Welcome to the solid verbal. Come 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? Whoo whoom? And Dan and Tye, welcome back to the solid verbal, boys and girls. My name is ty Hillebrandt joining me as always a fine gentleman. Now marry gentleman, a proper gentleman over there in New York f in City. Dan Rubinstein, how are you, sir, Tie?
It is a joy and pleasure. As always, I'm doing pretty well. It's a busy time, so we're recording this Wednesday evening. The NBA Draft is tomorrow nights. Will you watch any of that? By the way, are you invested at all?
Nope?
Okay, well I am because I have to work during it for the day job. But it's sort of a hectic time because we've got all sorts of college football shows that we're planning and working on, and the season is actually not all that far away, ty No, it's not. It is late June. We're almost into July, which is conference media days and conversations begin in earnest. I saw that the magazines are out. Have you picked up any of those?
I haven't yet, And you know what, I haven't been a couple of years, to be perfectly honest. I've seen the Athlon, yeah, for a couple of years running now because they've been kind enough to send it to us.
Get at me Athlon, by the way, I have a new address, get at me. Would love to see some Athlon materials.
I have not seen Phil Steele though in a couple of years.
Yeah, so I haven't picked any of those up yet, but it's we're right there and one of the things we like to do going into summer, and we have specific theme shows still planned out. I think we've got another how College Football Works episode under wraps in in production, sort of figuring things out. We've got a specialized show with Bill Barnwell, our friend who covers the NFL DESPN. We did the Emo show Emo and Pop Punk Show
with him last year. We have a follow up non emo show, No Emo important definitely off topic, yes, And we have the exhaustive and nerdy and ever so navel gazing episode uh sort of dedicated to the history of the solid verbal how it all happened? We get tweets. We still get tweets all the time, like when we ask for a question like how did you two come together? My two favorite tweets yeah, or what are nails?
Are? A? The ones where they mix you and eye up, which happens all the time.
What's Dan's secret day job? Right?
And B. On a very personal note, the people who spell my name I'm assuming incorrectly, but I can never quite tell because it has happened inadvertently, totally innocently in the past where they spell thie Thai.
Is that true?
That is true? I get. I get a couple of those a year, either via Twitter or email. And obviously you know that's not a major talking point as we get into the history of show that again we're going to do later on in July. But an important little side note something that I appreciate.
I do have a follow up from last week, because, as you know, when you're married, it's a partnership tie it is it's it's communication, it's making sure you're on the same page. And because we are doing a show dedicated today to a summer love summer crushes, I'm kind of going to love Dan. You know what that's about, right, I do know what that's about tie. Yeah, I've had many summer crushes. I no longer do just one right,
but I do have breaking news, tie breaking news. Do you want to play the sound if you have it at your It's been a while we have break now. I don't know what we are going to call her long term and the way that we call your lovely wife Kate, solid wife Kate.
How are we doing this now?
But I do have permission. Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa wow, double sound effect. It's the solid wife, Rihanna, It's the it is. And how did I know you were going to go there? No, my wife's name is Jody with an I, Jody with an eye, and maybe we'll just always say Jody with an eye because I do get a little bit infuriated when I see jod Y. But Jody with an eye. She is from Chicago, she went to Michigan. She is much smarter and better looking than
I am, and she still decided to marry me. And I don't think she knows how to listen to podcasts,
so that's probably for the best. We're cool. We're cool, but yeah, named after Chicago cub from the eighties, Jody Davis and if you've ever listened to Andy Staples show on Sirius XM, which maybe we don't have a lot of crossover, but every single time I'm on, Andy introduces me as Dan Rubenstein espianation, the solid verbal, and I always, of course think of Dan's I guess then girlfriend Jody because Andy met her, so he's he outs it on
Serious XM all the time. This is her debut here, it's Jody with it.
Did it take a lot of convincing to get her to, you know, sign the waiver? Now?
Really? No?
Okay, good, No.
It was just like, I didn't say your name because I figured you didn't want to have it out there if you didn't want it, and she was like, nah, it's fine, it's just my name.
So there, I think I said Kate's name right out of the shoot. You probably, and I'm not sure how that went over. I wasn't as courteous to ask her in advance. And yeah, we've come a long way since then. I've got two years on you in the marriage department. But true, Okay, So Kate and Jody now the perspective solid spouses.
So tonight's show, it's about summer crushes in college football going into the twenty seventeen season, So all of these people that we have crushes on are competing for second place.
That's right, absolutely, Okay, we did a show like this about a year ago. I went back and checked the tapes, and in that show, we had a bunch of other sound effects and it's just kind of confusing. So we tried to We tried to come a bit pretty straightforward. It also makes the editing process a little easier on you and I. Now we're gonna call this episode Summer eleven.
It's a very timely, very very timely, because today, I believe is actually the first day of summer.
The summer really the summer solstice excuse me, plstice, Yeah, is upon us. And what we're doing, as you mentioned, is we're going through players, duos, coaches, teams, you name it, whatever, things in college football, entities, people in college football that we've got a crush on. Now as we enter the twenty seventeen season, because as you mentioned, as we get now into July with conference weeks and whatnot, and then certainly as we get into August and we do our
previews and September as the season starts. Things are going to start rolling along here pretty quickly, as memory serves. I think you and I only have about two or three more episodes that we have to figure out before the start of the college football season. The rest of them we've already sort of earmarked. We know what we're going to be talking about. This is true and this is now one of those episodes. Is we now start to try and build for the twenty seventeen season.
I have my own sound effects, by the way you do for the summer Love and Yours. You're just really innocent, like hearkens back, you know, Grease and the fifties whatever.
Yeah, Okay, you're a little more a little bit more aggressive with it, jain Ah, But I like itsh do you want to go first? Who's your first summer crush here?
So my first summer crush and we did not coordinate. So maybe we'll have crossover, That's.
What I was hoping that we might have. Yeah, and we're gonna have to fight Quentin Fly. I thought about putting him on my list, Quinn Flowers.
Okay, so I went with a lot of guys that were not a lot, but some that were sort of below the radar because crushes is sort of from afar. We know, like Bo Scarborough, right, everybody's got a crush on both Scarborough everybody. You know, there's a number of players that I look at and I'm always about, you know, the quiet one in the corner, like, hey, what's her deal?
Right?
So to me, Quinn Flowers definitely does not fit that, the quiet one in the corner, but still playing for USF, an American team and not on the same sort of radar that you know quarterbacks such as maybe Sam Darnold might be heading into the sit.
I have a crucio and Sam Dart We're not going to do.
That's not that's not who cares. Quinn Flowers, though, is a one man wrecking crew. And if you watched us F at all last year under Willie Taggart, and I imagine it's going to be the same under Charlie Strong
this year. He is everybody knows what's coming with the USF offense, or it at least did last year that you know, they were going to be running sort of some Baylor stuff on the outside, smartpo stuff, and he was going to be just he was a one man first down and it is such a joy to watch somebody take over the game, especially when as a polished passer it's not there. But in terms of just eighting yards, nobody fills up quicker than Quintin Flowers. I love watching him.
Quintin Flowers came into Bloom last year.
Dan, mmmmm, how dare you.
Came into Bloom? Was fun to watch. We talked about him, you know, at Nauzume to the extent that we could as someone who wasn't playing in a Power five conference, but certainly he was notable. Willie Taggart had a pretty good team, rushed for fifteen hundred yards and eighteen touchdowns yes last year from the quarterback position, and then as a passer threw for twenty four more touchdowns. So to call him a one man wrecking crew is definitely not
a stretch. I'm very curious to say, see now where that system goes under Charlie Strong, And I think, as you correctly pointed out, I wouldn't expect that production to go down. I think he would only improve maybe a few tweaks here and there. But Quentin Flowers is going to be an exciting player and I'm glad you put him on your list, because I almost put him online and then decided at the very end to leave him off.
And something important to realize is Sterling Gilbert is the new offensive coordinator at USF and the system that he ran last year at Texas is pretty similar thematically to what USF did last year, with some obvious tweaks, but you know the history of him at Tulsa and Baylor and Texas. It'll be a very familiar scene watching USF next year.
I think Sterling Gilbert has had mobile quarterbacks before in the past. He found a good way to utilize them, and maybe we'll see some of those passing numbers go up for flowers as well. Yes, sir, all right, while we're talking quarterbacks. Oh God, talk about my boy Eric Dungee.
Mm hmm.
I told you on g chat, which apparently g chat's going away soon. Rip oh man. I kind of have the nickname grungy Eric Dungee stuck in my head and I don't know why. Okay, I wonder if it's got something to do with our Drummond Fife, but I don't know if you've ever used the word grungy as it relates to the Drummond.
Fife plays in the Northeast.
Here's what I like about Eric Dungee. He's at Syracuse. By the way, he's their starting quarterback. Only played nine games last year, but in those nine games a sixty five percent completion percentage, about three hundred passing yards per game. He's fairly mobile. He's gonna be in year two under Dino Babers, which is a wide open, aired out system up there at Syracuse. He just seems grungey. He's got that fight in him, and I like that in my Syracuse quarterback.
From across the contrary he was when he that was one of our over unders for the season last year as over under of total yards or something like four thousand and Underdno Baber's. But year two, I think you're absolutely right. I think he's going to put in an even bigger year if he can stay healthy and has a good I mean, the receivers last year were really good. I think in year two of the system, I think they're going to excel. I don't think a Bowl is
out of the question with this team. It's not out of the question, but I'm not going to lie. They've got a run of games here from late September through early November where they go to LSU, they got Pit at home, Clemson at home at Miami, and at Florida State.
That's a tough little stretch there. All of those games conceivably be losses. And that's not even counting the other tweener games on their ACC schedule, like at NC State. It's not even counting at Louisville, which happens later on in the year. So I think it's a bit of a stretch for them to get the six, but you know, ACC being what it is, you can't ever fully count it out.
I think that's a good crush TI. I like Eric done a lot. We've talked about him as he made his way in sort of out of nowhere from Portland to Syracuse.
Where are we going next?
All right? You ready there it is?
Yeah, feeling the vapors, Dan feeling the vapors.
I'm going to go with both of the head coaches at the service academies with the biggest rivalry because they're obviously more than two service academies, so arm n New Modelolo, Army Navy. They're coaches specifically, Ken do you modololo at Navy? Jeff Monkin at Army, and we don't generally focus a ton on these schools during the season unless they're playing
somebody that perhaps has a bigger place. I don't think bigger place is the appropriate term, but you know gets more attention in college football, but you know, playing in a Power five conference, And what ken You Modololo has done at Navy. And I know people are quick to sort of pigeonhole the sort of option, flex bone whatever systems into a very specific category. But Tom Herman this offseas and was the guy, and Keny You Modololo was the guy who beat up on the guy this past
year at Navy. Ken You Modolo beats Notre Dame, not inconsistently. And Jeff Mounkin what he's done at Army in getting the cadets at Army over the top against Navy to end the season, overhauling that program you have if you haven't read Stephen Godfrey from Espionation, he embedded with Army leading up to that game, and he has changed recruiting, He has changed the way that program operates with the challenges that both of those schools have year in and
year out. I won't pretend like I have any sort of first person knowledge of what they go through, but it's certainly a very different experience. I love that both of those schools like who wants to play? The week before, you know, Notre Dame plays Navy, no matter how much better and more talented Notre Dame is. And this is I guarantee you ty, I'm not specifically picking on Notre Dame in this instance beyond them being a much bigger
football powerhouse. If Navy is playing whoever in a bowl game, if Navy's playing Houston this year, made Appleway last year, Tom Herman, every single one of those coaches in the week leading up is like, well shit, well damn it all, how do we h? I love that both of those coaches at this point, but specifically new Manololo has gotten abed to the point where they just stress people out no end. And I love that. I think it's worth recognizing.
And look twenty fifteen, the best quarterback perhaps ever, most prolific quarterback and Keenan Reynolds for Navy. And what do they do in twenty sixteen? They beat Notre Dame in Houston.
They beat Notre Dame. I mean, the thing about Navy what's been amazing. They're not like a pushover.
Well people, that was the specific criticism, right, not specifically as a Notre Dame fan.
Oh, they play the service academies. Well, you don't want to play that service academy because they've actually got a lot of recent success against Notre Dame. They had a pretty good football team. You mentioned what they did to Houston. This is a good program that he's built. They've been consistent year in and year out. And oh, by the way, Army made a bowl game for the first time in forever last year. Hm. They've turned that pro around as
well and started building something there. So it's cool to see that happen.
May I ask you a follow up question because I can relate. During the Oregon coaching search, I was looking at the coaches across college football who've had relatively consistent success, and I talked myself into if Orgon hires Ken new Modalolo, I'd be pretty pumped about it, just because of his personal reputation, the success he's had, and could he translate that on a bigger level. I was, I had talked
myself into it. You did, I remember that Notre Dame is a very different place than Oregon, but academic restrictions not unlike what the Naval Academy in Aapolis is a ridiculously good place to you know, academically. Could you see yourself talking yourself into Ken new Modalolo. Nope, and what he's done really Nope.
No, And if I would love that it's entirely personal with me, I would. I would, full on there was a leaf would turn over for me for Notre Dame if they had hired keny Manololo. No, wouldn't do it for me. I came to the offense, I get bored. I get bored out of my mind watching the offense. Now when they run it well, they're obviously very good, they're very effective. They've run it very well against Notre Dame. But I just I get bored out of my mind watching it. Really I do, Yeah, I do see.
I like it. I mean, but consider running it with players Notre Dame, athletes like.
Josh and Mike mcglinchy. Yeah, I mean, obviously it's a different system. My turn, Dan, we're talking quarterbacks. Last time, I got other quarterbacks here on my list that I won't go into. Right now, let's talk about my voice. Saquon Barkley, who's better. I don't know if anybody is listen. I know I just made the goofy voice when I talked about Sam Darnold and Saquon. By no means is under the radar. But for me, Saquon's got a little
bit of a local connection. Not only does he go to my alma mater, penn State, he's also from the town across the river from me, originally from Copley, Pennsylvania, went to Whitehall High School, one of our rivals back in the day. In high school, five and a half yards per carry. Last year over fourteen hundred yards, eighteen touchdowns on the ground. The line is improving, It's been
improving the last couple of years. The offense clearly found an extra gear with whatever Joe Moore had figured out after their loss to Michigan. And I am just terrified that a freak injury could derail this whole thing, because he's a running back and that would be just the luck. But he's got moves that remind me of like a weird hybrid between Reggie Bush and Lashawn McCoy. He gets
up the top speed quickly, he runs with power. I think he's a guaranteed top five, top ten pick provided he stays healthy, and he should be able to do incredible things now in year two under Morehead, hopefully with trace McSorley improving as well. I'm not the only one who has a crush on this guy. It's not a secret crush. You could argue the entire NFL and Big
Ten have giant overt crushes on Saquon Barkley. But I think provided he stays healthy and the offense continues to improve, it's going to be a monster, mega Heisman worthy caliber season for him. And I'm just damn excited. I'm damn excited to see what he can do. Now.
Who is the last Bens State running back that got you this excited? Evan royst No, I mean business decision, Silas threadit.
You got to go back. A pretty good way is to like key John Carter, Curtis Enis to really find a running back that I think had this kind of hype headed into the season. Austin Scott was interesting, but he never materialized for Penn State. So yeah, it's been a while since you had a real body of work to go on entering a new football season. And he's
the goods man. I mean, if you've watched him for any period of time or just a few downs at a time, you know that this kid's got the moves, he's got the speed, he's got the vision, and he's a unique talent. So there's a lot of reason for optimism there.
Yeah, slowed down a little bit back half of the season last year, and he was obviously beat up a little bit, but if he's able to do it over the course of that full season, because we saw some of those runs against Tile State, against Iowa, he had an obviously an enormous day in usc sort of was the cherry on top of a terrific season. But yes, the ability is there. It'd be great to see it week in and week out a little bit more this year. That's nitpicking. He's so great.
I think they'll figure out a way to be more consistent across the board on offense because they did kind of shift gears a bit about midway through, which obviously worked in their favor. Let me, I'll counterbalance the obvious Saquon Barkley selection with another crush of mine.
Go off the radar.
I'm sure there are plenty of people who have heard of cam Akers at Florida State, but cam Akers is a true freshman was depending where you looked, either the top running back or number two running back behind Najie Harris who went to Alabama. But cam Akers is five eleven, two fifteen. He's built like an absolute truck. He accounted for get this, thirteen thousand, two hundred and forty three total yards and one hundred and forty nine touchdowns in
high school as a dual threat quarterback. Cam Akers now goes to Florida State. He is the heir apparent to the running back position that is left vacant by Dalvin Cook, and by all accounts, he's going to be a guy who can step in and have a monster season right out of the shoot. People are very excited about cam Akers. And unless you follow recruiting very closely, unless you're a Florida State or ACC fan, or maybe a fan of football in the Southeast region, you might not know the
name yet. My hunch is that you will soon because he's a good one.
It's funny your terminology was what it was because when people ask me, because obviously your way in Pennsylvania, like what's what's tie like? I say, right off the top, built like an absolute truck. That's right, thank you, built like a semi He is a mac truck. Camp Makers is going to be fantastic. And there's been some turnover at Florida State, but I still think he is going
to be and huge shoes to fill. I don't even think we fully appreciated what Dalvin Cook was and had the ability to do for Florida State and was himself a one man wrecking crew. But cam Makers should jump in and immediately become one of the best, you know, dozen or so running backs in the country. I would say, at least the physical talent is there to become.
So if you go and watch any of his highlights from high school, it's clear that he's a man among boys. We've had this discussion before, Dan those players did not exist at my high school.
Same now they do, but same.
Feeling in for big shoes. Dalvin Cook, who got drafted to the NFL and was a Heisman contender for a while, brought a lot of excitement to Florida State. I think cam Akers has a chance to be better. I'm excited to see him out there.
Fair points. I have a crush because we're going to stay with the sort of freshman sensation theme. I'm going to go with what may have been the best freshman in the country last year, but because of coaching changes. I hope he does not get lost in the mix. I imagine he is a preseason All American. So again I am now looking at the you know, the prettiest girl in the class.
But we need the music. We need the music.
Yeah, So, as a defensive lineman in two thousand and eight, TI, I'm seeing this. I was looking up freshman defensive linemans and what defensive line men and what they're able to do. Alden Smith for Missouri in two thousand and nine, excuse me, nineteen tackles for a loss. That's pretty ridiculous for a freshman. Roosevelt Knicks for Kent State twenty tackles for a loss in twenty ten as a freshman. So the twenty tackles
for a loss. In terms of productivity for a freshman defensive lineman, nobody really in twenty eleven, twenty twelve, same, not a lot of freshmen just making that immediate impact. Devonte Fields for Florida or excuse me for TCU. Right around then, was had ahead a nice year at Oliver for Houston.
Oh yeah, good one twenty.
Two and a half tackles for a loss for Houston. You saw what he was able to do, double team whatever against Louisville and that just complete destruction on the Thursday night game. What that Houston defense was able to do against Louisville Cardinals at Oliver is that damn good? The guy who led the country and tackles for a loss last year had twenty three and a half. At Oliver finished with twenty two and a half in thirteen games.
Hassan Reddick taken in the first round. Same number. Yeah, just in terms of what the production level of what at Oliver did as a we freshman who is yet to even figure everything out as a dominant college defensive lineman. I really hope he doesn't get lost in the shuffle this year. Obviously, every offense that plays against the Cougars is going to pay extra attention to him. But my god, you want to mention Cam Akers as a man amongst
boys going into the season as a true freshman. As a true sophomore, at Oliver is a titan amongst boys.
You can ridiculous make a fairly solid case that At Oliver's the best college football player in twenty seventeen.
Yeah, it's one of those situations where like after Josh Rosen's freshman year, they're like, well, in two years, will be the number one overall pick. And there's you know, you can make the case that Dexter Lawrence is that guy right now of like way down the line, he's going to be a number one overall pick. At Oliver's right there. Just in terms of how Versaly is on the line, I'm scared of him sitting on the fourteenth floor of a building two thousand miles away from him.
He's so good. Shall we move on next?
My next crush, admittedly, is on my Casper mattress.
Dan A good one, that's I mean, you go, you could go in a real weird direction with this one.
So they sent us mattresses. I don't know if you've publicly disclosed it on the show.
They did.
I had an issue with my mattress before. When the Solid Wife and I moved into our home. She had this old memory foam mattress that was very comfortable. It was more comfortable than my old mattress, But after sleeping on it for about a year and a half. Two years, I started getting lower back pain, shoulder pain. I just thought I was an old man well into my thirties. Now I'm thinking, all right, this is how it starts, right.
But then I read the Internet and the Internet said that no, actually a mattress can cause you a fair amount of bodily harm.
I was looking at the Internet.
You wouldn't think that it could. You're just sleeping, But as it goes, yeah, a mattress can do a lot of harm your body. Then the casper showed up, and first off, it was like magic. When you pop this thing open, because it comes in like a vacuum sealed bag. It's a heavy box, but it comes in a box off a truck. You pull it into the home, you push it up, push it up the stairs. You pop the seal in like this vacuum sealed bag, and the thing inflates. I don't know how they do it, but
somehow it utilates. You have a fully functioning, fully sized mattress within about fifteen seconds. And I laid on this thing and it was a much much different experience. It's been a much different experience ever since then. And no why I wouldn't lie to anyone out there because we're all friends. The shoulder pain that I got in my right shoulder has gone away, and the back pain that
I was getting has gone away. So it would seem to me that the what four point eight rating, four point eight out of five rating that it gets across it's thirty thousand or so global reviews, that seems to be accurate, maybe even a little bit low. Some of the reviews that have been a little bit more eloquent than me have been that it's like quote sleeping on a brioch and quote like being cradled by the tinkling of a baby laughing in the moonlight, which I have
no idea what that means. But Casper's got an award winning design. It's continuously developed using feedback from nearly half a million customers. They also only sell directly to consumers, which means that they can eliminate the commission driven inflated prices that you get with any kind of middleman, and
buying is easy. You just go online. Oh yeah, they'll deliver it to your door in a compact box, whether you live in the US, UK or Canada, free delivery, free returns, and you get one hundred night risk free trial. So if you're maybe on the brink you think you want a new mattress, check it out. You and I have them, We love them. Other people have gotten them, They've emailed in, they've written in to let us know
that they like their Casper as well. You can get a chance to just try it out before you fully commit. We do spend about a third of our lives on the mattress Dan, mm hmm, so it's important to have when that works for you. Right now, you can get fifty bucks towards any mattress you purchase by visiting Casper dot com and using the code verbal v r B A L v E r B A L is your offer code fifty bucks off any mattress purchase Dan. Terms and conditions do apply.
Ty, I've always said sleep is the best drug there is. Go buy the best drugs.
Come on, back to college football, let's do it. Let's talk about another crush of mine.
What do you have.
Let's talk about Derwin James right.
Really going for the big names.
Yeah, not a crush until recently, got hurt in two games last year, but a beast against the Ryn great in the past coverage. Another guy probably a top five pick if you he doesn't get hurt again because he's versatile. Another Florida State guy. By the way, I love Florida State this year, and I hope I don't jinx them. Wow, I love their players. But he's versatile. You can't even scheme against him because he's just all over and everywhere at once. Really good player from the safety position. He's
an obvious one. Another one that's not so obvious to me. Also at the safety position. Have we talked enough about Jordan Whitehead on this show.
Probably not, because Pitt's past defense was it was not great. Last year, Jordan Whitehead plays for Pitt. There is some talk that they're going to move him from boundary safety to field safety, which if you're playing along at home, mean a whole lot. I don't know.
I haven't followed up to see if that's a change that's going to stick or not.
You might need to set a Google alert for boundaries high I might have to do that.
Yeah, But if it's a thing. If it's not a thing, it doesn't mean a whole lot. Might mean a little less contact for him in the run game, might keep him a little safer out there, but he is a ferocious defender across the board, Dan, not just regular ferocious. I've been working up a little thing here. I'm gonna call him. I'm gonna call him for syllable ferocious this season, Dan, four syllable ferocious, Yeah, okay, Jordan Whitehead for syllable ferocious
ed All Liiver, Yeah, that would qualify. There are a lot of four syllable ferocious guys out there.
That's true. Are you gonna say four syllable ferocious every single time we talk about Pitt's defense. I don't think we're gonna talking about Pitt's defense that much this year.
I might just have to get four drum beats, like, okay, something that signifies it without actually having to say it. It's not the easiest thing in the world to say, But if there's anybody in college football this year outside of at Oliver, who I think represents this four syllable ferocious attitude, it would be Jordan Whitehead. I'm okay about you?
Are you were buying low? By the way, If I may jump in with your previous crush, I announced a crush for Drwin James last year. You did, yeah, and I just feel like pod brother to pod brother, I would have been not lay off. But if you had come to me and said, Dan, listenah, I just I can't get Darwin out of my mind. And is it cool if I pursue this college football crush. I don't want to step on any toes. I know that you were sort of on the Derwin James train before I.
Knew you were into that, but you'd married, so I was assuring I had I had the green light. But if that's if that's frowned upon, then I don't want to create friction in this relationship.
I just would have appreciated the courtesy, Tipe, I would have appreciated the courtesy.
I apologize. I apologize, Dan.
I'm going to go with a group of players, and I'm going to stick with the acc r ACC theme is very strong because it's one of the more interesting conferences this year. I'm going to go with the entire NC State Wolfpack defensive line.
No count. You didn't play the music, thank you? Oh, come on, doesn't count. I would like a courtesy if you're not going to play the music, so that we can at least give a proper introduction to some of these crushes.
Okay, they're getting good push up front.
My god, don't disrespect the wolf pack.
I know that that's on me. That's on me. Uh And honestly, the name of the best defensive line in Frensis State could not be better because it is Bradley Chubb. It is Bradley Chubb and.
The billing for a summer loving titled show.
When you looked it does when you look at what acc defenses were able to do on the ground last year up front against some very talented offenses. And these are very talented defenses we're talking about. After Louisville. It was not Florida State, it was not Clemson, it was not Virginia Tech, it was not Miami. It was NC State, who was but a field well away from beating Clemson. NC State pretty much all year long was and I'm gonna go with the big D and talking about Chubb ti, yeah,
please dominant, dominant upfront and should be once again. Darien Roseboro, Contavia Street, Dave Huxtable. In a short time for NC State has built that defensive front into something that's probably one of the best five nationally. They're going to be so good this year and I can't wait to watch NC State, which I don't say that often. Tie, No, I do not say it all that often. But this group of players is special and I'm very excited.
I feel like we've been waiting.
I've got a chub.
We've been waiting, thank you. We've been waiting to say that for a while about NC State. We've been waiting for it to kind of materialize. And uh, Dave Durren's a good coach. He's been a good coach for a while. It's just it hasn't been there yet.
They're in that middle range. NC State in the ACC. It's tough. So I'm excited, as we should, we both should be. Yeah, I'm going to go with another crush.
Or whad I did? Two? You did too?
I'm gonna go. Do I have to play the music now?
Well, it's inferred.
We're gonna push way out west. We're gonna go to Colorado State, which was one of the more entertaining teams if remember last November the bowl season. Mike Bobo has done a very good job offensively with this team. They returned their quarterback Nick Stevens, who's great, but that is not my crush. My crush is Michael Gallup, who is maybe one of going into the season. I think he
might be the most unherlded receiver in college football. Is probably a top seven to ten receiver when you look at what big receivers in the country outside of Za Jones, who was great for ECU last year in November to close out the season. And this was not against insignificant opponents for Colorado State. We're not talking about the bottom of the Mountain West San Diego State. Colorado State beat him in a shootout. We're talking huge games against the
best teams. Michael Gallup was ridiculous. Had more yards than Dede Westbrook, had more yards than what's his name, Corey Davis at Western Michigan. Huge well, I think the second or third best November just in terms of period. It's just not an exact science, but he was so good Michael Gallup and should be appreciated this year. I think
he was a JC transfer for Colorado State. But as we are becoming more aware of players at schools of all sizes, whether they're you know, Mountain West teams or their FCS teams, whatever the case may be, Talent is talents. Corey Davis was the first receiver off the board in the NFL draft. Michael Gallup is that talent so good.
So hard to watch? Okay, great?
So how about that? Ty?
I like it very good. Let's do a couple more here.
What do you got?
I got two or three more on my list that I want to discuss here. Cameron Smith USC. Yeah, Cameron's injury plagued, but really good. Injury plagued, really good. It just seems like he was involved in every single play when he was on the field. Just a guy who's everywhere a linebacker for USC, younger linebacker. I never felt like he got his fair shake because there was so much else going on on that USC team just kind of faded into the background. But I'm excited to see
what he brings to the table. Again. I'm excited about all these guys I've said about a hundred times now. I just hope he stays healthy.
Yeah, you're right about the attention thing, because Porter Gustin had a very nice year last year. Rashim Green, I would argue, broke through on the defensive line for USC, and certainly having somebody like a Dori Jackson back there, Biggie Marshall is the new number one corner for the Trojans this year. So hard to stand out on a team with so many standouts playing in that a very
difficult clancy Pendergast defense to play against. But yes, Cam Smith in terms of the playmaking ability, we saw it a couple of years ago when he had what two or three interceptions in a game, returning him to the house A huge talent. I think that's a good pick.
The other one here that I'll list is what about Blake Barnett. O talk about going off the radar. That's difficult. It's a difficult one. Not a lot of footage, virtually no footage to go on. But Blake Barnett, highly touted quarterback, bounced around a little bit in his recruitment, eventually landed at Alabama I believe won the Elite eleven before going on to be the number one overall quarterback in his recruiting class. Landed at Alabama and just got logjammed behind
Jalen Hurtz. Cooper Bateman was in the mix. They had an embarrassment of riches at the quarterback position in Tuscaloosa. Blake Barnett landed on his feet at. Asu bumped over to Arizona State, and he's going to get a chance now to show what he can do in a wide open system under Todd Graham. Lord knows that Asu has not had trouble in recent years putting up points and showcasing talent at the quarterback position, so you would assume that they're going to find a way to utilize his
arm in the best way possible. He will have a chance to make an impact this season and show what he's really worth on the college stage. If he's anywhere as good as many believed coming out of high school, he should have an opportunity right now to put up big numbers. And quite honestly, given where AST was a year ago, I think any improvem would be a pretty big improvement. They've got to get better defensively, but Blake Barnett's gonna have a chance to go in there and
make an impact. So I've had a crush on him since high school. And I feel very weird saying that, Wow, okay, dok, very weird saying that I've been holding out hope for a while and I think this is the year it finally materializes.
This is like you having a crush on somebody that you met on like chat roulette. Yeah, you've never really hung out with them, you never met them in person, you've never really seen like the mid section. You've only seen like their shoulders and head, like, wow, she seems great.
Yep. This is a literal high school sweetheart right here.
You are, you are. It's a it's a hail Mary of sorts right now because we don't know anything about Blake Barnett and his ability and big games. Basically at the point.
I'm intrigued by the recruiting scouting reports that I read when he was recruited and signed on and where he had a flirt with with what Oregon and maybe Notre.
Dame and then committed to Notre Dame.
Yeah, landed at Alabama. So uh yeah, let's see what he can do. I just want to see what he can do. Put him out there.
This is you getting so excited for a setup for a blind date.
This is this is me jinxing Blake Barnett. Is what this is.
But that's what it sounds like to me. I was surprised. Want to hear you say that not much to go on. This is me jinxing him I'm gonna I'm gonna go with my final crush. If that's okay with you, please okay.
With that music?
Yeah, oh man, I'm gonna go with the Kansas player tie. I'm gonna go with the Kansas player Durance Armstrong, Durance Armstrong. I really should have looked at how you pronounced his name either way in the highlight I've watched in the sort of very short bursts of Kansas football that I've watched over the past couple of years, he is a
complete standout. He is somebody who has been so productive and has gotten If you read I think it was our friend Bruce Bruce Feldman Fox Sports one doing really cool work talking to David Beatty, who was the coach that recruited this past year's number one overall pick, Miles Garrett Tech's A and M and sees a lot of similarities and the production has been very similar. The build
is very similar. And for Kansas to have a defensive end in twenty seventeen who pops in the way that Armstrong pops is a testament to both the recruiting and development and the fact that Kansas football is coming along. And I appreciate that tie, because I want a wide open Big twelve. That's what I want. I want excitement every week. I don't want the separation of just like Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. I want every week to be
at least fun. And Dorance Armstrong is one of those guys who I hope, hope as Kansas this has almost beaten TCU recently. Is one of those guys to make the Big twelve a little bit more fun this year, and he has been so good for the Jayhawks. I'm excited to see what he could do because he could be We're talking about a first round talent in next year's draft. So from KENSA, the ability in production is there. Absolutely from Kansas, I'm excited. Awesome Kansas, Colorado State, NC
State Service Academies. Tie. I look for the corner of that classroom.
I got one. We've given no love to tight ends in college football. It's true's talking about my boy, Mike Gaseki.
Yeah, that's a good one.
Two Penn Staters, two Penn Staters. I'm a little bit of a homer. But Mike Kasicki did not get much love at all until people started realizing that he was having a hell of a season. For Penn State in twenty sixteen. Quasi vertical threat at tight end average something like fourteen yards per catch. Big guy caught a lot of key passes for Penn State and clutch situations scored. I think in each of his last three games something like that was really big in the clutch for Trace McSorley.
A big target is something that McSorley is going to need to start the season. Because Chris Godwin went to the NFL. He still has receivers left over, but it helps to have that safety net in a good tight end who can catch, who can run the seam, who just finds a way to get open. In Mike Kaseki, he's another guy who could get drafted provided things continue to improve for him. Now as we head into twenty seventeen, I think he's on tap for a big season as well.
They just didn't realize what they had until later in the year last year, and Gasicki's a guy who I think stands to benefit a great deal from another year under Joe.
Moorehead Hans Giseki, that's right, baby, another real weird term that you have decided to roll with, and I appreciate it.
Got to start getting into mid season for him here Dan.
I can't wait on that note.
Yes, we'll be back next week talk more college football. As Dan mentioned, as we've mentioned here the last couple of weeks running. Now, you got a bunch of good stuff in the queue, please do go on out to soliverble dot com and sign up for the newsletter. The newsletter will be your first line of defense if you're looking to get all the updates on when we're going to be dropped some of the stuff. If you're into the live show, there might be a t shirt on the horizon.
There is a summer show. Yeah, so we got a bunch.
Of exciting stuff in the queue here, go on out to soliverble dot com. Sign up for the newsletter of intent. We won't spam you, We'll only let you know when big things are breaking. Also follow us on Twitter, on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, all those places, all the usuals you can get updates from Dan and I. Daniel fun show, fun show, a lot of crushes, TI, a lot of crushes. Weird show, but a fun show.
Spreading our intellectual college football seed across the last.
Oh stop for that guy over there, My good friend Dan Rubinstein for myself, Tie Hillebrand here in Eastern PA. That's all for this week. We'll catch you next week. In the meantime, stay solid, peace,