scott and parker do a full road trip for the full football season across the entire nation!
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Boscoe’s Boys
2024 Dream College Football Road Trip featuring: Parker Fleming
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(upbeat music) ♪ It's the moment of the evening ♪ ♪ Every can stay thin and yours ♪ ♪ Little down and board a whiskey ♪ ♪ Back open the liqueur ♪ ♪ Please put your hands together ♪ ♪ And make a little noise ♪ ♪ For your favorite wildcatters ♪ ♪ The handsome Bosco boys ♪ ♪ To you, Bosco boys ♪ ♪ Come on boys ♪ - Boom, the boys are back and it is time for what really is the final traditional off-season episode for Bosco's boys. As I've been saying last two weeks, this is the beginning of the end of the off-season. Everyone is starting pre-season camp next week and folks, once pre-season camp gets rolling, I'm declaring the off-season over. Tomorrow we wrap up the Behind Enemy Line Series with Cincinnati and then on Friday Iowa State. And as you guys have heard, TCU, not on case state schedule for the first time in a long time. So I couldn't manufacture up a reason to talk to this man about any specific team, even though, you know, someone with the last name, Brown's got hired and he kind of distanced himself because he has morals. You know him as someone you've probably yelled at on Twitter. You also know him as someone who you take his graphics and you've flaunted in the face of whoever the opponent is for that week. He is a YouTube mogul. He is one of the smartest people I know, one of the most handsome people I know and the only person who I've ever been with to see me get asked politely to leave a brewery in my entire life. It's not because we were rowdy. We just didn't want to play trivia. It is my true in real life friend, Parker Fleming, aka stats of war on Twitter, Parker. Welcome to the show. Hope you're doing well from parts undisclosed. Welcome back to Bosco's boys. - Man, what an introduction. I am, I'm truly flattered and always glad to be here and always feel obligated to call out. Not only do you, your listeners take my graphics and flaunt them to the opposing fans, some of them even put them on a baby onesie, which is still the greatest thing that has ever happened to me on Twitter. One of the funniest bits I can ever imagine and truly a highlight of me being in the college football online world. - Yeah, that was truly an amazing moment. When I saw that, it was like, okay, I really hope that Parker checks his Twitter mentions of this one because that was peak, that truly was a peak internet right there. But yeah, when do you consider the end of college football off season for you personally? - Man, so I'm, you know, we don't have to get into this, but I'm working in football now as my full-time job too. So the draft season is just kind of crazy. And that's really been something that I haven't cared very much about kind of before working that. So I've had to segment my calendar a little bit more. I kind of think like I took a vacation 4th of July week and came back and was like, all right, football season is here. We're starting to talk and all that. Well, you know, I'll dip my toes into media days and just see if there's anything interesting there, see if there's anything funny there. Do you see Alex Gullish today, USF said, they said, you have to play Alabama in Miami this year. And he said, they have to play us, man, that's great. I love that energy. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me. - I love media days and usually there's nothing substantial that comes from it. But usually there's something fun like that. Of course, there's the traditional, you know, conference realignment drama that we've been in this hellscape for, you know, 15 years that we've had to deal with that maybe even more. But then you have Gundy talking about how much he's deweyed in his entire life and, you know, just stupid, small stuff. Like, - Gundy auditioning for a role on law and order frat boy edition. Yeah. - I mean, that was true. - Good, amazing. - Oh, yeah, I, well, in the funny part of, well, you know, we don't have to get into the DUI math. At this point, it's a couple of weeks late, but it is also fun to watch some of the breakout sessions, you know, especially one melodots. And at KU, not getting the talking points of jail and Daniel's injury, which is hilarious. - And I'm still- - You see that clip and we're gonna go all over the place, but I wanna talk about that for a second. I mean, just, I think that's crazy because that's the biggest question. Like, can that style of play hold up? It's the same question we asked about Dylan Gabriel when he came from UCF, where he was just running all over dudes to the big 12 where it's physical. And you've heard, I'm sure you're in tune with this, like Oklahoma State, I think Iowa State has talked about, although they always kind of do it. And even TCU switching the four down, teams to the big 12 are swapping out of safety for a linebacker. They're getting big on defense again because these quarterbacks are running. And if you have an injury problem, man, you've got to, he's got to be practicing really, really hard on how to protect his body, not because he's injury prone or anything, but that style of play is so hard to sustain. And we've seen it happen a couple of years in a row. That's the biggest question for Kansas. Like how far can they go if they don't have Jason being waiting in the wings to take over there? - Well, it's not only then you also have Utah, Texas Tech has never had a quarterback, you know, I mean, stay held. I mean, see, it's not just the big 12. And that's where, you know, a lot of our focus, I'll speak for myself, you focus on everything, but that's where a lot of my focus is. And of course, you know, you got to keep Avery Johnson healthy. I mean, when it's all said and done, again, maybe we'll need to get you on to talk about the big 12 a little bit closer to season kicking off. It might just be who doesn't have their quarterback miss them up. - I think we totally underestimate the like, random factor of health and how much that matters. Like TCU 2022, I mean, they just, they had an amazing run and they had some injury. Like not only did they, they didn't face some quarterbacks, but also like on their side, they just didn't have major injuries. And like, I think there's a couple of teams this year that are past the requisite threshold of talent to win the big 12 that could stay healthy. I could see UCF staying healthy, being an absolute wagon. I could see KJ Jefferson going down a week two and UCF went in four games. Like it just, it depends so much on can your guys stay healthy at this level where it's not like they're recruiting, you know, poorly, but they are a little bit more fragile with, hey, my development cycle is this, my guys are this age and they're this talented at the same time. You've got to keep them healthy at the same time. It's just hard. It's a hard problem in the big 12. It definitely is. But this is, you know, I didn't even say this. This is the dream road trip episode shamelessly stolen from Athlon cover two podcast or they cover three. The Athlon sports college football show, I think it's covered two for them. I've done this. - How many years have a button chip in the books? - Yeah, that's good. They're covered two, yeah. - Yes, they're covered two. Athlon's cover three. They did their own conference ones, but the peak of off season college football podcasting for me is their dream road trip episode. I absolutely love it. It's appointment podcasting listening. So I have shamelessly stolen it like everything good in the world, especially in the podcasting world. You just steal what you like. And here's the rules folks in cases of the first time listening. I have all the way starting from week zero through conference championship game and then Army Navy week, A game every single week that I would want to go to. The rules are simple. You cannot see the same team twice. Now you can get creative with this. You can go chalk. You can go whatever way you want. You know, there's a couple of weeks where I truly just kind of threw filler against the wall because you know what? There were some games that I needed to see this season. We'll talk about those games as they come up. We'll start in week zero, but here in a second in Parker, you did the big 12 road trip, which was a little bit more loose with the rules a couple of years ago, I believe, if memory serves me correctly. Did you have a strategy? Did you enjoy this process or did you get to week 14? You're like, oh no, I saw Oregon twice and it threw everything out the window. - Yeah, so I thought about making a watchability ranking. You've seen a bunch of people online do that where they just do, you do like the total divided by the spread or something and that gives you how many points, you know, that's kind of fun. And I think that's a cool idea, but I thought, you know, there's a time for numbers and there's a time for like, hey, I want to crack a beer and watch football. And I felt like Scott is gonna get on the podcast with you and hang out. And I wanted to be much more in the, let's crack a beer and watch football kind of vibe. So I went through and just said, hey, this would be cool. The only restrictions I put on myself, I have a couple of weeks where I'm going to multiple games and I didn't do a lot of those 'cause I was like trying to keep travel. Like this could feasibly happen. And on a couple of those that are grinds, I was like, okay, I can't go see UCLA in Los Angeles and then Rutgers the next day. Like I can't do that. It has to be feasible that I could do it in a week. So I tried to keep some of that regional for those trips. And then I just tried to see cool, interesting games. I have some chalk in here. I have some experiences where I'm like, these teams might be bad. I think this is gonna be a sick game regardless. And then I have a couple where it's like, yeah, these are powerhouses need to go. - Well, that is the, that is the Phillips slave in way because every time I've done a dream road trip episode with him, he says screw your rules. He makes up his own rules. So seeing multiple games in a week, as long as you think you can make that drive, I'll let it fly. Especially since I didn't say in the text one game a week. So you do get a pass for that and props to you. I'm only doing one game a week. We're gonna get this started on week zero. Here's the thing. Originally, I thought I was gonna be really cool and go to a niche game, Washburn at Emporia State, a little MI AA Division II action because MI AA, which is the Division II conference here in Kansas, you know, a little bit of Nebraska, a little bit of Missouri. They're like, we're starting early this year. Week zero, here's eight games in week zero. I'm like, hell yeah. Well, their week zero is actually just week one. Like they have like a, you know, they have a smaller schedule in Division II. So when I realized that I was like, well, F me. And then, you know, there's a game Florida State later, I want to see. So I'm not going to Dublin to kind of scout things out for next year for K State, Iowa State. So I'm just going to Honolulu, Hawaii, you know, hey, you know, vibes, you know, I went to Hawaii a couple of summers ago, it was awesome. Delaware State, Hawaii, probably the grossest game on my list for the entire year. But if you can start, if you can start the grind in Honolulu, you just got to do it. So that's where I'm going. - Love that. You're taking it easy. You get out there on the weird time zone. You can watch the other four games and just relax and kind of rest up for the season. Love that. Similar thought with Florida State, wanted to go over to one later. So not going to go to Dublin. Also, you can't drive to Dublin. I've said that before and I'll say it again. I think the one that's most interesting to me, Montana State at New Mexico. I bet Montana State's favorite in that game. I haven't looked. I bet before closed their favorite, they legitimately should win that game. So FCS upset over FBS, New Mexico in Albuquerque. I visited, I like it. You got some mountains there. The air feels really nice and clear. You stay in the right part of town. There's a bunch of cool stuff there. So similar one ago, relaxing Albuquerque, see some mountains getting some fun kind of weather out there and then see an FCS team beat an FBS team. So that's a lot of fun too. Those are fun. I already broke a rule. I realized that I already broke a rule on whatever. It's happening. I messed up the later in the season. It doesn't matter. I don't care. Well, as a rules guy, it's making me want to break out in hives, but it's okay. I will let you break the rules. Don't make me good. Let me break a rule so I don't have to go to Reno, all right? That's my concession here. Well, I mean, do whatever you want. I wish you weren't breaking rules, but I'm not going to kick you off the podcast. And everyone knows how much of a downward spiral I went in during the big 12 road trip with my brother when I found that I broke my own rules, which I could have just like lied. I guarantee people were not fact checking me. So I could have lied, but I didn't. - Have you ever had a podcast? - Have you ever had a podcast end? We can cut this if you want. I'm sorry. I mean, to put this on you. Have you ever ended one or had a guest in one? - No, no, no. Well, actually Phillip Slavin. Again, just throwing Phillip under the bus. - What was it, maybe like a month and a half ago? His computer just died. He didn't bring his charger. So here we are, we're having this conversation and it was like the Oklahoma State and his computer died. And I was just like, well, I was going to ask more questions about Oklahoma State, but I guess the podcast is over and then I just kind of ended it. So no, this is- - I had a couple where like the guest has been a little odd and I've been like, all right, we're just going to let this wind out. Like that's fine. And I want to say I appreciate everyone who comes on sometimes conversation gets weird. Sometimes I'm not on my game and that that factors into it. The only time I've ever ended one has never been like, okay, man, what's going on? Like there's been a couple of times where I've kind of just, you know, calm down a little bit and been like, all right, you guys wrap this up, whatever. But it also involves Phillip Slavin. I did a podcast midday. There's another guest on somebody I wanted to talk to. It may have been our friend Joe Broback, maybe. And we're going to do something right as we get on, my wife calls me and I knew immediately it was bad because I told her not to go to the certain hiking spot because it was early March and it was still snowy and she wasn't going to be able to get up the hill. She calls me and then sends me a picture. And our car is literally two tires off of a cliff in the five foot snow, middle of nowhere. And so I was like, Phillip, sorry, man, I gotta go take care of this. That's amazing. I also lied. We have one unaired episode and it was first year we've ever done it going into our first foot all season. We did us something similar to what we're doing now, talking to everyone on K-State's opponent's schedule. We were talking to a Baylor guy who was, and this was right after the Brails stuff hit the fan. Was like a Brails truth or like trying to say, oh, didn't do anything wrong, they were all out. And we went, I'm not kidding. I think we went like two and a half, three years without talking, like you've done primers for us before. We just wouldn't do Baylor primers. I really do think it was after Shaan followed me for some reason, 'cause I probably tweeted at him too much, that I'd have anyone on to talk about Baylor. And he's a natural guy, he goes to Baylor, so I use it as an excuse to try to talk to him on occasion. But I just kind of stayed away from all things Baylor for about three years. So that is the only unaired podcast we ever had. - Totally, totally understandable on that one, yeah. - Yeah, fun times. So we'll get to week one. This is where things really start to kick off. And weirdly enough, there are some good week one games. Sometimes I feel like it's a little lackluster, but the game I went to, I don't love it, but it's kind of like a prisoner of, okay, what's gonna happen later on? And I think this is going to tell us all we need to know about two of the teams down in Florida. I'm going to Miami at Florida. And if Miami wins it, you know, look, get your hopboard ready, Florida's gonna make a move. If Florida wins, okay, we don't have to pretend like this is the year where Miami is going to come back and be a team. So I think, you know, the swamp, it'll be rocking, I'll lose about 50 pounds sitting in there, you know, sweating out, out of orifices, I didn't even know exist. But I think it's going to basically tell us, okay, which of these two teams can we just ignore for us in the year? So that's where I'm going week one. - Love that. I like that energy and I kind of did that. So week one is one, I'm taking a swing. I'm going big on week one. I'm going to three games, week one, okay? So Friday night, I'm going, excuse me, Thursday night, I'm going to Boulder and I'm gonna see North Dakota State at Colorado. Sea Prime loved the stadium, felt like the students showed up really, really well when I went to TCU Colorado there when they were bad. So gonna be great environment. North Dakota State, really physical team, gonna test. We're going to learn a lot about Colorado there and then we can kind of follow it from afar. So get in early when the vibes are high. If Colorado's bad later, I saw it when it was fun. If North Dakota State wins, that's a win for me. It's a win-win. I'm going to drive, that's only at 6 p.m. local time. I'm going to drive straight to the airport and go to TCU at Stanford on Friday and get Palo Alto there. So again, staying west, direct flight, little bit of a stretch, but I think it could do it. Stanford kind of coming into their own under Troy Taylor and has a legitimate wide receiver one that I think is going to be a really interesting matchup. New look, TCU on defense. And so it should be two kind of interesting fringe contenders. Not anybody thinks it's going to be in the National Championship, but could make one of those later playoff spots certainly if they both take care of business. So wanna see that one and then we'll rest up. That game's a little late on Friday. I'm going to take the Red Eye to Las Vegas and see USC and LSU in Vegas on opening weekend two, so kind of three different, you know, and FCS, FBS and then two FBS games, but all kind of Western, that's my biggest stretch in terms of travel, I think. - So in a couple of different iterations of this, I had that USC LSU game and I switched it out and landed on Miami at Florida because there are different points through this exercise 'cause I'm a tinker that I had LSU and USC on this. In my final draft, I don't have either one of those. So that is kind of the, that is the um, kind of wish I would have gone with that one, but I do like the okay, contender, pretender Miami, verse Florida and a spoiler alert. You know, I'll just go into the reason why Colorado, North Dakota State didn't make my list. I'm actually seeing the buys and later but I'm going to Colorado at Nebraska week two because old big eight, I am a mat rule guy. I think that as much as I hate it, you know, I love the memes. I think Nebraska gets so a bowl game. I think they beat Colorado. So I think that might be the last kind of ooh, fun, prime, you know, game for the year. Plus those two fan bases, I think after talking to the Folsom Frenzy Colorado podcast, that is their big rival. And again, no matter how much Nebraska tries to fake it with Iowa, they don't have Oklahoma on the schedule. I think this is the game that, you know, Nebraska fans are going to pretend it's 1990 all over again and that place will be rocking. So I'm going to call on Nebraska week two. And that Nebraska, that was one that I had circled and was really interested in, but what ultimately won out is a single tweet. And that single tweet is too lame telling me that they have the cheapest beer in college football. Kansas State, your boys are going to Tulane in week two. New Orleans, gonna be swampy, gonna be sweaty, but I gotta go do some research and see about this beer situation down there too. And I get case date on the schedule. In a fun game, you know, I think a lot of people believe that Tulane's gonna fall off with Coach Fritz going to Houston. But I really believe that Summer All is really good defensively. Watch out for that Kansas State. Watch out for that defensive line. There's like three NFL dudes on that Tulane defensive line Kai Horton or Ty Thompson gonna start a quarterback. They could be very fun playing a very different style of football than Tulane played in the past. But I think that'll be, that'll be good vibes and the cheap beer was too hard to pass up. So I'm going to see Kansas State then. - That is gonna be an interesting one again. I think the first real test for Connor Riley as the new OC Matt Wells coming in and Avery Johnson again, his first road game. Again, probably not as hostile as what he'll see a couple spots later in the season. But that will be an interesting one. This will be the final game where I'm going first and it's my first non-negotiable. Again, I had this bolded. I didn't look at anything else. There are some fun games on this schedule. But West Virginia at Pitt again, this has been, it was one of the lost rivalries to conference realignment. And again, I think it being at Pitt makes it more fun, not because it's a better stadium, not because Pitt fans are better, but because you see this invasion of moonshine, drinking West Virginia fans taking over Pittsburgh, I'm sure the atmosphere would be second to none. And I just remember when it was week one on a Thursday at Pitt when that game came back, just one of those all time watching the game on TV atmosphere. So that's a non-negotiable for me. I'm going to West Virginia, Pitt. - Love that. That was one there. - I took another swing in week three. This is my only other crazy one that I'm going to try to see three because I think there's some really good match-ups here. On Thursday night, I'm going to say on Marcos, Arizona State goes to Texas State. The Bobcat should win that game. Handily, I would even go so far as to say they should win that game. - Don't be a tough show favorite of it. - Yeah, that'll be a lot of fun. You saw G.J. Kenny jump in the river when they made ball eligibility, like just a fun vibes in Texas State. So got to get down there, one last kind of sweat in September. Make sure I stay warm. Gonna go up to UNLV at Kansas. J.L. and Daniel should be healthy at the beginning of the season. Ricky White in ULV is really, really fun. Transfer from Holy Cross. Matt Sluka comes in at quarterback for UNLV. Brendan Marion's running that offense. They should be diabolical. That will be a high points, a lot of fun game. And then that game ends, that's only five o'clock local time in Lawrence. It's nine hours and 58 minutes from Lawrence to Laramie Wyoming. So I'm gonna drive, stop at a cheap hotel somewhere along the way. Break it up five and five, get out West and go see BYU at Wyoming. Kind of a Western matchup there as well. So BYU, not a team I'm super interested in in terms of the talent on their roster. Wyoming, obviously Craig Bolbertires, they kind of got a new regime. But vibes are high in Laramie. The stadium's great. Whether it'll be beautiful and will be a nice way to kind of cap a really, really busy week of travel. - You'll be forgiven for not actually knowing the stadium that that KU, UNLV games being played in. - Is it Kansas City? - Yeah, it's the MLS stadium. So it's a-- - Oh, weird. - 18,700 seat stadium with, you know, you can get up to 21,000 with standing room only. So that might be the toughest ticket you have on your entire-- - $153 on ESPN right here. I didn't see that, I did not do my research on that. So at an hour to my drive, makes it a little harder. But I think the game's gonna be worth it. So I'll make that happen. - Yeah, and a little bit of bad blood from their bowl game last year as well. If you recall, KU had like 17 personal fouls. So that could be a fun one. Before we now switch to you giving your games first, we're going to give a shout out to our first sponsor, Me and Hatton Brewing Company, Breaking News. I saw this right before we went live. Guess what? They're working on having a taproom in Wichita. I'm going to try to leverage everything I have in this partnership to bully the owners of Manhattan Brewing Company to open something in Johnson County, preferably downtown Shawnee right next to me. They didn't tell me when we had our sponsor spot like sure that they were looking to expand. I would have turned that entire episode of trying to get them to open up in Johnson County. But guess what? Wichita Boneheads, keep your eyes peeled. Manhattan Brewing Company expanding, coming close to you guys. All right, they also have great beers, great events, all sorts of fun stuff going on. They have their latest brewery in the alley with friends. They got Talis coming from Olathe to come hang out. Tapping beers in the alley this Friday. Got food trucks, great beers, all sorts of stuff. I'm personally just flustered because if I would have known this, I would have been lobbying a lot harder. Also, as you guys heard yesterday, as I talked with Connor Riley, Condor the Magnificent, the double hazy IPA that Connor Riley himself helped brew at the brewery for the third straight year is tapping this week as well. Shout to Manhattan Brewing Company, the best brewery in the state of Kansas. - Hey, this one's freaking out. I'm not going to dime from this here, but I'll say I think something funky space whale is like a triple IPA, something crazy. I've had it, love it, big fan. Yeah, big fan in Manhattan Brewing. I don't remember, I think I had it while I was there for the uninitiated listener. I've done many a stint in Kansas City with just how Scott and I are real life friends. But yeah, I think a big fan of Manhattan Brewing. - 'Cause I definitely didn't break federal laws and have shipped different Manhattan Brewing Company beers to folks across the country. Definitely did not do that. All right, let's go to week four. I'm interested where you're going. Again, it was another one of my non-negotiable. I'd back-to-back weeks where it's like, I didn't really look at anything else 'cause I was so dead set on seeing one of these games. But I'm curious where you're going for week four. - Now I'm interested in what your dead set game is. I kind of am pulling a little bit you. I'm seeing a team you've already seen. I'm gonna go to South Florida for Miami at South Florida. I alluded to that quote earlier where Alex Golis said, you're playing us. I think that South Florida's gonna be really spicy this year. And this is a situation where if Miami stumbles early or if they're good early, they could stumble here. I think this would be a legitimate football game. And so get down to the South in, that's in Raymond James and Tampa. So not that Tampa is the most alluring destination overall, but I think good atmosphere. I've actually been to Raymond James Stadium before I saw the Broncos play there. No, yes, I think it was the Broncos play there way, way, way back when I used to live in Florida. So fond memories there and I think that one's fun. I have a little bit of a paralysis by analysis here just 'cause I thought there was a couple options. So I'm interested in what your non-negotiable on this one is. The iron skit, no, I'm kidding. First off, I meant to ask this when he said TCU Stanford, what do you think, you know, Parker back in 2006 would say if you showed him this schedule said, hey, this is a big 12 schedule with two ACC teams in the non-conference. How wild is it to look at that TCU schedule through the lens of what things were just 15 years ago? - It's crazy and I grew up going to the Liberty Bowl back and it was like Mountain West and all that. So I saw TCU come in and see that and you know, SMU in different conferences as well. And so very, very odd to see also very funny that SMU took a pay cut and took no money to go to the ACC to get in. And it looks like Florida State and Clemson are trying to advocate and kind of get out. So that's also very funny. But yeah, it's weird, man, adapter dive at these conference realignment stuff is just, it's crazy. - Yes, it is. Well, my non-negotiable, I think it is the game of the year and the big 12. It is Utah going to Oklahoma State. I think Kelly Ford had it as the only game Utah would not be favored in his volume two stats. I have no idea if you had your preseason stuff up or if this would be Utah being favored or not favored. But I think this is a massive game for both of them. I think the winner has to feel great about getting to Arlington. I think the loser, especially if it's Oklahoma State, seeing that it's at K-State the following week, they would not be feeling pretty good. Schedulemakers didn't do them any help, Utah, then K-State. But I think that might be the game of the year and the big 12, assuming Cam Rising Health and all that jazz. But I think that's going to be a massive game. So that was one of my favorites. - If you hear the clicking on my computer, I'm doing this live. I haven't put anything out there. I got to get my act together publicly, obviously doing some of that stuff, kind of behind the scenes. But yeah, so I have this projected, I would have Oklahoma State as a point and a half favorite in this game. Yeah, I agree. Although at some point, everybody's just throwing, some mix of points per game and returning production in there. So the market fundamentals are definitely there. I think there's a lot of uncertainty in Utah for sure. - No, I totally agree and it will be interesting, but I do think that could be the game of the year for the conference. Let's go to week five. I'll let you go first, but again, this was a game that basically from this moment on really affected how rest of my schedule played out. So I'm curious that this might be the first game we're seeing together. - I went chalk here. So I don't know, I, Georgia at Alabama. I want to see Kaylyn DeBoer. I want to see what happens. I want to see if the Georgia revenge tour is actually going to live up to the billing. I want to see Carson Beck versus Jalen Milro. I want to see, like Kaylyn DeBoer is one in every level of football, man. The dude just wins games. And now he is at the top level here, you know, running the show. I'm really interested to see what they do after, you know, just the huge regime change. They'll both have a couple of weeks to kind of round and inform. That feels like, you know, game of the year for college football. - Yeah, there's one other game I put in bold and said, hey, this is my number one game that, you know, outside of big 12 biases. But this is, this affected, okay, I think this is the best game for Georgia. I think this might be the closest game they played. You get to see new look Alabama, post-saving Alabama for the first time and really see what's going on. And I think that's a no-douder. And I'd be shocked if anyone came into this exercise. Like I can understand why my number one game others may not pick, but I'd be shocked if anyone went through this exercise and didn't pick Georgia at Alabama. - Yeah, especially 'cause there's other games I was interested in, like Arkansas, Texas A&M, you know, depending on what Arkansas looks like in the first couple of weeks, like maybe that could be interesting. But, you know, North Carolina, Duke, I think Duke's gonna be pretty bad. So even the rivalry doesn't get me very excited there. And then Oklahoma State, Kansas State's that weekend too. But, you know, I think it's just all of those are kind of just dominated by this. Don't sleep on Liberty App State. I think that's gonna be a really good football game. But in terms of, hey, I've got unlimited funds in time and I'm gonna go to a game this weekend, it's just hard to pick anything better than this this weekend. - Yep, number six, I'll let you go first one more time before I switch back to going first. This also was a fallout game for me, but not quite as big as Georgia, Alabama. So I'm curious if we're back to back or not. - Okay, no, this one kind of froze me. I'm not gonna lie, I, this one, I wasn't 100% sure where I wanted to go. So I picked Cool Stadium. I'm gonna go to Texas Tech at Arizona. - See, not on my radar at all, week six, you know, that didn't even make my big 12 road trip. I was going to UCF Florida for my big 12 road trip, but I'm, but the one that kind of had the fallout, I'm Clemson App Florida State. You know, it's like, okay, can Dabo figure it out or is Dabo washed? Again, I think Florida State has a very manageable schedule. And hell, I think at this point, they're almost done with ACC play at, you know, week six. They have an insane schedule. Just next time you're bored, just look at how funny their schedule worked out. But, but I think this is going to determine one of the two participants in the ACC Championship. And then hell, who knows? How long will this be an ACC game? Nobody knows. So that was the other fallout game that I had. - I actually, I actually realized that I didn't pick that one because I have, I'm seeing both of these teams later in the season. And so that's, that's where my kind of like optimization came in because I didn't, I couldn't make it work. But I like that one. That's a, that's a banger. - Well, and again, that's why this was one of those fallout games. And again, that's what makes this exercise so fun. So I'm going to the next one. This was my number one with a bullet game. And it's Ohio State at Oregon. Look, I think, oh high, 'cause I think Michigan is going to suck this year. I am not a Michigan believer. I think that they are going to, I think Michigan fans probably had a lot of fun the last three years. And I think they're going to be like eight and four, but I look at Ohio State's schedule. I think it is soft. I think that this is really their only true test in the regular season. And again, I want to see what Will Howard does. Again, I'm not going to try to sit here and say that he's not going to be great or anything. I don't know, but this is going to be his only test. I mean, if he in hell, he might not even be the quarterback. If he under achieves that all they have, you know, all sorts of guys that they'll just be chomping to go there. But I think at Oregon, I think it's a test for both of those teams. It's a big 10 game. Austin Stadium, one of the tops in the country. This was just my number one game with a bullet. Didn't put a single honorable mention. This was the first game I put in when I filled this out. - Well, Red River is happening that week. So that was one that caught my eye. But yeah, it has to be Ohio State Oregon. - No, I'll never pick Red River in this exercise ever again. Actually, you know what, and it probably depends on what your preseason top 25 looks like. Texas might be the highest ranked team preseason ranked that I'm not seeing at all. I'm not, oh, no, that's a lie. I lied straight to your face. No, you know what Texas game I'm going to. It was another bold one late in the season, spoiler alert. But I'm going to Ohio State Oregon. Are you going there as well? Is this the second time we're going? - Yeah, that was my pick with Oklahoma and Texas as the runner up. I think it's defensively their way. But at this point, I've been to a lot of games that are hot. I want to go, you know, nice weather and see a cool, cool new stadium, so. - Before I pick my next one, we'll give another shout out to sponsor Charlie Hussle, clothing company, currently wearing their case state beef shirt from last year. That's right. There was an entire offensive line shirt last year. They have all sorts of great stuff for all the big 12 teams, all sorts of teams all across the country. And if you are a Kansas city and like me, you can rep the pro stuff as well as their iconic art Kansas city shirts. Shop them at charliehustle.com or all across the Kansas city metro. Charlie Hussle, vintage made fresh. Whenever I go to a Kansas city Royals game with our mutual friend Jimmy, I always rock a Charlie Hussle Kansas city baseball shirt. So shout out to Jimmy who is a real life friend and an absolute goat. Yeah. - Yeah, he's the best. All right. So week eight, this is where I got creative because again, there were a lot of games that were okay. I could go to this, I could go to that. But I'm going to the Fargo Dome. I'm going to South Dakota state at North Dakota state in week eight. Look, what is Tim Polisett going to do at North Dakota state? Again, they have had this great line of coaches, but they didn't live up to expectations the last round. You know, North Dakota state has the expectation of running the Missouri Valley and winning national championships. South Dakota state has taken over as the big bad in the Missouri Valley in the FCS. And this is a massive rivalry game. I believe they'd play for a mile marker trophy. And again, it's up in the Fargo Dome. It gets loud, it gets rowdy up there. So I'm going to South Dakota state and North Dakota state. The Jackrabbits at the Bison spelled with an S pronounced with a Z. - Love that. South Dakota state's an absolute wagon. And honestly, North Dakota state should have won their playoff game in Montana, but they got cute and ran a reverse instead of just being North Dakota state and running the ball, you know, up the middle. But shout out to the Montana Grizzlies. This one was good. You know, Kansas, Kansas state is this weekend, which is a good matchup. Wait, am I on the right week? You're looking at me. Are we eight or nine? - We're on eight. - Oh, right eight. - I got excited. - I'm not. - Excuse me. I'm off, I'm off. - Well, I had a heart attack 'cause I f'd everything up last, you know, last road show 'cause I'm of course going to K-S-A-K-U, spoiler alert. - That's me. I was yes-ending you 'cause I didn't have the FCS 'cause I was on the wrong week. - All right, you got some weeknight, you got some weeknight Q-SAs, so take your pick of what you wanna see there. Western Kentucky, Sam Houston is a fun class of styles that you might go to earlier in the week on Wednesday if you want to. And then on Saturday, speaking of vibes, speaking of cool places to go, Colorado State at Air Force in Falkland Stadium right there in Colorado Springs. I've been there. So I'll teach you in 2009, my first real college road trip at Snow. It was a ton of fun. It was cold, great stadium, great area, and a good little rivalry there between two teams. So get out there and support the troops. That's my pick for this week. - I love it. In Colorado State, low key, some of the best uniforms in college football. So that is my take. All right, so yeah, week nine, K-S-A-K-U, that was another bold, non-negotiable for me because I think, look, in a hypothetical world, a best-case scenario world, if you want this game to mean something, I'm not cheering for K-U to be undefeated at this point, but both teams could be undefeated if both teams are healthy. It could be a top 15 matchup. It could be a college game day type of game. I think this is, I mean, it's sold out in July already, you know, and tickets were insanely expensive for a single game. I think this could be an all-time type atmosphere in Bill Snyder Family Stadium. And I think this could be, my brother hates it when I say this, but I think this might be the last good chance K-U has in this one. They are losing a lot after this season. And yes, next year's in Lawrence in their new renovated stadium, but Avery Johnson isn't going anywhere. I think K-Sates can be even better next year. And I think that they're just the better program. So I think this is K-U's last best chance to get it. So it's gonna be a tight game. It's going to, you know, give me 17 heart attacks and 13 strokes during the game, but I'm going to the Sunflower Showdown and K-Sates gonna make it like 17 straight or something crazy like that. - Love that. This is a beefy week. I can't join you at the Sunflower Showdown 'cause I've already seen Kansas State in Atulane and I've already seen Kansas in the soccer stadium versus UNLV and a couple other games this week that were great, they were on my radar, but couldn't make it work with the rules. Boise State at UNLV, that's, you know, a kind of a precursor to Mountain West Championship. Missouri at Alabama should be really, really fun. You've got Nebraska at Ohio State, Florida State at Miami. Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech could be really, really fun. I think there's a lot of hype there. I want to go to Camp Randall, Penn State at Wisconsin. I think Wisconsin will be just a solid kind of fine team. Penn State obviously trying to take advantage of the 12 team playoff to get over the hump of, you know, being in a division with those two excellent teams for so long. I think that'll be a lot of fun. I like Drew Oller as a quarterback. I think they're offense with Andy Kodelneke from Kansas is gonna be just super fun. And by that time, they'll have it rare in to go. That'll be a good kind of big 10 fall atmosphere. Won't be too cold. It will be just like that perfect crisp October Saturday. So I'm just going to go to Camp Randall there. I love it. All right, I'll go first week 10. Again, this is kind of a fallout of games, you know, because I'm seeing other games. I think this is a good week, but I am going to what I think is going to be the biggest American game. I'm going to the Alamo Dome. I'm going to Memphis at UTSA, Meep, Meep, Go Road Runners. You know, we still have actually, weirdly enough, a handful of UTSA fans who listen to the podcast relatively frequently, just from the connections we made the first year we were doing this podcast when the Road Runners came to Manhattan. But I think that is going to set the table for basically whoever's going to host the American Conference Championship game. So I think the winner of this will host the rematch. So I'm going to the Alamo Dome. - Okay, I had that game pick too. And what I was trying to make work is what, could I get to the Friday night game I wanted to get to? So right now live, I am pulling up flights from on November 1st, October, November, November 1st to San Antonio from Boise. And I'm just seeing if it's even feasible to be able to go to San Diego State at Boise on Friday night and then get there 298 basic economy five, oh, 288, less than five hours direct flight American Airlines. Boom, put that in the bank. I'm going to Boise State on Friday night to see San Diego State waking up and flying out to go see Memphis and UTSA. I think that's a great game as well. - I love it. Hopefully not a, you know, an 11 a.m. game, but I'll allow it. I will hold a seat for you in the club area of the Alamo Dome, not that great of a club area, but hey, it's the club area. Week 11, again, there were some different fall outs. For the longest time, I wanted to try to make possibly BYU at Utah work, but again, I wanted to see Utah at Oklahoma State, Alabama at LSU. Iowa State versus KU in Arrowhead Stadium, Florida State at Notre Dame, all sorts of great games, but I'm going to Oklahoma at Missouri. And the reason why is I feel like this has to be the measuring stick game for Oklahoma. They have the long history with Missouri. I'm sure they're going to try to make this into a quasi rivalry game, because again, Oklahoma has no history with anyone else in the SEC, except for Missouri and Texas. Missouri thinks, and again, I live in Kansas City, I listen to sports talk, they're talking undefeated season, they're talking SEC championship game, they're talking, hey, we're going to host a playoff game if we don't win the conference, like that is the type of conversation they're having. They have a week schedule, it's about as weak as it gets in the SEC, so this might be the toughest game. I guess they have Alabama, so okay, right? Does Missouri have Alabama? - Yeah, they do, yeah, that was one that I had circled, yeah. - Okay, so like-- - But point stands of like, this is one of these, you know, they have two kind of challenge games and this is one of them. - Yeah, I kind of-- - In big game history, so that's what I'm doing. - Love that, similar to you, tons of good games this weekend. I feel like I painted myself into a quarter, maybe didn't optimize as well as I should have. I am going to App State at Coastal Carolina and Conway on Thursday, just for the vibes. It's a little Sunbell to kind of establish programs with, you know, some upside app state, I think can actually sneakly be a really, really good G5 program this year, and maybe sneak into the playoff there. So really, really fun game. It pains me to see this Saturday slate and not, you know, have a full answer for where I'd go, but like Florida State Notre Dame, I have Florida State later, I can't do that. I've got, you know, I've already seen Kansas, so I can't see Iowa State. And so, you know, maybe we throw Clemson, Virginia Tech there on Saturday is like a consolation prize for me, 'cause I'm going to a Thursday game. - There you go, on week 12, this was, so week 12 and 13, I kind of highlighted in light pink. - Action, action, action, action, action. - Yes, it is, it is action, because again, I couldn't get to a lot of the games I wanted to. Week 13, not as much of a reason for week 13, but week 12, I'm going to Central Michigan at Toledo. I'm going to the glass bowl. I think Toledo, I think they are number two behind Miami, Ohio and the preseason media poll. I guess in theory, if I'm playing your game, I could go to see a action game on Wednesday as well. But Central Michigan at Toledo is where I'm going. And then, you know, I'll throw in random games on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday that, you know, lower level, as long as it's not a Mountain West game, spoiler alert for later on in this episode. But I'm going to Central Michigan at Toledo. - I'm going to join you. I wanted to go see Kent State at Miami. I think Kent State's going to be really bad, so for the vibes, I'll go on Tuesday and join you there. Same thing, I'm a little bit stuck in a corner. I don't have Missouri, and so I could go see Missouri at South Carolina. Seems kind of weird to go two separate weeks and see go to South Carolina, two weeks in a row. I don't know if that's my ideal vacation or road trip strategy there. I suppose, depending on if Baylor was decent, I could go see Baylor at West Virginia. I don't have either of them. On my schedule and theoretically, both of those teams are in the mix for a bowl. That could be a solid game for the Big 12 as well. Don't sleep on James Madison, Old Dominion. I think that that will be a good game, you know, not teams that are maybe as nationally relevant as some of these other games, but two good teams and should be really, really fun there. So there's a lot of options to go with, but I'm gonna go with the Mac just for some of those bigger games. LSU and Florida, I've got on my schedule elsewhere, so I can't go to that one. - So week 13, I originally thought about Boise State at Wyoming, but again, I think folks can probably pick up by now. I think folks realize I'm gonna go to the Mountain West Championship game, so I've tried to stay clear of any Mountain West. Originally, I had USC versus UCLA in here. Great color matchup, you know, LA, great weather, all that type of stuff. But I thought to myself, no, that game is everything that is against what I rally against in college football. So I'm going to the PAC2 championship. I'm going to Washington State at Oregon State. Look, I don't want them in the Big 12, and I don't necessarily feel bad for Oregon State fans 'cause they were kind of dickish when it looked like the Big 12 was gonna die towards K State fans. So it's like, I don't necessarily feel bad for them, kind of feel for Washington State fans, but look, they're still trying to rock, they're still trying to figure stuff out. They were left behind, so I can't go to USC, UCLA, in good conscious knowing that the two PAC championship is happening in core valus. So I'm going to Washington State at Oregon State. - I'm sorry, that's the wrong answer. Even though I'm breaking the rules here, and I'll explain it, the correct answer is Brawl of the Wild in Bozeman, Montana at Montana State. I saw Montana State in Week Zero, that was my fault, but I'm breaking the rules regardless, and I'm going to this game. I went last year, it was in Missoula. I am a degree holder from the University of Montana, an alumnus, if you will. And so certainly root for the Grizzlies there, and I had a lot of fun going to that last year. It's a great atmosphere, a lot of fun. They had game day, I think, two years ago, at that game when it was in Bozeman. And so it should be two really good teams that picked one, two in the Big Sky again. So very similar to your North Dakota State South, Dakota State pick, this is just a can't miss game for me, two high quality teams, and a really great rivalry atmosphere. End of the world confessions, if I would have actually looked and saw that that's where it was, I probably would have ended up there as well. 'Cause in the back of my head, I don't know, a couple of these weeks, I was like, all right, let me check out what's going on in the Big Sky and see what's going on. So good for you. So it is what it is. We're going to keep moving on. Week 14, the final regular season week. I lied, I am seeing Texas at Texas A&M. Again, I despise both of them, but that is going to be an insane atmosphere. It's going to be disgusting, just full of people I probably hate, but it's going to be fun. College football is all about rivalries. If you talk about some of the greatest rivalries that had been lost due to conference your alignment, this has to be up near the top. It's going to be the first one in like 10, 15 years, however many, it's a classic. I don't know who, I probably honestly chairing for Texas A&M, even though I'm also mad at Colin Klein, Josh Buford for the leaving, but whatever. So I'm going, as much as I hate it, that's going to be maybe one of the games of the year, atmosphere wise. So Texas at Texas A&M for me. - Okay, I know this is a crazy person's thing. I know, I know this is absolutely crazy. I saw that game, obviously. Had it circled and was like, this is going to be a banger, all-timer, tickets are probably going to be expensive, it's crazy, my in-laws live in Houston. I could drive out to the game and be easy, whatever. But what if instead of going to one game on Saturday, I went to the big 12 championship play-in game, Utah at UCF on Friday night. And then I went to Florida, Florida State on Saturday and saw the Seminoles in Gainesville. So I think I'm leaning towards the Florida tour, that'll be my third time in Florida on this trip, which seems absolutely insane. But it's going to be cold. The winter is long up north in the mountains where I live. So I'll go snowbird it and make the Florida trip for that weekend. - I mean, that will be fun. And again, it is a very fun week in college football. I'm really hoping people don't lose sight of how fun college football is, praying at the altar of the playoff. So that should be a fun one. All right, we'll get into week 15. Again, I already let the dog out of the bag or the... What is it out of the bag? Something out of the bag, what's the phrase? It's not a dog. Cat, it's a cat. You let the cat out of the bag, woof. I'm going to the Mountain West Championship game. And look, part of me kind of regretted penciling this in because I could have gone to the Sun Belt because I didn't go to any Sun Belt games. Because there were some good Mountain West games that I wanted to go to, but I feel like the Mountain West is going to be a super fun conferences here, especially amongst the G5. Again, despite what I just said about, don't let be a slave to the playoff. This could be a playoff play in game depending on what's going on in the Sun Belt. But I'm going to the Mountain West Championship game. That's where I'm going and it is what it is. I don't know who's going to play in it, but I guarantee it's going to be a fun game. So there it is. - I love that I agree that I kind of went the inverse there because I saw at UNLV, I saw San Diego State, my boy Sean Lewis out there. I saw Boise State in the regular season. So I was trying to hit those good teams. I saw Wyoming, saw Air Force, saw Colorado State. So I got a lot of the Mountain West out of the way. I kind of did the same thing with like, I don't know which Cusa game is going to be good during the season, but I know that the Cusa Championship game is going to be a banger. And so that's the one I'm going to go to. It's going to be cheap. I've traveled a lot, it's been a really, really long and arduous season getting to all these games. And I'm just going to go to the Cusa and a championship and watch, you know, whether that's Liberty in San Houston or whoever just, you know, duke it out for the glory there. That's my, that's my pick. So exact same line of thinking with Mountain West. I just did it with the Cusa. - I love it. And then wrapping up week 16 again, we've had folks get creative in this week before, but I'm putting Army Navy. I wish it wasn't in Landover. I don't want to go to FedEx Field. That is gross amongst some of the themes that they play this in. I hate it. I hope if Kansas City, you know, builds a brand new Megadome here on the Kansas side, I hope they somehow find a way to get into that rotate. I don't know why they'd come to this side of the Mississippi. Does not make sense for a team, you know, located in Annapolis and in West Point. Doesn't make sense. But I. - And now two pigeons be moaning the fact you can stream direct TV satellite free. - Hey Frank, a little birdie told me you don't need a satellite dish to get direct TV. - What's the little birdie? - Was it Jimmy the Sparrow? - It's a figure of speech. Point is you can stream direct TV over the internet now. - Oh sure. Next you're going to tell me those big birds are made of metal and filled with people, right? - Haha. - You mean airplanes? - Stream Direct TV without a satellite dish. Call 1-800-DIRECT-TV. Terms or restrictions apply. Okay, so hopefully, hopefully knock on wood. This is me just picking up talking about how much I love Army Navy. And we didn't lose the entire episode. And then if that happened, then you guys aren't going to be listening to this. So if you're listening to this, everything worked out. But Army Navy, I want to go to it. I love going to case state games and watching case state so much. I don't have a lot of true actionable bucket list games. But Army Navy is an actionable one for me. And I'm going to make it happen sooner rather than later. So that's where I'm going. - I went to Army Navy last year. It was in Foxborough, my friend Sean Clement. I got us some tickets. And I went with all the boys at Taish and Eric and Ben and a bunch of people from work and a bunch of Twitter people. And it was just absolutely a blast, a great game. Go with someone who is affiliated and just root for that side. It is just an absolute heck of a time. So super fun. The NFL stadium is the only bummer there. But it's hard to not go see the troops. I've already seen Air Force. So I'll complete the trifecta by joining you at Army Navy. I think that's four games that we're going to. This fall, I think we've agreed on. So that's pretty great. - Yes, that is fun. So that's all we have. Hopefully everyone gets to listen to this Parker. Thank you so much for coming on. Is there anything you want to plug to the boneheads or anyone who found this episode just by happenstance? - Yeah, follow me on Twitter @statsowar and working on some ways to get stat previews out a little faster and a little more fun for you guys. And we can sum it up here. And then the Bet U.S. College Football Show is on YouTube Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 1 p.m. Eastern. Check that out, go subscribe. We're doing a couple episodes kind of here in July. And then in August, we'll be going every week, cranking out some great episodes over there with Gary and Kyle, Bet U.S. College Football Show on YouTube. - Awesome. Well, Parker, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to talk with me. I hope everyone enjoyed. If anyone plays along, if anyone tweets me their dream road trip, I don't have kuzis in stock. But if I ever reorder them again, I will send you a kuzi. Heck, actually here, here. If anyone wants to tweet me, their dream college football road trip, I will make a note of it and give you an extra entry for the July Charlie Hustle t-shirt giveaway. There you go. So if you want an extra entry, tweet me a picture of your dream road trip. It has to follow the rules. Shout out to Charlie Hustle. Shout to Manhattan Brewing Company. For Parker, my in-real life friend. For Chauncey, the best dog in the world. We love you guys and go cats. ♪ Hail to the purple ♪ ♪ Hail to the white ♪ ♪ Wildcat in spirit ♪ ♪ Wildcat in fight ♪ ♪ Hail Alma Mater ♪ ♪ From sea to sea ♪ ♪ Onward forever ♪ ♪ Hail victory ♪ ♪ Barram, barram, barram, barram, barram, barram, barram ♪ ♪ Fight ♪ ♪ You can't stay wildcats ♪ ♪ For Alma Mater fights ♪ ♪ Glory in the combat ♪ ♪ For the purple and the white ♪ ♪ Faithful to our colors ♪ ♪ We will ever be ♪ ♪ A fighting ♪ ♪ Ever fighting ♪ ♪ For a wildcat victory ♪ ♪ Fight, fight, fight, fight ♪ ♪ You can't stay wildcats ♪ ♪ For Alma Mater fight, fight, fight, fight ♪ ♪ For in the combat for the purple and the white ♪ ♪ Faithful to our colors ♪ ♪ We will ever be ♪ ♪ By never fighting for a wild gat day ♪ ♪ Glory, go stay ♪ ♪ One, two ♪ ♪ For in the combat for a wild gat day ♪ ♪ For in the combat for a wild gat day ♪ ♪ For in the combat for a wild gat day ♪ ♪ For in the combat for a wild gat day ♪ ♪ For in the combat for a wild gat day ♪ ♪ For in the combat for a wild gat day ♪ ♪ For in the combat for a wild gat day ♪ ♪ For in the combat for a wild gat day ♪ ♪ For in the combat for a wild gat day ♪ ♪ For in the combat for a wild gat day ♪ [MUSIC]