Andy & Ari On3 - #DearAndy: Top 5 Resume Ranking and Coaching Carousel | Mel Tucker Update | UNC Meeting | Andy On3

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

#DearAndy: Top 5 Resume Ranking and Coaching Carousel | Mel Tucker Update | UNC Meeting | Andy On3Thank you to Gametime for sponsoring today's episode! Week 2 is days away, don't miss your chance to watch your favorite team. Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and don't forget to subscribe!https://youtu.be/6iY0Yxn_2pAIt's a Dear Andy Episode, but FIRST, we break down some newsA judge has granted a temporary restraining order on Pac-12 Schools meeting until Oregon State and Washington State figure out their plans for realignment (0:00-3:22)UNC Board of Trustees held an emergency meeting on the status of Tez Walker (3:23-5:57)Mel Tucker releases a statement (5:58-12:35)Next, we get an update from Graham Couch from the Lansing State Journal gives an update on the bizarre situation out of Michigan State (12:36-25:12)Now, it's time for Dear Andy, where we answer your questionsFirst, we look ahead at the potential upcoming coaches carousel (25:13-34:07)Next, we get a top 5 resume ranking so far in the 2023 Season (34:08-42:36)We continue with a comparison between Colorado and Colorado State's Head Coaches (42:37-48:25)We then get into a bizarre hypothetical coaching scenario (48:26-55:34)A question about Jimbo Fisher and his future (55:35-1:00:21)What if the Drive to 325 doesn't happen, BUT Iowa wins the Big Ten West? (1:00:22-1:03:52)Our last question takes us back to Michigan State and the future of their program (1:03:53-01:10:59)For the extra point, we head over to Ann Arbor to see how Jim Harbaugh has been spending his Saturday's (1:11:00-1:14:19)

Welcome to Andy Staples on three and congratulations to Oregon State and Washington State for yet another win. Both schools doing very well this football season already. Washington State had the big win against Wisconsin over the weekend, but a big win for both schools, the remaining Pac-12 schools, mind you, in court on Monday, a judge granted a temporary restraining order, said the Pac-12 cannot hold any executive board meetings until all of the situation with Oregon State, Washington State, and their case is worked out. What that means essentially is the other Pac-12 schools that are leaving can't hold meetings that allow them to, oh, I don't know, vote some ways that maybe get them some money from the Pac-12 to help them leave the conference and do the things they have to do to move to the Big 10 or the Big 12. And Oregon State, Washington State, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're still here. We're the two-pack.

We will be in control of this thing. They are the captains now. And I love it. I love it. Basically, they are in control of everything. They can't have board meetings. The league can conduct normal business provided all of the schools vote unanimously in writing for whatever happens.

So this way they can keep the lights on at the office. They can keep paying the employees, all that stuff. But schools that are on the way out cannot try to pillage the Pac-12's reserves to help themselves. Oregon State and Washington State, they're trying to find a way to keep all that because they would like to eventually reconstitute the conference.

Again, selfishly, because it would be funny and awesome, I hope they go as a two-team conference next year and they have a championship game that is just those two teams. It will be the one-game conference season and the game will be the championship game. Or maybe they play two. Maybe they play a regular season game and championship game week and they play each other again. How awesome would that be? They could play a home and home if they wanted to do it that way. But however it works out, the ones that got left

behind did not get screwed again, at least for a little while. So Oregon State, Washington State, basically in control of the Pac-12 right now. They're the captains now. And we'll see what happens from here on. But I'm glad the judge made sure that the schools that have been treated pretty badly so far finally get their day, and we'll see. But on the field, they're doing all right too. So congratulations to Oregon State and Washington State. And I realize this is a football show, and I promise we will get to football stuff.

It's a Dear Andy show. You asked some great questions. You got me ranking the top five by resume alone, which if we put that in a graphic, I guarantee it will piss people off. You got lots of good Deion Sanders questions. Obviously, you have questions about Michigan State. Graham Couch of the Lansing State Journal will be on very shortly to help answer some of those questions. He's been covering the Spartans for a long, long time. One more piece of news

before we get to Graham Couch, though. North Carolina, their board of trustees had a meeting today. I know it's all meetings and court hearings. That's how we do it. But they had a meeting. It was an executive session, so we didn't get to see anything that was going on. But essentially, it was the trustees and Mack Brown and Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham

meeting to figure out what kind of options receiver Tez Walker has to challenge the NCAA's ruling that he's not eligible to play this season remember Tez Walker transferred from Kent State it was his second transfer which requires him to get a waiver and second transfer is an undergrad I point out that requires him to get a waiver the extenuating circumstance in this case is the first school he went to was North Carolina Central. They did not play a 2020 football season. They were then supposed to play 2021 spring. They didn't. Fall of 2022 was looking in doubt, and that's when Tez Walker transferred Kent State. So they are saying that it's not the same situation as these other ones. And oh, by the

way, Tez Walker was enrolled before the NCAA guidance changed on how to handle that waiver process. So they feel like Tez still has a case. And the question is, how do they help him? And it's really interesting. They brought in outside counsel. In a lot of these cases, the athlete sues the NCAA and they also have to sue the school, which as a member of the NCAA helped make the rule that is causing the problem. So it will be very intriguing to see if, as Luke DeCock, the columnist of the Raleigh News and Observer pointed out, does North Carolina have to figure out how to sue itself in this case?

But it sounds like they're trying to make sure all the options are on the table for Tez Walker at this point. We'll see where they go from here. But long meeting about that on Monday, they talked about it and the result of it may be a lawsuit coming against the NCAA. And this is one of those that those of us who watch the NCAA have been wanting to see for a while what happens if somebody challenges these transfer rules. There was a case a few years ago where somebody challenged them and the NCAA won. But it might be that in a different venue, different jurisdiction, it happens differently. So especially as the climate changes relative to how people see the NCAA, how people see the players, how people see the schools. So, we will find out what happens with that Tez Walker situation, but it is not necessarily over yet with him being denied that waiver last week.

In other news on Monday, Mel Tucker released a statement through his attorney telling his side of the story in the case that got him suspended. And it looks like it's probably going to cost him his job at Michigan State. In a few minutes, you're going to hear from Graham Couch, the Lansing State Journal. We didn't ask him about this statement because we didn't have it yet when we talked to Graham. But let's talk about the statement now. It minces no words at the beginning. Brenda Tracy's allegations of harassment are completely false, reads the statement from Mel Tucker through his attorney. And he then goes on to explain how they met and basically says that the investigation found they had, quote unquote, a personal relationship and that they shared, quote unquote, deeply personal and private information with each

other. Basically, what Mel Tucker seems to be describing is an emotional affair. Now, Mel Tucker in the statement says he'd been estranged from his wife for a while and that the marriage was not salvageable at that point, but he was married at the time. He does say the phone call that we talked about that the USA Today story describes in detail happened, that what happened during the phone call happened. He admitted that to the investigators. He says, while I am saddened by Ms. Tracy's disclosure of the sensitive nature of this call, let me be perfectly clear. It was an entirely mutual private event between two adults living at opposite ends of the country. She initiated the discussion that night, sent me a provocative And he then says, after the next presentation for Brenda Tracy to the Michigan State football team,

which was her paid gig, was postponed. And after he complained that she and her assistant were spreading rumors about Mel Tucker's marriage, that she told anyone about it, he said she also sent him a Happy Father's Day text two months after that call. He says that the hearing scheduled forober 5th and 6th is quote-unquote ridiculously flawed and not designed to arrive at the truth so what you have here is mel tucker telling his side of the story what's interesting about this is the usa today story did include almost all of this mel t Tucker mentions in his statement that he gave Brenda Tracy an expensive pair of shoes, that he Venmo'd her $200, that he made a donation in his

own name to her charity. And that's all in the USA Today story as well. This is not necessarily different information. It's presented in a slightly different way, but not different. One of the key lines in here is this one. The investigation has not been fair or unbiased. I can only conclude that there is an ulterior motive designed to terminate my contract based on some other factor, such as a desire to avoid any Nassar taint or my race or gender. Nassar would be Larry Nassar, who was the doctor at Michigan State, who was found to have been molesting his patients for years. And basically

the people in charge at the time covered it up and didn't investigate properly and didn't handle it when people were trying to report Larry Nassar. So that has been hanging over Michigan State for years. I would imagine that Mel Tucker's probably right. There are probably quite a few people at Michigan State who do have the ulterior motive to terminate his contract because of this. I don't necessarily think it's because of Larry Nassar or of anybody's race or gender. I think it's because they owe him about $80 million guaranteed, and he's not winning at the level or recruiting at the level that they thought he was going to. So if we're going to really just say it here, that's why.

Now, if you're Mel Tucker, you're going to argue that that's wrong. You're going to argue that this is a private situation. This is his private life. This is not him engaging in any sort of illegal activity or anything that would violate his contract. And the Michigan State's going to come and argue that it does violate his contract because it brought ridicule upon the university or because he was having a relationship with the university vendor. However they want to frame it, that's what they're going to try to do. So this is going to get fought out for a while.

I don't think Mel Tucker's coaching Michigan State anymore. You're going to hear from Graham. He'll explain why he came to that conclusion very quickly. But I would imagine that there's still a lot of fight left here because there is a ton of money at stake. If you're Mel Tucker, you're going to keep fighting for it. Even if this hearing goes against him and they fire him for cause, my guess is his attorney comes back and sues. The other option is they can settle right now, between now and the hearing, where they can settle anytime for a set dollar amount that isn't the full amount. And he says, okay, I'm going to drop this. I'll take the

money. That probably is the cleanest solution to this. But if you're Michigan State and you feel like you've got a case and you can do it without paying him, they're going to go through with the case. But Mel Tucker has said his piece now that he believes the investigation's a sham and that it is designed to railroad him. So we will see what happens. I don't know that it changes much because again, none of this stuff was new information. All of this was in the USA Today report, which drew from the investigative report that was turned in to Michigan State that will be used in this hearing in October. So I don't know how much it changes anything. It's Mel Tucker's version of it,

but it's weird because usually in cases like this, you get all sorts of new information when another person gives their side. But because Mel Tucker had given his side in the investigation, we'd already seen all that. So I don't know if it changes anything. This is basically the same information that Michigan State's leaders had when they suspended Mel Tucker. So we will find out what happens from this point forward, but my guess is still Mel Tucker has coached his last game at Michigan State. The only question is whether they're going to have to pay him or not.

We'll be right back with Graham Couch. We welcome in Graham Couch from the Lansing State Journal. And Graham, you've covered Michigan State for a long time. You've covered a lot of weird things. How strange has this Mel Tucker situation been? Yeah, it's up there. You know, Michigan State's had some not great things go on for a while in different eras and different years.

But this is, you know, if you had told me a month ago the idea that Mel Tucker wouldn't be coaching week three and would likely be done as, I think almost certainly done as Michigan State's coach I would have bet you just about anything I would let you tattoo something on my forehead I would have taken that bet so you you wrote very quickly once the USA Today story came out that you thought this was the end for Mel Tucker and what was it the about that story that said okay there's no path forward here. A couple of things. One that first of all, I, based on the story, I think the title nine findings when they go through the hearing is going to

find against him. Now, even if it doesn't, I think there's enough there that he's been in, in a breach of contract, or at least given them cause to fire him without owing him you know the nearly 80 million i think that's still left on that that contract uh just based on some of the language in the deal about bringing embarrassment and and to the university uh this is that this is you know this is a um and so i think even what he's admitted now would would would, would do that. And, and it's just, you know, this is a Michigan state. You cannot, I'm not sure you survived this anywhere, but at MSU that has tried so hard to improve itself,

distance itself, recapture a reputation that isn't, doesn't have so much to do with how it's handled, sexual assault and Title IX miscues and other things like that. You're just not going to come out of this unscathed. And then there's the fact that I don't think they're as sure about him as they were before, and there's certainly a way out now as well. How much is that, that this is a way out of that contract? Because I would imagine probably last season there was already some buyer's remorse.

Yeah. I mean, I think it's a, it's a small, I think any, I think any coach under any contract, if he was making a third of what he was making and they had won, you know, nine games last year, I think this would still be it given the dynamics at the university and just the lack of tolerance and you can see it from MSU's fan base like people are just tired of it they're sick of it there's nobody very few people sticking up for the idea of Mel Tucker or the the idea of him coming back or anything like that um but you know it as always people's perception of you uh changes with winning and losing. I do think though, there were enough people before this who were still hopeful of the

way they'd recruited, um, that, you know, his, his real first recruiting class was only sophomores and redshirt freshmen. And, um, I think a lot of people still had high hopes for the era, but, uh, yeah, that it's over now. We'll be right back with more from Graham couch. But first I want to tell you about game time. If you're looking for a ticket to a game this week, or maybe a concert or comedy show this week, go to game time,

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find that game you want to go to and get that ticket. It's that easy. It'll take you a few seconds, stress-free, and you're in there. Game time. Code STAPLES, $20 off your first purchase. So I'm curious because we saw some stuff coming out last night from their PR people that Teresa Woodruff, the president, Alan Holler, the AD, did not know the specifics of this case until the USA Today story dropped. And the AD was asked specifically about what changed. Why did you suspend him today versus suspending him in July when the report was done or in March after he was interviewed? Why didn't they just say we can't be told what's going on? That makes no sense to me because it makes it look like they were trying to cover it up, even if they weren't.

Yeah, no, they really fumbled yesterday. I thought it was a great opportunity, a missed opportunity, to have people really believe that you've handled this competently and appropriately and um and the the interim president even tried to sell that right this concept that it's a new msu and all this and then you take three questions and i mean what is that and and it was only to their detriment too because even if you can't say a ton and it shouldn't have just been alan haller talking he did not have a great day up there uh but the the interim president should have been available for

questions then as well but uh you know even if you can't say a ton you can say i can't answer you can keep answering questions until you run into things that give insight because there were there were nuts and bolts basics that would have gotten uh answered including that including the idea that they didn't know anything and they should have been sort of screaming that from the mountaintops or you know the idea that they were aware in december but didn't really know the context contents of anything until sunday that's really important and that was not explained in that opportunity and so you wind up with a day day of coverage where people are doubting you and you're, you know, and some of that stuff was, you're right, was clarified and, you know, but I had to do the same thing,

right? To reach out to their folks last night and get clarity on a number of things that I wondered about. And I think they, as late as they were getting back to people last night, I think they understood that they had dropped the ball. Yeah, it's amazing to me because I've covered situations involving Title IX investigations at other schools, and they've made it very clear that the superiors of the person accused sometimes are not allowed to be in the loop because they're worried about somebody maybe coming in and meddling with the investigation, that sort of thing. But yeah, when Alan Haller is asked what changed between July and now, all he has to say is, well, I wasn't allowed to know.

I just don't get that. Yeah, I mean, they didn't have all the information. I mean, what did change, too, is basically the USA Today report came out. And a couple of things with that number one they now have all the information number two brenda tracy is sort of given her blessing at that point to have her identity known right you're no longer protecting a name and so there are a couple things that changed in that moment and i don't think it's you know but they did a very poor job of explaining uh why they you know because but they did a very poor job of explaining, uh, why they,

you know, because initially people are like, well, they knew in December, why did, why wasn't he spent in December? If the findings were submitted in, in the end of July, why does he continue on? And, um, you know, they just, they, they didn't explain it well. So it's, it's interesting too, because in these cases, we often don't get to see both sides of the story right away. But because they had the entire investigative report in that USA Today story, you could see Mel Tucker's side of it where he said this was consensual and that you have other things like all of the phone calls between the two of them and the fact that both of them deleted their text message. But what I keep coming back to, and I think you said this earlier, Graham, what he's already admitted to, like the agreed upon facts are probably already enough. It feels like. Yeah. I mean, she was a vendor of the school. He brought her in, you know,

I mean, she was paid by the school to come in and, you know, sort of the irony of it is to speak to his team about avoiding behavior like this. And, you know, it's but the big thing is, right, this is any employer in their work situation where somebody is a subordinate or somebody is a contractor. You leave yourself open to uh to this situation he has admitted a um behavior that michigan state is not going to um is not going to it's not going to allow and the other the other problem is then you look at why he canceled her coming back to campus right and it's because of that which is exactly why the companies don't allow for these relationships. And at this point, Michigan, I don't know how you come back and you get donor support.

I don't know how you come back and, you know, get a recruit and get the team all on your side. There's just no chance he's going to continue. So they bring in Harlan or they elevate harlan barnett to be the interim head coach they bring back mark d'antonio to be an associate head coach kind of sounding board for harlan barnett what kind of opportunity is this for a guy who he was there for basically the entirety of the d'antonio era he's become almost an institution at Michigan State as an assistant. He was brought back by Mel Tucker. What's it like for him? And then how do the players feel about playing for him?

Yeah, it's a good question. I really haven't got a sense of the players yet on that. For him, though, this is, I think, his best chance in some ways. He's always wanted this. He's wanted to be a head coach. I believe that when he went to Florida State to be the defensive coordinator the hope from Mark D'Antonio and him was that it would go well down there and then when Mark D'Antonio retired he would be a natural era parent and it didn't go well down there and so he wasn't really a serious candidate for that uh but if you know I still think it's way more than likely that

they wind up going outside the program at the end of this year but it's still think it's way more than likely that they wind up going outside the program at the end of this year. But it's a chance. It's not just one game or two games. It's 10. And it's a team that could go a lot of different ways. And you're going to have to deal with a lot of challenges. And if it goes well, if the vibe stays good, if they look like they're a program that continues to improve and is headed somewhere under this coaching staff, there's an argument that maybe this is the guy to lead this coaching staff and, and, and continue forward with. So it's, it's a, it's a tremendous opportunity for him. It's going to be, it's going to be a hard season though.

It's hard to tell based on the two opponents they've played, but does it feel like they were an improved group over last year? Yes. Defensively, especially. I mean, I think that's where you know and again they haven't faced a quarterback who can throw the ball forward they will this week yeah that changes with michael pennix um but defensively they look like a more sound group a group that tackles better in space that's better up front uh noah kim looks like a guy who's you know has a chance to at least be a solid quarterback he got got in a real groove, 15 straight completions last week. Again, it's against Richmond, so what do you know?

But I don't think – they've got a number of young receivers that they're high on. The offensive line, we'll see. But I think it has a chance to be a 500 or better team if they can maintain focus and resolve. If when Mel Tucker's fired and the idea of the transfer portal comes to you know if the team stays together if they deal with there are going to be some hiccups they're going to face teams better than them that are going to beat them if they can deal with all that and they can be focused week in and week out I think they have

a chance at a decent season. Graham Couch I know you got a lot of news to cover and a lot more to do this week so thank you so much for your time. Anytime. Thanks for having me. Thanks so much to Graham Couch. Now it's time for me to answer your questions. That's right. It's Dear Andy. And now it's time for me to answer your questions. That's right. It's Dear Andy. And we got a bunch of good ones. One particular person's name keeps popping up a lot in this, but his name keeps popping up a lot this entire season. So we will start with our friend Nathan,

who every week he sends in a question from Jerusalem. You're all in America. You can send in questions too. Don't let Nathan hog all the spotlight, but Nathan does ask great questions. Dear Andy, to avoid thinking about how much my team stinks this year, I was wondering if we could talk a little bit about this upcoming head coaching carousel, because I have two questions about it. First off, is Mike Elko the perfect future Northwestern coach? I think he is. Secondly, if Deion, let's say crazy world, Deion goes 6-6 this year,

could he be Florida's head coach next year? How fast could Deion leave Colorado if he is actually as good as these first two weeks have seemed? We will leave Deion for a second. We'll let everybody marinate on that. We'll start with Mike Elko. Sure, he'd make a good Northwestern coach, but I think Mike Elko would make a good anybody coach. I don't think it matters where he is. Yes, he's having success at Duke. Similar profile to Northwestern. Northwestern would be the higher paying version of that job. But I don't know that you limit Mike Elko to just that type of job. I mean, Mike Elko was the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M. He was the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame. He obviously worked with Dave Clausen a lot at various stops, which is why he has the profile of being the guy who'd be good

at those high academic type schools. But I mean, let's say Texas A&M suddenly decided to make a change. Wouldn't Mike Elko be somebody you'd want to talk to at that point? He had success as the defensive coordinator there. You know, Michigan State, they're going to have an opening. Wouldn't you want to talk to Mike Elko? I don't think it's a limitation to just that type of job. He can get anything. And he might be at the top of everybody's list if Duke keeps playing as well as we've seen so far in Mike Elko's tenure, because he won nine games last year. We came into this season going,

boy, that schedule looks really hard. Don't know how they can handle that. And then all they do is thump Clemson the first week, 28-7. So if he has a good season at Duke, I would imagine he's the top of everybody's board. So I think Northwestern would have to get in line at that point. I don't think they'll be at the top of the list. Now, let's move on to the Deion one. Deion, I don't want to take Deion away from Colorado after a year. Let these people have some nice things.

And also, well, we'll see how things go as people get madder and madder about the tez walker situation at north carolina but at the moment it is very hard to transfer twice as an undergrad and play immediately so my guess is deon would not leave after this season at colorado because he cannot bring the louis luggage with him you know travis hunter has another year in college after this he He can't go to the NFL until the 2025 draft, but he's already transferred once, so he's probably going to have to play that at Colorado. So if you're Deion, no, no, you stay at Colorado with this group of players. And honestly, you see what you can do because remember, they're going to have another transfer portal cycle to get even better players. They're going to have another transfer portal cycle to get even better players.

They're going to have the high school recruiting cycle, and they're getting looks from very good players. They could potentially flip some really good class of 2024 players. And look, you're seeing what Dylan Edwards is doing as a true freshman. They're going to have availability to play still because they did flip this roster so fast. They do still probably have depth issues they need to correct. There will be playing time. So if you're a top 2024 recruit and Deion comes trying to flip you, you're probably going to listen if they're winning.

And look, I think my modest expectations for Colorado this season were way underestimating them. I said, if you win four or five games, build a man a statue. They're going to win four or five games. They're probably going to be bowl eligible. We'll see when they play Oregon and USC really where they are and where we can. We should be able to figure out where they're going to end up at that point. But if they're competitive against Oregon and USC, then we are potentially looking at an 8-9 win season maybe.

And yeah, everybody in the world is going to want Deion. But also I think Deion can be very picky. One. Two, he wants to keep those players that he's got. He wants to keep those players that he's got he wants to keep coaching him three there might be a little loyalty to Colorado as the one that wanted him because there are a lot of jobs open Dion was on the market clearly Colorado was the one that went after him so and I know everybody said well that doesn't matter in coaching it matters when there

are other factors like the, you can't take Travis Hunter and Shador with you probably factor. So that's the piece that I think keeps the on there one more year. The Florida thing, guys, it's still a $31 million buy on a Billy Napier. I know, I know a lot of people are out on him, but I'm betting they're going to give him every chance to get that turned around. And let's, we'll hold off on that one, but there will be other jobs. As we've mentioned, Michigan state's going to open. They're going to West Virginia is probably going to open. Yeah. Obviously that's not the kind of thing Dion's going to be going for. If Dion leaves Colorado, whenever that is, you've got to think it's an SEC

or Big Ten job, that it's a top of the top, a team that can compete for national titles if you have the right roster. That's the job he can leave for now. And I know you say, oh, it's only been two weeks. It's too premature. I don't think it's premature to say that. I think given what we've seen at Jackson State and in the first couple of weeks at Colorado, this is a guy who can acquire talent, motivate, organize, and hire a good staff. You just named all the requirements to be a good head coach anywhere, any level. He's got that. He can acquire talent at the highest level. That is the single hardest thing to do. That is what separates Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, those types of coaches. They acquire talent at the highest level. Now, the ones who win national titles like Nick Saban and Kirby Smart, develop it at the highest level too.

We'll see with Deion, but all I can see so far is that he's at Jackson State and at Colorado is he's put his best athletes in position to be the best players and they have delivered. So that suggests to me that he's developing just fine. And again, this is a guy who played 14 years in the NFL. He knows what NFL teams are looking for. If he doesn't know or he feels like he's not sure,

he can call a million people and ask, and they will give him good advice. So I'm not ready to take Dion away from Colorado yet. Colorado, I'm sorry that everybody keeps bringing this up. I would like you guys to be able to enjoy this. I think you can. I think for at least one more year after this one, you're going to be able to enjoy this. So I will stop with that because it's fascinating to see where we're at with Deion. If he keeps winning, there is no limit to what schools would want to have him. There's no limit to where he could go.

It's just, it's one of those places that if you can win with this roster, the way he's doing it, and you can acquire talent the way he's acquiring it, everybody's going to want you. And so Colorado will have to work to keep him, and he'll have to decide,

can I win a national title at Colorado? Do I want to stay here, or do I want to try to find somewhere where I can win a national title? But again, I don't think that's a post-2023 question. I think that's a post-2024 question. So enjoy this for now. Next question comes from Hancock at call me biscuits on X.

After week two, can we get a top five resume ranking? I love it. I love it. So when I was an AP poll voter, I followed the advice of the great Doug Lemery. And Doug covers Ohio State. He does daily podcasts now on Ohio State. As an AP poll voter, Doug's philosophy was your preseason polls, your guesses. But then once the season starts, you're only ranking based on what has happened so far this season. And I think it's a really

good way to do it. It's still not entirely foolproof because you have teams that don't play good games like Georgia and Michigan so far this year where you can't really evaluate anything, but you're pretty sure they're really good. So what, you know, where do you put them? But I'm going to do a pure resume ranking. And so you're going to see this and you're going to go, well, this is dumb. This was made clearly to piss me off. No, I am ranking based on what has happened this season. And as you'll see, because of the way teams have played their game so far, it's almost impossible. And so it's destined to be wrong. It'll like, if you go back in week 12 and look at this, you're going to laugh at it. But I actually think it's a pretty good way to do it because you go as the teams go.

You move people up as they play better. You move them down as they play worse. You eliminate assumptions. So I don't think it's a bad way to vote. I don't think it's a bad way to rank teams. So let's start at number five. And I'll say, also under consideration that I didn't put in the top five, Washington State, they won against Colorado State resoundingly.

Then they beat Wisconsin at home. I think that's a pretty good couple of wins there for Washington State. Colorado, they just missed it. If we knew what TCU was going to be, I think that I'd probably have them in there. I'm not sure how good Nebraska is going to be either, but Colorado does have two power five wins right now. So it's entirely possible that they are one of the best five so far, but I'm just not sure where TCU's at. Number five, I have Miami, and I realize that is based almost entirely

on the Texas A&M game. The Miami of Ohio win was nice, but based on this game against Texas A&M where we know they have talent, where we've seen those same players get pressure on quarterbacks, and then Miami's new look offensive line, keeping them from getting pressure on Tyler Van Dyke, it helps to have that context.

And so you feel like you can say that Miami is genuinely better. Now we need to see this happen a few more times. And that's the tricky part with all of these, because for the most part, they've won one game against a really good opponent. They haven't played anybody else thus far that's going to challenge them. So it's hard to tell. Number four, I've got Duke. Say what you will about Clemson. Say what you will about Dabo Sweeney and the situation that he finds himself in,

not being willing to use the transfer portal and the roster not looking like it used to. But that's still a roster full of blue chip recruits. That's still a roster with a bunch of NFL players on it. And Mike Elko's Duke team manhandled Clemson, manhandled them. So I'm going to put them here for now. Are they going to stay here? No, probably not. Notre Dame's coming to town in a few weeks. If they beat them, then sure. But for now, Duke is looking very good. Number three, speaking of teams that played in the research triangle over the weekend and speaking of Notre Dame Notre Dame the Fighting Irish went into NC State game delayed almost three hours because of

lightning after basically after the first quarter and then came out and just put the gas pedal down Audra Gastame an 80-yard touchdown run right off the bat. And then you saw them forcing turnovers and then turning those turnovers into points. And so Notre Dame looks great so far. Three wins for Notre Dame, but Navy and Tennessee State, again, didn't really tell us anything. But at NC State, I feel like that did tell us something. So putting them there. Number two, Florida State. Obviously, that win against LSU.

One of the best wins in the country so far this season. We know LSU has a talented roster. This is a similar team to the one that won the SEC West last year. We don't know how good it will be ultimately, but I got a feeling this win will still look good no matter what. And then Florida State against Southern Miss did the thing that you want to see a team that is supposed to be making the next step that is moving forward in its evolution do. And that is annihilate the overmatched opponent. You've seen some teams play with their food over the first couple of weeks. Florida State didn't do that with Southern Miss.

I'm sure you've seen the photo of Keon Coleman hurtling the defender. Although you probably should have learned not to hurtle Keon watching your own defense play against LSU when poor Jaden Daniels just got planted in the ground. But that was the highlight of a game where Florida State played a ton of players, played a lot of young players, and just looked great in general. Number one. Now, this one's interesting because the team that was supposed to be the cream puff that they beat in the first game actually helped them out by doing something in week two,

while this team I'm talking about was going on the road and getting probably the biggest win of the season so far. Number one is Texas. The Longhorns went into Tuscaloosa and beat Alabama. They looked better on both lines of scrimmage than Alabama, which says they would be better on both lines of scrimmage than probably, what, 95% of the teams in the country, 99% of the teams in the country. And so that was incredibly impressive.

Also helping Texas's case, Rice beating Houston in double overtime. You know, Texas played Rice that first week. That was supposed to be an easy win for Texas. And it was after halftime, basically. But Rice then turning around and beating a Big 12 team, even though Houston hasn't actually played a Big 12 game yet, that just adds to Texas's resume. That helps.

So right now, Texas number one. And I know what you're saying, Andy. You're overhyping Texas again. You guys do this all the time. But they did just go on the road and beat Alabama. Can we be forgiven this once? Is that okay? Do I think Texas is going to be the number one team in the country? Are they going to win the national title? I don't necessarily think so. But I think they can compete for it. I think they can compete for a playoff berth. What we saw in the line of scrimmage on Saturday works anywhere.

Works against anybody. The question for Texas is can they win the games they're supposed to win? Can they be that hyped up, excited when they have to play pretty good Big 12 teams that can beat them on the right day? That's the tricky part. That's what Texas has to overcome. But I thought they were very well prepared for Alabama. There's a good chance they'll be prepared the rest of the way. So this is going to be going to be fun to watch because Texas now has all these expectations. They will be told how great they are. In the past few years,

Texas players have been told how great they are until the season starts, and then they're told how bad they are. They're not getting that now. They are getting told, you are awesome, you're the best thing since sliced bread, and now they have to learn to deal with that too. Let us move on. And yes, it's another Dion question, but a slightly different one. And it kind of speaks to how people misunderstand what's going on with Colorado. So this is from Joe. Andy, can you compare the head coaches of the Colorado and Colorado state game? Both promised a high-octane offense, but approached their rebuilds differently. An interesting story there between Jay Norvell's experience slash coaching tree lineage and his slow build and prime's rise and quick roster

turnover and success. So here's the thing, Joe, that's not what happened. They actually took a very similar approach. So Jay Norvell brought 11 players from Nevada to Colorado State when he got that job. Dion brought nine from Jackson State to Colorado. So Norvell was trying to flip the roster too. Now Norvell's an air raid guy. His quarterback's coach is Matt Mummey, who's the son of Hal Mummey, who was one of the inventors of the air raid with Mike Leach. They should be better. But in 2022, Colorado state was three and nine and never scored more than 19 points in a game.

So that offense is not worked out. And really it's probably the difference in luggage. Dion said he was bringing Louie luggage and he brought Louie luggage. Shador Sanders has been incredible. Travis Hunter has been incredible. There is no player on Colorado State's roster that comes close to either one of those two. Not even close.

Dion brought NFL players to Colorado. Jay Norvell didn't really bring NFL players to Colorado State. And as far as the staff goes, Dion brought a better staff. Freddie Banks was the defensive coordinator. He was hired from Montana State. And Colorado State was pretty good on defense last year.

There were a couple games where they didn't get it done, but a lot of it was the offense also putting the defense in bad spots. So Deion, he wanted a high octane offense. He went out and got Sean Lewis. Sean Lewis has been a very good offensive coordinator, offensive mind, offensive play caller throughout his career. You know, when Syracuse had that really good year, a few years ago, Sean Lewis was the offensive coordinator. And then when he left, they haven't had anything like that since. At Kent State, you maybe couldn't see it because they had to play these horrific non-conference schedules where like last year they played at Washington, at Oklahoma, and at Georgia. They got beaten down before they go play in the Mac. So you didn't really get a chance to see what he could do with a fully engaged, fully operational roster for an entire season.

But you knew he knew what he was doing. And I think that's the thing that Deion isn't getting enough credit for is building this staff and finding people who could really make the best of what they have on this Colorado roster. I think, you know, the TCU game is a prime example, but also the Nebraska game. I don't know that Colorado's offensive line is going to be one of the best in the country. I think I'm putting that pretty generous, generously, but Colorado's skill talent is incredible and Sean Lewis has designed a scheme where Shador Sanders gets the ball he gets it out very quickly and very decisively and he has a buffet of playmaking options to get it to and but that because of the scheme he's able to get it out there in one and a half, two seconds.

He doesn't have to sit back there and wait for somebody to pop open. So that's really important. And that's a big difference. So I think. Comparing these like Dion, everybody's assuming Dion did something that was completely different and nobody had ever thought of it. No, no, no. A lot of coaches over the past two years have flipped rosters. Jay Norvell didn't really have a choice.

That roster had a lot of people leave after Steve Adazio's firing and kind of in the last year of Steve Adazio. So he didn't have a choice. He had to flip it. You've seen Lincoln Riley flip his roster at USC with good results you saw Kenny Dillingham do it at Arizona State this past offseason you saw we talked to G.J. Kinney last week he had to do it at Texas State so what Deion did is the most drastic version of that but it's not as different as people think and I I think that's the part that people miss. And we're trying to

look at Deion as a highly unconventional coach. He's highly unconventional in that he says what's on his mind. He's not boring. But in a lot of ways, he is a very conventional head coach in terms of organization, in terms of motivation. He's not doing anything different than what all of the coaches want to do at practice, in meetings. This is a pretty disciplined team so far. That's what every coach aspires to be. You'd think if it's somebody who's just in it for the attention or trying to shake up the system, they wouldn't get the little things right. But so far they are getting the little things right. I think that's the part that people aren't understanding. Dion did this in the most drastic

roster flip way, but all of the other stuff has been pretty conventional. And, you know, Jay Norvell had the same idea. He moved within conferences. He didn't move from FCS to Power Five, but it hasn't had the same results. And just see how special what Colorado is pulling off is. All right. One more Dion question. I swear that's it. But this was this was a really good one. So Jake from Fort Worth sports or copycat league. And I challenge you to come up with the most comical hypothetical scenario where program thinks they can copy the Colorado Dion model. For example, let me set the scene. The year is 2028 Arizona state head coach. Rob Gronkowski is Oh, at 11 in the big 32 conference PSS. There are also excellent non-barbecue restaurants in the South you need to try. Make sure you check off the Old South Pancake House and Kirby Lane off your list.

Yeah, I've lived in the South my entire life, so I am aware that there are non-barbecue restaurants, but this is a great hypothetical. I do appreciate that he put Gronk at Arizona State and not his alma mater Arizona because Colorado is not obviously not where Deion Sanders went to school so the question is how how do we do this what what are we have what are we going to have who are we putting where so Deion Sanders may be the best corner of all time that's why you go with Gronk who's maybe the best corner of all time. That's why you go with Gronk, who's maybe the best tight end of all time. I think that would be a good way to do it. So we got to figure out, you know, who's the best ever, who's currently alive at a certain position group. And like, you know,

who, who do you bring? I would love to see like Trent Williams retires from the San Francisco 49ers. I don't know if he's the best offensive tackle ever, but he's the best in the NFL right now and one of the best ever. He's an Oklahoma grad, so we can't put him there. We've got to put him somewhere else. Do we put him at Iowa? And he just recruits the greatest offensive lines of all time, and it is the dream of Kirk and Brian Ferentz

that they've never really been able to achieve. That you have this program that is just elite offensive linemen year after year after year. And they run formations where they're playing six and seven offensive linemen at a time. They do throw the ball, but it's all set up by the run. I would love that. We got to find a quarterback. Peyton Manning, I know when Tennessee's job kept

repeatedly opening, people say, what about Peyton Manning? What about Peyton? I don't think Peyton would do it. One of the things that is unique about Deion that I also think people overlook is it is really hard to be a college head coach. It is really time consuming. It is a grind. You have to work a certain way. Most people, not just most ex-players,

most people in general have no desire to work that way. But Deion does. He wants to be a successful coach. He does work that way. So who else would be able to do that? Now, I think Peyton Manning is a person who will work hard and grind, but perhaps he's already found his other great talent. He's a great media executive that that Omaha productions puts together cool stuff and they keep coming up with good new ideas. And so, I mean, maybe Peyton's got that, the one that would be fun. And I just don't think he would do it. Cause I think, I think he knows better, but I've heard his name get thrown out by fans when his alma mater has

struggled at times. And that is Tim Tebow. Because Tim Tebow is like Deion in that everything he says and does moves the meter. We are really interested in what Deion Sanders does. We are really interested in whatever it is that Tim Tebow does. We have an opinion on whatever it is they do. So if you put Tim Tebow at a power five school, I think you would get massive interest. But the thing is, again, like with Dion, you have to keep winning. You have to keep producing good content. Dion seems to be a never ending fountain of good content. So would Tebow be able to do that? Because in the question, Gronk isn't winning. And I'm not sure Tebow would come in and win because again, you have to want to work like this. You have to want to do this.

And Tim has been doing television. He's been doing motivational speeches. Now, we know he likes to work hard. I mean, this is a guy who worked very hard as a football player, then decided, hey, I've always wanted to try to play baseball. He actually made himself a fairly competent minor league baseball player, which is not easy to do. It requires a lot of work. So I don't doubt his capacity for work. I just don't know if he'd

want to put himself through it. That's the hardest part. You've got to be willing to put yourself through the grind of being a head coach. I think that's one thing that makes Deion so special. When are we ever going to see again someone who is a top one, two, three person at their position in football, hall of famer type, when are we ever going to see somebody willing to do all of the work that's required to be a really good college head coach? It is not likely that we're going to see anybody else like that. We've seen people who were good players in college and even great players in college come back and be good coach. Steve Spurrier is a great example. Heisman Trophy winner. But he was in the NFL, but he wasn't a great in the NFL like Dion was. Dion, because he made so much money in the NFL, this all has to be intrinsic motivation. It's certainly not financially motivated.

He doesn't have to do this. He just wants to. And I got to say, human nature says there's just not going to be many people of that ilk who just want to do this. So I don't think we're going to see anything like that. But the Tebow, where would we put Tebow? What school would we want to put Tebow at? We put him at Clemson? We're going to have him replace Dabo? That would be something. We could do the Oprah, you know, the Oprah-Uma at the Oscars thing. Oprah-Uma, Dabo-Tebow, Dabo-Tebow. I would love to see that. That would be hilarious. But I think it probably would end

pretty badly. So, you know, I don't I just don't know. I wouldn't have guessed this with Deion Sanders watching him on TV through the years. I guess if I'd been following his career as a youth football coach in the Dallas area or, you know, as he worked with his sons growing up, maybe, maybe I would have understood better where this is coming from, but yeah, I, I'm hard pressed to think of anybody who will come along and do this, but it is, it is definitely a fascinating topic. And Rob Gronkowski, Arizona state head coach. Well, I tell you what, that is,

that's just gold right there. Just gold. Next question from at Georgia is a verb on Twitter. Will Jimbo be an analyst on Fox or ESPN? Ouch. We're just assuming that Texas A&M is going to pay $76 million to bite the man out. I realize that Texas A&M has a lot of money. But this is a hard leap to make after that game. And part of it is because they played well on the side of the ball that they struggled on last year is I, I have this kind of hope in the back of my head that they'll get it figured out at Texas A&M because especially now that Texas seems to have things figured out, I feel bad for Texas A&M fans. They have,

they have waited and waited and waited and they seemingly have all of the right elements to have a team that is nationally competitive year after year after year. And for whatever reason, they can never seem to put it all together. Now, it could just be that Miami is really good this year and Mario Cristobal's performed the ultimate flip. But what we saw with the lack of pressure, the poor tackling, I don't know that that necessarily can all be attributed to Miami being better. And A&M is going to play some very good teams down the stretch that can take advantage of that. And I'm not just talking about LSU and Alabama.

I'm also – Ole Miss can take advantage of that. Arkansas is going to be able to take advantage of that. It's going to be tough sledding if that's the defense Arkansas is going to be able to take advantage of that. It's going to be tough sledding if that's the defense they're going to play, even if the offense is working. And that's the part I imagine is so frustrating for Texas A&M fans because they spent all last season watching an offense that felt like it was stuck in mud. And now suddenly they have an offense that looks smooth.

Connor Wegman looks absolutely fantastic at quarterback but as soon as you get that fixed something else breaks and that is incredibly frustrating so if i were sitting on top of a pile of cash and about to get more money from the sec tv deal maybe i do maybe i do now jimbo as a TV analyst would be really interesting. I'll go back to a conversation I had for those who don't know at big game press conferences, a lot of times for the new year's six type games or college football playoff type games, they bring in a company called ASAP sports and they hire professional transcriptionists to transcribe the coaches as they are speaking. And so these people type really fast. And I

remember meeting one of the transcriptionists at an NCAA tournament basketball game, and we wrote a shuttle bus back to the parking lot together. And I was asking her, just peppering her with questions about how the coaches talk and keeping up with them. Cause as someone, as a writer who had to transcribe quotes, it was incredibly frustrating for me trying to keep up with these guys. And so she, this time at the time, Jimbo Fisher's coaching Florida state, Urban Meyer just left Florida and she was based in Florida. So she mostly did the games involving the Florida teams. And so Jimbo Fisher, she said, he just speaks so fast. I can't even keep up with him. And I'm supposed to be the fastest

typer there is. And so that's the question. And having interviewed Jimbo Fisher multiple times, especially in the situation where you're on a live show, he talks so fast that he gets the same amount of answer in 15 seconds that a normal person gives you in 30 seconds. So you put him on a studio set and everybody else is going to have to adjust their internal clocks because you're going to throw to him expecting him to go for about a 30 second chunk. He'll go 15, but say all the same amount of words you would have said in 30. It would really mess everybody up. So it would be fascinating to watch, but I don't know if that's in his future. I don't know if television is definitely Jimbo Fisher's future. He hopes his future is Texas A&M and winning lots of games.

I'm not completely given up on him yet. I don't think it's over for them. I think the fact that the offense is working so well suggests that maybe it can get fixed. There's talent on defense. It's not like they have bad players. So I'm not giving up on them yet. And if it does happen though, maybe not TV, but he'll have plenty of cash. He can do whatever he wants. Next question comes from Christopher in Naples Florida scenario time Iowa wins the Big Ten West at 10 and 2 but scores 280 points in the process what happens is Brian Ferentz fired after championship season if so does Kirk Ferentz resign or retire okay the drive for 325 is an all-consuming thing I again I think it was brilliant for Iowa to put that in Brian Ferencz's contract

that he has to average 25 points a game, or Iowa has to average 25 points a game. Remember, Phil Parker's defense can also contribute. But I do think it was brilliant that they put that in the contract because we got to watch every Iowa game now. Every second of every Iowa game, every point matters. Currently, they are off the pace. They are six points off the pace for the drive for 325. They scored 20 against Iowa State. They scored 24 against Utah State. So they need six more. They need to score 31

to catch up, to keep pace. But let's talk about Christopher's scenario. What if they score 280, but they're 10-2? Guess what? Brian Ferris is going to keep his job. Because at the end of the day, the point's to win ballgames. Whatever it is they're doing would be winning them ballgames. Now, the question is, did the two you lose, did you lose them because your offense was not competent enough or

did you lose them because your defense just couldn't keep up or I think that's that's probably the the bigger question to to answer this because if you find a formula that wins you 10 games a year in today's college football and you're not Georgia Ohio State Alabama a program that expects to compete for national titles every year I don't know that you change anything. I don't know that you do that. Even if it's frustrating to watch, 10 wins is 10 wins. So I don't know that Kirk would do anything. I would say Kirk probably would feel like he found a magic formula.

Now, that magic formula also involves Phil Parker still being the defensive coordinator and LeVar Woods being the special teams coach. But it would be a fairly good formula. And if you're an Iowa fan, I realize you'd be frustrated, but if you're winning 10 games a year, would you want to make that change? Would you be willing to risk the performance going down? And part of it is that Kirk Ferentz's overall governing philosophy is when you get a lead, when your defense is playing well, just take it easy, be conservative,

and don't try anything that's going to make a mistake and cause the other team to get back into the game. So a lot of it is Brian has to do what Kirk says offensively. And when the defense is playing well, Brian is not going to have the chains taken off. Brian's going to have to call plays in the way that Kirk wants him to call plays. So it's not all on Brian Ferentz either. But in that scenario, if you win in 10 games, they ain't firing him. And again, why would you? You win in 10 games. It would be crazy.

But I don't know. It is amazing to watch. And I will watch every game because can they get the 325? I still think they probably can. A healthy Cade McNamara might make the difference, but we'll see. One more question. This is from Vomo Panther. A lot of talk is about how Wisconsin hiring Luke Fickle for a divisionless Big Ten.

With the Mel Tucker situation, how is Michigan State going to prepare with a new coach and staff? Could Michigan State consider getting Phil Parker or LeVar Woods from the Iowa staff? Oh, we just mentioned them. So I don't know. Does Phil Parker want to be a head coach? Cause I would think he would already been one by now.

He's been an elite defensive coordinator for a long, long time. LeVar Woods. I'm just looking at that as he's probably Iowa's next head coach when Kirk Ferentz gets done. So I don't know that I would want to leave. Although if I'm Michigan State, I do make inquiries. Would you possibly be interested? You know who else I'd make inquiries to? Sharone Moore. Because if Jim Harbaugh is going to stay at Michigan, why not pull the double whammy?

Take the guy who feels like one of the biggest rising stars in college football and take something really important away from one of your rivals. But the question is, who would you go for? What type of coach do you want at Michigan State? I think their idea with Tucker and the vision that

he sold them was, I am going to recruit like my former bosses did at Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State. And he got those players to come look at East Lansing, but it was a struggle to get them to sign. And I think what you have at Wisconsin is Luke Fickle trying to do the same thing, though his hit rate at Cincinnati quite a bit better, where he got guys that would not normally consider Cincinnati to sign with Cincinnati and then develop them. So I suspect that Luke Fickle is going to be able to do that at Wisconsin. The question is, if you're Michigan State, do you try that again, or do you go a little bit different route? Now, I will say,

I don't think the Mark D'Antonio out-evaluate, develop, develop, develop, develop, is going to win the Big Ten going forward. It was great when Urban Meyer either hadn't gotten to Ohio State or was about to get there there when Michigan was down, when Wisconsin was the only other team you needed to worry about with Brett Bielema. I don't think that's the case anymore. This new Big Ten, Ohio State is still raking in top talent. Michigan is as good as it's been in a long, long time. Penn State has some elite talent and seems to be capable of acquiring more.

I mentioned Fickle at Wisconsin. USC's coming in. They're going to be able to recruit great players. Oregon is going to be able to recruit great players. Washington is always going to be a solidly built team. You've got to figure out what you want in that coach. So do you go rising star, who you think can possibly recruit and develop players at that championship level,

where you're getting highly rated recruits and then developing them, which is what Michigan does now, which is what Ohio State does, Georgia, Alabama, those types. So that would be, you probably try to attack the schools that do it, the assistants at the schools that do that.

So is Sharone Moore, a Brian Hartline at Ohio State. Do you do it like that? Do you go for maybe an Alex Atkins at Florida State? He's going to be a name that gets mentioned for a lot of head coaching openings once this season ends because he's the offensive coordinator Florida State though Mike Norvell is the play caller but Alex has been a play calling OC before at Charlotte he also is the guy who resurrected Florida State's offensive line and if you followed Florida State over the last few years you know that them having a capable offensive line. And if you followed Florida State over the last few years, you know that them having a capable offensive line

is nothing short of a miracle, given what Alex Atkins inherited. So he's going to be one. But is that the type of coach you're looking for? Or do you go the guy who's been a head coach at a bunch of different places and wins everywhere, has proven they just win. So that's your Lance Leipold at Kansas, your Willie Fritz at Tulane, your Dave Clawson

at Wake Forest. Is that the type of coach you'd go for? Clawson turned him down last time. So I don't know if he'd be interested again, but the money might make anybody at least take a look. You know, I mentioned C Claussen when Northwestern opened. I still think that's a potential possibility if Northwestern's administration flips over, but this is a better job football-wise. Willie Fritz, age, you're going to look at that, but they play really well.

They play really hard. They're playing with a backup quarterback and hanging with Ole Miss. If you look at the budgets of those two programs, Tulane shouldn't be anywhere near that game, competitive in that game. So I'll throw another one in there. Jamie Chadwell at Liberty

has also won at a bunch of different levels. The questions for him are always, oh, well, you've never been a power five assistant because he's always been a head coach at a lower level. Can you recruit at this level? And he's not going to be able to answer that until somebody hires him. Another name that I mentioned earlier in the show is one that I think is probably going to get a lot of attention if things keep going the way they're going. And that's Sean Lewis, the offensive coordinator, Colorado. You know, he was the head coach at Kent state. And I think when he took the Kent state job, being a head coach in the Mac was viewed as a good stepping stone into the power five. But now I think power five coordinator is an easier path to a big power

five head coaching job, as opposed to a group of five head coaching job as opposed to a group of five head coaching jobs. So if Lewis is producing great offenses at Colorado, then I think he's going to get looks from power five schools as a head coach and after this year, because everybody's looking for something like that. And if you go back into Sean Lewis's Kent State history, he was a capable coach there. Again, the out of conference scheduling for them, just hamstrung him every single year. I think if people pop the hood on that, they're going to say, you know what, this guy could be very successful as a power five head coach. And now we've seen him do this offensively with Colorado. We're going to put him on our list. So for Michigan

state, it really depends on what you want. And given what we've seen from this administration, I don't know if they know what they want yet. They've got to figure out the Mel Tucker stuff first and then move on to that next part of it. But it really will come down to what do they want because they'll have the money to pay. I'm assuming they're firing Mel Tucker with cause. They'll have a lot of money to pay somebody. They'll have some choices. And it may be somebody I didn't even mention because they'll look at the dollar figure and go, oh, okay, I'd like to try that.

We'll find out. Today's extra point focuses on a guy who could not be at a football game on Saturday, though he found a way to a football game anyway, and that is Jim Harbaugh. Serving game number two of the University-imposed three-game suspension for Cheeseburger Gate. The Michigan coach worked the chain game at his son's game Saturday morning, and then he was asked what he did beyond that on Saturday. Well, here's what he said.

Well, actually, pretty nice little Saturday. Well, here's what he said. Well, actually pretty nice little Saturday. We're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe bed, bath and beyond. I don't know. I don't know if we'll have enough time. I always remember that scene as having the Olive Garden reference in it too, but that's a very different scene in old school. And we won't conflate that with Jim Harbaugh. But Jim Harbaugh in his press conference, he did list some of the other things he did. Oh, it was good.

You know, it's like you go to the games and you got to ask the parents to do something, do some kind of job. Last week was a Friday game and we were responsible for the Gatorade and some of the snacks and this week they needed somebody on the chains. So it was good, got to get right close to the field and watch the game. And our team needed a win and they played really well.

We got a young star in Evan Kaji, number 24. And my son Jack played good. They do a great job, the Ann Arbor Saints, coaching. Fun to watch the practices. They do a really good job training the guys. We lost a couple close ones, and this week we broke through with a big win. So it was it was it was neat to see the kids enthusiasm for that and confidence as they left the field and

makes them want to come back makes them like football. It was cool to be a part of. And how did you watch the Michigan game on Saturday? What's that at home? Johnny, my six year old and Katie, my 12-year-old, and I, we watched the game from the TV. Got the front lawn cut pregame, and then I got the back lawn cut after the game was over.

So good productive day. Any sandwiches? I think we forgot to eat. I forgot to feed them. Oh, no, we did at halftime. We went to McDonald's. Halftime, we went to McDonald's on Washington.

That, Jim Harbaugh, is a nice little Saturday. Congratulations to you. One more to go. Sharon Moore, your interim coach for this week's game against Bowling Green. No interim here. I don't get to be suspended.

No self-imposed, university-imposed, company-imposed suspensions for me. I will be back tomorrow. We will get you ready for the biggest games of the week, including Tennessee headed down to Gainesville to try to win there for the first time in 20 years. Talk to you tomorrow.