Pate State x Solid Verbal…CFB Roundtable

On this episode of Josh Pate's College Football Show, Josh is joined by Solid Verbal Podcast hosts Ty Hildenbrandt and Dan Rubenstein to break down the latest headlines and to preview the upcoming season.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah, it doesn't look normal, but that's okay. We do
the pay stage speaker series all the time, but occasionally
we will schedule some home and homes. No neutral sites here.
We don't go to Germany to play games. So raise
your hand when I call your name. Ty Hildebrandt Dan Rubinstein,
both halves of the Solid Verbal podcast mentioned on this

(00:40):
show many times. I used to listen to it. I
still listen to it. It's way better than our show.
It's my favorite college football pod. Gentlemen, how are we
on the precipice of this twenty twenty five college football season.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
We're doing well, man. Thank you for the invite. Thank
you for the kind words that you offered on your show.
I guess a couple weeks ago we had a lot
of new people stop by, so we're we're thrilled to
be here. We've been trying to do this for a while,
so I'm glad we were finally able to get it
off the ground.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Couldn't be better by the way. I looked at the
schedule for week one, and I do it every like
four to seven days to remind myself that, like I
need to train for the stamina needed to ingest all
of that college But we have week zero, but like
a first full Saturday with college football after the darkness
of the summer without it, Like, I just don't want

(01:26):
to get too excited at Newon Eastern. I have to
pace myself for three full days and I'm not ready yet.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Sure, I've been, by the way, in a knock down,
drag out internet fight over the concept of week zero.
You know, you do your countdown to kick off and
your countdown to the regular season. Now it's my personal feel,
and that's all it is, by the way, is a
personal preference sort of feel that the season kicks off
in week one? Yes, because that's why we call it

(01:51):
week one, And then you fully acknowledge, yes, there are games,
intriguing games in week zero, But I've been doing the
countdown correlated to week one. I think ninety five percent
of the country is in consensus agreement on that. But
the thing you need to know about the five percent
is they're very vocal, and they all have Internet and
they will come after you. Where do you guys stand

(02:12):
on week zero versus Week one? Like, what is the
curtain lifter on the full college football season?

Speaker 3 (02:19):
I think it's no in week one. I think it's
new in Eastern week one. There is something about the
span of what's going on in that moment that week
zero is great. It's a great what is it like
a snack?

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Chips and salsa, That's what it is.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
It's a great snack. You sit down, you have some
peanuts before the menus come. Whatever, it's great. We cherish it.
We love having it. The first Thursday night great, right,
you come home from work, you have football. It's a
uniquely special moment. It's not week one until Saturday.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, speaking of the internet coming at you, I said
on our show that they should just move Army Navy
to week zero if they're going to be in assistant
on having a week zero, because that's something everybody can
look forward to, and because you know they're both now
in the same conference, there's some weirdness potentially down the
stretch if both end up playing for the conference title game.
So I'm just I'm not a huge Week zero fan.

(03:15):
I like, maybe I'm too old at this point. I
just kind of don't remember how it came about, why
it came about.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
Why we still have it.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
I always tend to like anchor the start of the
college football season two. As you said, Dan, like noon
week one, that's sort of when everything gets started. If
we're going to do week zero, let's try and spice
it up a little bit. But I would say, more
broadly speaking, I'm kind of a fan of the Dan
Lanning plan that I think he talked about at media Days,
where like, if you want to use that date for
college football, great, but let's just move everything up and

(03:44):
make that the new week one.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, all right? So confirmed? That means, according to sources,
the three of Us hate Kansas State hate Iowa State,
don't believe that game counts. We just confirmed sure.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
Of course.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
When we did your version of the Home and Home
on both of your channels, we talked about the boldest
but most believable takes that we could come up with.
Take a Tooea. Mount Takatoa is right there in the background,
all right, So we filled that up. What I wanted
to do is go a little bit broader. I just
wanted to throw blanks out there, the stuff we're most

(04:17):
looking forward to. I'll kick us off, what the things,
the all Things team, if you will, that we're most
looking forward to this year. Because I go to week one,
and I go to the Atlantic Coast Conference and I
think about all these games LSU at Clemson, BAMA at
Florida State, Georgia Tech at Colorado, Notre Dame at Miami,

(04:40):
TCU at North Carolina, you got Tennessee, Syracuse, you got
Virginia Tech, South Carolina. I think I just listed seven games.
I think there's a world where the ACC goes like
two and five or worse in that lineup, and it
really comes back to bid them in the very very
uncomfortable playoff. Converse station comparative conference strength of schedule type

(05:04):
debates that it ramped up last year. It was the
SMU or Alabama SMU or South Carolina Ole Miss and
so you had the whole Well it's the SEC. And
then other people said, yeah, but they play in their
conference championship game. Well, I think that if we get
there again and the ACC represented itself valiantly in week one, okay,
But there's also a world where I think they just

(05:26):
tie a cinder block to their ankle in Week one
and someone's still going to win the conference. Two teams
may even go you know, ten and two or something
like that. I just don't know if you drop the
ball fantastically in Week one if you grant yourself benefit
of the doubt, and then you've got the like the
Georgia versus Georgia techs of the world later in the year.
But I think that week one, given the perception out there,

(05:48):
which is somewhat deserved, I think it's so imperative that
they go five hundred or better.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
I agree, I absolutely agree, And there's never a moment
it seems that the entire sport has the eyes on
it in the same way it does for Week one,
and you're building on Week one for the rest of
the month. That said, I still think there are moments
in this sport where we totally forget what happened in
early September. I think the wisest among us, and it's

(06:19):
not necessarily me, the wisest among us, realized that seasons
are living, breathing things, especially you know, after Ohio State
loses as early as they did to Virginia Tech, I believe,
and won the NAT the very first college football Playoff
that you can be forgiven for where you were in September,
but for with regard to conference strength conversations, it helps,

(06:45):
It really does help to have that terrific start. Yeah,
I'm not going to say that that's untrue.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Here's where my head's also at, And I am not
advocating for this mentality to exist. I'm just saying I
think this mentality will exist. Has no business in the converse,
but I think it will exist. SMU, in my opinion,
rightfully got benefit of doubt. They got into the playoff
last year. I thought they belonged to the playoff. They
got blown out by Penn State. I could easily see

(07:12):
a scenario where if it's coin flip, if it's fifty
one forty nine, either way, benefit of doubt goes against
the acc because that is in recent memory in the
eyes of the committee. Shouldn't be, but it is factoring
into the twenty twenty five decisions. Shouldn't but will and
if you coincide that, if you combine that with and
you guys also went like one in six or two

(07:35):
and five when your conference, when your league had a
chance to flex in week one, and you didn't, Like,
we don't have this great robust inventory of data points
cross conference data points, the ones we do have access to,
you guys dropped the ball. So if you have another
another SMU Alabama caliber debate. I could see a world

(07:55):
where it goes against the ACC for those reasons.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
And by the way, that's why LSU at Clemson and
Week one is such a big game among other reasons,
right because Clemson obviously comes in with most returning production
in the country and LSU we know stakes for Brian
Kelly and LSU, but that is a road game that
is ad in Clemson's Death Valley, and I think, however,
that game kind of comes about, you know, we'll be

(08:20):
talking about that one for a good long time, perhaps
as one of those indicators with respect to conference strength,
because like it or hate it, I think, you know,
on both of our shows we talk about the conferences
the full way through, but most people tend to gravitate
towards the teams at the top, and LSU is probably
going to be near at or near the top of
the SEC at some point. Clearly Clemson's already going to

(08:41):
be there to start the year. Having those two teams
go up against one another right out of the shoot
is going to be pretty interesting for that conversation moving forward.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yeah, and Brian Kelly almost wins a lot of these openers.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
So you said it bore all right, Rumistein you wan
the coin for it? You can go next?

Speaker 3 (09:00):
What am I answering?

Speaker 1 (09:02):
You just want to tell me the thing?

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Oh, I'm looking forward to whatever. Okay, my next item is.
I can't wait to learn who is going to be
a new problem, right, I can't wait to find out
the player that you watch his week one or week two.
Be it a freshman, be at a new starter somewhere,
be at an edge rusher who is hurt in twenty
twenty four in his back and like we don't really

(09:25):
fully know his name yet, or there's a new coordinator somewhere.
There are candidates for this across the board, you know,
like Decoryan Moore at Oregon. Right, He's he's somebody that
gets me excited as an Oregon human. But like when
you watched Ryan Williams against Georgia, you're like, oh, man,
we got three years of a problem at Alabama. We
were hoping he would be this, especially as young as

(09:47):
he was. Slash Is and Jeremiah Smith, like, I can't
wait across this sport to find out who the new
issues are going to be for coordinators. I love that
moment early on in September, We're like, hmm, this guy's
going to be a catastrophe for the rest of this
schedule for a lot of pretty decent teams.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
I love that is anybody that fits The answer to
this question is anybody Is any one of those names
one of the high profile first year quarterbacks?

Speaker 4 (10:16):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, I absolutely think like the upside of all of
these first year starting quarterbacks right with what ty Simpson
has in front of him as an offensive line, with
who he's throwing to, with I think, maybe to a
lesser extent, who he's handing it off to. I think
that's a huge, huge problem potential for everybody in Alabama's schedule,
especially getting Ryan Grubb back. Like absolutely like the way

(10:40):
that a lot of these first year starters are built around.
Like I think Notre Dame's going to have a little
bit more pop on offense. I think what Dante Moore
brings arm strength wise is more than what Dylan Gabriel
had well had. We'll see what, you know, skill position
looks like around him. I think there's all the potential
in the world for all of these first year guys
to be like an elevated problem because they could do

(11:03):
something that the previous guy couldn't do consistently at a lot
of these places.

Speaker 4 (11:11):
I like it. I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
I'm excited to see you know many of these new situations,
to say the least, And as we talked about when
we kind of did this version over on our show,
the like the I guess the variability with respect to
what could go right versus what could go wrong as
part of what makes this the season so fascinating.

Speaker 4 (11:32):
I think, at least starting in week one.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
I love by the way that there is I think
for most of these guys at least a high profile
game first three weeks of the season. I don't think
that many of them we go like until October before
we see him dial it up. That also means someone
could fall flat on their face and the rebound in
October after they've already been forgotten about. All right, ty,
next up.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
I am most looking forward to seeing who becomes this
year's India. And this is not to say a team
comes out of nowhere in the way that Indiana did
and they somehow find their.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
Way into the college football Playoffs.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
But as I think we've come to know just in
watching the playoff one year through, we're going to have
a conversation at some point latter half of October, latter
half of November, where there are teams at least part
of that conversation that we did not expect coming in.
On a personal level, I'm very excited to see which

(12:32):
of my predictions fall the most flat, because I've got
several I'm like all in on pit this year as
one of those teams that could be don't ask me why.
It's a longer conversation, but we know that there are
going to be a handful of these teams that just
sort of pop up out of nowhere. Maybe they're hovering
around a six and a half seven and a half
win total per Vegas and you look at the schedule,

(12:54):
you look at what they've got coming back. I mean,
we did it on our show, Dan, You're potentially very
high in Miszoobi because of the schedule. Like, there are
teams out there that I think are below like that
top line in each conference that are worthy of attention,
but maybe we don't fully know it yet, and we
just know that by the end of September some of
those are going to begin to emerge. So that to me,

(13:14):
it's not just this season, but I would say just
for as long as they've been a college football fan,
waiting to see which teams pop like that in an
unexpected way.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
That's one of the reasons to be excited about a
new year.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
I'm trying to think about who the most random team
that would plausibly make sense to be in the playoff
would be that could kind of fit this maybe not
maybe not quite. I don't know, like some of these
could shot in the world. Like I'm thinking totally randomly.
I'm thinking, if Virginia Tech emerged, right, if Michigan State

(13:47):
scaled their performance came out of nowhere, I think Missouri
is a more likely candidate. What if what if instead
of Boise it's Dan Mullen and UNLV the year after
people kind of thought they could make the playoff, that
win the Mountain West and make the playoff. Georgia Tech,
you know, you guys know I'm sky high on them.
If they make the title game, like I think they will,
They're one win away from automatically being in Texas. You know,

(14:12):
Texas Tech is a conversation piece in any Big twelve prediction,
as they should be. But have people wrapped their minds
around the possibility of Texas Tech actually being in the playoff.
I don't know if they've gone quite that far down
the bridge yet. So yeah, there's a lot of team
like a TCU.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
I was about to say, TCU T this is why
we do this showy.

Speaker 4 (14:34):
TCU has a brutal schedule.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
But I would say, reasonably, I could assume that the
three of us like Josh Hoover. The problem, of course,
is if you like Josh Hoover and if you believe
that they can make the playoff, you got to believe
a lot else in order to put them in the
contender tier of the Big twelve and at least get
them into this conversation as a team that could maybe
make that field of twelve. But the defense should be

(14:56):
a little bit better this season, which is why I
think Dan and I are, you know, cautiously optimistic here.

Speaker 4 (15:01):
They're really bad against the run last year. They got
to fix that.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
But you know, you got a schedule like this, You
have a coach who knows how to coach offense, You
have a quarterback that potentially could have gone to Tennessee
if you believe Josh Hoover and what he had to say.
So there's a lot to like about this TCU team.
You just have to assume that so many other parts
of this team are going to get better in order
for them to maybe aspire to those heights.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
Speaking of a portal quarterback, my next one is I
can't wait to see what Carson Beck is at Miami.
Because he claims and they claim, he's been healthy for months.
I have no reason not to believe that they lose
what their top half dozen pass catchers. But yet there
wasn't really a lot of just sheer electricity in that

(15:45):
room to begin With all due respect to Xavier Ristreppo,
he was kind of the quarter stowed of that room
and either went seventh round or undrafted. He's in Nashville
right now, he's with the Titans. So I think to myself,
I don't just think about Carson Beck in a I
think about the quarterback position at Miami this time last year.
You got cam Woard there and he's going to go

(16:05):
on to be a superstar. But cam Ward also had
several times, as it turns out, that he shows up
to the building knowing I got to score forty if
we're going to win today. Well, when you make the
moves that they made at defensive coordinator. I don't know
how improved they'll be this year, but they've got to
be improved. So does it become a more somewhat of
a more complimentary Miami team. Are there some hard fought,

(16:28):
like twenty three to twenty type games? Can they come
out on the plus side of those? Does that coaching
staff improve itself in fourth quarter high leverage positions, because
all of that dictates how we grade Carson Beckett the
end of the year. I just think it is so
wild that if we strawhold the college football public, there

(16:50):
are a lot of people who would have looked you
dead in the eye and said, that guy's going to
be the number one overall quarterback taken in the draft
this time last year. Who this year, same human this year.
If you even said he's gonna, you know, challenge for
all acc honors, would say, oh, you're crazy, dude, Carson
beck He's not that good. But you told me yeah, yeah, yeah,

(17:12):
But forget about all that. No, the world's changed now.
So I think that there is a litany of example
in this sport of teams that pop the year after
the public expected them to shore. Maybe Miami is that
this year.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
Yeah, I'm super high on Miami. I really like how
aggressive they were and addressing very obvious needs in the
secondary that I think even if Carson Beck is merely
good but not incredible, that they're He's playing behind one
of the better, if not best, offensive lines in the country,
has a good running back room, has a promising but
young receivers room. They're starting over a little bit at

(17:49):
tight end. But I don't know, there's number one offense
in America. Last year in terms of I think points
per drive, they were the number one offense. And so
the starting point for Carson Beck and Miami is crazy intriguing.
So yeah, I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
My zag is that Miami's an eight and four team
this year. I don't think they're beating Notre Dame week one.
I don't think they're beating Florida week four. I could
see them losing to Louisville. I think they're losing to
pit the close out the year.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
So and that's tough. That's tough because two of the
you didn't use the word guaranteed, but like two of
the pretty solid l's that you're putting on them both
happen at home, which almost happened multiple times last year, but.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Just one of those teams is on a sizeable losing
streak at the moment.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
No, this is this is all true, and I like
Corey Heatherman, I agree with you, Dan. I mean, I
think what they did to try and improve the defensive
side of the ball, like everybody knew that they needed
to get better there, and so I do think that
they will. But the offense is going to be slower
this year. It's probably going to look a little bit different.
It might be oriented more around the run, and I

(18:54):
like their running back room generally speaking, but I think
this might revert back to more of the Mario Crystal
ball man ball style football that we've seen him run
in the past. And I'm still not totally convinced that
they're going to get beyond some of these late game
situations that I've haunted them. So I like Carson Beck
veteran presence back there, but I do think the offense

(19:15):
looks a little bit different, and I'm just not totally
sold in this sear I caught hell for this out
on our YouTube channel and after we did our acc
preview from people who like Miami and I get it,
but I'm just not buying it.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
I'm going to offer you one. By the way, I
could give you this is I'm yes ending, But I
could give you one through eight in the Big Twelve,
and you could, without any argument, have to say, all right, sure, yeah,
there are four hundred and thirty five different outcomes that
are completely believable in the Big Twelve.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
This year.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
You could say like, yeah, Caden Salter rips it at
Colorado and they're amazing, and they end up in the
Big Twelve championship game. We've got a good defensive front
and a good quarterback and promising who are getting out
of the rotation into starting roles and they're good. You
could tell me Kansas and Lance Leipold figured out with
Jayalen Daniels in his fourteenth season and be like, great, cool, Yeah,
I totally believe it. The best of him is one

(20:11):
of the best quarterbacks in the country. You could tell
me anything with regards to Kansas State, TCU West Virginia
bringing in sixty three new players, like you could tell
me any outcome that this team finished in fifth, this
team finishing first, this team finished in eleventh, and I'd
be like, all right cool, and so for that reason
they are like crazy, must watch every week, can't wait.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
Well, I don't know about about lump in West Virginia
in there, but maybe not West Virginia. West Virginia's a
bridge too far.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
But what I'm saying is if you put West Virginia
eighth in the Big Twelve when they were, you know,
thought of as to be lower and fully rebuilding, but
have one of the best three coaches in the conference,
I mean, you don't know what West Virginia is. Nobody does,
no because it's all new dudes wearing those uniforms.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
So the team he didn't mention, by the way, is Baylor.
Baylor's another one that was very close. Only a few
opportunities are for let's say, missed opportunities away from getting
into that in twelve title game could.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
Very well be my preseason conference.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
By the way, and there's no like great argument against it.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
I mean, they got annihilated with chunk plays on defense,
and I am being cautiously optimistic with David Randa, you know,
taking over and I mean did called defense last year,
but I'm optimistic that he can improve upon that this season.
But provided the defense gets just marginally better, just marginally
better in the offense stays electric as it was a

(21:37):
year ago. This again, it's another one of those possibilities.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
I think you're right.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
I can't wait.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
By the way, I can't wait to see what happens
with Penn State this year. You stole mine, you stole mine,
Go ahead, Okay. My take with Penn State in this
moment is.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
We've seen this.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
We've seen Penn State every year do what they do,
don't do what they don't do. Like I can't believe
we're doing this again with Penn State. That I can't
wait to see these games against Oregon, which we're going
to be there. I can't wait to see Penn State
against Ohio State in Columbus. And I kind of can't

(22:23):
believe we get to run this narrative back with Penn State.
Of they've got a good quarterback, they've got good coaches,
they've got a good schedule, they're returning a ton. Let's
see if they can win games against the best teams
on their snope. Okay, they didn't do it again, all right,
I just I can't believe we're so lucky as a

(22:44):
community that we get to try back this old story.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Let me give you more of a nuanced take. Because
of the three of us, I am the Penn State
grad YEA. What makes the Penn State situation, the narrative
as a whole, so interesting is because Penn State is
in a situation not unlike what Ohio State was in
a year ago. And that is of course, you're looking
at the national landscape, everybody is.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Technically Ohio State can't beat Ohio State either, So.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
Well, there's that case in point.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
But my thing here is Penn State clearly is one
of the teams right now in the preseason.

Speaker 4 (23:18):
That's all the rage and why not.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
They've got so much back you can understand, even if
you're not betting on Penn State, you can understand why
they are part of that conversation. So clearly that's the
thing you want. But much like Ohio State a year ago,
Penn State is also in the situation where the fan
base as a whole is looking at one big game
on the schedule, and for them and for us speaking
as an alum, beating Ohio State is representative of the

(23:43):
whole thing. There is this sense in the community that
Penn State cannot get that monkey off its back.

Speaker 4 (23:49):
Oh, it's not just in the community, tie, it's everywhere.
It's everywhere.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
And so my point is just that Penn State can
go on to great things. I think, you know, the
schedule is advantageous. They look like a ten and two
at worst caliber team this season. Barring any kind of
total collapse or disaster, they should be in that playoff
and they should have another run at this thing. I
think there is a fair amount of assumption in the
Penn State world that that will come to fruition, and
everybody's cool with that. But the indicator, the indicator that

(24:15):
this thing is for real, is going to be when
they play Ohio State on the road in Columbus.

Speaker 4 (24:21):
They don't win that game, They're still going to.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
Find their way into the playoff in all likelihood, but
that is the thing that the people that I talk
to in this universe are most focused on that game.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
They want to get that one out of the way first.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
So how they deal with that narrative will be really
interesting to see because this is a team that's for
all intentsive purposes loaded coming into the year, but just
kind of coming to grips with that if in fact,
they fall short against Ohio State, if in fact, they
fall short in any of these big games that they
got on the schedule, maybe Oregon when they come.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
To town for the wide out. I don't expect that, but.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
That, to me, that just that sort of interesting twist
with the way that the fan base, I think think
use the Penn State season should be fascinating to sea unfold.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
The psychology amongst the global college football community is such that, yeah,
everything you just said, everything Dan just said. The people
inside Penn State, to their credit, I guess they're not
trying to temper expectations. Like this past weekend. I talked
to several people up there and no, it's real, man,
Like we should do it this year. It's real. And

(25:26):
I'm like, okay, and I'm not necessarily disagreeing, But here's
the add on. So that's one layer of the cake
that's been there before. The next layer of the cake is,
at least perceptionally, there's not that insurmountable hurdle out there
for them. In years past, there was like a superpowered
Georgia or Alabama where you looked and said, well, they're

(25:48):
not going to get past them, even if they do
get to whatever fill in the blank. There is not
that this year. So you're telling me you got your
best shot. Internally, I'm telling you the landscape is totally
muddy right now, and you already sort of got a
taste of it last year by getting in the playoff.
That it's the most unique I think competitive job pressure

(26:09):
in America this year, because it's not job security pressure.
He's not getting fired, but it's just this this kind
of very very fine window of championship. It's it's a
championship window. And if you're not ready to do it
this year, it's not the worst thing in the world
to be a ten win kind of periphery contender type,

(26:32):
but maybe that's all you ever are if you can't
get it done this year, and it all comes down
to these few moments. Even in those games, it's going
to come down to like some fourth and one, whether
whether you like fight for six extra inches or not.
That's what your legacy is going to be determined by.
And you already know that now. You just don't know
the specifics of down distance.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
When I would be very curious if you pulled your audience, Josh,
people who care about Penn State, who are within the
Penn State community.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
What is their view of a quote unquote successful season.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
Is it beating in Ohio State or beating an Oregon
or winning a team against a traditional power for opponent
in the playoffs and acquitting themselves well, or is it
winning the national championship. My hunch is it's the former
as opposed to the latter. And I think what we've
seen elsewhere throughout the Penn State world, just with their

(27:26):
signals of intent, with going out and paying three point
one million dollars to bring Jim Knowles in, they didn't
necessarily need the best defensive coordinator in college football to
maintain a really high standard for defense.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
But they're gonna do it.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
They're going above and beyond, I think, to prove that
they can do it this year because they're loaded up
for this season, even some of the renovation work they're
doing on the stadium. There's just a lot of internal
intent that they are trying to move this thing forward.
They are trying to get over those proverbial humps, and
so there's definite reason for optimism, and I understand all that,
I share most of it, But just that question of
what is successful this season in the Penn State community

(28:01):
is I think, you know, one of the more intriguing
storylines that we're going to follow throughout the course of
the year.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
I'll keep it personal. I'll go Dan Lanning Comma villain.
I'm looking forward to in twenty twenty five. So Dan
Lanning at Oregon, which is already a place that's polarizing
because some people love the uniforms and the style and
the innovation whatever, and some people look at it as
all flash and no substance. Dan Lanning in Oregon put
out the videos last year where they're showing clips of

(28:29):
inglorious bastards before beating Michigan, or they're you know, the
different themed videos, or Dan Lanning has the twelve man
on the field that they have to change the rules
regarding Dan Lanning jumps in a pool with the recruit,
which is seen, I think rightfully so as kind of
corny but kind of fun if the recruit likes it.
Recruit didn't stick with Oregon, to be clear, he couldn't

(28:50):
work out. He's ending, He's ended up, it seems. I
think in Austin people delighted in Oregon both beating Ohio
State and then fully collapsing against Ohio State in the playoff,
and I think it's crucial that this sport is clear
to have people you enjoy rooting for. And maybe that's
Oregon for you, it is for me. I went there

(29:12):
or rooting against and people didn't like Nick Saban because
they saw like how he left the Dolphins in the
NFL and what he's doing at Alabama and the sort
of the gruff demeanor on the sideline. They didn't like
Jim Harbaugh. I think to a you know, to some extent,
people feel that way against Dabo Fair or not, but
I don't think they feel it about Kirby Smart. I
don't think people have strong opinions about Sark across the country.

(29:36):
But I think Dan Lanning before the Colorado game with
they do it for clicks, we do it on the field.
Like I think there is a brashnist to him that
players respond to that has worked for that program. But
I like that he is seen in sort of like
a villainous way. And is he gonna cut the electric
grid in Iowa City this year? I don't know. Is
he gonna break up a marriage? I don't know, Like

(29:57):
what is the next step for Dan Lanning's villain this
tour in twenty twenty five. Can't wait.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
That's delicious, Thank you, because you're right, there's no like
I would argue, there is no central voice, there's no
face of college football right now. I think people have
been very reluctant to accept that role since Satan, and
that's both positive and negative. You don't have an ultimate
heel out there, but you don't have a voice. You

(30:27):
don't have that guy than when he speaks, everyone else
shuts up. I think people have been reluctant to take that.
I'll go one for you here. I'm interested to see
what Michigan is on multiple fronts. So I'm interested to see,
you know, whether they can go to Oklahoma and win
in Week two. But there's also this other cloud that

(30:49):
keeps hovering. And if you try, and you know, the
closer you get to football season, the more you just
want to talk about football and leave all the other
stuff you know outside. And for a large extent, I'm
happy to do that with Michigan. We have this impending
NCAA matter that looks like it's gonna publicly play itself
out right about the time the season starting thereabouts, and

(31:12):
so I wonder, like if that goes against them. If
it really, like severely goes against them publicly, you got
coaches that have to serve added suspensions or their show cause,
or they have punitive measures taken against them. I'm skeptical
that that'll happen, but I could be wrong if all
that plays out as the backdrop of them going seventy five.

(31:35):
What's the conversation around Sharon Moore, You're two years removed
from Jim Harbaugh. Perceptionally, he left you a pretty full coboard,
not of the roster per se, but like the organization
was in a good spot. But now that's evaporated, and
we were winning games and playing for titles. Now that's evaporated.
There really are no proven commodities here that we can

(31:57):
fall back on and say, well, historically, this guy's got
job done. You don't really have that anymore. And what if, also,
your rival just won a national championship, which, oh, by
the way, they did, but you've got that one thing
to hold over them, which is we've got four straight
wins over you. But what if they come into your
building at the end of the year and that gets
a race too. It could really get uncomfortable and weird

(32:20):
in sideways from Michigan this year in a hurry.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
By the way, that week's game, the Ohio State Michigan game,
the game, and it's like the narrative game of the
conference portion of the season.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
I think that.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
Game is going to end in a seven to six
Michigan win or an eighty to thirteen Ohio State win.
Nothing in between, absolutely zero in between. Either Ryan Day
is exercising everything or Michigan is going to find a
way to become the most hateful boa constrictor of the
modern sport has ever seen.

Speaker 4 (32:51):
That's my opinion, man.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
I mean, realistically, Josh, realistically, what do you expect on
the NCAA side, Because I'm with you, I think I'm
skeptical that there's going to be a whole lot more
thrown at them. I do think there's probably some inclination
from the NCAA to flex its muscles a little bit,
to prove that it still has some clout in the sport,

(33:15):
which we know which has been dwindlinks sometimes by its
own decision. But like, what, what is a realistic expectation
for that?

Speaker 4 (33:23):
In your view?

Speaker 1 (33:25):
I don't think that there is any punitive action taken
against them that would impact the viability of Michigan moving forward.
By that, I mean there's nothing that's going to happen
to them that makes you less likely to want to
watch a Michigan football game. So if you want to
find them, which I believe they'll do, okay, show causes

(33:48):
for coaches. I believe that's very much on the table.
But really, when it comes to NCAA investigations, all the
normal fan wants to know is are you're gonna have
a bowl ban or you're gonna have scholarship restrictions? Even
know that scholarship restrictions happen anymore or if they matter?
I don't think that postseason bands on the table at all.

(34:08):
And this is a fundamental disagreement I have with large
swats of the Ohio State shunbase. Not even I almost
remove what I think should happen, like what I think
is just and right ethically, we left that outside looking
in a long time ago. I think we have to
understand what the NC double A is. The NC double
A is something that exists as an enforcement arm to

(34:32):
serve at the behest of university presidents. The same university
presidents are the ones who collectively sign their name on
multi billion dollar media rights deals. So I just have
to ask myself, not getting conspiratorial at all. Just common
sense tells me there's no way networks enter into multi

(34:52):
billion dollar agreements with university presidents and leagues who have
an enforcement arm that attaches to them. Why are about
to sit and watch those presidents allow their enforcement arm
to take measures against one of their most prized assets
that fundamentally deteriorates the viability and viewability of that asset.
That's not the way this works anymore. Whether it should

(35:14):
or not, I don't think that's the way this works anymore.
So whatever a slap on the wrist is, however many
millions of dollars that is, I think that's the modern
day version of the NCAA swinging the hammer. So I
don't think when that theme comes down, it's going to
be like the trains completely off the tracks. What are
we going to do like it would have been twenty

(35:34):
five years ago if you had multiple level one violations.
Having said that, there are a lot of people who
strongly disagree with that. I don't know that anyone knows anything,
but there are people who pretty strongly disagree with that.
I just I'd have to see it to believe it.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
I don't think it's going to happen. I agree with you,
and not to get conspiratorial, but and.

Speaker 4 (35:55):
There have been coaching suspensions for making.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Sure yep, sure, I think something will be, something will
be levied upon Michigan. I don't think to your point, Josh,
it's going to be anything that truly impacts what we
see out there this year.

Speaker 3 (36:09):
And I think something heavy would have to be drawn
out from a crazy bit of new evidence that yes,
Michigan had every single one of Ohio States practices in
four K on their servers, right, it was something on
that level. You're like, well, I guess they got to
hit them now. But beyond that, yeah, I think you're right.

Speaker 4 (36:32):
I've got one I would love to know.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
I would love to know in media rights deals and
I don't know this. I would love to know, is
their language that that almost like when I was working
in local TV, we didn't have a backup generator at
my station, which is just an insane existence when you're
running when you're the affiliate for NBC and you're running
playoff games for the NFL, to know that if your

(36:54):
power goes out, you have to return deliverable ad revenue
to local advertis because their ads didn't run. Is there
something similar baked into the language and legal ees of
media rights deals where we're paying I mean, in the
Big Ten, you're paying for about four teams and you're
taking the other. However, many if one of those four

(37:15):
by your own enforcement bodies mechanations suffers and is not
as visible and as not as worthy to be put
on national airwaves, do we get some of our money back?
I would love to know if that exists.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yeah, and it's again to your point, it's an interesting
conversation of what should happen versus what realistically should happen
given the circumstances and kind of all these entanglements.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
It's fascinating multiple level one violations should be a multi
year post season ban in a former lifefe. We just
don't live in that life anymore.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
Yeah. We also kind of live in a reality in
which the Big Ten in Michigan, if they're handed down
something severe, might just say we disagree.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Nope, Nope, we're going to show up anyway.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
We're gonna be wearing our amazing blue you know where
to find us. We're going to be there.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
It's like when George Costanza got fired and just showed
up anyway.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
Showed up.

Speaker 4 (38:09):
Yeah, absolutely, I've got I've got a good one here. Okay.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
And maybe I'm the only one who's looking forward to this.
I don't know, but.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
The overwhelming majority of college football fans aren't talking about
the seven teams in major college football that have thirty
five or more incoming transfers. Oh, talk about Okay, Purdue,
West Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, UCF, CAL, and Wake

(38:39):
Forest at least per twenty four to seven. Yeah, those
are the schools that have the most transfers this cycle.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
Ty, do you know what Purdue's number is?

Speaker 2 (38:48):
The total number is fifty four, and they've got sixty
nine new players in total if you include their high
school transfers, which is the most in college football.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
The other day I talked to Barry Odom about this.
He said, I had thirty eight players in my first
team meeting in December. I will have eighty two of
one oh five as new players, either incoming freshmen or transfers.
Eighty two of his one oh five are new players
this year that we're not there accounting.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
A year ago it's crazy, and so the reason that
I bring this up, obviously, this is sort of like
the new World Order of college football.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
Everybody's taken a ton of transfers.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
One of these teams is going to punch way above
preseason expectations. Most of these schools that I listed out,
maybe with the exception of North Carolina, and I.

Speaker 4 (39:36):
Guess it depends how you feel about Oklahoma State.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
But most of these schools I think are projected at
or near the bottom of their respective conferences. But without fail,
one of them will exceed expectations and no one will
have seen it coming, because how could you. There's no
way to project when you're dealing with that many new
We can't even agree on how many new players perdue
has Josh right, So whenever you've got this incredible number

(40:01):
of new people coming in, it is an Indiana situation
where it is like Purdue and name only, UCF in
name only, it's an entirely new cast of characters, despite
the fact that they're wearing the same uniform. I'm just
really curious to see who that's gonna be. I guess
the easy answer would be to say North Carolina, because
there is a lot working in their favor, and I
think they got something.

Speaker 4 (40:21):
Like seven four star transfers something like that.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
I mean, clearly, Bill Belichick's got a name that people
are interested in. But I mean, would it surprise you
at all six months down the line to be like,
you know, cal actually was kind of interesting this past
year in a way that we didn't next their wake Forest.
You know, Jake Dickert was a GA once east of
the Mississippi. Now he comes to wake Forest, a beautiful place,

(40:46):
a beautiful campus, and suddenly he just he kind of
makes it interesting in.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
A way that we didn't see coming.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
One of these seven teams is going to be there
at the very end of this thing, and we're going
to have that conversation, and I don't know who it's
gonna be, But I also don't know how to handicap
any of those schools that I just mentioned, So it's
going to be fascinating.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
Was Southern Miss on that list?

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Southern Miss is not on this list per se, but
Southern Miss is basically playing with the Marshall championship team
from a year ago because of Charles huff In that
whole situation with him coming down to take over at
Southern Miss. So that's another school where though they might
not be on like the top national line. With respect

(41:25):
to conversation, if you're looking at Southern Miss this year
and you're wondering, is this a team that could contend
for a conference title, it's a big old shrug. We
have no idea what to expect from them either.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
I picture people picking up the local like Hattiesburg newspaper, Allah,
the opening scenes in Major League.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
Who are these other guys exactly exactly crazy?

Speaker 3 (41:51):
Yeah, I mean they're all getting to know each other
as we speak, right, eighty new guys in West Lafayette.
That's not a basket, that's a basketball tournament. That's yeah,
sixteen starting fives.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
Check, by the way, check that I only had this
filtered based on power concoences.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
Yeah, Southern Miss does have fifty four incoming transfers. So
that's my bad.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
I need to learn how to work the internet here.
But yeah, they're another one that you know, we can
include them as the eighth team as part of this
conversation like a full on hockey line change.

Speaker 4 (42:24):
Who the hell knows?

Speaker 3 (42:25):
Sidebar. With regard to North Carolina bringing in, we have
not mentioned Bill Belichick specifically at I have no idea
what UNC is going to do this season. I don't
know what they're going to look like. I don't know
what their systems are going to be exactly. I don't
know who is going to shine who is not going
to shine of this. I am sure there's going to
be a moment, likely in September, likely early on in September,
where there's going to be a close up of Bill

(42:47):
Belichick's face in beautiful four K where you are going
to be able to read his face precisely, and the
words that you're going to be able to read on
his face are I think I'm working with children. I
think I might be working and I'm not gonna make
the easy joke here. I think I might be working
with adolescents who are making mistakes because they took the

(43:11):
SATs an hour and a half ago, they've been driving
for ten months, whatever, And I can't wait for that
realization to creep up pot across his face like a storm, like.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
I mean, do you do you when? Do you think?
It happens that they lose a game and he just
goes scorched earth in the locker room and tells them
what they're about to be put through the next week
and somebody just leans in his ears says, we only
got twenty hours and a half week.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
Yeah, we need to we need to get them new wristbands.
We don't have time. Yeah, it's inevitable. Again, they could
go ten and two, they could go for and I
don't know what they're gonna do, but that look is
going to one hundred percent happen.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
I think the other thing that I am most interested
in this year, and you know, on our show we
talk a lot about just to focus on things that
we just think everybody would find interesting that we at
least find interesting.

Speaker 4 (44:06):
Oklahoma to me.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
Is like, y oh yeah, for my money, the most
interesting story in college football. And there are a great
number of them that I could I could pull out
and I say, I like this about this team, and
I think this is interesting about another. But Oklahoma now
going out and getting Jometerier and Ben Arbuckle, playing the
schedule that they have to play, coming off the season
that they came off of, There's so many variables at
play with this team. There's a lot new The schedule

(44:29):
is just murder. This is another one of these schools
They're not necessarily taking fifty four transfers. But you could
convince me almost anything of Oklahoma. You can convince me
of ten and two, the same way you could convince
me of.

Speaker 4 (44:43):
Six and six. I don't know what to expect.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
I can't assume that job Matier is just going to hit,
even though he's an exciting prospect. There's a lot of
you know, it's playing an SEC schedule, so there is
so much new there.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
I'm glad you didn't make the wheels coming off joke
with Oklahoma too obvious. You are a classic guy for
doing that. Tie continue.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
I'm just damn curious about Oklahoma, and I don't you know.
We could sit here and talk through two deeps and
schedules and all that, but the truth is, with so
much new, we're not going to know until the ruverer
meets the road.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
Sure, I've got them as a top ten caliber team,
but not factoring in schedule. When you factor in schedule,
it's a whole new ball game. I just don't think.
I don't think they were I think they had a
fatal flaw last year. I don't think of them as
a fatally flawed team. And if I conservatively think they're
gonna get top twenty defense this year, which I do

(45:35):
maybe better than that. Then, Man, I really think that
this entire concept of bringing an entire offensive combination in
an OC quarterback doesn't happen all that often. I'm like,
I'm very very high on them. I easily see them
in SEC Championship contention in late November. But you're right,

(45:56):
anytime you play the strength of schedule they do. There's
also the cliff dive mode that could be applied.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
To Yeah, and you know you're you're right to point
out that when you get the quarterback offensive coordinator combo,
it always makes it just a little bit more interesting.
Like we saw them do it a couple of years
back at Western Kentucky, right, Zach Kittley and Bailey Zappy.
That worked famously. Well, now we've got one here with Oklahoma.
They're trying Ben Arbuckle, they're trying John Mattier. Western Kentucky,

(46:25):
by the way, trying it again this year with Houston Baptists. Right,
So it's a I guess Ablie and Christian this year.
Whichever one it is. There are a couple of schools
that I think are interested in that sort of combo play.
Maybe it can get the offense up and running a
little bit quicker. I guess we're gonna see it at
Utah is another example this season. So there are some
interesting spins on this whole transfer portal thing where it's

(46:47):
not just the player but also the coaches. And if
that's able to supercharge this offense in a quick way,
they're going to need it.

Speaker 3 (46:53):
Deon Shador by the way, yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:55):
Dean Shador, right, I mean we've seen it on a kid.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
If Oklahoma is able to super charged that offense in
a quick way, which I think they need to do
in order to get off the mat here in the SEC,
it would be I mean, it ready is one of
the more interesting conversations in the country, but it would
make it all the more interesting if Oklahoma comes out
and they just sort of hit the ground running.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
All right. I asked for forty five. We've gone over
forty five. So I'll wrap this up here with one more.
It's very very broad. We could actually go forty five
minutes just on this one. But there is this huge
chunk of the SEC that, by my observation and estimation,
thinks that last year was an appetizer to this year's
main course and last year. Last year may have been

(47:34):
ten wins if you're Georgia and an SEC championship. Last
year could have been seven and five, and your Auburn,
but either of those think about this year as we're
going to level up this year, respectively. Okay, I've got
Florida in this bucket. I've got Georgia in this bucket.
I've got LSU in this bucket. I've got South Carolina

(47:55):
in this bucket. I've got Texas A and M in
this bucket. I've got Alabama in this bucket. I've got Auburn.
If I didn't mention them already, I am going about
half of the conference that thinks to themselves, because Texas
thinks that as well. By the way, so I have
got half the conference that realistically thinks last year was

(48:15):
okay because of what this year will be, and the
simple math and logic dictates you don't have enough wins
to go around. Many of you are going to play
each other, you don't have enough wins to go around.
My point is, I think for one or a couple
of those teams, there is a seven and five and
oh yeah, and I do not think like I said

(48:37):
when we were recording on your Guys's channel, I don't
think we've recalibrated our mentality nationally, but especially in the
SEC to account for the changes in the sport and
to account for the fact that seven and five may
be the new nine and three, especially if it's a
bunch of close losses. Seven to five could be the
new nine and three, because we absolutely know ten and
two is the new eleven and one. So I think

(48:58):
somebody in that group is going to have some really
stupid conversation around the head coach in December around the
changes that need to be made. And really all that
will have happened is they had some tough injury luck
and they lost some hard fought games, but they were
probably every bit the caliber that one of their nine
and three counterparts were.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
Counterpoint we lost. We saw how Auburn lost some of
those games last year. You can't go seven and five
in that exact same manner, right, you can't. There has
to be some sort of like, Okay, yes we went
seven and five, but look there were fifty to fifty
games and we beat X, Y and Z and they
were ranked in the top ten. Sure, I grant you that,
but I think manner does apply here where some of

(49:38):
these teams lost games or even one games the way
Florida beat Ole miss where you're just like, oh, I
don't know if we can count on Jackson dart Ish
interceptions plural in the last few minutes, Like that's that's
the only caveat is you have to be putting forth,
you know, a pretty sincere performance in order to justify it.
But you're right that they're just like somebody's going to

(49:59):
be legitimately good and go seven and five or eight
and four if something breaks their way. I happen to
think Mike Elko is who Matt Rule fancies himself to
be in twenty twenty five. That's my take that I
think Texas A and M is quietly super interesting this year.
But all of those teams you listed, by the way,
you could say wildcard quarterback, wild card quarterback, wild card quarterback,

(50:20):
wild card quarterback, or like DJ Lagway injured, we think
he's great, but oh yeah, I'm kind of wildcard, Like
I love that about all those teams you listed.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
Yeah, And I'll leave you with this too.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
And it's sort of a semi related point here when
we're talking through you know, seven and five being the
new nine and three. There are a lot of teams
at the top of that conversation that have brutal schedules.
There are also a couple that I think we think
could be pretty good relative to the field, that have
easier schedules. I'm looking at Old Miss as an example

(50:52):
of that. I happen to think Ole Miss will still
be pretty good. I don't know if they're going to
be at the top of the conference, but could there
be a situation, especially in this new world now where
there's no divisions, there are more teams in all of
these conferences where at the end of the year in
the SEC season, we're looking at teams that are higher
up in the standings, but in effect they're arguing amongst
one another because one schedule is significantly easier than a

(51:15):
team below them in the standings. I think there's real
possibility for that this year again, we'll see there is
a lot of wildcard potential with a lot of the
quarterbacks I think on display in this conference. But it's
like we've evolved to this point now with major college
football because the conferences are so big that there is
just this raging conversation between within each conference. It's sort

(51:36):
of like its own counterculture, which is pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
It has been a pleasure for us to welcome the
Solid Verbal into Pate State. Here the back half of
a home and home. Whichever one of you has elected
to be the spokesperson, tell the masses where they.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
Tight out you. You can go to solid verbal dot com.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
You can search for the Solid Verbal wherever you get
your college football podcasts, the same way you listen or
watch Josh.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
You can find us if you know how to work
the nets.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
We are grateful to be here with you, my good friend.
I know we've wanted to do this for a while.
I'm glad we were finally able to make it happen.
So we'll have to make sure we keep in touch
and do it again.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
I appreciate it, guys, thank you so much for joining us.

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