Welcome to the solid verbal I'm that for me. I'm a man, I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for day Edith State? Is that? Woo whoom? And Dan and.
Tie welcome back to the solid Burbo boys and girls. My name is Ty hilde Brand. I'm joined as always if I'm a good friend and colleague can co host many years. Way over there, beautiful New York City. It's sunny, Dan, Dan Rubinstein, how are you?
I'm good. I'm in the audio mausoleum, which is now ventilated, and I'm wearing short sleeves here today. Ty Ok, I'm wearing a polo shirt. I feel good. I went to the gym this morning. Do you ever work out in the mornings before work?
I used to try doing it in the mornings, but I'm more of an afterwork kind of guy.
I've been doing the aftercak thing now because when I can get inspired in the mornings, yeah, I feel wonderful. Also, I'm getting married in two months, Ty, so it's time to get swollen. So now what are you doing at the gym? Are you doing weight?
So? Trying to slim down? To fit into the suit you haven't bought yet. What's your strategy here?
Oh, I just stand in the corner and creep on people. Okay, that's what I do. Now, I will because I still have a bad foot. I do run when it's nice outside. But at the gym, I'll do some bike stuff. I do some weights. I do a couple of machines I just started doing. I don't know what they're called. Tie those rope things that the sort of lasso rope things I'm talking about, like that Jesse Palmer did it like Oklahoma. They're like they're these ropes that are attached to the
ground basically, and they're like fifteen feet long. Okay, and you sort of whip them like you are, you know, heading out west in a covered wagon. That's a tough tough workout right there, I tell you. Tie. My core has been better, but it's improving, all right. How you doing? Tire?
Your sleeve short? My sleeves are short. I'm wearing the custom uniform of the solid Verble my Haines white T shirt.
Nice.
But I too have gone to the gym, though I'm not doing the rope thing. Spring has sprung Dan, it has indeed, and with that in mind.
We've got we've got a little bit of a what is this a spring show, a spring forecast, We're calling it spring forecast. You are a big You're a weather buff, right, Love weather? Yeah, love your weather, Love your dopplers? Do you like? Do you have a preferred model? The European the nam I'm more of a European guy.
Okay, sure, I've I've got several weather apps on on the phone. Usually go on number one Weather dot Com app just for the for the quick glance at what's going on.
But I also have the hyperlocal look.
That you can get for three ninety nine or two ninety nine whatever they're charging now.
For Dark sky I was gonna say that's if you're into weather, you gotta go Dark Skies because they'll just tell you you'll get an alert on your phone and it's very ominous. It's gonna rain in four minutes where you.
Are, and it's usually pretty accurate. I am in the market though, for a new weather app. Okay, this isn't an I'm in the market for a new weather app because I thoroughly believe that they've screwed up the Weather dot Com app they've hadded too many graphics and tried to turn into like a social thing. This is going nowhere on the football side, mind you. But no, that's all just expressing my discontent with where they've gone with
the weather dot com app. So if anyone out there has any suggestions, soliverble at gmail dot com let us know.
Speaking of going nowhere on the football side, it's time to talk spring football and Baylor. Okay, I don't know what school I felt needed to be trolled and roasted whatever, but so tell them what we're gonna do here, Ty, This is sort of I wouldn't say it's thrown together. We've done some prep work, but we have a spring forecast and there's not a ton that anybody can glean
from spring football. But it's kind of cool to see the rhythms that new coaches, new quarterbacks, new players, new freshmen, new whatever, new systems, whatever, get thrown into the mix during the springtime, and it's just sort of an installation process. But sometimes you see position changes. You know, wide receivers become safeties, quarterbacks become safeties. Basically, it's figuring out who's going to become a safety in the fall and it's
kind of interesting on a number of levels. So I think we're going to go across college football and forecast a little bit and decide how stormy things are getting out of school, if the birds are chirping, if they deserve just excellent spring break music, and we'll go across the sport and really make some snap judgments based on very little in the way of fact. It's a conjecture episode.
Depending right exactly, depending on your perspective. It's either the post postseason or the pre pre pre pre preseason.
And I will say this, ty nobody pres better than tie and down.
That's right, baby, it is the pre pre preseason. We're all start for content as a whole. I think we're in agreement that people read way too much into spring football and spring storylines. But that being said, it doesn't mean they're not interesting. There is some interesting stuff here. It speaks to the appetite. It speaks to the appetite. We know, if you're listening now, you've got a college fooble appetite. And so we've got a bunch of things.
I actually have no idea what you've got on your list. I think I tipped my hand a little bit and showed you what I was.
It's not a mystery episode. I'm just lazy, I can I can tell you right now. So we got some sound clips, We've got some topics in front of us here, things that we're interested in following now spring storylines, Dan, why don't you? Why don't you kick off our spring forecast here? All right, let's let's start with some stormy weather tie because I want a happy ending. Okay, I understand how that sounds. That's that's that's extra stormy. Okay, okay,
it is extra stormy. Let's first talk about teams that go into the spring with some tumult, with some questions that it doesn't look great. And right now, I'm I'm exceedingly curious about Baylor because I'm sort of rooting for Matt Rule because I really like what he did at Temple and Philadelphia and the Owls. But they are overhauling scheme with not that many players, right, they are gonna
move towards a more power spread. I know there was a higher away from Chip Kelly's staff when he was with the forty nine ers, but like what what Matt Rule and the Owls did last year at Temple they're going to rely on power running, although they will spread out and perhaps rely on some quarterback mobility. But the numbers are not great and in a big twelve that is sort of uncertain. It would have been a very
good year for Baylor to sort of see consistency. So I am I am down right now on Baylor in the short term, but curious to see what the new look offense starts to look like in Waco. I agree and disagree. Okay, why is that?
I'm I don't find myself all that interested in Baylor right now? Okay, I'm curious to see what the new direction is, curious to see what Matt Rule does, what he installs, how he tries to move that program forward, what they do on offense, blah blah blah. Right, the reason I'm not interested is because they gave him a seven year contract. Even they will acknowledge he needs some runway to rebuild what has gone south at Baylor. I don't think you're going to see anything groundbreaking this spring,
maybe even this season. I think it's going to be a multi year effort in order to get Baylor back to the promised Land. So for me, I might be more interested at this time next year, to see the foundation that he's built, to see now how he tries to get them to the next gear. I am most interested to see if Baylor can treat humans all right, Absolutely, that's what I would love to absolutely Baylor. So that the sound clip is accurate, I agree with you on
many fronts. I don't find that I am as interested as you might be. Do you have a stormy situation. Let's talk about the quarterback battle at Florida. Oh, I have that down here as well. I just want to know if this is going to happen or not. For Jim mcelwaine, he was an offensive guy at Alabama. He did a pretty good job, right, He did a pretty good job of Colorado State on offense. That's really been
the one missing piece when he came over. He took over for wilmust Champ, and they didn't have a reliable quarterback situation, or just a reliable offense situation. We haven't seen that yet. We thought we might see it with Will Greer, but that went south in a hurry, and since then they've kind of been stumbling over themselves trying to figure out where to go next. And they had that Treon Harris experiment, which no one felt good about, but they were relegated into against their will. Now it's
going to be who Felippe Franks, Kyle Traust. Both those guys are young, and even if they have the best offensive scheme in the world, there are going to be some growing pains.
Correct. I'm thinking this is more stormy than not, and that's not something that Florida fans want to hear. Yeah, the Muschamp guys are gone, a lot of them on defense, and even if the quarterback situation improved where it was last year and the injury problems dissolve and go away. Felibey Franks has a big Army's physically impressive. I think he's something like six five big dude. The offensive line not great last year. Need to take a few steps forward.
And who is actually catching the ball for Florida? Even if this quarterback whoever it is, turns out to be good, that's I mean, there's there's what's it's Tyree Cleveland is one of the big hopes. But the numbers, the thin nature of that Florida receiving core is pretty scary at this point. And I know recruiting had an uptick this year for Florida. Mcawayne close strong, but the amount of certainty in Gainesville is even lower than usual, which is
saying a lot considering the tumultuous nature. And maybe that's a good thing for him. I don't know. Maybe he gets a pass because fans are going to be able to acknowledge that up front. But it's been a while, that's the point.
It's been a while since I think a Florida fan could look at you and say, I feel good about our offensive slash quarterback situation. Maybe this gives you an opportunity to start fresh, to build from the ground up. I think that's your best hope. But best case scenario is a fair amount of growing pains. And so for me, that's that's a stormy situation.
It's it's especially stormy because Florida's what won what They've won the East two years in a row now under Jim mcawain, and the sense I get from Florida fans are sort of just like they're fine with mclwaan, but not like the craziest, which is very strange to say when you win a division two straight years in a row. So the expectations are obviously very high there, but there's there's secret unease, I would say with mcawayne among the Gator faith.
The division championships have felt a bit like they've fallen off the back of a truck.
Yes, absolutely, so there's your uncertain all right, where were going? Next to you? What's what's the forecast? Dan? Do you know what? You have a Michigan thing down here? I wouldn't say it's necessarily stormy. It might be a little bit windy. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not what's that indy? Okay? I got I have some very specific forecasts. Oh what do you have for Michigan? Let's go with this one. Let's talk too hot?
Okay, too hot for podcasting, too hot for wh Okay?
What do you got?
Michigan is going on a field trip. Yeah, this was very hot a year ago. Just talk to coaches in the SEC. Michigan has now decided that it's going to take a euro trip in place of going down to Florida for spring break, They're going to Rome, Dan, Yes, have you heard about this?
Do you know about this? I know about the trip. It's to be educational in nature, right, of course, and when did do you know the exact dates this is happening? And I will I read the end of April. Oh, okay, I will be in Rome the very pretty much the very beginning of June as part of my honeymoon. Without being so I would, I will miss the very educational Michigan trip to Rome, which by the way, I'm in favor of. Yes see, that's my thing.
Someone's gonna find a way to be outraged by this, and it's fine. People are gonna cite like some schools are haves and others are have nots.
I don't care about that. This to me is a cool thing. I'm interested in it because it's it's it's odd m hm college football Rome, Okay, that's a weird pairing. They're gonna do, as I understand it, a week of practice over there. They're gonna see some sites, They're gonna do some charitable deeds and visit an orphanage.
And some other stuff. Pr will put it spin on it. They'll make it sound educational and charitable and all that. The reason that I am most interested.
In this, Why Rome, Why not of all the gin joints in all the world, In ancient city. They picked me to eat really well. Have you been to Rome. I've not been to Rome. No. It's supposedly pretty dirty and it's enormous and sprawling, but I'm looking forward to eating well. The pizza crust is supposedly very thin, not a fresh ingredients tie lot. It ancient wonders to absorb. I'm very excited, and I imagine Michigan people are as well. It's absolutely it's an odd pairing to me, like LSU
going to lambeau Field to play Wisconsin. Oh, it's a perfect or Mississippi State going a U Mass last year. It just doesn't feel like it quite matches up.
I'm not at all outraged by the fact that they're going and other schools might not be able to afford it, and I am, even though I'm a little bit over horbaughed at this point. I am excited for the guaranteed picture that you're gonna get of Harbaugh wearing a fanny pack or doing something very touristy or immature in Rome. Because you know that's going to happen.
I will I will give mister Howbaugh credit for this. I think he went away from Dockers. Did you see this. It's autia right, it is a slim fit. I believe Lululemon. Okay, with Breathless Wonder, we update you on Jim Harbaugh's pantaloons that it looks good, Ty, I'm telling you. I mean you've lived this firsthand. You go, slim fit. Things are looking things looking up. So I'm down good decision making
early on in the spring. And here's the other thing about Michigan that to me makes them a little bit windy in the spring, and not necessarily windy in a bad way. But I feel like we could be getting you know, Mother Nature could be blowing in some changes today. Okay, And so I was I go into my trailer voice, what was that? Okay, mother Nature? Yeah, come on at WSBM. So we have a quarterback situation that is less than up in the air, but it's a little bit crazier
than solidified. Right with the way Wilton Space finished the season, I feel like there is going to be more open competition. That has led on. Definitely, the offensive line is being rebuilt. They're still sort of playing running back by committee. The big two receivers and Jake but are gone. That's Amri Darbo and Jahu Chessen, the secondary is being rebuilt, a lot of big losses up front. Taco Charlton could be
first second round pick. So I'm wondering, especially now also that coupled with the loss of I believe Jed Fish, the quarterbacks coach and whatever passing game coordinator he moves on to UCLA. I wonder if there is an element of how Jim Harbaugh transformed in a number of ways with Colin Kaepernick over Alex Smith when given that opportunity, I wonder, I still think the focus will be on power. I think it's going to be on big offensive linemen, you know, sort of that man ball focus. But I
wonder if it looks the same. I wonder if they go a little bit more power, spread that to make things potentially a little bit easier for the young talent in ann Arbor. I just I wonder if there is somewhat of a transformation. It's what Pep Hamilton coming in now from after he was fired from the Colts, and
you know he goes back with Harbaugh to Stanford. I wonder if there is some of the latter Andrew Luck elements without the having to focus on making big reads I just I'd be curious, and I think it'd be a wonderful thing.
He's always been good regardless of personnel, right, so it's not a stretch to say that, yeah, he could pull the same trick in Michigan. There is some turnover at Michigan. It will be an interesting year to follow, to say the least. But they're going to Rome, which I think is cool. All the other stuff about Michigan football is valid, but going to Rome is a different kind of story, and I expect that we're going to get some cool social media tales that come out of that one.
Some pump yoores. Absolutely all right, what's our next forecast?
Daniel?
So why don't we forecast? So we've talked about new qbs in the past in terms of the transfer guys, so Jared Stidham, Will Greer, Blake Barnett. We've talked about who is the other one in our forestome Oh, Kyle Allen, Kyle Allen. It doesn't appear that the huge name now eligible quarterback in the Big twelve will actually play significant time this year barring an injury. I of course speak of Kyler Murray at Oklahoma, but he is a spring
game All Star. What I am curious though, a couple of other names that are coming in as new quarterbacks in big spots, and I imagine you have this as well. Kelly Bryant at Clemson. He is the odds on favorite at the moment, I think to win the job out just because he seems like the incumbent and not the incumbent, but the incumbent backup to sort of ascend to that level.
Do you believe in Clemson perhaps not keeping the train rolling to the College Football Playoff, but Kelly Bryant being in the system long enough and the coach is being familiar enough with him to look good in the spring and solidify his role. Or do you think it's more open than anticipated.
I'm secret rerooting by the lafers Eric Cooper because his name is Xeric Zeric, of course, but you're right, the odds on favorite is probably Kelly Bryan at this point. Hunter Johnson a name people are excited about. I'm not sure how this translates, and I have faith that they have recruited talent regardless of whether it's Brian or Johnson. They have done so well over the last couple of years, both on the recruiting trail and on the field that
they're going to be fine. Long term, they will be fine. I'm just not sure if they're going to live up to quite the standard they've set for themselves the last couple of years. And that, to me, I think is what I am most curious about. To what degree can they move forward in a post to Shaan Watson reality.
Sure it should be noted whoever is starting at quarterback will not have Mike Williams. I don't believe. We'll have our Tavis Scott's and we'll have Hunter renfro, We'll have Deon Kane, Mary McLeod. So weapons certainly there. Defensively, you know, a couple of big losses up front, but Dexter Lawrence people already talking about him as you know, a top one, two three pick and next year's draft. Up front, Cordray Tankers,
Lee's gone, so rebuilding a number of key spots. So even if Kelly Bryant is good but not great, I think it would be fair to say, and this is sort of previewing the season, curious to see what the just quarterback battle looks like this spring, because I imagine, you know, even with some thin defensive line issues in the middle. I think they're going to be fine. And listen, Brent Vnnables is still calling place.
I think they will be absolutely fine, but it's going to be a different look on offense. And let's be honest, Deshan Watson won a lot of games for him. Mm hmm, you want a lot of games for him? Can you count on Kelly Bryant or Hunter Johnson.
Or Zick Cooper?
Did I don't know you love Zeric? I am a Zerch fan. Yeah, okay, but I mean I just I don't know what I don't know. Can we count on any of these guys? We haven't seen enough of them to know anything?
Right, All right, Okay, don'll be fine. How do we want to classify that? Uh? I think things are gonna be a little bit windy, but that's okay, go windy. Let me feel that wind. Don't feel the wind. Okay, it builds. But I will say this, ty, no matter what happens this year, I think they're gonna be. They're gonna be. It's good, a lot of windy. They're gonna be very hat There's a calming hangover effect that even when you're not the greatest after you win a championship.
You just won a championship, and so you can play my wild spring break song. Tie. That's how Clemson fings. That's how clems and fans are feeling on the inside. Tie.
All right, let me let me hold off on that one. Let's talk about the Auburn quarterback battle first.
Okay, is this under the the guys of windyness? It's windy Uh, it's also it's rain in sideways. True.
So we've got ourselves a good old fashioned QB battle at Auburn right now. Sean White a name everyone's familiar with, Woody Barrett, Malik Willis and oh, Jared Stidham.
Yeah, Shawn White broke an arm. I think you're not playing in the spring. Yeah.
Are we gonna see Jared Stidham? And is he going to take the baton once and for all from Shawn White? Sewn White was better than I think a lot of people realized last year. He completed sixty four percent of his passes in eleven games. That is not bad, but it's the wrong stat and that's the problem. He had just fifty five rushing attempts one hundred and sixty three yards rushing all last season. Dan, this is not the Gus malzani in offense that we grew accustomed to under
Cam Newton, even under Nick Marshall. There's a different system that they've been running, and it feels to me like a bit of an identity crisis. Is Stidham takes the reins, what does the offense look like? Because I think he's a better runner, and he might be a better thrower than Shawn White, but he's certainly not Nick Marshall or Cam Newton.
I don't know if we've seen that happy media and yet from gusmells on. So that's why I'm curious. That's why I'm inclined to say wind Well. First of all, I don't necessarily put a ton of stock in quarterback rushing numbers because of the sack factor that that's included in a lot of these statistics. But that said, Sewn White beat up certainly was a disappointed disappointment. Had some big moments though as well for the Tigers. Here's the
good news, if not great news for Auburn. They hired a new offensive coordinator who was going to bring new things that have succeeded at multiple places in Chip Lindsay that I think very well. With Jared Stidham's ability, I think they're going to be a little bit more downfield. I think they are going to be a bit more organized and utilize some of Chip Lindsay's ideas. Who was at Arizona State for a year before that. I believe he was at Southern Miss and well regarded and has
a good reputation down there. I would imagine, especially with time to sort of look at Stidham's game tape and sort of figure them out, and you know, Jared didn't play, Jared stidm didn't play last year for his junior college, that the offense will be formatted pretty well for him from the onset because it would be hard to imagine that a player of his caliber is going to come in and sit behind anybody. So I think they're in a good place. They've got good offensive skill talent, but
not where it's been these past few years. But if the offense is open, and we saw how good that defense was last year, perhaps unexpectedly, I'd say, just a pleasant spring breeze tie not the full windstorm, Okay, so just a pleasant breeze.
So absolutely situations here you gotta hope that Stidham comes in.
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I want to I want to put my stamps dot com stamp and mail in this letter. Okay of knowledge, Yes, so this could be a mixed bag, so much like spring rain one day, Wendy the next, sunshine birds chirpin the day after that. Let's talk new coordinators, Ty, Let's talk about big assistant hires. Okay, because it's been a big spring for that. So we have the new head coaches. Yeah, and we'll get to that in a minute, perhaps at Orgeron,
Tom Herman, Willie Tagger, PJ. Fleck, who everybody else but Nebraska with your boy, Bob Diaco, beautiful Bob great here, Doug Meacham in a surprise move to Kansas from TCU. Sonny Comby owns that offense out right. Matt Lubick, who was at Oregon as their offensive coordinator last year, took three different jobs. I believe he's the receivers and passing game coordinator at Washington, which I think is a really really shrewd and good hire. Kevin Wilson at Ohio State.
I know you're interested in discussing. Yeah, Todd Orlando throwing everybody on different sides of the of the defensive alignment at Texas as they sort of go to a new kind of multiple three four type look Jetfish Ucla, Gem Levitt at Oregon, Matt Canada at LSU. Yeah, come on, Ty, who where's the passion from you with these assistants. Where's the forecast?
You mentioned Kevin Wilson. I'm interested in Kevin Wilson. He is someone We've had him on the show. He was unceremoniously let go at Indiana. Now he's landed on his feet at Ohio State. A good offensive mind. He's just someone that I've always associated more with.
An air raid. Ran a wide open system at Oklahoma, ran a wide open system at Indiana, but got a lot of had a lot of success on the ground, A lot of success, Howard, Yeah, a lot of success on the ground. I'm just curious to see what it looks like. He's got JT.
Barrett, who was not exactly a notable passer a year ago, but he's certainly got the tool set that he can do whatever he wants, and so I think he's a smart guy.
I think he's a good offensive mind.
I'm just curious to see how he assembles the pieces and how it relates to what we saw year ago. What kind of fixes will he implement to try and get more out of that passing game, to me is the big question. So I don't know if it's wind, I don't think it's rain. Ultimately it's Ohio State, so probably more birds singing, you know, probably more birds out
there by the end of the season. But I'm curious to see how it starts, and hopefully hopefully the spring game and some of the spring practice reports will give us more of an indication as to what's to come there.
Yeah, he certainly has air raid in his pedigree. I would argue though, that his offense, especially as a coordinator at Oklahoma, they were pretty balanced. You know, Sam Bradford is the one that gets a sort of a lot of the attention, but that offense in general was pretty balanced. They put up a ton of yards, they played quickly, and urban Meyer is somebody again, Ty, And this is
something I don't have in front of me. If you have us at the top of your head, how many points did Ohio States score against Clemson the biggest game of the year. HM, that'd be zero point zero. So that's a pretty good time to come in and say things like I think we should overhaul X, Y and Z.
Now I listen. They got to the College Wall playoffs, so it's not like it's a disaster in Columbus, but I could see some pretty major tweaks that I'm curious to look at in the Ohio State spring game whenever that is, I do not have that in front of me, but interested to see if there are more manageable horizontal passes for J. T. Barrett to get things in a rhythm to generate more second and fours. I'm curious to see the running back alignments, how they use receivers, because again,
that's another position group that's going through some changes. So I am interested to see because I think we can expect at least a somewhat new look Ohio State offense.
I'm excited about that because they've got the pieces to do whatever they want if they want to build something really special. Kevin Wilson is probably a bright enough football mind to do so and can really get creative if you wants absolutely what other offensive coaching change are you interested in outside of Ohio State?
So actually this is sort of it goes hand in hand because I'm very curious about what USF is going to look like with Sterlin Gilbert Sterlin Gilbert excuse me running the offense like he did with Texas for Charlie Strong last year. And then of course what Oregon will look like with Willy Taggert running a what I assume will be a very similar system to what he did last year, without a quarterback that had the type of mobility that Quintin Flowers had, but still a successful quarterback.
Let me running that. Let me as Gulf Coast thing. Yeah, let me ask you about Oregon. Yes, has it calmed down out there?
Because Willi Taggert got off to a bit of a rocky start.
Ty, we're talking about a Final four type athletic departments. We're talking about a Final four caliber. I hope you listened to this before Final four happens, or something good happens to the final four and you listen to it after the fact. But things have calmed down. It seemed they signed a good recruiting class. They're going through I
think workouts right now. Spring practice starts in I don't know a week or ten days or so, and I think the news coming out of Eugene is basketball and minimal, which is how it probably should be at this time of the year. So yes, things appear to be quiet and honestly ty, this offense is pretty stacked. They return basically everybody important. That's a great thing for a new coach with an offensive background looking to be wide open
to have a quarterback with experience. I have skill talent led by maybe now the best running back in the Pac twelve. Maybe I'm thinking missing somebody. I mean, Miles Gaskin's really good, but Royce Young as a higher ceiling.
I think, so Oregon's in a good place. Curious to sy just what that offense looks like if they're looking like that Baylor sort of Clemson hybrid that you know a lot of heavy rpo stuff that USF was running last year, and what Quentin Flowers is able to do as a production machine for USF without Willie Tagger running the show. All right, so we're playing birds here, let's play some birds. I think a very yeah, yeah, absolutely very peaceful Dan. Yeah, we've got I mean the ducks
are birds. Bulls are you know, near birds sometimes? So yeah, I feel good. But on that same note, ty, yeah, we've got Ed Oorsron defensive background hiring, I think a very highly thought of offensive coordinator in Matt Canada. Correct, we have Tom Herman going to be running his system in Texas. We have PJ. Fleck who comes from an offensive background, looks like he's going to be opening things
up from Minnesota. Any head coach offensive coordinator? You have UCLA I think going to stay sort of pro style with Jed Fish after their pro style experiment last year failed in a big way. What intrigues you in terms of new looks this spring offensively?
I think I'm most interested in Matt Canada at LSU. Okay, LSU has been an offense in need of overhaul for a while, and Matt Cannon as a guy who comes in with much acclaim did wonders and his previous stop obviously, and I just want to know what it's going to look like. I'm not here to make any predictions. I'm not here to really even make any forecasts. I don't
know insufficient data here, okay to make a forecast. But for me, this has always been a situation where there's a ton of talent and they've just needed a renovation of sorts to get this thing jump started.
Wendy birds singing, what are we thinking? I think I'm gonna play two at once. There's writing sideways. Okay, I mean that feels right, you know, maybe it feels like the right reaction. Maybe some growing pains and then a beautiful rainbow followed by birds chirping. But the end, I don't know if we have a shovel pass sound effect. Now, if we did, that would be extremely appropriate. Let's stay in the sec west tide because there's been some movement
in shuffling. Brian, I don't even know he pronounced it. I'll find out of it. Actually, Dabble day Bole the new Alabama defensive coordinator, relieving long tenured, grizzled tied veteran Steve Sarkisian after he coached for but a game in the National Championship Game in Lane Kiffin, so he comes over from the Pats. I believe he was an old Nick saban Ga at Michigan State, and they also have I believe it so like Mike Loxley has been promoted. He's a receiver's coach and probably has some sort of
assistant head coach title. And they hired I believe it's two new secret assistants. What do they call it, They call analysts. They're secret assistants Chris Wanky and Dan Werner who engineered some really good old miss offenses, especially over especially over Alabama. They put up like forty points each time. So Alabama, you're feeling good. You feel like it's just
too much attrition too often they return Jalen Hurts. They obviously are as talented or more talented that literally everybody, is it too much being thrown at this team too quickly? How could you ever feel anything other than the hots for Alabama? I know, you know things are great until they're not.
This would be like, let's say, an eighty percent chance of it being mostly sonny okay, is a twenty percent chance that maybe it could go off the rails.
There's some NFL stink coming in pop.
Up thunderstorm, isolated thunderstorm, if you want to use the official weather speak. But it's Alabama. There's so much talent there. You've got a true freshman quarterback from a year ago now a year older. You've got all sorts of talent around him. I don't care if there is attrition. Nick Saban goes like five deep at every.
Position, mostly Sonny. I feel pretty good. I would say, I mean attritionan ultimately will and Alabama, even though Nick Saban is a cyborg. I am confident in saying it won't be Nick Saban's coaching ability. It will just be inconsistency in the people around. So I don't think it's going to be this seat.
But do you think that Alabama will end quote unquote at any point during the Saban era?
No, I think Saban is the ultimate and attrition.
I was going to say, I think that's what it's going to take in order for the end to occur. He's going to need to leave because he's got this thing going at a million miles an hour at this point.
PJ. Fleck, do you think that sort of thing because he is along with Tom Herman and I don't say this in any sort of derogatory way, pejorative way they're
buying guys. The success that they had is not necessarily rooted in scheme, even though as we've seen, Minnesota moved the ball really nicely last year, turned teams over at a crazy rate, didn't turn themselves over, didn't turn over the ball themselves, and Houston, led by their defense, led by the weekend and week out efforts defensively offensively, some lackadaisical results because of injuries. But do you feel good about PJ. Fleck getting quick buy in starting this spring quick buy in?
Yes, Yes, he's that's very good. He's very good at building excitement. That's part of his brand, the whole row of the boat thing that's coming with him, Okay, coming with him from his previous stop. So I think he'll get buying the I'm gonna repackage this and throw it back at you.
Okay.
Of these two situations, which one has the highest chance for tumultuous weather? Tom Herman at Texas PJ. Fleck at Minnesota is one.
Of these teams in the Big ten West? Correct one is yes, So I would say probably Minnesota is clear sailing, all things considered, in the short term, just because the attention is much brighter on the forty acres. So totally. Tom tom Herman brings in his staff was a ga for Texas. He is relatively speaking local. This is a place that has been in need of an overhaul since
twenty ten, pretty much, Charlie Strong. You know, for every step he took forward, maybe took half a step back, just because you got three years, you should be beating you should beating Kansas by the end of it. And there's just so much more attention. So I think the possibility for more tumultuousness in Minnesota did not end the year in a particularly good way human wise. No, no, but at this point I think it's still you know,
Texas has the higher ceiling in the lower floor. I think you're right on the money.
Honestly, so much attention on Texas that even if it takes Tom Herman a little while longer to build this thing up, there will be people who are impatient, who aren't willing to wait. I think he will pay almost dividends, but that remains to be seen.
There have been some rumors that they've reached out to my boy malik'sayer. This is true.
Some LEAK'SAIIR versus Shane Buschelle could be an interesting side show, but we'll see. I think I think both will have positive impacts on their situation. I think PJ. Fleck will get a much much longer leash. Obviously he's at Minnesota where there aren't traditionally very high football expectations. Certainly Tom Herman is going to be under the microscope from day one.
What do you want to see or hear from either of these programs? This spring like news has come out of Texas, like Malik Jefferson is moving to outside linebacker, Breckenhager is moving to I think middle linebacker from defensive end. You know, there's a couple of corners moving to safety. Like I said, spring is all about figuring out who's now moving to safety. That's all it is. So what actual not necessarily progress, but what just update would you like on the Texas and Minnesota program.
I want to see and hear more operational details from Tom Herman. I want I ripped up the carpet at Texas tie right. I want to hear how they're going to change the scheme, even if we don't see it on the field in any kind of spring game capacity. I want to hear about changes that they're making. I want to hear about a plan that he has to try and move things forward. What are you going to do x y Z. Because we've had him on our show in the spring and he was very good at
doing that. I'd like to hear what his plan is to try and put things in a better spot at Texas. On the Minnesota side, I think I just want to hear about more of the buy in, you know. I want to hear about enthusiasm and confidence among the team that they can now take this program to the next level, because it's going to look different from the way it
did a year ago. I want to just hear that people are buying in, that people are excited, and that his brand PJ Flex brand of enthusiasm he's translating to another program.
I think that's that's realistic. I do want to talk about I think I just have one more thing on my list and I'm somewhat interested in. I want to talk about l Ko. You know who l Ko is. Enlighten me, Mike Elko, l ko new defensive coordinator, Notre Dame. I mean I Brandon Wimbush, new quarterback. He's the guy. I don't think that's there's a debate at this point, right, No, Brandon Wimbusch is the guy. The offense. It's what Memphis
offensive coordinator came over. Yep, Chip Long comes over. They should have at least a more organized offensive identity this coming season, and I think Brian Kelly has sort of delegated everything. So defensively was where there were a number of issues early on last year. So gone BVG attacking aggressive mentality here, the running of four two. They're running sort of that like hybrid type system with the rover.
Are you bullish on one? Notre Dame taking a step forward in the spring in terms of, hey, this is a new defense we're running, and we have the personnel to run this defense and to like actually able to execute a good, new, fun, fast defense in the fall. Well, the thing is they've got a ton of talent. El Kale Lko's got a ton of talent.
Dan.
Yeah.
One of the stories that gave me hope was it was just recently and I forget the publication, but I read a story recently about just some of the little things that he is demanding of the defensive personnel, and there was a quote about you know him, him making sure that defensive players sprint to and past a cone. You know, it's implying that there are no shortcuts with That's the most spring headline totally ever. I love that you can only read that in the springtime. But the
implication is that you're not cutting corners now. So you're right, it's a spring headline. Yes, am I confident in it. I'm more confident in Elko than I was in Brian Van Gorder, I'll tell you that much. But I need to see more of a product on the field to see how that personnel performs when it's put in different situations. So I'm cautiously optimistic.
Okay. I wish we had a spring fantasy things draft, not that we need more things to keep track of, but one of my favorite things when a new coach is hired and they start doing workouts and they start doing spring practice, the stories that trickle out of like what was that previous staff even doing? Yeah, what they call that weightlifting? What were they even thinking? I love the subtle jabs at previous regimes, that new code they
have to do it. That is just like a thing, just like, you have to get an enthusiastic, galvanized fan base. You have to convince them that the solution is that, oh, these excellent players just weren't trained properly, and we've got the guys to come in and really whip them into shape. This weird subtweeting that goes on, I'm with you, absolutely there is always that, like we changed the weightlifting routine entirely. Oh, we have these new drills these players aren't even used
to in the gym doing reps with the players. The players for the first they're throwing up ty. They're being worked so hard like they've never been worked before. It's my favorite thing that all of a sudden, this new coaching staff comes in and these are the masters of football training. It's great because the previous staff said the same thing about the previous staff. How do you feel about Mike Elko from the outside looking in good? I
think they add an element. Listen, if you're succeeding on defense at wake Forest, and yes, wake Forest has gotten better in no small part because of the job that the coaches did bringing them to a competitive place. Mike Elco ran a good defense. It seems everybody has high praise for Elco as a you know, his former players and former assistants, or at least the ones that aren't
selling out game plans to opponents. I'm always impressed when somebody is able to win at a small place when the sort of chips are stacked against them, like is the case at Wake Forest a lot of the time. So that is an impressive pedigree when you're able to succeed on that level. And now that he has better players, objectively better players, I would imagine if he is able to organize his assistance and you know, keep everything in mind, given the challenges at Notre Dame, with it being a
much bigger place, I'm optimistic. You know, Notre Dame is probably too talented to go got hold on. I'm looking up their twenty sixteen record. They're too talent did to have a losing record again, So I am optimistic that Notre Dame's defense will improve.
All right, let's play birds just to make me feel better about things, absolutely, ty.
Final question, Yeah, please, do you have a spring love story, because that is what is in the air in the spring. A spring. When did you start dating the solid wife? What time of year summer? It was it was summer love, okay, Mine was the end of summer. But I've my high school girlfriend was a spring love story tie okay, and that is that's an intense kind of love tie that high school.
Well, since we're talking about spring, yeah, and since we do have a spring break song here, which you wanted me to play earlier, and I didn't. Do you have any good spring break stories?
So I don't in terms of me. But I watched a lot of MTV spring break tie. I watched the spring Breakhouse. You know, all of a sudden, they you know, Eminem would be rapping on stage, and I like, God, how old must I have been? I'm thirteen, ten twelve, you know this special area of oh that sounded weird, the special area of your life. And so I never actually went to like Pana what is it, Panama Beach,
Panama City, Panama City, Daytona Beach, Cancun, Cabo. I never did that spring break in like high school or college. But I would watch that on MTV and think to myself, Man, this must be the height of life. Yeah, this must be Look at all these girls and bikinis and dudes just like bouncing beach balls. I don't know. It's just looked like the best possible time to be had was at spring break. And then as soon as I got the opportunity to go to spring break, I emphatically decided,
I am one hundred percent not doing this. I'm going to spring training. I went to the my junior year.
Okay, I was almost part of what I would very generously refer to as an international crime.
You know me, I mean, I'm a rebel against the law, right, But did you smuggle something?
We were at this port Lukaya, I believe it was called in the Bahamas. It was right on, right on, like a harbor or a port where ships would come in, and there was one boat outside our window. That one night, we decided to go and just talk to the owners of the boat.
The foul play spelled.
Fowl e for you, an Oregon Ducks fan, you might appreciate that we just decided to get talking to the owners of the boat. Have they invited us on the boat, had a couple of drinks. Shortly thereafter, someone else who was part of that crew came running back from one of the night clubs.
He had been in a fight. There was an angry mob.
I'm not kidding, an angry mob of people chasing behind him like that scene out of Happy Gilmore. And if it weren't for the Bohemian police, uh huh, the gentlemen who were actually steering the boat would have moved port to a different island. I was mortified, Dan, Yeah, absolutely, I was on the boat for multiple hours waiting for the crowd to disperse. I like that a last I got off without being in a different country, a different island, or getting my head beaten in Wow, the foul play.
Good story. I kind of have an idea for a secret verbal around this. Okay, we haven't done this in a long time, all layers. I'm looking for a good recipient. But does an MTV Now show they have like a separate channel where they show literally everything that was shown in like a certain year, So they'll start like they're just gonna air nineteen ninety seven and its entirety for a full year, like the commercials, the shows everything, the
news breaks. I believe it do. So hypothetically, one could come across this channel, see an MTV spring break and spot a sports writer in the crowd. Okay, correct, that's I like where you're going with this. So we have to figure out somebody that would be in like their thirties probably okay, late thirties. I don't know. It could be Spencer Hall, it could be something along there. They're like, oh my god, it was just flipping the channels and saw you on MTV spring break at like a kid
rock show. I like where you're going with this, Dan, And do you have a recipient Ralph Russo? No, No, okay, the little kid from Sports Illustrated for Kids, who's at the NCAA tournament. Dan, how about Martin Rickman? Ooh, I like this our old pal Martin. We've not gotten him yet, have we? This is true, No, we have not. I don't think we have. We take it advantage of our position so often that I have no idea what we do. So he's up rocks correct, up rocks sports editor. He's wonderful.
He's one of the nicest humans that exist. Martin Rickman. If you are still listening to the show, this is the part of the show that we normally do during the season. It's called the secret verbal. We want you to tweet at Martin very politely, at Martin Rickman r C K M A N SO M A R T I N R I C K M A N Martin Rickman, just as it sounds.
The least phonetically challenged handle. Absolutely we'll ever give out. Tweet at Martin Rickman. Hey, I was just let me look at the what the station is called. It's like MTV Classic or something like that. Yeah, MTV Classic. Hey was just flipping and went to MTV Classic and spotted you or saw you, you know at the spring break house, you know, at a kid rock show whatever. Just really going for it, just getting down, just.
Having about year two thousand and seven. Let's see kid Rock spring Break, kid Rock, MTV spring Break. It would have been Yeah, he did BA with Deba in God, it looks like nineteen ninety nine, so you went to do nineteen ninety nine. That might be a little early for Martin. No, that's the point that everybody is just over and over, So just tweet him plainly. Do not make reference to the solid verbal, do not make reference with a hashtag with anything, so there's no tracing it
back to us. Tweeted Martin Rickman, Hey was just flipping to MTV Classic and saw you during the kid Rock show at MTV spring Break. So wild hopeball as well, something like that. Just you spotted Martin while watching MTV Classic at the Kid Rock Show at Spring Break nineteen ninety nine. There it is Dan, I like it. Okay, I appreciate it. Thank you again to our fine sponsor Texture for sponsoring today's episode. Two hundred plus magazines available.
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Do it for that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein, for myself here in allent T.
How my name is ty Hilton Brand.
Hope you have a sunny week and weekend and we'll be back next week. Talk some more college football in the meantime, Stay solid, hey,