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 Edith State.
Is that woo whoom? And Dan and Tye welcome back to the Solid Verbal, Boys and girls. My name is ty hilden Brandt, joining me as always over there in beautiful New York City, my good friend and co host, the one the only Dan Rubinstein.
Sir, how are you unlike our friends Tye in Athens, Georgia. I have shown up ready, okay, and prepared for duty and success? How about that?
Yeah, it was an impressive performance before the committee. I hope they like what they saw.
You know what it really was Tie to me, and I'm sure you felt this too, as as a Notre Dame fan, feeling people just beating down that that storyline of Notre Dame not belonging at the very end of what was it, the final Lord of the Rings where the eagle soars in carrying our clan to the rescue, in comes Georgia's complete sloppiness and inattention to any sort of detail. To take some of that pressure off of the faithful Irish.
Yeah, it was definitely a lifeline. I didn't get my full wish with Ohio State losing as well. Yeah, fair, But we'll talk about that game in addition to the Georgia game, in addition to a bunch of other games that we haven't had a chance to recap. Hello on Tye, He's Dan. We are the solid verbal We're going to
be continuing all throughout the off season. We've got one game left that we're going to preview tomorrow, so stay tuned your podcast feed Thursday evening at some point where we'll drop that official preview show, and then of course we'll recap at some point early on Tuesday after the
game between Clemson and Alabama actually takes place. Today. Though we've got recaps, we've got some college football news, which of course dropped right after we hit the stop button on our last show when we went through some other Bowl action. We'll talk about that big news from Miami as of Sunday here momentarily. But yeah, just a nice casual dress Wednesday show here.
One more game, that's all we have.
We are game after this.
Yeah, officially passed multiple games on the same day that portion of the college football season with the final gun of Georgia Texas. Here we are.
We feel pretty good. Here we are, Dan, let's do this.
Okay.
On Sunday we had p So it came out of left field that Mark Richt was retiring, effective immediately as head football coach of the my Miami Hurricanes. This set off a bit of a firestorm because again it came sort of out of nowhere. Granted, the season didn't go as expected for the Miami Hurricanes, but I don't know if anyone quite expected that Rick was just going to up and leave the job as expected. In light of this sudden announcement, there was a lot of speculation right
away as to who the next coach might be. Bruce Feldman, our friend Bruce was tweeting out about all sorts of names. Well and behold. By evening, it ends up being Manny Diaz. Now, Manny Diaz was the defensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes, a native son of the greater Miami area, but he had just agreed to be head football coach at Temple. Miami acts quickly. They bring Manny Diaz back from the brink of the City of Brotherly Love.
Back from the brink, like he was about to be shoved into a pool of magma.
It's a little colder up there up here, I should say. Yeah, as it stands, Many Diaz is going to be your new head footbook coach at Miami. How do you grade the hire?
I like it. It's interesting to me, and I do appreciate the fact that they moved swiftly, and Many Diaz, I'm sure had a moment of here is this opportunity facing me, and not unlike what happened I suppose with Willie Taggart in Florida State, except that he didn't even spend a full year or month at a new gig, just a matter of weeks. And so if he were going to make that move, you got to make it immediately.
And he did he, you know, to his credit, I guess he ripped that band aid off and didn't let it get too far down the road and didn't let Miami start talking to other people if they indeed offered him upon the actual conversation they had with him, the timing was terrible. Obviously, it would have been nice for Markreek to retire, I don't know, a month ago, it
would have been super good. I had my slight reflexive panic attack when Mario Christobaul's name started being thrown into the mix, obviously as an alumnus and somebody who's recruited super well and has all sorts of connections to South Florida. Not because I'm positive he is going to succeed and am fully encouraged by what I've seen, but four coaches in four years ain't for me. Time No, not my
favorite thing. So I in terms of many Diaz specifically, he's on the younger side, he has energized, He's familiar, he is considered to be very intelligent and connected. He's you know, coached all over the place now. I think he was NC State, Florida State as a GA, and then Mississippi State and Texas most notably before coming back. So he checks a lot of boxes, both culturally and
experience wise. I do have a kind of a question here, what has been the big criticism over the years about the USC hiring process.
I think the USC hiring process has tended to go for almost the easy name. In what way they've gone for the flashy hire.
Well, they've gone for the flashy higher and they've gone.
For a USC guy the USC guy.
Sure, somebody connected to the program that understands how things work at USC. And we've made this connection before private school, you know, having this sort of storied history of that. Miami and USC are like weird college football cousins. Miami's doing this, Miami's doing the USC thing, and it's fine if it works. But you know, with Mark Rick's connection with previous coaches, connections with Brandy Shannon, with Coker, which is understandable, they're going with Miami guys.
Yeah, I mean he's so, he's a Miami guy because he was. He was born there. He didn't go to Miami. He's a floor he did think guy technically, yes, but he's native to the area. He knows the area. As with a lot of guys from the area of a big school. They want the job, Manny Deez one of the job. He's leaving the Temple job, which you just barely started to take over. I think he struck a
really good note right off the bat. It wasn't unexpected that he would dismiss basically the entire offensive staff as well as the strength coach to kind of set down a precedent for where he's looking to go. He's on the record now saying you got to get better quarterback play, which duh. We know that he's a name that is not unfamiliar to us because Manny Diaz has been playing in the Bill Connolly circles, I'll say for quite some time. He's one of the few coaches who's gone on the
record as embracing the analytics movement in college football. So he's kind of a darling of at least that wing of the sport. But you know, here's what I don't like. We don't know anything about whether he can run a program this big until sure, like a few days ago, Temple was the big job for Manny Diaz. It's a pretty big upgrade to go from Temple to Miami. The reverse al Golden I think, as you said, reverse reverse al golden, these reverse al Golden. So yeah, I mean,
I like Manny Diaz. I think he's shown a ton of promise everywhere he's been. Didn't go great at Texas, but we'll forget about that for now. We just don't know a whole lot about how he's going to do running a program on his own.
Yeah, and I think the being impressed with the hire immediately that feeling is crazy overrated. Because Mark Rick goes to Miami, everybody is crazy impressed. And yes, he takes them to a big Bowl game last year. But in terms of four or five years of Mark Richt and maybe something will come out, maybe there's a health element, maybe there's just something that it was untenable about Mark Rick's future. But winning that press conference, winning that tweet
is completely overrated. And if Manny Diaz and Miami are going to succeed together, it's because he's a good fit and because he understands infrastructure and recruiting and assistant hires and makes good decisive moves at every turn. That's all that matters.
All right. So some other coaching news here that we do need to get through quickly. Daniel Holgerson to Houston is official as of today. Holgerson's a guy with a familiarity Houston, loves Houston, apparently, and it came as a bit of a surprise to a lot of folks that he would, in their view, downgrade from West Virginia go into a group of five school. Now you can make that argument one way or the other. Maybe we can do that here briefly. But he's taking over Houston, which
I think is a huge coup for the Cougars. Some of the names that are reportedly connected to the now West Virginia opening your Boy, Neil Brown, Mike Norvell, Fickle, Mike Leach as a bit of a dark horse. I saw Lane Kiffen mentioned as well. I don't know if I like that one. Any thoughts here, Dan, Butch Jones another one, rich Rod coming out of the woodwork.
Yeah, well, rich Rod's just signed with Ole Miss But I guess nothing is Nothing's permanence with rich Rod. And you know, when you have a head coaching offer, you know, potentially maybe small chance on the table. West Virginia is a good job. West Virginia is a challenging job. Dana Holgerson clearly recruited very well, and I don't think ever had a top twenty five class at West Virginia. Being that Morgantown is far far away from Texas and the
sort of recruiting hotbed of the Big twelve. Still a very good job in just a very strange geographic situation relative to the rest of the conference. As for Hulgo going to Houston, the P five to G five move
is rare if never happening. Ever, Houston a crazy attractive place with all the talent there, with a winnable conference and a dicey situation with the trigger that what is it, Tillman for Tita, they like the shadow ad, the shadow pressure, whatever it is that the Megabooster getting rid of major Apple White after a pretty poor Bowl performance against Army. It's it's interesting because we figure that Houston's offense should be great, they should have a winnable schedule. I looked
up and put this down here. Their future schedules these next three years are schedules that would say, okay, if they go undefeated, maybe they are sneaking into a playoff conversation more so than UCF. Given the non conference elements. They go to Oklahoma and they play Wazoo at NRG. What do you call that?
The nerve ner Yes, officially the nerk. Yes.
They do travel to UCF next year in conference, they travel to Wazoo in twenty twenty. They host Boise and Texas Tech in twenty twenty one and travel to Vandy, so they will have Power five opponents. We are putting the cart way way ahead of the horse here. But given Dania Holgrison's success level and a Power five conference, it's not crazy to think he should be winning double digit plus games at Houston if that's if that's the very very floor of expectations of him.
Okay, well we'll see what happens with that West Virginia opening. I don't know, feels to me like it was time.
Yeah, it apparently had had reached a point in Morgantown between Dana Holgris and the administration where it was just time. As you said, that he wasn't necessarily getting the support he wanted. They weren't necessarily happy with the results all the time, and sometimes it's just best to part ways.
Also, I think it's nice the way that it went down him leaving for another job as opposed to an ugly firing. I don't know. Correctice has sort of a nicer sheene to.
It's probably the best for everybody.
Yeah, we'll see where West Virginia goes. The only other coaching news news that I want to discuss here, and trust me, we do have another coaching item that we'll get through after we get through the Bowlrycaps, Yeah, featuring what we want and only Brian Kelly, but Cliff Kingsbury. Now, you know, it was a big to do when he was let go by Texas Tech and there was this whole parade of teams that may or may not be interested in his services. He of course signed on with
USC to be offensive coordinator. The rumors are coming hot and heavy that he may be interviewing with the Arizona Cardinals for their head coaching gig as well as the New York Football Jets for their head football coach gig Dan. You wrote down in our note sheet, quote, but why are you saying? But why from the Cliff Kingsbury perspective? Or but why from the NFL perspective?
From the NFL perspective. Yeah, there's there's a I think it was. Was it Ryan Reynolds and Harold and Kumar who was the surgeon, and like.
But why?
That's what was going through my head. Cliff Kingsbury appears to be a very bright offensive mind, but running an enormous football franchise when there were elements that he certainly struggled with at Texas Tech is kind of confounding. It feels like we're going after the USC offensive coordinator. He hasn't coached at USC yet and at Texas Tech. He really struggled to put together a defense for many years.
You know, did the best he could with some quarterback injuries this year, and certainly has the quarterbacks and the tutelage behind him of Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield to a lesser extent. But we're missing some pieces here, Ty, there needs to be something between.
I admire the willingness to go out there and make a splash higher if you're a team like the Cardinals of the Jets, I admire that. And certainly Cliff Kingsbury is a name that has been trotted about for quite some time. He's a creative mind. He can bring an electric offense to really wherever he goes. I think all that stuff is very, very notable. Yeah, I don't know if I'm a Jets fan if I want Cliff Kingsbury given his track record.
No, you're weathering. It's not just calling place. It's not just diagramming an offense together and putting an offense together. It's the full infrastructure and culture. Not that he couldn't one day do it or can't can prove us wrong right now, But I mean what.
I would much rather have an NFL retread at this point, like, give me Josh McDaniels or somebody who's got a little bit more of a head coaching resume in the NFL, given the fact that you've got a brand new quarterback and Sam, I don't know.
This is an NFL show.
Yeah, this is an NFL appreciation show. Is the playoffs? Test? I do want to talk about the ball games because we had to talk a bunch of them that transpired on New Year's Eve as well as New Year's Day? Which game to you should we start with? Should it be the Sugar Bowl?
Let's just do cheese a bowl again? More to say, yeah, you want to talk Sugar. Do you want to talk Rose? What do you want to do?
I want to talk about Bevo going after Uga in the pregame of the Sugar Bowl.
It was scary in that Bevo, who normally we just see sort of sitting and pooping and puffing around that he was on his feet and energized and saw the dog and saw the dog, saw Uga and sort of made a mad dash, tried to head Buttom. The horns went down. It was it seemed out of character the guy.
Can you imagine being that photographer in the blue vest who was getting what he thought was just a beach ball of a photo op with and then turn around a giant steer, Yeah, bearing down on you.
That's what he sounded like.
Yeah, they're going to replay that footage on the Longhorn Network for about a hundred years.
Dan, what I enjoyed about the specific situation is, I don't know if you've seen the housing for Ralfi the Colorado Buffalo.
Yeah, I believe it's a she.
Traditionally it's a truck with the cage and confinement, and they let her out and they stomp around the field and they bring back to the back to the holding pen kind of situation where it's where it's locked up and secure. Bevo a large bowl was apparently confined with canvas.
It looked like cardboard.
Yeah, a little bit of rope and some flimsy canvas. Okay, that's that's one way to do it with a lot of people and children and just very very susceptible bulldogs around. It was it was a decision, but it got it was It was a bit of a metaphor ty can we say that?
Yeah, no, for sure, an omen a bit of an omen, your final score here was Texas twenty eight Georgia twenty one. In reality, Texas had a much bigger lead. Georgia completed two short touchdown passes, one of which was with about fourteen seconds left in the game to make this one look a little bit closer than it was, but really Texas jumped out to a quick start. Sam Ellinger ran
for three touchdowns. He helped build an early twenty eight to seven lead in the early part of the fourth quarter before Georgia tried to mount a charge, but it really was too little, too late. After the game, sam Ellinger went there Dan, He said, Texas is back.
Texas back.
This question that never ever leaves the college football consciousness was again put forth there.
So they're already shirts.
By the way, Yeah, we know where sam Ellinger stands on Texas being back. In your mind, does this victory by Texas say more about where Texas is at, or more about where Georgia is at, or more about either of these teams as we move forward now into twenty nineteen, Well.
This is the Georgia we've seen when they've lost. This is what Georgia looks like. Where they look flat. It's not like they've they've lost these games outside of the Alabama games these past couple of years, but whether it was LSU this year or Auburn last year, there's just a flatness about Georgia that was apparent, especially when you
compare them against the energy Texas had. Texas basically plays on different levels, Like you know, you go to like a hot chicken place and you can get mild and you can get a toomic and like Texas in these big games, as we've seen from Tom Herman at both Houston and Texas, they just get up and it was apparent from the opening drive where Texas had a plan. When Texas was on defense early, they were just getting after Georgia in a way that I don't think the
Bulldogs were expecting. I don't think Jake fromm was expecting. I don't think the coaching staff was expecting. And Texas came out and wanted this as as much of a cliche as that is, they took every play so much more seriously than Georgia did, so I think it confirms what we already believed about the best of Texas. We will learn more about Texas moving forward when they don't
play this top tier opponent. I think we will learn it when we see them play Kansas State or Baylor for Oklahoma State, one of those types of teams, because that is the step that Texas is lacking right now.
Nothing big here, Yeah, consistency across their entire schedule, not just against the top of the top. This was a thing, right, We talked about it all year. Texas gets up for these big games. I don't know if there was any doubt that they would be up for the Sugar Bowl here. Clearly Georgia had a little bit more to lose, but I don't know if they cared as much, right, And we can talk about this too. I could also just assume it. But yeah, that we're going to backload here
on this show, I promise you. But I agree with you. I think it says a lot about Texas. I like what it means for them moving forward. I hope they can use it as a rallying cry as they build towards the twenty nineteen season. They got a lot coming back, so they should be loaded for bear here, provided they could continue to harness this energy from the Sugar Bowl win. Nice win for you.
Yeah, as soon as I saw when was the when did From throw an interception? I think it was early on, early second half. Yeah, he scrambles out, he's pressured, and he just sort of throws on the run as he's being hit and sort of throws it up and as it leaves his hand, you're like, this is either going to be the greatest play of Bowl season or it's going to be a nightmare disaster. And it was picked
off by I think Chris Boyd. And it was that kind of play that where he seemed to be pressing so much as a typically poised rhythm throw or he does check down some, but he is so strong at sort of exuding that calm. We saw that against Auburn last year where all of a sudden he's pressing. They're down whatever, ten, fourteen, twenty, and he's just going all out and like, that's not a winning jake from And when I saw that, I was like.
This, this is over. That's it. No, all right, So there you go, big, great great game from Texas, Texas and the Sugar Bowl. I think this epitomizes why I try to put all my confidence points on the early teams, on the early games, I should say, because once you get to this stage of the game. These are unpredictable games. We're gonna read through a bunch of rom here that ended up being really unpredictable in the end and maybe counter to what conventional wisdom was. So again, Texas would
certainly be one of those teams. They were an eleven point dog. They end up winning out right twenty eight twenty one. Let's stay on New Year's Day and go to the Rose Bowl. Ohio State also puts up twenty eight points in victory. They tried to blow twenty five point ly. They really tried. Washington got back within five, could have been three, didn't make the two point conversion.
I thought we were going to look at americal front door cover there with Ohio State returning a two point conversion the other way to get some points for themselves, but was not to be. Twenty eight to twenty three year final score. They send Urban Meyer out on a very high note. Chris Peterson on the flip side, now drops to one in four in bowl games at Washington Dan.
I thought a good game for Dwayne Haskins. I thought a good game for most of the game for that Ohio State defense, which had been a bit beleaguered this season so far. Does this one to you say more about Ohio State or more about Washington?
I think probably Washington at this point because we are we're used to this Ohio State. We're used in Ohio State on this stage performing pretty well when they're not being shut out by Clemson in a playoff game. But we're used to this version of Dwayne Haskins. We are not fully used to the offensive line playing as well as they did on the ground. Mike Weber I think had a really nice game, might have been the offensive MVP if not for Dwayne Haskins being a super competent
quarterback for Ohio State. But Washington wise disappointed that they came out sort of skittish and conservative and really weren't trying to attack Dwayne Haskins like they did later on in the game. Weren't trying to attack downfield. There was not and this is something we're used to from Washington coming out and looking very sharp early on and Chris Peterson and scripting plays and like, wow, Washington just has it,
you know, game plan perfectly. That's the sort of signature is they're just a smart team and they were just early on other than Miles Gaskin. There wasn't a lot to like about this Washington team on either side, whereas with Ohio State, they came out going right. At Washington, they threw the ball well, Haskins did a nice job
getting a lot of different players involved. And so it certainly was a little too little, too late for Washington because by the time the fourth quarter rolled around, we saw that Washington had it in them, you know, attacking this Ohio State offense. I don't know, they have one first down in the second half, something crazy like that. Yeah, it was bad, and they were harassing the Ohio State offense.
They were, I mean, they had a couple of pretty bad drops, but they were they were generating open passing lanes, and it was just where was this make the whole plane out of the second half? I didn't I was confused as to why we saw the Washington we did in that first half for the first three quarters.
Really yeah, I thought, actually this was a good way to go out for Jake Browning, even though it was a loss. Jake Browning looked really good down the stretch. Perhaps that's because Ohio State was mailing it in a bin. I don't know. I don't really care. Jake Browning is someone who I think if you ask Washington fans their opinion of him, they'll say that in the end they came away very disappointed or underwhelmed by Himly course, I'll actually said it before the game started that he's been
underwhelmed by Jake Browning. He speaks for all of us. It has been the case for Browning. But he looked good down the stretch. Washington certainly did not give up, even though they were trying to come back from a pretty big deficit. It says a lot about their character that they would fight the way they did on the Ohio State side. Speaking of the quarterback position, if you're Dwayne Haskins, do you leave early?
Oh?
Yeah, definitely, I think I do.
Yeah, I mean he I think he is in a better place in terms of maturity and readiness for the NFL than Justin Herbert, who's coming back. I think he has the measurables. Still will be raw entering the league, but given this class and the coaching transition, and I did see what's Mike You're sick? Is being rumored to go from Oklahoma State the offense coordinator to Ohio State to join Ryan Day's staff. Yeah, I would most certainly go,
but I would totally understand if he didn't. And now there's what Justin Fields rumors about Ohio State and so a lot of changes in Columbus. Back to what you said, I would be still disappointed. If I were a Washington fan, I wouldn't be happy with the fight or the competitive nature they were in the playoffs two years ago. Yeah, to be shut out well from getting into the end zone for three quarters against this year's version of the Ohio State defense, I'd be pretty bummed. What did you
think of the punt down? I think it was down eleven, twenty eight to seventeen. Yeah, three forty six. And this won't be the first time we talk about strange special teams decisions. Go Nitney Lions. What did you think about Washington punting there down eleven just under four minutes left, basically saying we will have to score quickly and get an on sidekick rather than trying to score now and then score again quickly.
Well, since we talk about the Citrus Bowl next, I'll say that I questioned the punt in the Washington game more than I did in the Penn State game.
The field goal.
Yeah, yeah, excuse me more than I did. The field goal, just because Kentucky was not moving the ball at all right on Penn State, whereas with Ohio State there was at least somebody of proof there that they could strike pretty quickly.
Yeah, it just felt like, okay, you're taking the foot off the gas. I'm not a big believer in momentum, but I have to imagine the Washington offense had more confidence than they did earlier on in the game, and certainly more confidence than the Ohio State defense had in that moment. So it sort of felt like things were screeching to a halt. I hate having to rely on the on side kick unless you absolutely absolutely need to.
All right, let's go to the Citrus Bowl. Kentucky twenty seven, Penn State twenty four. Benny Snell needed something like one hundred and seven hundred and four yards to become Kentucky's all time leading rusher. He got one hundred and forty four Kentucky. He finishes with a ten wins season, which is incredible for the Wildcats. Congratulations to them, to their fans, to Mike Stoops. This is a really big moment for
the football program. Also, Trace McSorley, I thought, going out on a pretty high note as well, reportedly broke his foot.
Yeah, did he break his foot?
I gotta believe the answer is no, but I don't know for sure. Okay, he wasn't moving like he broke his foot. He only missed one series, so I think initially it was reported as a broken foot. It doesn't mean that there isn't something broken in there. But Trace McSorley came back in and damn near led Penn State from a twenty point deficit to victory. He ends up throwing for two forty six. He was a team's leading
rusher with seventy five yards. Trace did his damn best to try and win this game in his final one at Penn State, but it was not meant to be because Kentucky. Kentucky played really, really well in that first half, in the first three quarters really and gave themselves enough of a lead, held it together defensively to stave off a comeback from Penn State. Nice win for them.
For whatever reason, Trace McSorley when he loses, always plays his heart out. That was just every time Penn State loses with Trace McSorley. That's oh man, you hate to see it. McSorley played his heartous. Yeah, this was a sloppy game for Penn State. This was a winnable game for Penn State. Ugly ugly special teams game for Penn State. And I didn't like the field goal thing at the end of the game.
It was just, you know, it didn't bother me though, because if you were watching the full, if you're watching the flow of that game, Penn State had so much momentum dan that I think if you polled ten people, even if they weren't fans of either team, who do you think is going to win right now? Based in the feel of this game, most people would have said Penn State. They just had so much work in their direction that a field goal there didn't bother me the
way it bothered a lot of people. I just assumed that they would get the ball back and score, which of course they didn't. It didn't work out, but it didn't really bug me.
Yeah, there was something, Yes, I think what Kentucky got a couple first downs and that extended and they had to go for a game winning play from like their own fifteen. I want to say yep.
And what a fitting way for Penn State season to end with a receiver dropping a ball, not even a pass, but a lateral for that to fall onto the ground was a nice fitting way for Penn State's season to end because they've had so much trouble with it this season.
Yeah, it was a tough game for Penn State. They score what one touchdown over the course of the first three quarters. Just and this is an excellent Kentucky defense. I'm not going to take anything away from Kentucky. This was a very very Kentucky game of Benny Snell being the absolute wrecking ball that he has always been will always be and now a record setting wrecking ball. But this game was Penn State's for the taking. This just they had it.
It was very.
Twenty eighteen Penn State in the way as you mentioned with the drop tooken lateral that it went all day.
What does this bowl result or which team I should say, does this Bowl result speak more too? I don't know if there's an answer here. It certainly confirms what we've seen all year from Penn State in that they were a mistake prone, that the offense was sluggish at times, that there would be a bit of a comeback attempt, and I think it confirms a lot of what we knew about Kentucky that there were flashes of brilliance on offense.
They weren't going to get a whole lot out of their quarterback situation, but Benny Snell is clearly a very high level player at Kentucky and around the SEC, certainly in the NFL at some point soon and their defense, their defense was a bit sucking wind down the stretch, but ultimately was able to hold it together. I think this result confirmed a lot about what we knew about both teams coming in. Yeah.
No, Kentucky had a really good year and Penn State had opportunities to have a better year, had opportunities to have a better game, and came up short. It was a perfect encapsulation of both of these team seasons and all it really told me about the future of Penn State is they need to get out ahead, because when it comes down to late game coaching decisions.
James Franklin may not be your guy late game coaching.
Decisions, he may not be your guy.
This is a recurring theme.
Does Joe Morahead have like a nephew? Is there a Hank Morehead.
All right, twenty seven to twenty four. Big win for Kentucky. Ten win season. Let's go to the Fiesta Bowl. We had LSU forty, UCF thirty two. I'm going to say
something controversial. It's really not that controversial because I'm not that controversial person, but it will be viewed as controversial from some UCF fans who listen to this show that the final score of this game is going to make it look a lot closer than it was if we could be real for a second here, Okay, UCF gained outgained by over three hundred yards, five point fifty five to two fifty Dariel Mack to be fair, a backup, a backup for UCF was eleven for thirty for ninety
seven yards, thirty two of which came on that hail Mary at the end of at the end of the first half, right, And I think it's a huge indictment on the defense that Joe Burrow would throw for almost four hundred yards. Joe Burrow does not throw for four hundred yards against both teams.
No, that is not necessarily a recipe for now. Let's see a winning games as their quarterback throwing for four hundred yards. But LSU after what they go down after the first quarter. There's that hit on the pick six. That was a hard hit on Joe Burrow.
It was not tartle hit that was not targeting. It was I don't think it was targeted. That was not targeting.
But he came out after that hit and was a full on gamer. He was so good. He completed what it's seven of eight or an eight of nine whatever right after that hit, which you know, is it mirrors the disaster that was the UCF passing game. I think Mac had ten straight in completion one point. That was his Rookie of the Year moment right there. Yeah, that was rough. And so yes, this game was closer than the score indicates because LSU eventually just started mashing the Knights.
They did, and that's what they should have done, and all the more impressive because LSU was down some major major talent on defense. Grant Delpit I think was ejected, Michael Divinity gets hurt, where Shad Lawrence gets hurt. Greedy
Williams isn't playing in the game. So they're down a lot on defense, and it ultimately does not matter because LSU does a good job on both sides of the ball, if not a great job at times, and took care of business and ty it's a bummer that it's what it's the PlayStation festival.
Yeah, yeah, it's a bummer.
It's not the Tostitos one because buddy, this got chippy forty.
To thirty two year final here, LSU wins the same. More to you about LSU or UCF.
Oh as the teams were constituted. I don't think you can take too much away other than LSU is just more talented pretty much everywhere, and good teams take care of business and now else you took care of business.
So I think this says a lot about UCF. I think it says more about UCF that they would give up four hundred yards almost four hundred yards to Joe Burrow.
Yeah, it was one of those alube situations where the UCF offense was doing the defense, just zero favors getting off the field as quickly as they did without McKenzie Milton.
Out Back Bowl, Iowa twenty seven, Mississippi State twenty two. This is a better game than I expected. Also a bit of a statistical anomaly here. Iowa wins despite having negative fifteen rushing yards, despite going one of eleven on third downs. It was not a high flying Iowa offense out there.
I like this this unspoken was it Northwestern versus Michigan State who won with like negative four yards and two yards rushing and then this big ten West cold war. A degree of difficulty rushing wins is great.
Nate Stanley, though three touchdown passes. Yes, back and forth contest. Here, Iowa jumps out to a lead, Mississippi State comes back. Iowa then seals the victory twenty seven to twenty two. Here a big one for the Hawkeyes, Dan.
Huge, Yeah, they win another bowl game they win last year. This is without Noah Fant. This was what the last game of Nick Easily, who played well. I think that was the receiver who caught a bunch. Yeah, Nick Easily played really well for Iowa. The defense looks strong, weathered a couple of streaks for Mississippi State and Bulldogs just trouble on offense, trouble just their discipline is not there the nine or ten times.
Yeah, I mean, look, they gave up way too much to Iowa. If you worship at the altar of Kirk Ferens the way most of us do. You know that he preaches the value of not making mistakes in bowl games. Its bowl games, the way he treats early season games. Thinks it's all about minimizing your mistakes. Yep, right, they minimize their mistakes in this game, Mississippi State did not. They had three turnovers. It really hurt them. Iowa was able to capitalize here and ride that to victory.
No, it was a very Iowa season twenty seven to twenty two.
Again your final here, let's if we could travel back in time.
Better do better?
Who better do? Let's go quickly through some of the games on New Year's Eve Day, and I want to start with the Red Box Bowl. Dan, Okay, how's your heart after this game seven to six in favor of the Orgon Ducks.
Heart's not great, But I attribute that more to the garlic bread and chicken parm i ate during the second half because I left and I didn't think I had plans, and I was going to say, well, I'll just try not to find out what happens. I'm gonna go out to dinner and early dinner and come back and watch the second half. And I just look to see what happened, because I couldn't imagine the second half was going to
be dramatically different than the first half. Ty I have a question, Yes, Dan, anything, you're very you remember like the web one point zher and you remember remember soundboards. I mean you probably have one right in front of you. You'd be like a Homer Simpson.
Stuff E Baum's world. Sure.
Absolutely, I'm not going to accuse Fox of having a Brady Quinn and Joe Davis soundboard. But that was a that's a rough assignment. That is a rough like here, I'm going to try to do this, so you you just say boo, and I'm going to I'm going to be the soundboard of what this game entailed. That's not going to be enough. Stopped right away. A bit of a miscommunication. It seems nothing doing there.
Okay, I get the point.
Yeah, it was, it was. It was bad, but Oregon wins, so there's that.
It was.
I mean, Michigan State's offense was terrible pretty much all year long, and Oregon's offense was pretty disappointing against the decent defenses, if not better defenses than decent that they faced. So there's not a Ton. To take away from that other than now that Oregon's lone offensive weapon outside Dylan Mitchell has declared for the NFL drafts. The takeaway is, Hey, if you want to catch footballs, go to Eugene, Oregon.
Yeah, they're there for you, they are, They are there in waiting. Oregon gets its cheese at Bowl moment here in seven six. It's not gonna get much of the Red Box Bowl. What was scoring game of bull season thus far. I suppose there's hope for Clemson in Alabama, though not counting on.
That looks like he's short of the sticks Tye.
Sun Ball almost living up to that billing as well. Fourteen to thirteen Stanford the victor over the pitt Panthers. They had just two hundred and eight total yards these teams where it combined six for twenty seven on third downs Dan so kind of exactly as we expected, not just from both these teams, but in the Sun Bowl.
Yes, this was another rough watch. The Pac twelve is really specializing final game for JJ Arthega Whiteside, Sure Caden Smith declares for the drafts. Bryce Love sat this one out, So not a lot of excitement in this game. I expected more from kJ Costello, who had a very good year and struggled mightily with a not that good pit defense. And also Stanford scored on maybe my favorite touchdown of
the postseason, the fumble into the air touchdown reception. Yeah, yeah, great cool back twelve needs wins where they can get them, and they get it.
They did get it. Okay, let's go to Cincinnati thirty five Virginia Tech thirty one in the Military Bowl. Seven lead changes, twenty three penalties, nine hundred and five yards of total offense. Cincinnati's backup quarterback Hayden Moore actually had to come in in this one. He threw twenty six passes all year, had to come in after the starter heard his arm ended up, throwing something like twenty five times. Didn't have great numbers in this game, but does get
the job done for the Bearcats. Nice year, really nice year for Luke Fickle here as they knock off Virginia Tech.
I want to say this one was a wet one too.
This one was in the Roan.
Yeah. Desmon Ritter starting quarterback leaves the game. Nice enough game offensively for Virginia Tech, which we can't say all that often, especially given what Cincinnati was able to do on defense all season long. Good for the Bearcats. They run the ball well. Luke Fickle has done a terrific job increasing the visibility of Cincinnati and the visibility of Luke Fickle. So I expect this this Bearcat program to even go up from here. They get to what eleven
wins ten and two with the Bowl win. Very impressive and I can't imagine Virginia Tech will be terribly down for long. But I haven't seen their recruiting rankings. I don't know what they have in the pipeline, but it certainly feels just like.
A gap year. Yeah. Okay, Liberty Ball. Oklahoma State thirty eight, Miszoo thirty three. A fun back and forth game, couple lead changes. Oklahoma State was up by sixteen after three quarters, but Miszoo they tried to make it interesting in the fourth quarter. They fell a little bit short. What corn Dog Cornelius four touchdown passes?
I think very CornDog game. Yep, nice game for him.
So Oklahoma State wins this one again. Thirty eight thirty three.
Chuba Hubbard, one of the more fun running backs to watch when he's on Miszoo, also runs the ball crazy well against an Oklahoma State defense that struggled most of the season. But a fun game and good for Oklahoma State for breaking through and actually playing pretty well on the road.
All right, Texas A and M fifty two NC State thirteen. Only one member of the broadcasting duo had the wherewithal the Cojones really to predict a big, massive Texas A and M victory. Cravy Travion Williams sets a Gator Bowl record two hundred and thirty six yards rushing three touchdowns. ANC State Dan could not get anything going. They finished the game oh of thirteen on third downs, just had two hundred and seventy three total yards in this one.
Yeah, this NC State offense was a rough watch. And it made it a little bit better that our pal when Adam A. Meme was doing this game, right, Yeah. I think it was c J. Riley who had like a crazy touchdown catch and he got very excited for that, and I was like, okay, great, we're going back and
forth with Adam. I mean excitement and it was just one way, right, It just went Texas A and M's way, And to say that probably is misleading because it went Travon Williams way, I thought A and M did a great job in all phases they got after Ryan Finley. They stopped the run offensively, Kellen Mond was out there running and broke loose a couple of times, and Travon Williams was just an unstoppable beast.
Cool to see in light of this victory, and I think a good season for Texas definitely.
I think it can't be qualified as anything but a success quantified.
Yeah, in light of all that, as we enter twenty nineteen, there's going to be a ton of steam on Texas A and M. Oh Yeah, will there be more hype on A and M after their Bowl win? More more hype on the Auburn Tigers after theirs A and M.
I think A and M's the right answer, aving A and M because of Yeah, I mean, there's two high profile coaches, but losing your quarterback, whereas Kellen Mond is just a sophomore now. And yes, I think especially with where I know Auburn has Oregon, I believe in North Texas and Jerry World. But A and M goes to Clemson in the return of the home home I believe week two or three, so especially if they perform well there,
like they were very close this year. Yeah, there's there's gonna be a lot of when you say steam, a lot of smoke.
Got steam. Yeah, more steam on A and M or more steam on Florida.
Still I and M.
Really yeah, I think that.
I think your steamiest team, your red Shoe Diary team of the year of the off season, is probably going to be Texas Texas. Yeah. Beating Georgia in the way that they did, in the venue that they did, returning what they do, Yeah, Texas is going to get a lot of that.
See, I think I ranked them in the order of Texas one. I agree with you, Okay, Florida two because they were young and they're really just a quarterback away. Dann Moan's gonna figure out.
I thought Philipe Franks was good against Michigan. I mean, I don't know if I'm buying. I'm still not bumper high level. He was good, he was full on good. He is my Danny Etling Bowl Award winner.
And I think i'd put A and M three. But there's a good chance all three of those teams are top ten entering twenty nineteen. Wow.
Yeah, got a lot all right now, and Florida loses a lot. They've lost a lot of early declaration guys, especially on defense. But I also saw I think Jordan Scarlett declared as well today.
Wow, okay, well we'll see a lot of reason to be excited about all three of those teams A and M in this case. Here a resounding fifty two to thirteen win in the tax Slayer Gator Bowl. And finally to round it all out in the Holiday Bowl, Northwestern thirty one, Utah twenty. A spectacular collapse here by Utah. They were leading fourteen to nothing hell after a quarter, twenty to three at half, and then Northwestern comes out after half. They convert three Utah turnovers into three touchdowns
all told twenty eight points in total. In the third quarter. As Northwestern comes from behind, they complete the comeback. They win by eleven, thirty one to twenty.
Dan leave it to a bowl game in San Diego to escalate quickly. That escalated quickly. Yeah, this was a mess to watch. This was with what Northwestern did to Utah in the third quarter with the turnovers and runbacks. It was it was watching that was the what the Ralph wigam You can see the moment his hardest breaking in slow motion, that's what the third quarter felt like. You just saw Utah completely implode and it was in
pristine HD rough watch. But good for Northwestern winning their division going what they nine and five is their final record, yep. Now they play fourteen games with a big ten championship games, So especially with what their September looked like, Northwestern had a hell of inn October, November, and I guess late December.
The Pac twelve conference on the whole finishes three and four bold season. They had wins by Washington State, Stanford, and Oregon. They had losses by ASU Cal, Washington and of course Utah. I think, I don't know. I don't want to be too harsh on the Pac twelve, but this was not the kind of bowl season they were hoping for.
No, And perception is reality, and it's tough to paint an entire conference with one brush, but I think it sort of checked all the boxes where there was inconsistencies. There was ugly wins, and Washington came up short against a good team. And Washington State was probably the hope of the conference moving forward because of its win over a decent team, which is not always the case. So yeah, it was sort of par for the course. They didn't completely implode outside of Utah. That's good.
The highlights for me and kel yeah and cal from a conference perspective, the highlights for me and low lights. I'll start with the American. I expected more out of the American. Yeah, just like two and five this bowl season. Temple loss, of course, UCF loss, Houston. I had. The Big Ten West actually quitted itself pretty well.
Yeah, not bad, I mean, save for Purdue.
Save for Purdue.
I wonder, I wonder what the point differential is. I wonder if Purdue's loss completely submarines the Big Ten West point differential in these games. It just may like the Big Ten West may have gone like five to one with a negative point differential.
It's possible, Yeah, it is possible. I'd also throw the SEC in there. I know it's kind of an old answer at this point, but just the teams that won in the SEC, I think spoke volumes about the conference still being really strong at the top. There might have been some doubt about Auburn, but Auburn not obviously one in very resounding fashion, Florida knocking off Michigan. I think much more so the West the West, but Florida knocking
off Michigan was pretty big. In the East, Georgia, South Carolina not great, Kentucky definitely impressive, Florida one percent impressive.
The East sort of maybe broke even. But yeah, I think you're right about the West.
And I'll close out by saying that the Big Twelve with their boost of Texas winning was nice. Oklahoma State, Oklahoma State won, Baylor making a w was a nice touch for them as well. Clearly Oklahoma, which his things went differently, but I thought they acquitted themselves well when they actually played with tempo in the second half.
Yeah, no, it was. It was somewhat solid. You know. I had a really really nice brain fart. That is just me not trolling at all. I maybe yesterday I was like, wait, who did USC play?
Like I was?
I was legitimately thinking I am totally blanking on USC's bowl game. And it was not me trying to say ha haaa us s's well. No, I legitimately thought USC played somebody and I lost it. So that's that's where my brain is at in early twenty nineteen.
What what other takeaways are there from bowl season so far, with one game again remaining to be played.
Do you think there's anything that needs to change about the structure of the sport? Here's my loaded question, because of what we saw in the playoff and what we saw with the New Year six games. Is there any team that like now upon further reflection, like Michigan. Does Michigan need to scrap it all and start over on offense?
Is there do we need to go to a do we need to go to my preferred method of going back to the old system and then voting after the facts after the New Year's six games on who's going to play in a national championship game. I feel like things are fine.
I don't think there's the need to change much of anything. The one thing that I would change, and we discussed this, is how we hate that New Year's Day isn't quite the college football holiday that it used to be. It still feels very weird to me that we're not playing the playoff games on New Year's Day. I understand that there are reasons beyond our control why that is. So that doesn't mean I have to like it, and I
still don't and I never will. That's the one thing to me because New Year's Day was always the one thing college football had. I wish they could restore that. I don't think it's going to happen otherwise, though. I think the system's fine now as we launch into this bigger discussion about the playoff and who should be in who shouldn't be in. I just think in general, we find ourselves every year viewing the results of bowl season as like this Swiss army knife for college football arguments.
You know you can use them, however you want Notre Dame to lose this by twenty seven. It's either a disappointment or not a disappointment, or a huge failure of the system or Texas. Right, Texas is back because they wion on the Sugar Bowl, or maybe they're just lucky because they caught an unmotivated Georgia Like you could do this until you're blue in the face. I don't think any of it's too big a cause for concern or too big a cause to try and change the state of affairs.
It's okay Texas. By the way, they get lsu dk R next year, which will be fun. Yeah, I'm mostly with you. I think everything is fine. Well, The thing I'm bummed about is I am trying to figure out reasons to care about Alabama Clemson. Well, and here here's my current list. What are they gonna do with Christian Wilkins. They're gonna do something fun, do something weird. Quinn Williams really fun to watch, and big picture, there aren't personalities,
there aren't storylines. There's there's not much that I'm finding myself caring about beyond hoping for a good dramatic back and forth. There's there's nothing peripheral at all for me.
Well, we'll talk more about this on our preview show, but that sentiment has been a bit reflected in ticket prices, which have steadily dropped since they started hitting the open market. Those prices have gone down.
It should never be, by the way, in Santa Clara.
Well, that was gonna be my second point. Maybe not the best site for a college football national championship game, certainly not the best stadium, but on the whole, maybe not the best site for it. There are a lot of things that I think factor in, not the least of which is this general fatigue towards Clemson in Alabama being so they're playing again again in the eyes of a lot of college football fans who at this point
probably couldn't care one way or the other. You and I were kind of in this business of focusing on the storylines that we think make games interesting, and I can find a couple here. Trevor Lawrence playing in a game with this magnitude is interesting. Clemson in their defensive line playing against a really good offensive line in Alabama, that's interesting to be Tua being in the National championship
game again. All that stuff's interesting to me. I don't know if it's just me though, you know, like, if I'm a fan who doesn't run a podcast, is that something that's really going to reel me in and make me want to watch this game? The ratings I think are really going to tell a pretty big story here after the fact.
Yeah, I guess. I just and I don't worry too much about rating stuff and what people do or don't care about. I can only speak for myself, and it's just it's year over years, it's just tougher. It's just like I just I want an awesome USC team to show up, or I want, you know, a Michigan team, you know, want you want variety, tie I just want somebody and I can't blame Alabama or Clemson for just
happening to be consistently excellent. It's just, you know, at a certain point, it's just like, Yep, we got it. These are the deepest, most talented teams. Cool.
Yeah, If anything, the playoff confirmed what we thought the whole year through.
Yeah, it was a very h what's it called? In the NCAA tournament just sort of went chalk went chalk.
It absolutely went chalk. Clemson out Obama. The been the best two teams all year. Again, we'll preview that game. That show is going to drop later on Thursday night if you're listening to us before Thursday. The other tidbit that I did want to mention here and I didn't want to litter the beginning of the show with this, but there are now rumors about Brian Kelly potentially being interested in the NFL.
Dan what more does he have to prove? Ty go undefeated and lose a huge game? Comfortably done it twice now at Notre Dame. Yeah, do you think do you think it is conceivable?
Is it conceivable? Sure, it's conceivable. Okay, you know, there's no doubt that there was mutual interest between Brian Kelly in the NFL a couple of years ago, to some degree that may still exist. I think if he wants to make the move, now is probably the time. We can joke about track record on the biggest stages in the college game. But he's fifty seven. If you want wants to make a move, it probably makes sense that his stock's never going to get higher than it is
right now, so that now would be the time. This, though, strikes me as Brian Kelly's agent feeding a story to the media big time. His agent is Trace Armstrong, who, for people who aren't familiar with the college football agent business, Trace Armstrong sort of has a thing for playing this media game. He's really good at it.
Most agents too.
Yeah, and the reporting here is a little too vague for my liking for it to be something that is.
Truly from college people, or is it from NFL people?
Now it's from radio people, Okay, Yeah, you know, like most of the articles that are being written, or at least the rumors that have surfaced, are that Kelly's a quote coach of interest, right, And most of the same articles also say that the Bucks are willing to pay
something like ten million dollars a year for coach. They really want to make a splash, right, But now that this has gone through one media cycle, what's happening is that both points are kind of melding together and instead of them being mutually exclusive, now it's the Bucks would be willing to pay Brian Kelly ten million dollars, which I that can't be true and shouldn't be true for
him to get Pete Carroll money. Right, So, I think this is positioning itself as a leverage play by BKA to try and get some more money because he's not the highest paid coach in college football. He's getting he does pretty well. But you know this to me as the hallmark of a agent created leverage play to get more money.
Yeah, I'm saying radio guy out of Chicago. No, So it's not a big NFL newsbreaker saying this from the NFL side.
I don't know it could happen. I wouldn't blame him if he wanted to cash in his chips then take a stab at the pro game.
As of an hour ago, an NFL reporter for ESPN, Jenna Lane, says there are no plans for the Bucks to interview Brian Kelly. At this time, the only interviews that she has personally confirmed are Eric b Enemy and George Edwards.
Sokay.
From the NFL's perspective, it doesn't seem like Brian Kelly is a bright, sparkling name for that job right now. That could change.
I will believe it when I see it. He's certainly accomplished a lot at the college level. If he wants to make that move, I think now be the time for But I believe it when I see it.
On the flip side, though, the Tampa Bay Bucks also do not have to join a college conference. This is true, So there's a familiarity there. Ty, This is very true.
All right, anything else that we need to discuss here on tonight's show.
No, do you have a good New Year's You do anything fun?
Well, Dan, it's funny you should ask about New.
Year's calog any toilets.
In New Year's Day. I found myself on a bit of a conquest, a journey, if you will, yeah, to find stores that were open on New Year's Day to buy the toilet plunger so I could do a little amateur plumbing here at the New Homestead.
Would you have for New Year's Eve dinner.
New Year's Eve dinner just ordered in. Had had some Italian takeout, okay, how about you.
Well that that'll clog a toilet tie as I mentioned, went out and got Italian food chicken, palm, garlic bread. Had had a sort of doughnut looking thing with dual sight alecha some caramel inside. Wonderful, and then watched half a Netflix movie with Jody with and I before she fell asleep at nine thirty. And then I watched some of the football that I miss and fell asleep by ten forty five, so I didn't make it past the
ten thirty threshold, but not by much. And then New Year's Day had the in laws over made my dip, posted the picture of the dip actually a gift of the dip online if you see it. It was on Twitter feed, and watched games. That's it eight dip watch games. Can't complain.
I walked back into the house with the plunger over my shoulder. A hero returns, that's right, like I was Frodo marching to Mordor Dan.
We really did bookend this show Lord of the Rings references. We did, so that must mean it's a sign to end.
All right, Well, yeah, as we said a couple times, we're going to be doing our official National Championship preview excuse me, college Football Playoff National Championship preview show tomorrow. That will drop as a separate show and in place of our normal Sunday show. If we drop that on Sunday,
most people probably don't have a chance to listen. So that'll be out tomorrow night, and our next show after that will then be Tuesday, probably dropping late morning yep on Tuesday, as we review the National Championship game again between Clemson and Alabama.
I should say ty because we mentioned it a few times that we're not going to the Bay Area for the National Championship Game and had mentioned that, well, maybe we'll do like a watch party or something in New York. Unfortunately, we did try to make it happen. There are some scheduling conflicts that we really tried to move around, but it's just it's not in the cards this year. And I can speak for both of us and say we're bumped.
We'll make it happened, but you're gonna have to find somewhere else and some other beautiful podcasters to watch this this game with.
Yep, yep. We will do our best though through hollows to twenty nineteen to meet as many of you as we can.
Yes, we're very excited for twenty nineteen. Got some big, weird, fun, cool plans. Even we say that a lot, but this year we meet.
This is big for us. Yeah yeah, all right for sure. Well on that note for that, go over there, Dan Rubinstein for myself over here in East turn Pennsylvania, Ty Hillton Brandt. We will be back, I guess a day from now. Talk more to college football with all y'all. In the meantime, they solved peace