Shutdown Fullcast - Shutdown Fullcast 4.20.0

Episode Date: June 15, 2016

The Shutdown Fullcast Random Previews continue with four very interesting, important, and/or intriguing teams. There is also Maryland. We're sorry, but there is also some Maryland in there. Topics include: --Maryland! We talk about the Terps first, largely to get them out of the way because it's gonna be a rebuilding year even if it will be an interesting one. Spencer thinks they'll lose to FIU! Take it to the bank, if your bank also takes bets on obscure Friday night out-of-conference games. --We all agree that Auburn is an extremely dangerous team in 2016. (Mostly for Auburn, but dangerous is dangerous is dangerous.) --Did we all just somehow agree that Texas is a nine-win team? Did this just happen? THIS JUST HAPPENED, GO CRAZY AND HOOK 'EM, DEFINITELY RUN WITH THIS ABSURD OPTIMISM AND DO NOT QUESTION IT, LONGHORN FANS. --All three of us come to the realization that Washington State has become something reliable in the Pac-12. The definition of reliable, it turns out, is flexible beyond all utility. --We finish with Ohio State, the team that somehow still has a J.T. Barrett on the schedule and pulls next to nothing out of the Big Ten's other division in lining up what looks like a ten-win rebuilding season that will leave very few people happy. Don't ever let your football team become good enough that ten wins satisfies no one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

and welcome to the shutdown full cast we are rolling through season previews a lickety split and doing so by assigning random numbers to teams having you select those random numbers and then talking about it in our cars actually only one of us is talking about it in his car hi jason kirk sitting somewhere in kena saw georgia in a car hey what's up i'm in a car you're gonna like put down 50 tracks today in that car hold on this is the part where I'm going to drop the audio of Jason moving his car for, I assume, premium audio reasons. I'm going to go ahead, move.

It's a good audio we're missing out on. No, I'm recording all of this for Puster. And now you've heard Jason move his car. That wasn't a reenactment that happened. I wanted to make sure I was closer to the Wi-Fi without actually going inside because there's so many people in there. Listen to that. Somebody firing up a beautiful internal combustion engine right behind him.

We're not, we don't lie. This is recorded on the road at home, wherever we can get it in. We're going to do an episode where he drives through Chick-fil-A. You know that, right? We spare no fossil fuels for this program. That's correct. Making the earth one more dangerous degree hotter, one podcast at a time. Speaking of dinosaurs.

Not just with our takes, folks. Speaking of places that'll be flooded and, you know, with fans. and the passion that they bring to college football. Speaking of the climates that are changing. I just want to go ahead and give you the four teams we're actually going to discuss after we discuss the next team, okay? Because we have four really good teams to discuss. Don't go anywhere.

I promise, we have four teams that actually matter somewhat in life. Ryan, joining us from the studio in New York City. Please tell us the four teams that we're going to be. we're going to enjoy discussing. Well, you've inadvertently just called Texas a good team that's relevant, so that's different. I think he also said interesting or important or something like that. Yeah, there were a lot of qualifiers. You can find the one that fits.

Yeah. We're going to talk about Texas. We're also going to talk about Washington State, Ohio State, and my favorite ACCC team, the Auburn Tigers. But you're right. We're going to start with Maryland. I mean, we're going to start with Maryland to just get them out of here, right? like opening act bye

we're doing that because we value our listeners time i have positive things to say about maryland y'all are haters and can just shuffle i don't want to hurt okay do you know why maryland fired randy edsel true counterpoint they hired randy edsel

listen we all make mistakes learning from them is one of the most important parts of life and when maryland fired randy edsel they did so knowing that there was a significant chance they were going to lose maybe the best quarterback recruit they've ever had and sure enough they did he's going to Ohio State instead but they still ripped that band-aid off and I have respect for that do you have respect for that like the friend who took his cast off a week early in the middle of class I'm just saying hell yeah that sounds awesome I'm just saying if we're going to if we're

going to shit on Maryland the Randy Edsel edition for being terrible and unwatchable and getting their brains beat in by Bowling Green at home, we have to reward, we have to reward good behavior, and firing Randy Edsel is very good behavior. So I'm going to try to be a little bit more positive about Maryland this season, and fortunately, their early season schedule is going to make that very easy for me because they don't play anybody until week five. Uh-huh, yeah.

Yeah, the story of the off-season for Maryland has been their recruiting is going, Good, which is weird. They have a five-star and I think a couple other blue chips from Florida, and they're making a couple other early-season trips to Florida. They hired Scott Schaefer for two months. He stopped by, swung through, dropped off some stuff. But yeah, those two early season trips to Florida, those are unconventional and alarming. The other-to-F-I-U-C-F.

Sorry, I'll stop cutting you off. There would be a reason. Spencer, any second now. God, God, damn, that I would drive off there. He podcasts like he drives, dog. Yeah. Just keep going. No turn signal.

Barely through this podcast. I mean, we know why you would go to FIU and to UCF, correct, with your current head coach and everybody. buddy you've brought on board in the places you're going to recruit. So it's good to see them just signing off on the D.C. and Tidewater areas. We're recruiting from Florida, y'all. Bye. Come on.

The other thing that they got, they brought Walt Bell, their new offensive coordinator, who comes from Arkansas State. If you have watched Arkansas State, and I know 15 of you have, they're really fun. Like, they were a very fun team. so I have no if I want to say one really nice thing about Maryland they should be more fun to watch they should they will totally

now that doesn't say much because we were watching Randy Edsel football which is essentially the hospice care of good football that's that's what Randy Edsel football was now you've got something just way more exciting

and I say exciting in every single way because they're not going to have a secondary either so if you if you like ping pong you will absolutely love this team i mean they have they have one secondary member he's mostly a you know a good punt returner but yeah that's cool i like will and i also like that his name is will likely because his name is sort of a a way of hedging your bets about maryland improving i feel like he his name is also a maryland like injury report like everybody will likely play a lot of them won't

like you know last few years sort of the story about Maryland has been all the skill players knees are falling off everyone will likely be forced to play quarterback at some point yeah I think the thing about the new offense is the linebacker at quarterback will move more quickly yes can I give

you can we look at the schedule get Marilyn the hell out of here and predict one intriguing early loss that I'm pretty sure will totally happen and that would be week two at FIU on CBSSN

oh boy that just that feels like one of those Does that even count? I don't even know if it counts because they're not losing to UCF because UCF is bad oh they're very bad football team but FIU

FIU improved a lot over the course of the season last year I think this is one of those games that Maryland cannot possibly be taking seriously nor can they be together at this point. I don't think in week two, you're going to have everything you want ironed out, ironed out,

particularly when you have no ability to defend the past, and you're breaking in a new and extremely different offense. So, yeah, I'm going to say they lose week two. I really don't. That's how Ron Turner gets the Nebraska job. Dog, I do not see many wins on this schedule. Not at all. I got, they win against Howard,

they went against UCF. They dominate that by-week. They beat Purdue. Oh, God, let's hope they beat Purdue. They'll beat Rutgers. And they'll beat Rutgers. And this is a four-win team. Hmm.

Four and eight? I'm going to call four-and-eight. I think that's fair. I mean, look, that's an improvement over last year. Correct. And look, Maryland fans, even the ones who can't sand us they have to know it's a rebuilding season right this is not this is not a schedule that looks super promising you have to go to michigan you have to go to newbraska you have to go to

penn state it doesn't say it's just nobody's got delusions of nine or ten wins here four and eight's fine i'll go five and seven but four and eight oh who you who you who you picking i know i'm not going to let you go five and seven without cherry picking the one that they knock off here he's not he's not giving you the f i you win i I assume he's Yeah, I'm going to Purdue and Rutgers. Okay.

I'm going to flip back FIU. Honestly, I think the trip to UCF sounds scarier. Like, FIU is improved, but the talent level difference is, even though it's Maryland, is still pretty vast. UCF is, I don't think they're...

That's a Friday night in Florida International, dog. Oh, there are so many, and there are so many things that just look wrong for them about this game, right? Like, it's a Friday night. It's against a team that's actually kind of organized and together, and Maryland cannot possibly

be organized or together at this point. It's a road trip on a weird night. There's just there's so many things totally wrong about this. I agree with Spencer. I literally think this is just a recruiting trip. DJ Durkin needs by right, as

Maryland head coach, needs one loss this season that immediately calls the fans to question his entire existence. And that feels good. I like it. Great. Four and eight. I think he's a Harbaugh double agent, fire him. Man, if you don't think Jim Harbaugh has double agents around, oh boy.

I think Harbaugh is his own double agent. Like, I think if he is a Harbaugh plant, I think he's actually Harbaugh. Harbaugh just has two jobs. You call it a double agent? Jim Harbaugh calls it playing both ways. It's old school. Harbaugh is sort of vasseling the entire Big Ten East. yeah they're just planting

planting surrogates at every job listen man he's still got david shaw at stanford doing the triple agent thing which is actually the single agent thing he's just he's just so deep into it he's actually a good coach who works with him it's more of a it's more of a very boring version of the boring identity yeah the boring the boring identity oh we got there let's talk on um um ryan i think we just talk shit about stanford by the way ryan oh no david shaw is boring and that's

There's nothing wrong with that. Okay. As a Stanford mega fan, we embrace that. We don't need to be flashy like Oregon or UCLA because there we go. Garbage and Stanford is the king of the Pac-12. Let's talk about Auburn. Yeah, let's talk. You know what?

Let's talk a lot about Auburn. All right. Just pulling up the ACC helmet schedule here. Oh, man. They get to, we get clash of the A.C. They start with Clemson. ACC Titans. clashing September 3rd, 8 o'clock, ESPN, Clemson, Auburn, Tiger Fight.

Mm. Tiger fight, they're probably losing. Tiger style. Losing bad. This does not feel like a game that Clemson, that Auburn wants any part of at all. No, no. No. I mean, what?

Here's the thing. Here's the thing. What did they lose this offseason? Auburn. A defensive coordinator. Yeah, lost a defensive coordinator And they replaced him with a Kevin Steele Who was a defensive coordinator for whom?

Well, speaking of Clemson To take you a few years back One might recall when WVU hung up 70 points on Clemson And according to rumors, Kevin Steele sort of forgot which team he was coaching Been there just was yeah i hear you buddy yeah and uh you know last year was for lSU and they were kind of happy to get rid of him so yeah things are fine so that happened uh yeah loud 70 points to

west virginia got thrown the the hell out has had several other sort of stents where uh it it kind of ended in similar fashion not quite as explosively but still and is now the the coach of this team the defense the coach of a defense that uh has a lot of talent you'll hear that a lot but uh they did last year also under a uh a proven defensive coordinator and they were okay on defense last year yeah they just they just got put in some bad spot that happens fine fine but it was not good enough it was not overwhelmingly like oh auburn's defense is letting them down right i feel like last year you know everyone was talking about auburn is like you know secret playoff team because the defense is just going to be top 20

overnight it wasn't quite you know and i don't it wasn't reasonable to expect that i mean it was also it was also predicated on the idea that jeremy johnson would you know not that was the other part yeah oh but yeah the two things about auburn oh go ahead go ahead i was going to say let's not forget kevin steel was the guy locked uh who locked tyrone william's gun in a safe at Nebraska. It's a rich resume. He was also a bad head coach at Baylor. There's just a lot of encouragement on here.

Yeah. So bypassing that, who's actually on the team? That might kind of matter, and the schedule might matter. Because it's rough at first. Ooh, dog. And it's rough at the end, too. Sir. Actually, it's also rough in the middle.

You get ULM in week four. Other than that, go with God. As you do, Auburn. We know you do. You also get Vanderbilt. Yeah. They got a good defense, so better hope you do, too. Yeah.

There's not a – listen, this is a very – this is – I don't think I'm making this up. This is how Auburn coaches get fired are years like this, right? And Gus Malzahn has not demonstrated. the Houdini-like escapes kills that Tommy Tuberville showed again and again and vacillating between eight and five seasons and seasons where he'd win or nine or ten games and keep people in line by beating Alabama. That has not happened. And since the kick six, it hasn't been that way for Auburn, Alabama at all.

Yeah, Auburn sort of cashed in all their luck in two straight games. I'm not saying this is a very Alabama thing to do, but one could consider the kick size a kick six a carmic subprime mortgage that um might be turned its hour on them at this point not that anyone in alabama ever did that all their prayers are underwater now yeah yeah so so i mean how many wins how many wins do we think he needs um i've i've heard at least seven or eight uh i think it's six and six season he's in major trouble um especially if bama you wins another 11 or so games. The problems, you can get to,

you can get to seven wins on the schedule and not beat anyone of serious consequence, I guess. It's part of it, yeah. So I don't know if that's, I mean, on the other hand, that does mean you didn't stumble in a game that you shouldn't have, but, I mean,

if you go, if you, you can have a seven win season where you lose to Texas A&M, LSU, Georgia, Alabama, and Ole Miss, or in Arkansas. You lost your two big rivals, huh? That doesn't seem like, oh, well, this proves everything's going fine.

Actually, let's see, let's see. You could lose to Clemson, LSU, Georgia, and Alabama, which I believe at this point are literally your four biggest rivals. So that's eight and four, and no one's happy. I will say this, though. If they get this, if they can get John Franklin the third of quarterback, working as your run-first quarterback because remember we were all cool

with their quarterback last year coming in, right? We were fine. Lots of people were, yeah. Yeah, we got Jeremy Johnson. There's no way that could go wrong. He's tall. He's tall. He's very athletic-looking.

Yeah, that did not work out. There's a big, good-looking dude who had some problems reading defense, particularly in the passing game. That may yield to John Franklin. The third, very important. You don't want to confuse them with the other two, John Franklin's, Juco transfer.

If you get a quarterback who can run and be a legitimate run threat consistently and make good reads, you have Joe Von Robinson in the backfield, and suddenly they get real hard to defend. I know that everyone's, you know, oh, we've caught up to the spread. Now, you really have it, not if people are making the right reads. You still have to defend it. That's real hard. And that's what Auburn's going to have to do until their defense at least catches up or maintain some kind of, you know, consistent degree of semi-excellance.

Eight and four feels like, that's hard. I mean, I think maybe we're assuming a few things. I think that they can, like, if you're looking at who they can beat, you know, it's, they can beat Arkansas State. They can beat Texas A&M. You know, LSU is kind of a tall order. But Monroe, Mississippi State. Ooh, boy, you care to pick that Arkansas game?

I don't. Oh, no, I do like that you. You care to pick that old Miss game. I don't. No, thanks. I like that you lumped in A&M with Arkansas State. Uh, yeah, because that's, that's, that's, that's fair at this point. Isn't it?

Sure. I mean, this is an eight, this is, I think this gets really hard for Auburn to fire Malzahn because this is an eight and fourteen. So like, how bad do you lose or how close is your loss to Alabama determines basically the whole thing here for him. It feels like, it's eight and four, but you can't lose any of the coin flip games. You have to win all... I mean, if you're saying four, you're taking Clemson, LSU, Georgia, Bama? I'm saying...

Or Arkansas instead of Georgia or Ole Miss? I mean, I could take any variation of Clemson, LSU, Arkansas, and Old Miss, and then Alabama. So I would... I'm going to go eight... This feels like an eight and four team. And if they trend up, then that's fine. But what they can't do is,

trend down right like they can't lose to both georgia and alabama in spectacular fashion particularly coming off say like a massive loss to either arkansas or old miss that's they can't finish down it has to it has to finish up some of this is that they also have to i mean Auburn really didn't put a pacing on hardly anybody last year and i think it's stupid but i do think that matters i think the fact that yeah you beat kentucky on the road you did at 30 to 27. Right. Yeah, you beat Jacksonville State at home,

but you needed to take them to overtime. You know, yeah, they beat the hell out of Idaho and San Jose State. And Texas A&M, they did beat in Kyle Field by 16 points and held them to 10. Yeah, so there is an element of that

that you have to, it's not just about the eight wins, but some of them have to be confidence-inspiring. I'm going to go six and six. Ooh. Oh my God. That's a firing. Probably.

Yeah. Yeah. No, no, that's six. Yeah, no, that's, because count up those sixes, that means there are some bitter losses in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and at that point, you're probably clearing out a large part of the athletic department. The schedule is bad. You got the SEC West.

Yeah. Uh, and probably the, the, the closest thing, don't, don't yell at me. Don't at me, start, Phil. No, I'm about to. Guaranteed win. Closest thing to a guaranteed win in Mississippi State, and you're on the road. Uh, and you're out of division games include at Georgia,

Clemson at home, and, uh, a vandy that's going to be tricky. Uh, had a good defense and probably will continue. I mean, you know, it's, that's not a whole team, but still it's, they're, uh, uh, the schedule is awful. It's a rough, it's a rough four. game stretch after the by week you got to play ark you could old miss vandy i mean our Auburn can very conceivably start one and three uh and then two two and five two and six something like that yeah yeah i mean if they're if that oh but you know what you know what

aburn's going to do hmm nine wins just despite yeah but also Congratulations, War Tagger Eagle Nation. Nine wins, but like those three losses, it's very possible. I could see this. I could see nine and three out of the schedule two, with those three losses being crippling. Like three mind-blowing losses. Well, mind-blowing in the sense that they get blown out,

or you lose to LSU because you throw a pick-six when you could have just kicked a field goal. I see this. I could see completely hammered by LSU, completely hammered by Alabama and then again or no or yeah completely hammered by Clemson and then against Arkansas old miss it'll be one of those late night SEC West games that ends with like a botched field goal or someone like that's like a five overtimes game it's like yeah like your five over time kneecapping loss that's Arkansas's annual five over time old miss fans are twitching right now yeah because they don't know what they're like which side which side

we spit the gun which end points at me how to get burned how to get burned the wicker the wicker man game that's what we'll call it can we settle on we settle on seven and five and split the difference between you and spencer sure sure sure i can settle on seven and five okay sure seven and five and gus milzon stays because Auburn realizes there's nobody better they can get. We'll take it up to seven, and we'll go ahead and snatch that win from Georgia. Oh, ho! Hand that pack, Georgia.

All right. I already love this. Hey, y'all want to talk about the hot seat. Oh, boy. The hot seat's bigger in Texas. Everything's bigger. Oh, boy. Oh, boy, yeah.

Yeah, let's... Speaking of a team that's kind of an Auburn's position, are they not? Like in terms of, oh, yeah, got a coach who could be good at his job. We're not, we're still not real sure. Monstrous questions at quarterback. Yeah. Defense, maybe not quite as good as it was supposed to be. Cutthroat expectations.

Early week one game against a team that could just stomp them. Week one against an ACC-ish team. You might lose really bad at home with everything. Everyone watching? Oh, boy, you want a weird road game. I got a weird road. I got a couple of weird road games here. Man, one weird, weird road game for Texas in week three.

They go to Cal. Yes, they do. A late kickoff, too. 9.30 Central. I think that's the Sunny Dykes tries to sneak back as Texas is like quarterback's coach. Oh, yeah. Just take me home, please. I mean, that's like, I think Texas just wins that based on talent alone.

because they have, like, they have, I'm going to put an exact number on this, 567% more talent than Cal. Exactly, 567% more talent than Cal. So if they just fall on them every single play, like, it should work. Should, should, should. I probably would have said that about BYU, too, or Iowa State. Teams Texas has lost on the road to in the past a couple years. So I don't think they lose that game.

but it could be horrifying. You probably won't want to watch this, Texas fans. Just check out that 2420 victory the next day and the media choice that you prefer to digest box scores. Watch whatever highlight package Longhorn Network cuts together for. Because that'll just show you the good parts for Texas fans. Yeah, well, Texas Cal, that's going to be Texas still breaking in their new fast-paced offense. So having all the talent for that.

but not knowing how to do it yet, whereas Cal is the opposite. Their players know how to do it, but all their talent just got drafted. It's like the gift of the magi. You have like one complete TCU offense just split in half, experience and talent. Charlie Strong is the one who sold his hair. I got it for you. His beautiful luxuriant hair. You got me combs.

Oh! Oh! What do I do? All right. You're starting a quarterback this week. What would Gary Patterson sell towels, sweat towels? Sweat through shirts. Yeah, exactly.

This shirts that don't work. Give them to your enemies. Why is it called dry fit? This is cruel mockery. Every shirt's wet fit when it comes to Gary. It says relatively dry fit at least. Should call it wet snug. He's a sweatiest man on the planet.

My favorite was, my favorite was they showed a game last year, the TCU Baylor game, when they showed the sidelines, and it's rainy, and it's like 32, and pouring, and you could still see him sweating in the rain. I know people will say, how could you tell it? How could you tell it from, like, the regular wet? You can. You can. It's a different sheen. Yeah, it's got a different viscosity. I love, I love that man.

A lot for really doing a lot for everyone like me who sweats when it's 50 degrees. At any weight, at any situation, a fine mist covering us at all times. Thank you, Gary Patterson, for being the first. You're brave. A handsome glaze. Yeah, exactly. Every man a ham. Honey baked frog.

But this is the Texas preview somehow. Speaking of Texas. We tried. Yeah, I don't. don't know what the I honestly don't know what the how many wins does Charlie need do we think oh man he needs more than he's got

as many as he can get it right but well a few things have happened to make this more of a reality than it might have been earlier in the year so let's just look at let's look at what you can definitely piece together they're not beating Notre Dame Notre Dame's a better team than they are right now okay so that's a loss

they beat U-Tess so that's what right they beat Cal sure Oklahoma State I'm not willing to pencil that in just not We'll give you both a half win there I'm not willing to pencil in Oklahoma Yeah that's a weird game but You pick up a total one win from the state of Oklahoma

You're up to three now Iowa State four Iowa State I did better than Kansas State right now I know they struggle with them and Bill Snyder I'll pull every cagey old dude trick on the planet because that's what he does and they'll slow the game down whatever they're better okay so i'll take take that at five they'll beat baylor six depending litigation bears pending litigation bears uh and then they'll beat texas tech because they're just still better than texas tech um and and then that's

and the kansas so we're already up to like i think a good solid eight yeah and i think they have to get to seven. I think seven at least is a step forward, and it means you haven't lost to anybody you shouldn't have. Dude, I think this is a nine-win team, because I think they can snatch one. That is awesome. I think they can snatch one elsewhere. So, here, you all know, my plan here was to talk y'all up to eight wins, and we're already at nine. This is amazing. Oh, my, the chest thumping of Texas wins nine games this year. Texas is back. I was about to start, figuring that, well, Texas will have a better defense in Notre Dame will, I think. And, you know, oh, man, my work, Mark, my work here's already done.

Damn. Dude, you are, that is going straight up the nose. My goodness. Just as long as we get a Texas, Texas, A&M bowl game somehow. You're on, I'm on that, you're on that burn orange, yeah, yo. Hard. Me and McConaughey. You need to cut it.

Cut it. You know, I'm saying this is, I'm going to go nine and three. I'm going to do it and go right out there. This is a 9 to 3 team. Jesus. Jesus Christ. I'm in. Fine.

I won't stand in the way of history, but y'all are wrong. Man. I have, on my board, I have Texas in the Alamo Bowl right now, which is the Big 12's top non-New Year's Bowl. And I think that's partly due to name brand, but I'm high on Texas issues. Listen, Jason and I handed out Sunshine Colonics today for Texas fans. When they lose the Texas Tech, well. We'll regroup. Oh, man.

And then they fall to 8-4, a lowly 8-4. Texas, we're sitting on your floor at 8-4. Don't worry. It'll be the Big 12 refs' fault when they do. Yeah, it always is. The complexion of your entire season, if you lose to Texas Tech in that game, who. I mean, it's in Lubbock. It's not that bad.

That means the news won't escape for two days. No one will know. Let's talk about a more reliable. more stable program. I'm speaking, of course, of Washington State. Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah, this is...

Hang on, can we bring on mystery guest Brian Floyd? Brian Floyd here. Brian, are you there he is? I hear you, I hear you, Brian. Okay, coming through loud and clear, Brian. Thank you again for... Brian, sponsored by Prodigy.

The web provider of former high school teachers that you sort of keep up with on Facebook. for the past 30 years, Prodigy. Prodigy. Get 18 free minutes today. Use code at Brian Floyd. Oh, my goodness. It's very weird to say this, but the suddenly reliable Washington State Cougars

in that they're basically just an old Texas Tech Mike Leach team now. They're going to score a lot, and they'll sometimes hit people real hard on defense, and sometimes they'll try to hit them and just whiff completely run right by them as they score TD. That's Washington State at this point. They'll give you an absolutely baffling loss. They'll give you three overtime games, and they'll give you about eight wins.

That's sort of the blueprint. And this year you get Eastern Washington in week one. So your FCS loss is at least a little bit more defensible this time. Yeah, an extremely excusable and inevitable loss to an FCS team, even though you'll end up with, yes, eight wins when this ends. They, by the way, go big early. They go big and then real small. They play a good FCS team.

Then they go to Boise State. Right. Do that. Why would you do that? I don't do that. Not the Boise State of York, but still a very good Boise State. Okay. A Boise State.

And then they play Idaho. Man, that Idaho, that Idaho, that Idaho, that Idaho-Wazoo game is going to have a lot of drunken anger. Yeah. I like this. It's like the Poulouse. circuit this little group like all these teams are within what other than boise state's kind of far but the other edub and idaho they're pretty close yeah remember that that uh washington state's going to beat idaho by 70 and the coach at idaho with paul petrino and

paul petrino and mike leach have already gotten into it at a postgame handshake and paul petrino at this point has to be the world's saddest and angriest man because he's the head coach at idaho i'm just saying bail bondsman in both Washington and Idaho probably want to go to that game because whoever you're looking for there's a good chance they're there in their fight they're going to make themselves real obvious

real known yeah um and then oh boy this the schedule really picks up oh boy here it comes yeah yeah yeah they after after a bye week at the end of September uh Washington state hosts Oregon goes on the road

to Stanford, the greatest college football team in the known universe, and the unknown universe, Stanford sees layers and levels that you cannot even comprehend. Then they host UCLA. For homecoming. For homecoming. That is a three-game stretch.

If you win, now, I'm pretty on board with this. They got Luke Falk. Yeah. Two-and-one is a wonderful way to emerge from that stretch. Two-and-one would be insane. You do get two games at home. Three-and-0 feels impossible. it literally feels impossible it feels like it cannot happen but if you were frankly if you were one and two coming out of this yeah you've still got chips on the table so well done you feel pretty

good i think if you had to the loss the most acceptable loss on here is probably the stanford game because it's on the road and because it's stanford the least acceptable loss maybe the UCLA game yeah or Oregon we have no idea about their quarterback yeah remember remember everyone we are still in the we're still waiting on I think what we call the Frank Solich protocol we're waiting on the inevitable drop-off from a long period of success under a coach whose management is still TBD

also we're we're looking at Brady Hope defending Mike Leach Mm-hmm. Ooh. Yeah. Just imagine those two talking. Just imagine how slow and meandering that conversation is. And just such a complete lack of bass. Oh, my God.

It's like two rivers of molasses coming together. I feel like Leach, you know, he's offering thoughts on like Carthage or whatever. and Brady Hoke has never heard of that, you know. I think it's a town in Illinois or something. Yeah. A recruited a quarterback once. They did some real good stuff out there. Yeah, then you're, by the way, the rest of the schedule?

Manageable, man. This is manageable all the way down to your rivalry game against Washington, which, again, just being the Apple Cup, good luck. Yeah, it's the Apple Cup, so it doesn't matter how good either team is. It's a coin flip into madness. But, yeah, October and November looking pretty good. So basically, a successful Washington State season means they start the season strong with three wins. They hit that five-game stretch from Arizona State to Colorado, and they don't lose more than one of those games, I would say.

That puts you at seven. And then if you can split the Oregon-Standford, UCLA-Washington crew, that's a nice nine-win season. isn't it? Yeah, that would be. You have to have your FCS loss, though, so now you're down to eight. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Yeah, I mean, this feels like another,

this feels like there's one thing that they're going to have to do the entire time, and I don't know if they can do it, and that's keep Luke Falk upright. Live? Yeah, alive. If he survives the round in early October, if Luke Falk is upright after playing Stanford,

that's really the one where you go, Oh, yeah, I mean, every Washington State season is like playing, it's like starting a Zelda dungeon and you're like, oh, I did not fill up the health. Shit. I have one and a half parts. I don't even have a ladder yet. Bebe, baby. Yeah. And you know what?

Sometimes it works out, but you better be real good. Like when you're in the room that's above the eyeball. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't have any bombs. Yeah. I would leave, but you didn't kill all the blue nights. It's hard to recruit bombs to Pullman. It just is.

I don't think it is. I feel like they have a lot of there. Yeah, I'm going to say. Yeah, this is, I will say this. I think this is a year when, given the manageable October and November schedules after that rough stretch in early October, if they have their ironing done right, you can be looking pretty good at the end of the season. I think this is a 9-and-3 team.

Yeah, I mean, it's 8 or 9. It feels like 8 or 9. I'm going to go 9 and just say they beat, if I say they beat Boise, if I say they beat Oregon, I think that's a thing that could really happen, by the way. I think they could straight up beat Oregon

because it's in Pullman, because I think that offense is probably going to be in a better spot than Oregon's offense will be just because of turnover. And the lack of defense on Oregon side, because I don't think Brady Hoke is the solution there. I know that you might not have picked that up via our subtle commentary that we provide on this podcast, but he may not be what you need him to be on defense, particularly against somebody like Washington State. So looking at the schedule, the only guaranteed losses that I can see where you go, yeah, they're getting handed to them, would be at Stanford, right? and would be maybe a toss-up in the Apple Cup.

So everyone else, they look competitive. I mean, even Stanford loses a whole lot. Don't start this shit. Stanford's recruiting is among the most prestigious in the country. So surely many of those young men have been coached up and are prepared to, you know, do whatever. I'm going to stick. I mean, they lost four regular season games last year. I don't think this is a wildly better team.

I think it has, you know, obviously another season of Luke Falk is good, but I feel like I can't go above eight wins. And that's fine. I don't think that's a bad year for Washington State. I think stringing together two eight-win regular seasons is actually quite good. I'm going to bump up to 8.6 and then we'll average up to 9. So, I feel like eight, but there's nine, there's something about nine that's really calling out. All right. Let's finish up with Ohio State, not the reigning Big Ten champion, not the reigning national champion.

Are they the Big Ten East champion? I don't think that's correct, no. And did not beat Iowa last year. That's true. Did they duck Iowa? Were they scared to play Iowa? I mean, you could say so. They certainly didn't go out of their way to make Iowa happen.

No? Didn't beat Bama last year either. They could have offered to switch divisions. They didn't. Didn't beat Nebraska. Didn't beat Bama. Didn't beat Notre Dame in the regular season. That's true.

What are they running from? I just want to know what they're scared up. Now they're recruiting with Tim Tebow. Yeah, that's noted. Noted Ohio State, you can have him. Which, I mean, Ohio State, don't you already have your Heisman winner who totally failed in the NFL? Yeah. Didn't they meet in that game?

He doubled one way or another? He wanted that point to be so emphatic. He doubled it up. Urban really should put the two of them side by side. You put these two together, folks, and you get Cardell Jones, I guess. You get a national championship. um ohio state this year has one of the most i think one of the most interesting non-conference games and that's week three on the road at oklahoma a game that oh my oh my god it's just dripping in

narrative just who do you want which narrative do you want here that uh urban meyers not actually that good or Bob Stoops can't win meaningful games? I think the latter has more heat to it because it's a home game for Oklahoma. The Big Ten is hollow and empty

or the Big 12 just cannibalizes itself? The Big 12, either you have Bob Stoops can't win a big game even though he's won lots of big games and the Big 12 must expand. What does that have to do with anything? But people

People say it a lot. I don't know why. Or you have, yeah, the Big Ten is weak and this proves it. Even though Ohio State just lost its whole roster. And Urban Meyer is going to quit and go coach Texas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of great narratives to choose from. This will be fun.

Just take a whole bunch and put in the hat and pull one out. Which one you get? Miami's not actually that good of a job? Great. Use it. Sure. Notre James must join the

Pact 12 fine I agree this game this game every proves that every media member watching that game

just gets to sit there like a vulture watching a water buffalo fight a lion fight a crocodile at the end of the day there's going to be something they can eat

on the ground not sure what it's going to be but it's definitely going to be edible maybe multiple lines we can pull out of this oh the entrails it'll be delicious

Why didn't an SEC team travel to this game? So Ohio State, they got all those quarterbacks. Who's starting? It's going to be Cardale, right? He's moved along. Braxton Miller's also moved along. J.T. Barrett. When people talk about the best returning quarterbacks in the country this year,

they mentioned to Sean Watson. which is fair legit reasonable after that they look around they say yeah yeah they look around and they just look for the tall guy so they say chad kelly sure uh minnesota's guy um i don't know maybe there's some tall guy in fcs uh guess that's it anyway moving on thanks bye what about j t barrett this has been driving me crazy for months now is everyone's forgotten j t barrett exists i guess like, oh, okay, you know, the guy who was a top five in the Heisman and leading Ohio State to a Big Ten championship, you know, before his leg fell apart. Just that guy.

And like Ohio State's best quarterback last year, even though he was their designated hitter, basically. Like, I just don't understand where J.T. Barrett went in the popular consciousness because he's really good. He's very accurate, very efficient. He can scoot a little bit, but he doesn't. doesn't really need to run. If Urban Meyer wants to do his usual thing and slide a tied-in to quarterback sometimes,

cool, I'm sure you can find one, but you don't need to. You have J.T. Barrett. Just don't let him get hurt. Yeah, that's the end of my J.T. Barrett, ramp. Yeah, also, your schedule, it's real pretty. I know you lose a lot. You lose a lot, but there's a whole lot of empty calories

after that Oklahoma game. And before it, to be frank, because I again find me a loss find me a sure fire loss anywhere on this schedule for Ohio State I contend I already pick Michigan to go 12 and no so that's one yep so there's one you got Michigan to go 12

did we I forgot we did we agree on the unanimity of that yes well no yeah I was overrule it's in the spreadsheet yeah it's on the sheet it doesn't matter what you said basically there's no nuance in the spreadsheet numbers never lie i think the schedule is beautiful because you get a a power five schedule with the other side from out of your division you have nebraska and wisconsin uh Wisconsin's probably not up to standard and Nebraska is still rebuilding from you know it's it's a

nine win nine win peak needed to rebuild for some reason no one figured that out yet but that's fine um so you're out you're out of out of division is not that tough but it's name brandy. Your two other out-of-conference games should probably both be bowl teams, Bowling Green and Tulsa. And they'll probably both put up a bunch of points. If on you, they'll do it to others as well. So that'll look

nice for you. And if you beat Oklahoma, you're probably a playoff. Yeah. You are a playoff. You're a big playoff name until you lose at Michigan State in some fluky fashion. Yeah, this is like, this is a 10 and 2

team, right? I mean, that's like if I'm If I'm like, oh, man, y'all screwed some things up, 10 and 2. Yeah, I mean, you lost a lot. You're very, very, very, very young, but okay, slide in some five stars. Damma does it every year. And you have the benefit of one of the country's five best quarterbacks. 10 and 2, sure. I give you one proper competitive rivalry loss, and then I just pick a fluke-ass coin flip from somewhere in the like.

So you use at Oklahoma and 2 Michigan. At Michigan State. and Michigan. Or if you lose, uh, if you lose to Oklahoma and Michigan State, there's there, there we go. We got 10 and two somewhere. Sure.