Welcome to the Solid Verbal. I'm 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 Ado State?
Is that? Woo woom?
And Dan and.
Tie welcome back to the Solid Verbal boys and girls. Ty hilde Brand over here, Dan Rubinstein over there. Solid Verbal at gmail dot com as always is our email address.
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Sir, how are you old? Can we be making money off of this from people? What is that a thing? Maybe? I don't know where available? I am.
I sound sick, but I'm feeling better. I just have just gunk in my head at this point. I'm good. We have a national champion. We had a a rates albeit very long, national championship game that I think you can probably speak to specifically, and I couldn't be happier that we had a back and forth, and we have a national champion whose fan base has not been in this space in quite some time.
Let's jump right in, Dan, Yeah, we have breaking new your twenty sixteen to seventeen national champion is officially the Clemson Tigers. Clemson wins by a thirty five to thirty one score. As you mentioned, a back and forth game, an epic showdown, perhaps the best game of the year, maybe the best national championship game that we've seen since that epic USC Texas game in the Rose Bowl about ten years ago. What was your take watching this football game, Dan?
What were the key points that jumped out to you? Other than the fact that this was a great football game between two awesome teams and a fantastic singular performance by de Sean Watson.
My takeaway is I hope Deshaun Watson has access to a hot tub for like the next week. I hope that he has access to massage therapy and cold tubs and hot tubs and naps and more napping and sixteen hour nights of sleep because he took so much abuse to get and pull Clemson past the finish line for
the National championship. And which is also to say the Clemson defense did as well, standing up to Alabama's offense, namely the rushing attack, with or without both Scarborough that there was there was nothing easy, and this is something I talked about in the postgame show I did with our pal Ryan Nanny at the day job at Espanation is that we've seen national championships in which there are breakdowns, and certainly there was a breakdown for Clemson's defense on
that long Oj Howard touchdown. But for Clemson to win this game, there wasn't a single play that was taking advantage of an Alabama breakdown. They earned every single inch and that is an incredible feat against what I still think and what I would still consider to be the best college football thing, which is Alabama's front seven, their rush defense particularly, and the way that they get to
a quarterback in the passing game. The fact that Clemson was able to defeat them while they were playing at an extraordinarily high level. We're talking about a senior laid in front seven as well, We're not just talking about pure talent, talent and experience and age and intelligence. That to me is the incredibly impressive thing that they were able to weather that sort of just extreme success.
Absolutely.
Deshaun Watson, I think cemented his legacy, is probably the best player in the history of Clemson Football's clearly one of the best big game players of all time. Dan that final drive last night was the kind of thing that every kid envisions when you're playing around in the backyard. I didn't even play organized football, but when I was eight, even sometimes in the holidays, when I'm like thirty, we'll go out in the backyard. We'll pretend we're running that
two minute drill to try and win something big. Yep, the moment never seems too big.
For Deshaun Watson. No, absolutely not.
And that's the one thing that comes up time and time again when you see in these situations, even if he's in that dream scenario that you plan for, that you hope for when you're a little kid, even when he's getting crushed on every play, as you eluded a few minutes ago, no interceptions last night, twenty one carries for forty three big yards, a big rushing touchdown, almost had a second rushing touchdown when he tried to superman
in from the five yard line. Thirty six of fifty six passing, four to twenty through the air, three.
Touchdowns through the air.
The guy has a quiet confidence to him, and when his team needs him the most, that's when he steps up. It's what we talked about in all of the preview shows we had done leading up to the National Championship. This game was going to be a function of what Deshaun Watson could do on his own. Now he had plenty of help, and we'll talk about what his receiving corps did and how it rose to the occasion. Deshaun Watson, I thought, the best singular entity in this game. We
knew it going in. If he had this kind of game, Clemson clearly had a shot to win. He pulled it off. They pulled it off. Now, the th the National champs.
Throwing the ball fifty six times no less. If that is a number that you're hearing against Alabama, that's generally a bad thing because it indicates the rush is not there. And the rush was one hundred percent not there for Clemson by Deshaun Watson, by Wayne Gollman, Buye, whoever. So Clemson loses the rushing battle in a big way. I think they're out gained on the ground two twenty one to ninety one, and it was it was like six and a half yards per carry it to to whatever. Yeah,
it's for Kerry. Clemson could not move the ball on the ground at all, and they lose the turnover battle, and Clemson moves to something like fifteen and one or something when they have two turnovers or more.
They're just so good at overcoming.
And I think it's pretty clearly a reflection of Davioswinny and the coaching staff that Clemson just sort of has singular focus and has unwavering confidence in their ability even with setbacks like turnovers. But for Alabama, the story was clearly offensive struggles. Uh not willing to really open the playbook up with Jalen Hurtz throw the ball downfield a ton.
They had a little bit of success, we had that broken play that not broken play but the great sort of screen fake, and then Oj Howard running unimpeded down the sideline. But beyond that, it was a one dimensional attack in that it was like like a twelve yard field that Alabama was playing with on offense, and once both Scarborough went down and yes, huge factor, but he's not their only running back and he's not their only
running back that can turn out chunks of yardage. It was it was a different story for Alabama's offense, and I.
Would have liked to see that.
I would have liked to see them get maybe more creative with their rushing attack, you know, spread the ball out a little more, look for like some more tossy, reedy option e things that they could almost play action off of. But adjusting on the fly to losing Bo Scarborough probably is much more easy in theory than it is an execution, especially with a first game offensive coordinator
in Steve Sarkasian. So that, to me was the story Alabama's inability to adjust to a great defensive performance from Clemson and having a what seemed like a very small playbook for Jalen Hurts downfield.
I would agree.
I think the final stanza now of Alabama's season is that even with the best defense in college football, you need more balance on offense to win a championship. In their two biggest games of this season Dan Washington and Clemson, Jalen Hurts had his two worst games in terms of yards per attempt. In the Washington game, he was a shade under four point one yards per attempt. In this game against Clemson, a shade over four point two yards per attempt. So, to your point, not very creative, not
very wide open. There are a bunch of viable reasons why those numbers are lower. By the way, and it's not all on Jalen Hurts. Part of that is absolutely going up against two great pass defenses that definitely plays a factor. Part of that could also be the game plan being too conservative or run heavy. Could have something to do with a new offensive coordinator. Part of that could also be Jalen Hurts needing to mature as a passer. He's got much more time at Alabama to do that,
and I suspect that he will. I don't think any of it reflects poorly on Alabama, and certainly they're not going to get sympathy from the college football world because they lost. This game didn't look as pyrotechnic on offense. But I think it's an important footnote as they now try to build this thing in twenty seventeen. If you're a Bama fan, if you're a college football fan, that's what you watch for. You already know that Alabama can run the football, both with Hurts or whoever is in
the backfield. The second missing piece now is going to be passing, because lord knows, they've got plenty of toys out wide. It's not just oj Howard. Calvin Ridley had five catches for what thirty six yards. Plenty of guys all around the field who can catch the ball, can make plays in open space. They just weren't able to put those guys in a position to really make those plays.
Yeah, I mean they Clems were just sitting on all the short stuff for daring Jalen Hurts to throw the ball downfield and make bigger throws than perhaps he was able to against this defense. Are allowed to against this defense, And it should also totally be noted with all due fairness and respect, Jalen Hurts the Alabama offense. If going into this game you said, okay, well Alabama has the Alabama defense, we agree, Alabama has that thing on one
side of the ball that just monstrous entity. Should thirty one points be enough to beat Clemson? Probably?
Yeah?
Probably.
I mean with what Clemson has done this year with turning the ball over in in unfortunate spots, you know, playing a little sloppier, you know, not being able to generate the rush, especially thirty one points with Clemson not able to run the ball, that should be enough. Yeah, And that I think it much more speaks to Clemson's ability and to Shaun Watson's ability to come through in the fourth quarter, which, by the way, should also be
noted our pow Ryan Anny looked this up. How many points did Alabama give up in the fourth quarter since the Arkansas game October eighth in the fourth quarter, So
we're talking about eight straight games I believe since October eighth. Ye, Alabama before giving up twenty one to Clemson in the fourth quarter last night, combined in those one hundred and twenty minutes to give up zero fourth quarter point no, so thirty one points and knowing that your fourth quarter defense has been exceptional all things considered, and Jalen Hurts had you know, obviously an excellent run on the ground
for a touchdown late. But what came back to haunt Alabama was and this was sort of an all season long thing that didn't seem to matter, but third downs, which are you know, just as important in and of itself that it is. I don't know what I'm trying to say here, that it's a product of first and second down as well as being a big spot on offense during drives. Alabama was two of fifteen on third downs.
And Jalen Hurts this season when you put him in an obvious passing downs like third and six, third and seven, plus.
He was not very good. And we hammered on this in the pre show.
If they can force those situations, if they can force no brainer passing downs where they know they can pressure him, then they can blitz and sit on short stuff that Jalen hurts is going to struggle. Fact that they still scored thirty one points is sort of a testament to weathering some obvious deficiencies.
I saw it written somewhere, and forgive me for not citing properly. It might have been Spencer, not you. Yeah, definitely not me. The gist of this was that Alabama saw a lot of meaningful fourth quarter plays in this game from Clemson. Defensively, that's not something they're accustomed to seeing.
By the time they get to the fourth quarter. In a lot of the games they play, the plays themselves don't mean a whole lot in this game, obviously, it was a fight to the finish, and the implication was that because Clemson tried to spread out and run to the perimeter as much as they did early on in the game, perhaps they wore out Alabama's defensive front, and the meaningful plays later on in the game Clemson had worn them down by that point.
I'm trying to say if Alabama had entered a fourth quarter not by double digits. I know the Old Miss game was a back and forth. Looks like I'm looking at Alabama Arkansas, that did not appear to be the case. Alabama LSU was ten points obviously in the end, and all those points were scored in the fourth quarter, so a scoreless going into it.
So that was.
Probably the only real example of Alabama's defense giving full attention knowing that a game was in the balance, at least recently. So you're right, and Alabama's defense is built to shut down teams for four full quarters. And I don't think it's a full excuse that Alabama's defense finally
had to play meaningful fourth quarter minutes. But man, Deshaun Watson, Hunter Renfro, the ability to spread the ball around, Mike Williams making enormous catches, you know, a presence both he and Mike Williams and Dion Kane in this game, not in this game last year, just enormous, just in a game where once again, nothing was easy, there was nothing routine,
there was no play. It seemed that like Mike Williams, you know, had like a slant that sort of froze a corner or something like that and took it seventeen yards. Everything was by three and a half inches something like that. So an unbelievable performance from Clemson. Everything sort of came together bite just a hair, and that's that's crazy.
I have a very important question here. Yeah, did you see the final play, the on side kick? No, no, no, no, no, the final touchdown? Oh, the final touchdown? Yeah, of course. Did you have any problem with that rub play?
Okay, so this is something that obviously you are going to feel a particular passion point about as a notre dame.
I don't.
I don't have a problem with it. I think I think it was fine. I think the officials were calling the game very loosely.
Yeah. Not the only pick play touchdown in this game, either.
Not the only not the only rub touchdown shore. Yeah, I am fine with I thought. But Elliott did a really good job explaining why it was an offensive pass interference. Right defender initiated contact. The receiver was doing his best to at least sell running a passing route. It wasn't as if he went out there and overtly tried to block the defender. So I'm okay with those plays. I'm
sure they're gonna be Alabama fans will feel differently. That is the main primary difference between what we saw last night on two separate occasions, mind you, versus what we saw in the Notre Dame game like two years ago. That was clearly a different story.
I don't have a problem with it if receivers are taught to play within the rules of how officials see those plays. So the defenders initiating contact and sort of looking to the quarterback for the ball, you know, putting your hands out so sort of conceivably running a route. Clemson's players, to me, to my eyes, ran those routes plause enough that it was sort of on Alabama. And you know, there are teams that succeed against those kinds of routes, that are able to sort of match up
and switch and do what is necessarily. I believe that the Super Bowl ends on one of those with Seattle and New England.
I believe so.
Yeah, I believe it is so you can stop those But good for Clemson four. I think running that play to the satisfaction of the letter.
Of the law.
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All right, So on that awkward note where we left off, what were some other notes that you had while watching this game? Because it's not all about the game when you get to this point right in the college football season, a lot of neat stuff going on around the game. I thought, the most notable of which was the way that ESPN covered it. So obviously on ESPN you've got Fowler and Herbstreem, who do a bang up job.
Rinaldi ponder on the sideline, Yeah.
Ronaldi ponder on the sideline.
Sure.
You also had the ESPN homer Feed on ESPN two, which featured Joe Tess and Barrett Jones.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, Adam Amen, That's where I'm going with it.
I was gonna say, on the Clarson side, Wow, okay, our new best pal adam Aman yep sidled up with the ToJ Boyd. So they had the ESPN homer Feed. And then on ESPN News, I want to say it was the ESPN Film Room. It featured a bunch of coaches. Did you have a chance to check out any of those other broadcasts?
I did.
I watched a little bit of the coaches. The problem was our office. I guess we don't get ESPN.
News in the sp Nation office. Really, hey for the full package that includes ESPN News.
Wow.
So I put it on watch ESPN on my computer and watched a little bit of that, but it was a good like thirty forty seconds behind, so that made it a little bit more or difficult to sort of pay attention to both because I did want to see what was happening live on TV.
But Dino Babers was great. Yeah, Matt Rule was really really good. Matt Rule.
I thought Matt Rule and Dino Babers stole the show.
Yes, I thought those were the two best. And they got snacks in there, which is yes.
Kilanie Sataki did not talk.
No, he did not. I did not tell Fridge Mark Helfrisch was supposed to be in that room. I was very curious, but he ended up not being there.
Kalanie Sataki did not talk, and I saw that. Somebody on Twitter noted that the only real notable action from Klanie Sataki is when they brought the snacks out.
He was the first to jump all over that absolutely.
Otherwise, the coaches feed was sort of difficult to digest. There wasn't a whole lot of organization to who was saying something and when they were saying it, So unless you were really in the weeds into the x's and o's and know the keywords to listen for, it was difficult to figure out and just what was actually being said. A lot of guys just yell and stuff and oh
look at that cover two here comes to safety. There wasn't much organization around the actual commentary, but Matt Ruhlandino Baber's I thought, brought a little personality to that side of the broadcast, which was a lot of fun to watch. I enjoyed it to the extent I could understand what was going on.
I might cut that to like three or four coaches next time. Yeah, And I would imagine that the big interesting parts of that feed was like the because they I don't think they really went to commercials all that much, so commercials at halftime to sort of talk big picture about what teams are trying to do. I thought it's a really interesting concept. I think they're still honing it. And then on another feed they had Bill Walton dressed as a seven foot uncle sichel saying about pot and all.
Sorts of aliens and all sorts of filings. So this is totally true.
So if you haven't go back and find some vines or videos or whatever, because it was wonderful just the Bill Walton part. I mean, I think it was a lot of people talking over each other otherwise, and I think Paul Finebaum did something Okay, no idea, but I yeah, I was mainly just watching the game.
After the fact, I'll go and.
Scan through the coaches feed to see if they were talking about anything interesting, but that's about it.
There was a cool bit where Mike McIntyre clearly went to the men's room and they all they all ganged up on him, joking that he was going to talk to his financial advisor because he just signed like a thirty million dollar extension.
It's true. No, he's in Boulder for a bit now, Good for him.
So that was fun. And then of course the Homer feed I thought was outstanding good And I'm not just saying it because Adam Amine is like one of our favorite commentators, but he and joy Test did a great job painting the picture of the game from the sidelines, talked about the experience of being there, really tried to cover the emotion of both sidelines. That was a lot
of fun to watch. Again, it's a different way to look at the broadcast, and I saw Adam even mentioned on his Twitter feed might not be everyone's cup of tea, but certainly a different perspective that gave you a new way to watch the game.
Game lasted a long time too, Ty, Yeah, you have you have a personal I am aware of this, So what was your game watching situation? I watched from work because we're doing a pre and post show wake Up College Football on YouTube. So that was my general game watching situation. But this lasted. This game lasted right about four hours and fifteen minutes, which I was I was
timing it. I was paying close attention because I wanted to see if it would equal or surpass Game seven of Cubs Indians went four to twenty eight, and that was ten innings with the seventeen minute weather delay.
With the weather delay, Yeah right, how'd you do not well? What does that mean?
I didn't do well well? As we were down in Tampa and we both our plan was this. Our plan was to go early on Friday to get set up and do our interviews and finish up our preview show, which I hope everybody liked. We got good reviews on it so far right And actually, if you go back and listen after the fact, there weren't any glaring mistakes
in anything that we said. I thought the preview did a pretty good job painting what was to be expected in the game in it in the end kind of turned out the way we thought it could fearless prediction.
That's Rubinstein, that's right, called the quarterback alter of Dancy, called third downs, called a close Clemson win, continue.
Alter of Dan. But the plan was to go in early on Friday, which we did, recorded all Friday, all Saturday, most of Sunday, and then you and I both had late flights out of Tampa to get back in time to our respective homes to watch the games from the comfort of our own living room or the office or wherever. Yeah, so we did a lot of travel. We were both
kind of tired. I went to work yesterday, the mysterious day job, worked a full day, came home, sidled up next to my television, had a Voodoo Ranger IPA from New Belgium, which was delicious, A great way to close
out the college football season. Sat Indian style on my floor for the first half of the game, and then decided I was feeling a little dangerous and a little tired of I'm being honest, decided, why don't I prop up my feet and sit in the couch and set a hunching over and bending my knees like I'm a praying mantis. Why don't I lay on the couch, prop up my feet, watch the second half. The next thing I knew, it was about one point fifteen in the.
Morning, a tradition unlike any other.
About one fifteen in the morning. My contacts are dried up in my eyes. I'm trying to look through these cloudy lenses, yeah, and figure out exactly what transpired, only to discover that I missed most of the second half in that Clemson won the game.
So this morning you went back and watched everything with clear eye, literal clear.
Eyes, clear eyes, and a full heart. Yeah yeah, Okay, went back every morning, watched it, got the full take. So I guess I didn't really miss any of the action. I just missed it in real time.
Prett Nott, Alabama and Clemson people possibly offended that Tye fell asleep during your huge national exciting championship. He did that for his own team as well. He fell asleep when his own team was in the national championship. This is much more an indictment on Tye's feelings about consciousness than it is about college football.
I love it.
I'm sure this is a huge hit on my credibility. Every show we do is a huge hit on our credibility. It's fine, but we're nothing if not honest on this show. And that's true. I zonked out. I zonked out. I saw about five minutes the third quarter, and then I was out. I went back. I watched probably with greater attentiveness this morning, and took my notes in now here we are but.
The end of the game, God, probably like twelve ten twelve fifteen am Eastern time. Not only was I tired, I realized that I would be tired if I were watching this on the West coast. It had reached that point. So, yes, we are old and disappointing, and it happens.
What are you gonna do?
But no, I think there has to be moving forward just for the sport itself. And this isn't even a national championship thing, which also has a longer halftime, but like an early October CBS.
Game is lasting like four hours and twenty minutes.
I'm not going to put on a hat of like TV executive, and I very much am not that, But I think the sweet spot needs to be no games.
Lasting longer than like three and a half hours.
That probably just in terms of holding interest and growing the sports and being a viable TV product moving forward with sort of increased competition all the time, Like maybe only stop the clock when somebody goes out of.
The bounds in the last two or three minutes.
Like there's some antiquated clock rules that I think need to be revisited. The first down clock stoppage maybe needs to be revisited. There's a lot that says, Okay, is this really necessary? Do we really need to like go to commercial after every punt? Do we really need to I think the way college football is broadcast and governed from a rules perspective needs to be overhauled a bit.
You know, what they need to do, what they need to do. Whatever the hell they did in that Seahawks Lions game.
Well it's twelve minute halves. Yeah, and well, especially since college football perhaps more than pro and I do not have the data to point this out because I do not watch a lot of pro football. They run the ball so infrequently in college and some of these big games just because these you know, spread offenses, even like de facto runs like little screens that are sort of they might as well be like slight pitches when they're incomplete, when they're they're just sort of running out of bounds
because everybody's stretching it wide. It just lengthens it so much. And so I don't know if the game is all that different on the pro level, but the rules are such, especially with first down clock stoppage, that you need let's let's this stop. Let's let's get to three three and a half instead of three forty five four fifteen.
We watched that playoff game in the hotel room on Saturday night. Yeah, and you and I both looked over at each other, like, did we just step into a time warp?
It was great.
Halftime was over and what felt like three minutes the game was over and what felt like twenty minutes. I don't know how you speed the game up, but I should not have fallen asleep Mia Kolpa on that front. But I did have a chance to go back and watch it. And we're nothing if not honest here on the program. The other thing I did want to mention, which needs to be mentioned because it was awesome and because the tweets on it were awesome. The referee in
this game had Giant Bear arms. Dan Yes he did, Giant Bear did, and Chris Fowler all due credit to Chris Fawlor for not only pointing it out a couple times as it needed to be, but also referencing the medium referee jersey that he was with.
It was tight. It was tight. Yeah.
I always like a good strong referee makes me feel like he has command even if he doesn't of the proceedings.
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is download the sea geek app. Once you have it, click on settings, click on add a promo code, and enter our promo code, which is Solid Solid. After you do all that, after you make your first purchase, they're gonna send you twenty dollars done, just like that. So download the seat geek app today, enter the promo code Solid, make a purchase and get twenty dollars back. So there you have it, Dan, Clemson again wins thirty five to thirty one, a great way to out the college football season.
Clemson scores the go ahead game winning touchdown a short pass to Hunter Renfro with one second remaining on the clock, any party shots here on the season that was dan.
I think it was a good season, not a great season. Great if you're a Clemson fan. Great if perhaps you're a USC fan. You know, teams that sort of turned on later on in the season improved. I think that's the big thing. If your team got better and improved over the course of the season, even if they end up nine, three, eight and four, seven and five, whatever, If there's optimism, that's the big win. Not a ton of high level quarterback play, which usually helps to define
a really great season. Quarterback play all over the country. But that's just my own personal preference in college football. I know a lot of people love big defenses everywhere, you know, power running games everywhere. I like it when there are many quarterbacks in control, and it didn't seem like that was the case this year. And we had a couple of big injuries. You know, Josh Rosen was out pretty early on, and a lot of people, I think expected a lot from him in terms of development
as a big national quarterback moving forward. But all things considered, it was weird. It was funny, it was impressive, it was unexpected, and we somehow have Dabo Swinney face down on the grass crime to end the year, so it can't be all that bad.
So I enjoyed the season.
I thought we had a great year, just because I'm entertained by you endlessly. And this is also to say we're not stopping. We go all off season long. We've got we already have shows banked that we did in Tampa and before that, so there's a ton coming out. We will revert to going once a week instead of twice a week. But this is when things get particularly weird and fun and honestly ty.
This is when we can get really nerdy.
Having stat guys on, having scheme guys on, all sorts of X and o's. We're gonna have coaches on over the course of the spring, particularly new guys. We love having the new guys on that just accepted new jobs all across college football. So this is when we really like to produce. We have a little bit more time to breathe and come up with concepts for shows. You
remember the verbies last year. You remember all sorts of fun games and fantasy drafts, So this is when it becomes more of a show than churning out podcasts, which I really.
Like absolutely, Yeah, I thought it was a good season, not a great season in terms of a football product. Still better than the NFL, obviously, obviously because obviously, but very curious to see now moving forward, how some of the risers and fallers rebound or accelerate in twenty seventeen. Both of our teams went four and eight.
Yes, they did, yours more notably, Yeah.
Mine more notably. Sure, but it's kind of tough to overcome that black guy. If they do, it's a huge story in twenty seventeen. If they don't, it might be an even bigger story.
Yeah.
So I thought a lot of what happened in twenty sixteen, just on a personal college football fan level, is setting us up for what's to come in twenty seventeen. Yes, Oregon went out and hired a new coach. What happens there, we'll see. And then on the flip side of that, you got teams like USC and Penn State, both of which came on like a freight train second half of the season and clearly are going to have a ton
of momentum as they enter this coming football season. That to me is the takeaway outside of this great finish and a couple great bowl games to close out the season, the risers and the fallers, and now what happens as we enter the twenty seventeen season, That, to me is what I'm going to follow closely. With all that being said, I am excited to see what we're able to come up with over the next couple months, because, as you said, it's not all about churning out podcasts and game reviews
and previews and whatnot. We actually have a chance to take a deep breath, look to see what people care about, and focus in a little bit more intently on it.
The final a people came out ty yes, speaking of the off season moving forward? Who is obviously Clemson one Alabama too. Who's the number three team in the country to finish the year?
I heard it was USC, and I do have a sound Yeah, the high train is going to be in full working order by the time we get to like July.
Clemson, Alabama, USC, Washington, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Penn State, Florida State, Wisconsin, Michigan are your top ten. So by my count, we have one, two ACC teams finishing in the top ten. We have one, two, three, four Big Ten teams finishing in the top ten. A very top heavy league though, still, but there is the top and it's well deserved. All of those teams, with the exception of Michigan, I think, finished pretty strong well.
I guess Ohio.
States, sure they are, you know, on a a four quarter the qualified for the playoff, but they did qualify for the playoff. Oklahoma as a top five team. I may have had them a little higher, but you know what, that's fine, and they go into next season with Baker Mayfield and in a pretty strong sense of momentum. Wisconsin as a top ten team given their schedule is incredible.
Florida State, given the injuries all over the field and how they finished the season, that's a pretty big victory for the Seminoles and it sets up a pretty wide open because after after that, like number eight, so we're pretty confident in Ohio State, in Oklahoma and Penn State, Washington USC having what should be very good twenty seventeens after number eight. So like before, Wisconsin, Michigan, Oklahoma State, Stanford.
Nobody knows, no, I don't.
I mean, this is not a preseason top twenty five. This is a final top twenty five. But it is so wide open fan.
All right, well, do stay tuned here to the solid verbal.
Yes.
We will clearly be talking much much more about this as we progress now into twenty seventeen. As Dan mentioned, we're going to go to once a week starting now, so our next podcast will be about a week from today. We're going to get back in the habit of publishing every Wednesday, and the first show that you will hear after this one will actually be a live recording of the live show doing this weekend Saturday evening in New York City at Hill Country Chicken. Tickets are completely sold out.
We do have some folks who I've added to a waiting list in case other people report that they're unable to attend, But this is sort of our first crack at and we're excited about it. Will put that show out into the wild next Wednesday, so you can listen along and then maybe, if it's something you're into, buy tickets to come to the next one, because if it goes well, we will be doing a next one, So.
That's the plan.
In addition to that live show, We've got all sorts of goodness coming your way over the course of the next couple months. During the off season, going to talk very closely about recruiting. Don't forget, National Signing Day comes up first week of February.
Recruiting is three weeks from tomorrow time.
Yeah, recruiting is the lifeblood of college football. We will cover it as we always do here on the podcast. We've also got spring games that come up towards the end of March and all throughout April, and along the way we'll talk to a bunch of new coaches. We'll deep dive some of the topics that college football fans care deeply about.
Yep.
And of course we'll bring our normal amount of weirdness to the college football either, I would hope. So that's what we do. Yeah, that is all I have, Dan, That's everything I've got. We have a long off season to talk about anything that we perhaps forgot on this show. Congratulations to the Clemson Tigers. Congratulations to Alabama as well on a hard fought game and two great seasons.
And above all, Dan, yeah.
Congratulations to fans of all teams now because we're all undefeated once more. For that guy over there, Dan Rubinstein, for myself, Tie hilding Brand, thanks again for tuning in. Catchy all Next week's stay Solid Peace