Welcome to the solid Verbal coll 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 day Edith State is that whoo whoom? And Dean and Tye.
Welcome back to the Solid Rebel boys and girls. My name is ty Hildebrandt, joining me as always over there in beautiful New York City.
My man, the one and only Dan Ruberstein, Sir, how are you? I'm good. I feel like we can check whatever hour we're recording this eight pm Eastern, off of the very random hours that we recorded this.
What is what is the most random time we did that we post, we did the post all.
This will tie in with both me and the Big ten post Ohio State Oregon National Championship post game sometime in the middle of the night. We hit record around midnight twelve forty five something like that in Texas, So that's probably the most extreme. But we've done very early to accommodate weird schedules. We've done random midday, We've done our general evening. So I like this is it's not quite after dark, it's not solid Verbal after dark, but it's solid verbal colon cocktail hour, solid.
Verbal colon cocktail hour. Yes, I like that. So here is what we are doing. We're actually recording this on a Sunday evening, later than usual on a Sunday. We're used to doing the Sunday thing, just not really ever this late. We want to get the Big ten out of the way because we've got a loaded week. If you're listening to this, it is Wednesday, August the fourteenth, maybe sometime after, but certainly in that general timeframe. We're recording it early because we've got two live shows, by
the way, that we're doing this weekend. The first is going to be on Saturday in Dallas. It's August the seventeenth. It's at Alamo Draft House at eight pm Central Time. Buy your tickets now still left saliverboltickets dot com, Slash Texas. Actually I should preface this by saying, I don't know if tickets will be left, but if they are left,
that's where you can find them. And then the very next day, I've said it time and again, hopping on the bird, flying back across the country, going to the nation's capital at Union Stage, we're going to put on a second performance of the Fantasy Things Draft a different show. Maybe a little bit of overlap, but a different show for the most part. August the eighteenth, it's a Sunday night.
I don't think there's gonna be overlap. I mean, other than the two extremely handsome hosts and general theme of the show. But in terms of the picks and the jokes and the yucks that we're coming up with, that's on the that's on the fly, on the spot. So that's on the fly, that's on the spot.
There will be there has to be a little bit of overlap just to tie the two together.
Is that overlap? Does it rhyme with Blean Blandblino? Are we doing an all Dean Blandino Fantasy Things? Just tell me now, because you hold.
The if that could be the compensatory round, what would you do if you or we sat next to Dean Blandino on our flight randomly from Dallas to DC, We'd have to engage him in conversation.
We would have to engage him.
I don't know if we could talk about putting a giant picture of him up behind us at the Venom Theater in Chicago.
That could be a little bit weird. I mean that's a high point, a life high point, Big ten Country and Dean Blandino.
The good news though, is if we sat next to Blandino on a flight, we wouldn't have to worry about what content to discuss when we get to DC.
That's true. Also, we'd be sitting first class because Blandino don't fly coach. That is I believe that's checking out. Yes, I would also like to add, and I put, this is nothing I have cleared with you. This is nothing, and you might very well edit this out. Who knows. But we are actually flying into Austin, Texas. Correct. We're flying into Austin, Texas on Friday, the day before the Dallas show because we have friends we'd like to see Austin,
and I have Mexican food I'd like to eat. I'm proposing Saturday morning before we drive and we're gonna we're gonna hit the road pretty early. I would say to go to Dallas. Yes, I think we should get some breakfast tacos hashtag tacos with tie and tell people where to go and we can just have some breakfast tacos
with anybody that happens to be in Austin. That is not a bad idea, Dan, because I'm an old man and I'm probably gonna want to get some sleep the night before before a long day, so I don't want to I want to be out late. But let's call it Saturday morning, Pueblo via hoh, we're getting We're getting breakfast tacos. How about that. I am down with come out,
come out, and we will give you a well. We'll put the time on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, whatever, tacos with tie in Austin, Saturday morning, the seventeenth, Is that correct? Yeah? Seventeenth, Yeah, Saturday morning the seventeenth, hashtag tacos with tie. And then we're going to be on our way and you can you can wish us well and hopefully we'll see more people in Austin in Dallas that night. But that that is my proposition.
We will start the caravan up to Dallas from plow Vah.
Done, let's do it. Bring the cowbells. More details to come.
More details to come. We're doing a show than the very next day in DC. Soliverble tickets dot com, slash DC. If you're going to be in the DMV and we'd like to stop on by the live show special guests. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Correct, We're excited. I have not begun preparing for this yet.
Well, we have our master list of about fifty items we do we need to bank of. Yeah, I don't need the drone on anymore about that.
You can find us on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, also on Reddit, reddit dot com slash r slash solid Verbal fiver Ballers four Verballers is the subreddit started by our good friend Peter Hoffman, who's doing a lot of work. God's work, really pulling together some cool amas. So check out reddit dot com, slash our slash solid Verbal Dan.
What are we doing tonight exactly? We're having ourselves a big moment. We're going to talk about the Big Ten fourteen. We have a lot of teams that are very interesting to us. The season is what a couple weeks away basically, and this is a pretty significant conference in the Midwest. Hi, I don't know if you're familiar, I am earlier yet to talk Big ten teams. We've split it up and we're going to attack it in the way that we have been attacking. We've done the acc we've won the
Pac twelve, we've done the Big twelve. We've split it and we're gonna ask each other questions and figure out what the other person is curious about and try to answer answer their question the best of our ability. Oh, by the way, also going to lump in Notre Dame with this show, Yeah, I got to think of a Notre Dame question. Lump in Notre Dame as well.
I guess technically we should have lumped them in with the acc but we were young and dumb and unprepared, and now here we are lumping in Notre Dame with more of their geographic partners in the Big Ten.
Do you wish they were in the Big ten?
Time?
I do? Okay, I do I always have? Do you do you not want to save uh Notre Dame for our UMass specific episode? I don't.
Actually I want to go save by the bell, Well, Notre Dame plays Michigan, and there's there's a lot of tie in here at the Big ten, So we'll get to Notre Dame here in a little bit, Daniel, where do we want to start here?
Let's get into the Big ten. Let's do it. Mash all those buttons, plase, that wasn't bad? That you really the the that was a good way.
You know what else I have here? I didn't realize this until now. A couple of years ago when we were talking about the Big Ten West, you put together what you called Big ten Underscore West Underscore death Metal. It sounds like this. It's very hard, it's very edgy
for the Big ten West. And maybe we can start there, Dan, because my takeaway in looking at that side of the conference is that every team is really freaking young, and yeah, it's sort of wide open there are you can make a case for a couple teams, a couple different teams other than the usual suspects, to have a puncher's chance at winning that side of the conference.
Sure. Yeah, I was just thinking of metal lyrics to set to like current, the offensive line of Northwestern be any better? Is there any hope for Northwestern to have an offense? And I just I'm not in a good place. So let's start with the Big ten West because we have the metal asking me a question.
I want to start with Nebraska because Nebraska is a very trendy pick right now in the Big Ten West. I don't know if it's warranted. That's sort of my question for you. I'm going to go back to something I said a couple shows ago. I think it comes down to the defense on Nebraska. Everyone's talking about the offense and Adrian Martinez and Scott Frost what he can do with that side of the ball.
That's very exciting, but I.
Think if it's going to happen for Nebraska, it needs to happen on the defensive side. Do you think you've got enough confidence in the Nebraska Cornhusker defense to warrant such high expectations in year two now under our boy Scott Frost.
No, but that doesn't mean I don't have long term confidence that this defense can get to an interesting place because there is that connection both with Frost and then his defensive coordinator Eric Chenander Shenander, I guess are there any vowels in that word? Very few. He was an outside linebackers coach at Oregon. He was a Jerry as an arro guy in Nick alliotty guy. So I remember him well and he was he was pretty highly thought
of as a recruiter. So in terms of building depth on this Nebraska defense, I am optimistic that they're going to get to a good place. We've talked about this in episodes past, whether it was Iowa State or whoever we were talking about in the ACC. In terms of combination, I mean, it's Clemson quarterback and defense, sure, and Nebraska in the West has the quarterback is what it appears in Adrian Martinez. But I don't know this defense at
its best. This defense is very thin. I like them up front on the line and at linebacker is it gets pretty rough. It seems okay in the back end, but still they were really horrid against the run last year, and that worries me because if you don't have to be complicated against this Nebraska team and be okay, that's that doesn't spell you know, division titles. So they weren't great on third down last year. They were not great in the red zone. They gave up a lot of
big plays. So yes, if they fix their situational d and they tighten up they you know, they bend but don't break, that will go a long way. But offensively, you're focusing on the defense, which is right because I think they're still pretty thin there. Offensively, who's Adrian Martinez throwing to JD. Spielman and maybe Wandale Robinson's the big incoming true freshman, big recruit. The offensive line still up in the but it should be okay. They're leading returning Russia.
Maurice Washington has has some legal issues in California that are pretty serious, and he's still away from the team or not. His status is in question, and they have a Georgia Tech transfer there. But they're just thin and they're building it up. They've recruited pretty well, but in terms of confidence, like when you look at other teams like, okay, well they lose this many starters, but they these many snaps were played by their rotation guys, Nebraska doesn't have
that to me. So to me, their best case scenario, yes, is probably competing for the West, but that's health and a major step up on defense that I can't feel great about. So the best case is probably a nine to three year. You want to know what I do? I feel great about what.
I'm looking at the schedule right here, Oh, it's a nice schedule. Well, if you were going to say it isn't, it isn't.
It isn't.
Okay, So obviously they've got a really tough matchup end of September. It's at home against Ohio State. That is most likely a loss. We'll get into Ohio State in a little bit.
But well, it's Ohio State, Northwestern and at Minnesota in a row. In a row, yeah, in a row.
That is a tough stretch end of September, early part of October. But by a large the tough games are at home on the road. You've got a non conference spot against Colorado. You've got a road game at Illinois. You've got a road game at Minnesota. Minnesota is tricky. Yeah, You've got a road game at Purdue, in a road game at Maryland. You're home against Wisconsin, home against Iowa, home against Ohio State Northwestern. That ain't bad, dog, I'll
take it. They miss and they missed Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State.
Right, that is correct, And they also have NIU, who the last time they played they almost won tenderly, almost didn't throw interceptions. I think that the non conference this might be a theme in the West, might be a little bit trickier than it appears. But yes, the fact that there is no Michigan who absolutely took it to them last season. No Michigan's defense, and that was a wild weather game last year. And then no Penn State, who should have a pretty good team this year. It's
a nice schedule for sure. Their worst case though, is losing those fifty to fifty high scoring affairs, still giving up too many big plays. Their Bowl eligible, but barely I think at six and six.
Yeah, or if the injury bug bites the way it did Michigan State last year, that could spell trouble for Sisconsin last year. Yeah, that could spell trouble given their depth. But all in all, I think if you're a Nebraska fan, you've got a lot to look forward to. This will be an exciting year. You've got the schedule to contend here in the West, which is fun.
All right, Let's go to the East. Let's start at the top. They won the Rose Bowl last year. They made a coaching change there. There's gonna be a new starting quarterback, a new defensive coordinator. Ohio State. For all of the attention, Justin Fields is getting that, Ryan Day is getting that. You know what this new era is going to look like? What it's getting. They got very strangely leaky on defense last year with the clear best
talent in the conference, if not the country. So when you look at the defense that now Greg Madison is taking over from the the co defensive Chiano And uh, what's his name, Alex? He's at Oklahoma this year? Oh, Alex Crinch, Alex Grinch. Correct, it's late for me? Is it? Do they miss in recruiting? The secondary seemed to be off? Is it just a development thing? Is it a scheme thing? How easy is this fix for Greg Madison in the defensive staff in Columbus?
Well, the problems last year were threefold. Okay, First off, they had turnover from the year before in secondary, which just inherently meant that there was going to be something of a step back in the defensive backfield. That happens innat Ohio State.
They oh year over year they were pretty good for pretty good but before last year, but there was a step back.
Jordan Fuller made the All Big Ten team and they moved him around a bunch trying to plug gaps. This was a defensive place a lot of man to man. They needed to use it in different spots and he couldn't cover all of them. So that's the first thing.
I think the secondary took something of a step back. Secondly, and more broadly, Greg Ciano's system was a very rigid four to three scheme, and it worked when they had better athletes at linebacker, that same level of athleticism, though just it wasn't there with the group they had last year. They had trouble matching up with slot guys like they could otherwise in the past.
He was adamant.
Greg Shiana was adamant about playing three linebackers to the extent where it actually hampered their ability to defend against unbalanced sets, against plays with motions, uh sweeps, that whole thing. Fans were screaming, don't get speed on offense. A lot of teams go base nickel kind of stuff. Absolutely, fans were screaming, try to not do that, and he was insistent upon playing those three linebackers. The good news bad news scenario this year is that all three of those
guys are back. But given the change I think in leadership on the defensive side, we might see a little bit of a different take on how exactly to play more of a spread system like we're seeing across college football. And then finally, you know, they tried to get as much athleticism as they could where they could, and that was along the defensive line. But the manner in which they did. It was very risky and it left the secondary more vulnerable. So there was a whole systemic thing
going on with Ohio State. If you look at the numbers, look, they need to get better on defense. You called it out, fiftieth in points per game allowed, seventy ninth in yards per rush at four and a half per rush, it's a lot, and then fifty first in yards per attempt in the passing game. Seven yards per attempt is just not good enough for Ohio State. Now, the thing about Ohio State is this, I could probably do an entire show just me talking about the Buckeyes.
I studied them intently. You should do a one man show in the great Allentown, Bethlehem, Northampton, just Ohio State tie on the Bucks. Yeah, just Ohio State. The problem is you've getting up there, you and a chair and a PowerPoint presentation because you were you actually were very pissed that you did not know about the National PowerPoint Championship. So this could be your big comeback. It could indeed.
Yeah, Ohio State this year is the epic battle of turnover versus talent. That's going to be the theme. They've got turnover on the coaching staff at quarterback, at wide out, along the line, along the defensive line, but a ton of talent in the form of blue chips that they have amassed over the last couple of years. They've got the top blue chip ratio in the country, which is something our friend Bud Elliott keeps track of. How many blue chippers are being recruited or signing to your school.
More often than not, there is a correlation between that talent who makes the playoff who ends up winning the national championship. So I think specific to the defense, it's those three things. But the more existential question, now Dan is urban Myer's gone, Yeah, he is. We can't do this preview without talking about urban Meyer. Ohio State won twelve games last year, including the bull This is still a really good football team, albeit some issues on defense.
Now we got Ryan Day taken over. How do you feel about Ryan Day taken over?
Pretty good? I mean, all things consider, like the continuity, we've seen it succeed at big places with a successful offensive mind stepping in after time learning on the job. And sure he obviously stepped in last year with urban Meyer's suspension to start the season and looked pretty good and by all accounts, whether it's on the road recruiting, it's with assistance. I like the hires that he made
and filling out his staff. I think there's good reason to feel good about Ryan Day landing Justin Fields, who is not Dwayne Haskins. And this is something you can probably speak to with Ohio State because you're doing a one man show at the regional theater out there. That's right, But this is the first year. That's also interesting to me, Where these past years it was Braxton Miller, j T. Barrett, Cardell Jones, it was J. T. Barrett, Dwayne Haskins. This
year it's Justin Field's Gunner Hoke transfer from Kentucky. It's a different look in room, and that to me is pretty intriguing.
Ryan Day is your new coach. Part of why he was brought on to be the coach is because he's had a knack for developing quarterbacks. Now to help him do that with Justin Fields, they hired Mike Ersich to be the new quarterback coach, who was at Oklahoma State for a while sick. So I think he has done a pretty good job assembling a staff. My only bit of hesitation here is that coaching changes are a bit
of a coin flip. They always are. Even when you sometimes think you have the guy, it just doesn't always turn into Lincoln Riley. Sometimes it turns into Larry Koker, where it's good for a while and then something happens and it's not so good. I don't know if Ryan Day is Lincoln Riley or Larry Koker. We don't have enough data at that time.
We don't. We don't have enough data. I like what I've heard. He was good in the early part.
Of last season. I hope that continues. But this is ever the question with a coaching change. Can he continue what the legend built Dwayne Haskins good first year starter? Yes, yeah, I'd say so. And he'd be if if.
Brian Kelly were to leave, if he left after last season and Urban Meyer State at Ohio State and Notre Dame hired away Ryan Day, you'd be pretty pumped about that, right, I would feel fine about that. Yeah, But I'm just saying it's not a slam dunk, which is why I'm urging a little bit of caution here. But yeah, he brings in justin fields, he's a new quarterback. He was a five star, the number two overall prospect in the twenty eighteen class. He's a big kid, six three two
twenty five. He can really run. There's a lot to like here.
Brings over Mike yersich Day himself, like I said, has a knack for developing quarterbacks. He also went out basically and nuked the entire defense of coaching staff. He kept Larry Johnson the defensive line coach, but made a bunch of changes to try and amend things on that side of the ball, which we addressed a little earlier. The offense, though, will be interesting now with fields because there are a couple other items that I think need to be mentioned.
JK.
Dobbins very exciting player. He's now the full time running back. He's never had like that number one alpha role in the backfield. I'm curious to see if we get some action out of Master Tigue the third. I love the name kids a bowling bag to Mario McCall play.
He's good. I know.
Master Tigue, though, is a bowling ball with eyes. I hope he gets some carries. I want to see what Dobbins can do as they increase his workload. They had some turnover at wide out. They've got talent at wide out, but they've got turnover there. They also lost four offensive linemen too, the.
NFL ned sign. They've recruited well, they've recruited well. So we'll see.
I don't know the thing that I we'll say about the schedule, and then we should probably move on because again, I can do this for a half hour, two back to backs end of September and first week of October at Nebraska home against Michigan State, then the last two weeks of November home against Penn State, close out the year on the road at Michigan.
That's what's going to define this season for the Buckeyes. Mm hmm, yeah, no, totally is. And they lost a bunch of receivers but have recruited well there as well. kJ Hill's back, right, kJ Hills back, Yes, he'll be good. So best case is what they run the table.
Best case they run the table. Yeah, they've got the talent. They've got the talent to run the table here.
Worst case, I guess is justin fields is just a guy and team stack the box and the offense is fits and starts kind of thing, and the defense doesn't really fix itself. And so what's that that worst case.
Well, the worst case might be three losses on the schedule. Okay, I don't believe in that, but right there's not a lot of depth to your earlier point about justin fields behind him something where to go south in that regard that could be a problem.
Yeah, okay, let's move on. Let's move on, Dan, I want to talk about Wisconsin. I'm always curious when you do that, if you're going to say, let's move on, Dan, I want to talk about suits. No, I want to talk about customs. Okay, Wisconsin a little bit later, we'll do that. Oh, a tease.
Who is playing quarterback for Wisconsin this year? And furthermore, does it matter since they still have Jonathan Taylor tailback who will clearly be the focal point of that offense?
Can I just say, oh, that's why I'm asking the question. I don't know. Jack Cone appears to be ahead. And by the way, this is not meant to be mean, This is not meant to be accusatory. But try not to name your kids something that ends with the letter in which his last name is going to start. Because Graham Hertz sounds like zach Ertz's little brother and it's Graham Mertz and I hate that we have to do that for the next however long he's playing college football.
Grammer Jack Grammarts, Country Grammarts. That's good. I hate myself. I just burminized something. Jack Cone is probably gonna be the guy. It is going to matter because Wisconsin goes from good to potentially really good when they have an efficient quarterback. And Jack Cone does not need to light the world on fire. Jack Cone does not need to be a crazy dual threat kind of guy, but he needs to be a lot better than he was last season. And Alex Hornybrook had a pretty horrible year. He threw
a ton of picks. Jack Cone comes in when hornybrooks hurt and just not performing and is not that great. He throws picks less often, which is not the greatest compliment you can pay somebody. Wiscons has got a new
offensive line in front of him. The good news for Cone if he is going to improve, he's a pretty nice set And aside from Jonathan Taylor, Jonathan Taylor touchdowns, so we call him right or tailback tailback tail touchdown if you want no, I like tailback AJ Davis or Danny Davis, AJ Taylor and possibly because he was just acquitted and his status is still up in the air, Quintes Cephis might be back for Wisconsin, so he could have a nice array of players to be throwing to. Defensively,
they have to be healthier. They're still I mean, the linebackers are pretty new. A lot of what Wisconsin succeeded in doing was shutting teams down on defense and when they had the ball, just pounding them and just wearing teams down. And so I look at this defense. They're pretty green upfront. You know, there's a decent amount of
experience in the back. But it's going to have to be a situation which somebody else's shouldering the load outside of Jonathan Taylor tailback if they're going to get to
threatening double digit wins. So the best case scenario, after last year, which you know, the offense was rough outside of JTT, the defense was okay against the run, but pretty bad against the pass, the best case scenario for the Badgers, for Bucky b Edger, offensive line comes together, offense bounces back, somebody who you know is a gravitational player continues to be on the outside, and the defense improves.
I'm gonna say nine to three is probably their best case right now, with a chance to get to ten in the bowl game. Worst case is Jack Cone is still below average and you know, some games the defense shows up, some games doesn't and they go seven to five. That's the worry for me that it's more of the same if Mertz is not ready to be that full time guy and Jack Cone is the guy at least in the beginning, and then it's a will they won't they? With Who are they starting come week six? I don't know.
The schedule is not bad. They have what Michigan in September, they're on the road at Ohio State this year they have a buye before iowather at Nebraska. They're at Minnesota, which we'll get to I think is interesting. So it's fine, how much but how much let down? Look ahead? Potential?
Is that October nineteenth game it's at Illinois. It's between Michigan State at home and Camp Randall Stadium homecoming. And the week after Illinois it's on the road in Ohio Stadium against the Buck guys.
Is Trevor Lawrence and all of his receivers gonna say, why don't we just go to Champagne and be legends. If that's not happening, fair enough, I don't think Illinois has a quarterback to really put the fear of life into anybody. Fair enough, Okay, I'll do apologies to Brandon Peters. Fair enough.
Where you gonna go next?
All right, let's stick with Brandon Peter's old team. Let's just get it out of the way. Let's do it. So a lot of what I'm seeing about I've seen actually two things about Michigan this off season. One, Josh Gaddis is coming in. We're gonna we're gonna modernize this. Modernize, yeah, modernize, We're gonna spread them out. We're finally gonna get to the twenty first century, twenty forty chess on this offense.
The other thing I've seen was describing Michigan's defense in the way that people describe Clayton Kershaw, where they're just like, if you take out this one start, if you take out this one playoff game where you gave up forty four earned runs against the Cardinals, he's pretty good. And that I've seen that about Michigan's defense, and you take out the Ohio State game, and what are we talk We're talking about pretty successful guy in defense. So let's
stick with the modernizing. What does that actually look like? Is? What is a modern Michigan offense run by Shape Patterson with we'll edit in a running back get one and you know, good but kind of beat up receivers in a good offensive line. What does that quote unquote modern offense look like?
Well, you know, Harbaugh kind of started modernizing it last season when he brought Shape Patterson over, who was not the kind of quarterback who would typically fit his system, you know, and hire a new line coach.
I always screw up his name? Is it Edward Rinner? Warren Warrener? With Warrener.
It's so easy, it's right in front of me. Yeah, I know the guy. We've been talking about him for years. I just can't say his name's He's.
Well known around the globe, well known around the globe.
He's got a wealth of knowledge about the running game, about spread offense. Is really good coach. This was definitely I think the start of now what we see going on in twenty nineteen bringing over Josh gaddis. I think what you're going to see if you talk about more modernized I think you're going to see more tempo. We're hardly ever going to see huddle and you're going to see more RPOs. Gaddis is big on this, all right. He's trying to I don't know if you saw this,
he's trying to invent his own hashtag, speed in Space. Okay, he's been tweeting that out. That's going to be the theme for this offense. And you know, hey, it's kind of a gimmick thing, but speed in Space is definitely not how you would define the old Jim Harbaugh system where you line up under center and give it to somebody who's big and the gun a lot last and tight ends. But no, I'm saying last year was the start of it. This year, I think we get to
the next level now with Josh Gaddis. I'm familiar with Gaddis from his time at Penn State, and honestly, if you're a Penn State fan, you miss Josh Gaddis because the wide receiving core has not been the same since he left. If you're a Michigan fan, you get excited because maybe you see a flavor of what Joe Moorehead did at Penn State. What he's done a little bit at Mississippi State. Bruce Felman depicted this higher pretty well
in an article. He talked about Harball basically calling up Josh Gaddis, giving him full control of the offense and essentially the job within twenty minutes, like he knew this was the guy he wanted to get. That's something if I'm a Michigan fan that gets the juice is flowing, you sort of know what you're going to get.
Though, I think, so, okay, why would it not. I didn't think the Michigan offense was that bad last year Michigan. I mean they were bad against Notre Dame, scored ten offensive points, right, it was ten points and yes, nineteen eight yard kickoff return touchdown. And then it wasn't the offense that was. I mean, it wasn't great against Ohio State, but that was a game at halftime and the defense just could not keep up with Dwayne Haskins and all those receivers.
For all there were there were two nineteen minute chunks that defined Yes, this was what Nicole auerbacks is what Nicole wrote, Yeah, the athletic for the athletic there were two nineteen minute chunks. One in the beginning part of the year against Notre Dame one at the end of the year against Ohio State in which during which the defense had these momentary lapses and that really did alter
the course of the season. Otherwise, though, you could really make the case that this might have been the best defense in the country. So they had their moments, and they need to cut back on those mistakes for sure against better competition, but like it was still pretty damn good last year.
Yeah, it was a top probably twenty twenty five offense in the country, and the defense was one of the best ten or fifteen defenses in the country, if not higher. So they were just they were they were losers in moments, they were not you know, in need of an overhaul. And so that it worries me that there's going to be new verbiage, that there's going to be confusion at times. I don't know. Maybe, well that's fair, right, that's fair. I am I'm just curious. I'm curious that they're going
to overthink it sometimes. And you know, he hasn't been an offensive coordinator. I saw that there was a feud between he and Mike Locksley over Mike Locksley not giving him credit and media. I don't know whatever it is. I'm curious. I think it's a it's a high risk maneuver that could pay huge dividends, but curious to see if not, if it wasn't the most needed thing overhauling this offense.
Some other quick factoids and then we'll move on. The line should be should be a strength of this team because they've got full definitely four guys back. It's going to help Shape Patterson. Hopefully, it's gonna help the run attack. As you said, they lost both both Karan Higgen and Chris Evans. We can edit in a running back name here.
But I think it's it's going to be a true freshman who I think is from southern California, Trebousche Adam.
Whoever gets the whoever gets the carries right the line should benefit them. Of course, Shape Patterson's back pretty good in his first year. There was room for improvement. I'm curious to see now what he does with this system. The big spot that I am watching now, especially given the fact that we've got Josh Gattis coming up from Alabama. Yeah, wide receiver, somebody's got to step up. I thought it
would be Donevan people's Jones. Yeah, but he didn't really step up and be that alpha, so it needs.
To be good. He was good, Nico Collins.
He needs to be People's Jones or Nicocollins or Ronnie Bell who's a burner, or even Tarik Black if he can stay healthy. Somebody's got to step up, and I think be that alpha target out wide and then defensively. You know, we've talked about it in the off season. Rashaun Gary, Chase Winovich, Devin Bush, they're all gone, So the work is cut out for Don Brown a little bit. They got so many good dudes, though, but they've got
so many good dudes. Oh my god, Lavert Hill, come on, what's his name, Carlo camp Inside.
It would really help if.
Khalie Cutson went back to twenty seventeen form, that would be nice.
I think he'll be fine. I think he'll be fine. I think the secondary is going to be fine. This I hate regurgitating platitudes like this could be the most athletic defense Doan Brown has held at Michigan, but there is some evidence that it could be one of the faster defenses in the country. It should be a very fun, angry defense. It should be. It's not an easy schedule. It is not easy schedule. By the way, trebousche is, I believe a cannon or a slingshot of some kind.
They could be starting zach charbonnet or sharbonette. I don't know how you pronounced it. He's a freshman. I'll learn, but that's his French tribouchet idea.
All right, I'm excited about Michigan. I got them coming out of the East this year.
Interesting. What is it about Michigan before we move on to the next team in the West that has them, aside from playing the game in ann Arbor, in a better place than Ohio State, another presumed favorite.
I am not entirely sure what Ohio State is going to look like. Okay, so coaching coaching turnover, Yeah, I go back to what I said before. Coaching turnover brings with it a fair amount of uncertainty, and we don't know what we're going to get out of justin fields. Yeah, there's a fair amount of turnover there. Even though they've got blue chips out the wazoo. I'm just not as confident in them. We'll talk about Michigan State. I like Michigan State too, but the issue was offense last season.
To what end will they be season that? Well, yeah, many seasons and then Penn State. Penn State could go any one of a thousand different directions. So Michigan is a team I feel best about right now. So you mentioned a tough schedule, so that is what well, with the exception of road games at Penn State and I guess at Wisconsin if you want to wump them in all their hardest games their home, all their hard games are at home. It's just the competition isn't the easiest.
We're not talking about a creampuff schedule here. I'm looking at it. We've got Army Week two, which we've already labeled as a interesting game, Yeah danger Notre Dame at home, Michigan State at Indiana Ohio State to close out the year that Indiana games won that I have circled as a letdown look ahead spot. There's a Penn State game in there, There's an Iowa game in there.
This isn't the easiest schedule by any stretch. By the way, I did notice because you mentioned the Army game, Don Brown, this is not on our fantasy things list. I don't believe it ever has been. Don Brown said last week, Michigan defensive coordinator, We've been practicing against the options since it's great, awesome.
That's a good cool I love it.
It should be, but it's not a fantasy thing, all right. So you have them coming out of the East. I do, I do? Okay, what do you want to know about in the West?
I want to know about Iowa. I want to talk to their kids about Iowa, so do I. They've got a brutal schedule, and that's saying something because they don't even have to play Ohio State.
Yeah.
How confident are you that they get the running game back to where it's been in years past, at least to a serviceable level, so that it can compliment Nate Stanley and move this team forward offensively.
I am. They took a step forward last year in Big ten play. It was a rough going early on, but against Big ten teams they were actually better than they were than in twenty seventeen. So with the linemen that they bring back with they're in good shape at running back. I what's McKay I was gonna say, Makay Pfiffer, Makai Sargent, McKay Sargeant or Mackay Pfiffer. Who's to say about eligibill.
Kai Pfiffer could get one point two yards per carry.
That's true? Well, yeah, probably with mckaye sergeant there. And I liked him in an all purpose way last year. I thought he showed out pretty nicely at times. Bringing back Nate Stanley my guy. We know he can be good. There are times where he's not so good. The big hole left by t. J. Hawkinson and Noah fan is worrisome to me, both in the past and run game, just because they were gravitational players that theoretically should be opening things up or should have opened things up for Iowa.
So if the offensive line can get back, can get better in run blocking, I think Iowa was going to be in a pretty good place offensively. But at the same time, I don't see that there needs to be motivation on Iowa's end. They go what eight and four, nine and four every year, and they seem happy with that. This this seems to be a year that they're circling as a you know, this is a great situation even with the schedule. Iowa State on the road Week three.
I think they have what they're at Michigan, and then they get Penn State in Iowa City the following week in October. They're November is pretty tough on the road at Northwestern and Wisconsin and Nebraska. But the way they play, I mean, it's it's going to be more of the same. So yeah, I think they can be a little bit better with that experienced quarterback stretching the field. Even if
I don't love their receivers and pass catchers. They win two of those those fourth quarter lead games that they had last year that they blew. They're ten and two, and I don't know how much differently we feel about Iowa. So that's sort of where I'm at right now. Best cases, they're ten and two. They run a little bit better, and they look a lot like they did last year. And the great news for them too is defensively they might have the best rush end if it's not Chase
Young in the big ten and aj at Panessa. They're in a good place up front. They they're strong at safety. I just I don't know, it feels like we're saying the same thing most years about Iowa does and so well, I got to replace this big, tight end, and you know they should be good along the lines. Quarterback is generally decent, but they can't really run the ball. I mean, this whole thing has been from twenty eighteen and you
probably didn't even realize. So yeah, if they're worse than moving the ball without the tight ends, if the new corners struggle, which year over year they keep finding new corners that are amazing, they go seven and five, but it's probably again going to be eight or nine wins their Utah East. What a weird sister state that Iowa and Utah could make for each other. Let's go to Michigan State. Okay, because I'm a glutton for punishment after last year's and this one's in quotes offense and the
off season, I'm gonna be very kind again Coach Reshuffling. Yeah, what's that? It's just I don't know what it was. I have the full list here, by the way, it's incredible, thank you. If Michigan State's gonna if they're gonna heal on offense, if they're going to begin to eel as an offense, who or what will be that medicine?
Well, first off, heel is the proper word to use because They were nicked up on offense, and by nicked up, I mean pretty much destroyed because of injuries. Brian Lawerki hurt his shoulder, didn't really recover. His wide receiving corps was all banged up. Felton Davis blew out, and Achilles Cody White broke his hand. Darryl Stewart hurt his ankle.
LJ.
Scott wasn't healthy for most of the year either, so they were they were just banged up. It was the first brutal because he really was. He was great, and it just sucks. That's football. This was the first year ever for Mark D'Antonio where he had exactly zero offensive players make the All Big Ten team.
Wow, a little factoid for you. Well deserved, well deserved.
The other thing here, separate from injuries, is that the offensive line and really was comically bad at run blocking. And you know, by every blocking metric we have when you look at Bill C's numbers and all these stuff, rates and what does it all mean, I'll tell you what it means in all of them. Michigan State has been terrible the last two years and that needs to improve if they want to try and move forward now. In twenty nineteen. They got to stay healthy. They got
to heal literally and then to heal figuratively. They got to figure out something along the offensive line. Now, the good news for them is that they bring back a ton. They've got seventeen returning starters. It's the fourth most in the country. Nine on offense, eight on defense, which I'll talk about here momentarily. But you mentioned the coach shuffle.
This is interesting to me. It's interesting because we saw what Ryan Day did at Ohio State, essentially ripping down the defensive coaching staff to the studs, the one stud being Larry Johnson. Mark D'Antonio ain't here to cause no trouble, Dan, He's just here to do the coaching staff shuffle.
Right. Did he get that joke? Now? Gotcha? He got that. I'm just letting it breathe, Okay.
Former quarterbacks coach Brad Salem is now the offensive coordinator slash running backs coach. Former offensive coordinator slash running backs coach Dave Warner is on the staff still as the new quarterbacks coach, a position he coached at Michigan State from two thousand and seven to twenty twelve. Former co offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Jim Bowman. He's now
the offensive line coach. Former offensive line coach Mark Statton now coaches the tight ends, a position he coached previously from two thousand and seven to twenty ten. And former assistant defensive backs a special teams coach Don Treadwell now coaches the wide receivers, a position he coached from Michigan State at Michigan State from two thousand and seven twenty ten.
And if you're wondering what happened to the wide receivers coach Terry Samuel will now he's assistant defensive backs coach.
Then feels it feels like an episode of Undercover Boss. Everybody's undercover, where it's like we went we went to the Freedo lay factory and eleven different executives where undercover, this is music chairs, it's back to the future.
They're trying to go back to two thousand and seven and maybe it'll work. Mark D'Antonio is a loyal guy. He values loyalty. He wants to try and keep the same guys in place, and and God help him here. What helps him, I think a lot is that their defense is going to be elite. I'm not going to go through and talk about all the names, but Joe Bachi coming back at linebacker, Josiah Scott a lockdown at cornerback, Kenny will Leaks was the Big Ten defensive lineman of
the year. And then we've got the two brothers. I looked up phonetically. How you say Mike Panashuk and Jacob Pashuk. Okay, there are two brothers along the line who you might be excited to.
Know talk Polish to each other to call out signals. Is Rocky Lombardi back?
Rocky Lombarti is back, but he is not playing quarterback because Brian Willwurkie is your presumed starting quarterback.
What's is he the assistant offensive coordinator? What is Rocky Lombardi doing? Is he just the backup quarterback? I guess he's just the backup quarterback with the cool last name. What a name? What the whole name? It's like naming your cond terminator predator.
Right. It's a tough Big Ten road schedule. It's a tough Big Ten road schedule. They're in good position to start five and zero Week three at ASU's bit of a Bellweather game, maybe more for ASU, but definitely a measuring stick to see where we're at with this hopefully
healthy Michigan State offense. There are seasons going to be defined by a six week stretch that they have between early October and mid November when they go to Ohio State, two Wisconsin home against Penn State, at home against Illinois, and then too Michigan.
Okay, the bus is what is your clearest answer? It's it's not at all difficult to yuck it up and say Hardy Harror, Mark D'Antonio, shuffle the deck, shuffle the chairs on the whatever. What is? What is? Is it just health because it doesn't feel like when you watch recent Mischione. No, it's not just health. That's that's the cure to what happened.
Well, it's the most immediate cure to get better because it really got in their way last year. But I for sure they need to figure out the offensive line in the running game. It can't all be on Brian Laworkie. He tried as best he could last year before he got hurt to carry the team, and to some extent he did, but they just weren't good enough. They haven't been good enough at running the football. They need to come.
Up with the solution there. That'll be all right. On defense, They're gonna be elite on defense.
Why because they've got eight starters back, big talent at all three levels of that defense. Right, They'll be fine. They'll be fine. It's gonna be a very good defense.
It is amazing to me when when teams like that with such inappt offenses, because Michigan State kept it together on defense last year they did when things were just totally shut down an offense, that's always impressive.
I think they're going to be very good on defense, one of the best defenses in the country. I have the same questions you do about the offense. Okay, but a lot of returning talent, maybe nine to three could see ten and two.
Whoa did you see their alternate uniforms. I don't like them. No, I don't like them at all. I don't like it.
It looks like they're about to play a game of laser tag Dan. I don't like it.
Yeah, I tweeted it, comparing it to the look of an absinthe bottle. It's not great. Yeah, And you know what the thing is that always bothers me about, like we had those like copper tinted Michigan State all uniforms a couple of years ago. Get it out always Yeah, what did you like those? No? No, I didn't like those at all. The state script that the basketball team has I think is so cool and they should lean into that sort of recherie modern look for football. But
maybe they haven't. I just forgot, but I love that state script. Love it so much.
All right, Dan, let's move on. I want to talk about the difference between a custom made suit and a suit it already is.
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Wow. Talk about the experience confirmation. I'm so excited. Talk about your experience and did it fit well? Did you like it? What? What was that like? I haven't received my suit yet, but the process going to the showroom was terrific. It was thorough. They were nooks and crannies. What was the term you used to use, the natural geometry? Sure, yep, that they were. They were having every every sort of rope and ruler. Was was measuring things like I was Gulliver.
Can I ask a very yeah, very real question here? Please? I have a d D.
When I go to a restaurant and they've got a big menu, right, And whenever I read this ad they talk about being able to personalize every aspect of the direct. Were you overwhelmed by that process or what was that like? Not really, because they would say like what shape pocket do you want here? And there would be pictures, there would be referencing picks, the picture on.
It rounded or do you want it? I was like, okay, let's I'll go with A. I'll go with buh. So they made it very easy and so I have a suit liner It's just Ed Warner's face over and over. Sure, and so I couldn't be more thrilled to be rec saving this suit because I got a weird shape body and Endochino's taking care of me at a super reasonable price, and I'm gonna look smashing ty. I'm gonna look really really good this week.
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Okay, whoa pro.
Jeff brom elects to stay at Purdue. He had offers from Wellville, maybe other places. Who knows by Ontown IronPigs, Yeah, never know, never stops.
Yeah. At Purdue this season, he's losing three offensive linemen. He's losing his top two running backs from a year ago. I hate to ask this question because it's going to sound like I'm really down on Purdue, and I'm really not. I'm really always rooting for this team. I love pro You sure, but truly, is there enough talent on this roster right now to fill in all the gaps they're going to have and still somehow some way contend or qualify for a bowl game? If you watched any of
their bowl game last year, that's a good question. I was really hoping you're gonna say, I have a big question. Can their drum get any bigger? Can that drum? Can they expand the drum? No, it's a reasonable question. It hinges on a couple of pretty huge things. And that's one Elijah Sindelar and to the defense, and you know, the singularity was very good against Minnesota and Arizona, I believe two years ago, and that's kind of it. It was not great at all starting the season last year.
If you remember they had they lose to Eastern Michigan. They have you know, they go back and forth against Missoo, but lose that game. They have Rondelle Moore in a losing effort against Northwestern to open the season, so they start owing three and then they have you know, this incredible high against Ohio State and big emotional game at home. They ran all right, they threw it well with David Blau and they were they were good at generating big plays.
But man, did the defense take a huge step back last year because two years ago they have this experienced defense, especially upfront, and then they were just they were below average against pretty much everything last year. And they have one of the most exciting dudes in the country and ron Dale Moore and some inexperienced dudes, like you're mentioning, uh, you know, running back and receiver around him, and the
line is really thin. I'm not feeling good. I you know, the best cases, you know, the defense shores up and Elijah Sindelar looks like what David Blou looked like last year, and they can go eight and four, but I see like three or four different ways that they could go four and eight or five and seven. Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. He's running for his life behind that line. Their their schedule is pretty tricky. I mean it's on the road against Nevada, Vanderbilt, and TCO. He's
not pushover games. They go two Penn State, they go to Iowa. Their November is tricky with Nebraska on the road against Northwestern on the road against Wisconsin. You know, the Oaken Bucket game at least is at home. But Indiana is looking better and better, So I have them scrapping for bowl eligibility again. Yeah, and it's gonna come down to those fifty to fifty gains. That's how it feels. Yeah, I'm with you. Sorry, We're next, all right, oh Man with a tone of defeat in his poy No, you know,
I'm rooting for Jeff Brow. I'm rooting for Purdue. But I looked at it too, and I'm thinking, I just don't. I don't see it. I don't I don't know how it happens. I hope it does. It's tough. I also realize I've said that each of the last two years about Purdue, but this year, really, truly, I don't know
how it happens if they get to a bowl. Yeah, fair enough, but you know, I think a lot of that, not a lot of it, but there's a little bit of the taste left in our mouths after the last year's bowl game where they're just completely run off the field. I run off. So, speaking of which Penn State play Michigan last year and looked kind of the same way. Their offense fell off kind of significantly last year, which
surprised me given how they've recruited. Given Trace mcsorley's experience going into the season, I thought he was at best average and he was hurt offense, he was hurt. He was hurt for a big chun sport. For that reason, he looked very average with a good amount of experience around him. So can you see Penn State doing drastic things to improve this offense or are they in their heads saying what you're saying they were beat up. A healthy Sean Clifford is gonna better than a beat up
Trace mcsorly. They have, You know, it was with Ricky. Ricky Slade was the number one running back couple of years ago. kJ Hamler showed out last year. Justin Shorter was a number one receiver recruit last year. You know, defensively, they return a top ten national defense. Are they trying to overhaul things or they just.
Is it just an offseason tweak. I don't think it's an overhaul. I don't think it's an overhaul.
Should it be?
I don't think it's I don't think it needs to be. I think it's overhaul enough given the fact that Sean Clifford is now stepping in as starting quarterback.
Okay, you like them, I do, I do?
You know, the more I read about him, we haven't seen a whole lot of Shan Clifford, but former Blue Chipper, former Elite eleven kid. He's got a big arm, not quite the mobility of Trace mcsory, but quick enough to extend plays, which is really all you need. What I like about him is he seems like a real football nerd, and I mean that.
In a in a very good way.
He's super intense about the minutia, a lot of folks touting the leadership, all things. You hear this about everybody, right, but these are things you like to hear. He committed to Penn State very early on, so he's exactly where he wants to be, and he waited his turn behind Yeah, a starting quarterback that was there forever in Trace pixorly thought Da David thought he was going to have to battle Tommy Stevens for the job. But Tommy Stevens bolted and now it seems like it's fallen in his lap.
They haven't officially given him the job yet, but he's he's gonna be the guy. What I'm curious to see though, on the offensive side, is how the play calling looks in year two now under Ricky Ronnie. There were a couple moments last year where he was overly conservative. I don't know what it was. I don't know if it was quite big games or what caused it, but some spots where he was very conservative, where it felt like he was playing not to lose, where the offense got a little predictable.
There were other moments where.
It seemed like, Wow, this is this is a guy who knows what he's doing, And there were a very small fraction of plays where you were curious what the grand scheme was. I don't think they need an overhaul. I think they're going to get a personnel overhaul, which will change the way the offense looks to some degree. But as long as they can make some modifications to what we saw last year, I think they're going to be in a good spot. Where there was an issue though,
and a big one was that wide receiver. I talked about it earlier. Josh Datis leaves a couple of years later, guys are dropping passes, They're not getting open. They need to play better. Heads heads are falling off.
Sure.
kJ Hamler, I think is the name that you know that you love, that we know that we love. He's very good out wide. He represents a player that you might see us differently. Yeah, because of his speed. He's a guy to keep your eye. Yeah, gravitational player. Yeah, keep your eye on what they do with kJ Hamler. Outside of him, though, they're gonna need Johan Dotson. They're gonna need Justin Shorter to step up out wide. They've also got Pat Fryermuth at tight end, which is the
ultimate safety. Valve led the team in TD receptions as a freshman last year. Having that big target's gonna help Sean Clifford. But sure, they got to get better out wide. I don't know what's gonna happen with Ricky Slade at running back. Uh, we'll see. Lines should be okay. They even though they lose Ryan Bates and Connor McGovern.
Those got starting tackles right.
Yeah, They've they've got enough talent that I think they should be able to plug in. It's the line will be fine. It's not gonna be recruited very well. They've recruited extremely well. They've got the talent to plug and play. It's not going to ever get to the point, hopefully of like the offensive line crisis of twenty twelve. Like it's gonna be okay, even though they lose two guys who played at a really high level. I'm excited to
see what that looks like. The defense, though, is if you've got no other reason to watch Penn State football, the defense is going to be a ton of fun. Yeah, because they're young, they're mobile, agile, hostile.
I'd like that.
A dude name E Tour He tour gross matos. Yeah, yeah, they need to get better against the run, but yeah, E Tour gross matos ygm mm hmm.
Very good.
A ton of talent at defensive end, A ton of talent. They've got more guys than they know what to do with. They got Micah Parsons back at linebacker who led the team in tackles as a freshman. That's after they moved him from defensive end. And the schedule I think is pretty favorable. It's about as good as you could want for being in the Big Ten East.
I also learned by the way on defense, John Reid is back forty seven. He's like John Stockough. Yeah, oh incredible. Okay.
Schedule schedules about as favorable as you could want for being a big ten East. It's it's all gonna come down October. October will decide whether it's an eight and four season or a ten to two season.
Where are you leaning right now? I'm leaning nine and three right in the middle, right smack dab in the middle. Those three losses come against Ohio State Michigan and Ohio State Michigan, and I think a dumb one. Oh No, like last year's Michigan State game.
I think a dumb one. Now they're on the road at Michigan State this year. I don't necessarily think it's gonna be that one, but I just it's gonna be.
It's gonna be off the radar. So that means Minnesota Perdue Iowa was on the radar. They've lost to Iowa. 'reing the raid. Actually, they look good against Iowa last year. But Pitt, no, my my beautiful four and eight darlinks No, I don't think Pitt that's a that's an ab game, by the way, that pit game. Okay, So gonna lose something weird. So you're thinking in the Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue Maryland phylum is where that's happening. Yes, Okay, what's your
next question? Next question, Dan? Okay, let's talky about Minnesota. Ah, I thought you'd never ask.
Minnesota has the Big Ten West's most experienced offense. They've got a light non conference schedule, as far as I can tell here, a relatively easy slate of crossover games. Can PJ Fleck and the Golden Gophers get to nine wins?
Is that possible? So I'm gonna take exception with a couple of things you said. I think going to Fresno is difficult. They pulled that game out in the last second last year. I think playing Georgia Southern, who beat app State, my beloved Mountaineers of Boone, North Carolina, that's a big deal. They had a terrible situation with their quarterback last week, Shy Wurtz, and that's all resolved and
good for him. But that's tricky. That's tricky for a team that has did definitely finish really nicely on defense last year, but it has a propensity against you know, some not so good teams to give up some yardage, So I think your question is fair. I think their absolute ceiling is probably eight and four right now, Okay, I have made peace with Tanner Morgan. I think he's fine. I just when you start talking about nine wins, we start getting into the combination of defense and quarterback, and
I am not there with Minnesota yet. But I like that Rodney Smith is coming back and that they're gonna pair him with Mohammed Ibrahim, who looked obviously terrific in their bowl, just demolishing of Georgia Tech. So they're strong in the backfield. Tanner Morgan's probably gonna win this job over Zach Annexstad, which is very fun to say. Tyler Johnson and Bateman are very quietly one of the better wide receiver duos in the nation. Tyler Johnson, he's local,
He's he's an all timer for Minnesota. Rashad Bateman, we actually talked about him going into his freshman year last year as being excited to see him a ton of experience on the line. As you sort of alluded to, they need to get better. They allowed a lot of sacks. The run game was pretty inconsistent, you know, Daniel Fatlle whatever, it's going to get a lot of attention. Sorry, was that dismissive. I didn't mean to be dismissive. Did you
like that he's six nine, four hundred pounds. It's a fantasy thing, but we're actually I don't think it's an actual fantasy thing. Like his size is going to be mentioned eleven times, big fella. Yeah, he's large. He is large. He is like he's bigger than Jonathan Ogden. He is. He's big, and I think he's pretty good for being as inexperience as he is. Nine wins is pushing it
though they are. They struggled a good deal on defense in the back end, and the big ten West should be able to throw someone we're getting into more into a couple more quarterbacks there. I should highlight in spotlight even though I said, you know, upfront, they're not that good. Carter Coughlin is that good. He is there like hybrid outside linebacker rush and he's all big ten caliber is he is mister Havoc for the Gophers. So they in spots like running back and receiver and you know this
rush end, they're very interesting. But they need to put it together a little more often because it was. It was pretty uneven last year, and when you look at their schedule, they were only like competitive in two games. It was competitive in that they were relatively close near the end of the game. They were either separating themselves from teams or just getting demolished by teams. So there probably needs to be more consistently for four quarters at a time, and I think a lot of that comes
down to turnovers. So still too many questions for me to get to nine wins, but the potential to take a nice step forward exists. The worst case is the defense progresses without a good, good line and the secondary stays pretty pretty leaky at five and seven, So I'm going to say there are a seven and five team this year.
I'm a huge Taylor Johnson fan. He's so good, both of those guys. Huge fan of Tyler Johnson.
But yeah, I was watching clips of Tanner Morgan because I honestly have not. You know, I don't spend June and July watching a lot of Minnesota football or Georgia Tech football or whoever football. I just don't. I like hanging out with Jody with an Eye and the solid baby. So I did a refresher on Tanner Morgan and man does he look he tries hard, He really goes for it. And I like that there's a lot of effort there, but that it's it's not for me a lot effort
as a team competing for the divisions. I'm I need more. I just need a little bit more from the ghosts. All right, Dan, give me give me a question here, you know what, Let's talk about your precious Indiana. They they get better, Uh, let's do it. They get better on offense last year with a key injury at quarterback and they still managed to have a nice season yep. But took a pretty significant step back on defense, which
seems uncharacteristic from what we've seen of Tom Allen. When he goes places, their defenses improve and it did in Indiana when he was a coordinator, but takes a step back last year as he assumes the head coaching role. Is it a course correction thing to you? You know? Is it getting to just be okay? On defense? How far away are they from getting back to a bowl?
Well, okay, two different questions, I'll start with. I'll start with the bowl question here. Yeah, because you know, I'm excited about Indiana always are not always last couple of years, I've been excited about Indiana. Yeah, I don't mean to say I'm like nine and three excited. I'm not even sure I meet eight and four. But they do have
seven guys back on each side of the ball. Yeah, and I think there's going to be enough feistiness on the offensive side to win six or seven games and maybe scare the crap out of Ohio State in Week three. That's kind of my big prediction.
I just remember you saying things about Stevie Scott that made me think, is solid wife Kate in a good place with you? Do you have wandering eyes towards Bloomington.
Well, I love Stevie Scott, but they're replacing three of five starters up front, and that will have a direct impact on one. Steven Scott Okay, another big kid, a lot of promise for Indiana. Rushed over eleven hundred yards, had ten touchdowns last year as a freshman. He was on my dude watch list. I like him, but I've got questions about that line. I'm real curious to see what happens just with the offense as a whole. Because they hired Caitlin de Borr away from Fresno to come
in and run the offense. Now, this is already assystem that through a lot, but now you bring de bor In from Fresno, and Fresno threw an awful lot.
He's on the record talking.
About how they want to get more explosive, how that's a priority for this coming season. I don't know if it's Peyton Ramsey or if it's going to be someone else at quarterback, but they just couldn't throw deep and they need to get better in this area, which is part of the reason why I reiterate I'm high on Nick Westbrook. I think he's in line for a big year. Led the team in targets a year ago. That being said, you're right in saying that rushing defense has been an
issue not just last year, really the last decade. And I don't know the answer to the question on that front. I don't know how angry. I don't know what it takes, honestly to sort that out. They've got to make a tweak, They've just got to get better. I don't have an answer for you. I don't know, because it's continually been an issue for them. The schedule does not present as
a murderer's row. But they're in the East, so they've already got those four games that look like easy losses, both of the Michigan schools, Ohio State, and Penn State. They've also got a road game at Nebraska, road game at Purdue. They've got a home game against Northwestern. From the West. They get Michigan at home, which is my favorite let down look ahead spot of the year. You don't just go to blooming Michigan coming off a home game against State a week before a home game against
Ohio State. They go to Bloomington. That's my favorite letdown look ahead spot.
Indiana.
I'm high in Indiana because I think it could go a bunch of different directions. I like the hire of the Boor away from Fresno. I like the young talent on this team. Have no idea what happens along the line, or at quarterback or on defense. Your guess is as good as mine. I'm just being honest here. I honestly don't know. I know what's going on. I don't know what's going to.
Happen quick thing I didn't realize Kaylan de Boor replaced Mike de Board. I believe that's right. Yes, okay, great, I like how they didn't stray too far. Mike de Board retires, but an opportunity arose in January of this year when the San Diego Fleet of the AAF lost their offensive coordinator John Kittna, who is now who's now
the quarterbacks coach of the Dallas Cowboys. To take his place, and I'm quoting Wikipedia here take his place, the Fleet hired Mike de Boord, reuniting him with San Diego Fleet head coach Mike Martz.
I didn't know any of this. I'm glad to have warned it on our show. Does this mean that Kaylin de Boor is the present tense of Mike de Boord?
Yes, which, okay, so Kaylan de Boor is the present tense of Mike to board, the future tents will be somebody named Will de Boor. I got to ask my mom. She's she's a linguistics expert, but yeah, I think I think that's right. We have to learn how to conjugate debor are if we're ever going to succeed in accurately breaking down They know they did they in all fairness, they did get better on offense. Peyton Ramsey I think was fine last year.
Didn't throw deep, but he was fine. Other one deep he was fine. They could be entertaining, and they've got feistiness on offense. Yeah, you said, he said that somebody tries real hard. Ted or Morgan tries very hard. I'm telling you. You watched clips of him. You're like man saying my compliment was a little bit more upbeat than that one. Okay, he does try, he does, you're a feutable. Let's talk about another quarterback. Okay, Hunter Johnson making some waves.
He was, yeah, you know, all world everything. Quarterbacks signed with Clemson. I think wisely got out when Trevor Lawrence came to town because he wasn't playing over him. Now he ends up at Northwestern, and this is a big deal for Northwestern. It's been a long time since they had a guy of this caliber playing quarterback. Haven't seen him, mind you, but at least on paper looks the part seemingly is going to be as bout as good at
quarterback as they've ever had there. Does he elevate Do you expect him to elevate the Northwestern offense in any kind of meaningful way? And at this juncture in mid August. Do we have any way of being confident about whatever you're about to say.
So what I'm about to try to convey is the word no with a question mark at the end, which is a terrible answer to your question. No. So the problem with Northwestern's offense hasn't been because they haven't had talent talented quarterbacks, because it seems like, even though they don't really play all that often, that there's interest from the NFL guys like Trevor Simeon that we're fine. But they've had the same offensive coordinator for going on at
least a decade, Mike McCall. So this is D analytics in that it's not D analytics. This is from our friend Brian Frimo, who runs the FBI. So these are the offensive points per drive, which is something I appreciate, and there's no garbage time. Here are the last the last decade or so of Northwestern's offensive football. So doesn't matter how quickly or how slowly you play, it's just what
you do per drive. Ninety ninth, seventieth, sixty seventh, one hundred and seventeenth, one hundred and third, eighty second, fifty seventh, and twenty twelve shoutout Dan Person Cane Coulter. I believe that was like the twenty eighth and twenty eleven. Hell yeah, but then seven sixty seven sixty second. So Northwestern fielding average offenses is pretty rare. And so maybe it happens with Hunter Johnson and maybe you know, with Isaiah Bowser next to him. This was a pretty terrible rushing team
last year. They replaced a lot along the offensive line. Not a great combination to me. They kind of have an interesting receiver in Bennett's Gronic It's been a mainstay there. PJ. Flynn's gone. They've got good names, but it's not a lot of proven, interesting, fun highlighting names. I just it's a pretty big question up front. It's a new offensive line coach. They need a pretty giant jump up front there.
The good news for Hunter Johnson is I think Ali upwise, the defense will put the offense again in a pretty good position field, position wise, turnovers wise, whatever. Joe Gaziano's he's a are upfront. She's got decent pieces around him. Patti Fisher I mentioned on the Dude episode, he's all over the place. Two D's right, two d's Patty Fisher,
the secondary's experience, they should be fine. You know, we've gotten to the point where I think benefit of the doubt is probably too strong a phrase with the Northwestern defense, but you can count on them for being, you know, a probably top five unit in the Big Ten, if not better. So schedule, there's a rough stretch on this schedule, and they open at Stanford week one. It's the stretches Michigan State at Wisconsin at Nebraska.
Is it?
I have BYU here, but it might be a bye. I don't believe it's b YU. It may just be a typo Ohio State, Iowa. That's a rough stretch. That is a that is a not super fun bit of football for for Northwestern, But year after year they get pretty good quarterback play and a disappointing offense and a good defense. So if Hunter Johnson's very good, if the offense has its moments behind, a better line gets to okay, they have the sixty fourth best offense in the country
or something going ten to two, they just are. If Hunter Johnson is just okay, the line is still in the eh, the secondary's hit or miss. They're going seven and five, so I haven't met eight or nine wins. So that's how I feel. Do you have any Northwestern thoughts Hunter Johnson thoughts? I've seen him play a little bit. He hasn't really played meaningful snaps. He hasn't played meaningful snaps. That's why I asked the question. I honestly don't know,
but I think it's exciting. Believe it or not, we do have a ton of Northwestern fans that listen to this show. Yeah, and.
It's just exciting to have a high level, high level prospects such as Hunter Johnson playing quarterback.
I watched a lot of Northwestern football a few years ago with our pale Roger Sherman. Yeah, and they've always been pretty good. And despite that, watching with Roger was a lot of moments of like watching him sing I hate everything, I hate everything to like the tune of Super Mario two. So I, for his sake, hope that this is the year that Hunter Johnson is that talent. We're like, oh Man, Northwestern's offense is dealing. Do it for Roger, Do it for Rogers, A good dude, do
it for Roger. Yeah. Okay, I'm let me ask you about Indiana again. Just let's go back to Bloomington. Let's do it. Okay, who do we have left here? We got Maryland and Rutgers. Okay, I'm pretty down on Maryland. Okay, I I don't know if you are. What is a even five wins? To me? Seems kind of like a stretch. I know they get Josh Jackson, but what does a five five plus win Maryland team look like in twenty nineteen? All right?
They were five and seven last year and they decided to go a different direction at head football coach. Brought in Mike Loxley. He's from the area, came over from Alabama, knows the area well, which is a great fantasy fantasy thing, great fantas knows the area well. You're gonna hear it time and again. Here is the problem that I see from Maryland. I'll start with the schedule. Before November. They've got Howard Syracuse, tough game at Temple, Penn State, tough
game at Rutgers, at Purdue Indiana and Minnesota. Now that doesn't strike me as a cakewalk, but it is supremely easier than they're November, where they've got Michigan at Ohio State home against Nebraska and at Michigan State. It's very possible they lose all four.
Of those games.
Yeah, they lose all four of those games, and that means they got to be QS, Rutgers, Perdue, Indiana, Minnesota. Like, there's just not a lot of wiggle room there, and I'm not sure how it happens, if it happens. I like Mike Loxley. I like the fact that he's got a passion for coaching in this area.
I do you fell into the trap? I do? I like it? Yeah.
I like that he brings Josh Jackson over from Virginia Tech. He's most likely going to be the starter. I like Anthony McFarlane. We talked about him on the Dude watch List. A great freshman campaign. But the wide outs are really young. They're all sophomores or red shirt sophomores, which is crazy. The offensive line has some experience, but not a lot of depth, and the defense last year couldn't generate any pressure.
Now they get a big booth. Shaq Smith is transferring over from Clemson, which opened some eyes, but otherwise they just they got a lot to figure out here, and I don't know how they get to five wins. I could see a step back I could see a foreign eight. I could see even if three and nine.
What if Mike Locksley makes it super clear how much he likes coaching the area, because that was the reason you gave for why Maryland is something to be excited about long term. Yeah, I think we're on the same but look.
But okay, longer term, the area is rich with talent. It's always it's pretty good players there. Yeah, and I remember we made the joke about Randy Etzel when Randy Etzel came down and took his dream job. That was one of the things that he highlighted. He wanted to try and keep those kids close to home, right. I don't know if they've been all that successful doing that. Mike Loxley is a good recruiter and has been for a while. He knows the area. He's got these pipelines.
Hopefully that can bear some fruit for the Terrapins.
Okay, do you have those little headlines that are on the bottom of every website, like the sponsored headlines, and it's like these three things in Tacos may kill you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm looking at the Maryland schedule right now, and this probably has nothing to do with Maryland football. But I have Steve Miller sells Island Compound for less than half the original asking price. The early signs of type two diabetes, and it's a picture of an older hand feeling an
older foot. I have no show socks, and I have cowboy boots. Are taking over New York parentheses. Here's why is that true? These are all not to my not to my eyes. But you know I don't see everything. I have no idea what I've clicked to get to this point. I enjoy Steve Miller. I'm not worried about type two diabetes. I do wear socks. I don't wear boots. Maryland football and Marylynd football. Okay, where are we going next? The other? Oh, let's just do Rutgers. Let's do Rutgers. Okay,
my question about Rutgers. I wrote this down because I'm very serious about this preview. To quote the immortal Shaka Khan Chocka Cohn. Great, damn me. Something good about Rutgers. About positivity.
I like Raheem Black share Yeah at running back and another guy named Isaiah whose last name I have no idea how to pronounce. Start at the p Accheco, Pachecko, Pachico Pashko, and we can just look it up on YouTube.
I could, but I didn't.
My point here is that if there's going to be a bright spot on the offense, it's probably the ground attack. Probably the ground attack. They feel actually pretty good about it now. They were one and eleven last year, and they closed out this year with Ohio State and Michigan State in Piscataway, followed by a road trip to Penn State. It looks like another one and eleven or two and ten year to me because they gave up thirty one points per game on defense last year and I just
don't see it improving all that much. But if we're going to find something to be happy or excited about, I think the ground game should be.
Okay.
I am curious to see what happens with my boy King Arthur Sikowski, because the passing game last year was a disaster. He threw eighteen picks that was the most in the nation. Rutgers as a whole was a turnover machine. They were negative fourteen and turnover margins, and the line just they couldn't pass protect receivers couldn't get open when they were open. They were dropping passes. Just a lot of slow decision making there in the passing games. So
passing game needs to improve. Running game is.
Something something to not be too down on.
Okay, fair enough, let me go to Illinois, the last Big Ten team. Yeah, on your side here, Okay. They extended Lovey Smith for two additional years despite winning nine games in his first three seasons.
M h. But they've got a lot of I guess returning production coming back or returners coming back. Ya give me your.
Drive to six projection this year? Is the Drive to six something that we can reinstall as part of our weekly shows.
I'm not thinking so, I'm not thinking so. And it's they don't have a quarterback. It's Brandon Peters and interestingly enough, Isaiah Williams, who was quarterback, huge quarterback recruit but listed as sort of an athlete and the same name as Juice Williams. So that's interesting nickname potential for us. What can call the next Juice Williams. Defense was just you know, if I'm again going to hammer home combination of quarterback and defense, it was just a mess. Last year. The
offense was improved. They ran the ball, they beat Rutgers, they dropped fifty sixty points against Minnesota in a win, but nothing else for them was competitive. Then they made Northwestern interesting at the end. There they couldn't throw the ball a lot of turnovers, and their defense needs to. I mean, the starting point for their defense is they were truly abysmal against the run last year and that was matched only by how horrid they were against the pass.
So that's the starting point of a Bowl eligible potential defense. And there's a couple pieces in the secondary, but upfront I don't like a lot. So they've got a Michigan Wisconsin combo in October and October, you know, they're on the road against Michigan State before bye and then at Iowa and Northwestern. I guess the absolute best case scenario is Brandon Peters is pretty good. He's the good version of Brandon Peters. If he ends up starting the season
for them, who knows what happens after that. It's a fairly easy non con you know, beat Rutgers and a fifth win would be against a team who has a hurt quarterback. That's that's what I have down here. You know, the worst case scenarios is two to ten because of more of the same, and I don't want people to get hurt no Situationally that does help bad teams win games. All right, That's what I have for Illinois. So I think they're going to be more in the four and eight.
That's my most realistic three and three or four and eight for the ALI and I. Unfortunately, they just they gotta find They have a ton of USC transfers, so the talent level is up in Champagne. There's at least a little bit of there's a glimmer of hope at Papa Dell's are in Champagne, Illinois. I think their uniforms are cool. I like their unis. I do like their uniforms. I like that color combo. I like the sort of
straightforwardness of them. But that's what I have for the ALI and I, and I think out of the West, I'm going to go with Iowa. Okay, I'm going with Iowa here. I think they edge out Northwestern. Yeah, I think we have Iowa Michigan in the championship game.
I am tend to go in Nebraska, but I just don't trust the defense. Okay, and I like Northwestern, but your talk about what they've done on offense has really spooked me and so I think, but they win despite it. They do win despite it, and I think that speaks to what Patt Fitzgerald has built.
How good of a coach he is. You know what their offense reminds me of. Yeah, I most of my life now when I'm at home is watching the solid Baby. He can't quite crawl yet, but he does the army crawl thing where he's just sort of dragging himself with his forearms across his mat. He gets to where he wants to go. And that worries me that he's a Northwestern man in training to sure. So I don't know how to act you on who I'm picking here, I don't know. Okay, So Notre Dame, Notre Dame right last
team here? Is Notre Dame a playoff caliber pro right now? And by that, I mean, should the expectation, no matter who's starting a quarterback, no matter what you know the depth looks like in a particular year. Have they now reached the point where you know they have these letdown moments? Who was it? Last year? It was Van Dey ball stateon pit They weren't really seriously challenging in the regular season against their better opponents. So is my assumption. Should
my assumption, Should America's assumption be with Notre Dame? Yeah, they should be. You know, we should consider them a playoff threat every year.
Now I think we are there. Yes, okay, explain, show your work. I do think we are there. They have recruited strongly over the span now of Brian Kelly's tenure in South Bend. So this is a team that very slowly has been establishing itself as I think belonging on that stage, and they've now finally got the blue chip talent to back it up. I think it's totally fair to put them in that category. They're not in the
same category though as Alabama or Clemson. They're not in the same category I don't think as Georgia or Ohio State. But they're sort of like right on that cusp, whatever cusp it is that comes after that elite grouping of teams at the very top. Notre Dame has been very, very good in the recruiting department.
Ah, So who worries you on this schedule this year?
There are three games that decide the season for Notre Dame. We've put all this time in talking about the Illinois and Northwesterns and whoever else in the Big Ten. In many ways, this Notre Dame preview was the easiest one that I had to put together because there are three games on the schedule that are going to decide the fate. There's a road game at Georgia, There's a road game at Michigan, and then there's a road game, a cursed road game, damn it to hell, end of the year
against Stanford. Okay, those are the three games at all t we decided to a lesser degree, you've got home games against Virginia the week after Georgia and Virginia Tech, which is the week after Michigan Michigan. Yeah, those could be a little letdowny, but it's really those three games that I think are going to decide it. And that's sort of my first point of I don't know reference as we look at twenty nineteen with Notre Dames.
That's the starting point here.
The second thing to point out is that this year's team is kind of the opposite of last year's team. I remember when I did the preview with you last year where we really like Notre Dame's leadership and talent on defense, and we had all these questions about the offense in Brandon Wimbush. This year, it's reversed. This year.
The defense loses big guns at all three levels. Meanwhile, the offense is mostly intact, and that probably means more pressure on Chiplong and certainly more pressure on ian Book to generate bigger plays and score more points while the defense is figuring it out. But a little bit of a role reversal. Now as you look at twenty nineteen, what they need to do on offense is they need to generate more of those big plays. I don't know how they do it. But the vertical passing game last
year was an issue for ian Book. Some of those passes he threw deep when he had guys opened or not great Dan, not great at all, Not great Bob, not great Bob. Got to get better accuracy on that deep ball. They need to convert just a handful more of them, and it makes them better as an offense. That's the first thing. Secondly, I don't know what the running game looks.
Like this year.
I have no idea why. Well, they lose Dexter Williams. He's gone, and now they're in a position where they've got Jafar Armstrong, who's a converted wide out was nicked up last year. He's more of a jack of all trades type of guy. And then they've got Tony Jones Junior, who's a senior, more physical, more north south. I don't know if either of those guys is really the answer at running back, but they need to get something that is a little bit more consistent out of that ground attack.
And then on the defensive side, they need to get better at stopping the run game. There's some questions this year about defensive tackle. They lose Jerry Tillery a lot of turnover at linebacker as well. Drew trankwell, he's gone, but the secondary looks pretty good. At corner, they're loaded back there at safety with the Lohi Gilman and Jalen Elliott. Maybe Kyle Hamilton fits in.
Who's the new guy? You like you? Kyle Hamilton is hot and bothered Kyle Hamilton.
He had three picks off philger Kovic on the first day of fall camp, huh, which probably says more about filder Kovic than Kyle Hamilton. But I believe Hamilton is now up to five interceptions in fall camp at time of recording. He was a five star kid from Georgia, I want to say, committed to Notre Dame. He has been making a splash to the extent the coaching staff is trying to find other ways that they can utilize them,
like maybe we could play tight end. I don't know, maybe we'll play running back this year.
They all knows. So if your concern is with the offense, what I'm hearing is the new college football drive for six. Is Notre Dame scoring a playoff touchdown?
Yes, my concern isn't with the offense, though, That's not what you're hearing.
Okay. I have questions about how they can make the offense better. Okay.
My concern though, is mostly with how they replace some of the spine.
Of that defense.
Okay, up the middle, who's stopping the run at the first level, At the second level, who your linebackers now that Tavon Coney Drew Trank wore gone really right up the gut? Is my question with this team.
Do you like Clark Lee? I do like Clark Lee. Okay.
I think they've got a great coaching staff in place, and I think they're going to be able to get after the passer. But how they stop the run is going to mean a lot and ultimately tell us which direction this team's going.
So so best case is what eleven and one, twelve and zero again probably yeahs worst case nine and three? And why do they go nine and three?
I think they go nine to three because, first off, that Georgia game is tough in Athens, and I don't see him winning that game. I could also see a situation in which they drop a game against Virginia in a letdown spot. That one terrifies me. And that Michigan
game is going to be tough. Yeah, if Michigan's better on offense, if they could find a way to pull Notre Dame apart with this new speed and space thing that Josh Gaddis is trying to try it out there, that could make the spine of the defense very susceptible.
So their losses probably loves you know who loves hashtag speed and space.
J Paterno, I don't know. I'm excited about Notre Dame of course, got blown out in the playoff semifinal last year. But yeah, I think it's an easy preview.
I do.
It's an easy preview. Three big games, two letdowns to be careful of and uh, the offense should be pretty good. I just got questions on defense.
Now, well, listen, if fifty of this show's host don't have to root for a team running the pistol, that's a win in its own That is a winn in its own right. Yeah, okay, that's all I have, Big ten and Notre Dame. Hooray.
If you are not already coming to the live shows, you still got time. We're going to send an email out this week. Many of you may see that email before you have a chance to listen to this show. Soliverbletickets dot com, slash Texas meet us in Dallas if you like you can't make that one, and it'll be on the East coast. Soliverbletickets dot com, Slash DC. We will be at Union Stage on August the eighteenth, of the Sunday night. That show starts at seven thirty. Daniel,
I'm exed, Mike. We likes coaching in that area. Indeed, I will see you this weekend.
Yeah, oh, I can't wait. So we've got Texas, We've got DC, we got flights, weathers looking good, We're feeling great, we have lots of material. We're all in the we're in the process of organizing it all. We're gonna collate it. Maybe head up, head over to a Kinko's. Yeah, very exciting times for the Solid Verbal. We really really would love to see you. We are we're running low on tickets, so if you are on the fence, just just come on out. It's a great time. We'd love to meet you.
We'd love to see you. We do this show staring into a screen with all sorts of weird foam on the walls around us. It is. It's a great time to meet everybody, So I really hope you can come out. That'd be great for.
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We will catch you all very soon. In the meantime, stay sold peace,