The Solid Verbal College Football

In this episode, we take a break from the usual offseason doom loop and focus on the things that still make college football worth getting excited about. With the 2026 season now inside the 100-day window, we lean into the joy, weirdness and ritual of the sport, from team entrances and tailgate footballs to bowl games as holiday escape hatches, overseas openers in Dublin and Rio, and the simple feeling of leaning forward on the couch right before kickoff.
We also get into the more specific quirks that make college football feel like college football: pylon cams, visor coaches, turnover props, weird eye black, old-school announcers, preview magazines, 68-degree noon kickoffs, coaches losing their minds on the sideline, late-night windows and the constant possibility that a huge favorite might get dragged into a game it has no business losing.
Plus, we look ahead to some of the real football reasons to be excited for 2026, including a loaded crop of star players, a monster Week 10 schedule, the evolving Group of Five playoff race and the SEC’s move to a nine-game conference schedule. Consider this a little kickoff yearning for the summer months, a reminder that, for all the sport’s problems, there’s still nothing quite like it.
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In this episode, we introduce a new game called “Bed or Built,” where we take some of college football’s most repeated narratives and decide whether it’s time to put them to bed or if they’re still built to last. With the 2026 season creeping closer, we sort through the stories that have followed programs, coaches and fan bases for years, and ask which ones still make sense in the current version of the sport.
We dig into Mario Cristobal and Miami, Matt Rhule’s turnaround reputation, Lane Kiffin’s chaos factor, Ryan Day’s “born on third base” label, Texas A&M’s hard ceiling, Oregon’s late-season hurdle, Clemson’s attempts to adapt, James Franklin’s big-game baggage and the difficulty of following Nick Saban at Alabama. Along the way, we get into the transfer portal, coaching hires, College Football Playoff expectations, roster-building, fan perception and how quickly old narratives can become outdated.
Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
5:46 - Mario Cristobal & Miami will trip up
13:45 - Matt Rhule is a turnaround genius
20:38 - Lane Kiffin is misunderstood
26:25 - Ryan Dan was born on third base
32:35 - Texas A&M has a hard ceiling
38:56 - Oregon will fall flat late
45:33 - Clemson can't adapt
54:08 - Big Game James Franklin
56:09 - Being the guy after Nick Saban
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In this episode, we react to Tony Petitti’s public push for a 24-team College Football Playoff and try to sort through what it actually means for the sport. Is expansion really about access, regular-season stakes, and rewarding more teams, or is it mostly about television inventory, conference leverage, and the ongoing ESPN vs. Fox tug-of-war? We also talk through why the SEC’s preference for 16 teams suddenly puts some fans in the strange position of... rooting for Greg Sankey.
Then it’s time for an ACC vibe check, as we take a look at the conference before full preview season kicks into gear. Miami looks like the league’s clearest headliner, but after that, things get messy fast. We work through the conference’s biggest connective tissues, including offensive line questions, thin receiver rooms, quarterback uncertainty, Cal’s wide range of outcomes, Louisville’s favorable path, Georgia Tech’s possible regression, and whether Virginia Tech or NC State could turn into a surprise playoff-adjacent story.
Also included: Slices 'N Steps in NYC, illegal-streaming hypotheticals, Chili’s corn nostalgia, and the beginning of what may become a fully realized ACC-as-abandoned-mall taxonomy.
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Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro & Slices 'N Steps in NYC
6:38 - Tony Petitti's 24-Team CFP Plan
31:07 - The Vibrant ACC Mall
38:00 - The Cal Factor
45:20 - The Case for Syracuse
52:07 - The Case Against Georgia Tech
59:48 - Miami's Heisman Elimination Game
1:07:49 - Virginia Tech's CFP Chances
1:12:41 - The Surprise Orange Julius
1:17:05 - Mapping Out The ACC Mall
Support the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbal
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We’re midway through May, which means it’s time to start talking ourselves into, and out of, what the 2026 college football season could become. In this episode, we turn the month itself into a game with a Big Ten “Mayyyyybe” vibe check, asking which scenarios feel realistic, which ones feel like offseason nonsense, and which ones might look strangely prescient by November.
Could Ohio State’s schedule create a real College Football Playoff problem? Is Maryland quietly positioned to take a step forward? Can Wisconsin stabilize things for Luke Fickell, Iowa mess around with a playoff run, or UCLA become one of the more interesting teams in the conference under Bob Chesney? We also dig into Oregon’s internal coordinator hires, Michigan’s tricky first year under Kyle Whittingham, and USC’s unlucky, unforgiving schedule.
Along the way, there are schedule sandwiches, quarterback questions, offensive line concerns, coaching crush rankings, a surprising amount of hernia talk, and more.
Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
5:01 - Ohio State misses the CFP
14:22 - Maryland wins a game after September
20:42 - Wisconsin saves Luke Fickell's job
27:23 - Oregon regrets new coordinators
34:19 - Iowa makes the CFP
39:27 - UCLA wins 8 games
47:22 - Michigan becomes a mess
55:52 - USC's unlucky schedule
Support the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbal
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We’re taking an early look at the 2026 college football schedule and doing a public service for the Verballerhood: figuring out which Saturdays deserve to be protected on the family calendar. From Week 0 appetizers to monster November slates, we rank the season week by week, identify the biggest projected matchups, and decide when it is safe to go outside and when it is absolutely not.
Along the way, we dig into the weeks that look especially dangerous for teams stuck between emotional rivalry games, cross-country trips, short weeks, and potential letdown spots. Ohio State, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Notre Dame, Penn State, Oregon, USC, LSU, Ole Miss, BYU, Texas Tech and others all pop up as we sort through the best weekends, the sneaky ones, and the obvious trap-ortunities.
Plus, we discuss shared calendars, zhoug sauce, Trappy Valley, the revered Ball-Sac Game, how much of November should be blocked off, and several increasingly questionable strategies for preserving couch time during the best stretch of the season.
Timestamps0:00 - Intro7:36 - Week 09:33 - Week 112:11 - Week 217:49 - Week 323:20 - Week 425:17 - Week 530:28 - Week 637:38 - Week 740:04 - Week 844:40 - Week 947:09 - Week 1053:09 - Week 1157:47 - Week 121:03:51 - Week 13
Support the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbal
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.