Andy & Ari On3 - Curt Cignetti & Indiana are HERE TO STAY: Hoosiers HC on winning CFP, turning to 2026 season | FSU names Ashton Daniels Starting QB | USC's Championship Window

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

As the Indiana Hoosiers shocked the world this past college football season, Curt Cignetti and the IU football team now know there is a target on their back. Watch here as Curt Cignetti joins Andy & Ari on today’s episode and recap the College Football Playoff run while keeping focus on what’s ahead for the Hoosiers. Can the Hoosiers run it back and have the same success this fall? Let us know in the comments!   (0:00) On Today’s Episode (0:30) Presenting Sponsor (2:11) Intro: Previewing Curt Cignetti (4:18) Curt Cignetti joins (9:47) Reflecting on Hoosiers National Title (21:44) Life in Bloomington (22:19)Cost of Roster (24:46) Recapping Cignetti (29:44) Baerskin (31:27) Who Am I? - Part 2 (35:04) Answer: Who Am I? (39:54) Florida State names Ashton Daniels starting QB (47:47) Is USC’s championship window open now? (53:08) USC’s message boards (59:03) Conclusion: Thanks for watching!   After Cignetti, Andy & Ari play their next rendition of Who Am I? Follow along as Andy tries to guess Ari's notable college football player!   Next up, it's Megaboard Wednesday, and the fellas travel down to Tallahassee to see what's going on with the Florida State Seminoles. After spring ball wrapped up, FSU has named Auburn transfer Ashton Daniels the starting QB. Is this the right move?   To close out Megaboard Wednesday, Andy & Ari head to the west coast to look at USC and Lincoln Riley. On3's Wilson Alexander was able to talk with Lincoln Riley, and Coach Riley believes the championship window is now open for the Trojans of Southern Cal. Do you think the Trojans window is truly open?   Thanks for watching! Be sure to come back tomorrow!   Our show is also presented by BetMGM!   If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works:   1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB. 2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. 3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you use bonus code CFB when you sign up!   Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary.   See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. This promotional offer is not available in DC, Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET (Available in the US) . 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only (if applicable). Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/5HN1kduWTeI   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's Andy and R&3 presented by BetMGM, we've got the head coach of the defending national champs. Kurt Signetti of Indiana joins the show talking what comes next after winning a title. He's going to try to win another one. Plus it's Megaboard Wednesday. Florida State names a starter. The window is open at USC. And a little game of, who am I? All on today's Andy and Orion 3 presented by Bet MGM.

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Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. Big day today, huge guest. Kurt Signetti, the head coach of defending national champion, Indiana, joins the show, Ari. And this is a guy we've been waiting to talk to for a while, because he's probably, probably sick of hearing it, but we're still fascinated about how he did this.

Yeah. And it's no less remarkable today than it was when we were in Miami and January to me, Andy. And I think that the only thing that we'll explain this is one day he will open up, partially did today, about his secret sauce and what actually came together there. Or we're going to find the context of the new sport. is opening up the doors to various new club of new national champions that we never thought could happen. And he's just the first and we're trying to understand why. And I don't know what it is, but we do know one thing for sure, Andy.

This might be or is the best coach in college football right now. And he's trying to keep it that way. He's trying to keep Indiana on top. As we talk to him, he's getting ready for an official visit weekend. and they have their spring game on Thursday. Steve Wolfong, our VP of recruiting here at the company, said this is the best official visit group Indiana has had in the history of the program. It includes Moncham Sales, who's a wide receiver, five-star in-state guy,

but also Jalen Brewster, the defensive tackle from Texas, who's the number one recruit in the class of 2027. Now, he's committed to Texas Tech and it's going to be really hard to flip, but they're going to give it a shot. his dad played at Ball State, moms from Indiana. So they're going to give it a shot. But that's the sort of thing

that you've got to do to keep it rolling on. It's sort of a clash of the worlds. Like, your old Stars Matter world is clashing with the new world here, and Kurt Signetti is right in the middle of it. So let's talk to him about winning a national title and what comes next after winning a national title. We're joined now by the head coach

of the defending national champs, the Indiana Hoosiers and coach. Do you not want to hear that? I've heard you talk about how the page was turned, new team, you got spring game tomorrow night. Obviously, your guys are going in the draft tomorrow night too, but how much do you, you know, take talk about last year or is it just completely flushed? No, we've flushed it. You know, in the building, we've flushed it. I think our players have done a good job of flushing it too.

now. You know, on the outside, a lot of people are still enjoying it, and they should. But, you know, we've been kind of focused on the day-to-day development, you know, the football team, and trying to stay humble and hungry. Five years ago, seven years ago, ten years ago on podcasts like this, we used to play games where we would pick Power 5, Power 4 schools, and say which teams could win a championship and which teams would be impossible to win a championship. Indiana would have been impossible to every podcaster on the face of the earth throughout all of my entire career until you showed up and you did it in two years. I'm wondering from your perspective to accomplish something that nobody thought was even possible so quickly. What is your driving force to you now? Like what do you show up for every day? What is your long-term goal?

My driving force is number one, I love the professional. I love the game and developing the football team in regards to the kind of season, the year before you always got to start over, especially nowadays. You've got so many new guys. So, you know, I hate losing, probably more than I like winning. And so, you know, I'm always looking for the edge daily. You talk about so many new guys, but I was looking through your transfer portal situation this offseason. And you guys are among the lowest.

in terms of guys you lost and in terms of guys you brought in. Does it feel a little more like the old days in terms of having some players who have been on your roster, who understand what you want, understand your culture? I mean, a little bit. I mean, we retained everybody we wanted to retain. We didn't lose anybody we didn't want to lose. Well, Alberto, you know, we tried to retain him.

But we do have a lot of new guys. We have 17 portal guys. Now, that's down. My first year, it was 33, and last year it was 22. But we got a lot of new high school guys, too, that came in midterm, almost 20. So you're looking at, like, you know, 37 to 40 new guys. That's a lot of new guys. So I suspect the portal number will go down every year, you know, as the high school recruiting continues to improve. But you never know what the landscape's going to look like either right now.

college football in terms of the rules and all that kind of thing. So, you know, the pressure is always on to develop the best team you can because you got to win every year. So that's kind of where we're at. Kurt, as you guys have won and have you have accomplished, you know, winning the national championship, I'm assuming that, you know, your way of building the program adapts with the success. You know, you mentioned high school recruiting and how that's probably going to be a bigger emphasis on the roster building. strategy moving forward. How has high school recruiting changed in your experience from the day you showed up to what it would be like now to try to recruit a high school kid? I think the difference is now

most of the kids have agents. And so when you start talking about Rev. Share and NIL, you know, I'm hearing numbers in that area that are probably at least twice of what they were last season. So it's still early in the process. And you can't believe. everything you hear. But I think that's the biggest thing. So you can't talk about who's coming in, but I can. You guys have a pretty big recruiting weekend this weekend around your spring game. And you've got the number one player in the class of 2007 there. I know you can't talk about that. But how has the targeting changed for you in terms of who you're going after? Or is it just you were always targeting them and they're responsive now? Yeah, I mean, I think the

priorities are still the same. You got to do a great job in the state. And then in that four to five hour radius, there's a lot of players. And so most of your players should come from in state in that four to five hour radius. Now, we always go, you know, into Florida, Georgia, wherever, and add to the class, try to find the best ones we can. So that hasn't changed. Are we in on maybe more high profile guys? Probably. But, you know, it doesn't count really. to be in the top five or the top three. It only counts if you get them. So, and you got to remember that.

Do you ever, like, take a deep breath when you're at home and you're by yourself and, like, think, I cannot believe that happened, or did you expect that to happen? Like, I still can't wrap my mind around it. You have become the, every coach that we come, that we have come on, says, well, look what Indiana did last year. Like, you guys have became the example, like, I know you've always been confident the Google me bubblehead just dropped. It's going to do numbers.

You've always known that you were going to win. But are you even surprised yourself a little bit about how quickly you won the national title? You know, I don't know if the whole thing is really sunk in or not because, you know, in this, you're always, there's always something to do. And I'm pretty process driven. It, you know, it is sort of amazing in two years. given the history. But what I'll say is last year, you know,

we just had a team that we had a lot of great leadership, a lot of good players with high character that were smart, and they were very consistent day and day out, and they prepared the right way, and they met every challenge. So, you know, that's what I'll say about that.

But, yeah, that's a good story. Have any coaches come up to you? Because you've made life very difficult for everyone else in your profession. You have destroyed every excuse every coach has. And has anybody come up to you and said, look, I can't say I need four years to build anymore because of you?

Well, you know, I see that every once in a while from you guys where people like you. I think there's always been a lot of pressure in this business to be successful. And it was really ramped up as technology improved and there were more media outlets out there where people could vent and voice their opinions. So, you know, our situation was pretty unique. And everybody else's situation is unique to their landscape.

That's probably a politically correct way to say nothing. There's enough pressure to win in this business, and I'm not sure I added to it. Well, I think some coaches used to kind of mitigate that pressure by saying it takes, time and now you're not allowed to say that anymore because of you. Yeah, well, you know, I'm not sure how much time people have really had in the last five years anyhow. You know, I think it's important to win every year. You know, I like, I kind of equated to this. It's like one season now in this business is like four seasons 10 years ago in terms of the scrutiny and the pressure to be successful. So I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm.

I wonder about this, because you said that you sign off on every single person you bring into the program. Portal, freshman, you name it. With the portal, how do you find the people who will fit what you do, who will work the way you need them to work? We talked to Pat Coogan last year, who played Center for you and came from Notre Dame. And he said, really, what crystallized it for him, and he thought for you was a conversation, you guys having 45 minutes. He was driving home from South Bend to Chicago. So how do you decide in that little bit of time this is a person who fits? Well, you know, it's still a process.

Guys become available. You evaluate them. You Google them because on ESPN, everybody's stats are there or their bio at the previous school. You know, what their production numbers have been or in terms of a lineman, you know, how many years he started? Did he play in every game? Was he injury free? Was he available? And then you develop that relationship and you form an impression

what makes this guy tick. Is he a good fit for us or not? I mean, I'll say this. It was a challenge last season, you know, because we played till January 19th, and there's only 24 hours in the day, and you've got to get a little bit of sleep. And you've got to do a good job preparing your team.

That's the most important thing for, you know, the next game. So it was challenging to be playing while this was all going on. But I think we did okay. The tape and the stats and all that, some people are more easily able to traverse all that and analyze a player's talent. But I think that maybe in the discovery of what your secret sauce is

is your character judgment of who fits and who will be a productive member of your team from a character standpoint and being able to do it quickly part of the ingredients of that secret sauce. Well, yeah. I mean, if you get everybody buying the team concept and get everybody to think alike and inform those intangibles, it sure helps because I do think that's the winning edge. And then, you know, as you get in the season, being able to handle success, you know, weekly.

And if you do have a setback to learn from it and come back stronger, you know, it's important. So you got to have kind of team-oriented guys. And, you know, it helps to have guys that are good players that are smart and have high character. How much does the continuity on your staff help with that? I mean, you keep Mike Shanahan, you keep Brian Haynes, your coordinators. I mean, you lost your strength coach this year, but that's really the biggest loss. And usually when a team wins the way you've won the last two years, everybody's getting picked off. Well, yeah, and a lot of these guys have opportunities.

But, you know, we've been together a long time. And when you look at Bryant and Mike, I mean, I hired those guys. as part-time coaches at D2 for under $10,000. So, you know, as we continue to win and move on, their salaries improve, and then their job responsibilities finally became what they are now. And, you know, they're in a good situation. Now, they have career goals, and they won't, you know,

be here forever with me forever. I won't coach forever, you know, but I got eight years left. I feel like I got eight good years left in me. And one day when that right opportunity, comes for them, you know, I'm sure that we'll have to replace them. But being, having the staff continuity that we've had in Grant Kane, our special teams coordinator since 2019, John Miller, Pat Coontz, quite a few of them really. I don't know if I'm forgetting anybody. It just helps because getting everybody on the same page, understanding what the standards are, the expectations,

and getting everybody to think likes the key of the drill. eight years sounds awfully specific are we are we setting a date out and that doesn't seem like the the work of a process oriented guy who is it today third down day it's a number on the contract you know nothing no is not promised so yeah well i think that you get eight years after that you get a lifetime contract if i were the 80 uh kirk i have a question that has nothing to do with football and i've just been wondering this since you stormed onto the scene here. During games, I don't even know if you realize this, on the television broadcast, you lock eyes with the audience for second, like one time again. Like you look right into the barrel of the camera.

And sometimes you wink, sometimes you look the other way, sometimes you do a wink in the gun, something funny. When you, there's one of them. Do you ever do that on purpose or is that just a coincidence? No, I don't even know the camera's on me. Those are, the only, you know, the only time I remember winking is McAfee before we came out the tunnel with Alabama, because I looked over the right and there he was and kind of pointed to him and winked. Yeah, you're a good winker, though, because you did it, you did it the other day.

You had the press conference and somebody asked you the question about Josh Hoover, your new quarterback, and what Sonny Dykes, the TCU coach had said, and you said that Josh Hoover's met his two best friends, a great defense and a great runner game. And you winked then, too. Are we winking without knowing here? No, I knew I was winking there. I don't know. It's hard to pull off a wink.

Like, winks, you got to have the right the right mojo to pull off the wink. But the picture we showed was from that Rose Bowl when Alabama was doing the, basically the, they're trying to, the freeze on a punt, trying to get you to jump. And you were like, on. We're not, we're not falling for this.

That's how my expression was interpreted. I was thinking. It was a critical moment in the game. Yeah. I don't know you thinking, though. I'm thinking about what they're doing and what we're doing. I mean, I'm, you know. I don't know if I believe you.

But I, you know, I, it's just so uncanny and it's so powerful because it also seems to happened during like pivotal moments in the game where your team like does something really well or like right before your team does something remarkable too it's just like right in the camera you're looking at the audience and saying we're going to win uh and it's awesome it's awesome um i love it and it's so i actually think that it's also part of like the signetti aura you know you have aura right you know that right my wife finds that very hard to believe well you also came to her and said hey i had this good job at Alabama and I'm going to go be the two head coach. So she's still working off that one.

So speaking of the past work history, I'm curious because I think you're, you're an interesting person to ask this question too. We talk about the playoff size and obviously the different conference commissioners talk about that all the time. But you have taken a team to the championship game in the FCS playoffs, which is a 2014 playoff. You won a 12 team playoff. Do you have an ideal size?

Is there something you'd prefer? No, I really don't. I mean, you know, I know that Tony would like to see a 2014 playoff. You know, I'll support, you know, whatever Tony thinks is best for our conference. He's done a great job of growing our conference. You know, whatever they decide to do, you still got to find a way to get there and get through it. So the only thing I'd say is the bigger the play. playoff system, now you've got to do something to the calendar, regular season calendar, a little bit, because you've got to fit the portal window in there, too.

Yeah. I'm headed over to the east side or the west side of town here to send a hallway after this to hear about this decision. And it's a very hot button issue because it feels like a lot of the coaches are supporting 24, but a lot of the fans aren't. Yeah, I really haven't read a whole lot about it, to be honest with you. You know, the rules have changed really in our industry regarding everything so often that I don't spend too much time reading about the hypotheticals. You know, once something's decided, then we adjust. So your spring game is tomorrow night. The draft also starts tomorrow night.

So hopefully on the big board, you'll have Fernando Mendoza going number one to the Raiders. and then people can watch Josh Hoover throw passes for your team. But what does it mean when you have something like that happen? When players go through your team and your program, and they have that moment? Oh, I mean, I'm so excited for all those guys. We're going to have a pretty large number of guys drafted and another bunch of guys end up in camps

and Fernando will be the first pick. And all those guys have earned that. They put it on the field. I'm really proud of all of them. It's great for the program and should only help recruiting. What's life been like for you in Bloomington since you got back from Miami? Same. Are you in the building too much to notice?

Or are you just like a walking celebrity everywhere you go now? I would say life in Bloomington is not much different than life when we went to St. Barts. Wait, were you making cops of the St. So you responded to somebody on Twitter the other day. I found it very interesting because everybody wants to estimate the cost of these rosters. And one of the things I found hilarious as last season went on is the estimated cost of your roster seemed to balloon the more games you won.

And you said, oh, it wasn't even not even close on a $40 million roster. where do you where do you guys actually fall you know i'm not you can give me exact numbers that'd be great but where do you fall in terms of how you handle this yeah well you know i'm not sure who has that information or how public or if the big ten has it or whatever and i and you know i quit kind of uh twitter there or x now it's called uh you know a while back kind of learned my lessons um but i don't know why I responded to that. I just saw it, you know, kind of hit me. What I will tell you honestly, okay, is our final number was closer to 15 million than 40 million. Now, obviously, it was somewhere in between. And it worked, and you won. So it's still, like, evaluation still matters. You can't just

buy the best team, right? Well, you got to get them all to play together and play the right way. Yeah, I mean, I also too, you kind of feel like, you know, people try to diminish what was done by inflating numbers after the fact when that wasn't the discussion before the fact. Well, I think, you know, on those forums, you got fans from all over the country, right? And 25% of them aren't even fans are robots, aren't they? Only the ones that disagree with me. Only the ones that disagree with me. I'm glad you can ignore the robots because I, I, I can't.

But coach, thank you so much. And congratulations. No national title trophy in the office, right? Like, you got that out of there? Yeah, yeah. No national, it's around somewhere. Yeah, it'll probably show up on the recruits show up, right? Yeah, I was to say, with the number one recruit country is there.

They're actually going to a new trophy case because there weren't many trophies to throw in there over the years. And all of a sudden there's been a lot of hardware come in. Congratulations, coach. Thanks. Thank you so much. Enjoy the spring game tomorrow night. It's been a pleasure to watch you guys and thanks for being here, Kurt. Have a good one. Thanks. That is Kurt Signetti.

Ari, let's do some math here. Bad at Math podcast, but I think we can handle this. The number that sits directly in the middle between 15 million and 40 million is 27.5 million. So if we are to take Kurt Signetti at his word, they spent less than 27.5 million. but probably close to 27.5 million on the roster. So if we could estimate it 25 million, probably didn't feel fairly comfortable. Yeah, what would your guess been without that context? Mine would have been 20 to 25. Probably something like that. I did not have them pegged as the biggest spenders at all. But the biggest spenders last year, because remember,

the $40 million number that everybody's talking about is for this year. I'm not even sure. I don't sure anybody hit 40 last year. Maybe one or two teams did. But the bigger spenders last year were in the 30s, the low 30s. The Mark Cuban stuff was just a way for people to try to explain the remarkable. And it's human nature, right? Something happens. You want to know how or why it happened. Yeah, Mark Cuban spent 50 million that became the trend after they won the national title, not before it, because you know, you want to explain away the crazy. And then that was insane. It still was insane. I alluded to this at the beginning of the show and I will say it again now. I don't know if this will in 10 years be the biggest exception to the rule imaginable

or if this would be the first of the change of the guard in the sport. I don't know that. And I think part of the intrigue of this season two is seeing if there is another team or if Indiana again does it, although I don't know that would qualify because that would just be a new program being great. Like, are we going to get to a place in time where Washington wins the championship and then Nebraska wins one and then, you know, Ole Miss wins one? and all these new teams.

And again, none of those would still be really as crazy as Indiana because of where they started from. But are we going to start getting eight different champions in a 10-year period in some of which are non-traditional powers? Or is this a blip on the radar? I don't know. But as we continue on after we record the show today, Andy, I'm going to the other side of town here to sit in a Ritz Carlton lobby until the end of the afternoon to hear about the playoff and the, you know, potential future of that. I wonder how that will change things. But still, Kurt Signetti, obviously, the thing about it is, is that even if it is system related and the top of the sport wasn't as good as the top of the sport used to be, they were awesome. Like, it wasn't just they.

There's nothing fluky about it. They went 16 and, or, yes, 16 and 0. And it's like 16 and 0. It was so surgical. I mean, it was like they were so, so good. And like, I don't know. Maybe it's, again, human nature to try to explain the unexplainable. But maybe the explanation is that Kurt Signetti is just a genius.

And lucky for us, we were able to have him on the show today. And I was really excited about it. All right. People don't like it when we praise him like that. But I'm like, what are we supposed to criticize him for? What has he done to earn criticism? If Kurtzignetti was a essay that you turned into a college professor, or the response would be a plus no notes.

Right. He's just, he's done everything right since he got the Indiana job. There's not really anything you can criticize. And you know I love criticizing. You know, part of the, yeah.

Yeah. I have, what could you possibly say negative about this man? Yeah, wins too much. All right. I don't even know what the biggest troll would say. What would Skip Bayless say?

Ow. Like, make up a criticism right now. Try. Cusip, no undershirt. Does he do that? Savage behavior.

That is kind of, I mean, I don't, does he do that? He does that. Yeah, that's a little weird. I wouldn't do. Yeah. Are you sure there's no like, are you sure? I think he had accused it, no undershirt on, on our, on the appearance on the show just now. Yeah.

Okay. But as you said, he's got, he's got, he's got swag. Like, that's his swag. He, it works. He pulls it off. It works for him. In that picture, if there's no undershirt to protect the skin from the fabric of that of that what is that is that a quarter zip too

that might be a little bit different i think that's a very cold day i don't know he's wearing short sleeves who knows this is where we're this is where we're at all right are we got the megaboard wednesday coming up news out of florida state lincoln riley talking to our wilson's out wilson alexander about USC but before that we had some fun with this game last week i was at asking you the questions. Now we're turning the tables. You're asking me the questions. A game of who am I, but first, these words for bearskin. If you ever been caught in the rain without a jacket at a game, at a tailgate on the sideline, walking to the car, you already know the problem. And I'm telling you right now,

Oxford, Mississippi, George Ole Miss, 2004, I was getting poured on. Didn't have a rain jacket because I thought, oh, it's too bulky to bring. I don't have to worry about that now because I have the bearskin heavy storm rain jacket. It packs into its own pocket. You can stashing your truck, throw it in your bag, keep it in your glove box. It is always with you. It weighs almost nothing. And the second the sky opens up, you pull it out and you are covered. We're talking 20,000 millimeter waterproof. That is expedition grade, not a flimsy poncho, a real tape seam, sealed zipper rain jacket that handles sustained downpours. And it's completely PFAS free, no forever chemicals, which is more than most outdoor brands can say. Here's the part I really like.

It zips directly into the bearskin hoodie, which if you don't have one of those, oh my goodness. So on a cold rainy game day, you zip the rain jacket onto the hoodie and you've got a full warm and waterproof system. When the rain stops, unzip the jacket, pack it back into its pocket and keep moving. Right now, bearskin is running 60% off on the heavy storm rain jacket with free shipping. Text Andy, A and D-Y to 36912. That's Andy to 36912, and they'll send you a link to grab a jacket at 60% off. Keep it in your truck, keep in your bag. Next time it rains, you are the guy who's ready. So text Andy to 36912 for 60% off. Andy to 36912. Okay, all right, it is time to play Who Am I. And this time.

to you get to ask the questions. Ari will hit me with a series of questions. I will keep going until I can figure out which college football person, legend, coach, player. I don't know. I don't know.

Who he's talking about? Who am I? Anybody who listens to the show knows that Andy has an uncanny ability to recall facts about things and people in every subject. So this was incredibly hard because I wanted to thread the needle and I didn't want him to just know the answer

right away. So here we go. Who am I week two? Number one, Andy, I was a three-star quarterback in the 2010 recruiting class. Wayne Johnson. No, thank God. He did play quarterback in high school, though. Andy, River and I really worked on this and we were afraid you were going to get it on the first. I'm happy you didn't. Okay, number two, I was ranked the number 33 pro-style quarter. quarterback in that class. See, I think you're probably going to okie-doke me, and this is not someone who wound up playing quarterback. So, or they did.

And yeah, I'm going to blend it now. Next. Okay. Number three, I finished my high school. Well, I'll help you out here. Pro style quarterbacks don't typically change positions. I finished my high school career with a county record in the state of Florida, which is scary for you because you're a Florida guy,

5,576 career passing yards and 53 touchdown passes. So high school graduating class of 2010, so 2009 is their last year in high school in Florida pro style. Doing numbers. I'm giving you, I'm giving you some stuff that you want. I feel terrible that I'm not getting this yet. Number four,

I was the Beef O' Brady Bowl MVP. in 2012. I don't know who played the BFO. You thought I would know who played in the BFO Brady's fall in 2012. Okay, here we go, Andy. Here's number five. All right. Offers from Colorado State, Purdue, Tulane, West Kentucky, and UCF coming out of my Orlando

area high school. Oh, God. You made it an Orlando kid just to mess with me. You're going to make me feel terrible. Like, this is an Orlando kid? Yeah. It's hard. I mean, like, this isn't something that I think most people would know right so far, but it's going to get easier, as you know. I'm dying here. I was the American conference player of the year in 2013. Oh, God, 2000. 13. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Wait. No, this is your Orlando kit. Nope. Because Teddy Bridgewater's from Florida, played into the American at Louisville, but he's from Miami. Oh, geez. And he wouldn't have played in the beef. He didn't play in the B. Oh, Brady's Bowl. Doc. Okay. Keep going. What were we on, by the way? We're on number eight. I was the number over number three overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft.

Blake Bortles. Nailed it. How did I not get it in Orlando? Like Blake Bortals is the best quarterback to come out of Orlando ever? Yeah. So we had in clue number three, Andy. I finished my high school career with a county record in the state of Florida. It's the Seminole County. It's the county I played in.

And it was, I was going to say Seminole County, but I thought that might give it away. So that's why we changed it would have. It would have. It would have. Yes. Yeah. And then ninth clue was I started my NFL career with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2014 and played for four years for six different NFL.

I feel terrible because I do think there are going to be a lot of people who are yelling at their speakers or yelling at their headphones because they'll have Blake Bortals after Clue 5 and it took me eight. Well, if you're a UCF fan, you probably would know that because the BFOB. Bowl MVP is something that is lauded forever. But this was a great one. This was a fun one. Shout out River. I was originally going to do Laramie Tunsell, but we talked. We ended up talking about him too much on the show yesterday.

Laramie Tunsel would have been because that was the year I embedded with Old Miss on signing day. There were too many. I got a lot of Laramie Tunsel background. Plus, Laramie Tunsell is from 30 minutes from where I live. That's why I ultimately didn't do it. Yeah, as a Florida kid, a five-star offensive lineman. Well, the second you knew the class, you would know the five-star lineman that went to Ole Miss from there.

So, yeah. But anyway, that was fun because it was close enough to you in your past that you probably could have gotten it. I'm so mad at myself. I was also vague enough to give it away. So we did a good number. I should have gotten this on Clue 3. Yeah. But we were, we wanted to make it related, semi-related to the NFL draft this.

week and of course a topic that we discussed, which is how to evaluate quarterbacks. And he was a highly rated quarterback. I would love to get Blake Bortles on. We need to reach out to Blake Bortals. Yeah. He's, if you've heard him interviewed since he retired,

he's Mr. Chill. Like, he's more interested in hanging out with the guys building his house than doing anything else. But I would just love to get his take on all of this stuff, on his career, on where UCF has gone, you know,

since he's been there. But yeah, he's a fascinating person. Yeah. And if Miles Jack isn't ruled down, he's a guy who takes the Jaguars and Super Bowl. That's true. So, like, that was the thing that we were talking about behind the scenes of, like,

guys who were highly productive college players, who played multiple years at their school, who got drafted very high and may have been great and may not have panned out. I think his career probably was somewhere in the middle, where it wasn't like a bust, but he wasn't a pro bowl. right but you know he's a productive NFL quarterback played on some good teams but

wasn't a superstar yeah yes man I'm oh I'm so mad at myself it's terrible you'll teach yourself up over it uh we kept Orlando out of it until clue six so we gave you no context and there's been a lot of three star players in well and I was I was going on the Orange County you know Orlando proper side of the line. Yeah. Yeah, it was Seminole County, but we almost blew it on Clue 3 because of the original clue said, what, set a Seminole County record.

And you cannot tell him the county. You're like, you're right. You can't. Yes. If you told me the county, I wouldn't know. He was like, where is Seminole County? I was like, it's in Orlando. I was like, oh, right.

Yeah, no. So I went to late Mary High School. I lived in Longwood. I was all over Seminole County. Yes. Worked at the Altamont Mall. if you know, you know. But yeah, that was a successful one

because I think some people could have gotten it. We got further along, and I enjoyed that. So next week when I'm back in the hot seat, you can make me look like an idiot. Well, that was a great choice of player. And I think the player choice is going to be critical in this game going forward. So you folks out there in viewer and listener land,

hit us up. Who should we do? But send it to us individuals. not to give it. Yeah, right. Send it to us separately because, obviously, if you send it to both of us, we're going to guess it pretty easily.

So I love this game. I do love this game. This is great. All right, it's Mecca Board Wednesday, Ari. We got some news. Let's go to Warchant, the Tribal Council, Florida State. We got a starting quarterback. We got a QB1 announcement at Florida State.

They announced Ashton Daniels as their QB1. He wins the job. And I don't think there was a real surprise there. Ashton General is, of course, transferred from Auburn. He was at Stanford before that. Last year at Auburn, he probably should have been named the starter sooner. Was named the starter essentially after Hugh Freeze got fired. Well, did Hugh Freezart him once before he got fired?

I think he did. I think he did. Yeah. Yeah. And then things looked better offensively, but it still didn't keep him from getting fired in the after the Kentucky game. But yeah, it's weird because Ashton Daniels career numbers are not particularly great.

But he did make Auburn's offense better when he got in last year. I thought he looked fine last year. I thought Auburn's offense looked pretty competent once he got in there. I was amused though because this is not surprising, right? This is what we were anticipating. No, Kevin Sperry, who is a player,

they recruited out of high school, who was a freshman last year, was the other guy competing for the, job. And it was interesting reading, reading the threads on War Chant because I think Florida State fans are just sort of numb at this point. And so, you know, you've got, I would say the more rational fans are sitting here going, okay, let's just wait and see how this works. Let's not cast any aspersions one way or the other. Let's just, you know, support, support our guy and see how this works. You have the doomsayers. They're like, well, this just.

proves it's over for Mike Norval. I don't think it proves anything. I think if Ashton Daniels has the job, if he improves slightly from what he was at Auburn when we saw him get to play last year, that maybe he could be effective as Florida State starting quarterback. Now, look, it ain't going to be easy. Pretty big week two game against somebody who will be appearing on our show this week. That's week one, buddy. They got a week zero and a week one. Yeah, Labor Day, Ret Lashley, and the SMU Mustangs

coming to Tallahassee. So, yeah, they go SMU on Labor Day, then they have an open week, then they go to Alabama. So, like, it gets real very fast

for Florida State, and we'll have an idea, but it's interesting, Ari, because I didn't know what Tommy Castellanus was going to be for them last year. And then he goes and beats Alabama

week one. It's like, oh, I'm sorry. Maybe I wasn't familiar with your game. in the time I saw you at BC. Yeah, I was amused because this isn't surprising, and this was the quarterback that they went in a portal to go get.

And there was a tweet on Twitter that was just, guys, we should have just eaten the dog shit. And I just thought that was funny. I thought that was funny. But at the same time, Andy, like you said, there's a chance here to be pretty good. So, like, you know, I just, I don't see a point in just, relentlessly bashing Mike Norville every time Florida State comes up.

Everybody knows where they're at. Everyone understands. Mike Norville understands where they're at. I think that if you're Florida State, you probably wanted or wished you could have gotten like a Sam Levitt type guy, somebody who can breathe life into your program and make you feel like you have something different. Like, I don't know, Andy, if this is a fair thing to say,

but doesn't it kind of feel, I mean, at least move wise that this is a rerun of the Tommy Castellanos situation a little bit. Well, here's the thing. Like, I think, well, I'll read you something. This is from a different threat on War Chant. And it's from Gator Hater for Life, which is spectacular handle, by the way. Someone please explain this to me is the headline of the threat. It said how a coach obviously on the hot seat,

Norville brings in a names, transfer QB, Ashton Jan, as a starter with a prior 5 and 18 record as a starter. That's the best FSU can do here. If FSU fired Norville last year and, hired Lane Kiffin, which, by the way, isn't as far-fetched as you think, because if Norville had taken the Alabama job, I think Lane Kiffin would be Florida State's coach right now. Now, he may have left Florida State for LSU, but yeah, I think you would have gotten the job. So if FSU fired Norville last year and hired Lane Kiffin, would Lane have picked Ashton

Daniels as a starting QB quote in parentheses with his $800,000 one year in I LL deal? I have no idea if that's what he's making. It's like this is planned to fail. What am I missing here? Guys, if Lane Kiffin were hired at Florida State, like if they'd changed coaches, they would have had a wider array of quarterbacks to choose from. Nobody wants to jump on board when the situation feels bleak and dire. Yeah. And also, isn't Florida State in a financial situation that might have made it harder to pull off the vast investment that LSU just put in DeLaine in the roster that they put together? They, they're in a tough financial situation.

They're basically house poor from a lot of stadium renovations, and so they're dealing with debt. They are trying to spend more. Michael Alford, their athletic director, just gave their board an address on this at a retreat they had. Irish O'Fell from Warchant was the only reporter there, had great exclusive details, which is another reason why you should be subscribed on three if you're a fan, because if you're a Florida State fan and you're not subscribed to Warchant, you're not getting all the Florida State news you need. But Ira wrote about this and Michael Offer basically said,

hey, look, we're going to be spending more. And that's going to cost more and we're going to have to figure out how to manage the finances. And also, look, if it doesn't work and they have to fire Mike Norville, that is a massive budget line that they're going to have to deal with, that they couldn't deal with last year because I think they would have done it already if they could have. So it's up to Norville. And look, you say whatever you want about Mike Norvel. If I were Mike Norvel, I would just want to win and stick it in everybody's eye at this point.

Because all this guy has just been completely dogpiled, including by us. And rightfully so. Yes. I think he would tell you that. Yeah. I think you would tell you the criticism is deserved. So what does this mean for Florida State? it means the guy you thought was going to be their starting quarterback when the portal closed

is going to be their starting quarterback. Now, I saw a lot of speculation on the boards about, well, what is it? Why do you announce it now? What happens with Kevin Sperry? There's no spring transfer portal window. Now, theoretically, somebody could just withdraw and enroll somewhere else. They have created these stiff penalties if that happens that probably won't hold up in court. but I'm not sure there's going to be anybody good enough who wants to change schools right now to challenge that. So if you aren't a really good player, nobody's going to take that risk on you.

Yeah. So I would think the lack of a spring transfer portal window holds strictly because there isn't anybody good enough to risk challenging the system. And then you go through the season, and then at the end of the year, whatever happens in Norville. If what happens that most of the fans are hoping happens, you don't have to worry about who their backup quarterback is.

There's going to be a whole new team there next year. So yeah, we'll see. But this seems to me like, you know, sun came up today. This is what we were all anticipating. Yeah. Our next megaboard topic from we RSC. And our guy, Wilson Alexander, new hire here at On 3, he hopped on the board to present

his story because he talked to Lincoln Riley recently and Lincoln Riley had some very interesting thing to say and the headline on the story Lincoln Riley believes USC has now entered its championship window Ari Lincoln Riley has been roasted from stem to stern over the quotes in this story because of the man that we had on the show earlier today

because of Kurt Signetti yep and I wanted to take name to Kurt Signetti but I don't want him to feel like I was trying to disparage somebody to like but like I was like that the literal thing that you just did is the reason why you can't say in year five the windows open yeah this is so this is what lincoln riley said to wilson alexander taking this over you knew you had to fight like hell just to try to get this window open and we're to point right now where there's a lot to be excited about and a lot in front of us it's been a lot of work for a lot of people a lot of commitment from a lot of people to get

there and it should be a lot of fun these next few years now here's the thing are you if he's right and they really are in the window and they are as good as they think they are, it will be fun. It absolutely will. And everyone will forget that they made fun of Lincoln Riley for saying this. You know, I think that the thing that people have a hard time understanding is that you criticize people who deserve criticism, but that doesn't like reserve your right to praise them when they're good. Like that's the way it works.

You know, like they, if he is good, we will acknowledge that. I still don't think that even if they are good, it should have taken. in five or six years, right? I mean, that you can't change what's already happened, but you don't fire a coach or not like a coach, right, coming off of a great season. So if you have the opportunity that Mike Norvell has, that Lincoln Riley has to have a job longer than maybe some people think that

you deserve it and then you come through and start winning big, there's no reason to make a change after that. So, like, I just, I don't know, like, can I simultaneously believe that he thinks that they're the best that they've been since they've been there while also thinking that it's not a good excuse. Like, can I like, and I think that's, that's, that's threading the needle because you're right. I believe him completely when he says this is the best they've been. I believe him.

Or that at least he feels that way. Now, you know, right? Here's another quote to Wilson Alexander from Lincoln Riley. USC had to get really serious about being great in the sport again. I give the school administration everybody credit. They have. This will either turn out to be true or will be the thing that bites him in the ass. I mean, all this stuff is going to bite him in the ass.

I saw all the memes yesterday of people making pictures of windows open and then it between or behind the windows nine and three. You know, everybody's already like mocking him for it. And Andy, I like even wrote a column. what, two weeks ago or three weeks ago after, you know, USC has been doing this thing where it's taunting everybody on the internet after they win recruiting. Oh, yeah.

Taunting Oregon specifically and taunting Notre Dame specifically, which I really wouldn't taunt Notre Dame over any recruiting victories. And I realize Chad Bowden, their GM came from Notre Dame. So it is good-natured slash history there. But you ducked Notre Dame. name. You ran scared from Notre Dame. You don't really get to say anything in Notre Dame right now. Put that river. Let's get Andy, uh, let's get Andy on the wrong side of an avalanche online. You think USC fans don't know they ran scared from Notre Dame?

You don't think that Alabama fans know they got their ass kicked by Indiana. Do that make them quiet online? That's fine. I mean, look, they did. USC has a hard Big Ten schedule. That's why they ducked Notre Dame. Doesn't change the fact they're ducking. Notre Dame. I think it's great that they're taunting people because you do what you can to include yourself in the conversation until what you do on the field mirrors that. That said, and again, it's another thing that can, it makes you look great or it bites you in the ass and show the schedule again because you ducked Notre Dame.

so there's no chance of them handing you anything on the field. But September 26th, the Oregon is coming to the Coliseum. And we've said this, Ari, multiple times. We'll know that day. That's the day. We will know that day. We will know that day. USC doesn't even have to win this game.

Like, if this game's close, competitive, then I'm like, yep, Lincoln Raleigh's right. They're different than what they've been. If it's like last year's Oregon USC game, no different. Yep. So we'll know. But I do think that there was a thought process, too, here. Andy, where in the thread title that I think you sent out to us was if all

the recruiting wins don't matter if they don't lead to real. Oh, well, there's a, so Scott Schrader who writes for we RSC has a great thread that he posted. And it is very rational, very logical, and if you're a USC fan, I say read it because

it perfectly encapsulates I imagine how a lot of USC fans feel because it is not overly critical of Lincoln Riley, but is also not overly praising Lincoln Riley. It is basically saying this is put up or shut up time for you, Lincoln Riley. I think that, and I think, you know, a lot of people too are probably kind of tired of this because

coming into last year it also felt like put up or shut up time. And if they are nine and three again this year and they have another recruiting class and he said all those things next summer, is it put up, shut up time again? Like, it's not put up or shut up time until they're. No, I don't know that there's a chance next summer for him to say that if he doesn't put up. Yeah. So. But that's a real deal.

That's what Scott wrote is so good because I'll read you the subheads from it. And again, if you're not subscribed to On 3, if you're a USC fan, grab yourself a VRSC subscription because this is like Scott knows USC better than anybody. And this is fantastic. But the subheads, the build has been real. Completely true. Like, this is a good recruiting class that they brought in. The reality check is. coming also true, why this season matters more. And that's also true. Because you've gotten all the

resources, you've gotten the alignment you want. Now you have to deliver results with it. That's all it is. And I think Lincoln Riley understands that. And I think that's why you see the tonal shift from Lincoln Riley this year versus the last two where it has been look what I took over. Yeah. But it's not put up or shut up until you shut up and it's not do or die unless you die. That's I think that that's a fair point. But I do think there is a chance that that happens. Yeah.

So very critical year for USC, obviously very critical year for Lincoln Riley. This could be the difference between, you know, being one of the best USC coaches of all time and this being. the first start of it or being the head coach of a big 12 school in three years like I don't know what's going to happen but like that's you know that's where we're at I think with it yeah and I think it's it makes it an absolutely fascinating story because there could be marginal things that happened during the season that from a day to day standpoint or game to game don't mean as much and then you look back and you're like oh man that bounce really propelled them or that balance really cost them like that's kind of the razor's edge that USC goes into the season.

And the hardest part about it too, Andy, is that sometimes even when it is your year, things bounce the wrong way. Like, that's the hardest part about putting yourself in a position where it's either win now or die. Because even if you look at some of the best coaches in college football, you might be able to outline two or three seasons in their long, successful trajectories where they had better teams that didn't do it. Just because you have the team doesn't guarantee you're going to do it. So, and I like USC's fan base and how they've, how they handle this.

Like reading the message boards, this is not a group that is either overwhelmingly positive or overwhelmingly negative. They just seem to take the information and process it in a really rational way. And I don't know if it's a case of, you know, USC has had some major ups and downs as a program through the years. So they're not, you know, they're not just spoiled by constant success. or they're not beaten down by constant failure. Also, you're in a pro market.

Everybody's probably pretty into some pro teams. So they take a little bit different look at the thing. They're also reading the threads on the Santa Monica pier. So like how Matt? They're just happy. The sky's always blue. The weather's always perfect. How are you ever really in California?

I don't know. But it is certainly a important season. And like we have piled, I certainly have piled on Lincoln, Riley. And I don't want to hear excuses. And I know that when you're talking, sometimes you're just having a frank conversation. And I mean, I've been involved in interviews where a coach is just talking and what he says on paper isn't like how it meant. But I don't want to hear about why it wasn't working for this long. I just want it to work. You're getting paid. His grandchildren's grandchildren will be fine financially because of this job. So like, yeah, no matter what happens this year.

Yeah. Yeah. So like that's, you know, the standards high and that's the way it is. So. And, And you signed up for it and he understands that. Yeah. It's so interesting, though, to hear how different. Because I remember standing next to him at Big Ten Media Days a couple of years ago and him saying, you know, I'm not a wizard. I can't wave a wand and make this like. At the time, you know, Kurt Signetti's about to come out for his first Big Ten media days.

And you're like, yeah, whatever, Indiana, cute little story. That's the guy who talked trash to Michigan and Ohio State. Two years later, it's like, oh, no, no, you can wave a magic wand. Yeah, yeah. The thing that is true about that, Andy, is that, you know, you might not be a wizard, but USC spent all that money to hire one. So, like, you know, exactly. They paid for one, whether one exists or not.

You're not a wizard. I'll go find a wizard. Like, that's what your job is. So, you know, I always, like, laugh at that sort of thing. It's like, well, I think there's a misunderstanding genuinely of, like, what the person that hired you wanted. when you say things like that. Yeah.

And usually when they're that many zeros on the check, failure is not an option. Sure isn't, pal. Ari, today's been a roaring success. Thank you to Kurt Signetti for joining us. Tomorrow, another big guest, another guy who has made the college football playoff recently. SMU's Retlashley.

I don't know if the audience I did not make it this past year but they're trying to come back trying to roar back into the playoff. This pod's been humming lately. I don't know if you've noticed. I've noticed. Oh yeah, yeah.

And we got some fun stuff brewing for the next few weeks. I'm just stirring, stirring, stirring. All right, well, I got to get out to the Ritz Carlton and Las Calinas. Enjoy the lobby stocking. Ari.