2026-05-07 May Q&A Part 2 (raw)

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. Dan and Ty. Dan Rubenstein, the people should know that you were practicing an Australian accent shortly before we hit go on this today. I'm all in on Colin from Accounts. I am. I am 14 episodes into. I think there have been 16 episodes, two seasons worth Australian show, Colin from Accounts. Oh, no. That's not bad, actually. Thank you. I'm a big, big fan of this show. I think season two was like 2024, and they're doing season three. Like, they're producing season three right now.

Okay, so, or what thing is it on? Well, it's Foxtel. It's an Australian network. I think it's on Paramount+ streaming here. Okay. Really, really good and highly recommended. It's a light-ish, rom-com-ish, yuppy-ish. Australian fun show. Really good. I'm glad that you could do an accent. I can't do any accent. I can't do it. Kate makes fun of me whenever I try. I'm horrible at it.

Okay. Well, look, we all have our strengths, Ty. I'm still looking for mine. And you have a ton. You're all over the place, Ty. You're a Renaissance, man. Very complimentary. I appreciate that. I appreciate the Verballerhood. I know you do as well. Thank you to all for staying. Stopping on by. We did part one of the May QA episode back on Tuesday. Today, this being Thursday, it is time for part duh. Had a long list of questions that came in. Via the Patreon at Verballers.com. We had a few others that filtered in through alternate means. We're going to do our best here to get through as many of those as we can. Over the next hour, hour and 15 or so.

Again, follow or subscribe if you want to support what we do. If you want to check out Verballers.com, we would. Greatly appreciate that. And if nothing more, if you've already done all that stuff, please tell your friends. I know it's the offseason. I know there is no actual football to discuss. We do our best here. A couple of times a week. Before long, we'll have previews. We'll actually have stuff to discuss. But for now, we're doing our part to just slog it through the offseason, man. These are the months. The move, I agree, is to be very selective about not just who you tell about the show, but when you tell them. Don't tell them during a break at the office or lunch or something like that.

Tell them before a commute, before a road trip. Before a flight, you know, or reference it after just having listened to it on a commute, like listening to the new Solid Verbal on the way here to Washington. You gotta say it just like that. You have to say it like Ty's pseudo-radio voice. Solid Verbal. Solid Verbal. And that's that, I think, is the opportune moment. So, yes, thank you for everybody for supporting the show. We've got a lot of questions to get to, and we are going to show off Ty's Sterling personality today. That's right. Let's do it, Dan. Congratulations, Skippy. You've got mail. You've got mail on The Solid Verbal. As often as we can, sometimes twice a month here during the offseason, we like to pay homage to the fine Verballerhood and the folks that send in questions. I'm going to start with one here. I'm actually not sure what the deal is with this question because it popped up in our email. Yeah. And then I clicked through to see it on Patreon and it disappeared. Picked up and vanished like a fart in the wind. Okay, I'm ready for it. So I'm thinking this is a Verballer who posted it, deleted it, maybe didn't want to put their name to it. But I. Thought it was extremely thoughtful. So I'm not going to use their name, but here is the question. With the recent news of the AFCA, that's the coaches association.

Voting to recommend the expansion of the College Football Playoff to 24 teams. I am so disheartened and disappointed with this sport. And I'm going to check out entirely once this monstrosity goes into effect. I would add, just before I go any further, please continue to download The Solid Verbal. Yes. Did a little radio voice for you there. And please continue downloading if you don't watch the games. We would appreciate that. Yep. Set it to play on an iPad, maybe at night over and over again while you're sleeping, maybe in a different room. And just we don't need you to actively listen. We would prefer it. But if you're not going to actively listen, set it to play on a device that you're not currently using.

And hopefully just You know, subscribe and you know, replay everything all the time. We would appreciate that greatly. Yes, but yeah, let me continue. Please. I have already given up on the EA Sports video game, even though I purchased College Football 25 after waiting 11 years. I even bought a new console just to play the game. Sounds a lot like Dan Rubenstein right here. Yep. Yep. But this potential expansion of the playoffs from four teams in 2023 to possibly 24 in 2027 is just outrageous. Do you guys believe that a significant portion of college football fanbases will just walk away from the sport?

if it continues on this trajectory. This is a sport that I have loved for 20 years. Although the sport continues to have a 12-game regular season, the proposed elimination of conference championship games and expansion to 24 teams is ruining the pageantry and tradition of the regular season, culminating in a national champion, Dan. Right. Okay, a lot to unpack. The main question though, do you believe, Dan Rubenstein, that a significant portion of the fan base is going to up and leave the sport if they do expand to 24 and if the regular season, I guess the feel, the vibe of the regular season changes as a result. I have no idea. Look, so I know that there will be people who are turned off, and I know that there are doomers out there who don't want to be doomers, right?

They're not saying, I don't like college football anymore in the present. But I'm worried about how I will feel moving forward. And I think a lot of us, and look, if you're looking at the collective group of college football fans, collectively. An overwhelming majority did not watch the sport thinking that their team had a legit shot at winning a national championship in any given season, right?

If you were to take however many dozens of millions of people are super into college football, They're into it for all sorts of reasons, but there are only, you know, whatever it is, six to eight fan bases any given season that legit have a shot or appear to have a shot halfway through the season. People continue to watch. And so I've never believed that the idea of a national championship is why people watch this sport. I think there is going to be natural interest that has grown from having more access to this specific kind of postseason for how long?

I don't know. But you're basically saying, is the idea of a college football postseason Part of the bedrock for why people love this sports? I would say no. I think no as well. Now, I think there are people who are understandably understandably put off by the idea of a grown playoff like this. I am But I do this, if you can believe it, professionally. And so I have to really think about how I feel about these things and try to voice an opinion. All the time. And so for me, I've always been interested in national college football. I've always been interested in how the sport changes and evolves or whatever. But we've also reached a point, this is 2026, yes?

Correct. Where we keep iterating the postseason, and whoever sent this email is still here. We keep changing up conferences, be it major, mid-major, minor, whatever. Email or poster, still here. We've changed how players can or can't move around the sport. Still here. We've changed how players can or can't get paid. Did I speak English there? I may have drifted into can or cannot, whatever. Get paid. Messenger is still here. We've changed TV networks. We've changed that it's not just watching TV, it's going to streaming platforms and streaming exclusive. That you can only watch your team on Peacock or you can only watch your team on ESPN+ certain weeks.

The sender is still here. Point being, all this sport does is change all the time. And all the fans have to do is make calculations and judgments about whether or not the sport is still worth watching and believing in. This is early May 2026, and The sender is still here. So I understand the doomerism, but there is still the core of college football seems to be relatively intact. There's a lot we can do an episode in a couple of weeks, next week, whatever, about like all the incredible things that are currently happening in college football just to counter the scales of justice, whatever, that seem to be in the air right now, because we're all bored.

It's May. But there is something about just waiting and just and and waiting to see how it plays out. I think we have an idea that there are certain things that are going to be difficult to swallow. And whether that's a new schedule, whether that's a change to conference championships or conference quarterfinals or however they're going to do play-ins for at-larges Sport is defined by change. This has not ever been a static sport. It's not ever been a stable sport. So Yeah, I think the idea of ending the season in like January 28th, that's insane. Like there should be. serious conversations about how to more efficiently navigate a calendar. Well, that I think is to that point, one of the things that the coaches voted on, in addition to an expanded field, was

Holding the national championship, I think, the second week of January. So, part of what they're approving now, whether it goes into effect or not, that's a whole other thing. And work backwards from there. Right. But whether that happens would be, I think. People would be in favor of that. I know we'd be in favor of that. Yeah. And it sounds like the coaches would as well. The calendar bloat is like a whole other thing that could be its own episode for sure. Yeah. And look, let's be incredibly clear, right?

We should always like. Set like the appropriate parameters. Ty and I root for advantaged teams. Ty and I root for teams that, I mean, maybe Penn State aside for right now. But we root for teams that have the money, that have the status, that have the prestige, that have the platform, that have the expectations of being top six teams every season, top eight teams, top ten teams every season. So it's more difficult for us to be doomers because we are rooting for the advantaged. We follow the advantaged. And so we can't empathize with San Jose State fans. We can't empathize with Kentucky fans, or you know, take your pick of ACC or Big 12, who maybe at a certain point felt like their team was going to be left behind and the sports leaving them behind.

But Hypothetically, this allows for more access, right? A 24-team playoff. I'm just trying to play devil's advocate because I am not an advocate of a 24-team playoff. I think it's ridiculous and stupid. But I can't in good conscience say this is going to ruin the sport because every time the sport dramatically changes, people stay or more people grow interested. In how things are operating. Right. I think that the smartest thing the sport can do is what you alluded to, and that is to shrink everything into a late August to early January calendar and decide how it wants to go about its competition from there. I don't know what form this expanded playoff is going to take because they're talking about switching up Conference Championship Week into

In effect, an at-large play-in bracket, which I don't like, I can only kind of conceptualize what that looks like. Certainly, it would make for interesting fodder on the podcast. What the ramifications would be, otherwise, that's for another conversation. But I have a couple thoughts here on this, okay? How are you on boats? Like, how does my stomach do?

How is my inner ear? Or do I just enjoy it as a pastime? Do you get seasick? I think I've gotten seasick once while whale watching, but otherwise I've been fine. So, one thing they tell you to avoid getting seasick is not to look down at the water. Right. But look out at the horizon. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I think the opposite is true right now for college football. I think if and maybe this is because we're in early May Maybe it's just in general. If you look out at the horizon of college football, at where college football is going, survey the landscape, you're going to end up puking over the side of the boat. Mm-hmm. And I think that's true across the board, probably even the people who are involved in the process.

You're not going to see anything good out there, anything that looks familiar out there, something that gives you comfort. But if you do look down at the ripples, if you look at those games in week seven when all hell breaks loose, that's never not going to be special. Like the product on any given Saturday is still pretty good. I would encourage people to go out there and buy Bill Connelly's book, Forward Progress. We had him on months ago to talk about it. But one of the things that he brings up in some of his skepticism about where he feels the sport is headed is that ultimately, because that product on Saturdays is still so great. Ultimately, college football is unkillable.

You know what I mean? I do. And there are going to be certain Benchmarks to decide whether or not the sport is heading in the right direction. Obviously, with the sport, quote unquote, the sport handing over its power to TV networks, it means TV ratings are extremely important. That turn, though, exists outside the bubble of a week seven Saturday. And totally. Just using week seven as an example, that is why we watch. Right. And so long as that's unkillable. To Bill's point in his book, Forward Progress, go and get it. I'll link it up in the description. That's why I don't think there's ever going to be any kind of mass exodus. Because Saturdays are still sacred, even if the consequences of losing in week seven aren't quite as steep as they used to be.

You're still going to have that if you put the blinders on and if you focus on it week to week. What goes on around almost doesn't matter So the only I okay, nothing is unkillable. Everything is killable. We've seen sports really take hits. We've seen different forms of entertainment take hits because Consumers are treated poorly. And we've seen that, right?

That we've seen that it's harder to root for a disadvantaged team. It's more difficult to get on board with going to see your team play in 8 p. m. Eastern games if you have a three-hour drive and they keep booking those games that late for TV. TV windows or extra early games, right? It's hard to get to Columbus, Ohio if you live, you know, three, four hours away by the time big noon kicks off. Because they keep sticking you at big noon. And so there are different things that are going to alter people's enjoyments and affect people's enjoyment of the sport. I think it's going to be an aggregate of too many things that sort of push people away.

But it's also, to be honest, it's a very easy thing to consume. You can do it on your phone, you can do it on your couch, you can do it in person. You can do it after the fact, watching some DVR. It's once a week. It's once a week. It's once a week. They're not asking a ton of you. You don't have to subscribe to your local Team paid subscription recruiting service, right?

You don't have to do that to enjoy Tennessee football or Oklahoma State football. You want to watch an entertaining product, feel like your team cares and has a chance. Kind of go from there. Well, and that's the point. That is the point that I think belies all of this. Being a college football fan in 2026 absolutely, positively requires a lot of cognitive dissonance. Of course. It just does. And I think if you want to stay in the game, you got to focus on the part of the game that attracts us all, that we're all still very into, and that is the season. Don't worry about what's going on on the business side. We can deal with that when it comes about, if it comes about, how it changes the game.

I don't believe at this point, maybe I'll change my mind. That there's going to be any kind of mass exodus if they expand this. I would also not be very happy about that. I think, despite the fact you and I have disagreed over the years on what the postseason should look like, what the ultimate goal of a season should be. Neither one of us really wants them to go up to 24. For a long time, 16 has been my absolute limit, no more than that. So I don't like the shape of this conversation. And I would also add, there is a huge disconnect right now between the people running the sport and the people watching the sport. You know, the people listening to this show right now, the gap between those two entities has never been larger.

And I don't care what. What you're into. It can be business, it can be relationships, it could be sports, it could be politics. Whatever you're into, whenever you've got that big a gap between the decision-makers and the consumers, that's generally not a good thing. And so, what happens from here, what happens as a result of that, is truly anyone's guess. But I think, so long as they are not totally destroying the experience on a Saturday, to the question. I don't think we're going to see any kind of mass exodus. I certainly hope not because this is our business. Here is how I would parse that, though. I don't think we're going to see as crazy an Exodus, no matter what the powers that be try to do.

What I would think I would be more concerned about is the adoption of college football fandom from a 19-year-old, from a 13-year-old, from an 8-year-old. That's where I would be more concerned because there's so much competition. It's look, you're not dealing with You know, a kid or a teenager or a young adult who has baggage because they weren't around for the BCS. They weren't around for a four-team playoff. They weren't around for declared national champions. So you don't have that to deal with. What you have to deal with is college football just keeps complicating itself. So the barrier to entry to say, like, okay, what's this college football thing all about as a 16-year-old whose mom is a huge Arizona State fan or something.

That's where it becomes more difficult because the barrier to say, like, okay, well, here's prep recruiting, here's portal recruiting, here's NIL, here's realignment, here's how the postseason changes all the time. That's when you're just like, I get that these washed podcast hosts in their late 30s, early 40s, in my case. Like that, it's sort of difficult and niche and specific. There is something cool about that. I will always admit that, right?

There's something cool about having a hobby that is kind of difficult to understand, but once you're in the in-group, it's like kind of wild to follow it all and track how it's growing or changing. But again, if you're 16-year-old Jaden or Kelly Ann, I don't know what current names are, right? There's you've seen those the memes of Women eliminating names, and it's all EIGH for girls stuff. I don't know what kids are doing these days. That's not my algorithm, man. I'm sorry. My kids have names that make it so that they could own a diner someday, right?

They have diner names. But that would be my concern that you are not making this an accessible sport given how much entertainment competition there is. For people who might want to be into it moving forward, when the NFL is so much easier for any 15-year-old. I just think it's harder to stay a fan than it is to become a new fan. Of course. The circumstance that you're describing, right?

Because a 16-year-old doesn't have all the baggage. I have a 14-year-old nephew who is getting into college football. He doesn't have. That scar tissue that you and I have. And he doesn't know any better with respect to a playoff system. I think the numbers bear out, and this is. Probably what some of the decision makers are referencing, or at least looking at and using to help guide their decision making when it comes to this. The numbers, at least in the early part of this 12-team field, seem to suggest that there are more people coming online. as college football fans. These would truly be what many would refer to as the casuals. These aren't diehard fans.

These are people who are casual college football fans who are wetting the beak a little bit, not the diehards per se that Listen to a show like this, but these are just people who sort of pick it up as they go along. It's on TV. You pick a team for whatever reason, because somebody in your family likes a team or because they're close by, or maybe you just like the uniforms or a player. I don't know. But those are the types of folks that I think the data has shown in the early stages of this 12-team field are picking up the sport in greater numbers than before. Yeah. I mean, I look, it makes sense. I don't think the sport cares all that much about tradition in the way that fans do.

They don't. And that's the gulf that I was talking about before. This goes much deeper than just the playoffs. We can go back to conference realignment. And I'm not talking about this latest wave of conference realignment, but the one before it and the one before it. Traditions have definitely fallen by the wayside as a result of these higher-level business discussions, which frankly is when you lose all of us, okay?

Because none of us got into this. Because of the business conversations. We got into it because of the Week 7s or because of family tradition, the pageantry that our question asker referenced. We definitely have different goals at the end of the day. But I'll say this once more. I mean, not once more, but I think I've said it in the past. The easiest way to turn people off from watching college football, to really upset them, to drive them away, to drive them into the arms of a new mistress on Saturday afternoons. I don't know, a bunch of quarterback injuries and having coaches who don't care and going 2-10. Right?

Like people have a lot of May opinions. Like, if you're a Nebraska fan, disenchanted with Nebraska and the Big Ten and Matt Rhule getting an extension and how the whole Dylan Raiola thing played out, and you're just like, who needs it? And then Anthony Colandrea is really good. You're like, well, I guess I'll watch. Right? I still have a soft spot for Anthony Colandrea, Dan. I really do. Sure, of course. And take your pick, right?

That like the people who are most turned off from Oklahoma State football were turned off not because of the Big 12 and its changing place in the sport or turned off because of an expanded playoff and NIL and portal stuff. They were turned off because they don't win games. That's the easiest way to drive people away. Like, if CJ Carr is terrible this season, he throws 14 interceptions in the first three games, and Marcus Freeman week after week says, No, that's our guy. No, that's our guy. Ty Hildenbrandt might not watch as much, right?

All right. Well, thank you for the question. Whether or not it was intended for air, I at least kept the question asker anonymous here. I thought it was good. Let's move on to this one from Tyler. Can y'all help me figure out the logic of Michigan State hiring Pat Fitzgerald?

Okay. Well, that's another way I guess you could drive people away from watching your own team. Now, hazing scandal aside, if you can put it aside. Fitz has literally never recruited in the transfer portal era, went 4-20 over the last two seasons at Northwestern, and plays a less than aesthetically pleasing brand of football. I know Jonathan Smith flopped hard in East Lansing, but this feels like an extreme pivot with a 7-5 ceiling. I am not a Michigan State fan by any means, but if I were, I think I would be extremely uninspired. What say you, Dan Rubenstein?

You're in Northwestern country. I am. Are people aflutter about their beloved Pat Fitz going to East Lansing? I can't tell. I don't think people feel anything about that. People in the general vicinity of Northwestern, I think, are just excited to see new Ryan Field. Yeah. I think they're excited for newly comfortable seating. The answer to this person's question, I forget the what is that?

Tyler, good name, solid name. Great name, very solid. Usually, coming off of a disastrous spell, like Michigan State has endured through the Jonathan Smith era, usually it's Well, what qualities as a human and as a coach does this candidate have that we're positive were not Present in our previous administration, our previous regime. So if you're going to look at what the best of Pat Fitzgerald's reputation is. Fair or not, right?

It's the sort of molder of men, figurehead, you know, big personality. Not big personality in terms of yuks, but big personality in terms of like, okay, you sort of know where Pat Fitzgerald stands. You know what. His ideal college team looks like that they're efficient with the ball, running it, that they develop guys internally over time, whether usually it's along the offensive or defensive lines or fronts. You know, he obviously had a great defensive coordinator for a long time in Mike Hankwitz at Northwestern. So that was the best of Northwestern football under Pat Fitzgerald. It's that you're going to get somebody who impresses donors that he is a molder of men and he has a firm handshake and he's old school, right?

That maybe Jonathan Smith was seen as a little bit too new school. or seen as not having like a big personality to command respect in the athletic department, blah, blah, blah. So I think the best of Pat Fitzgerald's reputation is And especially, look, coming off of the end of Mark Dantonio, coming off of brief Mel Tucker, it's you want stability. He was at Northwestern forever. He took over Northwestern, as you remember, in very rocky circumstances. after the untimely passing of Randy Walker. And he was a young coach and he was able to weather that and stabilize things and win games with less at Northwestern. Yes. Again, the best of Pat Fitzgerald's reputation.

So my thinking is Michigan State looked at who was available, who was showing interest in that job. And they thought, well, we don't have to spend a lot of money to get somebody who very recently had a good reputation before the reputation went sideways. Be careful. Is that true? Northwestern had to pay Pat Fitzgerald. A ton of money for unfairly firing him. Right. I'm just speaking in the legal sense. No, you're right. I know you're right. So. He was cleared legally of responsibility at Northwestern, even though morally and his reputation have suffered, is, you know, whatever. So. That's my thinking. That he is looked at as more of a grown-up, more of a seasoned hand, more of.

Again, molder of men. As funny as that may sound, that he had no idea. We're talking the legal sense. Legal sense. He had no idea of what was happening behind the scenes. And he was not found at all to have been overseeing or to have had knowledge of it, he had no idea what was going on with his team behind the scenes. So taking that away. That would be the best of his reputation, and is what Michigan State saw in him. Was there much of a search?

Like, they kind of just went to Fitz right away. That's what it felt like. It felt like they wanted to make this move. This wasn't almost a Penn State situation where they felt that Something had run its course and they were going to conduct an expansive search. It felt like they were more spearfishing with this one. Right. And they knew they wanted to go out and get fits. I hate this hire. I do. I hate it. I hate it. I don't like it either. I hate everything about it. And I think the best that I can do, Tyler. Is they looked at Pat Fitzgerald the way that Penn State, the way that many have looked at Matt Campbell. And they said, at least for some period of time, and he was certainly not as successful as Matt Campbell was at Iowa State.

I'm not saying that. But for some period of time, he was able to do more with far less at Northwestern. And so if you bring him up to a place in Michigan State where there's much more of a football focus than there was at Northwestern, And if you give him resources, by the way, the founder and CEO of Acrisure and his wife are giving like $400 million to Michigan State, a large portion of which is going to go towards the athletic budget. Right. I could see the thinking being, if we give this guy more resources, he can really pop. I can make that case. Right. And I think if you're one of the decision makers, you can sell that. To the higher ups, that this is a guy who's just waiting to be given more resources to turn this thing around.

I could see that case. I don't buy that case. I really don't. I genuinely don't. I don't understand why they would do this. I think it was a bad hire. And I like every hire. That's part of my problem. Every year I love every hire. Oh, it's a great hire. What a great. Not this one. I think this is. This is pretty difficult to justify from the outside. And look, I was willing to see the hire and then see his hires. And see how he did or didn't build out his recruiting department and fill out the roster in the portal, right?

You're like, okay, this guy's been away. He's had a chance to learn the modern rhythms of The portal era. I'm nodding over here. I completely agree with everything. Yeah. And so you're just like, okay, like we can, we can see how somebody that's been somewhere for so long maybe got a little bit too comfortable and got a little bit too big on campus. Kind of thing, right?

He was king of the campus. So maybe he was humbled a little bit. Maybe he's taken this time to be like, okay, this is where, you know, power football is heading. This is where. Savvy defensive minds are going. This is an assistant that I've had my eye on for a while, or I worked with when he was a GA, and now I'm bringing in after he's had so much success at take your pick. None of that seemed super apparent to me upon seeing his hires, upon seeing the portal class that was brought in, because if you're Michigan State. Since Pat Fitzgerald left, Northwestern, the conference has seen, what, your biggest rival win a national championship?

So all of a sudden, you need to be of that level because Michigan State people want to beat Michigan every so often or want to be competitive and put themselves in position to win every so often. You now have Oregon as a national championship contender in your conference, USC as a fringe playoff team in your conference, Washington's been to the playoff a couple times. UCLA is loading up with a really great recruiting class right now and potentially like a great up and coming coach in Bob Chesney. We'll see. You're looking at an Indiana program that was nothing and is now everything as a returning national champion. Crazy. We're looking at a Penn State program that's investing once again heavily in turning this program into a perennial playoff type team.

And Ohio State. And whoever I left out, because there's quality elsewhere in this conference as well to contend with, that again, Illinois wasn't always there. Now they're good. Minnesota is always tricky. Wisconsin used to be good. We'll see if that ever happens again. We'll get back to you on that one. But this is where Michigan State is right now. that they are trying to build a program that not just is decent, but like has to measure itself against A lot in this conference. And so it just doesn't feel like the kind of swing you would take if you're really looking to seriously measure yourself against those types of programs. I'm stretching here because I just genuinely don't like this.

Yeah. I just don't. I think this is a stupid hire. And I hope I'm wrong because I'm not rooting against Michigan State. I have no reason to root against Michigan State. Frankly, to get another really good team in the state of Michigan would be really interesting from our standpoint. Just as we examine narratives, as we talk about the Big Ten, as we talk about the college football landscape, it would be great to have Michigan State back. But I mean, look, you look around the. I'm shrugging here. I don't, I genuinely don't know what else to add. I don't like it. If you look at the savviest 35 recent hires in the sport. How many would you come away with saying, you know what, I thought that was a really nice, safe move that they made there?

I don't think any, right? Like you look at the ones that the hires that were wherever, right? If it's a coordinator being promoted internally, if it's a school hiring a different team's coordinator, if it's a school saying we're going to spend a ton of money, to bring Lincoln Riley over, Brian Kelly over, or Lane Kiffin from Ole Miss to LSU, you can't consider any of those to be safe, even if they don't work out. The programs who are making the best hires. Maybe it's not Lincoln Riley or Brian Kelly, whatever, but it wasn't USC saying we're going to hire Jack Del Rio, right?

It wasn't that. I remember when he was in the conversation for USC jobs, Jack Elvirio. I remember the same reaction then. It wasn't that, though. Like. Clemson had a ton of success because they made a risky hire on a position coach who was an interim head coach and they said, we're going to take the interim tag off of you. Like there needs to be either a big financial or professional swing involved. And we're not getting either. No. Man, that guy for Notre Dame. Yeah, who was the guy?

Who is that like fallback safe? Oh, it was always Tom Clements. Sure. It was always Tom Clemens, who was a quarterback coach, the NFL, and he's in his 70s now. I don't think if there's an opening, he's going to come up. For the next round for Notre Dame, if there is one anytime soon. But that was always the dude. It's like, well, you know, everyone's sleeping on Tom Clements, but he could be a really good hire. I just don't. For Oregon, it was Justin Wilcox. Please stop. That was like the Justin Wilcox smoke before Dan Lanning was at Oregon. where like all the older players were like, We're sick of all these guys leaving. Let's hire Justin Wilcox because he won't leave because he's from Eugene and played for Oregon.

And he has ties to the West Coast. And we're so sick of Willie Taggart and Mario Cristobal and Chip Kelly leaving that let's go with somebody that can be like Dependable. Dependable. That's Dependable Holiday Bowl, by the way. Right. So that's that. A lot of, I mean, every school probably has that name, but That's the problem. Is you're just like, man, like even Michigan, Michigan taking a swing on an older coach, but a coach who's had a ton of success, but with no ties to the school. In Kyle Whittingham. But at least has had recent success, you know, has been dependable recently in the modern era of college football. I mean, we could argue. whether or not he has reached his full potential or his teams have reached their full potential.

But there's no denying that Witt's been pretty good recently. You can't say that for Fitz. He just hasn't. No. Look, Will Stein may not work out at Kentucky, right? All of these new Alex Golesh may not work out at Auburn. John Sommerall may not work out at Florida. But it wasn't them going back to like, well, this guy seems like he knows how to hire good returns. Yeah. I hate that.

All right. Next question here. Next. Let's go in a little bit of a different direction with this. All right. This one comes in from Chaka. What up, Chaka? Nice. Long time, long time. Need to get his take on the state of Kentucky football, how he feels about Kenny Minchey. Sure. And perhaps that is the root of this question. Which new coach/slash quarterback combination are you excited to watch this coming season?

So I bring up Kentucky, obviously, Will Stein, Kenny Minchey, could be an answer. I'm excited for that as a Notre Damer. Alberto Mendoza for me. Oh, I like this one. Continue. So I don't know if Chaka is asking for both new coach and new quarterback. I guess there's a new offensive coordinator, so maybe we can count it here. But there was so much fanfare over the way things went for his brother, Fernando. That it's kind of hard to answer anything other than Alberto. I'm real curious to see if Alberto can get anywhere close to what we saw from Fernando. Right. It seems as though the early returns have been there. There's been nothing but high praise for Alberto Mendoza thus far in his time in Atlanta.

So clearly, they need a guy, right? They lose Haynes King. Aaron Philo goes down to Florida with Buster Faulkner, which maybe could be an answer as well. We can talk about that if we want to. Sure. But for me, just with all the fanfare around Fernando Mendoza, we got to see where this goes with now his younger brother. Agree. I think, I mean, look, they're all over the place. This is sort of the beauty of the sport that there is so much movement, so that you do get situations where you're like, that could be an interesting pairing. I mean, like. Bryce Underwood and Jason Beck slash Kyle Whittingham. I'm not super enthused given Kyle Whittingham's history.

Spring was great. Spring football was great. Spring was great. Don't look at the stat line. You know, it's an exciting offense, or an exciting offensive situation when a lot of the stories are like: this new running back can break a bunch of tackles. He's a freshman, and he already looks like he's a like, ooh, that's. That's good for the running game and for him, an experienced offensive line, but doesn't say a lot for the potential fireworks of the offense. No. I don't know. Obviously, it's not a new pairing, but it's at a new place. And Eric Morris and Drew Mestemaker, I think that's a good answer, even though they're not being paired together for the first time.

I think Lane Kiffin and Sam Leavitt, like Lane Kiffin basically only gets success out of his quarterbacks, and Sam Leavitt if he's healthy. with what should be good receivers, good tight ends, probably an improved running game. I mean, it kind of can only improve. Sam Leavitt with like the at the health asterisk, I think Is an obvious answer there. Of the guys that have not been together lately, because you can obviously like Byron Brown and Alex Golesh and stuff at Auburn, but that's not new. There's not a meet-cute involved in a lot of these situations. Like, you know, Buster Faulkner has met Aaron Philo. Yeah. But yeah, it's George Godsey.

Yeah. That's the new OC for Georgia Tech. And. Not an internal hire for Georgia Tech. It's another internal hire, but Dante Moore and Drew Mehringer. I'm just curious what his Take on this offense. His wrinkles are going to be. But again, that's not really the spirit of this question here. No. Aidan Chiles and Chip Kelly. There we go. It's got. High floor, or excuse me, high ceiling, low floor, nothing in between written all over it. Yeah, I was gonna say, this is when you go to the Thai restaurant, you either get spice level zero or spice level four. Sure. You get one or the other. We don't know which one yet, but I am also intrigued. I'm also pretty sure that the Northwestern receiver room might look like.

You and I sitting in a pizzeria. It might just be a bunch of dudes between 5'10 and 6'1, 173 pounds, something like that. So I don't know exactly what Northwestern's offense can be with. who Aidan Chiles, I guess, is throwing to an army of slot receivers, yes. Yeah, Anthony Colandrea, come on. I think Anthony Colandrea, Matt Rhule, slash Dana Holgorsen. I think that's going to be a lot of fun, actually. Now, I've got a soft spot for Colandrea. Who's he throwing to?

I'm not even sure I understand why, but that pairing to me is really exciting. I'm excited about that one. I'm excited about Georgia Tech. And I'm excited about the Aaron Philo Florida situation. If I'm picking three, those are my three. If you were to say to me, pick one of these new combinations other than Aidan Chiles. That you could see a quarterback having 33 touchdowns, 16 interceptions type season, where it's just nothing but fireworks in every direction. Yeah. Jake Spavital and DJ Lagway. He was like, they just beat TCU 77-38 and then lost a game 64-61. Right. It's all on the table with that pairing. Yep. I think he's going to throw for a bajillion yards and have games where you're just like, I don't know.

Was he looking directly at that safety for 15 straight seconds? Yeah. Yeah. I think there's some pairings like that, but that would be the one I choose to say, like, oh man, high ceiling, low floor every week. Are we going to do the thing again this year with Uh, what was it, five touchdowns and five interception games? I think it was four. The quarterbacks who went, I think Carson Beck did that last year. A game with four touchdown passes and a separate game with at least four picks. It would really be something special to do both in the same game. Oh, yeah. I've done that in the video game. I haven't seen a whole lot of people do that in real life.

Who was it that God was it Eli Manning who like his first season, which should be like, hey, threw five picks. I don't know what to tell you with the Giants. That was definitely Eli Manning. Yeah. Oh my God. I always respect those quarterbacks who are just like, you know what? I've thrown three interceptions. So what's the worst that can happen? I throw another one?

I think I would be in mental ruin if that happened to me out there. I don't think I could come back from that. Any other quarterback and like head coach or offensive coordinator pairings? That year. Like, I'm always interested in like a Kenny Dillingham QB. Like, I think he's going to put guys in position to succeed. And obviously, he's got, it's what, youth and Cutter Boley competing for this job. Basically, yeah. I'm I'm intrigued by that. Because I've read mixed reviews on Cutter Boley, and he was both, you know, obviously was a pretty well-known recruit. Somebody that Kenny Dillingham was into when this is going way back to when Dillingham was still at Oregon, was recruiting Cutter Boley.

So I think there's a familiarity there, and I think there's an assumption that it's going to be Cutter Boley, but I'm. From what I've been reading, I'm not sure that's going to be the case, but we'll see. It's still very clear. It's like hard to look at Luke Fickell and was it Colton Joseph? Caden Joseph, Colton Joseph? Colton Joseph. Colton Joseph. Okay First time And say, like, oh, that's intriguing. Joseph is intriguing. The receivers and the proven element of these receivers and the system, you're just like, I hope it works out for him, man. They're completely snake bitten that quarterback with injuries and poor performances over the years.

So I can't, like, in good conscience, say a name like that I said this before we started. Like Nico and Bob Chesney. Again, I'm not crazy about the receiver room at UCLA, but if anybody needed, I guess, a second fresh start, maybe it's Nico. I tell you, I'm who had that like three-game renaissance in the middle of last year. I'm all in on Bobby Chez. Same. I'm all in. I'm all in. And I believe that Matt Campbell will be great at Penn State. And I also believe that Penn State had a prime opportunity to hire Chesney earlier on in the process and not have this thing drag on and turn into a three-ring circus. UCLA, by the way. They chose not to. They let him go to UCLA.

At the moment, it won't last, but they have like a top five or six national recruiting class. That's killing it. This passed like two weekends ago. And this is somebody who's had zero time. Yeah. Absolutely zero minutes, zero hours, zero seconds to form West Coast relationships with high school coaches and seven-on-seven coaches and trainers and stuff. Obviously. there's a certain amount of UCLA and the money involved now that's energized behind the scenes with UCLA that's playing a role in this. But He is resonating in a big way on the recruiting trail, and it seems behind the scenes at UCLA. And so I think we believe the best of Nico is at least an interesting quarterback.

Who can move a team down the field? I would love for him to have more around him. But yeah, that is a pairing that I'm going to pay a lot more attention to than I thought I would in February, January. Dan, David has an off-the-beaten path question here. I think it pertains to college football, which is why I'm asking it now. How do you feel about wearing your team's gear in public?

when they are historically bad or just had an embarrassing loss. I always think people are laughing to themselves or thinking they suck, probably because that's what I do. It does not only apply to college football. I have just started wearing my white socks gear after years of keeping it in the back of my closet. Thank you, David. All right I think it's kind of cool. I like it. I like the contrarian nature of it. So I'm all for it, David. And I don't have that reaction. I don't look at somebody wearing a I don't know. Rutgers, New York Mets?

Mets. Mets, I do kind of make fun of people with Mets, but you're a Yankees fan. We'll continue. If you see Rutgers, Gary. I like Rutgers. You know, like, it's harmless. Sure. Support your team. You know, go for it. I support that. I don't generally have that reaction to seeing it out in public. I have nothing but respect for people who wear their teams Clothes and gear through thick and thin. Like, isn't this the entire home field business model what we're describing here?

Like, just make cool shirts for all the teams, even the ones that suck, and you can win people over. Yes. I almost respect it more, right? What's the old, like, if you can't handle me at my worst, you don't deserve me at my best? That's right. Is that what it is? Is that like the needle point throw pillow? I mean, that sounded great. Thank you. If you're wearing a Purdue football hat through thick and thin, a Purdue football hoodie through thick and thin, right?

People will know you like that dude. Like, they will immediately think of you if and when things turn around. If you're always wearing Indiana football, specifically football, you're not just wearing IU stuff because, like, there are a ton of people. This is, I think, the biggest alumni base, right, in America. I have a story about this, this exact circumstance, actually. So, there's, yeah, there's never been shame in wearing IU gear. Because it exists as something broader than just a sports institution. Like you go there, you're in a frat or sorority. It's like a huge job center in the Midwest. I don't think enough people realize that. Probably more so now because they just want a title.

But. Indiana is a huge school. But what I'm saying, if Ty's seeing Pickleball Melissa always wearing Indiana gear to the courts, and they're terrible year in and year out, and they're thrilled. That they went six and six and made the Heart of Dallas Bowl or something in 2017. And then she's still wearing it on the court in 2024, and all of a sudden they're incredible. She can say, Yeah, I always believed. I'm always I've never left. I have a real actual story about this. All due respect to the Heart of Dallas Bowl, of course. I go to a place fairly regularly where there's a guy who wears an Indiana hat and has worn an Indiana hat for years. Yeah.

And at some point or another Made a comment about Indiana basketball. He's like, oh, no, no, this is football. It's football. Yeah. And this is when they did suck. Yeah. And my reaction to that was, this dude's a real one. He's a sicko, a fellow sicko, and I respect it a little bit more. So listen. To each his own. If you want to go out and wear your White Sox gear, or wear your Rutgers gear, or wear your Oklahoma State gear, whatever you're into, I don't think you should necessarily change. Because you're concerned about what other people are going to think. Now, if you don't feel like you're in the headspace to wear that, then that's your prerogative.

But I would not worry at all about what other people think. Who cares? Yeah, I actually really appreciated when I moved back home from college, from Eugene, back to LA. It made me gain and look, Oregon was when I left, they weren't great. It was coming off of what, the 2004 season, which was Pretty bad in 2006 was pretty bad. But like they Oregon still had that reputation of having good teams and the Nike stuff. Sure. There was something very cool about wearing Oregon stuff in LA, being surrounded by USC and UCLA people and I always appreciate building a personal brand around whether or not your team is good or not. But like I always if you go to Florida and you see somebody wearing a Wazzu shirt or something, you're like, Did you go to Wazzu?

And they're like, Yeah. And now you live in Sarasota? Yeah. Cool. There might not, there's probably, you're probably the only one. So I I enjoy riding for your school, and especially since the gear has gotten really good, shirts have gotten more and more comfortable, hats have gotten better. Yeah, represent. And you're not just representing a football team. You're representing a time and place in your life. I think it's great. We got two questions here that pertain to Texas. It was a rather Texas heavy show last time around.

Okay. I'm going to group these together because I promised the Verballerhood we would go here. We got one from Chris, we got another one from Dan. The crisp question is: Do I think Steve Sarkisian will be on the hot seat if Texas doesn't at least win one playoff game this year?

Okay. Take that, put that to the side. I have some real thoughts on that. Okay. The second question from Dan: he says, I asked this last year. So now, what does Arch Manning have to do to achieve To live up to the hype, let's say. Is it even possible to have a season that delivers on his promise? Both questions are related to Texas. And Texas-sized expectations for this coming season. Right. There are a lot of expectations on Texas this season. They loaded up in the portal. They went out, they spent big. Arch Manning is coming back for his final season. It's a schedule that is, as we discussed in the last episode, by no means easy. But if Texas lives up to any of this hype, they should find their way into the playoff, I think.

Yep. So let me just reframe the question a little bit and ask you, what does Texas need to do to live up to the hype? To not leave their fans feeling like they came up woefully short. That doesn't necessarily mean winning a national championship. Right. Well, look, it depends. You got to see who they would actually be playing in the playoff, if and when they're in the playoff. And What the context is. If Arch Manning gets hurt on the seventh play, all Colt McCoy in the national championship. Sorry, I should have offered a trigger warning there for Texas people. I hated that. That sucks so much. But you're just like, that's not on Sark, right?

I mean, look, maybe. Offensive line recruiting and development is, and maybe that gets a quarterback in trouble. But no, you'd have to know the context of the loss, who they're playing, what the situation is. Look, if they're reasonably healthy and they lose, what was it, 38-3 the way Indiana trounced Alabama, that's a problem. That means you're not really all that prepared to be competitive in a playoff game. I don't believe it to be a hot seat situation. If you're getting a team to the playoff, that means you're having a really successful season in a very difficult conference in the SEC. I would say On the margins, I would say if you're to assume reasonable health with some expected injury issues and whatever, guys not working out.

I would say Texas short of the final four would be somewhat disappointing. Not end of the world, somewhat disappointing. They're recruiting, they're spending, they're hiring. Like they want to be in the top four. And so if you're to assume arch progression with maybe better receiver play, better offensive line play, better play calling, better running game, the running game was putrid last season. Right. Saying they should be right there in the final four seems reasonable. That seems reasonable to me. And the only other thing that I would add to that on just the broader Texas point, I do think it's kind of silly. To throw out hot seat with regard to Sark.

Sark's done a great job. Right. He's done a good job. Maybe there are expectations out there. Some meat still on the bone for sure. But Sark's done a good job. So I just, I'm not even going to address that. I don't think that's a real concern, nor should it be. On the Arch Manning side of things, needs to show progression. What does that look like?

Needs to look like a top 10 pick. He's a Manning. Well, he apparently already has shown that. He apparently already has seven mocks, have him like one overall. Absolutely. But what we can't see is regression. Okay. He was maybe at the end of last year, but. He needs to show that he's taking a step forward. He needs to continue improving the way I think we saw down the stretch last year. But that's more abstract, right?

You're talking more about like progression to your eyes or to our collective eyes. In terms of actual research. Dan's asking me, he's asking us the question. I'm answering it truthfully. No, no. What I'm saying, though, is like I would say, in terms of like, if there is an actual binary benchmark for Arch to hit to essentially justify the hype, I think it would be a private jet from Austin to, no, I'm serious. A private jet ride from Austin to LaGuardia in mid-December. I'm not saying he has to win the Heisman. You got to be in that room. Now, I'm not saying he's a failure if he's not. I'm not saying he's a bad quarterback. I'm not saying he's a disappointing quarterback

He's not But because of that last name, because of the attention he's received both from Warby Parker and Vuori, um, not sponsors could be could absolutely be sponsors. I consume both of your products happily. Um I would say to the general public, him not being a Heisman quarterback after him being to this degree a household name these past few years I would see that I would assume that to be like, oh, that's kind of like, that's a little bit disappointing given how much arch we have in our lives. Yeah. You know, I tried to buy a set of glasses from them.

Okay. And I have like a at a physical location or mail order? No, I tried the mail order thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And because I have like. This is, we're really going deep in the Ty weeds here. I have an astigmatism in this eye, on the left eye. Yeah. And I tried to get a set of glasses from them because I liked them, and they showed up, but I couldn't see a damn thing. And so I started poking around. I did some internet research. I ended up talking to one of the doctors, I guess, on staff at the company. And they're like, oh, yeah, we don't make glasses for that type of eye. Maybe they changed. That was a couple years ago, but yeah, I can't.

I literally can't get them. Old freak eye Hildenbrandt. Freak Eye Hildenbrandt, man. I got weird feet, weird eyes. The whole thing's weird. No, I've ordered glasses from. I mean, I've gone to the physical location as well. I think I took my eye exam there last time. They have eye doctors on staff for eye exams because you have to have one every so often for them to sell you glasses. And so then I put in my prescription and everything worked out okay. So I'm sorry that your what do you say, your left eye?

Left eye, yeah. Is so irreparably damaged. It's not damaged. I could see fine. I just couldn't. Not out of the way. That Warby Parker is like, we can't service your malady. If they want to send me free glasses and run ads on the show, I'll allow it. But. Can I tell you, not a sponsor could be? They make nice sunglasses, too. Do they?

Okay. Yeah, yeah. Of course. This is an unsolicited ad, I guess. But yeah. All right. Let's do like one or two more here. Okay. We've got this question from Justin. Can Mike Norvell dig himself out of this hole, or is Florida State just going to be mediocre until the buyout is a reasonable price? I don't know, man. I think he's toast. I'll tell you right straight up, Justin. I think he's toast. You just don't know how long it will take. I think he's a dead man walking. Man, could you imagine how, like, the unforeseen effects of Nick Saban retiring and how much money That made, I guess what, Dan Lanning, Steve Sarkisian, Kalen DeBoer now. And that's also the Sherrone Moore thing with the interest in Kalen DeBoer from Michigan.

and Mike Norvell. How many dozens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars Nick Saban's retirement it's obviously more ripple effects with assistants and other coaching jobs. That really, Nick Saban retiring really screwed over Florida State. That they were like, we can't let this guy go. And yeah, I look, Florida State was actually decent last season. They didn't close close games. But they were not all that far off. They were your like typical ACC three and a half minutes away from being 9-3. Something like that. Yeah. So, yes, you got to close games like they had to close against Pitt and what was Virginia was the double overtime game.

They had too many close calls and too many winnable quarters or moments that they let slide away. So we're not talking about a Florida State team that's states away, you know, that's hundreds of miles away from success. It's just that last step, that you know, that it's just, it seems so elusive for Florida State, and it seemed that way for so long that their reputation, especially with like Miami in a place where it is, along with the other schools that Florida State is typically recruiting against in the Southeast and the the how much Georgia is still thriving and the schools around there and how much every major team is recruiting Florida and Georgia and the Carolinas.

It just seems like it's a reputation that's not going to be able to be turned around all that quickly, unless. Ashton Daniels is incredible. If he's incredible, then maybe the conversation is different. I'm just not buying that he's going to be incredible. You know, now we did a show a month and a half ago. Yeah. where we called it Spring Intel. We talked a little bit about Florida State and the quarterback battle since that episode dropped, almost like 48 hours after that quarterback dropped or that episode dropped. Mike Norvell did announce that QB1 is going to be Ashton Daniels. At the time we recorded, it seemed a little bit up in the air, but shortly thereafter, it came out that it is going to be Ashton Daniels.

I'm not crazy about that, but Yeah, if he's incredible, I think there's stuff to like there. I don't think he's going to be a disaster, but it surprised me. This is two cycles now, two straight cycles at Florida State. A traditional power like Florida State, where I looked at the quarterback transfer and I was like, I don't know if I get this. Well, what do you expect?

I mean, look, there's only so many that are going to be impactful. I know. I just you know, Norvell threw the ball around like crazy at Memphis. And even the offense that he had with Jordan Travis was pretty good. But since then, they just have not been able. DJ Uiagalelei's disaster. They have just not hit at all at quarterback since Jordan Travis is no longer with him. So I'm. And by the way, took a big swing at offensive coordinator with Gus Malzahn. Took a big swing. Alex Atkins did not work out on the level that was anticipated. Drove him into retirement, man. Yeah. He's out of the game completely. So I just don't know, Justin. Like, I'm not on board with the way that they've been building this thing.

Something that I think about often when I'm reading through Florida State notes. Is what our friend Bud Elliott from Cover 3 and the Nolecast posted at the end of November, where he basically said. we're going to stop doing the podcast. I think his phrasing was basically, we're only going to put in the level of effort that we see the administration putting in on the Florida State side. Fair. And it is fair. It's completely fair. He's clearly frustrated as one of the more knowledgeable college football fans and Florida State fans that I know. And so, for whatever that's worth to you. I just think I think it's done. I think it's over. I think it would have been over sooner if not for the buyout.

So, by the way. Florida State this season, SMU and Alabama, Alabama on the road in consecutive games, although it's a Monday night week off than the next Saturday. There's 12 days between those two games. Virginia at Louisville on a short week. That's a short Friday night turnaround where they play at Louisville, followed by the next week, I guess eight days later, at Miami. followed by a bye and then Clemson. And they have a road tilt at Pitt in November, right usually as Pitt looks better than they actually are. And coming off of a loss to Pitts. So now they're returning to Pittsburgh for that game and then finishing out with whatever New Look Florida is by the end of the season.

So if they're merely decent. Seven and five, right? If they are in fact good, you're still talking about an 8-4, 9-3 ceiling. So that's real tough. I just think I'm out. I'm out then. I'm out. I hope I'm wrong. Again, I'm not rooting against any of these teams. No, I know. But look, if his buyout were $8 million, I know, we'd be talking about new coach at Florida State. Yeah. So that's not a great place to be in. They're like, you're back because we have a lot of serious reservations about paying you money. Yeah. Here's our final question, Dan. Yeah, as you know, we like to go a little bit off the beaten path for some of these final questions.

Give someone out there listening in the car, doing wash, going for a run, give them something to think about. Yeah, your answer on the last one, I thought, what was it? Was usually not redheads, but you're willing to give it thought. Was that how you answered? I have to know. I got to go check the transcript. Was that a different podcast that you were on?

That might have been our. our Super Secret podcast project. Got it, got it. Sorry about that. Uh this one also from Dan. Okay. Now that most podcasts are on video, do you get the sense that your colleagues feel pressure to keep up their appearance, stay in shape or do whatever it takes to be camera ready? Does it matter what kind of podcast you're doing?

As in, if you complain or are critical as part of your shtick, do you have to be more presentable? I recently saw a clip of a guy that I listened to periodically who looked like he came out of a casting call for bloggers who live in their mom's basement, and it did affect what I thought of his opinions. Thank you, Dan. Always thoughtful, Dan. Right.

Okay. I'm trying to think of the okay, so the colleagues, so college football shows that I've seen video versions of I'm pretty sure everybody does a pretty good job of looking presentable. And I'm pretty sure most of the people in our little genre here have been doing video for a while. Yeah. Or if they haven't, it is comprised of hosts who have been on video at previous stops. Right. So it doesn't feel like a new thing. Like, I'm not going to get into the whole production of the video thing on the podcast side. That's a whole, you know, that's a whole other conversation. But in terms of the people doing podcasts, In our college football world, I feel like most of them have been on video for their show or other shows.

And so it's not really a new thing. Yes. The only thing I don't love when I see somebody in a hoodie not Whoa, whoa, I gotta say, because hoodies are bad. I know you have a hoodie on. I'm not saying it's a hoodie. I'm wearing like a what's it, whatever these, like the long-sleeve shirt hoodie things are called. Right, I'm cool now. I'm not, it's not zippered. It's just kind of it's more, there's nothing wrong with a hoodie. Wear a hoodie, make it a nice hoodie, make it a not so it's when you get the sense that it's an unwashed sweatshirt. That they've been wearing around for two or three days, and that maybe they put it on in the morning, they've been wearing it for hours upon hours, maybe days upon days,

and you're just like This is somebody who works from home and dresses like nobody is looking at them. Where you're just like, ooh. I don't know if I'm explaining this correctly. Like, if you're wearing loungewear on camera, you better also look washed. in a good way. Sorry. That like you've taken a shower that day. Right. I think it's not about necessarily how you dressed or how you shave or do your hair or how you're Lit or filmed or anything like that. You just Dan just wants a washed king, is what you're saying. I want a washed king. Yeah. What I'm looking for Is somebody with presence on camera, right?

They're not slouching in a chair. They don't have like hair in their eyes. There is something about like That there's life in their eyes a little bit. Does that make sense? Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, if you were to go on Twitch right now, and look, I'm the wrong person to talk to. Talk to me about the youth on Twitch, Dan. I gotta hear that. But what I'm saying is, like, If you were to look at somebody who is in the corner of a video game frame, okay, that they're streaming Whatever it is that Twitch streamers stream. Do you know what I'm saying, Ty?

This is great. I just want you to keep talking. I'm not even going to say anything. Like somebody that's four and a half hours into a Fortnite stream when they're slouched in their weird gaming chair and they're just like answering questions that are popping up. From users on the stream, and they're just mumbling, yeah, yeah, okay, good question. That's the presence that I think about You can hate everything I have to say. You can hate how I look. You can hate how I talk about the sport. You can hate my general attitude all you want. But. I always want to look like I am excited to be on this show and speak to you. And if I'm ever like slouching, and I'm like, yeah, that's when I'm just like, why are you on video?

Why are you doing this on VO? You look like you don't want to be here. I don't have to think that by only listening to the audio. Now that I see it, I'm like, oh, he's not putting in any effort. Why should I? That's the thing I think about is, and I'm sure I'm guilty of not looking like it sometimes as I'm like looking on another screen. or zoning out while you're talking about Penn State's hiring process of whatever their new coach's name is, Matt Campbell. Whatever their new coach is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just kidding. Yeah. But that's the thing I'd be most paranoid about if I were somebody hosting a video podcast of like appearing to be engaged.

Does that make sense? Yeah. No. I haven't, to the question, I haven't heard a whole lot of people bemoaning the fact that they got to be on video now. Well, it's added work for sure. It is added work. No, I'm not saying people aren't. Annoyed at the extra production workflow, I guess. Like, we're kind of annoyed at that.

Okay. Yeah, that's fine. That's a whole thing. But in terms of the people, the talent. that is on camera recording these shows, I haven't heard a whole lot of scuttlebutt around like, oh man, I gotta comb my hair now. You know? Can I ask you a question that's sort of tangential to this? When you see a podcast, and it's generally not sports, it's generally more culture or comedy or something like that. They're more in-person interview type video versions of podcasts. And you see people kind of like curled up under a blanket on a couch or on a couch with their shoes off, with their socks kicked up, because the vibe they're going for is like, I just want to create like kind of a cozy space.

Okay. I'm not super into that. Okay. Especially when it's famous people, again, comedians or media people or actors, actresses, whatever. Be like. Fake cozy, but you're on camera and in full makeup, and it it feels Weirdly antithetical. Like, I don't know. It's, especially, I'm not into it.

Okay. I feel like it's overly artificial. Like if you're it in its like this is an edited you know form of media like it is artificial so I think there's something about leaning into the like yes, we're on camera. Let's be Let's treat it like especially those, you know, the more if Gwyneth Paltrow is appearing on what's a popular like celebrity interview show, The Armchair Expert. Call Her Daddy. Call Her Daddy. Sure. Call her daddy. Yeah. Don't Call Her Daddy. I don't know. I think it's that sort of an odd look. Maybe that's all right. That's like old-fashioned show business, Ty. Yeah, no, you're, we're, we're audio only. But it's also how I feel.

I've said this before. Like when you tune into like an NFL Live or a college football live or a sports center or whatever, and it's somebody wearing a suit with Jordans. And they all look like seven-year-old ushers at weddings. Treat this medium with the bare minimum amount of respect. Oh, you're wearing Jordan 3s with a suit. Yeah, I'm a host, but I'm a cool host. Yeah, I'm a mom, but I'm a cool mom. Was that the line for Mean Girls?

I can't stand that. The wearing George, I think our friend Cole Cubelic does it. It's the only thing I don't like about him. I like him otherwise. Seven-year-old Usher. That's pretty good. Don't you look like a seven if you're wearing a suit. Again, maybe this is me. Maybe this is a cranky boomer talk from me. Yeah, man. If you're going to go the full effort of you, like a dry-cleaned suit. An ironed shirt with or without a Ty. Are you talking out of both sides of your mouth, though?

Wasn't your mantra for like the last 10 years, you're only as comfortable as your feet? Yes, it is. Find comfortable dress shoes. Find dress shoes, Oxfords, whatever they're called. Fair, fair. That are the right width for your feet, that are the right size, that are just look nice enough to be on camera. I'm dying over sneakers with suits. This is terrific. Again, I know I sound like I'm 83 years old. But you see that look, and you're just like, ah, okay, you're the cool host. Cool. No?

Am I out of my speaking out of turn here? Am I alone? Am I on like. . I'm dying. Wear the correct shoes with the suit island? I don't know when that started happening. Was that a COVID thing? Was it before I have no idea? Well, I think it's been an evolution because they started doing the dress shoes with the sneaker soles, which I think also look pretty funny.

Okay. But it's not like you're doing something that requires you to have elite traction when you're on the set of NFL Live or big noon Saturday. So, I don't know. Again, I know I'm out of here. I love this. I don't know. I love this so much. But just, I don't know, man. Finish the look.

Okay. Finish the look. Why don't we leave it there, folks? Thank you to one and all for sending in your questions. We got some really good ones this time around. We will again do a QA next month. That has been. Our little pattern with this show. It is already May, which is crazy. So, the way that our schedule works for anybody new here, if you've Been listening this whole time, God bless you. Once we get into July, that's when we start up the preview thing. Usually, when we flip it over to about three episodes a week, that's getting pretty big in the window now. So, if you yet to do so, hit follow, hit subscribe. I've already started, we've both already started kind of

Researching what we think is going to happen this season. But once we get to July, we'll get into a little bit more detail. We've got a ton of other show concepts that We will trot out before we get to that point in the calendar. We've got to do Big Ten vibes. We've got to do ACC vibes. I think we still got to do Sark Tank, right? We can't get rid of Sark Tank. Of course. I love that. Of course. We'll do Sark Tank. So we got a bunch of fun stuff that is coming down the pike here that I'm excited about. So keep it right here again. Follow or subscribe. Tell your friends if you've already done that. Check out Verballers.com if you are ever so inclined.

Again, that's the best way to support what Dan and I do. We do have our merch store, which you can find on our website at solidverbal.com. We've got a newsletter, great newsletter sent this past week from our boy Tyler, who wrote about Iowa State and where he thinks it's headed next. That's at quickslants.solidverbal.com. So, listen, just follow us on any of the social accounts. You can find the link there. I've got everything linked up so you can find all this stuff. But we appreciate you listening, for downloading, for supporting what we do. Any parting shots, Dan Rubenstein?

No, sit up straight, you teenagers. Act like you want to be at this dinner table. Act like a member of this family. For that guy over there, Papa Dan Rubenstein, for myself, Ty Hildenbrandt. Thanks for downloading, for listening, for supporting. Enjoy your weekend. Stay solid. Peace.