ACC Preview Part 2 — Power Cleaned Transcript
Source: transcript(2).txt
Speakers: Ty Hildenbrandt and Dan Rubenstein
Format: Speaker labels and timestamps preserved
Transcript
Ty Hildenbrandt — 00:18
Dan Rubenstein, welcome back to a little show we like to call The Solid Verbal. Today it is ACC Part 2. We've got nine teams on the menu for today. We've got Miami, SMU, Florida State, Virginia, Pitt, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Stanford and a little old team known as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. We didn't know where else to put Notre Dame. It seemed as if they fit neatly into this category, especially since on today's episode we'll be talking about the Miami Hurricanes. And as you know, Miami and Notre Dame are inextricably linked in more ways than just one. They obviously play a little bit later on in the season. We will get into all of that and much, much more. Welcome back, my friend. How are you?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:05
Good. Woke up yesterday with maybe some knee tendinitis. Doctor quickly said, 'You've probably been carrying a college football show, and the weight of that creative endeavor is probably weighing on you. So you just have to rest and ice and elevate,' that kind of thing. And then I got to thinking, you know, maybe that's not it. Maybe I'm just empathizing with the Miami experience in this conference: carrying, as an ACC championship-eligible program, this conference forward into 2026. So I'm doing really well. I like a lot of these teams that we're going to be talking about today, so I'm excited to do so and figure out where they fit in the hierarchy. I mean, we talked about that in Part 1, but now that we're diving more deeply into these teams, I'm excited to figure out how we both feel.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:55
I have a sneaking suspicion that you're going to like most of these teams more than I like most of these teams.
Dan Rubenstein — 02:01
That could be.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 02:02
I have picked up subtle hints along the way, and perhaps we can unpack that a little bit more. I don't know if it's my bias sneaking in. I don't know if it's, in some cases, the scar tissue rearing its ugly head. But among these nine teams that we're going to discuss here today, usually I'm the one pumping the sunshine. My hunch is that you might be a little bit more Captain Sunshine than me today.
Dan Rubenstein — 02:28
There are a number of buy-low candidates, which is why I'm spearheading the Davis Warren Commission, Ty. Now, I am not spearheading that commission.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 02:38
Don't do it, don't do it.
Dan Rubenstein — 02:42
No, there are a number of—when you look at the quarterbacks on a number of these teams, when you look at the situations on a number of these teams, when you look at where they were or weren't last year, with Notre Dame just deciding that they couldn't compete in the Pop-Tarts Bowl—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 02:56
Okay.
Dan Rubenstein — 02:56
That they were just like—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 02:57
All right.
Dan Rubenstein — 02:58
You know, we've sort of hit our limit in terms of competition, and we know when to call it a season. So there are a number of buy-low candidates. There are a number of teams where the constraints are actually what make them interesting, and potentially you're like, okay, how are they going to play around this obvious deficiency? How are they going to scheme up their offense knowing they don't have this? Or how are they going to get off the field on defense knowing that these players walked out the door? What is the creative thing that's going to be happening here? So that, to me, is always actually kind of an exciting angle to talk about with a lot of these teams. Do you talk about an angle in, with? I don't know, but that's an interesting pursuit, I think.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 03:43
So look, this is going to be our fifth preview episode that we drop to the feed when people listen to this. The first four have done really, really well. It is clear from our vantage point that the college football public, certainly the Verballerhood, is starved for some actual football. And so we're happy to bring that to you. If you enjoy what you hear here today, what you watch on our YouTube channel, please hit follow or subscribe so that you do not miss any of the additional episodes coming. Again, we're doing three-parters for all of the Power Four conferences, so there is a long way still to go. We'll be running those consecutively. I think we've got a little bit of a buffer there in case any news breaks, but for the most part, consecutively until we get through all of the power conferences. Please feel free to tell your friends. Please feel free to go on out to Verballers.com. That is our Patreon, where you can support the team directly if you want to help Dan and me keep the lights on. And last but certainly not least, we've got a bunch of emails that have come in. We do read the emails, even if we don't respond to all of them. solidverbal@gmail.com has been our email address forever. Please reach out if you've got something to say. It is the much more direct path if you want to get our ear, as compared to things like social media, which we sort of moonlight here and there and check in on from time to time. But solidverbal@gmail.com is really the direct line into SVHQ.
Dan Rubenstein — 05:08
I agree.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 05:10
Okay, where would you like to start?
Dan Rubenstein — 05:16
Let's start with the most successful of these teams that we have batched out for Part 2, and that would be the Virginia Cavaliers. They made a conference championship game. Obviously, the cowardice of Notre Dame eliminates them.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 05:32
Okay.
Dan Rubenstein — 05:32
Miami didn't play in the conference championship game last year. I usually like to start with the defending conference champion, having earned the right to sit atop the preview, but we put Duke in Part 3, did we not?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 05:43
We put Duke in Part 3, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 05:45
So I suppose Virginia's breakthrough under Tony Elliott last year means they have emerged as the team that we should start with.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 05:54
Let's start with the Hoos. I should add, full disclosure, you sent me a panicked message this morning on Slack.
Dan Rubenstein — 06:02
Oh, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 06:03
And at first glance, I thought something was wrong. It wasn't a good morning. It wasn't the results of today's MapTap competition that you and I have going on.
Dan Rubenstein — 06:15
Not a sponsor. We would be thrilled to have MapTap as a sponsor.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 06:19
It was a sentence with two expletives about Virginia's schedule.
Dan Rubenstein — 06:24
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 06:24
You think this is a good schedule. I'm not so sure, but I'm asking you to defend yourself right now.
Dan Rubenstein — 06:28
Really?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 06:30
Yes.
Dan Rubenstein — 06:31
Well, I guess I have to pull up the Virginia schedule if you're going to put me on the spot here. Virginia this season features a schedule that starts with NC State, no longer in Rio.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 06:41
Not—not in Rio.
Dan Rubenstein — 06:44
But in Charlottesville, yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 06:45
Yep.
Dan Rubenstein — 06:46
Norfolk State, West Virginia, neutral. Delaware?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 06:51
Okay, Blue Hens. Go Blue Hens.
Dan Rubenstein — 06:53
Florida State on the road.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 06:55
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 06:56
I mean, could be tough, yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 06:58
We'll get to Florida State. It's a nuanced conversation.
Dan Rubenstein — 07:01
But that's maybe a look-ahead spot with Louisville and Miami in the weeks to come. Syracuse at home, so they don't have to go to the JMA Wireless Dome. And, well, who knows what Syracuse is, but they have a ways to go from where they were last year. Hopefully they're healthy at quarterback. SMU away, tough. I think definitely a tough, tough matchup traveling to Dallas. Duke at home, defending champ, but Duke without a lot of what led to those offensive fireworks.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 07:27
Speaking of not knowing what a team is, I have no idea what to expect from Duke, but please continue.
Dan Rubenstein — 07:33
Wake Forest on the road. I like Wake Forest. I don't look at that as obviously dangerous, even though I believe they did nothing offensively against Wake Forest last season.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 07:43
Wake's going to be a pain in the ass this year, again, like they were last year.
Dan Rubenstein — 07:46
Wake can be a pain. I agree. But Virginia lost that game last year, right? So it's a potential revenge spot, and they'll have Virginia's full attention. They did lose that game last year. It was like a low-scoring game, 16-9. After Wake, they have a bye before they host Cal, which is traveling across the country. No doubt Cal's going to be tough, but we don't know what Cal's going to be, especially on defense. It's a pretty big mystery what Cal's defense is going to look like, and it wasn't anywhere near good last year. North Carolina should be improved, especially on offense. Can't go much lower than where they were in the ACC offensively last year.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 08:18
I think they'll be better. I think they'll be better.
Dan Rubenstein — 08:20
But Bobby Petrino adds an element, and they're on the road at Virginia Tech in the Commonwealth Cup. But it's a first-year coach. Don't know what Ethan Grunkemeyer is going to be. They miss Miami, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 08:33
No Miami, no Clemson on this.
Dan Rubenstein — 08:34
No Notre Dame, if I'm not mistaken.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 08:36
No Notre Dame? No.
Dan Rubenstein — 08:38
No Pitt, who could be pretty good.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 08:41
We'll get to Pitt.
Dan Rubenstein — 08:42
We'll get to Pitt. That's all fine. We don't know what Georgia Tech's going to be, but they don't play Georgia Tech, a team that's won a bunch of games the last few years. So, just in terms of what the schedule could be and where their starting point is, which is, to me, promising defense, coaching and coordinator continuity. Quarterback, while not my favorite situation, should be playing behind a good offensive line. I think when you look at the top-tier offensive lines in this conference, Virginia is absolutely in that conversation with what they're returning.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 09:16
Yeah, they are. They are.
Dan Rubenstein — 09:18
So, starting point, schedule, experience at quarterback in major conferences. I'm not going to talk specifically about the ups and downs of that experience with both of these guys, with Beau Pribula and Eli Holstein, but they've been there, okay?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 09:30
I can go there.
Dan Rubenstein — 09:34
I don't know how much I love Virginia, but I like where they're at given that schedule. How about that?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 09:41
What UVA has going for it this year is defense. They could have created a bit more pressure last year, but it was all around pretty solid in all the numbers that we track. This is a top-20 defense. They were really good on third downs, yards per play, all the stuff that we talk about when we do previews. All that fun stuff definitely checks out. This year, per some of the projections, the defense is 20th in the nation, at least in terms of returning production. They're swapping in guys up front that they hope can be a little bit more disruptive. There's a question about health in the back seven. Everyone's got health questions in the back seven this year.
Dan Rubenstein — 10:31
Sure. Yeah, I have health issues in my back seven.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 10:34
Yeah, we've got health issues too. But if it's going to happen for Virginia this year, it's going to be driven by their defense. Offensively, outside of the line, which I agree looks solid, I just—I don't know. There's massive turnover across the board. It seems like it's going to be a Beau Pribula offense at quarterback. It's not official yet. He comes over from Mizzou. If not him, it's going to be Eli Holstein, my one true God, who comes down from Pitt.
Dan Rubenstein — 11:07
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 11:08
Beau is a better runner than Chandler Morris was last year, but I think he's a significant downgrade as a passer. So that's why, if you read some of the practice reports and all the coach quotes thus far this season, everyone's talking about Beau's mobility. They're not talking so much about him as a passer, as a pinpoint-accurate passer. They're talking about, 'Oh, he's good on the run. He's good with RPOs.' So if he's the guy, and I think he will be, we're going to see an offense that's built around Beau's mobility, that's built around their ability to run the ball otherwise. I think it will look a little bit different compared to last season. Doesn't mean it's any better or worse, but definitely different in terms of what UVA is going to be putting out there compared to what we saw last year with Chandler Morris.
Dan Rubenstein — 11:55
The thing to like about UVA is that they pulled out close games last year. There is some sort of proof of concept that Tony Elliott has his dudes prepared to play four quarters-plus, right? The double-overtime game against Florida State. I want to say they beat Louisville in overtime last year as well, when I think the Cardinals came back to tie that game late. There is something there culturally, emotionally, mentally, whatever, that has this team prepared to win close games. The thing I don't love is that some of those close games were against teams like North Carolina and Washington State, where you're like, okay, so they're of that quality, but they're pulling out those games, which you'd much rather have them do. And now that we have that base level, if they're going to get better than that, which I think they do need to do, you can't win eight, nine, 10 games playing everybody, good and not so good, close, because those toss-ups are just not going to go your way mathematically every time. And so, are you going to Beau Pribula your way to more 10-plus-point wins? That would be the case against them: They weren't performing like a top ACC team against mid- or lower-tier teams last season. What have they done this year to say, okay, we're building upon those close wins, and here's how and why?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 13:18
The other bit of hesitation I have about the offense is, if they're going to try to run behind the line and if they're going to try to lean into Beau, if he is the guy, his mobility, I think it means a lot on the ground, probably a lot of shorter stuff through the air. Last year, that was kind of their deal, by the way. This was not the most explosive offense in the world. They were like 83rd in the country in yards per play. So I could see a lot of small ball here without any obvious targets out wide. I was reading one of the reports that had Rico Flores Jr.—do you remember Rico Flores?
Dan Rubenstein — 13:54
This is school number three, Notre Dame UCLA.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 13:56
School number three was at Notre Dame, went to UCLA, now is at UVA.
Dan Rubenstein — 13:57
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 14:00
No disrespect to him, but when I see reports talking about Rico Flores Jr. as potentially wide receiver one, that's where I sort of get off the bus. I'm not really seeing that. So I have questions about the offense and what that looks like. But I would agree, to the extent that the starting point is a pretty good offensive line and a defense that figures to be one of the best in the conference, you could do a lot worse than that. And they'll probably win more games than they lose. They'll probably be in that conversation.
Dan Rubenstein — 14:29
So what you're essentially talking about is Mid-Atlantic Hawkeyes here.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 14:35
Ta-da, ta-da.
Dan Rubenstein — 14:36
Successful small ball built around an offensive line, a specific defensive vision. They were one of the absolute best teams in America at getting off the field and forcing three-and-outs, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 14:44
I don't think they're as physical as Iowa, but, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 14:47
No, no, no. But just the intention, right? The intention. So we can call them I-Hoo-a, right? Would that be accurate? No?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 14:55
I would take Beau Pribula over Mark Gronowski, but I-Hoo-a, yes, we could do that.
Dan Rubenstein — 14:55
Yes? I mean, they're not dissimilar in how Iowa used Gronowski.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 15:04
Oh, my God.
Dan Rubenstein — 15:05
And I guess the best of what Beau Pribula could be, because he's going to be able to offer something, hypothetically, that Chandler Morris was not able to physically, athletically, whatever. So yeah, it's why I like Virginia, but I want them to be better in terms of outpacing the clearly lesser teams in the conference. And I love a team that gets that, like, okay, we won last year. Here are the guys returning who got that taste. Here's what it takes, and here's how we're going to build on it. I don't want to believe it was a mirage. I want to believe there's enough back, that the coordinators got a sense of what works, and that there's more to come, and that they are able to keep identifying dudes who can make a difference on defense especially. Because you're right, this is probably not going to be, with Beau Pribula at the helm, a team that's bombing it downfield successfully like they did way back when with Bryce Perkins.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 16:05
Wow.
Dan Rubenstein — 16:07
That kind of thing. So that's sort of my thing with Virginia. I like them, but I am a little bit afraid to get hurt again.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 16:16
There's a pretty obvious ceiling. That said, in this conference, with a big old meaty middle and no clear delineation with respect to who No. 2 is, you could win with small ball. Against the schedule, you could win with small ball. So I'm with you. I'm optimistic on UVA. I'm probably not as optimistic as you are, but I think we can comfortably say at this point, it's not like they're going to revert back to previous UVA teams, at least not this season, where they go 2-10. This is still a pretty good team that's going to be in the hunt for a good chunk of the year.
Dan Rubenstein — 16:52
Yeah, by the way, I am very excited to figure out who the next Robert Anae is. The Anae-ization of the ACC. Not that the ACC is any different from any other conference.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 17:02
No, no.
Dan Rubenstein — 17:03
But the early one in the running might be Eli Holstein, where Eli Holstein is just collecting passports all over the ACC.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 17:12
He's getting those stamps on the passport.
Dan Rubenstein — 17:14
I hope I'm wrong. But yeah, we're like, he just ends up at Wake next year and then maybe closes things out at NC State or something. Yeah, I think we're vaguely in the same universe with Virginia.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 17:26
We got eight teams left to go, Dog.
Dan Rubenstein — 17:28
Let's do it.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 17:29
Where do you want to go next?
Dan Rubenstein — 17:31
Let's go Miami. Let's go Miami.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 17:32
Miami, here we go. I feel like it's time for Miami to win the damn ACC already, don't you?
Dan Rubenstein — 17:40
It'd be nice closure to them joining the ACC more than 20 years ago. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 17:45
And they feel it too, from what I could gather. This was very much a focus of theirs in the offseason because if you win the league, you don't have to worry about watching that stupid playoff special every Tuesday. If you win the league, you get that free pass in, you get the golden ticket. To state the obvious, as you just alluded, Miami joined the ACC in the year of our Lord 2004, when I graduated college. They still have yet to win this league. So it is time. It is time for Miami. I also think it's obvious that Miami got a taste of success last season and they kept their foot on the gas, which is something I think we maybe don't cover as much as we should. But how many times throughout the course of just us covering this damn sport do you see a team that bubbles up, maybe that's been building for a while, they get to some level of success, and then suddenly they can't maintain it?
Dan Rubenstein — 18:45
Right, for sure.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 18:46
Right? We do not have that in any way, shape or form with this Miami team. Now, there could be injuries. If Darian Mensah gets hurt, if some things go off the swivel, then yeah, maybe that's a different conversation. But this is very much not a team that acted as if they got to where they needed to be and they were cool with it. They very, very much kept their foot on the gas. And I appreciate that. Perhaps some dark arts were required to get Darian Mensah and, by extension, his top target at Duke, Cooper Barkate. But the Canes have definitely answered in a way that I think means that, or at least looks like, they're here to stay.
Dan Rubenstein — 19:26
Definitely.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 19:28
So, I appreciate the killer instinct. I appreciate the roster. I think if Miami takes a step back at all this year, it's because of their lines, which we can discuss here. But everything being said, you and I are both very much in unison here in thinking that Miami is the cream of the crop in the ACC. There's no reason to think otherwise.
Dan Rubenstein — 19:50
Yeah, I mean, there's no game on this schedule that will count toward their ACC record, so excluding Notre Dame, that they shouldn't win and be basically heavily favored in. There are certain games that always seem to be closer than they ought to be, like the Florida State matchup always seems to be pretty competitive, if not for a half, then the second half, something like that. No, Miami's battling Miami here, right? It's just going to be a question of, okay, we know Darian Mensah is good. We know he was good for Tulane. We know he was good for Duke. This is a different expectation. He is surrounded by a different level of player, although Cooper Barkate comes with him, the receiver from Harvard to Duke, now to Miami. So he's on his own passport journey. Darian Mensah has, at times, thrown in dud games. Pretty rarely, but that's a concern. He is going to be the expected star player on offense, obviously outside of Malachi Toney and the stable of running backs. Quarterback is just the most important position for the conference favorite, playing with a specific kind of pressure that he has not played under before. Now, he's won the ACC, so there's something there as a quarterback. He's played in big games. He's shown up in big games. But the concern now is: What is Miami doing to put him and this offense in a terrific position? I'm not terribly worried about this defense.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 21:19
No, no.
Dan Rubenstein — 21:19
Now
Ty Hildenbrandt — 21:20
Well, okay. The two points of failure, if you want to call it that, outside of a catastrophic injury. One is the defensive line. I think the defensive line has to take a step back because they lose Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor, both of whom were absolute game-wreckers off the edge last season.
Dan Rubenstein — 21:35
Sure.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 21:36
Like, if you watch them at all last year, those guys were everywhere. They were freaking everywhere. That's why they're both now in the NFL. Obviously, very talented pass rushers. Perhaps more importantly, though, really good edge setters. And we saw that manifest in terms of how they played the run. They were forcing opposing running backs back inside. They weren't getting beat to the outside. It was a huge part of why this Miami defense was so successful last year. This season, they're trying to bring in Damon Wilson II from Mizzou.
Dan Rubenstein — 22:12
They succeeded, by the way. They brought him in.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 22:13
They brought him in.
Dan Rubenstein — 22:14
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 22:15
What I mean, though, is they're trying to bring him in and integrate him as the next big pass rusher, somebody who can provide something of the same disruptive force off the edge. I think he can do a lot of that. I don't think he's as good as an edge-setter. And so I'm curious to see how teams run against Miami, if it looks different this year than it did a year ago, just because they don't have those two anchors on the end of the line, if that makes sense.
Dan Rubenstein — 22:40
I think that's fine. I just don't think there's a team on this schedule, again, that will count toward their ACC record, that is going to be good enough to do it successfully for four quarters to the point where they are winning that game. So I think, if we're going to have a Miami conversation, as sort of presumptuous as this is, it's like: Okay, can they beat a team like Ohio State or Oregon or Texas or Oklahoma or, take your pick, Indiana? Those types of teams, given the changes up front on both sides of the ball. Now, there are guys who are back who played significant minutes on both of these lines.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 23:14
Yeah. Look, don't get me wrong, this is still the best defensive line in the ACC.
Dan Rubenstein — 23:17
This is nitpicking. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 23:19
We're splitting hairs here. I don't think it'll be as dominant, and I do think the run defense is going to be something to watch more closely. But again, I'm splitting hairs here. That's one point of failure. The other point of failure for me is the offensive line, because the offensive line has four new starters. They've got a true freshman at left tackle, some guys changing position. I'm not as worried about this either. I think this is a coaching staff that knows how to coach up a line.
Dan Rubenstein — 23:42
It's the benefit of the doubt, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 23:43
So you give them the benefit of the doubt. Nobody has said anything negative about Jackson Cantwell, the five-star that I just referenced.
Dan Rubenstein — 23:49
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 23:49
I have seen absolutely nothing to indicate that he can't step in right away and be an anchor on the left side. Plug-and-play. So I think they'll be fine, but those are the two things that you look to, I think, immediately when you're trying to figure this team out. Otherwise, barring injury, I think Darian Mensah is, in effect, a RAM upgrade at quarterback.
Dan Rubenstein — 24:13
Yeah, I mean, look, he's had some sloppy moments as a quarterback in lesser games, so it's a bigger stage.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 24:19
Is he better than Carson Beck, in your view?
Dan Rubenstein — 24:22
I think his arm will be better, and he has the ability to throw to an even more evolved Malachi Toney, which is one of the ultimate luxuries of this sport: to have one of the best three receivers in the sport, something like that, at your disposal.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 24:34
Ah, he's a very good man.
Dan Rubenstein — 24:39
And then to have other options. Now, we'll see at tight end, but the running game should be very, very good unless the offensive line just doesn't work out for whatever reason. But the running back room there is deep and dangerous, highlighted, of course, by Mark Fletcher Jr. So it's a question of mistakes on offense. It's a question of—it's probably not in the big games, right? It's the medium-sized games that have troubled this Miami team as a favorite. And so, are they able to shed the slop of those medium-sized games from previous years and come in with a better plan to put a quarterback in position to succeed? If so, there's nothing to worry about when you look at the meat of this schedule. When you look at what Miami has here: Stanford, Wake, Clemson. I mean, Clemson's tough. It's going to be away, but how tough exactly? I'm a little bit limited in my evaluation of Clemson. Florida State, Pitt at home, both of those games at home. North Carolina and Notre Dame in consecutive weeks on the road. Not worried at all about North Carolina with how they match up.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 25:48
Ah, that's a trap spot. That's an interesting trap spot on the road.
Dan Rubenstein — 25:51
It's a look-ahead. It's after Pitt, who could be decent, and it's before Notre Dame, but I don't see North Carolina Billy Edwards-ing their way to a win against Miami. Duke is very much in flux, and Virginia Tech, I think, will be maybe challenging by then, but the game is at home. And they finish with Boston College at home. Essentially, them losing a regular ACC game would be pretty disappointing and unlikely.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 26:20
The over-under is 10.5 for Miami. I think I take the over.
Dan Rubenstein — 26:27
I think so.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 26:27
I think I would take the over. And I know, I've told the joke here on the show countless times. It's not even a specific joke, but I've referenced these brain farts that we've seen Miami have. I just don't see it. I think they're better at quarterback. We could talk about Malachi Toney and Mark Fletcher Jr. and Cooper Barkate and all the weapons that they have, but provided the line doesn't bottom out on offense, they're going to be fine. Just as good, maybe even better. I talk about the defensive line, which again is splitting hairs. The strength of this defense now actually shifts to the back four because this is one of the best secondaries in the country. Even if they're weaker in the front seven, Dan, they're not going to get burned through the air. So if you want to beat them, you're going to need a good running game. Frankly, if you look at the schedule, which you just referenced, I'm not sure anyone on this schedule has a good enough running game to deal with that. I'm just not. So I don't know how you go at this defense based on what I'm seeing elsewhere in the ACC.
Dan Rubenstein — 27:22
No, the secondary is stacked, linebacker has a ton of experience, and—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 27:24
And the schedule. The schedule is really good.
Dan Rubenstein — 27:27
And the hidden thing with this schedule, too, is they don't have a random Week 7 Friday night in Berkeley or in Dallas, right? There's no long trip in the middle of the season. I want to say they open at Stanford, which we don't exactly know what Stanford's going to be like under Tavita Pritchard, but we have a pretty good concept that they don't have a roster to beat Miami in Week 1. So I like the advantage of not having that cross-country travel, because they probably should have lost that Cal game a couple of years ago. But otherwise, I just think it works out really well. And if we're previewing Notre Dame on this episode, we should mention that game looms huge, not necessarily—obviously not necessarily—for an ACC record, but as a measuring stick as to where both of these programs are midyear, when that was the game last year that essentially decided who would or wouldn't be in the College Football Playoff.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 28:26
I mean, I don't think you could ask for a better schedule. The toughest game is Week 10 on the road at Notre Dame. Not a conference game. Otherwise, outside of a Clemson game in Week 5, everything else of real substance is at home. Again, the over-under is 10.5. I think I'd take the over. I like this team a lot. I was skittish on them last year. That's on me. It was a really, really good team the full way through, even though they had a couple moments here and there. Miami's winning this conference.
Dan Rubenstein — 28:55
I can't wait to see the creativity with which they use Malachi Toney. He's going to get the Steph Curry, Reggie Bush gravitational treatment. They're going to line him up in different places. Defenses are going to have to shade to him, and it's going to open up, in a perfect world for Miami, a ton for this offense.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 29:13
Did we then want to pivot over to Notre Dame?
Dan Rubenstein — 29:16
Sure.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 29:17
So Notre Dame is not in the ACC, not officially. They play a bunch of ACC teams. That's why we're including them here. Also, it keeps things to a nice, round 18. And we don't have eight on one preview and nine on another. So we'll talk about Notre Dame, if only because we're talking about Miami.
Dan Rubenstein — 29:35
And they were the team that the ACC Network put on its airwaves 400 straight times as they were trying to influence the College Football Playoff, with Miami beating Notre Dame last season.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 29:45
That's right, that's right.
Dan Rubenstein — 29:46
So if they're good enough for the ACC Network, they must be good enough for our ACC preview.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 29:48
Right. Okay. This is the best Notre Dame team, at a minimum, since we started our show back in 2008.
Dan Rubenstein — 30:01
Really?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 30:01
Oh, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 30:03
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 30:05
And if I think back to even the better teams we've seen over the last 20 years, there was always an Achilles' heel. There was always a hole that we could talk about openly that everyone knew about that could be exploited. I don't think that's the case this year.
Dan Rubenstein — 30:26
Let's not talk about exploiting holes on this show. There are people listening in the Chrysler Pacificas. Let's just—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 30:32
I don't even want to talk to you about the text message I got from Mama H when he started referencing the glory hole on the Pac-12 preview.
Dan Rubenstein — 30:33
Settle down. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. G6 Football: Filling the Glory Hole.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 30:43
Don't make me talk about that any more than I have to.
Dan Rubenstein — 30:48
Chrysler Pacifica, not a sponsor. Come aboard.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 30:51
All aboard.
Dan Rubenstein — 30:52
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 30:53
This is not the case this year with Notre Dame. This is a very complete team. That's not to say there aren't questions. There are questions, but the types of questions are different, going into now Year 5 under Marcus Freeman.
Dan Rubenstein — 31:06
They're winter-wonder-type questions.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 31:07
Notre Dame is loaded. This team is loaded. I am beyond excited as somebody who roots for Notre Dame. They are loaded. They are No. 1 in the nation in returning production. CJ Carr is one of the favorites for the Heisman Trophy. The offensive line, though there are some new faces, figures to be just as good as advertised, as good as we're used to seeing from a Notre Dame squad. They've got more edge rushers than they know what to do with, and they've easily got one of the best secondaries in the nation. There is a lot to work with here. I don't know where you want me to start. I could probably talk until I'm blue in the face. I've got a lot to say about Notre Dame in 2026. But based on what you have seen, as I guess the objective third party, if you want to call yourself that, which is probably a stretch, where are you at with Notre Dame before I wax poetic?
Dan Rubenstein — 31:59
I think the depth is there for a deep run in the playoff. I think the upside is obvious with this team. I think double-digit wins are sort of a foregone conclusion given this schedule. The question I have with Notre Dame right now, with how the roster is currently constructed, is: If we are buying into the CJ Carr hype, which I think is worthwhile to do, the question with CJ Carr is kind of a data-point thing. They played their biggest games in the first two weeks of his starting career for Notre Dame. He didn't have an incredible game against USC, although I think the weather was pretty shoddy for that one in the rain in South Bend. And he wasn't bad against Miami or Texas A&M early. In fact, he made a bunch of impressive plays, given how it was his first and second start as a Notre Dame quarterback. The question to me is: What kind of push-comes-to-shove quarterback is he? Because they didn't play in January—not making fun of the Pop-Tarts Bowl in this moment—but because they didn't play Ohio State, Oklahoma, Miami again, Oregon, Indiana, that kind of game with CJ Carr.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 33:09
Right.
Dan Rubenstein — 33:12
So you're like, okay, what does he look like in late December, early January? We don't know. When everything—when teams have a full season of tape on him, how do he and Mike Denbrock respond? The other thing is, the gravity on this team last year was next to CJ Carr in the backfield, and both of those dudes, Jadarian Price and Jeremiyah Love, are off to the NFL. It's been a minute since they've had a receiver who has occupied that gravitational space. So if you're asking me what the question is or what I'm interested in with Notre Dame, it's basically, because I don't have a question really about this offensive line, I don't have a question about what the vision for this offense is going to be now that we saw CJ Carr play a lot more fearlessly downfield, it's: Okay, who's scaring the Texas secondary, Oklahoma secondary, LSU secondary, whoever they might end up playing at some point? Who are those dudes that are scaring them? And will it even come close to mattering until then? That's where I still am with Notre Dame because, as you mentioned, I think all three levels of this defense should be good roster-wise. I think they're all kind of coached, though, by guys who are just learning where the bathrooms are in the Notre Dame facility, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 34:31
Well, that's okay. We'll get into this, but yes.
Dan Rubenstein — 34:34
And so it's Chris Ash working with three new dudes on that side of the ball, at least three. But again, these are luxurious questions for Notre Dame in this moment.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 34:44
Okay, so let me start at the top. The biggest question is indeed how Notre Dame is going to replace Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, both of whom went in the first round of the NFL Draft. We do know the way that Mike Denbrock likes to use running backs, with a lot of inside zone and RPOs and stuff like that. So the question is: Who fits that profile currently on the Notre Dame roster? I think first dibs go to Aneyas Williams. Aneyas Williams has been on this roster. We have seen him. He's been very good in the passing game. He just hasn't gotten a lot of work because the other guys have clearly been a little bit more prominent. So we'll see what he looks like in this role. I think it's a fair question. If it's not him, maybe it's Kedren Young as a power back, or Nolan James Jr. or Jonas Walton or some others. Again, you mentioned the depth. There are options here, but in terms of who the gravitational player is going to be that steps up alongside CJ Carr, it's an open question. I agree with you on that front. It's not easy to replace both Love and Jadarian Price. Secondly, then, on the point of CJ Carr, I think the theme of this offense this year will be giving CJ Carr a lot more control than we saw last year, because he really did mature quickly. And there's a case to be made that if they had taken the gloves off sooner, maybe the games against both Texas A&M and Miami, especially Miami, could have gone a little bit differently. He was much more ready than I think a lot of people realized in the moment. There were reports out of spring camp that, of course, brought a tear to my eye, that there was nothing the opposing defense could throw at CJ Carr that he didn't just figure out immediately. And we hear this a lot. This is a very popular spring trope, I get it. But the veteran quarterback, or at least the experienced quarterback, who has the field vision and the football IQ and can just see what's coming at him and can decipher it immediately, that just warms the cockles of my heart.
Dan Rubenstein — 36:46
Look, he's—there are a handful of quarterbacks in the country who are of a similar level to CJ Carr, and you're probably counting on a hand that's missing a finger or two, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 36:58
Yeah, I mean, he's in rarefied air this year.
Dan Rubenstein — 37:01
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 37:01
And the fact that he can go out there and have the confidence to kind of figure out what's going on on the fly, that's absolutely a luxury. Now, I wish the receiver room were a little bit more set in stone. I like that Jordan Faison is back. He clearly is a reliable target. But outside of that, it's just options at this point. It's options and names and recruiting stars, right? Jaden Greathouse is supposedly back after being hurt for most of last year. What can they get out of him? Is he going to be an injury concern? I don't know. Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter, two big-name receivers who transferred over from Ohio State.
Dan Rubenstein — 37:40
Big recruiting-name receivers.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 37:41
Recruiting-name receivers, yes.
Dan Rubenstein — 37:42
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 37:43
Didn't get a whole lot of playing time, but what can they do?
Dan Rubenstein — 37:44
The most Notre Dame-ass name at tight end: Cooper Flanagan. Is that a real name at Notre Dame?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 37:49
Cooper Flanagan. Yeah. It's a real name. It's a real name.
Dan Rubenstein — 37:52
Perfect.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 37:53
I could list off a dozen other guys at wide receiver and at tight end, all of whom I think could play a really big role. I just don't know how that's all going to fit together. It's worth monitoring. I'll tell you this, though. To my earlier point again about Notre Dame being loaded, Marcus Freeman is not going to be trotting Matt Salerno out there as a third wideout like they did back in the day. The next guy up is probably a four-star buried on the depth chart. It's a different conversation. The other thing that I'll bring up here, just in terms of concerns, is the other point that you referenced about Notre Dame's defense and the coaching staff. There is a lot of turnover on the coaching staff. Mike Mickens left for the Ravens. Max Bullough left for Michigan State. Al Washington left to join the Bengals. I really like the guys they brought in, and Chris Ash is still in place as defensive coordinator, but it is something to keep an eye on. At this point in time, we would be remiss not to mention the schedule. And I credit you, you are a gentleman, you are a scholar, for not leaning too heavily on the whole schedule thing because this is going to be a very popular point of contention around Notre Dame. There are four marquee games: Week 1, Wisconsin at Lambeau Field; Week 7 at BYU, a huge game; it's a huge game for BYU and the Big 12; Week 10, the one that we've been referencing, at home against Miami; Week 12, at home against SMU.
Dan Rubenstein — 39:20
What week do they play USC? Oh, well. Lincoln Riley says ask Notre Dame.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 39:24
You're going to have to ask Lincoln Riley about that one, Dan.
Dan Rubenstein — 39:28
Notre Dame was willing to play Week 7.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 39:29
They would have played Week 7, but they got BYU instead.
Dan Rubenstein — 39:32
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 39:33
There is a very good chance they win the other eight games on this schedule by, like, three touchdowns apiece. And there's a really good chance that they're going to be favored in all 12 of these games. Keep this in mind if you are a Notre Dame hater. I'm going to tell you something that you do not want to hear: Make the jokes about the schedule at your own peril, because this will be a top-10-caliber team, not solely because they've got a soft schedule, but because they're freaking loaded. I'm sorry if that spoils the joke. I don't care. Bear in mind, this is a really good team, completely independent from that schedule. If you don't want to listen to the guy with the Notre Dame pennants behind him, I get it. I get it. But this is not a team that is solely going to be in this conversation because of the schedule. They're going to be in this conversation because they're one of the best teams in college football. Full stop.
Dan Rubenstein — 40:27
Funniest possible thing that could happen to Notre Dame this year is they are very, very good. Maybe they lose something close to Miami in South Bend in that huge game, or they lose to BYU. I think the game is in Provo, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 40:40
Game’s in Provo, at altitude, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 40:40
At altitude, they lose a weird game. Who knows? They're 10-1 as the season comes to an end, and it's clear that they're going to make the playoff at 11-1, until Steve Angeli and the Syracuse Orange, who lost 70-7 last year, end everything in the Dome. We're going to clip this. Today is July 14, when Dan predicts Steve Angeli waiting in the wings.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 41:08
You want the timestamp on this, right? You want the timestamp.
Dan Rubenstein — 41:13
That's it.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 41:14
Let's talk about SMU, then.
Dan Rubenstein — 41:15
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 41:16
Where are you at with SMU?
Dan Rubenstein — 41:18
I'm in a good place with SMU. I'd like to see—why am I in a good place with SMU?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 41:20
Why?
Dan Rubenstein — 41:25
Offensive line, quarterback, play caller, all still there. They have an upper-tier ACC quarterback in Kevin Jennings. They return enough on the offensive line. They seem to be doing the plug-and-play offensive-skill thing often enough where they're decent at evaluating and developing. I know that they're making a change at coordinator, or their coordinator left, but it's still Rhett Lashlee calling the plays. Defensively, it was hiring internally for new co-coordinators, with Scott Symons, right, who left for the Cowboys, having been their very good defensive coordinator, although last year was up and down. It's a decent enough starting point for me where, against this schedule, 9-3 seems like the region if they, early on, split maybe at Florida State and at Louisville. They have Notre Dame on the road late, so they've got some challenges on the road, but obviously teams have to come to Dallas too. I like teams that are really good in the red zone on defense. There's something to me—I mean, obviously, the play calling is in new hands this year—but there is something to me about that organization and that coordination that I like a good deal. So I think SMU is going to win a bunch of games. I think there's a talent ceiling and a roster ceiling to this team. I do have questions about where this defense is going to be, but I don't know. They're another one of those teams, like we talk about Alex Mirabal getting the benefit of the doubt with an offensive line. I kind of give Rhett Lashlee the benefit of the doubt with winning ACC games.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 43:03
Well, that's the thing. I think SMU is quietly one of the most interesting teams, not just in the conference, but around college football, because in a very short period of time, the plot line has shifted from whether they belong to what it's going to take for them to fully break through. SMU made the title game their first year. They made the playoff their first year in the ACC. And if not for Wake or Cal a year ago, it might have happened again in 2025. They've been really, really solid. It feels like they're on the cusp of maybe being something more, which I think is what you're getting at here. Because the next step is absolutely winning the conference, i.e., or getting to the playoffs and winning a playoff game.
Dan Rubenstein — 43:47
Well, no, they've already made the playoff.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 43:49
They've already made the playoff, but winning, winning once they get there is, I think, the next step for them.
Dan Rubenstein — 43:50
So that isn't the next step. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 43:56
Two schools of thought with SMU for me. On one hand, you've got Kevin Jennings, star quarterback, you mentioned him, still there. The offensive line looks like one of the better ones in the league. They did really well in the portal, I think, to fill in the gaps. All that stuff's really, really good. On the other hand, there are a lot of new skill guys. There are questions about both the front and the back of that defense and, as you mentioned, the two coordinators.
Dan Rubenstein — 44:20
Certainly. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 44:21
So there's a little bit of a push-pull. The most fascinating subplot, though, is their new running back.
Dan Rubenstein — 44:28
Sure. Kendrick Raphael?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 44:30
Kendrick Raphael killed him last year when he was playing for Cal.
Dan Rubenstein — 44:34
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 44:34
So what'd they do? Brought him over, trying to give the running game a little bit of a boost. SMU was not a consistent rushing team at all last season. A lot fell on the arm of Kevin Jennings. He had to make magic in very obvious passing downs. So it was telegraphed and it made it harder for him. Teams are playing drop coverage. Really hard to throw into that. This year, they're hoping that new running back, new mojo, maybe the receiving corps can step up again. Provided they can get a little bit more of a boost on the ground, I think there's a strong likelihood that that could be a pretty big missing piece that we didn't see a year ago.
Dan Rubenstein — 45:13
If we get good Kevin, they're winning a bunch of games.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 45:16
If we get good Kevin, they're winning a bunch of games.
Dan Rubenstein — 45:18
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 45:19
High-havoc defense. They were really good against the run last year. They had issues against the pass. This year, like I said, issues for me with both the front and the back of this thing. I think they're big enough up front. More a question of whether they can get the same production off the edge that they had a year ago, because if you're not getting the pressure, you're putting a lot more pressure on your secondary. And there are certainly some teams on this schedule that I think could take advantage. The schedule is spaced out pretty well. It's clear that there isn't a whole lot of room for a slow start because they've got road games against both Florida State and Louisville in the first three weeks of the season. That game against Louisville is going to be really big.
Dan Rubenstein — 45:58
Yes, I agree.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 46:00
But after that, Cal, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame still on the schedule. Win total's at 8.5. I'm with you. I'm on the over. I think they get to nine. I think they end up playing Miami for that conference title, but it is not going to be a walk in the park for SMU. And there are some really interesting questions, I think, about what happens this year.
Dan Rubenstein — 46:21
Their swing games are also, at least after the first—I guess it's two out of the first three weeks—but Virginia's at home, Cal's at home, Virginia Tech's at home, Wake is at home. A lot of those, like, I don't know if I like them on the road, a lot of those games are in Dallas. And so the other game that feels a little bit trappy, if Stanford has a heartbeat, is getting them on the road after a road game at Notre Dame. However that Notre Dame game goes, we've seen it happen before. Didn't Louisville lose at Stanford recently? There's just, situationally—and I think that's Stanford a week after the rivalry game against Cal, so it's tricky for Stanford too—but that game in Palo Alto, we shall see.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 47:04
Where are we going next?
Dan Rubenstein — 47:06
Also, Steve Angeli will win that game for SMU somehow to finish out the season. Let's go to Pitt, your beautiful Pitt Panthers.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 47:13
Pitt! They're not my beautiful Pitt Panthers anymore. I'm actually going to let you go first. I have Pitt scar tissue after being super high on them last year.
Dan Rubenstein — 47:20
Are you going to swing too far in the other direction?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 47:24
TBD. I just—I need a moment to decompress, so you go first.
Dan Rubenstein — 47:30
Okay. It's kind of just all offense with Pitt, right? It's: How can Pitt become more boring, in a good way? Last year was sort of boom-or-bust, and Mason Heintschel was a revelation. They won a bunch of games in the middle of the season. They weren't competitive with Notre Dame, at least after the first quarter. They definitely weren't competitive against Miami in a game that felt trappy for Miami, and Miami just stomped on them. The scheme helps the defense stop the run really nicely. I know they're making some changes on the defensive staff. To me, the question with Pitt is like a poor man's Notre Dame question of: Who are those dudes that are just devouring yards on this offense? Where is the game-changing running back or receiver coming from? I think we like Kade Bell as an offensive coordinator.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 48:24
I do, yeah. I do.
Dan Rubenstein — 48:25
I just want to see Mason Heintschel thrive as a boring quarterback in addition to what he can do really well, right? Like, look under control and know where the eight-yard pass is on third-and-six. The boring stuff. If they can unlock anything with this offensive line in the running game and protecting Mason Heintschel, that would go a long way for me. Defensively, obviously changes are happening once again. But if we're going to talk about benefit of the doubt, Pitt figuring things out on defense, even making changes along the coaching staff, I think there are enough pieces. There are very specific questions with Pitt, like: Can they get pressure up front without blitzing? Stuff like that. But I think they're going to be sound. I think they're going to be well developed. I think they're going to be well coached. I think Pitt is sort of occupying a Pitt space in the ACC right now. Generally not going too far below, even though they did a couple of years ago. Generally not going too far above. It's the worst compliment I can give a team, in that I just say, I think Pitt is just Pitt at this point with Pat Narduzzi in Year Whatever. They're going to have some games where you convince yourself they're good. And they're going to have some games where you're like, did they not even—they just took the week off from studying and game-planning? The schedule seems fine. They should start out the season going 4-0, 5-0, 6-0, 7-0, something like that, and then come careening back down to earth as the schedule is backloaded with Miami, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Louisville and Cal on the road. Cal is on the road. Florida State's at home, Georgia Tech's at home. But they're away more often in the back half. The teams seem harder in the back half. And so I think we are setting ourselves up for, like, a 6-1 start, 7-5 finish.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 50:16
I was feeling that too.
Dan Rubenstein — 50:16
Something like that. Not an ideal back end.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 50:18
Yeah, Pitt's one of those teams that I think I'm least sure of. I can make a case for 5-7 or 10-2. You know, I don't—I don't.
Dan Rubenstein — 50:27
The 10-2 case is tough.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 50:30
Yeah, but so is 5-7. So I just think I'm with you. There's a baseline here with the defense. I think the defense will be pretty good. The line will be fine at stopping the run. Braylan Lovelace, their linebacker, is a legit star. The secondary, I think, will be better than some people expect. They'll be fine on that side of the ball. You're right. It comes down to offense. It comes down to offense. I like the setup where it's Mason Heintschel, another year with the same coordinator, Kade Bell. I think the offense will make for good TV. It always does because Kade Bell likes to spread you out, likes to play with tempo and likes to throw like crazy. That's what he does.
Dan Rubenstein — 51:09
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 51:10
Okay? If he can take a step forward the way I expected Eli Holstein to take a step forward at the start of last year, this offense is going to be more explosive, it's going to be more efficient and it's going to be better. But who are those dudes? Who are the other dudes to watch? Is it going to be Censere Lee? Great name. Played for Kade Bell back in his days at Western Carolina, had like 1,400 yards over two seasons in the Kade Bell system. Didn't play last year, transferred, redshirted. Could he be a guy who steps in at wide receiver and is really productive? Who are those dudes? I don't know, which is part of why I'm not sure where to go with Pitt.
Dan Rubenstein — 51:52
The good news for Pitt is, in mid-July, the defenses that they're scheduled to face—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 52:00
I know.
Dan Rubenstein — 52:01
There's not a lot of obvious wreckers on this schedule.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 52:04
No, no, no. No.
Dan Rubenstein — 52:06
We think Florida State's defense should be pretty decent. There's talent on that defense. They have a respected defensive coordinator in Tony White. We think Louisville, even with sort of promoted coordinators on defense, has enough on that roster to field a good defense. We know Miami should have a good defense. Beyond that, at best, fan bases are hoping the defense works out otherwise. So that's a nice start.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 52:35
In theory and on paper, the matchup with Miami late in the season could be really interesting. In theory. In theory, I'm not going where I went with it last year. Miami killed Pitt. They beat the brakes off them.
Dan Rubenstein — 52:51
Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 52:52
But in theory,
Dan Rubenstein — 52:54
It could be a letdown after an emotional Florida State spot for Miami, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 52:58
In theory, I tend to come down at, like, 8-4 for Pitt.
Dan Rubenstein — 52:59
But the game is in Coral Gables. Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 53:05
A very Pitt-ian—is that a word?
Dan Rubenstein — 53:07
Yeah, Pitt's Pitt. There's a lot of teams, it seems, that are settling into, or continue to settle into, a spot. There's a giant ACC sectional couch, and Pitt's like the second cushion from this armrest.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 53:26
Yep.
Dan Rubenstein — 53:26
That's where we are. That's where we've entered our ass groove.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 53:29
I'm about 80% of the way out on Florida State.
Dan Rubenstein — 53:34
Florida State's tough.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 53:35
I am hedging a bit, though, because there are aspects of this team that I really like. But the elephant in the room is that it's going to be Year 7 under Mike Norvell, and Florida State went 5-7 a year ago. Granted, he did some work in the portal. They come in as, I think, Bill Connelly's No. 35 overall team in SP+, for whatever that means to you. Tough schedule. I think Bill had them at like 6.5 projected wins, which is probably not good enough. If they get to six wins, I think Norvell’s donezo. So it's a bit of an uphill climb, but there is talent on this team. What I took at least a little bit of comfort in is the fact that Norvell has at least acted in the offseason as if he knows it too. He's taken play-calling duties back. Gus Malzahn retired, so he's no longer in the equation, but it's going to be all on Norvell now to call this offense. They did do some work in the portal. I don't know if they did enough work in the portal at quarterback. This has been the thing that I've really been grappling with a lot. Ashton Daniels was named QB1 back in April. Ashton Daniels comes over from Auburn. Previously, he was with Stanford. This was a very curious decision, in my view. It just does not seem like the type of quarterback decision that's going to save a coach's job, if in fact that's what Mike Norvell is trying to do. Ashton Daniels, at his best, Dan, is a big, mobile quarterback who is a load to bring down. And if you read the practice reports, he made strides this spring. Pocket presence, vertical shots, all the things that coaches like to talk up, all that stuff. It's hunky-dory, great. He's also been fairly inconsistent as a starting quarterback. He's got a career completion percentage below 60%. If this is going to work, especially behind a new offensive line, they're going to need to build the whole damn plane out of the threat of him running. Can he run? Will he run? If he's going to run, the defense needs to be aware of it. Maybe that's how you open up some of these shots downfield. That, to me, is the main point of tension when it comes to Florida State. I don't get the quarterback decision, Dan. Whether it was a decision guided by budget and what they had to spend at the quarterback position, or whether it was just that they saw something here that they liked and thought could fit their scheme, whatever it is, I don't agree with either. And that, to me, is the biggest thing stuck in my craw with Florida State going into the year. And I know I'm not alone in that one.
Dan Rubenstein — 56:21
I mean, isn't this the foundation of a lot of HGTV programming? When you have, like, a house in a terrible location, you need to find a buyer. The buyer is like, look, we can live with this house because of the price point. We know that there's weird sex-dungeon stuff everywhere, but we think if we spend less, we can use that budget on a renovation, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 56:43
Right, right.
Dan Rubenstein — 56:44
So Florida State, in a weird way, is your Love It or List It. I don't watch enough HGTV to know which show this is most appropriate to compare it to. But we are sort of dealing with that with Florida State. That's why they have Ashton Daniels. Ashton Daniels wants to start for a major program. Florida State needs somebody who has started for a major program or has shown the ability at a lower level that he could thrive at a major program. We're looking at Florida State as a team with a—not a lame-duck coach, but a hot-seat coach, a coach that I think a lot of Florida State people are not thrilled to have back. And that's why we have Ashton Daniels. You get who you can get. Ashton Daniels goes where he can go. And here's the marriage.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 57:26
The reason I'm not fully out: I do like their skill talent.
Dan Rubenstein — 57:31
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 57:32
I do like Duce Robinson, who's 6-foot-6, 230, out wide, one of the best receivers in college football. The backfield's awesome. I really like the backfield. Tre Wisner comes over from Texas. Ousmane Kromah had a really good campaign last year as a freshman, could be a star in the making. It sounds like they might find some sets where they can get both their running backs on the field at the same time, which is low-key a fantasy thing over these last couple of seasons. I don't know if you've taken note of this, right?
Dan Rubenstein — 57:58
Sure.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 57:59
When a team's got more than one running back, we're going to find ways to get them both on the field.
Dan Rubenstein — 58:03
Of course, that's fine.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 58:04
I like it. I mean, I think that's fun. So there is that. It's not like they're totally devoid of talent. That's not the case at all. But it's a question, I would say, at least at the quarterback position. Defensively last year, under Tony White, they did make some gains. As Bill Connelly pointed out in his preview, they got better at bending without breaking.
Dan Rubenstein — 58:29
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 58:29
But they didn't force enough turnovers. They weren't very good in the red zone. They still allowed too many successful plays. It was better, and I think it could be better again this year. They did retain the services of the Desir twins, who were both in the portal at one point but then came back. They're going to be guarding the edges. I like the line. I do get more leery on this defense the farther back you go into the back seven. But I would say defense is not my primary concern.
Dan Rubenstein — 59:01
I mean, you said bending but not breaking. They had kind of the inverse of that, though, didn't they? They sort of had the, like, not bending often, but when they did, they would break.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 59:09
There was a—yeah, okay, fair.
Dan Rubenstein — 59:10
The red-zone defense wasn't good, but they limited big plays.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 59:15
It was a very strange profile.
Dan Rubenstein — 59:16
It was a Dos Equis profile.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 59:18
It was a strange profile. The issue I see for Norvell, outside of the offensive stuff that I mentioned, is probably the schedule. There are seven teams on this thing inside the SP+ top 40, whatever.
Dan Rubenstein — 59:31
It's just SP+. It's no longer S&P+. Bill can't use that anymore because of Standard & Poor's, I think.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 59:38
At Miami, at Alabama, home against Florida, home against Clemson, at Louisville, home against SMU, home against Virginia. And by the way, they're also at Pitt. For a road spot, Pitt would be No. 41 in the SP+—
Dan Rubenstein — 59:56
Thank you. Projection.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 59:57
Preseason projections. So this is tough. This is a tough slate. Florida State in Week 1 is home on a Monday night against SMU. They're off the next week, then they go to Alabama. It's going to start off hot and heavy for the Seminoles.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:00:14
Correct.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:00:15
I almost think that SMU game is a must-win.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:00:19
Sure, I agree.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:00:20
I think they've got to build some early vibes because this could come off the swivel rather quickly, especially with this schedule, where they might not be a prohibitive underdog against a lot of these teams, but there are a lot of coin flips on here, Dan. And you know as well as I do, you start losing vibes, things get off to a bad start, it could go south in a hurry. That's what happened at Penn State a year ago.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:00:43
Yeah. And look, I want to believe in reclamation projects. Sometimes it's just bad luck where you've been and everything that happened at Stanford and Auburn last year for Ashton Daniels. But if I'm a starting-point person, SPP: offensive line questions and quarterback accuracy and turnover questions in the same stew feels a little bit funky. And I just don't like getting behind that. The schedule, at least—look, they've already proven that they are better than Alabama, right? They've already proven that.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:01:15
They have. They have proven that. They have proven that. In a moment in time, they did.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:01:21
Not long ago.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:01:21
No, no. It was—yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:01:25
They don't have a cross-country road trip, right? They're going to Alabama, but they're not going to SMU, Cal or Stanford, correct? They, I think, don't get—what don't they get? Well, they do get Boston College away, but otherwise they don't really face the perceived lowest tier of the conference all that often, if at all, whoever you're considering that to be. Everybody kind of has a heartbeat on here, and that's not ideal for a team looking to win eight games. Now, you could also look at where Florida State was last season, like, look, they weren't far off. They were competitive in a lot of the games that they lost. And so it's figuring out how to go from a three-quarter team to a fourth-quarter or a double-overtime team. They return a lot of players, good and bad, good and bad for the situations. My actual concern with this team on defense is just, I think they've got pretty good players, but who's the eighth-best player on this defense? And how does that compare to the best of their schedule? I just—I actually think it's a quantity thing at a certain point on this defense. And obviously, there are still questions on the offensive line. I don't think they're far off, but I think that's kind of the problem too: that he's had this much time to be not far off sometimes at Florida State.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:02:39
In Year 7, right? In Year 7, if you want to start talking about renovation projects.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:02:43
That's kind of the problem, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:02:48
I have a friend who has been renovating his bathroom for seven years. At some point, you've got to finish the project, and you've got to show that there's a vision to move the whole thing forward.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:02:59
And he's not finishing with a Toto Japanese built-in bidet situation.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:03:02
I don't—it's probably a little bit above his price range.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:03:05
Toto, not a sponsor. One hundred percent could be.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:03:07
Oh, absolutely. This has got to be the year for Norvell. It's got to be the year for Norvell.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:03:14
Got to clean that ass. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:03:16
Yeah, if he goes 7-5, I think he's donezo. I think it's like eight wins or bust.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:03:20
Well, it's a—I mean, it's a money thing too, right? I think it's not just a will-they, won't-they thing. It's: Will they, won't they find the cash?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:03:30
Yeah. All right, I want you to talk to me at this juncture—
Dan Rubenstein — 01:03:36
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:03:38
About our beautiful North Carolina Tar Heels.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:03:40
Oh, UNC. I don't think I feel great, but I think I can talk myself into Year 2: a definite improvement at offensive coordinator, a defensive coordinator with a track record of decent success, and making a smarter decision, I think, with regard to how they've sort of attacked the portal more generally. And I'm open to North Carolina winning some of those close games with good, if not better, coaches, even though I think the talent on defense is sort of coming and going. And I'm not going to talk myself into Billy Edwards-ing myself to 9-3 or something.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:04:33
No. But they'll be better.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:04:35
I think they'll be better.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:04:37
It might take until November to realize it.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:04:40
They might be gone till November, yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:04:42
Because of the schedule. Because North Carolina opens up with TCU in Dublin. They've got Clemson on the road. They've got Notre Dame. All in the first five weeks of the season.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:04:52
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:04:53
They've also got Miami, Louisville, Pitt, Virginia and NC State on this thing. So it is by no means what we would consider an easy ACC schedule. And I think there's a really good chance that they start the year 1-3 and everyone writes them off. Then you stop paying attention. And that's why I say it might take a minute for people to realize, like, ah, they're actually not as bad as we thought initially. I think their defense will be fine. It was a mess at the start of last year, but then quietly it got better throughout the course of the year. Athlon—I don't know if you read Athlon. I know you like the Athlon preview. Athlon had a blind item in there from an opposing coach who basically said that Carolina was running the standard Belichick offense—or defense, excuse me.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:05:36
Defense, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:05:37
And that it was mixed up a lot depending on matchup. They did a good job using their personnel. I think we'll continue to see a better defense this year. I am fully expecting them to hold their own on that side of the football. The question, though, is offense. And this is where the Bobby Petrino thing makes it kind of interesting to me. Petrino wants to run a power spread, i.e., spread them out, hand it off to a guy who's a downhill runner.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:04
It worked really well for Arkansas last year.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:06:06
Great.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:06
It did. No, it did.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:06:07
Yeah, no, it did.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:08
They were an awesome rushing team.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:06:08
I know.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:10
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:06:10
All things considered, it did work pretty well last year. There was a lot of other stuff that didn't work on the Arkansas side, but my assumption here is that this offense is going to be based around Billy Edwards Jr. handing the ball off to Demon June. And if they can do that somewhat effectively, that's when we start to see more play-action. That's when we start to see more RPO stuff mixed in. That's when maybe we can see Billy Edwards use some of his mobility. Again, I'm not crazy about Billy Edwards-ing their way to, like, a seven-win season. There's a lot, a lot, that I need to see from Billy Edwards before I'm confident even saying that much.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:49
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:06:49
But that's apparently what it looks like here at the start of the year.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:53
I mean, look, we're also talking about a North Carolina team that you have to give the benefit of the doubt. This was all brand new to Bill Belichick last year.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:07:02
Ah, and there were all these distractions, right? I mean, this was a circus.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:07:07
Sure. Well, those may persist. We'll see. But they've upgraded. They've hit the portal. We talked about the schedule. I think the home-road splits are decently favorable. Ultimately, it doesn't matter if you don't have the guys. But I think there are guys along this defensive line. At linebacker, they're starting over. Secondary, we'll see. Offensive line, we'll see. They've got interesting upside at receiver. You talk about that, they're going to focus on running the ball. I think they'll be okay. They were like a minute and a half from going 7-5 last year.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:07:37
No, and I don't hate the roster. I don't hate the roster. If their line could be just okay, that probably opens the door to a bowl.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:07:45
Yeah, I think that's fine. I'd just like to watch North Carolina after six weeks and say to myself, I could see them scoring 28-plus more often than not. That feels like the number where, if they can get to 28 to 31 points at a decent clip, they'll go to a bowl game.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:08:09
Wake Forest.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:08:12
Really interesting team.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:08:13
You love Wake, don't you?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:08:14
I don't love Wake. I really was impressed by them last year. I think they'll be, in some ways—I think they could be better, given that it was the weird Jake Dickert timing of everything.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:08:27
They won nine games with Robbie Ashford.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:08:29
They won nine games with Robbie Ashford. They have Gio Lopez. Gio Lopez's offensive coordinator from when he was at South Alabama—yes?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:08:37
He is back with Rob Ezell. Yes.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:08:38
Yes. I think the defense has pieces on multiple levels, which I like, and I think there are decently high ceilings there. There are playmakers there. The schedule is both tricky, I would say, but also interesting. They're the Gumpy team to me when you look at where Wake's schedule is this year. They open on the road—well, they open their Power Four schedule. They have Akron Week 1, I think. But they're at Purdue. They have Miami, and I don't think there's anything Gumpy—when we say Gumpy, we mean they find themselves in weird spots with weird timing, like Forrest Gump did. So they get Miami early, and that's going to be very difficult.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:09:18
And we'll do that in September.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:09:20
They have Louisville sandwiched between SMU and NC State. They have Stanford at home, so Stanford's traveling across the country, and they play Wake a week before Notre Dame. NC State they get after Louisville. Cal they get—they have to travel across the country and play Cal—but it's a week between Virginia Tech and SMU for Cal. Wake gets Virginia, which should be tough, and that's after SMU and Duke, so that's not super difficult scheduling-wise for them. They get SMU between Virginia Tech and Notre Dame, and that's Notre Dame on the road for SMU, so that's a huge circled game for the Mustangs. They get Georgia Tech sandwiched between at Clemson and Georgia. They get Duke, I believe, after the rivalry game. No, excuse me. They get Duke after Duke has Clemson as well. So they're in kind of a sneaky quicksand spot for a lot of the teams on their schedule. They have to be good enough to win those games, which is the most important thing. But situationally, don't hate it.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:10:26
Here's something else that's a weird quirk. Wake opens with a Friday, Thursday and Friday game, their first three games of the year. They don't play on a Saturday until their fourth game of the season. I don't know if they are unique in that sense. I don't know if there are any other college football teams that are in that category, but I found that interesting. Well, the story of the defense, the story of the season last year, was defense, which was legitimately very good.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:10:54
Yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:10:56
They produced some really weird results. They had a 13-12 win over SMU. They were 4-1 in one-score games.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:11:02
Beat Virginia, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:11:03
They beat Virginia. The offense was clearly the limiting factor. Sometimes it was good. Most of the time, it was too many turnovers and not good enough in the red zone. So now, moving to 2026, you mentioned the Gio Lopez thing. They are retooling the offense around Gio Lopez. Gio had a good season two years ago at South Alabama. He's now reunited with that offensive coordinator. The UNC experience didn't work last year, so now he is off to perhaps greener pastures. He is not a huge guy, but he is a mobile guy. So they've got to find a way to keep him upright. The line is a bit of a concern for me. Jake Dickert said back in January that the line was not physically strong enough. He called them out again in April, saying that the pass protection needs to get better. If the coach is saying this on multiple occasions, maybe we should take note of it. And so maybe that's why I'm a little bit worried about the Gio Lopez thing, even though he's back with a coordinator that he's comfortable with. They've got to keep him upright. They've got to keep him upright. I don't know if that's a great sign, but TBD on that front. I think it's running back by committee. I do like what they've got out wide, but I think they need to add a little bit more depth out wide. So, frankly, it's a line thing for me. I think they could be better offensively because I like Gio Lopez a lot more than I liked Robbie Ashford a year ago. And I think there's enough skill talent, even if we don't have a bunch of names jumping off the page at us, that they'll be okay. They've just got to get enough protection up front to keep Gio upright. If they do that, I think the defense is good enough to keep them in a spot where they're not going to get blown out. And then, how do they contend with that schedule? There are a bunch of questions here with Wake, but I agree with you. It is, if nothing else, a very, very interesting team to monitor as we go forward now into 2026.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:12:53
Okay, Ty, are you ready for impromptu trivia?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:12:59
Okay.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:13:00
Are you ready?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:13:00
Yeah, sure. Thank you.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:13:02
Okay, I use the phrase, when talking about Wake Forest's schedule last season, I mentioned that they beat Virginia. The song 'Meet Virginia' peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:13:16
Okay.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:13:17
Who sings 'Meet Virginia'?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:13:18
That's Train.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:13:21
You absolutely nailed it.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:13:23
Is that it?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:13:23
I knew you would know.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:13:24
Is that it?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:13:26
That's it. I said the words 'beat Virginia,' and immediately in my mind I went, 'Meet Virginia.' And I just—I had to make sure because you are a long-established Train head.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:13:36
I am a Train head, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:13:38
Do Train fans—I think you would know this—do they call themselves conductors? Is there a special Train-related fan term for die-hard Trainers? Engineers? Cabooses?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:13:44
I don't know. Yeah, I don't—I can't speak to that. No.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:13:54
Don't know. They should. Okay, that's all. I just wanted to verify that you knew that.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:13:58
Cabooses might be a little bit too much of a double entendre, but we've got one team left here.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:14:02
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:14:05
That's Stanford.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:14:06
Yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:14:07
Your beautiful, beautiful Stanford Cardinal.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:14:09
I've had good experiences in Palo Alto. I have enjoyed my time there, going to Stanford games.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:14:13
I was just out at Palo Alto.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:14:16
Oh, you passed through going to the national team game, the World Cup?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:14:17
We passed through on the—yeah, I took the Caltrain down to the VTA Orange Line from Mountain View over to Santa Clara, and there was a Palo Alto stop here.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:14:29
It's a good time. I enjoy it.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:14:32
How are we feeling about Palo Alto and the Stanford Cardinal this year? Again, it's a color, not an actual bird.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:14:39
It's going to take a minute. It's going to take a minute. So the defense was ahead of the offense last year, with—was it Frank Reich running things in an interim role? Defense was ahead, and defense wasn't good. It was just ahead of a very bad offense that I think Ben Gulbranson was operating under center.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:14:56
No, yuck.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:14:58
Operating under center. So look, he was thrust into a bad position. The whole thing—it's just been tough in Palo Alto.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:15:07
Can we call the offense the Warren Commission this year?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:15:11
I reserve the right to, yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:15:12
I mean, you came up with it.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:15:13
We'll see.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:15:14
I'm just wondering how we want to apply this.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:15:14
I know. Well, I said the Davis Warren Commission. Yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:15:17
Right.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:15:17
Okay, so you have a quarterback who, at his absolute best, might be efficient and not mistake-prone. I think that's what we can say, given offensive line questions, receiver questions, transfers coming in. We'll see on defense. I just—I don't know. I guess the defensive line would have to be more disruptive than we think. Look, if they're making a bowl game, which I think is the absolute height of any Stanford expectation in Year 1 under Tavita Pritchard, which is a cool story given his time at quarterback there and coming full circle, if they make a bowl game, that means a couple of these transfer receivers work out. I think they're bringing in one from Yale who had a big season last year. It means defensive back has to be, I guess, solid. Defensive line has to show something. And the list of teams is probably Hawaii, Duke, Georgia Tech, Elon, NC State, Cal, given where they're playing a lot of those games. That's the best possible situation. I think there needs to be patience. This needs to be built from the offensive line out, given Stanford's reputation, given where this program has had somewhat recent credibility in developing offensive linemen. Stanford should be able to find large humans to build a team around. They're in the unenviable place of literally Northern California, playing in the ACC, but it's still a school that should appeal to everyone, given the academic ceiling. I think it's going to be a tough year. I think Davis Warren is plugging a hole on a raft, awash at sea right now. And that's okay. They needed somebody. And I think they'll get to an interesting place eventually. But I just, I think it's a Jimmys-and-Joes thing right now.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:17:17
I do think it was a smart hire. I like the hire.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:17:20
I hope so.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:17:21
I think Stanford already feels more organized. The roster is a big shrug. And to the point of the schedule, there's only one game on here that looks like a guaranteed win to me. So it could go south in a hurry. But Tavita Pritchard's been in the NFL the last couple of years working with Jayden Daniels. I don't think he's going to turn Davis Warren into Jayden Daniels, but it's clear that maybe he knows what he's doing, at least in terms of developing quarterbacks. Maybe that's why he got the job under Andrew Luck. Stanford does bring a lot back from a year ago. Again, bad team, so make whatever you want of that. But just keeping the roster somewhat intact, I think, in and of itself, is a bit of a lift for a new coach. The most important player on offense this year is Micah Ford, the running back. Whatever the offense looks like, it's going to be built around him. He's the type of guy who's fun to watch because he runs through contact. And there's a decent chance he gets to 1,000 yards. So keep that name in mind. Micah Ford. The offense will probably run through him. And defensively, Matt Rose is the name at linebacker. He had over 100 tackles last year. He is clearly the most important player on defense. Anything good that happens to Stanford this year is probably as a result of one or two of those guys. Just keep that in mind. But in terms of expectations and what we're thinking, and is Stanford a bowl team? Are they not a bowl team? I'm not even going there. This is a full reset. It's going to take a minute. I like the hire. Let's see what he can do. He's obviously a Stanford guy. But yeah, it's going to take a few cycles for this to fully materialize, if it ever does.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:19:07
Yeah, so we're saying they're far away, which brings us to our next—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:19:13
Oh, no.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:19:13
Trivia question.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:19:15
Okay.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:19:15
'Meet Virginia' came out in 1998.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:19:17
Oh, my God.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:19:18
The No. 1 song from 1998 on the Billboard Hot 100, according to Wikipedia.com, was by a band named Next. What was the name of that song?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:19:35
A band named Next.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:19:37
Yes, and I connect this to the fact that if Stanford is far away, they're definitely not blank, which was the name of the song from Next.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:19:47
Oh, you know what? We did an episode themed around this.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:19:52
Did we?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:19:52
'Too Close'?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:19:53
'Too Close' is correct.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:19:54
'Too Close.' I have the sound on my board somewhere. I could pull it up if I had a little more time.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:19:57
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:19:59
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:19:59
Yeah, so it is hard for Stanford, but they're not too close.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:20:03
I mean, they're making it hard for us to find a way through to a bowl.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:20:07
Exactly right. Exactly right.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:20:09
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:20:10
So, full circle. I forgot we did that.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:20:15
Yeah, do you remember it now?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:20:16
It was—remind me—it was, once again, you just said it, teams that are extremely close to bowl eligibility.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:20:22
Yeah. And we kept playing that.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:20:24
Did we do that in season?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:20:26
No, no, no. It wasn't in season. It was clearly an offseason concept.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:20:30
Classic.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:20:31
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:20:31
Classic us.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:20:32
That was all you. All you.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:20:34
Classic Ty, suggesting songs about boners, tying it to college football.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:20:37
Yeah. Good stuff.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:20:39
All right.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:20:40
All right. On that note, solidverbal@gmail.com is the email. Please follow us across social media. SolidVerbal.com/newsletter will get you signed up for our free weekly newsletter. Verballers.com is where you can go if you want to help support the team. Ad-free episodes, bonus content. You will eventually get access to our Verballer portal, which I have yet to take the bubble wrap off of, but will do so shortly. And of course, if you are ever so inclined, hit follow or subscribe. If you have yet to leave a rating or review, all that stuff really goes a long way toward helping other people find the show.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:21:17
Absolutely.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:21:18
This is Part 2 of the ACC preview. We've got Part 3 coming up on our next episode. Included in Part 3—Dan Rubenstein, are you ready?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:21:29
Yeah, I'm included in Part 3. Yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:21:31
Well, you are included in Part 3, as are these nine teams.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:21:33
Yes. Eight teams or nine teams?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:21:38
Nine teams: Clemson, Louisville, Virginia Tech—
Dan Rubenstein — 01:21:41
Oh, because we did nine with Notre Dame today.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:21:43
That's right.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:21:43
Continue, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:21:44
NC State, Georgia Tech and Cal, and then Duke, Syracuse and Boston College.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:21:50
Fun teams, maybe.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:21:52
Not so much on Boston College.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:21:55
You know, we're going to find stuff, Ty. We're going to orbit. We're going to spelunk. We're going to do whatever it takes to find something fun about all of these teams.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:22:05
Oh, I could find fun stuff about all these teams.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:22:07
You and I are going to go on a road trip to the Saginaw Valley State campus. Isn't that where the quarterback transferred in from?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:22:12
Mason McKenzie, yes.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:22:13
We're going to find something fun.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:22:15
Yeah. Okay.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:22:17
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:22:17
How close are you to Saginaw Valley State?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:22:19
I think—I just was in Michigan last week.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:22:22
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:22:23
I think I was not far, but it might have just been a turnoff to get onto a highway that eventually got to Saginaw. I'd have to look.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:22:30
You could have done some on-the-ground field reporting.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:22:32
I could have. I was actually more obsessed with finding a window to pick wild blueberries because blueberry season just started in Southwest Michigan.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:22:33
Yeah. Oh, look at you.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:22:43
It's the Midwestern capital of blueberries.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:22:46
Did you pick any?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:22:48
We were driving through too late. They call it U-pick, like the letter U, when you get to go to a farm and—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:22:52
Okay. Oh, so this is a setup where it's like apple-picking and they tell you you can, so you're not actually going out into the wilderness and finding it on your own.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:22:57
Correct. No, you're not foraging.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:23:03
Ah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:23:03
You're going to a farm, and you get to—there are a lot of varieties, though, of blueberries. But also—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:23:07
So you're cheating. You're cheating.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:23:10
Also, Ty, there is a current—I think it's called Cyclospora.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:23:16
Oh, no. Yes, I know about this.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:23:16
You know about this? You're not suffering, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:23:20
No, I'm not. I'm not. But I had to throw away all my bagged lettuce.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:23:24
Yeah, that is the prebagged lettuce. I want to say raspberries are one of the crops affected.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:23:27
Raspberries, I'm not dealing with that. I'm not dealing with that.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:23:30
Blueberries were not on that list, but I was considering that as a potential issue.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:23:40
Yeah, no, no. I'm not dealing with that, man.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:23:41
So I still would go. I would still go blueberry-picking. Shout-out, Holland, Michigan. Shout-out, South Haven. I love a bloob. And so blueberry is not on the list. But in any case, from The Solid Verbal family to yours: Wash your produce thoroughly.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:23:56
Yeah, wash, wash, cook it. Cook it.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:24:00
Yeah. I mean, look, make a pie. Make a mixed berry pie. Yeah, make a raspberry or mixed-berry cobbler.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:24:09
Bake it. Get it to 165 degrees, whatever.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:24:10
Yeah. Exactly right.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:24:13
All right. Nine teams down. Nine more to go. ACC Part 3 coming your way next episode. Thank you so much for hanging with us here over the last hour and 15, hour and 20 or so. For that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubenstein, for myself, Ty Hildenbrandt, we'll catch you all next time. In the meantime, stay solid.