Andy & Ari On3 - Florida State & Mike Norvell’s FUTURE | Can BYU SHOCK the nation vs Notre Dame after Iowa State win?

Episode Date: October 10, 2026

Welcome to a very special edition of Andy & Ari On3, presented by Jack & Coke. Join Andy and Ari HERE as the guys recap a wild Friday night in college football. From Gainesville, Andy & Ari dive deep into Friday night's action and raise some notable questions...0:00 Intro - Jack & Coke3:55 Dynamic Duos5:51 Iowa State-BYU: Cougars & the CFP14:38 FSU-Louisville: Norvell's Future26:13 Iowa's big win over Washington31:13 Iowa in CFP?31:50 Patric Young joins42:23 Thanks for watching!What does Florida State's immediate future look like with Mike Norvell after losing to Louisville?Can BYU show the world they are for real next week vs BYU? After the win vs Iowa State, Andy & Ari explain how big of a game the Cougars have in Notre Dame next week.Later, former basketball star Patric Young joins the show to discuss his favorite traditions from his time in Gainesville.A jam packed show you won't want to miss!Grab Jack & Coke before the game. It's the iconic combination you already know, with no mixing required—just crack it open and enjoy. Choose the classic that's already done right—Jack & Coke.Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/ohGpmqlfmRMHosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River BaileyInterested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Annie Narion 3 from Gainesville presented by Jack and Coke. Ari, we are here at the Jack and Coat tailgate. This is glorious. This is beautiful. We were worried it was going to pour down rain, but it is just liquid sunshine here in Florida. And I think it's just going to be a delightful mist. Yeah, it feels good to be in the swamp's natural habitat. Yes.

Right. The little moisture never killed anyone. Super excited. today's game. Really good to be here. So Jack and Coke, the ultimate dynamic duo, we're going to be opening things up here pretty soon. There will be people streaming in. We have a beautiful Jack and Coke bar. Like, I want this for my house. This is incredible. Yeah, they did a really good job with this setup. So, you know, the cover, everything's great. I'm inspired, though, because, you know, you got the duos here. We're about to see South Carolina play

Florida. As we all know who watched this show, I grew up a South Carolina fan. I then attended the University of Florida. I was a walk on on the football team. So you're a backstabbers, what you're saying. Basically, yes. Hey, South Carolina didn't want me. I went to their football camp and their offensive line coach is like, ah, you're a little too small. Yeah. And so that's why I'm excited about this because you know, we do the dynamic duos every week for Jack and Coke. It is the ultimate duo. And I was just thinking through dynamic duos for these teams. And it got. got me excited. So, you know, we're in Gainesville. The dynamic duos with Florida. Who, who are

your most dynamic duos for the Gator? I think about the best teams that they've had in my lifetime. Yeah. And it's hard to pick the two, but like, to me, it's, uh, well, oh, we got Chris storing and Danny Wharfill from the crowd. I like that one. That's a great one. You know, but I think, uh, T, Thibbo and Harvin probably is Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin. That's what I figured you were going to say. Because I actually think that Percy Harvin might be the best player who's ever played college football in the history of the game. You may be right, and it's funny because that's Percy's NFL career. People use that.

And I think when guys leave, they get judged in part on their NFL career. And that's wrong. Percy did have a really good Super Bowl with the Seahawks. But yeah, so I was also thinking, I kill you in Redell, Anthony. Like, one of the ultimate receiver, just deadly combos that ever lived. And then I was thinking about the South Carolina one. So I want to go back to my childhood. Two of my favorite childhood players, Steve Tanny Hill, may he rest in peace.

We lost him not long ago. But Steve Tanny Hill, the quarterback, Brandon Bennett, the running back in the early 90s. I actually watched Steve Tany Hill as a freshman come into the swamp. They should have won the game in 1992. It was like his fourth start. And it was South Carolina's first year in the SEC. I'm wearing my South Carolina, Mike Hold jersey. There's dudes wanting to fight me in the bathroom.

I'm like 14 years old. I didn't even know what the. the future was going to hold. Yeah, it was a 14-9 game. South Carolina should have won. That was against the Florida team that was obviously really good. Florida went to the first SEC championship game that year. They lost to Alabama.

And then Florida goes on a run of four consecutive SEC championships. The last of those I happen to be on the team for. So, yeah, it was just, so that one, that was a great, but I'll give you, I'll give you another great duo for South Carolina. Connor Shaw and Al Sean Jeffrey. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Connor Shaw, one of the most underrated.

quarterbacks in SEC history. You know that South Carolina fans still long for Conor Shaw online, right? That's a good thing. Nobody, nobody understood the read option better. Nobody knew when there were nine free yards to be gained by keeping the ball better than Connor Shaw. Yeah. And now whenever you talk about Lenora Sellers, people on the message boards that say, you know, Connor Shaw's don't just grow on trees. They sure don't. They sure don't. They miss. So those are great dynamic duos. Who knows? Maybe today there will be a new dynamic. duo that emerges. Lenora Sellers, obviously, known for a long time, but Lenora Sellers in Nick Harbor, maybe we see the Nick Harbor that we see on the video game. The reason

why South Carolina hasn't reached what we thought they could two years ago is because it hasn't become the dynamic duo that we thought. You know, that's the whole thing with South Carolina and part of the reason why Shane Beamer enters the swamp today on the hot seat because they have really dynamic athletes. They have players where you could actually talk yourself into, hey, these two guys click. I mean, think about it. If Nick Harbor and Lenora Sellers both reached their ceiling. What does South Carolina look like? Right, because it's not like they don't have a supporting cast. Like, Maisio Bennett's great. They have good players. They just can't ever seem to put it all together.

And then Florida, well, their dynamic duo two weeks ago was Jaden Baugh and Duke Clark. Yeah. Who combined for roughly a million rushing yards against a little miss. I love a good, I love a good running back. Yeah. But then they couldn't, they couldn't get off the Schneide against Missouri. I mean, that's really the key to this game. If South Carolina can shut down Florida's run game the way Missouri did, You got a game here. If they can't, Florida's going to run them out of the building. That's really what it comes down to.

Yeah. And then you have other dynamic duos in the making for Florida, right? Yeah. Aaron Philo and Dallas Wilson's one. Well, I just think that receiving core. So maybe there's an Ike and Redell combo in there. Maybe that is Vernel Brown the 3rd and Dallas Wilson or, you know, Eric Singleton and Dallas Wilson.

Burnell is a questionable on the availability report, game time decision, hurt his knee against Ole Miss, did not play against Missouri last week. I think probably their plan was not play in these games. So you have him back for Texas next week. But I think the situation changed when Missouri blew him out. Yeah. And you want to get back on the right foot. Andy, got a few hours still kickoff. Do you want to get into the things that already happened?

Yes. Let's talk Friday night because we were, we were watching those Friday night games. We went live after Florida State. We went live after Iowa and Washington. But I want to talk more about Mike Norville situation in Florida State. I also want to talk more about BYU beating Iowa State because I think that was a very big game in the Big 12. We really, let's start there. Let's start in Provo.

We have not talked about this game yet. But Bear Bachmeier is a legit bona fide star. They're about to go play Notre Dame. they're now, they've beaten Arizona, they've beaten Iowa State, they're two and oh in the big 12. Like, this is as good of a start for, for BYU as you can imagine, with the glaring exception of LJ. Martin's Horton is out for a while. Yeah. Did you know that BYU has gone five and oh five times in Kalani-Sataki seven years there?

It makes sense. In terms of the consistency of the program, you know, this is great. But whatever reason, and I don't know why, if this is a BYU thing, or if this is a BYU thing, or if this is a year to get it thing because Texas Tech doesn't look like we thought they would. But it feels more hopeful in terms of playoff contention in terms of what could happen in the conference race. Obviously, we have this huge Notre Dame game coming up this weekend. Might be one of the best atmospheres in Provo history. If I, you know, I wish we were going.

BYU's defense, though, is Bear Bockemeyer and the defense is the story. Because BYU's defense just shut down Iowa State. The only touchdown Iowa State had is after BYU, muffs a punt return and and Iowa State gets it in BYU territory that that was it. That's all they gave up the whole night essentially. And, you know, I think that like Iowa State had like 40 yards of offense at halftime or yes, it was it was terrible. They could not get going.

So Bear Bokmire pretty incredible, 22 of 30, 329 yards, two touchdowns. He also ran nine times for 109 yards. I mean, that was just an unbelievable performance by Bear Bocke. Yeah. You know, BYU is a really fascinating team. I'm very curious if they're going to be able to run with Notre Dame. Because we haven't seen Notre Dame get tested by anybody. Right.

It's nearly as good as BYU either, and it's on the road. Now, they have gotten better at running the ball, I'd say, in the last few weeks. So they got better against Purdue. They got better against North Carolina. But this is the best defense they will have played. This is the stingiest run defense they will have played. And that's the thing for Notre Dame is, can you average three and a half, four yards of carry against people? Because if you can, C.J. Carr,

and those receivers are going to be fine. You know, the older I get and the more I cover the sport, maybe this is something I should have realized from day one, but in college football spots are key. Yeah. Like where you are, where the game's located, what's on your schedule around you, how are the fans feeling?

And like when you think about spots for Notre Dame to go into, like you can sit back and, you know, compare Bear Bachmeyer and C.J. Carr and lines to lines and DBSs to DBs, but it's a very difficult spot because people in Provo are charged up right now. Well, and remember, this is not a game that people have had circled for years on their calendar. This showed up because USC bailed on Notre Dame and Notre Dame had to reschedule something, something challenging. And for as much of a travesty as it was for the Notre Dame USC series of drop this year. Like, we did at least get a little small gift in return here because that might be the game of the weekend next week.

Well, and the thing is, like, BYU, it'll be a great test for them that also does not hurt them in the Big 12. Like, we're going to learn everything we need to know about BYU, even without LJ Martin. And I do think they can be competitive even without LJ Martin. And so if they are competitive against Notre Dame, it suggests they're going to be very competitive against everybody else in their Big 12 schedule. Because they go UCF, Arizona State, and then what might be the biggest game of the Big 12, we'll see how everybody else does. But BYU, Utah in Salt Lake on November 7 might be the biggest game in the Big 12 all year. It's a podcast. I know we're fired up.

We're at the Jack and Coke tailgate. Let's make some moves here. All right. Let's call this Notre Dame, BYU, game, what it is. BYU fans last year, and maybe rightfully so, felt like they were mistreated

by the college football playoff. They did. 10 and 2, and it was, they were never, like, I don't think they were ever strongly considered for that last that large.

It came down to Miami or Notre Dame. And the reason for that, Andy, is because in the two times they played a playoff team, they got blown off the field. So bringing Notre Dame into your house, a team that everybody universally just assumes is going to the playoff, in large part because of their weak schedule and they're probably only going to lose once, if at all. Right. This is your time as a measuring stick.

If you want to be the second team from the Big 12 to show that you belong on these fields. So it's not necessarily an important game in the sense that it's a playoff, I mean a conference game. Right. But this is a massive game. And I think you can make the case as the most important game on their schedule because this is what. going to tell the story. I said this multiple times. Had there been a Notre Dame BYU game last year to use to replace either one of their lesser non-conference games, the winner would have made the playoff. Without question. And I think that, you know, right or wrong in college football,

part of the beauty of it is its dysfunction. But optics and perception are important. Yeah. And BYU fans will rail about that because last year they were a really good team. Yeah. This is your chance to go show it, go earn it. And look, the committee knows L.J. Martin. is not playing. Yeah. They're aware. So you can even keep it close. I think that's a victory because then you have an illustration of, hey, we played a team that is in the field. This is what it looked like. We can conceivably win. So, you know, I know that other teams in the SEC and the Big Ten aren't held to the same standard in that they get one shot to prove it. Right. Like we're at the Florida game. If Florida loses twice, but has a few big wins, then their losses will be forgiven in a way

The thing is, if Florida loses twice, they will have beaten a playoff team still. They have a chance to balance it out. More than likely, they will still have a win against somebody who makes the playoff. You don't get the benefit of that most years. Exactly. So when you have the opportunity, whether it be the Big 12 championship game last year or the Notre Dame game next weekend, you have to seize those moments in the Big 12 in a way that you don't have to. And it might not be fair, but it's true. Well, these BYU people, I'm sure, not thinking about this.

This is not something everybody's thinking about at BYU. but they carry the torch for the league in this game too. Right. They have to help the league because if they can beat Notre Dame, one, it helps their case, but it also helps the Big 12th case in terms of potentially getting two teams into the comfortable play. Yeah, or if somebody beats BYU, you can say, well, they beat Notre Dame.

There's a, it's called the aura farming. Yeah. Or transferable aura. So, you know, I know it's not a fair responsibility. And frankly, I know that, you know, it stinks that other teams. and other conferences have five opportunities to make a statement and you only get one or two a year. But when you have those opportunities, you got to treat that game against the freaking Super Bowl, man. Absolutely.

Because it is. It really is. If you have designs of going to the postseason, I know you have an automatic spot if you win the Big 12 and you'll always have that as a fallback. You lose 75 to nothing to Notre Dame and still get in. Yes. But if you have any designs of being an at-large team, you'll know whether you're going to be one on Saturday night next week. Exactly. Exactly. And you know whether the wider world will consider you one. next Saturday night. And, you know, it's the Big 12's entire thing.

Yeah. You're the same message from Brett Yormark every year. Absolutely. Which is the big 12, all these statistics of how many people were drafted and how they did in their bowl games. And it's like none of that stuff matters to what you want. The thing that matters is results. Yes.

Like the, like the Notre Dame game. Absolutely. So we'll see. I cannot wait for this game. I'm sure. Like, this is one of the biggest games in Provo in ages. Well, use your encyclopedia brain and tell me when another one of them. I'm just trying to think of it.

because, you know, they had good years that 2020 seasons weird because obviously they were very good with Zach Wilson. Their biggest game that year was the one against Coastal Carolina that they scheduled on two days notice, but they went to Conway, South Carolina to play that. On my death bet, I will also say that college football needs to find a way to do scheduling mechanisms like that. Right. Yeah, we need to be able to have more of that. We're going to insert a game that we all want to see. But yeah, I mean, they've had big games. They've had obviously big Utah games.

But remember, I mean, BYU wandered through the wilderness as an independent. for a long time that it wasn't like Notre Dame where Notre Dame wanted to be independent. BYU wanted to be part of a big conference. They just, the right conference didn't come along until the big 12 did. So this is, this is their moment. This is the eyes of the world will be watching them. You know, all the SEC people are mad because wait, there's no prime time ABC game. ABC's going to Provo. That's why. It's awesome. So, so it's going to be a good time. You got to show it, Cougars. You got to show it. Seize the moment.

All right. Speaking of C, seizing the moment. You know who didn't seize the moment last night? Mike Norville. That was Mike Norvel. Mike Norvel up 14 nothing, Florida State up 14 nothing at Louisville. They have the ball in the red zone. Fourth down, fourth and goal, I believe from three. They opt not to kick the field goal. They go for the touchdown. I don't care about the decision. I don't. If you want to use that decision as your basis for firing Mike Norville, fine, but that's not the reason. The reason you should be mad and the reason you should feel the way you feel this morning is because after that happened, after they get stopped, after Isaac Brown goes for a 97-yard TD five seconds later, after that, Florida State made no adjustments that worked at all to what Louisville adjusted to with them. I'm going to say it bluntly. They just stink.

that's the problem. That is the problem. So, I mean, like, you can. Right. This is a Louisville team. Just lost to Wake Forest and NC State. It's not like they are. Now, Louisville may wind up competing for the ACC title, but they're not a great team.

They were coming and humming. Yeah. So, like, you can try to, you know, zero in on the fourth down call. And yes, it did change the momentum of the game. But Florida State would have lost that game in my opinion either way. Yes. Like, I don't, I don't know that that was the reason they lost. You score a touchdown there.

and the rest of the stuff happens, it does not matter. I know people say, but the momentum, momentum is not real. If your defense looks like that, that wasn't going to suddenly make your defense better. Right. So I looked at some statistics after we went live last night that I kind of knew, but I actually know. Let's play Andy and Ari on three quiz. Okay. Where you know all the answers already, but I need to admit.

I don't know if I know the answers. You do, because I asked you last night and you knew them. Okay. How many five-star prospects during the Mike Norville era from the recruits? but from the recruiting classes from 2021 until now, which I believe was six classes. Did they sign? And I'm talking about industry on three.

Yeah, agreed upon five-star prospects. Zero. They had Travis Hunter committed for a long time, and then he flipped to Jackson State on signing day. Zero. Zero. They've signed six recruiting classes under Mike Norvell. How many of those recruiting classes were outside of the top 20?

Oh, was it was it four? Four, correct. That's correct. How many were inside the top ten? That's zero. Frankly speaking, if you want an understanding of where this all went wrong, it's in those statistics. Yeah. And I know they had their great year where they went, you know, undefeated and, you know, things were looking great. And they got stubbed from the playoff.

And the way that they built that team was great. They had also transfers. But that was very early. the NIL era. The market had not really settled and no one knew what anything was worth. I think they got Braden Fisk. I don't know the exact number, but I believe Braden Fisk for the year he played at Florida State. Was it like a ham sandwich? It was less than $200,000. Yeah. So this is a lot of money, but nothing. A game changing defensive tackle would now, even coming from the Mac would cost over a million $7. Figure player. Yeah. So, but they did a very good job of evaluating. And the thing that they did

a good job of too is the guys like Jared Verst, for instance. Yes. Weren't single year rentals. Like they brought them in, developed them. But the problem with that is, is that it wasn't a sustainable model. And the only way for them, and I actually don't think that there's going to be any team, even moving into the future that wins the portal every year. Right.

Like, it's just a hard thing to do because it's inconsistent. You don't know who you're going to get. You don't know who's going to be the impact players. Who are the teams that no matter the era of the playoff, they just make the playoff? Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama. What do they do better than anybody else? They all recruit high school football well. I want to know, Andy, and this might be a segment for later in the week because this is a really good topic.

Yes. Of all the non-traditional powers in terms of high school recruiting, you could basically name the top 10 of any class from 2010 to 2020 off the top of your head because it was the same 10 teams every year. But of the teams that weren't in that club, how many teams do you think have a chance to be in the top 10 in football? in the regular season because they kill the portal every single year. Like what Lane Kiffin did at Ole Miss? Can he do for 10 years? So that he could have better high school recruiting at LSU. Like that's part of the reason he left.

So if you're like trying to scratch your head of like where things went wrong at Florida State. Yeah. Obviously going two and 10, the rather malfunctions involved. Let me ask you the question. I think Florida State fans are probably asking themselves right now. In this era, can they be a power recruiting out? Because before they just, I mean, they recruited some of the best players in Florida. People in South Georgia and along the Gulf Coast in Mississippi and Alabama and Louisiana always wanted to come to Tallahassee.

Like it was cool to come to Tallahassee. The cool factor doesn't matter anymore. Do you have the money? Do you think they can do it in this environment? Well, that would be a good question for NACOS, but I do think that it's interesting because is the lack of investment in football a direct correlation to their financial situation? or is it a direct correlation to not wanting to support the current coach, or is it a combination of both? And, you know, I think that you're going to have to come up with money,

and it doesn't matter who you are or how traditional the power you are. This goes for Alabama. This goes for Ohio State. Everything's about money everywhere. So I don't know if they'll ever be a top five spender, but that doesn't mean that the right coach won't be able. You don't have to be a top five spender. Indiana just won the national title.

And they weren't a top as like a top, probably, what do we think? think Indiana was if we just ranked all the spending last year. I would say in between 10 and 15 probably, right? I think that 15 to 20 would be more accurate. And the thing is like, there's a bunch of SEC and Big Ten teams clustered in the, in the, you know, 12 through 25 range. Florida State needs to fall in there and select wisely and coach well. Yeah. If you can do that, which I think they can, then you can compete for national titles.

I overheard you having a discussion with somebody over here before we were recording. and I thought it was really interesting, which is the better a player is coached in high school at some of the powers in high school, the closer they probably are to their ceiling. To their ceiling, yes. I learned that from Urban Meyer. What does Florida have, the state of Florida?

Florida has lots of good players, and they pay their high school coaches Jack Squat, and therefore they have a lot of high-ceiling guys who are probably not developed that well. And when you're a high-ceiling guy who's not developed well, it was a ride range of outcomes in your playing career, What does that usually mean for your price tag? It's lower.

So doesn't that mean that in the state of Florida, that even if you aren't signing top 10 classes every year, that a good evaluator and somebody with a great staff has a better chance of getting a high ceiling roster for cheaper? Yes. So are you saying someone like a Jake Dickert, who's maybe the best evaluator in the country? He's the way forward to Miami Central and find the 250 pound freshman

who has no coachable skis or no coachable. background with amazing skill sets, get him for one fifth of the price of what his actual ceiling is. Now, obviously, the battle now- You got to keep them and you got to develop them. That's the trick-in-bar right now. You have to retain that player. But there is a means for Florida State to get really good players onto their team, even if they're not spending a lot of money out of the onset. No, it's doable. It's doable. So it's, it's not hopeless. It's not. And I think that's probably the problem you're running into with Florida State folks.

I think when they told everybody they were keeping Mike Norville for another year, this was the last week of regular season last year, it was right before they came to play down here. That's when the fan base said, I'm out, come back and talk to me. But the apathy at Florida State when it's under new management. Just help me with this. The apathy at Florida State isn't a result of them feeling that the program is hopeless. The apathy is driven by the fact that they had a coach that they thought was hopeless, right?

Right, and they're not keen on the administration right now, But that's changing, too. They fired their athletic director, Michael Offer. They're looking for a new AD. So change is coming. And you've just laid out a map for how that change could look and how it could work. I mentioned Jake Dickert. That's obviously not the only name I would mention.

I would mention Manny Diaz, Duke, Florida State grad, by the way. Yeah. Work, you know, broke into football on Bobby Bowden's staff. So there are coaches. And if you go back in time and look at coaches who didn't do well before the NIL era who are doing well now, I think that their most recent success is more important than their previous failure. There are coaches who would want this job. There are coaches who could excel in this job.

And I think that's the part that people maybe not, maybe don't think about in this era because, one, this era has only existed for five years. So we have very short memories. And we tend to think that the last thing that happened is the only thing that happened. This era has morphed and evolved. Yeah. We went from Mike Norville being the best at the portal to him being one of the worst at the portal because they didn't have the money.

money to spend it. Also interesting as you think about Florida State, Andy, is when you look around the country at places that are financially far worse off. Yes. There's some pretty high level quarterback play across the board. Absolutely. A lot of places have like, I don't know. And that's one of the more damning things about Mike Norville. I don't have the stat in front of me. The quarterbacks that he recruited out of high school, not only have they not won at Florida State or even won the starting job at Florida State, they haven't won anywhere. I get a little bit. shaky about criticizing individual players because my, well, my background. criticizing that group as a group and criticizing Mike Norville for his, when you think about Florida State's most critical seasons under Mike Norvell after, who did he rely on at the quarterback position? Players that flamed out at other schools. Yeah. And I just feel like the quarterback play in general has been subpar for a place that has high expectations. And I don't think that's,

It's impossible for them to get a really good quarterback. And hell, if Mississippi State can find one. Right. And Oklahoma State can have one. Yep. There are ways to do it. Mississippi States grew up 30 minutes away and was always a fan. And Oklahoma States came with him.

Right. Oklahoma States didn't play quarterback in high school and started it North Texas before he got there. What I'm saying is that it's doable. And there's no reason why DJ Oweyunga Lale needs to be your savior. Yeah. I mean, look, I just called up the list. Chubba Purdy, Tate Rodemaker, A.J. Duffy, Brock Glenn, Luke Cromenhawk.

Like those are the, those are the signes. Two starts or two wins in all their starts. Right. And they happened in 2020, with all those other players with Keon Coleman and. If you want to start doing the negative statistics game with Florida State, we could be here. Well, but it's. And I don't want to press the FSU fans anymore because I do think we've, we've laid out the roadmap to give them hope.

And I like, like we said on the video Friday night, it's going to happen. It's just a matter of time. It's not now. but it's going to happen. Yeah. I don't think you need to work. I know there's been some people trying to blow smoke saying, oh, it's too expensive. They don't, they like Mike Norville.

No, no, no. It's this, this is. Nobody in college football is hopeless. That's got an expiration date. Anymore. Nobody in college football is hopeless anymore. Yeah. Florida State.

Yeah. You're not hopeless. Yeah. Now, one team that might have lost hope this year is Washington. And I think Iowa beat it out of them last. night. Yeah. I want to talk about Iowa though. Yeah. Iowa went to Seattle and pounded Washington. Jeremy Hekelinsky starts for the injured Hank Brown. Jeremy Hekelinsky should have been Iowa's starting quarterback all along, right? Like, yes. I mean, that dude was dealing. And I know what you're saying.

It's a one game sample size, but we did see enough of Hank Brown, I feel like. It wasn't just a one game sample size. It was a four game sample size on the other end. Right. But Hekelinsky, maybe he isn't that. Yeah. Maybe he isn't that. Maybe he is that. I know. But even if Hicklinsky plays 70% as good as he played last night. I still think it's superior to the quarterback play that they had gotten. Right. Right. Because it feels like his, him in the RPO read option game, defenses just have a little more to worry about. They're a little more in conflict. And I think that makes it more difficult to defend him. And you saw it. Washington had some issues with confusion. There's one touchdown that Iowa scored where Washington ran a corner blitz. And then

the DB who was behind the corner blitz wasn't sure who he was supposed to cover, ends up with a wide open Reese Vander Z. I mean, that's the sort of thing. Now, I think once they've got some film on Hekolensky, you can adjust better to that stuff. But the thing is, if you're executing that stuff well, giving defenses multiple things to worry about and it's not just worrying about Kamari Molten

or I'm going to throw to Tony Diaz and he's the only guy I can throw it to. Like, if it's not that, the defenses have a lot harder. Yeah, you know, and I've always been amused, but the Iowa game plan doesn't mean that you can't, can't have good offense. Yeah. You can still play that way and score.

Yeah. And their defense shut Washington down. Yeah. For most of the game. The defense is good. Washington scored a very garbage time touchdown at the end, but that was a dominant win. And I don't want to say anything negative that would have depressed an Iowa fan right now,

but I do find myself wondering if Iowa would have had Eklinsky on the field against Ohio State a few weeks ago, and they would have hit some of those open receivers in the first half of that game would have gone differently. I don't think they win, but I think it changes the tone. Yeah, change the tenor of the game. Yeah. And, you know, for a team that might be 11 and 1 at the end of the year. Well, and also maybe you're not having to go down the field and score as time expires against Michigan. Like the way they played last night, they would have killed Michigan.

Right. So you look at the rest of the schedule. They've got the open date now. Then they play at Minnesota, Floyd of Rosedale. Minnesota is probably the best defense left on their schedule. Minnesota's defense is exceptional. This is a great defense they're about to play. If they can score on this defense, they can.

beat everybody else on their schedule. Yeah, you know, and if they can score more and their offense is much better than we gave it credit for at the first half of the year than the probability of them losing one of those games in totality goes down because my thing with Iowa is always, if you play low-scoring close games, the variance of the outcomes of those games is different and wider. It's harder to run the table. But if you're scoring 30 points, tell me something. Is Iowa losing any of those games where they score 30? No. No. I, I, I, That's, and the thing is, if you're scoring as quickly as they were scoring, you may give up some more points because you're going to, you're going to have more possessions for the opposing team. But that's okay. Yeah. Like, that's fine. I think you would trade points for the thing is. I don't know. I'm not an animal. Ferrence is this guy who really wants to punt and, and wants the game to look a certain way. Kirk Ferrence would be just fine beating the living crap out of people. Like, he's fine with that. He would be just fine scoring, trading a possession for six points. He was smiling a lot last night. Yeah.

By the way, Kirk Ferrence, I know this because he's me. Because what would Kirk Ferrence do if he wasn't coaching college football? He'd be drinking pool, beer in a pool. He's sitting in a pool and drink beer. That's what I would do. Andy. Yeah. Did you see the quote that Kirk Ferrence had last week in his news conference?

No. He goes, we're not in the entertainment business. Oh, yeah. We're in the winning business. How about being both? Yeah. Why not both? Last night was both.

I was highly entertained by Jeremy Hocklinski. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of dynamic duos, entertaining and winning is fun. Yes. You know, Jack and Coke is a dynamic duo. Entertaining and winning is about the best dynamic duo you can get. So this is just going to be a pretty spectacular next couple weeks because Iowa is going to be riding the vibes.

Minnesota is going to be preparing for the offensive juggernaut to come into Minneapolis. Floyd of Rosedale, one of the greatest. trophies in all of sports will be on the line. Can I put you on the spot real quick? Please. You do a fun exercise every Saturday night around 2 a.m. I do. Sunday morning. Yes. Oh. Oh. Oh. So I have to finish the question. Am I going to put Iowa in my projected playoff? I've actually put them in there once this year already.

I could do it again. Just an interesting thing to think about. I could do it again because I have I have Northwestern in there right now. I mean, if you're Western is one of the teams they have to play to get to where they want to go. They're playing each other this year, so we'll solve itself out.

But if you had to take one right now, who would you buy something? Well, this version of Iowa, this one. So I think you flip it. Yeah, because that's your answer. If you told me the Hank Brown version of Iowa, no, I just don't think they can beat Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Northwestern.

But I do think this version can't. So I think we have our answer. Pencila. P-word. not punt joined by former Florida basketball player one of the greatest power fords in SEC history Patrick young you just got the intro uh so Tom who does the PA for basketball is our DJ here today yeah and he did the full on I got no heads up no warning nine from Jacksonville I know right Patrick young I'm glad he didn't go down like a list of Florida stats or something like that you know if you know you

Well, I wanted him to do the whole starting five because obviously, you know, I was around for when y'all were playing here. And so I wanted to, I wanted to Patrick Young. I wanted the will you get. I wanted the Scotty Wilbekin. You had one of the great groups that kind of a lost era in college basketball because they don't do this anymore where guys come in together. They play four years. They go out on a final four like y'all did. Purdue is probably the last team to be closest with the bruce.

Braden Smith last year, Fletcher lawyer, Trey Kaufman, Ren, I think all four of those, or three of those guys started, maybe four, maybe as a fourth I'm missing. But I kind of wanted them to be my last, like if Florida wasn't going to win it, let Purdue because it's the last of a dying breed, having guys come in and stay together.

Look, the state of the game has changed a lot. And I actually was speaking to a coach, an assistant coach for a big D1 school, and we relate on this. The thing that I hate the most that has changed, the guys don't spend time with each other as much as they used to. Yeah. Like, classes are online.

You just go to the practice facility. Yeah. Then you go to your apartment. Like, we hung out all the time. We went to lunch all together. If we all went to the mall, we go to the mall together. Like, we went out together. It was like, that is what made the experience.

Probably too much because we, you know, I have a few too many memories at 101 can'tina. But you didn't hear that for me. No, no, listen. But everybody who went to school in Gainesville has that. For me, it was the Grog House, which doesn't exist anymore because it was on the second floor got condemned. The floor was caving in or something like that. You might have wound up on the first floor. But, I mean, that's the beauty of the college experience.

I mean, and that's what was it like because you grew up in Jacksonville, not far from here, but just going to college in Gainesville. What was that experience like? You know, I think I relate to what most of the college. Most kids do where this is your first real chance of having, like, your freedom, your liberty and responsibility on yourself. And, gosh, you can look back. There's so much I wish I knew. Like, I wish I knew 10% of what I know now to be a little bit more wise, a little bit more mature, more coachable. But, man, my freshman year, just getting here, it was just like you feel like you're on top of the world.

Like you got, you're here to play basketball. You're experiencing, like, you go to the hub where Chick-fil-A is and all that stuff. There's, like, thousands of people walking by. Like, you're sitting in a classroom where a professor is actually, like, Oh, yeah. Really lecturing you and, like, it's just all kind of surreal. I couldn't imagine going back and do it now as a grown man now. I don't know that anybody actually does it now.

I think they do it online a lot of these days. Man, I'm glad we didn't have AI back then. No, exactly. Exactly. So Patrick, for those who don't remember when you played, I think the first question everybody asked you was, why aren't you playing football? Oh, man. Yeah. So two funny stories there. First thing is my dad was not going to let me play football. And my mom. He played football. He played professional football. Yeah. He played at Bethune. Then he played for the USFL. Played for the Tampa Bay Bend. It's when Spurrier was the coach. He got cut by Spurrier. And got sent up to Jacksonville. with the Bulls. What was the question? What did you say?

Yeah, how many people were asking to play football? Oh, yes. Football. So parents weren't going to, if flag football was around, they would have let me play flag football. And you would have dominated. You know, I like to think that I wasn't like the fastest athlete, but I had an arm because I played baseball.

Like I would have loved to see if I could do something as like a quarterback, most important position in the game. Absolutely. But then the Seahawks. my senior year reached out to coach Pelfrey to ask them if I wanted to do like a little pro pro day workout running some rounds. Yeah. And then, you know, I didn't get drafted, but I was with New Orleans Pelicans. And the basketball facility and the football facility are literally right next to each other.

So it happened a few times that a coach or for the Saints might have said like, hey, hey, young, you want to come over and get some. And Mardi Williams said he shut it down quick. Betmoni did. He did. He shut it down quickly. Now, the Saints had Jimmy, and Jimmy played four years of basketball in Miami, and then one year of football. But the problem was, not the problem, my favorite tight end of all time is Antonio Gates. Kent State basketball play. Antonio, he is the only Hall of Famer that did not play college football.

And obviously, like, Drew Breeze and Phillip Rivers were feeding him the ball. And they always talked about how he would, like, box out and with his high. So, like, he made me kind of think like it was possible. Oh, your skills were very translatable. He was 6'4. Six foot nine is to be out there on the football field. There's not a lot of guys, that's all. That's true.

That's true. I'd be afraid for the knees, man. I think you had the athleticism to make up for it. Yeah. Hey, I like that kid with LSU. Absolutely. Tradez. Green.

Tradeaz, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Just throw it up. All right. So, Patrick, you were Mr. Gainesville. You know, you did experience. all the college experience had to offer. Oh, yeah.

What were your favorite tradition, like going to the football games? What were your favorite traditions? Ooh. I think part of what was fun was when we could enjoy a game and go to it, walking, literally just walking to the stadium with all the fans. That was pretty cool. I don't know what it was about it, but like just another way. And, you know, the energy.

It's that the swan, this, this, this. This stadium has a different kind of energy. And I know you've been all over the place. You played in all these basketball arenas. Yes. The energy here is like you played in Rupp Arena. I mean, it's very similar to that. Like, just one of those special places where there's, it feels different.

And, you know, you can laugh at it now. But back then, you know, we weren't supposed to get food from tailgates and no it not. We got food from other people's when they, they offered it to us. Come on, man. Like, we're not going, we don't have no money. Come at him, NCAA. Come at it. Right.

for a few ribs and macaroni and cheese. Like, come on. But what else, man? I mean, I remember after my freshman year, because, you know, students sit on, sit on the East Side of the stadiums. Oh, yeah, where the sun bakes you. I think I was like, I'm not coming to any more games unless they're night games, because that was miserable.

Just getting straight, cooked, barbecue chicken out there. And then, you know, we were good my freshman year football. I think that was when we lost the Teddy Bridgewater in the Sugar Bowl. And after that, it was every year was bad. Every year was bad after that. It was, it was, oh, man. What was your favorite moment of the football games? What thing that they do did you like the best?

Well, the won't back down is a, that's a new thing. So we didn't have that. Move back, you suck. So for those who don't know, when someone commons, commits a penalty. Like if the swamp makes you jump off sides, if the crowd of 90,000 people screaming makes your left tackle flinch and you got to go back five, five yards, it's move back, you suck. Bam, better move back you so like, you know, it's just kind of vibey. All the things, man,

you know, for me. He's got to make that guy feel, he feels bad enough. He's cost his team five yards. And he's got 90,000 people. Yeah. Move back. You saw. Yeah. Well, I feel like as a line or whatever, you can kind of maybe you can block it out maybe man dude we got a hl team the iceman in jacksonville oh yeah when the other team's goalie gets scored on it is brutal the chant they go through and i'm just like hey man you chose to play here you put you chose the sport this is what comes with it that's right that's right so you mentioned the i won't back down thing that is that is a that is a relatively new thing it's they they brought it in when tom petty passed and tom petty obviously a native of gainsville

what did you think the first time you saw it at night i I don't remember the first time, but I do remember being in there. I might have been in the box. So it's not the same. But seeing it on TV, seeing, you know, being there, it's kind of like a spiritual experience. Everyone being kind of united and connected to a song that's supposed mental or, you know, encourage and really this pump us up for something that we're passionate about as fans. Like, it's special to be.

If you're obviously, the song means a lot of you are a gator. So like, whenever it comes on, whenever I hear it, I just instantly think of like, oh, man, how cool would it be to be in the swamp to hear this right now? It's absolutely beautiful when you see the lights going. You know, Netflix did a documentary on SEC football a couple years ago, and they had them doing it. I think it was at the Kentucky game. And it was just the way they shot it was just so. It's just you see the lights and everybody's just swaying.

Who is the craziest one? I mean, I mean, Oklahoma now with a... Oh, they brought out 50 cent. I was there. I was there when they brought out 50 cent. Now, the problem was they'd already blown a 17-point lead, and everybody knew they were going to lose when 50 came out, but it was still pretty cool. Was 50 wholesome?

Because, you know, sometimes... 50 was as wholesome as possible. Okay, that's great. That's great. In front of 80,000 people. It's kids out there, man. We're playing football. We need, you know, the game.

Yep. Well, Pat, we got to let you. you get ready for the game. You're going to hang out with everybody here today. Shout out Jack and Coke, baby. That's right. We got a Jack and Coke. It's early. Who cares? Raise it up. It's game day. That's right. Ari, we love Patrick Young. That was awesome. Gainesville has been very welcoming to my friends who don't live here like me. But this is gorgeous. Even though it's a little gray, got a little bit of rain, the gators are out. Listen, gators live in the water. I'm watching these fans walk by and the Florida gear is just great.

Oh, it's elite. It is elite. They got their rain gear. It is Florida. You have to have rain gear here. I wish I would have remembered that. River behind the camera flashing his Tennessee. Psychopath is wearing a Tennessee pool over.

Got to love them for it, though. Super excited to be here. Love the swamp. Should be a good game. Can't wait. Thank you. Thank you to Jack and Coke for bringing everybody to Gainesville. Thank you for bringing everybody together.

We're watching everybody. gather around, raising a toast with Jack and Coke, the ultimate dynamic duo, the ultimate combo. Fill your cooler with Jack and Coke today. Makes every tailgate better. We'll talk to you soon.