Andy & Ari On3 - College Football Playoff 2026 PREDICTIONS: Can Georgia re-claim CFP trophy? Notre Dame as #1 seed?

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

As the college football season is rapidly approaching, Andy & Ari run through Andy’s latest prediction of this year’s playoff field. With Georgia as his eventual champion, do you agree with the field that Andy has put together for the upcoming season? Watch here as Andy & Ari run through the entire list of teams who made Andy’s field.   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (0:50) Presenting Sponsor (2:44) Intro: Andy’s field (8:48) Full list of teams (13:50) Rhoback (15:57) Last year’s Penn State & Clemson? (37:51) Akron Offensive Coordinator (47:53) Dylan Raiola on Nebraska (55:38) Conclusion: Thanks for watching!   Once Andy & Ari run through Andy’s prediction, the fellas ponder who this year’s version of Penn State & Clemson will be for the upcoming season. With plenty of teams returning talent, is there a clear and obvious answer? Is retention an over-hyped statistic? Watch here as Andy & Ari ponder.   On Tuesday afternoon, the Akron football program ignited social media. With a promotion for season ticket holders to call the plays for the first offensive drive at the home opener vs Robert Morris, is this a good idea from the Zips football program? Andy & Ari dive into this bizarre situation out of the MAC here.   To close the show, Oregon QB Dylan Raiola had some pointed comments about his former school in Nebraska. Transferring from the starting role in Lincoln to the backup position in Eugene, were these comments on his old school warranted? Andy & Ari dive into what the former Huskers QB said.   Thanks for watching!   Send your questions to: [e-mail] [e-mail]   Our show is presented by Polymarket!   New User Offer: Deposit $10, get $20 upon sign up   https://app.polymarket.us/S8ac/ON3   Trade on College Football games every week on Polymarket. Download the Polymarket App with code ON3 for a $20 bonus upon sign up.   18+ only. Restrictions and eligibility requirement apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur.   We are also sponsored by Rhoback! Use the code ANDYARI20 on Rhoback.com for 20% off for all new customers through the end of this week Rhoback.com -  20% off all Performance Polos, Shorts and more with code ANDYARI20   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Watch our show on YouTube!  https://youtu.be/t2oeIp-w7Kg   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by Polly Market, we break down my playoff predictions and where they might go wrong. Plus, we look back at Ari and I's 2025 playoff predictions, which were hilariously incorrect. We got to figure out, Ari, where we got that wrong, and then who's going to be the Penn State and Clemson of 2006? plus one lucky donor will get to script Akron's first offensive drive in the Zip's first home game. Are you ready to be an OC?

Talk about it all today on Andy and Ari on 3 presented by Polymarket. We got a new sponsor alert Ari. We are now brought to you by Polymarket. That's right. Available in all 50 states. Download that Polymarket app. And now we're taking positions. It's what we're always doing.

We're moving markets. It feels great. Yeah, we're market movers, guys. Exactly. So we're going to talk about win totals today, but this works very much like what you're used to. The difference is, well, if you've traded soybean futures or pork bellies, you're really going to know what's going on.

But basically, you're taking a position saying something to the tune of, I don't know, I think Auburn will win more than seven and a half games. And based on how many. other people take the position either with you or against you, that changes your payout. And it also changes as the season goes on. So you've got that. You've also got positions you can take on games that are going on right now, like Major League Baseball, or once college football gets kicked off, there will be positions on games

that are going on. There will be spreads. It will be very similar to what you're used to. So download the Polymarket app and use the code on three. New users get $20. when they deposit 10 on sign-ups. So you deposit 10 bucks, you get 20 bucks from Polymarket, and you start trading.

Ari. He feels like football season, man. We're here, we're in the studio, we're in Nashville together in the flesh, and there's nothing better than my two favorite things in the entire world, Andy, college football and trading. That's right. So let's start trading with Polymarket.

Download that app, use the code on three. When you deposit $10, you get $20 right off the bat. Ari, let's have a show. Let's have a show. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply not available in all jurisdictions trading is risky 100% loss can occur welcome to annie nary on 3 presented by polymarket and ari you took the heat last week it is my turn this week we've released my predicted playoff for the 2006 season I have some bombs dropping in there I have Michigan upsetting Texas in the quarterfinals.

I have Michigan beating Ohio State in the first round in a rematch of a game that Ohio State I have winning a few weeks earlier. And then I have Georgia winning a national title. Did you think about the matchups before or did you just make the list? So I made the list, did not think about the matchups, and then was like, holy crap, I have Michigan and, Ohio State playing in the first round, which I'm sure everybody's going to read it and say, oh, you did that on purpose. You just wanted to mess with everybody and rerun a Michigan,

Ohio State game a few weeks later. No, I really didn't think about it that way. I was trying to say, okay, what are the scenarios that put these teams in this situation? And so for Ohio State, I had two-loss Ohio State with one of those losses being at Texas, so they were only a one-lossed Big Ten team beating Michigan in the final game of the regular season to make the Big Ten championship game. And then they lose to Oregon in the Big Ten championship game. So that would put them, I think I have them as a seven seed and Michigan as a ten seat. And the Michigan one, I know people are saying, well, I'm Michigan. That was the one I felt like I needed to take a swing at a team that most people aren't putting in the playoff because last year, think about we didn't

have Oklahoma, none of us had Ole Miss. Some of us had Miami, me, but not everybody had Miami. And I think I needed to take some swings because that was our issue, Ari, when you and I were going over yours, is I agreed with every pick you made. And I was like, this is actually the problem because we do agree on this. All of these seem reasonable. And the way college football works now is it's not a reasonable sport anymore. Yeah. So the thing I struggle with when I was putting mine together, Andy, was that I knew I needed to make a swing. I didn't know where the swing should come from. and I also feel like if you're going to make a projected playoff field, like I don't know if I'm thinking about this the wrong way.

And I think that you brought up something really interesting before the show, which is people might all be wrong collectively on Alabama because you're not saying a lot of Alabama. Right. People aren't picking Alabama to be in the playoff this year. Alabama could like, if they run the ball well, they could very well be in the playoffs here. So my thought process on this is kind of interesting because I wonder if when you're making these preseason playoff brackets. Now obviously, picking the field is hard enough. What happens after it is just a complete

crap shoot. Yes. People understand that. Well, I want to get into that too when we talk about how I decided who won each matchup. Because it's not necessarily like, obviously I'm just guessing, but I am using the last couple of years, the two years of the 12th team playoff, to inform the choices. Because that's one thing that happened is my initial pass through, I had a completely different semifinal because I had my one through four seeds make the semifinal. And I was like, well, that won't happen. The teams with the buys are one in seven so far in the 12th team playoff. So I have to have some of those teams lose. And so I ended up

having two of those teams lose. One of them was Texas, which I had losing to Michigan, which essentially makes Michigan like the Cinderella of this bracket. Yeah. So when I was making, Speaking my bracket, Andy, the thing that I struggle with was if you put a team into the field, I want somebody, I feel like I want to be able to defend that and I want to be able to understand that to the best of my ability with the information that I have. That doesn't mean that I'm going to be right. I was hilariously wrong last year. We'll get into that. But if you put Michigan into the field, then that means you have to take somebody out that you could probably explain away a lot easier than Michigan. It was Ole Miss. Olmiss was the team I took out that would have made. made sense. Yeah. That's the,

and I struggle with that. And it probably is because you're trying to be as accurate or trying to be as possible, is, is ahead of the curve in terms of those curve balls as humanly possible. But at the same time, like when I was like thinking about, well,

who are the dark horses? I know a lot of people are excited about UCLA behind the scenes. Like they have a shot to, to do something. But that schedule, I can't, like, it's hard for me to envision. Yeah.

Them winning 10, 11 games. Now, look, I never would have envisioned an Indiana winning 11 games. in 2004. Even though their schedule wasn't that hard, it's still, and remember, when we were going into the 24th season,

they were playing the two teams that played for the national title the year before. Like Washington and Michigan were both on their schedule. And we're like, nobody was thinking about them. Yeah, right. So, and you don't know how hard someone's schedule is actually going to be. It looks daunting, but maybe it's not.

But I made zero swings. So maybe you'll be, you'll have a higher likelihood of getting it right because all I did was put in the teams that I felt were most obvious, most deserving. And that made people angry. But, um, you know, most of our teams are the same. So I think the question is last year we did this exercise. We had different brackets, but we had similar brackets because we do think alike. And I'm starting to to wonder, what did we get wrong last year? Which then, producer river came in and said, well, everybody was wrong about Clem State. Well, in Penn State. Yeah. So Arthur, one of our very

dedicated viewers, listener, I don't know if Arthur's a viewer. I don't know if Arthur's a viewer. or a listener. I don't have to email me, Arthur, and tell me, do you watch on YouTube or do you listen on podcast? But Arthur emails a lot. He's a Georgia fan and very attentive, like, pays attention to everything we say and we'll call us out on our BS and sent both of our playoff projections from last year and said, you guys need to explain this. It would be really fun to have you explain this and try to figure out where you screwed up. And he's exactly right. And it turned out he's a producer of our show today because that's yes yes thank you for that arthur yeah so before we before we go on i i do want to for the for the folks who are listening in podcast form let's go through

what i have for the playoff this year so so we know what we're dealing with so i had uh i'll just i'll read you the seeds i had notre dame number one wait is that mine or yours that's yes yes i had notadame number one, Texas number two, Oregon number three, Miami number four, Texas Tech number five. So Texas, Oregon, Miami, Texas Tech, those are your power

four conference champions. Georgia number six, Ohio State 7, Oklahoma 8, LSU 9, Michigan 10, Indiana 11. I picked Navy to win the American and get that group of six spot. And I think that's

probably not one that most people are going to pick. think we're going to see some Boise State, some UNLV, maybe New Mexico, maybe Memphis. I think we're going to see a few of those. Navy is interesting to me because Navy, 10 wins two years ago, 11 wins last year. I know they lose Blake Corvath and Eli Hydenreich, but, you know, when Braxton-Watson had to come in last year at quarterback, they beat USF. They could be really good. You know, Drew Kronix back as the O.C. I think Drew Kronix going to be a head coach candidate here soon. He was a head coach at Mercer who was successful.

So that one I think is interesting. And you go back to Arthur last year, that was the one I'm proud of. I had James Madison as the 12th seed last year, and they were the 12th seat. This was a pretty difficult spot to peg in the bracket for sure. So yeah, so that one, if you're wondering why Navy, that's why Navy. But I had Navy losing to Texas Tech in the first round, Georgia beating Indiana. in the first round, which, look, you know, you know, SEC Homer, maybe,

but Indiana has been really good in the playoff. Georgia, I think, has been unlucky in that they've run into some buzz saws in the playoff, but they don't have the buy this time. And in this scenario, I'm not sure if they would have played in the SEC championship game or not. I didn't, I'm not sure I thought that through enough of who's the SEC championship game loser in this scenario. but where I've got Georgia in Oklahoma, it could be Georgia or Oklahoma.

Then I have Michigan at Ohio State, and that's the one. Like I said, I did not plan that when I made the list, and then I looked back on it. I was like, okay, but something like this is going to happen. Yeah, I mean, in my bracket, I unintentionally had a Texas Tech Oklahoma game that fed into Texas. So, you know, I mean, it's just kind of the, and that's why it happens in real life all the time. Yeah. I mean, it's not like it's that big of a bracket. And you also make it like, like, let's say they play a very.

very close game in Columbus on Thanksgiving weekend, you could have a very close game with a different result three weeks later. It's entirely possible. And that's why I had Michigan win that game. I had LSU Oklahoma in Norman. I had Oklahoma win this time, you know, they don't blow the lead this time. We watched Oklahoma blow a playoff lead in Norman to Alabama last year. So I had Oklahoma win that one. I had Notre Dame beat Oklahoma in the quarters. That's a, that's a team with a buying. So that's, that's the wild one. Michigan, Texas, I had Michigan beat Texas because, again, I can't have every team with a buy go through because the odds of the four teams with buys being the teams in the semifinals. Well, unless there's a regression to the mean this year, which could be.

Could be. And then I had Georgia, Oregon. I had Georgia winning. That was a tough one because you know how I feel about Oregon and knocking on the door that they, they're, they're going to catch it one of these years and get through. But I had Georgia win that one. Because Georgia has been the one that can't seem to get over the hump. And I think, you know, them not having the buy

in this one, I'm saying that makes a difference. And then Texas Tech Miami, I had Miami win that one. I had Notre Dame beating Miami in one semifinal, Georgia beating Michigan and another semifinal, and then Georgia beating Notre Dame in the national championship game, which I don't know, other

than Georgia fans, who that satisfies. but I think that would be a, if all of that were to come to pass, ridiculously fun viewing experience for those of us who love college football. Yeah, and I looked at mine and I thought it would be ridiculously fun. I think that this is this 12-team situation has actually turned out to be quite beneficial for a viewing experience. Who could have seen that coming? But, you know, the thing that I was thinking about last year,

and I don't know if you want to do this first. Do you want to go through what we did last year before we set up the next thing? Before we do that, let's talk about our friends at Roeback. So I'm wearing Roeback right now, but you need to load up on Roeback as the college football season approaches because their game day collection is expanding as we speak. So you've got new schools coming in. Like the UCF Hezzy hoodie, got a picture of that up here. Beautiful.

UCF's one of the new schools. Big school. 60,000 enrollment. That's a lot of you who need hoodies. So you can do that, or I know producer River is saving his pennies because there's a new Tennessee collection dropping in the next week, and they're going to have new stuff for the balls. And it's like that across the board. So if Roeback's been making your stuff, they're making new stuff. There are new schools coming in like UCF, like Oregon State, that are not been on Roeback before.

So now's the time. And also, you can just wear your roback stuff every day. It doesn't always have to be Saturday. My wife, you got a bunch of rowback stuff. Looks amazing. Yeah, she's got the sleeveless polo. She's got, she has two degrees from Florida, so she got herself a Gator's hoodie and got an America sweatshirt to celebrate the nation's 250th.

My wife just took all of mine. She just took your rowback? Yeah, and it's crazy because I'm. four times the size of her, but she wears them. No, well, and this is, this is the advice I've given people. This hezzy hoodie from Roeback is the most comfortable piece of clothing you will ever own. You have to order two because some family member will steal it. My son has stolen most of mine.

Yes. So, just a very comfortable fabric. So, yeah. Roeback.com, R-H-O-B-A-C-K, use the code Andy R-E-20 for 20% off your first order. that's Andy Ari 20% off your first order. Roback.com, R-H-O-B-A-C-K, you will not regret it. You will be the best-looking fan at the tailgate this year. Load up.

All right, let us talk about where we screwed up last year in the playoff. Once again, thanks to Arthur for sending this in, because we, and I think we're going to have this problem this year, and we'll talk about that. We were the victims of group think last year, for sure. Clemson and Penn State, we were sure they were going to be really good. Why? Is it because we overthought the idea of retention?

That's the whole thing. I think it's retention, good players, teams that underachieved the previous year that brought a lot back. I made that mistake with Illinois last year. True. I had Illinois in my field last year because they brought back a large point. portion of a team that won nine games. So like... They did win nine games again.

No, I know. It's not like they had a bad season. Including them in the field. Yeah. I put a lot of credence into the fact that this is a transfer portal era. Yep. People are losing a bunch of players of the NFL. They're losing players in the portal.

Teams are completely different. I'm going to go with the team that kept the most talent together. Now, the thing that's interesting is that the Clemson blow up, those players got drafted. Those players got drafted high. Yeah, so I had Clemson as the four seed, and you had Clemson as the three seed. Yes, I think most people who fell out of a bracket at this time a year ago. They were out of this thing by the Syracuse game. They were out of this thing before September.

Yeah, but they all had Clemson as the runaway ACC favorite, kind of the same way that we're viewing Miami right now. Yeah. So that's interesting. Although, you know, I don't know what team we would look at this year and go, didn't quite get over the hump last year, has a bunch of good, players, then one popped into my head. SMU?

SMU, but another one got into my head. Okay. Texas. Yes, we had Texas as the number one seat. I think both of us had Texas as our national champ last year. Last year, and they didn't make the playoff. Now, by the end of the season, they were playing like a team that would do damage in the playoff. Like, you saw them beat a playoff team at the end of the season in Texas A&M.

They weren't there at the beginning of the season. Their offensive line needed time to gel. they have seriously retooled that roster. Flip the running back room. Change the receiver room. Brought in Cam Coleman. Brought in Rashim Biles from Pittsburgh on that defense, which already had a bunch of good players. They've upgraded because they saw weaknesses that got exposed and they had to fix them.

I'm like actually starting to terrify myself because I'm thinking about what went wrong with Penn State. And I think what went wrong with Penn State was there was a five-star quarterback on their team that everybody viewed as an NFL draft prospect, had an okay year of the previous year. And he just, he just did not. He wasn't that good. And then he got hurt. And then he got hurt. But he didn't, he didn't get to the point that everybody thought that he would. Who does that kind of sound like? Sounds a little bit like Arch Manning to me, which, but I think Arch Manning probably

performed at a higher level. I was going to say, Arch by the end of last year had improved fairly dramatically. But does Arch Manning have to play at a first round level this year for Texas to get where it wants? No. And then I don't think that's, I don't think that's true. So what team do you think most resembles the Clemson and Penn State last year that everybody's obsessed with now? Because I don't know if there's a lot of parallels between there and the – Well, so who were the big retention teams that did not do a whole lot in the portal? It's funny because we were talking about Clemson, like they did go in the portal more than they ever had last year.

So they'd add a little hell. Yeah. Georgia would be one of those that is still mostly, you know, high school recruits. not a ton of portal edition. I think that they would be the most similar. Georgia, by the way, which that's my national champ. Yeah. So now I'm a little nervous.

Yeah, I'm a little worried. Yeah, but then again, Gunner Stockton, and like maybe we just make the mistake of trying to find parallels of what happened last year is probably going to happen again this year. The fact of the matter is that Clemson is kind of an anomaly. Clemson and Penn State were different situations, I think. They were 100%. Yeah.

I mean, also Penn State. was under the micro, what's at the magnifying glass when it came to getting past the places that it was supposed to be, losing all these big games, the James Franklin meltdown factor. Obviously, excuse me, the quarterback blows his knee out. These are all things that they were dealing with. But before he did, they kind of tapped out of the season after they lost Oregon and overtime at home.

Clemson, I think, was just kind of a disaster. They were just bad. There's no other way to describe it. They had really good players, but they were bad. So the team that I believe is returning the most players from last year that is in everyone's bracket universally and as a national championship favorite is Notre Dame. Yes. And Notre Dame has gotten more production out of the quarterback position than either Clemson or Penn State ever did. Because the same thing that happened at Penn State last year, with Drew Aller was the same exact thing that happened with Kate Klubnick.

And what did Notre Dame lose that theoretically should be very difficult to replace? the best offensive backfield in the country? Two first round running backs. Yeah. Two first round running backs. So, but again, I think that I feel far more comfortable about C.J. Carr's ceiling or floor, I should even say. I also feel like this is the best Notre Dame receiving core in a long time. Exactly.

So, like, it's hard. South Carolina is a big retention team. Nobody has them pegged. Virginia Tech is a pretty good retention team and brought in a lot of new players. They were very bad last year. That's the problem. So I just don't know, like, in terms of, you know, Oklahoma returns, I think over 60% of their roster. Oklahoma brings back a lot.

They did flip the tight end room, which needed to happen. But defensively, they're almost, they're very similar. The three biggest contenders in most brackets you'll find from the SEC are Texas, Georgia, and Oklahoma, all of whom, all of which, which one is it, I don't know, return more than 60% of their roster, 65% of the roster. So, you know, that said, I think that the two mistakes that we made last year was giving too much credit to Cade Klubnick and Drew Aller, both of which didn't reach their ceilings. One season got cut early, but that I think that with the quarterbacks that are in the field and our projected fields this year, I think I feel pretty good about most of them. Well, see, now, because remember, I took my swing with Michigan, which is a bet on Bryce Underwood. Yeah.

but I left Oklahoma in I took Ole Miss out as I rethink that who do I trust more Trinidad Shambliss or John Mateer I should have kept Ole Miss in because I trust Trinidad Shambliss more

Yeah I mean I don't know What your bracket is doing right now Numbers wise on the internet but you're going to have a pretty long day today Oh I'm not looking at social media today because I'm just going to get roasted. Yeah. I'm sure. Yeah.

The Michigan fans are probably happy. Yeah. Because I'm one of the few, I think, that is picking them to be in the playoff. You know, happiness doesn't breed interaction the same way as this taste. No. Never cancel. Happy people never. Now, I have seen the Michigan fans, because I've had a little taste of it already,

but I have seen the Michigan fans, they're not jumping to my defense. They're just, when somebody sees my bracket, they're like, Michigan, what are they doing in here? And then the Michigan fans are like, hey, you know, we could actually be pretty good. Yeah, right. So, but in terms of trying to identify a blueprint for where you messed up a year ago and then trying to, you know, apply it to this year. I don't think that the parallels exist, Andy. I think that. And I also don't think that retention of really good players is a bad thing.

Like, I'm never going to be like, oh, a team has to have nine players. But I don't necessarily think it should be given the weight we gave it last year. Well, I think that. Which having Notre Dame is as. a one seat or a two seed, which I think almost all of us do, is maybe falling victim to that. Yeah, I think what you really can't do is if a player has started for a season plus and they haven't turned into a star at the quarterback position,

it's probably a long shot that they're going to turn into a Heisman guy. But that's, okay, what that brings me to one interesting person. And I think about this guy a lot because he was really good in 2024. He was not good last year. Now, nobody was blocking for him last year either. But that's Lenora Sellers. Yes. Like, Lenore Sellers, from a traits and tools standpoint, can do it all.

From a traits and tools standpoint is round one pick one. And we have seen him do it. We've seen him do it at a high level against good teams. So that's one, like South Carolina, if you wanted to take a swing. And I said this when we did the hot seat. I said Shane Beamer could easily coach himself off the hot seat because they've got players like Lenore Sellers like Dylan Stewart that nobody else has.

And they could be a team that we are not talking about right now that winds up in the playoff. I'm trying to think of a Big Ten version of that. I think we're talking about all the Big Ten schools that would be in the mix for the playoff because Michigan is not that far-fetched. They won nine games last year. We haven't talked about USC yet. Well, but we are talking about last week we had a whole segment on USC about Lincoln Riley's not making any more excuses.

I just thought you meant today. No, no. No. USC is certainly qualified from a talent standpoint, from a returning production standpoint, from a quarterback talent standpoint. Can I throw a wild card at you? Yeah. Washington. Okay. That's a good one.

DeMond Williams could be that guy. We've seen him operate at a very high level, but we haven't. I think we've talked to Jed Fish about this. He's not near his ceiling yet. He could get better. Yeah. Before the show started, we were joking that we were so, the hardest part about picking the CFP bracket isn't necessarily the top.

It's the Cs six through 11. Yeah. That said, we both got most, if not all of our top four Cs wrong last year. Right. So I think, but I still believe that. Like, which teams are going to come out of nowhere the way that you, you predicted Michigan could? and get into that field.

I do think that Washington could be a team that could go 10 and 2 maybe get a big win in that mix. Oh, here's another one from the SEC that I think that these guys are getting picked by some people. Texas A&M, they made the playoff last year. They did lose in the first round of Miami, but it was a close game.

I mean, a very tight game against a team that ended up in the national championship. I mean, that's actually like aged. lost aged pretty well. It has. Yeah. I mean, we left the stadium thinking, well, I think I think the reason not everybody is picking A&M to do it again is

they did wind up having the easiest SEC schedule last year. Now they, look, they went to South Bend and won. So that, it's not like they weren't good. But they did have the easiest SEC schedule and they will not probably have the easiest SEC schedule this year. It'll probably be one of the

more difficult ones. Well, I also think, too, that there's a pretty tremendous amount of skepticism as it pertains to Marcel Reed ceiling. But Marcel Reed was their quarterback last year. I know. He took him to the playoff. I know. But he zero buzzed from him on the off season. Right. Think about the quarterback world that we're living in right now. How much time have we spent talking about Marcel Reed on the show? Maybe not enough. You know, and we'll see. But, yes, I think that that's also good. But, man, I wish there was a blueprint for this because you know what I know. The funny thing is I, because I resent this. I think that,

I've been talking a lot with personnel people at the symposium this week. And I think the biggest mistake that personnel people make, and they'll even, this week, acknowledged it was, well, whatever the team did the previous year to win the national championships, the blueprint for everyone. And it's like, I think we also have to acknowledge, too, that every season is different. Even Indiana can't do that again this year. Like Kurt Signetti, if he wants to win another one, is going to have to do it a different way.

But UCLA, to go back to them for a second, is kind of an interesting thought exercise because they did. hire the JMU coach. The JMU coach brought in a lot of really good JMU players to UCLA. They retained a quarterback. There seems to be a certain level of hype around UCLA, at least on the West Coast, that they could be a sleeper team because they followed the same blueprint that Kurt Signetti did at Indiana.

But like following the same blueprint that a national championship team did last year doesn't really mean all that much. Right. Like I remember throughout the 2010s and early 2000, you know, before the same. that like remember the debates about you have to have a first round quarterback to win the national championship because when it was right and the dash and then and then stets and bennett won two in a row that's and then all of a sudden it's like you have to have a dog of a quarterback who can just make plays at college doesn't matter if he has a first round ceiling like i think that the target for what

you're trying to build no i think i think if i had to say whose build works the best and and probably has the most staying power in this era. I would think the style that Texas and Miami are using would be the best. What do Texas and Miami do? They try to get the guys out of high school that are going to grow into difference makers that you really can't get out of the portal, and then they pay top dollar in the portal for everything else. Yes. Ohio State does that very well, too.

I think Georgia will do that pretty well, although I don't know that. Georgia hasn't really done the top dollar in the portal part of it as much as the other guys. as much money as those other teams. They might not. But yes, I think that having a strong foundation of elite level players coming through and developing in your program and then accentuating it with plug-and-play players like Texas did with Cam Coleman, for instance, this year, I think it's a pretty good plan. But it's just really fascinating to me because the one thing that I think I'm always going to think

is important is, and I don't know if I have failed to adapt. And part of the reason why I'm so obsessed with Texas every year is because I look at the draftable players that they have on their roster. And Clemson, and the reason why I bought the hype last year, wasn't because I thought that Davosweeney was an evil genius or that he was going to prove everybody wrong, Andy. It was because I looked at their roster and I said, well, they have 10, 11 players that have a chance of being top two-day draft picks.

Right. That ultimately ended up happening and they just ended up not being very good. But I still think that the equation that I look for when I'm filling these out and maybe one day that'll change is how many draftable players are on your team comparison to everybody else. And if you look at my bracket, what you will find is a bunch of teams that have the most draftable players at the top. And, you know, that's not the whole equation, but I don't think that's ever going to be wrong. Like, I think you're never going to get to a point where it's like, oh, we have too many good players. Well, and that's the thing. Indiana is interesting because they didn't have the same number of draftable players to say Georgia three years ago, but they said that the number one overall pick in the draft and a bunch of guys who got drafted. But the number of, of draftable players that you absolutely need to have on your roster to win the national championship is decreasing year over year. Yeah.

I mean, I thought it used to be 20 to 25 in 2018, and now it's probably 12, right? So, but I do think that there is another. You're talking about not in next year's draft. Just total. 25 would be a record. But yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you.

Yeah. But I think that there is another type of player that's very underrated. And that's the dog of a player. who is a very good college player, this heart and soul of your team, but might not be an all pro. Or might not even be a pro at all. Right. So, and those are harder to quantify because in the portal era, those are all over there. And there are more of those now because they stay in college.

They don't go to the NFL early. They can make more money in college. And they recognize that they will be in college for a longer period of time. It is also, it's harder to see which teams have the most. of those guys. Third and fourth year players who, yes, are going to be really good college players who may not be NFL players. Diego Pavia honorary position. It is. I know that quarterback is a very lightning rod position. How many Diego Pavia's are left guards in college football that we don't talk at all about because they're kind of hidden in the seams of the transactions that you have. And I think that the teams that have done the best of evaluating those types of guys that come in and make differences are the ones,

that ultimately end up being very good. I cannot wait to see what happens. Feel free to rip apart my bracket. I would do the same to yours. And the thing is, like, I want to know if all my picks are stupid and all Ari's picks are stupid. What are your picks?

Yeah. Who, who, and this is good. For dear Andy and dear Ari, write us in. Andy Stapleson3 at gmail.com. Ari.com. R.e. Dot wasterman. and On3.com, write to us and tell us one or two teams that we're not talking about that you think

could crack the playoff this year. Like, who is your Ole Miss from last year that we didn't see coming? Or who's your Vanderbilt from last year that may be in the mix, but we didn't know. But I'm going to sound like a math teacher right now, because the one thing that I have a hard time with, and I understand that this is the age of social media. But unlike you, I have the mental illness that I have to read the replies. And all, and the thing that really irritates me isn't when people disagree with me. It's when they call you stupid, but they don't elaborate. If you send in who you think your dark horse is, explain to do the math. Show us the work on the page of how you arrive at that. But the thing is like, no one would have sent Ole Miss to us this

time last year and said, it's because this quarterback they got from Ferris State is going to replaced an injured Austin Simmons and be one of the best quarterbacks in the country. Yeah, I'm also not, nobody knew that was coming. I'm also too, not proud to, or not too proud to admit that there, that's the type of thing that you're not getting on any show anywhere because it's frankly okay to not know that. Like, I think it's okay to not know who. Well, one of the best things about. Yeah. The whole idea of watching sports is we get surprised by things like this. Yeah, I mean, we're looking at the Josh Pate set over here. We're looking at the crane and cone set over here.

We got our set right here. I don't think we heard a lot. a lot of Trinidad Chambliss on any of these shows last year. You didn't hear any of it. So I think that that's the beauty of it, like you said. So who is the Trinidad Chambliss of this year might be the most exciting aspect of this? And you know what? There might be a team that's not even in the top 25 right now. Well, Boston College went and got the quarterback who was the offensive player of the year in the same D2 conference that Ferris states in. Yeah, maybe it's a they're hoping to find every single lower level quarterback transfer into a power program and just find a polymarket position on them. Exactly.

the right place at the right time one of these days. Yeah, that's exactly right. And it's interesting because you look at Polymarket, you look at the national championship winner. And basically, there are, I think it's eight teams. They're all clustered together. Texas, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, Indiana, Miami, and LSU. So they're all between, oh, excuse me, LSU is at 5%.

I can't read. So let's stop it at Miami. So Texas, Notre Dame, Ohio, state, Oregon, Georgia, Indiana, Miami. So that's seven. Between 9% and 13% of the trades. It's never been more fun to engage in this exercise because when we used to do the four team fields, if you'd go back and look at all the predictions from like 2016 and you had to project your 14 playoff contenders or selections, we were right most of the time.

Right. Like now, if you actually want to take a position on a team. You don't have to have one extreme favorite who is probably going to win it and 19 other teams that have no chance. Now you actually have a chance of picking the winner and it doesn't have to be at awful lot. So it's going to be a really good season to watch, but I do love this exercise of like what could we do wrong? But I also like to think, well, what are we going to be saying about these teams next year that we overthought or didn't think enough? What group think are we doing? and I am terrified and very open to admitting that my obsession or connection or addiction, I should say, Texas is very real.

So if they don't do it this year, I am out. No, you're not. I don't mean. You'll be right back in. I don't mean winning the national championship or bust, but if they miss the playoff or it is, like they have to do it this year. Well, I think at this point, it's not we picked you to win the national championship. You didn't win it.

We're out. Once you get into the playoff, At this point, it is anybody's ballgame. But yeah, they need to get in. And I think that is probably the attitude in Austin, too. I don't think that's a shock to anybody or it's what they want. That's the whole point. And you talk to these coaches, to Searsarkeesian to Kirby Smart, to Ryan Day to Kurt

Signetti now. Like, they're fine with that. What do they say? Pressure is a privilege. That's where they're at. Ari, you want some pressure. How about being called? called upon to script the first offensive drive of the first home game for your favorite college football team?

Because somebody's going to get to do that this year. Promotion is a wild thing, but Akron is a gift to all of us who have Madden Dreams in real life applications. So one season ticket holder is going to be allowed to design the opening drive of the first home game. So that's against Robert Morris on September 12th. And I got to ask you, Ari, if this were you, what are you going with? Are you running trick plays? Are you trying to build out? I mean, you play the video game a lot.

So I imagine you've got a script in your mind for most teams based on their offense of how you would map out plays, how you would combine plays, how you would handle tempo. So what would you do? Punt on first down. Well, that would surprise everybody. So I am amused, Andy. I don't know if you've been seeing this, but a lot of people are buying

Akron season tickets right now. Which was the point. A lot of people are buying accrues and tickets that don't live anywhere near Ohio. You know, I don't know what I would do, but I think that there would be no punting at all if that was an option. I would never punt.

So you're going to tell Joe Moorhead, we're not putting a punt in this first drive script. So if we're at fourth and 13, on our own 12-yard line, we're running a play. We're not punting. Yeah, I mean, I guess maybe there should be extreme. Four verticals.

Four verticals on fourth and 13 from our own 12. What I would probably do. Could we ask, like, how do you think that that will actually be done in application? They'll invite them into the building and go over their play. Well, tell them that their strengths are and really try to figure this out. Having been through this to a degree. So I got to call plays in the 2021 Florida State Spring game. Yeah.

And so it was me. Andrea Adelson from ESPN were one team. And then one of the, Gene Deckerhoff, the voice of the Seminoles, was on the other sideline. I'm trying to remember who else was on the other sideline. But Kenny Dillingham was the O.C. at the time. And obviously, Mike Norvelle and Kenny Dillingham basically,

and their DC at the time, made a very truncated call sheet. So one side was offense, one side was defense. We had, I believe, like 12 calls. If I were home, I'd show you the sheet. Yeah, I'd love to see the sheet. And so, like, the defensive call sheet, like you had a very basic cover two,

you had a very basic quarters, they had a few blitzes. Like, I called a fire zone because I always wanted to call a fire zone. Got a sack on that. And, uh, but then the offensive play sheet, there were, you know, there were some, like, inside zone, very basic run plays.

And then a few pretty common passing concepts. and so I went with the the last play I called was a touchdown and it was like a wheel post so you're just you're basically him I know but it was funny because when I called the play at the end of the game

the offense lines up the defense lines up and I hear Kenny Dillingham who's in the press box over the headset go Andy this is a touchdown and it was like it was so funny because he knew it the second the defense lined up He's like, it's over. Yeah.

So, okay, I mean, I think I would definitely take a deep shot in there somewhere. Would you take a deep shot on first down or would you just try to get something going? Because that's the one thing. So Andrea, I thought, did a great job. Like, she, her first offensive play calling series, she strung the plays together really well. She did a run. She then did that it was a very short pass. they got a first down, she went tempo.

She went up tempo once they got the first down. And I think she was just going to do like an inside zone, but the defense was completely discombobulated. And it was like, this is going to hit huge. And the left tackle jumped off. Our false start. But that's what can kill you. You're a better football mind than me.

And I understand that scripting is effective and is done. And a lot of times, you know, if a team scores on the first driver, it goes, okay, well, let's see what happens when they're off script. But it's like, what if you're on script, and you run a inside zone on the first play of the game and you're running back fumbles the ball backwards six yards. Doesn't the entire script go away? It does.

And then you have to like completely start over anyway. Yeah, because you've called that inside zone thinking that you're going to have second and six. Yeah, or the guy, somebody jumps off sides. Yeah. You're running back, drops the ball and then his knee touches the ground. And all of a sudden you're second and 20. Whatever second play call was in your script is no longer realistic. I mean, what I would do is

I would definitely have something that builds on something else. Yeah. So, like, I would love to have, like, some sort of jet motion thing where you've got somebody coming across the formation. You can fake a jet sweep and then maybe, and throw something short and then come back with a jet sweep later or some sort of eye candy that maybe you do it a couple times and they're like, okay, now here comes the jet sweep.

And then it's like a naked and the quarterback takes off. Yeah. I mean, I think everybody has these illusions that you can just run whatever you run on Madden and score. I would be so excited about the opportunity to have a say in the play calls. I would try to run as much grab ass. I'd be Shannon Dawson out there, dude. I would be like... Shannon Dawson does not run that much grab ass.

He runs a lot of grab ass. Okay. You're just thinking back to that Texas A&M game where they were trying like hell to get the ball of Malachi Tony's hands anyway they could. We're also talking about Shannon Dawson, the potential head coach next year. Shannon Dawson is a very good play caller. I'm not saying that he's bad at it. But I would try to have some fun with it in a way that other people might not do in a regular game. So would you go like flea flicker first play?

I probably would do something like an inside zone or something. Something basic just to get something in there? Second and six and put the defense in a position where he could run or throw in second down. Then after having a five-yard pickup on the first play of the game, I would do the most insane second play of all-off. You want second and short or second and medium and you just want to go wild. I want basic play, play one to bring the defense into a place of like, okay, this isn't going to get weird. Oh, he's not going to do anything crazy. And then the second play of the drive would be the most grab-ass shit you've seen here.

I saw Mike Golick Jr. said that every single play in offensive lineman is touching the ball. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, yeah, the one I like. is where you have the left tackle sort of drift back and then shade toward the side let's start drifting toward the sideline

and he's going backward so then the quarterback is going to throw a backward pass to him so it's essentially a handoff. Yeah. Like Will Black who's going to be the starting left tackle I believe in Notre Dame this year there was a play that his high school ran for him

where they did something like that and he's just first of all he's faster than a lot of high school dbs at 6-8, 300 pounds, but he's just mowing people down. I mean, if you do have one of those Evan Neal freak offensive linemen in high school that can run insanely fast, can jump insanely high and are three times larger than everybody else in the field, they should carry the ball more. They should, yeah.

I mean, like they're just, I mean, not in who was that, Caden Proctor last year. I know everybody got excited about that last year. Now, here's the thing. Would you be running like, because I can think of Michael Jr. is probably imagining some weird formations in his head where, like, you cover. up the inman on the line of scrimmage on one side so you leave your tackle eligible on the other side. Like some really, you know, funky formations, I think that's, that's going to get you in trouble as an amateur play caller. Like if you get too funky with the formation, which I'm sure Joe Moorhead's probably not going to let them do.

But you brought up a great point, though. What if you call a touchdown? Like, what if you call a series that results in a touchdown? Like, let's say it's a, it's not just you got lucky. You made the right call. defense blew a coverage, but you actually strung together five or six really good plays and put the ball in the end zone. Yeah. Do you get to call the second drive to?

I don't think that you can call plays effectively in the sport unless you understand the idiosyncrasies of every single position group and every call on defense. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's like it's not as simple as, okay, I want to run it off tackle this. I want to run a screen here. I'm going to chuck it deep here. It's like it's so much more involved than that. but it would be kind of hilarious if if and when this happens the person who designs the script

designs a script that actually scores a touchdown but i also am not under any i'm not under the illusion that that person's going to have free reign i'm assuming that the coaching staff is like we don't have the personnel to do this it's going to be a limited menu it's like it's like when you're in the the restaurant at one a m and they've got the bar menu that you're going to get the bar menu of joe moorhead's playbook but it's also going to be fun first uh offensive possession of the season, much watched television. Well, it's not their first of the season. They do have a game before that.

Oh, okay. It's the second. So this is the Robert Morris game, 3.30 p.m. Eastern Time, September 12th. I'm sure a lot of you already have tickets to that now because you're trying to call the plays. Yeah. Also, going out to Akron for a game might not be the worst thing in the world.

Little road trip never killed anyone. You know, I hope you get to hug Zippy if you score. Zippy seems like one of them are huggable mascots. Yeah, there's some good pizza in Akron too. One more thing we got to talk about before you go, Ari. And that is Dylan Ryola. I haven't talked about Dylan Ryola in a while, but...

Let's talk about it. Former Nebraska quarterback, he's now at Oregon. He got asked about the differences between playing at Nebraska and playing at Oregon. He started with the terrain, which I thought, you know, It is very different. There are cornfields in Nebraska, he said. Trees and mountains in Oregon. All this nature.

We know that. Yeah. Well, there's nature in Nebraska, too. Being in a cornfield is being in nature. Well, it's more cultivated nature. I know, but I'm saying, like, I think being in your backyard is being in nature. I mean, as long as you're not in a building, you're in nature. No, and I get it.

Some people prefer one thing over the other. You can say, you can say whatever you want on that one. And he definitely made the same type of mistake I made when I said to rather live in U.S. or in Southern California than Norman. Like it kind of had the same vibe. But I don't, like, I think most people would look at that and go, okay, it's fine. You can prefer one over the other.

That's not going to bother that many people. People understand that Oregon's one of the prettier states in the United States. The part that will bother people. Yeah. And is bothering people. It's definitely been a transition. I'll start with the landscape outside. There's not cornfields here.

Riala said, according to USA Today's Logan Brown. There's mountains and trees and I love nature. As far as football, and here we go. This is where it starts to go downhill. It's different. With coaches and players, we have a lot more talent than we did at Nebraska. I don't say that to knock on them, but I think everybody will know that. I'm very grateful for my time there.

Learned a lot of my coaches and teammates. Still have those relationships. But I think that I'm really excited for what Oregon's going to bring, not only to my life, but for my teammates as well. So we have a lot more talent than we did it, Nebraska. He also said with coaches and players before the talent part. So I also think that if I were a coach, I would take offense to that. Yes.

So, well, first of all, no shit Sherlock. Oregon has more talent than Nebraska. But guess what? Isn't that also why you're not playing at Oregon this year? And Dante Moore is the starter? Like, it's a bit of a cell phone there. Yeah, yeah. So I know that he is during his department.

You know, I think it was... I just don't think you can sit. Like, we all know Oregon has more talent than Nebraska, but why do you need to crap on your old teammates like that? Why? What purpose does that serve? None. Yeah.

None. No, I know. And I'm trying to think, like, well, he could have just said, Oregon's got a different system. It's a new culture, the way we're going about things. Like, it's just a... It's when you spend time at another place for a while and then you go to a new system, It takes a while to adjust, but football's been really awesome here, and I'm looking forward.

Yeah, love my new teammates. You don't have to say anything about your old teammates. Yeah. Other than I had a great time, whatever. If you didn't have a great time, you could just not say anything. And just talk about how great it is at Oregon now. This is a PR misstep by him. And look, he's a young person.

I get it. You're going to say that. But you better hope Anthony Calandery is not better than you. And I think that there's a chance he could be. Yeah. You better hope that he's not a better quarterback for Nebraska than you were, because that's going to look real bad. Yeah.

Which got me thinking, do you, what do you think the odds are that he never plays a snap there? At Oregon? Rail at Oregon, yeah. That's possible because they keep recruiting highly touted quarterbacks. There's no way to ever. I mean, back in the day, you could look at the, well, who's next thing, but they could just go get a ready-made guy to come in next year. Exactly.

It doesn't mean that- The roster rate. Yeah. So I don't, I don't know. I actually would probably be more surprised if he winds up Oregon starter. I would be too, which also makes these comments crazy. Because if you were being the backup and you knew you were going to be the starter the next year, you'd have a chance to have the final say in Eugene.

Fine. But how are these comments? comment's going to look if you enter the portal a year from now. Right. I got to be honest, when these came across, it was Dylan Riala, the way it was pitched in the headline was Dylan Riala on transferring from Nebraska to Oregon. I kind of misread the headline.

I'm like, oh, Dylan Rale was transferring from Oregon. And were you even surprised? No. And obviously he wouldn't do that right now. That wouldn't be silly because you can't go anywhere right now. This is the thing I want to ask you. Do you think that if you're Nebraska, and I understand that there's always being the bigger person?

You know what I'd love to know, because I don't know this. I know maybe somebody in the other room does. Pete Naco sits there because he knows everything, is the actual circumstances of the departure. Like, why did it happen? How did it happen? Right. And if it happened in a way that Nebraska was the moving force of that?

Right. Was this Dylan and Iola saying, I would like to play somewhere else? I think my football future. is better served by playing in Oregon. I'm going to go to Oregon. Or was there a gentle nudge? Like, hey, we're going to, we're not sure.

So we're going to go recruit Kenny Menchy. And if we don't get Kenny Minci, we're going to take Anthony Calandria. Yeah. Which is what they did. That's what they did. Yeah. Be very, very curious to see. And maybe the answer to that question will become more apparent as we watch games

unfold this year. Yeah. But, yes, we, we know, we know that Oregon has more talent than Nebraska. You didn't need to say that and make all of your former teammates look bad. I agree. You just don't. Like, it'd be like us. Now, we wouldn't do this because the, the team at the athletic, the place where we last work is excellent. But we're kidding. We still wouldn't come in and be like, well, now we're an on three. And obviously we have more talent on three. Like, we love the talent. we have it on three.

Yeah. And just like, what purpose would it serve to, to crap all over everybody else? Zero. And in football and in journalism, there's also a likelihood or a potential to be working with some of the same people that you used to work with again in the future.

So, you know, I don't know what the, the context of the interview was or what was, you know, happening in those moments. But I think any negative, um, comment about a former team, especially when that wasn't, you didn't get them over the top. How many big 10 media days did you go to saying, I'm here to Nebraska to bring them back to prom?

You didn't do it. Yeah. It's not like you're leaving victorious. Yeah. You're leaving to be a backup at a new place. Yeah. What does it say about you? Like, I just, you know, I have struggled at times in my life with self-awareness.

As you're aware. Yeah. This was a lack of self-awareness moment, I think. Well, enjoy the mountains and the trees. and the other talented players at practice. The Oregon Coast apparently is very beautiful. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. I've only been there's a Eugene, but I've never been to the-

No, no, I listen. He ain't wrong, it's pretty there. It's beautiful there. And they're very good players there. And they'll probably win a lot of games. Will he be one of them on the field? We'll see. All right, Ari.

It's been fun. We are in Nashville. We've been in Nashville for the past. three days. We are headed to Columbus, Ohio. It's a very buck-eyes heavy show tomorrow. Daddy's coming home, baby. That's right. Look out, High Street. So, when you see us tomorrow, we will be in Columbus.

We'll talk to that.