Latest / Mostly College Football / #284 - Coaching Carousel. Good, Bad, or Ugly Season incoming
Transcript
- Micaiah: What is up everyone and welcome back. We are back. I guess that's the better thing. We are back and better than ever. I'm your host Captain Boring alongside my main Moran or Robert. It is always good to be back with you. Robert is joining us for the first time. Not the first time, but in a long time. And then it's been a few weeks since I have graced the presence of your screen. So thank you everyone for being here. This is the fourth in one podcast. You can follow us on all our socials, YouTube. Make sure you like and subscribe. Make sure you hit that share button if you like us enough to share with everyone so that we can keep doing this and providing it to you because this is brought to you by you, the fans. Spring has sprung in college football. us spring. practice has started Michigan started today or maybe even yesterday as a matter of fact and happy St. Patrick's Day we are recording this on the 17th of March at 2 0 4 p.m. Robert welcome happy St. Patrick's Day bud RobertoConQueso: Hey, thank you, bud. I appreciate that. ⁓ no, just myself. Micaiah: Did anyone pinch you at the gym? Okay. Alrighty. Just yourself. To catch some people up in the world of sports outside of college football, World Baseball Classic concludes tonight. So by the time people are listening to this more than likely, either the US or Venezuela will have won the World Baseball Classic. US needed some help from Italy earlier in this tournament because they lost, because the manager doesn't know how it works. And then I would say Venezuela with the upset of the tournament so far beating Japan, powerhouse Japan. They were the defending champs last year. And then also coming up is March Madness. I think the first four starts tonight, is that right? RobertoConQueso: ⁓ let's Tuesday. ⁓ I think so. Micaiah: So first four is tonight and then the tournament of 68 teams starts Thursday. You doing a bracket? RobertoConQueso: Yeah, yeah, I'll probably do it once I figure out who the, the four, the four are. Micaiah: Who is it? Yeah. I'm going to also do a bracket. am waiting. Normally I fill it out ahead of time, but I'm actually going to wait this year. Michigan looking good. However, I don't know those other two one seeds in Arizona and Florida. They are hot right now. Michigan did not win their conference championship game. Michigan, Florida. Arizona won, so it's Michigan and Florida didn't win of the one seeds. And normally I feel like you got to be pretty hot rolling into March. So we're going to have to see how all this plays out. And I was hoping to be able to fill out a bracket kind of live on this thing, but we can. So spring has sprung in college football. Spring practice are beginning. And every fan base is filled with hope right now. Every fan base thinks that they can win the national title. Every Power 4 fan base thinks they can win a national title and every Power 4 fan base with a brand new coach is excited because a new coach springs hope which springs eternal. And so we are going to play a little game I like to call the good, the bad and the ugly. What we're going to do Rob is we're going to go through and I want you to tell me I'm going to give you the team. I'm going to give you the coach. And I want you to tell me whether this upcoming season you expect them to have a good season. And you can define that however you want to define that. And maybe good is different on different levels for you. Whether they will have a bad season again or an ugly season. Ugly season is not many wins at all. Any questions on how we're going to play this game? RobertoConQueso: ⁓ no. We're just gonna... We're gonna wing this. Micaiah: Okay, we're gonna wing it just like everything else on this podcast. Where's this podcast on the interwebs? Let me scroll up to this. I hit the button. I did the thing. We heard the sounds. right. To Vita Pritchard, Stanford. He was handpicked by Andrew Luck, the GM of Stanford. Going back to college football. He was on the Washington commanders coaching staff. And now he is back in college football. where he played with ⁓ where he played college football at Stanford. They are also two new coordinators, obviously. So Stanford and to Vita Pritchard. Good, bad or ugly. RobertoConQueso: I'm going to say it's going to be bad. I don't think it's going to be ugly in the sense because I don't think that you're going to. they're not gonna be as bad as what they were I think last year. But the ACC as a whole is not that great. they will be good for the ACC but bad for in reference to the other conferences. Micaiah: Okay. All right. I will say good, but I will classify this. I think they're like six and six, seven and five, and they may be pulling upset here or there throughout the season. Oregon State went out and hired Jamarcus Shepard. He was on the Alabama coaching staff last year. He is now also kind of a, this is a homecoming for him as well. ⁓ So good, bad or ugly with Pac-12 is now back together. Mostly it's just Mountain West teams, but Pac-12 back together. for Oregon State and Jamarcus Shepherd, the 2026 season produces what? RobertoConQueso: I'm going to say it'll be good. ⁓ I don't, it'll be good because of it being a lot of Mountain West teams. So the competition should be a little bit less than what they're typically used to. ⁓ But I think they'll probably be in like the seven, eight win range. Micaiah: Okay. I'm gonna say Oregon State, while you sent off a little link this morning in the group chat, Oregon State really hasn't been good since 2000, right? Jonathan Smith was there. I didn't know Chad Johnson. That's where he went to school. I didn't know TJ Houchman. What's funny about TJ Houchman, Zadie and Chad Johnson going to Oregon State is they then were on the same team in Cincinnati in the NFL. RobertoConQueso: Yeah. Micaiah: Did not know that. So they were number five when this last time that happened. I don't think it happens this year. I think it's still bad. I'm not really sure how the recruiting gets much better when you got Oregon and Washington up in that area. In the Big Ten, Washington State still in there hanging around. Where's Washington State at? What conference they in? They're in the Pac-12 still. Okay. All right. RobertoConQueso: Same as. Micaiah: So I'm going to say bad, but again, bad is like an improvement on last season. They weren't very good last year. I think it's four, maybe even five wins for that. Colorado State went out and hired Jim Moore from UConn. UConn was joining the Mac, just had joined the Mac. Now Colorado State, they are one of the ones going to the Pac-12, I believe. So... He's going from the Mac to the Pac-12-ish back-to-back nine winning seasons coming from UCONN. So Colorado State, good, or ugly. RobertoConQueso: I'm gonna say... Though it'll be ugly, but on the verge of being bad. I think they're still going to struggle. mean, just because you bring in a decently good coach, doesn't mean it's obviously going to turn around as quick. But I also think the recruiting out of Colorado really hasn't been great either. mean, even Colorado, University of Colorado, where most kids would want to go, you know, the bigger... more reputable state school with Dion, ⁓ they're not even doing anything. So I'm going say ugly, but on the verge of bad. Micaiah: Okay. All right. I think it'll be good. But again, I'm going to qualify my good by saying I think it's a seven and five, eight and four type season. They're not sniffing college football playoff. Nothing outstanding. Jim Moore is fine. mean, Yukon was in worse shambles when he took over Yukon. Colorado states got a little more money than Yukon does at least a few years ago. They kind of redid their facilities there. So I'm going to go a little bit different and say good. but still seven or eight wins. Oklahoma State went out and got Eric Morris from North Texas. then brought Drew Messer. He brought the North Texas's best running back, best wide receiver, best quarterback, best part of all their team in this new age college football. So Eric Morris at Oklahoma State with the Pokes. Good, or ugly? RobertoConQueso: I think they're going to be good. Now, not as good as in, they're going to win 10, 11 games. think they'll probably get eight, seven, eight around there. But compared to last year, that will be very Micaiah: Yeah, much improvement on one win. I am with you. I think it's good. I actually think they're closer to nine wins this season, nine and three, eight and four at worst. I would love to see the Pokes kind of back on top. It has been far too long with them being down the last few years. We need them back at the top of the big 12 because I feel like when the big 12, when Oklahoma State's healthy in the big 12, the rest of the big, it kind of elevates everyone around it. And without Oklahoma being in there now, gone to the SEC, they really need kind of that region ⁓ to bolster things up for the big 12. James Franklin gets fired from Penn State. Last year mid season, Penn State had just grand plans of hiring some big time coach. And then they ended up with Matt Campbell, who we'll get to in a minute. But James Franklin then takes his time, goes to Virginia Tech, who then he quickly Hires wouldn't you know it as his defensive coordinator the old coach at Virginia Tech that was just fired rent pry I did not know this that's hilarious to me so with the old coach there and the new coach and pride did coach under Franklin as the defensive coordinator why he was at Penn State before he took the Virginia Tech job is Virginia Tech's 2026 season good bad or ugly RobertoConQueso: I think they'll be good. ⁓ he's probably the best thing to happen for Virginia tech. ⁓ a lot of it, again, we can, we can always go back and forth on whether the problem at Penn state was Franklin or the coordinators or just the system at Penn state as a whole, or just the kids, either way we look at it, you can play along with them really. ⁓ but I think for Virginia tech, it's a good thing if he's able to rally the kids. I mean, All he has to do is go better than three and nine and it's a win season. And the ACC just really isn't that they're not that good per se anymore. Like there's no, mean, Miami came out. I mean, Virginia was 11 and three and Miami was 13 and three, but other than that, no one else had 10 wins. So. Micaiah: Are you putting them, are you giving them a shot to win the conference? RobertoConQueso: I think any of them has like, any of them really have a shot maybe except Stanford and Boston college, but everyone else I think has a decent shot. I Clemson hasn't really proven they've been seven and six last year with a roster that really was a national contention roster. ⁓ Miami, who's Miami's quarterback next year? Micaiah: Darien Metza RobertoConQueso: Yeah, you know, Duke went nine and five, so they're going to go from 13 and three to probably not. Well, they might make the playoffs since we had to. Cause we want to make it bigger, but. ⁓ I, I, yeah, they haven't, they have a shot. I think they all have a shot. Micaiah: I think it's a good season. think it's 10 and two. It's Franklin. Franklin is the epitome of 10 and two. I think at worst it's nine and three, but I think he late into November, he is right there for an ACC title. I think maybe even this year that he thinks he can get to an ACC title game. And Robert, as you said, outside of Miami, assuming Miami isn't down Miami again. So assuming they kind of piggyback of what they did last year in the runner up, who is there? Are we trusting Virginia? I'm certainly not, right? You're not trusting Clemson anymore. I'm kind of out. Clemson's got to prove it. So outside of Miami, who else is in the ACC, right? I feel like it's a battle for second. Lots of talent within the ACC. SMU, I would probably jump in there just because at a point last season they... RobertoConQueso: Alright. Micaiah: since they joined the conference, had won the most conference games. But yeah, I'm gonna say it's gonna be a good season. 10 and two is what I'm expecting, which it might be a little overhyped, you know, that's Franklin's there to not tamper expectations, but exceed them. Ken State went out and hired Mark Carney. He was the interim position and then he won or got that. tag removed so Kent State still in the mack of golden flashes of Kent State good bad or ugly RobertoConQueso: I'm gonna say... bad on the the verge of good they're probably going to be six seven win ball club ⁓ but i mean the mac is another conference where Every year there's always one or two schools that are just randomly like it was Western Michigan and Ohio this year. Probably next year it'll be Miami, Ohio and Northern or no, it be Northern Illinois. They're gone. ⁓ probably Eastern Michigan. Like it's always two random teams that weren't good last year are kind of good this year. So I'm going to say it on the bat bad on the verge of good. Micaiah: I'm going to say good for Kent State, bad for everybody else. Right? Good for Kent State expectations. I think they're a four or five win team, which is great. Historically, what they bad, but that's bad expectations for everyone else. I'm right. mean, I think they'll sniff a ball game. I think they did end up winning like four games last year, I think I saw. So I'm expecting kind of more of the same. Good expectations for Kent, but bad for anyone else. So I will go back. Arkansas down in the SCC, they went out to Memphis and hired Orion Silverfield to head up the hogs there ⁓ in Arkansas. He comes in from Memphis, fan base in Arkansas, Fayetteville, very unhappy with the hiring. They wanted a big name. They wanted someone else. I'm going to start off I think this is a sneaky good hire. However, I expect them to have a bad season five and seven noise and loud start surrounding, but you got to start somewhere in this Arkansas just feels like it was a broken program. A lot of pieces left, including tailing green went to the NFL, put on a show at the combine. So I'm going to say they have a bad season five and seven. RobertoConQueso: Uh, well, considering they went two and 10 last year, five and seven is a home run. So I'm going to say it's a, it'll be a good year for Arkansas, which could be that five, seven, uh, six, six, but they're still going to probably be like bottom three of the sec. Micaiah: OK, all right. Well, again, you got to start somewhere. I do want to see one thing for Arkansas. I want to see who the coordinators are. He didn't hire anyone of note. OK, Alex Golish comes from USF. He brings along the offensive coordinator, Joe Gordon with him, Joel Gordon with him. He also brings his starting quarterback. Again, it's the New Age College football. He brings ⁓ some of the talent that the USF team had with him to Auburn, a place historically that is not kind to outsiders of mid-majors, SEC, non-SEC folk, coaches who haven't coached in the SEC. Alex Golish. Listen, he... There's some like Soviet Union background. Like, he's built differently. than us Americans. Opening press conference, they try to get him with a golf question. Does he like golf? He answered it very well. Auburn, Alex Golish, good, bad or ugly in 2026. RobertoConQueso: I'm gonna say... I want to say ugly just because of the position that Auburn is in. And I mean, your recruiting is more or less terrible because you're constantly fighting with Alabama and other great schools in the Southeast Conference. But they could be bad because they're probably going to be middle road of the SEC. But middle road is still not Good, so let's go on the verge. More towards the bad, but definitely can be ugly. Micaiah: Anybody born in Moscow, Russia in 1984, they're just gonna have different traits. They're gonna have different expectations. Certain things will bother them less than just everybody else. And because of that, I'm gonna say good. I think there you look up and they're sneaky good team. They've beaten some good teams. They've had weird losses. They've had some close losses, some overtime losses, but I think you're looking up and you're looking up at eight and four, nine and three. And from what Auburn was to that, I'm going to say that that's good. Auburn fans, you can comment below if there are any listening to this. Do you agree that a nine and three first year from Alex Goulash would be bad or not? Some of Some of that, like if you're going to say that eight and four, nine and three in your coach's first season is bad, I am going, and you lost Cam Coleman, you lost some talent. I'm going to say that you need to re relook at your expectations. You ran Brian Harson out. You saw what that got you, which was no better. And now you're bringing in another guy. So we're just going to have to see what Alex Goulash, but anyone born in Moscow, Russia in the 1980s, they're just a different breed. Same conference, further south, Gainesville, Florida, John Sumerall comes over from Tulane as Billy Napier was fired and then went to JMU. Good, or ugly for Florida's season coming up. RobertoConQueso: I'm gonna bring Florida schedule up for a second Florida is going I'm gonna say bad because their schedule is not good So if first-year head coach in Florida huge expectations in Florida They're gonna get the wins that they should get But like they're not gonna be Georgia. They're not gonna be Oklahoma. They're not gonna be Well, they might be Texas because Texas doesn't know how to play against Florida ⁓ But yeah, I I think they'll be bad in a sense of five seven six six. 8 7 Micaiah: ⁓ Everyone's just waiting for you to say the two magic numbers, RobertoConQueso: What, 0-1-11? 0-1-12? Oh, sh- Micaiah: No, six, seven. That's what people are waiting. ⁓ he brings in Buster Faulkner, an offensive coordinator from Georgia Tech, the same offensive coordinator who's I guess life mission was it to just kill Haynes King or at least use every ounce of talent that Haynes King had. ⁓ and he did it very well and Haynes King is a monster. ⁓ so he brings, so I expect the Florida rushing attack to be much improved from where it was last year, which was not awesome. whatsoever. The quarterback play is DJ Lagway still in Florida. I don't think so. I think he went somewhere else, right? RobertoConQueso: I think he was supposed to... I want to say yeah... Micaiah: He plays for Baylor now. So yeah, so Lagway is gone. So quarterback's gonna be a big question mark. But I want to because he didn't bring in the two lane quarterback because he was a senior. So quarter the running game should be improved. Quarterbacks a big question mark. They do have talent on the outside. I think Dallas Wilson stayed. I want to say Dallas Wilson. RobertoConQueso: Right. Micaiah: Florida. Yeah, so Dallas Wilson who came on late, he kind of had an injury and didn't really appear until halfway through the season last year. He's 6'3", 213 pounds, gives him a weapon. Whoever is spinning that rock there in Gainesville, a weapon on the outside, very talented, very speedy. And you said bad for Florida because of the schedule? RobertoConQueso: Yeah. Micaiah: I'm right there with you. The schedule for some reason like For Florida, it's just never great on the outside. Maybe we get in season, you know how things change. I'm gonna say bad. I'm gonna say they make a bowl game, but for what expectations are, which are college football playoff every single year. agreeably wrong expectations, I am going to say ⁓ it's going to be bad based on what the expectations are. Let's go to Louisiana and the Bayou. The most toxic relationship in all the world, in all of college sports, in all of the world, begins in 2026. Lane Kiffin comes from Ole Miss. It was well documented on this podcast, on every single other sports podcast, sports show, college football related, whatever. Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss, could have probably won a national championship. For LSU, he comes in, he gets a high profile quarterback, he resets the roster and the transfer portal. The cupboard was definitely not as empty as people, I think, think it may be because there's a lot of talent there in Louisiana. He kept a good recruiting class that was already there in house. It's only going to get better from here. He knows how to coach the offensive side of the ball. All the offensive assistance from Old Miss came, he's kind of resetting the culture defensively and I will get you the defensive coordinator. So LSU, good, bad or ugly? RobertoConQueso: ⁓ well, they better hope it's good, but I think it should be good. ⁓ they kind of, they also have a lackluster schedule, but they, they should have nine, 10 wins, which would be, which is a good for a first year head coach at the school, but it should also be bad because it's laying Kiffin and for all the turmoil and trouble that he causes and uncertainty he causes then it should should make it bad but Micaiah: So Blake Baker is actually staying there ⁓ as on as the defensive coordinator. So I did misspeak there and it's just the whole new offensive coaching staff with Charlie Weiss Jr. at LSU. I'm going to say good. I think the expectations are cause football playoffs. I think he reaches those minimum you have to go 10 and 2 minimum. Do you got your you got their schedule still in front of you? Can you list it off for me? RobertoConQueso: Yeah. So they got home game against Clemson home against Louisiana Tech at Ole Miss. So that'll be like the homecoming. That'll be all they talk about that week. Micaiah: I bet mustard gets thrown on the field again. RobertoConQueso: Yep. ⁓ then they are home against Texas A and ⁓ So they get two tough ones back to back. Then they get McNeese at home at Kentucky home against Mississippi state at Auburn. And then this is kind of where I think it's going to make or break the season. It's the last four games home against Bama home against Texas at Tennessee at Arkansas. Micaiah: Yeah. So I do have 10 and two. I have ⁓ losses to Bama and who was, ⁓ who's the one after Ole Miss. RobertoConQueso: after Ole Miss is A ⁓ Micaiah: and I have a loss to A ⁓ as well. Minimum. Again, if there are any LSU fans, like, am I wrong 10 and 2 at a minimum? Or this season's a failure? You gotta make a playoff. I mean, I guess you could do 9 and 3 and make the playoff and it's not as... But like 10 and 2, 9 and 3, you're probably begging for the last spot outside of the group of five. 10 and 2, it probably pushes you up and you have a much better chance at a seeding than what you would at 9 and 3. RobertoConQueso: Well, nine and three is doable if your losses are to Clemson, Ole Miss and A ⁓ but you beat in the last five weeks of the season, Bama, Texas, Tennessee and Arkansas. So if your three losses come Bama, Texas, Tennessee, then your playoffs are probably gone. Micaiah: Yeah, I I just don't see how they're gonna struggle early in the year. I think if they're gonna struggle anywhere, it's gonna be that last stretch of five games, know, that's gonna hurt them. Like, I don't see Clemson as a threat to LSU. RobertoConQueso: Yeah. Well, I don't think really to anyone is looking at Clemson as a threat just because Clemson has to like reinvent the wheel at this point because they don't have, they're going to have a fresh quarterback and everything else. Micaiah: Yeah. All right. So the school that he left LSU for is Ole Miss and they stayed in house and they hired Pete Golding and they salvaged a lot. As it stands, Trinidad Chambliss is the quarterback. This could change come this fall. He is still participating with an injunction whether or not a judge overturns that remains to be seen and that's an argument for another time that whole process. Pete Golding played linebacker at Ole Miss. He bleeds Ole Miss colors, whatever they might be. I apologize for not knowing them. He was hired. He steps in, stepped in last year for the playoff run, had a great playoff run. Trinidad Chambliss bailed them out. The difference in between last year's offensive team and this year's offensive team will be starkly different because, again, Charlie Weiss Jr. and most of the assistants under Charlie Weiss Jr. went to LSU. very few stayed. The defense will be the same. John David Baker does come in from East Carolina and actually was helping on staff during the playoff run against Miami and the week before when they when they beat Georgia. The offense should be dynamic because the running back and wide receivers are returning. ⁓ East Carolina last year was top five in the American Conference in total. and passing yards. I think there will be some. ⁓ some offensive explosions still there. Good, bad, or ugly for Ole Miss. RobertoConQueso: I am going... ⁓ I want to say good because in the grand scheme of things it would probably be a good season. probably would have nine, 10 wins. But coming off of the run that they had, it would kind of be a bad year. So I'm going to say bad. Just because I mean, losing lane, whatever. can figure out the head coach portion. Micaiah: Okay. Sure. RobertoConQueso: But I think the bigger blow to them was losing Charlie Weiss Jr. and everything that he brought to them. ⁓ And it's also, I mean, if they can't get, if Trinidad can't play, you might as well just mop the season up. Micaiah: Are you? Bad is how many games? RobertoConQueso: Bad for Ole Miss, would, for Ole Miss, a bad season is anything less than 10, I would say. Micaiah: For Ole Miss, yes. Okay, all right. I'm gonna go bad on the fringe of ugly. RobertoConQueso: Possible, I mean Micaiah: I'm not a huge fan of going from a heavy offensive style coach and especially in the manner of which it was a sudden change operation to now a heavy defensive style coach. I understand he's bringing in someone with a lot of acumen and talent for drawing up the correct plays and getting people and getting the ball in the end zone and throwing the ball around. That was at East Carolina in the American. Very different conferences. Very different conferences. The schedule is also not forgiving because you start with Louisville and they can throw the ball around. Then you get Charlotte. So it's Louisville at neutral sites, Charlotte, then LSU. That's a homecoming game and you're going to be revved up for that. Then you have to immediately turn around the next week and go to Gainesville. That's a hard place to play. Then you go to Vandy, Clark Lee's got that unlocked. Missouri, Texas, Auburn, Georgia at Oklahoma, Wofford and Mississippi State. From September 26th to November 14th, they could be playing just straight top 25 teams. I think they're a bull team. I think they win a minimum of six games, but I think that it could get out of hand to where you're looking at the end of the season and they're four and eight. And that's ugly to me after what they just did as well. And I'm not even saying that they'll play bad to be four and eight, but that schedule, the sudden change and going from an offensive style coach to a defensive style head coach, I think is just breeds recipe for disaster. UCLA went to the min majors as you would call it and went to JMU and Bob Chesney. Bob Chesney scored more points on Oregon than Texas Tech did in the college football playoff on the road not even at a neutral site. So he knows how to coach offense he knows how to get them up and running. The cupboard is not bare especially at the quarterback position with Nico Iamali. There is intrigue there from NFL scouts, from what I hear. Just on podcast and stuff, I have no connections. And Nico needs to play well. So UCLA, bottom of the barrel, big 10 last year, good, bad, or ugly. RobertoConQueso: I'm going to say they are going to be. Bad? but could be good. They're probably sitting at base, probably five wins, ⁓ but they very well could get to that seven, eight area. You know, they could start off the season one, two, three, four and O and then, then it gets tricky from there, but ⁓ Yeah, I mean, they could end up with six, seven wins and kind of be on the good side of the Big Ten. Micaiah: I'm right there with you. love that number, five, six number, whether you want to classify that as bad or whether you want to classify as bad for everyone else, but good for UCLA or just bad because it doesn't make a bowl game or whatever. I think they're a bowl team. They're fighting for bowl eligibility and they're still about a year away. So I'm going to say, I am going to go bad on the verge of good sort of deal with UCLA. Michigan State. may have finally got it right. They went out and hired Pat Fitzgerald who won his wrongful termination suit against Northwestern, kind of cleared his name in the coaching ranks amongst college football. Northwestern did him dirty. He won like $59 million or something like that. I don't know. And he goes to Michigan State who over the last, what's it been now, five years, just not consistent. just not disciplined. Everything in East Lansing has not looked good coming from, what was it, Dantonio, was that his name? Coming from Mike Dantonio where it was just consistency year after year after year. Pat Fitzgerald goes out and does bring, in fact, bringing Nick Sheridan, who spent two years at Alabama. RobertoConQueso: Yeah, Mike D'Antonio. Micaiah: Now he really known for throwing the ball around. He also spent a year at Indiana with Michael Penix. He was at Washington, good, or ugly from Michigan State and Pat Fitzgerald. RobertoConQueso: I'm going to go good. I think they can pull off the eight, nine. don't know. 10 might be a very big stretch, but I think eight, nine is probably appropriate for Michigan State. ⁓ think Pat Fitzgerald, like them getting him, getting rid of Jonathan Smith and getting Pat Fitzgerald was like the best move for them. ⁓ So yeah, I'm cool with them being on the good side. Micaiah: I think he's on the good side as well, because he's a good coach. He did less with more at Northwestern than anyone in the history of Northwestern. Also, Michigan State's getting an influx of cash. So I think all that combined, you're looking at eight wins, eight and four, and that would be good to me based on what Sparty's been. I think Michigan's got a real headache coming up. That rivalry is kind of renewed and they got a, not that they took it seriously, but Michigan State was not on Michigan's. level the last, well, five years now. And so here, and so here we be in East Lansing. All right. Let's go down to Kentucky. Will Stein, offensive coordinator, last couple of years for Oregon comes over to help a just anemic offensive culture program, maybe grow an identity there ⁓ in Kentucky. So Will Stein, good, bad, or ugly. Bad part is he's in the SEC. RobertoConQueso: Yeah, it's kind of the hard part about the schools of the SEC that get like new coaches is obviously your expectations are just ridiculously high because you're in the SEC and it's like, ⁓ well, you need to be a big time winner. But I'm going to say they're going to they're probably going to be bad. They're probably going to be run of the mill of the SEC. ⁓ Just kind of doing what they've always done, kind of just hanging around. It's not gonna really be an improvement. It's not gonna be a... It's not improving. another word, opposite of improving. Micaiah: opposite of improving. ⁓ There you go. Regressing. Yeah, not improving. RobertoConQueso: Regressing. There we go. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't, I think it's, can I just create another category and just say they're just going to be stationary? It's not going to be good. It's not going to be bad. It'll be meh. Micaiah: Mid, stationary. ⁓ Head coach is only as good as coordinators. He's bringing in Joe Sloan who won a Heisman Trophy with Jane Daniels and led the SEC in passing and total offense why under him and then he's bringing in Jay Bateman who was the defensive coordinator over there in Aggieland in I expect much improvement. They're bull bound. Absolutely. Whatever six and six seven and five is. Whether that's stationary, whether that's good, whether that's bad for the fan base, Kentucky's gonna have a long haul. I think they do make a bowl game this year. So whatever you classify that as, that's what I'm All right. Holy moly, we got a lot left. let's ⁓ kind of pick up the pace here. Neil Brown, good, bad, or ugly coming over from West Virginia after he was fired. RobertoConQueso: You Where's he going to? Micaiah: North Texas, sorry. RobertoConQueso: ⁓ I'm- I'm going to say bad because they lost a lot of ⁓ talent and that's a lot of talent that they have to replace and they also get Indiana at Indiana week one. So it's going to be a rough, I don't think it'll be ugly, but I think it'll be bad for North Texas. Micaiah: Okay, I'm in agreement with you. Billy Napier at JMU after he was let go of Florida. RobertoConQueso: God, if there's ever a program that's gonna get really ugly really fast, it's probably Billy and Apears. Micaiah: I would agree with that. I want to say that it'll be bad just because Billy like might be better at that level, you know? RobertoConQueso: So it might be bad for the first two years and then it might get ugly. Yeah. Micaiah: And then it might get ugly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I absolutely agree with you. Brian Hartline at USF is very interesting. Offend NFL. He was the wide receivers coach at Ohio State and it was draft pick after draft pick after draft pick after draft pick. Going down to the American, can he get the same level of talent? That's the first question. Second, was it just because he was getting the high end talent at Ohio State and then just and then, you know, they were Basically NFL prospects and he kind of just brought them along and stabilized them or is he an elite developer? That's what we're about to find out at USF Brian Hartline good bad or ugly RobertoConQueso: I think it'll be good. I think there'll be a, uh, not a playoff team, but a, uh, a bowl team. Uh, I don't really, I can't imagine how, if you come from Ohio state, it's the same thing with Alabama where your coaches typically kind of do pretty well for at least two or three years. So I'm going to say it's probably going to be good for them. Micaiah: I'm going to agree with you. I think it'll be good for USF and like there's no shortage of talent in Florida, right? Miami doesn't want a doesn't want a four star. Okay, well you can go and play in the American. They play there in Tampa. I think it'll be good. I'm not sure they'll win the American, but I think they are making a bold team. Alex Mortenson in Birmingham at UAB. RobertoConQueso: I mean, that's just gotta be bad on the verge of ugly, I would say. That's just, that's, I don't think anyone really wants to take care of that program. Micaiah: Okay. I think I'll agree with you. think it's, I'll say it's bad. Tosh Lapoy at Cal coming defensive coordinator coming from Oregon to Cal. RobertoConQueso: I'll just go bad. don't it's them in Stanford aren't schools you go to to play football. Micaiah: I'm going to say bad because they already tried a defensive coordinator at Cal in Justin Wilcox and that was bad. So like what do they expect? And I'm with you. You don't go to Cal to play football. All right. Let's get serious again. Or actually let's do one more non-serious one, which is Charles Huff coming from Southern Miss. Charles Huff, if you remember, was at Marshall, made a bowl game. Marshall didn't want to pay him. Something weird happened there. Fired him. Whole team left. Marshall couldn't play in the bowl game. Went to Southern Miss. Went from 1-11 to 7-5 last year. Now is at Memphis replacing Ryan Silverfield. Memphis, good batter up. RobertoConQueso: ⁓ I'm gonna say they're gonna be bad on the verge of good. They're probably gonna be sitting six seven seven eight win wise Micaiah: I'm going to go good because he's proven nothing otherwise. Not saying he'll win the American, but I am saying maybe even an eight, nine type season there in Memphis. Penn State and Matt Campbell comes from Iowa State. Penn State waited and waited and struck out a bunch of times. And then Matt Campbell said, you know what? I'm tired of doing less. I'm tired of doing more with less. I'm going to go to a place where I, if I can see where I can do more with more. He's going to have all the resources. He's going to have a brand new ish stadium. A great atmosphere, a great college town. Matt Campbell at Penn State. Good, bad, or ugly. RobertoConQueso: It'll be good. They'll be fine. They have a soft schedule again. ⁓ They're probably going to win 10 games. And with the way their schedule is, honestly, they probably could win 11. They probably could win. They could probably could go undefeated with the way their schedules be the Big 10 championship. So. Yeah, I think they'll be good. Micaiah: bringing in a bunch of Iowa State Cyclones with him. We've seen this move. They brought in like 18 players. Kirk Sennetti did it most recently, including Rocco Beck, the quarterbacks coming in. I don't see how they don't win 10 games with the schedule that you said or you mentioned, Bob. It did right. It's a good schedule for Penn State. It's a bad schedule for the rest of the country. Matt Campbell's resume in top 10 games. He's four and six. RobertoConQueso: Meh. It's bad. It's your typical Penn State schedule. Yes. Micaiah: Three more wins than James Franklin had. So he's got him beat there. Matt Campbell has been the most underrated coach in all of college football for years. I think he puts on a show at Penn State. This year it's good. We'll just have to see where it goes from there. All right, let's do these next ⁓ three quickly. Yukon Jason Candle comes from... ⁓ the mac somewhere in the mac toledo RobertoConQueso: I'm gonna go bad. Micaiah: Okay, you're gonna go, so he stays in the Mac now ⁓ because UConn is joining the Mac. So you're gonna go bad. I'm gonna go good. You you bring in a championship level, at least conference championship. Will Hall taking over for Tulane. I believe he was on staff. Yes, he was on staff at Tulane. So Tulane, good, bad or ugly. RobertoConQueso: ⁓ Bad could be good. Micaiah: Okay, I'm gonna just go and go bad could be ugly. Mike Jacobs is coming from Mercer to Toledo. Mercer, really good run in the FCS. Toledo, Mike Jacobs, good bagger or ugly. RobertoConQueso: I'm gonna go bad could be ugly Micaiah: Okay, very interesting. It's a weird poll from Mercer. You don't see a lot of head coaches just on that. I'm gonna go good just because I don't know a lot about him. But if you're going from FCS, Mercer to FBS, maybe someone knows something. I don't know. We often discuss how schools are scored to reach for the next Zanetti or Bob Chesney. Mike Jacobs could be that guy in this cycle. I'm reading this from an article. ⁓ He was 20 and six at Mercer. Blake Anderson, back in college football. He was at Arkansas State and then Utah State. His wife tragically died of cancer. Takes over. He was promoted at Southern Miss to take over for Charlie Huff, who left for Memphis. Good, or ugly for Southern Miss this year. RobertoConQueso: ⁓ bad. Micaiah: I'm going to go bad with you. was never outstanding at either one of the stops. Coastal Carolina Ryan Beard comes over from Missouri State, who had a great transition from FCS to FBS last year. Did very well, but now he's at Coastal Carolina, who has not been relevant since 2020 COVID season. Good bad or ugly. RobertoConQueso: I'm gonna go bad as bad very well could end up being ugly. Micaiah: Okay, Washington State went out and hired Kirby Moore, who was the offensive coordinator at Missouri Washington State again, new formed fact 12 good bad or ugly. RobertoConQueso: I'm gonna go good, but it's gonna be like a 7, 8, 8, 9 kind of good. Micaiah: Missouri State hired Casey Woods, who was the offensive coordinator at SMU, very productive offense there. So Missouri State again, came into US Conference USA did very well in their first year FBS. Good, or ugly. RobertoConQueso: I'm gonna say they're gonna, it's gonna be bad, but on the verge of being good. Micaiah: You know what? I like that a lot and I will agree with it. All right. Last one. And then we will kind of take a breath and talk about the one final team that is on Ohio. Went out and hired John Hausner. ⁓ Fun fact, Ohio has won seven straight ballgames. That's very, very impressive. They elevated their defensive coordinator to ⁓ their head coach and that to, ⁓ who John Hausner is or how sir is. So good bad or ugly at Ohio. RobertoConQueso: We all know how you feel about defensive defensive head coaches, but I'm going to say it's still going to be good and you think good, probably like a seven, eight win season. Micaiah: Okay. Mack is always just a kind of a roll of the dice. Yeah. Roll the dice from year to year. I'm going to say good because they keep it in house. All right. Our final team is our team, the Michigan Wolverines. So after a, I would say disappointing nine and three, especially offensively and struggles defensively, however, and then the off season just hit and it hit hard coming off of a previous off season and RobertoConQueso: Crap shoot. Micaiah: and of allegations, then there were more allegations and Sharon Moore was fired and then Sharon Moore was arrested and then we're getting no candidates and and the candidate the young candidates we want, especially the one I wanted Arizona State's head coach stays there. We go out and get Kyle Winningham who had stepped down from Utah just a few weeks prior. Kyle Winningham comes in for 20 seasons at Utah very successful. He is 66 years old and that has been the biggest downside or that we have been told. He brings in two brand new coordinators with him. He brings Jay Hill from BYU, excuse me. And he brings in Jason Beck from Utah who followed him from Utah who had the nation's leading rushing team there at Utah last year. And that's what Michigan wants to do. Good, bad or ugly? for Kyle Winningham in Michigan. RobertoConQueso: So for Michigan, I would say we are on the very edge of good. to ugly. And the reason I'm saying ugly is because Wittingham's first season at Michigan, he has a pretty rough schedule. He gets, you know, Oklahoma, Iowa, Penn State, Indiana, Oregon, Ohio State. You could lose all five of those games very easily. And then you're looking at seven and five, which for Michigan is ugly. That is an ugly season. But Micaiah: Mm-hmm. RobertoConQueso: for all we know he could be walking into, well, could be Ohio State and Michigan could be one and two and both be undefeated. That's kind of the beauty of the Big Ten or really college football in general is just the fact that you don't really know what's gonna happen. But I would say it could be very good or it can be very bad very quickly. Micaiah: Sharon Moore really mismanaged the offense last season. Obviously, his priorities were elsewhere within the building last year. ⁓ There was no dedicated quarterback coach. That has since been changed. The offense one week was run heavy. Then the next week, it was pass heavy. Bryce Underwood's development kind of stalled about halfway through the season. I felt everything was a fastball. I'm with you. The schedule is not great. But I just believe that we are going to play Michigan is going to play cleaner football. They're going to be physical and what they're most importantly going to do is run the football. Jordan Marshall has come back for another season, Savion Hitter is back as well or coming to the program as a true freshman. I think that there are pieces there in the backfield. The offensive line is back. Most of the defense kind of stayed together and most importantly, the secondary came back. I think it's going to be good. my expectations for Michigan are 10 and two, whether that is asinine for me to say here on fourth and one podcast, whether you agree with it or not. My expectations are 10 and two because Bryce Underwood is returning and he has all the talent in the world. You upgraded the coaching around him, both in the coordinator and the position coach, which was, there was none. And now there's at least one, right? The defense, expect to say the same. And I thought that the defense played well enough to win almost every single game last year. The offense just didn't hold up their end as a bargain. So I'm going to say good 10 and two. However, if the wheel starts coming off the track early and they lose to Indiana and they lose and they start losing games in the middle of season, Kyle Winningham also has shown that When things start going awry, things go awry very fast. Utah two years ago, case in point, he was going to retire after that season, and then things just went really wrong really, really quickly. He cleaned house. It's a new GM, whole new coaching staff. The only remaining is Tony Alfer. Thank you, Lord. He stayed, and so hopefully he will help. What are your expectations for Michigan this year? RobertoConQueso: Well, I feel like the expectations for Michigan are always the same as you win and like you, you just win out. But on a realistic standpoint, I would say probably 10 and two, nine and three. ⁓ with losses probably coming at Ohio state, ⁓ probably at Oregon and then Indiana, ⁓ Penn state, that'll be a very, it should be a very good game. It's home for Michigan. Um, you know, you don't really know what Penn State's going to bring to the table. You know, it, whenever coaches from outside the big 10 come to the big 10, the first couple of years are kind of shaky just because it's a totally different style of football than what they've always coached. Um, we at Iowa at home also, so we don't have any pink locker rooms and we don't have to wave to the children. So that always helps. And we get Oklahoma at home too. A lot of our bigger games are at home, which does help. except for the two big ones, which are Oregon and Ohio State, which are on the road. Micaiah: Kyle Winningham is 177 and 88 all time. went for, he took Utah from the mountain west to the Pac-12 and he won a championship with them. Then they made the transition to Big 12 and that's kind of over the last couple of years where things like I thought that Utah would immediately go from Pac-12 to Big 12 and run the ship physically and that just did not happen. More recent people are saying again, it's the more he did more with less more with less more with less Well now he's got more with more he's got all the talent and literally he's got all the money in the world I think the intriguing team in the big 10 this year isn't Michigan but Indiana and that sounds weird to say and yes I will not bet against Kirk Sinetti until proven otherwise But indian like I still can't get over the fact that it's indiana doing this again and again and I want to see what this year turns out because every schedule looks tough based on preseason, right? Every schedule looks tough. But once we get into it, is Indiana still an elite team? Right? Is Oregon, was it the coordinators? Is Dan Lanning or is Dan Lanning back to not kicking field goals or deal, right? So there's a lot to be discovered yet. RobertoConQueso: Mm-hmm. Micaiah: But that's what college football is about. It's a story. And this is chapter one. This is kind of the what are they called in books, a prelude? Is that a thing? Is that a big thing in books? I don't read a lot. People know this if they listen to the podcast enough that there's not a lot of reading going on, at least from this side of the to. RobertoConQueso: Yup. Yeah. If you think I read... Micaiah: If you think you read the ingredients on on the bag of chips, right? Dude amen brother. Amen. I will read the bag of trail mix to see what kind of nuts are in there. other than that, dude, that that's all I got. All right, Bob. Well, this has been a lot of fun. I've had a lot of fun. I hope you have enjoyed it. I hope the RobertoConQueso: Sometimes I just want to make sure it says potato. Come home! Always. Micaiah: I hope the listeners have enjoyed it. Again, this is the prelude. Spring games are starting, what, a couple weeks, three weeks or so? RobertoConQueso: Well, Michigan's is April 18th, so like a month, I think. Micaiah: Okay. All right. I would assume that other spring games are around there. I would... Here's a fun topic for you. Do you think we'll have more spring games this year because there's no spring portal? Last year, lot of teams decided not to do it because there was a spring portal and they didn't want to put out free advertisement for their players. Are we going to see more spring games this year? RobertoConQueso: I, yeah, probably. We'll probably have more just be mainly because there is no spring portal. But I could also see them being like, yeah, we're just not going to do spring games anymore because spring games just might honestly kind of go by the wayside, at least like the big televised, like, you know, big 10 network and stuff like that going around. So I could see them just doing like smaller joint practices. Micaiah: I saw something, an interesting idea. And it's why don't you go get an FCS team? Because it would solve two, why don't you go pay one of them to come up and play you, right? RobertoConQueso: Let's see what Listen, we did that with Michigan already and we saw how bad that turned out, right? We don't need that to happen anymore. Micaiah: Okay, well yeah, but that wasn't in spring, right? So you go up and you go get an FCS team and then you're not allowed to schedule an FCS team in the fall. RobertoConQueso: Well, and you know, that kind of makes like a good point, too, because even high schools do scrimmages. Against other schools, so like, why aren't there? I guess, you know, you're like, oh, well, Alabama's good. mean, Alabama has their scrimmage week eight, 16 against Mercer anyways. So what does it matter? But yeah, I mean, that wouldn't be a bad idea. Micaiah: Yeah Are you in favor of spring? I don't think I've ever asked you this question. Do you like spring games? Do you? That's the question. Do you like spring games or? RobertoConQueso: I'm kind of indifferent on them because... from like the player standpoint, they're just, they're doing the same thing. Instead of like, instead of doing position workouts and everything, now you're just piecing everything together, having a big practice, but there's just more energy and a more like game-y feel to it. But yeah, I mean, I think it's more beneficial for the players than it is for anyone who's like tuning in to watch it. Just because, you know, 75 % of the kids are actually never going to touch the field. So it's like, Micaiah: ⁓ yeah, yeah, yeah. RobertoConQueso: You're just kind of you're essentially just watching preseason NFL football. But yeah, I don't know if there's necessarily a bad to them. Probably the only bad thing about him is just how publicized they've become. Micaiah: Well, also, I, your point, I think people take them far, far too seriously, right? Like they'll, they'll see the product in spring and they're like, ⁓ yeah, this is going to be what fall looks like. And then, and then it's nowhere close. And people are like, I don't know how this team regressed. And I'm like, well, it's spring. Right. Exactly. Right. Like RobertoConQueso: Well, Colorado was one of them. Yeah. Micaiah: Colorado, a great spring practice, biggest televised event. It was sold out. And then what did they do that first year, right? RobertoConQueso: Yeah. Yeah, because they had that spring that spring game. They had a kid who had like five touchdowns or whatever. And the very next day he was in the portal. Micaiah: It was snowing. Right. Right. RobertoConQueso: So I think getting rid of the portal, that makes the world of difference. Micaiah: Yeah. I think spring games are, well, it scratches an itch for us as fans, right? Like, I want to see something. Do I like watching Ohio State? No. But come, if they have a spring game and a Celebi's, will I sit down and will I watch it if it's on television? Hell yeah, I will. Will I watch Clemson? Right. And it's competitive football. RobertoConQueso: But yeah. Right. Yeah, still football. Micaiah: because they normally break it up and do some sort of scoring system where something's on the line. Michigan, play, Ohio State's is especially, ⁓ but mainly that's just who's in charge of it. ⁓ Michigan, what you play for hot dogs or steaks, right? RobertoConQueso: Yeah, it's a dumb squaring system, but yeah. Yeah, I think the winning team gets like the winning team I think gets a steak losing side I think gets like hot dogs. I'm like that's a win win either way for me dog. Yeah, you ain't ain't punishing me there homie. I'm out there trying to lose so I can slam down some hot dogs. I can eat a lot more hot dogs than I can steak. Micaiah: Dude, that's what I was about to say. Dude, that's a win-win. You're just Robert has to make an open field tackle and you're just like. RobertoConQueso: just totally whiff on him and like, yo, get them buns ready, baby. Micaiah: You're in, you're the only, you know, you go into the losing locker room, quote unquote, and you're like, hot dogs, hot dogs, hot. RobertoConQueso: And I'm pumped. Yeah, everyone else is all, you know, upset and mad and I'm like pumped. I got a ketchup bottle and everything else. I'm ready to rock and roll. got the mustard going. I'm cutting onions up. Yeah. I'm having the time of my life. Micaiah: You're doing it like a champagne bottle, know, just squeezing the... I'm with you. I would actually prefer to eat a hot dog over a steak. Is that asinine for me to say? RobertoConQueso: I don't know, like don't get me wrong. I do like steak, but I can get like a hundred hot dogs for the same price that I could get a steak and be full for a couple of days. Micaiah: Yeah, and now if you bring in sausages into this, like sausage and brats, now we're talking, dude. RobertoConQueso: ⁓ yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Yeah, you know, people can always be like, ⁓ well, you just haven't had a good steak or something. No, I've had some pretty good steak, but I don't know, man. Steak doesn't hit a nerve or just that feeling when you just slam down like a nice grilled brat on a summer day. I can't walk around and eat my steak. You know, it's like, ⁓ you can do it at Tomahawk. Yeah, but then I walk around with a bone. My give me a hot dog. I eat the thing. We're good. We're going. Micaiah: Yeah. You can't be standing by the pool eating a steak. RobertoConQueso: I'm driving, eating hot dogs. Yeah. Micaiah: Yeah, and dude, and when it snaps, and then I'm going to say, I'm going to say something really sus here. But you know, when it snaps and then comes in your mouth, RobertoConQueso: off. I mean, ⁓ okay. I- I- I- I know what you're talking about, however. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, back it up, but yes. Micaiah: You know what I'm talking about. But you know what I'm talking about. Yeah. Maybe. I like how I... I like how I knew what I was gonna say would sound bad and I still decided to say it. ⁓ That's just my personality for you because I'm here to entertain. So I hope everyone here was also entertained. RobertoConQueso: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Micaiah: for the last hour and six minutes. Drop us a like, drop us a follow, drop us a share, follow us on TikTok, fourth and one pod, Facebook and Instagram, fourth and one podcast. We'll see you when we see you next. Happy spring-ish, everybody. Wash your hands you filthy animals.