Welcome to the solid verbal ll that for me.
I'm a man, I'm forty.
I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy, you want to be happy for a day? Edith state is that woo woom? And Dan and Tye.
Welcome back to the Salid Verbo boys and girls. My name is ty Hill and brand that fine gentleman over there, the one, the only, still, the incomparable, Dan Rubinstein. This episode, all our episodes driven by our good friends over at Guico.
Dan Rubinstein, Sir, Yeah, what's going on?
Man? Hi?
Ben? I've been great. I'm excited to do a public Q and A. We've been doing the weekly bruin as on brus and a brew I don't know brewin a on Verballers dot Com on our Patreon weekly live for patrons, and it's been incredibly fun. Uh. Today we've got a plan. We're doing sort of a a mego one with a part one and part two, and part two goes exclusively to Patreon. This is my understanding. I'm especially excited for today's Q and A both because we have fantastic questions
and I am especially well rested. My wife is out of town, Jody with and I out of town the last couple nights, and last night I made a very specific plan and had a semita, which is sort of like a Mexican sandwich, a torta type sandwich on a crustier roll, breaded chicken, avocado, cheese, beans, whatever. Had it delivered the moment I put down my older child. I ordered it like two pm to be delivered at seven point thirty and grabbed the sandwich, sat on my couch,
watched Encanto and went to sleep. Wow, that was a wonderful little evening for me. So I feel great.
Well, welcome back in.
It's great to have you with us and vibrant, yeah and ready to attack. Just a meaty slate of questions.
Now.
We got from the verballer hood very excited to do this, not only in one part, but two parts. Second part.
As you said, we'll.
Be available on verballers dot com. All so now available on forballers dot com Extra Nuggets. It's a new show that you are doing with our friend Adam Amein. It is available exclusively to our Patreon community out there at for ballers dot com. All throughout the month of March, we are going to be posting new episodes every Wednesday morning, and unlike most of the podcasts that I think you listen to, we are actively seeking your feedback and your help.
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We're excited. Yes, I don't know what every option means, but I think it just means that you can be like it stinks, like Jay Sherman and that's okay. I please be nice. We've been working on it for a long time. Should we get to some questions. We should get to some questions. Let's do it.
I'm ready, let's dive. He right, I got my sound. I actually charge up my iPad here.
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All right, let's start here. I'm gonna give priority to our premium elite, you know, certified verbalers. We've got a group of alphas here that are asking us questions, so they get priority. Last year, Jen asks the over under Michigan's win total was seven and a half. They're twelve wins, surprised a lot of people. Which teams do you think are going to surprise everyone this year, either with far more wins than are expected or with far fewer than expected.
And for the record, we are answering or attempting to answer this question before springball, before summer, before injuries, before any late transfers, coaching moves, anything like that. So to you, what qualifies a team as a surprise, like somebody who is expected to be bad expected to be good, whatever, And what are the pathways that let's stay positive at first that a team can outperform the conventional wisdom of their future.
Yeah, well, I mean again, you said it. It's March the tenth, as most people listen to this show or this part of this show, so it's before springball. There will probably be another wave of transfers at some point, just not going to stop. So that's another thing that will we'll need to factor in at some point, but at least at present March the tenth. One thing that I think we can use as a guide is returning production,
which teams are bringing back a lot. So on the show that we did on Tuesday, we talked a lot about Stanford. Stanford went three to nine last year. Stanford's road schedule in twenty twenty two is in all that optimal. However, they're like third in the nation with respect to returning production. Right, that's a team that is of interest to me. I could see that happening. Another team that kind of falls into the same category as Florida State. Florida State brings
a lot back. Florida State didn't make the Bowl game, you know, relative to last year. I think Florida State's got to be better than they were a year ago, but what is the expectation. We haven't seen over unders yet, so we're kind of flying blind.
Yep.
From that standpoint, Stanford I think is an easy candidate. Florida State I think will continue to improve. That's another the one that jumps out to me as for teams beyond that that could maybe exceed expectations. I'm actually quite interested in Pitt. Pitt, of course loses Canny Pickett. Canny Picktbull most likely going to be a first round pick. Mark Whipple goes over to Nebraska, but Pitt still has Jordan Addison.
They brought over.
Keaton's Slovas, who I think could be a good plug and play guy. Sure, I can pull up Pitt's schedule, but my guess is that it's fairly workable.
So that's of.
Interest to me. Are there any of that jump out to you?
Sometimes teams who lost a quarterback early and have a record that was not necessarily representative of their ceiling of their potential, like Boston College with Phil dri Khovic, who I know because of his size and physical ceiling, has garnered some NFL draft talk for next year's cycle, and they finished what six and six and almost pulled off wins against good two very good teams like Clemson with you know, Dennis gross Out, like guys that shouldn't be
winning those types of games. So this is year now, year three of Jeff Hafley. I think he just got the extension, so right, it's returning production. And it's also to me, a team that even Miami, Right, Miami, we don't really have a great concept for, but they certainly
look like a different team offensively once Tyler van Dijk. Now, of course, different staff, different offense presumably, but that to me is interesting when a team made a quarterback change that paid off in big ways and just in terms of teams developing and improving in a sort of natural state, like I think Michigan State could fall off because they had some breaks, and I still think they're going to be very good. But eleven win good, I think, and
that's with the Bowl game. I think that's asking a lot. Indiana made a lot of wholesale changes. I don't think they're as bad as their zero to nine in the Big Ten record might indicate, and just I mean, they lost a ton of transfers. We'll see, but that's another team. I think that's that's due Nebraska. Obviously a lot has been talked about how they are better than their record indicated last year. Well, we talked about that on the
three and nine episode. Other teams that are going to make significant jumps in that same way, you know what, Michigan went from seven and a half to twelve. I actually think Michigan's do to fall off a bit back in the other direction. Yeah, yeah, we talked about lost lost a ton of key pieces on defense. They lose Josh Gaddis and now look, they could be getting better at quarterback full time with JJ McCarthy if that move, which is looking like it's going to be the case, happens.
I don't think Arizona State has the makings of an eight win program after what they've lost both in the on the coaching staff and now at quarterback with Jayden Daniels. I think Arizona is a team that could jump up and make some more noise as a one and eleven program. I think they could win four or five. He's just a portal hard yeah, hit me.
I think Clemson could be an interesting study here.
This is Clemson's all over the place for me.
Continue Yeah, I mean I'm trying to avoid purpose league teams that had coaching changes or of new coaches, because frankly, that could.
Go any direction. You have no idea.
Clemson's interesting because the top guy, Dabostwueeny's still there, but a lot of the support staff, top assistants, the ad guys went everywhere, and so they're rebuilding that thing from the inside out. The season last year was quote unquote underwhelming, even though they won ten games whatever. It was so
still a pretty good team. They had a ton of injuries to deal with, but at least on the coaching side, they're going to be starting over in many respects, and that that, like you said, kind of all over the map could go almost any direction.
Ole Miss is a team that I think could jump back a couple games, winning ten games with an experienced quarterback. Now it's the Jackson Dart led team. I think they're going to have a terrific offense. But I just think there is a margin for err involved with ole Miss. I mean, look, they got to ten wins with a couple of super close calls, notably that Arkansas game, and that's going to be the case every year. Texas A
and M is interesting to me. Another one of those teams that dealt with a very early quarterback injury, and for better or worse, doubt Kyle Zada was probably at best an eight win quarterback, which is where Texas A and M finished. They now add Max Johnson. They've got interesting young options. You know, Haines King is presumably healthy, and with what they've done these past couple of years on the recruiting trail, they should be deeper than ever. And who did Texas A and M early on? I
think they have Miami. I think they host Miami. Yep, So that's that's actually a terrific time probably to get a newly coached and a new look Miami team, and Kyle Field's a pretty difficult place to play generally speaking. I think they could pop up two or three oh yeah, wins.
By the way, that's a perfect segue into Melty's question, which you've got high made. Next, here's the question, if you got a pair of tickets to any regular season game this year, which would you go to and who would you take? Okay, so the friends matchup and spouses and children not allowed, So all right, I am approaching this from the standpoint of low hanging fruit, low hanging fruit being big neutral site games. Now, I know where
you're aut on neutral site games. I'm with you, but we've got some really good non conference games early that are played at neutral sites. The one that I want to talk to you about, well, the two that I want to talk to you about are both on Labor Day weekend. The first is the Chick fil A kickoff game between your Oregon Ducks and Georgia. I think that's just going to be a cool matchup. I'd love to see it. I'm excited about that game. We may go
to that game, I don't know. Secondly, the next day, I guess it would be on Sunday, September the fourth, Florida State versus LSU. They played in the Superdome. That could be a hell of a time. Like if you and I are just like going without any kind of you know, spouses or kids with us, NOL is a pretty good place to go. So I'm looking at that one and I'm thinking, all right, LC's got a new new coach, no expectations, Florida State's going to be loaded
for bear. They bring a fair amount back. I think they'll be better based on the question we just answered that could be interesting. I kind of think that might be my answer.
Yeah, I'm not going to a neutral side game. You give me an opportunity to go to Atlanta or New Orleans and watch it in an NFL stadium. I would love to go to Georgia, Oregon, and I may go to Georgia, Oregon. But if you're gonna give me a choice of any of these games, both from an environment a location perspective, I just I don't know. We have what another Clemson Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State is in Columbus this year, saying MBAMA is in Tuscaloosa. Continue, how
about Texas against Alabama? But where's that game? Games in Texas? Week two? Is it it's in Austin or is it at Jerry World? No, it's in Austin. That that might be my answer. I'm looking right now. It's week two, so it's about September tenth I just looked in Austin.
Yeah, it's September the tenth um.
Yeah, I mean yeah, I would. I think that's probably my answer. If I get to go to Austin and I get to watch that matchup, you have the narrative sark and Saban. We presume Quinn yours in his second game. I don't know who Texas has week one. The environment at DKR is not the best, but I think it should be pretty electric for Bama. Yeah, and it's a two thousand and nine national championship rematch. Yeah. I mean that that may be more for food and friends I
have in Austin than anything else. I've been to a couple of games already at DKR, so there's no novelty factor there. I think that's my answer. Sure, great, excellent. Where are we going? Next question.
Here?
This is in line with that Cheddar, who is obviously an alpha on the Discord server runfoballers dot com. What is the matchup that would create the best meal if you combine the unique local cuisines from each school, So you probably have to either do food and drink or entree dessert. So if you were coming up with a matchup so you could use okay for beer, you could use a number of plays.
So you know, I'm not gonna be good at this one, right, I'm just not as well versed in the travel aspect of college football, So I understand as you the former SI Tour guide. Yeah, so you're gonna have to answer this one. I will do my best to tell you with grunts and with gunneral sounds what sounds good and what doesn't. But I just don't have the local flavor like you do.
Yeah, it's really difficult to combine foods that would work well together. I think there is something I'll go. I mean, I'm gonna be a selfish homer here, I'll go Oregon LSU because of both the seafood in both places. So yeah, good seafood in the Pacific Northwest. Obviously your salmon, you have your special your guy ducks, right, the huge oyster or type things, and you have the Cajun food, and
you have the beer, and you have the wine. You have breweries in Oregon, You've got a wine area if you're into wine vintner is that what a wine enthusiast is called. And then all the crazy food of Louisiana, all the incredible food, your Cajun influence. So that's probably my answer that would give us both a good football matchup and a good food matchup. You can go across
the country very easily. You can go you know, Mexican food with USC or UCLA, just geographically usc is going to give you better Mexican food in that downtown LA area, then you're going to get in you know, Westwood. You compare that with somewhere that does really good beer.
Whatever.
But yeah, that's that's probably my dream. And we got that, albeit on a neutral site Oregon LSU in like twenty eleven. There it is. How about that? Sure?
I'm thinking like a Wisconsin Ohio state matchup this year between the Brats and there are some good breweries in Coloria, Columbus. Yeah, just craft brewery type places. None that I could probably name off the top of my head. I think Great Blake, Great Lakes Brewing excuse me, is in Ohio.
But yeah, yeah, that's a tough question. You get some Jenny's ice cream? Yeah, if you if you really want to go dairy heavy with you know, Wisconsin, bringing the brots and cheese cards and finish it off with some ice cream with Jenny. It's not a sponsor, could be. That's pretty good.
Is there anything you could mix with Skyline Chili in Cincinnati?
I would prefer not to. That might be last on my list. Cincinnati has very good food. I'm not into that, all right, No, there's there's a lot of interesting things you could do with that answer.
Just let us know.
Just a tweet at us with Instagram whatever. Next top next question, Frank wants to know who do you think will do better over the next few years at their new locations. Lincoln Riley or Mario Cristo ball Kay Mario Crystabal. Both are top recruiters, improven winners. They're both moving from small towns with strong football program to big time beach cities with a lot to offer five star kids in addition to football. Both enter week conferences, joining historically great
football brands falling recently. And Dan adds parenthetically the last fifteen to seventeen years on on hard times. Yeah, who is better set up for? And who do you expect to if we return to this question in twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight, somewhere along there, who has more whatever measure of your success ten win seasons, conference crowns, playoff appearances.
I'm inclined to say Lincoln Riley in usc Okay, I am focused primarily right now on the recruiting beat. Okay, these are two areas of the country that have a fertile crescent of sorts when it comes to Crescent High School prospects. Yep eh okay, But I feel like USC now being kind of the splashy program led by the younger guy, Lincoln Riley, I feel like it's going to be. It feels like it's going to go a long way
towards keeping some of those kids home. So I think they've got a built in recruiting advantage there.
I think Lincoln.
Riley, with it with only because he's bringing his own guys over from Oklahoma, is going to be able to get that thing out of the gate to a hot start, and I think he's going to be able to use that to propel the program forward. As Frank said, both sides of this equation are pretty weak from a conference standpoint, Like you've obviously got Clemson to deal with in the ACC. You know there are other teams that have gotten better in the ACC as well, so maybe a little bit
more resistance there. But I feel pretty good.
About Lincoln Riley out west. I think my answer is Mario Christobal h and I think Miami is more serious about poor resources into the program when you look at how much money they spent on their staff, when you look at what Mario Christobal was able to do in bringing up Oregon's resources and commitment to football and building out that program. What Lincoln Riley has done in terms of staff hires, it doesn't leave me all that excited.
Are we comparing staves here? Staves? Well, no, we are comparing paths, and we're comparing I mean, look, it's the division and conference in which these teams play. It's the ability to find and develop a quarterback into a huge success and the ability to build up consistent talent and depth on the roster. I have no doubt that Lincoln Riley is going to continuously find quarterbacks. I have no doubt that Lincoln Riley is going to elevate USC's regional
and national recruiting. My question is can the region perduce enough lineman depth for USC to provide confidence in me saying yeah, they'll win ten plus games every year when USC is just hasn't been that place. Miami hasn't either, but their pathway within that division is pretty clear depending on what you believe in. In terms of North Carolina right now and Brent Prye and Virginia Tech, I just the ceiling just seems so much higher for Miami. But again,
this is in Miami team. How many acc crowns are we talking about? I believe that be zero zero? Yeah, so you are taking a chance with you taking more of a risk with with Miami. Mark Chris Ball has taken precisely zero teams to the college football Playoff?
Right? Is that is factually correct in And yeah, Also I'd add as a counterpoint, we've heard this song and dance on the Miami front before.
Of course we joked about it. When they hire.
Cchriyst of Ball, it seems like a race to get the most Miami guy possible to coach the program. So having him there, Look, I do believe he's a cut above what they've had before. He's a known recruiter, he's a good coach, he's a good coach. I think he will get them going in the right direction. I truly honestly believe that. But in terms of who can get a program up and running quicker, I think the answer
there is Lincoln Riley. And I think if you do it, I think if you bring Caleb Williams over, if he continues to have the success that we believe he'll have, or that's just going to feedback into the award of the program that that's going to jumpstart that recruiting operation and take it to a level that it hasn't been at in quite some time.
And he should have two years of Caleb Williams, whereas Tyler van Dyck might only be in Miami for another one year. So I am banking on the ACC providing for less resistance than the PAC twelve at this point, just because Utah exists, just because the talent ceiling of Oregon is pretty impressive. Otherwise, I don't know, there's not much in the PAC twelve. And Sam could be said, you know, Clemson's not necessarily heading in the right direction.
I think just Miami right now, I think they can build a deeper defense, And to me, that is just I think what they what Miami's roster can look like, is more impressive than what USC's roster can look like. Fair Enough, I'm fair enough one with Mario and Miami in the next five years or so. Next question. Ten years ago, I could never have imagined we'd be in the era of the portal and of players picking schools
based on nil deals. Yeah, what do you think will be the biggest factors shaping the game in twenty thirty two, Ty, how old will you be in twenty thirty two?
Nd about that?
Don't want to talk about that that no one is talking about now, as Ty would be then a dude having entered his sixth decade of life. That's correct, That is actually correct. Well, I mean, thank you.
Anytime you get a question like this, the answer is always in forever lasers, right, of.
Course, obviously obviously drones, lasers, laser, drones, drone lasers.
Yep, I think the answer is lasers. Dan who asked the question, Dan, A couple things come to mind, but kind of on that same note, technology is definitely shaping.
The way we view all sports.
I would expect ten years from now that VR is going to be a big deal, a much bigger deal than it is.
Think so.
I think so so in terms of how it shapes the game, maybe not on field, but the fan experience. I could see going in a direction where VR is a thing and how we experience the game at home is very much driven by optics, literal optics that we put on our head. I think that could be a thing. I'm going to hold out hope that in ten years we can put a chip in a ball and we don't have to leave it to Dean Blandino or guys somewhere in a truck with eight K televisions to figure
out did the ball cross the line or not. We've got to be able to put the chip in the ball, Dan, got to be able to do that. Somebody can do that now. I gotta believe that's going to be one of the next revolutions that comes over the next ten years.
We could have robot umpires for baseball, and yet we don't. They shot that down, right, I know, I saw that. That's a bummer.
They shot that down. Robots is another answer in line with the lasers. Yeah, will we see any robotics, Dan.
I think the organization of the sport is going to look a whole lot different. I think things are going to continue to consolidate. College football has shown itself and a number all major sports have shown themselves to be entities that don't move backwards. And so if we are talking about a sport in which conferences are getting bigger and are focusing on television money, then things are going to further consolidate. The idea of college football. For better
or worse. I say, for worse has been to chase the NFL model, So I think we're going to end up with fewer conferences. I think we're going to end up with a much more consolidated sport chasing more and more TV money. The Playoff will continue to expand. I don't know the exact year. I don't know if it's by twenty thirty two, whatever, we know it's going to expand at least to six, eight, ten, twelve games before then.
But I think there will be there will be a reckoning at a certain point where a bubble will burst and there will have to be a conversation around Okay, college football is now a national sport, do we have a national governing body? That to me is going to be the biggest change. I think by twenty thirty two there will be a national governing body in place, not necessarily in the way that the College Football Playoff governing body exists, because it's not really a governing body, just
an organizational grouping. I think there is going to be a fundamental shift between the haves and have nots, and there will be a governing body that is saying, okay, these are the rules be it about nil, be it about any sort of payment, be it about actual rules, beat about scholarships, be about scheduling. I think there will be a major shift in how the sport is organized and governed, and that there will be a group. I don't know if there's a commissioner. I don't know if
there's a board. I don't know if there's some sort of consortium of conference commissioners that come together and make these make the rules for the sport. But I think we are heading in that direction where college football sees the amount of money on the table and says, if we can get our act together and turn this into more of a machine, turn this into a full organization, then we can do better financially and we can spread the resources around more effectively. So that's my answer.
Yeah, I mean the money aspect here I think has potential to change a lot. Now, at time of recording, it is March, it is twenty twenty two. Reportedly EA Sports is dropping the new college football game in twenty three. Now.
I haven't seen that confirmed, but that's the report that I think could actually drive change in a pretty big way, and especially with respect to things like nil, and especially with respect to representation for the players and where that whole movement goes next, Because suddenly we're talking about a pretty big source of income for everybody, sort of a calm denominator, if you will, How that is handled, how that affects things on the NIL front moving forward, It's
gonna be really interesting to see. But could it drive us to the place could it drive the sport to a place where we're talking about things like commissioners, where we're talking about things like collective bargaining.
I don't know.
I might be getting a little bit over over my skis here, but that I think could be a pretty big moment for us as we examine this question over the next decade.
I also don't think and I think this is and just from talking to people, I don't think prospects maybe the top of the top of the top, with all things being equal, make a decision that heavily weighs ANIL stuff. But I still think the schools that have the most money are already the schools are generally really good who
have those huge donor bases. Look, Texas hasn't been good in quite some time, and they have that donor base, and they could organize and they could, you know, put together these collectives that pay top recruits whatever X amount of dollars. But also, you still have to want to play for Texas. You still have to want to play for Tennessee or Florida State or USC or any of these places that are sort of trying to use NIL
in a big way. And so I still don't think somebody is going to exclusively go to a place because of short term earning. I still think that we are we are selling kids and their intellect and decision making abilities a little bit short when we assume that that's one hundred percent of the process. So I think I think specifically NIL is going to get a lot more organized. And we talked about this with Matt Brown. You can go back and listen to that podcast from a few
weeks ago. He was excellent in that this is still the infancy of the name image likeness era, and so markets will correct themselves, will better organize themselves. And you know, far be it for me to just assume major sports knows what it's doing, because you look across a major sport knows what it's doing. You look across the Olympics, you look across baseball, and the NFL like there's no rhyme or reason to anything. I think there is going
to be a reckoning with gambling. That's interesting one.
Yeah, we got a question about that. Of course, it's in the news right now. My hunch has got a lot of folks listening have seeing the Calvin Ridley news and where things stand with him being in the NFL and gambling and that whole disaster that we're going to see play out in real time. But gambling money is a thing.
Man.
Will colleges more openly embrace it, will conferences, will the playoff more open embrace it?
I don't. I don't know.
If the Gamba companies had their drugs, they would it would be a tighter relationship. You might have logos on uniforms. I don't think we'll get there, but it definitely has the potential to, I think, affect things in a pretty big way.
Here's the certainty, and this is, you know, a couple of days, three or four days after the Calvin Ridley being suspended for a year for betting, what you say, fifteen hundred bucks on parlays NFL parlays including the Falcons to win. So he wasn't betting against his own team,
which I guess is something. But the certainty, the one hundred percent is going to be a wife, a nephew, a son, a brother, a parent of somebody within a program having inside information putting ten thousand dollars on a game and it being traced back that and I'm fully making this up that PJ. Flex nephew puts eighty five hundred dollars down on the Gophers because they surprise and
got back a quarterback who had been injured. And nobody knows this or that get has intel that a key player, usually a quarterback, sometimes a running back is out with a surprise injury. Is you know, he was hungover and snapped his ankle trying to jump over a fire hydrant or something the night before a game. And there's going to be suspicious money pushed around a game that will be traced back to a big name coach. That to me with how easy it is to gamble, and Calvin
Ridley did this on his phone, correct, yep. That is it's going to be too enticing for somebody with inside information and it's going to be connected to a coach or a strength coach or whoever, or a you know, a girlfriend or whatever of a player. We'll be like, ooh, this is a little bit fishy and too suspicious, and it's going to be further investigated, and there might be repercussions involved somehow, That to me, by twenty thirty two, one hundred percent will happen maybe by the end of
twenty twenty two. Next question, Next question, nor Norden Cam. I don't know if Nordon Cam sure from Instagram? How can Tennessee prepare its defense for the workload of always being on the field. I assume that's sort of for better, for worse and Hendon Hooker's coming back. Tennessee's offensive footprint per bell c they had the number one pace in college football last season, so for better worse meaning they'll go three and out quickly, or they'll bomb it down
the field and score quickly. And I don't anticipate that style changing anytime soon. How do you account for that, coach, Tie?
If I'm not a coach, I'm a podcaster. Yeah, we're talking about true class on grass here. With that Tennessee offense number one pace first off, one way that you can help account for it is by making your offense as efficient as possible. If you're going to be on the field for a very short period of time, make sure you get the most bang for the buck. So any way that you can make the offense better. If that's what you're saying, score points, score points, right, I'm
saying quite literally, score points. If you're going to be running NASCAR offense. That that's the first thing. The second thing, I guess comes down to the type of players that you're recruiting, the types of guys that you're putting out there. All you gotta do is watch the NFL combine to realize that athletes are a little bit different now than they were ten years ago. There are so many more guys that are out there now that kind of fit that hybrid mold than what we'd see a decade ago.
If you're tennessee any guys like that, any guys that can be versatile, that can play a bunch of different positions, that you know have stamina. You can't really afford to go out there with three hundred and fifty pound defensive lineman.
Those guys are going to be guessed.
So you need to be able to build a defense that I think has much more of a hybrid look and feel to it, so that you can get your guys in space and they're not going to die when they're on the field.
The entire game one slow down a little bit, fully, not fully, have different speeds. There was an old Chip Kelly story that you know, as fast as Oregon was playing when they really started playing with that kind of tempo, they had red, yellow and green. They had green for when it was go go, go, go go. They had yellow when it was like hurry up and then get to the line and look over so the other team still can't substitute. And then a much slower like milking
the clock type pace. So Tennessee with what little Josh hipel inherited said, Okay, one of our advantages if we don't have a great offensive line is going to be the speed at which we play, because that will gas teams and that will mitigate any issues we have along the offensive line. And they developed running backs. You know, they were able to play and win in different ways. Tyon Evans came on in the middle of the year, of course, and they were bombing it downfield and it
worked really, really well. Once Hendon Hooker took over as the full time starting quarterback. Here's what you can do. You can the most difficult and most obvious answer is recruit a super talented and deep defense. You just rotate in and out, keep them fresh, and then you can get off the field quicker because you're constantly rotating in fresh legs. That's what Georgia was able to do last year.
Pretty hard to replicate, pretty hard to replicate. And Georgia didn't have an offense that played with the pace that Tennessee's played with, right, but they were constantly bringing guys in and out of the game. This was when you recruit the way that Georgia did in a few years leading up to twenty twenty one. You can do that. Another way is you just got to get off the field. And how do you get off the field, or you get off the field with turnovers. There's a randomness to that.
But you can teach a defense to give it self the best chance at generating turnovers, and you know preaching strips, preaching, you know, hands in passing lanes to get the ball into the air. You can look at the teams and the coordinators and assistants who have been a part of defense, a defense that have been especially good at getting off the field on third down, especially good at fielding defenses that have high three and out percentages, and that those
all those numbers are readily available. And you look at the teams who are able to even without a ton of talent, maybe you look at the FCS level, maybe you look at you know, G five level, whatever, the teams who are able to force the an uncharacteristically low completion percentage from quarterbacks right that they're able to generate confusion, that they're able to sew, you know, to get that extra second or two seconds that that makes a quarterback hesitate.
Find those guys. And so if you are fully dedicated to playing with that kind of pace, you need to be dedicated to robust rotation and finding a coach who is especially adept at confusion. That to me is how you do it.
Do we think hypel can do that?
Yes? Yeah, I think if Tennessee has its affairs in order more so than usual, that they are not going to be outbid for assistant coaches, then assistant may choose to go elsewhere who has options. But I don't think it's going to be a money thing. I think the more that they win, the more interest they're going to generate from regional talent. We've seen that they're not going to be outbid from an nil perspective, as the collective has allegedly come together to pool together money to compete
on the recruiting trail. So I think Josh Hipel is all in on running both a modern offense and a modern program. So I don't know if that results in ten to eleven wins seasons more often than not, but I think Tennessee is trying to give itself every chance in the world to do that. We'll see what they end up at a quarterback. That's going to be huge
because they're competing with some of the best nationally. But I think it's going to be an especially attractive offensive style that will attract top quarterbacks in the years to come. But yeah, the defense thing is going to remain a question. You need to stay out in front and be innovative and really look at the guys who consistently get their own defenses off the field.
Yeah, and to that point, Dan, if you're talking about things like turnovers, we're talking about havoc rate, right, We're talking about creating place is when the defense is on the field to try and maybe tilt the scales in your favor. One of the factors that I think you know, we had talked about at some point or another. Tennessee's defense was pretty good this year, but Tennessee as a blitzing team was.
Not necessarily where it needed to be.
So, right, if you're talking about this equation where your defense is always on the field, your offense is only on the field for a small percentage of the time, you got to get the most out of those blitzes. That's one area for improvement for Tennessee in twenty two and beyond.
The good thing about Tennessee in year one was that their special teams was also pretty good. Yeah, And so when you talk about the hidden yards and what you force teams into, if you are forcing bad field position a lot because of touchbacks from kickoffs and deep punts and sound you know coverage, and you know guys staying in their lanes and making tackles where they should, you're giving yourself every chance in the world to get off
the field. If you're pinning teams pretty consistently, and also if you're making special teams that result in short fields for your offense. If you're blocking kicks, so whatever, if
you're doing what it takes. In special teams, you also change the calculus a little bit, because all of a sudden, you're up fourteen to three, and a team who's not used to playing from behind and doesn't necessarily have an offense built to play from behind suddenly chucking the ball a lot and a lot more than usual, and that's stopping the clock, and that's getting their own offense off
the field. So I think there are a lot of things you can do on the margins, and honestly, I think Tennessee will give itself every chance to do so. They are one of the few programs that, even without a lot of recent success, will attempt to spend their way to success, which is I think it's better than not so here here. I think there you have our answer.
Mean Joe.
A oh, that's a different mean Joe than I was expecting. Different Mean Joe is West Virginia in trouble number one for transfers in the portal. I can't confirm that. I did go to their transfer page on twenty four to seven, and there's a lot of WVU and then an arrow pointing elsewhere and not as much pointing towards WVU from elsewhere. Is West Virginia in your mind in trouble under Neil Brown?
Well, if we harken back to the returning production thing that I mentioned before, yea, West Virginia is, Yeah, they're looking for people. They're looking for people who could come in and run things. It's going to be a lot of new faces, especially on offense for West Virginia. I kind of don't know directionally which way this program's going, and I've struggled with that over the last two seasons, especially last season. Twenty twenty was moan, but twenty twenty one, you know.
Was sort of all over the place.
Still have a little bit of PTSD from that bowl game. The bowl game against Minnesota, what was at eighteen to six? Eighteen to six, Yep, it's a really bad offensive showing there. The reason that I struggle with West Virginia is because there are moments where you see that level of effort that you expect. Right there was a one score get one score loss, what they lose by three points on.
The road to Oklahoma.
Oklahoma was sort.
Of in disarray early, but still you know you're looking at that game thinking well, geez, they lost sixteen thirteen. It must be doing something right, especially on defense. There were other games they beat Iowa State, They beat Iowa followed that up with what what do they follow up the Iowa State win with like scoring three against Oklahoma State? They lost by twenty one Oklahoma State at home. Yeah, so it's just sort of been all over the mat.
I beat Texas, right, Texas wasn't any great win, but like they're just there's not enough consistency there in terms of when they're getting their wins or when they're not getting their wins, and that scares me a little bit. I don't know if that I don't know if we've seen that consistency on the uptick in the time that
Neil Brown's been in Morgantown. Right, And as you're trying to build something and directionally just get it going in a good way, like you would hope that you start to see something that's just a little bit more reliable across the board. And that's what frightens me. That we can go into numbers.
We've got all the numbers.
Yeah, I'm sure you've got the same stuff in front of you that I have in front of me. But the consistency aspect of this is what really frightens me.
So West Virginia is in a really difficult place. So, okay, West Virginia plays in a conference that it is not in a largely geographic footprint of. So you go to teams on the you go to you know, high schools on the east coast in the southeast, and you say,
come come play at West Virginia. We'll see you in Lubbock, We'll see you in Waco, and it's just it's very difficult for to convince players to come to Morgantown to play far away, specifically in a specially when what the hell is West Virginia football under Neil Brown under Dana Holgerson.
You're like super creative, fast, fun offense. To play in it, to be a quarterback, in, to be a receiver, in to be a running back in there is a brand, There is an identity to West Virginia football that was extremely positive and extremely enticing from my vantage point, if you are a perhaps undersized receiver from Florida, like they were able to get so much out of or North Carolina or South Carolina wherever somewhere in that that footprint Pennsylvania.
Excuse me, under Neil Brown. It's sort of and this is to borrow an NBA term, it's kind of a program on the treadmill of mediocrity. If you are in the portal looking for playing time, looking to contribute to a major program. West Virginia was just kind of average last year. So you can't go to West Virginia and say, man, they need a lot of help on defense. I'm going to immediately come in and play and show out in
a major conference, in the Big twelve. If you're an offensive player, if you receiver, of which I think they've lost four or five in the portal specifically this year, what was your experience these last couple of years playing receiver. You're catching five yard passes from Jarrett Dagy who's now at Western Kentucky. So they don't hit the portal hard
for a quarterback. They hired Graham Harrell to hopefully improve the branding of that offense, but it's not like what was he able to do at USC with top tier talent, not a ton Those were disappointing offenses with a ton of NFL receivers. They you know, they part ways with Vic Canning in twenty twenty, and so you know there are guys that are recruited by him are thinking they're going to play in that specific defense, and so that changes.
And so you're just sort of in no man's land right now at West Virginia because what are you going there to do? Definitively, I can't answer that question.
Like it's the identity, right, The identity is what you're getting at. It's a good question, and it sort of is pervasive across the board. Right is your identity in terms of like a geego graphic college football thing?
Right?
Well, you're removed at least right now at present from the center of gravity of your conference. They're like half a world away, half a country way.
Yep.
What is your identity on offense? On defense? My point was going to be especially around the quarterback position, right it. Jared Dagi threw nineteen touchdowns this year to twelve interceptions. If inconsistency is my overarching theme here, yeah, that's a pretty good place to look.
Sure. I like Jared Deggy, He's all right.
He completed sixty five percent of his passes, but inconsistency was pretty much there across the board. Doing the little things well has definitely not been a hallmark of Neil Brown's time in Morgantown. And that type of stuff adds up over time.
It just does. Yeah, And I think transfers, and this is clearly stating the obvious. Transfers on that huge level, at such a big number indicate people don't want to be there and for whatever reason, be it the losing, be it the uninspired identity, be it the culture within the program, be it the location of the program, be it the conference of the program. It's not a big long term indicator of a turnaround, of a quick turnaround.
And so if you were a defensive player, if you're van Darius Cowen who's heading to I think Maryland right he was? Was he Obama player before West Virginia. This is second transfer. You can look that up. You're holding teams to sixteen points in losing. You're holding teams to eighteen points in a bowl game and losing by scoring. I don't think they score a touchdown. I think that six was two field goals. You can fact check me
on that as well. It's just like at a certain point you're going to say we're holding up our end of the bargain and the offense is has not and is not getting better. So that to me is the issue. Yeah with West Virginia is there's not a lot you can point to in the during the Neil Brown era where you're like, this is what this program is and that's what excites me. Yeah, and right now it's it's
it's an attention economy. And god, I sound like a dumb tech bro when I say really, but it is and Virginia doing to garner attention.
Neil Brown's forty one years old, definitely one of the younger coaches out there. He's going to go into year four with a mark of seventeen and eighteen in Morgantown. That is in start contrast to what he did at Troy, where the first year was bad and then he won double digits the next three. Different set of circumstances, obvious, sure, completely different, but we have not seen that turnaround story at all with West Virginia. Twenty nineteen five and seven, twenty twenty six and four weird.
COVID year Make of it what you will.
Last year finished the year six and seven, so by a large five hundred program under Neil Brown, you need to see if you can turn things around in good direction. We take one more question.
All right, this is from an alpha from Patreon in memory of Charles Entenmann. The Unforgettable Fire would like to know, ty, did he just recently pass Charles Intemen? I've never heard of well Entimates the supermarket brand donuts. You've never heard of Entemens. No, it must be weirdly regional. You're you're on the outside. Yeah. What is your favorite breakfast pastry or your go to breakfast pastry? Yeah? Yeah, talk me
through your stance on breakfast page. I don't really eat in the morning, but that doesn't mean I don't eat breakfast pastries, just a different time of day. Yeah, I mean I love.
A good a good breakfast pastry.
I'm a big time fan of it.
I love a good blueberry muffin.
Okay, talk to me through, talk me through your ideal blueberry muffin. Well, the problem that I see with a lot of blueberry muffins, as you know, amconnaissur of such always they make them too big. That's your complaint. No, it's not a complaint, but it's.
Just you just said they're too big. That sounds like a complaint. It's not intended as a complaint. But you can't eat those things without a fork and a knife. It's impossible if you try to eat. If you try to eat the full blueberry muffin, just by sticking it in your mouth, you look like you're a barbarian.
That's true, because they're huge. And then you just rip off chunks.
Then you get crumbsle over you.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want I want the primal blueberry muffin experience. I'm not ripping off chunks. I'm just sticking the thing in my mouth, Okay, And so when you make the gargantuan blueberry muffin, that's a problem. That's my only real if you want to call it complaint, okay with blueberry muffins, but beyond that, yeah, I like. I like if I get fresh blueberries in there.
Uh huh.
I like if they've got have you ever made blueberry muffins?
Pretty easy?
I like if they've got like the sugar flakes on top.
Always great.
That give you that a little bit extra kick in the morning, just get you going. I like that, sure, I like it if they're cold, actually.
Okay, fresh and blueberry muffin. Yeah, I like it. The refrigerator whoa okay, unexpected twist.
Yeah, I like that, feel like that texture. Do you have an answer?
Well, I have blueberry muffin thoughts. If you want to talk more blueberry, you talk about whatever you want Dan all right in a berry muffin, I want, I want something rigid up top, and you you go to the temperature for something that that stiffens it a little bit. The cold. I would like crystallized sugar or pearl sugar, which sort of looks like sesame seeds, but a little baking sugar type things. Maybe a strusole presence, you know, the sort of clustery, crunchy type elements of a of
a muffin. I never hate a strusle top, but I I do want that harder top to a muffin if I'm in that direction. And yeah, the crystal eye sugar or the pearl sugar whatever, I'm great with. I like it warm, though, I want that. I want a little bit of steam when I opened it up fresh out of the oven. Yeah. I'm not a big muffin guy. I do like so my go to if I was, if I were to be offered any sort of traditional breakfast pastry. I want an old fashioned donut, or I
want like an apple frit or something like that. A donut with texture, with ridges with crevasses, that's what I want. I like a good lemon muffin, but I haven't found a lot of good ones that I love. There was a place in Brooklyn called Smith Canteen that made the best I've ever had rest in peace. No longer there the other breakfast that or the pastry that I like, you can't find it in a lot of places. Is It's my definitively like hipster answer. There is a Swedish
breakfast pastry. It's kind of like a cinnamon roll, but it's like a It's if you combined the appearance and texture of a garlic knot with the taste of a cinnamon roll. We may have stopped off and got one of these in Austin together, Okay. It's called so you can get it with a with a cardamom presence, okay, and that's really good, or just the cinnamon and have the sugar. It's called a canal booler okay, And I'd
had never had one before going to this place. Easy Tiger of which you wear an easy tiger hat on the show sometimes down. Yeah, but it goes really well with coffee because it's not iced like a cinnamon roll. So it's it's not that like cinnabun sweet and dripping kind of thing and messy. It's a little bit smaller and more handheld, and you get the texture from the knots. So I think that is my and I like the
cardamom version. That is my hipster snobby answer. And then apple fritter or blueberry old fashioned donut if I'm sticking with it. I'm not a big wasissanct guy. I like Bobka. Bobka can be good for as a breakfast paste that again has that texture.
Yeah, here's the problem with this question. Yeah, guys, stop asking us food questions. Stop stop asking the food questions.
All right, he likes food. Dan likes food. He's very good like the food. Oh, I like food.
Everybody likes food.
But you know food, I don't know anything about any of this stuff. I don't I know something that tastes good when I that's what I know. I'm looking desperately. I can't turn the camera around. I am looking desperately on Google images to find the name of the thing that I know I like, but I couldn't think of and defaulted to blueberry muffins. Let's just peel back the kimono here and let you know what's going on inside my head. I am desperately searching for an answer here.
I looked at these questions beforehand. I still don't know the name of the thing that I actually like.
Can you describe it? We can all work together.
It sort of flakes a little bit.
But it's not a croissant. It's not a crysant.
It's bigger.
Give me a shape. It could be any.
Shape square, and it's sort of it doesn't necessarily have like a real sweet flavor to it, almost like maybe like a cream cheese filling.
Okay, of sorts, So is it more savory? Is it a scone? A savory scone? It's not a scone's.
It's more it's just more of like a cream cheese taste.
To it, a cream cheese square, a rectangular, traditional flaky pastry, possibly on the more savory side. Yeah, it's not a pop tart. No, it's not a popart. Did you grow up with pop tarts? By the way, is that a part of your rotation growing up.
Or currently, say rotation's a bit much, but yes, I mean, of course I grew up with pop tarts.
Yeah, I didn't really have that many pop I like pop tarts, but I don't really have that many growing up. I'm trying to work through this. So it's a flaky cream cheese breakfast pastry. Flaky cream cheese breakfast pastry.
Like, I'm sure there's a name for this thing that I've got in my head. I don't know what you're talking about. A Danish Sure, I guess, No, I guess. I don't even know what it Danish is. I don't know what the classifications are.
For these things. I don't do you feel like it is a like specifically like Germanic type influence, that it's like unique to Eastern PA. It looks like Danish is the right answer here. Yeah, okay, I like Danish are delicious. There it is. I'm a I'm a big Danish fan.
But other than that, I don't like. I don't ask the food questions. I don't know the answers to them. I'm always be essing my way through them always of the time.
Can I ask you another question? Only it's not about food. No, it's about food. It's about breakfast pastries. I'm positive you've had this or seen this, and I just want your opinion on it. How do you feel about crumb slash coffee cake? I do like that, of course.
It's so good.
Yeah, you ever have good molasses cake? Is that typically eating for breakfast? You can't eat it for breakfast? I mean you can mo hiper eats pumpkin pie for breakfast. Yeah, any paper breakfast yeah. Um, molasses cake. Yeah, I've heard of shoefly pie, which is a molasses pie.
No, no, no, no, no.
Molasses cake, molasses cake, breakfast, molasses breakfast cake. I mean that looks very heavy. It looks extremely heavy. Yeah. No, it'll take you through all the way till like three pm. Gives you sort of like a gingerbready vibe. Yeah, oh yeah, ginger vibe. Okay, yeah, No, I've never done that for breakfast, but it looks great now. Crumb cake Entiman's crumb cake. To be specific with this question, it's so good.
I have a very limited field of view. People need to understand this about I have a very limited field of view when it comes to food.
Really, when it.
Comes to life.
Are we talking sports? Are we talking tech? Are we talking space?
Like?
These are things that are very much in the wheelhouse, but sure, anything in the food world, forget it. Just I'm tapping out. I'm getting frustrated here tapping You've.
Made You've made all sorts of discoveries food wise in the last five years that you've been very happy with.
Yeah, and you know why.
It's been because of you, And it's been because of solid wife Kate. On my own, I am a rube. I have no idea about any of this stuff.
I'm feeling here. I'm gonna lose my voice. It's okay.
I have no idea about any of this stuff. So I have you to thank for avocados.
Avocados. Of all things avocado. I can tell you is everybody is a rube until they're not. If you make an effort to try new things, which I think you do, then you're at a rube.
For fourteen years, I'm answering food questions. I don't know a damn thing about any of it. Nothing make me up.
Agree barbecue a couple of years ago that you loved it's great.
Don't know anything about that either. It tastes good. Yeah, but people are like, what's your specific parents?
I don't know.
I have heard what about? What about?
Now?
I forget what I was going to ask, but oh yeah, you just found it, like a great Italian deli nearby. I did like a meatball parm.
But I know Italian food. I'm from an Italian fan. Joy that I know pizza. Actually, I sort of know.
We gotta get you to Italy, man, you know Italian American food. That's just what I know. I don't know Italian Italian Italian food all that well at all, which I'd like to know more. Yeah, I'm with you on that front. Yeah, all right, we got to keep this going. We have a bunch of questions about pants, about sauces, more about college football, about child rearing, about marriage, ty. We got a lot to talk about. I know so much about child rearing.
I'm ready.
I'm rearing to go, and I'm getting warmed up now.
I'm all woe.
The juice is flowing here.
Mm hmm.
Yeah, yeah, this is agitated. This is I'm agitated.
Yeah.
Okay, So to everybody listening to this show who is not a subscribing member of our patreon at Verballers dot com one you could be, we'd love to have you two. It's okay if you're not, but thanks for listening and we're going to see you next week. We're going to keep this show going for those of you who are subscribers, and that's all I have. For those those incredibly good looking people who listen to the show thus.
Far, join us for Part two.
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