ACC Preview Part 3 — Power Cleaned Transcript
Source: Podcast.txt
Speakers: Ty Hildenbrandt and Dan Rubenstein
Format: Speaker labels and timestamps preserved
Transcript
Ty Hildenbrandt — 00:18
Dan Rubenstein, we are gathered here today for ACC Part 3. We've got nine teams before us. I've got my trusty notepad. Today we're going to discuss in more detail Clemson, Louisville, Virginia Tech, NC State, Georgia Tech, Cal, Duke, Syracuse and, of course, Boston College, sir. Welcome back. How goes it?
Dan Rubenstein — 00:41
Pretty, pretty good, Ty. Doing pretty well, pretty good, whatever the grammar is there. I like to go out for a walk for a few minutes before we record these because I'm stuck inside, it's kind of cramped. I like getting fresh air, getting sunlight on the face, and it was real smoky outside, as we know.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 00:57
I was going to say, how'd that work out for you?
Dan Rubenstein — 00:59
Not great. The wildfires coming down from, I think, Ontario, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:03
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:03
They are hovering over the Midwest and Northeast. So I hope everybody is taking precautions as they listen to it. Or hopefully, by the time you're listening to it, it's all dissipated in your area. But I will say this in the interest of honesty because you sort of alluded to a wedding at the top, right? We're gathered here today. If I seem to have a performance today that is more enhanced than usual, like if there's more pop when I'm talking about Steve Angeli, or CJ Bailey, or Adam Mohammed, wherever the conversation goes, I did take a hit and a half off of my inhaler to sort of counteract it. I gave myself a little bit of that lung-roid treatment to see if that could help, because the lungs were burning, Ty.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:44
Yeah. No, I mean, they don't test for PEDs here in the podcasting space.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:54
I hope not. I'll do it before tennis. I'll do it before a run. I'll do it, you know, preemptively. And so I figured, why not? I need my lungs for this type of episode. These are not short episodes. I loved ACC Part 2. I thought that was a fun show. I'm hoping to replicate it here today, but I needed to take all precautions and measures.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 02:12
Well, welcome back, one and all. Hopefully, you had a chance to go back and listen to ACC Parts 1 and 2. And not just that: we also had a two-part G6 preview where we went through all six of those conferences, as well as an intro to 2026 episode that dropped. I don't know, second week of July. So go back and get yourself up to speed. If you're falling behind, maybe you're just dipping the toe back in. It's that time of year. We appreciate having you here with us. If you like what you hear, hit follow or subscribe so that you don't miss any of those episodes. Of course, if you want to support the team a little bit more directly, you can go out to Verballers.com, V-E-R-B-A-L-L-E-R-S dot com. We have yet to fully take the bubble wrap off some of the stuff we've got planned for this coming season.
So that will be happening in relatively short order. A lot to look forward to on that front that we're excited about. Verballers.com, again, is where you can go if you want to help support what we do, get ad-free episodes, get them a little early, Discord access. Access to the portal we're making, all these other things that we can discuss in due course, Dan.
Dan Rubenstein — 03:21
Confirming that you are still up in the air about the $15 tier of Ty gets you right and tight, personal training over Zoom.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 03:28
It would have to be more than 15.
Dan Rubenstein — 03:31
Fifteen dollars is not enough?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 03:31
I can't do it. Not if I'm going to be a personal trainer, something about which I know virtually nothing.
Dan Rubenstein — 03:39
I don't know. There is a ring to the Ty gets you right and tight tier.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 03:43
There's a ring.
Dan Rubenstein — 03:43
I like that.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 03:44
There's a ring. It is not worth the money. I'll tell you that.
Dan Rubenstein — 03:48
Okay, fair.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 03:49
It's a show about honesty. That ain't worth it, man.
Dan Rubenstein — 03:51
I'm just trying to monetize here, Ty.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 03:51
Don't do it.
Dan Rubenstein — 03:53
I'm trying to get you your beach house that you covet.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 03:56
No, no, that ain't worth it, guys. Don't pay the money.
Dan Rubenstein — 03:58
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 03:59
Don't do it.
Dan Rubenstein — 03:59
All right. Fair enough.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 04:01
So we've got nine teams in front of us. We covered nine on the previous episode. You wanted to start with Duke on the previous episode because Duke, of course, won the ACC a year ago, but we made the editorial decision—I made the editorial decision—not to include Duke in Part 1.
Dan Rubenstein — 04:18
Correct. Defending champ.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 04:19
So we've got Duke in Part 3. Why don't we start with Duke? Defending champs, Duke Blue Devils.
Dan Rubenstein — 04:26
I don't know what to think of Duke beyond they've earned a benefit of the doubt with whatever degree of success that they've attained these first couple years under Manny Diaz. And winning in weird ways is better than losing, right? Winning the conference in a weird way is better than not winning the conference. The hires seem to be pretty good. The portaling seems to be good to very good with recent results, even though the defense was kind of a disaster last year. Made plays, filled up certain stat buckets. Duke is fascinating. Duke is once again trying to do what it's done these past couple years, which is find talent in the portal, look to the Ivy League once again as they did last year. I think it's, what, a Penn receiver this year for Duke?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 05:16
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 05:17
So there's that. Go Quakers. Quakers?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 05:20
Go Quakers.
Dan Rubenstein — 05:20
Yeah. I think Manny Diaz should be talked about in the same vein as how we talk about Rhett Lashley, where he's earned a certain benefit of the doubt, having immediately built teams that have been competitive, have won in weird ways, have lost in weird ways, but not enough to really affect the bottom line. To the point where if you're looking at both the Mike Elko stretch and the Manny Diaz stretch, Duke has turned into a capital P place where one can win consistently.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 05:55
It's kind of crazy.
Dan Rubenstein — 05:56
It's not win capital W, it's a lowercase W win, but they won the damn conference last year.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 06:02
It's such a weird pretzel you need to bend your mind into when you're trying to figure out Duke. Because, like you, I feel very mixed. And the point you're making now about the coaching is right on. Duke has had back-to-back nine-win seasons. Even though I think they're probably going to take a step back this year, we cannot discount what this coaching staff has done. And I don't want to sell them short. Bear in mind, Duke lost to Tulane and UConn last year and still found a way to win the ACC.
Dan Rubenstein — 06:36
That's a playoff team and a shockingly good team that could have been undefeated that lost their coach to a better program because they were so good.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 06:43
I'm not saying they're bad teams.
Dan Rubenstein — 06:45
Totally.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 06:46
I'm just saying those are two nonconference opponents that maybe at the start of the year we had looked at dramatically differently. Winnable games that they did not win, and Duke still found a way to cobble it together and win the ACC. This was a good offense last year and a defense that created havoc, but basically didn't stop anybody. So you fast forward to this year. They lose Darian Mensah. We talked about that on the last two episodes. Frankly, we've been talking about that all summer. They also lose Cooper Barkate, who was the number one wide receiver for Darian Mensah. This year, as you said, a lot of new faces. The defense has definitely taken on some water. Logically, I think they would have to take a step back, but they do have an excellent running back in Nate Sheppard.
They have what appears to my eye to be an okay offensive line. I think they'll be all right up front. They have another interesting transfer quarterback who maybe we can discuss. If nothing more, he's proven that he's capable when he's healthy. And I think they've got a defense at least, if nothing more, that is again laser focused on creating negative plays and turnovers. So they're willing to give up some of those big plays, but they're doing so mindful of the fact that if they create a few of those big turnovers, a few of those big plays throughout the course of the game that can flip the outcome, then it might be worth it. It might come out in the wash.
Dan Rubenstein — 08:07
It's a vision.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 08:08
A version of how you could do this.
Dan Rubenstein — 08:10
Correct, right? You have to have an intention, you have to have a plan. If you're not a big believer in your ability to play teams straight up, then you get creative and you're like, how do we force turnovers? How do we get wonky? How do we confuse people on third down? They didn't confuse a lot of people on third down last year. The formula for Duke last year was throwing the ball really well and doing so in a way that covered up for a pretty deficient defense for much of the season. And not, this is going to sound very basic. They didn't lose games to bad teams, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 08:42
No, they really didn't.
Dan Rubenstein — 08:43
That'll get you to eight wins in the ACC. If you merely beat the teams you should and are competitive against everybody else, it's a really gilded path to eight wins. And that's what we have in Duke.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 08:57
It is. Now, I think the offense has to look different this season. It just has to be different. Darian Mensah threw for 3,900 yards and 34 touchdowns a year ago. They're not going to get that kind of production in the passing game this year. I'm expecting more of a ball control situation where they're focused on the run game, on play action. I think they're going to feed Nate Sheppard. He was a freshman All-American a year ago. Went over 1,100 yards. He's a bull, runs angry. I think he is going to be sort of the centerpiece of the offense. The X factor, though, is the Walker Eget thing. So, Walker Eget is going to be the new quarterback this year, provided he's healthy. He comes over from San Jose State. He's a tough kid.
Interestingly, he tore his ACL in 2024 and played through it without surgery in 2025, finally got the surgery at the end of the year. And as such, his spring reps were limited. It sounds like he'll be a full go in time for the fall. He's just not the same type of quarterback as Darian Mensah.
Dan Rubenstein — 09:58
Correct.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 09:59
Darian Mensah was a little bit more dual threat. Walker Eget is a pocket passer. I expect he's going to be throwing to his tight end. I expect that it's going to take a little bit until they figure out this receiver room. But I think all told, the offense will end up being sufficient, just provided they can get that push up front and Nate Sheppard is still there and healthy.
Dan Rubenstein — 10:19
I agree. I was looking at Duke's schedule. It's an interesting schedule, just sort of like what we alluded to with last season. They have Tulane and Illinois this year. Tulane's at home, Illinois is on the road, correct? How many of these teams, and I guess excluding William and Mary, because I don't know their exact situation, Bill and Mary, excuse me, Bill and Mary.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 10:39
Who? Bill and Mary, thank you.
Dan Rubenstein — 10:43
So of the other 11 teams, how many have new starting quarterbacks? Ten of 11. And that's not necessarily unique to Duke as we look across this sport. Obviously, there's going to be movement with every team at quarterback, but I think it's just CJ Bailey, who they face as a returning quarterback on this schedule. Darian Mensah, they're familiar with, and they will see him in Coral Gables. So he is a returning ACC quarterback, but he's not a returning Miami quarterback. Duke's schedule is fine. I think it's backloaded, yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 11:17
Yeah. Starting in Week 8, it is at Virginia, home against BC, at NC State, at Miami, home against Clemson on the road at Wake.
Dan Rubenstein — 11:26
Right. I don't know. The road-home splits are tricky, but I don't know, man. Again, I sort of bring this full circle. Winning is a skill. Duke and Manny Diaz seem to have that skill. We'll see on quarterback health. We'll see on the difference between this year's offensive vision and last year's, if it's going to be more balanced or even much more skewed to the run, there's a lot new on the defense up front and the defense in the back end. Linebacker has some experience, it seems. There are pieces to build around. Hopefully, they can stay healthy. Hopefully, every team can stay healthy. But I don't know. Duke just seems like one of those programs that, until shown otherwise, they're just going to keep painting the corners that it's not pretty, but they're throwing strikes. And I feel good about Duke at the very least.
They're a bowl team.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 12:23
I think so. I've got him at 6-6 or 7-5.
Dan Rubenstein — 12:26
Yeah, I'm right there with you.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 12:27
It will look different. You know, Manny Diaz comes to all of this as a defensive coordinator. And I remember talking about him back in the day as somebody who embraced the analytical side of it. I mean, that was part of his calling card early, and certainly why he became a thing, at least among our crowd on the Internet. What they do this year defensively will be really interesting to chart. I think the defense is in a place, again, where they want to create havoc. They want to create those game-breaking moments. But they have to get better. And it seems as if they know this. Like they're not trying to eat the elephant. They're not trying to fix all of what ailed them a year ago.
They're trying to fix the thing that happened last year a lot, which is when they would give up a short pass play, miss the tackle, and a guy would go for a big gainer. So, like, they're just trying to fix that and do the other stuff, and they think maybe that'll give them something of a lift. I'm sure there are other areas that they're working on, but Manny Diaz, with that being his pedigree, I'm still waiting for sort of that part of the game to click for the Duke Blue Devils, but even as it is right now, even if it looks different, even if they still have some of the same issues on defense, 6-6 or 7-5, I'm with you. They've earned that benefit of the doubt.
Dan Rubenstein — 13:41
So they last season had two games in the ACC portion of their schedule where they had an expected winning percentage of under 15%, according to Bill Connelly's SP+ team profiles. There was a 15% chance when looking at the rhythm of the game, the stats for both teams, 15% of all games this team ends up winning. They won both of those games. Clemson at 5%, North Carolina at 13%. So they're winning losable games, which is why we say winning is a skill, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 14:15
Winning is a skill.
Dan Rubenstein — 14:16
You figure out ways. That Clemson shootout win by one was one of the season turning wins in the ACC.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 14:23
Doesn't need to be pretty, just needs to work.
Dan Rubenstein — 14:25
Correct.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 14:26
You mentioned the Clemson Tigers, Dan. Let's go. Let's talk about the Clemson Tigers.
Dan Rubenstein — 14:30
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 14:31
Clemson's over/under is seven and a half, which caught me off guard.
Dan Rubenstein — 14:37
Okay, in the playoff two years ago.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 14:40
Yes. In the playoff two years ago, won the ACC two years ago, damn near won that playoff game. Last year, Dabo Swinney followed it up with a seven and six season, which was his worst record in 17 seasons. This is a preview episode. We're going to talk about how we think Clemson will do this season. But the real question, in my opinion, is whether there is a strategy being implemented here. Is there a strategy or is hope the strategy? Because when I was working the old mysterious day job, I had a friend who was always quick to point out that hope is not a strategy. It's not the way you go about it if you want things to work. I could probably make a case for both, but I will say this to Dabo's credit. Dabo was more active than ever in the transfer portal, particularly on defense.
They brought in the types of guys that Tom Allen wants to run that thing. If Clemson is good this year, I think it'll be led by that defense and probably due in no small part to some of those new bodies that he's brought in to try and boost that defense. This is not to say you need the portal. You need to use the portal in order to win big. That is not the case. We know that's not true. But his, I would say, general reluctance to go that direction with the program has definitely been striking. It's been something we've talked about. He kind of veered from that course a little bit here. And I'm curious to see if it works out for him. And if it does, is this something that we're going to see more of in the future?
Dan Rubenstein — 16:18
Look, the base layer of Clemson is basically they're starting ahead of essentially everybody in the conference other than Miami, I think, right? So their starting point is a championship coach. A pass rush that should be one of the best in the conference.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 16:38
Should be very good, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 16:39
Should be very, very good. A defensive coordinator who I think we believe to be somewhere between very good and excellent, at least for stretches.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 16:48
Yeah, absolutely.
Dan Rubenstein — 16:50
I think Tom Allen is a respected defensive mind. Receivers that are probably close to the top of the conference, if not in the top tier of the conference.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 17:01
Very good, very good receivers. Love their receivers.
Dan Rubenstein — 17:02
Very good receivers. Home field advantage.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 17:05
Yep.
Dan Rubenstein — 17:06
Pronounced. Yes?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 17:08
Yep.
Dan Rubenstein — 17:09
There's a lot that is just vaguely speaking in Clemson's corner. It's incredible that they are not looked at, at least when you look by and large at how people are looking at this conference, as a contending team because of where they've, you know, the up-and-down nature of the past few years. I don't feel great about them. I have no idea what to think about Chris Vizzina at quarterback. I have no idea if this offensive line can suddenly and magically start anchoring a rushing attack that seemed to be completely absent last year.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 17:43
It was completely absent last year.
Dan Rubenstein — 17:45
I have no idea if a defense that seems to have NFL players on multiple levels can be somewhere close to excellent for stretches, which they didn't seem to be last year in the bigger games, or consistently in bigger games. I don't love the Chad Morris thing. I don't love looking backwards. That's just a me thing. Perhaps it works out, perhaps it doesn't. But it is wild to me that I looked at who's on this team, looked at the questions, and feel as if they are a second-tier ACC team given where they're starting out, because I don't trust them situationally under Dabo Swinney anymore. I don't trust the quarterback development. I don't trust the offense. I don't trust the intentions. I don't trust them in big games to win close 50-50 games anymore. And when you can't run, and maybe they'll run this year. I hope they run this year.
You can't do much in the red zone either. So you're limiting your scoring opportunities, and it is wild to think about having a realistic conversation about Clemson in this manner because they've forced us into it. It's weird.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 18:59
When I jotted it down on my note sheet about is there a plan or is hope the plan, my first thought upon reading that back was I'm being unfair. But then I dug in a little bit more, and I don't know what the plan is, frankly. And I, I mean, I guess if you squint, you can kind of see where Dabo's trying to take this now, but it is a lot of back to the future type stuff, right? And I don't know. I'm curious. So let's kind of level set with them. Okay. Let's get back to square one, basics with Clemson. If they're good, at least initially, it's led by their defense, which you mentioned a couple of times here. They look very solid in the front seven. A bit of a rebuild in the back, but plenty of options back there. Pass defense was an issue last season. It looks like they're actively trying to solve that.
It does feel like there's some vision on this side of the ball, to be fair. The question is on offense, though. They did not take a transfer quarterback. It looks like they're going to roll with Christopher Vizzina. They went with a nostalgia hire in bringing back Chad Morris, who ran the offense way back when. Time is going to tell if that was the correct decision because Clemson does have the good wide receivers. They do have a promising young running back. And they have, if nothing more, been recruiting pretty well along the line. Whether they can plug and play some of those guys, we'll get to that once the season gets moving. But to your point, bringing back Chad Morris is definitely a choice. I would say schematically, it's a signal that they're trying to be a little bit more balanced on offense.
They're trying to prioritize that run game and get better than they were a year ago and trying to put less on the quarterback. And I saw in the Athlon preview, they had a note from another coach who was like, “Hey, yeah, great that they're doing this. They sort of tried it last year and it didn't work then.” So there's a case to be made that just because they're trying to emphasize more balance, they're trying to go in this direction with their scheme, it still might not work. But if that is the plan, and if they are trying to make things more balanced, so a little bit less is on a new starting quarterback, if you're living in that universe, you could at least understand that this is some semblance of a plan.
You could understand why they didn't feel the need to go outside and bring in a transfer quarterback if they've got somebody in-house who they think is good enough to be, in effect, a game manager. I don't know if that's what they're going to ask of him, but he was a four-star recruit. He had offers all over the place. It's not like he's a walk-on, he just hasn't played much. So, what are they going to get out of him? What are they going to ask out of him? I don't know. There are a bunch of moving parts here. There is a lack of a track record on several different fronts. I hope, for Christopher Vizzina's sake, he pops. I hope all of this goes well. This is where I get to the part where I talk about the schedule and I say that I hate it. I hate this schedule for Clemson.
Dan Rubenstein — 21:58
It's a real interesting one, yep.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 22:01
Like, there is some element of talking in circles until you get to the schedule. Because with all these moving parts and so much uncertainty across the board, mainly on offense, then you look at the schedule and it's like, man, I don't know about this, man. I don't know about this.
Dan Rubenstein — 22:19
It's okay. I want to say they play four, as we think about them now, good quarterbacks. Obviously good quarterbacks on this schedule. They have three of them in the first five weeks of the season. So healthy Sam Levitt, I would count as a good quarterback. I don't know if Sam Levitt's going to be healthy, but that's on the road in the other Death Valley, and they have Sam Levitt there. They have JKS on a short week, on the road in Berkeley. Okay? They have Darian Mensah at home very early October. It's three quarterbacks. I think we can agree. Healthy Sam Levitt, asterisk there. Darian Mensah, JKS. Good quarterbacks. I have no idea what to expect out of the quarterbacks after that. Before LaNorris Sellers to finish out the season, that game is at home as well, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 23:11
Right.
Dan Rubenstein — 23:11
That's a Clemson game at home. The defense needs to be—I mean, both sides of the ball need to be immediately ready because if those offenses are good, we expect Lane Kiffin's LSU offense to be good. We should expect the Christopher Vizzina-led, Chad Morris-run Clemson offense, if Clemson is going to compete in those games, to be capable of scoring 30 points against good teams or being able to keep up with good offenses however you want to position it. And so that's the schedule. It could have a high ceiling, as Clemson has a better starting point than basically all of these teams. And it could have a low, low floor because Clemson seems to have a higher starting point and has still proven that they can lose some of those games. So fascinating, fascinating year.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 24:00
It's a really, really interesting plot line to follow, if only because of some of the characters involved and some of the recent history of this very successful program that has won at the highest level, Clemson is definitely grappling with transition at this juncture. And I don't know if going back to Chad Morris is going to be the answer and produce results, but I don't know. Time will tell.
Dan Rubenstein — 24:33
It's different. It's a different kind of Clemson team, especially on defense. We always seem to have the like, man, they go six deep along this defensive line. They have this all-American candidate at linebacker, and they've got these lockdown dudes at corner, and this all-American, maybe first-round pick at safety. Like, Will Heldt is really good. Sammy Brown's really good. But like it seems like a shallower roster in terms of obvious star power, which is just different.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 25:01
All right, where do you want to go next?
Dan Rubenstein — 25:05
Let's go to your new pet team.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 25:08
Well, my pet team is NC State, but we can talk about—yeah, NC State is the one that I identified as my— all right, we'll do NC State and then we'll do Louisville.
Dan Rubenstein — 25:10
Is it really? So let's go NC State then.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 25:16
How's that?
Dan Rubenstein — 25:16
Perfect. Wow.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 25:19
Yeah, I've got a thing for NC State this year.
Dan Rubenstein — 25:23
Go on.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 25:23
And I made that comment in Part 1 of the ACC episode. We received multiple emails, as you know, with varying levels of concern, all of which warned me not to do it. So I'm going to do it. I'm going to be brave. It wouldn't be the first time I said something stupid with regard to the ACC. Let's go all in. NC State can be my East Coast, Minnesota. Maybe we could include NC State fans on the Minnesota Zoom that I do every December now. That'll be our yearly tradition. I don't know. CJ Bailey announced that he was coming back to the program on January the 2nd. And his quote was that 2026 is our year.
Dan Rubenstein — 26:12
The word “our,” though, has an asterisk because he probably was not sure who he was referring to at that moment.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 26:18
Probably not. Probably not. I love CJ Bailey.
Dan Rubenstein — 26:22
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 26:22
He was much better last season pushing the ball vertically. I do think it's fair to wonder who his targets are going to be this season. But I like that he's back with the same coordinator again, Kurt Roper. I trust that they're going to figure something out. Kurt Roper, in my opinion, is still a pretty good offensive coordinator.
Dan Rubenstein — 26:41
I'm more mixed than you are on the Kurt Roper experience, but okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 26:44
I mentioned this as well back in Part 1. They made a concerted effort to protect CJ Bailey in the portal. They did so by emphasizing offensive line, maybe de-emphasizing wide receiver a little bit. So the question around targets, this was a stylistic decision that they want to protect CJ Bailey. And maybe leave the wide receiver room to a bit of chance. I think that line could end up paying dividends for them because I really like their running back, Jayden Scott, Duke Scott, whatever you want to call him. I think he's quicker than people realize. I think he's set up for a big season. I said before they gave him jersey number one. That might not mean anything to the outside world. But inside the walls, the culture of this program, that's actually kind of a big deal. So I think Jayden Scott is in store for a really, really nice season.
Otherwise, who CJ is throwing to, that part remains to be seen. Defensively, I don't know. And if I think back across the arc of this NC State story, our friend Bill Connelly from ESPN pointed it out really well because NC State, over the last two years running, has been outside of the top 60 in SP+ defense. This comes after a long stretch of being one of the best in the country. So this part of their game has really been the disappointing part, in my view. Last year, no pass rush, too many big plays. They're hoping that they can get some pop off the edge this year via transfers. They're hoping the secondary will be better with a little bit more experience. They were really young a year ago. It's a lot of hope. And so if there's a cause for pause, at least for me, it's on the defensive side. I think they'll figure out offense.
But defensively, they got to try and right that ship.
Dan Rubenstein — 28:42
Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 28:43
I think the reason that I am all in on NC State is that they avoid Miami, SMU, Clemson, Pitt, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Tech on this schedule. Their three toughest games appear to me to be Virginia. Remember, this is the Week 0 game that used to be in Rio, but now it's going to be in Charlottesville.
Dan Rubenstein — 29:03
Really, I'm going to go to the next one.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 29:05
Home against Louisville, first week of October, and then on the road at Florida State, November the 21st. It's spread out really well. They do have to travel cross country, but it's at Stanford, which is a winnable game. Otherwise, I look at this and I say there are seven manageable home games on this. All of these teams are beatable, and the over/under is just 6.5 for NC State. So I'm aggressively on that over.
Dan Rubenstein — 29:31
Because you think they can win seven or do you think because they can win eight or nine?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 29:35
I think seven is a mortal lock.
Dan Rubenstein — 29:37
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 29:38
And I think they can win more. I think there's more meat on that bone.
Dan Rubenstein — 29:42
It's wild. They brought in, what, 40 new players? Forty-plus new players, new offensive line, new skill positions basically across the board for CJ Bailey. Some interesting players on this defense, but it was also a defense that wasn't good last season, as you mentioned. I think I'm fine on NC State. Like the whole thing of like a good quarterback never gets too high, never gets too low. That's like printed on the walls in the facility. We're never gonna get too high. We'll never get too low, although they have briefly had a low point, but yeah, there's a lot of winnable games on here. The home-road splits are fine. It's a bye before that Stanford game where they travel across the country. We'll see on whatever Florida State or North Carolina is by the end of the season.
But games like Wake, whatever Louisville is going to be with a lot of changes with that Louisville program as well. Vandy, in a number of ways, starting over. Obviously, not going towards their ACC record. Virginia out of the gates will be fascinating. By the way, sidebar, the number of times you will hear that CJ Bailey was Jeremiah Smith's high school quarterback this season. Mortal lock, if you're saying mortal lock for fantasy thing, take the over.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 30:49
Over, over, over. Let's go over. Yeah, let's go over.
Dan Rubenstein — 30:54
It seems like, with the guys they're bringing in, there's reason to believe that they can be somewhat successful, especially on offense, especially at receiver, especially at running back, like you mentioned. I just think there is just a very obvious ceiling for a program like NC State, that they're not going to be competitive against the best teams on their schedule, depending on who those best teams are, I guess. But like the Notre Dame game last year, it wasn't pretty for NC State. They'll probably lose to somebody dumb. They'll probably beat somebody they shouldn't. And here we are at seven and a half wins.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 31:25
Listen, maybe I've got old data in front of me. I don't know.
Dan Rubenstein — 31:30
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 31:30
But I checked it yesterday morning. I saw six and a half.
Dan Rubenstein — 31:34
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 31:35
If that is the actual number, that's disrespectful for this team. This is a team that I think is easily going to win seven. And maybe more. But again, I've been warned not to say that. So here I am again, touching the hot stove.
Dan Rubenstein — 31:50
They were, in terms of what they need to fix from a data standpoint, one of the absolute worst third down defenses in America. Could not get to the quarterback last year. One of the worst sack rates in college football. The running was inconsistent, though that's sort of, you know, new offensive line, new running back. We'll see if there's improvement there because there was absolutely talent at running back last year. They had a great red-zone offense and an explosive offense, but the defense took so much off the table that it ultimately didn't matter in terms of having a breakthrough season, even with the starting point that they had last year as a promising quarterback with good receivers.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 32:29
You mentioned Louisville. Let's go over to Louisville now.
Dan Rubenstein — 32:32
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 32:33
Last year was Jeff Brohm's third season at Louisville. He's now gone 10-4, 9-4 and 9-4. There is no question that he has absolutely raised the floor. There is no question, judging from the response on our Discord at Verballers.com, or if you want to sign up and learn more about that, you can go there. I may be the biggest Jeff Brohm fan in the entire Verballerhood. I'm starting my nonprofit Bros for Brohm this year. They're right on the cusp. They are right on the cusp. Last year, especially so, after beating Miami on the road, they then go in and they lose three other conference games by a combined seven points. So it's hard to do what they have done three straight years. Not just winning that many games, but also reconstructing basically through the portal every offseason.
Clearly, this is a guy who knows how to build something very quickly. The question is: with a new starting quarterback who has virtually no experience—
Dan Rubenstein — 33:43
Is this four quarterbacks in four years?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 33:46
Four in four years, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 33:47
So it's Shough and Plummer and Miller Moss and now Lincoln Kienholz. Yep.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 33:54
The question is, can he do it again? Can he do it again given this setup? There's a lot to like about Louisville. Personally, I've got Louisville third in the ACC, just a nose behind SMU, but you could just as easily make the case for the Cardinals. I don't think that's a difficult case to make. Where I'm hung up, though, is on the Lincoln Kienholtz thing.
Dan Rubenstein — 34:17
Okay, go on.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 34:19
Lincoln Kienholz, transfer quarterback from Ohio State, extremely unproven. And I did read conflicting accounts of his performance this spring. So I'd say that, along with some of the other uncertainty on offense, is why I'm ultimately going to go SMU over Louisville. I just don't know what we're getting from Lincoln Kienholtz. I think there are big questions out wide and along the line. How they use Kienholz will also be an interesting thing to follow, not just if he's successful, because Lincoln Kienholz can move. And I think that means they're going to do more quarterback runs, read option, that type of stuff that you're used to seeing with a mobile quarterback. I think you put that alongside the likes of Isaac Brown and Keyjuan Brown.
That added threat of having the more mobile quarterback sets them up for a bigger season on the ground, provided the line can hold up. And that's a big if for me on the line front, but at least like you could kind of see the makings of a plan there with the mobile quarterback and the running backs who are pretty good.
Dan Rubenstein — 35:26
Yeah, I don't know if Louisville is actually good or there's just a vacuum near the top in the ACC that just has to be filled by somebody.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 35:36
Well, that's fair.
Dan Rubenstein — 35:38
And they get SMU at home, yes?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 35:40
Correct.
Dan Rubenstein — 35:41
Right. If you're looking at the push-pull, we had this conversation last year, I think, about who's number four in the Big Ten. Completely erroneously, by the way, we had this conversation. We're like, man, that week four matchup between Illinois and Indiana will go a long way towards deciding who's number four in the Big Ten. Whoops!
Ty Hildenbrandt — 35:57
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 35:57
Wrong about that one. But it does look like that Louisville SMU game seems important to the hierarchy near the top in the ACC.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 36:08
It's huge.
Dan Rubenstein — 36:09
It seems that way. I hope we are closer to being correct about this than we were last season. Yeah, I mean, we're doing the same sort of song and dance, right? Where we're just like, well, if the portal offensive line holds up, right? If the quarterback transfer holds up, right? Though they should have a very strong running game.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 36:26
Where I think we have to look, though, if we're serious about Louisville is defense. I think the stronger case for Louisville is actually on defense, because there are offensive questions across the board, right? You got an unproven quarterback, a line that lost like five of its top six guys. Who's the target out wide? Is there a target? Like there are real questions there, but defensively I think all three levels of this defense are among the better units in the conference. Like they're probably gettable up the middle if you want to split hairs, if only because they don't have like great depth on the inside.
Dan Rubenstein — 36:54
I think so.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 37:00
But the secondary is somewhat rebuilt. I don't mind what they did back there, though. I think they'll be fine. And I think defensively, even though they now have two new coordinators, two co-coordinators stepping in after Ron English stepped away. I still think defensively they're going to have a nice little bedrock that they can build upon, provided that the offense has a little bit of a runway. There's not a ton of runway, but provided they've got a little bit of a runway to get themselves in order, I don't think it's like the defense has got to bottom out. The defense is going to keep them in this thing.
Dan Rubenstein — 37:32
They have basically two obvious losable games on this schedule. If we are to consider Louisville to be a pretty obviously good team, maybe not great, but a pretty obviously good team. And those two games are in two of the first three weeks of the year.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 37:46
And that's why I talk about runway. That's why I talk about runway.
Dan Rubenstein — 37:48
Right, and it's a runway thing, but you look at the rest of the schedule, you look at the offenses faced or the defenses faced.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 37:50
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 37:54
If you have offensive questions about what they're looking like up front, if you have defensive questions about replacing some of those playmakers, especially in the back end, I think those are all reasonable. But you look at who they're playing. There are games that might be tricky at Georgia Tech later on in the season if Georgia Tech is able to get there, you know, get their act together, especially on defense by that time in November. But you look at this schedule. Kentucky. Look, they blew Kentucky out last year. Kentucky made the change at head coach. This is a sort of like, it's on Louisville. They should be flirting with double-digit wins, given what's on their roster and who they play and where they play.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 38:28
Oh, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 38:33
It's a matter of health, depth. Obviously, they were starting a backup quarterback against, I want to say, SMU last year in their low moments. I don't think Isaac Brown played in that game either. So it's a depth thing. It's a, you know, what do they look like in November thing? And they're doing the, like, “Okay, this guy was a major quarterback in a backup role at a big place” thing. Again, like Tyler Shough was a reclamation project. Jack Plummer was a reclamation project. Miller Moss was a reclamation project. Those guys were all like to various degrees somewhat successful. Tyler Shough's now an NFL quarterback. Miller Moss was kind of back end of the ACC and didn't fully work out as like a quarterback with pop for them last year. But to your point, if Lincoln Kienholtz is something, they're flirting with double digits.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 39:24
100%. It is not hard to make a case for 10-2. It is not hard to make that case, but it is reliant on Lincoln Kienholz giving him something on offense. It is reliant on a line. It's reliant on a lot of that offense coming together. But again, Brohm's done this now, a couple of years running. We know he knows how to coach offense.
Dan Rubenstein — 39:45
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 39:45
So, another guy who I kind of give the benefit of the doubt when it comes to will he or won't he figure it out, he's proven that he knows how to do that. As a charter member of the Bros for Brohm Club, I have the utmost faith in Jeff Brohm to figure out a way to make this thing go this year. I'm still going to give the nod to SMU, though. I like SMU just a little bit more.
Dan Rubenstein — 40:06
Okay. I mean, look, the other thing worth mentioning is the defense is not speaking English anymore, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 40:10
Well, that's what I said.
Dan Rubenstein — 40:10
Ron English taking a year away.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 40:11
He stepped away.
Dan Rubenstein — 40:12
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 40:12
He stepped away.
Dan Rubenstein — 40:13
And so the co-defensive coordinator situation. So I think benefit of the doubt that it's internal, but as you mentioned, yeah, it's worth noting.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 40:17
A lot of changes. All right, you did mention Georgia Tech. Why don't we go to Georgia Tech next?
Dan Rubenstein — 40:27
Let's go.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 40:28
Georgia Tech's really interesting to me. The early vibe I'm getting is that people are more confident in the defense than the offense. And I got to tell you, I'm just not used to that with Georgia Tech. I'm not used to that.
Dan Rubenstein — 40:44
People are more confident in the defense than the offense in this moment—with what?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 40:47
Yeah, that's the vibe I've been getting with the stuff I've been reading.
Dan Rubenstein — 40:51
With what North Star are you approaching this Georgia Tech thought?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 40:53
I don't know. It's not like this was a good defense last year.
Dan Rubenstein — 40:58
No. New defensive coordinator. Again, this is another is this another four-in-four-years situation for Georgia Tech on defense? I think it is. But they're also another program, not unlike Louisville, not unlike Duke, where you're like, there's just a vacuum near the top of this conference that somebody's going to have to win these games. And I think the responsible thing to do would be to give Brent Key the benefit of the doubt, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 41:30
I would say so. Let me address that comment about the defense. New defensive coordinator Jason Semore, he was at Marshall and Southern Miss.
Dan Rubenstein — 41:44
Yeah, with Charles Huff, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 41:45
But if you go back to 2022, he was a linebacker coach at Georgia Tech. Now he's coming back. It may surprise you to hear this. It surprised me. Did you know he wants to run a more aggressive attacking defense this season?
Dan Rubenstein — 41:57
Can only assume. Unique and novel.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 42:00
Not a lot of guys doing that anymore, you know. Notably, from what I have read, his system is going to be less about filling in the gaps along the line and more about breaking on the ball, trying to get the defensive line into the backfield. Aggressive and attacking.
Dan Rubenstein — 42:18
I'm aggressive and attacking.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 42:19
They were pretty proactive in the portal along the defensive line. They got a lot bigger along that line. Brent Key has commented on how they got bigger. It will be interesting to see if they can pull it off because that would clearly be a welcome change if the defensive line played a little bit more on the front foot. They've just gotten blown off the ball these last couple of seasons. They need to be better up front, and it sounds like they're trying to do that. Maybe that is some source of optimism. That remains to be seen. All that said, this is a really interesting moment for Georgia Tech, kind of a pivotal moment for Brent Key, because Haynes King was there forever. Everything was built around Haynes King. Now Haynes King is gone. And it's not just Haynes King, it's the offensive coordinator, who left for Florida.
They've got a new quarterback in there now. This guy is going to be more of a pro-style guy. He's under center. It's going to be an offense built a little bit more around ball control in the run, not the quarterback run, because that is not Alberto Mendoza's game.
Dan Rubenstein — 43:21
Yeah, they have a Mendoza.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 43:22
They have Mendoza, yes, the younger brother of Fernando.
Dan Rubenstein — 43:23
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 43:26
He is not a runner. It's going to look different. It's going to have to look different. Everything I have read, everything I'm sure that you have read in the preseason here about Alberto is glowing. Glowing. He looked good in the spring game, too. We obviously have no sample on this guy. And so maybe it's just me in reading, in studying, and trying to understand what Georgia Tech is going to be with him at the helm. I have gotten a little bit of the willies, just a little bit, because I feel like I have read way more about him being a student of the game than him being a good quarterback.
Dan Rubenstein — 43:57
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 44:04
And that may not be fair. But all of the commentary this preseason is, man, this guy is a sponge. This guy really appreciates the game. He knows how to study. He's a machine looking at film.
Dan Rubenstein — 44:18
It's a good starting point if all of the glowing reviews about your quarterback are like, “Oh, command. Gets it. Absolutely locked in.”
Ty Hildenbrandt — 44:24
And he wants to work. He's coachable. Like, I'm not saying these are bad things. I just—let's talk about throwing outside the hashes a little bit.
Dan Rubenstein — 44:28
Yeah, of course.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 44:31
Okay.
Dan Rubenstein — 44:32
I agree.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 44:33
That said, they're not going to ask him to run the offense. And by that, I mean they're not going to ask him to have the burden of the entire offense on his right shoulder.
Dan Rubenstein — 44:44
Like Haynes King had, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 44:47
Like Haynes, if he comes in, if he is a solid game manager, he will do well in this proposed system that I think they're going to get now with a new offensive coordinator, George Godsey. He would be fine if that were the case. But we need to see it, right? Big, big question mark.
Dan Rubenstein — 45:09
Yeah, I'm with you. I'm still questioning the defense, especially when you look at the back half of their schedule, even the front half of their schedule. Like it's a tricky, landmine-filled schedule. We don't know what Tennessee's offense is going to be. We don't fully know what Colorado, with Brennan Marion, what their offense is going to look like in the opener. They obviously finish with Georgia; that game is on the road. They also have Clemson on the road. They have Louisville in November. That's a tough November. Pitt is on the road right before November. They have a quarterback with interesting upside. So the question to me is still going to be a defensive question with Georgia Tech because I'm a believer in offensive line development at Georgia Tech. I'm a believer in what we've all heard about Alberto Mendoza.
Although it does remind me a little bit of—the Vikings coach's name is Kevin O'Connell, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 45:53
Yes.
Dan Rubenstein — 45:54
He was at San Diego State, if memory serves, as a quarterback.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 45:56
I believe so.
Dan Rubenstein — 45:58
He had a quote when he was at San Diego State. I apologize if I'm misattributing this or something, talking about his time there, where he was like, “Man”—or no, maybe this was when he was on like the Patriots. I think he was like a Tom Brady backup for a minute. He was like, “I got the offense. I knew the offense. I knew what was happening before it was happening. Film study just came easy to me. But in practice, I was like, this guy running this post is going to be open when this safety bites this way. And he was, and my arm just couldn't get it to him in the time needed to get it there.”
Ty Hildenbrandt — 46:31
Right.
Dan Rubenstein — 46:31
Right? That's the worry. I have no idea if this is applicable to Fernando Mendoza or not. But yeah, when you were talking about like, yeah, the film study compliments, the command compliments, you know, whatever. I'm still going to be more worried about the defense. I know they're bringing in guys up front. I know they're rebuilding the secondary. They just have not been able to figure out defense with Brent Key at Georgia Tech.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 46:51
No, they haven't. They haven't. And again, he's made comments. I think he's really satisfied with where they took things in the offseason, especially on that defensive line. But again, there's a recent track record here of that not working out. To the point on offensive line, though, I think you're right there. I mean, Brent Key's pedigree is as an offensive line guy.
Dan Rubenstein — 47:11
Benefit of the doubt.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 47:12
Yeah, like there is enough back along this line to run the style system that I described earlier.
Dan Rubenstein — 47:19
Good dual running backs.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 47:20
Really good duo of running backs, and we can maintain the Haynes Your Way backfield now that Justice Haynes came over from Michigan, which is nice for me.
Dan Rubenstein — 47:27
Correct. Yeah. It's a boon for the Solid Verbal.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 47:31
I appreciate that.
Dan Rubenstein — 47:33
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 47:33
That over/under is a really interesting thought experiment because of the schedule that you mentioned: six and a half. Again, just to reiterate, they've got Colorado, Tennessee, and Georgia in the non-conference. Not easy. The conference slate misses Miami and SMU, but they do get Louisville. They're at Clemson back-to-back in November. I'm inclined to go under and say they finished 6-6.
Dan Rubenstein — 48:00
I think part of this exercise is you look at the number of games on a team's schedule that feel close to automatic wins. And I feel as if the bottom of the ACC is improving. In the last few years, when you look at where Stanford was, when you look at where Florida State was a couple years ago, when you look at where Boston College was, when you look at where Syracuse was last season, when you look at where North Carolina's been for stretches. I feel as if the floor has been raised, and Georgia Tech is likelier to lose to one of those teams if something goes wrong some week. Right? Maybe their plane was delayed because of weather. They didn't get in until 4 a.m., right?
They could maybe get away with a down week in years past because they were playing that year's Syracuse or North Carolina or Florida State or Stanford or something. And so when we judge that win-total number, we're basically saying how many teams on any specific team schedule seem to be like rollover moments. And I don't think there are in the ACC in the way that there were before.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 49:08
No, I mean I look through the schedule. And the way that I kind of game this out, I think they'll beat Colorado, Mercer, Stanford and Boston College. I don't think they're beating Tennessee or Georgia, which gets them to 4-2. So to hit that over, they would need to get three of Duke, Virginia Tech on the road, Pitt on the road, Louisville at home, Clemson on the road, and Wake Forest.
Dan Rubenstein — 49:34
At home.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 49:35
At home.
Dan Rubenstein — 49:36
An enormous sandwich spot, by the way, that Wake Forest game between Clemson and Georgia on the road.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 49:39
Yeah, yeah. So, like, I just don't feel confident in saying they're going to get three of those. I think they're a bowl team, but I think they're right on that number. Again, six and a half is what I pulled up earlier today.
Dan Rubenstein — 49:51
I think they're going to steal at least one of those, but the question is—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 49:55
They'll get one, but they need three.
Dan Rubenstein — 49:57
Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 49:58
If I'm right.
Dan Rubenstein — 49:58
Well, I think they're going to steal something along the way. Like they'll beat Tennessee, or you know, they'll beat Clemson on the road or something weird. Don't feel good about that Georgia game. I think Brent Key, by the way, I still, this goes back to our Brentertainment days. I have to take a beat every single time I say Brent Key's name, so I don't say Brent Pry.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 50:21
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 50:22
An ACC Brent with a short last name who's still at Virginia Tech somehow, some way? Everybody has those words that they just always misspell. The Brentertainment in the ACC is where I'm just getting tripped up.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 50:36
Speaking of Virginia Tech, did you see the quote from James Franklin earlier today that I sent you?
Dan Rubenstein — 50:41
Oh, man. Is he also the SID at Virginia Tech?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 50:45
This is from our friend Brent McMurphy over at On3.
Dan Rubenstein — 50:47
Does a great job. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 50:50
This is from James Franklin: “Early in my career, we always had to do more with less. And then you go to a place like Virginia Tech and you got to understand how to do more with more.”
Dan Rubenstein — 51:01
Well, look, I think he's referring to the limitations at Penn State when he took over after Bill O'Brien.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 51:03
Bravo, bravo. Bravo. Didn't figure it out in 12 years. That's why he's coaching at Virginia Tech now, but whatever.
Dan Rubenstein — 51:13
I love it. Look. He is just doing what James Franklin does. I would not be surprised if he started a press conference talking like, “Top to bottom, I just got to tell you, most attractive professors and staff here at the university that I've ever come across. Smart, good-looking.”
Ty Hildenbrandt — 51:28
He's a talker. He's a talker.
Dan Rubenstein — 51:31
Just conventionally and unconventionally attractive from the top down, right? Like, he just knows what he's doing. This is at ACC Media Days, right, in Charlotte.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 51:41
Yeah, yep.
Dan Rubenstein — 51:42
How he sought out Frank Beamer's blessing before taking the job. Our friend Mark Ennis pointed it out: it was just PR layup after PR layup. He's just doing it, man. And you know what? His job, like everybody else's job in this sport, is to really gas up everybody behind the scenes to make them feel good, cut some checks. Look, he has a top-15 recruiting class.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 52:06
That's worked. That's worked really, really well. They have gotten an influx of new money. Credit to him.
Dan Rubenstein — 52:12
Influx of money, influx of—apparently, well, we had incoming talent in the portal, and now incoming talent on the prep side with the recruiting class. He has a top-flight blue-chip quarterback coming in and is recruiting various states, right? It's not just like 14 guys from Virginia Tech and one dude from Maryland. He's, you know, it's the old, well, what was the Howard? The presidential candidate who started yelling all the states, Howard Dean.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 52:34
Oh, Howard Dean? Yeah, he's doing the Howard Dean thing.
Dan Rubenstein — 52:37
He's in Ohio.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 52:37
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 52:38
He's in Massachusetts. He's in Florida. He's in North Carolina. So yes, from an optics standpoint. And he said this today, too: that they've won the offseason. Now it's time to get going for the real thing.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 52:52
The only thing I am confident saying is that Virginia Tech is going to be better than they were last year. That's it.
Dan Rubenstein — 52:59
Yeah, of course.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 53:00
That's it. I said it in Part 1. Many others have said it as well as they try to do a preview for Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech is almost impossible to project in 2026. Other than to say they're going to be better than they were a year ago, I think that die has been cast. But this is a full freaking reboot. You got James Franklin, a mostly new staff outside of Brent Pry. You got—
Dan Rubenstein — 53:27
Which, by the way, the sidebar of this as well, for somebody who loves the optics and PR side of things, like James Franklin very much does. He has been robbed of the ability to say, I don't know what they were doing here last year, because he kept the guy.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 53:40
I know, I know. He kept the guy. It's his guy. It was his guy originally.
Dan Rubenstein — 53:44
He doesn't get to say we're doing things a little bit differently because he has to be a little bit nice.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 53:50
New players, new energy, a lot of new money. A ton of Penn State influence on this thing. In terms of returning production, there's a lot, quote-unquote, back, but practically speaking, everything's new. This is a completely new setup. This is like taking your CX-5 to the shop and having them swap in like the engine from a different car. That's what this is this year.
Dan Rubenstein — 54:13
That's a Mazda reference, by the way?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 54:15
That is a Mazda reference. Yeah, I know you've had issues with that.
Dan Rubenstein — 54:16
I'm having mixed feelings about Mazda right now, Ty.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 54:19
How's your condenser situation?
Dan Rubenstein — 54:20
It's in the shop.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 54:21
Still?
Dan Rubenstein — 54:23
They told me two to three weeks. Yeah, I got a loaner. So we'll see. I've enjoyed my Mazda up until now. Not a sponsor. Could be, I suppose, but it's a smaller loaner.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 54:33
Is it a cool loaner? Man, no respect. Did you tell him who you were?
Dan Rubenstein — 54:42
I told them who you were. Didn't help at all. In fact, I think they gave me a worse deal.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 54:47
No, you have to pedal this car.
Dan Rubenstein — 54:50
I know it's not great. But we'll see. I'll get there.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 54:53
One of the things that has given me the most joy while digging into Virginia Tech is the mentality of this fan base. And you have this from time to time when you preview teams with new coaches and a whole bunch of new players, but it never ceases to amaze me and give me a lot of joy. Everyone wants to win. Everyone wants to win. But I feel like every time I have tried to poke and prod and talk to Virginia Tech fans about their expectations this year, the response has overwhelmingly been, nah, whatever. We got a much better coach. We should be better. But that's about it. And I think that's healthy, actually, because this is a proud fan base that's won a lot in the past. There just seems to be an understanding that it might not click right away. And I appreciate that. And I hope James Franklin appreciates that.
James Franklin is very good at this part of the game. He's very good at building a team. He's very good at raising the floor. He has done that consistently everywhere he has been. The reason he got fired is because he rarely beat any of the better teams.
Dan Rubenstein — 56:04
He had a leaky ceiling. The floor was fine.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 56:06
The floor was fine.
Dan Rubenstein — 56:07
He had a leaky ceiling. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 56:08
The ceiling was a little bit leaky. He rarely beat the teams above him. And it felt like that program at Penn State was in neutral. It was time. He might have a little bit of an axe to grind still with the way things went down. That I guess is understandable. But given where Virginia Tech's been, though—
Dan Rubenstein — 56:22
I'm okay with it.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 56:26
Virginia Tech would happily be stuck in neutral going 9-3 right now. It might get old, but right now that sounds pretty appealing. And that's a lot of what I have been picking up from people out there. This is an offense that is going to be run by another James Franklin deputy, Ty Howle, who comes with him from Penn State. He is a first-time play caller. He was the co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at Penn State. I would expect that the identity of this offense is going to run through Luke Reynolds, the big tight end who also came from Penn State. I would expect that if this works, Virginia Tech will become a destination for tight ends, because this is who Penn State has been. They've been very good at putting tight ends in the league for what it's worth. 17 catches by tight ends in the spring game earlier this year.
Dan Rubenstein — 57:16
Okay, so probably multiple tight end sets, perhaps.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 57:20
Multiple tight end sets. I think the offense is also going to look like them trying to force the issue with Marcellous Hawkins on the ground, provided—
Dan Rubenstein — 57:28
Solid running back, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 57:29
Provided he's healthy, they're going to set up Hawkins with the run, use that potentially to put up some vertical shots and create mismatches with tight ends. I think the meat and potatoes of this thing—if you're a tech fan, that should sound pretty good because there was no consistency in the passing game to speak of a year ago. None.
Dan Rubenstein — 57:49
Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 57:50
So you kind of project that forward. You still have Ayden Greene out wide, who I love.
Dan Rubenstein — 57:56
Oh, okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 57:56
In theory, he should benefit from this system. I'm skeptical given James Franklin's recent track record developing wide receivers, but Ayden Greene has taken on a leadership role. Everyone's very excited about Ayden Greene, again, including myself. So we'll see how he does in this system. I am hesitant to go all in on Virginia Tech because I don't know what it's going to look like when they try to scale up Ethan Grunkemeyer. This is a line that's a little bit up in the air. And Grunk was very good for Penn State, but he was very good for Penn State in a situation where there were absolutely no stakes whatsoever. That season was awash after Franklin got fired, after Allar got hurt. So, can Grunk step into this new role, be the guy? I don't know if he's going to have to shoulder the whole offense.
He's probably going to have to hand it off a lot and look for a Luke Reynolds. I think that could work. He easily could be one of those quarterbacks who flies under the radar and ends up with a really, really solid season. He could be much better than that. But the scalability of Grunk is something that I'm keeping my eye on, something that I jotted down here.
Dan Rubenstein — 59:03
Showed a little moxie, showed a little fire.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 59:05
Showed a lot of moxie. Oh, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 59:07
Thrust into duty, nearly led a win against the eventual national champion, yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 59:13
I'm not implying that Grunk is a liability. I don't think he's a liability at all. I think he is a—
Dan Rubenstein — 59:17
No, but the infrastructure at Penn State around him was better last season.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 59:21
Yeah, that team had more talent, especially in the backfield.
Dan Rubenstein — 59:21
Yeah. Here's a bigger picture question because as I was looking at all of these teams, and some of them I've already mentioned before, the following phrase or thought kept popping into my mind, which was like, well, they might be good on offense if this new offensive line works out. If everybody's offensive line is new, does that just cancel everything out?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 59:42
I think it probably does, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 59:43
And does it matter anymore? Right? Like, obviously, somebody's going to hit on more portal offensive linemen than somebody else. Louisville might hit on more portal offensive linemen. NC State might hit on portal offensive linemen. But if everybody is kind of starting from a similar point, right, Clemson needs to figure out how to get its offensive line to help open up a running game. Duke needs to figure out how to help some of its returning offensive linemen adjust to perhaps a new vision for the offense. There are offensive line questions with all of the teams that we have mentioned so far.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:00:13
Every one of them.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:00:14
So, if they all have questions, does nobody have a question?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:00:14
Every last one of them.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:00:18
I don't know. I'm a pretty bad philosopher.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:00:20
That's, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:00:21
But that's the kind of thing, right? Like, if nobody has a center on the low block, is it really a concern? Now, obviously, offensive lines are playing against defensive lines. So, you got to say, okay, well, who has the defensive line to take advantage of all of these new offensive lines? But that is something that struck me, where it's just like maybe the ACC, or at least a chunk of the ACC, is going to be wild based on whose edge rusher is popping that day. So, who knows?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:00:49
I think it's a valuable point. If we look at defense, the situation on defense, I'm not going to say it's unprecedented, it's very unusual. It's very unusual because the defensive coordinator is Brent Pry, who was last year's head coach. From what I can gather, it sounds like this defense is going to look a little bit more like Penn State's defense than Virginia Tech's defense from a year ago. There will be some holdovers. There will be some carryovers. But it's going to look a little bit more like what you're used to seeing up at Penn State. They look to me really sound at edge and corner, which is an excellent starting point and definitely a situation that James Franklin's familiar with from his time up at Penn State. They were always good at edge and at corner.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:01:38
Sure.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:01:39
I really hope it works out for Brent Pry in this situation because, just on like a human level, I have to imagine it's a weird head trip to basically swallow your pride and stay on at the place that fired you now under your former boss. Like, I don't know. That's a different situation.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:01:58
By the way, the gentleman responsible for the vision for this defense the past few years, the recruiting for this defense.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:02:05
It was not good last year.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:02:07
No, but what I'm saying is, Brent Pry ultimately, the buck stopped with him. He hired the defensive coordinator. He was in charge of like what kind of defensive tackles Virginia Tech would try to target and what they would do on third downs and in the red zone. Like it came across his desk. And it again comes across his desk.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:02:29
Yeah. Seemed like a good idea.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:02:29
It's as if he appeared on Undercover Boss and just stayed in that pretend role.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:02:37
Well, I was going to say, we need the Tim Robinson clip.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:02:38
This whole time, exactly. But like, oh, the CEO is undercover as a mid-level manager. And now he's just more comfortable as a mid-level manager. So I guess he's just going to stay. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:02:55
I've flip-flopped on Tech and this schedule like a hundred times. At first, I thought it looked good, then I didn't know. Now, all I'm confident saying is that it looks really backloaded. And the toughest games are on the road. Back half of the year at Clemson, at SMU, at Miami, James is going to have a chance to exorcise some of those demons against ranked teams. And we'll see how it goes. There might be some lingering trauma there for Coach Franklin going up against these teams, all three of which could be ranked when they play later in the season. The win total is 6.5 per Vegas. I am aggressively on the over for Virginia Tech this year.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:03:38
Really?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:03:39
I think the floor, the absolute floor is 7-5. And you could probably sell me on 10-2.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:03:46
So which side of the ball are you more concerned about in this moment?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:03:48
I'm serious. Right now I'm more concerned about offense.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:03:53
Okay, you're more concerned about offense. So if you are decently okay with their defense, then you're probably eyeballing 4-0, even though it is Maryland in September, and that is a dangerous time to get Maryland.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:04:05
I am eyeing a 4-0 start, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:04:08
Okay, so that means to just get to a bowl, they need to win, my math says two more, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:04:08
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:04:15
Pitt, at Cal, Georgia Tech, at Clemson, at SMU are all losable games.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:04:18
Mm-hmm. Sure.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:04:20
Yes, we agree.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:04:21
Yep.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:04:22
Stanford at home should be a winnable game, but that's a sandwich spot between road spots at SMU and Miami.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:04:27
They'll win that game.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:04:28
And Virginia's at home, you'd rather you have your rivalry game at home. I don't think I'm as confident in the over.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:04:35
Oh, I'm all in on the over.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:04:37
I still think that there is likely not enough talent in the trenches in this moment. Now, suddenly, you're going to say, okay, the gentleman to take me from 6-6 potential to 8-4 potential, that gentleman needs to be somebody who can beat Georgia Tech in a 27-24 game, or somebody who can beat Stanford in a weird 17-13 game. Or somebody who can beat Maryland 24-23, or somebody who can beat Virginia 27-25 in the Commonwealth Cup, a big game for Virginia Tech every single year, no matter who the head coach is. And that gentleman who is going to win those high-leverage moments in a close fourth quarter spot is Jumbo Jim Franklin.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:05:30
Jumbo Jim.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:05:31
I don't know. James Franklin. That's concerning to me that the talent is not there to overwhelm teams usually via defense for James Franklin teams this year. That they're going to have to win those 50-50 moments against teams in the, like, bowl-eligible, five-to-eight-win tier.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:05:49
No.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:05:50
I don't know if I'm locked in.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:05:50
I'm in. I'm in.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:05:52
Definite improvement from my vantage point. They're definitely going to be improved from where they were these past couple of years.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:05:55
Yeah. I'm in.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:05:59
Okay. I'm in the 6-6, 7-5 zone.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:06:02
We got three teams left. We've got Cal, we got Syracuse, we got Boston College. You pick the next team. I talked too long about Virginia Tech.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:07
California Golden Bears.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:06:09
All right, you're from the state of California.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:12
Very different part, about seven hours away from the East Bay, but yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:06:16
Is that how long it takes to drive up there?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:18
From the San Fernando Valley to the East Bay? Yes, probably. And then you're hitting traffic both when you leave and when you arrive in that area. Sure.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:06:27
Is there a train or something that runs up there from Southern California?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:29
You would think, Ty, you would think by 2026 we would have some sort of high-speed rail.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:06:34
This isn't even like a statement. I genuinely don't know.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:37
There are trains that you can take that have really nice views of the ocean. They are not that fast. And they do not go to many places. But yes, I've driven that drive back and forth a number of times. And depending on traffic and conditions—if you want to go scenic route along the ocean, if you want to go inland on the five, it's about seven hours.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:07:03
I want to turn this one over to you because I talked way too long about Virginia Tech, but I want to start off the Cal preview by talking about this change I have detected. That I have felt. I have felt a change in the Calgorithm, have you?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:07:24
I'm not on social media as much, so you're going to have to—oh, this is just like the electrons passing through your office.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:07:26
No, this isn't even a social media thing. This is the simulation of our universe here.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:07:35
Oh, okay. So you're picking up the heightened electromagnetic waves of the Calgorithm.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:07:39
Like in the Matrix when they saw the cat walk by twice.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:07:42
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:07:43
A little bit of that here with Cal.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:07:43
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:07:45
Because a couple years back, it was all like friggin' doom scrolling. This is just a program stuck in the mud that wasn't going anywhere. The last two seasons now, it's been a lot of shareable memes. Okay, a lot of good vibes, mostly shareable memes. And now they kind of feel like a trendy team because they've got JKS at quarterback. They've got an exciting new coach, Tosh Lupoi. It feels to me like the vibes are really strong here with Cal. And so I am holding myself back a little bit from falling victim to the hype train. As we know, that happens to me every offseason. And I'm trying not to let that happen to me with Cal. I should add, I have a dynasty going in College Football 27 with friends, and I did pick Cal as my team. I'm very excited about Cal.
But the question that I have for you is: how excited should I practically be with respect to the Golden Bears?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:08:44
Excited in terms of like competing for the conference or excited in terms of like entertainment value?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:08:49
Entertainment value.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:08:50
You should be very excited. There is a good enough reason to think that you could flip on the ACC Network in mid to late October. I believe Max Browne is now doing the headline ACC Network games.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:09:05
Yeah, good for you.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:09:08
With Wes Durham, I want to say, is the voice of the ACC Network? Shout out to the ACC Network. You could turn on that game and it's SMU-Cal in late October. And you'll be like, wow, it's 44-41, and there are six and a half minutes left before halftime, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:09:24
Yeah, it's true.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:09:25
I think that's going to be the essence, or if you will, the JKS-ence of this.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:09:29
Oh, look at this.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:09:30
Thank you very much, Ty.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:09:31
That's good.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:09:31
Come on. That was from the shower this morning. I was like, ooh, that's pretty good. The Cal team under Tosh Lupoi, who did a magnificent job of making sure, JKS, Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:09:45
He got it, first try.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:09:46
Thank you very much. He stayed with the Golden Bears. I'm not terribly confident in this offensive line. I am confident in this group of skill-position players. The receivers, Adam Mohammed, the Washington transfer running back. They're experimenting with two new, very green coordinators, one on either side of the ball, and going after, like, Oregon third-string dudes to anchor this defense. I'm not saying it's a bad idea. Oregon was very deep with talent last season. The idea is these guys can play if given the opportunity, especially in a conference that may not be as difficult. That's the Cal experiment this year. And I think it's going to be very entertaining, but I also think there are going to be some 44-41 games with six and a half minutes left before halftime.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:10:34
Yeah, I agree with you on the entertainment factor. I think the offense will be good enough that they're going to put the fear of God into a few teams this season. And I'll put anyone, anyone traveling cross country on notice, especially Clemson in Week 4.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:10:52
I mean, that was like a mid-February thing on this show. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:10:57
They play Cal on the road in Week 4 on a Friday night a week before they come back home to host Miami. That, my friends, is a trap game if we've ever seen a trap game.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:11:08
Who do they have the week before, Clemson?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:11:10
The week before all that, they are at home against North Carolina.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:11:14
Yes, whatever North Carolina is this year, and yeah, I mean, that's going to be terribly difficult, I think, for Clemson just in that spot. Should also mention with Cal. I don't know if it's 100% going to happen. I don't know if this is 100% the right call, but I do treasure a quarterback that has both a four-touchdown game and a four-interception game.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:11:34
Oh, this is your thing, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:11:36
JKS is in that rarefied air for me this season because he is fearless going downfield. And somebody is going to game plan a defense that's going to see safety after safety jumping in front of a post or whatever. And he is going to come dangerously close, if not achieving my 4-by-4 this season. And again, it's an entertainment thing for me. I think Cal's going to be quite fun. I think they're going to be quite dangerous. And that includes being dangerous to other teams and themselves. I'm not on board fully with this defense yet. I think there will be moments where you see the vision and the experiment taking hold in a very positive way. I just think we have to approach this as like this is year one. These are new coordinators. There's a lot new on both sides of the ball.
There's a lot to like on both sides of the ball, but I think it's going to take some time, especially with the very specific challenges that Cal has, traveling across the country and playing. You know, and this is a Cal team playing in the East Bay. They will be playing in Las Vegas, Western New York. They will be playing in Dallas, Texas, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Charlottesville, Virginia, to and from the Oakland, Berkeley area.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:12:47
Okay.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:12:47
It's just different. So I think they'll be quite entertaining, and they should be one of your like TV show teams this year for sure.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:12:53
Syracuse and Boston College. Let's go to our friends over at Syracuse, Dan. Syracuse. I think I like the idea of Syracuse more than the actual Syracuse this year.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:13:06
Did you see Fran Brown's quote this morning?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:13:08
I did not see Fran Brown's quote.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:13:10
I don't know if Andy Staples, our friend Andy from On3, asked him this question, but he noted Fran Brown's answer. He said, “What did you learn from last season? Or what did you take away from last season?” And Fran Brown, who is not known to be like the politician that James Franklin is—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:13:26
No, that's right.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:13:26
He shoots from the hip, is very direct, very specific. Said, you got to have backup quarterbacks. Rickie Collins is no longer there, so it doesn't, you know, I don't think he was trying to be mean, but not wrong.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:13:41
He's not wrong. I love Fran Brown, and that's part of why I say I like the idea of Syracuse. I love Fran Brown. I love that Steve Angeli is back after going down after a couple of games last season. I really like their new defensive coordinator, Vince Kehres, who comes over from Toledo. And I like that they're top 30 in the country in returning production. Bill Connelly has them at about 25% to make a bowl, which feels about right to me, maybe a little bit low. All that's really good. All good vibes around that. The issue is that the questions Syracuse does have are all very significant. Is Steve Angeli really back to full health? Sounds like he is. Sounds like he's a full go, but I don't know. Achilles injuries, that's a thing. Okay. We've seen that go south before. If he is out there, who are his targets out wide? Will the line hold?
Will they play defense this year? All of these things, I think, are really significant questions. On the health thing, like I said, it sounds like Angeli is going to be a full go. He said it about a month ago that he's good. So hopefully, that won't be a concern. The target question: These guys are not burners. They're big guys. They're going to win 50-50 balls, but it's not like they're going to stretch the field and provide that verticality. I think the line will probably be okay, even though they lose a lot. There's at least some starting experience up front. They're big enough that they should be able to hold. The thing that I guess I'm most excited to see outside of the Angeli experiment is the question around defense. Because Syracuse playing defense has not exactly been—
Dan Rubenstein — 01:15:22
No, even when the team is good, the defense hasn't been good. When they Kyle McCorded their way to fun success a couple of years ago, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:15:29
Yeah, bringing over the guy from Toledo is one of the low-key bigger hires in this conference.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:15:35
Vince Kehres? How do you pronounce Kehres?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:15:37
I believe it's Kehres.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:15:39
Kehres, excuse me.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:15:40
Very much runs a hybrid system, one that clearly had an identity of its own over at Toledo. It's a big part of why Toledo was always in the mix in the MAC. He's a big believer in run defense and third down defense.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:15:54
Same. Hand up, me too.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:15:56
Who isn't?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:15:57
Yeah, get off the field.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:16:00
He wants to do that. He wants to keep things simple. We often hear a lot about guys who run complicated schemes, guys are too busy thinking out there, not doing enough playing. He's not one of them. So I'm fully expecting we're going to see a jump on defense. This guy definitely has a track record for it. The schedule is really tough, especially over the final month or so of the season. I would say it's pretty tricky throughout, but especially the latter part of this thing is really difficult. There's just not much runway. So even though it pains me to say this, I hope I am wrong. I've got him at 5-7.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:16:38
There's just too many questions. Look, they're counting on a lot of small school guys to work out at important positions. And hopefully, they do. I always enjoy a fun Syracuse team. It's a lot to ask. The schedule is difficult. The quarterbacks they'll face are not easy, especially if some of the question marks work out. It's going to take a minute to bounce back from last season, even with the healthy Steve Angeli. It's a tall ask to get back to being an eight-win Syracuse team after last season, with how that roster was constructed. I enjoyed the hire. I thought it was a really savvy hire going after the Toledo DC. They finish with Notre Dame. Marcus Freeman and quality MAC coaches don't always mix super well.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:17:18
So yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:17:19
I can send you some literature. Shout out—what is he, the new Seahawks running backs coach and assistant head coach, Thomas Hammock?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:17:27
Thomas Hammock. Yep.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:17:29
Yeah, you got to be fun before you can be good. And I hope Syracuse is more fun this season. Receivers, a big question. They got a five-star Calvin Russell III who, unfortunately, got hurt over the spring. So they were hoping for some immediate contributions from him. I don't know if he's playing this year, but I hope some of those smaller school dudes work out because I just want there to be a high floor in this conference. And if there isn't a high floor in this conference, it's probably because Syracuse didn't figure it out and maybe Boston College and Stanford didn't figure it out this season. So hoping for a higher floor for every conference.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:18:03
Yeah, I don't think Boston College is going to figure it out either.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:18:07
It might be a tough year, especially after one of their perceived top playmakers went out, I think literally today.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:18:12
Yeah. Kaelan Chudzinski, excuse me, who was one of the best freshman tight ends in the country last year, went down with an Achilles injury. He's done for the year. Outside of him, like I'm not seeing a wealth of playmakers on this offense. So losing anybody is a bit of a problem. I will say this, though, for Boston College. I don't want to just be negative Nancy out here. There are at least a couple reasons why they will be extremely interesting to watch. The first is maybe not something you will see, at least not directly, on Saturdays, but there was definitely a concerted effort this offseason to rebuild their front office. They rebuilt it around a guy by the name of Kenyatta Watson, who was the assistant GM down at Auburn. They are trying to build out a much more modern operation.
In terms of player acquisition, how they build rosters, this was the most active they've ever been in the transfer portal. So clearly, it's something that took hold right away. Is that going to work? Big old shrug. Their new quarterback is a guy by the name of Mason McKenzie, who transferred over from Saginaw Valley State. At Saginaw Valley State, 4,300 passing yards, 31 touchdowns, 1,600 rushing yards with 18 touchdowns. This is a dual-threat guy. He's got great tools. Seems like it could be a boom-or-bust situation, though. You never know what you're going to get moving up from D-II. FCS is my specialty. I can't tell you a damn thing about D-II. I'm not even going to fake it.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:19:49
I'm sure you can. There's a 100% success rate in terms of the bigger teams that we saw last year with Trinidad Chambliss.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:19:54
I guess. If Mason McKenzie translates, then this is probably a different conversation. I have no idea. None. I do like their running back, Evan Dickens from Liberty. He had a good year last year. People were very high on him this spring. In theory, you could pair a guy like Dickens with a running quarterback like McKenzie and maybe do some interesting stuff. We know Bill O'Brien knows offense.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:20:20
Yep, calling the plays this year, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:20:22
That could be something interesting to watch. What I don't want to watch, but what is still interesting to me: new defensive coordinator Ted Roof.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:20:33
Okay. This moment.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:20:36
Ted Roof has been with 12 different teams over the last 20 years. I'm going to say this now as I do every preseason. Under no circumstances should your team ever hire Ted Roof for this job.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:20:51
Agree.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:20:52
Don't do it. I don't know if Ted Roof has pictures on guys. I don't know if he's got compromising information.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:20:58
Great massages.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:21:00
I don't know if Ted Roof is just a likable guy, a clubhouse guy, a glue guy who helps build the culture. I don't know what the appeal is with Ted Roof, but I can tell you what it's not. Whatever defense he puts on the field, everywhere he goes, he is not good at this job. I cannot believe they would hire him again in a different spot. There surely needs to be somebody else somewhere in college football who is better at being a defensive coordinator than Ted Roof. So, if you are a Boston College fan, get ready for the leaky roof. It's coming. Hopefully, offensively, you can score enough points to counteract it. For the rest of us who maybe aren't rooting for the team, it will be interesting to see if this again happens with the Ted Roof defense. I hope for their sake it doesn't, but I don't know.
We've got a lot of recent history here to suggest that this just won't be a good defense, not solely because of him, but definitely not better because of him.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:21:58
It's nearly impossible to find six wins on this schedule. If everything works out on both sides of the ball, given the talent on hand, given some of the restrictions, it's basically impossible to find a bowl resume for Boston College as it stands now. Now, especially after losing Chudzinski at one of their tight end spots, because they were going to build the offense around running the ball and going heavier sets with multiple tight ends. It's a tough schedule, and I don't see it. I hope we're wrong, but it seems like it's going to be a long year.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:22:34
That does it. Part 3, officially in the books. The next episode that we drop will be Big 12, Part 1.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:22:42
Oh, shame on you, Ty. Didn't they sell the naming rights? Isn't it like the Red Bull Big 12?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:22:46
Oh, yeah, that's right. Monster.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:22:49
The prime monster?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:22:49
Monster.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:22:52
I think every week we should attribute a new sponsor to Big 12 Football. Only energy drinks.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:22:58
Unless they want to pay us.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:23:00
I don't. Do you drink energy drinks?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:23:01
No.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:23:02
I don't do anything beyond like black coffee.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:23:04
They give me heart palpitations, man. I feel like I'm dying.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:23:07
I had a sip. I think maybe not even a sip. I had like half a Red Bull once. And I think I saw God. Like, it was very difficult for me to wrap my mind around half of a sugar-free Red Bull.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:23:20
I just feel like it's instant heartburn.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:23:21
So, probably, yeah. But again, what is it, the Prime Big 12? Celsius, Monster Energy Big 12.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:23:29
No, it's Monster. Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:23:33
Well, who knows what it'll be next week for us when we do the Big 12 preview.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:23:38
Anyway, that's coming up. Hit follow or subscribe. Hopefully you enjoyed this episode. Again, if you have thoughts to the contrary or anything you'd like to add more detail to, you can always reach us at solidverbal@gmail.com. Verballers.com is where you can go if you want to support the team. And certainly, if you made it this far, now what, an hour and twenty-plus into a very specific nine-team ACC preview episode, chances are you like what you heard.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:24:06
Yeah. Or you are EJ Manuel. Is he on the ACC Network? Oh, no, he's like full ESPN now, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:24:13
I think so, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:24:16
Who else is on the ACC Network? Max Browne, Wes Durham.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:24:24
Big Wes Durham fan.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:24:26
Taylor Tannebaum, but not EJ Manuel anymore.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:24:32
If you enjoyed what you listened to over this last hour and twenty or so, please feel free to leave us a star rating or a review.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:24:36
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:24:39
All that stuff really helps.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:24:40
Oh, good call. Good call. Especially if you work for—sorry, it was Celsius, the Celsius Big 12?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:24:48
Monster's been around forever.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:24:49
Monster, excuse me. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:24:54
Celsius, I think, is like the newer one.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:24:57
Is Monster the one that's sort of like a Tyrannosaurus designed the font? Like, is that a Tyrannosaurus scratching an M?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:25:05
Yeah, you've got the scratches.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:25:06
Yeah, it's a claw-scratch M. Monster Energy. Okay, good to know.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:25:12
We will be back next episode talking all things Big 12. That does it for the ACC. Excited for this ACC season. We will revisit our ACC thoughts a little bit later on. Once we get closer to the season, we'll do a full-on prediction special and reheat some of these thoughts. But for the time being, you know where we stand on all 17 teams in the ACC plus Notre Dame. We're going to round the bend here and talk Big 12 next episode. For that guy over there, Dan, and for myself over here, Ty, thank you for hanging with us for your ongoing support. We'll catch you soon. Stay solid.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:25:44
Peace.