Big 12 Preview Part 2 — Power Cleaned Transcript
Source: Podcast(2).txt
Speakers: Ty Hildenbrandt and Dan Rubenstein
Format: Speaker labels and timestamps preserved
Transcript
Ty Hildenbrandt — 00:18
Dan Rubenstein, welcome back, my great and good friend. Today is Big 12—excuse me, the Monster Energy Big 12—Part Duh. We've got eight teams before you today. We're going to talk through them in some semblance of an order. Parts 2 and 3 are where we dive a little bit deeper into actual team previews. If you have any questions about where Dan and I come down relative to contender tiers, dark horses, or how these teams stack up relative to one another, go back and listen to Part 1. That's what we did in Part 1. But today, we are diving in, my good friend. How are you?
Dan Rubenstein — 00:59
I'm good. I don't know if Monster Energy is paying you to say that, but Ecto Cooler has cut me checks to represent the Ecto Cooler Big 12, and I could not be more proud to discuss the—what, you said eight teams we're doing today?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:12
Eight teams, yes.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:14
I'm thrilled to talk about these eight teams. It thus continues our ongoing series of, and I quote, “If the transfer offensive linemen work out, I don't know, we'll see.”
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:27
The big old shoot, right?
Dan Rubenstein — 01:29
I can't tell you enough that I hope and pray that, if you are listening to this show and you're, like, a pretty good guard somewhere, I hope you have beach homes. I hope you have a five-car garage. I hope you are Uncle Scrooge—or, excuse me, the what, McScrooge? I hope you are diving into gold coins in a lair of some sort atop a mountain because, holy hell, the market is robust.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 02:07
Yes, there is no shortage of conversation around offensive line deficiencies. Boy, we hope— we hope these offensive linemen who transferred into our place are going to hit. If they don't, yeah, that could be a problem. If they do, hey, maybe we're talking about things that we didn't expect. So we will get into all that and much, much more. Today's eight teams are Texas Tech, BYU, Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor, Iowa State, Colorado and West Virginia. Part 3, which you will hear next, will, of course, be the other eight teams. But just to reiterate: Utah, Houston, TCU, Oklahoma State, both of the Arizona schools, Cincinnati and UCF, then.
Dan Rubenstein — 02:49
I see some of the stories. Like, one of the things I noticed with the teams: You always see the name where you're like, “They're still playing, huh?” They're still—like, I think Mikey Keene at ASU, right? And we were talking about this because we do talk about this once every three weeks: the extended career and vast wealth of an upper-tier lefty setup man, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 03:12
Yes, yes.
Dan Rubenstein — 03:12
You were talking about Rheal Cormier.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 03:14
Rheal Cormier. R.I.P., yep.
Dan Rubenstein — 03:16
Yes, rest in peace. And I always reference Arthur Rhodes. Again, is a pretty good right tackle the new lefty setup man in college football?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 03:27
I was thinking that, too, as I was going through and looking at some of these names, because I had the same thought with—
Dan Rubenstein — 03:31
Not Jordan Seaton-level, right? Not your, like, “Oh, first-round talent.” You're just like, “Well, maybe fourth- or fifth-round. He's mobile, he's mean, picks up schemes quickly, is a good teammate in the locker room.” Is that person the new, like, “Yeah, I'm just going to renegotiate every year, and by the end of college, I'm making two and a half million dollars somewhere”?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 03:51
I was going to say, if you're a backup-level left tackle—or just an offensive lineman in general—but if you are a backup-caliber offensive lineman in the year of our Lord 2026, if you transfer a couple times, even if you only transfer once, if you're leveraging your value in the portal, just more broadly speaking, with NIL being where it is, could you make $2 million over the span of three years?
Dan Rubenstein — 04:20
You would have to have started out at Ohio State or Miami or somewhere that you can trade on. You can launder that name for your own gain.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 04:29
If you're a three-star—this is a thought experiment—if you're a three-star, backup-caliber offensive lineman.
Dan Rubenstein — 04:35
Two million is way too much.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 04:37
Realistically, how much could you make over a three-year span of time, let's say after your freshman year, if you jump around?
Dan Rubenstein — 04:45
You would have to—again, if you were a three-star, you would have to have started out at Texas, right? Somewhere big. I think you make over half a million dollars.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 04:56
Beautiful.
Dan Rubenstein — 04:57
Yeah, but you would have to have proven it on some level. There would have to have been, like, a four-game stretch where you didn't allow a sack, right? There would have to be a data point that a desperate, desperate offensive line coach could talk themselves into.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 05:12
Yeah, or like a viral clip of you jumping out of a pool or something.
Dan Rubenstein — 05:16
Yes, that is a big thing too. Dunking a basketball when you were 10, where you're just like, well, I mean, come on, what can't he do?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 05:23
He's long. You can use him in the run game. He can pull.
Dan Rubenstein — 05:26
Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 05:27
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 05:28
You can make a good amount of cash.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 05:30
Where do you want to go first?
Dan Rubenstein — 05:32
We go with the champion, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 05:34
The champ is here. Champ is here.
Dan Rubenstein — 05:37
We go with the Red Raiders. We go with the demonstrable—demonstrative? I don't know—the champ. The champ that left no doubt when playing its two most difficult games last year, which happened to be against the same team in BYU, and BYU was the most difficult team on the conference slate.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 05:56
Conference slate, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 05:57
Yes, and left absolutely no doubt. I think they beat them by an average of, like, 24 or 25 points and allowed single digits both times, correct? And distanced themselves in a way that you said, okay, there are multiple playoff-caliber teams from the Big 12 last season. I made the case that—I think what I said was Utah and BYU; I don't remember if I said anybody else—were of playoff caliber beyond Texas Tech. But this is a long way of saying the upper tier of the Big 12 was only Texas Tech last season, because BYU showed no ability to hang with them for an extended period of time. And it's the biggest compliment to any team in a conference that they stand alone. This is—they're not—I mean, you can do it this season as we look forward, but last season's Texas Tech: league of their own.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 06:45
Texas Tech went 12-2 last season, 8-1 in conference. They won the Big 12. They got a first-round bye. They did get shut out by your Oregon Ducks by a 23-0 margin. We can talk about that. But in terms of getting there, in terms of proving that this could work, I think this was a pretty successful start to things. The danger with Texas Tech, at least in terms of national commentary in this moment, is that this was an offseason dominated by Brendan Sorsby and that debacle. And thus far, the preseason has been something of a hand wave, right? Well, Will Hammond's going to be the quarterback for the season, provided he's healthy. The rest of the roster is loaded, so they're still the favorite. They're still the favorite because of the pieces they have in place, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I think there is a lot of room for a much more nuanced conversation around Texas Tech. I hope we can have that now, because there's a lot more meat on that bone. One thing in particular that really caught my attention—because, you know, we've been studying these teams now for a couple of months; it didn't just start a week ago—our friend Chris Level, who's been on this show, who does the Locked On Texas Tech podcast and does a great job, among many other things in the Texas Tech universe, back in May on his show made a quote about—and I'm paraphrasing here a little bit—but something to the effect of, “Texas Tech is not a made man quite yet.” And I thought that was interesting, you know, because despite all of this, all of the news that has been circulating around Texas Tech and Cody Campbell and Brendan Sorsby and the roster and David Bailey—and let's pause: They can increase the spend, they can get more wins—we're still sort of in the proof-of-concept stage of all this. We don't know yet how repeatable the model is going to be way off into the future. It worked one year. I think there's a very good chance of it working a second year. But Chris's point is valid: They have to win something. Certainly, on the conference level, we saw that last year. But the next step now in proving that this is a sustainable thing is going to the playoff and actually winning a game, and, at a minimum, not getting shut out the way they did a year ago. So, like I said, there's room for more discussion around Texas Tech beyond the obvious headlines, and I think that's a big one. We just can't assume that this is going to work in perpetuity because it worked so well a year ago.
Dan Rubenstein — 09:17
Yes, agreed. We're also talking about starting points. We're also talking about a conference slate, and we can get into Texas Tech on the national level in this conversation, or in a conversation down the road. What is Texas Tech building toward? Is it only contained within the Big 12? Obviously not. You're right that Texas Tech has the resources to grow, recruit through the prep ranks, recruit through the portal and build out a championship-level roster, at least in the Big 12, if not nationally, depending on how the chips fall. But you're also right in that I don't know if there's a specific school that you can point to and say, okay, they spent heavily in the portal multiple years in a row, and it has worked out for them on a huge national level. You point out they haven't won a playoff game yet. Obviously, you walk before you can run. We've seen Ole Miss. We've seen teams like Oregon. We've seen teams—obviously, Indiana did it once more than twice in terms of overhauling that roster. It was not an overhaul before last season, though they did add a pretty enormous piece in the Heisman-winning quarterback. So, if we're going to talk about—if I'm going to talk about Texas Tech, or any team, as being a combination of quarterback and defense away from convincing me they're a playoff team: new quarterback slash quarterback questions, given the Sorsby situation; now, given Will Hammond's health and what Will Hammond did and sometimes didn't show last season; and Texas Tech losing significant star power from a not just good, but great defense last season on all three levels. You look at Rodriguez, you look at Wisniewski at safety, you look at Lee Hunter, Romello Height, David Bailey up front. They're trying to replace it. It looks like they're going to do a pretty good job of replacing it, but a one-to-one replacement? That's the TBD for me now.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 11:16
Yeah. That's the thing. Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 11:19
When you look at what Texas Tech also has on offense, which is definite upside and experience along the offensive line, a really strong-looking running back room, obvious upside at receiver, there's room for error. There's margin for error, so the defense doesn't have to be as excellent for this team to run away from the Big 12 competition this season. Will Hammond kind of just needs to be what Behren Morton was last season, which was fine, but nothing special. That's the bar if the defense is good, if the surrounding talent is sound. And I think we expect the coaching on offense to probably keep getting better. They need to be better in the red zone. If you're going to nitpick anything with Texas Tech in those higher-leverage moments, they struggled in the red zone. And I don't think we have a lot of questions about defensive development, especially with some of the transfers they added on all three levels. They should be in a really strong place. Schedule-wise, they play experienced arms, if that's what you're going to look at. Like, with Texas Tech, you have to sort of look at: Where could the struggle be? And so, an experienced quarterback at Houston; at Colorado, somewhat; we'll see at Arizona State; Arizona, definitely; Oklahoma State, definitely; Baylor, experienced but perhaps sloppy; TCU, experienced but not on this level. So there are interesting arms, there are interesting pieces to a lot of the teams they play, but nobody can match what Texas Tech has roster-wise and momentum-wise. And so I can't imagine looking at Texas Tech as anything other than a clear contender for this conference once again.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 12:55
So, on the quarterback front, because we've sort of been dancing around this a little bit: Will Hammond is QB1. Will Hammond, if you believe Joey McGuire and something he said just this week, as we are recording this at the Texas High School Coaches Association Convention—
Dan Rubenstein — 13:14
Sitting next to Sark.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 13:15
Sitting next to Sark, if you believe Joey McGuire, he said in no uncertain terms, “Will's going to be ready for Week 1.” Even if he is not ready for Week 1, their first two games of the season are Abilene Christian and a road game at Oregon State. My sense is that both of those games are winnable with the roster they have, regardless of who's playing quarterback. But that game everyone is circling in Week 3 is at home on a Friday night against Houston. They're going to want him back for that one because you and I, I think, are—well, we can talk about Houston in the next episode.
Dan Rubenstein — 13:47
Against whom they torched on the road last season.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 13:49
Torched them. Torshed them.
Dan Rubenstein — 13:50
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 13:51
Torched them. Torshed them. They still should be better than Houston, but clearly you would want your QB1 ready for that matchup. I am viewing the strength of this team as its running back room. I view it as Cameron Dickey and J'Koby Williams, both of whom went for nearly 2,000 combined yards a year ago. Quinten Joyner is also back. They're going to lean on him in some way, shape or form until Will Hammond is fully integrated back in. Even after he is fully back, confident and firing on all cylinders, I still think the offense looks a lot like shorter, higher-percentage stuff, at least for a while, until they can figure out what the interplay is like between him and the receiver room. This is an excellent group of pass catchers that I don't think is getting enough love right now in the preseason. I think they can get really creative with that wide receiver room. I think the scheme can and will evolve over the course of time, provided the line does its part. I'm most interested in that one facet of this offense. As the line grows, as Will Hammond gets a little bit more comfortable, how does that passing game evolve from start to finish? That, to me, is a story arc worth following, something we can talk a little bit more about. Beyond that, I think you hit on all the key points, certainly on the defensive side of the ball. The only other thing worth mentioning—and again, we've alluded to this time and again throughout the course of the preseason and even back in Part 1—Tech, I think, has the best roster in the conference. I can tell you for certain they have the best schedule in the conference.
Dan Rubenstein — 15:20
It's pretty nice.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 15:21
On paper, their toughest road game is Week 11 against an Oklahoma State team that we already know is rebooting.
Dan Rubenstein — 15:21
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 15:27
Otherwise, the toughest games are Houston, Arizona State, Arizona and TCU. Tough opponents in some regard. All of those are at home. They don't play BYU. They don't play Utah. They don't play Kansas State. There is a Cincinnati sandwich situation, though.
Dan Rubenstein — 15:42
Cincinnati sandwich.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 15:43
Now that we're using this term: home against Arizona State, on the road against Cincinnati, back home against Arizona a little later on in the year. Maybe that's a trap game, maybe it's not. You could convince me of anything between 8-4 and 12-0. I will split the difference and say 10-2.
Dan Rubenstein — 16:02
Okay. The only thing I would add, because I think you're right about the upside of their skill-position dudes—running back, receiver, tight end—is I'm curious as to where, if anywhere—it's Mack Leftwich, right? The offensive coordinator?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 16:17
Yeah, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 16:20
What's their out pitch? What's their Excelsior? What is it that you say you do really, really well here? Not just what do the Bobs say in Office Space—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 16:27
Yeah, what would you say you do here?
Dan Rubenstein — 16:28
What does it say? “What would you say you do here?” What would you say you do better on offense than anybody else? Because what we saw in the playoff last season—and look, you're only going to be able to do what your talent can do, and whatever talent deficiencies they had—the offensive line didn't look like it did during the Big 12 season when they had to play against Oregon's front. And that's okay. Oregon had a very good front. But we saw that Texas Tech was in need of a very specific explosive identity. Not, like, explosive plays, but: Who are they when push comes to shove? Are they just going to run you over in a creative, violent way with this room and this offensive line? Great. Are they going to be precise and precision-based and hit for a high batting average when they're in the red zone, where they're just, like, a step ahead? Third downs are just a breeze for them. They go for it on every fourth-and-short, and they're just pummeling teams into oblivion and hyper-efficient? Are they bombing the ball downfield? Are they super creative with the screen game and generating explosives like that? That's the thing with last year's Texas Tech offense. Maybe it was a Behren Morton thing. Maybe it was a who-knows thing, an offensive line thing. But it's now going to be on this offense. If they have aspirations of being a Final Four-type College Football Playoff team, there has to be something lethal they can point to. Like, this is who we are, that will turn us from a 28-17 team into a 52-17 team. And they showed it at times against weaker Big 12 competition last year, but now they're aiming higher. And so that, I think, is a missing piece to this offense. You saw that come up in the red zone. They weren't a step ahead of teams. Maybe they were a little predictable in the red zone last year. That's the next step for them this year: Okay, what is it that we do in a killer way?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 18:24
The other thing that I would add, and then we should move on. We could talk BYU next, I guess.
Dan Rubenstein — 18:27
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 18:29
The bottom tier of that prediction bracket for me, eight and four. The reason that I say eight and four is not because I am overwhelmingly thinking this is a possibility.
Dan Rubenstein — 18:35
Sure.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 18:39
I'm not. But something you alluded to back in Part 1, and something that I've been feeling but haven't really given a whole lot of voice to, there is a possibility that Will Hammond does step in as a full-time QB1 and doesn't pop.
Dan Rubenstein — 18:54
Yeah, agree.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 18:55
I don't think we can just blindly assume that, yes, this will work because we saw him have a great half against Utah. As you pointed out, I think rightfully so back in Part 1, there were moments where Will Hammond sort of looked aggressively average, which I think is why you bring up the point that all he needs to be is Behren Morton.
Dan Rubenstein — 19:11
And he was a backup quarterback last year.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 19:13
Behren Morton with a little bit more mobility, I think, sees them through here. I'm not ready to just fully assume that Will Hammond is going to be the next great thing.
Dan Rubenstein — 19:23
Yeah, look, you watch some of the tape, and he was the quarterback for that Arizona State game. He had some incredible throws in that game. He, like, double-pumped a touchdown throw into the front corner of the end zone against ASU on a deeper crossing situation. He nailed it. He has arm talent. He has dimes within his mind and his arm. It's: How often do we see that? How much is he trusted, and how much does he trust his receivers to go make plays? Because I think he will have the opportunity, with his line, to confidently throw the ball downfield. It's just a question to me of: Do we get that in his fifth-best game? Because if we don't, that's when you get, “Oh, they lost 23-20 to TCU,” or something. That's—I don't know if they're playing TCU. I don't have the schedule in front of me.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 20:13
Yeah, they got these two.
Dan Rubenstein — 20:14
Yeah, something like that. So that would be the concern: Are you going to Will Hammond your way to 12-1 and a playoff win or two? That's very hazy and murky to me right now.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 20:27
All right, so it would at least appear on paper that their primary competition this year is BYU, as it was a year ago. BYU also went 12-2, 8-1 in conference. Their only losses all season long were to Texas Tech. Neither one of those games was particularly close. But it seems as if they are loaded for bear and they're coming back for more in 2026. We just mentioned they don't play in the regular season, which is nice for BYU. I kind of feel like this year's BYU preview is incredibly straightforward. It's the passing game and it's the defense. I would suspect we'll get into that shortly. But before we do, here's a little bit of context that I think is important. A, BYU got to 12 wins for just the fifth time in school history after winning the Pop-Tarts Bowl. Also, B, Kalani Sitake did not leave, despite, I think, credible reporting that he was interested in that Penn State job. But back at BYU. C, it is a team that is top 20 nationally in terms of returning production, a lot of which is on defense. D, 17 starters earned some form of an All-Big 12 honor, and seven of them graduated, but 10 of them are all back. So everyone who could be back on that rung of talent is back.
Dan Rubenstein — 21:53
It's impressive.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 21:54
And it goes without saying—I don't even want to make this its own letter, but let's say it's a D again to put a bow on all this—they should be very, very good. It's a big team. It's a very big team physically, but I think in terms of talent level, they should again be very, very good.
Dan Rubenstein — 22:09
The question to me is: Are they built to beat Texas Tech in a more obvious way this year? They have Notre Dame. There's a clear, meaty middle to this schedule, but I think you nailed it, right? The big bodies on offense should be good. The backfield should be able to run the ball. The combination of Bear Bachmeier and LJ Martin should be very, very good. It is absolutely reasonable to expect Bear Bachmeier to take the next step forward as a passer after looking very good as a true freshman, for the most part. There were stretches where you're like, “Man, what is that?” But you can't really ask for more out of a true freshman quarterback, thrust into that situation, by the way. And he was at Stanford, and he was late. It was very impressive, everything he did, especially since he weighs, what, 140 pounds? Is that what I said last year, erroneously?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 22:54
He's like a hundred pounds heavier.
Dan Rubenstein — 22:56
He just has a baby face. Excuse me. I'm sorry.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 22:59
He's a big kid.
Dan Rubenstein — 22:59
Yeah, he's a big boy. So, offensively, I don't have the exact same question as I have with Texas Tech, but you would like for a team, if they're now multiple years into a playoff conversation as being just outside and looking to take that next step, to say to itself, okay, what's missing? And so last year, obviously, it was an ability to beat Texas Tech. But if you look internally, it's: If Bear Bachmeier is taking that next step in confidently throwing the ball downfield, to whom is he throwing the ball? Where is the speed? Where is the receiving talent? I know they're looking at tight ends and multiple-tight-end sets, and they're looking at Big Ten backups to be the answer there: Walker Lyons and Roger Saleapaga from Oregon. And both of those dudes have obvious talent. Oregon, I'm sure, would have liked to have kept Roger Saleapaga as its second tight end. But what are they doing to keep teams honest downfield as the receiver room gets less experienced and perhaps less explosive? And if Texas Tech was able to sort of dictate the line of scrimmage last year to some degree on offense, and BYU is not quite as impressive and experienced up front on defense as it was last year, the question is: How are they developing, and how are they accommodating that fact? Linebackers should be extremely strong once again. We'll see on the secondary, but there's a good base layer. The edge should be good. The linebacking corps should be excellent. And they bring in the Cal transfer, Cade Uluave.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 24:33
Uluave, yes, I love that name.
Dan Rubenstein — 24:34
Uluave. Thank you.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 24:35
Just rolls off the tongue.
Dan Rubenstein — 24:37
So that next step to me is where are the big plays coming from on offense? And is the beef up to the task on defense?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 24:47
Yeah, I think you nailed it. I mean, look, the engine of this offense is undeniably Bear Bachmeier and LJ Martin, running behind a really good offensive line. As you said, they will be a very good rushing team. Again, I don't expect they're going to wander too far away from that type of physical offense that has been really successful for them. We're going to see a lot of that. The question for me is the passing game. It is the passing game. Now, I think you can make the case, for whatever you make of bowl games, that Aaron Roderick, their offensive coordinator, did open it up, did put a little bit more on Bear Bachmeier's plate in that game, to the point where, with what they've seen in the spring thus far, they've talked, I think, about how they feel good about what he's doing pre-snap. They feel good about him getting the ball out a little quicker.
Dan Rubenstein — 25:35
Right, totally.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 25:37
Even though it wasn't a monster season, Bear Bachmeier had a really high completion percentage. So I think there is a lot to build on, even if we didn't fully see it a year ago. But, for sure, that evolution—just as it was the case with Texas Tech and Will Hammond, and how that might evolve in the passing game as the season goes on—I think that is doubly true for Bear Bachmeier and BYU. This year's crop of pass catchers is definitely physically bigger. I don't know if they're going to be more explosive. I definitely don't think they're on the same level as Texas Tech. But again, that evolution for me on the offensive side of the ball is going to be really, really interesting to chart.
Dan Rubenstein — 26:17
Yeah, I totally agree. And I should mention, I did fact-check while you were saying that: David Bailey did not play for Georgia Tech in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, which probably can add to the comfort of going downfield confidently a little bit more.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 26:30
Correct, correct.
Dan Rubenstein — 26:31
In fact, none of the Texas Tech defensive linemen were playing for Georgia Tech that day. So, yeah, I mean, look, it's: What are you comfortable with risk-wise? And that's the next step for BYU, closing the gap. And I should mention, it is a very obviously meaty middle to this schedule: TCU, at Iowa State—I'm not very high on the Cyclones right now—Notre Dame before they travel to UCF, and UCF has a bye the week before it hosts BYU in the Bounce House.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 26:58
That's Trap City right there.
Dan Rubenstein — 26:59
They have whatever ASU is this season, which I think there will be a certain amount of danger to the Sun Devils.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 27:05
A week before the Holy War, mind you.
Dan Rubenstein — 27:06
And it's a week before the Holy War on the road. Obviously, it's not a distance thing, it's an environment thing.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 27:12
It's an environment thing.
Dan Rubenstein — 27:13
So it is a tricky stretch for BYU. And to be fair, those teams have to play BYU, who's really good.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 27:21
Seven home games, five road games, notably no Texas Tech, no Kansas State. But among the teams you're listing off there, these are all top-35-caliber teams. I've got them at 9-3, 10-2, somewhere in that range.
Dan Rubenstein — 27:35
Same.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 27:36
I feel better about 10-2 than I do 9-3.
Dan Rubenstein — 27:39
I'm with you.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 27:41
All right, those are sort of like the top dogs, at least they were in the top-dogs tier when we did Part 1. Six teams left on today's episode. Who is of most interest to you among the next grouping of teams here?
Dan Rubenstein — 27:56
Oh, the Fightin' Kleins of Kansas State.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 27:58
Ooh, okay. 6-6 a year ago, 5-4 in conference. Chris Klieman steps away. They hire Collin Klein from Texas A&M. Kansas State is, in my opinion, the hardest team to project in this entire conference.
Dan Rubenstein — 28:17
I think that's fine.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 28:18
I have no idea what to expect. Their win total per Vegas is 7.5. I think it's harder to make a case for 7-5 than 8-4. We can discuss this. We can debate it. I have a long list of questions about this team. Before we get into that, though, here is what we are looking at. Here is the state of play going into the year. The new coach is Collin Klein. If you followed Kansas State, if you followed Texas A&M, if you followed college football over the last 20 years, you know who Collin Klein is. Collin Klein won the Big 12 with K-State back in the day. He was runner-up for the Heisman. He was the offensive coordinator when they beat TCU back in 2022, mind you, before TCU went on its run and ended up playing for the national championship. So he's something of a folk hero. There was a lot of steam on him coming back home to his alma mater, but now there are also 48 new players and a completely new staff.
Dan Rubenstein — 29:13
Yeah, hit me.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 29:13
So, I talked about that list of questions. I've got three biggies. Jump in whenever you feel the need. Question one: offensive line, especially the right side of the line, but the offensive line in general. My assumption is that they're going to want to lean on Avery Johnson and Joe Jackson primarily as running threats, at least to start. If the line does not hold up its share of the bargain there, obviously that's going to be a bit of a problem.
Dan Rubenstein — 29:41
As it would be for anybody.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 29:42
Last year, there were some explosives on the ground, but there were also too many times where they were asking Avery Johnson to drop back in a very obvious passing down and make some kind of magic.
Dan Rubenstein — 29:53
Yeah, it was sort of boom-or-bust, all or nothing. It was the Bryce Love-ization, right? He was the Stanford back who would hit 98-yarders or three-yarders.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 30:03
They've got to put him, Avery Johnson, in better situations for success because second-and-long, third-and-long, everyone knows what's coming. That is not the situation in which Avery Johnson has necessarily thrived here through his first couple of years at Kansas State. So, can they stay reasonably ahead of the chains, given this line, given what they've got on offense? That's question one for me. Question two is Avery Johnson, because now this is our fourth year of talking about this guy.
Dan Rubenstein — 30:32
Okay. He was cleaner last season.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 30:36
Yes, absolutely. Physical tools are still off the charts. We know he can run like a gazelle. But the Avery Johnson experience thus far, as you put it, I think, has been very boom-or-bust. That's just who he's been. The highs have been really high. The highs are highlight-reel. The lows are his dad and brother fighting in the parking lot in Ireland.
Dan Rubenstein — 30:57
Right, sure. That's not his fault, but yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 31:01
It's adjacent to Avery Johnson.
Dan Rubenstein — 31:03
Yeah, it was not a good moment for Kansas State. He did not have a good game against Iowa State in Dublin.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 31:07
So I think the challenge now for Collin Klein, for the new offensive coordinator, Sean Gleeson, is going to be turning Avery into a quarterback on whom you can depend.
Dan Rubenstein — 31:07
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 31:19
I'm not sure I can give you a good read on what the scheme is going to be. How much of it will be old-school Kansas State with the power rushing attack? How much of it will just be, you know, getting guys in space, shotgun runs, stuff that maybe is like a newer version of that? I genuinely don't know. But I do think the thing worth charting is going to be this slow merge of the Collin Klein version of the—Penn, I almost said Penn State—of the Kansas State playbook with what Sean Gleeson has done philosophically. That merge, to me, is question two, and that will be interesting because I don't know what that's going to look like. I don't know what shape that takes on. Question three is defense. We've got a new defensive coordinator from A&M. I like the secondary. I like the edges. I think they're gettable through the middle. Those three things, to me, that's where I'm at with K-State this year.
Dan Rubenstein — 32:15
Okay, K-State. The offensive line's a question, but I think it's a smaller question than the defense. I don't know who—Collin Klein, yeah, well, Collin Klein—but I don't know who Avery Johnson is going to be throwing to dependably. Obviously, they're working in new names. Joe Jackson's very good. You're absolutely right about the chain. The chain will keep them together. They will be running in the shadows if it works out well. That's a Fleetwood Mac reference for my Fleetwood heads, my Mac heads. “The Chain.”
Ty Hildenbrandt — 32:42
I got that, thank you. Yeah. Yep. Yep. For the youth that are listening to this show.
Dan Rubenstein — 32:49
They have an interesting schedule. So, the defense is a huge question. You know, they lose Austin Romaine to Texas Tech, and obviously he brought a significant amount of star power. Up front, they're starting over. The secondary seems to be a big question. New—obviously, new—coordinators coming along with Collin Klein and what they're going to do as they shift things to their preferred methods. That's a big question. Okay, Kansas State misses Texas Tech, BYU and Utah, whatever Utah is this season. They do have good players, but they're working in, obviously, new infrastructure in Salt Lake City. That's a good start, to miss those three teams with a new coach starting over at Kansas State, sort of. Now, Collin Klein has worked with Avery Johnson, I think, not since his freshman year, right? He's been gone since '23, I want to say.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 33:31
Right, right.
Dan Rubenstein — 33:34
So it's a tricky October stretch, but Kansas State has a bye before Houston. They play Kansas, which has Utah on the road the week before that. Kansas is in Salt Lake City. Kansas State has Arizona State, which has Texas Tech the week before that, on the road in Lubbock.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 33:56
Is this a gumpy situation for K-State?
Dan Rubenstein — 33:58
It's a Gumpy situation. Look, Kansas State has to control what it can control. But in November, they have Oklahoma State at home, whatever that means by then. They're on the road at TCU, which is at Arizona the week before, and they get Utah the week after. So Kansas State is the perhaps-letdown, look-ahead sandwich situation there. Everybody's going to take K-State seriously. They're a good team that won the conference not terribly long ago. When they have Arizona, Arizona has Utah the week before and its rivalry game against Arizona State the week after. I am just saying Kansas State slips into perhaps ideal situations for getting teams at the right time. So maybe they're a 6-6 team that goes 7-5, 8-4 because they catch somebody in the right moment. I don't know where you officially landed. Kansas State's going to be fine with Collin Klein, I think. I think their defense might take a step back. I think their offense might get a little bit more creative and interesting. So I do have them in that 7.5—I don't know what their Vegas number is.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 35:06
Seven and a half.
Dan Rubenstein — 35:07
There you go. I think I would take the under at 7-5, just because, week to week, it seems like there's going to be a lot of variance to this team. But I do love that schedule, and it is tempting to go over and hit eight. I don't think they're going to win more than eight. I don't think they're going to win fewer than six.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 35:25
I'm going to go 7-5.
Dan Rubenstein — 35:28
Okay, there we are.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 35:28
Just a hair on the under.
Dan Rubenstein — 35:30
We agree.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 35:33
I could definitely squint and see a better regular season mark, though. I don't think it takes much because this is a conference that is ever in flux. Even the top team is in flux, maybe to a lesser degree. But you can find something with all these teams, all 16 teams, that if a little thing goes in one direction, we could be having a much, much different conversation.
Dan Rubenstein — 35:57
Yeah, they were like a—I mean, they were a snip-snap team last year. Beat UCF, lose to Baylor, beat TCU, beat Kansas, but then lose to Texas Tech. Beat Oklahoma State, lose to Utah, beat Colorado. So I do like that Avery Johnson has been here this long, that he contributed as a freshman, and then he's been starting for three years. They're starting ahead of people because of Avery Johnson. The problem is, Avery Johnson, production-wise, last season was like a lower-third-tier Big 12 quarterback. They were boom-or-bust. They had a lot of boom, but they didn't do the boring things right last year. So I think that's what Collin Klein is here to do: just be better on third-and-5, right? Stuff like that.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 36:38
Get to third-and-5 instead of third-and-11.
Dan Rubenstein — 36:40
Get it third and five instead of third and yeah, can you imagine a Kansas State fan these past couple years on third and 11 just like slumping in their couch like, I wonder how this is gonna go?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 36:49
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 36:50
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 36:50
Okay, so I think we agree. We're kind of in agreement on the first three teams here that we discussed. You mentioned Baylor in passing. I wanted to talk Baylor a little bit here because Baylor is another one of these teams that—
Dan Rubenstein — 36:59
Oh, man.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 37:03
If K-State is the hardest to project in the conference—and I believe that; I stand by that—Baylor, more broadly, is one of the more interesting teams in the conference or, bigger picture, college football this season. Their over-under is 6.5. Personally, I'm fully out. Okay, I'm out.
Dan Rubenstein — 37:24
I think I am too.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 37:25
I'm fully out, and it pains me to say that because we have a lot of great Baylor fans and podcasters and people who cover the team who listen to this show. They may know a lot more about Baylor than I do. I would encourage you to write in: solidverbal@gmail.com. Baylor was 5-7 a year ago, 3-6 in conference. 6.5 is the over-under. I'm out. But they're interesting.
Dan Rubenstein — 37:51
They're definitely interesting.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 37:51
And there are three reasons why I think Baylor is one of the more interesting teams in college football.
Dan Rubenstein — 37:57
I'm ready.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 37:57
The first is Dave Aranda being on the hot seat again. Thank you. 5-7 a year ago, missed the bowl. It was a very good, albeit very inefficient, offense. We're now headed into Year 7 of the Aranda era at Baylor. I can't believe it's been that long. Seven years. Can you believe that?
Dan Rubenstein — 38:20
Kind of. Last couple of years have aged me a little bit, the Baylor experience, but yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 38:24
It's now been five years since that one where they went 12-2 and won the Big 12. But we've gotten to this point, slowly, perhaps painfully, where Aranda's career record in Waco is 36-37, so one game below .500. This is not the first time he has been on the hot seat. It feels like that's happened on at least one-and-a-half or two other occasions. In each of those moments, Dave Aranda sort of answered the bell. So the question is: If we want to make things interesting, can he do it again? I think there will be less tolerance for a tweener-type season. For a 6-6 season that gets him back to a bowl, I could make a case that he's got to get to 8-4 and show promise for 2027 in order to keep this job. I'll leave that to the Baylor fans. You can write in again, solidverbal@gmail.com, and let me know what the cutoff is. But I don't think 6-6 is good enough. I'm also really curious, if I'm going to question two now, about the defense, because this is, I think, the main source of tension with the Aranda era, especially now. Aranda stepped foot on campus as a defensive-minded guy. He was a defensive coordinator, much sought-after.
Dan Rubenstein — 39:37
Won a national championship.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 39:38
Won a national championship.
Dan Rubenstein — 39:38
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 39:40
He tried taking back control of the defense. Didn't really work. Now he's handing the keys over to Joe Klanderman, who comes over from Kansas State. A bit of symmetry here. This is a guy who is highly respected. It was something of a big swing for Aranda to go out and get him from K-State. It may surprise you to learn that Joe Klanderman wants to run a more aggressive attacking defense, Dan.
Dan Rubenstein — 40:03
If he can run a more anything defense than what Baylor has done recently, that's a win.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 40:08
With a real focus on havoc plays, right? The turnovers and the sacks and the negative tackles for loss, that type of stuff. The consensus seems to be that he's exactly what Baylor needs. It is a question, though, I think rightfully, how long that is going to take. He might be exactly what they need three years from now, but in order to save Aranda's job, it's going to have to happen in a hurry. I'm not sure. To that end, Aranda is on record saying that this is the most money they've ever spent on defense in his time at Waco. Clearly, he understands what the stakes are here. I do think they did a good job along the defensive line and in the secondary, and, in some cases, bringing some guys over from K-State who are already familiar with Joe Klanderman and the language and the system he's going to run. So I don't think they fell short, at least in the offseason, trying to get to that point. But now the rubber meets the road. Defense is No. 2. The third reason why they're interesting: You ever hear of DJ Lagway, Dan?
Dan Rubenstein — 41:10
I have heard of DJ Lagway. Quite familiar.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 41:13
DJ Lagway comes over from Florida. He's a new quarterback. Almost 4,200 career passing yards. They're going to pair him with Jake Spavital, who wants to go quick, right? That's the Spav system. Let's go quick.
Dan Rubenstein — 41:25
Sure.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 41:25
Let's move. Let's play with tempo.
Dan Rubenstein — 41:27
Has developed a lot of quarterbacks. Yep.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 41:28
The best of Lagway is really good.
Dan Rubenstein — 41:31
Definitely.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 41:32
Physically, now, he's probably got some of the best tools of any quarterback in the game. He gives them a running threat. He gives them leadership. He was voted team captain. He just got there, like, 15 minutes ago. Everybody seems to really like DJ Lagway as a person, but the issue is too many interceptions. What's the supporting cast going to look like this year? The line in front of him is very much in flux. His pass catchers feel like they're an open question as well. There is a lot here, especially on offense, that I am not liking. I like DJ Lagway, but just too many questions for me on offense, way too many questions on defense and how long this reclamation project is going to take. I am just not buying that any of this is going to be a quick fix. And I think that's the main reason. For those reasons—
Dan Rubenstein — 42:23
For those reasons, I think I'm out, too. Okay, so if you were to describe what Baylor was last season in a word: chaos, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 42:33
Hmm. Yep.
Dan Rubenstein — 42:34
Kind of. Isn't that the Bill Hader, “In a word, chaos”?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 42:34
Yep. Chaos.
Dan Rubenstein — 42:38
Running backs lost eight fumbles. They played in a bunch of tight games. Were they the worst turnover-margin team in America last year? If they weren't, they were in that conversation. They were down there. They were minus-13 or minus-14 in turnover margin. There was nothing terribly boring, in a good way, about Baylor last season. Red-zone-wise, on both sides of the ball, turnover-wise, penalty-wise. And to that chaos, they add DJ Lagway. Again, all the talent in the world. But if you're coming off the season they had, where there were all of these up-and-down moments and comebacks and coming up just short, whatever, you kind of want dependability at quarterback. Now, I actually really like the Joe Klanderman hire.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 43:33
I love it. I think it's a great hire.
Dan Rubenstein — 43:34
In the way that Baylor has had, I think, four straight pretty bad defenses since—it was the '21 season, I think, they had, like, a top-20 national defense—Joe Klanderman never has bad defenses, or at least hasn't in a long time. His time at K-State was sort of defined by, at the very least, competent defenses. Maybe not game-changing, maybe not lethal, but competent, organized, and developed dudes at all three levels.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 44:05
Baylor wins more games last year if they've got a semi-competent defense.
Dan Rubenstein — 44:10
Sure, but you can say that for a lot of teams. I just don't want to think about Baylor in close games all the time, as I'm sure Baylor fans don't want to, either, because it's very difficult to see why the chaos is suddenly going to disappear. I know Dave Aranda said they spent more on their defense than they ever have before, especially up front. And I think they're still waiting, at the time of recording, on an eligibility injunction situation with an Indiana transfer up front who, if they get him—it's Hosea Wheeler, I think that's his name—if they get him, that's definitely a huge, huge deal for what Baylor might be able to look like up front. It's still chaos. It's still chaos. If you're waiting on one guy to either change your defense or not change your defense, I'm just not there. I'm not there right now with Baylor. I think Joe Klanderman will improve things on that side of the ball. I think you will see moments from DJ Lagway that make him look Heisman-esque, but I need dependability if I'm in Waco at this point. I don't see the star power around him. I think the running backs room is, what, Dawson Pendergrass? He's fine. I think they're decent players. I'm not trying to disrespect anybody on this offense, but if your goal is to win nine games, where are you finding those nine? Because that's the step forward.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 45:34
Yeah, I think it is.
Dan Rubenstein — 45:35
It's a violent finish to this schedule, by the way.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 45:35
I mean, yeah. So this is a schedule—we can run through this quickly—but they open with Auburn, a neutral-site game in Atlanta. Also on this thing, they're at Arizona State, home against TCU, at BYU, home against Texas Tech and at Houston. Those three games are back-to-back-to-back to close out November. So if there is a runway, it is much earlier in the season, because those are three teams that figure to be favored against Baylor. They'll have opportunities here, I think, to kind of make some hay earlier in the year. Certainly throughout the month of October, there are some wins on the schedule. There are more wins on the schedule early. But the math problem to me is they've basically got nine games to get to eight wins, because I'm not counting on them winning any of those last three. And that seems like a bridge too far, given what I'm seeing here. But who knows?
Dan Rubenstein — 46:38
Yeah, I'm less than hopeful. I thought Sawyer Robertson was pretty good last year at times. Still too many picks. I just worry that this is going to be a year in which DJ Lagway's best and worst impulses are indulged. And I don't see that as a good turnaround recipe.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 47:01
Let's go over to Kansas, Dan. Kansas has a 5.5 over-under. They went 5-7 a year ago. They've now had back-to-back 5-7 seasons, which, as you know, was down from the nine-win campaign they had back in 2023. Of their 14 losses in the last two years, as pointed out by our friend Brett Ciancia over at Pick Six Previews, they have held a fourth-quarter lead in nine of them.
Dan Rubenstein — 47:29
They're like the Peter North-issue team of our preview season.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 47:33
Brutal.
Dan Rubenstein — 47:33
Or I guess Peter South, right, finishing issues.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 47:34
This is definitely a Peter South.
Dan Rubenstein — 47:35
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 47:37
Now, the offense got hollowed out. They lose Jalon Daniels, Daniel Hishaw, Leshon Williams, three All-Big 12 linemen, among some others. The defense does have more back, but it's a defense that wasn't very good last year. So pick your poison. Also back: the one true God, Andy Kotelnicki, who comes back from Penn State. He steps into a role where he is associate head coach. He's going to be calling the plays on offense, which, to me, is a pretty clear signal that Lance Leipold wants to try and get back to what they were doing. He wants to recapture that magic from the last time Andy was in Kansas. Remember, this was a system in Kansas, when he was there last, that was known for running a little bit of oop-de-oop and a lot of oop-de-oop, if you want to talk about Penn State.
Dan Rubenstein — 48:28
Well, just running though, running period.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 48:29
But running, yes, running. It was a very, very good ground attack. Physical ground attack.
Dan Rubenstein — 48:33
Anything about, like, Devin Neal, guys like that?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 48:35
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 48:35
Yeah, of course.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 48:36
So I'm curious to see how he schemes for a guy like Dylan Edwards, who—The Odyssey is in the news right now—Dylan Edwards has been on a bit of an odyssey himself, going from team to team to team to team, now staying in the state of Kansas with a different Kansas team. More of a scatback than a workhorse, but—
Dan Rubenstein — 48:55
He's a smaller guy, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 48:56
Definitely the type of player that Andy Kotelnicki is going to like to use in a variety of different ways. That'll be fun, I think, to watch, see what he can do with him.
Dan Rubenstein — 49:04
Same page. Look, look, the Kansas thing to me is a depth question and finishing games. It's likely starting Cole Ballard, a former walk-on at quarterback. And what his upside is or isn't.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 49:17
They did. Hold on, though. You're right. I think it's a Cole Ballard team.
Dan Rubenstein — 49:23
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 49:23
But I've been picking up notes of, hey, we might mix in Isaiah Marshall to add a running threat at quarterback. I can guarantee you, guarantee you—you can't bet on this anywhere, but if you could, I would put a sizable sum, a number of units, on Andy Kotelnicki finding a way to get both Cole Ballard and Isaiah Marshall on the field at the same time. It is too tantalizing for him to pass up an opportunity like that.
Dan Rubenstein — 49:49
Sure, agree. Totally agree.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 49:54
That will happen. You will see a two-quarterback set at some point. Anyway, please continue. I didn't mean to interrupt.
Dan Rubenstein — 49:59
I have them in a bowl conversation once again if Cole Ballard is decent. I think the defense will get a little bit better. The schedule is kind of weird. They have a meaty middle, but maybe a decent enough finish. They've got the Border War back-to-back with Arizona State in London.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 50:17
Yeah, don't like that.
Dan Rubenstein — 50:20
There are oddities to this schedule. The meaty middle stretch for them is at Utah, at Kansas State, Baylor, TCU, UCF. Look, I think Lance Leipold teams, by and large, are going to develop players. They're going to win games. To me, it's roster construction, you know, the development of the twos. And they talked about how they were just gassed at the end of some of those games because they were playing their starters so much. It's developing those dudes. It's figuring out if they can develop and evaluate the right small-school-type transfers at Kansas. I think they're going to beat deficient teams and lose to more talented teams often. And that puts them in the bowl conversation if Cole Ballard is fine. I have them at 6-6. I think they go bowling this year.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 51:09
Okay. Yeah, I think I can get behind that. It is a tough schedule.
Dan Rubenstein — 51:13
I think there's a decently high floor.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 51:15
Yeah, I'm right on the fringe of that. I'm skeptical about the offensive line and what the plan is at quarterback. And just to put a bow on the defensive conversation, they were sort of in a box all last season because they kept trying to bring pressure with their back seven because they couldn't get it with their front four.
Dan Rubenstein — 51:32
Sure.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 51:33
And so you can imagine, if that doesn't work, that puts your whole defense in a bit of a bind. The hope is that this year they can bring that a little bit more into balance. If nothing more, there's more depth on defense. That should hopefully help, to your point, with guys being gassed. Having a little bit more depth, maybe having a little bit more beef up front or a little bit more of a pass rush up front, that would be what I think I'm looking for, at least on that side of the ball. But I'm with you. The over-under, again, is 5.5. I think they're right on that cusp. I could see another 5-7 year. I could see a 7-5 here if things really pop.
Dan Rubenstein — 52:10
I hope Kansas didn't miss its window because they've had a lot of fun offensive players recently, and it kind of feels like they're fading into the background a little bit. We've got to see what they're going to do well. But again, I think Lance Leipold is a good enough coach that, if his players have legs late in games, I just don't think you can mess up that many games late two years in a row. And I just like Lance Leipold, so I'm in on Kansas doing more this season.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 52:38
I do, too. We have three teams left here. We have Iowa State, we have Colorado and we have West Virginia. Which is of most interest to you?
Dan Rubenstein — 52:53
I guess Colorado.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 52:54
3-9 last season.
Dan Rubenstein — 52:56
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 52:57
Their over-under is 4.5. Last year was a bad year for Colorado.
Dan Rubenstein — 53:02
Yep.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 53:03
I think we saw it coming. It was a year after both Shedeur and Travis Hunter went pro. A lot of teams, I think, would probably be in a similar position. I don't know if the bottom would have fallen out quite as much, but it's not a stretch to look back and say, oh, well, of course they got worse because they lost their two best players. The biggest question, though, was whether there was a plan. Whether there was a plan for that, the post-Shedeur, the post-Travis Hunter era. And I don't know if we have an answer to that yet.
Dan Rubenstein — 53:38
Well, the plan is Brennan Marion.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 53:40
Is that a good enough plan, though?
Dan Rubenstein — 53:43
Well, it depends what you're intending to do.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 53:46
Okay, they're installing the Go-Go offense. Brennan Marion is now in Colorado. Speaking of an odyssey, he's been on one, too. He's been with a bunch of different teams. This is an offense that sounds fun because it is fun. It's two running backs. It's certainly an emphasis on the run. They've got variations that include options, that include run-pass options, deep shots, and, as you might guess from the name, they want to play quick. The Go-Go offense. QB1 looks to be Julian “JuJu” Lewis. He played sparingly last season. The goal with this offense is to not ask him to throw it 40 times a game. They want the run game to work. They want more of a balanced approach. They don't want it to all fall on his shoulders. Forgive me for not being uber-confident in this ground attack. They were 127th nationally last season in terms of rushing success rate. There are other metrics that also would indicate it was not a good team on the ground. There was an intense focus on the offensive line this offseason. They did lose Jordan Seaton, the big offensive lineman, the tackle, to LSU, but they also brought in a really big group of transfers otherwise. Publicly, both Deion Sanders and Brennan Marion have been pretty bullish on this group. I feel like, personally, I need to see it before I can get too excited, but I think it's notable, for whatever you make of coach quotes, that the coaches at least seem to be pretty bullish on what they're seeing. Make of that what you will, Dan.
Dan Rubenstein — 55:21
Do you have a year in which Deion Sanders and Colorado really impressed you on the ground, running the ball? I don't. And it's a year, once again, where they're rebuilding an offensive line, rebuilding an offense. New running backs—one of them was with him at Sac State, coming along with Brennan Marion, right? Put up some big numbers in the offense, which, great, good.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 55:47
I like their receiver room, actually. I like Danny Scudero, who comes from San Jose State. I like DeAndre Moore Jr. I like the potential of DeAndre Moore Jr. coming from Texas.
Dan Rubenstein — 55:57
He's been beat up, but yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 55:58
Kam Perry from Miami, Ohio, I think, is a nice piece. I think that aspect of what they've got out there actually looks kind of appealing to me. To what degree they use it, and how Julian Lewis operates in this new system, these are bigger, more existential questions in 2026. But in terms of names and stats on a piece of paper, that seems to compute for me.
Dan Rubenstein — 56:26
Sure. I think the skill-position guys are fine. I don't trust this offensive line. And I know the quotes have been glowing, that this offensive line is bigger and better than what Brennan Marion saw at Texas, and it's going to go down as one of the best—one of the best offensive lines, and/or the best offensive line, in Colorado history.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 56:38
They always are. They always are.
Dan Rubenstein — 56:45
Big bodies coming in. Don't trust 'em. I just don't. I don't trust the offensive line coach. I don't trust another new offense. I don't trust a quarterback who is going to begin reading defenses this year, after a quote that they just went out there and played high school football last year. I just—there's not much for me to trust here. Brennan Marion has called a lot of really good offenses and has, I think, been hailed as an innovative offensive mind. I think it's a bad match. I don't see it with Colorado this year. I don't trust the line. I just don't. I'm not there. I have to see it with Colorado before I believe it, because it seems like there have been conflicting ideologies in that offensive line room. We've seen coordinators come in and out. There are new assistants on both sides of the ball, once again. Marshall Faulk is out, Warren Sapp is out. The defensive coordinator, I think it was Robert Livingston, he's out.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 57:35
Robert Livingston went to the Broncos. I'm glad you brought this up. I wanted to mention this too.
Dan Rubenstein — 57:39
The defense wasn't even that good last year.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 57:41
It wasn't. So the new guy is Chris Marvee. It was a really bad defense in several key areas, namely the run defense, but also big plays. The pass rush, in general. They kind of sucked at tackling. This was not a good tackling team at all. He is not—I don't care who it is; insert defensive coordinator here—going to fix all of those things. And I don't care how aggressive or attacking any of them want to be. I'm just not seeing that all getting fixed in short order, as well. So you layer that onto the fact that this is actually a tough schedule, and I'm not buying this at all. 4.5, is that what I said? Let me scroll up. 4.5. I would go under. I'm not in on this at all. And I'm real curious about Julian Lewis. I love the Go-Go offense. It is fun to watch. I'm just like: I think this is another situation—for those reasons, I'm out.
Dan Rubenstein — 58:42
Yeah, there's not much for me to trust at this point. And so, yeah, I don't see them going bowling. I think, at their absolute best, they're 6-6, if it all clicks and they have health luck and they catch teams in fortuitous situations. But no, the schedule is difficult enough. It's a weird road schedule early, right? It's Georgia Tech, Northwestern and Baylor in the first month, on the road.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 59:04
Yeah, they got to get off to a quick start.
Dan Rubenstein — 59:06
Not that those are impossible teams to beat, but—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 59:08
No, but they have to get off to a quick start. Otherwise, they're toast.
Dan Rubenstein — 59:11
Yep. I'm not feeling great.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 59:13
What do you think about West Virginia this year?
Dan Rubenstein — 59:15
I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued as an improvement candidate, for sure. I'd love for their starting point to be better at quarterback, but I'm intrigued by the skill-position guys. It's, what, the Jacksonville State transfer at running back, who has experience with RichRod, obviously.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 59:27
Cam Cook. I love Cam Cook. Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein — 59:34
I like how aggressive they've been. It's another year with a lot of new players, but I like that they're developing the younger players, as well. There's a good recruiting class coming in. I like Zac Alley, their defensive coordinator. I think he's a good mind to help improve this team. And they stopped the run a good amount last year, right? It's a developmental thing with West Virginia in this moment. It's an identity thing in this moment. They obviously have had to cycle between a number of quarterbacks, not just last year, but the last couple of years, with injury and just guys in and out of the lineup. I think West Virginia is due for some stability. I think you are going to see improvement across the board from West Virginia. I think they are going to look like a well-coached team, like a developed team. But I still think it's pretty early in the RichRod life cycle with this West Virginia team.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:00:24
I think Year 3 is probably the year where it starts to take flight.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:00:28
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:00:29
But there are plenty of reasons to be interested this year. It does look like there are 11 new starters on defense. I have seen some previews cite that they've looked longer and more athletic, for whatever that's worth to you. It doesn't mean better, but 11 new starters. The secondary is probably going to be an issue, in my view. But Rich Rodriguez has talked about the offense and specifically why the offense last year didn't get fully up to speed. And it was a lot of not doing enough on first downs, not running well enough to stay on schedule. This year, as you mentioned, they're trying to fix that with Cam Cook, who does come up from Jacksonville State, has been crazy productive. I think he's going to be a monster this year. Also, they are deeper, as well, on the offensive line. They've got better tight ends. I think they've got a quarterback in Michael Hawkins Jr. who can keep them active in the run game, whether it's him or Scotty Fox Jr. Either way, I can find reasons to get behind West Virginia this year and reasons to feel optimistic about what they can be beyond 2026. But 5.5 is the over-under. I've got them at 5-7. I think they're right on the cusp there.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:01:46
I'd go as far as six and six. I think they can be a bowl team.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:01:49
I could see it.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:01:49
I think there is—
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:01:50
I could see it. I just don't want to put my name to it.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:01:52
One of the things I do like about West Virginia—and obviously, as you mentioned, they're retooling the defense almost entirely—but there's something culturally about a team that, I think it was Houston and TCU last season, kind of gave them all they could handle late in the season. I like that belief kind of thing, where there is proof of concept early for the returning players on both sides of the ball. There is energy in the building. RichRod wins everywhere he goes. To what degree, obviously, there's variance there. But I think he hires well. I think he evaluates well. There seems to be a vision when the teams reach a certain point in their development. Usually, it's on the ground, running the ball.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:02:31
Right.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:02:31
But I don't know. It's a different time in West Virginia than, obviously, decades ago, when he was there and had his big-level success. But I don't know. I think there's a good amount of upside to this team, based on what's there, that they can catch a couple of sleepers. They can win a couple of those games they lost last year. And I just think there's going to be more comfort this year the longer RichRod is there. So, yeah, I have them in the range of 6-6.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:02:59
Let's close this out with Iowa State, another team with a 5.5 win total. For what it's worth, last year: 8-4, 5-4 in conference. You can basically throw that out the window. That was the Matt Campbell era.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:03:09
Yeah, I mean, there's nothing you can take from last season and be like, okay, they did—nothing.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:03:10
Doesn't matter. Nothing, nothing. Matt Campbell goes to Penn State. The entire roster pretty much went elsewhere. Jimmy Rogers steps in. He spent about 15 minutes at Wazzu—I know you like to tell that joke—but he did a good job while he was there. They were competitive.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:03:28
He did. Also, a tough situation.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:03:30
Very tough situation. They were very competitive against Ole Miss, UVA and James Madison. He could be the best coach in the world, Dan. So much turnover here: 60 new players, as many as 16 new starters, by the way, who come from the G6, FCS and Division II ranks.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:03:50
I saw this. The University of Sioux Falls, yeah?
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:03:53
So, no disrespect to these guys. I'm glad they're getting their moment. It could be a bit of a transition here for Iowa State, taking on that many new guys from, let's be honest, the non-Power Four ranks. I think this year is going to look a lot like under center, pro style, motion, play action, stuff like that. I don't think they're going to ask their new quarterback, Jaylen Raynor from Arkansas State, to sling it 50 times a game. This is going to be a lot of ball control. It's going to be a lot of quick passes. Some of Jaylen Raynor's ability as a runner will be on display. I like their running backs. I like Aiden Flora and Cameron Pettaway a lot, by the way. But I'll be interested to see how they use Jaylen Raynor, because this is a guy I was all in on last year. You tell the joke—we told it earlier in the year—I talked for, like, 25 minutes on the Arkansas State preview last year because of how high I was on Jaylen Raynor. Now, he didn't have the banner season I was hoping for, but—
Dan Rubenstein — 01:04:57
You didn't have a good year.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:05:01
He comes over with his quarterback coach, with his tight end. He does need to be better. He needs to not turn the ball over nearly as much and needs to move quicker, because the competition and everything about the Big 12 is going to be a grade above what he saw in the Sun Belt. But I don't hate Jaylen Raynor as Iowa State's starting quarterback. I'm okay with that.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:05:23
Okay, Jaylen Raynor was, I think, one of the worst quarterbacks in the Sun Belt last year, in terms of his production. He was not very good. He didn't go downfield all that well. His yards per attempt were very low. It was, like, 11th out of 12 or something.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:05:39
I know. Yeah, it wasn't—it wasn't a good year.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:05:40
Okay, and now you're putting him behind a combination FCS, Division II and MAC offensive line in spots. There are some intriguing names, maybe, at the skill positions. If it works out, guys who've been like, “Well, he's starting at running back,” or, “He's the No. 2 running back, hasn't really carried the ball, but is a returner.” Like, well, okay. Let's hope that translates into something. I think there is some intrigue up front on defense with some of those transfers.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:06:14
Yeah, and they're switching the system too.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:16
They're switching the system away from the Heacock 3-3-5, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:06:18
The 3-3-5 is gone. Jesse Bobbit is the name of the new defensive coordinator, who comes from Wazzu with Jimmy Rogers. It's going to be more 4-2-5. It's going to be more of an emphasis on creating pressure with the front four, as opposed to the Heacock system, which was more space-eaters up front and let the linebackers do it. I think the line will be okay. The back seven is really concerning to me. I don't know.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:40
That's—there are a lot of new faces filling in the blanks.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:06:43
That troubles me. Yes.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:06:49
There's also concern on my part for an offense at Iowa State that, by early-ish October, is on the road at Iowa, has Utah and a road game at BYU, by, again, early-ish October. The defenses may be more gettable later on in the season. But I don't know. Kansas State might have a defense by the time they play. Oklahoma State could be interesting. Cincinnati could be. UCF might have one; that's on the road. Arizona, we'll see how they bounce back after losing the guys they did in the back end of that defense. But I just think there are too many uphill situations for Iowa State to go bowling this year. I have them at, like, 3-9, 4-8.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:07:32
Yeah, I think I'm—
Dan Rubenstein — 01:07:34
It feels like a Year 0 situation.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:07:36
I think I'm of a similar mind. I mean, Jimmy Rogers did do a really good job at Wazzu, so I don't want to rule out a situation where he steps in and suddenly they do a lot better than expected. I'm just not seeing the talent level on this roster being up to par with what they're going to face elsewhere in the Big 12. Mind you, we're saying 3-9, 4-8. This is a schedule that also misses Texas Tech and Houston, but still gets five top-30-caliber teams. So even though maybe they're not playing the perceived top of the top, it's still pretty meaty throughout, and I think they'll be tested. I'm not sure that this roster has enough juice to go toe-to-toe with what they're up against here. So I'm with you. I would be inclined to go under, not for lack of respect. I think Jimmy Rogers has done a pretty good job here in very short order putting a roster together, but it's going to take a minute.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:08:36
I think so too.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:08:38
All right. solidverbal@gmail.com is where you can write in if you've got something to say, if we got something wrong, if you have a differing opinion, if you just want to tell us how good the show is. We'll take all of those emails.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:08:48
If you want to tell us you regret Googling Peter North, I'm sorry. Sorry about that.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:08:54
solidverbal@gmail.com is where you can go if you want to write in and let us know your thoughts. Of course, Verballers.com is where you can go if you're interested in the extras, be it ad-free episodes, episodes that are a little bit early, the Discord, the gaming portal that we're going to unveil here in a couple of weeks, all that stuff. It's how you can directly support what Dan and I do. That's our Patreon, again, at Verballers.com. If you want to get the weekly newsletter, which is free, all you do is give us your email. SolidVerbal.com/newsletter is where you can go for that. And if you are ever so inclined, if you've made it this far, please hit follow or subscribe. If you've already done that, leave us a star rating or review, wherever it is you watch or listen. All that stuff really helps.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:09:38
You absolutely nailed your grammar on that. “If you want to support what Dan and I do,” that was really good. You really nailed it, because you wouldn't say, “If you want to support what Dan and me do,” because you wouldn't say, “What me do.”
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:09:46
Yeah. I'm still struggling with this. I haven't fully internalized your instructions yet.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:09:51
You're doing great.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:09:52
Thank you.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:09:53
You're doing great. I want to sort of fill you with confidence, Ty, that you're on the right track. Because, as somebody who struggles with English regularly, I know how important confidence is.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:10:04
It's good that we're struggling with our English in public as prominent college football podcasters.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:10:05
And so, look, I've heard the word “bravery” thrown around.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:10:13
Not a great setup.
Dan Rubenstein — 01:10:15
I've heard the word “courageous” thrown around. That's not for me to weigh in on. But I appreciate everybody who cannot stop pummeling us with those emails, saying something about, like, beacons of light. I don't know. But you know what? I appreciate it.
Ty Hildenbrandt — 01:10:31
Thank you to one and all for downloading, for supporting what we do. We'll be back next episode to go through Part 3. We're going to knock out the other eight teams here in the Big 12. Hope you enjoyed what you heard here today. Hope you're enjoying what you have heard all throughout the preview season. Much, much more to come. For that guy over there, Dan, for myself over here, Ty, we'll catch y'all next time. In the meantime, stay solid.