Andy & Ari On3 - Bret Bielema vs. Jim Harbaugh SPICES up the offseason | Is your coach too expensive to fire?

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

You’ve had Wendy’s Nuggs dipped in sauce. But have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy’s New Saucy Nuggs take the Crispy and Spicy Nuggs you love and turn them up to 11.Choose between flavors like Buffalo. Honey BBQ. Garlic Parm. Or, if you’re a real heat seeker, try Spicy Ghost Pepper, only on Wendy’s signature Spicy Nuggs. This show is also sponsored by PrizePicks, America’s most fun daily fantasy game. Use the code STAPLES to play $5 and get $50 instantly. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/STAPLES (0:00-16:34) Intro: Bret Bielama vs Jim Harbaugh(16:35-22:38) From the Senior Bowl(22:39-33:25) Coaches on the Hot Seat entering 2025(33:26-39:16) ACC Coaches on the Hot Seat(39:17-41:54) Big 12 Coaches - Scott Satterfield(41:55-43:39) Arizona's Brent Brennan(43:40-45:33) Who's Too Expensive in the Big 12(45:34-46:33) Wendy's Saucy Nuggs(46:34-48:51) Big Ten Coaches on the Hot Seat(48:52-54:04) Too Expensive in the Big Ten - Lincoln Riley(54:05-58:34) Wisconsin's Luke Fickell(58:35-1:11:14) SEC Coaches on the Hot Seat(1:11:15-1:12:47) Conclusion Andy is at the Senior Bowl, but a favorite show topic has blown up again. After Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger revealed details of Michigan’s defense in the NCAA case involving the Connor Stalions-led advanced scouting operation, Illinois coach Bret Bielema hopped on X to troll former Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh. We won’t see them playing on the field anytime soon, but Bielema isn’t shy about sharing his feelings. Next, Andy & Ari take a look at coaches on the hot seat early entering the 2025 season. Is your coach on it, or is your coach too expensive to fire? Find out here as Andy & Ari break it all down from Mobile, Alabama at the Senior Bowl. Watch us on YouTube instead! https://www.youtube.com/@On3sports Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey 

Welcome to Andarion 3. I'm still here in Mobile. Ari's traveling. But of course we have to address anytime we have coach on coach, social media. I don't know what this is a fracas. Is this a fight? We haven't heard a response yet, so it's only one sided right now, but we've got Brett Bielema versus Jim Harbaugh. Which can't be contested on the field anymore because Jim Harbaugh is not in college football. So unless Brett Bielema wants to go to the NFL or Jim Harbaugh wants to come back to college, we can't get that. Now, we could get it off the field, which that would be fascinating. Former Iowa defensive lineman Brett Bielema, former Michigan quarterback Jim Harbaugh. But these guys, I think these are two guys that are very resolute in their opinions. And Brett Bielema, when he read, presumably, Ross Dellinger's story about Michigan's defense in its NCAA case involving the Connor Stallions advanced scouting program in Harbaugh and what everybody knew or didn't know, and Michigan's gonna dig its heels in and fight. Well, some fans unearthed some old Harbaugh clips and and Bilema had some

fun with those. So let's let's play one of those clips from back when Jim Harbaugh coached the 49ers. So before he became the Michigan coach. You always want to be above approach especially when you're good because you don't want people that come back and say, oh they're winning because they're cheating. We want to be above approaching and everything. Do everything by the rules. Because if you don't, if you cheat to win, then you've already lost. So Beelima responds to this video with this tweet.

Really? Why did you leave? Was looking forward to playing, but understand why you ran to the NFL. Now, this is funny on a lot of levels because Bielema did not have all that much success against Jim Harbaugh. Now, I think the team that Brett Bielema has coming back this year, I think he'd feel pretty good about how that would fare against one of Jim Harbaugh's teams. But this is... okay, let's get one thing straight. Jim Harbaugh didn't run to the NFL because of the NCAA stuff, because of the Conor Stallions NCAA stuff, or the Cheeseburger Gate NCAA stuff. Jim Harbaugh ran to the NFL because he was always going back to the NFL. He tried to go to the NFL when the Vikings job was open.

He interviewed for the Vikings job. He didn't get it. They gave it to Kevin O'Connell. He tried again. When the Broncos job was open, they hired Sean Payton. He was always going back to the NFL. Those Michigan fans who tell you, oh, he would have stayed, but Ward Manuel, the athletic director, he just messed that up.

No, he was always going back to the NFL. When he got a job, he was taking it. So when the Chargers offered him the job, he took it. If they hadn't offered him the job and no one else had offered him the job in last year's cycle, he would have come back to Michigan. He was always going to the NFL if he got a job. If he didn't get a job, he was going to come back to Michigan, which probably would have been much more entertaining in in terms of this NCAA case. But I don't think Brett is being completely upfront here when he said ran to the NFL. Well, first of all, coaches don't run to the NFL. They get called up to the NFL. You have to do something to get hired by an NFL team.

And so Harbaugh, having previously been a successful NFL head coach, had a lot more chance of getting an NFL job than say your average college coach, most of whom would love to go to the NFL because then they don't have to recruit anymore. Now, was the NCAA going to make Harbaugh's life very difficult if he stayed at Michigan? Oh yeah, absolutely. But that's not why he was going to the NFL. He was going to the NFL because he was a good head coach in the NFL before. He got to a Super Bowl. He lost to his brother in the Super Bowl. And he was always going back to the NFL if he could.

Now, Beelum found another clip. This one's even funnier. Roll the Judge Judy. Be honest. Tell the truth. If I want them to tell the truth, then I have to tell the truth all the time when you're in a leadership position.

I mean, Judge Judy, I watch her, I mean, I got 90 episodes of Judge Judy T-Vote on my TV and that's what I watch. And one thing about her courtroom is, if you lie in Judge Judy's courtroom, it's over. Now, what if the NCAA says, did you take this recruit out for a cheeseburger when you weren't supposed to be meeting with a recruit and you say, I don't recall and then the NCAA says, here's the receipt. Do you recall now? And you say, I don't recall. What would Judge Judy say about that? Beelum is response to that video, by the way, was laughing, crying emoji, football, laughing, crying emoji.

I really would like Jim Harbaugh to come back to college football just to play Brett Beelum and now because I would love to see the pregame meeting at midfield. Would they talk to each other? Would they even look at each other? How would the post game handshake go? It's spectacular. Like we need more of this. We need more of this in college football and hopefully be

lima is not going to be shy and not only do this with guys that aren't in college football anymore that he can't really do anything about because like Jim Harbaugh can't fire back on the field here because he's in the NFL. But we asked Bielema, we remember we had Bielema on the show last week and Ari asked him, are you gonna be this guy? Because we saw him, he and Shane Beamer got into it at the bowl game. Like are you gonna be the guy and Shane Beamer got into it at the bowl game. Like, are you going to be the guy who does say this stuff?

Because we need this in college football. We need the agitators, the Steve Spurriers, the people who spice it up, who keep it interesting. So here's what Brett Bielam has said when Ari asked that. And anybody who's followed your career all the way back to Wisconsin has known that you have ruffled some feathers from time to time, but you're also unapologetically yourself and one of the bigger personalities in the sport.

Have you thought about what that could mean for Illinois if you were to step in and become one of those personalities who, man, I'm not saying getting into spats with people, but just being yourself and making headlines, like is that good for Illinois and do you find an emphasis on like hey the more you can be you the better? You know I tell our kids every day there are three things every day when you wake up you should do right. Try to do things the right way, be

respectful of everyone and be the best you and I tell them hey for me I only know how to be Brett Beilema. I can't be I have a brother named Barry and a brother named Bart. I can't be either one of them. I could be me, right? I don't try to be somebody else. I try to be the person I am. We don't want Barry Beilema or Bart Beilema going after other coaches. We'll take Brett Beilema doing it. We'll take it because it makes the sport more interesting. Now, what I love is this topic just never stops. The, the Connor Stallions topic is the gift that keeps on giving. We talked about this the other day on the show. Every day in the chat, you guys get into this. Connor Stallions name comes up obviously lately while we've been talking a lot about Ohio State as Ohio State marched to the national title,

it would come up because a Michigan fan would make fun of Ohio State for losing to Michigan and Ohio State fan would fire back. You guys are a bunch of cheaters. Connor Stallions, Connor Stallions, and it would just devolve into that in the chat, but it actually doesn't matter what we're talking about. We could be talking about Alabama. We could be talking about Texas Tech. We could be talking about the Mountain West or the Mac title

race. And Conor Stallions always came up, always, every episode. And it's spectacular, because it's politics is what it is. I figured out it's politics is what it is. I figured out it is, it is politics. Like, and some people watch politics as their sports. I can't, I can't do that. That's, I'm not wired that way, but I realize that some people do

and they've got their team and then they've got the other team that they hate, their rival. And that's how they view it. And I think the Connor Stallion's thing is just like that. It is, you believe one way or the other, you believe that, that Connor Stallion's brazenly violated an NCAA rule, orchestrated an in-person scouting scheme. The rest of the coaches knew about it. It was a massive advantage for Michigan. It's cheating. It was terrible. That's one side. Or you believe he was just this try hard analyst. The coaches didn't even take him seriously. They got no real advantage out of it. They ended up winning anyway. It didn't really matter. And he's just a scapegoat

because Ohio State people are mad about losing in Michigan. And you believe that, and there's no argument that either one side can make to the other that is gonna cause anyone to bend or change their mind. It's politics. You will go to your deathbed believing one of these two things. Now I do think there's a large group, and I think I fall into this group,

where we don't really care that much and just find all of this hilarious and I do think it's gonna keep going I it may get less hilarious as it goes through the NCAA case because again Michigan is gonna dig its heels in they're gonna fight this all the way and here's my question like what can the NCAA even do at this point? Can they strip Michigan the national title? If they do, who cares? Like what does that even matter? That's banners and signage. Like winning the national title is on YouTube. We watched it. The rings have been given out. Do you think Michigan fans are going to suddenly throw their their national title gear into a fire and be like, well, I don't believe in anything anymore.

If the NCAA comes in strips of them a title, they don't care. Meanwhile, if the NCAA does nothing, Ohio State fans are going to be like, I can't believe you. You had all this evidence. You did nothing. And like they're going to give Harba a show cause who cares? Coaches the Chargers. If things go well with the Chargers, he's never coming back to college football. Like he's he's he's not the youngest guy in the world. He's not coming back. Connor Stallions was never going to coach again anyway. It doesn't really matter going forward. Like, lots of money is gonna get spent on this by Michigan, by the NCAA.

Nothing will actually be solved. Will be entertained, I suppose. I think it'll get less entertaining as it goes. But it's funny because I'm looking in the chat now. Jay Grizz, we all know they cheated. Plant that flag, no hammers ever coming, laughing my ass off. This is what it devolves into every day.

Doesn't matter what we're talking about. Today we're actually talking about it. But it just means we're gonna get more of this. And look, if it gets more coach on coach, like I would love if Harbaugh responds to this. Now Harbaugh, because he doesn't have to recruit anymore, doesn't really have to go on Twitter, so I don't know that we're gonna get anything from Harbaugh back at Beelima, but I'll take it. Man, it is late January. We have a long, long off season.

I'm ready for whatever they're willing to give us in terms of off-field coaching rivalries, of hatred, of poking fun at each other. Give me all of it. But keep coming back in the chat and keep arguing about this. I am ready for your arguments. Plant that flag. Good stuff says we beat the Buckeyes, we still have the bragging rights over you, natty or not, that's the rules of the game. And the Ohio State fans are like, who cares? We're the national champions. And the Michigan fans are like, who cares, we were the national champions last year.

It's amazing. Plant that flag also, Michigan fan. I remember when the NCAA dropped the hammer on Ohio State, but it won't happen to Michigan. Actually, the NCAA did not drop the hammer on Ohio State. They had to sit out the postseason in 2012, which I think they were kind of, they went undefeated, but I think they were kind of okay with not having to play like Alabama in that postseason.

I don't think that would have gone that well for that particular Ohio State team. So it's okay. That team actually probably is more legendary for going undefeated and then being left out. Now they could have just sat out the Gator Bowl the year before and then they would have played in the postseason, but that's not really the hammer, I don't think. But we'll see what the NCAA tries to do in Michigan. Do they try to do a bowl

ban? Do they try to do anything like that? If they do, it's going to real court and I'm telling you the stuff from NCAA court will never hold up in real court and That's Probably what they're afraid of, you know, this is this one more example of the NCAA being defanged but yeah, it will go to real court if they try to do anything and that's They're gonna have to figure out how they try to do anything and that's they're going to have to figure out how to how to manage this eventually where you can have rules, we can enforce rules, but I don't think this is going to be the case that does that. But if it gives us more

moments of entertainment, if Brett Bilema wants to keep chirping. Again, he says he can only be Brett Bielema. Well, keep being Brett Bielema Keep this energy with the coaches that you also play against Because that will be fun. And again, we saw it. We saw it on the field with Shane Beamer in South Carolina during the bowl game. So maybe that's Brett Bielema's new role in this new college football universe. And maybe he's more emboldened to do that because he had a very good team last year.

They have most of their good players coming back. They could potentially be really good next year. So does that mean we're going to get lots of fun? Agitator Brett Bielma, bring it on. And if we can set up a game or even a celebrity boxing match between Brett Bielema and Jim Harbaugh, let's do it. Because this is nothing but entertainment at this point. All right, now we move on to the main thrust of today's show.

Ari and I had a great conversation about the 2025 hot seat which I think is gonna be a little bit different this year than it has been in past years. I think last year was an indicator of what is to come rather than an anomaly and we get back to what used to happen. I think things have changed a little bit and I think it's because athletic directors are really bad at negotiating with coaches agents. Let's talk hot seat. Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3. Happy Wednesday. We're here at the Senior Bowl.

It's beautiful out here. Ari. This is a, it's been a wonderful week so far. Good temperature, great city, good food. And the first time I was at the USA football stadium. That's right. That's right. University of South Alabama, major Apple whites team, America, the Jaguars. Now this is a, it's a nice little stadium and you know, it's been fun watching everybody go through the the highest pressure, maybe the most lucrative potential job interview that you'll ever watch in person. I'm sure the IBM CEO in the 90s had a job interview. I that's true.

That's true and probably a little little maybe a little more pressure than this because it's probably like your one guy and there's well, that is there's like your one guy you're playing instead of the other guy and there's 500 coaches and scouts watching. So it's right up there. Same, same general aesthetic here. Yeah. But it's a really cool environment and like, it's also really cool to

just be around the people that we covered during recruiting, like actually like on the verge of living out their dreams and you know, it's just a, is a great place to be. It is amazing. And you know, you were talking about this yesterday when we were interviewing players and it was like Smile Mundan who is a guy who was a big time recruit and now we're watching him transition in the NFL after a really good college career. Like it is really satisfying to see those guys because you saw them when they were kids

and they were babies at that point and now now they are grown ass men. And it is, this is something that they've thought about probably every day of their lives since they were five years old. And now they're here. And it's also a reminder too, of like, if you're a five star recruit as a high school senior, how actually close you are to achieving the exact highest point that a football player can get to, which is a, a draft pick in the NFL draft. So like, you know, you look at these guys that are 17 and seniors in high school and think, oh, well, you're just kids. I know what it is. Like they're three years away from being men at the top of their

industry. It goes so fast. It's not as far away as it might feel for even them at the time. We were talking to somebody we ran into who's been coaching in college, who played in college, and I got to talking to him about my son and his football. And he's like, Oh, what year is he? And I was like, two thousand twenty eight. And I was like, that's so far off. No, no, no. I like on threes rating two thousand twenty seven players right now. So he's going to get there, Andy. I've got faith in him. He's got a helicopter dad, so

he'll be good. Well, the thing about it is, like, he's going to have... I'm going to have to tell Charles Power and Cody Valera, like, even if you think he deserves any stars, you got to knock one off. Yeah. I don't care. Like, do we even do one star? Can we do one star? Like, if he's a two star, make him a one star. I thought it went from, like, three star to, like, just a profile.

That's pretty much how it goes Yeah, I don't know. Maybe he can be the first one star just to keep him humble. Yeah. Yeah Well, you know if he deserves that he deserves it. That's right. That's right. I would have been a zero star There were no stars back when I played That's right 20 was a 2000 it was no we were in the 90s baby. I'm saying that's when they started yes, yes, 2000 was probably the first time you saw recruiting stars and You know that is a conversation we probably need to get into in the offseason now that I think about it the

How how we judge team talent? Probably needs to change a little bit because a lot of it is you know What were the the ratings of your kid that the players on your team coming out of high school. I do feel like, and we do this on three where we have kind of a separate transfer rating that guys like Cody are, are, and, and Charles are doing. Where they are looking at a guy. Here's what he was as a recruit. Here's where we think he is now based on what he's done so far in his college

career, but yeah, we got to,, we gotta evaluate a little differently now. Yeah, when you look at like the actual accuracy of those team rankings, you know, although recruiting rankings are imperfect, they're also very reliable when they're done in the totality. In the aggregate, they're pretty accurate and individually they can vary. But if you took 85 guys and averaged the recruiting rankings,

the teams that had the highest average were the teams that were the best. And it's not because the recruiting rankings are always perfect. It's because for every miss, there's a hit. And for every lower star player that goes up, and the creator is one that comes down, and it just all kind of the math worked out., and like now like that's gonna be an annual conversation

I'm sure we'll have that conversation this summer in terms of like how do you actually go into next season knowing? But it's almost gonna be like uncharted territory because like the last ten years the last 15 years You could basically look at a set of eight teams based on that recruiting math formula and say these are the one of the eight teams Here is gonna win the national title and you would have been right every single year. And I think we might get into a point now where there'll of course will be favorites and underdogs, but like where you really don't know who's gonna win the national championship.

I think that would be a good thing. It would be a good thing. It's gonna be trickier now. And also- Cause how do you do it? I mean, I don't even know like, like the thing is like we have these rankings for transfers and ratings. And what we do is based in heavily influenced on what they were when they came out of high school

Because that's a lot of times the most Reliable information that we have because if somebody goes to a school and doesn't play very much all you're really left with when when Ranking them again is how physically athletic are yeah, you know Like and that's that's where you, you can help yourself in the transfer portal. If you've got somebody on your staff who maybe worked at the school where the player was and like that guy was balling out in practice, he's just behind better players, but he can come

help us. Like that, the information remains king in this world. But then even as that information accurate, because if the person's leaving a school, then they're bitter about it's like, it's hard to like, you know, we'll do the best that in this world. But then even is that information accurate? Because if the person's leaving a school, then they're bitter about it. It's like, it's hard to like, you know, we'll do the best that we can. And I think that on threes,

the best place to get that information. But I'm very curious if in eight years, we go into the off season and go, who's going to win the national title? I have no idea. Like, and then- I mean, I feel that way this year. I feel that way as we go into the 2025 season.

And we're going to talk about hot seat 2025. That's that's our kind of featured topic here today. And a piece of it is, I'm not sure we can predict that as accurately either. I think I think if we tried to say who's gonna win the national title, we can probably give you a list of about 10 teams right now that we could make a case for. But I honestly don't think there's one that's a prohibitive favorite, which I like. Here's the thing though that I think I'm missing in my explanation. We both have Illinois pretty hot. Yes. Like we ranked

them in the top 10 in our way. But do we think they could win four playoff games in a row? Do you think that they can win the national title right now? I think the answer is probably not. Probably not, but there are some rosters that we have ranked lower that I feel like they could if they put it together. Correct. So that's the thing. It's not who's gonna win it. Because like right now, who's gonna win it is between 20 blue bloods or 20 big time programs. But like, are we gonna get to a point in college football where a team like this Illinois team that's veteran that has good players who have come back from a nine-win team where they actually put it together and have enough to win the national title like to me it's still very much dependent on how you're recruiting yeah and i don't know if we'll ever get out of that um but like the indiana run as wonderful as it was that wasn't a national championship team. And I think that even during the season when we talked about how good they were and they were, that wasn't bullshit. But I also never once said,

and you can go check tape that they think they're going to win the national title. It was always, will they make the playoff? And I'm wondering if we'll ever get to a point where those Indiana runs, which were anybody who can make the playoff going with that. See, I don't know that we ever get, because like even in the NFL, because this year was like the NFL has the playoff go in that. See, I don't know that we ever get because like even in the NFL, because this year was like the NFL has 14 playoff teams a year and you know that there's a significant group of them in the playoffs. There's probably like half the teams that make the playoffs can't win the Super Bowl. They just can't win it. I don't even know the stats on this. We're at an NFL event

kind of, but like what how many of the bottom seeds in the NFL playoffs make the Super Bowl like is it kind of the same deal where they do it or like the amount of it's interesting because of the amount of wildcard teams that make it to the Super Bowl it's it's fairly low but they have a fairly high winning percentage when they do yeah well because also too in the NFL when you have players who are out for eight games or like there's things like if getting it hot yeah Tua was out for six weeks this year, if he would have come back and they would have rattled off some wins, then it's not, you know, it's not always indicative of where in college, if you have your best player out for six weeks and you lose four

times, you're out. Well, in the NFL, there's a bigger probability of making it even if you drop half your game. So like that, that's also different. Well, that's that feeds into this conversation we're going to have today about the hot seat because you know, I was going through these names and I'm thinking this is, this is actually Like that's also different. Well, that feeds into this conversation we're going to have today about the hot seat because you know, I was going through these names and I'm thinking this is actually very hard to predict because we don't know who everybody's going to get out of the portal. We don't know how well they're going to hit. So a lot of times before you could tell this coach is dead man walking because his roster is just not gonna be good enough. But now you can, you can change your fortunes pretty

quickly and all of a sudden everything can be different. Mike Gundy is a guy that I have on the list and we'll talk about why some of the ones I have listed on the, on the column on, on three are too expensive to fire. But like, Mike Gundy is one that I have him on the list because he had a terrible year. The school, the board of regents made him take a pay cut, made him change his buyout if he wanted to stay or they were gonna fire him. But I feel like Mike Gundy in these situations

like was back to the wall when he can revamp the roster, change the coordinator's like, this is what he goes 10-2. Yeah. So I think what your list was doing, there's people who need to perform, not people who will be fired. Yeah, it's more who's under pressure going into this. Yeah, under pressure. I left Dave Aranda off because I feel like Dave Aranda, who started last season on the hot seat, has coached his way into a place where they're fairly comfortable. They feel like the way they ended last season on the hot seat, has coached his way into a place where they're fairly comfortable. They feel like the way they ended last season is something they can continue

and that they can compete for the Big 12 title this year. The harsh reality of the sport is that just because you're not on Andy's list doesn't mean you can't be on the hot seat. Unfortunately, yeah. Things go off the rails. Life can come at you pretty fast. If things go off the rail,

I mean, hell, we were talking about Hugh Freeze. Well, right. Well, in the middle of last year and like that wasn't somebody that would have made your list a year ago. Like that's no, and he's on the list this year, but it's interesting because we're going to have a good test of who read the story and who just saw the graphic because I've got Billy Napier and Hugh Freeze on this list. If you saw our way too early, top 25, you know that we got Billy Napier and Hugh Freeze on this list. If you saw our way too early top 25, you know that we believe Billy Napier and Hugh Freeze

are going to perform well enough to not get fired, that they're gonna be fine by the end of the season because we think their teams are gonna be better. But that doesn't change their circumstances right now going into the season where they've got to get this figured out. But Ari, pop quiz. I think you may have read the story. You

may have read the story already. So you may already know the answer to this. I looked at the names. I haven't read the text yet. Okay. How many power conference jobs opened last year because of coach firing? It's very low, isn't it? Isn't it like three? Three. Yeah, it was three. It was Purdue. It was North Carolina. It was West Virginia. The year before that. Do you know how many there were? Was it in the 20s? Seven. Oh, it was North Carolina and it

Oh, because of fire. Yes. Oh, yeah. 2021 was a monster year for the coaching carousel. There were nine jobs that because of firings, including some monster jobs like you had Florida, Florida, LSU, USC, Washington, Miami, all open because of firing. And that was also a big year because jobs became open when coaches went to USC and Notre Dame's coach went to LSU. So you had these other big jobs open up. So I don't think we're going to see another year like that anytime soon. I think this year might look a lot like last year and last year's that was going on. I thought, you know what, this revenue share is coming in. I think schools are trying to save some money or make sure they have cash on

hand because they need to pay the players now That was my assumption The more I look at it. I don't think that's why I think it's because a DS have gotten so bad at negotiating with agents The Jimmy Sexton's of the world the trace Armstrong's of the world the Clint Dattles of the world are Knocking these a DS in the creek so badly on these negotiations that there are a bunch of buyouts that are simply too huge to even contemplate the idea of firing somebody. Yeah. And it's, it's interesting because the best jobs in the, in the entire country are still the ones that seem to lack leverage in the negotiation process.

Cause it's like, well, if you're A&M right situation or like hell Florida or Florida State yeah like what was like Florida State's at least a top 15 job absolutely absolutely so if you're a top 15 job in America you should be coming into negotiations from a place of strength not a place of vulnerability but they were coming off a season where they went 13 you know right but the circumstances of Mike Norvell's contract now which Mike Norvell's boiler alert is on the too expensive to fire list even though he went two and ten last year the circumstances of his contract are this like you're coming off a 13 and oh season where you won the ACC now you lost the Orange Bowl but you can explain that away Nick Saban retires and you are on the short list of Alabama's

AD. I don't know that they ever offered Mike Norvell the job. I do know he was one of the people they were looking at along with Kaila and Abore. It may have been Kaila and Abore was the first choice, but FSU is not going to take the chance to lose him. I wish I got a raise every time someone looked at me. Well, nobody looks at you like that. That's true. That's the problem. Have someone looked at me. Well, nobody looks at you like that. That's true. That's the problem. Have have someone look at you the way Greg Byrne looked at the two

potential candidates he was looking at for this job. And yeah, so why don't they just act like our former employer, which is we're the New York Times, if you want to leave, go for it, we can find somebody else because we're the New York Times. They never act like that. They don't believe that's a thing. Everybody, if you've got a winner, like, and especially in this case, if Norvell were not coming off'm just like trying to think about this out loud. Yeah. It's like, if you are a top 15 job in college football, which Florida state unequivocally is, then you should never be in a place of desperation in the sense of if we lose our coach, we are screwed.

Yeah. Okay. And I think when you go to the offer table with that mentality of like Mike Norvell is being considered by Alabama if we lose him we are f'ed. Yeah. Then you are more likely to sign a deal that lends itself to an unbeatable buyer. So you are saying that these AD's need to be more just more confident and less desperate. Well like what's Mike Norvell gonna do? Be like screw you Florida State I'm going to Bama? Well he had to be off it would have to be offered by Bama and at that point we didn't know. Are we sure that he was ever offered by Bama? We're not. Are we sure that when he sent the extension that he could have'm going to Bama? Well, he had to be, he would have to be offered by Bama. And at that point we didn't know.

Are we sure that he was ever offered by Bama? We're not. Are we sure that when he sent the extension that he could have done that? We're not. I mean, make them sweat a little bit. Like one time I was in Chicago with Britt, my wife, and I was like, on the, like she FaceTimed her brother

for some reason. And I was like, dude, I'm obsessed with this girl. Like I was like laying it on thick at the time. You're not married at this point. No, we were dating. Yeah. And he just looks into the phone and he goes, bro, why don't you just like try to make her chase you? And it's like, I always thought about that for like a minute. And it's just like, kind of like, yeah, well, we got married and like, hey, maybe I didn't have to lay it on so thick. One, she'd catch you pretty quickly. Two, you had no leverage in that negotiation. That's right. You had no leverage whatsoever.

Hey, hey, hey, she might tell you different though because like it's not about actually the reality of it. I've talked to her about it. I don't think you had any leverage. No, no. What I'm saying is like I what if I would have come from a place where she's like I'm end up marrying this person. What if I lost them? It's not necessarily what the reality is even. It's what you believe you are to be. Yes. And like to me like Florida State is probably higher up on the pantheon of coaching jobs, and I wasn't men You know a lot of different things from how much money I made to my physical appearance

Can we go can we go over the too expensive to fireless? You should go over the whole yeah, all right 15 minutes. Yes, we have it. All right. Well all right We'll start we'll just go by conference. So, in the ACC, I've got Brent Pry at Virginia Tech. I've got... He's opening the file, everyone. He's opening the file. It's hard to go off memory. We don't want to forget anyone.

Well, actually, the coaches on this list would probably prefer I forget them. In the ACC, I've got Brent Pry at Virginia Tech. I've got Troy Taylor at Stanford. And then I've got in the too expensive to fire category in the ACC. There's actually, it's more than Mike Norvell. Yeah. I've got this here. I opened it for you. Pat Narduzzi. I don't know that people realize Pat Narduzzi got a God contract after winning the ACC. You actually had the nice ability by doing this story to review these buyouts.

And I think that you were even stunned. Um, after the 2025 season, you wrote that it was 53 and a half million for Norvell at Florida state here. It's about a 25 million for Pat and Arduzi. Yes. Pitt doesn't have $25 million. They're not doing anything with pattern. Like, and it's also too, it's like not to make, I'm not like making light at like Mike Norvel

and how good he was at his job at the time or Pat Norduzzi and what he's been able to do at times at Pit. But like is Pit so over a barrel as a place that if they could not live without Pat Norduzzi, like is that where we're at? That's how they felt when he won the ACC and And that's when he got the steal. Yeah. So they had a terrible 2023 season 2024. They win the first seven games and it's like, okay, no, this is going to be fine. Well, then they lose the last six in 2024 and you're like, oh, well you you're you maybe weren't that different of a team,

even though you did change out. Here's the other piece of advice Andy. So you got done with the ACC and I've interrupted you. No, that's fine. You got to go to the big 12. But also too, like, what's the number one criticism of me on the show? I'm too reactionary.

Right. Like, I don't know if. Well, you've written about this multiple times. I tend to agree with you. Why are you so reactionary to, like, one accomplishment? And I'm not saying that winning the ACC is not a big deal to Pitt. Of course it is. But also, too, if you're an athletic director, don't you have to have a frame of mind of like,

if we're going to give this guy a X number buyout. Yeah, this has to be a consistent reality. This isn't just a blip. I mean, it's the same thing that happened with Mel Tucker. I mean, that dude got, you know, he didn't end up getting paid, obviously. But like he got a hundred million dollar deal because they won a bunch of games and they didn't even win the conference that year.

Yeah. And Kenneth Walker was awesome. And it's like, is that enough of a runway for you to be unequivocally sure that that person's worthy of that contract? I don't think most athletic directors understand the concept of a replacement value. But I also wonder too, if it's all, it's an optics game.

Cool, it's definitely. Well, like, you know, we did this, we're gonna do that. I'll tell you the other piece of it. A lot of these ADs look at it like, I'm not gonna be here when this all blows up. It's not my money, so what do I care? I mean, I guess. That means I think you're probably not doing your job

with the best ability. I wouldn't wanna do that to Shannon's wallet, would you? That would be our boss? Yeah. No, of course not. We would wanna be to do that to Shannon's wallet. Would you? Uh, that would be our, our boss. Yeah. No, of course. I mean, we would want to be responsible stewards of the company's money. We stayed, uh, we stayed at the fairfield and last night we did, it was, it was lovely. 89 bucks. Yeah. Um, but like that's not because I'm trying to be an,

I want the company to succeed and like, I don't know what my future is going to hold in 10 years from now, but you do the best that you can to service the place that's employing you. So I think to me that's a messed up viewpoint. So like, I just like, um, man, there's so many people, like, what if I wrote like one really, really good column that went, you know, how it is for it goes viral. Yeah. But like, you know how it is with us, like we'll write something and you know, you take 50 dry hacks and every like five out of every 50 go big. And

it's like, what if like I got a 25% raise the one time I wrote something that went insane. And then I went back to just being a regular, you're not getting the value. You wanna have hit a home run, home run, home run, home run, home run. And then you get to that point. But I feel like guys are getting-

But our industry is a little bit different. Even with Norval. I don't wanna diminish his accomplishments two years ago, but I thought that there was a lot of alarming things about the way he built that team in terms of the longevity of consistent output. Not really building out of high school. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, I'm just an idiot that lives in Dallas.

You're telling me with $55 million on the line, there wasn't somebody like, hey guys, wait a minute, after his team leaves next year, this might not be as fun. I just saw that coming. but our industry is very different. Are you like, we can't get more money in our jobs. And I think most people are in this position. You can't usually get more money in your job unless there is a legitimate offer out there for you to go somewhere else, but college football is a very different world over the weekend.

Shane Beamer got an extension that I believe gave him about a $2 million a year raise and then put two more years on his contract. Well, that's real money. And it's great because they just won nine games. They had a great year. You're expecting big things out of them next year. But if they go six, if they start off four.

The last time they went nine and four, they did the same thing, ended up costing them millions of more dollars when they had to fire Will Muschamp. Now I love Shane Beamer, I hope he coaches there forever. I hope it works out great. But who are you negotiating it with? What are we talking about?

Next year if they start off two and four. Right. What are we talking about? Why do they give them that? But we just named the three jobs that opened because of firing. North Carolina, Purdue, West Virginia, UCF open cause Gus Malzahn resigned and did them a favor cause they didn't have enough money to fire him.

Like Shane Beamer had a better job than all of the jobs that were open. Who are you bidding against? Yeah. Well, that's how you get into these buyout situations. If the scarcity of openings also makes you more likely to avoid, like it's a kind of a thing of like, well, there's not a lot of jobs open, so we don't have to worry about losing our guy as much. But OK, why don't you go to the Big 12? Big 12.

Scott Satterfield in Cincinnati. And remember the circumstances of Scott Satterfield going to Cincinnati? Things that soured at Louisville went back to Shane Beamer, field in Cincinnati. And remember the circumstances of Scott Satterfield going to Cincinnati, things that soured at Louisville, went back to Shane Beamer, the cycle where Shane Beamer got the South Carolina job, Satterfield had interviewed for it. That kind of blew up in his face at Louisville and he had to get out of there. So he goes to Cincinnati when Luke Fickel leaves. They happen to be going to the big 12. The transition to the big 12 has been very difficult for them. They are four, I believe four and 14 in Conference Plan or Satterfield. Now look, the competition level

that Satterfield is facing the Big 12 is tougher than what Fickle faced in the American, what Butch Jones faced in the Big East slash American, what Brian Kelly faced in the Big East, what Mark D'Antonio faced in the Big East. That said, Cincinnati is very accustomed to success. This is weird to them. They don't like this. Cincinnati is one of those places where over coaching reigns, they've found success with different people.

Senator Tommy Tuberville is the only person in this century who has not been good at Cincinnati. Yeah. Everybody else has. And we had a theory when I was working with Doug and Bill that like there are certain G five jobs now the world has changed since I was there that like, like I felt like Houston was one of those places that always was, you know, had the tools to succeed. Yeah. Cincinnati, FAU

to a certain extent has had some good runs. Like Cincinnati was certainly on that list. And like, again, not a G five team anymore in a new conference that's pretty competitive week to certain extent has had some good runs. Like Cincinnati was certainly on that list. And like, again, not a G5 team anymore in a new conference that's pretty competitive week to week. So it's harder to go 11 and one. And they may wind up learning what West Virginia has learned the hard way, is when the competition level goes up,

it is just a lot harder to do it, regardless of where you're located. Because you know, also too, it's like Cincinnati moving up. Like I feel like when G5 teams or G five teams, they have this illusion of like, well, once we get to the power level, like we're going to be able to get guys over Ohio stage or like SMT Texas and TCU. And it's like, it takes time and success. And I'm very curious from that standpoint of like SMU, like, are they going to be

able to like recruit at a level? Like how many years before you're on a G five team and everyone's mind? It's like, I do feel like if you look at the way right last is recruiting, he, he, they are headed that direction. And I tell you what this does is it makes me appreciate even more the job Kyle Whittingham did at Utah. Sure. Because he took them from the mountain west to the pack 12 and he made them a really good pack 12 school. Uh, they were not good last year, but they obviously had a lot of quarterback injuries.

But I think Utah can be a very competitive program in the Big 12 too. Like, because the Big 12 is not that different from the Pac-12 from a competition standpoint. All right. I'm glad you mentioned your alma mater, Arizona, because Brent Brennan only in year two. But I worry about him because this is not the cluster. They were bad last year, even though they had a lot of good players back. And this is not the cluster. They were bad last year even though they had a lot of good players back and this is not the AD who hired him. Dave Hekey was let go very quickly after he hired Brent Brennan. Desiree Rue Francois comes in and sometimes AD's want to kind of put their own stamp on things and if things aren't going well, even a place like Arizona where they don't

have a ton of money, it might be worth a try. Now, Arizona was put in a bad position, but it could have been a lot worse because like if no, if a fetal would have left and T Mac left and Tario Davis, who is now at Washington a year later, they had pieces on their team to be very competitive and they weren't, they just weren't at all. They weren't even competitive. That's the thing. T Mac's gone. Like what are you going to do now? And that's probably a top 15 pick, right? Yes. Yeah, he's a freak. He's Also to it's like, you know, you want to talk about like Colorado? Like Colorado had what four transcendent players on their team at most

I think the receivers were gonna look back like what John day Western stuff Yeah, five years or more shit horns have a good year at the shrine bowl. I think those guys are really good Yeah years. Horns having a good year at the Shrine Bowl. I think those guys are really good. Yeah. But like, are you telling me that you couldn't have won nine games with Tocario Davis, who's like a long range DB, with Noah Fafito, who was like breaking freshmen passing records and like a top five receiver? Yeah, like there were teams that made the playoff that would die for him. And like you're four and eight. Like that's just not, that's not, and again, I'm not trying to act like it wasn't tough when you're, when you're a coach who, you know, made it to the fiesta ball the year before bales

to Washington and takes a bunch of players and recruits. It's a hard thing to build from, but like that was a pretty stark drop from like, oh, maybe they'll win the big 12 next year with a jet fish to like, oh my God, they're, they're back to being U of A again. Yeah. And that's the problem. Let's move to the too expensive to fire, we think,

because we don't know. So we don't actually know what Mike Gundy's new buyout is. That hasn't been publicized yet. He did reportedly take a lower one along with taking a pay cut. So perhaps it's manageable. It would have been 25 million had they fired him in a standoff that led to him taking the pay

cut. I'm guessing he didn't take that huge of a cut on that thing, but this is another year. So you're probably at least under 20 million. But I think you want to get closer to 10 before you think about that. It's like getting clear that they're okay to move on. Yeah. Yeah. Which is an uncomfortable place to be like that alone. like again, too expensive to fire. It's like, well, we were making moves a year ago at this time. So like- Again, Mike Gundy, this is the type of year

he goes 10 and two. Like Doug Meacham comes in as the OC, Todd Grantham comes in as the DC. Perhaps that all works out. And- Well, there's pressure now. So like you always say they come out of nowhere. Do they come out of nowhere when he's under pressure?

Like it's a completely different- That's probably true. That's a different. Yeah. He said they hope he doesn't come out of nowhere. Like Oklahoma State has been consistent though. Yeah. Right. And I think that like the fact that he has been, you know, in his position for as long as he has as an illustration of how consistent and how okay they are with that consistency. Yeah. That said, last year was an abject failure. Yes. In every way. And then of course the comments that he made were didn't really help it either. No, well We've all done that about a thousand times. So what called some made made comments that we shouldn't have made. Yeah Like the losers who listen to the show. That's kind of what he said. That is what he said

I didn't mean that I love you guys. He was talking about the losers who pay a salary. Yeah, well they pay our salary. Yes We do not believe you are losers. We love you and we appreciate you paying our salaries. Please don't stop listening. Which reminds me. Yeah. Now would be a great time for you to think about some saucy nugs like you've had Wendy's nugs dipped in sauce, but have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy's new saucy and spicy nugs. Take the nugs you already love and turn them up to 11. Choose between

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Yeah, we're recording this in advance because I have got to get back to Dallas and driving through the South at one in the morning. Is it what I want to do tonight? But, um, I am starving. Well, I'm glad that we can bring the saucy nugs to wet your appetite to get you rolling. It's always in the middle of the show when I'm hungriest. That's how it goes. Yeah. Either that or you have to poop.

It's one of those two things. Yeah. Well, that's at the end of the show. Let us move to the big 10 because this is interesting. Mike Loxley, Maryland, if Loxley has a good year this year, he's fine. The way the Loxley's contract works is they set it up after 2023, where if he won more than seven games, or in 2022, if he won more than seven games, it would roll over, he'd get an extra year on it. So in 2023, they go eight and four. He gets signed, that pushes his contract in 2028. They went four and eight last year. So now it's a about a $12 million buy

out of things don't go well this year that is, you know, it's not ideal, but they're a big 10 school in the year of our Lord 2025, they can afford that. So Mike Loxley, you got to win. Like that is you are under the same probably similar pressure. Loxley, like that's the thing that's so interesting. It's like, I mean, I don't know, in terms of perceived superpowers,

like I think in theory, Maryland could be awesome, right? Like if Mike Loxley. But he's been there a long time and they've never truly unlocked the DMV. They've gotten the occasional really good player from the DMV and that's. They have like a four year run where they got a five star to like flip on signing day.

Yeah. Like every year where they just, the problem with Maryland has been that they've been in unable to retain those players. They come and then they leave. Or, you know, in this particular case, they lost their quarterback to Wisconsin. So like you are just going to have to deal with this. Under Armour money and stuff. Don't they? Like, don't they have like that connection to Under Armour? They're in the DMV. Like they got cool uniforms to some people. I think they're hideous. I don't know like what, but like it's still cool if you're from Maryland, like yes, really prideful uniform.

So like it's, I've always thought that they should be at least better than the sales pitch for locks Lee when he got the job is he will get the good players from this area to stay here and play here and it's not going to be a superpower, but it is going to be every once in a while, some of these five stars will gel together and you will have a special season. They've had some pretty good ones. They've had a couple of eight win seasons, but I think he probably is gonna have to have

another seven, eight win season to make this thing work. So we'll see where that goes. I don't think it has to be perfect. I think in the new big 10 is it's gonna be hard to win. You're gonna take more losses. So we will see about that one too expensive to I've got two in the too expensive to fire list in the Big 10. I want I want you to one I'm pretty sure you're gonna agree with me on Lincoln Riley USC. My

understanding is that he had a 10 year guaranteed contract. Yes. Yes. I mean, like I know it wasn't public information. I know people have reported it, but also too, if you're just a person in the room, given where he came from and when he did, like during the Mel Tucker hype, there's no way he didn't. Talking to people in the agent community, they all seem to believe that this is a fully guaranteed deal. How could it not be? Considering the timing of it. So he's

three years and he's going to year four. This is year four. So we are talking about an ungodly amount of money if you wanted to move on from Lincoln Riley. But he has probably been unsuccessful enough there where it's a rational thought to be like if they stink this year, you're out, right? It's a new ad. But the thing is, so we're talking about Jimbo Fisher type money. Jimbo Fisher got $77 million when he was fired at Texas A&M. I can't imagine USC spending that.

No. I don't think that they will. He is too expensive. But I'm saying from a merit standpoint, he's already gotten to the place where Hot Seas rationed. If he were six and six again this year in the regular season and had a quote unquote normal contract, and by normal, I mean a buyout under 30 million.

He would be getting fired for that. No question. And I think it's completely irrational to question like, I mean, I think there's USC people out there that are like mad at us and it's like there's been no there's like nothing about the team right now. It's not even the losses man. There's nothing to get excited about.

I mean like I mean, I guess you think think it's on Longstreet, it's gonna come as a freshman and light it up. Well, they have the really great quarterback coming in that like, I mean, it was Malachi Nelson at first. And then I mean, how many times 75 with Caleb Williams? I know. I know. I just like I don't even know. Like, what are you holding on to? Well, and that's the thing. I think there's some USC fans still holding on thinking that they'll get this fixed. I think there's some USC

fans that are out. But they just don't know how, how, how does it end? Because it's not like some NFL team is going to swoop in and save you. Like, do you actually feel like there's a potential uptick here for you out? I'm not out. I, cause I, it's the same thing I've said about Lincoln Riley all along. He's too young and too smart to let it in this way, to let it go this way.

I just cannot fathom. It keeps getting worse. I know. But I can't fathom that he doesn't figure it out. Because I met this guy when he was 29, 30 years old. He was the OC at East Carolina. He's so smart. So I just can't picture it.

And they were close in a lot of their losses last year. It wasn't like they were getting blown off the field. They were close against Penn State. That was an overtime game. I know, I know what you're saying. You're, you're about to make a Scott Frost comparison. I just don't give a shit if it's close. I know, I know. I get it. You are what your record says you are, but it's, it's very hard for me to see him and see what he did so early as a head coach.

Cause I don't think all of it was because Bob Stoops set him up for success, even though some of it was. Well, it's the first two years, maybe. But then he was there for a while. Right. So it's hard. It's just I don't want to give up on it yet. The problem with me and Lincoln Riley

is that I can't get out of my head what I thought they were going to be. And when I thought they were going to be. Yeah, you're going to have to let that go, because they're not, it's not that. But that's the scale to which I'm judging him by. Yeah, I'm not sure that's ever going to be. And when I let that go, cause they're not, it's not that's the scale to which I'm judging him by. Yeah. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure that's ever going to happen. So like what's success. So you're like, so let's neg the program down and bro, what do you think it should be then nine and three? I don't know, but that's, I get it because you're USC. You're not that far removed from Pete Carroll dominating the entire sport. That time. Yeah.

Like my whole idea of USC is... I know. And that's the thing, that's what makes this situation so frustrating, I think, for the fans whose teams are in it. Because there is nothing you can do. You can hope and hope and hope and there's nothing you can do about it. The second you accept that you're a 9-3 program, you become one. At best. You're talking about a ceiling. See what I'm saying?

Or if nine and three is good enough, you should be outraged by nine and three, let alone six and six if you're US. I mean, come on. Fight on. Like, you know, that's the coolest program ever. How do you fight on when they're not going to pay the money and nothing's going to change?

You're trapped. But I also understand, too, of all the coaching contracts that were offered like I thought that that was a Contract contract. Yeah, I will not criticize that contract because that is how you had to get him from Oklahoma What he had done at Oklahoma suggested that you're gonna get what you want and it just didn't happen It's just and I don't know that it will yeah But also same time too I don't think that USC as a result of not getting what they want out of Lincoln Riley should

negotiate who they think they should be either. I want to because when you make that contract, Andy, what are you making it for? Because you you're making that contract that offer you're luring him from Oklahoma, because you want your program to realize it's ceiling, which is at nine and three 12 and doing it with national titles. You're one was there there they're who they are not that whatever this is. You're doing it to win national titles. Year one was their who they are, not whatever this is. Year one made them the ceiling of who they are.

I mean, I don't mean that. That's a scary thought. They're one half away from making the play off the 14 field in year one. All right, I wanna lay this scenario out for you. This is another Big Ten coach. I have him in the too expensive to fire category. I want you to tell me if that's true or not. So Luke Fickel is 13 and 13 in two seasons at Wisconsin. It does not seem like it is going well from a personnel standpoint. It doesn't

seem like they've upgraded the roster in the way that you would need to upgrade the roster to be competitive in this big 10. He 31, a firing after this season, probably you're talking about $33 million. Now he has offset languages contracts. So if he went and got another job, then the money, the other school or other, if you go see NFL, the other team pays comes out of the buyout. That said, are you willing to commit to that level of money with no guarantee that he's going to go get another job immediately? I also too think that like with coaching moves, Andy, like you're also married to like the idea of a person still and by firing him, you have to give up on the dream of what that that hire promised.

Because if you remember, we were at the athletic when they fire. I was so excited about the Luke Fickle hire because and I said this multiple times and I pretty sure I'm wrong. Maybe Luke Fickle can prove me right eventually, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be wrong. I said this means Wisconsin is serious. This means Wisconsin plans to try to compete to win the Big Ten, not the Big Ten West.

So like, if you're gonna ask me, do you think he's too expensive to hire? Like, I'm not... Too expensive to fire. Sorry, too expensive to fire. I'm not like intimately familiar with their balance sheet. They're in the Big Ten, they have a lot of money. Wisconsin has surprised us before with the behavior

Yes, but the Paul Chris firing that you just mentioned Paul. Christ is such a nice guy That when they fired him, he's like I realize you owe me this much but just shave a couple million off that that's fine I mean I would never do that. I don't know that Luke Luke pickle would do here No, I know but like also to when they fired him, how they fired him, who they replaced him with it, because Luke Fickel was a home run. Yeah, and the problem is like, so Paul Chris took over a program that was routinely double-digit wins, kept them at double-digit wins for a little bit, then they dropped to slightly above average, then they dropped to average. And when he when he was fired, they were average. Now they're average.

They're still average. And it's year three. Luke Fickle has to turn this around. I don't know that I'm 1000%. Like there's no way he could be fired. If they have a bad year, like I think it's possible. I just, I think he probably gets two more years. It's so much money. It's so much money. And it's a program I can't imagine spending that. But they surprise me when they fired Paul Chris, too. But yeah, it's just a strange situation. All right, before we move to the SEC, let's talk a little prize picks.

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you know that sounds like an enormous amount for an NFL game but Saquon this year's been unbelievable like that's more than the Ashton Gentry numbers in college this year no it's not no no not more than he gained in those games but more than his price that's true his price speaks numbers were in the like 130s and 140s yeah stands. Which is it's equivalent. It's basically the NFL equivalent to the Ashton Gentry numbers. But much like Ashton Gentry, like Saquon feels like a home run threat every time he touches the ball in a way that NFL like first play the NFC chance. First touch the NFC championship. I don't remember the NFL. I don't know. But like, did he like come close or set the record for most 50 yard plus runs touchdown runs this year? He broke so many like long 70 yard touchdowns.

He had, I believe he had zero 60 plus yard touchdown runs in the NFL before this season. And I think all of them are this year. So yeah, it's fascinating to me, but lots of great Superbowl squares on price picks. And of course they got everything else. College basketball, the NBA, the NHL, you name it. Download the PricePix app. Use the code staples when you sign up. Play $5, get $50 instantly.

All right, Ari, let's go to the SEC. Three coaches on this list. Two were on it last year, and they saved their jobs. And they're on it again, because it's the SEC, it's hard. But Sam Pittman from Arkansas and Billy Napier from Florida, both on the list again. Let's start with Billy Napier. Let's start with-

Sam Pittman's just like in like, perg- like, hot seat perg- He's probably forever in limbo, like, if he- And if he can get off of it. I feel like every year- It's a win like nine or 10. No, but Sam Pittman just does quite enough to be on the hot seat the following year for

like nine years in a row. Yeah, you have to win like, but that's Arkansas. Do you find that to be interesting? That's Arkansas. So in Arkansas always has quirky buyouts. I mentioned with Brett Bielema that his buyout got me subpoenaed. This one for Sam Pittman, basically they owe him 50% of the remaining amount of the contract. If his record from 2021 and beyond is below 500, they owe him 75% if his record from 2021 and beyond is above 500. So he has 24 and 21 since 2021. Oh geez.

So he would have to go four and eight for that thing to drop to 50% of the remaining amount and that probably won't happen. Yeah. So I think, I think if Sam Pittman gets into a bowl game, they're going to, I mean, they have lots of money, Arkansas. You saw them go get coach Cal and basketball. Like they got money. They do have Walmart money.

They have Tyson chicken money. They have two Tyson chickens. Tyson chicken is, is how they got John Calipari. So they, they can afford it. If it's the 75% number. If they're six and six, I think they'd probably do that because I think they're tired of being in that purgatory. But I just think it's a hard job. I realize they put a lot of resources into the program. They have a lot of money. They spend a lot of money. And it's hard to understand that

it's a hard job when you do that. You just want results, but that may just be where they're at. And then they may just want to get off the plateau. Billy Napier, very interesting situation, very different situation. He saved his job this year. Now, when they said he was coming back, I didn't think he'd done enough to save his job. I was a little surprised, but I also understood

that they didn't feel like any of the people they thought would be adequate Replacements for Billy Napier would come so That was your choice. Do you keep Billy Napier? Which means you keep DJ lagway at quarterback and give it another shot now Once they made that decision, which was right before the Texas game at which they lost to the backup quarterback They go beat LSU, they beat Ole Miss, they beat Florida State, they win the bowl game. All of a sudden, things look much sunnier because the Florida team that beat Ole Miss and LSU

can play with anybody next year. They still have that tough schedule, it just flips. They have to go to Miami this year. But that team can beat anybody. The team that's got its ass beat by Miami and Texas A&M can lose to everybody. So who are they? If they are that team they were at the end of the year, Billy Napier is going to be fine. It's going to be whether they make the playoff or not. Well, the question is whether or not you can be that team at the end of the year every game.

Yes. Because they were that team this year at times. It's whether or not you can consistently play it. Yeah. And I think, you know, you go back to the Tennessee game, like had DJ Lagway started the Tennessee game, does Florida beat Tennessee? Probably. Wasn't it not it? Was that an overtime game? It was an overtime. Yeah. So you've got that the Georgia game. If DJ Lagway doesn't get hurt. Florida has a chance in that game. They

had a chance in that game with Aiden Warner playing. Right. So that's the part. If you ask me, do I think Billy Napier gets fired at Florida or is still the coach at Florida in 2026? I think he's still the coach in 2026. Oh, really? I think that the schedule makes it really difficult. I think he's going to pull it off.

But, and this is where people get mad that I'm putting them on the list. It's still really hard. Yeah. He's still got it like seven and five probably won't be enough this time. It's really hard to go 10 and two against the moderate schedule. This is a very difficult head into. I don't think he has to go 10 and two. You said playoff for bust a month ago. I did. Yeah. I'm softening my stance on that. I think, I think if you like you have Ole Miss this season from this year where you're right there. Yeah. Because, because, and because if you do that, it means Lagway's had a good year and keeping Billy Napier means keeping DJ Lagway. Yes. And I think that's, that's the important thing with Lagway is that he could be the one man show

If he takes a big sophomore step like that billion ape yours entirely viewed entirely differently because he's got a Phenom at quarter. Yeah like that like that to me. There's always the ace up the sleeve but I do think too that like Being consistently the second half of the year florida and then also performing well in all of the big games They can't be blown out. I think I think that they need to I think they need to be they have to be competitive competitive But but I think they can't is there for sure. I think they can for sure which brings us to another guy That we talked about at the end of last year Hugh freeze at Auburn if you look at our way to early top 25 We've got Auburn number 11. We think you freeze is going to be fine.

We think you free is going to win enough games that it is not going to be an issue and they're going to be better. A lot of the games that were close that they lost because of crippling turnovers. They're not going to commit those. They're going to win some of those. And it's going to be a much different situation in Auburn. The reason he's on the list is if you have a year, anything close to this year, you're gone. Auburn is not in a situation with the massive buyout. By Auburn standards, it's very reasonable.

They can pull the ripcord if they want. Yeah, I mean, Auburn, I felt like it was in a lot of games, but never had that like second half of the year, like Renaissance, that I had. And like my hope for them, you know, in terms of like the upside would be for them to have the Florida Renaissance beginning next year. Right. Like starting the year that way. Yeah. You know, but if they go six and six again with the players they brought in and the investment they made, and you're wasting two years of Cam Coleman, you don't get anything out of the three quarterbacks you brought in. Like that's probably just like kind of like the, the, I'm just, I'm just going based on, okay, the roster's better when you're terribly unlucky, things tend to bounce, you know, find equilibrium balance out. So, which means you might get a little bit lucky. So if you have a better roster and you get a little bit lucky and you get better quarterback play, which you, you're going to have a

three man competition with Jackson, Arnold and Ashley, Daniels and, and Deuce night, like you should be better. You the the the the the the the the

the the the the the the I think they get out of the woods. But I have to put you freeze on this list because if this season in 2025 is in any way reminiscent to the 2024 season, they'll get rid of him. And he doesn't have a big upfront number on his buyout. It is equal installments till the end of the contract. It is just a line item at that point.

And that's why there's one more name on this list in the SEC and he's in the way too expensive to fire category. And if you're mad Kentucky fans, I'm sorry. I don't know what to tell you. Mark Stoops is not going anywhere. That's job in America. Best job in America.

They could have the same season they had last year and unless he decides he wants to do something different or he wants to retire and once you leave but jillions of dollars on the table, he's not going anywhere. And I'll tell you why. So I read through all seven amendments to his contract and the original contract. I'm going to put the mic down and just let you cook, pal. Back in Amendment 3, which was signed in 2017, Kentucky agreed that the liquidated damages clause of the contract, which is what the school pays if they, if they fire the coach without cause.

75% of the remaining amount of the contract due within 60 days of the notice of termination, the full amount. So the last person we saw with a buyout like this was Kevin Sumblin. Kevin Sumblin, he was at Texas A&M and it, it actually did probably save his job for two to three years because they didn't want to write just a massive, massive check. I think Kevin Selman's might've been within 30 days, but it was huge. Yeah. Yeah.

That's right. They're gonna pay cash. You want to mortgage this. So, but Kentucky has agreed to pay cash. And this, this is where it's different than the John Calipari situation where I said, when they were trying to figure out what they were going to do with John Calipari, where I said when they were trying to figure out what they were going to do with John Calipari, this is before he went to Arkansas, and ultimately Kentucky decided to keep him. But had they decided to get rid of him, it would have been

a $34 million buyout. But it was equal installments every month through June, 2029. That is a much easier number to handle than what Stoops would be, which I think would be about 37 and a half million if it were after the 25 season. It was 44 million after the 24 season. Do within 60 days. You are selling some barrels of bourbon to fund that sucker. Yeah. The thing with Stoops is that it just kind of feels like from afar that the relationship and the desire and the passion and the happiness is gone. I don't know why, you know, for them, but I still think that he's done a great job there. Yeah, I still like he's elevated the program. Yeah, like I don't know that he's like a person that I wouldn't want to have running my program. It just didn't seem like he was as happy this past year for whatever reason. So, you know, I don't know if that's a crazy thing to say on a podcast, but that's just my perception of just his body language and stuff and the, and the appearances that

he's had. So I mean, when you're losing, it sucks and you're not happy. I don't, I think we might be reading too much into that, but you know, everything, it is weird. Like the guy who is their offensive coordinator a couple years ago Liam Cohen now He was there for one really good season then he went to the Rams then he came back Like Liam Cohen's a head coach in the NFL now. Yeah, right. That's Crazy. He did have a very awkward opening statement. Yeah this past week, right? But yeah No, for sure. Do you like how I got that GM fired? Is that was that the opening statement?

It's the county that Jacksonville's Oh do GM fired. Is that, was that the opening statement? I just don't know what that means. It's the county that Jacksonville's do ball ball. Yeah. So this is, it's such a strange situation because we joke about Kentucky being the best job in the country because they will pay you ungodly amounts of money and not expect you to win national titles. Yeah. Let's go win eight games. You're a hero. But if they win eight games next year, he's a hero again. That's not enough. Yeah. It's not enough anymore. Not enough to nothing. Yeah, not enough for what? What are we gonna do about it? But it's interesting because you look at Texas A&M, which paid $77 million to buy out Jimbo Fisher. They were going to hire Mark Stoops.

Yeah. And then their board of regents rebelled because they looked at what they would have to guarantee Mark Stoops because Mark Stoops is already making about $9 million a year at Kentucky. He's guaranteed all this money that we just talked about. Like you would have had to guarantee him exactly what you guaranteed Jimbo Fisher. Yeah. And they didn't want to do that again. Yeah. And rightfully so. And like also Texas A&M keeps coming up with crazy buyout stories. And I think they wanted to avoid that and actually think that like rationality and functionality with the contract that they hired Mike Elko is probably a healthy thing to do to try to

get the program on the right direction. Well, I think a lot of programs should take this off into an A&M conversation. No, but a lot of programs should consider that. And like Kentucky, they're not in that position now. And I think, I don't know, you tell me. Cause we've talked about this from the standpoint of sometimes it forces schools to give coaches time. And like the billion apier thing may ultimately work out in Florida's favor because part of the reason billion apier hasn't been fired yet was because last year

it would have been $26 million, $13 million of it due up front. That's a lot of money. And when they weren't positively sure they had a replacement they wanted in hand, they were like, you know what, let's try keeping him. We like the quarterback. The quarterback stays if he stays. And that may long-term work out. But the flip side of that is sometimes your buyout is so enormous that where's your motivation to fix it? And I don't just, this is not just a Mark Stoops conversation. This is a Lincoln and Riley conversation. This is a Luke Fickel conversation. Well, you're not scared. No, there's no fear whatsoever. And sometimes fear is the greatest motivator.

Yeah. I am. I'm afraid every day. I don't know about you. I'm not afraid every day. I feel pretty good about what we're doing, but I also realize that every time we get a win that it's an important illustration of what we can do. And I think that's important. Yeah, I'm always worried the piano is going to fall in my head. I wonder if I'll ever. If that'll ever change. That makes you good. That's right. That's right. Well, when next you see us, Ari's gonna be back home. I'll be back home. But we have tons more stuff from the Senior Bowl. Folks we've talked to, we're gonna have a great interview tomorrow with Ty Robinson of Nebraska defensive tackle outgoing the vanilla gorilla. He's awesome. And it's kind of an exit interview that, that scan, you know, scans the Scott Frost era and the Matt rule era. And I tell you what, if you're a Nebraska fan,

you're going to enjoy this a lot because I think it's going to get you excited about the future. Yeah. I really, really enjoyed having that conversation. It kind of spanned all different topics of, you know, how big his hands are to what it was like taking the freshman quarterback under his wing and all that stuff. How much he benches relative to how much you bench. So we'll have that tomorrow. We'll also have tons of other great interviews from the Senior Bowl later this week and going into next week. So we're doing exit interviews with the guys who were stars in college football. They're gonna tell us about how their experience was in college football with their teams and what to expect next. Talk to you tomorrow.

Hey.