Welcome to the solid verbal.

I'll ah for me.

I'm a man, I'm forty.

I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy.

You want to be happy for day Edo State?

Is that?

Whoo whoom?

And now Dan and Tie.

Danner mustee welcome back.

We just did this like twenty four hours ago.

We're doing it again.

How are you?

I'm good.

So let's see.

We did a Saturday stream for a game, and a Saturday night reaction to all of the game stream we did Ohio State Indiana.

Then yesterday we did a reaction stream for the College Football Playoffs selection show, and then Friday, I want to say, we did a bonus recording that's on YouTube and maybe the audio's out there on Patreon atverballers dot com.

About the Matt Campbell hire.

That's right, So I'm going at it.

That's right.

I can't get a night.

Tie.

My voice yesterday morning sounded like Kirk Kerbstreet's voice yesterday afternoon.

Yeah it was rough, Yeah it was rough.

I was drinking a lot of the tea with the honey and all that.

So I think I've revived it enough to go at this again and record a little bit more with you.

Yeah, we've got a lot to discuss.

I mean, of course, go back and listen to the bonus episode, the bonus audio that you and I recorded.

It's out there on your podcast feed.

It's out on YouTube as well.

Sort of a two parter this past weekend.

Part one was what we normally do at midnights where we recap all the action.

We talked through all the conference championship games, and.

Then what we put together and then published, of course to the feed yesterday was our reaction to the playoff rankings and the.

Matchups and whatnot.

We're going to talk through a little bit more of that on today's episode.

But there's a bunch of news that's been building up.

You gave away the game a little bit by talking about Penn State and Matt Campbell.

But yeah, yeah, weeople are just finding out now through the shell that it happened.

I'm sorry, weiled it.

We haven't talked about that yet on the public feed, so we're we're gonna do that here.

In addition to a bunch of other items that have popped up since we last reviewed the news, we are going to talk through some early college football playoff thoughts we do have four matchups, our first rounders that we're going to go through, give you points spreads.

Now, when we recorded yesterday, we didn't have those, so we'll talk through those and just some elements of the matchups that jump out to us.

And then we're going to go through some of the Bowl matchups as well.

Not a full fledged preview or anything like that, but there are some interesting matchups.

There are some interesting news stories that come out of these Bowl matchups as well, which we can dive into here in just a little bit as well.

Hit, I got it, by the way, I got it.

I'm interrupting you.

I got gotta tell you.

I'm a little bit surprised, as a Notre Dame person tie that you opted into recording an episode about the postseason.

I'm a little surprised that you didn't release a statement to me exclusively.

You know, you know, ultimately, I'm disappointed that Notre Dame is not in the cause relationship is strained.

I think those were Pete Bavakua's words with respect to Notre Dame and the ACC's we have a show.

Thank you for your courage, Hie, right now, yes, thank you for your courage.

We got that.

We got a bunch of stuff we're gonna get into.

As I was saying, hit follow, hit subscribe.

If you like the show, if you want to usport what we do, we'll be with you three times a week all throughout the off season.

I should add that what we're gonna start doing since we don't want to record on the weekends anymore unless.

We have to.

Of course, we're gonna be running interviews on Sundays now, so we're gonna be doing longer interviews throughout the course of the week.

You and I and some cases will trade off.

In some cases it'll be both of us.

But either way, you will have fresh content at your fingertips for free.

Yes, right here on YouTube, right here in your podcast feed, wherever it is you consume the show.

You've got that to look forward to throughout the month of December and probably beyond.

Yeah, agree, can't wait.

Got some good people absolutely all right, the coaching Dan Rubenstein.

You know what the roar means, don't you?

Of course, just just a lot of energy and enthusiasm.

Sure, it does mean that.

It also means we've got more coaching hires to discuss on the show.

Chief among them is what you alluded to a few moments earlier.

Pat Kraft has made it official.

He has shot off the white smoke.

He has a guy ut to Penn State.

It took forever fifty four days, but Matt Campbell is the higher.

They actually had their introductory presser a little bit ago.

I watched the whole thing.

This is a higher that.

As you know, this process took a bunch of strange turns.

It started with a bunch of the biggest names in the coaching profession, all of whom seemingly turned Penn State down.

Kalani Sataki was heavily rumored to the position, but then the BYU community stepped up.

However that news leaked.

I do not know, but they can't tell.

The cookie crumbles tied.

That is how the cookie crumbles.

Very very good bag.

Yeah.

BYU stepped up in a big way to retain their guy.

Kline's TAKEI and it.

Got a little hairy there towards the end.

Not gonna lie, but Pat Craft eventually finds this guy in Io State's Matt Campbell.

Dan.

Matt Campbell's been rumored to a bunch of big positions, or at least there's reported interest in one direction or the other.

But yes, and he like especially some of those bigger, big ten jobs that have opened up these past few years.

His name has come up, and he seemingly has not expressed that much interest, at least it hasn't seemed that way outwardly.

I think this is an enormous hire for Penn State.

I mean, not just in terms of the gravity of it, given circumstances with letting go of James Franklin after he had been very successful at Penn State for an eternity.

But I think they got a really good guy in Matt Campbell.

As I said, he's been rumored to a bunch of other college football openings.

The NFL came calling for Matt Campbell not too long ago.

Matt Campbell is not a guy who jumped around.

He said as much at his press conference.

He has been tremendously loyal at the places that he has been.

You can just listen to his former athletic director at Iowa State, Jamie Pollard, talk about him.

I mean he was emotional, voice cracked a lot talking about the relationship that he had with Matt Campbell.

What Matt Campbell did at Iowa State, If Penn State gets half of the guy that Matt Campbell was at Iowa State, this is a home run.

Higher.

So when I heard this, I will admit, if I had heard this seven days into the process, I may not have been enamored with it, because Matt Campbell's a low key guy.

It certainly is not the flashiest hire.

But now, given the strange turns that this coaching search has taken, the fact that Matt Campbell now fell off the back of a freaking truck and into the waiting and desperate arms of pack Craft and Penn State University, it's a plus at this point.

Okay, yeah, it is a plus given context.

The fact that it took so long to get here, that's probably a story for another day.

By the way, I'm gonna have Matt Fortuna on with me at some point here, probably later part of this week.

You'll hear that interview.

He's got great details on how the coaching search evolved and all that, So we'll go into that in more detail with Matt.

But the fact that it arrived here at a place now where everybody I think is pretty comfortable with the hire, this is a success story for Penn State for pack Craft and hopefully for Matt Campbell.

Yeah, I don't.

I don't think.

I mean, look, no coaching high is a sure thing.

But I think there are pretty obvious questions about Matt Campbell and Penn State, you know, the least of which is like, what does he look like building a roster?

Obviously, what does he do with that roster?

And the uphill battle he has in a conference with now the number one and two teams in the country in Indiana and Ohio State heading into the playoff that are going to be on his schedule at some point either during the regular season or in the postseason.

You've got Oregon, You've got maybe a Michigan team that could be potentially ascending in the next couple of years.

It's a difficult spot for Penn State to start over from, but obviously Penn State's starting point is in an advantaged one because of how large this operation can be.

But that also begs the question, like does he have the personality to run a much larger operation than what he had at Iowa State, Which, obviously he did a great job with what he had at Iowa State and did a very good job recruiting and won a bunch of games, and you know, built good offenses, built good defense is hired well for the most part.

Obviously there are some hires that don't work out for everybody.

But what does that look like at a place that is larger and has much larger expectations than he's ever had to deal with?

And that's why he's a head coach, right.

You want those challenges, you want that competition, you want to measure yourself against the best, And so there's no reason to doubt this hire from a like do we think this is the right guy to grow into a role like this?

I think it's absolutely one of the right guys that you can talk yourself growing into a place like this.

So I do like it a lot.

He said two things at his introductory pressor that to me stood out above all else.

The first was it was the last question in the Q and a bit where somebody asked him, tell us your roots about Penn State or to Penn State.

Have you ever met James Franklin, Have you ever met Bill O'Brien or Joe Paturno?

Have you ever been here before?

And Matt Campbell I thought was really, really, I don't want to say conviction and like straightforward.

Yeah.

I don't want to say calculated, because calculated that implies that there was some undertone of you know, there was some ulterior motive.

But it was just really smart the way he answered that question, and he said, the short answer is no to everything.

I haven't been here before.

I don't know James Franklin, I don't know Bill O'Brien, I didn't meet Joe Paterno.

He had a relationship with Todd Blackledge's dad.

He talked about how that was an important relationship for him that helped sort of mentor him through his early days as a.

Football player and as a coach.

He talked about his grandparents in Pennsylvania and how they had an outsized influence on him just as people, and how they were very passionate about Penn State football.

But personally, given some of the strife that has been circling around this program now for a while, I like the fact that they're getting somebody from the outside completely maybe has regional ties to Penn State football, but does not have the baggage of having been at Penn State before knowing any of the same people.

That type of thing, if you're going to make this movie.

If you're going to do away with a guy who was this successful for that long in state college, I would hope that it's somebody from the outside who's not going to continue any of the old ideas, going to start fresh or going to reboot now and see what we can build for the better moving forward.

That was the first thing.

The second thing, and this is a little bit more X and OE, but he talked at length about how they built from the ground up their player acquisition model, their GM position over at Iowa State.

It's much different than what Penn State was doing under James Franklin.

And so I think a guy who and he detailed this.

He can go and listen to this if you want, but talked about how he and his partners at Iowa State built this from the ground up.

He's got first hand experience putting in that elbow grease, figuring out on the fly as many programs did, how to navigate this new landscape in college football.

I think that will benefit him greatly because a he's put in the work, he knows what goes into it, he understands the operation, and it's going to benefit Penn State in the long run because I think it will take their program to the next level.

Again, this is something that we heard on that leaked audio that came out from Patcraft, how James Franklin was paying everybody on the roster instead of maybe a lotting funds in a way that you're giving more to the guys who are doing more.

Yeah.

So I just think that there's going to be a total reboot on that side.

And I honestly that was the most exciting part of it.

His demeanor fits the moment.

I think Penn Staters are going to be very happy with just listening to this guy in an interview, but I think the more operational aspects of what he brings to the table here are really exciting.

Yeah.

And look, it was it was intended to be recorded, which is new for Penn State with everything coming out of the program.

Yeah, no point.

Did Matt Campbell call Oregon soft or a fraud, which I guess is like a new a new like fut Man.

We'll find out those flashing uniforms, can you be jmu?

I don't know.

We'll see, We'll see, We'll see Man twenty one twenty two point somewhere.

And let's get to that we'll get to that.

Wait, so Penn State's got his guy.

It took forever, it ended up well.

If in fact this ends up working for pat Craft, he will have truly pulled a rabbit out of his you nowhere, because this was a really fed up process.

And again, I'm going to talk more about that with our friend Matt Fortuna.

We'll talk about that and publish it to the feed a little bit later on in the week.

I mean, Matt Campbell did.

He did accept a four million dollar raise too.

He did.

We should point out that, like, he's not doing this out of the goodness of his heart.

Now eight years seventy and a half million, I believe fully guaranteed.

Yes, good for him.

Iowa State moved quickly, and I mean very quickly to name his replacement, so quickly that they named their replacement before Penn State made it official with Matt Campbell.

They were ready, Yeah.

They were ready for this.

Jimmy Rodgers is going to be the guy from wise.

I listened to Jamie Pollard, the ad again for Iowa State, talk through his relationship with Jimmy Rodgers and why he went in this direction as quickly as he did.

Jimmy Rodgers familiar with that part of the country, was a coach in South Dakota.

Has been successful in his own right.

I think was good at Wazoo in the short time that he was there.

Yes, he seems very excited about that move to Ames, Iowa.

So hopefully Iowa State's got a good guy to fill their vacancy.

By the way, Wazoo this past year, all things considered, right, two straight years of losing your quarterback, you're very good quarterback to the portal, bringing in a coach who is bringing inn FCS players, competing with schools like take your pick, Virginia and Old Miss traveling all over the place because of a weird schedule, playing Oregon State twice.

I think splitting with Oregon State.

I just thought he did a really good job in a very difficult situation.

And so hopefully it's gonna be a little bit more stable for Rogers in Ames.

And I seem to like the higher like you like to hire winning coaches no matter the level, and he sort of fits that bill.

Another guy who is Matt Campbell ad Jason is Jason Kandall.

It took the Yukon job.

Jason Kandell another one of these guys who has been rumored for a bunch of other positions, been a good coach for a long time at Toledo.

He is making a move over to Yukon, kind of a rumors move.

Rumored to be interested in major program offensive coordinator jobs yep, for a couple of years there.

I think Miami is a team with whom he spoke about an open coordinator job situation there.

It just seems right now, especially when you look at Sean Lewis taking the Colorado and an eventual San Diego State Colorado offensive coordinator job San Diego State head coaching job.

That making a leap right now from MAC head coach to Power Conference head coach or Major G five head coach might not be the most obvious path, Like there needs to be there needs to be a move elsewhere.

I mean the Yukon situation.

I guess Jim Moore is at Colorado State now, but just seemed like he needed a change of scenery.

Felt like he had hit his ceiling there and by the way, just fall out from that.

I think it's Vince Karaz.

I don't know how you pronounced.

I apologize, but he's a super well regarded defensive coordinator, smaller school head coach before that.

He is taking over at Syracuse right very much in need of a new defensive thinker after this past season, and I think there's a lot of high hope for him after what he did at Toledo.

Charles Huff is going to Memphis.

He was at Southern Miss for one year.

Yes, that was.

After coming over from Marshall bringing his whole team.

Had a good year, you know.

One of the most improved teams.

Yeah, and we'll see if he brings the whole team within the Memphis now or the what the plan is going to be.

But I think a good coach.

You know, a lot of people think highly of Charles Huff, and I think it's a good Memphis program.

Look, they're getting money, They're getting that FedEx money.

They were very much in the conversation for a good chunk of this year.

Even before this year, Memphis has very much been one of those schools that's sort of on the top line.

When you're thinking a group of five programs and get an opportunity, I guess to go somewhere a little bit bigger with more resources.

Here's what I don't love I think you're right.

I think obviously the Memphis thing, they'll have I think the most resources in the American Obviously, Southern miss was one of the most improved teams in America this past year after how down they were in twenty four.

I don't love one and done coaches.

It always rubs me.

Like Jimmy Rogers to Iowa State, there's is that element, and I know Washington State's in like a weird unique thing with the conference changes and everything like that.

I didn't love it with Todd Graham at what Pitt to Arizona State.

The one and done thing is just it's kind of schevs me out.

I just the idea of going to a new place, getting everybody excited.

This is how we're going to recruit.

This is how we're going to retain the roster, this is how we're going to like, you know, how we're going to hire.

Here's how we're going to scheme and just like bailing after ten months or something, you know, a year, I don't know.

I don't love it.

I know there's opportunity.

I know you got to strike when the irons hot.

We've seen this before, Like I see it, and I think to myself, Man, a bunch of kids just like got sold a bill of goods and that sucks.

I don't know Billy Napier is going to be the coach at JMU.

He is, I mean, value higher, right?

I think so.

James Madison's been really good at hiring football coaches.

Obviously, Kurt Signetti that one worked obviously.

Now with Bob Chesney, that one seems to work pretty well.

They're a playoff team.

Billy Napier, not that long ago, was the name.

He was the name among G five coaches that everybody wanted.

I remember when he signed on with Florida.

It was viewed as a slam dunk.

It wasn't It didn't work out.

We can discuss at some other point, maybe on our Sunday Interview series, why it didn't go the way that it was supposed to do.

But that being said, Billion Napier was very successful at this level before you got to think that he learned something.

I would hope he learned something from his time at Florida.

And if you are a JMU duke out there, at a minimum, you are getting a guy with previous coaching experience who's been around the block a bunch of times, and clearly as coach at.

The highest level.

So I actually think this is a brilliant move by JMU to get him sort of on the rebound at a bit of a discount.

You definitely run the risk of being successful and him going to greener pastures at some point in the future.

But this is the state of play if you're a school like JMU, I commend them for going out and get him because I.

Think he can do really well there.

It's also JMU is one of those places and I say that like with a capital P that sometimes places when and not necessarily coaches.

And this is to take nothing away from any of those guys you mentioned.

Also Mike Houston had a really nice run at JMU before what ECU that sometimes places have the in structure, have the leadership, have the location right that JMU was one of those teams that made an impeccable leap from the FCS ranks to the FBS ranks, and you saw that with those coaches, and so you know, apparently Harrison I've never been a Harrisonburg, Virginia people think seem to think it's a really terrific like Gem of a college town.

So yeah, I think it's one of those situations that if Billy Napier doesn't succeed in this role, it almost makes it very obvious it's a Billy Napier thing, not a JMU thing, when the three guys who you know preceded him had the success that they did.

So hope that they can keep it going because it's been a cool story there in the Sunbelt.

Also obviously a winnable conference, a very winnable confidence Sunbelt.

Billy back at it, yes, just with a different Sunbell team.

Tulane has promoted Will Hall the offensive coordinator.

They are promoting from within.

There are a bunch of big names that were tied to that two lane job, like Baker as one comes to mind at LC, the defensive coordinator who decided he's going to stay at Alishampton.

Yeah, yeah, I heard.

A bunch of names that were tied to this one.

But they're promoting from within, hoping to keep the trend rolling.

Tu lane obviously is going to be playing in a playoff game.

We will talk about that momentarily as well.

Hope to keep the wave foaming.

That's good, not bad.

I do like I got a good night's sleep last night, Ty, I hope you can tell I'm.

Pretty excited about the uniform game that we're going to see on display.

Like Two Lane's got some of the best home away in alternate jersey combinations in college football, and to have that sort of under the bright.

Lights of the College Football Playoff is pretty cool.

I'm excited.

Well, it's a it's a baby blue rematch.

It is, obviously Oh Missus shade of baby blue and Two Lane's shade of I think Two Lanes a little bit lighter.

I wouldn't count on Ty hilden Brandt to point out the specifics on shade.

You could tell me it's red, I'd believe you.

I have no idea.

Ty has made ab D plus eye awareness.

I can't see color, so right, I'm saying, like you're I don't know what part of is your retina's whatever it is.

It's yeah, but you're right that this should be even though it's a rematch on the football field for a game.

I don't think not many people and only a lot of people wanted to watch forty five to ten Part two after what olemiss did to them earlier this season.

Obviously, Tulane had a very good year.

Otherwise, it's a great uniform matchup.

Absolutely.

And then on the assistant front, Dan, Yes, you already mentioned that Syracuse hired a new defensive coordinator.

But there are a couple other coordinators that are out and about.

Yes, there are.

Brent pry is coming back, Baby, I love this so much.

Brent.

Two of these right, It's Brent Priy and we have Zach Arnett Mississippi State.

Brent Prye is coming back as defensive coordinator for Virginia Tech.

I had heard a couple other names attached to that one, and never once was Brent probably ruled out of that conversation, which I found odd at the time, but sounds as though he kind of parted ways on decent enough terms with Virginia Tech.

He liked the area.

I think a lot of people liked him.

But it's I saw what it was floating around online.

It killed me.

The clip of George Costanza walking back in after he had been fired, after he quit the day before and acting as if nothing happened.

That's essentially what we're getting here with Brent Priye.

He's coming back at it, going to be coaching the defense one of the things, and again fact check me.

I could be totally away off here, but I want to say I saw this in a couple of different places that one of the things Brent Prye did really well at Virginia Tech was sort of mend fences locally with a lot of high schools in the state of Virginia that justin Fwente did not do a terrific job reportedly in terms of relationships and recruiting and stuff like that.

And what Brent Pride did with Virginia Tech was almost invaluable, even though the results weren't there on the field.

That Virginia Tech's network has sort of regenerated in the high school ranks, and obviously they're going to be very portal heavy for the next year or two and just getting the floor up at Virginia Tech to where James Franklin wants it to be.

But if you have somebody like that in the fold and relationships internally seem to be fine, Like you mentioned with Brent pry it's weird, it's novel, it's unorthodox, but fired coach new role, Okay.

I mean, if James Franklin is basically able to reconstitute some version of his Penn State operation at Virginia Tech.

It's a home run.

Sure that in and of itself would be a home run in Blacksburg because they needed that.

And now they're renewing their investment in the football program.

What was the number something on like two hundred and twenty nine million dollars maybe more that they're going to inject into the operation.

So look, there's there's a lot of reason, I think to be optimistic about where this goes.

And just look at the ACC this year, look at the ACC last year.

Right, you could build a program quick in the ACC, you can make some serious Hey, you can do it, and uh, Franklin's gonna try.

So he's keeping Brent Pryor around.

You mentioned the Zach Barnett thing at Mississippi State.

He is coming back in the folds.

I got another one of these situations.

He wasn't his way fired.

He wasn't just fired this year as Pride was, but alas we're going to have that happen.

We've got Buster Faulkner, the offensive coordinator from Georgia Tech who's going to go to Florida.

They have also made a hire at defensive coordinator, Brad White gonna come down from Kentucky.

Yes, two good amount of success.

Yeah.

Buster Faulkner was a name that was floating around many circles, many openings.

Brad White has obviously been very, very good for a long time up at Kentucky.

So that staff down at Florida taking form for John Summrell.

We've got Joe Rossi retained as defense coordinator up at Michigan State for Pat Fitzgerald, their new coach.

We've got a new offensive coordinator at Kentucky, Joe Sloan, coming over from LSU.

He is being hired now by will Stein, the new head guy at Kentucky, to run that offense.

I'm curious to get your thoughts on that one, because Joe Sloan was very much sort of a boogeyman at LSU with the way the offense had played recently under Brian Kelly made a change at that position.

But will Stein, an offensive mine familiar with the state of Kentucky.

He is tabbing Joe Slan to be his dude.

Right, Look, Joe, if you want to spin it positively, Joe Sloan was Jaden Daniels.

I think quarterbacks coach, the quarterback coach at LSU when he won the Heisman and helped to develop into the first round talent and successful NFL coordinator, successful NFL quarterback that he is now.

Look, when you have will Stein as your head coach, you might also have will Stein as your office coordinator.

And Joe Sloan might just be handling quarterbacks more than anything.

And maybe and certainly he'll be game planning and helping to design the architecture of the offense.

But I would suppose that this is going to be a will Stein offense more than anything.

I don't know if they've is that a good thing about calling plays?

Wi?

Willstein's offense at Oregon has led the nation in EPA the past three years.

And I think will Stein exclusively or at least not exclusively because I don't think Dante Morris be a Heisman finalist but had two Heisman finalist quarterbacks Nicks.

Is it leading the nation because of the talent on hand or because of the scheme.

There's a lot of schools that have talented players that are nowhere near first in the country in EPA, including LSU.

With Joe Sloan's right a lot of talent on that offense.

Didn't sniff that.

So yes, I think it's one thing to acquire talent, it's another thing to develop it and then game plan and execute in games.

Did so in the Big Ten, a major conference.

So I don't think you can make any sort of case that will Stein is an average offensive mind.

He's I think he's excellent Oregon and we'll see what they do in this year's playoff with will Stein calling the offense ahead of us, with the you know, potential first round quarterback talent and Dante Moore they've got, They've had a really really good offense, and I think in the SEC and where Kentucky is in the financial commitment that they seem to be giving will Stein, they're going to be able to find more Wandale Robinson's best case scenario, right that you're going to be able to look at what Oregon did.

You're gonna be able to sell what will Stein did at Oregon developing quarterbacks and receivers and offensive lineman whatever, that he is going to be able to find guys to succeed at Kentucky in a way that Kentucky hasn't seen consistently ever in the modern era, so I think it's a good thing.

Well, they've had the same coach there forever and it's always been a little bit more defensive minded, so it'll be nice to see what they can do on the offense side of the ball with Gully will Stein first big job.

Obviously he's been a big place, but I'm curious to see how this shapes up around him again.

Joe Sloan gonna be the OC.

And the only other the only other one I have here in terms of coordinators, you have one other one that I want to discuss after this, please, But Ryan Silverfield made a higher as Ron Roberts of Ron Roberts to be his new defensive coordinator at Arkansas.

So bear in mind this is an Arkansas team that did not play defense for two years running.

No, and I know this is a higher in particular that Arkansas fans were interested in.

Which direction is he going to go?

He chooses Ron Roberts, Yes, I mean the sort of SEC institutional knowledge given his recent time at Auburn and Florida I think is pretty good.

Since Ryan Silverfield's institutional SEC knowledge is limited, I don't think Ron Roberts, given you know, the ups and downs.

I think he's older as well.

Maybe you can fact check me on that.

I don't think he's a long one, long term guy.

But in terms of like setting up the infrastructure of like an average SEC defense, an up and down SEC defense, you could do worse only fifty eight years old.

Oh Okay, it's not that way.

It just sounds like an old guy.

Ron Robert.

And he's also been everywhere.

Yeah, he was a tailor with Dave Randa.

Yeah, for a long long time.

Yeah, he's at Florida a couple of years ago.

Over the last two years, I should say, last two seasons, sort of came in and supplanted Austin Armstrong, right, that ended up being more of a Ron Robbers job and.

Had a very good reputation at Louisiana as well.

Yeah, so they're getting somebody with a bit of a track record, and I think if you're an Arkansas fan, the reason we put it down on the sheet is because we know that obviously defense has been a primary concern now as they enter this new territory with Ryan Silverfield the other name here that I want to bring up.

We don't talk a ton about offensive line coaches but this is one that I think has real relevance.

Nebraska has fired Don of in Riola.

Yes, their offensive line coach.

The last name sacked him, if you will, ty sacked him, thank you.

Yeah, the last name sounds perhaps familiar to those of you listening at home.

He is related to Dylan Royola.

He was one of the main reasons why Dylan Royl is there.

So if you want to play a little bit of like jump to conclusions, does this mean Could this mean that Dylan Royola is also going elsewhere?

That seems to be the smoke as of late.

Yeah, I mean I understand why it's the smoke.

I don't know if he did the like the always terrifying cleared all of his social media of all references to Nebraska.

I have no idea, but obviously this you know, Dylan Roola was somebody whose recruitment was sort of all over the place in terms of commitments I think with Ohio State and Georgia before Nebraska.

His high school career was sort of all over the place, so it wouldn't be surprising.

I can't speak with the authority about what he's thinking in this moment, but the I think the Nebraska fans sentiment was, we've got to sort of treat the offensive line coach with kid gloves so we don't upset the quarterback.

And so if the quarterback's already upset and perhaps thinking about his future, the change it offensive line coach seemed kind of necessary if his last name were, you know, Freedman or something.

So they've they've quickly, you know, made a move.

I think they hired Georgia Tech's offensive line coach is a jeep.

Way does I he pronounce it geep jeep?

I always get confused by the geep.

And they also hired a new defensive coordinator after a pretty disappointing defense this past year under John Butler.

They hired was it rob Oric Orich from San Diego State.

Yeah, so they're they're being very proactive, which I think good for Nebraska because even quarterback and injury aside, there were a lot of rooms in that house for improvement.

Yeah, and it's such a because I know you and I differ a little bit on our opinion of Dilan Royola, but he was done no service by his offensive line.

The offensive line now both years with him as starting quarterback has just been dreadful.

So it's really tough, and I know that there's frustration in the Nebraskan community.

They were never truly able to see Dilan Royal was sealing it.

At least they haven't yet.

Now maybe he'll stay.

I you know, I'm not privy to anything.

It seems though that the writing is on the wall that he might be headed elsewhere.

So if he ends up hitting the portal, that would clearly be a big name that I think would get a lot of an interest from places around college football that might be looking for a quarterback.

And you know, it's literally every program that might be looking for a quarterback would probably be interested in Dilanroola because he.

Definitely has a lot of role tiels that are exciting.

He has a first round arm, there's no question about that for sure.

So where he ends up, if he does go in the portal, that will be something that we cover here.

But yeah, with relation leaving the program as offensive line coach, perhaps the writing is on the wall there.

You could, by the way, you could just see watching Nebraska this year offensively that we've talked about seeing ghosts right when coverages are confusing for certain quarterbacks and they're throwing it into areas they thought would be clear and there's three dudes fighting over the interception, or they're not throwing it there because they think dudes were there.

There was something about watching Dylan Royola and his footwork that even when he had a clean pocket, he almost felt like a ghost pass rush, that there was something that he felt hurried up, even in times he didn't need to feel hurried up.

And that's just because of the scar tissue.

I think he developed, like the emotional scar tissue behind playing behind a line that was pretty disappointing at times, and so it just it led to such an a rhythmic offense that it just felt like they needed somebody new.

I'm glad they found somebody that hopefully can improve things.

And whether it's Dian Royola, whether it's somebody else at quarterback, you'd like an issue to be addressed after four years or whatever successfully.

So hopefully this is the guy.

This is the year.

I'm going to move on here.

I want to talk about something else, but before I do, just an fyi.

We kind of did a speed run there of new coach hires, some of which we talked about in greater detail.

Than others.

We also are going to be doing a coach only show where we talk about coaches, and we talk about rumors, and we talk about much of what went on on this coaching carousel cycle that we've been on over the last couple of weeks.

Because obviously there's been a lot to talk about, we want to make sure we give it it's due.

We're going to give its own show here in short orders, so stay tuned for that, but a little preview as to what's to come on that front.

And when we talk some playoff matchups.

Sure, this New Year's Eve will be so awesome.

As Dan Rubertstein, You're four first round matchups.

We talked about him yesterday, I talked about him again.

Now Oklahoma squaring off against Alabama.

They are playing host to that one in Norman.

Alabama is a one and one half point road favorite.

We've also got Texas A and M playing host of Miami.

A and M is favored by four.

We've got the sixth seed, Ole Miss Rebels, a sixteen and a half point home favorite over tu Lane.

As you mentioned earlier, they beat them forty five to ten earlier in the year and last, but certainly not least your Oregon Ducks.

The five seed playing host on Saturday night, December the twentieth to James Madison.

The twelve seed got in by virtue of Duke winning the ACC and all that rigamarole.

Can't let the five lost team in them be a little bit weird, jam you going to be making the trip out to the Pacific Northwest.

So those are our first round matchups.

Wanted to give ourselves a little bit more of an opportunity to offer any early thoughts we have on these matchups.

We did again a speed run of them yesterday we reacted to the playoff field, but now with the benefit of about twenty four hours to think through these matchups a little bit more.

What comes to mind with Oklahoma Alabama because this is the game that they're going to focus on, the Friday night game.

Yep, solo shot.

Yeah, right, so they get the stage all to themselves.

Last year it was Notre Dame against Indiana.

This year it's going to be Oklahoma Alabama.

As I said, Alabama favored by a point and a half.

Bear in mind that Oklahoma won this game a little bit earlier in the year.

Yeah, I mean, look, it's going to be an incredible environment in Norman, and the focus is going to be on I think both of these offenses more than anything, because there's not a lot to question with Oklahoma's defense at this point now.

They're pretty excellent.

The schedule that they played, the playmakers on all three levels, the results that they got.

You thank the defense because this offense is around the eightieth best in America.

So I think you're just sort of racing to twenty racing to twenty four and hoping that that's I mean, you'll sort of be pretty well assured that that's going to be good enough.

Alabama's defense this year, by and large, has been excellent.

It just hasn't had to lead the way in the way that Oklahoma's defense has had to lead the way, and obviously that was highlighted with Oklahoma's very recent win in this rematch matchup.

So yeah, I think it's just like in terms of maybe John Mateer's health in his hand and taking some time to like watch more tape because I don't know, if you listen to a lot of Oklahoma fans, I think they like him a lot.

They're like, they like the spirit and the enthusiasm and the leadership of Jometier.

But then like you watch games from a higher angle and you're like, he's just missing receivers.

So hopefully this time is good for the game plan and the reps in practice for Jametier to get time and Alabama wise is just like figuring out their offensive line ahead of Oklahoma, figuring out their game plan and getting rid of the ball quickly as we saw Ty Simpson being hounded and forced in mistakes and just sort of I guess it's this.

It's sort of the time for a reset.

Who resets best in this matchup?

I think is going to be a good focus.

When these teams played back on November the fifteenth, you may recall, and in case you don't, I'm going to remind you now one member of this broadcasting duo predicted the exact final score, and that was me.

Yeah.

Well, when you bet against Alabama weekly, you're just going to start nailing things eventually, even if they're a good team.

This is one of those weeks which apparently I've done.

We had some folks already in that I've bet against Alabama not to lose out right against my spread.

Yeah, against the spread a.

Good number of times this past season.

Now, we both had Oklahoma in that game.

To be clear, we had Oklahoma in that game twenty three to twenty one was the final, and I remember my big takeaway from it was just how much pressure.

Oklahoma got on Ty Simpson.

And if you think what has happened to Alabama now now since that matchup back on November the fifteenth, it's been a bunch of teams trying to dial up the pressure on him.

I saw it from Auburn, We obviously saw it from Georgia.

These teams have proven rather successful at getting to Ty Simpson, upsetting his balance a bit.

Alabama has not really been able to run the football this year, so it's truly all in the arm of ty Simpson.

If you're getting to him, if you're upsetting that rhythm, we've seen it a couple times now, you can have some success.

Even though Auburn didn't win, they blitzed like every play.

It felt like this seems to be a bit of a template now that Oklahoma has set since knocking off Alabama earlier this year, and I would expect that we're going to see a lot of the same stuff in this matchup.

I have not seen the big reset.

Yet on the Alabama side, it's part of why I was, I don't know, more skeptical than almost everybody about Alabama getting into this playoff field.

Yeah, so I think they're going to have their work cut out for them to block what is going to be a ferocious Oklahoma pass rush.

That's the first thing they got to deal with and where my mind goes first with that, And secondly, I think you said exactly where I'm leaning on the Oklahoma offense side.

We haven't done the full research for this game.

We'll do a preview and all that, but snap judgment, Oklahoma's got to get better on offense.

They might be able to win this game solely with defense, because I think they've established a bit of a track record for that now against Alabama, they know how to do it.

But the deeper they go into this thing, if they've got Indiana in the next round, you're.

Going to score some points.

You're going to score some points.

Now Indiana only need a thirteen to beat Ohio State, maybe you don't need to score points.

Maybe you can get into a bit of a defensive slug fest.

But I just think that's a lot to assume when you go up against what is otherwise a high scoring offense in Indiana that you're just going to be able to contain them to seventeen points.

Nice little Calvin Samson Bowl there by the way, Oklahoma, Indiana, it is.

I love connective tissue.

You're totally right, totally right that among the Power Conference teams in the playoffs, So I guess among the top ten teams, Oklahoma's offense is the worst unit on the field.

We'll see see where this goes.

We got a rematch Texas A and M.

Miami is, for my money, the most interesting matchup in round one.

Okay, again A and M favored by four points.

This is in effect the two teams beat Notre Dame.

Not in effect it is it just is yeah and nbat I guess Alabama.

Alabama beat Notre Dame just in a more vague way, in a more vague way.

And then one back in uh, I don't know, early part of the year, Week three, Week two, whatever it was forty one botched extra point by Tyler Buckner.

On the Notre Dame side.

Miami won that one Week one against Notre Dame in Coral Gables in Miami, twenty seven to twenty four.

So upon seeing this matchup, my first thought was I'm gonna go heavy on Texas A and m I like the fact that they're hosting a game.

I think they've got better balance across the board than Miami does.

I also want to be careful when I do my research to not underestimate Miami, because Miami is very good along the lines.

Miami has a bona fide playmaker and true freshman Malachai Toni.

They've got a veteran quarterback in Carson Beck who has played in many a big game and will not be prone to, like, you know, wilting in a matchup like this.

Wait, hold on, am I to understand you don't feel like Carson Beck can wilt in a big game.

I know he can, but I don't think that is my starting point when I talk about Miami.

Okay, So I think this is a dangerous team in this tournament.

I think they are built from the inside out in a way that makes them very viable to make a run.

I just like Texas A and m better in this way, which is why I think I would lean Aggie's Do you have a differing point of view?

I don't know.

My lean yet, because there are certain arguments to be made that, like, the best playmaker in this game is a Malachi Toni for Miami, although like the receipt, you can say Casey Conceptsion fits that bill with what he does on special teams and at receiver.

So I'd be fine with that.

If you want to make the argument that Miami's defensive line is the best unit in that game, I think I'm okay with it.

If you want to make the argument that what Mike Elko does with this defense, especially in the second halves of these games, is maybe the scariest element of this game, I'm okay with that, honestly.

To me, like the underthink express says, which quarterback has fewer diarrhea throws?

Right?

Diarrhea?

Like?

Which quarterback?

Where did you find that?

What is that clip from?

It's Morgan Freeman and a drug commercial, A truebee?

I think that's what which one it was?

Did?

I just say diarrhea throws because I could play that clip.

It's It's entirely possible.

He played it the other day and I was saying, what is going on here?

Okay?

Anyway, no it to me, it's just like, okay, a quarterback, had a nightmare of a night and let three to five throws get away from him, not necessarily interceptions, but three just like abysmal throws, and that ended up being the difference.

I don't know who I'm describing between Marcel Read and Carson Beck, who both have very high ceilings and very low floors this season specifically, so that to me is like who grows into the moment and who wilts away in the moment.

I think is going to be a big factor here.

And you know, Marcel Reid, given his mobility, is a huge X factor totally.

He is a matchup nightmare, especially when you get the best version of Marcel Reid.

The other thought I have about this matchup, and you know it because it came up when we were talking about Miami versus Notre Dame.

Going all the way back to that first matchup.

A lot was made of the fact that it was a ten carry thirty three yard performance by Jeremiah Love.

They did a pretty good job containing Notre Dame's ground attack.

Again, You've heard me argue many times over it was a terrible game plan.

They didn't know what they had in CJ.

Carr.

They definitely played it too close to the vest.

But the game is over in Miami won right.

This game is going to be I think a really really good test of the Texas A and M ground assault because if they're not able to get it going on the ground.

Even though Marcel Reid has definitely improved as a passer this year, and I think that's very evident if you watch any of A and M this year, but without that balance, I think it makes it much harder to attack this Miami defense.

Remember this is a really really solid Miami defensive front.

They know how to get after the passer.

If you can introduce something of a ground game, if you can give the front, the guys behind them, and the second layer of the defense something more to think about, it makes the A and.

M offense all the more explosive.

And they do have explosive playmakers across the board, but you got to get that ground game gone.

They've been good at it all year.

This will be I think a unique test for them, going up against the Miami front that's been very very good by and large AA Instagram.

Yeah, I agree, And also it should be noted that like neither one of these teams has played incredible offenses consistently this year.

No so, no, they have these will be some of the better offenses.

Like Texas A and m had a stretch where like they're playing South Carolina, they're playing a beat up Miszoo LSU was obviously a nightmare of Arkansas good, but like Florida was a nightmare this year, and same goes for what Miami saw down the stretch by and large.

And so this is this is going to be obviously a raised ceiling environment in terms of like the pop of both of these offenses.

And then we've got the six and the eleven, the five and the twelve.

Ole Miss playing host Tulane.

Again, we saw this game earlier in there forty five to ten, was not particularly close.

No situation has changed at Ole Miss, new coach specific what happened.

A lot of distractions, right, I mean, there's a lot's gone on since these teams played last not the least of which is both coaches for both teams going elsewhere.

Even though John Sommerl is hanging around for this one, and then on the Oregon JMU side did not play during the regular season.

Bob Chesney's going to be playing in the same conference, coaching in the same conference before long as he makes the move over to UCLA.

So this is going to be his first taste of what the Oregon Ducks provide.

This one will be played in Eugene.

Of these two matchups, take yourself out of like your Oregon bubble for a minute, right, Of these two matchups, which one to you is the most interesting of the two matchups?

I still think it's two Lane ole Miss from what of course, the narrative perspective of ole Miss and what they look like without Lane Kiffen, all the drama that surrounded that program, and like, maybe this thing that helps to galvanize ole Miss, right that, like everybody's writing them off, including their own head coach who decided a few weeks ago that he'd rather be elsewhere, which what, it's his prerogative.

That's fine.

That maybe this is something that sort of helps to bring this team together.

And I mean Tulane has a transitive ACC Conference championship, right, Tulane as a program.

Just did they win the Cotton Bowl like three or four years ago?

Right, they beat USC in like a shootout, So I just the ceiling of this program, I think is a little bit higher than James Madison, and given the uncertainty about what exactly ole Miss is going to look like, I know we have the certainty of what this matchup looks like when everything is sort of uneven.

Played during the regular season, ole Miss was five touchdowns better.

But at this point you can at least talk yourself into Tulane being a better form team, albeit losing their head coach.

As you mentioned as well, that they've grown into something after Look, Jake Retslav joined this program like an hour and a half before the season started, so he's had time to gel in this system.

They won the conference.

They looked overwhelming on defense against North Texas.

It's North Texas, so I think that at least has the higher potential for a competitive two and a half quarters before maybe all Miss runs away with it.

That's my view.

I actually think the other game is more interesting.

Okay, tell me why to quote the Backstreet Boys.

Tell me why.

James Madison on defense is really intriguing to me.

And if you watched the championship game the other night, you were undoubtedly left with a lot to be desired with.

This Jamu offense.

Yeah, it run the ball, but the offense was not I mean, I really wanted more from a team that I had talked up as a playoff participant.

We did not see that.

On defense.

The defense came through in a really big way.

This is going to be obviously a much different test for the Dukes going all the way up to the Pacific Northwest playing one of the best offenses in the country, the five seed Oregon.

But one of the conversations you and I have had, I think frequently about Oregon is how much is real, how much is assumed?

How good is this team really?

They have been a whole lot of tests for Oregon.

Right They struggled on the road at Penn State, at least down the stretch they struggled.

They ended up winning that one in overtime.

They obviously lost to Indiana.

These are teams that we perceived to be much better than jmu oh.

They struggled on the road against Iowa in the rain.

That was a slugfest.

Yeah know.

There have been a couple of these moments for Oregon, in particular against teams that play defense, where you just sort of wonder, like, Okay, what are we in for here with this team?

I am not saying JMU is going to beat Oregon.

I do not believe that.

Maybe it's more a question of the point spread, but I think JMU is really feisty on defense, and at least that side of their game is not something to be too underestimated.

I think, for at least a chunk of this game, and maybe it's only a half or half of a quarter, I don't know, but I think for some portion of this game, you're gonna see jmu's defense step up and maybe provide a little bit more resistance than might meet the eye.

When you see five versus twelve and a twenty one point spread.

Would you ager on James Madison to cover that?

No?

I would, I probably won't.

Oh, to be fair, the question that you were asking is just like, what are you most intrigued by?

What could what could be?

Like a weird thing that could happen that goes against the assumption that Oregon wins and Ole Miss wins easily.

So I mean, if I were betting on one of these two G five schools, it would almost certainly be two lane.

Okay, it would one hundred percent be two lane, given the distractions at Old Miss, given what two lane does on offense with Jake Rehetzliff.

I think it's a little too Retzliff heavy.

Honestly, it looks a lot like his offense last year at BOU.

I talked about this on the Recap show.

But there's at least a familiarity there.

Tou Lane saw Ole Miss.

They know what they're in for here.

Maybe they can use some of what they learned that first time around to make this one a little bit closer.

And the fact that the point spread is under three scores is telling in its own right, given the fact that it was a thirty five point game the first time around.

So Vegas given Tu Lane I think a little bit more respect than they are JMU at this point.

Maybe they just think Oregon's way better.

I don't know, but if I were wagering, I'd probably pick Tu Lane.

I wouldn't go JMU.

I'm just interested in the JMU defense to see how it handles totally a Lamborghini like Oregon.

I think I saw somewhere that Oregon's potential path to the National Championship runs through three of like the five best run defenses in America, just from a statistical standpoint in Texas Tech and I guess it would be what Indiana after if Oregon were to beat Texas Tech and James Madison.

I looked at the offenses that JMU played and what they were able to accomplish outside of playing JMU.

I'm not going to say JAMU is crazy inflated in terms of their defensive numbers, but because they perform like a good defense should perform against these offenses, I just think we're talking about a different level here, and I think Oregon we'll score a lot of points.

What kind of cheesy motivational device is Dan Lanning going to use to get this team fired up to play James Madison.

I don't know.

He tell you that, I don't need to motivate these guys.

These guys are already motivated.

It's the college who wall playoff, it's the opportunity to start a path to the national championship.

I don't need to bring extra motivation.

But yes, they understand what the bracket looks like.

They're playing the weakest team in this twelve team field, and the fact that they're playing at home.

Like we kind of had this conversation a little bit when Oregon played Liberty was at the Fiesta Bowl, Yep.

We're like, they get dealt the hand in the postseason in a bowl system that not a lot of people feel great about.

Go Irish talk about that next.

It was it was one of the least motivating external situations we've had, right, Like, why would Oregon get up for Liberty in the Fiesta Bowl when they're, you know, in this as sort of a way to include more teams.

They beat them, like fifty nine to seven.

Right, that was an undefeated Liberty team playing from the Yeah, that wasn't even so I think whatever worked then with Bo Nix and all the guys that played in that game, Bucky Irving are gonna it's it's gonna work against James Madison with with actual real stakes on the line.

Here.

Speaking of other Bowl games again, we'll do a full preview for all of the first round College Fotball Playoff matchup.

We'll do full previews for all of the games throughout the course of the tournament, and we are going to have a game out at for bowlers dot Com.

Last year it was free for all.

All you had to do was sign up as a paid or free member.

We're going to do that again.

We call it Bowl Bingo.

I'm in the process of getting that spun up right now and built so that we can send out notice to all of our people, So stay.

Tuned for that.

You're going to want to pay attention to all of these Bowl games.

We may not start that game the first run of Bowl games, but certainly over the next week and a half two weeks or so, you're going to see a lot coming out about us playing Bowl Bingo.

And it was a lot of fun last year.

Here are some of the other BOWLD matchups of note.

Okay, I'm not going to read through all of these.

We do have some new sponsors this year, which is always a lot of fun.

But here are a couple of matchups that jump out to me.

On December the twenty seventh, the Bad Boy Moers Pinchstripe Bowl features my once predicted National Championship game.

Penn State is playing Clemson.

They're just playing in the Pinch Stripe Bowl in the National Championship Game.

You gotta go, Ty Go, you gotta go go.

Figure other interesting games LSU versus Houston.

Houston is favored by three points.

Yeah, I understand that.

Ninth little regional matchup as well.

The RelA Quest Bowl another year, another really good matchup.

Last year it was Michigan Alabama.

This year it is Iowa versus Vanderbilt.

Huh right, very elegible.

Yep.

Speaking of Michigan, they're going to the Citrus Bowl to cheese it Citrus Bowl these days.

Squaring off against Texas.

That's a big time blue blood matchup right there.

Yeah, you'd have to go all the way back to twenty twenty four for the last time they played, right Quen you were as an ann arbor.

But nevertheless, really good opportunity for I think Michigan more specifically to jump into twenty twenty six on a positive NOE.

Texas probably disappointed they're not in the playoff, but as we'll get to I'm sure with a Notre Dame conversation, there's there's plenty of positive to take away from extra practices and extra time together.

The Music City Bowl Tennessee versus Illinois.

Interesting matchup like that one.

Sure.

The Holiday Bowl now sponsored by Trust and Will I have no idea what that is?

Do you no?

Trust?

And will Holiday Bowl Arizona against SMU should be fun, really fun matchup there, m hm.

And then we get to the Pop Tarts Bowl.

It's an estate planning app maybe true trust and will that makes sense.

Yeah, what was the last one you said?

Pop Tarts Bowl?

Pop Tarts Bowl?

Sure, this brings us back to Notre Dame.

Notre Dame not playing in this game.

It's gonna be Georgia Tech versus b y U b YU favored by two and a half points, So that in and of itself is a really good matchup.

Pop Tarts pul got a good matchup there, depending who on the field.

Yes, Pence is on the field.

Obviously, that goes for all of these games.

Yeah, but Georgia Tech versus BYU's good matchup.

I'm excited about that one.

By you should have the bulk of its players, if not all of his players playing in that game.

Notre Dame opted out of the Bowl.

Notre Dame opted out.

Not the only team this season, right i Kansas State the only team to opt out.

That isn't going through a coaching change, but both Iowa State and Case State have opted out of their bowl games as well.

Notre Dame though definitely getting I think.

A little bit more of the press on this.

I'll be honest with you, It is not the best optics.

It is not the best optics for Notre Dame and Pete Bavaqua and this program as a whole to sort of just cast bull season aside.

It definitely presents a sour grapes and I have a Notre Dame fan saying this, I am just as disappointed.

I'm sure they are much more disappointed, being so they're in the building and I'm not so I get that level of disappointment.

Pete Levaqua, he did an interview earlier today.

We're recording this on Monday.

He talked with Dan Patrick about the process and the second they find out that there was a gigantic rug pull and they're not going to be in the playoff, that's when the phone starts ringing off the hook with different bowl invitations and whatnot.

And they put it.

Up to the team captains, and it doesn't sound like they wanted to play a game with.

Guys who are backups.

They didn't want to be out there a shell of their former self, and so it is what it is.

They're not going to a bowl game.

Honestly, I think the biggest news that came out of that interview with Pete Vaqua excuse me is that there is some very obvious tension now between Notre Dame and the ACC, and the stems from a whole multitude of things.

But the ACC was not shy about lobbying for Miami.

Miami, of course, is a full member of the ACC.

Notre Dame has a special agreement, a partial membership agreement with the ACC where they play five ACC games year.

Sounds as if that relationship is strained.

Pete Bivaqua was said as much, what comes of this now?

Or is anybody's guests?

I have seen wild speculation out on the interwebs that they might sue the ACC based on the comments I heard from Pete bivaqu.

Well, I'm not sure anything's actually going to happen.

He's like, ah, we'll move past it.

But the relationship is strained, maybe permanently damaged.

What comes of this will certainly be fodder for the offseason.

We are grateful, at least in that sense that we will have content to talk about.

And Notre Dame always moves the needle because you either love them or you hate him.

Where this goes next, I have no idea, but Notre Dame is none too pleased with the fact that the ACC was out there politicking for the Canes.

I think they ran the Notre Dame Miami game on loop for forty eight hours on the ACC hour or something like that.

Yeah, okay, yeah, finish.

I have some thoughts continue.

So that that I think is at least partially the source of the tension here, if there is any that exists, if you believe Notre Dame's athletic director.

Right, So, I mean, what do we know about like the timeline of this, Like did Notre Dame the night before like all get on the same page.

If we don't make the playoff, we're just out?

Was it an emotional decision?

I think?

And then sort of afterglow?

Yeah, I think part of the animus here stems from the fact that obviously the ACC was out there politicking for Miami.

Right.

But in addition to that, Notre Dame was led to believe for a month that they were in.

I agree they were.

Led to believe by this stupid weekly ranking show that they had proven all they needed to prove and that they were safely in.

They had talked about it in previous iterations of the Tuesday rank show that they were being compared to Alabama, not necessarily Miami.

So everything that they had been led to believe was that they were going to get in.

Bye Tom dumb dumb.

Those dudes are so dumb.

You're just waiting for that one.

Weren't shit?

I was, I was sitting You wanted to play it last time.

I was for.

Crouching Tiger, hidden audio dropper.

You forgot about that one last time.

You were upset that you didn't play I didn't play that when we were talking about the committee, and it hunted my dreams last night.

But look, the committee, The committee made Notre Dame think that they were in.

And so I understand on a certain level if you're working this from the Notre Dame angle, they were told nothing but good things for a month straight.

Right.

The people that put these rankings together can lump ESPN in there if you want to.

They strung Notre Dame along for a month.

Do you blame them for being pissed that they did the rug pull at the eleventh hour?

No, I you know well, and he himself said, I understand it.

They understand the argument for Miami, and some of the tension here that he gave voice to was not directed at any of the teams in the tournament.

It was more directed at the acc It was more directed at the process for picking the teams involved in the.

College Football Playoff.

I think, separate from Notre Dame sitting out the ball, whatever you feel from that perspective, what he gave voice to is what we gave voice to on this show and what a lot.

Of other people have talked.

Andy Staples wrote a long article on it over at On three.

Notre Dame was strung along through this process.

They created drama whoever was in charge of this by keeping Notre Dame ahead of Miami, only dropping small bread crubs along the way that maybe at the last second Miami could do something, something might occur that changes the committee's mind.

They built up this drama, they.

Used Notre Dame to get people interested in that drama, and then they pulled a rug on him at the last second.

I get why they're pissed.

I'm pissed as a fan.

So that, I think is where this conversation is going to go next from the Notre Dame side as it relates to both the College Football Playoff, the format in the future, and in addition, what their relationship looks like with the ACC, because there are other sports on the Notre Dame side that are full members of the ACC, like football, where they're just sort of half pregnant.

If in fact that relationship has been strained to an extent, what do they do about that?

Will be the next place this conversation goes.

Well, I mean, the other part of it is the punitive nature towards ESPN because ESPN's hand in the playoff, in the messaging of everything, with the reaction or yeah, I guess it would be the release of the weekly rankings, and then the fact that ESPN runs Bowl season as well.

Right that what Notre Dame is doing is punishing ESPN by removing themselves from ESPN's airwaves and thus removing a ratings giant from that.

And that was Andy's point.

Andy's point was he gets it from the standpoint of, Okay, you used us to create all this drama.

We're not gonna let you use us now for ratings, right, which you could argue is a little bit petty, and maybe it is, but I get that thinking like I would probably be of similar mind if it were me.

It's yeah, I mean, look, we're also sort of wading into the waters of the sort of quieter part of the college football business conversation in that there are basically two entities.

The Notre Dame is not fully a part of either one of these entities, but between Fox and the Big Ten and ESPN and the SEC, and when we watch on ESPN's airways airwaves, Miami beat Notre Dame by three close, and then Alabama get absolutely demolished in front of the world the day for the playoff rankings and have that not be affected and have like half of the talking heads say, well, Notre Dame should join a conference so they can play in a conference championship game, and then at the same time, have Alabama play in a conference championship game and have that not affect things in the slightest.

You have the same network speaking out of both sides of its own mouth, and you know, starting the playoff selection the the final playoff selection show with just pure Alabama messaging right that it was just like it weirdly had everybody on the same page with like, we all agree that Alabama should be in the playoff and it's just not like a question about it, right like, and like, let's toss it to Greg McElroy and Nick Saban.

Hey, that's how we're for their takes.

That's how it was for herbiean and h and Fowler sureing the SEC championship game and I tweeted it out and it went crazy and I got a lot of pushback from people, and I don't care, but for a good chunk of that game, they were allergic and it was more Herbie than foul are right, seemingly allergic to the mirror idea of dropping Alabama at all.

And I'm not even talking about out of the playoff right, but the goal right, the goal right.

And I know it's also been floating around that something like of the previous sixteen conference championship game losers, fifteen of those teams dropped in the subsequent poll at least one place, at least one spot.

The only one over the last three years that did not at all did not even budgets Alabama.

Right.

Why is that?

Let me do my wind tors, Why why do you think that?

Shout out Brian Windhorse, notable not SEC fan, Ohio State fan, Brian Winhorse.

It I understand from a Notre Dame perspective, I do think it's sour grapes like you' that's the first that feels first line of this that like, if you're thinking about your program, if you're thinking about practices and getting younger players reps and like bonding on the you know, traveling and it's a road spot against you know, a high quality team in BYU, that there's a lot of positive to take away from Notre Dame sort of gritting its teeth and playing in this bowl game.

So I think that's the first line is this is sower grapes and it's not a great look and Notre Dame probably should have like I guess they couldn't have just like taken the night to think on it and sleep on it because you got to commit.

Yeah, But I also get it from a Notre Dame perspective where you feel as if this is an ESPN tournament that they are deciding through their own repeated messaging.

Don't I don't think the ACC network thing is a big deal.

Like I think it's like a fun tweet ze on next the everything app everything.

But I don't know who's watching the ACC network in earnest to like pick up on what their programming rhythms are.

I'll due respect to EJ.

Manual, the fine people at the ACC network.

But I get it from Notre Dame's perspective that you're, like, the ACC should kind of have our back on a certain level, given that we play a lot of ACC games.

And I get it from the ACC now work thing where in the ACC messaging of like Miami's our best hope, they're our best team, and and they're a full member.

They're full member.

Yeah that it puts them in a weird position, But I really do understand it from Notre Dame's perspective of just like it does feel like an ESPN invitational that you know, if we play our cards right, the people who are saying that we are a clear top ten team all season or the back half of the season will continue to think that after we don't play a game, Miami doesn't play a game, and none of the teams we collectively played play a game, and then we are bumped out.

And yeah, I mean, look, that's the thing that I get it, but I don't.

I don't know who this is truly effectively punishing other than Notre Dames players.

I get where they're coming from.

I do think it's sour grapes on some miniscool, minuscule level at a.

Minimum, is definitely some sour grapes going on.

And I think the lesson learned for the committee is a we don't need a weekly ranking show.

Even if you're going to do one, maybe do three instead of five.

I would say, here's what you do.

You do it the week before Halloween, and you do it after conference championship weekend, and you let people surmise and make guesses.

But there's too many ways to paint yourself in a corner and put yourself in a box.

You shouldn't do this a mid midyear check in and a final ranking.

And if you are going to insist on doing weekly rankings, ranked teams appropriately first.

If you were that set and determined to put Miami ahead of Notre Dame, and I understand the argument for it, and I made the argument yesterday when we recorded.

I understand it.

Yeah, that to me seems logical that Miami would get in over No today if they're close, and if one played the other end, the team that won on the field sho get the spot.

I'm not arguing that, but rank them that way.

Don't create this drama.

Don't kind of talk yourself into one thing and then gradually tell us, well with BYU losing that bumped up Miami.

They were side by side and then we gave the tiebreaker to Miami did not play, and they jumped a couple spots.

Okay, so that in and of itself strip out all the other contexts.

That in and of itself is kind of ridiculous.

Yeah.

Look, I mean we mentioned this before.

This happened because they wanted it to happen.

They wanted an ACC team in.

They didn't like the look of leaving out a major conference, and they decided that Miami was more of an ACC team than Notre Dame.

And they had the head to head to justify like a very specific bump up, and they did it because they wanted to.

I don't know, anyway, this will be very interesting.

Now, see what happens next.

I we're recording this again on a Monday afternoon.

Notre Dames athletic director is going to give a press conference Tuesday noon.

See what he has to say.

I don't know.

If there's trouble in Paradise with the ACC, it could open up the playbook for all whole host of things.

Dan and I don't have any clue where it goes next, but just something to kind of keep on the radar.

Notre Dame's definitely up in its fefees right now, and there's there's a chance.

It could get a little weirder.

So that's what we're here for.

We will do our part to kind of keep you up to speed again.

There are many other bowl games that are going to take place during bowl season.

We have a bowl game that we are going to play that all are invited to take part in.

Details on that are forthcoming.

I'm still working on.

We're not that.

What's the website.

I think the website's gonna be playbowlbingo dot com.

But play okay, don't go the X and set it up right if you go now, I think you're gonna get get redirected.

Do we own it?

I don't want somebody buying and we just like, okay, just making sure yeah we got it.

We'reka.

But I gotta set the page up.

I gottaet everything going.

So more to come on that front.

Bullbingo was a big hit last year when we played.

You played for fabulous prizes.

It is not your standard issue bowlpool, even a confidence pool, which we did for many years.

You pick a couple things each week.

The winners get fabulous prizes, but it's very low stress.

You don't play the full way through if you don't want to, very casual play with friends and family.

Truly, people really enjoyed it last year, so we're gonna do it again.

Love to hear it, can't wait to play all.

That's all I have.

I don't know if there's any other topics you wanted to get to.

I think we're gonna leave it there today.

Okay, okay.

We have Army Navy by the way, so you have Army Navy.

We've got the heisman.

We do have the heigs.

We're gonna talk about that the next episode.

Oh good, good, good folks, Hit follow, hit subscribe.

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Yes, Dan Ruvestein, I will talk to you again.

I guess on Thursday.

Do it again.

Can't wait, Tie, and for the final time this episode diarrhea for that Dad, for myself.

Tie.

We'll catch you on a few days, need time, Stay soft, peace,