Andy & Ari On3 - Could the SEC title game teams be chosen by RANDOM DRAWING? | What's success for Miami in 2024?

Episode Date: August 22, 2024

This show is presented by Wendy’s!   You’ve had Wendy’s Nuggs dipped in sauce. But have you had them covered in sauce?Wendy’s New Saucy Nuggs take the Crispy and Spicy Nuggs you love and turn them up to 11.Choose between flavors like Buffalo. Honey BBQ. Garlic Parm. Or, if you’re a real heat seeker,try Spicy Ghost Pepper, only on Wendy’s signature Spicy Nuggs. We dare you.(0:00-0:51) Intro(0:51-4:33) Iowa Head Coach Kirk Ferentz Suspended 1 Game(4:34-14:57) SEC Announces Tiebreaker Rules(14:58-16:40) PrizePicks(16:41-18:44) Nebraska Names Dylan Raiola as QB1(18:45-21:34)  Only in the SEC with Lane Kiffin and Brian Kelly(21:35-22:19) Dear Andy Intro(22:20-33:10) Tennessee and Josh Heupel's Ceiling(33:11-42:20) Under More Pressure: Drew Allar or Cade Klubnik?(42:21-45:22) Wins for Miami to be Successful?(45:23-50:55) Group of 5 Bid Scenarios(50:56-55:34) Solution to NIL World without a Union?(55:35-1:00:19) ALL 774 to build a roster(1:00:20-1:01:53) Concluding Dear Andy(1:01:54-1:02:45) ULM names General Booty QB1, See you tomorrow!This show is also sponsored by PrizePicks, America’s most fun daily fantasy game. Use the code STAPLES to play $5 and get $50 instantly. The SEC has finally released the tiebreakers for determining who gets into the conference title game in the new, 16-team, divisionless league. Yes, it could get very messy. It also could ultimately come down to a drawing of the tied teams. Andy breaks down everything between “head to head” and “rock, paper, scissors.” Nebraska coach Matt Rhule has named freshman Dylan Raiola his starting quarterback. The hype train is going to be zooming down the track in Lincoln.Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin offered his thoughts on full-calorie soda at the expense of a sponsor, and LSU coach Brian Kelly showed how the selling-stuff game is played. Now it’s time for Dear Andy, where your questions drive the show… Has Tennessee coach Josh Heupel ascended to a new level of recruiter? Which QB is under more pressure — Penn State’s Drew Allar or Clemson’s Cade Klubnik? What constitutes success for Miami this season?Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/djNX_7lTiI8 Host: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey

You've had Wendy's nuggets dipped in sauce, but have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy's new saucy nugs. Take the crispy and spicy nugs you love and turn them up to 11. Choose between flavors like buffalo, honey barbecue, garlic parm, spicy buffalo, or if you're a real heat seeker, try the spicy ghost pepper only on Wendy's signature spicy nugs. I dare you. That's seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love. Pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins, and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before. For a whole new way to nug,

it's got to be Wendy's at ParticipatingUSWendys. Welcome to Andy Staples on 3. It's a Dear Andy day, but we've got a lot of news to cover. And the one that, well, when we all went to bed on Wednesday night, this was not the headline we expected to wake up to. But indeed, here we are. Kirk Ferentz suspended for Iowa's first game. That's right.

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz suspended for the Illinois State game. This news comes from Scott Dockerman of the Athletic. Long time Iowa beat writer. Very plugged into that program. According to Dockerman's story, the suspension is related to the recruitment of current quarterback Cade McNamara now remember Cade McNamara was Michigan's starting quarterback he was there for three years helped Michigan to a Big Ten title as the starter in 2021 lost the job to J.J. McCarthy in 2022 transferred to Iowa for 2023 now this was this was a very bang-bang recruitment.

McNamara went in the transfer portal when it opened, very quickly committed to Iowa. So it is Kirk Ferentz. It is also receivers coach John Budmayer, who was involved in the recruitment of Cade McNamara. It's not clear, according to Scott Dockerman, whether the NCAA or Iowa imposed the suspension. Because remember, the school can impose the suspension to get out in front of whatever NCAA penalty might be coming down the pipe.

So that is unclear at the moment. Scott and Tom Kakert from Hawkeye Report, our Iowa Sighted On 3 report that Seth Wallace, the assistant defensive coordinator, linebackers coach, probably would be the acting head coach for the Illinois State game. And Tom at Hawkeye Report points out the last time Kirk Ferentz was not on the sideline for an Iowa game was the year before he got hired, November 21st, 1998. The Waterboy was the number one movie at the box office. Bill Clinton was in office. I looked up the Billboard Hot 100 for that week. Doo-Wop That Thing by Lauryn Hill. That thing, that thing, that thing.

That was the number one song. Last time, Kirk Ferentz was not on the sidelines for an Iowa football game. Now, because this is the funniest sport in the world, I know and you know that the first place your mind went was, huh, what happens if Iowa drops 60 on Illinois State with Kirk not on the sideline? What does that say? What does that mean? Rick MSU, so this is the tampering issue. It certainly seems to be. And again, nothing funnier than this sport because, again, this is the last thing you'd expect.

But, hey, we'll see what happens. We'll see what the evidence is. We'll see exactly what transpired. Kirk Ferentz is supposed to talk to reporters later on Thursday. So we're going to find out from his side of the things what happened. But Kirk Ferentz out for the Illinois State game. Again, not the headline we all expected to wake up to on a Thursday morning. We'll find out what happens. Cade McNamara, remember, getting pushed

during Iowa camp, but still the presumed starter. There's some other starter news in the Big Ten we'll get to in a second, but first we're going to talk tiebreakers. Now the Big Ten has not announced its tiebreakers, but on Wednesday, the SEC announced its tiebreakers for the conference championship game. Because remember, this is the first divisionless season in the SEC since 1991. It's the first divisionless season since they created the championship game, which started in 1992. And they had to figure out how to break ties because you could have ties for number one, you could have ties for number two, and it could get very complicated because with 16 teams, not everybody's playing everybody. The schedules are unbalanced. They're different. You have to

figure out a way to break the ties. So the SEC has now devised a set of tiebreakers. The last one is hilarious, and if we ever get to it, it's going to be Armageddon. But let's just go through these right now. The first tiebreaker, obviously, head-to-head competition among the tied teams. Like that one works great. If you get a situation where, say, Georgia and Texas are tied at the top, they both have a 7-1 SEC record. Well, then all you got to do is look at the Georgia-Texas game. Who won? Okay, great. Now, it's not going to be that simple because if that were the case, well, they'd just play again in the SEC championship game because

they'd be number one and number two. Let's say they were tied at number two at 6-2 in the conference. Well, you could do six and two in the conference. Well, you could do that and then pick the one that won the head-to-head matchup and they go to the game. That makes perfect sense. Record versus all common conference opponents among the tied teams. This is where it'll get a little weird. This is where Kentucky could help decide who plays for the SEC championship. If three tied teams happen to all play Kentucky and Kentucky happened to beat one of them.

Next one. Record against the highest slash best place common conference opponent in the conference standings and proceeding through the conference standings among the tied teams so you find the common opponent who had the best record did it beat any of them that's actually not going to happen that often that's that one's it sounds good but these are ones that they're probably going to get past because usually the tied teams beat all the other teams and lost to really good teams and they probably didn't all play each other so this is this sounds good but it's going to be harder this is the one i like the best because it basically is a schedule strength argument.

Cumulative conference winning percentage of all conference opponents among the tied teams. This is the one that hopefully will break the tie every time. This is the one they hopefully have to stop at. And basically it is, you played these eight conference games. This was the winning percentage of your eight conference opponents. The teams with the toughest schedule will go to the SEC championship game. That feels like a fair way to do it. That feels like a fair way to break the tie. And I would imagine in most situations, that's what will break the tie. The next one, and I had to go deep into the PDF that the SEC put out to figure out how all this works, capped relative total scoring margin versus all conference opponents among the tied

teams. This one's weird. It's not necessarily just scoring margin. It's capped relative scoring margin. So what does that mean? It essentially means how did you perform against this team based on how this team performed against everybody else? How was your margin of victory different percentage wise? And so the way you calculate it, essentially, this is where the cap comes in, is if that team typically gave up 21 points a game, if that team averaged giving up 21 points a game in conference play and you scored 42 points against them, then your offensive margin percentage is 100%. And that's the most it could ever be. Whether you scored 42 or 62, it's still 100% because you've reached 100% of 21. So that's where the cap comes in.

It's kind of a sliding scale. It's not, well, everything past 35 points doesn't count. It's basically everything past 100% of the average, double the average. That's the cap. So yeah, there was math involved. I was not told there would be math involved as you guys know this is a bad at math show but i think i've figured that out i think i understand it i hope they don't have to get to it because i don't really want to have to explain it again

but if they get to that one and it still doesn't break the tie. And again, that's going to break the tie most of the time, because I don't think those numbers are going to be equal, but if they somehow were, if they somehow were, you get to letter F random draw of the tied teams which is essentially their version of me to truck stop and flip a coin which is very famously happened in texas high school football where you decide who goes to the playoffs truck stop coin flip i hope they never get to that but if they do i hope they televise it so he they never get to that. But if they do, I hope they televise it. So they actually had to write out the procedure for the random draw. And it's amazing. Go Black 45 in the chat.

F is for freak out. Yes, F is for... It would be amazing. And I'm telling you right now, if it happened just for the purposes of keeping everybody on the up and up, we got to televise this thing. So I'm going to read to you from the SEC's PDF, how they're going to do this if they ever get to the random draw, which again, we've been through the other tiebreakers. The chances of this are very slim, but let's say you've got teams tied, two teams tied, no head-to-head game.

Every other thing has been tied, and this is for the second spot in the SEC championship game. Here we go. Each tied institution's athletic director will join a video conference with the commissioner or his or her designee. During the video, there's Greg Sankey. So Greg Sankey, commissioner, would be presiding over this video conference. During the video conference, each tied institution's name will be visibly placed into a drawing. It does not specify where there's going to be a hat or a bucket or what. If there are two or more teams tied for one spot in the conference championship game, then the commissioner or his or her designee

will draw one name. The first name that is drawn wins the random draw and is placed in the conference championship game as the away team if there are three or more teams tied for two spots in the conference championship game and a random draw is needed to determine both participants in the sec championship game then the commissioner or his or her designee will draw two names the first name drawn is placed in the conference championship game and will be the home team the second name drawn is also placed in the conference championship game and will be the away team if this actually happened and you televised it it would be the home team. The second name drawn is also placed in the conference championship game and will be the away team. If this actually happened and you televised it, it would be the greatest thing that has ever appeared on the SEC network. Steven Wilson has made rules for the gas

station coin toss if we want to do it that way. This gas station coin toss has to be at night, and the station has to have a couple flickering lights about to go out. That's absolutely true. Absolutely true. Running on empty in the chat. Sorting hat, just like Harry Potter. Yes, I love it. Instead of Gryffindor, you get oklahoma or the story like yeah the sorting hat's gonna be like it would be so good this would be amazing yes i won the sec sorting hat is an idea

that really this this could make millions they sell those sec belts for like 200 bucks a pop can you imagine an sec sorting hat for all those nerds out there me included i look we're not even gonna get into it this big digression but i found out i'm actually a Hufflepuff. It's embarrassing. But, I mean, imagine the SEC's sorting hat. Roll Tide! Go Big Orange! Go Black in the chat. Make an greasy, empty KFC bucket.

Only if KFC is willing to buy major sponsorship in the chat. Make it a greasy, empty KFC bucket. Only if KFC is willing to buy major sponsorship in the SEC. SEC sorting hat is the way to do this. You guys are the best because I was thinking we move this thing to Buc-ee's, but SEC sorting hat, choosing the teams for the SEC championship game is exactly the sort of thinking we need. The sort of outside the box thinking that gets stuff done, that gets massive ratings. This is what we want. We'll find out if this ever happens, but they probably won't televise it, which would suck. They'll be like, Hey, we did it. It's going to be Texas and LSU. That's no fun.

Don't do that. Make it an event. Oh, I cannot wait. Speaking of events, there's a big event happening on Saturday in Dublin, Florida State, Georgia Tech, week zero, first real college football game of the season. Well, guess who's back? And guess who's got plays on the board right now on this game?

That's right, our friends at PrizePix. Use the code STAPLES. Play $5, get $50 instantly at PrizePix. And if you look at the board right now, that's right. There's actual college football on the board. How about DJ Uyungle from Florida State? More or less than 1.5 passing TDs. Haynes King, the Georgia Tech QB.

More or less than 194.5 passing yards. Eric Singleton Jr., Georgia Tech's sophomore receiver, more or less than 58.5 receiving yards. Roy Dell Williams, that's right. He plays for Florida State now, not Alabama anymore. 68.5 rushing yards, more than or less than. You decide the way you play prize picks. You pick two or more squares. The more squares you pick, the higher the potential payout. I got one in there. We're going to give this a shot. Malik Benson, the Alabama transfer, more than 60 and a half

receiving yards. Lawrence Tolefele, more than 43 and a half rushing yards, and Haynes King, more than 194.5 passing yards. We'll see what happens. But that's right. Prize picks. College football on the board right now and for the rest of the season. So play $5. Get $50 instantly. Use the code STAPLES when you sign up.

All right. More news before we get to Dear Andy because again, everybody's decided to go crazy on the news. The Kirk Ferentz is suspended for goodness sakes. This one we thought was going to happen but they've actually officially announced it. I went, I wasn't sure if they were going to officially say it or not. But Nebraska coach Matt Rule has named freshman Dylan Raiola his starting quarterback.

I wasn't sure if they were just going to have him come out and play against UTEP and be like, yeah, he was the guy. But they've officially named him the starting quarterback. Big news. Big news. Let the hype commence because Nebraska folks have not been this excited about a true freshman in a long, long, long, big news. They'll let the hype commence because Nebraska folks have not been in this excited about a true freshman in a long, long, long, long time. Dylan Riola would be the third true freshman quarterback to start at Nebraska. The last one was not that long ago. It was Adrian Martinez in 2018. Tommy Frazier also started as a true freshman. He turned out to be a pretty good Nebraska quarterback. Adrian Martinez, more up and down career, a little more checkered

career, and then finished at Kansas State. But that was not news we weren't expecting, but I'm not, I don't sure I expected them to, to do it this way because I thought the idea had been kind of lay low. Just don't worry about saying anything. Don't put too much additional pressure on the guy, but it doesn't really matter because there's going to be pressure on the guy. Anyway, Dylan Raiola from the moment we realized he was going to flip from Georgia to Nebraska, this moment has been what they've been preparing for. It's going to be fun to watch. It's going to be fun to watch.

They start with UTEP. Remember, Colorado in week two. There's going to be a lot of pressure on that game. That one is going to be a zoo in Lincoln. Other news. Lane Kiffin gave us a little lecture on soda. And now Brian Kelly trolling Lane. Usually Lane Kiffin is the one who trolls people.

Brian Kelly, though, decided to strike back. Let's play that video. Lane Kiffin's soda lecture at the expense of a sponsor and Brian Kelly's response. Does anybody drink Coke? You guys had 130% of your sugar for the entire day is in this one bottle. 65 grams of sugar uh a long time um i don't know chris low drinks coke though i do know that chris low from espn who has changed his twitter avatar by the way to just a

bottle of coke or i believe a cup of coke but yes uh coca-cola the bottle that's on the lectern not podium lectern for those press conferences coke's paying for that i'm not sure if they appreciate lane kiffin pointing out some of the nutritional deficiencies in an all soda diet. But I will say that Lane is right on target with my son's high school football coach who gave us that same speech about soda at the parents meeting a few weeks ago. Kelly not to be outdone at his press conference on Wednesday, made sure to take care of the sponsor like a good NASCAR driver or football coach would. Just a shout out to our sponsor Coke, you know, smart water, great Coke product, minerals, vitamins. It's just great for you it's a refreshing healthy and uh co provides you all the products that you need depending on what you like and uh i love smart water you caught on really sells it but notice he didn't say everybody drink the sugary soda. He just tried to direct more money to Coca-Cola

by saying, drink this healthy water. Brian Kelly, veteran savvy. He's been a head coach for a long time. Remember, started at Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, now LSU. The man knows how to plug a sponsor. I feel like we do too. Remember, you're watching Andy Staples on three, presented by Wendy's. Get those saucy nugs. Can't stop the sauce.

All right. Enough of that. It's time for your questions. It's time for Dear Andy. You guys have thrown out some incredible questions this week. We've also got the written column that you can read at on three. Starting Thursday morning. So if you're trying to goof off at work, we can goof off in written form quietly.

Or we can goof off here loudly. Especially when we get to the SEC sorting hat. But your questions always drive this show. And you guys have been thinking pretty deeply about this stuff. Here we go. This one's from Steven. Josh Heupel and Tennessee have been on a recruiting blitzkrieg in the last couple of months. They've gotten into battles with the big dogs such as Georgia and Ohio State and are beginning to have success there. They're in a very good spot to finish with the top 10 class and could potentially sneak into the top five when all is said and done. For a while dating back to his time at UCF, the narrative about Josh Heupel was that he wasn't a good recruiter. That narrative seemingly eroded over time and I'm curious, what do you think is the narrative about Josh Heupel was that he wasn't a good recruiter. That narrative seemingly eroded over time.

And I'm curious, what do you think is the realistic ceiling for Heupel and Tennessee in the new recruiting space? Well, certainly not Kirby, Dan Lanning, or Ryan Day. I think Heupel could cement himself next level down with Tennessee's NIL running full steam. If he continues this trend of being equal to recruiting giants, then that certainly bodes well for UT. I am glad that Steven got there in this question because clearly things have changed. Now, Tennessee is recruiting very well right now. David Sanders Jr., the top ranked offensive tackle in the country, committed to Tennessee on Saturday.

Their class continues to rise in the rankings. They've been, as Stephen pointed out, battling the Ohio States and the Georgias, and they're winning some of these. But I'm glad he got there in his question where he pointed out that, yes, the NIL portion of it is a big deal. That's what's going on. That's what's happening here. Tennessee, which has not been able to recruit at that level,

and it wasn't just Josh Heupel, it was Jeremy Pruitt, who did recruit some good players and did recruit some highly rated players, but Butch Jones, who did recruit some highly rated players, but was not recruiting at the same level as a Georgia or an Ohio State. Well, now Tennessee can compete in that space. Well, yeah, Tennessee was ahead of the curve on NIL. They've been good at it. They are willing to go a little further for high school players than Ohio State, than Georgia. And you kind of have to do that because Ohio State and Georgia, Alabama, those schools can say, look, we create this many first rounders. We're not going to have to give you as much upfront because you're going to want to come play for us anyway, because we win championships and we make first rounders. Tennessee has to start proving that now for Josh Heupel and his staff, they can, when they're recruiting, let's say David Sanders, they can point to Darnell Wright, who was a five-star offensive

tackle who signed with the Jeremy Pruitt staff, who played under the Pruitt staff and the Heupel staff and became a first-round draft pick. They can point to him and say, hey, look, we do make first-round draft picks here. They can't point to SEC championships or national championships recently. recently, but if they get enough good recruits, then they might be able to. And remember, Tennessee had the original big splash NIL deal that got a player who probably would not have been coming to them in a previous era. And that's Nico. Nico Yamaliaba, who would be the starting quarterback of Tennessee,

the first giant NIL deal. Would he have gone to Tennessee if not for that? I don't think he would have. I don't think I'm speaking out of turn here. I don't think it's not a slight against Tennessee. It's just the way that recruiting had evolved in the pre-NIL era at the tail end of it. Everybody really, really good was clustering into the same set of schools. Every once in a while, you'd have somebody who either because of proximity to home, childhood fandom, They had a parent play at some place.

They might want to go do their own thing, not go to Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama. But for the most part, they were all going to the same place. NIL has changed that. Tennessee and Oregon came out strong, understood how things work from the get-go, had the best plan. And you're seeing this. Oregon's recruiting at this point looks exactly like Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama. Tennessee's not there yet, but they're working their way there. LSU. Brian Kelly, we don't buy players. Well, you do the ones you want, just not the defensive tackles that were available in the spring portal.

LSU's done a great job in the 25 recruiting cycle of landing the players that it really wants. Oklahoma. They just got a commitment from Michael Fasusi. He's the number three offensive lineman in the country. He's fantastic. And that's the kind of players you have to get to compete. Cause that's, that's what we've talked about.

You've got to get those big guys on the line of scrimmage that look ready made. And no, you don't have to. They're not all going to work out. And you're not going to necessarily have a starting offensive line of five of those guys. Some of your offensive linemen, no matter where you are, are going to be guys you developed. Defensive line, same way. But the more of those guys you get, the better chance you have, which is why Georgia has been so prohibitively good, because they get lots of those guys.

And there are not lots of those guys around. So yeah, I think in this environment, Tennessee can compete with those guys, and now we find out, will this allow them to compete on the field with them, because we've seen that, we saw them beat Alabama two years ago, it was a close game in Tuscaloosa last year, Tennessee was actually outplaying Alabama at half, you know, first half of that game, and then Alabama just kind of turned it on in the second half. Tennessee's got to show that it can, it can play with Georgia. It hasn't really shown that yet, but pretty much everybody else, Tennessee's shown they

can play with. So this is a program that can be at the top of the SEC. You know, it's not like they're in some remote location where they're not going to be able to get players. Know that the state of Tennessee does not produce the same kind of talent that the state of Georgia does, the state of Florida does. That's also changing too.

As you watch the population shift there, like Metro Nashville is sort of now where Metro Atlanta was in the late 80s, early 90s in terms of a population boom. It could be that in 10, 20 years, the state of Tennessee is also producing that level of talent. But even if it's not, easy drive from Atlanta, easy drive from Charlotte. They're not one of those that you've got to worry about, oh, how do they get these guys to even come visit? That's easy for them. So if Tennessee starts winning and starts playing for SEC titles, playing for national titles, there's no reason they can't be one of the top recruiting programs in the country every single year.

There's no reason they can't have those kind of players coming regularly. They're going to get looks. They're going to get people on campus and the NIL part is there. They've spent their money well so far. We'll see if they continue to do that, but so far so good. So yeah, it is entirely possible that Tennessee can become one of those programs. I go back to the Philip Fulmer era. They were one of the best recruiting programs in the country and they cast a very wide net back in those days. It wasn't just guys from the state of Tennessee. Yeah, John Henderson was from Nashville, but they would go to Louisiana and get Raynok Thompson. They'd go out to California and get Casey Clawson. They were good at going everywhere they needed to go.

And I think this era of recruiting, you've got to do that. You've got to recruit nationally anyway. But you still, it's nice to not be remote. That's the challenge Dan Lanning has at Oregon, is a lot of the players they're recruiting, you still got to get them to come. You still got to get on a plane and come look at it. Tennessee has enough people within driving distance that you can get them there early.

You can get them on those unofficial visits where they kind of really get hooked. And then you decide who you really like and you make a big enough deal to get them to come, to get them to say, you know what? I realized that Georgia and Ohio State have had more recent success and have had more first rounders that they've produced.

But you've given me the economic incentive to try you guys. And then maybe I can be the trailblazer that leads you to a national championship. And then there's more coming and then you're in that boat. So we will find out, but I do think Tennessee can be that Josh Hypel can be that. It's not as much about the cult of the coach anymore as a recruiter. Now, I think if you're just a good coach and you have a good NIL

operation, then you're going to be a good recruiter. You don't have to be a maniacal used car salesman to be a good recruiter anymore because i don't i actually don't think the used car salesman thing works in this era of college football and if you've ever met josh heupel the last he is not a salesman like that's not his thing he's a pretty regular dude who happened to be a guy who started for a national championship team, a quarterback and is a high level football coach, but he's not always in salesman mode. He's not, I'm going to kill everybody in recruiting.

He works hard at it, but you don't have to be that person anymore to be a good recruiter. You got to win games and you got to have a good NIL operation. That's what Tennessee has right now. Next question from Dan. Who is more under more pressure as a former highly ranked recruit who could be considered to be underwhelming so far? Penn State quarterback Drew Aller or Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnick?

This is a great question because these two guys are both under intense pressure and they're expected to do some pretty big things. Their fan base, like for both Penn State and Clemson, those fan bases expect a playoff run this year. You know, Penn State would have made the CFP six times since 2016 had these rules been in place the whole time. Clemson has been making the playoff. Now the dip has started. Last year, they lost four games, but Dabo Sweeney says, hey, buy stock now. Coming back.

Big expectations for both these guys. In kind of different places, though. Who's more likely to get either pulled or the backup gets a chance to shine and all of a sudden you're like, oh, maybe the backup's the guy? I think that's Aller. I think Aller's under more pressure there. Because we know that they're talking about having something for Bo Pervula to do. Bo Pervula is the backup quarterback. A lot of shades of Sean Clifford and Will Levis here.

Where they've used the backup as kind of the running guy. But you kind of wonder what he could do if you let him throw a little bit more. And when it was Sean Clifford and Will Levis, they didn't really let Will Levis throw very much. Will Levis goes to Kentucky. I'll leave it up to you guys to decide whether you think Will Levis or Sean Clifford

was a better college quarterback. I'll let you guys decide that. But you've got Andy Kotelnicki coming in as the offensive coordinator at Penn State. He had a situation at Kansas where kind of out of necessity, he had to have Jalen Daniels and Jason Bean ready because Jalen Daniels got hurt quite a bit. Jason Bean would come in and replace him, but he replaced him so well that when Jalen Daniels got healthy again, they're like, hey, we got to find ways to use Jason Bean because Jason being, as you're seeing with the Colts right now is very fast, very athletic. You want him on the field if you can get them on the

field. So Andy Kotelnicki created some ways to have them both on the field or to be able to use Jason being even when Jalen Daniels was playing. I would not be shocked if this is what they did with Pribula. We've also, by the way, seen this movie before at Penn State with Trace McSorley and Tommy Stevens. So it always feels like there's one QB that's there that's a really good athlete that there might be a way to use him. So we'll see if Kodelnicki has a package for Pribula and how early and often they use him. It's one of those things where if Allard struggles and Pribula comes in in a package situation and is good, then you might have to think about some things. Aller's situation is we don't yet know if the quarterback we saw last year, if that's him or if he was acting under orders from the then-OC Mike Yuricic

and from James Franklin to be as careful as possible. Hey, don't screw this up for us. We've got a great defense. Because Drew Aller, if you saw our little deep dive into the quarterbacks over the summer with Clark Brooks, Clark, you know, use stats to paint this picture very well, but basically drew our protects the ball really well, but he does that in a way that may not be as explosive as possible because he's very risk averse in terms of taking shots downfield. Now, again, that may not be drew Aller's choice. That may have been the coaching

staff's choice. So we'll find out this year. Does Kodal Nikki say, Hey, let it rip a little bit more. We may have another interception or two, but it's, we're willing to trade that for potential explosive plays down the field. Penn state needs to have those to beat the better teams on their schedule. Their defense is going to be good. Their defense is going to keep them in games, basically beat most of the teams they should beat. But for Penn State to ascend to another level, they've got to beat teams that they're not favored against or that it's a coin flip game. To do that, You've got to have some explosive plays. How do they do that? Well, we're going to find out because remember Keandre Lambert Smith,

who was their most productive receiver last season, he transferred to Auburn. They get Julian Fleming, former five-star receiver, but he's leaving Ohio state because he was kind of buried there in terms of who's going to catch the passes there. Emeka Buka, Carnell Tate, Jeremiah Smith. The question is, is this a Jamison Williams situation? Because remember when Jamison Williams transferred to Alabama from Ohio State, he's looking at the depth chart and it's Jackson Smith and Jigba, Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave. And it's like, okay, fourth best here might be first best somewhere else. And maybe that's what Julian Fleming's thinking.

But we'll find out. He's a different kind of receiver than Jamison Williams. So we'll find out if Penn State can create those plays down the field. Is Allard going to have that opportunity? Will he have the weapons to do it? Now, Klubnick different situation I don't think they're sitting there saying well we'll put Chris Fazina in if this doesn't quite work immediately I think Klubnick has earned some benefit of the doubt at Clemson but it's not like when Deshaun Watson got there and Cole Stout was the starter or when Trevor Lawrence got there and Kelly Bryant was the starter where you, you knew immediately,

like, you knew in spring practice, like this is the guy and eventually he's going to be the starter. And the only reason Deshaun Watson didn't start immediately in 2014 was an abundance of caution by Dabo Sweeney. In fact, had he become the full-time starter one game earlier, had he been the starter when they went to Florida State when James Winston was suspended, Clemson would have won that game and would have won the ACC that year. That was a mistake, not starting Deshaun Watson earlier. Trevor Lawrence, different situation because Kelly Bryant had been a very good starter for them the previous year. But 2018, it becomes pretty clear Trevor Lawrence is the best quarterback on the team. So they eventually bench Kelly Bryant.

That's the first year of the four-game redshirt rule. He leaves the team to redshirt, winds up doing his last year at Missouri, and Trevor Lawrence becomes the starter and leads the team to a national title. That's not the situation with either of these guys. Vazina, nobody was pushing for him to burn the redshirt and come in last year. Klubnick did start as a true freshman, ultimately the job from dj uyang la in 2022 but it took most of the season it wasn't until the end of the season that that you said okay that's club is going to be the guy but neither one of them made it obvious from the beginning and may that maybe that's it.

Because we keep talking about Clemson's not producing the level of receivers that they were used to producing. You know, there's that line from DeAndre Hopkins all the way through T. Higgins where they were just one after the other. Sammy Watkins, Hunter Renfro, Mike Williams, Artavis Scott, Amari Rogers. Like they just haven't had those guys. Well, also maybe that they haven't had Deshaun Watson or Trevor Lawrence or even Taj Boyd. Maybe that's it.

Maybe that's part of it. But we're going to find out. TJ Moore, Bryant Wesco, two freshmen receivers are very excited about they're going to play Georgia week one. So is it the quarterback is the receivers a little bit of both, but I don't think Klubnick would be in danger of the hook as quickly as drew Allerwood, just because it seems like Penn state is going to give Pabula a little bit of a chance, a little bit of a try to see how that works.

But it's a fascinating situation to watch in both cases, because these are teams that their fan bases expect them to make the playoff. I'm not sure. They're certainly talented enough to make it in both cases, but there's a scenario you can envision where they don't, where they just miss it, or where they just are kind of slightly above average, which isn't going to be good enough for their fan bases.

Next question comes from Sammy. How many wins would define the Miami Hurricanes year as a successful one now usually this is a little bit harder just naming the win total when it comes to a successful year or is a coach going to keep his job or get fired I feel like this one's pretty easy though you look at Miami's schedule you look at the roster you look at where Mario Cristobal Is a coach going to keep his job or get fired? I feel like this one's pretty easy, though. You look at Miami's schedule. You look at the roster. You look at where Mario Cristobal is in year three.

A double-digit win season is a success. Miami's only had one of those since 2003. That was 2017. A 10-win season, and I'm talking about regular season, not, not including the bowl game is a success. Michael in the chat says, got to make the ACC championship. Now I think if you're 10 and two, you probably do make the ACC championship, but the ACC is gifted Miami with a very manageable schedule compared to some of their conference rivals. I mean, uh, Georgia tech Louisville, they've got way tougher ACC schedules than Miami's got.

Miami starts at Florida. That's going to be tough, but this is a Florida team that Vegas, Vegas has Florida's went total at four and a half. I realized it's a tough schedule, but if Miami is supposed to be the team that we think it is, it should be able to beat floor. There's a reason it's only a two and a half point favorite. And that's because there's still questions. You know, we have not seen Cam Ward playing quarterback for the Hurricanes yet. Mario Cristobal still has to prove himself as a game day coach. But Miami on the line of scrimmage,

the way they've recruited and the way they've filled through the transfer portal, they should be better at the line of scrimmage than everyone on their schedule with the possible exception of Florida state. Like you should win those games. This should be a 10 and two or 11 and one team. That would be a 10-2 or 11-1 team. That would be a success. Anything less than that, you start asking questions. If the schedule were harder, I'd revise this down,

but I'm looking at it right now. There are no excuses. At Louisville, Virginia Tech, those could be tough. At Florida, obviously, and then Florida State. But you could split those and go 10-2. So, no excuses this time, Mario Cristobal. You've built the roster. When you got to Miami from Morgan, this is the roster you envisioned.

This is what you were working toward. Now it's time to put it into action. And we'll find out. Next question comes from TMAC. And this one, this one is in response to my bracketology column at on three. So if you haven't read that yet, pop on on three, and it's basically me trying to figure out the bracket for the college football playoff. And we try to break it down and try to very clearly explain the rules because there's a lot of folks who still don't understand the new rules.

I know all of you do, but we try to explain this is why the Big 12 champ would be the number four seed. This is why the second best team as the group of five representative, the group of five champ, and I had them at number 12. And that doesn't necessarily mean Boise State would be ranked number 12 in the final CFP selection committee ranking. It just means that they'd be the highest ranked group five champs. So they could be ranked number 19 and then get pulled up to number 12. But TMAC makes an interesting point. Would a 13 and 0 or 12 and 1 Boise State or Memphis get a top four spot over a 10 and 3 or 9 and 4 Big 12 champion? It's a great question. And here's the thing, a 13 and 0 Boise State or a 13 and 0 Memphis, I would bet would be the number three seed. At worst, the number four seed, but probably

the number three seed. And here's why. Because if Boise State goes 13 and 0, if they go undefeated, win the Mountain West, they've won at Oregon. And we assume Oregon's going to be good in the Big Ten. Now, I guess if Oregon had a terrible season and also lost to Boise State, then we look at this differently. But if Oregon's the team we expect them to be, and they're competing for the Big Ten title, competing for a playoff berth, and Boise State beats Oregon and then goes undefeated, I think Boise State would be ranked very high. I think they would be ranked in the top 10. And if you only had a 10 and three big 12 champion, then yeah, they definitely be ranked

higher than that, that team. They'd probably be ranked higher than the ACC champ, unless the ACC champ was also undefeated and it just steamrolled through. Memphis, same thing. So if Memphis went 13-0, it means they won at Florida State. Now, if Florida State winds up being the best team in the ACC or one of the best teams in the ACC, that would be a huge feather in the cap for the Tigers. And in this scenario, they go undefeated through the American Athletic Conference. I think they would be a top four seed. They'd probably be number three seed. Let's say Florida State, that's the only game they lost. And they win the ACC? Then Memphis can be ranked ahead of them.

So you probably have Memphis at three and Florida State at four in that situation. 12 and one for those teams gets a little more dicey because if Boise State loses to Oregon, what are you pegging that on? What's the signature win that you're pegging that on? I don't necessarily think that's going to happen. Ditto for Memphis. The one team in the group of five that I think has a fascinating

chance to get a signature win and could lose one and still be okay is USF. USF plays at Alabama week two. They host Miami later in September. I think if they split those and just won out the rest of the way, there's a very good chance. Well, I mean, if they and just one out the rest of the way, there's a very good chance. Well, I mean, if they split those one out the rest of the way, they would be the group of five representative in the playoff.

But I think there's a chance they'd be the four seat, especially if Miami and Alabama wind up being good. But yeah, we, we keep assuming that the group of five representative is going to be the 12 seed. And that's probably what it will be most years. But that doesn't mean it's always what it's going to be. Because the rules say top five ranked conference champions, regardless of conference, make the playoff.

And the rules say top four ranked conference champions get a bye and are the top four seats. That is not specifying any particular conference. They argued about that as they were trying to create this system and they ended up not specifying any conferences because they figured legally, that's probably not a great idea.

If you get sued over it, if somebody says you're colluding, if you've got this codified saying, well, these conferences are better than these conferences, we're going to treat them better than these, it doesn't work. It's not going to hold water. so that's why they made the rules the way they did and it's possible though not entirely likely that yeah you it's also possible that two group of five teams are among the top five ranked conference champs and some other kind like that and acc or big 12 champ is left out because they're ranked below those teams. I don't think it's likely, but it's possible. From Nick, is there any solution to this NIL madness other than a union being formed?

Yes. Yes, there is, Nick. So, Nick is saying, what do you do if you can't collectively bargain? Because I've said, and lots of lawyers have said, the way to solve all this and have rules that you can actually enforce that will not get you dragged into court every five minutes is to collectively bargain with the athletes. A CBA makes it where they can sue you in federal court and say you're colluding, but the case is going to get tossed immediately because the judge will be like, no, no, no, the athletes agreed to this. But what if you can't do that? Obviously the schools would not like the players to be employees. They don't want that to happen. They're fighting that tooth and nail. So what's the other? There is one other solution. And it's the one my friend Dan Wetzel at Yahoo Sports talks about all the time. Just don't worry about it. Just keep doing this, except eliminate all the BS rules that you're not trying to enforce anyway. And just don't worry about it. Let the market regulate itself.

Because it's already started to do that. The NIL market very quickly found its level. Like there's a reason you see the occasional deal that entices a player to come because it's a lot more than everybody else is offering. But for the most part, everybody's making competitive offers, which is how it works at most businesses. Most private businesses, they know what the salary scale is for their employees. They know what their competitors are going to offer. And they decide based on how badly they want that particular

employee, how competitive the offer is going to be. Yosef, how would a CBA reign in an IL? Isn't that a restriction on trade? It is a restriction on trade, but it's a restriction on trade that was mutually agreed upon. That's the part that is the problem. Mutual agreement makes it where when you try to sue, the judge says, no, you agreed to this.

Unilateral imposition of rules, which is what the NCAA and the schools like to do, gets you taken to the cleaners in federal court. There's a reason NFL players don't sue over the salary cap, because they agreed to it. But the alternative is just don't worry about it. Because here's the thing. The sport's actually in a better place competitively than it was before the NIL era. There are teams now that can compete

that couldn't compete before. The gap between the power schools and the non-power schools is wider, but the non-power schools never actually had a chance to compete for the national title in the first place. So you have to decide what you want. Do you want a more competitive environment, which is what you've gotten?

And do you want to not have to deal with lawsuits well you could not deal with lawsuits by just not worrying about it by just saying whoever wants to pay him can pay him pay him as much as you want and i know there's a bunch of people like well how how is that going to work well same as anything there's no unlimited money tree there's nobody that is going to pay so much more than everybody else that only one team is going to be able to win. We've already had the era where only one team could win. It's called Alabama in the early 2000 teens. That happened under the old rules.

The new rules have actually democratized this a little bit. So there is a solution and it's just quit worrying about it. Now, you and I both know they're not going to opt for that solution because these guys can't stop worrying. How can you be an athletic director who makes $1.5 million a year if you aren't worrying about rules? All right, next question from Jason. If you had all 774 teams, so Jason was inspired by a Brett McMurphy tweet about several new Division three schools that have added

football of late. So there are 774 college football playing schools in America. So you had all 774 teams at your disposal and started rating rosters to build your own team. How many teams would you have to evaluate before you've built a roster capable of winning a group of five league and making the playoff? You must start at team number 774 and work your way up. My guess is around 600. Once you have most of the FCS available to you, this is a really interesting question because it speaks to how do you build through the transfer portal? And while not at the level we're talking about in Jason's question, I've been watching this go back and forth between Miami and Florida state fans on the internet because Pete Nacos

wrote a good story, quoted somebody from Florida state saying, you know, we're not wasting money on high schoolers. Basically. It's not saying they're not paying high schoolers. They're being very selective about who gets a big deal out of high school because they would like to prioritize using that money for impact transfers and for retention. It's proven to work for them. And the transfer piece of it, I would argue that Florida State, Ole Miss is another one, better at evaluating transfers and how they fit into their system than other schools.

So if you had a really good evaluating staff, how long would it take you? If you started at the lowest rung of the NAIA, worked your way through Division III, Division II, how many teams would you have to evaluate before you could build a group of five winning roster using transfers? I think Jason's right. You'd have to go, like if you got to 600, you got most of the FCS. I would argue that you probably need to go to about 650, which would get you into the FBS. The thing about it is the science of transfer portal recruiting is yes, you need to be evaluating the players that are good at lower levels, who you want to bring up, but it's just as important to evaluate the ones that are a little bit higher than you,

that you think can help you come down because you want to get that premium talent. And so the way Jason has me doing this, I don't get any of that. Now I may get a premium talent who just was like a Jared verse to use a Florida state example, who is just overlooked or coming out of high school, had not hit a growth spurt, had not become what he would be physically. You can still get some of those, but you still want some of those guys who out of high school were super athletes and maybe it just didn't work out at the first school. And I think Florida state, again, is a good example of this. Like you've seen Florida state mine, Georgia and Alabama's rosters for those guys that are playing, but maybe not are playing as big a

role as they'd like. That was Jermaine Johnson a few years ago at Georgia. That's Marvin Jones Jr. This year from Georgia to Florida state. That's Roy Dale Williams. We talked about him earlier in the show who was playing as a running back at Alabama, but maybe not as big of a role as he wanted to. So I don't, I think it would take a while. I think I'd have to get to 650, maybe even, maybe even 700 teams. Like I might need about half of the power five or of the, of the FBS. I may need the other group of five schools because that's a lot of needle searching in the haystack for the first 550 teams there's just it's gonna be a lot of those you turn on the tape and you're like there's nobody here who could play for us it would only be once you got into the really good division two teams

and then the the fcs teams that you're like okay okay, this guy could play for us. And even still in the lower rungs of the FCS, there may be one guy on each roster that you're even considering. So I think you'd have to go about 650 or 700 deep to build a roster that could win a group of five league. And you'd still have to evaluate really well because again, you're not getting those, those guys that were super athletes in high school that maybe it just didn't work out.

That's not available to you because you need to be able to, to recruit into the power conferences there. So that's a great question. Very good thought exercise from Jason. Guys, I love it. Every time you come through with great questions. Thank you so much for your dear Andy questions. You can get your questions in for next week if you want. But I think you're probably going to want to wait till after week zero. Because we're not. We got games.

We're going to have actual games. We're going to see the helmet radios working. We're going to see the tablets with videos on the sidelines. We're going to see unlimited coaching staffs. All the analysts can actually coach and nobody cares. I guess they probably didn't before. All of it is coming. But one more show.

We're going to visit with our friend Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl. They put out their watch list. We're going to visit with our friend Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl. They put out their watch list. We're going to talk about the players you need to be watching and maybe not the ones that we've been talking about all offseason. Some of these guys that are going to help define the college football season, that are also trying to make themselves some dough for the NFL draft, they are going to be very, very important going forward. Talk to Jim Nagy about that hopefully we'll get a little clarity on the Kirk Ferentz suspension

he's got a talk on Thursday so we'll see what he says did not have that on my bingo card when I went to bed on Wednesday night. But college football always surprises you. Oh, wait, before we go, one more thing, one more thing. This news was reported Wednesday night by Matt Zenitz of 24-7 Sports. Guess who's going to be the starting quarterback for the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks? General Booty. Now, General Booty has thrown for 4,000 yards as ULM's quarterback in a dynasty season run by me

in the video game. But now we get to see the real life general in action. That's right. Oklahoma transfer, General Booty, your starting quarterback for the ULM Warhawks. That's right, Goat Dog. Big Booty news.

Booty, booty, booty, booty rocking everywhere. Booty, booty, booty, booty rocking everywhere. We'll talk to you tomorrow.