Super Bowl LX Preview: The College Football Fan's Guide

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Saturday, May 2nd. Country's biggest stars will be in Austin, Texas. At our 2026 iHeart Country Festival presented by Capital One. Tickets are on sale now. Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.com. That's Ticketmaster.com. Babes, what are you doing? What? I'm just mowing the lawn. No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember? Smokey Bear says. Avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry. Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on SmokeyBear.com with many other wildfire prevention tips. Right. Thanks, honey bear. Because remember, only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester and the Ad Council. This is the biggest night in podcasting. The countdown is on to our 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards. Live from South by Southwest, March 16th, we'll honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative, talented creators in the industry. It's truly a who's who of the podcasting world. Creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be on full display. And the winner of the iHeart Podcast Award is... See all the nominees now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app, Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. Welcome to The Solid Verbal. The Solid Verbal. Come after me! I'm a man! I'm 40! I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for a day? Eat a steak. It's that woo-woo! And now, down and tight. Dan Rubenstein, as you know, we ask for feedback on nearly every episode of this podcast that we've done over the years. And we get a lot of overwhelmingly get a lot of it. Yeah. Today, we are going to test out one of those concepts that has been sent to us a great many times over the years. We're going to remove the shackles of the NCAA and the transfer portal and SECSPN. Uh-huh. Sure. You name it. Today, we are doing our version of a Super Bowl preview, my good friend. How are you? I'm good. For anybody counting on us to offer any sort of insight about the Super Bowl itself, wrong show. Yeah. Cannot stress enough. but I'm doing really well. I, you know, I'm, I'm thriving in the cold here in the tundra because this is going to be an exciting, fun show that takes us back. I guess the last, maybe 15, 14, 13 years or so of college football. So I'm doing really well because I got to relive a bunch of stuff because we are looking at the Superbowl through the prism, through the lens of college football and going back and remembering some guys who happen to be starting or contributing to these Super Bowl teams and the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks. And I don't know. It actually, like, I don't watch a lot of the NFL. I watch a little bit more during the playoffs, but I don't really have a guidepost or anything for how these teams are and where they're strong and where they're not so strong beyond, like, mainstream conversations of, like, the Seahawks defense or something. so this actually added a terrific amount of context to uh to hopefully enjoy the game even more than i'm already planning to i stress please this is our version of a super bowl 60 preview which inherently means it's going to be different than everybody else's that's just how we roll here but think of it less of a preview and more of you know like we talk about look aheads this is more of look back players stories how they performed in college some notable moments from when they were in college and i will add even though to your point we focus on college overwhelmingly here on the podcast even those times when we decide to venture into uh parts unknown with our conversations right um there are still just a great number of advanced metrics that are out there for all of these teams like you and i are scraping things together we're accessing dark spreadsheets you name it to try and get these stats on the college side of things but the one thing the nfl does well they make all of this stuff available so i was actually able to go in there and poke around a little bit and get some context on the statistical level sure with what's going to go on in this game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. So I'll leave you in charge of that. I don't have any thoughts about the game. I can do that. I can do that. By the way, and this is especially fun because look, what we're doing is we're saying here are the college football players playing that happened to be playing in this Super Bowl because the NFL is just, you know, it's just a number of exhibitions after the real careers ended in college. What do these players do between Sundays? They make bets when their teams play each other, their alma maters play each other and And they have to like we saw Patrick Mahomes wearing an Oregon jersey after Texas Tech lost to Oregon in the playoff. Right. Like once a Red Raider, always a Red Raider. Once a Tar Heel, always a Tar Heel. And these guys go back when they can for big games, for spring games. Like there is something about college football that is in these players DNA. That's just different than being a Kansas City Chief, a Chicago Bear, a Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Or at least I consider that to be the case of somebody who covers college football. But I think that's true. I think there's still more emotion tied to choosing where you're going to go to school or where you're going to transfer to rather than where you're drafted or where you're traded to or where you decide eventually that like, OK, this is my best option as a free agent that I don't know if there's a lot less romance in college football. but for a lot of these guys who have thrived on the football field, it still seems as if like they're all still like in their hearts, college football players who are happy to take the money from the NFL. That's my viewpoint. Fair enough. SolveVerble at gmail.com as always is the email address. If you want to write in with your own predictions, any feedback for the show as we, I think it or as I think we are illustrating on this prog. You're good. But as I think we are illustrating on today's podcast, we are willing to take in your feedback. Sure. And put some of those suggestions into play. So we're going to give that a go today. Verballers.com, again, is where you can go if you want to support the team. Be a certified or premium verballer. Just check out to see what is going on. But that's not for you. That's cool. Hit follow. Hit subscribe. We will return you to our normally scheduled college football programming next week. Yes. absolutely should we dive in let's go damn time help i need picks of the week they can play it right i think so that's fine super bowl 60 this sunday february the 8th 6 30 p.m eastern time they're playing it at levi's stadium in Santa Clara, California. I have some interesting nuggets on that. Okay. This is the second time that Santa Clara has hosted a Super Bowl. Did you know it is the 14th time that the Super Bowl is being played in the great state of California? Did not. That is second only to Florida, which has hosted the Super Bowl 17 times, which, quick math check, 31 Super Bowls have been played in either California or the state of Florida. That is over half. That is exactly one Super Bowl over the halfway point. Most of them are played in one of those two states. On the call, we're going to have Mike Tirico and Chris Collinsworth. Chris Collinsworth has called six Super Bowls. Interestingly enough, Mike Tirico has never called one. You believe that? Dude's been everywhere, has done everything. He's never done this. so this is going to be Mike Tirico's first Super Bowl I like Mike Tirico Syracuse Orange Mike Tirico that is correct Collinsworth Florida Gator I believe so yeah yeah continue this is a matchup between two teams that are 14 and 3 the Seattle Seahawks coming out of the NFC West the New England Patriots coming out of the AFC East right now at time of recording Seattle favored by about four and a half points I looked last night. It's something like 65% of the bets, 71% of the money right now on the Seattle Seahawks. That line is up. I believe it opened around a field goal or so. A lot of money came in on the Seahawks and it seems like they are the betting favorite, at least among the public bettors out there. Another interesting factoid. This is the 10th Super Bowl rematch in NFL history, meaning they played before in a super bowl the winner of the first meeting in previous super bowl rematches is six and three in the second time around this one is a rematch they played this game back in 2015 it was one of the great super bowls actually the patriots is the malcolm butler yeah patriots won 28 24 malcolm butler intercepted russell wilson on the last play of game from the one yard line which would have given seattle obviously the uh the lead and the win in the super bowl but um very dramatic finish if you take that at face value that would seem to benefit quirky stat i get it would seem to benefit the new england patriots in this matchup there's your i guess context for what is going on here i'll i'll add i'll add uh so it's russell wilson NC State Wisconsin correct NC State legend Russell Wilson teammate of Nate Tice good friend our spring guests our spring guests annually West Alabama Malcolm Butler West Alabama Tigers also on the call should just add proud who Melissa Stark Virginia wow yeah Washington and Lee Kaylee Hartung from Baton Rouge friend of the show deep LSU ties but I'm just trying to spin the college, Ty. I'm just trying to spin the college. Continue. So here's what we did. You and I, we broke this up a little bit. You took the Seattle Seahawks. I took the New England Patriots and we did a deep dive of the players, the schools they went to, the stories that come to mind when we think of those players and obviously a bunch more that we found when we did some of our homework here. this is in effect a stroll down memory lane so if you're a college football fan even if you're an NFL fan finding this for the first time um we're as I said a couple times now going to provide a little bit of a different spin on the Super Bowl why don't you kick things off here with the favorite Seattle Seahawks all right so there's a ton that's super interesting about Seahawks players in college and I took the Seahawks because not only am I from the west coast uh but there's just a lot of west coast to this Seattle Seahawks roster in terms of college and where they grew up. How do you feel about the Seahawks as a Niner fan? Are you split here a little bit? I've told my sons I'm rooting for the Patriots because a Niners fan just can't root for the Seahawks. But after sort of refreshing my memory banks about all of these players on the Seahawks, I don't know, man. It's kind of cool. And I have Seahawks friends. Remember we had Mina Kimes on the show and Matt Ufford I go way back with. a good friend. There's a lot of Seahawks people in my life, so I would be happy for them given how they lost the Patriots Super Bowl the first time. I'm not fully on board with rooting for the Seahawks, but it would be cool given some of the backgrounds, and I'm sure it would be cool to see the Patriots given some of the backgrounds that you'll go over. But the Seahawks are really interesting just from a college football perspective. Mike McDonald, head coach, has extreme college football ties was the 2021 Michigan, I believe it was 2021, Michigan defensive coordinator. And they were excellent. And that was the Ravens connection with he and Jesse Minter and then Rick Martindale and the Harbaugh brothers. He started out, he went to Georgia. He was a student assistant at Georgia. He was coaching in high school while he was a student at Georgia and then got an internship with the Ravens and worked his way up before taking the one year at Michigan as their DC and installing that lethal zone defense that Michigan ran all the way to a national championship. So if the Seahawks win, not only is it a win for Mike McDonald, but it is a win for the Todd Grantham coaching tree tie. Never forget. Offensive coordinator Clint Kubiak was a good safety for Colorado State and was on the staff with first Mike Sherman And then Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M was there in 2012 as a GA for the Johnny football Heisman year. If you'll. Oh, that's right. That's right. And he's going to be the next coach for the Raiders, isn't he? I think that's true. Yes. Their defensive coordinator is British. So there was no specific connection to college football. But a cool story nonetheless, as he worked his way up the American football ranks. You know, Sam Darnold is going to be the big name on offense. Sam Darnold was super overlooked for much of his recruitment. and if you'll remember so usc the class that he committed or signed with usc in he was kind of an afterthought he's local he's from san clemente and orange county has like the shaggy hair orange county bro look played a bunch of sports in high school but the name that everybody was excited about going in was do you remember this at all that year that it's impossible this is like 2014 2015 yeah um ricky town oh so ricky town committed to bama switched to sc junior college pit and arkansas so he bounced around a ton never really took hold as a college football quarterback sam darnold comes in and max brown has written about this max brown another five-star quarterback for usc waiting in the wings for his turn after cody kessler starts the game against alabama in which Alabama absolutely mummifies USC. Max Brown starts that game, gets pulled in that game, and a couple starts later gets pulled in favor of Sam Darnold, who's much younger for USC. Sam Darnold never lets go of the job and is the high point of the Clay Helton era as a quarterback. And that sort of hit his apex just in terms of national visibility. And he has big wins. you know they beat washington the year washington goes to the playoff but that penn state rose bowl was just absurd oh man so i went back i think i told you when we were putting this together i went back and i looked at some highlights from that game and that was one where saquon went off had almost like 200 yards that was a chris gotham game and you know usc ended up winning it but um all the points a lot of back and forth exactly what you want from a game like the rose bowl Correct. That was so much fun to watch. Obviously, you know, I would have hoped for a different result. But nonetheless, man, that was that was a lot of fun. So, yeah, Penn State scores zero points in both the first and fourth quarters. They have a double digit lead in the fourth quarter that they gag away a ton of turnover. I think Trace McSorley threw three picks in this game. Sam Darnold, you can see how raw he is as a quarterback. You can kind of see that. I mean, it's very obvious he's an incredible athlete. He's got a big arm, but like the it's got like kind of a John Elway over overhand motion and he's like dirtying balls. He's overthrowing open dudes and still finishes with 450 yards passing in this game and could have gone for 550. Yeah. So that was an incredible game. Had a great career at USC. I believe only starts for two years before entering the draft because it just his, his stock was too high not to, but just in terms of where USC has been, he was certainly a high point with some up and down years in the, in the years following and the way the Clay Helton era ended. So Sam Darnold, huge name. I know he's bounced around the NFL a little bit and, you know, you get the jets era and everything like that, but a cool story nonetheless for Sam Darnold on the West coast to, to thrive in Seattle. Also of note, his grandfather was the Marlboro man, a gentleman by the name of Dick hammer, right? Dick hammer. Yeah. That, that has been an ongoing thing that has been noted. Um, needs to be mentioned, needs to be mentioned. There's like, there's a lot of like college football, like guys names on the Seattle roster, like Jackson Smith and Jigba is the other one. I think he's considered to be like, if he's not the best receiver in the NFL, he's one of two, three, something like that. There was, there was a conversation that they had in the booth. It was Tom Brady who was breaking down why JSN is so good at what he does. And it took him a little bit to kind of get cooking in the NFL, but he talked about how, he never alters the angle of his shoulder pads i.e he's not tipping his pitches he's not i saw this he's not showing defenders which direction he's going to go next and given the fact that he and we knew this when he was in college at ohio state this was one of the scouting reports when he came out that he's just so smooth into and out of his breaks that if you're a defender he's past you before you even know it. So you're always looking for any kind of tell which direction is this guy going to go next? The fact that he does not do that is a big part of why he has been so damn dominant. Right. Again, college football show, right? We're not exactly deep in the weeds of what goes on on the NFL level, but you and I both watch the playoffs, I think pretty intently. We care about that because it's interesting. He is unstoppable right now. Teams cannot cover him. He finds a way to get open, And maybe not just solely because of that. The Kubiak system has been something of a revelation for Sam Darnold and really that entire offense. But his ability to sort of be that smooth when he is running routes is is just incredible to watch. And he's going to have a big game. That's one of the things I jotted down here. I think he's going to have a huge game against New England. And if there is a matchup advantage, this is one of those things that I gravitate towards. But the story of JSN this year and the year that he's had something like 1,700 receiving guards, I mean, it's been a really good year for him. He exhibits the single most annoying thing for those of us who are not naturally elite athletes, and that's doing what he does effortlessly. Yes. No matter the sport, right? If you watch a basketball player who's able to accelerate and decelerate on a dime, if you watch a tennis player who doesn't sweat and can you know serve a ball you know seven different ways with the same toss right in in baseball right that um if a player is just so patient at the plate and you're just like no i'm just gonna wait for my pitch and then just crank it over the left field wall like there just there something effortless about jackson smith and jigba and you gonna be shocked to learn totally on display at ohio state yeah it was incredible at ohio state plays sparingly as a freshman but makes like an incredible toe tap like an all modern toe tap against nebraska if you remember i remember that the game was with it was i want to say it was 2020 um and it was or maybe 2021 when it was joel clatt and gus johnson and they watched him catch a out of the back of the end zone. They're like, well, that's a good catch, but you know, that's incomplete. And then they go back and watch it in slow motion. They're like, holy hell, what? So that was like a cool welcome to college football. 2021 Ohio State tie. That's the famed Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, Jackson Smith and Jigba. And not only Jackson Smith and Jigba and Marvin Harrison Jr. And not even just like Emeka Abuka is on that team. G Scott's on that team. Trey Henderson's on that team. CJ Stroud is the quarterback. and that goes to show you, Ty, that's how good Aiden Hutchinson was in that Michigan game. He could single-handedly swallow up an offense to the point where they could not get it to those dudes. And it was also Kerry Coombs for Ohio State, whatever. He goes for over 200 against Nebraska in 2022. I hope I'm getting all my years right here. And finishes out that... You can correct me. Please fact check me on the years here. His apex, because he doesn't really play his final season in college because he has a nagging hamstring injury. But the year before that, if you remember, Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson opt out of the Rose Bowl. Kirk Herbstreet is damn near tears on no sleep. Right. Like, what is happening? And Jackson Smith and Jigba effortlessly lights up Micah Bernard, who is not a cornerback for Utah. He's the running back put in put in at cornerback because they're thin in the secondary effortlessly goes for three hundred and forty plus yards in a Rose Bowl shootout win for Ohio State. That's an absurd number. Could have been more could have had more touchdowns. I think he fumbled it inside the five yard line on a long catch. So could have had more touchdowns is playing college football as an NFL player as a technical like sophomore in college. and those guys readily admit Olave and Garrett Wilson like oh yeah he was the best one yeah it was the 2022 Rose Bowl the 2022 Rose Bowl so it was following the 2021 season that's right it was 347 yards on 15 catches and 3 touchdowns Ohio State won 48-45 another shootout in the Rose Bowl incredible game so that's Jackson Smith and Jigba just effortlessly and it's just it's funny to see like an Ohio State receiver lighting up teams and then opposite him is a weber state receiver and rashid shaheed yeah who is also like fascinating could have run track at usc like unbelievable speed but wanted to play football and weber state is where he got his opportunity um and i think he's been very good for the seahawks i don't watch a lot of seahawks games but like an absurd amount of speed and opposite him eastern washington legend cooper cup cooper cup yeah who is from yakima washington could not get a callback Ty. Could not get a sniff from the University of Washington. Mike Leach offers him a preferred walk-on spot like right after he gets hired but he had already committed to Eastern Washington. Couldn't get a sniff from Boise State and Chris Peterson who like seems like that would be a perfect fit given he's from Yakima. And Cooper Cup I think his I mean he wins every like conceivable award and he's a receiving legend on the FCS level. Sure. Lights up Oregon for 240 plus yards in Autzen opposite Vernon Adams, his one-time quarterback at Eastern Washington. That's right. And half of that game, Kevin Calabro, who was former voice of the Sonics and Blazers, is calling him Connor Cup. And I don't even blame him. You're just like, who is this FCS receiver lighting up? That was a good Oregon team. It was an awful defense, but it was a good Oregon team that season. Connor Cup. He's calling him Connor Cup half the game. Our friend Yogi Roth, also on the call. He's a fully unstoppable force in that game, Cooper Cup. And to nobody's surprise, he was incredible for the Rams and is now very good for the Seahawks. And it's cool that he's playing in his home state. But yeah, he was a tiny high school kid. He was overlooked because of size. He peaked late. But just an absurd, absurd college football talent who would have thrived no matter where he played. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. All right, son. Time to put out this campfire. Dad, we learned about this in school. Oh, did you now? Okay. What's first? Smokey Bear said to. First, drown it with a bucket of water, then stir it with a shovel. Wow, you sound just like him. Then he said. If it's still warm, then do it again. Where can I learn all this? It's all on SmokeyBear.com with other wildfire prevention tips. Because only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the Ad Council. This is the biggest night in podcasting. The countdown is on to our 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards. Live from South by Southwest, March 16th, we'll honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative, talented creators in the industry. It's truly a who's who of the podcasting world. Creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be on full display. And the winner of the iHeart Podcast Award is... See all the nominees now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. audible is a proud sponsor of the audible audio pioneer award explore the best selection of audiobooks podcasts and originals all in one easy app audible there's more to imagine when you listen sign up for a free trial at audible.com i'm daniel jeremiah and i'm greg rosenthal and this is 40s and free agents the games may be over but the nfl never stops this is my favorite part of the calendar. Yeah, mine too, Greg. Free agency, the combine, the NFL draft, pro days, trades. This is where teams reshape their future. This is where Daniel Jeremiah makes his money. On 40s and free agents, we break down every move that actually matters. From my draft evaluations, mock drafts, and team fits. To my top 101 free agents and how real rosters are built, cap space, contracts, and all the tough decisions included. You got quarterbacks on the move. We got teams rebuilding. It's hope season. Absolutely. It's hope season. We'll tell you what's real, what's noise, and what it means for your favorite team. Smart analysis, real conversations every week. I don't know about the smart, but definitely analysis. Listen to 40s and Free Agents on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Another big college name, by the way, just in terms of affecting the national scene, Kenneth Walker is I think the starting running back for the Seahawks. third man i um i i got a tip that i should bet the over on kenneth walker rushing yards i think it won it might have been the nfc championship it might have been the game before that and i was sweating it out for a little bit but it eventually came through he always i remember back to what he did at michigan state i don't remember him being this fast at michigan state although i'm sure he's not any slower now than he was fast enough ty he's gotta be faster than anybody chasing you yeah what what strikes me and i mean we knew we knew in college that he was gonna end up being a good pro because he was very much the catalyst for that michigan state team when they had a really good year but um what really strikes me in watching him so far throughout the playoffs this year a very much a downhill runner b dude's got moves yeah he's i mean he's not saquon but he's got moves he's a downhill runner and i think the ability for him to be used out of the backfield in the passing game is going to be something that has a major influence on this game because new england plays a run pretty well they really do but kenneth walker has shown i think it's like 9.1 yards per reception so far this year um 20 some odd catches out of the backfield it wouldn't surprise me at all at least based on the numbers i saw if they end up using him a little bit more out of the backfield in this game against New England because they are so good up front. Can I tell you why he has to have good moves? Because he began his career at Wake Forest where he had to start his runs from a stroll running the slow mesh, the Dave Klassen slow mesh. And so he was great at Wake Forest. He got like a late offer to play at Wake Forest. I think he was committed to Kent State, tiny dude. And so he was a Mac level recruit until Wake came in and transfers to Michigan State, basically drags Michigan State to an incredible season. I mean, it's a Peyton Thorne team at quarterback. He's not incredible. I mean, they're pretty good at receiver. Obviously, the defense came to play. But offensively, what he was able to do, just lighting teams up. Incredible. And they do get murdered by that Ohio State team. Yes. At the end of the year, 56 to 7. And then they're basically just practicing against air against that year's Michigan State team. But he was incredible against Michigan that season in a win over Michigan in just like one of the most comically terrible quarterback game between Peyton Thorne and Cade McNamara and fumbles and JJ McCarthy's in there for a minute fumbling. They win that game. He's incredible in that game. And they still beat Pitt and run for like nothing without Kenneth Walker and still beat Pitt. And that's, you know, a Kenny Pickett, Jordan Addison Pitt team. And Jordan Addison leaves the following spring to USC. But I don't know how much money of that reported $95 million contract Mel Tucker was able to take home. Most of that is because of Kenneth Walker and what he was able to do that season for the Spartans. An incredible talent in college. And just I watch back some of the Wake Forest clips and just like, oh, my God, how could you do this to him? But he was awesome. He was just plain old awesome. I remember him in college. He was incredible. He was such a talent and such a revelation for Michigan State coming up from Wake Forest. It's pretty cool. Seattle is starting not one, but two North Dakota State Bison on the inside of their offensive line. Jalen Sundell and Gray Zabel. Sundell was undrafted. Zabel was a high pick for the Seahawks at left guard. Is he a rookie? Zabel? Gray Zabel, I believe, is a rookie yes he's having a good year he's 23 years old he's got a good mustache uh he's 6'6 everything you want ty um and yeah they were right jalen sundell is from his high school the name of his high school mascot in maryville missouri was the spoof hounds don't know what that is spoof hounds okay the spoof hounds of maryville mo um so and he got offers and we've seen a couple North Dakota State dudes get offers to play higher level football but these guys stuck around North Dakota State. Sundell won three national championships. Gray Zabel only won two. Jalen Sundell's little sister is a professional basketball player as well. Elsewhere on the Seahawks, A.J. Barner wasn't a huge name in college. He was Michigan's second quarter or second tight end A.J. Barner after transferring in from Indiana but would just wreck dudes as a blocking tight end so jim harbaugh was deeply in love with him um i i don't know on defense there's a lot of names we're gonna remember demarcus lawrence was awesome for boise state didn't have the grades to get in uh to uh an fbs school out of high school and so went the juco route and then was just an absolute murdering machine for boise um byron murphy was a baylor commit for a while and then absolutely dominated at Texas scored a touchdown, both rushing and receiving as a defensive tackle. So I appreciate that. Leonard Williams was too big to play Pop Warner football to the surprise. I don't, I don't have the opportunity to tell people stories like that. Like, yeah, I would have played Pop Warner, but I was too large. The limit was 180 pounds and he weighed in at a clean two bills. so leonard williams was how old is he how old is this younger than you think you know 10 years old 11 years old 200 pounds yeah clean two bills yeah um great was he's from the west coast originally but played high school football in florida ed orgeron fell absolutely head over heels for him and he was like yeah i'm a defensive end i'm not a defensive tackle and then as a freshman i mean he played different spots the defensive line they're just like you can play whatever you want And he just went in and dominated immediately at USC, was awesome and has been a very good NFL player. Uchenna Nwosu, also USC. It's always funny when somebody is in like a star edge in college and they come in as a safety. He ran hot like all of us at times, Ty. Sure. He was sent home from Holiday Bowl practices for getting in a fight. Didn't enroll that spring at USC. Had a change of heart. sort of credits clay helton for getting his head on straight and i think he played high school college he was drafted by the chargers so he was all la all the time right he's now with the seahawks um but a great story and just a wrecking ball in college again in a down time for usc he was absolutely a bright spot um drake thomas the weak side linebacker for the seahawks was just a tackling machine with a great head of hair for nc state had big time offers remember the head of yeah yeah and was just he was like he's from north carolina went to nc state and was like just an all-time tackling machine for nc state um devin witherspoon i think probably weighed less than you did in high school devin witherspoon only played high school football because he promised his mom he would give it a shot weighed nothing wasn't academically eligible until he enrolled at junior college got his sat scores lovey smith was his only big offer and went to illinois played basically immediately and by the time he played all four years gained like 25 pounds talked about he was like if i skipped a meal i would lose three pounds so he was just constantly eating at illinois locking dudes down and eating food that's a pretty good life and was selected in the top 10 as the Number five overall pick in 2023 was the number five overall pick. Which is great. By the way, that is a crazy story to get to be a top five pick. Yes. That is an absolutely mind blowing thing. Yeah, I think he. Go ahead. I was gonna say he came into college like freshman year. He was like 148 pounds and people are like, what are you here to do exactly? As he was putting his uniform on. But yes, to go from. he was he's I mean clearly a monster athlete he was a very good basketball player in high school but yeah didn't have offers both because of academics and uh in like didn't play until his junior year of high school um Julian Love I'm sure you can speak to yeah yeah he's from the Chicagoland area was just terrific at Notre Dame was one of the more dependable players in the nation at Notre Dame in that secondary I think he was drafted by the Giants yep but I'm not gonna say he was boring, but he was just like, excellent, got a bunch of Big Ten offers, and was an absolute rock for Notre Dame. Yep. That's basically it. Yeah. Kobe Bryant had basically no big offers and was named after Kobe Bryant, was great for Cincinnati, was, I believe, a corner in college, plays safety for the Seahawks, but Sauce Gardner gets more of the attention, but Kobe Bryant was... It was really good. I mean, it was Sauce Gardner, it was Kobe Bryant on that team that went to the playoffs when you are Cincinnati and not playing in a major conference but have NFL corners clear NFL corners that's different that's unique that's you know Luke Fickle and Marcus Freeman and the defensive staff for Cincinnati but has come through in a big way for the Seahawks Tariq or Reek Wollin apparently Seahawks fans have a very mixed relationship with him he's gotten three taunting calls this season including one against the rams that he taunted after getting off the field on a third down and then the rams got a first down and immediately threw a touchdown over his head um six five corner at utsa and exhibited one of the absolute best qualities you can have for anybody in the secondary and that is both an ability to diagnose and execute like a missile on a screenplay. Like, if you're going to... I love those guys. Those are the best guys to have on your defense. And he's this tall, lean dude. He's 6'5", but can just sort of stick his hand in and break up a pass. If you have somebody who is that sort of diagnostic wizard, but can also take a perfect angle and blow it up, you're talking about a top three aesthetically pleasing football play. I would argue, right? the DB from out of nowhere blowing up a play in the backfield. It's a Kyle Hamilton type. There's just you either have it or you don't and this dude in college and he's tall lean dude has that ability. Finally, Nick Emanwari, South Carolina safety. Apparently he's crazy versatile for the Seahawks, allows them to play a bunch of different ways and can make a bunch of different plays. Another one of those guys, he's local to South Carolina. South Carolina was his only offer. Had a bunch of great quotes. He's a great talker he was like we're legit hunters it's one of the quotes that he had in college about the uh the south carolina secondary so he was terrific and i don't know there's just a bunch of likable stories and likable dudes on the seattle team um and the only thing i really haven't liked was mike mcdonald coming out and saying yeah i spent about 30 minutes a week with my son like what i think his son is like one years old but i saw that floating around um he was like yeah you know Thursday evenings are my time. Like, oh man, what a life. But yeah, that's this year's Seattle team. Bunch of likable dudes, likable stories, and a bunch of likable names. And like there's back there, Jake Bobo's on this team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm rooting for the Seahawks. I am rooting for the Seahawks. Jake Bobo, not the son of Mike Bobo, but also his dad's name is Mike Bobo. So there's that, Duke UCLA in Jake Bobo. So he is the son of Mike Bobo, just a different son of a different Mike Bobo. Yes. So other players, you know, Drew Locke is on this team. Jalen Milrow is on this team. But like, yeah, those are those are the Seahawks as college football players to me. You want to talk some New England Patriots? I got some goodies here on the New England side. I think the I can only weigh in on Christian Gonzalez here from an Oregon perspective. I'm going to I'm going to let you weigh in on Christian Gonzalez. I want to start with Mike Vrabel please I went back and I was poking and prodding at Vrabel's college career at Ohio State an incredible talent at Ohio State he's part of the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame was inducted back in 2012 if you go back and look up old photos of his playing days in the mid nineties the old silver bullets defense for Ohio state I sent you a picture of the shoulder pads that these guys were wearing back in the mid nineties. He is literal. If you took a shadow, if you took a picture of a shadow of Mike Vrabel, it would literally look like an industrial grade freezer. Yeah. It's a perfect square. Part of why the NFL outlawed those style shoulder pads was because they were just they almost offered too much padding. They all look like bebop and rocksteady. I mean, ridiculous. Yeah, he is literally the shape of an industrial grade freezer. Yeah. But Mike Vrabel was a very accomplished Ohio State Buckeye, set the record for most tackles for loss in a season and over a career, set the record for most sacks in a career at Ohio state he was a two-time big 10 defensive lineman of the year three-time all big 10 selection was drafted in the third round by the steelers he played for four seasons with the steelers before signing on with the pats in 2001 went on to win three super bowls now obviously he is back coaching for the patriots he would be the first coach to win a super bowl as a player and as a coach for the same team, which is kind of a crazy stat. Yeah. Also of note, you mentioned Luke Fickle earlier. Really good friends with Luke Fickle. Used to live with Luke Fickle when they were teammates back at Ohio State. Was hosted by Luke Fickle on his official visit to Ohio State back in 1992. And they apparently had a thing for Ric Flair. I found him telling this story. this is back when he was a coach for the titans nature but yeah they uh they were apparently coming back from the bars late one night him and fickle and they saw rick flair who they thought was rick flair walking across the street he had yeah uh i guess a gal on either arm and was walking wearing a silk shirt that vrabel described unbuttoned down to mid chest and fickle just wanted to get in the cab. Vrabel was not content to leave well enough alone, needed to confirm that it was Ric Flair. I believe may have yelled out something like, woo, you know, the, the sort of trademark yell and Flair answered back. And that was their Ric Flair story. They saw Ric Flair walking around downtown Columbus, but there's a lot out there about how these two were competitive. Wait, was it Ric Flair? It was Ric Flair. Oh, okay. Cause you said who they thought was Ric Flair. It was Ric Flair. No, no, no. Okay. It was they yelled. I'm not going to do it. The dogs are down here. They'll go crazy. But they yelled out the trademark battle cry for Ric Flair. Thank you. And he did respond. It was Ric Flair. But a lot's out there about their friendship. There was actually a piece recently published just a few days ago in The Athletic. Luke Fickle talking about his relationship with Mike Vrabel and how he always knew he would go on to be a great coach. He's a leader of men. All the things that you've heard by now. But the thing that comes up a lot when you read about Vrabel is his willingness to tell it the way it is. And you can imagine how, as a football coach, that goes a long way. He's not out there to appease people. He's not out there to tell people what they want to hear. He's very direct. He tells people what they need to hear. And so that, maybe above all else, is why New England is a very disciplined team. why New England has seen an incredible turnaround story. They're 14 and three. I believe they lost 13 or 14 games a year ago. So this is definitely a story that's going to be written deep in the history books for New England Patriots fans and really the NFL as a whole. This turnaround story has been due in no small part to the mentality and the culture that Vrabel has put into place in very short order. This is only his first year coaching this team. So thus far, it looks like the coaching hire of last offseason, New England Patriots, bringing Mike Vrabel back home was a very big deal. Full circle, by the way, Ric Flair briefly was thinking about playing football at the University of Michigan. So him in Columbus, the connection to Vrabel and Mike McDonald's connection to Michigan. College football is never over. Continue. Quarterback is Drake May. second year player out of unc the maize are royalty at north carolina his dad played quarterback there he has three brothers his older brother luke played basketball hit a game-winning shot with 0.3 seconds left back in 2017 to beat kentucky in the elite eight i actually remember that because i think i had north carolina one of my march madness survivor pools okay so i was screaming at the TV with that one. One of his older brothers, Bo, walked onto the basketball team and he's got another brother, Cole, who pitched for the 2017 Florida Gators, the baseball team, which also won a national championship. So suffice to say, comes from a family of athletes. Clearly, he has risen to a completely different stratosphere relative to his family, but all of them are very, very talented. Drake himself was a very talented basketball player and was a recruit as a basketball player, but obviously chose to go with football. And that has proven to be a rather wise choice. He committed to Nick Saban, right? I'm glad I cut you off. I apologize. No, no, no. Listen, we've been doing this show long enough that you know where I'm going next. And this is where I'm going. Sorry, sorry, sorry. No, it's cool. 24-7 had him as a five-star recruit. The composites had him at about a four-star. He was graded as the ninth best quarterback in the class of 2021. The comp was Sam Bradford, which I don't know if that's a fair comp or not, but that was the comp, and Sam Bradford obviously is a very good college player and number one overall pick in his own right. Yeah. Can you talk through the other quarterbacks that you can name from that class of 2021? Because there are some names on here. I'll give you a hint and say that Quinn Ewers was unanimously the number one. And he reclassified. And he reclassified. but Quinn Ewers was overwhelmingly the number one quarterback in that class 2021 I get all my years mixed up I know I know this is I'm putting you on the spot here so he reclassified and committed to Ohio State where he was for a year before transferring back home to Texas you have Drake May in there Drake May was nine Drake May was nine 2021 I can give you some names below Drake May so you'd have if that makes it easier. J.J. McCarthy in there? J.J. McCarthy was number five. Okay, so you have J.J. McCarthy in there. You have... I'm trying to think. Is Kyle McCord in there? Kyle McCord was number six. Look, you can see. I'm not Googling anything. My hands are up. We're men of honor here. I get this. Okay, so you have Kyle McCord, Drake May, Quinn Ewers. This is a big name class. Yep. there's one very big one that you're missing. I mean, there are a couple, but there's one in particular. That's a huge name. Dare I say local to you. Well, JJ McCarthy's local here. Well, another one local to you. In the Chicagoland area? I believe your kids have a jersey. May or may not play for the team of the city in which you currently reside. Oh, Caleb Williams? Caleb Williams is number two. Is that year? Yeah. Little guy has a Caleb Williams jersey. I'm going to give you some other ones here, okay? Please do. Go through them. Number three was Sam Heward. Oh, yeah. He's well-traveled. So Washington, USC, Utah, San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly. Continue. Number four was Brock Vandegrift. Remember, we had that run of being Vandegrifters. That didn't work out. Kentucky, Georgia. Yeah. Ty Thompson was number seven. Oh, sure. Oregon, now Tulane, tight end, the last I heard. Yeah. Number eight. Here's one. speaking of well-traveled still playing jake garcia jake garcia has been around miami missouri michigan yeah uh drake may was ninth and then to round out the top 15 just because he's i mean you look at these old names and it brings back so many memories number 10 jackson dart sure number 11 tyler buckner usc jackson dart usc jackson dart tyler buckner notre dame um lacrosse contributor. Yeah, just I don't want to talk about Alabama, right? So Notre Dame, Alabama, back to Notre Dame, Notre Dame lacrosse. Yeah. And then fumbled the snap that cost them the game against Texas A&M. We won't go there. It's fine. Number 12 was Miller Moss. Sure. Number 13 was Jalen Milrow. Number 14, Garrett Nussmeyer. Number 15, Preston Stone. This was all all contributors basically other than Garcia. This was an electric quarterback class in hindsight. But back to Drake May. Okay. There were a lot of highlights of Drake May in his time as a North Carolina quarterback. The one that comes to mind, and you may recall this, because it wasn't all that long ago. It was back in 2023. There was a game against Pitt. They're down in the red zone. He's completely wrapped up. He puts the ball in his left hand because he spots a receiver open in the end zone. throws what amounts to an end over end wounded duck to a wide open receiver lefty to score the touchdown and it was one of those deals where he did it and then he looks at his left hand like how did i just do that like he didn't even know that he could do that but that one comes to mind there was also a moment where he got in hot water drake may is like the most non-controversial player but there was a moment in 2022 where rivalry upcoming about the uh it was a game against nc state and he makes a comment saying that people who go to state can't get into carolina and it was a big deal it was a big deal that shows you how non-controversial he actually is that that would get a rise out of anybody but he eventually apologized it was a whole thing and you know obviously now he was the third overall pick he's playing at points this season was was showing signs of being an mvp caliber quarterback may get there at some point but um yeah drake may ends up jaden daniels between them between caleb williams and drake may is that what it was i believe so yes okay yeah and everybody including my giants tried to trade up to get them but uh they you know everybody knew that drake may was going to be something special So New England ends up with them, and now they're back in the Super Bowl. What I also remember is both, it was Caleb Williams and Drake May. Like, that was the conversation for a while, and Jaden Daniels obviously peaked and winning the Heisman and everything like that. I remember seeing guys like Nate Tice and draft analysts saying like, we're pretty sure Drake May is awesome. We're pretty sure Caleb Williams is awesome. But they're playing behind such garbage offensive lines. That's exactly right. That it's nearly impossible to get a full sense of what they could do if they had time to go through progressions. And obviously, like Caleb Williams, you know, used his legs to buy time and still does, obviously. And Drake May is very athletic as well. But there was that like idea of like, it'd be really nice if they could step into a pocket and go through progressions. But their offensive lines are so horrid that they can't. Yeah. And and actually, that will be an interesting thing to follow in this game. notably rookie tackle Will Campbell has not had a good postseason no and his PFF grades have been extremely low thus far through this playoff run here for the Patriots it'll be interesting to see how or if Seattle can take advantage of that and what's weird is try to speak up Drake May Brank Kelly is such a legendary offensive line name in LSU circles right that LSU offensive line development to have that many guys off of that LSU line get drafted but never really play that well together, at least not as a run blocking unit, is definitely going to be something that we're going to need to look back on on the Brian Kelly regime in Baton Rouge. Look, a bunch. I think a couple of the dudes hit the portal and like were in high demand that people are just convinced that LSU was not a place to develop as an offensive line. No, we can we can change them. All right. Some other interesting factoids about New England players back in college, please. Trey Henderson. Wasn't all that long ago. Travion Henderson was playing at Ohio State. Awesome. Travion Henderson had a really good rookie year. Travion Henderson, one of the reasons that I think we liked him, I remember talking to Nate Tice about this before the last draft, but just sort of did everything well. Was it was a really astute player, was good as a pass blocker, right? You could count on him to just do the right thing. There were tells that his that he was going to be this player dating back to high school. obviously he was a five-star coming out of virginia but was also a straight a student so he's just a student of whatever and trey henderson had a really good campaign this year but again signs of it were back in his freshman year at ohio state in his third game broke archie griffin's freshman single game rushing record with 277 yards on 24 carries and three touchdowns over the span of his career, he made the first, second, and third all Big Ten teams in his time at Ohio State. We liked him. Obviously, they like him a lot. Trey Henderson had a really good campaign next to Ramondre Stevenson, who I could talk a little bit about, but I've got a bunch here that I'm going to get into first. By the way, two absolute back-breaking touchdowns to finish out his career for Ohio State. If you remember right before the half against Texas on the screenplay where Texas was like, Let's just get to the half and figure things out in the second half. And great Chip Kelly call. Trey Henderson's screen goes for like 70 yards for a touchdown. Also had a killer, I think, just a run around the edge against Oregon that just was basically the nail in the coffin when they throttled the ducks in the Rose Bowl. All right, son. Time to put out this campfire. Dad, we learned about this in school. Oh, did you now? Okay. What's first? Smokey Bear said to. First, drown it with a bucket of water. Then stir it with a shovel. Wow, you sound just like him. Then he said, If it's still warm, then do it again. Where can I learn all this? It's all on SmokeyBear.com with other wildfire prevention tips. Because only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the Ad Council. This is the biggest night in podcasting. The countdown is on to our 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards. Live from South by Southwest, March 16th, We'll honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative, talented creators in the industry. It's truly a who's who of the podcasting world. Creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be on full display. And the winner of the iHeart Podcast Award is... See all the nominees now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I'm Greg Rosenthal. And this is 40s and free agents. The games may be over, but the NFL never stops. This is my favorite part of the calendar. Yeah, mine too, Greg. Free agency, the combine, the NFL draft, pro days, trades. This is where teams reshape their future. This is where Daniel Jeremiah makes his money. On 40s and free agents, we break down every move that actually matters. From my draft evaluations, mock drafts, and team fits. To my top 101 free agents and how real rosters are built, cap space, contracts, and all the tough decisions included. You got quarterbacks on the move. We got teams rebuilding. It's hope season. Yeah, absolutely. It's hope season. We'll tell you what's real, what's noise, and what it means for your favorite team. Smart analysis, real conversations every week. I don't know about the smart, but definitely analysis. Listen to 40s and free agents on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Stefan Diggs. Oh, man. Yeah. There's been a lot going on with Stefan Diggs. I'm not going to act like I know about all of it. I'm going to talk about Stefan Diggs as a college player and recent NFL track record. He had an active 2025. Yes. that's a he had a very an artful way 2025 yeah artful way to put it i think yeah there are a couple things that jump to mind when i think of stefan diggs stefan diggs was the prize recruit by randy etzel back in his maryland days if you recall it was not because of randy etzel i think that is fairly well documented at this point stefan diggs just wanted to stay close to home that was the most important thing to him which is how from maryland how maryland kind of gets the one big recruit every year. I just want to stay close to home. Yeah. I remember in his very first season taking a fake knee in the end zone against Virginia. This is back in 2012. Took a fake knee in the end zone. Then ran for a hundred yard kickoff return for a touchdown. I remember that. The other thing that I remember for Stefan Diggs, who was very productive in three years as a terrapin left after three years ended up being a draft pick you know was played for buffalo for a while played for the texans for a while now was playing with new england um there was also an issue in 2014 is last year on campus with penn state do you remember this i don't do you okay there was a controversy and he got suspended and it was like all the way back to randy etzel and there there were issues across the board because there was a moment at midfield in advance the penn state game oh this is all vague continue yeah he was one of maryland's captains he and the other captains went out there and they refused to shake hands with penn state during the coin toss okay and this is after there was a little bit of a pregame scuffle where I think Stefan Diggs was accused of making contact with an official. Okay. So there is a whole bunch of stuff going on. And that kind of gave him a little bit of a bad boy reputation, which I'm not going to say has been totally refuted, but Stefan Diggs is now playing in this game. Stefan Diggs has been not quite what he used to be right when he first came into the league, but has been a very productive member of the New England Patriots. um he also never really had a great quarterback in his time at maryland um no what sean petty comes to mind i'm kind of hey there's another good receiver i just looked it up i had to remind myself dion long dion long but he had cj brown as his quarterback for two years and i believe for at least part of his freshman year um was it what was his name the court the it Sean I I blanking here I should remember this Sean uh Petty um a converted linebacker playing quarterback. Yeah. That was a famous thing. The, the Maryland was down so many quarterbacks. Yeah. Um, there was Perry Hillis. There was CJ Brown and there was a cup of coffee here with Sean Petty. Um, but obviously he was able to transcend that, become a draft pick. and now do fairly well for himself as an NFL talent. Has had a bunch of injuries, right, from a broken leg. He had a lacerated kidney at one point back in 2014 as well, but has rebounded pretty well from that and is not going to be playing for the Super Bowl. So I have a personal Stefan Diggs story. My personal story with Stefan Diggs is I used to host a game show at the Super Bowl Radio Row, and I would do these... Answer the question? Answer the question was the name of the mobile game show I hosted, and we would have a bunch of NFL players on who are not playing in the Super Bowl, who are there promoting like Gatorade or Nike or what have you. And Stefan Diggs was one of them. And there was a ton of like Pro Bowl caliber players and big names and stuff like that. I remember specifically, and I probably interviewed, I don't know, it was 20, 30 dudes or something like that. And it was JJ Watt and Cam Newton, big names. I remember interviewing Stefan Diggs. And he, obviously, this is like 2014, 15, 16, some were not for it, probably like 15 or 16. and I just remember talking to him before and after we we did the show and I remember thinking this dude is one of the most charismatic yeah charming athletes I've ever been around and apparently that's held true with his very busy 2025 yeah but I just remember like he was just super nice charismatic and like oh man this dude like you spend time around him you're like oh this guy's going to be on tv when he's done playing or will have some kind of something that uh spotlights his personality but like yeah very entertaining dude yeah there was also wasn't there like a legend about him having a valentine's day date with two women at the same time i believe again this all tracks this is all completely tracks i don't i don't i'm not fully briefed on the story, but I remember there was a report that he apparently tried to pull off that maneuver. There is an allegation involving hotel rooms, two different rooms. I have no idea if it's true. I have no confirmation whatsoever. We can't. No, we don't know. But I'm positive Stefan has talked about it, whether or not it's true or not, because he's a very open book. Continue. Speaking of receivers, let's talk about booty please kashaun booty kashaun booty from lsu kashaun booty is a true freshman in the finale against old miss played in a monsoon it was a monsoon game i remember it well yeah caught 14 passes for 308 yards and three touchdowns pretty good had his fair share of circus catches obviously was a high draft pick, Keyshawn Booty. Some others. Hunter Henry. Remember Hunter Henry? Remember this play from Hunter Henry at Arkansas? Oh my God. This might have been one of the most chaotic plays that I remember in our time of doing college football coverage, certainly in the SEC, the history of the SEC. The year of our Lord, 2015. Playing for Arkansas. Games in overtime. fourth and 25 they just got to make something happen against Ole Miss he catches a pass well short of the markers not even close yeah he's being tackled and he just blindly flings the ball backwards over his head aka the Henry Heave the ball bounces perfectly to running back Alex Collins RIP yeah runs for the first down keeps the drive alive eventually they lead Arkansas to victory because the Henry heave go back and watch the clip I don't know if you went back and watch the clip I did fourth and 25 right I mean it talk about a desperation heave that has a perfect bounce to Alex Collins who for his own right Alex Collins was a force we believe is drafted by Seattle wasn't he I believe so yeah I don't know that was a legendary play for Hunter Henry, who's been a very productive tight end in the NFL. It's sort of, when I say like Arkansas is the most college football team, it's those moments. That was a crazy shootout game, right? It was a high-scoring game. Yeah, like 52-45 or something, I want to say. It was something like that. It was a crazy result. It was Arkansas-Ole Miss. Yeah, it was a bonkers play. It's an all-time iconic college football play. Yeah, I couldn't have named Hunter Henry as being the guy I knew it was Arkansas Ole Miss. Christian Gonzalez. Yeah. So I want you to give me the lowdown on Christian Gonzalez. I have I have carved out a little space for you to fill. Oh, OK. But I will say this. Christian Gonzalez, his father, Hector, played basketball in Columbia. His two sisters, Melissa and Samantha, were all American hurdlers who also competed internationally for Columbia. Christian Gonzalez obviously comes from a very athletic family. Yes. Christian Gonzalez is from Texas, was a four-star recruit, committed to, I believe, Mel Tucker in Colorado. Colorado. Played as a freshman at Colorado. But I don't think he played for Mel Tucker. No. I think he only played for Carl Durrell at Colorado and was very good, played as a freshman. And when it was very clear that Colorado was not going to be going very far in college football after the weirdly successful 2020 campaign for a while, Colorado was kind of feisty. He transfers after the 2021 season, his second year at Colorado. Colorado fans are apoplectic because they know he is like one of the shining bright spots of a not great situation in Boulder. and I want to say there were a couple of other Colorado guys in the secondary. Somebody ended up at, I want to say something, Blackman at USC, but Christian Gonzalez ends up at Oregon, and to this day is, you know, if you think about who the best defensive players of the Dan Lanning era were, I mean, he's either that guy or is in the conversation to be that guy. He was crazy productive. He was a lockdown corner. He's a tall dude, sort of soft-spoken, and only played one season at Oregon, but I think it was on All-American lists, All-Pac-12 lists, everything like that. And so he would have been on the first Bo Nix team. Bo Nix was there for two years. So Bo Nix was 2022 and 2023. He was on that first year's team that he didn't play in the Holiday Bowl against North Carolina, but was great. If I'm screwing up my seasons, I apologize. If he was on the 2022 team, Oregon would have ended up... Was it the Holiday Bowl? It would have been the final game of... Yeah, it was the North Carolina game, so there's your Drake May connection. But didn't play in that game, but was otherwise terrific. Also, in the secondary, yeah marcus jones marcus jones is a nickel corner he's 580 he's not a big guy but uh nickel corner played at houston he is best known for being an all pro caliber punt returner which is part of why i am interested in marcus jones as a super bowl 60 mvp at 60 to 1 oh special teams touchdown difference maker just saying decent odds decent odds not bad just the tick below stefan digs and above trey henderson i can tell you as somebody who does not wager on football and ty was terrible wagering about football this season stop it um take all this as entertainment yeah he had a 94 yard punt return earlier this year against the giants that took my soul like right away right away they were up three nothing then they were up 10 nothing before he could blink um while he was at houston he won the paul horning award nation's nation's most versatile player he also released an album which i went back and listened to i do not believe he has released anything since but he goes under the stage name of elliot j the album was titled complications there's a little bit of kendrick lamar in it i'm not gonna lie a little bit okay like if you took kendrick and pitch shifted it up just a just a a couple cents you know okay it wouldn't not sound like elliot or kendrick lamar so can marcus jones use this as a blurb for any sort of press clippings ty hildenbrandt a little bit of kendrick lamar to him i mean there is go and listen i'll send you the link noted hip-hop journalist ty hildenbrandt yeah people don't know that about right your second my past day job past life writing for vibe yeah no yeah um that's true a little bit of kendrick in this okay a little bit but marcus jones is somebody who uh like i say nickelback really good punt returner could potentially have an impact on this game because i feel like this game's going to be close and i'll talk about that in a little bit the other thing that i'll add here while we're talking about special teams the story of new england's punter bryce berenger is very interesting he was a walk-on at michigan state initially cut from the team and spent the 2019 season as the team's photographer and videographer he is one of us dan okay that's true he rejoined the team in 2020 and turned into the best punter in school history holding a career average of 46 yards per punt he's also a very good golfer he's a plus one handicap which is a very good golfer okay now we talk about special teams we talk about this game i did do a deep dive about this football game i think this is a really interesting mix of all the different factors that you and i like to talk about when we preview a college football game i think the seahawks are the better team they got the best player on the field right now in jsn jackson smith and jigbo him he's basically unstoppable their ability to move the ball through the air I think is the difference in this game and as I said earlier my favorite bet is Kenneth Walker over 22 and a half receiving yards because New England plays a really tough brand of run defense I think this one's going to be in the arm of Sam Darnold who has clearly been a revelation since he came over from the Vikings by the way Sam Darnold would be the first player I believe or at least the first quarterback to win a Super Bowl having played for five different teams. So damn not winning a Super Bowl with five teams, but the first Super Bowl winner to have played quarterback for five different teams. That makes sense. Also, from an advanced stats standpoint, Seattle is also the more efficient team. They finished with the highest DVO a defense adjusted value over average since 2018. Very good on defense. my issue is that, and this is something we talked about in this most recent national championship game between Miami and Indiana. Miami had the flash. There was a lot of flash. Indiana was more disciplined. Indiana didn't beat itself. That ended up being one of the primary features, not just a bug, and a big part of why Indiana rose to such heights so quickly under Signetti. the pats are very disciplined they do not beat themselves um it scares me a little bit that mike rabel has been able to frame this game as something of an underdog story for the patriots we're not used to being an underdog but they are and i think taken in context here it's a team that doesn't beat itself it's a team that likes to possess the football it's a very physical team I think they're better on defense than they get credit for. That to me has the hallmark of a really close game. Seattle brings the flash. I think Seattle's got better players. I think Seattle's the better team. I think Seattle wins. But I think it's close. I think it's 28-24 Seahawks. Seahawks win. New England covers. Okay. That's fine by me. I think that's fine. I'm just there to eat and enjoy hopefully a good game. Did you see the Jurassic Park commercial? No, I've seen Andy Samberg do his Hellman's commercial. He does like a Mayo commercial parodying Neil Diamond, I think. Neil Diamond, yeah. The Jurassic Park commercial, which I think is a Comcast Xfinity branded thing. Okay. The spin on Jurassic Park that they put on in this commercial quite literally would be better than, it is better. than each of the last couple Jurassic Park movies. Okay. It is genuinely one of the better commercials. It's a commercial for Comcast? Yes. Okay. Yes. I saw that you sent me a William Shatner one. Sorry. Continue about Jurassic Park. The Jurassic Park one is, you know, I mean, not to give away too much of the game. Jurassic Park's been out for a minute now. But, you know, like the park goes down. Everything goes down. They're trying to boot it back up and that's when everything kind of flies off the handle. but the spin in this commercial is they would have been able to bring the pack the park back up right away if they had xfinity not a sponsor and so you get to see sort of like the alternate ending if everything hadn't gone crazy it's an awesome awesome commercial okay i'm gonna look it up as soon as we finish recording great sidebar really good jurassic park is a modern iconic movie of course like sometimes these movies that are just sort of action oriented and you know in sci-fi or whatever are not taken serious like Jurassic Park of the past 40 years it's incredible I think it's a piece of cinema it's so good it's remarkable I think it's incredible alright why don't we leave it there you got any plans you do anything for the Super Bowl we're going over to some friends i'm gonna make a couple detroit pizzas i think i'm gonna use a detroit pizza crust and cut it sort of in half lengthwise or i you know bisect it and turn that into like a giant okay is that the word i'm looking for i probably not but i know what you mean um so i'm not cutting down i'm cutting across right you're kind of squares yeah no no no i'm cutting through the the uh the uh what's it called the the face of the sandwich of the bread i'm not cutting down to chop it oh okay okay because i'm creating you know like how you would cut like a piece of like muffaletta bread and you make a giant sandwich and you cut that and i'm doing that with the basically turning into a focaccia okay i'm gonna make like an italian focaccia sandwich to cut up um and maybe some cookies or something like that but just going over to friend's house and we'll watch at least the first half or so there because we're in the Midwest. So the game starts at what time? Like 5.45, 6? Yeah, the kickoff time, at least listed kickoff time, it won't kick off at 6.30 Eastern, but it would be 5.30 Central for you. Yeah. Right. So we'll watch the first half there and come home for bedtime. Who are the boys rooting for? I think both Pats because they like the Niners, so they can't root for the Hawks. Okay. I'm rooting for the Seahawks. I like Sam Darnold. Okay, fair enough. JSN. I'd like to see them get it. Look, enjoy the game. Be safe out there. Whether you're going to a party or just hanging out at home, enjoy your Sunday. We're not usually an NFL show here. We have a few moments throughout the course of the year where we have to talk about some NFL stuff. We haven't done one of these before. We've gotten this suggestion, as I said earlier, a million times over the years. We thought there's not a whole lot of college football going on. we'll resume our normal programming next week but for the time being let's have a little fun and take a stroll down memory lane so hopefully everybody enjoyed that if you made it this far hit follow hit subscribe we'd love to have you in our little tribe here throughout the course of the off season as i've said now a couple times we will resume normal programming next week but wanted to give ourselves a chance to break free of college football if only for one episode yeah and we didn't break free at all we didn't talk about college football this entire time we're We're still in this prison of our own creation, but it was fun. I enjoyed it. Yes. Oh, man. Going back and watching that Rose Bowl, by the way, both of the Rose Bowls, Ohio State, Utah, and Penn State, USC. Crazy. Just absurd theatrics. I loved it. We're going to leave it there, folks. Enjoy your weekend. Be safe out there. Eat something good as you're watching the Super Bowl. Yes. For that guy, Dan, for myself, Ty, we'll catch you all next week. In the meantime, stay solid. Peace. Saturday, May 2nd, country's biggest stars will be in Austin, Texas. At our 2026 iHeart Country Festival presented by Capital One. See Kane Brown, Parker McCollum, Riley Green, Shabuzi, Dylan Scott, Russell Dickerson, Gretchen Wilson, Chase Matthew, Lauren Alaina. Tickets are on sale now. Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.com. Babes, what are you doing? What? I'm just mowing the lawn. No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember? Smokey Bear says. Avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry. Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on SmokeyBear.com. With many other wildfire prevention tips. Right. Thanks, honey bear. Because remember, only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the Ad Council. be on full display. And the winner of the iHeart Podcast Award is... See all the nominees now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app, Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at Audible.com.