Irish Illustrated insider subscribers. This is Drew Mentock, and I'm here to bring you the 17th episode from a biweekly podcast series in the feed, Irish Illustrated interviews. Today, we're sharing my conversation with Ty Hildenbrandt, a Lifeline Nordium fan and one of the co-hosts and founders of the Solid Verbal

podcast. The show represents the largest independent college football podcast, and it's heading into

its 19th season this fall. We discuss his complicated fandom as a Penn State alumnus and a diehard

fighting Irish supporter. The consternation his dual allegiances have caused at times

and what it's like to share his raw emotions as a fan with a national audience. The conversation

also dies into the solid verbal and how he and his co-host, Dan Rubenstein, capture the pulse

of college football teams across the country while following dozens upon dozens of games each weekend.

That includes browsing various message boards to monitor fan reactions.

Here's my interview with Ty.

What's up, everyone? I'm here with Ty Hildenbrandt, who, along with Dan Rubenstein, is one of the founders and co-hosts of the Solid Verbal, the largest independent

college football podcast that's heading into its 19th season.

Other than Irish Illustrated Insider, of course, that's the college football podcast I listen

to the most.

As noted on your Twitter bio, you're also a Penn Stateer with a complicated fandom.

That's because your interests are divided between your alma mater and your

lifelong admiration for nerding, which I'm excited to get into on this podcast. Ty, thanks so much

for being here with me today. Drew, thank you. Appreciate the info. I read you guys all the time.

So this is like, I don't know, it feels very fitting. Thank you.

Awesome. I appreciate it. As I said, I listened to your guys show for years too.

So that's pretty cool for to hear you say that. But I wanted to start with just kind of the origins of your

neuradame fandom. I know you grew up in eastern Pennsylvania. What's your first kind of memory of

of nerdym football and how did you kind of start getting into the team?

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