find a path to seven or
eight wins with quarterback health, with transfers working out to
a reasonable level. I like, I think it's what Stefan
Johnson out wide.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
I think he's a speedy dude. Like there are pieces here.
It's just the churn at a place like Houston means
you gotta nail the portal. I mean gotta nail the
portal everywhere, obviously, but the certain places are just going
to have more of a churn that they're just not
going to be able to compete from a financial perspective,
that they're losing a coordinator. They're improving at quarterback, but

(52:14):
it's somebody who's a little bit fragile and Connor Wigman unfortunately.
So you hope and cross your fingers for quarterback health
there and you hope that they're able to get off
the field again. Willie Fritz and we've talked about this before,
a year two, real solid track record.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Very good year two coach, and I think this is
where context is really important for Houston. If this were
a situation where you're looking at this defense any other team,
you're looking at the defense and you say, well, I
like the front. The back seven is going to be
working progress. It's going to take a little bit to
kind of work through it. But look at the schedule.
The schedule makes sense. They're going to have time. You

(52:49):
would be okay to handwave parts of that. The reason
that you can't do it with Houston is because they're
still sort of in this rebuilding mode. If the rest
of the roster were more set, if there were more leadership,
if this were a couple of years down the path
of Lily Fritz and you had more of a bedrock
to go on here with Houston, you'd say, Okay, yeah,
they can weather that. They'll be fine. They're going to
get to a Bowl, no big deal. Might not get

(53:12):
the nine wins, but they'll they'll be fine. But given
where Houston's at, given that this was a huge rebuild
last season, given that he's still rebuilding and bringing in
all these transfers, I think that weighs a little bit
more heavily on the record. So I go seven wins here.
I like our six wins here with a path to
seven or eight. I like where Houston's at. I like

(53:33):
the job that Willi Fritz is doing. I think it's
a slow build, and I would expect they'll give him
time because they're going to see it too. There's going
to be a jump this year that's going to show
real progress and hopefully keep people, you know, excited.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
I hope so too. Yeah, because I think as we've
seen the best of Houston is a team that was
one weird play from beating Texas with Dana Holgerson, a
couple of years ago, right, yep, was a January type
Bowl team with Tom Herman. We're talking about a different
era of college football, of course, but just in terms

(54:07):
of what that university can attract, especially if they're able
to engage the money behind the scenes and what the
local recruiting is like, both from like guys coming back
to East Texas and that want to stay local. You
can accomplish a bunch at Houston. So yeah, fingers crossed
for them.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
We've got one team left, is the Colorado Buffalo is
dan Yes, so there's always a lot to talk about
with the Dion Sanders coach team. Yes, Where do you
want to start? I can give you the kind of
lay of the land. The lay of the land is
that Colorado was nine and four team a year ago.
They lost two games in conference. They're over under this

(54:47):
year is six and a half. It probably is no
great surprise as to why that number has come down,
but at a starting point, one of the five most
interesting teams in the country, I think, not for the
same reasons as before.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
Really you think that right now they're one. I have
most fascinating teams.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
Fascinating not best teams. Oh no, I know that, but Okay,
first year at Colorado without Shador and Travis Hunter, and
I can't say it's going to be a new Vibe
and Boulder, but it kind of feels like it has
to be a transition year at a minimum. I think
the offense is going to look different because you're missing

(55:30):
your star quarterback who probably should have gotten drafted a
lot higher. A once in a generation player isn't going
to be out wide. There are a couple of major
zags that are going to be coming, and I'm just
curious to see how Dion responds to that with again,
another huge class of transfers.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Huge class of transfers. Last year, they were led by
their defense, almost quietly led by their defense. I thought,
it's what it's uh, Robert Livingston is the defensive coordinator.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
I keep getting him confused with Ron Livingston. I jotted
Ron Livingston Ron Livingston.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
Of course, of office space fame, moved on to his
second act of calling Pack twelve and Big twelve defenses.
An outstanding secondary obviously headlined by the Heisman Trophy winner.
An outstanding receiving corps last year, also headlined by the
Heisman winner, both completely different this year the offensive line

(56:21):
is being rebuilt through the portal, kind of everything's being
rebuilt through the portal. They don't run the ball, so
they obviously don't run the ball. Well, it's Caiden Salter
via Liberty or do Ju Louis, Yeah, Julian Lewis from
I want to say Carrollton, Georgia, a blue chip quarterback
coming in competing for the job. I think we assume
it's going to be Kaden Salter, who has been reasonably

(56:43):
successful in a smaller conference for a smaller school. There
are just too many variables on the field right now,
coupled with the fact that something just strikes me as
off behind the scenes at Colorado, and I don't I
don't blame Dion's health for anything. He lived in Texas

(57:05):
the past few months rehabilitating an injury. I hope he's healthy.
I hope it works out. That's a different thing in
this sport that a coach is not even living in
the town of the school while rehabilitating very serious health issues,
and that his friends have had to put out statements
like just saw him, He's doing great, can't wait to

(57:27):
get back out there. And he went to Big twelve
media days and was like, I'm doing great, nothing work
to worry about.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Guys.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
I'm just like, you didn't even live in Colorado for
the majority of the off season. That's worrisome to me.
I hope, from a human standpoint, he's doing alright. I
hope he's healed. I hope he's doing all right. But
if we're talking about like the vibes within a program
that's just unique, that is different, and so maybe we're

(57:55):
full speed ahead, maybe everything's good to go. Maybe he's
done an outstanding job as Zoom. However you do things,
it's hard to feel great about where this program is.
Weirdly enough on offense more than defense, because I just
I don't love redoing an offensive line every year and
having it be the weakness that it was, especially a

(58:16):
couple of years ago. I just don't like that sort
of annual turnover. Jordan Seaton's back, I think at left tackle,
the blue chip left tackle who started as a freshman
last year, I think did a good job, and the
line definitely improved some I don't know they were experienced
with some of their guys, you know, at receiver and
on defense last year. I just the two years and

(58:38):
starting over thing without one of the best. I think
they retired sha Door Sanders' number. Yes, and the singularly
most talented player in program history, if not college football history.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
I mean, he's incredible. Travis Hunter, he was ridiculous. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
So when one single person can account for that much
production for your team as a whole and he's gone,
I don't know, five and seven, six and six, I
think anything is on the table.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
I've got him down as an entertaining five and seven. Okay, again,
the over unders six and a half. So let me
backtrack a little bit. Okay, I don't think it's fully
accurate to say. I mean it's a matter of opinion.
I would not say they were led by defense last year.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Their defense was better than their offense.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
Their defense was better than it had been, but the
offense was like a top twenty unit in the country.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
I have them down fortieth on offense and points per
drive thirty fourth in defense.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
Okay, whatever metric we want to use. Yes, clearly Shador
Sanders and what he did offensively, mostly in tandem with
Travis Hunter, that is gone, and they are going to
be starting over on some level. On offense, they will
be led more so by defense this year. The job

(01:00:00):
that Robert don't call me Ron Livingston did, huh was
really impressive per your analytics, Yes, Colorado improved by one
point per drive on defense. Now that doesn't sound like much,
I get it. But once you realize that teams averaged
about what twelve drives a game last season against Colorado,

(01:00:23):
do the math. They got way better, way better overall,
one hundred and thirteenth in defensive sp plus in twenty
twenty three. They improved the forty first last season, which
is a jump of seventy two spots. It's a lot,
all right, So I like the fact that they got better.
There definitely a talking point regardless of who led whom.

(01:00:46):
I think that was a big jump forward. You could
say this year there are as many as eight starters
back on defense when you factor in the transfers. Jaheim
Otis is the big hog Molly along the line. To
pay attention to big number ninety six five three twenty five,
I don't know how you get that big. When a monster,
he's going to step into a leading role right away,
even in the secondary. Like the impulse I think is
to think that they're going to take a big step

(01:01:08):
back because they lose Travis Hunter. I do think they'll
take a step back, but they still have guys like
DJ McKinney, who played really well last season and wasn't
in the limelight, but is still there should be productive.
They brought in six transfers, some of whom were also
starters elsewhere, So this is not to say that there
aren't holes to fill on that defense, but from what

(01:01:29):
I'm seeing, I think they'll be fine, and I think
if that's the case, it'd be a cool story. So
defensively they're in a good spot. They will be for
certain led by defense this year. The situation on offense, though,
is where it gets a little bit weird. I think again,
it will be entertaining and fun to chart. But Caden
Salter from Liberty, the dual threat guy, was super productive,

(01:01:52):
did a lot of RPO stuff in his career. Him
or Juju lewis true freshman, like you said from Georgia,
is not going to be eighteen until September twenty First, damn,
how old are we?

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
How many years older than seventeen? Are you?

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Where's my button?

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Twenty five?

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Not talking about this? Okay? The comp I saw for
Juju was Bryce Young, which would be pretty awesome in Colorado.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
Young literally Bryce Young.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
Yeah. I don't know if the guy who wins the
job in week one is going to end up being
the starter of the full way through. But they've got
two guys that are competing for the job, and I
think that'll be interesting. I don't know what the offense
is going to look like. There's like no way it
can be so pass heavy given that they're going to
have a whole new cast of characters. I just think
they're going to have to bring things more into balance.

(01:02:44):
We'll see if Pat Shermer can get the ground game going.
It's not something that worked at all last season. They've
been the worst running team for two years running. Yeah,
so you know, there are real questions about this offense,
which is definitely different from what we have seen the
last two years. When I saw this schedule at l
OLED oh oh. The good news is that they've got

(01:03:06):
Delaware and Wyoming. The bad news BYU, followed by a
road spot at TCU before coming home to play Iowa State.
They're at Utah at West Virginia. They close out the
year with back to back games against Arizona State and
on the road against Kansas State. It's not quite the
toughest schedule in the Big Twelve, but it's up there.
They also open with Georgia Tech.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
Yeah, Georgia Tech, who did this to the program of
the future, who did this to them? It will be entertaining.
You're right, it will be entertaining. And here's the actual
concern too about the offense. I think we think Caden
Salter is pretty good, but is he drag this entire
offense to thirty one points a week?

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Good?

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
With these receivers that were rotation guys last year, but
they weren't providing huge pop for this team last year
and no running game and a rebuilt offensive line. I
just don't think he can serve me, asked Serbiak, this
thing to thirty one?

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
How long is it going to take this offense to
gel And realistically, how much can that defense, which I
think will be better, how much can that defense shut
down this schedule. That's that's the big thing for me.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Yeah, I agree, you're just a hater, Ty, You're just
a Colorado hater.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
We're gonna I'm gonna look at the comments and see
that's fine, just like and I know where they're gonna
come from to But listen, I'm rooting like hell for Colorado.
I am on recry a peace. No no, no, no, hold on,
shut up. People can go back and listen to me.
Two years ago when Dion took this job, when he
brought in fifty two transfers, I was on the record saying, well,

(01:04:47):
I get why it's different. I understand completely why people
would look at this and say he's not recruiting. This
is going to be a flash in the pan. It's
never gonna work, but let's see. And if it does work,
then maybe that will become like a new model. Here,
I'm hitting my microphone now, I'm crazy. Maybe that'll become
a new model in college football. And guess what. He

(01:05:10):
won nine games last year, and it is the model
in college football now. Everybody's doing it now, some out
of necessity because they don't have a choice, right, But
there are plenty of big schools that have integrated the
portal much more into their recruiting regimen than they did
a couple of years ago.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
You're not wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
So say whatever we want about Dion and the strategy,
and yes it's volatile and he's not for everybody, but.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Well, and he's just a much bigger face doing it
than every face. There's no personality bigger than him, certainly
not on the coaching side, right, but what he has
done in two short years has definitely been a blueprint
that other schools have followed, and I don't know if
they'll have success with this with it this year.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
They're trying it again, but I was up on that.
I was at least willing to give it time. We
saw the fruits of that last season, but now it's
a new challenge when you lose two stars in Shador
and Travis Hunter. Yeah, it's that has to be the
first question that everybody asks, and how they make up

(01:06:13):
for that production remains to be seen. But five and
seven for me, a very entertaining five and seven, Happy
to be proven wrong. I am rooting for Colorado, souse.
I think it's a cool story, but definitely a new
chapter here.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
I'm rooting for Colorado just because I enjoy Ralphie more
than any other live mascot in the sport.

Speaker 1 (01:06:29):
A female.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Oh yeah, long, Ralfie's a female long of Yale.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:34):
Okay, So that does it for the Big twelve, all
sixteen teams now in the bag. Please reach out soliverble
at gmail dot com with any thoughts. If you can
comment on whatever podcast platform or YouTube that you're consuming
the content, please weigh and let us know your thoughts.
Are they playing any of the games where Brett Yormark

(01:06:56):
said that they were going to explore the possibility of
playing in like South Powell. Are they doing any of
that yet?

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
No games, No, no neutral site games in Guatemala, Mexico City, Osaka.
Nothing yet, Okay, no, nothing yet. Someday someday, I hope.

Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
So. Yeah, I played games in Ireland the week zero
game in Ireland is not that counts. That counts. That's
not idea. It's it's been fun.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
Dublin's great. Yeah, it's not terrible to get to, right,
it's western most Ish, I don't know it's Dublin's. It's
it's on the very western edge of Europe. So the
flights aren't terrible. And uh, Bambino pizza terrific, terrific, really
really really really good pizza in Dublin against all odds.

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
Great food town. Yeah, amazing, all right again, leave a
star rating, leave a review. That stuff helps for Ballers
dot com is where you can go for the Patreon
if you want to further support what Dan and I
are up to here, hit foul, hit subscribe, if nothing
more so that you don't miss any of our episodes.
Our next episode is going to be part one of

(01:08:06):
the Big Ten. The Big Ten is eighteen friggin teams. Okay,
this was the case last year. I'd just like to
remind people when we do these previews, these are good.
These are gonna be longer episodes we have. There's just
no way around it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
Do you want to get one team out of the
way right now?

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
Perdue?

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
So we just do our Washington preview on this episode.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
I'm ready with Washington.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
Are you really?

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
I am ready with Washington? Yeah? Was it?

Speaker 2 (01:08:29):
Demon Williams? Demon Williams is the Truth, Denzel Boston. Yeah,
Demon Williams is the Truth. A smaller it's a line
smaller dude, but he is elusive.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
He's got track speed, doesn't rely on it, wants to
stay in the pocket once to complete passes. I think
he's a crazy exciting prospect. I think Washington is like
maybe one of my sleeper teams this year.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
And okay, Washington preview is out of the way for
twenty twenty five, anybody else you want to knock out?
Right now, right now, you have the chance. Purdue's gonna
be bad. Done produce could be very bad. Yeah, all right,
we don't have to do Purdue produced four?

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
You know that?

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
How many?

Speaker 1 (01:09:07):
Fifty four?

Speaker 2 (01:09:08):
That's so good? Almost an eleven starting basketball teams.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Fifty four transfers this year for Purdue.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
And he thought, a god, Indiana, Mendoza thought, I have not.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
Done Indiana yet. Okay to Indiana.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
I got a Maryland.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
I got about nine teams left before we record our
next episode.

Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
And do you know Maryland's starting quarterback for twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (01:09:30):
I wanted to be Malik Williams.

Speaker 2 (01:09:31):
I hope you want it to be Malik Washington because
that appears to be the correct name.

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
Elak Washington. That's okay, this is not our Big ten episode.
I don't have my notes in front of me.

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
That's okay.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
Yeah, Hamilton is with Maryland. Now you know what the
former was?

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
He what ufl? He was in one of the All
Spring leagues.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
For a minute, He's been everywhere. Yeah, okay, we'll get there.
Malik Washington, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:54):
Yes, it was justin Martin from UCLA, also competing for
that job.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
On that note, before we embarrass ourselves any further, for
that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubenstein form
myself Tye hillar Brand. Thank you so much for downloading,
for listening, for supporting what we do. Talk y'all soon,
Talk some big ten next time around.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
Stay solved, peace,

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}BIG 12 TEAM PREVIEWS: Utah, TCU, Kansas, Cincinnati, BYU, Oklahoma State, Houston & Colorado | 2025 College Football