Welcome to the solid verbal coll that for me, I'm a man, I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for dake Edo State.
Is that whoo whoom? And now Dan and Ty, well, welcome back to the solid of the boys and girls. My name is Ty Hildebrand, joining me as always over there in New York, blustery city, a gentleman by the name of Dan Rubensteinster. Happy New Year, Happy New Year after twenty eighteen. How are you?
I'm pretty good. I'm a little tired. But I also have to say Ty as a longtime SEC supporter.
Yeah, die hard, noted SC supporter.
Just live, breathe, nap, dance, SEC Tye. It's me, mister Southeastern Conference. And what a time it is to be a supporter of the region in general and cheering for the SEC. It's all so special SHELL for particularly me.
Some have said it even means more down there.
You don't know, as somebody who's on the outside what exactly that means, because you're just a Yankee. Tie doesn't get the sort of the SEC fabric that has woven into my very being being an SEC fan. It's the specialist time tye, it is the specialist.
Well, thank you to everyone out there for tuning in. Happy New Year, Happy twenty eighteen to you and yours and wherever you may be. We got a bunch of Bowl games that we need to get through this evening, not the least of which is the two semi final games, all of the New Year six and a bunch of other games. Gosh, I even lost count how many other ones we got to get through and at least say something about to give folks an idea for what's transpired
here in Bowl season. A quick update on the bull pool though, before we jump in and talk about all things bulls.
Did I win?
No, I didn't win, You didn't win. But we had so many entries that the system will not tell us how many we have in the solid verbal group. Damn, that's pretty good, a literal overload of the ESPN circuits. We do have one gentleman who is at the top of our leader board titled Happy Holiday Bowl. He is tied for thirteenth overall among millions of entries, and then another entrant who is tied for forty fifth overall. But as a whole, the group doing very well, seemed like
there was a lot of support for Bowl season. Let's get the right picks. Some tribes and failed. But nonetheless it's been a I think, a really successful bull season. I've enjoyed watching all these games. The other bit of housekeeping that we do need to address here before we get into our full throated DISCUSSI yeah, especially on a daylight today. The live show. Yeah, the live show tickets are officially back on sale.
Oh, not for very much longer, Not for very much.
Longer, because they're going like hotcakes. But we put them on sale earlier today in the afternoon. There are a handful left. If you do want to get out there and buy them, I would suggest you do that now. If you don't have a chance to get them before they're sold out. There will be a wait list that appears, and sometimes, as these things go, there might be tickets that come about a little bit later on the process. If you sign up for the wait list, if there
is an opening, you'll be notified. Yeah, you just got to be able to act on it in fairly short order. But we appreciate everyone's support. We're still building that show, still putting it together. Hopefully I will be at full health for someone of the days. We've got a lot coming up on Saturday. But what did Brian Kelly do to you? Ty? Oh God?
Were you fined before the Citrus Bowl?
I was fun. Well, No, it's been a rough go for me over the last week. I've broken the world record for recolla cough drop consumption in like a forty eight hour span.
They're pretty good. I just heard the I don't know if it was the cough drops or if it's chapsick, you know, the ones that have a lot of sensation. I don't know if it's with like the zinc or something like that, or chapstick that really you get that tingly sensation. Yeah, I've heard those are legitimately not like in passing slangwise, they're legitimately addictive. Great. Oh, and there's a new time, Ti, there's a new time for the live show.
Yes, talk to us about that, Dan, what's going on there?
So we were all set to go seven to nine, great classic window of the evening on a Saturday night, you know, leaves you a little bit of time to eat beforehand, or you can eat a late dinner after whatever. Seven to nine felt so right to us and you know, we're gonna go get drinks nearby after. And then the NFL went ahead and scheduled the local Atlanta Falcons professional
football team their playoff game at eight fifteen. Square in the middle and anticipating that there may be crossover with locals that are interested, we moved up our show from from seven to nine to six to eight. So doors are at five forty five pm. The show will begin promptly at six pm. We've got all sorts of friends lined up to help out and participate and show up on the stage with us, So eight pm is the
new window. Six pm is when the show begins. Five to forty five doors, so we are trying to accommodate people who want to go and watch the Falcons game after. So here we are six to eight.
Six to eight is the new time. As you said, doors open at five forty five. Gonna be a ton of fun. Still putting that show together. We don't want to let the lid off it quite yet, but I think it's got some real good potential. I'm pretty excited about this one. Dan, not gonna lie.
It's a it's a mixed media experience, that's right, that's right.
Yeah, on that note, Dan, shall we get to the playoffs. Let's I'm gonna play the sound. I can't do my normal bit today. My voice is really struggle.
I'll do it for you, breaking new Okay there, Wow, you are you are a struggle. But you know what you are right now? You're you kind of seem like the Clemson offense a little bit. You're here, You're you, You've shown up, You're your uniform is on, your microphone is in front of you. But man, the universe is not on your side right now.
Let's let's start with the Rose Bowl, shall we. Okay, let's do that happiness Georgia fifty four Oklahoma forty eight, double overtime, Dan, what did we say about this game?
This is you, ty? I mean I may have agreed with you and said that you made sense in your prediction, but you hit the rhythm of this game on the nose.
Well, we had a joint prediction, yes, to start this game out, and verbal or Alli rightfully pointed it out on Twitter. In fairness, we would have forgotten about it had she not pointed it out. But oh yeah, we had this little back and forth on the preview show where I said to you, Hey, if Oklahoma goes out there and scores on three plays and eighty yards on their opening possession, would that surprise you? And he said a little bit, But six plays eighty yards that that
seems about right right. Well, and behold we did combine, yeah, lo, and behold Oklahoma's opening drive. Six plays, eighty yards, touchdown. Oklahoma races out to a seven to nothing lead, then twenty one to seven, then thirty one to fourteen. It looked like this game could get out a hand in
a hurry. But then one of those moments where you wonder to yourself in the back of your mind, try not to see boogieman if they're not there, but just kind of wondering, like so, if Oklahoma tries to squib a kick here, and let's just say the upman for Georgia catches it. After one play, they get into enough field goal range for Prodrigo Blanc and shipro Rego Blankenship. Yes,
always looks like he's incognito. He hits a fifty five yard field goal at the end of the first half, gives them a little bit of momentum going into halftime. The big question was still how are they going to stop Oklahoma and their offense in the second half. But a little moment like that in a big game like this sometimes tends to turn the tide in favor of the team that's losing. And I think that was very much the case in the Rose Bowl. Oh for sure, one percent. It sort of just it gave them a
little bit of juice. And this was a Georgia team, mind you, Even though they were down thirty one to fourteen, they were averaging at this point something like fourteen or fifteen yards per carry. There was it was some ridiculous number because of the long runs from Sony Michelle and Nick Chubb. So there had to have been there had to be a certain degree of confidence that if we just calm down, hand the ball off to our incredibly talented running backs, you know, trust our defense. The defense
obviously tightened up in the second half. Baker Mayfield missed more throws than he did in the first half in the second there was there had to have been a sense of our offensive line is dominating Oklahoma up front, they are pushing around the Sooners, and let's just trust the obvious talent.
On the field. And Jake frowm was fine but Jake fromm is not what makes this offense go and going into the second half, and especially for a second year coach and Kirby smartest coach in a number of enormous games, obviously, it was good to see a calm composed Georgia team not let Oklahoma get this, take this game out of control, and just fully snap into place. And that's what Georgia did. And they hung around enough to the point where what they tied it with how much time left under a minute?
They tied the game with under a minute left, they take it to overtime. There was the blockfield goal that ultimately didn't matter because Sony Michelle ran it in i think on the second play, and that was that. So that strong, strong coaching, that is confidence from Georgia and unfortunately for Oklahoma just missing too much on defense and Baker Mayfield probably wants three to five throws back.
Yeah, well, and you bring up a really good point. Georgia never went into panic mode. No, And it really wasn't a case where their offense wasn't working. It's just in the first half, Oklahoma's offense was working a lot better. And so what happens they come out in the second half, they stick to the plan. They keep feeding Sony Michelle and Nick Chubb, both of whom, by the way, had monster days on the ground. Georgia's a team rushed for what was it, three hundred and seventeen yards.
Yeah, over nine yards of carry and.
Yeah, over nine to carry, something incredible. The truth of the matter is that Oklahoma didn't play a team like Georgia all year. We talked about it on the preview and maybe that's a big part of why we were so interested in it. But Kirby smart knew that going into the second half. He knew that he still had an advantage, still had a game plan that he could execute.
One of the things that I did want to point out as well, I don't know, and I tweeted out about this, and apparently it was trending in the Dallas Sport Worth area.
I saw that.
But the Coach's Film Room on ESPN News, as you know, they do these alternate broadcasts on the ESPN Family Networks during these championship games, and on ESPN News, they had the coach's film room. Yeah, they had a bunch of coaches in there, and Gary Patterson was one of them. Who of course played Oklahoma twice this year and played
Kirby Smart last year in the Liberty Bowl. And they asked him, what would you do if you were Kirby Smart here because Oklahoma they're running their throwing all over you. And he said, well, I'd make sure I took something away in the second half. And by that he said, I either over commit to the run or you over commit to the pass, but you take something away from
Oklahoma and see if you could take them out of rhythm. Yes, and just like everything else that Gary Patterson said on the broadcast, it was incredible, But just like that, it happened. Georgia put more guys in the box, they played more man and Oklahoma's second half offense wasn't nearly as successful.
Yeah, they went they were going horizontal a little bit too much. There were a couple of big drops, there were a couple of overthrows. It just the rhythm completely
fell off. When it seemed like because Rodney anders And was running well, that they could have sort of added wrinkles and not necessarily relied on too much in the way of stretching a very fast and angry Georgia defense horizontally and it ended up costing them two or three drives and ultimately was the difference I think for Oklahoma and Georgia, as just great teams do took advantage.
And then of course he had the fireworks in the second half. Yes, forty six yard fumble return, Oklahoma takes the lead, A touchdown run ties the game. What fifty five seconds left for Georgia, dueling field goals in overtime, A blocked field goal for Georgia in dot followed by a quick twenty seven yard scamper by Sony Michelle to win the game. They going to win this game. I
guess we're calling a shootout. Oh yeah, fifty four to forty eight, an instant classic, just as we predicted here on the solid verbal.
And the least likely going into the game that we would anticipate Georgia.
Winning, right absolutely, going into the game.
It was sort of an idea of, well, Georgia has the more talented defense they have, you know, played a more difficult schedule recently in having to play against Auburn and Auburn and it just prepared to impose their will. I think a little bit more because of how stolid they are on both sides of the ball, and for them to come out and not just you know, Georgia could have smothered them twenty four to ten and everybody
would have said, yeah, that's about right. They won the SEC that way, they're winning this way against a really good offense that way. But to win fifty four forty eight, I think shows a versatility that we hadn't fully seen from the Bulldogs, which sets them up very nicely for their opponent.
Perhaps, speaking of their opponent, let's go on over to the Sugar Bowl.
The later game.
Alabama twenty four, Clemson six. Daniel Yes, I'm preparing to me. Yeah, somewhere in the Webster's New World Dictionary, Yeah, under the term crock potting, the slaying term crock potting. They'll just have a video, a link to a YouTube video of this game.
It wasn't even a full It was like a defensive crock potting more than anything, because it wasn't just slow touchdown, hang let a team hang around another slow touchdown. Alabama had what one actual in earnest touchdown drive that ended with a Calvin Ridley catch, you know, after Jalen Hurts extended the play. But the dern pain after he picked the ball off that was a short field and then
Mack Wilson had a pick six. And by the way, somebody tweeted me the term for when a defensive lineman runs it in in an interception as a thick six, and one makes me uncomfortable saying it out loud. I'm gonna be real honest with everybody right now. Two. That's brilliant. And I don't know if he came up with that. I don't know whoever came up with it is a very smart and funny person.
But that's good.
Yes, Alabama's defense did more in this game to just stomp out anything that Clemson tried than I think even we expected. And that's you know, everybody has high expectations for Alabama's defense, but this is a Clemson offense that has moved the ball consistently all season long, not the most explosive, but efficiently. You know, they've run really well with a couple of top running backs. Kelly Bryant has looked very good at times, and it just looked like
they were throwing into a void. It really did.
Here's the thing, Yeah, and we talk about it all the time with Alabama. If Bama and their defense can play too high safeties and still shut down your running games, still get pressure on your quarterback. It's basically over right. I'm not going to delve too deeply into what that means schematically, but let's just say in layman terms, it means that Bama can play a defense where it's not taking many chances and still able to shut down an opponent.
And that's essentially what happen against Clemson. It's been a constant for Nick Saban and Alabama over the years that he's been with them at the Helm. And look at the numbers, that's essentially what happened. Oh yeah, one hundred and eighty eight total yards for Clemson's offense. A pretty good offense, I'll add, Yeah, Kelly Bryant three point four yards per attempt through two picks. God, couldn't get anything going on the ground and nineteen carries for I think nineteen yards.
That's with a twenty yard run. Tie. Yeah, It's it was rough. It was rough to watch Clemson. It was it was like Clemson was down an age level, watching like a youth sports, like should they be on the same should they? Is this right? Are we on the right field and Alabama. And it wasn't even an attacking Alabama defense. They weren't sending a ton of pressure. As you mentioned, they have two high safeties. It was just reading and reacting, just saying we know exactly the spot
you were trying to throw to or run to. They look so prepared. They won what seemed like everyone on one matchup on defense. And listen, Jalen Hurts didn't have a good game. He was accurate enough, but he didn't throw the ball downfield with any sort of consistency. This was not like a complete performance from Alabama. Again, one true offensive touchdown drive. It was not you know, it was not a display of offense here for the Tide. But man, that defense is now. It is the best
thing in the National Championship game. I don't know that I'm excited about this National Championship game, but it is very clear that these are the two best and most deserving teams. And I'll have a UCF conversation and we can have that in a few minutes. Just in seeing the number of ways that Georgia was able to take it to eventually take it to Oklahoma, and what Alabama's defense was able to do to this Clemson team and
whether a very good Clemson defense themselves. These are the best two teams.
At one point early in the game too, Clemson's average starting field position was something like its own seventeen yard line. Yeah, and Bama's was the forty one yard line. I didn't see the final number. I'm sure it changed, but certainly not enough to tilt things in Clemson's favor. It felt like they had their backs to the wall the entire game. That's not really a good spot to be in. And ultimately Bama does Bama does. They changed the game with
some big defensive plays. They get some turnovers, that's just what they do.
They didn't have to show a lot because they were so prepared.
Twenty four to six. Oh, your final score in the Sugar Bowl, which means that we've got Alabama Georgia an All SEC contest On Monday, January eighth, in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. Bama has been installed as a four and a half point favorite. You're over under is at forty five and a half, so sort of like an NFL game.
Yeah, and let's also celebrate the fact that Deron Payne was in this game and oh ridiculous force. Just I don't know how well as somebody on the Pisman board. I don't know how we treat a postseason extremely great Pisman moment when it's between seasons. To have a to the combination of a pick and then a catch and sort of tiptoe in the front corner of the end zone. What a wonderful, wonderful part of an otherwise not great offensive game. Indeed, are you excited for next Monday's game?
Like in terms of pure and I'm not even talking about narrative wise necessarily with oh, Jake fromm is a true freshman, Oh can Jalen Hurts sort of avenge his performance a very good performance mind you last year and a loss with a new offensive coordinator, with Georgia hiring Derby Smart and Alabama and just is there from a pure football perspective. But we're going to preview this game later in the week, both ourselves and with some pals.
Are you like, are you excited? And I don't want to be leading with that question, because it's totally okay to be excited. I should add.
I'll say this, I think the storylines surrounding the game are more amusing more interesting than the actual football game. Yeah, I think out on the field, unless you're really into a defensive slugfest smash mouth football. Honestly, if you're not watching the coaches film room next Monday night, you're probably missing out because I think you'll get more action watching that feed than you would by watching Fowler in Herbstreet.
You know, there's a certain amount of excitement that's lost in watching the coaches feed, and there's a certain amount of knowledge that's gained watching it, and just a perspective, a viewpoint that you wouldn't have otherwise hearing from Garry Patterson or Dino Babers or Larry fedor or whatever. But I think I will still opt for the energy of the actual broadcasts, just because I anticipated being pretty close, and honestly, the football not generating a ton, especially the
offense not generating a ton of energy. I don't know that Jake from is somebody that me in the same way that Shaun Watson or Chad Kelly or Johnny Manziel, guys who have had success against Alabama's defense in recent year. You know, and listen, we've probably been wrong about Jake From a Baker's dozen. You know so many times this year that were like, well, he's a true he's a true freshman, but he's kind of not at this point. He's played whatever it is, twelve thirteen games started, twelve
or thirteen games since that Notre Dame game. And will he have the stones to sort of throw down the middle on third and fifteen against this Alabama defense? I think so. Yeah. I'm curious to see what his game is like because Alabama is clearly going to force Jake
From at times to beat them. But I really do lean on quarterback play as the biggest thing to get me excited about a matchup in Jalen Hurts and Jake From just compared to where we've been these past few years, it's I'm going to need to be talked into it a little bit, I think.
Yeah, And I mean, ultimately we'll talk ourselves into it. It's college football. Oh yeah, I'm excited from the standpoint that Georgia hasn't been in this game in a long time.
Sure, absolutely, And it's a sort of de facto home game, de.
Facto home game. I'm excited for Georgia. I'm excited for their fan base, and I think if you're Georgia, the team that you want to play is Alabama, not because they're the easier of the two opponents you could have played, but just because if you win, you could say, Wow, we beat Alabama. Yeah, what a charm season we had. So I will talk myself into it as well. I'll tell you this, I'm more excited about this game between two SEC teams than I was Alabama LSU Part two.
I think that's fair. That was nine to six overtime and this was This is not a rerun. You know, Alabama Georgia didn't happen during the regular season. How do you feel about that in general? Not to get to like issue big picture, but we have a lot of bowl games to get through. But the fact that we have two SEC teams, I mean, we knew it was a possibility with two teams in the play off. Now that we are going into this game where we have this hyper regional matchup of the clear two best teams, Yeah,
is this capital G good for college football? For TV? For your brain?
I think is this good is the wrong question and I hate to reframe it on you, but this is the way a playoff works. The best team wins and You're not wrong. You know, unlike the old BCS system or the old old Traditional Bowl system where people voted their favorites into a particular game, this is what happens. The best team wins. You don't have control over which region wins out. And in this case, the SEC has two teams in it. They made it through, so you know,
I don't care if it's good. Quite honestly, the best two teams won. I think it'll be a hell of a fight on Monday night, a defensive oriented game, and you know, we'll see who comes out to victor.
I think I mostly agree with you at a certain point when people talk about needing to win their conference or being their conference championship. It's a little funny to me that Georgia had to play next game and Alabama didn't, you know, But that's the sport that we talk about,
this ridiculous, ridiculous pastime. But there is there's a slight disappointment to me, not that these are the two teams in it because I want the best two teams, just that it's not more representative that the national part of national championship. Yeah, Like it's disappointing to me that USC or some or Washington or Oklahoma or Ohio State. Wasn't a little bit more, wasn't a little better, wasn't a little bit more consistent, didn't get better quarterback played through
the course of the season. Because I really do think there's something special about like, you know, Midwest, South, Southwest, west, Southeast. You know there is you know, if we had that sort of matchup, there is something intrinsically, to my mind, more attractive about it. But these are the best two teams. I can't actually complain. This is just sort of like in a perfect world type company.
We've had two teams play for a national championship from the same basketball conference before. Yeah, and it's not always the most exciting matchup, Dan, But that's just sort of the way the cookie crumbles. Let's get to the other New Year's six games. As he said, we're going to preview the championship on Friday when our next podcast drops's talk about the Cotton Bowl Classic, shall we? Oh I'd love to Ohio State twenty four USC seven, Dan, mm hmm. I would say that it was clear that Ohio State
was a better team. Here, is that fair? I would say, so? Yeah, four turnovers for USC, three of which led to twenty one. I think of Ohio State's twenty four points a good game for J T. Barrett. He broke some records from Drew Brees. Sam Darnold, for his part, put up good numbers in the game, and I thought he showed a lot about what he's all about, the good and the bad. Really Yeah, high character kid, great teammate, great talent, but has to develop a little bit with those second and
third reads. He's just not there yet. It probably would benefit him greatly to stay in school another year. But what was your takeaway from this game?
USC can out talent pretty much everybody on their schedule. It's very difficult to out talent Ohio State, and the offensive line was completely overwhelmed. Sam Darnold was able to make plays all season long, you know, escaping the grasp of defensive linemen. It's a different story with Sam Hubbard and Taekwon Lewis and you know Nick bos all these types of talents where you actually have to be consistently
and fundamentally sound to beat a front that good. And USC's offensive line was mostly not up to the challenge. And I was so happy that I basically I was flying during the big chunk of this game from Chicago back to New York. I was thrilled that I only
had to watch the first half. I was thrilled because it seemed like, and I don't know if you're a poker player, I'm definitely not, but I know there is a move where if you're just if you just keep playing and nobody's winning and nobody's winning, that at a certain point you like split a pot, you just like you just call it. That's what it seemed like the offenses did in the second half. We're just like, you know what, why don't we just why don't we just
agreed to disagree about offense and move forward. It's twenty four to seven. Let's go our own separate ways. And just a fantastic defensive year outside of that Iowa game for and maybe the Oklahoma game for Ohio State. All the talent in the world up front, and they showed it against USC. And I imagine if sam Donold comes back, there will be, you know, all aboard. The hype train will continue for USC right up until they have to play a team, you know that can expose a lot of their weakness.
A very good season for Ohio State. Phil just shot the playoff, but I think they went out very strongly here, especially for JT. Barrett, who had an illustrious career at Ohio State. So they win going away by a twenty four to seven final in the PlayStation Feel Festiball another triumph for the Big Ten. It was a big Bowl season for the Big Ten. They went seven to one. Michigan was the only loss. Penn State beats Washington in a really fun game. I thought, thirty five to twenty eight.
Trace mcsorely, I thought was the big story.
Mm hmm.
Everyone was talking about Reequon and rightfully so. He had one hundred and seventy five yards of two touchdowns and looked every bit as good as advertised if you hadn't seen him previously. Trace mcsorely, in the words of tight end Hans Gaseki, was quote literally perfect on third downs twelve for twelve, passing one ninety three through the air and two touchdowns.
He was unconscious. It was I mean, if we'll stay with the uh and it's not fair to stay with the casino theme with poker, but you know, he's at a table and everything is just going his way. He keeps rolling sevens like, and it's not. It wasn't a luck thing. Can you roll sevens in poker?
I didn't know that.
No, not in poker, in a casino. Okay, there was just Trace McSorley on third down, just honed in and well, I don't know what the final Penn state looks like. It says thirteen of seventeen on third down. That's that's absurd in any game, in any situation, against any team. To do it against a very good Washington defense, which, by the way, I think you tweeted out after Saquan's long run was like vaunted Washington defense HU something along those lines. So it's twenty eight seven at that then.
They forced like three turnovers after that.
From that point on, I think it was twenty one seven one.
Yeah, don't think I wasn't biting my lip a little bit.
Washing that game. Yeah, it was. The timing was I was ready if Washington had tied it and sent it, because they had they were there close. Dante Petis threw an interception lateral something on that on that final play, it would have been twenty eight seven, and then twenty eight seven it would have been wonderful your tweet interrupting story if.
You always take a chance with stuff like that.
True, Yeah, but no, and especially no Joe moorehead. And I Watchington was down offensive coaches as well, but no Joe moorehead for Trace McSorley to look so confident early on, that early script for Penn State was fantastic Dayshawn Hamilton was all over the place, was you know, sort of unguardable for chunks of this game. I was super impressed with the way Penn State finished out this season. I know this might be a what could have been type
scenario for Penn State fans, but not insignificant. To win eleven games and finish as a top ten team.
It was.
It was a real It was a mostly great year for the Nitinny Lions.
Yeah, and you know, they lose Saquon and they lose some key members of their defense. But I think by and large, Penn State should again be in pretty good position next year because Trace is coming back, they get a lot of their offensive line back. I think the bones are in place to continue on what they've done the last two seasons. And Ricky Ronnie their new offensive coordinator with the exception of a lot of shuffle passes which I didn't fully understand. That was strange, That was strange,
didn't fully get that. But with the exception that I thought he showed a nice proclivity to go for the throat, to carry over a lot of the same concepts that we saw under Joe moorehead. So I'm very encouraged about where this team goes now moving form.
And he's not just interim. He was promoted, promoted from within, correct, promoted from within. Next year schedule looks pretty fantastic. It's not bad. Most of the tough games are at home. Yeah, the tough games are at home. It's app State at pitt Kent State. It's not good at Illinois. I mean, here are the big ten road games at Illinois, at Indiana, at Michigan, at Rutgers. Yeah, all things considered, you'd take that if it's workable. For sure.
Penn State wins thirty five to twenty eight over Washington and the Fiesta Bowl Capitol One, Orange Bowl Dan Wisconsin thirty four, Miami twenty seven. I think I've made it pretty well known that I am not very horny for Alex Fornybrook. Wow.
I've got some surprising and shocking news for your loins. Tie.
He was.
He was real good.
Four touchdown passes for Alex Hornybrook two hundred and fifty eight yards in a big game, sort of a road game all things consider given the fact that it was played on Miami's home field. Yeah, a great effort from him. He wasn't always as responsible with the ball this season.
But no, especially against a defense as fast and turnover happy as Miami's.
Yeah, but I mean, what can you say? He had a great performance in this game. He propels Wisconsin to victory. Here, another triumph for the Big Ten. Wisconsin held the ball for almost forty minutes. They made Malik Rosier force balls into coverage, which had predictable results, three interceptions for him, and you know, Wisconsin again relies on its defense to help spin things in their favor, and then they get a really good game out of Hornybrook.
Yeah. I imagine Malik Rogier looking into the Wisconsin secondary and just pass defense in general, probably saw fifteen guys back there. Yeah like that. There were just so many was Conston Jerseys swarming to the ball in every lane and again, a sort of tribute to the job that and it's not just Jim Leonard, but Jim Leonard this season and the job you know, Justin Wilcox did before
him and Dave Randon did before that. The continuity of just very good defenses in Madison has been incredibly impressive. And Jonathan Taylor tailback going for what dan near two thousand yards? This is a true freshman.
Yeah.
Yeah, just a ridiculous year from Wisconsin. And obviously Miami playing through a number of key injuries on offense, but this was and it was a game. This was what twenty seven to twenty four in the fourth quarter, It was still a game with every close Miami struggled with on offense. Yeah, and yet good for Wisconsin for holding on. They finished the season what thirteen and one? Just I mean the schedule is, yes, the schedule, but still stupid ridiculous.
A nice win for them to close out the year. All right, let's talk about the Peach Bowl. Yeah, UCF wins over Auburn thirty four to twenty seven. Den this game at all, I did. What do you think of this game?
I thought, well, aside from the obvious it being like an unreal season for UCF and to go out with a win over the team that beat both teams in the National Championship. It was impressive to see the Knights stand up on really defense more than anything. It was nothing too new that UCF was going to put yardage on good teams, even though Auburn's defense is on a talent level above what UCF is used to. But Mackenzie Milton has been very good all year. The fact that he led the way.
He is fun as hell to watch Dan, he is so fun. He is so fun.
But yeah, defensively to force the turnovers they did, to overwhelm they themselves overwhelm the Auburn offensive line, which we thought after the Clemson game had really gotten itself together, but they seemed to struggle for long stretches maybe outside
of the third quarter for Auburn. Was very cool to see Mackenzie Milton spread the ball around nicely, and you know, ultimately the turnovers forced to Auburn's hand and Auburn was in the game late, but UCF did a great job holding on and closing the game out.
Would u CF have beaten any of the four playoff teams.
Yeah, I think so, I think UCF. I don't know. If it's seven out of ten times. But I think if things break correctly and with the time to prepare, that UCF would have to have three weeks with you know, the Scott Frost coaching staff. I think it's for Auburn and their defense to struggle at times with Mackenzie Milton. And it wasn't like Trey Kwon Smith was getting behind the secondary consistent layer, Tredrick Snelson was working them over.
It was just smart play calling, timely defense, and that's good enough, don't I don't think they probably beat Alabama, But could they run with Oklahoma? Could they run with with Georgia a little bit? Could they run with Clemson and take advantage of some bad Kelly Brian throws? Yeah? I think so absolutely.
I think they could have given all four of those teams at a minimum two and a half tough quarters. I don't know about, you know, the final twenty two and a half minutes, but I'm pretty confident that two and a half quarters is something that they could muster up.
Yeah. I mean, if you're able to force turnovers and flip fields and make smart decisions on third down, you can hang with anybody for a good amount of time. It's tough though when this is you know, what's what is it? The Peach Bowl? No, and a disappointing spot for Auburn. You know, they win the SEC and they're into the playoff. So I am not going to place this on Auburn motivation because Auburn looked plenty motivated. But
the fact is the stakes are a little bit different. Okay, So Auburn in a playoff, Georgia in a playoff, you know, climbs it in a playoff. It's just there's a different feel and a different level of focus I think from everybody involved, and that would include UCF. So really cool to see UCF win. And the real shame of everything was that UCF was never even in the conversation, like the committee did you know they made a conscious effort to say, yeah, you're like sixteen, Oh yeah you're eleven.
Oh you're like thirteen, like fifteen, you're not seven, because they're just protecting themselves in case there is crazy chaos, protecting themselves from having UCF anywhere near a playoff conversation. And that's the shame of it, because UCF should be in that conversation. I know, they didn't play a ton of Power five teams, but to have the opportunity to prove themselves feels especially given the results from yesterday and even before yesterday, they were on a level playing field.
Players are players, and they had them.
Thirty four to twenty seven. Again, was your final big win for UCF. Beware the de facto national championship instead it for ten years in this show. But the game was a big deal for UCF and they got the job done.
So and how many of these schools, by the way, Ty, have claimed national championships in the exact way that UCF could today. There are a lot of them. There are a lot of them, So good for you. S. Yeah, that's all.
The other game that we'll bring up here. It's not technically in New Year's six, but they did play it on New Year's Day the Citrus Bowl. We had Notre Dame twenty one LSU seventeen.
Dan, I have a confession, Tie, Yeah, I barely watched this game. No, I barely. I was with Michigan people, and I listen, the Michigan game could have been worse. The Michigan game was horrific to watch, Tie, I just had to pick my poison. And I went with the one that featured Ryan Nanny and a giant fried onion covers.
Right. No, of course we'll talk about that one next here. Yes, And in fairness, I think that game, at least the first half of the Citrus Bowl was worse than anything we saw in the outback.
Bawl oh good, Okay, cool.
The first half was just dreadful, but an interesting situation for Notre Dame to win this football game. They had a lot of backups in they were playing Ian Brooke
mostly at quarterback. He gets a big throw, a great catch from Miles Boykin, laid in the game, catches it one hand over his back shoulder, dodges two tacklers, scampers in for a touchdown, and Notre Dame ends up winning this one by four, A nice little boost to kind of go into their own offseason where they've clearly got a lot of questions to answer, not the least of which is who's playing quarterback next year. Now, if you look at the box score, you're gonna see a lot
of Ian Book. I don't know if you should read too deeply into what that means for next year. Brandon Wimbush has been nicked up down the stretch here a little bit. What I will say though, is if you are Brandon Wimbush, to go into that bowl game and perform the way you did, it was definitely not the kind of curtain call you want to close out your year. Like if you were looking to separate yourself from Ian Book from Phil Jerkovic, who's coming in, this was not
the way to go about doing that. So I would expect there to be an open competition for quarterback. I am encouraged by how Notre Dame looked on defense. I think they're young enough and depending on who stays and who goes, we could be talking about one of the better front sevens in college football next year. So they've made great strides on that side of the football as well. Offense,
We're gonna have to wait and see. I think, just as a whole, a really good, surprising way, quite frankly, to close out their season, a big win against LSU.
Let me write this down real quick. Off season Notre Dame.
Quarterback, Yeah, no, it's been the thing man.
Whoo And I guess, yeah, it'll depend on who stays and who goes. I guess does Jerry Tillery need to take it one step at a time. Is that is that a goof? Does that work?
No? Sure?
Is that still fresh in people's minds?
You can do that?
Okay? Yeah, good for Notre Dame for holding on. It was a very standard loss for LSU where they seem to put themselves in position to score a bunch and couldn't finish drives. And the standard issue disappointment for LSU is nothing any football fan wants to see. It's not fun to watch. And Darius Geist was fine, but man, just not a fun game. Not a fun game. I watched some of the highlights of this, and I'm gonna tell you right now, ty, pretty glad I didn't watch.
All right, We've got fifteen other Bowl games that we need to talk about, so many and we're already forty five minutes deep. So if it's okay with you, my voice is you can hear it. It's dying here, Dan True's dying. Members of my sweet sweet radio voice here, let's try and move through these as quickly as we can. If that's all I've send to you, Yes, let's tell me about the Outback Bowl. South Carolina twenty six, Michigan nineteen.
Speaking of standard issue offensive disappointment. Michigan struggled, kept giving the ball to South Carolina. South Carolina barely holds on to win with five turnovers gifted to them, and Michigan has a lot of soul searching and mirror looking offensively this offseason, especially with Shaye Patterson coming in. But hey, good for South Carolina. Did nothing in the first half, good in the second half and Ryan Nanny ward a fried onion costume.
Awesome side that was all just Also, I saw that the game was a little chippier than I'd expect.
It was. Well, they were like fighting in a bowling alley leading up to the game, So hi, there's a there's some sparks flying time.
Quinn nordin the kicker went Crotch Graben hitting a field goal at the end of the first half.
Yeah, I mean, you hit three field goals in a half and nobody else is doing anything around you offensively. You feel empowered? Ty all right.
Michigan is the only Big Ten team to lose South Carolina. A nice win for them. Tax Slayer Bowl Mississippi State thirty one, Louisville twenty seven. Uh props to Mississippi State. Here, Dan Sure they got the best of Lamar Jackson, didn't they?
They absolutely did. You know, he is once again trying to do everything, which I understand given some of their struggles on offense. But to me, the story was much more. Keytonpson interim coach for Mississippi State, you know, not starting the Joe moorehead era quite yet obviously in game, and Keithon Thompson, both through the air and on the ground, leads the Dogs to a very impressive win.
Good for them in the Liberty Bowl Iowa State twenty one, Memphis twenty We had one final swan song for a boy, the Duke of Hazzard, Allan Lazard a Liberty Bowl record ten babs. Yeah, one hundred and forty two yards. He was virtually uncoverable, even really on being one leg after tweaking an ankle earlier in the game. Iowa State gets their first Bowl win since two thousand and nine.
Yeah. Oh, unbelievable season for Iowa State. One of the better stories of the season couldn't really run against Memphis, but really it was the defense. Joe Lanning another big game for the Clones, and Alan Lazard is right there. I don't know, Alan Lazard is a candidate. Nikhil Harry a candidate for Well, they got one really really good receiver and he just keeps getting open. If it's the Tyler Lockett, the Eric Decker Award, whatever it is, Alan Lazard is right there.
The Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl goes to New Mexico State twenty six two twenty over. You toss State in overtime.
Historic bowl win for the Aggies.
Cool to see the Belk Bowl. Wake Forest fifty five Texas A and M two four hundred yards, four touchdowns for John Wolford. We had one final ride on the Wolford wagon as wake Forest goes out in style and nice win. Nice offensive showing here by Wolford to close out the season.
Yeah, same goes for Nick Starkle. And it was what Christian Kirk's final game for text A and M. He declared for the draft. But yeah, in John Wolford's final game for the Deeks, he was once again stupid good and just the defense was not there for anybody. But Wake held on late against Nick Starkle. I think they force a fourth and long and got the stop. Good for Wake another what eight win season? Yeah, come on, that's wonderful. I'm going to make a random prediction here
about John Wolford. Okay, John Wolford is the kind of guy who four years from now is randomly the backup for like the Minnesota Vikings. Okay, and due to injury gets a start, two starts, maybe three, sort of like the Graham Harreld style exactly. Nate Peterman, Yeah, mm hmm. Fair.
The Hyundai Sun Bowl goes to NC State by a fifty two to thirty one margin over ASU.
Coach by Todd Graham. Yeah, weird, a little bit strange, lame duck situation. Herm Edwards now officially takes over in all phases for ASU. Rough game for Manny Wilkins. Ridiculous game for Ryan Finlay as he was mostly this year a little down back half of the season. But NC State a really cool way to end the year that they probably thought they should have double digit wins.
And the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl goes to Western by one twenty three over Kentucky. Yeah, what happened in this game?
Clayton Thorston goes down with a pretty ugly injury. Hope he is able to eventually heal looked pretty brutal. And then Benny Snell start Kentucky running back sort of waves off a ref who's trying to help him up or something like that, and the ref is insulted. It's unclear like there was not any sort of significant contact. He gets thrown out of the game. Very strange. Kentucky comes
back and gives themselves. They give themselves an opportunity to win the game with a two point conversion, but Northwestern breaks it up and holds on and helps to keep the Big Tens Bowl record up pretty high.
The Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumming. We had Navy. Wow is that right? Whoa?
That is one hundred percent correct?
A forty two point win over Virginia That's incredible.
That is Yeah. I did not see this game coming in this fashion. Zachaby had a nice day on the ground, and Navy did what Navy did and added a bunch of defense to it. So hey, Navy, seven and six, Good for you.
The Camping World Bowl goes to Oklahoma State thirty to twenty one over Virginia Tech.
Not a surprise, no, not a Olahoma State. Yeah, Oklahoma State with a huge offensive day for Mason Rudolph and a couple of receivers, and Virginia Tech ultimately just couldn't make plays at the end of the game. Too many stall drives.
The San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl, another lopsided game here. Wow off Michigan State forty two, Wazoo seventeen. No Luke Folk in this game for Wazoo.
Yeah, No. Hercules Mo to offer for the first half because he was ejected against I want to say it was in the Apple Cup, so he had to miss the first half of the bowl game. And Brian Lawurk huge day for Michigan State. Tyler Helensky not able to keep up, and yeah Michigan State. You'll remember when we previewed this team and knew nothing about what would have this year. You were confident they would improve. They finished ten and three. Yeah, wow, damn Michigan State.
Damn the Alamo Bile TCU thirty nine, Stanford thirty seven. Dan looked like this one might get out of hand. Stanford had a big lead after a quarter and a half. I guess that's when a hero came along Dan with the strength to carry on. You might know him as Kenny Hill. This was decidedly ken Hill yep in this football game. The older, the more mature version of his former self. He led the charge all the way back, had a ninety three yard touchdown pass to start the
fourth quarter. Wild game in the Alamo Dome. Cole Buns for TCU gets a thirty three yarder with three minutes left to give TCU a big Bowl win.
Yes, absolutely not a ton of big plays for Stanford. Bryce Love had a couple, but was mostly held in check by a very good TCU rushdie upfront Jalen Rager. Obviously a huge day for the fraud in the air. And if you like interceptions, tie, my god, do you have to dine out at the Alamo Bowl because there were four of them and the field kept flipping and flopping and it was pretty entertaining. I enjoyed my time with Stanford and TCU.
The Academy Sports and Outdoors Texas Bowl. It's a mouthful. M goes to Texas thirty three to sixteen over Misura.
Chippy game.
Yeah, chippy game.
Between Texas and Miszoo, but hey, good for Texas. Didn't really do a ton offensively, But this is the twenty seventeen Texas team, that's what they don't do, and defensively did a really nice job against Drew Locke mostly held him in check. Is ish Witter did not much at all, surprisingly enough, I mean, I guess not a big surprise. Texas defense has been mostly very good this year, So strong way for Texas to finish out the year, but they should be closer to double digit wins moving forward.
Malik Jefferson I saw also declared the NFL draft.
Yeah and unbelieve talent for the Horns.
Foster Farms Bowl fun game. Actually Perdue thirty eight Arizona thirty five.
A little bit controversy before the half, Yeah, yeah, the refs told Rich Rodriguez and the Arizona coaching staff that Purdue would be kneeling and so for Arizona not to sort of rush the passer or you know, try to stop any sort of run, and they end up going with an end around before the half that sets up a pretty short field goal. Ultimately, Perdue wins by the field goal. And listen, Arizona was ahead in the second half,
they were head in the fourth quarter. They were head with three minutes left in this game, so they did have the opportunity to win. But if all of that is true, it's a bummer for Arizona, who fought really well, and I think the story wasn't really produced defenses it had been for most of the year. Offensively, they spread the ball around nicely. Defensively, Khalil Tate exposed a lot of what Purdue was trying to do against him through
the air. But good for Purdue. Really, this was not a Purdue team that I think anybody was expecting much from, even with the coaching change, and took I think a pretty big step.
Forward when comeback victories and the Purdue boiler Makers dan when they merge as one. You know what we call that?
What's that?
We call that the singularity.
Ah, I'll take it. I like that. Good job.
Elijah Sindelar showing some Cajones. The thirty eight yard touchdown pass like a minute and forty four left gave him a win. Nice win, nice win. First winning records since twenty eleven Boiler up and finally two final games here new era Pinch Stripe Bowl goes to Iowa twenty seven to twenty over Boston College, and the walk On's Independence Bowl goes to Florida State, who ran one up on Southern miss forty two to thirteen.
Indeed, not much as needed about either one of those games.
Daniel, There you have it for bowl season. Mm hmmm, hmmm. Wow.
What was your favorite bowl game to watch? If you have the scoreboard in front of you, you have a favor? Was it text A and m wake Forest fifty five fifty two?
Was it? Well, let's count out. Let's let's assume that the best one was the Rose Bowl. I think that's right, the Rose Bull is the best one. Beyond that, and maybe I'm biased. I thought Penn State Washington was a ton of fun.
Yeah, for a game to legitimately be up in the air, and there was probably a solid three quarters of a second when Dante Pettis got the the lateral on the hook and ladder where you oh, you knowing what Chris Peterson has where you said in the depths of your gut. Oh shit, it had to have been in your in your mind somewhere.
Oh yeah, it was totally there. Yeah, So I thought that was a funny game.
Yeah, I think that's uh, that's all sort I'm trying to see if any of the non new Year's Day. I mean, I think Prue Arizona is a good answer. That was a really fun game.
And TCU Stanford was a good game, kind of being down to the wire too.
I think that that's right.
Good Bowl season as a whole. We will report on who ends up winning our bullpool as soon as we know. We won't know that until after the game on Monday. Again, your National Championship game is going to between Alabama and Georgia Monday night, January the eighth. Alabama four and a half point favorite over the george Bulldogs. Now we are going to be in Atlanta, as we said at the top of the show, as we said for many shows. Now we're going to be doing a live show later
on on Saturday evening. If you're able to join us, if you have questions, just go on out to our Twitter, our Facebook, our Instagram, our web page. Don't be afraid to look us up at saliverbleatgmail dot com. Tickets are still for sale. If you're interested in coming, you can find that link pretty much everywhere, and Ward knows. If you've got questions, feel free to give us a holler.
We'd love to talk to you. Yeah, the other thing that we should add is that we will be doing a live broadcast from college Football Media Day career in the day, courtesy of our friends over at Facebook. We will be the special guest hosts m H if you tune into the college football playoffs, Facebook Sports set coverage of Media Day. So we're gonna be talking to Alabama coaches and players, gonna be talking to Georgia coaches and players. I'm going to get some questions from the community, going
to have some fun of our own. It'll be lighthearted, it'll be fun. We'll try to mix in some informative stuff. Basically whatever you're used to here on the verbal we're going to try and bring that to live video format courtesy of our friends over at Facebook. So I'm excited for that as well.
No, it'll be fun. We're gonna play some games, we'll talk about the game. We will I think we're going to do some learning about human beings tie totally. I'm looking forward to it. So, yeah, pay attention to that. I honestly, I'm a little bit concerned that you're going into this weekend. We have a long preview show. We have Facebook Sports at Media Day, and we have to get you with a healthy larynx. Oh my god, to
switch Yards Downtown six to eight pm. Get your tickets on Where should people go to get their tickets.
Saliverble dot com, Facebook dot com.
Yeah, yeah, Okay. I'm worried about your voice, so just treat it like the instrument that it is.
I will do my best here. It's not as bad as it sounds. It may be worse, but I will be in good working order by the time Saturday rolls around, I promise. Okay, fair enough, Daniel, I think this is where I leave you.
Oh, it's been a pleasure. It's been a treat.
Feel free to tune back in a little bit later on in the week when we drop our official National Championship preview pod. In the meantime for that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein, and myself Tie hilde Brand here a little worse for the wear, but we'll come back strong in a few days. Enjoy the rest of your week and stay solved.
PEACEA