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I'm a man, I'm for I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for day at the steak?
Is that woo woom and down and tie. Welcome back to the Solid Burbo boys and girls. My name is Ty hilden Brand, joining me again. He came back, Dan.
Rubinstein, Sir, can't get enough tie. How's it going? You know it's pretty good? Ty, that's a lie. I was in Los Angeles and it was nice and warm and sunny, and I was hanging out Santa Monica and Venice and just eating great Mexican food and living my best life. And now I'm back in New York and in a room. Ty, if you could see my setup?
Yeah, for first question here of this Q and A show.
Yeah, I just moved.
I know that you moved. You talked about it on one of our previous shows that you moved. Right, What is your new recording setup now?
So Jody with and I and I moved to just like down the block. It's still in Brooklyn, but as we speak right now, most of our apartment is all set and ready to go. We need to roll out. I think we're getting a couple of rugs clean because you got to have sort of soft floors in New York so people aren't stomping around all over the place. Well, my current setup, in this tiny little room we have, I have just crap everywhere. I have a bag of shoes at guitar case, a box full of paper towels.
I am speaking directly into a coat closet like I'm staying two feet in front. There's a tiny bookshelf and on top of that a laundry hamper, and on top of that a towel, so at least deadens some of the sound as I speak into my microphone which is next to my laptop. So it is a DIY garbage setup. I mean literally there is garbage. I am surrounded garbage, and hopefully the show is slightly better than being surrounded by garbage because we're doing what we're doing. Q and
A Today, Q and A Today. Yeah, Yes, boonus. So I on let's say, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and I guess via email, ask questions about or ask people to ask questions about spring football season, hypotheticals, college football TV issues, reasonable expectations, unreasonable expectations, and literally whatever else. And we got a ton of really really strong questions.
Ty, we did absolutely so again, if you are new to the show, we've been trying to tell as many folks as we can this offseason about what we're doing here. Bring as many under the tent as humanly possible. We are the Solid Verbal I'm Ty, He's Dan. You can find us at solidverbal dot com. We're also out there on Twitter. We are out there on Facebook and Instagram.
We do have a website at solidverbal dot com. We are findable wherever find podcasts are sold, be it iTunes or Google or Stitcher, Spotify, you name it, we are out there. We've even got a subreddit at reddit dot com slash our slash solid Verbal, where our fans have congregated all throughout the last year or so to talk about what we talk about here on the program and what we like to do once a month, I guess this month where technically do it? Doing it once?
Do it as often as we want? Ty who cares?
It is our show, but we like to take questions from the verbaler hood, read them aloud, and try to provide insight wherever possible. Sometimes that insight is better than others. My sense is that we're both shot out of a canon today.
I'm ready to go.
I hear it in your voice that we're we're shot out of a cannon here, and I'm feeling the same. So should we get to our first question? I think we should get to our first question? Okay, where we're going.
Let's go with John. Lots of people talk about which fan base has the most unrealistic expectations, the Nebraska corn Huskers. I'm just I'm excited to see Nebraska. But nobody ever discusses that was my editor orzation. Nobody discusses reasonable fan bases. From your experience, which fan base has the most reasonable expectation and healthiest relationship with their team? And as I'm reading this question, I can only think about the time when I was at SI, and I guess you were
at SI at this time as well. When I was invited to the SI swimsuit party in Las Vegas. Let me tell you something, Ti, My expectations were very recent. I went to that party. In my expectation was I'm gonna I'm gonna get a good, good drink or two, I'm gonna dance a little bit, and I'm gonna take pictures with West Coast or West Coast with camera guy Dave, who I brought along with me and watched a rash Markazi dance. That was my expectation, and it all came true.
Does it feel to you that the only true correct answer, the one true champion of this question has sort of always been Illinois football.
Oh, I don't know about that.
It's always an Illinois football.
Well, yes, I'm going to posit this as reasonable expectations of being acceptable acceptable okay, because I think there is an element of you know, Chicago's not a high school football hotbed, but Illinois has I wouldn't say recent or modern history of success, but they should be able to recruit better. And they actually I've been paying a little bit of attention to recruiting thus far because of our
pal Scott Eli and I fan Scott. I think they just got a five star athlete out of Saint Louis who might play quarterback, and so they're doing a little bit better. But Texas.
My point is, you know, I remember we talked to Robert from alioni dot com. We talked to our friend will Leach. Certainly, we've talked to line eye fans, Scott like. They all seem to have a very healthy relationship with the team. They want the team to do well, but if it doesn't, they almost have a license to go out and explore other teams. It's a very open relationship with their college football team.
Yeah, I would, I would flip it and tweak it a little bit. Like, I don't think Illinois fans have any expectations exactly, So let's move to like who has an acceptable level of positive expectations and for that path. I would say people who have the most data about their coach, so people who have experience with a longer tenured coach. And so the check marks I have are Northwestern, Okay, Stanford, Iowa,
Kansas State, and Navy. In terms of bigger programs, who you know, maybe Georgia Tech, but that's just it's so up and down with Georgia Tech. And I think there's a certain amount of frustration given what Georgia Tech's ceiling should be, given its location, and you can attract academically really good kids. Perhaps that otherwise going to places like Duke or Stanford or Notre Dame or Vanderbilt whatever. I think that list is where I'm probably going to stuck TCU.
Maybe I think there's an expectation I considered TCU.
I first off, I think everyone in the SEC is out. Yes, everyone in the SEC is out.
Maybe other than Vandy, I think there's not much in terms of expectations there.
There are fan bases that have tasted success, and when they do, they tend to lust for more. And that's true in nearly every case. Right. What we're trying to find here are are examples of the few fan bases that don't seem to get out of hand. And I do think the coaching element factors in one that you forgot is Michigan State. I think Michigan State probably falls into that category two. But Northwestern Stanford Navy, you said Iowa. I had k State down on my list as well.
These are teams that by and large are very confident in the coach that they have and have seen their coaches spin gold out of what was deemed by others to not be the deepest of talent pools, and so that earns them a lot of credibility that earns them a longer leash, and I think in most cases it leads to fan bases that aren't prone to unreasonable expectations.
Yeah, I think all of those coaches. I think the common thread with what Pat Fitzgerald, David Shaq, Kirk Farence, Bill Snyder, Kenny Mandalolo is that the fan bases have made peace with who they are, which are all good coaches, and that they will win more games that they should or many more games that they should than otherwise. And that's that's a pretty good place. If not, you know,
you can get bored. And maybe we'll talk about this with USC and I have a comparison for Clay Helton's being nothing but successful, but there is that boredom element. But I don't think there is that expectation of blue blood for any of those schools. So Matt, I think they're in good places.
Okay, good answer, good question, Thank you, John. Where we going next? Next?
Let's go. This is a question from Reddit from rock Leg rock Leg, whatever rock Leg is, which cellar dweller Power five program is least deserving of a meteorc rise to the top of the conference and as a bonus, which long suffering fan base is least deserving of playoff glory. So I'm man, that's tough, but I can answer the first one, okay, which I imagine you can as well.
And I'm going to answer this in terms of a faction because it's hard to paint even though that's, you know, the fun part of being fun about college football, but it's hard to paint a fan base as a complete homogenistic whatever or society that there everybody is the same. But I would say if there's any faction of a fan base that has traditionally been pretty low, although they've been a little bit higher lately, but traditionally been low and would be very happy to see them miserable forever.
Would be that Art Brill's shirt selling and buying faction of the Baylor fan base when everything was going down. I'd be happy if Baylor was firmly entrenched, not because of reasonable, nice, kind, you know, supportive, pragmatic Baylor fans, but if there's any faction of a fan base that would make me happy to see them miserable forever, it'd probably be that group of Baylor fans and maybe some Joe pot Truthers and Penn State.
I was going to bring up the Joe Podruthers. I think there's okay, there's definitely something there. I'm not going to directly answer this question from rock Leg. Did you say rock Leg WBZR clag. Yeah, he did pose a bonus question, which long suffering fan base is least deserving of playoff glory?
Yeah?
I'm a Notre Dame fan.
Uh huh. I like where you're going.
It's well known on this program and throughout the interwebs that I am a college football fan for the University of Notre Dame in addition to Penn State, my alma mater, but by and large I've been a Notre Dame fan my entire life. You can make a really strong case here that the Notre Dame fan base, the holier than thou sort of entitled section of the Notre Dame fan base, is qualified to be the answer here.
The good news is so many of them don't have the Internet, so their reaction not saying all.
I'm not saying. I'm not saying. Most of the people that I have the good fortune of dealing with, most people I think have their head in the right place. But there is a very very small minority of the Notre Dame fan base that fits that mold, a little holier than thou, little entitled, and I think it is that group that gives Notre Dame fans as a whole a bad.
Name non football, which I think this is a phenomenal question, ty, and this goes to the heart of who we are truly as people. Which of your friend's hobbies are you awful at? If Dan goes to hang out at someone's place and gets handed to controller to play Madden, who hold his own? First? Of all? The answer is yes, I am totally decent and acceptable, if not pretty good. Sometimes at football video games, mainly in C DOUBLEA, but certainly Madden.
Have you, by the way, have you tried the latest Madden? No, It's impossible, is it really? I used to be so good at the previous renditions of Madden, and in so much harder. It's just different. I don't know. There are various controls now to like jump up and catch the ball. It seems like you can't. You can't run the ten yard out route every time anymore and get a first down,
like without even trying. They've just made everything. And after years away from playing the game, I decided I'd pick it up when it was on sale and let me tell you, woo woo. Not good.
Not good. So here's where I'm currently at video game wise, before I answer this question. There has not been an NCAA release in five years, four years something like that. I think the last one was NCAA fourteen, which would have come out in twenty thirteen, right, yep, summer of twenty thirteen, so it's almost going on five years. I am at the point where I have interest in video games, but I don't want to shoot people and I don't want to learn advanced football controls for Madden, and I
don't really care about the NFL that much. And I'm i bawling a Nintendo Switch and playing Mario with the rest of my days, like I never have. That's super attractive to me. I have both the switch and the PS four. Is that true?
It is true?
How's the switch?
This switch is fantastic.
What do you play?
I'm mostly into Mario Kart. I played a little bit of the Zelda game mm hmmm, which is pretty cool. Solid wise, Kate got into Yeah, into the Zelda game.
Are you playing it on the screen or are you playing a handheld? Mostly on the screen? Okay, mostly on the screen, but Mario.
Kart still brings it. Still my favorite game by far in the Nintendo universe interest and as far as PS four goes, I have dabbled with a couple of the sports games that are out there. The best one remains a soccer game, FIFA FIFA. But you have to put in some time, right, Yeah, I'm awful at it. Yeah, I'm awful at it, and so I've resorted to playing on a lower difficulty, beating teams by eight goals and just enjoying myself.
My broader answer to this question one golf. I'm not awful at golf. I'm awful at wanting to play golf. I grew up playing. I went to you know, I learned how to play like. I love going to driving ranges. I've never been to. It's it called top top golf.
That's a good time.
Have you been been? I've never been. It looks like a great time because it looks like you just hit a bunch of golf balls and drink beer and eat tater tots. That's my zone. It's pretty much that is that is my zone. I would love to do that. I'm totally fine at golf. I mean, i'd probably shoot a hundred or something like that, but I don't I wouldn't look like a spas. I just don't want to dedicate four and a half hours like that. That to me is sort of miserable. I'd rather just play sports,
you know. I'd rather go for a run or play basketball. I've only gone paintballing once and I'd probably be really bad at that. And my final answer drinking. Not a great drinker, tie and I guess cocaine. I don't know if any of my friends are coke heads, but since I have never partaken, I'd be pretty bad at cocaine.
Okay, I think that that's my answer. Yeah, I'm I'm pretty awful at actually your hobby, which is going out and trying different kinds of foods.
Oh, come on, it's the easy, it's the most fun thing it is. But I'm I'm just not you're setting your ways, not that into it. Yeah, I'm setting my ways so much like you. The idea of golf, the idea of dedicating time to whatever. I kind of feel the same way about different kinds of foods. I am going again to Mexico City in a couple months, and my day is this wake up, maybe work out. It's sort of like cors Field because it's like seven thousand feet up, so gotta be careful not exert myself too
much and just walk and eat all day. And it is the greatest tie. We got to get you down in Mexico City and get you some non.
Do our live shown in Mexico.
Oh my god, at Azteca before the Lehi Colgate game of course. Okay, next question, let's go to Oh here's a good one, duck caught upstream. This is also from Reddit. Two good questions after a down year last year, how many Pac twelve teams do you think are good enough to be in realistic contention for a college football playoff spot when November rolls around. The most accurate answer I could come up with was like a half a half
of a team. I don't know what your answer is, but I'm going to run through some pertinent information to hopefully help your answers.
Well, I mean the first answer is Arizona State, right.
Absolutely absolutely, as I well, nobody in the South. Yeah, that's I don't think that's fully true. The USC schedule is pretty good with a new quarterback with a new quelt. See that's the thing. So they have what it's Matt Fink, Jack Sears and JT. Daniels' incoming, So they don't have that blue chip, known quantity quarterback like they had last year with sort of a screwy schedule. But USC's defense, especially their secondary, is in pretty good shape. The linebacking
course pretty good. I know they they lose what Rashim Green and Wosu on the on the line, so there's some rebuilding there. But offensive skill wise, I liked Tyler Vaughds. The offensive line is somewhat intact, Stephen Carr should step into a pretty big role in the backfield. Schedule wise, it's pretty good. So they're at Stanford and at Texas early on consecutively, and that's tough. But Stanford is outside of Bryce Love. I'm not sure what really truly scares
me about Stanford this year. Texas will see what their offense looks like. Defensively, they're in great shape, but you know, USC is coming off of a win there. They go to Utah, but they have Notre Dame at home after the UCLA game, and miss Oregon and Washington from the north. So all things considered, I'd say that's pretty solid, right.
Yeah, No, I mean the schedule's fun. I just you lose Sam Darnold. Yeah, it's tough to be what I would answer here a legitimate playoff threat.
But they maintain their coaching staff, which I think is pretty enormous. Tim Martin is back after some flirtation, I guess, so I'm I'm pretty good with USC, just in terms of what their actual season looks like. Quickly, Stanford's schedule is super tough. They're at Oregon, at Notre Dame, at
Utah consecutively and then at Utah's consecutive with Wazoo. Excuse me, but Washington is on the road at UCLA to end the season, and that's just and that's after going to Cal for a rivalry game, so that's sort of a screwy way to end things. Oregon has a non conference garbage or excuse me, Oregon's non conference schedule is garbage. Important clarification, important clarification. They don't have USC, as mentioned, they have Stanford, Washington, Ucla all at home with Washington
after a buye. So Oregon is a good contender for and I've mentioned this before, schedules better than they actually are. But if Justin Herbert is able to stay healthy, they should be able to take another step forward on defense.
Washington opens the season in Atlanta against Auburn. They go to Utah to UCLA and Ucla and Oregon are on the road consecutively, and they have no bye week until November tenth, and a short week rivalry game on a Friday on the road at Wazoo, which obviously Chris Peterson owns Mike Leach. But we saw it last year when you have that short week road game with USC going to Wazoo ended up being pretty brutal for the Trojans. So man schedule seems fine because Washington misses USC Arizona, my answer.
Was going to be either Washington or Stanford.
Yeah, I would put my money on Washington, even with the losses up front. On defense, they sell Greg Gains that secondary should be filthy. I love Taylor Rapp.
I think the answer is Washington and or Stanford. So the question what legitimate legitimate playoff teams realistically good enough to be in the College Football Playoff come November.
I'd say one and a half is probably my.
One and a half I think is a good line. I'll go with one.
Should also mention just because Arizona has the best quarterback in the South in Khalil Tates go to Houston in the non conference schedule, and they do have that dreaded PAC twelve short week road game at Utah altitude. I'm almost in the way that we last season said the USC short week at Wazoo on a Friday night shout out Adam Ameme, that's man. Circle that game as like the biggest trip up totally. I would if Arizona is good under Kevin someone this year, I would circle that
Utah game on the road the short week. That's rough.
Definitely, definitely all right, good question, but yeah, let's go one and a half Washington and Stanford as our official answer here the verbal Dan before we go. Next question, Yes, let's talk about our sponsors here, sponsored by two friends of the podcast. First and foremost, Square Space. You know about square Space, all about it. Ready to start your new business, Ready to make a new website, make it stand out? You can do it with Square Space. As we said at the very top of the show, they
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Attic pause? Where are we going next?
Thank you?
Let's go to Dan, who has a good college football TV question. Dan clob clob a car clob Ashar Club Ashar.
That's right.
So many games being broadcast, you know, across so many channels, com ference networks, whatever. It really seems like there is a shortage of quality announcing teams. I don't know if I agree with that, but whatever, What kind of gimmick color commentator would you like to see? Comedian actor dog Dog?
The dog would be interesting? I'll give him none of the above.
Okay, So here is I have both a serious and yeah, I have very indulgent answer, indulging not for us, but indulgent for his question. So the serious answer is it's sort of disrespectful to put a dog on a game to the two fan bases who are watching this game and care about you know, if if ESPNU has Wake Syracuse or USF Temple or something like that, and it's I don't know, if it's our pal adam Ameme with
a German shepherd, that's not great. That means we don't take your game and your efforts and the history of your fandom all that seriously. I mean, it depends on the dog. It's true, there are a lot of good dogs. There are a lot of good dogs.
In the animal act typically on broadcast, television, broadcast anything has really been a success. So I don't know if that's entirely true, but I do hear your point correct.
I would say that if you are looking to shake things up and draw attention to, like you know, a Big ten spillover game on the Big ten network on Big ten two or something like that, or draw attention to I think stadium is now a thing, the Stadium network, which I think broadcast game on Facebook, so always probably looking for. I think gimmick is too.
You're going to steal an answer here, aren't you. I don't think you're going to steal my answer. I know what, I can feel it.
I will you know what, ty, I will give you your platform right now.
You're going to steal my damn answer, say it. I don't think the answer to this question is a gimmick commentator.
Yeah, I don't.
Think it's a comedian, an actor, a dog, right, a fee lion. I don't think it's any kind of gimmick ann answer.
You should just keep naming types of vand I don't think it's a cephalapod. I don't think it's a mollusk.
I think it's more a matter of format than it is the actual commentator. Like remember when they did the coach's film room m hmm during the National Championship. If they could find a way to make that a little bit more digestible, maybe not have five guys in a room yelling out terms that most of the population doesn't understand. If they could refine that a little bit, a format
like that will be rather interesting. Sort of what Adam Amin did on the night of the National champion the Homer's broadcast, the Homer's Broadcast, where he was walking around on the sidelines and they had guys on either side. He was doing that with Joe Tests. That stuff was I thought pretty interesting and is enough to shake it up where even if you're not fully into a game, you might tune in just to see what the format is all about. I think that's the answer here.
I like the idea, and I think you're on the right track. That wasn't my answer, so okay, So part of my answer would be radio feed. But like a lot of these networks have spill channels, So like if it's Purdue Nebraska on the Big Ten network and Big
Ten has spillover, maybe you have that familiar voice. You know some people you grew up a Dodger fan, and there were a lot of people when it was a Vince Scully game on the radio but not on TV, would mute the TV intern on the radio, So perhaps marrying That's my other answer is what about bring in notable NBA broadcasters or college basketball or baseball, or just
like experience, like Bill Raftrie, I like Bell Raftery. If let's say Kyler Murray throws a bomb that's ridiculous after shedding two tackles, and Bill Rafty is yelling onions, I'm pretty excited.
I mean they sort of did that a little bit with Gus Johnson.
Right, And it works to varying degrees and it depends on the person, but it's not terribly hard to prep. You learn names, you learn backstories, you learn history whatever of these teams of the season, whatever. But I think there are voices out there.
Oh you know we're missing we're missing the obvious who us?
Well, obviously we have to start with Patley, get at us, get at us, pat League.
We could do something like that.
That would be my answer, Or like hell, like Pat say Jack, he's pretty good, He's pretty smooth. He likes sports. Yeah, yeah, so that's my answer. Not a dog, but a mollusc.
A cute dog would work.
But okay, next question, Robbie wants to know USC goes ten and two and loses the title game to Washington. Let's assume they go to the Rose Bowl and lose. In his three years there, there are three top fifteen finish as a conference win, at division win, a Rose Bowl win in three New year six game appearances. Is
Clay Helton still on the hot seat? So I believe if I'm understanding this question correctly, Robbie wants to know, is there, in perpetuity USC fan acceptance of really good but not great.
Clay Helton's perpetually hot seat is what I think we're talking about here. Potential Fantasy things draft pick absolutely in her upcoming fan I see things drafted an undetermined location at this point about August August time frame. Stay tuned for our next live show if you're interested. Yeah, the perpetual hotness of the Clay Hilton's seat is of interest to me, and I don't think it's fair to him.
Clay Helton stepped into that role at USC after a long list of other coaches, higher profile guys who didn't work out for one reason or another. He had the kiff And thing, the Sarkesian thing like, it just didn't work out for a lot of folks. He had coach oh there for a little bit lobbying to get that role. Clay Helton almost stepped into a situation where this was always going to be the case. So the answer of
will he versus should he is important here. I don't think he should if again, in three years there are three top fifteen finishes. But I do think that back to our earlier question at the top of the show, expectations at a blue blood school like USC are already so high, and the talent pool is already so deep that if they don't get over that hump, if they don't become anything more than just a top fifteen team at the end of each season, eventually, yeah, he's going
to get let go. Eventually, Yeah, the hot seat is going to overtake him. I think he will remain on the hot seat if he can't get over that hump.
On the national stage, USC looked sensational on offense against Penn State in an all time fun ridiculous rewatchable game, yes, absolutely, for sure. Yes, then they completely look lost and overmatched against Ohio State in the bowl game last year, and you know, obviously in a very very early game, just get drilled, demolished and squashed by Alabama on a neutral site. So USC measures itself and I say that as a fan base and a school whatever against the country's best,
because they're able to attract the best. They have a history that aligns with the best of the best nationally and even a recent history in the Pete Carroll era that aligns with them. But could there be an element? And I have his stats in front of me, and this is so early on because he was at his place for fifteen years. Mark Richt right good consistently forever. But it just got to the point where people in charge fans said, can't we be a little more? Can't
we be significantly more than good? And Mark ricked in his fifteen years at Georgia nine out of those fifteen years he won ten plus games. As significant he went till three Sugar Bowls in fifteen years, so that's not the greatest and had six shares of the East at least either outright wins of the division or a share of the division, but at a certain fifteen years is
a long time. But if Clay Helton is on that sort of pace, like he goes five out of eight years ten plus wins, six out of eight ten plus wins, but never gets over the hump of winning the Rose Bowl or just never does anything in the playoff, I think there will be an element at USC that says, we need a little more seasoning on this roast. We just need a little bit more. And I think it's
not imminent. But Clay Helton, I don't think inspires the same amount of program facedness as Pete Carroll, and that is always going to be in the back of people's minds. I believe that if he maxes out at winning or losing the Rose Bowl, it's going to grow tiresome. But not anytime soon.
Not anytime soon, And like I said, eventually he will be overcome by the hotness of the seat. But you do bring up a really important point, and it's one that we mentioned Gosh, I want to say six or eight months ago, when we were talking about USC and Clay Hilton. Back in twenty seventeen, Dan Clay Heilton walked into an airport. How many people you think would recognize how.
Many people would recognize Clayilton at a Hudson News The answer is zero, Maybe in LA a couple.
Yeah, I think that factors in as well. He doesn't have that gravitas of I don't know, Pete Carroll, someone who's been there before, had a lot of success, someone who's recognizable.
Yeah, but here's the thing. If he's recruiting on a top three to five level, he should have top three to five results, and that means within the next three years he has to win at least a playoff.
Game, right, I would think I think that's fair.
So that's where I come down with Clayhilton, who has done a fantastic job, you know, taking over a program that was in crazy flux, recruited super well developed quarterbacks, has hired really well. He has done everything that USC could possibly hope for short of top two to three results. That's a really good agreed next question and the opposite end of things from Matt giving the way both Virginia football and basketball Womp WOMP ended their twenty seventeen eighteen
seasons losing against teams from Maryland. Is there any hope Bronco can turn things around in Charlottesville. Yes, I'm still better.
Okay, hold on, Virginia last went to a bowl in twenty eleven.
Mm. Hm.
They went to a bowl. They lost the Military Bowl a couple months ago, hm, but still went to a bowl game for the first time in six years. Now. UVA might not be on the precipice of winning the ACC going to a playoff game, but clearly the results have been there in year two that I think if you're a fan of the team, you have reason for optimism.
It's obviously a much different situation than what we saw with EVA basketball leading to a sixteen seed, but I feel pretty good about where Bronco Man and Hall's gotten them in just two years.
Do we follow a time sport though, time in saying that you got to give him time? It's not necessarily a sport that's rooted in time.
No, it isn't. But not all programs are created equally. If you step into a job at let's go back to USC you are inherently at much more of an advantage than you would be at a program like UVA, which again hadn't been to a bowl game in six full seasons.
Right. Here's why I'm sort of down on Virginia. If I gave you an over under of one and a half blue chip players recruited or committed to Virginia in the last three years, what are you taking.
Under?
Yeah, it's zero. They have not gotten it on blue chip commitment in the last three seasons, so in the Bronco Mendenhall era, And that to me is worrisome. Not because you need blue chip players to win eight games a year. You need a lot of factors to win eight plus games a year in a Power five conference. And I think the expectation for Virginia should be bowl
games to a Bowl last year. The problem with Virginia, as I see it as somebody who has watched not a lot of Virginia games, but some Virginia games, is probably going to end up year over year. If they're not able to attract higher level talent, it's going to be depth. What do we see from Virginia last year? They finished the season losing four straight ACC games. After starting what three to one? They lose four straight? What do they do against Miami? They look sensational in the
first half and can't quite close it out. That to me is the problem with Virginia that they are going to win games early on, They're going to beat teams that they are more talented then, but they're ceiling when you're not able to attract slightly higher level. A slightly higher level of talent is they're going to max out at six or seven games every year, and that's max
max max, everything coming together really really well. You know, they had that awesome game against Boise last year to get them Bowl eligible, right, so they win that game early on, and that seems to be a huge difference maker. That's why I'm not at the moment because of how down that offense looked most of the year last year, and the defense was fine. It was top forty or
fifty defense. That's why I can't. And this year I think they miss Clemson in Florida State, which is wonderful for them, But there's nothing to me that says Virginia is probably going to hit their ceiling as a program with a kind of down pit, a so so Duke, a super down North Carolina right now, a promising Virginia attack, and a promising Miami in that division. I Virginia has to be a little bit disappointed that they are not
taking advantage better right now? Okay, that's our That's where I stand, fair enough, the talent needs to be in a higher place. To me, Ray wants to know. Let's say, in the acc ty, what are your thoughts on Florida State's upcoming season. What do you think Willy Taggart's expectations are for his team? Go knows, I don't. I'm not familiar with who that is.
Yeah. I like Willy Taggert at Florida State. That's my broad answer. I think he fits in there. He obviously knows the landscape. It was talked about in circles long before Jimbo Fisher actually left that if he did, Willy Taggart would be the place that Florida State went first. So I think bringing him aboard makes a lot of sense. I think he will succeed there, if not immediately, certainly in the very very near future. Florida State's got a lot of talent. I would expect that their offense is
going to run through cam akers this coming season. The conference as a whole is always sort of a little bit of wait and see. I think Florida State is still very much in that top tier, and without having their schedule in front of me, it's tough to sort of gauge where that's going to go. But I wouldn't expect there to be much much of a drop off just becausefully Taggart's stepping in.
I think it's a very good time for a reboot for Florida State. Jimbo Fisher always ran a pretty complicated offense that put a lot on the quarterback in terms of adjustments and audibles and different protections whatever. And the big thing that Willy Taggert has been preaching, preached at his introductory press conference was lethal simplicity that they are going It'll be as much smaller playbook, it will get the ball to playmakers and speed, all of you know,
your talking points at an introductory press conference, whatever. But having watched a Willi Taggart offense for a season tie, not many seasons, just one short season, I can tell you that it will be an offense that is going to look much more fun and accessible than the last couple of years of Florida State. We'll see at quarterback they're going to run the quarterback more, which is both
good and bad. With DeAndre Swift or its DeAndre Swift, DeAndre Francois coming off the injury, or whoever ends up starting for Florida stated it seems that job is wide open, so it could be Black as well. That will be a new responsibility for quarterbacks. I think the defense will be in a good place, and I do have the schedule in front of me. They open against Virginia Tech on that Labor Day Monday night game, which should be difficult.
It should be that Virginia Tech defense, even with losing probably their two best players at least, that should be difficult. But beyond that, I know Northern Illinois had a nice offense, but they should in that's a rematch right the Floor State Northern Illinois game. Louisville's defense should be manageable to play against, I assume, but it should be improved from where it was last year. The Miami defense should be tough.
They get Clemson at home, and they go to Notre Dame, and that is it's a pretty good year, I would say. And we don't really know what Notre Dame is going to look like in mid November, but in terms of where Notre Dame has been strong these past couple of years at offensive line. It'll be a step back without McGlinchey and Nelson. We don't know. We're not all that confident in quarterback for Notre Dame in March, and they're working in a new defensive coordinator. See what happens there.
We know what Notre Dame looks like with a really good coordinated defense, and we know what it looks like with sort of a shoddy mess of a coordinated defense in the last two years.
Yep, oh yeah, we know well, no, quite well.
And we don't know anything about what Florida will actually look like. But that game is at home, So Florida State should win nine games. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that they should win nine games with the talent they have on both sides of the ball. They lose their best defensive player in Derwin James, but I am confident that this staff will energize this Florida State team in ways that have been lacking these past couple of years. Any tips I like this, This comes to
us from Jesse with an Eye. You know, not Jody with an eye, but Jesse with an eye. Any tips on traveling to a big game on a small budget, traveling to a big game on a small budget. I don't know how old this person is, and that would affect my answer about willingness to sleep on couches and you know, get a hotel room with four other people.
I think as far as food goes, at least on game day, you can almost always find a tailgate with food.
Yeah, oh, definitely.
You can definitely find somewhere to eat, be friendly, go up, try to introduce yourself. You can definitely find a tailgate that you can get some fre food from. So that I think is given to your point. As far as lodging goes, I would suggest that if you are in a really small budget that you stay a couple hours out of town and drive in on game day because depends what time the game is. But yeah, depends what time the game is. Depends on a lot of factors.
But if you can drive in and stay out of town, that'll keep the hotel build down fair.
Yeah, I would say, get really good at buying scalp tickets. You know, maybe wait until the first quarter starts. I don't know, that's when jen only ticket prices will come down. I would yeah, I think definitely staying you don't think you have to do two hours maybe you know, forty five minutes an hour outside of town. Don't be afraid to, uh, maybe bring a couple sleeping bags if you're driving to the game, so you get four people in a two bed or a one bed hotel room. I'm trying to
think of anything else. Tie, or you could watch the game at a tailgate. You watch it not nearly as fun. But if tickets are crazy, if you're going to like LSU Bama, or you're going to some crazy expensive game USC UCLA. Actually that's not that expensive to get in there are If you can become friends with a megatailgate that has a bunch of screens and smokers going, that can be fun. All right, super fun. Hey, here's you're going to travel you don't want to watch it at tailgate.
Here's one from Dakota. Yeah. If you were a new head football coach, what would be your go to a response when reporters ask you how spring ball was going. Answers could include quote, we're taking it day by day, quote looking forward to getting one percent better fo the more literal quote this team sucks and they're damn glad. I'm here to fix it. Do you have any answers, Dan.
My answer would be similar, but not as cliched. I would say something along the lines of, like, I barely know these people. I don't know how I can give you any sort of expectation of what to expect based on springball. Because coaches meet with players, they have such limited amounts of time during the spring before spring ball that they're literally just learning about their players during springball.
And that if you're a new coach, you don't know what this receiver is good at, you don't know what this safety does, you don't know the work habits of this left guard whatever, and you honestly you're learning about your new staff because almost without exception, a new head coach is bringing in spare not spare parts, but parts from different parts of the country and backgrounds and everything like that. So you're really just it's a learning process, Dan.
What if you instantly went on offense. What if you said, no, it's going pretty well, it's definitely going better than our friends over at State. Well, then you're increasing expectations time.
Increasing expectations, But you're gonna gin up the fan base a little bit. You're gonna get people talking about spring ball if it's a smaller school, you're gonna get people talking about your program. Yeah, you got to make sure you beat State, otherwise you get fired. But history favors the bold. My friend, I.
Don't care about winning in spring ty that's winning the internet and that means nothing. So I'm going to say, you manage those that you do Lou Holtz. Isn't that what like Lou Holtz would always do, Like, I don't know how we're gonna win this game. Look at those guys, they're incredible. We'll be lucky if we stay within fourteen. So I would say, you know, it's an overhauling process and we're just taking baby steps. That's what I would do.
I would manage expectations and buy myself as much time as humanly possible, because again, I barely know these players at that at the time of spring, our.
New strength coach really paying dividends.
That's the big move. Put it on the strength coach and the strength staff. That's who gets to see the players all spring long.
Oh my god, there are so many cliched answers here. The strength coach paying a strength coach, the defensive coordinator with a new aggressive attacking mentality. So many things that you hear that are reguriated throughout.
When will and of course Ken Greeley wants to know when will the twenty eighteen Solidrible T shirt be available? Ooh, it'll probably be The Solidrible shirt will probably be summer ish before the season. Yep.
And for those that are wondering, we do have plans afoot to improve the ordering process.
Yes, we do.
We have some plans that we're working on here in March to make that better for you.
Ours was like a three step process these past couple of years, and we're trying to make it a one stepper.
We're going to make it easier, I promise, I promise you.
Yeah, but stay tuned because there's more on that front, perhaps sooner than that. I like this question a lot, and this is sort of football, sort of TV media, and then we can get to this giant question to finish it out. As a South Carolina fan, this comes to us from bo. I ask you both to try to formulate a reasonable argument that this is somehow based in reality and not just off season clickbait for diehards. And the attached image is from our pal Peter Burns,
who is on the SEC Network. He hosts a bunch of stuff on there. He's great, has been in this business for a long time.
And his quote is Tom Louganbill.
It's it's secondhand, third hand. So it's Peter Burns quoting Tom Louganviill on South Carolina. Tom Louganviil, of course, of ESPN, And I guess the athletic I've never caps never seen a will Must Champ offense like this. No, lie, you would have thought they were old school Oregon with their tempo.
Ooh, so.
Is this the most late March tweet possible? Yes, yes, so basically, And I think ty you and I are an agreement. If South Carolina's offense is good, that's good. Yeah, that's right, it's right. That's more fun offense in college football at a place that hasn't necessarily been consistent offensively these past few years. And well, Must champions have not necessarily would consistent on offense. But South Carolina is playing against whom in March.
They would be playing against themselves.
They would be or air or oxygen or sleds or something like that. Also, playing fast does not necessarily mean playing well. Playing with tempo could also mean well, they went three and out super quickly. They really picked up
the pace to just punt real quick quickly. I am there are certain coaches that I give the benefit of the doubt offensively, like I am going to give Chad Morrison, oh yeah, Frost the benefit of the doubt that they are going to overhaul things on offense for their respective school.
Will must Champ not so much in that category.
Dan, not necessarily both Will must Champion terms of as a head coach and as somebody in charge of hiring and having a vision for the.
Offense right right right exactly.
There there have been a lot of recent stories of like will Mus's champions changed again, We're rooting for it.
Yeah, absolutely. And look, I love Tom Logan, Bill. I think he's fantastic on the sidelines. I think he always says something smart to say when he says something. This is an anecdote, and as you said, it is absolutely the most late March thing possible. To your point, playing fast does not mean you're playing well. Uh. South Carolina was improved offensively last year over the previous season. We
can hope that they continue to improve. I just don't put a whole lot of stock in what you see at this stage in the game, because there are a lot of March national championships that come and go and don't translate to what we actually see in the fall.
I have heard, ty, and this is secondhand, I have heard that South Carolina has been dominating the Manning Passing Agademy. They have been lights out. If you thought any of the lights were on with us in South Carolina offense now, I hope so. But there's a lot that goes into playing successfully with tempo other than just playing quickly, and so we're rooting for it. But that is the most late March opinion possible, and we hope it comes to fruition.
But will we reference this if South Carolina falters with their new tempo offense. I think it's a good bet. I think it's a good bet.
All right. So here's the way we're going to close this out, Dan, I'm at the risk of this question becoming its own show. Let me read off the question here and then we will figure out a concise way to answer it and perhaps bounce it out to the overballerhood at large. Oh my god, Okay, loaded, he says, good afternoon, gents. In October I am planning my first trip to America. Hmm. It'll be a solo jaunt. It's
going to be very self indulgent. I mean, I'll be on the search for lots of food, lots of sport, lots to see. I'm looking for advice more than anything from you, find folks about what I should do. To give you an idea of my journey, I am flying to la planning to hire a car I love that, and drive around the country and end up in New York. I will then fly I.
Really hope he's hiring like a personal driver to escort.
That would be awesome, but hiring a car is still an awesome way to phrase it. Available by the way, absolutely, let's do this, buddy. I will then fly from New York to Vancouver, where I'll be spending time with my cousins before flying home to Australia.
Great.
All in all, I'm planning to be there for about a month. The only real place I want Slash have to visit is New Orleans. I'm a Saints and Pelicans fan and I want to see them play there, not to mention experience the culture that is New Orleans. So with that in mind, one what are the key college stadiums to try and get to to see games of college football? Two? What is the best way to get cheap tickets? Is it still stub Hub or seat Geek?
Three?
What are the best states for certain food? Barbecue, pizza, and random stuff? Just no seafood. I'm not a huge fan of it. Okay, I'll try it in New Orleans, but I'm not a fan of it normally. And four what is your must see quintessential totally American thing that I have to see and do? This? As we indicate, it could be its own show. Correct, This is a question of coming to America? What what do I do when I get here? Let's keep it college football here.
What are the stadiums if you're going to go and drive around the country, if you're going to go out of your way after you hire the car to go and see anyone stadium, whether there's a game going on or not, what stadium would that be?
Well, if he's going to be in New Orleans, just shoot up to Baton Rouge and go to Death Valley. That's a no brainer.
I agree.
I don't know what his exact timing will be, but it sounds like he's pretty flexible. I would go to LSU and I would get in touch with the great people of and the Valley Shook, the Podcat and Dan Davis and all those people, and it's a Jake Nazar and eat as much Cajun food at a tailgate as possible. And hopefully it's for a big LSU game. I don't have the LSU schedule in front of me, but hopefully a big SEC night game that'd be preferable. Otherwise, if he's starting in La, I mean go to USC game,
I would say go to either. I mean you go to ut I think Texas, A and M would probably be more fun in a different and a unique Oklahoma would be really fun in Norman, uh, Stillwater would give you a good experience of what it's like to go
to a very small, college centric town. If you're going to be going through Oklahoma, I think Colorado just in terms of seeing an awesome town and an awesome stadium, and just a geographically, because my recommendation would be to like hit as many of the National parks along the southwest Midwest. There's not a lot of Midwest National parks, but you know, go to Utah, go to the Grand the Grand Canyon.
You got to go to the Grand Canyon.
I would say, hit as many of you know, the Purple Mountains, majesty, the Amber waves of grain that your path has to offer. Wegmans in Allentown obviously is just the center of culture as we know it in America. Best states for food California and Texas to me are pretty unbeatable. But if you're going to New Orleans, then load up. Don't if you don't like seafood, don't get see food will get you know, a roast beef po boy, get fried chicken at Willie May's Scotch House. Go to
Koshan Butcher for sandwiches. You can't go wrong in New Orleans. There's also I would go to eat. It does a good job with city guides for food and eating. But if you need taco help in the Southwest, just get at us continually and I will help you out. Yeah, the West Coast is good for pizza, barbecue. You can do well, and you can do probably unbeatable in Texas. To me, if you go to Austin, you'll have a great time eating barbecue and tacos and such. But I
would I would say hit national parks, national parks. So here's a take in the beauty. Here's what we're going to do. Is there a million answers to this question. What we're going to do is we're going to throw a challenge out there because we have so many red blooded Americans who listen to this program. He's from Australia. I don't know if you mentioned that he.
Is from Australia. Yes, yeah, make Google maps for us, Make Google maps, tweet them in at solid verbal mm hmmm, and Josh from Australia. Check our Twitter account, check to see what's coming in. We'll do our best to try and get those out to you because my senses, there are a million different opinions here and the best way to get it into some actionable format for you is to get it on a Google map. So for anyone out there, make some Google maps, send them on in.
We'll make sure Josh gets him. He can pick from his favorites.
And he's from Adelaide. I believe that's where Layton Hugh it is from. Okay, you the southern part of Australia. Yeah, I'm just these are fun facts, ty, We're talking fun facts about America. Yeah, I'm trying to think anything else. What I would I mean, listen to a bunch of podcasts. Obviously, as you drive, stop off if you see something pretty alongside the road, have view a mountain, a waterfall, or something. Take a second. Life moves quickly, ty slow down.
That's what I was with you, brother. All right. One final note here, Yes, if Villanova wins the national championship, mom H will win our basketball pool, the solid verbal one, the solid verbal one with hundreds of entries.
I think Jody with and I has murdered both me and my parents.
Literally are in the context of the pool.
In the context of the pool. I'm looking right now, who's at the top.
At the top, I think we've got our old friend Pete, so right.
Now, Okay, Jody with and I has Michigan, as does Mama Rubinstein. I am in the thirteenth percent. Arizona was my national champ. Jody with and I has Michigan. I'm going I'm going to be in Chicago for the Final four game with Michigan playing Loyola of Chicago. Uh oh, so that's gonna be a total mess. I'm excited.
All right, Well, mom H wins If Villanova wins, which you'll triumphun like any other here on the podcast.
How do people feel about Villanova in Pennsylvania? Is it sort of like a pretty boy thing?
It is?
Yeah, okay, that's what And it's not technically in phil it's just outside of film.
And ard more. Yeah, Okay, beautiful campus. I've been there countless times. You know, anybody that went there, tons of people that went to Villanova. Okay, all the people I know are very, very nice. But it does have a bit of a stigma.
Yeah. So I want to say doctor Jane's husband went to Villanova. I believe that's true. That's I think my only connection.
All right, well, thank you again for writing in. Okay for asking your questions. We've got thirteen pages of questions here and we couldn't get to nearly all of them. We're going to do our best to try and do at least one of these shows every so often, once a month. What have you? Maybe more ty, Yeah, just to try and address what's going on out there in the world. Again. We're at soliverbal dot com. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, also emails at
Soliverbal at gmail dot com. A lot more to come here in the off season for the Soliverbal a lot of exciting things in the work, So we would encourage everyone, if you're a long time list or if you're just finding us for the first time, do stay tuned. We got a lot of cool things planned and we're excited about the months and weeks ahead.
Yes, and to close things out, Tie, just because he's asked this question twice and I think it's it comes from a good place. Travis asked if Benny Snell is the best college football running back. I don't believe that's true. Mark Schnell, Marchschnell great games, Tennessee All miss last year. He was ejected the Music City Bowl. But Bryce Love and Jonathan Taylor tailback and Harris ranch Over at Alabama and JK. Dobbins Miles Gaskin all exist. So he's in
that group. He's in the like maybe not the eight tier, but I think he is in of college footballs. If you're talking about a good year of college football running backs, you have to include Benny Snell in that conversation. How about that?
That sounds like a good way to close out the show. Dan done for that, go of there, Dan Rubinstein in New York City for myself, Ty Hilton Brand over here in eastern Pennsylvania. Thanks again for tuning into the show. Catch you all in a week, Stay solid peace. Today's show again was brought to you by our good friends over at proper Cloth, the leader in men's custom shirts. You need a new shirt for any of your holiday festivities, go to propercloth dot com. We're ordering a custom shirt.
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