Welcome to the solid verbal ull 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 a day? Edo steak is that woo woom?
And then and tie, welcome back to the solid verbal Boys and girls, my name is Ty Hildebrand. That fine gentleman over there are the one. They only still be a comparable Dan Rubinstein, except he is still out.
In beautiful Sonny, southern California.
How are you you might be able to hear the rain? It has not been Sonny. It has not been beautiful. It has been gray, It has been foggy, it has been cold. Like you ever play with a kid in a garage?
Tie, ya, that's.
What we've been doing. So there's a little bit of fresh air and he doesn't get drenched.
The three year old.
We've got like a sand table with a bunch of trucks and tractors. We're kicking balls. We brought out basketball hoops, so we're making the best of the situation. Tie, but not Sonny. Not beautiful hopefully the next few day, but a little bit nicer.
Well, hopefully wherever this finds you, it is in good spirits, in good health. It is the final day of twenty twenty one. Good ridd is. We are moving on, going on to all things twenty twenty two. But this episode will find most of our listeners on New Year's Eve, so you can already understand where this show is going to go. We're going to take some New Year's resolutions
here that we got from the verballer Hood. We're going to give some of our own, not just with respect to ourselves, that's boring, but with respect to our teams. Be it Notre Dame, suren State or Oregon or Oklahoma or USC or happeace yeah, laugh, yeah, and Lehi. You know the drill. We've got resolutions not only for ourselves but for our respective teams, and we've got some that we collected from the Verballerhood. We put out that call yesterday on the social feeds, so we'll get into that.
We're going to start though, by doing a bunch of bowl recaps, because where we left it a week ago was with the Myrtle Beach Bowl, and a bunch of games have gone on. There's been some cancelations, what sucks, but we'll talk about that here momentarily we'll go through all that and much much more. Don't forget to subscribe to the show though. Start your twenty twenty two off incorrect fashion by subscribing to the Solid ver Ball by rating by reviewing both on Apple and on Spotify. You
can do it in both places. Now I guess you can't review on Spotify, but you can now start to rate the show. We would appreciate your five star rating. If you do like the show, please do subscribe. Follow whatever the nomenclature is. It'd be great to be with you in twenty twenty two. Also, now I understand that not everybody is going to listen to this before the college football playoff, but a number of you will. Don't forget to check out our live hype streams as we're
calling them. I just came up with that. I hope you like it.
You be honest. Were you peeing while you came up with it?
No? No, no, no no no no no no no. Hype streams are going to be starting at three pm Eastern and seven pm Eastern over on our YouTube channel. Solid Verbal. YouTube channel is at YouTube dot com. Slash the Solid Verbal, Go on out, subscribe, hit the bell do all that stuff that you're supposed to do on YouTube. Half hour live streams are going to start up at three and at seven before the kickoff of both playoff semifinals.
We're also going to be doing live audio chats through the course of the games, not from start to finish, but at various points throughout each of the semifinals on verballers dot com or Patreon in the Discord server. That is just teaming and overflowing and always exciting to be part of. We would encourage you to go on out there and check out for Ballers dot com if you want to jump in and be part of that. The only other bit of housekeeping I have is solid Giveaway
dot Com. Solid Giveaway dot Com. A new friend of the show, Desmond Howard. We've got a sign mini helmet from him that we're gonna be giving out. You've got like four or five free steps that you need to complete for us to get your name in that hat. We're going to draw the winner on the day of the National Championship January the tenth.
Everything I have, why don't we dive into bowl recaps Dan Let's bawl recaps.
So we've got a bunch of games here. We also had five games that were canceled, either because one of the teams or both of the teams were dealing with COVID issues. In the case of the Arizona Bowl, Central Michigan just decided we're gonna go to the Sun Bowl instead.
We're gonna they opted in to another bowl.
Yeah, we're gonna chase that Tony the Tiger money and no offense barstool, but we're going to play in the Sun Bowl instead, So right, Those were the Military Bowl between Boston College and ECU, the Holiday Bowl between NC State and UCLA, the Holliday Bowl. Tried feverishly to find somebody else that could play NC State instead of UCLA, but that was not gonna happen, The Wasabi Fenway Bowl, which is a bummer because a game in Fenway Park.
Would have been cool.
Yeah, it would have been cool to say SMU and UVA is off. The Hawaii Bowl between Memphis and Hawaii is also off. And then the aforementioned barstool Arizona Bowl that was previously scheduled between Boise and Central Michigan. Central Michigan going to greener pastures to play Wazoo in the Sun Bowl and said, so, those are the five games that
are off. Hopefully there won't be more after we hit the stop button of this recording, but at least at present, it seems as if the remainder of the bowl lineup will remain intact.
Yes, I saw a lot of emotion out there, said especially about the cancelation of the Hawaii Bowl on I think it was Christmas Eve right that there was. It was a day without a lot of other sporting act and Hawaii is very closely aligned. The state of Hawaii is very closely aligned with the holidays. And you know, you're you're sitting around with your family and there's just a college football game to enjoy when nothing else is competing, and we lost it. That that kind of.
Sucked absolutely, So hopefully this will not continue to be a thing throughout the Remainner Bowl season at time of recording. Isn't At time of recording, We've got the bowl game going on between North Carolina and South Carolina, the New Border War if you will, the Duke's Mayo Bowl. Yep, we will update you if we find out who is getting the Duke's Mayo Bath. Wow, do we need? Must? We must? We update, we will paint that in as
detailed in audio way as we can. If and when it goes down during the course of this recording, Oh.
My god, I just I know they watered down the mayo. I wondered the viscosity, how quickly it slides and ooz is out of the giant Okay, the giant kerraf or whatever it's in the gatorade cooler that it's in. I wonder if but like it has, is it a slow like, Oh, this is awkward, it's coming out so slowly? Or is it going to be a slushy mayo?
Man? Water down mayo sounds brutally terrible. Yeah, that sounds awful.
A weirdly accurate description of Mac Brown at times, though.
Water down mayo, Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. You're not wrong, Okay. Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl, San Diego State thirty eight utsa twenty four back and forth game for a half, San Diego State pulled away in the second half nearly five hundred yards of offense for the Aztecs, which is not at all what we've grown accustomed to seeing throughout the course of the twenty twenty one season, but they're led by Lucas Johnson, who threw
for three thirty three and three touchdowns. He also ran for a score. UTSA had an op doubt from Sincere McCormick. Your boy, right, so they're a bit shorthanded. They end up losing this one thirty eight twenty four.
I believe Lucas Johnson in the transfer portal after winning that game?
Is he not? I don't believe.
I believe so, yeah, yeah, I think it's a similar case. Yeah, Lucas Johnson enters the transfer portal. Matta Rise of the records setting punter entered the NFL draft through his name into the NFL Draft mix. And I want to say Wyoming's quarterback did the same thing, which prompted Craig Bowl to announce that Wyoming is open for business. Right quarterbacks interested in playing for Wyoming after they won their bowl game. Levi Williams, I believe is the name of there.
Yeah, Levi Williams. But you're right, That's what I was going to talk about. Next the famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Wyoming won fifty two to twenty eight over Kent State. This game was a ton of fun. I don't know if he had a chance to catch it. But a ton of fun. Ninety points, close to twelve hundred yards of total offense, no turnovers, so just all offense, no defense. Kent State, which plays at a breaknecking pace, had over three hundred yards through the air and on the ground,
which is crazy because they lost. Well the last time a team did that and lost. I don't have the Elias Sports Bureau on speed dial, but I got to imagine that's a pretty deadly combination. Four hundred and eleven yards on the ground for Wyoming and their rushing offense,
which ultimately proved victorious. You mentioned Levi Williams in the transfer portal set a record sixteen rushes, two hundred yards and four touchdowns on the ground here for the famous side of hope Potato Bowl win dedicated the game to his grandmother who passed away. So that's a nice gesture for Levi. We hope he's doing okay, and we know he did okay in this game statistically speaking, in for his team as they won fifty two to twenty eight over Kent State.
Yeah, penalty is a bit of a killer at times for Kent State in this one. Twelve for ninety five yards is what I'm seeing here. But this was Yeah, there were playmakers in this game. I enjoyed when I saw this.
The Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl Army twenty four MISSOO twenty two. This was a nail bier. Indeed, came down to the wire. Army wanted on a forty one yard field goal at the gun. Here is the way this thing shook out. Brady Cook, who was Missouri's quarterback a red shirt freshman, tossed a short touchdown pass with just over a minute left, one to eleven to be exact. That makes it twenty two to twenty one. They failed on the two point conversion. They go into those final
seventy one ticks with a narrow one point lead. It's at that point in time where Jeff Monkin reaches within and he says, you know what, why don't we just bring in our third string quarterback called off the bench? Yep, what is Jabbari laws doing right now? He started for us in twenty nineteen, Maybe he'd be interested in going out as a senior on high note here. So he brings him in and Jabbari Loss freaking does it? He
freaking does it? He leads the Black Knights down the field for that forty one yarder at the gun to win it. Army, in doing so wins the game twenty four to twenty two. They snap a seven game losing streak against Power five opponents in as you would expect the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces ball because of course it's the United States Army. Yeah.
No, a terrific performance getting creative in the bowl game against an SEC team. And I don't know how you feel about the narrative, like, oh, the SEC is ohing whatever, overrated. I don't know how you feel about that. But Army winning a bowl game, winning, how they have beating some of the teams they have along the way, or hanging with the teams almost beating the teams along the way these past two three, four years or whatever. It's an
amazing reflection on Jeff Monkins. So yeah, miszoo down. I mean, it's down, guys. They were playing a lot of young guys, but either way, this was this was Army's win for sure.
Over at the Frisco Football Classic. Remember this is the game they just invented. Correct, Miami, Ohio twenty seven, North Texas fourteen, Brett Gabert. He is the younger brother of Blaine Gabbertt. You remember that crazy guy. Of course, Brett Gabert named the MVP for Miami Ohio the game. Listen to this. This is the most impressive thing to me about this game. This game ended a streak of one hundred and forty one consecutive RedHawks games played on artificial turf.
It dates all the way back to twenty ten, when Miami Ohio opened at Florida one hundred and forty one straight games. That record is snapped because of the Frisco Football Classic, which apparently was not played an artificial turf. For what it's worth, Seth Latrelle now zero to five in bowl games in six seasons at North Texas.
Yeah, the Miami defense came to play via turnovers by I think they shut them out in the second half, did they not?
Yep?
Yep.
Yeah, so came to play. Good for taking advantage of a situation where you get seen by a bunch of eyeballs and come out and get to They came in five hundred, finished the season seven and six. Brett Gabbert had a nice day. Good job for the RedHawks.
The Union home mortgage Gasparia Bowl Dan, I like it. We go with the Spanish pronunciation here on the solid verbal. UCF winning the state championship of Florida twenty nine to seventeen over those Florida Gators. This one continued after the final bell. We had a bit of a scrum at midfield. I guess the good news is that Florida finally showed a little bit of fight, but they did lose the game. They had a bunch of penalties. They couldn't really extend drives.
They were two of thirteen something like that on thirteen. That was really bad. Yep. Emery Jones also played, despite throwing his name in the transfer portal just four point eight yards per attempt, he was fourteen of thirty six for one hundred and seventy one yards. Meanwhile, UCF had two to eighty eight on the ground. Perhaps I was distracted by mikey Keene backup quarterback and underestimated the motivation factor for UCF in this game, because clearly they were
fired up. They had a guy throw a punch like they were ready, rearing and psyched to go for this one here, and they ended up winning by twelve twenty nine to seventeen. Next year, perhaps I'll put together the Motivation Task Force among our Patrion folks and make sure that nothing like this gets missed. But big win for UCF man Gus Mels. I was all fired up after this one.
Saw him on a private plane. I was not on the plane. I saw a picture of him on a private plan with his wife celebraton the Bowl win over Florida. Isaiah Bowser ran well. And it's not as if you 's offense was amazing. They just were able to take advantage and keep drives moving. They were like something five of twelve, five of thirteen on third down, so they
were off the field as well. Flora is able to make some plays, especially on the ground, but yeah, if the offense isn't on the field, it's really hard to score points.
The Tax Act chamellea Bowl Dan Georgia State, Ball State. Ball State had a big play early and that was it. That was That was pretty much the game. Yeah, the rest of the way, it was all Darren Granger, the quarterback for Georgia State. He dominated this game at four total touchdowns. I think we called this one beforehand that Ball State was pretty much just a bad team this year despite a really successful twenty twenty campaign, and we were all in. I was all in on Ball State
being a trap game early for Penn State. Remember that uh fifty one to twenty. Here Georgia State wins in resounding fashion.
Yeah, my defense wins ball games largely. You know, you have to deal with the context of coaches leaving, and there's other context of these Bowl games now opt outs and COVID stuff and transfers, but just taken in a vacuum which doesn't exist. It did really well once again, like it did, It's done very very well. Now there are exceptions, right Western Kentucky beating app State. Mississippi State will get into it losing the way they did to
Texas Tech. For sure. There are exceptions, but by and large, especially if you're not betting against the spread and you're in a confidence tight pool, you could do some serious damage wagering against below average defenses to bad defenses, especially if they're coming from the MAC early on. Yeah, you did well.
I've made a ton of money this Bowl season. To your point, how do you feel about opt outs?
I mean every case is different. In the bigger games. I you know, it's on a certain level, you get it and are protecting a future, and one game stands between some bigger names and NFL money, And you know, if the game isn't a playoff game, if the game isn't a huge game, you're like, okay, well, especially if you're say a running back, where you're getting hit every
time you touch the ball. But on another level, I think Kenny Pickett has good reason to play in a New Year's six game, especially with a lot of people watching, and this to punctuate the season that he's had as a Heisman finalist and maybe the best quarterback outside of Bryce Young in the country. And it you know, it sucks in the Ohio State players. I mean, maybe I come at it from a biased point of view as a West Coast human, but I think the Rose Bowl
is a big game. I think it's an important game for the sport, and these guys aren't being paid by the sport. So I understand why you're saying, what a more do I have to prove if I'm Chris o'lave or Garrett Wilson or something like that. But I guess it's just a statement on even the Rose Bowl, something I consider to be a big game that maybe other people don't where it's just like, Eh, you know, I'm good.
I'm going to pass. I've played all year to get Ohio State into a really great bowl game and have an amazing offense, and you know, I think that's gonna be.
It for me.
I'm gonna dip out. I you know. At the same time, I can both understand their point of view with one game separating themselves from their future, and also say, hey, not an amazing thing for the sport.
Kind of sucks. It absolutely sucks, man. It's a huge bummer. If you're we'll use Ohio State as an example, if you're losing some of those targets out wide, if you're losing some of those gravitational forces on your defense, that sucks.
Man.
I get why they're doing it. They're in particularly good shape given how deep they are receiver, sure, but those are also like it's difficult to become a nationally known name in college football with a number of teams, with how many players and coaches move around, it's difficult to entrench yourself as a star name. Chris Olivey and Garrett Wilson are star names, and the Rose Bowl and college
football took a hit without them this season. It's such a bummer, and you know, just using Ohio State as an example, it sucks if you're a Buckeyes fan that you don't get to see those guys in the Rose Bowl.
I get why they're maybe why they're doing it.
I get it, totally get it. But we had a conversation, as you know, on our bruinne which we publish exclusively on Patreon, about are there any things that can be done to entice players to continue playing, to not opt out of bowl games? And outside of there being like a big ball of money that hangs above midfield, i e. Squid game style or any kind of hooks that nil deals can build into the equation to keep guys out there for big games like the Rose Bowl. I don't
know what you can do, and it sucks. It sucks that the sport has gone this way. I'm immensely bummed out about it. I want to see Kyen Williams out there. I just don't know what you can do at this point. I think we're so far down that path and money has taken hold of college football especially this is like an underrepresented historically workforce the fact that they have a little bit of power back on their side now, Like
we're all in favor of that to some extent. But I just hope that somebody can come up with a way to keep more of these guys playing, because it is a bummer to not have them out there.
Yeah, I want. I mean, I wonder what the playoff's role is that, oh, we're not in the playoff. The playoff is so important. We worked so hard because we had playoff expectations as Ohio State, and now that we've fallen short of the playoff and it's only the Rose Bowl, And I don't want to single out Ohio State. Again, I understand from a certain perspective why they're doing this, like it's, you know, to each their own, and I don't have the full context, neither do you to my knowledge.
So I don't mean to single out Ohio State because I still Thinkkenny Pickett, if he's healthy, should be playing in that game against Michigan State. But yeah, I don't does expanding the playoff make the playoff that much more important that if you don't make the twelve team playoff, we're going to see even more opt outs out of the non playoff games because it's that much more important and that much If it's so easy to get into the playoff and our team didn't make the playoff, why
am I hanging around? I don't know. I hope that's not the case. I hope this is a something that can be rectified somehow, But I don't know. The toothpast kind of seems out of the tube in terms of opt outs, and we just have to accept it and move on.
We'll bring on a player agent in the offseason and talk more about it.
The player agents are definitely the one saying I don't.
Think you should be plowing those guys. We'll bring We'll bring those dudes on. Yeah, in the off season, see what we can come up with together. Okay, go over. The Quick Lane Bowl. Western Michigan ran one up on Nevada. Speaking of opt outs, Carson Strong, the noted quarterback for Nevada, did not play in this one. Nevada was also without Jay Norvell, who went to Colorado State, so they were really shorthanded. We also forgot to mention this was an
eleven am kickoff. This is a bodyclock game for Nevada, that's true. So they had a triple whammy working against them. Sean Tyler for Western Michigan one hundred and twenty eight yards in the return game. He had one hundred and forty six on the ground to compliment that effort. This
one was never close. Western Michigan won by twenty eight fifty two to twenty four, and in typical fashion, they dumped a big vat of motor oil over Western Michigan's coach crazy always Yeah, who would have seen that coming? The ticket smarter Birmingham Bowl Houston seventeen, Auburn thirteen. Did you watch this game at all? Do you see anything? A little bit?
A little bit, I saw Dana Holgerson on a plane and at a hotel table with the trophy, the ridiculously amazing Birmingham Bull Trophy. I did see things like that, and he was upset at Brian Harson for taking too long in his postgame losing presser. But yeah, I saw some. I think I've sort of seen enough of Auburn this year where I didn't really mark this game as must watch. But yeah, it was fine, good win for Houston.
So here's the deal, right, They catch a touchdown pass Jake Hurslow for Houston catches a twenty six yarder with three and a half left to.
Give them the lead. Ultimately they end up winning.
This is probably a game, though, that Auburn should want, because they had so many chances to grab this one and put it on ice, and they kept stalling out or making mistakes. As such, they finished the year for the first time in seventy one years with five straight losses. I get that they had Bownicks get hurt and that was a bit of a step back, and that obviously the Birmingham Bowl wasn't a high stakes Bowl situation for them. I am curious though, to see which direction this.
Thing goes now moving forward.
Yeah, because this is a bit of a whimper to close out a season for Auburn that started on a great foot that Penn State game, and you know, they had opportunities to knock off Alabama. Auburn was in some of these games. No, the way they played against Ole Miss Mississippi State, even in a losing effort, the way they beat Arkansas, they were for sure highs for there were moments there were a season, yeah for Brian Harson, but the fact that they closed out the way that
they did I don't. I don't think you could put it all on the quarterback position. So I'm curious now as we go into twenty two which direction this thing goes for him? I really am.
They've made a change at offensive coordinator, so there's gonna be new look elements to this team for sure.
Houston wins seventeen thirteen, big win for them, twelve wins on the season. Huge the Serve Pro first Responderble, air Force and Louisville. It's not that air Force didn't run dan they still ran it fifty times, right. It's that Hazik Daniels went nine of ten throwing for two point fifty two and two long touchdowns.
I don't throw it often, but when I do.
Yeah. Louisville was playing from behind the whole game. Again, it was Malik Cunningham trying to will the team to victory. In the end, he did score late. They did have a crack at an on side kick, but that did not work. Air Force gets its third straight Bowl win and they cap off a ten win season, mostly because they threw the ball for two hundred and fifty yards, which was totally unexpected and a pleasant story here in bolseason. Oh yeah, it was.
It was great. And Louisville they start slow, they have that shot as you mentioned, but air Force with just that monster second quarter dominating Louisville up front, It's it's hard to come back from when the team is running like they're running, and Air Force was able to make plays and air Force was the stronger defense in this game. So this worked out there. They got the stops that they needed for my whole defense theory. So awesome, awesome
way to get to ten wins. Let's get in the zone and go to the Liberty bull Dan, what happened here?
What happened?
What happened to Mississippi State? I think when we said that we wanted to give Texas Tech fans a defense, it happened sooner than you know. Putting that out into the universe on a show a couple couple of weeks ago.
Did we speak it into existence?
I think we may have. I think Oprah has done an episode or two about this where you just need to speak your future into existence. And Texas Tech, especially with what they were able to do against Mississippi State on the ground. Now, obviously they succeeded against the air raid through the air and kept a lot of what the Bulldogs were trying to do in front of them, but what they were able to do up front on the ground and take advantage of these situations and play
relatively mistake free football. It was they ran the ball well. Donovan Smith made plays. He wasn't the most accurate dude the world, but made plays. This was kind of out of nowhere to me. This was the biggest shocker of a score. You watch the game, You're like, Oh, Texas
Tech playing hard, playing with fire. Maybe Mississippi State just didn't have that fire, but I figured they'd be a little more into, you know, Mike Leach's interest, But you can only do so much from the sideline Mike Leach's interest in beating Texas Tech, which he claim still owes him money. But either way, either way, awesome way to head into the Joey McGuire era. I'm I'm a big proponent of bulls mean little to nothing, but at the same time, there's nothing wrong with some of the feel goods.
So heading into heading into the final stretch of recruiting, heading into the transfer part of the year, heading into building a staff, like Joey McGuire didn't have anything to do with this win. But the vibes are good in Lubbock right now. In you know, I don't know how long that the shadow of the tail of this bowlwin lasts, but you know it never hurts, so yeah, good for the Red Raiders.
Joey mc may have run through a wall of an auto zone after this. He's that kind of guy. He's got a lot of enthusiasm and energy. He got in the zone, he did get he probably did get in the zone. Yeah, guaranteed rate Bowl. WHOA, This was a snoozer. This was eighteen to six. Minnesota one dominated the trenches, two hundred and fifty rushing guards. West Virginia could not get any kind of momentum going. And I am kicking myself because I felt really good. We both felt really
good about that Minnesota minus five line. Mm hmm. We talked about it. You were into it, stronger defense, YEP. I was gonna place the bet, and then I got cold feet because as you know, I have not bet a Minnesota game right in at least two years, true, and so you know, you kind of second guess it, and I did, and I didn't pull the trigger, and I would have won because even though this game wasn't
a total blowout, it was kind of a blowout. Minnesota wins by twelve, eighteen to six, and the guaranteed Rate Bowl.
I think West Virginia might be the answer to the question. I don't know if you listened to the Bruinet show I did with Bill Connolly, but I asked them who the most nappable decent teams games are and he gave a couple of different answers, and like you could say Stanford. Obviously Stanford doesn't have a big crowd, but they were not a competitive decent team this year. West Virginia as a Bowl team might be the most easily napped through
competitive team in America. This Neil Brown version. It's more Era more so than Iowa. Yeah, I was interesting, at least a little bit more interesting. The offense is for sure nappable, but the turnovers make the games competitive, and you start turning teams over and the other team's defense
gets tired and Tyler Goodson gets loose. I can understand that Iowa was merely somewhat nappable West Virginia, even with their couple of interesting, bigger wins this year or competitive games they were like, they're just good enough to be interesting, but they're just nappable. Would just be like, I don't know, I'm just going to drift off for a little bit. I think I think West Virginia is my answer about
the most easily napped through competitive team in America. The guaranteed NAT Bowl goes to Yeah, Minnesota, Okay, the Larry I'll say so, Alamobile, Oklahoma forty seven, Your Oregon Ducks thirty two. Oklahoma was up thirty to three at half. Oregon didn't mount something of a charge in the second half, but couldn't really stop Cable Williams or Kennedy Brooks really get the upper hand. What was your read on this game?
It looked I didn't watch a lot of it. The little that I saw in the first half was a tire fire.
Yeah.
Two thin teams, both from a coaching perspective and a player perspective, on both sides of the ball. Especially, I don't even say especially. Both these teams were down key dudes, you know, Jaydon Hazelwood transfers to our and saw cave On Thibodeau ops out. I think Oregon's defense was probably a specially hard hit and they were just crazy thing. I actually thought they played relatively hard all things considered.
They had a disastrous second quarter. Anthony Brown threw a bad pick early on in this one that changed the complexion early on with the score. But I actually came away pretty impressed with the fight and the sort of almost throwback Joe Morehead e fitt let's go deep part of the Oregon offense because Oregon's had talented receivers all
season long. They're actually especially deep at receiver, but with Mario Christaball at the helm, they were especially run heavy, like they just wanted to squeeze the life out of teams and sort of be a winning python. And now Anthony Brown, even with the sort of down moments he had in the first half, especially that second quarter, I only came out like, screw at Oklahoma's defense, isn't that great?
Why can't we score a bunch of points? And whether it was Dante Thornton, Troy Franklin, Chris Hudson, like this is a really interesting strong receiving corps moving forward into the Dan Lanning era, especially if they can get something out of I don't know, Bo Nix or Ty Thompson, whoever, ends up starting at quarterback for Oregon moving forward. But good to see some fight, good to see some yards and some action in an otherwise dreary back and forth of the first half with it just going one way
with Oklahoma. And good for Caleb Williams for making plays after he kind of slowed down in the back half of the season after a kind of electrifying start. Good for this Oklahoma offense with all the changes they've been going through. Bunch of speed, bunch of playmakers. Easy to look at this game and say, my man, Travis Die averaged eight and a half yards of carry and they lost, And then you look at what Kennedy Brooks and Eric Gray were able to do, like, oh, ten and a
half yards each. Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. So awesome way to close out the year for Oklahoma. Some ups and downs, and at least nice to see some fight from the Oregon offense given the status. I think I saw something like thirty five scholarship players that started the season for Oregon were not involved in this game, So you know, it's a tough job. But that's college football these days. And tip of the cap to Oklahoma.
At one point in time, I was wondering, can they just rehire Bob Stoops? Is it too too late to just bring a touchdown? Yeah? He looked like he never left. Okay, Yeah, big win for Oklahoma. Nice win for them by fifteen over the Oregon Ducks. Let's go to the cheese at bowl Man. What a glorious bowl game Above all else. It was sort of a microcosm for both these teams, wasn't it?
It absolutely was. Wasn't it the twenties plenty?
What was that?
My line for Clemson more than twenty against Clemson comes back twenty to thirteen?
Was the final score here? So a couple weird moments in this game that I need to call out, A couple weird plays. The first was one of those deals I think in the early part of the second half where Dju is about to get sacked.
He's running for his life.
He wants to throw it out of bounds, but he doesn't quite have enough oomph and so inadvertently it goes into quadruple coverage. That can happens to the best of us, and somehow his guy comes down with it. That was the first of like just kind of weird moments. Then Brock Purty happened. Brock Purty was on full display here in this Bowl game. I have never seen anything quite like this wild moment. Later in the second half, brock Purty as a pass tipped back.
To him at the line.
So you've seen this before where Lyman puts his hands up, it bounces back to the quarterback to either catch it and run with it. I think they're told to try and bat it down.
If they can't.
Rock Perty can only throw one forward pass per play, right, so you can only attempt one forward pass play. Yeah, So brock Purty tries the volleyball thing where he tries to bat it down, except he bats it right to Mario good Rich or Clemson, who catches it and runs eighteen yards for a pick six to make it twenty to six in the second half. I've never seen that before. Was it rule to pick six or a fumble?
Uh?
I think a pick six? Oh?
All right, okay, either way, touchdown Mario Goodrich the senior good way for him to go out. And then later on in the game, Rock Purty regroups threw a touchdown past the chas Cohler made it twenty to thirteen. Iowa State it has a shot back to get back in this thing. It's fourth and two. He runs for a first down, scrambles for first down, nice play, gets past the chains and has the ball knocked out of his hand and backwards. Oh yeah, he jumps on and he
recovers it. But because the ball had left his possession, because he re established possession short of the chains, it's a turnover on talent. Clems against the ball. They end up winning, and in the end it's Dabbo who gets the big barrel of cheese. It's stumped over his head, which, by the way, should not be undersold because that was freaking awesome. Clemson wins weird game twenty to thirteen. I did see somebody on Twitter trying to make the case that the Cheese At Bowl should be a New Year
six game. I'd be fine with that, Dan, I'm told, first of all, I learned so much during this game, and there was so much that I had already learned. It was just, you know, a weird game, and that last play kind of sums up a lot of the Iowa State experience.
Maybe this year. Maybe it's unfair to say the whole Brock Party experience, because there were some absolute highs, but uniquely losing after looking like something good was going to happen kind of is a microcosm for the broader Iowa State story. There is that have you ever seen that mixtape of the like electrical wiring YouTuber And there is
like a compilation of him just confidently getting shocked. Oh yeah, where he's just like and all you have to do is when you remove the circuits and he's like, Ah.
There is.
If you wanted to come up with a like a compilation video to describe some of where Iowa State has been recently, it would be intersplicing Iowa State moments with the like and be careful you don't plug it.
There is that. There is that part of.
The cyclone football experience that.
Feels very real, absolutely all right? Yeah, and what else do we got here? I think we have one more game, the New era Pinstripe Bowl between Maryland and Virginia Tech.
Yeah, I got this one wrong. I called Maryland an elite loser, maybe one too many times for the universe's liking.
Fifty four to ten is your final. Maryland wins this one. It was a runaway train. Tech got it to one to ten shortly before half, but Marylynd ripped off thirty three unanswered to close it. Tech did not give a flying you know what about this game. They were they might have been the one two three Cancun team of Bowl season, Dan, they were yep, totally checked out here.
Yeah, Virginia Tech started because Braxton Burmeister entered the portal. Connor Blumrick is that correct?
Yes? Correct?
An all time computer generated recruiting name that I don't fully believe is a real person until I see with my own eyes. I apologies to the Blumrick family, but that that was the the energy I got from watching Virginia Tech's offense for the limited time that I did, and.
That does it. At time of recording, we've got the Duke's Mayo Bowl in progress. It looks like Shane Biember is going to get the big vat of Duke's Mayo dumped on him. They're up thirty five to twenty one late into the fourth quarter. I like these live updates for a record show. Yeah that people are waiting for our recap of the game to fully understand what happened
in it. Yeah, I mean, it's all things considered, we just got to make the best of a very strange Bowl season and having mayonnaise dumped on a coach, or fries or cheese. It's I learned that extra toasty cheese its are one of the varieties available. Oh really, Yeah, yeah, I think that's good. I like most items on the well done side, not steak, not not meat necessarily, but and not to a gym nance level.
Let's be clear. The toast, Yeah, French French fries and toasts, and I like actually like my eggs over easy, but cookies, like a good crispy cookie. So that we have extra toasty cheese it's available, I'm with So yeah, I guess good for Shane Biemer if that comes to pass. Did you want to do it? Do you have Are you a believer in New Year's resolutions? And do you have any resolutions in addition to any of the resolutions our listeners have given for their teams.
I believe in New Year's resolutions?
Yeah, same, so do I I think it's I think it's a good way to start off the year. I think it's it's good to have some goals going into the new year. Yeah, oh of course. But my problem is that most of my New Year's resolutions are pretty boring, you know that's okay. We put out a call here on Twitter asking folks what are your New Year's resolutions? And some folks want to run a marathon or a thousand miles, devote more energy to the diet or physical fitness,
that type of thing. I think that's common. I'm I'm with you. I don't want to run a thousand miles.
I hate running.
But as for getting back in shape and doing more physical activity, it's not lost on anybody that I sit.
In front of a microphone most of mine.
Have you Have you come up with anything any option? Are you going to get involved with like a rower? Are you going to do more strength training? Are you going to play in like some kind like a kickball league?
What are you going to do? I haven't decided yet. It's it's still an open question, but I am actively looking for solutions on that front.
You get them, well, look, you could get one of those. Were they ever a sponsor for US Peloton? Not a sponsor of this show?
For sure? They they're ay, they may have sponsored this show, and I have looked into it.
Yeah, there are leaderboards right there are there is like a competitive element and you could compete against your friends. I know there's a college football media group that rides together in classes. So if you want to take down Cole Kublick or Jeff Schwartz or anybody Mike Golick junior, whatever you can, ty, I might have to do it just for that.
Yeah. I was not aware of this group.
Yeah, yeah, there's a group of guys. I'll introduce you. I don't do it, but you could definitely. You know, I haven't a ard a problem with competition. You know, you have a wet field, you have shoulder issues, so that's not a problem.
Yeah, I don't know.
I was.
You've got a connectivity, a digital subscription component.
I don't know time. I might have to do it solely for content.
Yeah, why not?
That is the life now anyway. Yeah, I think that's one of the big ones for me, just on the personal level. I also want to jump back in on the cooking front, and not to the listen listen, not to the extent of you knuckleheads who are really into it and obsessing over each and every spice. I admire that quality, I very much do. I just don't think I can keep pace with that because I'm a little too impatient.
I need to think you need mastery. I think that's the like you're a dork about researching and experimenting. It doesn't have to be pizza. It doesn't have to be barbecue. It could be you could just be like, I'm going to become the soup king of Eastern Pa and I just want to master a bunch or the salad dressing king or the Macadamian nut cookie king. I don't know what it is. See, I really think you need mastery in your life.
I've mastered the omelet right, and now I've mastered it to the point where I've gotten bored of it and have actually stopped eating them, and so I need to try and find what's next.
You had homemade pizza a few weeks ago, and you said this, I can see why people get into this.
I can't, but pizza is your thing.
It doesn't matter. We can pivot as a duo.
I don't I need it. I'm open to making my own pizza, but I feel like I need to find something. I need to carve out my corner of the universe.
What about pasta? Handmade pasta?
Too many carbs?
Okay, I don't know, if you do the peloton, it's not if you combine. If we combine, that's not a bad idea. Yeah, I don't know, how about you. I just want to be better about scheduling and procrastinating and just making sure like I do things a certain number of days a week and I check things off off making lists. I want to be more organized in the way I spend my time, whether it's working out, whether
it's cooking, whether it's stuff with the kiddos. I just want to, like, I want to lock in a little bit better, and I want to I want to explore more. I guess I don't know micro accomplishments, curiosities. Like I was just like, you know what, I think language is interesting. I always like learning language and words and everything, grammar and tenses, whatever, And so I just downloaded an app and I was like, I'm going to take five minutes a day and learn more French. And it's awesome. It's
just something that's uniquely my activity. It has nothing to do with my job or my family or my house whatever. It's just something new. And so I try to do crossword puzzles sometimes. I try to do that. I've been playing a lot of tennis, and that's been awesome. More strength training involved, I would say in my workouts would be nice. I want to eat a lot less sugar, but otherwise nothing too new. I just want to stick to stuff more often. You know, I should be reading
thirty pages a night or something like that. I thought Nicole Auerback read fifty two books in twenty twenty.
Oh there's no way.
Yeah, I mean she, I believe her. I'm just saying there's no way I could ever do that.
No, she logged and locked it all in. It's true. But to me, that's what I want to do. I want to be more locked in with scheduling and experimenting with things I'm curious about, be it cooking, reading, activities, whatever. I want to try new stuff as often as I can.
All right, So what we did is we put a call out, yeah to the verballer hood, and I read off some of the personal goals. But here are some of the team I'm resolutions. Right, make a New Year's resolution on behalf of your favorite team. Jordan, who was the gentleman who wrote Run one Thousand Miles, says that he has the same hope for BYU. Actually, yeah, he was a round one thousand miles, so that's cool. Will says that for Clemson, the resolution should be to adapt
their recruiting strategy and to embrace the current environment. Use the portal, use nil, use things like that better. Well they did that.
I mean dju is in a doctor Pepper commercial, so there was you know, it's not like Dabbo is like this is ruining everything. I'm not letting my players do it. They did have some of that.
But the transfer portal is interesting on the Clemson front, isn't it.
Oh yeah, I think just the big thing is just make Dabbo less stubborn. That's the resolution. It's just like adapt, look outside the program when need be. I mean, both the coordinators were internal hires, and you know, Clemson has been at its best when Dabbo has had the stones to shake things up. So I don't think that's an unrealistic one, but it might be more of a long term than a twenty twenty one to one.
It does seem like he's having trouble with the transfer portal though, because we had now we know he's taken a pretty contentious stance against it in recent years, and there was some commentary from him on signing day about how there are adults that are manipulative and maybe not having transfer his best interests at heart when it comes to all things transfer portal. So it seems like it's been an ongoing process for him to not only process the transfer portal but come to grips with it and
understand it and want to use it on behalf of Clemson. Eventually, he's going to get there. Eventually, he's gonna get there. He's going to have to get there if he wants to compete and if he wants to evolve with some of the other teams around college football. But and we'll probably see that sooner than later. It does seem though, like he's having a really hard time with it.
Yeah, I mean, it's basically are you going to participate in judo or not? And Clemson's in a unique position where they can use the transfer portal to their advantage instead of scrambling to phill holes, they can and attract huge names to an amazing program, much in the way that Alabama, Ohio, State, Oklahoma schools like that have been
able to do the judo references. Because I believe as a non expert judo is heavily involved in using people's actions against them, right, going with the flow of the combat and to use your your opponent's actions against them. And I think that's a good resolution. I think that's that's worthwhile for.
Sure for Josh. He says, for Penn State, I'd like to have a running back eclipse one hundred yards rushing at least once at least once, and secondarily, watch tape of good offensive lines. So Josh zeroing in on some of Penn state struggles upfront this year with the rushing game.
I know, I'm not sure how much of the rushing issue at Penn State was due to the offensive line or if it was schematic, But I think we can agree broadly, Josh that having a resolution that Penn State get better, get more balanced on that offensive line and with the rushing attack, that would be nice. It would take some of the heat off of Sean Clifford, who's coming back for year seventeen in twenty twenty two, and definitely make the offense tougher to defense.
Yeah, I looked at Penn State and I said, Okay, look, the running backs are obviously talented. There are guys that are decent along the offensive line, and they protected Shan Clifford relatively well. They just didn't open up a ton of lanes. I think it's probably a holistic type thing
that it's a little bit of everything. And if Penn State were passing it as much as they were and finished as like a top thirty offense in the country, I don't think anybody would really care about balance because they're probably winning more games with the top thirty offense. They're probably beating Michigan in Illinois, and we're not having in Michigan State at the end of the year. We're
not having this conversation. So I get the running thing and the frustrating thing, and it's probably better in short yarded situations to have that at least option to go to. But yeah, Penn State just kind of seemed off this year, and which is I know it's it's it kind of sucks because that defense was really strong at times. And I don't know if I don't know if it's any specific one person's fault, but I think it's it should be back to the drawing board for Penn State.
I agree.
Okay, John whose team is Auburn, He says Auburn needs to be developing just average quarterback play for next season.
Yeah, it's it's been a minute since an Auburn quarterback has really captured our attention for a full seat, Like I guess the best of Jarrett Stidham, right right, probably, And even then there were games that were really confounding. I guess to be nice during that era of Auburn's offense and the shuffling of the offensive coordinators every year and his gust calling the plays is game planning? Was he not calling plays? Why did they slow down in
the second half? Why are they becoming so predictable? And so, Yeah, it's a new era, a new coach, a new now new offensive coordinator. You know, receiver has not been as exciting as it has been this past I don't know, six seven, eight years at times with the current roster being where it was being where it is, but still there's talented running back. I don't know. I'm okay with with this as a request for Auburn football, and I'm
okay with thinking I think it can get better. I absolutely think it can get better with a full off season of Brian harsonball. I'm even if he doesn't seem like he fully wants to be there. At times, I think this is I think it is a totally fairy quest.
Yeah, it has been a minute. You got to go back to like Nick Marshall outside Jaredy.
I mean again, the best of Jared's Didham was was really fun.
Yeah all right.
Rev writes in to say that his team's twenty twenty two New Year's resolution, his team, by the ways, Northwestern, oh oh, just become fun to watch again and do that either by fixing the defense or doing anything fun on offense.
Northwestern was a rough watch this year. Dan rougher than usual. I don't care who it is. I don't care if it's Northwestern or Stanford or Vanderbilt, but I don't want all of these sort of academic reputation first type schools. I know there are other schools that have good academics that win football games, Notre Dame, USC somewhat, the cal UCLA, whatever, But man, I want one of these teams to be just like sneaky interesting with talent that's not on par
with some of their opponents. And Northwestern was that team that they were. You know, Rashaun Slater's a great offensive lineman. They get players drafted. They feel these like top five national defenses, top ten national defenses, but when they're off, it's fully unwatched. Any of these teams fully unwatchable, And
so I think he's right for Northwestern. I don't know if I don't know if Northwestern is more fun with a below average offense and a killer defense, or when you go back twenty years and they're one of the pioneers with like the spread option, zone read stuff with Randy Walker, I don't know if that's a more fun version of one of these schools winning with lesser talent. But I man, I just I can't take another two to ten year from all of these places at the same time. Oh, I hate it.
It's tough. By the way, Rev's personal resolution, write something purely for me, like journaling or for fun at least four times a week smart, which is nice. I like that. And by the way, John whose team is Auburn, who I mentioned, I forgot to call out his New Year's resolution, which I thought was good. Do a better job of separating work and personal time. Focus entirely on work when I'm working, and don't let work distract me or prevent me from family time. Important I think there's an Apple
TV Plus show about this, is there not? I'm almost positive with Scott. With Adam Scott not a sponsor could be. And it's a show similar to like the Eternal Sunshine way of storytelling, where you have some sort of surgery or operation in which your work life is completely erased when you're home, and your home life is completely erased when you're at work because I think they're working on
highly sensitive stuff or something. But that's a show, if I've summarized it in a suggesting Adam Scott personally sponsored the show.
This show, of course, he's terrific and everything he does. I'd be fully on board with that.
All right, Tom. Tom's resolution for Michigan is just that they beat Ohio State again. I think that's a good one. Yeah.
I would say if I were to come up with a resolution for Michigan, I would want what would I want? I would I would want a quarterback beyond a game manager, which is where I feel like they've been for some time right now, where they just like they have one of the best six quarterbacks in the country. That's what I want. That's where I would be selfish as a Michigan fans like, it's our turn. It's our turn to get that guy. Yeah, that's what I would want. I don't think that's asking too much.
No, if I were to make a resolution for my team for Notre Dame, it wouldn't be all that different. Honestly, it would be start Tyler Buckner best. You're just ready, you're all in, all the center, I'm all in. Okay, I'm all in. Start Tyler Buckner unless you've got a huge transfer quarterback in the bag. Mm hmm. Let's go to Tyler Buckner and let's see what he's got, what he can provide, and if he's not the guy, move on, work the transfer. See if you can get somebody else.
But I'm just dying to know what they've got with Tyler Buckner. That would be my resolution for Notre Dame, plain and simple.
And we have the double tie offense with Notre Dame in Oregon. At the same time, if ty Thompson beats out bo Nicks and it's just electric, that's, you know, the year of tie. Who knows what's happening in your life? What do you want for Oregon offense? A passing game? It's it was a rough year. This year. I think they're going to recruit well. I think the program is gonna be in a good shape. I think they're gonna win a bunch of games. I know they open with Georgia,
which will be a challenge. I want a top twenty offense that's fun to watch. I talked about this when Mario Cristobal moved on to Miami. I just want I don't need as a fan Oregon to go to the playoff or to win the Pac twelve, but I want there to be creativity and fun and electricity on offense because that's what's familiar to me as an Oregon fan.
Don't win every game, you don't win all the huge games, but an entertaining brand of football ten out of twelve, eleven out of twelve weeks I think would go a long way for me.
On the Penn State side, I also want to see Drew a layer are our Yeah, top flight quarterback, tough light quarterback. I want to see what somebody else outside of Sean Clifford to do. Now. Look, Sean Clifford, before he got hurt, was having a better season. He was having a better season. I've been hard on Sean Clifford but he was having a better season. We talked on our show time and again it's a new Cliff, new Cliff this year. He looks different, he looks more comfortable.
He got hurt in that Iowa game. He wasn't the same afterwards. I want to see if they can get more from one of these new quarterbacks if it's not going to be Clifford, right, I have never been a huge Clifford fan.
He did look better.
I would really like to see if somebody else can give them more because he still has a couple plays in him each game where you leaves scratch in your head. So I'd like to see them move on and go in a different direction. But he's coming back for year eighty two and a half, so they're probably stuck with him as a starting quarterback for at least some period of time to start out next season. Maybe that'll change, but we'll see.
I'm with you, you man, you are just you are like the quintessential college football fan where you're just like, I don't know, play the young guy, yeah, I don't know, play the look at these four star five stars.
I would be a horrible coach, a whole horror art coach.
Yeah, you're on the who sang next? Who sang thank you next? Are on a grande on a grande.
Yeah, so you're you're in the the grande line of.
Thinking here, thank you next?
Absolutely, yeah, Okay, I agree, we agree.
It's fun. That's what college football is. College football is the quintessential message board sport, and the quintessential message board post is let's see what we have with the young guy. So, Ty, you are speaking, You are speaking to the people.
On that note, Dan, With thirty seven seconds left in the Duke's Male Bowl. Now nine seconds left, South Carolina is gonna win thirty eight to twenty one. Unbelievable. Huge win for Shane Beemer, Huge game for Kevin Harris who for one two and a touchdown on the ground. This has been a charm season for the game Cocks. As they win by seventeen, Shane Beemer about to get that Duke's may have dumped all over him.
Good win for them in the Duke's Mail Bowl.
Don't forget to tune in if you are listening to us on New Year's Eve two, our playoff hype streams three pm seven pm over on our YouTube channel. Don't forget to go on over to oballers dot com if you want to take part in some of our voice chats during the playoff activity, and don't forget, of course, to subscribe to the show. You can do so at soliverble dot com, subscribe, rate, review on Apple, on Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasts. Stand that's all I got, It's all I have.
Friend.
The next time we speak to you it will be a new calendar year. We hope that you have a happy, a healthy, a safe new year. We will talk to you all in twenty twenty two. In the meantime, as always, stay solid, Yes