# 17 Things That Made 2025 Weird, Wonderful, and Uniquely College Football (Part 1)

An episode of [The Solid Verbal College Football Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/270037732), 27 Jan 2026, 1 h 13 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/21437ee1-47d9-4b16-8696-b30d011a2c26/47202c04-7b45-4831-911d-b3de01593edd/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=51c7e0eb-425c-4d93-b5a8-b30d011a2c46

The 2025 college football season is in the books, and it was... a lot. Join us as we attempt to catalog the moments, storylines, and characters that made this year impossible to forget, starting with seven of the most defining elements of the season. In this episode: Why the Lane Kiffin-to-LSU saga touched every corner of college football culture. Indiana's national championship and the refreshing "plainness" of how they won it. The Penn State coaching search trilogy (expectations to collapse to Crumbl cookies). Bill Belichick's first year at North Carolina... both the 4-win disappointment and, well, everything else. Alabama's bizarre tumble into (and out of) the playoff. Two Group of Five teams crashing the party. And Lee Corso's farewell to College GameDay. Comment below with what we need to cover in Part 2! Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 3:02 - The Most 2025 College Football Things 6:54 - Lane Kiffin 17:19 - Indiana 26:34 - Penn State, Clemson & Texas 36:20 - Bill Belichick 43:52 - Alabama 55:04 - Tulane & James Madison 1:03:03 - Lee Corso 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. For me, I'm a man,
[0:07] Speaker 1: I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well, I
[0:09] Speaker 1: want to be happy. You want to be happy for
[0:11] Speaker 1: day Edith State?
[0:13] Speaker 2: Is that?
[0:13] Speaker 1: Whoo whoo? And no, Dan and Tye Dan Rubinstein, welcome back,
[0:20] Speaker 1: my friend.
[0:20] Speaker 2: It's about a week removed from the Indiana Hoosiers winning
[0:25] Speaker 2: their first ever national championship. We've had about a week
[0:29] Speaker 2: to digest, a week to look back fondly at the season.
[0:33] Speaker 2: That was a twenty twenty five to twenty six season.
[0:36] Speaker 1: We're gonna do a little bit more of that today,
[0:37] Speaker 1: my good friend, how are you? I'm really good, Ty,
[0:40] Speaker 1: I'm really good. And I say that in a situation
[0:44] Speaker 1: that I find myself. I'm in an icy prison. Here
[0:46] Speaker 1: Ty once again, same here, man, same here. This is
[0:50] Speaker 1: I was Was it the Ursay family that moved the
[0:52] Speaker 1: Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis in the in the dead of night,
[0:56] Speaker 1: in the the moving trucks. I've looked into the logistics
[1:00] Speaker 1: of that. I love my family, I love the Midwest.
[1:04] Speaker 1: I love everything about my life. But Thanksgiving through May
[1:09] Speaker 1: continues to be a challenge for my happiness. It's rough.
[1:13] Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a snowblower break on me. I was
[1:16] Speaker 2: without it through this recent snowstorm. I think I'm going
[1:19] Speaker 2: to get it back in time for the next one,
[1:21] Speaker 2: which appears to be lining up for this coming weekend.
[1:24] Speaker 1: But yeah, man, we're in the mix. Here, We're in
[1:27] Speaker 1: the mix.
[1:27] Speaker 2: The season is gone, the season is not going to
[1:29] Speaker 2: keep us warm any longer.
[1:31] Speaker 1: And here we are today.
[1:33] Speaker 2: We appreciate everybody stopping on by, hit follow, hit subscribe
[1:37] Speaker 2: wherever it is you get your college football shows and content,
[1:41] Speaker 2: what have you. We'd love to have you with us
[1:43] Speaker 2: for the remainder of this here ride throughout.
[1:46] Speaker 1: The off season. We got a lot going on in
[1:48] Speaker 1: the off season. We hope you can stop on by
[1:51] Speaker 1: here and listen to the show to keep you ender thing.
[1:55] Speaker 1: I think that's the way it goes, right casual dress
[1:57] Speaker 1: off season on the Soliverurbo. Even people who don't listen
[2:01] Speaker 1: to the show. I e. My young children managed to
[2:04] Speaker 1: figure out how to use when they're down here in
[2:06] Speaker 1: the studio how to use the soundboard programmed. Really yes,
[2:11] Speaker 1: so I was I was talking and that we're going
[2:13] Speaker 1: to get into the episode. I was talking to my
[2:15] Speaker 1: four year old who just likes pushing the buttons on
[2:18] Speaker 1: the soundboard and we'll just you know, come down here
[2:20] Speaker 1: and you know, push and gets in. And so I
[2:24] Speaker 1: was talking to him and he was sort of in
[2:25] Speaker 1: a sullen mood in the car, and I was like,
[2:26] Speaker 1: have you ever heard somebody say ooh, yeah? And he
[2:29] Speaker 1: sort of smiled and said yeah. And then I said,
[2:32] Speaker 1: have you ever heard anybody say nothing?
[2:35] Speaker 2: Nothing?
[2:36] Speaker 1: And he laughed and said yeah, And then the air
[2:39] Speaker 1: was sort of still, and all of a sudden, he
[2:43] Speaker 1: goes again four years old, says diarrhea, diarrhea, and I
[2:49] Speaker 1: could not have been more proud. Let me tell you something.
[2:53] Speaker 1: So the ways of this show have infiltrated the youth
[2:56] Speaker 1: of America. And you know what, fine body, why not?
[3:00] Speaker 1: Why not? It's great?
[3:03] Speaker 2: Well, okay, without further ado, we've got a show concept
[3:07] Speaker 2: here that, frankly, I don't know if we've ever done
[3:11] Speaker 2: anything like this. I know we've kicked it around in
[3:13] Speaker 2: the past, and we've done versions of it in the past,
[3:16] Speaker 2: but this came together very quickly, shortly before we hit record.
[3:21] Speaker 2: Like most of the offseason content tends to go, yeah,
[3:25] Speaker 2: this is going to be something something of a retrospective
[3:31] Speaker 2: for the twenty twenty five college football season, Dan, is
[3:34] Speaker 2: that an accurate portrayal?
[3:36] Speaker 1: Yeah, we do the fantasy things before the season, and
[3:40] Speaker 1: this isn't quite fantasy things because we're not selecting things
[3:43] Speaker 1: that we think or it seems like we'll continue happening
[3:47] Speaker 1: during the season. But this is more of a post
[3:50] Speaker 1: mortem debriefing on the things, whether it's player coach moment,
[3:56] Speaker 1: media member, sports situation, hiring situation, and whatever that we
[4:01] Speaker 1: celebrate as the things that have come to define the season.
[4:06] Speaker 1: Looking back, the uniquely twenty twenty five things of the
[4:09] Speaker 1: season that you know when you say, like, oh, like,
[4:12] Speaker 1: how can you not bring in Darren Dalton into the
[4:15] Speaker 1: Baseball Hall of Fame? How do you tell the story
[4:18] Speaker 1: of baseball without Dante Boschett? This is us Keny. I
[4:23] Speaker 1: don't think you can tell that. Those Rockies in the nineties.
[4:25] Speaker 2: I just remember on Sports Center when they would say
[4:28] Speaker 2: Dante Boshett happens.
[4:31] Speaker 1: Do you remember that? Yeah? Of course I do love that.
[4:33] Speaker 1: And you're Andre glarag the big Cat, Larry Walker. Of course,
[4:39] Speaker 1: there was there was a lot to those those Colorado teams.
[4:42] Speaker 1: It's a tough place to pitch, but man, did they
[4:45] Speaker 1: they enjoy swatting the hell could hit a little Toyle Helton. Yeah. Man,
[4:49] Speaker 1: So we're saying Peyton Manning's back up, good college football,
[4:52] Speaker 1: bring back. That's right. We're saying, how do you tell
[4:55] Speaker 1: the story of twenty twenty five in college football without
[4:58] Speaker 1: the following? So this is what we are doing, and
[5:02] Speaker 1: this is not our Hall of fame. This is our
[5:04] Speaker 1: hall of interesting maybe mix with some hall of fame
[5:07] Speaker 1: in there, but I'm very excited to get all of
[5:09] Speaker 1: these things on the record and be very quickly corrected
[5:13] Speaker 1: and added to by everybody listening to this and sending
[5:17] Speaker 1: us an email at solidverbal at gmail dot com or
[5:19] Speaker 1: commenting on the YouTube video version of this. Please let
[5:23] Speaker 1: us know anything we regrettably missed.
[5:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, lists like this are always thankless, and
[5:29] Speaker 2: we're not going to get everything, but you and I
[5:31] Speaker 2: have a pretty big bank of items that we compiled
[5:35] Speaker 2: in a Google doc before hitting go on this, So
[5:37] Speaker 2: we're going to do our best, as you said, to
[5:39] Speaker 2: highlight the moments that made twenty twenty five unique in
[5:43] Speaker 2: a college football sense. Again, as you mentioned, everybody out there,
[5:47] Speaker 2: please send us emails, please leave us comments forballers dot com.
[5:52] Speaker 2: Also is where you can go if you want to
[5:54] Speaker 2: comment on this episode and be part of our growing
[5:57] Speaker 2: community of people who support what we do do Certified
[6:01] Speaker 2: in premium for ballers. Of course, you won the draw here,
[6:06] Speaker 2: which means that you're going to get the first pick.
[6:08] Speaker 2: This isn't so much a draft. We're just sort of
[6:11] Speaker 2: going to alternate between the two of us picking. These
[6:13] Speaker 2: are going to be the seventeen most interesting, most unique,
[6:18] Speaker 2: most defining aspects of the twenty twenty five college football season.
[6:23] Speaker 2: And being so you and I are children of the nineties,
[6:26] Speaker 2: you and I have a sound here to lead off
[6:29] Speaker 2: this little endeavor, do we not?
[6:36] Speaker 1: Whoever scored and composed the music protectmost Super Bowl in
[6:40] Speaker 1: the whatever early nineties. I'm not saying it's on the
[6:45] Speaker 1: level of the Rocky four training montage, but it's almost there.
[6:49] Speaker 1: For my hearts, it's approaching. It's an also receiving vote
[6:53] Speaker 1: in my heart. So yes, we are looking back wistfully
[6:57] Speaker 1: and fondly about the twenty twenty five season. My number
[6:59] Speaker 1: one thing of the twenty twenty five season, all due
[7:03] Speaker 1: respect to all of the great performances, all of the
[7:06] Speaker 1: winners of conferences in title games, and a national championship,
[7:09] Speaker 1: I don't have Indiana winning the national championship as historic
[7:14] Speaker 1: and electric and incredible as it was. And maybe it's
[7:18] Speaker 1: number two, maybe it's number three, But college football is
[7:21] Speaker 1: a different kind of sport. We're sort of post winning
[7:25] Speaker 1: in this sport, right It's TV ratings, it's social media impressions,
[7:29] Speaker 1: whatever it is that truly gain you the wins. Apparently,
[7:32] Speaker 1: I have the Lane Kiff and saga as the number
[7:36] Speaker 1: one thing of the season, and I'll explain why. I
[7:40] Speaker 1: don't think it's more important than Indiana winning the national championship.
[7:43] Speaker 1: I don't think it's more impressive than Indiana winning the
[7:46] Speaker 1: national championship. I don't even think it's more historic than
[7:49] Speaker 1: Indiana winning the national championship. I think it's more twenty
[7:52] Speaker 1: twenty five than Indiana winning the national championship, because it's
[7:56] Speaker 1: sort of like take your pick, you know, Like I
[7:59] Speaker 1: think of like an player like Sean Marion who would
[8:01] Speaker 1: like have a quadruple double. The Lane Kiffin saga touched
[8:05] Speaker 1: so many different elements of college football culture that he
[8:10] Speaker 1: led an excellent ole Miss season. This is the first
[8:14] Speaker 1: time ole Miss has ever reached the college football Playoff.
[8:17] Speaker 1: There was a D two transfer backing up Austin Simmons
[8:23] Speaker 1: at quarterback who emerged under the tutelage of Lane Kiffin quarterback.
[8:26] Speaker 1: Whisperer Right, you have Ole Miss as sort of an
[8:30] Speaker 1: afterthought in the big Bad SEC hierarchy, breaking through and
[8:34] Speaker 1: ending up as the alpha of the twenty twenty five
[8:38] Speaker 1: SEC season, getting the furthest in the college Football Playoff.
[8:42] Speaker 1: And then you have the newsy social media element of
[8:47] Speaker 1: Lane Kiffin, will he won't he leave? Will he get
[8:50] Speaker 1: a raise to stay at Ole Miss? Why would he
[8:53] Speaker 1: ever leave? Ole Miss? And everybody on television and podcasting
[8:56] Speaker 1: and radio weighing in with their own thoughts, Lane Kiffin
[8:59] Speaker 1: tweeting through it, instagramming through it, and then the story
[9:03] Speaker 1: eventually coming out that he's leaving for LSU, but he
[9:05] Speaker 1: wanted to stay at Ole Miss. But then there was
[9:07] Speaker 1: a team vote that said, you know, some of the
[9:09] Speaker 1: guys wanted him to say some of the guys didn't
[9:11] Speaker 1: want him to stay. There was a potentially made up
[9:14] Speaker 1: story about him needing a police escort because people were
[9:17] Speaker 1: trying to run him off the road, even though there
[9:19] Speaker 1: was no evidence or proof thereof. On his way to
[9:22] Speaker 1: the airport to go to Baton, Rouge telling his assistance
[9:25] Speaker 1: that they needed to get on the plane if they
[9:27] Speaker 1: wanted a job, possibly using a dog as a social
[9:30] Speaker 1: media tool the hot yoga and Instagram dms to college
[9:36] Speaker 1: girls of it all. Again, apologies to Indiana, who clearly
[9:41] Speaker 1: surpassed this Lane Kiff and Saga in terms of pure
[9:45] Speaker 1: on field and off field excellence. But there is something
[9:50] Speaker 1: more and juicier and more robust on the bone literally
[9:56] Speaker 1: and figuratively, I guess of Lane Kiffin, And it's not
[9:59] Speaker 1: unique Ton being a bad breaker upper. But when you
[10:03] Speaker 1: hit all of the different points, it's sort of like
[10:06] Speaker 1: when you have the NFL Draft physical profile and it's
[10:09] Speaker 1: that spider Webs spider graph, Yeah, right, the spider graph
[10:12] Speaker 1: where it's just you know that the hand size and
[10:14] Speaker 1: the shuttle time and the accuracy whatever. I think the
[10:18] Speaker 1: Lane Kiffins story specifically hits more of the outer ring
[10:23] Speaker 1: of the spider graph of twenty twenty five and is
[10:26] Speaker 1: therefore It's not like I'm making this my number one
[10:29] Speaker 1: overall pick, but I'm just planning a flag that it
[10:31] Speaker 1: is the most twenty twenty five thing. Feel free to counter.
[10:34] Speaker 2: Well, No, And I think another important disclaimer through this exercise.
[10:39] Speaker 2: It is not so much a ranking. No, it is
[10:42] Speaker 2: not so much a ranking, but it is more a
[10:45] Speaker 2: collection of those items that to us jump out and
[10:48] Speaker 2: made twenty twenty five unique.
[10:50] Speaker 1: I'm just starting with it because I feel like if
[10:53] Speaker 1: there were a ranking, it has to be number one
[10:55] Speaker 1: to me. And you're not even covering all of the
[10:59] Speaker 1: different usles of this Lane is a mercurial character in
[11:03] Speaker 1: college football and probably life in general. But all of
[11:07] Speaker 1: the things you highlighted, you left some out. How did
[11:10] Speaker 1: we even get into this situation at LSU firing Brian Kelly,
[11:15] Speaker 1: who only hired a few years prior. They tried to
[11:19] Speaker 1: fire him with cause. Brian Kelly's lawyers immediately pushed back.
[11:24] Speaker 1: LSU caved like a house of cards and is now
[11:27] Speaker 1: on the hook for the full some of his fifty
[11:30] Speaker 1: four million dollar buyout. Yes, then there was also even
[11:34] Speaker 1: before that, the whole Brian Kelly lecturing of the media thing, yes,
[11:39] Speaker 1: of course, which was an exciting little precursor to his
[11:43] Speaker 1: eventual fate now being out of a job but being
[11:46] Speaker 1: very rich.
[11:47] Speaker 2: After they fire him. There was the whole dog and
[11:51] Speaker 2: Pony show about the governor of Louisiana weighing in on
[11:54] Speaker 2: the coaching search.
[11:55] Speaker 1: For a while there, we didn't know who was going
[11:57] Speaker 1: to make the hire right, and it was all very
[12:01] Speaker 1: much in flux at a time when they are in
[12:04] Speaker 1: hot pursuit of Lane Kiffin, which I think, to your
[12:07] Speaker 1: point about the spider graph, I'm not even sure if
[12:10] Speaker 1: that's on the existing spider graph right. Also, by the way,
[12:14] Speaker 1: start working their way into this thing, it all gets
[12:16] Speaker 1: jumbled into a mess. The governor specifically saying I don't
[12:21] Speaker 1: know who made this deal to pay Brian Kelly all
[12:24] Speaker 1: this money, obviously the now departed LSUA D. Scott Woodward.
[12:30] Speaker 1: But we're never going to make make a deal like that.
[12:33] Speaker 1: That's so bad for this school in this state. And
[12:36] Speaker 1: immediately gave Wayne Giffn a bigger buyout, right immediately gave
[12:41] Speaker 1: Lane Kiffin a bigger deal in a bigger buyout. And look,
[12:44] Speaker 1: it's an incredible story from the like fake redemption arc
[12:49] Speaker 1: of Lane Kiffin via Hot Yoga and then everybody in
[12:52] Speaker 1: his Hot Yoga class immediately going online to talk about
[12:55] Speaker 1: how bad he was at like as a Hot Yoga
[12:58] Speaker 1: attendee he can try on the playlist. He wanted to
[13:01] Speaker 1: turn it up Hotter. Yes, I look, it has every
[13:06] Speaker 1: single thing. It has every single thing that we both
[13:08] Speaker 1: love and hate about this sport all in one need.
[13:10] Speaker 1: Like and to your point, ty, if we truly wanted to,
[13:14] Speaker 1: if we wanted to challenge ourself, we would connect every
[13:19] Speaker 1: single one of these stories to each other. Right, we
[13:21] Speaker 1: could say, Okay, this Lane Kiven thing happened because of
[13:24] Speaker 1: Brian Kelly, and the Brian Kelly thing happened because of
[13:28] Speaker 1: you know, leaving Notre Dame and not feeling good about that,
[13:31] Speaker 1: and what has Notre Dame given us? Well, Notre Dame
[13:33] Speaker 1: this season has given us this? And why did this
[13:35] Speaker 1: happen because of Notre Dame doing this? Like we could
[13:37] Speaker 1: the sport is so insular and deeply connected on every level,
[13:42] Speaker 1: like we could do the Brian Kelly thing and then
[13:44] Speaker 1: go to DJ Lagway throwing five interceptions. So I don't
[13:49] Speaker 1: want to go too far down that winding road. But
[13:53] Speaker 1: do we agree if we're going to we're not ranking,
[13:55] Speaker 1: but do we agree that that was the most twenty
[13:57] Speaker 1: twenty five thing? Oh my god, Yes, it's not even close.
[14:01] Speaker 2: Okay, because it and look, I'm not gonna reiterate everything
[14:05] Speaker 2: that you've said, but it it touches on all the things.
[14:08] Speaker 2: It involves characters and personalities that everybody's interested in. It
[14:13] Speaker 2: involves message board rumors. It involves this deep seated sort
[14:18] Speaker 2: of feeling of betrayal from one school to another. It
[14:24] Speaker 2: involves confusion, who is coming, who is going?
[14:28] Speaker 1: What is going on here?
[14:29] Speaker 2: Like all of the aspects that make any college football
[14:33] Speaker 2: story unique and worthwhile and give you that little hook
[14:38] Speaker 2: as a college football fan that you're interested even if
[14:41] Speaker 2: you don't care about the teams. This had all of it.
[14:43] Speaker 1: So yeah, a couple other points, and we can spend
[14:46] Speaker 1: next thirty five minutes talking about it if we truly
[14:48] Speaker 1: wanted to. One. He was sent off from Oxford with
[14:54] Speaker 1: a tender hug from ESPN's Marty's Marty's I love that, right,
[15:04] Speaker 1: I love that. I forgot all about that. And then,
[15:06] Speaker 1: you know, as the sort of PostScript of a tall
[15:09] Speaker 1: mind bomb going on going on TV saying like, well,
[15:13] Speaker 1: I was wrong, looks like, oh, Polly fine, bomb was
[15:18] Speaker 1: wrong again. After Indiana wins the national championship and the
[15:22] Speaker 1: Big Ten is apparently like a superior entity. Who knows
[15:25] Speaker 1: that's all nonsense, but you get the ienda, Oh my God, Yeah,
[15:30] Speaker 1: tender hug from Marty Smith. We should all be so lucky,
[15:33] Speaker 1: to be clear, Ty, we should all be so lucky.
[15:35] Speaker 1: And then you have the PostScript of the portal time
[15:40] Speaker 1: of LSU going national championship or bust in year one
[15:44] Speaker 1: spending god knows how many millions of dollars and by
[15:47] Speaker 1: the way, good for them, good for the players for
[15:48] Speaker 1: getting that bag. I guess Sam Levitt and Jordan Seaton
[15:52] Speaker 1: and Prince Will from Ole Miss coming in is I
[15:54] Speaker 1: think the number one edge player. So LSU is immediately
[15:57] Speaker 1: spending like twenty twenty six is a national championship or
[16:01] Speaker 1: bust year with Lane Kiffin. Otherwise, you don't, you know,
[16:05] Speaker 1: make that sort of effort immediately unless they feel like
[16:08] Speaker 1: they have the surrounding pieces around them to say like, yeah,
[16:12] Speaker 1: these are the pieces we needed and we are gonna
[16:15] Speaker 1: spend like we want to go eleven and one and
[16:17] Speaker 1: put ourselves in position win the national championship. I think
[16:21] Speaker 1: it's great. I think you will get people responding to
[16:25] Speaker 1: us leading this show over Indiana with like, how sad
[16:27] Speaker 1: is it for college football? That it's the rumor mongering
[16:32] Speaker 1: and the juicy details They know though, come on, we're
[16:35] Speaker 1: gonna talk about India. I'll talk about Indiana next.
[16:38] Speaker 2: But they know, if you've been following college football for
[16:41] Speaker 2: any period of time, a year, a month, you know
[16:45] Speaker 2: this is what drives it all. It's rumors, it's coaching. Sure,
[16:50] Speaker 2: they come into go like all recruiting stuff. Yeah, this
[16:54] Speaker 2: is what moves the needle. No disrespect to the actual
[16:58] Speaker 2: teams playing the games, but the coaches are the biggest personalities.
[17:02] Speaker 1: It's yeah, Lsu, I've already seen quotes from people that
[17:06] Speaker 1: like the future of the SEC hinges on Lane Kiffen
[17:10] Speaker 1: and Lsu working out. Good luck guys, love it. Good
[17:12] Speaker 1: luck SEC if the future hinges on that. But it's
[17:17] Speaker 1: a terrific story. I couldn't get enough.
[17:19] Speaker 2: Let's talk about Indiana. My pick here will be Indiana
[17:23] Speaker 2: winning the national championship. Not to repeat myself too much,
[17:30] Speaker 2: but now that we've had a week to sit and
[17:34] Speaker 2: reflect on what Indiana and Kurt Signetti have done, I
[17:39] Speaker 2: don't think it's really even set in for me yet.
[17:43] Speaker 2: I think I am still quasi in denial over the
[17:47] Speaker 2: whole thing. Not because I was rooting against Indiana. We
[17:50] Speaker 2: both picked him to win. We both expected them to win.
[17:53] Speaker 2: Especially with how they handled their business against Oregon the
[17:56] Speaker 2: first time on the road in Eugene, the way they
[18:00] Speaker 2: handled Ohio State and then conducted their business through the
[18:03] Speaker 2: first couple rounds of the playoffs, blowing out both Alabama
[18:06] Speaker 2: and Oregon before getting to the national championship. But his
[18:11] Speaker 2: ability Signette's ability to turn this ship around, not even
[18:15] Speaker 2: turn it around Dan, but to strip it down to
[18:18] Speaker 2: the studs and build it as quickly as he did
[18:21] Speaker 2: through the transfer portal. The fact that he had that
[18:24] Speaker 2: level of success that quickly, that it was spawning more
[18:28] Speaker 2: Internet rumors about cheating, tells you everything you need to
[18:31] Speaker 2: know about how good of a job he did and
[18:34] Speaker 2: how quickly he did it. If we told each other
[18:37] Speaker 2: five years ago that we would be in this position
[18:41] Speaker 2: on Monday, January twenty sixth, twenty twenty six talking about
[18:46] Speaker 2: Indiana as a national champion, we would have looked at
[18:49] Speaker 2: each other as if we had two heads. It's just
[18:52] Speaker 2: so incomprehensible relative to where this program was that they
[18:56] Speaker 2: would have this much of a rise so quickly. We
[19:01] Speaker 2: can talk about what it means bigger picture within the sport,
[19:05] Speaker 2: bigger picture within the context of SEC versus big ten
[19:09] Speaker 2: bigger picture within the context of what does the transfer
[19:12] Speaker 2: portal mean?
[19:12] Speaker 1: How has it changed the game? How has nil changed
[19:16] Speaker 1: the game? Bigger picture?
[19:18] Speaker 2: How has Kurt Signetti changed against Kurt Signetti found some
[19:21] Speaker 2: sort of secret formula in the portal era to make
[19:23] Speaker 2: all this work. There are a million different directions you
[19:26] Speaker 2: can go with this, but Indiana winning is about as unique.
[19:30] Speaker 1: A story as we're going to get in college football because.
[19:32] Speaker 2: That has never ever been the case, and specifically so
[19:36] Speaker 2: when we're talking about the losing this program in the
[19:39] Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty six years that preceded it.
[19:42] Speaker 1: Can I give you a theory that I think I've
[19:45] Speaker 1: concocted over the last couple of weeks. I think I
[19:49] Speaker 1: think Indiana's excellence on the field is obvious. They won
[19:55] Speaker 1: the national championship. They didn't make mistakes. They were buttoned up,
[19:58] Speaker 1: they game planned well, they tackled well, they caught everything like,
[20:02] Speaker 1: they didn't make mistakes. Like that's self evidence. I think
[20:06] Speaker 1: the charm of Indiana is not just in that they
[20:09] Speaker 1: never won anything. Ever, I think the charm of Indiana
[20:15] Speaker 1: was bolstered, if not turbocharged, because they did so in
[20:21] Speaker 1: such a plane way that it was almost a counter
[20:25] Speaker 1: to like the salaciousness of the rest of the sports.
[20:29] Speaker 2: Oh, that's a thousand percent true, because if you watched
[20:34] Speaker 2: any of what Indiana did this year, and specifically what
[20:37] Speaker 2: they did in the playoff, there weren't smoking mirrors here.
[20:42] Speaker 2: It wasn't like they were ripping off trick plays like
[20:46] Speaker 2: they were doing it with a novelty playbook.
[20:49] Speaker 1: I'm not even saying that, but continue we spoke.
[20:53] Speaker 2: To it a little bit in the build up to
[20:54] Speaker 2: the national championship and really throughout the course of the playoff.
[20:58] Speaker 2: There was a sense of an evitability with Indiana that
[21:02] Speaker 2: stemmed from the fact that they did not beat themselves,
[21:04] Speaker 2: and we compared it, i think haphazardly a bit to
[21:07] Speaker 2: some of those Saban teams when he was at Alabama.
[21:09] Speaker 1: How it just you knew what you were going to get.
[21:13] Speaker 1: They were buttoned up.
[21:14] Speaker 2: They might not be perfect, every win might not be pretty,
[21:18] Speaker 2: but you knew that they weren't going to go out
[21:19] Speaker 2: there and shoot themselves in the foot. And Indiana was
[21:22] Speaker 2: just very good at being very good at the little things,
[21:26] Speaker 2: and that above all else is I think why we're
[21:28] Speaker 2: talking about them as a national champion. They were content
[21:31] Speaker 2: to let other teams beat themselves. They were obviously good
[21:33] Speaker 2: enough to capitalize on those mistakes. For me, that's as
[21:38] Speaker 2: much part of the story as how quickly Signetti got
[21:41] Speaker 2: them to this point. Because there have been programs around
[21:44] Speaker 2: college football, and we'll tom I'm sure we'll talk about
[21:46] Speaker 2: Penn State here before long, but Penn State notably being
[21:50] Speaker 2: one of them that worked for a decade plus to
[21:53] Speaker 2: try and build up the culture and the recruiting and
[21:55] Speaker 2: the facilities and everything they thought they needed to do
[21:58] Speaker 2: to get to where Indiana.
[22:00] Speaker 1: In two years.
[22:01] Speaker 2: That is probably the biggest prong of this story, if
[22:05] Speaker 2: there is one. To me, just the speed with which
[22:08] Speaker 2: he got to this level is amazing.
[22:11] Speaker 1: So what I'm saying, and everything you said is true,
[22:14] Speaker 1: what I'm saying is that Indiana is specifically counter to
[22:19] Speaker 1: one the like Lane Kiffin of it all, and two
[22:22] Speaker 1: like you look around what has garnered the most attention
[22:26] Speaker 1: in this sport these past couple of years, Whether it's
[22:28] Speaker 1: Deon Sanders, whether it's like a golden child in arch Manning,
[22:32] Speaker 1: whether it's you know, huge portal salary numbers being thrown around,
[22:36] Speaker 1: whether it's you know, the sizzle of superstar like legit
[22:39] Speaker 1: superstar players like Jeremiah Smith or something like that, or
[22:43] Speaker 1: it's five star recruiting and crazy classes and you know
[22:47] Speaker 1: the LSU drama and Brian Kelly and Oregon and Nike
[22:52] Speaker 1: Flash and USC and Lincoln Riley, like the dramatic elements
[22:56] Speaker 1: of this sport, right winning the national championship with Michigan
[23:00] Speaker 1: but having all of the cheating scandal hovering over everything
[23:03] Speaker 1: like that the Indiana stories aside from like losing his
[23:07] Speaker 1: program ever now suddenly excellent is like can you believe
[23:10] Speaker 1: Fernando Mendoza has a LinkedIn page? Can you believe? And
[23:15] Speaker 1: stop me if this gets too crazy that Kurt Signetti
[23:18] Speaker 1: enjoys Bland rice bowls every day? Right, Like there's there
[23:22] Speaker 1: was a charm. It was almost like rediscovering vinyl records,
[23:26] Speaker 1: you know, going to the library to read books instead
[23:29] Speaker 1: of like there was this like very old fashioned charm
[23:32] Speaker 1: to like, yeah, they found a defensive end from Kent
[23:35] Speaker 1: State and it worked out, like there was a bunch
[23:38] Speaker 1: of players from James Madison and like Kurt Signetti doesn't smile,
[23:43] Speaker 1: He just cares about being point zero one percent better
[23:46] Speaker 1: on every snap. By the way, I think people were
[23:48] Speaker 1: charmed by that, like, hey, there's nothing actually crazy interesting
[23:54] Speaker 1: about any of these people beyond they enjoy being the
[23:58] Speaker 1: best three technique in the Big ten. Like there was
[24:00] Speaker 1: something about that, Like there was nothing with high school recruiting.
[24:03] Speaker 1: There were no crazy salaries in the portal. Yes they're
[24:06] Speaker 1: older or whatever. Like it was just like, gosh, darn,
[24:09] Speaker 1: we're a little bit better at football than we were yesterday.
[24:12] Speaker 1: And I think that was sort of like the anecdote
[24:15] Speaker 1: to like screaming heads about the Big Ten in the
[24:19] Speaker 1: SEC and the playoff and this era and how do
[24:22] Speaker 1: you fix it and who's it? Like Indiana was just like, man,
[24:25] Speaker 1: we're just gonna run up the middle for six yards
[24:26] Speaker 1: and see how it works.
[24:28] Speaker 2: I am currently mainlining every single Kurt Signetty meme on
[24:34] Speaker 2: social Sure. I cannot get enough of these. I have
[24:38] Speaker 2: been trapped in this loop now for a week straight
[24:41] Speaker 2: and I'm still into it. It has not gotten old yet,
[24:44] Speaker 2: the one where he's sort of look in one way,
[24:47] Speaker 2: looking the other.
[24:48] Speaker 1: There's been a lot this.
[24:49] Speaker 2: This has restored my hope that social media isn't all bad.
[24:54] Speaker 1: Yeah, solely because of those memes. So Indiana, But do
[24:57] Speaker 1: you think there's juice to that. Do you think there's
[24:59] Speaker 1: like does that ring true on any level? Indiana's like
[25:03] Speaker 1: one hundred percent plainness. And look, they might have had
[25:05] Speaker 1: to catch the year with Omark Cooper at Penn State.
[25:07] Speaker 1: Like I'm not saying what they did wasn't interesting and
[25:10] Speaker 1: electric on the field, but just the Indiana vibe was
[25:14] Speaker 1: more just like, I don't know, man, it's kind of
[25:17] Speaker 1: cool that we're just talking about the football of it all.
[25:20] Speaker 2: Well, it contrasted with what we saw recently at Colorado.
[25:24] Speaker 2: I think it's just one way you could compare it.
[25:26] Speaker 2: I Mean, the Colorado story was all about Dion, it
[25:29] Speaker 2: was all about the transfer portal, it was about Travis Hunter,
[25:32] Speaker 2: it was about Shador.
[25:33] Speaker 1: I mean, it was the heisman at Yeah.
[25:35] Speaker 2: I mean there's a certain level of excellence there, but
[25:39] Speaker 2: so much of that conversation was about individual players, about
[25:43] Speaker 2: the situation, about the portal, about I think being a
[25:48] Speaker 2: little bit different, right, not having a pre defined mold
[25:52] Speaker 2: that they were building the program from. Yeah, we didn't
[25:55] Speaker 2: talk about any of that with India, right, it was
[25:58] Speaker 2: just about, Yeah, they don't beat themselves, and they're really
[26:01] Speaker 2: good on third downs and they're really good at tackling.
[26:03] Speaker 2: Their defense plays a complex zone. It was all about
[26:06] Speaker 2: on field stuff and so even that might even though
[26:09] Speaker 2: that might not have been as flashy as some of
[26:12] Speaker 2: the like Colorado.
[26:12] Speaker 1: Or even the Miami storyline, it was. It was football.
[26:16] Speaker 1: It was very basic and they're very good at it.
[26:18] Speaker 1: The juiciest thing he said was produce sucks, which they do.
[26:24] Speaker 1: That's not even that. TU say sorry to our guy
[26:26] Speaker 1: Eric out On for Bawlers dot Com and Ranch Handan.
[26:29] Speaker 1: They know it. They know it, all right, Yeah, you're up.
[26:32] Speaker 1: What do you got for me? My next item? I
[26:38] Speaker 1: think my next item, this is not a ranking per se,
[26:41] Speaker 1: but things that have to be discussed. I think is
[26:44] Speaker 1: the absolute and there are tentacles to this, the absolute
[26:48] Speaker 1: butt collapse of two top five, two top five teams
[26:51] Speaker 1: in Penn State and Clemson. You mean my predicted national
[26:55] Speaker 1: championship game, your predicted national championship. They did play in
[26:59] Speaker 1: the post, they did play they did play in the
[27:02] Speaker 1: Pinstripe Bowl. You nailed that. There's almost with Penn State,
[27:07] Speaker 1: especially though there is a really clear trilogy to this all.
[27:13] Speaker 1: There's the expectation, there's the collapse, and then there's the
[27:17] Speaker 1: search and when you break it down like that, Penn
[27:21] Speaker 1: State isn't quite Lane Kiffin in the Spider what do
[27:26] Speaker 1: we call it, the spider profile, spidergraph, Yeah, spider graph,
[27:28] Speaker 1: excuse me, But among a lot of people, it was
[27:35] Speaker 1: super interesting to watch Penn State with national championship aspirations
[27:40] Speaker 1: come up short against both UCLA and Northwestern fire the
[27:44] Speaker 1: guy who took them to the top four mere months ago,
[27:48] Speaker 1: and then have everybody say like, oh man, they're gonna
[27:51] Speaker 1: get somebody huge to coach this team. It is Penn
[27:54] Speaker 1: State with on thirty seven. Candidates include a wrong phone
[28:01] Speaker 1: number or a misdirection from the wrong agent, correct crumble cookies,
[28:07] Speaker 1: the fired coach taking a job like two hours later,
[28:11] Speaker 1: and then finally somehow backing into a really good option.
[28:15] Speaker 1: I think the trilogy was sensational. There were some twists
[28:19] Speaker 1: and turns. We were at that white Out game. I
[28:24] Speaker 1: know you jotted down here. One of the other moments
[28:27] Speaker 1: that jumped out to you, just on a personal show
[28:30] Speaker 1: level was me taking forty five minutes to return from
[28:35] Speaker 1: a trip to the bathroom before the game started, which
[28:38] Speaker 1: I did discuss on the podcast at some point, But
[28:43] Speaker 1: it was crazy.
[28:44] Speaker 2: This was an incredible Whipsaw for Penn Stats because the
[28:48] Speaker 2: expectations were sky high. I don't think anybody who had
[28:52] Speaker 2: Penn State that high in their preseason rankings were a miss.
[28:55] Speaker 2: There was good reason to feel good about this team.
[28:58] Speaker 2: But the deeper we got into, obviously the Oregon loss
[29:01] Speaker 2: in overtime, that stung pretty good. After that point, it
[29:05] Speaker 2: just felt like they were spent. It felt like they
[29:08] Speaker 2: were spent. Though it's probably a sad indictment for where
[29:11] Speaker 2: we're at as a sport that Penn State would choose
[29:14] Speaker 2: to fire James Franklin in the manner that they did
[29:17] Speaker 2: mid season, after all he had done for the program.
[29:21] Speaker 2: I do think it was justified in that it was
[29:26] Speaker 2: time right, it was time to move on. So I
[29:30] Speaker 2: get where they were coming from, but I'm not going
[29:33] Speaker 2: to act as if the initial process, or the entire
[29:36] Speaker 2: process of getting a new person in place, was in
[29:39] Speaker 2: any way buttoned up. It was not from firing him
[29:42] Speaker 2: mid season to the wild goose chase that ensued after
[29:46] Speaker 2: Patkraft went to that podium and announced and got everybody
[29:50] Speaker 2: riled up talking about what they were looking for next
[29:53] Speaker 2: to lead the Nitney Allons leaked audio.
[29:56] Speaker 1: We had the leaked audio.
[29:57] Speaker 2: Right, We had him f in this and using every
[30:00] Speaker 2: expletive in the book to talk through what he thought
[30:06] Speaker 2: was in private about where the program was at and
[30:08] Speaker 2: what they needed to do better.
[30:10] Speaker 1: We had that aspect of it.
[30:11] Speaker 2: There were also these knock on effects that we saw,
[30:14] Speaker 2: not just as a result of the Penn State search,
[30:16] Speaker 2: but a very active coaching carousel in general. Everybody else
[30:20] Speaker 2: getting raises, Matt Ruhle getting a king's ransom to win
[30:24] Speaker 2: seven games and lose his star quarterback to the portal.
[30:27] Speaker 1: And is also like Ohen whatever against ranked teams and
[30:31] Speaker 1: had to go on I think Pat McAfee show multiple
[30:33] Speaker 1: times to not fully deny interest in the Penn State
[30:37] Speaker 1: job and turn it into however, made ten eleven, twelve
[30:40] Speaker 1: million dollars a year to still not really break through.
[30:45] Speaker 2: It.
[30:45] Speaker 1: It has a lot of different elements.
[30:47] Speaker 2: And then, as you said, the way that they backed
[30:50] Speaker 2: into in effect backed into Matt Campbell initially reaching out
[30:55] Speaker 2: to somebody who they thought could connect them with Campbell,
[30:58] Speaker 2: being rebuffed, being led to believe that no, he's not interested,
[31:03] Speaker 2: and then circling back at a later date only to
[31:07] Speaker 2: find out that yes, in fact he was.
[31:08] Speaker 1: And then the deal came together very quickly.
[31:10] Speaker 2: So this is definitely a situation or was a situation
[31:14] Speaker 2: for Penn State where it did help them to be
[31:16] Speaker 2: a big institution with resources in a part of the
[31:19] Speaker 2: country that Campbell is familiar with. It didn't end up
[31:22] Speaker 2: working out in the end, and it seems as though
[31:24] Speaker 2: recruiting is picking up, and obviously he brought a good
[31:27] Speaker 2: number of players with him from Iowa State excuse me,
[31:30] Speaker 2: I don't state, so they're going to be just fine
[31:32] Speaker 2: in the short term, but certainly the process to get
[31:36] Speaker 2: there was a bit different than we are used to
[31:40] Speaker 2: and I would say the broader context being coaching in
[31:44] Speaker 2: college football, how temporary it can be, how fickle it
[31:51] Speaker 2: can be. Now in the era of big money in
[31:53] Speaker 2: a twelve team playoff, the twenty twenty five season for
[31:56] Speaker 2: me as a Penn Stater will largely be defined by this.
[32:01] Speaker 1: I think that's right. I think there's sort of auxiliary
[32:05] Speaker 1: or maybe not auxiliary, but like sidebar elements for other
[32:10] Speaker 1: schools dealing with similar things to what I mean. We
[32:13] Speaker 1: haven't really talked about the Clemson thing, but obviously Clemson's run,
[32:16] Speaker 1: you know, the first half of the schedule through the
[32:18] Speaker 1: ACC and the losses they had teams like LSU and
[32:21] Speaker 1: Georgia Tech, two not terrible teams to whatever extent, but
[32:26] Speaker 1: Clemson falling off and Kate Klubnick not fully working out
[32:30] Speaker 1: and offensive pop not working out, defensive issues for Clemson,
[32:33] Speaker 1: and just not being able to build on twenty twenty
[32:36] Speaker 1: four at all. It wasn't a huge surprise because Clemson
[32:40] Speaker 1: has been by their standards down for a few years now,
[32:43] Speaker 1: even though they've won the ACC They won a bunch
[32:45] Speaker 1: of games, but again they set up bar that seems
[32:47] Speaker 1: to be much higher, and then dealing with, you know,
[32:49] Speaker 1: the portal inactivity over the years and now dealing with
[32:52] Speaker 1: portal weirdness with a cal linebacker an all miss, and like,
[32:56] Speaker 1: it's just been a frustrating year. I'm positive if you're
[32:59] Speaker 1: a Clem fan, if your Dabblesweeney, if you're any of
[33:01] Speaker 1: these guys, it's just the total process. It just seems
[33:05] Speaker 1: like more of a self contained movie than a trilogy
[33:08] Speaker 1: like Penn State had. But like similar to Penn State
[33:12] Speaker 1: is I think the number one preseason team was Texas, right,
[33:16] Speaker 1: was it not? Right? I don't know if there were
[33:17] Speaker 1: one or two, but they had one against two in
[33:19] Speaker 1: the opening week against Ohio State, and it's been extremely
[33:23] Speaker 1: rare where a quarterback has been such a household name
[33:28] Speaker 1: before playing full time.
[33:30] Speaker 2: Well, I think that's the story, and it's probably got
[33:34] Speaker 2: less to do with Texas. For me, if we are
[33:38] Speaker 2: listing out these items that we think made twenty twenty
[33:41] Speaker 2: five unique, it's more about Arch Manning than it is
[33:44] Speaker 2: about the Texas Longhorns because we all know the story,
[33:47] Speaker 2: right Quen youw weres goes pro paves the way for
[33:50] Speaker 2: Arch Manning. This is supposed to be like the second
[33:53] Speaker 2: coming of quarterback greatness within the Manning community.
[33:58] Speaker 1: With the new generation Manning community, Manning family community of
[34:03] Speaker 1: Manning's out there. Yeah, you know what I mean, and
[34:06] Speaker 1: it took a while to take flight. Now.
[34:09] Speaker 2: One thing I jotted down here on our sheet was
[34:11] Speaker 2: post concussion, Arch Manning was I think more of a
[34:15] Speaker 2: preview for what we're going to get this coming season
[34:18] Speaker 2: now that he's staying in school. I mean, he looked
[34:20] Speaker 2: good after he got his bell rung. And I don't
[34:22] Speaker 2: know if there's any science behind that or if he
[34:24] Speaker 2: just started getting more comfortable with the system for whatever reason,
[34:27] Speaker 2: he got much better and looked pretty good down the stretch.
[34:30] Speaker 2: So that part of it is very exciting, but it
[34:33] Speaker 2: is almost a cautionary tale of putting too many expectations
[34:39] Speaker 2: on somebody too soon before you actually have a body
[34:41] Speaker 2: work to rely upon.
[34:43] Speaker 1: Yeah, I just in general the Texas season with arch
[34:46] Speaker 1: Manning right bursting onto the scene on a stage like
[34:49] Speaker 1: that against Ohio State, you know, having the commercials for
[34:53] Speaker 1: was it Warby park in Harby Parker Viory, stuff like
[34:56] Speaker 1: that I saw on the day, and it's like throws
[34:59] Speaker 1: a backbreaking in a go to commercial break and there's
[35:02] Speaker 1: arch Manning collecting money talking about like how great his
[35:06] Speaker 1: vision is now that he's wearing Morby Parker glasses. There's
[35:08] Speaker 1: like the Texas season in general, was you know, the
[35:11] Speaker 1: disappointing offensive line play, the close calls against Mississippi State
[35:16] Speaker 1: and who I'm missing Kentucky and the emotional and crazy
[35:20] Speaker 1: impressive second half against Texas A and M to finish
[35:23] Speaker 1: out the season nearly giving away the Vanderbilt game. Like
[35:25] Speaker 1: there was a ton of entertainment. They didn't really find receivers.
[35:29] Speaker 1: There was a story about Steve Sarkisian potentially being interested
[35:32] Speaker 1: in the Tennessee Titans job that he quickly denied, like
[35:35] Speaker 1: there was just there was a lot to the season
[35:39] Speaker 1: that ultimately fell short of Texas expectations after you know,
[35:44] Speaker 1: making the playoff the past couple of years. But yeah,
[35:47] Speaker 1: the the arch manning of it all, like not looking
[35:50] Speaker 1: super strong against was it like, uh San Jose staid
[35:54] Speaker 1: and who is Sam Houston? I want to say, utep,
[35:59] Speaker 1: it was, yeah, you tep in San Jose State. After
[36:01] Speaker 1: that Ohio State game, people were like, is this guy
[36:03] Speaker 1: like he could never have met expectations basically short of
[36:07] Speaker 1: winning the Heisman. No, And so the introduction and wobbly
[36:12] Speaker 1: nature of his season I think is one of the
[36:15] Speaker 1: things we have to consider about being a defining chapter
[36:19] Speaker 1: of the season.
[36:21] Speaker 2: We need to talk about Bill Belichick and the on
[36:24] Speaker 2: and off field antics. I can't believe it's taken this long.
[36:28] Speaker 2: I think it speaks to just how unique twenty twenty
[36:30] Speaker 2: five was. But the full Bill Belichick experience this season,
[36:36] Speaker 2: from the off field shenanigans to the on field I
[36:40] Speaker 2: guess lack of production at least for a while. How
[36:43] Speaker 2: would we grade out Belichick in year one just in
[36:46] Speaker 2: terms of what we saw on the field for North Carolina.
[36:50] Speaker 2: We can layer in the other stuff later, and that
[36:52] Speaker 2: certainly is a funnier element to the Bill Belichick story
[36:56] Speaker 2: at UNC, But just in terms of an on field product,
[37:00] Speaker 2: how did we feel about that? How do we feel
[37:02] Speaker 2: about that now as we look ahead?
[37:06] Speaker 1: It was very bad. You know, it's hard to distinguish
[37:10] Speaker 1: between what North Carolina was on the field and what
[37:12] Speaker 1: North Carolina was quickly trying to put together a roster,
[37:16] Speaker 1: and they did so poorly by all accounts that they
[37:20] Speaker 1: had a really easy, workable schedule. I don't like North
[37:23] Speaker 1: Carolina didn't play Miami correct, No, No, North Carolina didn't
[37:27] Speaker 1: play Pitt. You know, like you look at some of
[37:29] Speaker 1: the quality teams on their schedule and it was like
[37:32] Speaker 1: a disappointing Clemson team and Virginia and Duke that was
[37:36] Speaker 1: like the quality on the acc portion of their schedule.
[37:40] Speaker 1: All due respect to Wake Forest, who had a pretty
[37:42] Speaker 1: respectable year all things considered, but like this was a
[37:45] Speaker 1: year that, like North Carolina with Mac Brown wins many
[37:49] Speaker 1: more games than what they won with Bill Belichick. And
[37:52] Speaker 1: so I would say, given schedule, given what his name
[37:57] Speaker 1: is in football circles, for them to assemble that roster
[38:02] Speaker 1: and then really kind of crap the bed against their schedule,
[38:06] Speaker 1: which was one of the easiest in the country among
[38:08] Speaker 1: Power four teams. I would say crazy, disappointing.
[38:13] Speaker 2: I look at next year's schedule, I think it looks harder.
[38:16] Speaker 2: I mean, this was one of the better schedules in
[38:18] Speaker 2: the ACC this year, and so it was set up
[38:21] Speaker 2: for him. I mean, they brought they went out, They
[38:22] Speaker 2: brought in a bunch of guys pretty late in the cycle,
[38:25] Speaker 2: but it didn't amount to more than four wins in
[38:32] Speaker 2: year one. There were a couple of games in there
[38:33] Speaker 2: that were one score affairs that maybe could have gone
[38:36] Speaker 2: the other direction, but even still they're on the fringes
[38:39] Speaker 2: of Bowl eligibility. We'll see if it gets any better
[38:42] Speaker 2: this year. But I think the most unexpected element of
[38:46] Speaker 2: the Belichick story is obviously the off field stuff. Yes,
[38:49] Speaker 2: the off field stuff is really the curveball that we
[38:52] Speaker 2: didn't see coming. I don't think it's any great surprise
[38:56] Speaker 2: that a new coach in year one, after having to
[38:59] Speaker 2: reboot and bring in a bunch of players and bring
[39:01] Speaker 2: in personnel and kind of start everything over. I don't
[39:05] Speaker 2: think that in its own right, whether it's Belichick or
[39:07] Speaker 2: anybody that to me isn't a huge surprise. That happens
[39:11] Speaker 2: all the time, and that's not necessarily the end of
[39:13] Speaker 2: the world. But the off field stuff with Jordan Hudson,
[39:17] Speaker 2: and we're not going to make this a gossipy show,
[39:19] Speaker 2: I promise you, but all of the stuff that we
[39:22] Speaker 2: read about on that side of things, you may recall
[39:25] Speaker 2: there was a moment in this I don't know first
[39:28] Speaker 2: half of the past season where it looked as if
[39:31] Speaker 2: there were reports coming out that potentially they would move
[39:34] Speaker 2: on from Belichick already before the end of the season,
[39:38] Speaker 2: which is not something that I had on the BINGO card,
[39:41] Speaker 2: and it was obviously because of performance, but clearly because
[39:45] Speaker 2: of some of the other antics that I don't know.
[39:47] Speaker 2: A few people at UNC bargain for now they've decided
[39:50] Speaker 2: to stay the course.
[39:51] Speaker 1: He's going to be there again.
[39:53] Speaker 2: I don't think Belichick's going to be hired by anybody
[39:55] Speaker 2: in the NFL, although the Browns desperately need a coach,
[39:57] Speaker 2: so maybe they could go in that direction if they
[39:59] Speaker 2: really want it. But alas, I just feel like the
[40:04] Speaker 2: Belichick story is fine on the field, but the off
[40:08] Speaker 2: field stuff, to me, is really the most unpredictable and
[40:14] Speaker 2: ridiculous part.
[40:15] Speaker 1: Of the whole story in twenty twenty five for him. Yeah, look,
[40:18] Speaker 1: it's that that is the sort of gossiping nature of
[40:21] Speaker 1: this all. And it's not gossip like he is dating
[40:24] Speaker 1: Jordan Hudson. She is his girlfriend or fiance. I don't
[40:27] Speaker 1: know what they are in this recording time. But we've
[40:32] Speaker 1: had legendary big names in this sport, you know, that
[40:36] Speaker 1: are out of school forever, or that come down from
[40:39] Speaker 1: the NFL, or are just whatever they're they're older. But
[40:43] Speaker 1: like the idea of this kind of story with this
[40:49] Speaker 1: kind of coach and reputation for excellence taking over the
[40:55] Speaker 1: story of him coaching in college, right that we we
[40:58] Speaker 1: never had a story like this about Bill Snyder or
[41:01] Speaker 1: Bill Walsh or any of the other Bills, I guess
[41:04] Speaker 1: just Bill Belichick. That there is that unique nature to
[41:10] Speaker 1: this being an extremely twenty twenty five story with like
[41:12] Speaker 1: the Instagram pictures and you know the subject of Pablo
[41:16] Speaker 1: Tory's terrific podcast, Like there there was that unique element
[41:22] Speaker 1: to this story that I just felt very twenty twenty five.
[41:26] Speaker 1: And then going on the news and I'm sure you
[41:28] Speaker 1: have the sound all cued up, they're like not going
[41:29] Speaker 1: to talk about it where she is looking over the
[41:32] Speaker 1: shoulder of the interviewer with what he can and can't
[41:36] Speaker 1: talk about, Like it was just just in terms of optics,
[41:43] Speaker 1: it was a doozy tie not talking about this, thank you,
[41:46] Speaker 1: so uh yeah, you have to include that, but like
[41:50] Speaker 1: I also appreciate it. And this is another sort of
[41:52] Speaker 1: tentacle of it all. Was the opener was against TCU,
[41:56] Speaker 1: right right, And I want to say it was a
[41:57] Speaker 1: Thursday or Friday night. It sort of stood alone on
[42:00] Speaker 1: the sports calendar. Everybody was paying attention to it.
[42:02] Speaker 2: And they knife their way down the field, maybe knife
[42:05] Speaker 2: their way down the field on that opening drive, and
[42:07] Speaker 2: it was the immediate reaction. Man, the best ever to
[42:12] Speaker 2: do it in the NFL is back. He has figured
[42:15] Speaker 2: this out in college. Nobody is any match for him.
[42:19] Speaker 2: Was it Skip Bayless? Somebody one of the talkers, the
[42:23] Speaker 2: hot take artists, was out there on social media talking
[42:25] Speaker 2: it through, like already giving him the trophy.
[42:29] Speaker 1: Yeah, like, watch out college football, this guy's going to
[42:31] Speaker 1: be a capital P problem exactly.
[42:33] Speaker 2: And then they lost forty eight to fourteen, and I
[42:36] Speaker 2: believe we all went to betterly that was the way
[42:38] Speaker 2: that game.
[42:39] Speaker 1: Yeah, we all watched TCU look like a real college
[42:42] Speaker 1: football team in that moment, and then have I think
[42:46] Speaker 1: uns the only beat They barely beat Stanford and then
[42:49] Speaker 1: beat a Syracuse team that was maybe the worst powerful
[42:52] Speaker 1: team in the country without Steve Ageli and it was.
[42:55] Speaker 1: It was a long year and not so much a
[42:58] Speaker 1: problem for the rest of the sport as a problem
[43:00] Speaker 1: for North Carolina football. But look, but hey, we're talking
[43:04] Speaker 1: about it.
[43:04] Speaker 2: One score affair on the road to cal yep went
[43:08] Speaker 2: to overtime with Virginia.
[43:10] Speaker 1: Good Virginia team, that's true.
[43:12] Speaker 2: A one score affair with the eventual ACC champion, their rival,
[43:17] Speaker 2: the Duke Blue Devils. That one was at home thirty
[43:19] Speaker 2: two to twenty five. So there were a couple games
[43:21] Speaker 2: in there that maybe could have swung the balance of
[43:24] Speaker 2: this season and changed the narrative a bit, but they
[43:29] Speaker 2: weren't there. This This was still a fairly bad team.
[43:31] Speaker 2: And we'll see what he can do in twenty twenty six.
[43:37] Speaker 1: Whose turn is it right now? I think it's a mine.
[43:39] Speaker 1: Go ahead, go ahead.
[43:40] Speaker 2: By the way, we're going to need to turn this
[43:41] Speaker 2: into a part two. That's fine, Part two coming on Thursday.
[43:45] Speaker 2: I'm cool with it. We're only this is going to
[43:47] Speaker 2: be item number five here. We've committed to seventeen. So
[43:50] Speaker 2: go ahead, you go.
[43:52] Speaker 1: The strange reverse, Alex Hannold. That was the Alabama football season,
[43:57] Speaker 1: oh Man, just falling in the back half of the year.
[44:01] Speaker 1: But somehow, like Homer Simpson tumbling down, remember the episode
[44:05] Speaker 1: where he was like the Daredevil type and falling down
[44:08] Speaker 1: the canyon like the boulders and the branches and the
[44:12] Speaker 1: cacti and everything, except Alabama somehow landed the dismount into
[44:17] Speaker 1: the Lamborghini. That is the College Football Playoff and then immediately,
[44:22] Speaker 1: you know, throwing the Lamborghini off a ravine. But they
[44:26] Speaker 1: won a game, though they did a game on the
[44:29] Speaker 1: road at Oklahoma. But listen as somebody who considers himself
[44:34] Speaker 1: to be an expert at rooting for a team who
[44:36] Speaker 1: gets throttled by Indiana. Alabama got throttled by Indiana in
[44:42] Speaker 1: the Rose Bowl. And just the weirdness of it all,
[44:46] Speaker 1: the weirdness of Alabama's season opening up losing to Florida State,
[44:51] Speaker 1: I'll never quite understand losing to a Florida State team
[44:54] Speaker 1: who immediately went on to continue being Florida State in
[44:57] Speaker 1: the way that we've understood them to be these past
[44:59] Speaker 1: couple years, and then just finishing the season terribly, not
[45:05] Speaker 1: being able to figure out the run game save for
[45:07] Speaker 1: maybe two out of twelve games. Backing into the playoff
[45:12] Speaker 1: after getting throttled by Georgia in the SEC Championship game,
[45:16] Speaker 1: who they always beat, having the Committee and ESPN sort
[45:22] Speaker 1: of pretzel themselves into a take that Alabama is, yeah,
[45:28] Speaker 1: of course they should be in the playoff after how
[45:30] Speaker 1: they finished out the season and how the rankings played out,
[45:32] Speaker 1: and getting in over Notre Dame. Like I'm not a
[45:35] Speaker 1: Notre Dame fan, but it was quite the pretzel and
[45:39] Speaker 1: having them lose I want to say, thirty eight to
[45:41] Speaker 1: three in the Rose Bowl. I just I've never seen
[45:47] Speaker 1: anything like that in this sport play out the way
[45:50] Speaker 1: that it did, where you're not even justifying their season, like, look,
[45:53] Speaker 1: it was a tough September, but the season is a living,
[45:55] Speaker 1: breathing No, this happened in December where they look terrible.
[46:00] Speaker 1: I just thought that it was It's very strange to
[46:03] Speaker 1: see a team wearing Alabama's uniform go through what they
[46:07] Speaker 1: did and somehow still end up positioning themselves well enough
[46:12] Speaker 1: to end up in the top twelve. It was wild.
[46:14] Speaker 2: There are a couple other really interesting tentacles to the
[46:17] Speaker 2: Alabama season, especially given the way it ended, and especially
[46:22] Speaker 2: given that the Michigan job did come open, which I'm
[46:25] Speaker 2: sure we'll talk about at some point very soon, if
[46:28] Speaker 2: not on this episode, definitely the next. The rumors around
[46:32] Speaker 2: Kaitlyn de Boor. Remember there were rumors about maybe he'd
[46:34] Speaker 2: be interested in Penn State. There are rumors that maybe
[46:36] Speaker 2: he could be the guy at Michigan. The sort of
[46:41] Speaker 2: almost half hearted denials, no, no, we're happy here, No, no,
[46:45] Speaker 2: we're just getting started. That whole side of it I
[46:49] Speaker 2: thought added a little bit of texture to the Alabama season.
[46:53] Speaker 2: There was, of course, I also jotted down here the
[46:57] Speaker 2: Ryan Williams disappearing act definitely side of this, which dude
[47:02] Speaker 2: was on the cover on the title screen of College
[47:05] Speaker 2: Football twenty six. He obviously burst onto the scene. What
[47:09] Speaker 2: I think became apparent the deeper we got into the
[47:11] Speaker 2: season is that one play in his freshman year where
[47:14] Speaker 2: he put crazy moves on a defender. That play was
[47:18] Speaker 2: carrying a lot of water because he did not show
[47:21] Speaker 2: up in big moments this year.
[47:23] Speaker 1: And then there was the.
[47:24] Speaker 2: Whole side of How does the SEC fit into this
[47:28] Speaker 2: whole playoff conversation?
[47:30] Speaker 1: Right?
[47:31] Speaker 2: Greg Sankie was on TV, and you know, I don't
[47:33] Speaker 2: even believe Greg sank It's Greg Sankey's job.
[47:36] Speaker 1: To carry water for the SEC.
[47:39] Speaker 2: But going on making the case for seven teams in
[47:44] Speaker 2: the College Football Playoff, Alabama kind of rode in on
[47:48] Speaker 2: this wave of well, yeah, of course the SEC deserves
[47:51] Speaker 2: to have more teams. Of course the SEC is the
[47:53] Speaker 2: strongest conference. Of course, this of course that the SEC's
[47:56] Speaker 2: Bowl wrecord postseason record, not counting the games where they
[47:59] Speaker 2: played each other, with something like two to eight. So
[48:03] Speaker 2: Alabama getting into this thing despite being a very very
[48:06] Speaker 2: flawed team that everybody.
[48:08] Speaker 1: Knew, even Alabama fans knew wrote into us. Everybody knew
[48:12] Speaker 1: that they were flawed.
[48:14] Speaker 2: The weird turn that the Alabama program has taken out
[48:19] Speaker 2: over these last two seasons after Sabin left and de
[48:21] Speaker 2: Bor took over, that's going to be really interesting to
[48:24] Speaker 2: follow moving forward. Like I for as much as it
[48:27] Speaker 2: is it was a story this year, I kind of
[48:30] Speaker 2: feel like it's going to continue being a rather large
[48:33] Speaker 2: story in twenty six, twenty seven, until it feels like
[48:37] Speaker 2: they're getting back to this point of being more of
[48:41] Speaker 2: a stable entity. They're going to be good again. But
[48:45] Speaker 2: the most recent expectation for Alabama through the Sabin era
[48:49] Speaker 2: was they're an S tier program. You know, they're elite,
[48:53] Speaker 2: They're going to be in the running for this championship
[48:55] Speaker 2: each and every year. I think very quickly that is
[48:59] Speaker 2: not the case for Alabama, and we're going to see
[49:02] Speaker 2: what that looks like now in twenty twenty six, if
[49:05] Speaker 2: they're able to kind of get back to that level,
[49:06] Speaker 2: or if it's going to continue being a talking point.
[49:10] Speaker 1: You're right to build on what you said about Kaylin
[49:13] Speaker 1: de Boorr. The interest was happening is Alabama was building
[49:17] Speaker 1: more disappointing results upon more disappointing results. It was like
[49:22] Speaker 1: offense being able to do nothing against Auburn. Should Michigan
[49:25] Speaker 1: pay him fifteen million dollars a year? Exactly disappointing performance
[49:29] Speaker 1: against Georgia. Should Michigan pay him eighteen million dollars a year? Right?
[49:33] Speaker 1: And should pen Is Penn State now involved after Alabama
[49:37] Speaker 1: looks terrible on offense, Like he denied a lot of
[49:41] Speaker 1: the interest in having conversations and I think has been
[49:44] Speaker 1: pretty straightforward. But this new level, like Alabama in the portal,
[49:50] Speaker 1: didn't do anything spectacular, like they maybe look, their high
[49:54] Speaker 1: school recruiting has been good to really good to great whatever,
[49:57] Speaker 1: and we'll see what they do with a new quarterback.
[50:00] Speaker 1: But it seemed like ty Simpson didn't really even consider
[50:05] Speaker 1: coming back, Like at the end of the day, it
[50:07] Speaker 1: was sort of like, I'm either gonna declare and like
[50:10] Speaker 1: way these transfer options, but then said, you know, I'm
[50:13] Speaker 1: you know, there's too much tied into my heart about Alabama.
[50:17] Speaker 1: I'm going to the NFL. It's just a it's strange
[50:21] Speaker 1: to see after they've been the you know, the standard
[50:25] Speaker 1: bearer of the sport for so long. And by the way,
[50:28] Speaker 1: on your like Greg Sanky point, maybe I'm off on this,
[50:31] Speaker 1: and I'm sure many people will tell me i am,
[50:35] Speaker 1: But the SEC kind of painted itself into a corner
[50:38] Speaker 1: with the like it just means more here, it's just different.
[50:42] Speaker 1: Look how deep we are, Look how great we are
[50:44] Speaker 1: at the top. And then no, it's not like there
[50:47] Speaker 1: has been a big ten campaign to say like ah ah,
[50:51] Speaker 1: we disagree, right, it was just the SEC beating that
[50:54] Speaker 1: drum over and over again, like the SEC has been
[50:56] Speaker 1: the one to control and perhaps they've and write this
[51:00] Speaker 1: entire time, or at least in the four team era
[51:02] Speaker 1: or the bcs RA or whatever. But that's been their
[51:06] Speaker 1: talking point. And as soon as there was a dent
[51:10] Speaker 1: in that talking point, then you get what was it?
[51:14] Speaker 1: Paul Fine, Mom and Matt Barry like ahaha, TV ratings though,
[51:18] Speaker 1: just like what why are you debasing yourself? What are
[51:22] Speaker 1: you doing?
[51:22] Speaker 2: Right?
[51:23] Speaker 1: Take the l And then of course the National Championship
[51:27] Speaker 1: between two non SEC teams had a bajillion people watch it, which,
[51:31] Speaker 1: by the way, we whiffed on we left on a point.
[51:34] Speaker 2: You and I both thought that because Miami, which I
[51:39] Speaker 2: mean no disrespect, but Miami, I would say, as compared
[51:43] Speaker 2: to like in Ohio state is a much more regional
[51:45] Speaker 2: fan base. Sure, Indiana, though it's got an enormous alumni base,
[51:49] Speaker 2: the largest living alumni base in the country, it's not
[51:52] Speaker 2: necessarily a fan base that is activated to care about football.
[51:56] Speaker 2: It's largely being considered a quote unquote basketball school. And
[52:00] Speaker 2: I think the root of our assumption was the fact
[52:03] Speaker 2: that Indiana is not like a blue blood that typically
[52:06] Speaker 2: moves the needle in terms of ratings. So that's where
[52:09] Speaker 2: that assumption came from. But we're wrong. The numbers are huge,
[52:12] Speaker 2: and I'm happy to see. I'm thrilled to be wrong
[52:15] Speaker 2: about that because I think ultimately that's like a good
[52:18] Speaker 2: thing for the health of the sport to get new
[52:20] Speaker 2: teams in there and have overwhelming interest from the college
[52:25] Speaker 2: football fan base.
[52:26] Speaker 1: Yes, but yeah, it was funny that that was like
[52:29] Speaker 1: the thing, right, that was the thing is like, it's
[52:31] Speaker 1: the conference as a whole. The strength of this conference
[52:34] Speaker 1: is unrivaled. And then to bank and invest everything in
[52:39] Speaker 1: that talking point and then have it sort of disintegrate
[52:42] Speaker 1: in front of everybody's eyes. It's just been a different watch.
[52:45] Speaker 1: It's just been a different experience. So, yeah, weird year
[52:50] Speaker 1: for Alabama, and we'll see new quarterback that you know,
[52:53] Speaker 1: whether it's I think what Austin Mack or Keelon Russell
[52:57] Speaker 1: who was a Kalin de boor recruit will see. If
[53:00] Speaker 1: you know, some years in the system and familiarity, maybe
[53:02] Speaker 1: it's a it's a better result on offense, but different
[53:06] Speaker 1: kind of year for sure.
[53:07] Speaker 2: You know. The other tentacle to this is you going
[53:11] Speaker 2: on our show maybe right after the conference championship games,
[53:17] Speaker 2: or it might have been it might have been our
[53:19] Speaker 2: live reaction to them announcing the playoff field where you
[53:25] Speaker 2: went on the rant about anyone who works for ESPN
[53:29] Speaker 2: and talks about college football is compromised, every single one.
[53:32] Speaker 2: And we cut a short Zach who does a lot
[53:35] Speaker 2: of the short scores, does an awesome job with the shorts.
[53:37] Speaker 2: If anybody needs a good short form guy, let us know.
[53:41] Speaker 1: We'll hook you up. But we cut that and we
[53:45] Speaker 1: posted it because it was one of those moments. It
[53:47] Speaker 1: was charged.
[53:49] Speaker 2: When we're creating those if you know anybody else has
[53:51] Speaker 2: done this, you try to capture those moments that are
[53:55] Speaker 2: pure and emotional and can get people interested.
[53:58] Speaker 1: And we got people interested. Many of them work for
[54:01] Speaker 1: ESPN and didn't like him, didn't like the didn't like
[54:06] Speaker 1: the insinuation. Yeah, we had people sliding into the DMS.
[54:08] Speaker 1: It was pretty great.
[54:09] Speaker 2: It was so Yeah, the Alabama thing was very much
[54:12] Speaker 2: a flashpoint for this season.
[54:14] Speaker 1: Which, by the way, that was followed up by so
[54:16] Speaker 1: I say, you know, everybody at ESPN has compromised as
[54:19] Speaker 1: it relates to talking about who does and doesn't deserve
[54:22] Speaker 1: to be in a playoff. The playoff a property ESPN owns,
[54:26] Speaker 1: the sec a property ESPN owns, followed up by people
[54:31] Speaker 1: on whatever it is, first Take or any ESPN property.
[54:35] Speaker 1: What did we just have Cam Newton, Cam Newton talking
[54:38] Speaker 1: about like when was the last time Notre Dame was
[54:39] Speaker 1: relevant and the host immediately saying they were literally in
[54:42] Speaker 1: the national championship last year, and Cam Newton again talking
[54:45] Speaker 1: about TV ratings like exactly see Dan Rubinstein, not so
[54:49] Speaker 1: wrong all of the time? Wrong all of the time
[54:52] Speaker 1: for sure, but not always. And I don't know, just
[54:56] Speaker 1: just a fun end of the year.
[54:58] Speaker 2: Let's do like two more here, Okay, okay, well we'll
[55:01] Speaker 2: kick the rest into part two.
[55:03] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[55:05] Speaker 2: Two group of five teams making the playoff, yeah, baby,
[55:09] Speaker 2: I think is a big part of what made twenty
[55:13] Speaker 2: twenty five unique. And of course it was a story
[55:17] Speaker 2: that developed the deeper we got into the season. You
[55:22] Speaker 2: and I were scoping it out all throughout the month
[55:24] Speaker 2: of November. It was enabled by the fact that a
[55:28] Speaker 2: five loss Duke won the ACC Championship. Awesome, which, yeah,
[55:33] Speaker 2: you know, speaking of things that make it unique, I
[55:37] Speaker 2: believe with the latest rule change to the college football Playoff,
[55:41] Speaker 2: even though they're going to be sticking at twelve now,
[55:44] Speaker 2: they are going to give auto bids to whoever wins
[55:47] Speaker 2: the conferences, the power conferences. So Duke would be in
[55:51] Speaker 2: if the whole thing played out this coming year. So
[55:54] Speaker 2: a Notre Dame which would have been its own, its
[55:57] Speaker 2: own debacle to say the least. Will get into that,
[55:59] Speaker 2: I'm sure at some point, probably in part two. But
[56:05] Speaker 2: James Madison Tulane both made the College Football Playoff, Both
[56:10] Speaker 2: are very much overmatched in their games, and both lose
[56:14] Speaker 2: in resounding fashion. Yes, the conversation that took place after
[56:20] Speaker 2: those blowouts was entirely predictable. The conversation that took place
[56:26] Speaker 2: before the blowouts, though predictable, had some new angles that
[56:30] Speaker 2: I had not previously considered. I E.
[56:33] Speaker 1: That's a safety issue. Did I hear it's a safety issue? Yes,
[56:36] Speaker 1: of course, the Helen Lovejoy Urban Meyer Joel Klatt triad
[56:40] Speaker 1: of won't somebody please think of the children? Yes, it
[56:46] Speaker 1: was great. It was great to watch the year here,
[56:50] Speaker 1: the sort of hot yoga of it all, stretching to
[56:54] Speaker 1: figure out what the problem is with James Madison, who,
[56:58] Speaker 1: by the way, the safety let them have their own
[57:02] Speaker 1: championship like it collapsed so quickly after. James Madison was
[57:07] Speaker 1: so much better at Oregon than Texas Tech was on
[57:10] Speaker 1: a neutral field against Oregon like it was. Having the
[57:14] Speaker 1: national championship be helped by James Madison, players by you know,
[57:20] Speaker 1: guys like Elijah Surratt and DiAngelo Pond like it was.
[57:26] Speaker 1: It was so fun to see that kind of conversation
[57:29] Speaker 1: collapse and crumble before our eyes that everything was connected with,
[57:35] Speaker 1: like Darien Mensa leaving Tulane, Tulane gets the quarterback who
[57:40] Speaker 1: leaves BYU who is in the playoff conversation immediately get
[57:43] Speaker 1: to the playoff, and James Madison, with their connectivity to
[57:46] Speaker 1: Indiana get to the playoff. A Sun Belt team get
[57:50] Speaker 1: to the playoff. James Madison's been in the Sun Belt
[57:52] Speaker 1: for three hours and they made the college football Playoff.
[57:55] Speaker 1: And that those two teams made the playoff. Very few
[58:00] Speaker 1: people atop the sport decided to look at that like,
[58:05] Speaker 1: isn't this a wild thing? Isn't this just a great
[58:08] Speaker 1: thing for the wildness that is college football? No? No, no.
[58:12] Speaker 1: The reaction to that was we must never have this
[58:15] Speaker 1: ever again, right and kind of silly, kind of funny,
[58:21] Speaker 1: but it's the reality. And yes, Tulane got throttled by
[58:25] Speaker 1: Old Miss, but that was its own funny thing because
[58:29] Speaker 1: Ole Miss was without its head coach, Full Circle who
[58:33] Speaker 1: desperately wanted to leave the school, but stay a little
[58:36] Speaker 1: longer to see it through and have the interim slash
[58:40] Speaker 1: now full time head coach and Pete Golding lead this
[58:44] Speaker 1: Ole Miss team to a couple pretty huge wins. So
[58:48] Speaker 1: it was great.
[58:49] Speaker 2: We celebrate when the so called mid majors go far
[58:54] Speaker 2: in the basketball tournament. This is not apples to apples.
[58:57] Speaker 1: I get that.
[58:58] Speaker 2: Oh, it's interesting to me to compare and contrast, and
[59:05] Speaker 2: I maintain my argument from the entire season, even after
[59:11] Speaker 2: these blowouts. These aren't the first blowouts we've seen in
[59:14] Speaker 2: college football playoff no action, you know, this was the
[59:18] Speaker 2: talk of the town when we had a four team playoff,
[59:21] Speaker 2: saw plenty of blowouts. It didn't cause them to change
[59:25] Speaker 2: the process, didn't really cause them to change the format.
[59:28] Speaker 1: Are they allowing fewer NFC West teams in the NFL
[59:31] Speaker 1: playoffs after what the Seahawks did to the forty nine
[59:34] Speaker 1: ers a couple weeks ago the NFL pivoting on their
[59:36] Speaker 1: NFC West stance. Probably not exactly.
[59:39] Speaker 2: It's a blowout, it happens, it happens, and I don't
[59:43] Speaker 2: think that is an indictment on the process. I don't
[59:46] Speaker 2: think that is an indictment on the G five teams
[59:48] Speaker 2: making it. I don't think that's an indictment really on
[59:51] Speaker 2: anything here.
[59:53] Speaker 1: This is sports. You have this happen.
[59:55] Speaker 2: If you're going to have blowouts, I'd rather see them
[59:57] Speaker 2: in the first round than in the national.
[59:59] Speaker 1: Championship, right.
[1:00:00] Speaker 2: The ultimate goal here is to try and get the
[1:00:03] Speaker 2: two most deserving teams, the two best teams, to play
[1:00:06] Speaker 2: it out and somebody win. And if it takes a
[1:00:09] Speaker 2: few games like this to really sort through, separate the
[1:00:13] Speaker 2: week from the chap and so be it. But I
[1:00:16] Speaker 2: don't have any issue with two G five teams making
[1:00:19] Speaker 2: it in the playoff now, and nor will I in
[1:00:21] Speaker 2: the future. Now, what happens in the future, again, my
[1:00:26] Speaker 2: hunch is knowing the money that is at stake here
[1:00:28] Speaker 2: for these conferences to get as many teams in as
[1:00:30] Speaker 2: they can, to give themselves more of an opportunity to
[1:00:33] Speaker 2: get into that field and go deep in the field.
[1:00:39] Speaker 2: My hunch as they will continue to find ways to
[1:00:41] Speaker 2: make it harder for G five teams. But as it
[1:00:44] Speaker 2: stands right now, I think this is going to be
[1:00:46] Speaker 2: one of those conversations that remains very polarizing, but in
[1:00:50] Speaker 2: my view, was very healthy for the sport to just
[1:00:53] Speaker 2: prove that regardless of what conference you are in, if
[1:00:57] Speaker 2: you put together a special season, you will have an
[1:00:59] Speaker 2: opportunity and you need to get into that playoff field
[1:01:02] Speaker 2: and it doesn't need to be limited to just one
[1:01:03] Speaker 2: of you.
[1:01:04] Speaker 1: It was, Yeah, the conversation around that, and a lot
[1:01:08] Speaker 1: of it came back to, like the weird ranking situation
[1:01:13] Speaker 1: with Notre Dame being ranked above Miami even though Miami
[1:01:15] Speaker 1: had beat them head to head, and then Miami jumping
[1:01:17] Speaker 1: Notre Dame for no reason at the end, then Alabama
[1:01:20] Speaker 1: coming in and the way that Duke season ended up
[1:01:23] Speaker 1: winning the ACC. The close game was actually a really
[1:01:26] Speaker 1: good game against Virginia in the ACC title game. There
[1:01:29] Speaker 1: was that suddenly, like a pro Notre Dame, like it
[1:01:33] Speaker 1: is so dishonorable that this playoff doesn't include Notre Dame
[1:01:37] Speaker 1: and it includes James Madison in this scenario, that it
[1:01:43] Speaker 1: is so dishonorable that Notre Dame is not in this playoff,
[1:01:46] Speaker 1: and when you have a program as honorable as Notre
[1:01:49] Speaker 1: Dame who almost decided to play in the postseason, ty,
[1:01:52] Speaker 1: I don't think if people realize, well, get to hold on,
[1:01:55] Speaker 1: write this down. Notre Dame strongly considered playing in the postseason.
[1:02:00] Speaker 1: We'll get to this, and I don't think people understand
[1:02:02] Speaker 1: that they did consider it, but ultimately the honorable program
[1:02:06] Speaker 1: that is Notre Dame football decided that this wasn't the
[1:02:10] Speaker 1: kind of postseason for them. Per se. I think people
[1:02:17] Speaker 1: rightfully point out that, you know, this could have a
[1:02:20] Speaker 1: better playoff with Notre Dame. I don't know. We will
[1:02:22] Speaker 1: put off the Notre Dame discussion until part two. It
[1:02:26] Speaker 1: was close TI, There's no doubt about it. It was
[1:02:28] Speaker 1: close to happening that Notre Dame would, you know, lower
[1:02:32] Speaker 1: themselves to play in a bowl game. But you know,
[1:02:34] Speaker 1: they had to do what was best for them. We
[1:02:36] Speaker 1: will talk about Notre Dame in part two.
[1:02:37] Speaker 2: But two G five teams getting into me, Yeah, definitely added.
[1:02:42] Speaker 1: An element of uniqueness. Yeah, the twenty five season.
[1:02:45] Speaker 2: We've got one left on this episode, Dan, We're over
[1:02:49] Speaker 2: an hour now. I promise we'll get through the other
[1:02:53] Speaker 2: ones in part two. We've got about ten more to
[1:02:56] Speaker 2: get through. But I think these are the ones that
[1:02:59] Speaker 2: come to mind first. They're the ones that.
[1:03:02] Speaker 1: Lead to a little bit of a longer discussion. Can
[1:03:04] Speaker 1: you give me something fun? Can you give me something
[1:03:06] Speaker 1: that everybody will agree was a fun part of twenty
[1:03:09] Speaker 1: twenty five. Yeah, Okay, Lee Corso's retirement. Okay, not fun
[1:03:17] Speaker 1: that he's leaving necessarily now, fun that we got to
[1:03:20] Speaker 1: honor his contributions to the broadcasting element of the sport.
[1:03:24] Speaker 2: One hundred percent. College football is rooted in nostalgia. College
[1:03:28] Speaker 2: football is rooted in these little quirks, these things that
[1:03:31] Speaker 2: make it different from really any other sport. And when
[1:03:35] Speaker 2: you've got a broadcasting legend like Corso who has been
[1:03:40] Speaker 2: very much part of the Saturday morning experience for millions
[1:03:43] Speaker 2: of college football fans out there, Yeah, if only because
[1:03:47] Speaker 2: he put a mascot head on at eleven fifty.
[1:03:50] Speaker 1: Eight before the week's games would kick off.
[1:03:55] Speaker 2: Whenever you can honor that, I think that returns us
[1:03:59] Speaker 2: back to our roots and makes college football feel pure again.
[1:04:04] Speaker 2: Despite the era that we are in with the money
[1:04:07] Speaker 2: and the transfers and the ratings conversations and the playoff
[1:04:11] Speaker 2: and all of the things around us that have changed dramatically.
[1:04:15] Speaker 2: Corso was one of those bedrocks. So the fact that
[1:04:20] Speaker 2: he walked away obviously is sad in a sense, but
[1:04:25] Speaker 2: sort of a full circle moment with Indiana winning the
[1:04:27] Speaker 2: national championship this year, sort of a full circle moment
[1:04:32] Speaker 2: with him getting that opportunity very early on in the season.
[1:04:36] Speaker 2: I guess it was week one to put on the
[1:04:39] Speaker 2: mascot head for the last time. I felt the way
[1:04:42] Speaker 2: that the college football community honored just that very specific,
[1:04:49] Speaker 2: very unique aspect of its fabric with Corso in the
[1:04:53] Speaker 2: very beginning of all this, that to me is a
[1:04:55] Speaker 2: cool story that I will remember, and I have made
[1:04:59] Speaker 2: light of other ret hirement tours that we have seen
[1:05:01] Speaker 2: in the past, notably the Keith Jackson retirement tour where
[1:05:05] Speaker 2: everybody gave him gifts and then he came out of
[1:05:07] Speaker 2: retirement yep, which I love, one of the all.
[1:05:10] Speaker 1: Times great griffs. M m uh. The way that they.
[1:05:14] Speaker 2: Honored Corso, I thought was was very very fitting and
[1:05:18] Speaker 2: they did a really good job of paying homage, yeah
[1:05:22] Speaker 2: to a great legacy there.
[1:05:25] Speaker 1: Yeah. There are very few people where you can say
[1:05:26] Speaker 1: like they're one of the seminal voices of the sport,
[1:05:29] Speaker 1: whether it's a play by play guy or a studio host,
[1:05:31] Speaker 1: and certainly the iterations of game day over the years
[1:05:34] Speaker 1: with both Chris Vaaller and Rhys Davis and Herb Street
[1:05:37] Speaker 1: and Desmond and you know the guys and women who
[1:05:40] Speaker 1: have come and gone. You know, Aaron Andrews was a
[1:05:42] Speaker 1: part for a long time. Like there was just there've
[1:05:44] Speaker 1: been a lot of huge names on game day, but like,
[1:05:47] Speaker 1: you know, the the lasting image is Lee Corso pencil
[1:05:51] Speaker 1: in hand. He was like a pencil executive too, right,
[1:05:53] Speaker 1: ye was it Tykondo? The pencil in hand with like
[1:05:57] Speaker 1: the not so fast and Bill Murray throwing him down
[1:06:00] Speaker 1: when he's in his eighties or what. There's the the
[1:06:03] Speaker 1: lightness that Leek Corso brought to that show, coupled with
[1:06:08] Speaker 1: and this was part of the retirement tour of you know,
[1:06:11] Speaker 1: element to this was like here's a bunch of like
[1:06:13] Speaker 1: Leak Corso stories and I know maybe like I don't
[1:06:16] Speaker 1: know if it was you where somebody else told me
[1:06:18] Speaker 1: that he could be a little bit ornery or something
[1:06:19] Speaker 1: like that I saw.
[1:06:20] Speaker 2: I didn't like Corso for years because of what I
[1:06:23] Speaker 2: saw when I was out at a Notre Dame USC
[1:06:25] Speaker 2: game and we all have bad days and we all,
[1:06:27] Speaker 2: you know, he seemed like a jerk, but I you know,
[1:06:29] Speaker 2: that was that was sort of without context totally, and
[1:06:32] Speaker 2: I was very young, so I barely My mom remembers
[1:06:34] Speaker 2: it for sure, reminded me.
[1:06:36] Speaker 1: Many times this year that she remembers that moment.
[1:06:39] Speaker 2: But that's an anecdote, right right right, bigger picture, Corso
[1:06:44] Speaker 2: was a huge part of the game day experience, no,
[1:06:46] Speaker 2: And the thing that when I was reading, because there's
[1:06:49] Speaker 2: all these like stories right that, like there's an oral
[1:06:51] Speaker 2: history of the Leek Corso experience at game day and everything,
[1:06:53] Speaker 2: you know that was happening behind the scenes, and they
[1:06:55] Speaker 2: all sort of agreed on one thing, which was Leek
[1:06:59] Speaker 2: Horso didn't really like to do anything the night before games.
[1:07:03] Speaker 2: He liked to go to bed early, and anytime you'd
[1:07:05] Speaker 2: go to his hotel room, he was already in his
[1:07:08] Speaker 2: pajamas at six pm and had hoarded all of the
[1:07:11] Speaker 2: free snacks available to him at all of the meetings
[1:07:15] Speaker 2: on Friday or Thursday or whatever. And I thought to myself,
[1:07:19] Speaker 2: if I can end my life or my professional life
[1:07:24] Speaker 2: as somebody who is in their pajamas in a nice
[1:07:28] Speaker 2: hotel rooms, surrounded by snacks and love all of the time,
[1:07:34] Speaker 2: I've done something right. And I respect the hell out
[1:07:37] Speaker 2: of that way of living professionally, going to bed early,
[1:07:41] Speaker 2: surrounded by free snacks. I don't know that made me
[1:07:44] Speaker 2: gain an even bigger respect for somebody who I really
[1:07:47] Speaker 2: enjoyed watching. Over the years, there have been a lot
[1:07:50] Speaker 2: of personalities, yeah, in the media in sports that, for
[1:07:56] Speaker 2: one reason or another, become larger than life. It's just
[1:08:01] Speaker 2: part of the experience. Few and far between, but they've
[1:08:05] Speaker 2: come about here and there, and Corso I think for
[1:08:08] Speaker 2: college football is one of them. It absolutely feels different
[1:08:13] Speaker 2: to watch the broadcast. I mean, they got a lot
[1:08:14] Speaker 2: of smart people up there, and you know, I guess
[1:08:16] Speaker 2: we can debate that too, but it feels a little
[1:08:19] Speaker 2: bit different without having him up there to put on
[1:08:21] Speaker 2: the mascot head and be part of the final segment.
[1:08:26] Speaker 1: There before they kick it over to who's ever playing
[1:08:28] Speaker 1: at noon? Always kept his shirt on, by the way,
[1:08:31] Speaker 1: Always kept a shirt, Always kept a shit as far
[1:08:33] Speaker 1: as I can remember. Yeah, always kept his shirt on,
[1:08:35] Speaker 1: all right, So there he got. We got Lane Kiffin,
[1:08:40] Speaker 1: the Indiana Hoosiers, the Clemson slash Penn State slash Texas
[1:08:45] Speaker 1: free fall, the Bill Belichick stuff, Alabama's season two G
[1:08:52] Speaker 1: five teams getting into the playoff. Yeah, and now here
[1:08:55] Speaker 1: to close.
[1:08:56] Speaker 2: Things out, your seventh item is Lee Corso and is retirement.
[1:09:01] Speaker 2: We will have a bunch more to discuss on our
[1:09:05] Speaker 2: next episode. We would encourage people to write in Solidverbo
[1:09:09] Speaker 2: at gmail dot com, comment on the YouTube videos, comment
[1:09:12] Speaker 2: out on Spotify, anywhere you can leave a comment, please
[1:09:16] Speaker 2: do so. We've got more than enough time to incorporate
[1:09:20] Speaker 2: some of your feedback into our part too, and we
[1:09:22] Speaker 2: would love to hear from you.
[1:09:23] Speaker 1: I'm sure there.
[1:09:24] Speaker 2: We have a long list of things here. I know
[1:09:27] Speaker 2: we've been talking for over an hour about just seven things.
[1:09:30] Speaker 2: We have a long we.
[1:09:31] Speaker 1: Have a really long list. We have a lot like
[1:09:34] Speaker 1: all the way as granular as Missouri State and Delaware
[1:09:39] Speaker 1: in year one of the FBS and what they did
[1:09:41] Speaker 1: Kennesaw State finishing ten and four West Virginia with fifty
[1:09:45] Speaker 1: three transfer like. We have a long, very detailed list
[1:09:49] Speaker 1: of things that jumped out to us, and I am
[1:09:52] Speaker 1: certain that we missed a bunch of big ones. So
[1:09:55] Speaker 1: we would encourage you. This is an open invite.
[1:09:57] Speaker 2: If you're gonna yell at us about something we said,
[1:09:59] Speaker 2: that's fine, but please please take the opportunity to write
[1:10:04] Speaker 2: in with things that we miss.
[1:10:05] Speaker 1: Because we want to be as complete as we can.
[1:10:08] Speaker 1: This is almost our version of the signature's part of
[1:10:12] Speaker 1: the yearbook. Yes, right, like, hey, remember when we couldn't
[1:10:15] Speaker 1: stop giggling in algebra two? I'm so sorry we like
[1:10:19] Speaker 1: didn't become friends sooner? T T Y L Jess. Did
[1:10:25] Speaker 1: you have those? Did you have those in the back
[1:10:27] Speaker 1: like I can't believe No? No, specifically the message of like,
[1:10:31] Speaker 1: I can't believe you were you were such a great
[1:10:33] Speaker 1: guy all along. We didn't become friends until senior year.
[1:10:36] Speaker 1: I'll bet you. I'll bet a bunch of the ladies
[1:10:38] Speaker 1: were writ in that. Oh yeah, no, so many. I
[1:10:40] Speaker 1: bet there was a bunch of Jesses in there. Yeah yeah, yeah.
[1:10:43] Speaker 1: Of course I had to buy extra pages at the
[1:10:47] Speaker 1: end of his yearbook. But yeah, this is what we're doing.
[1:10:50] Speaker 1: This is the signature's page. Remember all these weird things
[1:10:53] Speaker 1: that happened to us love Dan and Tye? Yeah, we
[1:10:57] Speaker 1: got we got many more. So this is actually, like
[1:11:01] Speaker 1: is very weirdly cathartic for me to like put a
[1:11:04] Speaker 1: bow on the season with like the lingering feelings that
[1:11:08] Speaker 1: I'm just writing out in the back of ties of
[1:11:10] Speaker 1: earbook here. I love it. I love it too again,
[1:11:13] Speaker 1: open invite everybody right on in.
[1:11:14] Speaker 2: Let us know what we got right, what we got wrong,
[1:11:16] Speaker 2: what we missed, what you'd like to hear more of
[1:11:19] Speaker 2: on part two.
[1:11:19] Speaker 1: I already tip the pitch a little bit.
[1:11:22] Speaker 2: Obviously, we're gonna have to talk about the whole Notre
[1:11:23] Speaker 2: Dame thing before a while.
[1:11:25] Speaker 1: We will talk about all the major beats.
[1:11:28] Speaker 2: We will talk about some of the players and additional
[1:11:31] Speaker 2: storylines that jumped out to us. We want to know
[1:11:33] Speaker 2: what jumped out to you with those comments. We will
[1:11:36] Speaker 2: be back on Thursday. We will be publishing twice per
[1:11:41] Speaker 2: week all throughout the off season, So if you've you
[1:11:43] Speaker 2: have to hit follow or subscribe, we'd appreciate you doing
[1:11:46] Speaker 2: so now so that you don't miss any of those episodes.
[1:11:49] Speaker 2: And of course, for ballers dot com is where you
[1:11:51] Speaker 2: can go if you want to sport the team, help
[1:11:53] Speaker 2: Dan and I keep the lights on, keep doing this
[1:11:56] Speaker 2: full time?
[1:11:57] Speaker 1: Can we license vitamin C vitams something that we could
[1:12:01] Speaker 1: like the is that even a reference that anybody understands
[1:12:08] Speaker 1: that's under forty thirty five?
[1:12:11] Speaker 2: I have it on the soundboard. I'm afraid to play it. Yeah, yeah,
[1:12:14] Speaker 2: we can maybe eight cop version strikes. But yeah, if
[1:12:17] Speaker 2: you can find a mini version, okay, I'll find that
[1:12:20] Speaker 2: for part two. For that guy over there, my good
[1:12:22] Speaker 2: friend Dan Rubinstein, for myself, Ty Hilton Brand. Thank you
[1:12:25] Speaker 2: for bearing with us hanging out here. Another episode will
[1:12:28] Speaker 2: be back on Thursday. You know the drill, stay song face.

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