Corrected Transcript
Ty Hildenbrandt
Dan Rubenstein, week three, just about in the books. I suppose it depends when you are. Watching when you are listening to this, we do have a few games that are still underway around the wide world of college football. But by and large, most of the big action that we talked about on the preview throughout the course of this week, all that stuff is now officially official. We're going to go through as much of it as we can here tonight on our midnight live stream. Hello, welcome. Good evening to everybody watching around the globe. Whether that's on YouTube, out on TikTok, out on X the Everything app, wherever you may be, if you're listening after the fact with your Sunday morning coffee, it is a pleasure to be with you once more Verballerhood and with you, Mr. Rubenstein. How are you?
Dan Rubenstein
Uh, I'm great. Pleasure is all mine. Obviously we gotta lead off with what everybody's gonna be leading off with today. Oregon 84, Portland State Zero, we're back, baby. Oh, it feels good to be so back.
Ty Hildenbrandt
No no Dante Moore tipping things off with his legs or the line tipping things off with their flinching, not there they've solved that?
Dan Rubenstein
All is fixed, Ty. I think I feel confident in saying the train is back on the tracks. No, I have no idea if Oregon is fixed, but Uh, there are more important games to discuss.
Ty Hildenbrandt
There absolutely are. So for those of you who are joining us live, thank you for staying up late. We're gonna be sending out several prompts to the Verballerhood because we do want to hear from all y'all. We posted a couple out on social media a little bit ago. But we're interested if you are stopping by. Tell us who you're a fan of. Tell us what you learned today about your team. That's all. Doesn't need to be anything complicated, but I'm a fan of blank. Today I learned blank. We're going to get to that in a little bit. We're also going to get to your reverbs. We had a bunch of great calls. Shea did an excellent job putting our reverbs together today. We're also going to get into our AP Top 25 ballot a little bit later on in the broadcast. We've got some decisions to make Dan Rubenstein, as I'm sure you know we talked about this before we hit go. So
Dan Rubenstein
Yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt
uh some big decisions that are afoot, but why don't we start with where I think everyone's gonna start the college football conversation as we look back on week three. And that would be Ole Miss 32, LSU 24.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, that's probably the right move.
Ty Hildenbrandt
There was a lot that went into this one. This was brewing over by the time kickoff finally arrived. Clearly, from the moment Lane Kiffin decided before the playoffs last year that he was going to depart. Oxford, Mississippi, and instead go to Baton Rouge. This had been building, this had been circled on the calendar. So we finally got it. The game did not disappoint. It looked as though initially Ole Miss was gonna run away with it. They were playing with a full head of steam. in that first half, but once LSU got into desperation mode, we started to see the offense come around. And that actually was my first question for you.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
What do we think of LSU's offense when it's not in desperation mode in a big game like this? Because it felt like it needed that in order to light the fire and get themselves back on track and you know eventually make a run at this thing.
Dan Rubenstein
Well, I mean that question also requires uh a a follow-up of like with or without trade as green, right? Because that is the weapon and when he went down you could see the options becoming a little more limited in terms of explosivity, in terms of Sam Leavitt's confidence in going anywhere down the field. I mean this was not An LSU offense that was responding in kind in the way that Trinidad Chambliss was fearless and rocketing the ball down the field. For better or for worse, right? He was He was missing dudes at times, he was dirting a couple balls, he was launching it at like 137 miles an hour at times, and it was being caught And he, you know, he spread it around quite nicely. I think it was it was Ray who emerged tonight. Um, but Uh, some of the throws were incredible and LSU I mean look, i this was going to be a game it seemed like even going in that these teams were gonna come out a little bit flat because how do you match the energy of the anticipation going into this game?
And they came out a little bit flat to be expected, but uh obviously Kewan Lacy goes down later on in the game, but this game was so damn fun. This game was incredible and The the thing that I took away from this game was one, I I think the resilience of Ole Miss. Um, and then two, I think We're watching such an incomplete version of LSU just because everything had to come together so quickly, and I'm not going to give them credit for losing. But you watch this game and it it does feel like this is kind of a skeleton of what they're going to be later on in the season, especially if Sam Leavitt has more confidence in the offense, in himself, in his receivers, whatever in the system. to go downfield a little bit more. Obviously credit what Ole Miss was able to do on defense. But no, I came away so impressed with the back and forth of this. Obviously the the huge I don't want to call it a goal line stand, but it was because it was Ole Miss on offense with the ball and deciding to go for two.
But the the goal line stand I obviously for Ole Miss when they were on defense and you know intercept the tip pass to end the game But the the fortitude, the cojones, to decide to go for two. I was like six minutes left. I on one level I kind of understand it because there's so much time left that you kind of know what you need But on that on the other hand, I'm like, well, first of all, if you can draw them off sides a couple times, get yourself hit yourself closer over and over again, that makes it all the much easier.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Right.
Dan Rubenstein
And it falls under the category, and I promise I'm gonna let you speak in about eleven seconds here. Like Cool if it works. And it did.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I had a group chat going with a bunch of friends and As soon as it looked as though as as they lined up as though they were gonna go for two, immediately the messages started flying Bold move, bold move, bold move. And then after the first flag and then the second flag, the messages were were like, well, not as bold as it used to be.
Dan Rubenstein
Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt
So whether or not that was the intention to see if they could draw them off sides, or whether they had it in their minds to go for it all along, I was stunned
Dan Rubenstein
Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt
By the I mean no one's down here with me watching these games. It's late here. Everyone in the house is in bed, including the dogs.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
And I'm like talking to myself. I couldn't believe that they did it. So yes, cojones for sure to decide in that moment that they want to go for it. And I gotta give Pete Golding credit. You know, there was so much discussion around the Ole Miss program when Lane Kiffin left. before the playoffs last year. Clearly they acquitted themselves quite well once they got into that tournament. But there was a fair amount new coming into this season, not the least of which was players and coaching staff and you name it. But they retained Trinidad Chambliss, Kewan Lacy, right? They had that as their bedrock, namely Trinidad Chambliss in this game, who just looked like unstoppable. I don't know what the final number was. Was it 363 yards passing, something of that nature, but
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, and he did have a pick late, yes, but yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Had the pick late, but I mean just talk about the guy that you want the ball in his hands in crunch time. Trinidad Chambliss continues to be that guy over and over again. He's never going to be a thousand percent, but his ability to step up in key moments, we saw it throughout the course of this game. He is just an absolute pain in the ass back there, whether he is throwing at a thousand miles an hour, as he did several times in this one, or just finding a way to keep a play alive and extend. Truly. He could make a case as the number one overall pick in the NFL. I know he's undersized, but the moxie that he shows when he's out there is damn impressive.
Dan Rubenstein
Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt
And it's obviously going to power this team. Pete Golding has now proven Despite the fact that it was a long offseason, despite the fact that there is so much new, that this program at Ole Miss is more than Lane Kiffin. It's more than Lane Kiffin. It's the talent that's on hand. They have good leadership. And in a game like this, where I think it was you, and I've heard many others say it as well, more pressure was on Ole Miss. Truly, than it was LSU because of the circumstances and wanting to maybe get that revenge on Kiffin.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
They answered the bell. They came out hot You know, LLC made a charge late, but Ole Miss, at least early, was not showing signs of pressure. They were showing signs of a team that was focused and knew what it wanted to do. So I'm glad for the purposes of our viewership. It tightened up at the end and it gave us something to watch for. Two weeks in a row now, a one-score game on the Saturday night ABC game. But um kudos to Ole Miss for getting the job done here. We can talk a little bit later on about what that means perhaps with regard to our AP Top 25 ballot. How high do we move? Oh miss, they have to go up now.
Dan Rubenstein
Sure.
Ty Hildenbrandt
They've got two quality wins to say the least against LSU and and Louisville.
Dan Rubenstein
Absolutely.
Ty Hildenbrandt
But um I just came away so damn impressed by their ability to handle that pressure and show on a stage like this that the program is bigger than the guy that left that was on the other sidelines.
Dan Rubenstein
So my take my LSU takeaway that I had mentioned, I mean the defense I think is gonna be pretty incredible all year. This is gonna be arguably the best quarterback they're gonna see all year. Um, and so for them to be within a couple of plays of tying this game and sending it to overtime, given the infancy and look, I I'm not sort of waving away LSU, you know, losing this game and it's admirable because it's so young in Lane Kiffin's tenure. They spent dozens of millions of dollars on this roster. The expectation is that they win a ton of games and they compete against the best, given who's on this roster, who's coaching this team, and Ole Miss was the better team. There's just no doubt in my mind. The ability to finish in that kind of spot is huge. So my takeaway from LSU is just like this is the skeleton of what we'll see. Is there anything new from Ole Miss? Right? We already knew that Trinidad Chambliss was clutch and a leader of men and a playmaker.
Was there anything new that you came away with with regard to, you know, John David Baker or Pete Golding or whatever you know, the new guys on defense or the new playmakers or the new guys being counted on to be more of a playmaker, you know, Traylon Ray, we mentioned was one of the guys who stepped up today. As you look forward, is old Mrs. Road Spot in the swamp next week.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Oh my god.
Dan Rubenstein
The biggest I think it's next week, right? Yeah, it is next week. There's no buy between these two games. The biggest potential letdown of the season.
Ty Hildenbrandt
No.
Dan Rubenstein
SEC or or beyond, whatever. Was was there anything else about Ole Miss? You're like, okay, now that I've seen them both against Louisville and now LSU, here is how I'm updating my like software, my firmware on Ole Miss.
Ty Hildenbrandt
After this game in particular, I came away feeling a lot like I did last year. And that was new in a sense because the game that we saw against Louisville gave up a ton of big plays.
Dan Rubenstein
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt
You know, it was it they won, obviously, by three points.
Dan Rubenstein
Game one, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
And but it was a really good game. It was one of those deals where we, I think, look back on it and say, okay, these teams have probably grown since then, as the better teams do throughout the course of the season. But the fact that I came away from a game like this feeling like A, Ole Miss at least on offense, even if they've got some injuries, and Kewan Lacy, as you said, went out with the knee thing. Um, it still felt to me like with Trinidad Chambliss as that bedrock, they're fine. And it still feels a lot like they did last year. What I would add though to that is defensively they did step up when they had to. I'm not gonna confuse this with like a shutdown.
Dan Rubenstein
Well it had to happen when it did because they were knocking on the door. Yeah. LSC was, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I'm not gonna confuse this with any kind of like brick wall of the defense. I think it's gettable, but I think there is definitely something to be said for having an offense this good.
Dan Rubenstein
Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt
and a defense that can win some key moments, that's good enough to get you into the playoffs and maybe make a run. We saw it last year. So that to me, I think their ability again to proved beyond any shadow of doubt that the program is bigger than Kiffin is is sort of my lasting takeaway from what we saw in week three. Now, who knows where it goes from here. As he said, challenges await, certainly in the SEC gauntlet, but um For the moment anyway, I just come way damn impressed.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, I I mean the only other thing I would add before we have a lot of games to discuss, but you know this one has been circled on a lot of people's calendars and dockets for quite some time. kept LSU's offense off schedule. Not that LSU wasn't able to gain yardage and amass first downs and points in the second half. But there is something about the fact that like, oh, once Trey'Dez Green went down, it was short stuff and it was Sam Leavitt improvising, right? That it wasn't like A a rhythmic LSU experience in the second half constantly. They absolutely made plays. But it was Ole Miss blanketing dudes in the secondary. It was Ole Miss, you know forcing Sam Leavitt to make the crazy plays with his legs that he was able to do to keep drives going, right? That Ole Miss had to absorb the the the improvisation of LSU. And so that ability with that much pressure Uh, it speaks volumes given again I mentioned the Florida thing next week.
Uh, Ole Miss does have old friend Austin Simmons in a couple weeks. They have Arch Manning on the road. They'll have Gunnar Stockton and Georgia at home. They'll have uh I guess it could be described as high flying the the old the Oklahoma offense. Nope, hold on. I'm being told
Ty Hildenbrandt
Oh no.
Dan Rubenstein
Grounded, fully grounded the offense, but they'll they'll have to throw into what should continue to be a very good Oklahoma defense. So it's a tough it's a tough road ahead, but I I think they answered a lot of questions tonight.
Ty Hildenbrandt
32-24 for baller hood ride in. Let us know your thoughts. Big game. This was the one that everyone had circled. One that we did not have circled, though.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah. Please.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Kentucky went to Texas A&M and won. They beat him outright.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, they did. Dude, they just they beat him up.
Ty Hildenbrandt
They beat him outright, Dan.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, I'm putting the graphic on the screen now. I apologize. Here you go. 3121. Woo!
Ty Hildenbrandt
31-21. How much of this game did you watch? I watched the whole thing. How much did you personally watch of this game?
Dan Rubenstein
I it was quad box Uh, when I saw the score starting to shift dramatically around the middle eight, I watched more of it, and then after the fact I watched basically all of it.
Ty Hildenbrandt
So I made a video out on the YouTube channel. Right after this one because it the spirit moved me. I was I was really taken by what I saw.
Dan Rubenstein
Good, I'm glad. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
First and foremost, a ton of credit to
Dan Rubenstein
Is that that the patron saint Will Stein that moved you? That spirit?
Ty Hildenbrandt
Well it was. It was because you know what if you're a Kentucky fan, if you're a Kentucky fan, this is what you wanted when you hired Wolstein from Oregon.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah. Totally
Ty Hildenbrandt
This is exactly the offense that you wanted. And I also give them credit. So obviously you go to Kyle Field to win. That's in and of itself an accomplishment. Where I really give them credit is what happened last week when Alabama came to town. They were competitive for a half.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Bama changed up the scheme. They ran more. They went heavier sets. They basically ran Kentucky off the field in the second half. I'm oversimplifying, but that's in effect what happened. In this game, it was almost the polar opposite, and it was on the road in a hostile environment. The first half, 7-7, going in at halftime. After Kentucky comes out, third quarter, they score 21 consecutive points.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
And from that point forward, they're playing on the front foot. Texas A&M suddenly has to throw like crazy. I think Marcel Reed finished with 49 passing attempts, which no offense to Marcel Reed. But if I look at a box score and I see that he threw it 49 times, that's a pretty good tell that something went wrong.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, agree.
Ty Hildenbrandt
This was not like a fluke win. It just wasn't a fluke win.
Dan Rubenstein
No, no, no.
Ty Hildenbrandt
It was not a fluke win at all. Kentucky was the better team for overwhelming stretches of this game, and they made Texas A&M look ordinary. Which to me was the biggest takeaway of all. You can lose, especially in the SEC. Like upsets happen. All right, we're going to see a million more before the season is through. Clearly, you don't want the upset, but they happen. You can rebound from that. Texas A&M look damn ordinary in this game. They still got the defense, we know that part, but offensively. Offensively, they just did not have pop. And I think they show in this game here that when you've got a game and you gotta turn it over to Marcel Reed in hopes that he can win it for you. That might not be the best strategy. It just didn't work in this one. I thought he was ordinary. I thought the offense was ordinary. And I came away just wondering, like, when is when are they going to find this gear? When's that gonna happen?
And it never did. So I give Will Stein I give Kentucky a ton of credit because they won this game fair and square. There were there were no like hijinks here Wasn't like a weird penalty that tipped it in their favor or a block punt or a bunch of turnovers or any of that stuff.
Dan Rubenstein
No.
Ty Hildenbrandt
This is just they lined up and they beat 'em. And they came to play in the second half much more so than Texas A&M did. It was impressive.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, I d I mean look, you look at some of the talent that's on the Kentucky offense, we didn't really know what to expect from Kenny Minche coming into the season, 'cause we hadn't seen him play meaningful football uh against quality opponents and getting Alabama and Texas A&M two presumably like top fifteen ish teams in his first three games, like we're gonna learn pretty quickly what he is or is not. Uh, he sliced and diced. I thought it was a really well-called game from uh was it Joe Sloan, the offensive coordinator, spread the ball around. It was DJ Miller he who who he with whom he was connecting, if that is closer to English. Uh, they were able to run the ball really well. They won the line of scrimmage. I he had a bunch of time. That was a surprising thing that he looked both to his credit and the offensive line's credit He had time to assess and step into a pocket and complete throws. And I think maybe I expected more from the Texane and pass rush.
And I I think there's only so much a secondary can do when a guy has that kind of comfort in the pocket. He made plays outside of the pocket. They dropped a a pretty easy touchdown too, Kentucky did. Like a brutal like you watch it in slow motion, you're like, wait, was that a catch and fumble? But then you watch it full speed, you're just like, ooh
Ty Hildenbrandt
Oh yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
You gotta you gotta secure the package there. But I Kentucky was ready for the moment. I mean that's an intimidating place to play and We'll see what kind of test they're or what kind of uh depth they'll have if it's tested over the course of the season. But It it made me think Kentucky's ahead of schedule and I'm I'm much more excited. I think what did Kenny Minchie went for like 13, 14 yards per attempt?
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah. Yeah. At one point the the stat that I mentioned in the now aforementioned video that I I cut together real quick.
Dan Rubenstein
Like he got what he wanted starting like late in the first half.
Ty Hildenbrandt
At some point deep into the fourth quarter, Kentucky was like nine yards per play, you know, and and they were getting the explosives, they were getting the things that you need to win a game like this on the road in a hostile environment. Things that can break momentum for the home team, right? It it doesn't take much in a setting like Kyle Field to build some momentum. And before you know it, it's snowballs. We see that happen all the time. But their ability, Kentucky's ability to get some of those explosive plays and just really take the air out of the balloon was I I you know I will remember this for sure. when we look back on the season because it was truly one that we didn't see coming. You know, it was a seventeen and a half point spread.
Dan Rubenstein
You know, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
It was it did not appear, especially after what we saw last week against Alabama. Like Kentucky was gonna be all that competitive with AM, but they came to play. They really did. Kudos to them.
Dan Rubenstein
You know in sports video games when you're attempting to kick a field goal or hit like a pressure free throw, there's generally like moving bars and power and aiming.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Poo boom poo boom poo boom poo boom yeah
Dan Rubenstein
And exactly. And then there's there's more pressure and it moves faster and starts to blur and everything like that. I feel like that's what's going on in Marcel Reed's head. He never knows exactly how hard or where the like sometimes he's gonna make an amazing play, sometimes it's gonna spray off to nowhere, sometimes he's gonna run for 61 yards on a broken play that there is a variability to the Marcel Reed experience that uh I don't know if that can evolve over the course of the season. I hope for his sake and Texas A&M's sake it does. But Yeah, he's he's launching. When in doubt, he's launching and I I really like the receiving group and you know they're down Terry Bussey. I don't know if I've seen anything official on that. He went down early in the game.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah. Right away.
Dan Rubenstein
Hopefully it's better than it looked.
Ty Hildenbrandt
He went down the opening kickoff, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
Right. Um But it it's hard to know exactly what to expect out of Texas A&M this season when, you know, drive to drive, series to series The the the passing attack seems to be all over the place. The offensive line did a little bit better on the ground with uh the ability to run, but no, sorry here was Kentucky.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I can tell you what our friends out on CFB Reddit had to say about Marcel Reed, and it wasn't pretty. It was a lot of, hey, is this guy worse this year? Like what's going on here with this with this offense. So yeah, I for his sake I for his sake I hope he can evolve.
Dan Rubenstein
There's time Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
And for sure, given the new format here, I guess as of two years ago now Like you can rebound from this. You can come back from it and you can still figure find your way back into a serious conversation. But um there haven't been positive signs of real growth on that offense. And I think that would probably be the most concerning bit if you're holding out hope for an AM run.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
So we'll talk about AM a little bit later when we get to the ballot. Let's talk about Louisville, Dan. 41-31. This was a fun game. We expected a lot of points in this matchup. We got a lot of points. It was back and forth for a good chunk of the action. Louisville wins at home 4131. This is a very big deal for them. It's a very advantageous schedule this year. SMU was the game they had to have if they wanted this thing to take flight and maybe be a part of that ACC conversation And certainly with regard to the national conversation, you need to win a game like this. You need to get that big Top 25 win. So with SMU coming to town, this was, I think, a prime opportunity for it. And I give Louisville a lot of credit here, man. I really do.
Dan Rubenstein
Oh, same
Ty Hildenbrandt
This is a game that could have gone off the skids. Just because you had two high-powered offenses, there wasn't much margin for error. For on the SMU side, they were the ones that turned the ball over more. I think it was a three to zero the three to zero turnover margin, and sometimes that's just enough to give an extra possession or two
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, there's the error, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
to the opposing team and for them to get the dub.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, I thought Lincoln Keenholtz appeared to be more seasoned than his experience would explain. Um I just uh it's unfortunately a a familiar story with Kevin Jennings and the turnovers, especially brutal with The fact that Kendrick Raphael, the Cal transfer, got so much exercise running through the Louisville defense. And key it's Keyjuan Brown for uh or not Keyjuan Brown, it's um Oh, okay, that's right. Um, was able to get that a similar amount of exercise for Louisville through the SMU defense. The difference was Lincoln Kienholz was able to find receivers downfield, played fearlessly, and uh I don't think Jeff Brohm has beaten SMU since arriving at Louisville. Um, but Yeah, I it it was uh a faster start for Louisville than I think I expected. And I don't know, it felt like a very thorough win, uh, given the circumstances.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Well. You know I'm a I'm a bro for Brohm.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, I know.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I'm I'm all in on Jeff Brohm. Um, when you hear of a Jeff Brohm offense, I think you picture a quarterback throwing like crazy. I think you tend to think of it shorter stuff, right?
Dan Rubenstein
But shorter stuff, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt
I think you tend to think of it more based around quarterback play.
Dan Rubenstein
Right, paper cuts
Ty Hildenbrandt
But What makes Louisville a tough out right now is the running game might be the thing.
Dan Rubenstein
Oh.
Ty Hildenbrandt
For as good as I think Link Lincoln Kienholz can be, and for sure we've seen some growth there. Their ability to run the ball was something we called out at the beginning of the year. Something we called out at the end of last year, provided they could retain the services of, you know, Isaac Brown and company.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Um There there was a real question as to, you know, how good can this rushing attack be? And we didn't necessarily see it right away, but uh Keyjuan Brown 163 on ten carries He had touchdown runs of 58 and 53.
Dan Rubenstein
Oh yeah, he busted open, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Isaac Brown. Isaac Brown had 67 yards and also a 27-yard touchdown, a big touchdown. in the fourth quarter.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah,
Ty Hildenbrandt
It's not like SMU was just in this position where they're in the trenches and they're slowly wearing down. Louisville just kept dropping anvils on them. You know what I mean?
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah,
Ty Hildenbrandt
And that ultimately is what I think proved to be the difference here. Um, the other thing that I would point out, and and kind of on the heels of that. Because the running game can be really good, that's a really good situation for a developing quarterback like Lincoln Kienholz. You know, now there will inevitably be a game this year where he's got to throw it more than they want. But I would say just as a baseline, don't expect him to go out there and sling it forty times a game. He doesn't need to be the hero. He just needs to be stable enough that defenses aren't selling out against everything else to force in the pass. And I think right now they're finding that balance. This is the type of game that it it could have gone in that direction if They weren't efficient if they were turning the ball over, if they were making a ton of mistakes. We just did not see that in this game. They won the efficiency battle
And even though, you know, it some of the stats favored SMU, um, the one that matters the most is the final score and they got it.
Dan Rubenstein
Though there was just yeah. There there seemed to be more of a rhythm with what Louisville was doing on offense. You know how many third and fourth down attempts at conversions they made in this game? I don't expect you to have this at the top of your head.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Will we go?
Dan Rubenstein
Louisville had 10 total attempts. They weren't especially efficient, but that's because they were gaining yardage on first and second downs and getting more first downs on. I think uh SMU had 19 attempts. So almost twice as many attempts for uh for higher leverage moments just underscores what Louisville was able to do in terms of efficiency, as you mentioned. So really nice from Louisville, and as you mentioned on the preview show Kind of a thin schedule moving forward for Louisville.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I mean, look
Dan Rubenstein
If they can stay healthy and stay out of their own way, I they were they were pretty heavily penalized against SMU. They do have some stuff to clean up, but They're gonna win Agrippa Games this year, man.
Ty Hildenbrandt
It is not a perfect team. I don't think anyone on Louisville would tell you it's a perfect team.
Dan Rubenstein
Some some more run fits, perhaps
Ty Hildenbrandt
But More run fits would be nice, but a three-point loss in week one on a neutral site against Ole Miss, an Ole Miss team that, you know, we talked about a moment ago because they figured it'd be pretty good and be part of the bigger conversation.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
They had this one the rest of the way. Wake Forest on the road at NC State. Ooh, NC State finds ways to lose, damn. We'll give them that. Florida State.
Dan Rubenstein
New and novel, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Syracuse, Stanford, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pitt, and they close out on the road at Kentucky. Obviously a non-conference game.
Dan Rubenstein
But buddy, that's gonna be as of today, huge game.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah. Huge game, but in terms of ACC getting into the conference championship game, right now Louisville, I think, has a leg up.
Dan Rubenstein
Can't wait Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
No doubt about it.
Dan Rubenstein
Well, especially you look at Virginia's Saturday, which we will eventually Look, one one week, one game does not define your season, but the data points are streaming in pretty quickly.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Let's travel back in time then and talk about one more big game.
Dan Rubenstein
Please.
Ty Hildenbrandt
This one went down on Friday night. Texas Tech 28. Houston 26.
Dan Rubenstein
Man, fun fun at times, kind of ugly to watch at times. Perhaps those are the reviews that are in for this very show. I don't know, but uh good good for Texas Tech. What'd you think?
Ty Hildenbrandt
Houston, okay. We did not have Houston ranked in our Top 25, even though we liked Houston a great deal.
Dan Rubenstein
I have them winning the Big Twelve.
Ty Hildenbrandt
You have them winning the Big 12.
Dan Rubenstein
And I'm not getting off that. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Which I think is still possible, by the way. Who knows with this conference?
Dan Rubenstein
Sure.
Ty Hildenbrandt
They're certainly in that grouping of I would say four teams at the top of the Big Twelve through through a couple weeks.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
But um You know, e even us almost like reflexively, sort of waiting for reasons to dismiss Houston And it required a game like this. We needed to see what Houston could do. It's like, yeah, well, they beat Oregon State. They ran all over them. They ran all over the team they played next. But against real competition, let's see what let's see how far along this project is. that Willie Fritz is building here. They led it halftime. They ran for a fair amount of yards against a tech defense that was supposed to be better against the run. Um, I thought by and large Houston just as a proof of concept acquitted itself quite well. Also, this game came down to a two-point conversion. And Conner Weigman may have crossed the line.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I don't know. I there wasn't there wasn't enough in the replay to say that he got across the line for the two-point conversion
Dan Rubenstein
It was tight Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt
But this was a very, very even matchup. So it hurts to lose on the Houston side, but I think the bigger takeaway is Willie Fritz knows how to build. And Willie Fritz has gotten to the point, at least this season, where they're kind of neck and neck with Texas Tech, who was the presumed favorite.
Dan Rubenstein
Sure. They played him even in Lubbock. Right?
Ty Hildenbrandt
They play the meeting.
Dan Rubenstein
Who who played Texas Tech even last year? I guess just ASU? Who beat him And that was not a Baron Morton game.
Ty Hildenbrandt
That's about it.
Dan Rubenstein
So, okay. Uh, I came away, first of all, mortified that Texas Tech opened up this game on offense with a Thomas Castellanos throwaway interception. I think immediately turned into a touchdown, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt
Immediately.
Dan Rubenstein
Not returned for a touchdown, but I think Houston was able to drive and and and score.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Immediately. Yeah. Immediately.
Dan Rubenstein
Um Texas Tech is still figuring itself out. It's okay, it's game three, but they're figuring out their offense with a a I think a pretty good Will Hammond, but they're not exactly sure what to expect from their own offensive line, from the rushing attack. Um, you know, they obviously have health questions with the pass catchers, um, but it was the return of Terrence Carter, the tight end in this one. for Texas Tech, obviously going to be a help for uh for the Red Raiders. He only had a couple catches, but um they were so very clearly led last year by a pretty good offense but a dominant defense. They're not going to have a dominant defense in that way. The personnel isn't there. I don't think the depth is going to be there this year. They're going to win a ton of games. They are rightfully considered to be one of the favorites of the Big 12. Um Bit of a clunker at home. They won their clunker. I think it it speaks to some of the resolve that they have as a winning program.
As we've said, winning is a skill. But I also came away pretty impressed with uh the balance of Houston, uh especially up front on defense, their ability to to force Texas Tech into longer third downs and more arduous attempts. So like I'm into both of these teams as competitors in the Big 12, and uh I I'm sure Texas Tech people are breathing a sigh of relief, but uh a fun watch.
Ty Hildenbrandt
It was. And I mean I think uh just given the questions we had about Texas Tech, I mean we we were really questioning the line going into this game, really on both sides.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, line of scrimmage on both sides, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
You know, and I thought the pass rush was fine. Obviously they were able to run fairly consistently. And Will Hammond, though, though he does have moments By and large, Will Hammond, as I said on the preview, has not been a liability.
Dan Rubenstein
No, that has been pretty good.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Will Hammond's Will Hammond's been pretty good and he had some awesome throws in this football game. So um Texas Tech winning a game like this this season was so much new. Again, I think is an interesting data point. I am not fully convinced that they're the best team in the Big Twelve at this point.
Dan Rubenstein
Oh, they they don't look like a team that can win a playoff game against a power four team right now.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Because though I think this was an impressive win against a good team. When I watched it live, when I went back and watched it this morning, my thought was that's like the number 13 team in the country.
Dan Rubenstein
Sure.
Ty Hildenbrandt
You know, I that did not scream to me top eight, top seven team in college football. Could they get there? Sure. You know, they've got a lot of talent on that roster. So can they get there? Yeah, absolutely. But at time of recording, my main takeaway was like, oh, that was a great win against a good team
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
They got they got some growing to do before I'm willing to take that next step with them. Alright, so look, uh right in Let us know who you're rooting for, what you learned this weekend of college football. We'd love to hear from you. We're going to talk about that next. Before we get there though, we are going to play your reverbs. The reverbs are voice messages that are left. On our voicemail line at 855 VERBAL3. That's 855-837-2253. We open up that line throughout the course of a college football Saturday. It is open season. We got people who call multiple times. We got some people who just call one time. We got some people who call. They say a sentence and they hang up and they never call again. We get all kinds who dial in. The Verballerhood never disappoints. Let's see if this week can match up with last. Last week was generational. Shea said this is a good one as well. Here are your week three reverbs.
Dan Rubenstein
Nice. Oh man Good work.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I mean, I'm not sure if you're not going to be able to do that.
Dan Rubenstein
Oh, buddy. Well. Nice. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Man, I felt bad for that AM fan.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, I mean I mean that's that's college football nihilism, Ty.
Ty Hildenbrandt
What pain
Dan Rubenstein
Nothing matters, this is what it is I I get it. I I uh I appreciate the fans saying, you know what, grab some hobbies, right? Learn something, learn a useful skill, uh, because you might need it to cope with the Texas A&M experience. Yeah. I'm okay with that.
Ty Hildenbrandt
The reverb line closed until next Saturday. Again, put it in your speed dial. 855-837-2253. 855-837-verbal three. Shout out to Shea, our chief reverb coordinator. slash engineer slash maestro who did a wonderful job with this week as well. Um, okay
Dan Rubenstein
I like I like that a Penn State fan called in. I enjoy that as you're wearing your your Happy Valley shirt, because you're talking about Marshall Temple and Buffalo. All three? To start the year?
Ty Hildenbrandt
Well Wisconsin next week should be a different test, so we'll see how that goes.
Dan Rubenstein
Whew. Hit at Colton Joseph. Nice little day.
Ty Hildenbrandt
So we asked people at the start of this episode and really throughout the day to tell us who you're a fan of and what you learned
Dan Rubenstein
Yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I've got some stuff that I jotted down, but I wanted to give a shout out to the Verballer Hood first.
Dan Rubenstein
Okay. Yeah. Please. We got people piping in what Twitter or X the Everything app, TikTok, YouTube.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I think X the Everything app. We got YouTube. We got TikTok. Yeah, we're gonna we're everybody here. I'm trying to like keep track.
Dan Rubenstein
All right, big tent.
Ty Hildenbrandt
It's like trying to read the matrix over here, but yeah. Um, I believe I have to turn my head upside down to read this. I don't know how people do this on X the Everything app.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
It's it's his name's upside down. I believe it's Austin Smith who says, I'm an Iowa State fan. Today I learned special plays, special players, special teams. Good on Iowa State, man. Go to Iowa State.
Dan Rubenstein
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt
David says, I'm a Miami fan. Yesterday I learned that Mario Ball still exists and he will always go conservative.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, they they started out with the flash fry and then it was the the slow cook, right? At the end, I guess, or they just took it off the heat and just let it cool down.
Ty Hildenbrandt
They dominated for 35 minutes and then they yeah, then they they took it off the heat for like the last 25.
Dan Rubenstein
Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Skew says, I'm a Texas fan. I learned we still have work to do.
Dan Rubenstein
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Matthew says, I'm a Tennessee fan. Today I learned I still don't know how good this team is. Yeah, that makes three of us, to be honest with you. Out on TikTok, we've got Coach Curb who says, I'm a Sooner fan. I learned we've got a struggling offense, and the offensive line is just not good. I don't know if we have much to say to argue that point.
Dan Rubenstein
They're pretty beat up though, the Oklahoma offensive line.
Ty Hildenbrandt
They are pretty beat up.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, but look, you can say that New Mexico did not have and has not have and will not have their starting quarterback this season. And so if that game is, what, Final 14-6, I think it's a pretty big difference maker.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Here are some that I jotted down, okay?
Dan Rubenstein
I'm here.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Tell you what I learned. Today I learned that Mississippi State is for real, Dan.
Dan Rubenstein
Okay. I totally agree. It was a slow start, but dude, Kamario Taylor, fluff, like There were dudes just grabbing grass. They were wide open again.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Not just that, they went down sixteen to zip on the road in South Carolina, which is a very difficult place to play, and it looked like they were about to get run out of the stadium. And then they just sort of calmly turn the game into theirs. You know what I mean? Super Kamario, my guy. Threw for 251, had four touchdowns, fluffed Bothwell, the greatest name perhaps in the history of college football, ran for a buck fifteen.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah. Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Um, South Carolina had four straight scoring drives to open the game, but then Mississippi State answered with a forty-one to fifteen run. I would say more broadly, especially as we now start to think of them within the context of the SEC and really probably the national discussion, since I know we're gonna have them rank this week. It's not just that they're 3-0. It's this game clearly did not go according to their plan. And there's something to be said for being a good team or good enough team. And when things stay according to the script, you can Be serviceable and you can win. But there's I think a completely different thing to be said about a team that the script gets thrown To the trash, blown the smithereens right from the jump, and then you got to improvise and make it work on the fly. They did that here. They did that in this game on the road, no less, and a really tough place to play.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Winning 41-34. So I came away damn impressed with Mississippi State. And my only conclusion is that even if they're not like 10 and 2, 9 and 3, for real can mean a whole spectrum of things. If this is an eight and four team, a seven and five team, whatever their final record ends up being, they're gonna be a tough out no matter who they're playing. And I think that makes it fun. So I think we can confirm that today, and we're definitely going to have them ranked in our top 25.
Dan Rubenstein
They have an extraordinarily meaty middle portion of their schedule. There are some Well I mean we'll see what Vandy is. We kind of have a better picture of Auburn in this moment. We'll see what Mizzou is coming up next. Um, a a a sort of down day for them, not really able to move the ball through the air, maybe it was a letdown spot for Austin Simmons in the passing attack. But and I ha I need to watch more of that game. They almost got Goosed, right? Goose Crowder in Troy.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
Gerad Parker. Gerad Parker. Um But Yeah, Mississippi State. And the other thing, the other part of it too, is they just got off the field on defense in the second half. I think they Shut out South Carolina in the third quarter, and South Carolina really didn't score until garbage time. They were comfortably up in that game. And so they are certainly looking more complete. They are definitely better than I thought they would be, obviously on the back of Kamario in that backfield and, you know, the the fireworks of this offense. But uh Zach Arnett seems to have I mean the the rejoining of the program seems to have reinvigorated this defense, and understandably so, given his track record. So Uh, a terrific story.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I also learned that CJ Carr can throw to somebody, not named Jordan Faison. Micah Gilbert had a hell of a day in a win for Notre Dame. Eight catches, one seventy, had a long of 61. Um, I'm still not convinced Notre Dame can run in crunch time.
Dan Rubenstein
Slow start for Notre Dame.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Still not convinced that the ground game's gonna be there in crunch time, but as we saw in their first game as we have seen so far this season, the deeper they get into games, either because they're wearing teams down or because, you know, they're they're out in front and they're gonna put a little bit more emphasis on the run. I don't I don't know why, but I think we've seen these last couple weeks now, it seems like the ground game gets better the deeper you get into a game, but it's not something in my opinion that you can rely on yet. We'll see how it evolves. Nolan James Jr. got the lion's share of the carries in this one and did get like a buck twenty-one and a touchdown. So he had a nice game by the time all was said and done. It was a slow start though, and it was a rainy, soggy day CJ look really good. It's helpful to know that there's somebody else out wide he can throw to. Still have concerns about the ground.
But the defense, as long as the defense is playing as well as it did in this game, um, that sets a pretty high floor.
Dan Rubenstein
It was like a 30 point spread, right? It was 1710 halfway through.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Oh, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
And they I mean they they they did take care of business. The defense really did suffocate Michigan State in the second half, from what I could tell. But uh yeah, survive in advance to I I don't know eventually BYU in Miami. Um, SMU does not look as does not loom as large in the distance, perhaps
Ty Hildenbrandt
I think this defense is gonna annihilate Kevin Jennings. I think this defense will force several turnovers from Kevin Jennings, but I don't want to put the cart before the horse here. Um, I also learned that West Virginia will always be a pain in the ass under Rich Rodriguez.
Dan Rubenstein
Agree.
Ty Hildenbrandt
38 to 27, they won a neutral site game against Virginia. Virginia was ranked.
Dan Rubenstein
Didn't have this. Yep.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Um, this game felt aggressively rich rod, did it not? Aggressively rich rod.
Dan Rubenstein
Oh, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Annoying, physical, uncomfortable way more dangerous than the West Virginia roster would suggest. They went into a neutral sight game against a ranked team They made Virginia play their style of football. He just keeps doing this, you know? That's what I find most amazing about Rich Rodriguez. Even in these situ we saw it last year, too, right? Even in these situations where you look at the roster and everybody kind of does the preseason thing. West Virginia we expected maybe some improvement, right? Added some new pieces. But the fact that It almost doesn't matter who's on the roster. Rich Rod is going to get the guys to play. That in and of itself is something worth noting. That's why I had the points in this game. I didn't expect them to win. But um Rich Rod always has a knack for turning games into like four quarters of inconvenience that somebody else has to account for.
Dan Rubenstein
Is that like the Nolan Richardson forty minutes of hell? Like uh okay, four quarters of hell Uh, we'll see. Uh, Michael Hawkins, I the the stat line looks good. I have not watched this game in detail. I'm quite excited to. Um, seemed like a typical Rich Rod offense performance. I mean he both ran and threw seemingly very efficiently. So Awesome start for uh West Virginia to the power conference portion of their schedule because it was a a rocky start against Coastal Carolina, who by the way had the chicken fight this week against Delaware, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
Chanticleers against the uh the Blue Hens. Um, yeah, really, really strong effort from West Virginia, it seems.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Today we learned that the combination of a look-ahead spot with a cross-country flight is a hell of a downer.
Dan Rubenstein
It's tough.
Ty Hildenbrandt
And I'm talking about USC versus Rutgers. What happened in USC versus Rutgers, Dan?
Dan Rubenstein
Um, they looked out of sync on offense. Obviously, no Trent Mosley is a difference maker for what this team has leaned on early on in their schedule. Uh, the freshman has been sensational, at least against the teams that they've played, um, which are not huge measuring stick matchups, but uh n no Trent Mosley. The defense was Not inspired at all to play the run against Rutgers. Uh, Rutgers was able to run on them. Uh, the score the final score was what 40 42-28 USC Ruckers?
Ty Hildenbrandt
Fort forty two thirty-five.
Dan Rubenstein
Uh, or 4235, sorry, they closed it to a touchdown uh at the end. Uh Until we see proof against a Big Ten team with a little more might, I don't think we can confidently say this defense has been fixed. Can we
Ty Hildenbrandt
No, we got we got a comment here from somebody on TikTok saying, I learned my Trojans defense might well have or should still have or could still have Alex Grinch. I might be a bit aggressive, but I understand the underlying sentiment.
Dan Rubenstein
They Look, they they probably flew to New Jersey thinking let's just do enough to to take care of business. We'll get some explosive plays. Maybe the final score won't look pretty. But we're USC, they're rutgers with losses to UMass and Boston College, we should be fine. And they nearly weren't. They needed a basically 100 yard pick six I want to say two like twenty-five yard touchdown drives to win this game. They did not dominate this game. And Jayden Maiava looked kind of arrhythmic at times. Look, everybody you win your clunkers and they won their clunker and it's fine, and we might not think about this game in two weeks if they blast Oregon in a week, which they very well may. It's at home and they're certainly better there under Lincoln Riley.
Ty Hildenbrandt
The last thing I the the last thing I have down on my list, Dan, and I I think this overlaps with something on yours as well.
Dan Rubenstein
But Yeah. Sorry, sorry, sorry, continue.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Um, today we learned about the duality of being an Alabama fan in 2026.
Dan Rubenstein
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt
And I know that you've got something down here about Keelon Russell, and I think that plays into my exact point.
Dan Rubenstein
Oh, buddy
Ty Hildenbrandt
On one hand, you've got Keelon Russell who is going to be a superstar in college football. On the other, you've got a game like this that turned into a track beat against a team it probably shouldn't have. And I suspect if you are a Bama fan, there will be many other games like this this year where you are just constantly on pins and needles waiting to see is the defense going to hold now? Can the offense come through? Who's gonna win this track meet? It's definitely not your grandfather's Alabama squad at this point. It is a different version of Alabama. I still have faith in the defense. I think I have more faith than faith in Keelon Russell to find a way, some way, to pull Alabama out of a close game. But um It's going to be a very interesting year if you're a Bama fan. You will really have both sides of the coin at your disposal in every big game that you play. The excitement mixed with the disappointment.
Dan Rubenstein
The slow starts are not ideal these past couple weeks for Alabama.
Ty Hildenbrandt
No.
Dan Rubenstein
Now they got the delay and they they were able to regroup and Keelon Russell is just Eye popping. That's something I didn't necessarily necessarily learn because we've seen it these first couple weeks what his ceiling might be. I mean the the opponent level has been varied, but Man, his arm, his confidence, and then the athleticism and speed on the ground. This dude's something else. And Cannot wait to see what he's able to do with these receivers, with a running game that seems to be falling into place. It's going to be a very entertaining year for Alabama.
Ty Hildenbrandt
What did you like?
Dan Rubenstein
Uh, I have down here, I learned via Hank Brown, Darian Mensah, and even Dylan Raiola, perfection might be real Ty. I don't think Hank Brown
Ty Hildenbrandt
Perfection might be real.
Dan Rubenstein
Hank I don't believe Hank Brown against was it Northern Iowa today for Iowa?
Ty Hildenbrandt
Northern Iowa, right? Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
I don't believe he had an incomplete pass.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Okay.
Dan Rubenstein
And I also believe that his leading receiver had thirty-seven yards. Um, but he was he was very efficient. He was good. He spread the ball around. I think they had two or three guys go over a hundred yards. So Darian Mensah started out at least like 20 of 20 against Wake Forest.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
So he was hyper efficient. I think Dylan Raiola, obviously garbage time against a not good FCS team, but he was like 11 of 11. Guys were sharp. Um, I have down here, I I mean I said this earlier, this is just gonna be the Marcel Reed experience.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
Um, I have down here today I learned the Big Ten runs through Evanston, Illinois. I mean somebody did just get murdered and that somebody rhymes with the Schmollerado Schmuffaloes.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Man.
Dan Rubenstein
Um, Aidan Chiles lit 'em up.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Well they went they went woodshed on Colorado.
Dan Rubenstein
In the rain
Ty Hildenbrandt
They went woodshed, man
Dan Rubenstein
They they truly did. Um, I don't think I have anything that I've learned about Boise State or UCLA other than the fact that with other than the fact that they are knotted up late Boise State and South Dakota are tied at twenty-four. UCLA is up three at halftime over Purdue. Obviously, by the time anybody listens to this show and doesn't just watch the stream, you'll know that UCLA was upset or UCLA pulled it out as I cover my hand my hand from my face for no reason. Um, so we got tight games late. Um, what else did we learn here? Not I mean did you see the um The Gus Johnson call of I think the first Ohio State touchdown against I think it was the the mighty flashes of Kent State.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
Did you see that
Ty Hildenbrandt
Little flat
Dan Rubenstein
He was like, and he's in there for a touchdown.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah, a little little flat from Gus.
Dan Rubenstein
The first touchdown
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah. Normally I'd expect a little bit more energy. Uh, we were joking around on that one on the group chat as well that it was like he was throwing 88 down the middle.
Dan Rubenstein
Mm-hmm.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Like he just didn't even bother trying to paint the corners in a game between Ohio State and Kent State or you know, whatever.
Dan Rubenstein
I learned that say what you will, but Michigan has to be considered a favorite in the Mountain West after today. That
Ty Hildenbrandt
My god.
Dan Rubenstein
With what they were able to do in the second half only against UTEP, no, Michigan did what a hopefully good team would do against UTEP after deciding to play or just run straight into the UTEP defensive front and they, you know, made mistakes obviously and uh UTEP was able to turn that into points in the first half. But Aired it out. Andrew Marsh got his. It was it was nice to see Michigan score points in a game that they should have scored points in.
Ty Hildenbrandt
There is a really interesting discussion out on the old Reddit threads about Bryce Underwood and his development.
Dan Rubenstein
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt
And there's a little bit of a chicken and egg thing going on right now because in the first half of this game, obviously Michigan and UTEP was pretty close. It was a game that we were monitoring actively because of the score In the first half they were very committed to the run. Didn't seem as though they took the gloves off of Bryce Underwood at all. Game was close.
Dan Rubenstein
Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Second half, they let him air it out. Second half he looked a lot better. He was going through his reprogressions. He actually looked like he knew what he was doing out there. And so the conversation was such that are they purposely, or maybe not purposely, but inadvertently stunting his development by leaning a little bit too much on the ground game, by not opening up the offense earlier, by not letting him take his lumps as a passer in games like this.
Dan Rubenstein
Learn from mistakes, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
It's an interesting conversation, and the schedule's gonna get harder.
Dan Rubenstein
He's soaring into the Iowa defense next week in Ann Arbor.
Ty Hildenbrandt
So the schedule's going to get harder. We'll see how far he's come. Clearly, that's going to be a game between two offenses that at least are going to try try to start running the football. And we'll see how it evolves from there. But um That over-under might be like 31 and a half points, Dan. Like I don't see that being a high scoring game at all. I don't expect there's going to be a whole lot going on through the air.
Dan Rubenstein
I expect today I learned to expect Literally anything from any drive involving Arizona State's offense or defense.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Man, what was that?
Dan Rubenstein
I have So they win the game. They're outgained. Kansas, I think, both ran and threw the ball more efficiently than ASU. ASU, and this again, this is what a good team does. You find ways to score points and win games. That's what I don't know if ASU is a good team. I'm pretty sure they are. But they they have a score last week that does not indicate like a Texas A&M dominant offensive performance, and then they have a score this week that does not indicate a an efficient at all ASU offensive performance. Overseas against Kansas, but you know, it's a hundred yard kickoff return and a turning a turnover into a two yard touchdown drive. Um Win your clunkers, win however you can. Winning is a skill. Winning is better than losing. But week to week, I don't know, these these tackles on offense are being abused. Cutter Boley is confusing all the time. So another entertaining prospect uh for the the twenty twenty six season, your ASU Sun Devils.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Your ASU Sun Devils. Uh, you can always write in, solidverbal@gmail.com. Let us know your thoughts. on all things college football, what you learned, things that we did not discuss. We'd love to hear from you. Um
Dan Rubenstein
I learned I don't really want to watch much Clemson football if it's this is what's gonna look like every week. It was a it was a kind of a bare slate early, so I watched a good chunk of this game, at least until the delay, and then after the delay I I caught up on it. It's not good TV, Ty The Clemson, well, especially the Clemson North Carolina game today. It was the the Tait Reynolds, Billy Edwards back and forth. Not not landing a ton of jabs and crosses. So that I did learn that.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I I Tait Reynolds gives them more juice than Christopher Vizzina. He does, but he's a freshman.
Dan Rubenstein
I agree. He's just young, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
But he's a freshman. And he and he he he looks the part. He looks young.
Dan Rubenstein
I I have another side of that coin though. I want to watch anything that the Florida Gators are putting on in 1080p this season.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Amen.
Dan Rubenstein
I learned I want to watch. And they have Ole Miss coming next week.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah, we'll miss. Yeah, in a letdown spot. In a letdown spot.
Dan Rubenstein
I think I'm into that 100%. Um, I'm trying to think if there's anything else. Is there anything else you learned? I mean, Virginia Tech was able to pull it out.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
Against Maryland? Did you see that Maryland uh put up on the the big screen? Hi Michael. Hi Michael. Hi Michael
Ty Hildenbrandt
Good.
Dan Rubenstein
Not the video.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
They wrote out hi Michael a thousand times on the the video board. I didn't watch any of this game. I don't know how much of this game you watch, but that's on my catch-up list.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
I learned Pitt was ready for this Angeli.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Oh my god.
Dan Rubenstein
Uh, and they benched Steve Angeli. And we'll see if Amari Odam, the Kennesaw State Transfer, is any better. He seemed to be in limited opportunity, but kind of in garbage time. Um, pit took care of business. I feel bad for the Syracuse defense, who seemed Look, they were they were bad on the ground. Um, but they seemed to harass enough of Pitt um to make it seem like they're moving in the right direction. That was Real tough from uh from Syracuse through the air. Once again, he throws two picks and they're just all over the place. And good for Pitt. Moved to 3-0. First win the ACC.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Dan, why don't we close this thing out by talking about our AP ballot by doing some dude alerts and by letting the fine people go?
Dan Rubenstein
Let's do it. Can't wait.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Um, so look, um Last week we tried to talk through all 25 teams, and my sense is that it got a little long in the tooth. So this time around, we're going to compare some teams straight up. We'd love to hear from the Verbullerhood. Let us know who should be higher, who should be lower, but we're going to play a little game of high-low here, okay?
Dan Rubenstein
Let's do it.
Ty Hildenbrandt
You've got a list in front of us here Handful of teams. Let's discuss who should be higher. Texas Tech or BYU, Dan?
Dan Rubenstein
So BYU has looked more impressive I think Houston is better than Arizona, which is BYU's best win. They beat Utah Tech's start out the season. Um, I'm going just because of the win on Friday night, I'm gonna say buy a scoach Ty. I'm gonna have Texas Tech ahead of BYU. But I think There's a plausible case for BYU like I test being ahead of Texas Tech in this moment.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I feel like if they played tomorrow, BYU would win. I feel like BYU is the better team.
Dan Rubenstein
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt
But I tend to agree because of the win, Texas Tech deserves to go up.
Dan Rubenstein
Now we don't know you know, we don't know what Arizona is, we don't know what Houston is. There is something about BYU now that they're they're they seem to be closer to their final form already right now.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I think that's right. I don't want anyone to be too put off by the fact that we're gonna have Texas Tech ahead of BYU by one spot.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, it's a good one.
Ty Hildenbrandt
in this week's poll. But it was a good win and they should be rewarded as such.
Dan Rubenstein
Yep.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I'm curious to see how they grow. We've got one here that I think is definitely going to be Somewhat controversial, if only because it was a bit controversial last week.
Dan Rubenstein
Oh. Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Who should be ranked higher and should either of these teams actually be ranked? Washington versus SMU
Dan Rubenstein
Oh I'm kind of okay with leaving them out. The problem is when you get into the 20s, in our AP ranking, in anybody's AP ranking, you're like, there's a bunch of flawed teams that I don't love in this moment. Washington struggled basically for four quarters against Utah State last week. It was a slow start today, but they pulled it out against eastern Washington more comfortably. And they're, you know, everybody's beat up to whatever extent.
Ty Hildenbrandt
T
Dan Rubenstein
But The Washington offense, especially in the backfield, is pretty beat up. Um, SMU had a very losable performance against both Florida State, which they pulled out, and then today against Louisville. I'm gonna need to see something from SMU this year. So I'm I'm kind of okay leaving both of these teams out at the moment.
Ty Hildenbrandt
At the moment we only have Washington out, but I could be talked into leaving SMU out as well. I'm not and I was really high on SMU, and so there's part of me that
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
really feels that deep into the cockles of my heart. But um I understand the argument and certainly on the Washington side, like We ranked Washington a week ago and we posed the ballot, had some people chime in, Washington fans actually chime in and say, why are we ranked?
Dan Rubenstein
Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Why are you ranking us? So Thought about that. I think we talked about that on one of our episodes this past week as well. And um I was looking for, I guess, anything other than a slow start this weekend.
Dan Rubenstein
I think I would I would st I would still have SMU ahead of Washington, even with their loss and their losable game. I don't know if they're ranked in the Top 25, but I think at a certain point we have to say like good on SMU for playing these games early. Obviously we know that these are are conference games, that they are they they just schedule worked out this way, but we just know more about them and Washington's struggling like they have and then, you know, it's Wazzu, which you know, it's a different kind of situation with Wazzu and I I don't know. I I I'm more into SMU in this moment.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah, I think SMU over Washington definitely. And uh even though Washington did beat Eastern Washington, I think if we wanted, we could take this opportunity to move them out because I know we didn't feel overwhelmingly confident about it last week.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah. Agree?
Ty Hildenbrandt
Florida or Mississippi State, who should be ranked higher?
Dan Rubenstein
So Mississippi State, whatever the the Minnesota data point means to you, it doesn't mean a ton in this moment to me, but it's you know it's certainly ahead of clearly lesser teams. I think Minnesota's probably gonna be a bowl team this year. Um, going to South Carolina like they did and Florida going to Auburn like they did, they both track um I'm going to give the slight edge right now to Mississippi State. And it's just because They're more entertaining to me. I don't know. And showing the kind of improvement on offense that they've been able to show under Busner Buster Faulkner running that offense, Aaron Philo and the receivers showing out. Jadan Baugh's obviously been a monster. I love both of these teams. Both of these teams should be ranked, right? They're they're 100% both looking like top 25, if not top 18 teams right now. I'm gonna have Mississippi State slightly ahead. The the two consecutive road games thing, very impressive.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah, I'm I'm sort of on the fence about this one. Um, I really like Florida. I really like Florida. And so my sense is still give the nod to Florida, but they're right next to each other. I would say
Dan Rubenstein
And we might come to find out that Auburn's a mess in the next two or three weeks.
Ty Hildenbrandt
We we might. I mean I I think just because we've had Florida ranked in the poll these last couple weeks, um we we bumped them up a few slots.
Dan Rubenstein
Mm-hmm.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I think we Bring Mississippi State, obviously gotta bring Mississippi State into that Top 25. And I think they're right next to each other. Well you and I can deb can debate how we want that to be situated, but they're they're both in for sure.
Dan Rubenstein
We have We have commenters talking about it's like too early. Here, I can tell you exactly who it said it's uh C-R-T-R-Gurt-Gerg SEC Homer, but it's probably too early to rank either one of them. That's fine. But then you look at the other teams in the conversation And you're like, the Oklahoma offense is such a mess right now. Uh, Oregon looked completely out of sorts against uh Oklahoma State just last week. Missouri looked out of sorts. you know, right floating around that twenty range. We'll get there in a second, uh, against uh Troy today. And then like the others receiving votes, it's like South Carolina lost. Tulsa has a maybe big win, we think, but that was week one. And then you're just like, is it too early to rank Virginia Tech? What does the Maryland win mean? UCLA at the moment is knotted up or very close against Purdue. Like there aren't great options in the like 21 to 25, 18 to 25 range in terms of teams who have proven something against an opponent.
So I'm okay with these teams as ranked teams.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Texas A&M or Michigan
Dan Rubenstein
Woof.
Ty Hildenbrandt
You wrote it down. I didn't even write this one down. Okay. Should AM still be ranked after their loss at home against Kentucky this week?
Dan Rubenstein
So our understand our guess Was them as like a top ten team. I don't know what we had them, but some somewhere around the top ten, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt
Sure.
Dan Rubenstein
I think the Arizona State win is fine. I'm not positive Kentucky's gonna be excellent this year. I think they're gonna be feisty. I'm fine with keeping them ranked, but again, it's in that hazy like 20s zone I would drop them down dramatically after today.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Would you drop them lower than Michigan though?
Dan Rubenstein
I think Michigan beating Oklahoma has to count for something So I would have Michigan ahead of Texas A&M in this moment.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Right now we've got Michigan one rung above Texas A&M in our revised ballot.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah. And I am of the mind that Michigan is one of the best teams in their own state in this moment. I'm not crazy high on what they've accomplished this year. I'm not I'm not going around my neighborhood and saying, remember when Michigan beat Western Michigan, a definite thing that we all agree happened legitimately? So I would still have them one slot ahead. I would have them a hair ahead.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I've got a question here about Ole Miss.
Dan Rubenstein
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt
You jotted down Ole Miss or Indiana.
Dan Rubenstein
Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Well let's just broaden it to this conversation about Ole Miss versus LSU. So last week we had LSU up at seven. We had Ole Miss at nine. Given the way that things shook out this week with the loss, we flipped them because it was a close game. I think both teams are obviously top 10 caliber. But at the moment, and we changed this, at the moment we bumped Ole Miss up to number seven.
Dan Rubenstein
Mm-hmm.
Ty Hildenbrandt
We've got Alabama at eight. We have LSU at nine ahead of USC, which is at 10. Does that compute for you? And should Ole Miss be higher in light of this win? Because above them, we've got the likes of Miami at six, Indiana still at five, and then obviously some others above them.
Dan Rubenstein
Right. So you can't really it you kind of like have to half fault Miami right now because they do have Notre Dame, but that's part of the ACC deal. Um Miami's beaten Stanford conference game, Wake Forest conference game, Florida AM. They have Central Michigan coming up. They did not schedule particularly up this season, right? Miami. Ole Miss scheduled Louisville on a neutral site. It's a quality win, to say the least, after what we saw out of Louisville today, we believe. I mean we could have the conversation about Indiana as well. Like obviously Indiana didn't create this schedule thinking that they were gonna be like building a championship resume.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Right. And by the way, on the sheet here, you actually jotted down Ole Miss Versus Indiana. So to the point, you could have that conversation.
Dan Rubenstein
Ole Miss Indiana, right. So if we have Indiana right in like the five or six zone right now. I'm fine with Ole Miss being like ahead of both of these teams right now. There's time for this to change. If you want to keep them at seven, that's fine. But I'm not exactly sure what Indiana has proven this year.
Ty Hildenbrandt
They've proven that they're still very good, is what they've proven.
Dan Rubenstein
We are they They they've performed like an excellent national championship contender should perform against their schedule. But should we reward a team like Ole Miss for beating and scheduling Louisville on a neutral site and looking like they did with arguably the most pressure that any team has had this season in terms of dramatic off-field pressures and energy I think we reward that kind of performance.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I think we have to reward it.
Dan Rubenstein
People are so scared to say anything even remotely negative about Indiana and be like, oh, proved you wrong again. It's a different year, different team. We all agree that Indiana's likely excellent once again. But like if this is a poll about where we are, I'm great with Ole Miss there.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Well all right. You want to bump them up to five?
Dan Rubenstein
Yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt
All right. We'll do it. We'll do it live on the air here We got to figure out the rest of this.
Dan Rubenstein
Done
Ty Hildenbrandt
What we're going to do this time around, we will make sure that we post it out on our social feeds, and uh maybe I'll cut a video early in the morning and we'll we'll talk through or
Dan Rubenstein
Are you okay with that?
Ty Hildenbrandt
I'm okay with that.
Dan Rubenstein
Let's do it.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I think it's I think given the nature of the win and given the fact that In retrospect, this isn't really gonna matter. Um, and we can change things as we see fit.
Dan Rubenstein
Right. Of course.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I do think you want to reward big wins. You want to reward big wins. You want to reward to some extent scheduling, even though scheduling is done years in advance. But um Ole Miss is two of them, right?
Dan Rubenstein
But they have two of them
Ty Hildenbrandt
They have two of them. Louisville, we're gonna bump Louisville way up. Given what we saw this week from them and um beating a team like an LSU, a top ten team, do we agree that LSU should still remain in the top ten or is that too much for you?
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah, well because if you're comparing l what LSU looked like against Ole Miss, and we're saying Ole Miss is like right around number five, and we're comparing LSU to what USC looked like today when they they played their first conference game. Uh, tech the uneven nature of Texas Text season with how they struggled against Oregon State. I think we like BYU and Louisville, but I think we believe LSU to be a better team
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
So I'm gonna I'm gonna keep LSU right around ten, eleven ahead of those teams.
Ty Hildenbrandt
We will post this on our social feeds, I promise you, tomorrow. And like I said, maybe I'll make a video or something talking through the exact process of casting the ballot.
Dan Rubenstein
Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt
You and I got to work out after we hit stop here. exactly what the ordering's gonna be, but um we're gonna change it up. And I think we're willing to change it up each and every week depending on who gets the big wins and who we thinks who we think deserves it. So we'll never get it all right. I'm sure there'll be people who disagree, but um if you do, please write in, let us know your thoughts, we'll hear you out, you know, argue with us, that's cool. This is all fun and games anyway.
Dan Rubenstein
Yep.
Ty Hildenbrandt
So um solidverbal@gmail.com is the email. You know how to find us across all of our social feeds. Um, comment down below on any of these videos. We'd love to hear your thoughts on on how you would rank. The teams.
Dan Rubenstein
Definitely.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Shall we play some Dude Alerts, Dan?
Dan Rubenstein
Let's do it.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Dude Alerts, we give it out to the best individual performances, or at least our favorite individual performances in the span of a college football weekend. Were there any that jumped out to you, Dan Rubenstein?
Dan Rubenstein
Uh, we didn't mention this game, but I had a good amount of fun watching and was entertained by a very Johnson, aka Avery Johnson, who was uh an all-purpose effort for Kansas State, a slow start for K-State against Tulane, but they pull out that win. I have Trinidad Chambliss, who we might as well retire as a dude at this point. Kendrick Raphael, the combination of Brad Jackson and Torrance Burgess.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Oh yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
For Texas State in a shootout win. Obviously your guy Raven Taven Jackson in a losing effort for the Mean Green. Um, that was a super entertaining game, fraught with some drama. Um, Andrew on X the Everything app mentioned Amari Williams for Mississippi State, ten tackles, two tackles for a loss, and a sack. And was sort of spying Lenora Sellers the entire time. So he was terrific. Sean Wilson of Delaware, nine catches for 185 yards and two touchdowns in the cockfight.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
Uh, that's Coastal Carolina and Delaware. Um, Keelon Russell, obviously, that goes without saying. Uh, we got a lot of Virginia Tech love. Luke Reynolds and Grunk.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Luke Reynolds had a game. Yeah, Luke Reynolds had a game. We got a bunch for uh Iowa State and Aiden Flora.
Dan Rubenstein
Yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt
The uh the running back who went for a buck ninety-four and two touchdowns in the game against Bowling Green, Iowa State two and one, one fifty-five to seven over Bowling Green. Um, obviously played Iowa pretty tight in the Cyhawk game a week ago. So maybe they're a little bit further along than we gave them credit for at the start of the year. Who knows?
Dan Rubenstein
Yes, uh absolutely. I mentioned Colton Joseph earlier, but he goes for 362 and was also, I believe, Wisconsin's leading rusher. Um, once again, I mean we might have to retire him three weeks into the season. Nate Sheppard's running for like 160 yards a game He's scoring a bajillion touchdowns. They're 3-0. They beat up on Stanford. Ho-hum, Nate Sheppard, and Duke keep on winning. Mention Keyjuan Brown for Louisville, of course. And kind of below the radar. It was a win against Arkansas State, so I don't take a ton away from it. But Ed Small is the kind of go-to receiver for TCU. He and Jaden Craig have a nice connection. So there's that.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Wonderful. Well we ask for your Dude Alerts across all of our social accounts around eleven thirty, I'd say every Saturday night. Right before we hit go here to make sure that we're trying to be as inclusive as possible. If you've got any thoughts, again, let us know in the comments. Your favorite individual performance from this week. I think that does it. Look, um, anything we didn't get to today, any of the bigger picture storyline type stuff that we could not discuss on this evening's episode. Please make sure you hit follow or subscribe so that you don't miss the Monday episodes, that you don't miss the Wednesday episode, because we will do our part to try and make sure we cover all of that stuff. In one of those next two shows. This of course is the midnight live stream. We'd love to get your thoughts. Please comment. Please rate Please review, please hit follow, please hit subscribe so that you can be part of the Verballerhood.
Verballers.com is our Patreon if you want to support what Dan and I do. That goes a long way towards helping us keep the lights on, keeping the boat afloat All the normal clichés apply.
Dan Rubenstein
It's by the that's all I have. Week four is pretty great
Ty Hildenbrandt
Oh man.
Dan Rubenstein
Week four is there's a lot of like okay, we're not really sure what this team is. Oh, they have a team this week. Okay, finally.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein
There's a lot of that across the sport, and I
Ty Hildenbrandt
The Big 12 is going to need to ship some of that monster energy this way. Yeah, either that or a B12 shot, man, because it's the week four is looking like it's uh there's gonna be a lot to talk about.
Dan Rubenstein
I cannot wait. It's it's looking kind of wall to wall. Uh, looks like big noon is Illinois, Ohio State. So we got Caiton Houser throwing into that. Like Texas, Tennessee, USC, Oregon.
Ty Hildenbrandt
Yeah, buddy.
Dan Rubenstein
Uh, Oklahoma, Georgia, Ole Miss Florida, we've mentioned a couple times. There's a lot.
Ty Hildenbrandt
There's a lot going on.
Dan Rubenstein
It's great.
Ty Hildenbrandt
I'm excited. It's a pleasure to be here with you as well. Verballerhood, thank you for staying up late with us. Hope you appreciated the show. Hope you enjoyed it. Hope you enjoyed this week of college football We'll be back at it again all throughout the course of this week. If nothing more, stop back here next Saturday night at midnight Eastern. We'll catch you then. In the meantime, for that guy over there, Dan, for myself, over here, Ty, you know the drill. Stay solid.
Dan Rubenstein
Peace.