Welcome to the Solid Verbal.
I'll that for me.
I'm a man, I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for day Edith State is that? Whoo whoom? And Dan and Tye welcome back to the Solid Verbal. Boys and girls, my name is ty Hildebrand, joining me as always over there and beautiful NYC my man. The one and only Lieutenant Dan Rubensteiny's back, sir, how are you?
I'm good. This was sort of a surprise twos cruise. We didn't plan on doing this specific episode as a twos cruise, but I gotta tell you with I don't know what we're comparing it to the Queen Mary, the Titanic.
Hopefully hopefully not the Titanic, hopefully.
Not the tell Well, maybe somebody may be the Titanic in this game, but I don't know what it is. Because today's show is dedicated to the National Championship matchup between LS you and Clemson, and I guess Matt Rule.
Leaving for the Caroline.
I don't know we're actually gonna spend time talking about that, but my heart is beating.
My blood sugar feel super out of watch. You said when we connected up that you were feeling a little bit of a blood sugar spike. I don't know.
I just I do feel a good amount of excitement about this matchup. That is that is honest to God, the truth you're.
Getting the I am.
I enjoyed watching both of these teams. I think probably LSU more so this season because of their the games they actually played and the opponents that they had. But it was a pleasure to watch both of these two teams in the UH in the semi finals. But I just I also, I don't know. I mentioned this on Twitter, but I got even more excited watching There's a YouTube channel. It's run by a guy named Murph Baldwin.
I sent this to you. Yeah, yeah, I think it's top Billin. He's coming on in the offseason. He doesn't know it yet, but we're gonna invite.
He doesn't know it yet, but he does a fantastic job doing x's and O stuff with college football. So if you like that sort of thing with video, top Billin is the move to make. But that got me even more excited about this matchup. So here we are tie, Here, we are are here, We are welcome.
One.
Welcome all now if you're just joining us for the first time. Yeah, I'm Ty, He's Dan. We did three episodes every week all throughout the season. We had Tuesday episode, the one that dropped on Tuesday, we called the Twoes Cruise. Normally we would do Sunday and Wednesday. Sunday we'd recap Wednesday or I guess Thursday we would drop the show.
We would preview the coming week's games. But nestled in between, we had a little show we called The Twoes Cruise, which of course was cheesy in that it was very nautically themed, but we committed, we fully committed Marty Smith style to the bit right and alas we could think of no better time to do another Twos Cruise then on this very special occasion. It is the bull Barge, right, that's what we're calling this. It's sort of an abbreviated Two's Cruise.
Yeah, it's an abbriev all. I don't know how long the show's gonna go, but yeah, we're still sticking with the bull Barge. And I suppose we have a sound that we do like if you want to play it now.
Well, now, DOCR New Orleans for the National Championship. If you believe in the Bye Bengals, she's exit fur Side. If you believe in Domos Boys, he's exit Starbard.
Here's the Dark Horn. There's the Dark Horn. So it is one of those fun matchups where both are the Tigers. If you want to be cheeky about it and pick the Tigers to win, mm hmm, by all means, go for it. We're gonna do our best here over the next forty five minutes or so to cover as many angles as we can. We're gonna do so in as fun a way as we can, in as nautically themed the way as we can, because the last we need to stick with our twos cruise theme.
If for only one more episode, Yes, can we I think this is an old radio term, but can we reset?
Yeah?
I want I want to start from the beginning because these two teams have had very different paths to this point, neither better nor worse. But I want to start here. What was your opinion of each of these teams preseason and how much, if at all, did that opinion evolve?
Well? The LSU one is is far easier because headed into the season I was very skeptical, very skeptical that all this rigamal role we heard about on the offensive side of the ball was going to prove legit. And I believe my point when we previewed the sec West back in like August whenever, it was was just that how many times have we heard this before that LSU
is going to revamp its offense. We had heard time and again that they know they have the talent, they know they know that's the one missing piece they need to modernize, need to modernize, right, And certainly there was a fair amount of skepticism when at Orgeron took over that he would be the man to kind of lead LSU through that revolution on offense and get them to the promised Land. And well, here we are, Yeah, here we are. It's clear that they've found the right people
to do that. They've clearly got the right quarterback to do that. Being so we won the highs bin, They've got a running back, they've got a good cast of receivers, a pretty good line, So it's all there. On the offensive side of the ball. I never had a doubt about their defense. Maybe that's something we'll get into a
little bit more as we talk about the matchups. Specifically Clemson's offense against this defense, but the offensive component on LSU's side was specifically what I had the most skepticism about. Clearly that has been proven wrong, and good for them that it has. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out.
I am right there with you and that you're like, Okay, we've heard this before, that they're modernizing, that they're trying to evolve their offense, and it probably took me until that Florida performance to fully come around. Not that I always pick them this year, because I probably should have. They went undefeated if I wanted to be one hundred percent, But the fact remains that you're just like, Okay, well, I get it. They did it against Vanderbilt, they did
it against Texas, they did it against Utah State. But that Florida win the way they separated themselves later on in that game from the Gators. I think they dropped forty on a good Florida defense at home and then responded even with a pseudo clunker the next week at Mississippi State and a letdown spite you understand that they still won that game by I think twenty plus points.
They won another uneven offensive performance against Auburn, but they won their clunkers and then the rest of the year, I think they scored what forty plus, Maybe they came just short of forty against Georgia, but separating themselves from both really good teams like Georgia and I think A and M is an okay team, but completely demolished them getting past Alabama the they did with Tuas still on the team, or to a still starting at quarterback, albeit hobbled,
still able to slice and dice that LSU defense that game. I just I came away so impressed and wanted to think that there was just going to be a down week where the new offense just didn't click, And you know, maybe there were those weeks, but the fact remains, I'm still much more impressed with what they did before the Oklahoma game, right because I don't think both with what the Oklahoma defense was or really was not this year,
how they played against LSU. I don't think that is the most important takeaway game from the Tigers, but just for them to be at this point, to be led by this offense, to be talking about the overshadowed LSU defense, it's such a new way of talking about this program. That I'm thrilled to have underestimated this team going into the year.
Yeah, I am as well. I'm looking back on my notes when we did our SEC preview, and this was in late August. The question I had for you on LSU was just that they went nine to three, won the Fiesta Bowl over UCF, and they had a really good year last season despite an offensive line that drastically underperformed. Yeah, they basically had to remix their offense on the fly to account for it last year. As we entered the twenty nineteen season, how confident were you that the position group,
specifically again offensive line would be able to improve. It has improved, no doubt about it. The offense as a whole has drastically improved.
Now.
I know we have a question later on where we're going to talk more specifically about about that line. So I don't want to go too deep down that rabbit le, but let's shift gears if we could, to the Clemson side of things. Now, sure, Clemson clearly came at this from a much different standpoint, being so they haven't lost the game in two years? Yeah, well I guess now they haven't. Now they haven't lost the game in two years,
but prior to this season, they were defending national champions. Obviously, an incredible performance twenty eight point victory over Alabama in the Championship that was on the heels of a twenty seven point victory over Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinal. Trevor Lawrence had burst onto the national stage, maybe in a way that he hadn't prior to either of those games. Being so, he was incredible and unstoppable
in both of those playoff performances. Entering the season, Clemson was a prohibitive favorite, maybe not to win the national championship, but certainly to be in the game.
Right.
That was the conversation, Alabama Clemson, come and fight me. If you don't think it's one of those two teams.
Yeah, it was Alabama Clemson. Everybody else? Have these two teams separated themselves with as well as Ohio State and Georgia have recruited in Oklahoma constantly in the playoff conversation, are we you know in the way that the NBA sort of became a evelnd Golden State for what was it four straight years? Like some it had become a bit of that where Okay, what are we talking about here? Is this a sport that is now whittled down to these two halves?
The talking points on my side of the Clemson argument. Yeah, and it's not really an argument because we were both all in on Clemson. We didn't think they were going to lose during the regular season or in the ACC title game to whoever they played like. We knew this was going to be the cream of the crop in
the ACC. But we also knew that they were going to be a smidge thinner than their twenty eighteen version, at least on defense, because they had to replace four incredible defensive linemen, their top three linebackers, five of their top six tacklers. They also had guys like Hunter Renfro and Mitch Hyatt gone from their offense. For most teams,
that's a lot to replace. You can't recover from that in one season, but it's way easier when you've got Trevor Lawrence, Traves, c E. T. T. Higgins justin ross. The line has been pretty good for them, despite the fact they lost a key contributoring Mitch Hyatt. So it was just like, to what end is defense going to bring this team down? Knowing full well going into the season that the ACC isn't going to be the strongest of conferences, right, and.
We had seen Clemson defenses of yr you know, lose eight, nine, ten, eleven starters whatever. I don't know if they lost eleven starters in a year, but a majority of starters and
bounce back as if nothing had changed. And that's, you know, partially due to the fact that there's just crazy continuity on this coaching staff that Brent Venables has been around forever, the fact that they play their twos and threes so much in these blowouts that it's nothing new for a guy to start because he's getting thirty forty snaps a game as is. So it is quite impressive to see what Clemson on defense, losing what they lost and to
not miss a step. Granted, the ACC was not having itself a year this season, no, so it was fully it was almost impossible to say, well, this Clemson defense hasn't missed a beat because outside of the North Carolina game, they didn't play a team that scored more than twenty
against them. And it wasn't fully a surprise given where NC State fell to, given what Wake Forest looked like late in the season, Florida State, Louisville, these teams were not built to score with Clemson, so that wasn't fully
a surprise. And then when we saw Ohio State score what twenty three, Yeah, that's when you're like, Okay, there's something going on with this defense, especially when they start out scoring fourteen to sixteen points whatever and not able to do much after so so after that, so I just man an incredible, incredible year for Clemson on both sides of the ball, even with some the slow start
that I think Trevor Lawrence had. We saw it sort of culminate with what he looked like early on in the Louisville game, but he threw those you know, that grip of passes. It's been just lights out impossible from Clemson on both sides of the ball.
So as we turn the corner now and steered directly for this game, we have on January the thirteenth, at eight pm on the ESPN Family of Networks between LSU at fourteen and oh and Clemson at fourteen and h let me steal a little bit of your thunder. I know you had this topic planned a little bit later on in the show but Clemson is actually the lower
seeded of the two teams. They are the defending national champions. Yeah, we know that because of that playoff seating, and maybe because of Dabos Sweeney's comments along the course of the season here that he has tried to fashion them as a bit of an underdog. Yeah.
I mean, that's always what he does, even when they're, you know, fourteen point favorites. Stil say, nobody believes we're really fourteen point favorites. That's just nonsense.
But in this case, they are the legit underdog. They're a five and a half point dog headed into the football game. We know Clemson's a fun team to root for, it's never short on personality. But can you fully subscribe? Are you fully subscribed to the notion that Clemson is a real true underdog going into this game? Oh?
Yeah, for sure, they are an underdog. Inasmuch as so much attention has been poured on LSU because it's a better story right now, it's a news story. There's something novel about this program that could never get it together. On offense, hiring a young dude to be paired and Joe Brady with Steve Bensminger, the older, more grizzled coordinator.
So they have this.
He's a passing game coordinator and he's there to sort of help out with everything. It clicks, it works. Joe Burrow is just an assassin. These receivers are out of control. Randy Moss's son is there at tight end. The line comes together. Clyde Edwards alaire when nothing is really fully working all the time with the passing game. There he is to hand the ball to and he's local to what Baton Rouge in Louisiana. I just there's the novelty to LSU has shined a spotlight on. I guess the
Tigers in Baton Rouge that there's nothing. It's easy to overlook Clemson because they're not a new story. This is not an excited we've seen Clemson on this stage. So it's sort of like a forgot about us kind of situation where Dabo can say, well, I guess we're not the sexy new thing anymore. I guess everybody's forgotten about us. And while it is obviously cliche to say nobody believes in us, we're the underdog. That sort of thing can work in a brain escusually a nineteen year old brain.
Well, it can work as a motivational device if you're Dabbosweeney, no doubt about it, if you're trying to get your team up for the game, as if there's going to be any trouble getting them up for the national championship. But I'm saying to you and I specifically, I can't convince myself that there're any kind of underdog here. H maybe five and a half points is what Vegas says, Right, they haven't lost a game in two years, but twenty nine and zero last two seasons. I went back in, Look,
they've lost like three games in four years. That is not an underdog story. I don't care how you try to paint it. So I am excited for this game. I'm not necessarily looking at it in terms of underdog and favorites. In that storyline, it to me goes out the window because Clemson has been a powerhouse in college football for the last at least five years running.
But this year's team specifically, do you feel like there is an underdog element to the fact that, yes, they have the struggle against North Carolina, but also we didn't really see them tested after that we didn't really see them against great competition until Ohio State, and there is just more data. It's on LSU maybe no matter how long it's been since they've lost. I mean it's been a while since Northdakota State too.
There is a difference between undercovered and underdog. Sure, undercovered, you could certainly make a legit case for that, right being so they're in the acc being so, like you said, there were flashier stories around college football that maybe garnered a little bit more attention. But underdog, no underdog's a tough sell for me.
Okay, I mean, I think the biggest killer in this game is still LSU's offense.
I would agree with you. I would agree with you.
That to me already means that, Okay, we're looking at the best single thing in this game being what Joe Burrow is able to do with the ball in his hands. The Heisman winner, the guy who won the Heisman pretty much out of nowhere over the presumed favorite or one of the presumed favorites, and Trevor Lawrence going into the season. So there is that idea of supplanting the obvious champion in Clemson, the idea that LSU has established itself because.
Of this offense.
As what again, I think we both believe to be the best single thing in this game that could change Clemson's defense, I have no doubt in my mind is remarkable. They are on all three levels. They are very very good, and they are stout, and they are deep, and they play with an insane amount of focus and care. So that to me is why Clemson is the underdog simply
because Joe Burrow wears purple and gold. Let me Paris Marshall and Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase of course, the blittnikof Award winner wear purple and gold.
That is why. Let me let me round out this discussion and turn the corner and actually go into this game just by saying that, I think LSU is probably the easier team to root for, being so they are newer to this football game, Yeah than Clemson. Yeah, even though Clemson is technically the underdog by five and a half points.
Yeah, I mean, I think people are always going to
love the story more than they are the repeat. I mean, for as much success as Clemson has had, Clemson is not a decades long spotlight team like I think going back to when Nick Saban was at LS sort of the beginning of the modern era where I think there is a bigger and wider familiarity with LSU football, given the personality of less Miles, given all the NFL players that have come through there the last twenty years, as opposed to this latest five to seven year run from Clemson.
So I think John Q public has an LSU story awareness more than Okay, I understand the Clemson has become this elite machine, So I think there's that element to it.
It is the College Football Playoff National Championship presented by AT and T. They played in New Orleans. Yeah again, LSU fourteen to zero, a five and a half point favorite over the Clemson Tigers. So as we now look head on into this football game, the obvious question is whether an elite Clemson defense can slow an elite LSU offense, and conversely, can a really good LSU defense slow. I would still say an elite Clemson offense are very good.
Sure all they're amazing. When you pop the hood on both of those scenarios and look at all the advanced stuff, you could zoom in on a few things that are very intriguing. To be honest, most of that stuff favors Clemson. So you can take that at phase value if you want, and that's perfectly reasonable, or you can add the extra layer to it and ask does it matter?
Captain Toy wants to know.
Does it matter?
Dan?
That was such a good transition. You're just such a pro. Does it freaking matter? Clemson has a good pass rush. It's different than it was last year, but statistically, very good pass rush, very good sacrate. LSU was just okay at protecting Joe Burrow, the Heisman Trophy winner. That would seem like a big advantage for Clemson. But will it matter? Dan, I'm yelling into my microphone. Why do you say they're just okay at protecting I'm looking at I'm looking at
advanced stuff. I'm just looking at numbers. Okay, sacrate that sort of thing. Okay, Statistically they're kind of in the middle. Okay, that would seem like a big advantage for Clemson. But will it matter? We saw teams try to pressure Joe Burrow all year. Nothing seemed to face them. Will it matter? Yeah?
I LSU took on Georgia and their incredible defense and it didn't seem to matter. You know, he flushed him out of the pocket. He made plays pretty impressive.
Dan, Clemson is the best pass defense in America. Yeah, statistically, it's the best LSU's seen all year. Will it matter? LSU hung sixty three on Oklahoma. Even if you slow them down, they're still putting it hill. That was sixty three. That was scoring fifty and a half. Yeah, right, even if you slow them down a little, it's still what thirty five forty points on the board.
Will it matter? You get the drift here? Yes, I get the drift. I'm waiting for you to ask me for an answer. I'm just yelling here. I know you are,
and I love it. The big question that is hidden inside your question is what will the back of Clemson's defense look like to make the front of Clemson's defense look even better in their pursuit of Joe Burrow Because that back end just with what they're able to do in concert with the Brent Venables defense that they run and how well they can disguise, how well they can
run with receivers. We saw them do an incredible job with Ohio States receivers implementing that true killer big play that is going to make the front of their defense and how many different things players like Isaiah Simmons and Tanner Muse can do to disrupt and confuse. That, to me is the better question of will it matter? And I think ultimately it will matter. I don't know if it's going to decide the game, but it's going to matter.
Yes, will it matters. So we've got a whole list of bullet points here, yeah, that we wanted to go through and determined. Well, I'm not going to be so cynical that I'm going to sit here and say that none of this stuff is going to matter. I think ls's offense by and large is so good that a lot of it won't. But certainly some of this will.
It has to.
Okay, let's do it first and foremost. Dan Clemson probably prepared a lot more for LSU than they did for Oklahoma, right.
I would imagine. So, yes, the advanced scouting probably heavily leaned toward LICO LS.
You probably had to split up their advanced preps. So the question would be how much does that how much does that matter? How much does that factor in here?
I think it's interesting, but I don't think it matters. I think Brent Venables is so good on the fly at diagnosing and communicating that to his team that ultimately, I don't know if there's anything that LSU can do that will catch them off guard that they haven't seen. But the skill lies in their ability on the fly. So no, I don't think it matters.
Fully, I would agree with you, and I would add the point of Alabama and Clemson. What we've seen from them amid this incredible run preparation has certainly been very important. We hear about it all the time as we watch college football, and the dedication in the hours that assistant coaches and head coaches put in on this, the adjustments almost matter more. Yeah.
By the way, if you haven't read it, and they're not a partner of ours anymore right now, Andy Staples and Bruce Feldman wrote pieces with Clemson and or I guess regarding Clemson and LSU speaking to opposing coaches who coached against them this year anonymously. But a lot of really cool insight if you really want to deep dive this game.
So I think it matters, but I think adjustments are going.
To matter more.
Yeah. Another bullet point, Joe Burrow has not had to go wired to wire on a stage quite like this, has.
He No, and Trevor Lawrence has Now, it's not Joe Burrow's fault that LC was so incredible against Oklahoma that he really hasn't been in this pressure type of situation though. SEC Championship against Georgia, you know, playing Alabama, playing Auburn, playing Florida the way, those are huge stages. This is just something different. This is non sports fans, This is
non college football fans. This is in the Superdome, which is again I don't think it's on our bullet point list, but I think that's interesting because LSU has sort of recently played in a national championship at the Superdome and it didn't goes super well.
Interesting. I think it's.
No, I don't think the stage matters as much as the opponent, so I'm going to say ultimately it doesn't matter.
Yeah, you know, there was a semi final back on December twenty eighth where Joe Burrow threw for seven touchdowns in one half. Yeah, I'm not sure the stage is a real issue here. Oklahoma though, Oklahoma, that's a good Let me add another one in here. It's not on our list, but you brought it up. Is there a home field advantage? Sactly. I'm trying to figure that out.
Does that MA try to figure out if there's a home field disadvantage that could play into this as well. Oh, you're going to reverse jinks, it will sort of. I think it's nice to go away. I think it's nice to get locked in. I think it's nice to, you know, take that sort of business trip mentality where you're away from distractions. You are you know, you're in a hotel doing your run through. It's not just taking a bus.
And I understand they're probaly, I'm sure they're going to be in a hotel in New Orleans for days and days leading up to the game. But there is a different element of not going away. And I'm positive the Superdome is going to be very LSU friendly.
What is what is? I just wonder if that's added pressure. What's your bet for first college football media member to tweet out? It's like seventy thirty in favor of LSU down here. Oh yeah, people love the purportal. That feels like a Danish dot tweet at maybe eight oh two. Wow, Yeah, that's that seems right, all right? Next one. Okay, so Clemson, Well maybe Stu Mandel I could see Stu could do that.
That's definitely his two thing. Clemson has started slowly against most of the quote unquote good teams on their twenty nineteen schedule.
Yeah, North Carolina, Louisville, Texas A, and m Ohio State slow starts, quick start against Virginia.
I go a step further that a fair share of their close calls in each of the last four regular seasons have come against the better teams on their sched So the Auburns and Louisville's, NC State, Texas A, and M's pitt U NC this year. Like it's not just in the vacuum of the twenty nineteen season, it's been a recurring theme. It has not mattered much. Will it matter here?
I think it will matter, yes. And it looked like it was going to matter against Ohio State, and they ultimately couldn't convert a number of opportunities they had in the red zone, you know, plays in which it looked like they were going to score or get very close to score. And I don't know that Clemson can get away with that two games in a row. I agree with petition this good. I think I agree with you.
I'm going to say, yes, it will matter. I'm going to say yes, it's going to be very difficult to be poised early in the Superdome with this kind of crowd, no matter how LSU themselves look. I just think even with Trevor Lawrence playing on the stage, it'd be impossible not to have a little bit in the way of butterflies, a little bit in the way of getting your head on straight until you can sort of figure out your
time and place. So I'm going to say it will matter that the slow start is going to is going to be something that Clemson, even if they pull it out, will be something that they come to regret putting themselves in a position with next one.
Dan.
Yeah, we talked about Joe Burrow not being on a stage quite like this. What about coach Orgeron. It's true, we know Dabosweeney's been there. He was there last year, He's been there I don't know how many times now in the last couple of years. But coach Joe is at home. That'll help. But he hasn't quite managed a game like this, He hasn't been on a stage like this.
As a head coach, no timeouts and going for it on fourth down and you know, figuring out if you should spike it with fifty two seconds left before halftime or just keep his foot on the gas. I don't know the last I mean, I do know the last time they played a game that came down to it. That was Auburn, right, yeah, I guess now Alabama came down to it. Yeah that was back in Alabama.
Yeah Alabama, sure.
But yeah Auburn in Alabama. That's incredible. Opponents, teams, defenses, whatever, But this is certainly different. They had Alabama, I think in tusk looser, right, yeah, on Auburn at home. So challenge is all the same. But I don't think it matters. I don't think it matters because I think the team is so squarely locked in on that the gas being
pushed at all times. We saw it at the end of the Texas game and what week two on the road, where they could have just tried running it and punting it into sort of hoping for the best to run out the clock, and they didn't. And that was the continued theme that this team is here to be aggressive. So I think they're always going to air on the
side of aggression. They have that identity built into their DNA at this point, So I'm going to say maybe early it matters a little, but ultimately, over the course of four quarters, if they lose, they lose. But I don't think it's going to be because of game management. And because I agree is too big, I would completely agree with that. Took the words right in my mouth. Yes,
another one here. You're gonna have to explain this in a little more detail because you came up with these LSU pretty late in the year, keeping track of mobile quarterbacks, dealing with mobile quarterbacks. What what examples are you referring to here for our listening audience. The official SEC West quarterback of the of the solid verbal John Reese Plumbley ran all over the LSU defense and that's just situationably, situationably,
situationally somewhat understandable. That was the week after BAMA their second consecutive game on the road, and I, you know, I feel about the double roads, but there is that element of okay, we can pick on the middle of LSU's linebacking cores a little bit sidelined to sideline, and we saw, you know, Sam Allinger moved the ball some in that Texas game. They Kellen Mond was completely stifled. And he is a mobile quarterback.
I get that.
And obviously Jalen Hurts ran some but ultimately not in a difference making way. But there is that element of you know, Grant Delpit was heard and when he showed some of that. The injury effects was not great in the open field tackling. But okay, hold, they give up points, they give up yardage. You can run on them. Some you can run on them. But we're talking about mobile quarterbacks here. Would you classify Trevor Lawrence as a John
Reese Plumby kind of runner. I think he's better. He ran in a sixty some id yard touchdown against Ohio State. He is a dual threat quarterback in a dual threat offense. You would classify him as a running quarterback. I would classify him as a quarterback who is able to run at a high level. Not Lamar Jackson, not Johnny Manziel. But he is able to pick up third and eight's with his legs. He is able to turn a four
yard run into a thirty one yard run. Yeah, I would say his athleticism is absolutely an aspect of his game, and those are two threats, passing and running.
So yes, dual threat plumbly ran the ball more than twenty times, and it's a different aspect, but yeah, over half of his starts this year. It's a much much different system. Trevor Lawrence, by comparison, ran it sixteen times in that semi final against Ohio State to a great avail, very good over what six and a half yards to carry, so clearly very effective.
Yeah.
I don't know if that includes sex, but yeah, nonetheless, very fun game is part of very offense.
Yeah, that was the first time that I can remember, and Clempton fans might lampoon me for this, but that was the first time I could remember using Trevor Lawrence in that capacity.
Yes, and no, I mean they're not going to run him against No Wake and NC State that way.
But he's very He's very athletic. He can do it if he has to. I just he strikes me as much more of a guy that they like to keep in the pocket and utilize his arm.
No, it's a different offense, and it's a rich rot offense for all miss but Trevor Lawrence against I'm saying it's North Carolina. He had eleven carries. This may include sacks against Louisville ten carries Ohio State's sixteen carries. Generally he's under He's single digit carries against the UH not
meat of their schedule if I'm being kind. But yeah, back to the days of Chad Morris and Taj Boyd and Deshaun Watson and Kelly Bryant, all these guys, they are told, you know, so you keep the ball on this sort of option when you see this and here's a draw here near the goal line. Here's a draw here on first and ten. We saw in that the final drive that the run game, the quarterback run game, was part of Clemson. So if it's part of the game, part of that offense, then it's part of the offense.
I don't think this is a huge threat. I think they were able to use it effectively against Ohio State. I'm not buying it as something that matters a whole lot here. I think it matters all right.
I think Clemson is going to have success on the ground with Trevor Lawrence, maybe not Travis etn He's struggled against some of the better defenses Clemson his face and has kept some game closer. But I think Trevor Lawrence and his ability with his legs is going to be a not insignificant factor.
Moving on, Daniel, Here's something that we talked about earlier. We teased we'd be talking about later. The LSU offensive line. Yeah, is it vulnerable, particularly on the edges? And does that matter?
My answer is yes, they're vulnerable. My answer is also yes, Clemson, while they don't have the world beaters up front, that allowed Brent Venables to be crazy flexible in the back end of their defense like they had last year even without Dexter Lawrence in the playoff. I think the athleticism at linebacker, I mean Isaiah Simmons is they might be the best defensive player in the country. The flexibility, the variety of looks that Clemson can throw at LSU and
LSU's front, I think it's going to matter. I think Joe Burrow is going to be forced into some uncomfortable situations, which has generally not bothered him, but I think it's going to have an effect on this game. Clemson's ability to confuse and get home a couple times in key moments against LSU. Yeah, yeah, I think it matters too. And we know that Brent Vivennables is very creative. He
comes up with ways to generate pressure. The larger question is will that pressure matter for Joe Burrow, who's been very good in the face of pressure all year. Well, they did. They had some trouble with Auburn. Auburn threw like a weird three to one seven defense at them, And maybe this is something else we can get into
with another one of these bullet points. But Clemson is not going to be able to get home with their front four like they have been able to do, like we saw, you know, just the best defenses of the past one hundred years of football. The fewer guys you can get home with, the more just the crazier from you know, Miszoo's defense with Craig Kulangowski. Alabama's recent defense is, Auburn's recent defense is Washington when they went to the
playoff almost never blitzed. Clemson doesn't have that ability. But I think you're right. I think what Brent Vennables is able to do with confusion and stunts and slants whatever, I think it's gonna matter. I think LSU's offensive line is good. I just don't think it's incredible.
I think I agree with you, okay on that one. Let's do one or two more. You seeing you on here that you want to make sure we cover.
Here was one thing I was curious about. I don't even know if it's a doesn't matter, but it's just I was trying to figure out if somebody had experienced succeeding against either one of these offenses or defenses. And as we've seen in years past, sometimes these guys will go to the facility very quietly and consult. Kevin Steele, the Auburn defensive coordinator, looks to me to be the only person who's actually succeeded against recent Clemson and this
year's LSU. Now, obviously Auburn didn't play Clemson this season. Obviously there's the overlap of I think both of these teams played Texas A and M, and both of these teams shut down.
Texas A and m's offense. But the Kevin Steele thing is interesting. I looked.
I didn't see him do any interviews or I don't think anybody that I could find has written anything using what he is, what he's been able to do at Auburn, both in shutting down Clemson with both the Shaun Watson and Kelly Bryant and what he did this year in holding LSU to twenty three points. But I wonder, because Kevin Steele was both at LSU and at Clemson, I think he's on better terms with Coach O because I think Dabo. I mean, they called it not a firing, but it was. It was not a great end to
Kevin Steele's tenure with Clemson. After the Orange Bowl against West Virginia, I wonder if there's some Kevin Steele whispering to Coach O about the Clemson offense. I wonder Dave Randa, not that Dave Randa isn't capable himself, and we haven't even talked about the LSU defense. I wonder if there's something going on.
Okay, I kept stealing anything else here.
I mean, we didn't mention the LSU defense. That's sort of the one thing we haven't mentioned. And talking about Clemson's offense and Trevor Lawrence, and we didn't mention his targets and those offensive weapons. But the LSU defense has allowed points this year. I think they're pretty drastically improved from where they were mid season as they've gotten healthier, especially as some of the freshmen like Derek Stingley, has
gotten a really good amount of important experience. But the fact remains, outside of the dual threat thing, they've allowed points, they've allowed big plays, They've been thrown on, they've messed up in big situations, they've been run on, both by quarterbacks and otherwise. Is there Does LSU's season of uneven results on defense matter to you against an offense is talent to disclaim absolutely?
Okay, absolutely absolutely, And it's part of the reason why I think there are a lot of points in this game. Sure, I think it's probably a shootout. I think we see points in this game. I think both offenses are so good, so good that neither defense is going to have an answer, right, So I favor a lot of points here. But specific to l s U, absolutely it matters, definitely.
So I guess, can we can we play? I don't know if this is a game, but I asked you to rank the outcomes. Do you want to do that now or do you want to we could close?
Thing?
Is this a dive deep sound play the dive Deep we're still deep.
Dive Captain time, Lieutenant damn, you have clearance? Dive deep?
Is that fine? Bomb underwater?
I don't know.
It might be some sort of underwater ghosts.
Who how does this work? So I there are six pretty obvious outcomes in this game. Well they're sick. There only are in this game. It's either one of these teams winning, small, medium, or big. So I would imagine like if you go back to the was it twenty twelve Notre Dame Alabama? Yeah, the most obvious blowout would have It was impossible to think about Notre Dame blowing out Alabama if they're going to win, it was going to be ugly with you know, led by defense winning
the game, you know, seventeen thirteen something like that. So the most likely blowout that year was Alabama. Right to you before we get in, The most likely blowout is who over who?
In this game? Most likely blowout is Whoever?
If somebody wins this game forty two to twenty, who, would you be more surprised or less surprised however you want to word it?
To see as the victor, I would be stunned if LSU blew out Clemson. Wow, Okay, And I say that because I was stunned last year when Clemson blew out Alabama. Just didn't see a blowout coming.
So one point less than what Clemson beat Notre Dame or one point more one point more, yeah, right.
The Notre Dame's differential. Yeah, So I guess, just with that in mind, I would be much more surprised if LSU did it than if Clemson did it, because we've seen Clemson do it against a really good opponent.
I went back and forth on this. I think you're probably correct because in order to blow a team out, it has to happen on both sides, and I think Clemson has the ability to both shut down and take the other defense to the woodshed. So I think that's probably right. But I also don't think it's the most likely outcome. I know it Ison is blowing out.
So what is the most likely outcome for you?
Then?
So if we think of it in terms of LSU by a small margin, what do we consider a small margin, a medium margin, and a big blowout margin?
So I have eight points are fewer so one possession game as a small margin, and then medium I have nine to fourteen, and then large if you're winning fifteen plus. I know fifteen and sixteen are two possession games, but it's pretty You see a final score of thirty five to twenty, You're like, that's a very comfortable win.
Okay, so both teams by a small, medium, or large margin. Which team do you think is most likely to win? And by what margin?
I have the most likely margin as LSU small, as do I? I have that as the most likely margin, LSU winning by eight or fewer points, because even with Clemson as the more seasoned, more complete team, I'm still going to roll in with the thing I believe the most in, and that's the LSU offense and how impossible and futile it seems for defenses to stop as talented
as Clemsons is. They also fell behind sixteen nothing to another excellent offense, and that's an excellent offense in Ohio State that I don't think is as good as LSU's. So yeah, i's my answer. I agree with you on LSU small. I think if I'm betting, I bet the points, I take Clemson plus the points.
There's a lot of history there. Clemson's been on this stage before. If you're telling me that this game comes down to a field goal, comes down to the last second play, It's back and forth. Joe Burrow's got the ball in his hands. He wins by four. That makes a lot of sense to me. What does it make sense is ls minus anything. I would take Clemson plus five and a half and I'd be happy to be wrong.
Just don't bet your life savings on it. But that being said, I think LSU wins, and I think LSU's small. I'm with you. I think that's the most likely outcome here.
So yeah, I have LSU small number one, I have Clemson small number two okay, and then I number three. I actually have Clemson big okay. Because of my continue the clear most concerning thing is the LSU defense, as strong as they are at various points in that defense, I think from what we've seen, you know, with them against Alabama even early on, and I don't think this matters all that much, but Texas did score on them. I think that is that is my answer that things
like last year can get out of hand with. I mean, the best defensive back in this game is still probably aj Terrell, just the best and most seasoned lockdown defender. To me, I guess it depends on how you classify Isaiah Simmons because he plays a little bit of everything.
But I think there is that element of Clemson comes out a little more comfortable because of where they've been and jump out to an early lead, and LSU was a little bit rattled and a little bit pressing and playing from behind like they haven't been able to do, and it just it goes from bad to worse. So I think I agree with you in that a Clemson blowout is more likely than an LSU blowout. So that's my number three. Let me ask you this. The over under here is sixty nine and a half. Yeah, would
you go over under that? So that's like a if my quick math works out, that's like a thirty seven to thirty two type score in favor of LSU. Yeah, if it's right on there, nobody really scoring forty if it's you know, adheres to that five is spread five six points for.
The record, Just so you know, LSU put up forty eight point nine points per game, which was first in the nation, and Clemson forty five point three, which was fourth in the nation.
And Clemson's defense I don't think allowed a team to score more than twenty. North Carolina scored twenty. Everybody else was like.
Twenty three in the playoffs, but beyond that, no, yeah, I'm sorry.
During the regular season, yes, twenty three in the playoff against Ohio State, which holding to Ohio State to twenty three.
Holy wow. I think I'm inclined to take the over. Yeah, I would be too. I think shootout, I think I think a lot of points, and you know, to my earlier point, I see a back and forth game. I do think LSU wins because of that offense. Usually I don't like to pick base solely on offense, which is probably why Clemson ends up winning. But it never take the under. It's not fun at all. It's not fun to take the under. I see a back and forth game,
a lot of points. I could definitely see a scenario where LSU gets one extra possession and they score, And for that reason, I make second most likely LSU medium. My order is LSU small, LSU medium, Clemson big wow or medium more likely.
That Clemson is just so very clearly better than they are barely better.
Yes, okay, I'm gonna go out on a limb. Wow. I like that LSU small, LSU medium, Clemson Big, Clemson medium, Clemson small, And I think the least likely outcome here is LSU big because of that Clemson defense. See, I have LSU big at number four, okay, and then LSU medium and then Clemson medium. I have LSU big because we know what that looks like. This is not something
we have to form out of the ether. We know what happens when Joe Burrow is supremely confident in what a defense is trying against him and what his own team's counter punch is or yeah, they have no ability to stop us. Now, Oklahoma's defense is nowhere near Clemson's defense.
But the heights of LSU's offense to me, says, if they're clicking and they figure out this Clemson defense early and they have the counter punches, if it's Joe Brady versus Brent Venables and Joe Brady has all of you know, whatever, he's stacking receivers like he does or running the option routes like he does out of the slot, there is a world in which LSU.
We've seen it recently. We've seen them pour almost fifty on Bama. Now, granted's not Alabama's best defense of the last decade. But we've seen a world in which LSU just pours it on a team offensively, and it's a healthier LSU defense. Again, I'm they're the most concerning element of this game. It's still a really good defense, very good deal Rashad Lawrence. Inside, it's still Claven Chase, and on the edge it's still Derek Stingley and Grant Delpit. This is a team that can turn over a team.
This is a team that can stack pick sixes in short fields. There is a world in which LSU wins this game forty five to twenty six or something like that.
Yeah, So my next question here, we got to give our picks of the week as we bring it home here on our final preview show of the twenty nineteen twenty twenty season. Give me a final score, give me a prediction, and tell me why.
So, if my least likely out come is LSU small, that would make sense for me to take LSU small. I'm going to take LSU to win the game forty one to thirty four. Forty one thirty four. I think they're a touchdown better. I think it's back and forth. I think maybe there's a special team situation that changes things. I know LSU in the uh what the kick coverage game hasn't been amazing when at least when teams have been able to return the ball. I think there's a
special team situation that changes the scope of things. I'm hopeful that Clyde Edwards Alaire is fully healthy and recovered from his hamstring issues. Otherwise I've become a little bit more worried because he was that keycog against Alabama. But there's something about Clemson that I'm not fully there with and I don't know why. I don't know if it was the start, I don't know what it was against Ohio State where they needed some things to break their way to come back, and I think it's a little
bit more difficult against this LSU offense. So forty one thirty four in one of the all time great national championship.
Games, I think it's going to be an amazing football game. I think they're gonna be a lot of points. I've got LSU winning at the gun forty five, forty two, again, a lot of points. Joe Burrow, Joe Burrow has to lead the LSU Tigers down the field to score in New Orleans to win the national championship.
I have no idea why we think this Clemson defense is gonna give up so many points, But I honestly think Joe Burrow is what he's done this year. It's a generational performance. So let's put it this way. If anyone's gonna do it this year, it's gonna be Joe Burrow.
Yeah.
Wow, I think a lot of points uncharacteristically, so for the Clemson defense. Maybe I'm nuts, which is entirely possible from doing this all year. But I've got lis you by three on taking Clemson plus the points, and I agree with you that there may be a special team situation here. It's the only thing, one of the only things that jumps out on paper as a pretty big disparity between LSU, which has been pretty good on special teams by and large, and Clemson.
Man, we've gotten this whole show, not even talking about t Higgins and Justin Ross and Travis y Ten and their ability. I mean, they've won the National Championship. We've seen what Justin Ross is able to do on a stage like this. Ah Man, what I just the receivers in this game. I'm not going to go through year by year to look at the receiving course from what we've seen, I remember Oregons was very beat up. But the I mean, if you're going Justin Ross T Higgins,
Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, Terris Marshall. I know Clemson doesn't have a world beater at tight end, whereas LSU has kind of a matchup Nightmare and Thad Moss at times. But what if you like receivers, if you like receivers on corners, this is this is pornography, ty, Yeah, I can't wait, and like we can talk about the fact that you know Clemson's secondary and I mentioned Tanner news earlier,
maybe he's a weak point. I'm curious to see if LSU can generate some mismatches in the slot against Tanner muse. I'm curious to see what Clemson's able to do with their receivers against an LSU secondary that I mean, they're they're painted on receivers every week. Sure, this is I it looks to be an incredible collection of matchups outside. I just don't know how either defense covers their opponent's wide receivers.
Yeah, sixteen minutes worth. I don't know how you do it. I really hope they each just like, really get up and press, just press.
And it's.
With a safety.
I'm not hoping for that, but I am hoping that, you know, you get, you know a lot of fifty to fifty moments that just the game hinges on so many different, tiny, tiny little seconds.
That's the best. I don't know how you cover these receivers for sixty minutes, and I don't know how you cover them with the constant threat of two really good running backs Edwards where Travis et totally ignoring Travis Etn, who's been perpetually underrated or undercovered at least as a star player for the Clemson Tigers.
Yeah, it was mostly shut down by Ohio State and still managed to have arguably the biggest moment in the game, or the maybe two biggest moments, yeah, in the game for Shoransen.
So there you go. We are both taking LSU Damn by a little bit of a larger margin than I they cover. Yeah, you think they cover. I'm not willing to go there. We will be watching the game together on Monday evening. I am driving up to your homestead shortly after I get out of the mysterious day job on Monday afternoon. We are going to convene and record our recap episode early on Tuesday and drop that hopefully
before lunchtime. Get that out into the college football ether so you can digest it on your ride to or from work. Yeah, and then we're gonna hang out and enjoy the season that was this past I don't know, five or six months.
Yeah, it's our own personal rat party. That's it cool. I'll be making the solid verbal, the official dip of the solid verbal, the chorizo dip.
Should I bring anything? You want me to bring anything?
I mean, do you make anything that you're particularly proud of that you think that would make a good addition. I don't know if there will be other people watching with us.
Do you want me to make my taco dip where I pour on the tostito salsa? You make whatever you want? Sure, I'm sure it's delicious on top of a luscious bed of sour cream, cream cheese and Mexican cheese from Wegmans. I don't know if my body can fully handle. Okay, my stomach has not been a friend of dairy recently, but I'm willing to try try everything.
Yeah, I'll probably also get pizza. So yeah, there's gonna be a cheese factor anyway, Why the hell not.
Follow along with us on Twitter, follow along on Instagram, check out the Facebook page. Dan and I are going to be posting. We're going to be offering running commentary at some point throughout the course of this week. I'm going to post my prop selections for the coming football game. They're not all out yet. There are a few interesting ones, but I want to wait until there's a more complete
offering before I offer my recommendations. I know everyone's on the edge of their seat waiting for these, but give me a little bit more time to try and calculate what I think the best plays are.
Yeah, we're recording this obviously Tuesday for the Tues cruise, and we have not seen a full list of game and player props. I wonder, do you know who's doing? Is there a halftime show? I should have come prepared.
Well, I don't know about the halftime show, but we did Simpson, we did Ashley Simpson. We did make reference earlier to the broadcast and ESPN is again doing it's Mega cast, so of course Chris vowallor Kirk kurb Street are going to be on the call. Tom Ornaldi and Maria Taylor are going to be working the sidelines as they typically do. There will also be the Field Pass, which is going to feature our good friend Adam Amin along with Steve Levy. They're going to have Pat mcnafee
Dan Orlovsky on the field as well. There's going to be a coach's film room on ESPN You. They have not announced yet who those coaches will be. Hopefully it'll be Kevin Steele, that'd be neat, Tom Reese would probably be nice. One desire there. I don't even know if I have it too. The Command Center will be on ESPN News, which is where they show you all the angles and get about four different vantage points at any moment. They'll have the Data center on the goal Line Network
Too Excited in case you're getting too excited. The College Shower will be the data This is the real time statsnalytics and social media commentary. And then there will be the hometown radio on the ACC and SEC networks. Oh I like that. Yeah, so they'll have the hometown radio calls featuring the Clemson Tigers Network and the LS Sports Radio Network. I do like that.
We both picked LSU, so technically Dabo can add us to the pile of non believers.
There is a sounds of the game on ESPN Classic. Whoa, I'm reading this off the press release. It allows viewers to imagine themselves inside the Superdome. It's a little ASMR.
So it's just it's like the no announcer experience, like they've done that with NBA games.
That allows viewers to imagine themselves inside the Superdome as the game presentation will feature all the natural audio from the stadium, including the band performances. I assume no three D now no three D. We have a ref cast on the ESPN app, which is the streaming from their hats. John Perry, Matt Austin, and Judson Howard provide reaction and commentary from a referees perspective, So it doesn't I don't think the hat can will be involved here.
Can we set up a feed in which it's just Mama h describing the action over the phone.
We could do that. Try that? Okay, Oh, that would be great.
I've had I mean, I'm sure you've had this situation too where you're not able to watch a game and you're like texting with somebody furiously or on the phone like yep, nope, okay, oh oh Jason, you just have no idea what's going on? I would love to have a mama h feed going.
All right, we'll see what we can do. Okay, we'll figure that out. Well. Thank you to everyone out there for tuning in, not just for this show, but all season long. Yea, we will be back in short order to recap all this and much much more as we head into the college football off season. Don't forget. If you haven't subscribed, please do so. The soliverbal will be with you all throughout the calendar year, even if they're
not playing football games. Knows, there's plenty of college football to discuss as we forge a head into the long doldrums that is the twenty twenty offseason. Yeah. Can I add one more thing? Please?
If you're going to this game, eat literally anywhere. It will be very happy in New Orleans because it is the best. If you want specific places, I like, I don't know. There's Willie Mays for fried Chicken, There's a Killer Poe Boys, There's all sorts of places. Sylvain is very very good. If you don't feel like specific like Cajun food, but they still have Cajun options. Bevy is sort of a little outside of all the tourist area for Poe Boys and stuff like that. But you literally
eat anywhere anywhere local. Don't don't do everything you can not to eat at CPK. For I'm saying in New Orleans.
That guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein, for myself, Tie hilden Brand, We'll be back at you in just a few days. Enjoy the college football National Championship and we'll talk to you soon. Stay solid, pray,