Welcome to the solid verbal hell.
That for me, I'm a man.
I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for a day at the State. Is that woo woof?
And then and Tye.
Welcome back to the Solid Rebel boys and girls. My name is ty hilden Brandt. You will hear from Dan Rubinstein momentarily. This is another clip from College Football Thursdays. It's the show we do live every Thursday, five pm E's two pm West over on Spotify. This is a fun one. We we really had fun with this show, almost unexpectedly so. We always enjoyed doing the show, but
this one just felt right. It felt good. I left in the first bit where we talked through news and also our tweener game where we talk about tweener teams. We had a list that we were going to work off, but then just so much activity in the chat, people suggesting their own teams. We just tore up the script altogether, decided to go with what folks were saying in the chat. Hopefully you can make it out next Thursday again five pm E's two pm West. If not, here's an excerpt. Enjoy.
We'll talk to you soon stay solid. Heay what happened? So the context that you need to know is that Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, and TCU are one through four. Tennessee is number five. None of that changed that. None of that's any different than it was the last time we spoke. What is different though, is that LC slides up a
spot to six, USC up a spot to seven. Alabama still lurking hanging around there a number eight, Clemson at number nine, Utah Penn State also move up significantly because the Oregon your Oregon Ducks, your Orgon Ducks loss last week. They dropped six spots to numerous. Wolf how do you say twelve of it? I know how you say German? I how you sat in Spanish?
Eleven is own say yeah today keen sai.
But yeah, you've got the authentic flair to it as well. I like that any I mean, there's no real surprises here. I think it's just important to lay that out for everyone. The top five could potentially be due for a shakeup here.
It will be in a matter of weeks. If not this week, it's going to happen next week because Ohio State and Michigan play Obviously, the Vegas oddsmakers are still not taking TCU all that seriously or seriously enough, because they're only a three point favorite this week on the road at Baylor Tennessee. Seems like it's in prime position to move up should somebody in front of them lose.
But you know, there are some teams here that are playing some games over the next couple of weeks that we're going to have to discuss on this year program.
I believe the conference with the most teams in the top twenty five with six is America's common diference the Pacific twelve Conference, the Conference of Champions.
Is that true?
I believe, so USC, Oregon, UCLA, Washington, Oregon State in Utah. Wow, that's six. I'd six on my fingers.
Wow, I didn't realize they had that many in the top twenty five.
Correct, Yeah, Oregon State has Oregon obviously not this week, but next week Utah Oregon is ten versus twelve. And it should be noted UCF of course jumped to lane and is now the highest rated G five program. So on a collision course controlling their own destiny to get to a new Year six game, and Gus Malzan would be the third straight Knights coach to take UCF to a New Year six game.
My favorite storyline about this playoff ranking, this new batch of rankings has nothing to do with the top five, the top ten, the top twenty five. It's that the committee said, in one collective voice, if it we can't do it anymore. With Kentucky, we just, yeah, we can't do it anymore. We wanted them to be up there. We wanted to give some teams in the SEC another quality way, but we just we can't. We can't even correct. Yeah, has anybody lost? So? Notre Dame is in there.
At eighteen correct? Two of their three losses are two unranked teams.
Correct?
Is there anybody else who has both of them or two of their three losses to unranked teams.
I don't know all the tough of that.
Yeah, it's interesting, Okay, No, nothing crazy there. Our two teams Penn State Oregon are are Alma maters at eleven and twelve. We have a lot of matchups to discuss, we have a game to play. Any other news you want to get to as it relates to on field happenings.
I mean it's not on field. Heather Dinich reported on a thing that happened at an administrator conference where they might consider that there was a proposal that was circulated among many college football athletic or college athletic directors about potentially naming a COO of college football, kind of like a tzar of college football. We've long had this discussion. Of course, Oliver Luck is the name that everyone has
has proposed, has floated since the beginning of time. Whenever you mentioned the mere implication of a college footballs are over Luck. But COO of college football would be so zag. So we'd have an org chart.
Essentially, we'd have some sort of operating official at the top, with presumably conference heads conference commissioners reporting to the operating officer, and then underneath that would be a collection of what presidents and chancellors, and beneath that athletic directors, and beneath all of that tie Michael Mayer would be.
In charge of He's holding it. He's holding it very dependable. I don't know, it's just Michael Maher and Brock Bauers holding the whole thing up. Yeah. Is this I think further supports your theory, but collectively our adopted theory that college football is scaffolding built on top of more scaffolding.
Can I give you my pitch as to how the future playoffs should be decided and all big decisions in college football in the future of the sports should be decided.
Is it Michael maher arm wrestling brock Bowers.
That would be great, But no, I think all important decisions forget athletic directors and former players and media members and computers and formulas and all of the things that we've tried. I think there is one solution that I think I believe everybody can get behind. We just toss it to gene Sterotor to make a decision. He's officiated not one, but two major sports.
Yeah, it's true, he's an.
NFL official and college basketball. Like, what better person who has weighed big personalities and big decisions with the magnifying glass. I think we just leave it in the hands of Gene Sterrator and back away and whatever he says, be it about rules, be it about playoff teams, be it about conference realignment, beat about nil. Whatever he says goes. Yeah, gene Sterotor. Not a lot of people know this.
In line to be the next Supreme Court Justice of the United States.
I trust Gene Sterrator implicitly with every major international geopolitical decision.
I do great head of hair knows how to go to the to the monitors and just review, not afraid to admit that he was wrong the first time. A good demeanor, right, Yeah, I like, Hi, I'm good with Gene. Yeah, let us know in the chat. If you're good with Gene, we can start a I'm with Gene type of thing dot com whatever.
Subject to Gene's Sterrator being milkshake duct, obviously he is responsible for anything problematic in his path.
We passed.
We do not align with that.
We do not. We have not done the research on this at all.
Zero due diligence.
Zero due diligence. That's all I have in new I don't I mean, I don't really have anything else in news. I mean, there was there was odd not to bring the mood down here, but some very sad occurrences at Virginia leading to them canceling the game this weekend between Coastal Carolina and them, which is just horrible. I mean, facts still emerging there. We send our best out to
the Virginia family. Those effected. Just really tragic stuff. One of those things that we have to talk about here in the college football world that you know, nobody wants to talk about in general. But it is one of those points of overlap where you know, it's a crime if we don't mention what's going on there. So we just want to send our best to the Virginia family. It's it's it's been a horrible week.
Yeah, it was a difficult transition from our silly talk, but yeah, this is it's at we We talked about it a little bit on the show earlier in the week and just looms large over the weekend and weekends upcoming just because of how devastating it is as a as a piece of news, as an occurrence.
And so, yeah, you mentioned the.
Virginia Coastal Carolina game canceled, obviously the least important part of all of us, but understandable given the uh, the emotion and.
The u the heartbreak that that happened in Charlotte.
And look, I'm sorry to bring it up. You know, I know everyone else don't apologize. I know everyone's here to have fun to talk about it. No, you know, everyone's here to have fun to talk about college football. And it's this goofy sport, but sometimes life, yeah, life sucks, so well, certainly I have to bring that up as an awkward means of transition, all right, yeah, of course, please please forgive me, folks. I'm doing my best here with this. But we did have a game that we
wanted to get to. As for the windows of games, so normally I play this, all right, I'm gonna stop it right there. So okay, oh oh, normally we play that game, we get everybody jacked up for the week ahead of games. Yes, the week ahead of games is sort of light. All right, I'm gonna be honest with you all, it's a little bit light. We've got games
that we're gonna go through. We will get excited about it because we are mutants and degenerates as it relates to college and we will talk through them with you because frankly, that's the only reason you're here too, right, correct, We are the hive mind of college football degenerates of a sort. But before we even get to that, I was thinking, hey, this might be a really really shoehorned concept. Again, forgive me, but I don't care. I just don't. It's
week twelve. Do you know any do you have any twelve year olds in your life, like a niss or a nephew.
Dan, that's a weird question, Ty, I don't think I have any relatives. No, I'm trying to think, do I have a niece or nephew that's around. I've got like college ish and high school aged cousins. But no, they don't.
They don't care. They're over twenty twelve. I have two in my life to a wonderful niece, a wonderful nephew who are twelve years old. That is what you'd consider the tween age group, I believe, if man research, Okay, okay, and so they're not quite teenagers, but they sort of are.
And I'm thinking, okay, well, it's week twelve. The season's matured enough Dan to know, at least to some extent what teams might be still young enough in the season to not know for sure where things might end up for some of the teams that we're about to discuss. But I want to talk to you today about which of a select group of teams has officially made the jump to being one of the big boys up and your growns up, and which are which are still growing.
A big baby. Oh, I like that.
That's good which group and your growns up? That's from Swingers for those wondering. And then this is from song is a Big Baby.
That's the tennis pro. That's Milosh Yeah Melos, Yeah, he wasnis.
Not good at tennis. Florida State Florida State's seven and three. Florida State had a bad start to the year. Last
year picked it up. This year has had fits and starts, but I think generally the kind of theme of the season is that Jordan Travis has been really good, that Mike Norvell has pulled things together in this I guess what year three now that it feels like Florida State has the wind at its back, But Florida State, I think remains one of those teams that we've really struggled with to some extent this season, trying to figure out, Okay, are they over like the hump in a sense, is
this going to go well for Mike Norvel moving forward? Is he the guy? Is the program healed to the point now where it can start to move forward and grow and mature, or are they still kind of stuck in a sense, are they stuck and unable to mature further until something happens. Where are you at with Florida State, Dan.
I think they've come a good distance from where they were earlier in the year. I actually I think I think the promotion of Alex Atgins offensive coordinator when they lost Kenny Dillingham, was pretty savvy as the offensive line clearly has taken a nice step forward this year. And then you look at their last three weeks. Georgia Tech is not awful. They're not good, but they're not awful. They give up sixteen points and they put up forty.
They demolish Miami on the road giving up three, demolished Syracuse on the road giving up three. That is a I know Syracuse has its flaws, especially upfront, and obviously Miami is a mess. But the fact that Florida State is now a team who can pound messes and realized in season, and I don't necessarily think it's too late because they were going to get Middle eight aided by Clemson. Either way, they blew the nc State game that was
right there, that was the one for the taking. Obviously, get a little bit fortunate with the way the LSU game worked out, but their realization towards the middle of the season that why don't we just lean on Trey Benson and that's just going to open up everything for Jordan Travis and play action stuff and lean on that
how a rushing attack. Trey bentson obviously coming off of a pretty devastating knee injury last year when he was with Oregon before last season, I think it was actually the twenty twenty season, and has come back super impressively. I think that's uh, that's the story with Florida State, the way that they've evolved into that power rushing team that has opened things up and the defense getting stop after stop after stop.
Yeah, I think they're big boys.
I think they stopping stopping your growths up. I'm with you on that one. Yeah. I mean look, I was all in on Florida State going ten and two until they got lost number three.
Which was on the table. By the way, it's not crazy to say no like this, this could end up being a nine and three team that very much looks like a ten and two team. The difference between nine and three and ten and two is the same for Florida State as it is for anybody. Little things pulling
out winnable games and Florida State. I think if you go back and have Florida State play that version of NC State now, or even that version of Wake now, I think there's a much better shot they're coming out with.
You know what, Dan, screw my list. I'm not even going off my list. We got people in the chat here are who are thrown out great suggestions. I was going to be controversial and say what about TCU, what about but Ken, yes, wonderfully in the chat said what about Baylor? What about Baylor? What about the Baylor Bears? Right now? I have no idea what to make Baylor. I said it on the preview podcast that this team, to me remains a bit of an enigma. As it stands,
there's six and four. Okay, there's six and four per the sp plus, which we know and love are are our ranking system put out by the father of modern college football analytics, Bill Connolly and VSPN dot com SPPLUS has him at twenty fifth right now. But if you look through the numbers, if you look through the season, there have been plenty of moments this season where there's a lot to like and then suddenly not a lot to like. Case in point, last week they lost by
twenty at home against k State, right, horrible performance. Horrible. Before that, they won three in a row. They outscored Kansas, they outscored Texas Tech on the road, and they beat Oklahoma on the road by three. So it's been a season that's lumpy, is correct?
Yeah?
For Baylor. I feel like last season we would have said they're all grown up? Where are they at this season?
I think they're in an awkward phase, So I guess that's somewhere in between. They're in what should be an awkward phase. They're eighth graders right now, so I don't know if that's what thirteen or fourteen years old, so they are. They've got some acne, the braces are shining a little bit too brightly in front of everybody. Maybe they got pants on the playground. I guess that would be the Kansas State loss. They're in the awkward phase.
I think they probably peaked this year with the way that they beat Iowa State, which scoring thirty one on this Iowa State defense, and they did it on the road in a winning efforts a couple of weeks after looking pretty listless on offense against BYU and Provo. That's probably the high point. I mean, they scored points as they should have against Kansas, they scored points as they should have at Texas Tech, which is impressive. And beating Oklahoma I'm never going to write that off as something
you should do. And winning that game in Norman it's not nothing. And the way that they got those turnovers obviously impressive. But week to week they're not ready to be fully fully growns up. So whatever that means with the revivalry, I think teams are, you know, sort of play above their level usually in these types of emotional spots and a chance to potentially end TCU's playoff hopes this week probably gets that electricity flowing in the Baylor roster.
But TCUs a way better.
A big baby, I'm with you, I'm man. This chat is like reading the matrix. Dan's flowing. Good lord, we got so much going on. Thank you, everybody, keep standing them in here. I'm just gonna go off here. List Catherine A normal, A normal, so normal. She's of course very mud, She's a wonderful person. She will join. I'm sure our chat here in a little bit, our stage, in a little bit. What I meant to say is just a loyal and ardent listener to the Solid Verbal,
of course, to our college football Thursday show. She posits LSU. Oh, okay, LSU, and she basically says in the chat here, I think LSU's a tweet er. Fight me if you don't agree. I'm not going to fight her. I had LSU on my list here at eight and two, LSU at number six, all the way up to six now right, which is wild. But LSU, I think your crowds up and your crowths up and your blows up. Okay, I think they have matured. They have shown an evolution throughout the course of the
season that this is a team that is maturing. Now, look, do you remember when you got the thirteen, when you officially got to being a teenager? Uh yeah, yeah, up and down, Lumpy, You were a settle. You weren't fully a finished product at that point.
Now, although there are some some moments where I feel thirteen again, but yeah.
You weren't a finished product at thirteen. When you got to be a teenager officially a team, you were not a finished product. And I think that is important to note as we're going through these teams here. You don't got to be a finished product. Bros. Up. We just need to know that you're going in the right direction, that you're maturing. And it feels to me like LSU has Harry Perkins, our boy Harry Perky as we call him.
I kind of did the half nickname there with Harry Perkins, but he clearly is a monster on the defensive side of the ball. The way Jayden Daniels has put this team on his back, maybe not last week, forget about last week, but you know, it just feels like this team is building towards something more headed, in the right direction, and they've matured in a way that I think is it makes them now a full fledge grown up for the remainder of this season and presumably all the ones now under Brian Kelly.
Winning is better than losing an LSU has won many more games than they've lost, and aside from the Tennessee game, the manner in which they lost the Florida State game is you know, it's well trod territory. But aside from that Tennessee game, which Tennessee right now looks to be in a really nice position to make the playoff, they've beaten teams not as a perfect team, not as a
fully realized team. But you look at where that roster was after last season, with the transfers, with the opt out whatever I guess the opt outs would have been before. But you look at the injuries and the transfers and how they essentially started over with a new coach, new quarterback, new coordinators. You could excuse LSU on a certain level for losing something winnable because like, look, it's it's your one. I know it's LSU. They're going to recruit their balls off.
Is that's even a phrase. Look, they have a letdown spot against Arkansas on the road, they win, They have an opportunity to lose the Alabama game or to at least keep it going. And what do they say, Let's let's put our foot on the gas and let's just go for two when the when the time has has struck, struck and.
Stricken to us, I don't know.
They come back, They go down big to Ole Miss, they come back and win big against Ole Miss. So this all feels like bonus. This all feels like it's extra credit what they're doing right now, because you could forgive LSU for looking more like an eight and four team in year one, given what they had to replace, given the unknown nature of how Jayden Daniels would react to that starting job. That they've won the games that
they've won, they are. It's it's sort of a they're they're a growth spurt dunk eighth grader, right, They're just like, Okay, this isn't who he or she is as a basketball player yet, but they can dunk. They got that growth spurt out of nowhere. They can dunk, and that's a good star and the low block for your middle school.
I want to talk about Oregon State, and I want to talk about out Illinois. You're the PAC twelve officionado among us here Oregon State, what is what is the deal with Oregon State? Because well, you did the voice crack perfectly? What is the deal with Oregon State? And is this program over what we may have thought of as the proverbial hump at the start of the season.
Look, so they start the season beating both teams that can clinch Mountain West Championship aspirations the divisions to go to the Mountain West Championship game. Good starting point, beat them close and kind of demonstrably in the case of Boise State, they lose throwing four interceptions. I believe it's four to USC by three. They've only lost two good, two very good teams USC Utah and Utah wasn't close and Washington was late. We had a pick six in
that game. Oregon State dramatically, it seems, got better on defense from where they were last year, especially in the secondary. They are a tough out on defense. Throwing into the teeth of that Beaver secondary. Hey beb you know Beaver's have tea, you know the bucketeet. You know what I'm saying time I do. Oregon State doesn't have a passing game at the moment with their backup quarterback. They run
the ball pretty well. They call a really good game on offense with Jonathan Smith, and so as for what Oregon State's ceiling is with this roster against these teams, they are absolutely grown up in the top twenty five.
As if what number twenty three is that?
What I said?
Yeah, yeah, with winnable games to finish out their season, and I say games plural. I know they're they're Arizona State this weekend in Tempe, and then who knows what Oregon's going to look like at quarterback in a couple of weeks playing for the Platypus Cup Thanksgiving weekend, so I say, absolutely, grown up. Yeah, I'll tell you what. The defense to me has been better than expected, and.
I feel well, I feel like that was the thing that was the proverbial hump, that was the point of no return. If they can mature pass wherever, their defense was what we thought it would be. I remember we did the preseason stuff on Oregon State. We were pretty resigned to the fact that, oh, there's going to be a terrible defense. You know, you don't want to talk about this defense around the wives and children, right like
its scathed, could be on that level bad. It really hasn't been been all right, you know, and it's not like shut down quality defense. But it's respectable.
No, it's respectful because of their pass defense, because because you can still push them around up front. But I'm looking at some of the advanced numbers that the number nine team nationally in terms of preventing explosive plays. They have a full on decent pass defense, and that's doing large part of the secondary. But they're good in the red zone. They get off the field relatively often. They
force three and outs, which is impressive. They just don't have a pass rush and they just don't have the bodies up front to consistently stop the run or get after the quarter. But all things considered, yes, this is this is a tweeter who's pulled into a high school class because he or she is too advanced to do middle school math.
Yeah. Andrew with a really good point here in the chat saying that Oregon State should have beaten Washington on the road. Can't believe Washington got out of that one with a win. Yeah, totally, which I think is fair. And you know some of the questions that came into us via verballers dot com. That's or Patreon. By the way, shameless plug. We had some questions this week about coach of the year or coaches that coaches that in particular have been very very good but won't win coach of
the Year. You can make that case for Klin to bor at Washington. Definitely. I think he made that case. So Washington's a good team. Washington is an interesting team.
They are.
I mean, I think about LSU at the same time, where you can understand they had a bunch of transfers. It's year one bringing in a transfer quarterback in the same way that LSU did wearing purple. So there's you know, some overlap there. But the way that LSU was able to to last second pull out a dramatic win over Arrival in Alabama not unlike the way Washington went on the road. LSU was at home and Washington for the most part. Yes, there's an embarrassing loss in there to ASU.
They should not have lost that game, but they did. The defense is not matching what the offensive output is. But they won four straight since winning that game, and they can finish winning two including the Apple Cup Washington. I don't know if they're fully realized because of that ASU loss, but all the same, they are growing up before our eyes.
How about that