North Dakota State Goes FBS, Nebraska Palace Intrigue & Six Teams on Trend Watch

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. 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 Ag Council. you, Lauren Alaina. Tickets are on sale now. Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.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, the story of the sport's most consequential driver's strike, and plenty of other mishaps, scandals, and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent gumster 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. 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, my good friend, welcome back to The Solid Verbal. What's up? How you been? I've been pretty good, Ty. Had a good sourdough bake this morning. The sun has been out the past couple days. I saw my grass in my yard for the first time in 2026. Okay, yeah. Pretty important moment. Watched some NBA last night. Watched some Golden Girls. I have zero complaints. The coffee I just made is pretty good. So I'm feeling good. How about you? Good. I'm hungry. We're doing this over lunch. I didn't get a chance to eat yet. Oh, yeah. I just ate. It was delicious. So if I'm a little bit on edge, I start getting a little bit hangry as we get in the weeds of today's show. Give me a little bit of grace. I will. I will. Absolutely. Welcome back. One and all. If you made it this far, I'm Ty. He is Dan. Please hit follow. Please hit subscribe. Go and check us out at Reballers.com. That is our Patreon where you can go and support the team if you are ever so inclined. You also can subscribe to our newsletter, quickslants.solidverbal.com. if you are interested in getting semi-regular dispatches from deep within the bunker here of svhq and all things going on in and around the world of college football do our best to keep you up to speed on that front of course solid verbal at gmail.com is where you can reach out or you can go to our website and fill out the form send in whatever is on your mind on today's episode we got some news that i think you and i want to talk through at the top which we didn't talk through a whole lot of on our last episode we also have a fun little game i don't know if it's right to call it a game but a little concept that we're going to trot out there we're going to look at six teams and things within those teams and determine is it a trend is it not a trend that all sound right to you dan yeah we're going to look at six teams and look at what they've done recently and what they're hoping to continue doing as they grow into 2026, perhaps what they did since the 2025 season ended and evaluate. This is not a preview, but it is a, as you mentioned, the preview to the preview of the 2026 season, just like a vibe check for a few teams as we sort of get closer to spring ball. And as our opinions begin to form more and more, right? The, the 3d printer of this all we're watching. I don't know how 3d printers work. That's my disclaimer. time but i've watched some 3d printer content on youtube people making it's really good it's it's so good yeah they're making houses like that now i don't know if you knew that uh i did not see that it's mostly me just watching people print parts that they can't find as they try to refurbish old electronics it's real cool stuff sure real cool stuff but this is this is our 3d printing of our 2026 opinions. It's very early on, but we are in the software trying to figure out, okay, is there a curve here? What material needs to go with it? That kind of stuff. And so, yes, that is what we're doing. It's a, what, February vibe check for some, I think, of some of the more interesting teams. We also have some news to discuss, but I'm looking forward to this because it's good for our brains to dip into like, okay, this is what this specific team did in the portal. This is a reminder about who, which important players this team is bringing back or is losing. And so this is us just prepping for the 2026 season, six months in advance. We're not prepping that much, but we're no, no, no, no. Speak for yourself. You might have this information on hand in your brain. I'm losing names, situations and scores by the second tie. It's bleeding out of my ears. So I need to do everything I can to re-familiarize myself every day. You want to get into news? I would love to. I'm bringing it out, baby. We have breaking news. I like it. North Dakota State, baby. Oh, yeah. The Bison are coming to the Mountain West. They're making the jump up to FBS college football. And they are immediately, I say immediately petitioning the NCAA because of that stupid rule that says if you're an FBS newcomer, you can't compete for the playoffs, can't compete for your conference, can't play in a bowl for what is it, two years? Whatever the hell they're trying to get out of that, they're going to have the backing of the Mountain West. Hopefully the NCAA will follow suit because Dan, I should add, this is the most dominant FCS program in history. They have won 10 national championships over the last 15 years. Per our good friend, Bill Connolly from ESPN.com, the purveyor of all things SP plus rankings. He has North Dakota State, this most recent version of North Dakota State, mind you, as the 65th best college football team in all of America across all formats. North Dakota State, just for context, would have been slightly below Arizona State, slightly below Florida, slightly below Boise State, and just ahead of teams like Kentucky, Minnesota, and Baylor. He also points out that North Dakota State would have been a nine point favorite over Purdue, not to rub salt in that wound. Wow. Purdue fans are just trying to live their lives, Ty. I listen. So, OK, what you're saying. Caught astray. I apologize to the Purdue faithful out there. Right. If I can translate Ty, I'm semi-fluent in Ty. Yes. What Ty is trying to tell you is there is a case to be made, at least statistically and occasionally on the field, that North Dakota State recently has been of the quality of a lower-ish, middle-class-ish power conference team. Correct. Okay. So they enter into the Mountain West, which is a new-look Mountain West, as a reminder. A number of teams left. A couple of teams are entering in two. So the 2026 Mountain West Conference, as far as I can tell, again, information is bleeding out of my ears constantly as the season ends. Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Northern Illinois. I now live in Mountain West territory. San Jose State, UNLV, UTEP, Wyoming. Correct? All correct. All correct. So, you know, your Fresnos, your Boises, your San Diego states, they're entering into a conference that is calling themselves the Pac-12? Correct. Good for them, I suppose. Oregon State and Wazoo, legitimate Pac-12 programs. But I guess recognize the sovereignty and right to exist of the Pac-12 when I see what it actually looks like. But the Mountain West is different. North Dakota State, at its best, I think can be excellent and can obviously compete for this new look Mountain West. Their coach has been there, I think, a couple of years now. Tim Polisek. Right. And he was an internal hire. It was Matt Entz, who's at Fresno State now, who was there before. So I love this for North Dakota State. I love this for college football. I love this for the hopeful ascendance of excellent programs to challenge themselves. If they keep, we've seen like Ferris State dominate D2, right? You want to see these programs, if they're able to make the finances work, and I'm sure we'll have Matt Brown on in the near future to discuss what kind of financial responsibility this entails to make a move from fcs to fbs and by the way subscribe to his extra points newsletter yep um but what this entails in terms of new travel in terms of any sort of stadium additions that are required although the fargo dome is excellent it's the it should be a must visit place for mountain west fans it's an awesome experience and it is loud in there it is loud We went to that playoff game. I mentioned this on the last episode, but we went to the we had a whole thing back in 2018. You and I ended up driving from Minneapolis up to Fargo and then went to the game between North Dakota State and Colgate. Right. And first off, it was cold. It was the coldest I have ever been outside of a stadium. And suffice to say, the folks up in the upper plains in Fargo are built different. yeah they had like jet engines that were firing with open flames inside of tents that had multiple layers on they figured it out okay we were warm inside but once you got inside the actual arena it is loud dude it is whatever it is stadium arena whatever it's considered it is i posted this online it is a perfect hybrid between minor league hockey and a monster truck rally yeah it is somewhere in between and it's awesome it's like a perfect rectangle in there that i think it what maybe used to house rodeos or maybe still houses the uh the fargo or north dakota rodeo um in any case we we saw it a few years ago it was like an hour and a half ago james madison was an fcs power they make the move they're in the college football playoff almost immediately you know relatively speaking to the the modern history of college football and so the hope is a team that has the winning infrastructure that North Dakota State clearly does, that they're able to compete, that recruiting remains unchanged because they have recruited the High Plains and Minnesota and Midwest, and they've gotten some transfers in, and that hopefully the finances are there to support now supporting FBS level players, quality players. I don't know how that changes any sort of calculus, but that they will be more visible, that Fargo will be more visible, that this kind of excellence over time is being rewarded with the opportunity. I mean, what do we always hear about Notre Dame, right? Notre Dame, it's join a conference. When North Dakota State just keeps winning or competing for national championships, you're just like, okay, but like, let's see what they can do if they're able to make a jump up to the next level. Right. And really measure themselves against a full schedule of similarly talented teams. I think they're going to do really well. I can't wait to dive into it. It's only football, I believe, right? It's a football only. It's only a football thing. I have some of the particulars here on that, but it's football only. Yeah, but TLDR. Very cool. It is. And look, this is one of those hypotheticals that get sent into us all the time. You know, we've kicked it around with promotion and relegation, and I don't really think that's going to happen, at least not anytime soon. But anytime you have an exciting promotion like this, not because of the system, but because of the program deciding it wants to press its luck and see what it can do. It's really exciting when you've got a program of this caliber on the finances, though. This is from Brandon Marcella at CBS. I'm reading directly from his piece. Quote, does a great job at CBS, by the way. I want to be pay more compliments. If we're going to make fun of people in the college football media, Brandon does a great job. Brandon does an awesome job. He does. I've been reading Brandon for years. Correct. Here's what he says. Financially, North Dakota State will not receive a full revenue share from the Mountain West through the 2031-32 season, the length of the conference's current media rights deal. However, the Bison would receive 50% of the college football playoff and bowl revenue distributed to full members beginning in 2026 if they reach the postseason and 100% after their second postseason appearance, according to the conference's membership agreement obtained by CBS Sports through an open record through an open records request. that's a mouthful north dakota state would also earn a one million dollar bonus for reaching the college football playoff before 2032 he goes on north dakota state is paying the mountain west a twelve and a half million dollar entry fee over six years in addition to the ncaa's five million dollar reclassification fee which increased from five thousand to five million going back to 2023 bit of a jump there i would say bit of a jump the ncaa's probationary probationary period was designed to give transitioning programs time to meet fbs benchmarks including scholarship expansion and facility upgrades but again they're going to challenge that it seems as though they will have the backing of the conference and i would imagine the college football fan base at large because this is one of the unique situations. I know James Madison is sort of an earlier example of a team stepping up and immediately being competitive, but this is probably an even better example of a team that looks ready to party. Yeah, they're ready to sort of jump in right away and contend for this thing in the Mountain West. Now, I would add as a corollary, if you do subscribe to our newsletter and if you read what Tyler, our wonderfully talented newsletter writer put together he presented two potential pathways that this thing could go there is the james madison route which obviously they've been very successful in very short order there's also the georgia southern route georgia southern was another team that was very successful at the fcs ranks they moved up they sort of lost their identity be it with coaches leaving with greater demands on the program and you know they're kind of doing their thing right now they have clay helton but georgia southern is not at the fbs ranks what they once were at the fcs ranks this could go in one of those two paths obviously for north dakota state we would root for the successful one as fans but uh nothing is a guarantee i think when you step up to this new level so i'm excited to see what the future holds for north dakota state and uh full disclosure we did send out some emails to try and bring somebody on to talk more specifically about that. At some point this offseason, we will. We just couldn't make it work for today's episode. But pretty cool. I totally agree. And it does have the feeling like unofficial promotion in a system that does not feature promotion and relegation just because, you know, we recently saw success from what Kennesaw winning double digits this past year and then Delaware and Missouri State. We mentioned the James Madison thing that there are teams and programs that have won enough and have found the money necessary to make that leap. And we'll see what happens with North Dakota state and being eligible for bowls or the college football playoff. I don't think any ruling has been made. I had anything like that yet. Yeah. They just announced on Monday that this was going to be a challenge. So it's going to, it's going to take a little bit to work its way through the system. But it is, it is a cool thing that like there is a proving ground to this all, hopefully. And I, you know, I'm very excited to see what happens with North Dakota State. It's obviously a different kind of conversation. I'll do respect to maybe the best of the Sun Belt and the best of Conference USA. Mountain West is difficult. Now, it's different with the sort of changes that have happened in the conference. But the best of recent, like New Mexico and UNLV and the teams that are moving on to the Pac-12. Like I feel as if it's perhaps a steeper challenge to come in and immediately, you know, toss teams around. But if there's anybody built to do that kind of thing, it's a team that has won as demonstrably and as often as North Dakota State has done recently. I don't have their depth charts and returning production numbers in front of me. It's going to take us a minute to go through all that. But something tells me if you keep competing for and often winning a national championship, you're doing pretty well in terms of development and returning production year over year. So maybe it's a different kind of year this year, but thrilled to have a story like this in the sport. I'm just laughing at them increasing the reclassification fee from $5,000 to $5 million. The NCAA has got a lot of bills to pay because of legal stuff. so that's probably where that's going and I don't know how much of that goes to the Mountain West which is losing revenue right losing teams that you know were bringing in bowl stuff that were you know big name schools that would attract TV eyes and you know it's a transitionary time for is that a word transitionary yeah sounds like one yeah why not for the Mountain West as well so good for them for hopefully solidifying membership and numbers here well we welcome our new North Dakota State Bison brethren Yes And we will be talking much more about this as we get a little bit deeper into the offseason A couple of different angles we can go with this one But that's the first thing. The second thing, do you hear about this book? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Bill Moose. Called Crab Creek Chronicles from the wheat fields to the ball fields and beyond. That doesn't mean anything to anybody listening. But what should mean something is that the author was former Nebraska athletic director Bill Moose. In this book, which was released this week, he says that Scott Frost was not his first choice to be the Nebraska Cornhuskers coach back in 2017. He was also ordered to undergo an evaluation for alcoholism and that he looked into the possibility of Nebraska leaving the Big Ten and returning to the Big 12. So a lot going on there. Buddy, it's more of a story connected to a now governor in the way it was Jeff Landry in Louisiana with the Lane Kiffin and Brian Kelly saga. So now we have it was a pill in the governor of Nebraska in on the decision to not hire perhaps Oregon's basketball coach. And he is brought into this whole thing. And I it's he was a region, I want to say at the time. But Bill Moose decided basically like, here are all my stories. and some of them are going to make me look good. Some of them are going to make me look not so good. Yeah, my wife was in on the meeting with Scott Frost in what it was in Philadelphia. I want to say when the Nebraska team was in town and the UCF team was in town and they arranged a meeting and his wife was like, ah, this guy doesn't seem like it. Too immature. Too immature is her reaction. And so we're just like, see, like there is something that we want to believe or at least used to want to believe about the professionalism and how buttoned up all of the things behind the scenes we hope are and you read stories like this and you hear other stories about other places just like nobody knows anything they're all trying to figure it out they're all trying to impress each other they're all trying to throw around their power in any ways that they can and yeah there was a thing in here about scott frost wanting to cancel both a rutgers game at the end of the season in 2021 and cancel a home and home with Oklahoma. And that would have thrown a potential return to the big 12 and Bob Bowlesby's involved in these conversations and a secret meeting in Dallas. The secret meetings in this sport, always in Dallas, always, always in a conference room near DFW, right? That's like, well, we decided to meet in Dallas. Like could, could you meet literally anywhere else? No, that's where all the planes fly into fine. Okay. so it was all very interesting here and how Scott Frost said in retrospect when he rejoined UCF that he never really wanted to go back to Nebraska but he was pulled in that direction by friends and loved ones and so Scott Frost didn't want to go to Nebraska at least he says in hindsight the powers that be at Nebraska were at least split on bringing Scott Frost back but they all decided to do it anyway and we're all still sitting at a point with nebraska football where they have one non-bo pollini winning season in the big 10 yep that's right and it's 2026 um yeah the quote here was nebraska being in the big 10 never felt quite right to me nor for that matter did it for most husker fans moose wrote a big reason for this is the school's location deeply rooted in america's heartland the land grand institution just fits better with the schools of the big eight and most of the ones that were added when the southwest conference disbanded back in 1995 i we've had people write in about this yeah more times than i could count so i i understand that sentiment it's just funny to hear coming from a former athletic director um as he said also wanted data altman for basketball but that didn't work out wanted chip kelly instead of scott frost which is met with chip subhead here yeah and in new hampshire i believe when chip was working in tv when he was also i think talking to florida yeah he ended up being announced like the next week as ucla's coach so this was right in that in that uh timeline yeah there is and there's something still to be said about like i think it seems that there are some nebraska fans who are like yeah the big 12 kind of felt more like us but we're making so much money and we want to secure our spot in the future of the sport and the Big Ten is just a lot more powerful and a lot more stable so it just makes sense for us to be here and they just move on it seems and try to build the best possible Big Ten team possible I'm curious how you stand in what we're still in 2026 is that where we are now? it all sounds fake to me like have you grown to accept the teams who have moved around in this sport as this being their new, like this feels right and it feels like they, you know, everything has sort of come into place as, you know, Oregon as a Big Ten team or Maryland as a Big Ten team or Mizzou as an SEC team. Like, has the vibe shifted to you where you just automatically get the feeling that this is, this all makes sense and this is where they're supposed to be? Because basically for none of them, like, I just don't feel it. Like I, I look at Maryland and I, I still think about them playing Duke and all the hatred on the basketball court, buddy. Before I would, before we kind of move forward and talk about our next segment here. Yeah. I was clicking into projected rosters for 2026. Yeah. I could not find Oklahoma. I was looking up and down that big 12 roster. I could not find them anywhere. and then I had my little aha moment and realized oh yeah you're looking in the wrong spot but listen we were raised on one version of college football with teams being aligned in a certain way yeah and it still requires a certain bit of mental energy to remember who is where so no it doesn't feel right to me it still feels different I obviously understand it we talk about it right and we'll continue to talk about it in its new iteration but man yeah it's some of this stuff is uh kind of baked into the whole college football fandom of 13 year old ty hildenbrand yeah there's still like an element to me of somebody coming to you one day and saying hey just so you know we recast your friends right we had a casting call and your buddy feldman is now going to be played by this guy steve i had i told you this story before i had a college roommate who went by one name and then uh i forget exactly how but we ended up finding out midway through our final semester in college that his actual first name was something else this was just the nickname that he went by we had no idea this was like learning a new person completely i feel a little bit like that with this because his teams move around and i'm an sec team now okay i listen we're dating ourselves here. No, no, but we're not dating ourselves. This all happened in like over, you know, 10, 15 years, but you can't absorb something in a certain way and then have people arbitrarily. And it is arbitrary. Don't let anybody lie to you and tell you that it's not. It's arbitrary in that, like who wants the money, who's going to be able to get the money, whatever. But it's as if your friend, what was your friend's name before? His old name was Ricky. Yeah. His old name was Ricky and he became. He didn't become anything else. He still went by Ricky, but there was another first name that was his birth name that we didn't know about. Right. That you didn't know about. And he probably had it, you know, until a certain age, whatever. But it was as if Ricky was like, by the way, I used to be called this. I've also decided I'm a Buddhist and I I'm learning Portuguese and I'm pretty much only going to speak that. It totally it shook us, man. It shook. I get it. same guy, but just like, Oh wait, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. I know, I know a couple of people like that actually that went by a middle name or a nickname or something else. And then you find out what their actual birth name is. And it's like, Oh, what are we talking? I, I get why. And this is, this is a whole other conversation. I get why people as they get old and all, and they just become obsessed with like, it's, it's not how it used to be kind of thing. I get that so much more. If I'm being honest, I'm probably especially prone to it. But you're telling me Nebraska is playing Oregon and Rutgers and Ohio State and Washington and UCL. It's just off to me, man. And Nebraska is just they're like the legacy program, a blue blood program, of course. But like you just bundle these teams together in your mind. Like I'm just going to pay more attention to the University of Arizona because of how often Oregon played Arizona. It had cool wins and awful losses or whatever. And it hasn't worked with me with like Louisville in the ACC and Rutgers in the big 10 and, you know, SMU in the ACC, like all of these things still feel to me. And so I get it from a Bill Moose standpoint. I get it from a like Regents at Nebraska being split standpoint where you're like, yes, we're making more money. Yes. The TV deal is better. yes the like the opponents are going to be of of higher esteem more often in the big 10 but also we miss Oklahoma State we miss Colorado we mean look there's the big aid and there's the Southwest Conference I understand things change and evolve all the time in this sport but I don't know at a certain point you hit your limit and just be like man I want something familiar and that's it's it's all gonna go and change is the only thing that you can count on in this world but I'm just I get it. I get it from a certain perspective. We're just like, what if we just went home? We could probably get this guy on the show. He's got a book to promote. Former Oregon AD. We could probably make this work. So maybe that's something we should consider. We got space to fill, dog. Yeah, Nebraska fans are with a hard pass on that one. But everybody else, if you have questions about running high-level athletic departments, there could be some meat on that bone. But yeah, I also I enjoyed this story because you saw Nebraska fans online and on social media. And it was all just like this confirms all of our biggest fears about how this program was being run. We unfortunately, unfortunately, and I am strictly talking about college football here. Yeah. Unfortunately. We have seen some of the message board fodder, conspiracies, rumors, whatever you want to call them, come true here. on a couple of different fronts as of late. This, I think, being the most recent example. But to the point, yeah, people are talking, and this confirmed a lot in the Nebraska universe. We'll see if maybe we can talk about this more. Unpack this book at some point in the very near future, if that works for you. Yeah, there's a lot of the palace intrigue, like Scott Frost got an extension. How exactly? It wasn't Bill Moose. There was just so much in the little excerpts. curious to read the book and see more of what he has to say. I think it's called Crab Creek Chronicles. Yeah, Crab Creek Chronicles from the Wheatfields to the Ballfields and Beyond. There you go. Babes, what are you doing? What? I'm just mowing the lawn. No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember? Smokey Bear says, Avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry. Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on SmokeyBear.com with many other wildfire prevention tips. Right. Thanks, honey bear. Because remember, only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the Ad Council. This is the biggest night in podcasting. The countdown is on to our 2026 iHeart Podcast Awards. 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Listen to No Grip starting March 4th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. at all if you're not careful i like that second one better thank you me too why don't we roll with that so here's what we did you've got three teams i've got three teams we're looking at what transpired in 2025 and as you said it's not a preview if anything it's a preview to the preview of the preview but we're just gonna throw some darts here at whether or not some of these trends will continue in 2026. So my three teams are Arizona, Miami, and Texas A&M. Your three teams are Oklahoma, USC, and Virginia. And we're going to go back and forth on whether some elements of those teams will continue. Some things will continue trending. Yeah, just we, I think, have a pretty good handle on how those teams are trending. I think largely all of these are in a positive direction. And what the odds are, what our vibes are, what our understandings are of what these teams have done to take that next step and build upon these trends. Give me a team. Who are we doing first? Let's do Miami. They earned it. Miami. So the question is whether or not Miami's high-level winning, like we saw this year, will continue. Went to the national championship. game played it at home was something of a rebirth for Miami very exciting season Miami in 2026 looks to be very very good again at the skill positions bring over Darian Mensah from Duke as the new quarterback I have a lot back in the running back room I think out wide they'll be fine as well clearly Malachi Tony will get another bite at the apple as a true sophomore which is crazy i have a question about the offensive line especially the two tackle spots are going to have a lot of freshmen coming in this year obviously led by jackson can't well who is the big name recruit along the line but for a crystal ball team to have a question mark at offensive line though it's a little bit different than we saw this past year it is one of those areas one of the core competencies of any crystal ball team so i think they will be fine there but at present mid-february that looks like that's a relatively big question mark yes i think the bigger one is defensively defensively when you're replacing the likes of ruben bain and akeem mesador both of whom could be first round picks there's a question about your pass rush they'll be stout in the middle defensively but there is a question about what that pass rush is going to look like um they are losing some experience i believe at linebacker but there's enough there that I feel pretty confident they'll be fine. And I think they're going to be good enough in the secondary as well. So Miami is set up in a pretty good spot. They have questions like any team has questions. And it just so happens the biggest question mark is an area where the coach excels pretty well. Agree. I think it would be impossible for Miami to win single digits in 2026. It is an ideal schedule too. That is the other thing here. As far as we can tell, right? As far as we can. And, you know, we try not to lean too heavily on the schedule thing. Right. But it's hard, especially in the middle February, February 11th, as we record this. Yeah. The only game that really scares me here as we look at this well in advance is a road tilt against Notre Dame. But otherwise, the ACC schedule, the biggest landmine is a road game at Clemson. And who knows what we have there? I have no idea what to make at Clemson at this point. it seems to me as if the ACC outside of Miami is wide open I don't know who I'd even put it number two in that conference at this point but as it stands right now Miami at least to me looks like you could pencil them in to the ACC title game and in terms of high level winning I don't know if it continues on the playoff side of this but they will in my opinion at least have an opportunity to contend again in the college football playoff based on what I'm seeing right now it's a tricky road slate just in terms of what these teams could be if they also trend in the correct direction at wake forest there should be a challenge but wake lost a couple big names but we see if the offense gets better clemson is overhauling a lot on both sides of the ball at north carolina the week before at notre dame and after Pitt in a letdown look ahead sandwich I not telling you Billy Edwards North Carolina is scaring me up nights but it a tricky seeming road slate. We have no idea what Virginia Tech's going to look like with Ethan Grunkemeyer and James Franklin by the end of the season. But with how Miami has been building, it would take a pretty big effort to not go at the very least 10 and 2 you make one of your more difficult opponents weaker by taking their quarterback in the last second after the portal closes um in Duke and Darian Mensah so it would be a pretty shocker if this trend did not continue I don't know if they're making a national championship game but being in the conversation for winning this conference and being a top six seven seed in the college football playoff I think it's a reasonable trending expectation i think so too um i would say bigger picture it does feel like crystal ball has gotten this program to some kind of critical mass yeah and the conversation that we had had in the past about miami trying to bring talent in and assemble and rebuild it it feels like it has now gotten to a point where it is sort of recruiting to itself again like it used to whether that's via the transfer portal or in the high school ranks i mean he's always been a very gifted recruiter so it should come as no great surprise but it took a minute to get to this point now the fact that they made it to the national championship game albeit did not go to their own conference championship game but we can put that to the side the fact that they are doing what they are doing now in a crystal ball and attracting this level of talent i think is pretty exciting if you're a miami fan so i would expect the high level winning here to continue i think this is more of a trend It's not just a momentary blip. By the way, if you had told me in 2021 that in 2026, I would say an interesting matchup might be Mario Cristobal's team against Bill Belichick's team, my brain would have turned into Nutella, Ty. My brain would have completely split and collapsed on itself into goo. So here we are. That's the reality in the ACC. Dan I want you to give me the lowdown on Oklahoma as a continuing SEC slash college football playoff let's call it fixture okay are they a fixture as one of the contending teams in either of those two I don't have a downward trend I don't have an upward trend I think they're I may be plateauing if that's an acceptable answer here because of the way that they had to win last year. I think they did a very good job addressing what needed to be addressed, and that is filling out offensive skill, talent, building up more depth and talent along the offensive line. They made a change. Jason Witten's now their tight ends coach. They made a change at a couple assistant spots, but coordinators are the same. There's so much more I need to see from the pop of this offense that, yes, their schedule is interesting enough where there's new quarterbacks and new coaches, whatever, on this schedule. And it starts in a pretty tough way, we think, traveling to Michigan, traveling to Georgia in September. But they return enough on defense where you're like, this is one of the best three or four defenses in America. They return a ton of key pieces, even losing a couple of key pieces. But on all three levels, there are key guys back. The hits depth-wise are what might concern me a little bit. They lose two key rotation pieces at linebacker. R. Mason Thomas is gone. So there is some star power gone. The Bowen brothers are back, where I feel good enough about this defense doing enough to hold up their end of the bargain as an SEC and college football playoff fixture. But it's still, to me, that question of can they build and execute on the level of a top 40 offense that to me is something where I'm just like I don't see them trending in an upward direction until I get some answers in September by the way yeah does this not feel backwards to you it still feels backwards it feels backwards to me speaking to things that we got used to that have seemingly been upended in college football we used to have this conversation when Lincoln Riley was a coach all the time. And the conversation was always, hey, if the defense can get 20% better, they might win the national championship. It's completely flipped now. Completely flipped. If the offense can improve just to a marginal degree, it's a completely different conversation about Oklahoma. As a starting point, though, having a beast defensive line, having a good quarterback behind an offensive line with plenty of experience, having his primary weapon in Isaiah Satania coming back, That is all a very, very good start to ensure some base level of competence. Yeah. They added Virginia's best receiver. There's a lot that they are proactively doing. They are. They've been very proactive. Yeah. So I like what Vanderbilt has done. The schedule is front loaded for Oklahoma this year, which might be good because they do return a fair amount of experience. They do have a bit of an X sandwich, though, in week three. I don't know if you saw that. I did. That's between a road game at Michigan, come back home, play New Mexico, then go back on the road the following week to square off against Georgia. That could be an interesting game for us to talk about. Bacon, egg, and cheese? I like it. Thank you. I like it. We got options there, man. We got a lot of options. But I think Oklahoma is a legit threat again. And I think because of the starting point with the line and the healthy quarterback, hopefully healthy quarterback this year, fully healthy in John Mateer, the schedule's just brutal though what'd you call it on the last episode gauntlet we've got an SEC schedule yeah yeah we've got a tough schedule here but I think if it's going to happen and if we are going to continue talking about Oklahoma as a legit contender on both fronts whether it's conference or the playoff it goes without sin they got to get better as a run blocking unit they got to get better they just weren't good at that last year The offense cannot revolve entirely around John Mateer, good as he is. It can't rely entirely upon him drawing something up in the dirt and making a play. So if they can get decent offensive production, let's call it 20% better offensive production, 10% better offensive production, next to what looks to be an awesome defense again. They're in the playoff. But if the offensive line struggles, then we're probably having this same conversation next year. yeah and look it's the sec gauntlet um and with these huge conferences with the schedules being as varied as they can be that you're playing a bunch of teams that aren't super competitive or you're playing gauntlet of teams at or near the top that you combine that with the fact that rosters are changing as they are with what it's kentucky and florida with new coaches and then South Carolina trying to rebuild on the fly and Mississippi State making a quarterback change, obviously moving to Kamario Taylor. Like there are always going to be on these major conference schedules. There are always going to be three to five swing teams that are either clearly better than they probably should be clearly worse than they probably should be, or just whiffed in the portal and don't have the talent to play more than five or six games at a high level because they're just having depth issues or whatever they can't sustain so we don't know how difficult any of these schedules are but it becomes especially dramatic in the the big 10 the acc and the sec you mentioned arizona earlier let's talk some arizona yes please arizona improved from the 84th best defense in the SP plus all the way up to number 23. It was a huge jump and a very big deal for Brent Brennan. They improved across a bunch of key categories. It was points per game, passing yards per game, rushing yards per game, yards per passing attempt. Third down conversions was a big one. Turnovers, you name it. Danny Gonzalez was promoted before the year to defensive coordinator. Danny Gonzalez did a very, very good job. It was a very big deal. That enormous step forward that we saw defensively. This season, they lose a lot. Dalton Johnson, Genesis Smith, Trayden Stooks, Aiden Garns, Michael Dansby. Losing all of that production is a very, very big deal. It is a combined 6,700 defensive snaps, 288 tackles, 39 pass breakups, and 12 interceptions all from the 2025 roster. That's an issue. A lot. Yeah. That's a lot. I would say, though, as I look at this, structurally, it looks like there is a sustainable core in place. At least philosophy in place. They've got a really good linebacking core that is again coming back. Tay Brown, Chase Kennedy, Jabari Mann. I like those three guys a lot. Arizona might have one of the most, if not the most, experienced linebacking cores in all of the Big 12. That's a good starting point in the middle of your defense. I also think it's notable that the schedule this year is going to be backloaded. So if we're talking about this in terms of the secondary and all that is leaving the secondary, brought a bunch of new guys in, a backloaded schedule gives you an opportunity to figure things out before the rubber really meets the road so i think given the fact that there is now a stronger coaching situation on the defensive side of the ball this gives them a chance to congeal and figure it all out before they really get into the nitty-gritty i like that i think the defense is probably taking a bit of a step back but i still think those dudes are nfl dudes at safety they're all nfl and don't johnson yeah all nfl dudes it's great secondary it is fair to assume that there's going to be a step back at least in the back end of that defense but i still think the defense is going to be good like on a fundamental level they got really good at tackling last year much better than they were the year before if that's your starting point if you're fundamentally sound i think again we can assume a base level of success with this defense. So it's not going to be as good, but it still will be fine. It's just going to look different. You got less experience in the back. You've got more of a threat with your linebacking core. And I just think the story of Arizona is one of a coach figuring it out in year two. He figured it out in year two. And so there's a lot coming back on offense that we can speak to if we want. But if this is more of a conversation about the Arizona defense, and the trend line on that side of the ball. I think it sort of flattens out, but I don't think it's going to nosedive. I don't think we're going to see year one, Brent Brennan. I don't think we're going to see year two. I think this is somewhere in the middle. Okay, so a plateau-ish. Ish. Yeah. A plateau-ish. Yeah, and the big thing last year, and we were sort of locking in on the defense because that's what led the way last year, but the defense wasn't put in any bad positions or as many bad positions because Noah Fafita was a lot more careful with the ball last year. Right. So it was 12 picks in 2024, only five picks last year. So they weren't dealing with short fields. They weren't dealing with the barrage of turnovers that they were in 2024. And so, you know, Seth Aegee's back running the offense, I believe. So there is continuity on both sides of the ball. That back half of the schedule, if those teams are all at least competitive, is a tough back half. That's the problem. They should be a bowl team, though. They should again be a bowl team. They should. And by the way, as we're talking through each of these teams, note we're not talking about arizona as necessarily a contender talked about that with oklahoma talked about that with miami right that is not the trend we are analyzing here we are looking specifically at the defense and the gains that we saw on that side of the ball so i i think the arizona story bigger picture is a great one for brent brennan and what he figured out in year two and it definitely felt like a lot clicked but defensively tbd not i would dive. I don't think we're going to see up and to the right. We're not going to see like a big old hockey stick on the line graph, but somewhere in between is where this defense is going to be in 26. I would say trending danger. The danger trend continues for the Arizona defense. Give me something on Virginia. Okay. Virginia is super interesting because with a good chunk of changes, but some back on this roster, obviously they hit the portal pretty hard after the 2024 season especially succeeding on defense but Chanmo was pretty good uh at quarterback last year led them to the ACC championship game which they were in until the very end and had a chance to win the conference in a huge back bounce back moment they were my team that I was looking at skeptically but they returned just enough on both sides of the ball hit the portal and their schedule again We don't know the swings and the spectrum of this schedule, but they miss a bunch of the perceived good teams once again in the ACC. When you look at who they don't play, notably, you know, they miss Pitt, I believe, and Louisville and Miami. They don't make a West Coast trip, so that doesn't screw things up from a travel standpoint for a couple weeks. They do travel to SMU, which will be tough. No Clemson? No Clemson? No Clemson on here. they have one of the weirder quarterback rooms in that they brought over both Eli Holstein and Bo Probula. Correct. So in terms of guys with high hopes who didn't work out at big places, they've cornered the market by having two of them come in this season. Yeah, they got two. So Bo Probula threw a bunch of picks. Eli Holstein was inconsistent enough that he lost his job to Mason Heinzel into the season. So that to me is the interesting question. It's just like, do they have a quarterback I'm excited about? I'm not there yet. And so that, that's the problem to me that you couple that with some of the really close weird wins from last year by single digits, like low single digits. That to me has me questioning if this is replicable. I'm going to say because of the seemingly upside ish part of this schedule, I'm going to say yes I can't go beyond plateau I can't look at this roster and immediately say they're going to have more pop I can't immediately do that I'm going to say it's likely that they take a step back though I could see them at least plateauing and ending up in that late season what's the website that has all the tiebreaker situations that you would follow some basketball reference right not nothing.net yeah yeah there it is not nothing.net that they're weirdly like oh yeah they just need these two teams to lose in the ACC championship game and it's a proposition we hadn't considered at all so yes I could see them there but I could also see like oh god Ty I apologize in advance I could see a bow plateau for this Virginia team I mean Virginia is interesting for a whole range of reasons the schedule is very gettable It's very gettable. And there are a fair amount of good pieces that I see on this roster. They're just very reliant on a lot of the new pieces coming together. Very reliant. I mean, they're gettable in the secondary. I'm not sure about the pass rush. I could talk specifically about questions, but that's not really what we're doing here. We're talking about Virginia as a contender. I think by virtue of the schedule, and given the fact that there's at least enough in place here that I feel pretty good about it. Now, I don't think we can sit here and say they're not a contender, but I also look at this roster and I say, I don't necessarily think they're better. Right. Where that puts them, I don't know. I'm inclined to say no on the contender front because I just have more questions than I do answers about what it's going to look like when Tony Elliott tries to piece all this together on the fly. It just feels like it's, what we saw with Chandler Morris a year ago was fundamentally different than what we're going to see this year with some combination of Bo Perbula and Eli Holstein. Two guys, by the way, that I like a lot. I'm just not sure how that all fits together. And I'm not sure what the offense around them looks. I have too many questions at this point to subscribe to this. I'm going to say, I think you like your memories of Bo Perbula and Eli Holstein. If I were to tell you either one of these after last season were starting for Notre Dame, I think your tune might sound a little different. Uh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Just clarifying here. Yeah. That's fair. Yeah. Cause I, I, I think if you were to pull a bunch of Pitt and Mizzou fans about their experience from last season, they'd be like excited to see what Austin Simmons, uh, and Mason Heinz will bring to the table this year. 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, 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 Bijan, 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. 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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. So, okay. What am I talking? Or what are you talking here? Texas A&M. Oh, I like this. Is Texas A&M going to be a contender again? I say yes. But I didn't dip into them like you did. Oh, I dipped in. More than just a tell. This roster is stocked, okay? Okay. Offensively, there's enough back at the skill positions. The line's not going to be as good. Last year, that was the big talking point coming to the year. I don't think they're going to be as good. They're going to be doing some work with the guys that they brought in via the transfer portal. It's not not talented. I just feel like we had a better starting point last year. we knew what we were in for but they lose what is it like three all-american starters along the offensive line to the draft they're going to be rebuilding a little bit up front albeit with guys who had experience elsewhere yeah also of note both their starting tackles are gone cassius howell their premium pass rusher is off to the nfl as well looks like he's going to be a first round pick pretty big void for me on the edge it was casey concepcion out of that receiver room they also lose colin klein jay bateman there's just a lot that is changing for this texas a&m roster and coaching staff yeah there are a lot of ifs here and so i am inclined to say no on the contender front i don't think they're a contender for the sec i don't think they're a contender for the college football playoff mainly because lots walking out the door and this schedule is friggin absurd you want to use the gauntlet word again can you say that for me gauntlet but it's especially instructive because last year's was look the two things being true at once I think holds it's last year's Texas A&M team was good was definitely good also they didn't play the best of the SEC by and large until they played Texas late in the year basically i'm gonna read this off in totality okay please i want people to comprehend this missouri state to open up the year whatever okay arizona state week two at home kentucky at home week three on the road at lsu week four home against arkansas at mizzou the following week game against the citadel in there whatever on the road in tuscaloosa against alabama before a bye week and then to close out the year at south carolina home against tennessee at oklahoma home against texas that is your month of november this to me does look like a gauntlet and this to me does look like it's going to be very very difficult to get to 10 and 2 which i think is sort of where you need to get to in the 12 team field to be considered logistic or realistically and logistically a true playoff contender. I don't see it with the schedule and I don't see it with some of the pieces that are walking out the door. I like Texas A&M a lot. I had A&M in my playoff a year ago when we did the preseason thing. So I'm not rooting against A&M. I just I don't see it based on the schedule. I don't see it. So the counterpoint is that I think you and I have an immense amount of respect for the coaching ability of Mike Elko. I do. To perhaps overachieve given opponent, given roster, given depth, and has as good a roster foundation at Texas A&M as he's had in his career. There is also until Halloween, when you look at the schedule, here's the counterpoint because nobody knows anything about any of these teams. This is just a vibe check. This is just us setting hype narrative for the season, Ty. I see a bunch of teams until their bi-week Halloween, October 31st. Those marking that down. A bunch of teams that either have a new head coach, a new starting quarterback, or both until Halloween. Correct? Right. ASU new quarterback. Kentucky new both. LSU new both. Arkansas new both, I believe. Mizzou new starting quarterback. Alabama new starting quarterback. Obviously, they're not going to be new once they're a few weeks into the season. but in terms of an unknown quantity no it's fair and how we appraise everything right now it's at least interesting to me and uh i i understand where you're coming from from a and m though just because there are only so many spots to be in contention for this conference and to be in contention for the college football playoff when the conference is this big so yeah this is the universe bouncing back likely after last year's schedule and i i my my issue with this and I really struggled with this because I like this team I like the talent on hand it is I would say easily one of the top five most talented rosters in college football they've got a ton of talent on this team I'd say top eight nine ten somewhere in there but I put them top five okay we can we can talk about that later but I sure either way either way they're in that conversation and there's a lot of ammo on this roster but I just I look at what's leaving I look at what's on the schedule. It just feels to me like a lot has to come together pretty quickly in order to feel this good about A&M getting back to where they were. Never mind the fact that Marcel Reed, although he had most of the offensive stats in both of A&M's final games against Texas and then Miami, four picks. Like, just, if you're an A&M fan, they definitely sort of went out with a whimper. Yeah, of course. I mean, the game against Miami, the game against Texas does not leave anybody inspired it doesn't leave you feel all that inspired so i'm i'm i think i'm out for those reasons i am out for those reasons you're out yeah okay should i i finish up with if we're gonna talk oklahoma gotta talk usc that lincoln riley thread across all of college football man um so the question here is you sent this to me usc winning double digit games yeah that would be the trend because I think they've won seven and nine these past couple years. So in Lincoln's first year with USC, they won 11. Then they took a step back to eight and they won seven this past year. They won nine. So if they continue in that direction, as we saw the last two years, yes, then that would seemingly mean they're going to get back to 10 this year. Yeah. Back to where they have already proven they can be with Lincoln Riley and at least a Heisman quarterback, which I guess Jade Mayava is on that shortlist conversation. I think he should be. I think he should be. I think he had a good year. He did. I think he's crazy talented. My question, though, is Kyle Lemmon, Jacoby Lane gone? Yeah. Real questions about the interior offensive line. Defensively, a lot of talent, but new coordinator, Dan Lynn, goes to Penn State. They're bringing back Gary Patterson, digging him up, putting him in the position of defensive coordinator. Obviously, you didn't like that. No, I mean, it's just very dark. Continue. Well, it's been a minute. Scary Patterson. Like exhuming him. Yeah. He's back. Gary Patterson's going to be coached. Sure, sure, sure. So how does he assemble that talent? The schedule on top of everything is ridiculous. Great home slate if you're USC. Yeah. Season ticket holder. Season ticket holder. But tough schedule. Really tough schedule. So I am not necessarily subscribing to this being the year they get to like 10-2. I don't see it. So a ton has to go right. I don't think it's out of the question. But we should add, just in terms of pure numbers, USC ran away from Notre Dame, which annually had been one of the most difficult two or three games on their schedule, usually. Can I let me pause you for a second? Please do. I understand I'm supposed to be outraged about this yeah I understand I understand that I am supposed to look at this and and mourn the loss of a great college football rivalry I'm not not doing that I missed I'm gonna miss this game here comes the but there is a but yeah Ty loves a good but continue I look at the schedule and I say to myself I get I totally get it if your goal if your goal is to try and get to the college football playoff. Yeah. This is a tough schedule. It's a really tough schedule. So I'm not necessarily cheerleading the move to get rid of the rivalry, but at least within the like immediate context of the 2026 season, I look at the schedule and I'm like, this thing's ridiculous. Like they don't need Notre Dame on this to validate anything. It is a tough schedule. That's just the draw they got this year at the big 10. But I, I get not wanting to play the Irish this year. but also USC invested in a new general manager and delivered a top recruiting class this year they're recruiting like they want to be they want to be one of college football's best and a number of teams in college football play annual tough opponents in the non-conference portion of the schedule Clemson annually had to go through South Carolina and vice versa Florida Florida State like we see this thing you know Georgia Georgia Tech isn't always the best matchup but lately it has been very challenging for Georgia. I get that. I'm just saying, if they go through this, what's the word? Gauntless. No, that's only SEC. What do we call it in the Big Ten? I don't know. It's a more humble conference, Ty. That just takes it week to week. Continue. If they make it through this, totally separate from whoever they play in the non-conference. They're still waiting to announce who they're playing week one, by the way. USC is? What's that? Oh, yeah. the August game. Yeah. To be announced. If we make it through this if we're USC you don't need the non-conference doesn't mean anything. Because there's enough here on the schedule as is right now. Right. As of one hour ago it says USC has a new option with a new kid on the block North Dakota State. That'd be fun. That would be fun actually. So yeah, Fresno State, Louisiana, and Rutgers on the road in Piscataway before you mentioned the meat of this schedule. Oregon, Washington at Penn State. So it's Oregon and Washington before traveling across the country to take on now former defensive coordinator Danton Lynn and Penn State running their defense. A bye week before they're at Wisconsin, and then Ohio State. A bye week before they're at Indiana, and then it finishes presumably a little bit easier with Maryland, UCLA, just up the road. I think USC is likely peaking at 9-3 with this schedule I agree so that's another plateau I agree which I think there are things trending in an extremely positive direction for USC I think there will be young receivers that at least one of whom will establish himself in the way that Tanook Hines did last year even without Jacoby Lane and Makai Lemon that there are enough bites at the apple and Mark Bowman coming in, one of the best, I think, tight ends in this incoming class. They really hit the defensive line and the edge hard in the recruiting class. There's a lot to like about where USC could potentially be up front on both sides of the ball and at receiver. They get Wayman Jordan back, who was their best running back last season before he got hurt. I think he busted up his ankle. There's a lot here to point to. The problem still to me is USC has a lot of tough games on the road as well. I don't know how tough Wisconsin and what is it Colton Joseph is going to be on the road. I don't know how tough Penn State is going to be on the road. I know it's across the country. I know that there are pieces How tough will Wisconsin be on the road a week before that Ohio State game? Correct. It's a look ahead spot and Wisconsin at home last year you had the weird weather win against Washington beat Illinois I don't know what Wisconsin is going to be this year. I just know even last year USC on the road was not it. The way that they lost to Illinois, the way that they lost to Oregon, the way that they lost to Notre Dame. These are all good teams. And they were losing in the fourth quarter to a Nebraska team that didn't have its starting quarterback. And that's, you got to credit USC for pulling that win out because that was a game that they hadn't necessarily been pulling out. I still have questions about USC on the road and especially considering what's at home. No, I just don't think you can max out above nine and three with some of those, those performance questions. Right in solid verbal at gmail.com. Let us know your thoughts on the trend line for the six teams we discussed here today. Yeah. You can of course reach out across any of our social platforms. Let us know your thoughts there. Again, we read everything though. We cannot respond to everything. We get too much, but right. Appreciate your feedback. would love to hear more from uh respective fan bases here on all of these topics and much much more uh you're gonna be in what california next week you're going away for a little bit i'm going away if president's day gonna take the boys out there just to see the grandparents and enjoy some i don't know if it's actually going to be sunny but enjoy a change of pace for a couple days um and i'm looking forward to you know what else i thought of by the way when in the beginning of the show the mountain west is now an elite prestige tv conference fargo and albuquerque breaking bad yeah i don't know if there are other prestige tv conferences that have something to say about this whole thing but man i i liked fargo when we went i thought fargo was kind of cool well i'm i'm just strictly talking about the fargo tv show no no i know i know i get it at least the first two see have you watched the first couple seasons of that show I'll go you one further I've watched no seasons of any of Fargo okay I did see Breaking Bad but not Fargo okay the first Better Call Saul I saw Better Call Saul yeah okay the first two seasons of the Fargo TV show shout out Noah Hawley who is like the creator and mastermind behind them loosely huge listener huge yeah loves the show he's doing the new alien show I want to say I saw that yeah it takes place I believe in Minnesota but I'm counting Fargo as the home in this one. The first two seasons, the first one is Billy Bob Thornton. The second one is Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst. There's a bunch. It's a big cast. Billy Bob Thornton in that first season is one of the all-time great TV villains. All time. Lauren Malvo. If you have not seen the first couple seasons of the Fargo TV show, find it on whatever streaming service it's streaming on. Get yourself a warm beverage, a blanket, it tuck away it's so good especially that season one anyway uh good for the mountain west congratulations on your prestige tv status why don't we leave it there we will be back next week uh i guess i'll be fine i'll be flying solo oh i'll go solo on you can come out to california if you want no no no we got room go go enjoy with your with your family um we'll have a solo show for everybody early part of next week you'll be back i believe for the second show next week right so yes uh we'll do an interview on our tuesday episode i'll be back with dan on our thursday episode again please hit follow please hit subscribe if you made it this far check us out at forballers.com if you want the shows without the ads if you want to support the team we would greatly appreciate that in the meantime for that guy over there dan for myself over here ty enjoy the weekend. Try to stay warm. We'll be back with you next week. In the meantime, stay soft. Peace. Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, even running back Bijan 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 Bijan, 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. 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, Shabuzzi, Dylan Scott Russell Dickerson Gretchen Wilson Chase Matthew Lauren Alaina Tickets are on sale now. Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.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, the story of the sport's most consequential, driver's strike, and plenty of other mishaps, scandals, and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent gumster 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. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.