G6 Previews: Part 1 - The American, Sun Belt & MAC Conference

Ty (00:18): Dan Rubenstein, it's time to preview some friggin' conferences. Are you ready?

Dan (00:23): Could not be more ready. I do have a question, though. I have a question for you, for anybody listening. I hate lumping conferences together, not in the same preview, but in the same titling mechanism. Now, we've had G5, G6. I've seen some people call it mid-majors. Do we have preferred nomenclature? Are we just going to roll with G6?

Ty (00:47): I think G6. I think G6 is the one that most people are going to search for, yeah.

Dan (00:52): Can we come up with a cool post-colon? You know what I'm saying? Like a subheader, to make it a cooler grouping rather than just, like, "You're also FBS teams."

Ty (01:01): I mean, this is very much this is very much your department.

Dan (01:06): Here's where my brain went. And you just you do the steering. You are our content rudder here, Ty. So I'm thinking, okay, what the appeal of teams that are not in Big 12, ACC, SEC, Big Ten are that they get to be a lot more focused on the importance of the regular season because their playoff consideration will be lesser, right?

Ty (01:29): Right, right, yeah.

Dan (01:31): So you get to celebrate new rivalries, old rivalries, close games perhaps have more meaning as teams are trying to get bowl eligible, as teams are trying to go to a bigger and better bowl game, or are just looking for bragging rights over whoever. So I was thinking about that. I was thinking about just the idea of that there's sort of a hole in our hearts because a lot of us prefer the regular season, prefer the pageantry and the passion and the glory, whatever, of beating your rival, beating whatever. And so I think it would be most appropriate to say, you know, the 2026 Solid Verbal G6 preview, colon. Because we have the hole in our hearts, because we're looking for that passion, the pageantry, and glory, colon, filling the glory hole. And then, and then, hold on, hear me out. I just went

Ty (02:27): Oh no, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

Dan (02:27): online, like I do, to see if anybody else had done this already, right? To see if any other college football podcasts, preview magazines, shows, whatever. It turns out that's ultimately going to be a pretty giant mistake for us to call this episode.

Ty (02:42): I was going to say, I don't know if we want to get in the algorithm that way.

Dan (02:48): But we could pick up some new listeners.

Ty (02:53): We definitely could. I did not have you going in that direction with this.

Dan (02:57): I really did think about, you know, thinking, you know, the regular season thing. I think that is true. That even though, and look, you look at. We're previewing today, what are we doing? The MAC and the American and the Sun Belt. And if there is a consistent theme, it's, well, they lost 71 starters. I know you can't have 71 starters. And so they're turning to West Florida. West Florida might be the new UTEP. A lot of teams looking at West Florida to help round out their rosters. So there is the idea of filling a roster hole. That comes with phrasing a lot of these teams we're going to talk about.

Ty (03:32): Subtle, subtle.

Dan (03:36): But ultimately, I think it's in poor taste, Ty, and I think you can agree.

Ty (03:38): I definitely agree. You really took us on a journey there, Dan, a little bit more set up than usual. I do appreciate, though. Your candor, your creativity, the passion that you bring to this preview episode, as you mentioned, yes. This is our first conference preview episode. Go back and listen to the intro to the 2026 season that dropped a short while ago. On today's episode, yes, we got three conferences. We're going to lump them together.

Dan (04:08): Yeah.

Ty (04:09): You're going to kill me now that you brought that up.

Dan (04:11): I mean, look, you can also decide in post-production. To, as I say, filling the glory hole, you can just cut it at glow and just add in like some elevator music, right?

Ty (04:22): No, we're going to keep this in.

Dan (04:22): It's just like, alright.

Ty (04:23): We're going to keep this in. We're all friends here. I want this to be as organic as possible. We've got the American, which we're going to knock out first. We're going to shift to the Sun Belt, which we're going to knock out next. And then we've got the MAC, which we're going to knock out third before we call it a day. This is part one of the Solid Verbal's G6 preview. As you probably know if you've listened to this in the past, we do have Power Conference previews that are broken down into three parts. So part one will be kind of the conference overview. Tiers, contenders, things like that. And then we'll break it up into part two and part three, where we dive into individual teams and talk more specifically about that. We don't do that with the G6 conferences. We sort of give them a fair amount of time. We talk through in a fair amount of detail what we expect and I think what to look for. But frankly, we just don't have enough time to go into each conference and each team within those conferences. Otherwise, we'd have to start in like the early part of March, which we don't do here.

Dan (05:27): We would have to learn much more than we already have knowledge of. That's barely English. Regarding NAIA football.

Ty (05:35): Oh, yeah, listen.

Dan (05:35): And there's just so much room in our very pea brains for us to start taking in Division II, NAIA, D3, FCS. There's just so much we have, and it's limited.

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Dan (06:31): Sounds alright.

Ty (06:31): We're going into season 19, which I don't like to say too much. It makes me feel old. That's where the grays came from. But nevertheless, here we are, Dan. Do you want to start with the American?

Dan (06:41): Would love to start with the American, a fascinating conference, a conference that has given us a number of top tier teams and going through changes, as all of these conferences are. Uh-oh.

Ty (07:03): I didn't mean to cut you off, but you were as you were talking about the upheaval, I thought that would be a good little interlude.

Dan (07:10): The American. Um, so I just want to hear from you what you think the American is defined by. Who are the interesting names? What are the changes that we have here? How are you organizing this conference? From what I could tell in my research, it's going to be it seems like it'll be decidedly more wide open than perhaps previous iterations. And of course, you're going to have your years where a team like North Texas, out of nowhere, has everything come together, especially on offense, like they did last season. But it looks like the continuity seems to be in a new place with this conference.

Ty (07:48): A new place puts it sort of mildly.

Dan (07:50): And that those new places are the places that have the sheets tucked in the tightest, right?

Ty (07:58): Something like that.

Dan (07:59): The service academies?

Ty (08:00): Yeah, so look, I mean, if I am trying to give you big storylines, the big storyline is that the American got a playoff team a year ago in Tulane.

Dan (08:00): Yeah.

Ty (08:08): They got a playoff team. And that's exciting, right? Is that not an exciting thing that you can use to sell your conference to others?

Dan (08:14): Absolutely, yes, they were the, what, the fourth-highest-ranked team, ultimately? Or the fourth-highest-ranked conference champion, or something, fourth or fifth. So they made the playoff. It wasn't an overwhelming season for Tulane, but they took care of business and they secured the spot.

Ty (08:34): They took care of business, they secured the spot. Now, coming into the 2026 season, there is crazy coaching and crazy roster turnover. You've got new coaches at Memphis, Tulane, USF, and North Texas. After Ryan Silverfield, Jon Sumrall, Alex Golesh, and Eric Morris all left to take Power Four jobs. Likewise, you've got. A lot of guys leaving in the portal, being replaced by Power Four players that are in search of playing time, or in most cases, smaller school guys that are trying to make a name for themselves. So, as such. You've got two things that I think have emerged. And this, I think, pushes up against your point of things feeling different. A, you've got a huge contender tier. We've got 14 teams in the American. I think I can make a case for seven of them being quote-unquote contenders. truly, and making a run at the conference title game, maybe not winning it, but at least being in that conversation, which look, we're college football fans.

Dan (09:33): Right.

Ty (09:36): We like when things get weird in November. We always talk about crazy tiebreaker scenarios. We were talking about American tiebreakers in the middle of October a year ago. So I'm all for it, and I'm down with there being a huge contender tier that might encompass half of the conference. That's fine for me. Some of the cases are stronger than others. Okay, like in some cases, I'm really squinting to try and see it. But on paper, on paper, this looks to be one of the more interesting conferences we've seen, more interesting seasons we've seen in the American Conference that I can remember since we've been doing this show. And this is the point where I mentioned that the American is going to be like half-teams galore.

Dan (10:22): Yeah. When you have that conversation of players leaving, new coaches and what those teams looked like last season, I think we're pointed in that direction.

Ty (10:32): Yeah, so based solely on the Bill C.'s preseason SP+ projections, which I'm sure we will reference aplenty here. Go and check out Bill's work. He's been on the show a multitude of times. Most of the teams that figure to have the better offenses are also the ones that look like they're going to have bad defenses. In a few cases, teams that might have good defenses, have huge questions on offense. It's just going to be a year like that, that is not atypical. Among the G6 ranks, I get it. I've been doing the show a long time, but I think that is very much more the case in 2026. So, like, for our purposes here, where we're trying to figure out reasons just to give people reasons to care. We have a lot of people who listen to this show who are fans of Power Conference teams, P4. But everybody loves the G6. The G6 is still fun. If you're looking for a reason to care, I think this gives you that because there is so much volatility. Now, some of, as I said, some of the cases are stronger than others. And a lot of it is going to hinge on which half-teams can be less of a half-team the deeper we get into the season. But I think this is going to make the conference really fun. Really fun, really interesting to chart. There will be a bunch of interesting tiebreaker discussions and that type of stuff. I don't know if any of these teams are playoff viable, but if you're watching the American, if you truly care about the American, I mean, you know, my guess is that your first concern is not going to be the playoff anyway.

Dan (12:03): Look, it's just the reality of being a quality conference like the American that there are enough eyeballs on the American so that if your coach is really good, he's going to get hired away. If your team is complete and you have a really strong offense and strong defense to whatever extent at the same time, it either means you have a ton of upperclassmen who have exhausted eligibility or getting drafted. Or you have perhaps some star power as sophomores, juniors, freshmen, whatever, and they're going to get scooped up by bigger schools. And so it's going to just be hard to continually field a top 40 offense and defense at the same time. And that's what hopefully, if you're looking at this through an optimistic prism, like you said, you'll have more contenders, you'll have more upheaval, you'll have a more exciting November, and you'll have, you know, more up in the air, which hopefully makes for a more entertaining season.

Ty (13:00): So my top half of the conference, with that as the setup, looks like this, in this particular order. My team is UTSA out of the American, followed by Navy, followed by Memphis, followed by Army. That's four.

Dan (13:12): Okay.

Ty (13:21): Followed by the Florida Atlantic Owls, followed by South Florida. And then bringing up the rear of that top half would be East Carolina.

Dan (13:34): Okay. And you're basically, and I'm not saying you're wrong to do so. ECU's replacing like everybody, and you have them in a contending tier.

Ty (13:44): Yeah, well, that's the point, right? That's the point.

Dan (13:46): Yeah.

Ty (13:47): So I feel best about UTSA because you've got the combination of Jeff Traylor, the coordinator Rick Bowie, and Owen McCown. their returning quarterback. Jeff Traylor has been very steady at UTSA. And Rick Bowie, you know, Rick Bowie brings the tempo and the downfield shots and that type of thing. And then you have Owen McCown on top of it, who's got the experience. Owen McCown showed up in really big spots last year, notably against both Tulane and ECU. He did miss spring. He had surgery, but in addition to like other injuries that he had in 2025, Owen McCown gives them a veteran presence at quarterback that I really like. They bring back a lot on offense. It's up there among like the top 30 nationally. It is not just Owen McCown. It's also Will Henderson, who is their running back. They bring back their top three receivers. They've got a line that comes back. This is an offense that I think is going to be solid. But again, what did I say at the top about teams that have the good offenses?

Dan (14:50): They struggle somewhat on defense, but I think you're right to highlight UTSA here because that wasn't an incredible defense last season. They got off the field. They forced three and outs. They did enough well that it wasn't a major liability. It was a slow start to the season. You look at, I mean, look, Ty Hildenbrandt's American Conference favorite lost to Temple last year.

Ty (15:11): That's right.

Dan (15:12): That's wild, but it's defensible.

Ty (15:12): That's right. That's right. It is defensible. So the defense is the question. And to the point, Bill has them projected as the 102nd best defense in the country. Now, what makes them fun to watch? Even if the defense stinks, what makes them fun to watch is that this is a defense like a lot of other defenses in this conference. They're all kind of trying the same thing. They're all trying to solve the problems on defense by creating a ton of havoc and generating pressure. And so when you do that, it's not a bad theory. But when you do that, you have to be able to cover your back end, Dan.

Dan (15:56): Yeah.

Ty (15:57): Ever the problem, not just for these defenses, but really for all of us.

Dan (16:02): Yeah, got to cover your back end. Continue.

Ty (16:04): And so, the question for UTSA is not unlike the question we will ask about many of these defenses if you're going to bring the heat. If you're going to try and create turnovers, you're going to get sacks and tackles for loss and all of that stuff. If you're going to bring the heat, you need to have an answer on the back end and at least cover the pass marginally well. And so that's my question for UTSA. They're focused on creating negative plays. They're focused on creating turnovers. If that works, this is the reason I have them at one. If it doesn't work, UTSA is going to be in a lot of shootouts and they're still fun to watch. So, one way or another, go Roadrunners. That's where I'm at.

Dan (16:43): Okay, I think that's right.

Ty (16:44): It didn't really work great last year. Okay. It didn't really work great last year. UTSA only had 24 sacks, but they added a nice list of players from elsewhere. I think some of those guys could be plug-and-play answers on defense. I think there's a real upside here. If anything, the roster looks like a list of possibilities, not so much like definitive answers. So I think you combine all that. The schedule gives them a lane. They don't have to play Memphis, Army, or East Carolina. They do get both Navy and South Florida, who we can talk about quickly, at home. That Navy game on October 17th, to me, is like the American Game of the Year. First-ever matchup between the two. But that game is probably going to be the game of the year.

Dan (17:33): And you know I love my situational plays. They do get Texas a week after Texas has Ohio State, correct? They're not going to win that game. But maybe cover a weird spread. Who knows?

Ty (17:44): Now, this is the point in the preview where I offer sort of a hint as to what's to come, okay? When we recorded our first preview episode a year ago, as you know, remember, I started getting really deep in the weeds with a lot of these teams. And you sent me a message on our Slack, and you're like, dude, this is going to be like an eight-hour episode.

Dan (18:04): Oh, yeah.

Ty (18:08): I'm not going to do that. But I do want to take a little bit of extra time to talk about UTSA because I'm pretty high on UTSA.

Dan (18:14): Do you want me to signal you somehow that you're going too deep?

Ty (18:20): You can do that.

Dan (18:22): What do you want? You want will that pull you back to reality?

Ty (18:25): Do that because I don't have the video up. For as pretty as you are, I'm not looking at you right now. I'm looking at my notes.

Dan (18:30): No, no, I understand.

Ty (18:31): The other team on the American side that I will talk a little bit longer about relative to the field is Navy.

Dan (18:39): Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you're picking up that.

Ty (18:41): I'm picking it up.

Dan (18:42): Okay, continue. You should talk about Navy.

Ty (18:43): Okay, Navy is the other one that I'm going to talk a little bit more about, relative to the field, just because I'm on Navy at number two. Navy went 11-2 last year, and we talked a lot about Navy. Of course, they beat Army. They won their bowl game. It was their second straight 10-win season under Brian Newberry, who has done a really, really good job. Again, what's the story? Good offense, good rushing offense, number one rushing offense in the country. But the defense. The defense was solid against the run, really shaky against the pass. They are by many accounts, and according to many previews, you will read the favorite in the American. But the issue I have is they lost Blake Horvath, who's kind of like the face of it all from a year ago. They still factor in to be very, very solid. I think Bill's got them projected at like eight wins, six wins in conference. The question for me is their replacement, Braxton Woodson. Who we know can create explosive plays on the ground? Can he run the whole thing? Can he do what Blake Horvath did? Blake Horvath was the whole thing. Can this guy do that? I don't know. That is my question. I like where they've taken the offense and I like how they've kind of modernized their option offense. I think they've been very, very good. Navy returns a bunch of OL on the offensive line. They'll be fine there. They're always fine there. So much of what Navy and Army do is based on developing internally because they don't really take guys via the portal. And so, can they replace all of that with internal promotions, in effect. I don't know. I don't know if they can do that. I, unlike apparently everybody else who did previews for the American. I have more questions about Navy than I do UTSA, which is why I have them at number two. Look, they're still going to be fine. They're still going to be very, very good. We're still going to be talking about Navy as probably like a 10-win team. But, you know, I question what the offense looks like now that Horvath is gone. I also question pass defense.

Dan (20:58): Is it a long or short A there?

Ty (21:00): I think it's Horv Horvath.

Dan (21:00): Is it Horvath or Horvath?

Ty (21:02): I think I said Horvath. Did I say Horvath?

Dan (21:04): I like it. Even if it's wrong, I think you added some flair to it. Like a vampire or wolf.

Ty (21:11): Navy's got a lot back on defense. Just in terms of like returning production, and make of that what you will. I'm going to reference that a lot here. I know you will too. But I don't take that at face value. Last year's game against the pass was really rough. It was rough. So, I'm not as excited about Navy as some others. The game on October the 17th is going to be a war. It's in the Alamodome against UTSA. Like I said, game of the year. In the American, and it should be a really, really interesting clash of styles. Obviously, there's only a handful of teams that play the Navy style of offense, but seemingly, they should be able to move the ball because of that style against UTSA. And on the flip side, UTSA should be able to throw on Navy. My hunch is we're probably going to end up picking Navy, or you'll end up picking Navy, and I'm going to take UTSA. But that, for my money, is sort of the most interesting matchup.

Dan (22:11): All I have to add on Navy is, one, they're in an incredible sandwich spot, perhaps one of the best three sandwich spots of the season against Notre Dame, who has Navy between, I believe, at BYU and Miami. Doesn't mean they're beating Notre Dame. In fact, they've lost by a considerable margin to Notre Dame recently. But situationally, intrigue on my end. The other thing on Navy, and this is how you sort of started things, a lot of half-teams. Outside of Notre Dame on this Navy schedule, because they do return a good amount on offense, even with Braxton Woodson as the new presumed starting quarterback. I count one maybe-good defense on this schedule in Notre Dame, which is obviously not maybe good. they're going to be very, very good. But when you look at the rest of this schedule. In terms of teams where you feel like there is an obvious possibility that they are going to field a top-50 defense, 40 defense, 60 defense, how many teams do you count here?

Ty (23:15): Yeah, yeah.

Dan (23:16): Zero? So there might just be a number that Navy is going to have to hit on defense, that they're going to just have to keep teams under 30? Right? There is something about that with Navy. And obviously, teams have off weeks. Obviously, teams are going to have to deal with injuries. But just in terms of what this schedule can possibly serve up. Navy's in a pretty advantaged spot.

Ty (23:43): Let me move a little bit quicker now through the remainder of my contender tier, and then I'll give you something interesting about the other teams that I don't mention at the top. Okay? My X-factor is Memphis. I have no idea what to expect from Memphis, but they're my number three team. This year, I am calling it the Brotherhood of the Traveling Huffs.

Dan (24:04): Yeah, I was thinking Carpool. Like there was just going to be, you know, this is what happens with new coaches, especially with somebody with Charles Huff's experience going from Marshall to Southern Miss and now to Memphis. He's just bringing guys.

Ty (24:14): You just bring in guys. Charles Huff is the new coach. He replaces Ryan Silverfield. He had the layover at Southern Miss for a year. This is again the chemistry experiment. A chemistry experiment because he's got 52 transfers. It's just like it was a year ago. It's worth noting it's less of an experiment because Charles Huff has proven that he can win pretty quickly. But nonetheless, it's a lot of new faces. 17 guys are coming with him from Southern Miss. Two things that I think are really interesting about Memphis this year. He made a really fun hire at offensive coordinator. He got Kevin Decker from Old Dominion. And so just think of like the Josh Heupel offense, right? The wide splits, the spread offense, that type of thing. That worked really well for him at Old Dominion. He's going to be running that at Memphis this year, which should be fun. The defensive coordinator is Lance Guidry, a name that we've heard time and again here over the course of our podcast. He's got talent to work with to the point where defense could actually end up being the strength of this team. But again, it's a big shrug because there's so many new faces. I think they can get to the American Championship game, but the path depends on quarterback. Is it Marcus Stokes from West Florida or is it Air Noland? The blue chip lefty who comes over from Ohio State? A lot of our guys here who listen to this show are going to know the name Air Noland. Not as many Marcus Stokes, but Marcus Stokes is probably going to get the job.

Dan (25:44): Buddy, it's not just Ohio State. He was at South Carolina last year.

Ty (25:47): And South Carolina.

Dan (25:48): We could have a new T.J. Finley situation on our hands. Three schools in three years. For Air Noland. Hope it works out for Memphis. Or it would be a cool story if a D-II quarterback works out for Memphis. But yes, a lot up in the air, but the track record and the transfers coming in, there should be some optimism that Memphis can win a bunch of games.

Ty (26:04): Not a lot of runway to kind of get things sorted. Week 0 at UNLV, week two at Boise State. Those are sort of like immediate measuring sticks, but we'll see. I'm interested in Memphis a little bit more than I'm interested in Army. A lot of people are into Army this year. I'm not.

Dan (26:24): Yeah, there's continuity on offense with Army, especially along the line.

Ty (26:27): Yeah, the season was weird last year.

Dan (26:27): But yeah.

Ty (26:28): Like, they had a double overtime loss to Tarleton State, then a road win at K-State. They lost the Army-Navy game by a point, but then they won the Fenway Bowl in dominating fashion. Bill Connelly has them projected to be in 10 one-score games this season. Which means that this could like the spectrum of results here could go a bunch of different ways. The offense last year was still very Army. They ran the crap out of the ball. The defense was fine in terms of the counting stats, but created almost no havoc. They were really bad on third downs. This year, they lost their top seven tacklers from that team. So if they're going to do it, it's going to be because the offensive line is probably the best in the conference. My concern for a team like this is pretty much the same every year. Quarterbacks and running backs get a heavy workload. If one of them goes down, it's a problem. So I like their quarterback, Cale Hellums, but he had 40% of the team's carries a year ago.

Dan (27:26): Sure.

Ty (27:32): I want to see some variety around him. There is not a huge sample size for any of the backs that I think can help lessen the load. It's a bunch of guys who had 20 to 50 carries last season. So someone's going to need to step up there. Their case in the American is tied to whether or not Hellums gets a little bit of help, and whether the defense improves, particularly in the back, because I think you can throw on Army.

Dan (27:56): You know who else is probably super screwed if their quarterback gets hurt?

Ty (27:59): Everybody.

Dan (28:00): Literally every team. Literally every team. Now, obviously, I know in this offense specifically, he's taking more hits. And more is on his shoulders physically because of the number of times he's going to carry the ball and is going to be counted on to get a first down or do something interesting. But yes, everybody's screwed if their quarterbacks go down pretty much. The thing I like about Army, though, is they didn't do anything especially well last year, like on a top-20, top-15, you know, they weren't running or passing, obviously. And they still won games. And the games they lost, they generally weren't being blown out. And so that to me signals they figure out ways to win. They figure out ways to compete, even if they lose close. I'd much rather a team lose by one or six points or something when they do lose than consistently by 13 to 28. And so I think Army is well coached. And if, because I know you said that they're projected to win or play in a bunch of super close games, I think if the 50-50 stuff works out a little bit better, that we're talking about an Army team that might still not do anything super well. Like Tulane didn't do anything super well last season in terms of running the ball, stopping them, whatever, but they won games. They were super well coached. I think that could be Army this year.

Ty (29:13): Yeah, I mean, look, it's not hard to project Army into the conference title game either. It just isn't.

Dan (29:18): Right.

Ty (29:18): But a lot more has got to go right. And just looking at that projection, that many one-score games tells you, I think, everything you need to know: that there's just, it's, it's kind of on a knife's edge here.

Dan (29:28): Agree? Also, in the conference, Army and Navy don't play their biggest game before the conference championship game.

Ty (29:35): Correct, which is weird.

Dan (29:36): So there's that. Their biggest emotional game, at least, if not competitive game.

Ty (29:40): My pet team is Florida Atlantic.

Dan (29:43): That's interesting to me. Continue.

Ty (29:45): FAU returns the most production of any American, or for that matter, G6 team. 64% of their production, which is number 19 in the country. Zach Kittley is back. His full staff is back. 54 players from Year 1 of his regime are back. And now they are adding Caden Veltkamp. The quarterback from Western Kentucky, they are going to throw the ever-living crap out of the ball.

Dan (30:09): There are a lot of teams in this conference that just have a definitive identity. And I really appreciate that and respect that. Whether it's tempo, whether it's throwing, whether it's running. I just like knowing what to expect from a team stylistically.

Ty (30:23): There are two owls, three owls, in this conference, aren't there?

Dan (30:28): Temple, Rice and FAU. Yeah.

Ty (30:31): Three owl conference triple owls, yeah.

Dan (30:31): This is the most owl-forward conference, the most Ga'Hoole-ian conference. Continue.

Ty (30:37): Um, the offense is really explosive. They're going to throw like crazy. As long as they don't shoot themselves in the foot, they will be really good on offense again. They finished negative-21 in turnover margin a year ago. They need to get better than that. That's not good. Veltkamp threw 17 interceptions. So they can't do that. But obviously, this is a guy who threw a lot. Volume was high. Interceptions are going to go up as a result of it. The defense in this case, we used to say this all the time. We still say it about like Lincoln Riley teams, but the defense doesn't need to be good, it just needs to be less bad. And they were bad, really bad last year. 131st in defensive SP+. They did try to beef up themselves a little bit along the edge in the portal and bring in more like disruptor types, but, you know, if they can get through September, or the first two weeks where they've got Florida and Navy, which should tell us a lot, there's like a six-week stretch after that. where if FAU gets it going, they can win some games before they get to November. And that's when things could get interesting. But I'm in on FAU. I'm in to a lesser degree on South Florida. I know you had Andy Staples on last month for the Sark Tank episode.

Dan (31:52): Yeah.

Ty (31:54): He's in on USF. You know, I feel like a broken record at this point when I talk about teams with a new coach, but new coach, new coordinators, 41 transfers in total, 58 newcomers. So they're just, there's a lot of volatility. You got an offense that's also in transition, shifting from the Golesh track meet to Tim Beck, which is much more of like a controlled system, a little bit more physical, more emphasis on the rushing attack. I love Michael Van Buren. Michael Van Buren factors to be the quarterback, the transfer. I like Michael Van Buren, right? Initially at Mississippi State, then went to LSU. He's going to be the quarterback. What that interplay looks like between Van Buren and the wide receiver room? Especially now that Brian Hartline is the new coach and he's got the track record for wide receivers, that to me is going to be really interesting.

Dan (32:45): Yeah, you might want to miss me with buying USF and Tim Beck running that offense.

Ty (32:50): Listen, but listen, it's also an exciting time for Hartline to take over because

Dan (32:56): I agree.

Ty (32:57): Obviously, he's going to try and change the offense. He's going to try and bring his pedigree as a great wide receiver coach.

Dan (33:05): And recruiter, yeah.

Ty (33:05): And recruiter to Tampa, but this is the last year of their old stadium setup. They got their own new thing next year, which will be fun.

Dan (33:12): Yeah. Obviously, the connection going back to Ohio State with Tim Beck and Brian Hartline does not do it for me, not my kink, Ty. Yeah, I think they'll be entertaining. MVB is entertaining. A lot new there. First-time head coach and suspect offensive coordinator to me. So I'm not in on them as a pet team quite yet. My pet team is ECU, both because of...

Ty (33:31): Ah, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. ECU is the Ashanti team of the American.

Dan (33:39): Yeah. What do you trust about them? I don't know.

Ty (33:41): I trust their coach.

Dan (33:42): I liked watching them last year.

Ty (33:43): I trust their coach.

Dan (33:45): I trust their coach. Their quarterback has major conference passing attempt experience in Mitch Griffis with Wake Forest. And he was a backup, I think, at Texas Tech last season.

Ty (33:55): Yeah, it's Mitch Griffis or Emory Williams. Remember that name from Miami?

Dan (34:00): Of course I do. Yes. So there is experience. I do like a coach who can take a quarterback and maybe rehab as they did with Katin Houser, who went Big Ten to ECU, now back to the Big Ten, right? So, the ECU car wash of some kind. I like that they play with a specific identity of tempo on offense. I know that they lost, I actually think they lost their defensive coordinator to USF, I think. But I don't know. The energy, the transfers, I thought they fought above their weight last season. And I just think, with more experience in the system, because we're talking about new players in the system, but his comfort as a head coach. And I don't believe their schedule is awful. I think they can only get like one of the three top-ish teams.

Ty (34:45): Yeah, the draw is really friendly. They avoid Navy, Tulane, UTSA, and North Texas. They do play Memphis, USF, Army, and FAU. Those are kind of the swing games after September. That'll sort of define it all. Look, here's the deal. Blake Harrell has been really, really good. Before he got there, it was a disaster. He's been 14 and 5 ever since. What they did in the portal was really sensible. It made a lot of sense to me. The defensive front, I think, has enough to be at least interesting, the conference schedule that we just referenced gives them a real path. But there's not a lot back. There's not a lot back. There's like 33% back on offense. They have to replace both coordinators. They have to rebuild the entire line. And their coordinator is a first-time solo play caller who's going to have to try and solve this quarterback thing now, which is, as you said, is going to be either Mitch Griffis or Emory Williams. So there's a lot that you have to ask of ECU and a relatively new coaching staff beyond Blake Harrell.

Dan (35:54): It's 100% going to be a project. It's 100% going to be a Hail Mary. They are my project, Hail Mary. I did like the movie, Ty.

Ty (35:59): Great movie. Love the movie.

Dan (36:00): You didn't ask. I have a couple of quibbles, but by and large, in its totality, I had a really good time watching it.

Ty (36:07): By the way, the new offensive coordinator is Jordan Davis from North Texas, who was part of that offense a year ago. He didn't call the plays. Eric Morris called the plays, but yeah, he was in the room. So that's my contender tier. Let me give you a really quick quip on each of the other teams and the order of finish for me. Very quick. Temple is next. Temple is next. Above Tulane, Temple is next. I like K.C. Keeler a lot. They had their best record and SP+ finish of the 2020s. And they beat UTSA, but they missed a bowl. They have a path to a bowl because their offense has, I think, some big boy pieces. They've got a nice line situation with four offensive linemen back. They're good at tight end. They've got productive receivers. They've got a backfield that might be deeper than last year's. It comes down to quarterback and defense. Anything sound different?

Dan (37:05): Yeah, exactly. No, I like the coach. The season fell apart. They were as close to Army and Navy as a team could have possibly been. Didn't they lose by one to each of those teams last year? I don't know. If they can figure out a way to build depth, to build stamina, right, the way they finished the season left a lot to be desired, there's something there with Temple. I think he's of high quality coaching-wise, K.C. Keeler.

Ty (37:28): Jaxon Smolik is going to be the quarterback, a name that some Penn Staters might recognize.

Dan (37:34): That's what you say when you give a hint about an abstract artist.

Ty (37:37): Tulane.

Dan (37:37): Rhymes: Jaxon Smolik.

Ty (37:39): Tulane lost Jon Sumrall, went to Florida.

Dan (37:40): Continue.

Ty (37:42): They've still got enough in place, I think, to make a run at it. They promoted from within. Will Hall was the passing game coordinator. Now he's the coach. I'm not buying the case for them to repeat, but there is a very good chance I end up looking silly for having them at least as low as I do. I see a really unsettled quarterback room. They're rebuilding at receiver. They're very thin along the defensive front. And they've got two early road games against Power Four teams that I think should tell us a lot. It is a front-loaded schedule. So I look at Tulane. I see a team that could have five losses by the end of October. They basically need to build a plane out of their running back, Jamari McClure.

Dan (38:19): Right. Yeah, the other thing is Will Hall was an internal promotion. He was the offensive coordinator in his second stint at Tulane? It was his second stint, because he kind of had a disastrous stint as Southern Miss's head coach. And so this is his second chance to perhaps correct the mistakes and learn from his time at Southern Miss. But kind of an uninspired hire after they did so well with the last two with Willie Fritz and Jon Sumrall. Up-and-coming guys who had won big at other places. I don't know. It leaves me a little bit disappointed as to what the ceiling could be for Tulane moving forward. But obviously, it's a place people win.

Ty (39:00): Tulsa and Trey Lamb have the profile of a team that could get better with a lot of returning production. You got a sophomore quarterback in Baylor Hayes, who I really like. He looked good as a freshman. They've got an experienced line. They got a star corner. They got a lot to like. The risk is that the guys leaving were the ones shouldering all the load. They lost their leading rusher, leading receiver, leading tackler, top tight end, top two wideouts. Even the kicker and punter are gone. It's just a lot to replace. It's not a new story, but I'm low on Tulsa, even though they've got a lot coming back.

Dan (39:36): Yeah, they've got a lot coming back, and it's the thing you talk about with returning production. They didn't have a top 90 offense or defense last season in terms of points per drive scored or allowed. And so maybe I actually really am rooting for Tulsa just because didn't they do the like the signing day house or the portal house?

Ty (39:56): Yep, loved it. That was great.

Dan (39:59): So they're looking for ways to shine a light on the program and get creative. And I always appreciate that from programs. And so for that reason, Ty, I might not be in, but I'm appreciative and hopeful.

Ty (40:10): North Texas is turning Neal Brown. Remember him?

Dan (40:14): I do, of course.

Ty (40:14): Got run out of Morgantown, but before that, he was a good coach at Troy. He might be the right long-term fit. I don't know what the chemistry experiment is going to look like. There are three things that I highlighted here. A, their quarterback is going to be Tayven Jackson, still playing. Still playing. Their other option is a 5-11, 175 track star named Chris Jimerson Jr., who I kind of want to see play. They are basically going to build the plane out of Jahiem White. He is reunited now with Neal Brown. Remember, he was at West Virginia. He is coming off of a knee injury.

Dan (40:51): Yeah.

Ty (40:53): He was limited in the spring. Hopefully, he gets back up to speed. A lot's going to be dependent on whether or not he can get up to speed and do his thing. And the run defense. The run defense needs to get fixed. They were allowing over 215 yards per game a year ago. Can they rebuild the front around a bunch of newcomers? I don't know. Which is why I'm low on them.

Dan (41:17): Neal Brown has shown an ability to win in a smaller conference with what he did at Troy are we getting that version of Neal Brown? No, we never get that same version, right? Things go right, things go wrong since then. I think It is a place where you can recruit. I think it is a place where you can obviously win with what we saw last year. If you're savvy about your roster, savvy about evaluations, I don't see it happening this season.

Ty (41:41): Final three teams, okay. I'm going to go through these quick. Rice. I'm a rice skeptic. I'm an owl skeptic. They lost their top defensive tacklers. They have to rebuild the secondary. Their wide receiver room is gutted, and the line looks really dodgy to me. So this is like maybe a bowl-caliber team if all breaks right. What I like about Rice is that they know exactly what they are on offense. They're an option team. They're physical. They're kind of annoying to prepare for. They're built around a running game that did work to some extent last year. The optimistic case would be that they did all of that without a credible passing threat, and now they bring in Jacurri Brown, the transfer from UCF and Miami, another name we've heard forever. And he's probably a better fit for what they want to do. But with all of that leaving, I'm skeptical they can make it work. So I'm kind of out on Rice.

Dan (42:36): Okay, fair enough. Anybody else?

Ty (42:40): Yeah, UAB. UAB is turning it over to Alex Mortensen, the son of the late Chris Mortensen. He got the keys after he sort of steadied the ship and went 2-2 to close things out. I think it's more about a path to competence than it is a path to a bowl for UAB. So I'll be rooting for them. This season. And last but not least, Charlotte. Charlotte was a disaster last year. They were just a disaster. Both offense and defense were atrocious. I think the quarterback room has some options. I think the bright spot, if I'm pointing to anything, is that the line got heavier by about 25 pounds. So there should be at least a little bit more beef up front to help them on offense, but it's still an uphill climb for Tim Albin.

Dan (43:30): Mass. They have added mass. Quality mass? TBD.

Ty (43:34): I don't know if we can say quality and bulk, but there's at least a little bit more bulk. I'm just not feeling it. I think it's going to be a really tough ask for Tim Albin.

Dan (43:47): Yeah, Tim Albin went from a place where everybody kind of wins to a place where everybody kind of loses. Biff Poggi was fired after. What did I say? The arguably the second best season in program history, going 5-7. It's a tough place to win. Will Healy had one good season early on but otherwise, it's just not a place that seems to be built to compete.

Ty (44:11): Dan, they scored 14 points a game. They gave up 472 yards per game on defense.

Dan (44:18): It's too many yards.

Ty (44:19): The opponent's success rate was 52.

Dan (44:20): Agree.

Ty (44:22): 4%, which is more than a coin flip, and that's bad, okay? Bad. Very bad. You don't want that.

Dan (44:29): I think my top tier are the service academy schools and UTSA. I just can't put a team like Memphis, given everything that's new, right there. I understand why you did. I understand why people are. My next tier down would be UTSA. ECU. And I think that's it. And then it's just a very robust, mass-filled middle with schools

Ty (44:55): You said UTSA. You had UTSA in both tiers. Who did you mean in there? USF??

Dan (44:59): Sorry, not UTSA, USF.

Ty (45:01): Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. I got that.

Dan (45:03): So I would have UTSA in the Service Academy schools top tier, then ECU, USF, Memphis, maybe Tulane. I don't think I'm as high on FAU, but I understand getting Veltkamp. That changes some calculus there. And then I just I think there are teams above UAB and Charlotte. They would be in their own tier at the bottom, and then it would be Rice, North Texas. Temple, I'm hopeful, but Temple, Tulsa, those teams are in that next tier above the bottom tier.

Ty (45:33): I've got UTSA over Navy in my conference title game.

Dan (45:39): I'm going to say this is the year we get Navy-Army twice. Army-Navy twice.

Ty (45:47): It's so weird.

Dan (45:49): I think it's going to be that kind of weird year.

Ty (45:50): So look, we did it in about a half hour, 35 minutes, 35 minutes.

Dan (45:55): That's not bad.

Ty (45:56): Did I do better this time and didn't start going into like two deeps or anything like that?

Dan (45:59): Great. You did great. Well, there's nothing wrong with going into two deeps, but sometimes I think it was Arkansas State last year. There's nothing wrong with talking about in detail about Arkansas State.

Ty (46:08): Yeah, because I had a thing for Jalen Raynor. Now, Iowa State quarterback, Jalen Raynor. I had a thing for the Red Wolves last year, and it was like You were sending me feverish messages like, hey, we might want to keep this.

Dan (46:18): It wasn't that bad. I think it was out loud. I think I just audibly stopped you. I was like, tight, tight, tight, tight, tight.

Ty (46:24): It was both. It was both.

Dan (46:26): It was something like we're 48 minutes in, and we have 11 teams in this conference left. It would be like being stuck in line at a deli and having the person in line in front of you start asking about the differences between the different turkey options.

Ty (46:40): We're like 48 minutes into this one, and we've covered significantly more ground. Let's go to the Sun Belt. Give me your high-level thoughts on the Sun Belt.

Dan (46:58): Fun Belt's going to be fun again. Okay. So the Sun Belt loses Texas State to the Pac-12. Yes. The Sun Belt lost a conference foe, a conference team to the Pac-12. That's a weird sentence to say out loud. And Louisiana Tech is in sooner than expected. Louisiana Tech, which is kind of a fun thing because other Louisiana schools, Southern Miss, like, there's There could be really nice opportunity for in-conference bad blood in a way that there wasn't before. So that's cool. There are three big school transfer quarterbacks coming in, highlighted by the somehow still eligible Max Johnson.

Ty (47:34): Good Lord.

Dan (47:36): So that would be LSU to A&M to North Carolina, now to Georgia Southern with Clay Helton.

Ty (47:42): You know, I'm sort of mixed on this. If you were Max Johnson, would you just like what would be the thought process on continuing to play?

Dan (47:48): Yeah. Oh, you got to play forever, man. If they're going to let you play, you got to play. Now, physically, I know he's taken some shots. He's had some bad injuries. Obviously, the hit he took at North Carolina last year was significant, but I don't know, man.

Ty (48:05): I just I I remember like 10 years ago doing this show and thinking about guys like Max Johnson, who have just been journeymen and been all over and never really popped anywhere. I remember thinking, why don't they just give it up?

Dan (48:18): You're T. Jay's Finlay? Yeah.

Ty (48:20): Yeah. And then I turned 40 and I was like, man, I would play until I couldn't walk anymore because time is fleeting. So go, Max Johnson.

Dan (48:29): Yeah.

Ty (48:31): Give it your all, man.

Dan (48:32): Listen, you want him to move on as quickly as he can to thinking about his 401k?

Ty (48:36): No, never.

Dan (48:38): And just for men, gel.

Ty (48:40): Play forever.

Dan (48:42): Yeah, dude.

Ty (48:43): Go, Max Johnson, man. He got the right idea. Good for him.

Dan (48:45): They've had some good offenses at Georgia Southern. Clay Helton's been a good quarterback whisperer. Malachi Singleton to App State, Purdue, and I believe Arkansas. Trey Owens was a backup to Arch Manning at Texas last year. He's at Arkansas State. The big news is this is another conference with major teams having to reset because they lost coaches. And so the big one is Bob Chesney moving champion JMU and Bob Chesney. Bob moves on to UCLA. And so JMU has to do a full reset after making the College Football Playoff. Pretty incredible. And Billy Napier's in. Sun Belt Billy steps in.

Ty (49:18): Yep, the revenge of Sun Belt Billy.

Dan (49:20): A revenge spot.

Ty (49:21): You know, we used to use Sun Belt Billy as a pejorative, like, six months ago. And there's a good chance this year it's a superlative.

Dan (49:28): Charles Huff, obviously, as you mentioned, out at Southern Miss on his own accord, taking the Memphis job. So, beyond that, anybody who was Good in a coordinator role is on to a bigger school, and obviously, like everywhere else, if it didn't work out. So, there's a ton of new coordinators in this conference across the whole conference. The other new name is Ryan Beard in at Coastal, and as mentioned, Charles Huff is being replaced. Blake Anderson in at Southern Miss. All Blake Anderson does is win conferences won it at Utah State and has won the Sun Belt at Arkansas State. So, Blake Anderson, familiar name, back in.

Ty (50:02): I have a proposal for you.

Dan (50:05): Please.

Ty (50:05): I know you had a subtitle suggestion at the top. I don't want to tread on that territory. My proposal is in regards to Coastal Carolina. The new coach is Ryan Beard. Ryan Beard did an excellent job with Missouri State. Missouri State, excuse me. I can't say Missouri State. He brought along his offensive coordinator and his defensive coordinator, as well as other assistants and support staff, and a bunch of players, so fifty-six newcomers. Ryan Beard is Bobby Petrino's son-in-law. His offensive coordinator is Nick Petrino, who is Bobby's son, and L.D. Scott is another son-in-law.

Dan (50:47): Of Bobby Petrino

Ty (50:48): Yeah, I am proposing that we refer to Coastal Carolina as the Petrino El Camino.

Dan (50:54): I don't hate it. It requires explanation, though, because neither Bobby nor, who was the was it Paul Petrino, who was briefly like the Illinois.

Ty (51:03): Paul, Paul was in the game.

Dan (51:04): Yeah, yeah.

Ty (51:05): Yeah, yeah. Petrino El Camino. Just think about it. Let it fester a little bit and tell me if it does anything for you at the end of this.

Dan (51:13): Because this is a Petrino vehicle, though not The main Petrino, not the head, the head Bob.

Ty (51:21): No, you can't do it for North Carolina because there is only one Petrino in that instance.

Dan (51:21): Okay.

Ty (51:26): But in this case, he got three of them in some way, shape, or form.

Dan (51:29): Okay. I don't hate it. I thought you were going to say like Petrino-st Carolina, and that was going to be a bridge too far.

Ty (51:34): No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Dan (51:36): Okay.

Ty (51:36): Not going there.

Dan (51:37): Petrino El Camino, colon. Some of his relatives are there.

Ty (51:41): What I find interesting about the Sun Belt is if you want to ask the question, as we did last year with JMU, who's loaded in this conference? The easy answer is JMU's loaded. We knew JMU was going to be good. The answer this year is nobody's loaded. It's more a question of who can get functional the quickest, which quarterback room is going to settle down the quickest, which line is going to stop leaking, which teams, and this is more of a continuing trend from the American. Which teams that are trying to solve their problems with more pressure and more havoc are actually going to be able to cover the pass behind that? Continuing theme. I have a lot of questions about most of these teams. I don't think any of them are loaded.

Dan (52:27): No. I mean, it's going to be a question of who develops and evaluates out of the portal in the most successful way in terms of peer numbers. I would still have JMU as a contender because there's no obvious, okay, all of these guys are back. This coach had a ton of success here last season. These coordinators are back. These assistants are back. There's no school that fully fits that. There's a couple of interesting returning quarterbacks. Carlos Del Rio-Wilson at Marshall. By the way, the sidebar here is the names involved at quarterback just because. We have a Lunch and a goose associated with the Sun Belt. We've got Lunch Winfield at Louisiana and potentially Goose Crowder if he wins the job at Troy.

Ty (53:09): Goose Crowder.

Dan (53:11): So, Lunch, Goose, and Carlos ready to rock.

Ty (53:13): Yeah. Yeah, I love I love Lunch Winfield.

Dan (53:16): Yeah, he's very good.

Ty (53:16): He's great.

Dan (53:18): Look, the other contender, the other interesting contender is probably ODU, even though they start over in a number of, you know, major ways, even though they return their head coach, who's done a very good job there, and Ricky Rahne. You know, their defense was also awesome, like JMU's last season. The offense was explosive. Like, they were a great story last season. They were like, they were more competitive against Indiana than most Big Ten teams to start the season. It was two long runs. But even still, their schedule is tricky this year, ODU. There is a good amount of quality back on this defense. I will say that. Like, I might feel better about the Monarchs than any team in this conference, truth be told.

Ty (53:56): Well, I have them certainly at the top in the East. I mean, I think in the East, this is the only conference that still has divisions. I think JMU and ODU for me are head and shoulders above the other teams of the East. And I like ODU's defense as well. I really like what they've got going on defense. And I think that certainly in this G6 conversation, there just aren't a whole lot of teams that you can say that about. So this is a defense that does do a lot in the havoc department, right? Where they create pressure and tackles for loss and you know, they're able to change the game that way. That definitely makes them a bit of an outlier.

Dan (54:42): But Ricky Rahne and their team in 2025 arguably had the best year in program history. I know they had good FCS seasons, but given the challenges of the modern era and the fact that they're playing in a difficult FBS conference and what they did last year. I think that's great. Also sidebar, I think they opened up Virginia Tech, as ODU and Virginia Tech like to do sometimes. We get Brent Pry, Ricky Rahne, and James Franklin all in the same house.

Ty (55:09): All in the same house.

Dan (55:10): Yeah, so a nice little reunion there.

Ty (55:12): So talk me through your tiers here in the Sun Belt, right? Because we have to approach it a little bit differently since they have the divisional structure with the East and the West, but where JMU and ODU, I'm assuming for you, are going to be your top two on the Eastern side. The East seems like there is a little bit more like stratification, ten cent word, than the West, which feels like it is very, very lumped together.

Dan (55:40): Yes. Oh, 100%. Yes. I think of the West teams, I probably, the teams I would separate out there, I believe Louisiana and Troy are the two that stand out to me. And now these are flawed teams. Like Louisiana's defense was pretty rough last year. Troy didn't do anything especially well. Their defense was pretty good. They had a good pass rush and pass defense and had a nice shootout win against Texas State. There's a lot to replace on that defense, though, which is why I don't feel as good about Troy as perhaps others do. They've got a fun new offensive coordinator, the guy from Tarleton, which is nice for Troy. They're making efforts to get a little bit more exciting. I don't know. They were able to win with quarterback health issues last season, which I respect. They just didn't finish strong at all. And their road splits are tough. They have Louisiana and James Madison both on the road, and they're at Mizzou. pretty early on. So I think it's going to be a tough road for Troy, but I still like him decently because even with a lot to replace on defense. They're trying on offense. I think there's going to be enough there rotation-wise. And Louisiana, it's, look, the entire plan is being built out of Lunch Winfield, which when you have a quarterback named Lunch, you do as much as you can to make him the focal point.

Ty (56:52): Right, gotta feed him, gotta feed him.

Dan (56:55): Their schedule is awesome. That's what I like about Louisiana this year. So, Louisiana does not have James Madison, Old Dominion, Marshall, and they have Troy at home. So if I'm looking at that those two teams as the sort of class of the West, the fact that Louisiana has them at home, I like them a little bit more.

Ty (57:14): Troy and Louisiana and then who, if you were trying to put these West teams into tiers, because this is where I had some trouble. I like both those teams. I might like Louisiana more. I definitely had a moment when I was going through these previews where I was forced to question. My anti-Gerad Parker stance that I have had since he was back at Notre Dame because he was terrible at Notre Dame.

Dan (57:39): Yeah.

Ty (57:43): Truly. He was not good. in his time at Notre Dame. And I recall when he got the head job at Troy, much of like the scuttlebutt behind the scenes, you talk to like beat writers or whoever, it was like, man, Notre Dame pulled a coup here. finding a way to get him a better job that he could take, that they could just get him out of their hair. And Year 1 was not great. This is a proud Troy program that has had a lot of success. Year 1 was not great. But last year, he did a really good job. And it seems like this year is going to be another step in the right direction, again, for a program that has had a lot of success. and put coaches at bigger places. So even though I do like Louisiana, there is part of me that has like seen the light on Gerad Parker. is willing to do an about-face on that front and is sort of rooting the Trojans on because again, I think what he has done there has been really, really solid.

Dan (58:46): I would have Louisiana Tech next, the new entrant, just because they had the really good defense last year. I mean, look, different conference. There will be energy there. Their schedule is pretty tough. They have LSU and Baylor early on back-to-back, Army and Louisiana back-to-back. And they have Old Dominion and on that road game against Troy, well, I guess a road game against Troy in, I think, relatively quick succession, not back-to-back. So I don't love the schedule, but if their starting point was a recent good defense. Obviously, there's a ton of upheaval everywhere in this sport. Louisiana Tech will be my next team in the West. I think ULM is going to be very bad. They finished terribly last season and there's just the schedule's not terrible, but it's another, it's huge roster turnover. So who the hell knows? Full rebuild on both sides for Southern Miss. So, how do you feel great about that beyond the Blake Anderson factor? And the schedule is just very difficult. I wrote down as I was looking at the schedule, like, oh, it's a backloaded schedule. and it's front-loaded. So it's just a loaded schedule for Southern Miss there. So that's how I come down. Did I miss anybody in the West?

Ty (59:50): So you're you're in on Louisiana and Troy.

Dan (59:52): Oh, the Jags, South Alabama.

Ty (59:54): You didn't mention Arkansas State either, our Red Wolves.

Dan (59:54): Yeah.

Ty (59:57): We talked about them in passing at the top because I talked about them too long last year.

Dan (01:00:01): Right.

Ty (01:00:01): But Arkansas State and South Alabama.

Dan (01:00:05): I think they could be in the mix. Obviously, quality coach, they finished strong last season. I don't know if that actually matters that much, but they won close games instead of losing those close games. They're just their offense and defense were both kind of equally bad last year. And when your starting point is having questions at quarterback, receiver, and defensive line like they do this season, their away slate is tough at Memphis, TCU, and Louisiana this season. And Jalen Raynor and the offensive coordinator, and again, it was the whole plane being built out of him last year. He's off to Iowa State. I just think there's too much new without obvious reasons to believe in them replicating where they were last season.

Ty (01:00:46): So their new offensive coordinator is Garrett Altman, who comes over from Vandy, and they're going to try to make the offense a little bit more run-heavy. I always take a step back when it feels to me like an offense is going to change its identity overnight. And it doesn't mean it won't work, but that was very much not what they were a year ago. The plane was built out of Jalen Raynor, and now it's going to be, I think, a lot more run-heavy. And last year's rushing attack. ranked 108th nationally, 121st in yards per rush when you pull out the sacks. So I'm skeptical. I'm skeptical that that can work, which is part of like my skepticism, part of my skepticism on the Red Wolves.

Dan (01:01:34): I don't hate them gambling on what should be a physical talent in Trey Owens, the Texas transfer. I mentioned questions at receiver. I think it's just the depth at receiver. There's a couple of guys who I think could provide for star power, at least among the offensive skill group. But no, I'm just I'm not there with Arkansas State right now with what they might have to contend with. And that I just don't think the offense will be good enough to overcome the defense.

Ty (01:02:01): I like that South Alabama has a quarterback named Bishop.

Dan (01:02:04): Yep, that's right. We've got lunch, goose, and bishop. Carlos. Okay. South Alabama. They brought in old friend Todd Orlando to help with the disastrous defense.

Ty (01:02:16): A Todd Orlando defense pinning its ears back, aggressive and attacking.

Dan (01:02:19): So that's what. Major Applewhite, Todd Orlando, Houston connection. Although I don't know if they overlapped at Houston, but there's that connection. They lost a bunch from a really good run game from a year ago. They get Tulane and Kentucky early. The November slate could be tough. They just they better get better at throwing the ball. Couldn't get much worse, it seems.

Ty (01:02:43): All right. Let me flip back over to the east.

Dan (01:02:46): Please. Okay..

Ty (01:02:47): I feel like you need to talk more about James Madison. We talked about JMU kind of in passing. We both like JMU. I think right now, if I am picking my conference championship game, it's probably JMU against Louisiana.

Dan (01:03:03): Okay. They have a tough schedule because the East is better. JMU's at ODU, which I like the Monarchs this year. They host Marshall and they host Troy. So that's like all within a month. So, Billy Napier needs to figure it out pretty early on. I think a lot of people have liked what he's done in the portal. Like, he's been very aggressive, and obviously, given what JMU lost, needed to be. I like JMU. I just think it's going to take a minute, given the expectation, given the pressure, coming in from Florida, given his Sun Belt experience, that I just think it's going to take a minute.

Ty (01:03:41): Okay.

Dan (01:03:41): Do you feel different? I mean, obviously, you feel differently.

Ty (01:03:43): No, I don't. I just feel like we're coming off a couple of years now of penciling JMU in as that team. And I don't even dislike the hire. I think the Billy Napier hire actually makes a lot of sense. I think they'll be fine. But this is the first year in a bit where I'm not looking at JMU and just kind of passively putting them into the conference championship game. So that, that in and of itself is different.

Dan (01:04:10): You're banking on program support. You're banking on the best of Billy Napier. You're banking on transfers because I think there were four out of 27 dudes with starting experience who are back. So the returning production is nothing you can count on. So I still think they're going to be good. I think it's a place you can win, and there is something to that. That culturally, JMU has built itself into something relevant. I just I don't know, man. I think it's a transition season.

Ty (01:04:34): It's a transition. It's, you know, anytime I see four-way quarterback battle, I'm like, ooh, hey, you know, that's that's different, especially for this team that's been so good for so long.

Dan (01:04:39): Yeah, exactly.

Ty (01:04:45): So, okay, so we're still on JMU.

Dan (01:04:47): Yeah, it's a Memphis backup, a UCF backup, and a couple of other guys. Yeah.

Ty (01:04:52): We're still on JMU. We're both on ODU in there. And then to round it out, Marshall? Georgia Southern, App State, Coastal Carolina slash the Petrino El Camino, and Georgia State. Georgia State probably at the bottom. Among those other teams there, some of which we mentioned just kind of in passing, what stands out to you?

Dan (01:05:16): Marshall. I think Marshall is going to be a quality team, hopefully, maybe, sort of. Brad Lambert's back. He was very good for them as defensive coordinator before. Tried his hand at, I think, what, Wake and Purdue. So there's that. He's been a successful defensive coordinator there and as a defensive head coach.

Ty (01:05:32): There's no continuity on defense.

Dan (01:05:34): There's zero there.

Ty (01:05:35): Yeah, there's nothing on defense.

Dan (01:05:38): But if you vaguely like the defensive coaches and you need the bodies, it doesn't matter how smart you are at coaching them up. You need the bodies there. But Marshall has a quarterback who was successful last year in Carlos Del Rio-Wilson. So that starting point is interesting. The transfers are going to have to pop just like everywhere else. As you mentioned, a lot new on defense. They passed alright. They ran all right last season. I think Tony Gibson's a good coach. It's a tough schedule. They're at James Madison and at Old Dominion. They open at Penn State, so they get the opening salvo of the Matt Campbell era. I think they're going to be fine. They didn't finish strong last year, but they were close and they beat ODU last year. Again, this is last year's squad. I'm not sure how much it matters this year, but at least you can count on some vibes. Georgia Southern lost basically all of its offensive starters, which is not great news when their defense was terrible last year and is not expected to be significantly better than that this year. Georgia State, there's a case that they were, I'm moving on from Georgia Southern, Georgia State, excuse me. There is a case that Georgia State was the worst FBS team in America last year.

Ty (01:06:46): Yes.

Dan (01:06:48): Del McGee's got a lot of work ahead of him.

Ty (01:06:48): Yes.

Dan (01:06:52): If anything good happens with Georgia State this year, anywhere on this team, that'll be an improvement. They probably have a pretty good quarterback, or at least the numbers seemed pretty good when he took over last year. But otherwise, there's just not a lot to like with Georgia State.

Ty (01:07:08): Well, and so we're going into Year 3 of Del McGee. Year 1, they won three games, went 3-9. And I remember when we previewed Del McGee's, if memory serves, he was sort of like a late hire.

Dan (01:07:21): Yeah, from Georgia.

Ty (01:07:22): From Georgia, and he was a guy who had familiarity with the region.

Dan (01:07:23): Yeah.

Ty (01:07:27): He was a coach that was, you know, very much kind of on the upswing. And so winning three games, even just three games, was seen as like a huge success in Year 1 and something that they could build on. But then last year, 1-11, 0-8 in conference, it sort of bottomed out. Defensively, they figured to be just per preseason projections the 137th-best defense, which they're now 138 teams. So that's not saying a whole lot. And on offense, it's not much better, 120th. So they've definitely got an uphill climb in front of them.

Dan (01:08:04): Yes. I'm not crazy about Coastal this year, even with your Petrino El Camino. They were just so bad last year. And I do like Ryan Beard and what he was able to do at Missouri State. But I just think it's going to take time. I think there are just teams in this division, in this conference, that are farther or further ahead. And then App State, I wish I could feel better about them, but they're another team with, if the starting point is quarterback questions, new coordinator, the secondary is a huge question, and they were kind of equally bad offensively and defensively last year. And they finished, I think they lost six of seven to finish out the year. And a couple of those were two or three of those were close. But I'm just I don't know, I'm kind of out on the app state vibes at the moment.

Ty (01:08:46): Man, I don't. I was really high on Dowell Loggains last year. You may recall this was one of those transfer experiments where he brought a bunch of new guys in and they were seeing it as a necessary program reboot. They went 5-8. But like you said, lost six of their final seven. They threw it pretty well. They couldn't run at all. They went three and out a lot. And it was another example of a defense led by D.J. Smith trying to dial up pressure, create havoc, create some of those game-changing moments, but they couldn't stop the pass. They couldn't cover the backside, Dan. It's very important to cover the backside. They gave up nearly 270 yards per game through the air. And so now it's again a rebuild. There's like more than 60 newcomers. There's not a lot of returning production. In a sense, they are kind of starting back over. You mentioned Malachi Singleton, likely the QB1, who looked good in spring and is more of a dual threat guy, gives them some options. I don't know. Like, they're going to now try and craft an RPO offense around a dual threat guy. It only works if the line is solid and healthy, and I don't know if they'll be solid or healthy. They weren't healthy this spring. So whether or not that works in year two as they experiment again should be pretty interesting.

Dan (01:10:08): Yeah, I maybe you're higher on what they're able to do through the air than I was last season, the A.J. Swann era. I just I just think they need a lot more.

Ty (01:10:16): Well, relative, relative to the run, they threw it pretty well.

Dan (01:10:19): I guess.

Ty (01:10:19): Let's put it that way.

Dan (01:10:20): Yeah. Yeah. So I think they're lower middle of that division and conference as a whole.

Ty (01:10:26): All right. So I've got JMU, Louisiana, I think, is going to be my final answer. And I'll pick JMU to win it. But I do think it will be a lot closer this year than it had been for the last two. What's your title game and who's your pick?

Dan (01:10:43): Old Dominion, Troy.

Ty (01:10:46): Okay, going a different direction. I like that.

Dan (01:10:47): Monarchs winning the whole thing.

Ty (01:10:50): Ricky Rahne, man. He'd probably get a Power Four job if he wins it.

Dan (01:10:55): Likely, yeah, absolutely. Sure.

Ty (01:10:58): He's done a good job. All right, shall we close this thing out?

Dan (01:11:13): The MAC.

Ty (01:11:15): The MAC is a poor man's ACC this year.

Dan (01:11:19): Okay.

Ty (01:11:20): Because you got a Miami, likely a Miami at the top.

Dan (01:11:23): All right, yeah, true. Sac State..

Ty (01:11:23): And then a whole bunch of conversation over who's next. You also got the random West Coast presence now because Sacramento State has joined. Sacramento State has joined. It's a very, very weird set of circumstances that brought Sacramento State into this conference. They are jumping from the Big Sky. They are a football-only member. They are doing it under a first-year head coach who is facing a full roster reset. They also, if you go back and listen to the 101 episode that we did, they are covering airfare. They are paying a third of their entry fee up front. There's just a whole lot of reasons why this doesn't seem like it makes a whole lot of sense, but they are dead set and determined to get into this conference, and they see football as sort of the thing at Sac State. They want to make it a thing, more of a thing than it's already been. So, look, far be it from us to root against them. We do get a Ball-Sac reference that we can make through like time and again now.

Dan (01:12:26): We get the Ball-Sac'd.

Ty (01:12:30): As a result of these two teams playing each other, TBD.

Dan (01:12:32): Will we do a live watch along? TBD.

Ty (01:12:36): TBD. The top two in this conference are Miami (Ohio) and Western Michigan, and I don't think it's close.

Dan (01:12:44): I think that's likely correct, yeah.

Ty (01:12:46): Those are the top two teams. The bottom is Akron, Kent State, Sac State, Ball State, and UMass, I think in that order. And then in the middle, the meaty middle, I've got Toledo, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Bowling Green, Ohio, and Eastern Michigan.

Dan (01:13:09): Yay, EMU returns a ton, right? That would be the case.

Ty (01:13:14): That order could look however you want. All right. So the top is in that order. The bottom is in that order. The middle. Choose your own adventure.

Dan (01:13:25): And they're sort of a bizarro American. There's a bunch of teams that have recently and should still have really good defenses. This isn't your father's 51-50 NIU Toledo shootout, right? A lot of strong defenses leading the way, obviously, last year, Western Michigan wins the conference behind its defense. Miami and Chuck Martin have long had a very good defense leading the way. And Toledo has been in that camp. There's just been a lot of those teams. Ohio has been more balanced, have had the offense and defense recently. But teams winning the MAC are not doing so on the back, the back MAC, the MAC back of 42 to 39 games.

Ty (01:14:08): The guy on Miami (Ohio) that I'm most excited about is Rodney Nelson. He is the running back transfer who comes over from Monmouth. He ran for 1,800 yards and 18 touchdowns. You put that behind a line that figures to be the best in the conference, and that's going to create a problem. That's it. That's the full stop.

Dan (01:14:33): I've been to Monmouth.

Ty (01:14:34): I mean, yeah.

Dan (01:14:35): I went to a horse race there. It was pretty fun.

Ty (01:14:38): I think that combination is what excites me the most.

Dan (01:14:41): Okay.

Ty (01:14:42): I don't know what to think about quarterback. Thomas Gotkowski factors in to be the number one guy. We'll see. We'll see what this looks like. But for my money, Miami is probably the one that I am most excited about. I like their defense. Western Michigan, as you mentioned, Western Michigan started the year 0-3 last year. They were 4-4 at the end of October. They flipped the switch. They end up going 4-0 in November. They end up winning the MAC title over Miami. And then they blow out Kennesaw State in the Myrtle Beach Bowl 41-6.

Dan (01:15:21): And to be fair, it's a MAC team, which means they started out their season against Michigan State, Illinois, and in this case, a close loss to North Texas, who is on the verge of winning a conference.

Ty (01:15:31): Correct.

Dan (01:15:31): Yeah.

Ty (01:15:31): They are good enough to repeat as the MAC champion because the offense has a very clear identity, because they've got a quarterback who is probably the league's best returning offensive player in Broc Lowry? They've got a really deep backfield. They've got a good line, a big line in the MAC. And the secondary is probably the best in the conference. So there's a lot to like about the Broncos this year. They also have enough continuity in a conference that has no continuity. Which is why they're going to stay in the top tier. The case against Western Michigan is very specific to the defense and the defensive front, so you think of that in terms of like how do they match up against Miami (Ohio), which is going to try to run behind a big offensive line and a running back that I think we're excited about.

Dan (01:16:17): Rodney Nelson from Monmouth.

Ty (01:16:19): Rodney Nelson from Monmouth. So it's going to be a question of what they can do with their defensive front and whether Greer Martini, do you remember the name Greer Martini from Notre Dame?

Dan (01:16:32): No, this would be an all you situation.

Ty (01:16:35): Greer Martini is their defensive coordinator. Can they generate enough pressure, can they figure out that defensive front before the schedule gets tough for them in conference?

Dan (01:16:45): Because they lost their defensive coordinator is with the Chargers. Yeah.

Ty (01:16:48): That's correct. So for me, it's a two-horse race at the top. I think Western Michigan and Miami (Ohio) are going to end up playing each other. I tend to favor Western Michigan. I like their continuity. I'm not sure what to expect at quarterback from Miami (Ohio). I like Rodney Nelson. I know Bill Connelly is like crazy for Rodney Nelson.

Dan (01:17:11): Great. From Monmouth.

Ty (01:17:12): He thinks he's going to be a superstar from Monmouth where they have the horse races and everything. But if the quarterback situation at Miami isn't good, if they need to transition to David McComb, their transfer from Kansas. If the pass rush doesn't give them what they need, there are plenty of reasons to think that Miami isn't the clear favorite and that there are flaws that a team like Western can exploit. But those are my top two.

Dan (01:17:40): Has there ever been a quarterback at Miami (Ohio) where you've been like, all right, now that they have this guy? They are like, it's never mattered, like since Big Ben, I guess.

Ty (01:17:47): Since Big Ben, yeah, Big Ben is yeah, probably the last one.

Dan (01:17:51): Yeah, so I'm not terribly concerned. Like, it's death, taxes in Miami competing for the MAC. So. I think I like Miami a touch more than Western Michigan just because of the changes on the Western Michigan defense. I would go RedHawks there, but those are the two that I have separating as well.

Ty (01:18:07): Let me jump to the bottom of the conference. I'll give you a quip on each team and then we'll go through the meaty middle and we'll put a bow on this thing. All right. The Akron case is interesting just because I think Joe Moorhead has done a better job than most realize. Bear in mind, they were playing under APR penalties, which meant that they could not go to a bowl game and they had limited practice hours. Still, still, they went 5-7 last year and 4-4 in conference.

Dan (01:18:33): They finished the season winning three of four. Their defense, they gave up big plays, but was totally fine. And the starting point that Joe Moorhead had at Akron, and you mentioned the APR stuff. And so, if they have to fix offense and he's gotten, like, it's like Michael Johnson has come over from Penn State, like they've gotten some quarterbacks in there. Ben Finley started last year. I'm zany for the Zips. I hope it works out.

Ty (01:18:57): Their new quarterback is Reese Poffenbarger. Remember that guy?

Dan (01:19:00): Fourteenth school.

Ty (01:19:02): Reese Poffenbarger, I think there are enough pieces back on offense that they can take a step forward.

Dan (01:19:09): If they're anything better than bad, it's a bowl team, maybe.

Ty (01:19:14): Yeah, there is a roster reset afoot, but, um, Akron I think is a nice story. On the Kent State side of things, we're not really used to talking about Kent State as being like anything other than 0-12 as they were in 2024.

Dan (01:19:29): This is Mark Carney, right?

Ty (01:19:31): Mark Carney.

Dan (01:19:31): It's an unbelievable job.

Ty (01:19:32): Unbelievable job. So they elevated him on an interim basis. They end up going 5-7 last year. It has been miraculous what they have done at Kent State. So the fact that they are no longer the automatic de facto basement dweller is incredible. It is incredible. Regression could still happen. They could still be very bad. They probably will be very bad. But just the fact that they are here at all, and not like dreadful. The fact that they have a real quarterback and Drew Deshields who had a good year last year, all of these things, all these things I think are really positive for Kent State. So I'm not going to make any grandiose predictions here, but I do like at least sort of the journey there.

Dan (01:20:20): Vibes seem good. And look, Akron and Kent State, colon, we're not UMass. Right?

Ty (01:20:26): They're not UMass.

Dan (01:20:26): That's something.

Ty (01:20:27): They're not UMass. The Sac State thing has been much talked about. So I won't go into a ton of detail there, but I will highlight their head coach Alonzo Carter, who has been all about Sac State football for, like, the last 10 years, he has been applying to this job per a podcast I heard from the G5 Hive, the Worker Bee series that I spotlighted a year ago. They had on Jack Dannen, who is a Sacramento State reporter. And he talked ad nauseum about how this coach has been applying for this job for 10 years.

Dan (01:21:09): Wow, okay.

Ty (01:21:11): And there is value. Say what you want. I know it's a weird situation. I'm not expecting any great things out of the Hornets. But there is value in the guy who wants the job the most.

Dan (01:21:23): He wants to be there, yes, absolutely.

Ty (01:21:24): He wants to be there. And this is a program that has had three coaches in three seasons. It was Troy Taylor, then Andy Thompson. Brennan Marion was there for a hot minute. Now we've got this guy, Alonzo Carter, who wants to be there. We'll see what they look like.

Dan (01:21:38): Look, if you were to just tell me Alonzo Carter wants to be at Sac State, they're going to have an uphill battle this year. Sidebar, he was MC Hammer's backup dancer for a certain amount of time. Like, I'm sorry. Should you have led with that? Should we have started with the Alonzo Carter as MC Hammer's backup dancer?

Ty (01:21:59): Yeah, yeah.

Dan (01:21:59): Because he most certainly was.

Ty (01:22:02): Ball State was 0-7 on the road last year. They finished 4-8. They do not have a lot back at all. The defense returns 24%, second worst in all of college football. My low-key favorite quarterback battle is at Ball State, though. Because it is between a guy by the name of Keldric Luster and Tyler Mizzell. I want Keldric Luster in the worst way to play quarterback at Ball State. Because Keldric Luster, in and of himself, is kind of a ball. He is 5-10, 248 on the Ball State official team website. That dude is a bowling ball with eyes. I want him to play in the worst way.

Dan (01:22:47): Okay. Have you watched the film cutups? Can you tell me about his game?

Ty (01:22:51): I can't tell you anything about his game.

Dan (01:22:53): Okay. Okay.

Ty (01:22:54): I'm not even going to fake it.

Dan (01:22:55): Okay.

Ty (01:22:56): I just saw 5-10, 248 and I said, hell yeah. So, Verballerhood, join me in rooting for Keldric. And to close things out on the bottom tier UMass was 0-12 last year. They finished dead last in the SP. They were not good. They do have like, relatively decent returning production for whatever that's worth for you. The best thing you can say is that they'll probably be more competitive. provided they stay healthy. Remember all the talk about Pop Watson on one of our old Virginia Tech previews? Pop Watson, this, Pop Watson that. Pop Watson is now at UMass, he is a local kid. They should be better, but it's hard to get much worse.

Dan (01:23:47): Fair.

Ty (01:23:47): That's all I can really say.

Dan (01:23:47): Okay. By the way, I'm on Keldric Luster's Instagram page. He unfortunately is not built like a giant ball.

Ty (01:23:54): No, come on.

Dan (01:23:55): He's just not tall and a little bit thick, but he seems athletic and capable.

Ty (01:24:00): Can we paint the portrait of him being a ball at 5-10, 248?

Dan (01:24:04): Man, I wish. He just he kind of just is looks like he's listed at 227 when he was at SMU. Maybe he's added some mass and muscle. He kind of just seems built like Diego Pavia or something. I hate bursting bubbles and raining on parades and being wet blanket. It's just he's not who was the Ole Miss defensive tackle/quarterback What was his name?

Ty (01:24:31): I forget. I know who you mean. Yeah.

Dan (01:24:37): I'm gonna, this is gonna drive me crazy. Continue.

Ty (01:24:40): Let's close this out, okay? I got Toledo, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Bowling Green, Ohio, and Eastern Michigan. I'm going to rip through these quick. Toledo lost Jason Candle. What is it? Campbell? Candle. Also, as he went to UConn, he lost a major chunk of the roster, which followed him out. They hired the guy from Mercer, Mike Jacobs. The appeal here is that he has won 42 games in four years.

Dan (01:25:09): I like him. Mercer..

Ty (01:25:11): Yeah. I still think this is one of the better teams in the conference. It's been a huge roster drain. They only returned 33%. They lose their top seven statistical defenders from last year's team. But I still think this is going to be a solid team because I still think this is a solid coach. Mike Jacobs is sort of importing his ecosystem over from Mercer, which has been successful. It's just a question of can he scale it up? Right. Will it work at this level? They added 35 transfers, most from Mercer, a bunch of smaller school guys. We'll see if they translate. My bigger question about Toledo is on defense because the defense has been so good for so long, and it feels like they are now replacing; it's not just replacing starters, but they're kind of like replacing the identity that has been the driving force behind Toledo.

Dan (01:26:04): Sure. Longtime defensive coordinator. And to be clear, Mike Jacobs has exclusively won.

Ty (01:26:10): Yes.

Dan (01:26:10): He's kind of like a Kalen DeBoer type, although he hasn't just proven it on this level quite yet.

Ty (01:26:13): Yes.

Dan (01:26:16): So I thought it was a savvy hire, and I assume you agree. By the way. Jeremy Liggins, that Ole Miss.

Ty (01:26:22): Oh, that's it.

Dan (01:26:22): Giant, yeah, giant quarterback, short-yardage package.

Ty (01:26:23): That's it. That's it.

Dan (01:26:25): Yeah.

Ty (01:26:26): Buffalo, Buffalo, another team doesn't return anybody. I like Pete Lembo, though, the coach. I think Pete Lembo is really good. He's in year three, but this is a reset. They went 5-7. Last year, that was after they went 9-4 in Year 1 under Pete Lembo. They were unbeaten when they scored 28 points, which I guess you could say about a lot of teams.

Dan (01:26:48): Yeah, their defense was totally good.

Ty (01:26:50): The defense is what kept the floor from falling out. They were fine on defense, but the roster got stripped back again. Both their quarterbacks from last year are gone. Their top rusher is gone. The top two receivers. There's just a lot that they need to replace. Their edge production is pretty much all gone. The schedule is not bad for Buffalo. They have seven home games, they have two FCS opponents. And I think there is some wiggle room here to project Buffalo into the upper middle tier, but I can't go much beyond that. I do like the coach, though.

Dan (01:27:30): Yeah, they finished competing, but ultimately I think they lost three of four to finish the year last year.

Ty (01:27:35): I think Central Michigan is sort of a dark-horsey type of team in the MAC, provided their offense can stabilize. I think the line is one of the better units on paper. They should be solid there. They've got a good target out wide. They're good in the backfield. I think there are plenty of reasons to feel positive about Central Michigan, but the defense is a question. The defense is like the limiter.

Dan (01:28:03): One of the few teams that has a defensive question and should be okay on offense.

Ty (01:28:09): Dude, it's the case for all these teams.

Dan (01:28:11): Well, no. A lot of these teams have defensive questions or excuse me, defensive identities of the past few years and offensive questions. Seems to be the flip, but yeah.

Ty (01:28:23): I think this is probably like a bowl-adjacent team. That beats the bottom of the league, probably gets exposed by the top half, but has enough there. I like Matt Drinkall. I like their coach. I think he's decent. But I can't go much higher than, again, upper middle class.

Dan (01:28:40): By the way, Central Michigan, they have to travel to New Mexico, they have a Patriot League game, and they travel to Miami. One of the more interesting non-conference portions of their schedule.

Ty (01:28:52): Bowling Green, I'm going to refer to as Real World Austin because the whole thing comes down to transfer quarterback Austin Novosad.

Dan (01:28:55): Okay.

Ty (01:29:02): You know him?

Dan (01:29:03): From Oregon, sure.

Ty (01:29:05): And Austin Dendy, who is their running back, in addition to Jyron Johnson, who is their first team All-MAC tight end.

Dan (01:29:08): Okay.

Ty (01:29:15): So those three guys, basically the two Austins, but also Johnson at tight end, I think is what I am watching the most. Their offensive line is resetting. Bowling Green can probably, if you squint, get to six and six and make year two feel like they're taking another step forward under Eddie George. But they were frisky. If the quarterback, if the line issues look in 2026 like they did in 2025. It could be like another repeat of 4-8.

Dan (01:29:53): They were competitive in losses, and they beat Toledo last year. They somehow were able to get by the mighty Leopards of Lafayette to open up their season last season. They had association with Drew Pyne in 2025.

Ty (01:30:07): No, God. Yes, they did.

Dan (01:30:10): So things are looking up.

Ty (01:30:13): Who do I got left here? I got Ohio and I got EMU.

Dan (01:30:17): Okay, EMU's got a lot back.

Ty (01:30:19): EMU's got a ton back. A ton back. They were one of the teams that kept their roster together in a conference that nobody kept their roster together. Noah Kim is back. Remember him? Noah Kim had stops at Michigan State, at Coastal Carolina. He's been at Eastern Michigan. Here's a fact for you: Eastern Michigan, now with Noah Kim, he will be their first back-to-back starting quarterback in 10 years.

Dan (01:30:47): Good, continuity.

Ty (01:30:50): 10 years. This is the thing, though, with the returning production stat. You can't always take it at face value. This was a workable offense. Defense was obviously a problem. Close to 415 yards per game allowed. They gave up 230 on the ground, just having that returning production doesn't really mean all that much. So, this will actually be an interesting test of what Bill Connelly, friend from ESPN.com, what Bill always says about returning production. Getting a year older, does that make you any better? We'll see with Eastern Michigan. But I like Noah Kim. I like that there is at least a lot back from a year ago, and I'm curious to see if they take a step forward. And then to close things out, it's Ohio. The Bobcats, man, they're trying to like hold the program standard together. They're rebuilding almost their entire offensive two-deep. After a 9-4 season last year, they beat UNLV in the Frisco Bowl. They've got a bunch of wins over the last couple of seasons, but this roster is completely gutted. 18% returning production on offense, which is dead last in FBS. So this was like a Parker Navarro offense, right? He's out. Like the defense still looks okay. Ohio has leaned into the whole continuity and development thing. They're going to try and like play that back, but this is still mostly a rebuilt everything. Did the defensive coordinator change? They need to develop a lot if, I think, they want to continue kind of at the standard that they are used to. I am not banking on that. So I would, even though I put Ohio in here, it was mostly because of what Ohio has done, I would say, in the recent past.

Dan (01:32:39): They had a really nice year last year, all things considered, with everything that went on in the program. I think they did they should have beaten Rutgers, I want to say, to start the year, right? It was either a last-second or an overtime game. So they had that. They lose to Western Michigan in November when Western Michigan made their run. But yeah, I mean, look, everybody's, not everybody. A lot of these teams are reloading for one reason or another. Ohio is that place where everybody seems to win a lot. So I understand why you would put them there. There is something about the place in this case. Yeah, I'm in on the Bobcats.

Ty (01:33:16): My champion is going to be Western Michigan. I'm going to take Western Michigan, like I said at the top, over Miami (Ohio).

Dan (01:33:24): I think I'm with you. A repeat there.

Ty (01:33:27): There you go, Dan. About an hour and a half, three conferences. Give or take, a half hour apiece.

Dan (01:33:31): Yep.

Ty (01:33:35): Hope you enjoyed it. Hope you got something out of it.

Dan (01:33:38): Where are we doing UConn and Notre Dame?

Ty (01:33:41): We can do Notre Dame with the ACC. You want to do UConn on the next episode? Maybe we can include UConn with the Mountain West just for kicks.

Dan (01:33:48): Give it up.

Ty (01:33:49): We'll include UConn on the next episode.

Dan (01:33:52): If you can include the mountainous region of Northern Illinois with the Mountain West, there's no reason you can't enjoy the West conversation with UConn.

Ty (01:34:03): All right, that does it again for the American, the Sun Belt and the MAC. solidverbal@gmail.com is where you can go. If you want to reach out, let us know your thoughts on anything you heard here today. We will be back on our next episode previewing the other three Group of Six. Dan Rubenstein, a pleasure as always. Good knowledge here today. We did a good job. Did you come up with any kind of subtitle other than that subtitle?

Dan (01:34:32): Well, I was turned down. No, I don't think so. I think we can call it G6, and you just instead of filling the glory hole as you've suggested, I just fill your hearts with whatever you think G6 stands for, you don't have to look at it in sort of a lesser connotation. Use it in a superior connotation because we get to focus on the hectic, explosive, regular season that should present itself with Sun Belt, MAC and American Conference football.

Ty (01:35:05): Thank you to one and all for downloading, for listening, for supporting. Hopefully, you got something out of this. For that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubenstein, for myself over here, Ty Hildenbrandt, Eastern PA. We will be back next time. to talk more G6. In the meantime, stay solid.