Welcome to the solid verbal.
I'll 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 adoth state.
Is that? Whoo whoom? And Dan and Tye, welcome back to the solid verbal, boys and girls. My name is ty Hildon Brand joining me over there, beautiful New York City, a fine gentleman who goes by the name of mister Dan Rubinstein. Sir, how are you?
I'm good? I am. I am single once again, Tye, I am single just because oh we don't okay, so our pal adam a means, said the verbal wife. Because if if Kate is solid wife, Kate verbal wife, Jody with an eye, I don't know.
I like Jody with an eye.
Jody with an eye is on her way back over the Atlantic. But I have been once again a bachelor of New York for four days. And do you want to know how I spent that time?
Tie?
Probably not, but here it is.
I mean I would imagine a lot of wild partying, a lot of bar hopping, things of that ilk.
It was Crossford Puzzle Night two nights ago. And by that I mean I was alone in my apartment doing New York Times Tuesday crossword puzzles. Let's see. I cooked a little bit, I did some laundry, some Sidoku. No tie, that's crazy, that's international puzzling. I'm not ready for that. So that's all that's going on right now in my life, gratefully. So it's been low key. And actually when working on nobody knows about this outside of Espionation and people that
are tight with Espianation. People been working on an incredibly fun top secret project, top se secret top secret projects across the Espianation universe that the world will see is.
Something that rather than I know about this, do you do know about this? Okay? So right, all right, I know what you're talking about now. Yeah, it is a very cool idea, if I don't say so myself, and I'm a little biased because you know, we're co host and friends here, but it's a very cool idea.
Yes, So that'll be happening sooner rather than later in the Espianation college football universe, so you'll keep your eyes peeled. But other than that, tie, life has been good. No complaints. How you doing, I am doing well.
It dawned on me after our last show that I referred people to solid verbal dot com to sign up for our newsletter, the Newsletter of Intent, and we started getting tweets and emails like, we can't quite find the link, and my reaction was one of defensiveness until I went to our website and noticed that I had taken the link down. So if you go on out there now look right at the top, there is.
Only trueverballers can find it.
That's right, There's no more Easter egg on Solid verbal dot com. You can literally now click on the white newsletter link in the main menu and sign up again. If you want more information about our live show, which we're working on, t shirts, any other news that might arise between now and the start the season. Any of that stuff you can find and get notified about via our Newsletter of Intent. So stay tuned to there. So what are we doing today?
So we've got a theme episode. We've done this in years past, sometimes during the season, sometimes during the off season, and this is just a ten thousand and thirty thousand foot view of figuring out if a team or situation or something as it relates to college football is done or not done. So and you might be saying to yourself, why would Dan and or Tie ever say the word donzo? What is grown men?
Right? What does that mean?
It is a word that our good friend, Kristin Cavaleri very good fused, yes, very dear, dear friend married to a former SEC football player Jay Cutler, uttered on the now infamous show Laguna Beach. And we just figure out if something is done Zoe or not done so. And that is as simple as it is. But because it is the off season, people have a wide array of topics that we need to deep dive and figure out
if they're done so or not done. So we've sometimes had West Coast Kevin on he is not joining us tonight. But I like the list a whole lot, And then I think because people requested it, and it's it's pretty personal to us. Near the end, our final Dunzo not Dunzo will sort of tie into and we're not going to declare it Dunzo or not Dunzo. But you know, lot of bummery things happening around, happening around college football
media and people want to know what's going on. So yeah, we'll do our best, but I mean we're we're on the outside.
So again, Dunzo or not done. So it's a show that we've done three times before. We didn't last year. We're basically evaluating things that we view in the college football world that are like just about couput like are they there? Are they not there yet? If they are there, if we think they're done, Zoe, that's the sound clip. M hm, that's the sound clip. We're not gonna play any sound if they're not done, Zoe. I'm not declaring them anything. We're just saying they've got a stay of
execution to some degree. If you did see Laguna Beach, you'll remember this song kind of lead in here set some mood music. Dan. Yes, the why is the great Hillary Duff. Okay, So what we did is we thought up someone on our own. We also went out to Twitter and asked if anyone out there had any suggestion. So, you know, got a lot of what's a good one? Jim Mora? Right, what is Jim Mora? What's he doing at UCLA?
Dan? How many wins does Jim Mora need to keep? Okay, So we received are one hundredth question about Jim Morra's job security, and honestly, it feels just like yesterday where we received our first question of what he wins? Does Jim more in need? What's Jim Moore's job security? Likely you Josh Row's gonna help turn around this offense is Jim Morris. We will not be talking about Jim Moore. I just cannot.
We'll not be talking about Jim Moore. And we're also going to try and veer away from some of the stuff that we've discussed a lot this offseason. So think of it less in terms of will Butch Jones be Tennessee's coach beyond twenty seventeen, and more along the lines of some of the bigger picture type stuff. Let's talk about our first topic here, Dan, very first topic. I'm not asking about Butch Jones. I'm asking about Chip Kelly.
And I'm asking is Chip Kelly going to be a college football coach in the year twenty twenty, Gunzo or not Donzo.
Let's go with Chip Kelly's college football coaching career in the near so in the next two to.
Three years, next two to three years, a near term college football coaching career in the near.
Term, I'm gonna say not done. So okay, explain not done so so here's here's my explanation. So Chip Kelly will be at ESPN this fall. We know this. He's doing studio stuff in Connecticut. He's not going to be out on the road like Urban Meyer was when he went to ESPN. He will be doing both college and NFL stuff. I believe That's what I've been told for ESPN. So we'll have a, you know, a hand in each
of those worlds. But I feel like, because this is my feeling, his reputation in college is much higher right now than it is in the pros, even though it's taken a hit. I would say in both places, just because he's been in the public eye. I'm thinking that Tennessee will not be attractive to him. I don't think Florida is going to open up. Texas A and M might be, but I think he's more coastal minded it. And I'm not going to talk about jimor Jmore's job security.
But if there were a job that opened up in California, in Los Angeles and it would be CLA, that would be the job. I will say within the next two or three years. To next two or three years, chip Kelly will have a non sec college football coaching job.
Let me ask you a hypothetical though, along those same lines, please, Between Tennessee, Florida, and Texas A and m IF any or all of those programs believed that they could hire Chip Kelly tomorrow, how many of them would fire their head football coach right now.
I don't think Florida would. I mean, Florida's won a couple secees. I mean, there's some questions about recruiting, but they finished quite strong this past signing day. They you know, quarterback has still been an issue. Tennessee potentially, I.
Think tennes would do it. They would pull the trigger.
Yeah, well, like I don't think Butch wants to be there all that much. But yes, I think Tennessee would. I think Texas A and M probably will.
Yeah. Yeah, I think two of the three would probably do it. I tend to agree with you. It's not done, though. Chip Kelly is someone who I think has it woven into the fiber of his being that he's a football coach. The problem for him, as I know you know full well, is there were aspects of being a college football coach that didn't appeal to him. You want to do like the booster stuff, the golf tournaments. He wanted to be
a football coach. He wanted to do X and O's stuff, and at least to that degree, the NFL was a better fit for him. His system did not translate to the next level, but he still does have a very good reputation among the college ranks. I would imagine there's gonna be a lot of money floating around out there for Chip Kelly in the relatively near term after he gets through this one year stint with ESPN, there will
be teams who require and desire his services. So I just I think there's too much coach still in him. He's still a young guy. He will be back on the saddle before long.
Yeah, imagine. One of the things that I think about is like where he would want to be and what type of situation, And so Oregon is sort of away from the sort of mainstream you know, the South, the Southwest, whatever, and the Midwest obviously is huge, and that the very specific region you know, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, that that sort of triangle in Michigan State too, a slightly lesser extent after last year, but it seems like maybe
second tier in terms of attentions like the Larry Fedora left North Carolina, that kind of thing where he could just sort of slide in. He's not the main show. It's a basketball school. That's the type of place I could see him ending up and thriving.
Chip Kelly, not done, Zoe. When it comes to coaching in the near term, it's moving. Let me stay on the coaching side, Dan. Okay, this is a topic that you and I have kicked around on occasion. We haven't talked about it on the show too recently, but it came up each of the last two years, specifically because
there was a Clemson Alabama national championship. There seems to be a school of thought that, at some point in time, because Dabo Sweeney went to Alabama, if Nick Saban retires, perhaps he'd be interested in going back to his alma mater. You have to assume that they would be interested in bringing him over. But there seems to be a school of thought out there. Maybe it's a wishful thinking that Dabo would consider coaching Alabama.
So we'll frame it like this, five years of Clemson career in the future for Dabo, Donzo or not done. So Okay, Dunzo or not donez Dan not done. So I think Dabo's locked in. I think Dabo's locked in, and Alabama will go in a different direction. Once you win a national championship somewhere, once you've built what he's built at Clemson, you know, you can make a pretty easy argument that the Alabama job is more prestigious. But there have been many like, why would you ever ever
ever want to follow Nick Saban at Alabama? That just seems Dabo's a smart dude. Dabo's a shrewd guy. He knows very clearly what he's doing at this point. He's a championship college football coach. Life. He's I think the best modern Clemson coach.
Oh definitely.
I mean there's, you know, a ton of love for Danny Ford and stuff like that, but in terms of the modern Clemson era, he is in that whole region, he is the best coach. So like mid Atlantic, you know, Upper South what I don't know what region that is? What am I talking about? But do not follow Nick Saban?
Do not. You don't want to be the guy that follows the guy. Don't want to be the guy after the guy.
I agree, Dabo's too smart. Too.
I agree with you the notion. I want to play the sound. So I'm just going to say the notion of him going to Alabama I think has done so well that to me is done. So Okay, I don't think he's leaving Clemson. Once you get the hardware, Yeah, I think he and write his own ticket for as long as he wants in Clemson, South Carolina.
I think who would be that person to leave Jimbo.
He's probably probably the favorite to get that job at some point. Lord knows he's Florida with Alabama. He's used Alabama to get a better contract.
And you know, you hear the whispers that there's an itch that perhaps Tallahassee isn't scratching.
Perhaps he wants to get out of Tallahassee, you know, for personal reasons or whatnot. Raw, I don't know. I'll believe it when I see at Florida State. It's a pretty good job.
It's a very good job.
Yeah. Where are we going next? Dan? Let's play the music? Where were going next? Here?
Let's go here? Let's go with Oh god, I do not like our options here, ty, I do not. Okay, let's go with the big twelve over the next five years, okay, is the Big twelve? And I will not have to to reframe the question and the donzonis it's the Big twelve? Donzo, it's in the next five years ten teams, is it?
Don So? Okay?
Yes, they flirt with a number of potential candidates this past year before ultimately deciding not to expand back to twelve or however many teams, and there's certainly attractive schools out there for various reasons, both football and otherwise. Is the Big twelve as they are trying to reshape TV, deal, conference network, everything that goes along with being an alleged
major conference donezo within the next five years, I don't think. So, Okay, you don't think teams will be scattering Texas and Oklahoma off to the Pac twelve, et cetera, et cetera.
I don't. I think in order for that to happen, you're not just talking about the Big twelve. You're talking about a seismic shift in college football as a whole. You know, you're talking about creating like a Pangaea Conference with some sort of massive realignment taking place all throughout the sport. I don't see that happening. I think they
will find a way to keep it somewhat solvent. I am not the math wizard behind that plan, and so I'm not going to sit here and dot i's or cross t's and tell you exactly how they get there. But it just seems like a heavy lift for the conference as a whole to dissolve. Now. Could Texas be courted by the PAC Twelve, by the Big Ten, by anybody?
Yeah?
Absolutely. I just think there's too much there to keep them where they're at and preserve the status quo.
I think the Big Twelve may be done though, whoa wow. And I'm going to tell you why. It has nothing specifically to do with where the Big Twelve is today in twenty seventeen. It has something to do with the fact that I think within the next five years we are going to see chaos beyond college football, just in terms of media rights as those deals start drying up. And I think those rights deals are going to start spreading thinner, not necessarily less money, but we're going to
be going across digital and traditional PLATF forms. If you know, places like Google and Apple and Hulu and netflick, you know, all these entities, Amazon step into the media, fray Apple hired what Sony executives? Yeah, so I as money is sort of getting wider. I think it becomes more difficult for a place like the Big twelve to figure out exactly what it wants to do. And I am just
betting on chaos. The fact that conferences with really good TV deals like the Big Ten and the SEC are making so much more money than Group of five schools, a little bit more money than conferences like the ACC. But who was about to get their own network a new deal in the Pac twelve that I think the divide is such that the structure of the sport is going to have to change just because the money is so it's going in so many different directions, very different levels.
So I'm going to wager on chaos. And the Big twelve is the least stable of the major conferences, so I'm fine with saying that they're done.
So who knows what's going to happen in five, six, seven years from now when it comes to consuming media.
Do you think the Big twelve has a product problem?
I think the problem with the product is that because it has historically been offense offense, offense, people have difficulty taking them seriously.
Ty, do you know last year as I look at college football standings against AP teams AP ranked teams Big twelve teams outside of Oklahoma, so West Virginia, Kansas State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, how many combined wins they had against teams ranked in the apeople Is.
It a number between zero and one?
So that's how many teams? That's what's seven teams? Yeah, it is one. Wow, Baylor won one game against an AP ranked team. The rest of the teams were If my quick math works out, it looks like nine, fifteen, twenty one. Oh for twenty one. Wow, it's not the greatest. It's not the greatest. So they have a depth problem, they have a perception problem. It's just it's not a good time for this conference to be the least exciting of the five. And maybe Texas it's a nice springboard.
Maybe Oklahoma with a new brand with Lincoln Riley. In the long term, it'll be you know, stoops players and obviously the current staff at least for the next year. You know, Matt Campbell at Iowa State Kansas is improving, so hopefully more depth moves forward. A lot of people like to argue about the cyclical nature of college football, but it sort of feels like quadruple right now, Okay in terms of entertainment.
So you're saying Dunzel, I'm saying not done.
So I'm saying Donzo within I'll say six years.
When?
So the TV contract is up twenty twenty three?
All right, where are we going next?
That's all I'm getting of the musical stab Well, I'm going the short, okay, short version of coming clean. Okay, We're gonna go with Nebraska Nebraska football. Yes, and we will go with Nebraska threatening to win nine or ten games in a perennial way like they did under Bo Polini. Now that we have a couple of classes of Mike Riley and we are sort of seeing how the offense and defense are now shifting. It's a new defensive coordinator
this year with Bob Diaco. It's a new quarterback Tanner Lee, which has elicited a ton of different reactions without even playing a game or starting a game from Nebraska. Is Nebraska Donzo starting today late June as a team threatening nine or ten wins every season?
So year in year out perennial contender for ten wins.
Yes, they go nine to four last year with the ball. When they go six and three in the Big Ten, they don't lose a game at home, two and three on the road. Done, so.
I'm not fearing one.
Okay, why is that?
First Off, the Big Ten has gotten a lot better. It's not just on the eastern side of the of the conference, but there's enough money throughout the Big Ten that you've got coaches like PJ. Fleck coming in the West taking over Minnesota. For a while, the Big Ten West has felt like the lesser of the two divisions in that conference. I think gradually that will change. Gradually they will equalize out a little bit, which will make it a little bit more difficult for anyone to run
away with it. Well, because Nebraska inherently has some difficulty attracting like top fight players. You know, it's always been a difficult place to recruit to and I think if you now have more competition on that side of the division, it makes it all the more difficult to contend and perhaps ways he did years past. Beyond that, I'm not
totally sold on Mike Riley yet. Ten wins, knowing that they've got Wisconsin on one side, knowing that they've got at least three heavyweights on the other side of the conference, depending on who they play in a given year, I could see him getting the ten wins, But I'm not going to sit here and tell you that in the near term ten wins is a possibility for Nebraska year in a year out, that just feels like a bridge too far from me.
Yeah, Nebraska has some nice pieces on defense. I'm not a big fan of optimism about Tannerley coming in and drastically improving the quarterback situation. Offensive skill talent is down entering this season. You know, there's still some holdover pieces that are interesting. But at this point, with how they finished out the year, I think they combined for thirteen or fourteen points combined in two of their losses at the back half or the last month of last season.
I just I'm not a big believer in Mike Riley as upper echelon co in the year out.
I mean, take take this year is a good example. Wisconsin should be pretty good again, it should be pretty good. Iowa. Absolutely, I was always like, what seven or eight win team and just following that category. At least Minnesota got a new coach, a lot of excitement there, they got, they got a ways though. I would assume if Fleck's there for an extended period of time, he will find a way to build them up, get him at least to a better point than they are right now. And they
went on and for last year. Overall, Northwestern this year, as Bill Connolly pointed out, could be like a sleeper Big Ten West contender. Sure should be pretty good this year. Illinois, who knows about Illinois.
Illinois, It's not gonna be good.
Illinois is a mess. But Purdue just hired a new coach, hired a good guy.
Ways to go.
So I'm just saying the level of coaching aptitude in the Big Ten West has I think gone up.
No, it definitely looks more entertaining.
Definitely more entertaining.
Yeah, what about that Nebraska fans Dunzo or not Donzo believing that they root for an A list program?
Oh, definitely not done. So okay, you know, I hate to say that we have Nebraska people. Somebody asked us why we hate Nebraska fans. We don't hate Nebraska Fansbrako, don't. No, I don't.
I thought this show is founded on the very basic principle that we hate Nebraska.
Nebraska people were so nice that I was taken aback by it.
They're always very That's where I met a playboy playmate, Tailgating.
That's right.
I've always hold a special place in my heart and on my wall.
All right, Dan, let me ask you this one. Okay, mattress is not named Casper Dunze or not Donezo.
Completely donezo ty. Yeah, didn't have to think twice.
So a little bit of an announcement here. I saw you this past weekend. We got to get a new troke. We did have a secret pow wow, did a little pow wow. Your Casper mattress is still in the box. That's true, it's still in the box. Down What are you waiting for? Why are you doing this to your back, to your body, to your sleeping arrangements? Why are you not relishing in the glory that is a Casper mattress.
So, first of all, I have laid on a Casper mattress before, at a friend's house. I can't say too much more beyond that. Tie yeah, right, So I can't
speak with authority about the comfort level. It is difficult to get rid of mattresses in a large city, so we have to like time it up with our building, and they've we've been going back and forth with them about the best time to get rid of it because you have to get like a special sleeve because of bedbug concerns in New York in order to dispose of a mattress properly.
I was under the impression that the responsible way to dispose of a mattress was just to drive out in the highway and throw it along the side by the guarden.
Not as not from understanding, that was not how New York City works. So I will be putting it on my bedspring. Is that what it's called? Yes, as soon as humanly possible. But it is still and it's comically situated in a box that looks far too small to hold a large It's.
Like that half wall in your apartment.
Yeah, it's amazing solid.
Wife Kate has been traveling for her mysterious day job, and she's been staying in various hotel rooms across the good old us of A. When she comes home, she's like, I love our mattress. Thank you to Casper to sending US mattresses. They have an award winning design. It's continuously developed using feedback from nearly half a million customers. They sell directly to you, so they're able to cut out the commission driven inflated prices. You know how it is.
You see mattress stores all across the country. You don't have to worry about that. Just go out to Casper dot com and you can buy there. It's easy order online. They deliver it to your door. I don't know how they fit it in the box, dam but they can deliver it to you in the United States, to the UK, to Canada, wherever you are. It's free delivery, free returns, a one hundred night risk free trial. They give you a chance to sleep on it before you you know
fully commit to it, which is cool. If you want to get in on the fun, you can get fifty bucks towards any mattress purchase by visiting Casper dot com a's c asp e r dot com slash verbal and use the code verbal VRBA L again fifty bucks off any mattress purchase, free shipping, free returns. Try it one hundred nights risk free Casper dot Com slash Verbal offer code is verbal fifty bucks off any mattress purchase terms and conditions do apply.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Ty, sleep is the greatest drug there is. Go get that danky, danky Casper.
All right, Dan, We actually solicited a bunch of these.
On Wait, hold on, is danky a good word?
I don't think so?
Okay, So go get the stickiest stuff. Nope, we don't want to talk talk about the mattresses sticky, So go get that good stuff, that good, good Casper.
We solicited a bunch of suggestions for this show out on Twitter. What we're trying to do again is go big picture. You're trying to talk about stuff that we haven't discussed before in the past.
The spread offense as a unique offensive system. Donze non done. So this is kind of loaded. So why do you Why do you say, Donzel? Because the spread is not defined as one rigorous set of principles.
Is it true? True? I just I kind of remember when the spread was becoming a thing, because we started doing the podcast back then.
True, when it sort of infiltrated the major programs.
Yeah, right, when the spread was in vogue and it could be utilized as like something that people hadn't seen before, right, That was a much much different day and age. Now everyone's using some form of the spread or some concepts they're borrowing from it. It's not like this new thing that people haven't seen before that they can't game plan for. It. Certainly can be difficult if you're going from like Navy one week to Oregon the next, but by all arge
people people know what this is. So to call it a unique offensive system at this stage in the game, I can't go that far. There are definitely wrinkles within it, yeah, that make it interesting, that make it entertaining. If you would have asked, is it's still entertaining? That's definitely not donezo. I love watching a good spread offense, but as a unique system that's done so.
So there have been elements of what we consider to be the spread going back decades, sure, and wrinkles throughout time. And whether it's the zone read, whether it's running inverted veer stuff, whether it's flexbone, which is my favorite new term in college football. You know, you look back to
Kentucky when Mike Leach was there running that offense. They were running a ton of air raid principles with Tim Couch and what he was doing at Texas Tech predates obviously what we did when we started the show, and Urban Meyer was developing stuff at Bowling Green and Utah and Florida and having success there. So now that you watch college football and you see teams even like Alabama Stanford,
Stanford runs the inverted veer. Stanford runs zone read concepts with traditional drop back type quarterbacks that also happen to be mobile. Andrew Luck and Kevin Hogan, guys like that. We saw what Jalen Hurts did at Alabama this year as they sort of poorted their offense into having principles of spread. So there isn't a team in America that I can think of that doesn't do something in a spread fashion. So I would say, without hesitation, the spread
as a unique offensive system is completely dead. The spread offense is offense right now. Even with Stanford lining up under the under center ninety three percent of the time in like jumbo packages and stuff like that, Stanford football isn't defined by only that. So I would say it's impossible to be a successful Power five program at this point. And you can go back to Joe Tiller, and he was spreading the ball out at Purdue with his system. It's impossible to be a team like this without having
some sort of element of the spread. In twenty seventeen, I defy anybody to name one who doesn't include parts of what we consider to be the modern spread into their system.
The real world comparison here would be when Facebook opened itself up to parents. Yeah, you know, when parents were able to get on Facebook, then you knew it's like, Okay, this is no longer a secret society. This is now a thing that's going to go mainstream.
I may be one of the last. Both my parents tie not on the book, really both not on the book and lead such happy lives.
I could see your dad having interesting comment wars on Facebook.
My one of my brothers does. But my dad is has steered clear and is happy about it. So yeah, it's it's almost to the point where like a trendy restaurant, like, are you a trendy restaurant anywhere in America that doesn't serve Brussels sprouts? You know that kind of like you might not serve Brussels sprouts, but you've got some sort of vegetable small plate that's shareable Okay, should we share some grainbians? Should we know? Should we share some some mushroom fries?
I'm with you.
I'm with you, so you might not be a Brussels sprout restaurant. Tie should probably have some sort of version of sprouts.
All right, let's do one more here, Dan, Okay, one more here, and then we can move on and talk about some other stuff. Thank you to everyone who wrote in. By the way, at sOliver, We're on Twitter. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts. We're also on Google Play, coming soon to Spotify for those of you who are familiar with that service. We appreciate their help and getting the bubble on there. Probably in the next week or so, so stay tuned. We'll send that out via the newsletter
at some point in the near future. This one I found interesting, okay, and you know, it's something that we've discussed here and there, but it's just interesting to me. I love the word and it came in via Twitter. Okay, is it done so or not Donezo Stanford as the neighborhood bully.
I'm not sure what this means. I'm gonna be quite honest.
It's also to interpretate. So here's what I think it means. Okay, you can tell me what it means to you, But what it means to me is Stanford in recent years has taken on this persona of just a team that's going to go out there, line up opposite you and just beat your brains in, beat your brains in. H And you know, the neighborhood bully thing might have a negative connotation in a college football sense. It's kind of cool just to know that there's a super physical team
out there. But I guess the question is asking, perhaps due to turnover, perhaps due to the fact that everyone knows they've been the neighborhood bully, the Stanford still have that reputation? Is it still preserved? Is it Dunzo or not done so?
So, No, it is nowhere near Dunzo as Stanford having that narrative of being the neighborhood bully because they keep signing the best offensive lineman in the country. Now and if your reputation is lining up as many large humans as possible and using those large humans to obliterate the spleens of everybody in front of them, and you keep getting the best guys doing that, No, and I like
that they play to an identity. I love that. I love that Stanford arguably one of the places with the lowest floor as a program, just because of the difficulty in getting players to Stanford that are of high quality both on the field and in the classroom, and can get into the school with like a three five or a three a GPA, whatever you need as a football player to get in, the fact that they have sustained
success Like David Shaw. If he were at any other like if Stanford were in the SEC, and he was sustaining this level of success, everybody would be fawning over him year in and year out. But the fact that he's in a quiet place in northern California, away from the heartbeat of college football. He just sort of lives his life, plucks the best quarterbacks, plucks the best tackles, hires really good assistance, and goes at winning ten games even in
down years like they did last year. It's incredible.
If I go back to twenty twelve Dan Stanford twelve wins, twenty thirteen Stanford eleven wins, twenty fourteen Stanford with only eight wins, eight lowly wins. But then I go to twenty fifteen Stanford twelve more wins. Last year, Stanford started off kind of looked Rocky still found a way to get to ten wins, won their last six games. There's no way possible this team is not still the neighborhood Bully,
not still capable. I think you're right to point out they might have a lower floor than many other programs out there. The fact that they're able to do what they've done to have this level of success, given the fact that it's an institution that prides itself so deeply on its high academic standards that at other places that would definitely be a barrier. Yes, and one other one here. Actually we're not going to play the music for this one, but you may have heard the Audible podcast.
Yes, our pals might.
Have heard the most recent Audible podcast from our friends Bruce Felman Stuart Mandel to common guests on the Solid Verbal, they had some sad news that it's likely the end of the Audible due to some strategic shifts that are going on at Fox Sports and foxsports dot Com. On the heels of that, we receive some questions via Twitter
the email about what is what does this mean? Kind of in the context of the Dunzo not Dunzo show here, not to try and make a joke out of this by any stretch, but the question is not so much Doneo or not Donzo, but where's college football journalism, where's college football podcasting? Where is this whole sports media thing headed? In light of some of this news, there was more news today that some other friends at other websites have been let go. So this has been a recurring theme
over the last couple of years. Dan, you're in the in the media business as a day job and not so my serious day job. What's going on here?
It's a wonderful question, Ty, Yeah, Bruce and Stu have always been I mean, you're listening to the solid verbal in no small part because Bruce and Stu early on, we're generous with their time and we're great on the show along with people at other entities. But it's such a bummer to see this, and we tweeted that yesterday.
But you know, Bruce and Stu, and you know, Stu has been a mainstay of just sort of big picture college football for years and years, both at s I and Fox and Bruce and breaking stories and doing sideline
stuff and features and writing books. Like these are Titans and to see this happen at Fox with If you haven't read the piece at Awful Announcing, you should read it and try to keep a level head because it's sort of infuriating, especially if you care about you know, college football or sports media or whatever, because a lot of good people are affected, and this is something that we all look at sort of you know, big pictures,
like a hobby of something we love. But it does suck to see, especially for reasons that are still not super clear to me, like they just obliterated. If you go to Fox sports dot com right now, and Fox sports dot com is where you got your start, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, way back when, back in the day. Yeah, it is all clips of TV shows.
It's an interesting digital strategy.
Perhaps like a creative graveyard.
I could talk at length, perhaps not in this forum, but in another one about the digital strategy or at least the attempt at a digital strategy there. But as it relates to college football.
And yeah and the audible and yeah, I mean this.
Has been a theme. There's been something that's been going on. A lot of good people have been have been losing their jobs, and so it's probably a fair question to ask where's it where's it all headed? There's no denying the fact that it's a very difficult business model to solve, very difficult business model to solve. Publishing as a whole has definitely seen a downturn.
And when you have these places that are TV networks and magazines and websites and they have sort of hands and all sorts of buckets that are all sort of coming into the same pool, it becomes very difficult to sustain and figure out identity and where you should be going. And you have a ton of different cooks in the kitchen. And you know, we saw everything affected at ESPN a few weeks a few months ago. You know our pals there, you know, Brett McMurphy, Chantel Jennings, Ted Miller. These are
all people we read and love all the time. And that's not weird that phrasing, now that I listened back, tie was not ideal. But Lindsay Schnelletts Sports Illustrated and she was doing a podcast with our palle Andy Staples. We love Lindsay, We love you know our people at SI and it's just it's a tough thing to crack, and you hate to see it. And anybody that tells you that they know where media is going, they they have figured it out, they have solved it. This is
how they've cracked the riddle. They're just they're just full of blockbuster.
Had the media rights figured out too exactly for a period of time.
Yeah, our friends at Bleacher Report.
Yeah, so things are changing. I would hope that there would be strong independent publishers that would pop up that would value the kind of fine work these friends of ours have done, yeah, and would offer them shelter where they could do their work.
What's interesting, And I think it was Brian who told me this this morning at work, Ryan Nanny, that you have places like Fox who are rights holders now not
really writing about the sports that they like. Is the PAC twelve going to be happy that foxsports dot com doesn't write about sports, that ESPN dot com is writing a lot less about sports, the SEC happy that ESPN dot com employees fewer college football writers even though there's still a ton there that they're not covering the sports in the same way, but yet paying all this money and it's it's not going to be a great situation, which is why we talked earlier about the Big twelve
and chaos and media stuff. But it's rough. And anybody that works in this industry, anybody that has tried to work in this industry, knows that there are a finite number of jobs and there are way more talented people than there are jobs. Yeah, and it's tough.
Just again thirty thousand foot view. As digital strategy goes, things are headed in a much more video centric direction. There's no denying that the problem is you need videos that people want to watch. You have to sell ads against those videos.
Big picture as well, people are worse off than people losing jobs in sports media and that's cool. I mean that's not cool, but that's you know, that's something we also realize. But this is the medium we're in. And something that I also recognize is I don't think we ever like stew and Bruce with the Audible, Lindsay and Andy with Campus Rush, like I don't. I never viewed them as competition, like they're our competition is people doing things with their time other than podcasting. Yeah.
I was for podcasts to be perfect exactly, So the more the merrier.
Yeah. So people that bring listeners to the medium is who we're fans of. So we're positive Bruce and Stue will land in a good place where we're hopeful that college football podcast, sports podcast, college sports podcast we Love you know shut down full cast and podcasting played nobody and all sorts of people in the space succeed grow. It's good for everybody. It's just it's tough to see for such stupid reasons. Well, for such stupid I wish.
I wish Bruce and Stu and many other friends who have had to go through this all the best. Yeah, it's it's tough to watch. You hate to see it, and you don't wish on anybody and any in any profession for sure, But yeah, you know, we wish them well and hopefully we can talk to them soon. We just talked to Bruce a couple of weeks.
Ago, and we're not all lucky and fortunate enough like you, Tie, like you are, Like you've got the secret day job pushing pro Russian propaganda for a Ukrainian consulting company. I've seen the news. Tie, You're doing quite well.
We're all just trying to make a dime this world in.
It's true, it's true and good for you, but uh yeah, think about side hustles. Everybody think about side hustles and I'm okay, I'm okay publicizing this. I would love to rent chairs for events time. I've said this to you before. After planning a wedding, people are always going to need to sit down at various events, and Rubinstein and Rubinstein and hilden Brandt will be thrilled to rent your chair.
Can we organize some sort of multi level marketing scheme whereby we're trying to be in the chair business, but it's also something that we can do like Facebook live events around because that seems absolutely to be very hot right now. I'm just trying to figure out a way to put a marry them both, you know, put a nice face on it that people actually want to do it.
I swear to you, Ty, I am going to be the chair king of California before this is all said and done, you.
Could be the chairman.
I'm going to be the chair man, the chair person of California. But yeah, side Hustles, Tie, let's get that business going on.
Etsy, Let's send people off on a bride or another. Is July okay this week?
Yes it is.
We're going to be listening to us, perhaps on the way to a picnic. Let's talk some grilling very quickly. You got five minutes.
Yeah. I don't own a grill. I don't grow it many times.
Are you going to? Are you gonna go somewhere where there is a grill?
God willing tie? I really do hope. So you own a grill. You've been growing a lot. We've got a couple of questions here. Somebody asked about, like the best electric grill. I don't have much help for that. Yeah, I don't, just because apartment complexes don't always allow for charcoal or gas. Here is good question, ty, Yeah, the best sausage for grilling? Okay, tell me about your sausage loves.
Another weird phrasing, Dan, Thanks, I stand by that one. It's what you do best, so thank you. I like the hot Italian turkey sausage. Yeah, hot Italian turkey sausage grillers that you can buy. Wegman's has a fantastic variety of these. Can you do a lot with it?
Hot Italian sausage, whether you like pork or turkey or chicken or whatever, is always good. Best sausage I've ever had in my life. I think was beef sausage and Texas like Jlapeno beef sausage. If you can get a hold of that, like Texas style barbecue sausage, that is outstanding. Maybe some hot mustard, some grilled peppers and onions, that's cats.
There is spicy mustard by the way, and we've talked about on the show. Oh.
Absolutely.
That was something that I discovered only a summer or two ago while eating a sausage sandwich, and it changed my life.
I would say, if you want to grow Mexican, I would look up roy I c h o I roy CHOI carne asada and his marinate with like roasted tomatoes and cilantro. It's a little bit Asian, it's a little bit Mexican. It's the best marinade that exists, the recipe for that. My final thought is this ty because people are going to keep it basic and straightforward and for good reason on July fourth, and they're gonna make burgers and dogs. This is my big tip, big tip. Actually I have a double tip for burgers.
Double tip.
Okay, one American cheese. Don't I don't care for your jack, I don't care for your cheddar. Wow, I don't care for your Swiss. Those are all fine cheeses. Hot for burgers, Yeah, for burgers. I'm an American cheese man. It gets gooey, it's it's just the top of the top for me. That's my opinion. I would recommend it. Everybody's probably had that by now. Number two though, is get a recipe and scan recipes online for burger sauces like variants of
Thousand Island kind of thing. You're mixing may and ketchup or serrachia and a little bit of lemon juice and some seasoning, maybe some finely dice pickles in there.
Maybe some guy fiery donkey sauce.
Right, don't do that. Don't do that. No, I think it's just al. I think that's just like a male but maybe a middle mustard in there. You mix all those together, slather them on both sides of the bun. It's I it boggles my mind why people aren't making burger sauces for their burgers. It brings everything out, creamy, salty, whatever, tangy, A little bit of a dobo sauce if you want in there from can chipotles.
Okay up, yes, no idea what that is. But it sounds delightful.
Can chipotles so like canned Mexican pepper is the sauce therein is called in a dobo.
I knew that Adobe made a dobo and that it used to be a form of a house that American Indians built, but I was not aware of the sauce.
Sure, it's like it's a mix of just like tomato sauce and vinegar and garlic and stuff like that. But it takes the heat of the chipotle is very nice. Interesting, Yeah, interesting? Is that is my recommendation roy CHOI for a carne asada marinade, and then look up husk sauce husk like the restaurant in Charleston and Nashville for a burger sauce. Those are my big recommendations in American cheese.
If I said, Dan, now talk for twenty straight minutes about this, you could. You could do it without any assistance from me whatsoever.
I would start talking about shred your iceberg lettuce as finely as possible.
And I don't mean that in a derogatory way. It's a scout, absolutely not.
It comes to food, you want to butter up your buns and throw them on the grill for a few seconds. Who doesn't I think that's a great idea. I'm also going to throw this in TI, because you got me all worked up. Okay, eighty twenty is your ideal ratio for beef. Get some fat in there, Okay. You want to get some flavor, you want to get some crust, you want to get some oozing. Eighty twenty is the ratio, all right, don't settle for anything leanter Come.
On, speaking of beef, we'll close out with this, okay. I have eight ounce file at grilling instructions for anyone who might be interested.
You're preferred cut of steak?
I like a good filet. Yeah. I don't like a lot of gristle on my steak. Okay, some people like that. I just I prefer the clean eating of the filet.
Oh, that's fine, Okay. I don't like steak enough to have strong steak thoughts. I like rabbis, but you know, I've had good cuts of steak of all kinds.
I'm not like a pure carnivore, you know. I don't need a steak a week or anything, but like a good steak every now and again. And as someone who is a new grill owner. I've taken it very seriously. How to cook a steak?
What's your basic methodology?
So let me tell you how I got this. Okay, it's not like a family recipe or anything like that, but I quite literally stood behind and took copious notes as my father in law cooked one of the best steaks I've ever had in my life. H eight ounce steak grilling instructions. Here's how he does it, all right. He might get angry if he finds out that I told the world this, but there's not any real secret here, right. The secret is a seer burner.
Okay, I don't even know what a seer burner.
Burner is, just a burner that gets real hot on the grill. Oh okay, yeah, you can see her using any any number of different ways, but of course, yeah, he does a one minute sere on one side, then he flips it over, does another one minute here on the other, and he turns the seer burner off, moves the stake to another burner that's going it like high or medium high.
Okay, usually high, so direct heat.
Yeah, direct heat. Leaves that on for seven minutes, flips it over again, cooks it for another four and then pulls it off. Then you gotta let it set for a little bit. You have to, you know, like ten minutes. Maybe I'll continue to let it cook. I'd be curious to hear from other folks how they cook an eight ounce full a but that's the reverse. Yeah, that's been my methodology in the past, and certainly as we now get into college football and tailgating season.
Yeah.
My hunch is that's someone will take exception to what I just described.
But be curious to ask you this more opinion. May I ask you this? It gets cold in eastern pa very the winter times, so much so that you probably don't want to be outside growing.
No, but I've done it. I've done it at Christmas time.
Will you mess around with like a cast iron skillet? Because I think you should. They're one.
I would, I would consider it.
I'm open you should get yourself one.
I'll be open to it. Yeah.
Okay, that's all I'm checking on. That's all I'm checking on.
Okay, uh Donzo not Donezo? Another one in the books.
Another one of the books. What do we have coming up in the coming weeks?
So again, sign up for the newsletter. Signer for the newsletter because we'll keep you posted on the live show, which you and I got to figure out.
Uh.
Also, we've got T shirts I think coming out in the next I don't know, a couple of weeks or so, mm hmm. Some other news we'll see beyond that, though, we've got a recruiting show that we're working on. Yep, kind of in the same vein as the se how college football coaches get hired. A little bit of different style for us, but the first one went over, Well, we're gonna do it again. We've also got a super secret show coming with Bill Barnwell later on in July.
This is true, followed a few days later by the History of the Solid Verbal Show. It's gonna be our height, our tenth season now doing the podcast. Yeah, we're gonna walk you through what's going on over the last ten years to kind of get us to this point where we're doing a ten year special.
It will be the height. I can't promise it across all podcasting or even college football podcasting, but it will be the height of Solid Verbal naval gazing. I cannot wait.
We will be doing that show in the presence of one another too. As we will with Bill Barbell. We're gonna be doing that one live, not live live, but will actually be in the same in person in person thank you. And then after that, Dan, then then we're starting to starting to go pedal the metal once we get into August and we're going to do our team previews and then at the end of August we're talking
games ready. So it's gonna happen pretty quick now over the next couple weeks, a matter of days really until the season begins, under sixty days I think until the season actually starts up.
So it's beautiful.
Stay tuned here, Stay tuned to Soliverbal dot com. We're gonna waunch you a new website by the way at some point next few oh yeah, got that coming up as well. So a lot of cool stuff going on. Subscribe to the newsletter, follow us on Twitter, and like the Facebook page, Facebook dot com slash Soliverbal anything else.
Dan, it's all I got ty, It's all I got. Shout out to our brothers at the.
Audible Yes okay, and happy Fourth of July to everyone out there if you are listening on the way to or from a picnic or lord knows wherever else enjoy your holiday, stay safe. We'll be back next week for that go over there, Dan Rubenstein for myself, Ty Hildebrand, thanks against tuning up take care, stay so hey.