Fan Therapy: Confronting the Trauma of 2024 College Football

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the solid verbal. Ull that for me, I'm
a man, I'm forty.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
be happy.

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

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Edo State is that whoo whoom? And them and tie
Dan Rubinstein.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
You know a week from today you and I are
going to start recording our previews.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Oh yeah, buddy.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
For the twenty twenty five season. It's going to start
to get real here on the solid verbal. You won't
start hearing those previews until I guess July first, when
we're going to start rolling them out. But we thought
before we got to that point, we can't honestly in
good faith move ahead.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
With our lives.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
I agree without first confronting the trauma from twenty twenty four, right,
totally agree.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
There is not a team in America, There is not
a fan base in America free from the experience of
being traumatized by this perfect, great, imperfect horrible sport that
is college football. And I think the healthiest thing that
we could all do as a college football universe is

(01:13):
acknowledge things that traumatized us from twenty twenty four, you know,
except that they hurt us and try to dig deep
and figure out why it's okay to move forward in
love and peace.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
Yes, I think that compute. So look, we did an
episode like this a year ago.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
It was a big hit. We decided to bring it
back now.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
About a year later, we put a post out on
our Patreon at verbowlers dot com. Once again, verballers dot
com support the show continue exactly. This was one of
those free posts where as long as you're a free member,
you can read it, you can post your thoughts on it.
We didn't really want to limit this to just people
that pay via the Patreon because we care about the

(01:58):
entirety of the for bowler hood, Dan speak for yourself.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
No, of course, we.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
Want everybody to get their heads right in preparation for
this college football season. So all we did was put
a post out there said we are recording our fan
therapy episode. We're looking for your submissions. We want to
know about the college football moments that hurt you the
most last season. And Dan, let me tell you, we

(02:24):
were inundated with pain. Yes, a very visceral feel to
this post.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Reading through them all.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
We have organized them all. We're going to try to
get through as many of them as we can. Thankfully
we had a bunch that I think revolved around similar
themes and game situations, so that makes it a little
bit easier to go through all of this trauma. I
should also add neither Dan nor I are actual medical professionals,
so if you are having any kind of real mental

(02:53):
turmoil over any of these situations, we would encourage you
to see a real doctor and not be proactive, not
take our advice at base value. We don't know what
the hell we're talking about. We did workshop though that
I am the tychiatrist and you are the psychodanalyst.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Of course, of course, in this year episode.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
I thought taychiatrist was better than tychologist for the specific
We're not prescribing active medication, though you do have recommendations,
do you not at the ready?

Speaker 4 (03:22):
I mean I can google it. Yeah, I'll see what
I can find that might help with some of these
very acute college football circumstances that we're going to go
through over the next forty five minutes hours.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
I do have that. I don't know if that will help.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
I don't know if that will help with any of
your mental trauma after watching your team last season, but
if it does, we do have that sound at the ready,
You have some sounds at the ready as well. Hit
follow hit subscribes that you don't miss any of our episodes.
As I said, we're going to start ramping up the
previews here as we turn the page into the month
of July, so recording next week, going to save that

(04:01):
one in the queue, start publishing those all throughout the
month of July and most of August. That's what it
looks like here, soliverbal HQ.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah, and this is just a fair warning to all
those listening, maybe affected by the traumas laid out by
our listeners, that this is going to be an exercise
in exposure therapy. We are not going to back away
from the naked, raw truth of what is still very

(04:30):
clearly causing people pain. So as always, we're going to
take our cues from the legendary Maury Povich, who seems
to be a proponent of exposure therapy.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Bring out the.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Classic classic Maury woman claims she's definitely afraid of olives
because it reminds her of what was it tie of
the eyes of dead people, The.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Eyes of her dead grandfather.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
The eyes of her dead grandfather are brought back to
life by the site of green olives. I suppose with pimentos, yes,
I would probably make the most sense. And so the
lower chiron is Sally is scared of spiders, lizards, dot
dot dot ellipses. That's an ellipses right, dot dot dot
three and olives bring out the allow.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
So ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
So we do have clips. We do have clips from
some of the traumas, and it's good to face them
head on and fair's fair tie. We've got Notre Dame here,
We've got Penn State here, we have Oregon here. We
are not shying away from our pain and I'm ready
to roll as the psychodanalyst.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Dude.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
We got dozens of teams here. We had so much
response to this posting. As I said, you could feel
it reading through this comment thread. As I said, I
did group some together via team. Why don't we just
get the most obvious one out of the way here?

Speaker 1 (05:51):
First? Is this?

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Is this the clip of Pat McAfee whiffing against a
softball pitcher so he can face his own traumas.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
No, no, no sidebar.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
I would love the opportunity to face a superb elite
College World Series softball pitcher and absolutely wreck myself with
embarrassment whipping. I think it would be the coolest thing
ever to be absolutely humbled, and I guess not everybody
allegedly agrees.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
Continue, Shane writes in been a Notre Dame fan for
as long as I can remember. No one else in
my family ever, was no legacy, just me being weird
and different growing up. I had never been to a
game at Notre Dame Stadium, nor had I ever visited
campus in my entire life. Until the week of my
thirty seventh birthday in twenty twenty four, my wife had

(06:41):
a medical conference in Chicago. We took the opportunity to
drive over from my first home game experience. Of course, ever,
roll the clip, Go ahead and roll the clip, and.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
That's plot at the slat Oft scrimmage and the Huskies
are celebrating the biggest upset in their school's history.

Speaker 4 (07:02):
I'm laughing, but deep down I'm crying, Shane.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
I'm with you, brother. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:06):
Got to see the campus the friday before and do
all the touristy things. As you can imagine. It was amazing.
We also took my then two year old on this trip.
Oh No, I even met with someone I had been
podcasting and blogging with four years for the first time
in person at this game. It was all set up
for an amazing experience. Yes, we went for the NIU game,

(07:29):
the sixteen to fourteen inexplicable loss to the Huskies.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
Vent I you, Dan, can I ask you?

Speaker 3 (07:36):
I can't ask this listener, But if you're gonna speak
for the Notre Dame community, has the Notre Dame community
collectively gotten over it or is it still like a
pain point despite the season going in an otherwise incredible direction.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
Yes and yes, Yes and yes, because winning all those
playoff games, getting to the national Championship definitely papers over
some of the those sins. Okay, that definitely was a
nice little palate cleanser, as was the way that Notre
Dame went on to complete its season. Sure, not even
in the playoffs, but finish strong. Definitely came together more

(08:12):
as a team. It had a different feel after the
NIU game. I think that goes without saying. But that
being said, this wasn't their only loss over Marcus Freeman's
tenure to a MAC team.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
Right, or to like a team of that size, a
team of that commercial Yeah right, yeah, sure.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
So my only point is definitely, like these G five
non conference games still stick in the crawl when you
see them on the schedule. There's a little bit of
trepidation when you see that one getting bigger in the window. Well,
not only that, it's it's going to sort of creep
around a corner in an unexpected way. Not not saying

(08:51):
Marcus Freeman's gonna lose this type of game. Ever, again,
there's no no better wake up call than this type
of Saturday. Sure, but this is definitely a listical game, right,
twelve times Notre Dame out of nowhere, a lot like
the USF game. I remember, right that every team has
these that these crazy upsets. So now this is just
a new chapter on the surprise listicle that somebody posts

(09:15):
on Facebook or whatever.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
I think that all computes.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
Yeah, So with all that being said, yes, I do
look at Notre Dame schedule this year and see they've
got a game against Boise State. Boise State was a
playoff team a year ago.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
I don't think there's an opponent on Notre Dame schedule.
You're like, I could see them coming out flat against right, Yeah,
like they're talking about flat against Navy.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
We got a bunch of other messages with respect to
that NIU loss. Melty out on our discord said, pooping
your pants in public, no matter what else do you
do in life, it's all people remember about you.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Fair.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
You know what, here's little disclaimer. Everybody kind of does
it at some point, you know when you see listen
there was a guy on my baseball team who did it.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
People gamble and lose. You still talk about it with
people I'm sure that were there that day.

Speaker 4 (10:09):
Joe says, it's not losing to NIU since it didn't
affect the path and Thomas Hammock is a pretty good guy.
It's not the National Championship loss since it was technically
twenty twenty five. It's probably every time Jason Garrett called
a game because he struck the fear of God every
time he looked straight into the camera.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
You are not wrong, Joe. I do hear that?

Speaker 4 (10:29):
And then we got a different Joe R. Who says
that he is an almost forty year old Notre Dame fan.
He had zero energy for the National title game, the
biggest game since he was eight, because he's also Diehart
Detroit Lions fan, and he attended the playoff loss to
the commander's forty eight hours prior.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
He was protecting himself.

Speaker 4 (10:48):
We've got like a couple different kinds of trauma at
play here. The Notre Dame loss, that one happened in
slow motion, but over the course of an afternoon. We
also have instances of slow motion trauma unfolding as it
did for Oklahoma State, as it did for Florida State
over the course of a year, where you just sort

(11:10):
of wonder, like, where's the bottom, what is happening? There
is this failure I think to comprehend what's happening in
the moment, and then of course we have and we're
going to get to this, I'm sure momentarily. Yeah, the plays, yes,
of course, the backbreaking call or specific moments, specific moments,
things of that nature. So yes, the Notre Dame thing,

(11:31):
I think that goes without saying, of course we had
to lead with that.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yeah. No, that's a good one. That's a great one.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Obviously, that fits the bill, especially because it seemed like
Notre Dame would have a number of chances to rectify
the first three and a half quarters late and just
didn't work out. Yeah, we've got and the good thing
about I guess good thing. It's all relative the Florida
State and Oklahoma State situations, where Florida State coming off
of a terrific season that ended in heartbreak in twenty

(11:59):
twenty three with Jordan Travis's injury in Oklahoma State winning
its way into the Big Twelve championship game in the
twenty twenty three season, so the assumption would be like, yeah,
we're still pretty good, and after two or three weeks
it was very easy to make peace with where those
teams were. We're like, it might get a little bit better,

(12:20):
but probably not in some sort of dramatic way, so
you can exhale a little bit on a certain level.
That said, Oklahoma State, still they were bad in twenty
twenty four, but they weren't lose to Arkansas in double

(12:41):
over time bad. That was another item on our trauma lists.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
We got ones from both Zach and Michael who referenced
Arkansas's collapse against Oklahoma State. Zach says, collapsing against Oklahoma State,
then being completely offensively, harmless and helpless against Texas and
Texas and being blown out by Old Miss, losing to
LSU Big after keeping it close for a half, and
the culmination of blowing the game against Miszoo. It's the

(13:08):
circle of Arkansas and it sucks. I want to get
off the right now.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Thank you, Zach.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
The interesting thing about Arkansas that I think an Arkansas
fan can use as fuel during this offseason. Right, how
do you make a delicious brisket tie. You got to
keep feeding it a little bit of log, a little
keep that fire, keep those embers going. That's what the
off season is for slow burn, the slow burn. You
use the pain as inspiration because Arkansas has the ability

(13:37):
with I don't know if you can bring up the
schedule as I'm filibustering here, I can. Arkansas has the ability.
I think it's Week four against Notre Dame. They're hosting
Notre Dame.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
Week five, September twenty seventh, that really big weekend with Alabama, Georgia,
with Penn State Oregon.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yeah, Arkansas has the ability this year given their schedule.
With one upside Taylor Green, one of the four or
five most exciting returning quarterbacks in America. Just what his
upside is as a dual threat, as a passer or whatever.
With pairing Taylor Green with the rest of this roster,

(14:14):
which is transfer from Southern Utah there, which is, you know,
he can do the funniest thing. Arkansas can do the
funniest thing, and it can be Taylan Green and the
unknown bad News Bears doing like a Diego Pavia and
sticking it to a bunch of better put together or
longer put together teams on this schedule, and that's pretty great.

(14:36):
It is pretty great.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
And I think Michael kind of expands upon the whole
Arkansas ride that Zach mentioned in his post by saying
that generally Arkansas had an awful time with Saxon fumbles.
It always seemed to happen as they get down into
the red zone, leading to a long field goal attempt
that would go awry. And he closes on a positive

(14:59):
note by saying, hopes the talent on the line takes
a step forward, that Taylor Green is able to have
a better internal clock. Totally second season now with Bobby Petrino.
So yeah, look, we like Taylor Green, and I think
we're forever interested in the Arkansas story because we think
there's a lot more meat on the bone there. But
this is the second year in a row now we've
heard frustration from Arkansas fans who like to Zach's point,

(15:23):
don't know where to put this trauma and need to
try and rectifde it ari. They got a bunch of
road games on this schedule. It's a classic SEC schedule
where you've got your gauntlets starting in like the middle
portion of October that runs through the rest of the year.
So it's not going to be easy. It's never easy. There,
of course, is that game against Notre Dame. They do

(15:44):
host that one. I think that's an earlier game if
memory serves, so we'll see what they do against a
top ten team earlier in the season. But yeah, a
lot of Arkansas comments here.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Here are some of the schools that Arkansas is using.
I'm gonna incorrectly is the verb moneyball. They're gonna try
to moneyball their way to wins. They're going to try
to find a bunch of Scott Haddiberg's all over lower
level college football, Texas, Permian Basin, Kent State, Maine. What
else do we have here? I see some North Texas,
I see some Charlotte, I see some I just see

(16:22):
all these logos on the two four seven Eastern Michigan Here.
There's a lot going into this year's Arkansas roster. That
and I'd mentioned Southern Utah could be fun.

Speaker 4 (16:33):
They need to find their Greek god of walks, is
what you're saying the euclus Yeah yeah, all right, next,
Where do you want to go next?

Speaker 1 (16:40):
You've got the clips? I do have the clips? Once
should we go to next?

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Let's stick with arguably the Venn diagram of exciting and ridiculous,
because I think this is the rare instance that traumatized
two teams. Okay, and that would be the seventy three
overtime Georgia Georgia Tech. It's overtime two point concsion pressure,
they pick.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
It up and they get the two pointer with Dylan Pill.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
So Georgia Tech fans obviously felt as if and we
have a note I think from I think it was
a Georgia Tech ferson, but it could have been a
Georgia person traumatized. Almost all the same Georgia Tech people
traumatized because the opportunities plural were there and all of
those overtimes to take down a team who's won recent
national championships.

Speaker 4 (17:25):
In state that the rivalry is that missing ingredient that
is not present in a bunch of the other games
that people wrote in about but when you've got a
name brand game, clean old fashioned hate in Athens. In Athens, Yep,
you're able to get them. If you're a Georgia Tech fan,
you're able to get that one to eight overtimes. There

(17:47):
are major implications on the line. Brandon wrote in about this.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
That's a tough one. That's a tough one to swallow.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Georgia Tech isn't a good place though, Like they lose
the tuc They their defensive coordinator, but their defense got
noticeably so much better on the verge of beating Georgia,
absolutely beating Miami, starting the season in Ireland with what
we thought was a huge upset at the time, and
beating Florida State. Returning their backfield Haines King should have

(18:17):
a healthy shoulder. Their defense has interesting pieces on all
three levels. Blake Gideon, I think, is a new defensive
coordinator coming in after coaching the secondary at Texas. There's
just a lot to like. The schedule is pretty awesome.
I think they traveled to Clemson early, but otherwise there's nothing.
There's Syracuse there. We'll see what Syracuse looks like this year,
but nothing obvious in terms of crazy danger. Outside of

(18:40):
that Clemson game. It's pretty good right now to be
a Georgia Tech fan, and so much better under Brent
Key than it's been in a long long time as
a complete entertaining team. Haines King is back right, Yeah, yeah,
and should be healthy like he was Shillings shoulder issues
and yeah, Haines King, Jamal Haynes, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
I mean Eric Singleton, that hurts he's going to Auburn.
But to your point, yeah, the schedule, it's like at
Colorado Week one. I don't know what we think of
Colorado at this point. Colorado could be really good, could
be real.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
I mean, they're just not there. They're an obvious mystery.
They're not an obvious danger right now.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
And I think that holds true for a vast majority
of the teams on the schedule, outside of let's say
Clemson and Georgia, which will clearly be two tough matchups.
But yeah, the rest, it's just a hodgepodge of acc
teams that frankly could go either way on Virginia Tech,
you go either way on NC State.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
On Pitt right, So it's there, it's there.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
They gotta wrap Haines King and Bubble wrap though, they
got to figure out a way to not get him hurt.
He is the focal point of the offense. But provided
they can keep doing what they're doing, I.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
Agree. Don't let that eight overtime game get you down.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yeah, I mean, it's good times. It's high times to
be a Georgia Tech fan. I think they're playing. They're
playing in Atlanta, but I think at Mercedes Benz this year,
so pseudo but not really home game in clean old
fashioned hate. You mentioned pitt Ty, Yeah, and you mentioned
that a lot of these were not rivalry traumatic experiences,
but one of them was this.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
One is looking for somewhere he fires down by Kyle Lewis,
will win the backyard brawl.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
The backyard brawl. So we got a couple notes about
this one on both sides of it. Yes, Bert wrote
in he was one of the first commenters when we
put this out there. West Virginia fan here blowing a
ten point lead to pitt with under five minutes to go,
absolutely brutal, Possibly the maddest I've been during a West

(20:47):
Virginia game since that one in two thousand and seven.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
The whole rivalry component definitely rearing its ugly head here.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
And feeling feeling for the first time in a long time,
as the rivalry was dormant for a good.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
Stretch of time.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
That's the other element of this. Yeah, that's the other
element of this.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
You're ready to love again.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
So now West Virginia, things took a turn for West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
West Virginia.

Speaker 4 (21:14):
He's got a new coach, new old coach now moving forward.
Don't know how Burt feels about that, but I think
if I am trying to work through that trauma, I
am hanging my hat on the start of a new era,
a familiar face, somebody who did have a lot of
success with the program over its semi recent history, and
somebody who actually had been coaching at a pretty high
level before he came back to campus in a great

(21:37):
Rich Rodriguez right, not exactly the same style of retread
that we have seen in the past, because Rich rod
was doing good things at different school, correct, So I
think you hang your hat on that. The pit side
of this, though, is.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
Interesting to me.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
We got a comment here from Daniel who talks about
the highs and the lows of pit football, but.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
This would actually help West Virginia fans as well to
hear this part of this is this one.

Speaker 4 (22:01):
I'm grouping these together like yes, yes, we all cheer
for different teams. My hunch is that Burt is not
rooting for Daniel. Daniel is not rooting for Burt. But
there is a bit of a trauma bond here.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
Uh huh.

Speaker 4 (22:14):
The highs and the lows of Pitt football. Daniel says
seven or oh start, high scoring offense, found a quarterback,
found a quarterback, incredible comebacks against Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
He doesn't mention West Virginia yep.

Speaker 4 (22:29):
The Thursday night massacre of Kyle McCord. To get to
seven or er was that five picks? He says, it
was near orgasmic.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
As a fan, it's exactly right.

Speaker 4 (22:38):
If I can say that here, you can explain, to
explain to people what that means. And then the obliteration
at the hands of SMU, the fifth down against Virginia,
the fight against Clemson only to let club nick is it,
the Louisville blow out, a BC loss on the road,
and then a baffling game against Toledo just disgusting. Well,
speaking of losing to a MAC team, disgusting. I want

(23:00):
to get hype for this season. I just can't get
over it. You're gonna have to, Daniel. I would hang
my hat on Eli Holstein. I would hang my hat.
Good starting point, right he was heard, he was dinged up.
That definitely was a fly in the ointment down the stretch.
But I think having him back that that in and
of itself, is a reason to feel more optimistic about

(23:23):
what is ahead this year.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Yeah, it's very difficult. It was six straight losses and
those are all not all but Louisville was pretty good.
SMU was obviously good. Toledo is a world beater. They
lost that game forty eight forty six, by the way,
in their bowl game around Christmas, I believe. I don't know, man,
there's there's still the Syracuse thing, the backyard brawl thing.

(23:49):
Pit's just one of those teams where you really have
no or I have no handle on where they're going
to be strong or not year to year. As soon
as you think, like, oh, defense canna be pretty good,
they're getting fifty opt on them by Toledo, and so
I felt like there was enough what was it des
Reid last year? There was firepower on that offense when
Eli Holstein was healthy. Look, they shouldn't have to come back.

(24:11):
It doesn't look great against you know, last year's version
of West Virginia, last year's version of Cincinnati. As you know,
those teams did have up moments that doesn't look great,
but they're winning those games, and so you can say, Okay,
last year was our walk before we can crawl or
walk before we can run. And there was some there
was a sprained ankle after that walking halfway through the season.

(24:33):
But I don't know, I think there's there's correctible elements,
Like they can beat Virginia, they lost to Virginia last year.
They can beat Boston College, although Boston College was pretty
feisty last year. That there's there's stuff on there that's correctable,
and I feel good about it as a pit observer.
But that's what you can feel good about as a

(24:53):
West Virginia fan. Sure, yes, we lost lost this game
in catastrophic fashion up ten with what was it, four
or five minutes left? Yeah, five minutes, But you know,
it's sort of like the enemy of my enemy, and
so like you can be friends with the back half
of Pitt's schedule that like, at least as a consolation
it's not winning, but as a consolation. You can have

(25:15):
the schadenfreud cocktail that was Pitt's November. I want to
talk about the calgarithm if I can please do. We
got more Cal responses than I ever dreamed possible when
I put this post together. But cow was one of
these stories from a year ago was both a heartwarming

(25:39):
a surprise.

Speaker 4 (25:40):
Story that we talked a lot about on the podcast,
as well as one of I guess heartbreak here, which
we're going to detail. For my money, that loss against
Miami was one of the more traumatic things that I
saw as a third party observer of all of last season,
because I remember it distinctly. You and I I think
had either just gotten off of a stream or we

(26:03):
were about to hop on one. Don't remember the exact
chronology of things, right, but I remember talking to you
as this game was going on, and there was a
very real feeling of Cal is about to let this
slip away. You could see it happening in slow motion,
and it hurt. So all these messages that we got here,

(26:25):
the one from Cali saying the one month span between
mid September and mid October for Cal, but especially the
col versus Miami game, the one game day was in town.
If you recall the non targeting call absolutely devastated me
in a way that I still can't properly explain. Stacy says,
the Cal Miami game. We literally drove an hour and

(26:47):
a half home in complete silence there. Mike says, being
a Cal fan in general, the Miami game, the Florida
State game, then losing the entire running back room to
the portal as we I guessed not tell you, yeah,
look ahead here. Ethan says the Cow Miami game. After
the game day show, the vibes were so good on

(27:07):
campus and at halftime the fans behind me said, quote,
we needed a game like this, and I gotta tell you,
as a Cow fan, I just grimaced because I knew
what could happen, and then it did. Imagine Col's season
if we win that game. Yeah, and then sot your
rights in here, he says he's both a Cal edverging
tech fan. Watching both his teams blow leads to Miami

(27:29):
at night in consecutive weeks was a special kind of
gut punch Dan.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Yeah, I'm not wrong. And by the way, the sidebar
here too is who was was it? Michael Irvin on
the sideline feeling all of the feelings of the cow
Miami game. We like to joke that our friend Ari Wasserman,
you know, loves with his whole heart that everything he says,
you know, he's fully behind, at least in that moment.
And Michael Irvin felt all of the feelings on the

(27:56):
sideline in Berkeley late night game like that came to
and then until after we were done with our stream
at like one am Eastern. So the Miami season with
what they did to Michael Irvin and everybody that wanted
Miami to win all of their games, with the way
they lost to Syracuse, with the way that they lost
to Georgia, tack with the way they beat Virginia, attack

(28:17):
with the way they beat cal with the crazy back
and forth nature of the like you know Cam wore
playing the first half and you know, eking out the
well seeking out a loss to Iowa State in the
bowl game, if I have that right now. Iowa State
won that game. Just the swings of Miami football over
the course of last season was It's exhausting, I'm sure

(28:38):
for Kanes fans.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
Well, yeah, and I mean we didn't get a whole
lot of response from the Miami community. But for sure
Miami was.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
It's a lot to handle.

Speaker 4 (28:50):
It was trauma adjacent last season. To put it mildly right,
we talked about the cow game. I mean that was
a bit of an escape. But one of the things
that I found interesting and going through the replies that
we got, was how many were Miami adjacent?

Speaker 1 (29:04):
Okay, oh ye.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
Miami was a leading figure in the whole trauma discussion
from last season on a couple different fronts. But John
rights in with a scenario that I think is all
too common for people, especially for those who live in
the Southeast, especially for those who live in big cities
where a lot of big ten grads or ACC grads,

(29:27):
just big college grads tend to congregate. Dallas probably falls
into this camp a little bit. John says, I'm a
lifelong Gator fan living in South Florida. Twenty twenty four
was my first as a season ticket holder, working in
an office full of Miami fans. The Miami at Florida

(29:48):
game was much anticipated. Then the Canes proceeded to destroy
the Gators. I seriously considered quitting my job rather than
face the ridicule for Miami fans. God bless Syracuse in
the for animal.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Well, so the way they started out this season was
terrible against Miami. Oh yeah, then to to be able
to bathe in that later on in the season and
just another sidebar to the sidebar just in talking about
Miami and cal Cal this season because we're trying to
like present opportunity for healing. Yeah, cal fans. Cal's got

(30:25):
the funniest possible schedule this year in the ACC. They
have a non conference game against San Diego State, I believe.
Let me make sure on this schedule they have a Yes,
they have a non conference game at San Diego State
before a non before a conference game at Boston College.
San Diego and Boston back to back.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
What a year. So there's an entertainment factor.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
They have the opportunity to beat Oregon State, former conference foe,
on the road in Corvallis to start the season. It
looks like other than SMU that they're missing Miami, the
missing Clemson. So they only have one trip to the Northeast.
So there's that they do go to Virginia Tech.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
They go to Virginia Tech, but that's you know, mid Atlantic.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
Yet Louisville, it's not quite all the way across the country.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
The Northeast thing is killer to me. So I don't know.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
There's something that maybe there's some magic with Cal. They
might be starting a true freshman at quarterback or Devin Brown,
I think from Ohio State transferred to Cal. So they
redid the offensive coaching staff, and Brian Harson and Nick
Rolovich are prominently featured with Cal, and they've had offensive success.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (31:37):
I think it could be another fun, weird season that
hopefully just in terms of the universe smiles upon the
Cal Bears a little bit more late in games than
they did last year.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
Back to the Miami thing though, and the comment we
got here from John the Florida fan, Raoul writes in
with something else that I think is probably fairly commonplace
among verbola out there. Yeah, and he says, I'm not
writing as a Gator fan, but as an SEC fan.
I've worked hard to stop reflexively rooting for SEC teams

(32:11):
and out of conference games.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
And bowl games. Okay, that's good.

Speaker 4 (32:14):
However, any time an SEC school plays Ohio State, well,
those who root for SEC schools, including myself, vehemently rally
behind any SEC school that plays Ohio State.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
I get that.

Speaker 4 (32:26):
A few Sugar Bowls aside versus Arkansas and Bama, I've
gotten joy out of watching my alma mater and other
SEC schools beat the Buckeyes. Even Maszoo got in on
the fund in the twenty twenty three couple years ago.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (32:38):
Well, last year in the opening round of the CFP,
the Buckeyes beat the balls so badly and so comprehensively
that it's shaken my core as an SEC fan. I
am shook. I've seen teams like Pete Carroll, USC, Michigan,
Penn State, Oregon throttle SEC teams, but never the Buckeyes.

(32:58):
This feel of superior the SEC as a whole has
had over the Buckeyes feels like it's over.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
Well, I mean, you had Zeke Elliott through the heart
of the South, right, that wasn't nothing in the first
year of the playoff.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (33:12):
Yeah, I mean, I'd be curious to hear from fans
out there who the team is that you just can't
help rooting against, whether it's got some sort of conference
tie in, whether it's just a personal vendetta against some
of these teams. I realize that it's healthy for us
to let that type of stuff go.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
But I root against Ohio State too, just as a.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
Fan after all these years of watching Penn State lose
to Ohio State, after some of the baggage with Notre
Dame against Ohio State. Yeah, listen, I'll try to cover
it fairly, but I'm a fan at my core.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
I mean, the teams at the top of the sport
are the ones that have the biggest targets. And it's
a little bit different now that Nick Saban's not there,
because a lot of people love to hate Nick Saban
and Alabama and you want to take them down because
they're winning all these national championships, playing for all these
national championships. I think Ohio State is there. I think
there was a lot of people who didn't like Jim

(34:07):
Harbaugh and Michigan, and so for that stretch, people enjoyed
Michigan and Jim Harbaugh losing, especially as he's you know,
going throughout the South and taking off his shirt and
going to all those satellite camps. I think Texas, obviously
in the Southwest and within the state of Texas, I
think there's a ton of joy in seeing Texas go down. Obviously,

(34:31):
Oregon has a big target on them because of the
attention that they get, you know, the uniforms and Phil
Knight and all that stuff. So I understand it. It would
be a weird sport if we didn't have arbitrary hate
for schools that we weren't at all associated with via
a rivalry or family connection. That's just part of how
it goes. I think Notre Dame gets.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
A joint a conference Notre Dame.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
I mean, Notre Dame is definitely in that category for
a lot of people.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
So I get it.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
I don't know if I have a specific team. It
is fun being from la and knowing a thousand USC
people and hearing like.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
There's no reason USC can't be competing for national titles
every year and it's.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
Been twenty years in a minute of mediocrity, basically it
has been a minute and what was it? It was
twenty years before Pete Carroll of mediocret, Like you know,
sometimes you just kind of are what you are with
sometime getting a blip, sometimes getting blips. So that's that's
entertaining to me, but it's not it's not fun for
me to see a USC team down. I like seeing

(35:35):
everybody have their time in the sun.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
So I don't know. It's a good question. All Right,
we got to move on here because we got so
many of the all right, where are we going next?
Kind of on that.

Speaker 4 (35:44):
Same note, we were talking about Notre Dame, we were
talking about Ohio State. This is probably the right time
to bring up all the Penn State comments that we got.
Oh sure, Nate says, the Arts Bowl was going so well.
Dot dot dot don it's in. Got three Drew Hour passes.
One missed slightly on the outpass at the goal line

(36:06):
in the semifinals, secondly the fourth quarter pick in the semifinals,
and third the Big Ten Championship game. Penn State downs
by seven coming out of the half, gets the ball
to start the second half. They're driving future Jets back up.
Drew Aller badly misses an open Tyler Warren on a
second down pass. Drive resulted in a missed field goal.

(36:27):
Penn State never caught up and then Andrew while at
the Orange Bowl late in the game, Alur did not
see that safety backbreaking interception. That was one of those,
as I described earlier, acute moments that just oh just.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
Gets you right, because you're just gets you you force
enough stops from a high quality team, put yourself in
position to drive down and win a game in poetic fashion.
And so you can't help but to play out how
these next couple of minutes could play out. Yes, and

(37:03):
when it's immediately taken, not like taken on the eight
yard line. This is for all the marble's fourth and
goal something like that, where you're like, well, this is
just a huge tough moment. I can't bear to watch.
We'll see if it works out. This is just immediate silencing, Yes,
before any rhythm could be generated. That's I get it.

(37:24):
I've been there. I feel it hard to forget it.
The good news for Penn State fans like the way
to get over this is a ton of guys are back. Yeah,
quarterback is back, big, new defensive coordinator.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
Higher.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
We've talked about Penn State ad nauseum this offseason. There's
a lot to love about where Penn State is as
a program. They've got the two toughies in Ohio State
and Oregon this year, but otherwise I think the non
conference schedule is nothing right. They're avoiding pit still. Yeah, Yeah,
Penn State's in a great position. They almost had the

(37:58):
ability to play for a national champion up with a
quarterback who couldn't complete a pass to a receiver, and
said quarterback is back, so he's probably going to be
better this year.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
I think the ceiling is still very high for Penn State.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
It's great.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
So maybe last season was a teachable opportunity, teachable moment
running back. Yeah, this one killed me from Jeff Michigan
State Michigan State fan. Going to the Big House with
my then girlfriend to see Michigan State lose a very
winnable game by making some really dumb mistakes against the
worst Michigan team in years did not feel great. Oh

(38:36):
and my girlfriend left me and is now a PhD
student at Michigan. Never had more reasons to hate Ann Arbor.
By the way, this is I like this, this smoke
here at the very end. By the way, the Big
House was not allowed very mediocre fan atmosphere for an
in state rivalry game that was actually competitive this year
and has been competitive in the modern era.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
Thank you Jeck, Thank you Jeff for that smoke. I
love it.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
If she went to Michigan, she wasn't going to be
for you anyway. It sounds like long term that kind
of mindset was not a match, and so I I
understand feeling that burn, feel in that heat all these
months later, a year, almost almost a year later. But
in retrospect, you have now that you have the opportunity

(39:26):
or maybe you already had the opportunity to find somebody
more combatible to your spartan love.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Did you say combatible? It sounds compatible. I don't know.
I cut myself.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
I cut my mouth on something last weekend, and I'm
not speaking totally correctly, But Michigan State should be a
little bit more interesting this year. In Childs Baby, Jonathan
Smith added Kacher two more familiar with his system offensively, Aiden,

(39:54):
Childs will probably be a little bit more mature, a
little bit more careful, a little bit more comfortable this year,
just like you should be a little bit more comfortable
seeking out the next love of your life.

Speaker 4 (40:06):
That was and by the way, wonderful the way you
wove that together, Dan, Bravo.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
Taste taste in a girlfriend going for her PhD means
smart gals are into you.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
So that's good. There you go, right there, you go.
Look at the positive side of this jet. I'm spinning,
I'm spinning. Tie oh, excuse me. Uh the tychiatrist Taykai,
thank you. Do you have any of their clips?

Speaker 3 (40:26):
Of course I do. What are you gonna get personal?
You got personal with both Penn State and Notre Dame.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
Yeah, here's get tourist Trebrian Henderson as least down the sidelines,
hold the nzone.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
It's at Crimson Emma, Pasadena, sixty six yards.

Speaker 4 (40:41):
Daniel writes in I watched the Rose Bowl of mute
and in silence while my wife crafted quietly next to me.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
It was brutal.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
This is not you, by the way, this is a
different Daniel, as far as you know, as far as
I know. Alex also writes it once. Yeah it's obvious.
But for Orgon to go undefeated only to get blown
off the field Ohio State and the rose Ball just
hurts so bad.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
I'm an Oregon fan. All I know is hurt. No,
they went thirteen to zero and won the Big Ten.
I don't. Yeah, it's not all hurt. That might be.

Speaker 4 (41:10):
Listen, we're trying to help you get over the shows.
We are trying to help you get over it. So
I respect where you're coming from. Didn't I mean, there
wasn't a world of hurt last year. That game sucked,
but otherwise it was pretty good. That was the only loss.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
Here's the good news. Even if that game didn't start
out thirty one nothing, thirty four nothing, whatever. The Crimson
Avalanche was Oregon in the way that they looked, in
the way that they seemed to prepare for this game
on offense and on defense. And they were beat up.
But everybody's beat up come January. It's not an excuse.

(41:46):
There was no universe in which they were winning that game.
They were losing that game by thirty, they were losing
that game by sixteen. They were losing that game by
eight or three or one or eleven. Like, It's just
it wasn't to be on that Rose Bowl field. And
so yes, they beat Ohio State and Eugene. Yes, it

(42:07):
was a sensational performance, especially by Evan Stewart who didn't
play in that game, who now I think has a
mystery injury and is either out for the season sometime.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
So Oregon's in good shape moving forward. A new quarterback
who seems to be going to be Dante More who
has a huge amount of upside, perhaps more so than
Dylan Gabriel, who was himself excellent for Oregon last year.
There's a ton to love about Oregon moving forward.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
The talent level. The recruiting schedule is pretty good. This year.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
They don't have Ohio State in the regular season. They
travel to Penn State, but it's a good schedule and
a good team, if not a great team once again,
and it was so it was over so quickly. We're
just like, nope, they weren't ready in the correct way
for this. And yes it's embarrassing, and yes it can
be thrown in your face by people who hate Oregon
or Ohio State fans or whatever, but there's a certain

(42:59):
amount of peace you can have. It was like, wasn't
happening that day, No matter what, it was not happening
that day. And so Ohio State going on to win
the national championship in the fashion that they did. Okay,
Oregon lost the best team, lost more emphatically than others,
but they lost the best team, and so there's something there.
And it's hard to feel bad for Oregon fans given

(43:22):
the state of Duck football in twenty twenty five. So
you're all right, You'll be all right. It was a
tough afternoon and it probably won't happen like that again.
But it has happened twice, the Oregon Ohio State game
and the Oregon Georgia game to kick off Dan Lanning's career.

Speaker 4 (43:39):
By the way, since what are we calling Ohio State's
surge the Crimson Avalanche? Aren't they the scarlet and gray
they are?

Speaker 3 (43:49):
I'm not sure where that came from from Chris Fowler,
but I don't know. Okay, maybe he was referring to
the blood of Oregon running down the I don't know.

Speaker 4 (44:01):
Speaking of Crimson Dan. Yeah, Oklahoma fan, here, M see
what I did there? That's a pro Yeah, Casey says,
I feel like I can never trust an offense again.
How do I heal from watching our punter be our
most effective quarterfans, Mason says, after so many years of

(44:21):
defensive ineptitude and offensive achievement, my Sooners show up for
their first SEC campaign with an elite defensive unit and
their worst offense of this century. A full team effort
in creating a toothless offense, including a terrible offensive coordinator,
higher a thoroughly disappointing quarterback, a comical amount of injuries

(44:42):
clustered on the line in wide receiver positions. The worst
singular moment would be the Missouri excuse me missoo loss
with just a comedy of airs from everyone involved that
seemed at the time like it would cost Oklahoma its
twenty six year Bowl.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
Thank you, Mason Scoop times.

Speaker 4 (45:12):
When you hear the fireworks go off, that was really
insult to injury, wasn't it.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Yes, of course always.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
I think that was also at the end of the
Oklahoma State Arkansas double overtime game, there were some fireworks
or cannons or something in the background there.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
I get the trauma on the Oklahoma side. Oklahoma had
a little bit of all the traumas that I described earlier,
some of those very specific ones that happened in a moment,
some of the more drawn out, slow motion types that
have you questioning where's the bottom?

Speaker 1 (45:40):
Will there be a bottom?

Speaker 4 (45:41):
And then on top of it, as Mason points out,
to do it in your first year going into the
SEC was definitely the kind of thing that sticks with you.
That being said. That being said, if we're out here
trying to heal, you should feel good knowing that Brent
Vnables did not.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
Just rest on his laurels. This offseason.

Speaker 4 (46:01):
Okay, they went out, they got John Mattier. They went out,
they got Ben Arbuckle, john Matier's offensive coordinator. They not
most recently in the spring portal, they bring him over
from Cal So they're at least trying now. Whether or
not it materializes, we'll get back to you, but their
heart is in the right place. And I think I
would take solace if I were a Sooners fan knowing

(46:22):
that they're at least going out after the thing that
we think needs to get better.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
I hear you.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
It's got to be so strange for Oklahoma fans having
the run that they did on offense and at quarterbacks, specifically,
watching an Oklahoma quarterback win the Super Bowl Oklahoma slash
Alabama and Jalen Hurts right, you know, seeing the guys
and Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield and the receivers and
the running backs and your Hollywood Browns, and you're Rodney

(46:47):
Anderson whatever, Joe Mixon, and then as the page turns,
he's like, we're a defensive team now. You're just like,
I don't know if I'm comfortable with it.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
It's like when Richie starts wearing suits and the like
I'm a suit guy.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
Now, Okay, the rebrand did this happen? Right?

Speaker 3 (47:05):
When Lolo Jones is, you know, running a bob sled
down the ice.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
It's like, okay, she did that right.

Speaker 4 (47:12):
Wrap all these things that happened and just say Shack
is a shack for being an athlete a non full
time rapper.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Was fine.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
I think I never got used to that. But fine, continue,
But that was just like a side hustle.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
That wasn't like this is who I am now, that
was a side hustle, but Itazam Shazam was.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
The worst movie I've ever seen in my life, full stop.
When Shaq made that turn into entertainment, at least as
a recording artist. As an actor, I love money inside.
The NBA is great on that, but uh, that whole
era of Shack was not really for me.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Right.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
No, We've seen dramatic actors try comedy out and vice versa,
and it does not always work. So Oklahoma's just looking
for their drama y balance, right. They're just looking to
figure out who they can be moving forward. And there's
a lot to like about the moves they made. I
would love for them to have a little bit more

(48:11):
poppet receiver, a little more depth and meet and along
the offensive line. But it seems that slowly but surely
the neutral is going into drive for Oklahoma's offense.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
You got any other clips for us?

Speaker 3 (48:27):
I do have another clip. I believe this is the
one right here.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Just stay alive, Ken, they hook them touchdown?

Speaker 1 (48:35):
Who Matthew Golden fourth and thirteen?

Speaker 4 (48:40):
Man, I say that one. I felt that one again. Yeah,
on the replay here. Yes, the trauma is yours if
you are an ASU fan. We got a couple comments
about this one from Mark, from Bobby. It was sort
of two things that went hand in hand, right.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
It wasn't from Kenny though. It wasn't from Kenny Dillyham. Okay,
just make it.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
Sure Kenny is still blacked out from that one. Yeah,
but two things that went down. The first was the
fourth and thirteen conversion. Okay, just Texas being able to convert.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
And then on top.

Speaker 4 (49:13):
Of it, it happening after that very bizarre no call
on what I thought was an obvious targeting foul. Right,
so Mark writes in this as an ASU fan, it
can only be the fourth and thirteen in overtime in
the Peach Bowl had not allowed myself to hope for
more all year long. But it really felt like we
were about to shock the world until we decided to

(49:36):
dial up that zero blitz. Alas yeah, crying emoji, and
then Bobby says the targeting non call in the Peach Bowl,
followed by yes the conversion on the fourth and thirteen.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
So I mean, I mean, this is the heartbreak that
comes with letting yourself be vulnerable and be hurt. Right
that it's fourth and thirteen, in your mind is like
is it?

Speaker 1 (50:00):
This is it?

Speaker 3 (50:01):
We've arrived, we've landed, everything is going great, and it's
just this one play and Quinn yours has been up
and down. This offense has been up and down, started quickly,
you know, sort of slid to a halt. And you know,
while there's obviously great players on this offense, ASU's defense

(50:21):
has done a really nice job figuring things out, you know,
leaning on Cam scattaboo on offense, and fourth and thirteen
thirteen yards of so many yards, Like Asu was right there,
I'm ready to be loved, I'm ready to be hurt
and hurt Asu, Quinn, you weres dead.

Speaker 4 (50:38):
This was I mentioned earlier specific moments that I remember
I remember this moment. Yeah, I remember where I was,
I remember how it made me feel. I think, if
you weren't a Texas fan, if you weren't an SEC
fan rooting for Texas, right, or just somebody in the
state of Texas who was rooting for Texas. Yeah, the

(51:01):
vast majority of the people were rooting for ASU in
that moment because as you looked at the college football
playoff bracket, it didn't seem like there was a whole
lot of room for upsets.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
And we know upsets are kind of the life blood
of this thing.

Speaker 4 (51:15):
And so we were pulling I will say weak because
I probably was in this boat in the moment, pulling
for Arizona State to keep it interesting, to make it interesting.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Yeah, and they did. I mean they had this game.
They had this game.

Speaker 4 (51:29):
They played their hearts out between Cam Skataboo and Sam
Levit and you know all of the madness that transpired
in this Peach Bowl.

Speaker 3 (51:38):
And it would mean ASU winning would mean them sort
of kicking open the door and getting into a club
that has almost regularly or routinely featured like nine teams
that's right in like the semi finals, quarterfinal, you know,
the best four six, eight teams.

Speaker 4 (51:55):
Yeah, it was a terrible no call. I agree, it
was a terrible no call. As Mark says, the zero
blitz did not work. So yes, it was a rather
disappointing sequence that served as the cherry on top of
an incredible finish to that game.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
If you're an Arizona State.

Speaker 4 (52:15):
Fan, yes, if you're an ASU fan, look, I mean
Kenny Dillingham, I think he told Pete Nakos he thinks
that they're like the next big program.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
Why not. He thinks they're the next big thing.

Speaker 4 (52:27):
And you know what, the Big twelve is still pretty
damn wide open, Dan, he could be right about that.
He's got a really exciting quarterback and Sam Levitt coming back.
He gets Sam Levitt, by the way, gets his wide
receiver one back Tyree. Yeah, Jordan Tyson, by some accounts
as the best receiver in the upcoming draft class.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
Wow, didn't know that.

Speaker 4 (52:49):
Okay, Right, So there's a lot I think to be
excited about. And Kenny Dillingham is a lifer. He's not
going anywhere. I'm sure if he wanted to, he could,
but he's not. So it's high times for ASU. He
has turned this thing around. A lot quicker than anybody
thought possible. Do not be so focused on the overtime

(53:10):
sequencing in that playoff game and instead look at the
bigger picture, which I think is pretty exciting.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
No, it definitely felt like ASU was there, and you know,
to not have Cam Skataboo back and to lose a
couple key players that this was definitely an ASU team
that could compete with the country's best. If you're competing
with Texas, what close Texas was and ASU was competing, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:35):
Especially Dan, especially down the stretch because you know, as
we were talking through what was transpiring throughout the course
of the season, Yeah, it was a lot of like
HEYSU could actually like sneak into this thing, right. Sure,
you know we had weird tiebreakers because they all got
rid of their divisions and whatnot, But we watched extra
closely on that Big twelve and as you finding its

(53:58):
way into the game and then equitting itself as well
as did I think in and of itself like that,
that's a well.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
They're also huge scene as like a participation trophy team
because they got the seating bump after not being ranked
in the top four, but they got the seating bump
to being a top four seed given last year's rules.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
A huge win, A huge win for that program. Speaking
of Texas, Okay, what do you have? You know what
I'm gonna say with Texas.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
I do think I think there's the ending of the
Ohio State.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
Game, Ray writes in it, says Longhorn fan watching them
methodically march down the field tie the game before half,
only for Ohio State to run a screen pass for
seventy five yards, then to once again march down to
the red zone. At the end of the game, run
a horrible toss play to lose yards, only to sit
and watch in horror as Jack Sawyer comes around the

(54:48):
corner to blind side yours.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
Yeah, that was a moment.

Speaker 4 (54:56):
That was a moment in time, Texas fans. I don't
know what the future in twenty twenty five has in store.
I don't know how long Arch Manning will be on campus.
It seems as if Steve Sarkisian has cranked this thing
up to a point where they've hit something of critical mass.
The floor has been raised effectively on that Texas program

(55:17):
thanks to suck. But that moment, that moment is going
to stick with you especially if they get back.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
To the playoffs this year.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
Yeah, especially because even if Texas is loaded, I think
they're loaded. Those are the types of moments that are
caught in the deep dark corners of your mind. And
even if you feel like things are trending in a
positive direction, you've got all the momentum, you still think

(55:47):
back to I hope that doesn't happen again. I hope
something like this does not happen again in a high
leverage moment some with your ray if you're trying to
heal from atal I could say is Texas is going
to be loaded again, and you've got Arch Manning, wh
might be a better quarterback. And there's a lot to
like about Texas obviously, but I mean there's also moments

(56:08):
like this are really tough to come back from, just
as a fan.

Speaker 3 (56:10):
The Texas stretches last year, though, as good of a
season as it was, so there's the moments like Jack
Sawyer and running the ball back in the screen right
before halftime, which Texas just looked super lost on. Defensively,
Texas's offensive line was overwhelmed against Georgia in that first
game that they just looked like they were on skates.

(56:31):
They didn't know where Georgia players were coming from. Losing
the SEC championship game. So good of Texas to get
to that game. Yeah, losing to Gunner Stockton in Georgia late, Yeah, exactly,
that's a moment that's hard to get over. And then,
of course the way that they lost Ohio State. So
it's tough if you're a Texas fan from Afar. I

(56:51):
think I am from Afar to say what a year
twenty twenty four was when there was that very very
specific that I'm still sure ling still. Yeah, I'm positive
it's still lingering. Oh yeah, all right, let me go
rapid fire through a few of.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
These other ones. I'm ready.

Speaker 4 (57:08):
We got a bunch of Texas A and M people
writing in a specifically about the Texas game.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
Okay, so that was a nice moment for Texas. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (57:17):
Evan says he waited thirteen years for A and M
to play Texas, just hoping and dreaming for a chance
to redeem ourselves. After the last second loss. In twenty eleven,
the Aggies rewarded that with being shutout offensively at home.
Another Thanksgiving weekend devastated.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
Just like old times. Okay, thank you Evan. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (57:38):
Darryl writes in says he's an A and M grad
season ticket holder, wasn't happy about the Longhorns joining the SEC.
Wasn't looking forward to our game with them. I told
my brother before the game that it wouldn't be fun,
but rather just four hours of anxiety. That's exactly what
it was. It was not fun at all. Yes, and
then Kyle writes in more broadly, just injuries to A

(58:01):
and m's offensive line early in the Notre Dame game,
also Levion Moss going down against South Carolina and the
momentum completely shifting against US. A and M had some
moments last year. If you're an A and M fan,
how do you feel about year one under Mike Elco?

Speaker 1 (58:23):
I feel okay.

Speaker 3 (58:25):
So it's hard for me to put myself in that
position because for me from afar, A and M late
was in it to get to the SEC championship game.
They very much were, with a defense that had some
terrific moments but also some regrettable second halves, with you know,
starting running back going down almost immediately to start the season,

(58:46):
and it being a first year head coach, you just
sort of you hope to see a vision, you hope
to see proof of concept, and they just kind of
kept on chugging, like there was no shame in losing
to Notre Dame other than the fact that that was
like a semi winnable game at home to start the year.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
But it's game one, so.

Speaker 3 (59:05):
Like you're encouraged. Recruiting has been good. So I think
if you're able to separate reality from your very real pain,
the outlook is bright. But if you look at the
specific kind of pain involved in not scoring an offensive
touchdown against Texas after all that time off, the only

(59:26):
thing that can fix that is beating Texas and scoring
thirty plus points. The only thing that can truly fill
that wound, fill that hole in your heart, is doing
the exact opposite.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
This year, I think.

Speaker 4 (59:38):
Let's talk a little Texas State trauma, shall we? Okay,
Heather rights in Texas State losing to Sam Houston forty
to thirty nine. I remember that game. Of course, I
was big on Texas State last year. It was the
restart of the biggest rivalry US Bobcats had in the
FCS Southland days. More importantly, and this is where it

(01:00:01):
gets funny. D in my high school X went there,
so when I logged into Facebook, him trash talking was
the very first thing I saw, especially brutal since I
spent all off season talking about how the Bearcats went
three and nine the year before.

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
Ty Are you do you follow or are friends with
any of your your former flames on social media?

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
It's funny you should ask that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:26):
I did just check as we were going through this,
and it appears that the answer is yes.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
On which platform Facebook? Facebook? Is that?

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
Do you accidentally come across a post from whoever this
young lady is?

Speaker 4 (01:00:41):
I believe I hid this person many months ago, so
I no longer get any of those updates, which is
what I would advise Heather to do if it's still
sort of the thing that causes trauma, especially you have
especially during college football season.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
You know, I would say if you have any sort
of even a tiny, make roscopic amount of bad blood
with anyone when a relationship, an important relationship, maybe an
X from high school isn't that important, But if there
was any actual real world love trauma, TI, you gotta unfriend,
you gotta unfollow, you gotta block. There's no good reason

(01:01:18):
to have that lingering as a possibility in your life.
That like, oh, here's a post from a wedding. Here
are her kids. You're like, no, no, gotta move forward.
It's it's the Bill Belichick. If there's anything he said,
there's two.

Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
Things he says, Yes, let's take Bill Belichick's advice on
love and relationships, shall we.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
The first thing that you gotta on what do you
say on to Cincinnati? Yeah, you're just onto the next day, right,
you gotta be onto the next day. The other thing
I think that's very wise of him to say was
how old are you? That was probably really smart of
him to ask at some point. Yeah, that's you gotta unfriend,
you gotta block, you gotta you gotta mute, you gotta unfollow,

(01:01:57):
whatever you gotta do. There's no reason if anybody calls
you pain, you can't have it online.

Speaker 4 (01:02:03):
Derek Derek right sane, He says, as a BYU fan,
I need to get the loss to Kansas off my chest.
A quarterback punt bouncing off a DB's helmet is one
of the wildest ways to lose a game, and I'm
not sure if I fully recovered. He's not wrong about
this one, Dan, that was a hell of a way
to lose a game.

Speaker 3 (01:02:21):
Yeah, absolutely wouldn't worship wish it on my I would
wish it on my worst enemy, but not like my
third worst.

Speaker 4 (01:02:28):
Enemy, Brandon says the end of the opener between Minnesota
and North Carolina. Yeah, a big run into a chip
shot field goal which was called back for holding, followed
by the ragining Big Ten kicker of the year missing
a forty seven yarder to win it. Dropping the opener

(01:02:49):
on national television carrying an eighty six percent postgame win
expectancy shifted the vibes on the entire season. In the end,
it was a difference between seven and eight wins, which
is right on the dividing line between a shrug emoji
and a good season.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
Thank you, Brandon.

Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
Yeah, I mean Minnesota had an interesting enough year. There's
a lot of new faces at Minnesota this year and
they just kind of keep winning. But they were within
a point of eventual Big Ten runners up and playoffs
semi finalists Penn State twenty six to twenty five.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
There's a lot to like.

Speaker 3 (01:03:22):
Minnesota bounced back and had a quality season, but yeah,
that North Carolina game absolutely winnable.

Speaker 4 (01:03:28):
We've got one here from Andrew Rutgers getting the best
possible schedule from the Big Ten, avoiding all four teams
that made the playoff, and still barely making a bowl.

Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
Can Rutgers ever break through?

Speaker 3 (01:03:42):
Good question, don't the answers likely No, But if Andrew
lives in the Garden State, you likely have access to
what I would consider maybe the best pizza state in
the Union. There you go, fall pizza state, not necessarily
pizza style, pity sad pizza goes a long way, ask
Urban Meyer.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
Sad pizza is pizza.

Speaker 4 (01:04:04):
Law writes in about Tulane being ranked at nine to
two with a real shot at the playoff thanks to
the weird playoffs setup, only to lose to Memphis and
the AAC title Game two Army was just brutal, even
more so when it was revealed after the Army game
that Darian Mensa had already packed his bags and left
the team and really had mentally checked out before that

(01:04:27):
huge Memphis game.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
Right, not gonna lie. That seemed very painful. By the future, again,
I think Tulane has what we considered to be a
pretty great coach. Don't know how long he's going to
be in town, but the short term future still seems
decently bright. If you're a Tulane fan. The MENSA thing
is not fun. The end of that season nine and two,
they got like shelled by Army, right, Yeah in the

(01:04:50):
title game. Yeah, not a great way to end the year.
But I think there's still a lot of quality in
New Orleans.

Speaker 4 (01:04:56):
Let me rip through a few of these here real
quick and we'll find this thing down. Sean writes in
LSU fans still reeling from the three game skid when
the team came off the rails. We've got a couple
here from Washington fans. Robert in particular says, as a
Washington fan, losing the Apple Cup was pretty rough, not

(01:05:19):
for the loss from a Washington perspective, but more for
the hope and playoff joy it gave Washington State.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
I love this, I get this, I get it. This
is great smoke from Robert. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:05:32):
The hope and playoff joy it gave Washington State before
their month long downfall at the end of the season.

Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
Yeah, losing their offensive coordinator, losing their quarterback to punctuate
at all.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
Yeah, good good stuff there.

Speaker 4 (01:05:45):
Justin wrote in just broadly speaking about Ohio State losing
for the fourth year and rode to Michigan By the way,
a Michigan team that looked like their quarterback learned that
the forward pass existed only moments before game time. It
was absolutely infuriating. It. We didn't even talk enough about that.
We talked a lot about Ohio State and some of
the bigger market schools here. But yeah, losing that game,

(01:06:06):
I get that there is trauma with that. Of course,
college sports tonight weighing in on Oklahoma State, who we
referenced a couple times in passing. Being told your team
is a great chance at winning a conference championship and
ultimately not being anywhere close. Yeah, season long disappointment. Yes,
so that is trauma, but over quickly, over quickly, you knew.

Speaker 1 (01:06:29):
Ryan says.

Speaker 4 (01:06:29):
I was at work during the Baylor Colorado game. Work
was slow, so I was following it along even before.
I still had some optimism for the season. It wasn't
fully on the Randa fire train. When Baylor gave up
the game tying touchdown, I went fully on that train. Yeah,
my friends were watching the game on Discord, messaging me

(01:06:52):
to see how I was doing. That's always the worst
when they're asking, oh, yeah, check, how you doing. They
lost the second I got into my car to go home.
I jumped on the Discord call to give my biggest
and loudest rant ever. I'm happy how the season ended,
but man, I was down at the beginning. I feel
you get that, totally get that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:12):
And you're not even watching the game. You're at work,
so you're just like, bad things are happening. I don't
know the details. Bad stuff is going on in Boulder.

Speaker 4 (01:07:22):
Melty, who wrote in earlier about Notre Dame, also writes
in as a Louisville fan. He says, as a Louisville
fan coming off a historical win at Clemson with a
bye week to prepare, looking at a nine to three
regular season with the losses to two playoff teams and
a first round pick quarterback.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
And then they lose to Stanford. Yes, what Stanford?

Speaker 4 (01:07:46):
That was one of the more inexplicable losses of the year.

Speaker 3 (01:07:49):
Louisville was, I mean, very clearly a team just good
enough to pull off a huge upset, but just not
fully baked enough to also lose an embarrassing fan, someone
who happened to be across the country in Palo Alto,
in a quiet, quiet stadium in Stanford.

Speaker 4 (01:08:07):
And let's close things out.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
With Dan, Okay, now youat me.

Speaker 4 (01:08:15):
On my birthday, I was flying out the Boston to
see Pearl Jam at Fenway. Okay, great, And on the
plane I got to watch Notre Dame score touchdown after
touchdown against superstar Dylan Theeneman and the Perdue defense to
the tune of.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
Sixty six points.

Speaker 4 (01:08:32):
Yeah in the first FBS game for the blo.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
The subtle bitterness. Yeah. Continue.

Speaker 4 (01:08:38):
The season was a waste after that, although I did
go to the final four Perdue fan after all. Yeah,
and Pearl Jam was awesome. Okay, so it sounds like
maybe he's already healed from that trauma.

Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
But that was that fun game. Neil Armstrong is still
a Purdue alum. Guys in the National hero as is
your brother. Same sentence in terms of aviation. Neil Armstrong
and my middle brother just step for step with each other.
You're in good company.

Speaker 4 (01:09:10):
You're in good I worked with the guy when I
was at the old day job who was a Perdue
grad who is an engineer.

Speaker 1 (01:09:17):
Mm hmm. Maybe the tallest human I've ever met in
my life.

Speaker 3 (01:09:23):
So surprisingly tall, like we talked about on our Bonus
show last week, surprisingly tall, huge, nice, guy, that's all
that surprisingly tall and by the way, just to tie
a bow on everything, because it was the Verballers who
submitted all of these dramatic points.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
You can listen to a deep.

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
Dive on aviation with my brother the Pilot that we
recorded a year or two ago on verballers dot com.
A questions you do need to pay for that content,
but yes, yeah, that is. That is behind the paywall.
If you want the scoop on aviation and airlines in
the twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
Maybe we should bring them back. Actually in a lot
going on. Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 4 (01:10:05):
Thank you everybody for being vulnerable with us and sending
in these moments. Hopefully just calling them out again, talking
them through again, reliving them in somewhat painstaking detail is
enough for you to get over it and get ready
for the season ahead. As I said, we're going to
start our previews when things turn over into July. The

(01:10:28):
very first episode we are going to do is going
to be almost identical to the one we did a
year ago. The intro to the twenty twenty five college
football season. What changed in the off season, what's new?
What are the big storylines, the big transfers, what are
the high level things that you need to know as
a college football fan to get ready for this season.
It's a good starting point because what we did for

(01:10:50):
a decade was just dive right in with conference previews.
But we need to set the table. You know, I'm
big on that. The context. You need to set the context.
What the whistle get things started. We will do our
intro to the twenty five season, and then we will
dive into a group of six can't wait.

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
Okay, that work for you done.

Speaker 4 (01:11:12):
Reballers dot com is where you can go to further
support what Dan and I do. Thank you again everybody
who posted a comment in reply. Just because we record
the episode doesn't mean you can't still go out to
that post and leave for us in the comment thread
those moments that provided you with the most trauma last season,
the things that hurt you. Use that comment thread as

(01:11:34):
a sounding board. The verballer hood is a great community
of people that can help you along. Hit follow hit
subscribes that you don't miss any of our episodes. I
feel like one thousand pound gorilla is now off my Yeah, first.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
Weight off your chest.

Speaker 4 (01:11:49):
Yeah for that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein,
for myself Tie Hildebrant.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
Thank you for downloading, for listening, for sharing your thoughts
with us. We'll talk to y'all since stays off, Yes,

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