Welcome to the solid verbal holl 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 a day?
Edo state is that?
Woo woof? And then and tie, 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 excerpt from College Football Thursdays. It's the live show we do every Thursday evening five pm East two pm west Over on Spotify. An ultimate show of College Football Thursdays. Next week's going to be our last look. It's the
end of the season. Everything reaches its natural conclusion. So if you weren't able to make it this week, if you haven't been able to make it throughout the course of the season, hopefully next week your last shot to do so to join in live, to jump up on stage with us, to take part in all of the festivities. In the excerpt you're bout to hear. We went through
coaching hires. We gave them grades A through F. It's a simple exercise, but not one that we've had an opportunity to do on the normal public podcast as of late, so stick around for the next ten to fifteen minutes or so. Here what we have to say about the new coaching hires. Weigh in as always solivrable at gmail dot com or across any of our social media platforms. If you weren't able to make it this week, hopefully next. In the meantime, enjoy the clip, have a good weekend.
We'll catch you on the flip side.
The coaching US.
I brought back the dinosaur Dan. It's been a while.
Yeah, I don't know what that is.
It's some sort of beast, mythological beast.
We've gotten a Patosaurus getting worked up over Luke Fickle to Wisconsin.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So look, a lot of movement in the coaching world. It did not stop this week. The news broke just a few days ago about Jeff now on the move going to Louisville. Before that, we had Dion Sanders. We also it's got Sadderfield just sort of lurking in the weeds there and deciding that he is going to leave his post at Louisville to move on over to Cincinnati. I thought maybe we could talk through a couple of these We haven't had a chance to do it on this show, to go through some of
these hires and break them out. You know, it's it's a simple exercise. It's one that you'll see every big website do. They don't have the flare of the solid verbal of course, so why don't we do it as well? A through f Dan? All right, what was your what was your high school GPA? On the spot? Just let me know right now. Oh, I don't know.
I don't I I just want to know how accurate you are at evaluating things. If you are rock solid, then I think I trust your g I think I.
Think with the AP credits, I was above a four. Oh, whoa, I think I think I'd have to get Mama age to confirm I believe I was above a four.
Oh, that was like a three seven.
But listen, with the AP stuff, it's kind of like cheating. Those are bonus points, So I'm not that smart. Really, Okay, how would you grade out this? Dion Sanders to Colorado?
Oh buddy, this is the big one, right, yeah, this is this is obviously the highest of profile hires I would give. Dion Sanders and the Colorado marriage of sorts are given a B. Plus. I'm sort of shrugging B plus. I see the upside. I know a lot of people
are rushing, you know. I saw that Bruce Feldman, very very bright, obviously very involved in coaching in that world, uh said it was the move Colorado needed to make to give the program much needed zazz and juice after you know, their third coach in a matter of what four years something like that. So I'm gonna say, yeah, say B plus because I see the upside, and I appreciate the swing in terms of expectations and in terms of proven track record at you know, the HBCU level
is just it's not super well funded. It's just a smaller place. I'm gonna say B plus because of the swing element.
I mean, I think it's there is forgive me here for drawing an awkward comparison, there is a bit of parallel between Dion Sanders that hire and the Hugh Freeze to Auburn higher a little bit.
I don't know a little bit.
Here's where I mean. It's a very very very specific reason. In both cases it's sort of a swing, right. In both cases, it's sort of a swing. I give the swing at Colorado in a I like the move for Dion, and I agree with Bruce. It is a move they had to make. He was there, he was apparently interested, and it is a way to make a program instantly relevant,
instantly relevant after years of being a bottom dweller. So I appreciate that Dion comes with his own amount of baggage and obviously not as much of a track record when it comes to coaching at the major Power five level, But I like the move. The Hugh Freeze one, to me is an F. I give this an F because you know the baggage mostly it's bad. Sure, he's a winning coach on some level, but I just I've said it on our show time and again, I don't I don't understand why you want to take that risk if
you're Auburn, given where you come from. You know, it's one thing if you're Colorado and you haven't won, but you've been, you know, relatively a docile program, you haven't had that controversy. Auburn's always controversial. If you're an Auburn fan, you don't want more controversy. You don't need that, So why hire Hugh Freeze? That's an F for me. I'm right there with you, what do you think about Luke Fickle at Wisconsin, Because I think the instant sentiment was,
this is a no brainer. It's an a plus, and Luke Fickle has been a good coach Cincinnati. Luke Fickle is obviously familiar with the big ten footprint. It had been rumored for a while that maybe he considered Notre d Am. Obviously consider a state. We hadn't heard a whole lot about Wisconsin, but it makes sense for a variety of reasons. The other thing that I haven't heard many people talk about Luke Fickle's got like a huge
family of six kids. So if he's going to move anywhere, it has to be you would expect reasonably close to where he was because that, I mean, you have two kids. You can speak to what that's like moving a family.
So if you're moving somebody, if you're moving a giant family from Cincinnati to Madison, you might as well move them to Seattle, right. Moving is moving.
But I hear what you're saying. I think this is again another a for me. This is a move that I like Jim Leonard. I liked who they had before, just on an interim basis, I like that story but this is about winning football games now, and Luke Fickle's done a lot more of that than Jim Leonard, So this one for me is an a So yeah.
So the totality where obviously the Luke Fickle experience at Cincinnati was nothing short of excellent, but now we have a little bit more in terms of additional information. So he's not able to keep Jim Leonard on staff, who had considered staying on staff just because of his love for Wisconsin obviously his alma mater. So that's something to be taken in in terms of what Luke Fickle is or is not able to do in terms of continuity,
not necessarily his fault. Phil Longo's an interesting higher. He's been very good at North Carolina. A balanced offense we saw a couple of years ago, and they were able to run the hell out of the ball with Sam Howell still at quarterback this year, obviously, the development of Drake may has been outstanding. I would say I think he's the most promising young quarterback in the sport. But
it's different. It's a little bit different from the ethos of Wisconsin offensive football, which I'm fine with evolving, but I just don't know what that transition looks like with how strongly they've recruited to a very specific kind of system, you know, under center. Even when they line up on her shotgun, it was a lot of just straight power and not a lot of concentration on the pass game, which is what ultimately got Paul Christ into some trouble
his inability to adapt and evolve. So I think I'm largely in favor of the moves thus far. For Luke Fickle, I'm gonna say AA minus No.
The two that I know you have a problem with are Scott Saderfield just sort of slinking his way out heading over to Cincinnati from Louisville, and the Trent Dilfer Hire.
I'd much rather have Scott Saderfield than Trent Dilfer.
But yeah, the Trent Dilfer Hire at UAB. Of the list that I've got here, UAB is clearly the smallest program, but it is notable because I hired Trent Dilfer. Now people know Trent Dilfer. He's got a name. He's been involved for a good long time in coaching, would be college quarterbacks through the camp circuit and whatnot. But dude, as a high school coach until like three weeks ago, and I believe you told me earlier today he hired his high school defensive coordinator as well.
Yeah, who had connections to a lad eleven. So here's the issue with me about Trent dilfer. So when you have Luke Fikele hired it Withisconsin, when you have Matt Ruhle hired at Nebraska, when you have Jeff Brahm at Louisville, these guys, even Brent Key at Georgia Tech, these guys on the college level, coming from the college level, they have something in common that they get hired and you can immediately see them reveal their rolodex to the world.
We're like, here are this guy's coaching connections. These are proven assistants who want to follow this guy to this new place, who believe in him enough to uproot their families and their families lives to travel across the country. Here's what Trent Dilfherd does not have in any sort of meaningful way. If you look at the hires he's
made a rolodex. He just doesn't. And so that to me is the issue, is that which upcoming coach looks at Trent Dilfher and here's Trent Delpher's vision in plan for UAB and says, Yep, that's the move for me. That's where I'm going. I'm going to UAB and I honestly, I think early on and we can bring him up next or soon is Kenny Dillingham.
Yeah, I was gonna bring him up next.
His assistant hires have not been impressed at all, and so it's like he's hiring an analyst from TCU to help things on offense. He hired a defensive line coach that he you know, I think went to school with and was a high school coach in Arizona. He was an XFL coach a year or two ago, and now this past year he was at Idaho State. I understand that Arizona State might be a little bit radioactive at
the moment. But when you see somebody go to a school and within a week an offensive coordinator or a defensive coordinator, and it's a big school, and that hire isn't somebody you've heard of or you're like this guy immediately when you hear his name, like oh man, everybody on the D two level said this is the next big thing. If you don't hear that, that should scare you a little bit. If you're an ASU fan.
We've got some hard disagrees with you in the chat. We've got some hard disagrees.
So into dilfer into Kenny Dillingham.
Apparently Kenny Dillingham and his hires.
Kenny Dillingham is hiring to win an Arizona High school football championship.
Right now, raise your hands, raise your hands. We will open up the floor here in just a little bit. We will open up the floor to talk about all things. There aren't games to pick. Allelujah. We're through the woods on that front. Yes, no TI versus the world tonight, which means we've got time to talk about coaches.
You can't embarrass yourself.
I know, I know. We could do soccer bets if you want to, but.
Oh god, just bet on Brazil, right, that's the movie.
It's just always bet on Brazil. Yeah. Yeah, Well we'll get into much much more here. The final name that I wanted to list out Matt Rule. You know, my problem this time of year, just to pull back the full kimono here, is that I love I love all the all the hires, you know, with the exception of Dilfer and Sadderfield, but and Freeze. I guess maybe I don't love them all, but by and large, on average,
we've been doing this fifteen years. I like every hire until proven otherwise, and so I have a hard time giving out anything short of an A or above an F. For me, it's always very black and white. The Matt Rule higher. I actually will sort of break my own rule here, no pun intended. I like the move. I like the coach. I think he's got a good track record of what he brings to the table for Nebraska
is exactly what they need. They need somebody who's going to teach him how not to shoot themselves in the foot, and Matt Rule's pretty good at doing that. My issue with Matt Ruhle and you know exactly where I'm gonna go next. I honestly believe that when James Franklin decides he's had enough of Penn State, that Matt Rule's going to be the coach in State College. Sure, And on how long it takes to get there, it might be three years, might be five years, might be a full
eight years. I don't know, but I do not believe he is long for Lincoln, Nebraska. I just don't buy it. And you know I've been wrong many times before.
Dreams change, Right, Nebraska is a huge program, and if you can succeed at a huge program, you look at other huge programs a little bit less. In nineteen ninety three, I wanted to marry Kathy Ireland. My dream's changed, actually, Kathy, get at me at Dan Rubinstee.
Okay, okay, okay.
No. I if Matt Rule is winning Big tensimpionships in Nebraska, he's not going to leave Nebraska for Penn State. Now that's a big if. He just hired I think a high quality defensive coordinator, and speaking of hiring assistants, so he hires Tony White away from Syracuse. He hires Marcus Saderfield away from South Carolina. And I think this is a low key reality to get used to. And now,
obviously South Carolina's in the SEC. But Nebraska has buyout money, right, Yeah, Big ten offers the opportunity to its schools, given this new contract and given all the money pouring into these places, you can buy out coaches like they did for Scott Frost, where they just said screw it is an extra five million right, We're going to make this decision early, or go to Syracuse and say here you go and throw
money at their face for their defensive coordinator. Go to South Carolina throw money at their face for their offensive coordinator. So Nebraska's in a good situation, and obviously Matt Rule contractually was offered a good amount for his assistant pool. But no, I think they're spending wisely, especially with Tony White, who I think is an up and coming, promising defensive coordinator who I'm sure Arizona State went after him given his ties, even you know he coached the Arizona State before.
But presumably a SU doesn't have that kind of buyout cash