# Lane Kiffin to LSU, CFP Debates & Teams to Celebrate | College Football

An episode of [The Solid Verbal College Football Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/270037732), 2 Dec 2025, 1 h 16 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/21437ee1-47d9-4b16-8696-b30d011a2c26/201c807b-24a9-4e59-84b3-b3a60170892d/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=51c7e0eb-425c-4d93-b5a8-b30d011a2c46

The Coaching Carousel is spinning like never before, and we're back to talk it through. In this episode, we discuss Lane Kiffin's move to LSU, the fallout of leaving behind a playoff team in Ole Miss, and the funny ways in which the news was discussed on the national stage. Plus, a look at all the recent hires, which seem to make sense, which done, and a look at what happens next at Penn State. And finally, we debate the upcoming CFP rankings, the case for and against Miami, and how it affects teams like Notre Dame, BYU, Vandy and others. Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 2:47 - Latest Coaching Carousel News 34:12 - Ty's PSU Coaching Thoughts 42:23 - CFP Rankings Debate 56:57 - Teams to Celebrate 1:12:03 - Conference Championship Slate 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. That for me, I'm
[0:06] Speaker 1: a man, I'm forty.
[0:08] Speaker 2: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
[0:10] Speaker 2: be happy.
[0:10] Speaker 1: You want to be happy for day Edith State?
[0:13] Speaker 2: Is that whoo whoo? And no Dan and tie Dan Rubinstein,
[0:19] Speaker 2: I have very big news to share with you right now.
[0:23] Speaker 1: Oh man, are you joining Bob Chesney and Westwood? Is
[0:25] Speaker 1: that happening official?
[0:27] Speaker 2: Let's make it a December to remember the calendar has turned.
[0:32] Speaker 2: We know a lot more now that it is December.
[0:35] Speaker 2: We will talk through some of that and much much more.
[0:39] Speaker 2: We're going to take a spin on the coaching carousel.
[0:42] Speaker 2: We're going to talk through some of the brewing playoff debates.
[0:46] Speaker 2: We're going to give shout outs to teams that exceeded
[0:49] Speaker 2: expectations that we feel we need to celebrate. And we're
[0:52] Speaker 2: going to take a quick meandering through some of the games,
[0:56] Speaker 2: not all of the games, but some of the games
[0:59] Speaker 2: that Conference Championship Week has in store. Welcome back, My
[1:02] Speaker 2: friend has the voice healed? Have you gotten sleep? How
[1:05] Speaker 2: are you feeling? Oh?
[1:06] Speaker 1: I feel great? Ty. You know sometimes when we come
[1:08] Speaker 1: around to Monday, I'm like, oh man, we were on
[1:11] Speaker 1: to the next week already. I'm still recovering from the
[1:14] Speaker 1: previous week. But it was a long, cold Thanksgiving extended weekend,
[1:20] Speaker 1: And even though we did a live stream on Friday,
[1:23] Speaker 1: even though we did a live stream on Saturday and
[1:24] Speaker 1: then a live show Saturday night, a couple watch alongs
[1:28] Speaker 1: in the reaction stream, I had nobody to talk to
[1:31] Speaker 1: all the stuff that just completely broke yesterday across this
[1:37] Speaker 1: great land. Like my four year old had very limited
[1:40] Speaker 1: interest in the idea of Pat Fitzgerald coaching Michigan State. Yeah,
[1:44] Speaker 1: so at one point he was like, absolutely, Texas deserves
[1:47] Speaker 1: to be in the playoff and I was like, you
[1:48] Speaker 1: don't know anything. He was like, no, you don't know ball, Dad,
[1:51] Speaker 1: And it just it wasn't the same. It just wasn't
[1:54] Speaker 1: the same. So I'm glad to be here with you
[1:56] Speaker 1: because we got got a lot to pung off of
[1:58] Speaker 1: each other.
[2:00] Speaker 2: We absolutely do. So for those of you tuning in
[2:03] Speaker 2: at home, whether via YouTube, via the audio experience, whatever
[2:08] Speaker 2: does it for you, please hit follow or subscribe to
[2:11] Speaker 2: help support what Dan and I do. We will be
[2:14] Speaker 2: with you all through the off season. The second season
[2:18] Speaker 2: is officially now underway, and we're going to get to that.
[2:21] Speaker 2: I promise you here momentarily. Of course, if you're going
[2:23] Speaker 2: out to verballers dot com or Patreon dot com slash
[2:28] Speaker 2: Solid Verbal either or we'll get you to our little
[2:31] Speaker 2: paid offering where you can sign up as a certified
[2:33] Speaker 2: or premium or baller. You get all these episodes a
[2:36] Speaker 2: day early without the ads, get access to the Discord server,
[2:39] Speaker 2: and of course the game that we are spinning up
[2:42] Speaker 2: in time for Bowl season slash the postseason, Dan Rubinstein.
[2:47] Speaker 2: With all that being said, why don't we take a
[2:49] Speaker 2: spin on the carousel. It's where everybody else is right now,
[2:52] Speaker 2: the coaching, the roar of that imaginary dinosaur or for
[3:00] Speaker 2: whatever reason, I do not know why you put that
[3:03] Speaker 2: in there. That means that we've got coaching news to discuss,
[3:08] Speaker 2: and boy do we ever. So we knew going into
[3:12] Speaker 2: this year. We just knew that it was going to
[3:15] Speaker 2: be a very active coaching cycle. Yes, we saw hirings,
[3:20] Speaker 2: in some cases firings during the season before the season
[3:24] Speaker 2: was fully through. We've got a bunch more now to
[3:27] Speaker 2: report here on today's episode. We kind of played it
[3:31] Speaker 2: cool on Sunday. We didn't break in to do live
[3:34] Speaker 2: streams or anything crazy we wanted to give this cycle
[3:37] Speaker 2: more of a chance to marinate and work itself out.
[3:40] Speaker 2: And of course the biggest domino was Lane Kiffin.
[3:45] Speaker 1: And by the way, should mention it. This doesn't just
[3:47] Speaker 1: apply to Lane Kiffin, but all of these coaches moving,
[3:51] Speaker 1: not moving, or anything like that. This is a serious
[3:53] Speaker 1: life decision, ty, And there is something you need to
[3:56] Speaker 1: think about before making serious life decisions, is there not?
[3:59] Speaker 2: There is? Yeah, And that's life.
[4:01] Speaker 3: If you're gonna do it really well, you better learn
[4:03] Speaker 3: to get uncomfortable and just sitting it. You got it,
[4:06] Speaker 3: instead of running from it. Of course, for a lot
[4:09] Speaker 3: of times in life I ran from things that were uncomfortable.
[4:11] Speaker 3: Now you gotta sit in it.
[4:18] Speaker 1: It's a good lesson.
[4:19] Speaker 2: Who was that voice? The voice sounds familiar. Who was that?
[4:22] Speaker 1: I couldn't place it. If I had to guess, Lane Kiffin.
[4:25] Speaker 1: If I did guess, but I don't know, sit in
[4:28] Speaker 1: the man.
[4:29] Speaker 2: Gosh, what a circus. So look, Lane Kiffin was everybody's
[4:33] Speaker 2: top target this cycle, right. We have been hearing about
[4:37] Speaker 2: that for weeks, for months on end, that Lane Kiffin,
[4:40] Speaker 2: now formerly of Old miss was going to be the
[4:42] Speaker 2: top target at Florida, at LSU at many other jobs
[4:46] Speaker 2: around college football. The Lane Kiffin saga came to a
[4:51] Speaker 2: conclusion of some sort on Sunday, when it became official
[4:55] Speaker 2: that he is taking the job at LSU. There had
[4:59] Speaker 2: been much debate over whether or not Lane was going
[5:02] Speaker 2: to leave. We reported here not through any insider information,
[5:06] Speaker 2: but just through common sense that if he decided he
[5:09] Speaker 2: wanted to stay at Ole Miss, he would have told
[5:11] Speaker 2: us well before the Egg Bowl. There was no need
[5:14] Speaker 2: to drag this out with all the fanfare and the hullabaloo.
[5:17] Speaker 2: It seemed as though he was gone. The question was
[5:20] Speaker 2: really is he going to stick around long enough? Is
[5:22] Speaker 2: Old Miss going to allow him to stick around long
[5:25] Speaker 2: enough to coach the Rebels through the playoff? He put
[5:30] Speaker 2: out a statement made it fairly well known. I would say,
[5:33] Speaker 2: through that, as well as in the interview he did
[5:36] Speaker 2: with ESPN's Marty Smith Keith Carter's decision at ole Miss
[5:40] Speaker 2: to not let him coach it out and finish what
[5:43] Speaker 2: he started at Ole Miss. We can talk about the
[5:45] Speaker 2: merits of that Dan here in a second, But your
[5:49] Speaker 2: impression of LSU now getting Lane Kiffin from Ole Miss.
[5:54] Speaker 1: Well, I, first of all, I thought that was a
[5:56] Speaker 1: sweet little hug from Marty Smith to Lane Kiffin at
[5:58] Speaker 1: the end of that interview. I don't know if you noticed.
[5:59] Speaker 1: That's what you see a lot of when reporters are,
[6:02] Speaker 1: you know, on the ground doing that dirty work. Is
[6:05] Speaker 1: just like, hey, you made this decision. Why'd you do that?
[6:08] Speaker 2: All right? Hey, hey go get him Tiger?
[6:13] Speaker 1: That was that was unexpected, honest reporting. Yeah, yeah, I'm
[6:19] Speaker 1: on the ground here and in Taipei.
[6:23] Speaker 2: Good luck.
[6:27] Speaker 1: So anyway, I what what did I take away from it? Look,
[6:34] Speaker 1: why why does Lane Kiffin leave a playoff team? Because
[6:37] Speaker 1: he wants to write like, why does and I'm not
[6:40] Speaker 1: talking about specifically ahead of this year's playoff, but ole
[6:42] Speaker 1: miss is a playoff program. Why does Lane Kiffin decide
[6:45] Speaker 1: that he does no no longer want to coach a
[6:48] Speaker 1: program that is built to go to the playoff many
[6:51] Speaker 1: years because he wanted to because he either stopped having
[6:56] Speaker 1: fun or stopped enjoying his time in Oxford or some
[7:00] Speaker 1: combination of that, and feeling like LSU is a bigger,
[7:04] Speaker 1: better place for him to soar to new heights. I
[7:09] Speaker 1: don't know. It all strikes me as like nobody forced
[7:13] Speaker 1: you to do this, And despite the set of college
[7:17] Speaker 1: game day having his back. As for his desire to
[7:21] Speaker 1: coach for the LSU coach, to coach all miss and
[7:26] Speaker 1: try to steal players as was reported, his threat and coaches,
[7:30] Speaker 1: it was all very strange to me. Ty. The whole
[7:33] Speaker 1: episode was strange, but at the same time, it's Lane
[7:35] Speaker 1: Kiffin so perfectly normal. So it was just you know,
[7:39] Speaker 1: you guys, you know how this is gonna end at LSU. Right,
[7:42] Speaker 1: It's gonna end worse than this. It's gonna end so
[7:45] Speaker 1: much worse, and we all know it already. We're all
[7:47] Speaker 1: prepared for it, and it's gonna be great.
[7:50] Speaker 2: Look, he left because he've used it as a more
[7:52] Speaker 2: prestigious job. He left because this has been who Lane
[7:55] Speaker 2: Kiffin has always been. I'm not gonna ben vilifying him
[7:58] Speaker 2: for jumping around. I mean, he's talked about it in
[8:00] Speaker 2: the past. He grew up with the coach as a father.
[8:02] Speaker 2: They moved seventeen times or some crazy number like that.
[8:06] Speaker 2: This has just always been who the guy is. The
[8:09] Speaker 2: other thing that I would add is he's never been
[8:11] Speaker 2: And I'll give credit to Bruce Feldman because I watched
[8:13] Speaker 2: the audible the show that he does with Ralph and
[8:15] Speaker 2: Stu over at the athletic and he said it on
[8:18] Speaker 2: the podcast that they did yesterday morning, and he kind
[8:21] Speaker 2: of like, beat me to the Punchlane Kiffn's a bad
[8:23] Speaker 2: breaker upper. We've seen this everywhere, so this should come
[8:26] Speaker 2: as no great surprise. What I do find funny as
[8:30] Speaker 2: you talk about the LSU coach coaching Ole Miss. I
[8:33] Speaker 2: don't know if he saw some of the details of
[8:35] Speaker 2: Lane's contract that have since surface since he took this
[8:39] Speaker 2: job at LSU, But LSU is paying him to coach
[8:43] Speaker 2: at ole Miss. Right, they are paying him his postseason
[8:46] Speaker 2: bonus even though he is no longer with Old Miss.
[8:50] Speaker 2: So if Old Miss goes on to win a national championship,
[8:53] Speaker 2: whatever escalators were present in that Old Miss contract, pending
[8:57] Speaker 2: how far they go in the postseason, Kiffen will be
[9:00] Speaker 2: rewarded for that, given the fact that he was previously
[9:04] Speaker 2: there even though he is now at LSU. So credit
[9:07] Speaker 2: Jimmy Sexton, the agent forgetting it done, for pulling one
[9:11] Speaker 2: over on another athletic department. They get a good coach,
[9:15] Speaker 2: they get a good coach in Lane Kiffen. They also
[9:17] Speaker 2: get something of a circus, but that's come as no
[9:19] Speaker 2: great surprise to anybody who has signed on with Lane
[9:22] Speaker 2: Kiffin in the past. What I do find interesting now
[9:27] Speaker 2: is this conversation on whether he should have or shouldn't
[9:30] Speaker 2: have coached Ole Miss. I think, if you're all miss,
[9:33] Speaker 2: what you don't want is the optics of the entire
[9:35] Speaker 2: stadium booing your coach as you host a home playoff game. Okay,
[9:41] Speaker 2: cut out all of like the league elees and the
[9:45] Speaker 2: ethical stuff and whether or not you should do this
[9:48] Speaker 2: as a hiring or HR practice. But the optics, the
[9:53] Speaker 2: sheer optics of having a guy on the sidelines that
[9:55] Speaker 2: might be boot out of the stadium seems like it's
[9:57] Speaker 2: a bad thing, and I would not want that if
[10:00] Speaker 2: I were Keith Carter. So I understand that this is prickly.
[10:04] Speaker 2: I understand that this is definitely an unprecedented situation for
[10:07] Speaker 2: God to just straight up and leave before his team
[10:10] Speaker 2: kicks it off in the twelve team field. But I understand, frankly,
[10:15] Speaker 2: where all parties are coming from. And I think I
[10:16] Speaker 2: signed a little bit more with Keith Carter and Ole Miss.
[10:20] Speaker 1: As do I. And look, we're going to see Eric
[10:23] Speaker 1: Morris at North Texas for the postseason, are we not?
[10:26] Speaker 1: We are? We're going to see John Summral at Tulane.
[10:29] Speaker 1: Are we not?
[10:30] Speaker 2: We are.
[10:30] Speaker 1: We've seen coordinator stay Dan Lanning State at Georgia through
[10:34] Speaker 1: their national championship run before taking over Oregon. This is different.
[10:38] Speaker 1: It is different when however you want to, you know,
[10:42] Speaker 1: name Ole Miss and LSU as rivals right there. It's
[10:45] Speaker 1: not on the level of the Iron Bull, it's not
[10:47] Speaker 1: on the level of the biggest rivalries in the sport,
[10:49] Speaker 1: but it is a rivalry. It is a meaningful annual matchup.
[10:53] Speaker 1: And that a coach would leave one school for the other.
[10:57] Speaker 1: We really haven't seen that in a major conference on
[11:00] Speaker 1: this level, like Sark left Washington for USC But that's
[11:04] Speaker 1: not the same. That's it's just not the same. And
[11:07] Speaker 1: so I can understand if you're old miss, right, you
[11:11] Speaker 1: feel sort of jerked around. You know, two months ago
[11:14] Speaker 1: you were doing you were watching your coach as the
[11:16] Speaker 1: subject of an E sixty. I don't need to play
[11:18] Speaker 1: this again. And that's like, but it was all about
[11:22] Speaker 1: how yoga had changed him and centered him. And now
[11:26] Speaker 1: LSU has hired two consecutive troublesome coaches who've been changed
[11:32] Speaker 1: by yoga. The yoga card. They went back to the
[11:34] Speaker 1: well with the yoga card twice incredible. And look, it's
[11:39] Speaker 1: going to end at LSU with a statement or a
[11:41] Speaker 1: quote that is going to go along the lines of
[11:43] Speaker 1: it's going to start with look in retrospect, Like, no,
[11:47] Speaker 1: not in retrospect. Everybody knows how this is going to go.
[11:49] Speaker 1: It's it's a question of like the juice being worth
[11:51] Speaker 1: the squeeze for LSU. Right, if he wins you a
[11:54] Speaker 1: national championship, you deal with whatever the fallout is at
[11:58] Speaker 1: the end.
[11:58] Speaker 2: You make that trade to make that trade too, Yeah.
[12:01] Speaker 1: Right, and so there's no apologizing if he is able
[12:04] Speaker 1: to bring you back to that you know, hallowed ground
[12:07] Speaker 1: that LSU expects from its program. So yeah, it's it's
[12:12] Speaker 1: all just an insane circus. And I get it. The
[12:15] Speaker 1: funny stuff too. Was just like Nick Saban on game
[12:17] Speaker 1: day and Kirk Herb Street on game day. I think
[12:19] Speaker 1: I saw Booger McFarland like ESPN circle the wagons to be.
[12:23] Speaker 2: Like let a coach come on doing for the kids.
[12:25] Speaker 1: And then there was a quote it was like the
[12:27] Speaker 1: players full on Hateum. It was just like they are
[12:31] Speaker 1: very happy he's gone after just the way everything has
[12:34] Speaker 1: transpired these past few days.
[12:36] Speaker 2: I mean, do you blame them, No, not at all.
[12:38] Speaker 1: I just thought it was funny that they were all
[12:40] Speaker 1: just like think of the kids, you know, let them
[12:42] Speaker 1: play for the coach that brought him here, and then
[12:45] Speaker 1: immediately when everything went down, they were just like f
[12:48] Speaker 1: that guy.
[12:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, I would I would probably feel
[12:51] Speaker 2: similarly and not to play too much of Devil's advocate here,
[12:55] Speaker 2: but I was thinking about this a lot. What is
[12:57] Speaker 2: lank lank Kiff has been a very successful coach, no
[13:00] Speaker 2: doubt about it, and I understand why he is a
[13:02] Speaker 2: target for many of these openings, or was a target
[13:06] Speaker 2: and will probably continue to be in the future. Yeah,
[13:10] Speaker 2: link Kiffin's won like a bunch of news cycles and
[13:12] Speaker 2: a couple of recruiting cycles. Is he worth all of
[13:17] Speaker 2: this time and energy that people have put in A
[13:19] Speaker 2: good coach, a coati of offensive mind?
[13:22] Speaker 1: But like, what.
[13:24] Speaker 2: Are what are we like hanging our hat on here
[13:26] Speaker 2: in terms of like hard accolades that make all of
[13:30] Speaker 2: this trouble worth it?
[13:32] Speaker 1: You're you're hanging your hat on the fact that he'll
[13:33] Speaker 1: take your money. And the very best coaches in this sport,
[13:37] Speaker 1: whoever you consider them to be, didn't seem as willing
[13:41] Speaker 1: to take your money. And in a market that has
[13:44] Speaker 1: you know, Penn State and Florida and obviously now Ole
[13:47] Speaker 1: miss open and shut pretty quickly, Michigan State opened up,
[13:50] Speaker 1: like there are just a lot of big jobs and
[13:52] Speaker 1: big conferences UCLA out west that opened up, and a
[13:56] Speaker 1: lot of the perceived top candidates across the country either
[14:00] Speaker 1: recently took a new job, like Ryan Day wasn't taking
[14:03] Speaker 1: the LSU job, Dan Lanning wasn't taking the LSU job,
[14:07] Speaker 1: Mike Elcho wasn't taking like all those in demand jobs
[14:10] Speaker 1: or in demand coaches. Kurt Signetty wasn't taking the LSU job.
[14:14] Speaker 1: They weren't common. And you know, Lane Kiffin will there's
[14:17] Speaker 1: like the old I wish I could attribute this to
[14:20] Speaker 1: the correct person, but like the old joke of like
[14:23] Speaker 1: Shackle take ten million dollars from fascism if the check
[14:26] Speaker 1: clears right, they're just like he Lane Kiffn's willing to listen.
[14:32] Speaker 1: He's willing to take your money, and he's willing to
[14:35] Speaker 1: win double digit games at your university or college. And
[14:39] Speaker 1: that's why all of this, you know, it's it's a
[14:42] Speaker 1: leverage play that Lane Kiffin had a Tonnel leverage. Because
[14:45] Speaker 1: of the Florida interest and obviously the ole missinterest, he
[14:48] Speaker 1: was willing to listen. LSU considered LSU to be a
[14:51] Speaker 1: step up, and so you do whatever it takes. Because
[14:54] Speaker 1: LSU didn't want to hire John Summral, LSU didn't want
[14:59] Speaker 1: to hire take your pick of Alex Golash, guys who
[15:03] Speaker 1: are good coaches, legitimately good coaches, but they didn't feel
[15:07] Speaker 1: like they were of the stature of the LSU job.
[15:10] Speaker 1: And so you know, you are what your options are,
[15:13] Speaker 1: and that's you know, that's the position Lane Kiffin, you know,
[15:16] Speaker 1: pretty advantageously found himself in.
[15:18] Speaker 2: Well, look, this is not me saying it is a
[15:21] Speaker 2: bad hire, but I get what you're saying. Everybody wanted
[15:23] Speaker 2: Lane Kiffin. I completely understand the draw to Lane Kiffin. A.
[15:27] Speaker 2: You know what you're signing up for. B let's see
[15:30] Speaker 2: him do it now, right. If he wants to create
[15:33] Speaker 2: this kind of circus to go to LSU, then you
[15:35] Speaker 2: got to put your money where your mouth is. And
[15:37] Speaker 2: he's got a lot of money. By the way, despite
[15:39] Speaker 2: all of the hollow talk on the ls side about
[15:42] Speaker 2: not wanting to commit to irresponsible contracts and change the
[15:45] Speaker 2: model moving forward. Yeah, the buyout for Lane Kiffin is
[15:48] Speaker 2: more than it was for Brian Kelly, and it is
[15:50] Speaker 2: fully guaranteed. So they also talk out of two sides
[15:53] Speaker 2: of their mouth.
[15:54] Speaker 1: What's the number.
[15:54] Speaker 2: I didn't see the official number. I just saw that
[15:56] Speaker 2: it's more than Brian Kelly and it's fully guaranteed.
[16:00] Speaker 1: And you know what, Ty, that's life and that's life.
[16:02] Speaker 2: It's life.
[16:03] Speaker 1: Oki, you get what you can. Yeah, what somebody's wanting
[16:07] Speaker 1: to pay you. By the way, way back.
[16:09] Speaker 2: When, this is my final point on Kiffin, and then
[16:11] Speaker 2: we got like eighty other coaches to talk to. That's fine,
[16:14] Speaker 2: way back when, in the year of Our Lord two
[16:16] Speaker 2: thousand and ten, when we were younger and more full
[16:21] Speaker 2: of life and had fewer grays. And I don't think
[16:23] Speaker 2: we were married at that We definitely weren't married at that.
[16:25] Speaker 1: But I maintained three girlfriends at a time. Sure, unbelievable.
[16:29] Speaker 2: Way back when, right after Kiffin left Tennessee for USC
[16:34] Speaker 2: you and I set an imaginary line over under five
[16:39] Speaker 2: and a half five and a half total head coaching
[16:43] Speaker 2: jobs over the course of Lane Kiffen's career. At the
[16:47] Speaker 2: time that we set it, we thought it was ridiculous.
[16:51] Speaker 2: He just hit it. This is head coaching stop number
[16:55] Speaker 2: six if you account for the brief time that he
[16:57] Speaker 2: was with the Raiders. Course, I had some listeners reach
[17:00] Speaker 2: out to me and remind me of this. I didn't
[17:02] Speaker 2: even recall it as fifteen years ago that we set
[17:04] Speaker 2: this line and it just hit amazing, amazing. So, with
[17:08] Speaker 2: all that being set on the lane kiff in front,
[17:10] Speaker 2: thankfully that is now over, Florida pivoted rather quickly. They
[17:15] Speaker 2: hired John Summral away from Tulane. We started seeing these
[17:19] Speaker 2: come through in rapid fire. On Sunday morning, Auburn snatched
[17:23] Speaker 2: up Alex Golesh from USF. Arkansas made it official with
[17:28] Speaker 2: Ryan Silverfield, who had been reported by some outlets weeks
[17:32] Speaker 2: ago that he was going to accept the position at Arkansas.
[17:35] Speaker 2: That was quickly refuted, but now it turns out indeed, yes,
[17:38] Speaker 2: he is the guy. We saw ole Miss move very
[17:41] Speaker 2: quickly to promote from within Pete Golding, not just to
[17:44] Speaker 2: an interim but to be there full time head coach
[17:48] Speaker 2: moving forward, their permanent guy moving forward. That is in
[17:52] Speaker 2: addition to some others around college football. We also saw
[17:57] Speaker 2: Oklahoma State a little bit earlier on in the site,
[18:00] Speaker 2: I'll go with Eric Morris. Of course, we know about
[18:02] Speaker 2: James Franklin and Tavita Pritchard taking the positions at Virginia
[18:06] Speaker 2: Tech and Stanford respectively. Michigan State moved and fired Jonathan Smith.
[18:12] Speaker 2: This shouldn't come as a great surprise to anybody who
[18:15] Speaker 2: years seemed as if it was trending in that direction,
[18:18] Speaker 2: even though even though it was only two years on
[18:22] Speaker 2: the job. They now are I believe making it official
[18:25] Speaker 2: that it's going to be Pat Fitzgerald coming out of
[18:27] Speaker 2: retirement and taking over the position at Michigan State formerly
[18:31] Speaker 2: the coach at Northwestern. I say retirement in quotes because
[18:34] Speaker 2: we had a bit of a legal dispute there that
[18:36] Speaker 2: ousted him from that position previously. We just got words
[18:40] Speaker 2: shortly before we hit record that Bob Chesney is going
[18:43] Speaker 2: to be leaving James Madison and taking over the job
[18:45] Speaker 2: out at UCLA. It had been rumored for a couple
[18:47] Speaker 2: of weeks that he was a top target out there.
[18:50] Speaker 2: I know he had spoken to Penn State a couple
[18:51] Speaker 2: times over but UCLA it seemed was going to be
[18:55] Speaker 2: the school that landed Bobby Chez, so good for him.
[18:58] Speaker 2: We also found out lately last night that the Kentucky
[19:02] Speaker 2: Wildcats were moving on from Mark Stoops. The two names
[19:06] Speaker 2: that have merged almost immediately in response to this becoming
[19:10] Speaker 2: open or two coordinators Will Stein, who was formerly I believe,
[19:14] Speaker 2: a quarterback at Louisville, as well as Brian Hartline, currently
[19:19] Speaker 2: the offensive coordinator at Ohio State.
[19:22] Speaker 1: Yes, whose brother was a quarterback at Kentucky brother was
[19:25] Speaker 1: a quarterback line Yeah, acting two thousands. Will Stein, I
[19:28] Speaker 1: think grew up his parents. Maybe. I think I think
[19:30] Speaker 1: I saw both went to Kentucky. I grew up a
[19:32] Speaker 1: season ticket holder. There so all interesting jobs, and I
[19:37] Speaker 1: don't know we can if you want to go through
[19:39] Speaker 1: rapid fire or if you want to sort of sink
[19:41] Speaker 1: our teeth into any of these. The Auburn Hire is fascinating.
[19:45] Speaker 1: I think there's like a personality, intriguing personality fit there
[19:49] Speaker 1: with Alex Golesh.
[19:50] Speaker 2: I like that hire.
[19:51] Speaker 1: I do.
[19:52] Speaker 2: I mean, look, I'm very guilty of doing this thing
[19:56] Speaker 2: when we go then we've done this a million times
[19:58] Speaker 2: over now with the coach and carousel, where I go
[20:00] Speaker 2: through every higre and I sort of talk myself into it.
[20:03] Speaker 2: Of course I come out of this liking every single higher, well.
[20:08] Speaker 1: Every single official. Hi, are you big on Pat Fitzgerald
[20:10] Speaker 1: at Michigan State.
[20:13] Speaker 2: I'm not big on Pat Fitzgerald just in general, but
[20:17] Speaker 2: I understand why they would go in that direction. What
[20:19] Speaker 2: I was going to say is I need to be
[20:22] Speaker 2: a little bit more judicious about how I grade these
[20:24] Speaker 2: hires this year and not over commit to a guy
[20:27] Speaker 2: working or not working. I was convinced that Jonathan Smith
[20:29] Speaker 2: was a slam dunk. Oh same, I thought that was
[20:32] Speaker 2: a slam dunk higher at Michigan State, and he just
[20:34] Speaker 2: you never know what is going to work out because
[20:37] Speaker 2: it is dependent on a multitude of variables, Right, Nil.
[20:41] Speaker 1: I still say love with your entire heart, ty.
[20:43] Speaker 2: Alignment with the administration, the players, the coaches, on staff.
[20:48] Speaker 2: There are so many things that go into this. Go
[20:51] Speaker 2: through and tell me which of these hires jumps out
[20:54] Speaker 2: to you the most.
[20:55] Speaker 1: All of them. These are all big places making big moves,
[20:58] Speaker 1: and obviously we have like an opening at USF, now
[21:00] Speaker 1: we have an opening it too, Lane. These are huge
[21:02] Speaker 1: jobs in their own right as well. So okay, all
[21:05] Speaker 1: of these jump out for various reasons. I like the
[21:07] Speaker 1: potential fit of Alex Golish at Auburn, especially once you see,
[21:11] Speaker 1: once we all see what his hires look like on defense,
[21:14] Speaker 1: that's obviously going to be huge, and how well they
[21:16] Speaker 1: can do to maintain the talent and success that Auburn's
[21:21] Speaker 1: had on the defensive side of the ball recently since
[21:23] Speaker 1: Alex Golish, his background has been on offense. The John
[21:26] Speaker 1: Summrall thing is interesting. I know Florida people are sort
[21:29] Speaker 1: of sour on it initially because of a similar background
[21:32] Speaker 1: to Billy Napier, the success in the Sun Belt and
[21:36] Speaker 1: the lack of a huge job, you know, a huge
[21:38] Speaker 1: coordinator job at a major place in the SEC. But
[21:42] Speaker 1: I don't know, his success has been pretty consistent. He's
[21:46] Speaker 1: coached in the SEC right, he played at Kentucky, he
[21:48] Speaker 1: coached at Kentucky, has a background there, and I think
[21:52] Speaker 1: it's unfair to say we should have gone in a
[21:55] Speaker 1: completely different direction in terms of background and experience when
[21:58] Speaker 1: these are two different guys who have two different experiences
[22:02] Speaker 1: and two different visions. But again, if I'm a fan,
[22:05] Speaker 1: I get it.
[22:06] Speaker 2: I totally get it, and I even said it to
[22:08] Speaker 2: you on the show at some point a couple of
[22:09] Speaker 2: weeks ago. Are they really going to go a G
[22:11] Speaker 2: five coach after what went down with the G five coach.
[22:15] Speaker 2: But that's I know. I said it. It's sort of
[22:19] Speaker 2: a brain dead take, right, These are different guys. Billy
[22:23] Speaker 2: Napier's success or lack of success, in no way has
[22:27] Speaker 2: any bearing on what John Sumral is going to be.
[22:29] Speaker 2: And John Sumrall, much like his predecessor Billy Napier, was
[22:33] Speaker 2: very much in demand this coaching cycle. There were a
[22:35] Speaker 2: bunch of schools that wanted John Somemrall. Auburn thought they
[22:38] Speaker 2: had John Sumrall if not for what went down with
[22:41] Speaker 2: Lane Kiffin taking LSU and the Dominoes sort of leading
[22:45] Speaker 2: some Roll to Florida. So it wasn't just Auburn. It
[22:48] Speaker 2: wasn't just like Arkansas. There were a bunch of schools
[22:51] Speaker 2: that thought they might have a shot at some Rall,
[22:54] Speaker 2: including oh Miss, if Lane Kiffin left with like an
[22:58] Speaker 2: appropriate amount of time to make it happen. Like there
[23:01] Speaker 2: have been conversations all throughout the South about John some Roll.
[23:03] Speaker 2: So it doesn't surprise me that and it shouldn't surprise
[23:07] Speaker 2: Florida people that they would be quick to make him
[23:09] Speaker 2: the guy, even despite the experience they just had with
[23:12] Speaker 2: Billy Napier. These are two different dudes.
[23:15] Speaker 1: They are, And the question is, you know, does coaching
[23:18] Speaker 1: in the Sun Belt as a head coach adequately prepare
[23:21] Speaker 1: you to take over a major place like Florida.
[23:23] Speaker 2: I get it. And look, he's he was in the
[23:26] Speaker 2: Sun Belt with Troy, He's been in the American with Tulane,
[23:29] Speaker 2: and it feels to me like this is just a
[23:32] Speaker 2: much different situation. I do not think it is apples
[23:35] Speaker 2: to apples. I think he is better prepared to step
[23:38] Speaker 2: into this role, and even more so, he's going to
[23:42] Speaker 2: have the benefit of what went down with Billy Napier,
[23:44] Speaker 2: knowing what the pitfalls were, hopefully being smart enough to
[23:48] Speaker 2: know what the pitfalls were.
[23:49] Speaker 1: When he's interviewed and asked, will you hire an offensive Cordner,
[23:52] Speaker 1: He'll say yes, yeah, okay, I.
[23:55] Speaker 2: Can do that for sure, for sure. So look to
[23:57] Speaker 2: the extent that anybody can like these hires. Jen Sumroll
[24:00] Speaker 2: is very much in demand. So I get it. I'm
[24:03] Speaker 2: with you on the Alex Golsh thing. By the way
[24:04] Speaker 2: at Auburn.
[24:05] Speaker 1: Oh, that makes me think he's an immediate failure.
[24:07] Speaker 2: I know, I know, I know what I like about
[24:11] Speaker 2: gole Ash He's got a little bit of a screw loose. Yeah,
[24:15] Speaker 2: got a little bit of a screw loose, like all
[24:17] Speaker 2: these guys do to some extent. But Golesh is like
[24:20] Speaker 2: the crazy dude in the fight that you do not
[24:22] Speaker 2: want to be up against. And I think that plays
[24:24] Speaker 2: really well at a place like Auburn.
[24:26] Speaker 1: I don't see I feel like there their personalities from there,
[24:30] Speaker 1: the personalities from their recent coaches hasn't really been that.
[24:35] Speaker 1: Like Gus Malzan doesn't strike me as that does he No.
[24:38] Speaker 2: No, no, no no no no no no no. But I'm
[24:40] Speaker 2: like saying, in in this era of SEC football, I
[24:43] Speaker 2: think you need a guy with some was one of
[24:45] Speaker 2: the Auburn players himself has said they need a guy
[24:47] Speaker 2: with some dog in him.
[24:49] Speaker 1: Okay, this is gole ash man. That is brow skolish
[24:52] Speaker 1: is okay. I that's that's good by me. The Jonathan
[24:56] Speaker 1: Smith thing wasn't surprising just because it did seem that.
[24:59] Speaker 1: I mean, they had a ton of injuries this year
[25:00] Speaker 1: and two years I think traditionally speaking, doesn't feel like
[25:05] Speaker 1: enough time. But obviously in the portal era, when you
[25:08] Speaker 1: can remake your roster and you know if you have
[25:11] Speaker 1: the support you if everybody shares your vision is willing
[25:14] Speaker 1: to execute on your vision. But ultimately, he was the
[25:16] Speaker 1: guy who hired everybody in this program, right, He's the
[25:20] Speaker 1: guy who hired the assistance and you know how to say,
[25:24] Speaker 1: and who was going to be running things behind the scenes,
[25:26] Speaker 1: and it just it didn't work. And so it does
[25:30] Speaker 1: feel like this is more than just football, Like something
[25:33] Speaker 1: behind the scenes said that, like, this is not our guy.
[25:37] Speaker 1: And I'm not sure how you reportedly move on to
[25:41] Speaker 1: Pat Fitzgerald as somebody who is a better fit in
[25:45] Speaker 1: twenty twenty five to say, like, here is somebody who
[25:48] Speaker 1: is going to be aggressive. Here is somebody who is
[25:52] Speaker 1: savvy with regard to you know, building out a roster
[25:55] Speaker 1: through the portal and has connections in a way that
[25:59] Speaker 1: we can build out this roster to compete with you know,
[26:01] Speaker 1: Michigan and Ohio State and whatever whatever Penn State does
[26:03] Speaker 1: when they hire a coach in June and Oregon and Indiana.
[26:09] Speaker 1: I just his name would not be at the top
[26:11] Speaker 1: of my list as like the modern savvy, electric personality
[26:17] Speaker 1: to drag Michigan State kicking and screaming into the modern era.
[26:22] Speaker 1: I just I think he was a product of a
[26:28] Speaker 1: fortuitous divisional situation in the Big Ten and did a
[26:32] Speaker 1: really nice job hiring and keeping Mike Hankwitz calling that
[26:36] Speaker 1: defense and you know, found really good dudes in the
[26:39] Speaker 1: trenches and on defense to help build a defense that
[26:43] Speaker 1: was able to beat Purdue and Illinois and you know,
[26:47] Speaker 1: sometimes Iowa. But I don't know, it just felt like
[26:52] Speaker 1: they cast a net that didn't go beyond Pat Fitzgerald.
[26:58] Speaker 2: I mean they went spearfishing instead of of Penn State's
[27:01] Speaker 2: been doing, which is, you know, using a deluxe fisherman's
[27:04] Speaker 2: net to try and talk to everybody. Yeah, I mean
[27:06] Speaker 2: at this point, Penn State might hire a coach from Serbia,
[27:09] Speaker 2: like they talk about overseas. I'll talk about that in
[27:12] Speaker 2: the second where I'm leaning on that front. But I'm
[27:15] Speaker 2: not into the Pat Fitzgerald hire either. And I've never
[27:18] Speaker 2: been a Fitzgerald guy. And I understand that there is
[27:21] Speaker 2: an allure given what he did at Northwestern, and that's
[27:24] Speaker 2: viewed as being transformational in some sense. Clearly he was
[27:28] Speaker 2: in good with the big money men at Northwestern and
[27:31] Speaker 2: there was a deep respect for him, you know, separate
[27:34] Speaker 2: from whatever went down on the legal side of things.
[27:37] Speaker 2: I mean, there were a lot of people who were
[27:38] Speaker 2: very high on Pat Fitzgerald, and so when his name
[27:40] Speaker 2: started bubbling up as wanting to get back in the
[27:43] Speaker 2: coaching game, it seems to me like there was a
[27:47] Speaker 2: lot of interest in him. I mean, I think there
[27:49] Speaker 2: were conversations with Penn State. I think he cast a
[27:51] Speaker 2: wide net himself to try and see where he might
[27:53] Speaker 2: fit in. So in terms of the style of football
[27:56] Speaker 2: that I think he likes to play, which is very physical,
[28:00] Speaker 2: sort of aggressive defense first football, I think that can
[28:03] Speaker 2: play well at a place like in Michigan State. My
[28:06] Speaker 2: concern with what it looks like longer term is what
[28:10] Speaker 2: is that offense going to be sure? Who is going
[28:14] Speaker 2: to be his offensive coordinator because it seems like that
[28:17] Speaker 2: side of the ball only worked well at Northwestern when
[28:20] Speaker 2: he had a really good quarterback who can run and
[28:22] Speaker 2: he had a running back who could fill in the gaps.
[28:25] Speaker 2: This is never an electric passing team or anything like
[28:28] Speaker 2: that under Pat Fitzgerald. So if he wants to line
[28:30] Speaker 2: up and play that physical brand of football, I need
[28:34] Speaker 2: to know more about who your quarterback's going to be
[28:35] Speaker 2: and need to know what you're going to do up
[28:37] Speaker 2: front along the line, who your running back is going
[28:39] Speaker 2: to be and who is going to set the identity
[28:41] Speaker 2: for this offense. He went two to fourteen in the
[28:43] Speaker 2: Big Ten his final two seasons. I'm going to reserve
[28:45] Speaker 2: judgment until I find out some of the other pieces
[28:48] Speaker 2: that he is adding. But I understand the allure. I
[28:51] Speaker 2: don't think it's a terrible fit, but I do need
[28:54] Speaker 2: more information before I'm willing to commit.
[28:57] Speaker 1: Okay, Bob Chesney's as good at UCLA.
[29:01] Speaker 2: Bob Chasney was very much in demand this cycle, and
[29:05] Speaker 2: I think there's a chance that UCLA got the higher
[29:08] Speaker 2: of the cycle with Bobby Chaz Wow. I really like him.
[29:12] Speaker 2: I really like him. He's young, he's been putting in
[29:15] Speaker 2: hard work. Everywhere he's been. He has done a good job.
[29:18] Speaker 2: I still remember when he took over at James Madison,
[29:21] Speaker 2: which was just two years ago, right that there was
[29:23] Speaker 2: this thought that there might be a bottoming out with
[29:26] Speaker 2: Kurt Signetti leaving taking a bunch of his players. It
[29:29] Speaker 2: was basically going to be a full reboot at James Madison.
[29:31] Speaker 2: James Madison, by the way, he's been very good at
[29:33] Speaker 2: hiring coaches. They've got a track record for being good
[29:35] Speaker 2: at this, and it seems as though they got another
[29:37] Speaker 2: guy in Bob Chesney who may not be Kurt Signetti,
[29:41] Speaker 2: but is like at least twenty five years younger something
[29:44] Speaker 2: like that. Then Kurt Signetti and you know, obviously has
[29:47] Speaker 2: some recent success to pull from. We'll see what happens
[29:51] Speaker 2: with JMU as they play their championship game this weekend.
[29:55] Speaker 2: They're about a three touchdown favorite. He's going to coach
[29:57] Speaker 2: that game from what I understand, But to what extent
[30:00] Speaker 2: he will be involved in the playoffs should they make
[30:02] Speaker 2: the playoffs. I have not seen any official word on that. Again,
[30:06] Speaker 2: this just sort of broke the wire shortly before we
[30:08] Speaker 2: hit record today.
[30:10] Speaker 1: Ryan Silverfield at Arkansas, I'm.
[30:15] Speaker 2: Very mixed on this one.
[30:19] Speaker 1: Okay, why I wonder.
[30:22] Speaker 2: What he brings to the table that some of the
[30:27] Speaker 2: other candidates I've heard do not. Okay, he has been
[30:31] Speaker 2: very good at building an offense. We have seen that
[30:35] Speaker 2: in his time at Memphis and this year. I think
[30:38] Speaker 2: the defense also took a bit of a step forward,
[30:41] Speaker 2: which is nice.
[30:41] Speaker 1: But yes, top fifty defense, top twenty offense per points
[30:45] Speaker 1: per drive.
[30:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, I just think it's an uphill battle at a
[30:48] Speaker 2: place like an Arkansas and even more so than Ryan Silverfield.
[30:55] Speaker 2: Much of my understanding of the Arkansas program is that
[30:59] Speaker 2: they are somewhat behind with regard to the other levers
[31:04] Speaker 2: of modern college football. Nil spend things of that.
[31:08] Speaker 1: Nature, right, which is where Memphis was more advanced than
[31:13] Speaker 1: teams in the America.
[31:14] Speaker 2: It was because of the FedEx money that came in.
[31:16] Speaker 2: So I'm very mixed on silver Field. I feel like
[31:23] Speaker 2: they wanted Golesh, but Golesh took Auburn. Silver Field was
[31:29] Speaker 2: very much a name out there. Again, he had been
[31:30] Speaker 2: reported to take this job weeks ago. I don't know
[31:33] Speaker 2: if it's more of a silver Field thing for me
[31:37] Speaker 2: and why I'm blase on it, or if it's more
[31:39] Speaker 2: of an Arkansas thing. One or the other is spooking
[31:43] Speaker 2: me out a little bit about this move, and I'm
[31:46] Speaker 2: not fully on board with it.
[31:48] Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess the only reason to uh to be
[31:51] Speaker 1: blase is at Arkansas you are going to need somebody
[31:56] Speaker 1: creative and energizing, right that like Arkansas can win football,
[32:00] Speaker 1: You're gonna need to, you know, energize the money behind
[32:02] Speaker 1: the scenes in a way that it is in all ways,
[32:05] Speaker 1: which is you know, you should energize the money, right,
[32:07] Speaker 1: You should give reason to people with money to spend money,
[32:11] Speaker 1: and maybe a very specific vision in terms of like
[32:14] Speaker 1: what kind of systems you're going to be running and
[32:16] Speaker 1: not that Ryan Silverfield doesn't have that. It was not
[32:20] Speaker 1: a great ending to the Memphis season this year. I
[32:22] Speaker 1: think they lost their last three or three or five
[32:24] Speaker 1: something like that. Yeah, as the schedule got.
[32:26] Speaker 2: More, they went out with a whimper. They really did.
[32:28] Speaker 1: But it's a tough conference, I guess. And he beat Arkansas,
[32:33] Speaker 1: So there's that at Memphis. Yeah, this is this feels
[32:37] Speaker 1: like the most TBD to me. To see what they
[32:40] Speaker 1: look like on the field, what his staff looks like,
[32:42] Speaker 1: what they do in the portal, what he can do
[32:44] Speaker 1: in terms of just a sales job. I think that that,
[32:48] Speaker 1: to me is going to be the intriguing thing here.
[32:50] Speaker 1: And then you mentioned the Kentucky thing, you know, having
[32:53] Speaker 1: will Stein and Brian Hartline both have been quite successful
[32:56] Speaker 1: at huge places, and then the question just remains like
[33:01] Speaker 1: do you take a Kentucky job that has a pretty
[33:03] Speaker 1: clear ceiling like that? Is that seen as a destination
[33:08] Speaker 1: for either of these guys? Maybe for will Stein, you know,
[33:11] Speaker 1: from the area whatever, that can be a destination thing,
[33:14] Speaker 1: But when you look around the SEC and the same
[33:16] Speaker 1: can be said for Arkansas obviously. Is if you have
[33:20] Speaker 1: grand designs of coaching the biggest possible programs, can you
[33:23] Speaker 1: make a leap from Kentucky to that? Or if you
[33:27] Speaker 1: look at it as a destination, then you know, get
[33:31] Speaker 1: as much as you can, grab as many wins as
[33:33] Speaker 1: you can, have fun along the way, retire a legend.
[33:35] Speaker 1: I don't know, but I yeah, I'm curious to see
[33:40] Speaker 1: the direction they go to because it doesn't seem like
[33:44] Speaker 1: a huge ceiling job. But I think they were ready
[33:46] Speaker 1: for something new, for sure.
[33:47] Speaker 2: I agree with that. So basically where we stand now,
[33:50] Speaker 2: a lot of these jobs filled up very quickly with
[33:53] Speaker 2: the news. Now that Bob Chesney has taken UCLA. There
[33:55] Speaker 2: are three Power four jobs that remain vacant. Cal still open. Yes,
[34:01] Speaker 2: it'll be Tosh Lupoy most likely. It seems Kentucky.
[34:06] Speaker 1: Yep.
[34:07] Speaker 2: I've put all my money on will Stein. Okay, but
[34:11] Speaker 2: we'll see. And that leaves Penn State.
[34:16] Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, Dan Hawkins, come on down, dirt cutter, come
[34:26] Speaker 1: on down.
[34:28] Speaker 2: The natives are growing restless for a name here. Bill
[34:32] Speaker 2: Parcells Is Bill Parcells still alive?
[34:35] Speaker 1: I hope so I believe he is. I'm googling, but
[34:39] Speaker 1: I believe he.
[34:40] Speaker 2: Is man to be one of the first teams to
[34:44] Speaker 2: jump aboard the carousel still alive and thank you. That's
[34:49] Speaker 2: good to hear.
[34:49] Speaker 1: Eighty four years old.
[34:50] Speaker 2: He should coach the Giants. Yea. To be one of
[34:53] Speaker 2: the first teams to throw their hat in the ring
[34:56] Speaker 2: and to now be what feels like left without a
[35:01] Speaker 2: chair when the music stops, that is a bit disheartening.
[35:05] Speaker 2: I know that Penn State met with Bob Chesney and
[35:07] Speaker 2: talked to him a couple of times, and I know
[35:09] Speaker 2: Bob Chesney, from what I have heard, would have walked
[35:12] Speaker 2: over hot coals to get this Penn State job. He's
[35:14] Speaker 2: from central Pennsylvania from about an hour and a half away,
[35:18] Speaker 2: obviously knows the area, has been coaching in this part
[35:21] Speaker 2: of the country for the entire day of his career.
[35:24] Speaker 2: So the fact that they didn't go after Chesney signals
[35:29] Speaker 2: to me that they had somebody a little higher up
[35:31] Speaker 2: on the perceived food chain that they are targeting. The
[35:34] Speaker 2: latest rumors are all surrounding Kalani Sataki at Buyu, which
[35:40] Speaker 2: is a name that started coming out of left field
[35:42] Speaker 2: a few days ago. It definitely caught me by surprise,
[35:45] Speaker 2: and I will admit when I first heard it, I
[35:47] Speaker 2: did not believe it at all. It just felt like
[35:50] Speaker 2: it was too random a name to come out of
[35:52] Speaker 2: nowhere and to be seriously considered for that Penn State job.
[35:58] Speaker 2: I feel like there is reel credibility behind those rumors, now, Okay.
[36:04] Speaker 2: I have been kicking some of my own tires to
[36:06] Speaker 2: try and figure out is there any real validity to
[36:09] Speaker 2: these And I've seen other people talk about I know,
[36:11] Speaker 2: I like Liam Over at Barstool was talking about it,
[36:14] Speaker 2: and Matt Brown, our friend Matt Brown was posting about
[36:18] Speaker 2: it a little bit.
[36:19] Speaker 1: Does Terry Pagoula pick up your calls? Is that somebody
[36:22] Speaker 1: that you're you're interact with?
[36:24] Speaker 2: I wish, I wish.
[36:25] Speaker 1: No, I know Rack Daddy doesn't pick up the tie calls.
[36:28] Speaker 2: Okay, I know Matt was posting a little bit about
[36:31] Speaker 2: this as well. But Kalani Sataki is a very good
[36:35] Speaker 2: football coach. He is a very good football coach, and
[36:38] Speaker 2: as you said to me earlier today, you don't win
[36:40] Speaker 2: that many games by accident. He is a revered figure
[36:44] Speaker 2: in the BYU community, and so for sure, as some
[36:48] Speaker 2: of these rumors have started to bubble up. Many folks
[36:52] Speaker 2: on the BYU side of things have been in a
[36:54] Speaker 2: full blown panic because they want to keep Kalani Sataki
[36:57] Speaker 2: at all costs. He is viewed as sort of like
[36:59] Speaker 2: this large than life figure. He is a treasure within
[37:01] Speaker 2: the BYU universe, which I mean.
[37:03] Speaker 1: He's literally larger than life. He's a big dude. He's
[37:05] Speaker 1: a big dude. He's got to start ordering those Paul
[37:07] Speaker 1: Chris pullovers. Yeah.
[37:09] Speaker 2: So this is not me reporting that Kialani Sataki is
[37:12] Speaker 2: going to be the guy. This is me just saying
[37:14] Speaker 2: that based on a little bit of my own research,
[37:16] Speaker 2: I have plenty of reason to believe that there is
[37:20] Speaker 2: a lot of truth to the rumors that we have seen,
[37:22] Speaker 2: and it isn't just some random stuff that popped up
[37:24] Speaker 2: at two am on a message board. Sure where it
[37:28] Speaker 2: goes from here that remains to be seen. Would it
[37:32] Speaker 2: be a fit in State college. We can have that
[37:34] Speaker 2: discussion if and when he gets to stay college. I
[37:36] Speaker 2: don't want to get too far out over my skis,
[37:38] Speaker 2: but among the names that seem to be connected to
[37:42] Speaker 2: the Penn State job, this is the one right now
[37:45] Speaker 2: that feels to me like it's got the most validity.
[37:47] Speaker 1: And if it doesn't happen, there's my GUNDI like, there
[37:49] Speaker 1: are guys out there, there are names, there are there
[37:53] Speaker 1: are I would I have warmed to the idea.
[37:56] Speaker 2: Of Kilani Sataki. I will say that. Okay, he has
[38:02] Speaker 2: always preached the value in staying humble and hungry. I
[38:06] Speaker 2: think it's his mantra. Okay that very much would would
[38:09] Speaker 2: play well, very much would be a fit in state college.
[38:13] Speaker 2: He has constantly been in this position where idiots like
[38:19] Speaker 2: you and I look at the BYU program and we say, wow,
[38:23] Speaker 2: it can't be any better than they were last year.
[38:25] Speaker 2: Look at this roster, especially this year. I mean I
[38:28] Speaker 2: was guilty of it. They lost Jake Retz left like
[38:30] Speaker 2: four days before the season, whatever it was. They've been
[38:33] Speaker 2: starting a true freshman and now they're on the precipice
[38:35] Speaker 2: of winning a conference championship and going to the playoff.
[38:38] Speaker 2: That stuff doesn't just happen by happenstance. He's been doing
[38:41] Speaker 2: it now for a decade at BYU. He's been very
[38:44] Speaker 2: good at getting more with what the rest of us
[38:47] Speaker 2: idiots out here would think is less. And so given
[38:50] Speaker 2: where Penn State has been with James Franklin, which is
[38:54] Speaker 2: not getting more with more. I understand the logic of
[38:57] Speaker 2: going after potentially a guy like a Sati who you
[39:01] Speaker 2: can look at his body of work and say, this
[39:03] Speaker 2: guy has found ways to just make it work. And
[39:06] Speaker 2: so if at the end of the day, Pat Kraft
[39:09] Speaker 2: decides I just want to go with the good football coach,
[39:12] Speaker 2: I understand that logic and I would support that, And
[39:14] Speaker 2: I like Kilani's talk. You have very much warmed to
[39:16] Speaker 2: him over the years as we've covered the sport and
[39:19] Speaker 2: recently now as I think his name has started to
[39:22] Speaker 2: be connected to Penn State.
[39:23] Speaker 1: But we'll see.
[39:24] Speaker 2: I don't know.
[39:25] Speaker 1: I wish I could find out at the end of
[39:27] Speaker 1: this cycle just how many raises Pat Kraft got various
[39:31] Speaker 1: coaches across America, like Sugar Daddy to the Stars Pat Kraft.
[39:36] Speaker 1: When Kalani Sataki signs a new deal in two days
[39:40] Speaker 1: with BYU, that is the concern.
[39:42] Speaker 2: I mean, there have been so many names that have
[39:44] Speaker 2: been sent to me in connection to this job. I
[39:48] Speaker 2: don't believe that they're going to get Kaylen Deboor. There
[39:50] Speaker 2: might be a conversation, but I don't believe they're going
[39:53] Speaker 2: to get Kaylen Deboor. I believe some of the steam
[39:57] Speaker 2: that Lincoln Riley doesn't like USC and is looking for
[39:59] Speaker 2: ways out or some of his options. But I don't
[40:01] Speaker 2: honestly believe they're gonna end up with Lincoln Rally, and
[40:03] Speaker 2: I don't think Lincoln Riley be a great fit.
[40:05] Speaker 1: PJ. Fleck will take your money.
[40:06] Speaker 2: I don't want PJ. Fleck. I really don't want to
[40:09] Speaker 2: deal with that. Okay, right, there are these all these
[40:12] Speaker 2: other names that have popped up. Chip Kelly, I don't
[40:15] Speaker 2: want Chip Kelly.
[40:16] Speaker 1: Jimbo, No, come on, Dan West, Virginia is not far
[40:21] Speaker 1: from Pennsylvania. That's where's That's where he's from.
[40:25] Speaker 2: I guess, man, I'm just look I Josh Hipel's another
[40:30] Speaker 2: name that I saw floating around out there. I don't
[40:32] Speaker 2: buy that. I really don't.
[40:35] Speaker 1: Matt Campbell doesn't seem interested. I don't know.
[40:37] Speaker 2: I don't know what the deal is with Matt Campbell.
[40:39] Speaker 2: I like Matt Campbell. I actually think that would be
[40:41] Speaker 2: a fine hire. But I think he just likes coaching
[40:43] Speaker 2: and name, and he likes coaching names.
[40:45] Speaker 1: I think he does.
[40:46] Speaker 2: Maybe he's not much for promoting himself. I know that's
[40:48] Speaker 2: been a popular theory out there as well. But of
[40:52] Speaker 2: the names of the names that seem like they are
[40:54] Speaker 2: out there now in connection with Penn State, the final
[40:57] Speaker 2: three that I would probably posit if I were putting
[41:00] Speaker 2: money on any of these, And I am not necessarily
[41:02] Speaker 2: privy insider info, right, I think there. I think some
[41:06] Speaker 2: of the smoke around Sataki is real. I put him
[41:09] Speaker 2: in there. I would probably put Brian Dable in there,
[41:13] Speaker 2: and I would probably put Brian Hartline in there as
[41:15] Speaker 2: my final three. I think it'll be end up being
[41:16] Speaker 2: one of those three guys. But when that happens and
[41:19] Speaker 2: who it ends up being, your guests is as good
[41:23] Speaker 2: as mine.
[41:24] Speaker 1: To Sean Foster.
[41:27] Speaker 2: Right in solid Verbo at gmail dot com, let us
[41:29] Speaker 2: know what we got right, what we got wrong. We
[41:31] Speaker 2: would love to hear from you. Certainly, as some of
[41:34] Speaker 2: these other jobs are filled, we will do our part
[41:37] Speaker 2: to keep you abreast of the situation. It won't be
[41:41] Speaker 2: long before we start getting names for coordinators for some
[41:43] Speaker 2: of these new places. Sure it did see that. Like
[41:46] Speaker 2: Matt Ruhle, formerly my favorite to take the Penn Stage job,
[41:49] Speaker 2: he made a move at defensive coordinator that got rid
[41:51] Speaker 2: of John Butler, who formerly had some Penn State routes.
[41:55] Speaker 2: There is a whole circle going on here right now.
[41:58] Speaker 2: The carousel continues to spend do our part to try
[42:00] Speaker 2: and stay on top of it.
[42:01] Speaker 1: Oh Man, the ball knowers in Lincoln, we're lecturing us
[42:04] Speaker 1: pre season about how John Butler was going to be
[42:07] Speaker 1: a big improvement over Tony White.
[42:08] Speaker 2: I know.
[42:09] Speaker 1: Well, yeah, so there you have it. I think that's
[42:13] Speaker 1: still gonna spin. Carousel is still spinning. There's fallout from
[42:16] Speaker 1: all of these hires, and Oregon might be out two coordinators.
[42:18] Speaker 1: I don't know. It's all fascinating. And that's ahead of
[42:23] Speaker 1: like it's the final stretch for the playoff. It is
[42:26] Speaker 1: the final stretch of the playoff.
[42:28] Speaker 2: Dan, Let's talk a little bit, and I do mean
[42:31] Speaker 2: a little bit because we don't have the official playoff
[42:33] Speaker 2: rankings right now, but let's talk a little bit about
[42:35] Speaker 2: where things stand for the college football playoffs. We do
[42:39] Speaker 2: have an Overballer top twelve poll for those who are interested.
[42:42] Speaker 2: It goes Ohio State, Indiana, Georgia, Texas, Tech, Oregon, Texas
[42:47] Speaker 2: A and M down to six, followed by Ole Miss
[42:50] Speaker 2: at seven, Alabama at eight, ahead of Oklahoma at nine. Okay, yeah,
[42:56] Speaker 2: Number ten, Notre Dame number eleven, BYU number twelve of
[42:59] Speaker 2: the Miami Hurricanes. In case you are interested, we've got
[43:03] Speaker 2: Vanderbilt at thirteen. And because I think Arvar bowlers are
[43:07] Speaker 2: very keen on the G five schools, North Texas at fourteen,
[43:11] Speaker 2: JMU at fifteen, and Texas at number sixteen.
[43:15] Speaker 1: That's I think I would take Texas over James Madison. Well,
[43:19] Speaker 1: you know, you never know. I think I would too,
[43:21] Speaker 1: but I think I would take Utah over North Texas
[43:24] Speaker 1: and James Madison, which you never know.
[43:25] Speaker 2: With ye, I am with you. Here is my question
[43:29] Speaker 2: to you, by the way, in case you're interested in
[43:30] Speaker 2: how that compares to the AP pole. They have Ohio State, Indiana,
[43:35] Speaker 2: Georgia one two three, Oregon up to four, Texas Tech
[43:40] Speaker 2: at five, Ole Miss at six. They dropped Texas A
[43:43] Speaker 2: and m four spots all the way down to number seven.
[43:46] Speaker 2: They've got Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Alabama BYU remaining unchanged, Miami
[43:51] Speaker 2: jumping up a spot to number twelve in that poll
[43:53] Speaker 2: as well. So yeah, there's a lot to discuss here.
[43:57] Speaker 2: This is all going to come to a head this
[43:59] Speaker 2: week when we have our conference championship games. There is
[44:02] Speaker 2: an outstanding question as to whether or not the committee
[44:05] Speaker 2: could or should punish or take some of the hot
[44:09] Speaker 2: air out of the Old Miss balloon as a result
[44:11] Speaker 2: of the coaching staff turney over, at least on the
[44:13] Speaker 2: offensive side. Right, we've Lane kiff and walking out, Charlie
[44:17] Speaker 2: Junior taking his talents to baton Rouge as well. How
[44:22] Speaker 2: do we feel about where ole Miss is now relative
[44:26] Speaker 2: to their peers given the news of the day.
[44:29] Speaker 1: I wouldn't punish them. I wouldn't punish them. At the
[44:32] Speaker 1: end of the day, it's players who play, it's players
[44:34] Speaker 1: who win. I understand the brain trust is now gone
[44:37] Speaker 1: and it's going to look different, But I didn't love
[44:40] Speaker 1: punishing Florida Satan. They lost their starting quarterback, and I
[44:43] Speaker 1: still didn't love punishing them there. I just I don't
[44:47] Speaker 1: see how you can There's so many variables in this sport. Obviously,
[44:51] Speaker 1: it's not an ideal position that Ole Miss finds themselves in,
[44:53] Speaker 1: even though their new full time coach is the interim
[44:56] Speaker 1: coach slash just the full time coach now in Pete Golding,
[45:00] Speaker 1: who we didn't really discuss in terms of taking over
[45:02] Speaker 1: that job, but I'm sure we'll have plenty of time
[45:03] Speaker 1: to I'm happy with them there. I'm happy with them seven.
[45:07] Speaker 1: I think no matter what I mean, they're not playing,
[45:10] Speaker 1: they're gonna be an eleven to one SEC team. They're
[45:12] Speaker 1: gonna make the playoff no matter what. I guess your
[45:14] Speaker 1: question is, like, do you dock them? I don't think
[45:17] Speaker 1: you can dock them for something that is not in
[45:19] Speaker 1: the control of like the administration tried to keep him
[45:22] Speaker 1: even Lane Kiffen wanted to stay for the playoff, which
[45:24] Speaker 1: is kind of funny, but like, you can't dock ole Miss.
[45:27] Speaker 1: I don't believe you can dock ole Miss anything, uh,
[45:31] Speaker 1: for things that have happened behind the scenes. When they're
[45:34] Speaker 1: gonna field the same team.
[45:36] Speaker 2: I think I'm with you. I think I'm with you.
[45:39] Speaker 2: I hate that set up when they punish the players
[45:44] Speaker 2: for the coach leaving. I understand a coach is a
[45:46] Speaker 2: valuable part of the team, but of course the players
[45:50] Speaker 2: are the ones making the plays.
[45:51] Speaker 1: The Alabama ahead of Oklahoma thing because they did recently
[45:54] Speaker 1: play and as many questions as I have about elements
[45:58] Speaker 1: of Oklahoma on offense, Oklahoma beat them in Tuscal loose.
[46:02] Speaker 2: I mean, this is a shot across the doubt the
[46:04] Speaker 2: for ballers the APD is I know, I know, but
[46:06] Speaker 2: our arver ballers did. Arver ballers have Oklahoma two spots
[46:10] Speaker 2: ahead of Alabama. I'm getting a little bit nervous on
[46:13] Speaker 2: the Notre Dame front. I'm a little bit nervous that
[46:17] Speaker 2: so much of this public pressure is going to start
[46:19] Speaker 2: to seep in to the playoff committee and they're going
[46:23] Speaker 2: to put Miami ahead of Notre Dame when we get
[46:26] Speaker 2: the latest batch of rankings, and is going to put
[46:27] Speaker 2: Notre Dame very much on the bubble. I think they're
[46:30] Speaker 2: very much on the bubble as it is right now.
[46:32] Speaker 2: Depending on what goes down this weekend, we're in line
[46:35] Speaker 2: for I think at least two outside the top ten
[46:39] Speaker 2: right grabbing playoff spots. If BYU were to pull an
[46:46] Speaker 2: upset and knock off Texas Tech, that would be the
[46:49] Speaker 2: death knell for Notre Dame. By you would steal a bit,
[46:52] Speaker 2: I think.
[46:53] Speaker 1: You also, I don't know, man, if you're what, are
[46:56] Speaker 1: they going to be eleven in one or they are
[46:58] Speaker 1: eleven and one, potentially twelve and one or eleven in two.
[47:00] Speaker 1: And we haven't seen, you know, a large sample size
[47:03] Speaker 1: of how the Committee's going to react to conference championship games.
[47:05] Speaker 1: But SMU still made it in despite their their close
[47:07] Speaker 1: loss last year to Clemson. It's been an awful long
[47:10] Speaker 1: time of keeping BYU this low. I know that it
[47:13] Speaker 1: does feel like, you know, they haven't had the most
[47:19] Speaker 1: control over teams all of the time. No, they didn't
[47:22] Speaker 1: control the game against Texas Tech at all. I would
[47:26] Speaker 1: also hold their non conference schedule against them. But also
[47:30] Speaker 1: like they went eleven in one of the Big twelve,
[47:32] Speaker 1: like they beat legit teams up right, and I just
[47:37] Speaker 1: they're a pretty complete, really good team, and I just
[47:42] Speaker 1: don't think what they've shown on the field has them,
[47:47] Speaker 1: you know, this, consistently behind teams with two losses in
[47:50] Speaker 1: other major conferences. So I wouldn't hate putting BYU in
[47:55] Speaker 1: the like eight nine you know eight nine region right
[47:58] Speaker 1: and there, because at a certain point they just think
[48:00] Speaker 1: wain a ton of games. The Notre Dame Miami thing
[48:03] Speaker 1: is interesting, But if you're going to keep Notre Dame
[48:05] Speaker 1: above Miami last week and Miami destroys Pitt, a team
[48:11] Speaker 1: that Notre Dame also destroyed, it's not a clear vaulting
[48:17] Speaker 1: data point for Miami necessarily.
[48:19] Speaker 2: No, and with SMU losing that doesn't help the quality
[48:23] Speaker 2: of the loss, doesn't help the quality of the loss.
[48:26] Speaker 2: I just like part of this is just me being
[48:29] Speaker 2: a nervous fan.
[48:31] Speaker 1: I are you.
[48:32] Speaker 2: I think, if you're looking at it logically, the time
[48:35] Speaker 2: to move Notre Dame more on the outside looking in.
[48:38] Speaker 2: I mean, they were always going to be in this
[48:40] Speaker 2: playoff conversation until the very end. But if they wanted
[48:44] Speaker 2: to bump Notre Dame down another rung, the time to
[48:46] Speaker 2: do that would have been last week after Alabama loss. Now,
[48:50] Speaker 2: with Alabama winning over Auburn and the Iron Bowl, maybe
[48:53] Speaker 2: that will give the playoff committee another opportunity to do that.
[48:56] Speaker 2: I'm curious to see what happens if Alabama were to
[48:58] Speaker 2: go and beat Georgia again. What would that mean for
[49:01] Speaker 2: Notre Dame. So I just I think they're in very
[49:04] Speaker 2: uncertain territory. There's a reason as a fan, and I
[49:08] Speaker 2: am saying this only as a fan, not as somebody
[49:09] Speaker 2: who does this show. The reason that I was rooting
[49:13] Speaker 2: against Oklahoma was because Oklahoma losing would have kicked them
[49:16] Speaker 2: out of the way. It would have given Notre Dame
[49:18] Speaker 2: a little bit more breathing room to get them on
[49:21] Speaker 2: I think more stable ground. But as it stands right now,
[49:23] Speaker 2: I'm not fully convinced that Notre Dame is a sure
[49:26] Speaker 2: thing to get in there.
[49:28] Speaker 1: But on what grounds? At this point? I understand the
[49:30] Speaker 1: grounds if you like Miami over Notre Dame. Like, right,
[49:33] Speaker 1: they played Miami one. The case against Notre Dame, yeah,
[49:39] Speaker 1: I think you make that case two three weeks ago,
[49:41] Speaker 1: but like they both throttled Stanford, right they did. They
[49:45] Speaker 1: both throttled Stanford, so you have even data points there.
[49:50] Speaker 1: I said this to you earlier. The broader case against
[49:53] Speaker 1: Notre Dame is not a crazy one, right that they
[49:56] Speaker 1: played essentially three teams of compar talent and with comparable
[50:01] Speaker 1: goals in USC, Texas A and m and Miami, and
[50:04] Speaker 1: they lost to two of them. And I think we
[50:07] Speaker 1: afford Notre Dame less leeway because they're in more control
[50:11] Speaker 1: of their schedule than others, and so you really have
[50:14] Speaker 1: to lock in on how they do against the best
[50:17] Speaker 1: teams in the most comparable teams, and Notre Dame does
[50:20] Speaker 1: not have a favorable case there. The case against Miami
[50:23] Speaker 1: is they haven't taken care of business against the sort
[50:27] Speaker 1: of upper middle part of their schedule, like Notre Dame
[50:30] Speaker 1: has and so if you talk about control since those
[50:34] Speaker 1: early losses, you should afford everybody an opportunity to improve
[50:38] Speaker 1: over the course of a season and sort of plant
[50:40] Speaker 1: a flag that they're not who they were earlier on
[50:43] Speaker 1: the best of Miami is as good as most teams
[50:45] Speaker 1: in this country, let alone playoff, right that, Like, they're
[50:48] Speaker 1: just better. You know, they're playing like a top eight
[50:51] Speaker 1: or nine team for sure at their best. The problem
[50:54] Speaker 1: therein is just like they had control over those SMU
[51:00] Speaker 1: Louisville games, they quite literally threw those games away. And
[51:03] Speaker 1: those are not excellent teams. Those are not good teams.
[51:06] Speaker 1: And so the case against Miami is a win in
[51:10] Speaker 1: August is not the same as a win in October
[51:12] Speaker 1: and November. So I still think I would have Notre
[51:17] Speaker 1: Dame over Miami because they've shown themselves to be in
[51:21] Speaker 1: more control against their schedule. They've been able to control
[51:24] Speaker 1: what they can control in a way that Miami hasn't
[51:27] Speaker 1: been able to in the last six seven weeks.
[51:30] Speaker 2: Yeah, and so.
[51:31] Speaker 1: That's the case. But I don't have a strong argument
[51:34] Speaker 1: against Miami in the playoff because to my eyes, they're
[51:37] Speaker 1: very clearly of playoff caliber.
[51:39] Speaker 2: Like I would like to see Miami in the playoff.
[51:41] Speaker 2: I wouldn't like to see them in the playoff at
[51:43] Speaker 2: the expense of Notre Dame. But I believe Miami is
[51:46] Speaker 2: one of the twelve best teams in the country, and
[51:49] Speaker 2: I don't think that's that hot of a take, right
[51:52] Speaker 2: I mean, I would take Miami over a bunch of
[51:54] Speaker 2: these teams right now. Yeah, I just don't know if
[51:56] Speaker 2: it's gonna happen for them. We're gonna They're probably gonna
[51:58] Speaker 2: need some help. They certainly need YU to lose. They
[52:01] Speaker 2: probably need a change of heart from the playoff committee.
[52:04] Speaker 2: I think they'd need BYU to lose forty two to seven. Again,
[52:08] Speaker 2: they would need BYU definitely to lose their game. I'm
[52:13] Speaker 2: just not sure how much wiggle room there is in
[52:15] Speaker 2: front of them at this point. Like if Alabama goes
[52:18] Speaker 2: into a game against Georgia and they lose by twenty points,
[52:21] Speaker 2: that could be grounds of kick Alabama out. But I
[52:24] Speaker 2: think that's what they would need. They would need a
[52:26] Speaker 2: loss by BYU. They would probably need a resounding loss
[52:29] Speaker 2: by Alabama to give them some way to go up
[52:33] Speaker 2: the standing. Certainly Ohio State and Indiana are going to
[52:35] Speaker 2: go anywhere, right, you know, Georgia at this point I
[52:39] Speaker 2: think is pretty squarely in this field. There's just not
[52:44] Speaker 2: that much else that could go on that would vault
[52:46] Speaker 2: them into that top ten, which again is where you
[52:48] Speaker 2: need to get at least right now because of two
[52:52] Speaker 2: teams coming from outside with whoever is going to win
[52:55] Speaker 2: the G five rep that spot and whoever's going to
[52:59] Speaker 2: win the ACC. The ACC thing is extremely interesting too,
[53:02] Speaker 2: and we haven't really talked about this, but because of
[53:05] Speaker 2: what went down on Saturday, the game is going to
[53:08] Speaker 2: be Virginia against Duke. Duke right now is seven and five.
[53:12] Speaker 2: They are not ranked, they probably won't be ranked. If
[53:14] Speaker 2: Duke were to pull the upset and knock off Virginia.
[53:16] Speaker 2: There is a very real possibility that there's going to
[53:19] Speaker 2: be no rep from the ACC, that we're going to
[53:22] Speaker 2: have an American winner, and then either James Madison or
[53:28] Speaker 2: UNLV potentially from the Mountain West, worm their way into
[53:32] Speaker 2: this playoff field. That would be something else. I mean,
[53:35] Speaker 2: that would be a conversation probably its own show episode.
[53:39] Speaker 2: But if you are looking at this, I think objectively,
[53:42] Speaker 2: at this point, there is a very real possibility that
[53:45] Speaker 2: the ACC could be left out completely if somehow, you know,
[53:50] Speaker 2: Duke wins and Miami can't find a way to jump up.
[53:52] Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know what, this is all your fault,
[53:57] Speaker 1: my fault, not your fault. No, this is all your fault.
[54:00] Speaker 1: Like teams who had the ability and have shown the
[54:03] Speaker 1: ability to look like a top twelve team. You know,
[54:06] Speaker 1: it's an acc tiebreaker situation obviously, but it's not like
[54:10] Speaker 1: Miami or whoever else you know is in the top
[54:12] Speaker 1: twenty that feels like they should be jumping higher. I mean,
[54:15] Speaker 1: I think we can both agree that like Texas, no thanks,
[54:18] Speaker 1: I'm just a no thanks on Texas, Like, congratulations on
[54:21] Speaker 1: your win. It's a nice way to finish out the season,
[54:24] Speaker 1: but you had it's it's Texas's own fault. They're not here.
[54:29] Speaker 1: And I might even like, you know, kudos Texas for
[54:31] Speaker 1: you know, booking that Ohio State home and home. Don't
[54:34] Speaker 1: lose to you know, a four and eight Florida team,
[54:37] Speaker 1: like even in their wins, like did you come away
[54:40] Speaker 1: from the Kentucky game, the Mississippi State game, the fourth
[54:44] Speaker 1: quarter of the Vanderbilt win, like did you come away
[54:47] Speaker 1: like be'st a playoff team right there? That's a playoff
[54:49] Speaker 1: team right there? I mean I think did I think
[54:52] Speaker 1: Texas is evolution.
[54:54] Speaker 2: The second half the season has been a really nice
[54:56] Speaker 2: story and arch Manning has definitely grown. I would not
[54:58] Speaker 2: put them in the playoff. No, I don't think they're
[55:01] Speaker 2: a playoff team. I think there are more deserving teams
[55:04] Speaker 2: in front of them that should go in their place. Now.
[55:08] Speaker 2: If all hell would have broken loose last week and
[55:10] Speaker 2: we had a bunch of teams fall out of contention,
[55:13] Speaker 2: then that's a conversation. That's a separate conversation. Sure, But
[55:16] Speaker 2: as it stands right now, there are far too many
[55:18] Speaker 2: really good, two lost teams that I think should go
[55:22] Speaker 2: before Texas.
[55:25] Speaker 1: But in two of their last three weeks they got
[55:27] Speaker 1: to play playoff caliber teams. They beat a Texas A
[55:30] Speaker 1: and M team that is legitimately very good, and they
[55:33] Speaker 1: lost by twenty five after a bye week against the
[55:35] Speaker 1: other one. I don't know, man Texas in control to
[55:38] Speaker 1: see how well they can control and compete, and just
[55:42] Speaker 1: thanks for an entertaining season. You're not of this caliber,
[55:45] Speaker 1: is my opinion. And if Duke got in, or if
[55:49] Speaker 1: Duke won the ACC and doesn't get in, like I
[55:52] Speaker 1: don't know, it just kind of funny to me.
[55:54] Speaker 2: Sorry, is there a case for somebody like a Vandy
[55:56] Speaker 2: to jump up?
[55:58] Speaker 1: I think he'll see. I think Vandy has a good case. Look,
[56:01] Speaker 1: but Vandy lost the head to head to Texas. I get.
[56:03] Speaker 1: But Texas again has that third loss, and Vandy does
[56:07] Speaker 1: not have a loss like Texas does, and again it's
[56:10] Speaker 1: a great loss. Texas had to Ohio State. Texas has
[56:14] Speaker 1: what a couple top ten wins. Vanderbilt was not in
[56:16] Speaker 1: the is not in the top ten at the moment.
[56:20] Speaker 1: But Vanderbilt, with what they've done against their schedule and
[56:22] Speaker 1: the defenses they faced and how the offense has been
[56:24] Speaker 1: this year, I think they're of top twelve caliber. Now,
[56:27] Speaker 1: you have to look at the teams that are considered
[56:30] Speaker 1: to be ranked on a certain level, like Missoo and
[56:32] Speaker 1: Tennessee haven't beaten a team with a winning record, right, No,
[56:35] Speaker 1: And they're like floating around being ranked or are like
[56:38] Speaker 1: twenty four to twenty five, and so like that's doing
[56:40] Speaker 1: a lot of work for some of these teams. So
[56:42] Speaker 1: I just prefer to look at like how they've performed
[56:45] Speaker 1: against who they've played, And Vanderbilt has been very impressive,
[56:49] Speaker 1: and so i'd hold them in highest team and wish
[56:52] Speaker 1: we could see Diego pave in this playoff, though it
[56:54] Speaker 1: seems like that's kind of a long shot. Dan, Before
[56:58] Speaker 1: we go any further, before we close the book on
[57:03] Speaker 1: this episode, of course, we invite over bowlers to chime
[57:05] Speaker 1: in on this playoff conversation. Celibbgemail dot com, hit us
[57:08] Speaker 1: up on social media. We would love to hear from
[57:10] Speaker 1: me anywhere. You can leave a comment. All that stuff
[57:12] Speaker 1: helps even if you disagree, as they say, don't be
[57:15] Speaker 1: a dick, but you're more than welcome to disagree with
[57:18] Speaker 1: us and offer your thoughts. We do read everything.
[57:20] Speaker 2: Yes, I did want to do a little bit of celebration.
[57:25] Speaker 2: Uh oh, we don't have the rights, type, we.
[57:27] Speaker 1: Don't have the rights.
[57:28] Speaker 2: I cut it off at two seconds. We're good, Okay.
[57:31] Speaker 2: Some teams that had really fun stories this year that
[57:35] Speaker 2: maybe get lost in the shuffle. The fact that we're
[57:37] Speaker 2: talking about coaches coming and going, we're talking about college
[57:40] Speaker 2: football playoffs. There is a whole other universe out there,
[57:43] Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty four other teams that played FBS
[57:47] Speaker 2: college football, and I pulled out a nice little collection
[57:50] Speaker 2: of teams that I think deserve a little bit more conversation,
[57:54] Speaker 2: if only because they took an enormous jump in some way,
[57:58] Speaker 2: shape or form from twenty four to twenty twenty five,
[58:02] Speaker 2: and in pretty much all of these cases, neither you
[58:04] Speaker 2: nor I saw it coming.
[58:06] Speaker 1: Yeah, are you ready? I'm ready? North Texas unbelievable. North
[58:14] Speaker 1: Texas lost his coach now to Oklahoma State.
[58:16] Speaker 2: We didn't even mention that. I guess we mentioned that
[58:18] Speaker 2: in passing. There's reporting to suggest that Drew Mestamaker may
[58:24] Speaker 2: follow Eric Morris up to Oklahoma State.
[58:26] Speaker 1: Maybe Caleb Hawkins.
[58:27] Speaker 2: Yeah, six and seven. Last year, they improved to the
[58:35] Speaker 2: number one overall S and P plus offense. This season,
[58:40] Speaker 2: you know how to score points drastically, drastically better on defense.
[58:44] Speaker 2: They're going to play for a conference championship this weekend
[58:47] Speaker 2: against Tulane.
[58:49] Speaker 1: Yep, how about the game?
[58:51] Speaker 2: How about the Virginia Cavaliers.
[58:55] Speaker 1: Did the portal right, went heavy on defense, didn't play
[58:58] Speaker 1: a big schedule, took advantage.
[59:01] Speaker 2: Five and seven last season to ten and two this year,
[59:04] Speaker 2: a five game leap for Tony Elliot. By the way,
[59:07] Speaker 2: this is a very pivotal year for Tony Elliott. Now,
[59:10] Speaker 2: if it didn't work, if it was five and seven. Again,
[59:12] Speaker 2: it is a pretty good chance they're looking for a
[59:13] Speaker 2: coach right now.
[59:15] Speaker 1: Oh by the way, sidebar, if you're a Virginia administrator,
[59:18] Speaker 1: do not consider any prospective coach if their name is
[59:22] Speaker 1: not Tony. After the success this year of Tony Elliott,
[59:25] Speaker 1: in previous success of Tony Bennett, and that could be
[59:28] Speaker 1: a lady with Tony with an eye or you know,
[59:32] Speaker 1: dude coaching Tony continue.
[59:35] Speaker 2: Drastic improvements on both sides of the ball. They finished
[59:37] Speaker 2: with the top twenty five defense.
[59:39] Speaker 1: Yes they did.
[59:41] Speaker 2: This one is fairly obvious. Texas Tech. Texas Tech was
[59:46] Speaker 2: eight and five a year ago, or a fine team
[59:48] Speaker 2: a year ago. Yep, took a jump this year. Number
[59:51] Speaker 2: three overall in the sp plus, number two on offense,
[59:54] Speaker 2: number four on defense. That is up from number fifty
[59:57] Speaker 2: four overall, with the number twenty six offense and the
[1:00:02] Speaker 2: number ninety five defense. This is per the sp plus.
[1:00:06] Speaker 1: If you listen recording, If you listen to Texas Tech
[1:00:09] Speaker 1: fans and you asked them, hey, what changed, they will
[1:00:13] Speaker 1: say nothing, nothing change.
[1:00:17] Speaker 2: We've had some interactions with the text Joey Maguire's culture
[1:00:21] Speaker 2: finally taken hold. Can I ask a question about that.
[1:00:24] Speaker 1: It is an unbelievable season. Texas Texas defense, especially upfront,
[1:00:27] Speaker 1: a joy to watch this.
[1:00:29] Speaker 2: Let me ask a question about this. I think we've
[1:00:31] Speaker 2: addressed this that nothing changed at various points throughout the year. Yeah,
[1:00:36] Speaker 2: Why did Texas Tech fans view it as some sort
[1:00:39] Speaker 2: of pejorative when we mentioned the fact that they spent
[1:00:42] Speaker 2: in the portal and they used that infusion of talent
[1:00:44] Speaker 2: to make the team better. Why do people view that
[1:00:48] Speaker 2: as some sort of slight I think it makes Yeah,
[1:00:51] Speaker 2: I gotta say every other team in college football is
[1:00:53] Speaker 2: trying the same thing, and very few of them have
[1:00:55] Speaker 2: been a successful like. If anything, I think that is
[1:00:58] Speaker 2: a compliment that you targeted guys that you thought you
[1:01:01] Speaker 2: could bring in ad depth. Again, none of it was
[1:01:04] Speaker 2: really that sexy, but they knew they needed help in
[1:01:07] Speaker 2: their defensive front seven. Just as an example, they went
[1:01:10] Speaker 2: out they hired shield Wood away from Houston to bring
[1:01:12] Speaker 2: him over on the defense. I mean, they made some
[1:01:15] Speaker 2: really smart moves with how they attacked the transfer portal
[1:01:18] Speaker 2: and how they hired you know, in this case, just
[1:01:20] Speaker 2: one assistant coach. When we say these things, we're not
[1:01:24] Speaker 2: saying it as if it is like some cover for
[1:01:28] Speaker 2: a program that is in shambles, and they just got lucky.
[1:01:31] Speaker 2: This was a very targeted build in the offseason. They
[1:01:35] Speaker 2: used their money wisely. The guys that they brought over
[1:01:39] Speaker 2: in large part have hit and have been very impactful
[1:01:42] Speaker 2: as part of this playoff runt. So I don't understand
[1:01:47] Speaker 2: why the Texas Tech fans have decided to chime in
[1:01:50] Speaker 2: with some sort of hate as a result of us
[1:01:52] Speaker 2: saying this. I think it's a great thing, and I
[1:01:54] Speaker 2: mean it as a compliment. They were good at this
[1:01:57] Speaker 2: when many of their peers simply were not full stop.
[1:02:01] Speaker 1: I can't speak for Texas Tech fans, but I imagine their
[1:02:04] Speaker 1: viewpoint is, yes, but there are other things just beyond Sure, there.
[1:02:10] Speaker 2: Are always other things, Dan well, they're paying always other things.
[1:02:13] Speaker 1: They're paying shield would with a scholarship and experience, right
[1:02:16] Speaker 1: job experience, and not paying them with money. Sure, no,
[1:02:21] Speaker 1: I get it. It makes you feel cheap, right if
[1:02:23] Speaker 1: somebody is just like you're just buying wins, It does
[1:02:25] Speaker 1: make you feel cheap.
[1:02:27] Speaker 2: Cheap. Now, the whole thing is cheap. Everything is cheap.
[1:02:30] Speaker 2: Get used to it.
[1:02:31] Speaker 1: I know. I imagine there is sensitivity because it there
[1:02:36] Speaker 1: is an implication that it devalues what they're able to
[1:02:40] Speaker 1: accomplish on the field.
[1:02:41] Speaker 2: I'm not saying get over it, get over it.
[1:02:45] Speaker 1: I agree, because you know what, the winds taste better
[1:02:48] Speaker 1: if you go to the final four.
[1:02:50] Speaker 2: Yeah, after having like the ninety fifth best defense a
[1:02:54] Speaker 2: year ago, and it took some spend and some money
[1:02:58] Speaker 2: from Goate Campbell to get you there, who gives a
[1:03:02] Speaker 2: fly in f.
[1:03:03] Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I happen to agreece again, they haven't
[1:03:08] Speaker 1: finished ranked. This is the first year they've they're going
[1:03:10] Speaker 1: to finish ranked in the A people since like two
[1:03:13] Speaker 1: thousand and nine.
[1:03:13] Speaker 2: Nice are out of your minds. I take it in
[1:03:16] Speaker 2: a heartbeat.
[1:03:17] Speaker 1: Well, I also think it is like just how publicly
[1:03:22] Speaker 1: it all seemed to go down with go T Campbell,
[1:03:24] Speaker 1: right that he's in commercials and you know, he's making
[1:03:27] Speaker 1: a big deal of the whole thing, and he's on
[1:03:29] Speaker 1: Twitter or x the everything app everything, And I don't know,
[1:03:35] Speaker 1: you're just going to get more attention from it because
[1:03:37] Speaker 1: of how well it worked, And so I just imagine
[1:03:42] Speaker 1: Texas tech fans don't want the only spotlight to be
[1:03:45] Speaker 1: on the portal. But also, you know what they've done
[1:03:48] Speaker 1: on offense, what Baron Morton has accomplished in his growth
[1:03:51] Speaker 1: like that, Joey maguire has largely been pretty good and
[1:03:54] Speaker 1: has won big games before a Texas Tech, and he's
[1:03:57] Speaker 1: just doing more of it this season. But like it's
[1:03:59] Speaker 1: just it is, you know, a good part of the story.
[1:04:02] Speaker 2: It's a huge part of the story. They got big.
[1:04:05] Speaker 2: This was not the only reason they got better. It
[1:04:08] Speaker 2: wasn't It was not the only reason they got better.
[1:04:10] Speaker 2: But they were smart with how they attacked the portal.
[1:04:12] Speaker 2: It made them better very quickly in a way that
[1:04:16] Speaker 2: in previous years it would have taken years to get
[1:04:18] Speaker 2: to this point. High school recruiting and pounding the pavement
[1:04:22] Speaker 2: and you know, you have a pass to cut the
[1:04:25] Speaker 2: line now if you're smart about it. And they were
[1:04:26] Speaker 2: smart about it and it worked, and good for them.
[1:04:28] Speaker 2: I'm rooting for them.
[1:04:30] Speaker 1: Also, the conference got easier. Hey, there's a little bit
[1:04:33] Speaker 1: Kennesaw State Dan, Yeah, two and ten a.
[1:04:37] Speaker 2: Year ago they are playing for a conference championship. Yeah,
[1:04:42] Speaker 2: they d a little bit from two and ten to
[1:04:44] Speaker 2: nine and three. They got rid of the old coach.
[1:04:47] Speaker 2: They brought over Jerry Mack, who I seem to remember
[1:04:49] Speaker 2: saying in the preseason that I liked a lot. They're
[1:04:53] Speaker 2: over under was three and a half three and a
[1:04:56] Speaker 2: half going into the year. They eclipsed that total far
[1:05:00] Speaker 2: and away, finishing with nine wins. So whether or not
[1:05:02] Speaker 2: they win the conferences beside the point. This is a
[1:05:05] Speaker 2: huge jump in a really good season for Kennesaw and
[1:05:08] Speaker 2: I believe just their second year at the FBS level.
[1:05:11] Speaker 2: So kudos to them. Man, what a jump.
[1:05:14] Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe perhaps the Owl of the year.
[1:05:16] Speaker 2: It could be the Owl of there. Yeah. Absolutely.
[1:05:18] Speaker 1: They did just lose to Jacksonville State, who they're playing
[1:05:21] Speaker 1: once again back on the road, going to Alabama. But yeah,
[1:05:25] Speaker 1: it should be a good game. It should be a
[1:05:26] Speaker 1: nice back and forth. These they are not two perfect teams.
[1:05:29] Speaker 2: They are not two perfect teams. Kennesaw is only a
[1:05:31] Speaker 2: point and a half underdog on the road at Jacksonville State,
[1:05:34] Speaker 2: so Vegas Jesus is a very close game. Another two
[1:05:36] Speaker 2: and ten team a year ago was Mississippi State. They
[1:05:39] Speaker 2: jumped up the five and seven. You can look at five
[1:05:42] Speaker 2: and seven, you can say, yeh, I'm not going to
[1:05:44] Speaker 2: bowl whatever. This is a Mississippi State team that was
[1:05:46] Speaker 2: in a lot of games, not all of their games,
[1:05:49] Speaker 2: but they were feisty. Yep, every game that I watched
[1:05:52] Speaker 2: in Mississippi State, even if they were losing by twenty,
[1:05:55] Speaker 2: they were playing whistle to whistle. And they took a
[1:05:57] Speaker 2: big jump up, especially on offense. We started see a
[1:06:00] Speaker 2: little bit of that Jeff Levee offense that Jeff Leby
[1:06:03] Speaker 2: influence working its magic. Saw a big jump up on offense.
[1:06:06] Speaker 2: It helped that they had blake shape and healthy, obviously,
[1:06:09] Speaker 2: but I was a big fan of what they built
[1:06:12] Speaker 2: Atssissippi State this year, and I hope it continues. They're
[1:06:15] Speaker 2: always going to have a bit of an uphill climb
[1:06:16] Speaker 2: in the SEC that goes for everybody, but I think
[1:06:20] Speaker 2: there are positive results based on what we saw so
[1:06:22] Speaker 2: far this year.
[1:06:23] Speaker 1: Yes, So on offense, Mississippi State jumped up from where
[1:06:29] Speaker 1: they were last season, which is what you just mentioned.
[1:06:32] Speaker 1: And on defense they it was a more dramatic leap
[1:06:35] Speaker 1: up because they were pretty catastrophically bad on defense at
[1:06:38] Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. They made a really nice move which
[1:06:40] Speaker 1: is why they were more competitive in those you know,
[1:06:42] Speaker 1: Tennessee overtime game, Texas overtime game. They beat the Big Twelve,
[1:06:46] Speaker 1: the defending Big Twelve champs, early on in the season. Yeah,
[1:06:49] Speaker 1: so it wasn't the most competitive egg Bowl, but all
[1:06:53] Speaker 1: the same, a really nice jump from year one to
[1:06:55] Speaker 1: year two for Jeff Levy Vanderbilt.
[1:07:00] Speaker 2: Yeah, Man, Vandy was the story of the year a
[1:07:03] Speaker 2: year ago twenty twenty four for beating Alabama Daego Pavia
[1:07:07] Speaker 2: coming over from New Mexico State, Right, I mean that
[1:07:09] Speaker 2: was that captured the imagination of all the college football
[1:07:13] Speaker 2: hipsters and then what did they do? The conversation in
[1:07:18] Speaker 2: the preseason about Vanderbilt was as well, can they get
[1:07:21] Speaker 2: you know, I mean, look at the schedule. Schedules could
[1:07:23] Speaker 2: be harder, Expectations are going to be a little bit higher.
[1:07:26] Speaker 2: There's no way they can surpass what they did a
[1:07:27] Speaker 2: year ago. That might be the high water mark. We
[1:07:30] Speaker 2: just talked about Vandy about being a fringe playoff team. Man,
[1:07:33] Speaker 2: they are good. They are a ten and two team. Again,
[1:07:37] Speaker 2: we saw big jumps on both sides of the ball.
[1:07:39] Speaker 2: They're over under to the point was just five and
[1:07:41] Speaker 2: a half. So there was a lot of skepticism about
[1:07:46] Speaker 2: the Vanderbilt commodors this here, but I don't know what
[1:07:50] Speaker 2: the season is going to bring them. The rest of
[1:07:52] Speaker 2: the way. I don't know if they're going to find
[1:07:53] Speaker 2: some way into the playoff. If nothing more, they're going
[1:07:55] Speaker 2: to be in a nice bowl game, and Diego Pavia
[1:07:57] Speaker 2: probably goes to New York. But I don't see how
[1:08:01] Speaker 2: in any universe we can't celebrate what Vandy did this season.
[1:08:04] Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, just a terrific year for Vanderbilt. We've celebrated
[1:08:07] Speaker 1: Diego Pavia, We've celebrated this offense and at times, you know,
[1:08:11] Speaker 1: the defense. There were down moments for the defense, but
[1:08:14] Speaker 1: certainly one that kept them in enough games to get
[1:08:16] Speaker 1: them to double digit win. Vanderbilt, let me.
[1:08:20] Speaker 2: Give you three, please, power four teams, and then I'm
[1:08:25] Speaker 2: going to give you four group of five teams. Five
[1:08:28] Speaker 2: group of five teams, and I want you to react
[1:08:30] Speaker 2: to these and tell me who jumps out to most.
[1:08:31] Speaker 1: Of you, please.
[1:08:32] Speaker 2: Arizona went from four and eight to nine and three.
[1:08:35] Speaker 2: M Houston also went from four and eight to nine
[1:08:39] Speaker 2: and three, and wake Forest went from four and eight
[1:08:43] Speaker 2: to eight and four.
[1:08:44] Speaker 1: Yeah, throw all your money at defensive players in the
[1:08:49] Speaker 1: portal as many bites out of the defensive apple. If
[1:08:52] Speaker 1: you're going to look at those improvements specifically, Arizona jumped
[1:08:57] Speaker 1: up huge and also that was you know the development
[1:08:59] Speaker 1: of play already there, but they reinforced with depth and
[1:09:02] Speaker 1: just they added a ton there. They made a big
[1:09:04] Speaker 1: new defensive coordinator higher and Danny Gonzalez wake Forest. Obviously,
[1:09:08] Speaker 1: Jake Dickart's background is on defense that at times, you know,
[1:09:12] Speaker 1: maybe not the Florida State game, but at times looked
[1:09:13] Speaker 1: like a really formidable defense at least for a year one,
[1:09:16] Speaker 1: given where they were, I think that's the lesson there, man, like,
[1:09:20] Speaker 1: if you need to get better quickly, even you know,
[1:09:22] Speaker 1: Mississippi State threw a lot at defense. Yeah they were.
[1:09:25] Speaker 1: I believe Misssippi State ended the season as the SEC's
[1:09:28] Speaker 1: most improved defense.
[1:09:29] Speaker 2: Wow.
[1:09:31] Speaker 1: So yeah, that's what I think.
[1:09:33] Speaker 2: Defense wins championships as it goes. Yep, we had Old
[1:09:38] Speaker 2: Dominion taking a jump from five to seven to nine
[1:09:40] Speaker 2: and three big jumps on both sides of the ball.
[1:09:43] Speaker 2: They finished the year or winning five games. New Mexico
[1:09:47] Speaker 2: You're beautiful, beautiful Lobos they were five and seven, also
[1:09:51] Speaker 2: took ad jump up to nine and three. They were
[1:09:52] Speaker 2: involved in that four way tiebreaker in the Mountain West,
[1:09:55] Speaker 2: but Man did not make it in which is a
[1:09:57] Speaker 2: bummer for you.
[1:09:59] Speaker 1: Thanks to Bill ko Only's sp plus playing a role
[1:10:03] Speaker 1: even though they just I think UNLV lost to both
[1:10:05] Speaker 1: of the teams that they played in this tiebreaker, but
[1:10:08] Speaker 1: ended up because who was the emperor in a ingladiator
[1:10:12] Speaker 1: as a commedists commedists, Yeah, doing the thumbs up thumbs
[1:10:15] Speaker 1: down thing, Bill Connolly thumbs down on the lowbos apparently.
[1:10:18] Speaker 2: Oh well. San Diego State also took a pretty big
[1:10:22] Speaker 2: jump three and nine to nine and three. They finished
[1:10:26] Speaker 2: number one in the country on special teams.
[1:10:29] Speaker 1: In addition hidden yards they finished number three in the
[1:10:32] Speaker 1: number three in the country between behind Ohio State and
[1:10:35] Speaker 1: Texas Tech. I shouldn't they finished going into the final
[1:10:39] Speaker 1: week of the season. The numbers haven't updated yet, but
[1:10:41] Speaker 1: they will finish as like a top six or seven
[1:10:44] Speaker 1: defense nationally. Crazy against FBS team's defensive scoring efficiency.
[1:10:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, how about Missouri State going seven and five in
[1:10:51] Speaker 2: their first season of FBS. It's great, really strong and
[1:10:56] Speaker 2: last but not least we mentioned it earlier James Madison
[1:10:59] Speaker 2: James made since eight and four years ago. A year ago.
[1:11:02] Speaker 2: They finished the year regular season anyway at eleven and one.
[1:11:06] Speaker 2: Of course they did so well, they're going to lose
[1:11:08] Speaker 2: their coach to UCLA. But they do have a game
[1:11:11] Speaker 2: this week playing for the Sun Belt Championship against Detroy Trojans.
[1:11:16] Speaker 2: I believe they're about a twenty one point favorite something
[1:11:18] Speaker 2: in that neighborhood Dan. Should they win, there would be
[1:11:22] Speaker 2: an opportunity for them to go to the playoff, maybe
[1:11:25] Speaker 2: depending on how things shake out otherwise, especially in that
[1:11:28] Speaker 2: acc game with Duke. If Duke were to win, that
[1:11:30] Speaker 2: I think would open up the floodgates for JMU. Or
[1:11:33] Speaker 2: if the committee when they released their next batch of rankings,
[1:11:35] Speaker 2: they have seemed to favor the whoever wins out of
[1:11:38] Speaker 2: the American But if they have a change of heart
[1:11:40] Speaker 2: they decide that they want to put JMU, give them
[1:11:43] Speaker 2: a little bit of love. Maybe we could be talking
[1:11:45] Speaker 2: about something else.
[1:11:47] Speaker 1: So we're basically saying the Dukes are counting on Duke.
[1:11:51] Speaker 1: That's right, the Dukes are counting on Duke and JMU.
[1:11:54] Speaker 1: I assumed they're just going to hire Lee Highst coach
[1:11:56] Speaker 1: right path Hi with Kevin Cahill, Come down, Come on down.
[1:12:02] Speaker 2: Those are the teams that impress me very very quickly,
[1:12:05] Speaker 2: and then we're going to let these people go early
[1:12:07] Speaker 2: for special Here is what your schedule looks like with
[1:12:11] Speaker 2: regard to all of the conference championship games this weekend.
[1:12:15] Speaker 2: We will preview these in a little bit more detail
[1:12:19] Speaker 2: on our next episode. We've got four games on Friday,
[1:12:23] Speaker 2: We've got five games on Saturday. The games on Friday
[1:12:26] Speaker 2: are all G five games. We've got the Conference USA
[1:12:29] Speaker 2: Championship Kennesaw State at Jacksonville State, which we mentioned. We've
[1:12:34] Speaker 2: got the Sun Belt Championship at seven pm on Friday
[1:12:37] Speaker 2: night between Troy and JMU. We've got the American Championship
[1:12:41] Speaker 2: at eight pm on ABC between North Texas and Tulane,
[1:12:44] Speaker 2: a big stage for these teams, both of whom have
[1:12:47] Speaker 2: lost their coach to bigger schools. Right now, Tulane favored
[1:12:50] Speaker 2: by about three points. And then to close things out
[1:12:53] Speaker 2: on Friday night, this is an eight pm or on Fox.
[1:12:56] Speaker 2: It is UNLV at Boise State. UNLV is currently a
[1:13:02] Speaker 2: three and a half point underdog Dan Rubinstein.
[1:13:05] Speaker 1: It's actually going to be a pretty terrific weekend.
[1:13:08] Speaker 2: And then on Saturday, we've got BYU at Texas Tech.
[1:13:11] Speaker 2: That one's at noon. We've also got the MAC Championship.
[1:13:14] Speaker 2: That's the only G five game that's going to be
[1:13:16] Speaker 2: played on Saturday, also at noon, Miami Ohio at Western
[1:13:19] Speaker 2: Michigan defensive slugfest, by the way, No, indeed. Then to
[1:13:24] Speaker 2: round out the weekend, we've got Georgia a point and
[1:13:27] Speaker 2: a half favorite against Alabama, and the SEC game, we've
[1:13:31] Speaker 2: got Duke about a field goal underdog scoring off against Virginia.
[1:13:35] Speaker 2: They play that one in Charlotte. And then the Big One,
[1:13:38] Speaker 2: Number one versus Number two, the only two unbeaten teams
[1:13:41] Speaker 2: in FBS college football. It's going to be number one
[1:13:43] Speaker 2: Ohio State about a six point favorite squaring off against
[1:13:47] Speaker 2: Indiana in Indianapolis. Dan, So maybe a little bit of
[1:13:51] Speaker 2: a home crowd situation for Indiana.
[1:13:52] Speaker 1: That's true, I would assume so. But you know Ohio
[1:13:55] Speaker 1: State travels.
[1:13:56] Speaker 2: They do travel. I like a lot of scarlet and
[1:13:57] Speaker 2: gray out there.
[1:13:59] Speaker 1: Speaking of Bill Connolly, I liked that he called the
[1:14:03] Speaker 1: Big Ten championship game potentially a practice shot for Indiana.
[1:14:08] Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw that. Just like, look,
[1:14:10] Speaker 1: it's gonna be a tough one. It's it's an uphill
[1:14:14] Speaker 1: battle to take down Ohio State. No matter who you are.
[1:14:17] Speaker 1: This this year's version of Ohio State, it seems. But
[1:14:21] Speaker 1: you get to see something if you're gonna play him
[1:14:23] Speaker 1: ahead of time, if you're gonna play him in the
[1:14:25] Speaker 1: in the weeks to come, that maybe you can adjust
[1:14:27] Speaker 1: to so tough to beat anybody twice if you're dealing
[1:14:30] Speaker 1: with two quality teams, and there's at least that.
[1:14:34] Speaker 2: It's gonna be a very active weekend, to say the least,
[1:14:38] Speaker 2: we would encourage everybody to make sure that they tune
[1:14:40] Speaker 2: in at midnight. We will go live after that pairing
[1:14:45] Speaker 2: of games, after we figure out who wins the seen
[1:14:48] Speaker 2: the Big Ten, and we will recap everything. We are
[1:14:51] Speaker 2: still putting together our schedule for Sunday. So in the past,
[1:14:54] Speaker 2: what we have done is we have gone live at
[1:14:56] Speaker 2: some point after they announced the playoff rankings, and you know,
[1:15:00] Speaker 2: we've put together a show based on what the field
[1:15:02] Speaker 2: looks like, what the pathways look like, etc. Etc. But
[1:15:06] Speaker 2: last year was surely our first bite at that apple
[1:15:08] Speaker 2: trying to figure out how to dissect all of this.
[1:15:10] Speaker 2: I think we're a little bit smarter now, so we're
[1:15:13] Speaker 2: gonna put planes together. We'll announce those on Thursday for
[1:15:15] Speaker 2: what you can expect from us this weekend, But we
[1:15:17] Speaker 2: want to make sure we stay on top of not
[1:15:19] Speaker 2: only the Conference championship games. But once we know what
[1:15:22] Speaker 2: that field of twelve looks like, we'll be here to
[1:15:24] Speaker 2: make sure that you're up to date.
[1:15:27] Speaker 1: My only parting message here. If you're listening from either
[1:15:30] Speaker 1: the Coke Kyomega or I guess Delta Gamma House on
[1:15:33] Speaker 1: the LSU campus, keep an eye on your dms right
[1:15:38] Speaker 1: mind the dms you never know.
[1:15:41] Speaker 2: You never know, You just never never know what it's gonna
[1:15:42] Speaker 2: pop up in there. Now, for that guy over there,
[1:15:46] Speaker 2: my good friend Dan Rubinstein, for myself, Tie Hilderbrand, thanks
[1:15:48] Speaker 2: for downloading, for listening, for sporting what we do. Check
[1:15:51] Speaker 2: us out at for bowlers dot com. In the meantime,
[1:15:54] Speaker 2: you know the drill has always stay solid.
[1:15:56] Speaker 1: Peace,

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