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PAC'd 12 | Football Preview | Beef with American Conference · PAC'd 12

• Brett Biermann: Hello, beautiful people. Welcome to another episode of Pack Twelve. I'm your host, Solomon Nash, joined by my insanely goaded and incredibly handsome co-hosts, Brad Beerman and Caden Bessett. Episode one was a huge success. I want to thank everyone who showed support, especially on YouTube. Picked up a bunch of views there. And this is just the beginning, y'all. Thank you so much for the support. Before we do get into this episode two, I want to give it over to my co-host. How are we doing today, y'all? How we feeling? I'm doing good, man. ⁓ episode one was a a huge success. A lot of fun. Thank you all for the support. If you showed support, people on Reddit, ⁓ and social media were all very kind. So again, thank you all for for listening. We're excited to give you more content as the year goes on. No, yeah, it's was super dope to see people respond to it and hopefully they enjoyed the first episode and enjoy the This one right here and the many more to come and ⁓ super excited to get more involved with just ⁓ all the people involved with this new Pac Twelve and get to know new people through something like this. It's a really cool thing. Absolutely. And before we do get into this football preview episode, that's it what it is today. We're gonna do a little housekeeping. We gotta cover some couple things that were announced during the break between episode one and two. First, the biggest news and a little bit shocking, is that there is officially no media days. For the Pac twelve, I'm pretty sure every other conference is actively participating in their media days. But what are your guys' thoughts on that? You would think the inaugural season might have had a media days, but they decide not to and just forego it. I'm incredibly shocked that, yeah, like like you just said, at the at the birth of this brand new conference with all like the questions that kinda go around it, how could you not have a a media day? At least something over Zoom to where like we can you know, we can kind of meet and see all these coaches, you know, and talk about their expectations going into this new conference and it's disappointing to see because like I like I don't know, obviously like it it's the little bit of sports content we get over the summer when there's not a lot going on. I know the World Cup's going on right now, so like that's kind of feeding our interest a little bit, but it sucks still. You know, I wanna hear what these coaches have to say. I wanna hear their mindset going into this new conference. I'm a little disappointed. I'm hoping in the future that changes that maybe media days aren't a thing of the past, but I'm a little disappointed by it. And media days can get a bit redundant with talking to certain players and certain coaches, but there's also a lot of really good evergreen stories and stuff that you learn about certain players and coaches, ⁓ and like their background. You start to learn their story, right? Because you get so much time to talk to them, and we're kind of missing out on that. And getting to learn personalities of people that are a part of this new conference, that sucks. ⁓ but then also you notice that the Pac twelve has gone in the direction of like these in house podcast things where they're trying to tell their own story that way, which I get they're trying to be innovative in a way, but if I'm being also a thousand percent honest, I've not tapped into any of the stuff they've been sharing, making in house themselves, you know what I mean? Right. Yeah. Yeah, no, I completely get what you're saying. 'Cause like we shouldn't have to take that next step when it should be your job as the new conference to promote to you to the public, to the general public, 'cause not everybody knows a lot about these teams, which is kind of the topic of the episode. Right, right. There's a deep dive on that. But yeah, no, I completely agree with what y'all guys are saying. It's a little bit disappointing. It's very disappointing actually. But in regards to that, we did get some news about the future of the conference. Getting get it on Immedia Day, but they did just share it on its own. We did see how the basketball tournaments will look for this upcoming season for the men's and women's. It will be hosted in Vegas. in MGM Grand Garden Arena would be around March 9th through 13th, so around that spring breakish area. But what are y'all guys' thoughts on this format for the tournament? Exactly what I thought it was going to be. I think I said in the last episode that I loved how more conferences are kind of pivoting to this ⁓ different style bracket to where like you reward the top two teams in a regular season ⁓ for their play. And the Pac twelve kind of embraced the same thing. It's the top one and two ⁓ teams in the conference that automatically go to the semis and from there on it's obviously, you know, the further down you go, the harder the climb is to get there. So I'm in I'm gonna enjoy it, man. It's ⁓ it's not gonna be much different than what we saw with the sunbelt. It's obviously a much better basketball conference though. ⁓ yeah. And the fact that they got the the tournament in Vegas too, ⁓ kinda shocking to me. I mean I guess that's a good spot for it Vegas. You can never go wrong with that. I was kinda hoping maybe for this first year they try to maybe put it in like a Pac twelve location. ⁓ maybe somewhere like in Zaga, maybe somewhere like Fresno State, somewhere with like a a fun arena that, you know, these these guys can play in. But either way I'm excited. It's college basketball, so I'm y you could put it anywhere and I'm gonna watch it. And it gives these teams at the bottom of the regular season to get in and scratch, fight, claw their way all the way to the chip. You could see some Cinderella stuff happen, like with the Sunbel's format. And this conference is so deep in basketball that you kind of want to give that opportunity to some of these schools because crazy things can happen. When we get to March, you know crazy things will happen, right? Pac twelve should have a lot of parody in basketball because of how competitive it is going to be. And then the thing in Vegas, super cool, right? I think it is awesome. Then there's no media days. You may think, you know, there's been talk about not spending the money of what media days cost and maybe saying it's not worth it. Well, they were able to get Men's and women's basketball in Vegas. You know, CBS is gonna have some of the games, especially the championship. ⁓ I wouldn't say money's a problem if we're in Vegas for the chip. Yeah, and I did see it's gonna be on three different streaming sites, at least on the graphic they posted. It's gonna be CW this gonna be all the CW USA sports and CBS sports. I didn't even know USA sports was a thing. That's dope. That's USA yeah, they they they did ⁓ they had WWE on for a long time. I I don't I think it was just on USA though. I think it is I think SmackDown's on USA now. But yeah, it's it's just like I think they're kind of all these networks are starting to pick up streaming like sports. No no no matter how big or small, 'cause I think they just know that the ⁓ the eyeballs come to the T V when sports are on. So yeah. Everyone wants their hand on the pot. It's just ⁓ USA's turn to get a little bit of it. And also I wanna go back to a second for ⁓ the conversation about the media days and stuff. Does it not feel like when it also comes to the media deal? And I think this runs in with the media days. No media days, right? And then the media deal is still being hidden. Teresa Gold even came out and says, head of the Pac twelve, she said it's inappropriate to release those numbers right now. Does it not almost feel like something is being kept and gate kept away from the f the fans, the fan bases of this new Pac twelve, especially with not having the access of media days in year one where more traction than ever? Yeah, no, that is. Really interesting to think about. I didn't even hear about what she said that's inappropriate to share right now, but I wonder what they are alluding to because having no media days and then also throwing in that comment about the media deals, it's like it seems like the money's not really in the shortage, maybe. Trying to gaslight us into into being like, Why do you need to know these numbers? It's not that important. And it's like, Well, it kind of is important because we want to know one, where we're gonna be watching this stuff and two. it's important for revenue sharing because like it it's gonna know like how much of this like how of the pot is gonna be split up between these teams and it really does affect like the future of some of these programs. So it it is important to know. I mean, I guess if they want to keep it like gate cap, whatever, it's it's not gonna ruin my day or anything. But it this again, it's just stuff that you wanna know and stuff that like the average fan and even super fans like us, like that's stuff we we crave, you know, and especially right now, again July, I know the World Cup's on, but again, just any sort of Any sort of serotonin we can get with any sort of news is is good news, so but we'll see. And eventually we will know because Freedom of Information Act will allow us to just pull that information at some point. It doesn't allow it yet, apparently, from what I'm reading on Twitter. But yeah, we'll find out eventually. It's not the end of the world, but you know, you are curious. You want to know these kind of things. Congressman Basset sucks at w with the with the It sucks at we tell. Future politician Kedan Bess here, man. Love to hear it. Well, speaking of I know Brett, we talked about a little bit on Twitter. I guess it's just everywhere, but this is brought to my attention from Brett about little discourse of the Pac twelve. But this is from another conference in itself, Brett. Talk about can you take us through what exactly this beef is between the Pac twelve and the American Yeah. I'll I'll st I'll start off with this is the funniest thing that I think happened on Pac twelve Twitter this week. So I don't know who posted it. But someone posted a graphic with like calling the Pac twelve basically in short like a power five conference. And then an I don't know ⁓ what fan base ⁓ this member belonged to as far as the American conference goes, but he was pretty strong about his opinions on the Pac twelve not being as good as the American and and and I got some stats here that I'll I'll ⁓ I'll f just for football and basketball. ⁓ so the top four conferences in overall win percentage. ⁓ in the last five seasons. Number one SEC, two Big Ten, three Big Twelve, number four, the Pac twelve. I don't see the American on that list anywhere. ⁓ and let's just go to basketball. So for as far as like the the average net rankings for men's basketball, the Big Twelve is number one, SEC two, Big Ten three, Big East and ACC following out four and five. Number six, the Pac twelve. And you know who's not number seven? The American. It's the Atlantic ten. And and we can go to A ten. That's what I'm saying. We can go to the women's too, but it's the same story. So what I just want to say is is like for all the people who are fans of these schools in the American, like that's great. North Texas, Rice, we love you guys. But the second your school has the chance to come to the Pac twelve, you're leaving that conference. And tell me I'm wrong. None of these schools are gonna say no to this new Pac twelve, especially a school like Memphis. Who kinda got left out in this big realignment over the past few years and is kinda looking for a new home, something to kind of elevate their status over the next few years, the Pac twelve could come knocking. And I think that's gonna, you know, egg on the face of a lot of these American fans who are gonna lose a lot of their teams ⁓ when the next conference realignment comes around. So another dub for the Pac twelve. Like I'll let the American fans cry during the offseason. It's no big deal. ⁓ but Pac twelve up big time right now. ⁓ my goodness. Talk you talk, right? Tokyo ish. Hey, I have to say though, I hate the American Conference and pretty much everybody in it, so Hell yeah, Caden. Hell yeah. Conference is fraudulent, dude. I do not care. I don't care who they send to what championships and what tournaments and playoffs. I don't care. Bums. Bums. Yeah, man. I mean we've already heard. some rumors about UTSA and a couple of other American teams wanting to ship over to the Pac twelve. So like you said, Brett, it's not entirely crazy to think that the moment they get that call, they're gonna pick up the phone. And not only that, they're gonna be eager to pick up the phone. It's not like they're gonna sit there and dwell on it a little bit. They're not gonna let it ring. This is like the next best thing you have, you know? Like this is this if if you wanna jo go up if you want if you want your school to advance in sports in any way no matter what level it is, no matter what sport it is, you you're gonna have to jump conferences. The American is gonna keep you at this spot in the middle of the pack forever. And like like I said, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some of these schools, that's where they're gonna top out. But if you're trying to if you're trying to sit there and argue that the American is in any way better than this new Pac twelve, you're just lying to yourself. And I don't know what like the discourse is. Like the stats are there and it's so clearly obvious who the better conference is, but I don't know, I'll put a bow on that there. 'Cause obviously time will tell but I think right now the pack's up big. Time will tell if he's right. Well, I think that mostly covers the stuff we need to talk about. Now let's get into the need. Can we do the the housekeeping real quick? So sorry. Just real quick. Yeah, go crazy. Real quick, we're gonna I just want to do some housekeeping from last episode again. Thank you everyone for listening to the pilot. ⁓ I just want you guys to know as well, ⁓ this is new for all three of us ⁓ doing this, so we're gonna misspeak and we're gonna say some things wrong sometimes. It's not for lack of not knowing. It's it might just be we misspoke. So real quick, I just want to read this comment on Spotify. And I wouldn't address this, but this guy has his name and his face on his profile. So at the very least, like, hey man, thank you for not trolling and like hiding behind a screen. ⁓ so ⁓ I'll I'll just read the comment. Please fact check in the first ten minutes ⁓ this is from Taylor Howell, by the way. Thank you for listening, Taylor. Thank you too. ⁓ please fact check in the ten minutes you said the new Pac twelve has ten teams in football, there are eight. Yeah. ⁓ also you said USC, Oregon and Washington are relying on the Big Twelve when they're actually in the Big Ten. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, that's on me. I heard the episode back and I literally I literally heard it and I'm like, ⁓ my god, I said the big twelve. But here's the thing, man. It's I knew what you were talking about. I I caught it at the time not thinking that it was that big of a deal. We will do better next time. I promise you. It's not that big of a deal though. I pr and I promise you it wasn't from Solo's lack of knowledge. Solo is probably the most knowledgeable person at this table when it comes to college football and conference and stuff like that. So again, it's our first episode. We ha probably had a little bit of jitters going into it. Both those mistakes were made in the first ten minutes of the show. So we're we're kinda getting our feet wet a little bit. These mistakes are gonna happen again. I'm just letting you know I'm not gonna say it's not gonna happen again. Because we're gonna have so much information coming at us once these sports start that we're gonna say something's wrong and that's okay. ⁓ but I do wanna I do wanna address that, yeah, we are sorry that we made that mistake. It's not gonna I can say it's not gonna happen again. It's gonna happen again. It's gonna happen again. It's probably gonna happen this episode. It's probably gonna Yeah. I can I can guarantee in the next fifteen minutes something will be said wrong and we'll get another comment. But that's okay. that's all I really got on it, man. ⁓ thank you again for commenting, Taylor. It's it's not it's not at all a diss on you at all. I want the I want the criticism so we know how to do better. Yeah. And and thank you. I was just gonna say I appreciate you for holding me accountable because as soon as I heard it, it like irked me. So I'll do better. Thank you, big team. And no worries. No we're we're not kicking Sol off the show. He's not on a pip. Don't worry. We're every everyone's still got their job. So I'm just excited to get into football. So let's just go ahead and get into it, huh? All right. Yeah. We're gonna so how this is gonna work, y'all. We split we each got a little bit we got there's eight football teams. in the conference right now. So me and Brett took three teams and Caden took the OG two. What we're gonna do is it actually worked out kinda perfectly. We're gonna do it in alphabetical order. So it's gonna throw over to Brett real quick. First for Boise State. He's got us there and then we're gonna go to me for Colorado State. It's gonna be back to Brett again. But then Caden will take over with the big Oregon State. So without further ado, let's begin the Pac twelve twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven college football preview starting With the Boise State Broncos. Brett, take it away. Yes, sir. And of course, interrupt me, ask any questions if you guys need to along the way. ⁓ I'm just gonna go ahead and read through the notes. So Boise State Broncos, first team we're gonna talk about in this new Pac twelve. Finished nine and five last season. They were the Mountain West champs, and they lost the LA Bowl to the Washington Huskies thirty eight to ten. So not necessarily the year that the Boise State Broncos are used to having, right? Like kind of a down year, led by Spencer Danielson, their head coach. He was broadening the interim in twenty twenty one, finished three and one on the season, ⁓ and did not get hired as the head coach. He stayed on as the DC, hired permanently in twenty twenty three. He's twenty four and eight right now. ⁓ something I found interesting is he's ⁓ and three in bowl games and ⁓ and one in the college football playoff. So he still has that monkey on his back to where he needs to probably at least win a bowl game. And and and obviously eventually a college football playoff game 'cause that's it's kind of the expectation in Boise that they want to make the college football playoff and they want to win. They want to see how far they can make it. So we'll see. He's got to get that monkey off his back. That'll be something to look out for this year with Spencer Danielson, their head coach. So ⁓ first the offense. We talked ⁓ kind of at lengths about him last episode. Maddox Madsen had an awesome twenty twenty four season, went twelve and two, three thousand eighteen yards, twenty three touchdowns, six interceptions, and a sixty two point four percent completion rate. I believe that that was the genty year, if I'm not mistaken. ⁓ so he kinda had he kinda had a weapon to lean on there and maybe kinda got the attention taken off him a little bit when you had the guy you should have won the Heisman that he was handing the ball off to. Twenty twenty five, let's talk about last season. ⁓ missed a few games with injury. He only played eleven games. He went seven and four, two thousand three hundred and thirty four yards, eighteen touchdowns, nine interceptions, and a fifty eight point three completion rate. A two to one touchdown interception ratio is not gonna win you the pack twelve. So there's gonna have to be a lot of growth coming from Maddox Madsen this year. ⁓ he's he's still got two running backs that he can lean on a lot. ⁓ and we'll get to Fresno later, but I wrote down ⁓ it's a two back committee just like Fresno State with junior Dylan Riley and sophomore Cyre Gaines ⁓ leading the charge. Dylan Riley had ted t ten touchdowns last year, Cyre Gaines eight. Both ⁓ Dylan Riley hit a thousand yards, Cyre Gaines was pretty close to hitting that. They're gonna lean heavily on that on that offensive rushing to to get them through this ⁓ pack twelve. ⁓ you guys got any questions before I go on any more on these players? I mean, we could talk about Maddox Madsen again. I think it's really interesting. ⁓ could go one of two ways in this first year of the Pac twelve. Obviously he's decorated out of the Mountain West. He is a good quarterback, but is he that good? I don't know. I'm not a believer. I've watched Mountain West games last year and especially earlier last season and I was like, ⁓ man, I don't I don't really see it, right? ⁓ I definitely think that there's better quarterbacks in this pack twelve, but Maddox Madsen is still best of the best in this new conference, right? He he's also just gotta go prove it. He's the most experienced quarterback we can say. Is this true? Any And that's big. My bad. I didn't mean it's ⁓ he does have he does also have a college football playoff game under his belt, I guess. That's true, yeah. He he's got the experience. Even if he didn't win, he's still got the experience a little bit. Go ahead, Caden. Sorry to remember and I won't I won't take the college football playoff run away from Boise State whatsoever. I was rooting for them. That was awesome. Right? Elso Ashton Genty. Everybody knows what that senior season was r was like it was unreal. Not gonna say that takes anything away from Maddox Madsen. It makes things a lot better when you can just hand it off to two and let him work, right? Well we saw the highlights, you know? We saw the highlights. Their top four pass catchers from last season have all either transferred or graduated, so this receiving rim is a little thin. So I think that also goes into the point about Maddox Madsen where we're gonna have to see him take that next step to to really become the elite quarterback that a lot of people are saying he is. But they got a transfer from Southern University. Darren Morris, he'll take over the wide receiver one duties. ⁓ and they got a returning guy in the slot, Ben Ford. He is electric, so I'm looking for a big year out of him. Kind of a dark horse candidate for me to to kind of take ⁓ take spotlight in this Pac-12. ⁓ on the defensive side. ⁓ sorry. No, actually they are they're returning five of their eight starting offensive linemen ⁓ who started games for him last year. So they got a pretty they got a pretty good beefy O line, experienced O-line. I think that's gonna help a lot. I was gonna say what you can count on Boise State to do. They're gonna make sure that O line is solid. So Max Madsen does at least have a a good amount of time to, you know, at least try to get through his progressions when he's not handing the ball off. But this is a team that's definitely gonna look to just pound the rock. Like you said, they got the They got the two headed backs, yeah. Two headed running back room. They're not one of them's a four star. Like they're just gonna have to lean on them 'cause that's your identity. And When you when I do say that it does kinda like put a little bit of doubt in the Maddox Madsen's conversation 'cause it's like one, like you said, a lot of the receivers out the window, there's a team who's probably just gonna lock in on running the ball. And it's not like he's a fast guy either. Like he's not gonna be like a read option kind of threat as well. Like he probably could once or twice, but it's not something you're gonna be heavily reliant on. Yeah, it's not something you can add into his game and and expect it to l and expect it to work. You know, it might just be like every you know, two r Two or three plays a game where it's like, ⁓ my god, Maddox Madsen breaks free for a first down and that's really the extent of his rushing, you know, so he's gotta unlock something with his arm this year. ⁓ if Boise State wants a chance to win this pack twelve. Another interesting thing I did also see is that you talk about them retaining that online. Boise State is a school that does prioritize retaining retention. Because they did lose a lot of guys in the portal this past year and they only brought eleven, but that's cause they just know who their guys are. Yeah, and and they're they're They they they have their guys buy into a system and and and again that'll go into like what I talk about with Fresno later, but these coaches just have this ability to keep these guys here and like buy into a system that you know, i it whether it's hey, like we can we can make you into an to you know, we can get you to the NFL or it's like hey, we can make you into the man you want to become. You know, so I think Boise State, they're gonna be fine. ⁓ do you got anything else on the offense, Caden, before I hop into the defense? Hey, they're the favorites. I mean, that's really all I got left on board. They're the favorites. ⁓ rightfully so. They deserve it. It's a storied program with a lot of great history. ⁓ they're the team to beat, especially when you go to that blue turf at night. Yeah. Yeah, on Halloween night. ⁓ boy, we'll get to that. But but let's get to the defense. Their defense was servable last serviceable last season, ranking fifth in the Mountain West. Ty Benefield, Jeremiah Irby, and er sorry, a Marion McCoy, ⁓ their three best players in the secondary last year, all gone. ⁓ so again, another part of their another room in their in their team that is kind of dwindling and was relying on their upperclassmen and now they're all gone. ⁓ they'll look to transfer ⁓ from Kennesaw State ⁓ Jericho Washington Junior and returning Jaden Mickey and Sherrod Smith in that secondary. ⁓ Jericho Washington Junior, ⁓ he was massive for Kennesaw State as part of their CUSA run last year. ⁓ he was a big part of that defense that helped them win the CUSA. So that'll be an immediate impact player for them. ⁓ but their biggest contributor on this defense is returning senior edge rusher Jaden Virgin Morgan. ⁓ he's the twenty twenty four All Mountain West he was on sorry, he was on the twenty twenty four All Mountain West first team last year on the second team. ⁓ he had twenty six solo tackles, six sacks, and two force fumbles. And so they'll really be relying on him to kinda keep the defense on his back and carry that team to the end. And they also need senior Max Stege ⁓ to get over the hump on that D line. So a fun year ahead for Boise. Caden, like you said, I I agree that they probably are the favorites. The more I looked into it though, I think there's probably some other teams that could take the throne, but we'll get into that. But that's all I got on Boise State. Do you guys got any questions as far as Boise goes before we move I was actually gonna say I want to do like maybe after every team, I want y'all since whichever one we research, I want to at least give ⁓ their floor for the season and their ceiling for the season. What'd be a success or a failure? Or just their record as well. Seven and five I think would be a complete failure. For Boise State. Yeah. I think I think anything under under nine wins they will consider an absolute failure. Yeah. Yeah. And I I think their ceiling is they will win the pack twelve and make the college football playoff. Yeah. That's a pretty pretty safe bet, especially for a program like Boise State. Exactly. I was saying I know you said they're the favors, but anything else you got on big Boise Kate before we move on. Hey, fear the blue turf, bro, cause ⁓ Halloween night might be like my in my nightmares for the next few months. Yeah. Absolutely. If you don't know, Texas State goes to the blue turf blackout on Halloween night. That is absolutely terrifying for Bahoma Moder. God bless. God bless. We'll get to Texas State later, though. As that will wrap put a bow on the Boise State Broncos. We talked about them. Now we're gonna shift over to my first team that I covered. We're gonna talk about the Colorado State Ray's. About the season they have upcoming for them. This is a team who have completely hit the reset button and they do it entering the new conference and they their guy that they have is Jim Mora coming over from UConn and this is a team that was kinda hard to gauge because it's really essentially a whole new team. Yeah. This is a team who lost sixty, almost sixty in the portal, and they brought in almost forty. A lot of those guys, of course, Cubic from UConn, followed their guy Jim Mora. And this is a team that only won two games as well last year. They win two of ten. Currently on FanDuel, they're projected to have ⁓ winning about three games this year as well. But I think this is a team that could actually surprise the general public, man. It's hard to get excited if you're a Rams faithful as like I said, Vegas doesn't really have you doing much this season. But Jim Mora, he brings in a bunch of new phases and he brings a way to play that could benefit Colorado in a rebuilding season. This is a team UConn that didn't turn the ball over. In fact they had the fewest turnovers in the nation last year, only having two and CSU was a team last year that turned the ball over a lot. They had multiple games with three plus turnovers and UConn made an art of sticking around and winning those close games. Where struggling team like CSU, that's what you kinda need. And during the early years of a rebuild, you don't you can you're not expected to blow teams out. You just gotta kind of hang around with a team with a conference where there's so much parity. You gotta get those close wins. Man, we're gonna talk about the team that Jim Morra is kind of building here. He has completely got to work in the trenches. That's where CSU struggled a lot. They gave up a lot of stuff in the trenches. They gave up a lot of sacks. They couldn't do anything on offense. And especially defensively as well in the trenches. This is a defensive line, guys, that gave up two hundred yards a game on the ground. They could not stop anything on the ground. So he went straight to the portal, brought in a bunch of guys, two patchwork. their trenches and he brought in a bunch of receivers as well. Basically a whole new offense. Couldn't stop a nosebleed, man. Two hundred yards a game? Two hundred yards a game. On the ground? That's insane. That's like a Texas State fourth quarter for us, man. Absolutely. Genuinely, yeah. He brought a whole new offense, basically a whole new defense as well, bolstering their secondary room. And he brings it he didn't get the coach he wanted as his coordinators or especially his O C as he went to another school. But he brought in well, the Forber iterim coach who remains the DC, Tyson Summers. He was a guy who kinda struggled in that interim spot. You don't really expect interim guys to really Yeah, you're not choosing your next guy in the interim spot. But he does get the backing of more and he does he believes in him clearly 'cause he just basically got him an entire new defense. Let's I'm gonna go over to their ON three page right now. They like I they brought almost forty guys, a bunch of these guys from former power four schools or just other G five schools as well. Caleb Presley a quarterback who was formerly a Washington commit, then c went over to San Diego State. Now coming over Colorado State. He was a former four star. He's a guy they're looking to maybe, like I said, that secondary room just to stop anything, man. 'Cause like I said, this is a defense that people just ran over a lot of the time. Like I said, two hundred yards a game on the ground. That's just the ground. They weren't stopping anything on the air. Anything in the air too? That's insane. And this is a team that also struggled a lot on third down. This is they Could not move the chains at all. I believe they averaged less than thirty percent conversion rate on third down. My God, man. So yeah, this is a team that has a lot of work, and unfortunately their schedule doesn't really do them a lot of favors as well. Their first real challenge isn't until BYU. That's a home game for them, but it's still BYU. That's a team Yeah, that's a top fifteen team in the country. That's a team who almost went to the College for a playoff, and then right after they gotta go to San Antonio to take on UTSA. It's never fun playing in the Alamo Dome. And that's just out of conference. Conference play it's gonna be probably a thing I repeat, but conference play in the pack 12 is gonna be war every week. Yes. Week in, week out. You got these teams, we talk about the parody, they're gonna try and just get a win because you can. These teach are teams who have probably seen each other a lot of times in the Mountain West, so they know how to beat each other and they can get sneaky ones out. But I just don't see them really ultimately doing anything crazy Like I said, year ones are kind of hard to gauge when it's a entirely new coaching staff, entirely new team. And a new conference. Like everything is brand new with this team. Absolutely. I just think the mentality you gotta have for Colorado State is a team that you've got you're essentially playing with house money. Mm-hmm. And I think that Jim Moore is a guy who could possibly want as a guy playing with house money. I think for them a great season would probably be six and six. I agree with that. And I think the floor I think the the match with Vegas has. I think they'll probably be a floor is like a three win season. Yeah. I wouldn't expect too much overall from the Rams. I got ⁓ probably bowling out at five and seven. I don't think they make a bowl game. I do think they could steal a couple games. This is a team that one of their few conference wins, I believe, was against Boise State last year. I know they beat a team that they weren't supposed to beat. Yeah. And that's it's ca Jim Moore thrives on stealing games like that where he can just beat a team you're not supposed to beat. And he can steal a one score game from a team that probably thought they should have won that. But all over overall, Colorado State has just got a lot to work. They got a lot to just do this upcoming season. Yeah, they do. ⁓ but I will say though that like UConn if there's some silver lining here, UConn went nine and four last year. Yeah. UConn. So And they say nobody wins with UK. That's what I'm saying. But we see how fast with the portal and NIL how fast these teams can flip a switch. So I think the three would what what do you say, three and a half wins was the Vegas. Yeah. Vegas had them at three and a half. I think I think they they beat that. ⁓ I think their non conference is gonna test them early in a good way though. ⁓ I don't think for the type of year that they're coming in on, ⁓ their expectations are the college football playoff. So getting Wyoming, right? That's a good Mountain West school, right? They're familiar with each other. And then they go to ⁓ playoff Southern Utah. That's who that is. That is exactly who that is. Southern Utah, FCS school, right? That'll be an interesting game. Sure should be like their tune up, honestly. And then DYU, that's a tough test. Yeah, it should be. But then BYU, that's obviously a tough test, even though they do have them at home, and then they go to the Alamo Dome. That's a school that I think is that in between between BYU and Wyoming, right? It gives you a more moderate test and then boom it's packed twelve play. You see where your team's at around that time, ⁓ and you're able to make the adjustments you need. I do think that Jim Moore can build something. Remember, if you've seen the numbers, Colorado State has the most money in NIL. poured in to their athletics, right? They have pretty much they have the most money is what I'm seeing. So they have the ability to make some sneaky noise, but year one, I would be hesitant to say they come in and pull a Kurt Signetti. Colorado State also, can you mention a team that spends a lot of money, they are actually the leader in the Pac twelve at total operate football operating expenses at thirty seven point seven nine million. That's a no That's what it was. Maybe it's not NIL, but I knew I knew they had the most money in some way. Yeah, just in total operating expenses. Well ahead of the second place team Boise, who is at thirty point seven. So go ahead solo if you wanna continue on. Well yeah. I was just gonna you ball brought up in really great points. Colorado State does have the backing that other schools might not have for even though they are struggling in recent years. This is a team who'd has had ten straight losing seasons, so it's great that they do have this backing for a a program that hasn't really done much, but I think the biggest concern for this upcoming season in particular is that with the n when you have a brand new team and a new system, new staff, you really don't and you're not really quality school either. You don't really have any key or standout players. Every position is essentially right now, we're still in the middle of summer ball, but every position right now is basically up for grabs. Like especially the quarterback room. Right now it's about between Darius Curry, who is a returner. He gave he threw five touchdowns and seven picks. Then they got a UConn transfer, Kassan Farr, and you have a Oklahoma State transfer, Haas Heine. These are three guys who are all thinking they can win this job. And it's basically the same thing for every other position. They're running back Romel Brown and Oliver Coleman. They combine they're returners who combine for four hundred yards and three touchdowns. There's just there's just a lot of just question marks going into the season, which is why it's kinda hard to really truly get invested into a team. But I just think Jim Moore, he's a really scrappy coach and I think he could just he could give you some hype moments for sure. But I just I don't think this is a season where they're really they're just happy. Six and six, that's a that's a really that's a successful season I would say for the Colorado State Rams. I think when we're sitting here next year at this time doing the the preview for next season, I think we'll have a different story for Colorado State. I think the program's gonna turn on pretty fast. I think Jim Moore's gonna do a really good job building that team and we'll see how it goes. Caden you have anything to cap off Colorado State? I I will say it's interesting how ⁓ I believe you said FanDuel had them at three and a half. ⁓ it's interesting to see what maybe where Vegas holds a line at versus media outlets. I've seen a lot of different stuff just researching Oregon State and Washington State, a lot of different lines. People fluctuate in what they think. ⁓ so I think three and a half is very much fair ⁓ for a brand new looking squad. But you never know. There's been a lot of talk of saying they're gonna be a lot better than a lot of people think. I've seen them projected like six to seven wins at some different outlets. So never know. People view this thing totally different than some others. And I think that's really cool to see and ⁓ they there's absolutely no pressure in year one. No pressure at all. I that is a really big great point, Caden. There is essentially no pressure. So it's basically like free reign for Jim Moore, man. If if you don't go two a Tennegan I think i anything's a success. Yep, I agree. But think that'll unless you got any final words, Brad. I do not know. All right, well that'll we gotta move on because we still got a couple other teams to go through. So I believe next on the chopping block is Fresno State. Let's talk let's hear about the Bulldogs. Let's hear about the Bulldogs. Fresno State. ⁓ I'll just start off by saying this is my my hot take for the year. ⁓ if we're gonna go ahead this is I think this is my team that can win the the Pac twelve in the first year. Mm-hmm. ⁓ and that's just based off all the research I've done. So let me just go ahead and ⁓ give you everything I got. So nine and four last season, they won the Arizona Bowl over the Miami Redhawks. ⁓ shout out Maction. I'm a big Mac guy if you don't know. Huge Mac guy. huge Mac. Second season under ⁓ head coach Mac Matt Ents, who was the former head coach of North Dakota State from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty three. He went sixty and eleven in his time at North Dakota State. A fun fact for you. ⁓ he's the first head coach to go sixteen and ⁓ in his first full season as a coach. He led the twenty nineteen NDSU Bison to an FCS title. ⁓ the team joins the eighteen ninety-four Yale Bulldogs. It's the only team to go sixteen and or the only as the only sixteen and ⁓ team in college football history. I did Indiana go sixteen and ⁓ this year too. So so now now Indiana in there as well. I guess that was a ⁓ old stat. So you had Indiana as well. Pretty good company for Matt Ents. Now I I read a lot of the discourse saying that like it's the same thing with the Ohio State. Like he had that because he was born on third, with NDSU essentially being the like the darling in the FCS for so long. ⁓ I I I don't I don't agree with that. I I think no matter who no matter what team you have in front of you, you still have to be a good coach to to get them far. So But let's get on to this offense. They really focus on running the ball. They again just like I feel like this is like the same story for all these teams. Just a a two headed running just a two head monster at running back. Let me get my notes back. Sorry. ⁓ with Jay with junior, ⁓ Bryson Donaldson and senior Ray Sean Luke. ⁓ they also have Brandon Ramirez, who their third running back, who is a bowling ball. Bowling ball. Donaldson had six hundred yards, five touchdowns. Luke had seven hundred and two yards, six touchdowns. They really did a great job ⁓ splitting the touches for those two. And it really is kind of a crapshoot of like When the when when either of these guys is on the field, what are they going to do? Because they're both so versatile. I think that's going to open up a lot for their offense. New quarterback, Christian Martin, transferring from Maryland. As of right now, he is slotted to start. ⁓ EJ Warner was the the last quarterback to start from last year. Did pretty decent. ⁓ Christian Martin, though, takes over the range this year. As of right now, he was a three-star in high school. The only thing that I really saw on him is because he hasn't played a lot yet, is that he all of his coaches just preach about his massive arm. on in just his arm strength. So what we know with the limited snaps, ⁓ that's kind of all we know. But hi his initial push right now, he will start. ⁓ since he would he is the highest paid quarterback in the portal for that team. ⁓ they retained number one receiver Josiah Freeman. That's something we'll get into later with the retention. They do a great job retaining players and keeping guys in the door. So they retain their number one receiver. ⁓ they also retained Harold Duvall, one of their big time playmaking receivers. And they got ⁓ Jake Applegat from Nebraska at tight end. So they're they already rebuilt their offense. Their off their offensive line stayed the same. It looks really good. They have a dominant four two five defense. They were second in the Mountain West last season. They're returning ⁓ sorry, DeJohn ⁓ Lafite, ⁓ who he's their best ⁓ pass rusher, thirteen solo tackles, three sacks, and an interception last year. Also Martin Owooza. ⁓ he's a transfer from Sacks or sorry. Martin Owooza, he'll be big on that D line and a transfer from Sack State ⁓ solo your team Dylan Hamston. So they they so they really did a good job of ⁓ adding to that already really good defense that retained ⁓ a lot of good players and also and the last thing I'll say too is they have ⁓ they have the best name in the in the Pac twelve with one of their linebackers. K Kavon ⁓ Thunderbird is his name. Ooh Thunderbird. As a linebacker that's a football name Yeah. Tough. So you're gonna hear that name a lot coming in the fall. Also, a fun fact about Fresno when we were talking about figures earlier. We were talking about total operating cost of these teams and how Colorado State, Boise, Texas State are all at the top with their their big budgets. Fresno State at the very, very bottom of the list, ⁓ without question, five mil separated from the second last team, Utah State at seventeen point nine million. So not only are they operating on pennies. They're doing it in a in a they're d they're doing it successfully. And they they rebuilt this team really fun. Like the only question that they have is quarterback, obviously it's because we just don't know much sorry, we just don't know much about him. ⁓ but as I said at the start, this is my preseason pick to win the Pac twelve. I just think there's so much about this team. They retained a lot of their really good players. Their coach, Matt Ents, I'm really big fan of him. ⁓ especially a guy coming from North Dakota State. You gotta love any guy coming from that school, so I'm really high on the Bulldogs this year. I'll be watching a lot of Bulldog football this year. I think Fresno State fans, you finally are gonna have something to smile about. And you might even see your team in the playoffs. So do we got any questions on Fresno before we move on? I was gonna let Caden take it real quick if you want to, Caden. You can go first. ⁓ I'm I'm interested about Fresno State too. I in the first episode in the pilot I talked about ⁓ their retainment and coming off of pretty successful season and I thought it was interesting for a smaller school like Fresno ⁓ to be able to retain these amount of guys. It's very impressive to do at a lower level and not being in the SEC or the Big Ten. So that's interesting. Obviously a culture's been built there. They have a leg up on a school like Colorado State going into a new Pac twelve, I think. And I assume you would agree. You know more than I do. Of course. But listening to what you say. Yeah, I would have to say sorry kid, not interrupt you, my bad. They've no, y you're good. I think they've got an advantage going into this new season with a new conference. Yeah, I definitely agree with both of you and I definitely see the take, Brett. We think this is a team that could essentially win the Pac twelve and probably get into the C F P. Honestly, if things go their way, this is a team that has a clear identity. And they're bringing in a guy who can very much fit that identity and who has one at a at a at another level. So it's proven that he he knows how to get them there. It's just they need the resources to do so. Yeah, and this is a team who will run the rock. They had more they almost had more rushing yards than passing yards last year. That's when they had a quarterback. So it's interesting to see how much more touches they get to now with a guy who has to kind of prove himself now, especially that QB one role, but This is a team that's probably gonna get to thirty five carries a game at minimum. And I just think that if their defense holds up as well, this is a team that didn't allow a lot of points as well, only less than twenty points a game last season and less than three hundred yards. That's really good in college. That's amazing. Yeah. I and and like I said, this new Pac twelve where these offenses are so explosive and even like there's some question marks around some of ⁓ Your defense has gotta hold up. And especially when we get to Texas State later, you're gonna be facing guys like Brad Jackson and Bo Sparks, Chris Dawn, and it's like you're gonna need the defense to stop these guys. Absolutely. And I think Fresno State could very well just surprise everybody. ⁓ I know they're probably not projected to be the favorite 'cause that's just Boise, but this is a team who could easily go ban for ban Boise and just the other contenders in this new era, man. I I'm Loki kind of excited for Fresno man. Yeah. I I never thought I'd say I'm excited for Fresno, but not even people who live in Fresno are excited for Fresno. Did you guys know Shrek is from Fresno as well? Really? Yeah. Like Mike Myers or Shrek. Shrek. What the heck? No further explanation. No. No. We're with you. Well we can move on then. All right. Well we'll No, I ⁓ my bad. Go ahead. I will say though. One more thing off Fresno State and y'all tell me how y'all feel about this. I'm excited to see a team that I know is gonna run the ball. You know what to expect with Boise because they're Boise. We know their identity from watching them play a lot on national television, but Fresno sneaky dark horse, and they're gonna run the ball down your throat. That is interesting to see, especially in just today's game of football. It's it's not as common, right? Well, you can Yeah, I was well, I mean, we're gonna give it right back to Caden because now it's his turn to step up to the plate. I believe Caden, it is time to hear about the Oregon State Beavers, one of the OG teams from the Pac twelve, and they finally get their time to shine. Take it away. The Beaves. All right, be gracious, Army. Got a lot going on on the plate right now. Put as much time into put as much time into this as I can, but playing baseball games every day, a lot of stuff on my plate. You're fine. We're gonna have another football episode later on too, where we can go a little further in. This is just kind of the the the appetizer. Mm-hmm. Well, Oregon State, gotta start. Corvalis, everybody knows the name. They're from the OG Pac twelve. They've played the best of the best as a program. Now, this football team, they haven't played the best of the best. This is a brand new looking squad. Talks about it on the pilot. Jamarcus Shepherd's the new head coach. He spent the last two years at Alabama working on the offense as an assistant head coach, co offensive coordinator, and the receivers coach. He's coached a lot of great receivers in his time as a coach. He also comes from Washington, where he Was doing the exact same thing, assistant head coach, pass game stuff, wide receivers. That's the Huskers team that went all the way to the Natty game and lost to Michigan. ⁓ shout out Brett and his Michigan Wolverines. Yes, sir. Jamarcus Shepherd, though, is going to come in and this is going to be an offensive team. I love the fact that he's getting paired with Malik Murphy. Starting starting right there with the offense. This is a team where the key guy, the player that everyone's going to be looking at is Malik Murphy. Last year, two and ten, fluke. I mean, you cannot have three quarterbacks sw splitting reps. Like you can't have that. That's not good for Malik. That's not good for any of the other guys that were being split reps with. So this is not gonna happen. Jamarcus Shepherd is too good of an offensive mind to do something as silly as split reps between quarterbacks in a season. Two and ten, I don't see it happening again. ⁓ house has been cleaned, right? It's what you expect when a new coach comes in. ⁓ as of last time that I looked a few days ago. Bringing 21 guys in from the portal, 35 are out. Only one of those guys coming from Bama following Jamarcus Shepherd. And this is a team that Po eligible would be really awesome. It would be really sweet. They have struggled. They are at risk of three straight losing seasons now. Jamarcus Shepard, no pressure really on you, right? You're just being stepped in first year in this role. ⁓ and this is a team from the OG Pac twelve, right? You would think really story program. Only forty-three winning seasons in a hundred and eight years of Oregon State football. That's kind of crazy. Losing's normal. Losing is normal in Corvallis more often than winning is. But you know that there's potential in a place like Corvalis to be something greater. Now the competition has lessened a little bit, right? There's no Oregon, there's no USC, Washington, Arizona, there's none of these bigger schools, right? It's maybe more on the level of Oregon State to be a little bit more competitive. This is an advantage for them. It's a chance to go get something year one, right? Mitchell, they're trying to avoid three straight losing seasons. So reaching a bowl game in year one of the Shepherd era, that would that would be awesome. ⁓ this is an offensive oriented staff that he's bringing in. That's a strong point. I think that's a focal point. If you can score more run, more runs. I'm thinking baseball. If you can score more touchdowns, more points in the other team, obviously you're gonna win. That's how football works. Malik Murphy is the guy to help you do that. He's not gonna split reps. He's gonna get the chance to blossom into the dude that he can finally be in what I believe is his final year of college football. Top three receivers, though, are gone for the offense, but they brought in some good guys in the portal. They've got Aaron Butler from Texas, Aaron Hampton from Alabama, that's the one Bama guy, and then Xavion Noland from UTRGV. It's gonna fit immediately. They're gonna have threats on the inside on the outside. Shout out Harlingen. They'll have threats all around. They'll have threats all over. ⁓ you're gonna be looking at the offense because of what this staff is, but the O line is also gonna be brand new. If if he can't block and protect Malik Murphy, he's not gonna have time to make the plays that he can make. We'll see how that line meshes in year one. It will be interesting to see. But they also turned the ball over a lot last year. They had eighteen fumbles last season alone. ⁓ my gosh. Wow. They've gotta fix that. And they lost let let me make sure. Yeah, it was seven of them. ⁓ You can't have that. Can I play devil's advocate, Caden? Sorry to interrupt you. Is it maybe the weather up there that the moisture that might have something to do with that? I don't know for sure. That's what it is. I think Oregon State was just a bad football team last year. That's most likely. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, maybe there's something to that. Maybe it's like the forty nine or substation stuff. Maybe we just crack something here, you know? All right, back well. Well, and then this goes right back to your point. Right back to your point of what maybe it was. They were just a bad football team. They went nine and twenty in the red zone last year. That that's rough, right? They got down there, couldn't convert, they couldn't do anything. ⁓ I assume Jamarcus Shepherd knows how to go score in the red zone, right? I I'm sure that issue gets avoided right here. ⁓ and this is also a team that last year they were outscored two hundred and one to eighty three in the first half by their opponents. If you remember watching earlier in the season, There are so many games that they should have won in non-conference. ⁓ which they only had one conference opponent then. But like that game against Houston just rings in my head. That's a game they should have won. There were so many games that they should have won, and then the next week they went out there and lost to a worse opponent in embarrassing fashion. So it was just not a consistent team last year. This is gonna be an offensive team looking to do something different than last year. And I I'll just leave it at what I've already said. You get to a bowl game, you You might as well act like you won the natty for Oregon State. You didn't lose have a losing season three years in a row. You got to a bowl game. That's huge. ⁓ I mean, just don't go two and ten, Shepard. That's all you gotta say. Yeah, no. I agree with you, Caden. Shout out Texas legend Malik Murphy. I'm really surprised that they were able to retain him and for his last year of college football. I think as a man who has rebuilt a bunch of teams on college football, the video game, I th the best thing you could possibly ask for is like a really good veteran quarterback who probably has maybe a year left, but you just need him just to like get you a couple wins when you're still building a team. And that's exactly what has fell into Jam ⁓ Jamarcus Shepherds's lap. Mal Malik Murphy, I still believe in him. Like you said, he split reps with two of the guys last year. That was a team who very clearly was just spiraling and was just trying anything. And I just think that he's gonna help him get back on track. And they did bring in a lot of we talked about the Aaron Butler from Texas and Hampton from Alabama. They're already bringing in guys that he can throw the Brock to. I just think they just gotta just find their identity. Once they do that and establish it and get those wins that they're looking for. You talked about getting those wins against people they should beat and just beating just winning the games you gotta win. This is just the step in the right direction for them and hopefully they're able to get a winning season 'cause forty three winning season in your program history is kinda crazy. I'm not gonna lie. That's not good. Not great. Not good. Especially in a low the Pac twelve, it's not like it is what it is now. It used to be stacked. Like you were getting teams who could compete every single year for the national championship regularly when you had Stanford at their peak. USC obviously has always been a p like a powerhouse. Oregon kinda came late. Like so it just kinda it's weird. Like certainly they had been like the bottom feeder of that conference for the amount of time that all those teams were there. But you have a chance to kind of take the throne here with this new conference and this is gonna be a very important year for their football program. Absolutely I will t say defensively for them, right? They went two and ten last year, but in every loss they gave up twenty or more points. The least amount of points they gave up in a loss was twenty one to Sam Houston. They lost to Sam Houston. They Sam Houston? ⁓ no. I didn't know Sam Houston won a I didn't know Sam Houston won a game last year. All right. Well, do you got anything else, Caden, before we move on to our next team? hey, the Shepherd era starts right here with a clean slate. It's just like Colorado State. They've got a chance to make some noise and they're just hoping to maybe win up maybe go to a bowl game. Right, I'm think who should be the next team. Sorry, I'm kinda stunned San Diego. We are doing so bad the alphabet today. Yeah. I've got I've got the schedule pulled up and I did it in my head, it is actually an alphabetical on the Pac twelve website. So if San Diego State That's perfect Thank you, Caden. Thanks. We would have we would have been here for hours figuring that out. All of our knowledge just goes to college sports. Yeah, so I had to I had to brain up the alphabet so I could learn more about Fresno State. But okay, bet then it goes right back to me now. San Diego State, the Aztecs. Now, I think I'm gonna be on my Brett Beerman timing with this one. I think this is the team who could win the pack in its inaugural season. This is a team who's coming off one of the best years they've ever had in CFB and they're looking to try and capitalize in this new conference with some hardware now. Sean Lewis is a guy who's entering his third year, and man, I've never fallen in love with a coach faster doing research than Sean Lewis. Now the record will tell you it's only he's 12 and 13 with San Diego State. But that first year, absolute just I can't say the word, but it was just poop fest. It was it was just not good. It was not good. But he just the quick turnaround. This is team that won nine games last year. They lost their bowl game, unfortunately. But this is a team who was on the come up. And even the biggest question mark they have is that they lost a lot of their key guys. This a team that defended so great. They had one of the best defenses in the country. In total defense, they ranked 11th. And they ranked top fifty and a bunch of other statistics as well. This is a team that stopped you. They didn't let you score at all. And if you did score on them, it's probably the few games they lost. Now, Sean Lewis surprisingly is an offensive minded head coach. That's one of the biggest flaws of his Aztecs team so far. It's only had two years, granted. But the offense has yet to find itself. And with an offensive minded coach, you're just waiting for them to just find hit that gold, hit that jackpot. Cause you got the defense already. You just need to have that offense to coincide. And this is a team, if they had that a great offense, this is a t team that probably maybe loses at most one or two games. But now that defense is going to look a little bit different as They lost twelve they lost twelve out of their top fourteen tacklers and they they had a first round corner drafted by the Miami Dolphins, Chris Johnson. So shout out to him to get your bag, brother. But that is a key piece of that they're just gone either in the portal or in the draft. But they have luckily they did keep a bunch of talent on the offensive side. A player that I'm gonna be focusing on 'cause I think he very well could be the best running back in the conference. Senior running back Lucky Sutton. He had almost thirteen hundred yards and ran in ten touchdowns and over five yards a game last year. And he has a partner McCrime and Christian Washington. Both of ⁓ combined for almost two thousand yards and fourteen total touchdowns there. They had dominance on the ground. This is a team that loves to run the ball. And like we actually look we said that for every other team so far. But this is a team who has the talent to just run it down your throat as well. And They're able to retain their quarterback as well, Jaden Denegal, the former Michigan man. He basically played all of last season through injury. He didn't play too awful though, to be honest, with injury. But it's gonna be looking a little different this year. He got healthy, getting healthier now, get into the season, completely wipe away last year, and now you're looking to just get this offense finally, maybe to get the burst through that wall that you're facing right now. Cause Sean Lewis He is loves his offense. Offense is his top priority. But we do talk about this defense because this is the defense that has made this team what it is now. They retain almost half of their production, even though they did lose a lot of their guys. They kept Delashawn Staley and Malachi Fanao, those are guys who are huge pieces and they're lucky to keep them. But they will be bringing in a new D C Demetrius Summler. So he's gonna try and adjust with this new system. Hopefully the the guys they were able to retain are able to, you know, s make him settle in a little bit quicker. For S D S U though, it's gonna be hard to repeat last season 'cause they do have a pretty rough schedule. I'm not gonna lie to you guys. Their openers against Portland State should be a game that they take down pretty soundly. But they're out of conference. They're testing them pretty early, man. U C L A, they're going to the Rolls Bowl to take on the Bruins. And the Bruins, even though they pr played pretty badly last year, this is a team who's basically new. They got a new coach, new staff. Bob Chesney from G ⁓ Bob Chesney, yeah, man. JMU. The Dukes are essentially taking over ⁓ Pasadena. And so that's gonna be an interesting game. That's gonna be a great ⁓ mid major out of conference game to look at I guess not mid major, but I'm talking about UCLA. I'm thinking of JMU. U C L A and ⁓ San Diego State. That's gonna be a great in state little game to go on in week two. And then right after it's a shame nobody in that stadium is gonna give a crap. ⁓ yeah. And but they all five people there will love the game. They might give a crap if like UCLA because my guys just be mad. But then we talk about JMU because right after UCLA they will they host Sun Bell Billy and the Dukes. No way. They do let's go. So that's a little bit of a ringer man. I know Sun Bell Billy is not essentially the guy he used to be with those teams he used to have, but he's still got the reputation JMU's always going to be a good team. in ⁓ the the Sun Belt. So that's a game that could also go either way for them. And then like we said, conference starts. We talked about Oregon State. They play against Boise State. They also play against Texas State as well. That game I believe is in San Marcus. Yeah, they start off conference play in San Marcus. Yeah. That is a game that could if they don't game plan hard enough that is a game that could they could get caught. But this is a team I think should have enough to keep their winning ways. Granted that it does depend on how much the defense does decline. 'Cause they they just lost a lot. A lot of guys went to power four schools. I just talked about they had a first round draft pick as well. So but if they're able to keep this defense producing at a just a if you're able to just maintain like maybe top fifty in the country, that's a great spot where you want to be because their offense is just waiting. You're just waiting for that offense to just finally click. On the running game it has, they outscored their opponents on the run on the ground, twenty five rushing touchdowns and they only allowed nine. Wow. And they second quarter, this is a team that outscored their opponents. One hundred and thirty two to fifty six. This is a team that they can get it going when they want to. They just can't really do it on the air. But that defense just gives you enough time to if essentially just find the spot you want to be at and just essentially win the game. But still it's gonna be a little bit shaky for them. the new conference as well, but a lot of the same teams they face as well. I I think this is a team that could take the championship, man. I think this is team that could maybe knock Boyd. They are projected to finish second. So they're they're right behind Boyd. It's not like they're like underdogs by any means. Exactly. I think the ceiling for them probably be ten and three with a championship and maybe possible f college football playoff game. And their floor will probably be another bowl game loss. You want at least a bowl win. I think if they don't win a bowl game this season, I don't think it's a success. Yeah, absolute failure. If you don't it like you said at the very least, get to a bowl game. But I love this Aztecs team and and I gotta say, probably not gonna lie, one of the best jerseys in college football. We were just looking at their helmets before we crack the mice. I do think they have the best helmet exactly. He's yeah, I mean, yeah, of course. ⁓ Just get get eyes on it and just like how beautiful that helmet is, man. It's gorgeous. We love the Aztecs here, and I think the Aztecs could very well just take it for themselves. I think this is a team who would be electric to watch, especially Lucky Sun. But do y'all guys any got any questions about the Aztecs? I'm already knowing about them helmets, baby. Them things are beautiful. I'm already knowing. Hey, I love their non conference schedule. I think, you know This may be hot to say, but they could come out of non conference four and ⁓ It's a UCLA team that wasn't great last year. Their new look. It's a new look UCLA squad. I I understand that. ⁓ coming, you know, Bob Chesney was very successful, obviously. We know that. JMU, brand new, new look squad. It is Sunbel Billy, but I think they They're better than JMU and Toledo they should win Portland State. That's a no brainer. That was the other game I forgot to mention. Toledo should How dare you forget the Mac, man? Well, it's because like Toledo's head is they're bringing in a new coach as well. So it's gonna be a whole new coach. Th the gauntlet of coaches of new coaches. Great, yeah. And then and then four and ⁓ though. And then you start conference playoff with Texas State. Yeah, they're gonna be going through the ring, but it's a team that can handle that. I think so too, yeah. But I agree with you, Solo. I think, you know, despite them being second, ⁓ the favorites to finish second, I still think they're being wildly overlooked. I think and I and as we got further into this, I'm kinda conceding to the fact that I think Boise State might be a little overranked. ⁓ considering like all like the the retention and like and all the the stuff about these teams that we've learned so far. It's it's it's I'm getting as we get a little further I'm getting it's getting kinda harder to decisively say that Boise State's gonna walk away with this. I think it's gonna be hard I have to agree with that. Yeah, I think it's gonna be hard for any team To run away with this. I think this is a team like I said it before in episode one, this is probably a conference that eats itself alive. Yeah. For better or for worse. But it's gonna be hard to just definitely definitively say this team is gonna win the conference. Right. Yeah. But I think San Diego State has a best big of a case of anybody to say why they should be the ones to hoist that trophy at the end. I assume the I assume that championships game also is gonna be in Vegas. Yeah, like i it it it i I can see it now. Like at Allegiance Stadium. Yeah, i it just kinda seems like that that's what's gonna gonna happen. But yeah, I I just I really fell in love with San Diego State a lot. Another a couple other guys they brought they brought in ⁓ tr transfers from Indiana, they brought in an offensive line offensive tackle specifically. He was one of the best in the country coming into the season. Six six, three ⁓ f three ⁓ six pounds sophomore. That'll be their guy who's gonna be covering the blind side. They did lose their probably their best edge to Texas Tech though. So he's gonna get his back with the Red Raiders. But this San Diego State Aztecs team, man, they could very well surprise the nation, I think. I think they're probably the best team who could knock out a team like Boise State, who is projected to be the favorite. Sorry, I was texting my boss. Very good. I was just gonna say if y'all got any final words, because I basically that's all for me. That's that's that's all I got as well for for San Diego State. Caden, you got anything you want to wrap up with with them? Hey, just watch out. Watch out. All right. That'll wrap it up for San Diego State. Now I believe it's going over to Brett again for Texas State. Yes, sir. All right, Brett, take it over. The Bobcats. So obviously this team has a lot of weight in this room, all three of us. One one is a current graduate, two or set to graduate this winter. So this is a this is, you know, a little bit of a homer pick. I tried to keep it as neutral as possible. So we'll just go ahead and go through it. Seven and six last season the Bobcats finished. They won Armed Forces Bowl against Rice, forty one to ten. Without a doubt, as I was doing research on these teams, like the most decisive bowl win, I think, out of all the teams. ⁓ we're getting G J Kenney in his fourth year in San Marcus, twenty three and sixteen record going into the pack twelve. I think it's without a doubt, and I don't think anyone in this room disagrees, the best returning offense in the Pac twelve, especially when you have Brad Jackson and Bo Sparks. That's not even including Chris Dawn Jr. all returning. And not even including their their pretty pretty good all line. Brad Jackson, starting off with him, first first team preseason all Pac twelve. He finished last year as the third team all sum belt. I thought he was raw, probably should have been first. He's coming off a fantastic season. ⁓ ⁓ sorry, sorry, sorry, lost my train of thought there. Had a fantastic season last season, so much so that I think we all probably sat, you know, in this studio and thought, like, where's he gonna go? Like, how high is the dollar gonna go? Like, for him to go to a a power four team, I think. I thought for sure he was out the door. He ended up staying, and thank God he did. And they also have Bo Sparks coming back. Was the best receiver, not and not one of the best, the best receiver in the country to start the season last year. He had that. Big game against Eastern Michigan with four touchdowns. I think he had over two hundred something yards receiving. He lit it up for him. ⁓ he finished off with twelve hundred yards, ten touchdowns. And Chris Dawn, we mentioned him as well. He's returning. He he he ⁓ topped out at a thousand and seven yards. He hit the thousand yard mark with four touchdowns. I believe he was hurt a little bit, correct? A little banged up here. So so definitely more room for improvement there, and I think that's gonna come this year. ⁓ the big story this offseason though, and solo this kind of this broke. the day before we went to the spring game. Who's gonna lead in that backfield? ⁓ Greg Burrell released from the team back in April. ⁓ and and and news this past week, running back coach Barrett Neely left the program to pursue opportunities outside of football. So a lot of question marks in that running back room. I I think it'll be a running back by committee type thing. I don't really have like a name that's gonna take over number one. ⁓ but we'll just go and mention a senior ⁓ Torrance Burge Junior. He's back. And who Jalen Jenkins still. And Jalen Jenkins. I forgot to write him down. Yeah, he's a junior, so he'll be back as well. There's a lot there's a big, big load to pick up with Lincoln Perry leaving the team. He's obviously a cult now. Congrats to Lincoln. ⁓ and the defense underwent a little bit of a facelift ⁓ this offseason. And this is my biggest question mark about this team is this defense. Because as we know, boys, started off the year three and one last year, started conference play. ⁓ and I believe it was Louisiana Lafayette, right, that they lost that first game to It took a while for them to get their first. Yeah. They started I think they they started off in some belt play ⁓ and four. And not only that, having lead in all four of those games and blowing it late in the fourth quarter to their defense. Especially that Troy game. ⁓ God, don't bring Doug. That's PTSD, man. ⁓ so they released ⁓ defensive coordinator Dexter McCoy and brought in Will Windham from South Alabama. And again, Solo, we saw them at the spring game. The defense kind of has a new identity to it. It seemed like there was a little bit more intensity going into it. It seems like the defense is a little bit more on their Ps and Q's. I think as long as this defense holds up, another team that that could sneak away with this Pac twelve, you know, with it being so wide open, I think when when you're when you have a situation like this where you're not really sure it's gonna be a roll of the dice, we're looking at the best offense without a doubt in the Pac twelve. And if that defense can step up, man, from last season, not that it couldn't get any worse than last year, but they brought in ⁓ Tay Woody from ULM, Chancellor Owens from Arizona, and the most important pickup from their defense this offseason, Phillip Bradford, the defensive tackle from McNeese, had fifteen point five tackles for losses and five and a half sacks last season. He was massive for the McNeese Cowboys last year. And the biggest question mark is their secondary. It leaves very little to be desired. They didn't really bring anybody in the portal. The recruiting was kind of weak. ⁓ but we'll see. You know, it's a it's a it's a new face with this defense. Big question mark. We have no idea how they're gonna look. ⁓ so we'll see. I I think the ceiling for Texas State probably Nine and three, you know, I know we've said that about every team so far, but it's just kind of what it is. You know, th they are gonna drop a few games. It's just kind of the the the way of the bobcat if you if you know. but we'll see. ⁓ and I think the floor is probably five and seven. I I just think the offense is too good to let them slip too much. I know this pack twelve is very stacked, but Brad Jackson is by far the best quarterback in this conference. Both Sparks, without a doubt, the best receiver. I think their offense is gonna carry them. ⁓ by themselves to at least five wins, but that defense is what's gonna be the deciding factor in the Pac twelve. May sound it may sound super cliche, but I think Texas State either finds themselves in or a game away from the championship in year one, or they get smacked around. It's one of two ways for that. I don't think it's in between. Yeah. I don't think they'll be No, I they've got the offense to go win literally almost every game on their schedule. ⁓ They're very well set up to score thirty plus a game. Can the defense allow less than thirty points a game? ⁓ if the defense can do that, ⁓ they've got a good chance to win a lot of football games with that offense. ⁓ it I don't want to be too redundant, but it's so stacked. Jalen Jenkins interested about him. ⁓ I wanna see him play a lot. He was maybe ⁓ or mainly the return guy last year. He had a lot of good returns as well, had a few called back due to penalties, but He's a very good running back and only 5'8, 173. He is really good. They need that power guy though. They they had that with Lincoln Perry. That was so good. I mean, Taji Atkins, I'm looking at the running backs right now. He's 5'8, 180. Torrance Burgess, 5'8, 176. And then the other running back, Davion Jackson, 6'1, 196. And Prior's 5'9. So yeah, a really small running back room. Like those guys are kind of small. ⁓ yeah, not really you can like name the power pack, you know, like if you need one. They definitely do have the speed though to just run and gun you. I I think that's what it's gonna be. Brad Jackson does need a power guy in between the tackles to complement his running game. ⁓ but the defense is is the focal point. You know GJ Kenney's offense is gonna go score thirty, maybe forty a game. Can the defense up the middle specifically hold things down? Losing Khalil Alexander was a big loss. Yeah, I'm probably just gonna repeat a lot of the same points, but it it is just gonna come down to the defense. This is an offense that was one of the best in the country for a lot of the season last year. And it was just that they couldn't close out the games 'cause their defense would just let them hang around. Let them falter, man. They would kinda just roll over. And it would what we talk about how every school wants to run the ball. This is probably one of the few schools in the Pac twelve that'll probably just be air ray dominant. Like they're gonna pass around the ball You do have Brad Jackson who is a dual threat. So you could see a potentially a lot of RPOs, potentially a lot of just options in general. Make him a little bit of a power back. You'd watch a quarterback taking hits, obviously, but he's probably the biggest guy. They do call him Brad Lamar Jackson for Junior. And without a doubt, ⁓ the most interesting out of conference schedule. And only because the best. Yeah, they're not leaving the state of Texas. They start off week one. Solo and I will be there, ⁓ at UT. DKR. D at DKR. ⁓ imagine that's gonna be a loss. We'll go ahead and say that now. But then you but then you finish off conference play with UT S A, North Texas, and Incarnate World. Shut up Incarnate World. You gotta go you have to go three and one going into conference play if you want a chance. Especially you can't lose to your biggest rival in UTSA. No, if y you can't spell nut sack without UT SA. That's what they say, right? Exactly. So yeah, we'll see and then obviously North Texas too. I I I think that could be ⁓ That would have been a great game last year. Yeah, you're right. I don't know how it's gonna go necessarily this year, but they will be playing it here in San Marcus at UFCU at nine PM. So we're getting Pac twelve after dark, our first Pac twelve after dark experience ⁓ coming September nineteenth against North Texas. Nine o'clock is kickoff time. It's gonna be a that's so late. It's gonna be a great season, man. I'm all here for it. I just it's really We said it time and time. It's just gonna be how well can this defense perform if they're just even a mid tier defense. Like I think this team that's good enough for this team to win eight plus games. Yeah. Couldn't agree more. Do we got anything else on the Bobcats for we move on to the last little f bit of teams here? Can't lose the UTSA. That's all I gotta say. They cannot do that. Whatever happens in conference play happens. They do have a rough stretch. We talked about it with Boise, but you go to the Blue Turf on Halloween night with the blackout, go to Corvalis the next week. Whew. You know, the only way out is through though. So y you have to play these teams if you wanna take that next step. Yep. I I love the fact that a as an alumni speaking, I'll just say this that they they get to play games like this against teams like this on networks like this. It it's gonna be fun for every school involved. It's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be great. Well, we got last couple teams here. I'm gonna take over and then we're gonna throw it over to Caden for the last team. But before we do that Utah State, the Aggies, it is their turn. Let's go over their upcoming season. This is a team I had a lot of fun researching actually. I'm not gonna lie. Another coach I fell in love with was ⁓ Bronco Mendenhall. This is a guy who historically just That's a football name. Yeah. That's a football name. And he's a damn good coach as well. Overall, he's been here for almost twenty years in the game of college football. His record's ⁓ one forty six to ninety five. He's a guy who won at Virginia, won at every other school he's been at, and he's looking to try and bring that to Utah State. He is born and raised in Utah. And last year they went six and seven. And this is a team who has a little bit of questions going into it. But for the most part, from everything I've seen, this is a team who can very well turn it around, man. You're two Bronco Menahall. So year one, six and seven, not bad for a year one coach. He he gets wins. So that's why you're feeling optimistic. So you have that kind of security, like, okay, he's won everywhere else. Why can't he win here? Right. Especially in this new conference where parody. And even though they had a lot of questions last year, they performed very fairly decently. They this is a team who had the number three offense in the Mountain West, and this is a team who could kill you in the deep ball. They average about A lot like Texas State. Yeah. Yeah. This is a team who averaged ⁓ about thirteen yards per completion. That led the Mountain West. And they had a no problem running the ground as well. They had they ran the ball pretty well. Unfortunately for them, an interesting stat I believe is like a pr ⁓ let me find the exact number, but I'm pretty sure in games where they ha ⁓ yeah. They ran the ball over When they had a hundred yards a game on the ground, they went ho ⁓ and four. So when they when they get the rock running, they just lost games. Not sure how that works. But it proves you can run the rock. That's not where I thought you were going with that. Sorry to interrupt you. That's why it was it they had the ball, ran the rock down your throat, they ended up losing the game for some reason. And that's 'cause their defense could not stop a damn thing. For every yard they gave for every yard they gained they gave up and for every point they scored they gave it right back. Total offense for the season. Utah State had above fifty three hundred total yards. Their opponents had fifty-seven hundred total yards. So like I said, they gave up everything they gave back and they allowed a lot. They're pretty sure they allowed the most sacks in the Mountain West. They gave up forty-two while only racking up about thirty themselves. A team that showed promise, but they just have a lot of holes. But Bronco Menethall has taken charge to address that. His first step was to retain and recruit for the Aggies team. They retained about seventy percent of their roster and they added about 30 new recruits to Logan, Utah, including studs like Harrison Taggart from Cal, Kasen Long from Texas Tech. These players will try and coexist with guys they've already had, like Bronson Olivo, who is a key returney. He had about ninety tackles and forty sacks. I think the biggest question this team will have though is that on the offensive side, the quarterback, ⁓ their guy is gone. They brought in a BYU transfer who was also formerly a Utah st ⁓ state transfer. So I guess he's coming home. McKay Hillstead, he's a guy who unfortunately has not taken any meaningful snaps since twenty twenty three. So he's a really big question mark coming in. Redshard senior. But he d will have a new O. C. calling shots for him. Robert Innay, who also comes from UVA, someone of Broncos guys. He comes in and tries to help this team. Although a key stat I did see last year is that UVA did have a horrible third down percentage. This is a team who could not convert on third down as well. And but I think this is a team who could very well shock some people. And I think Bronco Menenhall thinks that as well because I was watching an interview with him and he said he described the schedule that they built as the most ambitious. they've ever built. So this is a team who wants he throwing this team straight into the frying pan and it begins with a week one game against ⁓ Idaho State. Then they go on the road to take on Washington. They're going to take on yeah, Washington. And and then following that they go to Utah as well. So they're gonna take on the Utes. Those are two top twenty five matchups right then and there's a at the moment. And then they come back home to take on Troy. That's a team who's projected to win the Sun Belt. this upcoming season. So those are three back to back games, one of ⁓ only at home that you're gonna try and maybe just shock the world, but two of those look like they might be losses and that Troy one could very well be a loss. I think I think Troy might take that one. Troy is a very well run football program. So that and then right after that, they go back on the road to take on Boise State. And then another key game's a couple they got one at Texas State in San Diego State. And then their flex game at the moment is a home game against Boise State as well. So they're projected to play Boise twice. So this is a schedule that will show you quickly what this team is made of. I'm not gonna lie to you. Not gonna be great. Yeah. But I like the promise that it shows. I think Bronco Menahall is a great mix of a good coach who's old school and new school. He's a guy who retired for a little bit and came back. And I think he came back because he just embraces the new world of college football. You don't you see a lot of older guys who just kinda like Fell out of love of the game. Like Nick Saban's a great ⁓ example. He was a guy who won it all but he just really didn't like how college football is trading. And is now trying to pass legislation, by the way, to get the NIL banned. Yeah. ⁓ which is crazy. I I just don't understand how a a guy who has molded so many young men could possibly want to see them not have the best opportunity to advance in their life. You know, that that just blows my mind. We can sorry, we can get back to it. I just wanted to mention that. No, no, that's an interesting topic to bring up. I'm sure we'll talk about that. in the future as well. I think this is a team that shows a lot of promise and this is a team that I wanna root for, especially since they have those really, really cool cow print helmets, man. Some of my favorite helmets in college football. I just think that this is a team who's probably just gonna fly a little bit too close to the sun and maybe for the right reasons. You gotta just what's the word? The only way out is through. The only way out is through. This is a team who's gonna see the schedule and just they gotta take it one game at a time. And if you can steal a couple of those games against like if you do play Boise State twice, if you can steal that last game at home, that would be huge for you, man. I just think this is a team their ceiling is probably eight five. Their floor maybe about four or five wins. I do think this is a team who probably just kind of stays where they were. Maybe they go six and six again. Maybe they win a bowl game. Maybe they lose a bowl game. I think it's probably more the same unfortunately. I think Utah State is looking for sure for a winning season. Especially Bronco Menahall. This is a guy who loves to win. He's not going to be satisfied for six and six. And ⁓ real quick, I want to share a quick story I found. He's really serious about getting this team in touch with Utah. Like I said, he's from Utah. So I found this is the this is actually this this I'm gonna stay quiet on what I wanted to say. This article, ⁓ you could get back to it, but I just want to share this story real quick. I don't think you want me to say it. I'm sorry. This article was published July. Okay. This article was published July 5th. Bronco Mendenhall took his entire Utah state team on a pioneer trek. So he had them pushing up hand carts along a ridge on the trek of Cache Valley. And he was just he had them just it was just a pract I got a picture right here. If y'all want to see it. ⁓ no. They're literally just Caden I'm gonna show this to too. They're trekking along just they're they're literally pushing hand carts. Do you see that? It's like they're on the trailer tears. It's crazy. They're literally on the trailer tiers. This is just a football bonding exercise. Just all that to go six and six, man. But it's it's fire. I'm not gonna lie. It is fire though. It looks really cool. Like the pic this is a great ⁓ that looks sick. Yeah. The the bonding exercise That's like something you hang up like in the in the locker room. Exactly, man. So I think he's really serious about wanting to transform this Utah State Aggie team. I just think they're a couple of years away from being a contender. But I love how ambitious they are. I think it's probably the most exciting six and sixteen maybe ever. I I I couldn't disagree with that. Cain, you got anything on them before we move on to the last team? I feel like Utah State just kinda gets left out of the excitement discussions of this new conference, but there's a lot of reason to be excited about anybody that's joining. So, you know, they may not be in the spotlight yet, but they certainly have the chance to go steal it. All right. I think we're gonna move on to our final team in this football deep dive. We're gonna throw it over to Kate and take us home, baby. We got the Washington State Cougars. Straight out of Pullman, baby. Pullman, Washington, home of the Washing State Cougars. Another OG Pac twelve school. Gotta start with new head coach Kirby Moore. Kirby Moore is coming into a team where they had success last year. They were seven and four. Seven and five, I believe. It was one of those. Yeah, seven and six. There we go. That's the right number. ⁓ seven to six is not bad. They did play in the famous Idaho Potato Bowl. They beat Utah State actually by thirteen points. ⁓ This is a team I think I'd be excited about, right? They won seven games last year. Now they got a new coach and Kirby Moore comes from Missouri. That Missouri offense over the last three years, if you think about it, been a lot better than what you think of Mizzou of the past. Right. Yeah, especially with Ahmad Hardy who was very good running the ball and then Bo Purbleau, who was an amazing quarterback now Virginia. That's how Luther Burning for a little bit. Yeah, and they had Luther Burden, yeah, Bears number one receiver. So Yeah, and they had a really good offense. He changed Mizzou's offense offensive numbers a lot. Like they improved in every offensive category when he got there. That was on the air and on the ground. ⁓ he's got multiple weapons on the outside this year. Tony Freeman, Tank Hawkins. They're really going to be able to stretch defenses on the outside and on the perimeter. ⁓ it's kind of weird. I think there's four teams that we're looking at as maybe run heavy offenses, and then we've got about four teams that are looking to be pass heavy. And I know Kirby Moore has the ability to run the ball and run it well. The the receiver weapons stick out to me though more than the running back weapons for this Washington State team. So I think that is their strength. ⁓ in the portal, they bring in twenty-eight guys, thirty-seven go out. ⁓ they only brought one player from Mizzou. That's wide receiver Daniel Blood. What a name. Young Blood. Wow. Kirby Moore was quarterback's coach and offensive coordinator over at Mizzou. So I want to start with a quarterback that's coming in. This job is 100% up for grabs for Washington State. Caden Pennick, quarterback transferring from UC Davis, Richard, sophomore. I did some research. He was FCS. Yeah, FCS freshman All American, big sky freshman of the year last year, as a redshirt freshman. Thirty two hundred pass yards, thirty-two pass touchdowns, four hundred more yards on the ground and three rushing touchdowns. This guy just stands out to me more than the guys that they're they've retained already. ⁓ but it's against Owen Eshelman and Julian Duggar for that job. I want Pennick to win it because looking at his numbers and what looking at what he did in the big sky, that's interesting to me. Especially at U C Davis too. ⁓ it's kind of a a powerhouse program in the FCS as well. But again, he put up such amazing numbers for him that it's how could you not make that next step up, you know? And talked about him already. Tony Freeman, he could change games last year. He had five punt return punt returns of forty plus yards. He's gonna be a deep threat. He's got speed. He returns for this Washington State team that they won seven games, right? It's it's not too crazy. Now the thing is, and I'm also questionable about them running the ball, is because this offensive line is gonna look a lot different. They do get Ashton Tripp, an offensive lineman, six foot seven, three hundred and eight pound left tackle. He's coming back for his red shirt junior season. He started all 13 games last year, only allowed one sack. Now this is a new look offensive line. They're going to have to figure out how to mash and see if they can get Kirby Voorhees running the ball. He should be running back one. He's one of the bigger retentions offensively. He only had 576 yards and five touchdowns last year. But if guys like Tripp and company can block for Voorhees, he can certainly run between the tackles very well. But I'm super excited about Pennick and Freeman. And Tank Hawkins on the outside. Tank Hawkins, though. Come on. Let's take a second for these Washington State names. They've got some names on this. Tank Hawkins. Right? They might be winning in the just all name team. Defensively, though, ⁓ secondary is going to look a lot different. Matthew Durance graduated. Tucker Large did as well. Kyle Peterson, he's a safety. Played in all 13 games as a true freshman. Didn't have anything crazy statistically, but it's a new look secondary. He's gonna have to play a big role and he's got the chance to do so. And this is a team that was thin ⁓ right at the line of scrimmage last year. ⁓ defensive tackles, offensive tackles, guards, everybody. ⁓ the front guys just it's kind of thinned out, especially after a bunch of guys leaving. Paul Hudson, the third, he's a D tackle. He went to Austin P, then to Campbell, and then to Marshall last year. Last year with Marshall, he had forty tackles Six and a half for loss ass hit here, man. What a grind. Austin P. What a grind. And Campbell. This is that's a that's a road to glory if I've ever heard one, man. Yeah, that's a last chance you if I've ever heard one. And then another guy coming from the portal, Matthias McLean, another all time name for this team. He's a D tackle, comes from Idaho. Football name too. McLean. Yeah. Shout out to Vandals. He had Huge, another big sky guy. had a huge year. He racked up 42 tackles, 13 and a half for loss, and he was all big sky conference honorable mention. So it's gonna be a new look team for Kirby Moore. But I mentioned they won seven games last year. They went seven and six. ⁓ they beat an Idaho squad only by three. You're like, okay, well, what the heck? Well, they beat that San Diego State squad that we're high on by twenty-three points. ⁓ that's interesting. ⁓ they beat Colorado State by 17. Here's the interesting part about last year's results for them. They played number four Ole Miss. They lost by three, twenty four to twenty one. Then the next week they that was in Oxford, by the way. Then the next week they went to Charlottesville and played the Cavaliers, who were number eighteen, and they lost twenty two to twenty. Two close losses against two top twenty five teams. And this team only went seven and six. They lost a two and ten Oregon State team, ten to seven, right? ⁓ kind of went all over the place. They played James Madison, they only lost by four, and that was in JMU as well. This team very well could have won ten games last year, maybe even maybe even eleven, right? It really could have looked a lot different for Washington State. They were five and one at home, though, one and five on the road. Clearly they struggled on the road last year. We'll see what Kirby Moore does here in year one. I do love a little bit of their schedule though. It's the earliest Apple Cup in history, boys. Week one. Get ready September 5th. Washington, Washington State. Bang. Washington State. That one will be it. Picking on the Pac twelve teams this year. They they want to be back so bad. They They to be back so bad. They want to Pac twelve so bad. Just cut you know where home is, Huskies. You know where home is. Come come pack, right? Come pack. Well, they go to Washington, right? That's not a far drive. ⁓ for the earliest Apple Cup ever. Then they go to K State. And then at home there are two non conference home games or Dukeen. Duqueen should be an automatic win, I would hope. And then Arizona. Okay, that's it. That was a pretty good schedule. I like that out of conference schedule a lot actually. I do too. De Cune. Interesting. But if if Kirby Moore does the right thing and he's an offensive mind, so I assume he does, he he picks a quarterback before week one and hopefully he picks the right guy and he's not trying to split reps with a bunch of different guys and do something stupid like that and just give it to the guy who wins the job straight up. And hopefully they run away with it. And this offense should be dangerous. If they can block, it's really similar to Oregon State almost. They've got the weapons on the outside. They've got a quarterback. Depending on which one Washington State goes with, it it's a question between the tackles, what they're able to do and if they're going to be able to block. Defense, I'm not too worried about if you can score points, right? If you don't pull a Texas State last year, I think you'll be all right. ⁓ so Washington State winning seven games last year, they should have won more. ⁓ I'm pretty confident in what that defense has the capability of doing because they retained a lot of good guys. There's some guys that really could have left for their last year, could have just hit the portal with a new coach coming in. But they decided to stay in Pullman and I think that says something about what could be getting cooked up over there. Yeah. No, I absolutely agree, man. I think this Washington State team is a team that underperformed last year. And I think they have the capabilities to match that, if not be better than this year. This is a team who could possibly maybe even make a run and We'll see them playing in on the Pac twelve title, but I like what you brought to the table, Caden. The Cougars, they're they're an interesting team, man. The new coach, they got a lot of promise in them. I think they're the biggest question mark. Yeah. In a good way though. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, I think we're good now, right? Yeah, that covers a basis for every little thing. If y'all got any little like things you just wanna mention, I know we want to do superlatives, but really kind of just buy we're supposed to have this episode like two episodes. Yeah. We're very sorry, guys. ⁓ we were And by we I mean me was very bad about ⁓ the comm the time commitment. ⁓ my son has a doctor's appointment. I also wasn't prepped the very first day. I totally forgot. I also wasn't prepped the first day. So that would have been a disaster. So I'm glad and thank mostly to Caden. Thank you for being patient with us. ⁓ God. And then mate and then surviving with us through the the third attempt at trying to record. So thank you, Caden. Hey, I got y'all boys. I got y'all. Man, I'm already I'm just really excited for college football, man. College football twenty seven came out today. There's been a lot of controversy on that. I will not speak on, but Yeah, we'll save that for maybe another episode. But yeah, it should be should be a really fun season, y'all. Any final words from you, Caden? ⁓ I'm ready, dude. Come on. I hope July flies by because August gets here, football starts up and then boom, September fifth, we're rocking and rolling, baby. Alrighty. Any final words, Brad? No. Thank you guys. ⁓ episode two out now. Thank you guys for again listening to the pilot. ⁓ and we'll we'll be we'll we're gonna have way more as the season goes on. We'll talk more about what we'll cover next episode and stuff, but really excited for ⁓ the trajectory of the show as well as the trajectory of Pactville football. Yes, sirs. All right. Well thank you so much for listening. Make sure to follow all of our social medias, PACD twelve one two on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, wherever you get it. We will be there. This episode should be out shortly. Thank you so much for listening again. From your host, Solomon Nash, and from my two favorite co hosts, Caden Bess and Brad Biervin. Y'all be easy, y'all take it easy. Love.