Andy & Ari On3 - Can Hugh Freeze calling plays make Auburn a contender RIGHT NOW? | Top QB recruit to visit Indiana?

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

Andy and Phillip Dukes are talking Auburn on a glorious spring Friday. Hugh Freeze said this week that he decided to roll with the QBs the Tigers had — including incumbent starter Payton Thorne and incoming freshman Walker White — rather than spending big on a QB in the transfer portal. Was that the correct choice, and how much will Freeze’s decision to call plays again change the course of the offense? Also, how good is freshman receiver Cam Coleman?(0:00-0:59) Intro(1:00-2:09) Phillip Dukes Joins(2:10-21:32) Auburn's Outlook(21:33-26:42) Notable Offenses(26:43-38:59) Juju Lewis Visiting Indiana(39:00-47:28) Dukes shows off his shoe collection(47:29-1:01:57) Austin Rivers comments(1:01:58-1:03:51) Wrapping Up, ConclusionJuJu Lewis, a top class of 2025 quarterback recruit from Dukes' neck of the woods is committed to USC and being pursued by Auburn, but he has scheduled a visit to Indiana. How did that happen, and what does it say about how serious new Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti is about turning around that program?The guys also discuss which teams improved their rosters the most now that the spring transfer portal window has closed. Miami kept adding players, but will those additions help the Hurricanes win more come fall?Andy and Dukes also discuss former NBA guard Austin Rivers’ comment that there were about 30 NBA players who could play in the NFL. Which is the more difficult sport? Also, which NBA stars would we have loved to see in college football?Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/ZLv0Jn1EwXo

Welcome to Andy Staples on three happy Friday. Maybe not so happy for UCLA. Yeah, the University of California Board of Regents, according to John Wilner on Thursday night, assigned some calimony. That's what we're calling it. Remember UCLA leads for the Big Ten. Cal's like, hey, wait a second. You're going to make way more money than us. That's not cool. So we're calling it. Remember UCLA leaves for the big 10. Cal's like, Hey, wait a second.

You're going to make way more money than us. That's not cool. So we're going to figure this out. 10 million a year. UCLA has to pay Cal in Calimony. That's my new favorite college football term. Calimony. 10 million bucks just for the right to be in the big 10 and not in the PAC 12.

I, uh, listen, I, I have not been divorced, do not intend to be divorced, but man, it feels messy. It just feels messy. All right. We welcome our special guest because he was with us on Monday. We got started talking about Colorado and we could not stop. But we have other things to talk about with Philip Dukes, with Dukes the Scoop. What's up, Dukes? Andy, my guy. How you doing, man? I am good.

I am very glad it's a Friday morning. I'm ready to sail into this weekend. But when we finished on Monday, I was like, I had so many more questions. Because I wanted to talk to you about Auburn. Because you came up as an Auburn guy. You went to Auburn. You came up covering Auburn.

And I had so many questions. And I was like, oh, crap. We didn't get to any of them. And so we got that. We got Juju Lewis, quarterback from Georgia, going to visit Indiana. That came out on Thursday. We got a lot to talk about.

I am just thrilled to get into it. I also thought of you this week. We haven't touched this topic this week because I've been waiting for it. What Austin Rivers said about the NBA and the NFL players, we have to talk about that too. Absolutely. For sure. All right. Let's start with the loveliest village on the plains. Because when Cody Belair and I did the SEC ceiling and floor, we kind of both agreed that Auburn is probably a little more ready to compete than I think people realize. And my thing is, the fact that Hugh Freeze retook the play calling and then they changed the rules so that Freeze can talk to the quarterback

in his helmet now, that is going to change their offense maybe even more than if they went out and got a transfer portal quarterback. Yeah, absolutely. I think with that communication being there i think you'll see like the hue freeze literally telling guys where to go whether it's paying thorne who's the starter or one of the backups he's going to tell you where to go with the ball and he's now on the perimeter they got so much better from last year when you think about bringing in a guy like cam coleman when you think about a guy like keandre lambert smith from penn state and then the guy who nobody's really talking about is robert

lewis who um came from georgia state and he's really a clone of jamari thrash who left georgia state and went to louisville uh the previous year who was going to go to auburn before he went to louisville but uh i think that what they're doing on the perimeter with Hugh Freeze being able to actually just become Geppetto and, you know, and I hate the puppet master, not to call the guy a puppet, but we'll say he's the guy pulling the strings. I think it's going to be really explosive. I think Geppetto is the right way to describe it, because like I remember when Hugh Freeze was at Liberty and he had Malik Willis, like there were moments you could see Hugh Freeze on the sideline getting Malik Willis' attention. Like one of those check with me plays where the whole offense looks back at the sideline. And Hugh Freeze would just be like pointing at a receiver,

like throw to that guy. Like imagine you can say that without everybody else on the stadium seeing you. Man, like when, so when I was at Auburn, man, there was a guy named Larry Cash that played cornerback. Funniest guy out of Mobile, Alabama. Shout out to our Kasher. Man, so he was hurt, and Auburn played Florida,

and they literally was talking about his backup. Spurrier did a sign like this to him, and it was a touchdown. They said, hey, man, you see Spurrier touch his fingers, run. And that's pretty much what I think Hugh Freeze will be doing this year. The problem with that that era since i know all the spurrier hand signals is everybody knew all the spurrier hands like when when you saw spurrier the quarterback do this you knew what it meant but it didn't matter how could you not stop it and you knew what was coming up

well the thing is at least least with Spurrier, and I think Freeze is a lot like this too, there's a special gift for these coaches who, from the sideline, can see the matrix in terms of play calling. Spurrier, he had a few audible calls that would come in. And then a lot of times the quarterback could just see it. He'd been trained and the quarterback ID that he could do it himself too. But you don't do that unless you know,

they can't stop it. So like once they, once Danny Werfel touched the top of his head or once he, or Rex, Rex Grossman did the tent, the fingers thing, it's over. It's already over. You've already lost. Hey, that's what they said. They said the fingers thing, it's over. It's already over.

You've already lost. That's what they said. They said, hey, man, you better run. It ain't no back pedal. It ain't no nothing. Run. They're going at your top. I think that's what Hugh Freeze is going to be able to do,

and I think he has the horses to do it this year. I think when you think about what they added, even in the slot game, I talked to Auburn wide receivers coach Marcus Davis, and he's really excited about what the speed and the elusiveness that they have in the slot, which they really weren't able to expose last year or kind of display, excuse me. So I think now when you see them have like a full cabinet of receivers, like a really good battery of guys, I think Peyton Thorne does improve this year.

And how big was that for Hugh Freeze to double down and say, dog, I'm not getting a million dollar quarterback. Like, it's certain things I'm not going to pay for. And I like that because I'm a guy, I'm not paying for cable. I'm not. Like, I don't care if I spend $200 in streaming services. I'm not paying for cable. It just doesn't feel right.

And I think that's what you're paying for. If you're paying for YouTube TV, you're still paying for cable. It's the same money to the same people. It's the same thing with Coach Freeze, right? Because if you – Cam Coleman wasn't cheap. I don't care what nobody say. So you're stealing it. I don't know the numbers.

I don't have any inside knowledge. But I know for a fact, if he came down to Texas A&M and Auburn, he got a bag. And he's worth every penny of what he got. And I wish I could be the guy to go renegotiate for more next year. They still pay. When you think about bringing in those transfer portal guys, he literally brought in, when you think about Cam Coleman, the same receivers I just said.

Yep. Ballparking it. brought in uh uh when you think about cam coleman the same receivers i just said yeah ball parking it you gotta be thinking it's probably it's probably about around a million dollars well and that's the thing so this has been a major topic of discussion on the show this week because of what brian kelly said and i brought in what hugh said. Everybody thinks these schools have unlimited pools of money, especially the big ones, the SEC schools, the Big Ten schools, and they'll just spend more. But you've seen examples of it, like Texas saying to Dominic Williams and LSU saying to Dominic Williams, hey, that might be a little too much for us. But Oklahoma saying, okay, we'll do it.

And then, like you said, the quarterback market. Now, I think if Dylan Gabriel had wanted to come to Auburn, Hugh Friesen would have been like, yep, that's worth it. Let's call the collective. But basically, what was left after Gabriel goes to Oregon, Will Howard goes to Ohio State, Riley Leonard goes to Notre Dame. Those areiley leonard goes to notre dame like those are the three that you probably would be willing to pay for right everybody else i just not worth the the price tag like there's probably a price where you're willing to do it but

not it not at close to seven figures which is what like matt rule was saying that's what the price was yeah and i think when you think about what hugh freeze knows about his offense and what he can get out of peyton thorne see if you look at peyton thorne when he had kenneth walker in the backfields a totally different quarterback than what you saw last year and there's a totally different offense and i think that you freeze double down on knowing that hey there's more that I can get out of this guy. Like, we weren't able to do everything because we were running a different offense. Last year, I was at the fight in Vegas, and Malik Willis, and I went to dinner with Malik Willis

and Javante Davis, Ryan Garcia fight. And I asked Malik, I said, bro, like, what is the offense going to be like? And he was like, I don't know, because it's not the same offense I ran. From that moment, I knew that there was going to be some type of hybrid offense being ran between Phillip Montgomery and Hugh Freeze, and it looked like it was more Phillip Montgomery's than it was Hugh Freeze. So I think this year, what they

sacrificed for the run concepts that Tulsa was able to provide, they'll make up for when they talk about the passing concepts and how Hugh Freeze really likes to get downfield. But his vertical attack is still based on a running game. So I think when you have guys like when you think about the running backs that Auburn has, that they weren't really able to showcase a lot last year. But this year they will. And now those spots, like it's almost like when you knew Georgia was going to play at you to the fullback.

I don't care what it was, but they ran the ball so well that when they went play action to the fullback, it was a touchdown or a 10-yard first down, whatever it was. With Auburn this year, they're going to be those plays. Like, can you imagine third and fourth this year, Payne Thorne just run the slant to Cam Coleman? Well, let's answer john's question john john very happy with the uh the phrase that he's introduced into the show vernacular on monday what does it matter how good the wide receivers are when peyton thorne is mariah carey ass like it matters one because pey Thorne, not that bad. It matters because the quarterback is better when he has better receivers and Dukes explain cam Coleman to the people,

because I like I've explained Jeremiah Smith to the people. Cam Coleman is in the same bucket here of freshman receiver who can come in and immediately make an impact? A.J. Green. He's A.J. Green all over again to me. When I talk to the DBs who are at Auburn, they're like, hey, man, he's a freak. You know, and the vernacular, like, you know, in recruiting circles in college football is we talk to coaches, they say freak show.

He is a freak show. He can do everything. He has a great 40 time. He makes the contested catches. You see the one-hander right there. And what people don't realize is he's smart, and he works really hard. He's a weight room junkie, and he's also one of the type of guys that he's not going to say a whole lot, but when he does say something, people listen, and he's going to be a guy that impacts the locker room because of how he plays

and how he carries himself. So he's one of those guys he's like he was a have to have type guy and he can raise the level of play even though he's a wide receiver he can raise the level of play across the entire offense and i think a lot of people make a lot about saying when we talk about football do you win championships because of your receivers but he's the type of guy that helps you win a championship well and that's the thing because you say but he's the type of guy that helps you win a championship. Well, and that's the thing. Cause you say,

oh, he's a freshman. What can he do? And, and then you, you're talking about the intangible stuff, the, the being able to say stuff in the locker room, he's going to be good enough right away that,

that older players are going to respect what he has to say. Like sometimes freshmen come in and talk and, and the older players like whatever, but there have been freshmen who've come in and immediately commanded the respect of the locker room. I remember when Tebow got to Florida, he's in the weight room, and he's like, they're doing the towel tug of war drill. And he's like, I want Marcus Thomas. Marcus Thomas is a defensive tackle. And the whole team's like, oh, oh, this is a real one here.

Yeah. So, man. And for the people that are listening for Auburn, the last guy that I heard that had a story like that at Auburn was K.J. Britt. K.J. Britt is a true freshman. He goes in. There's a defensive lineman in the locker room that touches on that, you know, they pat the guys on the head. Like, all right,

all right, son. All right, son. All right, son. And when they get the KJ brick, he slaps his hand away and says, bro, you are, you are not my dad. It just looks him dead in the eye. And he, and so, you know, I'm telling a little more than, than, than it's been out, but they say, they say he grabbed the choke, the guy. And from that moment on, they knew the K.J. Britt was one of those guys. And you see him doing well in the NFL, and he's a super respectful kid. But to the original point, when you're able to command respect

at a young age, that's not just for that year. That sets the momentum going forward. It sets the culture for what's to come. And I think Cam Coleman was not just a great on-field addition, but what he adds off the field is going to be amazing. Ryan in the chat. Now do Ryan Williams. I'm happy with our guy.

Ryan, not Ryan Williams, but Ryan in our chat is an Alabama fan. Yeah, I'd say both of them wound up with very good freshman wide receivers Alabama and Auburn the difference is Alabama's had them like Alabama's had a long line of them like I'm trying Dukes to remember the last time I've heard people at Auburn this excited about a receiver and I like when Duke Williams transferred from Juco that was that was – and he was very good. But I just don't feel like there's been this level of excitement. Really, I mean, since – I'm thinking back to even when I was in college, I don't remember that. I mean, the guy who had the most hype as a recruit that I can remember

was Nate Craig Myers. Had a huge amount of hype. Oh, yeah, but he didn't live up to it. And then, you know, you were talking about them in the slot and the talent they have in the slot now. Like, Anthony Schwartz would have been what was a dangerous weapon in the slot. He was maybe the fastest player in college football. But I don't feel like they ever got the most out of him.

Yeah, I mean, when you look at the type of offense, like, even when Gus Malzahn's offense was clicking on all cylinders, you still didn't get a whole lot out of wide receiver. And there wasn't the ability in that offense to really run the entire route tree. Now, they did run a lot of routes. But when you look at as far as like the post, the post corner, double moves. It was always something that was going to get you open deep after you've taken the shot. But nothing like a really progressive read type offense. So I think that that's part of the reason because Auburn has always been

so good and predicated on the run that you didn't really see that in the offense. And I think hopefully when you look at Hugh Freeze's offense and the wide receivers that he's had traditionally and historically, I think that this will be the year that Auburn kind of puts it together. And I don't think they invested so heavily in wide receivers that they don't plan to use them. Yeah, and the thing is, like, let's go back to Hugh Freeze at Ole Miss. Think about Laquan Treadwell, A DK Metcalf like Laquan didn't

end up being a good NFL receiver but but he's a great college receiver and then AJ and DK just kept on going like that's what made them so think about the because Bo Wallace and Hugh will tell you Bo Wallace was critically important to what they did at Ole Miss even after Bo Wallace left because it allowed them to run the offense and set up what they wanted to set up. But you're right. It was more what they put around the quarterback than the actual quarterback. Because you're talking about Bo Wallace and Swag Kelly. And Swag Kelly's still tearing it up in the CFL, but he wasn't an NFL first-round quarterback, yet their offense terrified everybody.

Yeah, and I think just understanding, I think those are great comparisons because I think Peyton Thorne can be that for Auburn. What I saw out of Peyton Thorne last year was a lot of uncertainty. There were some panic situations, and there were some things where he, where it just looked like,

you know, this doesn't feel right. And a lot of times when you see quarterbacks hold on to the ball, it doesn't feel right. When you go play, pick up a basketball and you turn the ball over is usually because you're in an unfamiliar situation. And I think it's the same thing where you're the trigger man playing quarterback.

When you're in an unfamiliar situation, you see a look that you don't like. You don't have a receiver that's getting as open as you would like them to then you kind of hold on to the ball and people start to kind of judge who you are as a quarterback based on your circumstances so now we get to see a real test of we really got a piece of litmus paper to say is peyton thorne a serviceable SEC quarterback? And we'll learn that this year. And it also felt like they were better when they baked a little bit of Peyton Thorne running into the game plan. And it felt like that was kind of a week-to-week thing. And like you said, it was clearly Philip Montgomery's offense.

We've heard Hugh Freeze talk about it since then, where he said he tried to get more involved, but he didn't want to be too heavy-handed because it wasn't his terminology it wasn't his stuff now it is his stuff and all right i'm gonna ask you this as a guy who went to auburn who's followed auburn very closely what is it about auburn that makes people who are really good at calling plays go no no i'm not gonna call plays anymore even though it's the thing I'm best at. I think it's the pressure of recruiting. I think it's understanding that how much it takes in order to be a successful play caller. I think it takes you away from the recruiting process. And I think that when you're recruiting against Georgia and Alabama every year, your two main rivals are those

guys. You got are those guys. You got to get guys. And I'm always going to be a Jimmy's and Joe's guy. And I think they are too. They're like, hey, look, you know, offense is cool, but I can get somebody to do that. If I have the guys, it won't matter if I'm calling it. And I think Hugh Freeze gambled on that last year.

And then when you bring in a guy who's highly respected, like Phillip Montgomery, who had a long tenure at Tulsa, you don't step – like there's a respect factor that you don't step on a guy on the shoes of a guy who's highly respected like Phillip Montgomery, who had a long tenure at Tulsa, you don't step – there's a respect factor that you don't step on the shoes of a guy like that. He's got his offense, yeah. Yeah, you don't do that. So I think when you bring in those high-level guys – now, with Gus Malzahn, I just think he was just married to it.

He was like, hey, I don't care. Any offensive coordinator he had was basically just like a clipboard holder and I think what was really telling about that was when you saw Rhett Lashley go to Connecticut to be as a lateral move from Auburn to Connecticut

it kind of showed you and told you what was going on behind the scenes and I love Gus Malzahn a lot of people like to give me flack about it because I really like it because what I liked about Gus was when he got you, he got you. And he was going to take a sledgehammer to the end. B to A, belt to A double S.

That's where he was going when he got you. And I think the only... And there's a lot of Hugh Freeze and I think they're friends because they have a lot of similarities. Okay, Andy, I got one for you. I'm not sure if you saw. I saw you at the Senior Bowl, right not sure there was a i saw you at the senior bowl right and there was a coach from new mexico state he was a defensive coach there i don't know his

name but he was so cool we talked for a while and he talked about having auburn's number or having he freezes number because i think they i think they played them the year before when they were well they beat them last year New Mexico State beat the hell out of Auburn last year yep and the year before I think they beat them at Liberty too when Liberty was having a great yeah and and I think that um when you have there are certain triggers and offenses that if one of those valves goes bad, then it's a bad day all around. And so I think if Hugh Freeze can figure out how to patch that flat, so to speak,

I think it's going to be like a really good year. But I think, as we'll say about Auburn coaches, they always have this valve. And if something isn't working, then they have a horrible offensive day. And so we'll see if that can change this year. Yeah, the thing with Freeze, though, is his offense scared Saban. Then they have a horrible offensive day. And so we'll see if that can change this year. Yeah. The thing with Freeze, though, is like his offense scared Saban. Like we haven't like Kiffin's offense, which is right now is actually closer to what Philip Montgomery ran because Kiffin's offense is based on the old Bryles Baylor offense. But that offense didn't scare Saban, didn't scare Kirby. As we've talked about, they've played it a bunch of times. Heupel beating Saban two years ago is the only time that it's beaten them. But Hugh Freeze beat Saban twice at Ole Miss.

Like this offense freaks Saban out. And that's where it's different. That's where I think it's really interesting. Because now you're back to that. You I think it's really interesting because now you're back to that. You're doing it with the level of talent you have at Auburn, but yeah, you're right. There are certain offenses. Like I go back to like when Mike Leach was at Washington state and those offenses were so good, but Jimmy Lake was the DC at Washington and they could never do anything against Washington. Like Jimmy Lake shut them down every time.

Yeah, I mean, and I always reference pickup basketball because I think it's really relatable because anybody can go grab a basketball and go hoop. So there are certain guys that you play like, so I'm a 5, 8-point guard and I'm kind of stocky, right? There are going to be guys that just give me problems just because they do. So if I see a longer guy, a longer, really quick guy,

6'1", long arms, he's going to give me issues. I don't care how many crossovers I got. I don't care if my jump shot is working that day. I'm going to have problems with that guy because his style of play is going to bother me regardless of what court we play on. And I think it's the same thing when it comes to football.

Like boxing, styles make fights, right? Roy Jones could is going to bother me regardless of what court we play on. And I think it's the same thing when it comes to football. Like boxing, styles make fights, right? Oh, yeah. Roy Jones could not. Roy Jones was beating the hell out of everybody in the world. But Antonio Tarver, if he saw him, it was like he owed him money. And I think it's the same thing when it comes to college football and his offenses. But I think that's what makes the game great is because, like,

you can scare Nick Saban, but New Mexico State is licking their chops that's crazy it is unbelievable and that's why you try to do what Georgia does where you can be a lot of different things you can beat people a lot of different ways because you just have better players and look if you want to take away our deep shots that's cool. We'll just run it right down your throat. Alabama can do that too. Ohio State can do that. That's the ultimate.

That's the goal. That's what you're trying to get to that level of talent, but it's hard to do. There aren't many schools that can do that. I also get excited when I see these offenses that were designed to be run with a talent deficit when they're run with the most because like that was the thing when urban meyer came to florida from utah like everybody's like well you're not gonna be able to run that offense in the sec and i'm like but he's gonna have sec

players running it so what's is it gonna look different or when saban went up tempo like when he's like fine if we're gonna do this to do this, I'm going to do this. It was a totally different world. When Paul Johnson went to the ACC, nobody thought that he was going to be able to do that coming out of Georgia Southern and going to Navy and then going to Tech.

He had Tech players running that same offense. Did he spoil some of the careers of some great wide receivers? Possibly. But man, was Georgia Tech fun to watch offense and yeah he met did he spoil some of the careers of some great wide receivers possibly but man was jordan take a fun to watch when they got it rolling and the thing is like when you play the triple option like you always talk about like reading your keys if you don't understand your keys you're gonna lose that game but with the athleticism that the sec and acc uh defenses have when you do play your keys if you have it up here you're going to be able to stop that offense but oh there was dukes there was a a bowl game i think it was a peach bowl

yeah the paul johnson georgia tech team played lsu lights out because it yeah the triple option is great until everybody hits the hits the dive man hits the quarterback hits the pitch man and hits the quarterback, hits the pitch man. And LSU had a D tackle who was throwing one of Georgia Tech's guards into the mesh between the quarterback and the dive man. Every play, it was a bloodbath. Bro, you know who was like the best triple option quarterback I saw in high school? Who's that? Matt Harper.

Matt Harper. Harper oh that dude we got well this is a preview of a discussion we're gonna have we gotta talk a little recruiting but we're gonna talk about what Austin Rivers said about how many NBA players play the NFL Matt Harper so for those who don't remember Matt Harper wound up being one of those sharpshooters in the nba who would set up in the corner and just nail threes all day yep yeah matt harper was so cold man he played at high school uh they're famous for the triple option lee torrence uh i played middle school ball in the same place so i was always looking at uh what mares was doing and uh man when you

saw that big tall guy out there running it man you could not stop once he got started so yeah I think I'll save a little bit of that for when we get to that part of the discussion oh yeah no but yeah when you got the when you got the right guy running the triple like our our high school rival which beat the hell out of us every year Lake Brantley High School uh they had a guy named Dee Brown who was their quarterback when when I was playing Dee played like eight years in the NFL as a running back. And you couldn't do anything to that. There's nothing. We were helpless. And we had decent players, but helpless against that guy. So you're exactly right. All right. Speaking of quarterbacks and being the right guy and being

the guy for the program, this is a really interesting situation in your neck of the woods so juju lewis class of 2025 quarterback i believe the on the in the on three industry rankings he's the number two quarterback in the 25 class behind bryce underwood who's going to lsu so juju's been committed to to usc since last august but i've got i mean everybody you talk to you get the sense that not even USC is confident he's going to wind up at USC. He's looking at a bunch of different places. He's now set an official visit for Indiana. Indiana.

Yeah. So how does that come to pass? So the first college coach to kind of identify Jju was a guy named uh tino sanceri yep he was an analyst at alabama and he identified juju when he was like eight years old and uh juju what people don't realize about him is even though like he's like a trained assassin when it comes to being a quarterback like he's always been trained to be the guy. He really makes meaningful relationships, especially in those formative years. So he never forgot the attention that Tino was able to show him. And so if I think that wherever Tino was going to go,

that's where he was going to be. And he just happened to go to Indiana. And this is something people haven't been talking about with Indiana. And when it comes to NIL, follow the basketball money because if you got money in basketball, even if it may not be a traditional football school, you can find the money for the right people. You see it happen at Arkansas. You see it happen at Kentucky, and it's going to happen at Indiana because Indiana has basketball money for sure.

Now, for the type of guy like Julian Lewis, they will find the money for Julian Lewis. And I think Cignetti is one of those guys. He ain't playing, bro. Like so Cignetti is that we had him on the show when he was at James Madison last year. And you're like, this dude does not mess around. And he got there. And I remember because he's at the he's at the basketball game talking to the crowd. And you're like, OK, he's going to he's going to talk some crap about Purdue. And then then we'll all go home. He's even at Ohio State. He ain't talking about Purdue.

Now, I think even though I think this official visit is big because I talk to college coaches all the time. And sometimes you have a measured amount of official visits to use every year. And now you got to use it for the transfer portal as well. So you never let a guy come on campus. And what they call in recruiting circles is practicing. If it's a guy that you know that you can't get, you don't do that. It's like, nah, bro, like I'm not going to practice on this guy. They ain't practicing.

I think CNN really understands like what they have going on. It's like, dog, if they didn't think – I don't think Julian Lewis takes this visit unless he told them they have a real shot at getting him. And I think he's the type of guy, his dad, T.C., like, they're trendsetters. Like, even back in the day, like, some of the training that Juju was doing, the amount of time that they put into him, it was for this moment for him to be a transformative type player.

And could you imagine Juju in that offense, though? Come on. Oh, yeah. Well, and that's the thing. Jordan McLeod was the quarterback in that offense. We actually talked about Jordan McLeod yesterday. Jordan's going to be at Texas State this year. But Jordan McLeod was the offensive player of the year in the Sun Belt

in that James Madison offense. Throw that picture back up there, River. So this is a photo of, I believe-year-old juju lewis at florida state with a very young tino sanseri so here's how the family tree goes uh sal sanseri longtime assistant coach worked with nick saban in alabama worked jimbo fisher at florida state tino his son played quarterback at pit and went into coaching. Vinny, his other son, played safety at Alabama and is now a DB's coach at Washington. So that's where all that tree comes from. But that is a picture of Tino Senseri with Juju Lewis at eight years old. So

yeah, the relationship is definitely there. Steve Wiltfong published that picture yesterday. And so here's my question to you, Dukes, because we had this discussion on the show yesterday, and I'm curious about this too, because we were talking about when they change the way athletes get paid from this current NIL structure to it coming from the schools? Like, will it drop coaches salaries? And I said, you know, the really good head coaches, it's not going to change their salaries at all, but it might change kind of the replacement level guys for assistance. I think the guys that are in danger of getting a pay cut are the assistants who are, who are deemed quote unquote, good recruiters because they were either bag men or bag man adjacent.

But I still think like when all the money's kind of equal at different places, the relationships like that matter. So I still think the assistants who can develop those relationships are going to be valuable. Yeah, I think the money's going to come from the off-field staff once they realize what's really important. How do you get a guy? Is it the guy who you're going to talk to in the office or the guy you're going to talk to on the field? And I think that makes a huge difference when a guy who actually understands the office can tell you what you're doing wrong, can identify what you're doing in high school and how that really plays into what you'll be doing in college.

The guys who have those off the field, like you look at what Texas and no one just did when they let go of like they let go of a equipment guy. I think he had been there 30 years. Like a lot of the administrative features that go along with running a top tier program. I think they're going to start trimming there early. And I think you'll just see that trickle down to the field.

But like you said, I think you cannot replace those relationships because without that relationship julian lewis ain't going to indiana without that relationship he's not even going there for like to go see universal circus i don't care who's in town he wouldn't be going and so now when you see the power of relationships you have to take that into consideration when you think about the salaries and where to put your money when it comes to kind of structuring out the new structure of how people will be paid. That's exactly. I brought this up yesterday because we were talking about off field staff. And so when Billy Napier got to Florida, he vastly expanded for his off field staff.

Now, this NIL six months old at this point, nobody's really sure how it's going to work. So he tries to do just what Alabama did and just what Georgia did. If you had put all the money for the salaries of those people into just a pool to pay players, Florida have a much better team right now. Yeah, absolutely, man. Like I've got so many people on like in the off field. I don't like they got like two or three general managers like i don't know who does what and i know a lot of those guys and i think they really do a really good job but they're all really specifically segmented for what portion of the operation they run and i just think that um you know in the nil era you can afford to do that now

because you have to have specific people because nobody knows, like, we're still in the infancy stages when you think about the total landscape of college football. NIL's only been here for a couple of years, though. Like, it's not like, you know, and we talk about it as if it's been a longstanding establishment in college football, but it's still brand new. So you had to throw more resources off the field in order to try to help navigate the landscape. So as more and more of that,

but the good thing about that is guys are going to be able to same way that college coaches are going upward and downward when the, or it could be a lateral move where you talk about NFL, when you have more opportunities, I think that's the good part is they're getting that type of experience. So if you do have off field guys, those roles do translate well to NFL as well. Well, yeah. And that's, they're going to be different off field roles.

Like I think we're seeing it now. There's a few college football teams that have a quote unquote capologist, but nobody's officially titling that person that they're just, this is the person who manages the NIL, manages that spreadsheet. The NFL absolutely has people who do that. Like, here's how our money's designed to flow out over the next five years. We're going to lose this guy, this guy, this guy. Here's how much we can afford. Here's who's going to be available. Here's who we should be looking looking at like that sort of thing is going to come mainstream in college football probably the next year or two yeah and i think uh evaluation is going to be huge you're going to see more money thrown in

the scouting because you cannot afford to miss with the money i think it's the same way that the nfl puts a premium on scouting you're going to see that follow you're going to see that translate to college football as well because now you've got so many guys, you can recruit more than you need, the rosters are a little larger, there's a lot of stuff you can do. When the money starts coming out, anytime you put a price tag

behind somebody and you know what they're getting, the production has to be there. I think people are going to hold these guys to an even higher standard when you know what they're getting. And it's directly, like, even now, there's like a veil of mystery about what people are actually getting.

When it becomes public knowledge, what are guys getting? Like, hey, you're talking about an 18, 19-year-old. Why'd you give them that money? And fan is short for fanatic. And there is not one more fanatical sport in the world, probably outside of soccer and college football. They are absolutely insane. And I think it's going to get crazy.

Well, and that's the thing. Because the NFL, they don't have to release the numbers, the salary numbers. The agents, the players, and the teams don't have to. This is a private business. It seems like they've all agreed that they're going to leak all this stuff and it's just it works better for for them to to have it out in the open i imagine because a lot of these are the same type of people it's the same agents that represent a lot of the best college players like we're probably going to see that like us learning what damian martinez was

going to make at oregon state is the tip of the iceberg like it's going to it's going to be more public knowledge and okay well let's get back to the original juju lewis conversation so he has an official visit scheduled to indiana he's going to do it on the usc where he's been committed he's also looking at auburn and also looking at colorado where do you think he winds up man a lot man for whatever reason i think it's gonna be either auburn colorado to be honest like uh and i think it's gonna come down to the best fit um i was talking to some guys and they were like you know julian has a aura about himself and right now his nil evaluation his nil evaluation on on three uh nil the tool they use it's like it's a million dollars right now nobody else has it uh he's just a special guy he i think he already has some ties

um with agents already like he's a big time prospect not just i mean he he literally has a deal with tra Scott already, though. Like, he's different. And what – I think it's going to be fit. Like, what program can take that type of personality on the way in, or that type of – the aura that goes along with him, that type of glow? Who is set up to bring in a type of guy like that and able to handle the media coverage,

able to handle the locker room experience when you bring in a guy who has all this fanfare about himself. So that's why I think outside one of the intangible reasons that I think Colorado has a real shot at him is because they're structured to take that type of media. And Deion is a guy who can actually say, hey, this is how you deal with this. When they start doing this, you move this way.

Hey, don't let the camera see you doing this. And I don't think anybody else will have that type of experience. But I also think being close to home, Auburn with the cashier receivers that they have and wanting to play winning football, I think they're going to be really attractive to them too. So that's just my prediction. And I think he could end up at USC. You never know.

Like, USC is nothing like that. I never thought they were going to get Jordan Addison that year until they got him. So you just never know with USC. Well, as someone who's never, ever won the draw for Travis Scott Jordans, I do want to see some Cactus Jack cleats. Like, with that reverse swoosh. You got to go to USC or Colorado for that. You can gotta go to usc or colorado for that you can't you can't go to auburn they're under armor so but yeah that's that that would be that would be something i had because they make the jordan one cleats now like though you can get those those are those are easy to find i gotta tell you something all right so we're talking about classic shoes right right right so if you go on ebay and this is for

everybody who loves to the shoes if you buy shoes older than 10 years old they literally explode this is one of the most exclusive nikes in the world bro do you remember air raids oh hell yeah i had those so i had the black ones. Remember the Charles Barkley commercial with the all black? So that's what I wore my entire freshman year of high school. I was like coming to school in work boots. So they only made 200 pair of this colorway, right? In 2004.

Philadelphia Phillies. This is sweet, right? Oh, yeah. I'm at one of the biggest football games in the state of georgia on the sideline and my shoe explodes oh no yeah man like like i paid and they were a 2004 edit i mean so um i paid a lot of money on ebay for them i'm like oh my god these are killing everybody's like going crazy like dude's where you get those? Where you get those? And so for anybody else, if you buy those type of shoes and you want to get that nostalgia, they're not for your feet. They're for the show.

They are. Oh, Marco in the chat reminds me. Auburn is going to Nike. That's right. We don't have to worry about that. So, yeah. Can you imagine what they're going to do with the Bo Jackson's and the Barkley's? Oh, the Air Trainer SC.

I had them. I had them in the Auburn colors. Man, bro. I got two pairs sitting in here right now, and I probably got the sweetest pair. Oh, man, I wish I could get them, bro. I got the New York All-Star game from 2013, Bo Jackson's, where they say Bo Jackson at the bottom. They're with an ice bottom.

They're so crazy. And the only pair doper than that would either be the original Air Trainer SC with the 34 on the back on the rainbows colors, or the broken bats with the digitized Bo Jackson breaking a bat over his knee. They're so cold, bro. They are amazing. So I had the originals, which were Auburn colors

with the gray new buck around the side. I begged, begged, begged my mom for those shoes. Those were my favorite. That pair and then the air flights, the all gray new buck air flights that the Jim Jackson,

Lawrence Funderburk, Ohio state teams were, which I, so I host a radio show with Jim Jackson one time. And I mentioned that those were, were my favorite basketball shoes growing up. And he goes, uh,

he goes, we hated those shoes. We lost every time. Man, I got, okay. I mean, man,

can I get you one crazy pair of shoes i got one yeah i'll talk while you go get the shoes listen i didn't know this was going to evolve into into sneakerhead discussion but that's all right that this is this is where we go with dukes because this is actually a good preview for we're going to talk about because we are going to talk about what austin rivers said he said he thinks 30 nba players could play in the nfl right now and we've got ant-man youth football highlights to show you we've got some alan iverson high school highlights to show you i'm fascinated about this discussion all right dukes is back what we got dukes all right so my favorite football player outside of bo jackson was barry sanders the original arizona turf's right crazy yep okay boom and here go the boat here go the

jackson's i was telling you about bro all-star game oh that's gorgeous at the bottom bro how crazy are those so those arizona turfs i was talking about this with somebody the other day so when i was a freshman at florida you land in new orleans for the sugar bowl and you know at the time you're playing on grass you don't have a practice you know indoor practice facility there's no turf on campus so all we'd ever practice on is grass the only turf stadium that you played in the sec at that time was vanderbilt so they didn't have like especially me who wasn't on the travel team because i was a freshman like we didn't all have turf shoes so they gave us new turf shoes and it was those air zoom turfs oh wow when we got to new orleans so we could practice at the superdome right when we got off the plane. So we get off the plane, bus takes us to Superdome. Those are in our lockers.

And so I put mine on and I'm like, I'm feeling good. And now, as you just picked one of those pairs up, they're heavy as hell. Like they never do that now. But I thought I looked like a million bucks. And the thing was, like a i'm a red shirting freshman i'm a scout team guy i'm not playing in the game so when practice ends i'm like okay we're practicing saints facility the rest of the week right so i'll be i'll be in my cleats so i'm taking these with i'm taking these with i'm gonna walk around new orleans in these all week so

we get to the we get to the part where they give you the per diem like when we get to the hotel which i didn't know about like i didn't know they were just gonna hand me a envelope full of cash like i was like oh this is legal okay cool because they they hand it's for you know buying it's it's for buying meals when you're when you're on the on the trip and so teammates that are going out to ruth's chris they're all trying to to get hooked up i'm like i i'm broke books for my spring semester so i'm gonna keep most of this money right so i eat every meal that wasn't served to us i ate every meal at the popeyes on canal street because eight bucks go here's the problem with those shoes and popeyes so if you can grab those

grab those turf shoes and show the sole to the camera show yeah so the bottom of the skull so see these little these little nubbins, these little dots there? Those are designed to grip old astroturf, like the old astroturf that was basically concrete. Yeah, that's a good shot right there. Do not walk into a Popeye's where the floor is covered in grease in those shoes. You see the cartoons where the guy steps on a banana peel?

That was me. Oh, man. Golly. Damn, Andy. Feet in the air, huh? I'm crying. Listen, listen. I played it off.

I played it off. I know you did. I was like, I'm going to need a four-piece. Extra biscuits. Bro, hey, have you ever been to Copeland's in Atlanta? No. So, you know, like the guy who created Popeye's created like a New Orleans cuisine, like sit-down. Copeland's, the sit-down.

Yes, I have been to a Copeland's, but we're not the one in Atlanta. Did you know they were trained people from Popeye's? I did not know that. Yeah, dog. So, man, when you go there and you order the chicken at Copeland's, they give you half a chicken. It's like half of a – it's like the most premium Popeye's you've ever had. You've got to try it, man. Okay.

Well, I realize we're off topic here, but I'm going to throw one more thing at everybody. This is a secret. This is a hack. The real ones know this. Okay. If you go to Joe's Stone Crab in Miami. Okay. So Joe's Stone Crab on Miami Beach, one of the most famous restaurants in Miami.

You're not getting out of there for less than like 200 bucks if you're ordering crab. Right. There's fried chicken on the menu. What? It's like eight bucks it is some of the best fried chicken you will ever eat and the reason they do that is the original the founder wanted it to be a restaurant where everybody could go he wanted something on the menu that everybody could could afford to order the thing is though it is some of the best fried chicken you will ever eat in your life.

It is worth every penny. So by all means, if you're going to Joe's Stone Crab and you're going to do it up, get the crabs, get some drinks, but get some fried chicken too. Man, I'm going.

I'm 1,000% going. Oh, you have to. I want to see the picture of you in the bib, like cracking claws. So, all right. We have one more thing to talk about because this is one I was holding for when I got to talk to you because I saw this statement, and I was like, oh, my God. I can take 30 players right now from the NBA and throw them in the NFL.

You can't take 30 NFL players and put them in the NBA. That is Austin Rivers, son of Doc, former NBA guard, played at Duke. You probably dislike him because of that. Okay. A couple of things. You cannot put 30 players from the NBA in the NFL right now. Not happening. But you also couldn't put that many NFL players in the NBA. I'm with Austin Rivers in that the NBA is the hardest league to get a spot in, that it requires the most specific level of skill, that basically the good NBA players right now are aliens, absolute aliens. Yeah.

But think about this. Think about putting like Luka or just basically any good NBA player on a football field and telling him go block the average NFL outside linebacker. It's so much nuance and technique in the game now like like right now like like people like probably see like um if you follow me on twitter you saw i posted a picture of my son the other day like running the slant like he's got like the way they do things now in the in it like in in football not even just nfl like even to go d1 the level of technique that goes along with it it's not just go get a football. I used to always say that baseball players were bred, not born,

because it was such an expensive sport. And the skill. Yeah, the skill. You could be a rep guy and do it. Now you have to have the talent and be a rep guy. In the NBA, I just think that the way he posed it was a little bit disrespectful by just being able to say how he did it. But the reason I think there's some validity to what he said is because the amount of sheer slots on a roster.

Let's just take an NFL Active Sunday roster. You got 53 slots. Okay, cool. That's 53 chances for 53 different body types. In the NBA, it is a quarter of that. So you have to damn near win the genetic lottery to go to the NBA in some type of way. Exactly. And that's the thing, especially this NBA.

I think Julius Peppers, who played basketball and football at North Carolina, Julius Peppers probably could have played power forward in the 90s early 2000s nba he would have fit in fine he wouldn't now because you have to be 610 you have to be able to make threes you have to be able to handle like that's the part that amazes me the most about the current nba players dukes is like so there's that kid at your school who you saw who never was without a basketball. Like he was like from the age of three on, you never saw him without a basketball. His handles were incredible, but he was probably like five, eight. Like the problem now with the NBA and the barrier to entry is there are seven footers whose handles are better than

that kids. that, kids. Yeah, absolutely. Like, what are you going to do? Like, there's nothing you can really do with a guy that tall. And, like, so I saw Wimby last year at Summer League in his first game. And one of my buddies got me some floor seats. So I'm sitting next to guys, like, who play with the Spurs. Because that's kind of the thing to do is you go check out the young guys. And they were just talking about how freakish he was.

Like, they're like, bro, like, he don't want to shoot the ball. But if they make – like, they were like, shoot it. You've got to shoot it. But all they kept talking about was that everything that he could do with a basketball was something that you had never seen before. Seeing this guy up close and personal, he's an alien, bro, like a real live alien. Like, there are guys – like, Ant-Man. Ant-Man is an alien, bro. A real live alien. There are guys like Ant-Man.

Ant-Man is an alien. Speaking of Ant-Man, let's watch Ant-Man playing football. Here is Ant-Man at 11 years old. This video was posted by Ant-Man himself when he was 11. These are his highlights with the Atlanta Vikings Pop Warner team. This dude could play. Like, can you imagine? Now, Ant-Man's only 6'4",

so, like, he would physically fit in somewhere on the football field. Like, can you imagine if Ant-Man had walked out when he was at Georgia to Kirby Smart and been like,

find somewhere for me? Man, look, and, you know, a lot of people say, well, he'll be a wide receiver. That man could be a running back, bro. He really – think about this. Look at his – He could be Eddie George. Bro, he could – I say Brandon Jacobs.

Like, he's like – he really has that type of frame. Like, if he did football training, he could wear 245 pounds easily in that frame, dog. And he's still a baby. Like, when you look at his – like, he has real, live, outer-worldly athleticism. And it's not just Pop Warner. Man, his freshman year before he stopped playing football at Therrell High School in Atlanta.

And Therrell's not – like, you know, they're one of those inner-city schools where the suburban schools always go poach there. It's like when you get the inner-city kids that can go out. Even where I'm from, the south side, you'll go get kids from that part of Atlanta. Ant was that kid. And what a lot of people may not know, the Atlanta Vikings is what birthed the Atlanta Ducks, which is pretty much the most winning

Little League football team. And it almost, I don't know in the nation, but definitely in Georgia. The program through three age groups had 30 D1 players in the last two years. So Ant-Man was really that guy. Well, and Ant-Man, so he's 6'4", his wingspan's 6'9". And you mentioned he could carry 245. If he could carry like 250 255 can you imagine him coming off the edge come on dog and he's nasty like yeah and he's got he's

got that mean streak like now anybody if i had to take one guy okay let's do this and you draft let's draft three players from the nba to the nfl okay are Okay. I got a former NBA player I got video of. I'll show you right now. This is my number one pick. This is the guy I'm sure would have been able to make it in the NFL if he had gone that way. So let me show you this guy. Let's see if you can guess who this is.

I don't know if he's returning interception or a punt here for a touchdown, but here's the play where I'm like, oh, this guy would have been just fine. All right, here we go. Boom. That's Allen Iverson. That's Allen Iverson playing safety. Yeah, honorary college park guy, man. For real, Bubba Chuck, he very well know where I'm from.

Man, as soon as you see it, I say, oh, yeah, that's Bubba guy, man. Like, for real, Bubba Chuck, he very well know where I'm from. Man, as soon as you see it, I say, I say, oh, yeah, that's Bubba Chuck, dog. Like, he watched this because he was really like the guy that everybody wanted to be like. And, yeah, he could, like, if you mean to tell me you don't think Allen Iverson could have played corner or slack guy,

you see, he's very physical. Even the way he played in the NBA, it shows you what he could have been. I think Draymond Green could have, like, I think he played in the NFL. Like, I know he played a little bit in the Michigan State. The question is, I think Draymond is a defensive guy in football. I don't think he's, like, the assumption is because the body type, he's a tight end.

I think you put him on D because of the mindset. The AI thing, like, and I a a player who was a really good college football player and a well a great college football player good a very good nfl player too text me when i said i thought ai would be an all pro and the guy's like no no no you gotta be you remember ronald curry he looked like a million bucks but i'm like the thing that made ai one of the best 50 nba players ever is the thing that would have made him a pretty good football player regardless. Like the mindset, the mentality. And the guy's like, no, we talk about practice.

And I'm like, I will die on this hill. Like AI would have made it in the NFL. And I think for a body type like AI, there were always guys like that who just were able to take a pound and it never the NFL. And I think for a body type like A.I., there were always guys like that who just were able to take a pound and it never got hurt. One guy he reminded me of is kind of like Ward Dunn. If you notice, like, Ward Dunn knew how to get hit. You never, like, as much as he

ran between the tackles at his size, you would think that he would have had a very, very short career. But he made a career of knowing how to get down, knowing, like, it's a very uncanny and innate ability to be able to protect yourself on the football field. And I think Al Iverson had it like, and he just saw him literally like,

no, you don't go deep cleat and plant guys without being a football guy. And I don't care what nobody said. I'm a down. Oh yeah. All right. So who's, who's the one,

or you, you said you were going to pick three. Who would you pick from the NBA today or past that you'd love to see playing either college football or the NFL? I would love to see Russell Westbrook. Love it. Oh, yeah. If you imagine him coming downhill, sticking somebody, bro, like,

I would love to see – I think his athleticism, sticking somebody, bro. Like, Agap, bro, I would love to see. I think his athleticism, the speed. He's a very explosive athlete. And I think that's one of the things that we always talk about, explosion. And why does the vertical matter in the NFL? But it's just an explosion test because, as you know, Andy, like impact comes from your hips. And if you have that explosion, if you're able to create that within yourself,

almost like you're your own bungee cord from the middle of your body, then you're usually one of those impact-type football players. And I think Russell Westbrook has it in spades. I would love to see him play safety. Here's what else I'd love to see him play. Triple option quarterback. Think about all the times you saw Russell Westbrook dribbling full speed from, you know, getting through center court, getting to the top of the key.

And he's looking in multiple directions to see, am I going to take this? Am I going to dish this off? Like it is a triple option quarterback. That is the decision-making process. And he played it as physically as a triple option quarterback would play it like that is perfect that is he wasn't on my list but he's perfect like perfect man let's see i'm trying to think of ant-man would be like we said, and you could do a couple different things with Ant-Man. Like you could make Ant-Man a tight end. You could make Ant-Man an edge rusher because he's a dog.

Yeah. Man, could you imagine Ant-Man being a Mike patrol in the middle of the field, 6'4"? At 245? Come on, man. And flying everywhere he goes with bad intentions and picking up the tight end where you don't have to stop you don't have to bring the safety down i got the tight end don't even worry about it now i i do want to like let's go back to to our image though of you know some of these dudes that that like to to be very dramatic and i i i'll put i'll single this guy out because I watched him last night, Luca.

And Luca played great last night. But can you imagine if you had Luca at tight end and you told him to go block, like go crack down on a D end? Luca would get splattered trying to crack on a D end. Like, hey, man, look, we need you to chip for Chris Jones. You're right, bro. Like, yeah. So I get – and let me tell you something the nfl guys are so mad that just tells you how it tells you how aggressive they are they are mad mad bro and they're all like i i was really kind of scared

about saying it the way i said it because i'm like bro i don't want nobody to get on me today but no man like i i mean, there is a certain ilk of player that you have to have or you have to be. There's this class of player in the NBA that could do it. Every one of them, every guy that we name is a dog and you see their aggression and there's a certain

level of that that you have to have. And I kind of get what they're saying because now we always talk about how soft the NBA is now, right? All the flopping and everybody wants to shoot threes and you foul somebody they go flying if you slap them on the arm like that's not football so i think there's a very few now i'm not saying that they can't like what the hell would be gonna do on the football field though no no but wimby's the example of when you get those mad n players, like what are you talking about? Austin rivers?

Like just let them see Wimby in person. They're going to be like, Oh, nevermind. I can go back to that. Look at that, bro. Like when you talk about a real life Avenger, did you see his, like watch his arm coming up here? But he looks like fantastic four. He looks like plastic man.

Watch the one picture we just showed he's he's shooting over nicola yokich nicola yokich is 610 bro what exactly bro that is crazy man it's it's unbelievable and he is a real life superhero but But I just love, this is the perfect May topic for me. I love it. I'll give it before we go. We got to run. But I'll give everybody one more. You'll appreciate it because you're as old as me.

Blast from the past. If you don't know who this person is, I want you to look him up on YouTube. Charles Oakley in a Calais Campbell role. Ooh. Oh, Oak would be so cold, bro. Oak's scary. Man, God bless him. Last one.

Anthony Mason? Mace? Was he not a football player already he was i i saw him in summer league toward the end of his career like i was interning at the paper in atlanta in 99 and he was playing summer league i think for the hornets at that point and this was this was when jason terry was a rookie and baron davis was a rookie and anthony mace is old guy, just, just trying to make a roster at that point. And what you looked at him and you were like, Nope,

not, not, not driving on him. Not going. Nope. Oh, Dukes. This has been a pleasure.

The, the memory that the shoe memory lane was tremendous. And now, but see, now I'm, I'm going to handicap Juju Lewis's recruitment purely by shoes. So I think I don't know if I'm overstating that. So but but that's how I'm going to do it from now on. Sure. Yeah, absolutely.

Man, next time you come on, I'm going to have some I'm going to have some real crazy for you. Hey, dude, you got those. I got that. This is my thing. I love you. So now every time I come on, I'm so some different have something real crazy for you. You're going to be like, dang, dude, you got those? I got that. This is my thing. I love shoes. So, no, every time I come on, I'm going to show something different, something real crazy. I appreciate it. Now, I try to talk my son into Jordan 11 cleats for this football season. Yeah, he ain't going.

He's like, nah, patent leather is too flashy. Can't do it. I love it, though, man, because, man, Andy, do you remember how we used to dream about stuff like that? Like the East Bay Magazine? Like, man, what if we could put clicks on those? Like, we always dreamed about stuff like this. And these guys just have it.

It's crazy. Our kids do not understand how lucky they are. No clue. At all. No clue. Dukes, it's been a pleasure. Enjoy your weekend. We'll talk to you soon.

All right. Love, bro. Thank you. Everybody. dukes it's been a pleasure enjoy your weekend we'll talk to you soon all right love bro thank you everybody what a hell of a week it just gets better though we got more coming cody blair's back monday ceiling and floor for every big 10 team in 2024 that right, all 18 of them. It's going to be fun. And then I'll be at ACC meetings next week. I'm sure there won't be any sort of strangeness, awkwardness with two of the schools suing the league, the league suing two of the schools, Cal, SMU, and Stanford. We'll be there. It will be weird. Welcome to College Football in 2024.

We will talk to you on Monday.