Kenny Dillingham Stays Put, Wisconsin's Bucket of Wrenches & the 2025 College Football Stories You Loved
The Solid Verbal College Football
iHeartPodcasts
4.8 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2026
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With Valentine's Day around the corner, we take a look at the 2025 storylines we secretly loved. Whether scrappy teams held things together with gum and chicken wire, coaches who turned programs around overnight, or the moments that didn't make national headlines, we talk through the things that got our hearts pumping. Think Wisconsin winning games with their punter as the leading passer, Houston quietly going 10-3, Arch Manning actually getting better when pundits left him for dead, and much more.
In this episode, we share our own picks before opening it up to the Verballerhood, whose submissions cover everything from Kenny Dillingham staying at Arizona State to the absurdity of Lane Kiffin's move to LSU, Arkansas fans learning to love heartbreak, Indiana fans debating whether to protect their hearts or go all in on Curt Cignetti, and much more. Plus, a brief Super Bowl debrief, a Timothée Chalamet conversation, and the debut of Dan's bucket of wrenches.
Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro / Super Bowl recap
6:27 - What we're doing today
8:51 - Dan's "winning despite" teams (Duke, Mizzou, Minnesota, Wake Forest)
10:58 - Steve Angeli and Syracuse's collapse without him
13:34 - Wisconsin as a bucket of wrenches
17:08 - Northwestern's what-could-have-been season
19:21 - Jason Eck and New Mexico's nine-win season
22:16 - Penn State's leaked Pat Kraft audio
25:08 - Ty's Quick Hits: Mason Heinschel, Houston's quiet 10-3 season, Arch Manning actually got better
29:29 - Dan's Quick Hits: Arizona's nasty defense, SMU's post-playoff rebuild, Double transfers
31:51 - Kenny Dillingham staying at Arizona State
35:15 - Arkansas tried
37:20 - Indiana, Curt Cignetti, and protecting your heart
44:19 - Fernando Mendoza's F-bomb and industry plant theory
45:34 - Cal, the Wilcox era, and the Mendoza that got away
46:56 - Lane Kiffin-LSU drama
49:23 - Georgia ripping rivals' hearts out
50:17 - North Texas's record-setting season
51:38 - Player shoutouts: Jeremiyah Love, Ahmad Hardy, Jacob Rodriguez, Jayden Maiava
53:40 - Quick fan hits: Ohio State, Georgia Tech, Oklahoma, Oregon, Purdue
57:34 - Ball State tried to be the worst
57:47 - Florida State's first month
58:26 - Rutgers' top-50 offense / Arizona retaining Seth Doege and Noah Fifita
59:54 - ESPN cinematography and best broadcast production
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:06.3 | Welcome to the solid verbal. |
| 0:08.1 | The solid verbal. |
| 0:09.1 | Come after me. |
| 0:10.8 | I'm a man. |
| 0:11.8 | I'm 40. |
| 0:12.6 | I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. |
| 0:15.1 | You want to be happy for a day? |
| 0:16.7 | Eat a steak. |
| 0:17.6 | It's that woo-woo. |
| 0:19.2 | And now, down and tie. |
| 0:22.7 | Dan Rubinstein, welcome back to the show, my friend. |
| 0:25.3 | Congratulations to you, noted Seattle Seahawks fan on your world championship here over, I guess, the last 48 hours. |
| 0:33.5 | Sir, welcome on back. |
| 0:35.0 | I didn't know who to root for. |
| 0:36.7 | Normally, I have, like, a good idea because I have friends who like the team, and I do have Seahawks friends, but as a 49ers fan, it just felt gross to root for the Seahawks. |
| 0:45.1 | And then the Patriots feel kind of gross to root for for whatever reason, but I have Patriots friends in my life. |
| 0:50.8 | So I was just rooting for a good game, from some good plays, maybe some good commercials. |
| 0:56.1 | I do disagree with you on the Jurassic Park Comcast commercial. |
| 0:59.8 | Oh, you're not a fan of that one? |
| 1:00.8 | The Philadelphia proximity and Comcast is just interwoven into your life. I don't know. |
... |
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