Andy & Ari On3 - Does Vegas know something we don't about the Oklahoma Sooners in 2024? | Checking in on LSU and FSU

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

This show is sponsored by Fanduel, America’s No. 1 sports book. Visit fanduel.com/Staples to sign up. And right now, NEW customers get $200 in BONUS BETS with a $5 bet! The college football win totals for the 2024 season just dropped, so sign up today.(0:00-4:31) Intro - Jaxson Dart's New Deal(4:32-28:48) SoonerScoop's Eddie Radosevich and George Stoia III Join(28:49-31:36) JD PicKell joins(31:37-45:59) Brian Kelly and LSU Look Ahead with JD(46:00-51:29) Excitement over EA Sports Video Game(51:30-1:04:11) Mike Norvell and Florida State with JD(1:04:12-1:06:09) Conclusion - Dear Andy tomorrow! Send your questions to [e-mail] friends at Fanduel set the over/under on Oklahoma’s win total at 7.5 — and some books had the Sooners as low as 6.5 at first. Do the folks in the desert have an inkling about how Oklahoma’s first season in the big, bad SEC will go? Or are they perhaps underestimating how good the Sooners will be in their first season in their new league?Eddie Radosevich and George Stoia III of On3’s SoonerScoop join Andy to discuss one of the more interesting win totals of the season. They dive into Oklahoma’s schedule and examine which young players could make an early impact.Next up, On3’s J.D. PicKell visits to discuss his recent interviews with LSU coach Brian Kelly and Florida State coach Mike Norvell.Kelly lost a Heisman Trophy-winning QB and his offensive coordinator and had to fire his defensive coordinator. Can LSU be competitive again in the SEC after all those changes?Meanwhile, Norvell had to dramatically reshape his roster after losing the core of a team that went 13-0 and won the ACC before getting shut out of the College Football Playoff. Can Norvell work his magic in the transfer portal again?Subscribe to On3! ⬇️ youtube.com/on3sports/?sub_confirmati...Welcome to On3 | The best of college football and recruiting https://www.on3.com/Listen to Andy Staples On3 on podcast!Spotify 🎧 : https://open.spotify.com/show/5AhQ4d2m5TQu5Q2vkwtxjt?si=d9016221aa2a4427Apple🍎:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/andy-staples-on3/id1695325427Follow Andy Staples on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Andy_StaplesFollow Andy Staples on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andy_staplesFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/on3sportsFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/on3/Like/Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/On3Sports/

Welcome to Andy Staples on three and yes, Jera in the chat, there will be sooner talk while you get coffee. Because we are going to finally examine that win total for the 2024 Oklahoma Sooners. FanDuel's got it at seven and a half. There were places when those initially dropped where it was six and a half. What does Vegas know that we don't? In a matter of moments, we will be joined by Eddie Radosevich and George Stoy, the third of Sooner Scoop, to get to the bottom of this number and decide, is it a good number? Is it an accurate number? Or are they going to try to let you make some money off this thing? Because that's what it screamed to me.

They want somebody to make some money. It's interesting because if you look at the other numbers around the country, there's some really optimistic numbers. There's a lot of eight and a half, nine and a half for teams where you're like, okay, nine wins would be a great season for this team. Eight wins for Oklahoma. I think they'd be pretty unhappy with Brent Venables if they go eight and four, but you cash your ticket.

So that's where things get kind of interesting there. So we're going to talk about that in a couple of minutes. We do not have any court storming discussion today because the road teams kicked butt on Tuesday night. Texas went to Lubbock and beat Texas Tech. BYU went to Lawrence and beat Kansas. Kentucky, Mississippi State hits a three to go ahead in the closing seconds, but Reed Shepard hits the floater in the lane to win the game for the Wildcats at the hump in Starkville. So no court storming because the road teams were kicking butt. So we don't have to talk about that today. It's great. It's great because I think we've made our point on the court storming. Take a second before you run out there. Don't interact

with the players. Have fun. Leave your phone in your pocket until you get to midcourt. Easy, easy. Also, before we get to that Oklahoma chat, got a big NIL deal. Our guy Pete Nacos broke this story on Tuesday. Jackson Dart, the Ole Miss quarterback, has an NIL deal with a private jet company. That's pretty sweet. And I would imagine this is a trade. This is like the old local radio host does the trade with the local car dealer where they get a lease and they get to drive something pretty nice for a little while. That feels like what this is. I would imagine there's some jet time, some hours. They do it in hours for Jackson Dart, which is pretty sweet. Especially if you're calling up your girlfriend,

like, hey, you want to go to dinner in LA tonight? I got a private jet. Come on. Second best response to Pete's story was somebody who said, this is Taylor Swift's next boyfriend. That one got a laugh from Lane Kiffin. The best response to Pete's story though came from Team Athlete Lab, which is an agency. It's a good deal, but did Dart get paid in tacos like Cal Poly All-Conference Long Snapper Cruz Rubio did?

I don't know. Getting paid in tacos is pretty sweet, but you know what's better than getting paid in tacos? Getting paid in private jet time. That is how you get paid, everybody. Jackson Dart sauntering off the private jet in the ad. What a deal. What a life. Big expectations. Big expectations at Ole Miss. Not huge expectations, at least from Vegas, for the Oklahoma Sooners. And I don't understand it.

And I've been talking about this for weeks. And I've been promising you, we're going to bring the guys from Sooners Group on and talk about this. And now it is time to do that. It's time to have that conversation. Because when I saw that seven and a half win total on FanDuel, I'm like, whoa, blinking red lights.

What is going on here? What are we talking about? Let us get to the bottom of it. Here are Eddie Radosevich and George Stoya from Soonerscoop. We've been talking about it for weeks. Now it's finally time to address the elephant in the room. Eddie Radosevich and George Stoya III from Sooner Scoop join. We've been, FanDuel dropped these win totals. And for the most part, they seem fairly optimistic. You know, you see like Kansas State at eight and a half. You see like Arizona at eight and a half.

And then you get to Oklahoma. And it's at seven and a half. And it actually opened at six and a half. Boys, what does Vegas know about this that we don't i you know look i think they just look at it like a lot of ou fans do and even us it's treacherous it's it's look there's a lot of wins on there i think you can look at non-conference especially and say okay they should they should go four and oh and non-conference you-0 in non-conference. Their toughest non-conference game, I think, is Houston or Temple. They get Maine at home in the middle of the season, which will be nice. But I think that you look at some of those conference games

and they've got to go to Oxford. They got to go to Columbia and play a Missouri team that seems to now be somewhat of a rival. You've got to finish the season, Alabama at LSU, obviously early in the season, Tennessee and Auburn and the Texas game is always one of those toss up games. I think you just look at it and you're like, there's a lot of games. Look, you could, you could convince me, oh, you could win 10 games, right? But you could also lose five or six games. And to piggyback on George, I think that there's just so much unknown about Oklahoma going into the SEC. Not only unknown in terms of the teams that they're going to be playing, but there's unknown.

I think that everybody around here feels like Jackson Arnold is going to be a pretty good quarterback. Everything's going to be pretty good offensively. But then again, you come up with the questions on the offensive line and competing in the SEC where you have to be good on the, you be good on the defensive line and the offensive line. So I understand a little bit of trepidation as far as Vegas goes, just in terms of what Oklahoma is going to be. You look at, you know, obviously the market improvement in year number two under Brent, they went in the right direction.

But I think there's a lot of people from a national perspective that also look at it and go, yeah, but they didn't play for a big 12 title. They didn't get to the top of the big 12 conference and what was considered probably a little bit of a down year. So there's a lot of question marks, but if you ask us, you know, certainly around Norman and those that are closer to the program, there is a, I think a little slight optimism that maybe seven and a half could be on the low side next season yeah i listen i'm always gonna give oklahoma the benefit of the doubt just like

i'm always gonna give ohio state the benefit of the doubt the those are the two most consistent programs in the history of college football and oklahoma you know like ohio state's never been bad oklahoma had the the mid to late nineties basically. And that's it. Yeah. Now granted Brent Venables first year didn't go the way they wanted it to, but they rebound with a double digit win season. They beat Texas. That's my thing. This is, it feels to me like people going, Oh, the big bad SEC is going to eat them up. The big eight didn't eat them up. The big 12 didn't eat them up. I just feel like well-run organizations are well-run organizations and don't stop being well-run organizations when they move around. And I would say too,

the expectation as much as I think outside seven and a half wins. And I think a lot of people would be like, well, if OU went eight and four next year, that'd be a successful season. I think the expectation around here is to win 10 games next year and, and sneak into the 12 team playoff. Like I think that that's a very realistic expectation for Oklahoma next season. And, and I think that, you know, with Brent Venables and the amount of guys they're bringing back on defense, there's a, there's a level of of expectation that they're going to be really good

on that side of the ball. It's like Eddie said on offense, what does it look like? And I still think that Jackson Arnold can be one of the better quarterbacks in the country next year in his first year. But again, there's just so many question marks, and you look at the schedule, and that's where it's like, okay, well, how good is Missouri really going to be? How good is Ole Miss going to be? I know there's a lot of hype around them. You know, I think the Alabama game all of a sudden gets a little bit easier, but it's still

going to be a really tough game. Uh, even though they have a new coaching staff and some, and some roster turnover, the LSU game at the end of the season, I think a lot of people have tallied up as maybe an automatic loss. I I'm not so sure. You never know by the end of the season what that looks like. But I also look at the schedule and say, oh, you should start five and oh. I look at Temple, Houston, Tulane, Tennessee, and then at Auburn. Those are five games that I think OU is going to be favored in all five. And then all of a sudden you had the Texas kind of like last year where you have a chance to be six and oh and really kind of enter yourself into that national title playoff type contender? You know, last year's a really interesting case study too, just in terms

of if you would have asked anybody at the beginning of the season, if Oklahoma finished the regular season in the Big 12 at 10-2, would that be a marketed improvement from what your number one was under Brent? I think everybody would have said, yeah, sign me up for it right now, considering where they were coming from after the six and seven season. But then they did go beat Texas. And all of a sudden, I think that everybody knows the general narrative coming out of Dallas was not only is Oklahoma going to make a run at the Big 12 championship, they were going to make a run at the college football playoff championship.

Dylan Gabriel was going to be in New York City by the end of the season. And then with the two missteps in Lawrence, as well as still water, I think it just, everything kind of came crashing back down. It's how they lost those games. Sure. Sure. I, it wasn't that they just went and, you know, lost on some fluke play or something like that. I mean, they just, they melted down in both. There was their offensive, uh, problems, situations that arose in both of those games. And let's not make the Mississippi State fans mad now. Yeah, and I love Jeff Levy. I think he's going to do a great job down in Starkville.

It is interesting to look at the narrative around what Oklahoma's yet second year under Brent was. It was probably better than maybe even the Oklahoma fan would want to admit, considering where they were coming from and all of the close games that they lost in year number one and the penalties and turnovers and things like that. And even though they still were evident in the losses, I think the improvement from year number one to year number two, if you can continue that trajectory, I think Oklahoma fans will like where they're at.

And certainly you got to get in recruiting and all that kind of stuff to kind of keep up with everybody that is in the SEC on the top had a very interesting question on the Dear Andy show last week and I want to pose it to you guys I I've already given my answer so I want to hear yours and this person was asking I had not thought about this but I found it very interesting if Dylan Gabriel were the starter again, do you think that over under number would be different? I do. I do. I think that just having somebody back there at quarterback, you know, and somebody obviously as experienced as Dylan Gabriel, I think that that would probably count for, I don't know like what the number is, but I think it would probably account for one,

maybe even a half, maybe even two. So you could get into that one account for one maybe maybe even a half maybe even two so you could get into that one and a half two and a half and if all of a sudden you're looking at a uh you know an over under for a win total at nine or maybe nine and a half or eight and a half nine i think that you know it's probably not as shocking when you see the number seven because i think a lot of people see seven and that's you know around here that's gonna get people fired right i think the number if dylan was back'd probably be around eight and a half um which I think is probably where it should be and I think that the reason I think that is because I'm a believer in Jackson Arnold and and we've come on here Andy and said that look like as much as Dylan Gabriel was a really good

quarterback for Oklahoma and I think he's going to be great for Oregon next year the ceiling for Jackson Arnold is much higher and so if Jackson Arnold all of a sudden becomes what we think he can be next year, then that win total, they should hit over seven and a half fairly easily. And like I said, they could win nine or 10 games and be talking about making the playoffs. So I think that that's where that's the difference for this group next year. And if they're going to hit over that seven and a half right now, I would, I would definitely say they're going to hit over seven and a half. I think that they will easily probably win eight, maybe nine games, uh, next year, but it's really going to come down to how good is Jackson Arnold? It's really legit. And can they

replace an entire offensive line? And that, that is continuing to be the narrative here in Norman as they head into spring practices. What does that offensive line look like? That's continuing to be the narrative here in Norman as they head into spring practices. What does that offensive line look like that's going to be protecting Jackson? I think there's also an element that you have to look at, because if I was looking at a different team that I didn't cover on a daily basis, they're replacing an offensive coordinator. They're replacing a defensive coordinator. And I think from the outside looking in, you go, boy, these guys are stepping in.

And specifically somebody like Zach Alley, you're stepping in, and all of a sudden you're going to be preparing for offenses in the are stepping in and you know specifically somebody like Zach Alley you're stepping in and all of a sudden you're going to be preparing for offenses in the SEC week in a week out I think that that does leave a little bit of a pause for a lot of people out there that probably maybe don't follow it as closely as somebody that is in Norman or certainly an Oklahoma fan so I'm looking at this schedule guys. And it's interesting because I think if this had been a year ago, let me rattle these off for you. Tennessee at home at Auburn, the Texas game at Ole Miss at Missouri, Alabama at LSU. So that's seven games. I think they can go four and three in those seven. And you're talking about probably a nine win season at that point. So you're well

over the over. And then if you win, let's say you went five and two, you're in the playoff. Yeah. The game, the two games for me, Andy, that I look at, because I think right now I'm predicting them. I think they're going to go five and oh, to start the season. And you circle those, the Tennessee game early in the season. I think you get lucky getting them at home you get the Josh Heupel storyline as you see there but I do think that that's that's a benefit getting them early and then at Auburn that's kind of going to be their real big first test going on the road in the SEC right but the two games that I've kind of circled as kind of the swing games from winning seven or nine games Missouri and Ole Miss those are the ones that you just kind of

don't know yet because they've, I mean, Missouri's coming off of a really good season. Can they continue that success? Historically, they haven't been able to do that at times, but they return a lot of good playmakers. They obviously have recruited pretty well. And then Ole Miss, they're just totally turning over their roster through the transfer portal. So what do they look like? And I think Lane Kiffin's done a really good job there, but both those games being on the road, if you could somehow still one of those two games, maybe even both of those games, then all of a sudden you are talking about a nine win season. And then again, the last two of the year, you know, those, those are going to be going to be big ones. You get Alabama at home,

which all of a sudden, again, like I said earlier, you start to think maybe it's a little bit easier since Nick Saban's not coming to town. I still think Kalen DeBoer is going to be really good there. And then at LSU, I know there's a lot of people high on LSU, but how do they replace Jaden Daniels? What does that look like for them next year, and what do they look like? Again, at the end of the season, you're just a totally different team,

whether it's injuries and new guys playing and all those sorts of things so those are the other two that you look at at the end of the season that um could obviously flip it for you that's what makes the addition of Oklahoma and the SEC so interesting is just being a college football fan in general Missouri and Ole Miss are going to be and you could maybe even throw Tennessee into the mix as well they're going to be the case study all season. As far as the two different paths in Oklahoma, certainly on the much different side, as far as the way Brent wants to run a program, as opposed to what dinks do or drinks doing in Missouri, Oklahoma fans are like, you're going to like me calling him dink, uh, as well as Lane Kiffin and old miss. I mean,

I think that the way that the the two ideologies and how these programs are running right now is in their relationship to nil and everything in between they are so drastically different but also going for the same prize at the end of the title yeah it's going to be fascinating to see how all of this works out but but oklahoma is trying to run theirs in the same way that Georgia, Alabama, and Texas run theirs, which historically has been pretty good. So the question is, can Oklahoma get those guys? But I do think since Brent Venables has gotten there, they've gotten some of it. We're going to see David Stone playing for Oklahoma this year.

That's the type of defensive lineman that Oklahoma has not gotten in a long, long time. That's who you got to get. Like Ole Miss went and got Walter Nolan out of the portal. He was playing at Texas A&M, so he would have been in the SEC anyway. But that's the type of guy that Ole Miss hadn't been able to get. And now they're getting,

or they'll occasionally have a homegrown one, but it would be like a three-star who developed into an NFL first-round draft pick. It's rare that you see non-Georgia, non-Alabama getting these kind of guys. Venables, though, he got those guys at Clemson. And it seems to me like he'll be able to get them at Oklahoma. Yeah, and David Stone's a really good example of someone that if they want to win nine, 10 games next year, they need him to be a freshman All-American, right? Like they need him to have, or maybe not that high, but he needs to have an impact on next

season. And that's what they're trying to trend towards. And maybe it doesn't show up completely next year because like I said, the schedule is extremely difficult and you are going to have to rely on some young guys. But the long-term trajectory of this thing, if you can continue to recruit and land some of those guys that you mentioned, Andy, I mean, that's where all of a sudden, maybe in 2025 or 2026, you're talking about a team that is able to run the table or win 11, 12 games in a season and get into the playoffs. So that's the long-term thing of this. And that's why I think next year, I'm not saying that six and six or even seven and five is an acceptable season. It's definitely not for Oklahoma as difficult as the schedule is. But I do think that next year, going eight and four, nine and three with the schedule that they have and having so many young guys, a young quarterback, uh, leading the way a new offensive and defensive

coordinator. I think that that would be a pretty successful season given, uh, what the schedule looks like. I think there's a lot of people that I just keep going back to the unknown. And I think that there were so many people so comfortable with the idea that, and not to, you know, just take shots at a bunch of Big 12 schools but there was a comfort a comfort in seeing an Iowa State or or whoever a Texas Tech even though they gave Oklahoma problems at the back end of the Big 12 uh you know era for Oklahoma there was a comfortable ability that okay you kind of get a little bit of a breath whether it be a Kansas or whoever and you know again Oklahoma struggled with those teams at the back end of those schedules.

Yeah. And so it's interesting because it doesn't seem like the pecking order has been established. And they're like, we don't know where Oklahoma fits in the SEC pecking order. It was obviously at the top of the big 12 one, Texas and Oklahoma grass, I guess both going to have to prove that they belong at the top of the big 12 when Texas and Oklahoma regress, I guess both going to have to prove that they belong at the top, but Texas is going to be slotted in at the top just because of, of the way they finished last year. Yeah. And I think that,

that, you know, I don't know if anybody would ever admit it around here, but I think that like Texas and the resurgence that they've had under sort, it's only a good thing for Oklahoma from the administration on the fan base. Like that grabs your attention when all you see for the month of December is

Texas getting into a college football playoff. The idea of, you know, for people around Norman, the idea of Texas playing for a national title possibility, you know, I think it certainly heightens everybody's radar a little bit. And I think it's a good thing for the program when Texas is good.

It's like Michigan winning a national title. I'm not saying obviously Ohio State fans don't want that to happen, but I saw the response. Yes, exactly. I think that, you know, Texas all of a sudden kind of waking up and becoming the giant that we know they can be in college football, I think is also in turn woken up Oklahoma a little bit in terms of whether it's booster money nil recruiting whatever that may be when texas is good oklahoma is historically also good nobody wants to go to the new party without anything with them you know it's like they want to bring something with them they don't want to be seen as the uh the little brother or the team that's just following texas which i you know i think that for the better part of two years probably was in kind of like a thorn in the side of Oklahoma fans

that they were being angled as just this team that was tagging along with Texas to the SEC. I feel like we psychoanalyze Oklahoma fans every time I have you guys on, but I enjoy the hell out of it, so we're going to do it again. Where are they now on everything that went down at the end of 2021 with Lincoln Riley leaving hiring Brent Venables I mean I feel like that's all one thing do do they feel like they're in a better place going to the SEC because that happened rather than if that hadn't happened they'd be in a better place I think because of what happened in Los Angeles this year, there was a certain validation for everybody that was screaming

from the mountaintops when Lincoln left that not only was this program going to be better, but because of everything that we had seen at the end of 18 and 19 and then obviously into 20 and 21, that things were starting to crumble a little bit. You saw recruiting classes that would bring 25 guys in, and all of a sudden you look up and there's four left from that class. I think that there was a little bit of validation for the Oklahoma fan base, but that's not to say that everything in their own home is in order.

They have to continue to make those steps and make those progress in the areas that they lacked over the last two years. I think the biggest thing, Andy, is that they saw what happened with Lincoln at USC and also kind of the trajectory of the program and said, okay, there definitely needed to probably be a change of scenery. But I think there's also at the same time still maybe some skepticism around what Brent Invinibles is building. And that's not to say, I think most OU fans would say they believe in the vision. They believe that they took a big step forward.

But you also look, they still had some issues this last year in terms of game management and how things were handled. They're recruiting well and all that, but all of it has to come together at some point. And I think that there's still some fans that are skeptical of, okay, is Britt really going to be able to do this? And how difficult is this turning around a program while also going into the best conference in football while college football is all changing? And are they embracing NIL enough? Are they embracing the transfer portal enough? I think all those questions still remain while they also still believe, okay, Lincoln Riley was never going to be the ultimate answer. I think that they also just don't know yet if Brent Venables is the

answer. Perhaps a bad comparison, but I think that college, just athletic fans, and I think that just sports fans in general, you don't have time to wait and see something built. You want the immediacy of the wins on Saturday Saturday and particularly at a place like Oklahoma it doesn't really matter how you get there as long as they can go into work on Monday boarding or go to the message boards or wherever on social media and be able to uh kind of talk to yes that I I think any college wants yeah but there is a certain level of understanding that I think Oklahoma fans have had to go through over the last two years that it's a process. And, you know, I think that Michigan was kind of in the same spot. Yes. Over the last, again, I think Harbaugh, what Harbaugh did at Michigan is, and I'm not

saying it's going to take, I was ready to run him out of Van Arbor. I can't imagine how Michigan fans felt. I'm not saying it's going to be a situation where it takes, Oh, you, you know, however long, what was it? Nine years or whatever for Harbaugh to, to win a national title there or whatever it was. But this is, you know, this was never going to be a quick turnaround, a two, even maybe three year turnaround. I think that you look at, it's going to be four or five years to get this thing really where Brent wants it because it is a slow build. And he said, he doesn't want to just, you know, flip this thing around in the transfer portal. And they've taken guys in the portal that can help them and fill spots but this thing has been built through recruiting you look

at their their you know they have three top ten classes the last three years the first three years under britt venables uh i don't think lincoln riley did that once in his tenure at oklahoma so to be able to do that and build it through recruiting that's i think the the path to success for ou moving forward and that's why the retention of Billy Bowman Danny Stutzman that was so important for this program moving forward into uh what is to come yeah it allows them to be a little bit older but the thing is it's interesting because you talk about Venables and so hired the same year as Billy Napier and I think they'll they'll wind up getting compared a lot, but Venables showed that progress

on the field, which I think buys him a lot of grace. They're ready to run Billy Napier out of town in Gainesville because they haven't seen the reason for optimism manifest itself on the field. The thing about now, and I'll push back on you a little bit George because I feel like Venables did reshape the roster pretty much the moment he got there started doing that and that I think you have to do that now because I feel like if you don't show that improvement at some point in the first year or so for your two maybe a year or two years it just you start spinning your wheels because then everybody's just leaving and you're you're always playing catch up yeah and i think he i mean he had to uh when he first came in i mean he had no other choice than to go out and get a bunch of different guys in the portal

but i think you look at the last couple years and he's taken less each year and he's and he's you know also talking about hey recruiting is the lifeblood of our program. And I think he also understands, hey, every year we can take eight to 10, maybe 12 guys if we need to in the portal to fill some gaps. I mean, you look at the offensive line. They took, what, four or five guys on the offensive line in just this last portal. They could even add a couple more in the spring portal. But I do think that eventually he wants to be in a situation where he's recruiting, he's getting the David Stones of the world and just building those classes up every single year like a Georgia and Alabama. And again, maybe that's a pipe dream in today's cultural world because the Georgia and the Alabamas of the world are getting all those top guys in recruiting. But I think that that's still Brent's belief of that's how they want to build this thing.

No more Nick Saban. So it's possible the want to build this thing. No more Nick Saban. So it's possible the Alabama one changes that dynamic. But also I think you just made some Clemson fans cry because what you just described is what they wish Dabble would do at Clemson because they'd still be really good and probably the best program in the ACC if they did. But gentlemen, it has been a pleasure. If you got that first hour when it was six and a half, I hope you hammered the over on that. You're going to win some money.

I think if you go to the over on seven and a half, you're going to win some money too. I think there's a lot of people around here. If you stepped outside of the office right now and pulled people on campus corner, they would probably agree with you. And I think there is a belief that, you know, it's probably

a lot better for people around here than maybe people on the outside. And there is a strong belief, as George has said, that they feel like Jackson Arnold is going to be kind of the next coming here at the University of Oklahoma. Cannot wait to find out. Gentlemen, thank you so much. Been dying to talk to you about this. We'll talk to you again soon. Absolutely. Thanks, Andy. That George story, the third Eddie Radosevich from Sooner Scoop, that Oklahoma wind total is weird. It's just weird. Seven and a half seems awfully low. How it started at six and a half. I, I don't know. I can't figure that out because it's just maybe I'm completely off base here. Maybe I'm completely wrong.

I have faith in Oklahoma as a program to handle a conference switch accordingly. And I think Brent Venables is the type of person who understood when he got the job and he already knew he was going to the SEC. So he started molding that roster for the SEC at that point. I think they're going to be okay. I do. I see some arguments in the chat over games. I do agree with some of the folks in the chat that the Auburn game, I think our guys in Norman may be dismissing that a little soon. We don't know what Auburn's quarterback situation is going to be. I think that's going to probably affect how we feel about that.

But any game at Auburn is a tough game. I don't care if Auburn's good or bad. And if Auburn's good, it's very hard to win there. So that part we've got to figure out. We've got to wait and see what Auburn is post-spring practice, and then maybe we'll have a little bit better idea. But right now, we'll talk about another team in the SEC and also a team in the ACC, at least. Well, it's in there for now. They don't want to be there. But our guy, J.D. Piquel, the host of the Hard Count. What's up, J.D.? How we doing, Andy? this is awesome to be on with you man i appreciate you having me i love it you're into the office early this is my fault

i i'm sorry about that but you beat everybody in first guy in last guy out coach on the field did i miss anything uh sneaky athletic yeah that was what i was waiting for yeah low-key athletic sneaky fast yeah there you go you've got son of a coach maybe yeah whatever Sneaky Fast? Sneaky Athletic. Yeah, that was what I was waiting for. Yeah, Low-Key Athletic, Sneaky Fast. Yeah, there you go. Sneaky Fast, Son of a Coach, maybe. Yeah, whatever. Any label I can get in that category, I'm happy with. Listen, you are the embodiment of it as you are the first person,

literally the first person in the office. So we got to talk about, you've got an interview coming out on Hard Count today with LSU coach Brian Kelly. You had Mike Norvell on this week. You're going to have Mario Cristobal on tomorrow. It is a murderer's row of coach interviews for the Hard Count this week. I'm curious. You've talked to Mike Norvell.

You've talked to Brian Kelly already. What are we learning so far? I'm excited for this Brian Kelly interview today because he had a couple of things to say that I thought were just pretty transparent. Like he talked about Harold Perkins and he was like, hey, straight up, we didn't use him.

Oh, we got the clip. We got the clip. We're gonna play the clip. Yeah, that was great. Yeah, so actually let's start with Brian Kelly. We got a couple clips released out of the vault to get the blood flowing. And one thing you asked him was about year three. And I found that very interesting because I was looking up the stats on it.

So let's hear you and Brian Kelly talk year three, and then we'll break down the numbers. You hear a lot of coaches talk about the evolution, especially when they first take a job of, okay, now it looks like my team. Do you feel like this is now a Brian Kelly brand LSU team? Well, the standards and the culture feels so much more like what I'm used to. But that's usually what happens in year three for me. Everywhere I've been, the third year has been really successful. So I think the third year here is feeling very comfortable in terms of the standards and the expectations and how everybody has really, you know, adapted to the style and the expectations. So again, you got to go, you got to go do it on the field and you do it with being successful on

Saturdays. But the day-to-day really starts to feel like we're in a really good position. So here are the numbers on that year three thing, JD. I went back, Grand Valley State actually wasn't great for year three, but that's the only one. Because Central Michigan, he was nine and four in year three and got the Cincinnati job. Year three at Cincinnati, he was 11 and three, won the Big East and made it to the Orange Bowl. Year three at Notre Dame, 12 and one3, won the Big East, and made it to the Orange Bowl. Year three at Notre Dame, 12-1, and went to the BCS Championship game. Okay. Hey, that over-under win total, 9.5.

If you're in Baton Rouge, that's looking a little bit sweet right now if you just heard those win totals from Andy the last couple of year three projects for Brian Kelly. And I think that's kind of interesting because I feel like the thing we always talked about when he got the job at LSU was there's not going to be a like talent gap for LSU and the rest of the SEC. It's going to be a matter of, okay, can they put those talented pieces in the right place and kind of have Brian Kelly be the difference maker in some of those games where you're playing the Alabamas with Nick Saban or, you know, filling whatever SEC monster you want to for that year. And so to hear him confidently talk about year three, I mean, if I'm an LSU fan, I got to feel pretty good

because this is the part of the year where it's supposed to be coach speak, don't say anything, don't make headlines. He didn't make headlines saying I feel good about year three, but to even kind of peek over the hill a little bit at what this season could be, I got to be excited from a Tiger fan. Well, and we can talk about how strange last year was because I think if you'd gone to an LSU fan before the season and said you're going to have the Heisman Trophy winner,

one of the best receivers in the country, another guy who's a top 10 receiver in the country, and your offense is going to be unstoppable. Oh, by the way, your defense is going to stink. They're going to be like, huh? What? This is the opposite of my experience. It was just incredible to watch that and how bad that defense was.

Now, they fire Matt House. They bring in Blake Baker from Missouri. You talked to Brian Kelly about Blake Baker. What was it that he saw in Blake Baker that led him to believe he can make this defense better yeah I think well obviously he talks about it in the interview but I think for me the excitement if I'm an LSU fan is the way that they play defense what they did at Missouri last year with just how aggressive they are they were top 10 in the country last year in terms of their sack rate like they're they're going to get after the quarterback they're going to kind of play that hammer not the nail nail, worthy enforcer kind of style of ball. And whether Brian Kelly would

admit it or not, I have to believe that's attractive to him with the pieces they have at LSU. And then if you're an LSU fan, that's the temperature you expect from your LSU defense. We talk about DBU, and there's a lot of schools in that conversation. LSU's always in that conversation. You talk about guys that have gone on and done great things in the NFL from a Devin White to Glenn Dorsey when he was on the defensive line there. They typically have these just freak show defensive players and they go out and get after you. And that wasn't LSU last year. And I think that's what Missouri's defense was with Blake Baker a season ago. So I'm excited to watch them put it together because I think the expectation slash like random ball they want to play in Baton Rouge really marries nicely with who Blake Baker is obviously being from

Louisiana well and also I think they're not the expectations for the defense are not as high as they usually are because honestly you can't really get any worse than last year and so the the thought is there will be some improvement but they don't expect to be perfect. It probably is going to have to be quite a bit better because the offense, as good as it might be, that might take a step back. But there is one particularly special player on defense that as a freshman, he really shown last year, not as much. So Michael McMichelson in the chat asked this, was everybody think of Harold Perkinskins playing inside linebacker that was the big question i remember after the florida state game i went on live and like what are you doing let this man rush a quarterback let him do it but you asked brian kelly about that so let's let's hear his answer to the harold perkins question automatically a lot of folks watched that

missouri defense last year and how often they got after the quarterback. And so you start doing the math. You're like, okay, aggressive DC on paper. And then Harold Perkins is also still on your roster. Is there any thought process or any tinkering this offseason with how he might be utilized in 24? Well, certainly we didn't maximize Harold last year.

And that's not, again, a knock on Harold or the coaches, but the reality of it is he's an elite athlete that what we do in the spring. And certainly where he fits within our defensive structure is going to be job one for us. So again, I think that everybody that watched last year would say, you know, that's a guy that needs to play at a higher level. And that starts with coaching and that starts with Harold really working hard in this offseason. It's a really interesting push-pull. I think you're going to see this in Baton Rouge and in State College this year, J.D. Harold Perkins and Abdul Carter kind of in a similar situation. Both are phenomenal pass rushers, but they are really light, 220, 225-pound range.

So they're not going to be pass rushers in the NFL. And the question is, how much do you concentrate on developing them for a future NFL position, which is good for recruiting and everything else? And how much do you just let them go get the quarterback? Because they're good at that now. And your job is to win games in college. I was going to say the exact same thing. I think you do all that you can to help them for their NFL prospects.

And like you just said, anytime you can put a graphic on your wall in your facility and say, Harold Perkins, pick number X and do an X, Y, and Z in the NFL because he was developed here, that's great. But like at the end of the day, like you just said, you want to go win football games. Like Brian Kelly is being paid and probably has tremendous incentives by how many football games and which football games that he does win and so I don't know if it's a matter of you move Harold Perkins from inside linebacker to outside linebacker but

the point remains like you have to maximize him just like Brian Kelly said because Harold Perkins probably isn't sticking around Baton Rouge a whole lot longer especially if the NFL comes knocking the way that we expect it to for him. So with him being on your roster, it's like, Hey, iron is hot. Let's strike right now. And whatever he does in college, I mean, that's, that's the NFL's problem to develop him as well and make sure they have a spot for him to be successful at. So I'd love to see him. Let him let him meet like everybody else.

I want to see Harold Perkins. Yeah. I think that remember that Arkansas game his freshman year, I mean, he single handedly won the game. Like it was incredible. He was must see TV as a linebacker. Like I haven't watched the defensive player as closely as I did. Harold Perkins since like Tyron Matthew was at LSU,

Andy. Well, I was about to mention honey badger. It kind of reminds me of that. Cause remember honey badger was having that great season in 2011. And people are like, well, we don't know if he's a good cover corner. As you've seen with Tyron Matthews NFL, it doesn't matter if he's a good cover corner. He's around the ball all the time.

You can, he's a football player. You find a way to use him. And I think with Harold Perkins, you know, we talked about maybe he's not the ideal pass rusher in the NFL at his size, but he's a football player. They're smart coaches in the NFL. They'll figure out how to use him to like, just let him, let him do what he does. Let him cook, let him cook, let him hunt. And I think you just said it perfectly. Like the NFL, when they get talented players, they can find a way to utilize you.

And like, no, no team is going to draft Harold Perkins without a plan in place to utilize him you know nobody's going to say well we're bringing him in but we're still not sure about his size and if we like him at the inside linebacker like they're going to bring him in and have some diabolical plan to cut him loose on NFL offenses and I'm sure it'll be fine exactly exactly so I'm excited about that because I would like to see a better LSU defense. It's very strange watching a bad LSU defense. Like it feels wrong. Feels like this is this is like a bizarro world. And so, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Like the mind flayers out there just wandering as people are tore as Jackson Dart is throwing yet another touchdown pass and getting yet another private jet deal out of the LSU

defense. But let's talk that LSU offense because they were historically great last year. Jaden Daniels was awesome. Malik Nabors, Brian Thomas, gone. They're gone. But Will Campbell, Emery Jones, they're back. Two bookend tackles that have been starters. Emory Jones is not a day one starter, but he was a day two starter. And Jim will Campbell was a day one starter as a freshman. So what do you expect from this offense this season? I think it will be still very potent. I don't think you'll see this tremendous drop-off from Jaden Daniels leaving

and Mike Denbrock leaving, but at the same time, I think we do probably have to temper expectations a little bit. Because, I mean, the bar was set way up here with Jaden Daniels winning the Heisman Trophy and scoring over 40 a game. But, I mean, Andy, we rewind the tape back to last year. There was a lot of folks saying, like, hey, we saw Garrett Nussmeyer slinging around against Georgia in garbage time in the SEC title game. Like, you know know he could throw the ball downfield and Jaden Daniels

the narrative this time last year was well he's not wanting to push the ball downfield are we going to be explosive offensively with him playing quarterback and then how quickly that whole narrative shifted so the bottom line is Garrett Nussmeyer can deal the pill and if he can make better decisions like we saw in that bowl game and be more controlled. They got some guys that can go catch the rock, not Malik Nabors and Brian Thomas, but I think C.J. Daniels from Liberty was a massively underrated pickup for them in the portal. Yeah, I actually talked to Jamie Chadwell the other night,

and he thinks that he's going to have a very big year at LSU. It's interesting how this works because Chadwell understands how the game is played and realizes these guys are going to go at LSU. And yeah, it's interesting how this works. Cause like Chad will understands how, how, how the game is played and, uh, and realizes these guys are going to go to programs like that. And, but, but thinks that that's a,

he's a potential breakout star at LSU. The Nussmeyer thing you asked Brian Kelly about Nussmeyer here is a, and you came up with a nickname. So here is that question. And we'll, we'll talk about the nickname later. The offensive side of the ball, taking over for Jaden Daniels, you got the gumbo gunslinger, Garrett Nussmaier.

Coach, I love watching him play football and watching him push it downfield. What excites you about him in 2024? I think more than anything else is his development. I mean, this is still a young man that is going to get better over time. I mean, he's going to get all the reps that he hasn't gotten. And we saw glimpses of Garrett Nussmeyer with very few reps. And I think all of us collectively really liked what we saw. And so I think what's exciting for me is a guy that's really going to get a lot of the reps and is going to get better and better.

We got a glimpse of it against Wisconsin. And as the game unfolded and he got more comfortable, he leads us on a 90-plus yard drive at the end of the game. And I think there's more to come. And that's the exciting part. The Gumbo Gun gunslinger you were sitting on that weren't you so right before the interview i'm like kind of doing some last minute looks over the notes and seeing if there's anything that i want to ask or get in there because we get him for like 10 minutes and so i'm like is this funny gumbo gunslinger in my

head i'm like no that's stupid don't say that but then lo and behold for whatever reason came out and i couldn't see brian kelly on the monitor so i'm like gosh i hope he's smiling i hope he thought that was even like a little bit funny because if not like this is just a train wreck like you got you got a little smile you got a little smile out of it hey kick can't go broke getting paid right so i don't know if that'll get traction or not but i was happy that we got like even something resembling a smile with well the beignet baller i think would be good yeah there's some there's a lot of ways you could go with it the gumbo gunslinger is good i i'm trying there's no e-word that that goes with throwing or playing quarterback so we can't do a two fey so also too many syllables probably A2Fay probably.

Yeah. Maybe Jane Daniels could have been the elusive A2Fay or electric, electric A2. I don't know. The electric A2Fay. We'll have to see what finds him. Maybe that's CJ Daniels. Maybe that's CJ Daniels is the A2Fay.

There we go. Well, Harold Perkins is from Texas originally, so I don't know if we can do that one, but yeah. one. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Gumbo Gunslinger, I think, is our leader in the clubhouse. I think we're going to stick with that for now.

It's February. We do have a long time. Maybe that's an off-season show, like a crossover event between the hard count and this show, where we just come up with nicknames for players. Done. And then try to convince EA Sports to put the nicknames for players done and then try to convince ea sports to put the nicknames in the game yeah is it too late for them to get some more audio i know chris

put out that bit where he's like in his room for oh yeah upon in can we get like 30 more minutes just to sneak in these nicknames oh what's one more set listen this is a totally new world this isn't like when we were growing up and you bought the disc and that was the game like they're constantly making new that the kids call it dlc the downloadable content so like there'll be a pack that costs you an extra 299 where where chris fowler calls garrett nussmeyer the gumbo gunslinger take my money take i mean like i got like right here take and whatever's in there take it yeah no oh i let's talk about that how excited are you for this game like i'm just imagining what it's gonna the day one will be like for me i've said on this show multiple times my son

will walk downstairs and be like why is is my PlayStation not in my room? It's going to be in my office. That's why. And like, I have decided that I'm either going dynasty with Kansas or Kansas state. Cause I want to play as Jalen Daniels or Avery Johnson. And then just try to build out from there. Like those two quarterbacks feel like the ones I want to build around. Yeah. I like that a lot. Those are, those are going to be some fun players to play with, especially since we're going to get like the overall ratings with these players actually being in the game. Yeah, Andy, I'm I'm super juiced. I'm so fired up. Like

the funny part about this whole thing is, is the way that college football content and coverage as a whole has shifted since we last got this game. Like, I don't think year-round college football shows like what you're doing right now existed in the way that it did when that game was. No, nothing like that. It's like that was what fed us for the better part of, you know, that you were able to win. We got like one college football live a week on ESPN in the offseason.

And it's just about, I mean, it's a nothing sandwich for 30 minutes. God bless them. They were doing great work, but like it was road to glory. It was dynasty mode mode and so i'm excited for a little more sustenance i won't lie i'm i'm a little bit nervous i've been married now for a little over two years and i have to have a conversation with my wife and tell her hey this game coming out also we need to buy a playstation 5 like i don't know i don't know how that's gonna happen i don't know how we're gonna at least you can get them now it's it's not like when they first came out and we and like my wife and i spent two months surfing the internet trying to find one and and then finally got it because it you know you got to get that for christmas for the kid but you're good now you can get one now

so you'll be fine but here's here's how it works. Honey, it is research. This is for my job. This allows me to get to know the players better, the schemes better. I will better understand. It will make me a better analyst. Are you buying any of this? I'm sold.

I mean, those sound like great pitches to me. I'm curious how it's going to go when she asks, who is Hingle McCringleberry? Why are you playing quarterback with him? Like, well, it's road to glory. And then I have to explain.

And so I don't, then we're going to turn on a game on Saturday. And she's like, what time is McCringleberry playing? He was really good. And I'm like, here's the thing. I made him up.

And then there's a whole, another conversation to be had. So pray for me, Andy is what I'm saying. Just prayers for your boy. When it comes to that conversation. Jack Marius, TAC Theratrix is just going to be balling out in that game.

They really should have an East-West All-Star game team on there. Or you could just play the East-West All-Star game. A little DLC. A little downloadable content. Exactly. Let's get that going. EA Sports needs to, to hire us as consultants. I feel like we,

we can provide them with the ideas. And I am very curious because, you know, they had the dynasty mode. You would do recruiting. You could get fired as the coach. What will the off season look like? Cause they don't have like,

this is, you notice it's not NCAA football. They don't have to please the NCAA at all. They don't have to care. So like, can you, and the NIL rules don't apply right now. So, and they're still designing the game. So can, like, can you be the collective too? Can you go out and, or will you have a running back who comes in week six and is like, bro, I'm going to need a better deal or I'm out. I'm hitting the portal. I need seven figures today. Junior, there has to be a tampering button to write like I'm going to be Eastern Michigan.

I'm going to go on a dynastic run. We will tamper the entire way through the SEC, the Big Ten. Like, yes, I'm doing that. No, no, it needs to be levels of tampering, like light tampering, heavy tampering, like light tampering is you call this quarterback's private QB trainer. Hey, what's up? Uh, how's, how's my boy doing? Just checking in nothing, nothing to see here, but just checking in just to see, is he happy? Does he feel like there's a path to start where he is? And then you've got your heavy tampering, which is like you show up at the kid's apartment complex, like with a bag of money.

Yes. Yep. That's what I'm doing. I'm dropping a bag. I don't care if it's a three-star, if I have tampering points to allocate, we're tampering with everybody, right? Like that has to be- Tampering points to allocate.

Wow. Maybe, you know, the more tampering points you have, the more leverage you have on, I was going to say the NCAA, but maybe that's not even existing in this game. So I don't know. On the chat says, if you get caught tampering, the team prestige drops and players leave in the portal. Yeah. Like I, that's you stick with the light tampering. If you go to the heavy tampering, it's easy to get caught. So you got to be careful with that. JD, you also talked to Mike Norvell this week. I want to talk about the Knowles because we've talked so much about them in this offseason in terms of the lawsuit against the ACC, all of the big picture stuff.

That's not really something Mike Norvell and company are worried about right now. They're worried about retooling this roster because they lost a lot of key play. I just saw Jared Burse just got done talking in Indianapolis at the Combine. He just did his media interview session. One of the great players at Florida State the last couple of years, he transferred in from Albany, one of their great transfer portal success stories. But a lot of the key players from that 13-0 ACC championship team are gone.

And you talked to Mike Norvell about this new bunch, including DJ Uyengole. Yeah, I think the path DJ U has taken to get to Florida State, and you sat down and talked with him as well, and I really enjoyed that interview. I mean, I feel like just even hearing him speak, the guy is so mature. And he was that way at Clemson too a little bit when you heard him talk

after he got pulled for Cade Klubnick in different games. And I've just been so impressed with the mental makeup of him. Now, that has to translate, obviously, to the actually playing quarterback side of things. But if they can have some skilled players players they took from Alabama via the portal, kind of level up and show themselves as guys they can go to, like a Malik Benson, like a Roydale Williams, and kind of replace that production. I'm excited to see what DJU does coming back to the ACC, because I think the tough experiences he's had

to undergo and going to Oregon State and now going to his third school, I think that's going to harden him, and I think that's going to ultimately pay some dividends and allow him to kind of navigate this new destination. So all that's to say, you know, have to see it to believe it to a degree because DGU obviously still has some things he's working on from acclimating to a new place and playing quarterback as a whole. But I'm not so sure that the narrative around him is 110% fair just yet. Well, I got a sense from talking to him that playing at Oregon State did help him kind of

understand globally the game a little bit better. And so as he embarks on the third offense, he's going to play in college. I think that probably helps him absorb that, learn, will probably help him in game as far as reading things and understanding what's going on around him. But let's hear what Mike Norvell said when you asked him about DJU. DJU is one of my favorite players, just his story and what he's done throughout the course of his college career. What made him the right fit for y'all when he jumped into the portal, ultimately getting him to Tallahassee.

I mean, I think you see the ability. I mean, he's got a tremendous arm, you know, he's got great size, you know, all, all the the experiences that he's been through, but, you know, truly it comes down to who he is. It's the person it's, it's the, the mindset, the, the approach that he brings. You know, he's a remarkable human being. He's got, you know, great leadership qualities. But, you know, he's somebody that loves to work. And, you know, to be able to come in, understanding the expectation that we have within our program, you know, not just on the field,

but, you know, really from an all-inclusive approach. And, you know, just the heart that he has and the passion and desire that he brings on a day-in and day-out basis to go get better. And I think you've seen that through his experiences. He's had some really great moments, and he's had some challenges that he's had to overcome. But I think those challenges have helped kind of build him to the young man that he is today.

And I think this is a great opportunity for him. And it's a great opportunity for Florida State to take those next steps together. I know the kind of the unique part of the situation is you actually got to play against him when he was at Clemson. How much did that factor into you bringing him to be at Florida State? You know, I'd watched a lot of him, you know, from his time at Clemson when he was in the league, you know, to even, you know, this last year when he was at Oregon State, I think that, you know, all that he has done, you know, like I said, the good and some of the challenges that he's that are surrounding him. I told him just to come in and be himself and just show up every day, pushing to improve, pushing to get better in the things that he's doing, in his overall understanding, the rhythm,

the timing, the understanding of an offense. And I think the rest is going to take care of itself. But we've got a great group and he's definitely a special young man. So, J.D., that conversation reminded me of an answer that DJ gave when we were talking to him a couple weeks ago in Tallahassee, and it was about what drew him to Florida State. So let's hear DJ on that and kind of marry those two up. You're deciding what to do because you could have gone to the draft. You could have gone into the portal, could have gone to a lot of different schools.

What was it about Florida State that drew you? I think Coach Norvell. I think what he stands for as a man, what he stands for as a person, also as a coach. I think the testimony of what he's done, be able to develop quarterbacks and be able to the way he's transformed Florida State back to where everyone knows that Florida state's always been that powerhouse program, a program with incredible athletes, incredible coaching staff and a rich tradition of winning and a rich tradition

of the great fan base. So for me, that was the main thing. So this, these guys seem to be a good pairing. And it does feel like – and when you hear – because the way that Florida State treated this, because remember Cam, Ward, and DJ were going to come that same weekend. DJ didn't have an offer. DJ showed up without an offer, which in this era of portal recruiting is a little different. Yeah. But that may have told them that's the guy who really wanted to be there. Ooh, I like that.

Yeah, I mean, and it's kind of the thing that it seems like he's said throughout the course of any questions about Florida State is like this was always where I wanted to be. And so as soon as – and it was kind of instantaneous where like Cam Ward is going to the NFL at that point in time was his decision. And then moments later you get the DJU news, hey, I'm going to Florida State at that point in time was his decision. And then moments later, you get the DJU news, hey, I'm going to Florida State, and that whole thing kind of breaks. So, yeah, I think the fact that he is so mature,

and given what they've lost from a production point of view and from a leadership point of view, quite frankly, losing to Jordan Travis. So bringing in someone like a DJU and just his, like I said a second ago, his maturity, I think that's going to really help sustain that culture they had in place. Because I mean, if you brought in a young gunslinger who, you know, maybe had a lot of promise, but didn't have the same credentials as a DJU from a leadership perspective, there was a chance for that to maybe go off the rails a little bit more than with the DJU in LA. So I'm curious to see how it works.

Andy, you said something during our transfer portal show, our transfer portal, what do we even call that? Extravaganza? Yeah, it was an extravaganza for sure. Opening day? Is that what it was? I mean, you said as soon as DJU jumped in the portal, hey, Mike Norvell, we're going to figure out what he thinks about DJU here pretty quickly because if there's somebody that knows DJU,

it's Mike Rovell having played against him when he was at Clemson. I thought that was really telling. Right, because he would have watched every game the kid played before they played that season and would have broken him down pretty thoroughly, would go to his OC, Adam Fuller, and say, or his DC, Adam Fuller, and say, all right, what do you think of this?

Will this work for us? Do you understand our culture? Do you think that this? Will this work for us? You understand our culture. Do you think that? And the thing about Norvell that's interesting to me, and you talked to him about this in your interview. So if you want to see the full interview, it's available on the On3 Sports YouTube page. Go watch it. It's about how he's managed to keep that culture consistent, even though the roster has changed quite a bit through the transfer portal. That's got to be the hardest thing is you don't have a lot of time

to get to know these people when you're recruiting out of the portal. But for whatever reason, they've managed to have really good team chemistry in spite of a pretty rapidly shifting roster most years. And I think to me, that kind of reminds me a little bit, it's a little bit of a different situation, but like what's happening at Georgia right now with Kirby Smart retooling his staff and what that's going to look like in 2024. I think we feel a pretty good amount of confidence that Georgia is still going to be Georgia. Yes, because they bring back a lot of returning production, but because we trust Kirby smart.

And so I think we're starting to gain that same kind of trust up to the same degree, but that same kind of maybe vantage point on Mike Revell that, Hey, the personnel is probably going to be different by the way that they recruit the portal successfully, maybe not over the course of the next five years, but for right now, they're going to be some new faces. And we trust Mike Revell's thermostat, if if you will from a culture and leadership point of view that he's going to get those guys to buy in and be on the same page and that's kind of going to be the way that Florida State operates for the foreseeable future so JD this has been a blast we gotta we

gotta get ready to watch some combine stuff that's that's getting rolling you get the player interviews start today workouts start tomorrow i i was looking at the quarterback situation and i think we're going to talk about this a bunch on the show tomorrow but i i do want to get your opinion on this it sounds like the big three caleb williams drake may jayden daniels will not be throwing which i i you know i was last year i was at the combat. I watched CJ Stroud and Anthony Richardson throw like back to back. They were the same group and they threw back to back. And I'm thinking what, what a blessing CJ Stroud provided for himself to prove, Hey, I'm one of the best two quarterbacks in this draft. Anthony Richardson made himself a ton of money with that throwing session.

I'm looking at this with Caleb and Drake and Gene like why why not why not go do that that's what I'm saying like we are we really going to change our opinion after seeing the entirety of your college career because you missed some throws and shorts and t-shirts throwing to new receivers like my thing is we're all dealing with the same variables here like just because it's not your receivers it's not the script, everyone has the same set of circumstances here, which is pretty similar to how an actual NFL game goes. There's not perfect circumstances.

The weather is bad. Maybe someone's dinged up. Maybe you're dinged up. And so just being willing to say, you know what, forget all that. Let's go out there and sling it with some dudes. I would much rather see my quarterback be willing to go throw at the combine. Now I understand there's agents involved and there's a lot of other external

factors that might not be totally a Caleb Williams or a Drake mayor, a Jane Daniels decision, but I'm more in the camp of there's a ball. You have a chance to go show what you can do for some scouts. Go sling it. This is awesome. Go, go throw it around and throw caution in the wind and have some fun.

Yeah. I like, there's no circumstance where Caleb will even go look gonna look bad throwing a football oh of course not it's just not gonna happen so well we'll find out gonna be a fun day because we're gonna we'll get the basically exit interviews for all these college stars that are doing their media sessions so we're gonna we're gonna get a bunch of those today a bunch more of those tomorrow we'll see some wacky bench press numbers when the d linemen hit the bench press. Can't wait.

How many times are we throwing up 225 right now, JD? What do you get? Am I warm? If I'm warm, I'm probably, Andy, I'm probably hitting 15. I think I'm hitting 15. Wow. I think I'm hitting 15. You definitely win the on three combine.

You know what? I'm not saying this because he's our CEO. Shannon Terry walked. We have a little weight room over here, Andy. There's a rack, and I think it's still coming together, but there's 225 on the bar. Shannon Terry walks in, looks at it, and says, I haven't hit 225 in several years.

I'm like, oh, okay. And then he goes, let's see how many I can do. He just threw up five casually. It was like, ah, I think that's good do he just he just threw up five casually it was like like no warm-up so i was like oh boy what you're saying is i've got to get my my junkie shoulder right before my next visit to the to the new headquarters because i'm gonna have to compete with you and shannon this is me i don't know about that i mean i don't think it would be a disservice to you i'm i'm worried about shannon walking hit double digits but i don't know about that. I mean, I don't think it would be a disservice to you. I'm worried about Shannon walking.

I can hit double digits, but I don't think I can hit 15. That's the question for me is can I match the youngster J.D. Piquel? Or am I just too old? I'm a little closer to having played ball, so I'll give myself that edge there. But, yeah, whenever you get to national, we'll have to mix it up a little bit. It'll be fun. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

JD, thank you so much. We will talk to you again soon. Thanks, Andy. The great JD Piquel, he hosts the Hard Count Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. 10 a.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, live on the On3 Sports YouTube channel. So if you're not already subscribed, you should be.

But get yourself subscribed. Great interviews this week. He's got Mario Cristobal coming tomorrow. Brian Kelly today. The Mike Norvell one is out on demand. You can watch it anytime you want. So much great stuff coming out of On3. We'll have even more.

We're going to talk a bunch of combine tomorrow. I've been holding off on that, waiting for some stuff to happen. The folks kind of descended on Indianapolis on Monday, but it doesn't really get rolling until today. The workouts start tomorrow. We'll talk quarterbacks. We'll talk some of our favorite draft prospects tomorrow.

Also, it's a Dear Andy show. You know what that means. I want your questions. I love when you help drive the show. Hit me up. Andy underscore Staples on X on Instagram. Or email your question to andystapleson3 at gmail.com.

You know how to find me. like Dion, not hard to find. We are going to have a good time tomorrow answering your questions. We're also going to talk a little NFL combine as some of our favorite players go work out, go talk to the media, go talk to the personnel guys. It's going to be fun. I always enjoy when the NFL world starts to discover some of these college football players that we've known and loved for a while, and then they start arguing about them. Because I feel like we're better at arguing about them than they are. So we'll find

out. But get those questions in. Andy underscore Staples on social media. Andy Staples on three at gmail.com. We will talk to you tomorrow.