Andy & Ari On3 - Can Bush Hamdan INVIGORATE Kentucky's offense? | Todd Gurley on college athletes getting paid

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

Thank you to Gametime for sponsoring today's episode! Planning your college football travel for this season? Gametime has tickets to every game. (And every concert and comedy show.) Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed.(0:00-4:01) Intro(4:02-6:35) Questions for the ACC, Newcomers(6:36-7:59) Cal - Is Jaydn Ott the best RB in the ACC?(8:00-10:24) Stanford - Is Elic Ayomanor the best WR in the ACC?(10:25-13:39) SMU, Did you build enough depth on the line?(13:40-16:35) Gametime Ad(16:36-34:05) Kentucky OC Bush Hamdan joins(34:06-37:51) Clemson - Is this it?(37:52-40:37) Florida State, Can DJU lead you to the CFP?(40:38-43:00) Miami, can the steak match the Sizzle?(43:01-45:37) North Carolina - Coach Brown, are you sandbagging us?(45:38-55:49) Todd Gurley joins(55:50-58:22) Boston College - How good can Bill O'Brien & Thomas Castellanos be?(58:23-59:14) Duke, thank you for bringing 2 quarterbacks(59:15-1:01:03) Georgia Tech, can you shock the world? (Or multiple continents)(1:01:04-1:02:22) Pittsburgh, will you come out of nowhere this year?(1:02:23-1:03:56) Syracuse - Kyle McCord revenge tour?(1:03:57-1:05:52) Virginia, does Tony Muskett going to media days mean no Anthony Colandrea?(1:05:53-1:07:53) Virginia Tech - Is it your time to climb back to the top?(1:07:54-1:12:09) Wake Forest, Have you found your way?(1:12:10-1:14:35) Louisville, How good can you be with a healthy Tyler Shough?(1:14:36-1:17:10) NC State, Can you carry the torch early for your conference?(1:17:11-1:19:36) ACC's Outlook(1:19:37-1:20:23) Conclusion - Dear Andy Tomorrow! Send your questions to [e-mail]’s offense has been trying to recapture the magic of 2021 for two seasons without much success, but the Wildcats have high hopes with a new transfer quarterback (Brock Vandagriff from Georgia) and a new coordinator (Bush Hamdan from Boise State). Hamdan joins the show to discuss how he made his way from Kuwait City to college football fields across America. Hamdan also explains his role in suggesting one of the most iconic plays in college football history. He also talks about the development of Vandagriff and Kentucky’s 2024 offense.Former Georgia tailback Todd Gurley also joins the show. Gurley discusses what it’s been like watching Georgia’s rise. He also explains how the 2012 SEC Championship Game taught him that he’d definitely make it in the NFL. Gurley also explains how happy he is for players who can now make NIL money, and he looks back on how strange it was that he once got suspended four games for signing autographs.Later, Andy previews ACC media days with questions for every ACC team. Yes, all 17 of them.Sample question: Are you sandbagging on us, Mack Brown?Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/Psz91yTxuRMHost: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Monday. Talking season continues in Charlotte, North Carolina. The ACC media days begin on Monday. Big 10 media days in Indianapolis on Tuesday. We talked a lot about the SEC last week. We're going to talk some more about the SEC today. But those two conferences will take center stage this week. And so you'll see a lot of

probably ACC stuff in the next few days. You'll see a ton of big 10 stuff in the next few days. We will be very big 10 heavy this week. I will be in Indianapolis starting tomorrow. So we're going to talk ACC though. I have questions, lots of questions. I mean, I think everybody has big, giant picture questions for the ACC, but I have questions for every single team. That's right, all 17 of them. We are going to ask those questions today. We'll also hear from new Kentucky offensive coordinator Bush Hamden, who they are hoping will jazz up the Kentucky offense because they're trying to recreate the magic of 2021. Remember Liam Cohen came in for his first in his Kentucky's offensive coordinator.

They got Will Levis as a transfer from Penn State. The offense really took off. They had a great year. That's what they want because they're going to have a good defense. It's going to be a very good defense at Kentucky. You talked to, you're from Dion Walker the other day, but if the offense really does click and they've got Barry and Brown and Dankey receiver, they've got some weapons.

Then they could be a team that will not as Mark Stoops was saying, just exist. And Bush Hamden is the guy who will be in charge of that offense. Remember, Mark Stoops is a defensive guy. When you've got a defensive head coach, usually that offensive coordinator, pretty much free reign to do what he wants. We'll see what Bush Hamden can do. He's coming from Boise State.

You heard from him on the show right before Boise State played the Mountain West championship game last year, and it was very interesting. They were in a weird situation because, remember were an interim staff they were trying to figure out what was going to happen and they they got hot at the end of the season ended up winning the Mountain West championship and now Bush Hamden will try to do that magic in the SEC so we'll talk to him a little bit later we'll also talk to former Georgia running back Todd Gurley. He was at SEC Media Days last week, and he was on a media tour. He was advertising some grill and beans. And listen, I understand when we've got somebody on who's got to plug the product,

we're going to let them plug the product. But when you're advertising beans, you're in my wheelhouse. So don't worry. It's not an awkward plug. It fits right in. Fits right in. But we talked to Todd Gurley about watching George's rise. We also talked to him about NIL payments to college athletes now. How different is it for him? And is it kind of bittersweet because of what happened to him remember he got suspended for four games his junior year for signing some autographs I think for 400 bucks or something like that and it's just a different world now and he he was very interesting talking

about that I you know because I I wondered if he'd be angry about it, if he'd be sad that it all worked. But I like his take on it, and I think you're going to enjoy that. Also, really interesting comment from him, and I was fascinated by this. The game that helped him realize he could play in the NFL, because I know you're probably thinking Todd Gurley got to Jordan and was like, of course I can play in the NFL. That know you're probably thinking Todd Gurley got to Jordan. It was like, of course I can play in the NFL. That's not how it works for everybody. Everybody's a little bit different.

And so there was a game for him where he said, oh, I am going to be able to play in the NFL. So you'll hear from Todd Gurley a little bit later in the show. But first, let us ask a few ACC questions. And I think we need to start with the newbies. We're not going to start with Jim Phillips. Jim Phillips, the commissioner, will talk on Monday. He's the first out of the gate. I think for me, with Jim Phillips, I've reached the point, kind of what, remember that discussion

last week we had about Billy Napier in Florida, and we were parsing something Billy Napier had said at SEC Media Days, and at the end of the day, I said, wait a second. There's really nothing he can say right now that's going to satisfy anyone. He's just got to win games. I think that's where Jim Phillips is, too. There's nothing he can say right now. He will get weird questions. He's got Florida State and Clemson suing him.

They are suing Florida State and Clemson. But what are you going to do? Clearly the Big 12 working on destabilizing the ACC, very much like they tried to destabilize the Pac-12. They would like Florida State and Clemson. Conveniently, you had sources on all your favorite realignment-related accounts saying, oh, the Big Ten and the SEC,

they don't want Florida State and Clemson. Yeah, the Big 12 is doing the same thing. It's operating on the same playbook. So just remember that as ACC Media Days begins on Monday. But right now, there's not a lot of news on that front. There have been some court hearings. There have been some decisions. You'll be able to read some redacted TV contracts soon. But that's really about it. So for Jim Phillips, we don't really have any questions because, again, what can he say? What's he supposed to say? But for the teams coming in, we can ask a lot of questions.

And let us start with the new teams. That's right. This is your reminder that Cal, Stanford, and SMU are in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The California Golden Bears. You can, on a clear enough day, you can see the Pacific Ocean. Can you? You can definitely see across the bay. But I think you can probably see a few glimmers of the Pacific from campus,

from the stadium. I don't know if you, can you see it from Titewad Hill? That's the stadium. Can you see it from Titewad Hill? That's the question. Or if you climb that tree that the one naked guy was in when he was watching the games. Was he naked? He was protesting something. He was in a tree. I think he might have been naked too. Anyway,

welcome Cal to the ACC. The question for me is Jaden Ott the best running back in the ACC think about Cal running backs Marshawn Lynch Javid Best Jaden Ott is the next in that line 246 carries for 1,315 yards and 12 TDs last year is he the best running back in the ACC I don't even know if that's the question is he the best running back in the ACC? I don't even know if that's the question. Is he the best running back in the country? Might be the question. And if you ask the kids playing the video game, I think they will answer priority. It is a lot of fun.

A lot of fun. So he's coming to the ACC. That's going to be fun. He will be at ACC Media Days. I don't know if Oski the Bear is coming to ACC Media Days, but I kind of hope he is. I think only the Big 12 does the mascots at Media Days. But yeah, Jay Knott is going to be one of the most exciting players in the whole

country this year. A lot of people who maybe didn't stay up late to watch his games last year are going to get to know him. And I'm telling you right now, you're going to have a lot of fun watching him play. On the other side of that rivalry, Stanford. Is Eleke Omenor the best receiver in the ACC?

Eleke Omenor, the pride of Medicine Hat, Alberta, Western Canada. I did a story on this guy when I was at the Athletic, and it was a fascinating deal because Eleke Omenor was kind of the poster child for the post-COVID recruiting world because he had left his home in Canada to go play at a prep school in New England because he thought he could be a pretty good football player. And his goal was to get the best education possible. Basically, he was going because he thought he might be able to get recruited by the Ivy League schools. And what happened was, now they certainly did recruit him him but when he got to start going to camp so he was

in the first group that got to go to camps after covet ended so the first set of camps and so he goes to penn state's camp he goes to tennessee's camp he goes to notre dame's camp and he's getting offers like crazy because this is six to 2002", 200-pound guy who can run very long, very athletic, and all of these teams want him. And so I talked to him, and you could tell his priorities had shifted. He was basically, if I get a Stanford offer, I am taking it because his goal, again, was to go to an Ivy League school once he got to the States. So he could have gone to one of the Ivy League league schools but when he found out he could go play

big big time college football at a school that is academically on par with those schools that's where he was going he's a fascinating story and he's an excellent receiver so 62 catches for 1013 yards and 60 d's last season that's a 16.3 average. And it sounds like maybe not as much as you think, but here's why. He only had 15 catches for 207 yards in the first five games. The other 806 yards came in the last seven. And I think this is a situation where they hadn't quite figured out how to really take advantage of him yet. And now they do.

They know what they're doing. If you watch that Colorado game, he just blew up in the second half against Colorado. And then they realized, okay, this is the guy. We got to feed this dude. So, L.A. K. O'Meara, keep an eye on him for the Cardinal. One more newbie. These are the guys that said, you know what? You don't even have to give us any money.

We'll come for free. We got big. We got rich boosters. We're going to let them pay for everything. SMU, you're defending American Athletic Conference champions. Now, Rhett Lashley, the coach at SMU, rising star in the coaching profession. Remember, he was Gus Malzahn's quarterback as a high schooler. He worked with Gus Malzahn for years, worked with him at Auburn.

That's his mentor. He talked to Gus Malzahn this offseason because remember, Gus went from the American to the Big 12 last year and learned a lot of lessons in that first year. And Gus said, if you are moving conferences like this, if you're moving up in competition, like you are, you have to build more depth on the line of scrimmage. That, that was the thing that bit you UCF in the butt last year, they ended up six and seven. It was Gus Malzahn's first losing season as a head coach. And he told Rhett Lashley, if you want to try to avoid that, if you want to be sure you can handle the week-to-week grind of the schedule relative to what you used to play, you have got to pick up more big guys. Because SMU, fine at the skill positions. The quarterback, they're just awash in quarterbacks.

They've got Preston Stone, who was their starter for most of last season. He went down. Kevin Jennings won the American Championship game for them. They're both back, even though Kevin Jen from Miami, from Texas, from Ohio State, from Georgia, from Arkansas. And some of those guys were playing, but most of them were kind of buried on the depth chart. So can they come in at SMU? They're not necessarily all expected to start. A few of them are going to be starters, but a lot of them are there to be depth in case somebody goes down. Can you come in and give, give enough snaps that the team can keep going? Because that is what you run into as you move up in competition, as you move up in conference. So did SMU build enough depth on

the line of scrimmage? That is the big question for the Mustangs. We'll find out pretty early. Their first ACC game is against Florida State. So welcome to the league. But they also, before that, have BYU. They had the Iron Skillet game against TCU. So we'll have a pretty good picture of the Mustangs. Their ACC part is pretty front-loaded. They got Florida State and Louisville. Everything after that's pretty winnable. So if. They got Florida State and Louisville. Everything after that is pretty winnable. So if they can split Florida State and Louisville, you got a very interesting situation there for the Mustangs. So if Rhett Lashley did build up enough depth on the line,

it's possible that they could actually be competitive in the ACC in year one. And we haven't seen a team go from winning a championship in one league, switching leagues, and competing for the championship in the next league. But it's possible we could have something like that. Next up, Bush Hamden, the offensive coordinator from Kentucky. But first, I got to tell you about game time. Do you want to go to some of these games that we're talking about? That SMU-Florida State game in Dallas, you can do that. Here's a good one.

NC State playing Tennessee and Charlotte in the Duke's Mayo Classic early in the season. That is a big time game for the ACC. The ACC would love a win in that game. Now, obviously, the ACC and the SEC have plenty of games they play at the end of the season. But this is one where NC State could plant the flag for the ACC against a team I think that's going to be very good in the SEC. Tennessee, obviously, Nico Iamaliaba. I'm getting it.

Nico Iamaliaba. That's going to be his first big test against that NC State defense. That'll be a fun one. But maybe you want to go see Clemson play against Florida State. Maybe you want to see DJ Yu against his old team in Tallahassee. You can get tickets for that on GameTime as well. With GameTime, you just search for your event. You see a list of potential tickets. You click it. You're just looking at where you would be sitting in the stadium. You know exactly where you'd be sitting. The price is the price. A couple more taps. Those tickets are yours. They're easily transferable on game day and they have tickets to everything. If I want to go see Chris Stapleton this summer, I just grab my game time app. Where's he playing? Tap, tap, tap. Tickets are mine. Easy, easy, easy. Football games, any other sporting event, concerts, comedy shows. They have tickets to everything on GameTime. And use the code STAPLES, you get $20 off your first purchase.

Terms apply. But yes, use that code STAPLES, $20 off your first purchase. GameTime is the easiest way to get last minute tickets. They have the ticket to the event you want to go to. It doesn't matter what it like. You want to go to the heiress tour. You're gonna go see Taylor Swift in Miami or New Orleans. When she comes back to the States, they get tickets.

They got lots of tickets. So go to game time, download the app code code staples, $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. All right. Now it's time to talk Kentucky Wildcats and an offense that hasn't quite been there the last few years. And you've seen what happens when they get both sides of the ball going. You saw it in 2021, that first year of Will Levis as a starter there. They tried it last year with Devin Leary.

They brought Liam Cohen back as the OC. Devin Leary came over from NC State. Didn't quite work out the way they wanted it to. Liam Cohen goes to the Bucs. He's going to be coaching Baker Mayfield now. Bush Hamden comes in from Boise State. He is in charge of the Bucs. He's going to be coaching Baker Mayfield now. Bush Hamden comes in from Boise State. He is in charge of the Kentucky offense now. Can he be the guy that lights the fire, that gets both sides of the

ball going for Kentucky? Here's Bush Hamden. The last time we had this guy on the show, he was getting prepared for the Mountain West championship game with Boise State. He's now the Kentucky offensive coordinator, Bush Hamden. Welcome. Appreciate you, Andy. Thanks for having me on, man. Oh, my pleasure.

So the adjustment to Lexington, you're back in the SEC. You've been in the SEC before at Missouri and at Florida, but you come in. Brock Vandegrift joins the team from Georgia. So you've got a new quarterback, got a lot of exciting pieces on this offense. You know, Dane Key, Barry and Brown. How much fun has it been to work with these guys? It's been tremendous. I mean, I think from the day I got here, I mean, this is very much so a blue-collar operation. I think, you know, at all levels from our quarterbacks to our running

backs, offensive line, tight ends, receivers, these are guys that want to work. There's a lot of experience. They know what it takes. And that's a huge, huge thing for us. And then like, it's interesting because you have guys like Brock, who's coming from Georgia, Chip Trainum, your running back, who's coming from Ohio State. What do those guys bring when they, when they've been in a program that's had success? Can they help bring an idea of what the work ethic is like in a program like that? Or is it just that it's easier to bring them in to what you guys do because they've been in a place where they do things right? I think it's twofold. I think one, it's everything you're

saying, Andy. I mean, they've been there. They've done that at the highest level. They know exactly what it's supposed to look like. But I think they also bring a unique perspective to guys that have just been at Kentucky, you know, and never been anywhere else. And certainly there's a lot of things we do extremely well here with what Coach Stoops has in mind. And those guys are able to give that perspective to players of this is how awesome it is here, and you should be proud to be a Wildcat. So you've been in different situations. You've been an offensive coordinator for coaches who are offensive-minded, like Eli Drinkwitz.

You've worked with him. But you've worked with coaches who are defensive-minded as well. Mark Stoops is obviously a former defensive coordinator, wants to make sure the offense is running away, that it's a complementary game rather than let's just score as many points as humanly possible. But how is it different when you're working with a guy like that? Or is it just, hey, I'm going to run the offense, and then you just tell me what you need? Yeah, it's definitely different working for a defensive guy

versus an offensive guy. I think there's positives and negatives to both. But I think philosophically, right, it always starts there. I think the number one point of winning football games, doing what it takes to, what you said, play complimentary football in this league. It's a must man with, with as talented as the rosters are. So, so there's a lot of alignment there. But, but certainly getting a perspective from a defensive guy,

certainly differs from maybe the day to day being in there with an offensive guy, but fortunate to have both those experiences prior to my career, and really I'm going to lean on that. And you've just – you've been everywhere. You know, Missouri, Washington, Florida, Boise State. It feels like for recruiting purposes in the age of the transfer portal, how much does it help to have worked in so many places, probably made contacts in so many different places, so that when you've got to recruit out of the portal, you may know a guy.

Like if a person pops up, it's like, okay, I know this guy from when I was at Washington or when I was – and you can make a call and at least get some intel. Yeah, I think that's critical. I mean, I think that's maybe one of the positives. Obviously, the amount of movement is not something, you know, that I've looked forward to or that I'm necessarily proud of. But, you know, that that is a huge positive is I think at certain times, whether it's relationships with guys on staff from coast to coast or the player acquisition piece I think it's important and uh I think nowadays as you guys know you're seeing players go from East Coast to West Coast and Midwest to the South and I think that's critical it always comes back to those relationships so speaking of saying you've been everywhere you have really been everywhere you were born in Kuwait City and so what am I right was your family on vacation in the United States when Iraq invaded Kuwait in the early 90s yeah we were we were we uh really blessed man and fortunate um I think it was about two days before the war broke out where we were on one of the last flights out and so I, I don't know, I'm just going to look back at it.

And you get older in life and you have different perspectives. And just super fortunate for my parents, my family, for everything to have been on that flight. And so you settle in Maryland and you and your brother wind up playing football. How did you fall in love with football? And at what age was that? I think, you know, the biggest thing for us, we were baseball players growing up. And I think probably just like any younger brother, you look up to your older brother

and he was one of these guys that played one year of high school football and started his senior year in Indiana. And then it was a draft pick and played six or seven years in the NFL. So, so much of it for me was just trying to follow in his footsteps and, and the rest kind of took care of itself. And, and you wound up at Boise state as a quarterback back when America hadn't really discovered Boise state yet. And, and, and for you, like you, you know, you born in Kuwait, you live in,

you know, the D.C. area. Boise's got to feel like another planet at that point. Yeah, certainly. I think, I don't know, I used to joke, I used to, for high school, I'd jump on the train in D.C. and take it for about an hour and 15 minutes. And I remember when Dan Hawkins, who was my head coach there, came to my house. He's like, well, you can just kind of sit in your car for about 50 minutes because I think you can drive through the whole city in about 10 minutes. So it was definitely a unique experience for me. Again, you know, I think a strength has been being in a lot of different places and having to adjust and maybe not looking normal or being normal.

And I kind of hung my hat on that and been fortunate for those experiences. So Hawk is one of the great ones. I think that the average college football fan remembers him for when he was at Colorado. This is the Big 12. This ain't intramurals, brother. What's he like when you first meet him? What's that recruiting pitch like from Coach Hawk? Yeah, I mean, I think it's authentic, and he's one of a kind. He really is.

I mean, it starts with just his compassion for people, his care for his family, for his players. But, you know, maybe similar to what you hear when you talk to, you know, the stories of Coach Leach and everything, you might be sitting there and talking about something completely different for about an hour before you even get to the reason you're there. And so I just think it's those guys who have that unique ability, man, that storytelling ability and that care for things outside of just the game are really, truly special.

Well, and you go from Coach Hawk to Chris Peterson and Brian Harsin as your head coach in OC, and I would imagine that's a little bit of a tonal shift right there. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think anybody who knows Chris Peterson, I mean, every I is dotted, every T is crossed, just the professional approach he had for so many years. But again, just like, you know, again, myself being fortunate enough to be around some of the best head coaches in college football, there's a little piece of each guy that I think you take with them. So I don't think I've ever gotten to ask you about this, but it is well known. In fact, that my favorite game that I've ever attended is the Boise state, Oklahoma festival. I was only there to make sure my laptop would work in the press box because I was covering Florida at the

time they were playing in the national title the next week. And I was like, well, I'm maybe I'll get to see a cool football game. And I got to see the greatest football game ever played so you you're on the sidelines in that game you actually played a role in the key play the Jared zebranski Statue of Liberty handoff to Ian Williams for the two-point conversion so did did you really tell Harsin, hey, statue might be there? You know, I think it was certainly in the middle of the game, which, again, I think it's critical there, right? Because when you're a backup quarterback, you got nothing to lose. And so in the middle of the game, we had run a complimentary play at a similar set. And we did think it was there. I remember at the time when Chris Peterson,

he really felt, you know, Adrian Peterson was just getting healthy. He did not want to continue with overtime and how physical those guys were. He said he was going to call it. And then I'm frantically going, no, this, are you serious? You're calling this? And then when it worked i told him i i said hey man i knew it was gonna work so it uh again now being in this seat versus where i was 15 years ago uh it was a lot easier making those decisions uh back then so just one more question about that game did you know ian was gonna propose we we did not man and we uh you know we we knew he obviously uh had taken a huge liking into Chrissy and uh you know they had been together for a while and so uh just a special special time and and I know they're doing awesome in Boise so it's really a cool story that's so great now and and

you mentioned that you know it's it's different being in the chair you're in now. What is it like now when a player comes up to you during the game and is like, Coach, Coach, this is open. We got this. Yeah, you never know. You got your guys. You got your guys that are like complete truth tellers, and then you got your guys who every game are kind of telling you it.

But I think those guys, for the most part, have a pretty good feel, and I think that's critical too. I think that the communication nowadays with the quarterbacks, certainly with the veteran offensive linemen, they have a good feel for it. And I think ultimately that's a sign of a good offense. That's a sign of good organization is that it's simple enough for there to be clear communication to make those in-game adjustments. And I think that's something we strive for.

So one of the things we've talked about the past couple of weeks, because you've got the leagues talking about their different deals with the Apple and Microsoft to get the iPads on the on the sideline. And we've also talked about the in-helmet communication. How much is that going to change how things work for you as a play caller, having that direct link to the QB before the play? Yeah, I think it'll be critical. I think the challenge for us right now, to be quite honest, is if that goes in and out during the game. you know, because as you know, it's a huge advantage for us to be able to directly get the play calls to the quarterbacks, to give them the one or two things we want them to focus on, on that play. But at the same point, if, if those do go off in game that, that they're still focused,

they still know the signals they've got that ability to still operate it. And so I think it'll be critical. I think it'll be really good for the whole offense and just really simplify things. Well, and the one thing I've wondered about, because you worked in the NFL, so you worked with this same system before, but NFL stadiums, with the exception of maybe, you know,

Seattle, maybe Arrowhead, the Superdome, but for the most part, they don't get that loud. The road stadiums you're playing in are going to be obscenely loud. You're at Tennessee. You're at Florida. Are they going to be able to even hear? Even if the thing's working perfectly, are they going to be able to hear? Yeah, I think, Andy, everything you're talking about, man, is a wait and see.

And again, just like anything in college football over the last five, 10 years, you got to adjust and you got to adapt. And I think the critical thing for us, again, is, you know, we're going to certainly spend time every third, fourth practice acting like it's like we don't have it, you know, so we're ready for that. I think that's critical and uh uh but but from an operation standpoint again uh everything's smooth in the spring as you guys know but when live bullets start going you know we'll have to be ready to go yeah and the other thing with the the tablets on the sidelines i'm curious about can you make adjustments more quickly because i i always think about the the old school way you come off the sideline and your position coach says what did what did you see and then they got to translate that to the coordinator and everybody's got to get together and kind of put the picture together in their head now you can just show everybody the video yeah and I think that can be a huge tool and

um again so much of this man as you know is uh the two three minutes four minutes in between a drive that you have clear and concise communication you know and I think that's staff to player player to staff staff to staff I think the critical thing is how we get that information how we relate to the players but also do a great job of relaying the information that we have always been relaying from from staff member to staff member with guys up in the box and guys on the field, that that's going to be the challenge. Now, I know you guys didn't show a whole lot in the spring game, but you were fairly up-tempo, and it seems like the Kentucky fans came away kind of excited about what this offense might look like.

How excited are you to finally pull the tarp off and really show what this offense might look like. How excited are you to to to finally pull the tarp off and really show what this thing is? Yeah, extremely excited. I mean, I think, you know, this is our life's work, right? This is every year tweaking it now six, seventh year as a coordinator, finding that constant state of improvement, mixed in with with our personnel and what we think we can do well and again I just come back to these players you know this program the the culture that's been here it's a working culture it's guys that are about the team and you know unfortunate for that yeah and that's and it's a very established one which is

you know in this day and age of college football, you don't see that very often. How different is it, you know, coming into a program where they've been there more than 10 years? It's you hardly ever see that anymore. Yeah, I think it's a testament to, you know, everything coach has done here. And really, it starts with how you treat people, you know, and I think And I think that. I think he's got a culture of efficiency. He's got a culture where he's going to hold people accountable, but treat people right. And it's impressive. I mean, I actually think that's one of the biggest selling points I have here is there's been numerous guys that have had opportunities to leave.

But it's not only the longest tenured SEC head coach, but it's the longest tenured SEC staff and the loyalty they've had to them. So it's been tremendous. Again, you said it. They know exactly who they want to be in all phases of development, the program, what the team looks like. And a lot of times what that allows you to do is not waste time on the front end and continue to grow in areas you need to grow in. And Brock Vandegrift is a guy that we've known about since he was a recruit. He's been heavily

covered. You know, it just, you happen to get behind some really good players at Georgia, and now we get a chance to see what he can do. What's it been like working with him? He's a consummate pro. You know, he's just one of those guys. He's about his business. He loves the position in and out. He's been coached tremendously well at Georgia. So, you know, system-wise, there's probably a lot of similarities, maybe some change in verbiage. So, again, I think it's a mature, mature player who loves the game inside and out.

And, again, it's a guy who's had to wait his turn and things maybe haven't happened exactly how he wanted them to, but there's certainly some perspective there. There's some grit there. And I know he wants to sing in a bad, bad way. Well, a couple of QBs ago at Kentucky, there was a guy who had been waiting his turn and it all worked out pretty well for him.

So we shall see if this is the next one in line. But, Bush, can't wait to see the offense. Can't wait to see what it looks like. Thank you so much. Andy, appreciate you, man, like always. All right. Thank you, sir. All right.

That is Bush Hamden, your Kentucky offensive coordinator. And if his group does well, Kentucky's surprise some people that's it and we'll know kind of early where Kentucky is because week two they got South Carolina week three they got Georgia so we will have a very good idea of where Kentucky is speaking of teams that play Georgia early let's talk about the team that plays Georgia the earliest. The Clemson Tigers. We got our ACC questions. One question for each team.

That's right. All 17 of them because ACC Media Day starts today. This group is a group that might not want to be in the ACC for very long. These are the teams that, well, two of them are suing the league, and two other ones I think probably would like to get out if they could. But let's start with the Clemson Tigers because they open with Georgia. My question for Clemson is actually very simple. I could ask it of the Tigers themselves.

I could ask it of Coach D themselves. I could ask it of coach Dabo Sweeney. Is this it? Is this it? Are we done with this era of Clemson dominance or can you bring it back? Because this feels like an inflection point right here. Like, can you turn it around? Because I think next year, when you can use athletic department money to pay players, that helps Clemson. That puts Clemson a little bit back in the game in terms of actually being able to use the transfer portal for players that can help.

You heard Davo Sweeney earlier this year. Basically, what he said is three kind of transfers. One, not good enough to help Clemson, which makes sense. They recruit really well out of high school. Two, somebody who's been tampered with already knows where they're going. Can't get them. Okay. Three, somebody who could help Clemson, but Clemson can't afford them because they're trying to use their NIL money to retain the really good players they already have.

Now, if you have $10 to $15 million from the athletic athletic department which is what that number is probably going to be you probably have money to spend on the occasional transfer portal guy now you're still going to want to retain your best players but this year with nothing out of the transfer portal can Clemson come back and be nationally relevant? We are going to find out probably week one where they stand because remember 2021, they opened against Georgia, the Georgia team that won the national title. And that Clemson defense kept them in the game. That was a really tight game. It wasn't the prettiest game, but it was very close and Clemson was in it, but they couldn't offensively move the ball. They couldn't do what they needed to do to score.

So, and again, this has been the problem and it actually will lead into another question. And I think you know where I'm going with that one, but can Clemson ever be what it was in the heyday under Dabo again? The defense is still really good. Peter Woods, one of the best D-line in the country. Barrett Carter, one of the best linebackers in the country. But the question is, can the offense be dynamic again? You know, this used to be a school that just pumped out great receivers. Those guys have not been there.

Can TJ Moore, the freshman, can he be the next one? We'll find out. But that's what I want to know about Clemson. Is this it? Is this it? Or can you do this again? Can you resurrect it? Next question is for another school that is suing the ACC,

and that's Florida State. Has a little Clemson flavor to it. Is DJU the guy to lead you to the playoff? That's right, DJU Yunglele, new starting quarterback at Florida State, former starting quarterback at Clemson, also spent last year at Oregon State. DJU is a guy who probably unfairly got loaded with these massive expectations because he replaced Trevor Lawrence as a freshman

at Notre Dame during the game, during COVID, threw for 400 yards. They didn't win that game. They lost in overtime. But we just assume he's the next guy. NIL starts. He's getting commercials before anybody else. Everybody thought this was the next great Clemson quarterback.

And, of course, Clemson had gone Deshaun Watson, Trevor Lawrence. Now there was a Kelly Bryant in between there. But the thought was, this is the next great Clemson quarterback. And there were flashes, including his last game at Dope Campbell Stadium when he played against Florida State in 2022. But that's the big question, because I think Florida State has everything else it needs to win the ACC. This roster's really good. The pieces that they lost,

they were able to replace pretty well through the transfer portal. I think you're going to really like Marvin Jones Jr. coming off the edge. He's got Patrick Payton on the other side, who's been there. D-line, they feel pretty good about. O-line, for once, finally, they're feeling pretty good about. But quarterback, remember, Jordan Travis was so important for them. He was so dynamic. He was such a good leader. I don't know that we fully appreciate the

intangible pieces of what Jordan Travis brought. And so that's the challenge for DJU is to come in and can he give Florida State those things? Not to mention the on-field piece of it. This offense may look different. Jordan Travis, a little more of a scrambler. How does Florida State use DJU in the run game? Because he is useful in the run game. You're still talking about a 6'5", 240-pound dude. So in short yardage, you can do some stuff with him. But we've not seen him reach what we think is his ceiling yet.

Can Mike Norvell get him to his ceiling? So that's the question. Our next question, Florida State's rival Miami. Can the steak finally match the sizzle? Since Mario Cristobal got there, he has been upgrading the roster. This is the best roster he's had there. This is very similar to the Oregon rosters when Mario Cristobal was competing for Pac-12 titles at Oregon. Very similar. He's built on the lines of scrimmage through high school recruiting. He is built in the skill positions through the transfer portal.

This team is loaded. But can Mario Cristobal coach it on the field well enough to compete for the ACC title to potentially make a college football playoff appearance? We're going to find out. And we're going to find out pretty early because they're going to Gainesville for game one. They're playing a desperate Florida team that needs a win. Florida needs to beat Miami.

Billy Napier needs that win. But Mario Cristobal needs that win as well. This is one of those where the fan base of the losing team is going to melt down after the game. Miami is a slight favorite, even though it'll be a tough road environment because Miami's roster is, like I said, loaded. You got Cam Ward coming in from Washington State. You got Damian Martinez coming in from Oregon State. This is going to be a good team if Mario Cristobal can get out of his own way.

A lot of times he's too conservative. Sometimes he won't take a knee. All of that needs to get corrected. If it can be, then we're talking about a team that not only can win the ACC, but should actually be competitive against a lot of the teams that you'd see in the playoff. But we haven't seen that yet. We have not seen that yet on the field. We're going to find out. Week one, we should have a pretty good idea of what's going on with Miami. Now, their schedule,

they're still going to win a bunch of games no matter what. But can they be the team they expect to be? Let's see how they perform against Florida. I think that'll give us a good litmus test there. One more. This is one they have not sued the ACC, but they would be a very hot commodity if the ACC schools became free agents. That's North Carolina.

And my question is this. You're sandbagging on us, aren't you, Mack Brown? I think this team could be pretty good. I think there's a chance this team could be better than the Drake-Mayled team last year. I think part of the reason I'm very excited about this team, new leadership on defense, they bring in Jeff Collins as defensive coordinator. Say what you will about Jeff Collins as the Georgia Tech head coach. I realize it didn't go well. But Jeff Collins has been very good everywhere he has run defenses. And he has run defenses in places where they have incredible competition.

Game in, game out. Mississippi State playing in the old SEC West. Florida had to play against some really good teams. And Jeff Collins' defense were dominant at Florida. He takes over group. Kamen Rucker's back. You saw him on the show last year. Great edge rusher.

They're not bad personnel-wise on defense. They've got dudes offensively it's going to be max johnson or connor harrell at qb but omari and hampton is back and remember i asked is jay not the best back in the acc if it's not jay not it's omari and hampton omari and hampton is spectacular i'm telling guys, don't sleep on the tar heels. It's one of those things like when you have the highly hyped quarterback, the highly drafted quarterback, and he leaves and you think, okay, that's it. No, I do think they could be as good or better than last year. The offensive line needs to improve for sure. But I think the defense is going to definitely be better. And you look at the schedule, it's awfully manageable.

Awfully manageable. We'll find out. They're going to Minnesota week one. Cannot wait to see the Tar Heels. We will ask our questions of the rest of the ACC shortly. But now we need to talk to an old friend, a guy who I guarantee you loved watching in college, unless you were a Florida fan or Auburn fan and he was running all over you. But he's one of those guys that even the rival fans can appreciate. Nobody ran as hard as Todd Gurley.

He was awesome in the NFL, too. He joined us last week at SEC Media Days for a wide-ranging conversation. How can you not love Todd Gurley? Here he is. It just beans more here at SEC Media Days. Todd Gurley joined me on behalf of Bush's going on? How you doing, man? On behalf of Bush's Grill and Beans.

Yeah, man. No, like you said, out here on behalf of Bush's Grill and Beans, the official beans at SEC, their third year going into partnership, and for me to be able to represent them and, you know, partner with them, man, means a lot. They could have picked a lot of people. We got the NIL stuff going on.

And so definitely, definitely a great feeling. you know i live in la so year round and you can grill year round exactly not not exactly we don't grill how we do in the south but right you know that's why i partnered with a bush's grilling beans and you know give a little bit more bold flavor to show show the people on the west exactly exactly well i'm just happy to see you oh thank you with an nil deal at an sec event yeah and the cops aren't showing it like this this is your case i think was one that bothered everybody more than anything else because you know it's a few hundred bucks for signing autographs and it was and i i had to write about it too yeah and like it felt i i remember asking this at the time i was like this feels

like we're talking about somebody who committed a crime yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah but you just and then the shoot that people that commit crime don't even get suspended that long no sometimes so no i mean obviously obviously um at the time right like what like, what I did was, like, wrong. But more for me, more feel bad. Like, I didn't feel bad, but I felt bad for, like, putting my teammates in a situation and obviously, like, missing games. And I think we ended up losing, like, to Florida and stuff like that. But honestly, man, how times has changed.

And sometimes, i honestly forget sometimes that i got suspended but to be able to see how it's changed now and just to look at the journey and like you said to have a uh a name image likeness deal with with bushes grilling beans here at sec media day and you know reliving these college memories and it's it's been cool man it's been cool day well let's talk about your your time there because yeah like I I've done some work with Aaron Murray and he talks about when you got there it was just like holy crap but he always get that story when when you got to Georgia I mean that 2012 team was just stacked jarvis jones yeah rambo ogre tree so john jenkins john jenkins still in the lead to the day yeah and mary chris conley tavaris king marlon brown michael bennett he's

marshall like people forget like i and i was like chris chris the smartest guy on the team your job's to catch the ball, he catches the ball. That was kind of my fault too because the guy that tipped it was, it was like, it just happened so fast. It was like, I'm supposed to go, I think, cut him, and he ended up tipping the ball. But that's why you kind of go through those situations. It was definitely a learning experience but yeah yeah it was just a tough game but that also wasn't the only play that like

right saying not saying that lost us the game but it's also other plays around the game where we probably could have done better how hard was it to watch that Notre Dame Alabama game after that? Yeah. Yeah. Because it was a blowout, right? But then, you know,

to make us feel better, right. It was like, well, at least we played in the championship game. Cause that was like the championship. Yeah. It was man. That game was,

it was crazy. That's when I realized like, I was like, Oh, I think I got a chance to go to the NFL. I rushed for, like, I did a good job against Alabama. Yeah. Like, I think more people do better jobs against Alabama now.

But back then, it was like nobody was rushing. Nobody did anything. Yeah, yeah. Okay, I'm going to ask you about it because I've never heard anybody say it like that. But I've always wondered, for guys who make it to the league, like, when is that moment the light bulb goes off? So, like, coming out of high school, you didn't necessarily know if you who make it to the league, like when is that moment the light bulb goes off? So like coming out of high school, you didn't necessarily know if you could make it to the NFL. Like it took.

Honestly, man, I was just, I was just having fun. Yeah. You know, I was just having fun. I never did like seven on sevens and camps. And, you know i had i had someone who made it to the nfl from my high school and sean drone he was a running back so being able to see that it was like all right believable but like me as a young kid and like believing in myself like i was just like like you said like i just was like man because i always looked up to a lot of guys and not to say it like that it's like damn these guys i looked up

to i end up becoming them if not i guess on a talent wise like a little better and right that's when i was just like like all right bro like you got to start taking this thing a little bit more serious so and against that bama defense you know all those dudes are going to play in the league so and that was one of the reasons why i wanted to kind of be in the sec because i think at that time and still now to this day maybe i mean at least 10 national championships out of the last 13 years or something like that, right? Like we don't give it up.

There's two Clemsons of Florida State and Michigan. State and Michigan and obviously Ohio State maybe in like 15 or something like that. Yeah, but like, yeah, man. Somebody with my jersey on down there actually. Look at that. They're still doing it. They're still wearing it. Yeah.

God is good. What's it been like to watch Georgia become what it's become? It's fun. It's fun. Like I've been doing these interviews when they're like, you don't want to take this stuff for granted because, you know, when you get the winning and you're like, oh, yeah, we'll be back next year. But that's not necessarily the case, man.

I mean, those guys won back in 81, and it took 41 years to win another one so like even being here today is almost making me appreciate like look man you know what you should get back more and should embrace it more and you know like because it's i'm sure there's a lot of people that that love me and became fans i'm sure they were already georgia fans but oh there's there's a bunch yeah and that's what's, what's that like knowing that, you know, there was probably some kid seven or eight years old in 2013 watching you play. And it's like, I'm, Georgia's my favorite team because Todd Gurley plays for Georgia.

For sure. I mean, man, that's, it's been surreal, like meeting them. But not only that, right? Like I met my man, Damian Pierce, running back for the texans not only that florida yeah so like i met him at the rookie premiere and to hear him like he like was tripping out like he was like no like everybody like this player that's playing because me growing up right like adrian peterson you know he was like the goat at the time and obviously you have lt and shady mccoy like all these guys but he was like no like you like you my god he tried to run like he was like oh yeah

i remember him at florida he was trying to run like so he was like you you're my god and to hear that like i was like wow you know that was just like, just super dope. And that's why I always been a fan of just the younger guys, the younger generation and just love to see the growth. Well, and we've seen the running back position evolve. And we see, you know, the guys in the league now trying to figure out how to get paid. And what advice would you give? Let's say like we're on three.

So we do the recruiting rankings and stuff. What advice would you give to a, to a guy who is about to pick his college as a running back as he enters college like what should he be thinking about right now in terms of career man it's so much to think about but you don't want to like overthink or overanalyze too right sometimes you can be your own worst enemy you know getting inside your brain so honestly i would just say you know trust your heart trust your instincts but at the end of the day like because when i came into georgia man they had isaiah crowell who was the number one running back before and you know keith marshall was the number one running back in my class so i never never looked at it like, man, you might not never play. I just trust my gut instincts.

I had a good relationship. I like Coach McClendon, and I like what Coach Rick stood for. So I just trusted that and just, you know, even without knowing what I was doing, I knew what I was doing. Sometimes we get so caught up in the wrong thing. It's sports, right? and just, you know, even without knowing what I was doing, I knew what I was doing. Yeah. Sometimes we get so caught up in the wrong thing. And it's sports, right? Like, you don't want to wish injury on anybody,

but nine times out of ten, somebody's going to get hurt. And sometimes it is politics that play into it. You might not get that opportunity to play, but just keep working hard and just never give up because guys that inspire me were guys that I probably knew they would never touch the field, but they were working harder than the people that was the so-called the best player. So that made me step my game up. But like I said, just surround yourself with great people.

You know, just ask the right questions. There's no wrong you know question and um there's no really real recipe to it it's just i don't know man you just the recipe includes beans that's right todd gurley thank you so much man thank you for the great interview and i appreciate you appreciate it thank you you. Todd Gurley again, who did not love watching Todd Gurley run the football angry runner, but nice guy. All right. We got ACC media days starting today. We have 10 more ACC schools to ask questions of, and there's some interesting ones in here.

We'll start with Boston College. I know you're probably thinking, what are we going to ask about Boston College? Boston College is in a fascinating situation. Remember, Jeff Halfley left to be the defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers. If you look at the circumstances, it's easy to lump it in and say oh he's he didn't like the changes in college football he probably didn't like that they lost the last three games of the regular season last year and that you know if he had an average you know mid-type season he was probably going to get fired so he's resetting the clock bill o O'Brien comes in as Boston College's head coach.

I love the combination of Bill O'Brien and Thomas Castellanos. I am very excited about that because Castellanos was one of the breaths of fresh air in the college football season last year. He came in, was not expected to be a starter, but turned into a very exciting dual threat quarterback. So you got Bill O'Brien who helped Bryce Young win a Heisman at Alabama. He was the OC at Alabama when Bryce Young won the Heisman. He takes Thomas Castellanos and I'll go back even further. Like when Bill O'Brien took over at Penn State, Matt McGloin, the former walk-on was the starting quarterback or became the starting quarterback under Bill O'Brien in that first year. He did great.

Bill O'Brien got the most out of Christian Hackenberg when he was there at Penn State. I think we look at what happened with Bill O'Brien at the end in New England when he's trying to figure it out with Mac Jones and Bailey Zappi, and that didn't work. This is a different thing. When Bill O'Brien's been in college, his quarterbacks have been very, very productive. Yeah, Zach in the chat, Bill O'Brien actually had a worse offense in the NFL than a literal defensive coordinator, special teams coach, OC's first timers for the past. You're talking about Matt Patricia the year before year before again that didn't work i'm telling you right now bill o'brien has had successful quarterbacks pretty much every year he's worked in college including one guy won the heism trophy and he's got a quarterback who's great with his legs who has a good arm who's very exciting who

may make some plays that might go against you at times. Castellanos is a very no, no, no, no, no, yes type quarterback. But I think with O'Brien coaching him, he could be pretty good. So I'm excited to see that. For Duke, it's not a question, but a thank you to Manny Diaz for bringing two quarterbacks to ACC Media Days. That's right. Haven't decided on one. Don't know if it's going to be Grayson Loftus or Malik Murphy. Bring them both. Now, this is a trend this year in the ACC because Cal, North Carolina, and SMU are also doing this. SMU,

very understandable because Kevin Jennings did win the American Championship for them last year, and obviously Preston Stone is the established starter. But with Duke, you're not sure who it's going to be. You brought in Malik Murphy from Texas to see if he could be the guy, but you've got Grayson Loftus. Bring them both. I love it. This would never happen in the SEC.

Maybe it has happened once in the SEC, but I don't remember it happening in the SEC. ACC, yeah, let's go. Just ask the quarterbacks any questions you have. Maybe it'll help us decide who we want to play. For Georgia Tech, can you shock the world, or at least multiple continents? Georgia Tech plays Florida State in Ireland week zero. Georgia Tech is a good football team. Haynes King blossomed in his first year at Georgia Tech after transferring from Texas A&M. Buster Faulkner, the offensive coordinator for Georgia Tech, is going to be a hot name if this offense keeps getting better.

Brent Key's done a good job. Since the moment he took over for Jeff Collins, because remember Brent Key was the interim when Collins got fired. Brent Key has done a very good job here. This team's going to beat somebody that you don't expect them to beat. Will it be Florida State week one or week zero?

I don't know about that. I think Florida State is going to be pretty prepared for that game in Ireland. But I'm telling you right now, pay attention to the Yellow Jackets. You got Notre Dame coming to Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That's going to be an interesting one. They've beaten North Carolina recently. They play Miami. They play NC State.

These are all teams that you're expecting to be competitive in the ACC. This is a tough, tough schedule. We're going to talk about Syracuse in a second, but at Syracuse is no picnic. At Louisville is definitely not going to be easy. At North Carolina won't be easy. Notre Dame, at Virginia Tech. This might be the hardest Notre Dame at Virginia Tech. This might be the hardest conference schedule in the ACC.

And oh, by the way, they also play Georgia at the end of the season. So Georgia Tech will not get anything easy, but I'm telling you right now, they're going to beat somebody they're not supposed to. Just telling you that right now. Pittsburgh. Will this be the year pitt comes out of nowhere we always write off pat narduzzi after a couple of of average or bad years and then they come roaring back and do something like win the acc we'll see if that happens this year but the big changes for pitt were they brought in Cade Bell as the offensive coordinator the quarterback situation was not good last year I think they feel better about it now Cade Bell very interesting story so his his father is Kerwin Bell former Florida quarterback but also Kerwin Bell has been coaching for a while and it's weird because Kerwin had a bad stretch as the

offensive coordinator for USF when Charlie Strong was there. But if you look at the rest of his coaching career, he's been at the D2 level and winning like crazy. He's now at the FCS level, Western Carolina. So Cade was Kerwin's office coordinator at Western Carolina last year. And they lit it up. Just lit it up. And that's what impressed Pat Narduzzi. That's why they hired him.

We'll see if Cade Bell can make that magic happen in Pittsburgh as well. But that's a young offensive coordinator to watch. And Pitt needs that. Pitt needs to turn this thing around. So can they do it? Can Cade Bell be that guy? Now for Syracuse. You've seen Fran Brown on the show. We've talked about how they've upgraded the roster at Syracuse. This was not a bad team last year either. Dino Babers got fired, but it actually wasn't a terrible team. They bring in all these players from other schools, Fadil Diggs from Texas A&M,

Kyle McCord from Ohio State, obviously, to play quarterback. For me, will Kyle McCord get revenge on the haters this year? Kyle McCord has just been brutalized since leaving Ohio State. He's even taken shrapnel on hard knocks. If you saw the interview with Marvin Harrison Jr. when he was with the Giants, front office and coaching staff on hard knocks at the Combine, the GM of the Giants is just talking about how terrible the throw is. Just bashing Kyle McCord without naming him.

Kyle McCord's taken a lot of shrapnel. I think it's time for Kyle McCord to get some revenge. Certainly helps that Aranda Gadsden Jr. is on his team. I think Syracuse is going to be very good. I think Syracuse is going to be one of the surprise teams in the ACC.

And Kyle McCord will have his chance to say, hey haters, I know you thought I wasn't very good, but just come to the dome and watch me cook. I'm excited to see Syracuse this year. I am. I think it's going to be fun. Virginia, does the very aptly named Tony Musket coming to media days mean we're not going to be treated to Anthony Calandria? Anthony Calandria was another. We talked about Thomas Castellanos at Boston College.

Anthony Calandria was another one of those young quarterbacks in the ACC last year when he came on your TV. You're like, all right, something's going to happen. The issue was it wasn't always a good something. But a lot of times it was a good something. But Tony Musket was the more consistent one, got hurt. So it looks like Tony Musket's going to be the guy. We'll see. Tony Elliott has not announced who his quarterback's going to be, but unlike the folks who brought two, he only brought one. So I assume tony musket here but i'm sure calandria waiting in the wings we'll see what happens but this is a team that got better last season we've talked about this

multiple times with virginia what they went through in 2022 no team should have to go through they had multiple players murdered. And how do you come back from that? I don't know. But this team did start to come out of that last year. And you could see the improvement. You could see them get better from week to week. Now, you had Calandria saying after we beat Virginia Tech, and then Virginia Tech whipped them.

That didn't go over well. But I think this team is going to be better again. Very interesting to see what happens at quarterback. If Musket is the more consistent guy, do you feel like that will win you more games than the guy who can give you that spark, but also might also throw an interception that changes everything. We're going to find out. I have a feeling there may be some

shuffling here. Virginia Tech, now that the light is on, is it time to start climbing back toward the top of the ACC? The light definitely came on mid-season last year for Virginia Tech. Now, the question is, what was the issue? I think a lot of it is Brent Key, first-time head coach. Tyler Bowen, the offensive coordinator, was first-time offensive coordinator. Now, obviously, they'd been at Virginia Tech, but I think it took them basically a season and a half to get their sea legs and figure out what it was they needed to do to make this team win. And you saw what Tyler Boney really figured out how to work with Kyron Drones, the quarterback. I just, this is a team that when I was at ACC spring meetings, coaches, the folks who really follow the ACC closely, every one of them said, watch out for Virginia Tech.

Watch out this year for Virginia Tech. The coaches who have to go play in Blacksburg are not excited about it at all. People don't want to see this team on the other side. So you look at the schedule. Manageable. Manageable. Our guy Roddy Jones thinks they might be able to win 10 games. This is a program that when they joined the ACC, they dominated.

Virginia Tech was the best team in the ACC when all that new group came in. And consistently the best. For a good period of time. And then it just, you know, things got stale. Frank Beamer retired. The Justin Fuente era was what it was. But if what we saw at the end of last season was what Brent Key can do going forward, this is a team that can be competitive in the ACC again.

I don't know if this is the year. I don't know if they're ready this year, but it's very exciting. The idea of Virginia Tech being good again is very exciting. Our final question is for Wake Forest, and it's a big picture one. Have the Demon Deacons found their way? So Dave Clason in November of last year was after a loss to NC State. And NC State was a good litmus test game over the years for Wake Forest because Clawson had done really well against Dave Doran's team over the years. They either played really tight games or Wake Forest had won them. And this time they just got blown out. And Dave Clawson got emotional after the game and said basically we've lost our way he was blaming himself he was embarrassed he said that this is not

representative and it wasn't representative of the previous nine seasons of dave clausen at wake forest so i think wake forest has figured some stuff out you know i think they got their nil situation squared away to where they could retain most of what they wanted to keep now they couldn't keep everybody but unlike the year before they really did retain most of what they wanted to keep i think with being able to pay from the athletic department money coming up, that that could be huge for Wake Forest. Because I don't think they have to be funded as well as Florida State or as well as Clemson to be competitive. I think you've seen over the years that Dave Klaassen is really good at evaluating and developing. And so if you have some money, that gap is not as wide as it is right now. Then I think you can use that edge in development and evaluation to produce a competitive team.

Will it be a team that can win the ACC title most years? No. Will it be a team that can win the ACC title? Most years, no. Will it be a team that can be competitive against everybody? Yes. Hank Bachmeier comes in from Boise State and Louisiana Tech. That was wild playing the video game as Wake Forest and seeing Hank Bachmeier because I believe that was the one where I wanted to see what the blue looked like at Boise State. And then I picked Wake Forest because I wanted to see the slow mesh and I ended up putting Hank Bachmeier back on the blue. But I am fascinated by this because again, Dave Klaassen has been one of the most consistently good coaches in college football for a decade and they just didn't look like themselves last year zach says does wake forest even have fan support it's more like a public ivy

they do have fans but remember it's also a very small school and as as zach points out it's a private school you know the the student body's not all from nearby, like they're coming from other parts of the country and then graduating and going home. It's not the same as a lot of the schools that they're playing against. And it's one of the smaller schools in the FBS. I'm talking about in terms of enrollment, but you saw over the years, what Dave Klaassen could do when he had a chance to develop offensive linemen, when they had a quarterback who'd been there a while with Sam Hartman.

They're going to get better. I don't think last year was the new normal. I just don't. I think this coaching staff is too good for that. Have the Demon Deacons found their way? TBD, but they're going to be better. And there's your ACC questions. See, just everybody at ACC Media Days, I've already given you the first question for every school. I am looking forward to if somebody does ask Dabo, is this it? I don't think that would be

a very fun answer from Dabo. I think you might get Tyler from Spartanburg on that one. Actually, wait. We missed two. That's not all of them. We missed two. There's two more. It's two teams that could compete for the title.

I don't know how I managed to skip over them because I was going in alphabetical order, but here we go. We got to do Louisville. Louisville played for the ACC title last year. My question for Louisville, how good can a fully healthy Tyler Shook be? So Tyler Shook started his career at oregon moves to texas tech never had a fully healthy season as texas tech starting quarterback now he's with jeff braum noted quarterback whisperer jeff braum tyler shook has all of the physical tools he has the size he has the arm he has the size, he has the arm, he has the speed. He can do pretty much everything when he's healthy. And I kind of wonder, you know, we saw what happened when Michael Pennix Jr. finally got to be healthy for a season

and was playing for a noted quarterback whisperer, Kalen DeBoer. Could that be Tyler Shook this season at Louisville? Could a healthy Tyler Shook make this offense hum? Because again, we have seen Jeff Brom do some pretty amazing things. We saw him come in last year, take them to the ACC championship game. I'm very interested to see what happens with Tyler Shook this year, because again, since he was a recruit, you thought, oh, this guy could be awesome if everything works out.

Unfortunately, something's gone wrong every year. So maybe this is the year. Maybe finally he gets to be healthy for a year and we get to see what he really can be. This is not an easy schedule, is the year. Maybe finally he gets to be healthy for a year, and we get to see what he really can be. This is not an easy schedule, by the way. Among the ACC schedules, this is one of the tougher ones. But they do get Miami at home. They got to go to Notre Dame. They got to go to Clemson.

Can Louisville get back to the ACC championship game? It's going to be hard. You probably have to split the Miami and Clemson games. Obviously, the Notre Dame game doesn't count for the conference championship, but you probably have to split Miami and Clemson if you want to get there. And you saw the way Miami played a very tough last year, and Miami was kind of in the dumps at that point. So, Jeff Brom, you're going to have to work your magic again.

But if you have a healthy Tyler Shook, I think you got that. You got the tools. Now, NC State. Can you carry the torch for the conference in the early season? We mentioned this when we were talking about game time earlier in the show. They got that Tennessee game in Charlotte week two. That Western Carolina week one, remember we talked about Western Carolina with Cade Bell going to Pitt as the offensive coordinator. Cole Gonzalez, their quarterback, is still there ready to light things up. So NC State, Tony Gibson, your defense probably will get a little test early on and then get to go

play Tennessee and get a big test. But that Tennessee game is a big one for the conference. Can NC State win that game? Plan a flag, say, hey, we are going to be competitive against the SEC because that's the kind of game that helps the whole league. That's the kind of game that gets a second ACC team into the playoff if NC State can win it. It's big. Christopher Jordan, Tennessee game will be huge for NC State. It's huge for the ACC because even if it's not NC State

that would benefit from that win, ultimately in the playoff race, somebody else in the ACC might. Now, I do think NC State could be the team that benefits from it. I think NC State could compete for the ACC title this year. We're going to find out with Grayson McCall coming in as their quarterback. He was hurt last year at Coastal Carolina.

He was phenomenal the previous three seasons at Coastal Carolina. The question is, was he phenomenal because Jamie Chadwell was coaching him at Coastal Carolina, and when he was playing for Tim Beck, it was a different story. We're going to find out. You've got a veteran quarterback who's played a ton of games, who's been very productive. I think that bodes well for NC State, and obviously Tony Gibson's defense is going to be good. It's good every year. So how do they handle the Vols? James Pierce coming off the edge, chasing Grayson McCall,

Nico, and that offense. This is going to be Nico's first big test as the starter. Remember, he played against Iowa in the bowl game last year and that's no easy feat, but that was a bowl game. Iowa's missing. Cooper DeGene was hurt. This will be his first really big test against a healthy team that has a very good defense. Win that game, NC State. It helps the entire league. So there are your questions for the acc

while we were on the show pete naco's dropped a story so that florida state and clemson are not expected to notify the acc of a departure for 2025 so that's one thing we were going to be we're going to be have the countdown clock on we'll be talking about this over the next month or so, but there's an August 15th deadline. We talked about it last year, heading into the August 15th deadline. If you want to withdraw from the conference, you have to give them notice by August 15th for the following year. And we've been saying this all along that we did not think that was coming this year,

that we didn't think they would withdraw and then go play somewhere else in 2025 again the lawsuits have not moved that much nobody's taken a real loss in the courtroom yet i've said all along and i still think the acc will want to settle at some point we'll not want to settle but kind of get pushed into that because there'll be a non-zero chance that they could lose at trial, depending on how these cases go. But I do think that's going to take some time. because 2026 is when the playoff could change again because the original playoff contract does end prior to 2026. It's also the year the SEC's schedules, they haven't been made for 2026 and beyond.

I think there's a reason for that. The Big 12 is obviously lurching around. They're interested. So don't expect the fireworks here in the next three weeks. The fireworks probably coming, but it may be, maybe a while, maybe six months,

nine months, a year before we really see them. But yeah, I would expect everybody who's in the league right now to be in the league in 2025. That's everybody. That's all, all 17. That's right. Cal and Stanford, Ness, if you were in the ACC this year, never going to not, it's always going to feel weird to say that. Always. But, hey, they're coming to ACC Media Days.

Can't wait. Tomorrow, Dear Andy Show. We're going to talk about what happened on day one of ACC Media Days, but we're also going to take your questions. So send me your questions. You know how to find me, Andy underscore Staples on social media, andystapleson3 at gmail.com

if you have an epic question you need to ask me, or if you want to send me a question on video, send it to that email address, andystapleson3 at gmail.com. I cannot wait. Love your questions. And then I'm headed to Indianapolis for Big Ten Media Days.

So on Tuesday, I will be talking to the teams of the Big Ten. Six per day for three days. 18 teams. Let's go. We'll talk to you tomorrow.