Andy & Ari On3 - DEEP DIVE: Alabama at Oklahoma in the CFP | Can Crimson Tide knock off Sooners in Norman? Michigan Head Coaching Search Update | What do Nebraska, Tennessee do next at QB?

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

It’s time for a Megaboard Wednesday, and we start with the first game of the College Football Playoff: Alabama at Oklahoma. As initial injury reports have been unveiled for this SEC showdown in Norman, Andy & Ari dive into what both teams need to accomplish to be victorious in the first round. Who will advance to play Indiana in the Rose Bowl? Find out here as Andy & Ari go deep into this intriguing matchup (0:00) On Today’s Episode(1:05) Presenting Sponsor(2:50) Intro: Alabama at Oklahoma Injury Report(16:39) How do Bama fans feel about Kalen DeBoer?(25:00) Omaha Steaks(26:09) What will Nebraska do after Raiola’s departure?(46:15) GameTime(47:27) Pop-Tarts Bowl: Georgia Tech vs BYU(53:56) PaniniAmerica.net(56:07) Michigan’s Coaching Search: DeBoer or Dillingham?(1:11:07) Tennessee at QB in 2026(1:19:07) Conclusion: Dear Andy & Ari tomorrow! Later, Andy & Ari visit Lincoln, Nebraska, where Dana Holgorsen commented on the departure of Dylan Raiola. Where will Nebraska turn to next at the quarterback position? Watch here as Andy & Ari dissect the situation in Lincoln. Next, the fellas head south to Orlando for the Pop-Tarts bowl, where Brent Key and Kalani Sitake got their hands on the Pop-Tarts trophy, which leads to a megaboard post in Notre Dame: Could you imagine Marcus Freeman in this setting? The Michigan coaching search is a story that continues to have many levels and depths to it. Watch here as Andy & Ari break down quotes and comments from both Kalen DeBoer and Kenny Dillingham in regards to their job status. To close the Megaboard, the fellas head to Knoxville, where Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Vols could potentially be hitting the portal for a new quarterback in 2026. As Joey Aguilar’s eligibility runs out, the Vols now must make a decision on who the signal caller will be next season. Where will Tennessee turn? Andy & Ari discuss here. This show is also brought to you by Gametime! Take the guesswork out of buying college football tickets with Gametime.Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Swipe. Tap. Ticket. Go. Download the Gametime app today! Visit Gametime.co. Go to https://OmahaSteaks.com to get 50% off sitewide during their Red-Hot Sale Event. And use Promo Code ANDYANDARI at checkout for an extra $35 off. Minimum purchase may apply. See site for details. A big thanks to our advertiser, Omaha Steaks! Panini delivers the most collectible sports cards and memorabilia on the planet. Check out the new exclusive Arch Manning collection or the Panini Prizm Draft Picks College Football series. Visit PaniniAmerica.net to start your collection today.  Our show is 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 and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/tDeu-NWfah4 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 Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. It is a megaboard Wednesday, and we have lots of hot topics fresh off the message boards from Bama Online. Alabama's initial eligibility report for the Oklahoma game came out, and there is a defensive lineman who will be missing from that game, and it's a pretty big deal. And another person questionable that Alabama probably needs to play. from Husker Online, Dana Hulgerson, the offensive coordinator for Nebraska, opens up on the Dylan Ryola transfer from blue and gold. Can you imagine Marcus Freeman?

Munching on a Pop-Tart? Toasting a Pop-Tart in a trophy? Well, they can't. And from the Wolverine, more coaching search speculation. And of course, from Volkwest, what is going to happen with the Tennessee quarterback situation as you see names entering the portal. We talk about it all on today's episode of Andy and Arion 3, presented by BetMGM.

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It is a megaboard Wednesday. That's right. The hottest topics from all the message boards across the On3 network. And Ari, there are so many things to talk about. But of course, we got college football playoff games this week. Friday night, Alabama at Oklahoma. So we'll go to the Bama Online message board. And our guy Charlie Potter from Bama Online posted this on Tuesday night.

because the college football playoff availability reporting system very similar to the SECs where three days before the game you get a report and so we had the Alabama Oklahoma one we will have the one for the other three games on Wednesday night

but on Tuesday night we got the Alabama Oklahoma one no real surprises on the Oklahoma one other than our Mason Thomas not on it which means we're probably going to see Oklahoma Star Edge Rush for the first time since the Tennessee game. Alabama, L.T. Overton, out.

He also missed the SEC championship game. Also, questionable tight-in Josh Quavis, who, if you're watching the show last week, I said this is a guy who was very important to them in the first game, seems to be very important for them in the run game, which is fairly non-existent. Ari, the line didn't move on Bed MGA.

Still, Alabama, buy one. But when you look at this, injury report or availability report does it make you a little more worried about the crimson tie um i just wanted to say congratulations to you oklahoma for getting a good break in some injury news it's been a long time since like you guys were on the on the on the positive end of this um so you know i don't know i think that like this kind of like l t overton being out sucks um you would have rather seen him as a questionable or you know maybe you know probable or something like that, obviously.

But Quavis was going to be questionable. This was my view on it from the beginning. So I don't know that that changed my mind on anything. What about you? And it didn't change my mind because, again, both teams are limited offensively. Whether L.T. Overton played or not doesn't change the fact that Oklahoma is fairly limited offensively. The R. Mason Thomas being yet another person to run at Ty Simpson is a little bit scary.

The Josh Quavis questionable part does. scare me a little bit for Alabama because, again, we were talking about, you know, their tight-in situation, he's important to the run game, which needs all the help it can get under any circumstances. Yeah. So that part I worry about. Crazy valve, too, in the passing game. Certainly. Especially against Oklahoma, against his defense the first time, that was his best game probably as a pass catcher. Yeah. And I feel like, you know, I don't know, I'm not breaking down breaking out on the Adam here or anything, but if you have an extra pass rusher who's really good at getting to the quarterback, like that also then now increases Alabama's need for a

reliable safety net. So the hope, obviously, is that everybody will play and they'll be at full strength. That's what you want from teams that are playing in this setting. But, you know, I think that if I'm Oklahoma or Alabama, I feel much better if I'm Oklahoma right now, getting that guy back. So the last we saw him was when he made that big play in the Tennessee game, right? He hasn't played since. Right. He scored on the play and was injured during the strip sack return for touchdown. He heard his quad, I believe, on that play. And so that's the last time we've seen him play. And yeah, Armeson Thomas is a difference maker for Oklahoma. Now, I will say they have a lot of difference makers when it comes to guys rushing the quarterback. They can do it

from the edges. They can do it from the inside. They can bring linebackers. They are really loaded in the front seven. So I do wish that our audience would have been able to see producer Rivers face when our Mason Thomas made that play because I was sitting next to him and he was not in a good spot when that happened. No, no, no. And then all of those Tate Sandell field goals in that game. Because Tennessee was dominating the game, it felt like for the first quarter and a half. And then that play happened and then like all the wheels fell off. So they're getting that guy back. Sometimes I feel like it's easier to describe who they're getting back through something like that, then he's really good.

Like, he literally, I think, was the reason Oklahoma ended up winning the Tennessee game. The one thing for Alabama that is not on the availability report that I think is going to be helpful for them is an injury thing, but not something that's really been discussed as much. I mean, like Haley-Nabors been asked about it, but Ty Simpson looked very banged up at the end of the Georgia game. And we saw where it looked like he kind of tweaked his ankle on one play, but it also look like before that he just wasn't moving very well and if you watch tie simpson all season he's a good athlete like he he gets out of trouble very easily he went healthy uh he can run pretty fast

he can he can get you a first down if you if you leave enough grass open and against a team like oklahoma you got to be able to move around you got to be able to slide out of trouble you got to be able to keep a play alive and be able to throw down field and that the version of ty of system that played against Georgia, I worry would not be able to do that against Oklahoma. Now, when's the last time you rolled your ankle really bad? It's been a while, but that's not what I'm worried about. I'm more worried about his back. Yeah.

I think he's going to be the ankle part, because he was still running around on that in the game. Yeah, and I feel like if you roll your ankle, that's a one-week recovery for just a normal person. So for somebody like that that's got the treatment and stuff. But yes, you're right. Yeah. But what was the bigger issue that was kind of seemed to be slowing him down a little bit before the ankle thing, that's what I worry about. But that's also something that I believe with time, you can heal up. And so he's had a couple weeks off. I think we may see the full strength version of Ty Simpson, which is, let's be real here. Hamas only chance. Yeah. Because I don't think they're suddenly going to develop a run game

where they never had one. And Oklahoma is going to send the dogs after you. No matter what, they do it, they do it to everyone. But especially when they know you can't run the ball. Yeah, echoing all that, that's the correct take on this. And I am kind of, you know, tickled a little bit that both of these teams have been so limited offensively at times and are both in this position.

It's like, we're talking about the playoff here. And it's like you don't usually hear can't run the ball and playoff game in the same sentence. Well, it's interesting that they both wound up with each other. Right. Because we talked like we talked at length yesterday about the A&M Miami game. Spider-Man meme. This is a Spider-Man meme game too. And they're probably lucky that the, the rankings didn't get moved around one more spot.

Because I don't think either one of them would want to play A&M or or Miami. Yeah, in this situation. The thing that I think is interesting about this discussion is that you felt, and I don't know if this has changed at all, that the winner of this game has a chance to go make a run into the deep portions of this tournament. No, they have a chance to beat Indiana. Yeah, and if you can't run the ball against Indiana, you're going to have a hard time. You're going to struggle.

Yeah. So I don't know if I 100% subscribe to that notion, but, you know, at the same time, you know, it's just Indiana, right? How bad could it be? How good could they be? It could be really bad, based on what we saw against Oregon and Ohio State. Indiana is very good. But you got to win this one to get to the Rose Bowl, to play the Hoosiers,

and you can underestimate the Hoosiers then if you'd like. Yeah. But you got to get past a team in. So for Alabama, it's interesting because, you know, we talked all along with Kirby, smart. Does Kirby Smart have an Alabama problem? And I'd say no after the last meeting between Alabama and Georgia. But now we have to stop all those narrative. I know that we have to. No, let me roll one more out. You love narratives. You love you love feelings. So let me roll one out for you. They're so dumb. But go ahead. Does Caitlin DeBore have an Oklahoma problem?

I mean, I guess everybody has a problem until they fix it, right? So, like, I guess you get to have the problem. I just think it's funny because the Oklahoma Alabama game from last year had nothing to do with the Oklahoma Alabama game this year. Like, they're two completely separate situations. Completely different. Like, Oklahoma stunk last year, and it was just Alabama laid an egg. This year, they were just really good, and they lost a closely contested game

against a playoff team. Very different. Exactly. But we've only seen. Caleb DeBore twice against Oklahoma, and he lost both times as the Alabama coach. So I don't, I'm with you. I wanted to throw that out because you are the one who does buy into narratives and feelings. I love narrative.

I love talking about narrative and what things mean. But like the, I always just thought that like the Kirby smart thing, like, is he have an Alabama problem. Oh, you mean like the only really elite level team that he's had to play over and over again is the one that he wound up losing to when a coach has to lose games? like, you can't go undefeated. Like, of course he's going to lose Alabama the most or the best team he plays. Yeah, and I'd say he overcame that.

Did you know, Andy, that most shark attacks occur in shallow water? Can you believe it? That's wild. Want to know why? Is that even possible? That's where the people are. It reminds me of the old Sam Kinnisson bit. Yeah.

where he was talking about famine in Africa, and instead of dropping food, he was going to send moving vans. Yeah. We're going to move to where the food is. Move to where the food is. Yeah, that's where it is. Yeah, so, oh, can you believe that Georgia wound up losing to Bama a lot?

Yeah, I can. Very easily can believe that. And also, if you want to zoom out, too, you know, if you take away the Ohio State, Michigan result from last year, Can you believe that Ohio State lost three games in a row before last year to Michigan? Yeah, they won the national title. I can totally believe it. Like, yeah, they're really good.

You mean that the best thing that Ohio State played both years, all three years? Yeah, I can believe that that's the game that they wound up losing. Well, I'm glad we've dispelled that notion that Kailin Nabor has an Oklahoma problem. I don't think he does. I do think he will have one if he loses this game because everybody's going to be really mad at him. And obviously, and we talked about this. We've talked about it every day on the show this week. We're going to keep talking about it because the Michigan job is still open.

And I think the Michigan job would be filled if they weren't waiting to see what happens to Kalin DeBore on Friday. And I still don't think he's going to take it even if he loses on Friday. But he could win this game and that talk would end. It's quite the gamble. So it's a bold move, Cotton. Let's see how it plays out. My question to you, Ari, if Alabama loses this game, this is independent of the Michigan thing. Where is the Alabama fan base with Kalin DeBoer at that point?

I don't think that the Alabama fan base is enamored with him right now. Like, so I don't know. Like, so I don't know, like, did the reports of Kalin DeBore's connection to Michigan, whether it was real or not. Just the reports or the notion or the thought process. Ever, like, have a Alabama fan sitting up in their room at night worried about it? I don't think they're worried about it. But I do think it actually kind of helps DeBore a little bit with how the Alabama people feel better.

I think it maybe should because if every time a big job opens, the first name on the list is Kail and DeBore. And that's with Penn State, with Michigan, that happened both times. That should suggest to you that you got a pretty good one. Yeah. And it also suggests to you that there probably aren't a lot of logical replacements should he leave. There are two reasons to be scared, though. One is, are you scared?

You're not scared because you don't think he would leave. Right. Or are you scared at the notion or the thought of living without him. And I think those are two very different things. I don't think that they're scared. I don't think that they're scared of the notion of living without him, which is the problem. But what I would, but where I would push back on a fan who is not scared of living without Kail and Abor is who are you hiring?

If you don't like him, who are you hiring? There's a reason his name keeps popping up number one on these lists because there aren't other names to put on them. Yeah. I'd like to see a few names, Cook, in the Alabama position. You might be afraid of hiring him. But, like, I don't think that, like, Alabama, the juggernaut couldn't figure out somebody to be pretty good at the job. Like, but here's the other thing with the Kalin-de-Bore stuff, Andy. I feel like, no matter who it was, because he wasn't Nick Saban, there would be a segment of the fan base that would be disannammered with him.

Of course. He doesn't have the same mannerisms. He's not as fiery. Like, all the things. It's not just the results. And the only, the only way to overcome that is have results like Nick Saban. Yeah. And if you win a national championship, then all of a sudden, it's the same, it's the exact same thing that.

happened with his hoodie. Last year, everybody was pissed off because he was underdressed and, you know, it wasn't the SEC thing to do or whatever. He wore or whatever. I don't even They were pissed off because he lost. They didn't care what he wore. And all of a sudden, they stringed together four wins in a row against ranked teams and his like Nike hoodie was like a lovable thing. Like, it's just, they don't, they might not like him because he's not Nick Sabin and the only way that you can become your own man. And like, you see that happen like, and I, and I keep going back to Ohio State on this. But, like, Ryan Day had to replace a legend in his own right, right?

And like it was Urban's team and Urban's team and Urban's team. And then eventually, does anybody talk about this Urban's team anymore? No, because he has his own accomplishments, his own equity that he built through winning the national title last year. And if they make a deep run here or win a national championship this year or next year or whatever, then Caleb Nabor becomes his own man. And I think that that's the number one battle. It's not dressing different or acting different. It's creating your own equity. And that's, you know, I hate to say it, Andy, a hard thing to do.

It might take five years. How long did it take Ryan Day? How long did it take Kirby Smart to build his own equity? This isn't always a, you know, do your own thing by year or two or you suck. Like, it takes time. And now in this new competitive environment where you have to win four games in a row against other elite level teams, it's going to be harder to win national titles. And I got to tell you something, Andy.

I think Nick Saban is as close to a godlike figure as a sport could ever have. I don't know that he would have won six, seven national championships at Alabama if they were playing in the system that whole time either. I think Nick Saban stopped coaching Alabama because he knew that. Even if you take away the roster building aspect of it, and you could still give Alabama the same teams that they had in the same advantages they had from a talent perspective. I still don't know how many times they would have won a national championship.

If you had to double their number of games, they had to win to win to win one. It's harder. It's unquestionably harder to win a national title now than it's ever been before, both from a roster standpoint and a system standpoint. So it might take four or five years, but you know what? I hate to scare you, Alabama.

but you might win one a decade now like oh the horror you know like but that's welcome to everybody else's world yeah i mean if you actually like look back and think about who are the five biggest uh scary big bad wolves and i made the mistake of this yesterday andy i used the words blue blood when i shouldn't have oh god because you know and you you you got a front row seat when you did your list a few years ago but you can't say those words and not strike a debate about who's a blue blood that wasn't my intention. Yeah, everybody knows their definition is correct and their list is correct and nobody else's is. I don't really care what your blue blood list is. I put out mine. You want to know why we put out ours? Because my editor goes, hey, can you put out a blue blood list?

Because those go crazy when you put them out. Yeah, people, I don't really care. I used blue blood incorrectly as a way to illustrate dominant current programs. And then people didn't catch the point and they got into the blue blood thing. I don't care about the blood thing. If you have your blue blood list hanging up on your wall and look at it. Guess what? I'm going to put out another blue blood list next summer. It'll be different than the last one. And you guys will argue about it online. And I still won't care what you think. Yeah. But how many of the teams that have been most dominant in my adult life have more than two, more than two titles? Ohio States won three since 2002, 2000. Oklahoma has won one since 2000. Texas has

LSU has three, 2000. LSU has three, but nobody has more than three outside of Bama. Right. Yeah, Clemson has two. Florida has two in the century. They have three going back to 96, but two in the century. If you're winning one national title a decade, you're doing great. Texas has one.

Yeah. Yeah. A&M has zero. Sorry, I had to include them because I'm an Aggie. Miami has won, but that was in 2001. Like, nobody is like lighting up the, like, the way that you won national. championship is weird. I know you feel like your fan base is entitled to doing that.

Like you're never doing that again. It's just never going to happen again. Maybe nobody's ever doing that again. Who's doing that again in this system? Ohio State might. Ohio State might go back to back this year, but they're not going to win it next year. Like Alabama, what was that that crazy?

Are you going to bet your house on this? Like the Michigan, Ohio State went a few years ago? I don't know. You know what? I don't think they're going to win it this year. anymore. I have a question for dear Annie and dear Ari from our guy Brad, who's to play at Georgia, who's a very wise person and asked really good questions.

So I'm going to tease that for tomorrow's show. But that's the topic. Okay. So we won't talk about it too much. But I have Ohio State as my national champion on the official graphic. Like, I don't know if I want to do this. I've been thinking about it. but, like, I think Ohio State might lose their first game to whoever wins they

and then Miami game. I think they are looking at the bracket and they're like, we got screwed. Yeah. Just like Oregon got screwed last year. Like, and listen, I think Ohio State's the best team in the country. That didn't change. But there's a difference between being the best team in the country and then actually doing what you have to do, which is win three in a row.

And that's hard. It's hard for anybody. And whoever does it is going to do amazing memorable things the way that Ohio State did last year, but expecting your team to do that consistently every single year means that you have to be basically, if you win five national championships in a 10-year period, that means your coach is way well above 500 against top five teams. And it's just a hard thing to do. It's a hard to win 70% of your games against top five teams. Well, Alabama will try to win its first national title since 2020. In Oklahoma, we'll try to win their first one since 2000. When they face off

Friday in Norman, Ari and I will be there. I cannot wait. It's going to be so much fun. It's going to be awesome. You know what just occurred to me? Because I've been thinking a lot about our travel schedule and I called you. But like I'm going to a holiday party on Thursday to be with my wife at our company, which means we're going to be drinking. It's a terrible night to drink for me.

It is. Because I'm going to be in a bad position already based on the travel plans. So we're going to have to get into touch with when we actually want to hit the road the next day. And I might just do water on Thursday night. Mix in some waters, buddy. Mix in some waters, but you might have to have one or two. You're kind of like the, just to loosen up. With me and you, though, I always kind of get the sense that like you're the adult in the room.

So, you know, enjoy driving, pal. Yeah. You should be careful with that. One of us killed the live feed on yesterday's show and it wasn't you. River was like, River was like, were you freaking out when that happened? And I was like, I'm like a toddler during a financial crisis. Like, I didn't even know how big of a deal that was. I was ready to retire.

Like, I was going to quit. I was like, I should just leave now because I have failed. I had one job. River sent me the Peter Griffin, do not press the button pressing the button gift. That was me. I was at people like, where were you? You were a full blown adult in 2008, right? When the financial crisis happened?

I was, yes. I had just bought a house because I'm a dumb ass. Okay, so you had just bought a house. And I'm assuming that there was a tremendous amount of. stress that probably came along with that time of being an adult. Like I was just like eating a filo fish in the student union and I had no idea what was going on. And I feel like that by and large is kind of how I've carried out my entire life, which is, oh shit, there's some like really big crap happening around me and I'm like the blissfully

unaware of constantly. It's worked out well for you. Listen, if you want to have some drinks, you're going to be fine. I was going to let us sleep in a little bit on Friday and then we'll hit the road going on Friday. We'll have that discussion offline. listeners don't need to know this. All right, what they do need to know is that when you're getting gifts for the holiday season, you're getting gifts for coworkers. It doesn't have to be over the holidays. It could be birthday presents, could be anywhere. But right now is the best time to go to Omaha Steaks.com. The sizzle all the way sale 50% off site wide. Use the promo code Andy and Ari. That's A-N-D-Y-A-N-D-A-R-I for an extra $35 off your order. Ari, I made some

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for an extra $35 off your order. And now we will just head all about 55 minutes west of Omaha to Lincoln, Nebraska. And our next megaboard topic comes from our friends at Husker online. Stephen Sipple wrote a column after talking to Dana Holgerson. And so it is Dana Holgerson. talking everything, but talks about Dylan Riola leaving, and that's an example of the quote-unquote new norm in the college game. And it is.

And we talked about this yesterday where this system has created a new kind of transfer quarterback, not the guy who can't get on the field, but the guy who does get on the field early. And then it turns out that maybe he isn't worth the price tag after a while. and you decide you know what we can let you go and we'll find somebody else yeah i also have had the thought too i wonder if we're like re because we're still in the pretty infant stages of like nil compensation packages and i wonder like as we always used to say like it's not going to go crazy because the market will set itself i wonder if this is like the evolution of the market

setting itself well that that's yeah this is the market coming back down on certain people and and there's still going to be psychopath cowboys out there that will throw insane numbers at person because desperation, uh, definitely trumps common sense in the, in the talent accumulation field. But like, I wonder if like, like, what should the actual baseline compensation be for a elite level quarterback in college? Like, what is a fair compensation for a player? That's the question. Is this a five star recruiter who's never played a game? Or is this someone like, I don't know, Brenzen Sorsby, who's leaving Cincinnati, who has clearly shown that he's a big time producer.

Like, are we getting to the point in time where there's a table? And if you are a Heisman contender, you get X. If you are a solid and proven starter, you get X. And then it goes, and then there's a table that these agents are working off of based on who is your guy and what are they entitled to. And not yet because there's still wild cards out there, like you said, somebody who feels like they need to get the five star guy or somebody who feels like they need to get the name guy in, who will be willing to overpay. But I will say, the league that has a table doesn't even get it right. Because like, what was, what's the big NFL news today? Toot tango by loa was benched.

Right. The Dolphins gave him a second contract. Like, benching him is a massive move because, like, he's a 50 something, or no, $65 million salary cap hit next year. Benching him because it's cold outside, Andy. Okay, he'll be back. he's not good at a cold okay um so but here's the thing that i don't know because i don't cover pro sports and i don't really care about their contracts outside of like like i don't know like what you make in college i think it's far more interesting because it there's no salary cap and it's

more of a strain on what you're able to spend overall um but do do professional franchises uh get into desperation mode and like i feel like maybe it happens in baseball a little bit more like where, like, A-Rod got that 10-year deal that was insane and they were just so, like, desperate to get him. But do, do pro-team? They also don't have a salary cap. But do pro teams ever go into desperation mode and overpay for somebody or is everybody kind of in the, in a block of,

here's your production, here's your value, here's what you're paid? Like, I feel like it's more structured in the, in the NFL. I think they're less desperate because they're accustomed to it. And also because they have pretty, pretty set rules. And the Browns made a pretty desperate move when they went to get to Sean Watson and gave up a lot of draft capital and gave a free guarantee contract. And it's viewed as perhaps the stupidest move in the history of the NFL. But there's no.

Like the stupidest personnel move. There's no Tennessee out there. And I'm using Tennessee because Tennessee was really quick out of the gate of like, we want to get back to prominence. We're going to pay NICO X number of dollars because we need this to legitimize our program. Like that doesn't exist in the NFL where like any team could. pop up out of nowhere and go, oh, you know, we're Purdue. And we're tired of losing.

We are going to pay a ton of money to this random five-star quarterback because we need to do something to legitimize ourselves. Like that doesn't exist in pro sports. But the bangles aren't going to overpay somebody because they're the Bengals, you know? Well, they're going to overpay anybody because they're the Bengals. Yeah. But, oh, I transpose the numbers to his cap it is $56 million next year. But that's a lot.

So here's the thing. They're headed toward a CBA in college football. So there will be a salary cap. There will be rules. There will be binding contracts both ways. So like I bet if the, here's the thing, if the contracts were binding, you would not see as much money going to the quarterbacks at a high school. Because if you're stuck with somebody, like we talked about Riola,

we talked about DJ Lagway this week. DJ Lagway, if he were under a binding contract, the new staff would be stuck paying him what they have to pay him. Yeah. And they don't want to do that. And that's why DJ Lagway is moving on from Florida. But Dillon-Riola, probably a lot of the same thing. Like, Nebraska would be stuck paying him whatever they got to pay him.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's actually healthy because you need some people to be stuck paying some people to learn the lesson of what it looks like when you make a mistake. Like Cleveland Browns are in prison right now because they overpaid for the wrong guy and now they can't feel the functional offense despite having one of the best defenses in the NFL because they're overpaying somebody and they made a mistake, which then does what, Andy?

Maybe when the Tennessee Titans want to do something similar, they'll learn from that mistake and not pay them. So like I think that like it's healthy to overpay and it's healthy for there. There are certain people. Like if you actually go back and look at, I think I saw a graphic floating around and I don't know if it was from us or from someone else about the highest like reported salaries from the NIL

season this past year and like most of the guys on the list were like complete busts. Yeah. And like I don't know like did Duke get their money's worth with Mensa? They won the ACC. They won the ACC so I guess. Is that worth the four mill? Like was that worth it? And did he play commiserate with that income or did Sam Levitt was he grossly underpaid? I don't know but like the math is going to have the math eventually, right?

One would think, because I do think that's where they're headed. The Score Act, the bill you saw all the stupid commercials for this season, never even came up for a vote in the house. Like, that's not, it's never passing. It's never going to pass. That's a pretty sick. Use of money, though, for them. Yeah, good work, guys.

Way, way to be. But that has caused some people to really kind of wake up and say, I'm talking about athletic directors, people who run conferences. Yeah, we're probably going to have to do a CBA. You are. We've been telling you this all along, but you are. But the good news is when you do, you will have binding contracts. Like, you won't have players that, because we're talking about teams deciding players aren't worth the money.

You also won't have players holding you ransom every year or every game. Like, they won't be able to do that anymore because they'll have a binding contract going, going in their direction too, and you'll be able to have a salary cap that everybody has agreed on, that you can actually have real penalties if someone tries to break it. Yeah, yeah, and it would be kind of cool if, like, one crazy human can't change the salary structure for everyone, because all it does is take one, one donor to lose their mind. You say crazy and I say dumb, like, yeah, crazy is all it takes is one, one, one person who's like I love this guy let's give him a fortune and it screws up the the structure for

everybody that's what's going on now and as far as you have art in your house no so my wife is now playing poker yeah no my wife's in this like we need to get art to make our space more tasteful uh mm we're not tasteful people yeah by the way when you see our house next time you come you're going to crap your pants because like they're like we got a designer this whole thing it's like that's where I was this morning at a presentation. It's wild what's happening here. Annie, but I went to an art gallery or like an art sales place with my wife in the last month. And like, let me tell you something.

I don't know the first thing about art. I think it's stupid. But you look at some of these pictures. If you ever even walk through like a Las Vegas art gallery and you'll see what looks like finger paintings. Honestly, it looks like, that's $77,000. dollars like rich people buy the dumbest shit already anyway like why imagine they're quarterbacks yeah like i think that actually spending a lot of money on your quarterback for your favorite team is amongst one of the more rational financial decisions that billionaires do all

the time you're probably right when you actually think about when you think about it that way you're right you have that much money like that's the thing is there a difference to me and you between making five million a year and 10 million a year probably not like our life would be the exact same I mean, give me $5 million and I'll tell you what another $5 million would do. I think there's a certain level of wealth where once you acquire that. I've always said this at a certain point, you're just rich. You're just rich. And I think that the people who are spending all this money, whether they spend $2 million or $4 million,

it doesn't change anything about the bottom line or their day-to-day life. So go, go spend a shit ton of money on Bryce Underwood. That's your prerogative. What else are you supposed to, like what else are you supposed to do when you have that much money? How many more yachts can Larry Ellison's family have? Yeah. So Dana Holgerson did talk a little bit about what Nebraska is going to be looking for in quarterback evaluation because it's probably going to hit the portal. T.J. Lateef is still there. One thing Holgerson said about Latif, according to Steve Sippel's column, is that Latif's mobility was quote unquote, refreshing and helpful. So that statement? Is that an insult? Is that like, honestly, like, and I don't want to be.

say anything bad about Dylan Raiola and he said he enjoyed coaching him. Andy, I know that podcasts live off drama and I don't like engaging in it. And it's maybe one of the things that hurts. You're going into Bravo show territory right now, but go ahead. Is that statement a slap in the face to Dylan Riala? Yes or no? If we were watching a Bravo show, there would be a music stinger after he said it. But I'm asking you, is that how you take that?

Of course it is. I don't know if that's like me just being dramatic because Britt and I stayed up till one in the morning last night watching the secret lives of Mormon wives which is by the way spicy as hell. A lot of cheating, a lot of sex, a lot of crazy stuff going on. But I don't know if I'm like in this dramatic phase in my head right now that I need to like get out

of her. If that's like, that's like, holy shit, I can't believe you said that. Well, that's why I brought up the bravo. I don't even watch those shows but I've watched it. I've watched them in the past and I know how they're structured. And that's one of those where if you were doing one of those shows you'd have Holgerson saying it you'd have a music stinger

and then you'd cut to a shot of Dylan Raola wherever he is and that's exactly what you do now I'm only interested in what this means going forward for Nebraska does this mean that they want a more dual threat quarterback I would argue that

Dylan Raola's mobility was a problem because no one was blocking for him let me get this straight. That would be me. Just because I'm in self-preservation mode here. You're telling me that the thing that got me completely torched and terrorized on Husker online for saying in the off season. Yeah. Is the thing that we're talking about escaping now? Am I on track there? Well, we're talking about escapability is one thing. We are trying, we're talking

about Nebraska escaping the inability to escape pressure. Correct. now again i would argue that part of that was because he was not being blocked for very well now you whether you're a nebraska fan or not may come back at me saying well wasn't his uncle the offensive line coach and isn't the firing of his uncle the offensive line coach a portion of this situation yeah it is so and i actually think that it's a lot it this is a bravo show by the way all doing dillon raola disservice though that if we didn't at least acknowledge that he got better at it because this freshman year there was somebody in his face he was

he was dead he was hold them all too long and he got he started to get it out and and I do think there's I don't think he's a lost cause I think there's a right type of team for him and a right type of offense for him he can be successful

yeah but you've got to protect him a little bit more than Nebraska did you know what I you know we we spent a lot of time in the offseason doing truck trailer deals and I think if you pay a ton of money for a quarterback you want a truck but I think Dylan Rayola is a trailer a really good trailer and I think that if you put him around people that can take the top off of a defense he can make the throws that you

need to make to get there I think if you you put him in an offense where you can do a shovel pass to a guy that's lined up in the slot who can make someone miss and go 80 that makes him far more dangerous I don't know if Dylan Rayola is the person that is going to will your your offense down the field based on, you know, putting your team on his shoulders and doing it himself. But I think he would be a very good complimentary piece to a team that's otherwise situated with a lot of good talent up front and one or two home run hitters around him. Like, I think he could be fine.

But like at the same time, how many quarterbacks in college football does that act like to describe? Anybody would be fine behind a great quarterback. You know, you know who's really mobile, who runs really well? who, when we had him on the show, we broke down one of his touchdown runs and the celebration afterwards. Yeah.

Brendan Sorsby. Yeah. And they've got a lot of tape on Brin Sorsby because they played him in the season opener. But I'm not sure that's who Nebraska's in the market for because it sounds like a lot of people are in the market for Brin Sorsby. I actually think that we're going to probably have a lot of discussions about this just in general in January because college football dominoes is,

or quarterback dominoes is what kind of drives a sport in that month. funny enough that's also the month of the national championship games played it but uh you know it i feel like every five years like we get we change what we need or what we think we need at the quarterback position because remember like when dashan watson and trevorrence and um those guys were winning national titles like i got it in my mind that you need to have a first round like joe burrow you need to have like a first round legit NFL talent quarterback to win a national title and then that kind of shifted a little bit and then stets and bennett won it right and then all of a sudden scrappy kid that doesn't have to have NFL arm strength but can escape pressure

make plays on his own but like here say what you want about that's that's that's in Bennett I know he was a walk on and I know that he wasn't a five star he was a hell of a college quarterback that freaking guy was awesome and I would say he was a truck was he a truck uh he didn't have to haul very much he had some help he had a lot of help especially on the other side of the ball but like uh yeah no there were plays that he made your jaw drop no and he he very much could make a play by himself if something broke down he could make something happen and that's important i think that's important in every level of football but like what do you need in 2025 at quarterback to win a national title because last year it doesn't have to be a guy

who who has lightning speed or can just run all over a defense it need you need to be escapable. You need to be movable, you know, mobile enough. But like even Peyton Manning in the NFL was mobile enough. If you can sense pressure and step away from it, that's mobile enough if you get the ball out in time and you're deadly accurate. I actually don't think we know if I'm being honest about what you need. Was Mac Jones mobile? I think it depends on not. He was mobile enough. Like I said, mobile enough. But Mac Jones, great example of a guy. guy who got the ball out exactly when it was supposed to be out and was deadly accurate. I think that if you look at all the way, because, like, Will Howard was mobile, and he won it

last year. And, like, I think that using the most recent example is most important because it's the closest to where we are. But I also think that your quarterback can be a different type of quarterback depending on who you have around him. And if you go looking around at the teams that won the national championship between the years 2016 and 2020, you had super teams, like with Devante Smith on the team and it's like, well, what you need from your quarterback isn't necessarily the same thing that somebody who doesn't have Devante Smith would need. Devante Smith made Mac Jones a much better quarterback. Kyle Pitts made Kyle Trask a much better quarterback. So I don't know, but like I wonder like in the same conversation of what do you need a quarterback and you create this

chart. Like maybe truck trailer is a good way of like how much money do you pay a person based on their ability to make plays on their own versus being a good complimentary piece and like that's the way you should look at it. Like does Dylan Rayo look at? I think you should evaluate it based on your own team and roster. And it's like you just said, it's what you put around them. So if you need the quarterback to do more, then you pay more.

If you need the quarterback to do less, then you pay less. How many starting quarterbacks on in college football last year? And this is going to come across as a insult to Will Howard. It's not meant to be. could have won a national championship as Ohio State's quarterback last year. I would venture to say you could come up with 50 names that could have done it.

Am I right about that? Yeah. When you get to go to Jeremiah Smith and hand off to Quintan Judkins and Trayvion and Henderson and you have first round offensive linemen blocking for you, yeah. There's a lot of quarterbacks you can succeed. College quarterback who could run.

He made plays on his own. I'm not trying to say he wasn't good. So all you need is a national championship roster. but that's the thing and this is the part where you're missing the point most teams don't have that so now you need to get the best quarterback you can to elevate the rest of the roster which this funny because if you're spending like duke spent national championship money on their quarterback last year and they won a conference championship which is something they have not done since 1989 so if you're spending that much money

it gets back to an entirely different discussion of like, are you best served as Duke to spread four million around to make your roster better or is it best to spend it on a quarterback? I don't know. Like, it's a philosophical debate. I think the special quarterback elevates a roster considerably. But if you've already got the roster

that can win you a national championship, then you don't need the super special quarterback. The translation to that is if you're already Alabama or Georgia, then you spend less on your quarterback because you don't need quite as much out of them. And if you are Duke, you spend more. And if you're Nebraska, you probably also spend more. I don't think Nebraska is in the point where it can spend less yet. They don't have the pieces around the quarterback.

Ari, if you'd like to attend any of these college football playoff games that we're talking about, you can't. We're about to talk about the Pop-Tarts Bowl. You can go to the Pop-Tarts bowl with Game Time. Whatever game you want, whatever concert you want, whatever comedy show you want, Game Time has your tickets. Download the GameTime app, use the code Staples, and get $20 off your first purchase. If you want to go to Norman and watch Alabama play against Oklahoma, or you want to go to College Station and watch Texas A&M in Miami,

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As promised, we're going to talk Pop-Tarts Bowl. So this is from our friends at Blue and Gold. That's our Notre Dame site. And on the message board of blue and gold, they came across the video that the Pop-Tarts Bowl posted of Brent Key, the Georgia Tech coach, and Kalani Sataki, the BYU-YU coach, having a little fun with the trophy for the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

The trophy for the Pop-Tarts Bowl is, of course, a working toaster as well as being a trophy. Producer River, can you please play that video? And then right here, you push your button. What is you doing? Let's get together. Okay, one, two, three. There we go.

You can eat them without toasting them too. I don't know if I've toasted in years. Yeah, I just... It should be worn. It is. Oh, wow. Are we supposed to eat this? If you want.

No, I would like to. I'm not going to turn it down. Yeah. And for real? It is the most delicious. trophy I've ever had. This is a great trope the human version. Yeah, you get to eat the anthropomorphic mascot at the end if you win.

But Kalani Sataki, former fullback, Brent Key, former offensive lineman, housing pop tarts. And the thread on blue and gold, of course, is, could you imagine Marcus Freeman doing this? The insinuation here is that Marcus Freeman is too. dignified to House of Pop-Tart after Notre Dame was jilted and left out of the college football playoff. You remember my rant from the day after they announced the bowls, and I said... I do.

I do, and it's the first thing I thought of. Refresh the memories. Well, a lot of people are like, does your co-host even like college football? So then I'll just ask you, does anybody on Notre Dame's thread like college football? Like, I just understand that with the position that they were in, that the grab-ass

involved of going to the Pop-Tarts Bowl, is not necessarily the cure for that. Like, I don't know. Right. If they had lost a third game in the regular season and just been out of it. Yeah. They would be all in on this. They would be dying to eat the,

the Pop-Tarts mascot after it went through the giant toaster at the end of the game. And Marker Freeman was a linebacker, but that dude is like ripped. So I can't picture him eating sugar in general, let alone. Kalani Sataki, an untoasted Pop-Tarts guy. What are you? Are you a toasted or? untoasted guy. I'm toasted only. I'm untoasted only in desperation situations. Yeah, I mean, I ate a few of them. They had a Pop-Tarts bowl display at Big 12 Media Day. And I had a Pop-Tart. It was the first

pop-tart I've had in years. But like I got it and I ate it raw and it was good. But everything's better toasted. It's fine. Raw. It's amazing toasted. Yeah. And I think there does need to be something to be said about how pop tarts, you know, had a first quarter threat from the toaster strudel people, and then it turned into a blowout. Like, the toaster strudel is like dead, right? Do people still buy those? I think they still exist, but they don't have a bowl game. Yeah, like, but I don't, I couldn't tell you, like, I see people, like, they sell Pop Tarts in gas stations and stuff. Like, I see Pop Tarts everywhere. Oh, yeah.

This is kind of like a Blimpie subway scenario here. It's like Blimpies do have a few locations, but, like, there were. was once a battle of which substop was going to win, Pop-Tarts blew out Toaster Strudel. Oh, destroyed them. I also feel like Toaster Strudel with the little packet you have to, and the packet never rips correctly, and you end up with icing all over your hands. So Pop-Tarts, just a more convenient snack in general. Yeah.

And you know what? We just spent three minutes talking about Pop-Tarts on our show and they didn't pay us. They're getting money. That's why you did this. Yeah. And I always appreciate when snacks that aren't good for you or breakfasts that wouldn't be deemed as, like, health conscious, like, survive the fray because I think we need more crap food out there. You know what I mean? I think these health people are taking this a little bit too far.

These marathoners shut down my entire neighborhood on Sunday, and I'm still mad about it. You're still mad at them. Yeah. Listen, they can eat as many pop tarts as they want. You know how many cowers you burn running 26.2 miles? I'm surprised you didn't yell. Well, then don't buy a house around a lake. Yes, Pop-Tarts Bowl, by the way, December 27th,

BYU is a four-and-a-half-point favorite. We will not do the match. What if Notre Dame had played BYU? We're not doing that. Well, here's the young people. The Notre Dame people are going to be all holier than now about this and think they're too good for Pop-Tarts and be like, see, we got out of all this grab-ass.

We're too dignified for that. I get it. You're still mad. I think that's what also makes people generally not like Notre Dame because do you think that you're the only team that's disappointed? Like, do you don't think that you're disappointed? They feel the same way you do.

Yeah. Georgia Tech and BYU were both teams that figured into the national championship, or sorry, the CFP discussion in November. Like, you're not the only ones that got left out. And BYU has a pretty strong case for being upset. You know, their strength of schedule, like, I don't know that I'm, like, losing sleep over it, but they had good strength of schedule and wins.

I think that you could make the case that BYU had a stronger resume than Notre Dame. So, like, and they're eating Pop-Tarts. So, like, why are you too good for it? Like, I think that they're not even toasting the Pop-Tarts, according to Kalani Sataki. So, like, I understand, and like, Pete Sampson wrote a story in The Athletic. I'm sure you read it because Pete's awesome. But he basically, like, wrote out a list of guys that may have or would have opted out. and it was like a list of 15 or 20 guys like and I understand you know but then save us the bull about like oh we're going to stick it to the TV people it's like if you think that everyone's just not going to play in the game and it's not worth going that's completely different than the narrative that was spun which is you know we're doing this to get back at the at the TV networks like that's not what happened here what happened here was disappointed nobody was going to play in it you didn't want to play sometimes you just want pop tarts all right before we move on to a thread from the Wolverine that's our

a Michigan site about you guessed at the Michigan coaching search. We're going to talk about our friends at Panini. Panini America.net is the place to go to collect your favorite college and NFL stars. And I want to bring up a card you showed on yesterday's show. That would be the Quinn Ewer's booklet because Quinn Ewers, as of today, is a starting quarterback in the National Football League. I'm excited to see that. Yeah.

So there's the, there's the photo. Really cool. Quinn Ewer's booklet, him and his Texas uniform, he's autographed. This is the kind of cool stuff that you can get from Panini. It's not just the guys in the NFL now. It's guys from when they were in college and you can get cool patches, autographs. There's so much cool stuff available. So go to Panini for America.net to start your collection today.

And maybe you pull something like this, which Ari doesn't have it with him anymore because he got it. on eBay and in the mail very quickly because there's never been a better time to sell a Quinn Ewer's card because Quinn Ewer's, again, starting NFL quarterback who hasn't played a game yet. That's a starting NFL quarterback rookie numbered card. And if you think you're a Quinn Ewer's person, I mean, that's part of the game, right? Are you a holder? Are you a, you know, I don't know that I believe that he's going to be a 10-year starter in the league. But you know what? He was really good in college. the way you don't it you don't have to collect like me you can keep everything like i sell and trade and

i do all these things i love ripping the wax uh personally and you know trying to make the most of my investments and that's fun for me um but that's the thing i love about the hobby and one thing i wanted to say about that card and i would suggest it to every single college athlete who uh does a signature when you include your number in your signature i think that is badass like if i was like a good enough player to ever like have a number like that like i would put it in my signature too. Look at that. Always. Absolutely. It's a beautiful thing. Panini America.net is where you go to start your collection today. Thank you to Panini for sponsoring this show. Love you, Panini. Now, back to the megaboard. We go to the Wolverine. That's our

Michigan site. Jacksgo Blue 16 posted this this week. The headline of it is, let's just say Bama loses. And the next line of it is, and we get Kailen DeBoer, does Bama go after Davo or Dillingham? What if they win? Does Brent Fidables come into play? Let me translate that question for you. What this person is asking is if Alabama beats Oklahoma, will Michigan then go after Brent Venables? That's where the Michigan coaching search is now, folks.

by the way as we were recording yesterday going live Kenny Dillingham made a very interesting remark and you had a great column about it yes and I think we should talk about that for like three seconds because I thought it was really in a very important thing but yes you know Kenny Dillingham and I'll go pull up my column here because I did write about it

and was asked about social media and like how Arizona State fans are in a tizzy right now worried about whether he's going to be there long term and they asked one of the reporters there who cut right to the heart of the issue and I appreciate that I don't know who asked it but they asked the perfect question at the right time well since we're talking about social media would you like to take this opportunity to ease the minds of your fans and Kenny Dillingham wrote or said back and I'm going to read the quote I think my job is to do whatever I can for the people who are with me the people in the foxhole the coaches in the foxhole with me

I got to do whatever I can to fight for those people, for my family, for everything from that perspective. I love it here. I've said that since day one, and that's absolutely never changing, which I thought was the absolute perfect threading of the needle for any coach that's in Kenny Dillingham's shoes. And I want to, like, give him a round of applause because he's 35 years old. And this is a carousel veteran move because what did he do there, Andy? He did two things. One, he left the door open of didn't go quite as sternly as Kaelin DeBoer did, right? He didn't say, I'm not interested and I'm not interested in having a discussion with anybody.

I'm staying here. I'm happy here. I'm focused on here. That read to me, if you're signaling to Michigan people, hey, buddy, phones working, paid my bill. Give me a call. Let's talk this thing through. And then on the other hand, reiterated to Arizona State that this would be a good time for you to pay me more money and pay my staff more money and give us more resources to build it how we want to build it. So I don't know how Kenny Dillingham is going to, how this is all going to shake out,

or if he becomes a more sought after or more serious candidate, if Kailin Dabor says no or wins the game on Saturday. But from a negotiation standpoint, he played that like a Hall of Fame master class, right? Like, that was perfect. And I think that if you're Michigan, that is the bad signal of like, hey, I'm willing to have a conversation. Did I interpret that correctly? I think you did. And I think it's different than what Kalin DeBoer said.

And so the person who posted the thread, their assumption is that Kalen DeBoer will just jump to Michigan if he loses. I don't think that's the case. Right. I think that the Kalen-Divore thing is starting to irritate me. Like, it's like, I don't think it's happening and we keep talking about it or people keep talking about it as if, like, if he loses, he's going to Michigan. Like, I don't think if he loses, he's going to Michigan, Andy. Like, maybe I'm naive. So he got to ask a question about whether he'll be Alabama's coach next season.

This is during the press conference. And he says, all right, I put out a statement yesterday. This is in the Monday press conference. I put on a statement yesterday because first of all, our guys handled distractions phenomenally. It's been that way all season long. They continue to do that. But I also knew yesterday and today was pretty important.

I wasn't going to see you until today to address it. That's why I put it out there. A lot of the same things I said before a couple weeks ago and asked really the same question. He's talking about the Penn State question. Just feel completely supported. my family loves living here, just all the things that we continue to build on. I love the progress.

I haven't talked with anyone. No plans of talking with anyone. Now, you can wiggle out of that. I think that's a lot of what I said a couple weeks ago and it continues to be the same thing. Feel strong about it are guys, if there's any distraction, I haven't seen it, I haven't felt it. And so I'm really proud of the way they've handled whatever noise is out there. Okay, so he gets asked again, Charlie Potter from Bama Online goes, will you be Alabama's coach next season?

yes Charlie yes is what he said yeah that is different than what Kenny Dillingham said no Kenny Dillingham took the scenic route yeah and listen even if you have full intention of staying you gain nothing by saying it the way that

you know, he did the way that Kailin Dabor did. Now, my assumption or my thought or suspicion at least. I think they're already down the road on another deal for Kailin Dabor. So that's why he can say it. He's already not in what he needs in order to feel comfortable saying that. Kenny Dillingham should be fighting for every cent that he can get from a support standpoint, whether that be into his pocket or his staff's pocket. Like I actually thought that he was quite frank about his like negotiation tactic in the answer.

His responsibility is to take care of the people in the foxhole with him, which means it's my responsibility to squeeze out every last droplet or every cent out of the rag that I can right now so the people on my staff and the people in the foxhole with me can be more well off or more taken care of. And then I also think, too, that maybe this circles the wagons, a little bit around Arizona State football and a more stringent support for the program and the players that will be playing for him. So, like, even if he has no interest in ever,

leaving Arizona State, which, by the way, through this behavior, there should be doubt on that. You still have to do this to play your leverage because leverage is rare in life. And when you have it, you should try to make the most of it. And I think he's done a good job of that. That doesn't mean that I think he's leaving. I think he did a good job of making the most of the situation that he's in right now. So I think, Caitlin, DeBore's thing is similar, where everybody, everybody's assuming if it's a new deal with Alabama,

it's for more money. And maybe it is for more money, but it also might be for more NIL money. It might be for more money for staff. And that's why you string this out. And although I think Kailen DeBore has done as much as he humanly can do to poo-poo this, it

sounds like Michigan's going to wait and see what what he wants to do anyway. I'm a little confused about, and you're better at this. I know Pete Nacos at back-channeling agent discussions that are happening behind the scenes, that you know are beneath the waters but we're not looking there or like as a fan you're not in the water like engaged in you're not thinking about in those terms yeah the thing that is

kind of confusing me and you can walk me through this as if i'm five years old but if kalan nebore's representation has been alerted of his intentions and they're all on the same page of Alabama uh is the place and it's going to be the place he is staying there he has no intention of leaving the act of waiting for the game to conclude seems kind of like a waste of time and stupid to me well also you can't but but the thing is you can't control what michigan does if michigan wants to wait and you're jimmy sexton or you're davis horton these are the two agents who work with kail and aboard c a if michigan has indicated it will wait and is willing to wait to see what happens with this game to talk to your guy your job

is to keep all lines of communication open because it means more money down the road eventually. However, you get it. Yeah. Because your job's to make the most money for your client. That's your job. Michigan, through this behavior, has illustrated that they do not believe the words coming out of his mouth.

Correct. So if Michigan itself, the entity, the administration, the people who are stroking the checks don't believe it, then why would their fans? Exactly. And look, whatever. will happen will happen. My guess is whatever will happen quickly after the game on Friday. And I don't think it'll be Kalin DeBoer coaching Michigan. Now, I think it's funny

that our poster here on the board thinks suddenly they might, like if Alabama wins and all of a sudden Oklahoma is out of the playoff, that they just suddenly shift to Brent Venables. I mean, the thing that had been scratching my head more than anything is that Davo's name keeps popping up on these threads. Yeah, guys, Davo's not getting hired by anybody else. He's not earning the paycheck at Clemson right now. Yeah. So nobody's going to hire him for the same amount of money to coach somewhere else when he's not performing commensurate with his salary at Clemson.

Yeah. And Davo isn't a quick fix guy. That's the other thing. It took him years to build Clemson and do a juggernaut during the old days. And he certainly isn't a portal pistol popper, you know? That was a... Well, he just said they're going to do it the right way and wait until January 2nd. yeah but he's not like a i'm guessing they're going to do it like everybody else but that's just

if you want a good steward of a program and somebody that you think is going to stabilize a place and be consistently good over a long period of time i think dabbo would be a tremendous higher um at the right price and i don't think that anyone's in the market for that person right now though everyone's in the market for the program savior that's going to win big immediately and if you're going to pay what dabbo gets paid now and look if you're dabbo you're not leaving clemson for a lower job because that would be stupid so no one is going to pay him what they made what he makes now unless it's to win national titles yeah that's the whole point interesting about dabbo is if they have another year next year that is similar to this year like how far away are we from clompson

finding a new coach like are we three years i think if their year is like this year then there will be serious discussions at the end of next season. Yeah. So, but as far as Michigan goes, I know I don't think they would shift to Venables if Alabama beats Oklahoma. I think Dillingham's on the list. I think Clark Lee's on the list. I think Jed Fish is on the list.

Let me throw another one out there because we talked about Jesse Mentor, former Michigan defensive coordinator still working with Jim Harbaugh. And we've talked about both of us have agreed they probably should. just move on from the harbaugh tree but can i ask you one one can i just throw this out there yeah there's been some rumblings about john and the ravens john harbaugh and the ravens what if michigan instead of saying we're out of the harbaw business was like john harbaugh come on down that's that's a wild wild wild but somewhat understandable thought process he won a super bowl I don't think they would do that.

I don't think John is leaving the Ravens after this year anyway. I watched this YouTube video last night of Jim Harbaugh driving around Malibu with someone else. Judge Judy? No, he was driving around Malibu and a Porsche with somebody or something. I can't remember. It was scrolling. I didn't watch the whole thing. But they showed clips of him.

hugging his brother after the Super Bowl. And I got to say, of all the shitty things that you would have to live life through, like losing the Super Bowl to your brother has got to be the worst thing in the world, right? Because like you're so close to achieving like the peak of football lore. And like the emotional aspect of like my brother gets that and I don't would be wild. The anonymous person, you couldn't remember him driving around Malibu. with, by the way. Did you figure it out?

Yeah, Peyton Manning. It was Peyton Manning. Okay. Did you Google? Did you just YouTube search it real quick? Yeah. Jim Harbaugh-Malaboo. Pretty simple.

Yeah. And what was he driving? It was a sick car. It came up on my classic car YouTube algorithm. Yeah, it's a pretty nice looking car. But I don't think they continue in the Harbaugh business. I think it does happen fairly quickly. Because I think they asked a board and he's like, no, I told you, I was staying in Alabama.

And then they move on to the rest of the list. And somebody on the rest of the list, whether that's Kenny Dillingham, Clark Lee, Jed Fish, is going to say yes. Yeah. I don't know who that's going to be. That's what happens. But I think Kenny Dillingham would be a interesting candidate. And I can't wait to see how that plays out. And good for you for playing your heart.

Drinkwitz, that's another one. Again, we talked about it yesterday. I know you all hate him. You wouldn't if he was your coach. Just throwing that out. Yep. Oh, Michigan, Ohio State would be spectacular with Eli Drinkwitz coaching one of the teams. Yeah, like Jim Harbaugh got disrespectful.

I don't know if Eli Drinkwitz would be disrespectful. He'd be highly disrespectful, but funny. Yeah, I don't know if he would attack humans on a personal level the way that Harbaugh did. I think if he got mad at them, he would. Yeah. Maybe I want to resume his headiness. We stand on business, Josh. Yeah, that's like benign compared to saying someone was born on third base, I think.

But, like, I only make the point of like, he said it to his face. I think that probably counts for more. Yeah, that does count for more. But like when you think about what the Ohio State Michigan game had two years ago, not this past one or three years ago the camera scandal one who was Ryan Day

not being able to beat Michigan it was the born on third And Sharon Moore is the As the Roan Moore stuff It was acting coach Yeah You want to talk about like a supercharged Like feelings narrative game

I don't think that Ohio State will ever be able to do that again with Michigan Like I don't think you can ever get that much juiciness into one matchup But Eli come on down and try I mean I want you to try Yeah. Well, we got to convince the Michigan fans of this.

We got to get them on board. I don't know if we can. The funny thing about coaching hires is that they don't really have a choice unless you're in Knoxville. So, you know, you might just be along for the ride. What a segue, Ari, because our last megaboard thread is from our friends at ValQuest. Okay.

Austin Price, the excellent reporter at BallQuest, posted a thread called Some QB Thoughts. And it's a question about. what does Tennessee do at quarterback next year? Because obviously, Joey Aguilar is out of eligibility. Brendan Sorsby is in the portal. And Austin makes a very interesting case for Tennessee trying to go after Brendan Sorsby. Is Brendan Sorsby like a moderately better version of Joey Aguilar?

I don't know. I don't know if I'd say moderately better because it's hard to say if he's better or equal or not as good because he played in the Big 12 and obviously Joey Aguilar did what he did in the SEC. I thought Joey Aguilar was really good this year. But I look at Brennan Sorsby's skill set and you put him with better receivers and more athletic offensive linemen and I bet he's pretty damn good. Yeah, he, uh, I think we should take 30 seconds. and still, like, give Joey Aguilar a round of applause.

Yeah, he was awesome. You know, when you think about the narrative of everything that was going on at the time, like there was like this week where it felt like Tennessee was screwed, right? They were far from crude. He played beautifully for them, I think. Now, was he the best quarterback in the country? No, no. But, you know, he gave Tennessee production that was even lacking when Nico was there.

And I thought that it was very exciting football for a large portion of the year. I thought he did a really good job. I do think that Tennessee should be in the market for a big, big catch here, though. But let me, let me stop you there because Tennessee just signed George McIntyre in Nashville. He was redshirting this year. I don't think Jake Merklinger is in the future plans, but Faison Brandon most certainly feels like he's in the future plans.

That's the five-star quarterback that Tennessee just signed. Yep. And this is, this gets to the heart of what we're talking. about with these quarterbacks in the portal. And do you go for the veteran, the Brendan Sorsby, the proven type, the Sam Levitt type? Or do you pay the five star, have him come play immediately? Or do you go get the veteran, have the five star waiting? That would be what Ohio State did with Will Howard and Julian Sayan sitting there in the wings.

What's the right move here? Who signed first? I don't remember who signed first. Sayin or Howard? I can't remember who was first on the scene. I don't know if that matters, but I assume that Tennessee opened the pocketbook up. Howard was first.

So Howard committed to Ohio State on January 4th, 2024. Nick Saban was still coaching Alabama. That's what I thought. Now, the thing that gets interesting is, do you do anything if you're Tennessee that would potentially sever or not sever disrupt ties with the player you just opened your checkbook for? And like, is Faison Brandon going to be the this year's Bryce Underwood?

Well, the thing about it, though, is if you've got a guy who is on his last year of eligibility, if that's who you're bringing in, then it should be a signal to your five star that it's yours next year. Yeah. Right. One year rental, I think, plays better than dude with multiple years left to start over you. What's the healthiest way to do it? I don't know. But like, phase on brand the healthiest way if you, if you've got an unlimited checkbook, which that may be the case with Tennessee, is you get the one, the one year remaining really proven guy and. tell the five star it's your it's your team next year and then that gives you the season to figure out if it really is your team next year um but then you also put yourself in a position if you're Tennessee though where you have a sunken cost of the money you're spending on that player the way they did with Nico for an entire year and then they didn't get their their money back unless

you think it worked out because they made the playoff so like I don't know did did Tennessee's investment in Nico Iamalia pay itself back or do you think that they have like they made the playoff yes I'd say it I'd say it paid off Because, like, you can argue that he wasn't the real reason they made the playoff, but a worst quarterback and they may lose one more game and they don't make the playoff. Yeah, Faison Brandon, it's important to point out, it's like 6-4 and as like a massive human was a top 10 player nationally. So this isn't just like any five-star. This is like a person who's got an NFL body. So like I don't know like what the expectations are.

Exactly as an NFL body. How'd that work out. I know. I'm just saying like if, you. you think about types of freshmen that could conceivably start and play at a high level. Brendan Sorsby also has an NFL body, so that that's, and you know he, you know he can do it at this level. I think what I'm trying to make a case is that, you know who doesn't have an NFL body?

Nico Yamaliyava, or he didn't when he got there. Didn't when he got there, yeah. Yeah, so like the need for the year might not be there in a way that it was when Nico showed up. Yeah. And I think it's a fascinating conversation because this is not just a Tennessee conversation. This is an everybody conversation. For sure. This is a philosophical and structural conversation of how do you spend your money? Because in college football, you pay, like if we're using NFL equivalence, you're paying free agent top dollar money for a five-star quarterback prospect. Yes. but chances are you're paying it for that person to not play the difference in the NFL now like

it didn't used to be this way like in the NFL it used to be you had to negotiate with the first draft pick and they finally stopped it after the San Bradford contract because the veterans were all like what the hell's going on here this guy's getting so much guaranteed money yeah but it used to be you'd sink those costs if you didn't play that guy right away yeah they don't do that now Now, like when the Chiefs had Patrick Rahms on the bench for his rookie season behind Alex Smith, they were paying him a very cost-controlled amount. And it's a much safer play that way. Now, in college, you are paying top dollar if you have that five-star prospect sitting on the bench. And I don't think it's worth it.

Yeah. You want to be paying top dollar to people who impact the games. Yes. I want to pay top dollar to an offensive tackle to a defensive tackle that will help me win right now. Yeah. But, you know, I still think that there's always going to be a market for Faison Brandon. Always. There will. There will. And that's the question. I do think, again, it's up to Tennessee. And if you have the money, you do both.

Tennessee strikes me as one that has the money. Yep. So it's a tough decision, but it's one of the, I'm fascinated to see how this, how this, how this all works going for because I think this is a this has been an unusual cycle with quarterbacks and we're learning things every day and we're going to learn a lot more when we see who takes whom in January who pays up who doesn't who's like we're going to go with the guys we signed out of high school we're going to learn a lot I guess we'll find out what Tennessee is going to do Ari it's been an absolute pleasure love the mega board

Love those on three message boards because it's just so much fun talking about the stuff that matters to you guys and seeing how passionate you guys are on the message board. So I love that. Wednesday is my favorite show of the week. You want to know why? Because it's like five mini shows of great discussion about pertinent topics that, like, I love being guided by that because I felt like we had really good discussion about a bunch of different things that, like, pertains. everybody and it's a very smooth like i really enjoy doing today's show i just wanted to tell you that yeah i love it too and and so keep posting on those on three message boards if you're not a member of on three yet but you want to be now's the time go to on three dot com slash join and

you get your favorite team site coverage you get to be on the message board of your favorite team you get to read the message boards of your rivals see what's bugging them shed and you go needle them a little bit yeah it's a lot of fun it's it's the most fun you can have with your pants on so join on three that's going to be our new slogan by the way or our tagline wow yeah i actually think you should write that down on three dot com slash join tomorrow we have a very special guest kacy smith from barstool will join us she's an aggie we'll see how she's feeling going into the moment where the aggies have a chance to grab legitimacy to win a game in the college football

playoff, the thing that has alluded them for so long, they're right there now. We'll see if she's nervous. But we'll also talk the rest of college football playoff. And dear Andy, dear Ari, get those questions to us. You know where to find us. Andy Stapleson3 at gmail.com.

Ari. Dot wasterman at on3.com. And Ari's just laughing about my... Oh, got him, bags! We'll talk to tomorrow. Hey.