Andy & Ari On3 - Clark Lea has CLEARED THE PATH for Diego Pavia and Vanderbilt football | National Coaching Hot Board list

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

On Saturday, Vanderbilt hosts Missouri at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville. Historically, this game would not mean a lot for the CFP race, but this game has drastic CFP implications in the SEC. Watch he...re as Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea joins the show to discuss arriving at Vanderbilt, changing the culture, and maintaining the standard that has been set in Nashville. (0:00) On Today's Episode(2:52) Intro: Previewing Clark Lea(9:28) Clark Lea joins(27:00) Clark Lea's rules for life(28:55) Rhoback(29:59) National CFB Hot Board(31:33) Fran Brown, Syracuse HC(38:49) Brian Hartline, Ohio State OC(44:14) Glenn Schumann, Georgia DC & Will Stein, Oregon OC(49:48) Huel(51:14) More top Names(53:36) Bob Chesney, James Madison HC(54:17) Mike Jacobs, Mercer HC(55:21) Bob Chesney, JMU HC(58:00) Jeff Brohm, Louisville HC(59:54) Willie Fritz, Houston HC(1:02:14) Alex Golesh, USF HC & Ryan Silverfield, Memphis HC(1:03:41) Eric Morris, North Texas HC(1:05:56) Rounding out the hot board(1:10:03) Conclusion - See you tomorrow! After Clark Lea, Andy & Ari dive into the biggest names of college football's hot board. With multiple jobs currently open with more likely on the way, the guys dive into the top names you need to know before the coaching carousel is in full swing soon. Do you agree with these names? Who are some names we left off? Our show is presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code STAPLES15 at https://huel.com/STAPLES15 (Minimum $75 purchase) Our show is sponsored by Rhoback, the most comfortable clothes on the planet! Use the code ANDY on Rhoback.com for a generous 20% off for all new customers through the end of this week. That’s 20% off all Performance Polos, Shorts and more with code ANDY  Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/NAHugB-3YiU Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email advertise@on3.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's episode of Andy and Ari on 3, we talked to Vanderbilt coach Clark Lee. The Commodores just beat LSU, and they have another huge game this week as the Missouri Tigers come to Nashville. Plus, the national hotboard, the coaching names you need to know as the coaching carousel begins spinning in earnest. These are not necessarily the guys that you've heard of yet. Maybe if you're a big group of five fan, you know them. but these are the guys whose names are going to be out there a lot here in the next few months. Ari and I will break them all down. Plus,
Starting point is 00:00:36 where does James Franklin wind up because he clearly wants to coach? We'll talk about it all on today's Andy and Ari on 3. We are proud of using BetMGM lines and totals all season long here at Indian Arion 3. We want to get you on board too. Here's how you do it. You download the BetMGM app. use the code CFB when you sign up as in college football. CFB, you deposit at least $10 and you place your first wager on any game.
Starting point is 00:01:08 After that, you will receive up to $1,500 in bonus bets if your first bet loses. So just make sure you use the bonus code CFB when you sign up. Now, that will get you some pretty cool stuff, including this week on October 24th and 25th. So Friday and Saturday this week, we got a college football parley boost token. No matter where the football action is, nothing like getting the game and leveling up your next parlay. Use the parlay boost token to boost your potential payout from a winning college football parlay. Also, there's a college football odds boost token. You zero in on every snap by activating your odds boost token on any college football bet,
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Starting point is 00:02:38 rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for BGM yet, use the bonus code CFB and get your $1,500 first bet offer today. Welcome to Andy and R. Anthony and I'm presented by BetMGM. You got a special guest, ARI. Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lee joins the show. It's a perfect day for Clark Lee to join the show because of our topic. And I think that he is probably the epitome of why we're talking about what we're talking about today. Yeah, because we're going to have the national hotboard, which, listen, Clark Lee's name is going to come up for a lot of these jobs.
Starting point is 00:03:22 but he's at his alma mater he's a few you know few streets over from where he grew up he's in a town that everybody wants to move to already so i don't know that clark lee is necessarily a very serious candidate for some of these jobs but honestly if you're penn state if you're florida like you you kind of want to kick the tires on clark lee yeah uh and clark lee before he was hired at vanderbilt would have been the prime candidate for this list and i think that the premise of you know our show, but certainly a column I'm planning on writing later this afternoon when we're done, Andy is
Starting point is 00:03:57 is the sexiest name or the name that you're most familiar with always the best hire. How many people were ultimately that familiar with Clark Lee before he took the Vanderbilt job? How many people were familiar with Mike? And Clark Lee was a slam dunk hire for Vanderbilt because he was a really good defensive coordinator at Notre Dame.
Starting point is 00:04:18 He was a Vandy alum. He had a very distinct clear vision for the program and you're seeing that come to life now and the question and we'll probably ask Clark Lee this question is are you in a position now where you feel like this is a destination job for you where you've turned it into a destination job and and I don't know what he's going to say listen I wouldn't give away all my leverage if I were him but I do think he would be hard to move like there I don't know that there's a lot of jobs that he would actually consider leaving Vanity for. I don't think there are any open now that he would consider leaving
Starting point is 00:04:54 Vanity for. Though if I were him, I would use any interest I got from other jobs to make sure I got every resource I possibly need at Vanderbilt. Because Vanderbiltz has done well by Clark Clayleigh. They've really given him a lot of what he needs. But are they completely optimized in terms of the resources they give the football program compared to other teams in their conference like, oh, I don't know, Alabama or Tennessee or LSU or, you know, Florida, Auburn, you name it, Texas A&M, Texas, like that's the thing. That's where Clark Lee has to compete against. And so I would use that leverage if I were him to make sure I have the best possible situation at Vanderbilt, but he's turned it into a pretty great situation already.
Starting point is 00:05:40 The question for Vanderbilt, too, is like, you know, in the Florida Ole Miss discourse that we're going to be having repeatedly for the next two months. We are not 100% certain. I think our brains have been wired to assume that Florida is a better job than Ole Miss based on the way that it's been for the last 20 years in this sport. But, like, I don't know if you play that game with Vanderbilt yet. Like, we're playing that game with Indiana and Penn State a little bit. That's more lopsided, you would think.
Starting point is 00:06:10 And the coach at Indiana State Indiana is Vanderbilt. in this new era of college football is the only thing that Vanderbilt in Arkansas another job we're going to talk about is conference affiliation where it starts and finishes now for a program Yeah, it's in the SEC
Starting point is 00:06:29 which is a huge deal. Is that it? And like, okay, on Saturday the last week, Vanderbilt was better than LSU. Like, Clarkley's team is better than Brian Kelly's team right now. So if you can do that now, why in the world would you want to go anywhere else?
Starting point is 00:06:49 Because you can make that team better than a lot of other teams. And there have been times in the past. I don't remember who James Franklin beat 13 years ago there. He won 10 games, so he must have beaten some pretty. He won nine games, two years in a row. Yeah, nine games, two years in a row. So he had to have beaten to get to nine wins, at least a few traditional SEC powers along the way. So there have been instances where a team has outplayed its status by assembling a really good team
Starting point is 00:07:21 unexpectedly. But the reason why Vanderbilt's record against all those elite-level SEC teams is so putrid, it's awful just historically, is because historically speaking, it was not on the same playing field. It wasn't. It was in the same conference, but all the other things that went into creating a football superpower, Vanderbilt did not have at its disposal. So the question now is, what can Alabama offer Kalin DeBore that Vanderbilt cannot offer Clark Lee? And I'm sure there are things. Maybe that's geography.
Starting point is 00:07:59 Maybe it's, you know, historical relevance in the way that recruits and transfers view that program. But if it's not, if the gap between what Alabama, Obama used to be able to offer Kaelin Boar and what Vanderbilt could offer Clark Lee was an ocean in 2018 and now it's a lake. Like that changes the entire paradigm of the sport. And I don't know if we're just like overreacting like because like people got mad yesterday. I don't know if you saw people were mad at like the notion that Ole Miss was as good of a job as Florida. And like I just don't not think people are thinking clearly yet about. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:34 Again, I went to Florida. I live in town. I'm telling you right now, from an objective standpoint, you can win the national title at either place. The ceiling is not that different. But it really isn't. And I think I know what you're going to say, but I have to ask it just for the listener's sake,
Starting point is 00:08:52 can you win the national title at Vanderbilt? I would have said no, probably up until last week, and we're going to talk to Clark Lee about that because we made fun of him. And we made fun of Diego Pavia, because Clarkley got up his first SEC media days and said, our goal is to win the national title. Diego Pavia this offseason said,
Starting point is 00:09:12 our goal is to win the national title. I don't think anybody's laughing anymore. No, I laughed. Let's talk to Clark Lee about that because I'm fascinated by how he's done this. It's been amazing. Here's Clark Lee. We are joined now by Vanderbilt head coach, Clark Lee,
Starting point is 00:09:31 the Missouri Tigers coming to town. Vanity just beat LSU and Clark. The first thing I'd ask you because you had another one of those moments in the LSU game where it's fourth down, you go for it, and Diego Pavia just pulls this Houdini act, where he spends away from a tackler, finds somebody on the other side of the field, and you convert. How much does Diego Pavia change a coach's fourth down math? Well, I mean, again, my job is to try to best position the team, and if I can get him one more snap and allow him to create, I think, you know, that's good for Vanderbilt
Starting point is 00:10:07 football. So, you know, the math is the math. We don't deviate from kind of what our book tells us or what, you know, in addition to what my instincts are for what the moment calls for. But the fact that we get to snap it to him gives me peace of mind that we can go for it a little more maybe than I would typically knowing that he has the ability to create. The thing, that play, like my jaw hit the floor, by the way. I don't know about you guys. But what does having somebody who not only is really good at football, but is like a lightning rod, like, for attention and excitement. Like, I feel like Diego Pavia represents like what makes college football great, the type of personality he is, the way he carries himself. He's funny in the off
Starting point is 00:10:50 season, serious during the regular season. Like, what does that do for Vanderbilt football to have somebody that's such a lightning rod? Well, it's huge. I mean, I can't, you know, begin to express what he's, what he's added with respect to his personality, who he is. And, I mean, that's also, you know, in the serious ways, too. This guy is super curious. He's humble. He's a connector. I mean, I, he's, again, he's become one of my favorite people in the world, not because he's a good football player, but because he's a good human.
Starting point is 00:11:23 He's interesting and he's interested. And the fact that he's also hyper competitive and, you know, there are only so many of these kind of guys alive that can take a game over, can put a team on their back. And I think in the locker room, you know, until you've had alpha leadership down there, like there's only so much a coach can do to get, you know, a team galvanized and leadership aligned. But I believe once you have had one alpha, that gives way to more. And so he'll leave a legacy here, not just in the results on the field, but also in how he's helped establish that player leadership model that will help this program elevate and
Starting point is 00:12:05 after more. But we love him. He's a perfect fit for Vanderbilt football. And I'm soaking up every day I have with him, you know, from here to the finish line. So, Clark, I want to take you back to when you took the job. And I am pretty sure I went on video and made fun of you guys for learning how to stretch for three hours in your first practice. And doing it, because you were obsessive over these little things about you're going to do this the right way. And we're going to do this the right way. not going to move on until you guys figure out how to do this. And then you're like, I was like, okay, how does that help you beat East Tennessee State, who was the first team you had to play right out of the gate?
Starting point is 00:12:46 But since you've proven us all wrong, it helped us too much. Well, maybe it didn't then, but like, what does that mean now that you've had several years of that culture being this program? Well, this was a really sick place when I got here. And it's hard to think back to that, honestly, because I didn't really understand the depths of where we were and how far we had to go. I think I learned that as that first year went along. But this is a human endeavor and human psychology is so challenging. And I think especially in a place where there's so much negativity around you, it's easy to play the victim.
Starting point is 00:13:33 and it's easy to have hopelessness. And ultimately, what we were trying to do with teaching them how to warm up the right way and to be accountable and dependable was forced them to focus on the smallest things and take control of those small things, knowing that in the end, the small things lead to the big things. And if we can't do that the right way, how could we ever expect to organize ourselves in a way to beat the opponent? I think in some ways when you've been so distanced from winning,
Starting point is 00:14:03 you think of winning as like magic or you think it just happens when you show up. And so what you're trying to ingrain in them is this awareness that, no, it's actually going to be on the back end of our work and our investment. And what you've done halfway to this point has gotten you, or really below halfway, has gotten you below halfway results. And so what we need to do is start to push into the standards and behaviors of our program so that we can actually have a product on the field we're proud of. It was a long process.
Starting point is 00:14:31 Yeah, I got a video sent to me recently. of the first snow we had that winter and um this was February of 21 and um you know again I think like losing is like a plaque and it kind of calcifies everywhere and so you know people that that have a role that doesn't include calling plays or or running the plays you know they start to kind of withdraw from support of the program too so at that time it was the first snow of the winter and we didn't have anybody that was going to clear the sidewalks also what had happened is in the past you know when it snowed outside training became optional you know and obviously that was never going to fly in the program I was running but um we got out at five in the morning as a coaching
Starting point is 00:15:20 staff and we cleared the sidewalk and we literally cleared the path to training for the players um in that in that occasion and that's just an example of of you know kind of the links we've had to go to get this where it is and now you know look as you as you start to win winning becomes habitized too and so the attitude i feel like around our program and in our community now is like hey this is a winning program this is the expectation this is what we're going to do but certainly that was not the case and we had to go we had to go to the bottom before we could you know actually build back something that resembles what we have today you know now that we're all on the trust tree and we're, you know, talking about things that, you know, we laughed at when
Starting point is 00:16:04 Diego Pavia said that he came back to win a national title this year, I laughed. And it's not so funny anymore. I'm wondering, is part of the battle in being a successful program also making statements like that, not funny? Like, and do you have to retrain the human brain, whether it be a fan or a recruit or anybody who watches college football and to not view it? viewing Vanderbilt in the way that we've been indoctrinated viewing them for our entire lives before you got there? A lot's been made of my remarks in 22 where I said at me today's that we're in time will be the best program in college football.
Starting point is 00:16:45 And I you don't like I guess, you know, it's, I don't want to say, I mean, like for me personally, what, what I knew to be true is we have to train the minds within our program. Really, the only value that we care about is the value we create with our investment. And so, you know, what we say externally is actually just a manifestation of what we believe internally. And we know that people outside our program will judge it, however they want to judge it. But when we say those things, we're speaking to our target audience, which is our team, our staff members, the people that are pouring into this program, and that believe it has the potential to become what we know it can become. And so I think one of the great exercises is
Starting point is 00:17:31 not limiting yourself based off how you're going to be judged externally. It's just like, hey, we, you know, we believe this. And so we're going to work to create it. And we're not going to be fearful and to say it. And what what the world expects from Vanderbilt football is for us to stay in the corner and for us to stay small and to play our part. And we refuse to do that. And I don't care what anyone thinks about that. So, you know, the only way we get where we want to go is if we are all in on this idea that, you know, the externals don't matter. All that matters is tending to the internal. What is the level of relatedness we have here? What is the level of investment we have here? How far are you willing to go in suffering and sacrifice to create something that is special?
Starting point is 00:18:15 And, you know, that's what we've been able to capture. And if you, independent of anything outside the program. I have a follow up that I've been dying to ask you for a few years. And I think I've talked about this on the show with Andy before. But when you guys got there, I talked to Barton Simmons and wrote a long story in the athletic about your guys' initial plan, which is to recruit guys with specific traits that maybe Vanderbilt wasn't getting, maybe more risky guys that hadn't had as much experience reasons that they weren't ranked higher in the portal and to keep them in the program
Starting point is 00:18:53 cultivate that culture, develop them into really good college football players and potentially pros. Do I have that part right so far? Yeah. Okay. Then after you take over the job, NIL drops, the portal opens, and it felt like to me that your entire plan, which is to get underappreciated assets into the program and then to invest in those guys and their development became a harder thing to execute because people would want to leave or be harder to get those guys. to stay bought in when they can go play earlier somewhere else and all the things that you guys preached. How much did you have to pivot, if at all, from your initial plan at Vanderbilt and how is it kind of remarkable that you guys have been able to find the success that you found this soon in your tenure after potentially having to pivot off of a plan that I thought could work but had to change? So that initial plan, it was, you know, I think it's really important.
Starting point is 00:19:48 You know, we wanted transferable skills. So, you know, you're looking for length. You're looking for speed. you're looking for the raw material that may you know there's a blemish here a blemish there you know you can coach through that you can train through that and you know the kind of the idea is in three years you'll have a player that looks like that freshman five star that's coming in ready to play and you know that's how you bat the idea that we're not early on going to be competing for the same player in recruiting but we can find the
Starting point is 00:20:16 qualities that produce NFL players and develop the person and give the person time to mature And in time, you're dealing with an older roster that you feel like is SEC capable. To your point, the convergence of the portal, NIL, and really what all came to ahead for us in the winter of 23, was this idea that the players that we had developed that were stepping into performance that was garnering attention, they were getting courted by our league peers. I lost a offensive tackle to Alabama. I lost a thousand-yard rusher to Kentucky. I lost an undrafted, free agent-graded linebacker to the NFL, all because we didn't have a system for NIL. And that was an oversight on my part.
Starting point is 00:21:05 I just, you know, and it also, not to be, I mean, like, we also had no pre, you know, made systems and engines running that we're going to resource our roster that way. I mean, this is a whole new world. And for Vanderbilt, you know, we had to get serious. really quickly about what it was going to take that the primary objective in that winner of 23 is we have to retain the players that we have spent so much time developing here that will be that allow for that next level of success and then
Starting point is 00:21:38 it became the ones that we're ready to allow to move on and we needed to have some of those guys move on now how do we go out and we acquire people to build out the top end of our depth chart and so you you asked, was I surprised how quickly it turned. I think there was some real foundational. And by the way, when we went to the portal, we were still looking for the same things. You're looking for length. You're looking for speed.
Starting point is 00:22:01 You're just, you're finding the more complete, you know, finished product, the guys that have had snap experience. I think of a guy like Cordes said, you know, certainly Eli Stowers would be an example. Certainly, Diego Pavia would be an example. Randon Fottnett. I mean, these guys, you were guys that had the traits. and maybe were a little further along in their development than they were when they were just freshmen, had some snap experience that were able to bring that to the competition at the top end of our depth chart. And I think it was the combination of all those things, the foundational environment that we'd worked so hard to create
Starting point is 00:22:40 and been methodical in creating, the talent, the early talent that we signed and developed on the field you know, and kind of took our lumps with those guys. And then this influx of guys that were able to build at the top end of our depth chart and address some needs we had. And the only reason we were able to retain these guys and go get the others is because we were ready to engage in the NIL world. And now, you know, we don't have to become the farm system for the SEC, right? That was the biggest fear we had was all this work in development and now our guys can leave us.
Starting point is 00:23:15 Well, you know, that's not the case anymore. This is a place that they don't have. have to make any compromises here we can we can have it all when you joined the call we were talking about gold and the price of gold and i think that it's funny that we're talking about this because if you were somebody like my dad bought gold and i was like dad why are you buying gold all you're doing is buying gold and collecting it for the toughest person on your block and that's kind of what it felt like at first it's like you guys are finding these players you're developing them and then all of a sudden, like when another SEC comes in, your hard work gets to go play for their
Starting point is 00:23:50 program. And I'm happy to hear that you guys solve that issue because that I almost was like this, I believed in Vanderbilt's plan. You know, Barton Simmons is one of the smartest guys I've ever spoken to my entire life. Like, I could see that happening. And it's really cool to see that Vanderbilt, you know, broke through that and is having the success that it is. It was not without pain. And it was not without some real hard-to-heart conversations about where are we, where do we want to go, and what are we learning right now to help us pivot. And I think just a testament to our department, everyone on staff here that we were able to kind of see through the murky water there to find a course through and obviously find
Starting point is 00:24:29 our way to some success here. So how does that manifest itself now? Because you're coming off this LSU win, which any other time in recent Vanderbilt football history would have been the biggest win ever and the biggest thing in the world. But you guys went into that game as the favorite. You played like the favorite. You beat them in a fairly routine, non-fluky way. And now you have Missouri coming in.
Starting point is 00:24:54 And they are six and one. They've lost to the same team you've lost to. They want to play in the college football playoff too. How do you change or do you have to change anything? The player's mindset coming off a win like LSU to then turn the page to something like what you've got to do this weekend. Well, it's really important. and to point out that we started the formation of this team on January 7th, 2025. So this isn't something we've scrapped together here in the last couple months.
Starting point is 00:25:23 This is something we've worked really hard to prepare for over the course of the entire year. And what that means is on January 7th, we were talking about what we needed to do to play into January this year. You know, what were the sacrifices, what were the things we were willing to focus on improving? and what commitments were we willing to make to do that. It was a foundational belief that that was possible and that we had the ability to win every game on our schedule. It's going to come down to how we focus and execute and played our identity and our strategy.
Starting point is 00:25:56 And so when you start January 7th without understanding that you can't look up whatever today is October 21st and be surprised that you sit where you sit. So like we're not shocked to be here. and what we, the promises we made to each other, the commitments we made to ourselves was, hey, when we get to these points, we're not going to sit here and make it bigger than it is, right?
Starting point is 00:26:20 We have another opportunity this week against a really good team. We're going to need to play well. We have to stay committed to our process. And if we can do that, we can win a game. If we don't, we leave it the chance. And obviously, we're going to learn some tough lessons that way. But this is a mature team. You know, we have a lot of grads and seniors.
Starting point is 00:26:37 and they've invested a lot into this. And so I don't have to like wrangle their attention very much. They come in ready to work. They're focused on. They know the program. They know the plan. They're focused on the execution of that plan. And, you know, we're going to take it climb by climb week by week and see how good we can make it.
Starting point is 00:26:58 All right, Clark. We close our interviews with our newest guests with the same question. What is your rule for life? well i i have to i got to tell you first that one of the rules is only drink good coffee but i think that would oh it's a cruel rule into like a totally different uh you know no no it's it's it's a great one and it's interesting because one of ari's best friends in the whole world a guy named bill landis who covers ohio state he gave me a rule for life from him that was always choose better bread and it's life changing but always drink good coffee man it it is so
Starting point is 00:27:36 It's so true. Yeah, there's a clear difference, and I think if you're going to drink as much of it as I do, then you start to learn the difference. But I got to tell you, the thing I would say, and I think this is maybe a little more sincere, but also true to who I am and true to our program is one of our kind of core tenets in our program is belief as a practice. And I think a lot of the things that you guys have asked about kind of circle this idea that when you believe in something, it should show up in the way you work for it. And so much of this world is about, hey, you know, you can tell someone anything you want. When you watch them work, when you see the links that they're willing to go to sacrifice and suffer for it, that'll tell you about the depth of their belief. And so so much of our internal confidence and so much of kind of what you see show up for us on Saturday comes from this idea that our belief is a practice. It's something that shows up every single day in the way we work. can invest and it's what's allowed us to get this program to this point so that maybe that's a
Starting point is 00:28:37 little more sincere than the coffee although both probably pretty important i was saying in your life you we before we started recording we figured out we're on the same coffee schedule two in the morning one in the afternoon enjoy cup number three today coach yeah i appreciate that guys great to be with y'all thanks for being here coach means a lot to us of course Clark Lee was brought to you by Roeback, hoodies, polos, cuisips, and more. I'm wearing my Hezzy hoodie right now. One of my favorite pieces of clothing.
Starting point is 00:29:07 Yes, they get stolen a lot of the time in my house, but you should be looking for your own school-branded version of the Hez-H-E-H-H-E-H-O-B-A-C-K-com. That's R-H-H-H-O-B-A-C-K-com. If Clark Lee wants a Hezzy hoodie, there's a beautiful Vanderbilt one elsewhere in the state. They got a beautiful Power T one. The Nebraska one's awesome. They got these quarter zips that look like the helmet stripes.
Starting point is 00:29:34 Like the Ohio State Helmet Stripe Quarter Zip is beautiful. There's a beautiful Florida quarter zip helmet stripe. They've got it all. So, Roeback.com, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com, hoodies, polos, Q-Zips. The joggers are tremendous. I've been wearing the Roeback joggers everywhere. The promo code is Andy for 20% off your first order. Roeback.com, R-H-O-B-A-C-K-com.
Starting point is 00:29:56 promo code Andy for 20% off your first order. Ari, we've talked Clark Lee a lot. I don't think Clark Lee's going anywhere. But a lot of these jobs were open. There are going to be a lot of coaches' names flying around. We talked at length about the Lane Kippen thing that Florida is going to go after him. We talked about Matt Rule and the podcast.
Starting point is 00:30:17 possibility of Penn State, maybe going after him because of the connections there. But you made a great point. The next Kirby Smart could be out there somewhere. The next Dan Lannning, the next Ryan Day could be out there somewhere. And it's maybe not the person who's the most obvious. It's some names that I think the hardcore college football fans are the people who watch this show every day. I think they know these names very well. I think it's the names the casual football fan doesn't.
Starting point is 00:30:47 quite know yet. And so that's the question. You've made a list. You're writing a column for on three. So where do you want to start for this one? First, I want to backtrack one second because I do think that even the people who listened to the show didn't know who Clark Lee was like 50% of them, right? Before he... But the other name fan certainly did. Certainly. So that's 10% maybe of the show's audience. I think that like these names in general, like some of them are like like pretty obvious of like yeah I know who that is but some of them are like I've never heard that name before my life and so there's kind of like a scale of this so depending on where you want to start we can start with the more obvious ones and then work our way down to some of the
Starting point is 00:31:30 the more obscure ones that we're talking about on the phone yesterday so first off let's start with a name that people are very familiar with on this show and I don't know nationally if you think like a random Arizona state fan who's not like a casual Arizona state fan knows who Fran Brown is no no and i think i would think most fans who weren't super hardcore or were georgia weren't georgia fans didn't know who fran brown was when he got the syracuse job because fran brown was the georgia db's coach when he got the syracuse job i know that they aren't having a great year this year and i know that they got kind of messed up a little bit at the quarterback position which might have something to do with it but
Starting point is 00:32:17 Given his background, you know, coaching at Georgia, I think that's obviously a great resume, bullet point, but being from New Jersey, like if I were in charge of the hiring process at Penn State, this would be my first and final call. You know, he would own, I believe, the entire East Coast in recruiting in a way that Penn State has, you know, Penn State's always been a factor in Jersey and in the East Coast into Philadelphia and those places. I think Fran Brown would own that territory. And there is not really anything about his resume, you know, outside of, I don't know, making Syracuse really good last year that people don't really know. He won nine games in year one at Syracuse in his first year as a head coach. But I feel like there is an it factor a little bit to being a head coach in college. I think like if like Dion Sanders is a 10 out of 10 with it factor based on name recognition alone, Fram Brown is probably a three out of ten
Starting point is 00:33:18 because he still has the same factor but just isn't to have name recognizability that Dion has. I think that he is a person that would breathe life into any program that he took over. So like, again, this is a speculative
Starting point is 00:33:34 hire for sure, right? Because you are taking a leap of faith that's somebody who won one season. They're not great this year. What? They're not great this year. Not great. So you would take a leap of faith, but I do think that when it comes to attracting talent,
Starting point is 00:33:52 and when I was speaking at the Gainesville quarterback club with you last week, I brought this up. When Fran Brown took the Syracuse job, Andy, we were at the athletic, and he said in his introductory press conference that Syracuse would be in the mix or recruiting four and five star players because it doesn't matter where you. you are it's you're recruiting the person not the program and vice versa and i called him to write a story about this and i need to go back and read it but i remember being like all right fran you know you promised everybody that you were going to do something you're not going to be able to do that like what's the actual plan for making syracuse good and like the man got mad at me on the phone
Starting point is 00:34:34 like the even the insinuation that he wasn't going to be able to recruit high level players was an insult to him and i think that that then that turned out to be the column and the story that i wrote um Could you imagine with the Penn State resources and the Penn State, you know, aura, what that guy could do there? He would have a roster that could compete with Ohio State and Michigan and that bunch immediately. And if you're Penn State, and like this is a general hotboard, so it's not just about Penn State. This could be for anybody that's like kind of in that realm. I don't know. Don't you think he'd be pretty good at Florida?
Starting point is 00:35:12 I think he'd be good at Florida. I think he'd be good at Florida State if that opens up. I think he'd be good. You could put him in Arkansas and he'd be good. That's the thing. There's no limitation on the guy. Interestingly enough, do you know who his, one of his greatest mentors is? It's the guy who actually recruited him out of Juko when he was a player.
Starting point is 00:35:32 It's Matt Ruhl. Matt Rool recruited him to Western Carolina when Fran Brown was a Juko player. And then Fran Brown, his formative years, a lot of them were working for Matt Ruhl. And if I'm not mistaken, I'm 90% sure this is true. Wasn't Pat Kraft the AD when he was on the staff at Temple too? So there is a- Sure was. Sure was.
Starting point is 00:35:56 So I think that this is like a home run for Penn State, and I don't think they're going to do it. So maybe, but like if you're like trying to go from really good to great, bringing somebody in like that would be a pretty big swing. It might be like a fastball down the middle. You swing as hard as you can and you may miss. you may miss but if you hit contact buddy you might go through a place that you didn't even think you could go and that's the thing about the pen state job because we've talked about this the comp for the pen state firing james franklin there's only one it's georgia firing mark rickt and georgia paid it off by hiring kirby smart if you don't hire if you like if you're
Starting point is 00:36:36 pat craft if you do not hire a kirby smart ryan day level coach then you're you you shouldn't have never fired James Franklin in the first place. And how much how much of coaching his resources? Some of it, but not all of it. I think 20% would be my, if I had to put a number on it. But if you don't have that
Starting point is 00:36:57 20%, you're in a bad spot. I think Fran Brown has the it factor to combine with that 20% to create some sort of like explosive scenario in a good way. I agree. I think I think he would clean up
Starting point is 00:37:13 in terms of roster building. But I also think if you look at his first season at Syracuse, he showed you, he knows what he's doing from putting a staff together standpoint, game management standpoint. And he's still very young as a head coach. He's still learning as a head coach. He is. But don't give me, I don't want a coach to learn on the job.
Starting point is 00:37:34 Kirby Smart learned on the job and he's done just fine. Ryan Day learned on the job and he's done just fine. Dan Lenton learned on the job and he's done just fine. Like, you know, Fran Brown's going to bring Jeff Nixon, his offensive coordinator, who's another good, good offensive mind. Like, this is, this is going to be very interesting to see because these jobs are all going to be open. And Syracuse is obviously going to want to keep Fran Brown. I don't know if they're going to be able to because so many jobs are going to be open. And I do think his name is going to come up for a few of them.
Starting point is 00:38:10 And I think that we're finding out, too, like, again, this week, the Steve Sarkesian offensive coordinator situation came up. And, like, I wonder now more than ever if you're hiring a CEO or you're hiring, you're hiring a X as an O's mind, I think he'd be a hell of a CEO, especially if he was mature enough to delegate, you know, play calling duties and, you know, hiring a good staff. Like, if he could bring the players, like, I think that that would be a pretty good mix. Okay, we spent a lot of time on Fran Brown.
Starting point is 00:38:37 The list is going to get more, uh, less, obvious as we go down. So stick with us if you're like want to, if you're a sicko who wants the random names. But the next one on the list is a person that really hasn't come up much, but I'm very familiar with, a offensive coordinator for Ohio State Brian Hartline. And I think that he is a, this is a very interesting one. Now, I was talking to Bill Landis, one of my best friends in the entire world on the phone about this yesterday. And I was actually hesitant with this at first because he said, because he said, because As I said, how much of Brian Hartline success?
Starting point is 00:39:13 And it's like, it's hard because he has recruited his position better than anybody has recruited their position in college football over the last seven years. And developed the players at his position better than anyone else. Yeah, as Jackson Smith and Jigba tore up Monday night football last night. It's not even close. Like, yeah, he's the best receivers coach, maybe in the world. That said, when you're recruiting receivers to Ohio State, it's easier and easier. and easier to get those five-star players to come to your school, every single time one hits.
Starting point is 00:39:45 Like now it's kind of like a snowball rolling down the hill to me. It's like, okay, well, the first few were great. But then once you do it over and over and over again, then the players who are most ready to be good in the NFL come to you, and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. So how much does, and also Ohio State has the number one built-in advantage of any place in the world, which is it's Ohio State. But how much of Brian Hartline's resume? just saying this is a skeptic. I'm not saying I believe it. I'm just playing devil's advocate
Starting point is 00:40:14 here because it's a good conversation. Do you think that his resume in terms of what he's done at Ohio State is an extensive enough resume to get hired at a place like Florida or Ole Miss, if that comes open or Arkansas or one of those places? Or do you think that you want to see more play calling, more game management? Like, and what Bill said to me. I don't need to see play calling. So I'll give you an example of a guy who Brian Hart used to work for. Urban Meyer never called a play before he became a head coach. He was the wide receivers coach at Notre Dame.
Starting point is 00:40:49 He never called a play as the Bowling Green head coach. He never called a play as the Utah head coach. I mean, yes, I'm probably sure he recommended some plays to Dan Mullen to call. But he wasn't the primary play caller. That isn't a prerequisite. Ed Ors won a national title without ever calling a play. Urban Meyer won three national titles without ever calling. a play dabbosweeney won two national titles without ever calling a play so here's the question bill
Starting point is 00:41:16 posed to me and it kind of hit me in the in the jewels if you don't think that brian hartline is ready to be a head coach i'll challenge you with one thing give me one discernible difference between brian hartline right now and dan lanning six months before he got hired at oregon dan landing was a play caller but but i just said it doesn't matter but brian hartline paris you're comparing him to the wrong Let me give, let me help you with your, your analogy. Brian Hartline is Davosweeney in 2008. He is Urban Meyer in 2000. But he is calling plays.
Starting point is 00:41:49 That's important to, to record. Yeah, but he's, he's been doing it for like a half a season. So I would, if we're just talking about his body of work, it's more similar. Like, what was Davosweeney at Clemson? Ace recruiter culture guy. That's why he was named the interim coach. an ace recruiter culture guy going back to even Fran Brown
Starting point is 00:42:12 is the whole deal probably is the CEO like that's what you need to be to be the CEO that's what Urban Meyer was and does Brian Hartlines or a former Ohio state player former number one receiver in the NFL
Starting point is 00:42:25 yeah and Hartline has this over everybody else by the way he was a very good receiver who got a second contract in the NFL like this is a good player so instant respect from the people he's recruiting. So the fact that he did that too, and he did it with the Dolphins, does that or a transfer from Columbus? I think so. I think so. Now, I don't know if it's
Starting point is 00:42:51 necessarily for like a Penn State Florida type job, but I think even like if I'm Hunter, you're a check at Arkansas, I give him a call. I want to know what his vision is because that's the thing. We don't know what his vision is. That's when Urban Meyer walked in to Bowling Green and said, here's how I would run a program. They were like, oh, my God, you've got this. So we don't know what Heartline will be like, but you've dealt with him quite a bit.
Starting point is 00:43:22 I've talked to him a little bit over the years. I suspect you will interview him and he will move up your list. He's sharp, yeah. You don't do what he's done without being sharp. So, you know, that said, the other thing that I don't know is what his actual goal in life is because you're talking about somebody who made a he had a max contract in the league like it's not like he's hurting for cash right now you know he's making a good salary at ohio state that's him showing our projected brackets with them losing
Starting point is 00:43:53 in the first round uh from last year so and i said to his face like he didn't forget that sorry do you think that i should you know i said it to like do you think you gave us a reason to pick you before we picked it like i don't understand uh but like i like a little bit of red ass Yes, I like that. Yeah, but interesting name. Okay, you want to go on to, maybe we can do these two at the same time because they're kind of the same. Why don't we do Glenn Schumann, the defensive coordinator at Georgia and Will Stein, the offensive coordinator at Oregon. So now you're just picking off of trees of people who did what you're trying to do.
Starting point is 00:44:28 Well, the tree thing's interesting because Glenn Schumann comes from a very defined tree. You know exactly which tree you're talking about was Glenn Schumann. Glenn Schumann started out basically did every job within the Alabama organization short of working on the field when Kirby got the Georgia job he took Glenn Schumann with him and put him on the field and so it is a complete Nick Sabin Kirby Smart Tree situation pretty will Stein has worked for everybody will Stein has has played for you know had Jeff Brom is is OC I believe when he's at Oregon but he's at Oregon but he's he's he's he's in Oregon but he's he's he's he's he's he's He played for Charlie Strong. I'm sorry, when he was at Louisville. He was a quarterback at Louisville. He played for Charlie Strong. He worked for Bobby Petrino.
Starting point is 00:45:13 He worked for Charlie Strong. He's worked for Jeff Trailer. He's worked for Dan Lannning. He's been a high school coach in Texas. So he's got a very diverse set of influences where one of human is straight Kirby Saved. How much do you think the last place you worked defines your next job? I think you take something from everywhere you work.
Starting point is 00:45:39 I will give you Bob Stoops as the best example of this because Bob Stoops started his career at Kansas State. He became the defensive coordinator at Kansas State. That's how he became a hot name. He gets the Florida job. The Florida defensive coordinator job in 1996 helps win a national title, is at Florida for three seasons, then becomes the Oklahoma head coach.
Starting point is 00:46:02 Him marrying Steve Spurrier, management style, with Bill Snyder's management style, turned Bob Stoops into a Hall of Fame coach. So you use everything you've got in your experience. And I think for Will Stein, everything is very, very valuable. In the world of trying to find the next Kirby Smart or to a lesser extent, the next Dan Lannning, is it wise to just go get the people who work directly under those guys? can't hurt now i will say
Starting point is 00:46:38 the next kirby smart people tried to hire saving assistance before georgia hired kirby smart the the list is lengthy tennessee and derrick dully florida and will must champ south carolina and will must champ which by the way south carolina was going to hire kirby smart at that point and that's why georgia fired mark rick because they knew they were going to lose their chance at kirby so you saw people try to mimic what Sabin was doing, and nobody could do it except Kirby.
Starting point is 00:47:11 So that Dan Lanning could then do what Kirby's doing at Oregon is equally rare. So that's the part with Glenn Schumann. Can Glenn Schumann do what Dan Lanning's done? And I think that's going to be the question people ask, and he's going to have opportunities to prove that. It wouldn't have opportunities this offseason. It wouldn't be a good faith discussion if we didn't. also acknowledged that Kirby Smart and Dan Lanning
Starting point is 00:47:37 took two of the most advantageous jobs possible to be successful at. Correct. So it's like you could make the same case about Will Mustchamp, but if you drop Will Mushchamp in Athens, maybe his career goes a little bit differently. Will Must Champ succeeded Urban Meyer at Florida. Yeah. He had it pretty good.
Starting point is 00:47:54 Yeah, he did. If you take these guys and you hire them at Arkansas, is that different than taking them and hiring them at Florida? Would Dan Landing be winning at Arkansas right now? I don't know the answer to that. I think he would.
Starting point is 00:48:10 I think that Dan Lannings winning, I love his coaching style and I love the culture. I love everything about the guy. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that the players he has on his team, he has a lot of resources to go get
Starting point is 00:48:22 in a way that maybe Arkansas. But he's improved the right, because Mario Cristobal definitely made that roster good, but Lannin took it to another level. But there's also a case to be made that Oregon is more powerful as a talent accumulation factory
Starting point is 00:48:34 now than they've ever been before in the last two or three years. They're recruiting at a level. Which could be the system or it could be Dan Lanning or could be both. It's hard to think it's a little bit of both. It's probably a little bit of both. But this is the thing that I worry about, even going back to Heartline, going back, maybe Fran Brown, I think would probably be the most recession proof of this because he's,
Starting point is 00:48:55 his first go at it was at a place that I would have ranked in the bottom five hardest places to, or top five hardest places to coach 10 years ago, is that if you take a person, that has only driven a Ferrari their entire life and tell them to go win a race and a Honda Civic that's souped up like from Fast and the Furious you can win the race in that car but you probably have to drive it a little bit better
Starting point is 00:49:18 than you would the Ferrari. And I think that there is some, I would be a little bit afraid of that. Now, that said, anybody who knows how to build a roster or knows what it takes to build a roster who has sat in the meeting rooms and has been a part of the accumulation of that talent knows what it takes, and I assume that knowing what it takes and seeing how the sausage is made
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Starting point is 00:51:17 So Kenny Dillingham's experience prior to going to work for Dan Landing at Oregon was Mike Norvell, Gus Malzon, Todd Graham, like, he had a fairly diverse group of influences as well. The last person he worked for before taking over Arizona State was Dan Lanning. So how much of what Kenny Dillingham learned from Dan Lanning has he implemented at Arizona State, which is not Oregon in terms of resources and player accumulation, but he's done a great job. So if we're talking about it like that, then I would imagine Will Stein has probably learn quite a bit as well. Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:52:03 Now, the, if you want to go down this rabbit hole for five seconds, do you think that if you put Fran, the four names we've mentioned, Fran Brown, Brian Hartline, Will Stein, and Glenn Schumann all in a row, and you just all have them start at an even playing field? Do you think that one coach would be more likely to be successful at a higher ranked program one coach would be more successful at Arkansas like question like that's like it's like if you put Brian heartline at Florida I think it would hit like I think he would because that's what he's used to Fran has George the the Georgia period for Fran was really the only time he got to be at the superpower he's worked at the non-superpowers for most of his career at Temple and Baylor so like
Starting point is 00:52:50 I would I would think he's more successful at the one that doesn't have it all because he's already dealt with that. Yes, I would put Fran Brown over the other three at a place that But Will Stein's been at UTSA? Like, he knows what that's like, too. Yeah. Well, I just mean from a, at least the thing that Fran Brown has that the others don't is that he has head coaching experience and a track record at least for one year of having enjoyed success that was not commensurate with the rest of the history of the program for the most part. And that, so like, and like that's the thing too, to go back to the initial conversation, which is, is Arkansas really that much worse of a job than Florida?
Starting point is 00:53:29 Like, I don't know. So it is all very tricky, but these are names that we have been talking about quite a bit. All right, let's go down the list a little bit more here, Andy. Okay. Bob Chesney. Oh, yeah. James Madison head coach. And I think that if you want to hire directly and pick the apples from the tree that, like the Knicks
Starting point is 00:53:56 Sabin tree that turned into the Kirby Smart Tree has got to be the most expensive fruit at the market, you know, what if we start trying to duplicate the success of Kurt Signetti and taking somebody that went to that path or duplicate the success? And there's another name. I'll just toss them in here because I don't know if we have enough time to talk about 15 people for 10 minutes. But a guy like Mike Jacobs, you've never heard of this person. He's also, that's the name of my financial advisor, believe it or not. He is the head coach at Mercer. He's an Ohio State alum and he's been winning his record as a head coach in division two is 90 and 21 like it reminds me of kind of like Kalin DeBoer like do you take coaches who have won at the
Starting point is 00:54:38 lower level at a very rapidly high pace I think he's won or played in the conference championship game of his conference in like six of the eight years he's been a head coach and like again that's Mercer we can even link him to a profile on three no one even knows who this person is Well, and it's interesting because the guy Mike Jacobs replaced it, Mercer, Drew Chronic, the current Navy offensive coordinator is another one that I would say you kind of need to look into. So, yeah, he's made the Navy offense different and fun. We had an anecdote from a coach that had played Navy last year that said when they came off of a biweek, they ran 25 new plays he's never seen in football before, which I thought was awesome.
Starting point is 00:55:18 Yeah. So, yeah, so that's another one. Drew Chronic is another name. but I want to get back to Bob Chesney because yes, he is at the job Kurt Signetti had before he went to Indiana, but Bob Chesney is not a Kurt Signetti tree guy. Bob Chesney's been a head coach for a long time. He's been at a bunch of
Starting point is 00:55:36 different places. He was at Holy Cross before he was at JMU and he was really good. He was an assumption before Holy Cross. He's been a head coach since 2010 even though he's a very young guy because he's been at lower levels. This is the Kurt Signetti
Starting point is 00:55:52 path, even if he's not a Kurt Signetti tree guy. Because remember, Kurt Signetti wanted to be a head coach, was not getting any head coaching offers. So he went to Indiana University of Pennsylvania to be a head coach, because that's who would offer him a head coaching job. Bob Chesney is very much in that mold. You've seen Bob Chesney take over JMU. And remember, JMU got pretty gutted by Kurt Signetti, taking the best players to Indiana. And it really hasn't stopped Bob Chesney at all. nine and four in the first year without signetti and now they are six and one with a four and oh record in the sunbelt this year yep so um another name that i don't know uh this this is one okay if fran brown does leave syracuse if they don't send the jet to pick up bob chesney they're insane but i also think any northeastern job so this is one that actually pat craft should be looking at because bob chesney has been successful in the northeast his entire career Now he's kind of moved down to the DMV, but it's still kind of the mid-Atlantic.
Starting point is 00:56:55 So jobs that I would look for, if either North Carolina or NC State opened, Virginia Tech is already open. These are all jobs that Bob Chesney would fit very, very well. Yeah. And how much do you buy one at a rapid pace at a smaller school that people don't watch and how does that translate? Because I do think that there is a major gap between resources and recruit. and all the things that used to make coaches great between those two levels. But I don't know if there's a major coaching gap between X's and O's and, like, culture and all those things that you would need at lower levels that translate to the higher level.
Starting point is 00:57:34 So, like, I was scared. I was scared as hell. I've said this a million times when Kailen Bore got hired at Alabama because he had a pretty limited track record, just year-wise, coaching in the power four, never signed a five, star or four star prospect this entire career going into the Alabama job like and he's done fine you know so um it's it's something to think about all right i'm going to switch gears now to someone else andy that people probably have heard of and i wonder if he's gaining a lot of traction especially after friday night is jeff braham going to become a sexy name
Starting point is 00:58:13 jeff brom's already a sexy name i think the thought is he's at his alma mater now so it's harder to get him away. But Jeff Brompe is. I think he already is. I think among people in the business, he already is. This is the guy who took Purdue to the Big Ten championship game, went to Louisville and took them to the ACC championship game immediately, has Louisville competitive once again in the ACC. Like last year, they were pretty good. They just happened to have the toughest in-conference schedule in the ACCC in terms of draw of the hardest teams. They are good every year. He gets the most out of his quarterback every year. He is one that Penn State should consider, that Florida should consider, that any other big premium job should consider. And you have to be a big premium job because otherwise you have no chance. He's not leaving for you unless you are a big premium job. And we're not sure if he's leaving at all. Correct. He's at his alma mater. It's home. It's where he grew up. But I do think,
Starting point is 00:59:20 This is not the Ole Miss Florida conversation. The ceiling is different between, say, Louisville and Penn State or Louisville and Florida. What about Louisville and Arkansas? I would stay at Louisville. Okay. Because we do have that conference discussion. Yeah. I think I would stay at Louisville because I think you can get to the playoff easier at Louisville.
Starting point is 00:59:44 Yeah. And if you get to the playoff in the next few years in your design or desire. ever want to leave you can go get one of those big big jobs yeah yeah he's done a remarkable job here's another one a little bit older but kind of turning heads again this year willie fritz at houston he's six and one at houston are you kidding me six and one at houston six and one at Houston, obviously had great success at Tulane. I don't know, like, again, age is an interesting dynamic because I think that, like, Kurt Signetti is showing you that you don't have to be 28
Starting point is 01:00:27 or 38 to be a good head coach. I think we have it in our heads that, like, I feel like so many different coaches' profiles would be different if you, like, put them in a body with a six-pack and they were 31 years old, you know, and then they had the same resume. That's why Bob Chesney's the perfect coach. He's already got the body. Yeah, you got to have a good body. I would hire this guy.
Starting point is 01:00:51 The Willie Fritz thing, he's made every place he's been better, and he's been in a lot of places. That's the thing that I find so interesting. You know, he's made Central Missouri better. He's made Sam Houston State better. He's made Georgia Southern better. He's made Tulane better.
Starting point is 01:01:11 he's made Houston better a hell of a lot faster than anybody thought he could. Tulane's entire scope of program is different because of him. Yeah, John Somerall is doing a really good job there, but he'll tell you it's the foundation that Willie Fritz laid that allowed him to come in and have success right away. Yeah, and then when you see him leave and then do this somewhere else that we viewed as behind the eight ball in year two, Like, that moves the needle to me.
Starting point is 01:01:42 Yeah. I think that one of the most important things in this conversation is how many people, especially with people who are up there in age, how many people have coached in different levels? I mean, I think he was like a, wasn't he the Blinn Junior College coach at one point? Like, he was. He was. He was before the, you made it famous? Yeah. He's done it all.
Starting point is 01:02:07 He's been at every level. And he's made the team back. better at every single level. Love that. Okay, another name that we have talked about on the show. He was on our show last week, Alex Scholish. Alex Golish at USF. I put his name on a list before the season of group of five head coaches who I thought
Starting point is 01:02:29 might be able to get power conference jobs. And I got pushback not just from fans, but from people in the agent community saying, are you sure he's done a good enough job? And I said, if you have followed USF football through the years, you know that going seven and six two years in a row at USF is incredibly difficult. And that's what he had done, including last year where he went seven and six, despite Byron Brown, his star quarterback being out for a lot of the year. He now has Byron Brown healthy.
Starting point is 01:02:59 And right now, he's going to be playing another one of our guys on the hot board that I think is maybe a little more well known. Ryan Silverfield they play this week USF Memphis is this week and the winner has the inside track on the American championship game
Starting point is 01:03:15 and the winner of the American is going to the playoff. Yep. And that was the other person and I think that's the last person
Starting point is 01:03:21 on the list that I have here in front of me, Ryan Silverfield, which is a big game. Yep. Maybe the most impactful game of the weekend
Starting point is 01:03:29 as it pertains to the playoffs. I would agree with that because I think it may decide one side of the American Championship game and I think that's very interesting.
Starting point is 01:03:41 I've got one more name for you in the American. It might be the same one. Is it Eric? Eric Morris. Yeah. At North Texas. So North Texas is very good this year.
Starting point is 01:03:51 Obviously they lost a USF. But Eric Morris is a former Texas Tech receiver worked under Cliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech. Became a head coach very young. He's still very young, by the way. But became a head coach very young and incarnate word
Starting point is 01:04:06 San Antonio. And what's so special about what Eric Morris did in Incarnate Word? Well, he unearthed a wingtie quarterback by the name of Cam Ward there. And when Eric Morris left in Carnate Word to become the offensive coordinator at Washington State, Cam Ward followed him. While the offensive coordinator at Washington State, Eric Morris went back into Texas, where he recruits very well. And he found a quarterback in Little Elm, Texas named John Mateer. And he signed him at Washington State and developed him at Washington State before taking the North Texas. Texas head coaching job. At North Texas, all he's done is take a quarterback named Drew Vestamaker who never started a high school game, who's one of the better quarterbacks in the country this
Starting point is 01:04:47 season. And one thing Eric Morris did that, you know, again, you learn on the job. Their defense was pretty bad last year. So he went out and hired Skylar Cassidy from Sam Houston State, who imported, not only brought his defense and his scheme, six starters from Sam Houston State followed them. And lo and behold, now North Texas can play defense. They're six and one. Eric Morris is a name you hear a lot in the Oklahoma State search. And I think in Big 12 circles, his name is more familiar. I would not limit it to just the Oklahoma State job, though. I think a lot of schools with it like, I think Arkansas should call Eric Morris, talk to him. I think UCLA should call Eric Morris and Texas. I mean, Arkansas makes sense because that's an important state for recruiting for them.
Starting point is 01:05:31 Anybody who's finding guys in Texas that the quarterback position is a pretty exciting candidate. Yeah. So. So, yeah, there are a lot of coaches out there with interesting histories that may be the next.
Starting point is 01:05:46 And the thing is, like, of all these names we mentioned, Ari, most of them are probably going to get bigger jobs? And about half of them are going to fall on their face at those bigger jobs. Because it's hard when you move up. It gets harder. I just want to caution people like if you're a Florida fan I'm talking to the Florida fans right now okay
Starting point is 01:06:10 and Lane Kiffin decides he wants to stay at Ole Miss it might not be the end of the world just we'll see who they who they get but it doesn't not and listen I know that like my thought process with Lane Kiffin has been like less than like go get him guys he's going to do it that's not to say that I don't think he'll be great there. I think Lane Kiffin is flourishing and coming into his own in a way that we had never seen during his tenure or his coaching tenures previously, and I would hire him
Starting point is 01:06:40 if I were Florida. I'm not saying not to. But the world in the sun doesn't rise and set with Lane Kiffin. And I think when you go back and you look through all the coaching hires that were slam dunks or no doubts about it or how many millions and millions of dollars it took to get that person out of their last job, sexy doesn't always mean best. And Lane Kiffin, Mike L. was the least sexy hire maybe of that cycle and he might wind up being the best hire of that cycle.
Starting point is 01:07:06 And like Lane Kiffin did post a picture with a shirt off and his abs were glistening. That is inherently sexy. I get it. I get wanting that guy who is a troll but also funny and gets it as your coach and he kind of fits
Starting point is 01:07:19 the bill of like what has been successful at Florida in the past. I understand the desire for him. I don't think that it's Lane Kiffin or bust. The Florida gets the right person. And that right person may be on this list, he may not be. They'll be fine.
Starting point is 01:07:33 Well, that's the thing. I mean, Eli Drinkwitz is another one that if you tell a Florida, like, you were at the quarterback club with me and I, and people said, well, what if Lane doesn't want to come? And I said, what about Eli Drinkwitz? Very similar. Like, if I put their last two years, last two or three years up next to one another, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference if I took their names away. And they're like, whoa.
Starting point is 01:07:53 And I'm like, you know, their success level is pretty close, right? it's like sometimes people get in their minds this is the guy this is the only person it's not true but and they stand we'll say this i did have a friend text me who you know who lives in gainsville who said i'm investing in hot yoga in town just in case i want in all i know is my son is a sinner at one of the highest starting center at one of the highest starting center in one of the high schools in Gainesville. And he's asking me, like, do I need to recruit Knox Giffin? So, I don't know.
Starting point is 01:08:36 I'm like, you're going to have to change your offense, bud. He ain't running your offense. I wonder how long I would last in a hot yoga class. Sounds like a bet to me. I mean, because I think the most unpleasant feeling in the entire world is being very, very hot. So, like, just already thinking about the beginning. of the class. I would be miserable before it even. I have taken hot yoga before. It's actually quite refreshing when it's over. But during, you're, you are Mr. Turn the AC down to 59 and you get
Starting point is 01:09:08 in a hotel room. Yeah. You're going to hate it. I like the shiver. But it's good for you. Sweating is good for you. Feeling that you can have is a freezing cold room, commentary from a football game on a television and a hoodie and shorts and socks underneath the covers. That's, to me, that's peak human existence. it sounds miserable what i just make the room comfortable and and wear less clothing and get out of it out from it's comfortable comfortable i'm comfortable in a wide range of temperatures as i tell my wife frequently and
Starting point is 01:09:40 it really drives your nuts i'm uncomfortable are you cold andy i'm comfortable in a wide range of temperatures are you hot annie i'm comfortable in a wide range of temperature that's actually a nice little gift because if you like i hate getting an ubers because it's always too hot in them i don't like being hot fun fact about I think the names we mentioned today are all going to be pretty hot because there are be so many freaking jobs open.
Starting point is 01:10:03 So, hope you enjoyed the hotboard. Hope you enjoyed Clark Lee and another big show for you tomorrow. I don't want to make too many promises, but I think we may have a guest that you're going to be talking a lot about after you hear this person on our show. Not making promises,
Starting point is 01:10:22 but get ready. You're going to want to see Wednesday's show. Just telling you right now, you're going to want to see it. We'll talk to you then.

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