Welcome to the Solid Verbal. Come that for me. I'm a man, I'm forty.
I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for Dake Edo State?
Is that?
Whoo whoom?
And Dan and Tie.
Welcome back to the Solid Verbal Boys and girls. My name is Ty hilden Brand. I am joined as always by my friend, my colleague and co host so many years, Dan Rubinstein. Don't forget to subscribe at iTunes dot com, slash Solid Verbal and find us on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and of course on Snapchat.
Dan, how are you? I'm good.
We can also add drinking pals. Yeah, that that list. I mean we haven't done it in a long time, but after the Pisman Trophy. During the Pisman Trophy, I think drinking pals would be an appropriate bullet point to add to our collective resume.
Got a little loose there afterwards. Gotta be honest with you. Travis Haney's a bad influence on me person, is he?
Yeah?
He liked drinking that heavy porter type beer, which doesn't really work well with my stomach.
Sure, but you know, held my own. I don't know. How do you feel yesterday? Not great?
Time.
No, I'm not gonna lie as a non drinker or somebody who drinks like one drink every five or six weeks. I think I had four Friday night at the Pisman. It was a really good time, had all sorts of fun people there. So happy that Brian O'Neil from pitt was able to take it home. Would have been happy with all three of the candidates, Vincent Taylor, Colton Cook taking home the hardware, the pie wear. Yeah, so that was an incredible event. So many friends of Espionation and
the Solid Verbal were there. Everything was first class. Loved it. Ate myself sick, drank myself, not quite sick, but I had four and that's a lot for old Aunt Dan.
Four for you. Then we did the pizza thing afterwards.
Yeah, we went got pizza with our pal Bill Barnwell and talked to Emo some more talk.
But yeah, it was a great time. Got to meet some new people I had never met before. Chris Brown from Smart Football was there, talked to him for a bit. Chip Patterson i met for the first time. I would vote for Chip for president.
Oh. Chip has like a gravitas when he walks in a room, there's just a Warmth there.
Great to meet him and some others who I'm sure I'm forgetting and yeah, so thank you again for the invite.
Yeah.
And last night was the I guess, the second class college football award.
The Heisman, if you will.
Yeah, I don't even I know Lamar Jackson wanted. I honestly couldn't tell you the order of voting. Do you have that in front of you?
I have it in front of me. It was I thought a little closer than I expected. Lamar Jackson came in first with twenty one and forty four points. Deshaun Watson bubbled up. He came in second. He had fifteen twenty four, So a sizable margin for sure between Lamar Jackson and to Shawn Watson. But still I thought a little bit closer than I expected. Baker Mayfield came in third, DeeDee Westbrook came in fourth, and then Jabroll Peppers finished in fifth place. So you know, there was a pretty
big gap between two and three. It was pretty apparent that voters favored Lamar Jackson and Watson above above the other three who were in New York.
Fair enough, like it's hard for me at this point in twenty sixteen to get upset over the Heisman Trophy. It's by nature so arbitrary, So how do you get upset about the finalists or whoever wins it based on qualifications that are sort of unclear? So at this point it's just sort of like, this guy's the most fun, and what makes them the most fun? Well, I mean, everybody has different definitions of fun. Who's to say.
The reason that I watch it is not because again I'm not going to go back through the diatribe about how I feel about individual awards. The reason that I watched, though, is just to see how they handle the broadcast. And for me, it almost felt, and this is going to sound crazy, I know, it almost felt like they were trying to make the Heisman feel a little less pretentious, Like, you know, we we did this Pisman thing on Friday night and it was clear that it was not taking itself too seriously.
The Heisman.
It almost felt as if they tried to do a little bit of that with the broadcast, and to me, it just felt disorganized compared to what I'm used to. That just it didn't quite pair up. But nonetheless a great ceremony. Congratulations to Lamar Jackson, who incorporated every fashion element in his attire.
I thought he looked great.
I thought he pulled it off too. He really did. The solid wife said the exact same man. He can pull that off. And you know, a great story, a great story. Congratulations to him in Louisville fans everywhere. It was a remarkable season.
Yeah.
That's the cool thing is that a fan base gets to celebrate something fun on a national stage. So even though I find the heisman to be arbitrary and not super exciting, it is cool for Louisville fans and obviously for Lamar Jackson. So it's a happy, good thing in college football.
Good thing. Hooray. Okay.
The other I guess heartwarming story, if you will call it that from Saturday was that Army beat Navy.
Army beat Navy after fourteen straight losses.
Does that sound right?
Fourteen straight losses? They won the game twenty one seventeen are trusted operative. Taylor Swink was down there. Yeah, and we got some great reviews on what he put together on snapchat. I can't wait to hear what he does in audio form, which we'll play back on our Wednesday show. But yeah, it just seems like a really cool experience to go down there. The tailgating scene was vibrant, and
you know, clearly Army capitalizes on this moment. It was a good year for Army, their Bowl bound for the first time in forever, to now beat their I don't want to call them hated rival, but clearly their rival Navy. This is a pretty big way to cap a season.
I am.
I'm happy to see it. It's good that that's a there's a back and forth with that game and Navy, even though they came in with a good amount of momentum. Listen, Ty, you know what you got to do in these big rivalry games. We've told you to say it week out. Throw them right out, baby, gotta throw them out. You got a little bit of breaking news these past few days.
We had breaking.
It looks like Charlie Strong is going to be the next USF coach.
Yeah, good, move, good higher.
Very strong. Yes, he is going to recruit well, he is going to do a lot of what Willy Taggart did in sort of getting every single kid who might be borderline USF UCF in state who you know, maybe not getting the Miami Florida Florida State offers, but is certainly of that caliber like Willy Taggert did at USF. I imagine he will improve that defense dramatically after it took that one year dip without Tom Allen when he
went to Indiana. I imagine he will continue to delegate offensively like he was able to do with some success at Texas, and he will continue momentum there in Tampa. So I think I think it's a very smart hire. Unfortunately for USF, I imagine if he succeeds, he probably won't be there for a terrible long time, but that's okay. Keep succeeding at USF, keep.
Succeeding at USF.
It's clearly a part of the country he's very familiar with, and I think that will play to his favor.
So it was a good move for them.
I also saw that speaking of geographical sense, yes, Cincinnati hired Luke Fickel.
Yeah, and I think, yeah, that makes good sense. He obviously had the year of interim head coaching when Jim Tressel left unexpectedly we'll call it. But he's been in at Ohio State for some time now, is familiar geographically with the region, Cincinnati took a huge step back this
past year on both sides of the ball. So if nothing else, Luke Fickle will recruit talent to Cincinnati and will get them competitive, I hope, because I like a fun censey sooner rather than later, because they're a team, not unlike Houston, that is near talent and can be dangerous to teams that perhaps have even more talents. So rooting for Luke Fickle after a rocky time for a little bit in Columbus so should be fun to see sinc improve.
Yeah.
They called him the best fit for the position, and I feel good for him, I really do. He seems like an incredibly loyal guy who was just waiting for the right opportunity to come around. And he's an assistant coach that is widely respected for the work he's done.
The interim year was tough. It was tough.
He might not have been ready for that on the stage like Ohio State, but I think he probably learned a lot from it. And Cincinnati's getting a good guy, so good for them.
It's a nice hire. I like it.
Also major apple White at Houston.
Yeah, so originally it sounded like it was going to be lane Kiffin. There was a report out on Friday, I think later last week whenever it was that it looked like lane Kiffin was going to get that job, and then it sounds as if things broke down, they ultimately go to Major apple White instead.
Yeah, Major apple White because of pending and ongoing litigation, was almost certainly not going to go with Tom Herman to Texas because of his own time at Texas as it relates to the litigation. But Major apple White somebody who I think has improved his stock over the years.
I know Alabama fans weren't huge fans of his when he was their offensive coordinator in two thousand and seven, but that was a very different looking Alabama team early on in Saban's tenure, and it seemed that Langkiffin didn't have quite the support that Major apple woit had, especially since apple White has the recruiting connections in East Texas and Texas, and that it feels like a momentum play,
which isn't always the best move. You just got to find the best person and assume that they can generate momentum. But here we are, and Major apple White was I would imagine a large part of Greg Ward's success at quarterback. So that was sort of the thinking behind Mark Helfrich and the Oregon job. That continuity for Marcus Mariota, and it worked in the short term and not necessarily the long term. I hope it goes differently from major apple White and Houston.
I have to believe this is all trending in a direction where lane Kiffin ends up at LSU or back at Bama.
I don't think lane Kiffin's back at Bama.
No, no, I think that's done.
And it appears that even Sark, who a lot of people thought was the backup plan, that he may be done in Bama as well. I'm not sure what Bama does at offensive coordinator if and when Lane Kiffin leaves, and the NFL could be an option for lane Kiffin as an offensive coordinator. I saw our pal Travis Haney, who you mentioned is a bad influence, but a good college football information influence.
Great influence, yeah, great influence in terms of information.
Yes, he thinks you know, It's just that that marriage has run its course. Okay, Lane Kiff and Nick Saban and Alabama, So it will be interesting to see where he ends up, and it'll be interesting to see where Alabama goes at offensive coordinator. If I would imagine Mark Helfrich may be in the mix at LSU if that doesn't work out for any of the former USC guys. Hey Mark Helfrich to Obama, I don't know, ma'am.
That would be weird marriage.
It would be a huge win for Alabama, especially matt A.
Yeah, with a dual threat quarterback like Jalen Hurtz. Yes, Mark Helfrich has had success with that formula before, hasn't.
He He has, And I think and Helfrich is somebody who I've always liked as a human and who I've always liked as a focus. Like he didn't run the he co ran the offense with Ship Kelly at Oregon, and he is considered to be by everybody that's come across him just like a like an extremely intelligent, smart
football mind. And at Alabama, where he's not going to be required to run the day to day and he's not going to be required to recruit with the same level of intensity as a head coach somewhere so far away from recruits as he was at Oregon, that would be He'll be a huge win for whoever he ends up.
With interesting and I think this all means that Les Miles ends up with ESPN.
Uh, that's what it appears.
Yeah, he apparently the Houston interview didn't go super well, and that's good for us. I like hearing Les Miles speak. He's fun.
He'd be terrific in any capacity on ESPN.
Yeah, ESPN, even if he ends up at Fox Sports, which is certainly more Southwest and West Coast oriented, it'd be whoever gets him, it'd be a great, great job.
The only other tidbit I have, yeah, is on the solid verbal front.
Oh yeah, what else we got?
So? We have discussed this here and there. We've been wanting to do a live gig up in New York City for a while now, and we talked about doing it at some point in December, but as these things go, it got tough to do in December. We are now working on a postseason post mortem show the weekend following the National Championship, so that'd be January fourteenth. We are close to nailing down some sort of venue, Dan, Is that accurate information.
It's a great venue. There's food there, good food there, college football related food there where. We haven't signed anything. We haven't agreed with anything yet, but the conversations are very good. January fourteenth, New York City, in sort of downtown Midtown. It's sort of midtown ish, so it should be pretty central for everybody in the general vicinity or
anybody coming from outside of the city. Extremely limited in the way of seating, like probably it's sort of like a I don't know if it's a live show as much as a sort of live pow wow. So like forty or fifty people somewhere in there. So when well, as soon as we nail down the details, we will let you know. I would grab a ticket or two, and how we figure out how to do that is TVD. I would grab it as probably quickly as possible because we're not renting out Radio City.
No.
No, not like the Verbies last year. Right, No, not like the Verbis last year. That was I mean, everybody came around for that. That was wonderful. But January fourteenth, New York City, it's going to be very, very fun and with a lot of food.
Stay tuned for more on that front. We promised to make that available as soon as we can. I think that does it for news Dan. I think so if you're up for it.
Shall we talk through the first wave of bowl games?
We had like four days off, yes, four days DA time to help the week, all right, So listen, don't forget to join the pick a pool.
The links are out there.
They're on Facebook and Twitter as well as soliverbo dot com.
I have yet to do that, but okay, I will. I promise.
We have had some people ask us about the rules of a confidence pool. How does it work? Basically, you're picking straight up winners. So you go through, take a pass, pick who you think is going to win each game. Then you go back and you rank each game from one to forty two in terms of how confident you are in the result. One is your least confident. Forty
two is the game you're most confident in. If you win the game, that you put a forty two next to that means that you get forty two confidence points. You add that to your score correct, and so on and so forth. This year, I'm going to deploy a new strategy East Coast Elliott, who you know mm hmm, was on the early infancy of this podcast. Wildly unreliable,
just a total wildcard from top to bottom. Yes, I manage a fantasy baseball team with East Coast Elliott a total wildcard, believe me, But I love him and he's better at bowl confidence pools than any human I've ever met. His strategy, I probably shouldn't be given this out. I should probably charge like Wow nineteen ninety five for this kind of advice. It's been so his strategy is to
front load your confidence points. The theory is that there's a bigger disparity between teams at the smaller early bowls than at like the later, bigger bulls that everybody knows. Okay, and trust me, it sounds kind of crazy, especially when you put pen to paper, but literally every time he's been in a bullpool like this, he's been top ten, and it sort of makes sense. There's a crazy genius
to it that feels like it could actually work. Every online system, including the one that we're using over at ESPN, Every online system defaults to giving you those early games with a lesser confidence rating, Elliott says. Elliott says, flip the script, get all your points early. So it's it's an interesting way to go at it. The caveat, though, is you got to pick the games right, right, Yeah, you don't pick the games right, and that's hard in ball season.
As you know the points right, you might as well throw them out. Where's my sound? Throw the points breads, throw the records out.
I'm I'm going to combine Elliott's formula with a little bit of my own special sauce and it might come in last. But my first consideration now when picking all these bowl games is going to be which team I
think is more motivated to be there? Okay, you know, because these are all exhibition games, that sort of goes in line with the gambling theory that like learn like a ton about a smaller conference, like learn a ton about the Mountain West because you know, perhaps bookmakers aren't as and as detailed in following Mountain West football as they are SEC football or ACC and setting line so and there's probably not as much action coming in to
sway those lines. So exactly like that, So I want to know which team is actually there because they want to be there, and which team wants to win the game. Okay, now you got to consider which which team was better all season and if there are any matchups and all that stuff, right that that sort of goes without saying. But I'm going to weigh motivation a little heavier this year. I'm just going to see what happens. So, okay, let's
start at the top. If you go through our Bowl confidence pool, the first game that they list is actually the Grambling State North Carolina Central Eagles game in the Celebration Bowl. I'm not going to pretend to know a whole lot about this, but ESPN does include it, and they ought to assign it with a one because it's first. Most people aren't going to change it. I'm saying, go forty two, Go forty two.
I'm serious.
Grambling is a historic program. Yeah, they're favored by fifteen and a half points. They're probably gonna win. So what if you don't know a whole lot about it. I'm not so much gonna handicap this thing as if I want to get every game right. I'm trying to help people out there who might be in other Bowl confidence pools, even our own bullpool.
I want you to win.
So I'm saying, go Grambly, go forty two points, get them early, get it off, get it off the board, bold, roll the dice.
Okay, all right, you're on board with that.
I'm totally on board. I like your bold thinking, Ty, I always have all right.
So then that brings us to the Guild. In New Mexico Bowl. They make a mean T shirt. Dan.
Yes.
And speaking of which, and I know you don't have this on our document, but I have it in front of me.
I've got Bowl gifts.
Oh cool, I've got all the Bowl gifts and we will for each game that we preview, we will also preview the gifts.
Okay, So Guild in New Mexico Bowl, Albuquerque, New Mexico University Stadium. This one is on Saturday, twelve seventeen, So next Saturday at two pm on ESPN. As more so, the games are New Mexico. They're eight and four. They're a seven point favorite here over UTSA University of Texas San Antonio. UTSA went six and six. It's their first ever bowl game, which is notable. What are the gifts? What are these guys getting.
At the New Mexico Bowl this year? There's a gift suite, Oakley sunglasses, an Enduro twenty five backpack, Bluetooth earbuds, a beanie, a Gilden stadium blanket, a cap, and a selfie stick. So a selfie stad not much you can regift, but sunglasses, a backpack, and Bluetooth earbuds. You're walking away from this with utilities for your life.
Living in New York City.
What's the over under on any given day for how many selfie sticks you see out in the wild.
Oh, especially because our office is not terribly far from Times Square, I'll probably see three to four a day.
All right.
Well, the first factor for me here, I think is that it's a home game for New Mexico, but literally a home game at their home stadium, and they could sleep in the their own beds and play in front of their own fans. And Hey, ask Wyoming what it's like to play in Albuquerque. You don't want to play in a quirky It's like the House of Pain.
It's at altitude.
For me, that outweighs the fact that this is the first Bowl game in the history of utsa's young football program. A home game in any capacity in bull season, I think means a little bit, just means more, Just means more. The other factor the game, the matchup factor. I think the best singular entity in this game is the New Mexico rushing attack. Yeah, they're averaging like three sixty one a game, which I double checked. I believe that's right,
and that's a lot as many UTSA. They're respectable against the run, but this is a different breed. There's a different breed New Mexico. I had three backs with about the same number of carries, Tyrone, Owens, Terry and Gibson Richard mccorley combined that crew rush for about twenty eight hundred yards and thirty five touchdowns. So they're predamn good. They're predamn good. That's what the TSA is going to be up against. If UTSA wants to win, they got
to be better throwing the football. I just don't think they're gonna have enough to get done here. Home game, New Mexico. I like New Mexico to win this one. I don't know about the points spread, but I got forty one points on this dan.
I'm going heavy New Mexico thirty one to twenty one.
So New Mexico did something this year, and it sort of might be, you know, swept under the rug. But they did something spectacular and rare this year, and they lost to Rutgers. New Mexico lost to Rutgers. They beat Air Force in Wyoming, so there's something about this New Mexico team, And you're right. Their rushing offense is great. They're a top fifteen team in my D analytics.
Yeah, that's right.
D Analytics TI touchdowns per play against conference teams. Still, they're top fifteen in the country in that and dead last defensively in that. So they're sort of kill or be killed. They have an awful pass defense, and yes, you're right. UTSA is one of the most improved teams Frank Wilson. His first year was really really good all things considered. They improve offensively, ways to go defensively, but
they were very good in the red zone. So if they can stop New Mexico there and for some field goals, they will keep it relatively close. I thematically, I like New Mexico, and since we're straight up in the Bowl confidence pool, I'm gonna go with New Mexico. But I'm gonna I'm gonna gobble those points up thirty four to thirty. New Mexico. UTSA keeps it close. They sort of dead end techs A and M a few weeks ago. I'm going with New Mexico close.
By Saturday at six, Dan All, I'm saying is I could have eighty three confidence points. Okay, locked and loaded, just kind of me sitting on them, keeping them warm.
M hmm. I'm going forty two on.
Grambling, forty one on New Mexico, Bob Davey, I'll go Hi, all right, Las Vegas Bowl also next Saturday, This one at three point thirty on ABC.
This is a good game, it is. This is a good game.
We got Houston at nine and three, San Diego State at ten and three. Houston's a three and a half point favorite. You might remember this one last year was a rematch of the Holy War BYU won that one by seven. I tried to analyze this using my new formula of factoring in motivation. Right, I gotta believe that Houston's in big time let down mode here.
No, I have been thinking the same thing, and Houston's season is sort of deceptive. Beating Oklahoma, you know, using turnovers and doing and taking advantage of opportunities, just completely shutting down Louisville and losing to Navy, losing to Memphis, losing to SMU. Houston finished, I believe, tied for third in the American West. So their season was not as dominant as Tom Herman's stock was through the roof, and that's fine. There are all sorts of factors here in
San Diego State won the Mountain West. Defensively, they were very, very good for a good chunk of the season. They have one of the best running backs in the country and Donel Pumphrey one of the best pass defenses in the un I think they'll be a little bit more motivated to really good defenses here. I think Houston wants the season to be done with and move on to the major Apple White Era. I'm going San Diego State. I'm going to take those points because that's my thing.
I'm taking those Bowl points. Twenty seven to twenty three as techs.
I've got twenty eight to twenty four as techs. And you know, you mentioned all the right things about Houston. This game, to me feels like a huge consolation prize for them because they were a fringe playoff team back in August and nine and three is clearly short of what they were hoping for. You also lose your coach might have heard about that here and there some assistants already, yeah, and some assistants. That's just a big kick in the pants.
If you're a Houston player. There's a chance Todd Orlando is trying to, you know, make some bones for himself elsewhere in putting forth a good effort in this game. But I just feel like their heart's not going to be in this I like Danelle Pumphrey lot They're not great at throwing the ball, so they got to get him moving and that might not be easy against a really tough Houston front.
Excellent.
I feel like San Diego State's got more to play for here. I am not confident in this result. So contrary to what I was saying about getting your points early, yeah, get them early, but don't be stupid. I'm going to go San Diego State here twenty eight, twenty four, But I'm only going to say three confidence points in this game.
They are both playing for a gift suite, an Oakley backpack, a beanie, and a cap. So the New Mexico Ball showing out a little bit better than the Las Vegas Bowl early.
Interesting.
Yeah, the caveat there is that you get to go to Vegas versus Albuquerque, New Mexico.
You get to go to Vegas, which mixed opinion for me. But we're going to get to that in the things that are garbage that people like too much, bracket that we're doing.
It's a long off season, yes it is. We will get to it all right, Raycom Media Chamellia Ball. Oh, yes, who doesn't remember their first Kamellia Bowl. Kamelia Bowl.
Oh my god.
Watched it with my pappy and my Graham Pappy. Yeah.
It's at the Crampton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama again. Next Saturday, the seventeenth of December on ESPN five thirty Eastern Toledo at nine to three, a one point favorite over app State Dan. They're also nine to three. I distinctly remember our Week one recap show when we go back over that Tennessee App State game and.
Apps State should have won that game, tie, and you.
Know it, Tennessee one, twenty to thirteen. They looked like garbage, and at the time we didn't know it was going to be a sign of things to come.
Mm hmm.
But I remember thinking that the big takeaway from that game had to be how lousy Tennessee looked, how lousy and just ugh they looked in that game. And then you started talking on the recap show and it's like full throttle App State. App State, it's good they could win the national championship.
Really caught me off guard. Uh huh.
The takeaway now is yes, App State is pretty good. Maybe not as good as it made them out to be. But the three losses this year were to take to See Miami and Troy. For the most part, no one else came close to beating them. Akron fought him for like four quarters, but it was It was one of those catchup games. The challenging this game is going to be Toledo quarterback Logan Woodside. H He is the official quarterback of the Solid Verbal, as you've noted on Twitter.
Oh yeah, his stats are insane thirty eight hundred passing yards to go along with forty three touchdown passes. The point spread here is one Dan kind of a pick them who you got.
I'm going with app State and I'm going with app State. I'm taking those points and I have them outright. Toledo does. As you mentioned, the official quarterback of the Solid Verbal, Logan Woodside that Toledo. The Rockets have a top thirty offense, I would somewhere around there in the country, top thirty thirty five. Their defense is a little bit average. App State number one tie the number one defense in the D analytics touchdowns allowed per play against conference teams. What
does that mean? What does that stat mean? It's it's the number of touchdowns they allow per play. So I judge a defense by how many touchdowns they all out and how many plays and they don't allow touchdowns tie, and it's it's very good.
So the D analytics are conclusive on this.
Then the D analytics are conclusive. This is against conference teams. So for app State, this is against sen but Sun Belt teams, which is a different animal. But you saw them perform pretty well against Tennessee and not the greatest against Miami, but whatever. They've allowed three touchdown passes app State since October first six of the last eight teams they've played, they've held quarterbacks under five yards per attempt. So I really like the matchup just in general, the
push and pull of Logan Woodside against this defense. I'm gonna go with the defense as the most extreme good thing here. Toledo doesn't generate enough turnovers and they're playing against the tricky app State offense. I'm going with app State. I'm going with my boys from Boone.
Twenty eight, twenty four, twenty eight to twenty four. I like the boys from Boone. I like that, by the way, that's good, thank you.
Yeah.
Thirty five twenty eight. I'm not nearly as confident in this because it is a pretty even mac, at least on paper, so I'll go ten confidence points. But to your point about app State's defense, the pass defense is pretty good according to Bills Bill Connolly's S and P plus fourteenth in the country against the past, which is a lot better than most people would ever care to know. And on the whole, I'd say, if you look at how they've played defensively throughout the course of the year,
defense is just a lot more consistent. You know, it's not it's not bottoming out in spots like we saw with Toledo. So, like I said, not crazy confident, but I do like app State outright, the alma mater of Dan Rubinstein. App State ten points, ten points, thirty five twenty eight. Let's go AP State.
They're playing for access to a gift suite. I mean they're both getting this give suite fossil watch, which I respect the hell out of a watch. You know, it's it's you can use it for years and years. It serves a purpose. A coin, don't know what coin. I'm assuming a commemorative one, but maybe they're just handing them all sackage away as I don't know. Hat a beanie, a duffel bag made by your friend and mine oesio. Yeah, and a big game autograph football So thanks for that, chamelliable.
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At the Pizon? Absolutely I did.
I thought I saw it.
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All right. The AutoNation Cure.
Bowl, Yeah, Robert Smith will be singing the national anthem really.
Of the cure and the cure. Very good, very good.
Yeah.
Next Saturday, five point thirty CBS Sports Network. So it could be a crazy game.
Mm hmm.
This one's in Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. It is UCF at six and six, a six point favorite over the Arkansas State red Wolves at seven and five. Two big things here that jump out at me first and foremost, another home game situation. UCF plays their home games like on the other side of Orlando, which means they can sleep in their own beds, they can move more at their own pace, they can play in front
of their own fans. Nice little prize here, I think for the UCF following, because there is a UCF following, they're very sure, very fervent, and I think this is a nice prize for them, especially given the fact that UCF was zero to twelve last year. I thought that's the other factor here. Talk about a turnaround. Talk about it just meaning more. How much does this game mean to them, especially at home, Dan, It just means more time,
It just means more. They've also got your boy Scott Frost, they do, you see ye.
So even even with Scott Frost, who obviously comes in with offensive experience putting up some big numbers at Oregon these past few years, the Knights are led by their defense.
They are.
I mean, it's kind of easy to argue that they're the most improved defense in the country because they went from being atrocious in twenty fifteen to pretty good, like top thirty thirty five defense in the country in twenty sixteen. They're decent against the run. They're very impressive against the past and tie. Let's let's create a space right now, what do you know about Shaqem Griffin and how much is getting to the quarterback?
Tie?
You tell me break down Shaqem Griffin's game because he's I think top ten in the nation in Sackfury's game and good, he's good, He's very good. The Red Wolves of Arkansas State, they start out on four. They finished seven and one a completely lights out defense, so two good defense is in here. They're up there with that state, and the analytics tie. One point nine to nine percent of all plays are touchdowns, which is pretty efficient. That
is pretty efficient. And they throw the ball relatively well because us UCFC has made struggles the ball struggles on offense to move the ball. I'm actually going even though it's on the road, even though it's in Orlando, I'm one Arkansas State out right, twenty three to twenty road.
Wooa, whoa. Yeah.
If you look at the S and P report for UCF, it's sort of beyond rational comprehension.
How U see F scores at all?
Yeah, Like, give it a good look, give it a good look, and try to come away from that little study session figuring out how you CEF is scoring their points. Just in general, there's like no tendency there. It doesn't seem like there are enough points on the stat sheet to indicate a six and sixteen, but nonetheless, Okay, we're here.
I am rolling the dice on your boy, Scott frost in.
Wow, my boy in the dice, and I'm gonna sweat this one out to the tune of thirty five confidence points.
Okay, I'm game.
You know my strategy. I'm in it to win it this year. Thirty five points.
I think they like right, you're just abandoning your theory of going against your gut. Though it's a new me, it's a new you. Speaking of new things, sports watch, warm up jacket and pants, portable charger, which you know what, I love that singing.
That might be the best gift yet.
I love that drive fit, long sleeve shirt and a backpack. I like a sports watch, a dry fit shirt, a portable charger, and a backpack. You're not coming away from the uh from the Cure Bowl empty handed. I'm with it.
If you've got anything like more than two versions back of the iPhone, you need a portable charger. If you're listening to this like you've definitely thought to yourself, where's the portable charger I bought two years ago because I need it my batteries.
I would I would go as far as saying, get somebody like the best portable charger, like one of those that's the size of a flask. And none of these companies sponsor our show. This is just a right get up to somebody for their wedding. They might be going on a honeymoon right after the fact, and it has like four or five six charges on her. You might remember a gravy boat. You're definitely gonna remember how great a charger is in your life.
I know what I'm getting you, Yes, all right? RNL Carriers New Orleans Ball also next Saturday. Next Saturday a busy Bowl day. Yep, not high profile games, but fun games. I think Sons could be a lot of fun. This is the nightcap. It's in the New Orleans Superdome, nine pm ESPN. Southern miss At six and six is a three and a half point favorite over Louisiana Lafayette also six and six DAN two teams here who actually became Bowl eligible in their final games. They've played fifty times
in their history. Southern Miss leads the series. They've won the last eight. Here, Southern Miss, I feel is a really good play and here's why. Okay, they would have had a better record if not for the fact that they lost their quarterback, Nick Mullins late in the year. He got injured against Charlotte. He was unable to play the next two games right there. That's three of your six losses. And then another loss came when he got injured earlier in the season against Utsa. We talked about
UTSA before. Listen to the blurb here from the Sun Herald. It's a newspaper in Southern Mississippi talking about how tough their quarterback Nick Mullins was in that game against UTSA. All right, you're ready for this. I want to sit down. After Mullins jogged over to the sideline favoring his right hand, Jay Hopson, their coach, wandered over to check on him. Quote he had a bone sticking through his thumb. Hopson said,
with a look of disbelief. I remember I saw the bone pop out, and he said, Uh, just push the bone back in and tape it up. I think I can throw the ball.
Wow Mullins for president nanjeez, Yeah, talk about a buller.
He's going to be in this game unless I miss something, unless he's hurt again. I'm going to go Southern Miss. I'm gonna get saucy with it, Dan to it, I'm going to live dangerous. Tweet me if you like to live dangerously.
Tweet if you know what time it is. Tweet me if you're with me and going thirty six points on Southern miss to win this one out.
Right, I'm actually pretty confident as well, and you're right about Nick Mullins, super tough. Their offense has been pretty decent, especially through the air. Southern MISSUS defense has been kind of atrocious, and it's a weird matchup because Louisiana Lafayette. We love Mark Hudsbeth, but their offense has been atrocious and the defense, especially against the run, has been good, but that's not a great matchup against Southern Miss. I
think the Eagles win comfortably. I have at thirty four to seventeen, So I'm totally great with your confidence level.
Thank you, and means a lot to me.
The New Orleans Bowl kind of a disappointing gift ball. Yeah, I know, I wish it were better. Maybe they're gonna eat really, really well and that'll make up for a gift suite and fossil watch. That's all I'm seeing here. Come on RNL carriers.
Dan New Orleans versus Las Vegas. Oh, New Orleans.
It's not New Orleans, by the way, time it's I know it's New Orleans.
New Orleans. New Orleans is another world ahead. I would agree with that.
There's culture, not that there's not culture in Vegas, but there's fun culture, more authentic culture. And the food is you don't have to spend a ton of money in New Orleans to have great food. I think it's way way better.
All right. Moving on to Monday.
Now, yes, Monday, So Saturday you get your fill of I don't know how many Bowl games.
That was five games. Maybe Sunday's off.
It's for the NFL, So do something else and then go back Monday afternoon two thirty on ESPN. Let's go to Miami. Miami Beach Bowl, Miami, Florida, Marlins Park. Tulsa is sitting there an eleven point favorite at nine to three for Central Michigan. Central Michigan is at six and six. Damn, I want you to do something for me in front of a computer.
Yes, I am so.
I decided to look up central Michigan on a map. They are not kidding when they say central Michigan. Pull up Google Maps, Mapstock, Google dot Com.
Let me know when you talk that the yep open. I want you to find Michigan.
Okay, I know where it is.
Now move your cursor to what you would consider to be the middle of the state, the Mitten part of the state, not the Upper Peninsula, but the real, the real Mitton part of the state. Put your cursor where you think where you think the the middle point of the Mitton is.
Okay, I'm in Isabella Township, Michigan.
Now zoom in all right, mm hmm, that's Mount Pleasant. You see Mount Pleasant on there?
Yes, it's right by Isabella Township.
Welcome to Mount Pleasant, Michigan, population twenty six thousand, home of the Chippewas.
Oh, okay, I was pretty close. I'm saying it's a very literal central Michigan.
Oh good, I thought you had a bone to pick. No, no bones, I'm just saying they were. They were very astute and thoughtful in putting Central Michigan in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
Yeah, if you're hanging out at Deerfield Nature Park or Union Charter Township like Isabella obviously very popular with people in Wideman, Nottawa, which, by the way, Rose Bush, all sorts of great places around here.
Absolutely, Uh okay, onto football. Yes, you may remember that Central Michigan quote unquote beat Oklahoma State and that crazy play play that probably shouldn't have happened. That's really the nicest thing I can say about them all year, other than to say, other than to say, I'm sure Mount Pleasant's a very nice town, Tulsa is demonstrably better.
Yeah, I have Tulsa being they're extremely balanced in that they have a very good offense, pretty decent defense. They have two thousand yard rushers and James Flanders and Dangelo Brewer. You had a bunch you wanted to say about those, the tandem, right, Yeah, of course, James Flanders and Angelo Brewer.
Dane Evans is decent. Philip Montgomery has been a growing name at head coach Miil, perhaps getting a better job after his time at Baylor and now succeeding with Tulsa, and I you're right, I don't.
What does what do the Chippawas do? Well?
What are they efficient at doing? I don't see it. I'm going with the Golden Hurricane, real big here thirty eight thirteen. I think they cover it comfortably.
Thirty eight thirteen. Yeah, I'm gonna go nuts here. I'm gonna say Tulsa wins, and I'm gonna go forty points.
Front loading. We're front loading again, that's what we're doing. I want to have. I want to have hundreds of points by the end of the weekend.
You can front load in your under armour backpack. You can load it up with a hat and sunglasses. I slide sandals portable power bank, which I assume that's something similar to the charger. Yeah, okay, a beach paddle set and a football. And here's something even though we can't really find anything terribly good about Central Michigan and we like Tulsa, it's going to be in the twenties or thirties next week in Tulsa. It's going to be in the teens in Mount Pleasant. So always happy that, you know,
guys who've worked hard all year gets a reward. They go to Miami Beach. You don't end up in like, listen, we love you Montgomery, I think, but it's it's good tend up in Miami Beach.
All right, two games left here, let's move quickly. Yes, the Boca Ratone ball in Boca Raton, Florida. They play it at Fau's Stadium Tuesday. This one's twelve twenty so December twentieth at seven pm and ESPN Western Kentucky ten and three.
They are four and a half.
Point favorites against Memphis, who is now eight and four. Dan, I am super torn here.
Why is that.
Western Kentucky is legitimately good? Yes, they're legitimately good. They lost to Alabama, Vandy and Louisiana Tech, but they also just lost their coach they did, so who knows where their heads are at. They're also going to be led by Nick Holeton. Remember Colt Nicolet Nickole Nickolet's going to be in charge.
Yeah.
Memphis I think is really good and they should not be taken lightly. Mike Norville took over, you'll remember for Justin Fuente just after they lost Paxton Lynch to the NFL, and they're still scoring almost forty a game. They beat Houston to close out the year. This is a good team, and so I'm kind of torn between Western Kentucky being I think really good versus them maybe not being fully in it, primarily because they lost Jeff Brohm.
So Western Kentucky leads the nation and offensive analytics, so there's that touchdowns per play and especially impressed of considering that a first year quarterback Mike White, total stud Do you know who Mike White's backup is at Western Kentucky?
Who's that?
He is one of those quarterbacks who is like I think he may have been enrolled at like four different schools including Penn State. Tyler Ferguson. Yep, remember Tyler Ferguson see that?
Yep, you're right.
And here's the other thing about Western Kentucky that's pretty rare. I think Washington may be the only other team to do this Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers are number one on offense and defense and yards per play and yards per play allowed. That's very difficult when you have such a prolific offense and the defense needs to rotate in a bunch of guys number one on both sides of the ball. In Conference USA, Memphis, as you mentioned, a decent enough offense.
I'm sort of underwhelmed by their defense. I have a thirty seven to twenty Hilltoppers even with nicklet Okay.
I think a lot of points nice, I think you shoot out.
I am going to stick to my template.
I think the game just means more to Mike Norvial just means more in Memphis in his first year at coach. I love me the Hilltoppers, but it hurts to lose a coach.
Yes it does.
Memphis wins outright, forty five, forty two. I am not confident in this, so I shall wager two. You shall wait two points in this, Dan, but I'm gonna go back.
I'm not right.
I have this as this is God dang it. Marmott, Boca ratone bowl, gift suite and quotquote other items, other items. So what aga bowl of applejacks? I don't understand what that's. That's rough that you got to publicize better than that, Marmott.
All right, and then finally, Dan, let's go to the San Diego County Credit Union Points Setia Bowl. They play this one in San Diego at Qualcomm Stadium. It's on Wednesday, December twenty first, at nine o'clock PM, it's on ESPN. It's BYU at eight and four. They're an eight point five point favorite over eight and five Wyoming. Dan, I'd like to harken back to nineteen eighty one, the year of my birth. Mind you, oh wow, a famous Lavelle
Edwards quote after losing to Wyoming at a snowstorm. He said, quote, I'd rather lose and live in Provo than win and live in Laramie.
Which I do believe. I do believe counts as them be and fighting words. Dan, Oh, absolutely, Yeah.
BYU's offense not particularly impressive, but they were in pretty much every game. They finished the season strong against the weaker part of their schedule, but they were tough. They played West Virginia tough. They beat Mississippi State, they beat Michigan State. So this is a BYU team to be reckoned with. Particularly on defense, Wyoming is sort of the opposite. Their offense is really good. I really like the job Brian Hill did in the backfield for the Cowboys, But
defensively Wyoming has they have some struggle in them. So I think I'm going to go with BYU here. I think I can just count on BYU a little bit more Wyoming was two up and down, especially in the back half of the season, the big win over Boise State and then a couple of bad losses after that. I'm I'm going to go with in the point spread here, it's like eight and a half, eight and a half, Yeah, eight and a half for BYU. I'm going to take
the points. I think it's going to be a bit of a shootout because I'm not a fan of either one of these teams in terms of keeping the other down for a terrible long time.
So I'm going to.
Say thirty five thirty three BYU. So I'm going to take those points. My boy, Craig Bowl, who's had his shape like the inside of the Oregonelle.
Yeah, it's been a nice year for both these teams.
It was really easy to lose track of BYU because they started one to three, lost to Utah and UCLA and West Virginia. But you got to remember this was an entirely new coaching staff, a lot of first timers, including the head guy, Kalanie Sataki. I really think he did a great job. He finished the year after that
rough stretch, finished out seven to one. The one loss was against Boise and it was one pointer and truthfully a game they had no business being in because they turned it over like five times, got wildly outgained, but they fought, and that's what I like about him. Craig Boll you mentioned him had a shot at a ten win season, but dropped the last two to New Mexico and San Diego State.
I think BYU should be able to run all over Wyoming.
I think they should be able to I'm pretty competition in it. I also think it will be an overwhelmingly pro BYU crowd, just because it's closer and because BYU's got a loyal fan base.
Yep.
I'm reasonably confident, not overly, but reasonably. I think BYU wins. I'm going thirty two confidence points on BYU. Here Dan Wow, Okay, and that's.
All I got.
I should point out that if you're interested in going to any of these games, you should check out Sea Geek, always the smartest, easiest way to find tickets for football games and Bowl games you want to see up close and in person. The Bowl experience is raved about by nearly everyone who goes to a Bowl game, So check it out.
Sea Geek.
I'm sure offers very reasonably priced tickets. All you need to do is download the app on your phone. It's free. What they do is they collect information from a bunch of ticketing locations out there on the web. They're able to go through and grade each ticket. They'll tell you where you get the most bang for your bucks, so you know that when you shop, your get a lot of value. You can also be confident in your purchase.
They offer one hundred percent guarantee, which means that you can shop with forty two confidence points.
Dan, I think that's one of the sas thank you.
I like that every ticket on the site is graded based on value, so you're going to see anything that's underpriced. You'll be able to find deals things that fit within your budget. If you want to go see a Bowl game up close and in person right now, a twenty dollars rebate. Twenty dollars rebate after your first seat Geek purchase if you use the promo code Solid. So here's the way this works. You got to download the free
seat Geek app today. Then you go to settings, click out a promo code and enter our promo code, which is Solid Solid. They will send you twenty bucks after you make your first ticket purchase again after you make that purchase using our promo code Solid and using of course, the free seat geek app Seat Geek Sea t g e e K. It's a free app download, it's today, do it.
It's real fun. I've used it and love it. So that's all I got, Dan, That's all I have. I think, Uh had a great time seeing you, you too for really the first time socially. I mean we sort of hung at your wedding but never really had a chance to just really break bright and get to know each other.
So it's great.
And you got to do the same with the Salt fiance, so she's terrific. Yeah, a lot of fun. Uh, I'm trying to think what else. I mean, I have a literal and figurative pismen hangover still okay, and I'm about to go get some wabos. Friand cheris right now.
Weevos rancheros, weevos. All right, Dan, Well, this is fun. We're going to be We're going to be back on Wednesday again. We'll publish a new show, we'll talk about the next wave of Bowl games and again get in on the bull confidence pool. We've got links everywhere we've explained how it works. We're going to continue to break games down in a manner that is somewhat relevant to the bull confidence pool. Give you some tips here and there,
however we can and do. Stay tuned for more information on the live show if you're.
Gonna be January fourteenth in.
The New York City area. Yeah, we'll post information as it becomes available. And intimate gathering if you will, of verballers, and we'll do a little post mortem on the twenty sixteen seventeen season.
Food, Adult Beverages, A cool little space, Tie and his radiant energy, me with my sometimes cool, sometimes not so cool energy, and it's gonna be a great time. We're gonna do it up.
Do it up, all right, for that guy there, Dan Rubinstein, for myself, Tie Hilton Brand, Thanks again for tuning into the show. Don't forget to subscribe at iTunes dot com slash solid
Verbal, Enjoy your week and stay solid Peace.