Andy & Ari On3 - Duke DESTROYS Clemson | #DearAndy: Will Deion Sanders out-quote Mike Gundy? | Is the Texas d-line the best Alabama will see?

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

Thank you to Gametime for sponsoring today's episode! Week 1 is days away, don't miss your chance to watch your favorite team. Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube - don't forget to subscribe!https://youtube.com/live/cHt4uzMkWnYClemson didn't just lose its season opener at Duke. The Tigers got destroyed. The Blue Devils, who won nine games in Mike Elko's first season as coach, didn't play the perfect game, but quarterback Riley Leonard and company made plays when they mattered and capitalized on a host of Clemson mistakes.Clemson hasn't made the College Football Playoff since 2020. While the Tigers did regain control of the ACC title last year, they allowed South Carolina to break a long losing streak in the rivalry and got shelled by Notre Dame. Is Dabo Swinney's refusal to use the transfer portal like his peers causing the Tigers to fall behind?It's a Dear Andy episode, so I'm answering your questions.We start off with some news: Kirby Smart responds to Brian Kelly's comments, Jim Harbaugh and his new "we-fense," and changing of the guard for the college football playoff.Then, we check in with Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy to determine which players helped their draft stock in the first weekend of college football. What did Jim think of some of the players who starred for Florida State on Sunday night? Now, your questions.Will Deion Sanders have a press conference this season that surpasses Mike Gundy's "I'm-a-man-I'm-40" rant?Is the Texas defensive line -- specifically the interior group -- the best Alabama will see in the regular season?Can anyone get the Pac-12 Network from the midwest?Does Florida State's win against LSU help the Seminoles' realignment case?Based on what we saw Sunday, should we still assume LSU is the second-best team in the SEC West?Why do so many playcallers -- on offense and defense -- feel the need to get fancy instead of sticking to what works?Tonight's extra point, we take a look at the bands. The band for the Texas Longhorns may not be heard... they'll be in the upper deck in Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday Night.

I mean, it's an emergency show. We didn't plan this one. We didn't plan this one. I plan to be in bed right now, but no. College football delivers again and again and again and again and again and again and again. And the first weekend of college football could not end without one more surprise. Duke beats Clemson 28-7. This was not cute little Duke squeaking by.

Duke kicked Clemson's ass. None of you had that. I didn't have that. None of you had that. We didn't have that. We did not expect that. We did not see that coming. Did some people think that Clemson's time at the top of the sport might be coming to a close?

Yes. I can think of one particular former co-host of mine, Ari Wasserman, at The Athletic, who's been saying it for a couple years. But this was completely shocking. And look, Duke won nine games last year. Mike Elko did a fabulous job. Riley Leonard, we know he's a great quarterback. The NFL people know he's a very good quarterback.

That part wasn't surprising. But when Tom Luganville, at the end of the game, goes, there's no noticeable discrepancy in team speed between duke and clemson that ain't good for clemson that is terrible and the question is how how did this happen what what went on this offseason you you heard the announcers talking about dababo Sweeney saying this was the most accountable Clemson team in an offseason that he'd seen. It doesn't explain this. They went out and hired Garrett Riley. I assumed it'd be like when they hired Chad Morris and the

offense was revolutionized. That's not what happened. That looked like somebody else calling Clemson's offense from last year. Did they let Garrett Riley bring anything from TCU? Because it certainly doesn't look like it. This was shocking. You ready for the first few possessions of Clemson's night? Punt, miss field goal, blocked actually. Punt, fumble. Then they scored a touchdown only because Duke muffed a punt

and gave them the ball on the 13-yard line. It is unbelievable. And mistake after mistake, two red zone fumbles in the second half. Duke cashes in on the last one. But then what's interesting after that is Duke just ran the ball down their throat. Where was the D-line that has a bunch of NFL guys on it? It was just shocking. Absolutely shocking. absolutely shocking so i know there's a lot of people who have gone from dabbo sweeney being the

the inspirational cute former walk-on story to he's one of the darth vaders of the sport so people are reveling in this but this felt like something more than just a first week loss this felt like a culmination of things and it's it's really kind of amazing how how this this all came to pass briley in the chat kate ain't answer, but Dabo's portal stubbornness means the answer isn't on the roster. I don't know that Cade Klubnick's not the answer, but the portal stubbornness is the key thing right here. This is what we keep coming back to as Dabo not adjusting to today's college football. One of the things we've noticed

about Clemson in the last few years is an inability for receivers to separate. Remember, this is a program that had the best of the best receivers. New Copkins, Sammy Watkins, Mike Williams, T. Higgins. They haven't had a dynamic receiver like that in quite a while. And whereas their ACC rival Florida State, when they want a dynamic receiver, they just go get one. Keon Coleman, who was at Michigan State last year, Clemson doesn't do that. Now, not all these guys would have been available to Clemson. Like Keon Coleman, he wanted to go to LSU

because that's his home state team. They didn't offer. He went to Florida State. He looked at Ole Miss too, but he wasn't really looking at anything else. But let's just give you a representative sample of what's what was available in the portal at receiver this year Keon Coleman who you saw last night

scoring three touchdowns against LSU for Florida State by the way Clemson's gonna have to defend him later this month A.D. Mitchell last seen catching touchdown passes in the national title game last year. Now he plays for Texas. Dorian Singer broke out at Arizona. Now he's catching passes from the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, Caleb Williams at USC. J. Michael Sturdivant, did you see him catch that pass from Dante Moore for UCLA to beat Coastal Carolina over the weekend? Dominic Lovett, he was Missouri's best receiver.

Now he's Georgia's best receiver. Dante Cephas, Kent State to Penn State. Zachary Franklin, UTSA to Ole Miss. This is what you do. It's amazing when you think about it that duke duke which has higher academic standards smaller recruiting pool they got more out of transfers than clemson did because clemson doesn't take them miles jones and al blaise j cornerbacks, two starting corners for Duke,

transfers. Miles Jones had played for Elko at Texas A&M. Blades had played for Miami. Jamie-On Franklin and Anthony Nelson on the D-line for Duke, transfers. Jamie-On Franklin came from Notre Dame. Anthony Nelson came from Harvard. They can't take just anybody, but they can take grad transfers, and they've done it. They've bolstered their roster when they needed to, and it's amazing. And Trashpile in the chat, great name, Duke won by muffing a punt and making key errors, and they beat their damn asses anyway. That's exactly right. Duke was as sloppy in the first half as Clemson was.

And the difference is Duke wasn't like that in the second half. The only thing that was sloppy was the targeting on Klubnick's slide. But the way they called it, where they said he slid, that ended the play and it was a dead ball foul, it didn't even extend the drive for Clemson I'm not sure

it would have mattered I'm really not Logan Bartlett super chat assume Dabo will blame this on players making twenty thousand dollars you can't blame this on anything he can blame it on whatever he wants he's not changing with the times and if you're not going to change with the times i i don't know what you're going to do i mean this this is absolutely shocking i i'm short for words i mean last night watching watching Florida State beat the hell out of LSU, at least I understood how that roster was constructed, why that roster was better in certain places and so much better at receiver than LSU was in the secondary but in this case Duke's roster should not have been able to do this to Clemson like maybe eke out a close one but they should not have been able to just annihilate Clemson like this and Davo Sweeney's gonna have to do some soul searching here because

this again we always talk in week one don't let one crazy result cloud your judgment. Don't let it make you think this is what it's going to be like forever or this is what this team's going to be all year. But you look at what Clemson has to – Clemson is playing Florida State later this month. I just watched Florida State in person last night. The team I saw last night will beat the team that played Duke by a lot. Clemson is going to have to really improve to have a chance in that game.

I'm not sure how they're going to cover Florida State, and I'm really not sure how they're going to move the ball on them. That offense looks stuck in mud. Again, I, again, I feel terrible because I've been telling you guys all off season when Dabo Sweeney hires new blood, when they get new people into the mix and new ideas, that's when Clemson really takes off because that's what happened.

You know, they, they fired Billy Napier as the offensive coordinator. They brought in Chad Morris. They started running an up-tempo system. Taj Boyd, it all takes off from there. And then they evolved that offense into what Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott ran and won national titles with. And then defensively, remember they fired Kevin Steele after that game against West Virginia in the Orange Bowl, where it didn't look like they knew how to cover an up-tempo spread offense.

And ironically, Kevin Steele goes on to become one of the better defensive coordinators against those types of offenses after a stint with Nick Saban. But then they hired Brent Venables, and that changed everything. Changed the way they recruited, changed the way they played defense. It proved you could actually play a dominant defense opposite an up-tempo offense. Like Clemson has done so much to define the last 15 years of college football that it is so strange to watch Dabo just refuse to evolve. And that's what he's done.

The transfer portal, I understood at first, because if you go back to when Clemson was really rolling, they didn't have much attrition. They didn't make a lot of recruiting mistakes. Like here's what the transfer portal does. It allows you to very quickly eliminate your recruiting mistakes. Like here's what the transfer portal does. It allows you to very quickly eliminate your recruiting mistakes. That didn't work?

Okay, we'll grab you because you fit better what we do. And we have film on you from college. We know what you look like. That's going to work for us. You're watching Florida State do that in real time. Oh, we need one more dynamic threat on the outside? Great, Keon Coleman.

Oh, we need we need one more dynamic threat on the outside. Great. Keon Coleman. Oh, we need somebody who can be versatile and give us options as an H back tight end fullback, you know, just a whole, whole Swiss army knife. Jaheim Bell. We'll, we'll, we'll take him. That's not happening at Clemson, but the, but the other part of it, and I thought this, the hiring of Garrett Riley was changing this. The other part of it, and I thought the hiring of Garrett Riley was changing this. The other part of it was when you lose both coordinators, as they did after 2021, you hire from within on both sides of the ball. And you start to think, okay, this might be getting a little insular.

And then you watch the offense last year was very stale. So they fire Brandon Streeter. They hire Garrett Riley. You hire Garrett Riley because his ideas might make you not stale anymore. But they look like the same offense. It didn't look like TCU's offense. People who watched TCU closely all last year were watching this game tonight and saying, well, that doesn't look like the offense we saw Garrett Riley run at TCU that's not what Max Duggan was doing with Quentin Johnson and Kendra Miller and then by the way are we sure this wasn't DJU vindication?

We watched DJU and LA tear it up for Oregon State. Now, granted, it was San Jose State. But my goodness, did we get that wrong? I don't know. I feel like Clemson had been so good that it was okay to give Davos Sweeney the benefit of the doubt on this stuff. But now, I don't know. This feels different. This feels like they are going to have trouble with some of these teams down the stretch. They got to play Wake Forest. They got to play Miami, which is a little to play wake forest. They got to play Miami,

which is a little bit different this year. They got to play NC state. They got to play Notre Dame, like Notre Dame. They're going to play Sam Hartman, the quarterback. They always saw against wake forest and, you know,

hear Dabo talk about wake forest. He always hates playing wake forest. Cause they're so well coached. They're always where they're supposed to be. And they've had to play some thrillers. Now Sam Hartman's got Notre Dame's offensive line in front of him. Because that's what you can do with the transfer portal. But Dabo hasn't done that. And I don't know. I don't know what happens from here because you can't change this.

Unless you've got some freshmen that you think are going to develop really quickly. This is your team. This is what you've chosen. There's not really much else other than this. So you look at the rest of the way. That stretch with Miami, NC state, Notre Dame, that's looking pretty nasty. North Carolina.

They looked awfully aggressive on defense against South Carolina. They look like a different defense. We know they got a great quarterback in Drake may. And again, Florida state, we kept assuming that that meeting with Florida state and Clemson. Would be the first of two. Because remember, this is the new ACC schedule.

They don't have divisions anymore. So the top two go to the championship game. I don't know if it's the first of two. If Florida State crushes them or beats them in any way, shape, or form, that's two ACC losses at that point. They have no room for error after that. And I think Donald says in the chat, I think most damning evidence isn't the score,

which was driven by turnovers for both teams, but that Clemson and Duke look like peers. That's exactly right. And the fact that at the end of the game, Duke was running the ball down Clemson's throat. When is the last time we've seen something like that? It's just not normal to our brains because we haven't seen a team just go up and down the field on Clemson like that in a long time.

The 2019 LSU team in the national title game i guess but they did that to everybody so and that was maybe the best college football team ever that was maybe the best assemblage of talent especially at receiver and quarterback ever riley leonard's a hell of a quarterback this is not that he He's not Joe Burrow. But again, it's week one. Maybe we shouldn't go too crazy. But I certainly feel, there is room for improvement here. I can see that if they get some of their backs back, they'll have Mason Smith back. Like when they play Arkansas, they could look like a completely different team.

Well, that's the same week that Clemson and Florida State play, I believe. And I don't know how Clemson's going to look like a different team. Now, before we go any further, let us pause to praise Duke because Mike Elko, he worked a miracle last year, but I remember talking to the ACC folks this year, and I would say, well, Duke won nine games. What's Elko do for a second act? How does he improve on that?

And the answer always was just look at Duke's schedule. And you look at it and you're like, oh. Because we talked about Clemson having a stretch that looks tricky. Here's one for Duke. Notre Dame, NC State, Florida State. Now there's an open date between Notre Dame and NC State. But Notre Dame, NC State, Florida State. Now there's an open date between Notre Dame and NC State, but Notre Dame, NC State, Florida State is a pretty rough stretch. Wake Forest, North Carolina in consecutive weeks. It's a tough schedule for Duke, but you look at what they did

tonight. I'm not doubting them. I'm not doubting them in any of these games now. So this really changes my perception of the whole ACC. And I remember talking to Roddy Jones when we did our ACC preview on the show last week. And I said, Roddy, give me some teams in the ACC that can make it, if not Duke and Florida State. Or Clemson and Florida State. See, I've already replaced Clemson with Duke. But if not Clemson and Florida State. And we talked about NC State. We talked about North Carolina, we talked about Pittsburgh, but it was kind of half-hearted. Like, of course, it's just Clemson and Florida State. Nope, it's not just Clemson and Florida State. It's Duke. It's North Carolina.

And we don't know where Clemson is right now. And that might be one of the most interesting stories of this season, is to see what happens with Clemson and what Dabo does about it. Because right now, he's got a lot to figure out. We're going to have a lot to talk about. What a week one! I can't even imagine what week two is going to be like. Hey, it's Andy.

As you can probably tell, we did not intend to have an emergency show with an analysis of Duke destroying Clemson on this episode. But the college football gods, they are a fickle crowd. So that's what we got. Now we move on to a Dear Andy show with a visit from our friend Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl. We'll talk about all of the guys that excelled this weekend,

the ones that may have improved their draft stock. Also kind of contextualize what we saw. Interesting comments from Jim about the talent in TCU's secondary and what that means for what Colorado did to TCU's secondary and what it might mean for the rest of Colorado's opponents down the road. Also great questions about Texas defensive line, about what happens next with Florida state. There's a lot going on in college football these days.

And I tell you what to paraphrase a guy you're going to hear from in about two or three minutes, we got to all be in this together. It's not offense or defense. It's we-fence. Here's the rest of the show. Welcome to Andy Staples on three. It is a Dear Andy show. We got lots of great questions from you. We also have a visit from our friend Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl, talking about all the games that are coming up this weekend.

And we are going to have a lot of fun today. We will start with a quote that is a follow-up to something we talked about last night. So remember, I was at the Florida State LSU game. I went to the press conferences, saw Mike Norvell talk, saw Brian Kelly talk. And Brian Kelly had a particular quote about his team. Let's all go down memory lane and listen to Brian Kelly talking about who his team thought it might be. I pushed you around and heard you running up and running. Yeah, I'm quite aware of the

score and I didn't like the way we came out. I sensed it. I felt it. And I've got to take accountability and responsibility for the way that we came out in the second half. It's disappointing. But, you know, the buck stops with me. And I've gotta get our football team to understand and recognize that you've gotta play this game for four quarters with the mentality.

And we just did not, for some reason, we thought we were somebody else. Thought we were the two-time national champion, Georgia Bulldogs or something. I don't know what we thought, but we were mistaken. You catch the look that Jane Daniels gives Kelly when he says, maybe we thought we were the two-time national champion Georgia Bulldogs. Well, obviously, you know what happens next. Somebody was going to ask Georgia coach Kirby Smart about what Brian Kelly said. georgia bulldogs well obviously you know what happens next somebody was gonna ask georgia coach

kirby smart about what brian kelly said and just the the look on kirby's face when he gets the question says please do not bring me into this do not drag me into this because let's be fair guys Brian Kelly is getting dragged over what he said and over some calls and over playing Harold Perkins in a way that you probably shouldn't be playing Harold Perkins and over not having an adequate secondary and over not offering Keon Coleman he's getting dragged for a lot of things that's what happens when you lose at LSU and you're 0-1. But Kirby Smart did not want to get brought into this, but of course he was. We were the two-time national champion Georgia Bulldogs in reference to maybe thinking they could roll their helmet out in the second half. What does it say when your program is getting those kind of remarks from your peers? We're peers like Coach Coates, but you guys aren't building a pedestal there.

It says you're one week away from humility. And all it says is how are we going to practice today? Kirby, smart, piggy, please, please, please. I don't want to think about losing. And I can't say anything like that. And I know I can't say anything like that. And I have lots of thoughts on this, but I'm not going to tell you what they are.

That's what Kirby Smart is saying. They're playing Ball State, by the way. They're not losing. They're not losing this week. They're not losing. They're probably not losing South Carolina next week. We saw them block or attempt to block against North Carolina. It's going to be a while before Georgia loses or even is in danger of losing.

But the reason they don't lose very often is because Kirby Smart, ever vigilant, even when answering questions where he could squeeze off some jokes. And he chose not to. And I don't know if that's a matter of taking the high road, but he does not want to be humbled. And it reminds me of something. One of Kirby smart players once said, remember in the Rose bowl when Georgia played Oklahoma and Davin Bellamy saw Baker Mayfield and goes,

humble yourself. That's what Kirby Smart is saying. Brian Kelly, humbled pretty thoroughly by Florida State. Now he's got to deal with the wrath of the folks on the message boards and figure out how to win games because, let's be real, LSU schedule. They get grambling this week, but then it doesn't get easy. They get Mississippi state. They get Arkansas.

Like these are teams that they probably should be worried about. Now we'll talk about that a little bit later when we get to dear Andy, but it is a Monday during the season, which means there's a bunch of press conferences. And at Michigan, Jim Harbaugh returns to work after being suspended for the game on Saturday against East Carolina. Jesse mentored the defensive coordinator,

did a fine job and, and the Wolverines beat the pirates and everything went very smoothly. Now remember new interim coaching arrangement. So this time, it's going to be Jay Harbaugh, Jim's son. He'll be the interim head coach for the first half of the UNLV game on Saturday. Then Mike Hart, former Michigan running back, will be the interim coach for the second half. And of course, Jim Harbaugh was asked about the division of labor,

and he came up with perhaps the corniest quote Jim Harbaugh has ever come up with, and that is really saying something. What are the head coaching duties? I guess what are a head coach's responsibilities during the game? Be the guardian of victory is probably the number one job you have uh making sure that uh the decisions you're making are complimentary on all three phases no uh it's no offense there's no defense it's it's a we fence no offense no defense it's a we fence the best tweet I've seen about this. And if I don't

see this sign on game day and in the stadium, I'm going to be very disappointed. You know how the people hold up the letter D and then a fence, you know, a little picket fence. It was a Nintendo Wii controller and a picket fenceet fence so i want we fence i want to see that on college game day and i want to see it in the stadium at against unlv i want t-shirts made it's not an offense it's not a defense it's a we fence that is what we want elias gray no one will be cornier than Butch Jones. You have to not lose before you can win. Yeah, and Butch also, after losing 73-0 to Oklahoma on Saturday,

I believe he said, there's something we can take from that. There's nothing you can take from that. But Jim Harbaugh getting in the new terms. I mean, this could be a new football term that he's coined, the we-fence, and I just really hope we can figure out a way to incorporate it into all of our Michigan coverage for the rest of the year. Not an offense, not a defense, it's a we-fence. Little news from around the country.

Baylor was the subject of the biggest upset of the first college football weekend. I know what you're thinking. Wasn't that Colorado beating TCU? No, it wasn't. Baylor was actually a 26.5 point favorite against Texas State. They lost. G.J. Kenny, the head coach of Texas State, by the way, will join the show on Tuesday. We're going to talk to him about revamping that roster and about a multitude of stops. He's been everywhere. But Baylor making some changes. Sawyer Robertson, who came in briefly in relief of Blake

Chapin during the Texas State game, will be the starter. Oh, by the way, they're playing Utah on Saturday. So you just lost to Texas State. Congratulations. You get to play two-time defending Pac-12 champ Utah, which just whipped Florida. Sawyer Robertson will start. Chapin, if you watch that Texas State game, he was hurt for a lot of the latter part of that game. He had his leg wrapped. So they're going to give it a shot with Sawyer Robertson. And we'll see what happens because, you know, here's the thing about week one results. They don't necessarily predict the rest of the season. We were just talking about Michigan.

Remember Michigan lost to Appalachian State in week one of 2007. They got drilled by Oregon the following week. They wound up being a pretty good team the rest of the way. They blew out Tim Tebow's Florida team in the Citrus Bowl at the end of the season, and were a pretty good team in 2007 after those first two games. So you just never know how this is going to work. So perhaps Baylor can come back. But what we saw Saturday does not give you a lot of optimism for them to beat Utah. And speaking of the Utes, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan is now a member of the college football playoff selection committee. He is a member because Jen Cohen, who was the Washington AD, has stepped down because she is moving to USC as AD. And I think it's a matter of changing jobs and obviously high priority,

getting to know the new job and doing that to the fullest of your ability and not having any distractions. She's going to do that. I joked, of course, who's going to take the Big Ten's second spot because she's moving from Washington to USC. That's a Big Ten spot. Well, now the Big 12 gets two spots. Why you couldn't go with somebody from Washington State or Oregon State? Pat Chun, you got to give the Pac-12 a shot here, like an actual Pac-12 team because Utah, while they are playing in the Pac-12, they're not going to be playing in the Pac-12 a shot here, like an actual Pac-12 team. Because Utah, while they are playing in the Pac-12,

they're not going to be playing in the Pac-12 next year. But congratulations to Mark Harlan. Enjoy the delicious cookies at the Gaylord Texan Hotel in Grapevine. They really do. The cookies they cater for those selection committee meetings, spectacular. The sugar cookies, that's the ones I recommend. When we come back, though, we got to start talking about who shined

when they're trying to make themselves some money, not NIL money. We're talking NFL draft type money. When we return, Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Reese's Senior Bowl, will join us and he will break down how players from all across the country did, including one that you probably thought had a terrible game because he just kept getting hit over and over. But he actually had a pretty good game.

You'll hear about it when we come back. We're joined now by Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl and quite a first week in college football. And Jim, there's something you tweeted out after Colorado upset TCU that it shocked me. You said that last year you did not let your scouts evaluate players if the opponent was Colorado because the roster was that bad. Yeah, it was, Andy.

No, we were watching tape in the office in the spring, and we'd get to the Colorado game, and guys looked like first-round picks, everyone we watched. So it's all about picking the right tape when you're trying to evaluate guys. no i mean i wasn't trying to be a jerk with that post or anything but uh no you want to see the people you want to see players against the best competition and there's just better people out there you know they won one game for a reason they just didn't have a lot of a lot of players so well i i figured you were trying to explain the how thorough the the roster flip was that the d Dion did I mean

and and it's interesting because you know I'm asking you guy about guys that are eligible for the senior bowl and most of their best players are are very young yeah yeah no and that that was really the point of the post um yeah it was just to highlight what they've done there I mean to flip that thing entirely and then and then you know on the, on the other side of that is, I also wanted to make mention of what TCU has, because I mean, a lot of people, I mean, some people might think from the outside looking in that that's a team devoid of talent. Like all these guys went to the national football league last year.

I think we had five guys in the senior bowl that got drafted. And maybe people thought they weren't the same team, all those guys left. Well, I was there a couple of weeks ago and they've got a bunch of NFL guys on that team. So that's not, I mean, they've got four or five receivers. They've got a tight end who's going to be one of the top tight ends in this year's draft. They've got, you know, a couple drafts. Josh Newton. Yeah, they got Josh Newton on the defensive side. They literally have like five defensive backs that the entire NFL is going in there asking about right now. Not that they're all draftable level guys, but they're all guys on the NFL radar. So yeah, man, I mean, you can't, you can't say enough about what Dion's done there and all those players. And it's incredible.

That's interesting. Cause it really does contextualize the 510 passing yards that Colorado put up it. That's against a good secondary with guys that are going to play on Sunday. So very interesting. I also want to get your take. I was in Orlando for Florida State LSU, and I had been to Florida State's practice about a week and a half earlier, came away pretty impressed with a bunch of guys. And obviously you and I have talked about Jared Burse quite a bit. He's one that everybody's going to talk about.

But I wanted to talk about Florida State's offense. I mean, Jordan Travis is the headliner, but Johnny Wilson. I know Keon Coleman's not eligible for your game, but he was obviously a big star. But Trey Benson's also eligible for your game. Their entire offensive line, because it's old, is eligible for your game. Yeah, no, they're going to be really good on offense man if they click to that point last night and put up 45 on an lsu defense that

they might not see a better defense than that the entire year if they're clicking that early with all these new pieces um that's pretty scary and and really you know mike norvell's been one of the best play callers in college football for a lot of years now, going back to his time at Memphis. And he had good players at Memphis. I mean, we've had a bunch of his guys. We've had Tony Pollard in the senior bowl. We've had Antonio Gibson in the senior bowl. He's had good players, but he's never had this amount of skill players and guys that have kind of some Swiss Army knife versatility like Jaheim Bell. He's a guy like, I don't know what you label Jaheim Bell. He's playing fullback for them. He's on the fullback on our board upstairs.

He's played running back at South Carolina. He's really good in the slot. I don't know what you call Johnny Wilson. I don't know if you call him an F tight end or a big wide receiver. But, you know, all these guys are mismatch problems. And when you've got a guy that can call plays like Mike Norvell like wow when we get closer to college football playoff time if they're putting up 45 week one on an scc a really good scc defense what is this thing going to look like in december yeah jaheim bell is a great case study because you just look at the fourth quarter you know he's catching a touchdown pass where he's out running some people. And then a little bit later, he's taking an end around inside, kind of up in between the tackles.

I mean, that dude can do quite a bit. And what a fitting way to end that game, right? I mean, he trucks the DB at the goal line and kind of stands over him, kind of poses over him. And it was really an exclamation point on what that game turned into in the second half. I mean, that was a competitive game. And really, like going back and rewatching the tape today, Jordan Travis, I got to give him credit. Like they had it. LSU had him rattled.

He had two really ill-advised kind of pressure-driven mistakes. One was a pick. The other one was a dropped pick, you know, right there and, there. And, you know, backed up could have been really costly. But then he came out like our scout. I talked to him this morning who was at the game. And he really settled down in that second half and just played point guard. And that to me, that's his game. That's what Jordan is. He's a point guard for that offense. And to be a distributor on an offense that has so many players like Benson, like Wilson, like Bell, and like Coleman. I mean, my God, five of their six touchdowns came out of the portal.

You know, between Bell and Coleman, five touchdowns out of the portal this year. So super impressive, man. You were there. I'm jealous. I wish I was there. It looked like a heck of an environment. What a way to start the season for Florida State. I'm curious about the evolution of Jordan Travis, because I imagine a couple of years ago,

he wasn't somebody that maybe you thought was going to be a candidate for your game or a candidate for the NFL draft. But he sure looks like one now. Yeah, you know, I mean, talking to guys on staff staff there there was some thought to making him a wide receiver um a couple years ago like what is this guy and again what I was looking for coming into the year was some some mechanical improvements he's still not a guy that really incorporates his lower half a whole lot I mean I still think there's upside in his arm um but the things you like he's hard to get on the ground I mean LSU had a lot of pressure on him. They couldn't get to him. He, he had, he finds an escape path. He, he had a couple of really nice touch throws rolling to his left, which are really difficult for a righty. And so he just,

he moves his team. And, and again, there was some spotty plays early, some, some, he misfired on a couple, you know, throws that he should have had. But one thing I like about him, and when you've got a guy like Johnny Wilson and Keon Coleman, even going back to last year's tape, he's a guy that trusts his playmakers to make plays. He is not afraid to put the ball up and let his guys go get it, which, man, when you've got guys who can do it, that's a great trait. It'll be interesting to keep watching him. But, man, at the end of the day, he moves that football team.

So that's the bottom line at that position. Let's talk about another good quarterback that you saw in person this weekend, Michael Pratt for Tulane. No TyJ Spears anymore, but they had a very impressive win against South Alabama, which is kind of one of those darling teams in the Sun Belt. What did you think of Pratt in person? Oh, God, he was good, man. There was so much to

like. That was, to me, if you looked at the group of five schedule for the entire season, I think that might have been the best one on paper because you've got, like you said, a South Alabama team coming off a double-digit win year. You've got Tulane coming off the Cotton Bowl, went over USC. So I wanted to be there. I wanted to see that. And it was a really good environment. They packed that place. And Kane Womack and the defensive staff there in Alabama, through South Alabama, threw a ton at Michael Pratt. And man, he handled it. He can move. He sees the field. He doesn't. He's one of those guys that he knows exactly when to run. He knows when to abandon his reads and take off. But he also keeps his eyes down the field and

if you if you're loose a little bit back there he's going to make you pay for it and he did I mean there was a couple throws in that game where where he got hit he held on to it got hit in the mouth delivered strikes and he was hitting guys in stride where they could run with it after the catch so I think he was 14 of 15 the only incompletion was a drop ball um i think he had the highest pff grade of any quarterback the second highest grade behind like jaylen hertz back against west virginia years ago um so i walked away from the stadium i got two texts i got a text from cam sample who was in our game a few years ago the covid year and placed for the cincinnati bengals now defensive lineman and then tajay spears they both hit me up from text and they're like Jim you better they're like you better get that invite ready for for our guy Pratt

so uh no he he was really impressive Michael did a great job the other night so another quarterback and you mentioned before we started recording that you got you watched this game back twice already you know North Carolina South Carolina everybody was talking about Drake May or they were talking about how Spencer Rattler got just pulverized he got sacked nine times but you came away pretty impressed with the way Rattler played I did I did I mean first credit to uh our guy Gene Chizik up there threw the Tar Heel helmet up but uh I'll start off before I get to Rattler I'll say this Northolina looked like the sec team in that game in terms of the aggression with defensive front yeah yeah man

they i mean the the temperament the physicality um flying to the football they looked like the sec defense in that game um gene's done an unbelievable job getting them going and rattler to rattler in rattler's defense man when you watch the tape, I mean, he was sacked eight times. He could have been sacked 20 times. He's got nice feel in the pocket. He got out of there a bunch. Not only did he escape with, like, feel and quickness,

like, he ripped away from some sacks from some big guys, so he showed some strength in the pocket. And then he delivered some strikes in the pocket and then he delivered some strikes underdressed like there was a bunch spencer rattler put a bunch of nfl throws on tape in that game that scouts are gonna love there it's the it's the you know compromised pocket into tight windows i mean he was doing all that stuff and he and he lost one of his best receivers arguably his best receiver juice wells you know in the first half. And he kind of turned Xavier Leggett into an overnight star. He played his butt off the other night.

So, no, man, I mean, it was a disappointing outcome for South Carolina fans. I'm sure they're bummed. But, man, I thought Spencer played great. The staff there at South Carolina all offseason was talking about what a great offseason Spencer had. And you could see it. There was a lot of growth from from last year's tape. Well, he's one I just I'm curious about because I feel like when someone comes in with as much hype as he did and then they don't quite live up to it, a lot of times we just sort of cast them aside and we don't account for the fact that someone does mature as they go from

being an 18 year old to a 22, 23 year old. And it seems like, you know, as the NFL people evaluate Spencer, they have to kind of evaluate two different people here. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think expectations can be dangerous in evaluation, whether you set the bar before you watch the tape, before you set it too high, too low. And yeah, Spencer had so much hype coming out. I didn't watch that QB one show that, that he was on. And I know he's taken a lot of, a lot of flack for that man. But I'll say this in like the age of the portal and all this player movement, it's been a good thing for scouts because you do, sometimes you get two different stories. And again, if he were a bad guy at Oklahoma, do you think Shane Beamer would have brought him to South Carolina with him to like

build his program around like that wouldn't have happened so again I would never cast judgment on a 17 18 year old kid that had cameras in his face all the time I know I know I wouldn't want cameras in my face as a 17 year old high school quarterback I probably would have done some things I wouldn't be proud of now as a 49-year-old guy. But no, so the scouts are going to go in. They're going to get the whole gamut. They're going to go back to Oklahoma, talk to all those people. They're going to go into Columbia and talk to everyone there. And then at the end of the day, they have to sit down with Spencer and hear his side of the story too.

So everything I've gotten from everyone I know and the little interaction I have with spencer at sec media days this seems like a guy that's uh he's really grown up so let's head out west i know you had a scout at washington boise state michael pennix was one of the stories of saturday where he was he just looked phenomenal to the naked eye but how did he look to to the scouts eye basically what what our guy reported back was when it was kind of like slow, get there, trying to get a rhythm, trying to get a feel for the game. It's week one. Right. And they do, they've got everyone coming back. I mean, that's a really veteran Washington football team. So it's not like Florida state where there's a lot of new pieces,

but they were trying to settle it in. And then when they started going down the field is when you saw Michael Penix again. I mean, that's what he is. He's one of the best deep ball throwers in college football. I've seen that a couple times now at the Manning camp in the summer. He throws a really pretty deep ball. And he's got two great receivers. I mean, McMillan and Adunzi are probably the best senior duo.

You know, I don't know about the underclassmen where they fit into this whole thing. But senior-wise, they're great. So great so yeah pennix did his thing again and again he'll get bigger tests down the road uh but but a great week one i mean come out of the shoots with five or six touchdown passes whatever he ended up with uh pretty good week and he's got some some pretty good players protecting him too and uh troy uh faltano and roger roger rosengarten are also kind of on you guys radar yeah so rosengarten's a guy i didn't know if we were going to get we really had to dig into his bio and check out there's all these new rules with what what 2020 was for covid but roger is going to be available to us and again good athlete playing right tackle um he looks athletic enough on the right side that maybe at the next level he could be a swing

tackle and go over there on the left side. He's not like some big, big, heavy footed giant. You know, this guy's got some movement to him, some initial quickness and lateral mobility to him. And then for Tano, I think, you know, he's going to be best suited inside. But right now, I mean, he's just, he's, he's so light on his feet and nimble out there that at the college level, you stick him out there. I mean, he can dance in front of people.

But because of his lack of length, I think he's going to be best suited to be a guard or a center as a pro. But he is one of the best offensive linemen. He's way high up there on our board right now. Love the player. I've heard nothing but great things about the person. But what you're seeing on tape, like if he comes down here to Mobile, which I hope he does, we'll kick him inside and let the NFLfl team so see what he looks like in there so let's let's look ahead there's going to be a game a few hours north of you guys in tuscaloosa texas alabama game of the week the

game we've been talking about all summer who are you looking at most in this game who do you want to see shine and what matchups really stick out to you it's gonna be a good one andy i can't wait i'm already sad thing is i'm already thinking about how i'm getting home because it's a seven o'clock kick and uh if you've ever driven from mobile to tuscaloosa it's all back roads and deer are running all over the place i'm probably gonna hit a deer or something coming home but uh now a lot of the hard part about live scouting a game like this is like, where do you focus your attention? Your eyes are all over the place as a scout. So you do have to go in with a plan. There's prospects everywhere. I will be interested to see Texas defensive line against this Alabama

offensive line. I mean, Alabama's offensive line played great last week for everything I've heard from people up at Alabama. They were they were happy with how those guys came out, kind of a new look group this year. But Texas has a good front. They really do. A really front seven. They've got some good players. So I'll be looking in the trenches mainly because that's really where a lot of guys are for this year's game. And then we'll see on the outside like jermaine burton at alabama's a skill guy for alabama that's got a chance to to be here and he's going up against a texas secondary that's got five guys on our watch list so um so there'll be some there'll be some good matchups there but i would say inside like devondre sweat alfred collins those defensive linemen for the for the Mike linebacker, we'll be guys I'll be focused on.

Yeah, Sweat, Collins, Byron Murphy, old interior D-line guys who seem to have kind of come on in the last couple years. Yeah, you know, you talk to the staff there. I don't think it's any secret. I don't think I'm shocking the players if they're listening to this. I mean, just the maturity part. You know, they've been waiting for Tavondre to grow up. And he was behind a couple good players last year,

Keiondre Coburn and Ajomo. Those guys were good players. And now it's his turn. Now it's Tavondre's turn. And Alfred Collins is another guy that, you know, I was talking to a scout at the Tulane game the other day. Collins was a backup last year, right, behind a couple guys that were later on draft picks.

And I know the staff reached out to this particular scout backup last year, right? Behind a couple of guys that were later, later on draft picks. And, uh, and, uh, I know the staff reached out to, to this particular scout and asked him last year, like, what would, we're trying to, we're trying to get draft grades together for Alfred Collins, help him make the decision. And he was like, well, shoot, man, you might not want to hear this, but he might be a second, second or third round guy, even as a backup. Uh, probably not the news you want to hear if you're trying to keep a player in school, right? But it all worked out for Texas. They got Alfred Collins back. But to me, that tells you if you grade the flashes with Alfred Collins, and we use that term a lot in scouting, if we grade the flashes here, you know, this is where the guy's ceiling is. And Alfred Collins, his ability to get after the quarterback from the interior, we saw all these guys get paid this summer. That's

where the NFL is investing their money right now. Alfred Collins can do that, man. He's a big, long athletic joker and he can get after the QB. So he can make money in a game like Saturday night. You go up to Tuscaloosa and you put in a performance, you can make a lot of money and really help your stock. We'll be right back with more from Jim Nagy, but first we're going to talk about game time. It is the least stressful way to get last minute tickets. And there's some tickets that I think everybody who's a college football fan would love to have. And that would be tickets to the Texas Alabama game in Tuscaloosa Bryant Denny Stadium well guess what they got him on game time now I'm not gonna lie you could spend a lot of money to get into this game but you could also go on game time you type in Alabama it's gonna say do you want Alabama the band or Alabama

football kind of want both but we're going Alabama football here you can get into this game on game time for 158 bucks that's the lowest get in price. That is incredible. You can, again, you can spend a lot of money if you want to, but 158 bucks. And when you click that price, a picture comes up. It's a picture inside the stadium. It's not a generic picture of the stadium. That is the view from the seat you would be buying. Now, let's say too much, too rich for your blood. But you want to see a marquee game this weekend. All right, so we go back.

We type in NC State football. Click on that. Notre Dame is headed to Raleigh to play NC State. Get in price on game time right now, 105 bucks. You click it. You see exactly what you'd be looking at. It's a pretty good seat. If you look at where you'd be sitting in the stadium, that's a pretty good view.

At that point, you're only about two clicks away from having those tickets. And before you check out, enter the code STAPLES. You get $20 off your first purchase. So go to GameTime, download the app, find the tickets you want, redeem the code staples, 20 bucks off your first purchase, last minute tickets, stress free, guaranteed game time. One more game that I imagine you've got your eyes on Notre Dame and NC state.

It feels like, especially along the line of scrimmage, again, Notre Dame offensive line, NC state front seven, that there's a lot to look at here. There's a lot to look at there, but I'll really be focused on, on the QBs. We're trying to figure, we're trying to figure this quarterback thing out. And he, and, and, and Sam Hartman has done everything he can possibly do in these first two games against the first game against who did they go to?

They were Navy first. That's right, Navy and then Tennessee State. So he's done everything he can do, but now it's back into the ACC. And for him, the good thing for him, it's familiar people. Like he'll go out. NC State's got a couple good corners that are on our board right now. it's now it's back into the ACC and uh for him the good thing for him it's familiar people like he'll he'll go out at NC State's got a couple good corners that are on our board right now he's seen those guys he's got the book on them um so that'll be a good one and then Brendan Armstrong too I watched him last week against Boston College he actually did more with his legs than he did his

arm he kind of looked he kind of was channeling his inner Tim Tebow the other night uh up against UConn and ran the ball a ton so I want to see him see him put it up a little bit but yeah we got to dial in on these QBs it's such a deep class but you're right I mean there's some some guys in the trenches on both sides on both these teams that are that are good players the Hartman Armstrong thing is interesting to me because you're getting to see these guys against similar competition like you have tape of these guys playing against these defenses but on different teams is that useful because like Sam Hartman for example his last two games against NC State he had a win and a loss combined to throw six pits that they've they have been one of the more successful defenses, Tony Gibson's

defense against Sam Hartman. So how does it help you evaluate now getting to see him with different players around him? Yeah. And if I'm Sam Hartman, it's my chance to go out and light it up and be like, you know, that was the offense. That was the, that was the Wake Forest offense. That wasn't me. No, he wakes to, I got to say this, Whenever I do it, whenever anyone talks about Sam Hartman, they always talk about, you know,

him wanting to transfer and show the NFL scouts, you know, what he can do in more of a pro style offense. Give it to Dave Clawson and the guys at Wake. They've done an unbelievable job. They don't need they don't need to worry about the NFL and what gets guys to the league. Right. But no, it's a good I didn't know that stat about Sam. Now, thanks for keying me in on that. I'll be I'll be watching for that on Saturday. But that's very like it's very unlike Hartman to throw that many picks. So but yeah, it's useful, man. I mean, you see him in different uniforms with different guys around him. Again, the portal stuff is made the evaluation part more difficult in some ways, really to track the players. It's made it really

difficult. But in terms of like seeing guys playing different schemes and stuff, it's been really helpful. Well, Jim, I can't wait. I'm so excited. And we will check in with you again in a couple of weeks, see how these guys are doing. But there's a smorgasbord coming up. You guys are going to be so busy. So thank you so much. We're off and running, Andy. Here we go. We're on to week two.

Let's go. I'll see you here in a couple of weeks, man. Thanks for having me back on. That is the great Jim Nagy and very interesting stuff. And it is fascinating to think how different the transfer portal probably makes the job for a scout when you get to see these guys play in multiple schemes and with multiple sets of teammates. It's almost like the pro player personnel guys that are watching guys as they go through the NFL and say, oh, do we want to pick that guy up? Do we want to pick that guy up?

Very interesting perspective. And also, the tcu secondary question as he was talking about that somebody clipped that clip and posted on twitter and said wait wait this was a colorado fan who did that and said wait we were told that tcu stunk and that's why colorado threw for 510 yards no no no tcu's got good players and that was a very impressive performance by colorado by shador sanders by those receivers no there's there's nothing to discount that if you if you're trying to discount that you don't know what you're talking about jim nagy knows what he's talking about that was done against good players so now we get to see them against Nebraska,

which really good defense last week. First game under Tony White as a defensive coordinator. They shut down Minnesota. Not the defense's fault that they lost, for sure. But that defense will have its work cut out for it. All right. Speaking of Colorado, our first Dear Andy question comes from Bo, and it is about Coach Prime and another coach that Coach Prime will be joining in the Big 12 next year.

Dear Andy, come after me. I'm a man. I'm 40. Dear Andy, come after me. I'm a man, I'm 40. Dear Andy, Come after me, I'm a man, I'm 40. Has held the number one spot as the most used college football soundbite for many years. Mike Gundy is now 50-something, I believe. Will Coach Prime take the number one position this year that is a great

great question because think about how many coach prime soundbites since he got to colorado that we have passed around but none has reached the level of of Mike Gundy's epic rant after the Texas tech game in 2007. So we remember the circumstances of that. Don't we? He was directed at Jenny Carlson, who was a columnist for the Oklahoman at the time. She actually just changed jobs,

but what has been there all these years since, and they actually get along pretty well now. But it was a column she'd written about one of their quarterbacks and a quarterback who'd been benched. And Gundy just went off. And remember, this is a game Oklahoma State won. And he just, he held up the newspaper. He ranted. He took no questions.

Who could forget? Where are we at in society today? Come after me. I'm a man. I'm 40. I'm not a kid. Write something about me. There's so much in that one. You know, he's holding up the paper. This was given to me by a mother of children. And then at the end, makes me want to puke it's just a classic and why is it such a classic i i was trying to explain this to producer river who is uh in his very early 20s earlier about why this for for those of us of a certain age why this is so important of a clip it was really the first time sports and YouTube collided. YouTube had existed at that point for about three years, but it wasn't something we all

used in our everyday lives. Occasionally, there'd be viral clips. Remember the Weezer video with all the early YouTube viral sensations? Mike Gundy probably should have been invited to be in that video. But this was the first time it hit the world of sports. And that was something that before you would have had to watch all five airings of SportsCenter in a row if you wanted to see it five times. But me in 2007, I mean, I was I'd only had a broadband connection for like three years at that point. You know, I can just click it over and over and watch it again and again and again. That's what I was explaining to River. He's talking about different parts of it.

It's like, dude, I haven't memorized. You know that, right? Because I've watched it 300 times because I just watched it over and over and over again because that was a new thing that you couldn't do before so that one i think because of where it intersected with technology will always be kind of special and another little weird side note to that one mike leach was the opposing coach in that game he had a pretty epic rant i think it was the fat little girlfriend's speech it was one of those or they punched us in the mouth and we went crying to our mommy

something like something like that and I'm sure that the Texas Tech reporters went bounding up the press box like oh won't believe what what Leach said and the Oklahoma State reporters are like hold our beers the Gundy rant was epic but the thing about Dion is he's a volume shooter with this stuff like I don't know that there's ever going to be one that compares to Gundy's just in terms of pure epic awesomeness but Dion's gonna rack them up over and over and over again instance, his press conference after the TCU game, I believe was 12 minutes long, and it produced probably six viral clips out of it. This is the one that probably got passed around the most.

What's up, boss? You believe now? Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Oh, no. Do you believe in that? Huh? Oh, no, no, no. I read through that bull junk you wrote. I read through that. I sifted through all that. Yeah.

Oh, no. Come on. Do you believe? You don't believe? You just answered it. You don't believe? Next question. Now, the Big J Journalism police got all over this one.

How you can't chide the reporters? They're not supposed to be your fans. Guys, that was Ed Werder that he was having some fun with. Ed Werder, longtime ESPN reporter, covered the Cowboys. Dion played for the Cowboys. Dion and Ed Werder have a longstanding relationship. He's joking. don't be so serious about all this stuff but you are going to see that with Dion I mean he he got up there and he's he's

touting Shador and Travis Hunter for Heisman he he's not worried about what the traditional rules say that you're what you are and aren't supposed to say in these things. He does not care. And so while I don't know that he's ever going to hit one that is as purely epic as Gundy's rant, because Gundy's rant was out of nowhere. And let's be real, Mike Gundy also historically has not given a flip about what the rules are about what you are and aren't supposed to say he's still like that he's you know even now he's like that so they're actually very much cut from the same cloth with Dion though I think he's gonna say so many interesting things that we're just gonna get we're gonna get used to it oh Onukuno here saw the Gundy rant from Afghanistan

on the old WWLS radio website. Wow. It's the thing, it went all over the world in a hurry. And that's not something that would have happened earlier in society and with our technology. So I think that one will probably always occupy a special place but man that thing it's crazy but i i do think dion is going to have a lot of these it's it's almost going to be like remember how you know people would get super offended with

howard stern and then after a while they didn't even bother being offended anymore because that's just that's what he did. They're used to that. I think with Dion, he's going to say things like this that that are so interesting and different. We're going to get kind of numb to it pretty quickly. And so I don't I don't know that we're getting the just crazy off the wall one like the Gunny rant. But I do think in terms of batting average, Deion's batting average on this stuff is going to be pretty high. All right. Let us move on to another question from David. Dear Andy, David from San Antonio checking in. My question is, is there a chance that the Texas defensive line,

specifically the interior defensive line, is the best Alabama will face all season up until potentially meeting Georgia and Atlanta. Bo Davis' group, led by Murphy and Sweat, Collins, Broughton, playing violent and disruptive. I think there's a good chance they're the best unit to face all season. Maybe even better than that five-star group in A&M. This is a great question. And what David asks is actually kind of the secret to, to if Texas can win this game is if that group plays really well, it's going to disrupt what Alabama wants to do offensively because Alabama

wants to establish the run. They want you so scared of what they can do, handing it to the backs or what Jalen Milrow can do running that it leaves guys open that you dedicate so much so much resource to the run game that guys are open and it makes it easy for Milrow to throw the ball David's not wrong about the physical piece of this because you just heard Jim Nagy talking about Alfred Collins Alfred Collins Collins is 6'5", 3'17". This is the only team in the Big 12 right now that has D linemen that really look the part.

And so like Brent Venables at Oklahoma, he's gotten body types like this over the last couple of years to try to because that's what he wants to do. They have not gotten that truly special player, David Stone, who just committed to them feels like that kind of player. Now he's much higher rated as a recruit than, than these guys were, but these guys have come along as Jim Nagy mentioned, they're all a little bit older, you know, to Vondre sweat, Alfred Collins, they're older players. I believe both fourth year players, Byron Murphy, I believe, both fourth-year players. Byron Murphy, I think, is another fourth-year player. Broughton's a junior.

So they've got guys that have been developing for a while, but are the right size, the right speed, the right measurables for what Alabama is accustomed to seeing in the SEC and what, what can challenge them in the SEC. I do appreciate with David's question that we've just moved past the point where anybody even questions, whether anybody could possibly be better than Georgia on the defensive line. It's not even worth asking. They're like, no, no,

until they play Georgia, but we can go through it. I mean, Arkansas is going to have a big physical defensive line and alabama's going to have to play them uh lsu when mason smith is back mason smith and mckay wingo is a pretty formidable interior d-line duo but i would put this group with any of those and i i think there's a chance that this could be the difference in the game and really it's up to alab Alabama's interior offensive line

to be able to handle this group, because if they can't, it's going to be tough sledding for Alabama's offense. So I am so excited to see this matchup. And I love that question from David, because we have not talked about that group very much with Texas for years. Years. That's why people are so excited about Texas for years, years. That's why people are so excited about Texas, stuff like that. It's not, oh, they had a bunch of highly ranked recruits.

It's on the offensive and defensive lines, it feels like they look the part now. And you ask an NFL person like a Jim Nagy, who's been a scout, who runs a game where they evaluate players like that they look like they're supposed to look now and that was not the case before all right let us move on to a question from Carl hi Andy I think this sums up the demise of the Pac-12 perfectly the number six team in the country who has the reigning Heisman Trophy winning quarterback has played week zero and week one.

Yet I have not been able to watch them at all because they've been on the Pac-12 network. And I live in the Midwest, so that might explain some of it, but not all of it. So Carl lives near Milwaukee, and that kind of explains some of it. But you can get the SEC network in Milwaukee. You can get the ACC network in Milwaukee. Of course, you can get the Big Ten network in Milwaukee. That that kind of explains some of it, but you can get the SEC network in Milwaukee. You can get the ACC network in Milwaukee. Of course, you can get the Big Ten network in Milwaukee. That's the footprint. But the problem with the Pac-12 network, and this is sort of the original sin that led to what happened to the Pac-12 this past summer, is that they took a risk. And they knew they were taking a risk when they did

it. It was a calculated risk and they calculated wrong. So here's the risk. We'll give you some background. The PAC-12 was the second conference network to exist and the Big Ten network was already available. So the Big Ten network was a partnership with Fox. So when Fox went to cable companies to get the Big Ten carry, now they met resistance too, but the thing they could say was, oh, do you want to have Fox News on your cable system? Well, then you're also going to carry the Big Ten network and at this price. They could say that when the SEC network was launched, which was a partnership with ESPN, which is owned by Disney. Disney could go in there and say, you will carry the SEC network at this price on this tier, or you will not get ESPN. You will not get ESPN2.

You will not get the Disney channel. You think that's going to make your customers happy. And so when the Pac-12 decided to do it, they decided to be owned and operated completely by the Pac-12. And that was, looking back, a mistake because there was no leverage when they had to go to the cable companies or or direct tv which was the the main one and and they couldn't say okay if you don't carry this and at this price then you're out of luck we're gonna pressure you some other way we're gonna we're gonna have a way to leverage you to force you into doing what we want but that wasn't to happen that direct tv did not have to cave into the pac-12 because nobody was going to not enough people were going to cancel their direct tv subscriptions for it to make a difference and so that's where it became a problem it was the worst distributor

of those and now you're still sitting here in a situation where usc plays its first two games on the network and a lot of people couldn't see it you where USC plays its first two games on the network and a lot of people couldn't see it you know it's you can get it on sling I think you get it on Fubo Fubo or you can get it on some of the cable systems out there but it's it's not easy to get whereas all the other ones at this point are easy to get all right let us move on to this question from Mark, and it is a doozy. So bear with me because Mark asked along, and it was one of those, I read it, or I opened the email, and I said, I think I need to send him the meme, the too long, didn't read, congratulations, or I'm sorry, but I'm not reading all that. But then I decided to read all of it. And I think it's worth asking, especially given what we've just seen.

Andy, just watched your reaction video for the FSU-LSU game, and I can't help but think that at the very least, this game might help further aid the case for FSU's value to a non-ACC conference. That's probably getting ahead of things as it's just one game, as the saying goes. But there's purportedly an odd twist to the ACC relationship with ESPN that might be affected by strong non-conference performances by FSU and Clemson in 2023. I can't remember where I saw it now, but word has it that the contract the ACC has with ESPN is such that ESPN cannot renegotiate in a downward manner the fees it pays for ACC games so long as ACC membership stays at a certain level. 14 plus Notre Dame is one common interpretation of the threshold, so 15 members. Assuming this is the case, one might think the ACC onboarding of Cal, Stanford,

and SMU gives the conference a lot of comfort in letting FSU, Clemson, or North Carolina go without a big scrum over the payout over the grant of rights. In that scenario, ESPN's broadcast rights with FSU, my fav team, by the way, and either or both of Clemson and North Carolina might not be a problem so long as those programs land in the SEC. However, it might not be that easy as the money ESPN makes on its deal with the ACC would not be as remunerative, good word. If Clemson and FSU and maybe UNC take off, I should acknowledge a pet prejudice of mine with regard to a non-ACC landing spot for FSU.

I find it really hard to believe the SEC would let the Big Ten just waltz in and take FSU. So when I think about FSU leaving the ACC, my assumption is that the SEC would make sure they get FSU just to keep the Big Ten out of the backyard, but who knows? Boy, he's hitting all of it, hitting the high points. Another possible factor, ye gods, there's a ton of moving parts to all this. This is in the parentheses here, is the upcoming renegotiation of the playoff and the transition from a four-team format to a 12-team

format. I've often thought if you want to collapse the deal between ESPN and the ACC in a manner that might give FSU a chance to get out of the conference without going bankrupt in the process, the advent of the 12-team playoff and any concomitant shift in television rights landscape might do it. At the moment, it appears FSU is not leaving the ACC unless it and Clemson want to hire an army of attorneys. But I'm curious as to what you think about the effect of a 12-team playoff on the networks and other television carriers and the consequent impact on conference realignment. Am I overthinking this or is there some prospect that the 12-team playoff might force a reshuffling of Power 5 conferences in a way that gets Florida State out of the ACC? Please feel free to say that you think the current television deals with the Big Ten and SEC are madly overpriced, as has been argued, and thus FSU might not be worse off staying in the ACC.

What a question. Okay, I will throw a little nugget that came out between when I got this question from Mark and now. 9.1 million was the average viewership of that Florida State LSU game. This further supports what Michael Alford, the athletic director at Florida State and the trustees at Florida State said that they are a valuable television property. Yes, LSU had a lot to do with that too, but Florida State has consistently delivered audiences. So So that matters. That absolutely matters. Now, the part that Mark asked about 14 members plus Notre Dame as a minimum threshold. That's right. So as long as the ACC has 14 members full plus Notre Dame non-football, ESPN can't come in and renegotiate for a lower price. So I looked at taking Cal and Stanford and SMU as basically a pre-backfill

for a time when the ACC will be without Florida State, Clemson, and North Carolina. I think they're taking those three, which wouldn't make any sense otherwise, with the expectation that those three are leaving. So now it's interesting, and I thought this through the other day, and I was trying to go through all the different scenarios that Mark was mentioning about,

would the Big Ten be interested in Florida State, Clemson, and North Carolina with the SEC? And the SEC thing is interesting because obviously ESPN owns all the ACC rights. As of next year, ESPN will own all the SEC's rights as well. But think about how much more expensive it would be if, let's say, those three schools move from the ACC to the SEC. Expensive for ESPN, that is. Because remember, the ACC adding SMU, Cal, and Stanford just added $72 million a year to ESPN's bill for the ACC.

Now, you would subtract $72 million if Florida State, Clemson, and North Carolina were to leave and go to the Big Ten, which does not have any deals at the ESPN. So that would be a wash, except ESPN would be losing teams that people actually want to watch. But if they were to go to the SEC, they would go in at the SEC price, which is going to be something like $75 million a year per school. So suddenly that $72 million turns into $225 million. That's much more expensive for ESPN. And that's the part I have a hard time figuring out because ESPN's money, its gross revenue is going down, down, down as people cut the cord. You have the fight now with Spectrum and Charter where basically they're saying, hey, you're either going to come in at a price much lower than you come in at now or we're just not going to have you at all.

We're going to dump the video business and just be a broadband business. And so there's a lot of moving parts to this, but the shortest way to answer Mark's very long question is I, it feels to me like the ACC does not take Cal Stanford and SMU unless they are preparing for a somewhat near future where there is no Florida State, Clemson, and North Carolina in the ACC. Question from Chris. Wouldn't it be more likely for ESPN to send to those three schools, you can come at the SEC, but at a discount similar to Oregon and Washington? Yeah, and I think they'd probably do it.

That would make more sense. But I don't know. The SEC is probably not going to be big on uneven revenue sharing. They've never been big on that. They've never wanted that. So I just don't know if that's going to happen. All right, moving on. We got a question from Kyle.

And he asks, based on. We had a question from Kyle, and he asked, based on what you saw this weekend, do you still have LSU finishing second in the West, or do their loss combined with Auburn, Texas A&M, and Ole Miss looking impressive change things? I definitely am reevaluating how I feel about the SEC West below Alabama. I still think Alabama is the best of the West. And if they're going to win the West, don't ask me again after the Texas game. We may have a different answer.

But LSU, there were flaws. We knew that the secondary was going to be an issue. We also know that most teams don't have Florida State's receiving core. And most teams don't have Jordan Travis. So a combination of a Jordan Travis and Florida State's receiving core and most teams don't have Jordan Travis. So a combination of a Jordan Travis and Florida State's receiving core is lethal to a team with a secondary like LSU's. I don't know that everybody else on the schedule is going to be able to pull that off. That's the thing. And remember, they're getting Mason Smith back. So I'm not completely out on LSU. Remember they lost game one last year too.

They did get routed by Tennessee in the middle of the season. He still went on to win the West. So I'm not out on them. They're still very talented. Their running game could get better. John Emery back after game four, I believe. And then we will see if Logan Diggs is healthy enough and gets to the point where he can play because that probably would help too. Jaden Daniels was almost exclusively their running game. And that's just not going to work. I mean, he nearly got himself destroyed when he tried to leap into the middle of the line and hurdle and just got body slammed. So now I think that I'm looking at that schedule and yeah, I'm worried about when they play Arkansas.

I think Auburn is going to be good under Hugh Freeze. I've said that many times. I don't know how good this year because he had to do a pretty big roster reconstruction, but we know Hugh Freeze's history in the SEC. We saw what he did in 2012 and 2013, 14, 15 in Ole Miss. So I expect them to be good. And then A&M, we've said this all offseason. If that talent clicks, if they don't have chemistry issues,

if the play calling is good by Bobby Petrino, they could beat anybody. They certainly look smooth against New Mexico. We'll see them against Miami this week, so we'll get a little bit better idea of what they are. One more question from Nathan. Nathan's our friend in Jerusalem who usually sends questions in on video. He says, why do so many play callers feel the need to get fancy instead of playing to the team's strengths?

OC's calling only passes when they need to run to burn the clock have been running great. Or DC's calling blitzes when they have five star alignment. OK. So. There's a picture of Phil Longo. He's the Wisconsin offensive quarter. He's not the one I'm saying is guilty of getting cute. He's actually the solution to it. Phil Longo will run the same play

10 times in a row if it's working. You go back to 2020 when North Carolina had Michael Carter and Javante Williams. They would run the ball over and over. The Virginia Tech game and the Miami game from that year, embarrassing for those defenses because they could do nothing

and North Carolina averaged like 10 yards a carry. Well, you saw that with Wisconsin in Phil Longo's first game as the OC there. So Wisconsin took them a little while to get, get rolling on offense, but Chesma Lucy, Braylon Allen were just roaring by the end of the game. And that is what I expect them to be like. They are going to run the ball as much as they can. Tanner Mordecai in the passing game will, will probably have to make up some ground when the defense is, is better than Buffalo's, but this is what they want.

This is how they want it to go. And I've asked Phil Longo about it. And he says, he quotes Bruce Lee says you got to be like water. And basically you flow where Longo about it. And he says, he quotes Bruce Lee says, you got to be like water. And basically you flow where the defense isn't. And so whatever they're going to give you, that's what you take. As far as the defensive side of this, you know, the one that comes to mind is, is Alice Grinch, the USC defensive coordinator.

And we talked about this after the San Jose state game where, you know, they have the third and 22, he's running at 22. He's running a stunt. There's exotic pressure going on. And it's like, why are you doing that? You have better players than them. They have to gain 22 yards. Just let your athletes be athletes. And two guys who are great at that are Nick Saban and Kirby Smart.

Alabama and Georgia don't get real exotic when they're just better than you. And usually their first instinct is to figure out, are we just better than you? And if they can do that, they don't really show you much the rest of the game because they don't need to. And it's not worth trying. And all it can do is be messed up.

Meanwhile, you can be very vanilla if you're just out-athleting people the whole time. So with Alex Grinch, there'll be a lot of games where USC has the best athletes on the field and you just let them be good athletes. That's what Kirby Smart does and he wins national championships that way.

So it's a pretty good way to go, especially if you have the horses to do it and USC, given the way they have recruited and the way they will be able to recruit into the future, is going to be able to do that in most games. So I'm with you, Nathan. It doesn't have to be fancy. You don't have to prove anything.

All you have to do is call the most successful play, not necessarily the fanciest play. And I think that you got to get fancy when you're at a talent disadvantage, but when you got the talent advantage, keep it simple. It's really the way to go. Great questions tonight. Beautiful. Before we let you go watch Duke and Clemson, Garrett Riley taking over the Tigers offense Riley Leonard playing quarterback for Duke won nine games in their first year under Mike Elko last year very exciting but we've got we got a little little extra point band pettiness yeah you gotta love a little band pettiness

because remember last year Alabama did not send its band to the Texas game. And the reason for that was because Texas only offered upper deck seating to the Crimson Tide. And that wasn't going to fly because, you know, the million dollar band, you can't hear them from all the way up there. So this year, Alabama only offered Texas upper deck seating for the band. Quote, Greg Byrne to the Tuscaloosa News. This is their AD. We were able to, we are able to reciprocate a similar seating arrangement to what we had last year in Austin, Greg Byrne said, probably with a wink. So a little background on this. Greg Byrne, the Alabama AD, Chris Delcani, the Texas AD, they are friends. I don't think this is severing the relationship, but I do think this is hilarious because

once Texas joins the SEC, then the SEC rules for visiting crowds come into effect. You have to give them decent seats. You have to give their band decent seats. So we don't know yet who's going to play where first as conference rivals because they're playing this year. They're going to send Alabama to play Oklahoma next year. But when Texas and Alabama do first play as conference rivals, oh yeah, the band will be seated quite low and will be quite loud. And I cannot wait. It's been a lot of fun, everybody.

Tomorrow, G.J. Kinney, architect of the biggest upset of the weekend in college football, will join us. Bobby Burton will join us to talk more Texas-Alabama. What a week. Let's go.