Andy & Ari On3 - Can LSU make the College Football Playoff in 2024? | Xavier Worthy's blistering combine 40-yard dash

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

This show is sponsored by Fanduel, America’s No. 1 sports book. Visit fanduel.com/Staples to sign up. And right now, NEW customers get $200 in BONUS BETS with a $5 bet! The college football win totals for the 2024 season just dropped, so sign up today.(0:00-7:52) Intro - Conversation on Super League(7:53-13:31) Spring Practice Underway in Tuscaloosa(13:32-15:40) What did Ohio State QB Devin Brown say?(15:41-21:32) Arch Manning in the EA Sports Game?(21:33-45:22) Shea Dixon joins to Preview LSU in 2024(45:23-49:17) Live Comments from Fans(49:18-1:09:22) Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl Joins to discuss top performers at Combine(1:09:23-1:12:13) Conclusion: A comment from a fan sparks tomorrow's show topicOur friends at Fanduel have set the season total for LSU at 9.5 wins, which basically asks this question: Do you think the Tigers will make the College Football Playoff or not? Shea Dixon of On3’s The Bengal Tiger joins to break down an offense replacing huge stars and a radically revamped defense.LSU opens the season in Las Vegas against USC and finishes it with a conference game against Oklahoma. Can the Tigers improve enough defensively to hit double digits in wins in the regular season?Next, Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy joins to break down what he saw at the NFL Combine. Nagy was there for Texas receiver Xavier Worthy’s record-breaking 4.21-second 40-yard dash. Nagy also watched as some of the players who shined during Senior Bowl week (Florida State DT Braden Fiske and Toledo CB Quinyon Mitchell) turned in workouts that should elevate them on every team’s draft board.Want to watch the show? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/hGirJSzBycUMust be 21+ and present in select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas StarCasino, LLC. First online real money wager only. $5 pregame moneyline wager required. First online real money wager only. $10 firstdeposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com.Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania,Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona, 1-888-789-7777 or visitccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, 1-800-9-WITH-IT in Indiana, 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 1-877-770-STOP inLouisiana, visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland, visit 1800gambler.net in West Virginia, or call 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope ishere. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or textHOPENY in New York

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Producer River and I were just having a discussion before we came on about Requiem for the Big East. And we were talking about all the moves that were made and weren't made back in the day. That's a documentary about how the Big East rose and fell. And I was explaining the Penn State Big East situation where if the Big East takes Penn State in the early 90s, perhaps everything in realignment changes. Perhaps the ACC doesn't tear apart the Big East. Maybe the Big East is the aggressor or maybe nothing happens for a little while. It's fascinating how these little dominoes change everything. And obviously we had the discussion with Cole Kubelik yesterday about how a split is probably coming sooner rather than later.

I took a crack at what a Super League involving the Big Ten and the SEC might look like. Add on three, you can read the column. There's two columns. There's one where kind of chew on what Cole and I talked about, what's coming next, what changes could be on the way. And then one where I just see what it would look like. What would it look like if the SEC and Big Ten decided they were the AFC and the NFC, went equal size, had divisions that were spread out. And it was very interesting picking the teams. I went 48 teams.

I was trying to think like a TV programmer because I think they would want to reduce the number from the current number of power conferences, but I don't think they'd want to reduce it that much. I think they'd want some variety still, but it was very difficult to pick the teams. And I wound up not having BYU in and Cole and I had said, you got to have BYU. I wanted not having either Arizona school in, which I think

realistically, that's not the way it would work out. But I was, I had the ones I felt like you can't have big time college football without. And that was like Virginia Tech, NC State, Kansas State. I felt like you had to have those in there. And then was like Virginia tech, NC state, Kansas state. I felt like you had to have those in there. And then I'm thinking about it this morning and I'm like, I didn't have Colorado in there either, which is crazy. Cause obviously with Dion, they're drawn massive ratings right now. And as a TV programmer, you'd think, okay, do I take Colorado? But also as a TV programmer, you'd go, well, if Dion's going to be a good coach, he'd just go to a power conference school if the definition of the power conference has changed. So it is fascinating to see where

it would go because I didn't have Baylor, TCU, or SMU in there. I think we all know from our history of realignment that all of those are very politically connected schools in the state of Texas. So how much would they push the levers in the Texas political system to try to make sure they were included? The one I did include was Texas Tech. I had the SEC grabbing Texas Tech and Oklahoma State and a couple others, but I was trying to form divisions. The one I'm most proud of is the SEC Moonshine Division. Alabama and Auburn are a little out of place there, but a division that includes Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia Tech needs to be called the Moonshine Division. It just does. But you can take a look at that. I'm sure there will be selections I made

that you disagree with, ways that you do it differently. The point of the exercise is there is change coming. We don't really know what it's going to look like, how it's going to look. I don't think it would be as clean as the SEC and the Big Ten agreeing to have the same number of schools. I don't know if they would merge. I don't know how any of that would work. And the point is they don't know yet either. Because I don't think when Tony Petitti and Greg Sankey, the two commissioners, formed the advisory group, I don't think they did it with any sort of nefarious hollowed out volcano. This is how we're going to take over the sport plans. I think they probably did it by saying, we are the two most alike. We have the most money. Let's make some rules that benefit us. I think that's what they're doing. But I think the

ultimate upshot of that is going to be probably some kind of super league or what we think of as a super league. But all of that hinges on various things that have not happened yet, but will happen here in the next couple of years. Court cases, National Labor Relations Board rulings, the Dartmouth basketball players voting to decide whether they're going to form a union. That is scheduled for Tuesday. So it's interesting when Northwestern did this a few years ago, we never found out the results of the vote because the national NLRB decided to kick the can down the

road, said we're not asserting jurisdiction here. And so we never did find out what the results of the vote were. And in fact, if we had, there's a good chance it would have come out that they had not voted to form a union chapter, that there have been more votes to not do it. This one I think will be a little bit different since the Dartmouth players were actively involved in pushing for this. With Northwestern, it was a few players, but it was not necessarily the majority of the team.

So it'll be interesting to see how this goes, but that's one of the things. And I think what happens with the employment law section of it, which I know this is a dry topic and people get bored with it. We want to talk about it for very long. But what happens with all that may determine what it all looks like in the future, because it may be that the ones with a certain threshold of money, like if you hit a certain financial threshold, you can compete in that new world with a format that abides by the law instead of is a price fixing scheme like the NCAA schools used for years.

Or you maybe can't do it. You just don't have the finances to do it. And you drop down to a level that is more appropriate for you. And that's what people like. How are they going to keep playing? Division three has existed for a long time. People will keep playing because they like football. People want to play football.

Parents want their little Johnnies to play football in college, whether it's at a big time level or a smaller level. I trust me. And it's not just football. I'm a sports dad who talks to parents all the time about they're deciding what their kid's college athletic career is going to look like. And they don't care about NIL. They don't care. They just want their kid to be on a college sports team of some kind. That is a revenue driver. If you're a private school that charges $50,000 a year for tuition, that is a way to get more people paying $50,000 a year tuition. So don't worry, there will still be sports. Everybody's saying there won't,

doesn't understand the economics of it. But as far as the Super League goes, I don't know what it's going to look like. I don't know what it's going to look like. They don't know what it's going to look like. If you think they do, if you think they're just plotting that Greg Sankey and Tony Petit are just plotting, tinting their fingers like Mr. Burns and the Simpsons, that's not what's happening. They're hanging on for dear life and trying to roll with the punches too. Just they, they got a lot more power than we do. All right. We are talking LSU schedule today. We're going to break it down with Shea Dixon from on threes, the Bengal tiger fan duel. Our friends there have set the over under for the season win total at nine and a half, essentially asking, do you think the tigers will make the

playoff? Have a look at their schedule. They start with USC. They end with a conference game against Oklahoma. It's going to be a lot of fun. But before we get to that, we're going to talk a little bit about spring practice. Spring practice underway. It is underway in Tuscaloosa. Kalen DeBoer, the first practice of the Kalen DeBoer era has taken place. And he got some interesting questions. One thing that we didn't get a chance to talk about much on the show yesterday, but we talked about it a little bit in the video on Friday, new rules that they pass the helmet communication. So you're going to be able to, instead of having the nine people on the sidelines signaling in plays, you're gonna

be able to talk to your quarterback. You're going to be able to talk to players on your defense and call your plays in that way. And so Kalen DeBoer got asked about that because Alabama obviously testing it out right now to see how it's going to work in the fall. Is that something that you could test out this spring just to give quarterbacks an early feel for it? Yeah, we were doing it today.

So we had it out there, and I didn't – we had – you know, with supply and demand across the country, you know, we aren't able to have as many as what the max would be. But we had a couple quarterbacks, and, you know, with that in, and, you know, I haven't heard any feedback yet. I think early on it was – a couple times it was maybe a little hard to hear one way or another. I don't think it was because it was too soft. I think it was actually because it was too loud.

But I'm sure that will get tested in our stadium at some point. But just, you know, I think there's a lot of reasons for it, you know, that I know can be positive. I don't know if it answers all the concerns that you might have when it comes to, you know, that I know can be positive. I don't know if it answers all the concerns that you might have when it comes to, I think, some of the things people will say it automatically fixes and, you know, maybe sign stealing and things like that. So, because I think there's other ways where it could go the other way, just with being intentional and trying to get a call and being able to echo it through your defensive headset and headset. And, you know, it could go on and on with that,

but it was good. I think, you know, the quarterback's just getting used to it. I saw them a couple of times, you know, putting their hand up to their, their helmet,

just listening. But for the most part, it seemed pretty clean. So interesting point there, Kayla and Abor makes about it being tested in their stadium. And I don't think he means tested by Alabama in their stadium. I think he means it will test the opponents who come to Bryant Denny Stadium. And then Alabama obviously would have that same issue probably on the road, like when they go to Tiger Stadium,

when they go to Neyland Stadium. But we've seen this in the NFL for 30 years, but there's only a few stadiums in the NFL that get truly loud, like Seattle does, Arrowhead in Kansas City does, the Superdome, well, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans does. Those stadiums get almost college loud. But I don't think they get as loud as Neyland Stadium when it's completely rocking, or Bryant-Denny, or Tiger Stadium, or Beaver stadium at Penn state. Autzen at Oregon gets really loud, even though it doesn't have a lot of, it's not a huge capacity stadium, but the acoustics of it, the way it's built, make it very loud. So the question is, do you have to have a plan in place as the road team to signal again?

I don't know that we're going to see signaling completely go away because some of these stadiums are so loud that it might be very difficult to communicate. We'll see. I know you see the NFL guys, they cover the ear holes on the helmet. I imagine that probably is fairly effective in cutting out the noise and allowing them to hear what's going on. But this is not going to be the smoothest transition. I think there's still going to be some people who signal. Now, speaking of smoothness of transitions, Kalen DeBoer obviously inherits a very talented roster. And one of the questions you have in these situations, they have a returning starting quarterback in Jalen Milrow. How much do you open up the competition there? And how much do you say, this is my guy.

I realized that this is a very important person in the locker room. I got to keep this going. He got asked that on Monday as well. You talk about depth chart and different stuff. Obviously, I'm not asking for a depth chart, but do you have players? I mean, you sat next to Jalen Miller at the basketball game. Is that your guy going into it, or do you clean slate every year with every position? Yeah, I mean, you want competition, right?

And so the competition is always going to be there. And, yeah, someone had to take the first reps today, you know, with the ones when we lined up and we referred to them as that, and Jalen did, you know. So, you know, he's putting everything into it he can, along with the other guys that took those first reps. But I fully expect those guys that are really hungry to be pushing those guys that are ahead of them to be their best. And that's what you want in a football program.

And that's certainly going to be the case here with so many good football players here wanting to get on the football field. So a couple things there. You heard the Nick Saban PTSD in the reporter's voice asking the question. I'm not asking for a depth chart. I don't know if Kalen DeBoer is going to bite your head off if you do ask for a depth chart. But it was a very diplomatic answer from Kalen DeBoer basically saying, yeah, Jalen Melrose should be one. He's the starter. He went out with the ones. That was a very diplomatic way of saying, that's the guy. And hey, that's probably the way it should be. You know,

Jalen Monroe was a very respected leader in that locker room, very important player on that team. And we'll see how spring practice goes, but I don't know that there's going to be a lot of mystery about the quarterback position at Alabama spring practice this year versus last year. Kalen Abor obviously will be putting his own spin on this, but it does sound like he's got the guy he's pretty comfortable with right now. Meanwhile, Ohio State getting ready to start spring practice. Devin Brown, who got a chance to start the bowl game, but then he got hurt in the bowl game. So we haven't really gotten a chance to see what Devin Brown can do.

The idea is probably that Will Howard comes in from Kansas State to be the starter at Ohio State. He had other options. He picked Ohio State. The assumption is he's coming in to be the starter. Devin Brown not ceding the job immediately. Very fun interview session with him. And our graphics folks at on three are spectacular they took one of his quotes and they blew it up into a graphic and if devin brown wins

the starting job at ohio state i hope someone puts this on one of those nice canvases and and sends it to him for christmas and this is this is what he said. He kind of preambled this. He was talking about, if you think I'm not here to compete, you don't understand me. You don't know me. And he goes, these people live in their mom's basement saying something about me and they don't know squat. Except he didn't say squat. Fire from Devin Brown. Fire from the man wearing number 33 as a quarterback. Does it mean he's going to win the job? I don't know. This was, but this does not give off big Tate Martell vibes like Tate Martell. Remember famously, Justin Fields is coming to Ohio state. He's like, yeah, I'm going to compete. No, no, no, he didn't. He left for Miami.

We'll see what happens with Devin Brown. Does he enter the transfer portal eventually? Maybe there's only one quarterback job at each school. So if he feels like he's not in position to win it, then maybe not. And remember, Ohio State's got Aaron Nolan coming in. They just got Julian Sayen as another freshman in that class. So it may be that the numbers don't work out for him, but he's certainly going to try to compete this spring and try to win that job. Another quarterback who seems a little more comfortable, at least as far as we know, being the backup this year, Arch Manning at Texas. But Amar Richardson of Orange Bloods reporting that Arch Manning not planning to opt into the video game, which it's, I feel like this is one of those Streisand effects things. You know what the Streisand effect is?

Basically there was a photographer who took pictures off the coast of Malibu and had posted them on their website and got a takedown request from a lawyer representing Barbara Streisand because one of the photos was of Barbara Streisand's house. Well, nobody had actually gone and looked at these things on the internet and no one really knew it was Barbra Streisand's house until Barbra Streisand tried to take legal action. And it was like, oh, that's Barbra Streisand's house. That's what this feels like. Because if Arch Manning had opted in, no one would have thought anything of it. If he doesn't opt in, the thought is, okay, well, he's obviously worth more than 600 bucks and a free copy of the game as a commodity, as a name, and that's fine.

The reasoning given by Anwar was he's trying to focus on the field. Well, whether he opts into the game doesn't change his focus on the field. So, but again, Arch Manning in a very different place than most other college football players. Like he's gonna be in a video game someday. He knows that. His uncles have been in lots of video games. Like he understands all this.

It's just fascinating to see how much attention anything Arch Manning does or doesn't do gets, because I'm not going to lie. As soon as I saw an Arch Manning headline, I'm like, we're putting that in the show because you guys react the same way we do. But also we're going to talk to Jim Nagy from the senior bowl later in the show about Xavier Worthy's combine performance. I look at Xavier Worthy and A.D. Mitchell's combine performances, and I'm like, all right, they had some really freaking good receivers last year. J.T. Sanders, too, the tight end. I still am not convinced that Arch doesn't wind up a starter at Texas by the end of the season.

And part of that's because Quinn Ewers has not been able to stay on the field every game the first two years as a starter, but I think it's really interesting. So we'll see what happens with Arch. As of now, it sounds like he does not plan to opt into the video game. That is of course his choice. We'll see if it changes. I do wonder, because now you're not buying a physical copy of the game. You're not buying a disc. You're just downloading it, and they can add updates as the game goes on. So a player who didn't opt in, who suddenly becomes the starter and wants to be in the game, could they just opt in once the game's already in place, and then EA Sports just pushes an update, and there you go. So many questions. So many video game-related questions.

Basically, I just want to play it. That's all it is. I miss it. I want to play it. So many video game related questions. Basically, I just want to play it. That's all it is. I miss it. I want to play it. So we shall see. But first, we got to talk about the LSU Tigers. We got to dive deep into LSU's schedule. Our friends at FanDuel have set the win total at nine and a half for LSU.

And we've seen a couple nine and a half. So we've talked about a few of them in the show. What FanDuel is asking when they do nine and a half is can this team make the college football playoff? Because if you're in the big 10 of the SEC and you win 10 games, our assumption with these new schedules is that you will probably make the playoff. Now, perhaps that doesn't work that way in practice, but that's what it seems like. But if you would like to take part in these win totals, we talked about Oklahoma last week. I said, I think the Oklahoma over feels like still fairly easy money. Fandu.com slash staples. New customers get $200 in bonus bets when you place a $5 bet. Sign up is easy.

There's all kinds of ways to play. Obviously, right now you can bet on college basketball, NBA, NHL, MLBs getting started. So lots of ways to do it. But in college football, you've got Heisman futures. You've got win totals, which we're going to keep going over those because I'm telling you, every chance we get to go into these new schedules is more interesting than the next. And so FanDuel has been doing the Lord's work with these wind totals because they really are interesting. The numbers they've set, like this LSU one, and you're going to hear when we

talk to Shea Dixon about it, it is a tough number, and it feels like they're right on it. There's a couple Razor's Edge-type games where it could go either way. So I am fascinated by all of these, and of course, they'll evolve as we get closer to the season, as spring practices take place, as we find out how rosters are going to look, as the spring transfer portal happens, all of this is going to evolve. So FanDuel.com slash staples, get yourself signed up. $5 bet gets you $200 in bonus bets. All right, let us now talk LSU because the Tigers doubled into wins

in each of Brian Kelly's first two seasons. The first season, they win the SEC West. The second season, they have a Heisman Trophy winner, two of the nation's best receivers, and one of the nation's worst defenses. So they change everything defensively in terms of the coaching staff. Meanwhile, on the offensive side of the ball, they have the now, it sounds weird,

but how it used to work all the time, guy who's been in the program ascending to the starting job in Garrett Nussmeyer at quarterback. Got some transfers, got some young receivers who will have to replace really, really good players. We talked to Shea Dixon about what this is going to look like and can LSU hit that double digit regular season win mark because again that probably means CFPB. Here's Shay. Now by Shay Dixon of on three's the Bengal Tiger covering LSU and it's about time we get into our deep dive for the LSU 2024 schedule. Nine and a half is

your win total at FanDuel. Another one of these like, Shay, I swear with like with Ole Miss with just there's ones all over the map. We're Alabama's nine and a half. Like it was nine and a half, right? Yeah, it feels like they are saying, and maybe this is by design to, uh, to make it a little easier for you to make your decision on those over-unders. Like they're basically saying, do you think this team's going to make the 12 team college football playoff? I've kind of stood by is the best Avenue, a chain, like an LSU. Okay. Well, the best Avenue

would be going to Atlanta and winning right but is an app going 10 and 2 and not having to go to Atlanta but having two impressive losses or you know two losses to the number one and six teams in the country whatever it might be is that a ticket into a 12-team playoff I I think that's the big debate right now for SEC fans. Oh, I think you're right because I think the assumption is any 10-win SEC team is in. And I also think people don't understand how hard with the new SEC schedules it's going to be when you add Texas and Oklahoma to the mix to get to 10 wins. It's interesting. And now look,

LSU got a taste of Texas already. They played OU before a handful of times, but yes, get navigating 10 wins. I think you look at Florida schedule, right? I mean, as there been a harder schedule in college football in the past 10,

20 years, it certainly it's up there. You look at LSUs and in comparison to a Florida, much more, much more when you can navigate, but I mean, you're playing USC and UCLA and I get UCLA isn't UCLA of old, but still, and then you've got your normal SEC slate. You add Oklahoma, you keep Florida, which has kind of been your division rival every year. And I know that folks aren't the highest on Billy Napier and them at the moment, but playing at Florida is never an easy task. Andy, you know that, that you look at that right

there and are like, okay, I agree with Vegas. I am. I know that, look, this is an LSU team and we can dive deeper in a moment, but that went to Oxford last year, put up nearly 700 yards, put up 49 points and lost and finished the season, what, nine and three. So it's the margin for error so small, especially when you throw in kind of outlandish stats like that, where you would think that no team would ever score 50 points and put up 700 yards an LSU team and lose right like impossible it happened this past year well and that's that's what I'm curious about because you know we watched Brian Thomas at the combine over the weekend incredible performance by him and he wasn't even LSU's best receiver last year that was Malik neighbors so Brian Thomas Malik neighbors J So, Brian Thomas, Malik neighbors, Jaden Daniels

gone from that offense. The defense obviously was terrible last year. I mean, there's no other way to describe it. There's no way to sugarcoat it. So, my question is, can the defense improve enough to make up for what might not be a historically good offense after they lose the key pieces to a historically good offense. Yeah, it's like what we had to preach post-2019, though I think they were set up a bit better right now than they were post-2019, but it was, you're not going to have the number one offense again. It just doesn't work that way. You had a number one or two pick here at

quarterback, you know, top three pick in Jayden Daniels, a Heisman winner. And then as you noted, these receivers on that receiver front real quick. And I think it speaks to kind of, are they able to replicate enough to not fall backwards, you know, out of the top 10, let's say, or top 15 in total offense. Only two guys hit the portal that were a thousand yard receivers and double digit touchdowns from a year ago. Liberty CJ Daniels, who was on one of the best offenses in the country, Liberty ranked not far behind LSU in Jamie Chadwell's offense. He transfers to LSU and then Jamore Macklin from North Texas went to Kentucky. So LSU loses only 11 guys last year,

hit double digit touchdowns and a thousand yards receiving. Two of them, as you noted, were LSU guys, neighbors and Thomas. So am I saying CJ Daniels coming from Liberty will replicate those stats, you know, from the jump from playing at a Liberty to playing in the SEC week in and week out? Or does he have that first round pick label that these two guys carry? I'm not saying that right now. I'm just saying that was a massive ad out of the portal, at least soften the blow defensively though. And we can talk about this for days.

You know that Andy, Brian Kelly shows up to the office one day and fires every single one of the defensive staff members. I mean, we thought there would maybe be a change at DC, right? We thought, okay,

they'll probably change things at this position, that position. Not all five being announced is let go at one time. And when you look at what he was able to do in a very short span, I mean, not like this dragged out months. In a few weeks, you get Bo Davis, an LSU grad back from Texas. And he's one of those guys that was rumored every couple of years. Oh, he's going to come home. He's coming back to LSU. And it never came to fruition. Now he's back as those guys that was rumored every couple of years. He's gonna come home, he's coming back to LSU and it never came to fruition.

Now he's back as the D line coach and hopefully puts a stop to sort of this turnover they've had there. Corey Raymond, one of the names most synonymous with LSU defensive backs is back, then you've got Blake Baker, one of the young and up and coming DCs. He went to Tulane, he was at La Tech forever, he knows Louisiana. He was at LSU. So I don't think that you could have, I mean, drawn up a better plan for saying, okay, we're wiping the slate clean. All right. Well, what are your answers for it, Brian Kelly?

And these aren't a bunch of old Notre Dame coaches or anything like that. Like they hired what fits LSU best. And I think that is something that's going to kind of be the storyline of the offseason is how far can those coaches take this defense? Because Andy, let's be real, how much of it was coaching last year and how much of it is personnel? Well, when you bring in the 130s at the end of the year, 115 or whatever it was, it's probably everything, right right it's probably a mix of it all so overnight they didn't fix the players on the team or who you've got so yes they added pieces they should be better there but i think it's really how much does the coaching change

and kind of bridge that gap from the hundreds to whatever the answer to your question might be the 60s 50s and i think the 60s or 50s might work I think I meant good enough because yeah like the the offense you know we talk about what they lose but they had a quarterback waiting in the wings in Garrett Nussmeyer that they like that they're comfortable with they have these two offensive tackles and Will Campbell and Emery Jones have been starting since they were freshmen who are going to be high NFL picks next year they they feel good about their offensive line like the offense probably isn't going to take a huge step back so decent defense probably gets it done I mean it's the narrative of if they would have had what I mean they have the number one offense. They would have had the number 40 defense instead of 113 overall.

They might win the SEC. I mean, you're playing in the playoffs. You're maybe competing for a national championship. I mean, no one was stopping LSU's offense. The defense was just so poor that it resulted in firing, letting go of the entire side of that staff just two years into the Kelly regime. And then Kelly bringing back guys like Corey Raymond, Blake Baker, they were on staff before Kelly got here. Then when elsewhere,

obviously Baker coming back as a DC. But again, I think this just reinforces that Kelly's bought into LSU what's best for LSU and how much can you bridge that gap? I'm with you. I don't think the offense falls out all that much. If it can stay in the top 20, awesome. That puts you right in the mix. Defense, if you can just cut that in half and get into the 60s, you're in way better shape.

I think many people would take a top 15 to 20 offense and a top 50 defense, then the number one offense and the number 115 defense. So finding that blend, I think, is what's really key to this year and getting to 10 wins. Yeah. That first game in Vegas is so fascinating to me because the same day Lincoln Riley goes to USC, Brian Kelly goes to LSU,

two coaching moves we never would have imagined before they happened. They're going to coach against each other. They're both coming coach against each other. They're both coming off a season where they had the same problem, where the defense just couldn't now. Lincoln Riley's had that problem multiple times. Brian Kelly, it's a new thing, but the defense has to be better. Both of them have brand new defensive staffs. Both of them may be starting a quarterback who kind of waited their turn behind a Heisman winner. Like, it is, the parallels are incredible. You give the edge here to who? Because Vegas has this as an LSU, what?

Gosh, I need to look it up before I said it, but it was more than three points. I mean, they're considered the favorite here. LSU has better players. Like, their talent level is higher based on what we've seen from the guys who've played. Now, there are one-off situations. Zachariah Branch will be one of the best five athletes on the field, for sure. But I would say LSU probably has more good athletes than USC does at this point, based on just how these teams are recruited.

Early preview. Kick it out of the end zone. That's going to be through the end zone, please. Anything on special teams, Zachariah branch. No, I'm with you. I also think I'd give the edge, as you mentioned, it's been kind of a recurring theme there with Lincoln Riley. I feel like Brian Kelly's at a stage of his career and when you've coached for 30 something years and was saving out now, he's one of the most accomplished, tenured, however to put it upper echelon coaches out there doesn't have a national championship at the fbs level and that points to why he came to lsu he knows hey i'm

in my 60s this is it for me i want to go down there and compete for championships and if three different head coaches in less than 20 years could win there, can I win there? And he's won everywhere else he's been, takes over that roster that was depleted. And I don't know if everyone thinks about it because LSU hasn't been in a year six the past two years. They've known that, oh, well, look, LSU made it the SEC championship.

Oh, LSU had a Heisman winner in this great offense, but a bad defense. They won 10 games in back-to-back seasons. So if they can find a way to just get a bit better than they were these past two seasons, find that 10-win mark again. I think that Brian Kelly goes into this season as one of the most experienced coaches out there. And when you match him up in that week one matchup, which has not boded well for LSU, they've lost back-to-back games to Florida State in week one. They need a week one win. I think Brian Kelly is locked in this spring and summer on how do we take the steps necessary, which he's seen over all these years, Andy, coaching

to bridge the gap from where we were to where we need to be right out of the gates. And look, LSU shot themselves in the foot two years ago and could have won that Florida State game last year. They just got routed in week one and ultimately it turned around for them and Florida State turns out to be a pretty good team. So I don't think USC is as good as FSU. I think LSU has got a little bit better match up here, even if it is all the way out in Vegas. Well, and it's funny because at first glance, you're looking at it, why is LSU trying to win the Pac-12? Oh wait, no, they're trying to win the big 10 this year because they've got ucla

coming in a little bit later actually after they've already started conference play at south carolina and then the following week they get they get the bruins but that you know ucla you don't feel that worried about them because they've gone through a coaching change lord knows what they're going to be at the end of the uh portal window. So we'll see. Good luck to Deshaun Foster as he tries to resurrect that program. But let's talk about the SEC schedule. It feels like that Ole Miss visit to Baton Rouge may be the swing. That may be the one that decides, do you make the playoff? Do you not? I think for LSU last year, that Ole Miss game in Oxford was the critical game because if they win that game, their season

looks very different. I'm with you and look, getting up to it, you just look at it. I mean, to open with USC, you have to get past that hurdle. Yes, you're going to win these non-con games against Nichols and USA, but at South Carolina, that's a tricky spot for them. Not a place LSU goes very much. No one on this team has ever played there. It's a tough road environment when they're doing well. Yeah. So that's a hurdle.

UCLA, no, not the UCLA of old, but you've got to win the game, and they have talent on the team. And I'm with you, Ole Miss. I mean, that's just going to be a shootout. It was a year ago. How do you slow down what we presume will probably be and I don't have Ole Miss's schedule in front of me but I don't know how many hurdles Ole Miss has before that game and they've what past two seasons have started out really strong where they're 6-7-0 and highly ranked so yes I would circle that part right there at the midpoint of the season because if you turn the page and you look at the backside of it if you're that if you're undefeated at that point, look, you're thinking, all right,

we can do this one week at a time. And you start knocking out an Arkansas, get a win against an A and M and you're set up against this new age of Alabama. I think most LSU fans look at the schedule and say, I'd like to be going into that Alabama game with one or zero losses. The A&M game is a tricky one. We had Mike Elko on last week and it's interesting to me because now he says the roster needed some work when he got there, but we all know they did recruit pretty well under Jimbo Fisher. I do wonder if like Colin Klein comes in, he gets a healthy Connor Wigman back. Like, could they be much better in a, a scary proposition for all of these, you know, sec teams that think they're going to make the playoff? Well, I think that they have to be better, right? I mean, getting wagon backs, huge. They were in

QB purgatory there for a stretch. There were a rash of injuries and transfers and all of that. But, I mean, just look what Elko did at Duke. I mean, how quick that turnaround from three wins or whatever it was to what he did two years ago when they had, what, nearly double-digit wins and Riley Leonard kind of really burst onto the scene. Solid season this year. And what I also point to, look at the coaches he's always

had. I mean, a number of those Duke guys have gotten hired that came through there at big-time programs. He's got someone on his staff now. But he knows, like, the DeBoer talk of the lay of the land and the SEC, all that. Like, that's not a conversation A&M's having to worry about right now or talk about or recruiting the South or anything like that. So yes, I think Elko is a really good coach. I think that A&M is- Also does Brian Kelly. Yeah. I think, right. I think A&M is also set up well on the NIL side. And I'm not even talking just paying for players. There's not a football or not a program out there that's got the kind

of money LSU does where their alumni invest across the board from education to athletics so they yes I 100 100% think that moving forward A&M is going to be better than they've been which is obviously been furious for them but kind of just meddling around in the kind of middle of the SEC race. So after that game at Kyle field, LSU gets a week off and then Alabama comes to Baton Rouge, but it's no longer Nick Saban. How weird is that going to be? I mean, as weird as it was when Nick Saban was first at Alabama coming to LSU, where he used to coach, how weird will it be to see an Alabama team walk into tiger stadium without Nick Saban?

So what was your coach for the Dolphins for two years? Two years. Yep. Okay. So in what he got to LSU in 2000, so between now and 2000 take away two years, and that's how many times Saban hasn't been on the sidelines for that LSU Alabama game every November, let alone when they've played, gosh, they played for national championship in SEC championships. So it will, it will be odd. I will say that I'm not sure there was a fan, but maybe Auburn, but a fan base out there that was more than happy to see, see the one of the greatest ever hang it up and, and welcome in a new regime, whatever it was. I mean, they could have hired Bill Belichick. It didn't matter. Anyone that wasn't Saban for LSU fans who have now lived through more than a decade of him coming. And if it weren't, you know, play revisionist history.

If he never goes to Alabama, do they go on that run? Or does LSU go on some sort of run? Because let's be real, right? At the peak of Bama's dynasty, it was always LSU right there behind them as that second place team in the West. So yes, whether Kalen DeBoer is the best of all time or not, I know LSU fans are just happy it's not Saban anymore. And it's interesting now because for a while it was Arkansas that LSU would end the season with and then it was Texas A&M.

This year, they get Oklahoma, though. They're in their first exposure to the new guys, and they just played Texas in a series fairly recently, so we have seen that. But how excited are you for the Sooners to come into Tiger Stadium? That's the thing. Seeing these types, like Georgia is going to Austin. Tennessee is going to Norman.

Oklahoma is coming to Baton Rouge. Like that just pumps me up even thinking about it. Yeah, it was actually on the schedule too. I don't know if it was for this past season or this year or maybe it was next year, but it was Oklahoma at LSU and Texas supposed to play LSU as well since LSU had gone to Texas and then the SEC kind of really all the talk heated up and they were going to come to the conference and then the games disappear off

LSU's website and they're I guess the games have been canceled and no longer be played and now they're going to be permanent here Here comes Oklahoma right away in year one, making the trip to LSU. So that's one I've got circled probably as the game I'm most excited to see because you only get one of OU or Texas. So I think a lot of LSU fans were kind of rooting for Texas. There's just that natural rivalry there and they wanted them to come back, but that'll happen in the future. This year, they'll get a taste of Ineballs and OU, and LSU's fared fairly well against OU. They've met a lot of big spots, obviously, playoffs and national championships, but boy, that last game was, yes, one of the greatest teams of all time in 2019, but boy, they cleaned up on Jalen Hurts and that team.

I think the game was like 60-something to 24 or something. It was over like five minutes into the game. Yeah. So those days are gone. Maybe I think this year we're going to see a little bit tighter of a game between the two. Well, and that's, I'm excited about that because I look at this schedule. I see a bunch of toss-ups, but I can see a path. I can see a path where LSU is in the playoff.

I can see a path where LSU is in the playoff. I can see a path where LSU is eight and four and everybody's mad. And it's, it's very hard. Like with LSU, with Ole Miss, we're going to do Texas A&Ms a little bit later. We've done Texas. It's some, cause we just like, what will Oklahoma be? We did Oklahoma last week. You know, their know their their win total seven and a half like I feel like that's an easy easy over I saw someone um reputable um and if it was you I apologize it is you can just expound on it but they had ranked uh the SEC team SEC teams going into next year and Oklahoma was like nine on the list or something I was was like, right. When I'm looking at the wind total and I'm like, oh, eight or nine sec stacked of Oklahoma's your eighth or ninth best team.

Speaker 2 Speaker 1 00.00 But that's the thing. Even if you think they're going to be pretty good, even if you think Oklahoma is going to win eight games. Okay. That probably puts them behind Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Texas, Ole Miss. We don't know what Tennessee or Missouri is going to be. More teams than eight and four used to put you behind. And let's be real, if you're an upper echelon team, which Oklahoma should consider themselves, certainly.

Andy, how many years do SEC teams, good SEC teams, go eight and four and celebrate that? Never? Never? I mean, nobody's celebrating an eight and four season. If you're at the middle of the pack and above in the SEC. Yeah. And that's the thing for Brian Kelly is he's kind of riding that razor's edge right now. He's got the two 10 win seasons. He's got to keep that up. And because listen, we know at LSU, they, they turn on you quick if you're not winning those double digit games every year. So, uh, but I do think the defense can get,

but I think the Bo Davis hires is probably the most significant of those. You look at what he did at Alabama and at Texas, uh, the Texas D line evolution in the last few years is a big reason why we're looking at Texas right now as a potential SEC champion this year. And now that guy's at LSU. So that's saying something. Well, people think of LSU, especially people our age and above, who think back to the early days of the Saban era and Marcus Spears and all those guys playing D-line and on, even through the last years, it was as much DBU as D-line you. It was Jackson Jackson was a top five pick. I mean, there were a lot of guys that came through here.

Although it became one of the highest paid D-line in the history of the NFL. And they've gone since Orgeron took the job, head coaching job and got promoted from D-line coach. So that was eight years ago. They've had promoted from D-line coach. So that was eight years ago. They've had a new D-line coach every single season. I'm sure that that's a run that nobody's ever been on, but a new D-line coach every single season. So for college football fans who also know about recruiting,

that doesn't bode well. You then don't carry over relationships. And I think it showed. That's why D-line's been kind of a bit of a hit for them right now. They don't carry over relationships. And I think it showed that's why D-line's been a bit of a hit for them right now. They don't have a ton of DT depth, and that's a big worry for them. And it's something you'd never thought you'd have to worry about at a school like LSU. So for so many reasons, and especially if it means stability, I mean, he's from Mississippi, went to LSU, he got his coaching career started at LSU. He's up. He's now been from the NFL to, as you mentioned,

stints at Bama and Texas that were extended and very successful. Is this finally him saying, all right, I'm going to settle in here for three, four, five years. That'd be awesome for LSU because I said, turnover every single year has been bad. If you have a D-line coach like Bo Davis, who knows how to develop and recruit and stays on staff for multiple years, you'll start to see sort of the fruits of those labors.

I think no doubt. Well, we're going to find out nine and a half your total for LSU. Will they make the playoff? I think they just pick all like the four or five teams that you think are all pretty good and you don't know how good they could be great with nine and a half there you go uh exactly that's that there's a lot of nine and a half and a lot of eight and a half floating around the country and they ain't all gonna win that many but in baton rouge i think they think they're gonna win more than that so shea thank you so much yeah thanks for having me on andy the great shea dixon from the Bengal tiger. And

this is going to be absolutely fascinating because I think Georgia, obviously Alabama, Texas, Ole Miss, LSU, all thinking they've got very realistic college football playoff possibilities. I think the folks at Tennessee feel like they may be a little bit of a dark horse CFP contender going into this season. I will four make it. Maybe three will make it for sure. I don't think there's a universe where three SEC teams don't make the first 12 team playoff, but could four make it? I don't know. Which means

there'll be some disappointed people who expect more. So Ryan in the chat, Texas A&M hasn't even made it to Atlanta. Why is Texas different? Because Texas has made the 14 playoff, right? And they made it last year. They went to Alabama and won. Remember that happened? That's why. So that's why they're getting the benefit of the doubt right now over Texas A&M, which by the way, could be pretty good. We'll see. Aaron in the chat answering, because Texas is a much better program. I don't know much better, but certainly better right now and was better last year and beat an sec team that made the playoff last year, beat the sec champion on its home field. I mean, let's not pretend that didn't happen. Ryan's an Alabama fan. He's been in the chat very much in his feelings uh and was talking about how

many 10 win seasons in a row Alabama's had yes there was one thing in common there that Alabama doesn't have anymore and that's why maybe Vandals win total for Alabama's nine and a half is uh Nick Saban's not there so that is something that people are going to have to get used to. So we'll find out what happens with these guys. This schedule is like that LSU-USC game. All the little parallels right down to the Brian Kelly, Lincoln Riley taking the jobs on the same day. Can't wait. Defensive staff revamps.

If Miller Moss winds up being USC's quarterback, which seems like he will, the rare situation of guys who waited their turn, it's going to be great. And it's in Vegas. LSU fans in Vegas. Yeah, I think we might have to talk to the old on three bosses. We might need a boondoggle out to Vegas for the LSU-USC game. I think we may have to be there in person just to get the full experience. I think we're going to need that. One guy who was there in person getting the full experience this past weekend at the combine, Jim Nagy, our friendly executive director from the senior bowl. He was watching a lot of the

guys that performed in his game, helped themselves at the combine. Michael Penix Jr. from Washington, probably one of those guys. I thought he was the most consistent thrower of the quarterbacks who threw. You saw JJ McCarthy had some good looking throws, had some throws. We'll see. But I don't know that anybody knocked any of the top three who didn't throw off their spot. We'll see what happens when they get to their pro days and they throw. But in the other positions, some very interesting risers. And one of those was Xavier Worthy, who did not play in the Senior Bowl, but was the story of the Combine. And Jim had a stopwatch on Mr. Worthy.

Here's Jim. We welcome Jim Nagy. He's back home from the Combine in Indianapolis. He's the executive director of the Senior Bowl. Went to watch some of his guys from the Senior Bowl perform at the Combine. I would imagine reconnect with your friends in the scouting community from your time there. Jim, what was the scene like when Xavier Worthy broke the Combine all-time 40 record. Andy, it was really cool.

They started adding fans at the Combine, I'm guessing, I'm taking a guess, four or five years ago maybe, and I think it was always tied into the NFL Visa partnership. And they would keep them in this one little area, one little section of the Lucas oil. And then this year they open it up. Someone told me they were trying to get 25,000 people into the stadium. They really took in that, that whole entire end zone. And man, it added to it. It really added to the vibe. I think everyone, you know,

he ran four to five on his first run. So everyone knew that second one had a chance. you know, he ran 4-2-5 on his first run. So everyone knew that second one had a chance. He had a shot at it. So to see him finish and they flashed 4-2-2 on the big, on the jumbotrons in the stadium, the crowd went nuts. He's running around, you know, players are congratulating him. Back in the day, I mean, at the combine, you could hear a pin drop in the stadium, regardless of what was happening. hear a pin drop in the stadium regardless of what was happening there was no ooze and ahs there was no claps no one was doing anything um so to have the fans in there for that it was awesome well and and so you tweeted a picture of your stopwatch

at four two five so was that the first run or was that the that was the first one yeah yeah so you nailed that one like how okay you're you're not working for a team anymore, but you're very much still in the scouting world. How important is it to have an accurate stopwatch thumb? Well, you don't use your thumb, you use your trigger finger. That's rule number one. You're slower on the, yeah, you can sniff a phony out by seeing who's timing with their thumb. So, no, it's- The real ones go the, okay, with the trigger finger. Yeah, absolutely.

And it's hard, those first couple of guys, I always feel bad for the first position group because everyone's kind of trying to calibrate. So it's important you're around a big group of people to start off with because you're gonna mis you're going to misfire here and there. But as you get, you know, as you work into it, you get into you get in a groove, if you will. But no, it is good. You know, they stagger it every row of the of the Lucas oil. I think at least back, you know, before I took this job, they used to draw numbers when all the teams showed up the combine first and and starting all the way down on the field. I want to say there's four or five teams at field level,

and then it works up through the stands. It's good. Usually every team has two or three guys on the 40, one guy recording, two guys timing, and then you've got the team in front of you, the team behind you. You really hope the team in front and behind you are some buddies from other teams. Then if you don't feel like you got the play, are you going to turn around?

Would you guys get on that? And when someone runs as fast as Worthy did, everyone's asking that. You know, you're showing each other the watches. Am I right here? 4-2-2? Is that right? So, no, it's cool. I'm right there.

Our group, our senior bowl staff was right there on the 40, timing those things. It was just cool to see the reaction of all the NFL guys. 4-2-1 is blazing, man. It's really fast. Well, and what's so interesting about Xavier Worthy is, we were talking about this before we started the show, John Ross was a nice player at Washington. He was the previous record holder,

but probably should not have gone as high in the draft as he did. Darius Hayward-Bey, Maryland, another really fast 40 was a reach by Al Davis and the Raiders back then. But Xavier Worthy was an accomplished player on the field. You're not doubting, does this guy have the skill set to be good in the NFL? No, a really good player. When I was at Texas back in August, and they had a bunch of guys in the Senior Bowl this year, and so we went out there looking. It just happened to be timed up a day during our trip out to Texas where they couple big touchdowns in that scrimmage. It was fun. So, yes, he can legit play. I mean, this guy was a fringe first-rounder before the combine and now running 4-2-1.

Think about it this way. 4-4-1 is fast. You know, if you've got a 4-4-1 corner starting on the outside, you feel good about that guy if you're an NFL team, that he can basically run with whoever he's trying to cover that week. 4-4-1 isn't covering 4-2-1. I mean, two-tenths, that's like trying to cover a 4-4-1 guy with a 4-6-1 guy. No team would feel good about sticking someone out. Think about that. Teams are starting with some corners in the league right now that are in the four-fives. Threeives three tenths of a second is

a major discrepancy if you'd like to cover a gentleman like xavier worthy a guy who played in your game might be a good candidate for that uh quinnian mitchell who was awesome during senior bowl week he's the toledo corner he's very long uh 6-1 he He had a great comma, 4'3", 3 in the 40, and 20 reps on the bench. But obviously you guys saw in Mobile probably what you needed to see from him. He's checked every box, Andy. He's taken advantage of the full process as much as anyone could. Like you said, he had a great week here covering really good receivers. I mean, he was out there day in and day out with Roman Wilson from Michigan and Ricky Pearsall from Florida.

You know, guys that blew up the combine as well. We could spend time talking about those guys here. But, yeah, to see Q run like that, and now you think about this. Now, I think heading into Indy, most teams were in the place of, you know, Terryon Arnold from Alabama and Quinn Young-Mitchell from Toledo probably is the top two corners. And now Terryon Arnold ran 4.50, which isn't a bad time. But 4.33, now you're talking about another difference of almost two-tenths.

That's significant. For two players that were close, that's a big separator. And, yeah, Terryon Arnold can go to Alabama Pro Day and have a chance to run a faster time. If I'm Quinion Mitchell, I don't know if I run at the Toledo Pro Day. I show up and I do some stuff so that my teammates get some love because if Quinion Mitchell doesn't show up to Pro Day, his buddies probably don't have as many scouts there.

But, yeah, I mean, I think that probably locked Quinion Mitchell in as the top corner in the draft. So another guy I really enjoyed getting to know at the senior bowl was Braden Fisk from Florida state D tackle who'd played four years at Western Michigan transfers to Florida state for that last year. And, you know, the interview we did with him down there, like you just love this guy when you talk to him and I'm sure you guys you know getting to know him that week felt the same way but then to see him put it all together in the drills in the 40 it felt like another one that that just this is going to just take off like a rocket ship for him yeah he's he's taking advantage

of the process similar like I said with Quinn and yeah he's he's taking advantage of the process um similar like i said with quinn and mitchell i think probably the starters thing you know a little over a month ago before mobile most teams probably had braden fisk in the fourth round and you know maybe they're thinking we could maybe take him with a compensatory third round pick you know keep our fingers crossed i don't think he gets out of the second round. Probably doesn't get out of the top 50 picks because it's not just the physical stuff. We've seen that. I mean, he ran four, seven, six at 292 pounds and more so like what he looked like in the drills. He looked like a jumbo linebacker. He looked like, I mean, compared to all the other D linemen, the twitch, the suddenness and the change of direction the burst you know just the closing

burst he he he moved like a smaller man he looked different than all those other guys i mean i would say probably byron murphy from texas was the one the closest thing to him movement wise um and he was he was almost unblockable down here in mobile so and you're getting a guy that's really a tempo setter tone setter in that d line room and probably for your whole defense. And that was the thing coming into Mobile. He called the office. I shared this story on the senior bowl recap show that I did with Dan Jeremiah for the NFL network. He called the office thanking for the invite, which he didn't have to do. Not a lot of guys do. I certainly don't expect that. And I told him like, man, I haven't seen you practice yet.

But if you show up here in Mobile and you practice with the intensity and the effort that you do on tape, on the game tape, I'm like, you're going to have a phenomenal week. And he did that, you know, and then it's been well publicized. We flipped him on the morning of the game and put him on the other team because we were having some roster attrition. It was like the first roster move in the history of the senior bowl. He made history that way. So he has a man in a five, six week span. He has completely changed their narrative from, you know, an early day three guy to a guy

that's, you know, in the top 50 conversation. Now he's one of those guys who in, in the top 50 conversation. Now, he's one of those guys who in the meetings with the team personnel is going to blow them away, is going to wow them. Having been in those rooms at the Combine, how much more valuable is that part of it than the 40 time or the bench press? Well, you know, I think it's really valuable because, again, the tape, you can always go back to the tape. And even with the Senior Bowl, and as important as the one-on-one drills and a lot of the stuff we do here, what I tell people about the pre-draft process is you think about it, it's really a short period of time from Senior Bowl, like early February until the end of April, to get to know these guys. You know this. I know, you know this.

I mean, you've been at schools with some of these scouts. I mean, they go in there and they talk to everybody in the building. You know, they're in there. You know, if you're at Florida State, the Southeast scouts were probably through Tallahassee three times in the fall talking to everybody they could talk to. But to sit across from him and hear his story from him and really try to get to know him, that's the impactful stuff. That's where when you're scouts and you're hearing his story

and where he came from in Michigan City, Indiana, blue-collar area by Gary, Indiana, going to Western Michigan, betting on himself, like going to Florida State. I mean, that's the stuff the teams are going to grab onto. And that's the stuff when you get into April and you're having those final meetings about where do we need to take this guy, right? Like they're all trying to get him as late as they can possibly get him. Where do we have to take this guy to get him?

You keep going back to that stuff. Guys, he's going to change our room. He's going to change our defense. He's going to change the effort we play with. Like those things are going to knock him up even beyond the physical talent. And now we've seen on the field here in Mobile and on the field at Lucas Oil, the physical talent is all there. And then you start talking about what he does from a makeup perspective to make other people around him better. I mean, shoot, man. That's why, I mean, even if someone took him in the late

first round at this point i i wouldn't put it past some teams some teams have to see what the impact he's going to have on our overall overall group it's going to be worth it so we'll we'll see where it ends up you mentioned roman wilson and ricky pearsall earlier guys that receivers that kind of showed out like you expected them to. How deep is this class? Because Brian Thomas was one of the headliners, obviously, and he was a great receiver at LSU as well, but he tested really well. How far can you go down into the draft and still get a guy who's going to

contribute at receiver next year? It feels like you've got some options there. Well, if you want to play that game, Andy, I totally get the question. I mean, think about this. The Rams got Puka Naku in the fifth round last year. That's right. Another senior bowl guy. Yeah. So I mean, that's, but you know, and they, and they hit, they hit big on Puka. Puka was a great fit. He and Matthew Stafford clicked from the get go. But I really do think like fourth round, you're getting guys that are going to be able to step on the field and contribute right away. I mean, a lot, you know, everyone's playing three wides, four wides. Can you get a guy that can come

in and do that in the fourth round of this draft? I think you probably can. Those names you may be, and everyone's testing well. We talked about Xavier Worthy just breaks the combine record. So that helps him. Brian Thomas ran like we thought he was going to run. The LSU strength strength staff went on and on and on when I was there in August about how he would test. And he did that. I'm sure neighbors is going to test well. So all these guys that we thought were going to test well in Indy, you know, showed up and performed. A lot of these guys we thought, going to come to the Senior Bowl, the Pearsalls, the Roman Wilsons, the Malachi Corlees from Western Kentucky. Those guys all

came here and did well. So even a guy like, people have talked about Tez Walker since the Senior Bowl. And yes, he dropped some balls here in Mobile, but he also got deep. Every time he wanted to get deep, he got deep. and then he goes to the combine it runs four three eight he vertical jumps 40 plus inches he broad jumps 11 four so now tez walker's back and you know what and he caught the ball better in drills he he things kind of snowballed him here snowballed him you know here in mobile but now he's back in that you know top 50 conversation where where he probably belongs so So it is deep, man. You don't have to spend a first-round pick on a wide receiver,

on a guy that can come in and play right away. And last year's draft with Rashi Rice and Jaden Reed and all these guys in the second round. If you have equal needs at this point, probably take the other position and then circle back and get yourself wide out. Well, I wanted to ask you about Keon Coleman specifically because he ran a 40 that was considered a disappointing time, but the tape's really good. So in that situation, if you are recommending to your front office what to do as a scout, how do you reconcile those things?

Well, I would say when it comes to keon like i most most scouts knew that he wasn't gonna run a great time um and when i called his agent to talk about getting him here to mobile that was the pitch was like you know i don't think he's gonna run fast he's a really good football player so have him come here to mobile and like lean into the strengths you know have him come here and interview and do what he does on the field. And that's, you know, get open and make plays. It's hard to find six, three playmakers and he can do that. You don't see many guys his size that can return punts, right? Like, and that's just, you know, I mean, most of those guys are five, nine, five, 10. He's six, three, six, four returning punts for Florida State. So,

so I don't think it was a surprise. I don't think the 4-6-2 was a surprise to teams. Now what you're going to want to do is probably just go back to the tape and, okay, is this showing up? Do we see a lack of juice that's going to limit him when he gets to the next level? Because the ball skills are all there. Some of the run after catch, the change of direction,

kind of the slinkiness with the ball in his hands. He has that, but you just got to like lack of explosiveness. Does it show up and, and teams will do that, but he's a, he's another really good player in this draft. Yeah. It's a, that's the thing. I feel like that's almost guaranteeing somebody's going to get a bargain when, when that happens. But I did want to ask about one one of my other favorite guys that i met in mobile and he didn't run ex exactly as fast in the 40s he thought he would but it was pretty close was dylan loud from new hampshire so four five four in the 40 which is probably good enough and i'm so excited about this guy but his his change of direction stuff was awesome. So where do you think he's going to wind up come April?

Yeah, he was off the charts. Back to Coleman real quick. He's a perfect example of if you're convicted about the football player off this tape, you kind of hope he ran slow. Right, because you're going to get him now. Let everyone else get caught up in the 40 time. We're just going to sit back and let this guy fall to us. So some teams do that. Yeah. Dylan, Dylan, Dylan didn't, I mean, four, five, four is, is absolutely fine for a running back. That is speed. Top end speed is the most

overrated thing at the running back position. You're looking more for short bursts than long speed at that spot. And like you said, all the other stuff, the change of direction stuff, the jumps, his vertical and broad were way up there. And that's what correlates to the short burst is the explosive jump. So yeah, I thought he did a really nice job. And most importantly, he looked really good in the on-field pass game drills. They also worked him at wide receiver. They had him run some wide receiver routes in addition to the running back routes. And again, if you're, if you're buying into Dylan, that's what you're buying.

He is, he is, he is, he is game ready. NFL ready to, to come in and contribute in the passing game. Everybody I spoke to here in Mobile and at the combine, I talked to some guys about him in Indy. It's about the passing game, you know, as a runner. Yeah as a runner yeah i mean but there's a lot of guys in this draft that can run the ball there's not a lot of guys that can contribute and bring versatility um in the past game that he can yeah and that's the thing it feels like that's more what you're looking for in a back now i don't know if there are any first round backs in this draft. Amir Gibbs last year was a

first round back probably because of what he can do in both areas and was very good for the Lions. But yeah, I would think that's almost a requirement at this point because you can find good running backs deep in the draft. Yeah, if you're going to take one up high, they certainly have to help be a three-down player. Because the new coaches these days, you're tipping your hand with some of these guys when you put them in the game. So, yeah, and I agree with you. I don't think there's going to be a first-round guy in this draft. I think that you're going to be looking at like Marshawn Lloyd from USC, Trey Benson from Florida State.

Off the top of my head, like Dylan Wright, Jalen Wright from Tennessee. Yeah, he had a good 40 time. Yeah, he was supposed to be coming here to the senior bowl and then missed because of an injury. But we knew he we thought he was going to run fast based off his high school track stuff. And yeah, he blew it out. So you are already probably working on next year's senior bowl roster. How excited are you to get around to some spring practices? and do some media stuff around those guys until we get to the draft. But I'm kind of itching for a new group of guys. And the good thing is a lot of players. I mean, I don't know what that exact number is.

We'll have to go back and tally it up. There's a number of guys that we sent invites to this year that went back to school for some pretty big NIL money. So we're starting off with a group of players that we already know we would be comfortable with in next year's game. But yeah, I'm excited for the spring. We'll get out to some pro days and get back on campus and reconnect with some coaches and start putting, you know, get some, some background information,

figure out who's going to test. Well, that's part of it. You know, every, every pro day we go to get with the strength coach and say, okay, a year from now, who's going to be showing out here at, at combine and pro day. And so we, we got a heads up on that. So who's going to be showing out here at Combine and Pro Day. And so we got a heads up on that. So it's going to be fun. Get to a couple of spring games and get her cranked up for 2025. Cannot wait. Hopefully I will bump into you as I hit the road for spring practice as well. Jim, thank you so much. Yeah, Andy, it's great seeing you, man. And hopefully I'll see you on the road. Thank you to Jim Nagy for that. And I'll

be picking Jim's brain quite a bit as we go through spring practice into summer about who I need to be looking at next year. The beauty of Jim is he gets you going and gets you very excited because those guys find some hidden gems, some guys that are going to blow up because they're entering new roles in the, in the new season. And it's, it's, it's a great, he is the ultimate cheat sheet for, for folks like me. So a comment here from Pondy in the chat that I find interesting and it gives me an idea. So here's what Pondy says. Vols fan here. Although I love being able to play teams like Oklahoma and Texas now, it does kind of suck that we won't play teams

like LSU as much anymore. And it got me to thinking. So Pondy thinks that Tennessee's not gonna play LSU as much? The way the SEC schedule works now, Tennessee's gonna play LSU a lot more than it did before. And it occurs to me that even people who follow this stuff very closely, because there is so much changing right now, may not be fully aware of how college football is going to work 2024 and beyond. Now, we're not sure how it's going to work 2026 and beyond either, but we

probably need to have a refresher because so much is changing that we probably need to talk about what this sport is going to look like in the fall, help you get ready, help you kind of chart out your fandom, chart out your season and what you're going to get excited about. Because this is the sort of thing, like Tennessee, the way the new SEC schedule works, whether it's eight games or if they go to nine games, Tennessee is going to see LSU twice every four years. They were playing LSU twice every seven years before that. So we got to talk about this. And I'm not picking on Pondy. I think we all fall into this trap. Sometimes I find myself thinking about the playoff team. How are they going to be the top four? Oh, wait, it's not top four anymore. So let's, let's dig into it. Let's dig into what's how schedules work now. Let's dig into how rivalries work now. Let's dig into

how the playoff works now, at least for the next two years. We're going to talk about it all. Let's do it tomorrow. We'll talk to you then.