Andy & Ari On3 - Dylan Raiola is Nebraska's BIGGEST recruiting win | Dante Moore is a Duck | Cole Cubelic joins

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

National Signing Day inches closer, and 5-Star QB Dylan Raiola has announced he has committed to Nebraska, Andy breaks it down in a LOADED show.(0:00-6:29) Intro - Transfer News: Dante Moore to Oregon(6:30-11:19) Dylan Raiola Commits to Nebraska, and Andy reads his poem(11:20-16:49) More Portal News(16:50-31:21) Sean Callahan Joins to talk Dylan Raiola(31:22-32:56) Portal News Continues - KJ Jefferson enters(32:57-1:01:08) ESPN's Cole Cubelic joins(1:01:09-1:09:57) Andy Picks Bowl Games vs the Coin(1:09:58-1:11:15) Conclusion, More picks tomorrow!The flip the recruiting world has been waiting for has happened, and it came with a poem. Five-star QB Dylan Raiola flipped his commitment from Georgia to Nebraska, and announced it to the world by posting a poem. You know what that means: It's dramatic reading time.The Raiola flip isn't the only news in the college football world, though. Old Dominion and Western Kentucky played a classic in the Famous Toastery Bowl. One of Coach Prime's offensive line transfer commits flipped to Oregon. Arkansas QB KJ Jefferson officially entered the transfer portal.Plus, Andy explains the reasoning behind Malachi Nelson entering the portal.Next, Sean Callahan of Husker Online breaks down the historical significance of Raiola's commitment. Also, Sean explains what this could mean for the Cornhuskers in 2024.Later, Cole Cubelic (ESPN, the Cube Show Podcast, McElroy and Cubelic) joins to discuss the art of roster building as we head into 2024. How do you create good offensive and defensive lines if you didn't already have them before the transfer portal/NIL era?Next, Andy picks the next seven bowl games. He's done his homework, but he knows these games are notoriously difficult to pick. So instead of a human guest picker, he's picking against a coin.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube, and don't forget to subscribe!https://youtube.com/live/m7y1r7LsJck

Welcome to Andy Staples on three and the flip is complete. You started hearing about it a week ago. It happened on Monday. Dylan Raiola, five-star quarterback, flips from Georgia to Nebraska with a poem. Definitely the first recruit to ever commit with a poem, I think. We've seen many live animals. We've seen a lot of things. I don't think we've ever seen a poem before.

We're going to get to the poem in a second. But there's other quarterback news brewing. Dante Moore, a five-star quarterback from the class of 2023, who flipped on Sunday from Oregon to UCLA. Well, he's leaving UCLA and he's going to Oregon. How about that? Dante Moore,

who played at UCLA Sun this year, and in fact, that was probably the reason that he flipped to get that early playing time because obviously Bo Nix was not going anywhere. Bo Nix was the established starter

at Oregon. Dante Moore decided, I want to go play right now. He did get to play at UCLA and found out it's not so easy. Like there's probably some seasoning that he could use. And so that's why it was interesting when he went in the portal, the two schools that you heard the most were Michigan and Oregon. Now in both cases, there's probably an established person there in 2024 who's older. Now for Oregon, that would be Dylan Gabriel, who was Oklahoma's starting quarterback last year. And remember, he entered

the portal because Oklahoma essentially had to decide if Dylan Gabriel is not going to the NFL, do we keep Dylan or do we keep Jackson Arnold, the five-star freshman from last year? So that is how the quarterback dominoes fall. But for Dante Moore, it was either Oregon or Michigan. And we don't have a decision yet from JJ McCarthy at Michigan, but we think that J.J. McCarthy is coming back for 2024. And so Dante Moore, I think kind of wisely, looked at this and said, I can learn behind a veteran quarterback who's really good in a good situation at a good program, whether that was going to be Michigan or Oregon.

And Oregon was the place he initially wanted to go as a recruit the first time around before he changed his mind on signing day. So we'll see. He's headed to Dan Lanning in the Ducks. And this is not a move to start in 2024 because that's what Dylan Gabriel is there for. This is a move to start in 2025 and beyond. And I do think the way they were looking at it was a very mature way to handle that because a lot of the quarterbacks don't want that.

They want to play right now. They want to say, I'm ready. I can do whatever I need to do right here, right now, and I get to the NFL quicker. But the point is to get to the NFL better, not necessarily quicker. I think Bo Nix is probably a prime example of that. Bo Nix is a guy who got thrust into a starting role probably earlier than he should have at Auburn and spent the next few years just kind of dealing with all of that. And it took the transfer to Oregon, kind of a reset, and then two years at Oregon.

And now Bo Nix looks more prepared for the NFL. Like if you'd have said Bo Nix is leaving Auburn after year three and going to the NFL, I'd have said, okay, he's not going to play. You know, it's not going to work. So now I look at it and say, yeah, I could see Bo Nix being a quarterback in the NFL, being on a roster for a long time. And that's the goal. That's the goal. So Dante Moore making the smart move here, whether it was going to be Oregon or Michigan,

was going to be a smart move either way. But a different perspective from a quarterback in the portal. Usually when a quarterback goes in the portal, it is for playing time. It is to go and start somewhere right now. But that's not the case right here. Dante Moore headed to Oregon. The Ducks, again, getting it done through the portal. This is something Dan Lanning did last year, upgraded the team quite a bit.

This year, he's going to have to keep doing it because the competition gets even tougher as they get into the big 10. And obviously they need to show that they can beat Washington. They lost to them twice this year and now Ohio state, Michigan, Penn state, Wisconsin, new conference foes. So Oregon getting a little bit deeper and having a plan for the future. That's one thing that is a luxury in this day and age. If you have a pretty good idea who a quarterback is going to be in 2025, you are way, way ahead of the game. I think Nebraska knows who its quarterback is going to be in 2025,

and it also could be their quarterback in 2024. That is Dylan Raiola he commits to Nebraska flips from Georgia on the same day that Georgia starting quarterback Carson Beck announces that he is returning for the 2024 season Carson Beck had a legitimate shot of going to the NFL this year it was a real decision I saw on Twitter when he posted that he was coming back a lot of people what was the decision to make? No, no, no. There was a legitimate shot. Carson Beck could have been a day two draft pick, maybe even slipped in the first round, depending on how much people liked him in the pre-draft process, because he has what NFL teams want in terms of measurables. He has the arm they want. He's up against some pretty

stiff competition if he decided to go this year, because obviously Caleb Williams, Drake May, Jaden Daniels still out there. But Matt Miller, who does a lot of great pre-jab stuff, works at ESPN, he said it as soon as Beck announced. He said, this is Carson Beck trying to be QB1 in the 2025 draft. So that happens there, is done. He's in Athens. That job's not open. Now, the Raiola flip we thought was coming for a week. I don't know how much Beck coming back had to do with that.

But it does make it easier for Raiola to go to Nebraska and say, hey, look, I want to try to start right now because they do have Chubba Purdy, Heiner Karberg, who started games this season. Jeff Sims is back in the portal. But Dylan Raiola is probably going to get a chance to start. We're going to talk to Sean Callahan from Husker Online later in the show about this commitment, about where it is historically for Nebraska, what it

means for Matt Rule's tenure as the head coach there, how important it was to land Dylan Ryola. Remember, Dylan's father, an all-time great Nebraska player. His uncle is Nebraska's offensive line coach. So this is more than just he's a really good recruit. There is definitely a connection and a legacy, and I think that's what makes this so big for Nebraska fans. Now, Dylan Raiola, as I said earlier, I believe the first recruit to ever commit with a poem. He posted it on Twitter,

picture of him in a Nebraska uniform, right next to this poem. I'm gonna read this poem to you. It's incredible. In the realm of dream, oh, I messed it up already. We're gonna start over. I can't mess it up already.

In the realm of college dreams where purpose takes flight, enter Dylan Raiola crafting his narrative in the night. Once lured by Georgia where powerhouse glory gleamed, yet Nebraska's purpose in his heart brightly beamed. In the scarlet and cream where legacies entwine, Dylan, like Rogers, Rozier, and Crouch, a hero in the line. No longer a cog in some powerhouse machine, but a quarterback with an even grander ambition unseen.

So fellow fans await with hope in the air. For Dylan to choose his purpose to declare. In a weekend's decision, destiny calls. To fulfill his purpose. Where a new dynasty enthralls. Pretty dramatic. That is very dramatic. Also, a lot of, I'm not going to be a cog in George's

machine. I'm going to start a new dynasty at Nebraska, which by all means, shoot your shot, kid. If you think that's going to happen, that's great. If you're going to make a grand pronouncement, make a grand pronouncement because that's how you do it. No, not wrong there. There's a time, basically like when I was leaving high school, that Nebraska was where Georgia is now. They were the machine. But they're not anymore. You're talking about a program that hadn't been to a bowl game since 2016.

But the Cornhuskers want back there. They want to be where Georgia is now. And so, Alan Raiola will try to be that guy. And listen, if he can pull that off, and I'm not even talking about national title. I'm talking about getting Nebraska back into where it's a regular bowl team, where perhaps by the end, they're in the hunt for a college football playoff berth in the 12-team playoff. They're competitive in the Big Ten. That's enough right there to cement your legacy, to make you a legend at that school.

They're dying for that. These are some of the most passionate fans in America. They love their school. They want to see Nebraska compete again. And I think Dylan Raiola understands that. He's been versed in that his whole life. I mean, he has family members who can explain that to him very clearly. And I think that's awfully bold, again.

But hey, isn't that the point? Isn't this supposed to be a bold move by Dylan Raiola? Because if you go to Georgia, yes, you can expect that you're going to play on some really good teams. Are you going to walk into the starting job at a place like that? No. It's probably easier to walk into the starting job in Nebraska. But if you can be that guy who leads Nebraska back to being an annually competitive program,

that's all it takes. That makes you a legend. So good luck to Dylan Raiola and good luck to all the folks in Nebraska. I know you're really excited about this and I don't blame you. A lot of news though. A lot more quarterback news. A lot more transfer portal news. We mentioned Dante Moore. He's committed to Oregon now, the UCLA transfer. Carson Beck, back at Georgia. Former Indiana offensive lineman Matthew Bedford, speaking of Oregon. So Matthew Bedford was one of the offensive linemen that Coach Prime at Colorado landed out of the portal, got commitments from early in the transfer portal process.

Well, Matthew Bedford tweeted out an apology, said, hey, I acted hastily. I'm going to Oregon. So he's probably blocking for Dylan Gabriel this year. So the Ducks getting another one. Former Georgia edge rusher Marvin Jones Jr. commits to Florida State. That name obviously familiar to everybody at Florida State. Marvin Jones Sr., his dad, won the Butkus and Lombardi Awards playing linebacker for the Seminoles. And this is an interesting one because Marvin Jones Jr. was playing at Georgia. It wasn't like that he wasn't getting any playing time at all. He played as a backup and as a freshman, as a sophomore. He played a fairly significant role.

But this feels a little bit like one where, remember Jermaine Johnson Jr.? He left Georgia because he wanted to show he could be an every-down player. He would have been on that 2021 Georgia defensive line that was just all aliens everywhere. A bunch of first-rounders. And he would have had a key role in that group, but went to Florida State to show that he could play every down, becomes the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, becomes a first-round draft pick. This feels a little like that.

So another big one. And for Florida State, they had Jermaine Johnson. Then they got Jared Vers out of the portal from Albany. Vers ended up staying a second year. So maybe this is the next they got Jared Verse out of the portal from Albany. Verse ended up staying a second year. So maybe this is the next great edge they get out of the portal. And obviously, it does run in the family, playing defense at Florida State. Moonbot7 with a really interesting comment in the chat. Ryola can have my Huskers 7-0 going into Ohio State state next year the other thing about this that i think is interesting you mentioned ohio state remember

rio was originally committed to ohio state and then flipped to georgia had everything happened the same way at ohio state rio could have potentially been walking into a quarterback competition in Columbus in spring practice. And, but obviously nobody could have guessed that Kyle McCord would have started all year and then gone into the portal right after the season. But that one is very interesting. If we look at it in hindsight, now I think he's got a really good chance of winding up starting quarterback at Nebraska in 2024. And again, it's interesting that we talk about him and Dante Moore at the same time because Dante Moore is a guy who was in that position last year,

went for the early playing time, and now he's actually looking to get a little more seasoning before he gets back on the field. So to each their own. Very interesting. Another interesting number that came out of Monday with Dylan Raiola flipping to Nebraska. There are now 18 schools that have five-star recruits in the on three industry rankings. So there's only 32 five-stars. It's essentially designed to mimic the NFL first round. So there's 32 five-stars a year, 18 different

schools for the 32 five-stars right now. That may not end up that way after Wednesday, but that's where it is right now. There were 15 schools that got five- stars last year, 14 in 2022. So every year since NIL has been a thing, every full recruiting cycle since NIL has existed, the number of schools signing five stars has risen. And it's a small sample size, but this is, again, what the economists told us would happen if NIL or if any sort of pay system came into effect was that talent would spread out because the schools that had less talent would be willing to spend more than the schools that typically had more talent. So I think we're seeing that play out. I'll be curious to see what the actual final number is at the end of this recruiting cycle,

but it's 18 right now. So we'll see if that lands on 18 or maybe it gets spread out even more. Who knows? There are a little over 24 hours left. As we said, I'm bad at math, but we have basically 34 and change hours until freshmen can start signing national letters of intent. 7 a.m., whatever your time zone is. I don't know that they're any on Atlantic time. There may be some overseas that may sign early. But 7 a.m. Eastern time basically is when it starts on Wednesday.

So we will find out more about that. But very interesting recruiting development, portal development. And we got to go a little deeper into this Dillon-Riola flip. What does it mean for Nebraska? We bring in an expert. Sean Callahan from Husker Online explains how big a deal this is. We are joined by Sean Callahan of Husker Online. Huge news in Lincoln today.

Dylan Raiola has committed to Nebraska. Sean, this is the biggest Nebraska recruiting news since. It's hard to really, you know, compare it. I mean, you can go back to like that recruiting class that had Indomitian Sioux and Marlon Lucky, and it was a top five class. That recruiting class produced two eventual big 12 players of the year, Zach Taylor and Ind Dominick Nassau in one year. I mean, they haven't had a guy this highly ranked since that Marlon Lucky suit class. So in terms of ranking and, you know, legacy, I mean, yeah, it's got to be right up there with one of the more high profile commits Nebraska's ever landed, especially when you talk about it as the quarterback position.

Well, and the other piece of this obviously is who he is, whose son he is. And I wonder, you know, Matt Rule got this job basically a year ago. How many times has he heard that name over and over and over again between then and now. Oh yeah. I mean, really for the last three plus years, Dylan Ryle has been a household recruit name. I call him a grocery store recruit. Like he's a guy that when you go to the grocery store,

people stop and ask you questions about Dylan Ryle. And there's very few high school kids that have that kind of star power. But you go back to when Matt Rule came, you know, the one coach that he retained on his staff was Donovan Raiola, the uncle of Dylan Raiola. And immediately that allowed Nebraska to stay in it. And then Dylan decommitted from Ohio State. The Huskers were involved with Dylan all the way through May.

Then he switched his commitment, or he made his commitment to Georgia. But they continued to keep a dialogue because his uncle's here. And having the uncle in Nebraska on the coaching staff, it allowed Dylan just to have an open dialogue with what was going on. And they came back to the Michigan game this year. Nobody really thought much of that, though, because he was committed to Georgia. And you're like, oh, he's just here to see his uncle.

But they continued to keep the ball in play to an extent to get to this point, which it's a shocker, I think, in the recruiting world to see a five-star guy like this pick Nebraska right now. So we heard all this bubble up a week ago, that this was a possibility. And then also that coincided with Kyle McCord looking at Nebraska as a graduate transfer and then deciding not to

does this should we assume that Dylan Raiola is is going to be Nebraska's starter next year or that he's he's you know going to come in in spring practice with a chance to win the starting job yeah I think it sets up for him to have a great chance to obviously be the guy and win the job. I mean, in the spring, you have Chubba Purdy, you have Heiner Karberg, and Daniel Kalen. And all of them bring something to the table. Chubba played well to end the year.

He's a guy that's been in college four years. Heiner Karberg won five games as a starting quarterback. And then Daniel Kalen was an elite 11 guy. So there will be formidable competition. But yeah, I think Dylan Raiola, I mean, if you were to put Vegas odds on it, he's the starting quarterback for Nebraska next year, barring injury or something crazy. And you saw the news out of Athens, Carson Beck announced,

and it was almost fitting that the Raiola announcement followed the Carson Beck announced, and it was almost fitting that the Ryola announcement followed the Carson Beck announcement, almost like that was kind of the thing that brought this thing over the goal line. All right, we know we're going to do this, but the fact that starting at Georgia is not even on the table for 2024, that was kind of the final domino that fell to allow this announcement to go public. Yeah. was kind of the final domino that fell to allow this announcement to go public yeah and i i do wonder how much of that you know what happened last week coincided with carson beck kind of being on in that frame of mind because you know you heard that beck was thinking about the nfl but

then about that same time last week was when it started to be okay he's probably coming back yeah and I don't know what all went down to get to that point Monday if they knew Beck was coming back if there's other elements involved you know with NIL etc but it got to that point and you know it was like a bomb went off in Lincoln on Monday night. I mean, you talk to people that were around Kyle McCord Monday night, people that were at the dinner and other things, you would have thought Kyle McCord was going to be a Husker. And things pivoted that quickly with Dylan Raiola at that point.

So if you're Matt Rule, you mentioned he's this is a grocery store recruit. This is a guy that everybody in the world wants to know. Are you going to get him? Are you going to get him? Are you going to get him? How important of a get is this for Matt Rule as he goes into year two, finishes off his first full cycle recruiting class? I mean, it's so important, not for just Matt Rule, but the entire state, the entire program. And Trev Alberts is trying to push forward a $450 million stadium renovation project. Nebraska's trying to push forward their NIL and fundraising for that. Matt Rule's trying to sell what he's doing.

And it's pretty easy to now appeal to offensive recruits when you have a five-star quarterback that you can sell to them receivers running backs etc so there's a lot now moving forward and i mean having dylan riolla makes nebraska more attractive to the big 10 television partners i mean nbc cbs box you know you might want to put a nebraska game on now if there's a decision just because of if dylan rioola is a sensational freshman guy that could you know move the needle I mean it's big for so many reasons when you look at it at a place for Nebraska so is there a chance that this leads to either more flips or some uncommitted guys deciding on Nebraska here in the next couple days? You know, all bets are off.

I mean, they had some other players in town, but they weren't offensive players. You know, a couple linebackers, you know, a portal corner. Their numbers are fairly set already for 2024. They're looking at a potential transfer portal running back. The problem, and I think Nebraska's in the spot that a lot of people are in right now. Dante Dowell, by the way, the Oregon running back,

is a guy that they've had some contact with. But the number situation for everybody right now with the COVID and all the other things, it's so hard. I use the analogy, a car only has five seats. Well, that's a college football roster, and you're trying to squeeze a sixth person into a car right now when there's not a sixth seat. And that's every college football roster and you're trying to squeeze a sixth person into a car right now when there's not a sixth seat and that's every college football roster in the country because you have all these older guys i mean i looked at that montana game uh the fcs playoffs

and you know there's a former nebraska player starting at left tackle for montana in his seventh season um so i i think the number situation makes it a little bit more delicate, but NIL helps you. You can get creative and figure out ways to get some players in your program now if you play the rule book right with NIL too. That's the thing, Sean, is Nebraska's got a pretty robust NIL program, so it feels like this is the sort of thing, if they can get winning, that suddenly, not maybe right right now but in years coming that they become an attractive portal destination or an attractive destination for other five-star recruits yeah you talk about just the fundraising efforts it will jump start because you know the pete family has been

instrumental in in getting nebraska's nil to where it's at right now with the 1890 Initiative Collective, but it's got to be more than them. I mean, there's got to be a much stronger booster push, and this is the type of stuff that does that. It raises money for Trev Alberts for the football stadium and so many things. So, yeah, there's a major windfall for everybody with Dylan Ryle, and obviously he's got to produce and got to live up to his end of the bargain.

But I've seen him several times and watched a lot of his tape, and his arm is as good as you're going to see. Can Nebraska build a team now around him to be competitive? They've got a great schedule for their first seven games next year, which will be nice to build in potentially a freshman starting quarterback if he is the guy next year. So there's a lot to be optimistic about as Nebraska tries to claim it's – the joke here is their off-season national championship.

They're defending the off-season national champions, Andy, and they might carry that belt on again this off-season. Well, yeah, every year – and look, I understand why. We've talked about this before. This is a place that is obsessed with the football team, that it is the biggest game in town. It's the biggest news that you can have, and you've got to fill that offseason,

and it's usually with stories about the recruiting class, about the incoming portal players, about new coaches. There's not going to be anything particularly negative going on then because there's no losses to talk about. So yeah, this is going to be maybe their greatest off season national championship. Well, yeah.

And then the schedule, I mean, they open with some favorable games. They have to play Colorado and Lincoln, which will be a major game. Obviously Dion Sanders coming here, but Sanders versus Raiola. I mean, you already can see that headline between Fox and NBC and CBS.

I mean, there'll be people that want that game, obviously. So, yeah, there's a lot of optimism and excitement, and they return a lot, Andy. I mean, this team brings back just about every key player. They're going to lose a couple, but it was one of the smallest senior numbers I've ever seen on the Nebraska team so and then they've had very few portal entries too so there's there's a lot to be optimistic about because what was the issue

quarterback play and they're adding arguably the number one ranked quarterback in the country to this team for next year well we will find out I know we played a fun game with zach berry from om spirit we were deciphering lane kiffin tweets over the weekend they were getting a lot of a lot of portal commitments over the weekend so his tweets were you could kind of see which ones matched which but i want to i want to ask you to decipher this matt rule tweet from a few nights ago this is matt rule tweeting can't wait until people hear what i've heard see what i've seen and know what i know hashtag gbr which is go big red no edges lol what the hell what does that mean i the joke amongst nebraska fans is hey they got raiola the bourbon was flowing they were just

having fun but yeah that was that was an interesting um tweet by Matt rule um because he had been Twitter dark for you know most of the football season if not all the football season that was you know kind of the first barrage of tweets we've seen Matt rule make since the summertime um but clearly added about where they're at um with with things and and recruiting class and and how they've put it together to you know maybe push into the top 20 for sure top 25 class well it'll be very interesting we we're hoping to have matt rule on the wednesday signing day show so i will ask him when he comes on exactly what that meant because i try it wasn't lyrics of anything i thought it might be some song lyrics but like some maybe deep down Dave Matthews band lyrics, but that's not what it was.

So we will see if we can get Matt rule to, to reveal. Yeah. And he will, you know, coach rule he's open and honest and he's not going to, I mean his million dollar to $2 million quarterback comment. I mean,

that went viral. I mean, that got him an appearance on the Pat McAfee show. Exactly. How many, I mean, quarterback comment i mean that went viral i mean that got him an appearance on the pat mcafee show exactly how many i mean how many five and seven head football coaches get long interviews on the pat mcafee show yeah nick saban gets one every week but he he has a considerably better record so you're exactly right but you're you're right about that too and that's probably another question worth asking him because he was the one who so you know kindly provided us with those numbers to help set the market i imagine a five-star quarterback who is uh considered one of the best in his class is uh

it's not necessarily the cheapest thing in the world either so no quarterback it's at the power five level in the sec in the big 10 and the top acc programs i mean it's a million dollar position for the top programs if not more um when you when you look at what this is coming it become with nil well it's it's going to be very interesting and uh yeah the bourbon probably flowing in lincoln as we speak i know the tv station is headed to your house like this is we break into our regular programming kind of news in Lincoln. So have fun with this one tonight, Sean. Hey, thanks, Andy.

I appreciate it. And we'll be in touch. Thank you. So Sean mentioned what Matt Rule said a few weeks ago about what it costs to get a good quarterback out of the transfer portal.

Andrew had a comment in the chat earlier about that. After Matt Rule cried about how much QBs costed, he did exactly what everyone else did and paid the cost of admission. I have a feeling he probably won't apologize for whining earlier. And fifth quarter tailgate, very quickly, Andrew Rule isn't complaining. He was setting expectations. That's right. I think that's exactly what was going on. That was a bat signal to the folks who donate to NIL to say, hey, if you would like us to get a quarterback, either a big one out of the portal or a big one out of the freshman class,

it costs something. There is a cost associated. So that is the next frontier. And I don't know if it's going to be like this forever. I don't think this NIL system will be the system that rules the day for much longer. I think eventually it's going to be collective bargaining, salary cap, all that stuff. But the best players are still going to cost the most money. The premium positions, quarterbacks, edge rushers, offensive tackles, still going to cost money right now. So this is big, big news in Nebraska. But it's definitely not the only thing going on. Other transfer portal news.

Now, we knew that KJerson was going into the portal because he told us he was but the former arkansas quarterback officially entered the transfer portal on monday so not entirely sure where he's going to wind up uh some of the the places that that we've heard pete nakos our transfer portal guru uh said basically looking at Tulane, Houston, Cal, Baylor, Texas Tech, Mississippi State. All of those are schools that might make sense for K.J. Jefferson. And it's really a matter of, in his case, that's a guy who he's coming to start. He's got one year left. He's been a starter at a high level.

You're taking him to start. He's got one year left. He's been a starter at a high level. You're taking him to start and we'll see where he winds up. But KJ Jefferson officially in the transfer portal. Next up, a guy who never went in transfer portal, Cole Kublik, Auburn through and through played for the Tigers all his years, but he is now one of the best sideline reporters in the business. I love games that Cole works because he takes you into the trenches, explains exactly what's going on, and helps show you why teams with the best big people win the most games. But he also has his own podcast, has his own radio show, and just one of the best people to talk to about college football. So Cole and I talked all about Transfer Portal, big people, how you build rosters in 2024. Here's Cole Kubelik. We're joined by the great Cole Kubelik. You can hear him

on The Cube Show, his own podcast on Cube and Mac in the morning on Jocks in Birmingham. You can watch him on ESPN. Cole, your Birmingham Bowl is your next assignment, correct? Look at those graphics, by the way. We don't mess around. This is big time here. Yeah, and then I like that you said Cube and Mac. That's good.

Usually quarterback's name goes first, So I'm just using that. No. Listen, the center touches the ball first, and then he snaps it to the quarterback. There you go. It all starts with the center. Well, and the thing is, and this is why I love talking to you, because you understand where I'm coming from most of the time,

and I understand where you're coming from most of the time. And I want to talk to you. When I texted you, it was after a conversation i had with somebody at my son's lacrosse practice and we were talking about uh florida's recruiting class and they were saying well look at how look at all these guys they've got coming in they've got dj lagway and lj mccray and these these freshmen are going to be great and i'm like yes but who's gonna block now um i got in trouble on you'd love this i got in trouble on aaron murray's podcast because we were talking about alabama michigan and i said all i said was i'm not sure if i like the michigan tight end group this year as much as last year. Now, not saying that collectively they're not as good or more talented.

It's just last year, those guys were some dogs last year and helped them win the Joe Moore Award and helped them run the ball the way they did. Now, I think they're more athletic and more balanced this year, but, I mean, it was – the comments was all Michigan fans. You obviously ain't watching Michigan this year because our tight ends are ten times better. It's like, well, because they have a few more catches sure yeah but I wasn't watching the routes when I watched

yeah and AJ AJ Barner are dangerous weapons in the past game but but it is like the the half of the tight end's job is to block so that that's what we're talking about yeah exactly although i do like that uh i do like them up front on both sides of the ball at michigan oh for sure i don't know if that's why that game's gonna be so much fun um i wonder where we are in because you brought up recruiting class so yeah yeah freshman class portal class whatever it is and i'm just gonna go ahead and preface i'm probably gonna get a kid wrong going to the wrong school or not committed is committed still they're not still there in portal out of portal because listen i've got literally i could pull my backpack out i've got pages of notes and i don't know where everybody is i can't keep up with it but i wonder andy are we getting past like

the continuity part of this the chemistry part how much how mercenary are we ready to go or are a lot of guys ready to go and just say give me my talent we'll figure the rest of it out I don't care scheme guy bad apple good guy lazy no motor best motor fights every play just give me my talent and by God we'll figure it out somehow some way like how far down the mercenary path are some of these coaches going to go with how much movement we have well I think it's interesting because I think let's look at the four teams in the playoff right now and and I'm again we're talking up front because I care if you can block and I care if your four can beat their five. Those are the two biggest indicators of winning to me.

I don't think you can have good play up front without good recruiting out of high school. And if you look at Alabama, at Michigan, athington and at texas it's all homegrown guys for the most part michigan will will spot like it was olatini last year it's larry henderson this year but for the most part they're guys they recruited out of high school and you go to alabama they take a tackle from vanderbilt two years ago and he helps him out he's one of their best players they've been very selective with how they two years ago and he helps him out he's one of their best players they've been very selective with how they've done it and it's interesting to see some of the guys defensively that Alabama's up with because actually you were bringing that up I was just

kind of trying to run it through my brain I know Bama's had a couple Juco guys like Jaron Reed I think and some of those guys but like have they taken a just straight transfer D lineman that's been really good for them? I don't think so. And like Jaheim Otis, Tim Smith, those are all guys that they got out of high school. The boy who's been there forever. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm with you. And you look at that Texas defensive line, they're not just saying, oh, let's go get the most talented guy on the portal and plug him in. It's guys, and especially now with what they have for their D line coach, you probably want them around a couple years because you're going to need to be calloused up to be able to deal with hard coaching but you're going to be a really good player at the same time so it's a great point it feels like it needs to be the most i guess patchwork position out of the portal and when i say that what i mean is you know you're deficient in one small part

go get a guy but you also are going to be a little more careful with maybe character or fit or what he was asked to do athleticism physicality whatever that is and bring him in because let's look at the auburn offensive line last year i mean they upgraded at talent at probably at least four spots and then xavion Miller, the Juco tackle kind of came on a little bit later. He wasn't a full year starter like Dylan Wade was on the left side. They were better, but they weren't great by any stretch of the imagination. And not that Hugh needs a group that's just going to, you know, be 95 Nebraska or anything, but they took a few steps, but you wonder if they had another year or two together, what could they actually turn into?

So it's interesting to see, you know, like you mentioned Birmingham Bowl and people are like, man, how's Troy so good? Why is Troy so good? Well, their quarterback's been there six years. Their running back's been there four. And most of their offensive linemen have played a few years together. That's where we'll start. And I don't feel like we need to go a whole lot further than that.

I embedded with Troy for the 2018 Nebraska game it's one of those situations where I I called the sid in spring practice that year I said listen you guys are going to beat Nebraska in September I want to embed with you guys so this is Neil Brown's coaching that team Gunner Watson was a true freshman on that team it's I was telling somebody the other day they were asking about the portal and I said I remember ESPN sent me to Orlando to cover the Under Armour All-American game and Bo Nix was in that game with like Owen Papo and Trey Smith and Darien Dow Court and I said I had one kid and she wasn't in school yet now I have three kids and two of them are in school Bo Nix is still playing college football.

So either I've been really busy or he's been playing college football forever. Maybe a little bit of both. But it's wild, man, how long some of these guys are around. And we're starting to see that with some of the names that you have seen pop up on your Twitter feed. And you're like, oh, yeah, he's going to the NFL. And you're like, wait a minute, Portal? That says Portal? Like, Grayson McCall has a year year what yeah that one blew my mind like i had trey biddy on the show a couple

of months ago and he goes well you know kj jefferson's got a decision to make and i was like on what which agent he's going to choose what are you talking about he's like well he's got another year i was like i'm sorry huh another year so but i don't even try to figure out who has another year it's cutting off so quickly though because like kyle mccord does not he has one more year yep like i feel like we just got to know kyle mccord but he's he's got this year at syracuse and he's done that is a weird one for sure now the the 2020s are are finally cycling out like anybody who was in college in 2020 they they are probably playing next year and then they're done and so it's back to back to more normal because that was the McCord

thing I remember when he entered the portal I was like oh he's definitely got like two years three years to play no he's got one yeah it's crazy yeah some of these and that's because we had the conversation McElroy and I did on a show I I think it was last week, of when is this going to completely cycle out? And when you look at the potential extra years, I think we came up on like 26 is when we kind of have to be done with it. But we'll probably get a waiver or two and get into the seventh or eighth year and still going somewhere. So I don't know. Well, there might be another federal court decision. You just stay in college forever.

Just keep you and I going back. Yeah, if Tebow had been allowed to play in college forever, he'd still be there. He's in good enough shape to. I know. People would still struggle to tackle him. There's no doubt about that. No question, no question.

But so it's interesting, this discussion, because Ole Miss is the the talk of the transfer portal world right now because if Walter Nolan commits and by the time this runs tonight he may have already committed we're expecting him to but they got Prince Liam and Miellon from Florida they got uh Tyler Barron from Tennessee that's a pretty big overhaul in the trenches through the portal and we don't see that very often no and they started this last year i'm wondering when it's going to go to the offensive side of the ball uh but quincy mcgee was actually pretty good for them from uab last year at guard one of their most consistent offensive linemen but they kind of reshaped it last year

you go get you get a big D tackle from Nebraska. That was a little bit different than what they would had. And then you go get Harris from NC state who, when he turned it on, had the girth and some of the Twitch that they just JJ Pegues had at all, but he just wasn't a defensive lineman yet. He was just, they were like kind of,

Hey man, just get by people. And he would figure it out. Converted quarterback slash tight end slash. he's become much better much better defensive lineman this year but now like princely has more twitch than anybody they have off the edge and maybe have who was the kid that it was like freezes last year he was like 210 pounds and he he blew up jalen hurts on one play he rushed off edge, and he was like a damn corner. I forget the kid's name.

Something Hughes maybe? I can't. He was lightning off the edge, but he was literally like 210 pounds. And they haven't had anybody with that kind of twitch in a long time. And then you throw in a Tyler Barron, who he came down inside for Tennessee in a lot of their jet packages this year. He's got good versatility. He's got a great frame to rush off the edge. These are different guys than Ole Miss has had for a long time. Like, yeah,

they got Isaac Uquoo and he did some good things for him this year. I don't think he was what sort of the portal people made him out to be, but he was a good football player. He helped. And I said going into last year, Andy, this team will be 20% to 30% better against the run based on structure alone. With Pete Golding, yeah. Pete will have them lined up to stop the run better than what they've done in the last five to six years. They took that step.

Now they need to get a little bit bigger and faster at linebacker. They need to be a little more capable at safety, versatility, be able to do some different things. That Jack position was one that he didn't really have that he wants and he's still kind of looking for. But they're getting close, man, to being able to. You get a DB from Tennessee that's played in 41 games. Not a game changer, but that kind of wherewithal.

You got to have numbers in the secondary anyway. Like look at Alabama in the championship game. All of a sudden here comes Trey Amos and Jalen Key after Kool-Aid McKinstry gets knocked out of the game and they have to make some plays. And they did. They both made big plays down the stretch. You just got to have numbers on the back end. So I think it's valuable to be able to go get somebody in safety that can, he played at tennessee he can play safety probably so they are revamping that defense specifically at the line of scrimmage and this year i said last year they're more different than they've been and probably maybe since they had kim dici and they'll be even more different this year because they'll have that girth inside and they'll have a couple of guys that are just a legit edge of edge presence well if they get nolan he actually the he a lot

of a lot of comdichie comps with nolan uh he he's probably a little quicker than robert was inside but there's this until he takes uh deontay brown and re-cocks and dumps him on his back individually i will avoid that comp at all costs because that still is one of the most impressive football feats i've ever seen in my life what he did in that day but nonetheless see uh walter no one could do all of it man like he's big time i wonder if lane has kind of figured something out in this era of college football. Because we talk about the teams in the playoff, Alabama, Texas, Michigan. Those are teams that already were good up front before the system changed. And so they could keep it going because they already had good people up front.

And you could just sort of, you know, you keep that rolling and you're producing first rounders, which helps. But now it's much harder because it's hard to get those guys in the first place. And when you have one, who's good, they can hold you hostage or just go somewhere else for more money. Lane is taking these guys who can't hold him hostage.

Well, pending the federal court ruling, but if they do have to sit out a year, if they transfer again, he doesn't have to worry about that. Right. It's interesting because we have heard about a lot of guys in the SEC, at least I have in the last two years,

that took that strategy in the middle of the season and essentially said, going to need a bigger bag or not gonna play today and some have come down to the wire a couple of times and so uh it's it's interesting to think about is it being thought about that way because i haven't heard it openly discussed amongst coaches when i've had conversations with them, but everything's on the table. Because let's be real, the players have done an amazing job since the portal was introduced, and that was with graduate transfers initially. And then half of them got Thomas Mars involved,

and then that was kind of their way to backdoor the thing. And then we changed the rules, and now with NIL, the players are going to find a way to snake the rules. They just are. They're going to figure out how to game the system. And that's okay. It's fine. If it's inbounds, go for it.

But they're going to figure out the ways. And this four-game redshirt rule, we thought that was great. Oh, let's let the guys play. What we didn't know was going to happen was after part-time players, you know, guys who were rotational players, after four games, they were going to come in and say hey coach would love to help you on scout team uh not going back in the game this year thanks for having me and some coaches like lincoln riley have said you know what we put him on scout team he helped our guys get better great other coaches have said kick rocks other coaches have said you can use our facility when

the team's not here use the academic center whatever you need don't come around my players you don't have a locker anymore but you can work out on your own good luck to you i'll help you however i can so all the different strategies come into play so you bring that up just tells me there's probably another strategist out there that we hadn't thought about or haven't heard discussed that they're trying to implement well Well, that's the thing. Everything is trial and error right now. Anybody who thinks they know what they're doing is lying. Everybody's just trying stuff. And like we, I brought up Florida at first, Billy Napier came in with an idea that he was going to

build that program the way that programs were built five years ago 10 years ago 20 years ago and through no fault of his own everything changed on him and I don't know that that's going to work now it's a great point and part of these strategies even if they are working are you going to have time to make them work the way that you need it to and that's what we also don't know is that because I think moving forward, we've had a lot of conversations about the SEC and some of the other conferences that are getting away from divisions. Is it going to be harder to win the league now?

How hard? It's going to be impossible for some of these mid-tier teams to win the league. Okay, maybe. But are we going to reevaluate that actually making the playoff is not only more important but actually more realistic than winning your conference and if missouri or old miss or mississippi state give the thinking a playoff bid florida gets a playoff bid you're good you're fine you take that back and say hey man we made the playoffs we're good we had a chance to play for a national title all right

cool we're also gonna have to reevaluate two lost teams three lost teams maybe some four lost teams like i think great examples this year are lsu arizona teams like that that nobody would sit back and say yeah but they beat them yeah but they had to play them like nobody's saying oh man they had to go through arizona they had to get through arizona that's a damn good football team with really good players by the way like and you don't want them now yeah yeah NFL running back like this they're really good so I think all of this is going to have to be re-evaluated as to how we approach it how we manage it how we deal with it and you said it perfectly it's all trial and error which means some of them are going to fail and guys aren't going to have time to figure it out because

the trial that they decided to go with didn't work out. Well, and we saw the new SEC schedule for 24 last week. We'd already seen the 24 Big Ten schedule. I went through all of those again this week. Oh, my God. One, for the viewer, it's so much better. It's great. But the idea that some teams got to be undefeated to be considered good,

we got to let that go. Got to get out of there. Because there just aren't got to be undefeated to be considered good, we got to let that go. Got to get out of there. Because there just aren't going to be undefeated teams in those leagues. Well, you're one that surprised me, because I think you may have been the first one that responded to my tweet. And I said, who's looking at these schedules saying, yeah, they definitely should have gone to nine conference games. Now, want to?

Absolutely. Wish they would, of course. Best for business? Probably. Maybe not. You could argue that both ways. But there wasn't a part of me that actually saw that that said, we need to add more bulk to what we're doing here. not and not play them every year i think that's bad business but i do understand that my side of that argument is going to get much more difficult as people internalize these schedules because we got little cubes joining the show very nice six-year-old thinks she's being cute right now so nothing wrong with that listen my mine mine now want to be on it because they're like 14 and 12 they're like we got bits for you we've come up with the three-year-old figures it out he will come sit on my lap and i'll put a show on for him and he'll be fine but that's trust me he doesn't know i'm

here yet or else he'd already be in here be like watching a rick stansbury press conference when he was a mississippi state's basketball coach but but no i mean it it is it is oh there we go there we go we got the ipad this is this is parenting i've got it all figured out if he knows i'm in here he's doing it he's coming in you can't stop him so cube i want to ask you this i know we're we're diverting here but this is important stuff we got lots of listeners who are entering parenthood or maybe they just got married they're about to start a family uh were you a a we're never gonna put screens in front of our kids person before you had kids everybody is everybody

likes to talk that talk and say my kids will never have technology my kids will never do that my we go to dinner as a family every Thursday night and it's almost become iPad night. It's because my wife and I just want to have a conversation at dinner. So, you know, we just, we go out there and you know, that's the night that they know they're going to get to watch their iPads and get a little extra screen time. And the only way to keep this one quiet when he comes in here is to do what I've just done. What are we watching? What are we watching? I found this guy. Um, I think it's greg's garage is it greg's garage or jason's garage something he does these like digital monster truck videos oh you can't really kind of see it so he basically makes the tracks and it's like digital monster truck videos but he's got him like jumping these

ski jumps and like olympic ramps and stuff like and then they had these giant hammers that hit them he thinks it's the coolest thing ever so so turn that on i will tell you we did the same thing with our kids like we we were thinking oh no screens then we're like oh god our sanity have some screens and i will tell you right now so since football season and we've been doing friday night family dinners we'll go out to the neighborhood pizza place and they don't touch their phones. They talk to us the whole time. Like it's so you can do it. Like you can raise a functional human being who can talk to other people.

I promise. Even when they use the screens. So we're going to let him have it right now. That's beautiful. I appreciate it, Cole. Cole, it, that's beautiful. I appreciate it. Cole, Cole, it has been a pleasure and this is fun. I appreciate when I'm talking to someone else who goes from the inside out when they watch this game, because I feel like it's the only way that works so who was uh somebody was talking the other day about

uh they were asking you know receivers and this net and it was a lot of those aq shipley someone on twitter he's like man i don't even see that i don't even know what you're talking like i don't my eyes don't go there so but i will say working with jordan rogers every weekend and working with mcelroy every morning I have probably become and I'm still way deficient I'm still way behind on coverages and strategy and I'll tell you who's been a massive help for me is Roman Harper every Monday because oh yeah he will show me things and tell me things I'm like I thought you motioned that guy to get this and he's like no he's like you motioned this guy so you can't press and then he's going to have a free release and have space

to be able to go here. I'm like, wow. They didn't teach us that stuff in the old line room. No, you and Greg were talking this morning about something. And Greg mentioned, you know, man coverage, DB turning this way. And he said, Jack, you'll stay played the fourth down because I asked your young DB this way. Yeah. Safety doesn't blitz. Can he even attempt that that throw because i saw the safety come down and then but it felt like he

threw it before he knew he was blitzing and he got all mad at the db because he gave up inside leverage he's like you can't give up an inside release right there it's blasphemy db can't do that i was like yeah i would have never thought that but cool i mean i guess that's right i'll take your word for it i don't know and And that's why it's the ultimate team game. Yes. 100%. Thank you so much. That's Cole Kubelik.

And yes, sometimes you get a little caught up looking in the trenches. Don't know as much about the secondary. Sometimes you get caught up looking too much in the secondary. Don't know about the trenches. But that's what makes it beautiful because there's an expert in all of them and cole is definitely an expert on the big guys so no offense only defense has been hanging out in the chat a lot of the night uh signed off said gotta go guys i wish you all good luck football, the greatest reality show out there, baby. And I was thinking of this as watching the news unfold as we were talking to Cole.

So we've got Jordan Lyle, the number two running back in the class of 2024, according to Andre's rankings. He has flipped from Ohio State to Miami. He plans to sign with Miami on Wednesday. So that happened. Also, Malachi Nelson, USC quarterback, officially in the transfer portal. You know, he announced that he was going in a few days ago,

or I guess it was last night. It was last night, right after our show ended, he announced it. Now he's in the portal. Also in the portal, Damani Jackson, the corner from USC, and Tackett Curtis, the linebacker from USC. So a lot going on in the old transfer portal. The Malachi Nelson, we're going to talk to Pete Nacos about that on Tuesday,

about that particular move, because I think there's a lot of people who see that and they're like, what is going on at USC? And I don't think the Malachi Nelson one is necessarily a symptom of there's something horrible going on, what's going on with Lincoln Riley's program. I think that's Lincoln Riley making a choice. And that was one, as you heard, as the season was going on, they didn't necessarily think Malachi Nelson was going to be their starter in 2024. The fact that Lincoln Riley went almost immediately to start looking at portal quarterbacks and that Will Howard, the Kansas State transfer, is potentially headed to USC

should tell you all you need to know. Yes, Malachi Nelson was the number one recruit in the class of 2023 but it doesn't always mean you wind up being what you're as you know advertised as once you get on campus we saw caleb williams immediately jump into that role when he was a freshman for lincoln riley at oklahoma but that just wasn't the case this year at usc for malachi nelson so now he's looking elsewhere we'll see about those defensive guys. The, the Damani Jackson one, I believe he's already picked up an offer from Michigan. And, uh, that one, it was like Dante Williams moving from USC as a DB's coach to replace

Fran Brown at Georgia. That might have a little bit to do with that one. So we'll see what happens with those guys, but yeah, USC be be a lot of turnover it looks like. Speaking of turning over, we're going to be having a coin turnover a little bit because that is our guest picker this week. We're going with the coin as we pick these bowl games. Now we're going to do seven tonight and six tomorrow because here's how it works. We like to get the picks out about four or five days in advance usually because we want to give them time to breathe and give people a chance to look at them

and do their own research. And we don't have a show on Sunday night or Monday night. So we don't have a show Christmas Eve or Christmas day. And so we're trying to get all of our, our picks in for the games through the 26th, because we'll be back on the 26th, but we'll be back at 8 PM Eastern time. So some of those games will already be over. So we're going to do that. But I want to tell you right now, this is, this is my public service announcement for bowl season. And I realized I talked about the Jacksonville state game last night, but if you didn't watch the famous toastery bowl on Monday, you're missing out old dominion,

Western Kentucky. This is essentially the Bahamas bowl. Remember the stadium is being renovated in the Bahamas. So they had to move it to Charlotte, to the stadium where, where Charlotte plays, not the Panthers where, where the Charlotte

49ers, Bipoji's team plays. And what unfolded Monday was a glorious exhibition of football. Old Dominion goes up 28 to nothing. Western Kentucky comes back, ties it at 35 with 19 seconds left. They go to overtime. Old Dominion gets the ball down to the one-yard line. Second and goal, really from the one-foot line. They can't get it in.

They try the brotherly shove on third and inches. They can't get it in. They had a player jump. They decide to kick a field goal. Western Kentucky blocks it. And then Western Kentucky walks it off with a field goal. Their third string quarterback had put up an unbelievable stat line. It was just a tremendous game.

And it was one of those that this is why we watch. And what did our commenter, no offense, only defense say? Greatest reality show out there, baby. It was tremendous. Now, we got bowl games. So starting Tuesday night with the Frisco Bowl, and we're going to go through games until the Saturday afternoon window, and then we'll pick up with the Saturday night window right after that.

All right, here we go. The Frisco Bowl, Tuesday night, UTSA versus Marshall. UTSA is an 11.5 point favorite in this game. Now, we're going to go quick on these because, again, they're very hard to predict. We don't know who's motivated who's not the guest picker is a coin because i i think the coin's probably going to have more success in these games even though we've done our research here so this is a crazy one because we didn't go over this on the show because there's so much more news happening at the time but when cam fancher the

the marshall quarterback into the transfer portal charles h Fancher, the Marshall quarterback, entered the transfer portal, Charles Huff, the coach, said the kid was miserable and fans hate him. Now, Huff has come back and apologized for those statements and said, hey, I was projecting and I didn't mean to paint with a broad brush. But basically, he wasn't lying that there was a vocal portion of the very vocal minority in the fan base that was very critical of Cam Fancher. There's not a ton of NIL money at Marshall. And so he went to the portal. And so Cole Pennington, son of Chad Pennington, would be the starter for

Marshall in this game. UTSA, Trey Moore is not playing. The edge rusher, who is the AAC defensive player of the year year he is going to transfer somewhere big Frank Harris though is playing his final game at UTSA they are an 11 point 11 and a half point favorites a lot of points but given the situation with the portal at Marshall I'm going to go with UTSA here I'm going to pick them to cover. The coin. Heads UTSA, tails Marshall. It is a tail. Producer River, write this down. The coin has chosen Marshall and gets 11.5 points.

Next up, the Boca Raton Bowl, USF and Syracuse. This is a tighter spread. Don't know what's going to happen, but you got a team in flux with a fired coach in Syracuse. This is a tighter spread. Don't know what's going to happen, but you got a team in flux with a fired coach in Syracuse. They're actually two and a half point favorite against Alex Golish's first USF team, which he led to a bowl game in his first season. Now Syracuse, Garrett Schrader is out after shoulder surgery. Braden Davis, the freshman listed first on the depth chart. Dan Valari, the converted tight end, they were using him in some wildcat situations. So this could be pretty interesting. Meanwhile, USF Byron Brown is coming back. He was a redshirt freshman this year, was a really good quarterback for Alex Golish in

year one. I am going to take the Bulls in this game. I think Golish has done a really good job. I'm excited to see what he does with that program from here. So I'm going with the Bulls and getting two and a half points. Let's see what the coin says. Heads USF, tails Syracuse. We flip it. It is a tail, Syracuse. The coin disagrees again. Me and the coin are getting after it now. Let's go to the gasparilla bowl we're staying the state of florida georgia tech versus ucf this is a four and a half point spread the rare bowl game where the two-star quarterbacks this is a non-playoff game where the two-star quarterbacks are both playing haynes king versus john rice plumley i am very excited for this game. I have really enjoyed the Haynes King Renaissance this year at Georgia Tech. I have truly enjoyed that. He talked about fixing his

mechanics after leaving Texas A&M, but he's done so much with his feet. It's been really great to watch him grow in Brent Key's first full season as the head coach there. UCF, we've seen them be, and we saw them blow a lead against Baylor. We saw them destroy Oklahoma State, push Oklahoma. You don't really know what team you're going to get from week to week. Both these teams have lost players to the portal. I don't really know where to go with this, so I think I'm going to take the points here. So I will take Georgia Tech and the four and a half points. Heads Georgia Tech, tails UCF. What does the coin say? It is a head. The coin agrees with me. The coin will also take Georgia Tech. I am fascinated to see how me and the coin do on these. Next up, oh boy, Tennessee fans, hold on to your butts.

Arkansas State versus Northern Illinois in the Camellia Bowl. Northern Illinois is a two and a half point dog to the Red Wolves. I know what you're thinking, because you probably only watched one Arkansas State game this year, and it was probably the season opener against Oklahoma. That was the one where they lost 73 to nothing. Well tell you what butch jones team brick by brick with their five-star hearts and their well they they didn't win a championship of life they didn't win a sun belt championship either but they did beat texas state 77 to 31 in the in the season's penultimate weekend. So I'm not counting out the old Red Wolves.

I'm not counting out Butch Jones. He had a heck of a run at the end of the season. Northern Illinois basically changed up their offense midseason. That's how they went 5-2 down the stretch to get into a bowl game. I'm still going with Arkansas State. But what will the coins say? Arkansas State heads. Northern Illinois tails.

We are flipping. It is a head. Butch Jones has me and the coin on his side. Now we go to the game that Cole Kublik will be on the call for. The Birmingham Bowl. Saturday at noon Eastern time. Troy versus Duke. I'm sure you're thinking Duke is a seven and a half point underdog to Troy. Now remember

both of these teams lost their coach. John Summerall from Troy, he's off to Tulane. Mike Elko from Duke, obviously off to Texas A&M. But Duke lost Riley Leonard. That's the big one. Now, Riley Leonard wasn't there all season either. He was injured at times. But the difference between Duke with Riley Leonard, Duke without Riley Leonard was pretty stark.

And Troy's pretty good on both lines of scrimmage. So I'm going to go with the Trojans in this game. What is the coin going to do? Heads is Troy. Tails is Duke. It is a tail. The coin selects Duke. All right. We move on to the Armed Forces Bowl Saturday at 3.30 p.m. Eastern time. James Madison in a bowl game. Remember all of the hubbub about whether they would be allowed to play. There were not enough bowl-eligible teams, so James Madison, even though they were transitioning to FBS,

allowed to play in a bowl game this year, just like Jacksonville State was in the bowl game. They played in Saturday night. So it is James Madison against Air Force. Air Force. Air Force obviously started the season very well, kind of fell off as the season went on. James Madison lost their coach. Kirk Cignetti is at Indiana already, but I think the Dukes are ready to prove a point in this game. I am going to go with James Madison, but what will the coin say? James Madison has heads, Air Force has tails.

It is a tail. The coin selects Air Force. I mean, the coin are on opposite sides quite a bit here. All right, one more. We're gonna do six of these tomorrow night too. The famous Idaho Potato Bowl on the blue at Boise State. Georgia State against Utah State. The Aggies are a three and a half point favorite. Now quarterbacks Cooper Lagasse and McKay Hill said both hurt for Utah State. Levi Williams got his first start in their season

finale. Will he start again? Blake Anderson has been noncommittal about who's going to start. Georgia State, meanwhile, missing a dozen players from the two deep from its final game because of injuries, transfer portal, you name it. I am going with Utah State here in the famous Idaho Potato Bowl. But what will the coin say? Georgia State is heads. Utah State is tails. Utah State is tails. Utah State is a three and a half point favorite.

It is Utah State. So we will see how I do against the coin. Tomorrow, we got big games coming. South Alabama, Eastern Michigan, Northwestern and Utah. The hits keep coming. Listen, if any of these are as fun as the famous toastery bowl, guys, it's going to be a treat.

If we can get even one more game like that one, if we get a playoff game like that one, ratings are going to be through the roof. I cannot wait. The coin will be back tomorrow night. I will do my research. I still don't know if I'm going to beat the coin. I'm going to be honest with you. But Pete Nacos with some Nacosifications joining us tomorrow. We will talk deep into the transfer portal because there's going to be more news. There's going to be a lot more to chew on by tomorrow. Also, Marty Smith from ESPN joins us.

He has a book out that you need to be putting in a loved one's stocking this Christmas, but also just some great stories from the road this year. Marty's seen it all, and he is getting ready for a big-time playoff. So we've got all that for you tomorrow. Always fun. Be more news, guaranteed. Talk to you then.