# Home Improvement: The Most Intriguing Coordinator Hires For 2026

An episode of [The Solid Verbal College Football Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/270037732), 3 Mar 2026, 1 h 18 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/21437ee1-47d9-4b16-8696-b30d011a2c26/492132fc-8808-43f5-a531-b401015b295d/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=51c7e0eb-425c-4d93-b5a8-b30d011a2c46

The 2026 college football offseason has brought a fascinating wave of coordinator changes at some of the sport's most prominent programs. In this college football podcast episode, we take a look at some of the most intriguing new coordinator hires and evaluate what each new coach has to fix. From defensive overhauls at USC and Texas to offensive shifts at Ohio State and Penn State, we dig into what each new coordinator is walking into and what kind of renovation is required. Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 5:14 - Gary Patterson at USC 13:30 - Will Muschamp at Texas 20:58 - Drew Mehringer & Chris Hampton at Oregon 29:02 - Ron Roberts at Arkansas 36:53 - Jason Beck at Michigan 44:48 - Bobby Hauck at Illinois 50:10 - Arthur Smith at Ohio State 57:59 - Chad Morris at Clemson 1:05:41 - Taylor Mouser at Penn State Support the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbal See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal hull.
[0:05] Speaker 2: That for me, I'm a man, I'm forty. I've heard
[0:08] Speaker 2: so many players say, well, I want to be happy.
[0:10] Speaker 2: You want to be happy for Dake Edo State?
[0:13] Speaker 1: Is that? Whoo whoo? And no, Dan and tie Dan Robinstein,
[0:19] Speaker 1: my great and good friend, Welcome back to the Cliverbal
[0:22] Speaker 1: College Football Podcast. You have a good weekend. You're ready
[0:25] Speaker 1: to go. You excited for the show. It's good to
[0:27] Speaker 1: see you as always. You look beaming. Let's say you
[0:32] Speaker 1: had a good weekend some sports.
[0:34] Speaker 2: We actually went to the Northwestern Oregon basketball game. The
[0:37] Speaker 2: boys are rooting for Oregon, who lost on a buzzer beater.
[0:41] Speaker 2: And I had one kid in tears. And I had
[0:44] Speaker 2: one kid, the younger one, the five year old, yelling
[0:48] Speaker 2: from the upper deck accusing Northwestern of cheating. And uh,
[0:53] Speaker 2: we had a first grade basketball game last night. Everything's great, Tye,
[0:56] Speaker 2: I'm living the life.
[0:57] Speaker 1: You should take into a Michigan game. Man, he'd being company.
[1:01] Speaker 2: I don't. I don't have that kind of scratch tie
[1:03] Speaker 2: to get Michigan tickets. They're a top five team, right,
[1:06] Speaker 2: I don't know. I have no they were just here.
[1:08] Speaker 2: They lost to Duke in Chicago.
[1:10] Speaker 1: I'm just saying, if you're gonna have a youngling call
[1:14] Speaker 1: out cheating, you might be in the wrong spot.
[1:17] Speaker 2: Oh that's true. But that's that's a great introduction to
[1:20] Speaker 2: college sports, right, losing and then the accusing the other
[1:23] Speaker 2: team of somehow, you know, subverting the rules to get
[1:27] Speaker 2: their win. I think that's great. But yeah, Oregon's basketball
[1:30] Speaker 2: team is not having its best season this year, but
[1:32] Speaker 2: it was still fun to get out there and watch
[1:34] Speaker 2: some big ted basketball.
[1:35] Speaker 1: And I think get confirmation that you're raising your sons correctly.
[1:38] Speaker 2: Yeah, they cared, they were locked in, and they cared.
[1:40] Speaker 2: It was really fun.
[1:42] Speaker 1: Well, welcome back in one and all, Hit Follow, Hit subscribe.
[1:45] Speaker 1: If that diet tribe wasn't a little too much for you,
[1:47] Speaker 1: it's great to have you back here twice a week
[1:50] Speaker 1: all throughout the offseason. Obviously, as we get a little
[1:54] Speaker 1: bit closer to all of the madness in the twenty
[1:57] Speaker 1: twenty six regular season a little bit later on this year,
[2:00] Speaker 1: as we get into the summer, that's when we'll flip
[2:01] Speaker 1: the switch and go to three episodes per week. But
[2:05] Speaker 1: in the interim, you've got Dan and I every Tuesday
[2:08] Speaker 1: and Thursday. If you want to support the team beyond
[2:11] Speaker 1: just hitting the followers subscribe button, which of course is free,
[2:15] Speaker 1: you can go out to verbowlers dot com that is
[2:18] Speaker 1: our Patreon. If you want to directly support the team,
[2:22] Speaker 1: you can also go to merch dot Solid verbal dot
[2:25] Speaker 1: com had a bunch of orders come in actually nice
[2:28] Speaker 1: last few weeks. Yeah, it's great. That of course goes
[2:31] Speaker 1: directly to Dan and I as well. What are we
[2:36] Speaker 1: talking about today, Dan.
[2:37] Speaker 2: We are talking about because it's not really spring, so
[2:40] Speaker 2: it's not really spring cleaning, but it's an opportunity to
[2:43] Speaker 2: talk about coordinators, and we're sort of steering into home
[2:49] Speaker 2: improvement because I mean, we're locking in I believe, mostly,
[2:53] Speaker 2: if not entirely, on coordinators that were hired to coach
[2:57] Speaker 2: under pre existing head coach, right right, And I think
[3:03] Speaker 2: it's largely that you have I think one who is
[3:05] Speaker 2: coaching under a head coach, but has experience under that
[3:08] Speaker 2: I couldn't Already, when people.
[3:10] Speaker 1: Hear it, they'll understand why I couldn't help myself.
[3:12] Speaker 2: I know that's okay, And there's enough returning at that
[3:15] Speaker 2: school where you can sort of diagnose where the improvement
[3:19] Speaker 2: is needed. So that's what we're doing. Where's like, Okay,
[3:21] Speaker 2: this guy was hired to improve X, Y, and Z
[3:24] Speaker 2: that was deficient last season, the twenty twenty five season,
[3:27] Speaker 2: or maybe the past couple of seasons under a previous
[3:29] Speaker 2: coordinator or a previous system, and these are the responsibilities.
[3:33] Speaker 2: This is what the schedule looks like. This is what
[3:36] Speaker 2: the roster looks like. This is what the depth chart
[3:38] Speaker 2: does or doesn't look like. And we're looking at it
[3:41] Speaker 2: in terms of what kind of home improvement job is
[3:45] Speaker 2: at hand? Is it a full gut renovation. Are we
[3:49] Speaker 2: just looking at a couple of rooms that need updating
[3:51] Speaker 2: that look a little bit too much like the seventies
[3:53] Speaker 2: or eighties? Are we looking at just a cosmetic improvement
[3:57] Speaker 2: here where we're just like, oh, we got a tinker there,
[3:59] Speaker 2: maybe update aid, some updates, some finishes, something like that.
[4:04] Speaker 2: So we're attacking the new coordinator home improvement jobs at hands.
[4:10] Speaker 1: Yes, I think that was a sufficient description of course.
[4:17] Speaker 2: Yeah, we gotta protect that the honor and dignity got
[4:20] Speaker 2: to protect this defense or offense.
[4:21] Speaker 1: Ya gotta protect the house. You've got something to say
[4:24] Speaker 1: in response to any of this, soliverble at gmail dot
[4:26] Speaker 1: com or hit us up on any of the comment
[4:29] Speaker 1: threads that are available to you, had a bunch of
[4:31] Speaker 1: emails come in. Yeah, lately as well, now that I
[4:34] Speaker 1: fixed the damn form on the website, We've had a
[4:37] Speaker 1: bunch of new ones come in. I've been staying on
[4:41] Speaker 1: top of them. We've had a bunch of good suggestions
[4:43] Speaker 1: here for content that we can address here in the
[4:45] Speaker 1: off season. So just know that that's not falling on
[4:48] Speaker 1: deaf ears. We're gonna do our part to incorporate as
[4:50] Speaker 1: much as we can here and make the off season
[4:53] Speaker 1: as fun as possible. Why don't you kick this off
[4:56] Speaker 1: because when we had our normally scheduled production call on
[4:59] Speaker 1: Friday afternoon, this was your idea. This, this whole idea
[5:05] Speaker 1: was was due to Dan Rubinstein. So play the sound
[5:07] Speaker 1: to give me your first coordinator, and uh, let's let's
[5:10] Speaker 1: let's have a conversation here about what needs to get
[5:12] Speaker 1: fixed to protect the house adequately. I will, I will,
[5:19] Speaker 1: I will, I will.
[5:22] Speaker 2: The first one I want to do is one of
[5:23] Speaker 2: the more I tose all interesting coordinators to me, so
[5:27] Speaker 2: you know it's our show and that's what I do. Uh.
[5:29] Speaker 2: The first one I want to talk about is Gary
[5:31] Speaker 2: Patterson at USC okay. Gary Patterson with a history of
[5:37] Speaker 2: running a sometimes pretty good, sometimes very good, sometimes unbeatable
[5:42] Speaker 2: four two five, utilizing a lot of speed. You know,
[5:44] Speaker 2: remember a lot of the NFL players that he helped
[5:47] Speaker 2: to develop at TCU. Last few years, he's been sort
[5:50] Speaker 2: of a consultant and associate type coach for a couple
[5:54] Speaker 2: of different teams, UH, Baylor and Texas, and he's brought
[5:58] Speaker 2: in to USC to sort of build upon the best
[6:02] Speaker 2: of what Danton Lynn had to offer, as he'd improved
[6:05] Speaker 2: this team to a top fifty ish defense a couple
[6:08] Speaker 2: of years ago, took a step back last year, mostly
[6:11] Speaker 2: because of an extremely leaky run defense. The linebackers weren't there,
[6:15] Speaker 2: the defensive line consistency was not there. They you know,
[6:18] Speaker 2: they were fine at times, but in their biggest games
[6:21] Speaker 2: they were not fine. And you know, corner was a
[6:26] Speaker 2: struggle and they obviously dealt with a lot of health
[6:28] Speaker 2: stuff on defense. Gary Patterson is coming in with I
[6:34] Speaker 2: think a lot to work with, some of it mysterious
[6:37] Speaker 2: via a terrific recruiting class that's coming in and I
[6:40] Speaker 2: don't think there'll be a lot of contributors there, or
[6:42] Speaker 2: big contributors there, right away, especially not upfront, maybe in
[6:45] Speaker 2: the back seven somewhere along there. You might see some rotation. Guys.
[6:50] Speaker 2: It's an experienced defensive line. Linebacker is new, safety is new.
[6:54] Speaker 2: Cornerback has experience. To me, I think the foundation is there,
[7:01] Speaker 2: but there's a lot of updating needed. I think the
[7:03] Speaker 2: floors need to be redone tie. I think there's some
[7:07] Speaker 2: dry wall patching. Do you want to do this? Do
[7:09] Speaker 2: you want to quit it to actual home renovations? We
[7:12] Speaker 2: don't have to. That's where my mind went with USC.
[7:15] Speaker 1: I mean, we are two homeowners, so it's not too
[7:17] Speaker 1: far beyond us if we want to go in that direction,
[7:20] Speaker 1: but continue. Yes.
[7:22] Speaker 2: The difficulty is the offense is that they're facing this year,
[7:26] Speaker 2: especially in that middle part of the schedule is Oregon, Washington.
[7:30] Speaker 2: They're at Penn State, who knows what that offense is
[7:32] Speaker 2: kind of mysterious. At Wisconsin, who knows. But they have
[7:36] Speaker 2: a promising quarterback, an athletic quarterback. Ohio State should be
[7:39] Speaker 2: very good. Indiana's on the road. UCLA is you know,
[7:42] Speaker 2: quote unquote on the road, but you know, interesting pieces
[7:44] Speaker 2: on that offense at the very least, so you know,
[7:48] Speaker 2: a lot of weather proofing needed tie, you know, on
[7:50] Speaker 2: the outside element of these things, I think there is
[7:53] Speaker 2: work to be done, but especially because of the experience
[7:58] Speaker 2: on the defensive line and the depth potentially on the
[8:01] Speaker 2: defensive line, I think there's a solid foundation there that
[8:05] Speaker 2: we don't need to overreact to the like a crazy
[8:08] Speaker 2: amount of work. I don't think a crazy amount of
[8:10] Speaker 2: work is needed to get USC back to like the
[8:13] Speaker 2: forties or fifties. Nationally, I look at points per drive,
[8:16] Speaker 2: but whatever metric you prefer, that vague area of the rankings,
[8:20] Speaker 2: I think USC can ascend to, especially because their offense
[8:24] Speaker 2: is not just going to be a waste, right, They're
[8:26] Speaker 2: not going to put their defense in a bad position.
[8:27] Speaker 2: Their offense should perform given what they return. I mean,
[8:30] Speaker 2: the receiver is new, whatever. But I think Gary Patterson
[8:35] Speaker 2: does not have a gut job in front of him,
[8:37] Speaker 2: but has a good amount of work.
[8:40] Speaker 1: He's sixty six years old. Yeah, he's been out of
[8:44] Speaker 1: a full time coaching role since twenty twenty one, about
[8:48] Speaker 1: five years give or take.
[8:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, left the middle of the year. It was a
[8:51] Speaker 2: disastrously injured defense.
[8:53] Speaker 1: That that's right. And roster, Yeah, that's right. And we
[8:56] Speaker 1: bring this point up often, if only because college football
[8:59] Speaker 1: has changed some much and we do see some of
[9:01] Speaker 1: the older guard leaving the sport. There is a question
[9:05] Speaker 1: about are the players going to buy in, what will
[9:09] Speaker 1: his intensity be with respect to the role, with respect
[9:13] Speaker 1: to just where college football is at because it is
[9:17] Speaker 1: a little bit different. But dude was a pioneer for
[9:19] Speaker 1: a while with like a four to five defense that
[9:21] Speaker 1: ran at TCU. His defense has led the nation in
[9:26] Speaker 1: total defense like five times, something crazy. I mean, he's
[9:29] Speaker 1: obviously very, very accomplished in this regard. I think the
[9:33] Speaker 1: handoff from Danton Lynn to Gary Patterson is really interesting
[9:37] Speaker 1: because Danton Lynn definitely deserves some credit for dragging the
[9:42] Speaker 1: USC defense out of the gutter that it was in
[9:46] Speaker 1: after Alex Grinch. Yep right, I mean he dramatically improved
[9:50] Speaker 1: that unit in twenty twenty four last season. You're right
[9:53] Speaker 1: to bring up some of the deficiencies. They just found
[9:56] Speaker 1: themselves all too often overpowered in the trenches against better
[9:59] Speaker 1: compet Tissian, Yeah.
[10:01] Speaker 2: Yeah, they were. Their ability to pressure the quarterback kind
[10:05] Speaker 2: of disappeared, the run defense didn't exist, and on third
[10:09] Speaker 2: down they took a major step back as well.
[10:12] Speaker 1: So I'm curious to see what Patterson brings to this now,
[10:20] Speaker 1: I'm curious to see if he feels he's got the
[10:22] Speaker 1: personnel in place to run the system that he is
[10:25] Speaker 1: comfortable with. I don't think you're going to outscheme Gary Patterson.
[10:29] Speaker 1: I think Gary Patterson knows what he's doing that side
[10:31] Speaker 1: of the football. And so from that standpoint, if you're
[10:33] Speaker 1: Lincoln Riley bringing in a guy who you know, you
[10:36] Speaker 1: don't have to train Gary Patterson on the job. Gary
[10:38] Speaker 1: Patterson knows what he's doing. From a defensive standpoint. For me,
[10:42] Speaker 1: it's really just a question of do they have the
[10:43] Speaker 1: personnel in place to execute right what Patterson wants to do,
[10:47] Speaker 1: and that we're just going to have to wait and see.
[10:50] Speaker 1: On that front, I think there's enough back to feel
[10:52] Speaker 1: encouraged about it, and I don't outright hate the higher
[10:55] Speaker 1: It definitely for me came a little bit out of
[10:57] Speaker 1: left field, but at the same time, knowing that you've
[11:00] Speaker 1: got somebody with a wealth of knowledge, I believe a
[11:04] Speaker 1: Hall of Fame pedigree, right, Like, sure, you putting a
[11:08] Speaker 1: guy like that in a spot like this where talent
[11:11] Speaker 1: should not be in short supply. It's just a question
[11:13] Speaker 1: of can the talent do what he wants. I'd be
[11:16] Speaker 1: willing to take that risk. I'd be willing to take
[11:18] Speaker 1: that risk. So yeah, the only final point here, just
[11:23] Speaker 1: specifically with regard to that personnel question. Given his schemes
[11:28] Speaker 1: over the years, he's really been known for running like
[11:30] Speaker 1: a hybrid safety, some like a linebacker prototype, somebody who
[11:37] Speaker 1: can execute against spread offenses and whatnot. Can kind of
[11:42] Speaker 1: do both right, can play the pass, can play the run.
[11:45] Speaker 1: I'm curious to see how he utilizes that position in
[11:49] Speaker 1: this USC defense in twenty twenty six.
[11:52] Speaker 2: Yeah, and a lot of assistants, by the way, assistant
[11:57] Speaker 2: changes along this defense for USC. It's a new safety's coach,
[12:01] Speaker 2: new linebackers, slash special teams, new defensive line with Eric
[12:04] Speaker 2: Henderson leaving, new outside linebackers coach. So there is a
[12:08] Speaker 2: lot new to this year's USC defense, including by the way,
[12:12] Speaker 2: John tis Williams, one of the I think headline from
[12:15] Speaker 2: islan backs from Iowa's take got hurt. Last season we
[12:17] Speaker 2: talked about the rash of injuries to Iowa State's defense.
[12:21] Speaker 2: He's a big deal. He's a big deal when fully
[12:23] Speaker 2: healthy and could certainly add star power to this defense.
[12:27] Speaker 2: But yeah, is there a Jerry Hughes, you know, playing
[12:31] Speaker 2: edge type player. You know. Look you look at the
[12:33] Speaker 2: string of NFL type defensive backs for TCU. They had
[12:37] Speaker 2: a couple of those at safety last year, not here
[12:40] Speaker 2: this season, and so hasn't been a full time coordinator
[12:44] Speaker 2: and only coordinator in twenty six years. So I think
[12:49] Speaker 2: it's a it's a risky contractor higher tie.
[12:52] Speaker 1: How about that. I don't hate it's some risk to it.
[12:55] Speaker 1: I there is some risk. I don't hate it though,
[12:57] Speaker 1: And I know it's not like you're bringing somebody up
[13:01] Speaker 1: from FCS, you're bringing someone out of retirement. But it
[13:04] Speaker 1: is somebody who if you've ever seen Gary Patterson or
[13:06] Speaker 1: any of those coaches cam segments that they do on ESPB, right,
[13:11] Speaker 1: I mean, the dude is a mad scientist when it
[13:13] Speaker 1: comes to defense. So he's you're not gonna like outsmart him.
[13:17] Speaker 1: For me, it's a question of you know, commitment, it's
[13:20] Speaker 1: a question of personnel. But at least you're plugging and
[13:24] Speaker 1: playing somebody with a ton of expertise on the defensive
[13:29] Speaker 1: side of the ball. So give me the sound, Give me,
[13:32] Speaker 1: give me that sound. Who do you have I want
[13:36] Speaker 1: to talk about Will mush Champ dan Okay Let's Will
[13:43] Speaker 1: mush Champ got a three year, eight point four million
[13:47] Speaker 1: dollar fully guaranteed contract from Texas to come in and
[13:51] Speaker 1: be defensive coordinator. Yep, he replaces Pete Quitkowski. You may
[13:58] Speaker 1: recall that Texas went ten to three last season, narrowly
[14:01] Speaker 1: missed the College Football Playoff, had high expectations. We definitely
[14:07] Speaker 1: fed into that, at least I definitely fed into that
[14:09] Speaker 1: in the preseason. But Pete Kwakowski relieved of command. They're
[14:15] Speaker 1: going in a bit of a different direction. I was
[14:18] Speaker 1: a little bit surprised by that.
[14:19] Speaker 2: Actually, Okay, Pete Kwakowski in twenty twenty four, excuse me,
[14:24] Speaker 2: Peakwakowski and Texas together, right, had the number one points
[14:29] Speaker 2: per drive a loud defense in twenty twenty four, Right,
[14:33] Speaker 2: they one percent definitely had a down year by their
[14:38] Speaker 2: standards last year. Do you know what they're they're ranking?
[14:40] Speaker 2: Last year fell all the way twentieth twentieth? Can you
[14:46] Speaker 2: imagine only having the twenty of the best naments? So
[14:50] Speaker 2: a luxurious place. But obviously these hires are not necessarily
[14:53] Speaker 2: made based solely on you know, a specific metric. They're
[14:57] Speaker 2: not personality issues. There's fitish, you know, I'm not saying
[15:00] Speaker 2: that this is the case, but a lot goes into
[15:02] Speaker 2: a change like this.
[15:03] Speaker 1: And I think that's my point. Yeah, because for a
[15:06] Speaker 1: great number of the people we're going to talk about
[15:08] Speaker 1: on today's episode, you can point to a number thing
[15:11] Speaker 1: you can say, ah, well that you know they had
[15:13] Speaker 1: to fix that. I don't know if that's so much
[15:17] Speaker 1: the case here with Texas. This was a young Texas
[15:19] Speaker 1: defense in twenty twenty five. It was not a bad
[15:23] Speaker 1: Texas defense, but notably it did struggle down the stretch
[15:26] Speaker 1: right as the offense was starting to find its groove,
[15:29] Speaker 1: let's say, towards the latter part of October into the
[15:32] Speaker 1: latter stages of November. That is when the defense sort
[15:36] Speaker 1: of went in the opposite direction. It was like a
[15:38] Speaker 1: five week stretch there where they were giving up a
[15:40] Speaker 1: lot of points. To me, this is a change that
[15:43] Speaker 1: is way more about philosophy than it is about schematics. Now,
[15:47] Speaker 1: you're not going to believe this when I say it
[15:49] Speaker 1: about Will mush Champ. So I want you to hang
[15:51] Speaker 1: on to your seat, please. Will Mushchamp runs a more
[15:54] Speaker 1: aggressive attacking defense than his predecessor Pokokowski. Yeah, Peak Quick
[16:00] Speaker 1: was much more, Ben don't break. That was just his
[16:03] Speaker 1: philosophy for what it's worth. I think Sark always wanted
[16:06] Speaker 1: to hire Will mush Champ when he got the job
[16:08] Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty one, but the timing didn't quite
[16:10] Speaker 1: work out at the time. What mush Champ was, you know,
[16:13] Speaker 1: in between jobs, wanted to spend more time with this family,
[16:17] Speaker 1: wanted to watch his kids play high school football. But
[16:21] Speaker 1: now kids are out of high school. Now the kids
[16:24] Speaker 1: are playing college ball. And so if you're Sark, if
[16:28] Speaker 1: you're Sark, you're looking at this roster as I did
[16:31] Speaker 1: before we hit go here, and I think the most
[16:35] Speaker 1: logical conclusion is that the championship window is open right now. Dog,
[16:39] Speaker 1: look at this roster.
[16:40] Speaker 2: You're spending like it is.
[16:41] Speaker 1: Yeah, look at this roster. I know they lost some guys,
[16:44] Speaker 1: but look at what they brought in. This roster is loaded. Now.
[16:48] Speaker 1: The schedule, Dan, how would you describe the schedule in
[16:50] Speaker 1: the SEC just out of curiosity? Gauntlet? It is a gauntlet, Yeah,
[16:55] Speaker 1: it is a gauntlet. So if I'm Sark, and if
[16:59] Speaker 1: I'm looking at what I have coming back in twenty
[17:01] Speaker 1: twenty six, and I'm looking at this schedule, I think
[17:05] Speaker 1: it is a completely logical conclusion to say I need
[17:09] Speaker 1: a defense that is going to play on the front
[17:11] Speaker 1: foot and is not going to be waiting and reacting
[17:15] Speaker 1: to what the opponent is doing, because to me, that
[17:19] Speaker 1: seems like a great way to go nine to three
[17:21] Speaker 1: again to take a loss. Maybe that you don't want,
[17:25] Speaker 1: there're gonna be a couple on this schedule, But I
[17:27] Speaker 1: want a defense that's a little bit better at dictating terms,
[17:30] Speaker 1: that's playing on the front foot, and that is setting
[17:33] Speaker 1: the tone. And I think that is what you get
[17:36] Speaker 1: with Bill Mushchamp. Will mush Champ is many things, some
[17:40] Speaker 1: of which are even meme worthy, but Will Mushchamp has
[17:43] Speaker 1: never been known for playing any kind of passive style
[17:46] Speaker 1: of defense. This is something that is built on pressure.
[17:49] Speaker 1: It is built on playing downhill. So look, early reports,
[17:55] Speaker 1: early reports, I think are are pretty encouraging just from
[17:58] Speaker 1: what I've been able to ascertain going out there and
[18:00] Speaker 1: reading what players have had to say about Will mush
[18:03] Speaker 1: Champ and the system and what it appears the new
[18:05] Speaker 1: philosophy is gonna be. I will admit it did come
[18:08] Speaker 1: a little bit out of left field for me when
[18:10] Speaker 1: they let go of coach quit because he's also very
[18:13] Speaker 1: highly respected and has done a pretty good job I
[18:16] Speaker 1: think over the years, most recently now at this Texas defense.
[18:20] Speaker 1: I don't know if it was so much anything he
[18:22] Speaker 1: was doing wrong. I just think it was more of
[18:25] Speaker 1: a philosophical shift that Sark felt he wanted to go
[18:27] Speaker 1: in the direction of a little bit more aggression on defense.
[18:30] Speaker 1: By the way, this is one time where our longstanding
[18:33] Speaker 1: joke here about being aggressive and attacking is actually a
[18:37] Speaker 1: thing that they were going for. Oh yeah, I mean
[18:40] Speaker 1: it's very clear it's not just a buzzword that we
[18:44] Speaker 1: say in this context. This is something that Sark I think,
[18:47] Speaker 1: wanted to add to the repertoire at Texas, and I agree.
[18:50] Speaker 1: I think given where they're at, with all the talent
[18:52] Speaker 1: they've got on hand, this was probably the right move
[18:54] Speaker 1: at the right time. So I'm looking forward to seeing
[18:58] Speaker 1: what much Champ can do. This is a bit of
[19:00] Speaker 1: a homecoming for him as well, being so he was
[19:02] Speaker 1: at Texas way back when. I think this is a
[19:06] Speaker 1: really good fit at the right time, and I'm just
[19:08] Speaker 1: curious to see what this looks like again again against
[19:12] Speaker 1: this what type of schedule. Dan in the sec.
[19:16] Speaker 2: Thank you Interestingly, look if if Texas felt like they
[19:20] Speaker 2: needed to make a change on defense, they didn't seem to,
[19:24] Speaker 2: at least aggressively feel like it was a roster issue.
[19:27] Speaker 2: Now they've kind of struggled to recruit and develop some
[19:31] Speaker 2: defensive lineman, especially defensive tackles internally as they've gone to
[19:35] Speaker 2: the portal. I mean, you know what teams feel like
[19:37] Speaker 2: they need to improve on in terms of a roster
[19:38] Speaker 2: with what they go out and sign in the portal.
[19:41] Speaker 2: And it seemed that Texas was much more eager to
[19:45] Speaker 2: bring in offense this cycle when you look at what
[19:48] Speaker 2: they brought in along the line and Hollywood'smothers and ray
[19:50] Speaker 2: Leak Brown cam Coleman obviously did not come cheap. No,
[19:55] Speaker 2: they looked at that. And I would even say that
[19:57] Speaker 2: when you look at where they were last year, a
[19:59] Speaker 2: lot of what ailed them in some of those bigger
[20:02] Speaker 2: games was not necessarily only on the defense. Like you
[20:05] Speaker 2: look at the final score of the Georgia game. The
[20:07] Speaker 2: offense could not do anything against Georgia, right you look
[20:10] Speaker 2: at you know, Vanderbilt came back and made a game
[20:12] Speaker 2: of it late, but the defense by and large played
[20:15] Speaker 2: well until they didn't, and it was a secondary thing,
[20:18] Speaker 2: and it was an injury thing last year for Texas,
[20:20] Speaker 2: and everybody deals with it. But they finished a season
[20:23] Speaker 2: strong over Texas A and M on defense, and I
[20:27] Speaker 2: think if there is more cohesion and consistency to this offense,
[20:31] Speaker 2: obviously the defense is going to benefit. So you know,
[20:34] Speaker 2: the starting point is good on defense, you know, Colin Simmons.
[20:38] Speaker 2: You know, having either the best or one of the
[20:40] Speaker 2: three or four best rush ends in the country is
[20:42] Speaker 2: a great starting point with the experience they return on
[20:44] Speaker 2: all those levels.
[20:46] Speaker 1: So.
[20:48] Speaker 2: It'll be difficult to screw up, it seems though. They
[20:51] Speaker 2: do play in a.
[20:53] Speaker 1: Gauntlet of a conference they play. They play in a
[20:56] Speaker 1: gamblet right, give me the sound, Give me the sound?
[21:02] Speaker 1: All right, I want to throw this one back at you.
[21:05] Speaker 1: I jotted these two guys down on my sheet, but
[21:08] Speaker 1: this one, this part of the conversation is intended to
[21:11] Speaker 1: be a little bit more interactive, not just me talking
[21:13] Speaker 1: to you, you talking to me.
[21:14] Speaker 2: Yeah, of course.
[21:15] Speaker 1: Oregon. Sure, Oregon's got two new coordinators. Two new coordinators
[21:21] Speaker 1: because will Stein left to take the Kentucky job excuse
[21:24] Speaker 1: me from Louisville, yep. And Chris Hampton promoted from within
[21:28] Speaker 1: to backfill the void left by Tosh employees taken over
[21:32] Speaker 1: at cal Drew Mehringer is your new offensive coordinator. Chris
[21:35] Speaker 1: Hampden is the DC. You and I have talked about this,
[21:41] Speaker 1: I think a little bit more off air, and I
[21:44] Speaker 1: had questions for you about Marringer initially. Is it Marringer
[21:48] Speaker 1: or Marringer?
[21:50] Speaker 2: Okay, so on he went to Rice. I'm pretty sure
[21:58] Speaker 2: unless that's a different one. I've I've heard it both. Okay,
[22:01] Speaker 2: I think it's Jure Marringer. Sure, we'll go with you.
[22:04] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Okay, he brings back I think more than
[22:10] Speaker 1: enough talent. That part kind of goes without saying. On
[22:14] Speaker 1: the Oregon side, the roster's loaded, the offense is loaded.
[22:18] Speaker 1: The question that I know you and I have discussed
[22:20] Speaker 1: here off air is in going from one coordinator to another,
[22:26] Speaker 1: what changes on the Oregon side. And I think your
[22:30] Speaker 1: response in the past has been it's basically going to
[22:34] Speaker 1: be the same offense. There might be some wrinkles here
[22:36] Speaker 1: and there, but by and large, with the talent that's
[22:38] Speaker 1: returning and with the offense that has operated at a
[22:41] Speaker 1: really high level, it's going to look mostly the same
[22:46] Speaker 1: as they promote from with it now. Granted, just because
[22:48] Speaker 1: the offense is going to stay mostly the same doesn't
[22:50] Speaker 1: mean it's always going to work, right, But I think
[22:54] Speaker 1: from a high level a couple months out, I look
[22:57] Speaker 1: at the offense, I say it's it's mostly going to
[23:00] Speaker 1: look the same with the talent that they've got coming back.
[23:03] Speaker 2: Yes.
[23:04] Speaker 1: And then on the defensive side of the ball, this
[23:07] Speaker 1: is another instance where it seems as if Dan Lanning
[23:10] Speaker 1: is prioritizing some sort of continuity. Right. That said, they
[23:15] Speaker 1: do have some guys that got to replace, some big
[23:18] Speaker 1: names that need to be replaced. The leading tackler, Dylan Theena.
[23:21] Speaker 1: You saw Dylan Theeneman was running like crazy at the
[23:23] Speaker 1: combine four to three.
[23:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know.
[23:26] Speaker 1: So there are a couple of key pieces defensively that
[23:28] Speaker 1: I think we can discuss here and how Chris Hampton
[23:31] Speaker 1: is able to plug those gaps of what it looks
[23:33] Speaker 1: like schematically. But how did you feel, as an organ
[23:37] Speaker 1: guy with what Lanning did here to backfill these two spots,
[23:41] Speaker 1: because again they needed two new coordinators.
[23:44] Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought the defensive coordinator promotion was not a
[23:51] Speaker 2: surprise at all. That makes sense to me, Chris Hampton,
[23:53] Speaker 2: you know, has experienced as a coordinator, was at Tulane
[23:56] Speaker 2: with Willie Fritz before, and I think he's just super
[24:00] Speaker 2: well regarded in the SECONDARYA has been good and has
[24:04] Speaker 2: recruited well like I think, I think he's It fits
[24:06] Speaker 2: like a glove in terms of making sense of that
[24:08] Speaker 2: higher linebacker needs to get better. We'll see on the
[24:10] Speaker 2: defensive line depth. But I don't think anybody has any
[24:14] Speaker 2: real serious questions that this Oregon defense can be good
[24:17] Speaker 2: once again, the very least offensively. It's interesting Drew Meranger
[24:23] Speaker 2: has if it is Drew Merringer has experienced calling offenses,
[24:28] Speaker 2: sometimes decently, sometimes less. So he is on the Tom
[24:33] Speaker 2: Herman tree going back to Iowa State, Ohio State, and Texas.
[24:38] Speaker 2: So was there Sam Ellinger. The best of Sam Ellinger
[24:41] Speaker 2: was Drew Marranger involved with it. They returned too much.
[24:46] Speaker 2: It would be so difficult to screw this offense up.
[24:50] Speaker 2: It would be so so difficult. If look, the offensive
[24:54] Speaker 2: line should work out. It's a lot of you know,
[24:56] Speaker 2: internal promotions, you know, losing a couple guys. They brought
[24:59] Speaker 2: in a a guy from I want to say Yale,
[25:01] Speaker 2: who may start at right tackle. They should be stacked
[25:05] Speaker 2: at running back receivers should be a great room tight
[25:08] Speaker 2: end even without Kenyon Sadiq should be in a good place.
[25:11] Speaker 2: With Jamari Johnson, I think the big thing is and
[25:14] Speaker 2: he has experienced coaching quarterbacks and there is I think
[25:17] Speaker 2: an internal promotion in terms of quarterbacks coach. The big thing.
[25:21] Speaker 1: The big question for Oregon to take the next step
[25:23] Speaker 1: is Dante Moore. Like what.
[25:28] Speaker 2: It's almost like, what can you get out of Dante
[25:30] Speaker 2: Moore that he couldn't do in the biggest games last season?
[25:34] Speaker 2: And that's the big question because he didn't have a
[25:36] Speaker 2: great game against Texas tack He obviously didn't have a
[25:38] Speaker 2: great game, especially initially against Indiana and then the end
[25:42] Speaker 2: of the Indiana game in the first instance. So it's
[25:45] Speaker 2: what kind of And he was probably promoted at least
[25:48] Speaker 2: partially because he's fluent in this Oregon offense and so
[25:52] Speaker 2: that makes things easier for Dante Moore that you don't
[25:54] Speaker 2: have to sell him on a stranger and so I
[25:59] Speaker 2: get it, But I wonder, I wonder if this is
[26:02] Speaker 2: the absolute best that they could do. Maybe it's the
[26:05] Speaker 2: absolute best thing they could do for the guys there.
[26:08] Speaker 1: Well that so that's my question, right, my big question
[26:12] Speaker 1: is was this truly the best that they could do
[26:18] Speaker 1: or was this more of a strategic decision knowing what
[26:21] Speaker 1: they've got on the roster, knowing that you got another
[26:24] Speaker 1: year of Dante more, knowing that they're going to be
[26:27] Speaker 1: one of the top you know, probably six seven teams
[26:31] Speaker 1: in the country at a minimum going into next season.
[26:34] Speaker 1: You don't necessarily want to upset the apple cart too
[26:36] Speaker 1: much and put yourself in a spot where guys are
[26:39] Speaker 1: learning new new verbiage, guys are learning to do everything
[26:42] Speaker 1: when you've got a ready built playoff caliber roster right now.
[26:48] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question. And by the way, the
[26:52] Speaker 2: quieter part of this all is, if Dante Moore rolls
[26:55] Speaker 2: an ankle, how quickly does he get Dylan Ryola up
[26:59] Speaker 2: to speak right? How good of a teacher can he be?
[27:04] Speaker 2: And the new quarterbacks I think it's Ka kai is
[27:06] Speaker 2: The sounds like Cobra kai right. Then the new quarterbacks coach,
[27:10] Speaker 2: who is a former Oregon tight end himself, how quickly
[27:15] Speaker 2: is he able to teach this offense should he need to?
[27:19] Speaker 2: First year on the job, so in this job, Look,
[27:23] Speaker 2: I think it's a big swing. And this is a
[27:26] Speaker 2: sort of this is a year with what Oregon's bringing
[27:28] Speaker 2: back on both sides in terms of seniors and upperclassmen.
[27:33] Speaker 2: It's it's all in, man, It's all in with this
[27:36] Speaker 2: type of promotion and paying what they are for.
[27:39] Speaker 1: You know.
[27:39] Speaker 2: The guys coming back.
[27:42] Speaker 1: They're on the road at USC, They're on the road
[27:45] Speaker 1: at Ohio State, They're home in the following week against Michigan,
[27:49] Speaker 1: and then they close out the season at home in
[27:51] Speaker 1: Autin against the Washington squad that I think should be
[27:55] Speaker 1: pretty decent. They've also got Boise State to open up
[27:57] Speaker 1: their season on September the fifth, If that one's in audtin,
[28:01] Speaker 1: who knows what they get in week two on the
[28:03] Speaker 1: road at Oklahoma State. It's gonna be a different Oklahoma
[28:06] Speaker 1: State squad. We'll find out pretty quick what that defense
[28:09] Speaker 1: is made of. I'm assuming, at least on the passing front.
[28:12] Speaker 1: But I don't look at this schedule and feel the
[28:15] Speaker 1: same way I do about the Texas schedule. But there
[28:18] Speaker 1: are some land mines on here. And if the defense, yes,
[28:21] Speaker 1: you know, if I think the defense will remain solid,
[28:24] Speaker 1: but if in fact there's going to be any kind
[28:26] Speaker 1: of hiccups on here, there are a couple offenses that
[28:29] Speaker 1: I look at and I say, all right, these are
[28:30] Speaker 1: some squads that I think could test them.
[28:33] Speaker 2: Yes, but on the flip side, there is only one
[28:36] Speaker 2: obviously good defense on this schedule. There is, And so
[28:39] Speaker 2: if you're talking about Drew Merranger and Dante Moore or whatever,
[28:43] Speaker 2: and the wealth that they should have at receiver and
[28:46] Speaker 2: running back doesn't mean that there won't be more. But
[28:50] Speaker 2: in terms of we don't like know what Michigan's is
[28:52] Speaker 2: going to be, Like you don't know Washington, we don't
[28:55] Speaker 2: know us. So we know a how state is going
[28:57] Speaker 2: to feel a good defense at the very least, there's
[28:59] Speaker 2: one that's a good starting point, it seems.
[29:02] Speaker 1: Give me the sound, Dan, I want to go over
[29:09] Speaker 1: to Arkansas.
[29:11] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[29:11] Speaker 1: Do we think it's Ron Roberts or Ron Robert? Which
[29:14] Speaker 1: is the eternal question, Robert, Yeah, it's Ron Roberts. I
[29:20] Speaker 1: actually really like this higher for Arkansas. Why I really
[29:24] Speaker 1: like this Actually the more I looked at it and
[29:26] Speaker 1: thought about it, And this is one of those cases
[29:30] Speaker 1: where we, I guess, kind of veered away from our
[29:33] Speaker 1: initial rules. And it is a new coach, new coordinators
[29:36] Speaker 1: across the board, but Ron Roberts in particular is a
[29:40] Speaker 1: really interesting higher for me. I'm curious why you feel
[29:43] Speaker 1: that way.
[29:43] Speaker 2: Okay, So he runs a four two five. His institutional
[29:47] Speaker 2: knowledge having coached both in the region at Louisiana, at
[29:51] Speaker 2: Baylor in Texas and then Auburn Florida, his institutional knowledge
[29:55] Speaker 2: of the SEC is high, a very high. His results.
[29:59] Speaker 2: I think Florida fans for the most part, and they
[30:01] Speaker 2: were dealing with a lot last season, especially once they
[30:03] Speaker 2: it was an interim situation in Gainesville. But I really
[30:07] Speaker 2: do think Ron Roberts did a good job. He did
[30:10] Speaker 2: a really go for the most part. So I think
[30:14] Speaker 2: the vibes are good with Ron Roberts. And the big
[30:17] Speaker 2: thing that Arkansas is doing in an interesting way is
[30:20] Speaker 2: I think they brought in something like forty plus total
[30:22] Speaker 2: transfers in the first Ryan Silverfield class. So this is
[30:27] Speaker 2: we don't know what specifically he's going to fix, because
[30:30] Speaker 2: everything needs to be fixed.
[30:32] Speaker 1: Everything needed to be fixed.
[30:33] Speaker 2: Do you know how hard it is to have a
[30:35] Speaker 2: bad defense with an elite rushing attack. Do you know
[30:38] Speaker 2: how much easier it is when you're able to control
[30:41] Speaker 2: the ball and you're good on third downs on offense.
[30:43] Speaker 2: It does so many favors for your own defense, and
[30:46] Speaker 2: Arkansas's defense was still trash last year, and so the
[30:51] Speaker 2: Arkansas portal strategy at least seemed to be, let's go
[30:54] Speaker 2: after highly regarded recent recruits, guys that are red shirt, freshman, sophomore,
[31:00] Speaker 2: the something who really didn't see the field that much
[31:01] Speaker 2: but ended up at big places. And so they're bringing
[31:05] Speaker 2: a mix of those guys, especially upfront, Zadavian Sims from Oregon,
[31:10] Speaker 2: it's Trajan Odum from Ohio State. They brought in a
[31:14] Speaker 2: well regarded corner from Tulane who actually played well at Tulane.
[31:20] Speaker 2: But it's just a giant mystery. This is a full
[31:22] Speaker 2: gut renovation job. And I think there's a reason why
[31:27] Speaker 2: they spent. I think he's like one of the eight
[31:29] Speaker 2: or nine highest paid coordinators in the sport, like around
[31:31] Speaker 2: two million dollars, which means one, he was in demand,
[31:34] Speaker 2: and two Arkansas found their guy and was willing to
[31:38] Speaker 2: pay whatever it was going to take to sign their guy.
[31:42] Speaker 2: So this is from the studs, But it's easier in
[31:46] Speaker 2: twenty twenty six to do that. It's easier if you
[31:49] Speaker 2: were able to open the coffers, which Arkansas hasn't always
[31:52] Speaker 2: been able to do. We'll see if this specific strategy
[31:55] Speaker 2: works out for them, But if the bodies are there,
[31:58] Speaker 2: if Ron Roberts continues to be a good team, schedule
[32:02] Speaker 2: is difficult for Arkansas Gauntlet, but in terms of controlling
[32:06] Speaker 2: what they can control, I think they found a really
[32:10] Speaker 2: good contractor Look, it's again, it's to the studs. It's foundation,
[32:13] Speaker 2: it's flooring, it's the roof, it's the backyard. Everything needs
[32:17] Speaker 2: a ton of attention from this Arkansas defense because once again,
[32:20] Speaker 2: they had the offense last year. They were competitive last year,
[32:24] Speaker 2: they just couldn't get stops. Ever, no, there was a
[32:27] Speaker 2: lot of like losing forty one thirty eight, So thirty
[32:29] Speaker 2: eight thirty five's that type of season for Arkansas. So
[32:34] Speaker 2: if if you're the Hogs, and obviously this athletics department
[32:37] Speaker 2: has shown a willingness to pay, they bring in Ryan Silverfield,
[32:42] Speaker 2: whose history of defenses is not great.
[32:45] Speaker 1: Well, and that's and that's I thought, that's where you're
[32:48] Speaker 1: going to go with this. But that's where I'll go
[32:49] Speaker 1: with this place. Ron Roberts, I think is already on
[32:53] Speaker 1: the record. Maybe I just made this up, but I
[32:55] Speaker 1: believe he's on the record saying something the effect of
[32:59] Speaker 1: the defense looked disc connected. Yeah, which we know. We
[33:04] Speaker 1: know you read off the numbers. We know. Okay, that
[33:08] Speaker 1: part I think is pretty evident. He's also on record
[33:11] Speaker 1: saying that they need a cultural reboot on defense in
[33:15] Speaker 1: terms of discipline, in terms of effort. Again, not exactly
[33:19] Speaker 1: a surprise if you look at these numbers. What I
[33:21] Speaker 1: like about Ron Roberts though, is he's very much regarded
[33:23] Speaker 1: as like a coach's coach. He's kind of regarded as
[33:28] Speaker 1: an innovator. Yeah, in this space, runs a very complex defense.
[33:33] Speaker 1: It's based a lot around confusing quarterbacks, sim pressures, things
[33:38] Speaker 1: of that nature. I think a random Pete Golden, a
[33:40] Speaker 1: bunch of other guys who run similar versions of it.
[33:43] Speaker 2: That he was a coordinator for Randa at Baylor and
[33:45] Speaker 2: had a top twenty defense.
[33:46] Speaker 1: Exactly like all these guys are sort of interconnected in
[33:50] Speaker 1: terms of their ideas on the defensive side of the ball.
[33:57] Speaker 2: Whatever.
[33:58] Speaker 1: I hear that somebody runs a complex defense and they're
[34:01] Speaker 1: starting from square one and they're coming in and they're
[34:04] Speaker 1: part of a reboot, that always gives me cause for
[34:08] Speaker 1: pause or favorite pet charity. I don't like hearing that
[34:11] Speaker 1: because to me, that sounds like it's going to be
[34:13] Speaker 1: hard to learn, right, Is that a bad thing? Not
[34:16] Speaker 1: necessarily for get the results. But Ron Roberts to me
[34:22] Speaker 1: is a little bit different because he does have a
[34:24] Speaker 1: track record for coming in albeit with however complex the
[34:28] Speaker 1: defense is, and stabilizing a sinking ship, and we saw
[34:33] Speaker 1: him do that at Florida recently. Did a good job.
[34:36] Speaker 1: Right At first he was a co defensive coordinator with
[34:38] Speaker 1: Austin Armstrong. Then he was just the guy because he
[34:42] Speaker 1: did such a good job. So from my standpoint, if
[34:47] Speaker 1: you're going out there, if you're willing to spend the money,
[34:50] Speaker 1: if you're bringing in guys that were highly sought out
[34:53] Speaker 1: by other programs that I think we hold up to
[34:55] Speaker 1: a pre high standard defensively, and now you're bringing in
[34:59] Speaker 1: somebody with this track record who can organize the troops
[35:02] Speaker 1: in very very short order and run something that's going
[35:06] Speaker 1: to confuse opposing offenses. Sign me up, Sign me up.
[35:10] Speaker 1: I think it's a good move. I like the fact
[35:12] Speaker 1: that he's got a ton of experience, and I think
[35:15] Speaker 1: Arkansas needs to get to a point where they are
[35:19] Speaker 1: not constantly in a volatile situation, not just on defense,
[35:23] Speaker 1: but just across the board. They need some stability at
[35:27] Speaker 1: this program so that they can start recruiting the way
[35:29] Speaker 1: that they want, so that they can start actually building
[35:32] Speaker 1: something and not just jumping from portal cycle to portal
[35:35] Speaker 1: cycle the way it feels they've been over the last
[35:37] Speaker 1: couple of years. There's a lot of areas out here.
[35:40] Speaker 1: I like this move. Arkansas has got a ways to go.
[35:43] Speaker 1: But if Ron Roberts can come in and do half
[35:47] Speaker 1: of what he has done at some other stops in
[35:48] Speaker 1: the granted they haven't all been sparkling, but just half
[35:52] Speaker 1: of what we have seen him do in the past,
[35:55] Speaker 1: the improvement should be relatively obvious. And I'm excited about
[35:58] Speaker 1: that part of it.
[35:59] Speaker 2: There's a little bit of Kevin Steele to this, right,
[36:02] Speaker 2: somebody who's coaching a bunch of places in the area,
[36:05] Speaker 2: somebody who you can count on to get at least,
[36:07] Speaker 2: you know, a low floor result. The Arkansas roster is
[36:12] Speaker 2: going to look different than some of the rosters that
[36:13] Speaker 2: Ron Roberts or Kevin Steele has had, and that's you know,
[36:16] Speaker 2: the Jimmy's and Joe's thing is going to be a
[36:17] Speaker 2: little bit different in Fayetteville in year one. But yeah,
[36:21] Speaker 2: I just I don't expect as you know, whatever the
[36:23] Speaker 2: words are, disconnected, disjointed, I don't expect that. I would
[36:27] Speaker 2: imagine if there's any single problem for Arkansas, it's just
[36:29] Speaker 2: that when you have a schedule that has LSU and
[36:33] Speaker 2: whatever Auburn is and Georgia and Texas gauntlets right, and
[36:38] Speaker 2: they're at Utah whatever Utah is this season, that's part
[36:40] Speaker 2: of the non conference slate that you might not have
[36:45] Speaker 2: the too deep to really compete week in and week out.
[36:49] Speaker 2: But I would imagine, you know, being disjointed or disconnected
[36:52] Speaker 2: is not going to be an issue.
[36:53] Speaker 1: Give me this sound damn please. You mentioned you. Let's
[37:00] Speaker 1: talk about Jason Beck, the new offensive coordinator who comes
[37:03] Speaker 1: from Utah. Yeah, it's taken over at Michigan. What was
[37:09] Speaker 1: your first thought when Kyle Whittingham got the job at
[37:11] Speaker 1: Michigan just with respect to Bryce Underwood.
[37:17] Speaker 2: An interesting fit, but we'll be put in a position
[37:22] Speaker 2: where he's not going to be counted on to play
[37:26] Speaker 2: hero ball for Michigan to win games, which I think
[37:28] Speaker 2: is ultimately a good thing that he could, in the
[37:31] Speaker 2: best possible scenario, can develop in an upward direction. Even
[37:36] Speaker 2: though Kyle Whittingham quarterbacks haven't necessarily been synonymous with the
[37:41] Speaker 2: first couple of days of the NFL draft.
[37:43] Speaker 1: Right, and that's the cause for pause. The favorite pet charity,
[37:46] Speaker 1: of course, is Kyle Whittingham, the guy who's going to
[37:49] Speaker 1: develop this quarterback, highly regarded, much sought after, originally committed elsewhere,
[37:55] Speaker 1: decides to stay close to home and go to Michigan.
[37:57] Speaker 2: Right.
[37:58] Speaker 1: This is not a coach has that recent track record,
[38:02] Speaker 1: but Jason Beck is interesting that. The case study on
[38:05] Speaker 1: Jason Beck is quite interesting. He does prefer the power
[38:10] Speaker 1: run attack pretty balanced. I would say over the course
[38:14] Speaker 1: of his career he definitely had the rushing attack going
[38:17] Speaker 1: at Utah. But now I think what's going to be
[38:21] Speaker 1: interesting to see is this interplay between the coordinator Beck
[38:25] Speaker 1: and Bryce Underwood, again, the highly regarded blue chip quarterback. Yes,
[38:31] Speaker 1: I think bigger picture Michigan is going to be fine.
[38:33] Speaker 1: Bigger picture Michigan will be fine because Kyle Whittingham is
[38:36] Speaker 1: just in terms of football prowess and coaching, Kyle Whittingham
[38:40] Speaker 1: is light years better than Sharon Moore, and I don't
[38:43] Speaker 1: think there's much debate over that. The pressure is going
[38:47] Speaker 1: to be on Beck to see what kind of system
[38:49] Speaker 1: he can put around Bryce Underwood and moreover, keep him
[38:51] Speaker 1: in ann Arbor beyond this year. You don't want a
[38:54] Speaker 1: transfer portal situation. What I like about this hire Jason
[38:59] Speaker 1: Beck actually has a very good track record for developing
[39:03] Speaker 1: quarterbacks into guys who can develop guys who can produce
[39:07] Speaker 1: that a really high clip. He coached Brendan Armstrong back
[39:10] Speaker 1: in the day when he was at Virginia remember those days,
[39:13] Speaker 1: of course, Brandon Armstrong. He developed Devin dan Pierre into
[39:18] Speaker 1: what he was at New Mexico before bringing him with
[39:21] Speaker 1: up to Utah. He even had something of a role
[39:25] Speaker 1: in mentoring guys like Taysom Hill, Tanner, mangum At Buyu.
[39:29] Speaker 1: So those are a bunch of different quarterbacks. It's not
[39:33] Speaker 1: like this is a one trick pony who's gonna solely
[39:36] Speaker 1: want to build it around power rushing attack and turn
[39:40] Speaker 1: a quarterback into a game manager or anything like that.
[39:42] Speaker 1: That is not what Jason Beck's track record shows us.
[39:46] Speaker 1: It shows us, if anything, that he's pretty versatile and
[39:49] Speaker 1: he's worked with a bunch of different types of quarterback.
[39:52] Speaker 1: Now there is a coach in front of him running
[39:55] Speaker 1: the show and Kyle Whittingham, who you know he will
[39:58] Speaker 1: ultimately have the final say over with this offense, but
[40:02] Speaker 1: I think Beck's got a good enough track record that
[40:05] Speaker 1: they're not going to put like a run heavy shell
[40:08] Speaker 1: over Bryce Underwood. I expect that it's going to be
[40:12] Speaker 1: a system built around Underwood and that he's likely going
[40:15] Speaker 1: to want to try and unlock some of that arm talent.
[40:18] Speaker 1: Dude's got a howitzer to try and push things down
[40:21] Speaker 1: the field. They're going to have more talent on offense.
[40:24] Speaker 1: It should mean good things for Jordan Marshall, who's still
[40:27] Speaker 1: there in the running in the running back room, but
[40:32] Speaker 1: there should be an element of explosivity to this offense.
[40:36] Speaker 1: Knowing that Jason Beck is running this thing and that
[40:38] Speaker 1: he's been able to work with a bunch of different
[40:40] Speaker 1: skill sets over his career, so he was highly regarded
[40:46] Speaker 1: pretty much every stop along the way. The fact that
[40:49] Speaker 1: Michigan now gets him as part of what I'm considering
[40:52] Speaker 1: an upgrade with Kyle Whittingham, to me, is a good
[40:55] Speaker 1: sign for Bryce Underwood. But I do need to see it.
[41:00] Speaker 1: And again I caution anybody about getting too excited about this,
[41:04] Speaker 1: because in the world that we live in now, it
[41:06] Speaker 1: doesn't take much to lose that quarterback a year from now,
[41:10] Speaker 1: and if we know anything about where the portal's at,
[41:12] Speaker 1: people would want Bryce Underwood, they'd pay him whatever. So
[41:16] Speaker 1: he needs to do enough and prove enough here in
[41:18] Speaker 1: year one that the system they're putting around him is
[41:22] Speaker 1: not only going to win games, but develop him into
[41:24] Speaker 1: an NFL talent.
[41:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, and in defense of whatever Utah was
[41:28] Speaker 2: or wasn't on offense, right, you run what your roster
[41:32] Speaker 2: dictates you can run, and part of that is on you.
[41:35] Speaker 2: Part of that is not always on you. And they
[41:38] Speaker 2: were not able to attract and develop huge, big time
[41:42] Speaker 2: receivers at Utah and that's on them partially. The receiver
[41:47] Speaker 2: position and broader pass catching and offensive skills situation at
[41:51] Speaker 2: Michigan is pretty good right now.
[41:54] Speaker 1: I would agree.
[41:55] Speaker 2: It's Tyler Buchanan obviously, Andrew marsh coming back and I
[41:59] Speaker 2: don't think I had to catch it, and Ohio State.
[42:01] Speaker 2: But in terms of our tight end is running back,
[42:03] Speaker 2: bringing back the offensive line that they brought back, we
[42:05] Speaker 2: know what Bryce Underwood's ceiling could look like. Potentially the
[42:10] Speaker 2: past catching situation in in our where I think it's
[42:13] Speaker 2: Jamie French coming in from Texas. He was a five
[42:15] Speaker 2: star Ish French with two f's double F didn't really
[42:19] Speaker 2: catch on at all at Texas with that recruiting profile.
[42:23] Speaker 2: But they're sort of investing in this. And also they're
[42:25] Speaker 2: paying Jason Beck nearly three million dollars, So they're not
[42:28] Speaker 2: going to pay Jason Beck three million dollars and say
[42:31] Speaker 2: here is the offensive vibes we want. You're paying him
[42:35] Speaker 2: because you want his vibes. And so I would be
[42:40] Speaker 2: pretty thrilled with the upside of this Michigan offense if
[42:43] Speaker 2: I were a Michigan fan, considering the personnel and what's
[42:46] Speaker 2: coming back and what we now know about what was
[42:50] Speaker 2: happening behind the scenes with the Michigan coaching staff last season,
[42:53] Speaker 2: that if we have a sort of unencumbered fresh slate
[42:56] Speaker 2: for this Michigan offense, that's pretty nice.
[43:00] Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, just you read a lot about accountability
[43:02] Speaker 1: when you go through all of these coordinators and their
[43:06] Speaker 1: comments on the record after being hired, after giving their
[43:09] Speaker 1: assessment of what they saw on tape. But I really
[43:13] Speaker 1: think this is a situation, knowing what we know now
[43:16] Speaker 1: with bringing Whittingham in back coming along obviously bringing over
[43:21] Speaker 1: a pretty well established defensive coordinator from BYU as well,
[43:24] Speaker 1: to join the staff. It definitely seems as though Michigan
[43:29] Speaker 1: is getting that accountability side of it, and if it
[43:32] Speaker 1: wasn't there, yeah, over the last year and a half
[43:35] Speaker 1: at Michigan, it would be interesting to see what it
[43:37] Speaker 1: looks like now if they've got some stronger guardrails in place,
[43:42] Speaker 1: just from a personnel standpoint to hopefully shepherd this thing through.
[43:46] Speaker 2: Counterpoint, ty, how difficult will it be for this Michigan
[43:50] Speaker 2: team to score twenty seven points or so against the
[43:55] Speaker 2: following defenses on their schedule.
[43:57] Speaker 1: On this Speaking of Gauntlett, it's a really schedule.
[44:00] Speaker 2: This is really bad Oklahoma and ann Arbor, Iowa in
[44:04] Speaker 2: ann Arbor, Penn State in ann Arbor, Indiana in ann Arbor.
[44:08] Speaker 2: So that's nice, great, it's a great home slate the
[44:11] Speaker 2: first half of the you know, two thirds of the schedule,
[44:14] Speaker 2: but they do finish at Oregon Ucla and then I
[44:17] Speaker 2: mean it's Ucla and Arbor and then at Ohio State.
[44:21] Speaker 2: So they've got a bunch of what could be strong
[44:25] Speaker 2: to very strong defenses too. Again, you're gonna have to
[44:28] Speaker 2: probably score twenty five, twenty eight, thirty one against a
[44:32] Speaker 2: lot of those teams if you want to shot, and
[44:35] Speaker 2: so they have their work cutout for them because on
[44:38] Speaker 2: paper they look like they should take a leap forward.
[44:40] Speaker 2: But that's a that's a big ask that that just
[44:43] Speaker 2: that sheer number of probably good defenses is it's tough.
[44:49] Speaker 1: Hit the sound. Let's stay in the Big ten. Let's
[44:55] Speaker 1: talk about a coordinator who came out of a five
[44:58] Speaker 1: day retirement from Montana to take this job that opened
[45:02] Speaker 1: up pretty late in the game because their former defensive
[45:05] Speaker 1: coordinator is now coaching at Notre Dame. I am talking
[45:09] Speaker 1: about Bobby Hawk at Illinois. Dan Rubinstein. Yeah, runs a
[45:15] Speaker 1: three three five. It's never been used at Illinois. Per
[45:18] Speaker 1: Brett Bielima, he's hoping that it creates some confusion among
[45:23] Speaker 1: their opponents in the Big Ten. But Bobby Hawk gonna
[45:26] Speaker 1: be the new DC at Illinois. What do you have
[45:28] Speaker 1: to say?
[45:30] Speaker 2: I think there is a lot positive about this higher
[45:34] Speaker 2: I like guys coming in and sort of shaking things up,
[45:37] Speaker 2: especially when there's a lot up in the air in
[45:40] Speaker 2: terms of personnel with portal guys coming in. I mean,
[45:42] Speaker 2: we pointed to twenty twenty five as an Illinois season
[45:46] Speaker 2: given what they were returning. That's where the hype came
[45:48] Speaker 2: from that. They were returning what they were on both
[45:50] Speaker 2: sides of the ball. Headline on defense by gaye Achis,
[45:54] Speaker 2: who's now off to the NFL linebacker, and so now
[45:58] Speaker 2: they're sort of star from scratch. There's new guys on
[46:01] Speaker 2: all three levels. The guys they're bringing in from the
[46:04] Speaker 2: portal are like kind not risky, but there's not a
[46:09] Speaker 2: lot of tape. There's not a lot of like, oh,
[46:11] Speaker 2: this guy was all conference here, or this guy had
[46:13] Speaker 2: one hundred and eleven tackles there, you know, like they're
[46:16] Speaker 2: just you're gambling on upside that wasn't flashed a ton
[46:21] Speaker 2: with some of their portal guys. On defense, I look,
[46:25] Speaker 2: Bobby Hawk's defenses at Montana were by and large excellent.
[46:28] Speaker 2: You know two years ago in twenty twenty three they
[46:31] Speaker 2: lost in the championship game. Was a great defense. I
[46:33] Speaker 2: think it was the sp plus number two defense in
[46:35] Speaker 2: America and on the FCS level. Coached under Rocky Long,
[46:40] Speaker 2: he was a special teams coordinator a few you know,
[46:42] Speaker 2: probably a decade ago or so after UNLV didn't work
[46:45] Speaker 2: out for Bobby Hawk, and so I like the idea
[46:50] Speaker 2: of going more confusing if you don't have the obvious
[46:53] Speaker 2: star power and the three three five can be that.
[46:56] Speaker 2: The other thing I like about where Illinois is on
[46:58] Speaker 2: defense because they were pretty much mess there last season,
[47:03] Speaker 2: especially in their bigger games, and they were just a
[47:07] Speaker 2: mess because they couldn't get off the field. They couldn't
[47:10] Speaker 2: Their downs were horrible. Yeah, the pass rush wasn't there.
[47:13] Speaker 2: They had good players, but they couldn't get off the field.
[47:15] Speaker 2: They were beat up a bunch. The thing that I
[47:19] Speaker 2: like is, if we're going to talk about like the
[47:23] Speaker 2: gauntlet that is Arkansas schedule where Michigan's schedule gone, Illinois
[47:26] Speaker 2: does have Oregon and Ohio State in terms of obviously
[47:30] Speaker 2: good offenses, but short of that, it's pretty good when
[47:37] Speaker 2: you look at Illinois's schedule. Now, we obviously don't know
[47:39] Speaker 2: if this schedule is tough or not in you know,
[47:42] Speaker 2: early March, but in terms of like known quantities on
[47:47] Speaker 2: a roster, the Oregon offense will be tough for Illinois,
[47:50] Speaker 2: although I believe that games in Champagne at least and
[47:53] Speaker 2: the Ohio State offense should be really good once again.
[47:57] Speaker 2: But if you're able to teach offense, the shift to
[48:01] Speaker 2: a three threat defense, excuse me, shift to a three three, five.
[48:04] Speaker 2: If some of these portal guys work out, I'm not
[48:07] Speaker 2: crazy about this once again in terms of a too deep,
[48:10] Speaker 2: but it's interesting to me because we have seen Illinois teams,
[48:16] Speaker 2: you know, namely like two three years ago with Ryan
[48:19] Speaker 2: Walters or whoever, that they're able to get results even
[48:23] Speaker 2: if they're not, even if they don't look great against
[48:25] Speaker 2: the best teams on the schedule. Illinois fans are never
[48:28] Speaker 2: going to be upset about an eight and four, nine
[48:30] Speaker 2: and three.
[48:30] Speaker 1: No, no, no. And you bring up Brian Walters, I'm
[48:32] Speaker 1: glad you did, because there is a common thread. And
[48:35] Speaker 1: the common thread is if you recall those defenses, really,
[48:40] Speaker 1: if you recall what Beelahmash tried to do on defense
[48:43] Speaker 1: since he got there, he has really emphasized the negative plays.
[48:47] Speaker 1: He has really emphasized trying to create a high havoc defense,
[48:50] Speaker 1: and that is absolutely what Bobby Holse brings here. His
[48:54] Speaker 1: defenses are almost entirely built around forcing negative plays in turns.
[49:00] Speaker 2: Aggressive account aggressive attacking mentality. I think it's literally said
[49:04] Speaker 2: in the press conference. The other thing that I really like,
[49:07] Speaker 2: and we talk about not nearly enough here because well
[49:13] Speaker 2: obvious reasons, but he's off the Rocky Long coach. Yeah,
[49:18] Speaker 2: you know, I mentioned it? Yeah, did you mention that?
[49:20] Speaker 2: Sorry I missed that. Was it like twenty fifteen or something?
[49:22] Speaker 2: He was a special teams coordinator Yeah, ye for San
[49:24] Speaker 2: Diego State.
[49:25] Speaker 1: So he's done a really good job at Mountana kind
[49:27] Speaker 1: of perfecting the three through five defense. And I think,
[49:31] Speaker 1: if nothing more, if it's a defense that confuses opponents
[49:34] Speaker 1: and is built so much around creating negative plays and
[49:38] Speaker 1: some of those turnovers, that that's a good place to be.
[49:42] Speaker 1: He's obviously guy with a lot of experience. Again, was
[49:45] Speaker 1: on a bit of a retirement, but coming back for more.
[49:48] Speaker 1: Here another bite at the Apple with Brett Bielma and Illinois.
[49:51] Speaker 2: Yeah, we saw it last year right in a Rocky
[49:53] Speaker 2: Long tree with Danny Gonzalez at Arizona coming in and
[49:56] Speaker 2: getting immediate results with that kind of shift. If it
[49:59] Speaker 2: works out and you have the personnel, namely like a
[50:03] Speaker 2: nose tackle, you can count on, hybrid players, you can
[50:05] Speaker 2: count on. But I think it's gonna be must watch TV.
[50:10] Speaker 1: Give me the sound. Ohio State hired Arthur Smith.
[50:18] Speaker 2: They did.
[50:20] Speaker 1: Arthur Smith from the NFL as their offensive coordinator seventeen
[50:29] Speaker 1: year NFL vet was the coach for the Falcons that
[50:32] Speaker 1: didn't go well, was recently the Steelers offensive coordinator. He
[50:38] Speaker 1: is the only modern NFL play caller with a one
[50:41] Speaker 1: thousand yard rusher in seven straight seasons across three different franchises.
[50:47] Speaker 1: Dan Early indications are that he's going to play a
[50:52] Speaker 1: little bit more bully ball than we've been accustomed to
[50:55] Speaker 1: seeing at Ohio State. Yeah, what is your react to this? Higher?
[51:01] Speaker 1: Because let me be honest, I heard Arthur Smith and
[51:04] Speaker 1: I felt similar to the way I felt last year
[51:06] Speaker 1: when we found out that Matt Patricia was going to
[51:08] Speaker 1: be coaching the defense. Matt Patricia just got an extension.
[51:12] Speaker 1: Matt Patricia did a famously good job with the defense
[51:15] Speaker 1: in year one for Ohio State. So maybe I shouldn't
[51:18] Speaker 1: have that same reaction, but I, for whatever reason did.
[51:22] Speaker 1: How do you feel about Arthur Smith?
[51:24] Speaker 2: It seems that Ryan Day wants to lean into what
[51:28] Speaker 2: he started doing more of last season with heavier personnel groups,
[51:32] Speaker 2: and they were sort of inconsistent running the ball the
[51:35] Speaker 2: first half of the season, it seemed, and with Bo
[51:38] Speaker 2: Jackson developed into a more consistent type offensive team, it
[51:43] Speaker 2: just if they're going to lean into what they were
[51:46] Speaker 2: doing last year. And if look, you can score a
[51:49] Speaker 2: ton of points in heavier personnel, especially if you have
[51:52] Speaker 2: versatle tight ends and you get mismatches, and you know
[51:57] Speaker 2: you have a one man wrecking crew in Jeremiah Smith,
[52:00] Speaker 2: the single best offensive skill player in the country as
[52:03] Speaker 2: a starting point, right that that's gonna occupy a certain
[52:06] Speaker 2: amount of defensive gravity on every single snap. And so
[52:10] Speaker 2: if you're able to get more creative perhaps than they
[52:12] Speaker 2: were last year with Brian Hartline running the offense in
[52:16] Speaker 2: the running game, then they're going to be nearly impossible
[52:20] Speaker 2: to be. They were not the type of like speed,
[52:25] Speaker 2: wide open passing, jugular offense last year at all times
[52:30] Speaker 2: like they had been in previous seasons. And they still
[52:33] Speaker 2: last year had Jeremiah Smith and Carnel Tait and Brandon
[52:35] Speaker 2: Innis Max Claire like they had guys to run whatever
[52:41] Speaker 2: system they saw fit. Offensive line was inconsistent last year
[52:46] Speaker 2: at times. It looks like it should be a deep,
[52:48] Speaker 2: experienced unit this year, and they got you know, a
[52:49] Speaker 2: lot of versatile guys who can play at different places.
[52:52] Speaker 2: So really I think they're just leaning into at best,
[52:58] Speaker 2: creative bully ball with multiple tight ends because that's the
[53:01] Speaker 2: sort of Arthur Smith calling card. And when he was
[53:04] Speaker 2: only running offenses, I think it was with the Titans,
[53:07] Speaker 2: you know, whatever it is, ten twelve years ago, it
[53:09] Speaker 2: was Derrick Henry right. That was the Arthur Smith Titans experience.
[53:13] Speaker 2: They were basically impossible to stop. So they have young
[53:17] Speaker 2: running backs. I don't think bo Jackson's playing in the spring.
[53:20] Speaker 2: I don't want to say it's a shoulder surgery situation.
[53:23] Speaker 2: But if Julian Sayin's able to take those next steps,
[53:27] Speaker 2: you know, made a couple of mistakes in those big games,
[53:29] Speaker 2: especially early on in those games. If he's trusted more
[53:33] Speaker 2: to lead a an at times more wide open offense,
[53:36] Speaker 2: but you know, is still going to be in a
[53:38] Speaker 2: situation where he's picking and choosing when he takes shots,
[53:42] Speaker 2: they'll be in a good spot. If they're running the
[53:44] Speaker 2: ball right that there's just going to be play action opportunities.
[53:47] Speaker 2: They brought in more tight ends from I want to
[53:49] Speaker 2: say Ohio and Northwestern in this cycle. I think the
[53:54] Speaker 2: defense is going to once again be excellent. It's a
[53:56] Speaker 2: little bit thinner. They took some hits on that defense.
[53:58] Speaker 2: There's less win room on that defense just because the
[54:03] Speaker 2: depth isn't necessarily where it was. But that's happened to everybody.
[54:06] Speaker 2: That's happened to Georgia, that's happened to Oregon, that's happened
[54:08] Speaker 2: to Bam or whatever, take your pick, so it's not
[54:10] Speaker 2: unique to Ohio State. I think I like the higher right,
[54:15] Speaker 2: like he He is definitely a good football coach. It's
[54:19] Speaker 2: now going to be a matter of are he and
[54:21] Speaker 2: Ryan Day on the same page. Are they going to
[54:25] Speaker 2: abandon things that aren't working too late or at the
[54:29] Speaker 2: right time, or is his fresh look at an offense,
[54:34] Speaker 2: given his high level experience, going to make Ohio State
[54:38] Speaker 2: into an even bigger dominant machine. So I think I
[54:43] Speaker 2: like this a good deal.
[54:45] Speaker 1: I like it. I'm curious about it though, because in
[54:49] Speaker 1: terms of an offensive philosophy, it is a bit of
[54:51] Speaker 1: a one eighty from where they've been. But last year
[54:55] Speaker 1: they leaned into this a last year they leaned into
[54:56] Speaker 1: it more and they were good at it when they
[54:59] Speaker 1: leaned in well, yes and no, mostly good at it.
[55:03] Speaker 2: Yeah, but.
[55:06] Speaker 1: You know, this isn't going to be a system that
[55:09] Speaker 1: I think is dictated by how good the receivers are.
[55:12] Speaker 1: I think this is going to be Arthur Smith playing
[55:16] Speaker 1: a little bit more bullyball than we're used to. I mean,
[55:19] Speaker 1: he is very much about multi tight end sets, He's
[55:23] Speaker 1: very much about under center and play action. He's very
[55:26] Speaker 1: much about physical downhill runners, as evidenced by the number
[55:30] Speaker 1: that I read out a moment ago. So if you're
[55:33] Speaker 1: looking to build more of a bruising, physical, let's say,
[55:39] Speaker 1: weather proof offense, then this is a guy who I
[55:43] Speaker 1: think can help you get there. And clearly they've got
[55:46] Speaker 1: enough talent to do kind of whatever they want. But
[55:50] Speaker 1: I'm curious to see how Jeremiah Smith is utilized. I
[55:54] Speaker 1: don't suspect they're going to take him out of the
[55:57] Speaker 1: equation altogether. That will be foolish. That's not why they
[55:59] Speaker 1: hired our Arthur Smith. But if we see a little
[56:02] Speaker 1: bit more balance, heavier sets, that will look different to
[56:06] Speaker 1: the eye for people who have followed Ohio State through
[56:09] Speaker 1: you know, the heartline years.
[56:10] Speaker 2: Let's say, yeah, they did do this last year. Though
[56:13] Speaker 2: there was a lot of heavier sets last year. There
[56:15] Speaker 2: was there absolutely was playing a lot slower. Yeah, there
[56:19] Speaker 2: absolutely was. And you know there's a question of whether
[56:23] Speaker 2: or not they were playing slower because the season is longer,
[56:25] Speaker 2: They're trying to preserve, trying to ease how many miles
[56:29] Speaker 2: are going on the tires. But totally, this to me
[56:33] Speaker 2: is I think a very clear indication of this is
[56:36] Speaker 2: who we are now. We want to be this physical
[56:39] Speaker 2: team moving forward, and you hire Arthur Smith because you
[56:43] Speaker 2: want to be that team with the wide zone rushes
[56:46] Speaker 2: and whatnot.
[56:47] Speaker 1: So I'm curious to see. I mean, it's good news.
[56:49] Speaker 1: I think of your Bo Jackson, provided he's healthy, it's
[56:51] Speaker 1: really good news if you're in that running back room
[56:53] Speaker 1: for Ohio State, because you know that's going to be
[56:55] Speaker 1: a point of emphasis. And I think there are many
[56:59] Speaker 1: Ohio State fans in this show that have written into
[57:01] Speaker 1: us that would welcome that. And by the way, on
[57:04] Speaker 1: the rushing side of things, maybe.
[57:07] Speaker 2: Maybe difficult defensive schedule for Arthur Smith to prove this against.
[57:13] Speaker 2: And obviously they basically had no trouble last year through
[57:15] Speaker 2: the regular season. Obviously the Texas game was very close
[57:18] Speaker 2: early Texas a you know, a top fifteen, a clear
[57:20] Speaker 2: top fifteen team last season at Texas. This year at Iowa,
[57:25] Speaker 2: at Indiana, at USC for whatever USC's defense is worth.
[57:31] Speaker 2: They host Oregon and Michigan, so there's a lot of
[57:35] Speaker 2: defense to contend with, especially upfront. Perhaps right, we can't
[57:41] Speaker 2: with certainty say anything because there's so many changes to
[57:43] Speaker 2: a lot of these teams. But there are many teams
[57:47] Speaker 2: with less seeming on their schedule defensively than what Ohio
[57:51] Speaker 2: State has. But I imagine to a t all of
[57:55] Speaker 2: those teams are quite worried about what Ohio State could
[57:58] Speaker 2: potentially offer.
[58:00] Speaker 1: Got two left, Give me the sound one more time, please,
[58:04] Speaker 1: I will. Let's talking about Chad Morris. Baby, must we
[58:10] Speaker 1: Chadmores we back like he never left Clemson in the
[58:13] Speaker 1: first place. Yeah, Chad Morris was the architect, partially the
[58:19] Speaker 1: architect of those Clemson offenses, the ones that were really
[58:22] Speaker 1: good back in twenty eleven through twenty fourteen. I guess
[58:26] Speaker 1: they weren't great in twenty fourteen. But he replaces Garrett Riley.
[58:32] Speaker 1: They're bringing him back to hopefully modernize an offense that's
[58:37] Speaker 1: kind of gotten a little stagnant.
[58:39] Speaker 2: You're all about your nostalgia picks, by the way, with
[58:41] Speaker 2: these coordinators, listen, Jason Beck staying with I'm in my
[58:46] Speaker 2: fields man, you know, uh, Coach Boom back to Texas
[58:52] Speaker 2: and now Ron Roberts's coaches coach, you know, the guy
[58:56] Speaker 2: you put up in the portrait and Apple Banks. Yeah.
[58:59] Speaker 1: Of course, offense was kind of predictable at Clemson, wasn't it.
[59:05] Speaker 2: I would say so.
[59:06] Speaker 1: Yeah. Clemson went seven and six last year. They lost
[59:09] Speaker 1: the Pinstripe Bull to Penn State, who I will talk
[59:12] Speaker 1: about next. Per the sp plus, this was the most
[59:17] Speaker 1: average Clemson offense since twenty twenty one and before that
[59:20] Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, especially bad on third downs in the red zone.
[59:27] Speaker 1: The line was very average. The ground game never got
[59:31] Speaker 1: off the ground. The passing game was a lot of
[59:33] Speaker 1: short stuff. Not as much short stuff as we have seen,
[59:38] Speaker 1: but still a lot of short stuff. Dabo is still
[59:43] Speaker 1: rolling with this plan of building from within. They did
[59:45] Speaker 1: take ten transfers, mostly along the defensive line and in
[59:48] Speaker 1: the secondary, but you know, he's at least shown a
[59:51] Speaker 1: willingness to bring some of those guys in. I think
[59:54] Speaker 1: the good news for Clemson is this, before I even
[59:56] Speaker 1: get to Chad Morris, very workable schedule just is a
[1:00:02] Speaker 1: very workable schedule if you're the Clemson Tigers, if you're
[1:00:05] Speaker 1: a Clemson fan, I will add they may have the
[1:00:08] Speaker 1: biggest look ahead spot in the entire ACC. Maybe the
[1:00:12] Speaker 1: entire country. Okay, last week of September on the road
[1:00:17] Speaker 1: in the hinterlands against Cal before coming back home the
[1:00:22] Speaker 1: next week to square off against the Miami Hurricanes.
[1:00:26] Speaker 2: It's a lot, yeah, a lot cash Cal and jks. Yeah.
[1:00:30] Speaker 1: Clemson is still in a very advantageous spot because of
[1:00:34] Speaker 1: the talent that they have on hand, and they're in
[1:00:37] Speaker 1: a conference that's really really wide open. But the pressure
[1:00:40] Speaker 1: is on now because it does feel like a program
[1:00:43] Speaker 1: that's been leaking a little bit oil. See, I think
[1:00:46] Speaker 1: the pressure is fully off. You do why.
[1:00:51] Speaker 2: Cad Klubnick is gone right? The the NFL guys are gone.
[1:00:55] Speaker 2: They've made a bunch of changes. Now. Look, if you're
[1:00:57] Speaker 2: gonna hire Chad Morris, you're signaling that you thought he
[1:01:00] Speaker 2: was one of the keys to big explosive offenses early.
[1:01:04] Speaker 2: But like, I don't know, new quarterback, a bunch of transfers.
[1:01:07] Speaker 2: I just think expectations have been reset at.
[1:01:13] Speaker 1: I would welcome feedback from the Clemson community on that one.
[1:01:17] Speaker 2: Do you think Clemson is expecting to make a deep
[1:01:20] Speaker 2: playoff run, which I think Clemson expectations were a few
[1:01:24] Speaker 2: years ago.
[1:01:25] Speaker 1: I think Clemson fans are expecting to get back to
[1:01:28] Speaker 1: what they've grown accustomed to with Clemson, which is not
[1:01:31] Speaker 1: seven and five in the regular season.
[1:01:33] Speaker 2: They were your number one team how many months ago?
[1:01:37] Speaker 2: Eight seven, that's probably like twelve at this point, but
[1:01:40] Speaker 2: August that's seven, eight months ago. That's that was So
[1:01:44] Speaker 2: your expectation last year.
[1:01:46] Speaker 1: I mean, I was on Clemson this time last year.
[1:01:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, you expected them in the National Championship Game. So
[1:01:52] Speaker 2: maybe your expectations haven't changed, but I think maybe Clemson
[1:01:56] Speaker 2: community expectations may have changed.
[1:01:58] Speaker 1: So here's what we know about Chad Morris coming back
[1:02:01] Speaker 1: to Clemson. Chad Morris has been other places since his
[1:02:04] Speaker 1: most recent stay in Clemson, South Carolina, but his first
[1:02:10] Speaker 1: tour of duty was very notable for just running at
[1:02:14] Speaker 1: a crazy fast tempo. He has since said that he's
[1:02:19] Speaker 1: learned a lot. He still wants to play with tempo,
[1:02:23] Speaker 1: but it's going to be a little bit more deliberate.
[1:02:25] Speaker 1: It's not going to be just going fast for the
[1:02:27] Speaker 1: sake of going fast the way maybe it was before.
[1:02:30] Speaker 1: Now it is going to be a little bit more
[1:02:32] Speaker 1: deliberate about when they use the tempo, hopefully in a
[1:02:34] Speaker 1: strategic way. So that's the first thing I think that
[1:02:37] Speaker 1: may be a little bit different. The second thing is
[1:02:40] Speaker 1: the running game. The running game uses a lot of
[1:02:44] Speaker 1: twelve personnel right with the two tight ends of the
[1:02:46] Speaker 1: one running back MH. He uses pre snap motion, he
[1:02:52] Speaker 1: calls it eye candy, to create some sort of a
[1:02:56] Speaker 1: physical rushing it. Everybody's got a physical rushing attack, right.
[1:02:58] Speaker 1: Everybody wants to play down and be brilla and physical
[1:03:01] Speaker 1: and all that.
[1:03:02] Speaker 2: But he uses a lot of.
[1:03:03] Speaker 1: This window dressing stuff to try and confuse defenses, get
[1:03:07] Speaker 1: guys out of position, and hopefully use that to his advantage.
[1:03:12] Speaker 1: And then the other thing that I found most interesting
[1:03:15] Speaker 1: about Chad Morris in reading some of his comments, he
[1:03:19] Speaker 1: sort of made it an edict that they're going to
[1:03:23] Speaker 1: take at least three deep shots per quarter.
[1:03:27] Speaker 2: Yeah, I've seen that before. Yeah.
[1:03:29] Speaker 1: I don't necessarily like putting the number on it. I don't.
[1:03:32] Speaker 1: I feel like, even though it's really early in the cycle,
[1:03:38] Speaker 1: why are you telling people that? Don't tell him that?
[1:03:41] Speaker 1: Doesn't that give the game away a little bit? But
[1:03:43] Speaker 1: he wants to take more deep shots, He wants to
[1:03:46] Speaker 1: consistently stretch the field. He wants to make the offense
[1:03:48] Speaker 1: more explosive. I don't hate that. Schematically, I feel like
[1:03:53] Speaker 1: we've been waiting for that. I can't tell you how
[1:03:56] Speaker 1: many times we have talked about on this show Clemson's
[1:03:59] Speaker 1: lack of the fifty to fifty receiver who can go
[1:04:02] Speaker 1: up there and win contested catches. It directly correlates to
[1:04:07] Speaker 1: their downfall as an offense. Sure, they just haven't really
[1:04:10] Speaker 1: had that now. I think they've got those guys now,
[1:04:13] Speaker 1: but I think they need to, like water and feed
[1:04:16] Speaker 1: that philosophy a little bit more to get back to
[1:04:18] Speaker 1: where they once were. So I like what I'm hearing.
[1:04:21] Speaker 1: Chad Morris is obviously a guy who was successful way
[1:04:24] Speaker 1: back when with Clemson, albeit you know, fifteen years ago now.
[1:04:30] Speaker 1: But in theory, in theory, the philosophy here I think
[1:04:36] Speaker 1: matches pretty well with where Clemson probably needs to go next.
[1:04:39] Speaker 1: So I'm encouraged by this. The schedules in place, we know,
[1:04:42] Speaker 1: the talents in place. Quarterback tbd, Chris Visina, TBD on
[1:04:48] Speaker 1: Chris Fasina. But otherwise, I think, just from a really
[1:04:53] Speaker 1: high level in terms of what they are saying publicly,
[1:04:56] Speaker 1: I think Clemson fans would probably agree with me that
[1:04:59] Speaker 1: this feels like the direction they need to go.
[1:05:04] Speaker 2: I just I know you're attracted to these nostalgia hires.
[1:05:09] Speaker 2: It's just I just think they're moving backwards. And it
[1:05:13] Speaker 2: doesn't mean Chad Morris doesn't know what he's doing. It
[1:05:15] Speaker 2: doesn't mean Chandler Morris. Chad Morris.
[1:05:17] Speaker 1: He's not gonna be a head coach, I know, to
[1:05:20] Speaker 1: be a head coach. He's just gonna be a coordinator. Again,
[1:05:22] Speaker 1: did it?
[1:05:23] Speaker 2: It seems to do a nice job at Texas State
[1:05:24] Speaker 2: last year running their passing game, right receivers and passing
[1:05:27] Speaker 2: game coordinator. They very successful downfield. I have every reason
[1:05:33] Speaker 2: to believe it could work. I'm just never really a
[1:05:37] Speaker 2: fan of looking backwards in this way. But I don't know.
[1:05:42] Speaker 1: Give me the sound one more time, Dan, I will
[1:05:48] Speaker 1: final coordinator. Whole new thing going on? Okay at the
[1:05:54] Speaker 1: Pennsylvania State University, Dan Oh, some Taylor Mauser talk. Give
[1:05:58] Speaker 1: me some Taylor Mauser talk.
[1:06:01] Speaker 2: So we don't know what he needs to improve upon
[1:06:04] Speaker 2: with Penn State players. But Penn State players are actually
[1:06:10] Speaker 2: Iowa State players, is if my understanding is correct.
[1:06:15] Speaker 1: There's yes, there are a lot of Iowa State, Okay
[1:06:18] Speaker 1: holdovers here as part of this project. Now, so Taylor
[1:06:22] Speaker 1: Mouse was going to be the new offensive coordinator at
[1:06:24] Speaker 1: Penn State. He is a longtime Matt Campbell assistant, dating
[1:06:27] Speaker 1: back to their Toledo days in the year of Our
[1:06:30] Speaker 1: Lord twenty fifteen. This will just be his third year
[1:06:35] Speaker 1: as an offensive coordinator, but I think the results have
[1:06:38] Speaker 1: been there. Did have that eleven win season back in
[1:06:42] Speaker 1: twenty twenty four that was his first year as full
[1:06:46] Speaker 1: time offensive coordinator. So I watched a recent episode of
[1:06:49] Speaker 1: The Audible with our friends Stu and Bruce and Ralph.
[1:06:53] Speaker 1: I think this one was just Stu and Ralph, but
[1:06:56] Speaker 1: Stu was lamenting the fact that, I guess on a
[1:07:00] Speaker 1: recent article he did where he graded coaching hires. There
[1:07:03] Speaker 1: seem to be a lot of negativity around Matt Campbell
[1:07:07] Speaker 1: in the comment threads, and I find that curious because
[1:07:11] Speaker 1: everything I have heard talking to people who root for
[1:07:13] Speaker 1: Penn State, who cover Penn State, the vibes that I
[1:07:17] Speaker 1: have detected have all been pretty positive. Are you telling
[1:07:20] Speaker 1: me putting an enormous amount of stock into anonymous commenters? Listen,
[1:07:27] Speaker 1: I'm just misguided. I'm not saying Stu's wrong. I'm just
[1:07:31] Speaker 1: right the ground.
[1:07:32] Speaker 2: Hi, you're in the Lehigh Valley.
[1:07:33] Speaker 1: I have not detected any of those vibes here in
[1:07:37] Speaker 1: non content.
[1:07:37] Speaker 2: I haven't seen on a national level of everybody seems
[1:07:40] Speaker 2: to be pretty high on Matt Campbell and Penn State.
[1:07:41] Speaker 1: I think so, and I think it's a good higher Yeah,
[1:07:44] Speaker 1: for anybody out there who still doubts the move, the
[1:07:49] Speaker 1: quickest way to shut down the naysayers is to build
[1:07:55] Speaker 1: an offense that is more cohesive and explosive, because the
[1:08:00] Speaker 1: context here is that Andy kotal Nikki, try as he
[1:08:03] Speaker 1: might to do that. He was an offensive line guy.
[1:08:08] Speaker 1: That was that was his pedigree, followed Lancel I pulled around,
[1:08:12] Speaker 1: built great rushing offenses, did it at Kansas. He was,
[1:08:16] Speaker 1: he still is super creative. But the crux of that
[1:08:19] Speaker 1: system was building a ground game. And I think in hindsight,
[1:08:25] Speaker 1: we can say, looking back that maybe Drew Aller wasn't
[1:08:27] Speaker 1: the best fit for that offense. You know, Like I've
[1:08:30] Speaker 1: made the comment the first time we saw Bo Purbula,
[1:08:34] Speaker 1: and I know I took a lot of flak for it,
[1:08:37] Speaker 1: but I still don't think I was totally wrong in
[1:08:40] Speaker 1: saying that maybe Bo Pribul would have been a better
[1:08:41] Speaker 1: fit for that. Yeah, as he goes completely silent over there, Yeah,
[1:08:48] Speaker 1: I'm you were a title for the Europan But so
[1:08:50] Speaker 1: here's the irony is and where I'm going with this
[1:08:53] Speaker 1: is now, with the Taylor Mauser era in State College,
[1:08:58] Speaker 1: a guy like Drew Aller actually might be a better
[1:09:00] Speaker 1: fit for this system. Okay, Like this is a system
[1:09:04] Speaker 1: now that's going to be a lot less oop to
[1:09:06] Speaker 1: oop that drove some Penn State fans crazy. We're not
[1:09:10] Speaker 1: going to see all the pre pre snap stuff. We're
[1:09:12] Speaker 1: going to see very few of the screen passes. I
[1:09:14] Speaker 1: think it's something like six percent of the drop backs
[1:09:16] Speaker 1: at Iowa State or screen passes. I can see the
[1:09:19] Speaker 1: jet sweeps you, I can see the random wildcat formations.
[1:09:22] Speaker 1: It's not to say this offense is not complex. It's
[1:09:25] Speaker 1: just not going to be as chaotic, right, and so
[1:09:28] Speaker 1: from the Penn State side of things, what I'm about
[1:09:31] Speaker 1: to say should be music to your ears. This is
[1:09:36] Speaker 1: an offense that uses the tight end as the engine
[1:09:40] Speaker 1: for the whole thing. That's why they bring it. They
[1:09:43] Speaker 1: bring it in Ben Bramer from Iowa State a very
[1:09:46] Speaker 1: important get via the transfer portal. Taylor Mauser has also
[1:09:50] Speaker 1: been a tight End coach since twenty twenty one. If
[1:09:54] Speaker 1: you've watched the clones at all. You know that they
[1:09:56] Speaker 1: like the tight end that's central to the whole project.
[1:09:59] Speaker 1: Sure second still wants to build the physical ground game.
[1:10:03] Speaker 1: He does like to turn a ty well apparently, so
[1:10:06] Speaker 1: we're talking through it guy by guy here. Everybody seems
[1:10:10] Speaker 1: to want to build a ground game. But his offense
[1:10:12] Speaker 1: is very much predicated around the physical ground game, which
[1:10:16] Speaker 1: is why they're bringing over Carson Hanson, another guy from
[1:10:18] Speaker 1: Iowa State, as well as vertical shots deep. He wants
[1:10:22] Speaker 1: to play off that running game with play action with
[1:10:25] Speaker 1: vertical shots. He's not doing a Chad Morris and saying
[1:10:28] Speaker 1: how often he wants to do it, mind you, but
[1:10:31] Speaker 1: this is what Penn State fans have been clamoring for.
[1:10:34] Speaker 1: This is why I say this should be music to
[1:10:35] Speaker 1: the years, because these philosophies just weren't there. It was
[1:10:41] Speaker 1: a lot of oop oop in the Running Game. It
[1:10:43] Speaker 1: was a lot of what Drew Aller going to do next.
[1:10:45] Speaker 1: It was a lot of can they take the top
[1:10:47] Speaker 1: off the defense that they have the receivers that take
[1:10:49] Speaker 1: the top off the defense. That part of it, by
[1:10:51] Speaker 1: the way, I think is still TBD, but at least
[1:10:53] Speaker 1: they're going to try a little bit more and at
[1:10:55] Speaker 1: least I think you know what you're getting with this
[1:10:57] Speaker 1: offensive coordinator. Oh, by the way, they're bringing over the board,
[1:11:00] Speaker 1: thank you very much, the best of all rocos. He
[1:11:05] Speaker 1: knows the system, He's played well in the system. So
[1:11:08] Speaker 1: I bring all this up because if you are a
[1:11:10] Speaker 1: Penn State listening to this, your response is probably, hey,
[1:11:14] Speaker 1: why don't we hire Taylor Mauser instead of Andy kotal Nikki.
[1:11:17] Speaker 1: In hindsight, now, so I like where they're going with this.
[1:11:21] Speaker 1: I like that there is familiarity between the coaches. I
[1:11:25] Speaker 1: like that he's basically bringing over the whole team from
[1:11:28] Speaker 1: Iowa State. They should be able to hit the ground running.
[1:11:31] Speaker 1: And they've got a really advantageous schedule this year.
[1:11:35] Speaker 2: That's true. The schedule is great.
[1:11:37] Speaker 1: So it's going to look different, it's going to feel different.
[1:11:40] Speaker 1: Hopefully it feels like they hit the ground running and
[1:11:43] Speaker 1: it's not discombobulated the way it was for long stretches
[1:11:47] Speaker 1: over the last two years. I am encouraged by this hire,
[1:11:51] Speaker 1: not only the Matt Campbell higher, but the Taylor Mauser Higher.
[1:11:53] Speaker 1: The fact that they are retaining him as part of
[1:11:55] Speaker 1: the staff that comes over from Iowa State. I think
[1:11:57] Speaker 1: that's a really really big get for Penn State. So
[1:12:00] Speaker 1: from where I stand, the vibes a strong stu. I
[1:12:03] Speaker 1: can't speak for the comment threat, but everyone I've talked to,
[1:12:07] Speaker 1: all the reading I've done the Penn State community seems
[1:12:10] Speaker 1: pretty jazzed up about this one.
[1:12:12] Speaker 2: Yeah, and to your point to all the haters out there,
[1:12:15] Speaker 2: Iowa State scored nearly twenty points against Arizona State and
[1:12:19] Speaker 2: Jeff Simms and a loss, so I think as close
[1:12:22] Speaker 2: to twenty points as you can get, right, They scored
[1:12:25] Speaker 2: nineteen points against ASU and a loss to Jeff Simms.
[1:12:28] Speaker 1: Look, last year, the conversation about Iowa State playing consistent football, yeah,
[1:12:35] Speaker 1: and not dropping games in a dumb fashion or not
[1:12:40] Speaker 1: playing under expectations. That will be a subject for another day.
[1:12:45] Speaker 1: I share those concerns, okay, but I am saying bigger
[1:12:49] Speaker 1: picture from a philosophical standpoint during my little thinking man
[1:12:54] Speaker 1: pose over here with huh you know, the fist on
[1:12:57] Speaker 1: the chin. From that standpoint, I like this, okay, as
[1:13:04] Speaker 1: I have all of these hires that we've talked about.
[1:13:06] Speaker 2: Apparently, Yeah, last year's Iowa State offense was not that good.
[1:13:11] Speaker 2: Like they were fine. They were like a top fifty ish,
[1:13:15] Speaker 2: but not not an offense that was just working its
[1:13:18] Speaker 2: way through the Big twelve with an experienced quarterback. Not
[1:13:23] Speaker 2: explosive although they were very explosive the year before, and
[1:13:26] Speaker 2: not good in the red zone, which hopefully are like
[1:13:29] Speaker 2: the two big calling cards of an offensive coordinator right,
[1:13:31] Speaker 2: able to find explosive plays, able to score touchdowns in
[1:13:34] Speaker 2: the red zone. And so that would be the concern
[1:13:38] Speaker 2: against I guess a normal schedule, but Penn State's schedule
[1:13:40] Speaker 2: this year isn't at first glance, not the most challenging
[1:13:45] Speaker 2: in the world.
[1:13:45] Speaker 1: And I mean the red zone stuff is I've got
[1:13:50] Speaker 1: my hand on my face here, I'm with you.
[1:13:53] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:13:53] Speaker 1: Yeah. And you would think if you've got an all
[1:13:59] Speaker 1: conference cal or tight end that that would be that
[1:14:02] Speaker 1: that should fix it, fix a lot of it, but
[1:14:04] Speaker 1: it Yeah, or even a guy like a Carson Hanson
[1:14:07] Speaker 1: who's a touchdown machine the year prior, Yeah, you would
[1:14:11] Speaker 1: think that would make the red zone woes go away
[1:14:14] Speaker 1: in a large part.
[1:14:15] Speaker 2: But it didn't.
[1:14:16] Speaker 1: So that will be I think a very fair question
[1:14:19] Speaker 1: as we go. Also, extremely average on third down last year,
[1:14:22] Speaker 1: very average.
[1:14:23] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:14:23] Speaker 1: Yeah. So it's not bulletproof, no, But I'm just saying
[1:14:27] Speaker 1: given where Penn State's been, given how discombobulated and out
[1:14:31] Speaker 1: of sorts the offense felt, I'd say, at a minimum,
[1:14:34] Speaker 1: from the Penn State perspective, you will not have to
[1:14:37] Speaker 1: throw things at the TV, scream into a pillow because
[1:14:42] Speaker 1: well maybe I don't know, but hopefully you will not
[1:14:45] Speaker 1: have to do any of that because we're not going
[1:14:47] Speaker 1: to have the random, you know, wildcat formation, not going
[1:14:52] Speaker 1: to be lining up Nick Singleton at quarterback and a
[1:14:54] Speaker 1: high leverage second down and long situation some of those
[1:14:59] Speaker 1: tricks that they tried to pull out at random spots
[1:15:02] Speaker 1: throughout the course of last year. That sure, that type
[1:15:05] Speaker 1: of logic should hopefully be going back to Kansas with
[1:15:07] Speaker 1: Andy kodle Nikki, who I still like, by the way,
[1:15:09] Speaker 1: but just may not have been quite the fit we
[1:15:12] Speaker 1: expected when he came up to start.
[1:15:16] Speaker 2: Yeah, look, if nothing else, given the number of players
[1:15:18] Speaker 2: coming over from Iowa State, given the coaching staff from
[1:15:21] Speaker 2: from Iowa State, they're gonna hold their own in the
[1:15:24] Speaker 2: Big twelve next year.
[1:15:25] Speaker 1: Right, They're going to be a hard.
[1:15:29] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, we'll see. They're just a giant mystery.
[1:15:36] Speaker 1: To me.
[1:15:36] Speaker 2: I don't have an opinion truly other than the snark
[1:15:39] Speaker 2: I throw like throwing at you. I don't have a
[1:15:41] Speaker 2: strong opinion about Taylor Mouser and the Penn State offense
[1:15:44] Speaker 2: beyond you know, they're they're doing the thing where they
[1:15:47] Speaker 2: bring over the coach and the staff and a bunch
[1:15:50] Speaker 2: of players and it's on a big level, on a
[1:15:52] Speaker 2: big stage with Penn State.
[1:15:54] Speaker 1: I just think in terms of philosophy, what Mauser brings
[1:16:01] Speaker 1: it is what they kind of needed over the last
[1:16:03] Speaker 1: two years. Yeah, that philosophy would have worked really well
[1:16:08] Speaker 1: with what they had the last two years. Now, they
[1:16:12] Speaker 1: obviously went to the College Ball Playoffs semi final. They
[1:16:15] Speaker 1: lost close to Notre Dame. So those are that was
[1:16:18] Speaker 1: a good team, but it was even a team then
[1:16:22] Speaker 1: that we had questions about the offense and and you know,
[1:16:25] Speaker 1: are they explosive? Are they not explosive?
[1:16:28] Speaker 2: Yeah?
[1:16:29] Speaker 1: How do they get more out of this thing? With
[1:16:31] Speaker 1: Drew Aller who's apparently ripping up the scouting combine right now?
[1:16:35] Speaker 1: Born to born to rip up the scouting conbine. So
[1:16:40] Speaker 1: in theory, in theory, I like the direction things.
[1:16:43] Speaker 2: Are going right there with Colorado TI they were right there,
[1:16:48] Speaker 2: ioways say, gave Colorado all they could handle last year.
[1:16:51] Speaker 1: Yeah, but that was Iowa State. This is Penn State's
[1:16:53] Speaker 1: roster at Iowa State. Yeah, this is a totally different roster.
[1:16:59] Speaker 1: Let's leave it there. Solid Verbal at gmail dot com
[1:17:02] Speaker 1: as always is the email. You can go to the
[1:17:05] Speaker 1: website now that it fix the damn form. You can
[1:17:07] Speaker 1: also hit us up across any of the social platforms anywhere.
[1:17:10] Speaker 1: You can leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you,
[1:17:12] Speaker 1: hit follow, hit subscribes that you do not miss any
[1:17:15] Speaker 1: of our episodes, and if you liked us enough to
[1:17:18] Speaker 1: at least entertain the idea of supporting the team. You
[1:17:24] Speaker 1: can go to verballers dot com. That's the Patreon where
[1:17:26] Speaker 1: you get ad free episodes, get all this stuff, a
[1:17:28] Speaker 1: little bit early discord access, so on and so forth.
[1:17:31] Speaker 1: Or you can go on out to the merch store.
[1:17:34] Speaker 1: I think it's merch dot solidverbal dot com or just
[1:17:36] Speaker 1: solidverbal dot com slash store, either one. I'll take you
[1:17:39] Speaker 1: there going out buy something if you find something that
[1:17:42] Speaker 1: you like, that of course also help support what we do. Yes, absolutely,
[1:17:49] Speaker 1: that's all we got for today. Wherever you may be,
[1:17:51] Speaker 1: thank you for tuning in. Hope your day is going well.
[1:17:56] Speaker 1: Please make sure you tell your friends about the show.
[1:17:58] Speaker 1: We will be back on Thursday in the meeting time
[1:18:00] Speaker 1: for that guy over there, Dan, for myself Tie. As always,
[1:18:03] Speaker 1: stay solid, peace m m mm hm

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.