Kenny Dillingham Stays Put, Wisconsin's Bucket of Wrenches & the 2025 College Football Stories You Loved

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. See Kane Brown. Parker McCollum. Riley Green. Shabuzi. Dylan Scott. Russell Dickerson. Gretchen Wilson. Chase Matthew. Laura and Elena. Tickets are on sale now. Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.com. The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear? I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success. Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well-being at soundedouttogether.org. That's soundedouttogether.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal. 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, Dan and Ty. Dan Rubenstein, welcome back to the show, my friend. Congratulations to you, noted Seattle Seahawks fan, on your world championship here over, I guess, the last 48 hours. Sir, welcome on back. I didn't know who to root for normally I have like a good idea because I have friends who like the team and I do have Seahawks friends but as a 49ers fan it just felt gross to root for the Seahawks and then the Patriots feel kind of gross to root for for whatever reason but I have Patriots friends in my life so I was just rooting for a good game from some good plays maybe some good commercials I do disagree with you on the Jurassic Park Comcast commercial oh you're not a fan of that one the Philadelphia proximity and Comcast is just interwoven into your life. I don't know. But there's something weird about the digital anti-aging stuff that was going on there a little bit. I don't know. It felt weird looking at Jeff Goldblum trying not to look like Jeff Goldblum. I don't know. It threw me off. Laura Dern looked pretty good. But otherwise, I didn't get to see a ton of the commercials. I did note that there's, I guess, a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood spinoff. Apparently so. Who? David Fincher is involved? I believe so. Yeah, I saw. Okay, so that was a big positive for me yesterday, learning about that, because I really liked that movie. But no, Super Bowl was fun in the second half. I guess you fell asleep, you told me. I was out cold about midway through the third quarter. Not even going to try and dress it up as anything other than what it was. I will say. I went down hard in the second half. I appreciated the Seahawks more because of that episode we did last week and the backstories, the college and recruiting backstories of guys who obviously had a huge role and like Kenneth Walker with his very slow starts before finding the lane. Like, oh, yeah, Wake Forest, Kenneth Walker. Sure, slow mesh. That was cool for me to see the guys we really enjoyed in college. Obviously, we watched a lot of Sam Darnold and Devin Witherspoon. That was cool to see those guys thriving on the big stage after just not watching the NFL all season. Well, wherever it is you may be, thank you for stopping on back. That was, I guess, one of the only, there will be another one as we get a little bit closer to the NFL draft, but one of the only crossover episodes we do with the pro game because we here are focused on the college game. The beauty. Yes. The pageantry. Uh-huh. The legendary aspects of the college football sport that we love. We will talk about that here today in very short order. If you are new here, even if you are not, Verballers.com is where you can go if you want to help support the team. We have our paid offerings. Certified and premium Verballers get all these episodes ad-free a little bit early, get access to our Discord, the games we play, all the fun stuff that goes on in the off-season. And I should add the submissions for today's episode were sourced completely from our Patreon. Again, which you can find at verballers.com. Not just the paid offerings, by the way. I send it out to everybody, even the free members. That's true. It's certified local, Ty. Locally produced, organic submissions from both free and paid verballers who are doing everything they can to keep this boat afloat. And we are always grateful for that. For sure, if you've not checked that out and you feel like the show, that'd be one way to help support the team. You need to sign up as a free member. It's cool. Otherwise, if you're new here, otherwise, if you don't care about those other things, go to your platform of choice. Hit follow, hit subscribe so that you do not miss any of our episodes. You know how it works here in the offseason. Two episodes per week, Dan Rubenstein. I will also add, it was a blink and you missed it moment from the Super Bowl, and then we'll get into this episode. Blink and you miss it. Ty, you were electric in that halftime show. If you miss Ty absolutely gyrating his life away. Yeah, that was me. He was. I was in the little house thing they had there. Unbelievable, Ty. Talk about commitment, Ty. I was so impressed. I know. It's all in the hips, man. Truly. It's all in the hips. All right. What's today's episode, Dan? We got Valentine's Day coming up. Yeah, I don't know if you got any plans with the misses. Not sure what you got going on out there. Maybe we can get into that later. I'm taking my boys and flying across the country on Valentine's Day. Yeah, we're getting out of town because it's cold and see the grandparents and enjoy a little time away. But she's hanging back. She's got some work to do. What a Romeo you are. That's me. Valentine's Day is this weekend. So as we typically do, you and I have a call the week before we do these episodes. And it goes something like, hey, man, what the hell should we talk about? because it is deep in the offseason now. People will be coming out of their Super Bowl comas, and there's just not a whole lot going on in and around the world of college football. You know, we could talk about North Dakota State and their move up at some point. We could talk about bowl games. We still have to talk about bowl games. We haven't done any of that and what we take away from some of those results. Yeah. Clearly, there is still some movement going on, be it within the transfer portal, just high school recruiting that we will talk to at some point soon. But we usually try to put our heads together and come up with a concept. And here's what we came up with this year. Dan, go. Yes. Well, first of all, North Dakota State joining the Mountain West is not nothing. It's wonderful. Yes. You and I were at the Fargo Dome for an FCS playoff game. Little did we know at the time it would be a precursor to this. I am thrilled that the Fargo Dome and North Dakota State will be part of our weekly conversation. conversations because that stadium, that program friggin awesome. That was an awesome experience that you and I had when we went up there. Yes, agree. And yeah, we'll get, you know, there's like Trinidad Chambliss legal stuff and Joey Aguilar legal stuff. You know, we'll see how all that plays out before officially reacting. What are we doing today? We're doing a little bit of like in case you missed it and sort of tying that into Valentine's Day, things we loved about the season. but also like there's 130 some odd teams. There's a lot you can in the micro that you can miss. And I think it's a good time being that it's early February, still in the shadow of the season to take a second and say like, yeah, we love these things. And it wasn't Fernando Mendoza winning the Heisman. It wasn't Miami breaking through and winning playoff games. It wasn't your, your headline stories, but it was just like, look at what this team did. Look at the effort that this team made. And romance is nothing if not effort, Ty. Got to put in the effort. You have to. You got to put in the work and you got to recognize the little things, right? You got to remember some specific details from what happened a few years ago. Like, hey, remember when you said that so-and-so was your favorite blah-ba-dee-blah? Like, oh, wow, you remembered. That's what life is, Ty. That's what romance is. So we're going to talk about things we love from this season that weren't necessarily headliners. and we also source that locally and organically from our patrons. So that's what we're doing. We're going through some stuff we loved. When you were a kid in elementary school, did you have the setup on or around? Topanga was my answer. Oh, sorry. Topanga, of course. Childhood crushes. Okay, yeah, yeah. Christine Lakin, sure, of course. Did you have the thing in elementary school where everybody would tape? Justin Dunst? Shut up. Did you have the thing in elementary school where you would tape the brown paper bag to the front of your desk and you would walk around putting valentines in of course of course danica mckeller continue i happen to think of this episode in a similar way like college football as you said it's vast 136 teams storylines a lot of stuff that we don't have a chance to talk about here on a national college football podcast which is why we put this question to our footballers to get a sense for which which which brown bags they drop in their valentines in yeah you know what what did it for you i agree we got a bunch of great answers here dozens upon dozens that came in we will get to those why don't we start with ours first off dan you call me schmoopy you're schmoopy classic classic where are you at here what do you what do you drop in your valentine's cards in okay so i was trying to figure out a way to to vocalize this to verbalize this but But there was the name of the show, Solid Verbal. Sure. There was something, and this is not unique to this season, but there was something about winning despite blank. And like Duke winning the ACC despite a lot of factors, right? Despite losing to UConn, despite losing four or five games. There was something about like Mizzou being ranked after losing three of five despite quarterback injury, despite scoring like seven, eight, nine, ten points against the only good teams that they played. still ranked right through the what is the word that everybody the gauntlet that is the SEC scale by the way pre fantasy thing the SEC is a gauntlet pre fantasy thing don't use it up we don't we only got so many of these left at this point I know gauntlet it's an absolute gauntlet that you know Minnesota finishes what eight and four despite not having basically any sort of competent offense to speak of. Like there were a number of teams. Wake Forest could not throw the ball forward and finish nine and four. So I kind of like that. I kind of like sticking together a successful season with gum and chicken wire. Yeah. And I appreciate like it. Also, we talk about like Kurt Signetti erasing new coach excuses. This kind of these kind of teams erase a lot of excuse. Like this team couldn't do anything on offense. They finished eight and four. It was in the SEC. It was in the ACC. was the Big Ten. So I kind of like that those types of teams figured out ways to finish respectably, at least in the win-loss column. Sure. You like the MacGyver teams is what you're saying here. The ones that just sort of figured out how to make it work. I wouldn't say I like them. I say I appreciate them. Okay. Fair. I appreciate that like, look, it's not going to go your way. Your quarterbacks hurt. Your defense can't stop the run. But you're figuring out a way to win 13-12. And you know what? You got to do what it takes sometimes. And I appreciate that. Okay. I appreciate that Steve Angeli might have been college football's most valuable player. I appreciate that they start out three and one with a win, a dominant win, scoring 30 plus on the road over Clemson, which at the time perhaps was more impressive than we could appreciate. Sure. But Steve Angeli does not transfer for spring, right? No. Transfers after spring football from Notre Dame. Turns out he's the better of the Ty Hildenbrandt team backup quarterbacks over Bo Probula. Steve Angeli comes in. They're three and one. He gets hurt in that Clemson game in the second half, I believe. Syracuse goes on to win how many games without Steve Angeli? It's a full goose egg without Angeli. so I don't know I mean his values at an all-time high right now with me so I dig that before he was injured he had 10 touchdowns to two interceptions he had a 63 completion percentage he had 13.4 yards per completion and I would say to the broader point I remember doing our preview talking about Cuse. And I was not on board. I was on board with Angele. I knew what Angele brought to the table. But I was not on board with Syracuse being like a better team than they were a year prior. Now, they weren't. After he got hurt, as he said, put up a big old goose egg. They finished, what, 3-9? They didn't score more than 18 points after Angele got hurt in a game. 3, 18, 13, 16, 10, 10, 7, 12. It was a big step back on offense and defense. They actually got better on special teams, but it was a big step back across the board. I think we expected, I expected that this would not be as good of a Syracuse team as it was in 2024. But that being said, I got to be honest with you, after watching Syracuse in its first four games this season before Angeli went down, I'm thinking to myself, ah, here's another one I was dead wrong about. Yeah, they're frisky. They were real frisky. They beat a good UConn team. Yeah. And he was good. He was. He was actually very, very good. And as you said, they went on the road. They beat Clemson. We didn't know at the time what we were getting ourselves into with Clemson. But yeah, sort of fell off a bit of a cliff there after Angele got hurt. Hopefully he comes back healthy and he can provide the same level of spark in 26. I love teams that have a November that maybe they're not going 4-0, 5-0, 4-1, whatever. But I like teams that fight through the whistle of the season. And to me, an example of that, an unpretty, shout out TLC, an unpretty example of that was the Wisconsin Badgers. oh you are the only person i would surmise who is sending in anything wisconsin related i'll explain they beat two ranked ish teams in washington and illinois i don't know if both of those teams finished ranked you can take a look at the final rankings but they were right in that conversation right washington illinois they beat two ranked teams in november in an absolutely soggy disgusting affair in Eugene they make it a slog against a playoff team in Oregon it wasn't always pretty I think their leading passer in that Washington game was their punter who was one of one for 24 yards you fact check me on that oh we did actually get one let me see if I can find this hold on I'm almost positive we got one here from Tyler our newsletter writer Tyler how could I overlook by the way he put together a banger of like i guess just some context that's going to go out in the newsletter for people are listening to this on tuesday right hit your inboxes around midday if you're a subscriber but just sort of examining both directions that it could go for north dakota state if they do in fact make it official and go up to fbs which is probably going to be official by the time people hear this uh to the point quote i love that wisconsin somehow upset washington with its punter as its leading passer on the night. One for one for 24 yards. You cannot make this stuff up. Thank you, Tyler. Appreciate that. Sorry, I forgot you. Yes. Okay. So it's sort of like Wisconsin in November winning those games against Washington and Illinois in ugly weather, ugly circumstances. Zero passing game. Billy Edwards goes down early. You're talking about Hunter Simmons and Danny O'Neal, guys like that. there was something about Wisconsin being and I wrote this down, an absolute bucket of wrenches to finish out the season. Right. That Wisconsin finishes that way and they were almost like, hey, this person lost their leg and just ran a triathlon. What's your excuse? Wisconsin loses six straight, no quarterback, zero offense to speak of. Obviously Wisconsin football far less important than a person losing their limb but it sort of the like what your excuse Wisconsin has nothing going on offense Can stop anybody quarterback And they beating good teams and turn themselves into an absolute What did I say? Bucket of wrenches. Bucket of wrenches is very good. And I can, I love seeking that type of team out. And even though Luke Fickle's job does not seem super safe, that the Wisconsin DNA of the 2025 team had a lot of fight to it. And I appreciate that tie. can I piggyback on that and give you one of my own I don't know some wrench teams yeah I don't know if it's a bucket of wrenches you you can I always I used to call the like when old subway trains you would hear them coming down the tunnel a mile and a half away because it did sound like a rolling bucket of wrenches and screws and we're just like this doesn't sound safe at all and that was Wisconsin football this past year it kind of it kind of was that's how it feels to be a fan No, on that point, and again, a bucket of wrenches probably, it implies something that I don't think applies to the Northwestern Wildcats. It kind of does. Continue. Well, okay. Northwestern got to seven wins. But that's only part of the story. If you look at Northwestern's season, they damn near beat Nebraska on the road, Michigan at home. and Illinois on the road. I'm not saying it was always pretty, but my hunch is that there are a great number of people out there listening to this who had no idea that Wisconsin was that close to maybe 10 wins this year. Yeah. And that's, you can say that about, there's always going to be a few teams that were like, there were eight points in 14 minutes away from being the national championship. Like, but they finished six and six. Northwestern's lost to Michigan specifically. The last second field goal, right? well it's not just a last second field goal it's winning the turnover battle 5-0 and losing a game right which is historically inept in terms of a performance that that sort of disqualifies them on a certain level of you're like the what could have been seasoned from northwestern if you can't turn a team over five times and not give up any and you lose it's impressive in the like anchorman I'm not even impressed I'm not even angry I'm impressed that it's so rare but I'm not going to come away feeling great about Northwestern's here. But yes, I listen. I'm not feeling great about it either. Yeah, of course, and that's why they made some changes. David Braun had the wherewithal to understand that some things need to change, especially now going into a new stadium, which by the way going to debut a Friday nighter against Penn State. I might have to come through come through it by the way. And so the temp stadium is going to be up for September again. It's back. It's back. Yeah, I saw it. Yeah, great. Yeah, okay, fair enough. But yeah, there were teams like that that didn't lose all of their games by three touchdowns that were closer than it appears. But yeah, I disqualify Northwestern just because, and that was in Wrigley too, I believe. Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, even running back B. John Robinson. When I'm on the field and feeling the pressure, I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down. It just makes me feel great. before I run the play. Just like Bijon, we all need a strong mental game on and off the field. Make a game plan for your mental health at loveyourmindplaybook.org. Love your mind. Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, and the Ag 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. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than No Grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the underexplored pockets of F1, including the astrology of the current grid. Lewis Hamilton, Capricorn Sun, Cancer Moon. Wouldn't you know it, Michael Schumacher is also a Capricorn Sun, Cancer Moon. The story of the sport's most consequential driver's strike. We have one man who, upon hearing that he was going to be fired, freaked out, and apparently climbed out the window of the bathroom. And was Daniel Ricciardo's illustrious F1 career a success story, a cautionary tale, or some combination of both? He started getting all this attention, and he maybe started to think, I'm bigger than this, I'm better. And plenty of other mishaps, scandals, and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. listen to no grip starting march 4th on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts i have i have one that i think you jotted down initially and then you deleted maybe because you saw that i wrote it yeah this is the new mexico jason eck thing we're both at heads here are we not of course we are um new mexico hired jason eck from idaho he immediately comes over and wins nine games for context new mexico has not won nine games since the bob davy era back in 2016 and before that the rocky long era back in 2007 it is a generational moment once in a decade type thing when the new mexico lobos win at least nine football games they did it this year i think there is excitement about jason eck bigger picture in terms of where else he could coach unfortunately that's the world that we're in here with college football but for the time being to step in and immediately have that kind of impact i know people in our little universe here as you say sourced locally and organically within the verbaler hood i know people are very much in tune with this but i don't know if the context is something that a lot of people out there understood. This is historically not a very good football team. The fact that he stepped in this quickly and had these kinds of results is pretty damn cool. Agree. Led by defense. I mean, the passing game was good. Keegan Johnson, I want to say the Iowa transfer was very good for New Mexico. But yeah, they had a bunch of like super disruptive guys in that front seven. It was Keyshawn James Newby, who was the big one. 24 havoc plays for this defense. 17 and a half tackles for loss. Yep. nine sacks. So yeah, they were absolutely abusive up front. They had the bad loss to San Jose State early, which is look, it's his first year. It's a new team, whatever they finish the season winning six straight. And Bill Connolly personally decides to leave them out of the mountain West championship game, which is such a shame. Ty, what, what an evil man, what a tough place to win, a tough place to win. I have stuff about my own team, just very specific stuff in case you missed the type stuff, Brandon Finney was a revelation at starting corner as a true freshman from across the country. Was absolutely terrific for most of the year. Had some tough moments against Indiana. I think it was Charlie Becker who had that long touchdown in the playoff on Finney. But otherwise, had a bunch of BS penalties. Ty called against him in that USC game, if you remember. All the penalties are always BS when it's your team. All the BS, yeah. No prisoner ever did it. and then Nazir Wyatt off the edge an absolute terror of a true freshman so the Oregon true freshman on the other side the running backs De'Air Hill and Jordan Davison but they were super fun to watch as true freshmen that they played so many impact dudes in different roles that was very cool from an Oregon level do you have a Notre Dame or Penn State well listen it's not undercover and it's definitely not one of the things that people missed but I just wanted to take a quick a tight 15 seconds. Oh, okay. To celebrate the wonder that was the Penn State leaked Pat Craft audio. Okay. I love that. Do you love that it leaked or did you love that you got a viewpoint that was unfettered, un-PR'd, unfiltered, even though it feels kind of skeezy that it leaked. Right. It was instructive as to who Pat Craft is intellectually. I don't love the fact that it leaked right i think that signals maybe that there was some animosity let's say amongst the people that were in that room but uh the fact that we got to hear it i mean vulgarities aside the fact that we got a little bit of a portal into pat craft and his thinking and to the mindset at penn state and even to some of what troubled him and troubled them with the way that the program was operated under James Franklin. You just don't, you don't get that. You don't get that type of glimpse into what's going on behind closed doors ever. Yeah. Every now, you know, like the athletics going to write their postmortem. They already did write the postmortem on like the James Franklin era. And I know others have as well, but a lot of that stuff is through anonymous sources. You only get part of the conversation. You don't always get the full context. They do as good of a job as they can to try and paint that portrait, but you're never going to get it straight from the horse's mouth like that. And so that to me was just super instructive for what was going on behind the scenes at Penn State, why they made the move, when they made it. And, you know, people have all sorts of opinions about Pat Kraft. I include myself in that because I'm not necessarily somebody who's had the highest opinion of him based on what I had been told before. But that leaked audio was just such a glimpse into what was actually going on that it's hard for me to not mention it here. I mean, if my word for the day is appreciate, I appreciate that this sort of cemented and confirmed the fact that we're all just message board genius screenshots. That's all it is, man. We're at heart. Yeah. The people in power, all of us talking about the sport, all of us who are fans of the sport, we're all just waiting for our turn to be captured by message board geniuses. And Pat Craft, what is the the sound drop that you have another bombshell enters the love island great so pat craft welcome to your message board geniuses moments we are all there with you all right some quick ones here i know you got a couple other ones let's get through these as quick as we can because we want to get to the ones that came from the verbolar hood uh i have pit making things interesting with mason heinzschel sure making things interesting i think is the best way to put it. Pitt fell short of my preseason expectations. I obviously had a rooting interest there because I was one of a handful of people that was really high in the Pitt Panthers. For a second, I thought they might have a chance to do it. It obviously did not work out, but Mason Heinzschel making that move from Mason Heinzschel away from Eli Holstein, who has since transferred, that ended up being a revelation for this Pitt team. They were much better with him than they were without. So that deserves one of my Valentines in the brown paper bag. I've got Houston finishing a quiet 10 and 3 I'm excited about the Willie Fritz era at Houston I really am 5 star quarterback coming in 5 star quarterback coming in for sure this is a program that has been organized very quickly under Willie Fritz now this is not to say that 2026 is necessarily going to be better across the board why not we'll get to that when we do previews. I've already started doing some preview stuff. Okay. But for them to just find a way to go 10-3 this year, the quietest 10-game season that is going to go well under the radar for most college football fans, Houston finishing 10-3, again, is a testament to hiring Willie Fritz, getting their house in order quickly, knowing how to use the transfer portal. A lot of the unsexy stuff that is not going to get reported nationally went on at Houston. We were right. I think we both did. We called it out and we did previews for the 25 season, how Houston was sort of organizing itself and getting ready. And, you know, they bring over Connor Wigman and they're like, they're just building. You can get the sense that they are building from how they're going about their business. And my hunch is that a lot of people did miss that, which is why I'm calling it out now. Yeah. The only other thing here that I'm going to mention, then I'll kick it over to you. Please staying in the great state of Texas. Look, this is much talked about. it's going to be one of those subjects we continue to talk about. Arch Manning actually got better. He did. He actually got after he got his bell rung. He actually got better. And I bring this up, if only to remind people that we are currently living through a hellscape of social media grave dancing. And by that, I mean, it seems a little bit more popular to do the grave dancing thing than to celebrate somebody actually getting better. Agree. And I know that Arch Manning is at this point, way way overexposed everyone knows about arch manning clearly arch manning comes in with much acclaim he wasn't great at the start of the year it took a little bit to settle in i think the people who are out there prematurely doing some grave dancing on arch manning are going to be looked back upon in a very foolish sense because he got better oh he got better and I'm not necessarily excluding myself from this criticism because I was there too. Yeah. He got better. He looked really good by the end of the year. If you're a Texas fan, be very excited about next year because I think he took a real step forward second half of the year. And with what they've got coming in and what they have returning, Texas is again going to be one of those teams. That's a contender. So Arch Manning actually gets better, deserves a little bit of attention here. If we're talking about it's all it's all relative. A very gutty performance against Texas A&M, especially in that second half with his legs, the plays he made nearly completed 50 percent of his passes right against Texas A&M. Is that true? You in fact, check me on that. Yeah. Got to double digits against Georgia. The hater said he couldn't do it. They got to 10. They lost by 25. No, he got better. Obviously, it was a rocky first half of the season. and we'll see what Texas looks like next season with some changes on offense, a lot of new faces on defense or a lot of full-time starting new faces on defense. But if your starting point is where Texas' starting point appears to be, they'll be interesting for sure. What else do you got? Hit your list and then I want to go around the verbolarhood. Okay. I have Arizona's nasty defense. You kind of made mention to a couple of Big 12 situations. That Houston game was super fun. their safeties were ridiculous. It was Dalton Johnson and Genesis Smith. I'll stay in the region-ish, but in the ACC, SMU lost a ton. Playoff team a couple years ago lost a ton. Rocky start to the season, loses a shootout to Baylor, beats eventual incredible team Miami amidst a number of turnovers and finish the season with a great run defense and maybe the best red zone defense in America, Testament to the new guys developing for, for SMU. There's something else, by the way, off season I've grown to love. And it's just because of the absurdity of it all. And this isn't like a, like a hidden positive thing. It's just sort of a hidden or not so hidden, ridiculous thing. I love a good double transfer. I love a good Hollywood smothers at Alabama for an hour and a half before transferring to Texas from NC state. I believe there is something very fun. about that double arrow on the, I don't know if it was 247 or on three, the double arrow graphic, where it's like, yes, they were at NC State and they have since transferred to both Alabama and Texas. They had to figure out, I'd imagine, what to do in those types of situations because they're not uncommon anymore. I mean, notably, we saw Kenny Minchie this time around. Nebraska, yeah. They screwed over Nebraska, going there first before jumping ship and going over Kentucky. And there are a lot of guys that fall into this camp, way more than there used to be for sure. Yeah, it's all absurd and ridiculous. Dylan Gabriel with his time at UCLA. I think he was on campus like about to go to his first class or something when Oklahoma called. It was something crazy like that. Obviously, we had the situation with Clemson and tampering from Ole Miss reported tampering from Ole Miss with the Cal linebacker. It's just absurd. And then you get your TJ Finley's that have seven schools on the graphic. And so it's not healthy. It's not great for the sport, but I do appreciate like the limited era of again, the, you know, Kenny Minchia, Nebraska. Wonderful. It's ridiculous. I think those are my things that I love from this year there. You know, we can sit here for four hours and talk about the things we love, but we got really good answers from our patrons, Mark, and I'll include NYU baseball nerd in here. Cause they're both talking about Arizona state, but I'm going to read Mark's comment. I love that Arizona State kept Kenny Dillingham as our coach for another year in the face of some hot and heavy pursuit from sexier flashier programs He may still leave us for someone else eventually but we going to enjoy being a 7.5 with a 10 on our arm for as long as it lasts, Dan. Okay. Yes, college football is better when a situation like Kenny Dillingham exists where he goes to ASU. He's from the area and receives overtures to go elsewhere and decides ultimately to stay at ASU. He is staying at ASU not because he sat down and said, I love this place too much to leave. He may love this place, yes, but he also got more money for assistance and more money for NIL stuff. The reason a situation like Kenny Dillingham would implode even if he loves ASU would be because he doesn't feel like he's getting the support and he doesn't feel like he's necessarily vibing with his bosses so kenny dillingham might not necessarily stay at asu forever but that's generally what it would take if you have somebody who loves the place but if he feels taken for granted then yes they go to michigan they go to ohio state they go to you know florida or lsu or something like that so good for asu good for kenny dillingham hope it works out moving forward but uh you know there there is something that's more pragmatic than romantic about this as much as this is an episode about romance i'm not gonna act like i'm any kind of asu fan i'm not right i like case i'm nothing against asu yeah fun program i am more of a kenny dillingham fan okay because more to the earlier theme about getting a glimpse behind closed doors Kenny Dillingham is always himself. He is always a live wire in hindsight, thinking back to him coaching cam Scadaboo. Just think about that pairing for a second. The emotional intensity between those two guys being on the same sidelines is pretty wild. I love the fact that we get press conferences with Kenny Dillingham where we always get agree the unvarnished truth directly from his mouth. and I hope that never goes away. Sometimes you see coaches that start out like that, and then over the course of time, you know, as the edge wears off a little bit, they start becoming a little bit more political, a little bit more corporate in their speak. I hope Kenny Dillingham never changes because he is truly one of the gems of the sport, and if you get to keep him at ASU for one season or 21 seasons, it doesn't matter. I would be thrilled about that too. He's one of the big guys. 83% edge, to be clear. Oh, yeah. He also kind of in perpetuity looks like an aggressive 19-year-old. I don't know what, like, at any moment he's going to look like a kid outside of the Sigma Chi house yelling at other people lined up, like, who do you know here? Who do you know here? He's got that energy, which it works in college. Zach writes in about Arkansas. As an Arkansas fan, I love that we tried. Yeah. the phrasing that the Simpsons cake. At least you tried. Yeah, I love that. We tried excluding the Notre Dame game and a late touchdown by Texas. All of the games were single digit losses. It was heartbreaking. It sucked. But sometimes the thing you love breaks your heart. You just can't give up on love. Just like the Razorbacks never gave up on trying to win games. There we go. Thank you, Zach. We also had another Arkansas related comment from Michael who says that he loves that Arkansas was essentially at a net even point differential on the season despite being 2-10. My mantra as a Razorback fan is that if they are going to stink, at least be entertaining and we got that. Thank you, Michael. Yes, indeed. They were the number one rushing success rate team in America. Nobody ran more efficiently than Arkansas over the aggregate and that's against what kind of schedule, Ty? a gauntlet gauntlet gauntlet I'll write it down somewhere so you don't forget that Arkansas was able to build the most successful rushing offense statistically against the gauntlet very good passing team defense was a disaster defense was a nightmare but they played in a ton of entertaining games they took Ole Miss to the brink A&M to the brink Mississippi State to the brink Memphis to the brink quality teams All the same, LSU to the brink. I mean, they got blown out by Texas and Mizzou wasn't close. But, you know, if your team offers you some entertainment and has a good enough, a strong enough offense to keep you in every game or most games, it's hopefully a building block to a new era, new coach. Obviously, this is a full overhaul of Arkansas football, what's happening right now. But at least within the roster, that's going to be back. You know that there's fight there. let's go to audi 847 you ever have an audi what's your opinion on audis you have any belly button or car uh i'm talking about the car not the not audi i'm talking like okay out a u d i you're a very personable talker ty um i i've never owned an audi no they seem like quality cars i don't know i heard they i heard they got maintenance issues oh just not a sponsor still could not a sponsor might be eliminated as one we can change what we say if that's true if they want to supply us with cars anyway uh as an indiana fan and alum there is so much love over the last two years it all starts with ad scott dolson who had the belief to hire coach signetti then it's coach signetti it's not just the winning but it's how he's done it when he says it starts with people he means it he shows that trust and respect with having short focused practices by encouraging everyone to figure out how to work smarter, not harder. Every time he speaks, it's a class on leadership and management. I love how he's taken us from the homecoming game to the hunted. There we go. Audi. Okay, we got some other people chiming in about Indiana. Fell in love with this. B. Haas fell in love with the guys on our team, all the backstories and personality they showed week in, week out. It will be hard to top the character from Indiana's 2025 team. And Caleb says, can it be as simple as I love that Iowa gave Indiana the best run for their money all season. I've been hanging my hat on that for a few weeks as a Hawkeye. So some Indiana love some tangential Indiana slash I don't know man Penn State needed a miracle to lose that game. I might give the edge to Penn State there. Well, nobody wrote in about Penn State, but I know I'm just I'm debating the Iowa gave them the best run for their money when you know, Oregon was tied in the fourth quarter Penn State Omar Cooper needed to do what he did to beat Penn State continue. No, that's all I have this. These are what people these are the things that people send in about indiana do it obviously the indiana just genome here genus gena what is it phylum species whatever the umbrella term for indiana and all things underneath it yeah is well tread territory at this point we've talked a lot about this is there anything to add further to these comments that we got from the verbaler well i i'm curious how you feel about this. I'm curious if because you're well known not just in eastern Pennsylvania but the world at large as quite the lover. I quite the mind body soul body spirit whatever you know try try walking down the streets of eastern PA without people talking about Ty Hildenbrand being quite the swordsman. Sure. Would you I'm going to write that one down too please write it down remind Kate not to take you for granted I'm going to go upstairs and tell Kate I'm a swordsman quite the swordsman I'm repeating what I've heard I don't know I can't verify these things the swordsman continue would you recommend Indiana fans to protect their hearts regarding Kurt Cignetti and this program or love like you know there's no going back here here is what i would say okay here is how i am advising all of my indiana clients at this point yeah it has been an incredible two-year run it does not look as if it is going to go sideways anytime soon because it seems like each portal cycle things are ramping up okay now it has gotten to the point very quickly to the point where there's something of a critical mass going on where guys just want to go there right right josh hoover wanted to go there out of high school he's going there now as a transfer nick martin wanted nick marsh like crazy nick marsh took one visit went to indiana and that was that so it's it's clear that guys want to go there now so that insulates you a little bit but i gotta caution people this is still real new here and this is an extremely volatile time to be a college football fan with how things quick can change with the portal and nil and you know it indiana is one example but there could just as easily be other examples texas tech they're spending did i see that mr beast is going to give a ton of money to eastern carolina to east carolina ecu is that true supposedly there are conversations that he's going to give an obscene amount of money. I didn't see you to try and get them to win a national championship. So I'm just saying like things pop up quicker now than ever before. And though I don't think signety is suddenly going to fall off a cliff. I would say, give it a little bit, give it a little, give yourself like the five year grace period that we see with other sports. You win a championship. Then you have like a five year halo around the program. where if things don't quite get up to the same level, you're cool with it just because you had the championship and you can still sort of coast off of that joy for a little bit. Give Signetti, give Indiana a little bit of wiggle room here before you fully dive into this idea, this, I don't know, just assumption that it's going to be like this every year. So protect your heart a little is what I am saying. I could not disagree more. Oh. Wow. Okay. If you give your everything, if you are saying to yourself, I love Indiana football. I love what Indiana football has been. I love what we could be moving forward, hitting the portal. We have Kurt Signetti. We're retaining these coaches, bringing back Tino Sanceri, like that. There's a magnetism, a newfound magnetism to Indiana football. And I am all in. I am bringing my love, my passion, my everything to support the upside of Indiana football. And let's say Kurt Signetti lets you down. Let's say this roster lets you down. Let's say something catastrophic happens. Let's say Kurt Signetti is the next coach of the whatever, LA Rams or something in two years. And what's the worst that could happen to Indiana football that they haven't already felt? Indiana fans were born in this. the Bane quote right the worst that can happen thank you Ty the worst that can happen to Indiana football is if this all collapses into a heap of nothingness and dust nobody knows that world already better than Indiana fans you can't hurt them so you have to love while you have the ability to love Ty you have to love while your heart's beaten so I wouldn't protect your heart at all Ty I would push the chips in I would make your big romantic overtures and just you're ready to get hurt, but you're not pulling back, Ty. That's what I'm saying. We did get another one here from Ween who says that I love that Fernando Mendoza dropped an F-bomb on live TV, even though I'd bet it was scripted. Of course. Yeah. All right. Let's go. Kind of Indiana and Fernando Mendoza adjacent. Fernando Mendoza as an industry plant is a theory that I'm interested in an industry plant? yeah that like he was somehow grown and developed into this very specific role by the powers that be and this all didn't happen organically that's like what people will say like when a band blows up out of nowhere they're like oh no this was all they were never a real band that toured and paid their dues they were just assembled by a factory behind the record labels to be this famous thing. They were not an organically grown thing. So how would you do that with a football player? I have no idea. I mean, because they tried that. No, but there's just something so like weirdly calculated about how Fernando Mendoza speaks that you're just like, it was a little bit too robotic. I don't know. All right. Continue. you mike super for baller mike we appreciate you mike thank you for writing in he says as a cal fan i loved watching fernando mendoza ball out i love seeing the bears get a big upset over a ranked team and then finally free themselves from a decade of wilcox mediocrity so he's speaking to a couple things here yeah he is speaking to a having that love for fernando mendoza even though he was on a different team he is speaking to jaron kave songapulatele my boy stepping in and uh getting some results for the cow golden bears yeah and then he is speaking to obviously the coaching change with toshul poi coming down from oregon after they rid themselves as he said here of justin wilcox mediocrity by the way quite the cocktail at the end of the season to lose to a bad Stanford team in their rivalry game and then watch a dude who left your school. Interesting story for another day who left your school and went on to win the Heisman that reflects not super well on your program be like I'm sorry you had a Heisman caliber quarterback and couldn't surround him with receivers in an offensive line or a defense to play complimentary football a Heisman caliber quarterback okay and he was good at Cal but yeah that's Sort of salt in the wound at the end of the Wilcox era. Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, even running back B. John Robinson. When I'm on the field and feeling the pressure, I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down. It just makes me feel great before I run the play. Just like B. John, we all need a strong mental game on and off the field. Make a game plan for your mental health at loveyourmindplaybook.org. Love your mind. Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, and the Ad Council. 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. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than No Grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the underexplored pockets of F1, including the astrology of the current grid. Lewis Hamilton, Capricorn Sun, Cancer Moon. Wouldn't you know it, Michael Schumacher is also a Capricorn Sun, Cancer Moon. The story of the sport's most consequential driver's strike. We have one man who, upon hearing that he was going to be fired, freaked out and apparently climbed out the window of the bathroom. And was Daniel Ricciardo's illustrious F1 career a success story, a cautionary tale or some combination of both. He started getting all this attention and he maybe started to think, I'm bigger than this, I'm better. And plenty of other mishaps, scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to No Grip starting March 4th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Bob writes in, I loved all the predictable drama with Lane Kiffin and LSU. from the politicians saying they would not pay Brian Kelly's buyout, which they did, and then saying they would never accept as one-sided a coaching contract again to Lane's drama at Ole Miss, wanting to stay through the playoffs, his clothes being put out at the curb, his dog not really being his dog. That's the one here, Bob, the dog, the Marty Smith hostage situation. And then the awkward Stockholm syndrome hug on the tarmac when Lane may or may not have needed a police escort to escape and on and on just a perfect encapsulation of the craziness of college football that dwarfs any story Hollywood could possibly make up Bob by the way thank you Bob put a perfect point on that I love it I would echo what I have to say about Indiana football and Kurt Signetti about Lane Kiffin if you're an LSU fan love with all your heart you know how it going to end right so at least you know that Indiana fans don know how it going to end with Kurt Signetti Maybe it ends with him winning three national championships retiring and being a forever hero to Indiana football That the best possible case You know how it going to end with Lane Kiffin and LSU But while he's there and while they eatins good, you got to love it because Indiana is, I mean, just like LSU and not to the same degree. LSU fans have been wandering the desert for a minute. They'll have a great offense with Jaden Daniels and a terrible defense for a couple of years. and LSU fans already got the highest of the highs in 2019. So they're in like a gravy moment as well. Lane Kiffin won't build a team like that probably. But while the getting's good, keep going back to the buffet, Ty. Well, you have a, I guess, Lane Kiffin related point here from Gary, who's a Florida fan. Okay. I love that we finally moved on a head coach. I love that we stayed out of the Lane Kiffin TV show. That's a little generous to say they stayed out of the TV show. They were part of the TV show, Gary, for a little bit. Not to the same extent. They had the wherewithal to pull their name out, essentially. But for a moment, they were part of the opening credits. I love that Jaden Ball was, again, incredible and decided to come back. I love that Georgia and Miami couldn't get it done in the playoffs. And Florida State continued to be a disaster saddled with the lame duck coach. That's true. Gary, as he said, is a Florida fan, Dan. Thank you, Gary. What else do we got here? Uh, we've got this one from Jeff on the Georgia front. I love that Georgia let all four of our biggest rivals believe they were going to end their losing streaks again, against us before we ripped their hearts out. Oh, Jeff, I love this intensity, my man. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Thomas also writes in and says he loves Gunnar Stockton's moxie and ability to step up and crunch time this season to throw the throw to London Humphries against Texas on fourth down. run against Auburn and again against Florida. Yeah, it's hard not to like what Gunnar Stockton brings to the game of college football right now. I know against I know Georgia fans would like to have gone a little bit further this year, but man Gunnar Stockton's got the moxie. I love like against what kind of schedule a gauntlet. Yeah, gauntlet continue let's go to on Capistan. I hope I said that right. Yeah long timer in the comments loved i'm going to paraphrase this because it was a very long comment which we appreciate yeah he says he loves north texas's record setting season the walk-on hawkins becoming the best scoring running back in program history drew mestemaker breaking freshmen passing records the defense's big jump and winning a bowl game for the first time in 11 years did not like the blowout loss to usf in prime time did not like getting robbed in the american conference championship game against tulane and half of the team leaving for greener pastures right but i tend to agree there's a lot to like about north well it also it reflects well on the program uh generally speaking if they hire the right coach dbd currently but if they hire the right coach that Denton is a place to attract and develop winning talent. And that's an important first step in building out a winning program that you're like, here's the proof of concept. It can happen at North Texas. It doesn't always happen at North Texas. But obviously, Eric Morris was that guy, grew every year with that team. And so we'll see moving forward. But yeah, an electric season for the Mean Green. All right. Let's go to some players that were called out. Adam calls out Jeremiah Love. Davis says that Ahmaud Hardy breaking through wimpy would-be tacklers effortlessly. Every time I saw that and heard the announcers marveled out of skill, I was overjoyed that he plays for Mizzou and not against them. Cody writes in to say that he loves that out of Texas Tech's oil money bought team and number one transfer class, it was a random three-star quarterback converted to linebacker walk on Virginia transfer from a couple seasons prior that was the star of our defense and swept the postseason awards minus the Heisman he's talking about J-Rod Jacob Rodriguez now I did see David Bailey might be a top five pick so that did have an impact but J-Rod was like the heart and soul of that defense he was the heart and soul of that defense he was excellent that you that you cannot it's unimpeachable his excellence also comma it's easier to play linebacker when you've got a bunch of killer defensive linemen in front of you right clogging lanes making making room for you two things can be true it's really good that texas tech spent on that defensive line because they were worth every penny and came through uh and it made you know ben roberts and jacob rodriguez and that whole defense's life a lot easier yeah and i would also add having shield wood the defensive coordinator whose system is is geared a lot around finding guys on the defensive line that could open up space so the linebackers can make play j-rod was always good yeah this is not a new thing but i think the system really benefited him this past year and obviously benefited texas tech they're really good on defense uh tim says he loves that jade mayava took a big step forward will be very experienced in 26 might have a realistic shot at winning another heisman for usc i lost a couple big receivers they did but uh you know lincoln riley quarterback is always gonna have that starting point with at least heisman conversation. Who's it? Tanook Hines. That's the big hope for 2026. And he, he certainly flashed this past year. Yeah. Jonathan says as an Ohio state fan, I love that we finally beat, uh, the team up North and that it was Jaden Fielding's the kicker's final year. Okay. Yeah. Uh, Sean says as a Georgia tech fan, I love the fire drill field goal to beat Clemson and finally end the losing streak to the tigers. And this time Clemson doesn't had the excuse that the Sean Watson tore his ACL. Thank you, Sean. Also true. Yeah. Dr. Keith chimes in. I love that Oklahoma's once soft and embarrassing defense is finally a source of pride for its toughness. Wouldn't mind having a better offense, though. But but but that's like the defense was very good. Oklahoma was the like in spite of team of the year. Right. I mentioned that at the top, right? Despite not having an all passing game, despite not being able to stop anybody like despite having basically no pop on offense, Oklahoma went to the playoff against what kind of schedule? Gauntlet. Of course, a gauntlet. Yeah. Daniel says, as a Duck fan, I love that I got to go to the first ever home playoff game with my parents and wife. What a day. Hey. Very cool. Very cool. Probably won't be reported nationally that Daniel got to go to this game. Excuse me. But cool moment. Yeah. That's a lot of fun. Agree. Dan says, different Dan, I love that Purdue was so bad I could really enjoy the great weather we had in Minnesota this fall, and I also got to see more Oscar nominees than normal because I have no desire to watch the Boilers lose by 35 every week. Can I tell you something? One, I get it. I mean, I don't get it. I root for a team that is never going to be or has never been to that consistent level that Purdue's been at. Two, randomly had the opportunity. We had a babysitter. And then Jody with an eye was invited out. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to go to a movie. I'm going to do the rare, rare thing. Sorry. And I went and saw Marty Supreme. Oh, how was that? You didn't tell me how it was. It was really good. Yeah. It's long. It's like two and a half hours long. Really good. Had a great time. Do you think Chalamet is getting a little too big for his britches? I like Timmy C, man. I think he's really good. You mean like going on all these shows and I don't know. Kate and I have been having something of an internal dispute here over Chalamet. Because, as you know, people... Who's pro and who's anti? I think she has turned anti. I'm still a Chalamaniac as I ever was. Classic Cater. Yeah, but she's saying that he seems like he's getting a little too into himself here. And I just don't know if I agree with that. But I also don't watch as many of the celebrities. What kind of take is that? I don't know. actor to be Daniel Day-Lewis and just disappear into the fields of Ireland after every role? No. Get out of town. This is the game. He's a movie. He's a literal movie star. Too full of himself. This is what you want from your movie stars. Is it? That's what I want from my movie stars. Yeah. I want them to be a little bombastic. Dating a Jenner? I don't know. Chalamet? Come on. I don't know. I don't know what he's doing. He's good in his movies. seems like an entertaining dude on talk shows Kate might be more of like the Killian Murphy variety of actor who does kind of go and do his own thing and mostly she's about the craft yeah get out of town Kate this is why Ty and I do this show together it really is I don't mind I'm still we got to get him on the show actually he might be better at picking games than us he is I don't think he's a college football guy though he was on game day right yeah and he picked all the games right yeah I think he's like a French soccer fan, I believe. That would track. Yeah. And he likes, I know he's a New Yorker. He's big on the Knicks. He roots for the Knicks and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Big WWE head, but yeah. Brian says, I love Ball State because they tried so hard to be the worst team in college football and they couldn't even accomplish that. It's true. Well, they wanted to tank for the number one pick, right? Of course. That was the goal for Ball State. That's how it works in the MAAC, yeah. Mark says, I love that for the first five weeks of the season, Florida State was the best team in the country. For the first how long? Five weeks of the season, he says. That, look, you can take a lot of things away from Florida State and the Mike Norvell era and all of the ups and downs. You can never take away randomly beating Alabama with Boston College's quarterback in week one. You can never take that away. Tommy C. Continue. And then Alabama went on to play, what? a gauntlet of a schedule a gauntlet of a schedule made the playoffs want a game in the playoffs and a bucket of wrenches in Wisconsin yeah continue Andrew says I love that Rutgers had a top 50 offense for the first time in 15 years let's go passing offense had multiple threats yeah there we go and one of those I think is going to play with your guy with Jaron Keave Sangapulitele at Cal Ian Strong that's right Kelvin Dan says as an Arizona Wildcats fan I love that they were able to retain both Seth Deggy the offensive coordinator and quarterback Noah Fafita. Seth Deggie by far revitalized Arizona, and he gets credit for Brent Brennan's recent contract extension to 2030. I don't think it's realistic. Deggie stays long-term. Look out for his name in the next coaching carousel. He did a good job. They did do a good job. I would say that extends to the entire philosophy around Brent Brennan at Arizona. We've talked a lot about how after year one, it did not look promising for year two, but seems like they got things back on track. By the way, I know Seth Daigie moved around a bunch as a player. Even late-stage air-raid Texas Tech quarterbacks in the prime state, they're all succeeding. Like Lincoln Riley. I mean, Graham Harrell hasn't had a great coaching career, but he's made moves in the coaching world. Davis Webb, I think, is like a huge NFL up-and-coming name as a coach, right? I wanted Davis Webb to be the Giants offensive coordinator. I get why they didn't go in that direction, but I think he's going to be a superstar. And I'll say it. I know Kate disagrees. Patrick Mahomes, pretty good at football. The cater. Continue. Final one here that came in, at least that I'm going to read today, from Nick. A little bit of a different take here, but I like this. I highlighted this. ESPN cinematography. ESPN cinematography. He says, I am a Michigan fan. I hate the ESPN politicking, but the way they produce a game, especially the SEC night games, is so far clear of the other networks. It makes you feel like you're actually there. It's a good question of like who's production value and who's full like 360. So graphics and sound and having the, you know, the Skycam stuff that, you know, the whatever, the wire cam, all that stuff. Who had the best production? Announcers obviously are a huge part of this sound mix and crispness of cameras. We've talked about, you know, the like seventh team on ESPN using 480p cameras and trying to up convert and looking like garbage. I think it's probably the ESPN ABC like one two three teams was probably in totality the best even though I hate the score belt and that's at least gotten a little bit thinner I didn't love NBC sound mix this year no I didn't love the broadcast booth at CBS though we're we're Dell heads here obviously she does a great job on the sideline and was on the show the Fox thing Fox was okay but the broadcast was a wild card between Gus going to 14 out of 10 sometimes and Joel Klatt disliking I mean this is an episode all about love and was like I don't like the NCAA tournament I know he apologized for that so you know a little bit like loud scoldy in the booth but yeah I think by and large from all around it's probably the ESPN one yeah the ultimate power up is to get access to espn 4k oh because you don't have the commercials yeah yeah you know you got to poison but uh doing so without the commercials is a pretty upgraded experience is it real 4k or is it like up converted 1080p to my eye yeah and yes i am i am one of the dorks that when i'm using youtube tv not a sponsor could be yeah i do go down to the little thing at the bottom that says stats for nerds yes to look to see frame rates and dropped frames and all that crap and to my eye it does look like it's actually 4k okay so they're shooting with 4k cameras and broadcasting it you know linking it up with uh 4k i believe now if i'm wrong about that solid verbal at gmail.com you can let me know tim burke will let us know but Yeah. Somebody let us know. But indeed, the experience, I tend to agree with Nick. They do a good job. I think it's the most immersive. Would agree. Yeah. Would agree. All right. Why don't we leave it there? Clearly, there are many things that we did not mention as part of this episode. If there are any new rocks that you would like to turn over and let us know about, solidverbal at gmail.com is how you can get in touch. You can always reach out on social media. we do read all of our messages even if we don't reply we get a lot of them we appreciate everybody's input and of course everybody's support hit follow hit subscribe if you made it this far of course go and check out for ballers.com if you want to help support the team either by becoming a paying subscriber or by just signing up for free you sign up for free you get the newsletter you get to hear some of the stuff that i talked about earlier get to read yes sir all about north Dakota State coming up on Tuesday, Dan. Got another episode coming up later this week. We can perhaps save more specific Valentine's Day conversation for that episode. The Swordsman Chronicles. Continue. I need to rename the newsletter to that. Yeah. I'm going to ask Tyler. Ty's dating life. I'm going to ask Tyler how he feels about that. How would it feel to write about the Swordsman Chronicles? Can we buy the URL? You can buy the URL. yeah continue for that guy over there my good friend dan rubenstein for myself ty hildenbrand thanks for hanging with us for supporting the team for downloading listening and making it this far we'll catch you all on thursday in the meantime stay solid peace saturday may 2nd country's biggest stars will be in austin texas at our 2026 i heart country Festival presented by Capital One. Tickets are on sale now. Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.com. That's Ticketmaster.com. The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear? I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success. Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well-being at SoundItOutTogether.org. That's SoundItOutTogether.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal. 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. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.