2026-03-26 Missing Pieces - What Your College Football Team Can't Seem To Fix

Welcome to The Solid Verbal. The Solid Verbal. Come after me! I'm a man!

I'm 40! I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for a day?

Eat a steak. It's that whoop, whoop. And now, Dan and Ty Dan Rubenstein. Welcome back to the show.

Thank you for having me, Ty. God, it's nice to be here with you. This is the time of year. You always like to say, oh, this is the bottom of the offseason.

And like, spring practice isn't in full swing. It's not the draft yet. The season's in the rearview mirror. Excuse me.

Have you seen the numbers? The numbers tell me that is the bottom of the offseason right now. This is what we find our people tell you. It is.

I love this time of year. It gives us time to explore and reflect and get a little bit weird and Figure out, like, a lot of the shows we do around now tap into, I think, the inner psyches and emotions of the college football fan experience, right? That we're talking about, I don't even remember what we did earlier in the week, we did something. With emotion, right?

We do these things like it was the Ralph Wiggum break. Yeah.

Right.

And I just, I love that kind of stuff because I love exploring. The, you know, why you're ready to be heard again, what is getting people excited, and then what you fear once again won't be solved by Eli Drinkwitz or whoever. I don't know. I mean, I guess we are going to talk about Eli Drinkwitz some.

We are.

But. There is something that is sort of permanent as much as everything changes in this sport, right? That transfers and assistance and NIL rules and conferences and postseason. Sometimes it spans multiple coaches, three, four coaches.

Sometimes it's just one coach who can't solve the same thing year over year over year. But if there's anything consistent about this sport that has no consistency whatsoever, Is there's that, what is the hard drive called, Ty, that you can't, it's like an SSD, right? Solid state. Right.

There is something. that is permanently etched in all of our hearts and our brains and our souls when it comes to college football fandom, where you're like, yes, our team has taken strides moving forward in all of these different places. But they can't seem to write over this little bit of data ever. And I always like educating myself on how, again.

A Mizzou fan feels, a Washington fan feels, a Cal fan feels, a Mississippi State fan feels. And this helps me, if I'm going to be selfish here, but I think it helps all of us understand each other better. And isn't that the point in this turbulent world Ty to understand each other just a little bit better as a human society?

Yes? You really took that on a journey. You were talking about hard drives. I was thinking of like.

Because we had this discussion recently about trying to free up space in your iPhone. And when you plug it in or when you like load up the settings, you see that gray bar, that like unspecified gray bar, that's taking up 80 gig. And you can't, it doesn't matter what you do. You can't get rid of it.

You got to buy programs. Sometimes you got to call out. You can never actually get rid of that, whatever that's supposed to be. I still don't know.

And I'm supposed to be the techie between the two of us. Yeah.

But in effect, that is sort of what today's episode is about, is it not? It is.

Oh, it absolutely is. You know what? It didn't directly give me the idea. But I saw something that told us it was the off season in a very specific way this past week in like three different places.

And it got me excited for the season because it it doesn't really fully feel like we're looking forward to the next college football season until I see I don't know, man. USC might have something special this year. Like, there might be something different about this USC. The most talented roster Blank has ever had at Blank.

There is something like, yes, they lost that all-conference duo of linebackers, but this might be my most athletic pairing of linebackers or safeties or receivers I've had here. Now. Kyle Whittingham is generally guilty of that at Utah. So he can't really say that about Michigan.

He can say that about like a specific grouping, but not here. Yeah, there are those certain checkpoints of the offseason. I did see a couple of like this is the year USC's a little bit more Is a little bit different. It's a different kind of USC under Lincoln Riley this year.

I'm like, okay. And it's also Phil Steele o'clock, or getting close to Phil Steele o'clock, where if we just want to use USC as an example, Ja'Kobi Lane, Makai Lemon both gone, but the receiver room has a chance to be better than ever. There's no like. Added step of explaining that logic.

It's just a lot of sunshine pumping, a lot of getting people. No disrespect to Phil. We love his work. We have for an eternity.

But it is that time of year, right, where we start looking forward. We start perhaps overlooking. Some of what left last season in the name of being excited about what's to come in 2026. So we got a lot to look forward to.

I would contend, yes, it is the bottom of the offseason, but we are on the slow climb out of that hole now because spring football has started up. And of course, because I get to be back here with you. End of baller hood, and we get to talk through some of the pressing issues. So, as is usually the case, with that long preamble, you and I.

Had what I would describe as a rather panicked Slack conversation earlier today. Oh, I've never panicked. Not panicked because we've had it so many times before. Yeah.

But panicked in a sense where we didn't really know where to go with today's episode. So we both went off to our separate corners of the universe, and you came back with this idea here today of missing pieces, Dan. Yeah, and it's not even just a missing piece for this season. And it's what we'll talk about how teams are trying to address something that they've tried to address over and over to no full avail.

But yeah, it's this year's okay, what's this year's stab at it, whether it's through the portal, whether it's through hiring a new assistant or maybe this issue won't be exposed because the schedule is X, Y and Z this season or because this coach I just have a hint. I have a feeling that this coach has learned from the errors of his ways. You know, whether it's just a gut feel, whatever it is. But we asked listeners to say, like, what haunts you?

Not just a one season thing. What haunts you as a blank fan that my team can't figure Whether it's a situational thing, whether it's a position group thing, whether it's a specific team, you know, whatever it is, or kind, like a ranked team or road games or something like that. That, what can't my program seem to figure out annually that haunts me?

And you know, I'm optimistic about the season, but I don't know about this whole thing. Like, that's the, that's the. I think the core of what we're talking about. Where are you?

Yeah, everybody's searching. Everybody is searching. As you said, we put out a call. at Verballers.

com. That is our Patreon. If you go there, if you sign up as a paid member, you didn't have to be a paid member to respond to this, by the way. We open this to everybody.

But if you do choose to support us as either a $5 or $10 Subscriber, that money goes directly to us. It helps us fund our operations here. We so greatly appreciate it. If you are new here, If you made it through that intro, hello, welcome.

You're one of us now. Follow or subscribe so that you do not miss any of our episodes. We're doing two a week until we get a little bit closer to the regular season, at which point we'll flip the switch. Throw the throttle fully ahead.

Go to three episodes per week, Dean. Yes. Give me that sound one more time. Let's dive in.

What's up, Tom? Where are you? Thank you, Tom. All right.

Let's start with Michael, who writes in. For Arkansas, again, we're talking about things that teams have not fully figured out year after year. For Arkansas, it's got to be general stability, which I'll attribute to overall lack of talent, especially when it comes to having the horses on defense. There's typically playmakers on offense year over year.

But lackluster defenses and coaches have kept the program from stringing together more than a couple respectful seasons in a row. So Arkansas Defense is what I saw when I read Michael's response here, Dan. I found some mind-blowing stats about Arkansas on defense. Notably, that they have not produced a first-round defensive draft pick since the year of our Lord 2007.

I believe that was Jamal Anderson with two A's. Okay.

You got to go back, what is that, 17 years now, whatever? Right.

To try, I guess it's longer than that. You got to go back a great ways to find the last guy that was a first-round offensive pick from Arkansas. Which is a big deal, and on its own, you know, not really indicative of anything, but I think symbolic of what Michael is referencing here. There have been several instances.

over the course of the last however many years, Sam Pittman, otherwise, where it just feels like they have gone through coordinator after coordinator. Their peak defensive showing, I think, was in 2021 under Barry Odom. But then he left and they cratered. And since then, it's sort of been like this constant musical cheer situation at the defensive coordinator.

They have not, to Michael's point. gotten any kind of real fix on this. The offense has been good, but defensively, they just have not kept up. No, and there yeah, to your point, there has been There have been years where they've been able to field a good, if not very good, you got to go back probably over a decade now, and so that's a different era of the sport, unfortunately.

I think it was 2014 under, probably was Bret Bielema. When they had that stretch where they were shutting teams out, where it was like a 13-12 loss, I want to say, to Alabama, like they had dudes on that team, especially up front. But it really is like when they have the defense, they don't have the offense and vice versa. And you go back, what did you say, 2023, when they had like a pretty decent offense, pretty decent defense at the same time, and just couldn't put it together consistently in the win column.

So, yeah, if you're Arkansas, you're haunted by this, especially because Arkansas hasn't always been willing to pay to retain when they have quality dudes, especially it seems at linebacker these past few years. So. It's a money thing, and we'll see what that looks like moving forward now under yet another new coach. And you can find dudes.

You can find dudes in the South. It's retaining dudes, it's being smart about. Evaluating and everybody's, you know, everybody's looking for value in the portal. Obviously, you know, these teams are bringing in dozens of players every year that are just looking for some kind of support to help things.

So I don't think there is an excellent reason why Arkansas can't do this. Arkansas should have enough money playing in the SEC, having the rabid fan base it does. I believe they just won the SEC basketball tournament, did they not?

Don Carol 16, and I have him in my final four, not to give too much away, but yeah. Okay.

So athletics are important to Arkansas and the Arkansas fans. That's not crazy. So it's a matter of getting everybody on the same page, hiring well on defense, and being able to talk to the money behind the scenes into Retaining. You know, there's very little you can do if the culture is bad and the scheme is bad and the relationships with coaches is bad.

But if you're able to check those boxes, I don't see a compelling reason why Arkansas, even though it is behind a number of teams in its own conference in terms of prestige and money and whatever. There's no reason Arkansas, and I'm looking at their schedule right now, it's not great in terms of the quarterback ceilings they face in Devon Dampier and Gunner Stockton, Marcel Reed, whatever happens at Tennessee. I think Alex Golesh is going to have a good offense with Byrum Brown at Auburn, especially by the time they play in November. South Carolina should have LaNorris Sellers operating.

He's been there seventy three years and Arch Manning and Sam Leavitt. It's an uphill battle. It's year one, so there can't be a crazy expectation. But if different coaches are having the same problems more often than not on defense, then it's a look in the mirror thing.

And it's a, are we paying top dollar for a defensive coordinator? Arkansas? This year, most certainly yes. Right?

It's Ron Roberts taking over their defense. They're paying top dollar for Ron Roberts. A whole new defensive staff now under Ryan Silverfield. They went really hard after the transfer portal.

They brought over a bunch of defensive starters. So it's a rebuild. It hurts if you're an Arkansas fan that it's another rebuild from scratch on defense. And I jotted down a couple of games here that I think are sort of emblematic of where Arkansas has been on defense over these last couple of years.

But I think what's most frustrating, we've heard this time and again, you know this from people who have written in, Michael included. Whenever you're kind of trapped in that purgatory of being a half-team. Where the talent that you're putting out on offense is genuinely exciting, genuinely good, draft-worthy talent on offense. This was the number one rushing offense in America last year by certain sort of efficiency metrics.

I believe, if memory served, they lost six one-score games, and on the season they were outscored. So they were nothing if not interesting, also very frustrating if you're a fan of the Razorbacks. Yeah.

I think that part about saying they had getoff problems, Ty. You can Google that. Yeah, but they had issues getting off the field. Use incognito mode for that one.

Use incognito mode. But look, they're. They're doing what seemed, I mean, they bring in 42 new transfers, which is not unusual with a new coach, and they seem to be turning over every rock looking for answers. Now, if I can be honest, Ty.

Because this show is at least 50% Dan. I kind of treasure the fact that Arkansas has never really had a consistently good defense. Because We get consistently good Arkansas games. Win or lose.

Like you talk about 2023. That was the 52 to 50, 52 to 51 loss to Ole Miss. Where Lane Kiffin, like on mic, on camera after the game, was like, that just took eight and a half years off of my life. We get those kinds of games, which is why I like to say Arkansas is the most college football team in college football.

So selfishly. I kind of love that Arkansas never really has a defense because they make for great TV. But if I were an Arkansas fan, I would be losing my absolute mind. So I get it.

Wasn't there, there was a game in there where I guess two years ago now? The Ole Miss Arkansas game or old Miss almost got the 700 yards of offense. That's what I'm talking about. That was 2023.

Yeah.

Okay.

That was a crazy back and forth. Like 500 yards. Yeah.

Yes. All right. Good question from Michael. Hopefully, things turn around for the Arkansas defense.

But It has definitely been a bit of an uphill climb here. What was the old C. J. McCollum tweet where somebody tweeted at him that they were like, they just can't get over the hump?

And CJ McCollum responded to the woman with, like, I'm trying, Jennifer. So Arkansas is trying, Jennifer. Okay.

They are. They are. And I mean, the time was right. The time was right to move away.

From Sam Pittman. I think they like Sam Pittman. I think that's part of what made it so difficult. But the time was right.

I don't know. Silverfield's the guy. It seems as if, at least initially, he won over some of the donor class. But Got to see what he can do out there.

He's obviously been very successful in his time at Memphis. So, Jennifer said: win a playoff game, then talk. And CJ McCollum says, I'm trying, Jennifer. I'm trying, Jennifer.

So Arkansas is trying, Jennifer. Continue. Give me this sound. Give me Tom.

Where are you? Yeah, you want to go next? I don't know. Where do you want to go next?

You want to go to one of your teams? You want to go to, I mean, Georgia Tech has that similar issue, but they're also trying, Jennifer. Matthew talks about Georgia Tech and defense. Right.

Um, They had the advantage for a long time of playing a very defense-friendly system with the option because they were able to possess the ball so much. The transition went horribly with Geoff Collins. They found their dude a couple of years ago at defensive coordinator and they took strides. And then, but the new one is Blake Gideon as of last year.

and got sort of shelled by the end of the season. But the thing I like about the potential of Georgia Tech, and we'll see what happens with a new offensive coordinator and a new quarterback this season, is they have still played a ball control friendly system. They've run the ball very well. They've converted in big moments very well because of how savvy Haines King has been at quarterback.

But Playing where they play, even with the advantage of playing in Georgia, and maybe some of the disadvantages of Georgia Tech academics That they haven't been able to build up a really strong defense over the years. Even in the ACC, they've really struggled to find depth and game changers to the point where You know, if the offense is off, that they can win a game 14-12 or something. Right.

And that just hasn't been Georgia Tech in a long time. Yeah, I mean, you buried the lead a little bit here. Matthew said, George attack, which effing shade of gold to wear and use?

Oh, yeah, well, and then also. Defense. I'm surprised you didn't lead with the uniform thing. I just know you'd have troubles with different shades of color.

So I didn't want to lean on you for that part of the conversation. I don't do color. I don't. That's not my thing.

That was one of the conditions of the marriage here. Kate gets to pick all the colors, and I can handle cleaning out dreams and things of that nature. Yeah.

All right. Let's go to another one here. No, Georgia Tech thoughts?

No. We just acknowledge their pain. Well, I feel it. I mean.

Georgia Tech's been one of the more interesting stories to follow, I think, from this chair over the last couple of years, under Brent Key, especially and Haynes King. Another Haynes in the backfield this year, by the way. That's true. I saw that.

Justice. Justice Haynes this time around. But yeah, I mean, it's been cool to watch that program get better. And it feels like it's taken forever.

for them to switch systems and be successful from the old Paul Johnson era where they were running the option to however many years it took to get to where they're at now, which is like they're a legitimate ACC contender. At least they have been over the last two seasons. We'll see where it goes this year. But that has been a fun arc, I think, to track.

But the defensive side of things has definitely left us all a bit wanting, Matthew included. It didn't take a terrible step back, by the way, this past season. I mean, the offense was very good once again. 83rd in defensive points per drive allowed.

In Tyler Santucci's final year, two years ago, 79th. The touch. So, relative to the sport. But if there is something in, look, George Tech, in arguably its biggest game Not biggest, but against its best opponent, arguably last year against Georgia, showed up.

The Georgia Tech defense played well. It was a low-scoring game. They had opportunities. To win a game like that, and it didn't happen.

So we have seen Georgia Tech flirt with dramatic improvement. It just Doesn't seem to last. And so, what they do moving forward now with what it's Alberto Mendoza takes over this offense and perhaps adds more of a passing threat with his time in a more pass-happy offense. TBD.

We'll see what Georgia Tech actually has out wide. But I think the recruiting has been pretty good. And obviously, they've built out the offensive line up front. So I think there's reason for optimism, but there is still a lot new at Georgia Tech.

So I'm hopeful. By the way, yeah, speaking of Alberto Mendoza. Please. Alberto Mendoza transfers down from Indiana.

He transfers down from Indiana because Josh Hoover is transferring up to Indiana from TCU. And though I haven't seen the full clip, you sent it to me earlier that Sonny Dykes went on a podcast. And mentioned something to the effect of, yeah, Josh Hoover played 31 games for us and turned the ball over 42 times. Yeah.

To be clear, I have not seen the full clip. Of, I just, that was what was isolated. Yeah.

And I would assume there is probably some version of, like, we're so grateful for all of the time that Josh Hoover spent here. You know, there are always pluses and minuses with every, but so maybe he qualified that. So there were 42 turns. He did note, he did, and he didn't say, like, he said, didn't say, he started with.

We turn, he goes, he turned the ball over. He corrected himself. Should mention with Georgia Tech. In terms of what we perceive the offenses might be this season that Georgia Tech faces, It's not horrible.

No. Colorado, Tennessee. Tennessee should have good offense. Yeah.

Stanford, Duke, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Pitt. Louisville, Louisville should have a pretty good offense. Clemson, who knows?

Wake needs work, and Georgia should be good. There's not a ton, like it's very easy to say in late March, but in terms of obvious killers? This could be a year in which Georgia Tech has like the 53rd best defense and is really still around 70. So you know, there's some wiggle room for improvement even if the opponent offenses aren't as crazy dynamic.

Give me Tom. Play Tom. Where are you?

All right, what are we looking for? Let's talk about Mizzou. We got two here: one from DT, another from Davis. Davis says, sometimes, and I mean usually, Drinkwitz gives late-game James Franklin vibes, and I think it gets masked by the other team's mistakes more often than not.

It's partially why he can't win the big game so far, and I don't see that. Changing DT adds, Mizzou needs to get the ball to their best players. They have not figured out how to do that. So There are also some mind-bending stats about Eli Drinkwitz, who is getting paid a ton, is going to be at Mizzou for, I think, a good long time.

They certainly wanted to keep him. He has definitely helped build that program up. A lot of that stuff is all very, very positive about drink. But the late game James Franklin thing is worth mentioning, as is the fact, and I did not realize this.

He is one in 12 in his career at Mizzou against SP+ top 10 teams. That is a Nearly 8% winning percentage against SP+ top 10 teams. That is worse than Gary Pinkel, who was 4 in 25. At time of recording, Eli Drinkwitz is also just seven and nineteen versus ranked teams at the time of the game.

So ranked at the time, that is from our friends over at Rock M Nation. I was going through an article a little bit before we hit go here. So The one thing I will say that sort of undercuts the whole late game James Franklin thing, in one score games, he hasn't been horrible. 63% winning percentage.

They've had weird freak losses, though, as well. They've had weird freak losses. Not necessarily on him, but yes. They've had some weird freak losses for sure.

I don't think it's quite apples to apples, and I like the fact that Drink has built Mizzou into a consistent winner. He has a winning record. In the SEC, the best home record in program history. And they've got a contract with him now through Year of Our Lord 2031.

So they're clearly happy with what he has done there. But I do think there is a comparison to be made, not necessarily with the late game James Franklin side of this, but there is this sense of How do we get over the hump? How do we get over the hump?

Because the talent's there, right? They've got talent. Maybe it's partially what DT brought up about trying to figure out a way to get the ball to your best players. Like Luther Burden's production dropped significantly.

From one year to the next. And that was like an ongoing thing of like, where's Luther Byrd? Why can't we get him to ball more?

But beyond that, I just think Mizzou is sort of trapped in this weird gray area between being really good and a perennial contender. And being just like sort of above average, eight and four in a really good conference. And notable because they can always sneak up and get you, and notable because You never know what to expect from a Drinkwitz team, but at the same time, sort of frustrating because it just feels like there's a glass ceiling. Does that compute for you?

It does. There is something That just strikes me as a little bit off about Mizzou right now. They brought in 30 transfers in year six. Right, he started in Eli started in 2020.

Right.

That feels like too high a number. That feels like. This team should have more continuity year to year. They could be starting, what, eight, nine guys who have transferred in on this defense?

And defense has not been the issue. Like, this Mizzou program, if nothing else, has had a pretty high floor. Now, in a conference this big, there are going to be years where perhaps they win more games than they should because of a schedule that you're like, oh, you know, the seven of the eight games they're playing against are teams that are 500 or less in the SEC, something like that. They're going to be those seasons.

I feel like they've had just inconsistent quarterback play too often and Brady Cook dealing with injuries For some reason, they brought in Drew Pyne at a certain point into that room. For some reason, they brought in Drew Pyne. Yeah.

Like, if you're going to bring in A backup quarterback from the broader Ty Hildenbrandt multiverse, be it Beau Pribula or Drew Pyne. I don't know if your program's in great shape at this moment. And so that's the thing. It's quarterback evaluation/slash consistency.

And I don't blame Eli Drinkwitz for health, but offensive line has been up and down. But look, last year, they were a team that I think was ranked fairly late into the season, led almost exclusively because they had the SEC's best running back and a really good defense. And yet, we're still talking about a team that can't do it for four straight quarters and finish strong against the better teams on their schedule. And I think a lot of that is quarterback inconsistency, scheme inconsistency.

They lose Kirby Moore and they bring in, what, Chip Lindsey? It doesn't feel crazy inspired to me. And I don't know. It just feels like there's too much rotating in and out.

In Como, for me to feel good about everybody being on the same page, practicing like they want to finish these big games, having the confidence to finish these big games. Like they're in position so often and come up just short, which kind of tells me that there is something about confidence and preparation that is not fully there at Mizzou. Yes. I mean, maybe not late game James, but certainly big game James would be the comparison here.

If the more I think about this, right? Just not being able to beat the elite teams That's a ceiling problem. That's not a closing problem. That's a ceiling problem.

We'll see. I don't know. I like Austin Simmons transfer from Ole Miss. I do too.

A little bit of last year, obviously, lost that job to Trinidad Chambliss, who kind of went off. But, you know, if Austin Simmons hits, Ahmad Hardy is back this year. So they should have. Yeah, I was going to say he'll be the centerpiece of the offense and hopefully take some of the pressure off Simmons to come in there and be all-rolled everything right away.

They should have the first month or so to figure things out on offense. And look, Cayden Lee, Ahmad Hardy, Austin Simmons, if Austin Simmons is the better version of himself, it seems. Should give them a leg up on the average teams on their schedule. The problem is, there are not too many, especially in that back half.

The back half of the season is AM at Ole Miss, Texas, at Georgia, and Oklahoma. Just in terms of the so they have time to figure it out and work out some kinks with the new offensive coordinator and a little bit of reshuffling of the offensive line. But again, I go back to like thirty new players in year six. I don't love that.

Give me Tom. I want to hear Tom again. Where are you?

What are we looking for? And where are we? This is a longer one from our friend Raul, who always has very thoughtful questions. And I wanted to read this one and I wanted to give it its due, because I think it's Well thought out.

He says, Florida's biggest issue has not been scheme or any one position group. It's been institutional lag. Since Urban Left, Florida has struggled administratively in two main ways. First, they have not pushed hard enough in the gray area where programs find advantages.

Dan has talked about it before, how important it is to understand the gray area of the sport and exploit it, whether in recruiting, roster management, staffing, or general ruthlessness. Required to compete at the top, Florida has too often seemed reluctant to engage at the level that the real powers do. Secondly, They have consistently chased yesterday's problem administratively and hired reactively. They hired Will Muschamp after Sabin.

It exposed them late in the urban era. They hired Jim McElwain after Muschamp's offense stalled and as Florida was trying to catch up in the facilities arms race. They hired Mullen to fix Scheme just as Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State were using massive recruiting infrastructures to clean out the state of Florida. Of elite talent, and they gave Napier the giant staff model just as the sport was shifting towards NIL, Portal Economics, and GM style roster building.

That has been the pattern. 9 staff other than an offensive coordinator. Other than an offensive coordinator, which he insisted on doing himself. Florida keeps addressing the last problem right as the sport moves to the next one.

More than any on-field issue, and that is why they have not figured this whole thing out. Thank you, Raul. Very good question. Good context.

I could not have said it better myself. Raul obviously has a more intimate knowledge of the Gators than both you and I. But I think that pretty much sums it up with where they are at right now. And now they moved on to Jon Sumrall.

And we'll see if that bears any fruit. What's interesting to me, and I mean, he kind of talked through it a little bit here. If you want to feel old, Florida is now on its fifth coach since Urban Meyer. Urban left 2010.

Jon Sumrall is now coach number five in that span of time, just 15 or 16 years, whatever it is. That's a lot. It feels like it's been an eternity since Florida was more of a mainstay on the national stage. Well, okay, look.

Florida, you know, had been aggressive. I mean, look, Florida was aggressive and pursued Lane Kiffin and ended up with Jon Sumrall. And so they, in some ways, Aren't looking at Billy Napier's path as something to avoid this time around because they hired a smaller school coach from the state of Louisiana. And so it's a similar path.

So maybe they view Jon Sumrall, I suppose they definitely view Jon Sumrall as different enough from a personality and vision standpoint from Billy Napier to say we are ignoring the similarities and path because we think there's enough of a difference in vision and approach that we feel great about hiring John Sommerall, somebody who obviously was A name that was interesting to a lot of teams making hires this past offseason. So there is something about Jon Sumrall, if he is the guy, what Florida has desperately needed, which I think Raul is right about, is not just the right guy for Florida but the right guy for understanding college football in 2029, 2028. And for Florida You're already starting ahead of most people because of location and because of conference prestige and because of obviously program prestige. you're not going all that you're not going that far back in time to see a good Florida team.

Dan Mullen made the SEC championship game. So it's restoring the brand, it's selling the brand, and really it's what Florida has needed all this time is a true head coach. Right, that somebody who has the ability to hire in a savvy way, somebody able to recruit, somebody able to retain, somebody able to build culture. So, that Florida isn't that place that is just a turnstile roster-wise.

Because I've said this before: that at least the currency in the sport right now seems to be stability, right? So many dudes are moving around. that if you can convince people to stay and thrive where you are, you're ahead of basically everybody. Like, you're not trying to hire the next Curt Cignetti.

You're trying to hire the next guy who can at least approximate some of what Curt Cignetti has done once he's been at Indiana. Because a lot of that, you know, it's bringing in the right guys, it's bringing in his guys from James Madison, whatever. It's Jon Sumrall building Gainesville into a place that's attractive to the right transfers. but maintaining and establishing a culture at Florida where people want to stick around and people want to buy in over the course of and this sounds crazy to say Two years?

Three years? Like, not to mad a long time. But yeah, I can understand that from a Florida fans perspective, where you're just like. Always just a little bit behind, comparing yourself to the very top of the sport in Georgia, and I guess now more so Miami in state after having gone to a national championship game.

And so it's. The patience and the savvy nature to say, We're building this thoughtfully, and we're going to communicate, and we're going to find people who fit that. I hope it works out for Florida because they're the opposite of Arkansas. Like Florida games have not been consistently fun for a long time.

No. That's my read on it. And I think Raul's on to something. Yeah, I do too.

I mean, I'm hesitant to Claim that I like this hire of Jon Sumrall. I like Jon Sumrall as a coach. I like his track record. I feel like every time Florida has hired a new coach, I've come on the air here and said, I love this hire.

Right.

It is definitely going to wear a slam dunk. I was all in on Billy Napier, Dan. I know.

I was all in on Napier, and I wasn't the only one. I think a lot of people were. You know, there were a lot of things to like about Billy Napier. From his previous stops as well.

But it is not fair to Jon Sumrall to compare him one-to-one with Billy Napier. They're different guys, different I guess MOs altogether. And I think it's too soon to say. The bigger question, I think, now, if you're a Florida fan, and I think we can say this just from the national level.

How Sumrall fares over these first two, maybe three seasons, I think is going to be compared heads up against what Lane Kiffin does at LSU. Because Kiffin was one of the other big names that they were at least in the running for for some period of time. Yep. So if Kiffin goes off and starts winning things at LSU.

And if it is a little bit slower to start up at Florida, I can imagine there'll be some Florida fans sort of looking in the rearview mirror like maybe we made a wrong turn back there at the end of the twenty twenty five season. That remains to be seen. I do like what they did via the transfer portal, though. And I recognize that there's probably more talent going out than coming in if you make anything of star rankings and transfer portal star rankings and that type of thing.

But I like that the head of this portal class is two Georgia Tech guys, formerly now Georgia Tech guys, and Eric Singleton Jr. and Aaron Philo. And they are reuniting with their offensive coordinator, Buster Faulkner, who also comes down from Georgia Tech. I think these are the types of moves that In theory, could be really, really interesting because they're not spending a ton to get the quarterback.

You know, we talked through the Aaron Filo thing a couple episodes ago. This could represent and could be sort of a bellwether for just being really smart in the transfer portal, getting the right guys, assembling the right personnel around the scheme and that sort of thing. Perhaps it's a more responsible approach than we've seen thus far. I don't think they've been irresponsible, but to Raoul's point, it does feel like they're chasing ghosts a little bit.

By the way They get Ole Miss in an enormous letdown spot after the LSU spot for Ole Miss. Florida does. Yep. So to sort of see how Jon Sumrall starts out, it's Auburn's first SEC game.

It's Florida's first SEC game under Jon Sumrall and Alex Golesh, respectively. It's Texas the week after, and it's in Austin, but it's Texas the week after Red River. So Florida's situational plays are not the worst over the course of Jon Sumrall's first year, but I don't know. I like the hires a lot.

I really do. So, yeah. And I mean, the other thing to monitor, I think, on the Florida front, and then we'll move on. They do have a GM now.

They helped the former GM and Dave Caldwell, who was doing his thing for a while in the NFL, was formerly the general manager for the Jags. for a couple of seasons was most recently with the Eagles for a couple of seasons as one of the executives just next door to me. So we'll see what they can do now with that guy in place. Obviously, the sport has moved in that direction.

The cautionary tale, though, is that they have paid out $46 million or something in that neighborhood in buyouts. So they need to get try and get past that if they want to move forward here. Yep. Next team.

Give me time. Let's look at it. Where are you?

What are we looking for? Let's go to Oregon. Oh, you want to go to Oregon?

Okay.

I've got a couple answers. I'm going to leave out the part about Nike, okay? Okay, that's fine. But I will go to the spot here from Dan: the follies of youth.

Hmm, I don't hate this. The follies of youth. Dan Lanning needs more experience managing situations and staff That only come in time. Will Stein was also young, and you saw it every time he got cute with play calls or did not adjust quick enough when things like Indiana's pass rush just kept coming.

So the broader Theme here, I would say, with Dan Lanning is: we all know Oregon's good. Agreed? Yeah?

Agreed? Agreed. Perennially, now a contender, both in the conference and in the College Football Playoff. I mean, that goes without saying.

The talent is there, they have recruited at an elite level. It is clearly a transfer portal destination, at least in terms of talent acquisition. Oregon has done everything right. The next step now for Oregon is not even winning more games, right?

They're winning a lot of games already. It is winning the biggest games. Is winning some of those rematches that they have found themselves in. And it is obviously advancing a little bit deeper in the playoffs.

Now they went to the semifinal. Pretty good. Right.

It was a good season. They ran into a buzzsaw. We know this. Indiana killed everybody for the most part this season.

So I don't even think it's a black eye. To lose that game, but I understand the question because if you're an Oregon fan, certainly if you're Phil Knight watching the progress of this team, it feels like every year gets a little bit closer. I'd imagine if you are Dan Rubenstein, you're wondering, all right, well, when are we finally going to get over this hump and get back into a national championship game and actually win something, have something to show For all of this time and energy and resources that have been poured into this football program. So I get the question.

I'm curious to get your reaction to it. Yeah, from a micro, I think it's. There's no position group that jumps out at me other than maybe linebacker. That I feel like they've developed and found via portal enough dudes who've been drafted high, who've been big-time contributors.

Excuse me, that's just a throat clear, to be clear. Yeah.

Linebacker has been the one place, and you look at the Ohio State, the second Ohio State game from two years ago. The way that those dudes were exploited both in the run and passing games with big plays. They've had weird circumstances, but everybody has weird circumstances. It was.

Particularly weird this year with both coordinators accepting power four head coaching jobs ahead of the College Football Playoff. The travel and distraction, and basically two full-time jobs at the same time ahead of some of Oregon's biggest games, that's a big deal. But It's Oregon trying to navigate what everybody's trying to navigate, which is a chaotic December and January for literally every team either playing or trying to build a roster to someday play in January once again. So, yeah, that's really what it is.

It's if there's anything nagging at Oregon, Oregon, since joining the Big Ten, 26 and 3, 17 and 1 in Big Ten games. So we're really nitpicking that they lose in not impressive fashion to excellent teams in January. And if I'm going to come up with condescending nicknames for other coaches and other teams, maybe we start calling it Danuary. I don't know, Ty.

Look, Dan Lanning has won. 10 games, 12 games, 13 games, and 13 games in his time. In his four seasons at Oregon, he is a total of 48 and 8. That is very Very good.

He is far and away. He is Katie Ladeckied the field in terms of the best young college football coach, right? Is there any other name that is in that conversation in terms of like guys under 40 or 42?

Freeman's in there. He hasn't won as many games, but Freeman's in that conversation as well. But I. There's a reason everybody wants Dan Lanning.

Yeah.

Anytime you've got a big is not fully Ledeckied. Okay, fair. Yeah, but anytime there's an opening There is a reason that Lanning and Freeman are in that conversation. Everybody wants them.

They're young guys, they're dogged recruiters, and they're clearly having a lot of success. So I think that stands for something. I would also add, I know it doesn't necessarily translate to wins on the field, to playoff victories, to national championships or anything like that. But I I think the fact that somebody like a Dylan Raiola or before him, Dante Moore, would be willing to transfer to Oregon knowing full well they're going to sit a year.

Right.

I think that is meaningful. With where that program is at right now. That is meaningful in terms of culture. That is meaningful in terms of what Oregon represents to some of the young talent out there that just wants to go.

This is almost atypical. If you think about college football with where we're at now with the sport, guys are not transferring elsewhere to go and sit. We've seen it now with two really high profile quarterback prospects doing it in almost consecutive cycles. To go and sit behind somebody else, wait their turn, learn, and then hopefully come out there and thrive.

So that stands for something, and I think it's really symbolic for what Lanning has built. They will win something. On the national stage before long, I feel very confident in saying that. But I understand the question.

I understand for sure. I think the youth thing is interesting because when you look at his assistants as well, though. That's where, like, when they played against Ohio State, and Ohio State has, however, millions of dollars poured into Chip Kelly and Jim Knowles, who. Have seen it all, right?

They've responded to every kind of chess move thrown against their offense or their defense. Whereas Oregon is throwing out Will Stein and Tosh Lupoi and Chris Hampton. Like these are guys that are I don't know if any of them are 45, if not 42, whatever. Like, these are young.

So that would be the thing to me. I think of all their assistants, maybe it's only their defensive line coach who's a little bit older, and Tony Tuiotti. So, like. There would be something to me, and they obviously didn't do it this past offseason when Tosh Lupoi left for the Cal job, where they do go after Ron Roberts or Phil Snow or one of those I don't know what kind of role, if it's a full defensive coordinator or co-DC, where you just say, I want that encyclopedia on my or in my booth, on my sideline, whatever.

And it's a young man's game. It's a young man's grind. I get why they're doing what they're doing. Again, 26 and 3 since joining the Big Ten.

They're doing something right. But in that very specific spot. I wouldn't hate that like grizzled dude wearing a headset. I'm like, okay, I see what they're going for.

These have traditionally been my six and a half answers for that. Yeah.

I don't know. And you know, I even failed to mention that Dante Moore decided he wanted to forego the NFL draft. Yeah, this is true. And stick around.

So it's not just a guy transferring into weight. It is also some now, there's financial incentive for doing that. Of course. But there's a pretty good chance that Dante Moore could have been the first quarterback off the board.

Even with Fernando Mendoza's success, there was a lot of hype around Dante Moore leaving and potentially being a top five pick at worst. The fact that he would want to come back and I think he made the right decision also speaks volumes about what they're building. So, look, the recruiting is there. Clearly, it's a portal destination.

They're right there every year. They are right there. They're going to be right there again this year. It's a loaded roster.

So they'll have more than enough opportunities this coming season. Can I ask you about a school that nobody has mentioned, unless you have anything else to say about Oregon? No, go ahead. If you had to diagnose what ails Texas fans about their program under Steve Sarkisian, where The talent acquisition has been strong to very strong, that they've spent on coordinators.

Obviously, Pete Kwiatkowski didn't work out for whatever reason. They bring in Will Muschamp. that the offense, when working well, has been balanced and developed NFL players at a bunch of different position groups, that they've had high profile quarterbacks, that they've had all American caliber players on defense. What is it about Texas that you feel like their fans are still searching for despite the huge steps forward that Sark has taken there?

It feels to me, and maybe I'm just being a bit of a prisoner of the moment here based on what we saw this past season, but it feels to me like They have not been able to sync up, at least on the same level, both sides of the football. Okay.

You know, because like this year, just as the offense and specifically Arch Manning was coming into his zone, we saw the defense take a step back. The year before that, the defense was incredible, but offensively, it was inconsistency that we saw from guys like Quinn Ewers. And so it just feels to me like they've been a bit out of sync. The talent acquisition's been there, and it was there again this offseason with what they did in the transfer portal.

I mean, they're another team that seems loaded for bear. Coming into 2026. So they're not that far off. Not even close to being far off.

I mean, this is a team that's going to be right there again. But being slightly out of sync in a gauntlet like the SEC gives you ample opportunities to drop games. And I just feel like Texas has been very, very good. And even when you look at the advanced stats and things of that nature, we're not talking about A catastrophically bad performance on either side of the football.

They're right there. They're fine. But it's just momentary lapses. The inability to be fully synced up the full year through, I think, has really been in their craw.

I think that's all reasonable. The thing that I would add And it has not plagued Texas as much recently because they've come away with wins. But you look at early on in Sark's tenure in the Big Twelve, and then maybe you look at a little bit last year. I don't know if you have the Kramer TCB sound.

Yeah, I care. Well, I have TCB taking care of business, that one. But that's okay. I'll dig it out.

Keep going. It doesn't make the show any better. Arguably, it might even make it worse. Sure.

There seems to be something about Texas in those not really trap games, but there is not a sharpness to Texas week in and week out. Now, winning is better than losing when you're clunkers, et cetera, et cetera. But you look at last year, the Kentucky game, the Mississippi State game, even the sloppiness early on in the non-conference schedule. I'm not talking about Ohio State because everybody's going to struggle against Ohio State's 2025 defense.

But, you know, you look at early on and the games they would lose. You know, the first year with like, I want to say it was Iowa State. And losing to Texas Tech in that overtime game where Texas has more talent, Texas has more ways to win. But I don't know if it's a preparation thing.

I don't know if it's an emotion thing. I don't know if it's a focus thing. I don't know Or if it's a teaching thing, There still seems to be a little bit of residue from the Big Twelve tenure portion of Sark's career of like Is this team locked in every week under Sark?

I thought in 23 and 24, they obviously did a better job of that going to Alabama, but that's not the kind of game I'm talking about. I'm like, are they up for the fifth most difficult game, the eighth most difficult game on their schedule, year in and year out? That to me would still gnaw at me because now. The sixth most dangerous game on their schedule is more difficult in the SEC than it was in the Big Twelve.

And so. Especially with Arch having already been in the system and it was his third year there in Austin last year. Like that still eats at me a little if I'm a Texas fan. That, you know, last year there was, you know, look, the secondary injuries, the offensive line was not up to snuff.

But I don't know. They just seem There was like this weird every fifth game, they were flat. And the flatness would bother me still, or at least scare me about Texas moving forward until maybe proven otherwise. TCB, taking care of business.

Thank you. Ask so he shall deliver. Hold on, let's do something real quick here. TCB coli.

No? No. Okay.

I tried. The B could be for Baja Blast. People seem to like that. I just a disease of not TCB.

Right.

TCB coli. All right. I'll keep at it. Yeah.

No, you can keep workshopping that. Let's do maybe one or two more. Okay.

Let's go to let's go to Michigan. Okay.

There's actually you can spread across a number of teams, but continue. We can. A lot here on Michigan in the scandal swamp, as Brandon called it. The search for stability, yeah.

Search for stability. I'm not going to go there with this, but Nicholas. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I think it's worthwhile to at least acknowledge, even when they were winning big, this was not a stable place.

It would appear. In hindsight, that no, it was not. Vacuum salesman, et cetera. Yeah.

It would appear. You want to be my vacuum salesman. Yeah.

So Brandon's comment here definitely has some credence, but Nicholas points out wide receiver. Yeah, wide receiver. Even our best teams, which have been solid but never great, last year wide receiver was an Achilles heel until Andrew Marsh broke out. So he lists a couple names here.

Wide receiver at Michigan. Gosh, I remember. Michigan teams when I was considerably younger and had less gray, that those teams were pretty awesome in terms of what they put out there on On the outside from the wide receiver position. So it feels like it has been a minute since we got back to that.

Level. I don't know if we will get there with Kyle Whittingham. It's not necessarily what Kyle Whittingham is known for. Right.

But it would certainly serve them well. At this point, given that they've got Bryce Underwood, they do have Andrew Marsh, who did have a good breakout season last year. And it feels like there's at least enough around him. I know you like some of what they've done in the transfer portal as well.

So we'll see if that changes at all under Whittingham, maybe with more of a power identity they could play off that to Try and stretch the field. We'll see what Jason Beck has in store for Bryce Underwood. But I was thinking back when I saw this comment from Nicholas, and I was like, damn, that's a good one that I hadn't really considered. I couldn't even like who is the last like Michigan has had good receivers for stretches.

Yeah.

Who is the last great Michigan receiver? Is it Braylon Edwards in the early 2000s? Jeremy Gallon?

I don't know the answer. They've had stretch guys. They've had Ronnie Bell. We can have a Roy Roundtree conversation.

If you really, I don't know how much we can talk about Roy Roundtree. But it's a fair thing. And winning how they did despite that is something. I'm not sure I would look at Michigan's current receivers room as good as it looks on paper and say, all right, Who's the guy to fully weaponize these names?

Right.

Kyle Whittingham. Exactly. That's my point. So, yeah, I know.

Because I don't think when you look at some of these schools that have had issues finding and developing receivers, at least recently, both of your schools, Notre Dame and Penn State. How dare you? Penn State has found that guy maybe a little bit more often recently, and Notre Dame has found those guys, I think, more often than Michigan, perhaps. But it's not just finding those guys because the position, it's okay, who's the quarterback?

Who's the offensive coordinator? How do you keep these guys engaged if you're running a system that doesn't feature them a lot so that when they are engaged? They're really popping, right?

Last year was a youth thing at quarterback and the raw nature of Bryce Underwood going downfield confidently and some of the turnovers he had. I just I wonder if there's a complete package in place that, again, as good as these receivers at Michigan or at Notre Dame or take your pick, look on paper. I think CJ Carr is in a better place than Bryce Underwood. Bryce Underwood.

I keep saying world. But I just, there are those factors where it's just like, are we a school? Are we a program?

Are we an offense that is going to trust, that is going to take chances, that is going to get creative? Or are we going to service our defense? Are we going to try to establish the ground game?

And at what cost? And so until we see that flip switched for Michigan I'm not fully going to believe it, no matter who the coach is, because they go from two coaches who wanted to slam into people four and a half yards at a time, six yards at a time. To another coach who loves destroying teams on the ground and featuring tight ends. And It's TBD for me.

I hope it works out, but I would imagine this should still nag at people, even with Andrew Marsh's explosion at times his freshman year. Give me Tom. I want to hear Tom again. Where are you?

We're looking. Coming up to the end of this episode, you wanted to, as you said, spread it around a couple different schools. Yeah.

What's on your mind here? Somebody talked about Georgia and explosive plays, which the Georgia thing is interesting to me because they've had good quarterback play at the very least, if not very good at times. They've had good receivers to at times very good receivers. To me, the Georgia thing has been an offensive coordinator thing that If you were to list me a bunch of head coaches in terms of like, who would you really feel confident in selecting a new offensive coordinator, scouring the market to find a guy who fits is creative, has good relationships with quarterbacks, has a track history like track record.

Kirby with Jim Chaney and with James Coley, Mike Bobo again. Like the Todd Monken thing was awesome. Yeah.

But great two-year run. I'm not sure the vision is there for Kirby and saying Okay, this is what I want out of my offense. Like he had a five-star quarterback commit to him twice this past cycle and has ended up at Vandy. I'm not here to question George's excellence.

George's excellence is beyond question because all they do is win 12 games a season or whatever, go to the playoff, and they're just the top of the sport, basically. But there is something with the, I think, the general vision that would not eat at me if I were a Georgia fan, but sort of pinch at me. Well, I don't know. You think of the contrast here between when Monken was there, I guess I'm thinking specifically of that 2022 campaign, where they were crazy explosive.

Crazy explosive, like over 500 yards a game explosive. Yeah.

To where they are at now, which is the reason we're getting the question. And now, bear in mind. Mike Bobo is going to be back in 2026. Bear in mind that it is a receiver room that is to some extent starting over.

They lose their most explosive talent out wide in Zachariah Branch. What is this season going to look like? Doesn't mean Georgia's not going to find guys. Georgia always finds guys.

But how will they utilize them? And will they have any more explosion than we have seen as of late? I think that's a key component that they need to add back into that offense if they want to get back on you know, the stage they were on previously, where they were beating TCU 65 to 7 in the natty, whatever it was. We have seen a pretty big drop off.

From those days. And I don't know if it's a hiring thing. I don't know if it's a scheme thing. I don't know if it's just the style of offense that Kirby Smart wants to run.

But the proof is pretty much in the pudding that it's not as good as it was before. And those big plays, gosh, we talked about them time and again. Now, we had Bill Connelly on this show last year. And I remember asking him that question about the Georgia offense.

What is holding this offense back? And almost within a millisecond, Bill responded offensive line. The line play just hasn't been there. Yeah.

And when the line play isn't there and they can't get it going on the ground to the extent that we're used to from a Kirby Smart team, that sort of makes the whole thing break down. So maybe if they can get that back on track. Or at least a little bit more efficient, that could unlock other aspects of that offense. But we've seen it too.

We've talked about this for a couple of years running. Yeah, the transfer receivers haven't always been. You know, Zachariah Branch was great, but behind him, there wasn't a ton of consistent pop look. Obviously, not because this was like the 128th most explosive offense.

In America, this past year. And they're winning despite that because of really good defensive prowess and because they've been able to just eke out the yards and they scored in the playoff. They did enough to win that game offensively against Ole Miss. But yeah, that to me is still a nagging thing with Georgia.

I mean, the last team that I would talk about would just be full circle. Like if you're a USC fan, it's I guess on a positional standpoint, it's why are our large dudes not as good as the grouping of large dudes for every other good team we play? Right.

That the offensive line just fully doesn't do its job too often. You look at the highlights of Caleb Williams when he was there and how they were eaten alive. and more recent defensive lines giving up what they've given up on the ground in the better in the games against the better teams that they've faced. It looks like they've Attack that pretty well.

I mean, there's a ton of experience coming back on both of these lines. It should be a strength compared to other parts of their roster. But it's again, they have you know, look at who they're playing this year in, you know, Oregon and Ohio State. It's a tough schedule.

It's a tough schedule. It's a tough schedule. They're going to have to prove it up front, basically for the first time on both sides of the ball and struggled with it last year. And you couple that with their struggles on the road under Lincoln Riley.

So it's line play/slash road play for USC that if you're a Trojan fan, there's a ton to be encouraged about past couple of years, USC. You look at quarterback development. receiver development, the safeties, how they've developed. But it's still a rotating cast of coaches on defense.

And another year of like, okay, it looks like they'll be better up front. Can they be for twelve straight games? Right.

And if I were a USC fan, I I wouldn't feel confident until I, you know looked at my T watched my T V on like October 9th, something like that. It's fru like, it's not frustrating for me as somebody who Roots for Notre Dame and certainly rooted against USC in those rivalry games. Now the rivalry is gone. I'm not going to root against USC.

Yeah.

It is frustrating from afar if I put myself in the shoes of a fan looking at this Deep. I have some really good friends who are USC fans, and they are beside themselves that the team isn't better. Because all we've heard about, at least this most recent off-season cycle with recruiting and whatnot, is it's number one recruiting class, right?

It was a really good cycle for Lincoln Riley. Brought in a ton of talent. Talent acquisition is not necessarily the issue, but translating that into wins, translating that into more of a physical brand of football, which they have to play at some point if they want to go anywhere with this. That just hasn't been there.

We've seen momentary glimpses of it. D'Anton Lynn's first year. I think we saw a pretty big jump on defense Yeah. But it hasn't been anything that's been super sustainable and definitely not consistent enough that you can rely on it.

Yeah.

I don't know what that is. I mean, the common thread is Lincoln Riley, right? And so he definitely has to assume some blame for this. But how you go about fixing that, it seems like it's more nuanced than, oh, just bring in more talent.

Because they've had talent. How do you make this better year in and year out? I'm not going to act like I know the answer to that. All I know is we've been covering this story now for what feels like an eternity.

And it's not just a Lincoln thing at USC. It goes back to his time in Oklahoma as well, specifically on defense. Yeah, I agree. And look, some of their guys have left and gotten better after they've left USC, right?

You look at the two guys who went to Oregon last year and Bear Alexander and Emmanuel Pregnon, that I don't know what it is. And it's so frustrating, especially when you consider the talent that they have on offense. And there's part of me that feels bad for guys like Jaydenva. Bad for guys like Caleb Williams when he was there, because a lot of it feels like it's on his arm.

The running game has had moments, but we don't necessarily think of USC as being like this behemoth. In terms of rushing the football, it's a pass-happy offense that is definitely advantageous to quarterbacks. And so it's no shocker that good quarterbacks and receivers want to go and play there. They're very, very good at that.

Agree. It is maddening to know that there is still something of a half-team situation with these Lincoln Riley programs. And if you're root for the team, again, we've been asking this question now for a while. I don't know what the answer is.

I mean, look, this is across the entire sport. If you're a Wisconsin fan, you're like, I'm sorry, we went from being Wisconsin to, I don't know what's happening on this offense and at quarterback every year. Yeah.

Whether it's injuries, whether it's coordinators, whatever. Like some things you could count on to just be completely automatic. And then wake up and it's all gone. I mean, if you took a straw poll of like 100 Wisconsin fans, diehard Wisconsin fans, and you told them that if you snap your fingers, You could have Scott Tolzien back on the roster, who I would add, when he was in college, was not viewed as like a Heisman contender or anything.

He was a good, serviceable quarterback who was just. Pretty solid. He was very accurate in an advantageous system for that asked a quarterback to make not easy throws, but relatively conservative throws. Yeah.

Out of those 100 fans, what percentage of them would say, yep, sign me up? I'll take them on the road. 100 out of 100. Even over Colton Joseph, who has a lot of promise, I think it'd be 100 out of 100 would take Scott Tolzien.

Well, it's a question of like, okay, does he get. Those offensive lines in front of him? Right.

Does he get the systems? Does he get those running backs and tight ends? That, I guess, is the open question. But yes, you look at some of the Wisconsin quarterbacks who have thrived, and other than Russell Wilson, we're not talking about NFL dudes.

But we're talking about guys who understood responsibilities, didn't try to play outside of themselves, and leaned on what worked. it's that first part that has escaped Wisconsin leaning on what works because nothing seems to be doing so consistently. Do you got any any other ones on your list?

Any other teams that like what specifically? I mean, look all of these teams. Even the good ones. Oklahoma made the playoff last year.

Ask any Oklahoma fan about how happy they are about their offense from last year or what their offensive process moving forward. I know how they feel. Right.

I don't know. Like, you felt great as a Texas Tech fan until the playoff game. And now you're just like, okay, what does the absolute ceiling of quarterback look like in the most difficult games that Texas Tech could possibly play this year?

I don't think it's fair to even consider Texas Tech as part of this whole concept. I don't. That's fair. I don't think it's fair because Texas Tech is And I'm not saying this to be mean to the Texas Tech fans who are right in, but they're sort of new to this stage of college football.

Texas Tech has been a fun program for an eternity. We've loved Texas Tech on this program, but It's just been very recent that we've been talking about Texas Tech as a big spender and a legitimate playoff contender. So they had one bad year, one shutout. After a first round buy, they obviously went out, they spent again.

It is clear that they're going to be around. But if we see a recurring trend Then I think we can talk. But I don't think it's fair to ask at this point, like, what's the missing piece?

Offense has not been the missing piece for the vast majority of the time that we have done this show. They've been crazy good on offense. It's always been a defensive question. This year it was sort of flipped.

We'll see if that continues or if Brendan Soursby can give them a little bit more balance on both sides. I think Iowa is still a want-to issue. What do you want to do, Iowa?

How do you want to do it? Because they can find good tight ends. They can find good offensive linemen. They can find a coordinator.

And I think they have found a coordinator who's willing to be creative. They haven't found quarterbacks that have at least given them the confidence to take a bunch of chances downfield consistently. Do they want to?

I'm sure they want to. In practice, do they want to? Maybe. In actual games, in high-leverage situations, then it becomes like, well, let's not do that.

You know what this reminds me of? And I was thinking about this a little bit too, because I had Iowa jotted down on my list as well. Yeah.

When was the last time you played fantasy sports? Seriously, fantasy sports? Over a decade ago, probably. What was did you have like a formula, a system, a tendency when it came to picking players or?

Putting your teams together because I did. Yeah, I would go for younger players in football, and I would go for Receivers that I think were slotted to be like number three type receivers who would get a like Uramani tumor types, who would get a disproportionate amount of looks, maybe because of another receiver on that team getting a ton of attention. Baseball-wise, I would just try to outwork everybody. I would try to outwork the waiver wire.

Try to work the waiver wire. Well, yeah, like, okay, the Pirates have named a new closer at 10:44 a. m. on a Tuesday.

Oh, I was all over there. I'm there. Yeah.

Yeah.

What's it? Closer monkey was the name of the newsletter I saw. I think they said. Oh, I didn't have that.

That was great. If you play fantasy baseball, I'm sure he still has it. Closer monkey. They send out a notice immediately after somebody changes over with uh within the bullpen.

Oh, it was awesome. But my point was this: when I played, and it didn't matter if it was football or baseball, but my formula was always because I was doing auction drafts at the time. It was always to go out and get the lowest priced guys that I thought had upside. And a lot of times, especially in football, those were rookies.

Yep. And I stuck by that formula and I never won. But when one of the guys hit, of course, or when I did win, I felt like the smartest person in the room. It was more of an ego thing than it was a winning thing.

Yeah.

I stuck to that formula until the very last team that I played on, which at this point was a couple of years ago. My point here is this. I feel like Iowa and Kirk Ferentz do the same thing. I feel like they just want to win the way Kirk Ferentz wants to win.

Yes. And though they have made some changes Right. They have made some changes with how they run that offense, and the defense has continued playing at a really high level. It just feels like Kirk Ferentz has his brand that he wants to play.

And though he might Wander a little bit from it, it is still going to be the same formula year in and year out. And that's just what you're going to get. A couple years, he's going to get lucky. Most years, he's going to be solid.

Iowa just is solid playing their brand of defense and, you know, putting along on. I think that's underselling them. Well, I think 128 teams would love to have the last decade. Of course, they would.

Of course, they would. But you see my point. He just wants to win with his formula, what he views as winning football, and that's what they're going to be. I don't think a lot of Iowa fans are upset at this point.

Like, you're just sort of screaming at the wind. You're just like, you have to accept it. We did a whole show about this and, you know, why they haven't done it and the changes and how games are called and rules are enforced with chop blocks and stuff. I just I don't think it's gonna get to the next level, whatever that is.

For Iowa football. I don't think it's going to get there under Kirk Ferentz, not in this day and age. I think another want to, by the way, is Alabama and running the ball. If Alabama wanted to run the ball, they'd run the ball.

Successfully. If they truly wanted to, if that truly were a point of pride in Tuscaloosa to manhandle teams on the ground. Very few teams are as advantaged as Alabama in terms of talent acquisition, coaching acquisition and prioritizing putting an element of their roster in a place to succeed. So if Alabama truly wanted to, they could control games on the ground.

Right.

I think it's a want to issue that Kalen DeBoer wants to similarly win in a very specific way. That the proof of concept with Michael Penix Jr. at Washington is absolutely there. That if you have that level of receiving core, those three receivers at Washington, the success he had at Fresno State with Jake Haener, that's who it was at Fresno, right?

Jake Haener? Yeah.

That and look, Kalen DeBoer's won a crap ton of games. But if Alabama truly wanted to run the ball and become a more advanced, not advanced, a more balanced offense. They could. Well, we'll see this year.

I mean, they went out, they got the top running back in the recruiting cycle in E. J. Crowell. They went out hard after offensive linemen.

I think between transfers and what they're bringing in this recruiting cycle, it's like 10 new offensive linemen. They've got a new offensive line coach and Adrian Klemm. They're trying, I think they're trying in earnest to fix this. But to the point is that Is that who Kalen DeBoer wants this offense to be?

I don't know. I don't know. By the way, Alabama's got a 6'7 quarterback. It's been a minute since we had a 6'7 quarterback that we can talk about.

John Gazzaniga is not going to play. Okay.

I do not believe he will be the starting quarterback. It seems as if that's going to be between Austin Mack and Keelon Russell. But he is on the roster at time of recording, I believe, 6. 7, 245.

He's a big dude. So it's been a minute. We like our 6'7 quarterbacks here on the show. Is that because you're like a 14-year-old who goes 6'7?

Is that a thing? No, no, I don't think I don't even know what that means. Or you just want Alabama to start a new run of Andrew Walter, Rudy Carpenter, Brock Osweiler. That's the exact gigantic, you know, on the low block type quarterbacks.

Right.

That's exactly right. Sam Keller, was he in that ASU run? He was in the run. He wasn't 6'7.

He wasn't 6'7, but I'm talking about the 6'7 quarterback. Okay.

That they now bring up. ASU did have a run of those dudes, to be clear. It did. It did.

Okay, that's all. All right. I think where are you?

I think we covered a lot of ground. We're all searching, Ty. We're all searching. Yeah, I think we covered a lot of ground here.

We had a bunch that came in. Maybe we can address some of those on the bonus episode about Clemson. We had one from Ball State. From Brian about Ball State.

I have some Ball State thoughts. Maybe I'll share that on the bonus episode. But Penn State and TCU and Utah and Syracuse. We had a couple more come in as we were recording this from Purdue and.

and some other programs. So maybe we'll sit on those and we'll bring those back out here as part of our bonus. Can't wait. Thank you to one and all.

For downloading, for listening, for supporting. Hopefully, you hit follow or subscribe if you had yet to do so at the start of this episode, Verballers. com. Is what we've been doing as of late here when it comes to these listener feedback style shows.

We just post it out there, we collect our feedback. It makes it a lot easier for us than going out to all the social platforms trying to collect everything. This is These are where our people are at. So, if you like the show over ballers.

com, you can sign up for free if you want. On occasion, we'll make some of these open to the public where you can respond. But obviously, if you want to help support what Dan and I do, you can sign up as a certified or premium Verballer for five or ten bucks a month. Again, that really goes a long way towards helping the cause here.

So thank you so much for your ongoing support in whatever form that takes. Please know that Dan and I really appreciate it. I am currently, just speaking of for ballers, it looks like I'm in the 18th percentile of the Tournament challenge bracket pool. My big one is Arkansas.

If Arkansas makes the Final Four, I think I'm going to get a little bit of a boost. How did you land on Arkansas? John Calipari. I don't know.

Oh, all right. I think I saw something that they score a lot of points. But maybe I got them confused with Alabama. Because as I was watching the most recent Alabama game, I think I saw the stat that they're the highest scoring basketball team in the nation.

And I think I might have gotten that mixed up with Arkansas when I made my pick. Love to hear it. Yeah.

All right, fair enough. For that go over there, my good friend Dan Rubenstein for myself, Ty Hildenbrandt. Stop on back on Thursday. It is Thursday, as many of you are listening to this.

We're recording on Wednesday, but stop on back at verballers. com and catch our Bonus episode. As I said, we'll go through some of these and talk through a few other odds and ends. Verballers.

com again is where you can go and support the show. Hit, follow, hit, subscribe. Have a good weekend. Talk to you next week.

Peace.