Welcome to the Solid Verbo. Come for me. I'm a man, I'm for I've heard so many players say, well I want to be happy. You want to be happy for day Ato State?
Is that whoo whoom? And then and Tye, welcome back to the Solid Verbal boys and girls. My name is ty Hildenbrandt. Joining me is always over there in beautiful New York City. My man Dan Rubinstein, sir, how are you?
I'm great, Ty, I just got the call that I will be joining the Oakland. A's okay, a piercing have a roster spot for me?
Yeah? Can you play center field?
I have a lot of hamstring stretching to do. Tie, I have a lot of stretching. I am good. I have uh, just a lot of excitement. We haven't spoke.
We did it.
We recorded what right after the National Championship game eight am after the National Championship game.
That was Tuesday morning, so it's been a little bit longer than usual. This show is actually going to drop on Wednesday, January sixteenth. If you're listening to us, now, hello from the past, because yeah, Dan old habits die hard. We decided we're going to wake up early. We are recording this bright and early, nine am Sunday morning, it advance of the Wednesday posting.
It's just too long between shows. It's too long between shows for me now. And this is from Tuesday morning to Sunday morning, because we're used to going Sunday morning Wednesday late afternoon, and to go from sun or excuse me, Tuesday morning, bright and early all the way until the following Wednesday. With everything news wise, with transfers, with guys returning, with NFL declarations, with coaching shuffling all over the place, and just general news, and the fact that we wanted
to recap bad predictions and our fantasy things drafts. It was too long time. It was just there's that to make up that much ground, I think as a so, even though we're putting this out later on, if something were to happen big between now and Wednesday, as we are, we're operating again in the interstellar fifth dimension, right.
Right, of course, sure behind the bookcase.
If Nick Saban retires, if Urban Meyer decides he wants the Toledo job, whatever it is, we have the flexibility to hit record on Thursday or Friday or whatever. But this is how we're operating as of now.
And as of now, Dan, everyone is undefeated. I love that joke. It's not even so much a joke as it is a cold hard fact. We are squarely in the off season. We've got a bunch of news to get through. We are also going to review our fantasy things as well as some of our favorite and least favorite predictions from the twenty eighteen season. So we've got a fair amount to cover here, even though there isn't
any football taking place. But on that note, Dan, are you enjoying the first week of the college football postseason?
It's been an active one. Yeah, I listen. I I am enjoying it. We have coaches moving all around. We've got that second or maybe I guess third wave of coaching hires because of you have the mid season, you have your general December carousel, and then there's the NFL possibilities and shufflings and late firings because things didn't quite work out, and there's there's been an active few days behind us. So I am enjoying it very much.
So I have to give you full disclosure here place. I was out late last night, later than oh look at you a youth. You know, I was at a game night until three am?
Was it that late?
Three am?
Wow?
This is what people in their thirties do when they're married. I was at a game night until very late.
There's at least ten percent of people that heard you were at a game night until three am and said to themselves, I'll bet time cater swingers. I'll bet that's what that his that's his euphemism, that's his cover.
YadA, YadA, YadA. Today I've got my husky Jennifer Lawrence voice on even ait that Okay, you want to get into the news first.
Yeah, let's play catch up and figure out what we care about, what we have, opinions about, what there might be repercussions, repercussions regarding we have. Okay, so you want to start with hires.
I want to start with Cliff Kingsbury to the Arizona Cardinals. This is my favorite story of the young off season. So as you know, Cliff Kingsbury let go at Texas Tech, a hard decision for them. He was a native son wasn't working out. As soon as Cliff Kingsbury hits the open market, Dan there seemed to be a pretty big market for his service. A lot of folks were interested in talking to him. He's seen by many as a very bright offensive mind, if not a potential head coaching candidate.
So he eventually ends up at USC as offensive coordinator, and a lot of USC people who were very excited about this. They saw it as a bit of a coup for Clay Hilton. You know the story, right. But then then Black Monday hit in the NFL, and suddenly there were a variety of NFL openings that might have been of interest to one Clifford Kingsbury, and news reports surfaced that there were several teams, among them the Jets,
the Cardinals that wanted to interview Cliff Kingsbury. They requested permission but were denied right well, and behold, here we are only a few days later, Cliff Kingsbury is going to be your actual new head football coach for the Arizona Cardinals.
Dan, Yeah, so procedurally, I don't know if he resigned. There were some stories where just Lynn Swan and the athletic department then gave permission, you know, the sort of if you love something, set it free. Element of his full story. I don't know if that fully ties in, but it makes sense in my mind, I cannot believe it, and I can believe the taking a job and then
immediately taking a better job thing. I get that. We saw that with on a certainly smaller scale, with what Chip lindsay taking the Kansas offensive coordinator job and then gets the Troy head coach Nanny Diaz Many Daz. For sure, it's not great, it's not pretty, it's not a great look. But in the scheme of the machinations of hiring, whatever you got to do with best for you, you got you have to, you know whatever, whether it's money, whether
it's prestige, whatever. But Cliff Kingsbury going from failed mid level, mid tier Big twelve head coach, that's right, checks out big time offensive coordinator job and what we've seen of him as an offensive mine both at Texas A and M and Texas Tech. Great, Yes, that makes full sense. You'd got a young quarterback of the future, all these really interesting receivers at USC, a winnable division in the
PAC twelve South. Yeah, that's I mean, he's you know, has that image of you know, enjoying the spotlight to whatever extent, like this is what a what a coup for USC. And then saying, not just will he become a high profile offensive coordinator in a big city at a big school, he's going to then leap three rungs without coaching a game, without developing any talent at USC, without sort of washing through laundering his sort of image
as a winning football coach. Is now an NFL head coach for the Arizona Cardinals, all because he helped to develop Patrick Mahomes but didn't win with Patrick Mahomes a few years ago. Is that what we're basing this on. Yeah, okay,
that's that's something. And I don't like to. I don't like to tie a lot of emotions to something like this because so much happens behind the scenes, and I do and it's tough to but I do feel bad for USC fans, who, you know, they were all so angry about the Clay Hilton era and the way it had come to pass this past year, especially later on in the season, and they're like, Okay, here is like that bright mind coming in to help revitalize things in LA.
It was memorable, And.
Of all of the memories we cherish of the Cliff Kingsbury era at USC, I don't know where to start. Tile boy, whether it was like the two receivers that committed to USC because they thought they'd be coached by Cliff Kingsbury or JT. Daniels really getting a new outlook on offense. Yeah, the fan base thinking, man, we are what are we going to do with this crazy aer rid Huh. Yeah, So Cliff's gone.
Cliff is gone. He is new head football coach at Arizona. To that point, there was another college coach who was in the mix, reportedly in the mix for a coaching duty with the New York Jets. Matt Ruhle know him as the Baylor coach won his bowl game, finished what seven and six this year, did a great job with the Baylor Bears.
Yeah, one and eleven to seven and six, I believe.
Yeah, he was in talks to be the Jets head football coach. Sounds like they wanted him, but he says he couldn't accept it because they wouldn't let him hire his own offensive coordinator. There's always a bit of a red flag if you're taking a new job and you want to put yourself in the best position to succeed.
He said, quote, I'm never going to be in an arranged marriage I'm never going to subcontract jobs to the offense and defense, and so they always want to hire people that believe what I believe right and that are going to do things our way, which makes sense to me. I'm not quite sure I understand what the Jets are doing. I like Matt Ruhle, I'm not sure if he's necessarily like the guy that you want. I'm not sure if
Adam Gazes is the guy that you want either. But the Jets haven't won a playoff game in about fifteen years, so whatever their process is for finding and identifying and hiring new head coaching talent, their process needs a bit of revision as well.
Sure, yeah, that's same sort of stupid that if you're going to take a huge risk and put yourself out there for an NFL job, that you would want to do it on your terms. Because certainly he has it good with his contract and his ability to hire at Baylor, and I imagine he will be coveted with by NFL teams and college teams should he continue to have success in Waco. So I think that seems pretty pragmatic on his end.
All Right, we got a bunch of hiring news that we're going to have to rifle through. Neil Brown is the new coach at West Virginia. Your boy, Neil Brown from Troy. I'm not sure if we talked about this in the midst, but yeah, Neil Brown going to West Virginia seems like a good move. We've got Steve Sarkisian going back for a second tour of duty to Alabama, Tony Gibson going to NC State, I.
Believe, Yeah, that is the report at our power, Bruce Veldman reporting that, so he of a good amount of success given where that defense was when he fully took over at West Virginia with Dana Holgerson to where it sort of evolved to developing a lot of talent, especially playing the past very well those West Virginia defenses. So NC State, you know, with some changes, hiring Tony Gibson
feels like a pretty decent move. And to your point about Alabama and Sarkisian, a bit of an exodus on the Alabama staff, which is the sort of it has almost reached the point where that's a feature not a bug, where Nick Saban constantly needs the turnover and the fresh mindset, and he always has the analyst to that that pool to hire from, you know. Butch Jones is another name that you know as a rumored to you know, be in the mix for jobs outside of Alabama and within
Alabama as an analyst. Who was was it Peter Tiel, the investor who believed in, like, you know, recycling the blood of virgins or something like.
That to a very weird place.
But maybe there's something a little more on the level about Nick Saban And it's also listened he probably churns through these guys because it's a grind working for Alabama and keeping that consistently high level program. Is because Danny Enos, who was the quarterback coach and associate head coach this past year, Yeah.
He's going.
He goes to Miami, right Yeah, with Manny Diaz to run that offense. Brent Key, who did a good job at the offensive line. He goes to Georgia Tech. I believe he's a Georgia Tech alum. So he joins Jeff Collins there. Josh Gaddis, who I think was pretty well regarded both at Penn State as a receivers coach for Joe Morehead and then he was at Alabama as a co offensive coordinator this past year. He moves on to Michigan, where the assumption is he will help to open up
and perhaps modernize the Michigan offense. So more changes there, and I think he was pretty well regarded. You saw how the Alabama receivers performed this year, so I imagine there was some part of that being his tutelage. So Alabama, especially on offense, looks to be new in terms of the coaching staff. Defensively, I think some of that's still
in place. I know, I believe tash Lupoi may have had some of his play calling responsibilities adjusted later on in the season, So we'll see what happens with that defense. But Alabama, with Steve Sarkeesian and reportedly Chip Long perhaps also going in a new direction.
Temple's new head coach is going to be Rod Kerry in Northern Illinois, so you'll remember Temple hired Manny Diaz after Jeff Collins left to go to Georgia Tech. Rod Kerrey coming east now to coach at Philadelphia.
Exceedingly solid, has done a very good job with Northern Illinois and at this point, you know he wins the MAC this year, yet again not a ton to prove. So I think the Temple job, as we've seen, a really nice stepping stone. And also the Temple job is just good. The Americans a really good conference, so good for him, all right.
Louisville has hired Court Dennison as co defensive coordinator. I believe you are familiar with mister Denison from his time at Oregon, young.
Dude linebackers coach at Oregon. He will be the co defensive coordinator for Scott Saderfields and the Cardinals and comes back to Louisville.
Was it?
Louisville as a coach under Bobby Patrino a couple of years ago, known to be a very good recruiter. So another seemingly solid move, by the way, and under the radar move that I love. So Utah lost their offensive coordinator Troy Taylor to I believe Sacramento State. That's right, he got the head coaching job there. So they had an opening and they re hired, not just hired, rehired Andy Ludwick as somebody who roots for a Pac twelve team, thrilled by it, as somebody who wishes the Pac twelve
would be more exciting and win more games. Boomed out by it.
There aren't a lot of folks out there who pay close attention to college football mm hmm that look at Utah's offense and say, you know, if we're looking to reinvigorate things, let's bring in Andy Ludwick.
If you look at your offense and you say, you know, we're just generating too many big plays and we're just too unpredictable. What can we do to really.
A little bit?
Yeah, let's yardage is so showy. Points are ostentatious, Andy, Andy lud went back.
To you, coordinator, speaking of guys who bounce around. Jim Cheney, Yes, our boy. Yeah, he was the offensive coordinator at Georgia. Our joke forever has been that he's the offensive consultant. If you've got an issue at your team, at your company, if you need some offensive help for hire. Yep, bringing Jim Cheney. He's going to Tennessee to backfill the position. Georgia has promoted their co offensive coordinator and quarterback coach
James Coley. Yep, So Jim Cheney to Tennessee should be interesting.
Yeah, they whiffed on a number of candidates. Reportedly, Tennessee did throughout the process to come to Knoxville. And Jim Cheney is the ultimate defensive head coaches offensive coordinator. That's just like, yes he is. He shows up on time, He gets everybody in order h listen Georgia's listen. Georgia's offense was excellent last year, and we will soon see
and Jim Cheney's offenses have always been pretty good. We will soon see whether that Georgia offense from twenty eighteen was a product of an extremely high talent level or just a very very competent coordinator, because the talent level on offense at Tennessee is not quite where Georgia's is, But in terms of consistency, in terms of dependability, Tennessee will have a B plus offense it looks like.
And finally, on the coaching front, we have Dana Holgerson looking for a new defensive coordinator, reportedly targeting Tim de Ruter from.
Cal Cal really really savvy.
I like that. Yeah, Cal had a really good defense this year, So we shall see what the future has in store for the Houston defense.
All right, Yeah, he was at I think A and M about seven or eight years Yeah, sure, so it does have experience in that area.
So since we do have a lot of other stuff to get through. Yeah, we need to rifle through transfers, declarations and if we have a name for guys who just announced they're coming back, but them as well. The biggest news was on the transfer front, particularly the transfer portal. I need to work just a spreadsheet. It's just a spreadshee, I need to workshop that sound a little bit. But
Justin Fields who's transferring away from Georgia. He's going to Ohio State, which has had a bit of a domino effect given that Tate Martel, who was the highly regarded backup to Dwayne Haskins, he has now announced that he's going to be going elsewhere. So Tate Martell's services are.
And ahead of the Rose Bull. By the way, Tate Martell was like, no, of course I'm not leaving, and I Am not going to be smirch somebody for confidently declaring that they're returning and then moving on because behind the scenes, who knows what's happening. But yes, Tate Martell highly regarded from the West Coast. I think he went to high school in Nevada. He goes to Ohio State. Doesn't appear like he would be in a good position to win the job with Justin Fields and entering the Fray,
so he will be moving on. I have not seen an association with any specific schools or visitations yet.
Jalen Hurt has at least three schools that are reportedly interested in his services Maryland, Miami, and Oklahoma. That will be one to watch for sure.
Connections to the first two with Mike Laxley and Danny Andos.
Yeah, Oklahoma is mentioned here. That's a note because Austin Kendall is in the transfer portal now as well. He was the backup to Kyler Murray. So it'll be curious to see which direction Lincoln Riley goes, Alis said, Lincoln Kennedy.
That's fine. I always curious about that too.
It'll be interesting to see it's it was a late.
Night Dan Listen, Swing or city.
It will be interesting to see which direction Oklahoma goes for its quarterback next year. All right, who else we got Tye story in there? Case Thompson in there.
Juan John ammeron speaking of Penn State, he's in the transfer transferport as well. Had a kind of rough year right with drops that would be putting it mildly Dan. Yes, yeah, that was, and he's somebody who came in. He played as a freshman.
And caught that game winning touchdown against Iowa. Yeah, the future was very bright for Juan Johnson.
But physically just exactly what you want out of a deep threat, just big jumper everything, but really did struggle with bringing the ball into his palms this year.
All right, here are your declarations very quickly. For Alabama, we had Quinn Williams, Jonah Williams, erv Smith, Savion Smith, Josh Jacobs for Clemson, Cleveland Ferrell for Iowa State, Hakeem Butler for Ohio State, Dwayne Haskins. We also had David Montgomery from Iowa State.
Excuse me, we all these names make sense to Yeah, jj Arthega White Whiteside, who was I think a senior, like a fourth year senior who could have come back. It's like a Notre Dame situation where you are technically not a red shirt kind of thing.
Yeah, we have Cody Ford from Oklahoma, their offensive lineman, and maybe maybe Kyler Murray. So may funny be Kyler Murray.
We record were it's nine to forty am on Sunday the thirteenth. By the time people listen to this, we will know it'll be known because the deadline I think is tomorrow as we record this, So we're in the fifth dimension and you'll know by the time you listen to this. But as of now, we personally do not know exactly what Kyler Murray's future holds. But there was a report that the A's are moving forward with the understanding that he is going to be playing football.
All right, well, we'll talk about that more momentarily, I promise, and returning to school, Troy Die, Christian Fulton, MALIEK. Harrison, Zach Moss, Derek Brown, Marlon Davidson.
Auburn a big winner other than Stidham, and I think Darius Slayton leaving their defense and uh yeah, mostly their defense. Real big news with who's returning with.
VARs Davis, Jeremiah Dinston, Daniel Thomas yep Okay kJ Hill from Ohio State coming back, Brandon Jones from Texas huge. Who else do we got here?
Any other big? Go the tight end form Maszook, you go, yeah, amazing. He and I think Jase Sternberger were probably the clear best and Rfsmith tight ends in the SEC. Jase Sternberger declares a few weeks ago, Big Oh is coming back.
Give me like twenty seconds about former Oregon players suing Willy Taggert.
Yeah, so it's Doug Brenner, former offensive lineman, and Sam Potassi. Potassi, who is a current at least as of you know, when we're recording offensive linemen, who were two of the three guys who were hospitalized with those workouts under Willie Taggart and his strength coach Rell Odorinde. I don't know that was good.
That was good.
So those two players have decided to sue Willy Taggart's the strength coach in the University of Oregon, for obvious mistreatment. And there were some quotes that, you know, Willy Taggert told the team, you know, we're going to find the snakes in the grass and cut off their heads, which is not a great indicator of how things were run early on by Willy Taggart and his staff at Oregon. So they're suing them from millions of.
Dollars eleven point five million to be exact, it.
Was eleven point five and I think Potassi is like a meager five million. So we hope everything is dealt with and the people that should be held responsible are held responsible. The strength coach I remember, was suspended for about a month and he is now the current strength coach at Florida State under Willy Taggart. So a pretty ugly situation reaching its the conclusion that seemed like it was an inevitability.
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Nice Daniel.
Back in August, you and I hopped aboard the bird. We sort our way to the Great Midwest, to the Windy City as it were. Yeah, and we did a live show, our Live Fantasy Things Draft. It was smashing good fun at the Vidom Theater, had an exuberant crowd. We each picked seven selections for something that we called our Fantasy Things Draft. And what we did is instead of drafting players, we draft storylines. We draft narratives that we think are going to be discussed talked about newsworthy
throughout the course of the season. I have our rosters in front of us today. We need to go through these and so.
Last year, via our friends on the soliverbal subreddit, which by the way, you should join, there was grading throughout the season and not that there wasn't this year because there was Did you grade this or is this from the community?
This is from the community, Dan, So here's interesting. Okay, here is my read on what happened, because all we have access to is the scoring through week nine. Okay, after week nine, you were up by an eighteen to eleven score on me.
So week nine would have been late October approaching Halloween.
That's right. Eighteen to eleven through nine weeks of the season is basically the margin of victory for Clemson in the National Championship. In this game, in this context, it is very difficult to come from seven points behind because what that entails is Jimbo Fisher's contract or Herm Edwards NFL mindset, or any of my items hitting seven more times than yours do or than yours did, which would have been a monumental comeback given I think, in hindsight,
the strength of your roster. Yes, my best guess here as to what transpired is that people were keeping track of this. They saw that it was a blowout, they saw this was a crock potting, and they lost some interest.
Yeah, well, here's the thing. We don't necessarily do this to win. We sort of do this to celebrate speak for yourself, brother, I understand. And so like a couple of your draft picks that have been graded out as what zero out of five, this is between zero and five, Zero being just never happens, five being this is this is the commonplace thing. So this is the number of weeks that oh, okay, where it's occurred. Each of these items actually occurred or was brought up in.
Yeah.
So two of your draft picks I think are the best things ever. They got a big laugh in the Vidom theater. And I cannot fault you for taking these things because the other wonderful things I can't argue it. I really wish, though, in looking at this, that we had consistent studio hosts unable to control their touch screen, and that kills me that we didn't get more of that.
So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to walk through each of our items. I am willing to concede defeat to you. I think that yours, just in terms of how many points you got, yours were stronger. But let's just do a bit of a retrospective here and look back at each of these items. So big, thank you. My first overall pick was Jimbo Fisher's contract.
Yeah, did that include Jimbo Fisher Texas things or that was just an aside we had.
I think that was just an aside that we had. But Okay, Jimbo Fisher's contract was clearly a talking point early.
My suspicion is that it will continue to be a talking point for every year that Jimbo Fisher is at Texas A and M, although we might hear less about it now given the fact that he had a good finish to his season in destroying NC State in the bowl game, and also is building towards something now like you can feel the momentum with that A and M program, There will probably be less criticism in twenty nineteen of the contract compared to what we might have heard in twenty eighteen.
Oh, he says, forgetting which fan base we're talking about. I think the actual misqueue here was the contract will be something that is talked about in May and July previewing the season, But in season the focus is just going to be more on is Kellen Mond developing. Is Travon Williams one of the best running backs in the country. How well did Mike Elko do getting this defense to
a pretty respectable place. You know, there there are so many talking points in season that unless Texas A and M is a total disaster, that the contract probably won't come up a lot. It would have been funnier, or if there's a NFL interest NFL interest, right, it would have been funnier in hindsight if instead of the contract we honed in on the Texas things him riding a bull. But even that felt like it was over by the time the season starting.
Okay, Jimbo Fisher's contract was the number one overall pick felt very strong at the time. Seems like it dwindled off pretty quickly, but nonetheless, the celebration of a monster contract in college football your first selection, so our second pick was personally my favorite, and the scores, at least the scores through week nine seemed to indicate that as well. Five times through Week nine. Strength coach with a screw
loose was a prominent talking point. So before the start of the year we talked a lot about strength coaches and how presumably they had a bit of a screw loose. Of course, it came up with this item the night before we did the Fantasy Things Draft and I was giggling uncontrollably at the mere thought of just saying strength
coach with the screw loose. We saw this countless times this year, I think more recently with the north Western strength coach who wore the extra medium shirt uh huh, and it was like freezing cold, didn't wear the jacket that business.
So we're talking after week nine though, so you're almost fortunate that this cuts out.
That's what I'm saying. This was a really popular and.
November yeah, so strong pick by me.
Yes, welcome home. Scott Frost was your next selection.
With a caveat, we needed to see belly button in any old pictures of him playing it in like one of those cutoff jerseys. So certainly, yes, every week that Nebraska played there was probably a reference to Scott Frost returning home to Lincoln where he played a couple of seasons worth and grew up in Nebraska. But we did need that specific picture, so in a couple of weeks early on had it.
I got to give you credit for playing this one straight and being being an honest competitor in not just taking the easy points here.
I wasn't picking it like you picked Tom Ernaldi tearjerker.
Right, that's right.
Okay, Yeah, this was not super fruitful, but I'm happy we got to talk about man navels part of this.
Next two picks for me were Kyler Murray playing baseball and the backups are better than another team starters. Kyler Murray playing baseball was a talking point early and then very quickly diminished because yeah, his his own play. Yeah, because he played at such a high level. I remember back before the start of the season, and we may
get to predictions this show. We may have to do it the next show because we're running short on time here, but I remember I named Kyler Murray is one of my nineteen most pivotal people before the twenty eighteen season, and at one point I said that Kyler Murray was the most intriguing player, the most exciting player in all of college football. And you gave me a hard time about.
That I did.
In retrospect. That seems to be one of the only predictions I got correct. This is true. We didn't end up talking about Kyler Murray's baseball because Kyler Murray's football was so damn good he won the Heisman Trophy. Now, unfortunately, the season's over, but now we're talking more about the baseball because of the NFL draft thing. It appears as if he wants to play football, which duh.
Of course he talked about playing both.
Of course he wanted to play football. If he didn't want to play football, he wouldn't play. He would have played. This year. He just went and played baseball. So he played. He did really well. I saw our friends over at Pro Football Focus are all in on Kyler Murray as an NFL prospect, even though he's a little bit smaller.
We're gonna have plenty of talk about Kyler Murray going to the NFL, I'm sure in the coming days of weeks, but at least for the interim and as it relates to our fantasy things here, this was not a huge selection in terms of points, but again as a celebration item, this was fun at the start of the year. This is a fun little thing that announcers sunk their teeth into.
Yeah, it was interesting that he played so well that you couldn't even talk about the most interesting part of his background because he in the present was so excellent for Oklahoma, obviously eventually winning the Heisman Trophy, and I think we had a caveat with this that he had to be a picture of him.
In a bay the baseball for me need the baby.
I don't know if we'd set Oklahoma and Oakland, whatever it was, so there was a caveat to this specific pick, and especially after again we were recording this Sunday morning in the shadow of a recent Big twelve Air raid ish quarterback with a baseball background succeeding wildly and is perhaps the MVP of the NFL season. It looks like Kyler Murray as a football player.
Yeah, all right, well, good luck to him. My other pick here backups better than another team starters. That's an old classic here on the show, And I was thinking about this a little bit last night when I put this together. But now, given all the talk of this mysterious transfer portal, it feels like we're headed to a place where the twenty nineteen Fantasy Things Draft in parts unknown is going to include some combination of backups being
better than the team starters. With this new mysterious transfer portal that we hear an awful lot about, I feel like that could be a really good selection.
I will say this for this specific selection, which is a three pointer here through week nine. I think if we're grading this through the National Championship, when there was so much focus on both Alabama and Clemson's depth, that this is probably more of like a six or seven pointer.
This is why that had more upside potential.
Yeah, because I think it was I think his name is Pinkney who uh sniffed out the terrible, terrible fake field goal from Alabama. It was a Clemson backup defensive lineman. Obviously we had Albert Huggins stepping in for Dexter Lawrence. There was a lot of that talk of yes, isn't
it great to have this much depth? If he weren't on Clemson, if he weren't playing for Alabama, he would be starting at one hundred and fifty other schools, and the quarterbacks who are transferring, the backup quarterbacks, I think Jalen Hurts would be starting for many schools, but as a backup at Alabama. So yes, I think this one is one hundred percent a grower over a shower.
All right on your side. So you had two consecutive selections kickers and punters taunting followed by Will Muschamp has seen the light now Here's what I don't understand about this. I trust whoever compiled this sheet, and I certainly trust the solid verbal Reddit community. Of course, I had no idea that kickers and punters were taunting this much through
week nine. This is a four pointer. Relative to the other thirteen selections on this list, this would be the second best, right behind strength Coach has a screw loose.
It did happen. There were moments early on during the season where and I think part of it is because college kickers and punters are sometimes so surprised that they're succeeding and making big kicks and succeeding in big moments that they can't help but to get overly excited. So yes, we.
Did have this or here is my beef with this though, Okay, you taunt an opponent. Taunting is different from celebrating from excited. So I'm gonna throw the red flag in this one a little bit here. I'd like to see further review on whether or not this was actually a four pointer.
All right, that's fair. So if you have evidence in the first couple months of the season of kickers or punters taunting this, we hit our community is on the level.
I mean someone has this. I'm certain of that, but.
You just want to see in controvertible video evidence. That's right, that's right, conclusive. Okay, fair Will Mushamp has Seen the Light. Did not work out well for me because nobody really cared about South Carolina and offensively, they peaked with a loss I suppose to Clemson. They played a ton of
close games. But in order for Will must Champ seeing the Light with a big offensive turnaround and sort of calming down a calmer Will must Champ, they just South Carolina was not in the limelight enough to get a sense of that, and there was no real sense that, you know, we had a different Will must Champ on our hands this year.
All right on my side, this is when I selected studio hosts unable to control a touchscreen, which is still maybe my favorite Fantasy Things selection to date. Yeah, it did not get any points through weeks, and now.
People are just not watching studio shows. This did happen. I saw this down the stretch. Yeah, no, this is definitely a two or three pointer.
I still love that selection. Studio hosts unable to control touch great.
And by the way, it's getting easier. The technology is getting better. If this pick were made in twenty thirteen, it would be every probably win this thing, all right, you're probably getting a ten or eleven out of this.
I also had Herm Edwards NFL mindset. Let's talk a little bit about Herm.
Dan another victim of success.
HERM Edwards, through at least the early part of the season, seemed to be much better than expected. Like Arizona State didn't come out looking disorganized and in disarray anything like that. They actually were pretty good. Initially.
Twelve was also garbage better than expected. PAC twelve was garbage, but at times, yeah, you know, I thought, all things considered, Herme did a pretty good job in year one at Arizona State. So this is the kind of thing that would have gotten I think a little bit more attention if ASU had been a little better or a lot worse. Well, this is also such a good off season pick and just not a great end season one.
You know, as you had kind of a five hundred season, don't know. And we're talking a lot about the NFL mindset and his new model for success.
Yeah, there were bigger picture stories within the PAC twelve Once Herm Edwards was definitely competent.
On your side, you had the damn fade. Yeah, and also Dean Blandino is wrong. The Dean Blandino one to me again. We put all these together the night before our live show.
Oh poor Dean Blandino.
The two that killed me the most were the strength coach with the screw loose and Dean Blandino being wrong.
Well, there's nothing like being on a stage with a twenty foot Dean Blandino behind you. There's something special about that. And I would argue, as Fox games got bigger and bigger near the end of the season, and I can't point to something specific and like the Northwestern Ohio State Big Ten Championship game, but I would argue that this is bigger than the two points that got through Week nine. And also the fade. Somebody a team running a fade.
I think we were specific about a goal line fade in a big moment on a third or fourth down before either kicking a field goal or you know, turning the ball over on downs. I would argue that this three pointer, by the end of the season was probably a six or seven pointer. Come on, teams aren't calling bad fades all the time?
Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah, and Dean Blandino being wrong. We were still getting commentary about that yes, through the end of the year, so that was a really good is he.
Doing it for? I haven't watched a lot of NFL playoff stuff?
I have no idea.
Is it just Mike Pereira for the NFL? I think that might be.
Gosh, I have no idea. Okay, final three picks. I had two to close out my roster. I had announcers flubbing digital trends, followed by Notre Dame quarterback questions Daniel, Yeah, I feel like announcers flubbed more digital trends than this score.
So are you getting two or three for this?
It was okay, hurt a little bit of Fortnite stuff.
Well, they also did a there was a piece on Game Day with Boston College when Boston College hosted Game Day. I want. I don't know if it was Gene wo Jahowski was somebody did an actual piece on Fortnite. I don't know if he flubbed it, but I'm sure it wasn't the most accurate Fortnite segment.
Fortnite was really the target of this selection, at least through week nine. No points, but a celebration.
Nonetheless, it was there were probably story that, like the story about Nkosey Perry and being suspended for the Pinstripe Bowl because of snapchat. There's no way that was handled accurately across the board, no chance.
And then the second one here, my final was Notre Dame quarterback questions only two points through week nine. I feel betrayed by Brian Kelly on this one.
Yeah, he made the right call at the right moment.
He made the right call at the right moment with absolutely zero fanfare. He just sort of found out before the wake forest gained that Oh hey, ian Book's gonna play.
Now, when did Wimbush come back? When did he come back for the ian Book injury? I forget who he started against.
He came back against Art of State.
Okay, now, Brian Kelly made the move at the right time and really betrayed your trust, betrayed the experience of rooting for Brian Kelly Notre Dame teams. I'm sorry to say, Ty.
Finally screwed me over with this one. Dan, you are had some flubbed it. I was the one that flubbed it. I had zero confidence in his ability to pull this thing off without creating another tire fire, and in hindsight, he did a pretty good job. Won all their games until the last one.
The big question, the big Notre Dame quarterback question was is I and Book going to throw a six yard hitch to the rights to the left? Is he going to throw a pretty well sniffed out screen. That was pretty much the question.
And finally the last selection, m h overly emphatic tongue. This, according to the sheet I'm looking at, was only a one pointer through week nine. Here is where I think we missed out on points for you. Okay, it wasn't so much with the overly emphatic tongue of I loa as much as it was the mistaken tagavaloa. Okay, I heard a lot of tagavaloa. I heard tongue I looa and taga iloa in the same broadcast from brad Nessler.
There was a lot of apparent confusion over how you're supposed to say this name, and apparently the memo has not reached media sources at this point. It's twenty nineteen. Now we're going to have another year of tua. I could see this being another selection in some kind in the twenty nineteen Fantasy Things Draft because they still can't get the name right.
Where I screwed. This pickup was just perfectly exemplified by you. You didn't say we're going to have a lot of to a tongue of bi loa next season. You just said we're going to have a lot of Tua and that That's essentially what happened is he was so good that broadcasters had to say his name a ton and he just became tu.
Tua like Pele right, a one yard name.
Yes, he just became Tua. So in terms of the potential reps of announcers, broadcasters, studio hosts, whatever, saying his full name just became Tua.
So there you go. Those were our fourteen selections. It's an inexact science this year. In putting together who won and lost, I am willing to concede though that I think yours most definitely got more points than my.
Third straight year. I think it'd be a third straight year yeah mm dynasty and first year the dynasty, thank you. Yeah.
The first year that we did this, you and I argued about who won, I remember, and that did not go well for my reputation. A lot of folks told me that I was a beta male after that one, that yeah, I bullied you, that you bullied me, that you pushed me around. So last year, the Reddit community answered by actually keeping track there was empirical data to suggest and eventually crowning the champion. This year, it's a
little bit of both. But if the scoring was accurate through week nine, you had such a healthy lead that there's no way I ever could have come back.
Yeah, and it's I should say, because it's an inexact grading science. Next year, we are happy to announce that this will all be judged by the honorable Ruth bader Gets that's right, So any any issues that you have with this final grading next year take up with the honorable RBG.
That's RBG.
Excuse me?
All right?
Well, a fun year as always. I had hope to get to some of our favorite predictions from the twenty eighteen preseason, but seeing if you want to be accountable on another episode, yeah, let's be accountable on another episode.
Kind oft.
Yeah, we made some real bad predictions, and I've been listening back. I was, I was scrubbing through a bunch of these episodes and I did surprised myself by being right like two out of ten times in a conference or a division or whatever. But there were some It wasn't even that there were bad predictions. It was just there were unfortunate moments where we were talking about players that we really thought were going to matter. Yeah, for
good reason. We were just like man Bryce Love, and we just spent a lot of time on Bryce Love and like it was really unfortunate that he was injured in twenty eighteen for a majority of the season or beat off at least, and talking about Khalil Tate and talking about Chico mcclatcher. I guess we really screwed up
the back twelve. But across college football, we were focusing on players that, ultimately, because of injury, because of performance, because of just being outplayed by other players on the depth chart, didn't matter as much as at least we had figured they would. So that was kind of funny listening to like how much time we spent on like Tarik Black when talking about Michigan stuff like that.
Yeah, for sure, And for every prescient moment where I said something like Florida State feels like a six and sixteen to me, and you got hell for I got hell for that.
You were you were even too optimistic.
That's right.
We nailed a couple which I was pretty proud of. We knew like and we'll get we'll do an accountability, we'll do it.
But my point is for every time I said something like Florida State's going to go six and six and be a five hundred team, there were about four things, like, you know, Louisville could get to eight or nine wins this year, Juan pass pass, I could see six wins for Arkansas. It could happened. They might be, it might be plucky. Dan.
Yeah, we were in the in the glow of July and August optimism. We perhaps we sunshine pumped a little, and so never again will we think good things?
That big step back Ye're coming from Mike Leach.
You know, can we pledge to like actually do the proper math or is that just too much when we're doing when we do these predictions in twenty nineteen in terms of like, no, not every team from this conference can make a bowl game.
We had some mathematicians and actuaries doing the numbers on our predictions, and it does seem as if it were impossible for many of these predictions to ever come true.
This is true. Yeah, we will review what we did and did not get right. Yeah, looking at even you put yours on this document in front of us, and you were a thorough and I remember, and I'm not even going to talk about the actual predictions, but we remember what we did the are we sure? Episode where we questioned conventional wisdom, which by the way, was one
of my favorite episodes we did last summer. I remember specifically saying to you and the audience like, I'm sure to a tongue of Ailoa is going to be the starter? Are we sure that just because he finished that Georgia National Championship game and championship fashion, that he's outright winning this job? And we did. Are we sure that Murray, who had a rough go at Texas A and M, is going to beat out Austin Kendall, the one I'm
most proud of? There? There are we sure Shape Patterson is really good in The Savior because that turned out to be somewhat accurate that he was pretty good but was not good enough to eventually get that offense over the hump in big moments.
Yeah, it may have been bigger than Shape Patterson.
Correct, So I'm excited to do that episode again. I was already Tie so excited for Are we sure Cliff Kingsbury is going to revolutionize the USC offense and that the problems don't run deeper? And he took that from us, Tie, and I will never forgive him.
All Right, Well, we've got a long off season in front of us, and we've got a bunch of preseason crow that we need to eat. So we'll do that show at some point in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned here. Soliverble dot com is where you can find all the stuff relevant to the show. We also have a Twitter, we have a Facebook, We post on Instagram. Sign up for the newsletter if you're interested in what's
going on with us this off season. January a bit of a slower month for us as we kind of settle back into the normal rhymes and rhythms of the off season.
I want to do some debriefing, Like I want to talk to people like, wait, what happened with NC State? What happened with Texas A and M What I want to do? I don't know if it's conference wise. Our Homer episodes, But we spend so much time looking at big picture and top level and bowl games and whatever that I think it's important to look at like, hey, what you know, we don't always have the time to, you know, pick a part and do autopsies of seasons.
And I think for us to understand better, I think for everybody listening to understand better, we should do some autopsies.
All right, we can do that, some post mortem sure, yeah, yeah, all right. Well, it's a long off season. Do sign up for that newsletter for updates. Dan and I are always cooking stuff up in the here. We're excited about twenty nineteen. The fantasy things will again be happening in a city near you. But you're gonna have to stay tuned to find out more information on that. We promised to plan that out a little bit more in advance this year. That's our pledge to you, as your two students.
We did a pretty good job.
We did it. We did a good job. We knew it was, we knew the city, We knew the city.
Yeah all right.
Well, thank you as always to everyone out there for tuning in. We'll be back next Wednesday talking more college football. But Daniel Yes. In the meantime, enjoy your week, enjoy your weekend, Enjoy some extra breathing room here as we now switch over to our once a week schedule. And I guess I'll talk to you when I talk to you.
Yeah, I think that sounds right. This has be an exciting January, Ty, I've got that feeling for that.
Go over there, Dan, I'm tied. Talk to you when we talk. You stay solid.
Peace,