Previews: The Mountain West, Pac-2 and Conference USA | 2025 College Football - The Solid Verbal College Football

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

Speaker 2 (00:05):
For me, I'm a man, I'm forty.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
be happy. You want to be happy for Dake Edith
State is that whoo whoo?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
And no, Dan and Tie.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Dan Rubinstein, welcome back still previous season. We got a
long way to go, my friend, We've already got I
guess two technically two episodes in the books. Go back
and listen to our first I guess Conference Previo, the
episode on the last one we did the sun Belt.
I talked way too long about the sun Belt. I'm

(00:38):
still really interested.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Really interested in the Sunbam. It's not that you spoke
too long. It's that, in the spirit of college, everybody
sat down for sun Belt three oh one in the
lecture hall, and you really gave.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
It to him. I'm sun Belt Billy. Now I think
I've assumed that identity. Yeah, based on all the researchers. Anyway, listen,
go back and listen to that. It was the sun Belt,
it was the American Dan talked about the MAC. On
today's episode, We're going to talk about the Mountain West.
We're gonna talk about Conference USA, We're going to talk
about the pac two pack two pack two for now,
pack twelve for later. But appreciate everybody stopping on by

(01:15):
Hit Fall Hit subscribes that you don't miss any of
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E R B A L L e r s dot
com that's or Patreon, go there for the bonus perks,
get bonus content, you get ad free episodes, get episodes,
a little bit early access to our discord, which is
starting to eat up more and more people are starting
to find the Patreons starting to get ready for college

(01:35):
football season as the calendar has turned to July. Dan. So, yeah,
with all that said, I let us off last time
around talking about the sun Belt. We do have some
sounds here. We are going to continue, I believe, using
our Lorenzo Lamis flaw finder. Of course, how could we not,

(01:57):
because we have to. We're going to continue, I guess,
basing all of these previews around the idea of heat
checks and temperature gauges and the mountuice friction friction, Yeah,
all that stuff. Why don't you get us roll in
here with all things Mountain West.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Okay, I'm gonna stick right on there and talk about
the heat and how hot I believe the Mountain West
to be. It's so hot that a new conference is
forming around it. Sort of well, they're stealing teams from it, right,
a new conference. I'm saying, a new conference is forming
with an old name, with a combination of teams from
at least two different conferences, maybe three. Uh, everybody's just

(02:35):
hot for the Mountain West. High everybody wants more Mountain
West in their lives.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
It's the Mountain West Nebula that is forming a new star.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
That's exactly right. Okay, So I would immediately text the
Mountain West after a first date and make sure that
they got home safely. I would text too soon. I
would be super excited to plan a picnic with the
Mountain West. I get it from an Oregon state Washington
state perspective that geographically it makes sense. I love the

(03:04):
coaches in the Mountain West. I love the upside of
teams in the Mountain West. I love that there is
a clear standard in the Mountain West. A team in
the Mountain West, we were like, well there's them, and
then there's a next tier, but nobody's in their tier, right.
I like all of that, and I love that it's
at altitude, and that weirdly affects teams. Some of the

(03:25):
teams are definitely not at altitude the West teams, and
some are at crazy altzude. I just the concept of
the Mountain West, not even just the concept, the realities
of the Mountain West get me going in a way
that Lorenzo Lamas could appreciate with his flawfinder, even though
I can find a ton of flaws.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Sure, So the question is is the Mountain West hot?
Answers yes, of course, the answer is yes. Absolutely, the
answer is yes.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
I guess The question that I have is, especially over
the last like year and a half, so much of
the conversation as centered around Boise State, and it was
obvious going into last season and that Boise State was
going to be the team to be. Has that gap
narrowed at all in your mind? Or is it still
Boise versus the field?

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Okay, so Boise is not exactly what Boise was last
season because they had their greatest and most talented offensive
player ever. Sure as a program, and there have been
some terrific ones. There have been some record setting ones,
some big time winners, some big time players that moved
on to Ashton Genty is the greatest player to play
for Boise State, and that's not a take at all.

(04:29):
So even though Boise's running back stable, their running back
room is I think it's probably the best in the conference.
Even without him. There's a difference there. There's a gravity
there to Boise State, which I'm happy to start with Boise.
You know, Spencer Danielson, when he lost the interim tag,
came in and immediately was excellent for the Broncos. The
defense developed guys, They wisely developed their offense around the

(04:52):
best running back in the nation. And even though Maddox
Madson was very good against Mountain West teams and a
little bit lacking in key moments and in key games,
namely of our against our alma maters in Oregon and
Penn State, Boise was a crazy success story last year
and does not appear to be slowing down at all

(05:13):
this year, mostly because the teams with which they competed
to be the best in that conference, name LEU and
LV lost their coach and a bunch of key players, right,
and they're starting over in a pretty serious way with
how many new players that are going to be counted
on in Vegas. So Boise merely by having a returning quarterback,

(05:35):
a bunch of key key players on defense, coming back
to a defense that was a top twenty five ish
national defense, if not higher at its best, they're just
way down the road from everybody else in this conference.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
I'm looking at some of Bill C's projections now and
to the point, and.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
They're scheduled by the way rules. It's not like they're
constantly on the road against the best teams on their
like the schedules right.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
The Boise projection. Just to give some context here, Bill's
got them as the thirty third best team in the
preseason SP plus. The next closest is UNLV at seventy fifth.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
That's a golf.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
It's a golf, And based on other projections, he's got
them close to ten wins. He's got them what looks
to me to be about a thirteen to fourteen point
favorite over UNLV. This is preseason stuff. It's going to
change a million times even before we get to the season,
i'd assume, but just to kind of give you a
sense for where things are at here, it really does

(06:33):
look like per these projections, Boise's way up there and
everybody else is sort of scraping and clawing to get
even into the next tier.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
It might not even be fair to say there's a
next tier, right if the first tier is clear contender
and the next tier is could figure things out to
give Boise some some problems. I don't know if there's
a team that is so obviously in that tier. If
you're saying the next SPPLUS projection is in the seventies, right, right,
usually you would want forties, fifties or something to be

(07:02):
one of those teams that has that kind of upside.
So somebody is going to appear Boise. If Boise is
what they look like they're going to be, they will
play somebody in the Mount West Championship game. Somebody has
to occupy that other spot. But between UNLV hiring another
coach in Dan Mullen, which by the way, they just
had two years of their best coach in modern history

(07:24):
of not ever in Barry Otam who left for Purdue.
You know, San Jose State was interesting in year one
of ken Nea Modololo. Fresno State always has a good
amount of talent on its roster, and I think a
lot of people are very high on the matt Ens higher,
like there's a lot to like about this conference from
a peer, Like this is a pretty deep roster of
proven quality coaches, you know, Bronco Mendenhall and Troy Calhoun

(07:48):
and Sean Lewis, and like what he did at Ken
State looks better and better with each passing day, it
really does. So he's at San Diego State where he
should be able to, you know, build up a roster
of intriguing Talentlorado State Quiety had a really nice year
last year with Jay Norvel like Jane Orville I always have. Yeah,
And so just like proven quality, the Mountain West goes

(08:08):
deeper than it should and Bronko Mendenhall, by the way,
still I really like Jason Eck who New Mexico hired
away from Idaho, who gave Oregon everything they could handle,
just like Boise did to start the season last year.
So proven quality coaching. Matt Ens won a national championship.
You know, Jimmy Rodgers, who's playing a Mountain West schedule
ish at Wazoo even though they're not in the Mountain West,

(08:30):
Like there's just like there's just high quality here. So
Boise State specifically, if that's where we want to start,
or if there's any other big picture topics you want
to hit with the Mountain West.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
No, I mean I wanted to go to Boise actually,
because and again we're not trying to make any of
these G fives. I don't know if it should be
G five or G six. I'm just going to keep
calling it G five. It's muscle memory, Okay. I don't
know if we are doing a disservice to any of
these conferences by zooming out a little bit and talking
about playoffs, But I think we have to with Boise

(09:00):
because Boyse made the playoffs last season. They play they
lost to Penn State, and it would appear, at least
based on some of the other research that we've been
talking through here, that they're again the favorite to get
back to that playoff. So why don't we start there?
Does that seem like a fair assessment based on the
studying you've done on this team, outside of not having

(09:21):
Ashton genty, which is a big deal, How are they different?
What does it feel like to you in twenty twenty five?

Speaker 3 (09:26):
You know, receiver, obviously running back is different. Receiver could
be a little bit different in terms of who steps
up linebacker. There's familiar faces. Both lines have a ton
of familiar faces. The secondary should be nails. There's not
a ton that's different. They do have another playoff caliber
team on its schedule, like they did last year with Oregon,
and that is Notre Dame on the road this year,

(09:47):
and so they'll have a case either by beating Notre
Dame or how they look against Notre Dame if they are,
you know, locked up with another team not in a
power conference, that they will have that on their schedule.
So the schedule's fine, It's yeah, it's at Notre Dame.
They get UNLV at home and Notre Dame excuse me,
and Boise has a bye before two of it's more

(10:08):
intriguing Mountain West road games. So schedule, why is there
in a good place. We saw how they acquitted themselves
last year in year one of Spencer Danielson against Oregon
and Penn State. It came down to the last seconds
against Oregon and they were I think it was a
three point game in the third quarter. Against Penn State.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
They held with Penn State long enough I think to
turn in a respectable showing. You know, Penn They asserted
itself later, but yeah, they were, They were in that game.

Speaker 3 (10:33):
So yeah, the difference in Boise State is they're more seasoned.
They've been to the top of the sport in that
they've been to the College Football Playoff. The proof of
concept is there, and so now it's just are they
locked in? Are they focused? Are they going to dump
a dumb second game other than Notre Dame if they
do dump that one, and that's on the road, but
it's not a guarantee that Notre Dame comes out of that.

(10:56):
You know, is there a moment for Boise where they
like it's a sandwich spot, it's a look ahead spot,
it's a letdown spot after somebody big. It's entirely possible.
But both the way that Boise weather that schedule last season,
I'd say it's unlikely that Boise is even is falling
to nine and three.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
This year unlikely? Unlikely.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yeah, So I like Maddox Madson. I think he's going
to be counted on to do more this year than
he had to do last year. Even with Ashton Gent.
He's not like he was popping downfield a ton, which
is a little bit disappointing that you couldn't use the
gravity of having that backfield to your advantage. Otherwise, he's
a year older, he's a year more experienced. There's no

(11:39):
reason to believe he won't improve like anybody multi year
starter should. So I think Boise's in a great place.
To me, it's a ten and two floor. Ten and
two flour would probably get them in the playoff. Ten
and two means you're losing a Notre dame in somebody else.
I guess eleven and two at this point, right, eleven
and two?

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, yeah, I like where Boyse's at. Is it fair
then to assume, with all that is new on the
un LV side, that they are the next team up?
Or do you think that's a little bit too aggressive?

Speaker 3 (12:09):
Okay, So U and LV schedule is UCLA, they're at
Miami of Ohio, they're at Boise, and they're at Colorado State.
In terms of intriguing games, so it's tough on the road.
It's that they're gonna count on a ton of like
Power Conference transfers in The big names are Anthony Calandria
from Virginia and Alex org from Michigan, neither of whom
were good enough to be considered long term starters at

(12:32):
those places, and both places had jobs that were there
for the taking. So I think UNLV is going to
be interesting. I think they're going to be at times fun,
but given that kind of roster turnover, I'm just not
there with like saying that they're the obvious number two.
I really like Dan Mullen, and in terms of proven quality,

(12:55):
he may already be the best coach in this conference
given what he did a Mississippi State and Florida, So
I'm not gonna look past that. But I don't think
it's they're the obvious number two and they're not my
obvious number two.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Who is your number two or who's the more obvious
number two?

Speaker 3 (13:16):
I think San Jose State. Really, I think I reserve
the right to change my mind once because, like, here's
the thing, Fresno always has a high level. I'm just
not necessarily there on EJ. Warner being like a contending
type quarterback. As much as I like matt Ens and
maybe even like the upside of the Fresno defense, I'm

(13:38):
not there with them. And their schedule is tough. So
Fresno is at Kansas, Georgia Southern at Oregon State at
Boise State, and they are at San Jose State. So
just in terms of like situationally, I like where San
Jose stits schedule wise, returning the quarterback Nick Nash is gone,
who obviously set records for them at receiver. But I
don't know. I I think the combination of coach, quarterback

(14:03):
and what they return, I think it's it's pretty good.
They have star power on that defense. They one of
the best linebackers in the conference. I don't know. Maybe
I'm just too high on San Jose State and my
beloved Spartans, but I like them.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
I like the job that ken Nea Modololo did, and
I remember this time around last year we talked a
lot about what's it going to look like when he's
not running the option, when he's sort of going about
things a bit of a different way, not at Navy.
And I don't think it should come as any great
surprise that San Jose State was a very respectable program.
They had a good season and it stands to reason

(14:41):
that they would improve upon that this year, provided they've
got the pieces in place.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
Yeah, they lost, okay, so at the end of the year.
So they beat Oregon State, who was super beat up,
but they beat him on the road. They lose to
Boise State with relative ease by twenty one points. They
lose to UNLV. They beat Stanford, which I thought was
a nice fight from them. There was no really bad losses.
They lost to quality teams. They lost a crazy shootout

(15:06):
to Wazoo early, So I just didn't even think they
were terribly far away last year. And if the starting
point was an average defense, a returning quarterback and a
returning quality coach and a decent enough schedule, it's a
weird year because I again, there's nobody in that golf
that that obvious number two golf, because there's just so

(15:27):
much new about this conference. So it's now weird to
say a second year head coach with a returning quarterback
and a decent enough looking defense puts them at an
advantage over ninety percent of this conference. But I think
here we are.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah. I mean the other point that I would call out,
just with respect to some of these teams that we're
discussing here now, Boise State falls into an interesting category
this year because they're thirteenth nationally in terms of returning production.
Being high on that returning production number when you are
a good team. The year feels like it is almost

(16:02):
a thing of the past, just with so much movement,
the transfer portal being what it is, returning production, that
stat has changed. We've had Bill on the show, Bill Connolly,
He's talked about that for a bit. Now he's having
to rejigger how he calculates it. Seeing Boise State that
high up on this list is I think even more

(16:22):
reason to be excited about this season. To that point,
San Jose State is third in the conference with what
they have back, a little bit more on defense than offense,
but it's a program that is going to have a
pretty decent enough nucleus coming back. They're in the top
seventy nationally, which I view as any win if you're
a G five school and you're not getting absolutely killed.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Yeah, there's nothing crazy. Back to back on the San
Jose State schedule. Now we'll see they're going to get
destroyed by Texas in week two. But I don't know.
New coach in Central Michigan at home, Idaho with a
new coach, Stanford with a new coach on the road,
New Mexico with a new coach, Wyoming with a second
year guy, Uta State with a new coach like, this

(17:05):
schedule is great. No Boise No UNLV on San Jose
State schedule. They get air Force at home, they get
Fresno at home. I don't know. I think situationally, they're
in a great spot if they can stay healthy. So
they'd be my number two right now. Boise one, you're
saying San Jose State two, Yeah, UNLV three, I'm assuming,

(17:26):
I think so. I think that's where Dan mull Dan Mulliban,
Dan Mullen gets the benefit of the doubt.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah. I mean, one of the things that jumps out
to you when you look at UNLV is the fact
that with all of these new players, it probably goes
without saying it, none of them have played together before, right,
you know, and anytime you've got an experiment like that,
we've seen it work. We've also seen it not work.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yeah. And UNLV's starting point for Dan Mullen is they
might have the best running back in the conference, Jane Thomas.
So start there, we'll see how the line play is.
You and I watched Alex Orgy last year, tantalizing talent
who doesn't complete a lot of passes.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
I mean, he should be a running back, He should
be a running back.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
He should receive something or an option quarterback or you know,
and maybe he will be an option quarterback for Dan Mullen.
Maybe he looks at him, he's like, I can work
with this from step one, day one, whatever, and we're
not going to try to, you know, put him into
a position where he's not going to succeed. I like
the recruiting from the portal recruiting. I like where U
and LV is and schedule wise, it's not terrible either.

(18:35):
So situationally, U and lv's schedule even though they're at
Boise and at Colorado State. Otherwise I think it's workable.
Fresno State and Colorado State are the other teams and
whatever that third tier is for.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Me, one final point on UNLV, and then I want
to get to the next tier. I'm really interested to
see what it looks like longer term with Dan Mullen
at UNOV, because I.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
Don't think it's a long term higher.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
It may not be a long term higher, and I
think that's fair or not he stays there or ends
up somewhere else. The game has changed a lot since
Dan Mullen got dragged publicly for not recruiting at all. Right,
the recruiting game has changed, and you could argue that
there is more emphasis now on the transfer portal than
there is in high school recruiting. We've seen some schools

(19:18):
take that tack. Yeah, I'm curious to see how Dan
Mullen adjusts, if he adjusts, because if in the portal
era he is also not recruiting, this is going to
be short lived. Regardless of where he goes. He's going
to need to step up and they're going to need
to have some infrastructure to recruit the portal.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
It's also not clear that that infrastructure and resources and
cash money is going to be readily available, at least
if you listen to Matt Sluka.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
Right, Yeah, well that's it. That's it man.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
I mean beyond that, there have been stories about you
and LV and you know, resources on hand. So like,
is Dan Mullen, who is used to sec type infrastructure
going to be long If he succeeds at UNLV, he
will be bury out and gone in two years. If
it doesn't work, he'll step down, he'll be gone in
two years.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Fresno in Colorado State, you've gotten the next tier new
coach for Fresno's Matt Ense who I like. I like
matt Ants. Matt Ens was with USC for a couple
of years. I guess before that if you track back
through his through a CV, like he was successful at
North Dakota State, and I think you and I had

(20:20):
just been waiting to see what kind of gig he
was going to get. We knew this was eventually going
to be the endgame. Fresno is a good spot to land.
This has been a program that's been very successful over
the years. Obviously had a bit of an odd situation
last year with Jeff Tedford stepping away late. They gave
it to Tim Skipper for a season on an interim basis,
and now it's going to be mad Ant's. Well.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
It's also just the the hopefully solid ground that Fresno
is now on, because you remember it's Jeff Tedford, then
Calin de Borr and then Jeff Tedford and then Jeff
Tedford steps down temporarily and like there was so it's
just been a back and forth situation, not knowing where
this program is heading. Matt EN's younger guy has succeed
seems to have hired well with regard to assistance, hopefully

(21:04):
is ingratiating himself and themselves in that region well and
in the portal well obviously headlined by Corey Foreman, who
used to be maybe the number one overall recruit didn't
work out at USC, a player along the edge, and
so maybe that's sort of a second chance for a
lot of higher profile guys on the West Coast. Could
absolutely see that, especially as the West Coast evolves in

(21:25):
terms of who's playing where. So I just I'm going
to give coaching and a little bit of offensive continuity,
but Fresno State ceiling is sort of TBD because whoever's
playing on defense we don't know a ton about. So
I'm just giving them. I'm giving matt Ense and the
success that his defenses have had the benefit of the

(21:47):
doubt here that by the end of the season they
could be something interesting. But Fresno I mentioned it at Kansas,
Georgia Southern, at Oregon State, at Boise State, at San
Jose State, So they're going to have to do a
lot on the road if they're going to prove anything
in year one. And I'm just I guess I'm just
not there with EJ. Warner.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, I think EJ.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Warner, I would I kind of have a problem with
your hair.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
It's bothering me. Let's get the flawfinder at Jaez Lorenzo. Yeah,
I don't know what EJ. Warner's hair situation is. So
maybe that was the bad the wrong button hit, But
right that was going to be my point of contention.
I'm just not I'm not there with the quarterback spot
that could improve. I think it will improve at some point,
but at least in year one under Matt Ans, I

(22:26):
don't know. That's not my cup of tea.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
Sure, Colorado State's interesting just because I think Jay Norvell
is a good coach. One Summit Nevada obviously brought up
a ton of players over to Colorado State. They very
quietly won a ton of games last year against a
kind of a pathetic schedule. But really like he looked
at what he had on this roster and we're like,

(22:49):
we're just gonna kind of play conservative. We're not gonna
take a lot of chances, we're gonna lean on the
defense a little bit, and we're gonna play smart at
the end of games. And it was a good formula.
I just don't know, it doesn't seem like they have
the needed pop to make a huge move in the
conference in this moment, especially on offense.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
It's a really interesting schedule if I don't say so myself.
I mean, we talked a little bit about UTSA on
the last episode. I think UTSA is going to be
really interesting, at least on offense.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Them and Wazoo back to back. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, They've got UTSA and Wazoo back to back in
weeks I guess four and five. But they open the
season on the road at Washington. There are also games
on here against Fresno, against UNLV on the road against
Boise State, yep. Close out the year against the Air
Force at home. Who knows what that's going to look like.
So it's an interesting schedule if I think if you're

(23:41):
a Colorado State fan, there's a lot on here that
is worth watching. But what the team looks like, obviously
is the most important thing.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
Yeah, oh absolutely it is. So yeah, I think they're
going to take another step forward in that they're going
to look like a quality team more often. It's just
a tougher schedule than where they were last year.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Where are you at with the next team up? Then,
if we're going Fresno, if we're going Colorado State, right,
I'm going like San Diego State, Wyoming out of the
rest stack up.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
Definitely not San Diego State or Wyoming. Probably air Force.
They look stronger to end the year. Last year they
were crazy young, crazy beat up. I think Troy Calloun's good.
We'll see on the defense, but there's enough in the backfield,
back and now more experience. They finished the year strong
last year, and they've been one of the more consistent
programs in the nation in terms of making bowl games,

(24:36):
winning bowl games, winning eight, nine, ten, or threatening to
do so. So I just again, I'm gonna give him
the benefit of the doubt there. Their schedule is it's
it's interesting. They've got Navy and UNLV both on the
road back to back, they have Boise, they have Army
in San Jose State and San Jose State on the
road back to back, and they're at Colorado State. So
it's not, as you mentioned, it's not like super duper

(24:57):
easy schedule Eise. But I think they're kind of the
one who knock, like when you have to prepare for them,
you're preparing for something completely different, and I think that's
why they've had so much, so much success in the
Mountain West. So I think I'm in on air force
as a stealth like bounce back to eight or so
win game. Yeah, eight or so win games. Not quite

(25:21):
where they were a couple of years ago when the
defense was allowing like three points a game, at least
until the end of the year. But I think they're
they're trending that direction.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yeah, there are a couple of teams out west that
intrigue me. I'm intrigued by Hawaii. I've read really good
stuff about Hawaii. Okay, I'm intrigued by Nevada because I
think Jeff Choate did a good job in your one
at Nevada. And Wyoming. I feel like we've talked about
Wyoming every year. We like to talk about them. I
think because of the altitude thing. Is there an altitude

(25:51):
situation at Wyoming.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
I think it's the highest above sea level in FBS
football player alive. So I got that air board. That
was only reason I brought that up. Of course, of
those three teams, who's of most interest to you probably Hawaii,
just because there were moments last year where it looked
like they were breaking through. They had a nice performance

(26:13):
from a young quarterback late in the season, and the
offense is somewhat intact. They don't run the ball, but
like offensive line, I think is mostly back receiver has
experienced there, quarterback as mentioned back and the back end
of their defense, whatever that means. Sometimes there's returning production
that was just but last year. Yeah, and that's true
for a couple of these teams. San Diego State especially

(26:34):
like they're returning a bunch of guys on defense, but
was it a good defense now? So I think I'm
most intrigued by Hawaii just because their schedule is so
damn weird and it's so weird to go to Hawaii
or to bring in a team from sixty five hundred
miles away. So Stanford at Arizona, Fresno and air Force.
Air Force on the road in back to back weeks,
Colorado State on the road, San Jose State on the road,
UNLV on the road. It's just too tough for me

(26:57):
to feel great about all that roadwork for But I
don't know if the offense is for real, and you know,
they lose a ton out of the portal like they're
going to for the foreseeable future. But I think they
can be a headache more often than not. So sure
Hawaii is not going to play a ton of defense

(27:18):
this year either, And I think I think the deeper
we go into this conference and this is just kind
of uniform across the board at this point when we're
talking about G five conferences and even as we get
into the Power Conference, the deeper you go into this, well,
you're going to start finding teams that skew out much
differently than those at the top with respect to defense
versus offense. And I'm not sure what to expect on

(27:41):
the defensive side there, but offensively, there are definitely elements
of the offense that I'm kind of excited about. I'd
put San Diego State in a similar spot as Hawaii
that they could be a headache, but it's just the
defense needs to get so much better.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
Do we still believe in Sean Lewis? Because when he
took that job, I remember you and I talking about
it and saying, oh, yeah, like we kind of like it.
It makes sense it didn't work out at Colorado. This
is a guy with head coaching experience. Like you said,
the Kent State work is getting looking better by the day. Yeah,
year one didn't really pop it San Diego State.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
You know what I mean, no, it didn't. They ran
okay sometimes. You know, he played with a lot of
tempo when he was at Kent State. I think he
was under Dino Babers, I believe at Syracuse early on
and that was a big thing of his. So I
don't know. I still think recruiting is looking for a
solid ground. Well, the recruiting efforts at San Diego State

(28:38):
are looking is looking are looking for, you know, more consistency,
and that could be another program that obviously they've invested
in the football program, relatively new stadium now and just
what the future is going to hold in terms of
conference and the transfer portal and is their money behind
the scenes, Because again, if you are a relatively high
profile player looking to transfer back home to the West

(29:00):
Coast or from a bigger West Coast school, San Diego
State seems like an obvious attraction. I'm not. I mean
it's one year end. I'm not ready to sell on
Sewn Lewis. I think his upside is obvious this year.
It's just you know, they have some experience along the
offensive line and obviously on the defense. But it's finding
pop and you should always, in my opinion, you should

(29:21):
always do something really really well at San Diego State
during the Rocky long time. It was the year in
and year out, three three five, just shutting teams down.
If you want to run an air raid, if you
want to run an option attack, if you want to
run whatever. There are enough decent football players either transferring
back home or from Southern California or and or Arizona, Nevada, whatever,

(29:41):
that you should be able to run a successful side
of the ball. And so that's what I expect out
of Sean Lewis and San Diego State to be competitive
enough and to be savvy enough to find what that
side is and how that operates. So I'm bullish on
Lewis and San Diego State.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
How do you feel about Bronco and Jason Eck, the
two new hires in the conference at Utah State and
New Mexico.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
It's gonna take a minute. I like Bronco, Mendenhall, and Logan.
I think Utah State will find players. I think this
is a school that has the infrastructure. I saw something
like before last year's very bad season with Blake Anderson
being let go a little bit before the season, they
had made bowls in like eleven of twelve seasons, so
it's a place you can win pretty consistently. And Bronco

(30:27):
Mendenhall is perfect to go to a place in Utah
that wins pretty consistently, so I feel good about him
long term. They're starting over in a lot of different places,
a lot of new players coming in. I think it's
forty one new players in Logan. But Bryson Barnes is back.
If you remember the pig farmer, he bet Utah still.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Playing WHOA Okay, yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
So no, fine, you know. I think they're they're hunting
for six. Maybe same with New Mexico, I mean, and
Nevada I think is sneaky interesting because I like Jeff
Chot and they gave some teams some trouble last year.
They just got to convert. You gotta win more games,
Like I think, the proof that things are working is

(31:10):
like competing for a Bowl, which is very tough. Nevada
is not that program all the time. But Nevada opens
a season with Penn State. They're on the road against
Fresno boy C San Jose State both at home. Defense
needs to get way better. Defense just needs to get
you know, ascend to disappointing and don't we all tie?

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Don't we all? And that's a perfect segue for the
next time.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
The way tub a party starting a quarterback for Nevada
really yes, good, hell yeah. And Jason Eck at New
Mexico quietly one of the best offenses in the country
last year. Yeah, And Jason Beck is now off to
Utah who ran that offense for Bronco Mendez, as is
Devin damp Pierre. But I like Jason Eck. This is

(31:50):
like a three year rebuilt. He did a great job
at Idaho. I think they lost in the quarters of
the Semis last year in the FCFS playoffs, did a
really good He was like a really good developmental guy
for Idaho. So I don't know. I think New Mexico
is going to be bad this year, and that's okay
because that's where you start and then you ascend to
frisky and then maybe to pretty good. I think it's

(32:12):
three years.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
So the heat's on Boise, is what you're telling me.
There's a long way of saying the heat's still on Boise.

Speaker 3 (32:18):
I think the heats on Boise. There's my Mountain West.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
Your top two are Boise in San Jose State, correct,
All right, I need to take this away and see
how I feel about it.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
Do you want me to continue with the pac two
since they're sort of Mountain West adjacent?

Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Why don't you? Actually, so, we've got two teams here.
We've got Wazoo in Oregon State.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
Playing at home and Home, Baby.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
Home and Home. Yep, I like that.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
Actually, I think that's cool. Whatever, make it unique and
novel or whatever. Washington State loses its head coach Jake
Dickert to Wake Forest. They hire South Dakota State head
coach Jimmy Rodgers, and he brought a bunch of players
with him from South Dakota State. Right, they were pretty
fun last year. You can have a pretty fun team
provided you have a young, interesting offensive coordinator in John Matier.

(33:04):
They have neither. Maybe we'll see on the offensive cord
inner front, but they don't. You know, our buckle left
with Matier for Oklahoma. Continuity at quarterback, the backup to
Jeoh Matier at zvy zeb ch House, and then a
bunch of South Dakota State players. Both South Dakota State
running backs really excellent. South Dakota State safeties are going

(33:25):
to be manning the defensive backfield. Was it was interesting.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
I think that makes them really interesting.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Their their schedule. And I didn't write down Washington State
schedule because the entire schedule is interesting to me because
they're playing the home and home. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
And by the way, what you mean by that is
they are playing each other twice.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
They're playing Oregon State on the road and at home. Yeah,
and it starts in uh I almost at October, starts
in November the first of November, and.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Then they close out the season.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
Yes, they're book ending, So that's unique. That is definitely
a rinkle that we haven't seen before. Washington State quickly Idaho,
San Diego State at North Texas, traveling to I think
it's Denton, Washington at Colorado State, at Ole Miss at Virginia,
Toledo at Oregon State once Louisiana Tech coming there at

(34:14):
James Madison Oregon State again this time at home.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
You know, if they have a good team, then they're
gonna be playing in interesting games. If they have a
good team, yeah, this is a playoff resume.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
Well yeah, if they go eleven and one against this schedule, sure.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
I'm not saying they're that good, but I'm saying in
a world in which they are good. This is a
schedule that's it really runs the gamut, like they are
covering all four corners of the country. They're playing some
interesting teams, some good teams. Yeah, I don't think that
conversation is going to happen, but alas.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
Yeah, Oregon State just as a transition here cal Fresno
State both at home at Texas Tech at SO rivalry continues.
I think beyond this year it's in doubt, if not
taking a break. Houston at AP State Wake Forest Lafayette,
America's team Wazoo Sam Houston at Tulsa at Wazoo Wow.

(35:16):
Five of the six final games are on the CW.
For those of you keeping score at home, Oregon stay
a little more continuity. Ponied up from Malik Murphy via
Texas via Duke has a pair of like pretty decent,
if not pretty good receivers and Darius Clemens and Trent Walker.
I like those guys. The big thing that held Oregon
State back last year was defense. The offense was okay,

(35:38):
defense got so beat up and was so all over
the place in terms of where their roster was. They
just fully collapsed at the end of the year.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
I'm going to introduce my flawfinder. Okay, oh yeah, that's
the flawfinder right there. The flaws the defense.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Trent Bray is taking over the defense. He was, you know,
the defensive coordinator for Jonathan Smith before getting that job.
Now he's retaking over the defense and serving as head coach.
Of course, I think they got a ways to go.
I don't hate their skilled talent on offense. They're obviously
hitting the portal hard and there was obviously some money
behind it if Malik Murphy is now starting a quarterback there.

(36:15):
But it's hard to see them going I don't know.
You look at this schedule one, two, three, there's probably
four losses best case scenario to me for Oregon State
just because even if, even not if they're gonna be
healthier on defense to start the season. I just think

(36:35):
they're gonna be thin everywhere because of the unfortunate realities
of Oregon State football right now. No, you're just gonna
lose quality. I think both of these teams are gonna
be pretty good this year. I think Wazoo is more
fascinating because of the like, let's start a bunch of
excellent FCS players.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
I love this. I love this so much. We're seeing more.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
Yeah, but this is like it's not just like we're
dipping in to get this one guy.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
We're getting the team we are.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
Yeah, we're doing what Western Kentucky did with was it
Houston Baptist.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
Yep, yep, Bailey Zappi, Yep. They're doing that but doing
it again. By the way, but South Dakota State was
a national championship winning team. They're doing that with the
guys on that roster. I love it.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
So a higher threshold than Houston Baptist in terms of success,
So I can't wait, Like was it was going to
be fascinating this year?

Speaker 1 (37:25):
I love it?

Speaker 3 (37:26):
Yeah, all right, you talk some Conference USA.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Let's close it out with Conference USA. I have takes
on this, man, I do. I went through Conference USA.
I started with Liberty because Liberty is like we talk
about all of these conferences in terms of tears or
trying to organize them based on who's a contender, who's
a pretender? Talking of in terms of heat in this case, yeah,

(37:54):
Liberty is like so far above and beyond the other
teams in Conference USA. They are dramatically better than like
eleven other teams in this conference, and I still think
significantly better than Western Kentucky, who would be the next closest.
It's not even close in my opinion.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
So I'm interested in this conversation because, again, not to
make this about the playoff, but Liberty is gonna be
in that playoff conversation, provided they have the kind of
year I'm expecting. Okay, let me go in a bit
of a tangent here, if I can all right place
Floria's yours.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
We have quickly arrived at this point where in college
football there's realistically speaking, a handful of nonpower teams that
could make the playoff in any given year. Oftentimes, I
think we're going to know who they are upfront. We're
going to know who they are before anything starts. We're
already talking through them here.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
As it stands right now, Liberty is probably one of
those teams. But they have the easiest schedule in the country,
literally one hundred and thirty sixth in the country, and
that's with James Madison, Yes on the schedule.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
I get it just set years in advance. I don't
know who you blame for it. I don't know if
you can blame anybody for it. My hunch is that
this wasn't built with the playoff in mind. But it's
a bummer because we could find ourselves in a situation
here where a team like Liberty, let's just say on
a whim goes twelve thirteen and no, they're not going
to be in that playoff conversation. They're not going to

(39:22):
be because of the schedule, and that part sucks.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Now.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
I know they're trying to schedule Virginia Tech and they're
trying to beef up the schedule moving forward. I think
they're doing what they can to try and be a
little bit more in this. But at some point I
think the conversation has to shift to should we just
join a different conference? Like even if if you were
in the MAC, it would be better than this, Yeah,
it really would be. So that side of it, I

(39:49):
think is something we take we put to the side.
I don't know what kind of season we're going to
get from Liberty. I can talk through it a little
bit here what some of my expectations are. But if
it comes to that point where we're talking through like
we're talking through Liberty as a potential playoff participant, I
do suspect that that schedule is going to be like

(40:09):
an albatross around their neck. You just can't shake that
otherwise though. Look, I'm interested because this is a roster
that's both proven and unproven. Far away, it's the best
roster in the conference, I think by a pretty good margin.
But there's also a lot that remains pretty uncertain. There
is a good team. They just got to find their guys,
and I trust that Jamie Chadwell can do that. We've

(40:32):
seen them do that before. I just think it's going
to take a little bit of an effort to sort
through who's who. They brought over. Ethan Vasco. He's a
transfer that they bring over from Coast to Carolina. Caden Salter,
you may recall, transferred out. He's now with Colorado. There
is optimism that Ethan Vasco can be sort of like
the new Grayson McCall, that he can be the guy

(40:53):
that is a better fit for the Jamie Chadwell sister.
Remember he inherited Caden salt Right. I don't know, like
I wasn't crazy about Ethan Vasco at Coastal Carolina. I
don't know if he gave us reason to be crazy,
but I'm curious to see how he fits into this
new system. Presumably there's some familiarity there with Jamie Chadwell

(41:13):
given his previous stop, so that's going to be different.
I do think we could see some modifications to the
way they run that offense. The cool thing about Jamie
Chadwell's offense is that it's a little bit of everything,
and so he has proven, I think, pretty adept over
the years at adjusting based on the personnel. And we'll
see what they've got with Ethan Vasco if this is
a better stop. The other thing that I would add

(41:35):
is more to the point of it being unproven. Jamie
Chadwell's calling card has been building these offenses that have
a lot of variety, but are built around explosiveness. Some
of his best offenses, his best teams have been ones
that are really explosive. A lot of the explosion guys
are gone now, dude, they're gone. Quentin Cooley, the running
back who had a great career, he's gone. One that

(41:59):
is not talked about. Another off is CJ. Daniels, the
receiver or a big play receiver who transferred out to LSU.
How they kind of fill those gaps, how they make
those plays explosive. Again, given the personnel on hand. Is
that's going to be the real big question for me
with Liberty this season.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
Where did you go now Miami Forrest, No, Miami.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
On to Miami. Yeah, regardless, not on Liberty, And I
think that's going to leave a mark for sure in
their again passing game and how they create some of
these big plays. The toughest game on the schedule is
James Madison. They do play, they do play JMU, but
otherwise we're talking about a cavalcade of other schools here

(42:41):
in Conference to USA, which frankly outside of Liberty, isn't
that tough?

Speaker 3 (42:44):
So Ty, do you know that on their schedule? How
many teams were playing FCS football in twenty twenty one
on Liberty schedule? The answer a six teams. Jacksonville State, who,
by the way, Jacksonville State was good last year with
rich trod Maine, Jacksonville State, James Madison, Delaware, Missouri State,

(43:08):
Kennessa State. We're all playing FCS football in twenty twenty one,
four short years ago.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yeah, And like I'm not trying to dunk on them.
I'm just saying, no.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
It's just how this works out with Conference USA, and
they get lose their teams, So they're looking to the
FCS level to add teams. I get it.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
You know, it's a fluid situation, and Conference USA is
dealing with it the way the rest of us are
dealing with it, trying to keep up with all this,
and I think they're doing the best they can. They're
adding to you added two new teams, which I'll talk
about here in a little bit. Liberty though, just happens
to be the biggest dog or the best team in
this conference. And it is at the point now where

(43:42):
the schedule is going to start working against them with
respect to the postseason.

Speaker 3 (43:46):
Love it or hate it, Conference USA is that they
themselves are a semi recent FCS conference given the membership.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Yeah, I think the next best is Western Kentucky. Again,
I don't know if it's necessarily close. Western went eight
and six last year. They lost in the conference title
game the Jacksonville State fifty two to twelve. Uh, and
then they lost their bowl game to James Madison. I'm
interested in Western because something you referenced earlier, Tyson Helton,

(44:18):
the coach is running back the playbook from twenty twenty one.
He's doing it again. So in twenty twenty one. He
brought over Zach Kitley, who's obviously moved on to bigger
and better things now has his own team at Florida Atlantic,
but has been a very successful coordinator. He now is
playing back the same tact with Rick Bowie at Abilene Christian.

(44:42):
So Rick Bowie successful offensive coordinator Abilene Christian. He has
been poached. He is bringing Maverick mcgiver their quarterback.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
Are you just going to go over that name as
if Maverick mcgiver is not a name worth taking a.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
Beat about it? Madick Maverick McIvor three for thirty eight
hundred yards last year almost beat Texas Tech. Remember that
game is like fifty two point fifty one something like that. Yeah,
he's going to try to do the same thing where
he's bringing up the hockey line change very successful, you know,
lower level coordinator and his quarterback. To see what he
gets here. It's going to need to pop. It's going

(45:22):
to need to pop. Because the defense lost its top
twelve tacklers from last year. There's only two starters back.
They're still focused on trying to create turnovers, which they
have been very good at doing over the years, but
probably weren't good enough at last season. I think the
point of intrigue for me with Western Kentucky is because
they're attempting the hockey line change again. It has to

(45:44):
work because I don't think the defense is going to
work right. So there's pressure here, which is interesting. That
always makes it interesting. Who else intrigues you here? Sam Houston?
Let's talk about Sam Houston.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
Yeah, new coach, new coach, big time, reset, time, reset,
yep on like seven different levels for Sam Houston.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
Sam Houston had a top fifty defense a year ago
under Casey Keeler. Now Casey Keeler left, he went up
to Temple. We talked about that last episode. They're bringing
in Phil Longo. Phil Longo did not have a great
stint at Wisconsin, but he does have some familiarity with
this program. He was an offensive coordinator here like a
decade ago before.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
I think he went to Ole Miss.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
I want to say, yeah, he's familiar with the program's
familiar with the area. I don't think it's a bad higher.
I am interested though, because this is an extreme makeover situation.
This is a team that was built around defense. Phil
Longo is not going to build it around defense. Phil
Longo's gonna make it about offense. So that's interesting to
me anytime you attempt any big identity change like that

(46:47):
in college football. I mean we talked about it with
Georgia Southern. What Clay Hilton's done, It's hard to do.

Speaker 3 (46:51):
Did I ever tell you that Phil Longo slid into
my DMS all the time.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
Phil Longo did?

Speaker 3 (46:56):
Yeah, about what I think he was sliding into everybody
and he would just pass along like motivational graphics for
whatever school he was at. I just got a DM
from Phil Longo and it was just like, get ready
to feel the Who was the other guy that was
in our DMS?

Speaker 1 (47:11):
The coach? Was it Bob Stitt?

Speaker 3 (47:15):
That sounds right.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
I think Bob Stitt was in our in our DMS
for some point.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
You know who is notorious DM? Or Gary Patterson? I
got a few from him too, Yeah, wonderful. Yeah, but
everybody did? I think continue the other thing that he
is changing now, and this is more a result I
think of NIL and the portal and just the mechanics
of college football. Sam Houston historically was about ninety percent

(47:39):
players from Texas. Now it's more like fifty percent. Interesting,
more like fifty percent. There's a little bit more attention
on out of state kids. Juco's kids from elsewhere are
looking for playing time, that sort of thing. So he's
I think casting a wider net. I saw an interview
where there was there was some conversation around this, and

(48:00):
this is one of those areas where bumping up to
FBS has actually helped.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Them a little bit, I assume. So yeah, you know.
So the other interesting point, and it sucks for Sam Houston.
They're currently doing the stadium renovation thing, which means that
they're playing their home games seventy miles away from campus.

Speaker 3 (48:17):
Oh where are they playing?

Speaker 1 (48:18):
Not to bury the lead too much, but they are
playing their games seventy miles away from campus.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Move their games from Huntsville to Houston while Bauers Stadium
is being renovated during the twenty twenty five season. Okay,
Shell Energy Stadium. There you go, Jacksonville State. Here's another
interesting coaching thing that's true. No more rich Rod, No
more rich Rod.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Jacksonville State wins a conference in resounding fashion. Yeah. Yes,
What did Jacksonville State do with rich Rod? What was
their mo when it came to running an offense? Did
they like to run or did they like to throw it?
Do you remember?

Speaker 3 (48:53):
I believe they liked to run at it.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
They ran the crap out of the ball. Yeah, really
good at it. They were really good at it. So
when it came time to name a successor, Jacksonville State
did not go in the direction of keeping that continuity,
going with an already successful.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
Offense, which, by the way, is okay, it's like the
end of the word Okay, it's not the end of
the world. You hire the best man for the job.
You don't hire the man who can keep whatever the
last guy was doing going.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
The continuity hires don't always work either.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
Yeah, I just.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
Sort of questioned the idea to hire Charles Kelly, who's
a defensive guy.

Speaker 3 (49:29):
Been all over.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
They had a really successful program built around offense, a
specific style of offense, and Charles Kelly's going to change that.
So Charles Kelly, well known as a defensive guy, Big recruiter,
Big Recruiter, goes out hires Clint Trickett as his offensive coordinator.
Clint Cricket notably, he wants to make it more balanced.
He wants to throw the ball a little bit more
so it's going to look different. As a result, Jacksonville State,

(49:55):
I believe, is one hundred and thirty fifth in the
nation in returning production. They lost a lot. Gavin Wimsatt
is going to be that quarterback.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
Great.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
Don't really like to be honest, Okay, but I guess
you take what you can get whatever. I think we
are due for a significant step back here on the
Jacksonville State side.

Speaker 3 (50:14):
What is the name of the Sam Miller Ben Limberg book.
The only rule is it has to work.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
The only rule is it has to work.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
I don't think this is going to work.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
But it may not work.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
It may not work. Why don't we get to our
two newcomers. If you're cool with that.

Speaker 3 (50:30):
You know, this is the portion of the show that
we have to dedicate to Delaware. Yes, Bront, tompshell Inglibella.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
We've got two new teams here, Dan, I'm ready. We've
got Delaware, We've got Missouri State. Delaware has been a
successful FCS team. They've really been good at that. They've
been a good program for a while, and so there
is at least some school of thought out there that
they could be the next James Madison. They could step

(51:02):
in seemingly be right at home and ascend to when
they're eligible a bowl game.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Before long, they play at Flacco Field, Joe Joe Flacco built.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
I considered going to Delaware for a moment.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
Is that true?

Speaker 1 (51:20):
It is?

Speaker 3 (51:20):
Yeah? How's their compside program?

Speaker 1 (51:22):
No, I don't know. It was the first school I
went to visit. And my lasting memory, you can ask
Mommy she was there with me, is the dorms were
like shoe boxes.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
Did they recruit you? Were they like identified for?

Speaker 1 (51:35):
What? What would they recruit me to do?

Speaker 3 (51:38):
Just added value to that campus. Look at this kid,
teachers rave about him. Yeah, solid second base, no million
dollar smile.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
It is a million dollar smile. Okay, But I was
not recruited. If anything, it was for grades. But alas
Delaware is in a good spot here, I'm excited to
see what Delaware can do is they move up up.
I think the most notable thing about this team, and
oftentimes you see this when anyone bumps up line play,
what's the offensive line look like? Are they going to

(52:10):
be able to stand up to the competition. I think
this is a pretty good offensive line that's going to
be able to hold its own. Okay, so that in
and of itself, I think is pretty good. It was
a good defense a year ago. I think they'll continue
that to some extent. I saw that Bill also tried
to convert. You know, there's a bit of voodoo that

(52:32):
goes on with trying to figure out how would this
team have compared to FBS competition last year given what
they did on the FCS level. He says that they're
roughly equivalent to the one hundredth best FBS team based
on their sp plus grade, So not the worst, not
certainly not the best.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
By the way, here's your Delaware sidebar. They had the
same coach from nineteen sixty six to two thousand and one,
a long time Tobby Raymond on TG.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
Yeah, their first couple games, I think, or I should
say a couple games throughout the course of their schedule.
They seem to be the favorite right now. So if
you look at their over under their win totals five
and a half, that's why they're ready stacking them up

(53:22):
as better than you know, maybe half the schedule. So
we'll see, you know, I'm I'm optimistic about what this
transition looks like for them. I'm also optimistic about what
it looks like for Missouri State. I mentioned this before,
but Bill Connelly, our friend who does these projections, he
talked about their offense a little bit in some of

(53:45):
his preseason projections. It looks to be maybe one of
the better offenses in the conference. I got a good quarterback,
Jacob Clark. He's six or five pro style quarterback, the
type of guy that could draw some NFL interest, set
passing records, on track to set more records. They're going

(54:05):
to need him to perform at a high level because
if they're playing, they're playing in shootouts.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
Right.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
This is not going to be a team that's driven
by defense. But Jacob Clark is worth watching on the
Missouri State side simply because he seemingly has a pretty
high ceiling. So I'm interested in that. I also again
look at this team and I say that it looks
like they're okay along the lines. These are two teams

(54:31):
stepping into FBS play that are gonna be able to
stack up on the lines, big on the offensive line,
really big.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
Okay, that's a good thing. We'll see how they stack
up as this thing progresses here. But having two new
teams added to Conference USA, I think it was needed.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
I'm sure, liberty wishes that they were better teams that
could add to their schedule in their playoff resume, but
at least for Delaware and Missouri State, it's a nice
little landing spot to get their feet wet.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
Head coach Ryan Beard at Missouri State, Yes, is such
a known quantity that his Wikipedia page lists his birth
date as either nineteen eighty eight or nineteen eighty nine.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Great, so he is.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
Either thirty five or thirty six years old. So the
younger coach and Missouri State opens at USC. Yeah, welcome
to the big time. Go out to La love it
real quick here. Yes, UTEP okay.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
UTEP's going to the Mountain West next year. Yes they are,
So I think there is some hope that maybe they
can make a bull or show out in their final season.
I don't think they're gonna They had mass turnover, mass turnover. Okay,
Malachi Nelson I think is the quarterback in all likelihood.

(55:49):
They're not counting that as a sure thing at this point,
as has really been the case throughout the course of
Malachi Nelson's career.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
So former five star who had been at USC and
then Boise State US the opeen QB battle too. Matis
Madsen last year.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
I just want to see the guy play Dan. Yeah,
I'm just genuinely curious to see what he looks like.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
Well, here's the thing, by the way, with the Conference
USA slate. If we think that it's by and large
like Liberty has the easiest schedule in the country, that
means somebody's gonna win eight games with absolutely no business
and so we just have to determine who that team is.
It could be Delaware, but could be Delaware, could be
Missouri State, could be Western Kentucky. If there's a bunch

(56:32):
of crazy underwhelming teams on here, somebody's gonna go the
weakest eight and forever.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
The other interesting thing about UTIP really unlucky in those
luck stats. They were terribly unlucky turnovers right close games.
It just wasn't good for UTIP. So we'll see how
they do in their final stint here in Conference USA
before they seemingly upgrade to the Mountain West Kennesaw State

(56:58):
Look Kennessaw is in year two now after makeing the
transition up to FBS. They had the big upset last
year against Liberty. The coaching change was very controversial. They
got rid of Brian Bohannon. He was the only coach
in the program's history. They're now going to Jerry Mack,
who's a former NFL assistant. I don't hate this higher

(57:19):
I'm actually kind of interested to see what he's able
to do with this program because he's somebody with a
lot of varied experience at a bunch of different levels.
Based on what I've been able to read, has been
saying a lot of the right stuff. So I think
they're going to lean on their defense. They returned something
like thirteen of seventeen players who had more than two
hundred snaps something like that. I'm probably watching it a

(57:41):
little bit, but that will be interesting to see if
the defense can carry them as they try to transition
out of their option offense. We got another situation where
this is a program that ran one thing. Now they're
going to more of an uptempo spread. What does that
look like? Okay, this could be a longer transition if

(58:01):
they're trying to get out of that identity.

Speaker 3 (58:03):
Well, their starting point is they're on a liberty win streak, right,
They're on a liberty win streak. Want to no, Okay,
that's a good starting point. Louisiana Tech.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
I'm actually pretty high on Louisiana Tech. Okay, Tony Franklin
is back as the offensive coordinator. I feel like Louisiana
Tech got the short end of the stick a couple
times last year. They lost three games in overtime, so
there's a case to be made that they were better
than the record would indicate. I think they've got some

(58:33):
promising young talent on offense. I look at a guy
like an Evan Bullock at quarterback. Defensively, I think we're
always going to have some concerns about the defense. Just
that's sort of like the mo in Conference USA. But
I think there is reason for optimism here. I remember
you and I talked about Louisiana Tech at the start
of last season. We disagreed a little bit as to

(58:56):
which direction the wind was blowing with respect to that program.
Even though they did not go to a bowl, was
not a winning well. They did go to a bowl,
they did not have a winning record. They went to
a bowl because of numbers. But I feel like this
is a program that is still trending in an oka direction.
I'd like to give them another year see where things go.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
By the way you can buy. As of two thousand
and eight, you can buy the Tony Franklin System DVDs
for per this message board three thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
Three thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (59:25):
Yeah great, Yeah, I haven't seen them on the secondary
market since.

Speaker 1 (59:29):
Let me close this out real quick. Yeah, Middle Tennessee.
I got this tidbit from a YouTube channel called the
G five to Hive okay, which I did my best
to speed run when I was studying all these teams.
If you've never watched like a dozen YouTube videos at

(59:50):
double the speed over your weekend, let me tell you
it's a real hoot.

Speaker 3 (59:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
These guys did an awesome job, and I want to
call them out for doing it. They did an awesome
job talking to writers for many of these teams that
we're discussing here. I learned a lot just by watching
their contents, So go and check it out if they're
listening here. I don't know if they listen, but kudos
to them. Keep it up. Yeah, this was one of
the more interesting things that I found Middle Tennessee. Derek
Mason is the coach, right, he wanted to cut money,

(01:00:19):
so what he decided to do was get rid of
alternate jerseys and alternate helmets, and in doing so, he
was able to free up about a million dollars a
million dollars that they've then reallocated to nil opportunities, primarily
which are going towards the offensive line. So we don't

(01:00:41):
talk a whole lot about the operational details of budgeting
on this show. But I think that's smart. They're going
to like the most vanilla possible uniforms so that they
can take the money that they are saving and put
it back into the actual players on the team. All Right.
I don't hate that there went totals four and a half.
I don't think it's going to be a great year
for the Blue Raiders, But that being said, I liked

(01:01:02):
their quarterback. Threw for over three thousand yards last season,
didn't throw too many interceptions, did not have a line
in front of him at all. Nicholas that tiato. If
I said that correctly, I'm sure I botched it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Interested to see what this looks like another year under
Derek Mason, the other name here that I would call out.
Let me pull out my notes, Fiu. I've had this
thing for Q One Jenkins, their quarterback. Okay, I liked
them a lot last year when we did our preview

(01:01:39):
didn't really work out, But I think he's another guy
who I'm targeting as an improvement opportunity, somebody who could
step up in a really big way. They've also got
a new coach, Willie Simmons. He's been at Florida A
and M at Prairie View. He's from Florida. He knows
how to recruit sow Florida talent. So curious to see

(01:02:01):
what year one looks like under Willie Simmons and if
they can get more out of Key one Jenkins. Okay,
this program has finished with three consecutive four and eight seasons,
so I got to believe that their main point here
in twenty twenty five is going to be trying to
get back to a bowl. That's just where they're at.
Drive for six, Yeah, very much, Driver six Dan. Otherwise,

(01:02:25):
I think the only team I didn't cover was New
Mexico State. Okay, and New Mexico State took a real
step back after Jerry kill left. Correct, So they won
three games in Tony Sanchez's first year, last UNLV coach. Yeah,
former UNLV coach. Now it's a logan Fife offense who
they brought down from Montana. Speaking of guys still playing,

(01:02:48):
Logan Fight is still playing. He's pad a cup of
coffee with a bunch of teams. This is just a
team that outside of you know, bringing in a guy
like a Logan Fife. They got killed by the transfer portal,
which has been the key with a lot of the
teams that we discussed here. Got murdered by the transfer portal.
And it's gonna be another uphill climb for Tony Sanchez.

Speaker 3 (01:03:08):
Okay, sorry to hear it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
Yeah, so liberty, liberty, Okay, I think it's liberty.

Speaker 3 (01:03:16):
Yeah, thanks for the nuggets.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Not bad, right, No, go and check that out, man,
G five Hive. They did an awesome job. I got
to give those guys props. Du mean, I know what
that's like, doing that type of content in the middle
of the off season, in the middle of the summer.
But I think they did a really awesome job. I'll
send him an email after this. I'll let them know.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
Cool sounds good?

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
All right?

Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
So pack two Conference USA, the America's Conference USA, and
of course Mount West. Next up's gonna be the ACC
So make sure you set your dial for that Hit
Fall Hit subscribes that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
You don't miss any of our episodes. The plan is
to do three per power conference, one that sort of
higher level, bigger picture, and then a two parter going
through all this teams. Because all these power conferences of
too many teams these days, correct, why don't we leave
it there? All right?

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
Done? Thrilled. I'm gonna go, uh figure out when I
can next see the Mountain West conference. If you were
out there, if you heard something that you liked or
didn't like, or have something to add. Soliverbo at gmail
dot com. As always how you can reach out to us,
leave a comment, if you're watching on YouTube or listening
out on Spotify.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
Leave a rating or a start review. All that stuff
helps for that guy over there. I'm a good friend,
Dan Rubinstein, form myself tie Hilda Brandt getting a little
raspy here, Dan, a little raspy. We did two of
these today. I'm tile rail thought y'all seen, stay saw
peace

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