Andy & Ari On3 - HARBAUGH WATCH 2024 | Jedd Fisch Said WHAT? | When Does Iowa Hire an OC? Plus, Caitlin Clark Mania

Episode Date: January 17, 2024

Jim Harbaugh is the gift that keeps on giving in terms of news for the off-season, and there has been some news swirling about his contract. Of course, we dive into that and some interesting sound bytes from Jedd Fisch's Opening Press Conference at Washington.Today's show is sponsored by PrizePicks, the easiest way to play daily fantasy. All first time users that deposit and use the promo code ANDY will receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. If you deposit $100, PrizePicks will give you $100. If you deposit $50, PrizePicks will give you $50.Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/ANDY(0:00-11:14 Intro - Jim Harbaugh's Contract(11:15-25:17) Jedd Fisch said WHAT? at his presser (25:18-54:49) T-Bob Hebert joins to discuss the future of college football(54:50-1:13:12) Tom Kakert of HawkeyeReport joins to discuss Caitlin Clark, Iowa hiring an Offensive Coordinator(1:13:13-1:14:18) Conclusion - Dear Andy tomorrow! Send your email and video questions to [e-mail] - Don't be afraid to record a video and send it in!Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/k2WYosMgeQw

Welcome to Andy Staples on three and I know what you're thinking more hardball watch yes more hardball watch it's hardball watch 2024 and it lasts until he makes a decision until he says I am coming back to Michigan as the head coach or he says I am going to insert NFL team name here. Maybe the Chargers, because that's who we talked to on Monday, but this continues. And one of the reasons it continues today, because interesting discussion, and this is something that Clayton Safey from the Wolverine and I talked about on Monday night show, but Dan Wetzel at Yahoo Sports, our pal, had a really good column on Tuesday about Jim Harbaugh's contract situation in Michigan and about what they are trying to get in that contract. Clayton and I have talked about it. If you're a subscriber to The Wolverine, you've been reading about this for several weeks now, so you understand the parameters here. But for those who haven't been, let's kind

of spell out the details. Basically, Jim Harbaugh has a contract that has been offered to him that would make him the highest paid coach in the Big Ten. The money's kind of irrelevant at this point. You know a guy like Jim Harbaugh is going to command a massive salary. But that's not all it is. There's a piece of it where he's trying to get the effective date pushed into February so that if an NFL team hires him, they wouldn't have to pay Michigan as much. But that's also not really relevant here. What is relevant is Harbaugh is trying to get language in the contract, and understandably so, that Michigan wouldn't fire him for cause if the NCAA issues a bunch of penalties

toward Michigan's program, toward Harbaugh himself. And that's the one that I think is the most interesting one because I think if this were 10 years ago, Michigan would say, no way, absolutely not. And they would have already done something. They would have said, Jim, thanks. We're going to move on and you go take an NFL job. That's what would have happened 10 years ago. That's not what happens now. And probably shouldn't have been what would happen

10 years ago. You saw Jim Trestle get forced out by Ohio State in a situation where he had gotten caught lying to NCAA investigators. If we're being real about it, he was lying to protect his players, trying to keep them from getting in trouble. I think most Ohio State fans kind of forgave that. Probably would have been fine with that. With Jim Harbaugh, you've got the Cheeseburger Gate situation, which is him meeting with some players during the pandemic when unofficial visits weren't allowed, official visits weren't allowed. And it's not about meeting with the players because if he'd have said,

yeah, I met with him, no big deal, it wouldn't have been a big deal. It would have been slap on the wrist and move on. But because he said, I don't recall, they hit him with some evidence. He still said, I don't recall. They're saying that he lied to them. And so they're going to try to punish him for that.

Then you've also got the Connor Stallion situation where Connor Stallion's allegedly running a ring where there's in-person scouting going on, which is against NCAA rules. So what happens with Jim Harbaugh because of this? Again, if this were 10 years ago, we would be expecting more suspensions, more NCAA penalties, because remember ncaa has changed the rules now where they can attach anything to the head coach so whether that whether they knew about it

or not so they can attach the stallion stuff no matter how much jim harbaugh knew about it participated in it understood it any of it even he no clue, they can attach it to him. So if I'm Michigan, I have to decide what do I want to do about this? And I think Michigan's response during the past season kind of informs what's going to happen. Jim Harbaugh was suspended by Michigan for three games, probably as a protection for him from the first NCAA investigation. Remember, they negotiated a settlement where he would be suspended for four. That got rejected by the NCAA's Committee on Infraction. So we could at least assume that there's one more game suspension coming from that one. But since they rejected it, I would assume there's more. Then you've got the Stallion stuff. But we just watched a season

where Jim Harbaugh was suspended, not for three, but for six games. And Michigan won the national title, and he's still beloved, and the administration had his back. Remember, the three games he was suspended for at the end of the year were for the Stallion stuff, and that was handed down by the Big Ten. I assume that the ncaa if they're doing anything regarding that one would consider those three games a time served situation now i don't know if it would be a three game suspension they would hand down or would it be more than that but i almost think it doesn't matter if you're michigan you had his back before. Why not continue to have his back on this thing? But that's what I said to Clayton last night. And I still agree with that

wholeheartedly. You have Jim Harbaugh's back all season. Continue to have his back now. Just tell him whatever happens with the NCAA, we're behind you. You're our coach. Now, in practice and reading Dan Wetzel's story, I thought about it a little more. It's not as easy as that. It's a little more complicated than that, but it's still doable. It's still something you can do. So what Michigan doesn't want to do, and no one would want to do this, you don't want to get yourself in a situation where you cannot fire a coach for cause. So the difference

between without cause and for cause means you for cause means that the person did something wrong. You do not have to pay a buyout without cause means you're just firing them. You pay the buyout. So a lot of times when coaches commit NCAA violations, they get fired for cause because their standard language in almost every college coaching contract that says you must abide by NCAA rules. If you don't, we will fire you. But this is a different situation. Michigan has been very clear that they feel like Jim Harbaugh is getting railroaded in this thing. So if you feel like Jim Harbaugh is getting railroaded, you continue to have his back. You continue to say, you will be our coach, and this will not affect that. And how do you do that contractually?

That's where they got to thread the needle here. Because you don't want to have a situation where you're essentially giving Jim Harbaugh a pass permanently on anything that may happen in the future. Because that's bad business. Whether you love Jim Harbaugh, dislike Jim Harbaugh, it doesn't matter. That's bad business to give an employee a free pass no matter what happens. That said, you want to make sure he feels supported and secure that nothing that happens from either of these two investigations are going to cost him his job. So do you put a date on it? Do you say any NCAA violations

committed up to December 31st, 2023, or even could be right now? So today is January 16th, 2024. Let's say you hand in the contract tomorrow, then maybe you say up until January 17th, 2024, any violations committed that the NCAA has punished you for, we will not fire you for cause. We put that in writing. I don't have a problem with that. I don't see a problem with that. Now you could say, oh, well, they might dig up something else. But if you're Michigan at this point, haven't you dug up enough yourself to figure out what happened here?

Don't you know what has happened over the past few years? Like, I think you're pretty safe doing that. I don't think you're giving him a pass into the future. You're saying there are these two investigations. We have said on the record, at least with the Stallions one, that we think you're getting railroaded. So why not just put that in writing? Why not say you're not going to lose your job over this? Even if you're suspended for an entire season, you still have your job. And here's the thing about it. The way last season unfolded

should give you confidence in doing that. And I don't see the NCAA suspending Harbaugh for a season or more than a season. I would think it would be a part of a season. Well, you just had a season where he was suspended for six games and you won the national title. Sharon Moore is sitting right there. And also, if Jim Harbaugh doesn't leave, everybody knows Sharon Moore is ready to be a head coach. He will be one of the hottest head coaching candidates in the next cycle if Jim Harbaugh doesn't leave and Sharon Moore isn't elevated to head coach right now. So if you have

a suspension, you just do what you did last year with Sharon Moore. Why change anything in that situation? You've got something that works. So everything sets up where this is doable. And again, if this were five years ago, 10 years ago, I would have said, no way. There's no way a school will do this, especially not Michigan. But now, why should you be afraid of the NCAA? If you think they're, you know, if you think they are going after your guy unfairly, do something about it.

And this is what you do. You can't guarantee him immunity from this. Like if the NCAA Committee on Infractions decides they think he did something wrong, they're going to issue a punishment. You can't guarantee that he won't be punished, but you can guarantee that any punishment will not get him fired for cause. I do think that would be a fair way to handle this. Again, Michigan has come out and said, we think he did nothing wrong, or we think that the penalties that he has already served have been sufficient. So why fight that? Why fight that against Jim Harbaugh?

If you want him back, put it in the contract. It's that simple. It really is. It'll be interesting to see what happens because, obviously, he's talked to the Chargers. There are other NFL jobs open. Potentially other NFL jobs could come open based on what's happened in the playoffs maybe if you the hardball watch 2024 may last a little bit longer guys it

it may be more more days more weeks we shall see but i do think in terms of the michigan contract if he wants to come back there's a way to make come back, there's a way to make that contract work. There's a way to write that contract where everybody's happy and where you have a situation that's set up. If the NCAA does come down harder than you think, you've got Jim Harbaugh protected, you're set up with Sharon Moore, and you know exactly what happens going forward. I think it's doable. I do. Now, let's talk about the team that Jim Harbaugh's Wolverines played in the national championship game last week, the Washington Huskies. They lost Kalen to Borda, Alabama.

Jed Fish hired from Arizona to be the new head coach of the Huskies. And this entire episode has once again brought up the idea of the destination job and the fan base that is so, so hurt when a coach leaves. Because, and I understand, this isn't the NFL. This is college sports. In college, you take it personally when somebody leaves your job. Because your school is the greatest place in the world where you had the best time of your life. And you don't understand why everybody doesn't feel the same way about your school. Why would somebody who gets to be the head coach at your school ever want to leave?

Why would that person do that? It's a personal affront to you. I get it. I understand. But I also understand from knowing these coaches that this is a job. And sometimes you get offered a better job and you go take it. So you've had a lot of questions about the Washington job and Washington people wondering, is Jed Fish someone who's going to stay? And Arizona people wondering. Now, Brent Brennan just got hired from San Jose State to replace Jed Fish. How do we find a guy who's going to stay? You don't. You don't. Is this person going to stay is not a question you even ask in the interview process.

We are in an era where somebody left the Oklahoma job and somebody left the Notre Dame job for another job in college because they thought those jobs were better. There are no destination jobs anymore. There's always a situation where somebody might leave. So don't get your feelings hurt about it. But of course, this is an issue in Seattle. And of course, Jed Fish got asked about it Tuesday in his introductory press conference. Jed, welcome to Seattle. Welcome back to Seattle, I should say. Thank you.

Kind of piggybacking off what Mike was saying, in terms of being here long term, is this a place where you see yourself setting down your roots and being here long term, is this a place where you see yourself setting down your roots and being here long term in the current environment? And given that the last person said that he did, now he's at Alabama, what would you say to that? Right. Well, I think that that's always a problem, right? You can't be right.

You can't be wrong, whatever you say. I know that that comment's always going to be made. Is it a destination job? I would answer it this way the big 10 the SEC right now is who's leading the football pathways the college football landscape is about getting to the CFP there's 12 teams that are going to compete every year starting next year in the college football playoffs. If you look at what teams traditionally compete, it's about the same 12 or 14 teams.

University of Washington is one of those 12 or 14 teams. That's why we coach. We coach to be able to take a seat at that table and to be able to give yourself a chance every single year with resources beyond belief, with an opportunity to go out there with a fan base that's dying to continue to win, that have won national championships.

And the idea of staying is why you come. The idea of being here is to win championships. And that's all I can promise, that we're gonna be here every single day doing everything we can to win a championship, knowing that Washington has the opportunity to do that every year. Pretty good answer. He didn't pin himself down. He didn't say I'm going to stay here forever, which will be thrown back in his face if he decides to leave. And also, Jetfish

has coached a lot of places. He understands usually you're not leaving voluntarily. Usually you're leaving because someone told you to leave. That's how this works in this business. So expecting someone who has been fired and who has left of his own accord to say, no, I'm going to be here forever. Well, you're not going to get that now. You're just not. Now, Troy Dannen, the athletic director at Washington, who just got there from Tulane because their AD just left for USC, Troy Dannen jumped in on this question with his own answer.

I want to jump in. You didn't ask me, but I will. As my staff knows, I tend to do that. You know, our job, our I will. As my staff knows, I tend to do that. Our job, our collective job, all of us, no matter what role we have in the program, in the university, in the community, is to make UW aspirational. That's true with faculty. That's true with researchers.

It's true with students. It's true with coaches. It's true with ADs. It's true with our athletes. We want this to be aspirational in every way. And the best should seek us out. We don't control anyone's lives and what they choose to do in their lives. The best we can do is make sure that this place remains a destination location in everything we do.

I told Coach, we had this exact conversation during the process, and I said, I want this to be such a good job that you don't want to leave. Hey, maybe it's a Seahawks call, right? You can go across town. And maybe that's what happens. Jed Fish has worked for eight different NFL teams. That might be his next stop if things go great at Washington. But you know what?

If Jed Fish gets hired for an NFL head coaching job, it means everything went awesome at Washington, and that's why he left. So guess what? The hire was successful. If you think finding a guy who's going to stay forever should be a criterion when you are hiring a head football coach. You're nuts. Because show me someone who says they're going to stay forever, and I'll show you someone who's going to get complacent and who's going to lose, and you're going to fire them anyway.

You don't want to have someone who's not good. You want someone who's great, who everybody else wants to hire. And if they make a good enough offer and they leave, then you go find somebody else who does that. That's how you handle this. Now, Jed Fish, his name has come up on this side of the country because he's a University of Florida grad.

Billy Napier will enter 2024 on a very, very hot seat. And the thought is, well, what if he just leaves? What if Billy Napier gets fired and they want to hire Jed Fish? Well, let's think about this. If Billy Napier were to get fired after next season or during next season, he'd be owed a $26 million buyout.

Jed Fish's buyout from Washington is $12 million. I'm not sure Florida could afford all that. I'm just being real here. I don't know if they could afford all that. Also, let's go back to Jed Fish's answer to the question. And he's exactly right. I was talking about this very thing before Jed Fish even said this at his press conference. The school you want to be at right now in this era of college football is a school that can finish in the top three of the Big Ten or the SEC most years or a lot of years. Washington is one of those schools. Washington can finish in the top three of the Big Ten most years if competently run or a Ten most years if competently run,

or a lot of years if competently run. And that puts you in the playoff, and that gives you a chance. Washington made the 14 playoff twice in 10 seasons. Not many other schools can say that. That list is Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama, Georgia. It's not a long list. Oregon. No, Oregon only made it once.

So that's it. It's a very short list. The question, like if the Florida thing came up, let's say Florida could afford it. Jed Fish would have to ask himself this question. Is it easier to finish top three in the Big Ten at Wisconsin or easier to finish top three in the SEC at Florida? I think I said Wisconsin.

At Washington. I think the answer is it's easier to finish top three in the Big Ten at Washington than it is to finish top three in the SEC at Florida. Now, you put the right coach at Florida Florida and maybe that changes the math on that. But Jed Fish thinks he's the right coach at Washington. So I think he feels like he's got a shot to do that a lot of years. And that puts Washington in contention.

And that puts them in the playoff. And that puts them competing for national titles. And that's exactly what Jed Fish wants to do. It's what Troy Dannen wants to do. It's what Troy Dannen wants to do. It's what all the Washington fans want. And guess what? If he's so good at that, that an NFL team hires him, or Ohio State comes open and they hire him,

you had a nice run. And go find somebody else who can do the same thing. That's how this works now. There are no destination jobs, except mine. I have the greatest job in the world. So I'm staying. I'm staying. I ain't leaving. Dan Lanning, I think he feels like he's got a destination job. He keeps staying at Oregon, no matter what anybody throws at him. But I think in most cases, you have to accept that one, these guys are in a vagabond industry. They don't feel the same way about it that you feel about it because they actually have to do the job. And it's a very

different experience for them and for you. But you got to understand, nobody's coming to stay forever anymore. It just isn't reality. So enjoy the ride. If the person's good, enjoy them while they're there. That's all you can hope for. Now, speaking of hope, when you're playing prize picks, you go into games with a lot of hope because you're saying, I am supremely confident that this player is going to score more than this many points or less than this many points. And sometimes you're right. Sometimes you're wrong,

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Download the app. Use the code Andy. All right. Now it's time to talk to one of our very good friends, T-Bob Hebert. You hear him on his own podcast with Aaron Murray, the Snaps podcast. You hear him on his radio show in Baton Rouge. He came on during the week of the Alabama LSU game. He had a speech about empires falling.

Didn't quite work out that way. T-Bob is the next LSU center. That week didn't go very well for him. But when Nick Saban retired, I thought of T-Bob, and I thought of the empire and what happens next. And I said, you know what? We got to talk to T-Bob about what happens next. So we talked to him about what happens next at Alabama and at Michigan.

We are joined now by our good friend T-Bob Hebert. You can hear him off the bench espn radio and baton rouge you also hear him on snaps the volume network with former georgia quarterback aaron murray and t-bob i was listening to you guys on snaps the other day when nick saban retired you popped into my mind immediately because of the empire speech you gave the last time you were on the show and we're going to play that in a second but i was listening to this and it dovetailed with something that is one of our mutual interests and i find it fascinating because the first thing you said was you know it's like this is like civilization after the roman empire falls yeah and i'm like no no no it's not this is the situation after the galactic empire fell

this is darth vader's done ewoks are dancing the the old government was destroyed and is trying to get back together but there are no rules right now throughout the galaxy very true actually very this is star wars after return of the Jedi. That is where college football is. So, okay, I actually feel what you're putting down here. And I think the immediate question is, okay, well, where's the kind of analog for Kirby? I guess maybe Kirby's like he is the First Order. I suppose he's Snoke, though we still need to learn more about Snoke. And then, you know, and continuing with it, what we've learned more and more by the day is that the same way

that the Star Wars script writers got lazy as hell and just said, ah, whatever it is, Palpatine the entire time. It's still Palpatine. Well, guess what? It was Jimmy Sexton the entire time, and it's still Jimmy Sexton, guess what? It was Jimmy Sexton the entire time and it's still Jimmy Sexton and it will always be Jimmy Sexton. Like we, we,

we are a Republic in name only. Jimmy Sexton is the shadow Lord of college football. Just look at the masterclass that he put on over the last couple of months getting, or last couple of weeks. Yeah. Every one of his clients raises. Uh,

he just consistently The same way that Palpatine manipulated A galactic war to turn the Republic Into the Empire originally He consistently manipulates these bidding wars To get his clients more money Arguably when sometimes they don't even deserve more I mean it's unreal

The amount of Leverage that he manages to create And it's like at a certain point somebody asked me this like in theory and maybe you you'll have better insight in this because i didn't really have a great answer for it but like in theory shouldn't some of these schools be able to call that bluff like like was mike norvell really the higher candidate than caitlin deborah like that's and that's a question we'll probably never get truthfully answered yeah because exactly like florida state fans got mad at me when i suggested that that

mike norvell might be the guy i had mike norvell and caitlin were both on the list i thought if it were me doing the choosing that i would probably choose the guy who has recruited the southeast really well because i i love both of them as head coaches i i don't have a problem with either one hiring so but we don't know if if he was offered the job we don't know if kalen deborah was the first we have no idea but my norvell is getting 10 million a year now so that's where i kind of landed in answering it i can't remember who asked me but it was like and it is that that fact that we don't know that ignorance, that is where Sexton thrives in that gray area because he can tell you that it's real

and you almost have no choice to believe him because you have no concrete information otherwise. And it doesn't behoove Alabama to put out their list or who the number one actually is. So really the only person that actually knows is Jimmy Sexton. And in a world where information is power, he has all of the power because he's the only one that has the actual concrete info.

And it's unreal how that allows him to pull the strings everywhere. Yeah, other than Greg Byrne, who's not going to tell us this, and probably some Alabama trustees, Jimmy Sexton's the only other person who knows what the actual pecking order was. Like, was Dan Lanning number one or not? Did he just say, nah, I'm good? Like, did they call Sark with any seriousness,

or was that just, hey, just in case they call, we're going to sweeten this thing so you don't go anywhere. Was Norvell a choice over DeBoer, or was DeBoer a choice over him? We'll never know. I always had it scored. I kind of understand why maybe Lanning would be the first choice in terms of recruiting, in terms of a lot of carryover, maybe culturally from the Saban smart kind of

school of thought he's young he's excited he definitely seems to have that it factor he's just kind of missing the resume right right um but Alabama can build out that resume for you so like I I get maybe him being the first choice and then I had to bore right after that um because I I just feel there's a lot of similarities in how Nick Saban kind of came up out the mud, you know, a self-made man from Western Virginia and DeBoer coming out of Sioux Falls, uh, and, and out of South Dakota. And I would say that, and I got some pushback on this, but I think some agree as well. Um, I know South Dakota is not the South, but in terms of, uh, cultural tones, right. Uh, like kind of

broad brushstrokes. Uh, it's very similar. It's like when I hang out with my wife's family from West Virginia, um, these are the same people only they hail from the mountains and not the swamp compared to my family here in Louisiana, likeurally, the blue-collar feel, there's a lot of similarities there. And so, no, I don't think DeBoer is going to be like some awful fish out of water. And I really don't like the Brian Harsin stuff for a couple of reasons because I don't think Harsin's resume sniffs DeBoer. DeBoer had success in multiple spots.

Also, just frankly, I thought Harsin came off as unlikable from day one. Whereas DeBoer kind of gives off the polar opposite feeling. DeBoer comes off as unlikable from day one whereas like and it kind of gives off a very likable normal and and the other part of it i agree completely with your your geography part because i i've always this is i've explained this to my kids who have not traveled around the country as much as i have but like rural is rural yes yes and it doesn't matter where you are rural you could be in mississippi you can be in the dakotas you could be in pennsylvania you can be in ohio rural is rural and everybody's kind of like the way you put it on your show was perfect like coal miners in west virginia and oil guy

you know yeah in louisiana are the same people yes a hundred percent dude and is there a harder word to say in the english language in rural yes role who in the who in the fuck made that word well it's like on 30 rock they had that show the rural juror i haven't seen that okay that's a good bit and you just have to say it like rural juror rural juror i feel like my tongue's gonna i'm gonna swallow my tongue if i try to say that too many times, but I agree with you on that. And I covered urban Meyer when he came to Florida from Utah and didn't have any connections in the sec had briefly recruited the state of Florida for

Notre Dame, but really didn't have the connections and then retain Charlie strong, went out and hired some people who had like dociday was an experienced state of Florida recruiter. He was at NC State at the time, I think. He went and found people who fit and who understood. But it's actually a pretty similar blueprint. Like, when Meyer came to Florida, he brought most of his offensive staff, but then defensive staff was mostly guys who understood the lay of the land

better. And that's exactly what's happening in Alabama. You've got most of the offensive staff coming from Washington, but then defensive staff came walk, came Womack as your DC. Nobody understands the lay of the land better than a guy who's the head coach at South Alabama right now. Yeah.

Yeah. And, and I mean, and was one of the hottest coaching candidates of a couple years ago yeah you remember with 2020 he was a borough's award award finalist he was on that indiana staff with deborah where they were kind of sexy fun under tom allen they got tom allen paid uh whatever that's worth um and and herein lies a bit of a weird spot for Alabama fans because some are very upset because they know,

look, it can't be as good as what you had under Nick Saban. So without a doubt, you are going to take some sort of step back. And in that step back, there will be pain. And you've got all kinds of transfers and guys hitting the portal what's the number up to now like maybe like 20 or something so desmond ricks hitting the portal earlier today as well l shoes fans eyes getting big um so the point is though like yes you're losing talent yes it's not nick saban but if it was any other school right without the perspective of an alabama fan who's used to being on top, if it was any other school,

if you're telling me going to 24, you hire DeBoer, Grubb, and Womack, that is like a big three in terms of coaching. That is fucking awesome. Excuse me. I apologize. That is really good. And so I think the more level-headed Alabama fan should be able to accept, okay, look, it's not Saban.

It is what it is. But I'll be damned if Byrne hasn't navigated this really shrewdly and if they haven't really positioned us well to continue to be as championship relevant as anyone else. Like, they're not just falling off a cliff. Right. And that's the thing. But the issue is nobody is nick saban yeah and that's

that that's the bigger problem and that brings me to your your empire speech which you gave the week of the alabama lsu game yeah it didn't quite fall that week so did you you got some pushback on this here here's the deal though andy that's the genius of this argument is it's not a matter it was never a matter of if it was only a matter of when okay you you step on my throat again this year well what about next year what about the year of that eventually he's gonna have to retire right like eventually it's going to have to happen and lo and behold it happened sooner rather than later you waited about all right let us hear that that speech again if you look at civilization as a whole there's always going to be ups and downs nobody ever wants to be alive during a civilizational decline it's an awful time to be alive imagine being someone in england when suddenly the roman

empire pulls back and not a generation later you're looking at all these bath houses and temples and you're like, what giants built these? How is this possible? Right? You're suddenly in the dark ages of barbarians have taken over. Nobody's reading. So, so, so it's like, you never want to be in decline and let's be real. Here's a harsh, cold truth for any Alabama fan listening to my voice right now. You will never experience the heights that you have occupied for the last 20 years. I don't care how long you live, you will be dead and buried before you will ever achieve what you have achieved these last 15 to 20 years. So like a great athlete that peaks in their 20s or some young tech wizard that never finds another way

to get value in their life after that, you've already peaked and it's all downhill from here. And yes, look, progress is not linear. Decline is not linear. Maybe you sneak a natty in on the way down, but make no mistake, the consistency with which you have gotten to enjoy and cheer for will never happen again.

And one day you're going to be dying. You're going to be on your deathbed and you're like, oh my God, that son of a bitch was right. And I hope you see my face floating above you as you breathe your last and you understand that it really was the best from 2010 to 2020. You've already been cucked by Kirby. You let Steve Sarkeesian come and beat you by 10 in T-Town. Brian Kelly already 1-0'd you. Like, it's just all downhill from here, boys.

Who are you going to get to replace Nick Saban, huh? Who? Who? Gabber Swinney? You still want him? You think Lane Kiffin's going to do what Nick has done? Face it. It's over, Alabama fans.

It's over, and it will be over every single day until you're done living. Oh, my God, dude. I actually love that. I haven't seen that since that day. I was hot. I was riffing. That is what we call cutting a promo right there. Everything gets a little heightened during LSU Alabama week.

That is so funny, dude. Oh, my God. And the thing is, like, if I had suggested Kalem DeBoer to you at that point, you probably would have gone, huh? Yeah, yeah. I would have been like, okay, yeah, I could see it. But also, yeah, I probably would have laughed and been like, oh, my God, Alabama fans are going to be furious.

Now, DeBoer had quite the dismount out of Washington to be furious now yes the board had quite the dismount uh out of washington to to be impressive again like he was the guy that i wanted alabama to have the least because to me he feels the most solid like you we can argue about ceilings although i would argue his ceilings as high as any of the other candidates took washington national title yeah i agree four and eight i agree and every other candidate seemed to come with an element of volatility where i could hold out hope like oh my god maybe alabama will just fall apart like unfortunately now i think all that is off the table but the civil civilizational decline is not off the table that step back that we're talking about that's gonna happen and now alabama are going to have to rediscover

what it feels like to wonder, you know, you wake up, you're watching game day, are we going to win? Like, will we win today? Like, I'm actually a little worried about this Kentucky game today. I mean, are they going to be able to get done? Now, granted, look, I think it's going to be a long time, if ever, in the DeBoer era when they're really worried about kentucky but they can still lose to kentucky where under nick saban that was a literal mathematical impossibility so it's um it's regardless of how great deborah is

there's going to be pain in the regression because there's nowhere to go but to regress and that's the part I keep coming back to because even if he does the best job he can possibly do yeah it is probably not going to be as good as Nick Saban no there's there's maybe a 99.999 it will not be as good as Nick Saban yeah and that's not that's not even you know that that could that that percentage chance Andy could exist independently of Kalen DeBoer like it's not even, you know, that percentage chance, Andy, could exist independently of Kalen DeBoer. Like, it's not even like a commentary on him.

It's a commentary on Saban doing something so singular. And when you think about doing something that singular, well, there's only room for one. And if there's anybody else that's going to challenge that singularity, it's Kirby Smart right now. Right. Because he got the job when he was younger. It doesn't appear that he'll engage in NFL sojournn ever like i i just so yeah it's not i'm not talking bad about kayla nabora in saying that they won't reach um those heights once again and i think this will be really good

like i think they'll still be as championship relevant as anyone like okay if i asked you to pick your uh playoff teams from the sec right now who would you pick georgia yep alabama yeah all miss and then if they get a fourth lsu or texas i see i'm kind of i see i think i kind of i maybe i'm giving too much credit to sark because i hated on sark so much but um i kind of got texas in that third slot and then lsu all miss and mizzou fighting for for the fourth if they get there but the point but the point is we still both the consensus there was still Georgia and Alabama yeah so so they're still going to be very good but just they're going to be human which sucks when you're used to being immortal yeah so back back to our

New Republic analogy our bad tortured New Republic. Does that make Jim Harbaugh Din Djarin? Does that make Jim Harbaugh the Mandalorian? kind of in this scenario, he would be the kind of hope of a third power rising right outside of the new Republic, outside of the first order, the remnants of the empire, whatever you want to call it. Can there be another major player on the scene? And there was, it is in Michigan, but even though I love Sharon more, it's kind of the same thing. Um, took nine years at michigan to attain the national championship but what we do forget about harbaugh is when he took over michigan they had become a bit of a joke and he made them immediately relevant now they kind of stalled in that newfound relevancy and familiarity breeds content and all that and then 2020 was objectively very bad right and they couldn't beat ohio. So credit to him for finding these ways

to continue to improve. But really, everywhere Jim Harbaugh has been, he's kind of been pretty outlier good. I mean, if you look at going to the Super Bowl, the Niners, two other NFC championships, the success that he had there, Stanford, what he did to that program, turning around. I don't know if San Diego as well.

Look how young he looks in these pictures, my God. It's crazy. But I guess the point of all of this is to say that like if harbaugh leaves then kirby basically stands pretty unopposed i mean deborah and kelly would be some of the chief challengers i would say kiffin's system feels more volatile but at least for 24 he should be as you know as as frisky as anyone but in terms of year-to-year consistency like michigan's proved they have it but do they have it under sharon more i don't i don't i don't know that i could say that and then you're left with curb and ohio state fans watching this right now going, I hate that I agree with you that Ryan Day is not on your list, but they all agree.

I think so. And I wonder if maybe we've rubber banded a bit too hard against Ryan Day. And I'm guilty of this as well because we played – I did an interesting thought exercise in a couple of my shows the other day. I was like, okay, give me your top five coaches. Let's say Jim Harbaugh goes to the NFL. Give me your top five coaches in college football right now. You got a consensus lock in Kirby, but after that, it's muddled, right?

I mean, is DeBoer in there? Is Lanning in there? Is Lane in there? Is Kelly in there? Is Day in there? What about Lincoln Riley, who a year ago you would have said was absolutely in there? So to your point on the new Republic, it is fractured.

You don't really know who necessarily the major superpowers are right now. And, but, but that's all to say that maybe we've gone too far with Ryan day. Cause I love, uh, getting quench on Jenkins is huge. They're retaining talent at a pretty unreal level.

The defense was finally awesome this year. Yeah. And the cruelest twist of irony football has a way of doing this. It's like LSU now can't save defense and play their fucking life and are just spitting out Heisman quarterbacks. But in a cruel twist of fate, Ohio State finally gets the defense they needed, and it's at a year where for the first time in like six years, they don't have a quarterback throw 40 to 50 touchdowns.

Yeah. So I still think that because of that defensive improvement if you look at day's resume I would bet even though I don't really know if I don't like really believe in Will Howard that much but there's enough evidence about how a state fan I can do pretty simple mental gymnastics to believe that oh he'll fix the quarterback position, and then we're going to be better than ever because our defense is better than ever. Yeah, and I think the new playoff system really helps Ryan Day

because it puts them in that mix every year. You don't have to beat Michigan, though Ryan Day will deal with local problems if he can't beat Michigan. But nationally, you're in the mix. Yes. And if you're in those games, you can win a few, and you're always going to have the talent to go on a run at Ohio State. Yep.

You will always have enough talent that if you get into the playoff, you can win the playoff. No, look, I think the 12-team playoff is a massive win for the triumvirate of Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State. Because to your point, regardless of how the team gels year in and year out, those three teams are objectively just more loaded down with raw talent than any other roster in the entire country. Those three are outliers

compared to the rest of the country and so like here so what do you think kirby's chasing saving right kirby's got two daddies what did save in with seven seven now kirby's pretty young got to win six more does a 12 team playoff make that more or less likely because you could use a couple ways to interpret that 12 team playoff old transfer rules in nil and no nil it makes it more prohibitively favorite toward toward georgia yes okay yeah but if you look at who's leaving georgia who's leaving alabama it's the it's the depth guys that were high level recruits that didn't play and and you can say well they're not playing of course they're and i get it but what it means is when they have an injury they're putting a freshman in now as opposed to a redshirt sophomore and that makes all the

difference because if your guy is a healthy senior playing against that freshman he's still got an advantage. And it's so crazy because there's maybe nothing I've been more wrong on in my professional career than what I thought this combination of NIL and Purtle would do. I thought it would lead to an even further strengthening of the oligarchy, right? Like I thought the concentration of power was going to get even further strengthening of the oligarchy, right? Like I thought the concentration of power was going to get even more concentrated. Yeah. And that these mega empires are going to get even stronger. And I could not have been more wrong.

The complete inverse has taken place because all of a sudden you have talent democratizing throughout the power five, because no, like you said, these four and five stars don't want to ride the bench when they can go play immediately and make more money somewhere else. Like, I actually love the current state of college football for that very reason. I agree that some calendar stuff needs to be changed. But I kind of like how easy it is.

I like player latitude to move because I think it leads to better teams overall. Because you're no longer sunk because you fucked up one recruiting position and one class, or you just don't have a quarterback. You can at least get decent now, and it's leading to a better product overall and more exciting. And we'll see it play out over time. It's a new market. Am I guilty of being a prisoner of the moment?

Maybe. We'll see it. But I love the early returns here. Well, I will credit Andy Schwartz, who's an economist who worked with the plaintiffs in the O'Bannon trial, who explained this to me while I was covering the O'Bannon trial. Like, here's how it'll all work based on basic economics. And he just laid it all out. Like, this is exactly what's going to happen. Because if you remember back to high school econ, like markets want to find their level.

And so if you have these incredibly talented players who are not on the field, who maybe are not making as much money as they could make somewhere else, the market will send them to places where they find their level. And all of a sudden, it's a little bit different. So, yeah, I think it's going to be it's going to be very interesting because obviously this is all going to change the rules are going to change but the way it is right now now it's it's not great for everybody like i i do think for like what we're seeing happen in arizona is is really tough to watch but i think it it allows more teams to feel like they can compete for their conference title, for the national title, than ever could before.

It's definitely not great for everybody, but if you were just to look on balance, who's a bit like, okay, let's just take two categories. It's good for this team, bad for this team. I mean, it would almost be overwhelmingly good. Yeah, the good outweighs the bad. Like Ole Miss and Missouri, prime examples. Ole Miss and Missouri, three years ago, four years ago,

had no chance to play in the college football playoff, no chance to compete for a national title, no chance to compete for an SEC title. And I know what you're saying. Missouri played in two SEC title games. Still, they didn't win them. That was a weird time for the East, okay? The East was having an identity crisis.

And it was because of an artificial construct, the divisions, which we now removed. So, exactly. There are more teams now. Penn State should feel like they have a better chance. Wisconsin should feel like they have a better chance Wisconsin should feel like they have a real chance now and I think that's the that's the part that I find interesting and especially like you can say like people will go nuts over playoff seating next year because they're

gonna be like how I can't believe the ACC champ and the Big 12 champ are gonna be the three and the four seed no no that's gonna help that's gonna be good because there's gonna be like six teams in the mix for the big 12 title in november yes yeah yeah i know that's why that's i love auto bids for that reason i i think i think it keeps those races very exciting and i also think it leads to some great early playoff matchups right where maybe you get like uh like i don't know what would it be like a like an old man so yeah i mean let me just look right here right this chart kind of tells the story of what we're talking about here where you have teams and you say okay maybe this team is better than the auto bid but that's fine because now they're also

like like having like the second place T a big 10 team against the, the, the third best sec team ever. Like that's very exciting, but that'd be a round one matchup in somebody's stadium. Like, are you kidding me? I got goosebumps,

dude. We're going to love that. It's going to be, it's going to be fucking fantastic. So we're, we're at a weird spot where I feel like the 2020 forging of college football, the literal reforging of the sport that we've all loved for this long, I think it could potentially signal a golden age.

Maybe not. Maybe it all goes awry. But if you talk about just the terms of the amount of teams teams that are exciting next season that are capable of winning that are capable of pushing for a championship i feel like it's more than i've ever seen and it comes with these new uber conferences it comes with um a new 12 team playoff it comes with you know seeming daily exciting headlines about what star player is now going elsewhere and been lured away. And now you remove Nick Saban from the equation. You remove Jim Harbaugh potentially from the equation.

And as you said, it really is chaos. And watching who's going to climb that ladder in the most transformative year we've ever seen in this sport is something I cannot wait for. Now, I don't know where it ends, right? If we break off from the NCAA, I almost feel like football has to. I feel like it's inevitable. You would know more about this. I don't know about this stuff. I imagine you've got to eventually become a union, CBA, collective bargain,

do all that because I think it's just probably going to end up happening sometime, but I'm just going to embrace the madness that is this 2024 season. And I cannot wait to watch it play out. This is beautiful. This is how we kick off the off season. T-Bob Avera. Thank you so much. Andy, you're the man, dude.

Y'all have a great day. That is the great T-Bob Hebert. We will have him on quite a bit through the offseason because, listen, it's always fun. Anytime I can mix Star Wars and college football, it's going to happen. T-Bob, my favorite fellow nerd. He's more nerdy than me, though.

He's got a great story about him and Joe Barksdale, who was another LSU offensive lineman. Joe Barksdale getting him a Harry Potter book after waiting in line so that T-Bob could have his Harry Potter. I believe it was the seventh book, the final book. I believe that's what it was. I'm just imagining these two massive college offensive linemen just geeking out over the final harry potter book which i think i waited

in line in a walmart uh after the uh the friday night lights camp in gainesville that urban meyer used to put on when he was florida's coach so i saw a bunch of the top recruits in the country and then i waited in line for harry potter book so that's that's what was going on baton rouge while i was doing that in gainesville but we move now to iowa city where tom caker from hawkeye report is going to answer a question that i keep getting asked that i'm not qualified to answer but he is and that is when is iowa going to hire an offensive coordinator but first we got to talk a little bit about the generational athlete that tom gets to cover all the time who happens to have a game that tips off right after this show we welcome tom caker of hawkeye report to the show because tom's been busy got football

news got some caitlin Caitlin Clark mania going on. Caitlin's playing again tonight against Wisconsin. Tom, what's it been like covering Iowa during Caitlin Clark's career? She's just, it's incredible. I mean, you know, I remember going to women's basketball games when there would be, you know, four or 5,000 people. And that was a big night, you know, the end of the megan gustafson era they were selling out some games but nothing like selling out the entire season right it's just it's incredible i've

compared this women's basketball team in some ways to like the second three pete for the bulls with michael jordan because everywhere they go people are just following them and flocking to them they they sell out every road game and it's and it's for one reason everybody wants to see the show yeah and the show is caitlin clark well i we you know Game Time is one of our sponsors. I looked it up on Game Time the other day, all of their remaining games. And the road prices are even higher than the home prices in a lot of cases. It's crazy. Yeah.

Yeah. It's insane. And I'll give you an example. We had like 25 inches of snow last week. And there was a game on Saturday night and they were like travel not advised don't go on the roads don't it's it's insane I mean I didn't go anywhere but they had at least 14,000 fans at Carver Hawkeye Arena on Saturday night when Iowa played Indiana and that was a national fox game and that that's just, everybody wants to see this.

This is a, it's a phenomenon. It is, she is just one of those kind of transcendent athletes that you see every once in a while in sports. And I've, I've argued to some of my friends that I think she's probably the most marketable female athlete in the country, pro or college. She just is. I think you may be right. I think there's a bunch of people out there that would buy her shoe right now. It reminds me, having covered Tim Tebow at Florida, very similar to that, very similar to when Johnny Manziel took off at Texas A&M, like this is the this is the traveling show like everybody wants to see and say I saw Caitlin Clark signs and it's girls and, and younger boys too, that are just enthralled with her, but particularly, um, young girls who are, who are best aspire to play basketball. Um, you know, she's, and she's generous too.

There was an example of a girl who came to a game recently in Iowa city and she gave her her shoes after the game and signed them. And I'm like, you know, what do you do? I mean, they're just, even at the, even at the men's game,

she'll wander into the men's games and they have to put security by her when she's watching the game, because everybody just kind of flops over. They want to get a selfie. They want to get a picture. They want to get an autograph. And she's just there to kind of watch basketball and support the men's team. Well, and I think she and Angel Reese, who faced off in the national title game last year,

I think they're probably the two most recognizable college basketball players in America. Yeah. Yeah, I would think so. And, you know, Kaitlyn just I'll give her a ton of credit because after every game, she's signing autographs. She's spending time with people. She'll just, she'll do that. And she doesn't have to do that. She could just go off and just go to the locker room and kind of hide out and then just kind of put her hoodie up and walk to the team bus and get on the plane and, and go back. But she signs autographs every game. She's accessible. And she's not, you know, rude to

people at all. She's very accommodating. And she takes this role of the role model for young girls and inspiring young girls so very seriously. And you see that in her ads and the things she's doing. I mean, they brought, here's the crazy part. So last week launched the Caitlin's Crunch, which Hy-Vee is one of her sponsors. It's the biggest grocery chain in the state of Iowa. By the way, opening stores in Indianapolis and the Indiana Fever have their first pick in the WNBA draft.

So they're opening a couple of stores in the Indianapolis area soon. But this cereal literally was hoarded by people. I mean, I went with my daughter. We were going to the Hy-Vee to pick up some groceries that afternoon. My daughter doesn't play basketball or anything. Her name is Caitlin, too, by the way. But she wasn't interested.

But I was kind of interested to see what was. And they were wiped out by noon. All the cereal was gone. You can't get a box in the state of Iowa. People were going in there buying five or six boxes of Caitlin Crunch. And just it's gone. And I asked a friend of mine who was one of the managers at the Hy-Vee that I shop at. And I said, are you guys getting more? And they're like, they have to make more because they just sold out everything that they had.

They just didn't expect it to be like, yeah. They did it with Pat Mahomes, too. They had a cereal from Mahomes, and that sold out a couple years ago. Well, so it's interesting because you talk about how she takes the role model role seriously. But she's not – the way she the role model role seriously but she's not it the way she plays doesn't look like she's a very swaggy player like yes you know she'll she'll leave the hand up when she knows it's gonna it's gonna switch and start walking back the other way and so she she plays like the the folks you see in the nba or the folks you see in the NBA or the folks you see in the men's game. And that's what I think is so much fun is like,

she's that dominant knows it and isn't afraid to, to just have some fun with it. And I think that's probably why they made the final four last year, to be honest, is she gives that whole team a lot of swagger. You know, I've compared her. She's like a Steph Curry and pistol Pete Maravich rolled into one.

I mean, because she is an outstanding passer. She's got that Pistol Pete Maravich. You know, I'm old, so I saw Pete play. But Pete was just one of those swagger guys that just he was flashy, made the flashy passes. And that's what Kaitlin does. You know, she'll throw a 75 foot foot bounce pass to uh you know uh hannah stokey run into the basket and put it there right on a dime

and she'll pull from the logo like she did to end the michigan state game yep where she just stepped back from the beak and there it is and she she and you knew the minute it left her hand it was going in because it's Kaitlin Clark. It's a very pure shooting stroke. It is, you know, like when you watch Steph Curry or somebody like that, like it is a beautiful shooting stroke. And it's when she goes left, that's what she does on those. She's always going to take that step back to the left and go. But she's really good at getting to the rim and creating fouls and, and then finding her teammates. I mean,

that's just every one of them has a story about how Caitlin's kind of caught them off guard with a, yeah, with a pass. Yeah. Well, we are, we are going to in a little bit,

have you help us out with our, with our prize picks plays with Caitlin, because she's playing Wisconsin. They, they tip off at 9. P.m. Eastern time tonight. So we're going to see how well you can predict her performance. But before that, we've got to talk a little Hawkeyes football because I get these questions constantly.

When's Iowa going to hire an offensive coordinator? All these things, like Alabama's lost Nick Saban and hired a new coach, and Iowa still doesn't have a new offensive coordinator. So Brian Ferentz, it was announced that he was not coming back as the OC on October 30th. Yes. Iowa still doesn't have an OC, but some things did happen on the Iowa coaching front today.

Got new titles, got some more money for Phil Parker, and then one move that was in the works. Yeah, one that was in the works. So we'll start at the bottom of that which was Kelton Copeland not returning as the wide receivers coach which wasn't a surprise you know I think everybody kind of thought there might be a little bit of a shake-up beyond Brian Ferentz on the offensive side and Kelton kind of made the most sense to look into a different direction and you also think that maybe the OC who's coming in might want to bring somebody that they want, so you're kind of laying the groundwork for that.

But the other thing, Seth Wallace becomes the assistant head coach, which is the first time that Kirk Ferentz has ever done that in his 25-plus years at Iowa, where he's had an assistant head coach. And that was done. You give them a title so you can give them more money is essentially what they did. They did that before with Seth, who is very highly thought of and highly sought as an assistant and a potential defensive coordinator. But you do that.

They made him the assistant defensive coordinator a few years back so they could funnel some more money his direction. So the head coach thing gives him a bump up to a million dollars a year as the linebackers coach and also assistant head coach. And Phil Parker, the Broyles Award winner, up to $1.9 million a year. And he deserves every penny. He's the best in the business. I was going to say, he deserves like $4 million a year, Tom.

That's what they – they should pay Phil Parker $4 million a year. They should. He's worth every – I wrote in my story about it, he's worth every dime. I mean, he just is. They don't get to 10 wins this past year without him because the offense certainly wasn't going to get him there. So speaking of the offense, Paul Crist is a name that was connected to the job.

Joe Philbin was a name that was connected to the job. But neither of those guys are going to be the guy. Joe Philbin was a name that was connected to the job, but neither of those guys are going to be the guy. What has been the holdup on making this hire? A couple things. Kirk is sort of like this. He was just focused on the season when the season was going on. So, well, he knew October 30th that Brian wasn't going to be coming back. He really didn't kind of throw himself into the search until after the regular season was over. And even then it was kind of, you know, they played an extra week too. So that was,

they played in the big 10 title game. So there was that on his plate. He just, and I think part of it too, you know, I think being a little bit honest about it is I think there was part of him, the dad hat got put on and it was like, boy, they just, it was him processing that his son got fired, I think, kind of put him to put off doing this a little bit sooner. But he met with us in late December before we went to Orlando for the bowl game. And he laid out,

he said, look, I'm probably not going to get this done until the third week in January. So we're in his timeline. And that's what I've kind of just said, well, this is his timeline and when he's going to make this decision. Now,

if this drifts into next week, I think then it's, then it's, uh, then you kind of go, wow. Okay. Now maybe they're having a little bit of a problem finding the right guy, but, um, I'm going to wait until the end of the week and then see what he does. But right now there's no like logical guy. You thought Paul Crist would be the guy for the most part. Joe Philbin never,

I mean, he got some traction in some circles, but I really never felt like that was going to happen. But Crist, I really thought was, would have made sense. I thought it was, you know,

for, for football kind of terminology, I thought that one was in the red zone in terms of getting done. I thought it was, it was close to getting done. But I just think, you know, Paul got paid $11 million. I think he's going to be from Wisconsin. I think he's going to be picky about what he does next.

And Boston's a great town. Yeah, he's an analyst at Texas right now. But what's interesting is Texas' season has been over since January 1st. So that could have been done pretty quickly, but the, the way, the way Kirk said it to you, and this is why, what I've been thinking since he said that we're third week of, of January is awfully specific, which sounds to me like it's somebody who's his front runner, somebody who's in the NFL that he would expect to either be knocked out of the playoffs or be done done coaching by that point it could be i think he's going to poke around

maybe in the nfl um you know he does have a lot of connections out there i think he'll find somebody this week i really do i think okay i think he's gotta uh because if it goes into the next week here's the other thing i Iowa started classes this week. So today was the first day of classes. So all the players are back. You kind of want to have that guy there soon. Even though they're not starting spring practice until the middle of March, you still want to get that guy on campus.

You want them to start kind of meeting with the quarterbacks, talking to the quarterbacks, giving them the terminology they're going to need and getting going on, on evaluating the players that he's going to be coaching. So it's still probably going to be Kirk's offense though. Like we don't foresee them, you know, running an up-tempo spread all of a sudden. No, no, I don't't um he is he is married to that's who he is he's made that pretty clear that they're going to run this what he likes to

call complimentary football um some would call it conservative but he likes complimentary i would call it carries you and your puncher carries you and your offense does nothing which is not actually complimentary like your offense should complement your defense and it and i just like i've always imagined or well always but the last few years just imagine what what it would be like if iowa actually had a complimentary football team where the offense complemented the defense and it and it um the last two years it got progressively worse over the last couple of years. And there's just no denying the numbers. You know, you can spin things all you want,

but the offense took a step back, especially in this last year. And yet the amazing thing is they still won football games. They still played for a Big Ten championship, which is incredible to think about. But you also saw whenever they stepped up in class, when they faced a Penn State or a Michigan or a Tennessee, the outcome was zero points. And zero hope. Yes. There was like zero hope in any of those games.

It really was. I mean, for example, at the Citrus Bowl, Iowa drives, get a short field, they drive down, Deacon Hill throws the interception in the end zone, and I leaned over to our mutual friend Scott Docterman, and I said, that's the ball game. And I said exactly the same thing as I was watching it on my phone at the Rose Bowl. Like, that's it.

It's over. They're never getting that close to the end zone again. And I just feel so bad for Iowa's fans because that has been their experience for the past two or three years. And it's not like Iowa's never had good offenses under Kirk Ferentz. They have. The C.J. Beathard ones, the Brad Banks ones, those were awesome. Yeah, yeah. There were some really good offenses.

Heck, even a few years ago, the Nate Stanley teams were good offenses under Brian. And, you know, they'd averaged 30 points a game one year during that stretch. So it's just gotten progressively worse, and they've got to figure out a way to get the offense moving in the right direction. And it's a big ask, but there's somebody out there. Somebody said, maybe nobody wants the job but i'm like uh somebody will want the job because if you can if you can fix the iowa offense you're probably going to be a head coach somewhere sometime no question like you're a miracle

worker at this point if you can do it hey you're like mother theresa exactly exactly so all right i i promised we're all going to get some help with our prize picks plays from Tom. So, Kaitlyn Clark, more than or less than 32.5 points tonight against Wisconsin. I'll give the folks the numbers. She averages 30.9 a game, and she scored 28 the last time they played the Badgers on the road. You know, the thing I worry about is they blew the Badgers out, and she probably doesn't have to play. But Lisa Bluter tends to play her a lot in the fourth quarter anyway. And so I'm going to go above more than.

Okay. Okay. How about this? This is the other Caitlin Clark Square. And those who play prize picks know you can't pick these both. You'll have to pick another one to compliment, complimentary basketball picking, but to compliment your Caitlin Clark square, but points,

rebounds, assists combined 48 and a half. I'm going to go more than. Ooh, that could be. She's, she's double, double machine.

The question is how close do we get to it? 30, 10 and10 gets it there. There you go. There you go. Wow. This is going to be a fun one. Tom, enjoy the game. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Andy. I appreciate you having me on. That's Tom Kakert. Of course, we'll all be tuning in to see if Caitlin Clark can go more than, less than those numbers. Those more than, less than. Those numbers, those are big, big numbers. Big numbers. Big expectations for Caitlin against the Badgers.

But it's been a fun show. Tomorrow is a Wednesday. You know what that means. It is a Dear Andy show. So unless an all-time great coach retires, which is what happened last week, we will have a Dear Andy show. So I want to get your questions. You know how to find me.

Andy underscore Staples on Twitter. Andy underscore Staples on Instagram. Andy Staples on three at gmail.com. Do not be afraid to turn that camera on yourself and send a video question. We love to see your beautiful faces, and we love to hear your questions because you always have some great ones. I've already got a few that have trickled in early in the week, but plenty of chances to get your question and get it answered on the show. So let's send those in and we'll talk to you on

Wednesday night.