# Which College Football Narratives Still Hold Up in 2026?

An episode of [The Solid Verbal College Football Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/270037732), 26 May 2026, 1 h 03 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/21437ee1-47d9-4b16-8696-b30d011a2c26/a68aa580-4903-40d9-b62f-b455010e0603/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=51c7e0eb-425c-4d93-b5a8-b30d011a2c46

In this episode, we introduce a new game called “Bed or Built,” where we take some of college football’s most repeated narratives and decide whether it’s time to put them to bed or if they’re still built to last. With the 2026 season creeping closer, we sort through the stories that have followed programs, coaches and fan bases for years, and ask which ones still make sense in the current version of the sport. We dig into Mario Cristobal and Miami, Matt Rhule’s turnaround reputation, Lane Kiffin’s chaos factor, Ryan Day’s “born on third base” label, Texas A&M’s hard ceiling, Oregon’s late-season hurdle, Clemson’s attempts to adapt, James Franklin’s big-game baggage and the difficulty of following Nick Saban at Alabama. Along the way, we get into the transfer portal, coaching hires, College Football Playoff expectations, roster-building, fan perception and how quickly old narratives can become outdated. Timecodes: 0:00 - Intro 5:46 - Mario Cristobal & Miami will trip up 13:45 - Matt Rhule is a turnaround genius 20:38 - Lane Kiffin is misunderstood 26:25 - Ryan Dan was born on third base 32:35 - Texas A&M has a hard ceiling 38:56 - Oregon will fall flat late 45:33 - Clemson can't adapt 54:08 - Big Game James Franklin 56:09 - Being the guy after Nick Saban 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.
[0:04] Speaker 2: Holl that for me. I'm a man, I'm forty. I've
[0:08] Speaker 2: heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy.
[0:10] Speaker 3: You want to be happy for.
[0:11] Speaker 2: Dake Edo State?
[0:13] Speaker 1: Is that whoo whoo? And no Dan and tie.
[0:18] Speaker 4: Dan Rubinstein, much like ed Orgeron, we are back like
[0:23] Speaker 4: we never left. Welcome back to the pod, good friend,
[0:26] Speaker 4: How goes it? How's your weekend?
[0:28] Speaker 2: Good? Good good went to Milwaukee.
[0:31] Speaker 3: Love, love the great state of Wisconsin, great weather, saw Brewers, Dodgers,
[0:35] Speaker 3: went over to a lake not terribly far away. Really
[0:39] Speaker 3: did the like very early Midwestern summer, which I think
[0:43] Speaker 3: it's not false. Start football term, Tack. I think it's
[0:47] Speaker 3: a true. It looks like we're in the seventies at
[0:50] Speaker 3: least moving forward. So I'm very happy about that. Got
[0:52] Speaker 3: a lot of good sunshine. I enjoyed your at Ozern reference.
[0:56] Speaker 3: It's always great to have him back in the college
[0:58] Speaker 3: football consciousness. I did see he had the he had
[1:02] Speaker 3: a quote about Brian Kelly and the accents.
[1:05] Speaker 1: I saw that.
[1:05] Speaker 2: I knew he was done right. That was it's not
[1:09] Speaker 2: a bad I'm paraphrasing here.
[1:12] Speaker 1: It's not a beast fresh Actually that's not bad.
[1:15] Speaker 2: It's not the worst, it's not not near the best.
[1:19] Speaker 3: You got to get down in the like you gotta
[1:21] Speaker 3: feel it in your belly and the diaphragm. And I'm
[1:24] Speaker 3: about as a native from a place that's about as
[1:27] Speaker 3: far away from Southern Louisiana as it gets in this
[1:30] Speaker 3: great land. But I can hold my own with the
[1:34] Speaker 3: average Coach O impersonators.
[1:36] Speaker 1: It's not bad at all.
[1:37] Speaker 4: Well Ed orgeron, excuse me, Coacho, whatever you want to
[1:40] Speaker 4: call it, is back with LSU. There's not a whole
[1:45] Speaker 4: lot of meat to that other than to say that
[1:48] Speaker 4: Coach O is back, and I think we all sort
[1:49] Speaker 4: of celebrate that in our own special ways. We've got
[1:52] Speaker 4: a fun concept for the verballer hood today, which you
[1:56] Speaker 4: could unveil momentarily before we get there, though, of course,
[2:00] Speaker 4: so you know the housekeeping, Hit follow, hit subscribe. If
[2:03] Speaker 4: you've already done that and want to help Dan and
[2:05] Speaker 4: I out, go on out to verbowlers dot com and
[2:08] Speaker 4: check out what.
[2:08] Speaker 1: We offer on our Patreon.
[2:11] Speaker 4: You of course can get access to the discord, get
[2:14] Speaker 4: access to all of the games that we are in
[2:16] Speaker 4: the process of building for the coming season, get these
[2:20] Speaker 4: episodes early without the ads all that good stuff. If
[2:23] Speaker 4: you have yet to do so, we would encourage you
[2:25] Speaker 4: to please drop a five star review wherever you can.
[2:30] Speaker 1: That would be much appreciated.
[2:32] Speaker 4: It helps assure others out there college football fans sickos
[2:36] Speaker 4: like you and I.
[2:37] Speaker 1: That.
[2:39] Speaker 4: Is a fun show, place you can stop by, place
[2:42] Speaker 4: you can talk college football the full year through.
[2:45] Speaker 3: Yes, So the concept we're doing just because we are
[2:48] Speaker 3: sort of entering into the June portion of the calendar,
[2:52] Speaker 3: and I'm a big proponent tie of closure right there.
[2:56] Speaker 3: You have to sort of make peace with what isn't
[2:59] Speaker 3: anymore and sort of lean into what is. And so
[3:03] Speaker 3: what we're doing is a game that I am at
[3:06] Speaker 3: least temporarily calling bed or built. Is it time to
[3:11] Speaker 3: put this commonly held belief or narrative to bed.
[3:17] Speaker 2: It's a little lulla by their time.
[3:20] Speaker 3: I tried to find the little like music boxy type thing.
[3:24] Speaker 2: I couldn't find one that felt appropriate.
[3:26] Speaker 1: There's a little bit of like.
[3:29] Speaker 4: We're doing a drone shot of Hole twelve at Augusta,
[3:31] Speaker 4: Nashville to this correct.
[3:34] Speaker 3: Oh absolutely, maybe like a flashback in a movie when
[3:39] Speaker 3: times were simpler and you were running on the beach.
[3:41] Speaker 1: Before the divorce that type of thing, Yes.
[3:43] Speaker 3: Absolutely, splashing in the waves, being bashful in front of
[3:47] Speaker 3: the camera.
[3:48] Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's there's that element too, without.
[3:50] Speaker 1: Putting some sunscreen on the little ones. Yeah yeah, I
[3:52] Speaker 1: could see.
[3:53] Speaker 3: Of course, of course with like an old eight millimeter
[3:56] Speaker 3: camera with the breaking up of the film obviously, or
[4:00] Speaker 3: so we're calling it bed or built or if this
[4:03] Speaker 3: commonly held belief or narrative is built to last, that's
[4:08] Speaker 3: the sound I have built to last? WHOA like if
[4:11] Speaker 3: you were trying to make a Christopher Nolan trailer on
[4:15] Speaker 3: a budget.
[4:16] Speaker 4: Yeah, that's like when when you get the title that
[4:19] Speaker 4: just sort of stomps in and shakes the screen.
[4:23] Speaker 3: Yes, say that one, or it's sort of like you
[4:26] Speaker 3: do it over and over again, like you don't, No,
[4:32] Speaker 3: Jason Statham, I should have had those quicker, but you
[4:40] Speaker 3: get the idea built to last, like Jason Statham is
[4:42] Speaker 3: unkillable obviously.
[4:45] Speaker 2: So that's that's the game.
[4:47] Speaker 3: So we're going to go through a number of over
[4:50] Speaker 3: the the past couple of years, commonly held beliefs or
[4:52] Speaker 3: narratives about various topics within the sport, whether or not
[4:56] Speaker 3: we are officially putting them to bed. As we look
[4:58] Speaker 3: forward to the college foot future. Or if we are
[5:01] Speaker 3: saying not unlike a like a GMC pickup truck commercial built?
[5:07] Speaker 3: Is that built to last? I don't remember who, not
[5:08] Speaker 3: a sponsor? I think absolutely could be?
[5:10] Speaker 1: Could be, yeah, absolutely could be.
[5:13] Speaker 3: Means we could probably get Will Arnett on the show.
[5:14] Speaker 3: I think there's a lot that could come good with that.
[5:16] Speaker 4: So he could maybe help you with your impression game.
[5:19] Speaker 4: He's pretty good at that too.
[5:20] Speaker 3: I mean no, he's not just pretty, he's terrific. So h,
[5:23] Speaker 3: that's a game better built.
[5:25] Speaker 1: I like it. I like it well. Of course.
[5:27] Speaker 4: For those listening at home, Solid Verbal at gmail dot
[5:29] Speaker 4: com is how you can get in touch. Can also
[5:31] Speaker 4: go to our website, soliverbal dot com if you have
[5:33] Speaker 4: more to say on any of these topics and leave
[5:37] Speaker 4: your thoughts there.
[5:38] Speaker 1: Send those on in.
[5:39] Speaker 4: We read them all, can't respond to them all, but
[5:41] Speaker 4: we do appreciate hearing from the sOliver Baller hood.
[5:45] Speaker 1: Dan.
[5:45] Speaker 4: Yes, you put together this list of things today. You
[5:49] Speaker 4: sent him over this morning. I've had a pretty good
[5:52] Speaker 4: chance to go through them and formulate some thoughts. Why
[5:56] Speaker 4: don't you introduce him? What do you want to introduce first?
[5:58] Speaker 3: Which narrative all right, let's do one that is sort
[6:01] Speaker 3: of connected to both of our teams in that we're
[6:05] Speaker 3: familiar with the head coach and they were big last season.
[6:10] Speaker 3: They played Notre Dame last season. It was probably one
[6:12] Speaker 3: of the three most important games of the regular season
[6:14] Speaker 3: when you look at the playoff, and that is Mario Christobal,
[6:19] Speaker 3: head coach of Miami, can't stop tripping over himself when
[6:25] Speaker 3: it matters, not the most, not in the biggest game,
[6:28] Speaker 3: but when it matters to a medium degree.
[6:32] Speaker 4: Okay, I'm going to ask you what do you mean
[6:34] Speaker 4: by trip over themselves? Because they played for the national championship, right,
[6:37] Speaker 4: and they weren't that far off from you know, I mean,
[6:40] Speaker 4: they were competitive, right, So what does trip over themselves
[6:43] Speaker 4: mean to you?
[6:45] Speaker 3: Lose in somewhat embarrassing fashion, perhaps late in a game
[6:50] Speaker 3: that prevents them from achieving their broader and bigger goals. Now,
[6:55] Speaker 3: obviously last year they were able to overcome the Louisville
[6:57] Speaker 3: and SMU losses, which were mistake Leyden I would say
[7:02] Speaker 3: is fair to say that it was self inflicted rather
[7:05] Speaker 3: than a team just straight up smashing them or something. Obviously,
[7:10] Speaker 3: you go back to the way some of the early
[7:13] Speaker 3: games of his tenure at Miami ended. You look at
[7:15] Speaker 3: a couple of years ago Georgia Tech and not just
[7:21] Speaker 3: putting a knee down a couple of years ago, now
[7:23] Speaker 3: two three years ago now to finish out a game,
[7:25] Speaker 3: but trying to literally run the clock out, and the
[7:29] Speaker 3: SMU game and the inner like. It hasn't been the
[7:32] Speaker 3: biggest games of Miami season. They haven't dropped big emotional spots.
[7:35] Speaker 3: They haven't dropped games against the best teams on their
[7:38] Speaker 3: schedule necessarily because the other team was just better. But
[7:43] Speaker 3: the self inflicted wound era of Miami football is now
[7:47] Speaker 3: done because Miami was able to weather those wounds last
[7:52] Speaker 3: year and perform at an extraordinarily high level in the
[7:55] Speaker 3: College Football Playoff, almost winning the national championship.
[8:00] Speaker 4: Okay, I have perpetuated this about as much as anyone. Yeah,
[8:08] Speaker 4: and I think you could look at the team this
[8:10] Speaker 4: year and say, wow, there's a lot new, Because there
[8:13] Speaker 4: is a lot new. The offensive line is being rebuilt.
[8:17] Speaker 4: We've got to play.
[8:17] Speaker 3: This isn't about the team, I know. This is about preparation,
[8:22] Speaker 3: getting a team ready to execute. And when you know
[8:25] Speaker 3: you have a time out here and there's three and
[8:27] Speaker 3: a half minutes there right, that the sideline is ready
[8:30] Speaker 3: to get this team ready and is ready to do
[8:33] Speaker 3: their job to close out games or not lose in
[8:36] Speaker 3: consistently self inflicted ways.
[8:38] Speaker 4: The reason that I bring this up, though, Okay, I'm saying,
[8:42] Speaker 4: given where they're at in twenty twenty six, you could
[8:45] Speaker 4: look at all that they have new, you could look
[8:47] Speaker 4: at a few of the tra opportunities as you've started
[8:49] Speaker 4: referring to them, thank you on this schedule, and you
[8:53] Speaker 4: could say a tripping over themselves type of situation would
[8:58] Speaker 4: be a little bit more defensible and understandable. Given nobody's perfect,
[9:03] Speaker 4: nobody's perfect. I think it's time to put this one
[9:06] Speaker 4: to bed, though.
[9:09] Speaker 2: I think I'm with you.
[9:11] Speaker 4: I think it's time to put this one to bed.
[9:13] Speaker 4: Miami just played for the National Championship. Miami has a
[9:18] Speaker 4: team this season, despite all the change, that is still
[9:21] Speaker 4: projected to be a top ten offense and defense per
[9:28] Speaker 4: the sp Plus. Miami landed Darien Mensa from Duke, landed
[9:33] Speaker 4: his top target from Duke, and still at the end
[9:36] Speaker 4: of the day, despite all the turnover, has a loaded roster. Yeah, so, yes,
[9:42] Speaker 4: there have been moments. Yes, Crystal Ball is still crystal ball.
[9:47] Speaker 4: But I am just about past the point where this
[9:50] Speaker 4: feels like it should be a talking point. They may
[9:53] Speaker 4: suffer a loss, that might happen. They're not going to
[9:57] Speaker 4: be any different from anyone else in that sense of
[9:59] Speaker 4: the word, because you know, upsets go down. It's a
[10:03] Speaker 4: long season. But I feel like Miami has separated itself
[10:08] Speaker 4: so much from the next tier in the acc that
[10:13] Speaker 4: this is not going to be a thing that we're
[10:15] Speaker 4: talking about a whole lot longer.
[10:16] Speaker 3: You don't think they'll be up twenty one in the
[10:19] Speaker 3: fourth quarter against Virginia Tech to sort of help put
[10:22] Speaker 3: a cap on the season and blow that in the
[10:24] Speaker 3: fourth corner because of weird decisions and turnovers.
[10:27] Speaker 4: Well, not if they're playing Virginia Tech, because that's James Franklin.
[10:30] Speaker 4: We'll get to that a little bit.
[10:31] Speaker 3: But well, right, so that's yeah, that's almost a double whammy, right.
[10:34] Speaker 3: That's a like Sergeant Bilko, two boxers punch each other
[10:38] Speaker 3: in the face and both go down because they were
[10:40] Speaker 3: both under the impression that they were throwing the fight, right.
[10:43] Speaker 4: I mean, like there is a fundamental difference between going
[10:47] Speaker 4: into a trap game on the road, Like we talked
[10:49] Speaker 4: about the North Carolina game on I believe the episode
[10:53] Speaker 4: we did with our friend Tim Murray.
[10:55] Speaker 1: Go listen to the v sent Sports Betting podcast.
[10:57] Speaker 4: Right. Tim was very kind to invite us both on
[11:00] Speaker 4: and he was asking us about these sort of trapportunities
[11:03] Speaker 4: as you've phrased them, which I think is a great
[11:05] Speaker 4: way to put it. And I mentioned that the week
[11:08] Speaker 4: before Miami goes to Notre Dame, they score off against
[11:12] Speaker 4: North Carolina. I'm not crazy in North Carolina this year,
[11:15] Speaker 4: but you can understand why you'd look in a matchup
[11:17] Speaker 4: like that and say, hey, there's a pretty big trap
[11:19] Speaker 4: opportunity there.
[11:20] Speaker 2: Right.
[11:21] Speaker 1: I could definitely see.
[11:22] Speaker 4: A world in which Miami doesn't blow the doors off
[11:24] Speaker 4: of North Carolina, where that game ends up being closer,
[11:27] Speaker 4: maybe even North Carolina covers. But I don't feel like
[11:30] Speaker 4: I'm at the point now like it was a year ago.
[11:32] Speaker 4: By the way I talked up the Miami pit game
[11:35] Speaker 4: all pre season, I don't feel like I'm at this
[11:37] Speaker 4: moment where I'm going to look at Miami and say, oh, yeah,
[11:40] Speaker 4: they're gonna lose that game in North Carolina might be closer,
[11:42] Speaker 4: but they're going to win that game. They're going to
[11:44] Speaker 4: go into that Notre Dame game with a full head
[11:46] Speaker 4: of steam?
[11:47] Speaker 2: Right?
[11:47] Speaker 3: Do you think that Darien Mensa has the emotional maturity
[11:52] Speaker 3: to gather everybody in this Miami program, to get everybody
[11:56] Speaker 3: on the same page and how somebody from the program
[12:02] Speaker 3: in a way that like you think about like the
[12:04] Speaker 3: orphanage and all the little beds and it's nighttime. Look,
[12:06] Speaker 3: here's the lullaby, right, Like, do you think there's like,
[12:08] Speaker 3: tell us, Papa, what's it like to win the ACC?
[12:12] Speaker 2: Tell Us tell us again, we don't know, tell us Papa,
[12:17] Speaker 2: because darry Men's a ACC champion.
[12:19] Speaker 4: Yes, is that your orphan child, Oliver, it's a little bit.
[12:23] Speaker 4: What is that the range that I have to do?
[12:26] Speaker 2: Coach? Oh and tell us Papa? Yeah, I don't know, man.
[12:31] Speaker 3: Maybe it's it's just a the gods are shining down
[12:34] Speaker 3: on my vocal cords today. I'm saying it's put to
[12:39] Speaker 3: bed just because kind of of what the ACC looks like.
[12:43] Speaker 3: But I also want, secretly, deep down tie for us
[12:48] Speaker 3: to agree to put this to bed. And the most
[12:50] Speaker 3: Miami thing would be to then back to feel like
[12:54] Speaker 3: they've put it to bed with how they finished last
[12:57] Speaker 3: year and have it never leave right. I think it's
[13:01] Speaker 3: always just lurking in a supply closet deep within the program,
[13:04] Speaker 3: so that the hopefully regular part of my brain says,
[13:08] Speaker 3: I think I am ready to say they've turned a
[13:11] Speaker 3: corner in that regard.
[13:12] Speaker 1: I think I'm with you.
[13:13] Speaker 4: By the way, just full disclosure here, we did look
[13:17] Speaker 4: up before you pulled that royalty free version.
[13:20] Speaker 1: For the lullabye.
[13:22] Speaker 4: Yeah, we did do a little bit of deep cover
[13:24] Speaker 4: work and wanted to see if we could get any
[13:27] Speaker 4: snippets from the nineteen ninety eight smash single success lullaby
[13:33] Speaker 4: by Seawan Mullins. Right, I sent you the picture of
[13:36] Speaker 4: Shawn Mullens on the album cover. Way too creepy to
[13:39] Speaker 4: involve on this podcast. We can't do that, I agree,
[13:42] Speaker 4: Way creepier than I expected, to be honest with you.
[13:45] Speaker 2: Are you ready for a new one?
[13:46] Speaker 1: Yeah?
[13:47] Speaker 3: Okay, I don't know why I played that because I
[13:51] Speaker 3: don't know if I'm putting this to bed. You ready, Yeah,
[13:54] Speaker 3: let's go with Matt Rule is a turnaround genius. Okay,
[14:03] Speaker 3: So just what we know about Matt Rule as a coach.
[14:06] Speaker 1: I feel like I've perpetuated this one a lot too.
[14:09] Speaker 3: I don't think it's limited to you. No, Matt Rule
[14:12] Speaker 3: takes Temple, a long forgotten champion. No, he takes Temple,
[14:20] Speaker 3: who just have been down forever and ever when he arrives,
[14:23] Speaker 3: and it's just not an attractive program to sort of
[14:27] Speaker 3: step into in a white glove turnkey way and keep
[14:30] Speaker 3: on winning. Right, Temple needed everything they needed, all of
[14:33] Speaker 3: the elbow grease and more, and he takes them into
[14:38] Speaker 3: a pretty formidable place.
[14:39] Speaker 2: Right.
[14:39] Speaker 3: They're competing on a huge level in conference, out of conference,
[14:43] Speaker 3: they're generating NFL draft picks, They're running a fun offense,
[14:47] Speaker 3: you know, mobile quarterback like. They become a legitimately incredible
[14:51] Speaker 3: story with how down they had been before he arrived,
[14:54] Speaker 3: and he obviously parlays that into a Baylor gig, which
[14:58] Speaker 3: was obviously awful on and off field reasons. When he
[15:01] Speaker 3: arrived signs a long term deal. They're pretty bad. They
[15:05] Speaker 3: immediately become kind of feisty, and then takes them too.
[15:09] Speaker 3: I want to say was the Sugar Bowl against Georgia.
[15:10] Speaker 3: It was how he concluded his time in Waco, and
[15:14] Speaker 3: not necessarily recruiting the best of Texas high school talent,
[15:18] Speaker 3: but finding guys, especially on defense, that fit his program
[15:22] Speaker 3: and finding enough on offense to win games in the
[15:25] Speaker 3: Big Twelve, parlays that into a disastrous time with the Panthers,
[15:30] Speaker 3: and then that doesn't work out, and he's this will
[15:33] Speaker 3: be his fourth season. I believe in Lincoln it's a
[15:36] Speaker 3: job in twenty twenty three and we are four years
[15:40] Speaker 3: in and I just saw Troy Dan and Ad Newish
[15:43] Speaker 3: Ad of Nebraska is preaching patience with regard to the
[15:48] Speaker 3: Cornhusker rebuilt four years in right, And obviously what Kurt
[15:52] Speaker 3: Signetti has done has ruined it for everybody.
[15:55] Speaker 1: Literally everybody is ruined.
[15:56] Speaker 3: And so Signetti, remove the Signetti factor if you can.
[16:01] Speaker 3: But we also are living through a time in which
[16:04] Speaker 3: you can use the portal and savvy ways and expensive
[16:08] Speaker 3: ways to dramatically improve specific parts of your team quickly,
[16:13] Speaker 3: and Nebraska hasn't necessarily done that. So the matable they
[16:21] Speaker 3: are the current Pinstripe Bowl champions, correct, That is correct. Okay,
[16:25] Speaker 3: that's a step in the right direction for this Nebraska program.
[16:27] Speaker 3: But we're also talking about a Nebraska program that is
[16:31] Speaker 3: hanging its hat on making a bowl game, a minor
[16:35] Speaker 3: bowl game, which does not still feel right for those
[16:38] Speaker 3: who have rooted forward so.
[16:39] Speaker 1: You think this is bill last is what you're saying.
[16:42] Speaker 2: I'm saying, built to last.
[16:44] Speaker 1: God, that scares me.
[16:46] Speaker 2: I don't.
[16:46] Speaker 3: I don't know what you're pointing to right now with
[16:48] Speaker 3: team composition, future at quarterback and offensive progress to say
[16:55] Speaker 3: we can put it to bed. No, no, sorry, I'm
[16:59] Speaker 3: saying we're putting this to bed. Turn around genius.
[17:01] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I see it.
[17:03] Speaker 3: I am putting the idea of Matt rule because I
[17:07] Speaker 3: don't know, Big tens harder than the Big twelve was
[17:09] Speaker 3: then obviously where Temple was as a program. But like
[17:12] Speaker 3: I just I think the context is a lot more
[17:14] Speaker 3: difficult now. I'm ready to put it to bed. Turn
[17:17] Speaker 3: around genius.
[17:18] Speaker 4: I mean year four is exactly where this gets tested.
[17:21] Speaker 4: I mean it's been a running test. And obviously the
[17:24] Speaker 4: Dilan Royola stuff with him agreeing to come to Nebraska
[17:28] Speaker 4: and now transferring out and he was hurt for a
[17:30] Speaker 4: chunk of the year. You know that I think has
[17:33] Speaker 4: complicated to some extent this whole narrative. But coming into
[17:39] Speaker 4: twenty twenty six.
[17:41] Speaker 3: And by the way, it's not Matt rule saying I
[17:43] Speaker 3: am a turnaround genus, but you see year three.
[17:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's been the narrative.
[17:49] Speaker 4: Well, the narrative has been turnaround genius and year three.
[17:52] Speaker 4: Those two things I think have been inextricably linked, and
[17:55] Speaker 4: we didn't see it last year for Nebraska. But now
[17:58] Speaker 4: coming into year four, maybe it's a little a bit
[18:01] Speaker 4: of a different setup. Right, it's Anthony Calandria, it's a
[18:04] Speaker 4: veteran offensive line. Will be better on the offensive line
[18:08] Speaker 4: that remains to be seen, but I think a better
[18:09] Speaker 4: wide receiver room. It's a new defensive staff. They're trying
[18:13] Speaker 4: to fix some of their woes against the run. Year
[18:16] Speaker 4: four is sort of the exact setup where we can
[18:19] Speaker 4: get I think, a better test of Matt Rul's turnaround genius.
[18:23] Speaker 1: It's just really hard to sell turnaround genius.
[18:26] Speaker 2: At this point.
[18:26] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we're also talking about what three defensive
[18:29] Speaker 3: coordinators in three years for Nebraska.
[18:31] Speaker 4: Right, I mean he is nineteen and nineteen and went
[18:37] Speaker 4: five and one, but finished the year seven and six
[18:40] Speaker 4: and back to back seasons, right, So it's just really tough,
[18:44] Speaker 4: I think, to sell turnaround genius at this point. I
[18:47] Speaker 4: think Penn State honestly bumped into this a little bit
[18:50] Speaker 4: after firing James Franklin. I stand by what I've said
[18:53] Speaker 4: time and again that I still think Rule was sort
[18:56] Speaker 4: of like the standby option, the direction they wanted to go,
[18:59] Speaker 4: and then the public case for Rule bottomed out pretty
[19:02] Speaker 4: quickly given what was going on in Nebraska. So I
[19:05] Speaker 4: just don't see it as a turnaround genius. They still
[19:08] Speaker 4: could turn them around. The thing that he's up against
[19:11] Speaker 4: is that college football has changed a lot. Yep, it's
[19:14] Speaker 4: changed a lot, and that has also flown in the
[19:16] Speaker 4: face of this turnaround genius narrative. Right, he was able
[19:21] Speaker 4: to turn Temple around pretty quickly, but that was in
[19:24] Speaker 4: a much different conference. He was able to turn Bailor
[19:27] Speaker 4: around pretty quickly, but that too was in a much
[19:29] Speaker 4: different conference and at a completely different stage of college football.
[19:33] Speaker 4: We're now a couple of years into the transfer portal
[19:36] Speaker 4: doing what it has done to the sport. The Big
[19:39] Speaker 4: Ten has obviously expanded and I think gotten harder. They've
[19:42] Speaker 4: won now three consecutive national championships. It's just the game
[19:46] Speaker 4: has changed since the turnaround genius thing was defined for
[19:50] Speaker 4: Matt Rules. So I'm I'm with you. I'm putting it
[19:52] Speaker 4: to bed. I still like Matt Rule.
[19:54] Speaker 1: I don't like it. I don't like him as a
[19:57] Speaker 1: coach as much as I used to.
[19:59] Speaker 4: And I'm definitely not on board with the turnaround genius
[20:01] Speaker 4: thing the way I was, you know, even like two
[20:03] Speaker 4: years ago. But I think for the sanity of all involved,
[20:08] Speaker 4: you should just put this one to bed.
[20:10] Speaker 3: His after his signed extension, which takes him through I
[20:13] Speaker 3: think twenty thirty two, he'll make twelve and a half
[20:17] Speaker 3: million those last two years over, I think is the
[20:20] Speaker 3: average annual value of the deal is somewhere in the elevens.
[20:24] Speaker 2: Yeah, at Nebraska as I see a furry tale behind you. Yeah, Yeah,
[20:28] Speaker 2: she's down here watching on YouTube, down here with me
[20:31] Speaker 2: on YouTube.
[20:32] Speaker 4: Yeah, I got both down here, but only one is
[20:35] Speaker 4: finding her way into the frame.
[20:36] Speaker 2: Fair enough. You're ready for a new one, I'm ready.
[20:39] Speaker 1: All right.
[20:39] Speaker 3: We've done Big ten, We've done acc We've got a
[20:41] Speaker 3: few from a lot of different conferences, all right, sec ready? Yeah,
[20:47] Speaker 3: Lane Kiffin is misunderstood Lane Kiffin.
[20:55] Speaker 1: Like he's under serious tortured artist. What well.
[20:59] Speaker 3: The last couple of years have seen a number of
[21:03] Speaker 3: fluff pieces, the hot yoga of it all, the like
[21:08] Speaker 3: the self improvement. I was young and brash and immature
[21:13] Speaker 3: and insecure, and now that I have aged a little
[21:18] Speaker 3: bit and figured out who I am. I am sort
[21:22] Speaker 3: of locked in on this new era and people's perceptions
[21:27] Speaker 3: of me are outdated.
[21:30] Speaker 4: You're forgetting about the tender hug on the tarmac with
[21:33] Speaker 4: Marty Smith.
[21:33] Speaker 1: Don't forget that. That's important.
[21:35] Speaker 3: We'll never forget that seminal moment of the twenty twenty
[21:37] Speaker 3: five season. Yeah, so can we put to bed the
[21:42] Speaker 3: idea that Lane Kiffin is misunderstood and grown and different?
[21:51] Speaker 3: Can we put that idea to bed? Or are you
[21:55] Speaker 3: are you ready to say like that's built to last,
[21:57] Speaker 3: that this is a new Lane Kiffin.
[22:00] Speaker 4: I feel like this is the first one you've mentioned
[22:01] Speaker 4: where I was like, who's saying that?
[22:04] Speaker 1: Who's Well?
[22:04] Speaker 3: There was hold on what was the name of the
[22:08] Speaker 3: the Uh? There was oh god, there was a like
[22:09] Speaker 3: a whole like not thirty for thirty, but there was
[22:11] Speaker 3: a I think a feature on E sixty, right. Do
[22:14] Speaker 3: you remember what it was called? I'm looking it up
[22:15] Speaker 3: right now. It was it's a great name, The many
[22:18] Speaker 3: lives of Lane Kiffin. Yeah, the many lives of Lane King.
[22:24] Speaker 3: And I think the person who wrote that feature stopped
[22:27] Speaker 3: writing about sports after that because.
[22:30] Speaker 4: I don't know man like, and anytime I see the
[22:36] Speaker 4: usual channels be flooded with stuff like this about Kiffen,
[22:40] Speaker 4: I get vibes of like, oh, there's a nation state
[22:43] Speaker 4: running some sort of psia, you know, Like.
[22:46] Speaker 1: I don't think he's that mysterious. I don't.
[22:49] Speaker 4: I think the book is out on Lane Kiffen at
[22:51] Speaker 4: this point. I think he's a brilliant offensive mind. I
[22:54] Speaker 4: think he is an aggressive roster builder. He loves the portal,
[22:57] Speaker 4: he loves volatility, he loves being sort of the troll
[23:03] Speaker 4: on the internet. And obviously we had the whole exit
[23:07] Speaker 4: from old Miss Slash taking the job at LSU's Slash
[23:12] Speaker 4: trying to raid everybody's roster in order to build things
[23:15] Speaker 4: up quickly down there. This guy just keeps telling everyone
[23:19] Speaker 4: exactly who he is. At some point we should probably
[23:23] Speaker 4: believe him. I don't know if there are a whole
[23:24] Speaker 4: lot of people out there who don't or haven't believed
[23:28] Speaker 4: him to date. I think our verballerhood is pretty wise
[23:32] Speaker 4: to who Lane Kiffin is at this point. So the
[23:34] Speaker 4: idea of him being misunderstood as a person as a
[23:38] Speaker 4: coach with how he goes about his business, for me,
[23:40] Speaker 4: that that was to bet a long, long time ago.
[23:47] Speaker 4: I guess it depends on what you mean by misunderstood,
[23:49] Speaker 4: because it's very easy to sort of lump in the
[23:54] Speaker 4: other Lane Kiffin baggage with him as a coach and
[23:57] Speaker 4: treat them as one.
[23:58] Speaker 2: And the same.
[23:59] Speaker 4: And I I think people contain multitudes. I think Lane
[24:02] Speaker 4: can still be a very good coach and at the
[24:04] Speaker 4: same time be you know this guy who thrives on chaos.
[24:08] Speaker 3: Right, I mean I could have reworded it with like,
[24:10] Speaker 3: Lane Kiffin has done a lot of growing and by
[24:12] Speaker 3: the way, sidebar here, one of the things that he
[24:15] Speaker 3: has talked about and that has been written about is
[24:18] Speaker 3: his like sobriety journey. Sure, tip of the cap kudos.
[24:22] Speaker 3: Not what we're talking about now, We're not talking about
[24:24] Speaker 3: that is that is actual, like commendable growth.
[24:27] Speaker 4: Absolutely absolutely should be committed for that. Yeah, and no,
[24:31] Speaker 4: that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about Lane Kiffin. Essentially,
[24:33] Speaker 4: is the chaos candidate correct? And is there sort of
[24:37] Speaker 4: more than meets the eye that we need to understand?
[24:39] Speaker 4: I don't think so. So I put this one in
[24:41] Speaker 4: bed like five years ago.
[24:42] Speaker 3: Dan, Yeah, we're putting Look, if you look up stories,
[24:47] Speaker 3: there are are Holly Anderson wrote for ESPN way back
[24:52] Speaker 3: when something like now that he's at AFAU, has Lane
[24:55] Speaker 3: Kiffin finally grown up? That was a feature in twenty seventeen,
[25:00] Speaker 3: which is almost a decade ago. Has Lane Kiffen finally
[25:03] Speaker 3: grown up? And we're still seeing the many lives of
[25:05] Speaker 3: Lane Kiffin and the hot yoga thing and you know,
[25:07] Speaker 3: everything that goes along with the Lane Kiffin experience. I
[25:11] Speaker 3: don't think it's mean or untoured to say. I think
[25:15] Speaker 3: who he's been there are going to be elements that
[25:18] Speaker 3: are going to continue in perpetuity.
[25:20] Speaker 4: I'm not vilifying the guy. I'm not vilifying the guy.
[25:23] Speaker 4: Sometimes you just are who you are and everyone's different.
[25:27] Speaker 4: And look, LSU made a choice here. People who cover LSU. Yeah,
[25:32] Speaker 4: I've been reading what they say all off season long.
[25:35] Speaker 4: They're the first to say, we chose this life all
[25:39] Speaker 4: missed before them chose this. Let you know what you're
[25:42] Speaker 4: getting with Lane kiff And I don't think he's misunderstood
[25:44] Speaker 4: among the people hiring him. But the guy does get
[25:46] Speaker 4: results on the football field, which is ultimately what they're
[25:48] Speaker 4: paying him.
[25:49] Speaker 2: They do, so to.
[25:50] Speaker 3: Be fair, you will hear a lot of people rushing
[25:54] Speaker 3: to his defense that recently also rushed Alpha Fi Delta
[25:59] Speaker 3: Gamma Tri Delt. I think those are the only ones
[26:02] Speaker 3: I know, so Pi Fi Yeah, so so I am.
[26:09] Speaker 2: I am putting it to bed.
[26:11] Speaker 3: I'm absolutely putting it to bed that he's misunderstood and grown.
[26:14] Speaker 2: And that's okay. I'm not just.
[26:16] Speaker 1: Putting this to bed.
[26:17] Speaker 4: This one's let's just drive the final nail in that coffin.
[26:21] Speaker 1: Like it's not.
[26:22] Speaker 4: He's not waking up from this one. This is okay,
[26:24] Speaker 4: just who he is? Next one, next one? All right,
[26:28] Speaker 4: the next narrative.
[26:29] Speaker 3: Ryan Day was born on third base, Ryan Day, and
[26:33] Speaker 3: this is Look, this is very specific to a specific
[26:37] Speaker 3: fan base.
[26:38] Speaker 4: What does this mean? I want you to define what
[26:40] Speaker 4: this means to you.
[26:41] Speaker 1: As so, this was.
[26:42] Speaker 3: The the the held belief that Ryan Day, in taking
[26:46] Speaker 3: over as an internal hire for Urban Meyer, was gift
[26:51] Speaker 3: wrapped a championship program and should not be given credit
[26:57] Speaker 3: for building it up and maintaining what he built, but
[27:01] Speaker 3: rather he's merely a steward of what Urban Meyer was
[27:05] Speaker 3: able to do in you know, modernizing recruiting and whatever
[27:08] Speaker 3: the culture.
[27:09] Speaker 2: Is at Ohio State.
[27:10] Speaker 3: That Ohio State kind of recruits itself and He's just
[27:13] Speaker 3: the guy right now behind the wheel, and anybody could
[27:16] Speaker 3: and should win at Ohio State. And he was gift
[27:20] Speaker 3: wrapped this opportunity without actually building constructing. Here's a construction sound,
[27:27] Speaker 3: you know, constructing Ohio State. Just you know the guy
[27:31] Speaker 3: who happens to be sitting in the chair at the moment.
[27:33] Speaker 4: I mean, how many instances have we seen where a
[27:38] Speaker 4: great coach, or at least a very successful coach for
[27:42] Speaker 4: a short period of time, turns the reins over to
[27:45] Speaker 4: an assistant and the thing goes like off the off
[27:51] Speaker 4: the skids a little bit. Yeah, didn't Oregon have this
[27:54] Speaker 4: a little bit when they gave it to Mark Helfrich.
[27:57] Speaker 3: He Yeah, he was able to keep it going for
[27:59] Speaker 3: a while, but ultimately was not able to spin up
[28:04] Speaker 3: Oregon in his own way more than sort of draft
[28:07] Speaker 3: off of the fumes of the Chip Kelly era. And
[28:10] Speaker 3: I thought he was a good coach, but in terms
[28:12] Speaker 3: of running a program that big in the day to
[28:15] Speaker 3: day and the recruiting and culture of it all, I
[28:17] Speaker 3: don't think he was that guy.
[28:19] Speaker 1: Like, for every Ryan day, there are five Larry Kokers.
[28:24] Speaker 2: M H.
[28:25] Speaker 4: So I have a hard time with this. Urban Meyer
[28:28] Speaker 4: walked away from Ohio State in twenty eighteen. Yes, we're
[28:32] Speaker 4: pretty far into this thing now. And so if there
[28:34] Speaker 4: were going to be cracks showing up in the foundation,
[28:37] Speaker 4: because Ryan Day is merely just a steward and not
[28:40] Speaker 4: somebody who's able to execute a longer term strategic vision,
[28:44] Speaker 4: like we would have seen that stuff by now. Most
[28:48] Speaker 4: of what we've talked about with Ryan Day is, you know,
[28:51] Speaker 4: they lost a big game or whatever the hell happened
[28:55] Speaker 4: a couple of years ago in that Michigan game right
[28:57] Speaker 4: where they tried to play bully ball and ended up
[29:00] Speaker 4: for whatever reason, losing, But then they go on to
[29:02] Speaker 4: win the national championship. Like I just I understand why
[29:07] Speaker 4: this argument is made. Clearly, he was gifted a program
[29:10] Speaker 4: that had a ton of resources, and maybe he had
[29:14] Speaker 4: an incredible head start given where the program was at
[29:17] Speaker 4: when urban Meyer walked away.
[29:19] Speaker 1: But they've maintained.
[29:20] Speaker 4: Man, you know, they the national championship they want a
[29:23] Speaker 4: couple of seasons ago was not because of urban Meyer.
[29:25] Speaker 4: That was because of the talent that they brought in
[29:27] Speaker 4: and Ryan Day finding a way I think at the
[29:30] Speaker 4: last second after that lost to Michigan to kind of
[29:34] Speaker 4: circle the wagons and figure out what the path forward
[29:37] Speaker 4: is going to be. So I just I get it,
[29:40] Speaker 4: but I don't buy it. I still think he's a really,
[29:42] Speaker 4: really good coach.
[29:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm absolutely putting it to bed.
[29:46] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just it's also too difficult to job to
[29:51] Speaker 3: do by coasting off of what the previous guy did
[29:56] Speaker 3: and the amount of pressure that's at Ohio State to
[29:59] Speaker 3: nail every coaching hire, to nail every recruiting class, to
[30:05] Speaker 3: nail every playoff, to nail every Big ten season. Right now,
[30:09] Speaker 3: you can say that the best of Michigan. However, you
[30:14] Speaker 3: look at what Michigan was the last two three years
[30:16] Speaker 3: of the Jim Harbough era, and however tainted you do
[30:19] Speaker 3: or don't feel like that was, he couldn't solve it.
[30:23] Speaker 3: That was something that is definitely on the Ohio State program.
[30:27] Speaker 3: Right The talent was there, the infrastructure was there, and
[30:31] Speaker 3: they were able to win a national championship despite it.
[30:36] Speaker 3: And so because it was what six years after urban
[30:39] Speaker 3: Meyer left, it's an inordinate amount of pressure, and I
[30:44] Speaker 3: feel like he has largely risen to the occasion. Right,
[30:47] Speaker 3: he took them to the national Championship. They lose, They
[30:50] Speaker 3: had blown out by Alabama, in twenty twenty season.
[30:53] Speaker 2: I want to say that was the Mac Jones year.
[30:55] Speaker 3: And obviously it seems like there was some regret over
[30:58] Speaker 3: who he had on that staff, especially on defense it
[31:01] Speaker 3: was Kerrie Coombs running the defense right. Kind of a
[31:04] Speaker 3: disaster there, But it seems like he's addressed enough of
[31:09] Speaker 3: the issues that have plagued Ohio State to the point
[31:12] Speaker 3: now where look, that's a program with top two expectations
[31:18] Speaker 3: with Alabama, with Georgia, whoever. You want to say, like,
[31:20] Speaker 3: if you're not winning a national championship every I don't
[31:23] Speaker 3: know three four years, you're looked at in sort of
[31:27] Speaker 3: an untoward way by the fan base.
[31:29] Speaker 2: So no, I think I'm happy to put this one
[31:32] Speaker 2: to bed.
[31:33] Speaker 4: Yeah, And I saw the article out on the Athletic
[31:37] Speaker 4: either posted today as we record this on Monday, or
[31:41] Speaker 4: maybe over the weekend. David Ebben our friend check the
[31:44] Speaker 4: math on you know right now as we're talking about
[31:47] Speaker 4: a twenty four team playoff and what would it have
[31:50] Speaker 4: looked like over the last twelve years if you ran
[31:53] Speaker 4: it back and expanded everything, and like how many teams
[31:55] Speaker 4: would make it?
[31:56] Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
[31:58] Speaker 4: He did find that eighty different teams would have made
[32:00] Speaker 4: the twenty four team playoff in that span of time,
[32:02] Speaker 4: but Ohio State, along with Alabama, would have made it
[32:05] Speaker 4: all twelve years. So to your point, there is an
[32:07] Speaker 4: expectation there that Ohio State is going to be in
[32:09] Speaker 4: the mix every year, and at least to that end,
[32:12] Speaker 4: Ohio State und Ryan Day has very much been that
[32:14] Speaker 4: every year there contender every year. We talk about him
[32:16] Speaker 4: as at a minimum top ten caliber team. So you're
[32:20] Speaker 4: not going to get them all. And for sure there
[32:22] Speaker 4: is a higher bar to clear if you're the coach
[32:25] Speaker 4: at Ohio State. But it's not like this program has
[32:28] Speaker 4: taken a dramatic left turn since urban Meyer left. Brian
[32:32] Speaker 4: Day has done a very good job in my opinion.
[32:34] Speaker 3: Yes, I agree, I've got a trickier one. I would say,
[32:38] Speaker 3: you ready, okay, Texas A and M has a hard ceiling,
[32:48] Speaker 3: a hard ceiling, a hard ceiling of basically every coach
[32:53] Speaker 3: will win eight plus or minus one game every year,
[32:59] Speaker 3: with perhaps a slip year. So Jimbo had his blip
[33:02] Speaker 3: year in the COVID year when they go nine to one.
[33:05] Speaker 3: I want to say, just outside of the playoff. Obviously,
[33:09] Speaker 3: an incredible year for Kevin Sumlin in the Johnny Football
[33:13] Speaker 3: era where they do they win eleven games? I believe
[33:15] Speaker 3: they win eleven games in two thousand and was it eleven?
[33:21] Speaker 4: No?
[33:21] Speaker 3: Excuse me? Twenty twelve? Yeah, they win eleven games. They
[33:24] Speaker 3: finished fifth in the nation. But otherwise it has been
[33:28] Speaker 3: a hard capped team at around eight nine with a
[33:33] Speaker 3: bowl win or whatever. Like there's the joke about eight
[33:35] Speaker 3: and four or eight and five something with Texas A
[33:37] Speaker 3: and M. Do you believe we can put that narrative
[33:41] Speaker 3: to bed? After Texas A and M makes the College
[33:43] Speaker 3: Football Playoff hosts a game last season in an SEC
[33:47] Speaker 3: that has never been deeper. Texas A and M is
[33:50] Speaker 3: a playoff team. Do you believe we can after that
[33:53] Speaker 3: season we can put it to bed?
[33:56] Speaker 4: I jotted down three question marks for this one, okay,
[33:59] Speaker 4: because I am genuinely on the fence. By the way,
[34:01] Speaker 4: my new favorite thing that I think we've rediscovered because
[34:04] Speaker 4: the Texas A and M Texas game is back in
[34:06] Speaker 4: our lives is the amount of Texas A and M
[34:09] Speaker 4: people who write in with something negative to say about
[34:11] Speaker 4: Texas and vice versa.
[34:13] Speaker 2: I love it.
[34:13] Speaker 4: I've enjoyed that dynamic at soliverbo at gmail dot com.
[34:16] Speaker 4: If you have something to add, please feel free to
[34:19] Speaker 4: do so. I'm on the fence. I'm really on the
[34:22] Speaker 4: fence here. I really don't know what to think because
[34:25] Speaker 4: I like Mike Elco. I like the team that he
[34:28] Speaker 4: has put together. Obviously had the home loss in the
[34:34] Speaker 4: playoff game last year ten to three against Miami, but
[34:37] Speaker 4: that was the weird weather game with the wind and
[34:40] Speaker 4: just wasn't fun to watch. I'm sure it was less
[34:42] Speaker 4: fun to play. But they did make the playoff. They
[34:46] Speaker 4: do bring Marcel read back. They're a top ten team
[34:49] Speaker 4: per preseason sp plus they're working in a bunch of
[34:55] Speaker 4: new pieces from the portal along the line. But it's
[34:58] Speaker 4: not it's not a roster to me that I look
[35:01] Speaker 4: at and I say, oh, they're capped.
[35:03] Speaker 1: You know, there there's a very clear ceiling here.
[35:06] Speaker 3: So from the stand of skill back by the way
[35:09] Speaker 3: Reuben Owens and Craper and there's a lot of returning
[35:12] Speaker 3: talent in the middle of this defense.
[35:13] Speaker 4: So it's it's not a roster that I look at
[35:15] Speaker 4: and say, you know, there's a glaring deficiency and I
[35:18] Speaker 4: could see where it's gonna where it's going to go sideways.
[35:21] Speaker 1: It is a tough schedule this is an SEC gauntlet,
[35:24] Speaker 1: that gauntlet they're going to be up against.
[35:27] Speaker 4: But I don't I don't see it from that standpoint,
[35:30] Speaker 4: and so I think that's why I have a hard
[35:31] Speaker 4: time really get my head around this one. I'm saying
[35:35] Speaker 4: it's built to last. Really, I don't have a good
[35:38] Speaker 4: reason for it. That's my problem. I don't have a
[35:39] Speaker 4: great reason for it. But I understand why you would
[35:41] Speaker 4: mention it.
[35:42] Speaker 3: Okay, So this is basically across three conferences, not really,
[35:49] Speaker 3: maybe it's more two conferences. There was there were a
[35:52] Speaker 3: lot of average years in the Southwest Conference, but there
[35:55] Speaker 3: was you know, if you go back seventies and eighties,
[35:57] Speaker 3: there were there were good stretches, you know, RC Slocum
[36:00] Speaker 3: the early to mid nineties was very good for text
[36:02] Speaker 3: A and M. But when they made that switch to
[36:04] Speaker 3: the Big twelve six wins, nine wins, eight wins, seven wins,
[36:09] Speaker 3: eight wins, six wins, four wins, seven five, nine, seven, four, six, nine, seven,
[36:15] Speaker 3: eleven and twenty twelve eight in the regular season, but
[36:18] Speaker 3: nine with the Bowl win and the Chick fil A
[36:20] Speaker 3: Bowl nine eight eight eight seven nine eight nine eight
[36:24] Speaker 3: five seven and then eight and Mike Elcho's first year,
[36:28] Speaker 3: and obviously a terrific year, but not the most difficult
[36:32] Speaker 3: SEC schedule, because that's going to happen sometimes because of
[36:35] Speaker 3: a conference is so big that you're gonna get a
[36:37] Speaker 3: number of teams at or below the Mendoza line. I
[36:40] Speaker 3: don't know how many teams they played that fired their coaches,
[36:42] Speaker 3: but it's more than two from last season in the SEC.
[36:46] Speaker 3: I'm gonna say until I see a coach at Texas
[36:49] Speaker 3: A and M, and I'm a Texas A and M believer.
[36:52] Speaker 3: I'm sort of carrying two things at once here. I
[36:55] Speaker 3: think the pixie dust in the A and M universe
[36:58] Speaker 3: is real that are saddling this program with baggage. But
[37:04] Speaker 3: I'm still going to say until I see a coach
[37:07] Speaker 3: and an era of Texas A and M football where
[37:10] Speaker 3: they're able to match expectations, reputations or whatever with actual
[37:16] Speaker 3: full season results, especially against a more difficult schedule, I
[37:21] Speaker 3: gotta see it, man, I gotta go Buil to last.
[37:26] Speaker 2: Again.
[37:27] Speaker 3: I'm carrying two very opposing stands. I know the same
[37:30] Speaker 3: time that I am indeed high on the Mike Elco era,
[37:33] Speaker 3: and I am a believer in this team overcoming it.
[37:37] Speaker 3: But this is like I gotta see it. I gotta
[37:40] Speaker 3: see it. It's just been too long a stretch.
[37:43] Speaker 4: Yeah, I have a hard time buying in on any
[37:47] Speaker 4: narrative that is based on well, that's just the way
[37:49] Speaker 4: it's always been. And the cautionary tale on that front
[37:54] Speaker 4: is very clearly Indiana. Again, the outlier, I know, complete outlier,
[37:59] Speaker 4: I know, but we were used to Indiana being bad
[38:02] Speaker 4: until suddenly they weren't.
[38:03] Speaker 1: So I'm.
[38:05] Speaker 4: Extreme example. Could absolutely see Texas and popping this year.
[38:10] Speaker 4: But it has been built to last, though there's a
[38:14] Speaker 4: lot of data to suggest that this is just kind
[38:16] Speaker 4: of I don't know. They're at a glass ceiling here
[38:19] Speaker 4: for whatever reason. So I'll stick with built to last
[38:22] Speaker 4: for now. I'm not necessarily rooting for that, and I
[38:24] Speaker 4: don't feel strongly in this camp. But until proven otherwise,
[38:31] Speaker 4: I think it's fair enough to say, yeah, this one's
[38:34] Speaker 4: built to last.
[38:35] Speaker 2: They get to the playoff and immediately do nothing.
[38:40] Speaker 1: The weather was horrible, though, but it's bad for both teams.
[38:44] Speaker 1: I know.
[38:45] Speaker 4: I'm really on the fence with this one. I'm really
[38:47] Speaker 4: uncomfortable with this question.
[38:48] Speaker 3: And they were at home, I get it, and they
[38:50] Speaker 3: found the end zone zero times.
[38:52] Speaker 2: They were shut out through three quarters.
[38:53] Speaker 1: At I know, I get it, I get it. I'm
[38:56] Speaker 1: just that's proved. The next one where you going to
[38:58] Speaker 1: excite them?
[38:59] Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, we did, Matt Ruhle turn around genius,
[39:01] Speaker 3: we did, Mario, we did. Okay, here we go. Let's
[39:04] Speaker 3: make it personal once again. Oregon will fall flat late
[39:08] Speaker 3: in the season. That's just what we've come to expect.
[39:11] Speaker 3: They've lost in the National Championship twice. Michael Dyer's elbow
[39:14] Speaker 3: was down. They get basically not basically literally run over
[39:20] Speaker 3: by Zeke Elliott in a National Championship game, and that
[39:23] Speaker 3: was a game for a stretch, so they they were
[39:27] Speaker 3: eventually beaten down. That was a beat up Oregon team,
[39:30] Speaker 3: but everybody's beat up by that time. And then Dan
[39:34] Speaker 3: lanning experience has been largely throttling teams, especially since they've
[39:41] Speaker 3: they're either one loss in Big Ten play but once
[39:47] Speaker 3: again throttled by an Ohio State team and the Rose
[39:48] Speaker 3: Bowl throttled by an Indiana team this past season, and
[39:52] Speaker 3: so narrative being across multiple coaches Chip Kelly, Mark Helfrich,
[39:58] Speaker 3: and now Dan Lanning late in the seas that Oregon
[40:01] Speaker 3: is a regular season darling, but can't for whatever reason,
[40:07] Speaker 3: and it's different reasons every time. Can't figure it out
[40:12] Speaker 3: in January.
[40:14] Speaker 4: I think this is built to last, okay, And I
[40:18] Speaker 4: think it's built to last in the same way that
[40:20] Speaker 4: you think the Texas A and M narrative is built
[40:22] Speaker 4: to last.
[40:23] Speaker 1: You just got to prove otherwise.
[40:25] Speaker 4: The problem for Oregon, and it's probably a bit harsh
[40:29] Speaker 4: and unfair, right Oregon keeps getting labeled by their last loss,
[40:35] Speaker 4: and in their case, their last loss of the last
[40:38] Speaker 4: two seasons were to two eventual national champions in Ohio
[40:43] Speaker 4: State and Indiana.
[40:43] Speaker 1: They're not losing to bad teams.
[40:45] Speaker 3: No, And even before that, they lose to Washington in
[40:48] Speaker 3: the regular season. Washington beats them in the Pac twelve championship.
[40:52] Speaker 3: Do you remember that conference? The Pac twelve Championship, Washington
[40:54] Speaker 3: goes on to go to the national championship game. So
[40:57] Speaker 3: that was a very strong Washington team that year. Yes,
[41:01] Speaker 3: point stands.
[41:01] Speaker 4: I mean, this is the preseason number two team for
[41:05] Speaker 4: the sp plus Dante Morris back, The defensive front is loaded.
[41:09] Speaker 4: The roster just has a ton back. Yeah, absolutely loaded team.
[41:15] Speaker 4: But there is a real pattern here, and I think,
[41:18] Speaker 4: until proven otherwise, this is what Dan Lanning is going
[41:20] Speaker 4: to be up against. This is why I say it's
[41:22] Speaker 4: built to last. The losses to Ohio State in Indiana,
[41:25] Speaker 4: we're not particularly close, which I actually think is a
[41:29] Speaker 4: bigger story than whether they won or lost. You'd prefer
[41:32] Speaker 4: to win, but if you're going to lose, you prefer
[41:34] Speaker 4: that that game be a little bit closer, at least
[41:36] Speaker 4: I would as a fan.
[41:37] Speaker 2: I do you prefer, if you're an Oregon fan not
[41:39] Speaker 2: to throw a pick six on the opening throw? Is
[41:40] Speaker 2: that I do?
[41:41] Speaker 4: Actually I did less than ideal. Yeah, that is less
[41:44] Speaker 4: than ideal. So now on top of that, you've got
[41:48] Speaker 4: new coordinators, You've got to rebuilt offensive line. You've got
[41:51] Speaker 4: a stretch in November of Ohio State and Michigan Washington
[41:55] Speaker 4: that I think is very much going to keep this
[41:56] Speaker 4: narrative alive. Oregon in all likelihood is going to find
[41:59] Speaker 4: their way into the playoff. I'm not really worried about that,
[42:03] Speaker 4: but we will have pockets later in the year where
[42:08] Speaker 4: Oregon will have ample opportunity to fall flat against a
[42:11] Speaker 4: good team. And I want to see how they respond
[42:14] Speaker 4: this year now with you know, so much returning back
[42:17] Speaker 4: and obviously a quarterback in Dante more figures to be
[42:21] Speaker 4: a top five pick, but he got to prove it.
[42:25] Speaker 4: Landing's got to prove it. Now, my question back to you,
[42:28] Speaker 4: because I know you feel similarly. Yeah, my question back
[42:32] Speaker 4: to you is, assuming Oregon makes the playoff, Yeah, is
[42:39] Speaker 4: it championship or bust?
[42:40] Speaker 1: To get over this.
[42:42] Speaker 3: Narrative with who they're bringing back, yes, okay, and that
[42:45] Speaker 3: we can delve into this more obviously during preview time.
[42:50] Speaker 3: But with what they paid to retain both Dante Moore
[42:54] Speaker 3: and what they are bringing back, bringing back what might
[42:57] Speaker 3: be the best defensive line in the country at least
[42:59] Speaker 3: it's in that top group of teams, and how they've recruited,
[43:03] Speaker 3: what they've done in the portal to secure more depth
[43:06] Speaker 3: and or starting talent. We'll see how the starting lineup
[43:09] Speaker 3: shakes out. Yes, Now, what you can point to for
[43:13] Speaker 3: Oregon is a lot of things. Right, They don't lose
[43:15] Speaker 3: to clearly lesser teams, and we've seen a lot of
[43:19] Speaker 3: championship caliber teams maybe in non championship years lose to
[43:24] Speaker 3: you know, have a Georgia South Carolina.
[43:25] Speaker 1: We talked about, We talked about Miami earlier.
[43:27] Speaker 3: With Miami earlier, right, or take your pick right. You know,
[43:32] Speaker 3: a strong Ohouse State team losing the Purdue or Iowa
[43:34] Speaker 3: something like that. The teams are not built as strongly
[43:39] Speaker 3: as you know in this case Oregon. Oregon doesn't lose
[43:41] Speaker 3: those games, hasn't in a long time under Dan Lanning.
[43:44] Speaker 3: So in order to lose in the playoff, you got
[43:46] Speaker 3: to get to the playoff, and Oregon seems to be
[43:47] Speaker 3: a team built to do that for quite some time.
[43:49] Speaker 2: Now.
[43:51] Speaker 3: Oregon did go deeper last season, right, they're seemingly making
[43:55] Speaker 3: progress before losing that specific game. And you can point
[43:58] Speaker 3: to whatever excuse you want, but look, it's a binary thing.
[44:01] Speaker 3: You're winning or losing. And Oregon wasn't even competing to
[44:04] Speaker 3: win in that game pretty quickly against Indiana anyway, and
[44:08] Speaker 3: Ohio State down whatever they were at thirty four to
[44:10] Speaker 3: nothing at halftime, thirty one nothing. So you gotta see it.
[44:15] Speaker 3: You got to see it in that very specific scenario.
[44:18] Speaker 3: And I'm positive if you asked Dan Lanney, if you
[44:21] Speaker 3: ask anybody within that program, they would say the same
[44:24] Speaker 3: thing that you can't put it to bed because, and
[44:27] Speaker 3: I'm speaking for them, we have to prove it on
[44:30] Speaker 3: the field.
[44:31] Speaker 2: We have to be the.
[44:32] Speaker 3: Ones pulling the covers nice and snug over the narrative,
[44:36] Speaker 3: not you know, two goobers like Dan and Tye. Right,
[44:39] Speaker 3: And so I'm saying it's built to last until we
[44:42] Speaker 3: see Oregon rise.
[44:44] Speaker 2: To that moment. So it's built to last.
[44:48] Speaker 4: Again, it's kind of unfair because it's a really good team,
[44:51] Speaker 4: it's a really good coach, it's a loaded roster.
[44:53] Speaker 1: But they're at that point now.
[44:56] Speaker 3: If you gave me even odds Oregon wins the national
[44:59] Speaker 3: championship and the next four years, I would say I would.
[45:03] Speaker 3: I would bet on them winning a national championship. I
[45:06] Speaker 3: think that the progress indicates roster wise, coaching wise, uh,
[45:13] Speaker 3: the degree to which Dan Landing, still a young dude
[45:16] Speaker 3: is learning on the job, I would I would bet
[45:19] Speaker 3: on it.
[45:19] Speaker 4: All things being, they're very much victims of their own success,
[45:23] Speaker 4: which I think is why in large part this kind
[45:26] Speaker 4: of feels unfair. But I understand why the question is
[45:28] Speaker 4: being asked, and I tend to think right now, it's
[45:31] Speaker 4: until proven otherwise you gotta agree with.
[45:33] Speaker 3: It, all right, you want to pick the last one?
[45:35] Speaker 3: You see that the bank of items in front of you,
[45:37] Speaker 3: is there one that jumps out to you as bad?
[45:39] Speaker 2: Or built worthy.
[45:41] Speaker 4: I have two, both of the acc please and the
[45:44] Speaker 4: one that you jotted down.
[45:46] Speaker 1: This was yours.
[45:46] Speaker 4: You came up with all these, not me, But the
[45:48] Speaker 4: one that really caught my attention was Clemson can't adapt. Okay,
[45:56] Speaker 4: Clemson can't adapt. I think this one's a bit misunderstood. Okay,
[46:05] Speaker 4: I think there's some newance. It's not just about the portal, No,
[46:08] Speaker 4: it isn't. Because of the comments that Dabo has made
[46:12] Speaker 4: along the way.
[46:14] Speaker 1: I think there is this perception out there that.
[46:17] Speaker 4: This is an old school coach and he's too stubborn
[46:19] Speaker 4: to adapt, and to an extent, I think that is true.
[46:25] Speaker 4: But I actually think Dabo has been forced to adapt
[46:27] Speaker 4: a great deal. And the real question in my mind
[46:30] Speaker 4: is not whether he's adapting, but whether he's any good
[46:33] Speaker 4: at it. I think that's what we are seeing unfold
[46:36] Speaker 4: in real time. I think back to a conversation, and
[46:40] Speaker 4: you know you've heard me mention this before. People who
[46:42] Speaker 4: have listened to the show have mentioned this conversation before,
[46:45] Speaker 4: but had a conversation Gosh, I had to be ten
[46:47] Speaker 4: years ago with our friend Larry Williams Tiger illustrated, and
[46:52] Speaker 4: this is back when Clemson felt inevitable. They were kind
[46:55] Speaker 4: of in the throes of the dynasty or whatever we
[46:57] Speaker 4: would consider the Clemson dynasty, and our remember asking him
[47:00] Speaker 4: what's it going to take for this to kind of
[47:02] Speaker 4: crumble or for this to not be as successful, because
[47:05] Speaker 4: at the time, again they felt inevitable.
[47:07] Speaker 1: It's just a conveyor belt.
[47:09] Speaker 4: And I remember him saying vividly some combination of assistant
[47:14] Speaker 4: coaches leaving with missing on a couple recruiting cycles or
[47:19] Speaker 4: a couple key pieces in recruiting classes. Right. I think
[47:24] Speaker 4: Larry was right. I think he was spot on at
[47:27] Speaker 4: the time. He didn't know it at the time, he
[47:29] Speaker 4: was kind of grasping. I remember his tone when he
[47:31] Speaker 4: answered the question. But I think in hindsight Larry was right.
[47:34] Speaker 4: Since then, there has been a lot of coaching turnover.
[47:38] Speaker 4: The offense has certainly been a work in progress. Since
[47:41] Speaker 4: twenty twenty, I think we can definitively say that they've
[47:45] Speaker 4: missed a little bit on the quarterback front. They certainly
[47:49] Speaker 4: have not had a Deshaun Watson Trevor Lawrence type dju
[47:53] Speaker 4: kd Klubnik had moments, but they've certainly not proven to
[47:57] Speaker 4: be the same caliber player as the other two. I
[48:01] Speaker 4: think we can say for sure that Dabo has been
[48:04] Speaker 4: slow to adapt. He has done more of it, though
[48:08] Speaker 4: than the caricature. Caricature would have you believe. He tried
[48:13] Speaker 4: Garrett Riley on offense, that didn't really work. Now he's
[48:16] Speaker 4: going back to Chad Boris. I can argue about whether
[48:19] Speaker 4: or not he's adapting at all going back to an
[48:21] Speaker 4: older coach.
[48:22] Speaker 1: But hied Tom Allen. That was a big deal.
[48:25] Speaker 4: Splash higher on the defensive side of the ball before
[48:27] Speaker 4: last season, kind of a power move, right. They did
[48:31] Speaker 4: make some defensive portal additions more than they had in
[48:35] Speaker 4: the past. This offseason, I think they are making a
[48:39] Speaker 4: clear attempt to fix some of that stuff. They're clearly
[48:41] Speaker 4: going out there and trying to fix on offense, the
[48:44] Speaker 4: run game. They're trying to make the team tougher. There
[48:47] Speaker 4: are things that are afoot. But my issue here is
[48:51] Speaker 4: that it very much feels like it's been Clemson trying
[48:54] Speaker 4: to adapt on Clemson's terms. They're trying to, like, in
[48:59] Speaker 4: a sense, put the toothpaste back in the tube. I
[49:02] Speaker 4: want to take a year and revisit this, because if
[49:05] Speaker 4: they don't hit with Christopher Vizen at quarterback, if the
[49:08] Speaker 4: portal guys do not help on defense. At that point,
[49:12] Speaker 4: it'd be fair to say dablash just not good at adapting.
[49:14] Speaker 4: So I think he's not trying something he can't adapt,
[49:17] Speaker 4: it's just that he's not good at it. So we'll
[49:20] Speaker 4: see no portal quarterback this year. They didn't go out
[49:26] Speaker 4: there and go crazy on the offensive line. It's not
[49:28] Speaker 4: that they have a veteran offensive line that's going to
[49:30] Speaker 4: rescue him. They go with a nostalgia higher at offensive coordinator.
[49:36] Speaker 1: This is off of a.
[49:38] Speaker 4: Seven and six season where they had a ton of
[49:39] Speaker 4: NFL talent, so the skepticism is fair. I am not
[49:44] Speaker 4: willing to put this one to bed, yet I would
[49:47] Speaker 4: say gun to my head. I probably say built to last,
[49:50] Speaker 4: because I think there is mounting evidence that Dabblo is
[49:53] Speaker 4: just not good at adapting, even though even though he
[49:57] Speaker 4: is trying, I think more than would meet the eye.
[50:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, and it felt like he was more of an
[50:03] Speaker 3: assassin in the twenty teens with regard to look it
[50:08] Speaker 3: was a different era in terms of roster construction, but
[50:10] Speaker 3: like even the whole turning to Trevor Lawrence, even with
[50:14] Speaker 3: Kelly Bryant having taken the team to the playoff the
[50:16] Speaker 3: year before, where it's like, a Kelly Bryant's just not
[50:19] Speaker 3: going to take us to where we imagine ourselves going, right,
[50:23] Speaker 3: And it became like pretty clear that Kate Klubnick had
[50:29] Speaker 3: a ceiling and there is a there's something commendable about
[50:33] Speaker 3: what Dabo has done and being loyal to players and
[50:37] Speaker 3: not trying to recruit over them through the portal. But
[50:42] Speaker 3: I don't know, there's there's the loyalty to the pool
[50:44] Speaker 3: of assistance he's had over you know, you look at
[50:46] Speaker 3: the the guys in the program and it's just like, oh,
[50:50] Speaker 3: this former running back, this former quarterback, this former tight end,
[50:53] Speaker 3: this former safety, right that these are the ones taking
[50:56] Speaker 3: over that he's keeping it like a very internal program.
[50:59] Speaker 3: He's hiring from who he sees at reunions. And it's fine,
[51:06] Speaker 3: it's commendable, but it also has you losing thirty four
[51:10] Speaker 3: to three to Georgia. It has you losing ten to
[51:12] Speaker 3: three to Georgia, has you losing multiple times in row
[51:14] Speaker 3: or whatever to NC State or SMU or you know,
[51:18] Speaker 3: being terrible, god awful in the red zone to open
[51:20] Speaker 3: the season against Duke. I'm not saying every one of
[51:22] Speaker 3: these things is the fault of being too loyal to
[51:24] Speaker 3: former Clemson players and you know, paying them to be coaches.
[51:28] Speaker 3: But in terms of what programs who became known as
[51:33] Speaker 3: Killers were doing, when you look at who he was
[51:36] Speaker 3: compared against, right Urban Meyer and Nick Saban and how
[51:39] Speaker 3: they ran their programs, or like, this guy's not good
[51:41] Speaker 3: enough to win a national championship at Clemson, but let's
[51:44] Speaker 3: stick with him, it means that I don't know if
[51:48] Speaker 3: it's an adaptation, but it's it's almost as if like
[51:52] Speaker 3: Dabosweeney's standards have changed where he's just like, I'm not
[51:56] Speaker 3: willing to do that to these people in pursuit of
[51:59] Speaker 3: that in this era, and I just think it's built
[52:05] Speaker 3: to last. I just don't see how you put that
[52:08] Speaker 3: toothpaste back in the tube now. They did to their credit.
[52:10] Speaker 3: I think it's eleven transfers coming in this season.
[52:12] Speaker 1: Yep.
[52:13] Speaker 3: I think there was eleven in thirteen or fourteen out.
[52:16] Speaker 3: So they have been more active this season in trying
[52:19] Speaker 3: to address issues. But God, you go back to again,
[52:23] Speaker 3: we're not holding him against him today, but there was
[52:27] Speaker 3: a year in which their coordinators were Brandon Streeter and
[52:29] Speaker 3: Wes Goodwin, an elevated analyst like, that's who they It
[52:33] Speaker 3: has a good reputation, Wes Goodwin, but that's who they
[52:38] Speaker 3: brought in to replace the arguably most legendary and successful
[52:43] Speaker 3: defensive coordinator in Clemson history. That's how we followed that act.
[52:48] Speaker 3: And so as good as Brent, as great as Brent
[52:50] Speaker 3: Vnables was, you're just like, Okay, who's that next amazing
[52:53] Speaker 3: hire on defense?
[52:54] Speaker 2: You're like, well, this guy seems really smart and good.
[52:58] Speaker 2: Like okay, and so I am. I think it's just
[53:02] Speaker 2: built to last.
[53:04] Speaker 3: There's no evidence, there's no clear evidence to me that
[53:07] Speaker 3: steps are taken by going again backwards to a Clemson
[53:10] Speaker 3: guy in Chad Morris. It's like, Okay, I think they're
[53:15] Speaker 3: happy being hopefully among the best in the ACC, not
[53:18] Speaker 3: building like they want to win on a major level.
[53:21] Speaker 4: You just can't assume that Clemson is going to be
[53:25] Speaker 4: a national title even a conference contender anymore. And I
[53:30] Speaker 4: think that in and of itself has been a pretty
[53:33] Speaker 4: drastic shift from where things were a decade ago.
[53:37] Speaker 1: Just different now, and I don't think it's for lack
[53:40] Speaker 1: of trying.
[53:41] Speaker 4: Again, I push back on the narrative that Dabbo is
[53:44] Speaker 4: just sort of like fat and happy and happy to
[53:47] Speaker 4: coast with all the same stuff as before. I'm not
[53:51] Speaker 4: saying it's perfect, but there actually has been a lot
[53:55] Speaker 4: behind the scenes where he and there's been administrative turnover.
[53:58] Speaker 4: There's been a lot that has changed, and I think
[54:00] Speaker 4: he has been forced to adapt. But I think the
[54:02] Speaker 4: mounting evidence is not that he can't adapt it. She
[54:05] Speaker 4: say it's not any good at it. And there's a
[54:06] Speaker 4: difference in my.
[54:07] Speaker 2: View any other days that you want to rapid fire.
[54:11] Speaker 4: James Franklin, Big game James Franklin.
[54:17] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's built to last.
[54:20] Speaker 1: I do.
[54:21] Speaker 4: I think two things are true at once, Like Franklin's
[54:24] Speaker 4: at a new place now at Virginia Tech. I think
[54:28] Speaker 4: we should give him a fresh start, a fresh evl
[54:30] Speaker 4: if you will.
[54:31] Speaker 1: I agree at Virginia Tech.
[54:32] Speaker 2: But I'm not putting it to bed.
[54:34] Speaker 4: And sometimes the change of scenery can go a long way.
[54:36] Speaker 4: He's immediately made Virginia Tech better. Like all these things
[54:39] Speaker 4: are true, but he was still fired for having a
[54:43] Speaker 4: contending team and having the season bottom out on him
[54:48] Speaker 4: the way it did at Penn State. I was looking
[54:51] Speaker 4: at the schedule a little bit when I saw this
[54:52] Speaker 4: one on the list, They've got road games at Clemson, SMU,
[54:56] Speaker 4: and Miami. Yeah, and so in a weird way, the
[54:59] Speaker 4: schedule was kind of grown in a lab to keep
[55:02] Speaker 4: this narrative alive, you know, until proven otherwise, until James
[55:06] Speaker 4: Franklin gets over the proverbial hump. I think this one
[55:10] Speaker 4: is very much alive and well, my problem is, I
[55:12] Speaker 4: don't know how he gets over that hump now at
[55:14] Speaker 4: a new place, you know, Like, does he have to
[55:17] Speaker 4: win the ACC? Does he have to win a playoff
[55:19] Speaker 4: game or two? Does he have to eventually win a title?
[55:22] Speaker 1: Like?
[55:22] Speaker 4: What is it for James frank Is it just winning
[55:25] Speaker 4: games against ranked teams?
[55:27] Speaker 2: Yeah? I think he will play.
[55:28] Speaker 3: He will play top five miamis right, he will play
[55:31] Speaker 3: those games. He will play top five whoever in the
[55:34] Speaker 3: ACC at some point, and top ten, top twelve, something
[55:37] Speaker 3: like that. How does he do against him after two
[55:40] Speaker 3: three years of building this roster, how he'd like to? Okay,
[55:43] Speaker 3: I mean Virginia Tack expectations and programs HIGHS is just
[55:47] Speaker 3: different from Penn State. It's a different pressure pressure calculation.
[55:52] Speaker 3: But if he builds Virginia TACK into a team winning
[55:56] Speaker 3: double digit games, but those two losses are always you know,
[56:00] Speaker 3: Miami and what ranked the top fifteen pit or something
[56:04] Speaker 3: top fifteen SMU. Then you're like, all right, I guess
[56:06] Speaker 3: it persists. No, I guess it keeps going.
[56:09] Speaker 4: The final one that I wanted to mention here on
[56:12] Speaker 4: your list. You don't want to be the guy after Saban.
[56:20] Speaker 4: Do we put that to bed? Or is that built
[56:21] Speaker 4: to last?
[56:23] Speaker 3: It seems built to last to me. I just think
[56:25] Speaker 3: anybody there was set up set up to fail. Is
[56:28] Speaker 3: it still built to last?
[56:30] Speaker 4: Even after Caitlin de Bor got contract extension, because like
[56:37] Speaker 4: you could argue that before the contract extension, this was
[56:41] Speaker 4: built to last. But now they sign him to a
[56:43] Speaker 4: big deal, big extension and they are effectively putting it
[56:47] Speaker 4: to bed.
[56:50] Speaker 2: Well, they weren't going to fire him. I don't think.
[56:53] Speaker 2: I don't think they were going to fire him. Well,
[56:56] Speaker 2: he was lined up.
[56:57] Speaker 1: The narrative was out there that he's not Saban that well,
[57:00] Speaker 1: nobody is.
[57:01] Speaker 4: Nobody is. Alabama definitely feels less automatic. Yeah, which in
[57:06] Speaker 4: and of itself is a it's crazy to say it,
[57:08] Speaker 4: but that was a change, right.
[57:09] Speaker 2: Yeah, So.
[57:12] Speaker 4: We understand that year one with Jalen Milroe didn't go great,
[57:17] Speaker 4: lost the Bowl game to Michigan, didn't make the playoff
[57:21] Speaker 4: last year, made it into the playoff, fell down early
[57:26] Speaker 4: to Oklahoma, ended up winning that game, then ended up
[57:29] Speaker 4: getting throttled against Indiana, as everyone did. It's not necessarily
[57:32] Speaker 4: a scarlet letter, but you could very easily see how it,
[57:40] Speaker 4: just by virtue of not being automatic, has been a
[57:44] Speaker 4: little bit less palatable for a fan base that is
[57:47] Speaker 4: used to unprecedented success under Nick Saban.
[57:50] Speaker 2: I also think part of what.
[57:53] Speaker 3: Was a factor in Alabama's success even in the nil
[57:57] Speaker 3: portal era whatever, as briefly as Nick Saban in it,
[58:02] Speaker 3: I think top kids took a discount and invested themselves
[58:05] Speaker 3: long term by going to Alabama.
[58:07] Speaker 2: I think that's done. It seems to be done in
[58:10] Speaker 2: that way.
[58:11] Speaker 3: It seems like Alabama isn't even with top five recruiting classes,
[58:14] Speaker 3: top three recruiting classes. Even if we are positive, which
[58:17] Speaker 3: I think we are positive, Kaylen de Bor is at
[58:19] Speaker 3: worst a really really good coach in a bad fit.
[58:23] Speaker 3: At worst. I don't think there's any way you can
[58:26] Speaker 3: spin Kaylen de Bor, who just made the playoff with Alabama.
[58:30] Speaker 3: I don't think there's any way you can look at
[58:32] Speaker 3: what he's done in his career and be like, oh,
[58:34] Speaker 3: he's not that good, or he's average, or he's only okay,
[58:36] Speaker 3: he's only pretty good, but he's a really really good coach.
[58:39] Speaker 3: I don't think I don't think anybody's being genuine if
[58:42] Speaker 3: they're saying otherwise but being set up to fail in
[58:48] Speaker 3: this era, in this extended sec extended playoff. Right that
[58:54] Speaker 3: Nick Saban had to win one game to win a
[58:57] Speaker 3: national championship, and then two games and now we're going
[59:01] Speaker 3: into twelve, sixteen, twenty four teams. Right that the sport
[59:06] Speaker 3: has helped Klein de Borr and the Alabama job be
[59:09] Speaker 3: a job that is set up to fail just because
[59:12] Speaker 3: it's harder to do it and the expectations are there
[59:15] Speaker 3: to keep doing it, and it's not Nick Saban there, Right,
[59:21] Speaker 3: Nick Saban had the opportunity to do it in his
[59:22] Speaker 3: final season and lost to Michigan and the Rose Bowl
[59:26] Speaker 3: and couldn't even make it to the National championship game.
[59:28] Speaker 3: And he's still obviously rightfully considered to be an absolute
[59:31] Speaker 3: icon of the sport. So I just think the guy
[59:35] Speaker 3: was whoever it was, even if it were Dan Lanning
[59:37] Speaker 3: or Sark or Kirby Smart or something like that I
[59:40] Speaker 3: think you're just set up to fail because there is
[59:42] Speaker 3: only one Nick Saban at Alabama.
[59:46] Speaker 1: You can get the contract extension.
[59:48] Speaker 4: And I still think this is built to last because
[59:51] Speaker 4: no matter what you do, no matter how much money
[59:53] Speaker 4: they pay you, no matter how many wins you get,
[59:56] Speaker 4: you're still going to be compared to Saban.
[59:58] Speaker 3: But the look, the good news is there's only one
[1:00:00] Speaker 3: guy who comes after Nick Saban, true, right, true? So
[1:00:04] Speaker 3: whoever comes after Kalin de Borr is not directly following
[1:00:08] Speaker 3: Nick Saban. No, so it can only last for so long.
[1:00:12] Speaker 1: I tend to agree, all right.
[1:00:14] Speaker 4: Look solid verbal at gmail dot com as always is
[1:00:18] Speaker 4: the email address right in let us know your thoughts
[1:00:21] Speaker 4: on you're putting any of these to bed. Built to last.
[1:00:25] Speaker 4: You can always reach out on social media as well.
[1:00:29] Speaker 4: The best way to get in touch is still email,
[1:00:30] Speaker 4: but we check the socials from time to time. You
[1:00:33] Speaker 4: know we're in this game here for the long haul,
[1:00:36] Speaker 4: so writ in however you see fit. We would encourage
[1:00:39] Speaker 4: you to hit follow or subscribe if you made it
[1:00:41] Speaker 4: this far and have yet to do so. The ratings
[1:00:44] Speaker 4: and reviews very much do help. This is about that
[1:00:47] Speaker 4: time of year, Dan, where we start to look like
[1:00:49] Speaker 4: I look at our little grafts to see interest, and
[1:00:53] Speaker 4: we start to see a little bit of an uptick.
[1:00:55] Speaker 4: The line starts to bend a little bit up into
[1:00:58] Speaker 4: the right. As we get through Gun certainly into July
[1:01:01] Speaker 4: and August, it'll be a lot steeper of a curve.
[1:01:04] Speaker 3: But right about now because of do you think it's
[1:01:07] Speaker 3: because of people noticing that you are thriving in your.
[1:01:11] Speaker 2: Silver Fox era? It could be very That's what it is.
[1:01:15] Speaker 2: I mean, look, who am I to be.
[1:01:15] Speaker 3: You can look if you're watching on YouTube, you can
[1:01:17] Speaker 3: see my my graying temples as well. But I think
[1:01:20] Speaker 3: it's a tie factor. I think you seem more professorial.
[1:01:24] Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's to you.
[1:01:27] Speaker 2: Yeah, probably, I think that's what it is.
[1:01:28] Speaker 4: Anyway, Uh, pleasure to have you with us as always,
[1:01:32] Speaker 4: let us know where we're right, where we're wrong. For
[1:01:34] Speaker 4: Ballers dot com is where you can go if you
[1:01:36] Speaker 4: want to find all of the paid offerings and help
[1:01:38] Speaker 4: support the team. And oh, by the way, as you
[1:01:40] Speaker 4: are listening to this, go to soliverbal dot com slash
[1:01:44] Speaker 4: newsletter sign up for the free newsletter that we send
[1:01:46] Speaker 4: out weekly. We've been doing a great job. I shouldn't
[1:01:49] Speaker 4: say we, I should say Tyler. Tyler, a very gifted
[1:01:51] Speaker 4: newsletter writer, has been doing an awesome job profiling coaches
[1:01:56] Speaker 4: and teams and situations, and it's been getting some good
[1:01:59] Speaker 4: attention for that, So.
[1:02:01] Speaker 1: Go and support his work as well.
[1:02:03] Speaker 3: We only hire Tyler's. Is that correct? You are very
[1:02:06] Speaker 3: specific about your hiring pro We.
[1:02:08] Speaker 4: Don't only hire Tyler's, but there might be a little
[1:02:11] Speaker 4: bit of a built in preference.
[1:02:12] Speaker 2: Yeah, top of the stack.
[1:02:13] Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, that's right.
[1:02:14] Speaker 2: That's gad to know.
[1:02:16] Speaker 4: All right, Well, we will be back later on this week.
[1:02:19] Speaker 4: Until next time, thank you as always for your ongoing support.
[1:02:24] Speaker 4: Please again check out those links. Please again hit follow
[1:02:28] Speaker 4: or subscribe if you get to do so, and leave
[1:02:29] Speaker 4: us the rating or review for that go over there
[1:02:31] Speaker 4: Dan for myself over here, ty Until next time, stays
[1:02:35] Speaker 4: soft peace, Papa

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