Andy & Ari On3 - Dabo Swinney TELLS ALL: Accuses Ole Miss of tampering for LB Luke Ferrelli

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

Welcome to a new week of Andy & Ari On3! As the first week of the off-season is underway, our new schedule is now Monday-Friday at 3 pm et! On Friday, Clemson HC Dabo Swinney accused Ole Miss of tampering, and he came with receipts. Watch here as Andy & Ari break down this interesting situation on the world of tampering. (0:00) On Today's Episode(1:10) Presenting Sponsor(2:56) Intro: New Schedule, Monday-Friday(4:03) What happened with Luke Ferrelli?(10:33) Dabo's Press Conference(13:04) Dabo's next point(15:10) Larry Williams' Story at Tiger Illustrated(16:25) Pete Golding texting Luke during class at Clemson(21:51) What happened on the last day of the portal?(25:50) Ole Miss's offer to Luke(26:56) Dell(28:07) Luke's Request to enter the portal, Clemson turning Ole Miss in(32:00) Dabo's Final Point: Tampering 3.1(37:23) What Happens Next?(40:48) What do the fans want?(43:53) Wrapping up Dabo's presser(44:45) Ohio State Hires Arthur Smith as OC(1:01:33) Jordan Seaton to LSU(1:04:20) Revisiting Clemson(1:05:40) Battling Mother Nature(1:15:00) Thanks for watching! See you tomorrow! Larry's Story: https://www.on3.com/sites/tiger-illustrated/news/more-communication-between-clemson-football-and-ole-miss/ As Andy & Ari wrap up the Luke Ferrelli discussion, the fellas take a visit to Columbus, Ohio, where Ryan Day has selected Arthur Smith as his next offensive coordinator for the Buckeyes. As Brian Hartline's tenure at USF has started, OSU has announced the former Steelers OC and Atlanta Falcons head coach will be running the offense in Columbus this fall. Is this a good hire? In transfer portal news, OL Jordan Seaton has announced he will go from Colorado to LSU. Lane Kiffin's offense seems to be shaping into form with a solid portal haul. To close, the fellas look at some brutal weather over the weekend that affected Producer River and Ari. The Dell XPS proves there’s no need to compromise—style, power, and reliability come together in one expertly crafted machine.Check out the all-new Dell XPS at Dell.com/XPS. 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 sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/wa8QQRr_Wfs Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM, Dabo Sweeney goes nuclear on Ole Miss. The Clemson coach accuses Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding of tampering with a linebacker that Clemson already had on campus, Luke Forelli, who is now at Ole Miss. Well, Dabo came with receipts. We'll talk about everything he said about where Ole Miss sits in this, and also about what can be done differently. this feels like a test case.

This feels like Clemson saying to the NCAA, you either do something about this or we're going to accept the fact that there are no rules about this and move on with our lives. If there are no rules about this, at least from the NCAA, what could be done?

I have an idea. We'll talk about it on the show. Plus, Arthur Smith, former Atlanta Falcons head coach, former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator, hired as the new Ohio State offensive coordinator, and Jordan Seton, the number one offensive lineman in the transfer portal, lands at LSU.

We'll talk about it all on today's Andy and Arion 3, presented by BetMGM. We are presented by BetMGM. We use BetMGM lines and totals. And you can join us by joining BetMGM. If you have not signed up for BetMGM yet, use the bonus code CFB as in college football, CFB, and you'll get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first web. wager with bed MGM. Here's how that works.

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Welcome to Annie and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. And of course, we have Dabo in the Olive Green Clemson sweatshirt, dressed for combat. For me. Yeah. Yeah, because Dabo went off. And, you know, public service announcement from those of us who do shows to those of you who decide to go nuclear on other schools and bring receipts,

don't do it on a Friday afternoon, please. Please do it Monday through Thursday so that we can have it fresh on the show. next day. Probably a good time to remind everybody we are back to the off-season schedule. So Monday through Friday, three theme Eastern time is when your new shows will be dropping from now on. We don't have, of course, the after games

on Saturday night. We don't have that anymore. We'll, of course, break in with any emergency podcast. Any excuse to use the horns, we will use them. But Davos-Sweeney basically unloaded on Ole Miss, Ari, on Friday afternoon. There's a pretty interesting situation because Clemson got a player from Cal out of the transfer portal Luke Farrelli. He's a linebacker. Uh, was one of the best young defensive players in the

ACC. And they got him. He was on campus and he had signed a financial aid agreement. He had not signed a revenue share agreement and that will become important later. But Ole Miss lost T.J. Daugtery to LSU that same week. This is the week that the transfer portal was closing. This is a couple weeks ago. And Nomez suddenly needed somebody that can do what Luke Ferelli does. And they went after him and wound up landing him. And then Davosweeney showed up Ari with receipts on Friday. Yeah, receipts are interesting. You know, I cannot wait to talk to you about this because I believe that you're correct in that. if there was ever a time for somebody to get punished for this, this probably is it, right?

And like what happens next, I think is going to lay the territory of like whether tampering is even a thing. Is that a fair thought? I agree. I think that is what Clemson, I think that is what Davosweeney and Clemson athletic director, Graham Neff, probably the conversation they had before they decided to go

and do this press conference on Friday. I think that's the conversation they had. Like, we're going to lay it all out there. And either the NCAA will do something about this and enforce the rules they claim to have or they won't. And if they don't, then at least everybody knows what the game is. Everybody understands. But, you know, everybody knows what the game is, Andy, already. Right.

Do they? Because there's still people who claim that they try to follow the rules. There's still people, I still see viewers, readers say, well, why doesn't the NCAA do something about this? And so these are questions that real people have. And I think real people who work in the industry still have these questions. Yeah, I think that you're right about that, Andy. And like you, at the beginning of the show, you said, if you're going to bring receipts to a press conference,

do it on a Friday night, and I agree with that sentiment. We don't do it on a Friday night. We want it during the weeks. We can do a show on it. I think this is an evergreen topic because it's not just what Davo said. It's about the general concept of tampering, which is something that a lot of people are wound up about. And like I even tweeted when this happened on Friday night,

you know, I understand why Dabo Sweeney would be upset. I would probably be upset too, but until the first team gets punished for tampering, tampering doesn't exist. So I guess it's kind of like the same conversation that we had during COVID right away, like once an IL started of like driving on, remember everybody used to say guard rails and driving the speed limit?

Yeah, like, it's like some teams were like, there are no real rules. I'm going to drive as fast as I can. And of course, nothing happened. So I guess the type of program you run, if you want to drive the speed limit and stay within those guide guide rails. That's certainly, like, I think Davosweeney probably is the number one guess of who would actually

follow those rules because he's a clean cut guy that wants to do things the right way. But at the same time, like the shock in awe when it happens when someone's driving faster than you, like you have to be, you know, in this long enough and understand the way this sport goes that, like, if there are rules, the only reason why those exist in this sport is to be broken. And this isn't even a rule yet. The second it becomes a rule is the first time somebody, gets in trouble for it. Okay. I was going to say it is a rule. It's written down in the book, but I agree with you. No one's ever actually gotten punished for it. And this has been happening.

This happened before NIL. This happened before the transfer rules changed. This happened back when you had to sit out a year. Like I remember having people who worked it at various programs saying, hey, we got text messages from this staff and this staff to our players saying, hey, transfer here. And I was like, cool. Well, there's a rule. You could turn them in. And they're like, how we can't do that. I was like, why can't you do that? Because we're doing the same thing. And that's the difference here is that Dabo, not a big transfer portal user.

Now they did, I think they ended up taking, I want to say seven or eight transfers this season or this off season. So they're using it more. But other than the service academies, Clemson probably uses the transfer portal the least. And so Dabo is kind of maybe the only non-service academy coach that can do this. I can call the bluff. Yeah. Yes, because he probably doesn't have the same skeletons.

Everybody else is just doing the same thing. And look, before we get into this, I will tell you with Ole Miss, they've been dealing with this probably as much or more than anyone. Yeah, because their former coach, Lane Kiffin, who's at LSU right now, has been trying to pillage their roster. Sandy, what's that song? Hurt people, hurt people, yeah. You know that song?

Yes. Because if I'm an Ole Miss fan, like, I'm, because like, here's the thing, I can sympathize with Davo. Like, I really truly can. If you try to do things the right way, stay within the rules, build your roster the way that he's building it. We've had him on the show. He's talked in great detail about it. Like, you don't want to get involved or subjected to people who aren't doing it that way. So that's that side, right? Here's the Ole Miss side. Oh, we're going to get in trouble. Oh, we're going to be the first. team in the history. Yeah, us. We're right. Our entire team just got stolen.

Like that, like, I understand. It's like, you know, you get a speeding ticket on the highway because you're going seven over and the cop didn't pull over the other 20 cars that went by you, 20,000 hours faster than you. You're like, I'm the guy who gets pulled over. Like that. Am I right about it? Yeah, this is probably a great time to mention that Prince Will Oman, Mielan, the edge

rusher who played for Ole Miss last year, brother, younger brother, the Prince William Manmielan, who also played for Ole Miss the year before. Prince Will Omanmanme Allen is going to LSU for next year. Ole Miss trying to get his back out right now. Yes. So that's the environment that we're working in here. And I think that's the part that everybody needs to understand before we get into this. I don't, there's not going to be a lot of moralizing coming from me or Ari on this.

I just want you to hear Dabo with his receipts. and we'll have an honest conversation about it afterward. But let's kick it off with Davosweeney talking about this situation. Now, he's going to name a lot of names. Jordan Sorrels, when he mentions him, Jordan Sorrells is Clemson's GM. That's who that is. Luke Forelli is the player involved here. And I think those are the only names I need you to know for this clip.

But we'll make sure you stay abreast as we go because we've got seven of them. Here's Davo. Then Wednesday, January 7th at 11 a.m., Luke signed his financial aid agreement with Clemson. And then Sunday, January 11th, he moved to Clemson. He moved to Clemson. Again, rents an apartment, buys a car, goes to class for a week. He's in training for a week. Team meeting, position meeting, all that.

All right. And then on Wednesday, January 14th at 9.49 p.m., the agent Ryan Williams calls Jordan Soles. And during that conversation, Ryan conveys that Ole Miss has been coming hard after Luke. Sorrell's confirmed with the agent, he said, are you talking about the same Luke that's been enrolled, that's enrolled at Clemson, that's been in class that's moved here, that's signed with Clemson, and the agent assured him, yes, the same one. But he also assured Jordan Sorrell's that Luke had no intention of leaving Clemson. but just thought y'all should be in the loop and check up on him tomorrow.

All right. So at this point, no worries. The agents, you know, sound of the alarm a little bit, but the agent's like, ah, it's all good. Don't worry about it. Nothing to see here. I doubt that's what the agent was saying to Ole Miss, though. Right.

Well, I'm kind of surprised. I was kind of surprised to hear that. Because the whole point of the phone call has to be to put the screws to other. to the team that hasn't, right? Like, so like, but if you're an experienced agent, that's not how you, you don't start with the screws. The screws are coming. Trust me, the screws are coming.

I know that this is probably going to continue here, Andy, with the clips that you chose. But like the timestamps of like the approximate time are such a night, because that's him saying, I know exactly what happened and when it happened. Yes. Well, get ready for more timestamps. Here's more dab.

So Thursday, January, 5th. at 1145 a.m. just this past, whatever, Thursday, Jordan came to me, and he told me about the conversation that he had the night before with the agent at 949. And so I told Sorrels, I directed Sorrell's, hey, you reach, I don't know, I said, who's their GM? He said, his name is Austin Thomas. I said, well, you reach out to their GM. He said he knows him. And I said, listen, this guy has been a head coach for four weeks. I said, you reach out to the GM. I'm going to give him some grace. And you let him know that we know what's going on, all right? And if he doesn't cease communication, I'm going to turn him in. And so I really thought that would be the end of it. But it wasn't.

So after that, that was 1145 at 1210. Jordan communicated. to Austin Thomas via text because he was unable to reach him on the phone. And just a few minutes later, at 1214, they both connected on the phone. The Ole Miss GM, Austin Thomas, and Jordan reiterated our stance one more time. The GM assured Jordan that he had communicated to the agent that he wanted no part of this and that his relationship with Jordan was more important to him than Luke Farrelli. but that Pete Golding just does what he does, quote, unquote. Now, I've done this, Ari.

I've done this like, this is not my department. Somebody else is doing this. When you know in your organization exactly what's going on, like you understand, but you deflect a little bit. You're like, no, no, no, I'm the good guy here. You can talk to me. We need to unpack when you did this and why later on in the show, but why don't we just continue on?

Oh, we've done this. Multiple times, multiple times, Ari. But I think that's natural. You do that in any organization. There's a little good cop, bad cop going on, and Austin Thomas is the good cop in this particular instance, and he's making Pete Golding the bad cop. But so, by the way, story by Larry Williams of Tiger Illustrated

are Clemson site at On 3. Apparently, there was communication between Pete Golding and Clemson, not between Pete Golding and Davos Sweeney. Matt Luke, who is Clemson, who is Clemson's offensive line coach, also former Ole Miss head coach, former Ole Miss player. According to Larry's story, there was contact between Pete Golding and Matt Luke, you know, one, one former Ole Miss coach to a current Ole Miss coach. So there's been communicating, and the thing is all these guys know each other.

All these coaches know each other. All these personnel guys know each other. So this is not, this is not like a highly contentious thing where somebody is just calling out of the blue, somebody they have never met before and screaming at them. It's not what we're talking about here. But this is also the most in-depth information that we have about how and why this occurs. So I think it's important. And this happens all the time.

And the reason we're doing this now in part is because nobody's ever really broken it down this much. And it's fascinating to hear the whole process of it go on. So let us let Davosweeney continue. the narrative. So at 1.30, Sorrell's met with Luke face to face in his office. And Luke communicated

to Jordan and to Ben Bullware that Pete texted him on Wednesday morning, the head coach at Ole Miss, when he was in his 8 a.m. class. And he said, the text message said, I know you're signed. What's the buyout?

And he also, Luke said that Coach Golding also texted him a picture of a $1 million contract. He also, Luke also mentioned to Jordan and to Ben that Coach Golding had had Trinidad Chambliss call him from his phone and that Coach Golding was there continuing to talk on his phone to push him to re-enter the transfer portal. He also said that Jackson Dart had reached out and called him. But Luke again assured Jordan that he had no intention of leaving. All right.

So a lot there. You had the Trinidad Shambliss call, which we actually don't know if Trinidad Shambliss is going to play for Ole Miss this year. We're still waiting to hear back from, he's got an appeal in with the NCAA. He also has a petition with a court in Lafayette County, Mississippi. to try to get an injunction that would allow him to play. So we don't know if he's going to get to play, but apparently still recruiting for Ole Miss. And there's a key line in there, Ari, allegedly from Pete Golding.

We're hearing it from Davosweeney, so it's secondhand. But the line is, what's the buyout? And the answer to that is he, there isn't one, because he signed it in like a financial aid agreement with Clemson. and he signed his scholarship papers, but he doesn't have a rev share agreement signed yet. So there is no, like, if there is a buyout,

and all those don't necessarily contain a numbered buyout, some of them do, some of them don't. But if there is one, it hasn't been agreed to yet. Yeah, well, the question I have,

too, is that when somebody enrolls in class, what has to come first? Does the, uh, does going to class come first or does signing your rev share agreement come first? Like, it feels like that might have been like,

that should be like at the forefront and it seems to me that it wasn't at the forefront to stop this from happening in the future. I wonder if that's going to show. That is what I am probably going to write when we finish recording this segment, that column maybe on, on three by the time this show starts, is we'll get into this more

when we let Davo finish, but should it just be treated the way coaches are treated right now? Because we know how coaches operate. If you want to hire somebody else's coach, there is a number in that coach's contract that you can pay and buy them out of their contract. And you just accept that you have to pay that. We're not there yet with players.

Maybe it's time to get there with players. Even if you don't have a collective bargaining agreement, even if you don't have a federal bill or federal law, it doesn't matter. Like there's no federal law governing coach compensation. There's no collective bargaining agreement for coaches. But it is generally agreed upon that if you would like to hire somebody else's coach there's a number in that coach's contract you pay it to the old school and you get that coach

yeah but i also understand you andy how dabbo thought well he's in class this is over or like the people at clemson would have thought he's in class he's moved here it's over and it's like now we're thinking about this from a contractual uh standpoint and not the old school like they're in class they're at school thought process because that and i think that that is like we don't have the clip of this, but Davo after he goes through this whole saga does say this, it's kind of the same thing where he's basically like, we're doing this because we need to see if we need to change our thinking about this. Yeah.

Not necessarily go get them. It's just if you're not going to go get them, let's figure out what to do. Right. It's almost like an exploration of what the rules are. And it feels like he is tampering has been a thing that coaches have all engaged in or most of them have engaged in, but also all of them complain about it. And I think at the very least, Dabo is probably doing the entire coaching community of favor and maybe even the college football community. Because the one thing that I think that people struggle with the most into Zandi is that there are fans who want all the rules to be, you know, out there and followed and everybody play about the same rules. and that's just kind of not what's been happening in the sport for the past four years.

And like, whatever happens as a result of this could help us understand if tampering is actually going to be enforcers a thing. And it's not just for Clemson to figure out, well, how do we process our roster and how do we both assemble our roster? It's what are we allowed to do? And what is everybody allowed to do? And like, it's not just for Clemson. I think that what happens here is going to inform how everybody else acts, too.

Yeah. Let's continue with the story from Davos Sweeney. So we had a staff meeting on Friday morning, January the 16th, the last day of the portal. At 1120, Luke called Ben Bowware and told him that Mississippi had reached out again, even though I had kind of let them know the day before, had reached out again, and they had not only reached out, but they had upped and doubled their offer. But Luke told Ben, hey, it's all we're good. And so, Ben told Luke to come to the office and see Soros and Co. Sweeney and let them know,

everything is okay. So when that was over, Ben then texted Jordan Sorrels, and he let him know that Ole Miss had raised its offer to two years, two million. And again, that he had told Luke to come over and see us and let us know that everything is good. So at 1157, so 1120 Luke called Ben 1122, he texted Jordan this. At 1157, Sorrell spoke with the agent Ryan Williams about the situation once again. He confirmed, he confirmed, the agent confirmed, that head coach Pete Golding had continued to communicate with Luke and had raised the offer once again. Jordan asked to have Luke to give us the text messages that he had received from, coach, Golding, but the agent was hesitant to do that because he didn't want to burn any bridges

with Ole Miss as you never know what will happen down the road. However, the agent communicated that if we were to add a second year at a million dollars to the already agreed upon deal with Luke, then they would gladly give us whatever we need in order to turn Ole Miss in, which Jordan appropriately said, no, we're not doing that. Told you the screws were coming. That's how you age it, Ari. You wait until the moment comes where you have some real leverage. And you're like, well, if you'd like to turn them in and you'd love all these receipts that

we could give you, all you have to do is add a second year to the contract at a million dollars. Yeah, right. Andy, there have been many times on the show where I've thought I could be an agent. And many times you've reminded me that I couldn't be. And here's another instance of that, right? Like one of the, yes. And I think I could be. I actually just don't know if I like just expect the best out of people at all times.

And like that's what would make it like hard for me. But like dabbo like was he thought like he was talking to the agent as a friend. The agent's not a friend. His job is. The agent is doing his job. We get to extract the most money out of whoever for his client as he can't. probably possible. Yeah. Yes. And that's, and like that means he's good at his job. But like, that's not, it's like, you just have to remember who you're talking to. And like, I even made the mistake at the beginning of the show of like, well, that's not, I'm surprised to hear that. It's like, well, it's a scorpion and the frog, are you know, you know the fable of the scorpion and the frog, right? I guess. Yeah. I mean, I think I put it together. Yeah. Of course I stung you on a scorpion. What does you expect? So, yeah, I mean, I, I, I, I, I, I told you the screws were coming.

In fairness to me, I said I am surprised to hear that from the agent. And Dabo and whoever was communicating with this agent should have also been like, I'm surprised to hear this from the agent. Like, like, you know, I don't think they were as surprised. I don't think they're not surprised. Listen, Dabo's not naive. Now, he's playing a little bit, I think, naive here. But I don't think he's naive at all.

His advantage, too, to be an naive in the situation. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. All right. So let us continue with Davo. He also communicated that Ole Miss Assistant Director of Player Personnel, I guess it's J, it's J-A-I, C-H-O-U-D-A-R-Y, Shortery, I'm not sure, but the Assistant Director of Player Personnel was pushing to set up a Zoom call with them to discuss the details of their contract offer.

So that was at 1157, talking to the agent. At 1230, Sorrells met Luke out in the parking lot outside our football facility, and Luke communicated that he was coming to assure him and Coach Sweeney that he wasn't going anywhere. I was not in the building. Jordan called me to let me know what Luke said and for me to reach out to him. I called Luke and didn't get an answer. Uh-oh. Oh, boy.

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Okay, our story is picking up steam. Dabo has tried to reach out to Luke Forelli. He has not heard back. What happens next? Here's Dabbo. I'm back at work. I'm in my office. Everything's good.

414, Jordan Sorrells comes to see me. He had gotten a call from compliance, telling him that Luke is in our compliance office trying to request to reenter the transfer portal. So Jordan let me know. He let Tom Allen know, called Luke no answer. At 419, Jordan called the agent Ryan Williams again to alert him that Luke had requested to enter the portal. He responded via text to let him know. that he was flying. Soros texted,

Luke just reached out to our compliance and requested to go in the portal. What the heck is going on? The agent's response was, oh, bleep. Let me try and find out. At 440, at 440, Soros and Coach Allen arrived at Luke's apartment. Luke was in the driveway when they got there.

His immediate response was, I'm going to Ole Miss. Coach Allen and Jordan spent some time talking to him, and when they departed, he just said, hey, I need to clear my head. At 539, Jordan spoke with the Ole Miss GM Austin Thomas again to let him know that we knew all that was going on and that we were going to pursue all options to hold them accountable for tampering. And then at 720, after a phone call with Tom Allen and Ben Bowler, Luke affirmed his plan to enter the transfer portal, and then he called me and told me the same thing. Okay, so they've said we are turning you in.

You can do this, but we're turning you in. And then Luke calls and he's gone. That's, that's, that's, that's it. It's, he's done. He's gone. I felt like I was watching a lifetime movie there. I don't know if you were there. We're not done yet, Ari.

Yeah, no, I know. Yeah. But I was anxious. stirring it. Like, I don't know about you, but it's just like an uncomfortable conversation. We have to figure out who plays dabbo. Yeah. Yeah, because you go from.

Ryan Gosling. Being. Of course. Of course. It's like your abs were photoshopped. You go from being told, no, no, no, he's fine. He's staying. It's all good.

You're in the staff meeting. Everything's fine. And then boom, later the afternoon, he's in the compliance office. But you kind of, again, I think there may be a little more naivity in here than was really going on. I'm sure there was in the back of everybody's head like, something's still up, not sure until the transfer portal closes whether this is really not happening.

So it happens. He goes back into the portal. He is now at Ole Miss. He's going to play for Ole Miss this season. Clemson is, I don't think, trying to invalidate him going to Ole Miss. I don't think that's what they're trying to do.

They're trying to see if the NCAA will punish Ole Miss for tampering or not. And I think that's the crux of this issue. I think, and Davo says after the, you know, after this whole narrative that he doesn't, it's not a thing with Luke that if the player doesn't want to be on Clemson's team, that's fine. He doesn't want him on Clemson's team. Davo doesn't. So he's fine with him going somewhere else, but just don't sign there first.

And so I think that's that's the issue at hand. But here is Davo kind of wrapping things up. Once I got word of all this at 415 that he was in going over there trying to go in the portal, I immediately called RAD Graham Neff. I also called Commissioner Phillips. He also called the SEC Commissioner and others. So, you know, this is obviously a crazy time. We turned everything in to the NCAA.

And I'm just going to just say this. This is, this is, like, there's tampering and then there's blatant tampering. You know, tampering 101 is when you're talking to kids who aren't in the portal. Tampering 201 is when you've already negotiated the deal with the kids not in the portal. Tampering 301 is when you got a kid who's gone in the portal, sign somewhere, move there, going to classes and you're texting them while they're in class. That's like a whole other level of tampering. And it's total hypocrisy because all this is going on while they on the other side

are trying to fight their defensive end from going in the portal. They have accused publicly others of tampering with their roster and their players while they are over here tampering. all right so this is this is just a really sad state of affairs and it's to me we have a broken system and if there are no consequences for tampering then we have no rules and we have no governance it's really just that simple you know lane kiffa was going to make an appearance at some point and he did prince will oman m'y ellen was the player to which that was when he was referring who once again,

Prince Will Oman Mieland, me Ellen, now in LSU. So this is the whole saga, but I think Davo summed it up nicely, where he basically said, either there are rules or there aren't rules. And I think that is the crux of this. I think what he's doing and what Graham Neff, their AD is doing,

is trying to force the issue on this, where if the NCAA is going to admit, hey, we have no power to enforce this anymore, we're not going to do anything, then that's where maybe the athletic directors of the ACC and the SEC and they get together and they like and they talk about what might need to happen to form a new form of governance. Not necessarily outside the NCAA,

but just how's this going to work? You've seen a lot of coaches, like the coaches don't really care about whether there's a CBA or not. They'd be fine if there's a CBA as long as there's rules, as long as it allows them to have rules. The athletic directors are starting to come around on that. The commissioners have not, the school presidents, if not. I think what they may be trying to do is push everything to a point where there's an honest conversation about how do you create rules they can actually be enforced.

Right. And I think that everybody wants that. I bet you the people who are engaging and tampering want it. Of course they do. It reminds me of just like any situation of like, well, I don't like the rules, but while they're the rules, I need to exploit them. I mean, you can come up with, you know, people who rich people with their taxes or, you know, Cody Campbell with Texas Tech. Like, everybody has said this of like, hey, you know, I don't need. Andy Campbell said it to us.

For those who don't know, Cody Campbell is the former Texas Tech player. He's an oil billionaire. He has been essentially bankrolling Texas Tech's NIL, or at least in part. And we asked him about it at Big 12 Meaty Days. We said, you claim to dislike the system, but you sure are taking part in it. pretty heavily and he said well why shouldn't i it is the system in place i can advocate for different rules but as long as these are the rules and this is the system then i am going to try to gain every advantage i can for my school and i do think that's what everybody's going to do

yeah so i'm very like so what do you think's going to happen like i don't even know what's going to happen is my honest guess of what'll happen I think nothing is going to happen. That's my guest. Nothing. Absolutely. I don't think the NCAA is going to do jack squat about this. Mm-hmm.

Because I think there's too many people engaging in it. Yeah, because if you punish Ole Miss, then you have to go punish everybody else. Although this one seems to be a pretty blatant case of it. Maybe it's like the difference between treason and light treason. Like I have no idea. Like, you know, Davosweeney just went through the rules, right? the classes, 101, 201, 301, 401, maybe like tampering 101 and 201 are okay,

but tampering 301 and 401, you can get punished for. Like, I don't know. I don't know, but like you said, if there's going to be rules, there has to be a widespread enforcement of those rules, and I don't know if you could just pick Ole Miss out of the hat and be like, okay, you're screwed, unless you think that you need to make an example out of somebody.

Like, I don't know. I don't know, man. You're going to have to help me with this. I don't think they can make an example out of somebody because Ole Miss will sue. like I would. Yeah. I just sue them for selective enforcement.

Like you're okay, it's okay if you punish us, but you're not going to do anything to LSU. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't, I don't think they can really do anything about this. And I think everybody knows that. I think Davos Sweeney knows that. I think Graham Neff knows that.

And I think they're doing this to prove a point that there isn't anything in the incident of like can do about it. and that they need to create some other system that will allow them to have rules that they can enforce. I think maybe we could be thankful for Nabo because I feel like in order for the system that's dysfunctional and all over the place to ever get to a place where it's functional, the most dysfunctional things have to happen, right? Like it's like if like, well, but I'll point out, I will point out. And I said this earlier and I'm saying this again, there is no collective bargaining agreement that governs,

coaches contracts. There is no federal law that governs how coaches are compensated and how their contracts work and how they move from one place to another. They don't have rules for that, but they have created an orderly system for that. Now, it wasn't always orderly.

Do you remember Ari that only a few years ago schools wouldn't pay buyouts for assistance? Right. Remember when Charlie Strong was head coach at Texas and he got hauled into a deposition because they had hired Joe, they'd hired Joe Wickline away from Oklahoma State and made him the offensive coordinator,

which they made him the offensive coordinator because that meant they didn't have to pay the buyout because he was getting a promotion. But he wasn't actually the offensive play caller, and they basically made them admit that in depositions. And they ended up having to pay the buyout. Well, now they all pay buyouts for assistance. So there's a way to do it.

And again, Just put buyouts in the in the rev share deals and have some of the rev shares immediately. Yes. And you don't have to have the full contract. Like no coach ever signs the full, well, every once in a while. But rarely does the coach sign the full contract. They sign what's called a memorandum of understanding that has the basics of the deal that they will then flesh out in a full contract. Isn't that what signing in principle?

Basically, yeah. Yeah. Well, you can agree in principle. That just means we've agreed on the terms. We haven't put pen to paper. When you sign the. MOU, you are legally bound to that. But there's going to be some finer points that get hashed out over the next few weeks,

months. Yeah. And you just have to get people to sign documents that are binding as soon as possible. Yes. Yes. And you can have an MOU that says, we agree. This is a two-year deal. It will pay you $500,000 per year.

The buyout, if you'd like to leave, to go to another school is, if you want to do it right now will cost you $500,000. If you want to do it after this season, it'll cost you $250,000. That's all you have to do. And all of those numbers can be negotiated by the school, by the player. You can do that now. No one is stopping anybody from doing that right now. No one. Right. So if you'd like to do that and have a more orderly system, you can do that. I want that. You want that. We all want that. The fans want it. Everybody wants it. Well, it's interesting because the last rev share agreement we saw is the Dary and Mentsa contract with Duke. Did not include a buyout number.

That was intentional. It said, and this is probably on Dary and Mence's agent for allowing this to go in there. It said Mentsa leaving Duke will cause irreparable harm. Well, if you're the agent, don't let them. put that in the contract. Put a number there. If you want to buy them out after a year, put a number in there. Yeah.

And if they want you bad enough, they'll agree to it. Yeah. And also, it'll be very interesting to see them argue about what irreparable harm is. Because they're probably going to get to see that next week. It's crazy because like the person that's leaving and the person that's coming in or might come in haven't played a down of football yet. And you can't, like, it's all speculation. So.

Well, but Darien Mensa has played a down of football. So we know what his value is sort of. A down of football for Duke, I mean, I would say for the people, because the person coming in or they were attempting to bring in. Yes. Start for multiple years. So how many stats or how many touchdowns he would throw for Duke is not something that you can. I mean, if they could do it in court, I wish they could get us the ticket so that we could bet on it.

like it's not a reparable harm pretty big burden I think to try to cross I would think so too especially considering at the last the last instance of what you would think was a reparable harm was Tennessee and the person who came in played better than

maybe Nico would have had he stayed like I just right and that's the thing so I wrote a column about this with the Mensa thing and I included a clause from Brian Kelly's LSU contract and because they they explain a lot of times they do explain it when they have the buyout clause it's not just a schedule of if he if he leaves for another school at this time you owe five million dollars or whatever it also explains

why you'd have to pay that because legally you need to establish why you need to pay that and it's this person is a very special you know stuff they they are very important to the organization uh the organization would be severely damaged having to go find another coach at this time uh it would cause this um this amount of damage. And then they put a dollar figure on it. So that's how you could fix. It's not fix. That's how you could add some order to the proceedings here. Like if, if Clemson had signed this guy to an MOU immediately said, here's the rev share agreement. If you'd like to buy him out, it'll cost you

800 grand. I'm not sure Ole Miss would pay that. Yeah. And if they would, God bless them. Like, okay, sounds good. So, Ari, we will find out what happens from here. My bet, this is not something that MGM puts odds on, but my bet is nothing will happen from the NCAA. They will do nothing to Ole Miss. That is my bet. And my bet also is that it does push more people

who are in charge of college sports to talk about potentially trying to create a more orderly system. However, that works. Yeah. I think they're starting to come around on that. that maybe there's an understanding now, Congress isn't going to save you, you've got to figure this out. So maybe they start to figure it. And nobody wants to engage in this shit.

That's the thing. Like I think everybody wants the same thing. So just get it done. Get it done. That's right. Okay, all right. We have some coach hiring news to talk about. We've got Arthur Smith, former Atlanta Falcons head coach, former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator.

now headed to Columbus to be the Ohio State offensive coordinator. And this is the third consecutive coordinator hire for Ohio State, where the person has been an NFL head coach, which I think is pretty interesting. You've got Matt Patricia, who's currently the defensive coordinator. You've got, well, I guess that's not true. I guess Brian Hartline was the offensive coordinator this past year. Before that, Chip Kelly was the offensive coordinator. Chip Kelly obviously had been a great college head coach,

before he became an NFL head coach. But Chip Kelly helps him win a national title. Matt Patricia comes in and then basically runs the most dominant defense in the country other than Brian Haynes defense at Indiana. And now they go back to the NFL well with Arthur Smith, who was, I will point out, a very good offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans about five years ago, six years ago. That's how we got the Atlanta Falcons head coaching job. But he got fired in Atlanta.

He got let go in Pittsburgh when Mike Tomlin resigned, but was under heavy criticism at the time. So do we think Arthur Smith is going to come in and be a good college offensive coordinator at Ohio State? I'm done telling you what I'm going to argue with you about because then when you set it up, you're already putting me behind the eight ball. Like that's it.

From now on, I'm like, did you do that? Admit it. Did you do that? Did I do what? I just set up the situation. before I even opened my mouth. No, I just set up the situation.

That's what happened, Ari. Did they not just hire Arthur Smith? Was Arthur Smith not under heavy criticism in Pittsburgh? We'll have to play back the audio. I'm going to listen back to this, but I think you did have some opinions in there that were already kind of painting me in the corner. What, what would opinion would that be?

I can't remember. I'm sorry. Okay. You weren't even listening to me. That's the problem. Andy. But go ahead, Ari. I was just wondering.

And, you know, maybe now that we're in the middle, I'm going to sound like an idiot. But you know what? When's that ever stopped me? Is there such thing as too much NFL on a college staff? Is that like the guy who had too much Bama when he tripped the TCU player in the Cotton Bowl in a million years ago? That was his excuse was he had too much BAM in him. Yeah.

Can you have too much NFL? Like, what is it? What is too much? NFL. Is it too many people who don't have college football experience? Is that? Yeah, too many people who are NFL people by trade. And Arthur Smith is one of those. This is not like Chip Kelly. Chip Kelly had obviously spent essentially a career in college football before he ever went to the NFL. Arthur Smith's a different story. It's completely different to be really good in the college, understand how college works, excel in college, try the NFL, not do well in the NFL and then go back to what you were good at. other than being in the NFL your entire career and then coming to college for the first time to be a coordinator. Now, here's the difference or the thing that I have always thought about. And I don't know if I overthank things, but I think part of the reason why I'm in this position is because I do. When I was covering Ohio State, and this is relevant because we're talking about Ohio State.

Right. And Urban Meyer went national and recruited a bunch of really good players from all over the country. that obviously was a debt positive and gain for Ohio State's football program. But then when they ended up losing certain games in the tail end of his career, and then some of those players that stuck around ended up having a Michigan problem, there was a prevailing question of did they not have enough Ohio players on their team to make sure everybody on the team appreciated and understood the rivalry. And it was like a philosophical debate about whether or not a team that has been built a certain way

with certain players from certain places for a century could still be who it was fundamentally if it continued to recruit the vast majority of their roster from Florida, California, and Texas. Obviously, things are going great now. So I don't know what we think. But like for me, I've always just had this overall resentment towards the idea that if somebody has experienced

or did well in the NFL, that they're obviously going to be better than everybody else in college. I think I was very outspoken about that viewpoint when Bill Pelligek took over at UNC. And I'm wondering, and maybe it will be nothing, and Ohio State will just win another national championship and have better players and do really good, if having both coordinators on your team being career-long NFL people

can have any negative impacts, whether it be recruiting, whether it be dealing with the personalities of children rather than adults, all these different things that come into play from experience college coaches that you didn't really have to deal with in the NFL, in the NFL or if like Arthur Smith, who was still an NFL quality coach, despite his failure in Atlanta, I believe he was still interviewing for NFL job.

So it's not like he was like some loser that nobody wanted. He certainly, I think you could even make the case that he's overqualified. Is there anything to be worried about? I don't know if I, I think that I would be a little bit worried

and I could be wrong, but worried that you're overdoing it with NFL candidates on a college staff. Well, here's where I would agree with you, if this were 10 years ago, but it's not 10 years ago. If this were 10 years ago, I would be worried about a few things. How does this person recruit? Does this person know how to close?

Can this person get the same level of players to Ohio State that an equivalent person with college experience would be able to get? Now, that doesn't matter. Yeah. Because it used to be 10 years ago, the only people who could go on the road recruiting were your on field assistance, your nine on field assistance, and then you're 10 on field assistance when they added the last one.

That doesn't work that way anymore. It's not how it works. That person's responsibility, and I think Chip Kelly only took the job at Ohio State when he left the UCLA head coaching job because they said, we don't need you to be our ace recruiter. Just be a great X's nose play caller. And when we bring the recruits in,

have a great football conversation with them. And that's all we want. And that's probably all they want from Arthur Smith. Now, Matt Patricia, I bet, is probably a pretty great recruiter. So Matt Patricia, by the way, failed head coach of the Detroit Lions, very successful NFL defensive coordinator, though, while working with Bill Belichick with the Patriots. Did you happen to hear Matt Patricia that,

so the year that Belichick took off where he was doing podcasts and stuff, Did you ever hear Matt Patricia on that show? I mean, I can't recall. Tell me what the crux of the war. He is a very engaging. Oh, you're talking about obviously. Yeah, yeah, I have. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Very engaging, obviously very bright. We've talked, you know, everybody's talked about where he's, you know, what his background is. He went to Rensselaer Polytechnic, which is a great engineering school that he's, he's essentially a rocket scientist. But he's very smart. And he can definitely connect with people. Like, I suspect that he actually either is or. could be a very good recruiter. And I can't really argue with the results on the field.

Now, you and I were arguing about this beforehand, you were saying, essentially, if you give me Caleb Downs, R.Vell Reese, Sonny Stiles, I'm going to put a good defense on the field. But the fact of the matter is, he did put a really good defense on the field. His job is not necessarily being the kind of recruiter who stacks that level of talent. Mark Pantone is that now. Is it only Mark Pantone? It's the only, that's it.

It's Ryan Day. It's Ryan Day's job. Because I do think that like while there is reason for pessimism in the sense that like old school recruiting is dead, I'm not sure it's a fact that it's 100% irrelevant. Like I think that there's probably a middle ground there somewhere. Like you still don't have. You still got Larry Johnson. Yeah. Larry Johnson is one of the best defensive line recruiters in the history of the world.

Yeah. Well, I guess I guess my actual question can be boiled down to this, Andy. Forget the NFL college thing. how many coaches can you have on your staff in 2026 that you could say your job is to put a good offense on the field and let us worry about getting the good players like is it just could half your staff or more than half your staff not be be interested in yes your staff can be as big as you want there are no rules anymore in that yeah it just yeah and if that's the case that i will lay my sword down like i'm i'm okay looking stupid but like i just here's the thing like if you're asking me to predict whether Arthur Smith will have a successful first year as the Ohio State offensive coordinator? My guess is yes, because Jeremiah Smith is a person who exists, and he's still on their roster. That's really all I need. The fact that Julian Sayan turned out to be a pretty good quarterback, that helps too. Their offensive line,

they bring back quite a few players from that group, and they had to mix and match pieces, but I think they feel pretty comfortable at what they have there. Bo Jackson had a pretty good year, as a freshman at running back, I don't, I'm not real worried about Arthur Smith because just like Matt Patricia, he's got the best player. Like Matt Patricia,

whether you believe it was Arvel Reese or whether you believe it was Caleb Downs, he had the best player and possibly the best, you know, two of the best five, three of the best five. One last point, though.

Okay. And this is how college football used to work. And again, it might not work this way anymore with the portal. But this is something that like I became aware of and I'm sure you did too while being a beat reporter for the, you know, how long were you the beat reporter for Florida? I covered Florida.

I covered Florida for five years and I covered Tennessee for two years. Okay. As a beat writer. And Florida was highly successful. So. Yes. I was at the same place for a longer period of time. So I covered Ohio State for a decade.

And there were decisions that Urban Meyer made in 2013, 14, 15, that cost us. some wins in 2017, 18, and 19. Like, that's, like, it's not always, you know, what is going to happen with Julian San and Jeremiah Smith. I'm sure it will be great. I'm sure there are plenty of people who could call plays with those two players and have a really good year. The question is if they're there long term and there is a deficiency in recruiting

or the ability to amass these players in the future, then you will lose games in 2030 in 2029. The only thing that's going to hurt them in terms of the ability to mass these players is if they stop amassing them, which they have not stopped. Nothing has stopped them from amassing these players. One, because all the Urban Meyer infrastructure that was so good really stayed in place for Urban Left. We talked about Mark Pantone.

If you don't know who that is, he basically invented the college football GM position. He's a trailblazer on that front. Mickey Marotti is their strength coach. I would argue either the most important or second most important person in that organization. Yeah. As long as those people are there, Ohio State is going to be really good at football. Yeah. Yeah.

And maybe it's that simple. Maybe I have too much 2017 brain. I think that's it because you don't recruit the way you used to recruit. It doesn't work that way anymore. Ohio State will not be able to stack talent. the way it used to. They exist in a different world now, too. And I think Ryan Day understands that.

And I think now you've got to have these guys that can come in, and maybe they're not as good of developers because development is less important because you've got to be able to win with the guys you have right now. Is this a regression? Guess which league requires you to win with the guys you have right now? College. The NFL.

now college too. Yeah. Yeah. Andy. Maybe it's a simple, maybe, maybe it's actually perfect because you're signing a financial agreement and then you get to get coached by somebody who has NFL experience. That might just be the only two things you need. Like, yeah, I don't know. Like, I don't know if the days of like, especially not in the portal when it's only a week.

But I'm like, I think development. I think development still matters. I really do because the part of this. So this is, this is where I will concede a little bit of your. original point. Development does still matter because these are people who are going from age 18 to age 22. Lots changes. You change physically, you change mentally, you change emotionally. There's still something to be said for coaches who are great at cultivating that. Now, I'm not saying that if you've been in the NFL, you don't know how to do that. I'm just saying experienced college coaches probably

understand that process better because they've been doing it. So that's what we're one where I will, Ari, I will agree with you to a point. But I also, again, I mean, I think not worried about Arthur Smith because number four is still on Ohio State's roster. Yeah, yeah, fair enough. And if you're really good at developing, you also have to be very good at retaining or you're just developing for somebody else. So like, I, you know, but Ohio State is one of the few teams in college football that still was recruiting top five classes year over year. And you want those players to get better on your team. And by the way, the players on their team that were really important. Arvel Reese, Julian San,

Sunny Styles, I don't know. We can keep going if you want. Jeremiah Spitt doesn't really count because he could have played in the NFL when he was 14. But like, for the most part, if you look at like the major pieces of their national championship team, a lot of those guys were from high school and they developed that Ohio State. And they definitely developed like JT to him, allowed, Jack Sawyer.

They were not as good of players. Their first three years as they were there last year. Like they still do it. They still develop them. And they have to be able to. So we'll see in three or four years. And also, I don't know if you're an NFL guy who was interviewing for NFL jobs, the cycle if you're a long-term solution either, which is another problem because coaching continuity is important.

And if you get transient NFL people who want to be back in the league, you're going to have more turnover. I mean, like Ohio State has turnover on their staff anyway because when you win national championships, everybody wants to hire your coaches. So maybe it's no different. But like, I don't know, is Arthur Smith going to be Ohio State's offensive coordinator in 2028? Probably not, right? Maybe not.

Yeah. keep putting good players in there and it almost doesn't matter who you have coaching them. And I think that's the difference. What did you hear from Kurt Signetti over and over again throughout the entire playoff run? Every time I ask you, how'd you do it? What do you kept saying? Development, development, put in the work. Continuity.

I've had the same defensive coordinator on my staff for like 29 years. Like, I think it matters. I do. It does, but Brian Haynes is going to be somebody's head coach pretty soon too. Yeah. Like maybe next cycle. So, uh, good convoy, Andy. That comes for everybody.

no I don't think you did because I think I think you have a legitimate point this might not be the place to argue it this particular move might not be the place to argue it yeah so I do think you have a good point and I'm glad we get to have a good Ohio State discussion because I still feel sometimes like it's hard to have a good media Ohio state discussion because we're just like they just have better players that's it they just got better players yeah but I think it's a college football discussion too like and we're not going to do it right now but like if, let's say, give me a random team in the Big Ten. Just what comes your mind.

Minnesota. Perfect. We're on this. Look at that. Mind meld. Look at that. Minnesota just got rid of their entire coaching staff of PJ Fleck and inserted coaches from the NFL all over the place. Would they be better?

I don't know. I think they'd like to have Corey Heather been back. Yeah. That worked out well. He was pretty awesome for the year he was there. And it was pretty awesome in Miami this year. Yeah. So I think good coaches are good coaches,

regardless of what level they coach at. There are guys in the NFL. Like Dan Quinn was a defensive coordinator for two years at Florida. I'm convinced Dan Quinn would be the best college head coach. Like he would be amazing. But he's already an NFL head coach. So that's what he wants to do. I think certain people can do both.

Some people are not designed to do both. But I think it just depends on the person. And we'll see what happens. Yeah. That's exactly right. One more thing. I think we mentioned this earlier, but I feel like we spent a couple minutes on it.

We mentioned Lane Kiffin and who he's gotten out of the portal. I think I mentioned Prince Will Oman Mielan a few times, mostly because I like saying Prince Will Uman Mielan, or Prince Lee Oman Mellon. That's his older brother, who also played for Lane Kippen and Ole Miss. Jordan Seton, the Colorado offensive line transfer who,

when he entered the portal, immediately became the best offensive lineman in the portal, this cycle. He's going to LSU. He is going to be blocking for Sam Levitt at LSU. And, you know, we said when Lane Kevin got the job, he's going to go hit the portal really hard. He's going to put together a good roster. Well, mission accomplished so far. Yeah, five or three five star signies in their transfer class. And that's like five stars for transfers. But like Jordan Seton, Sam Levitt, and Uman, me Ellen are really good. players. So like, and I do remember, I'm old enough to remember when LSU fans were

going mad at Lane Giffin for not working fast enough. But like, yeah, yeah, you're like, you are six weeks old now. Yeah. I believe they're ranked number one in our transfer portal rankings. So, uh, you know, I think it's going to be a completely different team this year. And I think they're going to be very good. And if you have a quarterback in an offensive tackle that are that good, you're probably in a pretty good spot with Lane Kiffin. So I would be happy if I had LSU fan. and I anticipate that they should be and will be in the playoff mix as soon as next year. I don't think that's a hot take.

I do think that's what they hired him for. And you hired him to do this in the portal. And you hired him to not worry about, you know, what Davosweeney is yelling at Ole Miss about. And what Ole Miss is like, why are we getting all this? Yeah, Lane Tiffin. Dude from Dark Knight, the Joker, walking away from the hospital wearing an apron while the hospitals on fire right now right like is that basically basically but again i i don't think the incident of a is going to do anything about it i think this is more of a just trying to push the

conversation forward from clemson and and good for them i mean if i would be holding i would just come out and say all right hammer us and here's all the prints or call logs from the umam ummeelan what is what if they'd start the chain reaction of everybody just coming out everybody just an arc on each other. Yeah. And everybody just turns into a big Spider-Man meme. Then what? It's like trying to put out a forest fire with a water bottle.

I think that's why Dabo had to do it. Because Dabo was the one guy other than, you know, like, Monk in an army or Newberry at Navy who could actually do it. Who could say it. So we'll see what happens. But again, like I said, you're not going to get a ton of moralizing for me or or are on this because this is just, this is the system they've made for themselves. Andy.

You've seen the movie Casino, right? Of course. You know in the movie when the banker comes over to Ace's house and he's having a conversation with Nikki. And Nikki made an investment with this banker that didn't make any money. And he goes, let me tell you something about you, about me. For instance, I'll come down to the bank tomorrow morning at around 9 a.m. And you will have my money. And if you don't, I will crack your bleeping head open.

right there in the bank. And guess what? Hopefully, then I'll go to jail. You'll be in a coma. And then right when you're coming out of your coma, hopefully I'll be coming out of jail. Then I'll come back to your house and I'll knock your head wide open again.

I don't give a crap about jail. That's just my business. That's who I am. If everybody does that, if Pete Golden goes, I don't care about jail, this is my business. And then he throws all his stuff out there and then everybody does it.

It's anarchy. It's anarchy. It's anarchy now. And I think that's the point. I think that's why they're doing. Speaking of anarchy, a little snow and ice hits the ground, Southman Mason Dixon line, and the whole world falls apart. Our poor, poor beloved producer River is not in his home right now,

is not in our glorious on three offices right now. He is at Super Producer Caden Smith's apartment. Caden, our favorite former Appalachian State football player, not just because he's our teammate on three, but he's also the only guy with electricity, basically in Nashville right now. Literally. So River, you can show some photos of what you guys were dealing with,

of trees on cars right next to your house. That's our neighbor two doors down. We heard that tree fall, and we were like, what in the world just happened? And we go outside and there's a tree on cars. We were here in trees. We were hearing trees falling and branches falling like almost like it was a war zone at one point. Like just falling and you could hear them is nuts.

Yeah, because they haven't evolved. The trees that grow in southern climates aren't evolved to withstand like the weight of a bunch of snow. And so they just fall. The ice has just formed all around. Yeah. There's a lot of trees down on the road. And our flag and the wind won't even move. It's not even frozen.

Show the other picture, River. Let's show the important picture. No, not that one. No, the other picture are you guys. This is all of us walking to the bar. Yeah. This is the important thing. At least they found the bar that had electricity and they walked there.

Now let's show the other picture. So I am in Mobile. I am here for the Senior Bowl. I actually already banked some interviews. You're going to hear a few of them on the show. Josh Quavis, former Alabama, tied in. I think we're going to play his interview on the show tomorrow.

It was awesome today. But I'm going to talking to players all, week. There'll be some coaches down here as well. But Ari couldn't make it because the storm got through Dallas and left just ice everywhere. And it would have been very unsafe for him to try to drive to Mobile. But Ari left his house anyway. If you're watching on the YouTube, and by the way, if you're in podcast form, I'm just going to tell

you right now, go to the On3 Sports YouTube page, subscribe now, watch this part of the episode. So the hour seven minute mark. Hey, Dad. Watch this part of the episode. You got to see this picture. Ari sent me this picture last night. And a question immediately popped into my mind.

I said, I'm not going to ask in this question tonight. I'm going to save it for the show. Ari, why did you attempt to drive away from your house yesterday? Dude, it was that NFL championship weekend. I had some buddies coming over to a house to watch the games. I mean, I just. To your house? Then why did you need a lead?

No, their house. They had people over and the women were going to play Maj and we were going to watch games. And this was a two mile drive. And like I've been actually around the out and about because there's nobody on the road and it's actually kind of easy to drive because there's nobody to run into. Clearly not that easy judging by the picture I'm looking at. So anyway, we get to the house and that's a drainage ditch. So it goes down. This is Ari's SUV in a ditch, by the way.

Yeah. It's in a ditch. So I was going like one mile an hour And then when I hit the brake to stop The car The front wheel Hit the side of it and it just glided down shortly And I couldn't reverse out of it because of the ice

So my car was just like kind of like nose down And the problem is that if you look through the back The passenger Backseat window you can see there's a big brick mailbox right there So we were very We had to be very careful in pulling it out But anyway Some dude came with a dodge

that was like a monster truck and it had a winch on the front of it and uh like there's apparently a jeep club where people who have winches like are just like on a text strain and like they're like dying to pull people out because by the way because you you spent all that money on your winch and you want to use it by god like all these people have winches on their truck and there are thousands of dollars and it's like they are this is like their super bowl is to like get me out of this situation. So anyway, the guy comes over and he pulls his wench out and it's a bad angle because we had to be a, we were a little bit afraid that if you pull the winch, it was going to slide the front of the car into the mailbox. And like I was very, very like, we cannot have any damage on this car because my judgmental, but supportive wife was inside looking through the window with this whole situation. Just mortified at you. The wife who told you, by the way, don't drive a motomobile because it's unsafe because you were going to try. And then. I backed her up on the phone. I said, Brittany, you are correct. Ari, do not move. It was actually a real fight in our house before that call. So that's okay. But she was right,

obviously driving because like the ice was throughout the entire drive. It wasn't just get out of Dallas and you're home free. Like that would have been nine hours or eight hours of that. But anyway, so it would have been a pretty easy situation if the person across the street just allowed us to put the truck and then pull it out directly backwards. Because like it's only four inches if you can see in the picture where it has to come before my wheels to get traction. And she said no. So I sent her flowers this morning saying thank you for all of your help yesterday. May the world be filled with more people like you and the flowers are getting delivered tomorrow or one day. Over to her house.

And if she'd actually tried to help you would have sent her an edible arrangement. Yeah. She was very rude and I can't imagine why she lives alone. but like the um there was a tree on the other in the persons to the house to the left of her a big tree and like anyway and other people from the jeep club showed up with their winches on their on their jeeps and they were like fired up and they had a pulley system that they grabbed around the tree they've been dying to do this dude i was out there for three and a half hours like watching them try to do this and they're like you know angling around anyway um long story short they put this

the pulley system on the tree, they pulled the car out and I drove home. It's fine. No damage. Believe it or not. But like, that's off to you people with winches and pulleys. Like, I don't know how you own things or why you have them. I was like, hey, can I get you guys a nice bottle of liquor? Let me, because there were four people who showed up who came from other neighborhoods to

help. Like, it was like a club. It was like X-Men activating. All right, we're on our way. Salute to the lunch guys. And I said to one of the guys, like, hey, let me get you a bottle of booze or something. What do you like to drink?

And he goes, buddy, you made my day enough by letting us do this, man. I was like, all right, man, you're a hero. And we're good. But, like, yeah, it was an uncomfortable few hours of just trying to get the car out of the ditch. But once it got traction, it was fine. I just reversed it out of there. And then we drove home. This is like my neighborhood whenever we have a hurricane or some sort of tropical activity.

Because obviously where I live is not, you're not worried about a storm surge or anything, but it's fallen trees. And so you wake up the more. after a hurricane and all you can hear are chainsaws. And it is not like the city coming out to cut up the trees. It is every dude in my neighborhood is like, finally I can use this chainsaw for something. And just go to town.

Yeah. It's like you have to remember where I live. So I'm on the western edge of town where you're into feed stores and farms pretty quickly. And so a lot of the people who live in my neighborhood grew up out there got a job in town or, you know, they kind of migrated that way or met, you know, met somebody who wanted to live in town. And so there's these dudes that just really want to use those chainsaws. I imagine that the guys of winches are very similar. What, what happened? I mean, you are in a winch text club.

So, like, that means like you're on the party. I know. And now I want to, like, how don't they become a winch guy? Like, do I just go to, I mean, do I just go to the truck accessory store and, and buy the winch? And do they, do they, do they have to do they ask, dude? Like, it's pretty cool. Do they give me some phone numbers of fellow winch guys if I buy one? Or do I have to find them myself?

The thing was ridded up to 15,000 pounds. Like, we were like, they were, it was electric. Um, but also kind of like what America is, right? Like a bunch of people assembling outside of a snowy house to pull a car out. No one cares about political viewpoints or thought processes. We were all friends. And like, they all came down. and helped their neighbor.

And I thought that that was really nice of them. And one of them, it was our birthday. So, you know, I am, they're very thankful to everybody but the woman with the house across the street. I offered to say, hey, what can we pull in your yard? If anything happens to your yard, I'll pay the expenses to get to get your yard shape back up. And she was just like, no, under no circumstances, are you allowed to drive into my yard?

So anyway, she's going to get a nice flower arrangement on Tuesday or Wednesday. Wednesday and the card says thank you so much for your help may the world be filled with more people like you that's what I wrote because I'm petty she's not going to get it but you know what I'm happy to winch people exist yeah me too God bless the wench people and bless you for listening to this we'll talk to you tomorrow