WTKA Roundtable 12/12/2024: We Like Making Big Books

Things Discussed:

• The Book: It's what we would have wanted. Kickstarter backers: I wrote an update but the gist is tracking numbers might come after the books because USPS.
• Ohio State is Flag-Mad. Brian: 11W and MGoBlog diverged in business models a long time ago: they do clickbait, we make big books.
• Seth: The reason this hits Ohio State so hard is they have nothing else to be proud of anymore. They bet everything on beating Michigan and then got absolutely punked again. Symbology is all that's left.
• Chip Lindsey: Came up through high school so he's got a lot of different ideas. Lots of coordinator experience. He develops somebody else's quarterback. QBs take fewer sacks, run less (more scrambles than called runs).
• Lindsey's philosophy, if there is one, is to run what works best for the players he's got. He doesn't want to have a "blob" on usage distribution—wants you to worry about screens and downfield, outside runs and inside runs.
• Portal? UNC guys of interest (Hampton is probably going pro).
• Michigan's portal strategy: looking for guys they can get value. ZVADA is the epitome of portal success: a guy who's going to be more valuable to you. Part of that value is seeing if you can make more out of a player (Barham, Stewart, etc.) than he is.
• You're in a salary cap world.
• Kentucky guys? Miller Moss? Feeling different because he's getting big portal offers. Brendon Lewis—that would be a dude; he's a Year 6 guy, probably will come down to dollars because it's not certain there's an NFL future. Don't be too worried about Underwood in Year 1 because he's not turning 18 until August. Billy Edwards? Sam nodding. UMD had the worst OL, Edwards is a perfect example of a guy who looks a lot better as a 25x/game thrower.
• Hoops: Danny Wolf is the tallest 5-10 guy we've ever seen. Sucks to lose to Calipari. Craig says hit your free throws. In a dozen years we'll say "I remember getting beat like that by Boogie Fland in college."