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Mac & Bone Show - Dan Rubenstein Interview · Mac & Bone Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Man, we are counting down the days to college football Saturdays,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and our next guest lives for him too. He is
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Dan Rubinstein of the Solid Verbal podcast, Great College Football Podcast,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and he joins us here on the mac Inbone Show.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Hey Dan, what's going on, man? How you doing?
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: I'm ready to talk US national team if you guys.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: I felt more like a college football fan in the
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: offseason when Malik Tillman hit that free kick and I
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: jumped off my couch and what I yelled. It's not
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: only appropriate for the not appropriate for the radio. I
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: don't think it's appropriate for anybody in play company because
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: it's after the red card and you know you're sort
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: of feeling it about the referee. You're just like something
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: guttural came, the demons came flying out.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: It was it was huge.
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: I thought to myself that I can't wait to hear
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: the Fine Bomb Show on Monday after that.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Oh that's right, different sport, there you go.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Even Peter Burns, hosting Fine Bomb yesterday, gave a Belgium
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Senegal update. He's gonna Fine Bomb audience has soccer fever, baby,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: all right, so let's talk about it. We definitely are
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: having fun with the World Cup as we wait for
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: college football. But we still can't wait for college football.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about it here, and we want to.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I want to discuss the very top of Like if
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: you were to do preseason rankings, where would you go
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: at the very top. It feels, I don't know, feels
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: like it's going to be competitive as all hell at
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the top again like it's been here in the NIL era.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Do you have a definitive top team going into it
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: or no?
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: No, I don't think I do. I mean there as
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: certain teams you're going to give the benefit of the
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: doubt based on what they return at quarterback and where
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: their depths is. Obviously in the Portal era and in
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: the NIL era, it's just hard to build depth, so
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: you got to give benefit of the doubt more than anything.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I have, you know, Ohio State, I have Texas,
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: I have Oregon. Notre Dame obviously has built up like
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: a crazy defense these past couple of seasons, and Texas
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: obviously at the same time, you know they have questions
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: and you want to see the high level pop, especially
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: that offense with some of those new players, with Cam
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Coleman and those two new running backs and if they
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: can figure out offensive line. But no, I don't have
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: an ability just because I don't think anybody has the
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: ability to be super confident when so many players are
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: moving around so often. But yeah, that top grouping I
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: think is pretty locked in for me.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Dan, we have so many local teams to talk
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: about it. In most of them around here, it's not
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: trending in the right direction. That includes Clemson the last
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: couple of years. Do you do you think this year
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: that that continues of Clemson's trek down more or do
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: you think they stabilize themselves. What's your expectation for what
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: we may see from the Clemson Tigers here at twenty six.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: I think they should be better consistently than where they
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: were last year, obviously with close losses. The problem with
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Clemb's and is just you don't get the sense that
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: they're doing anything dramatic to grow and improve and come
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: into the modern era. And not even talking about the
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: portal stuff. You look at their offense and it just
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: kind of feels like a slower version of where their
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: offense was in the late twenty teams and so there's
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: always going to be high end talent as long as
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Dabo's there. But you don't get the sense with some
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: of the coaching hires, and they just sort of hire
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: former comeson players, and after Brent Venables left, just looking
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: inward and hiring a defensive coordinator that had experience only
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: really within Clemson as a sort of graduate assistant. I
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: think they're going to be good this year. I just
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: think we're settling into Clemson as an eight and four,
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: nine and three type program, and it's hard to imagine,
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: especially on offense right now, that the running game has
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: sort of stagnated, that even with NFL level guys up
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: front on defense, that they're not just able to get
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: off the field often enough. And so I just think
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: that's where we are with Clemson in the ACC and
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: in this era, for better or worse, you kind of
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: have to be ruthless with how you build your roster,
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  Speaker 3: and I just don't think Clemson has that in their DNA,
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: at least anymore happy to be proven wrong. But it
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: does seem like they're going to be in the conversation
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: maybe in early November, but they don't really have that
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: ultimate next year.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Dan Rubinstein is with us from this Solid Verbal podcast
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Great College Football podcast at North Carolina. This is another
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: coach obviously no secret here that has a been in
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: battle right in Bill Belichick? Do you have do you
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: feel like, because I like to be optimistic for our
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: teams here in the Carolina as if I can, I'm
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: just having a hard time Dan conjuring up Andy optimism
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: for North Carolina under Belichick. Do you feel like, hey,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: give them time he and Lombardi can figure this college
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: football thing out or do you not have any of
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: those feelings?
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Want to have those if that makes any sense. There's
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: just there's so much in terms of roster construction and
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: staying ahead and knowing you know what your plan is,
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: what your vision is for both recruiting and portal, and
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: the stories coming out that they were always sort of
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: behind or going after kids that weren't necessarily of the
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: UNC level. And then you couple that with a schedule
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: that includes Notre Dame and TCU and Miami, and you know,
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: Virginia was in the championship game last season. There's you know,
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: Pitt generally has a pretty high floor, and you look
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: at North Carolina where the roster is constructed, you said yourself, Okay,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: what are they going to do well. Obviously, the defense
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: came through more often than not second half of the last year,
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: but they lose a bunch on defense. I still think
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: there's reason to be optimistic that they can figure out
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: who they are defensively by you know, late September early October.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: But at that same time that you need to score points.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: Billy Edwards has above me and Bobby Patrino does nothing
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: but put together really interesting offenses. But you need players,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: You need players, and it's just it's hard, Like I
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: like Jordan's ship, but do you see Jordan's ship being
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: putting like the Fear of Life into the Miami secondary
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: or what Virginia should be able to do on defense
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: this year, especially with inconsistent passing a line that we
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: have no idea about. And so I think there's a
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: there's a possibility that North Carolina can win games in
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: weird and interesting ways on defense next year. But nine
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: games ten like that, I think he's just asking a
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: little bit too much with the schedule and figuring out
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: where the points are coming from.
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: Dan no doubt huge year for Shane Beemer and his
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: future in Colombia. I love Shane by the pressures on
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: what kind of year are you expecting from the game.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: Const It feels like opinions are all over the place
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: on what this team may look like.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I expect them to be fun. I expect them
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: to be competitive. Right when you're starting with the offensive
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: line questions they have, you know, you know what Leonora
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: Sellers can be on offense. You know that he can
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: be a game changer. We you know, jokingly but not
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: not jokingly, call him the creator because out of sinn
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: Air he's able to make things happen. But with what
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: they now lose in the portal, what they lose injury
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: up front, I think they're going to be interesting and good.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: The schedule is not horrible early right kent State, Howson,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Mississippi State at home. You know, Bama's got a new quarterback,
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: Kentucky's gotten new everything, Florida's gotten new everything. Tennessee is
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: dealing with a lot new. There's a lot of questions
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: on this schedule in terms of their opponents. But I
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: at the same time have those same questions right now
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: with South Carolina, like how much can you do with
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: that offensive line? Can you get to thirty points as
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: often as you need to? And I just I don't
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: see the obvious answers right now. When I mentioned some
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: of those teams, the Alabama defense should be good, the
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: Oklahoma defense should be excellent, Texas A and M should
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: be very good, and Georgia and Clemson to finish out
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: the year. It's not ideal. So I think they're going
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: to be competitive. I think they're going to be fun,
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: but I sort of think asking for eight to nine
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: wins is probably the absolute ceiling for a team like this.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Do you feel Dan like the ACC?
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Is it Miami or bus as far as as far
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: as national title chances go? I mean, do you and
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: do you view them? I think you view them as
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: a serious title contender? But is there anybody else joining them?
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: They're the only team built like them in the ACC
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: right now, and that's that's the issue when you talk
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: about national title. I'm not saying that they're going undefeated.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: They have obviously Notre Dame on their schedule, who's only
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: just sort of vaguely ACC. But otherwise, when you look
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: at the teams that have interesting quarterbacks or an interesting defense,
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: they generally don't have both. And SMU has an interesting quarterback.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: But there's a lot new on this defense and the
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: replacing both fult coordinators. I like elements of a lot
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: of these teams. I like them to the point where
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: maybe they can pull it upset over Miami. But if
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: you're asking me to go through playoff games and neutral
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: sites against teams built like Ohio State, Oregon, Texas, take
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: your pick, then I'm I'm positive ACC is Miami or bust.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I just hope as someone as as someone
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: rooting for the conference, I'm hoping it's not that for
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the net foreseeable future. I do fear that maybe it
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: will be, although I do the one thing, the one
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: team I point to is Virginia Tech under James Franklin.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Am I how do you feel about that? His ability
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: over the next few years, his recruiting ability, the passion
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: that's been generating, the money that's been generated down there
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: since he's been hired. Could you see him have them
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: in the title mix? Or is that a little too much?
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Absolutely?
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: Could? I think it takes time. It takes less time
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: than ever right now, but Virginia Tech is investing. James
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: Franklin has been a final four College Football Playoffs head coach.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: He's been in huge games. I know he has a
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: reputation for not necessarily coming through all the time in
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: those games. But when you can build a roster like
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: he was able to do at Penn State. And but
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: I think Virginia Tech is in the middle of putting
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: together it's like clear best recruiting class ever. And so
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: in the portal era, in the nil era, you never
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: say never with literally anyone after an Indiana National championship,
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: but especially anyone with a proven coach and somebody who
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: can recruit and build that roster. Virginia Tech has the
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: home field advantage. Virginia Tech has the opportunity because there is,
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: like we've been talking about, there's a vacuum in the
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: conference that Miami is the only team that has built
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: a roster comparable to miamis And so what Virginia Tech
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: can do, given where it is, given the coaches connections
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: along the Eastern Seaboard, they can build an ACC championship roster.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Can it be? Can it compete with the best of
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: the nation. It's college football, Weird stuff happens. I'll never
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: say never. I think they have the best like three
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: to five years plan to get to a place that, Yeah,
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: I don't I don't you know when you look around
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: the conference, the coaches, the track record of roster building,
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: I think they could stand in rare air in the conference.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Uh. He is Dan Rubinstein, co host of the Solid
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Verbal college football show, Get It wherever you get your podcasts.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: They just dropped an episode that will discuss discuss his
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: surprise contenders, new coach leashes and ice cream Sundays. Boe,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: What Dan is talking ice cream Sundays?
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Baby?
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: You had me there, you had me football to begin with.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: But so tune into that and check out all this podcasts.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Dan, We appreciate you.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Man. Oh my pleasure anytime.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: I'd be good. There you go, Dan Rubinstein