2026-10-05 Week 6 Monday - Conference Contenders and the Blue-Ribbon Panel (raw)
Ty Hildenbrandt 00:18 Dan Rubenstein, I am back.
Ty Hildenbrandt 00:20 I am in my humble abode.
Ty Hildenbrandt 00:23 Who are you, my good friend?
Ty Hildenbrandt 00:24 How are you doing in my absence?
Dan Rubenstein 00:25 Oh man, whole family really misses you.
Ty Hildenbrandt 00:28 Is that true?
Dan Rubenstein 00:29 They were calling you Uncle Ty.
Dan Rubenstein 00:31 They saw your gray hair and they were like, is that grandpa Ty?
Dan Rubenstein 00:33 And I was like, no, no, no.
Dan Rubenstein 00:34 It's just something that happens when you're in your mid to late forties and it's gonna happen to all of us and you won't believe it, but I'm gonna start showing my age at some point later in life
Dan Rubenstein 00:44 And no, they um they did ask where you went because you left in the middle of a kindergarten flag football not in the middle of, but near the end of a kindergarten flag football game.
Dan Rubenstein 00:54 And uh they were all very happy to have you in the house, around, and can't wait for you to return.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02 I do have a funny story about the flag football game, by the way.
Dan Rubenstein 01:06 Can we save we can save that for the bonus Thursday show?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09 We can save for the bonus Thursday show.
Dan Rubenstein 01:09 Is that the tease?
Dan Rubenstein 01:11 Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11 We can.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11 I want to send a shout out to our friend Adam Kramer, who I randomly we randomly saw.
Dan Rubenstein 01:14 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15 I talked to him for a while.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16 Great to catch up with him.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:18 Um your exploits as a defensive coordinator.
Dan Rubenstein 01:21 Uh-huh.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:22 We can unpack this a little bit more in the Thursday bonus.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:25 I just have to say, I know how seriously you've been taking it and how you've been trying to coach the boys up, right?
Dan Rubenstein 01:30 Yeah, how do I deal?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:32 All you told me in the run-up to this game is how you've been trying to coach them up to stay wide.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:37 Don't let anybody behind you or outside of you.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:40 I believe the first play from the game was like a 75-yard touchdown directly around the edge.
Dan Rubenstein 01:45 I'm not wrong.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:47 You're not wrong.
Dan Rubenstein 01:47 Did you take that as a negative for me not being able to convince the kid to the five-year-old to set the edge?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:52 No, no, I th I'm I'm not even saying it's a negative.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:55 I just got a good chuckle out of it because I know that's the thing you have been worried about, and immediately like a 75-yard touchdown around the edge.
Dan Rubenstein 02:03 All we've been trying to do is impress upon these awesome kids.
Dan Rubenstein 02:07 Truly.
Dan Rubenstein 02:07 They're all great.
Dan Rubenstein 02:08 Is nobody gets outside of you.
Dan Rubenstein 02:10 I, and this is technically football related, I'm trying to communicate with with these guys on their level, be like, you're an outside king, and you're an outside king.
Dan Rubenstein 02:18 Stay in your castle.
Ty Hildenbrandt 02:19 Outside leverage, right?
Dan Rubenstein 02:20 Nobody gets outside of your castle, right?
Dan Rubenstein 02:22 Force them out of bounds.
Dan Rubenstein 02:24 And you should, for the record, you should to be complete with this
Dan Rubenstein 02:28 Later on in the game, one of my outside kings leveraged a runner out of bounds because he basically had a foot on the sideline and the runner did not know what to do.
Dan Rubenstein 02:38 and ran out of bounds.
Dan Rubenstein 02:40 So I am getting through to these guys.
Dan Rubenstein 02:42 But uh yeah, my diagnosis was correct
Dan Rubenstein 02:46 All they want to do is run outside.
Dan Rubenstein 02:47 You gotta leverage them in.
Dan Rubenstein 02:48 You gotta funnel them in.
Dan Rubenstein 02:50 Hammer and smash.
Dan Rubenstein 02:51 But we'll get there.
Dan Rubenstein 02:52 We won the game.
Dan Rubenstein 02:53 Everything's good.
Dan Rubenstein 02:54 But uh we got we got some reps to take care of this weekend.
Dan Rubenstein 02:57 Clean up and practice.
Ty Hildenbrandt 02:58 I did enjoy it.
Ty Hildenbrandt 02:59 I appreciate the invite.
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:00 It was a pleasure to see you and your family.
Dan Rubenstein 03:02 Did I light an appropriate fire under my guys?
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:02 Thank you for having me.
Dan Rubenstein 03:05 Was I keeping them locked in?
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:06 I thought so.
Dan Rubenstein 03:07 Good.
Dan Rubenstein 03:07 I'm glad.
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:08 I thought so.
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:08 I thought you had a commanding presence there on the sideline.
Dan Rubenstein 03:11 That means a lot for me.
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:12 And I suspect a couple teams that we're going to talk about today could also use a commanding present.
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:18 Presents and presents such as yourself.
Dan Rubenstein 03:18 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 03:20 Maybe Tyson Summers too commanding for Colorado State?
Dan Rubenstein 03:24 I hope I don't get the Tyson Summers treatment is what I'm trying to tell you.
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:27 Fair enough.
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:28 Well, welcome one and all.
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:30 It is great to be back here in the usual studio.
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:32 It is great to be back with the Verballerhood.
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:34 On today's episode, we're going to talk with our friend Bill Connelly.
Dan Rubenstein 03:39 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:39 We're gonna try to talk with our friend Bill Connelly every Monday if schedules permit, because this is the time of year when his wonderful work in terms of analyzing stats and putting order to the college football universe
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:51 has great value to us idiots.
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:54 We love to lean on Bill to get his insight and understand what's going on around us.
Ty Hildenbrandt 03:58 So we're going to talk with him a little bit.
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:00 get a sense for what we feel we can trust or not trust at this early stage, not as early as it used to be a couple weeks ago.
Dan Rubenstein 04:07 Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:07 But now as we're into the second month of the season, what what could we trust?
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:10 What do we know?
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:11 What do we not know?
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:12 Bill will help us unpack that and much, much more.
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:15 We also have a new Verballer Top 12 poll, which we're going to unveil here momentarily.
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:19 Of course, you can vote every week
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:21 at verballers.
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:22 com if you want to sign up to help support the team.
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:24 And then we're also going to talk about some trend lines, Dan.
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:27 And this isn't necessarily an official type thing, but this is just off the cuff.
Dan Rubenstein 04:31 Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:32 The teams, the players, the situations that we are monitoring.
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:37 I don't want to say buy sell because buy sell's been overdone.
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:40 You had a Halloween theme thing that you wanted to go with just a
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:44 You know, it it is October now and that's the that's sort of the theme that we tend to gravitate towards when it comes to all things October.
Dan Rubenstein 04:46 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:51 So uh we'll get into that and uh if there are any results from Saturday night.
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:55 Saturday night was frenetic
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:56 We had a lot to discuss.
Ty Hildenbrandt 04:58 We were recording differently because we were both in the same room.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:02 In many ways, that makes it easier.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:04 In some it makes it harder.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:05 There's probably a little bit that we uh left on the cutting room before that we might want to get into.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:10 Does that sound about right?
Dan Rubenstein 05:10 Definitely.
Dan Rubenstein 05:11 Absolutely.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:12 So before we go any further, here is your Verballer Top 12.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:17 As we enter week six.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:19 You know where we stand in our top 12, our top 25.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:24 We made that official on the Saturday night slash Sunday morning episode.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:28 Our Verballers out at Verballers.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:30 com vote.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:31 They take it very seriously.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:32 I feel like we have more people voting each week, which is fun.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:36 Here is
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:37 The Verballerhood's Top 12.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:39 One through six, we've got Texas, Georgia, Miami up to three, Notre Dame down to four.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:46 Alabama up two up to number five and Ohio State down one to number six.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:52 Feels like the right grouping of teams thereabouts.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:55 Then the back half of the top 12, the Verballerhood has spoken.
Ty Hildenbrandt 05:59 Indiana drops one down to seven.
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:01 BYU up one to number eight.
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:04 Texas Tech in this poll up three.
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:07 to number nine, Utah up three to number ten, LSU holding steady at number 11 where they were a week ago, and Ole Miss.
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:17 Dropping two down to number 12.
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:19 So that is your top 12.
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:21 Um I was a little bit surprised at Texas Tech and Utah.
Dan Rubenstein 06:25 A lot of movement without playing games, right?
Dan Rubenstein 06:28 With Ole Miss with Texas Tech, and what do you say?
Dan Rubenstein 06:31 Ohio State went on the road and beat a ranked team and dropped.
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:36 Well.
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:37 Relative to last week, yes, dropped by one, but Alabama, it it was clearly more a function of what they did in their matchup with Mississippi State.
Dan Rubenstein 06:39 Okay.
Dan Rubenstein 06:40 Okay.
Dan Rubenstein 06:45 Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:47 They would jump up into the top five.
Dan Rubenstein 06:48 People have spoken.
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:49 The people have spoken.
Dan Rubenstein 06:49 Who am I?
Dan Rubenstein 06:50 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:51 This is the moment again where I encourage people if you want to be part of the poll, you do have to sign up at Verballers
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:56 .com.
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:57 But we make that poll available.
Ty Hildenbrandt 06:59 Every Sunday morning at 3 a.
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:01 m.
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:02 Eastern Time.
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:03 We cut it off at about eleven AM Eastern time on Monday, so you have a little bit over 24 hours to get in.
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:08 32 hours, I guess, to be exact, if if my memory serves me.
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:12 um to get in and be part of the poll.
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:15 But um our folks take it very seriously.
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:17 Our folks I think do a very, very good job.
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:19 And I think maybe in your absence this coming Saturday, I'm gonna put together something of a blue ribbon panel
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:26 and uh use the Verballerhood out there on our Discord server as something of a sounding board, cause you know, you're you're my right hand man when it comes to
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:33 Putting the ballot out there.
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:35 I've got my name on it.
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:36 I gotta make sure that I'm considering all angles of this.
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:39 I know we're not perfect, but
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:41 Uh I'm gonna see what I can do here this week and sort of in your stead um put together like a like I said a blue ribbon panel.
Dan Rubenstein 07:49 I love I love that for you, I love that for the panel, and I love that for
Dan Rubenstein 07:53 The world?
Dan Rubenstein 07:54 Who are listening?
Ty Hildenbrandt 07:55 I mean that might be a little that's a little bit much, but
Dan Rubenstein 07:55 The people of uh I think it's terrific, Ty.
Dan Rubenstein 07:59 I think it's a perfectly rational and reasonable way to look at it.
Dan Rubenstein 08:02 Um okay, where are we going next?
Dan Rubenstein 08:04 Uh any thoughts on the top twelve otherwise from the Verballers?
Ty Hildenbrandt 08:07 I mean, we're gonna talk with Bill Connelly in a little bit.
Ty Hildenbrandt 08:10 And not to give away the game too much.
Ty Hildenbrandt 08:12 We did pre-record the interview, but Bill's really high in Utah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 08:15 And so when I look at this and when I see that Utah has now jumped up into this top twelve, I am desperate to see Utah play in some higher leverage moments this year.
Ty Hildenbrandt 08:24 Really, if you look at this poll in the back end of this, we've got BYU, we've got Texas Tech, and we've got Utah all in a row.
Ty Hildenbrandt 08:31 I think those three can be interchangeable.
Ty Hildenbrandt 08:32 It depends on the person, depends on how you view these results.
Dan Rubenstein 08:36 Could be the most consequential holy war in quite some time, as we've mentioned.
Ty Hildenbrandt 08:38 It could be.
Dan Rubenstein 08:40 Yeah, with Utah playing like they have been.
Ty Hildenbrandt 08:42 It it absolutely could be.
Dan Rubenstein 08:42 Yep.
Ty Hildenbrandt 08:43 So those three teams in particular, I think, hold the cards for a conference.
Ty Hildenbrandt 08:48 and are right now occupying three of these top twelve spaces in our poll.
Ty Hildenbrandt 08:53 And I I just feel like a lot could break there, you know, for the better in some cases, for the worse in others.
Ty Hildenbrandt 08:58 That to me is is my biggest question mark as I look at this.
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:01 Not because I don't think any of these teams belong.
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:04 I mean, look, we we said it on Saturday night, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:07 Like there's there's a big jumble of teams that
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:09 we think could go a number of different directions.
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:12 Um and I think these three are in there.
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:14 But um I just want to see them in more moments to get a better sense for who they are.
Dan Rubenstein 09:18 Fair, all reasonable
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:21 Dan, um what did you find when you went back, dug in, looked at the games that maybe were going on as we were recording?
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:31 Or just games that we did not have a chance to discuss as much as you would have liked.
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:35 Like I know Arizona ran one up on Cincinnati 34-7.
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:40 That was a game that we didn't really have a chance to discuss.
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:43 Baylor 55 to 19 over ASU.
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:46 I sat next to a dude on the plane who was an ASU fan for some reason flying to Allentown.
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:51 I don't really understand why.
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:52 I'm assuming for business.
Ty Hildenbrandt 09:53 But um that he was like none too pleased with the showing that he saw from the Sun Devils at home.
Ty Hildenbrandt 10:00 We also had Fresno State.
Ty Hildenbrandt 10:03 Winning by 20 on the road against Washington State.
Dan Rubenstein 10:03 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 10:07 That's meaningful because it sets up a big match this week with Boise State, a team that they've
Ty Hildenbrandt 10:13 had their number over these last couple, you know, uh seasons here.
Ty Hildenbrandt 10:17 Um we had a Temple win over South Florida, which was a really nice win for them.
Ty Hildenbrandt 10:21 And a couple other games here that we just r didn't really fully unpack.
Ty Hildenbrandt 10:24 So I'm I'm just curious what jumped out to you before we move on.
Dan Rubenstein 10:28 Yeah, obviously the performances in both of those games and I believe it's the Grand Canyon State.
Dan Rubenstein 10:32 Um by Arizona and Arizona State.
Dan Rubenstein 10:34 Arizona, I believe, is now going to be without their number one receiver, Tré Spivey, um, which is a pretty big bummer because he was Noah Fifita's go-to dude, but Arizona certainly looked good
Dan Rubenstein 10:45 uh if not very good against Cincinnati.
Dan Rubenstein 10:47 We talked about a little.
Dan Rubenstein 10:48 We were like, you think you're good?
Dan Rubenstein 10:49 Go to Tucson at night.
Dan Rubenstein 10:50 See how that wa that works out.
Dan Rubenstein 10:51 Deep in the Sonoran Desert.
Dan Rubenstein 10:53 Um and Baylor thought they were good and uh took it to ASU.
Dan Rubenstein 10:57 And that was a turnover thing for ASU.
Dan Rubenstein 11:00 That was a sloppiness thing.
Dan Rubenstein 11:02 And Baylor just jumped on the opportunities.
Dan Rubenstein 11:04 When they were afforded those turnovers, uh, they I think immediately scored on a number of them.
Dan Rubenstein 11:09 And so a super impressive performance all around from the Bears as we uh are talking about
Dan Rubenstein 11:15 you know, what the Big 12 could look like with what I think it's reasonable to say Texas Tech looks a little bit more vulnerable than we had thought going into the season.
Dan Rubenstein 11:24 BYU looks strong.
Dan Rubenstein 11:26 But didn't put up a huge offensive performance.
Dan Rubenstein 11:28 Obviously some the the weather wasn't great against TCU.
Dan Rubenstein 11:31 But uh yeah
Dan Rubenstein 11:34 In terms of the night action, I think those are the two that stood out to me.
Dan Rubenstein 11:37 San Jose State went to the islands and won that one.
Dan Rubenstein 11:40 Hawaii's been pretty disappointing this year.
Dan Rubenstein 11:41 San Jose State had a slow start, but they've been all right.
Dan Rubenstein 11:44 San Diego State was able to get the win against uh at least a good Texas State offense.
Dan Rubenstein 11:48 And San Diego State has had an up and down season.
Dan Rubenstein 11:51 You mentioned the Fresno situation, both of the the Louisiana games at night.
Dan Rubenstein 11:55 That would be Louisiana beating Arkansas State.
Dan Rubenstein 11:57 Louisiana Tech with a nice win against Army holding on to win that one.
Dan Rubenstein 12:01 Um and I think that's sort of it from the night action, but it was another day
Dan Rubenstein 12:07 And I don't know if you want to get into this the the game after Bill or before Bill of sort of checking in on like quarterback confidence situations.
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:16 Why don't we run our interview with the great Bill Connelly?
Dan Rubenstein 12:19 Yeah, let's do that.
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:21 All right, here to help us make heads or tails, try to make heads or tails of where things stand entering college football week six.
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:29 We are very thrilled to bring back our good friend from ESPN
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:32 .com
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:34 Who we have known for a good long time.
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:36 Mr.
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:36 Bill Connelly, welcome to the show, my friend.
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:38 How are you?
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:40 We are doing well.
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:42 Um Missouri.
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:47 Missouri.
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:48 I could think of no one better to ask about Missouri than Bill Connelly.
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:53 How good is this team?
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:54 Is this team good?
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:56 How should we rank this team?
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:57 Because there was a lot of outrage.
Ty Hildenbrandt 12:59 As you I'm sure remember, just a week ago about Mizzou being in the top twenty-five, yes, Dan picked Mizzou over Florida.
Ty Hildenbrandt 13:07 I did not go to quite that
Ty Hildenbrandt 13:10 To quite that degree with things.
Ty Hildenbrandt 13:11 Apparently you didn't either, but uh they get the job done in very convincing fashion.
Ty Hildenbrandt 13:16 And now suddenly as we're sitting there on a Saturday night trying to put together a top twenty-five ballot
Ty Hildenbrandt 13:22 It feels like we've got a jumble of teams from like 12 to 30, let's say, that all kind of feel the same and no one has any idea what order to put them in.
Dan Rubenstein 15:45 So more to that because you didn't necessarily have Missouri winning that game, especially with some of the injuries on the defense that were reported going into the game.
Dan Rubenstein 15:53 What are five weeks in some of the more surprising performances both to your brain and to what the numbers you know predicted
Dan Rubenstein 16:02 Um and if you just want to like gloss over Oregon, Oklahoma State, that's whatever.
Dan Rubenstein 16:06 That's your choice, not mine.
Dan Rubenstein 16:08 But like no, what what are the the surprising individual performances with obviously very limited data points
Dan Rubenstein 16:33 Sure.
Dan Rubenstein 17:07 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 17:43 Miami, I think maybe okay.
Dan Rubenstein 17:46 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 17:47 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 17:48 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 17:53 Yep.
Dan Rubenstein 18:37 Are you ready to declare that you either fell for something again?
Dan Rubenstein 18:43 Are you ready to declare that you planted the flag that you are seeing something change in this specific team and even though everybody's saying, well, they're always gonna do this, good luck falling for it again, and then you are right?
Dan Rubenstein 18:58 Like, are there any v I don't know what the opposite of a victory lap is, um, but I I guess that would be a like an L
Dan Rubenstein 19:07 Benching, I don't know.
Dan Rubenstein 19:09 What where do you stand personally after the first five weeks in terms of how you interpreted interpreted possible changes?
Dan Rubenstein 19:58 Mm-hmm.
Dan Rubenstein 20:07 Right.
Dan Rubenstein 20:17 Their own issues, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 20:46 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 20:51 Mm-hmm.
Dan Rubenstein 20:59 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 21:01 Let's pull the string on pleasant surprises, right?
Dan Rubenstein 21:04 Let's let's live in the positivity jacuzzi here
Dan Rubenstein 21:07 Uh like Northwestern's offense.
Dan Rubenstein 21:09 Baylor's defense, by the way.
Dan Rubenstein 21:10 We should like round of applause here.
Dan Rubenstein 21:13 Like where are the pleasant surprises in terms of individual unit performances essentially through September and a week of October to you?
Dan Rubenstein 21:38 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 22:16 Their number performance-wise, by the way, they're 14th nationally in points per drive allowed.
Dan Rubenstein 22:22 Unforeseen by even the brightest-eyed, bushy-tailed Baylor fan heading into the season.
Dan Rubenstein 22:35 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 22:40 Sixteenth
Dan Rubenstein 23:05 I totally agree.
Dan Rubenstein 23:19 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 23:34 Bill, we get a lot of questions about the SEC and the Big Ten.
Ty Hildenbrandt 23:37 We're starting to get more questions about the Big 12.
Ty Hildenbrandt 23:40 and the ACC.
Ty Hildenbrandt 23:41 So I'm going to pose two very specific questions to you about those conferences.
Ty Hildenbrandt 23:45 Over on the Big 12 side.
Ty Hildenbrandt 23:48 Tell me the three best teams in your opinion, or I guess in the opinion of the spreadsheet, whichever you prefer.
Dan Rubenstein 23:52 That's not a question, that's a command, Ty.
Ty Hildenbrandt 23:55 This is a prompt.
Ty Hildenbrandt 23:56 Build GPT.
Ty Hildenbrandt 23:58 And then secondly, over in the ACC, who are the second and third best teams after Miami?
Ty Hildenbrandt 24:05 Because those seem to be, I would say, where most of the questions that I've seen are like centered.
Ty Hildenbrandt 24:11 The top of the Big 12 and what is that supposed to look like?
Ty Hildenbrandt 24:14 And then the teams after Miami in the ACC.
Dan Rubenstein 26:13 Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 26:24 [Unclear.]
Ty Hildenbrandt 26:44 Dan, I can tell you definitively that checking my mentions over the last 24 hours, most of the conversation has centered around our handling of ACC teams in the poll.
Ty Hildenbrandt 26:56 specifically pit.
Dan Rubenstein 26:57 It's your name on the poll Ty.
Dan Rubenstein 26:59 I don't know.
Dan Rubenstein 26:59 I just I can't be held responsible.
Dan Rubenstein 27:01 I just I'm just I'm just here for the ride.
Ty Hildenbrandt 27:03 I've been using we when I respond to people trying to impress upon them that this is a joint effort.
Ty Hildenbrandt 27:09 However, because our good friends out at college football Reddit put their cool little graphical matrix together, and it's under my name, they've got the PSU logo next to it, which of course means conspiracy.
Dan Rubenstein 27:20 The the AP does that as well, to be clear.
Dan Rubenstein 27:23 They're just reprinting, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 27:23 Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt 27:24 But because of that, yes, all the Pitt people have come after
Dan Rubenstein 27:26 Yeah, it's very odd
Ty Hildenbrandt 27:32 what they believe to be a bit of a conspiracy on our end.
Ty Hildenbrandt 27:34 So that's fine.
Ty Hildenbrandt 27:35 I've been trying to be nice to people in respect in response.
Ty Hildenbrandt 27:37 But but that aside, Pitt, Duke, SMU, Wake Forest, those four teams in particular.
Ty Hildenbrandt 27:44 are the ones that I think I'm getting the most number of questions about.
Ty Hildenbrandt 27:48 The Pitt versus Duke thing specifically, because we have Duke ranked.
Ty Hildenbrandt 27:53 We don't have Pitt ranked.
Ty Hildenbrandt 27:55 And there seems to be a fair amount of, let's say, confusion on that front.
Ty Hildenbrandt 28:00 Now we like Duke.
Ty Hildenbrandt 28:02 To your point, Bill, we like Duke early.
Ty Hildenbrandt 28:03 Nate Sheppard's been really good.
Ty Hildenbrandt 28:05 I think Duke has been
Ty Hildenbrandt 28:06 you know, solid in their own right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 28:08 Pitt has now sort of emerged.
Ty Hildenbrandt 28:10 They're five and oh, they're in the ACC.
Ty Hildenbrandt 28:11 They're a P4 team.
Ty Hildenbrandt 28:13 The questions are like how g how can you now rank these guys?
Ty Hildenbrandt 28:15 What are what are we doing here?
Ty Hildenbrandt 28:17 So for sure, if they go and knock off UNC with a backup quarterback, a 6-0 P4 team, we'd we'd be nuts to not put them in the top twenty-five.
Ty Hildenbrandt 28:25 I think Dan would agree with that.
Ty Hildenbrandt 28:27 But as you look at those two teams specifically, um, how do you kind of grade them out and how do you make heads or tails of just who you personally having watched all these games and keeping track the way that you do, how how do you kind of suss out that matchup, hypothetically speaking?
Ty Hildenbrandt 29:13 Right, right, right.
Dan Rubenstein 29:17 Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 30:00 Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt 30:02 G6.
Ty Hildenbrandt 30:04 You said earlier you want to live in that world where GameDay is going to Albuquerque.
Ty Hildenbrandt 30:09 G6 teams, if you're giving me a ranking of like the top five in your view, I would imagine Boise's in there.
Ty Hildenbrandt 30:18 I'd imagine North Dakota State's in there.
Ty Hildenbrandt 30:20 I'd imagine there's some conversation over JMU.
Ty Hildenbrandt 30:23 What does that look like from your standpoint?
Dan Rubenstein 30:25 Maybe just putting Jesse Legree as his own item on that list for Oregon State?
Ty Hildenbrandt 30:28 He's his own guy?
Ty Hildenbrandt 30:30 Yep.
Ty Hildenbrandt 30:31 Yep.
Dan Rubenstein 31:47 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 31:54 Okay.
Dan Rubenstein 31:55 Why have you not decided what you think about Boise yet?
Dan Rubenstein 32:05 Right.
Dan Rubenstein 32:08 Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt 32:45 And Fresno's had their number the last couple of years.
Dan Rubenstein 32:59 Fair.
Dan Rubenstein 33:00 Um Ty mentioned looking at the ACC and figuring out who's number two and three a conference that I think
Dan Rubenstein 33:06 has not a a an identical question, but uh an identically maybe fascinating tier is right now in this moment it seems like there's a drop-off perhaps after Ohio State and Indiana in the Big Ten
Dan Rubenstein 33:19 that uh a number of the teams we figured would be either right there with them or maybe a tier below them.
Dan Rubenstein 33:24 So Oregon, USC, Oregon with quarterback health and defensive issues, USC obviously with their own defensive issues
Dan Rubenstein 33:31 Um Michigan, we thought maybe that they could be in that second tier, but they've got their own issues.
Dan Rubenstein 33:37 It's a long-winded way of saying there is a lane for somebody to sort of end up
Dan Rubenstein 33:42 in that second tier, be that dangerous team, maybe not built and coached in the way that Ohio State and Indiana appear to be right now.
Dan Rubenstein 33:50 But of those teams who are winning games right now, you're you're talking, I guess, Oregon USC obviously
Dan Rubenstein 33:56 But Nebraska and Minnesota and Wisconsin and UCLA, if you want to count Northwestern in there after a dominant win against Penn State, um I I mean you still have to have Iowa there, but it was not it's not been a great offensive year
Dan Rubenstein 34:08 for the Hawkeyes once again.
Dan Rubenstein 34:10 Um I don't know if I'm forgetting anybody in that conversation.
Dan Rubenstein 34:13 I think that's where the drop-off kind of is performance-wise this year.
Dan Rubenstein 34:17 Who has that lane?
Dan Rubenstein 34:18 to uh, you know, maybe get to to nine and three, ten and two, if everything continues to break right for them.
Dan Rubenstein 34:51 Right.
Dan Rubenstein 35:00 Shout out Dell McGee, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 35:42 [Unclear.]
Ty Hildenbrandt 35:49 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 36:08 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 36:12 Uh I was gonna say UCLA's been a machine and Dan Lanning compared them whether or not it was like the old like Lou Holtz like blowing smoke before a game.
Dan Rubenstein 36:21 But he said they reminded him of where Indiana was, obviously, with the uh the parallel between the the James Madison connection with Cignetti and Bob Chesney.
Dan Rubenstein 36:29 Um, what do the numbers say?
Dan Rubenstein 36:31 What do the performances on screen in person say about what UCLA's ceiling year one could be?
Dan Rubenstein 37:05 Okay.
Dan Rubenstein 37:27 Uh.
Ty Hildenbrandt 37:30 And how does it be a good thing?
Dan Rubenstein 37:51 Let's keep going there.
Dan Rubenstein 37:53 Who do we know the least about?
Ty Hildenbrandt 37:53 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 37:54 Who are you just like, man, I
Dan Rubenstein 37:57 I really hope it's something, and you mentioned that with Nebraska and UCLA getting big games this week, which obviously will inform a lot more, but based basically on schedule and circumstance
Dan Rubenstein 38:08 I you know, we haven't really talked Indiana and the defending champs and have not really played a team other than Northwestern that is sort of built similarly with similar expectations.
Dan Rubenstein 38:19 Um amongst those teams, who stands out to you?
Ty Hildenbrandt 38:28 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 38:31 Okay.
Dan Rubenstein 38:41 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 39:25 Where just purely from a numbers perspective, you talked about outperforming.
Dan Rubenstein 39:29 Who else is outperformed?
Dan Rubenstein 39:31 Who else, you know, through a month and I I'll give you time to
Dan Rubenstein 39:34 to bring that up on your screen, but dial up the spreadsheets.
Dan Rubenstein 39:38 But look, there's there's a case for all sorts of different hires or transfers that have made absolute huge, huge explosive effects on numbers, on wins, on performance, on vibes.
Dan Rubenstein 39:49 whatever.
Dan Rubenstein 39:49 Um where where are those outperformances uh so far?
Dan Rubenstein 40:04 Ridiculous.
Dan Rubenstein 40:27 Yes.
Dan Rubenstein 41:04 Also, by the way, sorry Ty to interrupt, on it do we just name the underperform list like the Texas A&M list or like the Oklahoma list?
Dan Rubenstein 41:11 Like how do you like
Dan Rubenstein 41:13 If I if I were to like pay money, could we do that?
Dan Rubenstein 41:15 Like like as a branding thing?
Dan Rubenstein 41:17 Who are the the underperformers against projections?
Ty Hildenbrandt 41:21 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 41:23 Oh, I was so in.
Dan Rubenstein 41:25 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 41:27 No.
Dan Rubenstein 41:32 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 42:14 Bill, I know you have a fond appreciation for all things college football and college football history.
Ty Hildenbrandt 42:19 I've seen you write I can't even tell you how many articles about how one season compares to another.
Ty Hildenbrandt 42:25 How does this season so far compare to s some of the other seasons that we have seen in recent memory?
Ty Hildenbrandt 42:31 Right?
Ty Hildenbrandt 42:31 Like we all want to go back to the days, the halcyon days of the crazy
Ty Hildenbrandt 42:35 What was it twenty yeah, two thousand seven um season where just like everything broke and we had all these teams beating one another, jumbled at the top, re-sorting week in and week out.
Ty Hildenbrandt 42:46 Where does 2026 rank in like the Bill Connelly ranking of seasons and how does it compare to some others that at least come to mind?
Dan Rubenstein 43:24 Okay.
Dan Rubenstein 43:26 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 43:40 It's okay.
Dan Rubenstein 43:41 They had they they were given an opportunity to win that game, just like every team has an opportunity to win the game they play in, and uh they did not.
Dan Rubenstein 44:08 [Unclear.]
Ty Hildenbrandt 44:28 All right, his name is Bill Connelly.
Ty Hildenbrandt 44:30 You can find all his fine work out on ESPN
Ty Hildenbrandt 44:33 .com and uh provided that schedules make it possible.
Ty Hildenbrandt 44:37 We're going to try to do a little bit of a Bill Tober thing now.
Ty Hildenbrandt 44:40 The branding needs work.
Ty Hildenbrandt 44:42 Okay?
Ty Hildenbrandt 44:43 We had a conversation before this.
Dan Rubenstein 44:43 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 44:45 I thought it was great.
Ty Hildenbrandt 44:47 It was met with silence.
Ty Hildenbrandt 44:48 So I'm going to read the room.
Dan Rubenstein 44:49 Well, it doesn't rhyme with "Oct," right?
Ty Hildenbrandt 44:52 Well, I Fair enough.
Dan Rubenstein 44:52 It's not like a portmanteau, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 44:55 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 44:55 You can work on the branding, but provided schedules work, we're gonna try to bring back Bill on Mondays here through the month of October.
Ty Hildenbrandt 45:03 And um and get more of the insight.
Dan Rubenstein 45:04 Well look, he's
Ty Hildenbrandt 45:05 It's good stuff as we're now, I think, learning to trust the numbers a bit more through the first month of the season as we get a little bit deeper into this.
Ty Hildenbrandt 45:12 At what point, Bill, by the way, kind of along those lines
Ty Hildenbrandt 45:16 At what point is it safe to trust the numbers, or does it vary from team to team?
Ty Hildenbrandt 45:38 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 46:05 I was gonna say just because Bill's gonna be on the receiving end of conspiracies of oh well he's at ESPN, obviously he is in the tank, blah blah de blah.
Dan Rubenstein 46:15 Can we call the segment the Billuminati?
Dan Rubenstein 46:18 I think we're closer.
Dan Rubenstein 46:19 I think we're closer.
Dan Rubenstein 46:28 No, no, I'm just
Ty Hildenbrandt 46:31 Toberfest?
Dan Rubenstein 46:32 That's true.
Dan Rubenstein 46:33 He likes pretzels and beer and bratwurst, yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 46:37 Okay.
Dan Rubenstein 46:45 Check on the SEO of Bill Toberfest, Ty.
Ty Hildenbrandt 46:48 Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt 46:48 I'll see what I can find.
Dan Rubenstein 46:48 That's probably probably strong.
Ty Hildenbrandt 46:50 Bill Connelly, you are a legend.
Ty Hildenbrandt 46:52 We appreciate your time as always.
Ty Hildenbrandt 46:54 Thank you for your insight.
Ty Hildenbrandt 46:55 And uh yeah, let's do it again soon, all right?
Ty Hildenbrandt 46:59 All right, Dan.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:00 Bill Connelly.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:01 We'll do what we can to bring him back at some point in the very, very near future.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:05 Hopefully next Monday.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:07 Schedule permitting.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:08 Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:09 We teased this at the top.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:11 A bit of a Halloween theme.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:14 I'm gonna leave this to you.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:16 You're the branding guy.
Dan Rubenstein 47:17 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:18 If you weren't before, you are now.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:21 My initial thought was buy/sell.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:24 You said buy/sell is tried and true.
Dan Rubenstein 47:26 It's done, it's over.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:27 But it's done and it's over.
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:29 How do we want to phrase this?
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:32 What is our game here?
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:33 How are we evaluating what we have seen so far through this weird Halloween-themed lens at the end of this episode?
Dan Rubenstein 47:40 Okay, so I want to take a look at a bunch of quarterback situations across the sport and
Ty Hildenbrandt 47:42 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 47:46 I think with quarterbacks, you can't sort of be halfway, right?
Dan Rubenstein 47:49 The I I think the worst possible thing is kind of what
Dan Rubenstein 47:53 Kyle Whittingham said about Bryce Underwood after Western Michigan, like he's our quarterback for now, but nothing is infinite.
Dan Rubenstein 48:00 Like, what kind of
Dan Rubenstein 48:01 Like he's either your dude or he's not.
Dan Rubenstein 48:04 There's no half pregnant and a quarterback can't hear that.
Dan Rubenstein 48:07 Like a quarterback has to hear that he has his coaches in his corner.
Dan Rubenstein 48:11 And so to me, in this very special month of October, which arguably best sports month, I know some that that are into like golf, like when what are the Masters?
Dan Rubenstein 48:21 April?
Dan Rubenstein 48:21 'Cause you have like the NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs, start a baseball season.
Dan Rubenstein 48:25 I think April's terrific.
Dan Rubenstein 48:26 But it's not a football month.
Dan Rubenstein 48:27 So October gives us NFL, college, baseball playoffs, start of hockey, start of basketball.
Dan Rubenstein 48:34 I guess your guy Cavan Sullivan playing for the uh the US men's national team, all sorts of fun goodies around October.
Dan Rubenstein 48:41 But it's also Halloween month, and so I think we can't be halfway with any of these quarterback situations
Dan Rubenstein 48:47 It's either full-size confidence, because we all appreciate the house on the block that gives out those full-size bars, or Milk Duds.
Dan Rubenstein 48:56 Now, all due respect to the Milk Dud people out there, but it has the word dud in it.
Ty Hildenbrandt 49:00 Yeah, no, it's like Yeah, we have to use it since the it's got the word dud in it, right?
Dan Rubenstein 49:01 So I'm not a huge fan of Milk Duds.
Dan Rubenstein 49:04 So.
Dan Rubenstein 49:07 So all apologies to people who are Milk Dud people.
Dan Rubenstein 49:10 MDP.
Dan Rubenstein 49:12 But uh I think that's what we're gonna do.
Dan Rubenstein 49:14 We're gonna go through some quarterback situations, either because of injury, either because of performance, either because of
Dan Rubenstein 49:19 whatever situation's happening with the offense and go through our our confidence level.
Ty Hildenbrandt 49:25 Why don't we start at Tennessee?
Dan Rubenstein 49:26 Let's do it.
Ty Hildenbrandt 49:27 Um Faizon Brandon looked very much the real deal early.
Ty Hildenbrandt 49:33 George MacIntyre played in this most recent game.
Ty Hildenbrandt 49:37 They won that game 24-14.
Ty Hildenbrandt 49:40 But um this might be
Ty Hildenbrandt 49:44 The situation that I hold up the most is like a major team quarterback controversy.
Ty Hildenbrandt 49:49 So Brandon won the job in preseason, got yanked against Auburn after starting three of eight.
Ty Hildenbrandt 49:57 No passing yards and an interception.
Ty Hildenbrandt 49:58 So McIntyre comes in, Tennessee wins the game.
Ty Hildenbrandt 50:01 Josh Heupel has declined to name who his starter is going to be moving forward.
Ty Hildenbrandt 50:06 But there is clearly some controversy around what goes on next at Tennessee.
Dan Rubenstein 50:07 Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 50:12 That's what I think of first when I'm thinking of quarterback controversies and just quarterback trend lines, because that's a big one.
Ty Hildenbrandt 50:18 Tennessee is going to be in close proximity to a bunch of these teams trying to chase down the SEC.
Ty Hildenbrandt 50:24 My hunch is with this quarterback situation, they're not going to be part of that, but they will definitely be in a position to affect it.
Dan Rubenstein 50:35 Um I have full-size confidence.
Dan Rubenstein 50:37 But it's more like I have full-size confidence in the quarterback situation with the caveat is I'm not sure I trust the line in front of the quarterback after what we saw against Texas.
Dan Rubenstein 50:45 But when you look at
Dan Rubenstein 50:46 the last, I think, seven games on Tennessee's schedule, there's only a couple of definitely strong defensive ceilings.
Dan Rubenstein 50:55 I think it's just Alabama and LSU and even LSU is beat up and we're not exactly sure what that's gonna look like.
Dan Rubenstein 51:01 So given there we know that when healthy with DeSean Bishop, they're gonna have a running game
Dan Rubenstein 51:06 I have full-size confidence that George MacIntyre will be put in a position given that he has a little bit more age on Faizon Brandon, and that's a way of saying older, right?
Dan Rubenstein 51:16 That's a weird person's way of saying older that he has more age.
Dan Rubenstein 51:19 Um.
Dan Rubenstein 51:20 I'm gonna say full-size confidence in the Tennessee quarterback situation moving forward.
Ty Hildenbrandt 51:24 I have full-size confidence too because I have a lot of confidence in Josh Heupel.
Dan Rubenstein 51:28 Yeah, totally.
Ty Hildenbrandt 51:28 You know, Josh Heupel knows how to do the quarterback thing and uh some years better than others.
Dan Rubenstein 51:32 It's a system thing, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 51:34 It is a system thing, but he has produced
Ty Hildenbrandt 51:37 at a really high level at the quarterback position in his time as a head coach.
Ty Hildenbrandt 51:43 So I believe he will get it figured out, but this is also
Ty Hildenbrandt 51:48 Hearkening back to the biggest question we had in the preseason, which is what's the quarterback situation going to be?
Ty Hildenbrandt 51:53 If they can get a baseline level quarterback situation there in Knoxville, it's still a pretty good team, with I believe
Ty Hildenbrandt 52:00 Good running game, went healthy.
Ty Hildenbrandt 52:02 I believe a pretty good defense on the whole.
Ty Hildenbrandt 52:05 Uh this is still gonna end up being a pretty good team by the time all is said and done, but there is a reason I'll at least monitor it.
Ty Hildenbrandt 52:11 So I'm confident
Ty Hildenbrandt 52:12 That they will get it sorted out.
Ty Hildenbrandt 52:14 And I'm confident that'll end up being a pretty good team.
Dan Rubenstein 52:17 Michigan.
Ty Hildenbrandt 52:18 Uh yeah, man.
Dan Rubenstein 52:20 I think we're in Milk Dud territory.
Dan Rubenstein 52:22 I think we might be in DOTS territory.
Dan Rubenstein 52:26 I don't know what uh what what candy is
Dan Rubenstein 52:28 universally thought of as pretzels.
Dan Rubenstein 52:31 You gave me a bag of Snyder's Yeah, that's
Ty Hildenbrandt 52:32 Raisins, Raisins
Dan Rubenstein 52:37 So my problem with the Michigan situation, I think, is both Bryce Underwood's clear discomfort running this offense and also
Dan Rubenstein 52:47 what is being asked of this offense.
Dan Rubenstein 52:50 I I just think it's too many things at once and there's RPO stuff.
Dan Rubenstein 52:56 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 52:57 It doesn't seem to fit him all of the time.
Dan Rubenstein 53:00 And he is apprehensive.
Dan Rubenstein 53:02 The offensive line hasn't been performing.
Dan Rubenstein 53:05 I think the receivers are good.
Dan Rubenstein 53:07 I think the running backs are very good.
Dan Rubenstein 53:09 I think
Dan Rubenstein 53:11 If you were to give Kyle Whittingham and Jason Beck truth serum, that they would have looked at what they did in camp and uh at the drawing board and said
Dan Rubenstein 53:22 God, maybe if we had done this a little bit, or maybe if we had trusted our doubts in Bryce Underwood if they had them in the offseason, spring, fall camp, or whatever.
Dan Rubenstein 53:33 and made it a more open competition.
Dan Rubenstein 53:34 I don't know.
Dan Rubenstein 53:35 It's a weird position to be put in given what they're paying Bryce Underwood.
Dan Rubenstein 53:39 But I I am putting the situation in uh in DOTS, Milk Duds, Mounds territory.
Ty Hildenbrandt 53:45 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 53:46 It's and I I feel like I mean the whole situation at Michigan
Dan Rubenstein 53:50 Not a controversial take.
Ty Hildenbrandt 53:51 It isn't a controversial take, but the whole situation at Michigan has just been weird.
Dan Rubenstein 53:52 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 53:56 The circumstances that brought Kyle Whittingham and his staff to Ann Arbor in the first place.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:02 Does it need repeating on this show?
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:04 That's different.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:05 It was a different situation.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:07 He was seen as the adult in the room, someone who could come in and stabilize the program because clearly he had a a pretty high functioning situation out at Utah
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:17 Um, but it's weird now with Underwood because of paying him a lot.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:21 This is something we need to start considering.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:24 Given where we're at in college football.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:26 It took a lot to get Bryce Underwood to stay in the state of Michigan.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:32 And
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:33 We have had moments throughout the course of the season.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:37 It was just like a week ago.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:40 Their last game where we were having the conversation like, hey, when they turn more of the offense over to him.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:47 when he was able to operate a little bit more freely as a passer when they weren't trying to do everything within a five-yard box when they were letting him stretch it a little bit more.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:56 He was better.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:56 He he did.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:57 He looked better.
Ty Hildenbrandt 54:58 And so I I guess my only point of contention, and it's not even to call it contention is to make it too strong of a point.
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:07 It's not that.
Dan Rubenstein 55:07 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:08 This is their first time on the road this year.
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:11 When we saw him at home in the second half of the previous game, when he did have a little bit more license to operate freely in the offense, he did look better.
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:20 I don't think it should be a long leash for Bryce Underwood because clearly what we saw against Minnesota was not better.
Dan Rubenstein 55:21 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:26 It wasn't like he took great strides.
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:28 But Minnesota's a physical team, I think Minnesota's pretty good on defense.
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:31 Minnesota is is riding something of their own momentum right now.
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:35 I'd be willing to give it a little bit longer just because I think the talent is there.
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:39 But I do think there should be a conversation about going to Tommy Carr.
Dan Rubenstein 55:39 Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:43 Because it wasn't all that long ago on this show when we were going through
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:48 spring games and things of that nature, that people were pretty high on Tommy Carr.
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:51 He actually looked quite good.
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:52 So at some point soon here, if you're Whittingham
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:56 You gotta look and you gotta be like, all right, we gotta see what the other guy's got.
Ty Hildenbrandt 55:59 Because if it if the trend lines, at least at home, don't continue and we don't see another step forward after you know what we saw two weeks ago now, I guess, if I wanna be specific.
Dan Rubenstein 56:08 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 56:11 I think you gotta I think you gotta at least entertain the notion of going to somebody else to see what you have.
Ty Hildenbrandt 56:15 Because it hasn't been good.
Ty Hildenbrandt 56:16 Like it wasn't good a week ago.
Ty Hildenbrandt 56:18 He he certainly didn't put them in any better position to win the football game.
Ty Hildenbrandt 56:21 Um.
Dan Rubenstein 56:22 Tommy Carr is an admission of such defeat on Michigan's end, and I'm not saying it's wrong, but he he's also a true freshman.
Ty Hildenbrandt 56:30 I know.
Dan Rubenstein 56:30 So then not only are you saying the Bryce Underwood thing and the investment in the Bryce Underwood experience and the investment in the Kyle Whittingham-Jason Beck experience with Bryce Underwood
Ty Hildenbrandt 56:30 I know.
Ty Hildenbrandt 56:38 I mean you probably lose Underwood.
Ty Hildenbrandt 56:39 He probably transfers if you do that.
Dan Rubenstein 56:40 Oh, he's gone.
Dan Rubenstein 56:41 Well welcome to Las Vegas, young man.
Ty Hildenbrandt 56:44 I mean, but he's gone, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt 56:45 I mean, if if if in fact they they pull the ripcord and they decide they're gonna start somebody else, I guess if it finishes up that way
Dan Rubenstein 56:46 Right.
Dan Rubenstein 56:52 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 56:55 Or maybe even if it doesn't.
Ty Hildenbrandt 56:58 You know, even if they go to Tommy Carr for a little bit and then they go to Underwood later in the year and things are a little bit better.
Dan Rubenstein 57:02 Well they're they're not gonna pay a backup quarterback millions upon millions of dollars anyway, but so yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 57:05 That's
Ty Hildenbrandt 57:08 That's the point.
Ty Hildenbrandt 57:09 So they they're really in a bind here with this.
Ty Hildenbrandt 57:11 And given the fact that the offense isn't producing otherwise beyond the quarterback position, um
Ty Hildenbrandt 57:17 It it's definitely a consequential move.
Ty Hildenbrandt 57:19 So I'm not going to go full Milk Dud yet, but I don't have a ton of confidence in Kyle Whittingham to figure out the quarterback position because that's definitely not been the strong suit.
Dan Rubenstein 57:27 What does Michigan have coming up?
Dan Rubenstein 57:30 Michigan has Penn State after a bye, so there is time to sort of get right and adjust things.
Dan Rubenstein 57:38 Indiana is going to be very difficult, even though it's in Ann Arbor.
Dan Rubenstein 57:41 Rutgers on the road should be workable.
Dan Rubenstein 57:44 Michigan State should be workable at home.
Dan Rubenstein 57:46 Then they finish Road Oregon hosting UCLA, Road Ohio State.
Dan Rubenstein 57:52 So if he isn't showing big leaps by whatever that is, week 10-11 when that stretch starts
Dan Rubenstein 58:00 It's hard to like just like, all right, Tommy Carr, good luck against Oregon, Ohio State and uh UCLA, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 58:04 Well yeah, and and by the way, this is the bye week now.
Ty Hildenbrandt 58:08 This is the bye week when you typically would see changes if you're gonna see them.
Dan Rubenstein 58:09 Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 58:14 So I'm curious.
Dan Rubenstein 58:14 Maybe a quote like both are gonna play.
Ty Hildenbrandt 58:16 I'm curious to see, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 58:18 Cause like Penn State's got the whiteout this week at home against USC.
Ty Hildenbrandt 58:21 Their next game, as he said, on the road in Ann Arbor.
Ty Hildenbrandt 58:25 That game with Penn State coming to town could be
Ty Hildenbrandt 58:28 an interesting point of reference in this Michigan season.
Ty Hildenbrandt 58:32 Um do they try to make a change?
Dan Rubenstein 58:33 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 58:34 Do they make any type of statement here this week?
Ty Hildenbrandt 58:36 We'll find out.
Dan Rubenstein 58:36 Yeah, and look, Bryce Underwood did not commit to Kyle Whittingham out of high school.
Ty Hildenbrandt 58:37 But um
Dan Rubenstein 58:41 He did not say, I'm gonna go to Michigan.
Dan Rubenstein 58:43 Kyle Whittingham is the coach.
Dan Rubenstein 58:45 And
Dan Rubenstein 58:46 Vice versa, Kyle Whittingham did not recruit Bryce Underwood to Michigan, right?
Dan Rubenstein 58:51 That he's he's looking at this immense talent and trying to figure out what is the best way to use him.
Dan Rubenstein 58:56 And I think they messed that up
Dan Rubenstein 58:58 I think that's pretty clear that this goes both ways.
Dan Rubenstein 59:01 And uh I just college football is littered with like, hey, we didn't
Dan Rubenstein 59:07 Uh each of us didn't sign up for this.
Dan Rubenstein 59:08 Why don't we go our own way if it's not working out?
Dan Rubenstein 59:11 And it seems like that's the direction in which we're headed.
Ty Hildenbrandt 59:15 You did mention Penn State, and then I mentioned Penn State.
Dan Rubenstein 59:19 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 59:21 I will reiterate what I said on one of our episodes.
Ty Hildenbrandt 59:24 I don't even remember when.
Ty Hildenbrandt 59:27 I think it's time to maybe at least consider going to the backup.
Ty Hildenbrandt 59:32 And for Matt Campbell's part, he does not seem to think it's any kind of competition.
Ty Hildenbrandt 59:38 And I think that's what makes it more frustrating.
Dan Rubenstein 59:38 Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 59:40 So I'm I'm full like Milk Duds at this point.
Ty Hildenbrandt 59:43 Um I don't know I don't know if it's Rocco Becht
Dan Rubenstein 59:43 Wow.
Ty Hildenbrandt 59:46 Uh and like it said on on the bonus that we recorded and posted out on Patreon as we were walking back from the stadium on Friday night, I don't know if it's a yips thing.
Ty Hildenbrandt 59:56 Like I don't know if all the batted balls have gotten into Rocco Becht's head to the point where he's double clutching, but he's just not been accurate and he hasn't really been accurate all season.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:05 So even if he's got guys and he's not behind a line that maybe is too tall for him to see over, I don't know.
Dan Rubenstein 01:00:06 Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:14 He's late getting the ball in there on time.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:17 Is it a jump up coming from Iowa State to the Big Ten?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:21 Is it the offense?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:23 Is it the yips?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:24 Is it he's just not that good?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:27 Is it everything combined into one?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:28 I don't know.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:30 But he's not been that good.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:32 He really hasn't.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:34 So I don't know where the season stands on the Penn State side of things.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:37 They've not looked good now for two straight weeks.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:39 It's been
Dan Rubenstein 01:00:40 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:40 A huge bummer to watch from afar.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:42 But um the offense is not performing.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:47 They're just not able to get the passing game going.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:49 Teams know what they're doing, it feels like it's telegraphed.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:52 And then combined with the fact that the defense, I know this isn't a defensive conversation, but the fact that you can run straight at the defense.
Dan Rubenstein 01:00:55 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 01:00:57 Defenses can help quarterbacks though, right?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:59 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 01:01:00 They can put quarterbacks into advantageous positions, getting off the field quickly, field position.
Dan Rubenstein 01:01:04 There's all sorts of things that no, they're not.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:05 And they're not, they're not, because you can run right at this defense.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:08 You can keep your offense on the field.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:09 We saw Northwestern run for over four hundred yards.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:13 I just think it's time to think about what comes next.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:16 Let's think about what comes next.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:18 Maybe give it another week or so if you believe in Rocco Becht, who, uh, you can call many things, is the most experienced FBS quarterback right now.
Dan Rubenstein 01:01:26 Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:27 So if you want to stick with him, fine.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:29 I'm just not sure that Matt Campbell's able to grade what he is doing objectively.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:34 Because he has such history with Rocco Becht.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:37 Clearly he's a guy he trusts.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:39 He brought him over with him from Iowa State for a reason.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:42 That is my big question.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:44 Like
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:45 Are are we seeing a coach in Matt Campbell who is able to evaluate this objectively and not just looking at this solely from the perspective of this is a guy that I trusted for many years at my previous stop?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:57 He'll pull it together and he'll get it done.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:59 We haven't seen him be able to do that yet.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:01 So I'm like full Milk Duds here.
Dan Rubenstein 01:02:03 Counterpoint, he ran into the buzzsaw that is the Northwestern Wildcats.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:07 Counterpoint, yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:08 But uh Rocco Becht
Dan Rubenstein 01:02:09 I don't think the Indiana offense was high flying against Northwestern.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:12 No.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:13 No.
Dan Rubenstein 01:02:13 I mean they they weren't high flying because uh BB ran for like two hundred yards against them, but yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:17 But but to your point, like we saw what happened when Northwestern ran for all those yards, gashed them directly up the middle.
Dan Rubenstein 01:02:23 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:25 And put more pressure on the Penn State offense to go out there and score points.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:30 They couldn't do it.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:31 They just couldn't do it.
Dan Rubenstein 01:02:31 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:32 And um I'd like to say it's because of the Northwestern defense and and clearly there's been some improvement there.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:37 I'm not
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:38 you know, talking down to them or anything.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:40 But we also saw what Rocco Becht looked like with more pressure on him.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:43 And he wasn't good.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:45 He was not hitting his guys and he had open guys.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:48 So.
Dan Rubenstein 01:02:48 The only, the only brake-pumping I'll do here is I don't think anybody had like a ton of confidence in Rocco Becht other than or maybe high hopes for Rocco Becht other than the Penn State community.
Dan Rubenstein 01:03:00 Like obviously they're rooting for their guy.
Dan Rubenstein 01:03:02 Like this guy's experienced, he's coming over the coach, they're familiar with each other, they're familiar with offense and rhythms and conversation and language, whatever.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:07 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 01:03:08 That
Dan Rubenstein 01:03:09 I don't think there was like a ton outside of State College where you're just like, watch out for this Penn State offense.
Dan Rubenstein 01:03:14 I don't think that was the case, given uh how new everything was and different everything was with the new coach and the the players that left.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:20 I think all that's all all that is legit.
Dan Rubenstein 01:03:24 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:24 Everything you're saying is true.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:26 He looks worse.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:29 He looks worse.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:31 And so you would think, with presumably more talent around him
Dan Rubenstein 01:03:36 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:36 There was a fair amount from Penn State that was still retained on this offense, not everybody, and they of course had losses to graduation and whatnot, the draft.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:45 He looks worse.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:47 So at some point, Matt Campbell, we need to look at this objectively.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:52 Maybe the next thing, maybe Alex Manske's not that good.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:54 Maybe you don't think he's that good either.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:57 But um
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:59 There needs to be some kind of change in this offensive structure.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:01 Otherwise, they're staring down the barrel of like a three-and-four start, which is not going to be great for Pat Kraft and his job security.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:07 Anyway, pick a different team.
Dan Rubenstein 01:04:08 By the way, and just just on the my final point on Penn State more broadly, not a horrific schedule moving forward for whoever is playing quarterback, Rocco Becht or otherwise
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:09 Let's go to a different team.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:16 No.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:16 That was part of the optimism.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:18 That was part of the optimism.
Dan Rubenstein 01:04:19 I mean, the USC defense at home should be gettable on a certain level.
Dan Rubenstein 01:04:23 Jahkeem Stewart looks like an absolute monster in the middle, though.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:24 Kudk
Dan Rubenstein 01:04:26 Um, the Michigan defense is going to be strong all season long.
Dan Rubenstein 01:04:30 Washington
Dan Rubenstein 01:04:32 Uh has pieces for sure has played some good defense, but Purdue, Minnesota, Rutgers, Maryland, you know, Minnesota has pieces, but like has not been, you know, a standout.
Dan Rubenstein 01:04:40 Um I I think there's opportunity there.
Dan Rubenstein 01:04:43 I just don't think it's happening this year.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:45 Okay, give me like one or two more.
Dan Rubenstein 01:04:47 Uh another quarterback situation.
Dan Rubenstein 01:04:50 How about Oregon?
Dan Rubenstein 01:04:51 How about, let's play homer.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:52 How about Oregon?
Dan Rubenstein 01:04:54 So Oregon's up in the air right now with regard to the return of their starter.
Dan Rubenstein 01:04:59 They are going to be starting at least, I think for the time being, Dylan Raiola.
Dan Rubenstein 01:05:05 After his performance, which was pretty impressive, all things considered, given the circumstances against SC.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:08 Can I pause?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:09 Can I pause to you?
Dan Rubenstein 01:05:11 Please, please, please, please.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:12 What happens if Riola goes out there against UCLA and is nails?
Dan Rubenstein 01:05:16 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 01:05:18 Gimme gimme more specifics.
Dan Rubenstein 01:05:20 I I don't think we're actually gonna have this conversation, but give me specifics.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:22 You know where this is going, right?
Dan Rubenstein 01:05:24 Yeah, you were like, what if he looks more confident and is going downfield more effectively and uh navigates the pocket with more confidence and ability?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:27 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 01:05:34 Continue.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:35 I don't presume that Dan Lanning's gonna make a quarterback change.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:38 Like this whole thing's kinda built around Dante Moore.
Dan Rubenstein 01:05:38 Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:41 But what if?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:42 What let's let's play the what if game.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:44 Like what if Dylan Raiola goes out there and is is money again, as he was when he came in right after Dante got hurt.
Dan Rubenstein 01:05:44 Right.
Dan Rubenstein 01:05:52 So if UCLA, Nebraska, Illinois, Northwestern,
Dan Rubenstein 01:05:58 uh all fall at the hands of Oregon.
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:00 I think Dante's gonna be back before, you know, all of those games are completed.
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:05 But that's that's when they get Ohio State in early November.
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:08 I don't believe that at Dylan Raiola's best he is as good as Dante Moore at his best.
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:15 I think familiarity with the system
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:18 I think physical, you know, the the arm talent of Dante Moore, I think is just superior.
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:23 I think Dylan Raiola has obvious talent, obvious gifts, but
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:06:23 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:28 I'm not a big believer in this ultimately being a real question until we see Dante Moore come back and like struggle against somebody.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:06:32 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:37 Right, if he struggles against the Michigan defense, uh obviously that's not a homecoming, but uh he's from the state of Michigan.
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:44 Um.
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:45 You know, Illinois defense, Nebraska's defense is T B D against a real team.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:06:47 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:48 Illinois defense does not look good.
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:49 UCLA's defense seems vulnerable at times.
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:52 Um.
Dan Rubenstein 01:06:54 If Dante Moore really does have a game like he did at times against Oklahoma State, especially in that first half, missing guys, not having a feel for the pocket, obviously had reason not to trust his tackles in that game.
Dan Rubenstein 01:07:06 They were they were not good.
Dan Rubenstein 01:07:08 Then there's a conversation.
Dan Rubenstein 01:07:10 But I don't think the conversation begins in earnest if Dylan Raiola is merely good just because he also is surrounded by so much.
Dan Rubenstein 01:07:18 He's in an advantageous position.
Dan Rubenstein 01:07:21 So I think if we go back and see Dante Moore and he struggles and that's coming off of a concussion, you're like, is this the best situation for Oregon?
Dan Rubenstein 01:07:32 I think that's a a reasonable question if he struggles.
Dan Rubenstein 01:07:36 But I I I think he's afforded that grace.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:07:38 So you're you're still king-size, you're still confident.
Dan Rubenstein 01:07:40 I I'm still full-size, king-size confident, yes.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:07:45 Give me one more team, one more situation, one more quarterback that you're monitoring.
Dan Rubenstein 01:07:49 One more quarterback situation that I'm looking at.
Dan Rubenstein 01:07:52 We did Tennessee.
Dan Rubenstein 01:07:53 What about Oklahoma?
Dan Rubenstein 01:07:56 I'll say maybe Virginia, but I think Oklahoma might be a little more interesting.
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:00 Because this was a package deal, remember?
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:02 The Ben Arbuckle-John Mateer thing from Wazzu.
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:05 And he is, he is not obviously capital-I It for the Sooners, to be to be kind.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:08:13 What do you do?
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:16 They've got, what, Bowe Bentley and Whitt—Whitt, is it Whitt Newbauer?
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:22 Um.
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:24 Who does Oklahoma have coming up?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:08:27 Well, Red River this week, right?
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:27 I I assume you've memorized it's Red River this week.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:08:31 Red River this week is is gonna be meaningful um because we've on occasion seen some weird stuff go down in that game.
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:34 Yes.
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:37 And this is Red River coming off of a bye.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:08:39 Yes, Red River coming off of a bye.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:08:42 So Oklahoma right now two and two relative to the SEC 11th in terms of standings for whatever that means at this juncture.
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:50 Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:08:50 But after Texas, they've got a home game against Kentucky, who is nothing if not plucky.
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:55 Whitt Newbauer.
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:56 Let me correct.
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:57 I said Newworth, Whitt Newbauer.
Dan Rubenstein 01:08:59 Let me correct the record there.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:00 Then after that they are on the road at Mississippi State.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:04 They are back home on Halloween against South Carolina.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:08 First week in November, that big week that everyone has circled, they're on the road at Florida in the swamp.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:13 And their final three games are home against Ole Miss, right now, top 10 Ole Miss, home against Texas A&M.
Dan Rubenstein 01:09:13 Mm-hmm.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:21 On the road at Mizzou to close things out, end of November.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:25 That is a very difficult schedule.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:27 That was part of what I think we tried to bake into the cake with Oklahoma.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:32 when we did our preseason stuff.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:34 We had no idea at that point in time that the offense would look this bad.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:38 We were expecting it would look better.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:39 I don't know if it's looked better.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:41 Um they certainly haven't been able to run the ball.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:43 I think John Mateer has been worse when he's played.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:46 So yeah, there's a real question as to what's going to go down.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:50 Because as they sit here two and two with losses on the road at Michigan.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:55 On the road at Georgia.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:56 There are a bunch more big teams on this thing.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:59 I believe at time of recording, they're about a eight-and-a-half, nine-and-a-half-point dog this week in the uh Red River shootout.
Dan Rubenstein 01:10:07 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 01:10:09 Uh I think this is it.
Dan Rubenstein 01:10:11 I think if they lose this game and he's not good, I think it's it.
Dan Rubenstein 01:10:15 When Newbauer was at Mercer, um
Dan Rubenstein 01:10:20 It seems like the moment, the stage, the fishbowl, the the lumens shining down from the the the bright lights of Oklahoma may be too bright.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:32 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 01:10:33 For John Mateer.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:34 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 01:10:35 He looks off.
Dan Rubenstein 01:10:37 I don't even know if he looks off.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:38 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 01:10:38 He looks off from where he was in Pullman, but I don't think people were thrilled with him after last season and
Dan Rubenstein 01:10:46 what the—what the Georgia game looked like, excuse me.
Dan Rubenstein 01:10:50 I think that was kind of the final nail where Oklahoma people were like, can we just see
Dan Rubenstein 01:10:56 what the rest of the room looks like at this point.
Dan Rubenstein 01:10:58 Like is that is that crazy that, you know, we're turning the page because it's been pretty like the Michigan game was not good.
Dan Rubenstein 01:11:07 I I'm I'm in a definite Milk Dud territory.
Dan Rubenstein 01:11:10 There's just there's a carelessness at times.
Dan Rubenstein 01:11:14 There's the the tunnel vision at times.
Dan Rubenstein 01:11:17 I think it's just time.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:21 I mean, Ben Arbuckle was quoted as saying that they discussed benching him.
Dan Rubenstein 01:11:27 Right, they let him finish it out.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:29 They they let him finish it out.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:31 Um I've seen some other commentary that John Mateer just needs to get a swagger back.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:37 Maybe he's in his own head a little bit.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:40 Okay.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:41 The Texas game though is a big deal.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:44 Texas game's a big deal.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:45 Because I've been looking at all the other underlying stuff with regard to Mateer.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:49 The quarterback grades for whatever you make of those have all been very low.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:53 He's got six turnovers in his last three games.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:56 The offense has averaged a little over 12 points per game.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:00 And it's not just the turnovers and it's not just the production.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:04 But if you grade out fully
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:08 turnover-worthy plays and things again for whatever that means to you it implies that maybe Mateer has even been worse than some of those stat lines.
Dan Rubenstein 01:12:17 Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:19 I think Whitt Newbauer, who's a six-foot-six junior previously at Mercer, has emerged as the guy who probably gets the nod over Bowe Bentley, who's a highly regarded freshman.
Dan Rubenstein 01:12:30 Starting experience, yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:31 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:31 Uh it is meaningful to me that we have seen increasing reps at practice among some of those backups.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:38 They're thinking about it.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:40 They're not sure yet, but they're thinking about it.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:43 The Texas game is gonna be the big storyline here.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:47 Right?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:47 It's gonna be the next storyline that we need to pay attention to.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:51 in this big arc of the John Mateer saga at Oklahoma.
Dan Rubenstein 01:12:54 And if you remember last year he came back sooner, no pun intended, than expected, coming off of the, whatever it was, hand/thumb surgery.
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:01 Um and that was a dud of a game, a Milk Dud of a game, if you will.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:03 Three picks, three picks, yep.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:06 Yep.
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:06 And uh I don't think the other factor here that
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:09 I just don't think it's nothing.
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:11 Is you look around the SEC and Alabama's over the moon with where their quarterback is trending.
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:16 Georgia's over the moon for the most part, I imagine, with Gunner Stockton thus far this year.
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:20 Obviously Arch Manning is in good standing, whatever you think of him.
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:24 Um Texas fans uh are are very hopeful that he is going to grow into a national championship caliber quarterback this season.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:27 [Unclear.]
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:32 Aaron Philo
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:33 Trending in the right direction, Kenny Minchey, Kamario Taylor, Trinidad Chambliss, Sam Leavitt, Austin Simmons.
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:38 Like they look around at who they believe their contemporaries to be, and it's all trending in very different directions from Oklahoma.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:45 I mean LSU, I'm not, I'm not sure which direction it's trending at LSU because they haven't been—yes.
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:49 Sam Leavitt, at least you can say, like, he's won games, like they've put up points.
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:53 Um he does throw himself around kind of recklessly physically.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:53 Yes.
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:56 But we know that the best of Sam Leavitt, we've seen it.
Dan Rubenstein 01:13:59 We, you know, we saw it against Iowa State and Texas in the playoff.
Dan Rubenstein 01:14:02 Like we've seen Sam Leavitt make big plays and big moments, even if he's inconsistent, that
Dan Rubenstein 01:14:08 LSU, the combination of Lane and Sam Leavitt, there's there's a a confidence there, I think, in the LSU fan base that he can make things happen.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:16 And I the the other thing that kind of cracks me up that I've I've seen talked about, and I and I understand it too because we we had great expectations for this Oklahoma team, and they've just they've clearly fallen short on the offensive side.
Dan Rubenstein 01:14:22 Yeah.
Dan Rubenstein 01:14:25 Yeah.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:28 But um
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:30 I've seen a lot lately almost the separation of John Mateer from Ben Arbuckle.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:40 And I kind of laugh at it a little bit because they were the package deal, as he said.
Dan Rubenstein 01:14:44 Mm-hmm.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:45 And what I'm referring to is this idea that, well, how much of this is Mateer versus Arbuckle's offense?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:51 Brent Venables was signing up for both.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:54 Right?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:55 He was he was hoping to get both because it looked very, very promising at Wazzu.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:59 Um, we just haven't seen that.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:01 And so my sense is that they came as a package deal and they will probably leave as a package deal as well.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:07 Maybe not mid-season, but I do think we're trending towards some sort of quarterback change at Oklahoma.
Dan Rubenstein 01:15:10 No, no, no.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:14 I don't know how else you could how else you could navigate this at this point.
Dan Rubenstein 01:15:14 Right.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:17 And probably at season's end we're gonna see a change at coordinator as well.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:22 That's that's where this is trending.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:24 But um yeah, this is not a great situation in Norman.
Dan Rubenstein 01:15:27 No, Milk Dud of a situation.
Dan Rubenstein 01:15:28 Yep.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:29 All right, why don't we leave it there?
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:31 Let us know your thoughts, of course.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:33 solidverbal@gmail
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Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:38 Verballers
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:39 .com if you want to vote in the poll, if you want to play in this week's run the board game, which we will unveil and talk more about
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:45 when we do the Wednesday preview.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:47 You also get bonus episodes on Thursday.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:50 I'm going to talk about the flag football thing a little bit more with you, if that's okay.
Dan Rubenstein 01:15:53 You also came and watched me play tennis.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:54 I did watch you play tennis.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:56 I have I have a lot that I need to get off my chest here.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:58 Observations.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:59 Things you're doing wrong.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:00 Footwork, we need to dissect a little bit.
Dan Rubenstein 01:16:01 I appreciate that.
Dan Rubenstein 01:16:03 Can always get better.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:03 We'll get into that on the uh on the Thursday bonus episode, but uh verballers.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:07 com.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:07 Also, all these episodes without the ads, you get them early.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:10 You can take part in the Discord.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:12 Maybe if you want to be part of the blue-ribbon panel, we can have a discussion.
Dan Rubenstein 01:16:14 Mm-hmm.
Dan Rubenstein 01:16:16 Yeah, definitely
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:18 We will be back on Wednesday.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:20 Big thanks to our guest of honor today, Bill Connelly from ESPN
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:24 .com.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:24 We will hopefully bring back Bill very, very soon to talk more about what his spreadsheets are telling us.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:31 That's all.
Dan Rubenstein 01:16:31 So I have?
Dan Rubenstein 01:16:33 Yep.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:33 For that guy over there, Dan, for myself over here, Ty, thank you again for your ongoing support.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:37 Please rate, review, subscribe if you like the show.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:40 We'll be back on Wednesday in the meantime.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:41 Stay solid.
Dan Rubenstein 01:16:43 Peace.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:49 Hey everyone, so as you might now know from seeing the description of this here episode out in your Patreon feeds.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:56 We've got a reverbs mega cut.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:59 Five added minutes in addition to like the three, three and a half that we played on the Saturday night stream.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:06 Shea, our wonderful, wonderful, gracious reverbs engineer, took it upon himself to throw this together because we have gotten awesome.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:16 Awesome calls through the first couple weeks of the season.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:19 Can't thank you guys enough for your ongoing support, for calling in, for making these reverbs so special week in and week out.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:25 So uh yeah, have a listen.
Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:28 Give a shout out to Shea.
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Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:32 And hope to hear from you this weekend.