Andy & Ari On3 - Could Ohio State's Julian Sayin STACK UP to Florida's DJ Lagway?

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

It's a Dear Andy & Ari show and we have some INCREDIBLE questions from our listeners. But first, Andy got to play the new EA Sports video game, and we have discuss it in depth. Andy takes you through how the game feels and what changes you can expect compared to last year's game (0:00-2:21) Intro(2:22-23:27) Andy played EA Sports College Football '26(23:28-37:04) Dear Andy & Ari, I'm just Sayin(37:05-50:14) Where things stand with Oregon(50:15-58:08) SEC: 8 or 9 conference games?(58:09-1:08:32) Next championship that isn't in the top tier?(1:08:33-1:10:36) Wrapping up We continue with Dear Andy & Ari with a deep dive into the Oregon Ducks. How should Oregon's 2024 season be remembered and what's the ceiling ahead of the 2025 schedule? Next up, Ari is fed up with talking about the SEC and how many conference games the league should play. What do you think? 8 or 9? The last question takes Andy & Ari down into a rabbit hole of teams: Who could be the next champion outside of the Big Ten, SEC, Notre Dame, Florida State, Clemson, and Miami? Andy & Ari discuss who in the world could fill these requirements. Watch us LIVE on YouTube, M-F at 9:30 am et! https://www.youtube.com/@On3sports Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail]   

Welcome to any are on three. I am here in lovely Orlando, Florida at EA Sports, where I got to play the game. That's right. EA Sports College football. Twenty six. Yes, first cause football. Twenty six is as awesome as you'd imagine. I got a chance to play it on Thursday and spent a while talking about that. We put out a video on Thursday afternoon explaining what's new, what to expect when you play. So we're gonna show you that.

And if you've already watched, that's okay. I don't mind if you fast forward a little bit, but we wanted to make sure it was in the show so the folks in the podcast feed got a chance to hear about the game as well, because it's going to be a lot of fun. You're going to hear me and Ari talk about it a lot over the next few weeks and months,

because it is something that kind of begins to dominate our lives in the summer. Ari loves to play this game. You may wind up playing against him late one night. I, of course, end up playing my son and his friends. And we just have a blast with it. So this is one of the more highly anticipated college football events, I guess, annually now.

It came back last year, and it had been so long, that you forgot how exciting it was when it came back around every year like it did when I was in college and as a young adult. So now I get to experience that every year. I get to do it with my son, which is a whole lot of fun. Get to do it with Ari, who's kind of like my other son. So it's gonna be a whole lot of fun

as we dig into this game over the next month and then we all get it and we get to start playing it in full. So we're going to talk about that. And then also, it's a mailbag show. We'll teleport myself back to Destin, where we recorded some answers to some really, really good questions from you guys. And the first question, I'll give you a little tease is

Hey, you guys keep talking about how great DJ lagway is how come you're not giving Julian saying at Ohio State the same benefit of the doubt Fantastic question. So let's talk video game and then let's come back with your excellent questions Greetings for EA Sports in Orlando, Florida, where yes, I have played the game. Not as mind-blowing or shattering as last year when it was the first time I'd gotten to play the game in a long, long time because the game had gone away for 11 years, but EA Sports College Football 26, lots of improvements over the one that brought the game back.

And the one that brought the game back was pretty awesome, but a lot more with this one. Some stuff that we've been asking for, some stuff that we didn't even know we wanted, but I'm going to take you through some of the things that I saw playing the game today. I had a lot of fun conversations with the folks who designed the game. And trust me, we're barely scratching the surface with what these guys can do. This is gonna be a lot of fun over the next few years, but let's get to what we're gonna get in the game

in July when it ships. And I think, I'll go back to last year. When I first got to play the game last year, same event, first thing I did, I booked a game at Lane Stadium. I wanted to see in Blacksburg what happens when the Hokies come out of the tunnel where they're going to play Inner Sandman. They didn't. And I remember talking to Ben Hallmiller, who's the principal designer of the game. And I said, what, no Inner Sandman? He's like, licensing a Metallica song is expensive, Andy.

We're not sure exactly how many of these things we can do in terms of getting the songs. So they had Mo Bomba, they had Sandstorm. But this time, first chance I got, Lane Stadium. I heard the guitars. I heard James Hetfield. You hear the crowd singing it as the Hokies are in the tunnel. It's exactly what you'd hope it would be. Exactly what you'd hope it would be. And it's not the only thing that's new in terms of just the immersive, you know, you're at the game factor,

which I think is probably the most impressive thing about this game, is it makes you feel like you're actually at the game factor, which I think is probably the most impressive thing about this game is it makes you feel like you're actually at the game. So as you know, if you watch the show, I grew up a South Carolina fan. My first in-person college football game was at Williams-Rice Stadium. So very partial to the South Carolina band playing the theme from 2001 as the Gamecocks take the field.

Well, last year they just played Sandstorm. And obviously we know that the Gamecocks take the field. Well, last year they just played Sandstorm. And obviously we know that the Gamecocks love Sandstorm, but that's not how they take the field. This year, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, and the Gamecocks come out. And then as you're about to kick off, Sandstorm kicks in. It is amazing.

And that's, they've just got more of those little touches. For example, if you're playing a game at the Big House, between the third and fourth quarters, they're playing Mr. Brightside. And by the end of it, it's just the crowd singing Mr. Brightside. And it's awesome. It's absolutely awesome.

It makes you feel like you're there. And it's one of those things that really just hits you as a college football fan, that the people who make this game love it as much as we do. And I appreciate that. I appreciate that they've been trying to do that. And really when you dig down deep into this,

I was talking to Anthony who does the playbooks for the game, and he's telling me about all the different Zoom calls he's been on with defensive coordinators about how they resolve conflicts when they're playing against RPOs. And this is stuff that I don't even know that 90% of the people playing the game are going to notice. They're maybe not notice the run fits and how the defensive lineman interacts with the offensive lineman, how the linebackers fill certain gaps.

But they've taken a lot of time to do this. There's a formation that Penn State runs. That gate formation where they bring the left guard and the left tackle out wide, they had to change their rules for it because the game sees players out wide and thinks, oh, those are eligible receivers. But then they had to put in the eligible number designation

outside the tackle box so that those guys wouldn't run routes. And they would do exactly what Penn State's offensive linemen do in that situation. I'll just say I did dr Aller a little dirty while I was playing as Penn State. We were at Ole Miss and I might have run every play out of that gate formation. I don't think the Rebels were fooled. So the two interceptions Drew Aller threw not on him, totally on me. Virtual Drew Aller, I'm sorry.

But that's the kind of cool stuff that you can expect this year. And also, they got coaches in the game this year. That's one thing that was missing. You remember, I talked to Lane Kiffin last year, and he said, I'd love to be in the game. I'd do it for free. It'd be great for recruiting. Well, Lane Kiffin is in the game this year.

Now, I'm not sure it's exactly Lane Kiffin. I think Lane, well, I just saw Lane this week in Destin. He's a little sunburned. He's been fishing, but I don't know that they quite captured Lane perfectly, but it is Lane. Now, coaches, they did capture perfectly. Steve Sarkeesian looks identical to the real Steve Sarkisian James Franklin at Penn State, identical to the real James Franklin. Manny Diaz at Duke, excellent likeness. But here's the thing. It's not just head coach. They're not all in the game. I did go to North

Carolina to see if, uh, if Bill Belichick was in there. Did not see him. Now I don't know if all of them are in there yet, but did not see Bill Belichick. But it's not just coaches. They have over 300 coaches in this game, so it's not all the head coaches only. They also have coordinators. Like for example, if you're playing as Penn State, Andy Kudelnicki is your offensive coordinator,

Jim Knowles is your defensive coordinator. And where you see this more is in dynasty mode where you can either make your own coach, you can make yourself the coach, but you could also say, I'm gonna be James Franklin. Or you could say, I'm gonna start as Andy Kotelnicki, the offensive coordinator at Penn State and see where your career goes from there.

I think that was one of the most fun things is they showed us a little bit of what it's going to look like. And you can see these coaches that kind of move around and imagine where guys would go. There was one instance where Jason Candle winds up the Iowa coach, the Toledo coach Jason Candle now. I think actually, if Kirk Ferentz retired this year, Jason Candle would be a perfect replacement for Kirk Ferent's. So it's a lot of fun to imagine this stuff. And you can really put yourself in the world. They've tried really hard to make a lot of those modes customizable.

But we'll do a lot more on the different modes, on the Road to Glory, on the Dynasty mode. Those are going to be as the time between now and the game release goes on. We're gonna get into that in June because right now I know you probably, what's it like to play the game? So what's the actual game play itself

when you're just, you're on the sticks, you're playing as somebody else? It's a lot of fun still, it's a lot of fun. There are a couple changes that they brought in. I actually think it's quite a bit easier to play defense now They brought in the physics based tackling that they introduced for Madden last year Which I think is better than last year's version of college football game and obviously much better than the early versions of the college football game where

That the defenders really could just go chase the ball. The tackling was not necessarily representative of what it's like in real life. I think it's a lot more representative of real life now. They try to get the players essentially to obey the laws of physics. So if you hit a guy hard up top, then you might bounce off him. If you hit him in the midsection,

you might wrap up and drive him down. Also, conversely, when you're in the middle, in the midsection, you might wrap up and drive him down. Also, conversely, when you're running the ball, you can run through tackles a little better now. And it feels like that physics-based tackling kind of cuts both ways, but I did feel more in control when I was on defense trying to get a guy on the ground. Another thing they'd done, which is for the people like me, who, you know, you have to decide who you want to control

when you're playing on defense. A lot of people will take somebody in the secondary, a lot of people take a linebacker. I've always been someone who will take an edge rusher or a detackle. So they have a defensive lineman steering function now, where you can use that left stick if you're a defensive lineman

and you're engaged with an offensive lineman. Now you've got to be good enough to do it as the defensive lineman. It's not necessarily good enough as the player, but you need to have a very good defensive lineman. Like when I was playing as Mateo Ue-Ungalole from Oregon, it was much easier than when I was playing as someone who isn't necessarily as highly rated. And you can kind of steer the offensive lineman the way you want him to go not just in a pass rush situation but also in the run game so it's a lot more fun when you're a guy who likes to play as a defensive lineman so I thought that was fantastic I thought that was a great addition to the game I know you want ratings for players they're not finalized yet so I don't

want to give you ratings that might not finalized yet. So I don't wanna give you ratings that might not wind up being the actual rating when they come out. But I will tell you about a few guys because I played as some of these guys got wanna play against some of these guys took Arch Manning to Georgia, took Arch Manning to Texas Longhorns,

to Sanford Stadium played between the hedges. And they did make Arch Manning, the Texas Longhorns to Sanford Stadium, played between the hedges. And they did make Arch Manning pretty good and they gave him some star attributes. But he is not immune to stadium pulse. It's not the same as when you say bring a freshman like Bryce Underwood in there, but he's still not immune to it. So Georgia, obviously one of the toughest places to play in the country, you're getting very squiggly lines when you look at the routes. You're getting situations where you might not see what the buttons correspond and what route.

You're getting calling audibles and the question mark and nobody heard you. You're getting all of that when you're on the road with a quarterback who's a little bit less experienced. Now, also played as Cade Klubnik from Clemson. They've made Cade Klubnik very aware, very smart, and that's probably accurate for a guy who is a senior, who is entering his third full year as the starter, who's played in a ton of tough environments and played in a ton of big games. who's played in a ton of tough environments and played in a ton of big games.

That is what you'd expect. But he's a fun one to play as. Now, I will say, another guy I was very impressed by on Clemson, Purdue transfer will help the defensive end. Couple Purdue transfers just blew me away today. Now we'll see if they are doing, if they went up doing this in real life, but Ari and I have talked about them on Andy and Ari on three about what they

can do on the actual football field. Their virtual versions are fantastic. So we'll help one of those guys where he was getting a great push. And then of course he's next to Peter Woods, who's one of the best interior defensive line in the country. And Peter Woods was just annihilating the Michigan offensive line when I had Clemson playing against Michigan in Death Valley.

Of course, we got to see that incredible entrance where the Clemson players get off the bus. They go down the hill. You actually have Gabbo leading them down the hill in this particular case because you didn't have that before. Now you have the coach. But that was a lot of fun. Bryce Underwood, I took him into two tough road environments.

So I was playing as Clemson against another person who was playing as Michigan when Underwood was the QB on the road. He struggled a bit. They did not make it easy for him to succeed. But you could see they made him very athletic. And when he can get loose and when he has some time, he's got an arm. I also took Bryce Underwood. I played as Michigan took them to the horseshoe. I decided to make it snow script. Ohio in the snow is the first

image you see. It's beautiful and then that game was so much fun. I mentioned two Purdue transfers. I said Matt will help from Clemson. The other Purdue transfer I want to mention is that game was so much fun. I mentioned two Purdue transfers. I said, I will help from Clemson. The other Purdue transfer I want to mention is Max Clair, the tight end who's at Ohio State now, because listen, I did okay with Bryce Underwood and company and Michigan has a very good defense, but I was trying so hard to stop Jeremiah Smith and Max Clair ate me alive. Now we've heard good things about the actual Max Clair in Columbus.

If he's half as good as virtual Max Clair, look out. Mackie award winner might be in his future. So that was a lot of fun. It's great to kind of put the new face with the new team. Obviously we like to play a game called Whose Team Is It Anyway on the show. Oftentimes not very easy to remember where everybody is. I bet after a few weeks of playing the game, you'll have a very good memory of which guys wound up on which team. Speaking of transfers, speaking of

transfers, Joey Aguilar, I'm sure you are wondering, Tennessee fans, the guy who went from Appalachian State to UCLA and then left UCLA when Nico Iamaljava went from Appalachian State to UCLA and then left UCLA when Nico Iamaleava went from Tennessee to UCLA, probably wondering who's starting for Tennessee? Is it Joey Aguilar? Is it Jake Mercklinger? I know his name is Mercklinger, but I prefer to call him Mercklinger. It is Joey

Aguilar. It is the transfer. And I took him to Tuscaloosa in the rain. And you know what? He held his own. He did all right. My defense struggled a bit against Ryan Williams and Isaiah Horton and company. But I thought Joey did okay, considering the level of talent on Alabama's defense. So that was a lot of fun, getting to see all the new faces in the new places. But this game, I think you're going to find it very familiar. If you played a lot of the game last year, the deeper modes, like I said, we'll get into those a little more. I think they've done some things that will make those easier to play and easier

to play for longer. Where if you're playing in dynasty mode, they have some stuff that will make it, where you're going to enjoy playing it longer rather than feel like you're getting into a kind of a monotonous pace, which sometimes you could in dynasty mode. But just in terms of the little details,

so I have to find this in my notes. It's fascinating exactly how much work was done on stuff that I honestly probably didn't even think about it. But you know, you had the memes of the fans because they'd had those cutaway shots of the fans and there they'd have those cut-away shots of the fans, and there wouldn't be that many different fans. Well, they did an incredible job fixing that. So 1,700 new heads for the crowd and the cheerleaders,

200 new characters total. So there is a lot more variety in those shots. And I think that's something if you played a ton of the game, you probably got so used to seeing it and it became a little bit of a running joke. Now there's a lot more variety. And again, you have those little moments, like when you're playing at Michigan,

between the third and the fourth quarters and Mr. Breitzeit kicks in, it's awesome. And I'm sure at a certain point you're going to have played it a bunch of times and you're like, okay, I want to go through this. But it's so cool. And they've got 136 FBS teams. Welcome, Delaware, by the way. And the attention to detail is very, very good. And it's one of those things where they paid attention where when fan bases said, hey, this isn't exactly how it looks, this is what it is. South Carolina, I mentioned, you know, they didn't have the theme from 2001.

That's a song that apparently they were telling me just came in. So they just got that into the game. But I remember last year They said you know they've got the fans waving black towels the fans wave white towels well now they have now they're waving white towels and it's just that they are trying to make it feel like you are at that game and So far They are they are doing it and I think having the coaches helps too because you know in the NFL

The coach is not as big of a deal as the players. Every once in a while you have the iconic guys, Andy Reid, Bill Belichick, but it's not as big of a deal. In college, the coaches are the biggest characters in the game. And so to be able to see Sark sending Arch Manning onto the field, or to be able to see a cutaway shot of James Franklin on the sideline after

the stupid offensive coordinator who isn't really Andy Kodelnicki, but is actually Andy Staples, who's running the gate formation every play and not fooling Ole Miss, to see him frustrated because a couple interceptions, it's pretty awesome. It feels even more like the actual game. It's pretty awesome. It feels even more like the actual game. And so very impressed with the thought and the care they put into it. Very excited to get a chance to play it for longer. That's one of the things when you only get to play it for a few hours,

you're just jumping from stadium to stadium trying to see, okay, I need to see what this guy plays like. I need to see what this stadium looks like. And I tried to get as many as I could in on Monday show you'll hear from Ryan Williams who's on the cover Alabama receiver Ryan Williams a funny situation in my Tennessee Alabama game where I did deny Ryan Williams a touchdown catch but mostly because I had him double covered and I tackled him in the end zone and they did not throw a flag. So I am very pleased with my defensive effort there

because yeah, I really got beaten, should not have been able to do that. But hey, sometimes things happen. Things happen in college football, things happen in virtual college football. But I just can't wait to get the game and then to just, I'm one of those people who loves the entrances themselves. And those are changing a bit because there's a different big game entrance than a regular game entrance. And also one of the things they've done, which I find

fascinating, like when you're playing a season, the lighting will change based on the actual time and place. Six o'clock in November in Eugene, Oregon looks different than six o'clock in November in Boston. You'll get sunsets at various times. They showed us what some of the sunset animations look like. Just awesome. Can't wait to see the Rose Bowl, third quarter Rose Bowl. Very, very excited to see that.

This is the stuff that we nerd out about. And this is the stuff that the people who make the game also nerd out about. And I'm glad they do. I'm glad they do. So cannot wait to see the full version of the game. Cannot wait to see what everybody's rated. This is going to be another fun summer because look, we still have a while till the actual game start. It is not until late August that we're going to get that week

zero farmageddon game in Dublin. By the way, they do not have a Viva Stadium in Dublin yet. One of the few stadiums they don't have. They have almost everything else. They did not recreate the La Crosse Stadium that Northwestern's been using on Lake Michigan. They're going to put new Ryan Field into the game next year. It's still old Ryan Field for now. But they still they've loaded this thing down loaded it down. So July we're gonna get About a month and a half solid of Playing this game before the actual games come to help us

end our National nightmare of the offseason But this game is gonna get us to the finish line, because I guarantee you, we're all going to be playing it a bunch. We're going to be talking about it a bunch. My co-host, Ari Wasserman, when you click on the game one night and you put your headset on, the voice coming on the other end,

it very well may be Ari. Could be me. Could be my son. Probably I'm not going gonna be on the headset because I'll be getting my ass kicked by my son. That's the problem when you're an old man and you have a 15 year old who plays video games constantly.

But I am going to be better this time. I'm going to master that gate formation at Penn State. I'm not going to run at every play anymore. I will sprinkle it in sparingly only when I need to full defense. But hey, I had to try it today because it's there along with just about everything else in college football, including coaches now. We love when you guys drive the show. And this is this question from Ty, and he asked it to pretty much everybody. He asked it to the folks at Cover 3.

He asked it to Josh Pate. He asked it to us. And I actually want to hear everybody's answer to this. I'm going to tune into all their shows and see if they answered Ty's question because this is a really, really good one. You ready? Here we go. I don't understand how everyone in college football is so confident in DJ Lagway while also being questionable on Julian Sayen. Sayen was rated equally as high, much better surroundings,

better weapons, better coaching. Ari, it is true. DJ Lagway and Julian Sayen were both very highly rated quarterbacks in the class of 2024. The difference is Julian Sayen was behind Will Howard all last year and is now getting the chance to win the starting job. DJ Lagway was probably the best quarterback in the roster the entire time, but Graham Mertz was starting initially. He tore up his knee against Tennessee and DJ Lagway was forced into the starting job. So we now have a better idea of who DJ Lagway is. But I will ask you this, and I'm probably the guiltiest person of anyone on this front. So I'll just ask it. Of you about me.

Am I allowing what lagway did against LSU and Ole Miss to do too much lifting? Should I be more skeptical? So I appreciate the spirit of the question and I think there's a very high likelihood that Julian Sand will be a very good productive quarterback, if not a great one. My belief, and I believe that your belief in DJ Lagway extends past his recruiting profile and situation and into the fact that he's a freak

and that we've been able to see it with our eyes. Like that. And I've seen it. I've seen it against good teams at the end of a season. Like, so I think that the thing that is interesting, and I find that this question also reminds me Andy of the run ins that I had with people about Arch Manning a month ago of your blind belief in situation coaching, recruiting rankings and measurables and your, um, actual, what you've seen, what's tangible

and what you know about a person as a college football player. There's a divide there. And the reason why DJ Lagway has been the number one quarterback on my lists with an Arch Manning, people were mad that Arch Manning was in the top 10 at all, let alone, you know, not, I mean, DJ Lagway is number one because I watched him play and I know for a fact that the man is a freak of nature. Like I know that. So it's not that like I you know have you seen the family guy cut away where he is you know getting scanned by somebody and they're like you can have this boat or you can have this mystery box and you can box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box

box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box box can box the box. He goes, I want the box. He goes, anything could be in this box. It could even be a boat. And he goes box box box. And it was just like a $15 gift card to an ale salon in there. It's that like, what are you going to pick here? You picking the mystery box? Are you picking the boat like DJ liveways the boat here? So like, I'm just going to pick the boat. So you know, you're using a family guy references. You're basically calling Julian, Satan,

Schrodinger's quarterback. Like we don't know. We don't know if he's gonna be good or not till we see him. I think that like the Vegas odds of him being a very good quarterback are really like stacked in that favor. Like I think that Julian Sann will likely be a very good quarterback if not maybe a Heisman finalist. It happens all the time at Ohio State because of the coaching, because of who they recruit and how good they are when they come in and who they're throwing to. Like there's no question about it. But like also too, like when you're ranking quarterbacks, a lot of like my Arch Manning ranking was blind faith because of Ryan Wingo and those guys. And maybe it's making me feel like I underranked Julian Sand, which is probably the spirit of the question. I was going to say, Jeremiah Smith should provide the most blind faith of anybody in the world. And I think that's why I like Ty's question so much. But I also think too though, that like maybe the question is, should be phrased why is D,

I don't think that DJ Lagway should be a part of the question. I think it should be, are we not talking enough about Julian Sam? Because I think like I'm willing to have that conversation. But if you're asking me like, or to explain, cause he said, I don't understand

how everyone in college football is so confident in DJ Lagway, it's because everybody in college football has eyes like the guy is going to be like, I mean, he's just a physical freak that has a beautiful arm and has produced in big games against big time SEC opponents. Now, the one thing that scares the shit out of me when it comes to DJ Lagway is his injury history. The man has been beaten up quite a bit.

And I don't know if that's a result of just bad luck or or bad offensive line play, but their offensive line was pretty good. I don't know. I just don't want him to get hurt again because like that's the one thing that can derail somebody this talented II think that DJ and I mean he missed he missed three months of throwing this spring. Yeah, but he's got a shoulder injury that dated back to last year, but I feel like he's already unequivocally proven that when healthy he has,

like I don't know that there's much to date. Like are there people out there, like there are people out there like, why is DJ Lagway getting so much pub? And I am so confused by that. I think if you didn't watch those two games all the way through, or you didn't watch him

before he got hurt against Georgia, like maybe you don't understand. There are a lot of people. If you watch them, you'll understand. There are a lot of people. If you watch them, you'll understand. There are a lot of people who do form opinions without watching as much football as we do. Like we watch all the games. Like I'm watching everything.

I just don't go watch his highlights if you want. I don't know what to tell you. But like my belief system has always been this. A great player, nine times out of 10, the truly special great one of a kind type players. Reveal themselves very early. And I think that you got that with Jeremiah Smith. He obviously got that with Ryan Williams. You get that a lot with really great players. Trevor Lawrence won a national

title as freshman year. The great players actually do it. I think that that DJ Lagway has revealed himself. Joe Burrow and Jaden Daniels are kind of the exceptions to the rule. Usually when somebody is that good, you know it immediately. Now, you just brought up a name, though, of guys who showed their greatness immediately.

That ties into Julian saying, Jeremiah Smith, undoubtedly the best receiver in college football, undoubtedly the best receiver in college football, maybe the best receiver in college football in a long, long time. Like the only name I actually hear him compared to that even makes sense is Larry Fitzgerald. And it's pretty lofty, but I don't feel like it's overblown. I think I think Jeremiah Smith is potentially better than Larry Fitzgerald in college.

Here's my straight faced expectation for Jeremiah Smith. I believe that when his NFL career is over with, he will be the greatest receiver to have ever played. Like that's where I'm at with him. So like, I don't know like what you like. I mean, I know Calvin Johnson. I think, yeah, I think, I think being better than Calvin Johnson and Jerry Rice, there's a lot of, a long way to go for that.

But he has all the tools. My expectation based on what I know about him and his physical measurables in his production so far is that he should do that. That's what I think of him. So like- But Julian Sayen gets to throw to that guy. How much does the fact that Julian Sayen

gets to throw to that guy weigh into this? I think it should weigh a lot. And Ty makes a great point there, that he gets to throw to not just Jeremiah Smith, but also Colonel Tate. Also Max Clair, who we mentioned the other day, coming from Purdue as it's been. Brandon and I have a lot of really good players. Yeah, Julian Sane is really set up to succeed here. Can I make one final point though about? Oh yeah, sure. Actually been thinking about this.

Has Ohio State named a starting job yet? Starting quarterback? Theoretically, it could not be Julian saying it could be so it could be Lincoln Keenholz. So like, yeah, your deal like it's going to be Julian saying, okay, I've been around enough of these fake battles to know when it's a fake one. And when it's a real one. There was a real one I covered. It was it was a JT Barrett and Cardale Jones. That was a real one. And it turned out to be an absolute dumpster fire. But this is a fake one. Okay. And it will be Julian saying at the end of the road. But

my question to you is that if you believe that this is a real one, because a lot of people do people go in, but some people do people listen to the show. I might call me an idiot for thinking that is that if the if the coach of Ohio State isn't confident enough in what he has in Julian saying to name him the starter on May 29, the day that we're recording this, then what is it that you're expecting us to do when we are comparing him directly to a quarterback who's already shown physical freak nature ability,

while also being the starting quarterback and having played his true freshman year. Like I think that there's a big distinction between those two things. So until the coach comes out, the person who sees him every day and evaluates him and says, this is our guy, then what do you want from us?

Like that's the thing for me. That's true, I mean, I understand the politics that Ryan Day is dealing with and the dynamics of the transfer portal and you wanna make sure everybody stays and you wanna make sure sure everybody stays and you want To make sure you have a backup. Yeah Yeah

He's dealing with politics But like that's the thing is like, you know If you think that Julian saying should be held in the same regard as DJ lagway and tell your coach like it's nothing to do With me. He's not even the star yet well, I and it will be fascinating to watch because the It's funny because a lot of places you could say, oh, the better weapons argument. Are you sure about that? Are you sure that Dallas Wilson is not going to be? No, no, no. We're sure Jeremiah Smith's a better weapon than everybody else has.

So, yeah, no, we're sure about that. Like Ohio State is definitively the best, most equipped offense in terms of personnel this year and skill talent, right? Like, there's no debate about that. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm not there of like, oh, well, we'll see how that goes. I am excited to see DJ Lagway throwing to Dallas Wilson, Jay Mechel Sturtevant, Eugene Wilson. DJ Lagway, you didn't ask them to help them. Like now it's like-

Yeah, he did it with Camille Dike and Elijah Badger who were good and like Dike got drafted probably a little higher than I thought he would. But the question is like, if, you know, is Dallas Wilson the kind of freak who blows up the way Jeremiah Smith and Ryan Williams did last year as true freshmen, or is he more like a Cam Coleman where it's a little bit slower, or Ryan Wingo,

where it's a little bit slower burn? Camingo, where it's a little bit slower burn. Cam Coleman, maybe the sophomore last year. Let's hope for cam Coleman. Cam Coleman would, yeah. But I think you would argue that cam Coleman into the season, very different than cam Coleman beginning of the season. Ryan Williams and Jeremiah Smith were good.

No, I just mean like they can add cam Coleman to their repertoire. They'd be, oh yeah, they'd be in good shape. Yeah. Yeah. They would be in good shape. So I just, I'm excited about this because I think the quarterback arguments in a year after one where we didn't really have a dominant quarterback, like again, I am glad Travis Hunter won the Heisman because I think it was great to recognize something that we're probably never going to see again but if there'd been a dominant quarterback that quarterback would have won the Heisman. This is about to

be a year where there's gonna be a bunch of dominant quarterbacks and it's gonna be so much fun to watch. I'm with you I'm excited about it but I think it's a good question but I think you're also, you're also asking it wrong. Just why is, why is, why hasn't Ryan Day said this is the guy if he's that insane getting as much pub as DJ Lagway. I think it's very evident why. But I'll give Ryan Day some grace on that because again, I'm not coming down on Ryan Day.

I'm just, I'm just like, what are you, I'm just, I'm just telling us, it's like, what do you, I'm just saying they're gonna have their process. Oh, it's okay. People can call us idiots. It's fine. No, no, I just, the question is why are we not talking about Julian Sand as much? And the answer is we haven't seen him

and he isn't the starter yet. Yeah, it's the same. I don't, you know, I don't feel like we're talking about Bryce Underwood all that much either, even though we are pretty sure he's gonna be the starter because I don't know that Mikey Keene is going to be ready for the start of the season. So there's a few guys who are going to be first year starters.

We just had the long conversation about Alabama and the quarterback situation on Wednesday's show and we don't know who that's going to be. Is it going to be Ty Simpson? Is it going to be Keelan Russell? Is it going to be Ty Simpson who then gives way to Keelan Russell? Like we don't know. And that's the part of this where we can think we know, but until they tell us like, oh, I, you know, Notre Dame, CJ Carr versus Kenny Minchi right now, like we know that Steve Angelli left, but they didn't,

like Marcus Freeman didn't suddenly name a starter all of a sudden. Yeah, yeah. And also too, I'm a sucker for just pure bona fide measurables and like DJ Lagway can like curl a car with his forearm if he wanted to, I think so. That helps. Yeah, he's a big dude.

So, and all of this is gonna be fun. That's the best part of this is people can argue. And I love the, my QB is better than your QB argument. And when the QBs are all very good, I think we're about to see a year of a bunch of very good QBs. And after a year of not a lot, I think it's gonna be a lot of fun.

So, move on to question two. We will stay in the big 10 for this one. It's from Warner. Dear Andy and Ari, first time writing in, listen to you guys every day and appreciate what you do. I am an Oregon fan and I was curious about two things. One, how should last season be remembered? 13-0 and winning the big 10 are huge accomplishments,

but what long-term takeaway should the Rose Bowl drubbing have? Does it mean that Oregon is far away from the upper echelons of the sport or was it simply ran into the wrong team at the wrong time? Oregon proved it can hang with elite teams like Penn State and Ohio State within the season, which simply makes the result more confusing to me. Two, going forward, what is Oregon's ceiling? I recognize both you and Ari are high on Dan landing and the talent brought in year over years encouraging, but I pushed back at the notion

that is simply luxury shopping in the portal. At key positions such as defensive tackle, Bear Alexander, Derek Harmon, and Jamar Caldwell, left and right tackle, Alex Harky, Isaiah World, and Johnny Cornelius, and a quarterback, Bo Nix, Dylan Gabriel, and Dante Moore, the Ducks have relied on the transfer portal to fill these needs.

Is this talent acquisition model sustainable and ultimately how does that affect long-term ceiling? Really thoughtful questions from Warner. Let's tackle the first one first about how to remember last season because I think you wrote a column coming out of the Rose Bowl that I thought summed it up really well. Yeah, from Pasadena. And I think that the, the, uh, actual reality of how this season should be remembered, Andy is with great. Pride. I think that this past season ended in a very bad way for you, uh, Oregon fans.

But I also think too, that this season was the line in the sand in which Oregon kind of makes that transition from second tier to top tier. Um, I don't know if you take that away, but, um, that's what I take away. And the other thing is, and I've shared this opinion on the show quite a bit over the, over the last, you know, six months, but my opinion is that the way that Ohio State was constructed and what they possessed on their roster last year is the last of a dying breed. And that Oregon, which, you know, ironically, as you mentioned in your question, beat them earlier in the season, ran into them when they were angry, when they were hungry, when they were hurt. And, you know, a team, you know, can go two ways in that, in that

realm. And that's, you know, give up and suck or come together and try really, really hard to be great. And they ended up doing the latter. And Oregon with a week off and, you know, a tougher, a tougher route in the playoff because of dysfunctional seating and all those stuff just ran into the wrong place at the wrong time. Like I think Oregon is going to be very good this year. I think that they will be a team that I conceivably believe could win a national title as soon as this year, if things come together for them. And I don't think there's a team in college football that will hold a stark of a talent advantage, um, as Ohio state ended up having at the end of that year.

Um, and people will say, well, they beat them once the talent advantage. And State ended up having at the end of that year. And people will say, well, they beat them once the talent advantage. And you're right, they did. Regular season games, especially ones on the road can go out a little bit differently where my personal belief is that when teams play in neutral sites and postseason games, it's a, it's a different environment. Like teams are different in that environment, especially in the playoff environment. And I wouldn't be too like, oh, we're screwed

or we're second here as a result of that. I think we would have to acknowledge what they lost to. The second part of the question, I think is really interesting in that, like they have had to, you know, get important players that keep positions in the portal. But I don't believe that Oregon from a high school recruiting situation

is in a position where they're ever gonna feel like they're not recruiting up snuff. And my two things are, are always, are you recruiting high schools well enough, which Oregon is unequivocally doing. And two, have you proven in the portal that if there is a need or a position of great value that you want, can you close? And Oregon has proven that. So when you look at their ceiling into the future, as the top tier teams like

Ohio state, who have geographical advantages and historical advantages come down to closer to here, and Oregon comes up to here, they're going to be on a more even playing field, both because Dan Lanning is a elite level talent evaluator and accumulator, and because he doesn't have to do it at the rate that he saw firsthand at Georgia anymore, because that doesn't exist. And that's how you debate. Like that felt like I was like in the old school like debates. I just blacked out for a second. You know like that like Ace Finchero. You know when he gets there.

That's what I just did. But I feel like I did a good job. Andy, anything to add? No, I think that was a great job. And I will expand on the the answer to the first part. I think what Oregon did in the. And I will expand on the, the, your answer to the first part. I think what Oregon did in the regular season last year was extraordinary. And I don't know if we're going to see anybody do that again for a while.

I mean, maybe we're going to see a team in the big 10 as currently constructed or the SEC is currently constructed, go undefeated, go 13 and Oh, win the conference championship. I don't think that's going to be very easy for anybody to do. I think what they did was pretty extraordinary. And so take pride in that. What happened in the playoff, you did run into a version of a team that you're probably not going to run into again in that situation. So I think if you could put together a team like Oregon had last year, going forward, they're not going to, they might play a team they could lose to in the quarterfinals or the semi-finals

of the playoff, but that doesn't mean it would be like that. I think, I think that team, that Ohio State team is, is an anomaly. The biggest difference is, is you will play teams you could lose to. You won't play teams that you cannot beat. And I think that that's the distinction. And they were not going to beat them that day. Yeah. Now, and the thing that I think will be interesting about how we review and look back at Ohio State season from this past year is that they did lose to Oregon and they did lose to Michigan

and they were a two loss team in the regular season and previous iterations of the playoff, they would not have even made the postseason. But I think that they will be constantly shortchanged in the annals of history as a result of how good they were. Like you will not like, I think the athletic ranked the best teams of the last, you know, 20 years or whatever, like one through 50. And like, I think, like the Ohio State team as it was constructed on the field in the national championship game and on the way to it, would have been able to hold its own against 2020 Georgia and 20 or 2020 Alabama and 2019 Georgia and all those teams that were winning championships back then. They were constructed in a way this past year to compete with the superest of super teams from the 2014 to 21 era.

And they will never be remembered that way because they didn't get it done in the regular season. And frankly, that's the way the sport probably should work where you don't get to even go to the playoff. But Ohio State was able to be the beneficiary of the new season, the new rules, the new outline for how the playoff is champion is crowned and the playoff is fielded and they took advantage of it. But you know, there have been a lot of great teams in Ohio State history specifically that have not done enough in the regular season to get to the point

where this Ohio State team got a chance to redeem itself. So Oregon, I think is looking at it like, well, we beat them and they lost to Michigan. What the hell happened? It's like, when you really take a step back and look at who got drafted off that team and what they were, they were every bit as good as the Super Team era teams that won national titles back then, in my opinion. As for the, as for the transfer portal thing, it is interesting. We've had this discussion relating to Oregon and to Miami, because I think both of those teams do a good job recruiting out of high school.

And especially Miami does a really good job recruiting in the trenches and obviously Oregon does too. But they are more than willing to go fill needs. I will like push back on Dante more because I do realize he is a transfer. He went to UCLA first. But am I wrong for looking at him almost as an Oregon recruit because he was committed to Oregon for most of his recruitment.

He then flips to UCLA, spends that year there, but it's Chip Kelly's last year there. It's really weird. And then he goes to Oregon and agree. I mean, by going to Oregon, you knew he was agreeing to sit behind Dylan Gabriel for a year. I view him more as an Oregon recruit than I do as a transfer. I mean, I guess if you view Jared verse as a Florida state recruit, you kind of have to view Dante Moore as an Oregon recruit, right? Like, it's kind of like the same deal. If you, if you are somebody who transfers in and has multiple years to develop in a program and then comes out and does really well, you know, I mean, I don't think people really connect Dante more to the UCLA recruiting class. And frankly speaking, you're not gonna find a lot of people who played as much as Dante Moore did as a true freshman,

who are willing to go transfer to a place where he knows going into it, he's not playing. Like that's not something that you see very often. And I think as a result of that, it was a mature decision and one that might pay off great dividends because like I am in no way, shape or form writing this kid's ability off. And I actually thought he showed some great flashes during his time at UCLA.

You put them with these weapons. I mean, he's going to be thrown to Evan Stewart. There aren't a lot of people who are covering this guy. Decore and more. Let's not forget. Like, yeah, about guys. We talked about true freshmen who blew up last year. This is a true freshman who blew up this year and everybody wanted more like that. Yeah. Everybody in the everybody wanted like that. Yeah, everybody the country so yes, I would be I wrote from Pasadena the day after

Ohio State beat the crap out of them to hold your head high and be hopeful for the future and I meant that that's how I view it and I think that their long-term ceiling is national championship and I don't know that I would have said that in 2018 and I don't know if I would have said it in 14 when they went to the national title game. So like, also the development part of it, because like I, I've talked about this a bunch of in the show, like I feel like how you develop players and what they,

what they are as a finished product when they leave you is a lot more telling than, than the input part of it. Josh Connerly was a guy that Dan Lanning recruited to Oregon out of high school. And he played left tackle at Oregon three years, he became a first round draft pick. Let me ask you this, is Derek Harmon a first round draft pick

if he just stays at Michigan State last year? Or did going to Oregon and getting coached by the staff at Oregon help make him a first round draft? Because if you believe that did, and I do, then I don't think shopping in the portal at key positions is necessarily saying that you're not going to win a national title. I think that there will be times in every roster where there are holes and you got to fill them.

And if you can fill them with guys who, even if they come for one year, you can make them a first rounder that one year. I mean, you know, right. Too. How many teams have won the national championship in the last five years? You had a quarterback who transferred in their career. Then also too, when you take, when you take Dante more, that is very, excuse me, tickle my throat there, very different than taking a one-year rental.

They took him as a recruit, any more than Julian Sand from Ohio State as an Alabama transfer. Yeah. But I think Isaiah World this year is probably viewing this as a one-year situation and then he goes to the draft. I think that's fine as long as it's not your entire way of being. And I don't think it is for Oregon. Because I think that quarterbacks are transient and they always transfer and it's hard to keep somebody.

But the thing that would make me most comfortable as an Oregon fan or any fan of any big time team is if my coach has shown and illustrated an ability to consistently sign elite-level quarterback prospects to bring into the program for at least one year. Because relying on the quarterback transfer situation can get you into hot, hot trouble. And I kind of feel like Florida State is like, I hate that Florida State is constantly the, the antithesis of what goes well with the portal. And you use like examples of what goes wrong, but they found themselves in a position where they absolutely needed to have a quarterback They went and got one who wasn't very good and a tank their entire season And it was that yeah

And they didn't have anybody that they recruited out of high school that they could have felt really comfortable with stepping in there and I think that that like to me it's like if the if the Nico Miley Ava, I am Ali Ava. I don't know. I can't say his name situation. The first time's always hard. EMA, Ali, Ali, Ali, Ali, Ali, Ali, Ali, Ali, Ali, Ali, Ali, quarterbacks are going to be leaving suddenly more now

than ever before. So you need to have people on your roster that you're comfortable with. And like, I feel like getting that guy is harder. And so Austin Novosad stayed by the way, Austin Novosad, who was a very highly rated quarterback recruit. He stayed, he's still there. So he's an option too.

Um, I legitimately think that that doesn't count. I think that they took a luxury item at a position that wasn't a need when they took them and now they have him like that's that's accumulation of talent. It might not been from high school, but it's there should be a distinction between one year rental and program guys that are going to be on your team for multiple years moving forward. And Dan landing might be the greatest coach in the world because based on what we've seen in his career, he's sort of a grasses greener guy. Like you saw him shut it down at USC because he was getting the playing time he wanted. Like I, if Dan landing can turn that guy into a star, then yeah, he can probably do it with anybody. The grass is pretty green in Oregon, so we'll see.

It rains a lot there. That's just that, but it never rains at Austin Stadium. It never rains in the game. Next question. I don't play that much right now. Isn't there a drought? There's drought everywhere. All right.

D-E-G-H-22 asks this. How can we seriously allow the absurdity that the SEC plays eight and everyone plays nine? Literally half the league would have one more loss. Well, that's not necessarily true because that assumes you would win the non-conference game you're scheduling instead of the ninth conference game. But I'll, I'll, I'll allow it. Uh, also everybody else doesn't play nine. The ACC only plays eight games as well in conference.

Uh, five ACC teams must play Notre plays eight games as well in conference. Five ACC teams must play Notre Dame as ordained by the conference. So for five teams they have to play nine conference games but for the other 12 they only play eight. Am I off base for just not caring about this discussion at all? You are not off base but I get a sense from fans of Big 10 teams and fans of Big 12 teams that it's very important to them that the SEC play nine conference games. Now here's the thing that we talked about it on yesterday's show. We talked about the carrot and the stick. They've dangled the carrot in front of you. You can make them play nine conference games. All you have to do is accept what they want for the college football playoff and they will play non conference

games, but I don't think that's the greatest deal for the Big 12 for the Big 10. I don't think it matters. I actually just think it's funny because like if you ask Big 10 teams who are mad about this, would you trade schedules with the SEC? They would say no, right? Right like that.

Would you trade even even what we consider to be a difficult Big 10 schedule. If you said, OK, would you would you trade your difficult nine game big to big 10 schedule for Oklahoma's eight game SEC schedule? Not a single one of them would trade. I don't get stamped because Oklahoma is the poster child for like awful schedules. Like I like I'm sorry, people in Norma. It's going to be a long year, probably, even if you are much improved. And I anticipate you will be but like Florida has a pretty tough one or it's very tough when they they have an

intersection with a bunch of the agent they trade for Missouri schedule or Texas's schedule maybe I don't know throw Texas's schedule up there they're playing Ohio State that doesn't count does it we're talking about conference games only conference games. Yeah, they're Georgia. Yeah, I mean at Florida at Florida and at George is probably as close of a one to punch toughness combo like what Big Ten schedule features. I mean, I guess you have a Big Ten schedule

that has you on the road at Ohio State in Penn State you might you know, I don't know maybe Florida or Oregon at at Oregon at Ohio State at Oregon at Penn State that you might, you know, I don't know, maybe Florida or Oregon at at Oregon at Ohio State at Oregon at Penn State. That would be tough. This is the easiest one, though. This is the easiest draw that in the SEC that we can come up. I think Missouri has the easiest draw. I think I think Missouri's is a little bit easier. Oh, it does. Oh, it's not easy. South Carolina, Alabama, but they get those at home at least. Yeah, they don't have LSU and Georgia on their schedule. Um, but like also to Ohio, uh, Ohio States and Penn State and Oregon playing a conference with 16 teams. Like it's harder to play 18. Sorry.

Um, 18. The big 10 has 18. 18. Sorry. And the sec has 16, but I think the extra two makes it difficult to play eight, two because you need, you need to play more games against the vast number of teams. Does that make sense? Like the more teams you have, the more games you probably play.

I don't know the extra two there. Listen, I'd be fine with the SEC playing nine. I've covered that debate within the league for what? Five years now. And it's interesting because a lot of the people who were originally behind the nine game one, because they wanted to sell more tickets, their home schedule sucked and they wanted to sell tickets because they wanted teams that didn't come through very often to come through more often.

And I understood that. But now they're saying, well, no, we're not going to nine unless you give us the automatic bids, which the people in the Big Ten would be fine with too because they want them to. If you're the ACC or the Big 12, you don't want to sign up for that, even if it makes the SEC go to nine conference games.

I don't know, that juice is not worth the squeeze. But it also may be that the SEC and the Big Ten are so much more powerful at this point that the SEC and the big 10 are so much more powerful at this point that the ACC and big 12 don't really have a choice but to capitulate. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know that the, the SEC is off the hook in the sense that they play one less conference game, but I don't know if they're actually off the hook in terms of the actual schedule. Shane Beamer and Destin this week talking about how they have to play Clemson every year.

And that's non-negotiable. He said, somebody asked him, would you consider losing, dropping the Clemson game? He's like, no. It's like that's a non-negotiable non-starter. South Carolina will play Clemson. And he's like, so we view it as already having those nine games. And like they also play Virginia Tech this year. So they'll play 10 games against teams from power conferences. And so you've got the five schools

that have the ACC rival that, or is it four? It's Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, sorry. So those four that have the ACC rival, they kind of look at it like, okay, already got that. But I will say like Florida's athletic director, Scott Strickland, before all this was one of the people pushing the SEC to go to nine and they weren't going to drop the Florida State game. Like that was just going to be another game that they played. So I think in a lot of places, they're fine with nine. And you heard Brian Kelly say, we'd like to play big 10 teams.

I think the only way the big 10 gets into any sort of organized scheduling alliance with the SEC, I mean, you might have teams just signing up for games with each other. But like an organized scheduling alliance, where you have a big 10 sec challenge. The only way that happens is that the sec goes to nine games. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh, not that fired up about it, Andy, uh, to be honest, I know it, but it really, really angers a lot of people. I think that maybe I'm just too online. Maybe there's not anybody, you know, who is very active on Twitter who cares. You know what it is? We just got done saying at the beginning of the show that the threats from the SEC to not play big time non-conference games

as a made-up talking point. And this is the well actually talking point from the other side. So like that's why it's like you have to, it's politics, man. I think the SEC just kicked this around. It was like, oh, we can use this as leverage. Cause we were like, remember Greg Sankey,

the commissioner of the SEC wants the SEC to go into nine conference games. Like has wanted that for a long time. Things are true though. They're both true. The sec plays a harder schedule. Traditionally. I don't know if that'll be the case in 10 years, but right now I'm comfortable saying traditionally annually year over year, the sec plays a harder schedule. And the other thing is true is that they play one less game. Like, so it's like, they can both be true. And like, you probably are probably somewhere just like right down the middle

there, in my opinion, like, I don't I don't, I don't ever see an SEC team make it to the end of the season as a 10 and two or an 11 one team and go, well, they weren't tested. Like, you know what I mean? Like they, yeah, it's not like, like Indiana played an extra conference game last year, and there's not a team on the SEC they would have traded schedules with a year ago. So like it's just, it kind of all works out.

And like, that's why I'm not that fired up about it because I feel like if you're in the big 10, you might have to play an extra conference game, but you might actually get to play a Northwestern and Rutgers along the way. And in the SEC, you might not play those teams, but you get one less game. Like it's, it's the same thing to me. All right. I here is a great question from Adam. And I'm a big 10 guy. Big 10 guy too. That's right. Who will be the next national champion? Not from the SEC, not from the big 10, and not Notre Dame, Clemson, Florida State, or Miami. Or will there ever be a national champion not in this

group? Hold on let's let me just try to visualize this. Who will be the next national champion from not SEC in Big Ten? Notre Dame, Clemson, Florida State, Miami. And Florida State, Miami are out so he took all the old tradition. Oh. Mm-hmm. Do you think there will ever be a national champion again that is not in that group right now? I don't. I have a few potentials. I think SMU in the era of paying players, now that they're in the ACC, I think they could cycle up to that. I think that's possible. I think we've always talked about North Carolina as a sleeping giant. Like if you could actually wake the giant. Yeah. You know what? You know, you take out, it's like

if you wake the Arizona state giant, maybe, maybe, you know, one that I kind of popped into my head, that's kind of a left field might irritate people but I've said it before and I kind of agree. What about Colorado gets it going and Deon's there for 10 years and really gets it going. Colorado

might be a team that I think could could reach that potential if he gets these. Colorado was a team that was in that mix in the Bill McCartney era. So uh BYU you've mentioned if if the church ever wanted to just buy a national championship they probably could.

Don't start with me. You know how I get fired up about that. The thing about it though too is that like ever again is such a hard, like, you have to save me from this. Like what's true right now is always true forever in my mind and you have to bring me back from that. And like forever, like is is it possible that, like Arizona State or Texas Tech becomes a power in 2041? So,

sir, but like, when you when you're asking a question, like a good faith question about, like, where college football is, and where these programs are right now, and us trying to use the information that we have right now available, available to us to make an educated guess, the only places that I can go to in a good faith response to that would be teams that are capable of acquiring talent at a certain rate.

And those teams are very limited, which right now in the big 12, I look at SMU, Colorado and Texas Tech as being in that bucket and no one else. And I don't know who else is in the ACC that can threaten for that. Like who are we missing in the ACC here? But I will point this out.

Like if we'd asked this question in 2004, Clemson would not have been one of the options Adam gave us. And I think we'd probably say, oh, I don't think Clemson is ever going to win a national title again. That's right. That's right. So and I don't know if it's wrong. Like he wants a he wants an answer from us.

So like what in so so we have to- Well, I've offered a few answers. I think SMU, I actually think Louisville could be in that mix too, in the right circumstances. You have to use the evidence that you have at your disposal right now in terms of concrete information to try to guide that. Well, okay, SMU goes into the ACC

and immediately is competitive. We know they're really good at paying players going back decades. Paying players is allowed now. So why can't SMU become that? They have lots of rich boosters. They have lots of passionate rich boosters who like SMU football a lot.

Like it's not one of them. Cause if you look at the ACC, look at some of these schools, they have, there's some of these schools have very rich alums who don't care about football. SMU has very rich alums who care deeply about football. So I- Ret Lashley is somebody who I think kind of engages

with our show. He comes on quite a bit and I think listens and sees our rankings and stuff. I don't know if he's listening right now, but here's the thing that. That I hit a snag at. Okay. Until SMU can convince high schoolers that they are an option over

A and M in Texas and LSU in Oklahoma. Well, I can, I can help you here until SMU can keep Keelan Russell committed instead of him flipping to Miami. And it not be a weird thing like until that is an expected thing because you do see some time. I mean, I don't think that's I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility. And I'll go back to my Clinton example. Until CJ Spiller committed

to Clemson, we didn't think Clemson was ever going to get those players again. And then they started doing it. They had a history of doing it. So I guess SMU you think they have a history of it? They didn't have a history of doing in the previous 15 years. And but but you would say that SMU does have a history of it with the Eric Dickerson years, right? Exactly. Exactly. Yes. I'm not sure if I could get on board with it, but I do believe, and I wrote a huge feature when Sonny Dykes was the head coach at SMU and I went and visited with him and Preston Stone and all these things. They have the Dallas players stay home at Dallas, billboards all over the place.

Their uniforms are very Dallas. But I still feel like when Texas gets involved with a Dallas player or Alabama or LSU or A&M, like also to Oklahoma isn't in the state of Texas, but they recruit Texas like they are here. People view them as here. Like, I'm not saying it's easy. No, no, I know. I just, but like to me, it's like always like, well, okay, well, if you have enough money, you can do anything. But it's like SMU has had a ton of money for a long time. And now it's legal. So maybe that's the difference. But they haven't been able to even since that is the difference. But is SMU like recruiting top 10 classes now? Like it still has better classes, recruiting better talking about the national title. want from them. I know, I know, I know. Well, the thing is that if you think money is, is the cure all, which and a lot of times it is, I don't know that where they were two years ago matters. It's breaking down the It does matter. You still have to be in a conference that allows you a chance.

I still think that you break down through perception of being a second rate program in your own state when compared to Texas and Texas A&M, which is a great time. Yeah, you do. You do, which is not easy, but I do think the way Rhett Lashley is going, if anybody has a chance to do it, it's them. And I also think too that SMU making the playoff last year was a huge, huge boost to that reputation standard. I would have liked to see them eat at a higher level, but if SMU makes it back to the playoff again, then all of a sudden, they remain fixture in that conversation. It becomes less of, oh, it's a G5 team that just moved and it's now with the legitimate power conference team with money and great facilities. And by the way, drive around SMU because it's a mile and a half away from my house quite a bit. A beautiful campus and, you know, it's the home of the Rolls Royce.

Like you drive through there, you see some pretty, what, gnarly, you know, it's the home of the Rolls Royce like you drive through there. You see some pretty what gnarly, you know, I had an oil money. Have you seen, have you seen the videos that the YouTube videos where they ask, uh, what's your, what's your biggest flex? And they did it at an SMU tailgate and some of the flexes are insane. Was it like, I have my own helicopter. No, I mean, here's the thing like too earlier in the beginning of the show, when you said you went to seaside, you saw the Dallas residents, placards on their homes. There's something

that a lot of people in the city have that I will never have. And that you will never have any and there's something that no, it's done. I mean, one day I'll have lots of money. I make money sometimes doing weird stuff. I made five grand on Thursday, flipping a football card. But the thing that we'll never have are ancestors or people that were in our family two or three generations ago happened to live on a plot of land that had oil under it.

Like, like when you start talking about like that sort of thing, like that's the type, like in Dallas specifically, cause I grew up in Scottsdale and Scottsdale's got a ton of stupid money too. But the stupid money in Dallas is like legitimate, like family old through the soil money. Like, you know, like that is,

that's a type of money that you don't see in South beach very often. Like that, like, you know, flashing money that you don't see in Scottsdale very often. You know, you see these people and they, their parents is parents of parents who were millionaires. You know, so like maybe that'll help, but like, I don't know, like national,

I think SMU belongs on the list of teams that aren't in that category, but like it's still like- I think they're probably the best positioned to join that group. It, and it still may not be anybody. It still may be zero, but I think they're the best positioned. Yeah, all the teams that we named were teams that are able to get players at a rate that other teams aren't able to. Like it's like if you're a Duke fan, you can be excited for

the season, but it's like there's a limitation on what they're bringing in from. You got the quarterback this year, but it's going to be very hard to create the depth you need your way for your Stanford. If you're Virginia Tech, I mean, I don't know. Like do they, they don't recruit the DMV the way that they used to write or the tidewater area. Like, I don't know. Like, I feel like I could create a path like North Carolina to me had a path of

being really, really good when Max Brown first took over and then that path exploded when I L when, when Butch Davis was there, before Marvin Austin tweeted from the nightclub, like that 2010 North Carolina team, had it not been ravaged by NCAA scandal, I think would have been a really competitive team, potentially a national title competitor. I mean, you can go to the list of APC teams and come up with their path. I mean, Georgia Tech's path, they're in frickin Atlanta, I don't need to spell that out for you. Like, I mean, like they're the players are there. But it's just more like the concept is just so much harder to like actually make work than coming up with the concept that a lot of places.

Yeah, it'd be like Notre Dame light and just recruit every private Catholic school in the country and say if this is the environment you're looking for, yours one of two places in power football that you can find it at. And we're the second one. So go get all of the sloppy seconds that Notre Dame doesn't have room for. Is that a path? I don't know. It's possibly a path. The problem is in reality, you're not getting that because the people who just missed getting into the class at Notre Dame are probably

still going somewhere else. Yeah. So that's, that's the tricky part. But again, like SMU, fire up the Camaro. Let's get it done. Let's get on this list. I think you got the best shot. Camaro. Ari. Yeah, what are the Camaro that they gave to uh. Yeah, I know. It used to be a Camaro. A&M gave the Camaro to Dickerson and he drove it to SMU.

That's what it was. Right? Yeah. I know what you meant by Camaro. I know. Yeah. Isn't that- Or was it a Firebird? I mix up the Camaro and the Firebird all the time.

The Firebird, and I think that that was like, have you seen the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High? Yes. It's the one Forrest Whitaker has. Yeah. Yeah. Jefferson. Firebird's a Pont the Pontiac Camaro's a Chevy but

That's not the car anymore. It's a lamb or something or a Rolls-Royce race, right? We're not dealing with like cuz like back in the day like was a Camaro in like 1970 Just a little bit more expensive than a nice sedan. Oh I don't even know if it's that much more expensive It was just it was that much more expensive. It was just, it was a bigger engine as a muscle car. But yeah. But like now it's about money.

Now it's about flashiness. Now it's about that Lambo SUV you love. It's not a Lamborghini urologist. You ain't winning the national title giving people Lamborghini urologists. So. I didn't mean to crap on SMU. I feel bad.

Like now people are gonna get mad at me Didn't like I feel like you you would be the team on the list I'm just saying what give me you outlined the difficulty and there's nothing that they all Can even do about it like he can drew do the best It has nothing to do with whether he's a good or bad coach. He's a great coach I love the guy, but I think if he's an extraordinary coach like Gabbo is Yeah, you can you can change the school circumstances. And so we'll see. Because I think, I mean, can you argue with anything Rett's done so far? Like, he's been awesome so far. So we'll see how

that goes. But I think, I think of the schools that are not on the list already, they got the best shot to get on the list. Whether they can do it is another question. Speaking of questions, thank you guys for incredible questions today. Thank you for watching this week. I hope everybody has a wonderful weekend, and Ari and I will see you again on Monday.