CFB & The Masters Lessons Learned + Spring Game Reactions

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. You can feel that big week on deck. Within the next 36 hours, a couple of speaker series visits. It's going to go see some old friends. Driving distance. It's going to go see some old friends. We can't just be hopping on jets. We can't be rolling McElroy out here. Congrats to him, by the way. We'll talk about him in a second. We're jam-packed. We're high atop a glorious downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Picture perfect sunset underway. We don't have the sunroof open. But we do have to talk about some lessons that college football could be learning on this Sunday, April 12, the year of our lord, 2026. Maybe learning lessons from outside the world of college football. We got spring intel. Had some spring games go down yesterday. A lot of observations. Now, you'll notice a lot of these spring games aren't being televised, which means we just got to kick it old school. And we got to go find someone who's illegally streaming it on TikTok or streaming it on YouTube until someone narks them out and shames on those people, by the way. But don't worry. We got enough. I'll just say that. We got enough. We've also got to start our really, really in-depth and honest discussion amongst ourselves here, just you and I speaking as friends, about whether these teams are going to be better or worse than they were last year. We did this last year, and I had a 100% hit rate on it, because either we were right, or coaches and officials and players screwed it up. And we're going to try and hit it 100% again. This year, I got four teams to discuss tonight. I'm going to tell you the truth about Josh Hypal tonight. Someone asked us about our wall art, about the twister poster behind me. If you're listening on podcast and you've never watched the show, this means nothing to you. But breaking news, we got one movie poster on the set. And it is Twister. And someone asked us about it. So we had a variety show tonight. It's a college football variety show. They're watching us in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, McKinney, Texas, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Medina, Ohio, slash Medina. However, I choose to pronounce it as always wrong. Please subscribe to the channel if you have not already. If you think you have, just double check and make sure. And if you have it, if you're protesting, subscribing, we'll work on you. We got a long time till the season starts. But I appreciate you guys for watching nonetheless. Let's dive into the show. OK, so Dennis from Owensboro, Kentucky hit us up. And he said, I like how you tied college football into March Madness. Do you have any way to tie it into the masters? Can we connect the masters in college football? Yes. Yes, I'm glad you reminded me of this. Dennis, a few weeks ago, we were talking about the NCAA tournament, March Madness, lessons college football could take from it, both good and bad. I think college football could learn far more from the masters and from the way just Augusta National runs itself than it ever could from college basketball. And congratulations to Rory McElroy back to back green jack-eye, which is the plural of jacket. So congratulations to him. Yeah, I'd say college football has a lot to learn from the masters. Dennis, this is not a golf show per se, but we can loosely incorporate it as the situation allows. And today, we're fresh off the masters wrapping up. You know, people love that tournament for a variety of reasons. I didn't grow up a massive golf fan, but I'm glued to it every year. We had it on. We rarely turn the TV on. But we had the TV on in the office today, and we're watching the final round. People love the masters for a variety of reasons. But I think at the core of it all, the reason people love it is because their most valuable asset is not money. Their most valued asset is their tradition. And they never deviate from that. And the beginning, middle, and end of every decision that they make around that tournament is centered around tradition. Money is very secondary. They got a lot of it. They got no shortage of it. But money is very, very secondary. It's never really sort of discussed when you think of college football right now. Some of the first things that come to mind are courtroom battles, NIL portal, but really things that should be outside the sphere, but are inside the sphere, and there's kind of a mess, and the water's kind of muddy. And really it just comes down to a long line of people having their hands on the wheel that really didn't need to have their hands on the wheel. That's not the way they do it there. These are not apples to apples in terms of entities. Fully understand that. This is a golf club. This is a tournament versus a massive sport in and of itself, which is a whole bunch of member institutions which are largely gathered in conferences, and then there are some conferences here, another conference here. I get all that. I'm really asking you to zoom this out to 50,000 feet for me for just a second. The biggest lesson that college football can take from the masters is understanding that tradition can be valued over anything else. And it's really a beautiful thing when it's done the right way. Now you can value tradition the wrong way, and it can really, really go down in flames pretty quickly, but they value it the right way at Augusta. They value it over anything else. And that's why when you turn it on, it looks different than anything else you witness, even in golf. It feels different than anything you witness even in golf, and they never apologize for it, and they're really serious about it. And how does that happen? How does something like that come to be? Well, it happens when the people running it can readily define what makes it great. I assure you, if you're watching Roy McElroy walk off the 18th there, and he's walking up to sign his scorecard, and he's shaking hands with various people who are wearing those green jackets, just the tournament officials, I guarantee you if I walked up to any of them and I asked, what makes this place great? What makes this tournament great? I don't even get the sentence out of my mouth before they all hit me back with a variety of answers that pretty much sound the same. It's cause they knew who they are. They know what makes them great. If we were to similarly quiz decision makers in college football about what makes college football great, and they were honest about what they thought made college football great, can you imagine what a disaster some of those answers would be? So they just take it more serious than anyone else. The people who run the masters take it more serious than anyone else. It can be that way in college football. It's not right now, but it can be that way in college football. They treat that tournament almost like a child. A college football decision makers treat the sport kind of like a rental car, where they know it doesn't really so much matter how we treat this thing right now. It won't be in our possession in 10 years anyway. It'll be someone else's problem. You've all rented a car before, you know how you drive them. I'm in one right now. That Santa Fe has been great to me. But it's gonna be back at BNA later tonight. I don't have to worry about it anymore. But hey, we don't even have to equate sports tournaments to children. We could just use the car metaphor here. There's a lot of difference between the way you treat the rental car and the way you treat the antique that your great grandfather passed down to the grandfather that passed down to the father that's been passed down to you. Those are kind of the differences in the way that tournament is treated and the way those people carry themselves when running that tournament versus the way college football is. I understand there's a lot of difference between and there are a lot more seats at the table, a lot more voices at the table, I guess, in college football. But that'd be my number one wish, Dennis, with all the changes going on right now. And there's a lot on the very, very near horizon that's gonna impact the sport. It'll change the sport, in my opinion, possibly for the better, probably for the better. But we'll see how it turns out. And this is not the night to discuss that. I've discussed that a lot in recent weeks. But my number one wish with all the changes that are coming is however we end up settling this thing, I just hope it settles with us getting power in the hands of people who love it. There are a lot of people who criticize me when I talk about that. More so like in the media side of things. I've made a point in the past that there are a lot of people who cover college football, who don't love college football. That's not even the point I'm making. I want people who make decisions for college football to really be looking out for college football, to love college football. Instead of loving what college football can do for them, I would love for them to love college football. You see, Augusta National leaves tens of millions of dollars on the table every single year. Just willingly, they leave money on the table because that's not their most valued asset. Tradition is. Money's down here, tradition up here. I know that sounds very, very infantile to decision makers in college football right now. And that's like a child's view of this sport. That's not the way it works. Well, it's not the way it currently works. It's very much the way it could work. It's just not the way it currently works. I really would love for college football to learn the value of no to the degree that they have. There are a lot of ideas that I could present Augusta National to increase revenue when it comes to the masters. You don't think that I could get advertising slapped on every single one of those bleacher boards on 18. Of course I could. It won't happen because they won't allow it. Why not? You'd make more money. Well, that's not what we value the most here. Plus we're doing okay financially. We don't need it. Don't need it at all. In college football, you can expand the playoff. Yeah, you absolutely can. You can tack on another 20 seconds on average in commercial breaks. You can do these things. What are we really valuing there? People are really quick to throw tradition into wood chipper in college football. Not fans, but decision makers. They're really quick too. So Dennis, if you wanna know the lesson that I wish college football would learn from the masters, it's that, that word tradition, that's the most important word in your lexicon. It's not that way for all sports. Frankly, Major League Baseball, I think one of the best decisions that they've ever made is instituting that pitch timer clock. That has nothing to do with tradition. That doesn't tie into tradition at all. But it was a great and necessary change they made. College football, a little bit different, a little bit different. I think there are a lot of traditions that we could rightfully and willingly cling to that are just viewed as optional too often. That Dennis, that would be my wish. We had a lot of action yesterday. Some of it televised, some of it not. Spring games happen and all over the SEC. Eventually we'll have spring games all over the country. They just start spring practice a little bit earlier in the South. And I was checking out the feedback at Tennessee. And I know a lot of people may be focused on the quarterback battle there. I am too. But the quarterback battle's not settled. I haven't figured out much of anything about that quarterback battle. Faizon, Brandon, George McIntyre, it kind of depends which day it is as to which guy you hear the better feedback about. And that's not the only place where it's like that right now. But you know what theme continues to come out of Tennessee? A theme that came out of the Orange and White game yesterday is the same theme that we've heard all spring. And that is defense is kind of carrying the story right now. Defense is the story over there right now. Jim Knowles, who was at Ohio State two years ago, won a national title, was at Penn State last year. Everything blows up. He comes to Tennessee, brings several people with him. Some of them players, some of them staffers, brings folks down there with him. And the book on Jim Knowles is, man, that defense is really complex. It normally takes a long while to learn it. But because he brought in so many pieces that he could plug, I'm not saying it's a finished product, but Josh Hypal's own words yesterday actually were, were probably much further along than fans or media, maybe even we even thought that we would be. I added in the last part, he didn't say we, yeah. But that's the story there right now. Now that's interesting because when you think about the identity of any given Tennessee team under Josh Hypal, I think the more lazy approach would be, oh, well, they got to win offensively. They just got to win offensively. They didn't two years ago. Two years ago, they went to the playoff. And there were several stretches of drought offensively throughout games and throughout that season. Defense carried him. Tim Banks' defense carried him. Now it fell off a cliff last year, and that's why they didn't make the playoff last year. But two years ago, that was the way it is, or the way it was. I think that'll be the way it is this year. But it puts them in a very interesting spot also because if you were to listen to people in the Tennessee world after the spring game, especially folks who were there watching it, they were like, man, I really don't know about the upside of this team. Oh, I don't know, man. Our ceiling may be lower than we thought or we hoped it would be. Now that doesn't impact what they're actually capable of. But when you get expectations going the opposite way, then expectations normally go in spring, sets up an interesting dynamic because all of a sudden, if people are thinking, boy, nine wins would be a really, really good year this year, you got an opportunity to really surprise some people. As opposed to Texas, let's say, where anything less than a national championship is going to be viewed as a failure. So my feel is this team is going to be defensive oriented, especially early on, lean on to Sean Bishop. I mean, ground game, good defense. That's their blueprint earlier. It may be their season long blueprint, but that's especially what it's got to be early on. Alabama had a day yesterday. I went and watched Alabama in their scrimmage last week, and then they had their a day scrimmage yesterday. And depending on which one you watched, you have very different feelings about the quarterback battle. So when I went and watched them, Austin Mack probably had the better day out of he and Keelan Russell. Russell made some good plays, but I came back and I said, hey, there doesn't look to be a whole lot of separation one way or the other, at least based on what I saw yesterday. But then my feel throughout Alabama spring practice had been eventually Keelan Russell is going to win the job. So Keelan Russell was heading shoulders, the better quarterback in the 8A game yesterday. Kailan DeBoer made sure to mention afterwards what they had sort of kept under wraps last week, and that is Austin Mack was dealing with some injury stuff. So I don't think you got him at 100%, but people saw Keelan Russell's best. Well, they saw him at probably the best he's been all spring, and my stance has been and continues to be, his best is better than anyone on that team. Keelan Russell's best matches up with anyone in the country. The difference is Keelan Russell has no experience. And so when you're talking about processing, when you're talking about how fast the game moves, these are the sorts of things that he's got to have come to him. The difference to remember here is, this is not a true freshman, he was there last year. So this is not a kid fresh out of high school that you're trying to throw into the SEC. Limited experience, but not a true freshman. A name I'm gonna repeat, because it's a name that popped a little bit yesterday, is Traysean Brooks. So I'll tell you now, since people saw him yesterday, when I walked into building a couple of weeks ago, I had three different staffers come up to me individually and mention one name. They weren't standing with each other. They independently mentioned one name, and it wasn't a quarterback, and it wasn't Ryan Williams, it was Traysean Brooks. Traysean Brooks was a running back out of East Texas. I think he was committed to Boise, and he was a very late take for Alabama. Sometimes it just works this way. And a guy's appreciative for an opportunity. Maybe a guy was still a little bit of a hidden gem in the recruiting cycle, believe it or not, that still happens. He's gonna be hard to keep off the field as a true freshman. And that's not even to mention the five-star true freshman running back that they also signed, Crowell, who's been hurt all spring, thus giving an opportunity to other guys. So their run game, look, still very much a work in progress. The offensive line there, four or five starters new, still very much a work in progress. It can't be worse than it was last year, but I think just overall, the amount of skill they have in the running back room, there's no Heisman contender in there or anything like that. But Dave, I got a solid stable of tailbacks there. I know Kevin Riley didn't do much yesterday, but I think he's a pretty good player too. That, along with the reemergence of the whole element of RPO in that offense, especially if Keelan Russell ends up being the guy, will be a really big deal. Now, what I didn't like was Noah Rogers got hurt and they carted him off and it, I don't really know. I think they MRI'd him today. And so we're waiting to hear back there. He's a really good player for them and is going to be counted on at wide receiver, but it's not like a one man room. You got Ryan Williams there, obviously, but said Morgan, who's a true freshman, will play as a true freshman a lot. And Derek Meadows had a really good day for him yesterday. So the other thing that people are starting to see I talked about when I came back from watching them last week was how big they are defensively, how long they are defensively, and really as a team, just like a big team, not sacrificing a whole lot of speed. I'm not saying they're lethargic. They're just really big. They're a whole lot bigger defensively, especially upfront than they were last year. So Alabama, shockingly, a work in progress with pretty good upside. So we'll see. Florida had spring game at Florida. Now, when I was down there a couple of weeks ago, we watched them practice, and I thought pretty definitively, Aaron Filo had the better day at quarterback. Tramiel Jones yesterday had the better day at quarterback. This is the way these quarterback battles happen a lot, by the way. If you've ever wondered how in the history of college football, there's a quarterback battle and then the staff names a starter, then that starter goes down and somehow some way the backup ends up playing, and he plays better than the starter. And you're looking, you say, how could these coaches have gotten it wrong? How could they have made the wrong decision? It's because the decisions in some of these quarterback battles are rarely 90-10, or like 95-5, or even 80-20. Sometimes it's like this. Sometimes it's like six out of 10 days. One guy has the better practice. Four out of 10 days, it seems like the other guy did. This is still a gray area, but there eventually comes a point on the calendar where you gotta name a starter. And I'm not even saying that's necessarily the case here, but just the illustration of what I saw in the practice I went to versus what you saw yesterday if you watched this thing, it really goes to show you that these quarterback decisions are not always the slam dunk that the public envisions it being. Like you think, oh, it's a quarterback battle in spring, but it'll work itself out. Hey, sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't, and you just gotta make a call on the guy who's gonna go out there and start week one. Last year, Lane Kiffin, who's evaluation of the quarterback position I trust pretty readily, he thought Austin Simmons gave him the best chance to win. And then Trinidad Chambliss finds his way on the field. And Trinidad Chambliss ends up having Ole Miss knocking on the door of the national championship game. Was Lane Kiffin an idiot? Or are these things very fluid? I think it probably is the latter. KJ Ford looks like he's gonna be a factor for them at the edge position. And also Micah Mays had a really big day at wide receiver, and that's a big deal, cause it's just another pancake on the stack, as Mimol would say. Cause this is a room, we got Eric Singleton in there. We got Vernal Brown, we got Dallas Wilson. There is no shortage there. I called it the most underrated receiver room in the country coming into spring, but I don't know, Jesse, I'm hearing a lot of people talk about Florida's receiver room, so I don't know that it's underrated anymore. I just think that it's good. So we got three programs here that we just talked about that entered spring with quarterback competitions on their hands, and none of these have been sorted out yet. I would say, man, if I had to handicap these, Keelan Russell at Alabama, maybe I feel has the best odds to win these battles, respectively. I'm still gonna stick with George McIntyre at Tennessee. I'm still sticking with Aaron Filo at Florida, and I just wrote all that in pencil, cause I wanna be able to erase it pretty quickly. Paytestatementario.com is your source as we speak to gear up, maybe you're a full grown adult, and you can go buy larges and extra larges. Maybe you're an infant. We appreciate you watching the show. You got to start him young. We got stuff for you too. I don't even care if you haven't spoken your first words. If you're watching the show, you got internet. So, the Little Freight's collection is available for you. Maybe if your parent wants to purchase for you, we allow that too, but paytestatementario.com got new items in there, and especially if you haven't been there since like summer of last year, cause I noticed some of your patterns out there. You guys just stock up in August, and you're good for the year, and I appreciate it, but you should know we've dropped a lot of new items in there since then. Let's move on. This is a very dangerous game, but it's a game that we choose to play every single spring. It's a fact. Some of you are going to be better, and some of you are going to be worse this year. Was that a question Bradley? Did you have a question for me? No. I thought Bradley was asking a question from the control room. Sorry. So this time last year, we looked at a lot of teams. We just kind of threw a dart at the board. You going to be better this year, or you going to be worse this year? We did four teams per show. I thought we could start that tonight. And I want to start with Miami. Is Miami going to be better or worse this year than they were last year? Boy, it's tough to be better, isn't it? They went to the national championship game. They were at midfield with under a minute to go, down six, with a chance to win the national championship. And then they didn't. And it's really tough to get back. You got to start from scratch. So it may shock you to hear me say, I think Miami's team's going to be better this year than they were last year. We were down there last week. Got to go to look at them. There is no shortage of skill, of size, of athleticism on either side of the line of scrimmage. There's just a shortage of known commodities. But Miami has transitioned into one of these reload, instead of rebuild type programs. They tasted it last year, but they haven't really accomplished it yet. So you don't have to worry about any of the usual complacency creeping into the program. Quarterback's an upgrade. That's no disrespect to Carson Beck. I'm just telling you, Darian Mensa is a baller. And he will fit very, very well down there. I also think the wide receiver room is good with the upside of incredible. And I think second year defensively under Heatherman will pay a lot of dividends. So look, I think they'll be out for blood this year. They made it to the national title game last year. And yet I think this team this year will be better than it was last year. Now, this is not a record prediction segment. But I will tell you, I think Miami's going to be a one loss team max in the regular season. So I actually do think they'll improve their regular season record, although saying one thing doesn't always mean the other. Next up, another playoff team, Oklahoma. Hmm, is Oklahoma going to be better this year or worse this year than they were last year? This was a playoff team last year, 10 wins in the regular season. Now, I have not been to Norman this spring yet. I have not watched them practice. I've only got to go on feel at the moment. My feel, my instinct is to very, very slightly lean worse this year than they were last year. Very slightly, because of, like I said, I haven't seen them. And number two, I think tight end has been transformed on this team. And I think the running game, kind of like with Alabama, couldn't get worse. So it's got to get better. I will blindly trust their defense. And I will blindly trust that at the very worst, it'll be a top 20 unit. John Mater is returning. So we have experience at the quarterback spot. I like their wide receiver room. So I just listed off a bunch of reasons why I would feel good about them. Why am I saying I think they'll be slightly worse than they were last year? Well, it's just because I think about range of outcome. And you know, people's expectation of this year will be based against the backdrop of what they did last year, right? Most people's minds work that way. Mind does too. I'm not so sure we didn't see Oklahoma towards the top end of the range of outcome last year, even with the quarterback injury. I think their range of outcome, you know, plot point, it was pretty high up. So my instinct on them is somewhat blind, because I haven't seen them. And it's going more off the law of averages than it is not liking a portion of their team or anything like that. The schedule is tough again, but it was tough last year. So, you know, schedule is not going to be the thing I circle with them and say, man, how are they going to overcome this? Because that would be ignoring evidence, like less than a calendar year ago, of them doing just that. So I'll lean slightly down on Oklahoma. I got time to change my mind on that. Dot, dot, dot. Let's go all the way to Washington. So Washington last year went eight and four. They went from six and seven to eight and four to fill in the blank in year three under Jed Fish. I lean that they will be better this year than they were last year. But there are big questions on this team. And I got to figure out how do I process portal and attrition? Now the attrition is RB1 is gone, wide receiver one is gone. The portal thing is the quarterback tried to leave and didn't. I don't know what that does to a team's dynamic. I've, it may not, it may be totally irrelevant. And really only the people inside that building can know that until they play games, then we'll all know that. But the other thing is Jed Fish knows what he's doing. I trust that. I also think that the talent roster overall has improved. So there is somewhat of a mirage that happens to us sometimes in college football predicting. And that is you look at a piece of paper and it says, boy, Washington lost some players. Boy, they got to replace some production. But not all lost production or roster churn is created equal. Sometimes you have churn, but the players you backfill with in the aggregate or just overall are better players. And you could case by case make exceptions to the rule, but overall, I just think Washington's roster will be better this year than it was last year, which is no guarantee of anything. But if I got to lean one way or the other, coming off an eight and four year, I'm going to lean that they're better. Now the schedule is tough. They got to go to USC early October. They go to Nebraska, Penn State comes in there. They got Indiana and at Oregon to end the year back to back. So maybe the record's the same, but it's a better team. Maybe that's the way it works out. And I also wanted to go to Arizona State right quick. So two years ago, yeah, a couple of years ago, Arizona State was, it really looked like they were trending towards, you know, like sustained playoff caliber run, but what did Kenny Dillingham keep doing? He kept talking about the portal. He kept talking about how they need people to step up, Mitch, they need you to open your wallet. Got to do it. And it was because he knew what was happening around him. He knew what was happening in Lubbock, but that's not the only place that Arizona State's getting outspent. And so two years later, if I got an entire starting offensive line gone and I got four of five on the defensive line that I'm having to replace, and I can't backfill those spots the way I want to, then I got to think that maybe I'm trending down a little bit. And I got to think coming off an eight and four year, maybe the Fandal over under being at six and a half is right. And maybe I hit the over. Maybe I go seven and five, but I'm just a little bit worse than I was last year. Jordan Tyson off to the NFL, Relique Brown gone to Texas. I mentioned the line of scrimmage. It's just not a conveyor belt like you have at the University of Texas of ready-made, equal, or upgraded options. That's not the way it's working there right now. I don't, you don't have to take my word for it. Like the head coach out there has mentioned this several times. So Sam Levitt to Cutter Bollie. That's the transition we're making at quarterback. There are a lot of places that absent Kenny calling into the show and us putting him on speaker and him personally vouching for these positions. I've got to assume at the best or washes, more likely they're slight downgrades. And I'm just going to assume that their performance level correlates with that. That is the most diplomatic way possible that I could say that you're, you're headed in the wrong direction. It's the most diplomatic way I can do it. They're watching us in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. If this posted is any indication, they're watching us in Evergreen, Alabama and Carlsbad, California. Thank you guys so much. Make sure you are subscribed to the channel, whether you're watching live or you're watching the replay or listening to more. Morning on your drive to work. I appreciate it. JD hit us up. Not Piquel. This was not, no, this was not JD Piquel. This was JD Corey. JD though, hit us up and he said, what's with the twister poster on your set? My daughter asks me every time we watch your show. It's a great question. So twister is one of my top five favorite movies of all time, but it's easily the most formative movie of my life. This movie came out when I was a local youth in Georgia. This movie came out right smack dab in the middle of an era of my childhood where a sports center and the weather channel were basically the only things that I was watching every day. And I was introduced to the concept that storm chasing existed before twister came out. But when twister came out, it's one of two movies that I've seen three times in theaters. You wanna guess the other one, Jesse? Actually, I've seen three movies, three times in theaters. Titanic was one, of course. Twister was the other. And the third was a very, very underrated film in the Denzel Washington library called Deja Vu. I loved it. I went and saw it three times. I don't care. I would go on and see the fourth if I could afford it, but I couldn't at the time. So, twister is on the set because it is the most formative film of my life. I love it for three reasons. Well, four, one, it's about storm chasing. Two, the cast is absolutely phenomenal. Rest in Peace, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Rest in Peace, Bill Paxton. The soundtrack is insane and really, really meshes well with the overall vibe. You got Shania Twain dropping a banger. Lisa Loeb dropping a deep cut banger. Goo Goo Dolls, Van Halen just going off. Unbelievable. And thirdly, it captures the culture of storm chasing, which I know 99.9% of you cannot relate to, but I can because I have lived that life. Now, I readily admit this movie could not mean to you what it means to me unless you have lived that life. So, and I'm not recruiting you either, okay? Chaser Convergence is already bad enough out there on the streets as it is. So, I'm not asking everyone to go participate in this. You can live vicariously through me. I am just telling you, if you ever look back and you romanticize a thing, it could be like a house you lived in. It could be a period of time. That is how I look at twister. So, that's why we have it on the wall. Plus, I think it really rounds out the room, Jesse. What's the word feng shui? That's really what I think brings our room together. More so than the brick, which is, is it real? I can't remember if it's real brick. More so than the Pate State sign, more so than the YouTube award, Floyd of Rosedale's A Nice Touch, but it's really the twister movie poster that I think not only completes this room, but completes any room. Yeah, all right, let's move on. Very important question here for some more than others in the room. Manassas, Virginia, they have checked in. One of my favorite town names in the country, by the way. How many games will Penn State win with Matt Campbell? And why did you say 12? We're not doing this this year. We're not doing this this year. Okay, last year I let a lot of false allegations slide, and I shouldn't have. So, this year we're reining this stuff in. So, it's very important for the record to show what I have said and what I have not said. Have I said that Matt Campbell is the savior of Penn State football? Of course I have. Have I said that he's gonna win 12 games this year? I absolutely have not. 10 at most. But, double-digit wins are on the table. Yes, the over-under-win total at Fandals nine and a half. Okay, so I'm not the only one who is looking at this as something that's not quite as crazy as it sounds. Normally when you fire to coach and then you're bringing another one in, you're kinda starting from scratch. That's not what they're doing up there. You cannot overstate, though, how poorly this could have gone. We're talking about Penn State playoff contention in year one under Matt Campbell. This could have been an utter disaster. This was an over-50-day coaching search, dead end after dead end after dead end. Meanwhile, the GPS, me, is pointing them down their proper road. And finally, out of, I don't know, a lack of options, Pat Kraft heads down the Matt Campbell road, and he says, sure I'll come coach for you. Stunned, I was utterly stunned. And so it's like, I don't know, any of a number of 90s action movies where a guy jumps out of a third-story window and just lands on his feet. It's inexplicable, it's not supposed to happen, wouldn't really work that way in real life. This is not the way a bungled coaching search normally turns out. I could say the same thing at Auburn, by the way. Normally, you screw up coaching searches like this. First off, you're out of your job. And secondly, you're firing the guy that you ended up hiring two years later. They ended up hiring the guy who should have been the first option. It just so happened that it worked out that way. What do we know about 2026 though? Cause that's what you asked about. I didn't say he's gonna win 12, but you're asking how many could he win? Well, like I said, the fan duel over under Wintol is nine and a half in year one. What do we know about the schedule? Out of conference, ridiculous, embarrassing, abomination. Matt Campbell did not create the schedule, but he will benefit from it. What do we know? By the way, if you're listening on pod, you cannot see the slider that Bradley just put up. Marshall and Temple and Buffalo. Oh, they go on the road to Temple, Josh. Yes, they will outnumber the locals there five to one too. It's just like an extended home game. It's a good solid reason for the fine folks in central Pennsylvania to head over to Philly for the afternoon. Probably a noon kickoff, don't you think? Probably backed by sundown. It's early September. So we're not getting those sunsets by 3 30 PM. So yeah, then the meat of the schedule is USC and at Penns and at Michigan. That's the crux of the schedule, the 10th and 17th of October. There's a trip to Washington in early November. There's no Oregon here. There's no Ohio State here. There's no Indiana here. So that's what we know about the schedule. Sounds like I take the schedule personally. I don't. I just want people to remember this, come play off selection time. What do we know about the roster? Several positions of strength here. Tight end check. Limebacker, check. Secondary, check. Offensive line, ellipsis right now. Could surprise some people. So it's not gonna be an X. It's not gonna be a check, but I'm leaning more towards check. Quarterback, experienced. I don't necessarily count on Rocco Beck to get 20% better. I just think he is who he is and anything above and beyond that, I'm happy to be surprised by. But it's not gonna be a weakness. Could possibly be a strength for him. Wide receiver and defensive line are question marks. So that's what we gotta figure out. And as Memo always taught us, that's what God invented spring football for and to a lesser but also relevant degree fall camp. So what could happen in year one? Well, it could be a nice solid starting point in the best of cases. In the worst of cases, it could be a disaster. There's also this scenario where sometimes a guy's first year is the best year he has. I think Gus Malzahn at Auburn. Malzahn comes in at Auburn in 2013 and they go to the national title game in his first year and he never got there again. And I was doing radio in Columbus at the time. Brand new. Didn't know what I was doing. I went on air one day and I said, hey, there's no guarantee they'll ever get back. This could be the closest that Gus ever gets to winning the national title. They didn't like it, but I ended up being right. And maybe that happens for Matt Campbell this year. I'm not banking on that, but maybe that happens. But anyway, at the very least, we don't have to wait a few years before Penn State's blip on the radar screen is close enough to relevance for us to talk about them. They should be in it this year. We'll see. I mentioned the over and under win total being nine and a half. It's available. It's available right now over at FanDuel. You can go look at it. You can go think about it. You can go bet it. If you're really sick, like some members of the staff, it can be one of 17 legs of a parlay that you put in. You had a shocking and frankly, a disappointing amount of support behind producer Jesse's 17 team parlay the other day. And look, you guys want to ride with him? Be my guest. There are a lot of ships at the bottom of the ocean that had a lot of people on them. So I'm not deterred. I am going to actively not root against this parlay this fall because that would be unethical. But what I will have is I will have my wag finger ready to shake in everyone's face who looked at this the other day at plus 100 juice and tried to convince me it's a sure thing. No, death and taxes are. A 17 team parlay for teams not to make the playoff is not that. It's something, but it's not that. However, if you think it is FanDuel is the place to go. Should we hit mic up? Should we ask, we're not going to do it today, it's Sunday. Put it on the agenda for Monday. Let's hit mic up. Let's put that ridiculous parlay together and let's ask him, do we want to make that a tab? Do we want to have a special promo code? If you don't want to take 30 minutes out of your day and add in all 17 teams, do we just want to make that a tab? Because we do have the power to do those sorts of things. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC. First online real money wager only, $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com slash RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit ndgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 or call 1-877-8 Hope NY or text HOPENY in New York. Let's wrap up with this. We have been telling the truth, you know. Some would argue since the show began. But specifically, we've been telling the truth in the Truth Teller series. Bradley, here's your end point. The Truth Teller series is continuing tonight. What is the Truth Teller series? Oh, it's just this series where we try and tell the truth. It's a pretty novel concept. We're thinking about spreading it into the entire show. But specifically right here, we wanna tell the truth about someone. And that someone tonight is drumroll. Nope, sound effects broken. Josh Hypel, head coach of Tennessee. What is the truth about Josh Hypel? I think Josh Hypel's in a really unique position unto the rest of his peers. Because Josh Hypel is one of the only major college football head coaches right now that's being allowed to do it the old school way. Sort of live the older school life of a head coach. Now he's making new school money. So he's got best of both worlds. And what I'm talking about is, there are a lot of guys right now that are paid a lot more money than they used to be paid and what their predecessors were paid. But with that, and the advent of the portal in NIL, comes an expectation that you gotta win immediately, especially at a place like Tennessee that has top of the line resources. You've gotta be making the playoff every other year. Especially if you're five years in, you have to have at least floored with a national championship. His wins per season have gone seven, 11, nine, 10, eight. And then they're coming into this year. What's the win total, Jesse? Is it seven and a half? Seven and a half, yeah. And yet no one's freaking out. But think about that. Think about Kailin DeBoer, if he was entering year five. Think about Ryan Day. If this were year five at Ohio State Kirby, if this were year five at Georgia, and that was the position they were in, it just seems like there'd be a whole lot more freak out. But there's context behind this. Especially with Hypal at Tennessee, there's context behind it. I'm not saying people are wrong by feeling this way. I think they feel the proper way. In fact, if anything, you know what, I'm not gonna say they don't appreciate him. I just think there should be a lot of appreciation for where you are now under Josh Hypal because you know where you were. This was the same thing I would have said about him last year. From 08 to 2021, guess how many 10-win seasons or more? Guess how many double-digit-win seasons Tennessee had? From 2008 to 2021, that would be a goose egg. Zero double-digit-win seasons from 08 to 2021. Also, eight of those seasons from 2008 to 2021, they finished 500 or worse. So that was the state of the program when Josh Hypal walked in. And then two of his first three years were double-digit-win seasons. So this is not DeBoer taking over for Saban, where the expectations are immediately keep us in the national championship punt. This was Josh Hypal taking over for a string of failed coaches with people saying, please just make us relevant again. And he did, and they are. Now, judging by elite program standards, man, over a half a decade, only one playoff appearance. And it was a blowout loss in frigid conditions. Yeah, that'd be viewed as subpar, but that's not where Tennessee came from. That's where the context is very important. And my mind keeps coming back to one thing with him. In addition to all that, this is where there's maybe a differentiator between the way Lincoln Reilly started at Oklahoma and USC versus how Hypal has won when he's won. At USC and at Oklahoma, especially, when Lincoln and Lincoln just had to outscore folks. They were never known for defense. And so you could look at that and you could say, well, I mean, of course they're specializing on the side of the ball the head coach specializes in. Yes, but in a lot of ways, after you run off a string of those kind of results, it just reeks of a coordinator that's holding down a head coach's position. Why is the other side of the ball? Why are the other facets of the program not elevating? Well, two years ago, when Tennessee made the playoff, it was defense that shouldered the load every bit as much as offense. And I would venture to think this year's team may start the season a little bit more defensive oriented if not spend the entire season being that way. And to me, that is a big time hallmark of a guy that's elevated from being a coordinator or a coordinator minded coach to being a real legitimate full blown head coach. The areas of your program that you don't specialize them are elevating. That's a good thing. Now, I will say all this to say the following. I don't know that this year is the year for me either. I think 2027 is the year I'd circle for Tennessee, but they're free to surprise me. That'd be okay. But I'm just saying when we're talking about the truth with him and if anyone is doubting him right now, I don't know that 2026 is the year that I'm gonna count on to just turn that on its ear. I have no idea what's gonna happen at the quarterback position there. We got guys homesick. We don't even know who's starting on defense right now. So yeah, we got all sorts of questions that we gotta figure out. I feel pretty good about him next year. Like a year from now at this time, I think I'll be talking about Tennessee in a little different context. So maybe they'll be a year early this year, but even if they're not, even if they go eight and four this year, you're not finding me selling on Josh Hyple. I'm completely fine. In fact, I'm very happy and pleased with where he has them right now, but that's only because I'm over the age of 15. So I remember where Tennessee was and I'm over the age of 30. So I do have memory of what Tennessee could be. I've seen Tennessee be in the central picture of the national championship race in college football. I have lived in those times and those history books are not carved into stone tablets. It wasn't that long ago that this was the case and it could be again, there was always and maybe there continues to be, I don't know, this pervasive theory out there that Tennessee once upon a time had what it took to win at the highest levels of college football, but now it doesn't. Now the sports passed them by. And they said that same garbage about Miami for a long time and it was never true is the point. It's not true about Tennessee. It's just really hard to win at the highest level. And it starts with people and it ends with people and they had the wrong people in the building for a long time. So actually it didn't matter how great the resources were there. You were just lighting money on fire for a long time. So now they got more of the right people in the building. So they're winning a little bit more, a lot more actually, but what it takes to win, you know, the principles or the characteristics or the money that it takes to win, they've got enough of it. Doesn't matter if they're number one, two or three, they got enough of it. So it's exciting times. I live in the state of Tennessee. A lot more orange around since Josh Hyple took over. But I will give Tennessee fans credit. I'll wrap up with this because I've always said this about them. They never tapped out. You never turned on the game and looked at chunks of open seating at Neelan Stadium. Derrick Dooley era, Butch Jones era, it was never that way. Jeremy Pruitt era, it was never that way. That's why those people deserve a winner. They deserve a championship as much as any fan base in this country. That's a good place to leave it. We got a busy week this week. Make sure you're following on socials at JoshPateCFB. We'll be in a couple of places over the next couple of days, excited to see some folks we haven't seen in a little while and we'll upload those conversations that we record over the coming days. Next show is Thursday. And outside of that, I think we're good. For director Bradley, for producer Jesse, I'm Josh Payton, take care, have a great start to your week and God bless. A a star casino or 18 plus and present in DC, first online real money wager only, $5 first deposit required, bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt, restrictions apply, see terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com, gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com slash rg, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit and dgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 247 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY in New York. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.