Welcome to the Solid Verbal. Ill 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, Ada State?
Is that? Whoo whoom?
And Dan and.
Tye welcome back to the Solid Verbal Boys, girls. My name is ty Hildebrand, joining me as always from an undisclosed location.
His name is Dan Rubinstein. Sir, how are you? I can disclose that I'm outside of Chicago. I am in the suburbs. I'm all right. A lot has happened since we last recorded. Okay, right, pause.
Yeah, we are a show about honesty.
We are.
When we recorded last time, you were in la at your old house where you grew up. Now you're making your way back across the country eastward bound. Here you are in Chicago, as I understand it, in the childhood bedroom of your brother in law.
Is that correct? Yes, shout out to Blake. I am in the childhood bedroom. I'm next to a CRT. Is that what it is? The CRTTV the cathode raid tube. Yeah, yeah, the tube monitor. Sure, and it's it's not a monor. It's the full on like RCATV. There's a VHS player built into it. It was convenient. Yes, no, it is. It is like a definite fourteen year old boys bedroom right now. Life is good. It's very cold. I just tad about a food poisoning. I missed the West coastar
miss southern California. It was very nice. But I actually really like it's cool to be inside in a warm place when it's so cold outside. There is something that's kind of cozy about that that I can appreciate. But I watched the news last night and seeing that radar, that Doppler tie, even living in New York, that was whoof that? Was that new? Back up here for a second. Yeah, food poisoning. Oh yeah, food poisoning. I mean we should also my Hi. It is a college football show, ye hill.
We have a lot of bowl games to recap and to preview, including the biggest of them all, or I guess up to the biggest of them all, and there will be plenty of college football momentarily. But I may have had food poisoning, and it may have come from a mission style burrito in the mission in San Francisco, and man, food poisoning is I haven't had it in a long, long time. No joke, tie, hot take right there.
Yeah, no, it's no joke. So hold on now, yeah again, show about honesty. You had the battle food poisoning, and then, as I understand it, you also fell down the stairs.
I did, I was. I mean, as you can imagine, after bad food poisoning, you might need to do some laundry. Tie, And so I was bringing laundry down at the in law's place and wearing socks on a slick carpet and wearing slick socks, and took a spell. I have not fallen downstairs intly, I mean unintentionally, I guess, ever, thankfully and hurt for a little bit. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not the athlete I once was.
So what I think I'm hearing here is that Dan Rubinstein?
Yeah, oh, little.
Bruce Feldman body blow theory going on for you doing this podcast?
Yeah? After well, it's life. Life is dealing me a physical hand here. But you know what, Ty, I'm here, I'm a trooper. My streak continues. Well, it's good to talk with you.
I hope everyone out there had a merry Christmas, happy honic, a happy quantum whenever holiday suits you best thank you for joining us again for the rest of us. Yeah, we've got We've got one show here in twenty seventeen that we must record because Dad mentioned a bunch of Big Bowl games to not only recap, but certainly preview as we get into the playoff and the New year six we're going to get into all of that momentarily.
Just checking in. Life is all right with you?
Right?
I want to I don't want to be. Life is a lot better with me than it is with you, Okay, Just making sure.
Yeah, I haven't had a chance to train again for our big Ping pong matchup coming up on January sixth at the live show.
I didn't train either in La just so you know, a little over Thanksgiving, but not when I was just there.
But otherwise, yeah, I'm doing fine. On that note, Live show tickets are going to go back on sale January the second, at one pm. We'll post it on Twitter, we'll post it on Facebook.
And that's pretty limited too. So if you're going to be in Atlanta after you know that your team is going to be there, i'd grab them quickly, grab them quickly.
People have email that they're going to be coming down either as part of the National Championship, like envoy or just otherwise going to be in and around the area. So there's some folks still figuring it out. As you mentioned, I would make sure that you grab those quick January second at one pm. We'll post it everywhere. We'll send out another email all that business.
Just be on the lookout.
The other thing that we tease we were cooking up in the lab and now it's sort of official. But more details on this will be forthcoming, we promise you. But as everyone knows, there is a college football media day, much like the Super Bowl Media Day, where the teams gather, there are podiums, you go around, you ask questions. This year, we will be at media Day as we have gosh, I don't even know how many years in a row now, Yeah, we will be broadcasting live throughout media Day from the
college football playoff Facebook Sports set. Yes, so a little bit of a live broadcast that you can tune into be part of ask questions through courtesy of our friends over at Facebook.
Yeah, we'll have fun with some players, maybe a coach or two. We'll be over there, so it'll be lighthearted, informative and you get to see tie in what I can only assume to be pristine high definition.
So tend what more do you want? Yeah, baby, stay tuned for more information on that front. Now on the more pressing subjects, Daniel, Yes, I know you're on the mend here from various malatees. Are you ready to go into some bowl recaps.
And previews and the like? Yeah, we got a deep dive this bad boy mowers Gasparilla bawl. That's right, So we have not sure why I played that sound.
It's not breaking news in the conventional sense here on the solid verbal, But we've got a handful of bowl games that we want to recap. Actually, I guess it's more than just a small handful, maybe a dozen or so. Let's start with the DXL Frisco Bowl. This one was between Louisiana Tech and SMU. We cautioned folks in advanced that just kind of a weird situation with Chad Morris leaving, Sunny Dyke's coming in, maybe not the best scenario in which to select SMU, even though for a while they
were favored. Here or low and behold Louisiana Tech fifty one, SMU ten. In case you were wondering what the effect might be of a weird coaching circumstance. SMU promptly committed six turnovers, two of which went for pick sixes, in route to losing by forty one points in the bowl game.
Dan, Yeah, and my favorite receiver running back duo of names in bowl season. I think I would have to review it some more. But law tech or I don't know, do you think law tech hates being called la tech like tech people hate law tech? Okay, So Louisiana Tack, they're they're dual of running back receiver names Boston Scott and Teddyville, which sounds like they're just in a frat at. Maybe let's see what frett could they be in Boston
Scott and Teddyville? Maybe at North Carolina? I don't know, Yeah, yeah, yeah. They both had terrific games for Louisiana Tack. And as you mentioned, SMU, that was a struggle. Even Courtland Sutton, even with his couple of nice catches, could not really get anything going and to nobody's surprise, and I appreciate you giving me the out two. Once it was announced that Sunny Dykes would be the interim head coach, before he was going to be the head coach. I guess still win this game.
Like everybody who follows college football with really any amount of seriousness had to look at that situation and say, uh uh, maybe not the best idea to bring Sunny Dykes in.
Yeah I was. I was never going to alter plans to watch this game. But I started watching this game right before going out to dinner with my parents in LA and saw how it started, Like, yeah, I think we're good here. Yeah, I think, I think, I think I know how this one ends.
All right, let's move on to the bad Boy Mower's Gasparilla Bowl.
Gasparilla. Temple wins twenty.
Eight to three over FIU, and I got to say, the most interesting aspect of this game for me was not the fact that Temple actually caught me by surprise in winning this game by twenty five points.
I thought it was going to be pretty damn close. It wasn't.
Did you hear what Jeff Collins said during the postgame celebration, I did not please inform educate. Jeff Collins, first time head football coach coach for Temple, took over after Matt Ruhle left for Baylor. During the postgame celebration, he said, quote, the ceiling for temple is the roof.
Hmm.
Now, Michael Jordan had a similar quote about North Carolina a couple of years ago, and in that case, people tried to really dissect what it meant and what they came to. The conclusion that they came to was that because North Carolina football does not play in a dome of any sort, the open air stadium meant that essentially.
There was no ceiling.
Right in this case, they played the game at Tropicana Field, Dan, That's a dome, and so I'm still searching a bit for what Jeff Collins might have been referring to.
And isn't it sort of a dilapidated I don't know if the ceiling has ever leaked or tiles have fallen like they did at the Kingdome, but not a great roof to associate your team with. Just like a lot of cheap drywall in that stadium. Yeah, impression. I I've never been.
But anytime you build a baseball field in which players can hit the lights with a pop fly, generally there's like a logistical issue there that needed to be further examined.
The better news is that Temple was awesome against FIU's passing offense, and they stopped the run really well. It was really nice defensive performance to go out on for the Owls going into next year. Moving on, let's talk about the Bahamas Bowl.
Let's the Ohio Bobcats win this one, forty one to six over the UAB Blazers.
Again.
Youa be a good story. A couple of years ago the program was dead dead is adorn. They came back, they were in a bowl. We both liked Ohio here though a fair amount because they'd been really good this season.
Yeah, Nathan Rourke, huge game, Drian Brown very nice game to go out on on the ground, had had a huge day there. Poppy White a name I'm just learning for probably the second time for Ohio. He had a nice day catching balls for the Bobcats. But a quietly very good year for Ohio. And even with the great story that is UAB, and I think Bill Clark should gotten a little more attention at the end of the season with what he was able to do with the Blazers. Nice one for Ohio.
Okay, famous Idaho Potato Bowl Wyoming thirty seven, Central Michigan fourteen. I had the question before this game, is Josh Allen gonna play? Josh Allen, the all world everything quarterback for Wyoming.
He did play.
He was back from the injury. He looked pretty good. I thought he looked healthy. Wyoming won the game by a pretty healthy margin. And then he declared for the NFL Draft, So he is taking his talents to the NFL. And in the meantime, though, nice win for the Cowboys here I was on the Central Michigan train. Didn't work out quite as well for our boys. Sugar Sheene Morris with four interceptions I think yep, but yeah, twenty three point w for the Cowboys.
Wyoming and once again Wyoming rightfully came into the season with the story being Josh Allen, and even with his mostly down year for both reasons that he could and couldn't control, Wyoming's defense was a pretty great story. They forced a ton of turnovers. Carl Granderson, not just the Pisman finalists, but also just a very very good player. I think a converted receiver at defensive end led this this Cowboy defense, which was pretty stout all year long
after the non conference part of their schedule. So Wyoming another another really dominant defensive performance in their bowl game. And you know, Craig bowl slowly but surely. I mean a lot of people don't realize how down and sort of unexciting this Wyoming program was when he got there. Dave Christensen didn't leave it in a spot and you know, winning eight games, turning this defense into something pretty special.
Great job his head, the shape of the Oregona, just like sir, all right. The Birmingham Bull was a fun game. South Florida wins thirty eight to thirty four. Quinton Flowers, my boy, Yes, sir, he threw a touchdown pass with sixteen seconds left that lifted the Bulls over Texas Tech. Flowers had three to eleven passing and four touchdowns, also a Bucks six on the ground and another touchdown. It'll be interesting to see how USF fares next year. Because
Flowers is gone. They lose some other skill position guys, something like eight starters on defense. It'll be interesting to see what Charlie Strong does down there. But sort of a blase way to go out if you're Texas Tech and Cliff Kingsbury, remember a bit on the hot seat. They gave him a vote of confidence. Yes, he'll be back for another season. You'll lose a game like this though it was closely contested, kind of a dud way to go out.
Yeah, and they lost to a good team. It wasn't They didn't lose to an average MAC team or something like that. They lose to a now ten and two USF team who had a nice season. Didn't beat anybody of consequence really, I guess maybe until Texas Tech. But yeah, really good first season for Charlie Strong. And even with Texas Tech losing this game, they finished the year beating Texas. That is a note that will remain through the offseason.
The Armed Forces Bowl, Dan, Army forty two, San Diego State thirty five, come back, you're gonna have a shootout?
Why not be in the Armed Forces Bowl?
Dan? Yeah, maybe one of the better games will see all Bowl season. I don't even know where to start with this one. The game itself, I would say, was aggressively on brand for both.
Teams combined thirteen pass attempts.
You know what Army wants to do. They want to run you to death with their option. They want to hold the ball for as long as possible.
Accomplished on that front.
Daniel forty six minutes of possession for the Black Knights. They ran sixty one more plays than San Diego State. More than anything. I think that's what wanted for him, because they couldn't stop for Shot Penny when he got the damn ball right, they were just able to really hold it, really play their game for the vast majority of this one. They score with eighteen seconds left, they go for two, they end up getting it. That gave them a thirty six to thirty five lead. They score
a touchdown on the last place. San Diego State tried one of those multipilateral plays that ended up being returned for a touchdown. So a good close game, a lot of points, and really just a lot of fun to watch.
Yeah, really nice season for Army and Amad Bradshaw, A nice game against San Diego State, a good San Diego State defense, And you're right, this was just these two teams playing to their exact identities. San Diego State's entire offense all year was big, rashod Penny plays and questionable passing from Chapman and Army much the same controlling the ball, and I would say, all things considered, even with allowing
as much as they did to her Shad Penny. A pretty decent defensive performance from Army when it mattered against in big moments, I would say fair enough.
The dollar general Bull app State thirty four mm hmm, Toledo nil.
Yes, Zip got thirty Daniel, Yeah, what is this? So this is the game that instructed me to look for something in terms of a pattern in Bowl games because we came into this game thinking, well, Logan wouldside is the clear best thing about this game in terms of pure talent and excitement and explosion. He has a completely worthless game. Throws three picks, can't get anything going downfield. And app State, even as you know how I love my app State, they're the team I can't break up with.
But they're more like TCU and Ole miss to you are like college sweethearts, longtime girlfriend that is always still checking their Facebook pages, still friends, yes, yeah, App State. For me, it's just like a crush that just nagging. It won't go away. And they struggled at points this season.
They weren't the same Sun Belt team they've been in years past, But for them to shut out this Toledo offense, by the way, not a good Bowl season for the Mac Outside of the all just not no, and app State comes down just defensively shuts down everything the Rockets try to do. Taylor Lamb has a nice game, They're good on the ground with Jalen More. Just that the app State team we thought we'd see more of this year and they finished with nine wins, another good year.
Dan Logan Woodside was Florida quarterback bad in this game.
Yes he was. That's very mean, but not false.
His QBR, according to ESPN, was nine point six. Yeah, which if you're not fully in the loop on what QBR means, you're not alone.
But that's not a good number. Correct. It was a huge second quarter, yeah for app State And yeah, Logan Woodside huge disappointment in this game, not the way he wanted to go out for Fort Toledo. But here's the other cool thing that I discovered thanks to this game. Yeah, so hold on now pause.
You said you started to look a little bit deeper into things after after seeing the result of this one.
What's that mean? So basically I looked at the result of this game that it was so lopsided, and I said, is there's something going on here with bowl games? With bowl season in terms of patterns in terms of picking games, is there anything that can speak to the results we've seen? And I'm talking first game on up? So what whatever the first what was the first game Troy, North Texas
not you know, post celebration ball whatever. And basically, if you look at yes, ty the danalytics okay, and yes, the probably much better almost assuredly much better S and P plus metric that Bill Connolly and Football Outsiders Football Study Hall does. Basically, if we are in agreement that bowl games, especially early on, when it's not necessarily lopsided, but the teams come from two very different conferences or geographies,
whatever situations. You know, this team doesn't have a coach, team, you know, their quarterbacks deciding to sit out of the running. You know, there's all these sort of variables involved in especially these early games. Then what if there's a thread that would help you pick, If there's a metric and it turns out if bowl games are about effort, do we agree sort of caring, getting up for it, motivation, effort, whatever.
And you could say the same thing about defense that generally speaking, teams that play good defense beyond talent, which is the most important thing, I would argue it's the idea of caring play to play effort, you know, motivation, whatever, and it turns out the team with the better S
and P plus defense or points per drive defense. So part of the d analytics, which by the way, that is not a metric that I invented, is now through all of the games that have happened through I guess Tuesday, the twenty sixth, we're recording this on the twenty seventh. Straight up are fourteen and three. Okay, that's not bad. No, that's not bad. In terms of looking at straight up and the game, I think San Diego State had a better defense than Army and that was close the UAB ohiogame.
I think UAB had a better S and P plus defense, But all in all, the team that has the more consistent defense and the better performing defense, I think Northern Illinois has a much better defense. Are a little bit better defense than Duke, and that didn't work out for them. Fourteen and three not bad, all right.
I'm looking at my other picks here for the rest of the show, and I played. I think I'm going to be okay by that metric.
I have the points per drive ranking, ready to go, okay, that's great. Yeah, for the rest of our games, we're picking.
A couple other ones very quickly. Three more before we get to those picks. The Hawaii Bowl, they played this one, I believe on Christmas Eve. Fresno wins over Houston by a thirty three to twenty seven score. An incredible turnaround story for Fresno led by Jeff Tedford. Keep in mind, Fresno went one and eleven a year ago. Now they go ten and four. They only lose five starters next season. I'm so curious to see which direction that program heads.
On the Houston side, at Oliver, the all world everything defensive tackle did have a touchdown run for Houston.
That's kind of fun fact touchdown. Yes, yeah, I think you hit everything. A really cool bounce back season for Fresno State to get back to a pretty respectable and decent level. They finished. You know, the numbers really liked them this year. Marcus mcmaray and the Oregon State transfer had a nice year. Their secondary was really really good, that the team was led by their defense, and Houston
didn't have really bad losses this year. They were not that far away from being a nine to ten win team. But yeah, the story here was Fresno, their defense, you know, and the job that Jeff Tedford and his staff have done right away, and the San Joaquin Valley.
That's right, Okay, the Zaxby's Heart of Dallas bull. Utah wins by a thirty to fourteen score over West Virginia. I've been informed here in the year piece that the boys in the truck have some music cueued up, Daniel.
I'm ready.
Let's talk a little bit about what West Virginia's drive chart looked like, shall we.
I would like nothing more West Virginia against Utah. Punt punt, punt, field goal, punt, punt, punt, punt, field goal, punt, fumble, punt, interception, Hey, touchdown, innerception. Rough, here's the holiday reference. Here's the snow time since we last did it. I have not practiced. That was on right on, que I can feel it, Ty, when you're at my level of hating, you can just feel the crescendo.
Common we've talked, which was what she said, right, We've talked off air about how one of the things that we both admire in the radio business is the FM radio DJ.
Yeah, you can perfectly time his vocal lead in.
I do that sometimes, Ty, when I'm listening to music like on Spotify something. Yeah, just like try it on your own. I will one hundred I do that in the car. My wife hates it, my brothers hate it, my parents hate it because that's the serious XM voice. It's it's one and the same where it's just like Aerosmith A ninety two point four k bb. I. Yeah, we had a drive somewhere.
It was during one of our national championship trips where I'm not kidding, Dan and I did that for about forty five minutes strong.
It's my favorite. Might have been a yeah. Anyway, where were we here?
Uh? Utah, West Virginia thirty to fourteen. West Virginia looked a bit of a tire fire in this game. I don't think it was entirely unexpected. Thankfully, Will Griar didn't play still healing up. Good for him, get healed up for next season. I don't have much else to add beyond that.
On their first so on their punt drives, Ty, so there were I'm counting here, nine punts. How many of those drives? Do you think? We're three and out? Eight of ninety eight of nine. Yeah for three and out it was it was rough. No Will Greer and by the way, shout out Kyle Whittingham. Now I think eleven and one in Bowl games. Yeah, the most successful Bowl coach of all time. I guess of coaches who've coached more than six or seven.
All right, the Quick Lane Bowl Duke wins thirty six to fourteen over NIU.
Where was this NIU defense that I was talking about?
I don't I didn't see any defense in this game.
No, no, not not much.
Sutton Smith was largely contented. Actually, it was the Duke defense that came to play here. NIU was one of twelve on third downs, ozho of six on fourth downs. I guess the bright spot is that they went for it six times on four down fourth downs. Yeah, which is always exciting, but it'd be better if you got one or two of them.
I watched a good chunk of this game, and Northern Illinois was in the I'm losing this game of Madden or NCAA, so whatever, I'm just I'm hitting why when I should be hit next? On the play call screen, just bombed every play bomb bomb bomb bomb fake punts from your own end zone. I don't know if you saw that moment, but that was it was just magnificent tie it was. It wasn't even ballsy. It was just like, screw it, screw everything, I'm going out. I'm taking everybody
out with me. The bunch through a terrible pass Uh, Northern Illinois did not acquit itself.
Well.
Daniel Jones was fine. He didn't throw downfield all that much, but he completed a bunch of passes. Ran well, I am so complexed by Daniel Jones this year. Yeah, took a step back, definitely took a step back, and he is step back. He is basically if if Sam Darnold had like a little cousin who grew up idolizing him.
I was like, I'm just gonna do exactly what he does, but without exactly the same level of talent, where He's just gonna I'm gonna throw three dope passes and then throw something that you have no idea what I was thinking about, Like, I'm thinking about that steam Willie Homer Simpson thing while throwing a pass. That was the Daniel Jones experience in twenty sixteen.
And finally the Cactus Bowl, Kansas State wins thirty five to seventeen over UCLA. Now, interesting factoid in this one. Yeah, Josh Rosen apparently advised by his doctors not to play in this game. You know, he suffered that concussion later in the year. I'm a skeptic. Maybe that was true. Maybe it was like convincing your doctor you have glaucoma. Like I'm not sure, wow, Ty, what the exact scenario was here. Either way, I do not blame him for not playing in the Cactus Bowl, whether he was hurt
or not. I would expect that he will declare shortly for the NFL Draft. Clearly this wasn't the way that UCLA wanted to close out at season, but there are a lot of moving parts there with the new coach Ship Kelly Charles Ship Kelly coming on board here.
Yes, I would say that it is much more likely that Josh Rosen did in fact have an injury, and it was not unfair to be overly precautious with a head injury. With a brain injury, sure ahead of a game like this, with you know, a future of playing in the NFL, I think it was sort of a good mix of good reasons not to play in this game, especially given the coaching change, I don't really think that
had much to do with it. I will say this though, Josh Rosen I thought spoke super well about not criticizing players not playing in bowl games before this game. I thought he made a lot of I love good points that it's easy to sort of from Afar and ty Lord knows we say a lot of things. From Afar,
I did not excuse what we say at all. But you know, when you don't know the personal situations of players deciding to skip games, whether it's a health reason, whether it's a financial reason that they want to stay with the team, they want to play in Bowl games, but you know they have a financial situation where going to the NFL and not jeopardize in their draft stock makes just a little bit more sense instead of playing in the line look the bad boy Mower's Gasparilla Bay something like that.
Completely fine with him not playing. I believe that's why only one member of the broadcasting duo had the audacity and really the foresight to say that if Josh Rosen came down with something before this game, it wouldn't surprise me. I don't blame him at all for not playing. I'm just a bit of a skeptic here, because hey, I called it and it seemed like it was a little too convenient. I hope it works out well for him. The one thing that scares me a little bit with
Rosen now is he moves on to the NFL. He's a really sharp cookie, really smart guy. He strikes me and I'm going to make a golf reference here, which please try not to squirm, but.
Reminds from Manhattan Beach. That's fine.
Reminds me a little bit of like when Tiger Woods decided he wanted to try and tinker with his swing, or what's the guy Bryson d. Chambeau who's trying to reinvent the golf swing. There's going to be a moment in Josh Rosen's career where he thinks he's figured out some entirely new way to go about something, and that may or may not work on the NFL level.
I think he'll be fine. I thought the worst, you know. I tweeted something about his career in general, that it would have been nice to see him in a more stable place, because I think he had three different offensive coordinators and a defense that swung from really good in twenty sixteen to just completely embarrassing in twenty seventeen, and that continued against Kansas State where they allowed nearly three
hundred and fifty yards rushing in the Cactus Bowl. That it would have been cool to see Josh Rosen in a more stable place, And ultimately, I think the worst decision Josh Rosen made at UCLA was deciding to go to UCLA probably and to sort of you know, there are stories about how he sort of turned off Stanford's coaching staff and they didn't really want to offer him or accept his commitment, and that, you know, I think
I think his career would have looked. It would not have ended with a lower draft pick or a higher draft pick, because he's probably gonna go in the top three, but we would have been able to see Josh Rosen in a more state place, behind a more stable line with Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love. You know, it's a sort of what could have been if if everything had worked out with that situation.
And yep, one final point on the Cactus Bowl. Still awaiting word on the future for Bill Snyder. We don't know what his deal is going to be moving forward as head football coach k State obviously very successful. Nice way to go out winning team against UCLA in a fun bowl game.
But we will wait and see what the future holds there really weird and ultimately fun. I guess season for Kansas State. I mean they held onto the ball a ton against the Bruins and Alex Delton, Alex Barnes ran wild. I was watching this game with the in laws of my father in law watching, you know, shout out to
Joel obviously watching. I think it was an Alex Barnes run in the second half where he just sort of went untouched for thirty eight yards and my father in law went, wait, where's the safety, so somebody should touch him in the second level. No, no, that's not how you see it. Defense works, and we'll see what happens next year. I can only assume they've hired a very good linebackers coach to get Nope, no, nope, nope, all right, moving on, damn we got balls. The preview yes.
The week. Whoo, okay, this is going to be Bowl preview officially number four here on the solid verbal.
We've timed this out.
We've scheduled this out in a way that we haven't done in the past. We've done this now for ten full college football seasons, and I can say definitively that in none of those previous years have we ever previewed bowl games in such a regimented and scheduled fashion.
We actually thought this through. We're full on grown ups. Ty, yeah, we have matured to the point where we're able to do this.
So let's let's get into dangerous territory now with your bullpicks. Okay, we are officially in this arena now where hopefully you've locked in, You've gotten the early games out of the way, You've put most of your confidence points on those earlier games. Because the games that we're about to talk about are the ones that I am least confident in. And it's
not because I don't know the teams as well. Actually I know these teams better, but it feels to me like most of these matchups, with a couple exceptions, are closer.
They could go one way or the other.
We've got a lot of partly talented teams that we're going to talk about here, not the least of which is the two big playoff games, which we'll discuss last here on the program. Let's start with the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. They play this one in Arlington at AT and T Stadium. It's on December the twenty ninth at eight thirty pm on ESPN, and it's a big one. It's one of the games I'm most excited to see. We've got the Ohio State Buckeyes. We've got the USC Trojans.
Ohio State's a seven and half point favorite. Here, Dan, what's our gift situation?
All right? Ty? So the Cotton Bowl Classic, the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, Classics, the class the Classic. Now you think Texas, you think everything's bigger in Texas. You know, bigger bowl sweet bigger gifts. You know we draw attention food. Yes, of course we want to show that we're the biggest and best. The Cotton Bowl is not disclosing, really their gift situation, as per Sports Business Journal, not disclosed. Wow, Which why I hope there's a lot of bluetooth. I
hope there's a lot of sweat wicking fabrics. I don't know.
Cotton doesn't wick away the sweat, It absorbs it. It makes you cold when you sweat.
And maybe they're embarrassed by that tie. Maybe they're embarrassed. I'm sure it's something good. I'm sure US Ohio State, you know, the scrappy little underdogs finally get a break and get something good gift wise. But nope, there's no disclosure of bowl gifts.
So Shaye Patterson, Okay, Yeah, moving on to the actual game.
I look, I worry.
I always worry about picking against a team that feels like it has something to prove in a bowl game. To your earlier point about motivation, what drives a bowl team? And I know USC he might fall a little bit into that category. But Ohio State this year. Dog, If they don't define it, I don't know who does.
Really well, yeah they I understand they disappointed they're not in the playoff.
Sure they won the Big Ten, they were passed over for the College Football Playoff. They got a senior quarterback in JT. Barrett who has been perpetually disrespected as a starter for his team. Clearly he's going to be motivated. This is like his last hurrah. He's not going to be playing quarterback in the NFL. Hate to break the news to folks out there, But most importantly, I think they've got an offense that's going to push on all
the pressure points of this SC defense. S played a team all year with an offense that can beat you seventeen different ways like Ohio State can't. They also haven't played a defense this good, which will be an interesting challenge for Sam Darnold. But I think the combination of motivation with scheme, which what I think is a big time coaching mismatch in Urban Meyer versus Clay Hilton, there's
a lot that goes in Ohio State's favor here. The fans will travel, well, there's a lot of Ohio State people down there to begin with, so I'm going to go Ohio State here. Again, not a ton of confidence points in any of these games, only four for me, but I like Ohio State here and I'm pretty confident about it.
Yeah, it was a shame this year just in looking back at USC specifically that they didn't have an opportunity to play against Washington because their wins were you know, Stanford twice, which is very good. It was not a great Stanford team, but that's good. They beat Utah, But outside of that, there wasn't much in the way of like a top fifty, top sixty win for this USC team. Defensively, I think a little bit to be desired. I didn't love their secondary at times they weren't great against the run.
But offensively, you know, you have Sam Darnold, who, in terms of outside of Baker Mayfield, the ceiling of playmaking was, you know, extremely high up. There's no question that you know, when he had to roll out of the pocket and look downfield, he was able to make plays that a lot of quarterbacks are just flat out unable when he's not throwing picks. There's a ton of talent in the backfield with Stephen Carr and the Texas Tesla Ronald Jones, But against a team like Ohio State, I don't see
a lot I love. I think Ohio State's defensive line can overwhelm USC's offensive line. I don't love the fact that Ohio State, when they're just smart and give it to JK. Dobbins, which is the smartest possible thing Ohio State can do, dominated everybody and looked like a playoff team, where USC at times, even in wins, you know, a close win against Utah with their backup quarterback at home. I like USC a bunch, but I think the the
talent differential on Ohio State's defense against USC's offense. And I know USC has receivers that have improved. The younger guys Tyler Vaughan, Stephen Mitchell, those guys improved over the course of the season. I don't know how they get loose against Ohio State's defense consistently. So Ohio State with the better points per drive defense tie and that's it's by a considerable margin. I'm taking them to win the Cotton Bowl. And here's the big controversy. Yeah, I'll say
controversial thing. Ty I think Ohio State breaks their scoreless streak in the postseason. What I think they do? I think they break that streak. I don't think they go two years in a row of not scoring a single point in the postseason. Wow, I'm out on that, LIMB check me off. How many confidence points are you putting on this? Not a lot? Uh low? Teens? Twelve, thirteen, Wow,
somewhere on there. Okay. I like Sam Darnold. I like what he was able to, you know, raise his game up to last year against Penn State, but that was in the Rose Bowl. I don't think this USC team is as good as it was last year on offense. So I'm going to Ohio State.
Here we agree, go to the tax Slayer Bowl.
Yes, who's up for slaying some taxes? Oh that's a loaded question, ty.
Ever bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. They play this one on December the thirtieth at high noon. It's on ESPN. We've got Loulville a six and a half point favorite over in Mississippi State. Several alerts that I need to mention to all y'all.
But before we do, what are our gifts here? What's our gift situation?
Dan?
The tax Layer Bowl has generally has generously excused me. Decided to gift people with Oh, the Cold War still rages on. Well, there's a gift suite, no idea. What's in the gift suite? Fossil Watch, so a shot across the bow obviously early on in our Bowl preview against Timely, so the Fossil Watch in this one.
There are some other watch companies getting in on the fun here.
There's a blow.
I did notice that, Yeah, the Cold War, the watch Cold War. So we've got a whoop whoop new coaching alert. Yes, and that Dan Mullen left Mississippi State for Florida. Joemo Joe Morehead, coming over from Penn State, will not be coaching the bowl game, not pulling the sunny Dikes. We've also got whoop whoop injured star quarterback alert in Nick Fitzgerald. You might remember he had that ugly dislocated ankle injury in the Egg Bowl for Mississippi State, so he ain't
playing this one either. I don't think there's much need to overthink this one, Dan. I do like Mississippi State's defense. They played pretty well on that side of the football all year. But I think, like any other game, Lamar Jackson gonna have like four hundred total yards. I think they're gonna jump all over Mississippi State, and it's going to be tough for Mississippi State to really score with the Cardinals in this one. So I think louis the
wins comfortably going away. They cover six and a half, they win by fourteen. I like Louisville to the tune of like twenty nine confidence points here.
I think that's right. Yeah. The injured quarterback Nick Fitzgerald certainly was a huge piece or the biggest piece for for Mississippi State. And the fact that we have an interim staff, the fact that I don't think we love this Mississippi State defense, even you know, up front, there's there's a good amount of talent with with Sweat Green
and Jeffrey Simmons, and they were good. They took a lot of chances with Todd Grantham, who's also you know, his head and I don't know if he's coaching this game, but he's moving on to Florida. Gave up a lot of big plays and Louisville is a big play team. And even though this is what worries me ty because the defensive pick factor, Louisll's defense is significantly worse than Mississippi State's and Mississippi State's defense, albeit coaching staff and
quarterback are gone, their their defenses is relatively intact. And Louisville's best win best win was perdue. They lose to a pretty decent and okay Boston College team, Yes plucky, I don't know you like that word. Yeah, it's a good word. Louisll's offense was great even with the bad field position that the defense put them in. It was an all Lamar Jackson team.
We've got we've got competing theories here at play because there's no coach, new coach theory against your newly christened analytics points per drive a loud thing.
Right, It's it's basically the abstract versus the tangible.
Why don't you go with Mississippi State here outright, and I'll go with Lowellville and we'll we'll put this to the test once and.
For all right. I'm going to Mississippi State because I like the defense. All Right, we disagree.
The AutoZone Liberty Bowl, dan They played at Liberty Bowl Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee.
Have you ever been to an AutoZone? Yeah, I've gotten in the zone. Tie.
I was at an AutoZone a couple months back when my rear tail light went out and I decided on the Sunday morning that I me, of course, being the gearhead that I am, I was going to check it over there to the nearest AutoZone, get in the zone and get my new my new tail light. They promptly gave me the wrong model, dan Ah. Not only did it not fit in the light socket, but after I forced it in there, broke it and tried to start up the car and pump on the pump on the brakes, it didn't light up.
Is this an extended Memphis defense metaphor? Is that what it could be? We're in for Okay, I'm because I'm here for it times I am here for it. Okay, what are we doing?
Twelve December thirtieth, excuse me at twelve thirty, twelve thirty at twelve thirty, if you will, on ABC, We've got the Memphis Tigers, a three and a half point favorite, basically a home game against the Iowa State Cyclones, the darling of yours truly, the Iowa State Cyclones. I'm seeing here a bass, pro shops shopping trip, a Belova Caravel, watch, Nike athletic shoes, sports sandals and backpack, and a football. That's not a bad selection right there.
That feels pretty good. If you're into like an outdoors way of life. You get the best pro shops, shopping spree whatever. You get the watch, you get some Nikes, that's great, some sandals I wish I forgot my sandals. I like wearing sandals around the house, sports sandals, backpack, you got football. It's pretty good. You get to be on network television. Yeah, that's great.
Every number I could find for this game was screaming for me to take Memphis. Why mainly because of the offense. Okay, Iowa State's been my team all year, and you know they've had time to prepare for Memphis in the passing game. They've been really good on defense all year. I think Matt Campbell's going to steer into his running game here
with David Montgomery. I think they're gonna want to play a little bit of army ball here and do their best to eat up the clock, keep it out of Memphis's hands, and just try to run the air out of the football. I like Iowa State. I'm going to stick with it. I'm going to go crazy to the tune of twenty six confidence points. I'm going to take them out right. I'd imagine this also plays nicely into your d analytics theory.
It does play nicely in the analytics. And Memphis had a spectacular leader spectacular year, excuse me, all things considered, second year with Mike Norvel. They beat UCLA, which UCLA didn't have the greatest season, but this is of course early September Ucla, and anytime you beat a big name Power five program at Memphis, that's a big deal. They beat Houston. They lose to a clear top ten team twice in UCF. Their offense was nothing short of terrific,
a ton of explosive plays through the air. Riley Ferguson Anthony Miller is probably one of the best three quarterback to receiver duos in the country just in terms of production and excitement. They were good on the ground, generating bigger plays. They weren't particularly efficient running the ball. I didn't love the Memphis defense with how much they were
able to just allow through the air. But Iowa State, and you talk about team that has faced top level quarterbacks, beaten top level quarterbacks, beating Oklahoma, TCU, Texas Tech, you know, a couple of not great but okay losses to West Virginia and Kansas State. Iowa State was They were a team that depended I wouldn't say depended on but they were particularly talented at turning the ball over, turning other teams over. Specifically once they got to Kyle Kemp they
were better on offense from Jacob Park. Their run defense was terrific, but you have to if you're gonna beat Memphis, you have to at least get some stops to the air. You know, get stops on third and six, whatever, and I think Iowa State is good enough to do that. The past defense wasn't the best thing they did, but if they can force a couple turnovers, I think they're in a good position to win this game. I like Matt Campbell and this staff with time, I like the continuity.
I know Memphis, I think they lose their offensive coordinator to Texas A and M. I don't know if he's here for this game, but certainly it could be a factor in their preparation. So even though the game is in Memphis at the Liberty Bowl, I'm gonna go Iowa State here. I'm gonna go with that experience, with the D analytics, with S and P plus, I'm going with the defense here. That I worry a little bit about
Memphis in the same way I worry about UCF. That are they a team that can win in different ways if forced to? And I think I always say, can slop up this game, give me the Clones. They're gonna be unkempt unkemped boom. All right, let's move on to the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. Dan, Yeah, they play this one at the University of Phoenix, Stadium. This game really does it for me, Ty, I am very excited for this.
You are here for the Glendale PlayStation Fiesta Bowl, Dan. I think this one of December thirtieth, four pm on ESPN, Penn State, my dear Alma mater, a two point favorite over the Washington Huskies. You might guess what the gift suite entails here in the PlayStation Wink link nudge nudge, Fiesta Bowl, Dan.
Yes, you get a PlayStation four, right, that's what we're on.
Four.
You get a PS four pro bundle. I don't know what that involves. If you get like a like a badge or a sash.
Maybe you get maybe you get a second controller.
Yeah, you get a second controller. They don't have cables anymore of these controllers, do they?
No? No, I mean you have to plug it in. I think to charge the charge. It got one of the high falutin chargers.
But yeah, I can tell you this much, Ti. I'm not getting a PS four until the NCAA series returns. I thought you had a PS four, Now I have PS three. Wow.
So this has been a silent protest side Well, that's basically the only game I play.
At one point I tried to get into FIFA, but I realized that I would have to spend a ton of time to get competent at FIFA, and so I'm just I'm rolling with the NC DOUBLEA series whenever I'm back.
I'm an avid FIFA player. I know I'm any good at it at all, But you've put in time to just get to be below average, right, I'm below average is being very kind, but yeah, yeah, correct, that is correct.
Yeah. So you get a PS four pro bundle. I don't know if that with a bunch of games or what. You have a Fossil Watch. Okay, so double Fossil early and an Ogo backpack. I think that's a very good And you get to go to Arizona. You have to go to Washington. If you're Washington, you can sort of make up for the last time you went to Arizona. If you're penn State, you don't have to be in central Pennsylvania in what early January. That's great.
This is also the scene of the crime where Bill Hancock and I shared a giant bowl of Tostillo's chips.
That's true. Tostito's no longer I guess involved with the festival. Here's the great News too, and because we have a special what kinship towards penn State fans alumni whatever, because you went there. Yeah, I can't assume I haven't really gone searching for great food in Central Pa and State College. But if you're going to this game, if you're from Seattle, if you're from Washington, if you're from Central Pa, from anywhere in Pennsylvania, the Northeast, great food, the greater Phoenix area,
Austin Pizzeria Bianco, what was that? What was that Mexican place we went to? Remember we went to one place called tacos chioas we went to one place. Oh no, we didn't go there. We went and got torta. Somewhere you don't need to go to tacos Chi was Chi was or Las Santi Sema for tacos and Phoenix very good pizza, Cleta PiZZ I, c l e. T t A good pizza as well too, Arizona and namely Phoenix secretly really good pizza place.
Well, this is going to be a fun football game, and if you do have the distinct pleasure of going to see it, please do send us pictures and let us know what the weather's like.
Out there. It's going to be better than it is here.
Enjoy your time, Enjoy Dan this is I think this is a poor man's version of Clemson versus Alabama.
I'd say so, yeah, because what makes a.
Game like this interesting is the contrasting styles that we're going to see at play. Penn State in the analogy, would obviously be more like Clemson. They've got a lot of the run pass option stuff, more wide open Washington a lot more like Alabama, a lot more like Alabama from a couple of years ago before they had Jalen Hurts and Blake Simms. More of that pro style, vanilla offense, play, bruising defense, that style of play. It'll be interesting to
see these two teams go at each other. I do want to circle back, though, to something you've been saying all year about the Washington Huskies. We've sort of been waiting for them to find another.
Gear, Yeah, especially an offense. Yeah.
Right, Like last year, you could feel a little bit more confident that Washington was gonna go out there and they're gonna rip the arms and legs off somebody and just beat the crap out of them. This year, it felt like that component was missing.
I think that's fair. Yeah, they had decent wins, but you know, they beat Fresno, which you know more and more looks like a good win. Was it was pretty good in terms of win. They beat Oregon. They killed Oregon without Justin Herbert, but they would have beaten them with Justin Herbert anyway. They beat Utah. They lose to ASU and Stanford, and the performances in those two games, especially against ASU on offense, it was a pretty disappointing
way to lose. I'd say fair to say, yeah, both these teams, there actually is a good amount in common. So in big games, both of these teams missed I would say a big downfield threat receiver right and Chris Godwin and John Ross. Absolutely yeah, both both teams without their offensive coordinator. Joe Moore had gone, Jonathan Smith gone taking head coaching jobs at Power five schools. Sure, and
led by I think maybe unexpectedly defensive performances. Jason Combinda was great, Marcus Allen had a great year in the secondary for Penn State. And when Washington was healthy, you know, they have one of the best interior alignment in the country and Vita Vea the secondary went healthy albeit young, great couple of safeties. You know, Byron Murphy's healthy in this game, he should stick on somebody really well for Washington.
So there's a lot to like about these teams that are both dealing with I wouldn't say full on issues, but wrinkles concerns that are that are very similar. I would agree with that. I and really good run in Saquon Barkley and Miles Gaskin. Absolutely.
There's a lot of talk here about how Washington's defense is going to give Penn State fits, and I can see that. I think that's true to an extent, especially since you mentioned Penn State turning over their offensive coordinator Ricky Ronnie stepping in now for Joe Moorehead. He's going to be taking over play call duties, so there's always a little bit of an awkward transition when something like that goes down. I really do think, though, that Penn State's defense is going to be going to be the
X factor here. If they can bottle up Miles Gaskin, if they can force Washington to be more dependent on the pass, I think that really favors them. I'm a Penn State alone. I gotta go with my heart here, I gotta Penn State. I don't know if I well, it's it two points. I gotta go Penn State outright to the two of nine confidence points. But I think this is going to be an awesome game to watch.
I think the best thing in this game is still probably Washington's defense. On I think they're pretty healthy at this point. You know, getting the secondary back to where it should be should help against a Penn State team that really when they were playing their best, they were throwing downfield, and Sequon Barkley helped, I think more as an all purpose guy rather than a consistent ground thread
against the better defenses Penn State face. But still, this Penn State team was what the end of the Ohio State game away from being in playoff consideration. So this was it was an excellent Penn State team about ninety four percent of the time, basically the Michigan State team the Michigan State game nonwithstanding, I think though that the combination of Washington's defensive line, I really like Pete Kwakowski,
the defensive coordinator for the Huskies. The fact that it's on the West Coast I think helps a little bit for Washington. The familiarity they're not traveled. I mean, you know, Penn State will be their days and days ahead of time. I think they're going to be able to bottle up Saquon Barkley. I think they'll be able to get to
trace McSorley enough they won't contain him fully. But I'm going to roll with what I think is the strongest and most continuous part of this game, which is the Washington defense and their ability to get pressure with four guys. I'm going to go Washington close here, and honestly, the whatever the D analytics s and P plus, it's nearly identical. Washington seventh, Penn State sixth, and Washington had a stronger I think, schedule outside of the conference whatever. So I'm
going to go with the Huskies here. Wow, so we disagree, we disagree. Penn State had one big win. They beat Michigan. They did beat Michigan.
That was the that was their win, all right, Umm, I gotta go Penn State outright, So what is the real gain? Let's go to the Capitol One Orange Bowl, Dan, What's in your wallet? In hard Rock Stadium, Miami, Florida. Also on December of the thirtieth, they played it at eight pm on ESPN. We've got the Wisconsin Badgers. Badgers coming down from the northern part of the Great USA, a six and a half point favorite against the home town,
home dog, home team, Yeah, home team, Miami Hurricanes. Dan, I noticed that there is a different kind of watch I watch that I've never seen before.
Now we've mentioned this brand before, I think we have. Maybe they were at the Orange Bowl last year. I don't know. There's a gift suite. There's the Torneau watch t o you are? Is that the former first baseman for the Minnesota Twins. Yeah, justin Torneau. Did you not know Life brand hat? But that's Life with a Why I look these up? They make a denim hat that says dad and has a rose on it. How does the Torneau watch look? Does that look at least? It's
it's fine. Yeah, they're in Chicago, so there's that. There we go. I can go get one today if I if I wanted to, and an ice shaker, water bottle and shaker cup. Stay hydrated in Miami, Folks, How do you feel about this game? Dan? I think I like Wisconsin here. I think there's more to like about Wisconsin at this point. You know, Miami without I'm on Richards.
We saw what that looked like against Clemson and a good defense, I mean great defense like Wisconsin also has I struggle with feeling super confident about it because it's it's a literal home game Iami. I changed my pick. I changed my pick.
I once was where you are, Yeah, please educate me, And it dawned to me that this game was tearing me apart.
Yeah, emotionally apt.
My gut is one hundred percent to go with Wisconsin because they're so good on defense. That is going to be a real issue from Miami one way or another. But then you think about it and Okay, like you said, a literal home game from Miami on their home field, big game city, big game town, big game team, they're going to be rocking a lot of home folks going to be at that game. Uh. Their defense is also
pretty good m hm. And you might remember this little apparatus they call the turnover chain, right, I do remember people been talking about it.
It's in the Smithsonian.
Now. If there is anybody in college football who was born to add links to that chain, it might be Alex Honybrook.
Oh does anybody who would know it would be somebody who was forced to watch a lot of Brandon Wimbush. I'm saying.
The turnover chain could play a factor in the shootball game. I don't like this pick at all, but I am going to change it from Wisconsin eight confidence points to Miami eight confidence points just because it's an on game and I struggled with it so much. I think there will be an added layer of motivation here, being that it's at home.
I'm going to go Miami. Do you think there's motivation because they're at home or do you think there might be malaise? I think at home they're going to be rocking. It's a night game. No, they're going to be rocking. See, I think it might. They were in the ACC Championship and if they win that, they there's a good shot there in the playoff. They're not going it. They're not going to the Rose Bowl. They're not going to the
Sugar Bowl. They're not going Yes, you know there's not They're just playing a home game.
I know I'm changing my pick to Miami. I think there's gonna be an added layer of motivation.
I think, yeah, Miami has the better resume in beating Virginia Tech and Notre Dame, and you know, the win that Wisconsin has over FAU looks better and better it does. They beat Michigan surprisingly enough, they beat you know, our pretty decent Northwestern team. They lose to Ohio State close in the Big Ten Championship game when they would lean on Jonathan Taylor's tailback. Of course, you know, he rushes
for almost two thousand yards. I don't think that Wisconsin is going to try and throw the ball more than they feel they need to. I don't think they're going to be throwing into the teeth all that much into this Miami defense. You know, the defense is basically as good as anybody not in the playoff, if not better than certain teams in the playoffs, certainly better than Oklahoma's defense. They lose their you know, Wisconsin was their excuse me,
they're outside linebackers. Coach, he's taking over the Oregon State defense and Wisconsin's outside linebacker. You it's very specific tie. But with Joe Show and Vince Beagle and TJ. Watt, maybe that's a factor. I don't know. I like I like Wisconsin. I think I think looking at where Miami struggled late in the year seeing them throw into good defenses without am On Richard, that scares me a little bit.
I really should. Yeah so, And as much as I do like this Miami defense r J McIntosh, Joe Jackson, Shaquill Quorterman all year long, they were really fast, they were angry, they played really well as many daz defense was fun. I'm willing Wisconsin here just because I they're my my more secure pick. I'm not willing to go out on a limb for this Miami team right now.
All right, suit yourself. We disagree.
We disagree.
The outback ball Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on New Year's Day at High New twenty eighteen on ESPN two, Michigan Wolverine's an eight point favorite over the South Carolina game Cocks. The gift to all for ballers, the gift of college football fans is our good friend, Ryan Nanny. He will be the Fryan Bloomin' Onion, the frying Onion, Fryan Nanny, Fryan Nanny, whatever you want to call it. He will be serving as the blooming onion mascot in
the third quarter. I believe of this football contest.
Oh yeah, I was gonna say that's that's the gift that keeps on giving. But the Outback Bowl will be giving away a Justin's ring. We all know Justin's a fossil watch. Here comes Fossil Yeah, one hundred and twenty five dollars best Buy gift card, Outback Steakhouse gift card and a hat and the gift of seeing Ryan Nanny in a unit tard with a novelty vegetable around it, a novelty appetizer. And of course, are our good friend Adam Amine on the call. Wow, I didn't know he
was working this game. Adam Amine is doing this game. He will be taking the Ryan Nanny situation very seriously. I want to say, I don't know if Ryan's the whole game or the third quarter? Is Is it the third quarter? I hope the third quarter. I hope it's
acknowledged in a some sort of Renaldi situation. I hope it's acknowledged in a you know, maybe there's just like a box the bottom of the screen, like how they would they keep it on a coach, Or maybe there's an arrow like when Reggie Bush played for USC got to keep tabs on where Reggie Bush is lining up.
Here's where the onion is the game changing performance right now? Absolutely, yes, yes, yes so good gift situation, better life situation, and a rematch of the Vince Smith head being popped off by Jadavian Clowney.
Also, all of those things you just mentioned might be better than this actual football game.
Yeah, that's also fair. That's why we spent time. I was looking at this game from every which way.
Yeah, and outside of LSU Notre Dame, which I'll talk about here in a little bit, I think this is the game I'm the least excited to pay attention to on New Year's.
South Carolina is you know, it's They're not bad, they're not great, They're just they They're there.
They're there. I haven't been enamored with South Carolina and their offense all year, like nobody has. Right, this is obviously a nice cherry on top of their season to go into a big bowl game like this. Sure, I just don't think they can move the ball against Michigan.
Michigan's got such a good defense, and look, I know Michigan fans weren't entirely excited about what went on in twenty seventeen, but if you truly go back and look at it if you consider all the pieces they lost from a year ago and now look at an eight and four season where you know, Loston, Michigan State, all right, that might have been one where they shouldn't have lost,
but Loston, Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin. It's not like they were losing to Kentucky like South Carolina was teams that they probably shouldn't lose to.
This mission season was so weird to me. It was such because the defense was really good. They'd be like they'd hold a team like one yard rush rush for no gain, negative two yard rush, one yard rush, eighty one yard rush. That was the defense. It was like, we're gonna stop you a bunch and then we're just gonna like stare at somebody in the crowd and let
you give get a huge play. If you're ordering the Michigan DVD or whatever that year end highlight package for the Wolverines, you're getting a lot of the second half against Perdue. That was the bright spot. That is, you know, everybody, John o'corn he's he's the guy, he's the answer here. This offense is ready. And then no, it was you know Indiana and Purdue. We're the highlights of this Michigan season. They lose to the good teams in their division. The
offense ultimately was below average. Kron Higgen will be healthy for this game. This game feels like it will serve as a way to get Michigan fans very excited about twenty eight team, which that's going to work out. It's a tough schedule, but that's what it feels like to me. And you know, there's I guess maybe a three way quarterback matchup with Shaye Patterson, Brandon Peters, Dylan McCaffrey. We'll see who comes out of that. But short term, this
game out back ball. The things that matter most one onion costume, two Adam mean obviously three whatever happens in this game. And South Carolina, you're right, they were fine this year. They took they improved. The offense was okay, nothing great. AJ Turner wasn't bad. Jake Bentley was okay in spots. The defense. The defense improved against the run, They prevented bigger plays through the air.
There's a lot to be happy about, to be satisfied with if you're a South Carolina fan. But sure, if you do a blind taste test and look at the numbers that they put up on offense, and then you see that they won eight and four. I would expect that that would be a bit confusing because this was not an offense that really took anybody by storm.
I'm gonna go with the defense here. I'm gonna go with Michigan comfortably in the twenties.
I don't know if they cover eight points. That seems like a lot to me, but I feel twenty eight points confident that Michigan's going to win this game.
Yeah. Chick fil A Peach Bowl.
They play this one in the mirror Sadies Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the new one.
Yeah.
On New Year's Day, twelve thirty pm Eastern on ESPN. We've got the Auburn Tigers a nine and a half point favorite against the UCF the undefeated Dan Yeah, UCF Knights.
A good gift situation here as well. Yeah, the Peach Bowl does not mess around three hundred dollars Vanilla visa gift card. Ye, Vanilla Vanilla visa? Okay, Vanilla? Do you like scratch it and it smells like vanilla? Or it's you can only use it at cold Stone Creamery. That's great. Great, that's where they get you Ultimate Ears, wonder Boom Bluetooth speaker. Sure, I'm sure it's fine. Sure, you're in Atlanta, it's probably
gonna be warm ish. I don't know you're inside Fossil watch in a football so Fossil coming strong here as well. I have a question for you.
It's a very important and a very serious question. I'm ready about this football game. If I gave you one dollar for every time somebody asked you a hypothetical about UCF's playoff chances, how many bitcoins would you have by now?
At this point, I don't think there's a lot of UCF playoff discussion, but a little while ago, Ty was it's a considerable amount.
Sure, I would have so many bitcoins? Yeah, if we were keeping track, Because UCF has been an interesting story.
They went undefeated.
A lot of these statistical measures that we use to gauge one team against another come back with strong returns for UCF. So it's no denying that they're a very popular topic, especially given the fact that we've got a four team playoff, leaving the whole situation up for debate. This will be a good test for UCF. It'll be a good test for Scott Frost. He will be coaching as well. The rest of his coaching staff. They're gonna leave after this game. They're all going to go up
to Lincoln. But it'll be a really good test to see where UCF is at. A game like this, as you know, has proven to be a bit of a dangerous spot in the past for a team like an Auburn because it means so much more for a team like UCF than it does Auburn. Auburn was one game away. For good use of that phrase, ty, it just means more, it does. Auburn was one game away from being in the playoff UCF. This is their national championship. They can beat an SEC team on Scott Frost's way out the door.
A lot of intangibles at play. It also did catch me by surprise how statistically close this one looked. If you go in there and pop the hood, the S and P plus likes UCF to win by a point.
Yeah, S and P plus is not a human factor thing, but yeah, you're you're right. I mean, does this game feel sort of like pity sex versus breakup sex? I mean, football is football. Yeah, but okay, so yes, I think the biggest The bigger thing is Scott Frost and staff moving on to Nebraska. You have the Nebraska head coach now coaching UCF. This would be an enormous cherry. This would be a dozen cherries on top of a delicious
Sunday for Scott Frost and UCF and whatever. But it sort of felt like they peaked going twelve and zero. I think like this is it's not Chris Peterson, you know, staying Chris Peterson. You're back and poising now if you.
If here's my advice, if you want to root for UCF, take UCF plus nine and a half straight up to me is a bridge too. Defensively, Auburn is way better than anybody UCF played all year, and that's going to play a factor here. If nothing more, it's just gonna wear down the UCF front. It sounds like kerry On Johnson will be healthy, he will play in this football game, and I think just by virtue of that, they will also be able to wear down the front seven of UCF.
Auburn will.
So given what we know of Auburn, they got a little bit nicked up down the stretch. If nothing more, they were tired because of the brutal stretch they had to play. They've had a couple weeks now. Scott Frost I saw he was quoted as saying, well, the UCF was ahead of Auburn in their preparation. Auburn wasn't practicing as often as UCF was for this game. And I guess that plays into the fact that maybe it means more for the Nights than it does for the Tigers.
But Auburn had a tough stretch. They deserve some time off to kind of get their bearings and get ready for this one. I think over the course of sixty minutes they will wear DOWNF and come away the victor here.
I think that's right. Auburn's defense was really, really, really really good. They were very good against the run, They were absurdly great against the pass. The offense was mostly good.
After that Clemson game, you know, struggled in the SEC Championship. Certainly, I think what they score seven points against Georgia, but this Auburn team plays defense basically as well as anybody does anything, and that includes UCF on offense, and that offense was a complete joy Mackenzie Milton throwing to what, trey Quan Smith, Tredrick Snelson. You know, this was an exciting offense. My question is this UCF defense was average? They were, you know, which is a huge improvement from
where they were, certainly, but they're okay. Versus the run, they weren't bad. Versus the pass. They gave up a lot of big plays. We saw the two games against Memphis and USF. I just I worry that, Yeah, the waves of talent for UCF just they won't be there against Auburn. The motivation for Auburn is a legitimate question, but they're still playing in a group of five game in the National Championship site, stadium, whatever, I think there will be excitement for Auburn. This was a good season
for the Tigers. They beat what two playoff teams, They beat George at home, they beat Bama. So it's still a wildly successful year. And certainly disappointed with the SEC championship game. But yeah, I think the talent factor. I think the idea that it is the Nebraska head coach just sort of coaching his final game out for UCF. I think it's Auburn. I think Auburn ultimately wears them down by a couple touchdowns, and.
Then before we get to the two Big Tamali's here a longer show, apologize, thank you for sticking with us. Here on the solid line. The Citrus Bowl presented by Overtons.
Yeah, what is? Do we know what Overtons is? I have no clue. What do you It's the Citrus Bowl presented by Overtons. Overtons. It sounds like a local diner. Yeah, I would get a Patty mellet overs. Sure. So Overton's launching life on the Water. Since what it's boating, marine water sports, anchor and docking trailering, so it sounds like it's lake stuff. I don't know.
They played at Camping World Stadium. I guess a fitting host.
Yeah, ties in.
They also played this one on New Year's Day one PM on ABC. It's LSU a three point favorite over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. In this game, they give away a four hundred dollars best by Player shopping trip, which is done. I like that, and a timely watch company watch great gift. So Notre Dame was a bit in the news. Kevin Stefferson is their wide receiver suspended for this game, he got popped for speeding and then I guess not having a license and then having weed in his car.
Not his first brush with the law.
He's kind of been a handful ever since he got there for Brian Kelly in a football since he led the receiving core with five touchdowns and he might have been their best big play guy. Yeah, so's It's not something you want to under sell because, as you know, my gripe about Notre Dame's offense all year has been the passing game. They haven't really been able to get
much going down the field in the passing game. Now, to lose that component, I think is something that will obviously affect them negatively going into a big game like this against LSU. LSU has a pretty good defense in their own right. I don't want any part of Notre Dame in this game, why none whatsoever?
The Stefferson passing game factor, not just that.
I just feel like you've got such a good defense at LSU. You've got a really good defensive coordinator in David Randa. I think he's gonna watch the tape. He's gonna look, he's going to see what other programs did. He's going to see what Miami did.
Yeah, and this was I think you're mostly right. This wasn't a dominant LSU defense at any one thing. This wasn't where this defense was these last couple of years. And they were good. They were you know, they were complete. They were good. And this LSU team was led mostly by the fact that, oh man, the phone keeps ringing, most by the fact that they were more talented than most of the teams they played, the improvement of Danniettling on offense, Darius Guice when he was healthy was very good,
and the fact that the SEC wasn't terrific. You know, a lot of changes happening on both sides of the conference. So Notre Dame wise, i'd be worried that the obvious strategy as well make Brandon Wimbush beat you.
I don't think that David Randon needs to do anything more complicated. Yeah, I really don't. And that worries me for Notre Dame here.
Yeah, I think I think that's all reasonable, and I think one of the stories about Notre Dame that's a little bit below the surface. Unfortunately, because of the emergence of Josh Adams as a huge play running back and Brandon Wimbusch had a really nice at least first half or two thirds of the season. Is the fact that Notre Dame's defense got good, especially against the pass this year.
From where they were in twenty sixteen, they improved so much and they'll have a lot to sort of worry about with dj Chark as a big play guy and Danny Atling throwing the ball downfield pretty well. But that was that was a cool thing to see improve for Notre Dame. I just as Brandon Wimbush as the ultimate fifty to fifty guy. That works me, So I'm going to LSU.
I think probably more of a defensive slug fest than any kind of pyrotechnic display on offense.
But I do think that it will be wimbushed. That again sinks Notre Dame. I don't think he's going to.
Move the ball through the air that he needs to that David rand is going to force him to try and do.
Are you confident that they'll he'll improve next year or two?
No, I'm not confident at all, because he hasn't improved this year. Okay, you know, from start to finish, you can make a really good case that he didn't get any better. So no, I'm not confident at all.
Okay, fair enough, I'm curious see what else you looks like offensively moving forward? But yeah, okay, let's go with the agree.
And finally, Dan, in the wise words of that HQ trivia host, have you played that at all?
Oh? I love HQ Scott was Nowski was new Ski? Yeah? I want a Christmas Eve thirty five bucks? Is that true? It is twelve questions.
It all boils down to this, Dan, Let's start with the first of two college football playoff games, the Rose Bowl Game, presented by Northwestern Mutual. They play it at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. It is on New Year's Day at five pm the Classic Rose bull starting time on ESPN Georgia. The Bulldogs the SEC champions at ten and two, a one and a half point favorite over Oklahoma at twelve and one. They enter this game with one loss to our friends over at Iowa State,
and they are the Big twelve champion. In this game, there's a gift suite of Fossil Watch, an Agio backpack, a new Era nine to fifty snap back adjustable hat, and that's all I see.
Also also a gift. You get to go play in the Rose Bowl, the best single setting for a game and best game you know, going to the Rose Bull for UCLA Arizona State not wonderful, but this Jeep New Year's it's the best.
A quick look at the numbers here, the S and P Plus has Georgia as the eighteenth most efficient offense in college football the eighth most efficient defense. Oklahoma, They've got the top offense, the most efficient offense in the country, and most explosive and most explosive, but the ninety fifth most efficient defense. Right, whether you understand these numbers are not, that's the mismatch.
On paper.
It jumps OUTI it sticks out like gasre thumb. So let's start there. How fair is it to say that the weakest entity on the field is Oklahoma's defense?
Accurate? I think that's accurate?
Right?
Yeah? No, they have the best offense and the worst defense in the playoff.
So now that we know that, now that we're assuming that much as fact, given that Oklahoma's offense is so damn efficient, how much, if at all, does that defense really scare you?
The defense did improve, To be fair to Oklahoma, they gave up what seventeen to a good TCU offense. They gave up twenty earlier on in the season to the same TCU offense. They obviously shut down Kansas. They were other than that Oklahoma State game. They were largely Okay, they've got og what is it? Okonquo, I'm going to screw that up for the rest of time. And he's a great a great guy for them on defense. But I think in big spots this Oklahoma defense can be enough.
I don't know, if they're not going to be good, they can be enough to not be a detriment and take away from what seems to always be an exhilarating offensive performance from Baker Mayfield and his year over year new skill set around him. Okay, so it doesn't terrify me in the way that I think ordinarily it would because you have that quarterback cover.
I think there is definitely a possibility that Georgia comes into this game and does exactly what it's done in a bunch of other games this season. They'll grind it out with Nick Chubb and Sony Michelle. They'll play off that they'll get Jake from some good looks downfield in a vacuum. That's a really good matchup for Georgia, and on some level we're going to see that play out here in Georgia's favor in this football game. They will do that to some degree of success. I have no
doubt about that. What worries me is that Oklahoma runs hot. They run hot. They're the best first quarter team in college football, at least on offense.
Yeah.
Would it surprise you if they went out there opening dry and went eighty yards on three plays and scored a touchdown.
Three plays, maybe seven six, five plays maybe not? Yeah, that would I mean? They have the clear best quarterback in college football. Who I mean, We've talked about this before. He seems like he's in purgatory a little bit all season long. He doesn't seem like a college quarterback. He seems like a grad student. He's, you know, ready for the NFL. Was ready for the NFL early on in the season. And I generally don't care how good your
secondary is. He's going to able. He's going to be able to buy enough time to make a play in the same way you know, Deshaun Watson was able to do last year. Marcus Mariota was you know, there. He has that very specific talent that you can cover his receivers. You can cover you know, Mark Andrews, you can cover whoever for three four seconds. But he is going to squirt and squirm and move around enough to make a play more often than not.
I just worry that George is gonna have to play from behind early. And okay, if that's the case, what happens to their game plan of trying to grind it out? And you know, Jake from has been really good. He's been efficient and accurate and all the superlatives apply to what he's done in his first year. He's been outstanding. But Georgia, I think, has a very specific game plan
that we know a lot about. And what really impresses me about Oklahoma is that in spite of losing both running backs and DeeDee Westbrook and Bob freaking Stoops from a year ago, Lincoln Riley came in. He was starting with Baker Mayfield in a good line. And if you're a fan, all you can ask is that your team gets better. They have gotten better on offense. They have so many different ways that they can beat you. I don't think Georgia has that kind of variety on their offense.
They have a very specific formula that they can follow and veer from to some degree and still be very successful. But I feel much better about Oklahoma really against any defense, given that they've got Baker Mayfield.
I am.
I am. If I weren't sticking to my formula here and putting the minimal amount of confidence points in these later games, I would put a lot more than three on Oklahoma because I've just been so impressed by how they've gotten better throughout the course.
Of the season. So I'm gonna go Oklahoma here outright, every part of my gut is sent telling me Oklahoma the quarterback. He's been in the playoff, you know, beat Auburn and what the Sugar Bowl last year. You know, he's been in these big spots, going into the biggest spot. I really like Oklahoma here because of Baker Mayfield. Yeah, but I'm going Georgia. WHOA Why I'm going Georgia because too many times danalytics scene. No, I mean, the defense
thing does play a role. Yes, too many times I've seen the better defense get the best of an excellent quarterback. Too many times over the course of four quarters. You know, the talent edge clearly goes to Georgia. The fact that their front is as dominant as it is against I mean, that's the mat right It's and Lorenzo Carter against the just unbelievably dominant Oklahoma offensive line. It's how much can
Georgia force Baker Mayfield to be uncomfortable? And even when uncomfortable, Baker Mayfield's better than anybody, But that, to me is the big difference, and the fact that Georgia was able to cover their perceived weaknesses, be it deep with the secondary or be it offensive line early on to become a strength and even when offensively if Jake From's not getting it going, and I think this is God, it's an enormous spot for a true freshman quarterback to be
in against another quarterback who has all of the seasoning in the world in Baker Mayfield. I just the more dependable thing to me in these spots is defensive talent at this point with what we've seen recently, with as good as spread offenses have been, with a first year head coach with a questionable at times defense, I mean, Mason Rudolph carved up this Oklahoma State defense. I mean maybe the best receiving corps in college football, but he carved them up. I'm just I'm going to go This
is the same reason I took Wisconsin. Ag It's Miami, Okay. There's more I feel like I can depend on in this game when things go wrong than just Baker Mayfield. So I'm going Georgia and I hate myself for doing it.
Yeah, and I'm kind of going with Oklahoma for all the same reasons.
Yeah.
I think either way, this is potential to be the best game of the year, maybe the best game all next year too. I think Oklahoma goes up early. I think Georgia Whittle's their way back. I think we get to the fourth quarter and Oklahoma's trying to hang on for dear life, sore more shootout et a very close game. I like Oklahoma thirty eight thirty seven in an instant Rose Bowl Classic.
And to be clear, I watched every second of Oklahoma Ohio State. I know what I'm doing, and I'm doing something bad. But in a spot like this, with the amount of time to prepare, I think, you know, Kirby's art Mel Tucker, that defense kind of Sam Sewin on offense. I think Georgia wins this game twenty eight to twenty seven.
Wow.
Yeah, all right, well, I think it's gonna unbelieve. I cannot wait for this.
I'm very excited for this game, which means that the final showdown in the playoffs this season, at least in the semi finals, is the All State Sugar Bowl. They play it on New Year's Day at eight forty five pm Eastern Time on ESPN live from New Orleans in the Mercedes Benz Superdome. It's a rematch from last year's actual national championship game.
Alabama at eleven and one.
They did not win their conference, but they did make it in thanks to the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. They're a two point two and a half point favorite, depending where you look. Over the Clemson Tigers at twelve and one.
They won the A C C. What's our final gift situation, Dan, sugar ball always on time is pretty good. The Sugar Bowl is giving away. There's a gift sweet situation. A fossil watch, a new era cap, Rockham socks, which were in agreement. They look pretty great. They need to send us rock Em socks, but they need some rock Ems and a panoramic game photo. Which I like that I have a panoramic view of I think it's Oregon USC from two thousand and eight, maybe up in my apartment,
so I like those. So always better if you are the team with the winning score to get a panoramic game photo memory. But that's pretty good. I'm sure the gift sweet's nice.
Let's take another look at the numbers here as we did with the last game. Alabama nineteenth in terms of offensive efficiency, third in terms of defensive efficiency in the nation. Clemson at thirty five overall in terms of offensive efficiency and number two when it comes to defense. There are no glaring deficiencies either way. That's why they're in the playoff. The only thing that I'd call out is is that Clemson hasn't been great this season at generating those bigger
chunk plays. They're pretty low on the totem pole when it comes to the explosion plays that tend to turn a game one way or another.
So that's something to keep an eye on Clemson. Last year, you're defending national champion one hundred and fourth most explosive team in the country, right seventh most efficient, So if your top ten efficient, explosion matters less. Although the team I think that wins the explosion battle typically goes on to win the game something like eighty eighty five percent of the time. But yeah, so that's where they were last year. And we've talked about this before and this
is Clemson Alabama three. That the thing that teams that generally are able to find success against Alabama's defense have in common is a fearless combination of offensive play caller and quarterback, which certainly they have the play callers, the co offensive coordinators have done a great job for Clemson. Was that Jeff Scott and Tony Elliott they do not have a season And I would sayinatively, fearless quarterback and Kelly Bryant. I don't agree with it very good. I
would agree with that. We've talked about talent wise, you need to be comparable. Clemson more than fits that, Bill and I would especially along the lines. And the other thing that Clemson had last year that they don't have this year necessarily is big physical combination of you know, receivers, pass catchers, tight end receivers. You know, no Mike Williams,
no Jordan Leggett. There is a difference in what Clemson's receiving corps looks like I know t Higgins has been their big play guy, and he's a bigger receiver, like six four to two hundred, but it's a it's a smaller receiving corps this year, led by Deon Caine, Hunter Renfro and really talented guys. But in terms of the sort of physicality of having those bigger pass catchers, that
is a difference for Clemson this year. So that worries me a little bit that it's not Deshaun Watson throwing to smaller receivers, it's Kelly Bryant.
And you said the keyword there, Deshaun Watson, I think is kind of what I look at that what he did last year and how he was able to single handedly take out Alabama. If you replace Deshaun Watson with Kelly Bryant with anybody else, I don't think Clemson wins last year. But he was such a transcendent player on the college level, much in the way that Baker Mayfield is this year, by the way that he was able to will his team to victory. Now, it's no knock
on Kelly Bryant. I don't think he's at that level yet. And so when I went through and I tried to evaluate this game, Okay, Clemson has a lot of the boxes checked, a lot of the things that you need if you're going to go toe to toe with Alabama, they have it. But as a rule, when you consider that Nick Saban has had so much time to prepare, that to me seems like something that would favor Alabama in this game.
Is Jeremy Prewett fully focused on Alabama.
The thing about Pruet is he's coached at such a high level before you know, He's been at Georgia, he's been at Florida State, say, He's been around the block to know how these things are supposed to work. So I don't think that factors in as much, especially given the fact that Alabama is just so damn talented on defense. Now, linebacking. The linebacking corps has been a bit of an issue with the injury bug, but I think they'll be okay
there by the time this game rolls around. So no, I don't think that factors in as much as some might lead you to believe.
Here's the other thing that we should It also is worth noting, even though it's been the case for a long time. Alabama gave Clemson everything they could handle last year with the best Clemson quarterback or player of all time, Deshaun Watson. That was with Ruben Foster, was with Jonathan Allen, that was with Brian Anderson, that was with Dalvin Tomlinson, Tim Williams. This is not the same level of danger, especially with the injuries in the sort of back half
of Alabama's defense. So the margin freyer might be a little bit wider for Kelly Bryant. This is an excellent Alabama defense. It is not an absurdly talented upfront in this same way it was last year with you know, the versatility. You know, Eddie Jackson was so good for them last year playing all over the field. So it is a better year this year to play Alabama's defense at this point than it was last year.
You know. And it's such an interesting point too, because when I was trying to go through and look at what Alabama has done this season, what they've done in the past in this playoff sabans two to one in the first round of the playoff matchups. Okay, they've been in it each of the last three years. You could make a case that Bama this year is not on the level of any of the three previous versions of Alabama in this first round of the College Football Playoff.
Like all those teams, I think could have been better.
No, that's totally right, and the reason why this year I don't feel too worried about Alabama defense. I don't think clemb is going to score thirty five points. Alabama's offense, to me is I think probably the big because that's where the biggest talent matchup is Alabama on offense, you know, with the seven thousand talented running backs and Jalen Hurts
playing and yet another huge game. He's seasoned, He's struggled in a couple of these, but he's played them, and you know, they have a huge time receiver in Calvin Ridley, and the Clemson defensive front is going to be swarming. I think this is going to be the best in terms of pure talent on pure talent, the best matchup in this game. I'm a little bit worried about Jalen Hurts, okay against this Clemson defense. I'm a little worried about him getting spooked on third and eight, And I go
back and forth. I think I'm going Clemson, Okay, and it's the same. I think it's the sort of getting older and leaning more towards what I can depend on. I think it's more that Clemson can get five six year olds on the ground. Kelly Bryant can. I mean, Kelly Bryan and Jalen Hurts are both great at running the ball. Jalen Hurts is a little bit better. But there's something that is more dependable about Clemson at this point because of their experience on defense, their experience in
this spot. Kelly Bryant as a runner, He's their best running back as a quarterback. I think I like this. I think I like Clemson just a tad more in this spot.
It's a very difficult game to try and project.
Yeah.
I actually come down on the opposite side of the coin here and I jotted down some of the same words that you use.
Trust.
I say a time and time again. It's about trust, babe, Yes, it is. Who do you trust more to make a big play with the game on the line. I think it's going to be a defensive slugfest, yeah, one way or the other. I think I trust Jalen hurtsmore, and I know he struggled in the past, but all things considered, he's had a pretty good year. He only threw one interception all year. He's very good at running the football, and he's had a knack for making big plays in
the he just hasn't always been consistent. But I do think that seasoning does creep into the equation here, and given the fact that they're so good on defense that it's probably gonna be a tight game. I think Jalen Hurts will have a big play in him down the stretch that ultimately springs Alabama here to victory.
Twenty eight, twenty four, all right, I have I don't know, twenty three to twenty twenty seven to twenty four something in like that close Clemson win, And yeah, I think if you're gonna take you have to take chances against this Clemson defense. Deep. I think that's where teams have succeeded. And Clemson honestly is the more tested team, which is very rare to say. And it's because of you know,
Florida State struggling. It's because of you know, the way you know, A and M and LSU weren't really the same as they've been in recent years against Alabama, all miss being down and Clemson beating Auburn, beating Virginia Tech, dominating Miami. We just I think we know more about them in big spots. You know, one of these teams is beating Auburn. One of them hasn't, so I mean,
granted it was early September. Yeah sure, but I'm going with Clemson here, being a lit little bit more self aware in these big spots while healthier.
I've got two confidence points on this one. I've got confidence point one confidence point on the National Championship game because obviously we don't know that matchup yet, so that gets one.
But you know, if I could put zero on this one, I would. I'd love to give people.
Out there a hot take about the matchup that I see or why I feel more strongly about Auburn than Clemson er vice versa. But this is just so damn close, Dan and I could totally see it going one way or the other. I struggled mightily with Alabama here, but that's I'm going to go with the Crimson Tide. I've been a fan all year. Let's just roll with it. Twenty eight twenty four fair We disagree, slightly disagreed on both of the playoff games.
Actually that's true. All right, Well, there you have it, yeap, that does it for all of the bowl games.
Clearly, we will be back after the New Year to talk about all of these games, talk about the playoff and then ultimately give you our national championship preview, which will drop later on in the week next week, presumably.
When you and I get to Atlanta and have a chance to finish that guy up.
But wow, great year, great twenty seventeen in the college football world. We appreciate everyone sticking with us throughout the calendar year, throughout the season, Dan, this has been exciting.
Our tenth full year. It feels like nine. It feels like nine. I'm excited for Atlanta, Tai to see you, to see the verballers down there, to get excited to do the media day stuff for our friends at Facebook Sports. It's going to be a hell of a next I don't know what is it, ten days or so. I this is the best. This is just it's a lot of college football, it's a lot of food. It's I love it all in New Year's Day is going to be great. I'm excited.
Well, thank you again to everyone out there who gives us so much support. We're going to open up the reverblind on New Year's Day if you want to give a phone call in. At some point we'll get our boy Taylor to cut those together and do one final reverbs for the twenty seventeen season four eight verbal one four oh eight eight three seven two two five one.
If you want to get in on the action and leave us one more message, you can text us, reach out on Twitter, on Facebook, via email at soliverbal at gmail dot com. And don't forget if you're planning on being in Atlanta, either if you live there, if you're passing through town, or maybe if you're coming down for the National Championship. We've got another lot of tickets that we're going to put up for sale January the second, at one pm Eastern. We'll link that up on Twitter,
on Facebook, on Instagram, post it on the website. We'll send out an email to the newsletter of intent. We still got tickets we want to sell that out. That being said, please do let us know if you're going to be in town, if you're interested. Daniel, that's all I got.
That's all I got. I don't think we're going to do a secret verbal song is the show song. The show is already long enough, but I agree he Hopefully we got you out of uncomfortable situations having to listen to this show, or got you on your journey more comfortably back home to a new place whatever, to vacation.
So I'm glad we're here, Ty, I'm glad. I'm glad that's a longer show than usual. To close out twenty seventeen. We will catch you all on the flip side in the meantime. For that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein, for myself, Ty Hildenbrand, we'll catch you all next week and next year.
Happy New Year and stay solid peace.