Three one zero, All engine running up. We have a welcome back to the undaunted Friday Orbit.
Dan. WHOA You really made a decision there, right, We didn't even have to debate, you just went with it.
My name is Ty Hildebrandt. That guy over there in the heart of the Midwest is the one and only Dan Rubinstein. We are the Solid Verbal. Don't forget to subscribe to the show. Wherever you get your podcasts, you can find us there. You can also follow along on social media Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. We have YouTube at YouTube dot com slash the The Solid Verbal is also a subreddit at solidverbal dot reddit dot com and new as
of when Wednesday right, breaking news, breaking news. I'll play the sound later when we actually get to the to the college football news. Okay, but our in house sort of housekeeping slash show breaking news is that we finally took the bubble wrap off of verballers dot com, which folks can find out there. It takes you to our Patreon. You neither go to verballers dot com or Patreon dot
com slash Solid Verbal, whichever manner you choose. Dan, but a lot, I'm like blown away by the response that we've gotten here in the early going, I've been pretty active on the discord server that came as part of the Patreon subscription, and just been talking to folks who are subscribing. Everyone's excited about it. Everyone's thrilled to be there and you know, be building this community with us. So thus far it's been really exhilarating.
Yeah, you've been pretty loose with the the behind the scenes kimono over there on the Discord server. I appreciate that, Tie, This is what I'm excited for. I'm excited to peel that back for people who are super into the show and like to see how the sausage is made. I know these are all words that are deeply uncomfortable when paired together, Tie, but it's it's quite fun. The bonus brewin a we did for patrons where we touched on SEC defenses, we touched on Clemson and there perhaps acc problem.
You revealed some uncomfortable details about the mysterious day job.
It's true, it's true.
And yeah, when I say uncomfortable, you are visibly in full HD, full ten ADP, uncomfortable, squirming, writhing.
I didn't Yeah, I was writhing. I didn't know. I didn't recognize until I went back and watched the video, how uncomfortable I looked it was. It was palpable.
I mean, that's worth a few bucks, isn't it?
Isn't it?
Tie?
It depends on your perspective. But yeah, we're doing We're doing a lot of cool stuff out there for Ballers dot Com. We'll continue talking about it throughout the course of the show, but thus far, the reaction to it has been far beyond anything we could have predicted, and we're so soreful.
If you want, there's there's a couple of different tiers. Uh, there's a Secret Benefactor tier, which, oh man, that's the good stuff that the Secret Benefactor Tier. Also, if there's somebody out there who wants to be a free video consultant, hit us so at gmail dot com. I'm knee deep, TI, I am knee deep, and SD cards and concerns and editing. It's it's actually pretty amazing how much we're doing. But man, oh man, just you know, if I could fire off a text or an email every once in a while.
Be like, oh, I'm running into this. Yeah, Daniel, Daniel, subscribe to your Patreon if you that's true, If you're willing to provide your kind of real time advice. I always know when you're in full on mad scientist mode when you don't start the day off with good morning and instead go with by the way dot dot dot.
I found a work around.
I don't little bit my work. Yeah, verballers dot com is the correct Patreon address or just patreon dot com slash solid verbal. If you are listening to us now, don't forget what we're gonna get into our news here. So the complexion of the weekend has changed dramatically since we did the Wednesday show. But as you're watching Select your Gord Saturday, don't forget to give us a phone call at four zero eight verbal one. That's four oh eight eight three seven two two five one. Get your
reverbs in again. We can't guarantee we're gonna play them all, but we do our best to cut them down into like a three and a half four minute clip. Ryan does an outstanding job of that. Oh yeah, and we play them on Sundays. It's everyone's favorite segment, our reaction segment. Dan.
Absolutely, I'm adding the reverb line to our Twitter profile, the reverb phone number, just to leave no.
Doubt, leave no doubt herman run it up. All right, let's get to news. We had real breaking news. I don't want to do it the disservice of the falsetto because then it's almost cartoonish. This is very serious what we've got going on here. So postponements are not anything new at this point, right. Florida Ellis's a pretty high profile one, right, we previewed it. It wasn't until like I think, Wednesday, naturally, after we released the last podcast,
that they made it official. Of course, there is a bit of an ironic spin to it, seeing as how Dan Mullen wanted a packed house at the swamp the ultimate story of twenty twenty here, as this game is going to be postponed, we're not going to get it. We hope everyone's okay, who has it?
Yeah, December twelfth, I think is the date, right, That's where they're That's what I saw too. Yeah, Okay.
The bigger story though, I guess around the world of college football is at Nick Saban and athletic director at Alabama Greg Byrne both tested positive for the coronavirus. So Nick Saban did an interview shortly thereafter. He was on camera he said, look, you okay. It was a surprise to me that I tested positive, but I got the
news and now I'm in isolation at home. This is obviously a big story in like eight different levels, not the least of which is perhaps the most prominent coach in college football has contracted this disease which has upended so much of our everyday lives here, not just here, but around the world.
Yeah, for sure.
As a secondary point to that, this is kind of on the eve generally speaking of the biggest game of the year for the Alabama Crimson Tide against the George Bulldogs. It's a matchup of number two versus number three. There is obviously a ton of doubt now with regard to how is this going to work for Alabama, Who's coaching Are they going to come up with some setup for Nick Saban so that he can still participate in the
game planning and the game day decision making. A lot, I think remains to be seen at time of recording here, but this is a big deal. Then it's a huge to the line if you are interested in such things. When we record, so when we saw the open it was at four and a half by the time we recorded the Wednesday preview show, it had gone up to
about six and a half. In the immediate aftermath of this news becoming public, I saw it dipped all the way down to three three and a half, So clearly something that is weighing on on the minds of not just college football fans and humans in general, but certainly college football betters alike.
Yeah. Absolutely, And I don't know if I've seen anything indicating he is symptomatic on any level. So we're happy about that if that is pointing to the fact that he's feeling okay and just quarantining and hopefully he's going to be fine throughout the process. Alabama was on the road certainly the Florida situation. Scott Strickland, the Florida a D pointed to the fact that travel may have caused
the issues that cropped up in Gainesville. So both of these teams were on the road, and LSU was as well, but Florida was the team with issues. Seems there. I did see he'll be able to sort of run practice remotely, but he will have no ability to communicate with anybody on the team, coaches, players, whatever. For ninety minutes before
the game and the duration of the game. So okay, unless that is skirted somehow through nefarious means, it's going to be a sark Alabama game day experience, for better or for worse, and sark with control. The Alabama offense has been damn amazing record setting. Even so, Alabama's offense in good hands. We'll see about the game day stuff,
will see about end game decision making for Alabama. But I think the most important thing here is Nick Saban, who was very publicly, you know, asking for people to remain vigilant so the season could continue a pace. He himself now came down with it, and I assume he was as careful as can be, but it just sort of goes to show that everybody's susceptible. So I hope he's all right and hope everything is able to move
forward for Alabama. But huge, huge still came by the way, this came on the heels of me saying SEC has done a pretty good job. And I guess everybody does a good job until they don't. And I guess if there's any sort of silver lining to this that we've had programs, you know, in the sun Belt and the
big twelve, but not enormous programs have cancelations. Florida LSU and Nick Saban having their weekends canceled, postponed whatever hopefully serves as a wake up call to not just the teams that are playing to just stay vigilant, but also the teams who are about to start and come back and begin playing. No.
I think that's fair. I think that's fair, And you know, we'll continue to watch this as it progresses. I am not totally convinced that there won't be some sort of like Oculus Go set up for Nick Saban where he's on the sidelines virtually, or some sort of cryptic How.
Do you monitor something like that? That's the interesting thing to me, Like how do you monitor Nobody set up to monitor that? Come on, like Nick Saban could very easily get patched through right to the headsets.
Bill Belichick's online one. He's got some ideas. I guarantee you that they can find some way if they want to. I need to investigate more why he's unable Why in trick kit.
Oh my god, so Nick Saban. Okay, here's the way you skirt it. Nick Saban does not communicate with the team. Nick Saban has a plant in the stadium, he has an in between or time.
Yeah, so he's.
Not communicating with the team, He's communicating with somebody who's communicating with the team.
Plausible deniability the other thought that crossed my mind. I know they used to do this in a lot of corporate settings. It was more of a proof of concept. But you know, some companies like Cisco would offer like a robot that somebody who was working remotely could control and go through the hallways, and it was like, yes, of course, your telepresence mm hmm. It wasn't always the most effective thing, but it was kind of neat, and
why not have a robotic Saban. He's sort of a robot anyway, wouldn't be that big a departure.
Yeah. He Also if Sark wears a mask the entire time or most of the crucial times, you won't be able to read his lips. If he says something like Nick, what should we do here? Because he'll be wearing a mask.
What about Nick Saban wearing a Sark mask? I think then he and dangers like wear like I'm impossible style. Yeah, with the skin that peels, you.
Know, as somebody who is tested positive. I still don't think that's all that thoughtful. No, Okay, be on the sideline wearing a fake Sark skin mask.
Ty come on, Tye, let's I'm an idea guy, Dan, this is what I do.
I understand, I understand.
I'm thinking more.
Maybe Nick Saban uses the Mission Impossible style voice changer. So whatever voice is off the line, if the SEC is monitoring the Alabama headset situation, that it's a voice changer where it's just like, you know, a deeply British communicator saying we should go for on four. Isn't it something like that?
Right?
So that's the way, that's the way to me, obviously, if Nick Saban is healthy and everybody's good to skirt the issue.
Some other quick kidbits here before we get into our undaunted Friday orbit. Yes, I saw that the NCAA has granted an extra year of eligibility for all winter sport athletes, and they are also avoiding the rule that you need to be five hundred to qualify for a bowl game.
Yeah, there's only seventy eight spots, I believe. So there are years where there are reasons a team is five and seven or four and eight and finish really strong and become really interesting, and maybe they get a quarterback back who wasn't there at the early part of the season that maybe it's a major program. I don't know. I remember what Nebraska a couple of years ago where
they finished an interesting four and eight. That's a shirt that we should make for Nebraska fans, an interesting foreign eight. But yeah, I mean, I guess it's a little bit more of a wild Wild West Bowl scenario. Let's just get through this week.
And speaking of which, Texas Tech has turned it over to Henry Colomby and his wonderful head of hair Columbe. However you say it.
I looked it up.
It's Colombie Colombie, Okay. He is taking over for British comedy legend Alan Bowman.
Possibly COLUMBI. I know it's something like Colombo, but with an eye.
He has completed seventy four percent of his passes thus far for three touchdowns, and he's played pretty well, I think in a relief effort when our boy, British comedy legend Alan Bowman has been injured.
Yeah, yeah, he's interesting. Transferred from Utah State. I do have breaking news, TI like legit breaking news. Please Cincinnati, Tulsa has been postponed. Okay for the athletic Cincinnati and the athletic college football team, So one of those matches I think I was looking forward to after Tulsa's win against UCF and Cincinnati's strong start to the season. So that's a bummer. Hopefully everybody's okay.
There, I said, undaunted Friday, Orbit at the top, Dan, this is an honor of pluckiness, not just in college football, but in our solar system, in our universe.
Is there a sound under us right now that I don't know about it? There's okay, good, love it, great, great job.
I'm giving a shout out right now to just some of the pluckiness in the solar system and beyond. Let's talk about mercury, Dan closest playing it to the Sun. It is blasted constantly by the rays from the Sun, but it keeps trucking hell when it goes in retrograde. Solid wife Kate's talking about things just feeling strange, things feeling a little bit off. Don't know if there's any
science there. There's definitely a believe there that mercury and retrograde they kind of plucky, keeps on tratrograde.
Mean, I don't even I'm not smart.
It's when it spins the other way.
Oh okay, it's interesting.
Okay, how about Pluto? Is Pluto a planet? Well, it used to be not anymore, got demoted then dwarf planet, but then it got a flyby from one of our satellites, got some pictures of it. It looks freaking awesome. It's just out there doing its thing. Man doesn't care what we think about it here on Earth.
I'm excited for you to figure out how to compare excellent photographs of Pluto to an early college football performance. And then we zip all the way down we get that like the particle level. I got this from Chief Astrover Buller John mm hmm, who's talking to me this week about planet tesibols?
Mm hmm. You know what that is? I didn't, not even a little bit. They start off no bigger than a grain of sand and a giant disc of other grains circulating a star, sort of the violent young days of the star. If you will, Okay, maybe they link up with other grains. They get like a snowball thing going. They get bigger and bigger and bigger. Maybe they get
blasted away by a proto star or something. But maybe they just get bigger and bigger and bigger, and then waym they get linked up with another even bigger Plantesmo.
Okay, in a way recruiting, I don't know if there's like a real connection. I mean, they're recruiting grains coming together with a common purpose.
I saw more of a conference realignment angle there. But oh, I hear what you're saying.
It also works.
My point is this, there's pluckiness all around us, and certainly within the world of college football. So what I've got here is a list of seven teams that I would like, at the end of this discussion to have an official power ranking of pluckiness that we.
Can go find pluckiness.
For me, pluckiness is just gritty. I think you used the word last time. They're gritty. I don't so much equate it to being a disappointing team per se. But let's say teams that perhaps were written off a little too soon, that when we did our previews, maybe we didn't take as seriously as we should have, and now we find each and every week they're performing at a level high enough to push their competition right you want to talk about it interesting four and eight. A plucky
team is an interesting four and eight. They might lose eight games, but they were in all eight or most of those games anyway. They could have won a lot of them one score games. A couple bad breaks here and there that didn't go their way. But these are teams that are probably better than their record would indicate.
So not full on ball of fire, but sparks are flying, correct. There's embers embers afoot.
There are embers a foot. So let me start here. Okay, let's start with an obvious one from what we saw a week ago. Let's talk about ole Miss.
Okay.
Ole Miss obviously a new coach going into the year with Liane Kiffin. They have changed up their offense and they are running with an alarming tempo at this point. Not to say they didn't do that before, but what I saw against Alabama is like NASCAR level crazy, right. Didn't play any defense, per our friend Roger Sherman, forty one yards.
Of defense prevention.
Yeah, resistance knob all the way down. They're one and two. They scored thirty five points on Florida. They straight up beat Kentucky on the road and They scored forty eight against what we thought was a really good Alabama defense. So they don't play much defense for themselves, but it's apparent that they can score and they're fun to watch. They're going to be hard out. How do you feel about an ole Miss and what they've done so far this year versus the Jerky Boys and Boston?
So I think Boston College better exemplifies your term of plucky because Ole Miss does something already excellently. Ole Miss doesn't have any like, they're no sparks, there are no embers to ole Miss's offense. It's full on fireballs, shooting in every direction. There's it's I'm not encouraged by ole Miss as a full on growing as a full team situation because their defense. There's nothing plucky about their defense. So okay, they they fall more into half team, but
as a complete unit they are. They're plucky television. They're exciting television. But I don't know if this full on falls under grit or pluck because that implies to me improving construction and I don't see that with all Miss because the offense is already there.
Offense is there that they're a fun watch and you're saying a better TV show than necessarily Plucky Team.
Right, We're not seeing incremental improvement with ole Miss. Right, We're only seeing fireballs shooting in every direction. So we're aimless comments. It would be my space comparison. Whereas some of the other teams you listed, I feel like, Okay, they did this week one and then this week two, or they did this in twenty nineteen, and they've improved this here, like, oh, this is what they did really poorly in twenty nineteen, and they've already showed an ability
to improve on that in twenty twenty. That to me is where the grit and pluck comes from.
All right, So let's start there and just based on those two teams, we'll put BC as our top of the pluckometer and ole Miss at the bottom. Just based on that definition right now, Yes, let's see if we can fill in the gaps.
So distance to the pluck sun. Boston College is mercury. Ole Miss is currently the dwarf planet Pluto.
Right one pluconomical unit.
Yep, I'm right there with you.
Let's go to Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech is an interesting case. Georgia Tech.
We do we want to talk about Boston College.
Well, we're going to talk about Georgia Tech and Boston College. Kind of gotcha in the same comparison here sok, same conference, right? They do play each other next weekend, I believe so we will get a battle of the plucky, a new rivalry. Georgia Tech is currently two and two. They knocked off Florida State on the road week one is a big deal. Sixteen thirteen got cream by UCF, lost the following week to Syracuse, then had to buy and one this past week.
An earlier week game against Louisville forty six to twenty seven. Big effort there. There is no doubt that they are playing better. They are playing hard for Jeff Collins. We saw that last year. The question then, is how do you compare a team like Georgia Tech and their level of pluck dan mm hmm to what we've seen out of Boston College In year one, three and one beat
pitt on a goofy missed extra point. They were very close against North Carolina at home a couple of weeks ago, and I think they are taking some of us, many of us by surprise. That year one new coach had a bunch of holes to fill new quarterback they are. You know, say whatever you want about who they've beaten, but three and one is three and one.
Yeah, So I think Boston College exhibits a little bit more pluck than Georgia Tech, just because Tech, Georgia Tech, excuse me, has been embarrassed this year already, Like losing to Syracuse comfortably does not show it's not great a tremendous amount of pluck. I know it is on the road, I know it's a strange year, but losing to the end, I think they lost by almost twenty points to Syracuse, so and losing big to UCF is not a big deal. UCF is a very good program, but that loss to
Syracuse I think limits the pluck. Whereas Boston College right now, with where their offense was and where their defense was at times, it's sort of vacillated that one year they'll have like a really interesting offense, you know then and like I think last year their offense was fine, the defense was a nightmare, and obviously in years prior it
was flipped. And so the consistency, the early consistency, and I think their offense is ahead of the defense early on and I expect the defense to improve under Jeff Halfley, but early on for Boston College, I think they get that pluck because they're a little bit more competitive. They're staying in games, they're you know, they're hanging around to potentially take advantage of mistakes from the other team. So I'm going to give the edge. And they can't run
the ball at all, not at all. But Fildjerkovic has been largely good, if not a little inefficient, but largely good, and the defense against the pass has been pretty interesting.
I think I agree with you, not just because I'm all in on this whole jerky boys goodiness, right like I think Georgia Tech is interesting. You look at the teams they've beaten. Louisville plays no defense and Florida State's kind of a mess. They've got a really tough stretch coming up. The true test of their pluckiness will be in their next five games.
Listen to this give me the give me the pluck the pluck oh meter for Georgia Tech. If they are truly plucky, they will either win or come up just short against Team X, who is the bell Weather pluck.
I think we could use Pitt as the go by here because bost Boston College has already played and beaten Pit. But listen, listen to these next five games for Georgia Tech. We're gonna get answer to this question pretty soon. Okay, Clemson, which we know about, we previewed next week on the road at Boston College, so we'll get a heads up matchup there the week after against Notre Dame. That game is in Atlanta. We'll see what they can do there. Yeah, then a bye week, and then Pitt at home on
the road at Miami. Next five weeks are going to tell us if they can hang with some of those squads that might be inclined to put them above Boston College. But so far I'm looking at what BC has done, and BC has hung around. They beat Pitt, they were close enough against North Carolina. They're gonna have opportunities here in the next few weeks against Virginia Tech, against obviously
Georgia Tech, Clemson, and Notre Dame as well. So right now Edge goes to Boston College, but Tech's gonna have a chance to usurp the Eagles.
I think it's Miami well, especially because what Georgia Tech beat Miami last year, right, this year's Miami team has shown interesting upside. I think that's the measuring stick. If Georgia Tech is again competitive with Miami what we believe to be an improved Miami team and improved Georgia Tech team. That to me, even if they lose twenty seven to twenty four, or even if they know if they win an ugly fashion, whatever the case, PITT does not necessarily
have their act together. I don't think we'll find out more about PITT Miami. I suppose this weekend. So all these sort of proxy measurements, but I'm looking at Georgia Tech Miami as a measuring stick to see. Okay, this is where Georgia Tech is. If they lose thirty eight to ten, that's where they are. I know the game's at Miami, I believe, so PITT to me is winnable, whereas Miami doesn't seem on that level yet.
A new challenger has emerged in the form of Kansas State. Okay, Kansas State to me when I put this list together was I thought the odds on number one in the pluck Oometer. And it's not just because they beat Oklahoma. In Texas Tech and TCU. Obviously they lost Week one in Arkansas State. We're just gonna like close their eyes in.
That gloss undefeated, big twelve Kansas State.
That's right, that's right. But I don't think there's any denying the fact that this is already a way better performance from k State in twenty twenty that we expected. This was a team we talked a lot about them taking a huge step back, and in the early going
they've been very good. Now they lost their quarterback. They lost their quarterback, which in a sense is going to give us an even better gauge of pluckiness because they're not going to be able to rely on that veteran leadership from Skyler Thompson to keep the offense hit it. They're going to have to game plan around that void. So we know that they're three and one, they're undefeated in conference, they've got a game coming up next week.
They're off this week, but they've got a game coming up next week against Kansas which I would expect them to win handly. After that, though, then it starts to get dicey because they close out their final five games are at West Virginia, which who knows West Virginia. We could maybe talk about them, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Baylor
in Texas. Probably not as vicious a closing slate as we thought given where Texas is at, but nonetheless, at least in terms of projected win probability, they are fair to lose all those football games. So where do we stand on k State?
I believe they scored one offensive touchdown against TCU, They had a couple of field goals in a pick six. So the pluckiness place Matt has been set tie the table for an interesting, gritty, plucky season with Kansas State, especially with now I guess Deuce Fawn the face of that offense with Skyler Thompson out, and I don't think the passing game is going to be all that interesting.
I think the test for Kansas State moving forward now with this freshman quarterback is, I guess you gotta be Baylor. I mean, you gotta beat Kansas. You have to beat Kansas no matter who's playing quarterback for you. Maybe it's wet West Virginia on the road. You give them a couple of weeks. Kansas State's off this week, you get a little bit, you get your feet wet a little bit more against Kansas at West Virginia is the true pluck test for Kansas State moving forward, because that's an
improved West Virginia team with a really interesting defense. I mean, we can talk about West Virginian pluckiness is like a bonus. I guess that's the pluck test to me, because if Kansas State can't move the ball forward, if they can't generate more than one offensive touchdown against an Okay to pretty good TCU team, then they.
Might be bad. Yeah, they might be. I hope not.
They might be.
See what, Well, West Virginia is an interesting game. Iowa States to me even a little bit more interesting. It's also on the road. Iowa State's another team that is so that's.
The class of the Big twelve though, ty don't that's.
Fair fair enough, But it's interesting because because Iowa State is sort of like a graduate of the pluck ometer. True, just saying a little bit of symmetry there. Okay, are we content to put Kase State above Boston College?
Are we content to put Kase State above Boston College pluck? Yes, in terms of pluckiness, I think so because they pluckily beat Oklahoma and even with a different quarterback. You got to give credit where it's due, and that was a that was a win by a team not nearly as talented as the team they beat.
Where do we stand on Arkansas? Now?
How I have Arkansas thoughtstyle?
Arkansas lost big in their first game to Georgia. But you know, new coach at Arkansas and it's Georgia.
And they were in that game. It was an ugly like first half of that game. Now that counts as pluck uggling up something.
A week after that, they're on the road. They're going against the Mississippi State team that everyone's written into the College Football Playoff. Absolutely after a monstrous showing. But Kja Costello and Mike Leach in year one of the air raid and they win twenty one to fourteen, really good defensive effort. Now folks are like, hey, this is a great win for Arkansas. They haven't won an SEC game in three years. What do they do? They go on
the road the next week against Auburn. Now we can say whatever we want about Auburn, but Auburn's got more talent than Arkansas. There's there's no denying that. Now Arkansas could have won that game. They lost thirty to twenty eight. It was a game they were in. It was a tight game, thirty to twenty eight. They've clearly got their work cut out for them moving forward, right all miss this week. They've got games against A and M, Tennessee, Florida, LSU, Missouri,
and Alabama left on the schedule. So I don't it may be a little too soon to gauge where Arkansas rates on this scale. Maybe the bell Weather is a game against like A Tennessee. But what are you, Arkansas? Thoughts?
Felipe Franks is a real quarterback. It's been a while since Arkansas has had a real quarterback. He succeeded downfield against even though an Auburn defense that took a step back this year a peers to have taken a step back. Real quarterbacks count for a lot, Real coordinators count for a lot. A real head coach that is inspiring, it seems. I mean Arkansas was rushing the passer against against Auburn. They were forcing mistakes. They were I like that running
back number twenty two. I think his last name is Smith, Is it Trelon Treylon Smith? He was really good in an all purpose role against Auburn. And watching the Hogs early on this season feels like did you have an amazing professor that you loved in college, which is like taking his or her class made that subject matter come alive? Had I definitely did.
I had one professor because they kept changing my major round and restructuring it where I liked the professor a lot, and because of some of the clerical errors, I was able to take the same class three times, which we want to talk about. The pluckometer was, Yes, that was a plucky decision.
Gaming the system is definitely plucky.
And then I've talked about Frank Clemente at Penn State before. Anyone who's been the Penn State knows Frank Clemente. Yeah, of Christ, everyone has that professor.
So watching the Hogs against Auburn made it seem like somebody and I don't know if it's a coordinator thing. I don't know if it's a Sam Pittman thing. I don't know if it's just a general culture thing. Somebody made learning and playing football fun for Arkansas. Somebody, like if somebody made geometry fun, Like if you have a terrible math teacher, it's the most dry experience in your life. But if you make Isauci. These triangles come alve time. Yeah, yeah,
you're into it. You're into it. And there was something about rushing the passer against Auburn, there was something about misdirection on offense. Felipe Franks felt empowered to me, and so that's what I'm into. In terms of pluck for Arkansas, it seems like we're watching an overhaul that suddenly somebody's schedule opened up with great professors, and so I don't know. The bell Weather game, I suppose for Arkansas could be an improved Miszoo team that's on the road later on
in the year. But to make sense of everything, because they should have come away from that Auburn game with a win, I think it's Tennessee. I think you're right. I think if you're hanging around with Tennessee, certainly not a complete team, certainly not a finished product. If you're hanging around with Tennessee at home, I think that cements that gritty plucky status.
I think the Arkansas win over Mississippi State and the close loss against Auburn is enough to put them in front of Georgia Tech, but not quite above BC.
Arkansas is going to have a fascinating year in terms of they're the bell Weather right to see if, like you know, Mississippi State, are they for real? They played Arkansas? Nope, Auburn. Was it just a slow start and you know going up against a heavyweight Georgia team and a decent Kentucky defense.
No, Auburn may have some issues.
Alburn needed a lot. So maybe it's not Arkansas looking outside for measuring sticks. Maybe Arkansas themselves in the ultimate Plucky reversal. Wow, they're the measuring stick.
This is like plucky naval gazing. So you want to put Arkansas? We could put Arkansas too, just because of that.
Yeah, absolutely, all right, State on retrograde.
Ky State, Arkansas, Boston College, and Georgia Tech. We got three other teams to two other teams on here. Excuse me? Okay about South Carolina? How you feel about South Carolina?
Not amazing in terms of pluckiness.
They're better than expected, at least for me, I've been saying, that's who you expected. Yeah, I think the team as a whole has been better than expected. The offense, you know, from an efficiency standpoint, is certainly not there, right, it is not there. But I have enjoyed watching the Colin Hill to shy Smith connection.
Not against Florida. You probably didn't.
I guess there was some dropsies. Yeah, not against Florida. I like what I saw to Kevin Harris in the running game. Yeah, I think that's important. I could use shy Smith getting like longer passes right now, he's just getting a lot of dink and dunk type stuff.
Yeah, I could use a little bit.
More of that. But I feel like they're gonna be a tough out even if they're not necessarily beating teams Like the game against Tennessee. I think I locked up Tennessee and may have won that opening week game because it was like a three and a half spread and they won by four. But they were way in that game, much more than expected. The Florida game, we kind of expected more of a blowout. They covered the spread there. They covered the spread against Vanderbilt, if memory serves, are
probably undefeated. Cool, but they're gonna have chances here now over the next few weeks against the likes of Auburn and LSU, and there's a Georgia game at the end of the year. I think, in looking at this schedule, the measuring stick for me is probably gonna be LSU on the road. What can they do?
Yeah, I don't find Will musk Champ teams to fall in that plucky, gritty category. The best of Will must Champ teams play good defense, but there is something about improving. There's something about incremental change that I just never really see from Will muss Champ teams. And so maybe that's being more broad and vague about Florida and South Carolina combined, but it doesn't fall under the like they were a nightmare and now they're interesting. I don't know how interesting
I am. I might put them. I loaded up different galaxies. Tie. Maybe they're a tadpole Galaxy team. Maybe they're a cartwheel galaxy. Maybe they're a CAA eighty two galaxy type teams. Yeah, the MESSAA eighty two the best.
Yeah, he played for the Rangers. Yep, he did.
Indeed, there's also Messia sixty three.
Just he might be sixty three at this point, but continue.
Yeah. No, there's nothing feel good about watching South Carolina football under Will must Champ. And I get some good fields watching Boston College. I get some good fields watching Arkansas because you like to see players figuring it out and I suppose other than getting off the field against Tennessee on third down consistently, there's nothing I'm talking about the defense in a good way. There's nothing I love
about watching South Carolina football. There's nothing that gives me those warm fields, the warm fuzzies, And so I don't think it falls for me. I don't you know. I'm gonna need to see more against a pretty good team.
Okay, So if I understand Sea sixty three is my ruling, Messa six. Okay, great, So does that translate then to putting South Carolina.
Below Ole Miss correct? Yes, all right, so we've got a new something plucky out driving. There's something plucky about driving, Nick Saban, absolutely bonkers.
Yes, final team, I've got final team. I've got here, and I'm sure we could do this all day. Let's talk about Miszoo. Now here's an important distinction that I need to get out of the way, right right out of the shoot. There is a certain grit and fire and pluckiness to Eli Drinkwitz.
Oh yeah, especially on signing day.
Yeah, especially on signing days. So it's I think we need to try and uh like separate decouple the two for the purposes of this conversation, even if that culture emanates down from the top, we're not talking about the coach. We're talking about the team. So what we've seen so far from Miszoo has been like, uh, not great, Like lost pretty badly to Alabama. Okay, fine, lost pretty badly on the road at Tennessee. Okay, beat LSU in that upset forty five to forty one. Yeah, they're off this week.
They're at Florida next week. Looking at their remaining schedule at Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt. They're gonna have a chance here against some really good teams, uh in the SEC. I like their quarterback Connor Basilak. I can't even say his name, Basil Basia Yeah, basilc Yeah, I like him. And my sense is that Miszoo has an opportunity to improve throughout the course of the year.
So LSU is not where we thought they were going to be, And there are other teams in the schedule who are kind of in a similar vein. I think Missoo's going to improve. I think they're gonna play hard. I think they're kind of like a low key top three pluckiness style team here. I think that's what we're gonna see moving forward. Now. Have they been there yet? Probably not.
Yeah, I think you are looking at plucky futures with Miszoo a little bit, little bit twenty plus to Tennessee. And I know what Connor Bezlac came in early in relief of Sean Robinson. It just wasn't working out for Robinson under center and the win against LSU. LSU might be another sort of measuring stick team, where like, if you're not moving the ball against LSU, something is wrong with your offense, which is a very strange way to interpret the Tigers this year, but it's I think it's
based in reality a little bit. So I am great with assigning pluckiness to Connor Beslac to be sort of unsheathed with very little warning and to look very comfortable and very good. But yeah, you're looking at plucky futures because the defense is going to take a minute. I think the defense in Columbia is going to take a minute. But in terms of you know, getting receivers back, because they were without receivers against LSU, So I think there
is that that gritty upside to Missoo. But you're right about the schedule because you lose comfortably to Alabama. That's not an indicator of anything, but it's what Florida on the road Georgia. So the measuring it might be Arkansas, it might be some sort of Ozarkian measuring bowl near the end of the year. Uh Now, I think it's Kentucky.
Kentucky at home after Florida Halloween. If Miszoo wins or is competitive in that game, and I know that specific matchup is fraught with recent history drama, I think we have a good indicator of where Missouri stands. Maybe Missoo is Earth Mars. Hmm, well, I think they're orbiting in relatively close proximity.
But that implies that things are getting better on Earth.
So what I mean Mars is the one with the upside right to colonize, so Miszoo has the the upside. So I'll say Missoo and Mars are entangled, romantically entangled.
Really Okay?
Yeah?
Cool? Well, so I've I'm gonna put Missoo in front of Old miss because we're not sure if Old Miss that makes in this category, but not in front of Georgia. Tech. Here. Here is what I've got, and I think we can agree upon this power rating. K State one, Arkansas two, Boston College three, Georgia Tech four, Maszoo five. You've convinced me, hm ol miss six, South Carolina seven.
Yeah, South Carolina sixty three in the South Carolina sixty three. Yeah. I really hope it's pronounced Messia, not miss you or something stupid. Messia would would be the best.
Mark message fifty nine.
By the way, there are other teams, and we're not going to go into them, just because we don't want this to be a two hour show, but there are other teams that are worth having a conversation about at this point. Coastal Carolina, fresh off a win against Louisiana, undefeated. You don't just get an internship at Grayce and McCall without putting in the work. Ty, Yeah, yes, Coast Carolina, I mean de facto Big twelve champs. With the win over Louisiana, I stayed in the driver's seat.
I don't know how many of our listeners out there are fully up to speed with what's going on with Coastal Carolina and the shot I know on the and they're deeply teal pants. They're deeply teal pants, right. I know. On the Discord server last night, folks were watching the Coastal Carolina victory and getting all into them. So four and oh, I think you gotta rank them. I to rank them at this point, definite pla.
Oklahoma State is able to win without a starting quarterback. I think their defense eliminates them for luckiness because it's been so strong early on. But that's a conversation with having I think the other case, by the way, for Kansas State being strong is winning a game without your starting quarterback in one offensive touchdown.
It's pretty plucky, I would agree.
If you're can accomplish that, that's interesting across other conferences. I don't know if I have somebody specific beyond that, you mass pretty plucky for canceling and restarting a season all in a short amount of time. I don't know how good they're actually on the field. Uh, Otherwise, I think that's all I have. I don't think there's another clear case for pluckiness. Yeah, Texas A and M might be pretty good. It's hard to be plucky this far
into a coaching tenure. That's what I think screwed up screwed me up with South Carolina. Like. I like the Sam Pittman, I like the Lane Kiffin element. I like the Jeff Halfley, I like the Jeff Collins element because Plucky implies, you know, quick improvement, quick competitiveness, and I don't know, we're in what you're three of Jimbo, We're in you're what five six of? Will must Champ. Yeah, I like that the early What I like the comparison to the Planet Testimal. Tie is that what it's called?
I have no idea what that is?
What did you what was the term the grain of sand?
Oh, planet testimal? You're right, Ve right, every.
Yeah, Planet Testimal. Yeah. I like that because those are young, gathering momentum situations. All right, So that's like like the Chris climbing situation exactly.
Well, look right in soliverble at gmail dot com. Let us know what your thoughts are on the matter. Don't forget to give us a phone call at four oh eight verbal one over the weekend. Give us your reverbs. Let us know what your thoughts are on the games as they are taking place, whatever games we have left at that point. Do check out the Patreon for Ballers dot com is the address. You can also going out to patreon dot com slash soliverbal for more information. Dan,
this is sort of a push of oars. Were very excited about this. It is dominating kind of our our thoughts at the moment. We're really trying to beef up our offerings for the verballer hood.
My solid verbal Lab because of our Patreon launch and because of all of the extra things we're doing. I've got wires everywhere. You ever see Trent Reznor's studio, I think so because he does soundtracks. He's got these giant synthesizers and these giant boards with cables connecting like these big I'm looking at analogue synthesizers where he's just creating sounds. It's like that in here, but it's much more disorganized with a lot less talent behind the boards. But I
would say equal levels of creative gumption. Just it has to do with Grayson McCall and Skyler Thompson. So yeah, that's what we're doing. We're pouring. We're pouring many, many hours of the day into turning this this Patreon universe into something very very cool for for ballers everywhere.
Dan, this has been a fun show. We would encourage everyone if you're out and about throughout the course of the college football weekend, check out our friends over at the College Sports Blitz. Whether you're listening on the go in your car Serious XM channel eighty four. You can also search for college Sports Now on tune in. You'll get fifty six minutes of play by play coverage per hour. It runs all day, all day, so you're not gonna miss anything. You can go really inside the booth with
some of these local broadcasts. Sometimes my favorite is when they go on either side, like the throwing thrill of victory, agony of defeat. You get both sides of it, so it's it's cool stuff and would encourage you to check that out. As everyone knows, Learfield IMG College is a good friend of ours and we're working together to help build up the show and work together to build up podcasting as a whole in the college football arena. So check them out. They do great work on a Saturday.
As I said, it's sort of been my secret weapon for many moons. Now oh it's all I got.
Percent Sunday Recap Show moving to Monday as well. Correct the Sunday Recap Show is moving to Monday, unless you went to Verballers dot com and said, you know what, I need the Sunday show to stay Sunday for me, and like, you know what, we're gonna put in a little extra effort to keep it for you that way.
But the Sunday show is moving to Monday for you know, nothing changes with the show, Tie, same show, same great huh, pretty good hosts, but it's it is moving to Monday, all right, Dan, Well, this has been fun.
We appreciate everyone's willingness to take this journey with us throughout the galaxy of Pluckiness. We will be back this weekend after the week seven action, yes, whatever remains of it. We hope you check out the patreon.
On verbs dot com.
Yeah, verballers dot com. In the meantime for that, go over there my good friend Dan Rubinsteed for myself, Tie Hilligrant would catch you all on the flip side. Meantime, stay soft peace, kay m