The Solid Verbal College Football Show

Latest Episodes:

College Football Week 1: Picks, Sneaky Games & Parachuting into 2026 Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

College football’s first full weekend is finally here, and Week 1 is throwing a whole lot of unknowns directly into the fire. We make our picks for the biggest games on the schedule and try to figure out which teams are actually ready for the moment across five days of games from Thursday night through Labor Day.

How quickly can new quarterbacks and new coaches settle in? Can Clemson’s offense find enough answers in Death Valley? What should we expect from Auburn and Baylor in Atlanta, Louisville and Ole Miss in Nashville, and Wisconsin and Notre Dame at Lambeau Field? We also dig into SMU-Florida State, UCLA-Cal, Boise State-Oregon and several other games where one matchup could tell us much more about these teams than the final score.

Then we go hunting for the games hiding beneath the radar, identify our Window of Opportunity, make our locks and upset picks, and prepare to leap into the great unknown of our 19th season of college football podcasting.

Listen to the full episode, rate and subscribe wherever you get the show, and join us at Verballers.com to play Run The Board, where this week’s winner takes home a $500 Visa gift card.

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The Week 1 Storylines That Could Shape the Season | College Football Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

College football Week 1 is finally here, but before we dive into our full preview and picks later this week, we're looking at the bigger questions that could start shaping the season as soon as the games kick off. Which performances should actually make us feel better about a contender, and what would qualify as an early warning sign even with all the usual disclaimers about overreacting in September?

We start with Keelon Russell taking over at Alabama, then work through some of the most interesting new looks around the country. How quickly can Lane Kiffin put LSU together after an aggressive offseason? What should we be watching from Oregon's new coordinators? Can Darian Mensah immediately unlock another level for Miami, and just how much is riding on DJ Lagway working out at Baylor? We also dig into Notre Dame's revamped collection of skill players and what Wisconsin might be able to tell us about a team with national championship aspirations.

Plus, Dan ingests alarming amount of cold brew, we identify a few under-the-radar Week 1 hinge points and somehow end up discussing the appropriate hair-dye threshold for independent podcasters.

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What We Learned From College Football Week 0 Aug 30, 2026

Show notes

College football is officially back, and Week 0 gave us plenty to chew on before the season really gets rolling. We start with North Carolina getting some revenge on TCU in Ireland, then turn to Virginia's emphatic win over NC State and a huge opening performance from Beau Pribula. How much should we believe after one game, and which results actually changed the way we see these teams?

From there, we work through USC's somewhat misleading final score against San Jose State, Florida State's uneven opener against New Mexico State and a late-night Memphis-UNLV game that may have made the Group of Six playoff race a little more interesting. We also discuss Stanford's dramatic finish against Hawaii and the very different FBS welcome parties for North Dakota State and Sacramento State.

Plus, the return of college football meant the debut of some noticeable changes to the TV experience. We review ESPN's post-BottomLine world, the new on-screen indicator showing which announcer is speaking, a pronunciation controversy involving Beau Pribula and one moment of sweet Eastern Pennsylvania vindication.

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Support the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbal

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QB Battles, Eligibility Chaos & Our Week 0 College Football Preview Aug 27, 2026

Show notes

College football is finally back! In this episode, we get ready for the first Saturday of the 2026 season with our full Week 0 preview and picks, starting with TCU and North Carolina in Ireland and working through all eight games on the slate. Which teams can we actually trust right out of the gate, which new quarterbacks and coordinators are worth watching, and could Week 0 give us a few games that matter much more than they initially appear?

We dig into the first game action for USC and Florida State, disagree on NC State-Virginia, welcome North Dakota State and Sacramento State to the FBS ranks and try to make sense of Stanford-Hawaii before closing with a Memphis-UNLV game that could have bigger postseason implications than most people realize. Along the way, we drop our score predictions, identify a potential upset and play a few sound effects to get you ready for gameday.

Before the games, we also catch up on the latest college football news, including a wave of quarterback decisions, the increasingly bizarre eligibility fight over players trying to return from the NFL, another Lane Kiffin-related circus and ESPN making a notable change to its college football broadcasts. The season is here, Verballers!

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Support the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbal

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Our 2026 College Football Playoff Predictions Aug 25, 2026

Show notes

College football is finally here, which means there’s only one piece of preseason business left: putting our predictions on the record. In this episode, we each build a complete 12-team College Football Playoff field, debate the teams that just missed the cut, seed the bracket and play the whole thing forward through the national championship.

Along the way, we wrestle with some of the biggest questions surrounding the 2026 season. How many SEC teams can survive the league’s new nine-game schedule? Does the Big Ten get a fourth team? Can the Big 12 produce multiple playoff teams? And which Group of Five contender makes it through a particularly messy race for the automatic bid? There are also some aggressive calls involving Alabama, Houston, New Mexico, Notre Dame and several teams sitting right on the postseason bubble.

We work through potential first-round games, playoff paths and semifinal matchups before putting our national championship predictions on the record. Some picks felt safer than others, a few are almost guaranteed to come back and haunt us, and somehow we independently landed in exactly the same place at the very end.

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Support the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbal

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Our 2026 College Football Fantasy Things Draft Aug 23, 2026

Show notes

Fantasy Things is back! In our annual celebration of everything strange, stupid and uniquely college football, we draft the moments, tropes, broadcast oddities and completely unforeseen bits of nonsense we want on our team for the 2026 season. We’re not picking players or predicting champions. We’re trying to anticipate the stuff that makes you stop on a Saturday afternoon and think, “Of course this is happening in college football.”

This year’s board gets weird quickly. We get into coaches behaving strangely, broadcasts going off the rails, new ways technology could make the sport even more ridiculous, and a few very specific scenarios that feel just plausible enough to happen. There are also some long-shot “penny stocks” at the end, including a handful of ideas that are probably terrible bets but would be incredible if they somehow hit.

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Support the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbal

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Alabama Needs a Great QB, Texas Has a Depth Question & Bill Connelly’s Biggest 2026 Doubts | College Football Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

College football is almost here, so we brought ESPN's Bill Connelly back on the show to help us separate the teams worth believing in from the ones carrying more risk than the preseason conversation might suggest. We start with Bill's annual look at the most important players in the sport and work through the quarterbacks, transfers and returning stars who could swing the 2026 season in either direction.

From there, the conversation turns to some of the biggest contenders in the country. How good does Keelon Russell need to be for Alabama to get back into the national championship picture? Are we overlooking the questions surrounding Texas despite all of its star power? Which quarterback situations are the most terrifying, how much should we trust Penn State, and which teams look very different once Bill compares what the numbers say with what he actually believes? We also bounce through the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC, talk potential chaos games, the wildest weekend on the 2026 schedule and the conference race that deserves more attention than it is getting.

Plus, Bill gives us teams that could be much more fun than expected, a few Week 0 and Week 1 games worth circling, and one program college football fans should consider adopting for the season.

After Bill leaves, we somehow end up revisiting Ty's old wedding betting pool, complete with ceremony over-unders, music props and some extremely specific long-shot wagers.

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AP Top 25 Reaction + College Football Zagriculture Aug 18, 2026

Show notes

In this college football podcast episode, we react to the first AP Top 25 of the 2026 season and our first preseason poll as official AP voters. We run through the top of the rankings, compare the national poll with our own ballot and talk about what it feels like to put actual votes behind all the opinions we’ve spent the offseason developing. Which teams already look a little too high or too low, and how much should anyone really trust a preseason poll before the games begin?

Then it’s time for some Zagriculture. We take a bank of familiar college football narratives and draft the ones we’re most willing to push back against. Is Notre Dame really just a product of its schedule? Is Dabo Swinney actually cooked at Clemson? Can USC finally build a respectable defense under Lincoln Riley? What should we expect from Oregon when the biggest games arrive in January, and how much faith should anyone have in Lane Kiffin eventually delivering a championship at LSU? Along the way, we also wander into Ole Miss, Iowa and several other preseason assumptions that may look very different a few months from now.

Plus, Ty gets talked into an alarmingly specific Iowa offensive prediction, Dan dabbles with weird phrasing, and we continue preparing for Week 0. Sign up to support the show at Verballers.com.

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August Q&A: Dark Horses, 9-3 Playoff Teams & Lane Kiffin’s Big Bet | College Football Aug 16, 2026

Show notes

In this college football podcast episode, we take one final deep breath after our marathon run of 2026 conference previews and turn the show over to the Verballerhood for our August Q&A. With the season finally within reach, we dig into the teams we find most interesting, the best dark horse candidates around the country, and one of the questions that could define the expanded College Football Playoff era: What would a convincing 9-3 playoff resume actually look like?

We also zoom out on the changing power structure of college football. Was Lane Kiffin right to bet that a job like LSU still offers advantages that programs further down the traditional hierarchy simply cannot match? Has the transfer portal, money and increased player movement truly leveled the field, or have the old powers merely lost some of their margin for error? Plus, we compare a handful of the biggest coaching moves from the offseason, wonder what issue could become college football’s next great existential fight, and ask whether all that player movement could eventually take some heat out of the sport’s biggest rivalries.

And because it’s a Q&A, things inevitably get weird. We debate the ideal school for a punter, investigate sports conspiracies, build a college football soundtrack out of movie scores, evaluate SEC stadium bucket lists and learn that Dan has apparently developed a neighborhood reputation as an illicit dealer of highly coveted pizza cheese.

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SEC TEAM PREVIEWS: LSU, Alabama, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Missouri, Auburn, Arkansas & Mississippi State | College Football Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

In this college football podcast episode, we close out our three-part 2026 SEC preview with LSU, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Missouri, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Alabama and Auburn. The biggest mystery may be LSU, where Lane Kiffin has assembled a loaded transfer class around Sam Leavitt but still has to make a huge collection of new pieces work together immediately. How quickly can the offense come together, and is Blake Baker’s defense good enough to give the Tigers a real College Football Playoff ceiling while everything else settles in?

We also dig into Alabama’s attempt to build a more complete offense around a young quarterback, with plenty of excitement around Keelon Russell and plenty of questions about whether the offensive line can finally create a reliable running game. Texas A&M brings back Marcel Reed and a strong collection of skill talent, but a rebuilt line and a brutal closing stretch create more hesitation than expected. We also wonder whether Missouri’s recent consistency is a reason to believe, or if new QB Austin Simmons, Ahmad Hardy’s recovery, a rebuilt defense and a difficult schedule are enough to make the Tigers one of the SEC’s biggest regression candidates?

Elsewhere, we reconsider Ole Miss after taking a deeper look at a roster led by Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy, wonder how much fun Kamario Taylor can make Mississippi State, and size up Alex Golesh’s first Auburn team with Byron Brown running a familiar offense. Plus: offensive line anxiety, Mizzou hopium, Pete Golding interview bias, and one last round of preseason roster-induced delirium as we finally finish the conference previews.

Help support the show by signing up at Verballers.com.

Support the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbal

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.