July 31, 2026 • 15 mins
Phil Steele's annual College Football Preview is a must. He joined Mo to talk about area teams on ESPN1530.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fifteen thirty, we'll check in with Tony Pike one more
time in just about twenty five minutes. Every year, right
around this time we chat with our guy Phil Steel.
Phil steel dot com steal with an e his annual
college football preview. As far as I'm concerned, is the
industry standard could not be more of voluminous. You can
order it at Phil steel dot com. Excuse me. If
(00:22):
you get the digital version, you'll have it within like
thirty seconds, So go do that now while we talk Phil.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
It's awesome to have you. How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
You know I am doing great, mo And you know
magazine this year three hundred and seventy six pages, just unbelievable.
I write to the one hundred and thirty eighteen previews myself,
and we give you the same amount of coverage on
a team like Charlotte or Sacramento State that we give
you on Alabama, Ohio State two full pages in the magazine.
(00:52):
But yeah, it's a laborer love. It takes me seven
months to produce this thing.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, and it's that sort of work, right.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It's the fact you do a very deep dive into
all of college football. That's why I can get you
on to tell me about j c Friends, the Cincinnati quarterback.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Absolutely. You know, jac impressed me at Georgia Southern. He's
the all time career leader at Georgia Southern. And I
like what he's done in that system, and I think
he's going to do well in the Cincinnati system. You know,
when you take a look at what the Bearcats have
coming back, I am a big fan of Cincinnati's offensive
line coming into the season. I think when you're protected
(01:29):
by a group like that, I've writt him the number
fourteen offensive line in the country. Keep in mind, I'm
on the Joe More Award, one of the twenty one
award committees I'm on, so I value offensive line play.
Guys like teng Stall and Tyle coming back along with Cotton.
They are loaded up front, and then you know, you
look at the running backs and coach Centerfield told me
he feels this is the best running back room he's had,
led by Jabron Payne coming over from Notre Dame. They've
(01:51):
bet Zion Johnson, Cole tab coming over from Stanford, Zilond Perry,
who impressed me at times times as well. That's a
really deep running back court, great offensive line. So I
think J. C. French will fit in well.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
The morning of November first, last year, they're seven and one,
they're featured on College Game Day because they're getting set
to take on Utah, and then the wheels fall off,
and it was the second straight November, really the third
straight November, but the second straight November that the season
that seems so promising totally fell apart. You right in
your Cincinnati preview the very last sentence, Sadderfield will have
(02:26):
them better than most expect this year. So expectations here
aren't exactly through the roof. You talked about the offensive
line in JC French and the running back room. Give
me another reason or two why you think this team
is going to be better than most expect.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, you know, going back with Sanderfield, going back to
his first two years, he had very inexperienced teams each
of the first two years. Last year he finally had
a better one, and yeah, they had Brandon Soursby. But
I like J. C. French, I like the run game,
I like the offensive line, and probably the linebackers as well.
I think that's another unit. The ranks in my top
and it's in the front of the magazine. They've got
(03:02):
Jonathan Thompson back from last year along with Simmy and Coleman.
But watch Flip. He's a guy that comes over from
North Northern Illinois and was one of their top players,
and so adding him to the mix and linebacker having
an Antoine peak at that safety position. MJ. Cannon a
guy that comes in for Bowling Green. I think he's
an NFL caliber safety. So there's good players on the
(03:24):
defensive side. I think expectations will be lower in Cincinnati,
but do keep in mind those four teams they played
at the end of the year, Utah, Arizona BYUTCU all
pretty good teams in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I feel like the middle of the Big Twelve, you
could take four five teams, throw their names in a
hat and kind of come up with an order for places,
let's say four through ten in the conference. And then
I got the magazine and you have you have five
teams tied for seven plays. So Texas Tech favored. Everybody
expected that regardless of how the Sowersby thing went. But
(03:59):
what is what does that say about the middle of
the league, the depth of the league, That there's a
whole lot of teams that right now seem to be
sort of indistinguishable from each other.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
You know, Telci that great mindstick alike, right well, and
I think then it turns into schedule, and unfortunately for Cincinnati,
the one thing I don't like about Cincinnati this year
is the fact that of all the Big Twelve teams,
they draw the toughest schedule. I think if you list
the top four teams in the Big Twelve, you're looking
(04:28):
at Texas Tech, BYU, Houston, and Arizona. Maybe even Utah
fits in the mix. Yeah, Utah does within that mix.
So you're looking at the top five teams there basically
in the Big Twelve. Guess what, Cincinnati has to play
all five of them. So they're the only team in
the conference that takes on the top five teams in
the Big Twelve. They have to play Arizona and Houston
(04:48):
on the road. West Virginia on the road is not
going to be an easy one. In fact, I think
West Virginia is one of the more underrated teams like
Cincinnati this year, and then hosting teams like Utah and
Texas Tech. You know, those are games that you may
be an underdog in at all, meaning that you get
you're playing your winnable games on the road. Mind me
of a Ohio game being played in a soccer stadium
(05:09):
is going to be interesting. I think the Bear Kit
so have to get off to a solid start with
this Big Twelve schedule. I'm looking at a four and
oh start and then they travel to Arizona and that
could be a pivotal game right there. But let's hope
Scott Santafield it gets his team off to a solid
start once again.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I hope. So.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Phil Steele is with us order his annual college football
preview publication, which is awesome at phil steel dot com.
It's funny when you talk about the Big Ten and
Ohio States offense has a chance to be unbelievable if
you use history as a guide. They're capable of replacing
defensive starters. And I feel like in a way, in
large part because of Indiana, that the Buck guys are
(05:47):
almost flying under the radar at least a little bit nationally.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah, when you're talking talking points, it's sort of boring
talk about Ohio State number one the Big Ten, although
you know they have won a Big Ten title since
it's been quite some time. So yeah, but I love
their offense. You know Julian Sands a Heisman. Guy bo
Jackson is a thousand yard rusher, best receiving corn college football.
(06:14):
They've got this guy, Jeremy Smith. I don't know if
you've heard of them all, but he's a wide receiver.
And then you look at the offensive line, and frankly,
I thought the offensive line was slightly above average last year.
This year, I think it's going to be exceptional. They
got four starters back on that unit. They corrected the
problem that they had a right guard. I've got to
rate it the number two offensive line in the country.
And then defensively, you know you touched on it. Last year,
(06:37):
their defensive line lost a pair of number one picks,
a number two and the number five. Hell, this year,
their defensive line only loses a number two and a
number six draft pick. It's like they got the whole
unit back. They're very solid there, linebacking corps and then
safety losing downs. They lose three players for the top eleven,
but they'll be solid. The one thing that would concern
(06:57):
you if you're a Buckeye fan is that last year
the schedule was very manageable. This year they have to
play Texas, Iowa, Indiana, USC, and Nebraska all on the
road that is a brutal road slate. In fact, at
veryt Ohio state schedule the sixth toughest in the country
this year.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, for what it's worth, last Big Ten Championship twenty twenty,
I've I've learned my lesson when it comes to counting
out Indiana, because I think there's a lot of us
who just sort of took the lazy road two years
ago and said one year, wonder flash in the pan.
Well we saw how bad that take is. I'm curious
as to this because what I love about what you
do for this magazine is you talk to If you
don't talk to every coach, you certainly talk to most
(07:37):
of them. And I follow you on social media and randomly,
like in the middle of the spring, I'll see, like, Hey,
just got off the phone with Tulsa's head coach or something.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
What's it like when you talk with kurtz Sinnetti.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
It's awesome and you know, he pretty much tells it
like it is. Let me go over my first conversation
with him. Oh, he was at James Madison and they
were making the move up from FCS. First year, my magazine,
so excitement there, and I said, oh, coach, you know,
let's look at your quarterback position. You had an All
conference quarterback last year. It's got phenomenal big Regis James
(08:08):
Masson had so much success. This year, you got nobody
on that quarterback position and you're making the move up
from the FCS to the FBS. That's a pretty tough situation.
He goes, Phil, everywhere I've been, we've had an All
conference quarterback. We're going to have one this year. And
I was like, okay, we'll see. Guess what they had
one that year. So then after that, I'm like, you
know what, when coach Sineti talks, I'm going to listen
(08:31):
and be a very And then look what he did
when he took over the job at Indiana. You know
we're coming after the Ohio State, Michigan and boom they did.
So can he develop a top notch quarterback to replace
Fernanda Mendoza thedanswer is yes, and he's got a great
piece here in Josh Houver. He got it's thrown for
nearly ten thousand yards. His problem a TCU was interceptions,
but that came because he had to try to win
(08:51):
games when they were behind. Here, he's got the run game,
the offensive line, the defense. He doesn't have to go
win games, just has to manage it. And he's a
guy thrown a ton of touchdown passes in a tony yards,
great supporting cast. I love the running backs as always.
They've got Charlie Becker back and wide receiver Nick Marsh
coming in from Michigan State. Big time pick up there.
They had a Joe Moore finalist on my offensive line
(09:12):
last year and they have my number three rated offensive
line this year. And defensively they're solid. And when you
look at their schedule, unlike Ohio State, their road games
are against Rutgers, they do play Michigan on the road,
Washington on the road. But I think Indiana's going to
be favored in all their games, with the exception of
Ohio State, where they have the game rated as a
pick them. I think they've got a great shot at
(09:33):
getting back to and perhaps defending their crown this year.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
You know, I asked you about Kurtzinetti. I feel like
will Stein has kind of borrowed a page from his
book at Kentucky where he's asked SEC media days. You
know why is this going to work. And I'm paraphrasing,
but he says, well because of me. Right, So I
know you don't exactly have huge expectations for Kentucky in
year one, But what do you like about will Stein?
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yeah? And I think that's a clip that may be
a little bit overblown. I think because you know, talking
to coach Stein and go over the squad with him,
I didn't catch that, you know, as far as and
I think when you talk to most coaches, most coaches
feel that way. They feel that they're the reason their
team's going to be good. So he just came out
and said it, and I thought it got It was
(10:17):
a great clip to play and great toss about. And
people are comparing them in that attitude, but I don't don't.
I don't see that. And I do think that Kentucky
should have an improved team this year. I like Kenny
Minshie at quarterback.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
CJ.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Baxter coming in from Texas at running back. This guy
ran for six hundred and fifty nine yards of Texas
two years ago. He'll be solid. They've got good talent.
They did well in the portal, but they're playing in
the SEC. You got nine SEC games are number ninety
six on my experienced chart, which is not very high.
They're number one oh four of my homegrown chart, which
is not very high. And I think they're going to
(10:51):
be an underdog this year, probably in about eight games,
So improving on last year's five win total would be
a ploplus. Because he looks in a skin you say
they might be favored in three games, maybe four.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Phil steals with us for another couple of minutes. Phil
Steele dot Com order his twenty twenty six college football preview.
A year ago, at this time, we were trying to
figure out who are these guys that Chuck Martin's going
to be coaching on offense. There's a little bit more
continentity this year. You talk about somebody who, again, like
I don't discount, you could tell me it's an entirely
brand new roster, and I assume Chuck Martin is going
(11:26):
to compete in the MAC and I know you feel
the same.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, there's two coaches that I definitely feel that way.
Kirk Farns of Iowa, who this year loses a ton
of players. In fact, he loses his kicker, his punter,
his kick returner, his punt returner and his special teams coach,
and I still rank him as the top ten special teams.
That just tells you the faith I have in coach parents.
But same thing with Chuck Martin and you hit on
(11:51):
the head. Last year he had zero returning starters on
the offensive line are on the offense overall, and he
had told me he's like, my first time ever he
had a church on an offense. And then defensively they
did have last year five starters back, but as a
lightly experienced team number one eighteen of my experience turned
and look boom, there they are back in the MAC
(12:12):
title game once again, and I'm playing for it. And
had their quarterback not left them late in the year,
could talk about that for hours, but then I think
they might have had a better shot there. So it's
a much more experienced offense this year. Three starters back
in that offensive line, Chris Mnu, Greg Smith, Eric Smith
all back and all Matt caliber. And then I like
(12:33):
David McComb coming in from Kansas as the Redchard freshman.
He was a highly ready to come out of high school,
hasn't played and he's battling Gotkowski for the job. I
thought Golkowski did well thrown into the action last year,
and they also have a guy coming in from Fort
Hayes with experience in Caleb Heavener. So it's a quarterback
unit that I think will fare better this year than
(12:55):
they did at the end of last year, especially with
a much better supporting cast. And yeah, I've got myami
getting back to the MAC Title Game. And I think
last year proved that that whole philosophy that you had
there mode zero returning starters on offense, yet they got
to the MAC Title Game.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
The publication could not be more thorough.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I would imagine that how you do it is mostly
the same, but in this day and age, it's got
to differ a little bit with all the comings and
goings around college football. For folks who have never bought
the publication, first of all, what have you been waiting for?
But what will folks get when they buy it?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah, and mo, let me give you a little insight
this year's magazine. The coaches would say to me, Phil,
how you doing. I'm like, how am I doing? They
would probably expect me to say. They probably expected me
to say, oh, I'm doing great? How about yourself? But
I would say how am I doing? I am doing phenomenal.
There's no second transfer portal window this year. I don't
have to rewrite one hundred and thirty eight teams all
(13:50):
after the portal window closes, all in the month of May,
and get this thing off of the press. So you
know what each coach told me, Mo, They said, you
know what, Phil was more of a team this year
in the spring we took into the spring, we knew
we're going to be the guys we took into the season.
We could coach him harder, we could list a guy
third string. We knew he wasn't going to leave in
the second transfer portal window. This is the best I
felt team wise about my team in years since that
(14:13):
second transfer portal was open. And I think we'll see
a better brand of football because of it. But let's
get back to your question. And the magazine has three
hundred seventy six pages, and these are not triple spaced
pages with fourteen point type. It's get a magnifying glass out.
There's information on top of information. We give you two
(14:35):
full pages on all one hundred and thirty eight teams.
It's like getting one hundred and thirty eight media guys
rolled into one all they except all the informations on
the same spot, on every page. Now you can get
that only at two places, Barnes and Noble and Books
a Million, So don't drive around looking for it. Only
go to Barnes and Noble or Books a Million, or
as you mentioned, Phil Steel dot com. And when you
go to Phil Steel dot com, we're going to charge
(14:56):
you a shipping charge, but we give you the digital
magazine for free. We also have an FCS magazine MOO,
and I write each of the one hundred and thirty
eight teams in the FBS magazine myself. No way can
I write all the FCS teams. My great staff does
that for me. But we give you two full pages
on every FCS team in the digital magazine. So if
you're gonna watch Dayton or anybody like that, two full pages.
(15:19):
Nobody gives you that type of info that's available right round, full,
sealed down back. Now.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
We love having you. You're the man.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I can't thank you no, thanks so much, all right,
bo have a great day. I'll try my best. Phil
thanks him. I would have asked him. I would have
asked him about the Dayton Flyers, but we are insanely late.
Tony Pike training camp update next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffics
Fifteen thirty, we'll check in with Tony Pike one more
time in just about twenty five minutes. Every year, right
around this time we chat with our guy Phil Steel.
Phil steel dot com steal with an e his annual
college football preview. As far as I'm concerned, is the
industry standard could not be more of voluminous. You can
order it at Phil steel dot com. Excuse me. If
(00:22):
you get the digital version, you'll have it within like
thirty seconds, So go do that now while we talk Phil.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
It's awesome to have you. How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
You know I am doing great, mo And you know
magazine this year three hundred and seventy six pages, just unbelievable.
I write to the one hundred and thirty eighteen previews myself,
and we give you the same amount of coverage on
a team like Charlotte or Sacramento State that we give
you on Alabama, Ohio State two full pages in the magazine.
(00:52):
But yeah, it's a laborer love. It takes me seven
months to produce this thing.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, and it's that sort of work, right.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It's the fact you do a very deep dive into
all of college football. That's why I can get you
on to tell me about j c Friends, the Cincinnati quarterback.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Absolutely. You know, jac impressed me at Georgia Southern. He's
the all time career leader at Georgia Southern. And I
like what he's done in that system, and I think
he's going to do well in the Cincinnati system. You know,
when you take a look at what the Bearcats have
coming back, I am a big fan of Cincinnati's offensive
line coming into the season. I think when you're protected
(01:29):
by a group like that, I've writt him the number
fourteen offensive line in the country. Keep in mind, I'm
on the Joe More Award, one of the twenty one
award committees I'm on, so I value offensive line play.
Guys like teng Stall and Tyle coming back along with Cotton.
They are loaded up front, and then you know, you
look at the running backs and coach Centerfield told me
he feels this is the best running back room he's had,
led by Jabron Payne coming over from Notre Dame. They've
(01:51):
bet Zion Johnson, Cole tab coming over from Stanford, Zilond Perry,
who impressed me at times times as well. That's a
really deep running back court, great offensive line. So I
think J. C. French will fit in well.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
The morning of November first, last year, they're seven and one,
they're featured on College Game Day because they're getting set
to take on Utah, and then the wheels fall off,
and it was the second straight November, really the third
straight November, but the second straight November that the season
that seems so promising totally fell apart. You right in
your Cincinnati preview the very last sentence, Sadderfield will have
(02:26):
them better than most expect this year. So expectations here
aren't exactly through the roof. You talked about the offensive
line in JC French and the running back room. Give
me another reason or two why you think this team
is going to be better than most expect.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, you know, going back with Sanderfield, going back to
his first two years, he had very inexperienced teams each
of the first two years. Last year he finally had
a better one, and yeah, they had Brandon Soursby. But
I like J. C. French, I like the run game,
I like the offensive line, and probably the linebackers as well.
I think that's another unit. The ranks in my top
and it's in the front of the magazine. They've got
(03:02):
Jonathan Thompson back from last year along with Simmy and Coleman.
But watch Flip. He's a guy that comes over from
North Northern Illinois and was one of their top players,
and so adding him to the mix and linebacker having
an Antoine peak at that safety position. MJ. Cannon a
guy that comes in for Bowling Green. I think he's
an NFL caliber safety. So there's good players on the
(03:24):
defensive side. I think expectations will be lower in Cincinnati,
but do keep in mind those four teams they played
at the end of the year, Utah, Arizona BYUTCU all
pretty good teams in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I feel like the middle of the Big Twelve, you
could take four five teams, throw their names in a
hat and kind of come up with an order for places,
let's say four through ten in the conference. And then
I got the magazine and you have you have five
teams tied for seven plays. So Texas Tech favored. Everybody
expected that regardless of how the Sowersby thing went. But
(03:59):
what is what does that say about the middle of
the league, the depth of the league, That there's a
whole lot of teams that right now seem to be
sort of indistinguishable from each other.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
You know, Telci that great mindstick alike, right well, and
I think then it turns into schedule, and unfortunately for Cincinnati,
the one thing I don't like about Cincinnati this year
is the fact that of all the Big Twelve teams,
they draw the toughest schedule. I think if you list
the top four teams in the Big Twelve, you're looking
(04:28):
at Texas Tech, BYU, Houston, and Arizona. Maybe even Utah
fits in the mix. Yeah, Utah does within that mix.
So you're looking at the top five teams there basically
in the Big Twelve. Guess what, Cincinnati has to play
all five of them. So they're the only team in
the conference that takes on the top five teams in
the Big Twelve. They have to play Arizona and Houston
(04:48):
on the road. West Virginia on the road is not
going to be an easy one. In fact, I think
West Virginia is one of the more underrated teams like
Cincinnati this year, and then hosting teams like Utah and
Texas Tech. You know, those are games that you may
be an underdog in at all, meaning that you get
you're playing your winnable games on the road. Mind me
of a Ohio game being played in a soccer stadium
(05:09):
is going to be interesting. I think the Bear Kit
so have to get off to a solid start with
this Big Twelve schedule. I'm looking at a four and
oh start and then they travel to Arizona and that
could be a pivotal game right there. But let's hope
Scott Santafield it gets his team off to a solid
start once again.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I hope. So.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Phil Steele is with us order his annual college football
preview publication, which is awesome at phil steel dot com.
It's funny when you talk about the Big Ten and
Ohio States offense has a chance to be unbelievable if
you use history as a guide. They're capable of replacing
defensive starters. And I feel like in a way, in
large part because of Indiana, that the Buck guys are
(05:47):
almost flying under the radar at least a little bit nationally.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah, when you're talking talking points, it's sort of boring
talk about Ohio State number one the Big Ten, although
you know they have won a Big Ten title since
it's been quite some time. So yeah, but I love
their offense. You know Julian Sands a Heisman. Guy bo
Jackson is a thousand yard rusher, best receiving corn college football.
(06:14):
They've got this guy, Jeremy Smith. I don't know if
you've heard of them all, but he's a wide receiver.
And then you look at the offensive line, and frankly,
I thought the offensive line was slightly above average last year.
This year, I think it's going to be exceptional. They
got four starters back on that unit. They corrected the
problem that they had a right guard. I've got to
rate it the number two offensive line in the country.
And then defensively, you know you touched on it. Last year,
(06:37):
their defensive line lost a pair of number one picks,
a number two and the number five. Hell, this year,
their defensive line only loses a number two and a
number six draft pick. It's like they got the whole
unit back. They're very solid there, linebacking corps and then
safety losing downs. They lose three players for the top eleven,
but they'll be solid. The one thing that would concern
(06:57):
you if you're a Buckeye fan is that last year
the schedule was very manageable. This year they have to
play Texas, Iowa, Indiana, USC, and Nebraska all on the
road that is a brutal road slate. In fact, at
veryt Ohio state schedule the sixth toughest in the country
this year.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, for what it's worth, last Big Ten Championship twenty twenty,
I've I've learned my lesson when it comes to counting
out Indiana, because I think there's a lot of us
who just sort of took the lazy road two years
ago and said one year, wonder flash in the pan.
Well we saw how bad that take is. I'm curious
as to this because what I love about what you
do for this magazine is you talk to If you
don't talk to every coach, you certainly talk to most
(07:37):
of them. And I follow you on social media and randomly,
like in the middle of the spring, I'll see, like, Hey,
just got off the phone with Tulsa's head coach or something.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
What's it like when you talk with kurtz Sinnetti.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
It's awesome and you know, he pretty much tells it
like it is. Let me go over my first conversation
with him. Oh, he was at James Madison and they
were making the move up from FCS. First year, my magazine,
so excitement there, and I said, oh, coach, you know,
let's look at your quarterback position. You had an All
conference quarterback last year. It's got phenomenal big Regis James
(08:08):
Masson had so much success. This year, you got nobody
on that quarterback position and you're making the move up
from the FCS to the FBS. That's a pretty tough situation.
He goes, Phil, everywhere I've been, we've had an All
conference quarterback. We're going to have one this year. And
I was like, okay, we'll see. Guess what they had
one that year. So then after that, I'm like, you
know what, when coach Sineti talks, I'm going to listen
(08:31):
and be a very And then look what he did
when he took over the job at Indiana. You know
we're coming after the Ohio State, Michigan and boom they did.
So can he develop a top notch quarterback to replace
Fernanda Mendoza thedanswer is yes, and he's got a great
piece here in Josh Houver. He got it's thrown for
nearly ten thousand yards. His problem a TCU was interceptions,
but that came because he had to try to win
(08:51):
games when they were behind. Here, he's got the run game,
the offensive line, the defense. He doesn't have to go
win games, just has to manage it. And he's a
guy thrown a ton of touchdown passes in a tony yards,
great supporting cast. I love the running backs as always.
They've got Charlie Becker back and wide receiver Nick Marsh
coming in from Michigan State. Big time pick up there.
They had a Joe Moore finalist on my offensive line
(09:12):
last year and they have my number three rated offensive
line this year. And defensively they're solid. And when you
look at their schedule, unlike Ohio State, their road games
are against Rutgers, they do play Michigan on the road,
Washington on the road. But I think Indiana's going to
be favored in all their games, with the exception of
Ohio State, where they have the game rated as a
pick them. I think they've got a great shot at
(09:33):
getting back to and perhaps defending their crown this year.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
You know, I asked you about Kurtzinetti. I feel like
will Stein has kind of borrowed a page from his
book at Kentucky where he's asked SEC media days. You
know why is this going to work. And I'm paraphrasing,
but he says, well because of me. Right, So I
know you don't exactly have huge expectations for Kentucky in
year one, But what do you like about will Stein?
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yeah? And I think that's a clip that may be
a little bit overblown. I think because you know, talking
to coach Stein and go over the squad with him,
I didn't catch that, you know, as far as and
I think when you talk to most coaches, most coaches
feel that way. They feel that they're the reason their
team's going to be good. So he just came out
and said it, and I thought it got It was
(10:17):
a great clip to play and great toss about. And
people are comparing them in that attitude, but I don't don't.
I don't see that. And I do think that Kentucky
should have an improved team this year. I like Kenny
Minshie at quarterback.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
CJ.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Baxter coming in from Texas at running back. This guy
ran for six hundred and fifty nine yards of Texas
two years ago. He'll be solid. They've got good talent.
They did well in the portal, but they're playing in
the SEC. You got nine SEC games are number ninety
six on my experienced chart, which is not very high.
They're number one oh four of my homegrown chart, which
is not very high. And I think they're going to
(10:51):
be an underdog this year, probably in about eight games,
So improving on last year's five win total would be
a ploplus. Because he looks in a skin you say
they might be favored in three games, maybe four.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Phil steals with us for another couple of minutes. Phil
Steele dot Com order his twenty twenty six college football preview.
A year ago, at this time, we were trying to
figure out who are these guys that Chuck Martin's going
to be coaching on offense. There's a little bit more
continentity this year. You talk about somebody who, again, like
I don't discount, you could tell me it's an entirely
brand new roster, and I assume Chuck Martin is going
(11:26):
to compete in the MAC and I know you feel
the same.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, there's two coaches that I definitely feel that way.
Kirk Farns of Iowa, who this year loses a ton
of players. In fact, he loses his kicker, his punter,
his kick returner, his punt returner and his special teams coach,
and I still rank him as the top ten special teams.
That just tells you the faith I have in coach parents.
But same thing with Chuck Martin and you hit on
(11:51):
the head. Last year he had zero returning starters on
the offensive line are on the offense overall, and he
had told me he's like, my first time ever he
had a church on an offense. And then defensively they
did have last year five starters back, but as a
lightly experienced team number one eighteen of my experience turned
and look boom, there they are back in the MAC
(12:12):
title game once again, and I'm playing for it. And
had their quarterback not left them late in the year,
could talk about that for hours, but then I think
they might have had a better shot there. So it's
a much more experienced offense this year. Three starters back
in that offensive line, Chris Mnu, Greg Smith, Eric Smith
all back and all Matt caliber. And then I like
(12:33):
David McComb coming in from Kansas as the Redchard freshman.
He was a highly ready to come out of high school,
hasn't played and he's battling Gotkowski for the job. I
thought Golkowski did well thrown into the action last year,
and they also have a guy coming in from Fort
Hayes with experience in Caleb Heavener. So it's a quarterback
unit that I think will fare better this year than
(12:55):
they did at the end of last year, especially with
a much better supporting cast. And yeah, I've got myami
getting back to the MAC Title Game. And I think
last year proved that that whole philosophy that you had
there mode zero returning starters on offense, yet they got
to the MAC Title Game.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
The publication could not be more thorough.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I would imagine that how you do it is mostly
the same, but in this day and age, it's got
to differ a little bit with all the comings and
goings around college football. For folks who have never bought
the publication, first of all, what have you been waiting for?
But what will folks get when they buy it?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah, and mo, let me give you a little insight
this year's magazine. The coaches would say to me, Phil,
how you doing. I'm like, how am I doing? They
would probably expect me to say. They probably expected me
to say, oh, I'm doing great? How about yourself? But
I would say how am I doing? I am doing phenomenal.
There's no second transfer portal window this year. I don't
have to rewrite one hundred and thirty eight teams all
(13:50):
after the portal window closes, all in the month of May,
and get this thing off of the press. So you
know what each coach told me, Mo, They said, you
know what, Phil was more of a team this year
in the spring we took into the spring, we knew
we're going to be the guys we took into the season.
We could coach him harder, we could list a guy
third string. We knew he wasn't going to leave in
the second transfer portal window. This is the best I
felt team wise about my team in years since that
(14:13):
second transfer portal was open. And I think we'll see
a better brand of football because of it. But let's
get back to your question. And the magazine has three
hundred seventy six pages, and these are not triple spaced
pages with fourteen point type. It's get a magnifying glass out.
There's information on top of information. We give you two
(14:35):
full pages on all one hundred and thirty eight teams.
It's like getting one hundred and thirty eight media guys
rolled into one all they except all the informations on
the same spot, on every page. Now you can get
that only at two places, Barnes and Noble and Books
a Million, So don't drive around looking for it. Only
go to Barnes and Noble or Books a Million, or
as you mentioned, Phil Steel dot com. And when you
go to Phil Steel dot com, we're going to charge
(14:56):
you a shipping charge, but we give you the digital
magazine for free. We also have an FCS magazine MOO,
and I write each of the one hundred and thirty
eight teams in the FBS magazine myself. No way can
I write all the FCS teams. My great staff does
that for me. But we give you two full pages
on every FCS team in the digital magazine. So if
you're gonna watch Dayton or anybody like that, two full pages.
(15:19):
Nobody gives you that type of info that's available right round, full,
sealed down back. Now.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
We love having you. You're the man.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I can't thank you no, thanks so much, all right,
bo have a great day. I'll try my best. Phil
thanks him. I would have asked him. I would have
asked him about the Dayton Flyers, but we are insanely late.
Tony Pike training camp update next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
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