Welcome to the solid verbal.

Ull that 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 Edith State?

Is that whoo whoom?

And Dan and Tye.

Dan Rubinstein on today's episode, We've got news of new quarterbacks, We've got injuries, We've got an updated metric in the college football playoff universe.

But most importantly, we have football, actual football to discuss.

Week zero is upon us a very slim down slate of five games, all of which we will talk through.

I am excited to be here with you to talk about some actual on the field stuff at long last, Sir, welcome back.

It feels great, ty thanks for joining me on this ride.

I cannot wait to watch actual football as strange, unusual, exhilarating as Week zero can be, both domestically and abroad.

Because that is week zero.

Now that we have Kansas State and Iowa State in Ireland and Doblin, this is great.

I don't even like calling it week zero because it is something.

Zero implies the absence of something, and this we have something, right.

We have football, We have excitement, we have a schedule, We have an appointment to watch football on Saturday.

You know, when you sit down and they give you chips and salsa, that's not nothing.

It's not the meal.

When you sit down they give you hot bread.

Good hot bread at one of those type places.

Right, Oh, is that bad?

They could pull it apart whether you know that kind of that's not nothing.

That's something that I treasure, and so I treasure this weekend, this Saturday, these matchups Sam Houston, Western Kentucky, you see Davis Mercer, Kansas, Fresno, you name it.

I'm in baby, well, welcome back in one and all.

Thank you for for joining us once more here as the season gets going.

Officially, hope you're gonna stay with us for the entirety of the ride this year in twenty twenty five, Hit follow Hit subscribes that you don't miss any of our episodes.

We will not be doing the live stream this Saturday night, but that will start up as we get into week one, So stay tuned to the YouTube channel if you're interested in being in a bit of a night ol and watching us live at midnight Easter and every Saturday.

React.

What was our vanity url for that stream last.

Year was it Smelti's hair or was it a different meltize hair?

Sounds right Saturday Night, Thie.

I always forget we have so many vanity URLs.

I guess you bought coctober dot com for this year.

I don't know what that's going to link to, but that's tie.

He can explore that creative space.

Indeed, one other note that I should add before we dive into all of the action here on the pod for those interested inverballers dot com supporting us a little bit more directly getting the ad free episodes, the bonus content, the discord access, voting in the Verballer Top twelve poll, which, by the way, I'm going to reveal at the end of this episode, you got a ton of votes love it this year, just record breaking number of votes that came in.

Run the board.

Our annual are weekly pick them game where you pick yeah they'reabouts ten twelve, fourteen games a week that is now up and running at verballers dot com.

I will put together a gigantic post out on the Patreon that everybody can read that gives you the details of it.

But if you finish in the top five of the year long contest, you get a coveted seat on our board of trustees.

Dan, we have a board meeting once twice a year.

We talked through show issues.

We need your vote of confidence to continue otherwise, you know, maybe it could be Chip Patterson sitting here.

I don't know.

I don't know what the board's gonna say.

True, run the Board.

That's the year long prize.

We give weekly prizes.

And less and less.

You're afraid to compete unless you're flight to compete, that's a completely different story that If you're not willing to compete in a pick and pool, that game's not for you.

But I think we got some competitors in this audience.

Ty, I am very excited about Run the Board.

You will hear me talk much more about it.

As I am recording this on a Wednesday afternoon, I am still in the process of getting it set up.

But by the time this sees the light of day, Run the Board is gonna be out there.

You can start picking games.

You can start picking games for week one.

It starts to meet all right one, Why don't we dive into in?

Are you ready?

Always ready, born?

Ready?

We have some bereat gig News.

Quarterback announcements in and around the world of college football.

There have been a bunch of big ones that have dropped, but per perhaps none bigger than the one that dropped yesterday.

Courtesy of Marcus Freeman, CJ.

Carr has officially now won the job over Kenny Minsche.

Came as a bit of a surprise, if I'm being honest, If you followed any of the public reporting over the last couple of weeks, things very much seemed to be trending in the direction of Minche.

Now interesting if you had talked to me, if you had talked to anybody who covers the team more closely than you and I.

There was an assumption out there that this was always gonna be CJ.

Carr from the moment CJ.

Car stepped on campus, from the moment he signed on that dotted line.

Multiple dotted lines, multiple that there's a payment structure in place for CJ.

Carr right from the moment that he signed however, many lines.

Yeah, there was an assumption that this eventually was going to be his job, But it was much more of a race in fall camp than I think many expected.

CJ.

Carr got the gig officially yesterday.

Red shirt freshmen red shirt freshmen, and as much as Notre Dame does or doesn't do red shirts, yeah, correct, So caught a lot of people off guard.

Marcus Freeman did say as recently as his past Sunday that it was still neck and neck, but ultimately it was his decision to make.

I'm sure he's going to be asked about this a million times over.

Now to what end.

We'll get his actual thought process?

Clearly that remains to be seen.

Who knows on that front.

I can only speculate here because again I'm not at practice.

I'm here in my basement in our studio.

So forgive me for speaking out as a fan, but I would say, truly, if this were a neck and neck race, even if Kenny Minshee did at some point or another pull ahead, the fact that they still went with CJ.

Carr tells us two really big things tell me about Notre Dame this year.

The first, I think, and this may be obvious, it screams to me that the coaching staff thinks CJ.

Carr is the higher ceiling.

Why else would you give it to somebody who maybe doesn't have the edge.

It's because you think he's got more to give in the long run.

Right, he can develop into something and this time will allow him to do so.

Yeah, a year younger than Kenny Minshee, so it's a bit of a longer term play.

Plus, you know, as well as I in the Portal era, Dan, you got to have that mentality that you're going to lose one of these guys to the portal.

It seems clear they want to hold on to CJ.

Carr.

That's what I'm getting out of this, right.

And then secondly, and I think more encouraging for those of us who cheer on the Irish, Marcus Freeman must have enough confidence in the rest of the team and the rest of the offense that he let this drag on for as long as it did.

Right, This was truly like his first quarterback race of this magnitude, and I think he was content to let it drag on, to let these two duke it out for as long as they did, because frankly, there's less of a risk when you've got a beast of an offensive line and what might be one of the best two ground games in the entire country with Jeremiah Love and Jadarian Price.

So we'll have to wait and see what it looks like against Miami in Week one, that Sunday of Week one.

I think ultimately both guys probably end up being very good college quarterbacks, whether it's at Notre Dame or somewhere else.

But the decision has been made.

It did surprise a lot of people.

Maybe we're right back to where the conversation started at the end of last year.

Who knows, but it's going to be CJ.

Carr when the Irish take the field in Miami.

Yeah.

I mean, look in any of these quarterback races and selections and naming of starters situations that we're talking about, if there is a true legit competition, if it is neck and neck generally speaking, if you're just playing the odds, if you're just doing a little bit of math, and I'm not the best person to be talking about doing math generally speaking, you either have two pretty good quarterbacks and you're trying to figure out who has the best chance of being excellent, or you have two like pretty average or below average quarterbacks and you're figuring out who is the less below average quarterback, right who has the higher floor.

From what we've seen of these two quarterbacks, it seems that they're probably both pretty good, just just to echo what you're saying, and not two excellent quarterbacks who are of Heisman caliber, and like, what a crazy decision we have to make, What a luxurious, crazy situation we find ourselves in that they're both pretty good, And it seemed that CJ.

Carr, because of the year he is he's in his second season, as opposed to Kenny mentioning his third or because of the best of his throws or the best of his plays, seems to have a higher ceiling.

So that would be where my money is for any of these quarterback battles, especially at the high profile places, if they're legit back and forth right.

Sometimes they're quote unquote quarterback battles, but it's one guy all along.

But if this one is indeed legit, then that would be where my money is.

That both of these guys are at least pretty good, but CJ.

Carr has that ceiling.

And honestly agree, I'm not discouraged by the fact that there was a true quarterback competition, especially especially given the fact that, as you said, both seem to be pretty good.

Both will end up being good college quarterbacks.

Again, whether it's at Notre Dame or somewhere else.

The real surprise to me was that it was a real bona fide race, because I was under the assumption that it was always just going to be CJ.

Carr.

They were going to hand it over to him, but by all accounts, Kenny Minche.

Pushed him pretty good.

Who knows how this goes through the first month of the season.

It could still be Kenny Minchi's to gain, depending out CJ.

Carr shows out here in the first few weeks of the season.

But our long national nightmare is over.

If you are a Notre Dame fan.

Who else do you have in terms of the quarterback battles and starters named?

That gets your antenna?

I bubblin Julian saying, Dan know who that is?

Of course, Julian saying the former five star who initially committed to Alabama then transferred up to Ohio State after the Saban news he beat out Lincoln Keenholtz at Ohio State.

He's going to be the guy.

I am excited to playing my super Saiyan sound all season long.

Julian's saying, going to be the guy.

Speaking of Alabama, Ty Simpson, this one came out.

I think a little bit before most of these names that I'm about to read off, but of course the former backup to Jalen Milroe one the job has been in the system now for two years.

He edged out Austin Mack and Keilon Russell.

If you go back and listen to our SEC preview, I think it still applies that regardless of who they picked here, much like the Notre Dame situation, actually they have plenty of good options in that quarterback room.

They're going to be fine, whether it's Simpson or whether or not they end up going to somebody else down the road.

Right now, there's all sorts of calculus and as you mentioned, of knowing that guys are going to leave, Ty Simpson seems to be the guy for Alabama reading the tea leaves, that checks the most boxes, that's most ready to win.

Now, Keilon Russell is likely the future after what his talent level is perceived to be.

But to come in with how well built Alabama is for a run in the SEC to hand it over to a true freshman, you better be awfully sure than that true freshman.

And when you look at all the quotes along the way, it was like this, these guys each offer us different interesting things.

So it's pretty clear that Ty Simpson checks the most boxes.

Joey Agiwar it's not a surprise that he would get the gig at Tennessee.

He was part of that transfer trade recall Nico leaves, Joey Agilar comes from UCLA to Knoxville.

He beat out Jake Merklinger.

And country legend George McIntyre.

Contest and country legend George McIntyre.

Thank you.

Bill Connolly on the last episode, the interview that you did with him had some thoughts on this insofar as maybe Aguilar could be even better than what we saw at a Nico last year.

There's been an assumption that he wouldn't or that he couldn't.

But Bill feels a little bit differently.

So the bar wasn't terribly high.

Yeah, I think that starts of actual production against quality teams.

Tennessee had a lot to had a lot left to be desired.

On offense, sure, Bear Bachmeyer, great name, great head of hair, Stanford transfer, Stanford transfer, getting the nod at BYU.

So he's gonna wear number forty seven, which is different.

He's going to be the first true freshman to start an opener for BYU, which is also different, and he's one of the Bachmeyer dynasty.

Yes, Steve Angeli gets the gig at Syracuse.

Dylan Lonergan gets the job at Boston College.

Ben Go, Ben Goldrn, I can't even say it.

You're good.

I've had six years to get this down.

I still screw it up.

Ben Go.

Branson beat out Elijah Brown at Stanford.

The former Blue Chipper was their highest prospect in twenty twenty four.

But Ben, I'm just gonna call him Big Ben.

He gets the gig M H and H, Jaron Kave Sogapoola, Telly Dan nailed it.

Look at you.

I wrote it down phonetically here in the sheets, so I didn't screw it up.

Yes, he gets the gig at cal Yeah.

Was that Oregon for an hour and a half in December?

Yeah, Yes, was at Oregon for a hot minute.

Transferred back down to Berkeley.

He won the job over the Ohio State transfer Devin Brown.

Maybe a tough year in Berkeley for him, but you get that year of experience and we'll see where that leads him.

Just some other really quick ones for the G five fans among us.

Brendan Lewis gets the gig at Memphis.

He came over from Nevade.

He's going to replace Seth Hanagan who was there forever At Fresno.

It's EJ.

Warner.

Yeah, talk about that in a little bit when we talk about the Fresno Kansas game.

Kurt Warner's son his third team in four years.

For those keeping track.

Drew Mestemaker is going to be the guy at North Texas.

Interesting tidbit on Drew Mestemaker.

Until the Bowl game last year, he hadn't started a game at quarterbacks since the ninth grade.

Wow, right to roll.

He's well rested.

Ty, well rested.

Jack Laye at New Mexico, Chase Jenkins at Rice Brandon Rose, the former Utah back.

Yeah, yeah, getting the gig at UMass and Dexter Williams.

Remember Dexter Williams from Indiana, Indiana.

Sure had a brief stint at Georgia Southern.

Now he's going to be the starter at Kennessau State.

Great.

Good luck to all, Good luck to all.

A couple bits of injury news as well.

To report Jim Miller presumed, the starting running back at Alabama had a collarbone injury during one of their preseason scrimmages.

It seems as if they're going to get him back in time for that September twenty seventh game against Georgia.

Yeah, that's collarbone.

If it is like a fracture collarbone, that's like four to six usually.

He had he had some surgery on it, and I haven't seen an official timetable on his return, but at least some optimism out there that he could be back for that Georgia game at the end of se.

You imagine, by the way, quick little sidebark, could you imagine somehow like fracturing or breaking or cracking your collarbone, healing up, and then somebody telling you all right now that you're better go run into the Georgia too.

Good luck out there.

Yeah, I would need a suit of.

Armor before I'd be willing to do that, But.

Okay, whatever, continue Quinton Joiner at Texas Tech.

This one's a tough one man.

Quentin Joyner came over from USC at the start of the year.

Done now with the torn acl oh brutal, which is a bummer for him because it was a good situation he was stepping into, and an even bigger bummer now for Texas Tech.

Who's going to have to rely on two sophomores, Cameron Dicky Jacobe Williams, both of whom played a bit last year thereabouts five yards of carry in some limited action forty one It was a.

Taj Brooks backfield, but it was entire plane.

Yeah, so one of these dudes is going to have to step up now.

Other injury news out there are just notable names that I think the verballerhood would be interested in.

Chris Brasel, the wide receiver for Tennessee, didn't play in the most recent scrimmage, still not ready to go.

I haven't seen a whole lot as to what exactly is going on there, but Brasles a name that I would hope would step up out wide for Joey Agilar in that Tennessee offense.

Michael Van Buren, your backup at LSU, did something that was throwing hand.

He was wearing a splint around earlier in the week.

Dalan Hayden, as well as the entirety of the Colorado offensive line, appears to be banged up.

Okay, Dalan Hayden's got a hand injury.

He's going to miss the start of the year.

The offensive line.

Dian was very vague about what's going on with the offensive line.

He didn't list any names, but he just said, yeah, we're all banged up.

He has talked about that they would be going about things differently on offense in terms of where their focus was, because obviously hasn't been on running the ball these past couple of years.

No, so he alluded to a shift, yes, in focus on offense.

I don't know if it's more balanced.

I don't know if it's more run heavy or extremely run heavy, or just looking at different ways that Colorado can operate.

Continue.

It would be problematic if the line were nicked up.

Correct.

You said about literally any You said literally about any team, but I Colorado especially because I do think they need to bring things a little bit more into balance.

Yeah, got better last year.

Otherwise, look, I mean, there have been injury concerns about DJ Lagway.

He was dealing with a leg thing.

He's back to full health.

Diego Pavi has got some calf tightness, but sounds like he's gonna be fine.

Florida State's still waiting on Squirrel White their transfer.

Did they bring down from Tennessee.

He's been limited in practice, but he should be good for the Alabama game when they open things up.

So not a whole lot.

Here are a couple catastrophic ones to report, but otherwise most of the big names seem like they're good to go.

Man, it seems like it's gonna be all right.

I would treasure somebody's taking that much interest in me physically every day, saying got any stuff today and be like, kind of a hamstring thing, there's something elbow wise that I'm like.

I would love a daily report on how I'm holding up in the way that we have to.

Like, Oh, the offensive line for Colorado is a little bit nicked up.

I would love that kind of attention.

But maybe that says more about me.

Continue, Dan, can you give me that computer sound that you have?

Oh?

Sorry, thank you?

So.

The College Football Playoff Committee dropped some news shortly before we hit record here today.

It is no secret to this crowd anyway, that the strength of schedule argument rears its ugly head every November, even before we had the twelve team format, back when it was a FOD team format, even back when we had the computers picking who the top two were sure the schedule, the strength of schedule argument is like as old as time itself.

You can even call it the sank of schedule argument because it's Greg sank like he might we might as well name that discussion point after him, like he can be like a title sponsor.

Anytime you mentioned strength of scheduling sponsored by Greg Sanki, it's yeah, it's sort of like the uh, you know, when you look at Texas's excuse me, when you look at Texas's Greg Sanki presents strength of schedule.

Continue.

So the College Football Playoff Committee is going to be rolling out what they're calling quote enhanced metrics, Dan Love that whatever that is, they're going to be including something called record strength now in their mix of stats that they look at mm HM, basically a fancy way of saying that they're going to give you a little bit more credit for beating the good teams.

You're not going to hammer you as hard if you're losing to the better teams on your schedule, whereas if you're playing a weaker schedule, you're losing two worse teams that might reflect on you a little bit differently.

So it gives you a bit of a safety net, right if you're playing a tougher schedule.

Clearly, the strength of schedule arguments will not go away anytime soon, because bear in mind, this is still a process that relies on a committee of people to subjectively, again, very subjectively.

Yeah, I was gonna say, pick a field of twelve.

The argument's not going away.

But if we're to believe these reports are going to put a little bit more emphasis on the teams that play the hardest schedules.

For whatever that's worth you, it's still very vague.

Good thing, bad thing, indifferent, Dan Rubinstein.

So, I mean, it's the same question that we can ask every year.

Right, It's a hard schedule according to whom it's an easy schedule?

According to whom?

What makes for an easy schedule?

These teams?

Are these teams bad?

Good?

Average?

According to whom?

Which objective metrics are you using?

Whose objective metrics are you using?

And then, even though the numbers are objective, the person or people or collection of people deciding on what is weighted more than what isn't weighted in that you know, equation, whatever you want to call it, why according to whom?

Like, what what is it about that equation that gives us a more accurate read?

On Tennessee's quality or Texas's quality or you know, Minnesota's quality, and so somewhere along the way there is somebody looking at the Greg Sankie present strength of schedule metric and saying to themselves, Hmmm, I think Auberns the team that blah blah blah blah.

Hmmm, I think NC State actually is as a quality win or a quality loss.

Like eventually, you're just going to get to a subjective point the further you dig.

And that's fine.

We only have twelve games to figure it out, and we're going to try to figure out seven, eight, nine games in anyway to give out rankings for everybody to look at.

But to sort of say we're using an objective method to figure out strength of schedule and how to rank these teams, I don't think that really exists.

And so just tell us, is it Bill Connolly, is it Brian Fremo?

Is it Tye Hill?

The brand?

Whose strength of schedule metric should we be looking at?

And how much transparency can we get in that process?

Yeah, this Google sheet is owned by an sec at gmail dot com address.

Because you know the SEC money wise, they're not springing for the full custom RL.

Of course that's a Gmail address.

And all of these SEC teams, the cells don't have formulas.

It's almost as if this number has been manually input.

Manually input it correct.

Yeah, that's what the Greg Sanki presents strength of schedule is ultimately going to be.

It's all very vague.

Yeah, I'm curious to see what it looks like in practice.

Two obvious questions for me, though, One on the topic of Sankie.

Does it give him enough cover to switch things up to a nine game conference slate now?

Because this has been his thing.

He's been beating the drum for a long time, and there was this whole back and forth about the playoff system and if they get the aqs, if they don't get the AQS, that could influence them one way or another here with the conference slates.

So if this is something, I guess in the short term that seems to benefit the SEC, I could see them making the switch.

But that's just me talking from afar.

The second thing, I'm interested in the degree to which this could affect things short term for teams like Indiana and even some of the G five schools that now have a stake in this playoff.

Like I looked at Indiana's non conference slate out at fbsschedules dot com, sort of one of the many bibles that we check this time of year.

Sure, they don't have a meaningful non conference game until twenty twenty nine against Notre Dame.

Right, because it's the intention of where that program was when they were booking these schedules.

Or sometimes in a lot of cases, there are canceled matchups.

I don't know if or if not Indiana had a home and home booked with Florida, probably not considering it's Florida, but those things get canceled sometimes and then you're, you know, playing take your pick, smaller school, you're playing Furman instead, and your schedule doesn't look quite as impressive.

So I'll due respect to whether the Paladins tie that.

Yes, if your intention is, let's let's figure out how we can most quickly get to six or seven wins.

Great, and now that Indiana is capital A actually good, Now that schedule is not doing them any favors, right, right.

So how quickly can you change that type of thing?

You know?

That's yeah, above my pay grade, But it looks like it's going to be a minute before Indiana has a meaningful non conference opponent, like I said twenty twenty nine, right now, it's Notre Dame.

And the other side of this is that G five slot that we've got right now in these playoffs.

Like I was thinking about this, Liberty is probably a good example, right, Liberty plays the easy schedule in the country this year.

We talked about it on the Conference USA preview.

Right, that's in large part because of the conference slate.

Is there some way that they can rejigger the schedule so that it's more attractive to the committee or do they have to actually leave the conference to get that tougher slate so they can fashion themselves truly as a playoff contender.

I don't know what that calculus looks like on the G five level, but I could imagine a world in which this could really affect some of those teams, not necessarily getting in over in Alabama, but just getting in over a Boise State who is righting.

There eleven and one in Boises ten and two.

Right, I think it's going to be near impossible for the Conference USA champion to get to the playoff any at any point less than being undefeated and being compared against a ten and two team confers.

USh just is not built in terms of quality, like the Sunbelt, like the American, like the Mountain West.

That's gonna be very It's just gonna be difficult.

It is.

It absolutely is so much more to come on this front.

But in the interim, get ready for some quote unquote enhanced metrics, Stan Rubinstein.

Oh, by the way, we got Pack twelve coming up soon, right, the newly formed version of the quote unquote pack twelve.

You want to pick some games?

I would love to.

Dan time to help the weak.

We got five of them.

Dan, you have bowed out of giving this weekend a name.

Yeah, it's just football.

It's just football.

This this week is just football.

The big one is at high noon Eastern time on ESPN.

It is Iowa.

Stated is Kansas State.

It is Pharmageddon again.

They played at a Viva Stadium in Dublin.

Can you give me your Irish Dublin one more time, please?

Doblin, Doblin, Doblin.

Yeah, I have no idea if that's accurate.

Continue.

We were invited to this game.

We were invited.

I was tempted because Ireland and Northern Ireland are beautiful countries, a beautiful island.

I loved visiting a couple of years ago.

Had a great time eating Indoblin, great walkable European city.

It was Bambino.

Loved Bambino pizza.

Talk about Bambino pizza.

I've been a sticker on my water bottle right here Bambino.

Love that little baby eating pizza.

I also had a good meal like Grano, really good homemade pasta continue wonderful.

Well, we're not able to make it.

We appreciate the invite.

The good news, though, is that frosted wild berry and frosted hot fudge Sunday.

Will be there rooting on Iowa State.

Good they won the pop Tars Bowls, so there's got to got to keep the rep.

You know that's true.

Kansas State's favored by three points in this matchup.

You know I'm high on both these schools.

I've got them playing an eventual remat in the Big twelve title game.

And I've also telegraphed where I stand on this game in that I'm walking up k State minus.

Three Block of the week.

So with that being said, I am going to turn it over to you because one thing that I found interesting in looking at these schools, especially now that they're matched up against each other in the first game of the college football season.

To a degree, both of these schools fit your very specific Dan Rubinstein rubric of having a good quarterback, having a good defense.

Yeah, if that's your starting point, that's pretty good.

Yeah.

So what say you about that setup that both schools have something that I know you always like being So it's this early in the season in a foreign country, different stadium, where yet.

I mean, it's a fascinating matchup.

A lot of it is just potential are promising, like a promising defense and a promising quarterback.

The best of Avery Johnson is quite promising.

When Kansas State loses, it seems that it's Avery Johnson in the passing game or weird fumbles that aid in that loss.

And so it's Kansas State with a new look offensive line with transfers but really fun looking skill players.

It's Iowa State with a new look defensive line a much healthier at linebacker.

So it's like Kansas State wants to get better on offense, Iowa State wants to get better at defense.

Iowa State's looking to find new receivers.

Kansas State's looking to stop big pass plays.

There's a lot of like, hey, we struggled doing this thing last year and it led to not so fun moments.

We hope starting the year with a rivalry game will immediately have our teams and transfers that are coming into solve these issues focused on fixing those things.

And so it's hard to really feel anything strongly.

We haven't seen these versions of teams.

There's new personnel everywhere for both of these teams.

I can say this if you are a believer to whatever extent in trends, Iowa State in September is not super good.

Iowa State, for whatever reason under Matt Campbell, has started very slowly needed like triple overtime to beat Northern Iowa, or loses to Northern Iowa, or scores seven and a half points a year against Iowa.

Sometimes it's good enough to beat the Iowa offense.

That's fine, But there is something about losing to Ohio and Matt Campbell having a little bit of a moment.

We'll call it a bously had a moment.

We've all been there, lest I can consider Matt Campbell a lesser person.

I've had that moment three times this morning time.

I have a six year old and four year old, so I kind of like going against Iowa State.

I kind of like that Kansas State has been a little bit more solid than the early going these past years under Chris Kleiman.

I kind of love the under.

If that's a person, that's the kind of person you are.

Iowa State does not hit overs as a dog.

Kansas State does not hit overs as a favorite.

So this game is being played forty four thousand miles away.

Don't fact check me.

I kind of like a low scoring Kansas State cover of twenty three seventeen in that range.

How does that?

How does that strike you?

I got it in the same range.

Okay, I think I'd be inclined to go under.

I never bet unders because that's just no fun.

It definitely is no fun.

It's no fun to do that.

If you're that kind of person, you're kind of a monster.

Right.

Last year's Georgia Tech Floresa A was twenty four to twenty one.

Yeah, so that's under fifty.

So that's right around where that number is this year.

Yeah, maybe a nice monster, just not Yeah, my tigre better.

You can still listen to the show You can still come to the live shows whenever we do them, but it's not my cup of tea.

Here's the thing for me.

The passing game.

I talked about this in all the previous stuff that we did on the Big Twelve radio shows that I did talking about the Big Twelve teams.

Jeez, brag much.

Continue my question on both sides is the passing game On the k State side, I think it's one more of consistency with Avery Johnson.

On the Iowa State side, it's because they lost to eleven hundred yard receivers.

I like Rock Obeck, the best of all Rocos the bore if you will, of course, but that's a lot to lose out wide.

And I think it hurts Iowa State more because if they don't have the pop in the passing game this year, and if their running game does not get more explosive than it was a year ago, this turns into a pickleball offense in a.

Hurry, Yeah, in a hurry.

Meanwhile, if you're K State Dan and you can't get it going, it basically turns into an improv show.

Like Matt Wells is just going to hand it off to his athletes.

He's gonna let Avery Johnson dance around in the backfield and figure something out.

Let your playmakers figure it out.

I like the Colones a lot, but they're gonna need some dudes to step up and become those type of dynamic playmakers to give this offense a little bit more pop out wide.

And that's sort of the big hang up with Iowa State this year, at least on offense.

There's a lot of veteran presence there.

I love the quarterback, I still like the backfield.

I'd like to see more chunk plays, but what is that passing game going to look like?

That?

To me is one of two big concerns in this game for Iowa State.

And the second thing I guess is like a build on that, is how does ca State use Avery Johnson to test that Iowa State secondary?

You know, like you generally trust that John Haycock's going to figure out defense.

You know, he's been doing it for a long time.

He's very good at it.

It was a struggle last year, but that was a lot of injury, a lot of injury stuff.

Sure, generally you can trust the guy.

YEP.

Secondary this year, though, is the big question we know from watching this game our entire lives what a good dual threat quarterback can do to a defense, especially a secondary, How it can pull defenses apart, get them out of shape, cause communication issues, things like that.

Avery Johnson is that kind of guy, and so I'm curious to see how they utilize his legs, how they do it early, and if they're able to take advantage of that to open up some passing lanes down the field against the secondary that at least to start is relatively unproven.

It was actually a really good secondary last year.

That was not the weakness of this defense.

This team was tenth in the nation.

Again, this team or this program, it's a different team this year, both sides the ball.

But in terms of what John Haycock does putting his players in a position to succeed, they were top ten nationally in interception percentage, So.

He will figure it out.

I'm confident in that.

But early against a good dual threat guy like Avery Johnson, I think it's going to hinge on a couple big plays down the field that are set up mainly because of the threat of him running.

So for me, I also have this under a little bit less under I guess than you do.

I've got it at twenty seven to twenty K State in a really good game like this is an awesome game to bring to the Irish people, like I love the fact that they're playing Pharmageddon there.

For as much as I'm in favor of playing all games on campus all the time, if you're going to take a game abroad, this one's pretty fun.

Really go for it, right, This one's a pretty fun one.

The what the air lingis college Football Classic?

We love a good not a sponsor.

Continue, No, it could.

Be, absolutely could be.

So we're both on K State here.

I'm walking them up minus the three.

I agree some other action.

Also, at noon, we get to see UNLV for the first time under Dan Mullen.

Both quarterbacks will play against Idaho State, as that's the most recent thing I saw.

Alex Oorge, Anthony Calandria.

Yeah, all right, you and LV is going to win the game.

I'm I'm curious to see what they look like under Dan Mullen.

I'm curious to see what the quarterback situation is and how that evolves.

There has not been an official announcement to your point about who QB one is or will be.

There's been a lot of chatter among the people that cover UNLV that it could be alex Orgi is a better fit for the Dan Mullen system.

I still think alex Orgie is a better fit for wide receiver than he is for quarterback.

But however they want to play this, it's on them.

I'm curious to see how he looks in the Mullen system, if it does benefit his skill set a little bit more.

I've always been a callandry guy.

You know, I just got to think for Anthony Kalandria.

I watch a game and a half of Anthony Calandria until you know what I love.

That is not true, and you know continue.

But UNLV will be in action four o'clock on Fox.

We've got Fresno State at Kansas.

Kansas is reopening the booth their stadium, which has been under renovation for a while now.

Yes, I think they are going to smoke Fresno State in this game.

So they had their own issues early, and they've had their own issues early.

That's in large parts of the fact that Kansas was garbage before Lance Leipold fully weaponized this program.

They really did struggle last year, and Fresno State had their own struggles last year, and this is a different Fresno staff, a different Fresno roster, a lot new on the Kansas side as well, So this is much more.

I think about the fans and the scar tissue that fans have from watching these two teams last year is if this game is close, We're going to have two fan bases white knuckling at the end of this game because of last year.

What Fresno was not able to accomplish close and especially in the first five or six weeks last year, be it against you mentioned UNLV, be it against Illinois, last year West Virginia.

Kansas had its own struggles in close fourth quarter matchups.

I think Kansas is better position, but there is a ton new for me to feel super confident in.

So I'm gonna go Kansas.

I'm not on a limb from limb situation yet, but I'm pretty confident Kansas has this.

They're going to smoke Okay, Fresno in this game.

The place is going to be hopping because of reopen in the stadium.

Yeah, and we've talked before about how this was like the missing piece for Lance Leipold is one of the things that he advocated for upon taking that job and having some pretty quick success.

They wanted this.

Now they're reopening it.

I think everybody's going to be hopping.

And they're unopposed in this window, right, this is for Eastern It's unopposed, right, So this is they know this is the show that everybody's watching.

This is the show the place is going to be hoping.

It's only week zero, which I believe means that Jalen Daniels doesn't hurt yet.

Oh, stay healthy.

I hope he stays healthy.

He's very exciting when he is.

He's just always hurt.

He's not hurt yet, so that's good.

And then I think the other layer to this is that it's a new regime at Fresno State with Matt Intz, who I like a lot.

I actually really like that higher he's got the defensive background.

I think he's gonna have a decent defense this year.

Hired the best tight ends coach in America.

Let's not skip over that.

Brian Farrens.

Yes, we'll be there.

I just don't trust him on offense with EJ.

Warner.

Like EJ.

Warner is not Kurt Warner.

He's not.

Hold on, let me write this down yeah, please put that on the legal pat.

Not Super Bowl quarterback, Hall of Fame caliber quarterback.

Okay, continue Kansas minus thirteen is the play for me.

I think they're gonna go limb from Okay.

I don't hate that.

Two other games here.

That I want to mention quickly six point thirty.

It is Sam Houston versus Western Kentucky.

Western Kentucky is one of my pet teams this year.

Okay, well my pet teams because what Tyson Helton is doing and running back his twenty twenty one playbook.

So instead of bringing over Bailey Zappi and his offensive coordinator Zach Kitley from Houston Baptist, this year, it's Rick Bowie the offensive coordinator and Maverick mckiv from Most.

To Texas Tech a few years ago.

Yeah, from Abilene Christian.

Yeah, and the Maverick was super productive last season, almost beat Texas Tech last year.

So I'm curious to see what that looks like.

And also the Houston, the Sam Houston story is pretty interesting because they lose their coach to Temple.

Phil Longo comes down going to change entirely the philosophy of the program, which last year defense first.

This year He's going to offense first, it seems.

So you set something up like that, and what do you think happens?

All your defensive guys leave.

He's basically replacing every starter on defense, which is just a hair worse than Western Kentucky, which loses like its top twelve tacklers or something like that.

So possible shootout here over under was like sixty sixty three somewhere in that.

I don't know a lot of points are expected here.

I like Western by about fourteen.

They're favored by ten.

So I'm on the hilltoppers here at home.

Nice little sidebar hair.

Because you mentioned Sam Houston being fascinating, the actual Sam Houston is super fascinating at the very least.

Go to the Sam Houston, like the guy Sam Houston from the nineteenth century, Yeah, who is like one of the if not the father of the state of Texas.

Skim the Wikipedia page.

Check out a book about Sam Houston from your local library.

Dude on like two separate heartbreak occasions, moved in with the Cherokee people near him.

It's great.

Sam Houston fascinating life.

I don't condone everything he did or thought, but super fascinating.

Read about Sam Houston a.

Big Wikipedia page.

Yeah, it's a big time like if you look at if you were to have a Greg Sanki present Strength of schedule Wikipedia entry rating system.

Sam Houston's up there.

It's a good read.

Continue all right, fair enough?

Do you have a lean in this game?

I guess I'm gonna go Western Kentucky.

I think both of these two.

You know, Western Kentucky was close and or perform well against some quality teams last year, and same goes for Sam Houston.

The game is at WKU correct correct, correct, they played last year.

I believe Western Kentucky won close relatively early on in the season.

Western Kentucky should once again be able to exclusively pass and maybe not do anything else near that success rate.

But I'm going hilltoppers here.

And finally, seven pm on CBS is Stanford traveling to the Islands of Hawaii.

Hawaii favored by two and a half points here, So we've got the aforementioned Ben Gilbranson.

I believe I got that name correct that time.

Yeah, you're in the vicinity.

He is leading the charge for Stanford.

I don't really know how you handicap this one.

Dan on the Stanford side anyway because so much new an interim coach.

They are traveling a long ways to get of the islands to play this game.

Meanwhile, I think Hawaii might be pretty decent this year.

There's like a lot back on defense, more back on defense, I guess than usual.

I like their quarterback Micah Elejado Okay southpaw smaller dude, threw for four sixty nine and five touchdowns in the last game of the year last year against New Mexico.

I think this is going to be a very very competitive game and a fun one to watch at seven pm Eastern time.

I am going Hawaii lower scoring game twenty seven to twenty somewhere in that neighborhood.

Every year is different, every team is different, Everything is its own individual thing.

Hawaii playing at home last year, you've heard of quiet, quitting tie, quiet quality, Hawaii quiet quality.

If they were playing on the West Coast, not terribly far from Hawaii or in Hawaii, they were pretty good.

There was quiet quality to them.

You look at what they did against UCLA early.

That was in LA But when teams came to the islands, like or one specific island the UNLV, they were right there, like quality team that the defense improved, the defense was able to make plays.

If the defense is anywhere near that this season, and the quarterback play is okay, I think they're winning this game.

Stanford is just they've got a ways to go.

I'm going Hawaii here.

There you have it.

Those are your five games and a moves boosh, as you like to say.

By the way, I mentioned UC Davis at the top.

They're on big old regular ESPN at six or seven pm Eastern.

It's like the FCS Showdown Classic or something against Mercer.

I think they're like both in the top fifteen or so.

Davis is always going to have a soft spot in my heart and to Davis a bunch, So I don't know, that's an interesting window if one of the what the aft the Kansas game is out of control, like Tie anticipates, check in on UC Davis, check in on the fight and aggies.

Check in on the other aggies.

Why don't you exactly.

We've got one final segment here today, Dan, it is time to reveal at long last, the results of our Verballer Top twelve preseason poll.

So we invited those across the verballer hood to come on over to our Patreon forballers dot com.

Sign up to vote for free, tirely free to vote in the poll preseason poll.

Anyway, I've been very quietly collecting the results of it.

Everybody out there has already released the results of their preseason poll.

This one, the most important one, is going to be released last.

Number one Texas Longhorns.

All right, makes sense.

Number two Penn State nitne Lyons.

Number three the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Not a whole lot of separation between those top three teams, very neck and neck.

When you think about college football, you think about Penn State being slightly ahead of Ohio State.

So I get where everybody's coming from there.

Continue.

Number four my America is Clemson Tigers, a bit of a distant fourth, not quite close enough to really challenge for third over Ohio State.

And we're saying we're thinking Clemson with huge preseason expectations, huge pre interesting codation.

I assume it's going to go well.

Continue and definitely a bit of patting between them and the fifth place team, the Georgia Bulldogs.

Okay, so this is interesting because Georgia by a nose over Alabama, who came in sixth in our poll.

This is about as low as I've seen Alabama in most of the polls, frankly, but Alabama came in sixth.

Not a lot of separation between six, seven and eight, which is Alabama at six, Notre Dame at seven, your Oregon Ducks at number eight.

To round out the top ten, we've got LSU at nine, Miami at ten, Arizona State at eleven, and me chigaan the Wolverines all the way up to twelve in this poll, which feels aggressive, but nonetheless there's a lot to.

Like about the Michigan Wolverine year.

So that's your top twelve.

By the way, the first five out that is a thing.

Florida Gators were thirteenth, Texas A.

And m was fourteenth.

Illinois, Kansas State, and South Carolina.

Those are the next five in that order.

What are your reactions to this, Dan.

Any poll that does not include Missoo in the top three is a fraudulent poll.

Tie.

Look, my reaction to this is the same as it is to the AP and Coach's poll.

More broadly speaking, that there's so many new quarterbacks and so many enormous questions and so much roster upheavil for the most part in the top twelve or top seventeen that we can confidently say that we're going to look back on this pole through tiers of laughter.

And I wouldn't change anything.

I wouldn't argue against anybody specific.

Like I'm pretty high on Michigan.

I just don't believe them to be like a conversational team in this moment.

I'm pretty high on a number of these teams, but like when you see the number next to them, they're like, oh man, that's ah, that's pretty up.

There, Michigan all the way up at twelve.

That to me is what jumped out the most.

I think I had Clemson number one in mind.

You know where I stand on Clemson.

I'm all in on Clemson.

This year.

I had Alabama two.

I really like Alabama.

Then I had Penn State, then I had Ohio State, then I had Texas in that order.

Yeah, these polls are largely useless, but it is an interesting exercise to see how people feel about these teams after our previews.

I like the fact that.

We're giving the verbawlers a voice now in the preseason.

Typically we only do this during the season.

By the way, if you sign up at verbolers dot com.

You can vote in this poll all season long if you're a premium or a certified tier verboler.

This will change a million times over, but we got a great turnout.

I appreciate the verballer hoods stop and buy us, casting their votes, making their opinions heard.

I saw a bunch of screenshots out there on the Internet, people talking through their logic for putting which teams wear, so clearly a million different schools of thought for how to go about conducting yourself here with this poll.

Got some interesting schools getting votes.

Let's say, Yeah, a couple of Missouri states in there just for the hell of it.

But by and large, I think what we saw here mostly tracks with what we've seen elsewhere, a pretty good sense for who the top teams are at least the start of the season, at least based on the assumptions that we have after doing our previews correct.

No, I can't.

I can't wait to see how the poll evolves over time.

And just like we had last year with Arizona State late it's that.

I think it's the eight hundred meters that you know, you got to pace yourself and then you come on strong at the end, your final kick.

That's what I'm get excited for.

Who's that November kick that all of a sudden hasn't been in that poll for two months and enters at number six, Just like a team that's just like, yeah, we're here, this is it, this is who we are.

We're top sixteen, we're top two team.

Let's roll.

I love that.

By the way, Overballers dot Com.

Again, not to do too many promos here in this episode, but you can vote in this poll all season long.

If you support what Dan and I do.

You can also get access to ad free episodes, bonus content, our discord server, the game run, the board that I mentioned at the very top of the episode, which is now live, living color.

It is excited.

It is ready for you.

To file your projections, your picks and compete for an opportunity to win not only are week one prize which won veil next week, but also the season long race to be part of our board of Trustees.

Yes, that's everballers dot Com.

Every little bit helps you in an agent de light on.

I love that support.

Absolutely.

We've saved the best for last.

And here's the reason that I'm doing this.

Okay, Okay, I am still very sensitive to something that I said after Michigan won the National Championship.

Okay, in the immediate aftermath of Michigan winning that National Championship game a couple of years back over Washington, we got eleven minutes into the episode.

Eleven minutes I went back.

I checked this morning just to make sure that I was right eleven minutes into that episode before I brought up all of this with Michigan.

Okay, And at the time, my comment was, Hey, we don't know what the NCAA is going to say about all this.

It's not unreasonable.

I'm not much for vacating wins, but at least at that point in time, there were a lot of people sending in thoughts about that this isn't going to count in a couple of years when they lower the boom on Michigan in response to the science dealing thing Connors whatever Connors Stallions did.

At the time, we didn't know as much as we do now.

A lot of Michigan fans took exception to that.

I didn't want to lead the show with that news because at this point we're recording several days after it's all been released.

About a week after.

So now we have some actual notice from the nc DOUBLEA.

What does this amount to.

It's a big fine, some probation, some show causes that have been thrown about Dan, but ultimately Michigan gets to keep its national championship.

Ultimately, Michigan might have something of a reduction in on campus visits and some things here and there.

But I don't think the NCAA really quote unquote lowered the boom on Michigan the way that many out there.

I think the boom days are over tie the way that many out there would have hoped.

So Michigan's going to be just fine.

Michigan, as I said a.

Few moments ago, is twelfth in this preseason poll.

What was your reaction to the news that Michigan was being punished or in some cases not being punished by the nc DOUBLEA.

Not much reaction.

So we've had punishments previously with Jim Harbass sitting out games and obviously coaches leaving or obviously the big employee in Connor Stallion's look, the information that came out is not like the most most damning ever, and part of that is because a lot of evidence and obstruction was involved.

A lot of evidence was destroyed, I think at the bottom of a pond, or multiple ponds, which is where phones ended up.

Sure, I think this is a two things being true situation.

One, Michigan won a national championship, right, Michigan did.

They won a national championship.

They won a bunch of games.

Also, by the letter of the NC doublea's law, to whatever extent you care or put weight in that or zero weight in the NC doublea's rule of law, Michigan was a big time cheating program.

Right for that, For a stretch of time, Michigan was a big time cheating program, per the NC DOUBLEA.

You might not think it, I might not think it, but in the eyes of the NC DOUBLEA, the only real governing body we have better for much much worse.

In very tenuous air quotes, yes, yes, Michigan is a big old cheating program.

And I assume Michigan people are okay with it.

I assume a lot of college football people are okay with it.

But like, we shouldn't fully ignore that reality.

Right Sure, Look, they've paid, they've paid for it, They've had coaches do their time.

They will have Jim Harbaugh never ever coach that team again, but he delivered a championship.

There are show causes head coach is going to miss another game.

I think not this year, but next year.

He's missing what games three and four this year?

Yep.

So they're being punished like a program that is a big time cheating program in the eyes of the NC Double A is being punished not in the same way that they used to by you know, forfeiting games or you know, removing Heisman's anything like that or other trophies.

And I guess to the NC Double a's credit that they're saying that they're not going to punish future players and current players for the crimes of past people that were in charge.

Okay, so that's good because that makes sense.

That shows growth, I think absolutely, But.

It also sort of shines a brighter light on how much the NC DOUBLEA just completely trash teams like Ohio State and USC and Miami schools like that.

So I don't think you should feel better if you're a fan of one of those teams.

So here we are at least I guess we have some closure.

So there's that.

There is that, But that's what I thought about.

I was like, it was not a report of like, oh man, that was all overblown.

That's on us, guys.

That was not the report that came from the nc double A.

I don't think people are going to think about this for a second moving forward.

But yeah, that was our conclusion as a college football society.

I was curious to see what the NCAA was going to do, not because I expected anything too salacious, but because in this era of college football, it seemed like this was maybe their last best chance to exert something of real hard compliance.

Right.

The NCAA has definitely been minimized in this new era of college football.

Frankly, it has been afraid to go out after really anybody or anything for fear of lawsuits.

It just isn't created the same way as it used to be.

It's a different ecosystem nowadays, and so this I saw as maybe its last best chance to show that it still has some muscle.

In this whole conversation, you know, we can debate whether or not it was enough of a punishment that was handed down.

I saw plenty of Ohio State people online saying, ah, it wasn't enough.

It was sure that debate is going to be raging for years to come.

That's not going to be a new thing.

It certainly hasn't been new for the last couple of years, So it's very much statisical on that front.

Do you think people do you think people in what year is this twenty twenty five, twenty thirty three, twenty thirty nine, when there are well, no, hold on, not Michigan people.

Do you think when somebody brings up Jim Harbaugh and they all like the forty nine ers and the Chargers they won all those Super Bowls with Justin Herbert hooray, do you think when they get to that Michigan part of the conversation and they're saying, yeah, you know, they finally broke through, had a real tough time getting to that level, but they won that national championship in twenty twenty whatever it was the twenty twenty three season, right, Do you think there will be the like Comma and uh there was that wild Connor stallions and institutional spying thing involved in that whole run.

No, you don't think so, I don't.

I think it depends on the fan base discussed ends to the base.

I think Michigan State fans, Ohio State fans, Penn State fans.

I think it will.

Somebody will be like, well, uh so skip to detail about that run of Michigan teams.

The problem that I have with that school thought as I'm not all that worked up about this.

No I I'm not, and I haven't really ever been, contrary to popular belief.

No, well that's not true.

You've been worked up in a good way about all the very specific details of the story.

I've gotten so many texts and messages.

From you, I can't get enough.

Oh well, and look, I sign stealing is a dark art, of course, that exists in all of sports.

In person against the rules.

Signs stealing, yeah, advanced scouting in person.

Yeah it Some iteration of this is present across the board in sports.

I don't care what sport it is.

I always had a hard time getting two worked up over this.

Whether or not it's against the rules that you know, that's probably a separate conversation.

But for me, it never really moved the needle all that much.

It was still a good team.

We saw that team with our own eyes.

They won games even after this was common knowledge that it was going on.

Right, did it help?

Did it hurt?

I don't know.

Okay, who's to see.

I don't think it can hurt, but I don't think it get hurt.

But the degree to which it helped that, you know, we can debate that until the end of time.

Sure.

Frankly, I'm just glad it's over.

I'm glad we can move past this now and we can talk about the twenty twenty five season and we don't have to sit here and worry about what's gonna happen in Michigan.

It's it always felt to me like it was going to end up like this.

The more time that passed between the initial bombshells that broke and where we are now, it just seemed almost a certainty that they weren't going to like dismantle the program.

They weren't going to go out in a limb they were working to just seems like, seems like this was always going to be a foregone conclusion.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

And look, Ty, we've all also moved on to the fact that this is a Tiger State now, the best team in the American League at time of recording.

Jason Bennetti calling those games for the Detroit Tigers.

That's all there, It is, baby, all right, Week zero is upon us, Dan Rubinstein, wherever it is you are out in the verballer hood, enjoy this first weekend of games.

Hope you all have a chance to PLoP yourselves in front of a TV watch some of the action again.

It kicks off at noon Eastern time from Ireland.

It is farm again.

It is Iowa State, it is Kansas State.

You know where to find us online.

We'll be online watching these games with all y'all.

Follow us across social media.

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We will be back in some way, shape or form early part of next week to talk through what transpires in these games.

Of course, the deeper we get into next week, we'll be previewing all of Week one, a big college football weekend, like five days worth of college football action starting on Thursday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday all the way through to Monday.

So it's going to be a very very busy one for us.

Keep it tuned right here.

We'll give you all the information that you need to know, not just on the games, but when you can catch Dan and I in the interim though, Remember reballers dot com.

Remember to follow us on social media yep.

And of course if you're interested, Bambino, Bambino, if you're over there, if you're over in Ireland, let us know, send us, send us out.

I love that pictures.

We'd love to see him for sure.

Enjoy Week zero everybody, for that guy there, Dan Rumanstein, for myself.

Tie.

We'll talk to you all in a few days.

They saw peace,