April Q&A (4/5/2017)

Welcome to the Solid Verbal. I'm 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?

Woo whoo and no, Dan.

And Tye, welcome back to the Solid Verbal, boys and girls.

My name is ty Hildon Brandt.

I am joined as always by my good friend and colleague and co host. Man here's way over there. He is in sunny New York City. His name is Dan Rubistinezer.

How are you? Is it sunny?

I'm all right, it's been on and off. Life has been all right. I had a lovely walk to brunch on Sunday with our pal Bill Barnwell and our pal who I don't think has been on the show, Seth Rosenthal. So that's nice to get outside some football people, sports people, but otherwise on and all. I am running again. Ty are you running? Are you taking advantage when it's sunny?

I haven't yet, No, No, but I will. I absolutely will.

It's been it's been a while since I've been able to run because of my foot, my dumb foot injury. But I'm back out hitting the pavement and I'm gonna tell you something right now, completely unrelated, please, well, sort of related, because I always like to tinker with what I listened to. Sometimes I'll start with music and I'll just ease into a podcast to just sort of keep

It's gonna be May May He says that, yeah, it's gonna be my.

Well, it is getting nice out. The calendar has turned to April, and with April comes a lot of spring football chatter, which I'm sure we'll get into in due time. But one of the things we've been trying to do now in the off season because we really truly do get an unclimbable everest as you once refer to it, of questions that we read and can't answer all the time. So we've been trying to do more regular Q and A type shows, and we've got one in front of

So we've got football, we've got non football, a lot of life tonight, a lot of life.

Yeah, we're just going to try and run the gamut here, yes, and see if we can't help her for ballers out, Dan, absolutely, is.

There anything news wise that you want to get into anything with the NFL Draft that has been standing out to you. We had Brian Kelly call out to Sean Kaiser as not being particular ready. I think he said it in a concern not criticism kind of way. I know, you know, we don't we shouldn't talk about Notre Dame unless we absolutely have to at this point. But it's a fair in general because this is something we saw with Pete Carroll and Mark Sanchez, we saw it with Jimora,

I think they should be honest. I'm not sure if they should do it out. I'm not sure if they should do it publicly.

It seems strange, especially when recruiting, evaluating quarterbacks is already so difficult, and to send a message and to have you know, Notre Dame competes against everybody because they recruit nationally, and so you could have a coach at Stanford, you could have coach at Texas, you could have a coach at Alabama, you could have a coach at Florida, at Florida State wherever. They can all say Brian Kelly's not gonna have your back, and that's pretty rough.

Now.

I still think Brian Kelly should be able to recruit quarterbacks. He's had some success with them, but yeah, not the best of looks. But I understand sometimes why the honesty is necessary. Well do you think do you think Deshaun Kai do you think that was a fair statement?

Absolutely? Absolutely a fair statement. I'm also not going to say he made the wrong decision going because it looks like he'll probably be a borderline first round He's going to go fairly high in the draft. He's not at all at risk of going undrafted. He'll find a team next year.

Correct.

The other thing that I should point out about Brian Kelly, it's a more interesting high wire act for him because there have been plenty of rumors about Brian Kelly potentially jumping to the NFL at some point.

Right now, this is true, and maybe he is looking at this as his last year at Notre Dame, and so he's trying to seem so honest and forthright about quarterback evaluations to seem like an NFL coach in waiting, who knows.

We are going way down the rabbit hole here? Is there anything else in the news.

I don't believe that, if I'm reading this correctly, I don't believe MAC teams will be playing on Saturdays in November.

Did you see this? I saw what's that about.

Basically, they're going all out to get as much attention as possible. And while it's true that a lot of people, especially on social media, turned to action as a sort of fixed midweek, I know the ACC likes playing on Thursday nights and that certainly gets that conference attention, but I it hurts me a little bit. It hurts me a little that there is a conference that year after year generates interesting players, interesting games, sometimes without defense, which

I think on Thursday night games.

So Jason Kirk, in the oft mentioned read option newslatyer that goes out every day talks about college football.

If you're not subscribing, you should. He does a great job.

He has college Football Game Day power rankings, Saturday being number one, obviously. He then goes Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. Right, do you agree with that? Does that feel right to you? Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. The early week games to me really throw me off schedule, So I would probably put those way.

At the bottom.

I think I agree with his rankings, maybe exactly. The defensive Tuesday games is this. It's general if you're into the NFL, you have Sunday, Monday, and now Thursday, and it's nice to get some time off if you're an NFL fan and whatever. But there's no football on Sunday's

Okay, anything else that caught your eye, Dan, No, not really.

I think we could just get into the action.

We'll talk about NFL draft stuff as that sneaks up a little bit closer. When is the NFL Draft, I believe, as we're recording this on Wednesday, April fifth, it will be three weeks from tomorrow, will be the first round.

All right, we got to figure out figure out a show then, and yes we'll get we'll get an NFL show together.

Well, don't phrase it like that. We will get a recently departed college football player.

Shake you going, thank you.

We'll get a college prospects moving to the NFL show, thank you, relatively soon.

So stay tuned.

All right, your questions, Yes, congratulations, Skippy, you've got mail, You've got mail with solid rubal Dan. We've been doing it once a month, but as often as we can. We do our best to pay homage for those of you who write into Twitter, Facebook, fan cred, Instagram, Snapchat, email, Messenger, pigeon, you name it.

Have we ever received an Instagram DM question like somebody sliding into our DMS?

I thought you were going to say something else.

No, we've not gotten any questions nor anything else via Instagram DM.

Did we get a picture of a Johnson a somebody's junk texted to us at our old Google phone address?

We absolutely did, Yeah, we absolutely, yes, we did. We did.

But yeah, send us, you know, send us as often as you'd like. We do, get to as many as we possibly can, but and we do read all the email.

We do read.

We read every email. Even if we don't respond. That's because we're bad people. We will try to be better.

I love when people write in like, oh you probably won't read this actually.

Bam No.

I live for them. I honestly. If you I just want to get someone off your chest. If you ever want to just say, like ty, I love what you do, send us an out.

Soliverbo at gmail dot Co's got a vent. You need a friend?

All right, dum, We've got a long laundry list here of the items that people have sought to discuss with us or sought to have us discuss amongst ourselves.

Dan, where do you want to start?

Uh, let's skip around, but we're going to go some football, some life, some other topics whatever. Let's start with josh at the top of this list. It was pretty recent, but he asked if the Gators are Joshua is how he's listed. If the Gators go ten and four every year but get demolished by Florida State whoever the SEC West champ is and their bowl opponent, will they ever fire mech I feel like they have a mark Rick

Not getting over the hump syndrome correct.

Not getting past you know that that out back Bowl ceiling or that lower tier former BC New Year's Day that is not watched by many people. I will say, I think it's harder and harder, given how national the sport has become to just sort of have a beloved coach. Mark Richt was in Athens forever and became beloved, and even when he was let go, it seemed like people really liked him even as he left, which is very rarely the case, and I think Mack is fairly likable.

Will be gone. I just think that's the level.

They've also got some recent tradition of performing in the postseason with Urban Meyer true That's what I'm saying, right, So I feel like that makes it a little bit more difficult for a guy like a Jim mckawain. It's a long painful death in most cases when you've got this inability to get over the hump. And not to say that things went totally off the rails, although Mark Rick did lose control wink, we touched nudgeways. It's sort of a long painful process when you see this happening.

Right.

What I am most curious about is if he can find a quarterback, because he came in on this assumption that he would instantly breathe new life into the Florida offense, and he has not done that yet. He's now had some time to get his guys in there, and he's going to have an opportunity now to start anew with a young quarterback. So we'll see if he's able to move things a little bit more forward. It helps that he's got the defense. The defense is going to keep

I think that's fair and urban. Meyer, you know, gave himself such a long road by winning like he did early on in his career. And granted, I don't think a number of those players recruited by Meyer and his staff. But at the same time, this is a it's it's weird to say it, but twenty seventeen is different from like two thousand and eight. Oh yes, just it feels like such a different world college football and outside. So

UCLA?

Is Jim Mora's seat actually hot or just the warmest in the Pac twelve? Seems rich Rod is getting there, but expectations aren't as high in Arizona. I thought, I think it's hot, don't you. I think it's warming up. Like I don't think it's that he's on fire. I

Think they can get. I think that will determine the temperature of his seat.

I think it's actually hot. I agree with you that it's not scalding hot. You mentioned USC. There's obviously always going to be this need to keep up with the Joneses across town in USC and US. He's about to load up. They've got Sam Darnold coming back, a ton of talent on both sides of the football. US He's coming off that Rose Bowl win. As you mentioned, They're going to be pretty solid in twenty seventeen, no doubt about it. Not only that, but you've also got a

There is yet to be a PAC twelve South Conference champion absolutely, so the PAC twelve North has loaded up on coaching talent. I feel like the PAC twelve is probably in the conversation for the best conference in college football in twenty seventeen. The profiles has definitely been raised a bit given what Washington did, and with Josh Rosen now coming back from injury, there is an expectation that he will take the next step in his development. Only

So I think you're right fair.

Next question comes to us from I believe his name is Quinn the Day, so he's an Ole Miss fan because they're also win the Day. He wants to know up, I lost my Google doc. We think will be the leading rusher in the Pac twelve, so we'll stay on that topic.

I think it's either Miles Gaskin or Royce Freeman, right, I think.

It's probably coming out of the North. It could be Bryce Love. We know that Stanford offensive line has paved the way for some large chunks these past few years. I would feel better about USC considering how talented Ronald Jones is, but they're replacing a good chunk of their offensive line. Also, not to say that the new guys won't be as good, but it's a little bit worrisome. I think they're going to want to show off Sam Darnold and his ability, and we'll be throwing the ball

I will just for the hell of it, go Miles Gaskin. That's a good tick to take an opposing side. But Royce Freeman is a very compelling pick. He's a bigger running back, He's got top end speed. I think I saw over the span of his career he's averaged something like six yards per carry. He is very much a big game kind of running back. But Miles Gaskin also plays in a very friendly system if you are a running back. He's got a good quarterback, and we know

Here's the problem with the Miles Gaskin thing.

Even though he's as talented as a lot of these guys, most of the time he's sharing carries with Lavon Coleman, who a lot of would argue is the better running back in that backfield.

That's true.

Yeah, I mean, I'm only going Gaskin because you pick Freeman.

That's fair. I listen, I understand the hate. Stay petty, Yes, let's go. Oh, this is interesting because we're talking about the draft, next year's draft. Who are the big names that are standing out to you defensively for next year's draft that will be the first defensive player off the board. He submits arden Key, the very good defensive end for Lsu, Deron Payne Alabama, DeShawn hand Alabama, MIKEA. Fitzpatrick Alabama. I think there's a good, little, good little trend going on

Kind of a little off the radar because he was hurt.

He had the knee injury, and perhaps that's why he's not one of the suggested names in this conversation. But arden Key was unstoppable at LSU. Good.

He's versatile, he can play in almost any system.

Mika Fitzpatrick I think is a good, reliable defensive back. He will clearly find work at the next level. I mentioned Irwin James, my boy Malik Jefferson, Uh huh, he's gonna be in the mix.

Moving to the outside. Yeah.

In Todd Orlando's system. I'm going to give you a wild card name. Yeah, the defensive end from Kansas. I believe led the Big twelve, which is not a huge accomplishment defensively in any category. I apologize his name is it's Durance Armstrong. I want to say yeah, but he's he started receiving attention because David Beatty was the guy who recruited Miles Garrett, tex A and m and has said he sees a lot of the same qualities, but he had like twenty tackles for a loss last year

And I think we'll start shooting up draft boards.

Whenever you have that dominant player on the not great team, right that that pop size it helps.

Yeah. Okay, where are we going next? Which Pac five Pack five?

Which power five school with new head coaches the best chance of going to their conference championship?

Tie? Wow?

Okay, so the Pac twelve, it's just believe Willy Taggart and Oregon, oh and Justin Wilcox.

And Cal Not a bad chance for Willy Taggart. I'm riding down Oregon.

Okay.

In the Big twelve, there is no conference? Is there a conference championship this year?

Is it not? There is?

No?

It's okay, there is? Yeah, new coaches in the Big twelve. Tom Herman, Mmm, interesting, I believe that's I mean, Matt Rule, I know that's not going to believe.

That's not going to be the pick. So Oregon in Texas right now?

ACC wise, who's new in the ACC, Tye. I don't see any that are new in the ACC, so it's not gonna be anybody in the ACC. We did Big twelve, Big ten. You have Tom Allen in Indiana. No, I don't see that happening. Early would love if it did.

PJ.

Fleck att Minnesota, I don't see it.

I don't see it, Tye. But that is the Big ten.

West Wisconsin has a lot of changes, lost their defensive coordinator, Justin Wilcox. Iowa sort of a new look offense this year with CJ.

Bethar gone. Nebraska.

I've heard from a few different people that if there is a team that goes from eight nine wins to like five six, it might be Nebraska. Okay, that's that's the scuttle. As our friend what's his name, Ted Miller in the Pac twelve likes to say the scuttle and Jeff Brohm at Purdue. I don't see that little Early for that, But what the PJ. Fleck thing is interesting to me. That's a nine and four team. I just in terms of comparing against the other options. Yeah, it's interesting.

I would say if I'm picking between Oregon and Texas, Texas is probably a safer play because the PAC twelve North is going to be absolutely loaded, true, so by default we'll go Texas there.

Okay, fair enough.

Next question, let's go to or starting with all the football ones. Actually, let's stay on that subject mentioned Justin Wilcox thoughts on the new coaching staf at Cal. So obviously this all happens sort of after the initial hiring Binge. Yeah, because Cal did not let go of Sonny Dykes until later on in the process. Justin Wilcox has hired a couple of former Oregon slash Ship Kelly coaches, Steve Graywood on the offensive line, Jerry Aznaro on the d line,

No, I don't.

I really like the the offensive coordinator higher Bob Baldwin, the head coach Eastern Washington. So Justin Wilcox has been a good defensive mind recently.

Here's the thing.

Yeah, I like that they've moved away from like the air raid that Sonny Dikes had. I feel like it's gonna take some time for will Cox. If he is the guy to bill cal up into that program, it's going to take him a while to recruit personnel, to get his system in place, and to get that wheel turn in. So if it does happen, it's not going to happen overnight. There's a lot of work to do

Here's one of the weird things and our pals that shutdown Fullcast discussed this a few weeks ago. Cal has put a crap ton of players into the NFL. Now, what's his name, Justin Wilcox cannot claim any of them, obviously, but there is something about Cal and the talent they do attract that has, for whatever reason, played well into getting drafteding to getting onto NFL teams. Right now, you have Tyson Alualu, Keenan Allen, c J Anderson, Aaron Aaron

It's gonna take a couple of years of getting blood from a stone before before they can build up reputation enough to maybe win some of those recruiting battles.

You'll win a couple here and there.

But but would I rather coach Cal or would I rather coach like Minnesota Purdue?

Now the answer can I'd rather coach Cal than Kansas State, even though Kansas State's in that eight nine category Right now, it's just so much tricky. I'd rather coach Cal than Boston College. Yeah, coach Cal then maybe even like NC State, I think they're in a similar position except for maybe the academics. It's tough, but I like Cal's very lean advantages over a number of schools in similar places.

I don't think it's a bad job at all. I think it's a very attractive job.

Yeah, timing's not great though.

Timing's not great, and it does come with a unique set of challenges of obviously being in a very deep conference and having some you know, academic stuff as well that needs to be considered. So yeah, I like the job. I think it's going to take him some time. I am not confident in him being that guy to take them to the next level, but I think there is potential there.

All right, final football question then if if you want less football, if you want more football, whatever, you can go elsewhere, and that's cool. If you want some life stuff, we're going to do that. Final question from Joe. If South Florida's offense is similar to last year and considering their strength of schedule, which by the way, choice, Yeah, all things point to the balls being favored in pass all twelve games next year outside of maybe Bama, what

And said that team way over their tie. I don't see a loss in that schedule.

I don't see a loss on that schedule. Only one member I'm holding up one finger.

Only one member of the broadcasting duo had the audacity to go there.

Very early on. It was you.

So if anyone's going to answer this question, it's certainly not me and my TCU playoff picks.

I believe it would be you. So give us your prediction.

Is there anyone else other than USF that might fall into this category?

So I'm going to get do you have the hype train sound ready for me? More of a hype machine than a tripe machine.

I'll get on that. Yeah. Yeah, it's very industrial USC. Right now.

USC's road schedule is as follows. They're at Cal they're at Washington State, They're at Notre Dame, they're at Arizona State, they're at Colorado. As it appears right now, the US seed is in a better position than all of those teams. Is that not unfair?

Fair? Very fair?

Yeah, And they have Stamford and Texas at home in consecutive weeks early on in the season. But it's at USC, it's in the coliseum, and I.

Believe they in looking at.

Their schedule, they don't play Washington and they don't play Oregon. So those were the two places that if they were.

On the road.

Obviously they wouldn't be on the road against Washington this year after going up to Seattle last year, that you could see, okay, they'll be like zero point and a half dogs. But as of right now, I mean, the best possibility would be Notre Dame's completely retool offense and defense looking really good, and then Notre Dame will probably be you know, six and one, seven and zero at that point and they would be Docs going to the

I like that.

I like that, and it's bold too to go right into the teeth of what is certain to be a pretty formidable hype train, hype machine, if you will. As we enter twenty seventeen, US He's always in that discussion to begin with. This year might be second to none, given the fact that Sam Darnold is coming back and they had a really strong finish to their twenty sixteen season.

Actually, you know what, I will say, Washington at this point too. They're at Stanford late in the year. I'm not saying they're going to be favored. I'm not saying they're going undefeated. But non conference is Rutgers, Montana, Fresno State, road schedule, Colorado, Oregon State, Arizona State. Until they get to that Stanford game in middle of in the middle of November, They've Oregon at home, They've UCLA at home.

It's fuck. It's like an eight and four team year over year, an eight and fourteen, that's fine.

I think this depends on what you go for fried chicken wise, So like Raisin Canes is a tender place through and through, if you love tenders, if you like sauces, the answer is probably Raising can Bojangles. I like that they have Cajun fries. I like their tenders as well, but I think their fried chicken is better. So I'm going Bojangles here. Bojangles is largely in the Southeast. There is one in DC's train station. Uh, I think I'm going Bojangles.

I'm gonna have to take your word for it. I have no idea. The only monkey wrench I was gonna throw in here was that. You know, I've only ever been a Chick fil A as it relates to chicken places, so I don't know.

I'd be curious. Have you never been to Popeyes? I've not been to a Popeies either.

What swear to God, there are no Popeyes around here. The only Popeyes around here in Eastern PA closed down.

That's as much of an indictment on your region of the country.

I I know. I'm not arguing. I'm just saying I do not have easy access to a Popeyes.

I like the caje and fries of Bojangles.

I like the the more the bigger spread of chicken options at Bojangles than Canes. But I love Canes too, Don't do not get me wrong. I will happily go to Canes for a giant bag or box or whatever of Tendo's.

A giant bag, Okay, giant bag.

Jason wants to know is there ever an acceptable public place where birkenstocks? I say that's a hard no, but my friends disagree. Thoughts, do you know what birkenstocks are?

Are?

Are those of sandals?

They are like the Jesus sandals. They're often leather buckle like two buckles. Yeah, slip in, slip out, kind of thing. Yeah, they're not the coolest looking thing, ty, but what do you think.

I don't think.

I have a strong opinion on Birkenstocks. We've made the case on this program time and time again that you know, as it relates to socks, right, you want to make sure that your feet are comfortable. Right, So if you achieve the this is burkin stocks, not burkin socks. No, No, But what I'm saying is, as it relates to feet, Dan, comfort is everything.

Feeling as comfortable as your feet? Yep.

Yeah, if the Birkenstocks give you the level of comfort that you require and you don't care about being fashioned forward, different strokes for different folks, Man, I'm okay with that. I don't personally own them. I don't know if I ever will. I just don't have a hot take on it. Here is my official take.

My take is tie as correct, and I would add this, in the last year, when my foot has started giving me a lot of pain, I'm way more open to foot comfort and whatever that looks like than I was before. But with Birkenstock specifically, if you're on the fence, maybe wait until you're in a very serious relationship before you wear them a bunch, or you're married, or you're in some sort of committed situation, and that won't play a role in somebody determining, well he looks he's just too

I will say this on a different note, but quasi related, while we're talking about foot comfort, I'm willing to submit, along with easy path and wireless internet and smartphones among the truly great trends and inventions of our generation, this whole thing now where people are comfortable wearing sneakers to just about any occasion, that to me is in the equation right there.

Oh yeah, I mean, and there have been nicer sneakers made, like the formal sneaker thing.

Whatever Marty Smith wears all the time. When you see him conducting interviews out at the National Championship.

I interviewed I interviewed Florida's basketball coach Mike White at MSGMS Square Garden during the tournament. He was rocking the same thing. He's a younger guy, looked great, looked totally good.

That movement.

For me, I'm not saying in all occasions I'm for it. I will not be doing it at my wedding, right, But and there are people who have done it at their wedding and it don't begrudge them. If you're able to get away with it in comfort and everyone's cool with it, then you bu But I'm just saying as a whole this trend towards wearing sneakers where we wouldn't traditionally wear sneakers. I am very okay with that, very okay with that.

Jeremy wants to know what are your feelings. I'm bringing a flask to a wedding? Is it okay if.

I bring one?

If I assume they will have a bad selection, Do I go ahead and bring a whole bottle? If that's the case? Is it? Is it okay if I bring a flask? If the reception will be dry? So this was maybe the easiest question that we received in you you are not much of a drinker, I'm not okay. So I feel like I already know what your answer is going to be here. I feel if it's a dry wedding and it's going to be particularly torturous and you'll become a very popular table, I can sort of

Good enough, well that was going to be my point.

That's the problem where just like if I went to wedding and it was hot outside and they were serving you know whatever, there's some barbecue or tacos or whatever it is that like would really pair well with a cold beer, but they only had like bud light or something.

I'd have the bud light, but light's fine. You're right.

I was gonna say, you're not gonna put beer in a flask, are you?

No, You're not putting beer in a flak? So like, okay, they only have like Jack Daniels, and like great, I don't know. I don't even know what nice vot is. But if they only have like Jack Daniels or you know, like lower end stuff, that's fine. Just make it with some ginger ale and get on the dance floor. Come on, we don't we don't need the high end stuff constantly, do we tie?

Do you do you own a flask? By the way, absolutely not.

I was gifted a flask for being in someone's wedding. I don't know what kind of gift ideas you have for anyone.

I don't have groomsmen.

Well, I mean you give gifts to parents sometimes. Maybe maybe you're a new father in law with like a flask for his day job.

Who knows, definitely not, but okay.

I'm sort of uncomfortable taking that with me to places I know a lot.

Maybe like camping, can being something like.

But my whole thing is that if you've got a flask, the reason it exists at all is so you can take alcohol to a place where you're not supposed to be taking alcohol. Right, And I'm not much a rule breaker all the time.

Dan, you know this about like.

A dry like torturous religious Thanksgiving or holiday, you might have a situation you might have aboard there that seems more defensible. I don't know, just drink what's there. All I'm saying is drinking.

If it's an open bar and you take a flask, you're kind of just being a dick.

That's true.

If it's a dry wedding, then it's kind of a different debate. You can do it, but just don't get bombed, right, don't make a fool out of yourself, because if it's dry, there's probably a very good reason why it's dry. So don't be that guy. That would be my only advice.

Tell you know, when you're watching an overnight like Pack twelve after Dark game and you're like, I just got to go to sleep. I'm sorry this. I will see what happens in the morning. And then you check the box score and it turns out Connor Halliday has thrown the ball eighty three times. He threw for seven hundred Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know he finished the game fifty of eighty three. That's what I feel like. Our pal Matt Morris did to our Facebook feed. He was a volume shooter.

This Matt Morris throwing a lot of pitches at us here Dan.

Absolutely, and a lot of good questions I will add, but I'll get to a couple of them. Will we have another EMO episode? Don't know, maybe, but we will one hundred percent definitely welcome Bill Barnwell back for another themed non college football episode.

I gotta say that. I gotta say so.

I tried my best, and I got some comments about this, By the way, I tried my best to go toe to toe with you guys.

When it came to EMO, I know pretty much.

I don't know nearly as much about the genre as you guys did.

I helped my own I did.

Okay, you guys were clearly the superstars of that podcast.

I'm fine with that. I'll accept that.

We talked about doing another themed show that all three of us know a lot about, and I'm very excited about that show.

So also, Matt wants to know I'm juiced for that one. Dan seems to be eating healthier. What is his quote secret cheat food? So I normally eat pretty healthy, but I generally tend to eat healthier because I work out more as the sun comes out in New York and I'm running a little bit more and now I'm gotta look sleek in a wedding suit coming up here.

Ty.

Yeah, yeah, I don't need a ton of sugar. So I guess if I am quote cheating, it will be eating something sweet and the other day at the office. Ty, do you like girls Scout cookies?

Sure? Do you have a favorite line? I'm a fan of the thin Mints? Okay, you like the thin Mints? Yeah?

We have the tagalongs here are just those are for me. I am here for tagalongs. I am here on this earth for those peanut butter chocolate just beauties.

Not a huge peanut butter fin. But okay, oh my god, I love the tagalongs.

I ate four or five of them. I looked at the box. It was an open container of tag alongs. Looked at the box and said, nope, not today, girls outs and immediately ate four or five. I immediately just went for it. And here's my question to you, ty, how long? And we talked about this in the office. If thin mints are a genuine weakness for you, yes.

I wouldn't say a weakness. I like them. What is Do you have a sweet weakness? A sweetness? Chocolate covered almonds? We have them in the office now. Yeah, yeah, I.

Can't control myself around chocolate covered almonds. The two things that I am utterly unable to control myself around are the chocolate covered almonds and the wise food white cheddar popcorn. But that's not really sweet.

No, not a sweet.

But let's say at your desk at work, there was a bowl of just just to the brim tie you like dark chocolate or milk chocolate milk, gotta go milk, milk, chocolate almonds, just a heaping bowl.

If you were given.

One dollar an hour, which is not a lot of money. How long could you just stare at those almonds on your desk without eating one?

Wow? I could probably. That's a very weird question.

Yeah, yeah, I have pretty good willpower. I could hold off for a What could you do five dollars worth? Oh yeah, definitely, I've been I've been doing it for a month. I gave up chocolate covered almonds this month.

But they're not on your desk.

They're not on my desk now, but there is a steady supply of them at the Mysterious day job, and I walk by them on the way to my desk every day.

I could get one Crisp Washington out of this deal. I could not if an open box of tag alongs on my desk.

That's it's my weakness.

Tie.

All right, I'm not doing so well. This is the question that is perhaps the most tie question I could possibly imagine.

Okay, I'm excited.

Which current college football quarterback or quarterbacks do you guys put at the top of your quote? Most likely to end up on the Bachelor end Quotes Big board for this year. That comes to us from John Haggard, which is everything Tied dreams of in.

A question when he falls asleep at night. Yes, wow, who is it? Ty who?

So okay, let's establish this what makes for a good ex player bachelor. So we've had Jordan Rodgers.

I've had Jordan Rodgers, Jesse Palmer.

Jesse Palmer. We've had the Aaron Murray connection. And he was an athlete of baseball Josh Murray. Yeah, Josh Murray was on was Sean?

Was that his name? Sean? Yeah? Sean?

He didn't he played football football at Case State? Yeah, yeah, Okay. It has to be somebody that maybe is good enough to play at the next level, but not in like a starting capacity, Jesse Palmer being being the obvious there. It has to be somebody who I think has a personality that translates well to television because first and foremost are trying to make a TV show With the Bachelor,

Did people know about Jordan Rodgers previous relationships.

Where I'm going with this is I feel like Trevor Knight would have been the correct answer last year. And he, for example, is someone who was dating someone from Duck dynasty or a daughter of someone from Duck dynasty. I feel like that sort of helps to have that in the quiver. Sure, so for me, the obvious answer is Baker Mayfield.

Yeah, that's what Ryan said as well represented this.

Baker Mayfield has the personality, he's too small, too unconventional to make it in the NFL. And he also you'll remember, like two years ago he was in the running for our factoi that malely interested Tom Hammond because he had a girlfriend who went to Oklahoma State. Sure, so, right out of the choot, my my one A is probably Baker Mayfield.

Okay, So I did a little bit of research, ty, not knowing what makes a good bachelor, and just looking at what quarterbacks actually look like, and it seemed the look that they go for, it seems like you'd have to be below the Mason Dixon line, so Oklahoma would count. It doesn't seem like a Minnesota quarterback or a Michigan State quarterback as dreami as Kirk Cousin's eyes were, Penn State quarterback. It just doesn't feel like they're drawing from that area. I looked at Ryan.

Finley at North Carolina Carolina. They said he looks like he is Bachelor material. Okay.

Bryce Ramsey has the name and has the pedigree Georgia, but didn't seem to have the bachelor look to me. Lamar Jackson looked very nice at that heisman.

Sarahremony, you can make a really good case for Josh Rosen too, could make a great case for Josh Rosen.

The UCLA is very all American.

Josh Rosen's an interesting case. If he doesn't turn things around, and there's no guaranteed though I would think that he would, and I'm rooting for him too. But if he doesn't, he certainly got the personality.

At that point.

He probably wouldn't have a whole lot of longevity in the NFL.

And we know.

That he's willing to be a little riskue didn't he invite a fan back to.

His dorm, true an Arizona fan to go on to hot tubs?

So he clearly have no issues with going on national television in a well publicized situation like that.

I'm gonna throw another name at you, Shane Michelle Okay, go on Shane Michelle. I don't know that he doesn't know, don't know that he has an NFL future at this point. Open competition at Texas for the quarterback job. High profile at Texas Dad, notable baseball player. Yep, didn't he put out videos in the off season like throwing to friends that were driving. Oh what was it on the lake? Stuff and boats or something like that. So there is that sort of very not very public but public persona.

Tie. Similar note, is Randy Edzel sexy? Wow? Is Randy Ways to go with that? Yeah?

So it could be asking is Randy Edzel a sexy? Higher at Yukon coming back? Hires Rhet Lashley to run the offense. You know, he's the only real Yukon football coach recently to have a good amount of success, got them to the Fiesta well before taking his dream job. But I went at it from a more analytical approach. I don't know, really what makes a fifty eight year old man sexy?

I don't, but I did some research. Tie.

These are the famous fifty eight year olds we have before us. According to one website, that was the first one I googled.

Or we're not playing hot or not now? Or what are we? How are we doing this here?

Sexier than Randy Edsel? Do you want to bring up a picture of Randy Edzel? I know what Randy Etzel looks like, but I'll pull him. Know what he looks like, pull it up just so you have the visual reference. Okay, Rand, go ahead, I got him, all right. Vigo Mortensen sexier than Randy Edzel. Not sexier, We'll go Vigo on that one. Okay, you have to go. He was he was in Lord of the Rings.

Yeah, yeah, okay, let's see where did my keep there?

Like?

Okay, next up? Sexier than Randy Edzel. Not sexier than Randy Etzel, Neil de grass Tyson, No, No, Randy Acknowledge is sexy?

Tie I do. I'm a big NDT fan, But now I gotta go Randy.

The Prices Rights, Drew Carrey, Randy Edzel, a bit of a womanizer. Yeah, Randy Edzel over Drew carry Mark Cuban, Randy Edzel, Gary Oldman, Commissioner Gordon.

From the Batman series. Randy Edzel, Randy Edseell, Okay, Kevin Bacon, mister footloose.

Probably Kevin Bacon probably, Yeah, Kevin Bacon is way better looking at Randio. Okay, this is a very weird conversation, but I like it. Tim Burton, Randy Etzel, that's very clear. Yes, Alec Baldwin current, Alec Baldwin, got to go. I'm talking still, Alec Baldwin. Yeah, Alec Baldwin, all right.

And these are the deceased Prince, Michael Jackson, and Billy Mays obviously all are sexier than Randy Edseell.

All right. Here is the only other big name.

College football coach that is fifty eight years old, which is strange. You would think that they'll be more given the like popular in sixty, right, But the only one I could find in my pretty extensive search through Lovey Smith is fifty eight years old.

Wow, who is the sexier man in your eyes? Lovey Smith? Randy ets I think I go, love you Smith.

I think that's right. Yeah, I think that's right. But I'm glad we got to the bottom of this and this. Never accuse us of not taking your questions very seriously. Mike Reardan very seriously. All right, Next we have uh, this is a quick one. Sushi is sashimi?

Ti? Do you have a preference. I'm gonna go sushi because I've never had sushimi.

Sashimi. Do you know what sashimi is? No idea, sashimi is sushi or it's sushi fish without the rice. So you're just having a piece of fish, a piece of raw fish, no dip, a little bit of in soy sauce, and some with sabi, but no rice. No, No, I'm gonna go sushi myself because I think great sushi rice really makes the meal.

Can we get to the.

Question about about the animals like the real life train.

This comes to us from Chris. If all the animal named teams were their nicknames trained to play football, who would be the national champion?

This is my This is one of my top ten favorite questions of all time.

Eleven on eleven.

Yeah, who which mascot or not specific mask, but which nickname do you think has the best chance at winning the national championship? So I think we're gonna call it on land because football's played on land.

Well, I was gonna say that's where we have to figure out what we're gonna do because I have to believe like the Southern miss Golden Eagles would have a distinct air raid offense that the Penn State Nitney Lions could not contend with. Right right, His thing here does not specify land creatures, So I'm going to specify ground creatures on land. That's what That's the line I'm going to draw.

I think.

Because of their ability to both stand and run on all fours and hold a football, I think I'm going with cal UCLA bruin. I think is a baby bear. A bruins a baby bear, which is a more difficult task. They're more athletic, I mean they at a younger.

Age, they'd be undersized. Dan, do we have human mascots?

If you're talking about like a cougar or a puma in the wildcat category, then I think you've got a potential there. I'm inclined to say that Nitney Lions also kind of fall into that same category. Nitney Lions a cougar, sure, so I have seen what those creatures can do. And a puma can do something like jump twenty feet straight up in the air, right that level of agility and speed and really just I think intelligence is something that translates to the football field.

I'm leaning bears still just because of I think they're more athletic than a lot of the other four legged armed you know, running and moving on all fours animals. I think they offer more versatility, more size, ferocity, but still agility. But if we're talking about, you know, running, some sort of just like single wing, really basic and we sort of accept the fact that a ball can be attached to this animal in some way. I think the most unstoppable force would be eleven buffaloes.

Right.

That to me is buffaloes can run it up. They can stampede it up to thirty five miles an hour. So we're talking faster than football players at their top speed. Right, we're talking about they're relatively light on their feet, sort of thinner legs, but still a ton of mass, and they lead with their head, which is problematic referee wise. But I'm going I'm staying in the Pac twelve and I'm either're going Bears or buffalo.

Do they call targeting in a game like that? I feel like they don't. I feel like they'd all be with their head. That's true, But you bring up a very interesting point with Buffaloes, it'd be like a team of Craig Hayward out there.

You're running the wedge, I mean you're running the return wedge offense. And we've seen Ralphie run. Ralphie can run once he gets ahead of Steam.

Yep.

The question is get ahead of steam knowing that you've got something like a puma who could just jump over jump over.

Yeah, the agility factor is what scares me.

Huh, this is interesting. Here's another one that I that I enjoyed, kind of along the same lines. This is from Dan. Which conference has your favorite nicknames? He votes for the Big Ten, he says, because they have twelve unique names like boiler Makers and Nitney Lyons, really only two generic ones. He says, the SEC is the worst, with three tigers, two bulldogs in a wildcat.

Right.

I put an inordinate amount of thought into this, Dan, Okay, I have settled on Conference USA. Okay, I was, I mean part of me was AAC. But can continue. Let me read off the names of the Mascotskay, in Conference USA, I challenge you to come up with a better slate of names.

I'm ready.

The forty nine Ers, the Panthers, Owls, Bulldogs, Thundering Herd, Blue Raiders, mean Green Monarchs, Owls, owl Golden Eagles, Miners, road Runners in Hilltoppers.

It's very good. That is as a strong list. I mean, he may have been referencing Power five conferences, but I don't care.

No Mountain West is decent. PAC twelve is fine. Nothing. I mean, the Cardinal is kind of cool.

Buffalo's is obviously relatively unique. AAC, We've got owls, Bowls, Knights, bear Cats, We've got East Carolina is the Pirates, which I think that's pretty dope. The Huskies is pretty normal. The Midshipman, like the midshipman. Yeah, like the midship not just a hurricane tie a golden hurricane in Tulsa, not just a wave, but a green wave with that helmet, that sort of throwback helmet. Got the Mustangs, not just Broncos or anything like that. Mustangs. You've got your Cougars

Another one here he mentioned a big ten and he's not wrong. But one other one I'll throw in here. Acc not bad, m Okay. He got some common ones Eagles, Tigers, sure, but Blue Devils, Seminoles, yellow Jackets, tar Heels, the Orange Cavaliers, Hokies, and to round it out, the Demon Deacons.

Not bad, not bad.

We got time for one or two more, one or two more. These will be relatively quick. I'm going to save a couple of these for when we have Doctor Jane on because got very personal and I like that. Walker wants to know he has to plan a bachelor party for the late summer. Looking for a good spot in the continental the United States, Vegas not an actual option because it's going to be very hot in late summer, which also sort of takes away Austin, Nashville, Charleston, some

Yeah.

Absolutely, you can go to a Cubs game, you go to Wrigley, easy to get to. I don't know where Walker is from, so, but Chicago's pretty central to everybody. Yeah, go to Chicago for one night and you know, have a great meal, you know, walk around, you know, maybe do something on the lake. I would then go to either Michigan or Wisconsin and try to get a lake house there. The summers are pretty mild up there. You can have a great you can grill, you could just

Again, I have a decent idea doesn't happen often. But where are we going? Final question here?

Final question? This is going to say a lot about you as a human. Okay, man, it's about somebody living in twenty seventeen.

Yeah, Taylor has a cold.

Oh, he's sick in bed? What's your best cold remedy?

I am a big fan of the old adage. Feet a cold, starve a fever, they starve a flu.

I've heard star of a.

Fever, but I suppose you could starve the flu as well. When I have a cold, if it is just chills, I do my best.

Stuff my face.

I eat as much as I can without making myself uncomfortable. Does it need to be what do you eat? A giant cheese steak, can just be. Soup, can be comfort, food, can be almost anything. When you got a cold, I think every everything's fair game.

Sleep your ass off, Sleep like it's your job. Sleep like crazy. Just keep rebooting your body. Drink a ton of water. I generally, even though I love tea, I will avoid tea when I have a cold because tea actually lowers your body temperature. Yeah so that's not even though it's warm going down at that moment, it lowers your body temperature. Which is why they say when you have a fever, to drink tea because it actually lowers it. Eat a ton of Relatively, you have a turkey sandwich

Follow up question sleep like it's your job. Final question follow up HM to what end do you believe in something like emergency?

I'll have it occasionally if I start to feel myself getting sick, But I don't believe in it in any sort of significant way. Just because the vitamin C is good for you. Thing was sort of a hoax from like the seventies by like some just random doctor. Vitamin C is fine for you, but it's not going to cure your sickness. So you know, putting vitamins into your body is fine generally, when you have them in unnatural forms like airborne or emergency, you're just going to pee

There you go.

Sage life advice here from Dan Rubinstein, maybe a little from me too.

We got a bunch of We got a bunch of questions involving like relationships and personal matters. And wedding stuff. I'm going to do my best to book the always difficult to book Doctor Jane for a return appearance this spring, so we will get more questions. You have any questions about life, relationships, inner working, politics kind of stuff. I know, Ti, you've been dying to do a bathroom medic hit show, So.

This is not made up, correct. I could probably go for about an hour on Bathroom Medica.

But no, we're going to have a life talk with doctor Jane. Maybe we'll bring Ryan in as well at some point, so we'll get to some of those questions. Then I am pretty much all talked out now, Ty. No sponsor tonight.

No sponsor tonight, oh man, so you know whatever you want for dinner. They must have heard the last show. No sponsor tonight. Sponsors will be back next week.

All right.

Subscribe at iTunes dot com, slash Solid Verbal, don't forget. You can email us whenever your heart desires. As Dan mentioned, as I mentioned, we read them all. We love getting them, so hit us up. Soliverbal at gmail dot com. If not there, look to Twitter, look to Facebook. We're always kind of surveying the landscape, seeing what people have to say.

So don't hesitate.

Please do reach out and we will be broadcasting all off season here on the podcast feed, YEP, our website soliverbal dot com. Send it to your friends, share it on social, do what you got to do to get the word out. We'll be here all off season long, preparing for the long dol drums of the college football off season and getting you all geared up for the twenty seventeen season, like what five six months from now?

It's a while from now, ty, Yeah, Okay.

On that note, Dan, I know you are headed for parts unknown here shortly after the show, so safe travels.

Thank you very much. Well, I talk to you next week. Yes, I'll be here. I'll be ready, all right.

Very good for that guy over there, my good friend Dan rubenst for myself, Tie Hildebrand, thanks again for joining us on the show.

We will catch you next Week's say solid peace.