Welcome to the solid verbal. I'll that for me.
I'm a man, I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy.
You want to be happy for Dake Edith State.
Is that whoo whoom? And Dan and Tye welcome back to the solid verbal, Boys and girls, my name is ty Hildebrand, joining me as always over there in sunny, springy, still fatherly New York City. My man Dan Rubinstein, I guess I should add Sweet sixteen y New York City. Your Organ ducks in the Sweet sixteen.
Oh, that's true. They're not playing. I think they're playing wouis.
This is a basketball show now, in case you weren't made aware.
Yeah, I've watched three Organ games this year, and I'm here to tell you all about them. They're tall, Thank you very much. I accomplished a lot with the Sweet sixteen. I'm sorry if I sound distracted. The I'm hearing the faint screams of my son, the solid baby in the back.
We'll have this, see, we'll have this now.
Yeah, he has so many Wisconsin thoughts, and I told him you're not able to articulate them in a concise manner. So we can't have you on the show quite yet, so he's real bummed. What is the over under for when we'll get our first commentary from the solid baby on the show? When did you see the Clemson, Oklahoma home and home that was announced in twenty thirty six and thirty seven? Yeah, okay, he will be a redshirt freshman on one of those teams.
See if we work this right, yeah, he can just take over for you and then I'll just have to come up with a filling on my end, much younger filling.
Is this like when Casey Caasem's daughter tried to take over his Top forty show.
I don't remember that.
I am almost positive she there was something along those lines that she got into broadcasting. I'm looking this up while you give people the relevant information.
Well, welcome back to the show, boys and girls. We're at Solid Verbal at gmail dot com, solid verbal dot com. You can find us on Twitter, on Instagram, on Facebook, as well as our subreddit at reddit dot com slash r slash solid verbal, and I do get the notifications every time somebody signs up for our newsletter, it pops up on my phone. So if you want to drive me crazy, even if you're not interested in what we
send out. Occasionally you can drive me nuts and interrupt the mysterious day job by signing up for our newsletter, which you can find again at our website at solidverbal dot com. So, if you've been listening to us this long cold off season, it's only been a few months, but you know that we've been doing these conference autopsies. Specifically, you've been going out talking to the people, yeah, and
doing conference autopsies. We've got one major conference left and that is the Big Ten Patriot going oh, sorry, the Big ten Dan, which we're going to be addressing today courtesy of our good friend whom.
We're going to be talking to, Matt Fortuna. Hopefully that's how you pronounce it, and he doesn't hate people pronouncing it too. It's not my Fortuna Fortuna. I don't think it's the tuna. Yeah, Matt Fortuna from the Athletic He used to be at ESPN. He's a national college football writer but based in the Midwest and does a saw. He just did a piece on Hunter Johnson, the transfer quarterback coming into Northwestern, the former Blue Chipper from Clemson.
So figured we'd lean into the Big Ten with Matt Fortuna. He covered Notre Dame I believe for ESPN a while like that was the specific beat and did a very good job with that. You would know better than I. Sure you probably were assuming consuming more Irish content than I was, but quite excited. I don't think we've had him on the show. We haven't.
I actually checked.
It's tough because we've had such an incredible roster of guests that it would have made sense for him to be on at a certain point. But I guess if he were only covering Notre Dame, you and you and Pete Sampson are pretty hot and heavy, right, So that's uh. That means I'm excited to have him on and welcome a new guest.
So as you look back now on the Big Ten from twenty eighteen, what is the one question that stands out most to you? If you're doing a one man autopsyn and you got to ask one question of what you saw in the Big Ten last year?
What is it?
Uh? God, I don't know if there's a single question that covers it. There are certain themes that hit me as I was preparing for this show. Thematically, there were a lot of wasted windows to me in the Big Ten.
This year you had this, You had Ohio State finally breaking through with a quarterback who is like a first round NFL quality and was immediately and like, what could have been with this Ohio State team, which certainly had its flaws on both sides of the ball, But to have Dwayne Haskins, to have a more wide open offense, to have this roster receivers, what could have happened if they don't blow the Purdue game, what could have happened with Michigan? And maybe forget about the Notre Dame game.
But if they're just competitive against Ohio State, if they're able to get it together, if their defense looks like a looks against Ohio State like what it did the rest of the year, could they have, you know, had a nice case to get into the playoff. A better case in Ohio State. Who loses to Purdue in that fashion? Iowa, Iowa. I didn't even think about the window for Iowa, but
a crazy ideal schedule. They have two NFL first round we believe tight ends, an experienced quarterback, and unbelievable pass defense, and they just they lost games in dumb moments and dumb ways where I think the Iowa window was actually pretty strong, and I'm interested to talk to Matt about that. So that kept popping up across a few teams that this year might say this year twenty eighteen set up nicely and didn't work out and it was kind of barely for a couple of these teams. Michigan is what
jumps out to me. Michigan has been this work in progress now under Jim horror Boss since he got there. Look a really good year, ten wins, ten and three overall, eight and one in conference. You speak of windows, they had a window. Yeah, it really truly had a window. It didn't with what they returned on defense.
Yeah, the addition of Shape Patterson was clearly a talking point headed into the Big Ten season, and I'm curious to get Matt's thoughts on how that worked out and maybe take a peek forward where it might go next for jib Harbaugh, because again for me, this is like you look at the Big Ten. I know I'm a Penn State grad and Ohio State has ruled supreme in the Big Ten for quite some time now under Urban Meyer. But the Michigan storyline to me is what I find most interesting.
One thing that I hadn't thought about after the fact after the season ended, and just sort of pieced together as I was going back because I was thinking about Maryland and looking up some Maryland stuff. Maryland came within what a single bad pass of beating both the Sugar and Rose Bull champs. This is one hundred percent accurate.
That is I had totally forgotten about. And this is because I'm a dumb dumb about just the Anthony McFarland experience that came on at the end of the season where it goes for over five hundred yards and just two weeks.
Us wrongly thinking he was Burger McFarland's son.
Yeah, that was unfortunate. Well, Booger McFarland's name is Anthony.
That was all me.
It's okay you you admitted faults and we circled back. I'm gonna throw in a Notre Dame question, I believe as well from at Fortune and because we're not going to do a Notre Dame autopsy episode because I think that would take too much out of you. It would having to relive some of some of twenty eight the relitigation of that playoff game would be an issue. Yeah, so that's what I'm There were little nuggets like that, like I with the Purdue season, how weird it started, how weird it ended?
With that?
Just one like how much should that win over Ohio State? Characterize what we think of Purdue? And they're twenty eighteen and moving forward in Indiana as well, a team where there are just like, what the hell happened to that defense in twenty eighteen? So it's really good to sort of fire a couple of darts, you know, at questions that that can't come up when I have a little bit more time to think about specifics like this and then think about where things are headed for these teams.
All right, So again we're gonna be joined momentarily by Matt for Tuna from the Athletic going to talk through all things twenty eighteen, Big ten and Notre Dame just for good measure to sprinkle it in there, very Midwest. You know how to find us. We're on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, all the usual hotspots. Before we go any further though, this show brought to you by our good friends over at.
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My favorite part. Okay, I'll tell you this is very specific, but I almost exclusively when I do run run in Bombas now because there's something about there that's the no show socks, which I like running because I don't want to have weird tans on my legs summertime. And I'm impressing everybody, that's right. But they have that the rim around the top of the sock that I tend to get irritated on my achilles where the running shoe hits the achilles.
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On that note, let's hop in with Matt Fortuna from the athletic.
And with that we are now joined or I am now joined by Matt Fortuna correct pronunciation. Yes, yes, Oh my gosh. That's a relief, because I screw up names all during the season because sometimes somehow I don't pay attention to the name of Iowa States kicker and then I sound like a moron. And so Fortuna is easy enough. You're in Chicago, you're from New York, and if I am to read this correctly, you are the president of the Football Writers Association of America.
That is correct. If you ever are in the Chicago area, I will treat you to Wendy's, Burger King, McDonald's, or any other fast food item of your accounts. That's the kind hospitable guy I am.
And that's if you're a college football champion of any kind, that's what you get served. That's how it works in twenty nineteen.
So that's right. A shutdown or not. We are ready to go.
So give out your phone number real quick. If anybody has to complain about anything written about college football that goes through you, correct. That's how it works pretty much.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I won't get too far into the week too, but you're not too far off in some cases.
Oh wow, I like it. Okay, good, a little bit of mystery, maybe a tease for another episode. Let's start here. It's the big ten autopsy that we're conducting. I don't know what the proper verb would be, but I'm now intimidated that you are the writer of writers. But let's we're What we're doing is simple. We are going to go through teams through a random style that we have
figured out. I'm going to ask you to give me a number between one and fourteen, and then we are going to run through questions about twenty eighteen and how is how it relates to twenty nineteen, and hopefully we're all a little bit smarter after the process.
I will do my best to avoid whatever number of Rutgers is on and go thirte but we will. We'll give it a go here.
This is especially random because usually I'll just start writing and listing teams that I remember are in a conference and then it's the last ones. This is a peak behind the curtain that I'm like, oh right, Iowa States in the Big twelve, Oh right, US half whatever. Give me a number between one and fourteen.
Let's go with lucky number thirteen.
Number thirteen. You didn't hit Rutgers. That's great. We're gonna start with Iowa and the general the steadiness, the competitiveness of Iowa is definitely admirable. They have good lines every year, steady quarterback play, good defense all has gotten them. It's kind of pretty damn far. But with last year's tight ends and experience quarterback in Nate Stanley, a mostly yeah, very good defense. I would say last year had a terrific schedule. Did the did the Hotkeyes waist maybe a
ten win regular season window last year? Was it there for them?
I think it absolutely was there for them. And that's kind of the beauty and the curse, if you will, about really the entire Kirk Ferrench regime there. I mean, I don't think you'll find a major college football program that has more of an identity than Iowa, who is more comfortable with being themselves than Iowa they're good for eight or nine wins probably every year, and in a rare year like twenty fifteen, they're gonna make a run and almost make the playoff and end up in the
Rose Bowl. And I think, you know, when you run a clean program, when you represent your university the right way on and off the field, there's not a whole lot more you can ask for.
That.
That said, when your neighbor is Wisconsin and they're swinging slightly above your weight every year, definitely not last year, but for the most part in the last fifteen twenty years or so, I can understand why there's a hunger for more. And it's always funny. You obviously held my colleague Bruceselman on for the PAC twelve. Stuart Mendel's another colleague of mine. They did their coaches rankings about a month ago, and I don't think Stew's ever had Kirk
Friends on there. And he said he's never hears more backlash from any fan base than Iowa. And it's a mixed bag. It's half them saying, what are you doing? He's one of the best there is, he's been there twenty years. How do you exclude him? And it's the other half saying, like, you know, he's the worst, why would you ever even entertain and thank god you didn't have him on there. And when you look, especially at last season, I mean that's kind of the Kirk Prince
tenured in a nutshell. I mean nine to four. But every single one of those games that they lost they should have won. Yeah, and look some of the ones they won they probably should have lost too, if we really want split hairs here, But I mean that Wisconsin game went down to the final minute. That Northwestern game, they just did absolutely nothing offensively. Northwestern got one of the best catches in all the college football season to multimately pull out a fourteen ten win and win the
division in Iowa City. The Perdue game they lost in the last second field goal. The Penn State game was just a hot message back and forth, crazy touchdowns and turnovers and you name it. And now you look up and you're losing two all American caliber tight ends and all found in TJ. Hockinson, and you wonder, kind of, like you said, Dan, did they just waste a ten or eleven one season? I mean, that division was there
for the taking. All due respect to Northwestern, who wanted Farren square and wanted I think pretty much going away. I think they won it by two games last year, three games over Iowa. Actually, that was a very wittable division, more so than any other time, because you had Wisconsin down, because you had a new coach at Nebraska. You know, Northwestern obviously was great, but they didn't start off great non conference and were certainly vulnerable, as pretty much every
other team in that division was. So when you look ahead to this year, you have to feel comfortable and Nathan Stanley coming back at quarterback, you have to like those pieces on defense. You have to like that offensive line which is always pretty good, if not great, and returns to starting tackles is coming here. But you talk to coaches around the league and elsewhere, and it's the same vein refrain. Every year it's Iowa. They'll probably win eight games, they'll be who they are. Yeah.
No, And for the record, Kirk Farence deserves to be in that best coaches grouping. When you take unhralded recruits, develop them and not only hang with, but regularly beat the powers the perceived powers of your conference. I'm pro ferens in that regard. Give me another number. Let's go with seven number seven. Did you hit the Rutgers Wami? You did not, Michigan State. I'm a big believer that
two things can be true at once. In this case, Hey, Mark D'Antonio is a really good coach who deserves the benefit of the doubt. And at the same time, Sparti's offense has been this is an official journalism term, But do we live in a world where Michigan State's offense can become dramatically more of what they look like in twenty fourteen with Connor Cook? Excuse me ahead of and during a year in which I think they get Northwestern, Ohio State, Michigan, and Wisconsin all away from East Lansing.
Do you believe in a Mark d Antonio transformation project?
I mean, when you look at those box scores from last season, it's not just losing seven to six in a bowl game. It's not just losing nine to six at Nebraska, for sixteen to thirteen at Arizona State, or only putting up six points against Ohio State. I mean, it was just really tough to watch. And then Mark D'Antonio comes out with the big press conference this winter, Hey, what's the big news we're keeping everyone on SAP. We're
just give them all different titles. I'm not sure I've seen anything like that, and I'm in the same boat as you. I mean, if anyone has deserved the benefit of the doubt over his decade plus tenure, it's probably this guy. I mean, there's no reason Michigan State should have been annually winning or contending for Big ten titles the way it has been for the most part under Mark D'Antonio. But you look at what they did last you look at what they did three years ago. Now
in twenty sixteen, you have to wonder. I don't want to say the jig is up, because it's not like he was pulling then you want he's a great coach and he's built a tremendous program, But I don't know what you get excited about. To your point when you look at that offense. I mean, I do like Brian Lawurki. I like those receivers, but I like them a lot going into last year too, and so did a lot
of people I talked to in that league. And they didn't really deliver around the field on Saturdays, which is why they finished with a seven and six record and so Mark D'Antonio reminds me a lot of Jerry Patterson in the sense that they're both at programs that a punch above their weight. When he's historically speaking, under these regimes, they've had a down season every now and then, and
they've almost always come back with authority. I Michigan State went from playoff in fifteen to three and nine and sixteen to ten wins in seventeen, and so I know better than to doubt these guys. That said, looking at what we've seen from them and from the returning guys from LA season on film, I can't understand why there's some skepticalized in he's lanting.
Yeah, and I wouldn't hate them finding that grain of sand to stick into the I think it's an oyster shell to make a pearl, to go outside of the program, to bring in somebody that makes things a little bit uncomfortable to run the offense, whether it's somebody from a lower level or a smaller school, to just refresh, reboot and hope for the best. Give me a number that's not seven or thirteen. Let's go one number one. Let's talk Indiana. Let us talk about a team who they
lost six of seven with a couple within reach. And the confusing part was, and there's there was definitely turnover. Why did a Tom Allen defense fall basically off a cliff? I think it was like twenty fifth to seventy fifth in the S and P plus rankings or ratings after twenty seventeens version. And is this team, if this team is going to succeed now which I guess, which side will it be on?
It has to be defense, right if you're Tom Allen. I mean it's funny. I mean Tie and myself are both Penn State graduates, and I use this analogy a lot. Indiana football, to me is just like Penn State basketball. So we're going to and I'm not sure if I mean that in during way or an insulting way, but it's clear which sports are the breadwinners on their respective campuses.
And when you watch either team play in conference play, and we saw it last year when they went to the Big House, I mean they are going to do everything humanly possible to win a game and pull off enough that they have no business winning, only to lose it by three or seven points at the end. I mean they do that every year against Missus and him Harbaugh's gone there and they've done it a good deal against James Shrink withins Pence State teams as well. I
don't know if that makes you proud or frustrated. Probably neither, because I'm not sure enough people in Bloemy can care about the football product to really have strong feelings either way.
That said, I think the worst thing to have this program for years and I like Tom Allen is their chief rival, got Jeff Brong, who I think is a top and coaching college football right now, and even worse, he stayed, which when you look around the country at all the hirings and firings elsewhere, the best hire, the best move anyone made was perdue keeping Jeff bron because when you look at what he's been able to do his first two years in West Lafe, given the talent
or lack the aref that he inherited from the previous regime, there's no doubting that he's going to have the boiler Makers competing for at least the Vision titles year and a year out once he gets his full REGI full I should say, foraging full four recruiting classes in there, and if you're Indiana, that's not working in your favor. Getting the unluck of the draw and falling in the east with penn State, Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State, you name.
It does not work in your favor. And again, like you said last year, that defense finished thirteenth out of fourteens is a big tending guards for play, and that's supposed to be your mo when you promote a defense cordiator, a head coach, and when you're not pulling your weight on that side of the ball. Sure, how much optimism is warranted when you're looking into your three of this regime.
I think that's an interesting thing. And I was thinking about as you were talking about having Purdue in state. Indiana also has Notre Dame in state, certainly not in the conference. But if you think about if there's a top level blue chip recruit in Minnesota or in Iowa or in well, Pennsylvania, there's pit but in a lot of big ten states, there are not that many options, and you will always consider that hometown or the home
state school. And within Indiana, you had another down school for a long time and then you have this legendary program, and so it almost feels like it's that much more difficult in Bloomington.
It is. And when you look at that schedule next year, I mean, look Fall State, Eastern Illinois, Yukon in a non conference. I mean, those should be three wins if you're a competent, big time program. The crossovers are Nebraska, Northwestern, obviously, Purdue. The West is just a craps here. I mean, yeah, one through six, with apologies and my friends in Champagne.
I think if you threw six of those teams in a hat and they came out any which way, it would not surprise me regardless, because I think it's that wide open, especially this year as DJ fly Can Scott Cross start to get their things together. In the respect of new locale, I just think it's wide open, especially when we saw what Northwestern was able to do and taking advantage of the down division last year. But so that makes it hard to gauge, really strength to schedule
when you're looking at Indiana. But you need the breaks to fall in your favor, and you need to take advantage of those breaks when they do fall in your favorite Otherwise it's easy to get lost in the shovel.
All right, give me a number that is not one seven or thirteen.
Not one seven or thirteen, how about two two?
We're still we have missed the Wammi of Rutgers Again. Northwestern, which is your hometown team, Northwestern is they're flat out good. But when they had moments in twenty eighteen that were less than that, it was generally because of the offense. The hope is and I think you wrote about him, the hope is blue chip Clemson quarterback transfer Hunter Johnson.
Is that difference? Is that all it? I guess, is that all it should take for Northwestern to stop losing something stupid in September and close out one more power? Or is or is there more that needs to be tapped into.
I don't know if it's that simple, because it's not like he's replacing of guy who wasn't good. I mean, Clayton Thorson was a four year starter, and yeah, you know, for all of his ups and downs, he's going to go down as one of the best quarterbacks in Northwestern Western history. Is definitely statistically speaking, it is probably going to make a lot of money in the draft, whether it's day one, Day two, or day three next month.
So I'm not sure, I look at it in that sense like quarterback was the only piece they were missing, because they had a pretty good one, right, But they haven't had a recruit at this position with these kind of credentials the way they have in Hunter Johnson, and when you talk to people around the program, when you talk to people familiar with Johnson, it was almost good for this kid, who was, you know, the Camp Miss number one quarterback prospect of the country two years ago
to kind of, want to say, be humbled because he, by all County is a good head on his shoulders, but to get a year away from the spotlight, to run the scout team against one of the better defenses where they tend to learn from a guy like clating course at Torson, to become familiar with the verbiage of the playbook and with the new coaching staff, and now a year later, to be kind of unvealed for the world to see and look, this program is operating at
a level which I don't think it's ever been done. Certainly, they've been in the rosewell before and have had better individual seasons, but they're coming off they're winning his four year stretch in Big Ten play in program history. They have now their first spring and first full year in that brand new two hundred and seventy million dollar facility that overlooks Lake Michigan. That is worth the hype and then some. I recommend anyone try to visit if you're
in the Chicago area. And they had a lot of young, talented pieces last year. I think that the roses the surface at gul Isaiah Paus with the running back in particular, is one. I mean, they plan on red shirting this guy last year until Jeremy Larkin went down and was forced to medically retired, and that guy looks like one of the best running backs in the big time forward
the end of the season. So I think the pieces are coming together where uh, they should probably win nine games or more this season and Granny get an extra game when when you win your division and go to Indianapolis. But I think, like you said, everyone else is kind of waiting for them to take that not first set, but but get through September without a the fuddling loss. Don't use lose to the UNLV in your home opener
next year, all right? That I think will help people, the people of the been breathe a little bit easier. You open at Stanford. I don't think there's any shame in losing a hard fought game at Stanford, but don't lose the UNLV please, no absolutely or masses that matter, I should say that, Oh they.
Do have you, you masses when Oh, that's later on in the season. There, Northwestern, your typical SEC scheduling team, scheduling a low team in November. That's that's just how it works.
Big Get Ohio State off of By on a Friday night? Why? Yeah, a rematch of the big time title game, a game that last time moves at Evanston. Got college Game Day to Evanston. Why would you put that on a Friday night? I don't know. And knowing Chicago traffic with a six or flock local start time, that's going to cause some problems.
Yeah, Evanston in the direction of all the suburbs on the northern side of Chicago. Great job, big ten, great job. Give me a number that is not one, two, seven, or thirteen. All right, number eight Ohio State. Oh, what a transition. That was so nice of you. It'd be it'd be easy and almost certainly true that the tangible proof of Ryan Day's effect on Ohio State would be
Dwayne Haskins and the superb that he had. But is there something beyond that in terms of his fingerprints on the Buckeye offense from last year and how that potentially carries forward to twenty nineteen that you saw or that that struck you.
That's a good question, because I mean, erban Meyer was such an involved figure and not necessarily playholer, but figure with the offense. And so when you get the blessing of approval from irban Meyer, obviously that speaks very highly
of you and Brian days sterling credentials as well. But with new personnel, at least a quarterback, I'm just very curious to see what this offense looks like with a guy like Justin Fields, who's had so much hype, might not playing a whole lot who got the hardship waiver is going to be able to start immediately, which is a tremendous early win for Ryan Day and his staff.
I'm not saying the jury still out, because I think we all know the talent in that building and on those sidelines is far away the best of the Big Ten pretty much year and a year out. I just don't want to take for granted the fact that there's a new coach on that sideline and things may be different. I think pulling away Greg Madison from Michigan was a nice way to stick it to your arrival again a couple other guys Mike Carrits from Oklahoma State Washington as well.
I just think things are going to look different in Columbus next year. I'm just not sure how different they're going to look. And I think a lot of that, right le Ron is going to fall on a guy like Justin Fields, who was one of the top quarterback recruits in the country and who I think everyone is expecting big things from, especially given how good Dwayne Haskins looked in just as Loane. You're starting Columbus last year.
Yeah, And the advantage that Haskins had was he had time to sit and learn and get mental rests. Where Justin Fields will be expected to come in right away. He won't have that advantage. You won't have the advantage of Hunter Johnson, who you mentioned at Northwestern. So it is immediately, you know, feet to the fire kind of in Columbus.
So yeah, the other part of that too, I mean, Dwayne Haskins ran a slower forward to an Eli Manning. We might be backing up next year, so they want to run him more than he did by all indicasions, and.
He just didn't do it.
And Justin Fields is much more of a dual threat kind of guy. I don't want to say in the mold of jac Barrett because I think they're completely different players. But J. C. Barrett Bible has stayed out with his legs a lot more than they did with his arms and times during his three or four year tenure as a starter. So I'm just curious to see how this offense looks. I think, again, the pieces are there to be the best in the Big Ten the way they
usually are. I think they were turn enough on defense that's going to make all of us forget some of the tackling dummies and kind of whiffs they had throughout the middle of last season, which I think, when you look at the big picture of Ohio State's twenty eighteen season, was grossly overlooked because of the way they finishing, because of Erbami retiring and so much overshadowing what happened on
the field last year. But that defense was not great, and I think they had the potential and the chance to be much much better this season. And I think that's something that we have almost forgotten about because they still won the Big Ten last year despite not looking the part during October and November a.
Great point three, four, five, six, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, fourteen, ten. Oh, you hit the whammy. It was gonna happen. Sorry, Rutgers fans, you're probably good people. I assume you are. Scarlet Knights were lately, yeah, well fair the Scarlet Knights. They were terrific. Yet yet they were right there versus Northwestern and Michigan State and sort of Penn State. Is Rutgers in any sort of position to scratch and claw their way to
more of that? Or is the the mess of Rutgers athletics in general, the big picture mess too much for anyone, I guess, specifically Chris ash to overcome. Right now.
I don't want to put Rutgers in Illinois in the same category because historically Illinois has had some success football life. Maybe not recent history, but traditionally, especially in the Big Ten.
That said, I look at them in somewhat similar veins when evaluating the work of those coaching staffs, because I remember talking to someone familiar with the Rutgers program in between years one and two of the Chris ash era, and it was what progress, as crazy as it sounds might be, you know, losing thirty to nothing in says sixty Johan the way we were last year. I mean, that's how much of a whole I think that staff has had to dig out of. And you saw it
last year. You win your first game against Texas State and you lose out. And there were games, like you said, against Northwestern, even against Penn State for a little bit, and of course against Michigan State, which forgot about offense last year, where hey, maybe they're going to do this, maybe they're going to break through, and they just didn't do it. And I know people's patience is thin in
this environment, in this era of college football. But when you look at that division, I mean, what's a realistic expectation, realistic high expectation. I mean, you tell me you're always going to be at best in that division? Right? Am I missing something? No?
That's right?
I just don't know. And you could say this about a lot of teams. I think at the Power five levels we're kind of ringing up the rear and the respect and conferences. I don't know what you expect, but when you lose by forty one points to a Kansas team to end up firing as coach, I think that kind of speaks for itself.
No, No, I think I think all of that is all reasonable. And I don't know where they go, and I don't know that the Big Ten is super happy about having a team like this. At least Illinois has carried its weight in the last decade, twelve years, whatever where, and basketball wise, they've They've been interesting at times. But yeah, this is it's a rough stretch. It's a rough stretch for the Big Ten.
With Rutgers, it's similar for vast well team. I mean, they didn't win a whole lot to understand now they killed, They've been competitive, and it has been a team you can't overlook anymore. And I don't want to say that's all you can ask for, but early on, I mean, I think you have to take baby steps and celebrate not moral victories, but small victories on and off the court. One other thing, look at their schedule. Now Hugh Breeze comes to town. How can we forget that?
Oh my gosh, I did not even yep. That's good for Hugh Freese, good for the Liberty Flames. Three, four, five, six, nine, eleven, twelve, fourteen, let's go twelve, all right? Twelve? Wisconsin a much cheerier position, even after disappointing twenty eighteen. By the Badger's standards, it was rough. For sure, It'd be easy and it'd be correct to point out the injuries all over the place. But upon further reflection, we're now almost four months away from this past season. Was it more than just a
ton of injuries? And if so, is it correctable?
He gets correctable. I think it's the program. And I don't want to blame a kid or put too much on a kid, but I think Alex hornybrook leaving, I mean, was best for both parties. I think both the team and the player were in need of a fresh start. It was a weird season for Wisconsin because they pretty much win that division every year and they're always slept on and last year they were off Sports Illustrated covers. I picked them to win the league and go to
the playoff. I mean, it was very antithetical to Wisconsin's DNA, if you will, in terms of being over sold and under delivering. That said, bring back Chasit Taylor, who might be the best player in college fotball, and you bring back pretty much all your big playmakers in the receiving game. You got four quarterbacks plugging out right now in spring.
Graham Mertz is the guy I know fans want to eventually went out and be given the chance because he's the highest rated recruit they've ever had at the position, and this is a staff that knows what it's doing when it comes to quarterbacks. I think they've gone the absolute most out of everyone they've had there so far. And that defense was not bad. I mean they weren't great. They weren't a top two unit the way they had been the first couple of years under three different coordinators
in three years. They're the latest of them beat being former safety standout Jim Leonard. But they weren't bad. So I think this is a very fixable program or team, if people, whatever you want to call it. I think they're a lot closer to winning that division this year than they are to finishing at sixth or seventh. I'm buying Wisconsin stock right now. I know last year left
a sour taste, a lot of people's mouths. But when you go through injury, is a quarterback, when you go through uncertainty a quarterback every other week, it seemed like it was a will here, won't he? With Alex Hornybrook and Jack Cone, And you could just see the looks on people's faces, not just at Wisconsin but at other
places in the past. When you've had one guy there for so long who's had so many ups and downs and has been subjected to so much scrutiny, you can tell in the locker room on a coaching staff, and that kind of stuff seeps into a program and it
just wears everyone out. And again, I don't want to be too harsh and all of torny Brook here, I think everyone at Wisconsin thanks them for his service and wishes them the best of the lockdown in Tallahassee, but I think everyone needed a fresh start, and I think if Graham Mertz is that guy, maybe not if Jack con is that guy. But but again, he's going to be a junior now he's hopefully improved. A lot of Wisconsin fans takes they should be better. I mean, they're
always going to be good on the offensive line. Charles and Taylor had the quietest season I think of any great player we've ever really seen last year, there's no reason he shouldn't be as good or better. I think this program's a good spot, I really do. I don't think they're gonna be down for long. I think they should be competing for a division title again this season and maybe more if everything breaks their way the way
it did two years ago. But I just can't get too down on these guys after they started thirty four and seven under Paul Chris in the.
First three years, though, Yeah, just underscorees how difficult it is to do to win ten games forever been a program like Wisconsin with a an identity in place and you know, an advantageous division for these past few years, it's just difficult. It's just it's a tough ass to do it.
Every year they went eight and five and they were finishing second in that division. I know there are two games out of first and really three since they lost Northwestern, but it wasn't the disaster. I think we're all remembering, as I think our preaching the expectations of this team, did U snow favors and coloring the reality of what they were on the field last year.
And you mentioned the will they won't they? I think they finished like their final eight games were win loss, win loss, win loss, win loss. So the will they won't that thing is is very accurate. Three, four, five, six, nine, eleven, fourteen, Let's go nine, Let's go nine. You probably won't have a lot to say about this, but Illinois. It's it's kind of true to say Illinois got better in twenty eighteen. It is they ran the ball well, they were more
competitive overall. Please ignore the Iowa game. Is it? Is it a talent thing? Is it an approach thing? Is it a coaching thing? Is it an injury thing? Isn't an everything that could go wrong has thing? What is it right now with Illinois that defines their status?
You know, it's funny because today I had a story on their athletic director, Josh Whitman, who had played there in the late nineties and early two thousands, and I was actually unaware of this until he had said it to me. He got there during Ron Turner's first year and at enna seven they went oh to eleven, and by year three they won eight or nine games. They won it. The big pass against Tom Brady. They won
at Ohio State. This is not that situation, clearly. I think Illinois football is digging out of a much deeper hole at the beginning of the Lovey Smith regime than it was at the beginning of the Ron Turner regime. But they did get better last year. And again, I know this sounds like faint praise, but they lost to Penn State by thirty nine points. They were winning that game in the second half. Yeah, for what a that's worth? No? I mean yeah, that South Florida game I was at
at Soldier Field. They were up nineteen seven at the start of the fourth quarter and South Florida basically need a Hail Mary to beat them at the end. I know South Florida ended up collapsing and not being the great group of five team that we all expected them to be at the beginning of the year, but that's a game they should have won. Can they get to a bowl this year? If they do, I think that would be phenomenal for Lovely Smith, for that staff, for
momentum for that program moving forward. I think I'm Jay Rivers is probably going to be the guy at quarterback. I think that offense took tremendous strides under rad Smith. I mean again, when you go four and eight and two and seven to Big ten play, people aren't looking too closely at the numbers, and I understand that when you're in a Power five conference. But they went from I want to say one twenty seventh to maybe sixty
third nationally yards per play. The problem is that defense was got awful, and they had a coordinator resign mid season, and with all that time to go out and hire someone, Lovely Smith ended up promoting himself this year, which we'll see. I think that's Lovely putting his chips on the table. I think that's him saying, you know it's on me
right now, make or break. I know it's year four, we're going to look at it probably as year three because he got hired in March to twenty sixteen and he didn't have a chance of recruiting and really install things the way he wanted to for the spring. Then they've had a lot of attrition. I think going into this year, there's a clear line between one through six in that division and number seven, who in this case is Illinois. But I'm not as sour on them as
everyone else. I mean, even if they only win four games again this year under Lovely Smith, that probably gets
it fired. I know it might be a little bit premature to talk about toach of maneuvers, but I just think with getting actually them up to eighty five scholarships, getting them close to a level playing field with the rest of their peers, and not doing anything or gregious off the field, that combined with an eighty million dollar facility opening at the start of training camp this summer, is going to leave this program in better position or whoever ends up getting the job going into next year.
And I don't want to write this off as a lost season just yet, but I think you need to take baby steps, and I think you need to look at Victory's beyond the box score, and unless that defense can make the kind of improvements that the offense did last year, I'm not sure I see five or six wins on that schedule.
All right, Well, we've got to go into a bit of a lightning mode because you are the president and you have things to do and people to speak to. So three four or five change diapers to change three four, five, six eleven or fourteen fourteen fourteen, it is okay we're talking Nebraska. At the beginning of last year, it seemed like there was optimism that faded and then rose like the phoenix, as the Huskers look like. At the very least, they were a competitive Big Ten team week in and
week out. Is it too mild to say maintaining that seems like a win or is there reason to raise the Husker threat level from decent threat to full on threat.
I don't think it's too early to say full on threat when you look at the state of the division, and when you look at Scott Frost's history, and when you look at how well this team played even in some losses. I mean, I was at that Northwestern game last year, and I think the win probability with five minutes left was probably ninety eight ninety nine percent Northwestern.
I mean, Northwestern had to score ten points and basically less than two minutes without any timeouts, using what at the time coming off that non conference slight which was a disaster, one of the worst offenses in all of college football, and they were able to do that. I mean, the way Nebraska threw that game away was absolutely perplexing, and Scott Frost and the press conference afterward I mean he looked like his dog died. I mean, you just want to give the poor guy a hug because he
just had no answers. But I also think, as gut Regen as it was to live through as a Nebraska fan or player and coach, there's a lot of talent on that raster. Adrian Martinez is like a thirty five year old man in the nineteen year old's body. I mean, he's just one of the most mature guys I think I've ever seen speak publicly. And this will be a plug here, but our Sherman, our new nebrassa writer, had a tremendous story going out to his hometown in California,
writing about his background. When you read about this guy, when you see what he was able to do last year through the thick and the thin, I have no doubt that this is going to be one of the best quarterbacks of the big time as soon as next year. I think that highly of them. I think the highly
of the coaching staff. Even when they lost two of their last six games last year, the Ohio State game and the Iowa game, they were both right in toward the end and had a chance to win both those games, and I think going forward to after an zero to six start, winning the Michigan State game the way they were able to win. I know it was nine to six, but I think to win ugly after losing pretty for lack of a better analogy, so much that season said
a lot about the character of that team. And I just think they've got a clicking right now down all the phases you need from a program standpoint to be in position to compete for division titles. So I don't think it's too early to think of these guys as a contender in the Less this year.
All right, three four, five six eleven three three Minnesota? What was what was the biggest difference between the Minnesota team that lost five of six relatively early, that includes being demolished by Illinois, by the way, and the team that comfortably beat Purdue, Wisconsin and Georgia Tech. Is that is that all Tanner Morgan, Well, I mean.
Tanner Morgan, but Joe ROSSI they fired their defense coordinator Rob Smith after Illinois, and they came out and beat Purdue the way they did, and they were able to beat Wisconsin and send Paul Johnson into retirement on a sour note, in the Detroit Bowl whatever they call it nowadays. I mean that defense from a personality standpoint just looks so much different those last five or six games under Rossie, who obviously was promoted to the coordinator position full time
after the season. I think they're flying to the ball better. They had much better morale, and you see that translate offensively. I mean the first three weeks, that injury report was just the most oppressing thing to read in the world. I mean, Roddie Smith, who's going to go down as maybe the second leading rusher in school history, went down for the year. They had another running back go down, all of whom returned this year. They were very optimistic
in the Twin Cities this year. I haven't been up there yet myself. I'm hoping to Final four weekend to see that staff and to see you practice or two. But they quietly think that they can compete for the division title this year. And I know that's a familiar thing. I feel like I've been saying about every team outside
of Illinois in that division. But it's true. I mean, the margin for error is so close that when you beat to Wisconsin the way you did last year on the road, when you win a bowl game by twenty four points, when you return two quarterbacks with extensive playing time, and you're going to the year three with a different level of recruit there than what has been coming to campus in the past, there's reason propximism, and even PJ. Flack at the start of springing ball a battle week ago, said,
you know, we're not playing with that. You know, underdog, don't nobody believes in us. We expect to be here now. We know we're capable of with the way we finished last season, and we're going to hope that translates to the field this fall.
Four five six eleven four four Michigan with the with the benefit of time since the Michigan season ended, looking back to you, if Michigan is to break through, which to me means win the Big Ten and go to the playoff, is job number one? Their their offensive style, which they've addressed, or big game defense that's been arguably a bigger factor holding Michigan back. Just a performance together the performances against the best that the Big Ten has to offer on offense, that's.
A good question. I leaned toward the offensive side of the all made the change there for a reason. Josh Gattis did a great job with Nicksaban Alabama for a year and was tremendous at Penn State before that. Is he the answer that remains to be seen. But I think we're in an era of college football right now where a strong traditional defense will only get you so far and makes you a little bit predictable and easy
to prepare for. You need to have something on the other side of the ball that's a threat and that occupies the other team's defense. And when you see them play against in Ohio State at the end of the last season, when you see them play in the bowl game against Florida last year, there was nothing that really scared you about them. They looked almost predictable at times. And the hope is that Jash Gadason, Ben McDaniels, I should add, who they had a quarterback coach this year,
are going to fix things up. I mean, Jay Patterson, I think was pretty good, and I think he returns most of his key skill players this season, which is going to be a major plus for Michigan. But I'm lying to you if I say the biggest reason for opximism. If you're Jim Harbaugh, right now is that Herbert Myers no longer coaching in the Big Ten. I don't want to oversimplify art the difference between first and second in the division this year, but that's certainly a huge factor.
But now the onus is on Michigan. I mean, there are no more excuses now. It seems like we've been saying that every year, but there really are't. Especially with Ohio State coming to the Big House this season, it really is put up for shut up time. I think you've seen a lot less of the harbas cherates publicly in the off season that we were used to in the first two years, and I think in an arbor
they know they need to take advantage right now. Without one of the greatest college football coaches of all time being just down the road in Columbus, this should be Michigan's lead to lose, and I think they have at least the talent and the pieces there that will put them in position to do it. It's a matter of really that one game at the end of the year, who's going to take it more personally and who's going to prepare better.
Five six eleven is what we have left six all right, Penn State so Nvie Lions had a weird year. The offense took a noticeable step back without Choe Morehead and Sakwon Barkley should be mentioned. And with yes, they had a whole bunch of drops in the passing game, but with how Ohio State and Michigan State ended those two games, they were about seventeen seconds away from being eleven to one, with the one being obviously uttered destruction at the hands
of Michigan. Is that coupled with a wildly talented roster, is it? Is it cause for optimism or more big game concern when you look at Michigan State and Ohio State. Now those games ended as they get farther away from the moorhead and now trace McSorley era.
I think this is the year where James Franklin's recruiting will be highlight are discounted more than any others. I mean the freshman software junior classes here are all members of top fifteen classes nationally that have been really as good as anyone in the Big ten outside of Ohio State. And so that talent is going to have to grow up quickly because Trace mcsorely, I think made up for a lot of holes on that roster, definitely last year
and at parts throughout his three seasons as start. I mean, that was a generational player for that program at quarterback, with the records he broke, with the way he willed them to big game victories again and again. You mentioned the Michigan State don't have state games. Is the same thing the year before, right, They lost to both those teams in a two week span, and that threw them
out of the playoff mix. You could just as easily look at the Appalachian State games and maybe the Iowa game and think, you know what, they probably should have lost those, So they probably got what they deserved the grand scheme of things when you look at their nine and four finish. But the biggest question is going to be whose quarterback. I mean, we all had expected for
many years that Tommy Stevens would be it. I mean, by all accounts, he almost beat Trades mc sorely in camp before the twenty sixteen season, and they made great use of him. I wouldn't say as the backup. I'd say as a jack of all trades offensive player. He throw her touchdowns, he rushed for touchdowns, he catch touchdowns, and then he got hurt. He was banged up pretty much every part of his body last season, and they just weren't able to really unleash that new wrinkle in
their offense. So you do wonder about his health. You wonder if Sean Clifford is going to push him to maybe overtake him for the starting spot. And as you mentioned to the outset, you do wonder about that offense just because Joe Moore has not there anymore and they struggled at times without him. So I do have faith and Ricky Ronnie, I think he's better than a lot
of people are giving him credit for. I think some of the holes on that roster came to fruition at the end of some of those big games last year. But ultimately it's going to come down to how good is the quarterback? Whoever that is?
Five or eleven?
Eleven?
All right, eleven is Maryland. And given the context of twenty eighteen, the Terps were understandably all over the place on the field. At their best, they beat or came within a play of beating top top teams, and at their worst they were awful. They were very, very bad in terms of a steadying presence. Do you expect more clarity from the Mike Loxley era, as in, Okay, this
is clearly who they are good or bad. This is we understand what Maryland is, and they'll you know, beat teams they're better then, and they'll lose teams that they're worse. Then Do you expect that?
I think the range of possibilities, both good and bad, is greater with Mike Loxley than that of any new head coach in twenty nineteen moving forward. I mean, yeah, obviously a great work in Alabama. He got the Nick Damn stamp of approval, he won the Broils Award. He's obviously familiar with Maryland and will recruit that region well, which is something they should have been doing in the past. But it's tough on that side of the big ten. I mean, you say his head coaching tenure beforehand was
a disaster. I think would be the biggest understatement you could possibly say. When you look at at other word gets. Culture gets thrown around a lot in Tel football. When you look at the culture around that program with the way things ended last year, I think it's a bit of a head scratch. I really do they got Josh Jackson who looked a part when he was healthy under Justin Puente Virginia Tech, and I think I'd be surprised if he wasn't their starter Week one going into next season,
assuming he's at full health. But as you said at the outfite of this, that's a tough division. Expectations are going to be really all over the place because there's talent in that region. But historically Maryland football is not Ohio State football. It's not Penn State, it's not Michigan. At their best last year they were beating Texas, who ended up winning the Sugar Bowl. I'm not sure how much more you can ask for from a program than that.
But at it's worse thirty eight to three against a good, not great Penn State team to close out the year. This one is the hardest one to forecast because I think there's potential with that job. I think there's potential with Mike Croxley there. There's potential for a lot of bad there too.
Yeah. I mentioned this at the top of the show. By the way, that would have been a win over the Sugar Bowl champion, and they were a throwaway from beating the rose Ball champion, which is so weird to think about when you think about the rest of Maryland season.
Well, you look at that through and I don't want to harp on Maryland too much, but that throw changed so much. I mean, yeah, Michigan clinches the division if that's converted. So what's the higher State Michigan game like the next week without anything technically to play for? I mean, I'm sure Ohio State is still hungry to get after it, but they're not playing for a conference title. Then Michigan's
going to Indianapolis next week regardless. That's going to change the narrative we have on Jim Harbaugh, regardless of what happens against Ohio State that week. And who knows the Erbami are going to retire after losing like that. I don't know. I mean, this is a large what a scenario that has a lot of different legs to it, But when you look back at that misfire two point conversion, it really gets the mind wondering.
Wow, So let's see Northwesterns within three points of Michigan. They meet them again in a rematch in Indianapolis and probably have a lot better shot to get back to Pasadena.
Wow.
Okay, that just that is my galaxy brain is firing. The final team is Purdue. You mentioned them earlier in the context of thinking Jeff Brahm is probably around a top ten quarterback in the country, and the Boilers in the middle of the year they win four in a row, with I believe the final of those four being that huge emotional Ohio State win being just, you know, a season if not era defining win, and then they lose four of six, highlighted by getting just shellacked by Minnesota
and then Auburn in the bowl game. If we shouldn't judge I mean, we shouldn't judge people. We definitely shouldn't judge teams. But if we shouldn't judge anybody by their worst or their best day, So I don't know which is. You know, it's the Minnesota the Auburn game being the worst in Ohio State being the best. How should we judge the status quo of Purdue if we're throwing out those disparate outcomes.
I think that's what you get when you have a really good coaching staff with a really young team that isn't necessarily used to winning at a pretty high level. I was there. I want to say the week after they be in Ohio State and I sat down with Jeff Brohm, and you know, they started zero to three too. I mean, it wasn't just losing the way they did
in the bowl game and some other games. At the end, they lost Eastern Michigan and Missouri at home, and Jeff Brohm said, you know, I take that one on the chin. We lost one game early on and I thought we should have bottled things up a little bit more. We got out of character. We were afraid to make mistakes,
and that's just not pretty football. Under Jeff Brom, I mean, it is one of the most fun teams to watch when they are slinging it and firing on all cylinders out of fredom main mistakes, which is why they're good for a big upset every year under him. The hashtag that they have on her shirts there and that they have on their Twitter kinds Let's play football, which he obviously made famous from his XFL interview on the sideline
while playing half a Brain. Probably yeah, that is Purdue football is m O and they really got away from that early on in the season. In addition to probably starting the wrong guy a quarterback to begin with with Elijisin Laara with David Black, who they lose this year.
But I think now with three recruiting classes there, with probably the best player of the conference and Rondel Moore possibly superhighs made Trophy candle candidate going into this year, and with Elijah Cindelaar who's played a lot of football there that knows this isn't very well, I think now is when those losses will become less forgivable, especially with Brown gain the extension that he did, being courted so publicly by his alma mater Louisville and turning them down
to stay at Perdue, which by the way, has one of the best football facilities indoors in all the country. I know no one talks about because it's not on the lake and it doesn't have a slide. I mean, their facility is phenomenal. I went there for the first time and could not believe I was at Purdue University that they have put money into that program that I think few teams in the Big Ten have and what
that's going to be going to come expectations. I think Jeff Brown is the guy who will altimately get them there.
All right, Matt for Tuna, thank you very much for your time. I know you have to run. We started talking about your presidency. Is there a perk that you did not realize you would have. Do you have like a special card that gets you out of like you get a front row best seat in the house in press boxes? Do you have a butler? Do you have catered meals as the president? Is there a perk that we don't know?
Well? I haven't covered a football game yet since I've taken off of Oh okay, so I started again. They do it at the National Peblicon every year, and I was actually not there this year because my daughter was born that week, so I missed the RSSLE. That was an exciting week, right, I didn't miss much of a game either. Nope, so we'll see. I hope the press boxes in Evanston, South then and all my usual locales give me a suite, maybe the presidential suite. I don't know.
That remains to be staying helples. I own too many people off between now and then, and my approval rating doesn't think too much between now and the start of the football season.
Oh my gosh, I can I'm trying to now picture what a secret Service member for the head of the f WAA might look like. And the division that comes into my head of who would protect the head of a football writers association is not intimidating, not intimidating.
I'll see if I can get Brian Kelly on my side anytime he's on game. Danny has ooh boss is on. He looks a lot like not necessarily Paul there from WW, but he looks like a great classic WW wrestling manager, and I think that would be a role that would suit him well whenever he decides to retire.
Oh my god, that's so true. Possibly a little bit more bark than bite. You know, he's more of a present. He's not huge, but he has a presence.
He absolutely has a presence. I want to say every day should be Saturday. Said this first on Twitter many years ago. I'm not one hundred percent sure about that. I can't take full credit for it. But while we're talking secret service and bodyguards and a guy that I'm probably as familiar with as any coaches from my time being a nerd a beat writer. Well, I hope you wouldn't hate me too much, but but I would feel safe with him guarding me.
Nice. That's a good compliment. I would if somebody said that about me, I would be thrilled. Not many people do. Matt for Tuna, Thank you very much for your time. I hope we all got smarter talking about the Big Ten today, and thank you for listening. Thank you for joining us, and we hope to have you on again soon.
Thank you, my friend, long time. First time. I'm happy we can have consecutive guests from the Athletic. Hope this isn't the last time.
Oh. I would probably count on it because I think everybody there, everybody works at the Athletic now, so it won't be terribly difficult.
Well, I appreciate buddy, Thanks for having me.
All right, Dan, we are back big thanks to Matt for Tuna from the Athletic jumping in talking all things Big ten with us, first time, longtime. Glad to finally get him on the program. I did want to tease out something that is unrelated to the Big Ten right time, related to the Big Ten.
Harris standing up on the back of my neck.
We've got a show in the holster for next week.
You're very mpr right now. I want to point that out, am I. Yeah, yeah, If you want to add some like birds tweeting that kind of thing, Chirpin.
I am very excited about this show now.
Dateline, Alan Town.
That's right, very excited about the show that I think we've got ready for next week. Yes, didn't have enough lead time to put it together for this evening, but next week as we start April, I think it's a good time topical topical. It's very timely, little out there, upbeat, little out there, as is usually the case with this dumb show. Japanese influence, Japanese influence yet love that kidding?
Not even kidding about that or not?
So stay tuned to the Solid Verbal Solidverbal dot Com subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm excited, Ty, I'm just flat out excited. I'm not gonna beat around the bush here before we.
Go any further and before we close out this show, just because we haven't talked in a while, Yeah, let's talk. I need a steaming hot food take from you.
Oh, here's okay. I'm going to tie together two things. What the two things that I'm gonna tie together are food and being a new parent. How about that? Please, let's be obnoxious about it. When your child is born, it has been a very good decision that I've made. Recommend it. Don't have to don't drink or eat sugar because those two things can affect your sleep. Yeah, and you're not going to get as nearly as much sleep as you think you are or that you used to get,
and so give yourself. It's almost like performance enhancing giving up. Not like bread or anything like that. Just stop eating M and m's and Starburst or Danishes or whatever, and either don't drink or just cut way back on your drinking. When I do sleep tie, I'm out in seconds. I sleep hard. Excuse me, that sounded wrong. I sleep hard. I stand by it. That's my steaming hot food take.
You can like mayonnaise, you cannot like mayonnaise. I don't really care like what you like, but that is That is my constructive bit of food related life advice.
All right, Well, I don't really have much to add. Why did you ask about food specifically? Because it's your thing and I feel like we haven't talked about it in a while. People really subscribe to what Dan has to.
Oh you're ready, I'll give you an actual hot take.
Give me hot take, real quick.
New York Pizzas overrated yeah, I agree. I agree with that, Like there is excellent pizza to be had in New York, but the barrier to entry making of making good pizza. You can make good pizza in Cincinnati, you can make it Indicator, you can make it in Amarillo, Texas. And there are probably fewer places in those places because of population. There's just fewer people willing to put in the time to make good pizza. But New York pizza is largely
just more everywhere than it is excellent. All right, how about that.
Let's close out on that, Dan, what do you say?
Okay, I like it. I mean this is a big ten town, so it all comes full circle. Indeed, thank you to Matt Fortu so wiped.
I love it from the Athletic for stopping on by sharing his wisdom with us. Don't forget big show coming next week. Big Show. I'm excited. I am excited. Good keep it right here. We're at solid ruble dot com. Find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and check out the
uh subreddit. Are slash Soliverble started buiver ballers for footballers, and sign up for the newsletter soliverb dot com for that guy over there, Dan Rubinstein for myself, Ty hilden Brand, enjoy your week enjoy your weekend, and stay solid Peace