steptember

Ty Hildenbrandt 00:18 Dan Rubenstein, welcome back to the pod.

Ty Hildenbrandt 00:21 The people out there in the Verballerhood have a very important question for you.

Dan Rubenstein 00:25 Okay, I'm ready.

Ty Hildenbrandt 00:27 Like Sam Leavitt, you are also nursing a hamstring injury.

Ty Hildenbrandt 00:30 What is the status of that injury?

Ty Hildenbrandt 00:32 Will it impact your performance here today?

Dan Rubenstein 00:34 Arguably the most important strained hamstrings in the Chicagoland area, perhaps even more so than Caleb Williams' hamstring, right?

Dan Rubenstein 00:42 Uh, I'm okay.

Dan Rubenstein 00:43 Ty, I can't complain.

Dan Rubenstein 00:44 I gotta stand up more.

Dan Rubenstein 00:45 I gotta turn my desk into a standing desk more often.

Ty Hildenbrandt 00:46 Mm-hmm.

Dan Rubenstein 00:47 I have that option, and at one point somebody said

Dan Rubenstein 00:51 Sitting is the new smoking, which is the stupidest and most ridiculous thing ever said, but also maybe true question mark.

Ty Hildenbrandt 00:56 Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 00:57 Um so I'm all right, Ty.

Dan Rubenstein 01:00 This is just part of getting older, and I embrace it and

Dan Rubenstein 01:03 I'm ready to talk to you, Ty, which is the actual thing that is no strain whatsoever, about, uh, all sorts of things today, yes?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11 Yeah, it's gonna be a little bit of a potpourri of college football.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14 We've got some news, which includes games that we did not have a chance to discuss on the

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:20 reaction episode that we did deep into the night on Saturday slash Sunday morning.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:24 We've got some injury news that we want to make sure we talk a little bit about.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:28 We, of course, have a goofy game.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:30 We're also going to reveal the results of our latest Verballer Top 12 poll, which people out there can sign up to vote in if they are ever so inclined.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:38 We have a few Verballer questions that we want to get into.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:42 And we forgot about Dude Alerts, Dan.

Dan Rubenstein 01:46 We did forget about Dude Alerts.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:47 We forgot about Dude Alerts.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:49 Full disclosure, we had a bunch of technical things go down on the Saturday night reaction show that we were wrestling with midstream.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:58 We got those sorted out.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:59 Thankfully everything came off without a hitch, but um we forgot about the dudes, so we need to make sure the dudes get their due.

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:05 We have a bunch of suggestions that came in really from the last 48 to 72 hours or so that we will

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:11 try to, you know, put in today's show.

Dan Rubenstein 02:13 Absolutely.

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:14 The other thing I should add for our Verballers out there at Verballers.com

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:19 Our reverb engineer Shay was gracious enough to put together an extended cut of the reverbs from this past weekend.

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:26 I will put that at the very end of the episode for our premium and certified Verballers.

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:31 Again, you can sign up out at Verballers.

Dan Rubenstein 02:31 Smart

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:33 com.

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:34 If you are interested in helping support what we do here on the show.

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:38 If nothing more, please rate, review, and subscribe.

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:40 All that stuff really goes a long way towards helping us keep the boat afloat.

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:44 If you are interested in those reverbs, we will put those at the very end in the ad-free feed that we offer again at Verballers.

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:51 com.

Dan Rubenstein 02:51 Correct.

Dan Rubenstein 02:52 Where are we beginning?

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:53 Let's start with some news, Dan.

Ty Hildenbrandt 02:59 I'm gonna conserve the pipes because I've been running on fumes here these last few weeks.

Dan Rubenstein 03:03 That's okay.

Dan Rubenstein 03:04 Smart.

Ty Hildenbrandt 03:05 We had a few games go down that kind of happened either after we hit the stop button or they came to a conclusion after we hit the stop button, or ones that we just did not have an opportunity to discuss.

Ty Hildenbrandt 03:19 as part of the reaction show.

Ty Hildenbrandt 03:21 Two in particular that went deep into the night.

Ty Hildenbrandt 03:23 Stanford 34, Georgia Tech 27.

Ty Hildenbrandt 03:27 We also had Minnesota 27, Washington 24, which also included the weird social media clip making the rounds.

Ty Hildenbrandt 03:36 If you're a college football fan, clearly you have seen

Ty Hildenbrandt 03:38 PJ Fleck wiping the blood off of a player's mouth and then smearing it on his own face in pure PJ Fleck fashion.

Dan Rubenstein 03:41 Yeah,

Dan Rubenstein 03:47 Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 03:52 So

Dan Rubenstein 03:52 Uh yeah, we had uh a few of those games.

Dan Rubenstein 03:55 Uh, I I noted that I mean we didn't really discuss Auburn Vanderbilt.

Dan Rubenstein 04:00 Um an interesting weird one, but a good win for Auburn as they uh enter further into SEC play.

Dan Rubenstein 04:07 The Stanford one, by the way.

Dan Rubenstein 04:09 Stanford, Georgia Tech.

Dan Rubenstein 04:11 Davis Warren dealt in that game

Ty Hildenbrandt 04:13 He threw for almost four hundred yards against Georgia Tech.

Dan Rubenstein 04:16 He d I think it was Caden High who was on the receiving end in a good way for Stanford.

Dan Rubenstein 04:22 Uh, I d I don't know what Stanford's drive for six in a bowl looks like specifically

Dan Rubenstein 04:28 But whatever it is, that is maybe perhaps our our drive for six watch.

Dan Rubenstein 04:32 I don't know what like Bay Area, Silicon Valley, like our Waymo, not a sponsor could be.

Dan Rubenstein 04:37 Have you been in a Waymo?

Ty Hildenbrandt 04:38 I wanted to go in a Waymo when we were out in San Francisco, but SolidWife Kate was not interested, so we ended up doing an Uber instead.

Dan Rubenstein 04:45 Well, Stanford presumably needs way more wins to get into a bowl at this point.

Ty Hildenbrandt 04:49 Hello,

Dan Rubenstein 04:51 Thank you.

Dan Rubenstein 04:52 Um

Dan Rubenstein 04:53 But also, you loved the California Golden Bears, speaking of the Bay Area, against Clemson this past week.

Dan Rubenstein 05:00 And I just wanted to make sure the floor could be yours.

Dan Rubenstein 05:03 to discuss any and all things.

Dan Rubenstein 05:06 Dabo and his boys heading to Strawberry Canyon to take down.

Dan Rubenstein 05:11 The I think Cal has not has Cal not produced you can fact check me on this, listener or Ty

Dan Rubenstein 05:17 Like a a non very short field touchdown drive in like nine quarters.

Ty Hildenbrandt 05:22 Listen, it has not gone according to the preseason hype on the Cal side.

Ty Hildenbrandt 05:28 I was thoroughly convinced that they were going to beat up Clemson.

Ty Hildenbrandt 05:31 I just thought the situation for Clemson, traveling cross-country, it's the night game.

Ty Hildenbrandt 05:36 Dabo even made a comment afterwards saying, I don't even know what time it is, and pure

Ty Hildenbrandt 05:40 Folksy Dabo fashion.

Ty Hildenbrandt 05:43 Um, I don't think Clemson was particularly impressive, if I'm being honest, but

Dan Rubenstein 05:47 Well, yeah, I think it's gonna be a good thing.

Ty Hildenbrandt 05:49 They definitely established something of an identity with Gideon Davidson running the football, with playing good defense against Cal.

Ty Hildenbrandt 05:56 Cal is just

Ty Hildenbrandt 05:58 the offense is not getting moving.

Ty Hildenbrandt 06:00 And then I saw there were some other comments floating around about Jordan Somerville, the offensive coordinator, um his lack of play calling experience has been

Dan Rubenstein 06:09 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 06:09 highlighted by some out there.

Ty Hildenbrandt 06:11 Um they don't look good on offense.

Ty Hildenbrandt 06:13 I know you and I have already joked about like, hey, where's JKS going to play next season?

Ty Hildenbrandt 06:17 I'm sure there will be some suitors.

Ty Hildenbrandt 06:18 If it keeps going like this, that's going to become a real conversation sooner than later.

Ty Hildenbrandt 06:23 So it's look, it's a good win for Clemson.

Ty Hildenbrandt 06:24 They come back home this week.

Ty Hildenbrandt 06:25 They've got Miami.

Ty Hildenbrandt 06:27 I'm not sure how that's gonna go.

Ty Hildenbrandt 06:28 They're right now like a 17 point home dog.

Ty Hildenbrandt 06:32 But going cross-country and knocking off Cal deep into the night, weird time zone body clock situation, it's um it it I mean in in and of itself, you'll take that if you're a Clemson fan.

Dan Rubenstein 06:44 Yeah, you're if you're a Cal fan right now listening to this show, you probably stepped into the show thinking, well, at least they're not gonna talk about a game that happened five days ago that was super embarrassing.

Dan Rubenstein 06:54 And here we are

Dan Rubenstein 06:56 spending time on Cal from Thurs Thursday night, Friday night.

Dan Rubenstein 07:00 Um, I think it was Friday night.

Ty Hildenbrandt 07:01 Friday

Dan Rubenstein 07:02 And uh here we are, but yeah, also

Dan Rubenstein 07:05 If Ty is saying you didn't look good and the team you lost to, to whom you lost, also didn't look particularly impressive, though I will say

Dan Rubenstein 07:14 Clemson and the ability to run the ball has not been a guarantee recently.

Ty Hildenbrandt 07:18 No, and I mean I I do think that's actually a positive takeaway from this because as as they now enter into the Tate Reynolds era

Dan Rubenstein 07:18 So the the definitely

Ty Hildenbrandt 07:26 It is clear that he is still learning.

Ty Hildenbrandt 07:29 He is still green.

Ty Hildenbrandt 07:30 He's a freshman.

Ty Hildenbrandt 07:31 You're gonna have this when you start a guy like that at quarterback.

Ty Hildenbrandt 07:35 The potential is there.

Ty Hildenbrandt 07:37 He's still very raw.

Ty Hildenbrandt 07:39 If you can build something of a ground complement, if you can play better defense, that's one way.

Ty Hildenbrandt 07:45 That's one path that could get you to bowl eligibility and and maybe make you plucky in the ACC.

Ty Hildenbrandt 07:51 The ACC is still wide open.

Ty Hildenbrandt 07:53 I'm not

Ty Hildenbrandt 07:54 necessarily thinking that Clemson's gonna be one of those spoilers at this point, but it's at least an identity that we did not see three weeks ago.

Dan Rubenstein 07:57 Right.

Dan Rubenstein 08:03 Yeah, look, the last two games have been wins.

Dan Rubenstein 08:05 Have they been pretty?

Dan Rubenstein 08:06 Not necessarily at all times, but you'd much rather have that outcome than otherwise, the most obvious way to analyze things.

Dan Rubenstein 08:12 Um

Dan Rubenstein 08:12 Another bit of news, just because you mentioned the criticism of Jordan Somerville.

Dan Rubenstein 08:16 Um pretty big like coordinator firing situation in Champaign, Bobby Hauck.

Dan Rubenstein 08:22 Who was brought in to overhaul the uh the Illinois defense, running a 3-3-5 that he had a good amount of success uh with at Montana.

Dan Rubenstein 08:32 He's out, which makes me think there may have been some interpersonal issues behind the scenes.

Dan Rubenstein 08:39 I'm just guessing, but generally speaking, either philosophically or personality clash, obviously it didn't work

Dan Rubenstein 08:45 terrifically well against Duke, nor did it work all that well against Ohio State, though the latter I think is more excusable.

Dan Rubenstein 08:51 It seems that Illinois will be heading in a new direction

Dan Rubenstein 08:55 Maybe not overhauling the scheme midseason, but uh in terms of the voice at the top, it will be a new direction.

Ty Hildenbrandt 09:03 It will be a new direction.

Ty Hildenbrandt 09:04 And it's interesting because if you recall, Bret Bielema was all about going in the Bobby Hauck 3-3-5 direction.

Ty Hildenbrandt 09:11 because he talked at length about how difficult it can be to get those star edge players.

Ty Hildenbrandt 09:17 They wanted to build it a little bit differently.

Ty Hildenbrandt 09:19 Maybe create a bit of an ethos pitch for other Big Ten teams coming in the Champaign to have to prepare for a different style of defense.

Ty Hildenbrandt 09:26 What that looks like now without Bobby Hauck, that will be something to monitor.

Ty Hildenbrandt 09:30 Because on offense

Ty Hildenbrandt 09:32 On offense, they're not bad, but defensively, defensively, there's obviously some strife there.

Dan Rubenstein 09:33 No, they can move the ball

Dan Rubenstein 09:37 Illinois has a a run of winnable games mostly.

Dan Rubenstein 09:42 So they have Purdue and Michigan State, and that's Michigan State also fall, excuse me, under news with Cam Edwards now out for the year.

Dan Rubenstein 09:51 Um and so in terms of the run of winnable moments, Purdue, Michigan State, they do host Oregon, which will be decidedly tougher, but they travel to Maryland, who

Dan Rubenstein 10:00 I don't think I fully appreciated that UCLA scored 54 points in three quarters.

Dan Rubenstein 10:06 UCLA didn't score in the first quarter.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:07 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:08 No.

Dan Rubenstein 10:09 Um so

Dan Rubenstein 10:11 get the defense right as you're looking to right the ship for the season.

Dan Rubenstein 10:14 We'll see what Nebraska it is as they get their uh opponents on a higher level.

Dan Rubenstein 10:20 But yeah, Illinois gonna look a little di bit different and hopefully it's for the best for the Illini.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:25 Some other news around college football that I thought maybe we could discuss here.

Dan Rubenstein 10:29 Please, hmm

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:29 One of the biggest talking points coming out of Saturday was Dante Moore and the hit that he took.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:35 In that USC game, it was very scary on the field.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:38 Of course, they immediately like stabilized his neck.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:41 They brought the ambulance right to the edge of the field.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:43 They carted him off.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:45 Scary stuff.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:46 Scary stuff.

Dan Rubenstein 10:46 Totally

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:46 Dante's gonna be okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:48 Dante is in concussion protocol now.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:49 Thankfully that was the extent of his injuries.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:52 We'll see how long it takes for him to get back from that injury.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:55 But um

Dan Rubenstein 10:56 And he flew back with the team too, which I thought was an important note.

Ty Hildenbrandt 10:57 Flew back with the team.

Dan Rubenstein 10:59 Yep.

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:00 Absolutely.

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:01 So a scary thing, all things considered, I think uh a

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:06 uh positive outcome, let's say.

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:07 You don't want a concussion, but given what it could have been, this was probably like the best of circumstances.

Dan Rubenstein 11:10 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:13 So we wish him well.

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:15 Hope to see him out there again some point soon.

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:17 You mentioned Cam Edwards for Michigan State being done for the year, which is a big blow for the offense.

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:22 There was also a blow on defense.

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:23 Jordan Hall, their best defender.

Dan Rubenstein 11:25 Oh, yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:26 uh went down with a leg injury, I believe was carted off.

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:28 I have not seen a timetable for his return or the extent of what his injuries are or aren't.

Dan Rubenstein 11:29 Oh

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:34 But notable if you are a Big Ten fan, notable if you are a Michigan State fan

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:39 We've got uh Quincy Porter at Notre Dame, one of the high-profile transfers to come over in that receiver room from Ohio State.

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:48 He's done for the year with a knee.

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:49 He was working his way back.

Dan Rubenstein 11:51 Oh,

Ty Hildenbrandt 11:51 from a knee injury, so has not necessarily been productive, has not at all been productive for that Notre Dame receiving corps, but was one of the higher profile transfers he has done for the season.

Ty Hildenbrandt 12:03 If we are speaking of receivers out there, I would keep an eye on Vernell Brown III as well as Eric Singleton for the Florida Gators.

Ty Hildenbrandt 12:11 Now top 10.

Ty Hildenbrandt 12:12 Florida Gators.

Ty Hildenbrandt 12:14 VB3 didn't tear or do anything substantial to his knee per Jon Sumrall.

Ty Hildenbrandt 12:21 But obviously is bothered by something going on and they will have to watch as they've got a big game coming up again this weekend.

Ty Hildenbrandt 12:26 Eric Singleton dealing with an ankle.

Ty Hildenbrandt 12:29 And then, last but certainly not least, we've got two injuries to discuss here on the LSU front, Dan.

Dan Rubenstein 12:36 Yeah, unfortunately, yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 12:37 I mentioned Sam Leavitt and the hammy, obviously worth monitoring.

Ty Hildenbrandt 12:41 I did not mention Whit Weeks.

Ty Hildenbrandt 12:43 Whit Weeks has a fractured leg.

Ty Hildenbrandt 12:45 It is not believed to be season ending in all likelihood, a four to six week thing that is very significant given the role that Whit Weeks plays on this defense, given the role that

Ty Hildenbrandt 12:56 Whit Weeks plays on this team as one of the trusted leaders.

Dan Rubenstein 12:56 Definitely

Ty Hildenbrandt 13:00 So LSU nursing it a little bit right now clearly has a bunch in front of them that they need to get healthy for.

Ty Hildenbrandt 13:07 Um hopefully it's not a longer thing for either of those two guys.

Dan Rubenstein 13:11 And obviously we've already seen Trey'Dez Green go down, Dashawn Spears go down for that defense who was an important sort of Swiss Army knife in that secondary.

Dan Rubenstein 13:19 And

Dan Rubenstein 13:20 Lane Kiffin took the opportunity not just to discuss the fact that like, hey man, these these guys are like the heartbeats of our team, which I'm sure he thinks and says and everything like that.

Dan Rubenstein 13:30 But he also took the opportunity to talk about, you know, be careful what you wish for when you go to nine games after SEC game number two.

Ty Hildenbrandt 13:35 Oh yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 13:40 Two.

Dan Rubenstein 13:41 So as we know.

Dan Rubenstein 13:46 I mean it's just facts only, right?

Dan Rubenstein 13:48 It's just facts only.

Dan Rubenstein 13:50 But like I'm just saying, if you're giving thought

Dan Rubenstein 13:55 To who needs those thoughts?

Dan Rubenstein 13:57 Thoughts and prayers, whatever you want.

Dan Rubenstein 13:59 Just think of Lane Kiffin, right?

Dan Rubenstein 14:01 In these difficult times, he's going through it

Dan Rubenstein 14:05 The first injuries in college football to ever happen at LSU and happening at the same time as

Dan Rubenstein 14:13 LSU having to play nine.

Dan Rubenstein 14:15 Can you believe in nine conference games?

Dan Rubenstein 14:17 I just, I'm so sorry to hear it.

Dan Rubenstein 14:20 Um

Ty Hildenbrandt 14:20 I mean technically two.

Ty Hildenbrandt 14:21 They've played there are more.

Ty Hildenbrandt 14:23 They've only played two.

Dan Rubenstein 14:23 There are more, yes.

Dan Rubenstein 14:25 And in all seriousness, I hope all of those players return speedily and healthily.

Dan Rubenstein 14:31 Um, not not a commentary on those injuries.

Dan Rubenstein 14:34 More just Lane Kiffin making it about, if you can believe it, Lane Kiffin.

Dan Rubenstein 14:41 I know, I know, caught me off guard too.

Dan Rubenstein 14:46 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 14:47 What a world.

Dan Rubenstein 14:48 Any other news?

Ty Hildenbrandt 14:48 Okay.

Dan Rubenstein 14:49 Any anything else of note that you wanted to touch on?

Ty Hildenbrandt 14:51 I just wanted to mention that Notre Dame looked pretty good against Purdue.

Ty Hildenbrandt 14:55 Um, I don't know what I was expecting, but I was fielding calls from Uncle Joe Colaruso later in the day

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:02 Talking up Notre Dame's defense, quote, they've got a bunch of Ferraris on that defense, end quote, which I told him about.

Dan Rubenstein 15:08 Mm-hmm.

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:09 I'm confident I told him about this back in like March, that it was gonna be this way.

Dan Rubenstein 15:15 And then is uh Micah Thrillbert still delivering?

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:19 Uh, yes.

Dan Rubenstein 15:20 Oh, good.

Dan Rubenstein 15:21 Glad to hear it.

Dan Rubenstein 15:22 Uh any other news and notes?

Dan Rubenstein 15:24 Reaction to AP polls?

Dan Rubenstein 15:26 Anything you want to get off your chest?

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:27 We do have a new Verballer Top 12 poll.

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:30 The Verballers have voted out at Verballers.

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:32 com.

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:33 The ballot opens early in the morning every Sunday.

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:36 It closes around 10 a.

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:38 m.

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:38 Eastern Time before we record on Mondays so that we can talk about it here and tabulate it and all that stuff

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:44 The top five is Texas, Georgia, Notre Dame, Miami, and Ohio State.

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:49 Indiana is at six, Alabama at seven, Florida at eight, BYU

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:55 Holding steady at nine, they were there a week ago as well.

Ty Hildenbrandt 15:59 Ole Miss drops all the way down to ten from three.

Ty Hildenbrandt 16:03 LSU holding steady at eleven, Texas Tech.

Ty Hildenbrandt 16:06 Drops a little bit, but still in the Top 12 down to number twelve.

Ty Hildenbrandt 16:10 I think this is a pretty good poll.

Ty Hildenbrandt 16:12 This isn't too far afield from what what we have seen

Ty Hildenbrandt 16:16 Both the final AP poll, the ballot that we submitted, the ballot that many other people have submitted.

Ty Hildenbrandt 16:21 It it feels like this is like the right collection of teams.

Ty Hildenbrandt 16:25 We can dispute the order of it right now, but

Ty Hildenbrandt 16:27 For sure, those are the teams that are the ones I think of first when I'm trying to figure out, all right, who's playing the best right now?

Dan Rubenstein 16:34 We had Florida a little bit higher, I want to say, at seven.

Ty Hildenbrandt 16:36 We had Florida at seven, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 16:38 A lot of heated emotions about a a week four poll, but I like it.

Dan Rubenstein 16:41 I like the emotions.

Dan Rubenstein 16:42 And I like this poll.

Dan Rubenstein 16:43 I'm great with it.

Dan Rubenstein 16:44 And if you want to affect change

Dan Rubenstein 16:46 Uh you can give Ty a text, 610, because he is the official name on our AP ballot.

Dan Rubenstein 16:51 610, keep going.

Ty Hildenbrandt 16:51 And the official name, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 16:52 I don't I don't memorize your phone number, but uh or you could just go to Verballers.

Dan Rubenstein 16:57 com and put a a significant stamp on the Verballer poll.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:00 Can I say something funny about this experience?

Dan Rubenstein 17:02 I would love to hear it.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:04 First off, I had no idea that us becoming AP Top 25 voters would resonate in this community the way it has.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:12 People are very excited about this.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:14 They're very excited about it.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:16 I know in our Discord, I know with messages that people send in, people want to talk about it.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:21 They want to talk about how they rank teams.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:23 They want to talk about how they feel about how we we rank teams.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:27 methodologies, resumes, power rankings versus power ratings, everything.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:32 Everything rolled into one.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:34 I did not expect that there would be such fervor

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:37 Around us being part of the poll.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:38 I'm all for it.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:39 We're college football sickos, just like the people listening to this.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:43 That's been exciting.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:44 That has been revealing.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:45 I'm I'm thrilled that we're part of the AP Top 25 this year.

Dan Rubenstein 17:48 It's in your Twitter bio.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:48 It's been fun.

Dan Rubenstein 17:50 I didn't even realize that.

Dan Rubenstein 17:51 I went and uh and checked.

Dan Rubenstein 17:52 That's how you know it's important, Ty.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:53 I put it in.

Dan Rubenstein 17:54 That's how you Yeah

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:54 I thought it was relevant.

Ty Hildenbrandt 17:55 Because you're gonna see my name and people spell my name wrong all the time.

Dan Rubenstein 17:59 It's if this is the right Ty.

Ty Hildenbrandt 18:00 Yeah, this is a nice little indicator.

Dan Rubenstein 18:01 Okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt 18:02 I put some flair in the Twitter bio to let people know that yes, I'm the right person to yell at.

Dan Rubenstein 18:06 I put New York Times best-selling author in my Twitter bio, and it's not true.

Dan Rubenstein 18:10 No, I never did that.

Dan Rubenstein 18:11 But I do appreciate when people do that.

Ty Hildenbrandt 18:13 What cracks me up though the most is as you said the reaction to a moment in time.

Ty Hildenbrandt 18:21 Half the people that respond with respect to a given poll have zero perspective whatsoever.

Ty Hildenbrandt 18:29 It's never

Ty Hildenbrandt 18:30 Looking in the past.

Ty Hildenbrandt 18:32 It's never looking at the full context of the rankings and how they've evolved and why they've evolved.

Dan Rubenstein 18:32 Right.

Dan Rubenstein 18:37 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 18:37 It's always just reacting to a split second, a snapshot, a moment in time.

Ty Hildenbrandt 18:44 It is super ephemeral if you look online and see some of the reactions to the AP Top 25.

Ty Hildenbrandt 18:50 I'm not gonna agree with the way that everybody was ranked.

Ty Hildenbrandt 18:54 I think we feel pretty strongly about how we rank teams, but we've also been pretty out there.

Ty Hildenbrandt 18:58 about, hey, we're willing to change our mind.

Ty Hildenbrandt 19:00 We did it after week four, put Oklahoma State pretty high up.

Ty Hildenbrandt 19:03 We were among the highest on Oklahoma State in the entire list of people who voted in the AP Top 25.

Ty Hildenbrandt 19:09 There's not a perfect way to do this.

Ty Hildenbrandt 19:12 What has cracked me up the most though, in addition to that response, which I've seen my entire life and for my money is like the purest form of college football fandom arguing over rankings.

Ty Hildenbrandt 19:22 The thing that kills me the most is when people have spoken up and do take a strong opinion to the contrary.

Ty Hildenbrandt 19:30 If you just sort of act like a normal person back and just respond with like, this is crazy.

Dan Rubenstein 19:33 Mm-hmm.

Dan Rubenstein 19:35 Here's my thinking.

Ty Hildenbrandt 19:37 Uh it's hard to rank teams and everyone's allowed their own opinion and their own methodology and all that.

Dan Rubenstein 19:37 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 19:43 It's interesting how quickly that disarms.

Dan Rubenstein 19:46 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 19:46 I have tried to be as tender as I can in replies.

Dan Rubenstein 19:50 Oh, tender Ty

Ty Hildenbrandt 19:52 Tender Ty, that's right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 19:54 Because I feel like I want to have a fruitful conversation.

Ty Hildenbrandt 19:57 I want to learn from the people out there that feel passionately about this.

Ty Hildenbrandt 20:01 Genuinely, that is a true statement.

Ty Hildenbrandt 20:04 And I find that when I have these conversations that many of the folks chiming in are not ready for that.

Ty Hildenbrandt 20:10 They want the argument.

Dan Rubenstein 20:10 I mean, well

Ty Hildenbrandt 20:11 They want the argument, they want the debate.

Ty Hildenbrandt 20:13 And I'm up for the debate and the conversation, but I don't want the argument because it's

Dan Rubenstein 20:17 There's there's literally no ranking that you could devise regarding any topic that people wouldn't have an emotionally charged response to

Ty Hildenbrandt 20:18 Rankings.

Dan Rubenstein 20:27 Whether it's, you know, if if you posted like here are the twelve cutest puppy breeds, there's not a single person be like, well, yeah, that's obvious.

Dan Rubenstein 20:34 I agree with everything, Ty.

Dan Rubenstein 20:35 Yeah, you have the like cute little button nose, you got the furry ears

Dan Rubenstein 20:38 Like no, nobody's gonna agree on anything, whether it's puppies, college football teams, or enchilada sauce, which sidebar, let's it's green, guys.

Dan Rubenstein 20:46 Let's just

Dan Rubenstein 20:48 Don't miss me with the red sauce or the mole like the enchiladas are meant to be green and let's move forward.

Dan Rubenstein 20:54 Um and that's okay.

Dan Rubenstein 20:55 That's why it's a collection of voters and you average it out and we're everything's gonna be great, guys.

Dan Rubenstein 21:01 Everything's gonna be terrific.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:01 I have found though that the more measured, curious, considered response

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:09 Has really thrown some people for a loop.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:11 And I will continue doing it the full season through.

Dan Rubenstein 21:14 Sure.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:14 We are not perfect.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:16 I understand if people have strong opinions to the contrary, that's fine.

Dan Rubenstein 21:20 I don't care.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:21 That's fine.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:22 I'm not gonna argue with you.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:24 I'd like to speak with you as a human.

Dan Rubenstein 21:26 Oh my god.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:26 It's weird how little people are prepared for that.

Dan Rubenstein 21:29 Ty wants to be tender with you.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:31 Tender Ty.

Dan Rubenstein 21:31 You heard it here first.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:31 Tender Ty a boy.

Dan Rubenstein 21:32 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:33 Didn't we have a tender Ty thing before?

Dan Rubenstein 21:35 Yeah, tendies, Tenders with Ty, that was our like a uh live show after party.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:38 Oh boy.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:39 I can't I can't escape I can't escape the stigma.

Dan Rubenstein 21:40 We're heading to this bar for Tenders with Ty.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:44 All right.

Dan Rubenstein 21:44 No.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:44 Um you were the one that came up with the game you wanted to play today.

Dan Rubenstein 21:48 Yes.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:49 So I had an idea initially.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:52 Being so, we're recording this on September the 28th.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:56 There was a big Green Day song, Wake Me Up When September Ends.

Ty Hildenbrandt 21:59 I thought maybe we could play into that.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:00 I jotted it down.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:02 on our little shared document here.

Dan Rubenstein 22:03 Have we done that before, though?

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:04 Probably.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:05 I don't know.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:05 We've been doing this 20 years.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:06 I'm sure we've done it at some point.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:08 That was my idea.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:09 That was what I jotted down in all bold and then I put in parentheses afterwards or something else.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:14 And you said to me, I'm gonna go hop in the shower.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:17 Let me get back to you.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:19 You got back to me like 45 minutes later

Dan Rubenstein 22:22 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:23 With today's idea.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:24 I have no idea where this came from.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:27 This is like a meteorite hitting you on the head as you walked outside and gave you this idea.

Dan Rubenstein 22:27 Neither do I

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:33 This is the most random thing I could imagine, but I love it.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:37 I love it.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:38 What is today's game?

Dan Rubenstein 22:39 Uh we're playing September is that's ultimately the name of the game.

Dan Rubenstein 22:44 And I you were mentioning the Wake Me Up When September Ends, and like that's a 21-year-old reference, Ty, at this point.

Dan Rubenstein 22:50 That's a song from 2005.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:53 Thanks for that reminder.

Dan Rubenstein 22:54 You were well out of college, to be clear, in two thousand five.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:57 I was.

Ty Hildenbrandt 22:58 I was, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 22:59 No, you granted like 04, didn't you?

Ty Hildenbrandt 23:01 I graduated oh four, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 23:02 Yeah, okay.

Dan Rubenstein 23:03 That I wouldn't say that's well out of college.

Ty Hildenbrandt 23:03 But I was I was okay, yes.

Dan Rubenstein 23:05 So that's a 21-year-old reference.

Dan Rubenstein 23:07 And I was like, we can do a little bit better than that.

Dan Rubenstein 23:10 So I went back to 1994 with this reference

Dan Rubenstein 23:15 And so we're doing Stepember here and we're talking about the directions in which teams have stepped after essentially the first month or so, if you go back to week zero of the season, but September being the first full month of the season.

Dan Rubenstein 23:29 And I've got a rating system between frozen stepper and hot stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 23:34 I'll put it on the screen, if people are watching, so they can know what's what.

Dan Rubenstein 23:39 A frozen stepper, and this is a two-pronged stepping process, to be clear.

Dan Rubenstein 23:44 So it's in which direction are you stepping, and then what's your status as a stepper?

Ty Hildenbrandt 23:45 Run!

Dan Rubenstein 23:50 So if you are a bad team, if you are just a full-on bad team, you are a frozen stepper.

Ty Hildenbrandt 23:55 Mm-hmm.

Ty Hildenbrandt 23:55 Mm-hmm.

Dan Rubenstein 23:55 If you're pretty bad, but maybe have a little life, you're a cold stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 24:00 If you're okay, if there's something decent about you, maybe your offense is ahead of your defense, but it's still not great, you're a mild stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 24:08 Okay

Dan Rubenstein 24:09 If there's some life to you, if you're frisky, if you're feisty, if you're a challenging team for a lot of different opponents, I think it's fair to say that you're a warm stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 24:18 But obviously the goal in all of this Ty.

Dan Rubenstein 24:24 is to be a hot stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 24:26 So what kind of steps are you taking forward or backwards?

Dan Rubenstein 24:30 And what is your status as a stepper in September?

Dan Rubenstein 24:33 Is what I'm asking.

Dan Rubenstein 24:35 So a a hot stepper is obviously playoff caliber, maybe national championship caliber.

Ty Hildenbrandt 24:39 Florida.

Ty Hildenbrandt 24:40 Right now your hot stepper is Florida.

Dan Rubenstein 24:41 Florida is absolutely a hot stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 24:44 So I'm for the the purpose of this game, I'm Danny Kamoze.

Dan Rubenstein 24:48 And I'm ready to rock, Ty. Texas A&M.

Ty Hildenbrandt 24:53 Oh my god.

Dan Rubenstein 24:54 Where did they start out?

Dan Rubenstein 24:56 Did they start out as a hot stepper in your mind?

Dan Rubenstein 24:59 Did they start as a warm stepper?

Ty Hildenbrandt 25:00 They started out as more of a warm stepper in my mind.

Dan Rubenstein 25:02 Okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt 25:03 And I feel like we talked about it at some point on the podcast, just through the exercise of doing the top 25.

Ty Hildenbrandt 25:11 I was really conflicted on Texas A&M.

Ty Hildenbrandt 25:14 And the main source of that for me was looking at the number next to them.

Ty Hildenbrandt 25:19 For a while, I think we had them at like 12 or 13.

Ty Hildenbrandt 25:22 And I remember on one of our reaction episodes, or maybe it was a Monday episode, even saying to you, I look at that number next to Texas A&M and it gives me the ick.

Ty Hildenbrandt 25:30 I feel like they're good enough to be ranked higher, but then I look at the teams that are ranked higher than them and I don't like AM more.

Dan Rubenstein 25:31 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 25:36 Which is how we ended up putting them where we did.

Ty Hildenbrandt 25:39 But now, given what we've seen these last couple weeks here, I mean, if they were a warm stepper before, are they frozen now?

Ty Hildenbrandt 25:47 I mean, I still think there's a lot of talent there

Ty Hildenbrandt 25:50 Clearly the way things have gone with Marcel Reed have been frozen step-ish.

Dan Rubenstein 25:54 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 25:55 But the team as a whole, the talent around them, for sure, it's still, it's still

Ty Hildenbrandt 26:00 There, they just got to figure something out on offense.

Ty Hildenbrandt 26:02 I'm not gonna go frozen stepper yet, but there's clearly been a step back here.

Ty Hildenbrandt 26:06 Marcel Reed feels like he's regressed.

Ty Hildenbrandt 26:09 I can't go any warmer than Cold Stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 26:12 Yeah, I I'm cold stepper as well.

Dan Rubenstein 26:14 I think they were a warm stepper to start, but they've taken two steps back and judging by the last eight quarters of their season, I mean they had fourteen points, I think, heading into that last

Ty Hildenbrandt 26:21 Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 26:25 minute of the game against Kentucky and then scoring six and not getting in the end zone against LSU.

Dan Rubenstein 26:30 I think they're a cold stepper at the moment.

Dan Rubenstein 26:32 They they have arguably taken one of the the biggest couple steps back of anybody in just a month's time.

Dan Rubenstein 26:39 So that's where I'm at there.

Ty Hildenbrandt 26:41 I mean, the other thing on the AM front, just to sort of close the loop, they've still got a road game at Mizzou, a road game at Alabama.

Dan Rubenstein 26:41 Um, Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 26:50 They're on the road at South Carolina, which you know, I don't know what we make of South Carolina at this point, but it's still a tough place to play.

Ty Hildenbrandt 26:58 They've got Tennessee at home.

Ty Hildenbrandt 27:00 They've got Oklahoma on the road, and then they've got

Ty Hildenbrandt 27:02 to close out their season the rivalry against Texas.

Ty Hildenbrandt 27:05 So if they don't figure something out here in relatively short order, it's gonna be a problem.

Dan Rubenstein 27:06 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 27:11 You need an offense to beat pretty much all of those teams that I described, maybe not South Carolina.

Ty Hildenbrandt 27:17 Because they could be cold stepper slash frozen stepper adjacent as well.

Ty Hildenbrandt 27:21 But um you gotta put up some points, man.

Ty Hildenbrandt 27:24 You gotta, if nothing more, you gotta play against good defenses here if you want to win with that type of SEC gauntlet.

Dan Rubenstein 27:30 Go on, let you ready?

Dan Rubenstein 27:34 How about the Wisconsin Badgers?

Ty Hildenbrandt 27:37 Warm stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 27:37 Okay, so they have.

Ty Hildenbrandt 27:38 Warm stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 27:38 .

Dan Rubenstein 27:39 You have full warm.

Ty Hildenbrandt 27:41 Warm, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 27:43 Okay, so where do they start out for you?

Dan Rubenstein 27:45 Mild stepper, cold stepper?

Ty Hildenbrandt 27:48 Tepid stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 27:50 I mean that's mild.

Dan Rubenstein 27:51 So mild means okay.

Dan Rubenstein 27:54 That's your zero one if you're ordering Thai food or Indian food or Chinese food or Mexican food, whatever where there's a a scale.

Dan Rubenstein 28:03 I think that's fine, mild stepper.

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:05 I thought Colton Joseph would be better.

Dan Rubenstein 28:08 Okay

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:08 And Colton Joseph was the main source of optimism.

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:12 Coming into the season.

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:13 It just felt like this could be an exciting new chapter.

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:17 They gotta keep the quarterback healthy, obviously, yet

Dan Rubenstein 28:19 For the first time, yeah

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:21 At Wisconsin, Luke Fickell has not had any injury luck at the quarterback position.

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:25 So you gotta keep him healthy and his ability to move and

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:28 maybe give them another dimension to that offense seemed like it fit with where they're trying to go with things.

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:33 So I I've been optimistic as a result of that.

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:35 Defensively they've been pretty plucky.

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:38 Defensively I feel like they have

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:41 Done more than carry their weight.

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:42 And the offense is still figuring it out.

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:45 But to go to Beaver Stadium and beat even a mild stepper, cold stepper, adjacent Penn State team right now

Dan Rubenstein 28:54 Sure.

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:54 is still no small ask.

Ty Hildenbrandt 28:56 And especially for this program that has really struggled to get a signature win under Luke Fickell.

Dan Rubenstein 29:01 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 29:01 And so the reason that I am willing to go up to like Warm Stepper with Wisconsin

Dan Rubenstein 29:06 Yeah, of course.

Ty Hildenbrandt 29:07 Is part of me wonders if they were just waiting for something like this to flip the switch.

Ty Hildenbrandt 29:13 Something around which they could build momentum.

Ty Hildenbrandt 29:16 And actually feel like they're moving in a positive direction under Luke Fickell.

Ty Hildenbrandt 29:20 So this is a bit of projection, and maybe I'm a little bit too hype for Wisconsin after what we saw against the Penn State team that we will all agree is very flawed.

Dan Rubenstein 29:22 Sure.

Ty Hildenbrandt 29:30 This is a very big win.

Ty Hildenbrandt 29:32 I don't think we should underestimate what it means for the Wisconsin program.

Ty Hildenbrandt 29:35 So I'm gonna throw my hat in

Ty Hildenbrandt 29:38 Not getting crazy, but just for Wisconsin to show a definitive step forward this year and for the vibes to continue.

Dan Rubenstein 29:46 So I was cold stepper before the season began, even though I was somewhat optimistic about improvement.

Dan Rubenstein 29:51 as their schedule just wasn't hellacious like it's been lately and it it seemed like it was gonna get better this year, certainly with what Penn State looks like.

Dan Rubenstein 29:59 It's already looking like

Dan Rubenstein 30:00 it's going to be much better.

Dan Rubenstein 30:02 I'm not really willing to say two steps forward, from cold to warm.

Dan Rubenstein 30:07 I think I'm a mild stepper with Wisconsin.

Dan Rubenstein 30:10 They tried to lose the Penn State game pretty quickly.

Ty Hildenbrandt 30:13 They did.

Ty Hildenbrandt 30:14 They did.

Ty Hildenbrandt 30:15 And yes, credit to them.

Dan Rubenstein 30:15 Credit to them

Ty Hildenbrandt 30:18 It should be noted that on the long touchdown

Ty Hildenbrandt 30:21 that eventually sealed the deal for them, a very clear offensive pass interference that did not get called, which I don't think we gave much voice to when we discussed this on Saturday.

Dan Rubenstein 30:29 Not a penalty if it's not called Ty, as we know.

Ty Hildenbrandt 30:31 Not a penalty if it's not called.

Ty Hildenbrandt 30:33 Even the tight end said, yeah, I gave him a little bit more than a push.

Ty Hildenbrandt 30:37 And if you go back and watch the replay, it was a lot more than a push.

Dan Rubenstein 30:37 Great

Dan Rubenstein 30:41 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 30:41 Got away with it.

Ty Hildenbrandt 30:42 It's the way the sport works.

Ty Hildenbrandt 30:43 Penn State, I say this as a Penn Stater, should not have put themselves in a position to be impacted by a play like that.

Ty Hildenbrandt 30:52 But that's kind of the Matt Campbell experience, which we can talk about at some other point in time.

Dan Rubenstein 30:55 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 30:55 Um, yes.

Dan Rubenstein 30:56 Penn State had the opportunity to

Dan Rubenstein 30:58 drive down the field once for a touchdown and win this game and we're not able to do it.

Ty Hildenbrandt 31:01 No.

Dan Rubenstein 31:02 Um, I I enjoyed doing games like this, this hot stepper game.

Dan Rubenstein 31:07 Because it forces people to argue with our decisions on our terms, where they're gonna have to seriously say something like, No, no, no, no, they're a frozen stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 31:16 You guys, how could you say cold stepper?

Dan Rubenstein 31:18 They're a frozen stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 31:19 And it's all ridiculous.

Dan Rubenstein 31:20 So I I appreciate that.

Dan Rubenstein 31:22 Uh excited to see what Wisconsin can look like, but I'm gonna need to see more

Dan Rubenstein 31:27 taking care of Big Ten business before I can fully say they're a warm stepper, but that result certainly uh in the right direction.

Ty Hildenbrandt 31:35 In the right direction and also of note on the Wisconsin front, they actually have a manageable schedule this year.

Dan Rubenstein 31:41 Yes.

Ty Hildenbrandt 31:42 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 31:42 So they lose to Notre Dame.

Dan Rubenstein 31:43 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 31:44 They pick up the big win on the road at Penn State.

Ty Hildenbrandt 31:46 They've got Michigan State at home this week.

Ty Hildenbrandt 31:49 before they go on bye and then they go through a run of teams that I think should define their season.

Ty Hildenbrandt 31:55 They're at UCLA, they're home against USC, they're on the road against Iowa.

Ty Hildenbrandt 32:00 They close out the season with four games, Rutgers at Maryland, at Purdue, and then they got the rivalry, obviously, against Minnesota, which would be a tough out.

Ty Hildenbrandt 32:10 But um, you know, it's it's looking

Ty Hildenbrandt 32:14 More optimistic if you are a Wisconsin fan right now.

Dan Rubenstein 32:17 I'm gonna I'm gonna go with the connection and the connective tissue between the game we just discussed and our next team.

Dan Rubenstein 32:22 Virginia Tech

Dan Rubenstein 32:26 What kind of stepper are the hokies and where did they start?

Dan Rubenstein 32:31 Are they still there

Dan Rubenstein 32:33 How is your opinion changed or not changed through four games of basically only seeing Virginia Tech play Maryland in Boston College with whatever data that provides?

Ty Hildenbrandt 32:41 The game

Ty Hildenbrandt 32:43 Against Boston College was ugly.

Dan Rubenstein 32:46 Ugly weather.

Ty Hildenbrandt 32:46 That was that was an ugly game in really ugly weather.

Ty Hildenbrandt 32:49 And I think that's what I have a hard time getting my head around.

Ty Hildenbrandt 32:52 How much to pin on the weather versus pin on

Ty Hildenbrandt 32:56 the team.

Dan Rubenstein 32:56 What kind of stepper were they in July to you?

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:00 In July, I would say Warm Stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 33:03 Already warm.

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:04 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:05 I was I was

Dan Rubenstein 33:05 Without a single snap.

Dan Rubenstein 33:07 Okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:07 Well, I was warm just because of the vibes.

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:10 I was warm because it was indisputable that the talent on that team had gotten better.

Dan Rubenstein 33:10 Okay.

Dan Rubenstein 33:16 Okay

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:16 Like nobody, even the biggest Virginia Tech skeptic, would look at what James Franklin did in the offseason and say they're worse.

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:25 Everybody knew they were going to be better.

Dan Rubenstein 33:25 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:27 And remember, going back to our preview.

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:30 I pointed out just in a straw poll of other Virginia Tech people who write in who are in our Discord who I spoke to separately, the vibes were very much

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:41 a function of the better roster and a new direction for the program, not so much what they thought the expectations could be for year one.

Dan Rubenstein 33:49 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:49 And that's an important distinction to make.

Dan Rubenstein 33:51 Mm-hmm.

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:52 Two different mental models.

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:54 Now we're four games into this thing.

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:56 They've got a very big game this coming Friday.

Ty Hildenbrandt 33:59 We're going to be at the Penn State-Northwestern game.

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:01 If you're going to be at the Penn State-Northwestern game, the first game for new Ryan Field, please give us a shout, solidverbal.

Dan Rubenstein 34:05 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:06 com.

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:07 We'll see if we can meet up.

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:07 I've had a couple people write in already.

Dan Rubenstein 34:09 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:09 But as that game is going on, there's another big one here between Virginia Tech and Pitt.

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:15 And we had somebody in our premium Verballer universe joke about the fact that Virginia Tech versus Pitt could be a playoff game.

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:23 Or could potentially decide who makes a playoff.

Dan Rubenstein 34:24 Or implications, yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:25 Yeah, there are some ACC implications.

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:28 I don't want to go as far as playoff.

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:31 I need to see a strong showing from Virginia Tech this week against Pitt before I'm willing to fully plant my flag on that warm stepper side of things.

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:42 Um, I think they are better.

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:45 I do think I've downgraded them a little bit.

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:48 And maybe the purest indicator of that is the fact that they are 4-0 and they're still unranked in our poll.

Dan Rubenstein 34:55 Okay.

Dan Rubenstein 34:56 So you're you're warm to warm

Ty Hildenbrandt 34:58 I'm warm to warm I think they can I'm I'm warm to mild.

Dan Rubenstein 35:03 Oh, okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt 35:03 I I think they I they have shown me enough

Dan Rubenstein 35:03 You're between mild and warm.

Ty Hildenbrandt 35:08 To at least confirm the fact that this is indeed a better team, that the vibes aren't too far afield, I need to see them play against some better teams here.

Dan Rubenstein 35:18 Okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt 35:18 is what I am saying.

Ty Hildenbrandt 35:19 And so Pitt this weekend I think will be interesting.

Ty Hildenbrandt 35:22 Cal on the road for whatever you make of Cal, and I've been way off on Cal.

Dan Rubenstein 35:27 So what is there something specific you want to see for Virginia Tech?

Dan Rubenstein 35:30 Like in terms of something on their defense, something on their offense?

Dan Rubenstein 35:34 Like

Dan Rubenstein 35:34 By the way, sidebar might have potential dude in the backfield, and Jeffrey Overton really popped against Boston College.

Ty Hildenbrandt 35:38 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 35:40 Right.

Dan Rubenstein 35:40 Couple of like uneven performances before then, but uh and I guess through the air he was he was better the week before, but

Dan Rubenstein 35:47 really took the team on his back against Boston College.

Dan Rubenstein 35:49 So that's something.

Ty Hildenbrandt 35:50 How do you feel about Virginia Tech?

Dan Rubenstein 35:53 I I think it's

Dan Rubenstein 35:55 I won't say it's meaningless right now, but against their schedule at this point, you want to see what they look like against a definitively

Dan Rubenstein 36:03 better team or more experienced team or equally if not more talented team.

Dan Rubenstein 36:08 I think that's just the measuring stick for where any team is in this moment.

Dan Rubenstein 36:11 And Virginia Tech, I don't think, has played that team.

Dan Rubenstein 36:14 So

Dan Rubenstein 36:14 I'm withholding, I would say I would I'm more mild, but with with warm promise.

Dan Rubenstein 36:20 Warm stepping promise.

Ty Hildenbrandt 36:21 Yeah, I mean I think the the vibe in the Virginia tech world from what I've been able to gather is

Ty Hildenbrandt 36:27 James Franklin already has a team looking more competent, more resilient than it has in years.

Ty Hildenbrandt 36:32 Now they just got to prove it against somebody really good.

Ty Hildenbrandt 36:34 Being 4-0 for the first time in a couple years since like 2017.

Ty Hildenbrandt 36:38 It's been close to a decade

Dan Rubenstein 36:39 Mm-hmm.

Ty Hildenbrandt 36:40 Um, that's positive.

Ty Hildenbrandt 36:42 They are picking up some votes in the AP Top 25.

Ty Hildenbrandt 36:45 And so I think just that sense of having a pulse again.

Ty Hildenbrandt 36:49 Is absolutely something that Virginia Tech fans can rally around.

Ty Hildenbrandt 36:53 There is a hesitation though about the defense.

Ty Hildenbrandt 36:56 You know, like I'd like to see a little bit more from the defense.

Ty Hildenbrandt 36:58 The secondary has given up some really big plays, mobile quarterbacks.

Ty Hildenbrandt 37:02 have caused them some problems, whether or not we'll see that this weekend at all.

Ty Hildenbrandt 37:07 Um, you know, if they'll try to put Mason Heintschel a bit on the move.

Ty Hildenbrandt 37:09 He can move.

Ty Hildenbrandt 37:11 remains to be seen.

Ty Hildenbrandt 37:12 I'm curious whether or not this defense gets cooked against a legitimate offense.

Ty Hildenbrandt 37:17 And so um this weekend should give us something of a tell.

Dan Rubenstein 37:23 Kentucky.

Ty Hildenbrandt 37:24 Oh no.

Dan Rubenstein 37:26 Okay, Kentucky in their next four games

Dan Rubenstein 37:29 Has an unbelievable opportunity, maybe outside of that LSU game, but we'll see what LSU's roster looks like in that moment.

Dan Rubenstein 37:36 South Carolina on the road, not easy, but not obviously impossible.

Dan Rubenstein 37:41 Oklahoma on the road a week after they have that sandwich spot, which seems less winnable, hosting LSU, but you never know

Dan Rubenstein 37:49 And then Vanderbilt at home, who is, I think, a pretty good team, but also as a true freshman and will be playing on the road at Kentucky.

Dan Rubenstein 37:57 Um the LSU game, I think, is going to be

Dan Rubenstein 38:00 Pretty difficult for Kentucky, but also a first-year coach.

Dan Rubenstein 38:04 And weird to say, look-ahead spot for LSU potentially with Camario Taylor in Mississippi State the week after.

Dan Rubenstein 38:12 So

Dan Rubenstein 38:13 Kentucky.

Dan Rubenstein 38:14 Where were they in terms of stepping before the year?

Dan Rubenstein 38:18 To what degree have they stepped up?

Dan Rubenstein 38:20 And what is their current stepping status?

Ty Hildenbrandt 38:24 I was I was pretty cold on Kentucky.

Dan Rubenstein 38:27 Same

Ty Hildenbrandt 38:27 You know, I was I was feeling good about the vibes, and I think just going in a different direction as they have now with Will Stein.

Ty Hildenbrandt 38:36 It wasn't unlike the whole Virginia Tech side of things.

Ty Hildenbrandt 38:39 It wasn't unlike that at all because you bring in somebody new, new energy, new roster, Hope Springs eternal.

Ty Hildenbrandt 38:46 But the Kentucky thing has been interesting.

Ty Hildenbrandt 38:49 Because now they're ranked.

Ty Hildenbrandt 38:51 And I think the fandom has gone from wanting football season to end as soon as it begins to now wondering how good this

Ty Hildenbrandt 39:00 team might actually be.

Ty Hildenbrandt 39:01 Like Will Stein already has a signature road win now.

Dan Rubenstein 39:02 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 39:05 They're ranked.

Ty Hildenbrandt 39:06 The offense I think has some real juice.

Ty Hildenbrandt 39:09 If nothing more, it feels better coordinated than it has in good long time.

Dan Rubenstein 39:13 Easily

Ty Hildenbrandt 39:14 The other thing that I pick up from the Kentucky universe is they are also half wondering when it goes off the skids.

Dan Rubenstein 39:20 Right.

Dan Rubenstein 39:20 Well they're also maybe maybe they're not wondering this.

Dan Rubenstein 39:23 Maybe this is just you and I wondering or just me here.

Dan Rubenstein 39:27 Uh

Dan Rubenstein 39:29 The Texas A&M one was terrific.

Dan Rubenstein 39:31 If Texas A&M is a cold stepper in this moment, is that the most indicative moment of Kentucky's progress, even though it's obviously clear progress for Kentucky?

Ty Hildenbrandt 39:34 Right.

Dan Rubenstein 39:41 But if we're watching Texas A&M in the the midst of a a complete free fall, then perhaps you have to adjust exactly what you think Kentucky's ceiling is in this moment.

Ty Hildenbrandt 39:51 I don't think there is delusion out there that Kentucky is some sort of SEC contender.

Dan Rubenstein 39:58 Well they're ranked.

Ty Hildenbrandt 39:59 They are ranked.

Dan Rubenstein 40:00 We didn't, but they are ranked.

Ty Hildenbrandt 40:02 They are ranked.

Ty Hildenbrandt 40:03 I understand the logic.

Ty Hildenbrandt 40:05 I just think the vibes in the Kentucky world are much closer to like, oh hell yeah, this is gonna be fun again.

Dan Rubenstein 40:11 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 40:11 This is going to be fun.

Ty Hildenbrandt 40:12 And yeah, the AM win might not be all it was cracked up to be at the time.

Ty Hildenbrandt 40:17 Still going to Kyle Field, winning in that environment, the way they played in the second half

Ty Hildenbrandt 40:24 A week after they played that way in the second half against Alabama, it was like night and day.

Dan Rubenstein 40:29 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 40:30 This was a team that in the span of a week learned how to close out a game.

Ty Hildenbrandt 40:35 That was all very positive.

Ty Hildenbrandt 40:37 I think there is much more positive to takeaway on the Kentucky front.

Ty Hildenbrandt 40:40 I'm not necessarily fully there, but I'm I'm like a mild stepper.

Ty Hildenbrandt 40:45 I think they're going to be interesting in the SEC.

Dan Rubenstein 40:47 I'm mild stepping.

Dan Rubenstein 40:48 Nothing to overlook here is also the fact that they have two teams coming up.

Dan Rubenstein 40:53 Even if we're saying they beat AM and AM is just was overrated to start the year, many people would argue that's the case annually.

Dan Rubenstein 41:01 Maybe not the most unfair characterization, but they have Oklahoma and South Carolina.

Dan Rubenstein 41:06 Two other teams with vibes specifically that are down pretty bad as we record this on Monday.

Dan Rubenstein 41:13 And I don't know if you saw the oh I I know you saw this because you I saw you tweeted out the SEC shorts.

Dan Rubenstein 41:19 Brilliant.

Ty Hildenbrandt 41:20 Awesome this week.

Ty Hildenbrandt 41:21 They did I mean those guys are incredible, but this week was like opus quality.

Dan Rubenstein 41:22 And yes.

Dan Rubenstein 41:25 By the way, featuring regular and former solid verbal regular guest, Matt Scalisi, yes?

Ty Hildenbrandt 41:31 Oh yeah, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 41:31 And I think it's Josh Sneed is one of the main guys, but they do a great job and they they did a great job picking on Oklahoma and South Carolina this week.

Dan Rubenstein 41:39 So the opportunity's there to just take advantage of teams that are are struggling to uh to get up for game.

Dan Rubenstein 41:47 So I don't know.

Dan Rubenstein 41:48 I I'd have him as mild right now, but

Dan Rubenstein 41:50 It's pretty pretty pretty flexible in my mind where they could go.

Ty Hildenbrandt 41:53 If Kentucky can work up a full head of steam now, if they can build on this three in one start

Ty Hildenbrandt 42:00 They've got, as you said, a team in South Carolina that is reeling a bit.

Ty Hildenbrandt 42:06 They've got an LSU team that

Ty Hildenbrandt 42:08 At least that game's being played in Lexington.

Ty Hildenbrandt 42:11 They're on the road at Oklahoma, which suddenly feels more winnable.

Dan Rubenstein 42:16 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 42:16 And then they're back home against Vanderbilt, which is a winnable game before a bye week.

Ty Hildenbrandt 42:21 The closing stretch, though, for Kentucky is where my eye goes first.

Ty Hildenbrandt 42:26 At Tennessee, home against Florida, close out the year on the road at Missouri.

Ty Hildenbrandt 42:31 Those right now at time of recording are three ranked games.

Ty Hildenbrandt 42:35 We can dispute the Missouri thing.

Ty Hildenbrandt 42:36 Neat we didn't rank Missouri.

Ty Hildenbrandt 42:38 But if nothing more.

Ty Hildenbrandt 42:40 Tennessee and Florida for sure below in that Top 25, certainly that top twenty.

Dan Rubenstein 42:44 That's uh Mizzou a week after playing Georgia, and that's a week after playing Texas.

Dan Rubenstein 42:50 That's a tough stretch for Mizzou.

Dan Rubenstein 42:52 Um no, they're situationally they're in a good spot.

Dan Rubenstein 42:55 I put them at mild, trending warm.

Ty Hildenbrandt 42:57 And they close out with Louisville, the Governor's Cup, of course.

Dan Rubenstein 42:59 Well though of course.

Dan Rubenstein 43:00 Yep.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:00 Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 43:02 Uh next team?

Dan Rubenstein 43:04 I don't know, you want to take one?

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:06 I want to know where you're at in Iowa.

Dan Rubenstein 43:09 I love this.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:10 I want to know where you're at in Iowa because you were all about Iowa because of the schedule at the start of the year.

Dan Rubenstein 43:17 Well it's because New Year's same team, you can say pretty often with Iowa.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:21 You have something you can hitch the wagon to.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:23 You know what you're signing up for.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:25 The schedule, though, is very advantageous.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:29 I was hitching my wagon to Iowa insofar as I was intrigued by what Jeremy Hecklinski could be.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:36 He's not even the starting quarterback.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:38 They've gotten, I think, pretty solid play out of Hank Brown.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:41 They're running the ball well.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:42 They're playing defense.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:43 They're doing all the Iowa things.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:45 In light of the win, though, against Michigan, going 91 yards and a minute and 46 seconds and winning on a back shoulder throw.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:54 This is new for Iowa.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:55 We discussed this on Saturday night.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:57 They don't win games like this.

Ty Hildenbrandt 43:59 They're the ones knocking the ball out.

Ty Hildenbrandt 44:01 So for them to come from like the other side of the field

Ty Hildenbrandt 44:05 Two-minute drive, put it in the end zone, knock off one of your biggest Big Ten foes.

Ty Hildenbrandt 44:10 This represents a different situation for most Iowa people.

Ty Hildenbrandt 44:15 I ask you about Iowa because I know you were mild to warm on Iowa before all this.

Ty Hildenbrandt 44:21 Is that now to imply that you're a hot stepper with regard to Iowa?

Dan Rubenstein 44:26 If if you get to live moss at Taco Bell, not a sponsor could be.

Dan Rubenstein 44:30 You're just always living warm with Iowa, right?

Dan Rubenstein 44:33 You can't say full hot stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 44:35 I I think there has to be more juice to Iowa as a complete team who is able to consistently compete with hot steppers, which their track record is

Dan Rubenstein 44:46 checkered, I would say.

Dan Rubenstein 44:48 But they're live and warm.

Dan Rubenstein 44:50 And so live and warm because of the defense, because of the very specific manner in which they play offense and manage to hang around in games a lot of the times because of special teams and just

Dan Rubenstein 45:00 Playing to specific strengths.

Dan Rubenstein 45:03 I mean they went to the big house and won.

Dan Rubenstein 45:05 I'm not willing to go full hot with Iowa.

Dan Rubenstein 45:08 I'm going to need to see more consistent pop-on offense.

Dan Rubenstein 45:11 But, and as you mentioned, the receivers seem to be of quality.

Dan Rubenstein 45:14 Uh, I don't know where Hank I feel about Hank Brown over four full quarters against a decent team, but got it done when it mattered against Michigan

Dan Rubenstein 45:22 It's very close against Iowa State.

Dan Rubenstein 45:24 They're just living warm.

Dan Rubenstein 45:26 They started warm, they are continuing to be warm to me.

Dan Rubenstein 45:30 Like a like a beautiful hot dish, a beautiful casserole prepared and waiting for you to consume on the table.

Ty Hildenbrandt 45:36 In the full list of AP Top 25 voters, four had Iowa inside the top ten.

Ty Hildenbrandt 45:44 One, a gentleman who I have not had the pleasure of meeting from Cleveland.

Ty Hildenbrandt 45:48 com, Stephen Means, has his top five as Texas, Florida, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, and then Iowa at five.

Dan Rubenstein 45:49 Okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt 45:56 That's a hot stepper for Mr.

Ty Hildenbrandt 45:58 Means.

Dan Rubenstein 45:59 I mean look, he could be very early, right?

Dan Rubenstein 46:01 Just like Ty Hildenbrandt.

Dan Rubenstein 46:02 He's not wrong, he's just early.

Ty Hildenbrandt 46:04 Never know, man.

Dan Rubenstein 46:04 I'm not there.

Dan Rubenstein 46:05 I'm not there with Iowa, but I I appreciate that the steps remain warm.

Ty Hildenbrandt 46:11 Um, okay, I've got two more for you, and then we'll take some questions and get out of here, okay?

Ty Hildenbrandt 46:18 Let's talk about your beautiful UCLA Bruins.

Dan Rubenstein 46:24 Oh, Ty, you're catching me at the wrong time, Ty.

Ty Hildenbrandt 46:29 I know.

Dan Rubenstein 46:31 Okay.

Dan Rubenstein 46:33 I felt like they had warm potential with Bob Chesney heading into the season.

Dan Rubenstein 46:38 You know I you know this.

Dan Rubenstein 46:40 I was very vocal about this.

Dan Rubenstein 46:42 Uh heading into the year, I could not put them above mild stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 46:46 I just there was we saw too much from a lot of the guys returning and just questioning where the vibes would be, maybe against the better opponents on their schedule.

Dan Rubenstein 46:56 I don't love the defensive performance against Purdue, especially on those passing downs.

Dan Rubenstein 47:02 But they're scoring, they're I I guess with Florida, like one of the most improved offenses in America.

Dan Rubenstein 47:09 It was low bar.

Dan Rubenstein 47:12 I think they're warm.

Dan Rubenstein 47:13 I think I'm ready to to declare warmth because of the manner in which they're winning, because of where the offense is.

Dan Rubenstein 47:20 I think the offense has pulled them warm from mild.

Dan Rubenstein 47:24 I don't know what the schedule holds.

Dan Rubenstein 47:25 I know they have Oregon in a couple weeks.

Dan Rubenstein 47:28 And who do they have the week after Oregon?

Dan Rubenstein 47:30 I think it was somebody else consecutively.

Ty Hildenbrandt 47:32 Yeah, so they're on bye the first week of October this coming weekend.

Dan Rubenstein 47:36 Right, ahead of the the duck game, yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 47:38 But then on the road at Oregon.

Ty Hildenbrandt 47:41 Back home the following week in the Rose Bowl against Wisconsin.

Ty Hildenbrandt 47:45 Home home the week after that against Michigan State.

Ty Hildenbrandt 47:49 And then here's the way they close out their year.

Ty Hildenbrandt 47:51 Last five games.

Ty Hildenbrandt 47:53 Nevada at home, Minnesota on the road, Illinois at home, Michigan on the road, rivalry against USC at home.

Dan Rubenstein 48:01 Here's the other question.

Dan Rubenstein 48:02 I mean just in terms of the the stepping journey

Dan Rubenstein 48:06 They lose their final five games last year, 56-6, then close to Nebraska, slaughtered by Ohio State, slaughtered by Washington, and comfortably lose to USC.

Dan Rubenstein 48:17 After that little that fun three game, I want to say, Jerry Newheisel as offensive coordinator stretch.

Dan Rubenstein 48:25 From the point where they were last season, maybe even before the Bob Chesney hire, to where they are now, I would almost say frozen to completely thawed in a manner of like four games.

Dan Rubenstein 48:37 Like I I think they're thawed and warm.

Dan Rubenstein 48:40 That's pretty crazy.

Dan Rubenstein 48:41 So I hope it keeps going for their sake.

Dan Rubenstein 48:43 But yeah, I would have them as a warm stepper

Ty Hildenbrandt 48:45 You're like the frozen beans in one of those steam fresh bags, not a sponsor could be.

Dan Rubenstein 48:49 Is SteamFresh actively sponsoring digital media?

Dan Rubenstein 48:54 I don't know.

Dan Rubenstein 48:56 Get at us, Tim from SteamFresh.

Ty Hildenbrandt 48:57 Are there any steam fresh executives out there advertising at solidverbal.com?

Dan Rubenstein 49:02 Sure.

Ty Hildenbrandt 49:03 If you're interested, we can make a whole thing out of this.

Dan Rubenstein 49:05 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 49:06 Uh okay, give me the sound.

Ty Hildenbrandt 49:10 West Virginia

Dan Rubenstein 49:16 West Virginia, I'm gonna say mild trending warm.

Dan Rubenstein 49:22 I can't get there with the defense.

Dan Rubenstein 49:24 Gave up 41 to Oklahoma State.

Dan Rubenstein 49:27 Look, Ty.

Dan Rubenstein 49:29 Many terrific teams have lost to Oklahoma State this year.

Dan Rubenstein 49:32 Not Tulsa, but many terrific teams have lost to Oklahoma State.

Dan Rubenstein 49:38 Uh, West Virginia definitely has life on offense.

Dan Rubenstein 49:41 They definitely can make plays on defense.

Dan Rubenstein 49:43 There is speed on that defense.

Dan Rubenstein 49:45 I'm not sure

Dan Rubenstein 49:46 I love them from a like, can they win a game 28 to 13 perspective?

Dan Rubenstein 49:50 But that's okay.

Dan Rubenstein 49:51 Winning is winning no matter how you do it.

Dan Rubenstein 49:53 But it's just there are tight ropes to walk.

Dan Rubenstein 49:57 I'm very encouraged.

Dan Rubenstein 49:59 And I think they are frisky-ish.

Dan Rubenstein 50:02 I want to see more in terms of defensive growth, in terms of passing structure growth from Michael Hawkins.

Dan Rubenstein 50:09 But you can't deny that he's a playmaker.

Ty Hildenbrandt 50:11 Oh yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 50:12 You can't deny his ability to be like just terrific with the ball in his hands

Ty Hildenbrandt 50:13 I mean he's

Ty Hildenbrandt 50:17 He has been an explosive play machine.

Ty Hildenbrandt 50:20 I didn't see the updated stats after this weekend, but I know going into that game with Oklahoma State

Ty Hildenbrandt 50:26 He was one of, if not the best quarterbacks in all of college football at generating explosive plays.

Ty Hildenbrandt 50:33 And it's largely a function of that offense.

Ty Hildenbrandt 50:36 We know that with Rich Rodriguez.

Ty Hildenbrandt 50:37 We know that they lean on Cam Cook.

Ty Hildenbrandt 50:39 Cam Cook is sort of the physical identity of that rushing offense.

Ty Hildenbrandt 50:42 And and if you watch Rich Rod football, you know he he loves having a guy like that.

Ty Hildenbrandt 50:46 He brought Cam Cook up from Jacksonville State to be that guy.

Ty Hildenbrandt 50:50 But now that they're getting this play out of Michael Hawkins Jr.

Ty Hildenbrandt 50:54 , the dual threat capacity that he gives them, again, if you're throwing it 35 times with Michael Hawkins Jr.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:01 , something's wrong.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:01 But if you're able to play his game off of the ground game, suddenly that makes for, as we've seen in the early going here, a lot of explosive plays.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:09 So they've been exciting and I I they're definitely trending in the right direction.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:13 I wish I could feel a little bit more confident about what they could be this season.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:18 We also need to bear in mind this is still a very wide open Big 12.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:22 It's a gettable Big 12.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:24 I like BYU.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:26 Some some of you might like Texas Tech or Utah, Oklahoma State, right, who they just played and lost to.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:33 But I think there's a fair amount of

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:37 I don't know.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:38 The Big Twelve doing it again.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:40 It's doing it again.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:41 It's going to be wide open again at the end of this thing.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:43 Maybe we'll be talking tiebreakers.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:45 I hope we're talking tiebreakers.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:46 I love a good tiebreaker.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:47 But um what West Virginia has played well enough.

Ty Hildenbrandt 51:51 that they can also be part of that conversation, maybe not to win it, but to be part of interesting discussions for the next two months.

Dan Rubenstein 51:58 They're certainly not a cold stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 51:59 They're next two in terms of their path to a bowl game or comfortably being a bowl team are pretty important in Iowa State and Arizona.

Dan Rubenstein 52:07 But yeah, and they host Arizona, which is terrific that they get them to to fly across the country.

Dan Rubenstein 52:12 Yeah, they're certainly not a cold stepper, which is where they have kind of recently been at times.

Dan Rubenstein 52:17 So I'm I'm in on potential warmth for West Virginia.

Ty Hildenbrandt 52:20 Let me give you one more team, okay?

Dan Rubenstein 52:22 Please

Ty Hildenbrandt 52:22 Missouri Tigers.

Dan Rubenstein 52:29 Mild.

Ty Hildenbrandt 52:34 All right.

Dan Rubenstein 52:37 No.

Ty Hildenbrandt 52:38 The number twenty-five team, the AP Top 25.

Dan Rubenstein 52:39 No, that can't be true.

Dan Rubenstein 52:41 I'm fact-checking this right now.

Dan Rubenstein 52:43 Hold on.

Dan Rubenstein 52:44 Hold on, I'm looking.

Dan Rubenstein 52:45 What

Ty Hildenbrandt 52:46 Missouri has been, to my earlier point, one of the points of contention that some of the AP Top 25 skeptics out there have pointed to.

Ty Hildenbrandt 52:57 And they pointed to Mizzou and they said, why are they ranked?

Ty Hildenbrandt 53:01 Why are they ranked?

Ty Hildenbrandt 53:02 You guys don't know what you're doing because they're number 25.

Dan Rubenstein 53:06 The AP poll can't stop dialing their ex late at night.

Dan Rubenstein 53:11 And that ex is Eli Drinkwitz.

Dan Rubenstein 53:15 I don't know what's going on there.

Ty Hildenbrandt 53:16 You were you were much higher on Mizzou this season than I was.

Ty Hildenbrandt 53:19 I was

Ty Hildenbrandt 53:21 fully out at the start of the year.

Ty Hildenbrandt 53:22 Did not think they'd be that good.

Ty Hildenbrandt 53:24 I'm still not certain they're that good.

Ty Hildenbrandt 53:28 But they're number 25.

Dan Rubenstein 53:30 They are number twenty-five.

Dan Rubenstein 53:32 Signature win is Kansas.

Dan Rubenstein 53:36 I think I'm more mild because of some of the inconsistencies uh on both sides of the ball, frankly.

Dan Rubenstein 53:43 But not being able to and I like Jamal Roberts, but um

Dan Rubenstein 53:50 I think I'm more mild than warm.

Dan Rubenstein 53:53 I'm in I'm in a space between the two just because they do win games.

Dan Rubenstein 53:58 I wouldn't say they are like of consistent 500 quality.

Dan Rubenstein 54:02 I think they're gonna win.

Dan Rubenstein 54:03 I think they're gonna go to a bowl game again.

Dan Rubenstein 54:06 But you watch them and you're just like, where what are they?

Dan Rubenstein 54:11 Where are they going with this?

Dan Rubenstein 54:13 And I don't I don't love feeling that way about a team.

Dan Rubenstein 54:16 And so yeah, I'm I'm between mild and warm, but I'm not feeling great.

Ty Hildenbrandt 54:21 I'm sort of on the colder side.

Dan Rubenstein 54:25 Okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt 54:25 And I've been on the colder side for a while.

Ty Hildenbrandt 54:27 We actually got a really thoughtful message that came through the Instagram asking about Mizzou.

Ty Hildenbrandt 54:35 Given that they just played um such a close game against Mississippi State, lost 31-24.

Dan Rubenstein 54:40 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 54:41 But um Eric, I believe, wrote in with a comment about

Ty Hildenbrandt 54:45 Texas and Ohio State.

Ty Hildenbrandt 54:47 In that situation, our argument when we rank teams and the reason that we put Ohio State right next to Texas

Ty Hildenbrandt 54:54 was because essentially they essentially played to a draw.

Ty Hildenbrandt 54:56 It was it was a one point difference.

Ty Hildenbrandt 54:57 Ohio State blew it.

Ty Hildenbrandt 54:58 Texas to their credit came back and won it.

Dan Rubenstein 55:00 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:00 They deserved to be number one.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:02 Ohio State shouldn't drop that far, was our thinking.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:05 And so this gentleman's thought was could the same not be said for Mizzou and Mississippi State?

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:09 Everyone's high on Mississippi State right now.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:12 You look at the game against Mizzou, it was a close game.

Dan Rubenstein 55:14 And the game was in Starkville.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:15 The game was in Starkville.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:17 It was a close game.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:18 Mississippi State pulled it out in the very end, but it was a close game.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:22 I did think about that a little bit.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:24 And I think my broader point on Mizzou is, yeah, but it's not exactly the same because

Dan Rubenstein 55:31 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:32 Mizzou's been struggling, man.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:34 They struggled for a bit with that Kansas game, albeit a rivalry.

Dan Rubenstein 55:39 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:39 We saw the game the following week against Troy.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:41 They didn't look good.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:42 in that one either.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:44 I don't think it's a bad team.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:46 I think they're gonna go bowling, but I'm just not getting the vapors from these guys.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:51 And I'm not sure

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:53 Exactly what they are either.

Ty Hildenbrandt 55:55 Then I look at the schedule.

Dan Rubenstein 55:56 But the schedule is not who they are.

Dan Rubenstein 55:58 They've the just in terms of who they played and what the vibes are right now.

Dan Rubenstein 56:01 But I understand what you're going to.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:01 But I'm saying moving forward.

Dan Rubenstein 56:03 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:04 If this is at least in part about taking the proper step forward, no pun intended.

Dan Rubenstein 56:10 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:11 Florida this week, top ten Florida.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:15 We got a game the following week against Texas A&M.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:18 That game against Texas A&M is going to be very meaningful for both these teams.

Dan Rubenstein 56:21 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:21 There's a legit chance that Mizzou has two losses going into that game in Texas A&M.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:26 Who knows what to expect with Texas A&M?

Dan Rubenstein 56:27 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:28 They've also got at Ole Miss.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:32 Home against Texas, on the road against Georgia, and then two home games to close this thing out against Kentucky, against Oklahoma.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:43 That to me is not an easy way to close this thing out.

Dan Rubenstein 56:45 No.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:46 Okay.

Dan Rubenstein 56:46 I mean we'll see.

Dan Rubenstein 56:48 I mean Oklahoma, who who knows, but yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:49 But from this week forward now, just if we use the current rankings.

Dan Rubenstein 56:53 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:53 You got Florida, you got Ole Miss, you got Texas, you got Georgia, all of which are in the top ten.

Dan Rubenstein 56:57 Tough teams, yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 56:59 So I'm not feeling it with Mizzou

Ty Hildenbrandt 57:02 This is sort of what I was calling out at the start of the year.

Ty Hildenbrandt 57:05 There was a lot different about this team.

Ty Hildenbrandt 57:08 Losing Ahmad Hardy was a pretty big deal.

Ty Hildenbrandt 57:11 I'm on the colder side.

Dan Rubenstein 57:14 The the interesting thing with Mizzou is you have to find something they're good at if you're gonna say that they're anything beyond a mild stepper.

Dan Rubenstein 57:22 They're not especially good at anything.

Dan Rubenstein 57:24 Now, obviously, they'd be a good running team with Ahmad Hardy.

Dan Rubenstein 57:27 And we know the circumstances why he's not on the field right now.

Dan Rubenstein 57:32 It also feels as if like if you were to go to like a coaching clinic and you know in this room it's Kirby Smart talking about, you know, disguising coverages and in this room, you know, you're seeing about Mario Cristobal and developing offensive line talent.

Dan Rubenstein 57:46 Like, is the lecture hall going to be standing room only for Eli Drinkwitz's performance and speech on quality losses?

Ty Hildenbrandt 57:53 Kirby.

Dan Rubenstein 57:55 Right?

Dan Rubenstein 57:55 Is he not like the quality loss Nick Saban talking about the SEC gives you so many more quality losses than anybody?

Dan Rubenstein 58:03 Isn't that just

Dan Rubenstein 58:05 The Eli Drinkwitz TED Talk at this point, how to lose impressively.

Dan Rubenstein 58:10 That's what their season's gonna be probably this year.

Dan Rubenstein 58:13 So

Dan Rubenstein 58:14 I don't know.

Dan Rubenstein 58:15 I I don't feel anything more than mild and mild stepping about Mizzou at this point.

Dan Rubenstein 58:20 Truly, in in their their season thus far.

Dan Rubenstein 58:22 You look at the numbers, you watch the games, Austin Simmons has some absolute darts to the sideline.

Dan Rubenstein 58:29 But it's not happening every drive.

Dan Rubenstein 58:32 They're not scoring 50 a game.

Dan Rubenstein 58:35 They're not especially dangerous at any one thing right now.

Dan Rubenstein 58:38 And so that that sings mild to me.

Ty Hildenbrandt 58:40 Jack of all trades, master of none.

Dan Rubenstein 58:42 Yeah, quality losses

Ty Hildenbrandt 58:44 Solidverbal at gmail.

Ty Hildenbrandt 58:45 com is the email address. Write in.

Ty Hildenbrandt 58:47 Let us know your thoughts on any of the teams we discussed, any that we didn't.

Ty Hildenbrandt 58:51 We can bring this back SteamFresh.

Ty Hildenbrandt 58:53 We can bring you on the line, man.

Ty Hildenbrandt 58:55 They could bring you in just a small targeted buy, whatever you're into, solidverbal at gmail.

Ty Hildenbrandt 59:00 com advertising

Dan Rubenstein 59:00 I don't even know the brand.

Dan Rubenstein 59:01 This is a it's frozen vegetables that you like are in a bag and you microwave it and it and it steams quickly.

Ty Hildenbrandt 59:07 Yeah, where you you like turn the bag, it says this side up, you like poke a couple holes in it.

Dan Rubenstein 59:12 Right, sure.

Dan Rubenstein 59:13 I'm familiar with I just didn't know the specific brand.

Ty Hildenbrandt 59:15 Yeah, that's one of the brands I think they all I think the bag is the technology.

Dan Rubenstein 59:17 Okay.

Dan Rubenstein 59:20 Okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt 59:21 Uh solidverbal at gmail.

Dan Rubenstein 59:21 Get at us

Ty Hildenbrandt 59:23 com advertising at solidverbal.

Dan Rubenstein 59:24 Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 59:25 You know what's gonna happen is somebody's gonna hear this segment and they're gonna say, well, we're not gonna sponsor the show.

Ty Hildenbrandt 59:25 com.

Ty Hildenbrandt 59:25 We can put something together.

Dan Rubenstein 59:33 But do you guys want like a crap ton of lima beans on dry ice?

Ty Hildenbrandt 59:36 Yeah, we will send you a palette of lima beans for everyday use.

Dan Rubenstein 59:39 Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 59:41 And to that I say sure, let's do it.

Dan Rubenstein 59:43 I've I have two hungry little boys to feed all the time.

Ty Hildenbrandt 59:46 Uh let's get out of here with a couple of Verballer questions, okay?

Ty Hildenbrandt 59:55 During the offseason, we do a big QA once a month.

Ty Hildenbrandt 59:58 We started doing a big QA.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:00 In September, we're going to continue doing Q&As throughout the month of September.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:04 We're also going to continue doing two to three premium Verballer questions on our Monday episodes.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:10 For Ballers.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:11 com is where you can sign up.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:12 You get ad-free episodes, access to our Discord episodes a little bit early.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:16 You can play in the game, the Run the Board pick'em game.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:19 You can vote in the poll that we talked about earlier, the Verballer Top 12, and you can support the team.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:25 You can support what Dan and I are doing.

Dan Rubenstein 01:00:27 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:28 Sean wants to know who are your Dark Horse teams in each Power Four conference to make the playoffs after week four.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:37 Give me a dark horse, Dan.

Dan Rubenstein 01:00:38 In each okay, a dark horse.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:39 Each conference, Power Four conference, Pershawn's question, I need a dark horse from each Power conference.

Dan Rubenstein 01:00:43 Yep.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:48 Go.

Dan Rubenstein 01:00:49 I mean I d I I want to say Duke, but they won the ACC last year.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:00:53 I would consider Duke a dark horse.

Dan Rubenstein 01:00:55 Okay, I'll say Duke and the ACC right now.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:00 Uh given their schedule and the lack of losing right now.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:04 I will say

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:08 Oklahoma State?

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:09 Although they're not a dark horse anymore after the Oregon win.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:11 No no they were dark horse at the beginning of the year.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:13 We'll count them again.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:14 Okay.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:14 I'll say Oklahoma State.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:14 Oklahoma State's mine in the Big 12.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:17 In the ACC, by the way, I would probably say Pitt or Virginia Tech.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:20 Okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:21 Both of whom I think would still qualify for that.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:25 Um, I will say UCLA in the Big Ten.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:27 Oh man, you and UCLA.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:29 Who would you take?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:31 Um probably go Iowa.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:32 Oregon's still not a dark horse.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:33 They just beat a top 12 team and they're number 15.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:38 Yeah, I mean Iowa's schedule is such, I mean, I just they're gonna lose something dumb to like Minnesota or Wisconsin.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:46 But that's only one loss, but they also have

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:47 I think there's a possibility they get drilled this week against Ohio State.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:50 Well, yeah, it's also a letdown moment, but yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:01:54 Um but no, I m I think I think Iowa would probably be my pick in the Big Ten, yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:58 Okay.

Dan Rubenstein 01:01:59 Uh, Iowa in the Big Ten, so we disagree there.

Dan Rubenstein 01:02:03 Um and SEC Dark Horse to make the playoff in this moment.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:07 I mean, is it Mississippi State?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:09 Is it Florida?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:10 Florida I we had Florida rank at the start of the year.

Dan Rubenstein 01:02:13 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:14 So I don't know how much of a dark horse they could be, but I think some possible candidates for this would be Mississippi State, for sure, Mississippi State.

Dan Rubenstein 01:02:22 I think it's Mississippi State.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:24 Kentucky?

Dan Rubenstein 01:02:24 I still don't think they're being taken seriously on this level.

Dan Rubenstein 01:02:27 No, I I I mean you it they can be your answer.

Dan Rubenstein 01:02:30 I'm not gonna tell you what you can choose or not, but

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:33 You don't have that many options though.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:35 in the SEC, right?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:36 Like you're not gonna pick Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas A&M at this point.

Dan Rubenstein 01:02:36 Right.

Dan Rubenstein 01:02:42 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:42 You're probably not gonna take Tennessee at this point unless something really changes.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:47 Um, I I guess you can make a Missouri case, but based on our previous conversation, neither of us is trying to make a Missouri case.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:54 And so you're limited.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:02:55 Uh, I I think it's gotta be Mississippi State.

Dan Rubenstein 01:02:58 I mean basically if you were to say like Tennessee, they can absorb one more loss, which means that they have to beat either Alabama or LSU, which is not crazy because they get both of those games in Knoxville.

Dan Rubenstein 01:03:09 But I just think the true freshman quarterback tax is such where he's like I I think they're probably maxing out at nine and three at this point, especially with what the offensive line

Dan Rubenstein 01:03:18 Seems like it'll look like against some of the better defensive fronts that they're gonna see this year and they're gonna see some quality defensive fronts.

Dan Rubenstein 01:03:25 So yeah, I think they're maxing out at nine and three.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:29 Um, okay, next question here.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:31 Let's go to Jacob.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:33 Will anyone stand up for the travesty?

Dan Rubenstein 01:03:36 Oh, if you put it on this time.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:39 Is Oklahoma State being ranked behind Oregon?

Dan Rubenstein 01:03:42 Not couldn't be us doing that.

Dan Rubenstein 01:03:44 Couldn't be The Solid Verbal and Ty Hildenbrandt AP voter.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:45 We didn't.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:46 We ranked We ranked Oklahoma State ahead of Oregon, one spot ahead of Oregon.

Dan Rubenstein 01:03:50 Yeah

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:03:51 He says, did we learn nothing from Miami-Notre Dame?

Dan Rubenstein 01:03:54 With with the committee inventing a strategy, we're like, look, we break these downs into quads, right?

Dan Rubenstein 01:03:59 We break them down into sections.

Dan Rubenstein 01:04:01 And we have quad sections and section quads.

Dan Rubenstein 01:04:03 And if a team is next to each other in a section quad, sure, that's one thing.

Dan Rubenstein 01:04:07 But if they're not in the same quad section, that's a whole different conversation.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:09 It was a little bit like Jon Bois back in the day trying to explain new Twitter features.

Dan Rubenstein 01:04:14 Exactly right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:15 So here is the question though, and Jacob, I think, is right to bring this up.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:20 That was certainly where we came down on this conversation.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:23 To what end does a bad loss impact a team's ranking?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:30 This is the conversation that I think gets progressively more difficult to have the deeper we get into a season.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:35 We had a bunch of people chiming in.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:37 When we posted our ballot saying how can you put Oklahoma State there?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:40 They've got a loss to Tulsa.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:42 That's the justification for putting them behind Oregon, even though they won.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:47 I kind of feel the same.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:49 Like we need more data points before we can make a firmer conclusion on any of these teams.

Dan Rubenstein 01:04:51 I agree.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:04:55 And given that we do have a head-to-head matchup, we'll take a head-to-head matchup at the end of September and use that to rank teams.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:01 I think that's fair.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:03 But as we get a couple weeks into this thing.

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:03 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:05 If both Oregon and Oklahoma State keep winning, if Oregon ends up adding to its resume and knocking off some higher ranked opponents

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:14 At that point, I think we need to start comparing resumes.

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:14 Sure.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:18 If you want to be a resume absolutist and take a look at what these teams have done, at that point, I think we have to be willing to look past that

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:20 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:27 Oklahoma State win over Oregon and put them back ahead of Oklahoma State.

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:30 Yeah, look, Oregon's gonna have the opportunity to make bigger statements.

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:34 But

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:35 That game didn't happen a long time ago, the Oklahoma State-Oregon game.

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:39 That game happened recently.

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:40 That game happened three and a half hours ago.

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:43 So

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:43 I have no problem ranking Oklahoma State there.

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:46 They have the same record.

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:48 Oregon has the better loss, but unfortunately, if you're trying to make the Oregon case

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:52 That loss is to Oklahoma State.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:05:54 It's the Oklahoma State, right?

Dan Rubenstein 01:05:55 Oklahoma State's loss got even worse this past weekend with Tulsa being shellacked by Arkansas, a team whose fans have already campaigned against showing up.

Dan Rubenstein 01:06:05 to watch their team, but they still beat Oklahoma State's loss.

Dan Rubenstein 01:06:09 But it's still early on in the season.

Dan Rubenstein 01:06:11 I think Oregon's gonna have a bigger ability to make a leap because of the teams on their schedule coming up, namely

Dan Rubenstein 01:06:18 I guess UCLA and Ohio State these next few weeks.

Dan Rubenstein 01:06:22 But if Oklahoma State goes out and just pounds a bunch of Big 12 teams, the case is gonna be more and more difficult.

Dan Rubenstein 01:06:29 I suspect Oregon will have, you know, will have their ranking on their own racket, tennis term, more so than Oklahoma State.

Dan Rubenstein 01:06:39 But

Dan Rubenstein 01:06:40 All things being equal at the end of the season, it's probably gonna be Oregon, because they're gonna have the resume.

Dan Rubenstein 01:06:48 We have to remember head to head is an important data point, in my opinion.

Dan Rubenstein 01:06:54 It is not the only data point.

Dan Rubenstein 01:06:57 It came around to haunt Notre Dame last year because of what Notre Dame's schedule looked like after Miami.

Dan Rubenstein 01:07:04 Notre Dame was unable to add

Dan Rubenstein 01:07:07 Hugely impressive data points in the way that even though Miami's schedule wasn't incredible and Miami lost the games that they lost.

Dan Rubenstein 01:07:15 That Notre Dame couldn't say, aha, but we beat these three teams.

Dan Rubenstein 01:07:20 They beat USC in the rain, which is good.

Dan Rubenstein 01:07:22 Definitely good.

Dan Rubenstein 01:07:23 But that's, you know, you got to take it all into account, in my opinion.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:07:27 Final question here from new Verballer Greg.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:07:30 Just signed up this morning.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:07:31 Be like Greg.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:07:32 Go to Verballers.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:07:33 com.

Dan Rubenstein 01:07:33 I love that.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:07:34 Sign up to support the team.

Dan Rubenstein 01:07:34 Welcome, Greg.

Dan Rubenstein 01:07:35 Grab Grad.

Dan Rubenstein 01:07:36 Glad to have you, Greg.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:07:38 He says, is offensive continuity overrated?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:07:42 Whether it's new players at different schools, first year starters popping up, or a new offensive coordinator showing up at a different spot?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:07:50 That's what seems to stand out early this year.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:07:52 Conversely, returning production at places like Texas, Oregon, USC, still find a way to struggle in big spots.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:07:59 Oklahoma and Texas A&M are in shambles.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:08:03 Maybe college football is a big enough tent that all of these things can be true, but a lack of game tape or known tendencies may be paying early dividends.

Dan Rubenstein 01:08:07 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:08:13 What are your thoughts?

Dan Rubenstein 01:08:16 I I think the term returning production is doing a lot of work in talking about Texas, Oregon, and USC.

Dan Rubenstein 01:08:24 Texas overhauled its skill position players almost completely.

Dan Rubenstein 01:08:28 Two new running backs.

Dan Rubenstein 01:08:29 They shuffle things along the offensive line.

Dan Rubenstein 01:08:32 They bring in new receiving talent.

Dan Rubenstein 01:08:35 Oregon, completely new offensive line, new offensive coordinator, uh, and loses a first round tight end, not nothing, along with a number of other contributing receivers.

Dan Rubenstein 01:08:45 And who was the other team he he looked at in terms of returning production?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:08:49 Texas, Oregon, USC, and then Oklahoma and AM.

Dan Rubenstein 01:08:49 USC USC last year by and large, I mean they suffered the running back injuries that they did, but like the the pop came from stud receivers.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:08:52 Yeah, those five.

Dan Rubenstein 01:08:59 So it's Jacoby Lane and Makai Lemon.

Dan Rubenstein 01:09:01 for USC lost their best two tight ends as well.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:09:03 Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 01:09:04 So there's still a lot new and different about USC's offense, even though there's quarterback continuity with those three programs.

Dan Rubenstein 01:09:12 There's a good amount new and USC I think also lost their center before the season started, the starting center.

Dan Rubenstein 01:09:17 So we're not just running it back with those offenses.

Dan Rubenstein 01:09:21 I think it's case to case.

Dan Rubenstein 01:09:22 I think all things being equal, you want guys familiar with the language of a system.

Dan Rubenstein 01:09:26 You want to bring you back your successful offensive coordinator.

Dan Rubenstein 01:09:29 You want to bring back your quarterback, you want health.

Dan Rubenstein 01:09:31 Like there's just too many variables to be absolute in terms of like continuity's overrated, continuity is underrated.

Dan Rubenstein 01:09:38 I just

Dan Rubenstein 01:09:39 I think the the big lesson we can learn and sort of put in stone in this era is you're never too far away to get dramatically better in an offseason.

Dan Rubenstein 01:09:51 Right?

Dan Rubenstein 01:09:51 With the right coordinator hire, if you nail some transfers, if you're able to craft a system around what you have instead of what you don't have or what you wish you had.

Dan Rubenstein 01:10:01 You can get dramatically better in the modern era.

Dan Rubenstein 01:10:03 So I think that's the only real absolute is you can, but it's still hard.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:08 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:10 I don't think it's overrated.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:12 I do think we need to have some awareness to the fact that the college football world around

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:19 These teams is not static the way it used to be.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:23 Right?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:23 You know, just because you come into a season with a ton of offensive production, I remember when we did the show ten years ago.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:30 And back then we were just it felt like scratching the surface of returning production.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:33 Bill Connelly was starting to talk about it.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:36 Returning production hasn't been with us all that long, at least as a talking point in the preseason.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:40 And it clearly had a much different definition back then.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:45 Now having returning production I believe is important.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:48 Having that familiarity is certainly important.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:10:51 We have also seen situations like at Indiana, where returning production, air quotes, doesn't mean squat, because you've got a really good coach who knows how to assemble talent quickly.

Dan Rubenstein 01:11:02 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:02 Maybe we're seeing a little bit of that at UCLA and other places around college football this year, certainly not at Penn State, we know that already.

Dan Rubenstein 01:11:08 Of course.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:09 It's worth noting that everyone else is sort of

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:12 living in this era as well.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:13 And so it used to be you could look at a schedule in the preseason and say, well, so and so's got all their players back, their entire offense back.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:20 We know what this other team's gonna look like.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:22 It's easier, at least in our view then, to project who's going to win, who's going to lose.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:26 You can't do that anymore.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:28 You can't do that anymore because so many of these rosters are based around the transfer portal.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:33 There's so little continuity elsewhere.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:35 that it makes it difficult, I think, to fully do a projection the way we used to a decade ago in the year 2026.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:42 It just gets harder to figure out how these teams stack up now.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:46 That's the problem that I've that I've had with it.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:11:48 I think there's some value in it, Greg, but not knowing what other teams are going to be make it hard to put on like an accurate projection, if that makes sense.

Dan Rubenstein 01:11:56 In defense of for example, you know, we're coming off of the USC game against Oregon, which they disappointedly for a USC person lost that game.

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:06 Uh, USC after that game has the number two passing success rate in America.

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:12 They go three and out the least of any team in America.

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:15 Only two percent of all their drives.

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:17 Obviously they've only played Rutgers and Oregon in the Big Ten and they have not played a a

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:21 sizable non-conference schedule this season.

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:23 Um their passing down success rate third in America.

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:27 Like their points per drive, tenth in America.

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:30 Their yards per drive

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:32 Mm-hmm.

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:32 First in America.

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:35 Their offense is fine.

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:36 That's not the problem with USC.

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:39 Um, so it might seem that way in a moment.

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:42 The problem right now is their defense and perhaps some late game decisions

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:46 Dan Rubenstein, let's close this bad boy out by talking through some Dude Alerts.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:50 Again, we forgot to do this on the Saturday Night Show.

Dan Rubenstein 01:12:52 Oh, that's right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:54 We did have a bunch of suggestions.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:55 Let's do it right now.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:12:58 We give Dude Alerts out to the best individual performances, or at least the ones that the Verbrawlerhood can remember.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:05 Here is a list that came into us.

Dan Rubenstein 01:13:06 Yes.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:07 This is highly curated.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:09 There are a number of others that were sent into us, dozens upon dozens upon dozens of others.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:14 Lee Beebe Jr.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:15 from Indiana had a big game.

Dan Rubenstein 01:13:16 Have him on my list.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:17 Colin Simmons, you ever hear of him?

Dan Rubenstein 01:13:19 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:20 Five sacks, the weird peeing celebration.

Dan Rubenstein 01:13:22 Well hydrated.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:22 Okay.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:24 Dylan Raiola, Dan, your boy.

Dan Rubenstein 01:13:26 Yep, absolutely played like a dude.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:28 Speedy Luke from Arizona.

Dan Rubenstein 01:13:30 Mm-hmm

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:30 Luke Wafle from USC.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:35 Austin Romaine, the linebacker.

Dan Rubenstein 01:13:37 Texas Tech.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:38 Yeah, Texas.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:39 Gavin Freeman.

Dan Rubenstein 01:13:41 Oh my God.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:41 Your boy, you love Gavin Freeman.

Dan Rubenstein 01:13:43 Bat out of hell.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:44 Carlos Hernandez, the receiver from Wake Forest, not the former pitcher who did the weird sort of dance out at the mound.

Dan Rubenstein 01:13:50 Right.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:53 You remember that?

Dan Rubenstein 01:13:54 Wait, who did he pitch for?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:13:56 Uh, Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 01:13:58 It looks like Kansas City from Venezuela.

Dan Rubenstein 01:14:01 Okay, continue.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:02 Maybe I'm thinking of somebody else.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:03 Oh I'm definitely thinking No, I'm not thinking I know I'll do gay.

Dan Rubenstein 01:14:04 You're not thinking of El Duque

Dan Rubenstein 01:14:07 Um that's uh Hernandez though.

Dan Rubenstein 01:14:09 Yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:09 Who is the gu who is the left-handed guy from I think the Astros who did the weird not the Astros, the uh the Expos who used to do the weird thing when he struck guys out

Dan Rubenstein 01:14:09 Kansas City, Philly.

Dan Rubenstein 01:14:19 Oh, I know who exactly you're talking about.

Dan Rubenstein 01:14:21 Was he a closer or a starter?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:23 I think he was a starter.

Dan Rubenstein 01:14:24 For the expos?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:25 I want to say played for the Expo.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:26 Oh man, I'm ruining the show here.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:28 Alright, let's keep going.

Dan Rubenstein 01:14:28 Turk Wendell

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:29 No, no, no, no.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:30 Turk Wendell.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:31 Uh the final one here on the list is sent in to us from someone who says the guy who fixed Kirk Herbstreit's microphone.

Dan Rubenstein 01:14:37 Yeah, I mean that was a real tough listen.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:39 It was a tough listen and it happened immedi so we're talking about audio issues in that Texas-Tennessee game

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:46 The president was in attendance.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:48 It was a story going up to the game, building into the game about how when the president moves, there is a disruption.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:14:55 A disruption in stadium communication, a disruption in coach-to-player communication.

Dan Rubenstein 01:14:55 Communications, yeah.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:01 They had a report from Laura Rutledge who was talking about electromagnetic deconfliction.

Dan Rubenstein 01:15:07 Uh-oh, you said her name, Ty.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:07 Whatever that means to you.

Dan Rubenstein 01:15:09 Ty, you said her name.

Dan Rubenstein 01:15:13 Let's continue.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:14 Immediately upon conclusion of that bit, Kirk Herbstreit's microphone and for a moment Chris Fowler's microphone were dunzo.

Dan Rubenstein 01:15:24 Well, not fully.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:25 Not fully, but you could just hear static and partially their voice in the backdrop.

Dan Rubenstein 01:15:30 You you heard them as souls clamoring out from the depths of hell.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:36 So it took a while actually.

Dan Rubenstein 01:15:38 Fail on random drop track.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:41 It took a while.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:42 Yeah, it sounded like a lot of college football podcasts actually.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:46 It took a while though for them to fix the microphone.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:48 Eventually somebody did it.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:50 That guy deserves a Dude Alert.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:52 Again, we call out for dudes

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:54 every Saturday night across all of our social feeds.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:15:57 You can of course dial in if you've got a Dude Alert at 855 Verbal3 as well if you've got something to say.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:02 Maybe you'll make the reverbs, but um a much longer list of

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:07 Standout performers in week four, these are the ones that were most sent into us.

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:12 Yeah.

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:13 I have down Mason McKenzie, Keelon Russell, Cam Cook, Caleb Hawkins, and Wyatt Young, Jeffrey Overton, Davis Warren, Weyshawn Parker.

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:19 I'd said Carlos Hernandez, we talked about him, obviously.

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:22 Uh, Aidan Chiles, also a dude, in my opinion, for how he performed against Indiana.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:25 In your opinion?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:28 Who was that pitcher?

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:29 I mean there the expos you sure he was on the expos?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:35 I thought so.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:36 Maybe I'm just like losing my mind here a little bit.

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:39 Denny Martinez?

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:40 No, it wasn't it wasn't El Presidente

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:43 Well I was at that game by the way.

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:45 I was at his perfect game.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:45 Carlos Perez played for the Expos and the Dodgers.

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:46 Carlos Pérez.

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:47 It was a Carlos.

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:50 There you go.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:50 And he had that little strikeout dance where he would like shuffle his feet and pump up his arms.

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:50 I don't know.

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:51 In the nineties?

Dan Rubenstein 01:16:55 Love to hear it.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:16:57 On that awkward note, thank you for downloading, for listening, for supporting.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:01 We will be back on Wednesday to give you our full breakdown about what is ahead in week five.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:07 Again, Dan and I will be doing the reaction stream in person on Saturday night.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:13 So we hope you all tune in for that.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:15 I am flying out.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:16 We're gonna open up Ryan Field together.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:18 We're cutting the ribbon.

Dan Rubenstein 01:17:19 That's true.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:19 I don't know if you knew about this.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:21 We will be in attendance.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:23 We will be watching Penn State against Northwestern.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:25 By the way, Penn State about a field goal favorite now.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:28 That line has come down given what we saw a week ago against Wisconsin and a week ago

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:34 against Indiana on the northwestern side of things.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:37 We'll be there.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:38 We're gonna watch that game.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:40 We're gonna watch games on Saturday.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:42 We're gonna do our stream and then I'm gonna fly home on Sunday.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:44 So a little bit of a different aura as you are watching the Saturday night stream this week.

Dan Rubenstein 01:17:48 Can't wait.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:50 Should be fun.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:50 It'd be good to see ya.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:52 We don't get that many opportunities to do it through the course of the year, so it'll be fun

Dan Rubenstein 01:17:52 Same

Dan Rubenstein 01:17:55 I'll make you some pizza.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:56 Make me some pizza, make me all the good stuff.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:17:59 I'm excited about that.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:18:01 So that's what you have to look forward to if you enjoy the reaction streams

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:18:05 Please go on out to Verballers.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:18:07 com.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:18:07 Consider signing up to support the team.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:18:09 If nothing more, rate review, subscribe.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:18:11 All that stuff goes a genuinely long way for that.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:18:14 Go over there, Dan Rubenstein for myself over here, Ty Hildenbrandt.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:18:17 We'll catch you all on Wednesday.

Ty Hildenbrandt 01:18:18 In the meantime, you know the drill stay solid.

Dan Rubenstein 01:18:20 Peace.