Welcome to the solid verbal. Call that for me.
I'm a man, I'm for I've heard so many players say, well I want to be happy.
You want to be happy for day Edith state is that whoo whoom?
And Dan and Tye welcome back to the solid verbal boys and girls.
My name is ty Hildebrand joining me again my good friend over there in New York City.
Dan Rubinstein, sir, how are you part two? Tye?
Part ar duh Pardieu Pardieu. I'm excited, Tye. We have again. We have like seventeen now, we have eighteen pages of questions that we are trying to get through. We decided to do this mega Q and a preseason show. Obviously, Part one came out on Wednesday. Thrilled uh to welcome and Ross Tucker to that show to talk about I forget what you defined Wisconsin offense, Wisconsin's office their beefy, but it was like optimal beef poenis there was a good turn of phrase that you used.
Thank you, Jeffy.
Well, we had a fun time on Wednesday. We've got more questions that we're going to pull from here. I do want to start with a question to you though, because some folks are going to be listening to our Wednesday show immediately before this show, So to truly be a pro and establish some continuity, I want to ask you a very important question about Italian food, just to
get things kicked off here. When we're talking about lasagna, and you know my theory about Italian restaurants, so I like to order the same thing at every Italian restaurant so that I can properly gauge which one is better than the others.
I like that we're starting this out with previously on the solid verb. That's right exactly, and it's about lasagna.
My thing is not lasagna, but some sort of dish with vodka sauce. So whether it's Penny vodka or Rigatoni vodka, I like to gauge how good an Italian restaurant is by the quality of its vodka sauce.
It's like a creamy, a creamy tomato sauce.
Do you have anything like that?
Yeah? If I'm in a pizza mood, either some form of pepperoni or soaprosda, some sort of spicy cured meat pizza. And if I'm in a more meaty mood, it'll be chicken palm okay, and if it's more pasta, so I guess it sort of depends on the category. If we're talking more pasta, it'll be like a rigged Tony and like a meat sauce, a bowlin AT's type thing.
Didn't you have chicken parmesan when we went to the Italian restaurant all day in Chicago?
I most certainly did tie and it was wonderful.
Yeah.
Well, don't forget that Chicago Live Show is going to be posted on Wednesday if you're interested in hearing who we selected at our Fantasy Things draft at the Vidim Theater. We had a great crowd, We had great fun. Afterwards. I ate two and a half chicken tenders for those
of you playing the home game. And yes, as I gave away the game a bit, I did dress up as a Pilgrim during our unrecorded Q and an segment to make good on my promise to wear a Pilgrim outfit if Virginia Tech beat Virginia in the Commonwealth Cup in twenty seventeen, which.
Was a dumb thing to say. I know it.
I love the fire though. I love that you were so confident about a relatively inconsequential game.
But I wasn't confident. This is what happens when I try to do a hot take.
I would say the self confidence, not the confidence in the Yeah, okay, yeah, I'm fine that. I love the confidence in yourself. You made good on it. You looked wonderful. It was a cheap Amazon costume, but you you made it work ty.
For those who have asked. For those who are interested, there will be future live shows. Dan and I are working on it. Stay tuned. Sign up for the newsletter at soliverbal dot com. The brand newssliverbal dot com courtesy of our friends over at Superboss.
All Right, I tease this question in part one Corny in Dunwoodie. It's from Reddit, longtime listener. Yeah, your TV has broken and won't change. The channel not moving this Friday afternoon of Labor Day weekend and oh my god, I gotta edit these before we get into it. So basically, your TV breaks the Friday afternoon of Labor Day weekend and you're stuck on one single channel the whole weekend, can't watch on your phone, iPad, laptop. Which channel would
your preference be to be stuck on? For those what seventy two hours.
See now this is a very good question. Yeah, go ahead.
So the options are ABC, CBS, Fox, NBCESPN, Big Ten Network, Fox Sports One, and the SEC network. Now we can go over all the games, but we're not going to. Now that's just reading a lineup. What is your answer of those options?
See here here's the tough part for me. The Notre Dame game against Michigan is going to be on NBC. There's not going to be any other college football on NBC. You're gonna be watching like golf all weekend, right if you pick NBC. So I don't think, as someone who hosts a Soliverbal I could pick NBC. I think I have to keep tabs on it through the Pontiac game changing performances or halftime shows. I think you gotta go with ABC, though the biggest games are generally on ABC.
Sure, not a lot of highlights, though, you're not going to be oppressed of college football beyond the big games.
But you're not gonna go Fox. What games are on Fox.
FAU Oklahoma would be feisty North Carolina, col Akro, Nebraska.
I think you probably gotta go ABC just so that you can first hand watch the biggest games of the weekend save for Notre Dame in Michigan.
So my answer is ABC. You have Auburn, Washington, BAM, Milouisville, and LSU Miami, all neutral side games. So the flavor of college football outside of that Ohio State Oregon State game, you're not really getting opening weekend, which kind of sucks. I figured there was going to be good ABC program. You maybe watched some Saturday Morning cartoons in ABC before the game start. Guess what I learned today? ABC does not have Saturday Morning cartoon.
No.
God, that's been not a single like eight years one. Really, Yeah, do.
Any of the networks have Saturday Morning cartoons?
Maybe the Cartoon Network, Well.
I mean cartoon I'm sure there's like Noggin or a channel like that cartoons specific Yeah, I think the answer is ABC. Although ESPN gives you the immersive college football experience because you're getting game Day, you're getting the halftime in the in between shows, you're getting Game Day final whatever.
What means more to you having an immersive college football experience all weekend where you can stay abreast of the situation but can't watch all the games, or being able to watch the three biggest games or three of the biggest games all weekend without having the extra baggage of the scoreboard shows.
I'm going to say, I'm actually going to switch to ESPN. I'm going to learn more about the college football weekend from ESPN, and after the weekend is over, I can go back and watch the specifics of those big games on NBC and ABC.
I think, if you're a normal person, the answer is ABC. I think if you're Dan and I and you have to do a podcast on Sunday, the only answer is ESPN, because otherwise we're not ready to do the show Sunday morning.
Right, All right, where are we going?
All right? Next question, let's go to Oh I love this question. We're gonna have to pull up week one of the schedule, okay, because in a couple weeks we actually have to preview these But Nick wants to know which first week game will be deceptive and give us the wrong opinion about two teams, also known as what first week game is most likely to be? The Tyrone Swoops game from twenty sixteen Notre Dame Texas twenty sixteen where Notre Dame season was not good?
Right?
If I remember correctly, That is correct. That's very Texas season. Yeah, not good right.
Where we thought we had like two heavyweights just smashing each other in the face, turns out it was it was a local match. It was a backyard brawl, not in a good way.
Okay. So I don't think Notre Dame Michigan's the answer here. I hope.
I think that's an option though it is definitely an option, but I don't think it's the answer here.
Is what game is misleading.
I think you could make a really strong case for Miami LSU.
I think that's not a bad answer.
Okay, because there are plenty of questions about Miami and their quarterback situation, and they're going against a really good defense. So Miami could be fine offensively moving forward, but could really struggle in that game. You could come away from watching that game and think, oh gosh, Miami offense. And then conversely, on the LSU side of things, we don't really know what we have with their offense, but Miami
should also be pretty good on defense. I could see that game being an outright slug fest where one team wins like seventeen to fourteen, and both teams. Yes, I realized this is LSU, but both teams end up having a way better offense and a much different team from that point forward.
I think that's reasonable. I'm going to say Virginia Tech Florida State because I think there is a chance this is an ugly game, not because one team blows out another team, but because of how new things are for both of these teams. Florida stay with the coaching staff overhaul and who knows who starts a quarterback, and Virginia Tech, with so many new faces on defense, offensively going to have to rely on a couple of new playmakers with the loss of a couple of standout guys on offense.
And Virginia Tech always feels like to me, where they start the season off, You know that Ohio State season, nonwithstanding the one they won that game, the year they won the game. But there's something that Virginia Tech is not a slow starter, but they need they It takes a little bit of momentum to get to week seven, Week eight, week nine, We're like, oh, Virginia Tech has the best defense in the ACC, Virginia Tech has an All American caliber wide receiver. There's I think they take
some time and I think there is. It's like a first half, maybe even three quarters of just you know, maybe a touchdown comes from a turnover, maybe a touchdown comes from a broken play where it's just not high level back and forth. But I think by the end of the season, Florida State we'll have a lot of momentum and Virginia Tech will have some much needed experience, especially on defense.
All right, rapid fire, rapid fire. Let's get through as many of these as we can. Here, it's like twenty minutes.
Troy wants to know what rule change could college football enact that would make you feel you weren't watching real football anymore. I don't. I don't even know what real football means. I guess if you like really couldn't tackle the quarterback something like that, if you could start challenging penalties, that's slippery to me in terms of it slows the game down a ton. You're taking power away from refs. I don't love that. But he has the second part
to this question. If you don't have a really good.
Answer, ty, go on, go on, I'm listening.
What is the dumbest rule in the college football rule book? And he says, hint, this one hurts me too. It's the fumble forward out of the end zone being a touchback for the other team, and that hurts me because I watched Cameron coleve and do that in two thousand and seven and it still hurts and they lost a cow on that. So I hate that rule. Yeah, and I'm not the biggest every pi is fifteen yards fan.
I'm not a huge proponent of that. I don't know what the middle ground is, but I'm not in love with it.
I'm still not in love with targeting, and targeting is my answer here, because no matter how many times they try to tweak it, I feel like it's poorly implemented. I understand the need to improve player safety. I understand the need to make sure that players aren't turning themselves into a missile with the helmet to try and enforce proper tackling technique, but on some level, football is going
to be a rough game. You can discourage behavior and still have it as part of the game just by the sheer consequence of people running at each other with full speed. So for me, I just I constantly feel like there's got to be a better way to implement targeting so that it discourages, but yet doesn't penalize in a way that is unjust so targeting for me, Always and forever is the answer here?
Okay? Fair enough? James wants to know if Syracuse goes four and eight again this season, or even five and seven, is it time for the Orange to move on from Dino Babers.
Here's the question that I would answer this question with, Ooh yeah. If not Dino Babers, then who then? Who? Who else are you gonna get?
It's a tough job, man.
I think Dino Babers is a good coach.
Dan sure, I'm not sure Syracuse is necessarily a school that you could turn around in three years. Ken Neo Mattalolo answer Ken Neo Matalolo for every single opening I just said, and he coaches within the same states. Jeff Monkin, Okay, Armies won a couple in a row against Navy, right overhauled everything there a team that had been in a bad, bad place.
Maybe my answer is Jeff Monkin. But I think the style of play that Dino Baber's employees should work relatively well at Syracuse. I think they should be able to compete for a Bowl every year.
Why are you convinced that the option is going to work somewhere. Didn't we see this experiment with Paul Johnson where they took him down at Georgia Tech and it hasn't really materialized in the way they hoped. Like, why are we so convinced that ken Niamtalolo is going to work somewhere else?
Ty, I'm old enough to remember the twenty fourteen Orange Bowl. I believe it was twenty fourteen, maybe twenty fifteen, whatever the season was when Georgia Tech won the Orange Bowl.
What have they done since then?
They've been fine? Okay, they haven't been They've been going to bowl games as Syracuse be going to bowl games. Nope, I ask you this, sir, they haven't. Uh, Georgia Tech has been fine, and I think it can work at a lot of places in which thinking a little bit differently about systems would go a long way.
Listen, I'm all about thinking differently. I'm just unconvinced. I'm unconvinced that this works wherever you put it.
I love the option, Tie, I know.
I think that's why you answer the way you do. That's what I'm getting at here, which is fine. That's a fine answer, I'm just saying I'm right. I remain unconvinced.
Who is the standalone This comes to us from Richard. Who is the standalone most exciting quarterback in the Power five this year? And why is your answer?
M M?
Is it philder Kovic? I guess he's technically not on a Power five team.
I think the answer is Kyler Murray. What the answer is Kyler Murray? What most exciting quarterback?
The answer is Kyle Shocked by that answer? Why?
Why is he the most exciting quarterback?
Because there is that secondary element to Kyler Murray, because if he blows a knee out, his other career that he signed five million dollars to get is suddenly in question.
So most exciting because the most thrilling, intense. At any moment, things could go terribly wrong.
I mean, the thrill of victory and agony of defeat is totally in play on every play for Kyler Murray. Wow, he could be really good. He could get twisted ankle and not play all year. There is an exciting storyline.
How exciting? Wow?
What you took this in such a dark way?
I think so you're living on the edge of your seat.
Man, I was I was just gonna say, Khalil Tait.
Well, Khalil Tate's the boring answer.
He could, but that's the right answer problem.
I mean, Will it's probably the right answer. Yeah's million right it. Trace mcsorley's the right answer too. But in terms of pure intrigue, man, I'm real excited to see how this Kyler experiment.
I'm going to part the words here. I'm gonna say exciting means and a positive context.
Oh well, then it's probably Kyler Murray or Trace mcswory.
It's still Kyler Murray.
Then it's probably Khalil Tait or Trace mcswory. Someone like that a boring or Wow.
Man, I love that you went dark, though I was unexpected. You're usually the bright shining light of this show. Next question, Oh, I like this question. Somebody asked about Stanford and Notre Dame and whether or not they can compete with their
opponents with their recruiting strategy. Ivan, do you think schools like Notre Dame, Stanford, Northwes, Northwestern, and other high academic schools will ever change their recruiting ways to more challenge schools like Ohio State and Alabama, For the nation's top recruits or is the gap too big to ever be bridged. I feel these schools commit significantly less time, energy, and resources, but are okay taking one to two shots at the playoff every ten years?
All right?
So there are things here that I in this question that I disagree with.
Like I first and foremost, like grouping Notre Dame with Stanford obviously.
Okay, Sure, No, I don't know if it's that the gap is so wide. I don't know if i'd say that. I also don't know if i'd say that they don't put the time and resources into the football program. Oh yeah, the way that other schools do that to me, seems like the opposite is true. What I would say, though, in answer to this question is that I don't think that they would change their ways because it really truly is woven into the fabric of who they are.
And I've talked about this before when we.
Address Notre Dame being an independent, right, and people from the outside look at it and say, wow, being an independent doesn't make sense. It's because Notre Dame is holier than thou and they just want to be different. And that could all be true, but you don't realize until you truly get closer to the Notre Dame football program how much they value that independence and how much they value it as part of their identity.
And I think the same.
Holds true for all the schools that have been mentioned here that like high academic standards are just sort of what they do. That's who they are, and in their world, they view that as a competitive advantage. So I don't envision that kind of mentality changing anytime soon. I just think it's what they've defined themselves as in who they will be moving forward.
For no real reason. In particular, I feel like you could convince.
Vanderbilt to be like, yeah, okay, all right, fine, Fandy's kind of in a different spot there.
Yeah, Duke has done a pretty good job, I mean on the basketball front of things over the years. You know, they've put in the effort recruiting, not football wise and in the same way, but they've built up that program nicely. No, I don't think Stanford Notre Dame, which are the two Power five ish programs that have come closest to the playoffs, with that level of academics, I don't think they're going to change things. First of all, they both recruit really well.
Their shortcomings are not necessarily allan thing. Stanford has beaten USC pretty consistently over these past few years with inferior recruiting classes. Stanford has been on the upper echelon of college football in terms of grouping top programs in the past what eight seven years something like that. That's an incredible accomplishment. And as far as resources go, they don't pay David Shaw one million dollars. No, they don't pay him a couple million dollars. They pay him many millions
of dollars. They just put a ton of money into their stadium and their facilities. They recruit nationally, which I mean so does Notre Dame. But as anybody that has to recruit nationally knows, in Stanford's case, because of grades and academic requirements, it is costly. It is costly to go into Texas and Georgia and Virginia as they have to get top level guys to get Kevin Hogan out
of Virginia, to get Andrew Luck out of Texas. Walker little you know, these guys are no joke, far away and costly to recruit, and Stanford has done a fantastic job of doing so and same goes for Notre Dame recruiting southern California, recruiting all over the Midwest, recruiting you know, Florida, recruiting anywhere that there is talent that can get into Notre Dame and wants to go to Notre Dame. Brian
Kelly and his staff will go after them. So I think they've put more resources than I think a lot of people think.
All right, where are we going next? Let's go too rapid fire, rapid fire, rapid fire.
Rapid fire, rapid fire. I'm scrolling way up. I just want to talk about Ed and Lisa McCaffrey some more. Okay with you, Maui beer guy, I feel like I know you. Yeah, Dan, you live in New York City, where there's an alumni slash fan bar for every major college football team. Have you ever gone to a bar of a team to watch one of their rivalry games? So, Lsubama Iowa Iowa State, just to enjoy the fandom and
energy of the game. If not, why the hell not? Okay? So, yes, my answer is yes, I've been to a bunch of these bars. I usually don't because I want to watch a lot of games at once, and I'd like to have my laptop on me to be checking things because of work and the podcast and everything. But the experience is phenomenal. I went to a West Virginia bar in midtown and want I don't remember. I think it was halftime.
It was West Virginia, god knows who, and players run off the field, volume goes down, take me home Country Road gets turned up. The whole place goes nuts singing it and it was incredible. But I have been for them some Thursday night games. I've been to a bunch of these. Part of the problem is also some of these bars are terrible. They're terrible bars who attract terrible people, not necessarily the college football fans, but the other people in that bar. So I've been to a bunch of them.
They're extremely fun. You just have to do some scouting. Like all things in life.
You got a scout, you got a scout, all right.
Have you been to any of the New York bars, the team bars, the alumni bars.
I feel like I've been. I feel like I was at a Michigan bar at one point.
I went to Professor Toms that's a Michigan bar in in the East village, real cramped but decent. Nacho's huge, All.
Right, real quick, Dan Jim wants to know, is it too early to drink pumpkin beer? Watching games during weeks one through four of the college football season. So pumpkin beer in September? Now, this is like poking at whether or not you like pumpkin beer. I'm gonna put that off to the side for a second and say that I saw pumpkin beer at Wegmans like two weeks ago. So it seems like they're trying to out pumpkin beer their competition by putting their pumpkin beer out earlier and
earlier every year. And so if you're into pumpkin beer, I think your best option is probably to drink it some time in September because the good ones are out really early. Now that is separate from the fact of whether or not you should be drinking pumpkin beer. And while we could probably do a whole other podcast episode on that, but the answer, Jim, I think is it is not too early, because if you're into it, it is required.
Consume what you'd like when you like time of year wise responsibly, and if you like pumpkin beer, drink your pumpkin beer. If you're hit by a bus and you haven't touched your pumpkin beer, nobody can say he went out like he lived full of pumpkin beer. Now you take advantage while we're all here.
Jordan says that LSU has now had four of their last twenty scholarship quarterbacks finish their college careers at LSU.
Not a question.
Just wanted to complain. Thanks forward, and I'm sorry. Lowell Narcis has announced that he is transferring. I believe I saw that McMillan maybe transferring as well, so that quarterback competition between Joe Burrow and Miles Brennan appears to be at least somewhat narrowed down. We will find out more about that as obviously we get closer to the football season. Hopefully some folks are reading the Attle Athletic, the Athletic dot com slash solid Verbal and check it out.
Bless you.
Sorry, Ty got overwhelmed. What is what is your what is your view of that LSU situation? It is troubling, Well, it's troubling looking at the future and I don't know. I compared it from the Solid Verbal account to a restaurant space that no matter who moves in. If it's a kebab place, if it's a pizza place, if it's a cookie place, nobody's succeeding. I don't know if it's a if it's just cursed burial ground.
Well, it is not a talent thing. It is not a talent thing.
A bunch of changed positions. If you remember Russell Sheppard coming a safety.
Yeah, I don't think it's a talent thing.
I think the talent that they're bringing in is obviously high end enough to support having a really good quarterback at LSU. It is either recruiting the wrong kind of quarterback for a system, or the coaching one or the other. It has to be one of those two things, because I really don't think it's the raw talent.
I think Russell Sheppard moved to receiver, by the way, more I think about it, not safety. But we'll see, man, I don't know. I just I think it's because there has been weird continuity and at a certain point every program needs to be torn down and rebuilt back up. And you know ed Origron is a less Miles assistant, less miles being there forever, there's just certain ideas and certain ways of doing things that carry over and perhaps offensively.
Now Steve Wensminger takes over the offense. He was the previous interim coach under ed Oorgron when he took over a couple of years ago. Now that Matt Canada's gone, there's just something that I just it needs to be rethought with new people. And I think eventually LSU will develop and succeed with quarterbacks that they themselves recruits. I just and Joe Burrow could succeed, but he's not a you know, not an LSU quarterback in the way that
recruits are. He wasn't developed through that system. I don't know.
All right, Dan, We're going to do two rapid fire questions and then we've got a special interview to bring people. I'm gonna take one for myself here and then you get to pick one for your all right. Uh, Anthony wants to know, especially for Tie, am I a sheets.
Guy or a wah wah guy.
Oh my god, Tye, please answer.
The answer here is woah wah. Okay, the only answer is wah wah here, So count me down to guy.
Let's start at the beginning, because I assume we have people that are listening outside of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Yeah, so what does this question mean? Yea two?
Yeah, these are two convenience stores slash gas stations slash places where you can go and get an mto sandwich that are what may to order, Oh my god, one of the little time screens. Sure so, sheets I think started up around your state college or Altoona, and wah Wah started here in eastern Pennsylvania. It's kind of like a staple here in eastern Pennsylvania. I think the wah wah subs and certainly the wah Wah coffee are a lot better than sheets.
What makes I've seen this all over My friend Sam goes to New Jersey. I think it's from New Jersey, and he's always taken pictures of his woah wah sub wa wa. What makes it so good?
You know?
I've never been able to pinpoint it, but all I can say is it's it's probably the bread on the sandwich that feels a little fresher, whereas sheets is more of like a subway, kind of like manufactured sub It feels like wah Wah has a freshness quotient that's a little higher.
Wah wah the freshness quotient. It's a free advertise, so it's sort of like how people in Florida and the Southeast feel about publics. I don't think not comparing the quality of the two, but there is just something locally and tribal about locally desirous about the WA. I need to try it the next time I come out there. Yeah, we gotta go. Okay, sometime this season will do it. And final question, you get to pick Okay, we don't talk about this enough, even though we've mentioned it before.
Let's go to our old friend Dan, who I believe is talking about taking his dad to football games and where to go Like the bucket listing miss because there is an element of people listen to the show, people who are just college football fans. There's like that second Bachelor party. Me and my buddies get together every year we try to see a new college football place. Sure, we've taken a form of this question many times, but he's taking his dad to LSU, which is absolutely on
that list, if not the top of the list. It's the first time going on a trip like this. What other stadiums should they or anybody see? And is Michigan, his home state, A good pick for twenty nineteen. To answer his quiet first question, absolutely, and arbors great. The Big House is great. It's something that everybody should see. It is one of those places, one of those locales that helped to define what college football is. And if
you haven't been, I've never I take that back. I went to Michigan Ohio State in two thousand and seven, but it's been a long time since I've been to the Big House for a game, and I can't wait to go back. Ty, you have not traveled extensively in the way that I have no facts only what would you say if you were getting together with the fellas? Yeah, go see a college town. Nobody's been to go see a stadium a big game. What boxes would you try to check?
Well, I mean one that I'm dynasty is Clemson a great time. I'm dynasty.
Clemson tougher to get to, yeah, but worth it.
Tougher to get to and kind of along the same lines, Blacksburg is another one than that has really tough to get to. Yeah, a rich tradition, but maybe a little
bit off the beaten path. The super fun third that I would throw out there be Madison, Wisconsin because you know, it might not be in a deep South and the weather might be a bit colder come middle to the end of the season, but everyone talks about the incredible tradition in Madison, and you know, I know our two Q and AH shows have been pretty heavy on Wisconsin here, but Madison, Wisconsin continually comes up among people who I know and trust as one of the coolest places to
watch college football.
Tennessee is very fun. Ole miss is fun and different within the SEC I've been to most place, most of the bigger places. Tennessee it's enormous, and it's like the Big House in that it houses you know, one hundred and ten thousand people or something like that, but it's banked a lot more dramatically. The stands are so you really feel fans on top of you down by the field. So I would definitely say Tennessee Washington is a great time and it's also red on the lake and people
are also tailgating on boats across the Big twelve. Austin is a great town, but the experience of going to a Texas game is not all that overwhelming, So I would say, you know, still Water is a little out there in terms of distance from a major airport, but not too bad. Norman as well. Norman's not that far from Oklahoma City. I'm trying to think it's stadiums I haven't been to that I'd like to go to. Ohio State's fun Ohio Stadium is also one of those enormous places.
But getting out of the Big Ten, getting out of the SEC. Clemson is a good answer. Miami does, probably not worth it. Florida State is fine, but I don't know if I'm putting it up with the rest of them. I think that's everything I really have.
Yeah, I mean, there are plenty of other ones that we've been to that are really good, you know, like Notre Dames and Experience and Penn State's and Experience. But for me anyway, those are my three answers. Clemson, Penn State, is Wisconsin difficult to get to, Yeah, Penn State.
I flew into Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh is no Pennsylvania tie.
It's long, Manross Holy and it's well, it's five hours across, and then you drive an hour and a half and it's like ooh, detour real quick, yep, and then you're going around things and there are no lights on the highways or the interstates.
It's it's a it's a far away drive from everything. That's well, that's what I will say. You know what, I'll give one more answer. West Virginia is a good time.
Yeah, Morgantown, baby.
West Virginia, Morgantown, you can you can fly into Pittsburgh. It's not that far from Pittsburgh. Morgantown's a good time.
So here's how we're going to close out.
We talked about how we didn't have a chance to really preview Conference USSA right.
Well at Conference USA West.
I believe Conference to USA West we have done something that no other college football podcast has done. That's right, previewing their conferences before the start of the season. Dan, We're going to close out on that note, correct.
We are going to close out on this note. Obviously, Conference the Western Division of Conference USA has a lot of interesting teams, a lot of teams who have made noise in various way in recent years. We had seth latrelle on the North Texas head coach earlier during our scheme theme month, and I just figured why not actually
go to the source. So I had a conversation with starting tight end Kelvin Smith, about all things North Texas, How camp is going, how the season's looking, the rest of the team's across Conference USA, where the Mean Green might improve a little bit, And let me tell you something, I'm a little bit higher on Mason Fine and the Mean Green than I was before. So here it is. And with that we are now joined by Kelvin Smith, tight end h back North Texas the Mean Green. Yes, sir, successful,
huge offense. They go nine and three last year. And to everybody who says we are not looking out for really really good group of five teams, my goodness, we've got a star in the making. Kelvin, how are you?
I'm going good?
How bout just?
I am wonderful. I am pump to talk to you. You guys were extraordinarily fun to watch last year. I expect more fun things this year. You're on the John McKie Award watch list. So everything is looking good. In August, how's camp so far?
It's going good. We're about midway through and we're just going outside, going out there and competing, flying around and just making each other bet every single day.
Is what's the difference. Obviously this will be your third year on the field for North Texas. What's the difference between I guess the year two off season last year when the offense is installed, you know, the team improves, you know, it becomes sort of feisty, and then last year going to a flat out winning team. What's an off season like after that kind of improvement?
It was just changing the standard, just continuing to raise it because everybody has an understanding of the playbook of the scheme, So now it's just time to just continue to raise the standard and expect more out of each other.
So do you feel like the playbook is going to be I mean, not to give state secrets away, but similar do you think you know you're staying ahead of the curve? Do you think there are tweaks? Do you think there are things that are being overhauled? How do you look at what your responsibility is going to be as this offense evolves?
I think the playbook, I mean, it's about the same every now and then we add in different tweeks and adjustments for specific things. But I mean our mindset is always we can go out there with two or three plays, and our mindset is just go out there and execute those two or three plays all game and nobody should be able to stop with That's just the mentality we have when we step on a field.
What is your view of the teams you played last year? Obviously some top teams getting a lot of attention. You finish out the season in somewhat disappointing fashion in the bowl game. But North Texas in a bowl game is you know, it's a big deal, It's an accomplishment. How do you view Conference USA as it stands now? You feel like it's getting to a really good place. You know, who stands out in your mind right now within the conference.
I'll say FAU Louisiana Tech, but honestly, up and down. I feel like the whole schedule and the whole conference is starting to rise. And it's not many guys that you can look past them and be like, oh, that's the easy duve. I mean, every single team is going to come out here and give.
Us all they have a couple of a few weeks last year, you know you had to score forty to win some games. Obviously, the defense is a work in progress. You're looking into this defense every practice against the ones, against the twos, wherever, where do you expect this defense to improve with another year of experience.
I expect them to just continue to just improve in every phase.
I mean another year in the scheme.
Coach Reford is taking over full time for his second year, so they just they're settling it into that scheme real well, and they're competing with us every day and making us better every single day.
And give me a name on offense that you expect. You know, obviously Mason's name is one that is growing and growing. But among the pass catchers, who do you expect to outside of you to to increase their visibility? Who do you think America will find more out about this year?
You're going to see a.
Lot of Jalen Darden.
He switches number one, so he'll be wearing number one. But he's electric with the ball in his hand. And I usually get a lot of credit for my versatility, but I think he's right up there with me from a versatility standpoint. You can literally put him anywhere on that offense and you go to see, uh, just him make plays all over the field.
So you have Coach Latrelle's ear. Obviously he's called you very versatile. But within a versatile offense, and you bring a tight end in h back if you have his ear and you're able to say, use me like this, put me in this kind of position, Put use me on this kind of play. Do you want you know, do you want to carry out of the backfield? Do you want a trick play pass? Do you want you know, to be up the scene more? What is your desire out of the tight end position for twenty eighteen?
I mean, it's it's really about the same as it was with twenty seventeen. Just continuing to expand my role in the passing game. But my mindset has always been I'm a primary blocker and that's that's just what I love to do. I have a pass for blocking, and I'll get I'll get excited when they dial up a run play more more excited when they dial up a run play rather than the pass play for me.
Excellent. And what do you expect out of the offense outside of you this year? What has been the big difference in in your quarterback? Mason Fine as he enters year three, putting up big numbers and becoming a bigger name.
Just more confidence. I mean I remember him coming in as a freshman, in coming in that first game against SMU and the season opener, and he came out there with a lot of confidence, but throughout the season it got shattered and shaped up a little bit. But over the past two years he's just showing just more confident taking the offense and the team by to him and just being a great leader for US.
Kelvin Smith, thank you very much for your time and good luck this year.
I appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Boom.
There you go, Dan Yep, And to go through the rest quickly of the division. Louisiana Tech Skip Holtz should be pretty decent and balanced on offense. I like them a good amount. Southern Miss just not there yet. UAB should have a really good defense, replacing a couple of key parts, but remains an unbelievable story. Bill Clark has hired his old offensive coordinator back to that position to
sort of regain the old magic UTSA. You know, they lose Marcus Davenport in a couple of big pieces on defense, but I think they're still going to be there. I would file them under your very exclusive pluckiness rankings.
Ty Yeah, and.
UTEP is going to They're going to struggle first year coach former Kansas State. I think offensive coordinator Dana Demmel. I'm pronouncing everything wrong. UTEP's going to struggle. But that's all I have on you go, Minors.
Go miners.
Okay, Well, thank you again to everyone who downloaded the show who listened in. We've got our Fantasy Things show coming up on Wednesday. Dan and I will be back to record next Sunday, a new show as we gear up for the college football season. The next show after our next show is going to be our Week one preview.
Oh my god, ty we did it?
The dull drums are we got through? About over? Yeah? Oh my god.
We've got a cool show, by the way planned for So the Fantasy Things Draft Live from Chicago is Wednesday, yes, and then Sunday, So a week from this episode will be a new type of episode that we've never done. And it's just sort of a tweaked System System season preview.
In our own way, entirely naked.
I am pretty pomped for this time. Yeah, I'm good to go.
All right, Well, everyone, hope you enjoy the Fantasy Thing Show. We will catch up with all y'all in about a week with a new show that we're very excited about in the time, keep the tweets and Facebook messages and Instagram comments coming. Don't forget to check out the subreddit Reddit dot com slash our slash solid Verbal. Go to our new website courtesy of our friends over at superboss at solid verbal dot com and sign up for the newsletter of Intent, where of course you will get all
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So much is happening, ty, what going on?
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Enjoy your week Enjoy our fantasy thing show. Dan and I will be back next Sunday. In the meantime, as always, stay solid Peace,
