Welcome to the solid verbal.
Ill 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 Dan and Tye.
Welcome back to the solid verbe of boys and girls. My name is ty That guy over there is Dan Rubinstein. Yeah, this is a bonus verbal that you got tonight.
It's a Thursday.
We normally put a show out on a Wednesday. But Dan Rubinstein, let's talk about this.
Why are we doing this? Q and A show? What's up?
We take our cues from the great Edward James Olomos, who familiar with his filmography, Edward James Almos.
I'm familiar with Edward Norton, but ed you know Edward James Almos.
I have no idea who that is.
Okay, So he starred in which I haven't seen. But he was the star of Battlestar Galactica, which I'm sure you've heard of.
I've heard of.
Yes, he was this, well, not the star but a co star in La Bamba, the Richie Valens story.
Okay, yep, you.
Know Pada bay la La Bamba yep, yep, he is. He is an esteemed actor I think, probably into his seventies now, and he had a role which I would I would venture to guess seventy one percent of kids that grew up in southern California at some point we're forced to watch this movie in school, probably in seventh eighth grade, and the name of that film was Stand
and Deliver. And it's about an inner city teacher who tutors, or not tutors, but teaches a bunch of kids who nobody thought would amount to anything academically leads them to big ap calculus. I want to say, scores, very inspiring, deep plot right there. I want it's a deep plot. It's great, it's inspiring. And we take our cues because we now both of us stand and deliver. Okay, we're both standing and we're delivering a bonus show.
Right here.
I am standing, I'm hopefully delivering. I mentioned this to you before we hit record, but normally now I don't know about you. Actually I do know about you because we've been doing this for ten plus or you're feeling twenty two. Yeah no, no, not going tailor swift with this, Okay, I don't feel like you have much of a radio voice.
Per se. I feel I have the radio voice. Well you have the radio voice.
But just in general, if you meet you, if you interact with you outside of our podcasting setting, the way that you talk, your cadence, all that stuff, it's kind of one to one. There's not much, not much. There's not an additional layer if you will.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No.
I'm what you see is what you get.
And I'm kind of like that for the most part. I'm the same human and my sensibilities are the same. But I do tend to project in a way when I'm recording that I wouldn't normally project. Like if CYB broadcast that's right, a solid wife Kate were here, she'd be downstairs and she would hear me yelling.
I don't do that in real life. I'm not. I'm not that loud, that boisterous of a person in real life. So where I'm.
Gonna sit down for turkey sausages and say welcome to dinner, exactly, don't do that.
I don't. I don't project in that manner.
So what I was thinking about in the way over here, because it was a long day at the office, as I'm sure so many of our listeners have experienced for themselves long day at the office, a little, a little, just worn down from the week. I am going to do my best to go sans radio voice tonight, So you're gonna get raw, unfiltered, unfettered tie right from the cane plant tonight. I'm going to do my best to not project and just give you as authentic inexperience as possible.
I'm not gonna edit anything out. This is gonna be raw and unedited. Yeah, this is time I unplugged. Tie after dark, verbal after dark. That's what you're gonna get here this evening. And furthermore, we haven't done a Q and A show in a while. We were doing these once a month in the off season. Yeah, if only because we had nothing else to talk about, and now we had to grow up and mature and all that
and talk about real life college football stuff. But we still do get the questions, and we just wanted to get people a bonus show. Actually, they're going to be multiple bonus shows coming at you, not just last week, but in the weeks to come, and which we can get into here in a little bit. But you were kind enough to solicit questions from I saw a variety of different platforms today.
Yes, yes, And this is like the asterisk to today's and the rest of the season's bonus Q and A shows, which I don't know how bonus they are for announcing them, but I'm glad we are announcing them because people can expect them and it holds us accountable. The questions that we are answering are questions that have to do with this season itself. It's a mid season Q which will devolve into latter season Q and a's whatever. But we
got a lot of really excellent questions. But like, hey, if you could be any kind of popcorn and you and you had to be a popcorn eaten by SEC coaches, we will save those.
The coach questions are the ones.
Those are the ones that we kind of strike I think almost instinctively at this point.
Yeah, your hypothetical coach questions, We've we've gone a lot of directions with those, but we've gotten a lot of like I'm moving to a new city, what should I do for dating and a new job and apartment. We're happy to talk about those type of hypotheticals for us and for the but we're going to save those, yeah, like February or June. So we're going to attack the most relevant to the middle of the season questions that have been asked of us today and then also at
least this week and next week. Do you remember the episode is a flashback episode The Simpsons where Homer was climbing up to a clubhouse in a treehouse and they said it's the No Homers Club. Yeah, yeah, ye, and then there was already a Homer and it was no Homers. We're doing an only Homer's Club segment at the end of these episodes. Today we are going to be joined well, I will be joined by Jeff Schwartz, and we are going to nerd out about the organ season thus far.
If you don't want to listen to that, that's cool, Just stop the episode and move on with your life. Next week we'll be doing some Notre Dame with the Notre Dame guests, and you're going to flex those muscles, Tye that you've been yearning to stretch so many musya and you know it is squat sober Tye. As you know, sure coaches with the Scroolers skip leg day, yep, never skip leg day, I have real sore standing and delivering as we speak. So that's what we're going to do.
And I'm ready to dive in with some q's and a's if you are.
Yeah, absolutely the one thing that I would ask though. But I'm really going to try to hold true on this no radio voice thing.
Mm hmm.
And you've known me for a long time again, independent of the whole podcast thing. If ever, I, if ever I slip into radio mode, I want you to just go buzz or make some sort of noise, okay, so then I can try get level set and kind of come back into just normal time mode.
Okay.
I think the low point of your radio voice, neess was when you told Mama h to follow you on Facebook fancred Twitter. That was weird and she didn't know what you were talking about. And we want the real tie. You're gonna get the real tie tonight, all right. Just make sure that I make sure that I stay true to myself. Do you have our our Dave Letterman sound? Uh?
Hold on talk a little bit while I find it. Oh, okay, cool, We've got a lot of good questions here.
We asked four questions from Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and Soliverbaltgmail dot com to which any of those you can always send questions.
But we got a lot of good ones.
There's a couple of slightly off topic sub questions, but I feel like we are we are really going to hone in on stuff that is relevant to this season. Also, Ty is drinking I believe sparkling water and tonight I am drinking a ginger turmeric tea with a little bit of honey. Okay, I got it. That is I found my instrument.
Sorry, it took me so long.
I had to rebuild my sound welcome back. I was talking about my tea. Here we go, Here we go.
Congratulations Skippy, you've got mail, You've got mail on the solid rubal. That took a lot longer than expected because my soundboard app crashed on Sunday morning. When everything else crashed for us, so did the soundboard and I've had to rebuild it.
So all the buttons aren't place yet.
But as often as we can here on the program, we try to pay homage, homage.
To Harver Ballers and whatever questions come in. So here we go.
That was a little radio voice. It was little radio was it right there? I'm sorry, Yeah, a little bit, It's okay. First question from Shoeless Sean. This is a good entry point. How are you two doing? How are we doing?
Yeah?
Like life as as a as an item or just independent?
What is this question? When someone says, how are interpret it? Interpret it?
How you?
How you like? How are we doing?
Let's say how are we doing together? In conjunction, the show is doing well? The show is doing well, the show continues to grow.
I feel like, and maybe I can only speak for me with this, but I feel like me personally and us collectively, we've really been able to dial up our personality and bring out more of who you and I are just as college football fans. So I think we're doing well, and the numbers would seemingly indicate that too.
Yeah. I think we're pinning our ears back and really getting after it. I think we are. Shoeless Sean also says, do you have any annual autumnal outings away from college football season? As we enter into autumn and then we're gonna I promise we're getting into colleg football topics. I really don't. I'll take this one first. I outings. I don't have any kids. I live across the country from most of my family. So outings wise, it's just generally with Jody with an eye and we keep it pretty simple.
We will go for walks. You know, we have Central Park and Prospect Park obviously, so only a slim amount of people can relate to that that are listening. But I'm a big outdoors person walking running, you know, I'll listen to a podcast while going for a walk. That's I'll like a good crisp baar walk. So that's that's all I can really offer.
Okay, Well, I have an outing coming up this weekend.
I talked about the five k that I'm going to run right that I haven't trained for at all, and some folks were asking, like, is it a costume five k where you get to run as Captain America or No, it's not. It's just a normal race over here in Bethlehem that I do every year with my family.
Which would be cool.
It's also going to be ti Vember next month, my birthday. Yeah, so that's sort of a yearly thing. But no, beyond beyond the usual stuff, we got Trick or Treat Night coming up. Do you guys do Trick or Treat Night?
Yeah? We actually just got an email in our building to sign up because there are some kids in our building to sign up so that they can knock on the door and get some candy.
I think we're gonna go big with the candy. Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that because.
I want to develop that reputation. I want to develop the full size reputation.
I pulled an all time old man move a couple months ago. Now, as it relates to Halloween.
Would you give away some walnuts?
No? I thought I probably told you about this, but I guess they didn't.
What.
I was up at Wegman's and I saw and that they were offering the big bags of kit Kats, and I think the mini Snickers bars. They're offering some kind of sale. And I saw this and I was thinking back to last year where I didn't have any and and I was just caught off guard and had to run out and buy a bunch of stuff. And they get you through the nose if you buy it late. It's like Valentine's Day.
So I went.
I came home with like ten bags, ten deluxe bags of candy because they were three dollars apiece. And I'm not kidding. I did this at the end of like July, and I came home and Kate said, what the hell is that?
Why did you do this?
Oh? I guess for Halloween, just so we want to be ready, And she's like, you do realize Halloween is three and a half months away. And that kind of dawned on me that maybe I was I was turning into an old man.
At that point. But I am ready to go.
Yeah, we've got kit kats and we've got I believe it's those Hershey's miniatures.
So we got a bunch of that ready to go.
Oh great call, all right, Derek wants to know. And I'm going to give you some contenders here for you to choose from. Okay, biggest surprise so far this year, good and bad, and I'm going to I'm going to weld this.
I'm going to bend it.
Hopefully it's a malleable enough interpretation, not just good and bad but sort of disappointing bummers, really cool things. I'm gonna give you some options here, all right, yep. So these are the good, positive things that have been a
little bit unexpected. Hawaii six and one Cole McDonald's for a ton of yards being already Bowl eligible after our really low expectations, Colorado with a down couple of years, but certainly surging even after the loss of the loss to USC the magnitude of Tua's season, we figured he'd be good, not world destroying. What Iowa has looked like on offense recently, because we obviously have an immense amount of loyalty to Nate Stanley.
I was told we're in at Iowa show now because we haven't provided them two weeks running.
Is that still that's on you? You set up our preview doc.
I did set up there. I'm you know what it is.
When we veered strong in the direction of NC State, we veered away from Iowa.
We became pro anti Iowa on this program.
What's the It's there's some sort of law. Is in Newton's law for every reaction, there's an equal and opposite.
I don't know that would be those two programs.
Yeah, Buffalo and how good their offense has looked in a down year for the MAC Buffalo has looked strong. And I would say Utah State, Utah State and the Mountain West. There are other smaller situations within teams, within programs, within conferences, whatever that are interesting in a positive way, but those are the ones that I have in a positive direction.
Well, so I would I would push back on the to A thing because it might be a surprise the heights to which Alabama's gone, but it's still to A and it's still an incredible safety net for him playing in that system, having all that talent around him, so he could he could be even better than he is now, and I'm not sure it would truly be a surprise,
not for me. And also on the Colorado front, I'm afraid to say that we didn't expect great things from Colorado because the angry free range Colorado hate that way come away. That's true, as you know from reading the emails. Yeah, I compostable. The answer for me is LSU because oh good answer. When we did our ama on the subreddit reddit dot com slash our slash solid verbal if you're playing along at home, I think I said back then that LSU is going to go seven and five and
Coacho was going to get fired. It's it's apparent to me that that's not going to happen at this point. LSU clearly having a really good year up to I think fifth in the latest Top twenty five. Even if they fall off from this point four, which I don't think is going to happen, it's still is far going to exceed those expectations. So for me, for me, I think LSU is definitely the good surprise. The bad surprise on the flip side. Also in the SEC would be Auburn.
And I'm not going to say I was the highest in the world on Auburn, but for Auburn to be at this breaking point now, it feels like they're at a breaking point with this game this week again, so old Miss I picked Old Miss outright, and I think you went Auburn if memory served. I should know this because we just did the show yesterday.
Yeah, I think I have Auburn winning.
Yeah. Yeah, But it just it feels like they're at a breaking point. They have not gotten that rushing game on track. Jared Stidham has definitely fallen short of at least my expectations. So for me, they would be the surprise on the bad side.
Yeah, losing to Tennessee will warp, will warp some minds, this iteration of Tennessee, which I think Tennessee will be a pretty good program with Jeremy Pruitt, but at this point, losing that comfortably at home to Tennessee that gets people's eyes popping open like saucers. The other contenders I have here because I do obviously have Auburn there, and I
don't know if I'm fully bought in as Auburn. As the disappointment, They're definitely disappointing, but their defense has you know, when the offense hasn't totally let them down, They've looked good for long stretches of this season. I would say Wisconsin just with what their defenses look like Stanford and that is, you know, a multi pronged explanation with losses and Bryce Love just simply not being healthy enough to really get there, the offensive line taking a step down.
Khalil Tate's health, I don't think anybody questions his ability, but what Arizona has looked like with Khalil Tate sort of just struggling to maintain health, what a pretty.
What about Kevin someone at Arizona? Yeah, I expected a lot more on that front. I would also bolt on Michigan State too. Michigan State of course beat Penn State. They just went to Penn State, and I know, I know, and maybe they're turning a corner. But wow, let's say the first five games for Michigan State got me a bit underwhelmed.
Yeah, and then they've worked through their own injury and continue to work through their own injury issues. TCU's offense, I think is pretty surprising that they haven't been able to not even maintain but look somewhere in the neighborhood of where they've been offensively with a new quarterback. Everything about Louisville is my answer.
Or I mean, think about the perception of the ACC.
Right now, it's Clemson and some of Miami, and now Miami is losing to Virginia, so it's basically Clemson and hopefully they continue to look good with the true freshman quarterback. That's not a great reputation. It's okay to have a one great team and the rest if you're the Pac twelve. But the ACC, and especially where the ACC has been these past few years, really looking like one of the deeper conferences, a really good slate of quarterbacks as recently
as a couple of years ago. I mean, the ACC made Nate Peterman look good. That was fun, and now he's a disaster. But think about our perception of the ACC right now.
If Louisville were pretty good, if.
The defense definitely took a step back, but if Puma pass had worked out and they were competitive and fun, even if not a hugely winning team, you'd have Clemson, Louisville, and maybe to a lesser extent, Virginia Tech and Miami.
I assume that you're not mentioning NC State because we're just assumed to be an NC State podcast this point.
We are in NC State Park. How could you be disappointed with NCACT eight?
All right, let's do another one.
So Louisville, Louisville cratering BBG. Can you rank the twenty eighteen We've got a lot of people asking a similar question the twenty eighteen coaching hires, coaching carousel hires.
Okay, so what's that. Well, we're not gonna want to give you some names.
No, I'm just gonna give you some names, and I'm gonna give you a head to head who you've been more impressed with within the context of what they have and what they've done and where they appear to be going. Okay, Okay, Joe moorehead and Dan Mullen. You know those two programs are related to.
Of course, you would put those two against each other, of course, and they played each other.
Yeah, Well, Dan Mullen for me, is the answer.
And maybe maybe he's starting from a place where he had more higher level talent, but there was definitely more of a veteran presence for Joe Moorehead and it's taken him a little bit to figure it out. I think Mississippi State's going to be fine. They've got a big game this weekend which we should find out obviously a little bit more about the Bulldogs. But for me, I just I feel like Dan Mullen has reinstated a sense of hope at Florida and that's really what they were missing.
Felipe Franks has gotten better at quarterback. Yeah, I would go Mullen, but Joe Morehead's doing a good job in his own right too.
And that I mean this is, you know, potentially one of the most important hires when you're a head coach in the SEC. The Todd Grantham higher defensive coordinator has looked very good earlier. So yes, I think Dan Mullen has done a strong early job for the Gators. Chip Kelly against Scott Frost.
Ooh, I guess I go Chip Kelly. Okay, at this point, is it fair to go chip Kelly?
Uh?
Yeah, I would say the battle that he has is probably a little more uphill because of the division he's coaching in at the moment and just the the open nature of it. But I like the high I like the fit, I like the higher little bit more. The thing I'd be worried about a little is recruiting seems to be trending in a better direction for Scott Frost and Nebraska then for Chip at UCLA. They have not really brought in any big, big names. It's been a sort of slow role for them. If you're looking into
the future. So I actually may go Frost here, I may go really Frost. Well, yes, I think, I think because he is on an ascension, whereas Chip Kelly isn't. Necessarily I think I like that the idea of Scott Frost shooting star a little bit better.
Okay, Yeah, I mean, I think you can make a good case for both of them. I probably go Chip Kelly. It just seems like they're figuring out the system and UCLA within the context of a season. This season is playing better, and if they do start to win, if he can get more of his guy here at all the time, right his guys, if you can get if you can get his guys in there, I think we could be in a position where, you know, Chip Kelly wins a little sooner than expected at you Ceiling.
Yeah, I think the good news for both of those that they have in common is incredibly promising true freshman quarterbacks I've thrown into the fire. Yeah, and and there's an encouraging situation with both. Finally, we'll end with this had to head Jimbo Fisher yep, I'll indulge you. Mario crystal Ball, how would you rank their performances?
I like, I like what Mario crystal Ball is doing at Oregon. I like that he is trying to build a physical presence up front, something that we talked about on the show yesterday, how he's trying to get more physical.
And trust me, Jeff and I will momentarily okay.
So I think that I think that's an important step that we knew was in crystal Ball's background, but maybe didn't expect to see so soon at Oregon. So that to me has had an outsided impact on how I feel about this comparison. A and M scares me to death. They scared me to death. But I think my answer here would probably be crystaball by a hair because I'm seeing things I didn't quite expect at Oregon. And on the A and M side, it just A and M's
very good, really soon under Jimbo. It's clear that he's having an impact.
Yeah, both inherited a good amount of talent on both sides.
Yeah, I just I feel like we should have seen this all along at A and M. And it's just taken Jimbo half a season here to assemble the parts and get them playing the way that they should have all along. Whereas Oregon, I didn't expect to see them playing physical football.
Yeah, and I would I measured about crystal ball because that Washington game was a probable Washington win. And so I'm not fully ready to fully hop on board with Oregon playoff contender, even though we got some questions about that they're not a playoff contender. They're just not. I watched every play of this team. They're not the case.
For Mario Cristabal, though, is both with what he's done early, the level of competition that Oregon has beaten or almost beaten, and the same kind of goes for Texts A and M. With how competitive they were against Clemson, certainly not competitive against Alabama. I'm a little higher on crystaball I think right now, just because he doesn't have Alabama in his division, just because he has already beaten the class of the division.
So within that context, I'm going crystal ball. But I think Jimbo Fisher should have texts A and M threatening double digits pretty consistently.
My only caveat if I could.
If Moregan loses this week against Wazoo, I'm gonna switch my answer over to Okay, Jimbo Fisher.
You're upfront about it.
I respect that, all right, Tom f wants to say, And no, LSU beats Alabama, so that'd be in a couple of weeks and wins the SEC Championship, so presumably over Florida or Georgia, Notre Dame in Clemson remain undefeated, Clemson wins the ACC Championship, what scenario keeps BAMA out of the playoff from there? So repeating the mode the method by which they got into the playoff last year, not winning division, getting into.
The final four. What would keep them out if they so?
Okay, so, in this scenario, I'm gonna give you, I'm Sorry'm gonna give you a further baseline. LSU is in, LSU is in the playoff, they win the s LSU, Right, So LSU Notre Dame Clemson, LSU in with presumably one loss, Notre Dame Clemson undefeated. Who is that fourth team that keeps Alabama out?
Okay, Well, first off, I don't think there is one, because I don't think the Big Twelve is getting a team in. I don't think the Pac Twelves getting a team in. I don't think the ACC is getting a second team in there. I wouldn't even know who that team would be. I think the only scenario that would keep Alabama out would be another loss somewhere on the
schedule for Alabama. And I don't know if it's going to be the week after against Mississippi State, if it's gonna be the Iron Bowl the last week of the year. But I think in a scenario where they've only got one, you don't think an undefeated Ohio State would get in. Forgetting Ohio State never mind, yeah, never mind, No Ohio State would get in for sure.
Yeah, I would say undefeated Ohio State. I would say if Michigan runs the table from here and potentially beats Oklahoma twice, I totally forgot the Big Ten. That's that's how long I know it's been. I know it's been a long day.
I apologize, just redact strike everything from the record that I just said.
I'm not editing it out.
Send Jim Delaney a telegram. I apologize. Best so undefeated Ohio State. Yes, I don't think that's a question. I don't think that's a serious question. If Ohio State runs the table and beats Wisconsin or Iowa, I guess in the Big Ten championship game, although not the most impressive, they're taking care of business and they scheduled well. Texas running the table, I don't think they will, but if they do, it's a bad loss, but probably not. You
know what's worse. I guess getting murdered by Iowa like Ohio State did last year, not getting in or losing relatively close to a probably.
Average Maryland team. I don't know.
Beating Oklahoma twice is a pretty sizable feather. And then I would say Michigan with as if Notre Name runs a table and that's Michigan's only loss. That's as good a loss as losing to LSU away from home, both away from home, and that would then mean Michigan beats Ohio State in Columbus, they've already beaten Wisconsin. They would then have Michigan State wins and a Penn State win and then you know again potentially over Wisconsin again and Iowa.
I would put Michigan in over Alabama not winning their division. If Michigan were to win the Big Ten championship at twelve and one.
If Alabama has one loss and doesn't win the SEC, would you put them in over Notre Dame.
It to me at this point Notre Dame has a style point responsibility to me. To my eyes, that mean nothing to this process because Notre Dame has what Florida State, Northwestern Navy, Syracuse and Yankee Stadium USC I might be forgetting somebody, but especially after struggling with Pitt, who by the way, is like fully in the ACC Coastal race right at two and one, Notre Dame is they now have a style point responsibility to me, and if they play down consistently, I think pretty hard about it.
It's an interesting dilemma. I think that's the road the conference champions. Yeah, I think that's the real dilemma here. And I apologize to everyone for screwing that up. Believe me, it has been a failure. Okay, you're good, But a one lost Alabama against an undefeated Notre Dame, I think is an interesting proposition.
I'm a Notre Dame fan. Everyone knows that Alabama. It's a style point thing.
I don't know what it's a thing of. I think Alabama is a better team. I think there's any denying that Alabama's best team in the country. To leave them out in favor of really any team, to me is doing them a disservice because Alabama is so damn good. You got to win the games in the schedule. That is a system that we set up here. So if they lose, and depending how badly they lose, is all hypothetical.
Of course, you can make a case for leaving them out, but for me, that's a hard sell because I just think they're the best team in the country. They're blowing everyone out. These games have not even been competitive so far, but.
We got My favorite question is one we're not going to answer, but it's related to that, to what you and we just were talking about. And somebody asked about Ian books NFL chances and that was my favorite thing.
Next topic. All right, here we go.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah bah. How are we doing? We've already answered that question.
Okay, here we go.
This is from either copper Nick or maybe Copernicuss. It's short for but Copper Nick.
Ten.
You must build a team that can beat Alabama. You can use any player coach from any other team. Who do you pick? And I will I will adjust this question a little bit too. Last year, our power Richard Johnson and I did this with specific units. If we're going to build a super team to beat Alabama, where would we go with said super team? I would go this is me and I'll give you some time to think about this tie.
I would go probably with Justin Herbert at quarterback.
I would go with the Wisconsin offensive line, and I'm only I can't repeat any of these any of the school I'd probably look at Ohio State at running back, if not running back, receiver. And if I were to go Ohio State at running back, I'll probably go Oklahoma at receiver. Defensive line is Clemson. It's a pretty easy call for me. Linebacker, I like Auburn's guys, I like Washington's guys. I will probably go Auburn there. Defensive backs, I'll I think I'm just gonna lock in LSU there
with Grant Delpit and Greedy Williams. I think that's my answer if I'm gonna if I'm gonna go across the major position groups, and it did hurt not to take special teams with LSU and Cole Tracy, but I'm going to leave that too open to interpretation.
I would go Trace McSorley and coach who would you go with? Coach wise?
Uh, coach, can we bring Hugh Freeze out of retirement? You seemed to have a lot of success against against Alabama.
It's a good answer. Trace McSorley is my answer. At quarterback.
He does enough okay with his legs and with his arm. I think to cause it's you need a dual threat guy. I would take Old Missus wide receivers because they're big and very talented.
Mm hmmm.
Probably we've seen them against Alabama's defense backs well, we have. But that's why I went away from Old Miss.
That's a good point. Who did you go with? Oklahoma's? Oklahoma? I'm still gonna go, like Hollywood, give Old Miss another chance, all right, okay go I agree with you running backs, Ohio State.
We'll take Wisconsin offensive line sure, Clemson defensive line sure, Auburn linebacker.
I agree with that.
I might go Michigan defensive backfield, very good on the defensive backfield, very good defensive You could take Michigan's entire defense if you want it.
I would take Yeah, I would take Michigan at linebacker as well. I kind of forgot about that.
Yeah, but you can make you can make a case for.
A variety of different answers there on the defensive side.
Yeah. Okay.
Uh And so you coach wise, I hate your Trace McSorley pick, by the way, I know alough you didn't.
You hate Trace McSorley just in general.
So I don't need Trace McSorley. I watched him play against Michigan State last week and I was inking, Alabama big game quarterback. Okay, big game quarterback. It was pretty big game big game quarterback. Next question, we got a couple of Iowa State questions. Let's go to how embarrassed are all involved parties going to be when no one sees Iowa State Texas because the game got exiled to the Longhorn Network. I totally disagree with the premise of
this question. That's from Jacob. I loved watching Army Oklahoma on an illegal stream. There was something, There's something very bonding about everybody being in this same weird position and having to go to Twitch or periscope or a weird stream that's installing malware as you speak, as you watch on your computer, that's tracking your every movement. And that's how many of us. If this game is close, if this game is interesting, if this game has stakes, are going to watch.
It does give a feeling of mystery to it, doesn't it. Yeah?
Yeah, if a tree falls in a forest kind of element, Yeah, it really happened. And this, by the way, was one of the more interesting games last year. It was what I think seventeen ten, seventeen seven Texas wins in ames. That was the Jacob Park maybe the last Jacob Park game for Iowa State. Wow and cut, thank you, Thank you, and Iowa State's defense became weirdly influential. Everybody started running a crazy dime in the Big twelve.
I like that. Jesse wants to know.
Has the fourteen playoff devalued the New Year six? It used to be that making a New Year six game was a huge accomplishment. Now it seems like a consolation prize.
I well, yes and no.
I think the BCS devalued, to be honest, I think the BCS de valued the balls the second they moved moved away from the old system where everyone would play whatever Bowl matchups they ended up with, and then the voters would decide who the champion was whenever they moved away from that system, in which essentially.
Bowl games weren't.
Fully exhibition games the way they are now when they moved away from that, and now to the current model.
Where we have a quote unquote true national championship game.
We did previously or tried to with the BCS, and we do now obviously with the playoff system. Yeah, I think by default the values those other games. I don't think there's any way around it.
I remember loving New Year's Day so much more a while ago, and it's hard to say more. Multiple things aren't true. It's hard to say that. That was so much more fun when that was all we knew and all we had.
When you were.
Watching you know, Wisconsin, Stanford or you know whoever in the Rose Bowl and you have a fun Sugar Bowl and an Orange Bowl would be Florida State and somebody Florida State Nebraska. There was that element of we're the only sport that weirdly has five kind of four championship games, six championship games. There was something that was cool about that. Well in a very misleading way. Well yeah, no, So I think there's two questions here. The question that Jesse
asked us is are those bowl games devalued? And I think the answer is yes, if you're asking me if New Year's Day as a football holiday has been devalued, And that's a resounding guess. And I'm with you on that front.
Whenever they got away from that old bottle where we just had more games and it was more higher level matchups that we could watch on New Year's Day, that was the best. I love that as a kid. You don't get that anymore. You have a couple hand you have a handful of games that are spaced out. But yeah, there used to be more games on New Year's Day, and it was just a football palooza, kind of like a college football Saturday, with really matchups that we wouldn't
have otherwise. That was fun And if there were any way to get back to that, I'd be all for it.
There was something, I swear, I'm going to try my best not to get gross here. Tie not gross, but you know, deeply sexual. There was something when spreading all of those games around like that and knowing that was it, that's all we had. There was something about it just being I'm really trying hard not to be gross, so I'm not going to be. All I'm gonna say is as it relates to the playoff, I think the fore
play may be better than the main event. Okay, I don't look forward to the playoff like I do trying to. I don't look forward to the actual playoff itself as much as I like seeing it all sort out in the coming in the weeks leading up to it. Yeah,
the playoff is not a fun experience right now. No, Well, I mean, and part of that is the inevitability of Alabama and teams like Ohio and Clemson being there more often than not, So there is there's nothing really fun, whereas like the Rose Bull you have like Washington Purdue one year, I really love the Rose Bowl. So okay, that's where I stand right now.
All right, we'll go where are we going next? Here?
Let's go to Jason Horvath wants to know what must Michigan do to beat Ohio State? Well, so what is our state of the mid season with Ohio State and Michigan.
We talked about Ohio State's defense a little bit on the show yesterday, and even on Sunday they're given up points. They're not as impenetrable as we've seen in recent years, probably as they could be this year. It seems like that's a real tendency and that's part of the reason why Purdue is only like a two touchdown dog at home because they score points, and you can put up
points against Ohio States. So I think what Michigan has to do is, first off, they need to control clock because Ohio State, with Dwayne Haskins and all of their weapons on offense, they can strike you pretty darn quick.
Michigan needs to control the clock. With their rushing game.
We know they like to run the ball and at Shaye Patterson needs to avoid turnovers. Quite frankly, I think there is that streak in him where he tries to make something out of nothing. He needs to not do that, and the defense needs to find a way to distrup Dwayne Haskins. I don't know if the formula to beat Ohio State is as complex as it has been in
previous years. Lord knows, they still have the talent, but I think whatever, you've got such a high level defense the way Michigan does this year and an offense that does seem to be improving, the calculus isn't quite as isn't quite as complicated now. They just need to play their best game of the year, which is no small task, and they need to shut down certain assets, and they need to shut down certain aspects of that Ohio State offense to really give themselves a puncher's chance.
Yeah, I think Michigan can play them pretty much head up on defense. I don't think they need to do any thing. I don't think it's that complex.
I just they need to play really solidly.
Yes, I think they have the talent on all three levels that they just play their own game and they're
in a good place. The game is in Columbus, which will post an incredible challenge Offensively, I think that's where everything is for Michigan because keeping this defense well rested is huge, and if they're able to generate some bigger plays on the ground with Chris Evans and Karan Higdon and Shaye Patterson continues to sort of evolve within the Jim Harbaugh Pep Hamilton offense, if they're able to get more consistent performances from their pass catchers, I know Nico
Collins is the latest to sort of step up. I think that's enormous because I think you're right. Ohio State has a good defense, but not a great great defense
right now. And maybe by the end of the season, maybe they're more of a grower, maybe they'll come into their own, But right now, I think Michigan has a like, if you had to give me a zero out a one hundred percent chance of Michigan going to Columbus and winning this game outright probably as I don't know, two and a half, three and a half point dogs, whatever somewhere around there, what percent chance.
Would you give it? What percent would I give.
Michigan going to Columbus and just win winning the game out right, correct, man, I I got I'd probably give him like a thirty to forty percent chance.
Yeah, I think that's where my head is. My head had.
Thirty eight Yeah, yeah, I mean I think they have eight percent. They have a pretty good chance of doing it.
Yeah, all right, So that's where we're at right now. With that, that'll change this weekend. We'll go a long way with Michigan playing Michigan State.
Yeah.
With the success Notre Dame has had thus far since Brian Kelly, Gosh, we are steering into Notre Dame, aren't we all? Homer episode? Yeah, with his success the Irish have had thus far since Brian Kelly made the switch from Brandon Wimbush to Ian book. That's right pit by not one, not two, not three. Do you envision more coaches in the future being proactive when it comes to switching quarterbacks prior to have it being forced upon them
via losses. I think this is one of the more intriguing questions of the season overall, is managing quarterback play in general. With what we've seen at I mean Nebraska losing a quarterback before the season, starting with what's happening at Georgia and Clemson, it's fascinating. Alabama, well, it's okay.
So not all situations are created equally, and I bring that up. So we've had a couple instances of quarterback changes, all of which were under different circumstances. Do we count the Tua move in the National Championship last year as falling under this cant making a change before losing? Yeah, making a change before losing. So that's a very recent, very note example of it working out. And then we've had another one this year. Of course, with the move
to Trevor Lawrence away from Kelly Bryant. We've had it to happen obviously at Notre Dame. Not every school has the same embarrassment of riches that Alabama and Clemson have. Who knows, we might see it at Georgia before the end of the year two. But like I hesitate to say that we're gonna see more of this, I just think we're in a really extraordinary season where we knew headed in there were gonna be a ton of quarterback questions around college football, and we knew that this was
a possibility we would see some quarterback changes. I just don't think we expected to see as many as we have and to see, oh, by the way, so many of them work out. I think these are kind of extraordinary circumstances that you wouldn't see otherwise in a normal college football season. So I don't necessarily think it's a
harbinger for anything to come down the line. I just think it's just sort of one of those blips on the radar where we had many situations in a very short period of time all kind of work out.
Yeah, And I think it's this specific situation with Notre Dame was because Notre Dame, with the talent on both sides of the ball, wasn't separating itself from average to below average teams. Yeah, and we also not meant to insult those teams, but we had signs that Brandon Wimbush was not leading touchdown drives where he should have been.
Yeah, And in that sense, it's very normal the way that they moved away from him. It's dramatic because it's Notre Dame, but we saw it all last season with Wimbush. We did see a little bit of book come in in big situations and perform. And though it was a little bit unexpected to bring him in and start him
against wake Forest. I feel like that's a lot less expected than the balls that Nick Saban had quite frankly to bring in Yeah Tua in the National Championship, or even the balls that Dabo Sweeney had to bring in Trevor Lawrence over Kelly Bryant really.
With no body of work. That those, to me are.
Are really extraordinary that they would have the confidence to go to those guys. Granted two had a little bit of work last year beforehand, but still those to me are incredible that the coaches would go to guys with virtually no experience in key situations, and even this year obviously with Clemsons. So the book move, though dramatic, is is far more normal than some of the other ones we've seen.
Yeah, the Clemson one is interesting because Kelly Bryant had been good this year. I mean, obviously he hit a wall against Alabama last year and most most teams did, so we had a concept that Kelly Bryant may struggle against the very best of competition. But this wasn't you know, the Kelly Bryant situation. Wasn't Brandon Wimbush barely beating Ball State or Vanderbilt or something like that. So that was that's more surprising to me. But yeah, I think you're right.
I think most teams should have the luxury of switching quarterbacks undefeated and only beating teams by by narrow margins. That that's I think the unique quality of it.
Yeah, where are we going next?
Maybe final question? We'll see this because it was worded so magnificently. Chris wants to know which team has the biggest second half turnaround because every now and then they fall apart, or because they're forever is going to start tonight? Good job, Chris, great, That question is ti even I tried to read it as dryly as possible to see if you would pick up what I was throwing down. Okay, so what the second half turnarounds? What is the question here?
So presumably a team that has been disappointing in the first half of the season will come on strong. Okay from this point on recording this October eighteenth, So there are games tonight actually, so if like Stanford for example, yeah, could be one of those teams. They are playing Arizona State tonight. We'll see what happens. We may sound like idiots by the time people listen to this. If they
get killed by ASU. But who, in your mind is a prime turnaround candidate who, let's say has a losing record right now.
Has a losing record. Okay, well, yeah, I'll give you some candidates of TEA. Give me some options here, so from.
The ACC and I'll be realistic here. So I guess Louisville. You know, they have pieces, They've had a really nice receiving corps. They have a losing record. North Carolina, Georgia Tech a top maybe twenty five to thirty offense in Georgia Tech, but the defense has been kind of disappointing. Kansas Kansas State both have losing records in the Big twelve and the Big Ten. I think we can scratch Rutgers off losing records. From the other side is just Nebraska.
Maybe Nebraska has a turnaround. You haven't stopped me yet, so I'm not sensing you're feeling great about anybody.
I think, well, I'm going to go to one that you haven't gotten to and one that you did. Yeah.
I'm intrigued by k State because, like we said on Barnes, Yeah, like we said on the show, I think last Wednesday and again on Sunday. If k State just decides if it we're running every play, that might be more what they're equipped to do at this point. So kse State to me is one that I can see them turning around. And I'm real curious to see what happens with UCLA now because they're one in five.
That was gonna be my answer, Yeah, one in five.
It does seem like they're kind of making a shift offensively as well. So if that system takes and they keep having success, I think I think UCLA is a is a pretty good answer. One answer that probably won't translate to wins and losses, but just a team that I think has had a turnaround this season. In many
regards Oregon State. We didn't talk about John Smith at all, the job he's I think it'll translate into some losses, but it'll translate into but there's definitely been a market improvement in the revers this year, and that if you're an Oregon State fan, if you're listening now, I don't know how many we have, but I do think they are better and I hope they continue down the path that they've been going down so far this year because there's been improvement.
It's a year zero situation. Yeah, and absolutely you can tell that there is belief in Jonathan Smith, both among the players on that team, guys transferring in. They have some big name transfers coming in Addison Gums, Tristan Jebia, Gabbio, whatever, Tijon Lindsay also from Nebraska, big names, big time recruits from a past couple of years. UCLA is interesting to me just because we've seen the momentum start with how they played against Washington, you know, beating Cal.
They have Arizona this week. The back half of.
Their schedule is not great, but what they look like against Utah, Oregon, USC Stanford should be an indicator and it should perhaps pick up their.
Recruiting momentum a little bit, which is I think in need.
So definitely, I think those are my answers right now that you know, you might not translate to wins. But and even like Arkansas has looked pretty, they have some fight to them. Yeah, even though it hasn't hasn't sort of caught in the winds, call some plot, a little bit of pluck, some pluck, he says. I'll tell you one team I'm not in on, Yukon. I am not in on sexy Randy eds huls Now Yukon.
We haven't played I think we haven't played sexier than edsseel in a while.
Maybe on Wednesday we'll do it.
Can I give you a couple right now?
I mean, yeah, it's a free show, free country.
It's a free show, all right, before we get on with Jeff Schwartz.
So here, hold on, here's what I wanted to like.
We're not editing any of the stuff out now because we're enjoying ourselves here with the Q and A, and we're already running close to an hour. We'll put out your Oregon chat with Jeff is like a separate thing altogether. Okay, all right, so we don't have to try and bolt those two together. We'll just we'll make that a whole separate thing and we'll close out strong here with the Q and A.
Yeah, okay, are the following people sexier than Randy Edzel? This comes to us as a game that I don't know we started for no good reason a long time ago. Definitely no good reason. This is all science, ty. You just tell me if objectively these coaches are sexier than Randy Edzel, and by all means you can have every advantage and pull up a picture of Randy Etzel right now, yep, to just get a sense for him his topography.
Yeah, if you're listing at home or at the office, just pull up go to Google image search and pull up the biggest you can filter by large images, get the biggest, highest res image you can of Randy Edzel. And if you're driving in a car, we can't. We wouldn't advise you to do this while you're driving the car. But maybe if you want to pull over somewhere and just pull it up on your phone just so that you can play along, play the home game with us here.
All right, Uh, let's start here with Charlie Strong.
Wow, that's a good I say. I think so, Charlie Strong, looks like you could still play.
Yeah, yeah, this one's the tough one. Dabo Sweeney, No, I don't think that's I don't think that's right.
Yeah, I know.
I've got I've got a split screen thing going on right here, right now.
And uh no, it's it's no contest.
It's Dabo or excuse me, it's a It's not Dabo, it's Randy Etzel, Okay.
Paul Christ No, Paul Christ. Wow, emphatic out of here, Randy Etzel. Scott Frost mm hmmm, still Randy Etzel. Frost is, Yes, it's it's Randy Etzel, Chris Peterson, Randy Edzel.
Wow, Randy Etzel. He seems like.
Chris Peterson, seems like he's a pretty good shave. I'm learning all sorts of things about you, Justin Wilcox.
I'm not even sure I know what Justin Wilcox looks like. Really, Yeah, hold.
On, okay, pull up a picture Justin Wilcox.
Oh, okay, yeah, I know what you mean now.
I probably Okay, he says, well, you know, let's be honest. I got to go Justin Wilcox here.
Yeah, I think I agree with you. Will must champ.
Randy Edzel. I think Randy Edzel is the answer.
Yeah, final Gus smells on Randy Edzel. Yeah, the sweater vest thing is not working out.
There's a reason that we call this game sexier than Edsel. It's not easy to be sexier than Randy Etzel.
This is what I'm learning. Who knew, ty?
This is why we played the high bar of Randy Edseel. You play to win the game here, Okay, good.
To know well, we'll finish with somebody that has I'm that didn't have anything to do with college football, but somebody wanted to know.
Here's our final question. Where did it go? This was Shiva doc Shiva doach.
Actually is a good we'll do college and non college in this. If Georgia Tech decides to move from Paul Johnson, move on, move forward from Paul Johnson after this season, who do you think are prime candidates for the Georgia Tech job A very good job, I would say, at least.
Potentially, Yeah, I think so.
Okay, So it's academics come into it with Georgia Tech. Right, being the number two in your state is It's tricky, But a state that's filled with talent, and in a region that's filled with talent, and in a conference where you can win a good chunk of games. Right, desirable city, right man Ie lane lane train. I don't think it's probably gonna happen with the lane train. That's a pretty big jump.
Yeah, I as long as it's not the option for me, you'd have to move away from the option. Don't don't stick with that option system. The option, I know you love it. I think it shades the way you look at that job. But I don't think the answer here is ken Neo Mantalolo.
Okay, disagree? So who do you have?
Give me some names? Neil Brown at Troy. A lot of people thought he was going to be a growing name.
He's a decent name.
Scott Saderfield app State. I don't know what more you want from him. Blake Anderson at Arkansas State.
This is me googling feverishly.
Jason Kandall, Toledo.
I would want a guy from the South, Okay, I would want someone from down south.
How about this?
This was somebody whose name we mentioned not two and a half minutes ago, but Charlie Strong.
Interesting, it's an interesting name.
Their defense would be instantly approved, improved.
He's got good familiarity with the South. Correct. Would he want to leave South? Is Georgia Tech a better job than South Florida?
Oh yeah, yeah, oh for sure is. Yes, It's an a sec job and it's a quality acc Charlie Strong loves he loves the state of Florida. I know you're not that far away. Okay, you could convince people from Florida to move to Atlanta. Atlanta is a great city.
Yeah, It's just true.
You don't have to sit in traffic that much if you're a college student. I think Charlie Strong is It's a good I.
Need time to think about this. I was unprepared for this question.
That's okay, you are prepared for the second part of Shiva Docs. Questions from Reddit. By the way, best national fast food chain tie a first, Let's let's okay.
Good answer. Chick fil A is the answer I would only answer.
How do you how do you define? And Chick fil A fits this? How do you define fast food?
What is like? Is Chipotle fast food?
Some No, that would be casual dining or casual fast Yeah. I think something with a through mm hmm is what I would classify as best fast food or a fast food traditional fast food.
For me, the answer is Chick fil A.
Do you have a favorite fast food burger? I like the Wendy's classic single with cheese.
Oh wow. Didn't even have to think about it.
No, you didn't have to shuffle through your whopper experiences big mac experiences.
The problem with the whopper is that there's too much going on, and there's so much burger that the bun falls apart and I read something a long time ago on the McDonald's front that if you take the burger out of the bun and throw it out on your back deck, that the bacteria won't even attack it.
That it's not it's not real.
Yeah, there's enough preservatives to fight off nature.
And though though I've probably had a quarter pounder here and there since reading that, I gotta be honest, it scares the hell out of me. So okay, the answer would definitely not be them.
What percent of the Chick fil A menu do you explore?
I'll usually go if I'm feeling dangerous, by the way, Chick fil A not a sponsor.
No, not a sponsor.
I'll go if i'm a feeling If I'm feeling dangerous, I'll go spicy chicken sandwich. But I've experimented with the just Chick fil A sandwich, the regular Chick fil A sandwich. I've done the cool Wrap combo, which I think is the number six. I've done the nugs. Everyone's done the nugs or the chicken tendos.
Do they currently have spicy nugs?
I don't know. They probably have sauce that could satisfy that.
Yeah, but I'm talking for you nug itself being that's where Wendy's has an advantage. They have strong spicy nugs.
Right, No, I don't. I don't think so. I've done salads, I've done the soup. I think I've done I've done like the milkshake, some of the ice cream.
That they offer you. I've had a good swath of the menu. My answer may be Jack in the Box?
Does Jack in the Box? I don't drive fast food? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Okay, you could tell that I'm not versed in the ways of Jack in the Box.
Jack in the Box.
I honestly I will eat McDonald's for breakfast in an airport. And this isn't for any real reason. I just like cooking. I think fast food is delicious. It's just terrible for you. I like Taco Bell, McDonald's is fine. I like a McDonald's cheeseburger dipped in sweet and sour.
Fine.
Chick fil A is good. Jack in the Box is way out in the forefront in terms of all day breakfast or a breakfast jacket one in the morning if you want it five pm. And everybody started copying them. Their tacos are disgustingly wonderful. It's like a mystery meat situation. The whole thing is fried together.
It's not.
They don't just fry the shell and then put in some meat and lettuce. They fry the whole damn thing. There's spicy chicken sandwiches, good good shakes. Jack in the Box. My answer, does does In and Out have a drive through?
Yeah?
I mean it's by default, yeah, Oh, by default in and Out it's a drive through. But I think In and Out is delicious. Their fries aren't that good, and it's not a national fast food chain. I don't think they go past Utah, Texas or we.
Don't have any. We don't have any Jack in the Box franchises over here in PA. Have you had Jack in the Box? I don't think so. It's it's a weird, terrific experience. Tie.
You can look into a bag and get some mazzarella sticks, some egg rolls, okay, breakfast sandwich.
But if you take if you take the burger out of the bun and throw it out on your back patio, well the flies will the bacteria go after it?
Almost assuredly?
Not?
No, I'm sure it's in the same class. Oh, and they also they have the sourdough option. Ty, okay, you got a burger on some sourdough.
It's great.
All right, this has been This has been fun. I don't think we've got time for any more questions. Here is the deal. We'll do more of these as the year progresses. We promise there's always demand for a Q and a show. If you've got questions, If you want questions answered, maybe you sent them in today, we didn't
get to them. We will get to them at some point this season, whether it's a separate podcast, whether it's just something we post on one of the social channels, keep your eyes and ears peeled for when we might do something like that. We'll do it again soon, we promise. The other thing that we'll add. If you're looking at your podcast feed and you see an Oregon show come up after this one, it's because this is a thing
that we're going to try to do more of. So Dan's going to talk to Josh Schwartz, our good friend Josh Schwartz about Oregon football. Next week, We're going to try and talk Notre Dame. We'll start off with two of our homer pods, but then we really do truly want to migrate into talking about some other teams with other beat writers, just to try and get the lay of the land. Whether it's a team of prominence, whether it's not a team of prominence, just someone with an
interesting storyline. Feel free to reach out let us know which teams you might be interested in hearing more about if we talk a little bit more detail, because we think it'd be a cool thing to do this time of year.
Sound good? Yeah, yeah, yeah, only Homer is allowed.
All right, Well, for that guy over there, Dan Rubinstein, thank you, sir for collecting all these questions, for putting them in a document, and for not buzzing me the whole show.
I didn't do the radio that.
I just I didn't want to throw you off your game time.
I'm considerate. All right, Well, I tie he's Dan.
We're gonna catch you all momentarily, actually, if you're listening to us in binge mode. But in the meantime, if you don't listen to any of these shows, or at least the next show that.
We're doing, we'll catch you all on Sunday. In the meantime, stay STI